London Smoke

"All strangers, I believe, are compelled to acknowledge the unfriendliness of a London atmosphere on their first arrival, at this season of the year. Both my companion and myself were seized with a violent catarrh, from which we have not yet recovered ; and we are told that few escape a similar fate. Whether it is to be attributed to the dampness of the air, or to the thick smoke inhaled—for the smoke, instead of rising, rolls down into the streets—is perhaps neither very easy, nor very important to determine. The effects are disagreeable in the last degree."

Nathaniel S. Wheaton, A Journal of a Residence during Several Months in London, 1830