HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE

CONTENTS BOOK II THE RENAISSANCE ( CONTINUED ) CHAPTER FIFTH The Christian Renaissance

ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON BRIDGE.
After an etching by Edwin Edwards.

The artist has chosen for his masterly work the moment when the sun, long before toiling London is awake, rises amid vapors from the eastern horizon. The river reflects the dawn,

"All bright and glittering in the smokeless air."

In the placid stream are mirrored the shadows of the bridge; to the west of which appear the faÇades of Fishmonger's Hall, and Billingsgate market, radiant with morning. To appreciate the full charm and fidelity to nature of this etching one should read Wordsworth's sonnet written on Westminster bridge, beginning "Earth has not anything to show more fair," and ending with the words

"The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still."