“…..to grasp it in the eye-to take, as it were, an angel’s view of that huge town where, perhaps, there is more virtue and more inequity, more wealth and more want, brought together in one dense focus than in any other part of the earth-to hear the hubbub of the restless sea of life and emotion below, and hear it like the ocean in a shell, whispering of the incessant stragglings and chafings of the distant tide-to swing in the air high above the petty jealousies and heart-burnings, small ambitions and vain parade of “polite society”, and feel, for once, tranquil as a babe in a cot….”
Henry Mayhew (b1812 d1887) “A Balloon Flight”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 