NEW LONDON

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 361, 6 January 1880, Page 3

NEW LONDON

The rain was coming down merrily when I hade the " gondolier of London" —a good many years before " Lothair" was published I ventured, in "Household Words," to call the Venetain gondolier " the Hansom cahninn of the Adriatic" —halt at the corner of Bishop's road, Paddington : and I plunged at once into the wilds of WcstbouriK 1 Grovp, and all the more boldly as I knew scarcely anything about the region which I was about to traverse. I must have been conveyed in various kinds of vehicles through Westbourne Grove on my way to dine with friendly Amphytrions in Bayswater many a time and oft; but lam ready to make affidavit that prior to last Monday I had not set foot on the pavement of Westbourne Grove three times in my life. Please to remember that there are four millions of inhabitants in this metropolis ; and pray, your Ladyship, do you know where Haggerston is ? Are you quite sure that you could distinguish between Newington Causeway and Newington Butts? Were you ever in Coldharbor lane or Whetstone Park? Can you tell me where the Mother Shipton and the Mother Red Cap are ? and could you find your way to Shadwell or Rotherhithe without a guide ? Miserably wet as the afternoon was, I found Westbourne Grove crowded, principally by ladies and young gentlemen who have not the slightest objection to going out shopping with their mammas, their sisters, or their pre'tendues especially with their pre'tendues. The next thing that struck me was the fact that the vast majority of the promenaders—under umbrellas—in Westbourne Grove were exceptionally well dressed. The reason for this seemed to be clear. Westbourne Grove is less an artery than an organ. It is the centre of a new, prosperous, and refined district. I suppose there are fewer pawnbrokers' shops in the region lying west of the Edgeware road than in any other part of London ; when you have passed the canal bridge there are absolutely no slums ; and, consequently, no narrow and unsavoury little back streels pour into the Grove murky streams of beer and gin soddened, unkempt and unshaven idlers, haggard or bloated slatterns, and ragged, unwashed children. A contingent of professional beggars may occasionally find their way, on business purposes intent, to Westbourne Grove; but the professionalbeggar, when the labors of the day are over, when he has counted his "takings," and is recruiting his exhausted strength with hot roast goose or abundant tripe and onions, washed down with Barclay and Perkins' " black champagne," may be, like the Thane of Cawdor, a prosperous gentleman. Otherwise, the frequenters of Westbourne Grove appeared to me to belong exclusively to the well-to-do-classes.

Quite happily, ignorant of the topography of the Grove, I looked around, with inquisiteeagerness, for my Whiteley. I found the name inscribed in tall gold letters over a large double-fronted shop on the right hand side going westward. "Wonderful Whiteley," I thought—it was a foregone conclusion in my mind that he was to be wonderful—•' let us see what he has got to sell." I found his ample windows filled with a most miscellaneous assortment of wares. I found him in the shop on the right hand side of the Grove, prepared to sell all kinds of grocery and preserved provisions of home and colonial preparation. I found that he sold poultry, and that his green geese looked splendid, and his quails delicious. I was very near buying a couple of his plovers' eggs, only I was deterred by fear and shame from making the purchase. Suppose that among the beauteous ladies whom I saw gracefully descending from their broughams, John, the footman, holding the big carriage umbrellas over their radiant heads, there had been some angels in human and fashionable form who, one or two seasons back, I had had the honor of taking down to a Tyburnian dinner. Dear me ! I shudder to reflect what they would have thought of me had they met me devouring plovers' eggs, coram publico, at three o'clock in the afternoon in the middle of Westbourne Grove.

Asparagus, also, was in Whiteley's line at the emporium of "The Westbournian Miscellany;" also cauliflowers; likewise oranges. He was sumptuous in hams. I am not quite sure his selling sausages; but I can speak with certainty about his being great in beef. The Dead Meat Market in Smithfield could not shpw statelier sirloins or lovelier legs ofmntton,than did the Briarean-handed purveyor of The Grove. I marked his sauces and pickles, too; his biscuits and chocolate; his butter and his cheese; and altogether his show of comestibles put me in mind of Snyder's picture of" La Bonne Cuisine," and of that grand kitchen interior crowded with "goodies" I that David Teniers painted. I admired the taste with which the windows were dressed; and yet I could scarcely refrain from murmuring to myself mournfully "Is this all?" I was as disappointed for the moment as I was when, one wet foggy colorless, Canadian morning I first gazed at a tumbling mass of turbid water and was told that it was Niagara. Momentarily only ; for soon the screen of mist that veiled the most magnificent spectacle in the world was drawn up, even as the curtain at a playhouse is drawn. But could Whiteley show me naught but edibles and potables ? Was he only a Tybumian Hedges and Butler, a Wcsthumian Barto Valle ? I plodded along somewhat sullenly to the extremity of The Grove, noting many shops., ' but finding no more Whiteley. Novice, greenhorn, ignoramus as I was!. It

has only been recently, I suppose, that Mr Whiteley has_ made an irruption on

the right hand side of The. Grove, where the numbers of the houses are even. It is on the left hand side, where the numbers are odd —"there is luck in odd numbers," quoth Rory O'More —that Whitely flourishes exceedingly. It was not until I crossed the road -and began to retrace my steps eastward that I. came upon the v catenation " nf White " ley's shops—a chain threat-.-uing to stretch to the crack of donm.

I found Whiteley at Number 53, Westbourne Grove, selling in one compartment of his shop carpets and Oriental rugs, and in the other fancy stationery. At Number 51 he broke out in curtains and house and table ; at Number 49 lie was irrepressible in hats and caps, boots and shoes ; at Number 47 he challenged competition with perfumery,' soap, and tooth powder, with cutlery and. with miscellaneous knicknacks, which may be qualified as articles de Londres. Here also he sold combs and. brushes, moist and dry watercolors, and terra-cotta statuettes, Doulton ware, pocket handkerchiefs, floral and photographic albums, and ladies reticules. At Number 45 the " Universal Provider" was all himself, and a great deal more, with costumes and mantles, Parisian bonnets and Devonshire hats. At Number 43 he dealt in collars, cuffs, fishus and other " fal-lals," and babies robes and caps. At Number 41 his staple seemed to be ladies' ulsters and bathing dresses. At Number 39 he threw himself with enthusiasm into the pursuit of silk mercery. At Number 37 he undertook "arrangements in black and white " for ladies' wear, and offered to, I hope a sympathising world, umbrellas at three and elevenpence each. At Number 35 Whiteley was on one side of his shop a linendraper, and on the other a dispenser of gentlemen's collar boxes, portmanteaus, luggage labels, mold-alls,' " Dolly's bounet boxes," wardrobe trunks and Gladstone bags. At Number 33 the Protean man bloomed into a Merchant Tailor, prepared to supply any number of garments for gentlemen and youths, to say nothing of Court dresses, military and naval uniforms, municipal robes, ladies' riding habits, and servants' liveries. At Number 31 Whiteley became a hosier, and dealt in every kind of textile and fleecy thing. And then, I think, William Wlately came to an end. I say that I think so, because I had been staring so long at the multifarious stock in his many windows that my eyes were beginning to be dazed and my brains to swin. But I have not yet done with Whiteley, or some other shops in the wonderful young street, yet. I must return to Westbourne Grove and the youthful thoroughfares thereabouts without delay.