TWO HUNDRED & SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT FIRE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 606, 28 November 1873, Page 3

TWO HUNDRED & SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT FIRE.

f lit If, I 1 i&irSe? » . J (jl/ (f«om the graphic.) I was prevented by circumstance? that! from k an'in-' vitatioh to shoot beats in tile White' Sea, or joining a ' yachting party" at Cowes, -Ail involuntary, fitay-atMipme, i T determined Vo bhakeaUiut’ through some of tbe unknown but deserving objects of interest, to,the traveller that are to be ion rid within the J bills of mortality My first excursion was up the Monument. Now I had never before been up iffgreAt hM-hth. On locking coivii tbe well of anv degp staircase I become giddy. The very thought of being perched on the edge of a lofty precipice sends a chill through’ nm •• I going ffdVninWdiviug-l'Kffl,biffitiullelliiig in an exclusion train during the accident season, to going up in a haloon. The iaa>t MgMiijsing jimiishnieut Fean inugiue is hanging from the mast of some tall admiral With these feelings it will seem strange that my first excursion slum d have been up the Monument’ But I had my reasons for the choice I made. By mounting the Monument 1 hoped to cure she nervous weakness from which I suffer, 1 j,n at tiie same ime 1 had an oppori tumty of examining a famous historic 1 pile oh the anniversary of the event it a as ended to commemorate t ten o’clock on Tuesday I sto'd at its base, on Fisli-street hil). The Moiinrneut is said to have- been built, by Sir Cbristopiier Wren, to commem rate the great fire of ICCG, ml the fact that it stands exactly two. hundred and two feet, front. the house in Pudding-lane in which the tinoriginated, is the unlit to I nd some color to this view. Rut there is ground for dmiht Our ciitical age does not lightlyaccejitso-cal led historical events, end, in the present, case, there is internal evidence against the current not ion as to the origin and purpose of the Monument M nervous .ess be an as som ns I approach!d the entrance. J hesitated to make the ascent; but not to show my feelings to the guardian who stood at rhe door to receive my threepence, I paetended to be interested in the basiel., fon the edi nent, which is rejiortccl to have bet n carved ih Cains Cfabriej Cibber, father of Colly Cibber The four dragons, , too, at the , four angle-, “done by Edward Pierce for fifty guineos a-piece,” had some share of my distracted attention. I could not make tip my mind to enter. .1 looked in a : the door as if I had not. , come three or fine miles, with the express jjt.rpose of ascending, l.utr. us a casual passenger, heat on no business in piirticular. Then I ventured to : ‘enter into conversation with the janitor, but Ids talk did not reassure me’ Six person-, he informed mo,, had thrown themselves off the top —a weaver, a Jew, a baker, a baker’s (langhtir. <i boy named Hawes, at d a girl of seventeen years. This he told me with a view to stimulate me W visit the sci ne of the disasters. But, on seeing the narrow stairs that h-d to the top, I fancied rny-elf a. ready on tiie platform, and my blood began to tingle in my veins I felt ns if I were doomed to follow the example of the half dozen of my predeces-ors of whom the attendant spoke. “ The ascent is not ditiicii t.” he said, only three hundred and forty five steps.” “ What i the height of the Monument T’ I asked. “Itis a fluted column, of lhi Doric order, erected at a cost of U,7(io/, to eomim morate the tire of iOoG, and is exactly two hundred anil two feet high.” I his 1 knew was apocryphal, but (he intelligence increased my nervousness Were the pillar to fall with me I should he de posit'd exacl y on the house in Pudding ho,e in which the fire originated ‘ t The juice f admission is threelie eeoiily,” he continued,' partly tit me and partly to a jiarty of six person.-, evidently country folk, who weie .'i/Jliit to enter. Th se were a ttewlymatried conjtle,, an elderly man, a woman ot sixty years of age, a hov. and a giti of about twelve. They hut lied and clui'ted as they entered tin- porta 1 , and anticipated with proper satisfaction the sensation of standing on a platform whence' half-a dozen |ieoph- had precii-a'ed themselves, and seeing men and women beneath ap pear no bigger than crows. If the old lady and boy had no nervousness, whv should I ? I tried to re anl rny weakness as an infirmity to be conquered there and then. But as T lifieil my face 'o the bi az t. uni which stn mounts the fop,, a feeling of giddiness seized me, and T entertained a s nsotion as if I had just been in a warm bath. While my eountrv friends were jtaying their money. 1 slipped a wav nnolwerved, and fi It comfortable only after I It id escaped beyond sight of the golden vase of flames. I have not been tip the Monument as yet.