I at first imagined that
some great assembly was just dismissed, and wanted to stand aside
till the multitude should pass; but this human tide continues to
flow, without interruption or abatement, from morn till night.
Then there is such an infinity of gay equipages, coaches,
chariots, chaises, and other carriages, continually rolling and
shifting before your eyes, that one's head grows giddy looking at
them; and the imagination is quite confounded with splendour and
variety. Nor is the prospect by water less grand and astonishing
than that by land: you see three stupendous bridges, joining the
opposite banks of a broad, deep, and rapid river; so vast, so
stately, so elegant, that they seem to be the work of the giants;
betwixt them, the whole surface of the Thames is covered with
small vessels, barges, boats, and wherries, passing to and fro;
and below the three bridges, such a prodigious forest of masts,
for miles together, that you would think all the ships in the
universe were here assembled. All that you read of wealth and
grandeur in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment, and the Persian
Tales, concerning Bagdad, Diarbekir, Damascus, Ispahan, and
Samarkand, is here realized.
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