Hazards of walking in pre-industrial London

from Trivia; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London

Though expedition bids, yet never stray
Where no ranged posts defend the rugged way.
Here laden carts with thund'ring waggons meet,
Wheels clash with wheels, and bar the narrow street;
The lashing whip resounds, the horses strain,
And blood in anguish bursts the swelling vein.
O barb'rous men, your cruel breasts assuage,
Why vent you on the gen'rous steed your rage?
Does not his service earn your daily bread?
Your wives, your children by his labours fed!
If, as the Samian taught, the soul revives,
And, shifting seats, in other bodies lives,
Severe shall be the brutal coachman's change,
Doomed in a hackney horse the town to range:
Carmen, transformed, the groaning load shall draw,
Whom other tyrants with the lash shall awe.
     Who would of Watling-street the dangers share,
When the broad pavement of Cheap-side is near?
Or who that rugged street would traverse o'er,
That stretches, 0 Fleet-ditch, from thy black shore
To the Tow'r's moated walls? Here streams ascend
That, in mixed fumes, the wrinkled nose offend.
Where chandlers cauldrons boil; where fishy prey
Hide the wet stall, long absent from the sea;
And where the cleaver chops the heifer's spoil,
And where huge hogsheads sweat with trainy oil,
Thy breathing nostril hold; but how shall I
Pass, where in piles Cornavian cheeses lie;
Cheese, that the table's closing rites denies,
And bids me with th' unwilling chaplain rise.

John Gay (1685–1732)

published 1716

<link>