Sixty-nine miles from the Nore to just below Teddington (which
does not mean Tide-end Town) stretches the Port of London. Its varied sights by water and by land have given rise to the writing of Mr. A. G. Linney's The Peepshow of the Port of London (Sampson Low, 7s. 6d.). Some of the sights he catalogues are oil-tankages, gasworks, rubbish dumps and sewage outfalls : all these things, he says, " you see." Doubt- less ; but we do not want to see them. But what we do want and what we get in his book is an illustration of the epigram of Mr. John Burns that " the Thames is liquid history." The author, in a pleasant easy strain of gossip, descants on the singing names of the river—sweet names like Lavender Pond, Mermaid Causeway and Cherry Garden Pier ; but then there is also Bugsby's Hole. He will tell you how the docks came to be and how to see them properly, though neither he nor anyone else can find Execution Dock, where pirates used to hang in chains by way of encouragement to others. Ro- mance and luxury lurk in the description of the great ware- houses which hold rubber, spices, ivory and wine ; and the whole book is not only a useful; but an eminently satisfying account of the world's greatest port.
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