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57
For the humbler sightseer, probably, the principal Metropolitan
attraction of the time was a visit to the lions at the
Tower, which had delighted previous generations from the
time of Henry III. downwards.
The streets were lighted, when they were lighted at all, by
candles. Public lighting was, Jiowever, not undertaken as a
municipal duty in the sense now understood, but, if light was
not provided voluntarily, householders were required, upon
the order of the constituted authority, such as the Alderman
in the City Wards or the Burgess in Westminster, to
display candles from their premises from sunset till 9 or 10
o'clock. In 1694 glass lanterns for burning oil were introduced,
but this luxury was confined for some time to the road
leading from Whitehall to Kensington Palace. These
lamps, 300 in number, were removed in the spring and carefully
preserved in a shed at Kensington until the autumn.
An old view of Kensington Palace, in George III.'s Topographical
Illustrations, contains the following foot-note:—
"The avenue leading from St. James's through Hyde Park
is very grand. On each side of it lanthorns are placed at
equal distances, which, being lighted in the dark seasons for
the conveniency of the courtiers, appear inconceivably magnificent."
This inconceivable magnificence of the early part of
the eighteenth century, however, is now entirely eclipsed by
the more brilliant gas light in even the less important streets
in any part of the Metropolis. Oil served as an illuminant
until the introduction of gas at the commencement of the
present century, the first street lighted with gas being Pall
Mall, in the year 1807. It may be remarked in passing that oil
was used in the lighting of Grosvenor Square as late as
1842.
It can readily be imagined that an occasional candle or oil
lantern did not afford an efficient, still less a brilliant, means
of street lighting. To remedy this, linkmen were called into
e