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Day in the Life

Aug 21, 1840

Journal Entry

August 21, 1840 ~ Friday

21st This was the most interesting day of my life
as far as viewing the splended works of man
was concerned. I started in coompany with Elders
Kimble, & G. A. Smith, for a walk over the city of
London we crossed over London Bridge, through
King Williams st & passed through several other
streets visited the cup & garden, passed through
St Martin street & court, & Leicester squair &
Sidney Alley, Coventry st, Picadilly, Glasshouse St
& we passed through most the whol length of
Regent street one of the most splended streets in the
world, we passed through Langham place, All Souls
church with a spire naked from its base to the point
we also passed through Oxford St. We returned
by the way of St Pauls Church a description of which
I shall give another day.


To end the sceneries of
this days walk, we visited the Noted monument
erected in commemoration of the DREADFUL FIRE
OF LONDON in the year 1666 built under the inspec
tion of that great Architect SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN
we entered a door at its base (paid /6 on entering) & assended
345 black marble steps which brought us 200 feet
into the air, about 100 feet higher than the highest
dwellings we steped on the outside of the piller surround
ed by an Iron railing which at once presented to our
view an indescribable scenery upon evry hand.
Here we were standing about 200 feet in the air
upon the highest & finest modern column in the
world & with the glance of the naked eye we could
overlook & survey the largest most noted, populous
& splended city upon the face of the whole earth
even a city containing a million & a half of human
beings, & such a splendid prospect & grand scenery I
never before beheld, we were situated so as to overlo-
ok nearly evry part of the city east of us lay the splended
tower of London & the Mint, North the Mansion
of Lord Mayor of London. North West St Pauls Churc[h]
West, Westminster Abby & the house of Parliment, south
lies the River Thames with five large arched Bridges
acrossed it in full view, & another which is not seen from
the pillar making six, five of which are hewn stone
& one is all of solid cast Iron, viz Southwark Bridge
while London, Blackfriars Waterloo, westminster &
Vauxhall Bridges are all stone. South of the River
lies London Borough & in addition to this were
hundreds of churches, chapels, & spires standing

in the midst of one universal dens mass [o]f brick & stone
buildings, covering about six miles squair of ground
while viewing this scenery in a clear day we were
conversing with a Prussian traveller (citizen of Berlin)
who had travled much over Europe & Asia & other
parts of the world, & he declaired we could not
find another spot upon the face of the earth that
would present to our view as grand a scenery as
the one before us. This monument was 24 feet higher
than Trajan's Pillar at Rome. This pillar cost £14,500
or $75,500 dollars. The following is inscribed upon
one side of the monument in LATIN

In the year of Christ 1666 the second
day of September from hence at the distance of two hund-
red & two feet the hight of this column about midnight
a most terrible fire broke out which driven on by a high
wind not ownly wasted the adjacent parts but also places vary
remote with incredible noise & fury. It consumed 89
churches, the gates of the city Guild hall many public struc-
tures, hospitals, schoosls, libraries a vast number of stately
edifices, 13,200 dwelling houses 400 streets of 26 wards
it utterly destroyed 15 & left 8 others shattered & half
burnt. The ruins of the city were 436 acres from the
Tower by the Thames side to the Temple Church &
from the North east Gate along the city wall to Holborn
Bridge. To the estates & fortunes of the citizens it
was merciless but to their lives vary favorable (ownly
eight being lost) That it might in all things resemble the
last conflog^r^ation of the world. The destruction
was sudden for in a small space of time the same
city was seen most flourishing & reduced to
nothing three days after when the fatal fire
had Baffled all human councils & endeavorsurs,
the opinion of all, as it were, by the will of heaven
it stoped & on evry side was extinguished [past]

6 m[iles].

People

Browse people Wilford Woodruff mentioned on this day in his journal.

Wren, Christopher
20 Oct 1632 - 25 Feb 1723
7 mentions
Historical Figure
Smith, George Albert
26 Jun 1817 - 1 Sep 1875
1380 mentions
Apostle, Missionary
Kimball, Heber Chase
14 Jun 1801 - 22 Jun 1868
1402 mentions
Apostle

Related Documents

Browse other documents with this same date. These could include pages from Wilford Woodruff's autobiographies, daybooks, letters, histories, and personal papers.

Letter to Phebe Whittemore Carter Woodruff, 21 August 1840
19 King St, Borough, London, ^& (2 days later from London)^ My Dear Wife when I wrote my last under dat of 2^1^9th I though[t] it would be the last you would recceve from me by the hand of Elder Turley but having just returned to my room in company with Br's Kimball & Smith from an Interesting walk of 8 hous walk in visiting many parts of the city of London & passing through such a scenery of interest that it would require a volumen to do justice in speaking of the subject yet I though[t] I would drop a few words to you upon the subject. After spending several hours in vis^i^ting several streets of the most splended part of the city of London, we passed arougd [around] St Pauls church on the out side but did not go in we shall visit it another day from top to Bottom & give you a descip- tion of it, it is the Largest church in the world excepting one at Rome ^The Vatian at Rome dedicated St Peter^ But to close the scenery of the day we visited the Noted monument standing in the city built in remembereance of the dredful fire in this city in 1666 we entered at the Base & walked up 345 marble steps which brought us 200 feet into the air whare we stoped on the out side of the monument surrouged [surrounded] by an iron railing which gave us a perfect ^view^ of nearly the whole city at one glance of the ey^i^e & such a sight I never before witnessed, to stand upon the top of the highest monument in the world & at one glance of the eye sur[v]ey the largest city & population upon the face of the whole Earth ever [over] 1 500 000 souls we had a clear view of the Tower of London, built by the romans St. Pauls church, West minster Abbey, the house of partiment ^parliament^ & all the towers, steples, spires, & manesions ^mansions^ in the city or nerly so & 6 tremendious Bridges [ader] ^over^ the River Thames with the river all [alives] alive with human beings floating in Barges &c
Autobiography 1883 Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine
The next day, , was the most interesting sight-seeing day in my life, as far as viewing the splendid works of man. I started in company of Elders Heber C. Kimball and George A. Smith for a walk over the City of London. We crossed London Bridge, passed through King William Street, and several other streets, and visited Covent Garden; then through St. Mar- tin Street and Court, Leicester Square, Sidney Alley, Coventry Street, Pica- dilly, Glass House Street and through most of Regent Street,—one of the most splendid streets in the world. We passed through Langham Place, and All Souls Church, which has a spire naked from its base to the top, then through Oxford Street, and returned by way of St. Paul's, ending our sight-seeing of the day by visiting the noted monument erected in commemoration of the great fire in London in 1666, and built under the direction of that famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren. We entered a door at its base, paid six pence on enter- ing, and ascended three hundred and forty-five black marble steps, which brought us up two hundred feet into the air and about one hundred feet higher than the highest houses. We stepped on the outside of the pillar, which is sur- rounded by an iron railing, and here we had presented to our view an indescrib- able scenery on every hand of the great- est city in the world, which can boast of a history of nearly two thousand years. At our feet, as it were, lay a historical panorama, stretching out to our view around. We were situated so as to overlook nearly every part of the city. East of us lay the ancient Tower of London; east of us also lay the Mint; north the Mansion House of the Lord Mayor of London; north-west, St. Paul's Church; west, Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliament; south lies the River Thames with five of the large bridges across in full view and one not seen from the Monument, making six. These six bridges are fine sights in themselves. They are the architectural monuments of the Thames, and our view of them from our high pinnacle with their crowds of moving and ever changing human masses, and cabs, omnibuses, carriages, drays, etc., which dash along, presented to us a picturesque sight. In addition to all this, within our view, was London Borough, on the south of the river, and all around us hundreds of churches, chapels, and spires, standing in the midst of one universal mass of buildings, covering about six square miles of ground. While viewing this prospect on a clear day, we conversed with a Prussian traveler, a citizen of Berlin, who had traveled much over Europe and Asia and other parts of the world, and he declared that we could not find another spot on the face of the earth that would present to our view so grand a scenery as the one before us.

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Aug 21, 1840