London, in a better light

Also from the Handbook:
From Shadwell's Epson Wells, 1676:
Lucia: "I have vow'd to spend all my life in London. People do reallly live no where else; they breathe and move and have a kind of insipid dull being, but there is no life but in London. I had rather be Countess of Puddle-Dock than Queen of Sussex."