Belle Skinner Journal Saturday, September 3, 1887

LVIII

Saturday Sept. 3, 87

This morning we spend in shopping. I had my dress fitted and found it in every way satisfactory. In the afternoon we went first to London Bridge. It is a tremendous affair so solid as a rock. From the Bridge we walked through Billingsgate to the Tower of London. I hope never to smell so much fish again, much less have to look at it. The Tower is very large, but not nearly as imposing or interesting as The Edinburgh Castle. Perhaps it lacks interest because so little of it is shown. We saw however, The Traitor’s Gate and the stair-case under which the bones of the murdered Princes were found having lain there ninety years. We also saw the British Regalia and had a glimpse at the Armour. We took a carriage at the Tower and down to Bunhill Fields, the burying place of John Bunyan, also of many other persons of note. The son and brother of Oliver Cromwell among them.

LIX

The cemetery contains only four acres squ of ground, but one hundred and twenty thousand people have been buried in it, besides one thousand cartloads of bodies buried together in a pit in one corner—at the time of the London plague. The cemetery was called Bonehill, after all these bodies were thrown into it, but after Bunyan’s burial there, it was changed to Bunhill. We tried to go to the theater this evening, but found every seat in the Drury Land sold. The opening night of a new play – Pleasure.