| Show tat newt or 01 in the midst of the old city of london where the heart of human life beats fastest stands the church of st ins an old edifice rebuilt by wren upon its ancient foundations but recently reduced by modern taste to a most commonplace newrie som mon place air of comfort and newness if the curious traveler will step out of the passing throng and edge his way through the hucksters of flowers and stale fruit squatted around the church he be will find im bedded in the bluish slabs of its foundation a large oblong stone as aa gray as aa the beard of time himself this is london stone erected by the romans halt half a century before the birth of the saviour as the central milestone or point of their positions in britain from it all roads divisions of proper property ty and distances throughout the province were w ere measured it has been recognized as the heart of england englan from which all its articles flowed by every historian dramatist or antiquary known to english lite literature ra A feeling has always existed among englishmen about this stone which was w as not altogether superstition that as all distances were reckoned from it so it VI 1 as in a certain way the base of the stability of bf england youths compart compan |
