LUDGATE HILL AND ITS TOY MARKET.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 6 February 1909, Page 3

LUDGATE HILL AND ITS TOY MARKET.

A MEMORY OF YESTERD A.Y. _ Our London correspondent writes at Christmas time: — Many. New. Zealanders. o'er here ju.« now, miss an old and interesting sight, one that hardly haß its parallel in sny cKy in Enrope. ' The BanU Glaus of ""the Gutter has been "moved on" by tht stern gnardians of tho law. The glory of Ludgate Hill is depirt?! A week ago and it was, as :t has bun every year for many years, a veiy market. Now it is .'ill business and desolation. Tbe t-iys are gene. A wcek~or so ago and you jostled ieisuirely through a happy, adhesive crowd, wher,e no one was in a hurry. Now you fight your way along in an unholy crowd of hustlers. A man inuEt have the heart of a Scrooge not to reIgret the toys. Still ypu cannot blame the police When you have palpitating, perambulating battering rams likp oioior 'Lu<ses sli ling and slewing down the roadway there is r.o louder- room for what was possible in the happy old days of the "!;nifeboard." The traffic grows airl u-'ows, and tbe superficial area of Ludqate Hill stands stil- And now, if nature or necessity moves you, you may tanter from end "to"end of ihj gutter of Ludgit« Hill, and the motor 'bus finds no more encroaching ciuw'ls to tempt ;ts homicidal instiu;ts But", alas! what havo we lost! Fcr so- long a -time that th? memory of man runneth net-to the contrary, the hawkers- of toys havfl made theit Christmas- market on Ludgate Hill. Last yearj for the first time, they were moved on; this year the tragedy is performed again, and it become* purt ot the order of things that Christmas in the city is to look hcia auy 'ilier day. And if we wero' not a!l worshippers of the great gad Hustle, the dark street 3 mi^ht still b; a fantasy of dreams and fairyland Th<. other day as one wantleied. through thy jjiie of their glittering, gaudy trays, the *h) ill hawkers were worth an artist's study. Here, was a wrinkled, whitetha-ir^l arac'ir.dthpiy whom Rembraudt iiiitfht have sought; here a clean-limbed, lithe lad,- Tuddy and vigorous, wh-> must .surely belong to. the hill and moorinnd and not..to t the dingy alleys of ths town; Then you come jpon nvai'hv. ;dark-_eyed folk with strange, delicaVe hands, and fragile shoulders, .cccatui-.'s of the distant mystery of the Uast. Now, it was some quaint gamin of the London streets keeping up a ciiam.quarrel with his neighbours and cl.-if fing the crowd. And novi a man, broken ..and seared with disease and poverty, yet hearing still some of the .uarks of gentle breeding and culture, aimed at some strange, hopeless tragedy. What miserable memories, heart-killing memories, perchance of "happy, honoured days, of kind friends, and of relations, long since passed ti way, were haunting him as he stood in i,he gutter with bowed head, silent-and sorrowful, amid the eager yells and mirthful jest of commerce, offering his humble tray of grotesque toys? Well, the orderchangeth, and they are all gon*. They still ply their trade, but by ones and twos in different streets, and the children's fairyland of Ludgate is no more.