| <|f 03 -|'l *S ifl? CO =t3 > \ rx^r -H i si tr^ T 1 .Tl c-> rn FZ CURIOSITIES OF LONDON EXHIBITING THE MOST RARE AND REMARKABLE OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN THE METROPOLIS; WITH NEARLY BY JOHN TIMES, F.S.A. [Bow Church and Cheapside, 1750.] " I'll see these things ! They're rare and passing curious." OLD PLAY. "I walked up to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass, sav all the world in yellow, blue, and green, running at the ring of pleasure." STERNE. "The man that is tired of London is tired of existence." JOHNSON. A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED. LONDON : JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 74 & 75, PICCADILLY [All Rights Reserved.} PREFACE. IT is not without considerable anxiety that I submit to the public this enlarged edition of a Work in which are garnered many of the labours of a long life, for the most part passed amidst the localities and charac- teristics which it is the aim of this volume to focus and portray. The cause of the above anxiety lies chiefly in the changeful nature of the subject ; for at no period in the existence of the Metropolis have so many changes been wrought in its " scarred face," and its modern aspect, as in the Twelve Years that have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this "Work. The " CURIOSITIES OF LONDON" originally appeared in the Spring of 1855, in a small octavo volume of 800 pages, when it was received by the Critical Press with almost unanimous approval ; or, in some respects, an inclina- tion to take the word for the deed, and in others to kindly regard the difficulties of the labour. In either case I am bound to be grateful. The edition, over 3000 copies, was sold within a comparatively short period, considering the character of the work, then regarded as almost ex- clusively antiquarian ; although the above reception induces the belief that " the Present has its Curiosities as well as the Past." The book remained for several years entirely out of print, and second-hand could only be rarely obtained by advertisement. I then resolved upon its revision, and its reproduction, enlarged and more perfect in its details than hitherto ; and the present volume of library size, 880 pages, is the result; im- proved, it is hoped, in the value of its contents, as well as increased in bulk. iv PREFACE. The plan and arrangement of this edition are essentially the same as those of its predecessor. The type is somewhat enlarged, and more readable ; in the quotations and descriptive details, the small but clear letter has been adhered to, so as to comprise an additional amount of exact and authorized illustrative information. Meanwhile, the extent of the more important articles has been considerably augmented, though with the requisite attention to conciseness and facility of reference. Several new articles have been added ^ others have been re- written and enlarged. Correctness has been the cardinal point throughout the Work ; although the many thousand facts, names, and dates contained in this large volume will, it is hoped, be taken into account. The Preface to the First Edition has been reprinted for the sake of its explanation of the design, which I have here amplified, improved, and rendered more trustworthy as well as entertaining, by the best means and opportunities at my disposal, venerating the injunction of the old poet " Up into the watch-tower get, And see all things despoiled of fallacies." The Annals of a great City are ofttimes to be traced in the history of its Public Edifices. In the ancient and modern Cathedral, the venerable Minster, and the picturesque Churches of the Metropolis, we not only read the history of its Architecture, but in their " solemn paths of Fame " we trace countless records of our country's greatness. The Birthplaces and Abodes of eminent Londoners are so many hal- lowed sites to those who love to cherish the memories of great men. The palace-prison of " the Tower " bears upon its very walls an index to most stirring events in our history. The Civic H alls of London are stored with memorials of past ages illustrating curious glimpses of manners and artistic skill in their Pictures, Plate, and Painted Glass. To trace the growth of great centres of population, from the village in the fields to a city of palaces, part of the Great Town itself, leads us through many vivid contrasts of life and manners : from the times when Southwark was a Roman suburb ; Lambeth and Chelsea were Saxon villages ; Westminster was a " Thorny Island ;" St. Marylebone, a hamlet on the brook ; St. Pancras, in the fields ; and Finsbury, a swampy moor : all lying around the focus of Roman civilization, the City itself. Certain localities bear names which " make us seek in our walks the PREFACE. very footmarks of the Roman soldier;" whilst one of our most thronged thoroughfares can be identified as a British trackway and Roman street. How often upon such sites are unearthed relics of the civilization and luxury of our conquerors and colonists. The records of the Amusements of the People, and their Sights and Shows, in all ages, are richly stored with Curiosities : from the period when Smithfield was an Anglo-Norman race-course, to the waning of the last of the City pageants, Lord Mayor's Show. Old Poets and Dramatists, Travellers and Diarists, have left us pictures-in-little of the sports and pastimes, the follies and nine-day-wonders, of the "Londiners." Fitz- stephen and Hentzner, Stow and Strype, Howell and Aubrey, Evelyn and Pepys, Ned Ward and Tom Brown, Gay and Walpole, have bequeathed us many " trivial fond records" of this anecdotic class. Again, how many amusing eccentricities are recorded in the lives of the Alchemists, Astro- logers, and Antiquaries of Old London ! Such are the leading Archaeological features which, interwoven with the Modern History and Present Condition of the Metropolis, form the staple of the present volume. In the intermediate changes have dis- appeared many old London landmarks, which it has been my special object to describe : " Praising what is lost, Makes the remembrance dear." JOHN TIMES. HORNSEY-ROAD, Dec. 1867. \\ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIO N, T ITTLE need be said to bespeak the interest of readers in the staple of JLJ the present work the Notable Things in the History of London through its Nineteen Centuries of accredited antiquity. Still, I am anxious to offer a few words upon the origin and growth of this volume ; and the means by which I have striven to render it as complete as the extent and ever-varying nature of the subject will allow. Twenty-seven years since (in 1828), I wrote in the parlour of the house No. 3 Charing Cross (then a publisher's), the title and plan of a volume to be called " CURIOSITIES OF LONDON;" and the work here sub- mitted to the public is the realization of that design. I then proposed to note the most memorable points in the annals of the Metropolis, and to describe its most remarkable objects of interest, from the earliest period to my own time,- : for the Present has its Curiosities as well as the Past. Since the commencement of this design in 1828, precisely mid- way in my lifetime, I have scarcely for a day or hour lost sight of the subject; but, through along course of literary activity, have endeavoured to profit by every fair opportunity to increase my stock of materials ; and by constant comparison, " not to take for granted, but to weigh and con- sider," in turning such materials to account. In this labour I have been greatly aided by the. communications of obliging friends, as well as by my own recollection of nearly Fifty Years' Changes in the aspects of " enlarged and still increasing London." " Thinking how different a place London is to different people," I have, in this volume, studied many tastes ; but its leading characteristics will PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. vii be found to consist in what Addison's Freeholder calls " the Curiosities of this great Town." Their bibliographical illustration, by quotations from Old Poets and Dramatists, Travellers and Diarists, presents a sort of literary chequer-work of an entertaining and anecdotic character ; and these historic glimpses are brought into vivid contrast with the Social Statistics and other Great Facts of the London of to-day. The plan of the book is in the main alphabetical. Districts and locali- ties are, however, topographically described ; the arrangement of streets being generally in a sub-alphabet. The Birthplaces, Abodes, and Burial- places of Eminent Persons so many sites of charmed ground are specially noted, as are existing Antiquities, Collections of Hare Art and Virtu, Public Buildings, Eoyal and Noble Residences, Great Institutions} Public Amusements and Exhibitions, and Industrial Establishments ; so to chronicle the renown of Modern as well as Ancient London. The articles describing the Churches, Exchanges, Halls, Libraries and Museums, Palaces and Parks, Parliament-Houses, Roman Remains, and the Tower of London, are, from their importance, most copious in their details. The utmost pains has been taken to verify dates, names, and circum- stances ; and it is trusted that no errors may be found in addition to those noted at the close of the volume, with the changes in the Metropolis during the progress of the printing of the work. The reader, it is hoped, will regard these inaccuracies with indulgence, when the immense number of facts sought to be recorded in this volume is considered. Lastly, it has been my aim to render the Curiosities useful as well as entertaining ; and with that view are introduced several matters of practical informa- tion for Londoners as well as visitors. JOHN TIMBS. 88, SLOANE-STREET, CHELSEA, Jan. 16, 1855. ADDITIONS, CHANGES, CORRECTIONS, During the printing of the present Work (nearly 900 pages), several changes have been made in the Metropolis its material aspect, as well as in circumstances affecting its government, &c. j among which are the following, entitled to special note : Page 36. BUNHILL-PIELDS BITBIAL-GEOUND. By Act of Parliament, the management of this property has heen transferred hy the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to the Corporation of London, who are to convert the ground into a public garden ; the Commissioners reserving the right to resume possession of the estate should their conditions be ineffectually performed. Page 37. 'Bartholomew's (S.) Hospital. The question as to the election of the Presidents of the four great City Hospitals, stated at p. 37 to be then sub judice, was, in November, 1866, decided by the Court of Queen's Bench in favour of the Hospitals, the Governors of which have free choice in the election of their Presidents (see p. 436). His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has since been elected President of S. Bartholomew's. Page 41. Pantheon Bazaar was closed in 1867, and the building converted into a wine dep&t. (See p. 640.) Page 49. Bermondsey Priory. See Annales Monastici, vol. iii., edited by H. R. Luard, 1866. Page 74. Top line, for Jolliffe Banks, read Jolliffe and Banks. T*"ff> 80. The Speaker's State Coach is now kept at the Speaker's stables, Millbank. J'uije 85. Charterhouse site and buildings are to be transferred to Merchant Taylors ; and Charterhouse to be removed into the country. Page. 92. The old print of the " Bunn House at Chelsey," measures 52 by 21 inches. Page 144. Church of 8. Alban the Martyr : the choir entirely for the parishioners. Page 153. S. Benet's Church, Gracechurch-street, has been taken down. Page 238. For Peckburn read Pickburn. Page 284. NELSON COLUMN. The bronze lions, by Landseer, on the pedestal, are described at p. 759. Page 287. COMMON COUNCIL. For " the Court held," read the Court hold. Page 302. For " Britton and Bailey," read Brit ton and Brayley. Page 312. DOCTOES' COMMONS. The buildings were taken down in 1867. Page 350. FLEET-STBEET. No. 50, (not 13,) formerly the Amicable Life As- surance Office, is now the Office of the Norwich Union Society. Page 430. Middle Row has been taken down. Page 469. GHAT'S INN. For " Corner-court," read Cowcy-court. Page 541. MANSION HOUSE. At the close of the International Exhibition of 1851, the Corporation of London, with a view of encouraging the growth of Art in this country, voted the sum of 10,000. to be expended in Statuary for the Egyptian Hall ; and the Statues now in the Hall were ordered. Page 608. STEAND Music HALL. For " Old," read New Exeter 'Change. Page 716. Spitalfields. For " Lottesworth," read Lolesworth. CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON. ADELPHI, THE. A SERIES of streets in the rear of the houses on the south side of the Strand, reaching east and west from Adam-street to Buckingham -street, and facing the Thames on the south a grand commencement of the architectural embankment of the river, in 1768. It is named Adelphi (d8t\ " 7 Many years ago was published Almack's, a novel, in which the leaders of fashion were sketched with much freedom : they were identified in A Key to Almack's, by Ben- jamin Disraeli. ALDERMAN. rpHE oldest office in the Corporation of London, and derived from the title of the -L superior Saxon noble. The more aged were so called ; for aide in Saxon means "old," and alder is our word " older :" hence, as the judgment is most vigorous in persons of more mature years, the dignitary who, among the Romans, was known as " Consul " or " Senator," among us is called " Alderman." And yet, in the case of aldermen, maturity of mind is to be considered rather than of body, and gravity of manners in preference to length of years : hence it is that in the ancient laws of King Cnut, and other kings in Saxon times, the person was styled " Alderman " who is now called " Judge " and " Justiciar," as set forth in the Liber Custumarum. These alder- men, too, in respect of name as well as dignity, were anciently called " Barones," and were buried with baronial honours ; a person appearing in the church upon a caparisoned horse in the armour of the deceased, with his banner in his hand, and carry- ing upon him his shield, helmet, and the rest of his arms.* This gorgeous ceremonial was gradually discontinued; but the alderman still retained great state, and enjoyed special immunities. He could not be placed on inquests; he was exempt from fees on the enrolment of deeds or charters relating to himself; and any person who assaulted * See Liber Albut; the White Sook, B. 1, Pt. 1, translated by Riley, 1861. ALDERMAN. 5 or slandered him was liable to be imprisoned, to be put in the pillory, or to have his hand struck off. The aldermen were privileged to be arrayed, on particular occasions, in certain grand suits, lined with silk. But if a mayor or alderman gave away, or in any manner parted with, his robe within his year of office, he was mulcted in a forfei- ture of one hundred shillings for the benefit of the community, without remission ; or if he wore his cloak single, or not trimmed with far, he was subjected to a penalty. Madox says : " Alderman was a name for a chief governor of a secular guild, and in time it became also a name for a chief officer in a guildated city or town " and he quotes, in illustration, the circumstance of the Prior of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, becom- ing an Alderman of London, in consequence of the grant to that priory of the " English Knightengild." According to Norton's Commentaries on London, " there is no trace when the name of Alderman was first applied to the presidents of the London wards or guilds : the probability is it was introduced after the Conquest ; and there is reason to believe that the appellation was not used in that sense until the time of Henry II.," when Aldermen are first mentioned as presiding over guilds, some of which were terri- torial and others mercantile. Each has his title from his ward, as " Alderman of Cheap," " Alderman of Queenhithe," &c. ; but, anciently, the Ward was styled after the name of its alderman ; as Tower Ward was called " the Ward of William de Hadestok." The present ward of Farringdon was bought by William Faryngdori in 1279, and remained in his family upwards of eighty years; it was held by the tenure of presenting at Easter a gillyflower, then of great rarity. Among the early Aldermen we find, in the reign of Henry III., Arnald Fitz- Thedmar, who compiled a Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London, from 1188 to 1274, in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, translated in 1846 and 1863. Somewhat later, we find William de Leyre, Alderman of the Ward of Castle Baynard : he had once acted as gaoler to the heroic William Wallace ; for it was in his house, situate in the parish of All Saints, Fonchurch -street, that the patriot was confined (22nd August, 1305), the day and night before his barbarous execution at the Elms in Smithfield. Aldermen have, at various times, suffered by the caprice of sovereigns. In 1545, when Henry VIII. demanded a "benevolence" from his subjects, to defray the charges of his w r ar with France and Scotland, Richard Read, an Alderman of London, refused to pay the sum required from him. For this offence, Henry compelled the recusant Alderman to serve as a foot-soldier with the army in Scotland, where he was made prisoner; and after enduring great hardships, he purchased his discharge by a con- siderable ransom. (See Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII.) Alderman Barber, the first printer Lord Mayor (1733), was the friend of Boling- broke, Swift, and Pope ; and in 1721 erected a tablet to Samuel Butler, in West- minster Abbey, with an eulogistic Latin inscription, notwithstanding Butler's satiric " Character of an Alderman :" "He does no public business without eating and drinking 1 ; and when he comes to be a lord-mayor, he does not keep a great house, but a very great house-warming for a whole year ; for though he invites all the Companies in the City, he does not treat them, but they club, to entertain him and pay the reckoning before the meal. His fur gown makes him look a great deal bigger than he is, like the feathers of an owl ; and when he pulls it, off, he looks as if he were fallen away, or like a rabbit, had his skin pulled off." The notorious Alderman Wilkes was a man of talent, though profligate and unprin- cipled. Alderman Boydell was a generous and discriminating promoter of the fine arts, and was honoured with a public funeral. Alderman Birch was an accomplished scholar, and wrote dramatic pieces. Alderman Salomons, who joined the Court in 1847, was the first Jew admitted to that privilege. The Aldermen form the bench of magis- trates for the City : each, on his election by Wardmote, receives a present of law- books ; and in the absence of any prisoners for examination at the Police Court in which the Alderman sits, he receives a pair of white kid gloves. The Aldermen receive no salary, but exercise many influential privileges ; their duties are onerous. Probably the history of the Court presents a greater number of instances of self- advancement than any other records of personal history. Pensions or allowances are paid annually by the Court to the widows or descendants of their less fortunate brethren. Each of the twenty-six City Wards elects one Alderman for life, or " during good behaviour." The fine for the rejection of the office is 500 J. ; but it is generally sought 6 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. as a stepping-stone to the Mayoralty, each Alderman being in rota Lord Mayor, he having previously served as Sheriff of London and Middlesex. The Aldermen form a court, the Lord Mayor presiding ; and sit in a superb apartment of the Guildhall, which has a rich stucco ceiling, painted mostly by Sir James Thornhill ; in the cornice are carved and emblazoned the arms of all the Mayors since 1780 ; each Alderman's chair bears his name and arms : he wears a scarlet cloth gown, hooded and furred ; and a gold chain, if he hath served as Mayor. Upon state visits of sovereigns to the City, the several Aldermen ride in procession on horseback. At the opening of the New Royal Exchange, October 28, 1844, the Aldermen rode thus, wearing their scarlet gowns and chains, and cocked hats, carrying wands, and preceding the Queen's proces- sion from Temple Bar to the Exchange. ALMONRY, THE, OR Eleemosynary, corruptly, in Stow's time, and later, the Ambry, was named from its being the place where the alms collected in the Abbey Church at Westminster were distributed to poor persons. It was situated at the east end of the Sanctuary, and was divided into two parts : the Great Almonry, consisting of two oblong portions, parallel to the two Tothill streets, and connected by a narrow lane (the entrance being from Dean's-yard) ; and the Little Almonry, running southward, at the eastern end of the other Almonry. In the Almonry the first printing-press ever known in England was set up by William Caxton : according to Stow, in an old chapel near the entrance of the Abbey ; but a very curious placard, in Caxton's largest type, and now preserved in the library of Brasenose College, Oxford, shows that he printed in the Almonry ; for in this pla- card he invites customers to " come to Westmonester in to the Almonestrye at the Reed Pale," the name by which was known a house wherein Caxton is said to have lived. It stood on the north side of the Almonry, with its back against that of a house on the south side of Tothill-strcet. Bagford describes this house as of brick, with the sign of the King's Head : it is said to have partly fallen down in November, 1845, before the removal of the remainder of the other dwellings in the Almonry, to form a new line (Victoria-street) from Broad Sanctuary to Pimlico, when wooden types were said to have been found here. A beam of wood was saved from the materials of the house, and from it have been made a chess-board and two sets of chessmen, as appropriate memorials of Caxton's first labour in England, namely, The Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474, folio, the first book printed in England. According to a view of Caxton's house, nicely engraved by G. Cooke, in 1827, it was three-storied, and had an outer gallery, or balcony, to the upper floor, with a window in its bold gable : its precise site was immediately adjoining the spot now occupied by the principal entrance to the Westminster Palace Hotel, in digging for the foundation of which was found, at twelve feet from the surface, a statuette of the Virgin and Child, eleven inches high, carved in sandstone, and bearing traces of rich gilding. In the Little Almonry lived James Harrington, author of Oceana, in a " faire house," which, according to Aubrey, " in the upper story, had a pretty gallery, which looked into the yard (cover .... court), where he commonly dined and meditated, and took his tobacco." This " gallery" corresponds with that in Caxton's house, which we well remember : its identity has been questioned ; and in one of the appendices to Mr. Gilbert Scott's Gleanings from Westminster Abbey, Mr. Surges suggests, not altogether without probability, that it was in the spacious triforiuui of Westminster Abbey that Caxton first set up his printing-press. Walcott states his " place of trade near a little chapel of St. Catherine. It is not, however, wholly improbable that at first he erected his press near one of the little chapels attached to the aisles of the Abbey, or in the ancient Scriptorium." ALMONBT ALMSHOUSES. ALMONRY, EOYAL. rPHIS Office, in Middle Scotland-yard, Whitehall, is maintained expressly for the -L distribution of the Boyal Alms, or Bounty, to the poor. The duties of the Hereditary Grand Almoner, first instituted in the reign of Bichard I., are confined to the distribution of alms at a Coronation. The office of the High Almoner is of a more general description. In the reign of Edward I. his office was to collect the fragments from the royal table, and distribute them daily to the poor ; to visit the sick, poor widows, prisoners, and other persons in distress ; to remind the King about the be- stowal of his alms, especially on Saints' days ; and to see that the cast-off robes were sold, to increase the King's charity. Chamberlayne describes the Great Almoner's office, in 1755, to have included the disposal of the King's alms, for which use he received moneys, besides all deodands and bona felonum de se. He had the privilege to give the King's dish to whatsoever poor men he pleased ; that is, the first dish at dinner, set upon the King's table, or instead, 44. per diem. Next, he distributed every morning, at the court- gate, money, bread, and beer, each poor recipient first repeating the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, in the presence of one of the King's chaplains, the Sub-Almoner; who had also to scatter newly-coined twopenees, in the towns and places visited by the King, to a certain sum by the year. Besides these, there were many poor pensioners to the- King and Queen below stairs. For more than a century the office of Lord High Almoner was held by the Arch- bishops of York ; but on the death of Archbishop Harcourt, in November, 1847, the office was conferred upon Dr. Samuel Wilberforce, Lord Bishop of Oxford. The distribution of Alms on the Thursday before Easter, or Maundy Thursday, takes place in Whitehall Chapel ; that at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, at the Office in Middle Scotland-yard. Thus, the Royal Maundy was distributed on Maundy Thursday, 1866, in Whitehall Chapel, with the customary formalities, to 47 aged men and 47 aged women, the number of each sex corresponding with the age of her Majesty. The procession is formed in the following order : Boys of the Chapel Royal, Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, Priests of the Chapel Royal, Sergeant-Major of the Yeomen of the Guard, the Sergeant of the Vestry, the Lord High Almoner, the Sub-Almoner, and the Sub-Dean, six children of the National Schools, the Yeoman of the Almonry and his assistants, the Yeomen of the Guard, one carrying the Royal Alms on a gold salver, of the reign of King William and Queen Mary. A special service is then read, and after the first Anthem, 11. 15s. is distributed to each woman, and to each man shoes and stockings. After the second Anthem woollen and linen clothes are distributed. After the third Anthem, purses. And after the fourth Anthem, two prayers composed for the occasion are read, and the prayer for the Queen, when the sermon is ended. Each red purse contained the usual gold sovereign, and a further sum of 11. 10s. as a commutation in lieu of provisions formerly issued from the Lord Steward's department of the Queen's Household. Each white purse contained the Maundy coin, consisting of silver fourpenny, threepenny, twopenny, and penny pieces, amounting to 47, the age of Her Majesty. On Friday and Saturday in the previous week, and on Monday and Tuesday in the current week, Her Majesty's Royal Bounty of 5s., and the Royal alms, in ancient times distributed at the gate of the Royal Palace, were paid to aged and deserving poor who had been previously selected by the Lord High Almoner and the Sub-Almoner, from those who had been recommended by various clergymen and by other persons in London and its vicinity. The number relieved exceeded 1000 persons, among whom vjry many were blind, paralyzed, and disabled, some exceeding 90 years of age. Formerly bread, meat, and fish were distributed in large wooden bowls, and the officers carried bouquets of flowers and wore white scarves and sashes ; but the earliest custom was the King washing with his own hands the feet of as many poor men as he was old, hi imitation of the humility of the Saviour. The last monarch who performed this act was James II. The pious Queen Adelaide, who died in 1849, and is known to have expended one- third of her large income in private and public charity, maintained in her household an Almoner, whose duty it was to investigate all applications for the royal benevolence. ALMSHOUSES, BUILT by Public Companies, Benevolent Societies, and private individuals, for aged and infirm persons, were formerly numerous in the metropolis and its suburbs. The Companies' Almshouses were originally erected next their Halls, that the almspeople might be handy to attend pageants and processions ; but these almshouses have mostly been rebuilt elsewhere, owing to decay, or the increased value of ground in the City. Almshouses succeeded the incorporated Hospitals dissolved by King Henry VIII. Among the earliest erected were the Almshouses founded in Westminster by Lady Mar- garet, mother of King Henry VII., for poor women ; in one of these houses lived Thomas Barker, who aided Izaak Walton in writing his Complete Angler. They were con- 8 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. verted into lodgings for the singing-men of the Abbey, and called Choristers' Rents : they were taken down about 1800. Westminster contains several of these munificent foundations : as the Red Lion Alms- houses, in York^treet, founded in 1577, for eight poor women, by Cornelius Van Dun, of Brabant, a soldier who served under King Henry VIII., at Tournay. Next are, in the same neighbourhood, the Almshouses for twelve poor housekeepers of St. Margaret's, with a school and chapel the boys clad in black : these were founded in 1566, by the Rev. Edward Palmer, B.D., many years preacher at St. Bride's, Fleet-street, and who used to sleep in the church-tower. Emmanuel Hospital, James-street, was founded by the will of Lady Ann Dacre, in 1601, for aged parishioners of St. Margaret's ; and in one of its almshouses, on January 22, 1772, died Mrs. Windimore, cousin of Mary (consort of William III.) and of Queen Anne. The Drapers' Company, in 1720, maintained Almshouses at Crutched-friars, Beach- lane, Greenwich, Stratford-le-Bow, Shoreditch, St. George's-fields, St. Mary New- ington, and Mile End. The Almshouses at Crutched-friars were erected and endowed by Sir John Milborn, Mayor of London, in 1521, for thirteen decayed members of the Drapers' Company (of which Sir John was several years Master), or bedemen, who daily prayed at the tomb of their benefactor, in the adjoining church. The stone carving of the Assumption of the Virgin, over the Tudor gateway leading towards the pleasant little garden, the shields with heraldic devices, the old-fashioned roof, and dark, rich, red-coloured brickwork, formed a picture well remembered; taken down 1862. The Almshouses and School-house at Mile End were built in 1735, with the ill- gotten fortune bequeathed by Francis Bancroft, grandson of Archbishop Bancroft, and an officer of the Lord Mayor's Court; and so hated for his mercenary and oppressive practices, that at his funeral, a mob, for very joy, rang the church-bells of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, where a monument to his memory had been erected in his life-time. The almsmen are twenty-four poor old members of the Drapers' Company ; and the School boards, clothes, educates, and apprentices 100 boys. The Trinity Almshouses, in the Mile End-road, were erected by the Corporation of the Trinity House, in 1695, for decayed masters and commanders of ships, mates, and pilots, and their wives or widows. The thirty houses have characteristic shipping on their roofs ; there is a chapel, and on the green is a statue of Captain Robert Sandes, a benefactor to the establishment; he died 1721. The Salters' Company had Almshouses for their decayed brethren in Monkwell- street and Bow-lane ; in 1864, they were rebuilt, at Watford, Herts, at a cost of 8000/., besides that of the site and adjacent grounds. Traditionally, we owe the foundation of Dame Owen's School and Almshouses, at Islington, to Archery. In 1610, this rich brewer's widow, in passing along St. John- street-road, then Hermitage-fields, was struck by a truant arrow, and narrowly escaped " braining ;" and the grateful lady, thinking such close shooting dangerous, in commemoration of her providential escape, built, in 1613, a Free School and ten Aims- houses upon the scene of her adventure. Since 1839 they have been handsomely rebuilt by the Brewers' Company, trustees for the Charity. Whittington's College, or Almshouses, founded in 1621, on College-hill, were rebuilt by the Mercers' Company, at the foot of Highgate-hill, about 1826; cost 20,0001. Upon the old site, College-hill, was built the Mercers' Schools. The Fishmongers' Company's Almshouses, or St. Peter's Hospital, Newington Butts, founded 1618, consisted of three courts, dining-hall, and chapel : they were rebuilt on Wandsworth Common, in 1850; cost 25,OOOZ. Edward Alleyn, the distinguished actor, and friend of Ben Jonson and Shakspeare, besides founding Duhvich College, built and endowed three sets of Almshouses in the metropolis : in Lamb-alley, Bishopsgate-street ; in Bath-street, St. Luke's ; and in Soap- yard, Southwark. Of the Bath-street Almshouses, the first brick was laid by Alleyn himself, Jnly 13, 1620 ; they were rebuilt in 1707. Cure's College, in Deadman's-place, Southwark, was founded in 1584, by Thomas Cure, saddler to King Edward VI. and the Queens Mary and Elizabeth, for 16 poor pensioners, with 20d. a week ; president, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for the time being. The College has been rebuilt. AMU8EMBNT8. 9 The East India Almshouses, Poplar, were established at the granting of the first charter, in the 17th century, for widows of mates and seamen dying in the Company's service. There are also houses, with gardens, for the widows of captains, receiving pensions of from 307. to SOI. yearly. In Bath-street, City -road, are Almshouses for poor descendants of French Protestant Refugees, founded in 1708, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The Goldsmiths' Company have Almshouses at Woolwich, Acton, and Hackney ; each house has its little garden. The Clock and Watchmakers' Asylum was founded in 1857 at Colney Hatch. At Hoxton, are the Haberdashers' Company's Almshouses, founded by Robert Aske, in 1692, for poor men of the Company, and boys ; here is a statue of the founder. Morden College, Blackheath, was founded by Sir John Morden, in 1695, for decayed merchants, each 727. a year, with coals, candles, washing-bath, medical and clerical attendance. The chapel has some fine carvings, reputed to be by Gibbons. Norfolk Almshouses, or Trinity Hospital, Greenwich, is an Elizabethan building, founded by Henry, Earl of Northampton, 1613. The Trustees were the Mercers' Company; revenue, 12,0007. a year. Surrey Chapel Almshouses, erected 1811, were founded and principally endowed by the Rev. Rowland Hill, for twenty-three destitute females. The Marylebone Almshouses, built in St. John's-wood-terrace, Regent's-park, in 1836, originated in a legacy of 5007. from Count Woronzow; the site being leased for ninety-nine years, at a pepper-corn rent, by Colonel Eyre, who is also entitled to two presentations to the Charity. The London Almshouses were erected by subscription, at Brixton, in 1833, to com- memorate the passing of the Reform Bill, instead of by illumination. The King William Naval Asylum, at Penge, opened 1849, for the widows of Com- manders, Lieutenants, Masters and Pursers in the Royal Navy, was founded by Queen Adelaide, to the memory of King William IV. The Dramatic College has its retreat " for poor players," a central hall, residences, and external cloisters, in the Tudor style, at Maybury, in Surrey. Recently also have been erected Almshouses for the parishes of St. Pancras, St. Martin, and Shoreditch. For Bootmakers, Mortlake ; Pawnbrokers, Forest-gate ; Booksellers, King's Langley; Aged Pilgrims, Edgware-road ; Butchers, Walham- green; Bookbinders, Eall's-pond; Printers, Wood-green ; Tailors (journeymen), Haver- stock-hill ; and Poulterers and Fishmongers, Southgate ; besides many others provided by Companies ; and Provident, Trades, and other societies, for decayed members. The Almshouses erected of late years are mostly picturesque buildings, in the old English style, with gables, turrets, and twisted chimney-shafts, of red brick, with hand- some stone dressings. In Weale's London Exhibited in 1851 will be found a more copious List of Almshouses (pp. 214 219) than the above. AMUSEMENTS. A RCHERY is mentioned among the summer pastimes of the London youth by -*- Fitzstephen, who wrote in the reign of Henry II. ; and the repeated statutes from the 13th to the 16th centuries, enforcing the use of the Bow, invariably ordered the holidays to be passed in its exercise. Finsbury appears to have been a very early locality for Archery ; for in the reign of Edward I. there was formed a society entitled the Archers of Finsbury. Here, in the reign of Henry VII., all the gardens were dcstroved by law, " and of them was made a plain field for archers to shoot in ;" this being the early appropriation of what is now called " the Artillery Ground." There is also preserved a MS. enumeration of the Archers' Marks in Finsbury Fields, compiled in 1601 : it gives, in flight shooting, nineteen score as the distance between Allhollows and Daie's Deed marks. Indeed, Miss Banks, Sir Joseph's daughter, an enthusiastic lover of the bow, has left a MS. note that a friend, Mr. Bates, often shot eighteen score in Finsbury Fields ; the length of the plain being about one mile, and the breadth three-quarters. Among the curious books on Archery are the Ayme for Finslurie Archers, 1628 ; and the Ayme for the Archers of St. George's Fields, 1664. 10 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Henry VIII. shot with the longbow as well as any of his guards : he chartered a society for shooting ; and jocosely dignified a successful archer as Duke of Shoreditch, at which place his Grace resided. This title was long preserved by the Captain of the London Archers, who used to summon the officers of his several divisions under the titles of Marquis of Barlo, of Clerkenwell, of Islington, of Hoxton, of Shacklewell, &.C., Earl of Pancras, &c. We read of a grand pageant in this reign, of three thousand archers, guarded by whifflers and billmen, pages and footmen, proceeding from Mer- chant Taylors' Hall, through Broad-street, the residence of their captain; thence into Moorfields by Finsbury, and so on to Srnithfield, where they performed evolutions, and shot at a target for honour. Edward VI. was fond of Archery ; in his reign the scholars of St. Bartholomew, who held their disputations in cloisters, were rewarded with a bow and silver arrows. Stow (who died in 1605) informs us, that before his time it bad been customary at Bartholomew-tide for the Lord Mayor, with the sheriffs and aldermen, to go into the fields at Finsbury, where the citizens were assembled, and shoot at the standard with broad and flight arrows for games, which were continued for several days. Charles I. was an excellent archer, and forbade by proclamation the inclosure of shooting-grounds near London. Archery, however, seems then to have soon fallen into disrepute. Sir William Davenant, in a mock poem, entitled The Long Vacation in London, describes idle attorneys and proctors making matches in Finsbury Fields : " With loynes in canvas bow-ease tied, Where arrows stick with miokle pride ; Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme, Sol sets for fear they'll shoot at him ?" Pepys records, in his Diary, that, when a boy, he used to shoot with his bow and arrows in the fields of Kingsland. In the reign of Henry VIII., a shout through the City of "Shovels and spades ! Shovels and spades !" assembled a band of 'prentice lads, who speedily levelled the hedges, dykes, and garden-houses, by which trespassers had encroached on the shooting- fields. Even as late as 1786, the Artillery Company, preceded by a detachment of their pioneers, marched over Finsbury, pulling down the fences again illegally erected. The brick wall enclosing a lead-mill was also attacked ; but, on the entreaty of the pro- prietor, the Hon. Company ordered it to be spared, contenting themselves with direct- ing one of their archers to shoot an arrow over it, in token of their prescriptive right. Proc. Soc. Antiquaries, London, vol. iv. No. 47. In 1781, the remains of the " Old Finsbury Archers " established the Toxophilite Society, at Leicester House, then in Leicester Fields. They held their meetings in Bloomsbury Fields, behind the present site of Gower-street ; here, in 1794, the Turkish Ambassador's secretary shot, with a bow and arrow, 482 yards. In about twenty-five years they removed on " target days" to Highbury Barn ; from thence to Bayswater ; and in 1834, to the Inner Circle, Regent's Park, where they have a rustic lodge, and between five and six acres of ground. The Society consisted in 1850 of 100 members ; terms, 51. annually, entrance-fee 51., and other expenses : they possess the original silver badge of the old Finsbury Archers. They meet every Friday during the Spring and Summer ; the shooting is at 60, 80, and 100 yards ; and many prizes are shot for during the season ; Prince Albert was patron. The most numerous Society of the kind now existing is, however, "The Royal Com- pany of Archers, the Queen's body-guard of Scotland," whose captain-general, the Duke of Buccleuch, rode in the coronation procession of Queen Victoria. In 1849, the Society of Cantelows Archers was established ; their shooting-ground is at Camden-square, Camden New Town ; the prize, a large silver medal. There was a fine display of Archery at the Fete of the Scottish Society of London, in Holland Park, Kensington, June 20, 21, 1849, when 3QO/.-worth of prize plate was shot for. BALLAD-SINGING, the vestige of the minstrelsy which Cromwell, in 1656, silenced for a time, was common in the last century. " The Blind Beggar " had conferred poetic celebrity upon Bethnal Green ; " Black-eyed Susan," and " "fwas when the seas were roaring," were the lyrics that landsmen delighted to sing of the sea ; and " Jemmy Dawson" (set to music by Dr. Arne) grew into historic fame elsewhere than AMUSEMENTS. on the scene of the tragedy, Kennington Common. To these succeeded the sea-songs of Charles Dibdin, which were commonly sung about the streets by the very tars who had first felt their patriotic inspiration : a sailor, who wore a model of the brig Nelson upon his hat, long maintained his vocal celebrity upon Tower-hill. Hogarth, in his " Wedding of the Industrious Apprentice," has painted the famous ballad-singer " Philip in the Tub ;" and Gravelot, a portrait-painter in the Strand, had several sittings from ballad-singers. The great factory of the ballads was long Seven Dials, where Pitts employed Corcoran, and was the patron of "slender Ben" and "over-head- and-ears Nic." Among its earlier lyrists were " Tottenham Court Meg," the " Ballad- singing Cobler," and " oulde Guy, the poet." Mr. Catnach, another noted printer of ballads, lived in Seven Dials ; and at his death, left a considerable fortune. He was the first ballad-printer who published yards of song? for one penny, in former days the price of a single ballad ; and here he accumulated the largest stock on record of whole sheets, last-dying speeches, ballads, and other wares of the flying stationers. Another noted ballad-printer and ballad-monger kept shop in Long-lane, Smithfield. BEAR AND BULL BAITING. A map of London, three centuries ago, gives the " Spitel Field" for archers ; " Fynsburie Fyeld," with " Dogge's House," for the citizens to hunt in ; " Moore Fyeld," with marks, as if used by clothiers ; " the Banck" by the side of the river; " the Bolle Bating Theatre," near the " Beare Baitynge House," nigh where London Bridge now commences. Pepys describes a visit to the " beare-garden" in 1666, where he saw " some good sport of the bull's tossing of the dogs, one into the very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty pleasure." Hockley- in-the-hole, Clerkenwell, was styled " His Majesty's Bear-Garden" in 1700, and was the scene of bull and bear-baiting, wrestling, and boxing; but it was neglected for Figg's Amphitheatre, in Oxford-road : " Long liv'd the great Figtr, by the prize-fighting swains Sole monarch acknowledged of Marybone plains." At Tothill Fields, Westminster, was in 1793, a noted bear-garden, a portion of which now forms Vincent-square ; and bear-baiting and rat-hunting lingered in their Westminster haunts longer than elsewhere. BOWLS was formerly a popular game in the metropolis : it succeeded archery before Stow's time, when many gardens of the City and its suburbs were converted into bowling-alleys ; our author, in 1579, wrote : " Common bowling-alleyes are privy mothes that eat up the credit of many idle citizens, whose gaynes at home are not able to weigh downe theyr losses abroad ;" elsewhere he says : " Our bowes are turned into bowls." The game of bowls, however, is as old as the 13th century, and in the country was played upon greens ; but the alleys required less room, and were covered over, so that the game could be played therein all weathers, whence they became greatly multiplied in London. Bowls was played by Henry VIII., who added to Whitehall " tennise-courtes, bowling-alleys, and a cock-pit." , Spring Garden, Charing-cross, had its ordinary and bowling-green kept by a servant of Charles the First's Court ; and Piccadilly Hall, at the corner of Windmill-street and Coventry-street, had its upper and lower bowling-greens. The grave John Locke, in one of his private journals (1679), records " bowling at Marebone and Putney by persons of quality ; wrestling in Lincoln's Inn Fields on summer evenings ; bear and bull baiting at the Bear-Garden ; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball in Tothill Fields." In the last century, Bowls was much played in the suburbs, especially at Marybone Gardens, mentioned by Pepys in 1668 as " a pretty place." Its bowling-greens were frequented by the nobility, among whom was Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, to whose partiality for the game Lady Mary Wortley Montague refers in the oft-quoted line " Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away." The place grew into disrepute, and was closed in 1777 ; it is made by Gay a scene of Macheath's debauchery in the Beggar's Opera. Greens remain attached to a few old taverns round London. In the town, bowling alleys were abolished in the last century, and gave rise to long-bowling, or bowling in 12 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. a narrow inclosure at nine-pins upon a square frame. They have been succeeded by the American bowling alley, sometimes in the cellar of the tavern. Bowling- street, Westminster, commemorates the spot where the members of the Convent of St. Peter amused themselves at bowls. We have also Bowling-street in Marylebone and Turnmill-street ; Bowling-green-lane in Clerkenwell and Southwark j Bowling-green-buildings, Bryanston-square ; and Bowling-green-walk at Hoxton. CARD-PLAYING would appear to have become early a favourite pastime with the Londoners ; for in 1643 a law was passed on a petition of the cardmakers of the City, prohibiting the importation of playing-cards. It was a very fashionable Court amuse- ment in the reign of Henry VII. ; and so general, that it became necessary to prohibit by law apprentices from using cards, except in the Christmas holydays, and then only in their masters' houses. Agreeable to this privilege, Stow, speaking of the customs at London, says : " From Allhallow-eve to the day following Candlemas-day, there was, among other sports, playing at cards, for counters, nails, and points, in every house, more for pastime than for gayne." Basset was a fashionable card-game at the end of the 17 th century ; and Basset-tokens are preserved : " Who the bowl or rattling dice compares To Basset's heavenly joys and pleasing cares?" Pope's Eclogue Basset-table. Whist, in its present state, was not played till about 1730, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen at the Crown Coffee-house in Bedford-row. Gaming in public was formerly a royal pastime at Christmas : George I. and George II. played, on certain days, at hazard, at the Groom-porter's, in St. James's Palace; and this was continued some time in the reign of George III. The name of " hells," applied in our clay to gambling-houses, originated in the room in St. James's Palace formerly appropriated to hazard being remarkably dark, and on that account called " hell." (Theodore Hook.) A few years ago there were more of those infamous places" of resort in London than in any other city in the world. The handsome gas-lamp and the gree^n or red baize door at the end of the passage were conspicuous in the vicinity of St. James's ; and of St. George's, Hanover-square; and the moral nuisances still linger about St. James's parish and Leicester-square. COCK-FIGHTING- was a London pastime 1190, and very fashionable from the reign of Edward III. almost to our time. Henry VIII. added a cock-pit to Whitehall Palace, where James I. went to see the sport twice a week ; this pit being upon the site of the present Privy Council Office : hence the Cockpit Gate, built by Holbein, across the road at Whitehall. Besides this Royal Cockpit, there was formerly a Cockpit in Drury-larie, now corrupted to Pitt-place, and there was the Cockpit or Phoenix Theatre. There were other Cockpits, in Jewin-street, Cripplegate, Tufton-street, whence the Cock- pit Yards there; another in Shoe-lane, temp. James I., whence Cockpit-court in that neighbourhood ; and another noted Cockpit was " behind Gray's Inn." Hogarth's print best illustrates the brutal refinement of the Cock-fighting of the last century ; and the barbarous sport was, we believe, last encouraged at Westminster, not far dis- tant from the spot, where in kindred pastime, Royalty relieved the weighty cares of State. The famous Westminster cock-pit was in Park-street. Cock-fighting is now forbidden and punishable by statute. CRICKET is stated to have been played at Finsbury, in the Royal Artillery Ground, before the year 1746. Some thirty years later, in 1774, a committee of noblemen and gentlemen was formed, under the presidency of Sir William Draper ; they met at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall, and laid down the first rules of Cricket, which rules form the basis of the laws of Cricket to this day. The next great step was the establishment of the White Conduit Club, in the year 1799 ; and among its members, in addition to the before-named patron of the game, we find the names of Lord Wincbilsea, Lord Strathaven, and Sir P. Burrell. Their place of meeting was still the Star and Garter, and their Ground was in White Conduit-fields. One of the attendants, Thomas Lord, was persuaded to take a ground ; and under the patronage of the old White Conduit Club, a new club, called the Marylebone Club, was formed at " Lord's Cricket Ground," which was the site of the present Dorset-square. Lord's Ground is now in St. John's- AMUSEME2FF8. wood-road, and is about 7^ acres in extent, and devoted almost exclusively, in May, June, and July, to the matches and practice of the Marylebone Club; at the annual meeting, early in May, the Laws of Cricket are revised, and matches for the season arranged. Attached to Lord's Ground are a Tennis Court and Baths. Here is an old painting of the game, in which the bat has the bend of the club, which, it is thought, denotes Cricket to have been a gradual improvement of the Club and, Sail. Amongst the other principal Cricket-grounds are the Oval (larger than Lord's) at Kennington : the Royal Artillery Ground, Finsbury, is, perhaps, the oldest ground in London ; for here a match was played between Kent and All England in 1746. There was for- merly a ground in Copenhagen-fields ; there is one at the Brecknock Arms, Camden- town ; at Brixton, near the church ; the Middlesex County, Islington Cattle Market, Tufnell Park, Highbury ; Victoria Park, Battersea Park ; Rosemary Branch, Peckham ; Crystal Palace, Sydenham ; Sluice House, Hornsey ; Primrose Hill ; Vincent-square, Westminster ; and at Bow, Mill wall, and Putney. Of the younger London clubs is the Civil Service, consisting exclusively of members of the Civil Service. DrrCK-HtrjfTiNO with dogs was a barbarous pastime of the last century in the neighbourhood of London, happily put an end to by the want of ponds of water. St. George's Fields was a notorious place for this sport ; hence the infamous Dog and Duck Tavern and Tea Gardens, from a noted dog which hunted ducks on a sheet of water there : Hannah More makes it a favourite resort of her Cheapside Apprentice. The premises were afterwards let to the School for the Indigent Blind, and were taken down in 1812, when Bethlern Hospital was built upon the site; in its front wall is preserved the original sign-stone of the tavern a dog with a duck thrown across its back. Ingenious lesson this in setting up a memorial of profligacy and cruelty upon a site devoted to the restoration of reason ! Duck-hunting was also one of the low sports of the butchers of Shepherd's Market, at May Fair, where, to this day, is a spot known as the " duck -hunting pond;" and within memory, on the site of Hertford- street, was the Dog and Duck publichouse, with its ducking-pond, boarded up knee- high and shaded by willows. EQUESTRIANISM appears to have been a favourite amusement with the Londoners for more than a century past. One of the first performers was Thomas Johnson, who exhibited in a field behind the Three Hats, at Islington, in 1758 ; he was succeeded by one Sampson, in 1767, whose wife was the first female equestrian performer in England. In the same year, rode one Price at D'Aubigny's, or Dobney's Gardens, nearly opposite the Belvedere Tavern, Pentonville, and where Wildman exhibited his docile bees, in 1772 ; the site is at this day marked by Dobney's-place. About this time Hughes established himself in St. George's Fields, and Astley in "Westminster-bridge-road; the latter was succeeded by Ducrow and Batty. Horses in England were taught dancing as early as the 13th century ; but the first mention of feats on horseback occurs in the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VIII. FAXES. The three great Fairs of old London belonged, in Catholic times, to the heads of religious houses : Westminster to its abbot ; and St. Bartholomew and South- wark (or St. Mary Overie, as it is oftener called), to the Priors of those monasteries. Westminster, or St. Edward's Fair (held on that Saint's Day), was commanded by proclamation of Edward III., in 1248 ; it was first held in St. Margaret's churchyard, and then was removed to Tothill-fields, where the Fair continued to be held, but of considerably less extent, so lately as 1823. Two Fairs were held in Smithfield at Bartholomew-tide : that within the Priory precincts was one of the great Cloth Fairs of England : the other, Bartholomew Fair, was held in the Field, and granted to the City of London, for cattle and goods. The latter was proclaimed, for the last time, in the year 1855. Southwark Fair was held on St. Margaret's-hill, on the day after Bartholomew Fair ; and was by charter limited to three days, but usually lasted fourteen. Evelyn records among its wonders, monkeys and asses dancing on the tight rope ; and the tricks of an Italian wench, whom all the Court went to see. Pepys tells of its puppet-shows, especially that of Whittington ; and of Jacob Hall's dancing on the ropes. The Fair was suppressed in 1762; but it lives in one of Hogarth's prints. 14 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. St. James's Fair, held in the month of May, in Brook Field, acquired the name of " M;iy Fair." It was abolished in 1709 ; but was revived, and was not finally sup- pressed until late in the reign of George III. It gave the fashionable quarter in which it was held the name of May Fair ; and the Brook to Brook-street. FIREWORKS, for pastime, are rarely spoken of previous to the reign of Elizabeth ; when the foyste, or galley, with a great red dragon, and " wilde men casting of five," accompanied the Lord Mayor's barge upon the Thames. A writer in the reign of James I. assures us there were then " abiding in the City of London men very skilful in the art of pyrotechnic, or of fireworkes ;" which were principally displayed by persons fantastically dressed, and called Green Men. In the last century, the train of Artillery displayed annually a grand firework upon Tower-hill on the evening of his Majesty's birthday. Fireworks were exhibited regularly at Mary bone Gardens and at Ranelagh; not at Vauxhall until 1798, and then but occasionally. At Bermondsey Spa, and va- rious tea-gardens, they were also displayed, but in inferior style. Fireworks were first exhibited at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, in illustration of picture-models ; and similar galas at Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea, have been very successful. There have been some grand Firework displays at the Government expense : as in the Green Park at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748; and on August 1, 1811, in celebration of the general Peace, and the Centenary of the accession of the Brunswick family to the British throne, these fireworks being by Sir William Congreve, of rocket celebrity. There have been similar firework galas in Hyde Park at coro- nations and Peace celebrations. At the coronation of King William IV. and Queen Adelaide, Sept. 1831, the amount expended for fireworks, and for keeping open the public theatres, was 3034-J. 18s. Id. FOOTBALL was played in the twelfth century by the youth of the City in the fields ; and five centuries later, we find football players in Cheapside, Covent Garden, and the Strand ; Moorfields and Lincoln's Inn Fields. There is an old print of football play in Fleet-street. HUNTING. " The Common Hunt" dates from a charter granted by Henry I. to the citizens to "have chaces, and hunts:" and Strype, so late as the reign of George I., reckons among the modern amusements of the Londoners " riding on horseback, and hunting with my Lord Mayor's hounds, when the Common Hunt goes out." The Epping Hunt was appointed from a similar charter granted to the citizens. Strype describes a visitation of the Lord Mayor Harper, and other civic authorities, to the Tyburn Conduits, in 1562, when " afore dinner they hunted the hare and killed her," at the end of St. Giles's, with great hallooing and blowing of horns. Much later, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen enjoyed this sport on Easter Monday, when a stag was turned out. The kennel for the hounds, and a house adjoining, was rebuilt about 1800. The officer of the Common Hunt has not long been abolished in the Lord Mayor's household ; the " hunt" exists but in the verse of Tom D'Urfey, or Thomas Hood. Poaching was common in the metropolis three centuries since ; for, in a proclamation of Henry VIII., 1546 (preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries), the King is desirous to have the " Games of Hare, Partridge, Pheasant, and Heron," preserved from Westminster palace to St. Giles's-in-the-F5elds, &c. MASQUERADES were introduced into England from Italy in 1512-13, by Henry VIII. They were frequent among the citizens at the Restoration. In 1717-18, a very splendid masquerade was given at the Opera House by Heidegger, at which there was high play with heaps of guineas. Soon after the bishops preached against these amuse- ments, which led to their suppression, 9 George I., 1723. They were, however, revived, and carried to shameful excess by connivance of the Government, and in direct viola- tion of the laws. During the food-riots, in 1772, there was given at the Pantheon, Oxford-street, a masquerade, in which 10,000 guineas were expended by the revellers in dress and other luxuries : Oliver Goldsmith masqueraded there in " an old English dress." At the Pantheon, in 1783, a masquerade was got up by Delpini, the famous clown, in celebration of the Prince of Wales attaining his majority ; tickets, three AMUSEMENTS. 15 guineas each. In the same year Garrick attended a masked fete at the Pantheon as King of the Gipsies. But the most eccentric entrepreneur was Madame Teresa Cornelys, "the Heidegger of the age," who, at Carlisle House, Soho-square, gave masquerades in extravagant style, and was soon ruined. These entertainments were never encouraged by George III., at whose request Foote abstained from giving a masquerade at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. At Eanelagh they were given occasionally. At the Opera House and Argyle Rooms, masquerades were given ; and at Drury-lane and Covent Garden Theatres : towards the close of a masquerade, or masked ball, May 5, 1856, the latter theatre was entirely destroyed by fire. MAYINGS AXD MAT-GAMES were celebrated by " the citizens of London of all estates" with Maypoles and warlike shows, " with good archers, morrice-dancers, and other devices for pastime, all day long ; and towards evening they had stage-plays and bonfires in the streets." The games were presided over by the Lord and Lady of the May, decorated with scarves, ribbons, and other finery ; to which were added Robin Hood and Maid Marian. May-poles were regularly erected in many parts of London on Mayday morning ; as in Leadenhall-street, before the south door of St. Andrew's Church, therefore called Under Shaft ; this pole being referred to by Chaucer as " the great Shaft of Cornhill :" it was higher than the church-steeple (91 feet). After Evil Mayday, 1517, this pole was, in 1549, sawn into pieces, and burnt as " an idol." Another celebrated Maypole was that placed in the Strand, upon the site of the present church of St. Mary: this pole was 134 feet high, and was set up with great pomp and festivity in 1661 j it was broken with a high wind a few years after. Opposite is Maypole- alley, at the top of which and over against the gate of Craven House, were the lodgings of Nell Gwyn ; and Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his piquant Story of Nell, says : " This Maypole, long a conspicuous ornament to the West-end of London, rose to a great height above the surrounding houses, and was surmounted by a crown and vane, and the royal arms richly gilded." Stow tells us that this pole was put up by the farrier, Clarges, to commemorate his daughter's good fortune of arriving to the dignity of Duchess of Albemarle, by being married to General Monk, when he was a private gentleman. The Maypole being grown old and damaged, was, in 1717, obtained by Sir Isaac Newton (who then lived in St. Martin's-street, Leicester-fields), and being taken down was carried away to Wanstead, in Essex ; there it was placed in Sir Richard Child's park, for raising a telescope, the largest in the world, stated to have belonged to Newton's friend, Mr. Pound, rector of Wanstead, to whom it had been presented by M. Hugon, a French member of the Royal Society. Another famous Maypole stood in Basing-lane : Stow described it as a large fir-pole, which reached to the roof of Gerard's Hall Inn, and was fabled to be the justice-staff of Gerard the giant, of whom a carved wood figure stood by the gate until the demolition of the inn in 1852. There are other places in London which indicate the site of Maypoles : as Maypole-alley, St. Margaret's-hill, Southwark; and Maypole-alley, from the north side of Wych-street into Stanhope-street. In the Beaufoy Collection are two tokens : one Nat. Child, " near y e May poal, in y e Strand, Grocer " and Philip Complin, " at the Maypole in the Strand, Distiller," and the Maypole, with some small building attached. THE PAEKS had their pastimes upwards of two centuries ago. The French game of Faille-mail (striking a ball with a wooden mallet through an iron ring) was introduced in the reign of Charles I. Skating was first brought into vogue in England on the new- canal in St. James's Park : Evelyn enters it, 1st Dec., J 662, " with scheets after the manner of the Hollanders." Pepys records, 10th Aug. 1664, Lords Castlehaven and Arran running down and killing a stout buck in St. James's Park, for a wager, before the King; and Evelyn enters, 19th Feb. 1666-67, a wrestling-match for 1000/. in St. James's Park, before his Majesty, a world of lords, and other spectators, 'twixt the western and northern men, when the former won. At this time there were in the park Hocks of wild-fowl breeding about the Decoy, antelopes, an elk, red-deer, roe- bucks, stags, Guinea fowls, Arabian sheep, &c. : and here Charles II. might be seen playing with his dogs and feeding his ducks. Birdcage Walk was named from the aviary established there in the reign of James I., and the decoy made there in tho reign of Charles II. 16 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Hyde Park was formerly much celebrated for its deer-hunts, foot and horse races, musters and coach-races, boxing-matches, and Mayings. PKISON BARS, OB BASE, is as old as the reign of Edward III., when it was, by proclamation, prohibited to be played in the avenues of the Palace at Westminster during the session of Parliament, from its interruption of the members and others in passing to and fro. About 1780, a grand match at base was played in the fields be- hind Montagu House, by twelve gentlemen of Cheshire against twelve of Derbyshire, for a considerable stake. " PUNCH" has for nearly two centuries delighted the Londoner ; there being entries of Punchinello's Booth at Charing-cross, 1666, in the Overseers' Books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. (Cunningham's Handbook, 2nd edit.) Punch's costume closely resembles the Elizabethan peasecod-bellied doublets. Covent Garden was another of Punch's early " pitches," where Powell's performances thinned the congregation in St. Paul's Church, as we learn from No. 14 of the Spectator ; and in 1711-12, he lessened the receipts at the Opera and the national theatres : the showman worked the wires, and " by a thread in one of Punch's chops, gave to him the appearance of animation." Such was the olden contrivance : at present the puppets are played by putting the hand under the dress, and making the middle finger and thumb serve for the arms, while the forefinger works the head. Mr. Windham, when one of the Secretaries of State, on his way from Downing-street to the House of Commons, was seen to stop and enjoy the whimsicalities of Punch. " We are never ashamed of being caught gazing at Punch," wrote Albert Smith. In 1828, George Cruikshank produced his grotesque etchings of Punch, to illustrate Mr, Payne Collier's very agreeable volume, Punch and Judy. Haydon painted Punch, with Hogarthian humour, in 1829 ; and Webster, 11. A., painted with equal humour " Punch in the Country," in 1840. Street Shows and Performers have become very numerous in the present day. Such are Punch. Fantoccini, Chinese Shades, and Galantee Shows ; jugglers, conjurors, balancers, posturers, stiff tumblers, pole-balancers, salamanders or fire-eaters, and sword and snake followers ; street dancers ; and performances of trained animals, as dancing dogs, acting birds, and mice. The street musicians include brass and other bands, Ethiopians, farm-yard fiddlers, horse organs, Italian organ-boys, hurdy- gurdy players, blind and crippled fiddlers, and violoncello and clarionet players. Next are the peep- showmen and the proprietors of giants, dwarves, industrious fleas, alligators, " happy families," and glass ships ; together with street telescopes, microscopes, thaumascopes, and weighing, lifting, and measuring machines. Porsini and Pike were celebrated Punch exhibitors; the former is said to have frequently taken 101. a day ; but he died in St. Giles' workhouse. A set of Punch figures costs about 151., and the show about 31. The speaking is done by a " call," made of two curved pieces of metal about the size of a knee-buckle, bound together with black thread, and between them is a thin metal plate. Porsini used a trumpet. The present artists maintain that "Punch is exempt from the Police Act." The most profitable performance is that in houses ; and Punch's best season is in the spring, and at Christmas and Midsummer : the best " pitches " in London are Leicester-square, Regent- street (corner of New Burlington-street), Oxford Market, and Belgrave-square. There are sixteen Punch and Judy frames in England, eight of which work in London. Fantoccini are puppets, which, with frame, cost about \Ql. Chinese Sha.de> consist of a frame like Punch's, with a transparent curtain and movable figures ; shown only at night, with much dialogue. Selected from a Letter by Henry Mayhew ; Morning Chronicle, May 16, 1850. Punch has not, however, been always a mere puppet : for we read of a farce called " Punch turned Schoolmaster ;" and in 1841, was commenced " Punch ; or, the London Charivari," which under excellent editorship has effected considerable moral service.* PUPPET-SHOWS were common at the suburban fairs in the early part of the last cen- tury ; they also competed with the larger theatres, until they were superseded by the revival of Pantomimes. But the Italian Fantoccini was popular early in the present century. The puppet-showman, with his box upon his back, is now rarely seen in the street, but we have the artist of Punch, with his theatre. Clockwork figures appeared early in the last century. In the reign of Queen Anne, a celebrated show of this kind was exhibited at the great house in the Strand over against the Globe Tavern, near Hungerford Market. A saraband, danced with castanets, and tin-owing balls and knives alternately into the air and catching them as they fall, with catching oranges upon forks, formed part of the puppet-showman's exhibition. * In a 14th-century manuscript of the French romance of Alexander, in the Bodleian Library, is an illumination of Punch's show, the figures closely resembling the modern Punch and Judy. AMU8EMENTB. 17 Men and monkeys dancing upon ropes, or walking upon wires; dogs dancing minuets, pigs arranging letters so as to form words at their master's command, hares beating drums, or birds firing off cannons these were favourite exhibitions early in the last century. Raree-shows, ladder-dancing, and posturing, are also of this date. RACKETS is nearly coeval with Tennis, which it so much resembles ; Rackets being striking a ball against a wall, and Tennis dropping a ball over a central net. There are Racket-grounds at the Belvedere, Pentonville ; at the Tennis Court, Haymarket ; and at Prince's Club Racquets Courts, Chelsea. Rackets was also much played in the Fleet Prison, taken down in 18-41; in the Queen's Bench Prison; and at Copenhagen House, St. Pancras. SALT-BOX Music will be remembered by the middle-aged reader. It was played with a rolling-pin and salt-box beaten together, the noise being modulated so as to resemble a sort of music. It was formerly played by Merry Andrews, at country fairs. Bonnel Thornton composed a burlesque Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, which Dr. Burney, in 1769, set for Smart and Newbury. It was performed at Ranelagh, by masks : Beard sang the salt-box song, which was admirably accompanied on that instrument by Brent, the fencing-master ; Skeggs, on the broomstick, as bassoon ; and a remark- able performance on the Jew's harp. Cleavers were cast in bell-metal for this enter- tainment. All the performers of the Old Woman's Oratory, employed by Foote, were engaged at Ranelagh on this occasion. Price, landlord of the Green Man, formerly the Farthing Pye-house, was a famous salt-box player. SKITTLES, corrupted from kayles of the fourteenth century, and afterwards kettle, or kettle-pins, was much played in and near London until 1780, when the magistrates abolished all Skittle-grounds. To this succeeded Nine-holes, or " Bubble-the-justice," on the supposition that it could not be set aside by the justices, as it was not named in the prohibitory statutes : it is now called " Bumble-puppy," and the vulgarity of the term is characteristic of the company who play it. Nine-pins, Dutch-pins, and Four- corners are but variations of Skittles ; which games originated in the covering of open grounds in London and its neighbourhood with houses. TEA GAKDENS were the favourite resorts of the middle classes in the last century ; and, in most cases, they succeeded the promenade at mineral springs. Such was Bagnigge Wells, Battle Bridge-road, taken down a few years since : we remember its concert-room and organ, its- grottoes and fountains, and grotesque figures, and bust of Nell Gwynne, who is traditionally stated to have resided here. Next were Sadler's Wells Music House, before it became a theatre ; Tunbridge Wells, or Islington Spa ; and the Three Hats, at Islington, mentioned in BickerstafPs comedy of the Hypocrite : the house remained a tavern until 1839, when it was taken down. White Conduit House, Pentonville, was originally a small ale and cake house, built in the fields, in the reign of Charles I., and named from a conduit in an adjoining meadow. An association of Protestant Dissenters, formed in the reign of Queen Anne, met at this house : the Wheal Pond, close by, was a famous place for duck-hunting ; Sir William Davenant describes a city wife going to the fields to " sop her cake in milk ;" and Goldsmith speaks of tea-drinking parties, with hot rolls and butter, at White Conduit House. A description of the place in 1774. presents a general picture of the Tea Garden of that period : " The garden is formed into walks, prettily disposed. At the end of the principal one is a painting, which seems to render it (the walk) longer in appearance than it really is. In the centre of the garden is a fish pond. There are boxes for company, curiously cut into hedges, adorned with Flemish and other paintings. There are two handsome tea-rooms, one over the other, and several inferior ones in the house." The fish-pond was soon after filled up, and its site planted, the paintings removed, and a new dancing and tea saloon, called the Apollo-room, built. In 1826, the gardens were opened as a " Minor Vauxhall ;" and here Mrs. Bland, the charming vocalist, last sang in public. In 1829, the small house, the original tavern, was taken down, and rebuilt upon a more extensive plan, so as to dine upwards of 2000 persons in its largest room. But in 1849 these premises were also taken down ; the tavern was re-erected on a smaller scale, and the garden-ground let on building leases, for White Conduit-street, &c. o 18 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Next we reach Highbury, where originally stood the JBarn of the Monks of Clerken- well : hence the old name of the Tavern, Highbury Barn. In the fields, opposite Pentonville Prison, was Copenhagen House (Coopen Hagen, in Camden's Britannia, 1695), first opened by a Dane. In Islington there remain the Canonbury Tea Gardens, a very old resort (the tavern has been rebuilt) ; and in Barnsbury remains an old tea-garden. Hoxton had also several tea-gardens. Toten Hall, at the north-west extremity of Tottenham-court-road, was the ancient court-house of that manor, and subsequently a place of public entertainment. In the parish books of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, year 1645, is an entry of Mrs. Stacye's maid and others being fined " for drinking at Tottenhall Court on the Sabbath dale, xijcil. a-piece." The premises next became the Adam and Eve Tea Gardens : before the house is laid the scene of Hogarth's March to Finchley ; and in the grounds, May 16, 1785, Lunardi fell with his burst balloon, and was but slightly injured. The Gardens were much frequented ; but the place falling into disrepute, the music-house was taken down, and upon the site of the Skittle-grounds and Gardens was built Eden-street, Hampstead-road, the public-house being rebuilt. Chalk Farm, corrupted from the old village of Chalcot, shown in Camden's map, was another noted tea-garden. This was " the White House," to which, in 1678, the body of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was carried, after it had been found, about two fields distant, upon the south side of Primrose Hill. Several duels have been fought here : here John Scott (of the London Magazine'), was shot by Mr. Christie, Feb. 16, 1821 ; and the poet Moore, and Jeffrey, of the 'Edinburgh Revieiu, met in 1806. Chalk Farm now gives name to the railway station here. The above were the most celebrated Tea-gardens north and north-west of London. Westward lay Marybone Gardens, open for public breakfasts and evening concerts to high-class company ; fireworks being added. In 1777-8 these gardens were shut up, and the site let to builders ; the ground being now occupied by Beaumontand Devon- shire streets, and part of Devonshire-place. Next were the Bayswater Gardens, once the " Physic Garden " of Sir John Hill ; and Ranelagh, the costly rival of Vauxhall, as well as a Tea-garden in the present century. Mulberry Garden, upon the present site of Buckingham Palace and its gardens, dated from temp. Charles I. Pimlico was noted for its tea-gardens and ale to our day : the Gun Tea Gardens, Queen's-row, with its arbours and grotesque figures, were the last to disappear: here were the Dwarf Tavern and Gardens ; the Star and Garter, Five-fields-row, famous for its equestrianism, fireworks, and dancing; and the Orange, upon the site of St. Barnabas Church. Here, too, was New Ranelagh ; and Jenny's Whim, Bowling- green, and gardens, the site now covered by St. George's-row : it was opened temp. George I. for fireworks ; and it had its duck-hunting pond, alcoves, and character figures, and was much frequented for bull-baiting in the adjoining fields. Knightsbridge was noted for its Spring Gardens, and houses of entertainment. Southward were Cumberland Gardens and Assembly Rooms, the site now occupied by Price's Candle Company's Works, Vauxhall Bridge ; Spring Garden, Vauxhall ; the Dog and Duck, and Apollo Gardens, St. George's Fields ; and Cuper's Gardens, through the site of which runs Waterloo-bridge-road. Bermondsey had its Spa Gardens in the Grange-road; and Cupid's Gardens upon Jacob's Island, the ill-fated locality in which the cholera (1848-9) first broke out in the metropolis, and where it lingered last. Few of these old Tea Gardens remain. In the increase of London within the last half-century, the environs have lost their suburban character, and have become part of the great town itself; and steamboats and railways now, for very small sums, convey the over- worked artisan out of its murky atmosphere into pure air and rural scenery. TENNIS, from the French Hand-ball or Palm-play, was played in London in the six- teenth century, in covered courts erected for the purpose. Henry VII. and VIII. were fond of Tennis ; and the latter added to the palace of Whitehall " tennise-courts." James I. recommended Tennis to his son, as becoming a prince. Charles II. was an accomplished Tennis-player, and had particular dresses for playing in. We have a relic of these times in the Tennis-court in James-street, Haymarket, which bears the date 1676, and was formerly attached to the gaming-house, or Shavers' Hall. la APOLLONICON ARCADES. 19 Windmill-street was another Tennis-court, which belonged to Piccadilly Hall, also a gaming-house. Another famous Tennis-court was Gibbon's, in Clare Market, where Ivilligrew's comedians performed for some time. There are in Holborn, Blackfriars, and Southwark thoroughfares kuowii as " Tennis-courts," denoting the game to have been formerly played there. THAMES SPOETS. Fitzstephen relates of the ancient Londoners fighting " battles on Easter holidays on the water, by striking a shield with a lance." There was also a kind of water tournament, in which the two combatants, standing in two wherries, rowed and ran against each other, and fought with staves and shields. In the game of the Water Quintain the shield was fixed upon a post in the river, and the champion, stationed in a boat, struck the shield with a lance. Jousting upon the ice was likewise practised by the young Londoners. Each mansion upon the Thames bank had its private retinue of barge and wherry, and the sovereign a gilded and tapestried barge. There were also public boats, with gay awnings, for tea-parties. All this gay water-pageantry has disappeared, including the state barges of the Sovereign and the Admiralty, the Lord Mayor, and a few of the wealthier of the City companies. In 1850, the old Barge of the Goldsmiths' Company was let at Richmond, " for Pic-nic, Wedding, and Birthday Parties," at 51. 5s. per day. The great civic barge, the 3Iaria Wood, is likewise let for similar occasions. Of Boat-races, the oldest is that for Dogget's Coat and Badge, on August 1 : the prizes are distributed by the Fishmongers' Company. We have also Regattas and Sailing Matches, to aid in the enjoyment of which steamers are employed. THEATRES originated in Miracle Plays, such as were acted in fields and open places and inn-yards. The playhouse dates from the age of Elizabeth ; and between 1570 and 1629, London had seventeen theatres. (See THEATEES.) APOLLONICON, THE. A CHAMBER-ORGAN of vast power, supplied with both keys and barrels, was built by Messrs. Flight and Robson, of 101, St. Martin's-lane, and first exhibited by them at their manufactory in 1817. The denomination is formed from Apollon, and the Greek termination icon. "The Apollonicon," says a contemporary description, "is either self-acting, by means of machinery, or may be played on by keys. The music, when the organ is worked by machinery, is pinned on three cylinders or barrels, each acting on a distinct division of the instrument; and these, in their revolution, not only admit air to the pipes, but actually regulate and work the stops, forming, by an instantaneous action, all the necessary combinations. The key-boards are five in number ; the central and largest comprising five octaves, and the smaller ones, of which two are placed on each side the larger, two octaves each. To the central key-board are attached a swell and some compound pedals, enabling the performer to produce all the changes and variety of effect that the music may require. There is also a key-board, comprising two octaves of other pedals, operating on the largest pipes of the instrument. There are 1900 pipes, the largest twenty-four feet in length, and one foot eleven inches in aperture, being eight feet longer than the corresponding pipe in the great organ at Haarlem. The number of stops is forty-five, and these in their combinations afford very good imitations of the various wind instruments used in an orchestra. Two kettle-drums, struck by a curious contrivance in the machinery, are, with the other mechanism, inclosed in a case twenty-four feet high, embellished with pilasters, and paintings of Apollo, Clio, and Erato." This magnificent instrument performed Mozart's overtures to the Zaulerflote, Figaro, and Idomeneo ; Beethoven's Prometheus ; Weber's to the Freischuiz and Oberon ; Cherubini's to Anacreon, &c., without omitting a single note of the score, and with all the fortes and pianos, the crescendoes and diminuendoes, as directed by the composers, with an accuracy that no band can possibly exceed, and very few can reasonably hope to rival. The Apollonicon was five years in building, and at an expense of about 10,0001., under the patronage of George IV. Its performances were popular for many years. ARCADES. ONLY a few of these covered passages (series of arches on insulated piers) have been constructed in London ; although Paris contains upwards of twenty passages or galleries of similar design. 20 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. BTJBLINGTON ARCADE. When, in 1815, Burlington House was purchased of the Duke of Devonshire hy his uncle, Lord George Cavendish, that nobleman converted a narrow slip of ground on the west side of the house and garden into a passage, with a range of shops on each side, called Burlington Arcade, making a covered communication for foot passengers from Piccadilly to Burlington Gardens, Cork-street, and New Bond- street. This Arcade was built by Samuel Ware, in 1819. It consists of a double row of shops, with apartments over them, a roof of skylights, and a triple arch at each end ; it is about 210 yards long, and the shops, seventy-two in number, produce to the noble family of Cavendish 4000Z. a year ; though the property, by sub-letting and otherwise, is stated to yield double that amount a year. EXETEB CHANGE (the second building of the name, but on a different site from the first) was an Arcade built in 1844, on the estate of the Marquis of Exeter, and ran ob- liquely from Catherine-street to Wellington-street North, Strand. It was designed by Sydney Smirke ; and consisted of a polygonal compartment at each extremity, the in- termediate passage being coved and groined, and lighted from above ; it contained ten neat shops with dwellings over. The cove, fascia, piers, &c., had polychromic ara- besque decorations : at each entrance to the Arcade was an imitative bronze gate ; and the fronts in Catherine-street and Wellington-street, were of fine red brick, with stone dressings, in the Jacobean style. The " Change," however, proved unprofitable ; it was taken down in 1863, and upon its site was erected a portion of the Strand Music Hall, externally and internally, of elaborate design. LOWTHEE ARCADE (named from Lord Lowther, Chief Commissioner of the Woods and Forests when it was built) leads from the triangle of the West Strand to Adelaide- street, north of St. Martin's Church. It was designed by Witherden Young, and far surpasses the Burlington Arcade in architectural character : the ceiling vista of small pendentive domes is very beautiful, and the caducei in the angles are well executed. The length is 245 feet, breadth 20 feet, and height 35 feet. The sides consist of twenty-five dwellings and shops, principally kept by dealers in foreign goods, who, by mutual consent, hold in the avenue a sort of fair for German and French toys, cheap glass and jewellery, &c. At the north end of the Arcade is the Adelaide Gallery, where Mr. Jacob Perkins exhibited his Steam Gun. A living electrical eel was shown here from August, 1838, to March 14, 1843, when it died; and in 1832 was formed here a Society for the Exhibition of Models of Inventions, &c. The rooms were sub- sequently let for concerts, dancing, and exhibitions. THE AECADE OE COTENT GAEDEN, miscalled piazza, was designed about 1631 for Francis, Earl of Bedford, but only the north and east sides were built, and half of the latter was destroyed by fire about the middle of the last century. The northern was called the Great Piazza, the eastern the Little Piazza : Inigo Jones, the architect, probably took his idea from an Italian city, Bologna, for instance. " The proportions of the arcades and piers, crossed with elliptical and semicircular arches into groins, are ex- quisitely beautiful, and are masterpieces of architecture." (Elmes.) The elevation was originally built with stone pilasters on red brick, which have for many years been covered with compo and white paint ; at the north-east corner two arcades and piers have been removed for the intrusion of the Covent Garden Floral Hall. Had Inigo Jones's picturesque square been completed, its entirety would probably have been preserved. ARCHES. T ONDON differs essentially from many other European capitals in the paucity J-^ of its Arches, or ornamental gateways. It has only three triumphal Arches, whereas Paris, not half the size of our metropolis, has four magnificent Arches, and the principal entrances are graced with trophied gateways and storied columns. The Parisian Arc de VEtoile is without exception the most gigantic work of its kind either in ancient or modern times ; within its centre arch would stand eight such structures as Temple Bar, that is, four in depth, and as many above them. The Paris Arch cost 417,666^. ARCHES. 21 THE GHEEN FABK AECH, at Hyde Park Corner, was built by Decimus Burton in 1828. It is Corinthian, and each face has six fluted pilasters, with two fluted columns flanking the single archway, raised upon a lofty stylobate, and supporting a richly decorated entablature, in which are sculptured alternately G. R. IV. and the imperial crown, within wreaths of laurel. The soffite of the arch is sculptured in sunk panels. The gates, by Bramah, are of massive iron scroll-work, bronzed, with the royal arms in a circular centre. Within the pier of the arch are the porter's apartments, and stairs ascending to the platform, where, upon a vast slab, laid upon a brick arch, the colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington was placed, September 30, 1846. The height of the arch, its attic, and platform is about 90 feet; of the statue, 30 feet. (See STATUES.) Opposite the above Arch is the elegant entrance to Hyde Park, by three carriage archways and sides, in a Screen of fluted Ionic columns, of 107 feet frontage, designed and built by Decimus Burton, in 1828. The blocking of the central archway has a beautiful frieze (Grecian naval and military triumphal processions), designed by the son of Mr. Henning, known for his successful models of the Elgin marbles. The gates, by Bramah, are a beautiful arrangement of the Grecian honeysuckle in bronzed iron ; the hanging, by rings of gun metal, is very ingenious. Altogether, these two Park entrances, with St. George's Hospital north, and the Duke of Wellington's palatial mansion south, form one of the finest architectural groups in the metropolis, and its most embellished entrance. Sir John Soane, how- ever, proposed two triumphal arches, connected by a colonnade and arches, stretching across the main road a design of superb grandeur. The third Arch was one originally designed and constructed in St. James's Park for the especial entrance of the Sovereign and the Royal Family to Buckingham Palace. In 1851 it was removed to Cumberland Gate, Hyde Park Corner. This was the largest work of mere ornament ever attempted in Great Britain. It was adapted by Xash from the Arch of Constantine, at Rome ; but it is by no means so richly em- bellished. The sculpture is omitted in the attic, and in place of the reversed trusses above the columns were to have been figures of Dacian warriors, and panels of sculpture intervening. The fascia was to have been more highly enriched ; the attic carried considerably higher, and surmounted with an equestrian statue of George the Fourth, flanked with groups of military trophies, vases at the angles, &c. The Arch has a centre and two side openings ; the sculpture is confined to a pair of figures, and a key-stone on each face of the central archway ; with panels above the side openings and wreaths at the end. These sculptures are by Flaxman, Westmacott, and Rossi. The statue of George the Fourth was executed by Chantrey for 9000 guineas ; it was not placed upon the Arch at the Palace, but at the north-east angle of Trafalgar-square. Upon the Arch was hoisted the Royal Standard to denote the presence of the Sovereign. The central entrance-gates were designed and cast by Samuel Parker, of Argyll-street ; they are the largest and most superb in Europe, and cost 3000 guineas. They are of a beautiful alloy, the base refined copper, and are bronzed : design, scroll- work with six circular openings, two filled with St. George and the Dragon, two with G. R., and above, two lions passant-gardant ; height to the top of Arch, 21 feet ; width, 15 feet; extreme thickness, 3 inches ; weight, 5 tons and 6 cwt. Although cast, their enriched foliage and scroll-work have the elaborate finish of fine chasing. They terminate at the springing of the Arch ; but Mr. Parker had designed and cast for the semicircular heading a rich frieze and the royal arms in a circle, flanked by state crowns. This portion, however, was irreparably broken in removal from the foundry. The face of the Arch is Carrara marble, altogether unfitted for the sooty atmosphere of London. When it was resolved to enlarge Buckingham Palace by the erection of the present front towards the Park, the Arch could not be made to form part of the design, and it was removed and rebuilt at Hyde Park Corner, at the cost of 4,34.0/. The original cost of the Arch was 75,000^. Of the two arches, ST. JOHN'S GATE and TEMPLE BAB, separate histories will be given. 22 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ARGYLL ROOMS. THIS place was originally a large house purchased hy Col. Greville, of sporting notoriety, and converted into a place of public entertainment, where balls, concerts, masquerades, and amateur plays were much patronized by the Jiaui ton. In 1818, the \ Rooms were rebuilt in handsome style, by Nash, at the north corner of Little Argyll- street, Regent-street, and contained a splendid suite for the above purposes : they were burnt down in February, 1830, when Mr. Braithwaite first publicly applied steam- power to the working of a fire-engine ; it required eighteen minutes to raise the water in the boiler to 212, when the engine threw up from thirty to forty tons of water per hour to a height of ninety feet. The premises were rebuilt, but not upon the same scale as heretofore. At the Argyll Rooms, June 9, 1829, Signer Velluti, the contralto singer, gave a concert. In the same year, M. Chabert, " the Fire-King," exhibited here his power of resisting the effects of poisons, and withstanding extreme heat. He swallowed 40 grains of phosphorus, sipped oil at 333 with impunity, and rubbed a red-hot fire- shovel over his tongue, hair, and face unharmed. Sept. 23, on a challenge of 501., Chabert repeated these feats, and won the wager ; he next swallowed a piece of burn- ing torch ; and then, dressed in coarse woollen, entered an oven heated to 380, sang a song, and cooked two dishes of beef-steak ! Still, the performances were suspected, and in fact proved, to be a chemical juggle. ART-UNION OF LONDON, A SOCIETY established 1836, and incorporated by 9th and 10th Viet., c. 48, "to aid in extending the love of the Arts of Design within the United Kingdom, and to give encouragement to artists beyond that afforded by the patronage of individuals." The annual subscription is one guinea, which entitles the subscriber to one chance for a prize in the scheme, ranging from 10Z. to 200Z., to be selected from one of the London exhibitions of the year. There are also prize medals, bronze casts, porcelain statuettes, works in cast-iron ; line engravings, outlines, and mezzotints ; lithographs and chromo-lithographs ; etchings and photographs and wood engravings ; and bas-reliefs in fictile ivory ; and every subscriber is entitled to a print or prints. The Art-Union has, unquestionably, fostered a taste for art ; and the increased means of art-education has benefited the country in increased exports of articles of taste, such as plate, silk manufactures, pottery, and paper-hangings. The demand in England at this time for pictures is very great, and the prices paid for the works of pur best painters are larger than has ever been the case before. Money judiciously spent in this way is well invested. The first purchaser of " The Strawberry Girl ' gave Keynolds fifty guineas for it ; the last, the Marquis of Hertford, was delighted in obtaining it for 2100 guineas. Art Union Report, 1864. Few who assisted at our first meeting, in the little gallery in Regent-street, now the Gallery of Illus- tration, were sanguine enough to expect a course of such continuing success as that through which the institution has run ; or ventured to prognosticate that it would by this time have raised (mainly from the classes at that date spending little 011 art), and would have distributed in aid of art and artists, the sum of 324,OOOZ.; producing during that period 35 engravings of high class, 15 volumes of illustrative outlines, etchings, and wood-engravings ; 16 bronzes, 12 statues and statuettes, with figures and vases in iron, and a series of medals commemorative of British artists to say nothing of the main operation of the Association, the distribution throughout the United Kingdom and the Colonies, of some thousands of pictures by native modern artists, and some hundreds of thousands of impressions from the engravings referred to. Such, however, has been the case, notwithstanding the difficulty with which the subscriptions for the first year were made to mount to 4891. For the present year the sum of 11,7431. has been subscribed. The subscriptions for the year amount to the sum of 13,6481., showing an increase of 1941/. on last year. Report, 1866. Jp Mr. Noel Paton's Illustrations of " The Ancient Mariner," given in 1864, with the text, was then allowed to be the greatest work offered to the subscribers. The Society has about 600 honorary secretaries in the provinces, in the British Colonies, in America, &c., including Canton ; it has expended about 150,COOZ. in the purchase and production of works of art ; and in one morning the honorary secretaries paid to artists of the metropolis no less than 10,OOOZ. The drawing of the prizes is usually held in ARTESIAN WELLS. 23 one of the metropolitan theatres, in April, and the subscribers are admitted by tickets : office, 445, West Strand. ARTESIAN WELLS* HAVE been sunk or bored in various parts of the metropolis, the London Basin being thought well adapted for them, there being on it a thick lining of sand, and a deep bed of " London blue clay," on boring which, into the chalk formation, the water rises to various heights : hence it was thought that an abundant and unfailing supply might be obtained. The first boring was made at Tottenham, Middlesex. To test the practicability of this method of procuring water in sufficient quantity for the use of the metropolis, the New River Company sank a vast well at the foot of their reservoir in the Hampstead-road : the excavation was steined with brick, 12ft. 6 in. in diameter, and then reduced and continued with iron cylinders (like those of a tele- scope), to 240 feet. The expense was 12,4127. The operations, which occupied three years, were detailed by Mr. Mylne, engineer of the company, to the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1839. It is remarkable that chalk should have been reached at so small a depth as in the Hampstead-road. Water was found at 1VO feet, but so mixed with sand as not to be easily separable, which is the chief difficulty in forming wells in the London clay ; hence the workmen passed through the quicksand with the cylinders at an expense of 40001., independent of the 80001. which the well cost, hoping to obtain water in the chalk below ; but this was found too inconsiderable for the purpose. Artesian Wells are mostly formed by boring and driving pipes, varying from 6 to 10 inches or more in diameter; but many of these only enter the sand immediately below the clay, instead of obtaining the supply of water from the chalk. Thus, an Artesian Well sunk in Covent Garden, for more than fourteen years failed to supply the ordinary wants of the market ; but having been deepened and carried ninety feet into the chalk, it yielded an abundant supply, and is constantly worked, without mate- rially reducing the level of the water, or lowering it in neighbouring wells, as in cases where the chalk is not reached. It has been long known that the well in the Thames- street Brewery, late Calvert's, 240 feet, and Barclay's well, 367 feet, at the Southwark Brewery, affect each other so much even though the Thames lies between them that the two firms agreed not to pump at the same time. The following are the depths of a few of the Wells bored in London : Berkeley-square, 320 feet; Metis and Co.'s Brewery, 435 feet ; Norwood, Middlesex, 414 feet, unsuccessful at this depth ; West India Export Dock, 360 feet; Zoological Gardens, Regent's-park, 227 feet, cost 1957Z.; Barclay and Perkhis' Brewery, 367 feet ; Combe and Delafield's Brewery, 522 feet ; North Western Railway Station, 400 feet ; Nicholson's Distillery, 160 feet ; Truman, Hanbury, and Co.'s Brewery, 390 feet, cost 44-1-11. ; Reid and Co.'s Brewery, shaft sunk the whole depth, 259 feet, 3ost 77001.; Black wall Railway, depth not _given, cost 8000Z.; Pentonville Prison, 370 feet, cost 16002. ; St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard-street, 252 feet, cost 200'. ; Whitbread and Co.'s Brewery, 160 feet ; Combe and Co.'s Brewery, 190 feet ; Covent-garden Market, 340 feet; Piccadilly (St. James's Church), 240 feet ; Elliott's Brewery, 390 feet; Royal Mint, Tower-hill, 400 feet. At Kentish Town, in 1856, an Artesian Well was abandoned when the borings had reached 1302 feet, no water having been met with, though a copious supply had been predicted from the lower greensands naturally expected to occur immediately below the gault; but the gault was found to be succeeded by 176 feet of a series of red clays, with intercalated sandstones and grits a fact which set geologists pondering. The two Wells for the Government Water-works, Trafalgar-square, by C. E. Amos, C.E., were sunk in 1844, 300 feet and 400 feet deep ; cost nearly 80002. ; these works will be further described. At Kensington there has been sunk and bored, for the supply of the Horticultural Gardens, a well 401 feet deep, and 5 feet clear in diameter, the bore-hole being 201 feet deep from the bottom of the well ; water rises 73 feet in the shaft, the pumps lifting 144,000 gallons daily, of excellent chalk spring-water. The question of supply from these wells is beset with so many difficulties, the altera- tions in the London strata being so great, that no one experienced in wells will venture to infer from one place what will occur in another. Dr. Buckland, the eminent geologist, one of the first to show the fallacy, states that although there are from 250 to 300 so-called Artesian Wells in the metropolis, there is not one real Artesian Well within three miles of St. Paul's : such being a well that is * The term Artesian has been applied from the supposed fact of these wells having been originally constructed in the county of Artois (the ancient Artesium), in the north of Prance. They were, how- ever, rather found than originated in Artois, for they had long existed in Italy and a few other parts of Europe, and appear to have been common generally in the East at a very early period. 24 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. always overflowing, either from its natural source or from an artificial tube : and when the overflowing ceases, it is no longer an Artesian Well. The wells which are now made by boring through the London clay are merely common wells. It has been said that a supply of water, if bored for, will rise of its own accord ; but the water obtained for the fountains in Trafalgar-square does not rise within forty feet of the surface, and is pumped up by means of a steam-engine the same water over and over again. Dr. Bucklaiid maintains that the supply of water formerly obtained from the so-called Artesian Wells in London has been greatly diminished by the sinking of new wells ; of the more than 250 wells, one-half have broken down, and others are only kept in action at an enormous expense. The average depth at which water can be obtained from these defective wells is 60 feet below the Trinity House water-mark. In 1856, it was stated that the level of the London wells, since 1822, had sunk fifty feet ; and falls at the rate of 18 or 24 inches in a year. The rapid increase in the number of these wells, of late years, has been attended with so constant a reduction of the quantity of water they respectively furnish, that it is now generally considered that any additional supply for public purposes cannot be expected from this source, as it seems already overtaxed by private work. Mr. Prestwich, jun., F.G.S., in his Geological Inquiry, considers " it would be diffi- cult to account for the generally unfavourable opinion entertained regarding Artesian Wells as a means of public supply, were it not that the annually decreasing yield of water from the tertiary sands and the chalk beneath London has produced an im- pression of uncertainty as to all such sources of supply; which, with the constantly increasing expense caused by the depth from which the water has to be pumped, and the proportion of saline ingredients being so much greater in them than in the river waters, have been taken as sufficient grounds of objection. But it is to be observed, in explanation of the diminished supply from the present source, that the tertiary sands are of very limited dimensions ; that the chalk is not a freely permeable deposit ; and that the peculiarities of the saline ingredients depend upon the chemical composition of these formations. All these causes, however, are local, and can by no means be con- sidered as grounds of objection against the system of Artesian Wells generally." Mr. Prestwich suggests a fresh system of Artesian Wells, especially as none have as yet been carried through the chalk ; though it is shown that the conditions in this country are more farourable than in France. ARTILLERY COMPANY. HTHIS ancient body of Civic Volunteers, the oldest armed force in the kingdom, -*- originated in the Guild of St. George, in the reign of Edward I. They were also known as the Archers of Finsbury, and were incorporated by Henry VIII., whose signature is on the great book of the Company. We next trace it as the old City Trained Band, raised, or rather augmented in 1585, at the period of the menaced Popish invasion. Within two years there were enrolled nearly 300 merchants and others, " very sufficient and skilful to train and teach common soldiers the management of their pieces, pikes, and halberds; to march, countermarch, and ring. Some of them, in the dangerous year of 1588, had charge of men in the great camp at Tilbury, and were generally called Captains of the Artillery Garden, the place where they exercised" (Stow, by SowelT) in " the Old Artillery Ground," demised to them out of the ancient manor of Finsbury, or Fensbury, originally a field called Tassel (or Teasel, from teasels being gro\yn here for cloth- workers) Close ; then let for archery practice ; and next enclosed with a wall for the Gunners of the Tower to exercise in. After 1588, the City Artillery neglected their discipline; but in 1610 they formed anew, and in a few years numbered nearly 6000. In 1622, they removed to a larger ground with- out Moorgate, the present Artillery ground, west of Finsbury-square. In the Civil War, the Company marched with Essex to raise the siege of Gloucester, which was the distinguishing crisis of the contest ; and in the second battle of Newbury their steady valour repulsed the fiercest charges of Rupert's cavalry, and proved the main safeguard of the Parliamentary Army. The reluctant testimony of Clarendon to these " Londoners" is very remarkable : ARTILLERY COMPANY. 25 " The London Trained Bands and Auxiliary Regiments (of whose inexperience of danger, or any kind of service, by the easy practice of their postures in the Artillery Garden, men held till then, too "cheap in estimation) behaved themselves to wonder, and were in truth the preservation of that army that day, for they stood as a bulwark and rampire to defend the rest ; and when their wings of horse were scattered and dispersed, kept their ground so steadily, that though Prince Rupert himself led up the choice horse to charge them, and endured their storm of small shot, he could make no impression upon thfir stand of pikes, but was forced to wheel about ; of so sovereign benefit and use is that readiness, order, and dexterity in the use of their arms, which hath been so much neglected." Hist. Rebellion, edit. 1826, iv. 236. Howell, in his Londonopolis, 1657, tells us that London had then " 12,000 Trained Band Citizens perpetually in readiness, excellently armed ;" and in the unlucky wars with the Long Parliament, the London firelocks did the King most mischief. Cromwell knew the value of this force, and for some years its strength was 18,000 foot and 600 horse. They were, however, disbanded at the Restoration, but continued their evolutions, the King and the Duke of York becoming members, and dining in public with the new Company. When Queen Anne went to St. Paul's, the City Train Bands lined the streets from Temple Bar to the Cathedral. The last time they were in active service was at the riots of 1780, when they aided in saving the Bank of England from the pillage of the rioters. The Artillery Company have always been the only military body in the kingdom which bears arms under the direct authority of the reigning Sovereign, and which is wholly free from the control of Parliament. From time immemorial the post of Captain-General and Colonel, which is the ancient title of the officer in supreme com- mand of the corps, has been held, sometimes by the reigning Sovereign, by a Prince Consort, and by a Prince of Wales or heir-apparent of the throne. Its roll of Captains- General and Colonels includes the names of Charles I., James II., the Prince of Orange, Prince George of Denmark, George I. (who gave the Company 5001.), George II., George IV., William IV., the Duke of Sussex, and Albert, Prince Consort, who was succeeded by the Prince of Wales : on its muster-roll are the names of Prince Rupert, the Duke of Buckingham, General Monk, and the Duke of Monmouth. Upon royal visits to the City, the Artillery Company attend as a guard of honour to the Sovereign. In cases of apprehended civil disturbance the Company muster at their head-quarters, the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, granted to them in trust, in 1641, at the rent of 6s. 8d. per annum. This ground, with the houses adjoining, realizes to the Company a yearly income of 2QOOL, which is expended for the benefit of the members, and in payment of managerial officers. Strype describes the ground as "the third great field from Moorgate, next the Six Windmills." Here is the spacious Armoury House, finished in 1735 ; the collection of arms, &c., includes some fine pieces of ordnance, among which is a pair of handsome brass field-pieces, presented by Sir William Curtis, Bart., President ; besides portions of the ancient uniforms and arms of the corps, as caps and helmets, pikes and banners. A new set of colours was formally presented to the regiment, in 1864, by the Princess of Wales. The corps comprises six companies of Infantry, besides Artillery, Grenadiers, Light Infantry, and Yagers. They exercise on occasional field-days in the Artillery Ground, and meet for rifle practice in the vicinity of the metropolis, the prize being a large gold medal. Besides the Armoury, here is a workshop for cleaning guns, a long shooting gallery, &c. Each member, for a subscription, has the use of arms and accoutrements from the Company's stores, but finds his uniform according to regulations. The musters and marchings of the City Trained Band have not escaped the whipping of dramatists and humorists. Fletcher ridicules them in the Knight of the Burning Pestle ; as does Steele in the Taller, more especially in No. 41, with the Company's way of giving out orders for " an exercise of arms," when the greatest achievements were happily performed near Grub-street, where a faithful historian, being eye-witness of these wonders, should transmit them to posterity, &c. The Company were then (1709) mercilessly quizzed, and we may judge of the reason from Hatton's observation, in 1708 : " They do by prescription march over all the ground from the Artillery Ground to Islington, and Sir George Whitmore's at Hoxton, breaking downgates, <$fc., that obstructed them in such marches." Hatton tells of their former splendid public feasts, when four of the nobility and as many citizens were stewards, and to which the 26 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. principal nobility and foreign ministers were invited. The Company's armorial ensigns are very characteristic : The Shield and Cross of St. George, charged with a lion of England ; on a chief azure, a portcullis furnished or ; between two ostrich feathers, argent. Crest, a dexter-arm armed, holding a leading stall', or, fringed gules. Supporters, two military men equipped according to the laws of the Militia, the dexter with a pike, the sinister with a musket proper. Motto Arma Pacis Fulcra. The Barracks in Artillery-place, designed by Jennings, in the style of the early castellated mansion, and erected of stone in 1857, are the head-quarters of the London Militia. BALLOON AS CUNTS. rpHE following are the more memorable Balloon Ascents made from, the metropolis J- since the introduction of aerostation into England. In most cases the aeronauts were accompanied by friends, or persons who paid for the trip various sums. Nov. 25, 1783, the first Balloon (filled with hydrogen) launched in England, from the Artillery Ground, Finsbury, by Count Zambeccari. The Balloon was found 48 miles from London, near Petworth. Sept. 15, 1784, Lunardi ascended from the Artillery Ground, Moorfields ; being the first voyage made in England ; he was accompanied by a cat, a dog, and a pigeon. March 23, 1785, Admiral Sir Edward Vernon, accompanied by Count Zambeccari. June 29, 1785, ascent of Mrs. Sage, the first Englishwoman aeronaut. July 5, 1802, M. Garnerin made his second ascent in England, from Lord's Cricket Ground. The same year he ascended three times from Ranelagh Gardens; and descended successfully from a Balloon by a Parachute, near the Small-pox Hospital, St. Pancras. 1811, James Sadler, ascended from Hackney ; his two sons, John and Windham, were also aeronauts ; the latter killed, Sept. 29, 1824, by falling from a Balloon. July 19, 1821, Mr. Charles Green first ascended in a Balloon inflated with coal gas, substituted for hydrogen, on the coronation day of George IV. Cost of inflation, from 251. to 5(M. : this was Mr. Green's first aerial voyage. Up to May, 1850, he had made 142 ascents from London only. Ten persons named Green have ascended in Balloons.* Sept. 11, 1823, Mr. Graham ascended from White Conduit House. May 25, 1824, Lieutenant Harris, R.N., ascended from, the Eagle Tavern, City Road, with Miss Stocks ; the former killed by the too rapid descent of the Balloon. July, 1833, Mr. Graham ascended from Hungerford Market; day of opening. One of Mr. Graham's companions, on this occasion, shortly after made a second ascent, which caused a derangement of intellect, from which he never entirely recovered. Sept. 17, 1835, Mr. Green ascended from Vauxhall Gardens, and remained up during the whole of the night. August 22, 1836, the Duke of Brunswick ascended. Sept. 9, 1836, Mr. Green's first ascent in his great Vauxhall Balloon. Nov. 7, 1836, Mr. Green, Mr. Monck Mason, and Mr. Holland ascended in the great Vauxhall Balloon, and descended, in eighteen hours, at Weilburg, in Nassau. Of this ascent, Mr. Mason published a detailed account. July 24, 1837, Mr. Green ascended from Vauxhall Gardens, in his great Balloon, with Mr. Cocking in a parachute, in which the latter was killed in descending. May 24, 1838, unsuccessful attempt to ascend with a large Montgolfier Balloon from the Surrey Zoological Gardens. The Balloon was destroyed by the spectators ; it was the height of the York Column, and half the circumference of the dome of St. Paul's, and would contain, when fully inflated, 170,000 cubic feet of air. Sept. 10, 1838, Mr. Green and Mr. Rush ascended from Vauxhall Gardens in the Nassau Balloon, and descended at Lewes, Sussex ; having reached the then greatest altitude ever attained 27,146 feet, or 5 miles 746 feet. July 17, 1840, the Vauxhall, or great Nassau Balloon, sold to Mr. Green for 5001. ; in 1836 it cost 2100Z. August 19, 1844, perilous night ascent with Mr. Gypson's Balloon from Vauxhall * Mr. Green has made, altogether, a larger number of ascents than any other aeronaut ; they exceed 600. Of this veteran a fine portrait (private plate) has been engraved. SANK OF ENGLAND. Gardens, with fireworks. Mr. Albert Smith and Mr. Coxwell accompanied the aero- naut. At 7000 feet high the Balloon burst, but, by Mr. Coxwell cutting some lines, the Balloon assumed a parachute form, and descended safely. Aug. 7, 1850, Mrs. Graham's Balloon destroyed by fire, after her descent, near Edmonton. Sept. 7, 1854, ascent of Mr. Coxwell's War Balloon, from the Surrey Zoological Gardens, with telegraphic signals. June 15, 1857, night voyage from Woolwich to Tavistock, 250 miles, made by Mr. Coxwell, in five hours. July 17, 1862, Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell first ascended in a large Balloon made by the latter for the experiments of the British Association : ascent from Wolver- hampton ; elevation attained, 26,177 feet above the sea-level. Sept. 5, 1862, the highest and most memorable ascent on record. Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell attained an elevation of 37,000 feet, or 7 miles. Mr. Glaisher became insensible; and Mr. Coxwell, his hands being frozen, had to pull the valve-cord with his mouth, and thus escaped death. Jan. 12, 1864, Mr. Glaisher's seventeenth scientific ascent in Mr. Coxwell's large Balloon ; the only ascent made in England during the month of January. Aug. 3, 1864, M. Godard ascended from Cremorne Gardens, in his huge Montgolfier Balloon, and made a perilous descent at Walthamstow. Mr. Glaisher, by his scientific ascents, has proved that the Balloon 'does afford a means of solving with advantage many delicate questions in physics ; and the Com- mittee of the British Association report that Science and the Association owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Glaisher for the ability, perseverance, and courage with which he has voluntarily undertaken the hazardous labour of recording meteorological phenomena in the several ascents. The following survey of London, Oct. 9, 1863, sixteenth ascent, as the Balloon passed over London Bridge, at the height of 7000 feet, in an unusually clear atmosphere, is picturesquely descriptive. " The scene around," says Mr. Glaisher, " was probably one that cannot be equalled in the world at one glance the homes of 3,000,000 of people were seen, and so distinctly that every large building at every part was easily distinguished ; while those almost under us viz., the Bank and Xewgate, the Docks and surrounding buildings, &c., in such detail that their inner courts were visible, and their ground-plans could have been drawn. Cannon-street was easily traced; but it was difficult to believe at first sight that small building to be St. Paul's. Looking onward, Oxford-street was visible; the Parks, the Houses of Parliament, and Millbank Prison, with its radiating lines from the centre, at onc6 attracted notice. In fact, the whole of London was visible, and some parts of it very clearly. Then all around there were lines of detached villas, imbedded as it were in shrubs ; and beyond, the country, like a garden, with its fields well marked, but becoming smaller and smaller as the eye wandered further away. "Again looking down, there was the Thames, without the slightest mist, winding throughout its whole length, with innumerable ships, apparently very long and narrow, and steamboats like moving toys. Gravesend was visible, as were the mouth of the Thames and the coast leading on to Norfolk. The southern boundary of the mouth of the Thames was not quite so clear, but the sea beyond was discernible for many miles; and when higher up I looked for the coast of France, but I could not see it. On withdrawing the eye it was arrested by the garden-like appearance of the county of Kent, till again London claimed attention. Smoke, thin and blue, was curling above it and .slowly moving away in beautiful curves, from all but south of the Thames ; here the smoke was less blue and became apparently more dense, till the cause was evident, it being mixed with mist rising from the ground, the southern limits of which were bounded by aii even line, doubtless indicating the meeting of the subsoils of gravel and clay. " The whole scene was surmounted by a canopy of blue, the sky being quite clear and free from cloud everywhere except near the horizon, where a circular band of cumuli and strata clouds, extending all round, formed a fitting boundary for such a scene. The sun was seen setting, but was not itself visible, except a small part seen through a break in a dark stratus cloud like an eye overseeing all. Sunset, as seen from the earth, is described as fine, the air being clear and shadows sharply denned. As we rose the golden hues decreased in intensity and richness both right and left of the place of the sun ; but their effects extended to fully one-fourth part of the circle, where rose-coloured clouds limited the scene. The remainder of the circle was completed partly by pure white cumulus of very rounded and symme- trical forms. I have seen London from above by night, and I have seen it by day when four miles high, but nothing could exceed the view on this occasion at the height of one mile, varying to one mile and three-quarters, with a clear atmosphere. The roar of London even at the greatest height, was one unceasing rich and deep sound, and added impressive interest to the general circumstances in which we were placed." I SANK OF ENGLAND, IKE, S an insulated assemblage of buildings and courts, occupying three acres, minus nine or ten yards, north of the Royal Exchange, Cornhill j bounded by Prince's-street, west ; 28 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Lotbbury, north ; Bartholomew-lane, east j and Threadneedle-street, south. Its exterior measurements are 365 feet south, 410 feet north, 245 feet east, and 440 feet west. Within this area are nine open courts; a spacious rotunda, numerous public offices, court and committee-rooms, an armoury, engraving and printing-offices, a library, and apartments for officers, servants, &c. The Bank, " the greatest monetary establishment in the world," was projected in 1691, by Mr. William Paterson, a Scotsman ; was established by a company of Whig merchants, and incorporated by William III., July 27, 1694, Paterson being placed on the list of Directors for this year only j the then capital, 1,200,000^., being lent to Government. The first chest used was somewhat larger than a seaman's. The first Governor was Sir John Houblon, whose house and garden were on part of the site of the present Bank ; and the first Deputy-Governor was Michael Godfrey, who, July 17, 1695, was shot at the siege of Namur, while attending King William with a communication relating to the Bank affairs. The Bank commenced business at Mercers' Hall, and next removed to Grocers' Hall, then in the Poultry ; at this time the secretaries and clerks numbered but 54, and their united salaries amounted to 4350/. In 1734 they removed to the premises built for the Bank, the earliest portion of which part is still remaining the back of the Threadneedle-street front, towards the court was designed by an architect named Sampson. To this building Sir Robert Taylor* added two wings of columns, with projections surmounted by pediments, and other parts. On Jan. 1, 1785, was set up the marble statue of William III., amid the firing of three volleys, by the servants of the establishment, Cheere, sculptor, in the Pay Hall, 79 feet by 40 feet, which, in the words of Baron Dupin, would " startle the administration of a French bureau, with all its inaccessibilities." In 1757, the Bank premises were small, and surrounded by St. Christopher-le-Stoclts Church (since pulled down), three taverns, and several private houses. Between 1766 and 1786 east and west wings were added by Taylor : some of his work is to be seen in the architecture of the garden court. Upon Sir Robert Taylor's death, in 1788, Mr. John Soane was appointed Architect to the Bank ; and, without any interruption to the business, he completed the present Bank of brick and Portland stone, of incom- bustible materials, insulated, one-storied, and without external windows. The general architecture is Corinthian, from the Temple of the Sibyi at Tivoli, of which the south- west angle exhibits a fac-simile portion. The Lothbury court is fine ; and the chief Cashier's office is from the Temple of the Sun and Moon at Rome. The embellish- ments throughout are very beautiful ; and the whole well planned for business high architectural merit. The Rotunda has a dome 57 feet diameter ; and the Bank Parlour, where the Governor and Company meet, is a noble room by Taylor. Here the Divi- dends are declared ; and here the Directors are baited half-yearly by every Proprietor who has had 500L Bank-stock in his possession for six months. In the Parlour lobby is a portrait of Daniel Race, who was in the Bank service for more than half a century, and thus amassed upwards of 200,000/. In the ante-chamber to the Governor's room are fine busts of Pitt and Fox, by Nollekens. The ante-room to the Discount Office is adapted from Adrian's Villa at Tivoli. The private Drawing Office, designed in 1836, by Cockerell (Soane's successor), is original awd scenic ; and the Drawing Office, com- pleted by the same architect in 1849, is 138 feet 6 inches long, and lit by four large circular lanterns. In 1850, the Cornhill front was heightened by an attic ; and a large room fitted up as a Library for the clerks. The entrance to the Bullion Yard is copied from Constantino's Arch at Rome, and has allegories of the Thames and Ganges, by T. Banks, R.A. The Bullion Office, on the northern side of the Bank, consists of a public chamber and two vaults one for the public deposit of bullion, free of charge, unless weighed; the other for the private stock of the Bank. The duties are discharged by a Principal, Deputy-Principal, Clerk, Assistant-Clerk, and porters. The public are on no account allowed to enter the Bullion Vaults. Here the gold is kept in bars (each weighing 16 Ibs. and worth about * The late Professor Cockerell, in his earlier lectures, used to exhibit, as a specimen of clever arrange- ment, a plan of the triangular block of buildings, by Sir Kobert Taylor, that formerly stood between the Bank and the Mansion House, where the Wellington Statue is now. SANK OF ENGLAND. 29 800?.), and the silver in pigs and bars, and dollars in bags. The value of the Bank bullion in May, 1850, was sixteen millions. This constitutes, with their securities, the assets which the Bank possess against their liabilities, on account of circulation and deposits : and the difference between the several amounts is called " the Rest," or balance in favour of the Bank. For weighing, admirably-constructed machines are used : the larger one, invented by Mr. Bate, for weighing silver in bars from 50 Ibs. to 80 Ibs. troy ; second, a balance, by Sir John Barton, for gold ; and a third, by Mr. Bate, for dollars, to amounts not exceeding 72 Ibs. 2 oz. troy. Gold is almost ex- clusively obtained by the Bank in the bar form ; although no form of deposit would be refused. A bar of gold is a small slab, weighing 16 Ibs., and worth about 8001. In the Weighing Office, established in 1842, to detect light gold, is the ingenious machine invented by Mr. William Cotton, then Deputy- Governor of the Bank. About 80 or 100 light and heavy sovereigns are placed indiscriminately in a round tube ; as they descend on the machinery beneath, those which are light receive a slight touch, which moves them into their proper receptacle ; and those which are of legitimate weight pass into their appointed place. The light coins are then defaced by a machine, 200 in a minute ; and by the weighing-machinery 35,000 may be weighed in one day. There are six of these machines, which from 1844 to 1849 weighed upwards of 48,000,000 pieces without any inaccuracy. The average amount of gold tendered in one year is nine millions, of which more than a quarter is light. The silver is put up into bags, each of one hundred pounds value, and the gold into bags of a thousand ; and then these bagfuls of bullion are sent through a strongly-guarded door, or rather window, into the Treasury, a dark gloomy apartment, fitted up with iron presses, and made secure with huge locks and bolts. The Bank-note machinery, invented by the Oldhams, father and son, exerts, by the steam-engine, the power formerly employed by the mechanic in pulling a note. The Bank-notes are numbered on the dexter and sinister halves, each bearing the same figures, by Bramah's machines : as soon as a note is printed, and the handle reversed to take it out and put another in its place, a steel spring attached to the handle alters the number to that which should follow. The Clock in the roof is a marvel of mechanism, as it is connected with all the clocks in the Stock offices : the hands of the several dials indicate precisely the same hour and second, by means of connecting brass-rods (700 feet long, and weighing 6 cwt.), and 200 wheels ; the principal weight being 350 Ibs. The Bank has passed through many perils : it has been attacked by rioters, its notes have been at a heavy discount, it has been threatened with impeachment, and its credit has been assailed by treachery. In 1696 (the great re-coinage) the Directors were compelled to suspend the payment of their notes. They then increased their capital to 2,201,27H. The Charter has been renewed from 1697 to the present time. The earliest panic, or run, was in 1707, upon the threatened invasion of the Pre- tender. In the run of 1745, the Corporation was saved by their agents demanding payment for notes in sixpences, and who, paying in the same, thus prevented the bond fide holders of notes presenting them. Another memorable run was on February 26, 1797, upon an alarm of invasion by the French, when the Privy Council Order and the Restriction Act prohibited the Bank from paying cash, except for sums under 20s. During the panic of 1825, from the evidence of Mr. Harman before Parliament, it appears that the quantity of gold in the treasury, in December, was under 1,300,000^. It has since transpired that there was not 100,000^., probably not 50,OOOZ. ! The Bank then issued one-pound notes, to protect its remaining treasure ; which worked wonders, though by sheer good luck : " because one box containing a quantity of one- pound notes had been overlooked, and they were forthcoming at the lucky moment." Panics have been produced sometimes by extraordinary means. In May, 1832, a " run upon the Bank of England " was produced by the walls of London being placarded with the emphatic words, " To stop the Duke, go for Gold ;" advice which was followed, as soon as given, to a prodigious extent. The Duke of Wellington was then very unpopular ; and on Monday, the 14th of May, it being currently believed that the Duke had formed a Cabinet, the panic became universal, and the run upon the Bank of England for coin was so incessant, that in a few hours upwards of half a million was carried off. Mr. Doubleday, in his Life of Sir Robert Peel, states it to be well known that the above placards were " the device of four gentlemen, two of whom were elected members of the reformed Parliament. Each put down 201. -. and the sura thus clubbed was expended in printing thousands of these terrible missives, 30 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. which were eagerly circulated, and were speedily seen upon every wall in London. The effect is hardly to be described. It was electric." The Bank is the banker of the Government; for here are received the taxes, the interest of the National Debt paid, the Exchequer business transacted, &c. The amount paid by the Government to the Bank for the management of the National Debt is at the rate of 340?. per million for the first 600,000,000?., and 3001. per million for the remainder. This amounts to about 250,000?. a year. "The Old Lady of Threadneedle-street," applied to the Bank, is a political sobriquet now almost forgotten. The forgeries upon the Bank supply a melancholy chapter in its history. The first forger of a note was a Stafford linendraper, who, in 1758, was convicted and executed. Through the forgeries of one person, Robert Aslett, the Bank lost 320,000?. ; and by another, Fauntleroy, 360,000?. In 1862, there were forgeries to a large amount, by paper expressly manufactured for the Bank, which had been stolen, for which four persons suffered penal imprisonment. The Committee of Treasury sit weekly, and is composed of all the Directors who have passed the chair. The Accountant, the Secretary, and the Cashier reside within the Bank ; and a certain number of Clerks sit up nightly to go the round of the build- ing, in addition to the military guard. The Bank possesses a very fine collection of ancient coins. Visitors are shown in the old Note Office, paid notes for ten years ; and some bank-notes for large amounts which have passed between the Bank and the Government, including a single note for one million sterling, kept in a frame. Madox, who wrote the History of the Exchequer, was first Cashier; but more popu larly known was Abraham Newland, Chief-Cashier from 1778 to 1807, who had slept twenty-five years within the Bank, without absenting himself a single night. He signed every note : his name was long remembered in a popular song, " as one that is wrote upon every bank-note," to forge which, in street slang, was to "sham Abraham." In 1852 was placed in the Garden Court a fountain, constructed by the then Go- vernor, Mr. Thomas Hankey. The water is thrown by a single jet, 30 feet high, amongst the branches of two of the finest lime-trees in London, and is part of the Bank system of waterworks. An Artesian well sunk 330 feet 100 in the chalk yields soft water, free from lime, and without a trace of organic matter. The water is pumped into the tanks at the top of the building, which contain 50,000 gallons, and the fountain is connected with these tanks ; the pumping being by the steam-engine employed also in printing the bank-notes. The fountain is placed on the site of St. Christopher's churchyard. The last person buried there was Jenkins, a Bank clerk, 7J feet in height, and who was allowed to be buried within the walls of the Bank, to prevent disinterment, on account of his unusual height. There are in the Bank upwards of eight hundred clerks, at salaries ranging from 65?. per annum to 800?. ; the patronage is in the hands of the directors, of whom there arc twenty-four, each having a nomination to admit one clerk, provided he be found qualified on examination. The vacancies are not, as in most public offices, filled up as they occur by deaths, resignations, &c., but by electing from twenty-five to thirty junior clerks every four or five months ; it is also usual to admit one-fifth of this num- ber from the sons of clerks already in the service. The scale of pensions for length of service is the same as in the Government offices. Among the Curiosities are the bank-note autograph-books two splendidly -bound folio volumes, each leaf embellished with an illuminated border, exactly surrounding the space required to attach a bank-note. When any distinguished visitor arrives he is requested to place his autograph to an unsigned note, which is immediately pasted over one of the open spaces. They are thus illustrated by the signatures of various royal and noble personages. That of Napoleon III., Henry V., the Kings of Sweden, Portugal, and Prussia, a whole brigade of German Princes, Ambassadors from Siam, Persia, Turkey the latter in Oriental characters and some of our higher nobility. There are some scientific names, but few literary celebrities ; among them those of Lady Sale; and Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. SANK OF ENGLAND. 31 " The circulation of the Bank of England has been stationary or slightly retrogressive for some years past, notwithstanding the increase of trade, wealth, and population. The authorities even of the Cur- rency principle no longer insist upon the variations of the bank-note circulation as the symptoms to be chiefly regarded. They, with the rest of the world, have discovered that the state of the banking reserve at the Hank of England, the condition of credit, and the effects of a high or low rate of interest, are the circumstances which really control the financial phenomena of the country from week to week and month to month." Economist. Upwards of a million is paid into the Bank daily, in the shape of notes. When cashed a corner is torn off, and this now valueless piece of paper, after being duly entered in the books, is deposited in chambers beneath the sorting-room, where it is kept ten- years, in case it may be required as testimony at some future trial, or to settle any other legal difficulties. In one of the court-yards of the building is a large circular cage, within which is an octagonal furnace constructed of bricks, laid only half over each other, so as to afford ample ventilation. In this furnace, once a month, all the notes that were received during the month previous ten years back are consumed. The furnace is five feet high, by at least ten in diameter ; yet we arc assured that it is completely filled by the number returned during one month. Notes of the Bank, at its establishment, 20 per cent, discount ; in 1745 under par. Bank Bills paid in silver, in 17-15. Bank Post Bills first issued, 1754. Small Notes issued, 1759. Cash payments dis- continued, Feb. 25, 1797, and Notes of II. and 21. put into circulation. Cash payments partially resumed, Sept. 22, 1817. Eestriction altogether ceased, 1821. May 14, 1832, upwards of 300,OOOZ. weighed and paid to bankers and others. Quakers and Hebrews not eligible as Directors. Qualification for Director, 2000Z. Bank Stock; Deputy-Governor, 3000^. ; Governor. 4000?. Highest price of Bank Stock, 299; lowest 91. The Bank has paid Dividends at the rate of 21 per cent., and as low as 4-J per cent, per annum. Silver Tokens issued, Jan., 179S. Issue on paper securities not permitted to exceed 14,000,OOtM. Capital punishment for forgery, excepting only forgeries of wills and powers of attorney, abandoued in 1&32. (See Francis's popular History of the Sank of England, 3rd edit. 1848.) 1852, Oct. 1, West-cud Branch opened at Uxbridge House, Burlington Gardens. The total of deposits held ten years ago by the Bank of England was about \ 14,300,OOOZ. ; it is now (18G6) 20,140,OOOZ. In the Riots of 1780, the Bank was defended by military, the City volunteers, and the officers of the establishment, when the old inkstands were cast into bullets. It was at- tacked by the mob, when Wilkes rushed out and seized some of the ringleaders. Since this date a military force has been stationed nightly within the Bank; a dinner is pro- / vided for the officer on guard and two friends. (See a clever sketch in MMbceus in London.) In the political tumult of November, 1830, provisions were made at> the Bank for a state of siege. At the Chartist Demonstration of April 10, 1848, the roof . the altar-piece is a large picture of " the Ascension," painted by John Wood, in 1844, and the prize picture selected from among eighty competitors for 5001. bequeathed for this purpose by Mr. Harcourt, a parishioner, and awarded by Eastlake and Haydon. St. Paul's Gothic Church and Schools were opened in 1848 ; and Christ Church and Schools, Neckinger-road (Romanesque), in 1849. The Roman Catholic population of Bermondsey exceeds 5000 persons ; they have a large church near Dockhead, opened in 1835. Precisely three centuries after the Dis- solution of the Monasteries, was founded here, in 1838, a Convent for the " Sisters of Mercy." The inmates are mostly ladies of fortune, and support a school for 200 chil- dren. Sister Mary, the Lady Barbara Eyre, second daughter of the sixth Earl of Newburgh, took the vows December 12, 1839 ; with Miss Ponsonby, Sister Vincent. At Bermondsey, perhaps, is carried on a greater variety of trades and manufactures E 50 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. than in any other parish of the kingdom. It has been the seat of the Leather Market for nearly two centuries ; its series of tidal streams from the Thames twice in twenty- four hours supplying water for the tanners and leather-dressers. At the Neckinger Mills here, nearly half a million of hides and skins are converted into leather yearly ; and in the great Skin Market are sold the skins from nearly all the sheep slaughtered in London.. Steam -machinery is much employed in the manufactories ; and in Long- lane is an engine chimney-shaft 175 feet high. . Here is Christy's Hat Manufactory, employing 500 persons, and considered the largest establishment of the kind in the world. Here, too, abound paper and lead mills, chemical works, boat and ship builders, mast and block makers, rope and sail makers, coopers, turpentine works, &c. cJ ft The tidal ditches, with their filthy dwellings, produced cholera in 1832 and 1848-49 ; in the latter year 189 deaths occurred in 1000 inhabitants. Here is Jacob's Island, c so powerfully pictured in Dickens's novel of Oliver Twist. Bermondsey Spa, a chalybeate spring, discovered about 1770, was opened in 1780, as a minor Vauxhall, with fireworks, and a picture-model of the siege of Gibraltar, painted by Keyse, and occupying about four acres. He died in 1800, and the garden was shut up about 1805. There are to&ens of the place extant ; the Spa-road is named from it. In the parish was born Mary Johns, the daughter of a cooper, in 1752, who wrote the Lord's Prayer in the compass of a silver penny. In the Registers, 1604, is the " forme of a solemne Vowe made betwixt a Man and his Wife, having been longe absent, through which occasion the Woman beinge married to another Man, took her again." Viewed from the Greenwich Railway, which crosses its north-eastern side, Bcr- ,, mondsey presents a curious picture of busy life, amid its streams and tan-pits, its narrow \ streets, close rents and lanes, by no means tributary 'to the public health. Yet the district has long been noted for longevity; and from 90 to 105 years are not uncommon in the burial registers. BETHNAL &REEN, VILLAGE or large green, formerly a hamlet of Stepney, but made a parish (St. Matthew) in 1743. The old English ballad of The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green has given the district a long celebrity ; the story " decorates not only the sign- posts of the publicans, but the staif of the parish beadle." (Lysons.) The incidents }> \J7 have been poetically wrought into a drama by Sheridan Knowles. The mansion tradi- tionally pointed to as " the Blind Beggar's House" was, however, built by John Thorpe, in 1570, for a citizen of London, and called after him, " Kirby's Castle." Pepys describes his visits to this house, then Sir W. Rider's, to dinner : his " fine merry walk with the ladies alone after dinner, in the garden ; the greatest quantity of strawberries he ever saw, and good." It was then said that only some of the outhouses, and not the man- sion, were built by the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green. Robert Ainsworth, author of the Latin Dictionary which bears his name, kept an academy at Bethnal Green. Here was a large house said to have been a palace of Bishop Bonner's, and taken down in 1849, in forming Victoria Park. Between 1839 and 1849, there were built here ten district churches, principally through the exertions of Dr. Blomfield, Bishop of London : the tenth of these churches (St. Thomas's) was erected at the sole cost of a private individual. Silk-weavers live in great numbers at Bethnal Green. Nichol-street, New Nichol-street, Half Nichol-street, Nichol-row, Turvil-street, comprising within the same area numerous blind courts and alleys, form a densely-crowded district in Bethnal Green. Among its inhabitants may be found street vendors of every kind of produce, travellers to fairs, tramps, dog-fanciers, dog-stealers, men and women sharpers, shoplifters and pickpockets. It abounds with the young Arabs of the streets, and its outward moral degradation is at once apparent to any one who passes that way. Here the police are certain to be found, day and night, their presence being required to quell riots and to preserve decency. Sunday is a day much devoted to pet pigeons and to bird-singing clubs : prizes are given to such as excel in note, and a ready sale follows each award. Time thus employed was formerly devoted to cock-fighting. In this locality, twenty-live years ago, an employer of labour, Mr. Jonathan Duthoit, made an attempt to influence the people for good by the hire of a room for meeting purposes. The first attendance consisted of one person. Per- sistent efforts were, however, made ; other rooms have from time to time been taken and enlarged ; here is a Hall for Christian instruction ; and another for Educational purposes ; Illustrated Lectures are delivered ; a Loan Library has been established, also a Clothing Club and Penny Bank, and Training Classes for industrial purposes. Aihenceum, 1862. A BETHLEM HOSPITAL. 51 BETHLEM OB BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL. rpHE history of the word Bedlam, by which this Hospital was called, within recollec- -L tion, has been the subject of much curious inquiry. Our lexicographers commonly refer its introduction into our language to the conversion of a religious house of this name into a lunatic asylum, or about 320 years ago. The word Bedlem, however, occurs in Tyndale's quarto testament, twenty or two-and-twenty years before the above date; and Mr. Gairdner has proved it to have been so applied still earlier : It is quite true, says Mr. Gairdner, that the Hospital was granted to the City of London for the purpose to which it is still applied, either by Henry the Eighth or Edward the Sixth ; but it is a mis- take to suppose it had never been so used before. The royal grant changed the government of the hospital, not its use. Monastic institutions, whatever evils they may have been answerable for, were undoubtedly the medium of much practical good that we seldom give them credit for, and to mental and bodily disease they offered such assistance as the skill and science of the age afforded. I have myself met with a passage in the works of Tyndale's great opponent, Sir Thomas More, who died even before (a martyr, too, though for a different cause), which proves beyond a doubt that Bethlehem Hospital was a place for lunatics before the dissolution of the religious houses. " Think not," he says, in his treatise De Quatuor Novissimis (page 73 of his English works), " Think not that every thing is plesant that men for madnes laughe at. For thou shalt in Bedleem see one laugh at the knocking of his own hed against a post, and yet there is little pleasure therein." Bethlem Hospital originated in an establishment founded as a " Priory of Canons, with brethren and sisters," in 1246, by Simon Fitz-Mary, a sheriff of London ; towards which he gave all his lands in St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, being the spot after- wards known as Old Bethlem, now Liverpool-street. This priory stood on the east side of Moorfields, from which it was divided by a deep ditch. It is described as " an Hospital " in 1330 ; in 1346 it was received under the protection of the City of London, who purchased the patronage, lands, and tenements in 1546 ; and in the same year, Henry VIII. gave the Hospital to the City, though not before he had endeavoured to sell it to them : it was united to Bridewell Hospital in 1557. Bethlem is, however, first mentioned as an hospital for lunatics in 1402. The earliest establishment of the kind in the metropolis appears, from Stow, to have been " by Charing Cross," though when founded is unknown ; " but it was said that some time a king of England, not liking distraught and lunatic people to remain so near his palace caused them to be removed farther off to Bethlem ;" to which Hospital the site of the house in question belonged till 1830, when it was exchanged with the Crown to make way for the improvements at Charing Cross. The priory buildings becoming dilapidated, another Hospital was built in 1675-76, on the south side of Moorfields, north of the London Wall, on ground leased to the Governors by the Corporation for 999 years, at 1*. annual rent, if demanded. This, the centre of Old Bethlem Hospital, cost 17,000/., raised by subscription: it was designed by Robert Hooke ; but there is no foundation for the traditional story of its so closely resembling the palace of the Tuileries, that Louis XIV., in retaliation, ordered a copy of our King's palace at St. James's to be built for his offices. This second Bethlem was 540 feet in length and 40 feet in breadth ; it was sur- rounded by gardens, in one of which the convalescent lunatics were allowed to walk ; the whole was enclosed by a high wall and gates ; the posterns of the latter were sur- mounted with two finely-sculptured figures of Raving and Melancholy Madness, by Caius Gabriel Gibber, the father of Colley. In 1733, two wings were added for incurable patients. In 1754, the Hospital is described as consisting chiefly of two galleries, one over the other, divided in the middle by two iron gates, so that all the men were placed at one end of the house and all the women at the other ; there was also " a bathing-place for the patients, so con- trived as to be a hot or cold bath." The Hospital then held 150 patients. The favourite resort of the poor inmates was the Fore-street end of the building, from the windows of which we have seen them look out upon the unafBicted passengers in the streets below. Here Nat Lee, the tragic poet, was confined four years; he did not live long after his release. Here too was confined Oliver Cromwell's gigantic porter, E 2 52 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. who is traditionally said to have been the original of one of Gibber's figures. Hannah Snell, the female soldier, who received a pension for wounds received at the siege of Pondicherry, died a patient of Bethlem, in 1792. " Tom o' Bedlam" was the name given to certain out-door patients, for whom room could not be found in the Hospital. They wore upon their arms metal plates, licensing them to go a-begging, which many cunning impostors adopted, until a caution from the Governor put a stop to the fraud. In 1799, the Hospital was reported by a committee to be in a very bad condition : it had been built in sixteen months, upon part of the City ditch filled in with rubbish, so that it was requisite to shore-up and underpin the walls. At length it was resolved to rebuild the Hospital ; and in 1810 its site, 2\ acres, was exchanged for about 11 acres in St. George's Fields, including the gardens of the infamous Dog and Duck. The building fund was increased by grants of public money, and benefactions, from the Corporation, City companies, and private individuals. The first stone of the new edifice, for 200 patients, was laid in April 1812, and completed in August 1815, at a cost of 122,572L 8s., the exact sum raised for the purpose. It was built from three prize designs, superintended by the late Mr. Lewis : it consists of a centre and two wings, the entrance being beneath a hexnstyle Ionic portico of six columns, with the royal arms in the pediment, and underneath the motto : HEN. viir. EEGE PUN- DATVJI CITIUM LAEGITAS PEEFECIT. Two wings, for which the Government advanced 25,144Z., were appropriated to criminal lunatics. Other buildings have since been added, for 166 patients, by Sydney Smirke, A.R.A., the first stone of which was laid July 26, 1838, when a public breakfast was given at a cost of 464. 8*. to the Hospital, and a narrative of the proceedings was printed at a charge to the charity of 140/. The entire building is three stories in height, and 897 feet in length. To the YJ( centre was added a large and lofty dome in 1845 ; the diameter is 37 feet, and it is about 150 feet in height from the ground. The Hospital and grounds extend to eight acres ; the adjoining three acres being devoted to the House of Occupation, a branch of Bridewell Hospital. In the entrance-hall are placed Gibber's two statues, from the old Hospital : they are of Portland stone, and were restored by the younger Bacon in 1814 ; they are screened by curtains, which are only withdrawn upon public occasions : some of the irons formerly used are also shown as curiosities. The basement and three floors are divided into galleries. The improved management was introduced about 1816. The patients employ themselves in knitting and tailoring, in laundry-work, at the needle, and in embroidery ; the women have pianos and occasionally dance in the evening ; the men have billiards and bagatelle tables, newspapers, and periodicals ; and they play in the grounds at trap-ball, cricket, fives, leap-frog, &c. Others work at their trades, in which, though dangerous weapons have been entrusted to them, no mischief has en- sued, and the employment often induces speedy cure. The railed-in fire-places and the bone knives are almost the only visible peculiarities; there are cells lined and floored with cork and india-rubber for refractorylpatients. The building is fire-proof throughout, and warmed by hot air and water. From the first reception of lunatics into Bethlem, their condition and treatment was wretched in the extreme. In a visitation of 1403 are mentioned iron chains with locks and keys, and manacles and stocks. In 1598, the house was reported so loath- some and so filthily kept, as not fit to, be entered; and the inmates were termed prisoners. In a record of 1619 are expenses of straw and fetters. Up to the year 1770, the public, were admitted to see the lunatics at Id. each, by which the Hospital derived a revenue of at least 400/. a year : hence Bethlem became one of " the sights of London;" and such was the mischief occasioned by this brutal and degrading prac- tice, that, to prevent disturbances, the porter was annually sworn a constable, and attended with other servants to keep order. So late as 1814, the rooms resembled dog-kennels ; the female patients chained by one arm or leg to the wall, were covered by a blanket-gown only, the feet being naked ; and they lay upon straw. The male patients were chained, handcuffed, or locked to the wall ; and chains were universally substituted for the strait-waistcoat. One Norris, stated to be refractory, was chained by a strong iron ring, riveted round his neck, his arms pinioned by an iron bar, and his waist similarly secured, so that he could only advance twelve inches from the wall, BETHLEM HOSPITAL. 53 the length of his chain ; and thus he had been " encaged and chained more "than twelve years ; " yet he read books of various kinds, the newspapers daily, and conversed ration- ally : a drawing was made of Norris in his irons, and he was visited by several members of Parliament, shortly after which he died, doubtless from the cruel treatment he had received. This case led to a Parliamentary inquiry, in 1815, which brought about the adoption of a new method of treatment in Bethlem ; although, in two years, 6607. were expended from the Hospital funds in opposing the bill requisite for the beneficial change. The last female lunatic released from her fetters was a most violent patient, who had been chained to her bed eight years, her irons riveted, she being so dangerous that the matron feared being murdered if she released her ; in May 1838, she was still in the New Hospital, and was the only patient permitted to sleep at night with her door unlocked ; the slightest appearance of restraint exasperated her ; but on her release she became tranquil, and happy in nursing two dolls given to her, which she imagined to be her children. The criminal lunatics were formerly maintained and clothed here at the expense of Government, and cost nearly 4000Z. a year. Most of the criminals were confined for murder, committed or attempted. Amongst them was Margaret Nicholson for attempting to stab George III. ; she died here in 1828, having been confined forty- two years. In 1841, died James Hadfield, who had been confined here since 1802, for shooting at George III., at Drury Lane Theatre. He was a gallant dragoon, and his face was seamed with scars got in battle before his crime : he employed himself with writing verses on the death of his birds and cats, his only society in his long and weary- ing imprisonment. Many, including Edward Oxford, who so nearly assassinated theQueen, ^ ' , in 1840 ; Macnaughten, who murdered Sir Robert Peel's secretary, at Charing Cross ; fo and the celebrated Captain Johnston, who under such terrible circumstances killed all b ' the crew of his ship, the Tory ; were kept at Bethlehem, but have been removed to the great Broadmoor Asylum, built by Government near the Wellington College Station f"1 of the South Eastern Railway. Bethlem stands in eleven acres of ground, which is judiciously laid out. It was placed under the jurisdiction of the Cominissioners in Lunacy in 1853. In 1841 only 23'60 per cent, of the patients attended chapel on Sunday, and there was a weekly average of 2'64 per cent, under restraint ; in 1862, 55 per cent, attended chapel, and restraint had been for several years unknown. Of the 115 curable patients in the hospital in 1862 only eight were unemployed, and of the 61 incurables 24. The annual cost of maintenance, furniture, and clothing was about 361. in 1862. The following cases are inadmissible lunatics : those who have been insane for more than twelve months ; who have been discharged uncured from other hospitals ; afflicted with idiotcy, palsy, or epileptic or convulsive fits, or any dangerous disease. The patients are not allowed to remain more than one year : preference is given to patients of the educated classes, to secure accommodation for whom no one will be received who is a proper object for admission into a county lunatic asylum. Although Bethlem receives only those cases of madness which it deems most likely to terminate in recovery ; of these simple and select cases nearly 40 per cent, (including deaths) are eventually discharged from Bedlam unrelieved. " The annual rate of mor- tality in Bethlem is 7 per cent. ; hi other asylums, from 13 to 22 per cent." (^Registrar- General's Report, 1850.) The income of Bethlem and Bridewell Hospitals amounts to about 33,OOOZ. per annum, mostly the accumulation of private benevolence. From November 22, 1841, Bethlem Hospital, with its purlieus and approaches, was considered to be within the rules of the Queen's Bench, by an order of that Court, until their abolition. Patients are admitted by petition to the Governors from a near relation or friend ; forms to be obtained at the Hospital. The visiting days are two Mondays in each month ; for taking in and discharging patients, every Friday. Strangers are admitted, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, to view the Hospital by Governors' orders ; and foreigners and Members of Parliament by orders from the president, treasurer, or Secretary of State ; but the average yearly 54 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. . number of visitors does not exceed 550. Still, few sights can be more interesting than the present condition of the interior of Bethlem. The scrupulous cleanliness of the house, the decent attire of the patients, and the unexpectedly small number of those under restraint, (sometimes not one person throughout the building), lead the visitors, not unnaturally, to conclude that the management of lunatics has here attained perfection ; while the quiet and decent demeanour of the inmates might almost make him doubt that he is really in a madhouse. The arrangements, however, are comparatively, in some in- stances, defective : the building being partly on the plan of the old Hospital in Moor- fields, in long galleries, with a view to the coercive system there pursued, is, conse- quently, ill adapted to the present improved treatment. Above the door of the entrance-lodge are sculptured the arras of the Hospital, Argent, two bars sable, a file of five points gules, on a chief azure an eloile of sixteen rays or, charged with a plate, thereon a cross of the third, between a human skull placed on a cup, on the dexter side, and a banket of Wastell bread, all of the fifth, on the sinister, Bishop Tanner observes, however, that he was informed by John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, that the ensigns were, Argent, two bars sable, a label of three points gules, on a chief azure a comet with ten rays or, oppressed with a torteau charged with a plain cross of the field, between a chalice or, with an hosty of the first, and a basket of the same. With respect to any signification to be assigned to these bearings, there is, probably, no positive information extant ; but, supposing them to be really ancient, it may be observed, that the bars and file in the principal part of the shield were, most likely, the arms of Simon Fitz-Mary, the founder, which would account for their very prominent situation. The (Stoile, or blazing star, on the blue chief, evidently refers to the star seen in the sky at the birth of Christ, which led the wise men to Bethlehem, and, therefore, properly became its peculiar badge ; whilst the cross in the centre indicates the crucifixion of the Saviour for all mankind. The basket of bread has, probably, also an allusion to Bethlehem ; since the best translation of that word is con- sidered to be " the house of bread," as implying a fertile soil in the production of barley and wheat, noticed in the book of Ruth, chapter ii. ; but, as wastell cakes were, anciently, especially used in Christian ceremonies and festivals, they might be designed as the English emblem of the birth-place of the Lord. Perhaps, no satisfactory signification can be assigned to the present bearing of a cup con- taining a skull ; but if the blazon of these arms, given by Anstis to Bishop Tanner, be accepted, the chalice, surmounted by the consecrated wafer, will then be intended for the usual ecclesiastical figure of the sacrament ; and, perhaps, also expresses that the Saviour, born at Bethlehem, the house of bread, was " the living bread which came down from heaven." Upon the same principle of interpre- tation, however, if the star be regarded as indicating Christ and his passion, the cup with the skull might be meant to designate, the " death which he tasted for every man," in the cup of his own suffer- ings at Gethsemane, and at Golgotha, " the place of a skull." Another armorial ensign, assigned to the ancient hospital of Bethlehem, is, Azure, an ^toile of eight points or ; and the connexion between this foundation and that of Bridewell, which is under the same governor, is indicated by the latter bearing the star of Bethlehem, on a chief azure, between two fleurs-de-lis. Pamphlet by Peter Laurie, -''/., LL.S. ; privately printed. BILLINGSGATE IS stated to take its name from having been the gate of Belin, a king of the Britons, about 400 B.C. But this rests upon no better authority than Geoffrey of Mon- mouth, and is doubted by Stow, who suggests that the gate was called from some owner named Belin g or Billing: Stow describes it as "a large water-gate, port, or harborough for ships and boats, commonly arriving there with fish, both fresh and salt, shell-fishes, salt, oranges, onions, and other fruits and roots, wheat, rye, and grain of divers sorts, for the service of the City. It has been a quay, if not a market, for nearly nine centuries since the customs were paid here under Ethelred II., A.D. 979 ; and fishing-boats paid toll here, according to the laws of Athelstan, who died 940 Its present appropriation dates from 1 699, when, by an Act of William III., it was made " a free and open market for all sorts of fish ;" and was fixed at the western extremity of the Custom House, a short distance below London Bridge. The Market, for many years, consisted of a collection of wooden pent-houses, rude sheds, and benches : it commenced at three o'clock A.M. in the summer and five in the winter : in the latter season it was a strange scene, its large flaring oil-lamps showing a crowd struggling amidst a Babel din of vulgar tongues, such as rendered "Billings- gate " a byword for low abuse : " opprobrious, foul-mouth language is called Billings- gate discourse." (Martin's Dictionary, 1754, second edit.) In Bailey's Dictionary we have " a Billingsgate, a scolding, impudent slut." Tom Brown gives a very coarse picture of her character; and Addison refers to " debates which frequently arise among the ladies of the British fishery." She wore a strong stuff gown, tucked up, and show- ing a large quilted petticoat; her hair, cap, and bonnet flattened into a mass by carry- ing a basket upon her head; her coarse, cracked cry, and brawny limbs, and red, bloated face, completing a portrait of the " fish-fag " of other days. T3LACKFRIAES. 55 Xot only has the virago disappeared, but the market-place has been rebuilt, and its business regulated by the City authorities, with especial reference to the condition of the fish ; and in 1849 was commenced the further extension of the market. There is no crowding, elbowing, screaming, or fighting, as heretofore ; coffee has greatly super- seded spirits ; and a more orderly scene of business can scarcely be imagined. The market is daily, except Sundays, at five A.M., summer and winter, announced by ring- ing a bell, the only relic of the olden rule. The fishing-vessels reach the quay during the night, and are moored alongside a floating wharf, which rises and falls with the tide. The oyster-boats are berthed by themselves, the name of the oyster cargo is painted upon a board, where they are measured out to purchasers. The other fish are carried ashore in baskets, and there sold, by Dutch auction, to fishmongers, whose carts are waiting in the adjoining streets. The wholesale market is now over; the lummarees supply the costermongers, &c. All fish is sold by tale, except oysters and shell-fish, which are sold by measure, and salmon by weight. In February and March, about thirty boxes of salmon, each one cwt., arrive at Billingsgate per day ; the quantity gradually increases, until it amounts in July and August, to 1000 boxes (during one season it reached to 2500 tons) the fish being finest when it is lowest in price. Of lobsters, Mr. Yarrell states a twelve- months' supply to be 1,90 1,000 ; of turbots, 87,958. The speculation in lobsters is very great : in 1816, one Billingsgate salesman is known to have lost 12001. per week, for six weeks, by lobsters ! Periwinkles are shipped from Glasgow, fifty or sixty tons at a time, to Liverpool, and sent thence by railway to London, where better profits are obtained, even after paying so much sea and land carriage. Sometimes there is a marvellous glut of fish : thus, in two days from 90 to 100 tons of plaice, soles, and sprats have been landed at Billingsgate, and sold at two and three Ibs. a penny ; soles, 2d. ; large plaice, Id. each. A full season and scarce supply, however, occasionally raise the price enormously ; as in the case of four guineas being paid for a lobster for sauce, which, being the only one in the market, was divided for two London epicures ! During very rough weather, scarcely an oyster can be procured in the metropolis. In the Times, Nov. 9, 1859, we read : " In consequence of the gales which have recently prevailed, the price of fish \ ^ has risen so much, that cod-fish fetched the enormous sum of 11. 15s., yesterday morn- ing in Billingsgate market." Mackerel were, in 1698, first allowed to be cried through the streets on a Sunday ; but, by the 9 and 10 Victoria, passed August 3, 1846, the sale of mackerel on a Sunday was declared illegal. The wholesale fish-trade of Billingsgate having greatly increased in 1854, Mr. Bunning, the City architect, completed a sub-market on the site of Billingsgate Dock ; the carriage of fish by railway to London having greatly superseded the use of sailing vessels for that purpose. A new granite wharf-wall extends the entire river frontage of the market ; and the foundations of the fish-market were constructed on the blue clay beneath the bed of the river, without the aid of a coffer-dam. Few persons are aware of the great consumption of fish in the metropolis. In the Parliamentary Report on the Sea Fisheries, 1866, is a calculation showing that nearly as much fish as beef is consumed in London. About 90,000 tons of fish are brought yearly, of which some 80,000 tons are large fish, the remainder being whiting and small fish. SLACKFEIAES IS the district between Ludgate Hill and the river Thames ; where anciently a monastery of Black or Dominican Friars, removed from Holborn in 1276, to a piece of ground given them by Gregory Rocksley, Mayor. The monastery, church, and a mansion were erected with the stone from the tower of Montfichet, and from part of the City wall. Edward I. and his Queen Eleanor were great benefactors to the new convent. Here the King kept his charters and records; and great numbers of the nobility dwelt in the precinct. In the church, divers parliaments and other great meetings were held. In 1522 the Emperor Charles V. of Spain was lodged here by Henry VIII. ; and here, 1524, was begun the sitting of a parliament, adjourned to the 56 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Black Monks at Westminster, and therefore called the Black Parliament. Henry's divorce from Katherine of Arragon was decided there ; and the parliament which con- demned Wolsey, assembled at Blackfriars. The precinct was very extensive, was walled in, had four gates, and contained many shops, the occupiers of which were allowed to carry on their trades, although not free of the City, privileges maintained even after the dissolution of the monasteries. Part of the church was altered and fitted up for parochial use ; it was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666, and the church of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe erected in its place. Beneath the Times office, upon the site of the King's Printing-house, is a fragment of the Roman wall, upon which is a Norman or early English reparation ; and upon that are the remains of a passage and window, which probably belonged to the Blackfriars monastery. Taking advantage of the sanctuary privilege, Richard Burbage and his fellows, when ejected from the City, built a playhouse in the Blackfriars precinct, and here maintained their ground against the powerful opposition of the City and the Puritans. Shakspeare had a share in this theatre. In the volume of the Calendar of State Papers, edited by Mr. Bruce, F.S.A., we get some interesting information of the Blackfriars theatre, part of the site of which is still called Playhouse-yard, where was a piece of ground " to turne coaches in." Under the date of Nov. 16, 1633, we find "Notes by Sec. Windebank, of business transacted at the council this day. Blackfriars Playhouse. The players demand 21,00(M. The commissioners valued it at near 3000Z. The parishioners offer towards the removing of them 100Z. An order of the board to remove the coaches from thence, and to lay the coachmen of whomsoever by the heels. That no coaches stay between Paul's Chain and the Fleet Conduit. The officers to be punished if they do not their duties. The Lord Mayor to have his commandment directed to him, and every ward to be answerable." Hard by is another Shakspearean locality of note, the town property of the poet, first pointed out by Mr. Halliwell viz., the site of the house purchased by Shak- speare of Henry Walker, in March, 1612-13, the counterpart of the conveyance of which is preserved in the Guildhall Library (bought in 1841, for 165Z. 15*.,) with Shakspeare's signature attached, and which is there described as " abutting upon a streete leading doune to Pudle Wharfe (Black friers), in the east part, right against the Kinge's Majesties Wardrobe." The very house was, most probably, destroyed in the Great Fire ; but the present one stands upon its exact site; and, until these few years, it had been tenanted by the Robinson family, to whom Shakspeare leased it. The house was bequeathed by the poet to his daughter, Susannah Hall. Three eminent painters resided in Blackfriars : Isaac Oliver, the celebrated minia- ture-painter, who died in 1617, and is buried in St. Anne's ; Cornelius Jansen, the portrait-painter, employed by King James I., and who painted Milton at ten years old. And here Vaudyck was lodged amongst the King's artists, in 1631, when he arrived a second time in London ; thither His Majesty Charles I. frequently went by water, and viewed his paintings. The painter kept here a splendid establishment and a sumptuous table ; but his luxurious and sedentary life brought on gout ; he died here in the Blackfriars, in 1641, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, with great funeral pomp. In 1735, the right of the City to the jurisdiction of the precinct was decided in their favour in an action against a shalloon and drugget seller, tried in the Court of King's Bench ; since which Blackfriars has been one of the precincts of Farringdon Ward. At Hunsdon House, in the Friary, occurred the catastrophe long remembered as the " Fatal Vespers." It was on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot that some 300 persons had assembled in a small gallery over the gateway of the lodgings of the French ambassador, to hear a sermon from the Jesuit, Father Drury, when the whole congregation were precipitated, with the timber, plaster, and rubbish, into the vacant apartments some 20 feet below. Drury was killed, and with him about 100 persons of his congregation ; the bodies were buried, coffinless, in two large pits. In a " Note of Liberties," in the State Paper Office, we find in a list of persons " as well honourable as worshipful, inhabiting the Precincts of the Blacke and White BLACKWALL. 57 Friers," in the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, or about the year 1581, the following : "The Earl of Lincoln, Lord Admirall of England; the Bishop of Wigorne; the Lord Cobham; the Lord Chcynie ; the Lord Laware ; the Lord Kussell ; the Lord Clinton ; Sir Ambrose Jermyn ; Sir Nicholas Poynes ; Sir Thomas Gerrarde ; Sir William Morgan ; the Lord Buckhurst ; the Lord Chief Justice of England; the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; the Master of the Holies ; the Queen e's Sollicitour; Mr. Thomas Faushawe; Peter Osborne; Mr. Powle, of the Chancery." In Earl-street was the house of the British and Foreign Bible Society, upon the exact site of the premises in which the Committee of six of the forty-seven " distinguished scholars" ordered by James I. to furnish our present translation of the Bible used to meet in the early part of the seventeenth century, to review the whole work ; and which was finally revised there by Dr. Smith and Dr. Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, then approved of by the King, and printed in the year 1611. When the Bible Society purchased the above house of Mr. Enderby, there was in it a curious fourpost bedstead, carved and painted, and the following inscription in capitals at the head : " Henri, by the Grace of God, Kynge of Englonde and of Fraunce, Lorde of Irelonde, Defendour of the Faythe, and Supreme Heade of the Churche of all Englonde. An. Dmi. MCCCCCXXXIX." Below the inscription, on each side, is the King's motto, with the initials of Henry and his Royal Consort, Anne Boleyn : " Dieu et mon droit." " H. A." A new house for the Bible Society was founded in June, 1866. In the operations necessary for carrying the London, Dover, and Chatham Railway from the viaduct across the Thames at Blackfriars, great part of the east side of Bridge- i ^ street was removed in 1863-4 ; the railway being carried on brick arches parallel * with the street line; and a large passenger-station, 150 feet in width, was erected. In the requisite clearances was removed the York Hotel, the house which Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars Bridge, built for his private residence. On its southern face, in Little Bridge-street, was a medallion, with the initials, " R. M.," surmounted by his crest and the date MDCCLXXX. ; the walls of the principal rooms bore several medallions of classic figures. Mylne also planned the noble approach to Blackfriars Bridge, and superintended the covering of the Fleet ditch. He planned well his houses in Blackfriars, although many of them were altered or rebuilt for insurance offices. In the house No. 5, opposite the York Hotel, lived Sir Richard Phillips : in the rear, Bride-court, he published his Monthly Magazine ; and here, as became / L an author-publisher, he formed a considerable collection of pictures, mostly portraits of ' eminent men of letters. SLACKWALL, ON the north bank of the Thames, and at the eastern extremity of the West India Docks, is said to have been originally called Bleakwall, from its exposed situation on the artificial bank or wall of the river, through the winding of which it is nearly eight miles from the City, though less than half that distance by land. Here, on the Brunswick Wharf or Pier, is the handsome Italianized terminus (by Tite) of the Blackwall Railway from Fenchurch-street, 4| miles in length. To the large taverns at Blackwall and Greenwich gourmets flock to eat whitebait, a delicious little fish caught in the Reach, and directly netted out of the river into the frying-pan. They appear about the end of March or early in April, and are taken every flood-tide until September. Whitebait are caught by a net in a wooden frame, the hose having a very small mesh. The boat is moored in the tideway, and the net fixed to its side, when the tail of the hose, swimming loose, is from time to time handed in to the boat, the end untied, and its contents shaken out. Whitebait were thought to be the young of the shad, and were named from their being used as bait in fishing for whitings. By aid of comparative anatomy, Mr. Yarrell, however, proved white- bait to be a distinct species, Clupea alba. Pennant describes whitebait as esteemed by the lower order of epicures. If this account be correct, there must have been a strange change in the grade of the epicures frequenting Greenwich and Blackwall since Pennant's days ; for at present the fashion of eating whitebait is sanctioned by the highest authorities, from the Court of St. James's in the West to the Lord Mayor and Ms court in the East ; besides the philo- 58 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. sophers of the Royal Society j and her Majesty's Cabinet Ministers, who wind up the Parliamentary session with their " annual fish dinner," the origin of which is stated to be as follows : On the banks of Dagcnham Lake or Beach, in Essex, many years since, there stood a cottage, occupied by a princely merchant named Preston, a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia, and sometime M.P. for Dover. He called it his " fishing cottage," and often in the spring he went thither, with a friend or two, as a relief to the toils of parliamentary and mercantile duties. His most frequent guest was the Right Hon. George Rose, Secretary of the Treasury, and an Elder Brother of the Trinity House. Many a day did these two worthies enjoy at Dagenham Reach ; and Mr. Rose once intimated to Sir Robert, that Mr. Pitt, of whose friendship they were both justly proud, would, no doubt, delight in the comfort of such a retreat. A day was named, and the Premier was invited; and he was so well pleased with his reception at the " fishing cottage" they were all two if not three bottle men that, on taking leave, Mr. Pitt readily accepted an invitation for the following year. For a few years the Premier continued a visitor, always accompanied by Mr. George Rose. But the distance was considerable ; the going and coming were somewhat inconvenient for the First Minister of the Crown. Sir Robert Preston, however, had his remedy, and he proposed that they should in future dine nearer London. Greenwich was suggested : we do not hear of Whitebait in the Dagenham dinners ; and its introduction, probably, dates from the removal to Greenwich. The party of three was now increased to four ; Mr. Pitt being permitted to bring Lord Camden. Soon after a fifth guest was invited Mr. Charles Long, afterwards Lord Farnborough. All were still the guests of Sir Robert Preston ; but, one by one, other notables were invited all Tories and, at last, Lord Camden considerately remarked, that, as they were all dining at a tavern, it was but fair that Sir Robert Preston should be relieved from the expense. It was then arranged that the dinner should be given, as usual, by Sir Robert Preston, that is to say, at his invitation ; and he insisted on still contributing a buck and champagne : the rest of the charges were thenceforth defrayed by the several guests, and, on this plan, the meeting continued to take place annually till the death of Mr. Pitt. Sir Robert was requested, next year, to summon the several guests, the list of whom, by this time, included most of the Cabinet Ministers. The time for meeting was usually after Trinity Monday, a short period before the end of the Session. By degrees the meeting, which was originally purely gastro- nomic, appears to have assumed, in consequence of the long reign of the Tories, a political, or semi- political character. Sir Robert Preston died; but Mr. Long, now Lord Farnborough, undertook to summon the several guests, the list of whom was furnished by Sir Robert Preston's private secretary. Hitherto, the invitations had been sent privately : now they were despatched in Cabinet boxes, and the party was, certainly for some time, limited to the members of the Cabinet. Communicated to the Times. An important thing to be noticed is the vast extent of iron shipbuilding carried on here, an art of construction but of thirty years' growth. A great portion of Black- wall and the Isle of Dogs is occupied in this building trade, with its clanking boiler- works, and its Cyclopean foundries and engineering shops, in which steani isiheprimum mobile. In the East India Docks, at Blackwall, arrived, April, 1848, a large Chinese Junk, the first ever seen in England. BLIND-SCHOOL (THE), OR the School for the Indigent Blind, was established in 1799, at the Dog and Duck premises, St. George's Fields ; and for some time received only fifteen blind persons. The site being required by the City of London for the building of Bethlern Hospital, about two acres of ground were allotted opposite the Obelisk, and there a plain school-house for the blind was built. In 1826, the School was incorporated ; and in the two following years three legacies of 500Z. each, and one of 10,000., were bequeathed to the establishment. In 1834, additional ground was purchased, and the school-house remodelled, so as to form a portion of a more extensive edifice in the Tudor or domestic Gothic style, designed by John Newman, F.S.A. The tower and gateway in the north front are very picturesque ; the School will now accommodate 220 inmates. The pupils are clothed, lodged, and boarded, and receive a religious and industrial education ; so that many of them have been returned to then* families able to earn from 6*. to 8s. per week. Applicants are not received under twelve, nor above thirty, years of age ; nor if they have a greater degree of sight than will enable them to distinguish light from darkness. The admission is by votes of the subscribers ; and persons between the ages of twelve and eighteen have been found to receive the greatest benefit from the instruction. The pupils may be seen at work between ten and twelve A.M., and two and five P.M., daily, except Saturdays and Sundays. The women and girls are employed in knitting stockings and needlework ; in spinning, and making household and body linen, netting silk, and in fine basket-making ; besides working baby-hoods, bags, purses, watch- dockets, &c., of tasteful design, both in colour and form. The women are remarkably iuick in superintending the pupils. The men and boys make wicker baskets, cradles, BREWERIES. 59 and hampers ; rope door-mats and worsted rugs ; and they make all the shoes for the inmates of the School. Reading is mostly taught by Alston's raised or embossed letters, in which have been printed the Old and New Testament, and the Liturgy. Both males and females are remarkably cheerful in their employment : they have great taste and aptness for music, and they are instructed in it, not as a mere amusement, but with a view to engagements as organists and teachers of psalmody ; and once a year they perform a concert of sacred music in the chapel or music-room : the public are admitted by tickets, the proceeds from the sale being added to the funds of the institution. An organ and pianoforte are provided for teaching; and above each of the .inmates of the males' working-room usually hangs a fiddle. They receive, as pocket- money, part of their earnings , and on leaving the school, a sum of money and a set of tools, for their respective trades, are given to them. . Among the other Charities for the Blind is the munificent bequest of Mr. Charles Day (of the firm of Day and Martin, High Holborn), who died in 1836, leaving 100,OOOZ. for the benefit of persons afflicted, like himself, with loss of sight ; the divi- dends and interest to be disbursed in sums, of not less than 10Z., or more than 201., per year, to each blind person, the selection being left to Trustees : the Charity is named " The Blind Man's Fund." BREWERIES. THE great Breweries of London are described by Stow, in 1598, as for the most part remaining "near to the friendly water of Thames," which was long thought to be superior to any other for brewing ; but Richardson, an experienced authority, alleges this to be a mistake, as some of the principal brewers find the New River water equally good ; they have also been at great expense in sinking wells upon their own premises. In the Annual Register for 1760 the London beer trade is traced from the Revolution down to the accession of George the Third. The great increase in the trade appears to date from the origin of Porter. " Prior to the year 1730, publicans were in the habit of selling ale, beer, and two-penny, and the 'thirsty souls' of that day were accustomed to combine either of these in a drink called half-and-half. From this they proceeded to spin ' three threads,' as they called it, or to have their glasses filled from each of the three taps. In the year 1730, however, a certain publican, named Horwood, to save himself the trouble of making this triune mixture, brewed a liquor intended to imitate the taste of the ' three threads,' and to this he applied the term ' entire.' This concoction was approved, and being puffed aa good porter's drink, it speedily came to be called Porter itself." Quarterly Review, 1854. By Act of Parliament, beer and porter can only be made of malt and hops, the great council of the nation having omitted all mention of the water, which the brewers have added as a necessary ingredient. It has been well said that all nations know that London is the place where porter was invented ; and Jews, Turks, Germans, Negroes, Persians, Chinese, New Zealanders, Esquimaux, Copper Indians, Yankees, and Spanish Americans, are united in one feeling of respect for the native city of the most univer- sally favourite liquor the world has ever known. The increase of brewers has kept pace with London's increase in other respects. AVhitbread's Brewery, in Chiswell-street, Finsbury, dates more than two centuries back : we find it at the head of the list in 1787 ; and so it continued until 1806 in the Picture of London, for which year Whitbread's is described as the largest Brewery in the metropolis, the year's brewing of Porter being above 200,000 barrels. " There is one stone cistern," says the account, " that contains 3600 barrels ; and there are 49 large oak vats, some of which contain 3500 barrels ; one is 27 feet in height and 22 feet in diameter. There are three boilers, each of which holds about 5000 barrels. One of Mr. Watt's steam-engines works the machinery. It pumps the water, wort, and beer; (trinds the malt, stirs the mash-tubs, and raises the casks out of the cellars. It is able to do the work of seventy horses, though it is of a small size, being only a twenty-four inch cylinder, and does not make more noise than a spinning-wheel. Whether the magnitude or ingenuity of contrivance is considered, this Brewery is one of the greatest curiosities that is to be anywhere seen ; and little less than half a million sterling is employed in machinery, buildings, ind materials." To the Brewery of Barclay, Perkins and Co., in Park -street, Southwark, has, how- ever, attached a greater celebrity, from its great extent. It may be inspected by a letter of introduction to the proprietors; and a great number of the foreigners of distinction who visit the metropolis avail themselves of such permission. The Brewery and its appurtenances occupy about twelve acres of ground, immediately 60 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. adjoining Bankside, and extending from the land-arches of Southwark Bridge nearly half of the distance to those of London Bridge. Within the Brewery walls is said to be included the site of the famous Globe Theatre, " which Shakspeare has bound so closely up with his own history." In an account of the neighbourhood, dated 1795, it is stated that " the passage which led to the Globe Tavern, of which the playhouse formed a part, was, till within these few years, known by the name of Globe-alley, and upon its site now stands a large storehouse for Porter." We are inclined to regard this evidence merely as traditional. However, the last Globe Theatre was taken down about the time of the Commonwealth ; and so late as 1720, Maid-lane (now called New Park-street), of which Globe-alley was an offshoot, was a long, straggling place, with ditches on each side, the passage to the houses being over little bridges with little garden-plots before them (Si-Type's Stotv). Early in the last century there was a Brewery here, comparatively very small ; it then belonged to a Mr. Halsey, who, on retiring from it with a large fortune, sold it to the elder Mr. Thrale ; he became Sheriif of Surrey and M.P. for Southwark, and died in 1758. About this time the produce of the Brewery was 30,000 barrels a year. Mr. Thrale's son succeeded him, and found the Brewery so profitable and secure an income, that, although educated to other tastes and habits, he did not part with it ; yet the Brewery, through Thrale's unfortunate speculation elsewhere, was at one time, accord- ing to Mrs. Thrale, 130,0002. in debt, besides borrowed money ; but in nine years every shilling was paid. Thrale was the warm friend of Dr. Johnson, who, from 1765 to the brewer's death, lived partly in a house near the Brewery, and at his villa at Streatham. Before the fire at the Brewery, in 1832, a room was pointed out, near the entrance gate- way, which the Doctor used as a study. In 1781 Mr. Thrale died, and his executors, of whom Johnson was one, sold the Brewery to David Barclay, junior, then the head of the banking firm of Barclay and Co., for the sum of 135,00(M. " We are not here," said Johnson, on the day of the sale, " to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice." While on his tour to the Hebrides, Johnson mentioned that Thrale paid 20,000 a year to the revenue, and that he had four vats, each of which held 1600 barrels, above 1000 hogsheads. David Barclay placed in the brewing firm his nephew from America, Robert Barclay, who became of Bury Hill; and Mr. Perkins, who had been in Mr. Thrale's establishment hence the firm of " Barclay and Perkins." Robert Barclay was succeeded by his son, Charles Barclay, who sat in Parliament for South- wark ; and by his sons and grandsons. Forty years since, the Brewery was of great extent ; in 1832 a great portion of the old premises was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt, mostly of iron, stone, and brick. The premises extend from New Park-street, southward, through Park-street, both sides of which are the Brewery buildings, con- nected by a light suspension bridge ; to the right is the vast brewhouse and principal entrance. There are extensive ranges of malt-houses extending northward, with a wharf to Bankside. From the roof of nearly the middle of the premises may be had a bird's-eye view of the whole. The water used for brewing is pumped up by a steam-engine through a large iron main, which passes under the malt warehouses, and leads to the " liquor-backs," two cast-iron cisterns, on columns, reaching an elevation of some 40 feet. By this means the establishment may be supplied with water for brewing to the extent of a hundred thousand gallons daily. There is on the premises an Artesian well 367 feet deep ; but its water, on account of its low temperature, is principally used for cooling the beer in hot weather. The machinery is worked throughout the Brewery by steam. The furnace-shaft is 19 feet below the surface, and 110 feet above; and, by its great height, denotes the situation of this gigantic establishment among the forest of Southwark chimneys. The malt is deposited in enormous bins, each of the height or depth of an ordinary three-storied house. The rats are kept in check by a standing army of cats, who are regularly fed and maintained. The malt is conveyed to be ground in tin buckets upon an endless leather band (" Jacob's Ladder") ; and thus carried to the height of 60 or 70 feet, in the middle of the Great Brewhouse, built entirely of iron and brick, and lighted by eight large and BREWERIES. 61 lofty windows. The Brewhouse is 225 feet long by 60 in width, and of prodigious height, with an elaborate iron roof, the proportions reminding us of Westminster Hall. Within this compass are complete sets of brewing apparatus, perfectly distinct in themselves, but connected with the great supply of malt from above, of water from below, and of motive force from the steam-engine behind, vast coolers, fermenting vats, &c. Each of the copper boilers cost nearly 5000L, and consists of a furnace, a globular copper holding 320 barrels, and a cylindrical cistern to contain 120 barrels, an arrange- ment equally beautiful and useful from its compactness and the economy of heat. There is no continuous floor ; but looking upwards, whenever the steamy vapour per- mits, there may be seen at various heights, stages, platforms, and flights of stairs, all subsidiary to the Cyclopean piles of brewing vessels. The coals, many tons per day, are drawn up from below by tackle, and wheeled along a railway. " The hot water is drawn from one of the copper boilers to the corresponding mash-vat helow ; and machinery working from a centre on a cog-rail that extends over the circumference of the vat, stirs the malt. The mash-vat has a false bottom, which in due time lets off the wort through small holes to an under-pan, whence it is pumped back to the emptied copper, from whence it receives the hot water, and there, mixed with hops, it is boiled, and again run off into a vast cistern, where passing through a perforated bottom, it leaves the hops, and is pumped through the cooling tubes or refrigerators into the open cooler, and thence to the fermenting cases ; whence, in a few days, it is drawn off into casks, again fermented, and when clearer put into the large vat." The surface of one of the fermenting cases nearly filled is a strange sight : the yeast rises in rock-like masses, which yield to the least wind, and the gas hovers in pungent mistiness over the ocean of beer. Tlie largest vat will contain about 3500 barrels of porter, which, at the retail price, would yield QOQOl. The " Great Tun of Heidelberg" would hold but half this quantity. Nearly every portion of the heavy toil is accomplished by the steam-engine. The malt is conveyed from one building to another, even across the street, by machinery, and again to the crushing rollers and mash vat. The cold and hot water, the wort and beer, are pumped in various directions, almost to the exclusion of human exertions. With so much machinery and order, few men comparatively are required for the enormous brewing of 3000 bushels of malt a day. The stables are a pattern of order. The name of each horse is painted upon a board over the rack of each stall. The horses are mostly from Flanders, are about 200 in number, and cost from 70. to 801. each. Truman, Hanbury, Suxton, Sf Co.'s Brewery is situated in Brick -lane, Spitalfields, and covers nearly six acres of ground. Here are two mash tuns, each to contain 800 barrels, the mashing being performed by a revolving spindle with huge arms, like a chocolate-mill. The wort is then pumped into large coppers, of which there are five, containing from 300 to 400 barrels each ; it is then boiled with the hops, of which often two tons are used in a day. The boiling beer is now pumped up to the cooler on the roof of the brewery, which presents a black sea of 32,000 square feet, partly open to the air. There are sixteen large furnace-chimneys connected with this brewery, the smoke of which is consumed by Juckes's apparatus. There is a vast cooperage for the 80,000 barrels ; a farrier's, millwright's, carpenter's and wheelwright's shop ; a painter's shop for sign-boards ; all which surround the central gear or beer-barrel dep&t. The malt bins are 20 feet across and 35 deep. The stables are of great extent, and there are a score of farriers. The drayman is sui generis ; there are some 80 in number, taller than the Guardsmen, and heavier by two stone. Meux"s Brewery (now Reid Sf Co.'s), in Liquorpond-street, Gray's Inn-lane, was described by Pennant, in 1795, as " of magnificence unspeakable." In this year Meux built a vessel 60 feet in diameter, and 23 feet in height, which cost 50001. building, and would contain from 10,000 to 12,000 barrels of beer, valued at 20,0001. Their vats then held 100,000 barrels. Messrs. Meux removed from Liquorpond-street to their great brewery at the end of Tottenham Court-road. The head of the firm, Sir Henry Meux was created a baronet in 1831, when he had a fortune of 200,000^., which by his income from the brewery, increased in after years to between 500,OOOZ. and 600,000^. The handsomest edifice of this class in the metropolis is the Lion Brewery, built for Coding, in 1836, in Belvedere-road, next Waterloo-bridge, and surmounted with a colossal stone lion. The top of the building is a tank to contain 1000 ban-els of water, pumped up from a well 230 feet deep, or from, the Thames ; this supplies the floor 62 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. below, where the boiled liquor is cooled 200 barrels in less than an hour ; when cooled it is received on the floor beneath into the fermenting tuns j next it descends to the floor for fining ; and lastly, to the cellars or store-vats. The steam-engine passes the beer under the Belvedere-road ; loads or unloads barges ; conveys malt by the Archimedes Screw or Jacob's Ladder ; and pumps water and beer to every height and extreme position, displaying the advantage of mechanic power, by its steady, quiet regularity. The Metropolitan Breweries have their signs, which figure upon the harness of their dray-horses ; thus, Barclay and Perkins, the Anchor ; Calvert's (now the City of London), the Hour-glass ; Meux, Horseshoe, &c. BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL. TTPON one of the oldest historic sites in the City of London stood the ancient palace U of Bridewell, which extended nearly from Fleet-street to the Thames at Black- friars. It was founded upon the remains of a building supposed to be Roman, and inhabited by the Kings of England previous to the Conquest. Here our Norman Kings held their Courts. Henry I. gave stone towards rebuilding the palace ; and in 1847, in excavating the site of Cogers Hall, in Bride-lane, was discovered a vault, with Norman pellet-moulding, and other remains of the same date. The palace was much neglected until, upon the site of the old Tower of Mountfiquit, Henry VIII. built " a stately and beautiful house thereupon, giving it to name Bridewell, of the parish and well there." (Stow.) This house was erected for the reception of Charles V. of Spain, though only his nobles were lodged here, " a gallery being made out of the house over the water [the Fleet], and through the wall of the City into the Emperor's lodgings in the Blackfriars." (Stow.) The whole third act of Shakspeare's Henry VIII. is laid in " the palace at Bridewell," which is historically correct. Subsequently the King, taking a dislike to the palace, let it fall to decay. The " wide, large, empty house" was next presented to the City of London by King Edward VI., after a sermon by Bishop Ridley, who begged it of the King as a workhouse for the poor and a house of correction ; the gift was made for " sturdy rogues," and as " the fittest hospital for those cripples whose legs are lame through their own laziness." It was endowed with lands and furniture from the Savoy. All this history is, by a curious licence, transferred to Milan, by Decker, in the second part of the old play of the Honest Whore. The account is very exact, compared with Entick's History of London, iv. 284. (Nares's Glossary, new edit. 1859.) The gift was confirmed by charter only ten days before the death of the King. Nearly two years elapsed before Queen Mary con- firmed her brother's gift ; and in February, 1 555, the Mayor and Aldermen entered Bridewell and took possession, with seven hundred marks laud, and all the bedding and other furniture of the house of the Savoy. But the gift soon proved costly and in- convenient to the citizens by attracting thither idle and abandoned people from the outskirts of London, when the Common Council issued acts against " the resort of masterless men." In 1608, the City erected here twelve large granaries for corn and two storehouses for coals. In Aggas's plan of London, the buildings and gardens of the hospital extend from the present site to the Thames, on the bank of which a large castellated mansion is represented ; as also in Van der Wyngrerde's (1542) view, in the Bodleian Library ; but in Hollar's view, after the Great Fire, most of the buildings are consumed. The Hospital was rebuilt as we see it in Kip's view, 1720, in two quadrangles, the principal of which fronted the Fleet River, now a vast sewer under the middle of Bridge-street. Within the present century were built the committee-room and prisons ; the chapel was rebuilt and the whole latterly formed only one large quad- rangle, with a handsome entrance from Bridge-street ; the keystone of the archway is sculptured with the head of King Edward VI. Hatton thus minutely describes the hospital in 1708: It is a prison and house of correction for idle vagrants, loose and disorderly servants, night-walkers, strumpets, &c. These are set to hard labour, and have correction according to their deserts; but have their clothes and diet during their imprisonment at the charge of the house. It is also an hospital for indigent persons, and where twenty art-masters (as they are called), being decayed traders as shoemakers, taylors, flax-drapers, &c. have houses, and their servants or appren- BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL. 63 tices (being about 140 in all) have clothes at the house charge, and their masters having the profit of their work, do often advance by this means their own fortunes. And these boys, having served their time faithfully, have not only their freedom, but also 10 each towards carrying on their respective trades, and many have even arrived from nothing to be governors. The Bridewell boys were distinguished by a particular dress, and were very active at fires with an engine belonging to the hospital. In 1755 they had, however, grown unruly, and so turbulent in the streets as to be a great annoyance to peaceable citizens. Their peculiar costume was then laid aside, and they became more peaceable. The flogging at Bridewell for offences committed without the prison is described by Ward in his London Spy ; both men and women were whipped on their naked backs, before the Court of Governors. The president sat with his hammer in his hand, and the culprit was taken from the post when the hammer fell. Hogarth, in his " Harlot's Progress," gives the peculiar features of the place. In the Fourth Plate men and women are beating hemp under the eye of a savage taskmaster ; and a lad, too idle to work, is seen standing on tiptoe to reach the stocks, in which his hands are fixed, while over his head is written, " Better to work than stand thus." * When Howard visited Bridewell he found the building damp and unhealthy, and the rooms, cells, and corridors confined and dark, and altogether a bad specimen of a prison. " Lob's Pound " was a cant name for Bridewell, the origin of which so puzzled Archdeacon Nares, that he said : " Who Lob was, is as little known as the site of Lipsbury Pinfold." In Hudibras the term is employed as a name for the stocks into' which the Knight put Crowdero : Crowdero, whom, in irons bound, Thou basely threw'st into Lob's Pound. Miss Baker suggests, in her Northamptonshire Glossary, that the name originated from " lob," a looby or clown, rather than any specific individual Bridewell being the place of correction for the petty offences of that class. Bridewell is named from the famous well in the vicinity of St. Bride's Church ; and this prison being the first of its kind, all other houses of correction, upon the same plan, were called Bridewells. In the Nomenclator, 1585, occurs " a workhouse where servants be tied to their work at Bridewell ; a house of correction j a prison." We read of a treadmill at work at Bridewell in 1570. Bridewell was, until lately, used as a receptacle for vagrants committed by the Lord Mayor and sitting Aldermen ; as a temporary lodging for persons previous to V j[ their being sent home to their respective parishes; and a certain number of boy& Q were brought up to different trades ; and it is still used for apprentices committed V by the City Chamberlain. The male prisoners sentenced to and fit for hard labour were employed on the treadwheel, by which corn was ground for the supply of Bridewell, Bethlehem, and the House of Occupation ; the younger prisoners, or those not sentenced to hard laboiir, were employed in picking junk and cleaning the wards ; the females were employed in washing, mending, and getting up the linen and bedding of the prisoners, or in picking junk and cleaning the prison. The punishments for breaches of prison rules were diminution of food, solitary confine- ment, and irons, as the case might be.l In 1842 were confined here 1324 persons, of whom 233 were under seventeen, and 466 were known or reputed thieves. In 1818 no employment was furnished to the prisoners. The seventh Report of the Inspectors of Prisons returned Bridewell as answering no one object of improvement except that of safe custody ; it does not correct, deter, or reform ; and nothing could be worse than the association to which all but the City apprentices were subjected. However, in 1829, there was built, adjoining Bethlehem Hospital, in Lambeth, a " House of Occupation," whither young prisoners were thenceforth sent from Bridewell to be taught useful trades. The prison of Bridewell was taken down in 1863 ; and the committals are now made to the City Prison, at Holloway. Meanwhile a portion of Bridewell Hospital will be reserved for the detention and reformation of incorrigible City apprentices committed here by the Chamberlain from time to time ; this jurisdiction being pre- served by the Court of Chancery in dealing with the matters which concern the * This background is, however, incorrect ; since the harlot, being sentenced by a Westminster magistrate, would not have been flogged in the City Bridewell. 64 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. disposal of the building and the estates of the governors of the Hospital. Reforma- tory schools are also to he built from the revenue of Bridewell, stated at 12,000. per annum. At the Social Science Congress, in 1862, the worthy Chamberlain read a paper on the peculiar jurisdiction of his Court. In the prison, special care was taken to prevent the apprentices making the acquaintance of the low vagrants and misde- meanants who ordinarily occupied the building. The apprentices were placed in small cells, closed in with double doors, which shut out sound as effectually as sight ; communication was, therefore, nearly impossible. Hereafter, only the apprentices will be confined here. The number of committals rarely exceeds twenty-five annually. At the date of our last visit there was but one apprentice confined here. Although the number is so small, the power of committal, which the Chamberlain has most praise- worthily asserted and successfully maintains, acts as a terror to evildoers, keeping in restraint about 3000 of these lads of the City. In a piece of ground, leased for the burial-place of Bridewell Precinct, Robert Levett, the old and faithful friend of Dr. Johnson, and an inmate of his house, was buried, in 1732. Not a vestige of the ancient Bridewell remains. The noblest feature of the later buildings was the court-room 85 ft. 4 in. by 29 ft. 8 in., wains- coted, and hung with the great picture of Edward VI. granting the Eoyal Charter of Endowment to the Mayor. Beneath was a cartoon of " The Good Samaritan," by the youthful artist Dadd. The other pictures are a fine full-length of Charles II., by Sir Peter Lely ; and portraits of the Presidents, including Sir William Withers, 1708, a very large equestrian portrait, with St. Paul's in the background. But the most valuable embellishments were the tables of benefactions, ranging from 5001. to 50/., " depensilled in gold characters." In this hall the governors dined annually, each steward contributing 15. towards the expenses, the dinner being dressed in the spacious kitchen beneath, only used for this purpose. This hall and kitchen were taken down at the close of the year 3862 the official buildings facing Bridge-street remain. The great picture of Edward VI. transferring Bridewell Palace to the City of London, which was engraved by Vertue in 1750, and afterwards adopted into the series of historical prints published by the Society of Antiquaries, was long accredited as painted by Holbein, whereas, it represents an occurrence which took place in 1553, ten years after Holbein's death. Consequently, it is simply impossible that he could have painted it, notwithstanding that one of the figures in the background was asserted by Vertue and by Walpole to be Holbein's own portrait, Upon this picture, Mr. J. Gough Nichols, F.S.A., remarked, in 1859, that "it is not now regarded as Holbein's work, as it bears no comparison with his capital picture at Barber-Surgeons' Hall of King Henry VIII. granting his charter to that Company." " But," adds Mr. Nichols, " after all, though not a masterly work of art, it is a valuable item among a very few historical pictures, and it would be desirable to recover its real history, of which we literally know nothing." ArcJiceologia xxxix. 21. A very interesting historical fact in connexion with Bridewell remains to be noticed. Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper Office, has discovered in that depository a manuscript showing that in the old Bridewell were imprisoned the members of the Congregational Church first formed after the accession of Elizabeth. On the evening of the 20th of June, 1567, the gates of the old prison were opened to receive a company of Christian men and women, who were committed to the custody of the gaoler for an indefinite term, at the pleasure of the authorities, who consigned them to his care. The Lord Mayor, in pity for their condition, urged them to make the required acknowledg- ment ; but they conscientiously refused. Then were led to their cells, men unknown to fame, but who discovered the long-neglected principles of Church Government in the New Testament, which have wrought in silence much mighty and beneficial changes. It is, no doubt, to this company that Bishop Grindal refers, in his letter to Bullinger, July 11, 1568 : " Some London citizens," he says, " with four or five ministers, have openly separated from us, and sometimes in private houses, sometimes in fields, and, occasionally, even in ships, they have held meetings and administered the Sacraments. Besides this, they have ordained ministers, elders, and deacons after their own way. The number of the sect is about two hundred, but consisting of more women than men. The Privy Council have lately committed the heads of this faction to prison, and are now using means to put a timely stop to the sect." BRIDGES. 65 Dr. Waddington has also discovered some papers written by the members of this Church in the Bridewell, signed chiefly by Christian women ; together with a docu- ment containing a brief statement of their principles, by Richard Fitz, their pastor. It appears from these records which have been kept for nearly three hundred years that Richard Fitz, their minister ; Thomas Rowland, deacon ; Partridge, and Giles Fowler ; died in prison. From the enlarged proportions the congregational denomina- tion has since reached in Great Britain and America, considerable interest is attached to Bridewell because of these associations. Dr. Waddington, following the current of history from this hidden source, shows, by indisputable evidence from original papers in the public archives, that the succession of Congregational Churches from this period is continuous : the Bridewell may thus be regarded as the starting-point of Congrega- tionalism after the Reformation.* These touching and simple memorials have been preserved by the Metropolitan Bishop, and finally transferred to the royal archives. The name of Fitz was known to the Christian exiles in Holland associated with the Pilgrim Fathers. Henry Ains- worth speaks of " that separated Church, whereof Mr. Fitz was pastor, in the begin- ning of Queen Elizabeth's reign." It was reserved for us to identify him in his rela- tion to the " Flock of Slaughter," suffering bonds and imprisonment in the Bridewell. These original papers enable us with certainty to trace the origin of the first voluntary Church in England after the Marian persecution, as contemporaneous with the Angli- can movement. See Historical Papers : No. 1, Richard Fits. BRIDGES. SPHERE is no feature of the metropolis calculated to convey so enlarged an idea of -*- the wealth, enterprise, and skill of its population, as the Eight Bridges, which have been thrown across the Thames within the present century. Until the year 1750, the long narrow defile of Old London Bridge formed the sole land communication between the City and the suburbs on the Surrey bank of the Thames ; whereas now, westward of the structure built to replace the ancient Bridge, are Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Lambeth Suspension, Westminster, Vauxhall, and Chelsea Bridges, besides the Railway Bridges to be described elsewhere. LONDON BRIDGE, the first Bridge across the Thames at the metropolis, was of wood, erected in the year 994, opposite the site of the present St. Botolph's Wharf: it is mentioned in a statute of Ethelred II., fixing the tolls to be paid by boats bringing fish to " Bylynsgate." The first wooden bridge is stated to have been built by the pious Brothers of St. Mary's monastery, on the Bankside ; which house was originally a convent of sisters, founded and endowed with the profits of a ferry at this spot, by Mary, the only daughter of the ferryman, who is traditionally said to be represented by an antique monumental figure in St. Saviour's Church. This bridge is described with turrets and roofed bulwarks in the narrative of the invasion of the fleet of Swe.yn, King of Denmark, in 994 , and it was nearly destroyed by the Norwegian Prince Oluf in 1008. It was rebuilt before the invasion of Canute in 1016, who is said to have sunk a deep ditch on the south side, and dragged his ships to the west side of the bridge. It was easily passed by Earl Godwin in 1052 ; but it was swept away by flood in 1091 ; rebuilt in 1097 ; burnt in 1136 ; and a new bridge erected of elm-timber in 1163, by Peter, chaplain of St. Mary Colechurch, Poultry. The same pious architect began to build a stone bridge, a little to the west of the wooden one, in 1176 ; when Henry II. gave towards the expenses the proceeds of a tax on wool, which gave rise to the popular saying that " London Bridge was built upon woolpacks." Peter of Colechurch died m 1205, having, it would appear, left the bridge unfinished four years previously; since the Patent Roll of the third year of the reign of King John informs us that the King was anxious to bring the Bridge to perfection, and in 1201 took upon himself to recommend to the Mayor and citizens of London for that purpose, Isenbert, Master of the Schools of Xainctes, who had already constructed a bridge there, and at Rochelle. A translation of this Royal Writ is given in the * Sec Walks and Talks about London, 1865, pp. 31-38. 66 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Chronicles of Old London Bridge (pp. 70, 71). In it the King states that, by the advice of Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, he had entreated Isenbert to undertake the building (or rather completion) of the bridge, and that he had granted the profits of the edifices Isenbert was to build on the bridge to be for ever applied to its repair and sustentation ; in another document mention is made of the houses built upon the bridge, as well as to a plan of lighting the bridge by night, according to Isenbert's plan. (See Mr. Hardy's Introduction to the Patent Eolls, and Mr. W. Sidney Gibson's communication to Notes and Queries, 2nd s., ix., 119.) The bridge was, accordingly, finished in 1209. It consisted of a stone platform, 926 feet long and 40 in width, standing about 60 feet above the level of the water; and of a drawbridge and 19 broad-pointed arches, with massive piers. It had a gate-house at each end; and towards the centre, on the east side, a Gothic chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury ; in the crypt of which, within a pier of the bridge, was deposited, in a stone tomb, the body of Peter of Colechurch. Up to the year 1250, a toll of twelve pence, a considerable sum at that time, had been levied upon every ship passing under London Bridge, i.e. through the drawbridge in the middle. The many edicts about the nets used upon the Thames show how carefully the fisheries were watched, and how productive they must have been. Norden describes the bridge, in the reign of Elizabeth, as "adorned with sumptuous buildings and statelie and beautiful houses on either syde," like one continuous street, " except certain voyd places for the retyre of passengers from the danger of cars, carts, and droves of cattle, usually passing that way," through which vacancies only could the river be seen over the parapet-walls or palings. Some of the houses had platform roofs, with pretty little gardens and arbours. Near the drawbridge, and overhanging the river side, was the famed Nonsuch House, of the Elizabethan age : it was constructed in Holland, entirely of timber, put together with wooden pegs only, and was four stories high, richly carved and gilt. There is a view of London Bridge by Norden, which is a pearl of great price among print collectors. One impression, in the Sutherland Clarendon, in the Bodleian Library, is in the second state, and differs materially from the view published by Norden, in the reign of Elizabeth, twenty-seven years earlier than the Sutherland impression. Of the first named view, an early impression was discovered in Germany in 1863, by Mr. J. Holbert Wilson ; the old houses upon the bridge are neatly engraved ; and a cluster of traitors' heads is placed upon poles on the top of the bridge gate. The print in the second state has lost five inches in depth, and the dedication states that Norden had described it in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but the plate had been "neare these twenty years, embezzed and detained by a person till of late unknown ;" it was, therefore, not published until late in the reign of James I., then in a mutilated state ; though the above is evidence of impressions of the first state. This is, therefore, the oldest known view of London Bridge. We may here mention another old view of London Bridge one of a series published by Boydell and Co., in 1818, with a note stating it to have been copied from a print engraved in 1751, from a "very antient picture; but the plate (which was a private one) was afterwards mislaid." This view is birds- eye, reaching from the bridge to St. Katharine's ; in it appears St. Paul's, with the spire, which was burnt in 1561. Beneath the view this is stated to be " the oldest view of London extant ;" but we have Van den Wyngrerde's (1543) view, in the Sutherland Collection. In neither of these views, however, is London Bridge so distinctly shown as in Norden's horizontal view : the detail of the houses on the bridge is surprisingly minute. The chronicles of this stone bridge through nearly six centuries and a quarter form, perhaps, the most interesting episode in the history of London. The scenes of fire and siege, insurrection and popular vengeance, of national rejoicing and of the pageant victories of man and of death, of fame or funeral it were vain for us to attempt to recite. In 1212, within four years after the bridge being finished, there was a terrific conflagration at each end, when nearly 3000 persons perished; in 1264, Henry III. was repulsed here by De Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and the populace attacked the Queen in her barge as it was preparing to shoot the Bridge ; in 1381, the rebel Wat Tyler entered the City by this road ; in 1392, Richard II. was received here with great pomp by the citizens ; in 1415, it was the scene of a grand tri- umph of Henry V., and in 1422 of his funeral procession ; in 1428, the Duke of Norfolk's barge was lost by upsetting at the bridge, and his Grace narrowly escaped ; in 1450 " Jack Cade hath gotten London Bridge ; the citizens Fly and forsake their houses :" but the rebel was defeated, and his head placed upon the Gate-house : in 1477, Falcon- bridge attacked the Bridge, and fired several houses ; in 1554, it was one of the daring scenes of Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion; in 1632 more than one-third of the houses BRIDGE OLD LONDON. 67 were consumed in an accidental conflagration ; and in 16f>6 the labyrinth of dwellings was swept away by the Great Fire : the whole street was rebuilt within twenty years ; but, in 1757, the houses were entirely removed, and parapets and balustrades erected on each side ; in this state the Bridge remained till its demolition in 1832. In 1582, at the west side of the City end of the Bridge, Waterworks were commenced by Morice, with water-wheels turned by the flood and ebb current of the Thames passing through the purposely contracted arches, and working pumps for the supply of water to the metropolis ; this being the earliest example of public water service by pumps and mechanical powers which enabled water to be distributed in pipes to dwelling-houses. Previously, water had only been supplied to public cisterns, from whence it was conveyed at great expense and inconvenience in buckets and carts. These Waterworks were not removed until 1822, when the pro- prietors received for their interest 10,OOOZ. from the Xew River Company. The Bridge shops had signs, and were " furnished with all manner of trades." Holbein is said to have lived here ; as did also Herbert, the printseller, and editor of Ames's Typographical Antiquities, at the time the houses were taken down. On the first night Herbert spent here, a dreadful fire took place on the banks of the Thames, which suggested to him the plan of a floating fire-engine, soon afcer adopted. Tradesmen's Tokens furnish but few records of the Bridge shopkeepers. " As fine as London Bridge " was formerly a proverb in the City ; and many a serious, sensible tradesman used to believe that heap of enormities to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and, next to Solomon's Temple, the finest thing that ever art produced. Pin-makers, the first of whom was a negro, kept shops in con- siderable numbers here, as attested by their printed shop-bills. The Bridge was also the abode of many artists : here lived Peter Monamy, the marine painter, who was taught drawing by a sign and house painter on London Bridge. Dominic Serres once kept shop here ; and Hogarth lived here when he engraved for old John Bowles, in Cornhill. Swift and Pope have left accounts of their visits to Crispin Tucker, a waggish bookseller and author-of-all-work, who lived under the southern gate. One Baldwin, haberdasher, born in the house over the Chapel, at seventy-one could not sleep in the country for want of the noise of the roaring and rushing tide beneath, which " he had been always used to hear." A most terrific historic garniture of the Bridge was the setting up of heads on its .gate-houses : among these ghastly spectacles were the head of Sir William Wallace, 1305 ; Simon Frisel, 1306 ; four traitor knights, 1397 ; Lord Bardolf, 1408 ; Boling- broke, 1440 ; Jack Cade and his rebels, 1451 ; the Cornish traitors of 1497 ; and bf Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 1535, displaced in fourteen days by the head of Sir Thomas More. In 1577, the several heads were removed from the north end of the Drawbridge to the Southwark entrance, thence called Traitors' Gate. In 1578, the head of a recusant priest was added to the sickening sight ; and in 1605, that of Garnet the Jesuit, as well as those of the Romish priests executed under the statutes of Elizabeth and James I. Hentzner counted above thirty heads on the Bridge in 1598. The display was transferred to Temple Bar in the reign of Charles II. The narrowness of the Bridge arches so contracted the channel of the river as to cause a rapid ; and to pass through them was termed to " shoot the bridge," a peril taken advantage of by suicides. Thus, in 1689, Sir William Temple's only son, lately made Secretary at War, leaped into the river from a boat as it darted through an arch : he had filled his pockets with stones, and was drowned, leaving in the boat this note : " My folly in undertaking what I could not perform, whereby some misfortunes have befallen the King's service, is the cause of my putting myself to this sudden end ; I wish him success in all his undertakings, and a better servant." Pennant adds to the anecdote that Sir William Temple's false and profane reflection on the occasion wa?, that " a wise man might dispose of himself, and make his life as short as he pleased !" In 1737, Eustace Budgell, a soi-disant cousin of Addison, and who wrote in the Spectator &nh school ; the number of scholars has since been reduced to 26. Improved schemes of education have been suggested, to comprise instruction in needlework, washing, cooking, and other household work. Apart from the special purpose for which Christ's Hospital was endowed, there are seven distinct Charities appropriated, in part or in whole, to entirely separate objects. The annual income from six of these charities may be stated at 9000Z. The seventh, the Charity to the Blind, by the Rev. W. Hetherington, since augmented by many bene- factors, is the wealthiest of all : in one year, 65201. have been paid to 652 aged blind persons. To this fund the late Richard Thornton, Esq., bequeathed 10,OOOJ. CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. AN episcopal see was founded in London in the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, but very little is known concerning it. From the establishment of the Saxons in Britain to the mission of Augustine, in 596, there is no record of any Bishop in London; but when Augustine had established himself at Canterbury, he consecrated Mellitus Bishop, in the year 604. The East Saxons relapsed into paganism, on the death of Sebert, their king, when Mellitus was driven out, and 102 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. London remained without a Bishop until 656, in which year Cedd (or Chad), at the invitation of King Sigebert the Good, re-established the see, which has ever since con- tinued without any material interruption or lengthened vacancy. London and the suburbs, in the Middle Ages, contained, according to Fitzstephen, " 13 churches belonging to convents, besides 126 lesser parish churches." Of those belonging to convents eleven may be traced. Thus, we find in Fitzstephen's time, Trinity Priory, Aldgate; St. Bartholomew's, West Smithfield; Bermondsey, South- wark ; St. James's Priory, Clerkenwell ; the Priory of St. John the Baptist, Holy well, Shoreditch ; St. Katharine's Hospital by the Tower ; St. Thomas Aeon, at the south- west corner of King-street, Cheapside, upon the site of the birth-place of St. Thomas a Becket ; St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell ; the Temple ; St. Mary Overie, South- wark; and St. Martin's-le-Grand, so named from its magnificence. All, except Bermondsey, are shown in Wyngrerde's View of London, 1543, in the Sutherland Collection, at Oxford. Stow states the entire number of parish churches at his time (1525 1605), in and about London, within four miles' compass, at 139. Within the walls, at the Great Fire, there were 98 churches, of which 85 were burnt down, and 13 unburnt ; 53 were rebuilt, and 35 united to ether parishes. The following were the City Churches burnt and not rebuilt : Allhallows, Honey-lane ; near the City School. Alihallows the Less, in Thames-street, near Cole- harbour-lane, graveyard remains. St. Andrew Hubbard, near to the site of the Weigh House ChapeL St. Ann, Blackfriars, Ireland-yard, now graveyard. St. Benet Sherehog, Pancras-lane, near Bucklers- bury, now graveyard. St. Botolph Billingsgate, over against Botolph-lane, Thames-street ; burying- ground, and the site built upon. St. Faith was under the lien of the late Cathedral of St. Paul's, in the ground of which, previous to the Intramural Act, the parishioners had a right of interment. St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, in Fenchurch-street, graveyard exists. St. Gregory, in St. Paul's-churchyard, near where the statue of Queen Anne now stands. St. John Baptist, on Dowgate-hill, the corner of Cloak-lane, now graveyard. St. John Evangelist, in Watling-street, corner of Friday-street, now graveyard. St. John Zachary, corner of Silver-street, Falcon-square, now graveyard. St. Laurence Pountney, on Lau- rence Pountney-hill, now graveyard. St. Leonard's, Eastcheap, now graveyard. St. Leonard, Foster-lane, the graveyard part of the site of the General Post Office. St. Margaret Moses, in Passing- alley, late a burying-ground, now Little Friday-street. St. Margaret, New Fish-street, church and burial ground, where the Monument now stands. St. Martin Pomeroy, in Ironmonger-lane, on part of the ground now the graveyard. St. Martin Orgar, in St. Martin's-lane, where there is now a French Church, fet. Martin's Vintry, College-hill, Thames-street, now graveyard. St. Mary Bothaw, in Turnwheel- lane, now graveyard. St. Mary Colechurch, in Old Jewry, where the Mercers' Hal Iwas, and Frederick- place now is. St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street, and ground, where part of Honey-lane Market now stands. !St. Mary Mounthaw, on Labour-in-vain-hill, now graveyard. St. Mary Staining, on the north side of Oat-lane, on a part of the graveyard remaining, opposite Titus Gates' House, now pulled down. St. Mary "VVoolchurch and graveyard, where the Mansion House now stands. St. Michael-le-Querne, near Pater- noster-row, in Cheapside, where a conduit formerly stood. St. Nicholas Aeons, in Nicholas-lane, now graveyard. St. Nicholas Olave, in Bread-street-hill, now graveyard. St. Olave, Silver-street, south side of Noble-street, now graveyard j under part of which some remains of the church have been discovered. St. Pancras Soper lane, in Pancras-lane, near Queen-street, where is the graveyard. St. Peter Cheap, corner of Wood-street, Cheapside, where the graveyard still remains, and where the plane-tree still flourishes, on which the rooks, till lately, annually built their nests. St. Peter Paul's-wharf, at the bottom of Peter' s-hill, Thames-street, now graveyard. St. Thomas the Apostle, now graveyard, corner of Cloak-lane. The Holy Trinity church, where there is now a Lutheran church, corner of Little Trinity- lane. St. Christopher-le-Stocks church, in Threadneedle-street, pulled down in 1781, for the enlarge- ment of the Bank of England. Pepys records this odd circumstance concerning the London churches destroyed in the Great Fire : " January 7th, 1667-8. It is observed, and is true, in the late Fire of London, that the fire burned just as many parish churches as there were hours from the beginning to the end of the fire; and next that there were just as many churches left standing in the rest of the City that was not burned, being, I think, thirteen in all of each ; which is pretty to observe." Sir Christopher Wren built, besides St. Paul's and the western towers of West- minster Abbey, fifty churches in the metropolis, at sums varying from less than 2500Z. to upwards of 15,000?. In " Gothic," or, as Wren proposed to call it, " Saracenic," architecture, he was certainly not a successful practitioner ; although in the adaptation, of a steeple (a form peculiar to Pointed architecture) to Roman buildings, he has mani- fested much ingenuity, and produced some light and graceful forms of almost endless variety. This may be seen by reference to Mr. Cockerell's picturesque grouping of the principal works of Wren, the drawing of which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838, and has been engraved in line by Richardson. In the reign of Queen Anne were built or commenced eleven churches. In the next two reigns were completed three large churches, each distinguished by a noble Corinthian portico : viz., St. George's, Bloomsbury ; St. Martin's-in-the- Fields ; and St. George's, Hanover-square. With the exception of St. Peter-le-Poor CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 103 (1791) and St. Martin's Outwich (1796) not one church was built from the com- mencement of the reign of George III. nearly to the Regency, an interval of more than half a century. The two Grecian orders, Doric and Ionic, were then adopted in church- building; this pseudo classic-style was superseded by the Old English of various periods. The increase of churches did not, however, keep pace with the population ; though the appeals to the public for funds were, in some instances, answered with rare munificence. Thus, in the subscriptfon-list in 1836 for building new churches we find the following donation : " A clergyman seeking for treasure in heaven, 5000Z." In 1839, Lord John Russell stated in Parliament, that in London there were 34 parishes, with a population of 1,1.70,000, and church accommodation for only 101,000 ; and in these 34 parishes were only 69 churches, and including proprietary chapels, only 100 places of worship in the whole ; whereas, if we allot a church to every 3000, there ought to be 379, leaving a deficiency of 279. In the following year, 1840, the Bishop of London remarked to the House of Lords : \ ^ " If you proceed a mile or two eastward of St. Paul's, you will find yourself in the midst of a popu- '" lation themost wretched and destitute of mankind, consisting of artificers, labourers, beggars, and thieves, to the amount of 300,000 or 400,000 souls ! Throughout this entire quarter there is not more than one church for 10,000 inhabitants ; and in one, nay in two districts, there is but one church for 45,000 souls." The Rev. Dr. Gumming next stated that in a radius of eight miles around St. Paul's there was a population of two millions, of whom not more than 60,000 were com- municants in any church or chapel whatever. Instead of five-eighths, or 1,300,000, of the population being church-goers, the greatest extent of attendance at any place of worship did not exceed 400,000, and not more than 600,000 could be accommodated. In a small district of Covent Garden there were 354 houses : 338 were of the most wretched description ; these contained 1216 individuals, of whom only 134 attended church ; and in that small locality there were no fewer than 44 shops regularly open on the Sabbath. In some cases there was a population of 100,000 in the parish, with only one rector and one curate. The above startling statistics led to a " Metropolis f\ Churches Fund," established in 1836, by which means several churches have been built ^ and provided for. The great number of the City churches is, however, now disproportionate to its requirements. In 1834, Mr. Lambert Jones stated in the Court of Common Council, that the population of the City had within a century decreased one-half; that the number of inhabitants did not then exceed 53,000, and for them were 66 churches. The population of the City may now be set down at 55,000, for whom there are 60 churches, a proportion very different to that which exists in other parts of the metropolis. At St. Mildred's, Poultry, on a Sunday morning, there has been only one person to form a congregation, and there was, consequently, no service. By a Parliamentary return, the largest income is 20S1Z. 9s. 4d., for St. Botolph, Bishops- gate ; and the smallest but one is 401., for St. Helen, Bishopsgate. In one church (St. Laurence Jewry and St. Mary Magdalen, Milk-street), with sittings for 1000 persons, the average attendance is only 30. At another church, with 700 sittings, the average attendance is 30. In 1853, the congregations were, in some cases, below 16, and in many under 50 : average about 33. Various remedies have been proposed, as the union of benefices, and the removal of churches to ill-provided parishes. " The Bishop of London's Fund" has been formed. In the 211 parishes of the metropolis there are nearly 1,000,000 persons for whom the Church of England ought eventually to provide, which is sought to be done by raising a fund of 3,000,000^. " One of the most important movements of our time originated in the late Bishop of London's sense of the great church destitution observable principally in the Bethnal-green district, which became even at the outset metropolitan. Jt has resulted up to the present time in the erection, and more or less complete endowment, of no less than seventy-eight new churches in and near London, at a cost of more than half a million ; independently of seven new churches, the entire erection and endowment of which by seven separate individuals (one being the Bishop himself), is wholly attributable to the impulse de- rived from the appeal made to the public on the first formation of the Metropolitan Churches Fund. This is a great achievement, and it will go down in history a lasting honour to Bishop Blomfield's name. Yet it is remarkable that the first publication of this great design very nearly coincided in point of time with that of the publication of the first Tracts for the Times ; and its success was most materially aided by the munificent zeal with which Dr. Pusey, in particular, and the then Oxford residents generally, the Tract-writers and their friends, took it up and forwarded it ; but it was the Bishop's conception and execution." The Ghiardian- 104 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. OLD SAINT PAUL'S. rilHE present Cathedral of St. Paul is the third church dedicated to that saint, and J- built very nearly upon the same site. The first church was founded about A.D. 610, by Ethelbert, King of Kent, but destroyed by fire in 1087. Its rebuilding was commenced by Bishop Maurice, whose successor completed the enclosing walls, which extended as far as Paternoster-row and Ave Maria-lane, on one side ; and to Old Change, Carter-lane, and Creed-lane on the other. This second church, " Old Saint Paul's," was built of Caen stone: it was greatly injured by fire in 1137; but a new steeple was finished in 1221, and in 1240 a choir. The entire edifice was 690 feet long, and 130 feet broad; and its tower and spire rose 520 feet, or 116 feet higher than the spire of Salisbury Cathedral ; 64 feet loftier than that of Vienna ; 50 feet higher than that of Strasburg ; surpassing the height of the Great Pyramid of Egypt ; and higher than the Monument placed upon the cross of the present Cathedral. It had a bowl of copper-gilt, 9 feet in compass (large enough to hold 10 bushels of corn), supporting a cross 15J feet high, surmounted by an " eagle-cock of copper-gilt, 4 feet long." In 1314, the cross fell ; and the steeple of wood covered with lead, being ruinous, was taken down, and rebuilt, with a new gilt ball. The French Chronicle notices this reparation, and describes the extraordinary relics which were found in the old ball, and replaced, with additions, in the new one. In 1444, the steeple was nearly destroyed by lightning, and not repaired till 1462. In 1561, the Cathedral was partly burnt, but was restored in 1566, except the spire, which was never rebuilt. Heylin, in his Cosmography, says of the above catastrophe : "It was by the carelessness of the sexton consumed with fire, which happening in a thundering and tempestuous day, was by him confidently affirmed to be done by lightning, and was so generally believed till the hour of his death; but not many years since, to disabuse the world, he confessed the truth of it, on which discovery, the burning of St. Paul's steeple by lightning was left out of our common almanacks, where formerly it stood among the ordinary epochs or accounts of time." The church was of the Latin cross form, with a Lady chapel at the east end, and two other chapels, St. George's north, and St. Dunstan's south. At the eastern extremity of the churchyard stood a square docker, or bell -tower, with four bells, rung to summon the citizens to folkmotes held here. These bells belonged to St. Faith's under St. Paul's, a church so situated, hut demolished about 1256, when part of the crypt beneath the Cathedral choir was granted to "the parishioners for divine service. Hence the popular story in our time of there being a church under St. Paul's, and service in it once a year. At the south-west corner was the parish church of St. Gregory. Fuller wittily describes Old St. Paul's as being "truly the mother-church, having one babe in her body St. Faith's and another in her arms St. Gregory's/' On the south side of the Cathedral, within a cloister, was a chapter-house, in the Pointed style; and on the north, on the walls of another cloister, next to the charnel- house, was a " Dance of Death," or, as Stow calls it, " Death leading all Estates, curiously painted upon board, with the speeches of Death, and answer of every Estate," by John Lydgate. It was painted at the cost of John Carpenter, Town Clerk of London, temp. Henry V. and VI. On special saints' days it was customary for the choristers of the Cathedral to ascend the spire to a great height, and there to chant solemn prayers and anthems : the last observance of this custom was in the reign of Queen Mary, when, " after even-song, the quere of Paules began to go about the steeple singing with lightes, after the olde custome." A similar tenure-custom is observed to this day at Oxford, on the morning of May 1, on Magdalen College tower. Camden relates, that on the anniversary of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25, held in the church, a fat buck was received with great formality at the choir entrance by the canons, in their sacerdotal vestments, and with chaplets of flowers on their heads; whilst the antlers of the buck were carried on a pike in procession round the edifice, with horns blowing, &c. On the buck being offered at the high altar, one shilling was paid by the Dean and Chapter. CHURCHES OLD SAINT PAUL'S. 105 St. Baude, in lieu of twenty-two acres, bequeathed a fat doe in winter, and a buck in summer, which was received at the altar crowned with roses by the chapter annually, till the reign of Elizabeth. On the north side near the east end stood Paul's or Fowly's Cross, with a pulpit whence sermons were preached, the anathema of the Pope thundered forth, heresies recanted, and sins atoned for. The Cross was hexagonal in form ; of wood, raised on stone steps, with a canopy covered with lead, on which was elevated a cross. Stow could not ascertain its date : we first read of it in 1259, when, by command of Henry III, striplings were here sworn to be loyal : and in the same year the folkmote Common Hall assembled here by the tolling of St. Paul's great bell. At preaching the commonalty sat in the open air ; the king, his train, and noblemen in covered galleries. All preachers coming from a distance had an allowance from the Corporation, and were lodged during five days " in sweete and con- venient lodgings, with fire, candle, and all necessary food." Bishop Northburgh lent small sums to citizens on pledge, directing that if at the year's end they were not restored, then that "the preacher at Paul's Cross should declare that the pledge, within fourteen days would be sold, if unredeemed." An earthquake overthrew the Cross in 1382; it was set up again by Bishop Kemp in 1419. Ralph Baldoc, Dean of Paul's, cursed from the Cross all persons who had searched in the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields for a hoard of gold. In 1483, Jane Shore, with a taper in one hand, and arrayed in her " kertell onelj e," did open penance at the Cross. In the same year, Dr. Shaw and Friar Pinke aided the traitorous schemes of Duke Richard; the preacher took for his text these words, " Bastard slips shall never take deep root." Stow in forms us that the Doctor so repented his " shamefuf sermon " that it struck him to the heart, and " within a few days he withered and consumed away." Friar Pinke lost his voice while preaching, and was forced to leave the pulpit. Royal contracts of mar- riage were notified from the Cross. Henry VIII. sent preachers to the Cross every Sunday to preach down the Pope's authority. In 1538, Bishop Fisher exposed at the Cross the famous rood of grace from Boxley Abbey. From his attendance there, as a preacher, Richard Hooker dated the miseries of his married life. Queen Mary caused sermons to be preached at the Cross in praise of the old religion, but they occasioned serious riots. The Cross was pulled down in 1643, by order of Parliament ; its site was long denoted by a tall elm tree. The interior of the church was divided throughout by two ranges of clustered columns ; it had a rich screen, and canopied doorways ; and a large painted rose- window at the east end. The walls were sumptuously adorned with pictures, shrines, and curiously wrought tabernacles; gold and silver, rubies, emeralds, and pearls glittered in splendid profusion ; and upon the high altar were heaped countless stores of gold and silver plate, and illuminated missals. The shrine of St. Erkenwald (the fourth bishop), at the back of the high altar, had' among its jewels a sapphire, believed to cure diseases of the eye. The mere enumeration of these treasures fills twenty-eight pages of Dugdale's folio history of the Cathedral. King John of France offered at St. Erkenwald's shrine; King Henry III. on the feast of St. Paul's Conver- sion, gave 1500 tapers to the church, and fed 15,000 poor in the garth, or close. There are several notices of miracles said to have been wrought in St. Paul's at " a tablet," or picture, set up by Thomas Earl of Lancaster, who, after his execution at Pontefract, was reckoned a martyr by the populace. The tablet was removed by royal order, but replaced a few years later. At the base of one of the pillars was sculp- tured the foot of Algar, the first prebendary of Islington, as the standard measure for legal contracts in land, just as Henry I., Eichard I., and John, furnished the iron ell by their arms. On the north side of the choir, " on whose monument hung his proper helmet and spear, as also his target covered with horn " (Dugdale), stood the stately tomb of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Blanche, his first wife. In St. Dunstan's chapel was the fine old tomb of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, from whom Lincoln's Inn derives its name. In the middle aisle of the nave stood the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp, constable of Dover Castle, and son to Guy Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Between the choir and south aisle was a noble monument to Sir Nicholas Bacon, father of Lord Chancellor Bacon ; and " higher than the post and altar," (Bishop Corbet), between two columns of the choir, was the sumptuous monument of Sir Christopher Hatton ; and near it was a tablet to Sir Philip Sidney, and another to his father-in-law, Sir Francis Walsingham, The stately appearance of Hatton's monu- ment and the plainness of Walsingham's and Sidney's tablets, gave rise to this epigram by old Stow : "Philip and Francis have no tomb, For great Sir Christopher takes all the room." 106 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. In the south aisle of the choir were the tombs of two of the Deans ; Colet the founder of Paul's school, a recumbent skeleton ; and Dr. Donne, the poet, standing in his stony shroud : the latter is preserved in the crypt of the present Cathedral. In a vault, near John of Gaunt's tomb, was buried Van Dyck ; but the outbreak of the wars under Charles I., prevented the erection of any monument to his memory. The state obsequies were a profitable privilege of the Cathedral : the choir was hung with black and escutcheons ; and the horses were magnificently adorned with banner-rolls and other insignia of vainglory. The floor of the church was laid out in walks: "the south alley for usurye and poperye; the north for simony and the horse-fair; in the midst for all kinds of bar- gains, meetings, brawlings, murthers, conspiracies, &c." The middle aisle, " Pervyse of Paul's," or " Paul's Walk," was commonly called " Duke Humphrey's Walk," from Sir John Beauchamp's monument, unaccountably called " Duke Humphrey's Tomb," being the only piece of sculpture here ; and as this walk was a lounge for idlers and hunters after news, wits and gallants, cheats, usurers, and knights of the post, dinnerless per- sons who lounged there were said to dine with Duke Humphrey. Here " each lawyer and serjeant at his pillar heard his client's cause, and took notes thereof upon his knee." (Dugdale's Orig. Jurid.) Here masterless men, at the Si quis door, set up their bills for service. Here the font was used as a counter for payments. Here spur money was demanded by two choristers from any person entering the Cathedral during divine service with spurs on. Hither Fleetvvood, Recorder of London, came " to learn some news" to convey by news-letter to Lord Burghley. Ben Jonson has laid a scene of his Every Man out of Ms Humour in " the middle aisle in Paule's ;" Captain Bobadil is a " Paul's man ;" and Falstaff bought Bardolph in Paul's. Greene, in his Theeves Falling Out, fyc., says : " Walke in the middle of Paul's, and gentlemen's teeth walk not faster at ordinaries, than there a whole day together about enquiry after news." Bishop Earle, in his Microcosmoyraphia, 1629, says : " Paul's Walk is the Land's Epitome, or you may call it the lesser He of Great Brittaine. * * * * The noyse in it is like that of Bees, in strange hummings or buzze, mixt of walking, tongues, and feet; it is a kind of still roare, or loud whisper." It was a common thoroughfare for porters and carriers, for ale, beer, bread, fish, flesh, fardels of stuff, and " mules, horses, and other beasts ;" drunkards lay sleeping on the benches at the choir-door ; within, dunghills were suffered to accumulate ; and in the choir people walked " with their hatts on their heddes." Dekker, in his Gull's Hornbook, tells us that the church was profaned by shops, not only of booksellers, but of other trades, such as " the semster's shops," and " the new tobacco office." So great had the nuisances become, that the Mayor and Common Council in 1554, prohibited, by fine, the use of the church for such irreverent purposes. The desecration of the exterior of the church was more abominable. The chantry and other chapels were used for stores and lumber, as a school and a glazier's work- shop ; parts of the vaults were occupied by a carpenter, and as a wine-cellar ; and the cloisters were let out to trunkmakers, whose " knocking and noyse" greatly disturbed the church-service. Houses were built against the outer walls, in which closets and window-ways were made : one was used " as a play-house," and in another the owner " baked his bread and pies in an oven excavated within a buttress ;" for a trifling fee, the bell-ringers allowed wights to ascend the tower, halloo, and throw stones at the passengers beneath. The first recorded Lottery in England was drawn at the west door in 1569. Dekker describes " Paul's Jacks," automaton figures, which struck the quarters, on the clock. We read, too, of rope-dancing feats from the battlements of St. Paul's exhibited before Edward VI., and in the reign of Queen Mary, who, the day before her coronation, also witnessed a Dutchman standing upon the weathercock of the steeple, waving a five-yard streamer ! Another marvel of this class was the ascent of Bankes, on his famous horse Marocco, to the top of St. Paul's, in the year 1600, to the delight of " a number of asses" who brayed below. The steed was " a middle- sized bay English gelding," and Bankes was a vintner in Cheapside, and had taught his horse to count and perform a variety of feats. When the novelty had somewhat lessened in London, Bankes took his wonderful horse to Paris, and afterwards to CHURCHES ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 107 Home. " Pic had better have stayed at home, for both he and his horse (which was shod with silver) were burnt for witchcraft." (Ben Jonson's Epigrams.) Shakspeare alludes to " the dancing horse" {Love's Labour Lost) ; and in a tract called Maroccus Extaiicus, qto., 1595, there is a rude woodcut of the unfortunate juggler and his famous gelding. Cunningham's Handbook. Several attempts were made to restore the Cathedral ; and money, Stow says, was collected for rebuilding the steeple ; but no eifectual step for the repairs was taken until 1633, when Inigo Jones, to remove the desecration from the nave to the ex- terior, built, it is stated at the expense of Charles I., at the west end, a Corinthian ^portico of eight columns, with a balustrade in panels, upon which he intended to have placed ten statues : this portico was 200 feet long, 40 feet high, and 50 feet deep; but its classic design, affixed to a Gothic church, must be condemned, unless it be con- sidered as an instalment of a new cathedral. Laud was then Bishop of London. The sum collected was 101.330Z. ; and the repairs progressed until about one-third of the money was expended, in 1642, when they were stopped by the contests between Charles and his people : the funds in hand were seized to pay the soldiers of the Commonwealth, and Old St. Paul's was made a horse-quarter for troops. Shortly after the Restoration, the repairs were resumed under Sir John Denham ; and " that miracle of a youth," Wren, drew plans for the entire renovation. A com- mission was appointed, but before the funds were raised, the whole edifice was destroyed in the Great .Fire: "The daring flames peep'd in, and saw from far The awful beauties of the sacred quire ; But since it was profan'd by civil war, Heav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire." Dryden's Annus Hfirabilis. Evelyn thus records the catastrophe : " I was infinitely concerned to find that goodly church, St. Paul's, now a sad ruin, and that beautiful portico (for structure, comparable to any in Europe) now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, but nothing remaining entire but the inscriptions, showing by whom it was built, which had not one letter defaced. It was astonishing to see what immense stones the heat had in a manner calcined, so that all the ornaments flew off, even to the very roof, where a sheet of lead covering a great space was totally melted. The lead over the altar at the east end was untouched, and among the monuments the body of one bishop remained entire." According to Dugdale, this was the corpse of Bishop Braybrooke, which had been inhumed 260 years, being " so dried up, the flesh, sinews, and skin cleaving fast to the bones, that being set upon the feet it stood as still as a plank, the skin being tough like leather, and not at all inclined to putrefaction, which some attributed to the sanctity of the person offering much money." In the Great Fire the church was reduced to a heap of ruins ; and books valued at 150.000Z., which had been placed in St. Faith's (the crypt) for safety by the stationers of Paternoster-row, were entirely destroyed. After the Fire, Wren removed part of the thick walls by gunpowder, but most he levelled with a battering-ram ; some of the stone was used to build parish churches, and some to pave the neighbouring streets. Tradition tells that Serjeants' Inn, Fleet-street, being then ecclesiastical property, was not forgotten in the distribution of the remains of Old St. Paul's ; and there remained to our day a large number of blocks of Purbeck stone, believed to have formed part of the old Cathedral. The west end of the old church was not taken down till 1686. In the same year a great quantity of old alabaster was beaten into powder for making cement. Those fragments were, doubtless, monumental effigies or other ornaments of the old church. In 1688 the tower was pulled down, and 162 corpses taken from its cemetery and re- buried at the west end of the old foundation, at 6d. each. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. TVT EARLY eight years elapsed after the Great Fire ere the ruins of the old Cathedral J-^ were cleared from the site. Meanwhile, Wren was instructed " to contrive a fabric of moderate bulk, but of good proportion ; a convenient quire, with a vestibule and porticoes, and a dome conspicuous above the houses." A design was accordingly prepared, octagonal in plan, with a central dome and cupolettas, and affording a vast 103 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. number of picturesque combinations, as sbown in the model, preserved to this day. It is of wood, and some 10 feet in height to the summit of the dome ; it is thus large enough to walk bodily into it. Wren aimed at a design antique and well studied, con- formable to the best style of the Greek and Koman architecture. The model is accu- rately wrought, and carved with all its proper ornaments, consisting of one order, the Corinthian only. The model, after the finishing of the new fabric, was deposited over the Morning Prayer Chapel, on the north side. Wren's model had neither side aisles nor oratories, though they were afterwards added, because as Spence, in his Anecdotes, imagines, the Duke of York (James II.) considered side aisles would be an absolute, necessity in a cathedral where he hoped the Romish ritual would soon be practised. These innovations sadly marred the uniformity of the original design, and when de- cided upon, drew tears of vexation from the architect. He was paid 160 guineas only for the model. The Surveyor next devised " a cathedral form, so altered as to recon- cile, as near as possible, the Gothic to a better manner of architecture ;" which being approved, Charles II. issued his warrant for commenc- ing the works May 1, 1675. In digging the foundation, a vast cemetery was dis- covered, in which Britons, Romans, and Saxons had been successively buried ; and on digging deeper, marine shells were found, thus proving that the sea once flowed over the site of the present cathedral. Wren did not, however, ' --*"' find any remains to support Relative positions of the Old and Xew Cathedrals. the tradition of a Roman temple to Diana having once occupied this spot. The accompanying ground-plan shows the relative positions of the Old and New Cathedrals. The first stone of the new church was laid June 21, 1675, by the architect and his lodge of Freemasons ; and the trowel and mallet then used are preserved in the Lodge of Antiquity, of which Wren was master. The mallet has a silver plate let into the head ; and it bears this inscription : " By Order of the M. W. the Grand Master, His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, &e., &c., and \V. Master of the Lodge of Antiquity, and with the Concurrence of the Brethren of the Lodge, this plate has been engraved and affixed to this MALLKT. A.L. 5831, A.D. 1827. To commemorate that this, being the same Mallet with which His MAJESTY KING CHARLES THB SKCOMD levelled the foundation Stone of ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, A.L. 5677, A.D. 1673, was presented to the Old Lodge of St. Paul's, now the Lodge of Antiquity, acting by immemorial Constitution. Bi BROTHER SIR CHRISTOPHER WHEN, R.W.D.G.M., Worshipful Master of the Lodge, and Architect of that Edifice." Portland stone had been selected, principally on account of the large scantlings procurable from those quarries, and yet no blocks of more than four feet in diameter could be procured. This led to the choice of two orders of architecture, with an attic story like that of St. Peter's at Rome, that the just proportions of the cornice might be preserved. In commencing the works, Wren accidentally set out the dimensions of the dome upon a piece of a gravestone inscribed Resurgam (I shall rise again) ; which pro- pitious circumstance is commemorated in a Phoenix rising from the flames, with the motto Resurgam, sculptured by Cibber in the pediment over the southern portico. In 1678 Wren set out the piers and pendentives of the dome. CHURCHES 8T. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 109 During the building, the Commissioners, with Sir Christopher Wren, issued the following very proper order : " Whereas, among labourers, &c., that ungodly custom of swearing is too frequently heard, to the dishonour of God and contempt of authority ; and to the end, therefore, that such impiety may be utterly banished from these works intended for the service of God and the honour of religion, it is ordered that customary swearing shall be sufficient crime to dismiss any labourer that comes to the call; and the clerk of the works, upon sufficient proof, shall dismiss them accordingly. And if any master, working by task, shall not upon admonition, refrain this profanation among his apprentices, servants, and labourers, it shall be construed his fault, and he shall be liable to be censured by the Commissioners. Dated 26th September, 1695." By 1685, the walls of the choir and its side aisles, and the north and south semi- circular porticoes, were finished ; the piers of the dome were also brought up to the same height. On Dec. 2, 1697, the choir was opened on the day of Thanksgiving for the peace of Ryswick, when Bishop Burnet preached before King William. On Feb. 1, 1699, the Morning Prayer Chapel, at the north-west angle, was opened; and in 1710 the son of the architect laid the last stone the highest slab on the top of the lantern. There is a strange story of a conspiracy against Queen Anne, who was to have been crushed to death in St. Paul's ; the screws of some part of the building being loosened beforehand for the purpose, and intended to be removed when she should come to the Cathedral, and thus overwhelm her in the fall. Notices of this imaginary plot will be found in Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, Nov. 9, 1710, and in Oldmixon's Hist, of England, p. 452. The latter states, that "Mr. Secretary St. John had not been long in office before he gave proofs of his fitness for it, by inserting an advertisement in the Gazette of some evil-designing persons having unscrewed the timbers of the west roof of the cathedral. Upon this foundation, Mrs. Abigail Masham affirmed that the screws were taken away that the cathe- dral might tumble upon the heads of the Court on the Thanksgiving-day, when it was supposed her Majesty would have gone thither. But upon inquiry, it appeared that the missing of the iron pins was owing to the neglect of some workmen, who thought the timber sufficiently fastened without them ; and the foolishness, as well as malice, of this advertisement made people more merry than angry." Thus, the whole edifice was finished in thirty-five years; under one architect, Sir Christopher Wren ; one master-mason, Mr. Thomas Strong ; and while one Bishop, Dr. Henry Compton, occupied the see. For his services, Wren obtained, with difficulty, 200?. per annum ! " and for this," said the Duchess of Marlborough, " he was content to be dragged up in a basket three or four times a week." The fund raised for the rebuilding amounted, in ten years, to 216,000/. ; a new duty laid on coals for this purpose produced 5000Z. a year ; and the King contributed 10,000. annually. Exterior. St. Paul's occupies very nearly the site of the old Cathedral, in the centre and most elevated part of the City ; though its highest point, the cross, is 36 feet lower than the Castle Tavern, on Harnpstead Heath. The plan of the Cathedral is a Latin cross, and bears a general resemblance to that of St. Peter's. Its length, from the east to the west wall, is 500 feet; north to south, 250 feet ; width, 125 feet, except at the western end, where two towers, and chapels beyond, make this, the principal front, facing Ludgate-hill, about 180 feet in width. The chapels are, the Morning Prayer, north; and the Consistory Court, south. The exterior generally is of two orders, Ground Plan of St. Paul's Cathedral. A. Nave. 100 feet in height the upper Composite, Tra^sep^T < h ^ NorthTranse Pt- *>. South 110 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. and the lower Corinthian ; and the surface of the church is Portland stone, rusticated or grooved throughout. At the east end is a semicircular recess, containing the altar. At the west end, a noble flight of steps ascends to a double portico of coupled columns, twelve in the lower, Corinthian ; and eight in the upper, Composite ; termi- nated by a pediment, in the tympanum of which (64 feet long and 17 feet high) is the Conversion of St. Paul, sculptured in pretty high relief by Bird ; on the apex is a colossal figure of St. Paul, and on the right and left, St. Peter and St. James. Beneath the lower portico are the doors, and above them a sculptured group, in white marble, of St. Paul preaching to the Bereans. This double portico has been much censured: Wren pleaded that he could not obtain stone of sufficient height for the shafts of one grand portico j " but," says Mr. Joseph Gwilt, " it would have been far better to have had the columns in many pieces, and even with vertical joints, than to have placed one portico above another." At the extremities of this front rise, 220 feet, two campanile towers, terminating in open lanterns, " covered with domes formed by curves of contrary flexure, and not very purely composed, though, perhaps, in character with the general facade." (Gwilt.) Each dome has a gilt pine-apple at the apex : the south tower contains the clock, and the north is a belfry ; and in the west faces are statues of the four Evangelists. At the northern and southern ends of the transepts, the lower order, Corinthian, is continued into porticoes of six fluted columns, standing, in plan, on the segment of a circle, and crowned with a semi-dome. In the upper order are two pediments, the south sculptured with the Phcenix, and the north with the royal arms and regalia ; and on each side are five statues of the Apostles. The main building fs surmounted with a balustrade, not in Wren's design, the obtrusion of which by the Commissioners caused the architect to say : " I never designed a balustrade ; ladies think nothing well without an edging." The Cathedral was scientifically secured from lightning, according to the suggestion of the Royal Society, in 1769. The seven iron scrolls supporting the ball and cross are connected with other rods (used merely as conductors), which unite them with several large bars descending obliquely to the stone-work of the lantern, and connected by an iron ring with four other iron bars to the lead covering of the great cupola, a distance of forty-eight feet; thence the communication is continued by the rain- water pipes to the lead-covered roof, and thence by lead water-pipes which pass into the earth; thus completing the entire communication from the cross to the ground, partly through iron and partly through lead. On the clock-tower a bar of iron connects the pine-apple at the top with the iron stair- case, and thence with the lead on the roof of the church. The bell-tower is similarly protected. By these means the metal used in the building is made available as conductors ; the metal employed merely for that purpose being exceedingly small in quantity. (Times, Sejrt. 8, 1842, abridged.) The height to the top of the cross is thrice the height of the roof, or 365 feet from the ground, 356 from the floor of the church, and 375 from that of the crypts. In most accounts the height is stated 404 feet, which may be taken from the bottom of the foundations, or the level of the Thames. In height it stands third, exceeding the Pantheon by 70 feet ; about equalling St. Sophia, but falling short of the Florence cupola by 50 feet, and of St. Peter's by 150. Weale's London, p. 186. The following account of the constructive details is from Mr. Joseph Gwilt's Encyclopcedia of Architecture : " The entrances from the transepts lead into vestibules, each communicating with the centre, and its aisles formed between two massive piers and the walls at the intersections of the transepts with the choir and nave. The eight piers are joined by arches springing from one to the other, so as to form an octagon at their springing points ; and the angles between the arches, instead of rising vertically, sail over as they rise and form pendentives, which lead, at their top, into a circle on the plan. Above this a wall rises in the form of a truncated cone, which, at the height of 168 feet from the pavement, terminates in a horizontal cornice, from which the interior dome springs. Its diameter is 100 feet, and it is 60 feet in height, in the form of a paraboloid. Its thickness is 18 inches, and it is constructed of brickwork. From the haunches of this dome, 200 feet above the pavement of the church, another cone of brickwork commences, 85 feet high, and 94 feet diameter at the bottom. This cone is pierced with apertures, as well for the purpose ot diminishing its weight as for distributing light between it and the outer dome. At the top it is gathered into a dome, in the form of a hyperboloid, pierced near the vertex with an aperture 12 feet in diameter. The top of this cone is 285 feet from the pavement, and carries a lantern 65 feet high, terminating in a dome, whereon a ball and (aveline) cross is raised. The last-named cone is provided with corbels, sufficient in number to receive the hammer-beams of the external dome, which is of oak, and its base 220 feet from the pavement, its summit being level wMi the top of the cone. In form it is nearly hemispherical, and generated by radii 57 feet in length, whose centres are in a horizontal diameter, passing through its base. The cone and the interior dome are restrained in their lateral thrust on the supports by four tiers of strong iron chains (weighing 95 cwt. 3 qrs. 23 Ibs.), placed in grooves prepared for their reception, and run with lead. The lowest of these is inserted in the masonry round their common base, and the other three at different heights on the exterior of the cone. Externally, the intervals of the columns and pilasters are occupied by windows and niches, with horizontal and semicircular heads, and crowned with pediments. CHURCHES ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. Ill " Over the intersection of the nave and transepts for the external work, and for a height of 25 feet above the roof of the church, a cylindrical wall rises, whose diameter is 146 feet. Between it and the lower conical wall was a space, but at intervals they are connected by cross walls. This cylinder is quite plain, but perforated by two courses of rectangular apertures. On it stands a peristyle of thirty columns of the Corinthian order, 40 feet high, including bases and capitals, with a plain entablature crowned by a balustrade. In this peristyle, every fourth intercolumniation is filled up solid, with a niche, and connexion is provided between it and the wall of the lower cone. Vertically over the base of that cone, above the peristyle, rises another cylindrical wall, appearing above the balustrade. It is ornamented with pilasters, between which are two tiers of rectangular windows. Prom this wall the external dome springs. The lantern receives no support from it. It is merely ornamental, differing entirely in that respect from the dome of St. Peter's. Externally the dome is of wood, covered with lead ; at its summit is The Golden Gallery (with gilt railing), where the lantern commences. " The interior of the nave and choir are each designed with three arches longitudinally springing from piers, strengthened, as well as decorated, on their inner faces by an entablature, whose cornice reigns throughout the nave and church. Above this entablature, and breaking with it over each pilaster, is a tall attic, from projections on which spring semicircular arches which are formed into arcs doitbleaux. Between the last, pendentives are formed, terminated by horizontal cornices. Small cupolas of less height than their semi-diameter, are formed above these cornices. In the upright plane space on the walls above the main arches of the nave, choir, and transepts, a clerestory is obtained over the attic order, whose form is generated by the rising of the pendentives." Mr. Wightwick, in a paper read to the Institute of British Architects, says : " It was by command of the Popish Duke of York, that the north and south chapels, near the west- ern end, were added, to the reduction of the nave aisles, and the lamentable injury of the return fronts of the two towers, which therefore lost in apparent elevation, by becoming commingled with pieces of pro- jecting facade on the north and south sides. Thus were produced the only defects in the longitudinal fronts of the church. The independence of the towers is destroyed ; their vertical emphasis oblite- rated ; and a pair of excrescences is the consequence which it were well to cut away. All that could be done to diminish the evil was accomplished; but no informed eye can view the perspective of the Cathe- dral from the north-west or south-west, without seeing how no architect, who only admitted a 'variety of uniformities,' could have intentionally formed a distinct component in an exterior of other- wise uniform parts, by a tower having only one wing, and that, too, flush with its face ! With this ex- ception, the general mass of the cathedral is faultless, i.e., as the result of a conciliation between the architect's feeling for the Roman style, and his compelled obedience to the shape prescribed. With this consideration the grand building under notice must be judged. This it is which excuses the application of the upper order as a mere screen to conceal the clerestory and flying buttresses ; for it must be ad- mitted that uninterrupted altitude of the bulk, in the same plane, is absolutely necessary to the sub- structure of the majestic dome, which is indeed the very crown of England's architectural glory. The four projections which fill out the angles formed by the intersecting lines of the cross, finely buttress up the mountain of masonry above ; and the beautiful semicircular porticoes of the transepts still fur- ther carry out the sentiment of stability. " As to the dome in itself, it stands supreme on earth. The simple stylobate of its tambour ; its unin- terrupted peristyle, charmingly varied by occasionally solid intervening masonry, so artfully masking the buttress-work as to combine at once an appearance of elegant lightness with the visible means of con- fident security ; all these, with each subsequently ascending feature of the composition, leave us to wonder how criticism can have ever spoken in qualified terms of Wren's artistic proficiency. "The western front must be criticised as illustrating, in great measure, a Gothic idea Romanized. Instead of twin spires (as at Lichfield), we have two pyramidal piles of Italian detail ; instead of the high-pointed gable between, we have the classic pediment, as lofty as may be ; the coupled columns and pilasters answer to the Gothic buttresses ; and a minute richness and number of parts, with picturesque breaks in the entablatures (though against the architect's expressed principles), are introduced in com- pliance with the general aspect and vertical expression of the Gothic facade." The ascent to the Whispering Gallery is by 260 steps j to the outer, or highest Golden Gallery, 560 steps : and to the Ball, 616 steps. The Library, in the gallery over the southern aisle, was formed by Bishop Compton, whose portrait it contains. Here are about 7000 volumes, besides some manuscripts belonging to Old St. Paul's. The room has some fine brackets, and pilasters with flowers, exquisitely carved by Gibbons ; and the floor consists of 2300 pieces of oak, parquetted, or inlaid without nails or pegs. At the end of this gallery is a Geometrical Staircase, of 110 steps, built by Wren, for private access to the Library. In crossing thence to the northern gallery, a fine view is gained of the entire vista of the Cathe- dral from west to east. You then reach the Model Boom, where are Wren's first design for St. Paul's, and some of the tattered flags formerly suspended beneath the dome. Returning to the southern gallery, a staircase leads to the south-western cam- panile tower, where is the Clock Room. The Clock is remarkable for the magnitude of its wheels, and fineness of works, and cost 300Z. It was made by Langley Bradley in 1708 : it has two dial-plates, one south, the other west ; each is 51 feet in circumference, and the hour-numerals are 2 feet 2| inches in height. The minute-hands are 9 feet 8 inches long, and weigh 75 Ibs. each ; and the hour-hands are 5 feet 9 inches long, and weigh 44 Ibs. each. The pendulum is 16 feet long, and the bob weighs 180 Ibs. ; yet it is suspended by a spring no thicker than a shilling : its beat is 2 seconds a dead beat, 30 to a minute, instead of 60. CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. The Clock, " going eight days," strikes the hour on the Great Sell* suspended about 40 feet from the floor : the hammer lies on the outside brim of the bell ; it has a large head, weighs 145 Ibs., is drawn by a wire at the back part of the clockwork, and falls again by its own weight npon the bell. The clapper weighs 180 Ibs. The hour struck by this clock has been heard, in the silence of midnight, on the terrace of Windsor Castle. (See p. 45.) Below the Great Bell are two smaller bells, on which the clock strikes the quarters : the larger of these weighs 24 c\vt. 2 qrs. 25 Ibs. : the smaller, 12 cwt. 2 qrs. 9 Ibs. The northern tower contains the bells tolled for prayers. The Whispering Gallery is reached by returning towards the dome, and again ascending. Here a low whisper, uttered on one side, may be distinctly heard at the opposite side, of the gallery. The phenomenon is thus explained by Dr. Paris : " M shows the situation of the mouth of the speaker, and E that of the ear of the hearer. Now since sound radiates in all directions, a part of it will proceed directly from M to E, while other rays of it will proceed from M to u, and from M to z, &c. ; but the ray that impinges upon a will be reflected to E, while that which first touches z will be reflected to y and from thence to E ; and so of all intermediate rays, which are omitted in the figure to avoid confusion. It is evident therefore, that the sound at E will be much stronger than if it had proceeded immedi- ately from M without the assistance of the dome ; for, in that case, the rays at z and u would have proceeded in straight lines, and consequently could never have arrived at the point E." Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, p. 310. The organ, built by Bernard Schmydt, in 1694, at a cost of 20001., was originally placed upon the wrought-iron screen which separates the choir from the nave, where it marred the full effect of the imposing architectural merits of the edifice. From Dr. Rimbault's clever book on The Organ we learn that Sir Christopher Wren himself was averse from placing it over the screen. There it is stated : " In consequence of the reputation which ' Father Smith' had acquired by these instruments, he was made choice of to build an organ for St. Paul's Cathedral, then in the course of erection. A place was accordingly fitted up for him in the Cathedral to do the work in, but it was a long time before he could proceed with it, owing to a contention between Sir Christopher Wren and the Dean and Chapter. Sir Christopher Wren wished the organ to be placed on one side of the choir, as it was in the old Cathedral, that the whole extent and beauty of the building might be had at one view. The Dean, on the contrary, wished to have it at the west-end of the choir ; and Sir Christopher, after using every effort and argument to gain his point, was at last obliged to yield. Smith, according to his instructions, began the organ, and when the pipes were finished found that the case was not spacious enough to con- tain them all ; and Sir Christopher, tender of his architectural proportions, would not consent to let the case be enlarged to receive them, declaring the beauty of the building to be already spoilt by the box of whistles." Steele suggested, in a paper in the Spectator, that the organ should be placed over the great west entrance, and be constructed on so majestic a scale as to resound throughout the whole of the Cathedral. It has been removed to the first arch from the altar on the north side of the choir, the position chosen by Wren himself, as shown in a drawing lately discovered, and preserved among the Cathedral records. This instrument, though deservedly regarded as a chef-d'oeuvre at the time of its completion, was singularly deficient in most of the mechanical appliances for an easy and effective performance now in vogue in organs of comparatively recent date. An enormous organ, built for the Alhambra, Leicester-square, has also been placed in the south transept : it is intended for the use of the Special Evening Services, and the Annual Services under the dome. The Monuments (exceeding forty) have been for the most part voted by Parliament in honour of naval and military officers ; there are a few also to authors and artists, and philanthropists. But, in general, while civil eminence has been commemorated in Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's has been made a Pantheon for our heroes. At the entrance of the choir is a colossal statue of John Howard, with an inscription by Samuel Whitbread, this being the first monument erected in the church (1796) ; at a corresponding point is a colossal statue of Dr. Johnson, the inscription by Dr. Parr : both statues are by Bacon, R.A. : Howard with his keys, is often mistaken for St. * The New Great Tom of Lincoln, cast in 1834, is 6 cwt. heavier than the Great Bell of St. Paul's. Its tone is generally considered to be about the same as that of St. Paul's, but sweeter and softer. Mr. E. B. Denison, however, "thinks St. Paul's far the best of the four large bells of England, though it is the smallest of them, being about 5 tons ; while York is 12, Lincoln 5|, and Oxford 7\, which last is a remarkably bad bell." Treatise on Clock and Watch Making, 1850. CHURCHES, ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. Peter ; and Johnson, with his scroll, for St. Paul. Near Howard is a statue of Hallam, the historian, by Theed. At opposite piers are statues of Sir Joshua Reynolds, by Flaxman, R.A., and Sir William Jones, by Bacon, R.A. Under the great choir arch is a monument to Lord Nelson, by Flaxman ; the statue is characteristic, but the figures about the pedestal are absurd. Opposite is a monument to Lord Cornwallis, by Rossi, R.A. : the Indian river gods are most admired. In the soutb transept are monuments to Sir Ralph Abercrombie and Lord Collingwood, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A., and to Lord Howe, by Flaxman, R.A. ; statue of Lord Heathfield, by Rossi, R.A. ; monument to Sir John Moore, by Bacon, R.A.; statue of Sir W. Hoste, by Campbell ; and Major-General Gillespie, by Chantrey, R.A. In the north transept, the principal are monuments to Lord Rodney and to Captains Mosse and Riou, by Rossi, R.A. ; Capt. Westcott, by Banks, R.A. ; Gen. Ponsonby, a graceful composition, by Baily, R.A. ; Major-Gen. A. Gore and J. B. Skerrett, by Chantrey, R.A. ; statue of Earl St. Vincent, by Baily, R.A. ; Gen. Picton, who fell at Waterloo, by Gahaghan ; Admiral Duncan, an elegant figure, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A. ; Major-Gen. Dundas, by Bacon, R.A. ; and the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the historian of India, by M. Noble. In the south aisle of the Nave is a monument to Dr. Middleton, the first Protestant Bishop of India, by Lough ; and in the south aisle of the Choir is a kneeling figure of Bishop Heber, by Chantrey, R.A. Here also are two statues Sir Astley Cooper, by Baily, R.A. ; and Dr. Babington, by Behnes. Opposite is a statue of Admiral Lord Lyons, by M. Noble. Two of the finest and most touching works here are Chantrey's battle-piece monuments to Colonel Cadogan, mortally wounded at the battle of Vittoria ; and Major-General Bowes, slain at the head of his men at the storming of Salamanca : these are poetic pictures of carnage closing in victory. Near the great northern entrance are statues, by G. G. Adams, of Sir Charles Napier, the hero of Scinde ; and Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War ; and in the north aisle of the Nave is the memorial to Viscount Melbourne two angels, sculptured by Marochetti. The Crypt is now used only as a place of interment. In the south aisle, on the site of the ancient high altar, is the grave of Sir Christopher Wren, covered by a flat stone, the English inscription upon which merely states that he died in 1723, aged 91 : suspended on the adjoining wall is a tablet bearing the Latin epitaph : Subtus conditur hujus ecclesise et Urbis conditor, Christopher Wren, Qui visit annos ultra nonaginta, Non sibi sed bono publico. Lector, Si monumentum requiris, Circumspice. Obiit XXV. Feb., Anno MDCCXXIII., aitat. 91. Beneath lies Christopher "Wren, builder of this church and City, who lived upwards of ninety years, not for himself but for the public good. Reader, if thou wouldst search for his monument, look around. Next Wren's remains are those of his son; and here is a tablet in memory of his granddaughter, aged 95 : Sir Christopher was 91, and his son 97. Here are the graves of our great painters. It has been remarked : " if Westminster Abbey has its Poets' Corner, so has St. Paul's its Painters? Corner. Sir Joshua Reynolds's statue, by Flaxman, is here, and Reynolds himself lies buried here ; and Barry, and Opie, and Lawrence are around him ; and, above all, the ashes of the great Van Dyck are in the earth under the Cathedral." (C. E. Leslie, R.A.) On December 30, 1851, the remains of J. M. W. Turner, our greatest landscape-painter, were laid next the grave of Reynolds ; George Dance, the architect, and the last survivor of the original forty of the Royal Academy, also lies here, with Fuseli ; and the Presidents, West, and Martin Archer Shee. The grave of Dr. Boyce, next to Purcell, perhaps, the greatest English musician, is also here ; with the altar-tombs of Robert Mylne, the architect of the first Blackfriars Bridge; and John Reunie, who designed the present London Bridge. In the middle of the Crypt, under an altar-tomb, Jan. 9, 1806, were deposited the remains of the great Nelson : they were placed beneath a black marble sarcophagus made by order of Cardinal Wolsey, but left unused in the tomb-house adjoining St. George's Chapel, Windsor. It is surmounted with a viscount's coronet upon a cushion ; on the pedestal is inscribed, " Horatio Viscount Nelson." The coffin, made from part of the mainmast of the ship L' Orient, which blew up at the battle of the Nile, was I 114 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. presented to Nelson by his friend Ben Hallowell, captain of the Stviftsure. Nelson's Hag was to have been placed with the coffin ; but just as it was about to be lowered, the sailors who had borne it, moved by one impulse, rent it in pieces, each keeping a fragment. Lord Collingwood, as he requested, was laid near Nelson, beneath a plain altar-tomb ; and opposite lies Lord Northesk, distinguished at Trafalgar. On the day of the funeral of the great Duke of Wellington, Nov. 18, 1852, his coffin was placed on the top of the sarcophagus which covered the remains of Nelson, the coronet and cushion of the Viscount having been previously removed ; and here the coffin of the Duke remained nearly two years, inclosed by a wood casing. The Duke's coffin was then (in 1854) removed to the middle of a square chamber about forty feet eastward, almost immediately under the entrance to the choir of the church, in which compartment of the crypt no interment had previously taken place. Meanwhile, the Duke's tomb was prepared from the design of Mr. Penrose, the conservating architect of the Cathedral. The material is porphyry, from Luxalyan in Cornwall, and a huge block, originally weighing seventy tons. This has been sculptured into a grand and simple sarcophagus form. Upon one side is inscribed " Arthur, Duke of Wellington ;" and on the opposite side, " Born May, 1769 ; died Sept. 14, 1852." At each end, and upon the porphyry boss, is an heraldic cross, which, and the inscriptions, are in gold out- line. The sarcophagus is placed upon a massive basement of Aberdeen granite, and at each corner is sculptured the head of a guardian lion. Within the sarcophagus is deposited the rich coffin of the Duke, and upon it the coronet and cushion, and over it the porphyry lid, hermetically sealed. The floor of this compartment of the crypt is laid with Minton's tiles ; and in each of the four angles is a candelabrum of polished red granite, surmounted by a ball, from which rise the gas-jets to light the place. As you stand at the left-hand corner, looking westward, the sarcophagus of Nelson is seen in the distance, and that of Wellington in the foreground. This view of the tombs of two of England's most illustrious heroes at one glance is impressive. In another compartment of the Crypt is deposited the State Car upon which the body of Wellington was conveyed to the cathedral at his funeral. 1. The Car and its equipments consisted of the coffin at the summit, uncovered, and upon it the cap, sword, &c. ; beneath a canopy of rich tissue, supported by halberds. 2. The bier, covered with a black velvet pall, diapered with the Duke's crest, and Field Marshal's baton across, fringed with laurel leaves, and the legend "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord," the whole worked in silver. 3. The plat- form of the car, inscribed with the names of the Duke's victories; and at the four sides military trophies of modern arms, helmets, guns, flags, and drums, real implements, furnished by the Board of Ordnance. The whole is placed on a carriage richly ornamented with bronze figures of Fame, holding palms, panels of Fame, lions' heads, and the Duke's arms. Attached to the Car are model horses three abreast, with velvet housings embroidered with the Duke's arms. The whole was designed by the Department of Practical Art : its merits, were grandeur, solemnity, and reality : coffin, bier, trophies, and metal carriage, were all real. The public are admitted to see the tomb, and the funeral car, for a small fee, to defray the expense of gaslights and attendants. In June, 1859, the remains of General Sir Thomas Picton were removed from the burial-ground of St. George's Chapel, Bayswater-road, to St. Paul's Cathe- dral, and there deposited in the Crypt, nearly adjoining the tomb of Wellington. The north aisle of the Crypt is appropriated to the parishioners of St. Faith, as a place of sepulture, from whom the Dean and Chapter receive a trifling gratuity for each body there interred. Beneath the semicircular apsis are deposited all that remain of the monuments saved from the old cathedral. The Inner Dome (which Wren intended to have lined with mosaic) is plastered on the under side, and painted by Sir James Thornhill with events in the life of St. Paul : 1, His Conversion; 2, The Punishment of Elymas the Sorcerer; 3, Cure of the Cripple at Lystra ; 4, Conversion of the Gaoler ; 5, Paul Preaching at Athens ; 6, Burning of the Books at Ephesus ; 7, Paul before Agrippa ; 8, Shipwreck on the Isle of Melita. For these paintings Thornhill received only 40s. per square yard ! Putting on one side the vital error hi the general arrangement, whereby the endeavour is made by painting to transform the cupola into a drum of upright walls, the pictures, about 40 feet high, are works of merit, and the heads are painted with much force : the figures are each from 14 to 16 feet high. In 1853, the restoration of the plaster- work, and repainting of the pictures, were commenced by Mr. Parris,bvaidof shifting scaffolding and platforms and wire-ropes, ingeniously constructed for the purpose ; the medium used by Mr. Parris being encaustic, his own " marble medium," and the tone of the CHURCHES ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 115 pictures being much heightened. This labour occupied Mr. Parris three years, slung in an aerie at from 160 to 200 feet high. The paintings are best seen from the Whispering Gallery, by the flood of liirht which flows from the lantern through the opening at the crown of the dome. When looking down into the church from this point, men seem but as children, and the immensity of the structure is altogether best felt. From the Whispering Gallery we ascend to The Stone Gallery, outside the base of the dome, where the gigantic height of the figures (11 feet) on the western pediment, and the outlines of the campanile towers, are very striking. There is a second outer gallery, still below the base of the dome ; and thence you ascend to The Outer Golden Gallery (regilt in 1845, at a cost of 68?.), at the summit of tho dome; the Inner Golden Gallery being at the base of the lantern. Through this the ascent is by ladders, to the small dome immediately below the inverted consoles which support The Ball and Cross : ascending through the iron-work in the centre, we look into the dark Ball, which is 6 feet 2 inches in diameter, and will hold eight persons ; its weight is 5600 pounds : thence to the Cross is 39 feet ; the Cross, which is solid, is 3360 pounds weight. The Ball and Cross have been renewed, and re-gilt within thirty years from that date. In 1862 (Exhibition year), the vergers' receipts for showing the Crypt and Ball, amounted to 1160/. The View from the Outer Golden Gallery is very minute : the persons in the streets below " appear like mice j" London seems little else than a dense mass of house- tops, chimneys, and spires ; the Thames being conspicuous from its glittering surface, but the bridges appearing as dark lines across at intervals. Here, and at the higher points, in clear weather, the metropolis is seen as in a map, with the country 20 miles round. The north division of London rises gently from the Thames, to Hampstead and Highgate. On the east and west are fertile plains extending at least 20 miles, and watered by the Thames. On the south the view is bounded by the high grounds of Richmond, Wimbledon, Epsom, Norwood, and Blackheath ; terminating in the horizon by Leith Hill, Box Hill, and the Keigate and Wrotham hills. Shooter's Hill is con- spicuous eastward, and, in a more easterly direction, parts of Epping Forest and other wooded uplands of Essex. When Mr. Horner, in 1821-2, made his sketches for the Great View of London, painted at the Colosseum, he built for himself an observatory upon the Cross of St. Paul's. He describes the strange scene from this lofty summit at three o'clock in the morning as very impressive ; for here he frequently beheld " the Forest of London" without any indication of animated existence. It was interesting to mark the gradual symptoms of returning life, until the rising sun vivified the whole into activity, bustle, and business. In high winds, the creaking and whistling of the scaffolding resembled those of a ship labouring in a storm; and once Mr. Homer's observatory was torn from its fastenings, and turned partly over the edge of the platform.* Churchyard. The enclosed ground-plot of the Cathedral is 2 acres 16 perches 70 feet. In the area before the west front, marking the site of St. Gregory's Church, is the statue of Queen Anne, with figures, by Bird, of Britain, France, Ireland, and America, at the corners of the pedestal. Garth wrote some bitter lines upon this group : " France above with downcast eyes is seen, The sad attendant of so good a queen." Her Majesty's nose was struck off by a lunatic, about a century ago, and was not repaired for many years. The Churchyard is enclosed with a dwarf stone wall, on which is a noble iron balustrade, 5 feet 6 inches high ; there are in it seven ornamental gates, which, with the 2500 rails, weigh 200 tons 81 Ibs. They were designed by M. Tijoue, and cast at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst, in Kent > they cost 6rf. per pound, and with other charges, amounted to 11,202^. 0*. 6d. The cost of the Church * An accident somewhat more perilous befel Mr. Gwyn, when measuring the top of the dome for a section of the Cathedral. While intent on his work his foot slipped, and he slid down the convex sur- face of the dome until his descent was fortunately obstructed by a small projecting piece of the lead. He thus remained until released from the impending danger by one of his assistants, who providentially oiscovered his awful situation. Mr. Homer's Narrative. I 2 116 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. was 736,752Z. 2s. 3d. ; in all, 747,954?. 2s. Qd., equal to 1,222,437Z. present money. Nine-tenths of this sum were raised by a tax on coals received into the port of London. The admission -fee originated in " the Stairs-foot Money," fixed by Jennings, the carpenter, in 1707 ; the proceeds of which were applied to the relief of those men to whom accidents happened during the progress of the works. In 1819, the sum received from visitors to the body of the Cathedral, at 2d. each, was 430. 3s. 8d., which vas divided among the four vergers. This fee is now discontinued. Nearly opposite the North Door of St. Paul's Churchyard is the Convocation or Chapter House of the Cathedral, where a kind of clerical parliament is summoned with every new Imperial Parliament. The Chapter is composed of a Dean and four Canons, or Prebends, 12 Minor Canons, 6 Lay Vicars, and 12 Choristers. There are 30 Prebendary Stalls, or Honorary Canonries ; they are of great antiquity, having been founded by Gregory the Great himself. Two of the brightest wits of their day, the Rev. Sydney Smith '(Peter Plymley), d. 1845, and the Rev. R. H. Barbara (Thomas Ingoldsby), d. 1845, were at the same period Canons of St. Paul's. In 1849, the Rev. H. H. Milman (the poet) was appointed Dean, an office hitherto held by the Bishop of Llan- daff for the time being. The Lord Mayor's chaplain is the preacher on all State holi- days ; viz., 30th January, 29th May, 20th June, and 5th November, on the first Sunday in term, and the anniversary of the Great Fire of 1666. The State processions to St. Paul's have been very imposing. Queen Anne came yearly to return thanks for the brilliant successes of Marlborough, who carried the sword of state before Her Majesty; as did Wellington before the Prince Regent, on the day of Thanksgiving for Peace in 1814. George 111. went to St. Paul's, to return public thanks for his recovery from derangement, in 1789 ; and in 1797, in Thanksgiving for naval victories. The last procession of this kind was on Nov. 29, 1820, when Queen Caroline went to St. Paul's in Thanksgiving for her deliverance from the Bill of Pains and Penalties. The Cathedral is the scene of other impressive celebrations : as the Anniversary Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, in May, preceded by sacred music by Handel, Boyce, Atwood, and others, aided by the choirs of St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, and the Chapel Royal. The great annual gathering of the Charity children, about 8000 in number, is held here in June, the amphitheatre of seats being erected under the great dome : the effect of the grouping of the children ranged in their rows of seats, tier above tier, with the banners of their various schools placed in order in the uppermost circle of the amphitheatre, is remarkably striking. The attendance of the Judges and other law officers, and civic authorities, is another impressive service. " For external elegance/' says Mr. Gwilt. " we know no church in Europe which exhibits a cupola comparable with that of St. Paul's ; though in its connexion with the church by an order higher than that below it, there is a violation of the laws of the art. While, notwithstanding its inferior dimensions (it would stand within St. Peter's), the external appearance of St. Paul's has been preferred by many to that of St. Peter's, it is admitted by all that the interior of the English cathedral will bear no comparison with that of the Roman. The upward view of the dome of St. Paul's, however, conveys an impression of extraordinary magnificence : though not so elevated as St. Peter's, it is still very lofty : the form of the concave, which approaches considerably nearer to that of a circle the height being equal to a diameter and a half, while in St. Peter's it is equal to two diameters has also been considered more beautiful than that of its rival." The crossing of Ludgate Hill by a railway viaduct interferes materially with the view of St. Paul's. Mr. Penrose, the architect, remarks : " About 180 yards east- ward of Temple Bar, the dome of St. Paul's begins to be seen, and, when fully opened out a little further on, presents a combination, unsurpassed in Europe, with the exqui- site campanile of St. Martin's and the suggested access to the Cathedral by the winding street. It is true that the viaduct does not thus far hide any part of the Cathedral, but it obtrudes itself on the sight, and destroys the spectator's pleasure in the view almost as effectually. But from about 60 yards before reaching Farringdon-street it actually hides more or less of the western fa9ade, and gives in exchange nothing but its deep sides and cavernous soffit, at least 4-0 feet wide." CHURCHES, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 117 In defence of this obstruction it was objected that already the steeple of St. Martin's church on Ludgate-hill was constantly getting in the way when you wished to see the dome of St. Paul's ; which is altogether an error, as the thin proportions of the steeple, in strong contrast, add to the effect of the dome. From the east end of Bride-court, Bridge-street, you get a striking view of the dome ; as well as from the Farringdon-road. Annexed is a recapitulation of the main dimensions of the Cathedral : ft. in. Circumference of the Cathedral 2292 Height of Centre, exclusive of Dome 2JO Height of Nave, Choir, and Transepts 100 Height from floor of Crypt to top of Cross 401 Height from Nave pavement to top of Cross . . . . . . . SSO Height of Western Towers 220 Height of Western Front 133 Diameter of Interior Dome 100 Height of Dome (30 Height of Dome from ground-line 215 Diameter of opening at top of Dome 14 10J Height of Lantern Gallery 274 9 Diameter of opening at top of Upper Dome 80 The following are the comparative dimensions of St. Paul's and St. Peter's : E. to W. West end, Ditto, Trari- Height within. in. out. sept. to top. St. Paul's . 500 100 138 223 360 English feet. St. Peter's . 669 226 395 4*2 432 St. Peter's occupies an acre of 227.069 superlicial feet. St. Paul's 84,025 The Cathedral is now in course of repair and redecoration, the funds being raised by subscription.* The organ and screen have been removed, and a new eastern transept formed. The great central area of the dome, found by experiment to be the part of the Cathedral best adapted to the voice, has been made available for Special Evening Services, and 3500 persons can there be seated in chairs. The marble pulpit under the dome, was given by his friends, as a memorial of the late Captain Fitzgerald. The church can now be warmed by Gurney stoves, placed in the crypt, whence the heated air ascends through ornamental openings in the floor. The lighting is mainly by the corona of gas which was left round the Whispering Gallery at the time of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. The Cathedral was first lighted with g:is in 1822 ; Moore, in his Diary, says : " May 6, Went with Lord and Lady Lansdowne, at ten o'clock, to St. Paul's, to see it lighted up with gas, for, I believe, the first time." The embellishment of the Cathedral, as originally designed by Sir Christopher Wren, will consist in filling eleven windows at the ends of the choir, nave, and transepts, with painted glass of the highest quality, uniform in style, design, and execu- tion ; in filling the spandrels of the dome, vaults, and other suitable compartments, and ultimately the dome itself, with paintings in mosaic; and generally in gilding and in- crusting with coloured marbles parts of the architecture. The four great arches leading from the dome, and the vaultings of the choir, have been richly gilded. The spandrels of the dome, vaultings, and other compartments are to be filled with paintings in mosaic upon a gold ground, by Salviati ; and the series of painted windows has been com- menced with two aisle windows, by Clayton and Bell, containing life-size figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. The great west window, containing the Conversion of St. Paul, the gift of Mr. Brown (of the firm of Longman and Co.), is to cost 10001. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. THE earliest foundation of Westminster Abbey is enveloped in obscurity, but is attributed by the early chroniclers to the British King Lucius, A.D. 184, or to King Sebert, A.D. 616, its site being then called "Thorney Island;" but it is really a * " The Fabric Fund " for keeping the building in repair, produces only 12002. a year : there are more than 8500 square feet, or two acres, of leadwork exposed to the sun, the soot, and the weather, and the bad work of the dome has demanded very extensive repairs ; there are also about 460,000 feet, or ten and a half acres, of stonework likewise exposed to the sulphureous vapours and smoke of London ; to than, perhaps, 600.000/. 118 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. peninsula of the purest sand and gravel, which may be seen in the foundations of the Ahbey. The Island is named from this circumstance : " Sebert, nephew to Ethelbert, King of Kent and King of the East Saxons, having received baptism from the hands of Mellitus, who, coming over with Austin the Monk, was placed Bishop of London, pulled down a Pagan temple at a place called Thorney, from being overgrown with thorns, about two miles' distance from London, and founded upon the place a church to the honour of St. Peter." (Dean Buckland.) This church was not, however, com- pleted until about 361 years after, by King Edgar, when it was named from being the " Min ster West of St. Paul's." It was in a decayed and almost expiring condition when King Edward the Confessor, in fulfilment of a vow he bad made during his exile from the kingdom, erected a church and abbey in a style hitherto unparalleled in English architecture, at Westminster, and, according to William of Malmesbury, the earliest Norman church in the island. King Edward gave to its treasury rich vest- ments, a golden crown and sceptre, a dalmatic, embroidered pall, spurs, &c., to be used on the day of the Sovereign's coronation : here our Kings and Queens have been crowned, from Edward the Confessor to Queen Victoria, and here very many of them are buried, some with and others without monuments. The Confessor lived just long enough to see his intention fulfilled. On the Festival of the Holy Innocents, Dec. 28, 1065, the new Abbey was dedicated, and the King, who died eight days afterwards, was buried by his own desire in front of the high altar in the Church of which he had just witnessed the completion. The Abbey as it now exists was for the most part rebuilt by Henry III. (A.D. 1220 to 1269), out of regard to the memory of the Confessor ; but it covers the same ground, and there are vestiges of the original building to be seen. The remains of the Confessor were removed from before the high altar to the present shrine in 1269 by Henry III. From the Fabric Rolls we gather that the outlay going on at Westminster for the King's Palace and the Abbey Church was from 20,000^. to 40,OOOZ. a year ; or, in fifteen years, more than half a million of our money value. A great diversity of materials was used. The early portion (Henry III.) was built with the green sand or God-stone, which gave the name to the place in Surrey ; a large por- tion, including the Jerusalem Chamber, was of this stone. Purbeck marble and Caen* stone were used ; and in some of the old cloisters, magnesian limestone, similar to that in the New Houses of Parliament. The enormous and massive fabric stands on a level with the adjacent causeway not having a basement story, like Sf. Paul's built upon a fine close sand, secured only by its very broad, wide, and spreading foundations. From a Norman-French verse of the time of Henry III., there is no doubt that during that king's reign there existed a central tower and two others at the west end. Sir Christopher Wren distinctly stated that the commencement of a central tower existed in his time, and one of Hollar's views shows clear indications of it. As to what kind of central tower over the crossing was originally intended, Mr. Gilbert Scott, R.A., concludes, chiefly from the slightness of the exquisitely graceful piers of the central crossing, that nothing but a light Jleche, after the French fashion, was ever thought of. Mr. Scott, who has so ably illustrated the architecture of the Abbey, says : " Of the original details of the exterior it is nearly impossible to form anything like a correct idea. The whole was greatly decayed at the commencement of the last century, and was re-cased, almost throughout, with Oxfordshire stone, by Sir Christopher Wren and his successors, the details being altered and pared down in a very merciless manner : and the work, thus renewed, has again become greatly decayed. There is, in fact, scarcely a trace of any original detail of the eastern portion of the exterior left." The Bayeux tapestry shows the Abbey-church in outline. Dugdale, however, says : " The Church, as far as rebuilt in the reign of Henry III., may be easily distinguished from the parts erected at a later period. It consists of Edward the Confessor's Chapel, the side aisles and chapels, the choir (to somewhat lower than Sir Isaac Newton's monument), and the transepts. The four pillars of the present choir, which have brass fillets, appear to finish Henry's work : the conclusion of which is also marked by a striped chalky stone, which forms the roof." Bugdale's Monatticon, vol. i.p. 273. In 1862, it was discovered that in the south cloister wall of the Abbey the whole extent of its lower half consists of masonry of the age of Edward the Confessor. This * On the coast of France, in the neighbourhood of Caen, resides an old lady, on whose property are some valuable stone quarries, from whence the English Commissioners proposed to purchase the materials for building our Houses of Parliament. It is a curious fafct that, by some, old records in her family, she can prove that the blocks of stone used in building our Westminster Abbey were derived from the very same source. A Portion of the Journal of T. Raikes, Esq. CHURCHES, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. stone of A.D. 1060 is uninjured to this day ; though the vaulting above, of the date of 1380, has perished considerably. Both are equally exposed to the air and to external influences. The western towers, of shelly Portland oolite, are sound. Nicholas Litlington, Abbot in the reign of Edward III., added several abbatial buildings, including the Hall ; a great chamber called " the Jerusalem ;" the west and south sides of the Great Cloister; and the Granary. Remains of the Jewel House, built by Richard II., exist. The walls, even to the parapets and the original doorways, are perfect ; the interior, however, has been altered to fit it for a depository of the records of the House of Lords ; the original groined vaults remain in the base- ment. The walls of this ancient strong house are 6 feet thick ; and the masonry, generally, is of a similar character to that of the cloisters and other vaulted substruc- tures built by Abbot Litlington. On the bosses of the vaulting in the parts of the cloisters attributed to this abbot the initials X. L. may be traced rendering conjecture as certain as it may be. It has lately been brought to light that the nave of the Abbey was rebuilt in 1413 by Richard Whittington and Richard Harrowden (a monk of the Abbey), to whom Henry V. issued a commission for the purpose. It has been plausibly argued by Mr. Lysons, in his recent memoir of Lord Mayor Whittington, that this personage was the very man named in the Royal Commission. The story goes that, when the King was unable to repay the sums which Whittington had advanced, the creditor magnani- mously destroyed the bonds. There is every reason to believe that the old Norman Nave was left standing until that time. In 1502, Henry VII. pulled down the Chapel of the Virgin, at the east end, and replaced it with the beautiful chapel now called by his name. It was originally built with Caen stone, and was restored within the present century, but with stone now in a state of decomposition. From the first opening of the edifice until after the reign of Elizabeth, the Abbey was regarded as a safe Sanctuary : hither the Queen of Edward IV. fled with her five daughters and the young Duke of York when the crafty Richard Duke of Gloucester was plotting to seize the crown. "The Queen," says Sir Thomas More, " sate low on the rushes, all desolate and dismayed;" whilst the Thames was full of boats of Gloucester's servants, watching that no man should go to Sanctuary. On the reverse cf Edward IV., in 1470, his Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, took shelter in the Sanctuary, where, " in great penury, forsaken of all her friends," she gave birth to Edward V. The dedication of the Church to St. Peter (the tutelar saint of fishermen) led to their offerings of salmon upon the high altar ; the donor on such occasions having the privilege of sitting at the convent-table to dinner, and demanding ale and bread from the cellarer. Successive kings and abbots continued the building on the plan of Henry III., but so slowly, that the west-end towers in 1714 were unfinished ; these Sir Christopher Wren pulled down, and erected the present western towers, in Grecianized Gothic style ; he also proposed a central spire, as originally intended, for its beginnings appear on the corners of the cross, " but left oft' before it rose so high as the ridge of the roof." Of the old west front there is a view by Hollar, in Dugdale's Monasticon. " The Abbey Church," says Mr. Bardwell, " formerly arose a magnificent apex to a royal palace, sur- rounded by its own greater and lesser sanctuaries and almonries : its bell-towers (the principal one 72 feet 6 inches square, with walls 20 feet thick), chapels, prisons, gatehouses, boundary-walls, and a train of other buildings, of which we can at the present day, scarcely form an idea. In addition to all the land around it, extending 1 from the Thames to Oxford-street, and from Vauxhall Bridge road to tho Church of St. Mary-le-Strand, the Abbey possessed 97 towns and villages, 17 hamlets, and 216 manors! Its officers fed hundreds of persons daily ; and one of its priests (not the Abbot) entertained at his ' pavilion in Tothill' the King and Queen, with so large a party, that seven hundred dishes did not suffice for the first table ; the Abbey butler, in the reign of Edward III., rebuilt at his own private expense, the stately gatehouse which gave entrance to Tothill-street, and a portion of the wall which remains to this day." Brief Account of Ancient and 2odern Westminster. At the Dissolution, the Abbey was resigned to Henry VIII. by Abbot Benson; and the King ordered the Church to be governed by a Dean and Prebendaries, making Benson the Dean. In 1541, the Church was turned into an Episcopal See, having Middlesex for its diocese ; but was soon again placed under a Dean and Prebendaries. 120 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Mary, in 1556, dissolved this institution, and reappointed an Abbot and monks; but Elizabeth, on her accession, placed it under a dean and 12 secular canons, as a Collegiate Church, besides minor canons, and others of the choir, to the number of SO ; 10 other officers, 2 schoolmasters, 40 scholars, and 12 almsmen, with ample maintenance for all ; besides stewards, receivers, registrars, library -keepers, and other officers, the principal being the High Steward of Westminster. In the time of Crom- well, most of the revenues were devoted to the public service, but afterwards restored. As the abbots of the monastery had in former times possessed great privileges and honours annexed to the foundation, such as being entrusted with the keeping of the regalia for the coronation, &c., having places of necessary service on days of solemnity, and also exercising archiepiscopal jurisdiction in their liberties, and sitting as spiritual lords in Parliament ; so the Deans of the Collegiate Church succeeded to most of them, and still possess considerable privileges. The Chapter still have a jurisdiction, not only within the city and liberty of Westminster, but also the precincts of St. Martin's-le-Grand, first annexed to it by Henry VII. We give a precis of the most ancient remains, by Mr. Scott : " As Westminster Abbey is about the earliest work of its kind in this country, and as the building of the first portion of it by Henry III. extended over a space of twenty-four years, i.e. from 1245 to 1269, it be- comes important to ascertain how early in this period the style of its architecture can be proved to have been defined. Now, a single entry in the documents in question has for ever settled this point. I have before stated that the most advanced part of the work (as to style) is the Chapter-house, as that contained traceried windows of four and five lights in a very developed form ; the tracery is not confined to circles, but containing great quatrefoils, and the heads of the lights being trefoiled, which is not the case in the church. Now it would be most useful to know the exact date of these windows, for, though Matthew Paris gives 1250 as the year of commencement of the Chapter-house, it may have spread over an indefinite length of time, and the windows have belonged to twenty years after that date. Let us look then to the bills. Here we find in a roll, bearing date 37th Henry II I., or 1253, and expressly called the eighth year from the beginning of the work, an item of ' 300 yards of canvas for the windows of the Chapter-house,' followed immediately by items for the purchase of glass, showing that the windows in question were completed in 1253, which I see was a year before the King, in company with St. Louis, visited the Sainte Chapelle, at Paris, which was then scarcely completed, and the style of which indi- cates exactly the same degree of advancement. I find also, that during the same year, the beautiful entrance or vestibule to the Chapter-house was erected." A ground-plan, which is made by the gradations of its shading to represent the several ages of each part of the structure, shows us that the Chapel of the Pyx and the whole vaulted undercroft, extending southward under the old dormitory, which is the present Westminster school-room besides the lower story of the re- fectory, which forms the south side of the cloister are remains of Edward the Con- fessor's work, in the Late Saxon or Early Norman style. The superficial decoration of the inner wall is, as is well known, of the most exquisite kind of Pointed Architec- ture that of the reign of Henry III. Late Norman is only found in the remains of St. Catherine's Chapel, supposed to have been the Infirmary Chapel, which are visible to the east of the Little Cloister. The Choir, Chevet, and Transepts of the Abbey- church, and the Chapter-house with its vestibule, belong to the great rebuilding undertaken by Henry III. The eastern half of the Nave, with the corresponding part of the Cloister, was built in the First Pointed manner of Edward I. Later in the same style is the south-eastern angle of the Cloisters. All the west end of the Nave, with the remainder of the Cloisters, and the Abbot's house (now the Deanery), including the famous Jerusalem Chamber, were built in the Earlier Third Pointed; while the eastern Chapel of Henry VII., replacing the Lady Chapel of Henry III., was added in the Tudor times of the expiring Gothic. The church is remarkable as marking, first, the introduction of the French arrange- ment of chapels which, however, failed to take root here; and, secondly, the com- pleted type of bar tracery, which was no sooner grafted on an English stock than it began to shoot forth in most vigorous and luxuriant growth. The Exterior of the Abbey is best viewed from a distance : the western front from Tothill-street ; the picturesque North Transept from King-street ; and the south side from College-street. St. Margaret's Church, so often condemned as a disfigurement in viewing the Abbey, renders its height much greater by contrast. "Distant peeps of the Abbey towers, springing lightly above the trees, may be caught on the rising ground of the Green-park, and from the bridge over the Serpentine; and the superior elevation of the whole Abbey is seen with great effect from the hills about Wandsworth CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 121 and Wimbledon." (Handbook, by H. Cole.) The importance of the western towers is, however, lessened by the loftier tower of the New Houses of Parliament. The North Transept, though its niches are statueless, is remarkable for its pinnacled buttresses, its triple porch and clustered columns, and its great rose-window, 90 feet in circumference so as to have been called, for its beauty, " Solomon's porch." From the west side of this Transept, judicious restorations are in progress. At the arched doorway leading into the North Aisle terminates the portion of the Abbey completed by Edward 1. The Western Front bears the date of 1735 : the height of the towers (225 feet) tells nobly ; they were used as a telegraph station during the last French war. The great west window was the work of Abbot Estney, in 1498. The base of the south tower is hidden by the gable of the Jerusalem Chamber, now used as the Chapter- house. Parallel with the Jerusalem Chamber are the College Dining Hall and Kitchen, built by Abbot Litlington. The Westminster scholars dined in the hall until the year 1839 ; in the centre fagots blazed on a circular stone hearth, the smoke finding egress through the lantern in the roof. The South Side is approached from Dean's Yard, on the east side of which an old doorway leads into a court where is Inigo Jones's rustic entrance to the school-room of the College, refounded, in 1560, by Queen Elizabeth. To the left are the old grey Cloisters, with groined arches of the fourteenth century, surrounding a grassy area monastic solitude in contrast with the scene on the opposite side of the Church. The Ecmbrandtish lights in these cloisters are very fine ; and here the South Aisle of the Church, with its huge buttresses, is best seen. The North Cloister is distinguished by its trefoiled arches, with circles above them, of the twelfth century. The East Cloister (temp. Edward III.) is rich in flowing tracery and foliations. Here is the entrance to a chapel of the Confessor's time, and now " the Chamber of the Pyx," wherein are kept the standards used at the trial of the Pyx, the three keys of its double doors, being deposited with distinct officers of the Exchequer. The groined roofs are supported by llomanesque or semicircular arches, and thick, short, round shafts. Eastward is the magnificent entrance to the Chapter-house, which is to be repaired tinder the direction of Mr. Scott. Its beauty is evident, notwithstanding its neglected condition. In the course of the works, the architect has discovered the ancient entrance to the dormitory, which he re-opened, and restored as the entrance to the library. This has enabled him to get rid of the modern entrance to the library, which was cut through the groining of this passage, leading to the vestibule of the Chapter- house. The Interior. The best entrance to the Abbey is through the little door into the South Transept, or Poets' Corner ; whence the endless perspective lines lead into mysterious gloom. From Poets' Corner we see, almost without changing the point of sight, the two Transepts, and part of the Nave and Choir. The interior consists, as it were, ot'two grand stories, or series of groined arches of unequal height : a lower story, which comprises the outer aisles of the Transepts, of the Nave, and the ambulatory of the Choir : and a higher story, forming the middle aisles of the Nave, Transepts, and the Choir. The lower story mostly exhibits the remains of a series of three-headed arches or trefoil-headed arcades, resting on a basement seat : and above these arcades are pointed win- dows, each divided in the centre by a single mullion, surmounted by a circle. Among the marked features of the whole of the upper and inner story are the mural decorations of the spandrels of the arches ; above them, the gallery or triforium ; and over this a clerestory of lofty windows. (See Hand- book, by H. Cole, pp. 45, 46.) The Interior, viewed from the western entrance, shows the surpassing beauty of the long-drawn aisles, with their noble columns, harmonious arches, and fretted vaults, " a dim religious light " streaming through the lancet windows. The general plan of the Church is cruciform : besides the Nave, Choir, and Tran- septs, it contains 12 chapels, the principal of which are those dedicated to St. Edward of England, to the Blessed Virgin (Henry VII.'s), the easternmost building, and those in the northern and southern sides of the building : four on the south, viz., those of St. Blaise, St. Benedict, St. Edmund, and St. Nicholas ; on the north those of St. Andrew, ^t. Michael, St. John the Evangelist, St. Erasmus, St. John the Baptist, and St. Paul. Of these, 10 are nearly filled with monumental tombs ; the Chapel 122 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. of Henry VII. containing but the monument of its founder ; and that of St. Paul having but one tomb. The South Transept is less decorated than its fellow on the north ; and the lower part is concealed by the Library and Chapter-house. Here, in what is appropriately termed Poets' Corner, are the graves or monuments of the majority of our greatest poets, from Chaucer to Campbell. To the right of the entrance-door is the tomb of " the Father of English Poetry " (d. 1400) : it is a dingy and greasy recess, on which may be traced with the finger Galfridus Chaucer, the only part of the inscription which was originally chiselled; the other lines have disappeared. This memorial was partly placed here in 1556, by Nicholas Brigham, a student at Oxford, and a poet, too : the altar-tomb originally covered Chaucer's remains, removed from here by Brigham, who placed over it the canopy : it is altogether in decay, but in 1850 was proposed to be restored. Nearer the door is the large monument erected by Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, to Dryden, whose name it simply bears, with a noble bust of him by Scheemakers. Pope wrote for the pedestal this couplet : "This Sheffield raised : the sacrod dust below Was DryUen once : the rest, who does not know ? " Next is a wreathed urn, by Bushnell, erected by George Duke of Buckingham over Abraham Cowley, as the Latin inscription declares, the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England : this full-blown flattery, by Dean Sprat, greatly provoked Dr. Johnson. From Chaucer's tomb, eastward, the monuments are placed as follows : To John Philips, who wrote The Splendid Shilling, Cider, and other poems : profile in relief, within a wreath of apple and laurel leaves. Barton Booth, the eminent actor, the original Cato in Addison's play : a bust, erected by Booth's widow. Michael Drayton, who wrote the Polyolbion : a bust on pediment, with a beautiful epitaph, attributed to Dryden ; erected at the expense of Clifford, Countess of Dorset, who also put up a monument to Edmund Spenser, author of the faerie Queene : tablet and pediment, renewed in marble in 1778. Spenser was the second poet interred in the Abbey ; he "died for lake of bread," in King-street, Westminster, and was buried here by Devereux, Earl of Essex. Ben Jonson : medallion on the wall, by Rysbrack, after Gibbs ; " rare Ben Jonson !" inscribed beneath the head. Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras : bust, placed here by Alderman Barber, the patriotic printer (see ALDER- MAN, p. 5). John Milton, buried in St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate : bust and tablet, erected by Mr. Auditor Benson, who, " in the inscription, has bestowed more words upon himself than upon Milton." Thomas Gray, buried at Stoke Pogeis : a figure of the Lyric Muse holding a medallion of the poet, by Bacon, K.A., with inscription by William Mason, Gray's biographer, who lies next : profile medallion, with inscription by Bishop Hurd. Matthew Prior : bust by Coysevox, presented to Prior from Louis XIV. ; and statues of Thalia and Clio, by Rysbrack. St. Evremond, the French Epicurean wit : bust and tablet ; and below it, profile medallion, by Chantrey, R.A., of Granville Sharp, Negro Slavery Abolitionist, erected by the African Institu- tion of London. Thomas Shadwell, poet-laureate early in the reign of William III., buried at Chelsea : but crowned with bays, above Prior's monument. Christopher Anstey, author of the Neiv Bath Guide : tablet on the next column ; and at the back of St. Evreinond's monument, a tablet to Mrs. Pritchard, the eminent tragic actress. William Shakspeare : the subscription monument j a statue by Scheemakers, after Kent, with absurd and pedantic accessories : the lines on the scroll are from the play of the Tempest. James Thomson, buried in Richmond (Surrey) Church : statue, paid for by a subscription edition of his Seasons, &c., in 1762. Nicholas Rowe, dramatist and poet-laureate (George I.), and his daughter Charlotte : busts by Rysbrack ; in- scription by Pope. John Gay, who wrote the Beggars' Opera : winged boy and medallion portrait, erected by the Duke and Duchess of Queensbury : the scoffing couplet, " Life's a jest," is Gay's own unworthy composition ; the lines beneath it are by Pope. Oliver Goldsmith, poet, dramatist, and essayist : medallion by Nollekens, R.A., over doorway to the Chapel of St. Blaise ; the place chosen by Sir Joshua Rey- nolds ; the Latin inscription written by Dr. Johnson. John Duke of Argyll : statues of the warrior and orator as a Roman, with History, Eloquence, Britannia, &c., by Roubiliac : Canova said of the figure of Eloquence : " This is one of the noblest CHURCHES-WESTMINSTER AJ1BEY. 123 statues I have seen in England." George Frederick Handel, the great musician : statue, beneath a winged harper and stupendous organ ; the last work of Roubiliac, who took the mould from Handel's face after death. Above the niche is a record of the " Commemoration," in 1784 ; the gravestone is beneath. Joseph Addison, buried in Henry Vll.'s Chapel: a poor statue on pedestal, by Westmacott, R.A. Addison's visits here are ever to be remembered -. " When I am in a serious humour," writes he, " I very often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey, where the gloominess of the place, and the use to which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melan- choly, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable." Isaac Barrow, " the unfair preacher," temp. Charles II. : bust and tablet. Sir Richard Coxe, Taster (of food) to Queen Elizabeth and James I. : marble tablet. Isaac Casaubon, the learned editor of Persius and Polybius : marble monument. Camden, the great English antiquary, and a Master of Westminster School : half-length figure ; buried before St. Nicholas's Chapel. David Garrick, the eminent actor : statue, with medallion of Shakspeare ; a coxcombical piece of art. The most remarkable gravestones in the South Transept are those of Richard Cumberland, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Samuel Johnson, and David Garrick and his wife ; " Thomas Parr, of ye county of Sallop, born in A.D. 1483. He lived in the reignes of ten princes, viz., King Edward IV., King Edward V., King Richard III., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., King Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Eliza- beth, King James, and King Charles ; aged 152 years, and was buryed here Nov. 15, 1635 ;" Sir William Chambers, architect of Somerset House ; R. Adam, architect of the Adelphi ; John Henderson, the actor ; James Macpherson, Esq., M.P. (Ossian Macpherson) ; William Gifford, critic ; Davenant (inscribed, " O rare Sir William Davenant !"), in the grave of Thomas May, the poet, whose body was disinterred, and his monument destroyed, at the Restoration ; Francis Beaumont, " Fletcher's asso- ciate " and Sir John Denharn, K.B., author of Cooper's Hill. Near Shakspeare's monument is a bust, by Weekes, of Robert Southey, poet- laureate (buried in Crosthwaite Church, Keswick) ; and next is the gravestone over Thomas Campbell, author of the Pleasures of Hope, with an exquisite statue of the poet, by W. C. Marshall. Here also is a sitting statue of Wordsworth, by Theed. Large fees are paid to the Dean and Chapter for the admission of monuments : from 20(W. to 3001. for a statue, and from 150Z. to 200Z. for a bas-relief; for Lord Holland's monument. 20 feet square, 3001. The statue of Lord Byron, by Thorwaldsen, was refused admission ; and after lying twelve years in the London Dock cellars, in 1845 it was placed in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. " The power of granting or refusing permission to erect monuments in the Abbey rests exclusively with the Dean, except when the House of Commons, by a vote and grant of public money, takes the matter out of his hands. The Dean invariably refuses to allow the erection of statues, as encroach- ing on space which ought to belong to worshippers, and is already uuduly encumbered with stone and marble." Over the grave of Lord Macaulay is placed a tablet, with the following simple inscription : " Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, born at Rothley Temple, Leicester- shire, October 25, 1800. Died at Holly Lodge, Campden-hSll, December 28, 1859. ' His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth for evermore.' " On the end of the gallery, westward, are the remains of a supposed fresco, a White Hart, " couchant, gorged with a gold chain and coronet," the device of Richard II. T/te Chapel of St. Blaise, or the Old Revestry, which occupies the space between the South Transept and the Vestibule, leading from the Cloisters to the Chapter- house, is known to few visitors : its beautiful bit of sexpartite groining, and its mural paintings, are very curious. The Chapel of St. Blaise occupies the place of what is known at St. Alban's and elsewhere as the " slype." At the east end of the chapel are the remains of an elaborate painting of a figure holding a gridiron, supposed, therefore, to represent St. Faith ; beneath which is the Crucifixion : there is also a monk at his devotions ; and the remainder of the pointed arch is filled with red and other coloured zigzag grnaments, inscriptions, and devices ; and although the original altar has been removed, the low elevation, with a peculiar circle in front, may still be traced. Immediately above the Blaise Chapel is some .Norman masonry, a piece of the exterior of the former Abbey. 124 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. From Poets' Corner (Goldsmith first mentions the felicitous name), in passing to the first Chapel may be seen, preserved under glass, the remains of an altar-painting, including a figure, probably intended for Christ ; an angel with a palm-branch on each side, and a figure of St. Peter ; considered by the late Sir C. L. Eastlake, P.ll.A., to be " worthy of a good Italian artist of the fourteenth century," yet executed in England : of the costly enrichments there remain coloured glass, inlaid on tinfoil, and a few cameos and gems. The following is the order of the Chapels, only the most remarkable of their monumental Curiosities being noticed. The Chapels, both on the north and south sides are nearly alike, and architecturally in character with Henry III.'s struc- ture : they are lighted by lofty windows, with arches enclosing circles, above which are windows within triangles, also enclosing circles. 1. St. Benedict's Chapel. The oldest tomb here is that of Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1376) ; his effigies robed and mitred. 2. St. Edmund's Chapel : Tomb of William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, and half- brother to Henry III. (d. 1296), the effigies encased in metal the earliest existing instance in this country of the use of enamelled metal for monumental purposes ; tomb of John of Eltham, son of Edward II., but without its beautiful canopy covering the whole with delicate wrought spires and mason's work, everywhere intermixed and adorned with little images and angels, according to the fashion of those times, sup- ported by eight pillars of white stone, of the same curiously wrought -work (d. 1334) ; alabaster figures of William of Windsor and Blunch de la Tour, children of Edward III. CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 125 the boy in a short doublet, the girl in a horned headdress ; portrait brasses, in the area, of Eleanora de Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, as a nun of Barking Abbey (d. 1399), and Robert de "VValdeby, Archbishop of York (d. 1397) both the most per- feet in the Church ; alabaster figure of Lady Elizabeth Russell, long absurdly said by the guides to have died from the prick of a needle; wall monuments to Lady Jane Seymour (d. 1560) and Lady Jane Grey (d. 1553) ; black marble gravestone of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (d. 1678) ; and Sir Bernard Brocas (d. 1470), altar statue and decorated canopy. This Chapel contains altogether about twenty monuments, including one of the finest brasses in the Abbey. There are also some interesting specimens of enamelling on the well-known fine monument to Edward III., with metal statuettes on the side opposite the entrance to this chapel. These enamels are of later date (Edward III. died in 1377) and are probably of English make. 3. St. Nicholas's Chapel : Perpendicular stone screen, with quatre-foiled arches highly decorated, and embattled frieze of shields and roses, once coloured; entrance, over the grave of Sir Henry Spelman, the antiquary ; rich in Elizabethan tombs, bright with gold and colour, alabaster, touchstone, porphyry, and variegated marbles, Gothic canopies, Corinthian pillars, kneeling and recumbent figures, &c. : marble tomb of the wife of the Protector Somerset; portrait brass of Sir Humphrey Stanley, knighted by Henry VII. on Bosworth Field; gorgeous monument of the great Lord Burghley to his wife Mildred and their daughter Anne ; costly altar-tomb of Sir George Villiers, erected for his wife, by N. Stone, cost 560Z., the year before her death ; monument of Bishop Dudley, his original brass effigies gone, and the figure of Lady Catherine St. John in its place ! Here rests Katherine of Valois, Queen of Henry V., removed on the pulling down of the old Chapel of the Virgin ; her body was for nearly three centuries shown to visitors, not being re-interred until 1776. Next is the vault of the Percys, with a large marble monument, designed by Adam ; here the Dukes of Northumberland have been interred with great state; their funeral processions reaching from Northumberland House to the Abbey western door. In the Ambulatory, opposite St. Nicholas's Chapel, are the eastern side of the tomb of Edward III., and the chantry of Henry V., where Mr. Scott discovered tabernacle- work and statuettes within the masonry, and niches filled with blue glass. The entire work contained, when perfect, more than seventy statues and statuettes, besides several brass figures on the surrounding railing. Looking thence, in a few square feet, we have specimens of Gothic architecture, in several of its stages, as it flourished from the time of Henry III. to Henry VII. Through a dark vestibule you ascend to 4. Henry VII.' s Chapel, consisting of a Nave and two aisles, with five chapels at the east end. The entrance-gates are of oak, cased with brass-gilt, and richly dight with the portcullis, the crown, and twined roses. The vaulted porch is enriched with radiated quatrefoils and other figures, roses, fleurs-de-lis, &c. ; Henry's supporters, the lion, the dragon, and the greyhound; his arms and his badges : a rose frieze and em- battlement. The fan-traceried pendentive stone roof of the Chapel is encrusted with roses, knots of flowers, bosses, pendants, and armorial cognizances; the walls are covered with sunk panels, with feathered mouldings ; and in a profusion of niches are statues, and angels with escutcheons ; and the royal heraldic devices, the Tudor rose and the fleur-de-lis under crowns. The edifice is lighted by eight clerestory windows. In the Nave are the dark oaken canopied stalls of the Knights of the Bath, who were installed in this Chapel until 1812 : these stalls are studded with portcullises, falcons on fetterlocks, fruit and flowers, dragons and angels ; and above each still hangs the banner of its knight. In the centre of the apsis, or east end, within rich and massive gates of brass, is the royal founder's tomb : a pedestal, with the effigies (sup- posed likenesses) of Henry and his Queen Elizabeth, originally crowned ; the whole adorned with pilasters, relievos, rose-branches, and images, on graven tabernacles, of the Kings and patron Saints, all copper-gilt ; at the angles are seated angels. This costly tomb is the six years' work of Pietro Torrigiano, a Florentine, who received for it the large sum of 15001. : the Perpendicular brazen screen, resembling a Gothic palace, is fine English art : it formerly had thirty-six statues, of which but six remain. The only remnant of old glass in the Chapel is a figure called Henry VII. in the east window. From Henry VII. to George II., most of the English sovereigns have been interred 126 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. here. Edward VI. was buried near the high altar, but is without tomb or inscrip- tion. In the North Aisle, in the same tomb, lie the Queens Mary and Elizabeth, with a large monument to Elizabeth, by Maximilian Coulte, erected by James I. " The bigot Mary rests in the Abbey Church of Westminster, but no storied monument, no costly tomb, has been raised to her memory. She was interred with all the solemn funeral rites used by the Church, and a mass of requiem, on the north side of the chapel of Henry VII. During the reign of her successor not the slightest mark of respect was shown to her memory by the erection of a monument ; and even at the present day no other memorial remains to point out where she lies, except two small black tablets at the base of the sumptuous tomb erected by order of King James I. over the ashes of Elizabeth and her less fortunate sister. On them we read as follows : KKGXO CONSOBTES BT VENA HIC OBDOH- MlltrS ELIZAI1ETHA. BT JIABIA SOEOBES IN SPB KESVBBEC- 1IOXIS. Sir F. Madden; Privy-Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, ifc. Near Queen Elizabeth's monument is an alabaster cradle and effigy of the infant daughter of James I. ; which King, with his Queen Anne, and son Prince Henry, the Queen of Bohemia, and Arabella Stuart, lie beneath. Next is a white marble sarco- phagus, containing the supposed remains of Edward V. and his brother Richard, mur- dered in the Tower by order of their uncle, King Richard III. Near it is a recum- bent figure, by Sir R. Westinacott, R.A., of the Dulce of Montpensier, brother of Louis Philippe, King of the French. Next is the grave of Addison, whose elegant and im- pressive essay on the Abbey Church and its monuments is inseparable from its his- tory ; and close by is the great pyramidal monument of Addison's friend and patron, the Earl of Halifax. The headless corpse of Charles I. was buried at Windsor. The Protector was buried in Henry VII.'s Chapel, but in about two years his remains were removed. In the South Aisle was interred Charles II., " without any manner of pomp, and soon forgotten" (Evelyn). James II. has no place here ; the vacant space next his brother's remains being occupied by William III. and his Queen. Anne and Prince George complete the royal occupants of the vault. In the centre of the Chapel, in another vault, are the remains of King George II. and Queen Caroline, as it were in one 'receptacle, a side from each coffin having been removed by the King's direction. In the same vault rests Frederick Prince of Wales, father of George III., beside the Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden. In the South Aisle is the altar- tomb of Margaret Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., with a brass effigy by Torrigiano ; a very fine altar-tomb, with effigy, of Lord Darnley's mother, who " had to her great-grandfather King Edward IV., to her grandfather King Henry VII., to her uncle King Henry VIII., to her cousin-german King Edward VI., to her brother King James V. of Scotland, to her son (Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots), King Henry I. (of Scotland), and to her grandchild King James VI. (of Scotland)," and I. of England. Here also is the tomb, with effigy, of Mary Queen of Scots, erected by Cornelius Cure for James I., who removed his mother's remains thither from Peterborough Cathedral. In the same aisle lies Monk, Duke of Albe- marle, whose funeral Charles II. personally attended : the statue monument is by Kent. Here likewise are interred George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (assassinated 1G28), and his son, the profligate Duke. Henry VII. did not live to see this Chapel finished ; but his will, dated A.D. 1509, contains orders and directions for its completion. In several parts of the walls is repeated a rebus, formed by an eye and a slip or branch of a tree, indicating the name of the founder, Islip. The Chapel had, at the beginning of the present century, been built only about 300 years ; within a period of thirty -three years no .less a sum than nearly 70,000. was spent in repairs, chiefly of the exterior.* In 1793, James Wyatt stated that the repairs, necessary and ornamental, would amount to 25,2001. The restoration was commenced in 1810; contrary to Wyatt's estimate, it occupied thirteen years instead of three, and cost over 42,0001. The choristers had a right to levy a fine on any person who entered this Chapel with spurs : * Henry the Seventh's Chapel is built of stone from the quarries between the town of Eeigate and the chalk hills to the north. Webster; Geolog. Tran, CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 127 Bishop Finch had to pay eighteenpcnce for offending; and even the Royal Duke of Cumberland, excus- ing himself with this reply, " It is only fair I should wear my spurs where they were first buckled on," complied with the custom. It was made the Chapel of the Knights of the Bath, May 18, 1725 ; the last installation occurred in 1811. On May 9, 1803, according to old custom, the King's cook met the Knights at Poets' Corner with a chopping-knife, and addressed them with these words : " If you break your oath, by virtue of my office I will hack your spurs from off your heels." 5. St. Paul's Chapel is crowded with Cinque-cento tombs, rich in marble, gilding, and colour : the tombs of Sir Thomas Bromley, Queen Elizabeth's Chancellor, hung with banners ; of Lord Bourchier, standard-bearer to Henry V. at Agincourt ; and of Sir Giles Daubney, are among the best specimens of the period. In frigid and colossal contrast with their beauty, and hiding the Raffaelesque sculptures of Henry the Fifth's chantry, is the sitting statue of James Watt, the engineer, by Chantrey, R.A., strangely out of place in a mediaeval Church : the inscription, which contains not a word of flattery, is by Lord Brougham. Next westward you ascend a small staircase, leading to 6. Edu-ard tJie Confessor's Chapel, in the rear of the high altar of the Abbey. A square of red tiles marks the site of St. Edward's altar, which was standing at the coronation of Charles II., and used as the depositary of the regalia. In the centre is the Shrine of the Confessor, erected at the expense of Henry III., and enriched with mosaic, priceless jewels, and images of gold and silver ; and bearing a Latin inscription, now almost effaced. Northward is the altar-tomb of Edward I. (d. 1307), of Purbeck marble, " scantly fynysshed :" it was opened in 1774, when the King's body was nearly entire. Next is the canopied altar-tomb of Henry III. (1272), once richly digbt with glittering marbles and mosaic work of gold, and still bearing a, fine brass effigies of the King. At the east end is the altar-tomb and effigies of Eleanor, Queen of Edward I. ; its beautiful iron-work, wrought by a smith at Leighton Buzzard in 1293-4, was restored in 1849. To Fabyan's time, two wax tapers had been kept burning upon Eleanor's tomb, day and night, from her burial. The statue of the Queen Eleanor is of English workmanship, by William Torel, a goldsmith, and citizen of London. There has been an attempt to prove that he was a member of the Italian family of Torelli ; but the name of Torel occurs in documents from the time of the Confessor down to the said William. When the beauty of the statue of the Queen is examined it will be understood how acceptable is this discovery : " her image most curiously done in brass, gilt with gold ; her hair dishevelled, and falling very handsomely about her shoulders ; on her head a crown, under a fine canopy, supported by two cherubim, all of brass gilt." The stone-work of the Queen's tomb was constructed by Master Richard de Crundale, mason, who began the Charing Cross. Above the effigy was originally a canopy of wood, made by Thomas de Hockington, carpenter. This canopy was painted by Master Walter de Durham, who also executed the paintings on the side of the tomb. Richard II. and his Queen, Anne of Bohemia, are commemorated by a tomb of Petworth marble, inlaid with latten ; the fabric cost 2507., the images 400J., and the building of the effigies of copper and latten gilt, linked hand in hand, 400 marks. Henry V., who removed Richard's remains from Langley, established a Chantry of " sad and solemn priests," for his soul's repose. The altar-tomb and chantry of Henry V. occupy the east end of the chapel; the head of the King, of solid silver, was stolen from the tomb at the Reformation. " In Harry the Fifth's time," says Sir Philip Sidney, " the Lord Dudley was his lord- steward, and did that pitiful office in bringing home, as the chief mourner, his victorious master's dead body, as who goes but to Westminster in the church may see." At the King's burial, three chargers, with their riders excellently armed, were led according to cus- tom, up to the high altar. The iron gates were wrought in the reign of King Henry VI. The screen, Hanked with two octagonal towers, is a mass of images of saints, sculptures of his coronation, and heraldic badges. A mutilated effigy of oak lies upon the tomb ; above him are the remains of the armour which he offered here in thanksgiving, the saddle-tree stripped of its blue velvet housings powdered with fleur-de-lys ; the small shield, its green damask semee with lilies of France ; and that renowned sore broken helmet, its crest deeply dinted with the stroke of D'Alencon's battle-axe that stunned him at Agincourt, when it clove away half of his golden crown. The canopies and niches, filled with statues of kings, bishops, abbots, and saints, are very fine. The archway had formerly ornamented iron gates, made by a London smith, in 1431, but now among the Abbey stores. Next, by 7. St. Erasmus's Chapel, you enter 128 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. 8. St. John the Baptist's Chapel, with a groined roof, coloured end wall, and sculp- tured arcades. Here are buried several early Abbots of Westminster. An altar-tomb, of freestone, bears the effigy of William de Colchester, wearing gold bracelets bordered with pearls and set with stones, and a gold mitre covered with large pearls, and crosses and stars of precious gems, a rare piece of monumental costume. Here is a large Cinque-cento monument to Gary, Lord Hunsdon, first cousin and Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth ; in the centre of the area is the altar-tomb of Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, and his two wives, the second of whom refused to allow her statue to be laid in the left side space, still vacant. The alabaster monument to Colonel Edwiml Popham. '-one of the Parliament Generals at sea," was the only one spared at the Restoration. Nearly all the old tombs have lost their canopies. The view from here is vei-y picturesque and varied ; and in leaving the Chapel, the eye ranges across the north transept, and down the north aisles of the choir and nave, through a o'erarching vista of " dim religious light," brightened by a gemmy lancet window. 9. Abbot Islip's Chapel is elegantly sculptured, and contains his altar-tomb, with an effigy of the Abbot in his winding-sheet. In this chapel was the Wax-work Exhi- bition, which originated in the olden custom of waxen figures of great persons being formerly borne in their funeral processions, then for a time deposited over their graves, and subsequently removed. Other figures were added ; the sight was called by the vulgar. " The Play of the Dead Volks," and was not discontinued until 1839. Next the Chapel is the monument to General Wolfe, by Wilton, R.A., with a lead-bronzed bas- relief of the landing at Quebec, executed by Cappizoldi. We now enter the East Aisle of the North Transept, formerly divided by enriched screens into the Chapels of St. John, St. Michael, and St. Andrew. Here is the celebrated tomb of Sir Francis Vere (temp. Elizabeth), his effigy recumbent beneath a canopy on which are his helmet, breastplate, &c., supported by four kneeling knights at the four corners ; the design is said to have been borrowed from a tomb at Breda, attributed to Michael Angelo. Roubiliac was found one day with his looks fixed on one of the knights' figures; " Hush ! hush !" said he to the Abbey mason, laying his hand on his arm as he approached, and pointing to the figure, " he will speak presently." Near this tomb is Roubiliac's famous monument to Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale, where Death, as a skeleton, is launching his dart at the beautiful wife, who sinks into the arms of her agonized husband . her right arm is the perfection of sculpture : " life seems slowly receding from her tapering fingers and quivering wrist." (Allan Cunningham.) Roubiliac died the year after its erection, 1762 : this work touches every heart, but the figure of Death is too literal and melodramatic. Upon the spot, formerly the oratory of St. John the Evangelist, is a marble statue of Mrs. Siddons by Campbell ; she is in her famous walking dream as Lady Macbeth. Here is also an alto-relievo, by J. Bacon, jun., to Admiral R. Kempenfeldt, drowned by the sinking of the Royal Greorge, 1782 : " When Kempenfeldt went down With twice four hundred men." Opposite is the colossal statue of Telford, the eminent engineer, by Baily, R.A.; and a tablet to Sir Humphry Davy. Eastward is the north side of Henry the Fifth's Chantry, with his coronation ceremony, and its equestrian war-group, whose poetic grandeur of sculpture so charmed Flaxvnan. The shrine of Henry V. is excellently carved. The figures, which are carried along the screen, in niches, are mostly habited in long gowns, fastened by a buckled belt, and reaching to the feet, with a cloak over them : others represent ecclesiastics ; and several of them have books. The coronation, in a square compartment, is supposed by Gough to represent the coronation of Henry V. in this church, by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Henry Beaufort, the king's uncle. The canopies over the coronation, and nine small figures, are surmounted by devices of the swan and antelope alternately. The large cornices under the figures are likewise ornamented with swans and antelopes, collared and chained to a tree, on which is a flaming cresset light. Near to this Chantry is the tomb of Philippa of Hainault, Queen of Edward III., in the account of its cost stated to have been executed by one " Hawkiii Liege, from France," though its character is Flemish. The monument consists of an altar tomb of dark marble overlaid with niches of open work in white alabaster. These niches contained thirty statuettes of different personages, connected by relationship or marriage with the queen. Nearly the whole of the tabernacle-work, though shown as perfect in the prints of the early part of the last century, has since disappeared. CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 129 Next is the highly decorated altar-tomb and effigies of Edward III., with the richest and most perfect canopy in the Abbey : it is Early Perpendicular, and elaborately carved ; six statues of Edward's children remain, of brass-gilt, set in niches ; the metal table and effigy are of latten ; the head of the King is eulogized by Lord Lindsay as one of almost ideal beauty. The sword, 7 feet in length, and weighing 18 lb., and the plain rough shield of wood, coarsely lined with buckram and rough leather, recal " the mighty victor, mighty lord." The state sword and shield were carried before Edward III. in France : " The monumental sword that conquered France." Dryden. Here, also, are three small tombs of children of Edward III., Edward IV., and Henry VII. ; likewise, a brass of John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, and Lord High Treasurer, buried, by favour of Richard II., in this " Chapel of the Kings." This is parted from the Choir by a shrine of fifteenth-century work, its frieze bearing the following 14 sculptures, from the life of the last legitimate Anglo-Saxon King : 1. Prelates and nobles doing fealty to Edward the Confessor before he was born. 2. Birth of the Confessor. 3. The Confessor's Coronation. 4. The Confessor witnessing the Devil dancing on the Danegelt Tax in casks. 5. Edward admonishing the thief stealing his treasure. 6. Christ appearing to Edward. 7. Vision King of Denmark falling into the sea. 8. Tosti and Harold's quarrel. 9. Vision Emperor Theodosius and Cave of Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. 10. Edward giving his ring to St. John Evangelist. 11. Restoration of the Blind, by use of water hi which Edward had washed. 12. St. John giving Edward's ring to Pilgrims. 13. Pilgrims returning the ring to Edward. 14. Called " Dedication of Edward the Confessor's Church." The two upper stories of the Shrine are of wainscot, and were probably erected by Abbot Feckenham, in Queen Mary's reign. The massive iron-bound oaken coffin con- taining the ashes of the pious Edward, within the ancient stonework, may be seen from the parapet of Henry V.'s Chapel. Two illuminations from the life of St. Edward, in the University Library, Cambridge, show 1. One end of the Shrine in which the saint was, probably, first deposited after canonization, with the infirm persons creeping through the openings left in his tomb for this purpose. There is a pillar on either side of the Shrine sur- mounted by statues of St. John the Evangelist and Edward the Confessor. It is therefore probable that the two large twisted columns which we now see at the base- ment of the Shrine served for a similar purpose. 2. The side of the same Shrine. The lid is raised, upheld by several persons ; and four other persons, one of whom is doubtless intended to represent Gundulph, who vainly endeavoured to abstract one of the hairs of the beard, are readjusting the saint's remains. His features and beard are shown as in perfect preservation ; and there is a crown upon his head. Mr. John Gough Nichols, from diaries kept during the days of Queen Mary, shows that the body of the Confessor had been removed, and the Shrine, wholly or in part, taken down at the Dissolution, but restored in Queen Mary's time, when the present wooden Shrine, cornice, modern inscription, and painted decorations were added. Mr. Scott, however, thinks the marble substructure to have been only in part removed. There is, in Abbot Litlington's service-book in the Abbey Library, a view of the Shrine it is feared, an imaginary one. The substructure is speckled over to represent mosaic work, but the seven arched recesses for pilgrims to kneel under, which really occupy two sides and an end, are all shown on one side ! The Shrine has on its sloped covering a recumbent figure of the Confessor. Mr. Scott opened the ground round the half-buried pillars at the west end, and found them to agree in height with those at the east, which they so much exceed in diameter ; and he recovered the broken parts of one of the eastern pillars, and refitted and refixed its numerous frag- ments with the help of one new piece of only a few inches in length ; so that we have now one perfect pillar. Some seven years ago, Mr. P. Cunningham found in the Accounts of the Paymaster of Works and Buildings, belonging to the Crown during the reign of King James II., the following entry : " Paid to Mathew Bankes, for a large coffin by him made to enclose the body of St. Edward the Con- fessor, and setting it up in its place, in the year 1685, 6/. 2s. 8d. And to William Backe, locksmith, for large hinges and rivetts, and 2 crossebarrs for the said coffin, 21. VJ. 7d." "I have seen" (says Keepe) "a large chest or coffin, bound about with strong bands of iron, lying about the midst of the inside of this shrine, where I suppose the body of the pious Confessor may still be conserved." Keepe's work was published in 1681 ; and four years after, at the taking down of the X 130 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. scaffolding 1 , erected for the coronation of James 1 1., a hole was either accidentally or purposely broken in the lid of the Confessor's coffin. "On putting my hand into the hole" (says Keepe), " and turning the bones which 1 felt there, I drew from underneath the shoulder-bones a crucifix, richly adorned and en- amelled, and a gold chain, twenty-four inches long." The crucifix and chain of the last but one of our Saxon kings were accepted by the laet of our Stuart kings. Their destiny is, I believe, un- known. With their hacks to the screen stand the two Coronation Chairs used at the crown- ing of the British sovereigns. One was made by order of Edward I. to hold the Scone stone, of legendary fame, and which had been for ages the coronation seat of the Scottish kings : it is of reddish-grey sandstone, 26 by 16f inches, and lOf inches thick. The companion chair was made for the coronation of Mary, Queen of William III. Both chairs are of architectural design : the ancient one, St. Edward's Chair, is supported upon four lions ; and both are covered with gold-frosted tissue, and cushioned, when used at coronations. Mr. Surges believes that the Chair was ornamented with painting, gilding, glass, jewels, and enamels in a similar mode as were the sedilia and retabulum. The gilding of the chair was effected by a pro- cess not hitherto detected. After the usual " gesso " was applied, and the gold laid on by means of white of egg, and the ground thus formed was still elastic, a blunt instrument was used to prick out the pattern. By the aid of a dark lantern and a strong lens, the decorations have been made out by Mr. Tracey. At the back of the chair are remains of the representation of a king there, seated on a cushion diapered with lozenges, with his feet resting on a lion. On the dexter side are traces of birds and foliage ; on the sinister a diaper of compound quatrefoils with a different subject, such as a knight, a monster, a bird, foliage, in each quatrefoil. In the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward I.'s time there is a charge by Master Walter, the painter, for the costs and expenses incurred by him for making one step at the foot of the new chair (in which is the stone from Scotland), set up near the altar in St. Edward's Shrine in the Abbatial Church at Westmin- ster, in pursuance of the order of the King, for the wages of the carpenter and painter for painting the same, together with making a case for covering the chair. The cost of this was II. 19. 7d. The coro- nation-stone is placed within the framework of the chair : at each end is a circular iron handle, affixed to a staple within the stone itself, so that it might be lifted up. In 1297, according to Stow, Edward I. offered at the Confessor's Shrine the chair, containing the famous stone ; and the sceptre and crown of gold of the Scottish sovereigns, which he had brought from the Abbey of Scone. The Prophetic or Fatal Stone is named from the belief of the Scots that whenever it was lost, the power of the nation would decline ; it was also superstitiously called Jacob's Pillow. The mosaic pavement of this chapel, by Abbot Ware, is as old as the Confessor's Shrine : its enigmatical designs in tesserae of coloured marbles, porphyry, jasper, alabaster, &c., are very curious. The North Transept, from its number of political memorials, is sometimes called Statesmen's Corner, in correspondence with Poets' Corner, in the South Transept. The North Transept contains some important modern monuments : such are Bacon's statue of the great Lord Chatham, with allegorical figures ; and Nollekens's large group of pyramid, allegory, and medallion, to the three Captains mortally wounded in Rodney's victory of April 12, 1782 : these are national tributes, erected by the King and Parliament. The memorials to naval commanders here are numerous, and their heroic suffering is usually narrated in medallion. Mrs. Warren and child, sometimes entitled " Charity," for pathetic treatment has few rivals in modern sculpture ; it is by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A. One of the grandest works here is Flaxman's sitting statue of Lord Chief- Justice Mansfield, supported by figures of Wisdom and Justice ; in the rear of the pedestal is the crouching figure of a condemned youth, with the torch of life reversed, or it is better described as " a criminal, by Wisdom delivered up to Justice." (Cunningham's Handbook of Westminster Abbey.) Lord Mansfield rests beneath this memorial : it cost 2500Z., bequeathed by a private individual for its erection. In the pavement here are buried Chatham, Pitt, and Fox; Castlereagh, Canning, and Grattan ; Lord Colchester and William Wilberforce : "Now taming thought to human pride! The mighty chiefs sleep side by side. Drop upon Fox's grave the tear, 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier ; O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound, And Fox's shall the notes rebound." Sir Walter Scott. Fox's memorial, by Westmacott, shows the orator dying in the arms of Liberty, attended by Peace and a kneeling negro. Canova said of the figure of the African in this group, that " neither in England nor out of England had he seen any modern work in marble which surpassed it." King George IV. subscribed 1000 guineas CHURCHES, WESTMINSTER ASSET. 131 towards this monument. Pitt's monument, by the same sculptor, is over the great western door of the Nave. In the north aisle of the Choir, leading to the Nave, are Chantrey's marble portrait-statues of Homer, Canning, Malcolm, and Raffles ; a statue of Follett, by Behnes ; John Philip Kemble (without a name), modelled by Flaxman, but executed after his death ; Wilberforce, by S. Joseph ; and, opposite Canning, the late Marquis of Londonderry, by J. E. Thomas placed here, in 1850, by the Marquis's brother. Nearly opposite is the grave of Viscount Palmerston, d. October 18, 1865. Here are three monuments by Wilton: statue of General Wolfe, and figures; statue of Admiral Holmes, in Roman armour ; and William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, statues and medallion. The more ancient monuments, of the larger size, are those of William Cavendish, the loyalist Duke of Newcastle, and his Duchess ; and his kinsman, the Duke John Holies. Here, too, are memorials of our old admirals, Sir Charles Wager, Vernon of Portobello, and Sir Peter Warren, by Scheemakers, Rysbrack, and Roubiliac. Here are busts, by Weekes, of Charles Buller and Sir George Cornewall Lewis, the latter in the western porch, and adjoining the monuments to Follett, Kenible, and Lieut.-Gen. Sir Eyre Coote. Next, also, are the bust of Warren Hastings, by Bacon ; Thrupp'a statue of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton ; and Sir Robert Peel, by Gibson, R.A. Here, likewise, is the mural monument, by Noble, to Sir James Outram a bust surmounting a historical group of the meeting of Outram, Havelock, and Clyde, at Lucknow : the tablet supported by figures of a Scindian and Bheel chief. The six lancet windows of the North Transept, painted with figures of Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, David, and Jonathan, and with medallion pictures of their chief exploits, were erected in memory of six officers of Sir James Outram's army, killed in the Indian War of 1857 and 1858 ; another window, in the aisle to the left, is dedicated to that of Brigadier the Hon. Adrian Hope. The rose-window, higher up, filled with paintings of the Saviour, the twelve Apostles, and the four Evangelists, is of much older date. The Choir is in height the loftiest in England. The light and graceful piers are ornamented with detached shafts filleted with brass. The triforium, or gallery imme- diately above the aisles, where the nuns of Kilburn are traditionally said to have attended service, is an arcade of double compartments of two arches with a cinquefoil in the head ; the arches narrow towards the apse, and become sharply pointed. This arcade is probably the most 'beautiful example in existence of its kind. Mr. Scott says : " The spaciousness of this upper story is quite surprising to persons who see it for the first time. It is capable of containing thousands of persons, and its architec- tural and artistic effects, as viewed from different points, are wonderfully varied and beautiful." Its convenience for public solemnities, as coronations, was very great ; and it is to be wished that access to these noble triforial galleries, from which by far the most beautiful views of the interior are to be had, were more freely granted to such visitors as would appreciate the privilege. Mr. Surges suggests, not altogether without probability, that it was in the spacious triforium that Caxton first set up his printing-press in Westminster Abbey. The clerestory windows are of two lights : the spandrels are chiselled with diaper work in small panels, containing flowers in low relief. The piers of the lantern are massive and grand one continuous upward line of grey marble, surrounded by sixteen shafts wrought out of the main column. The bosses in the vault were gilded in the time of Queen Anne. The vaulting of plaster under the lantern is by Bernasconi, and designed by James Wyatt, who set up the paltry altar screen at the coronation of George IV. The pavement of opus Alexandrinum, on the altar platform, was made by a Roman artist for Abbot Ware, circa 1268. An inscription on the pavement says : " Odericus et Abbas hos compegere por- phyreos lapides." But for three peculiarities indicated by Mr. Burges, it might be supposed that Abbot Ware had brought this present for his church from Home in its finished state ; an examination will show that the Italian ground for mosaics, cippolino, not being obtainable in this country, Purbeck was substituted ; that legends in brass letters were inserted in the Purbeck borders ; and that glass was introduced ; facts which show conclusively that it was of Northern workmanship. Among the sums paid by the executors of Queen Eleanor was an account of sixty shillings to William le Favour " pro pavimento faciendo in Eeclesia West." This, it is conjectured, relates to the mosaic pavement in the chapel of Edward the Confessor. Scott's Gleanings from Westminster Abbey. The Choir was formerly hung with beautiful tapestries, and cloth of arras, which, on K 2 132 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Jan. 4, 1644, were transferred to the Parliament House, given back at the Restoration, and finally removed in 1707 : a portion is now in the Jerusalem Chamber. The Choir has some fine canopied monuments. On the north side is the richly canopied tomb of Avelina, Countess of Lancaster; of Aymej de Valence, Earl of Pembroke (best seen from the north aisle) ; and Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lan- caster, second son of Edward III. Aymer de Valence was one of the heroes of Bannockburn, and fell wounded by a tilting-spear in France, June 23, 1323 : Gray portrays his countess as The sad Chatillon on her bridal morn Who wept her bleeding love. The monument was thus described by Keepe in 1683 : " A wainscot chest, covered over with plates of brass, richly enamelled, and thereon the image of de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, with a deep shield on his left arm, in a coat of mail with a surcoat, all of the same enamelled brass, gilt with gold, and beset with the arms of Valence, &c. * * * Round about the inner ledge of this tomb is most of the epitaph remaining, in the ancient Saxon letters ; and the rest of the chest, covered with brass, wrought in the form of lozenges, each lozenge containing either the arms of England or of Valence, alternately placed one after the other, enamelled with their colours. Round this chest have been thirty little brazen images, some of them still remaining, twelve on each side, and three at each end, divided by central arches that serve as niches to enclose them ; and on the outward ledge, at the foot of these images, is placed a coat of arms in brass enamelled with the colours." Flaxman characterizes the two latter monuments as " specimens of the magnificence of our sculpture in the reign of the first two Edwards. The loftiness of the work, the number of arches and pinnacles, the lightness of the spires, the richness and profusion of foliage and crockets, the solemn repose of the principal statue, representing the deceased in his last prayer for mercy at the throne of grace ; the delicacy of thought in the group of angels bearing the soul, and the tender sentiment of concern variously expressed in the relations ranged in order round the basement, forcibly arrest the attention, and carry the thoughts not only to other ages, but to other states of existence." In the South aisle of the Choir is part of a splendid altar frontal (thirteenth century), discovered in 1827. This is a very wonderful work of art, being most richly decorated with glass, gold, and painting, and probably with precious stones, and even with casts of antique gems. The glass enrichments are of two sorts in one the glass is coloured, and is decorated on its face with gold diaper; in the other it is white, and laid upon a decorated surface. The great charm, however, of the work must have been in the paintings. They consist of single figures in niches of our Lord and SS. Peter and Paul, and two female saints, and a number of small medallion subjects beautifully painted. On the south is the Cinque-cento altar-tomb of Anne of Cleves, one of King Henry VIll.'s six wives, which is so miserable as to have led old Fuller to observe, " not one of Harry's wives had a monument, and she but half a one ;" above is the tomb of King Sebert, erected in 1308, and bearing two pictures, Sebert and Henry III., among our earliest specimens of oil-painting, and in tolerable condition. In 1848, the oak refitting of the Choir was completed ; the Organ over the screen at the west entrance was then partly removed to the sides, and partly lowered, so as not to intercept the view of the great west window. On each side are ranged oaken stalls, with decorated gables, those for the Dean and Sub-dean distinguished by loftier canopies, and the western entrance being still more enriched; the pew-fronts and seat-ends are also carved, and many more sittings have been provided : the carved wood-work is by Messrs. Ruddle, of Peterborough, from designs by E. Blore. The great circular or marigold window, and the triforium and other windows beneath it, in the South Transept, have been filled with stained glass by Ward and Nixon ; the subjects are incidents in the life of our Saviour, with figures nearly three feet high. From the cross of the Transepts, the magnificent perspective of the high imbowed roof of the Nave and Choir, and the great height of the edifice, nearly 104 feet, is seen to the best advantage. The pavement is partly Abbot Ware's, and in part black and white marble, the latter given by Dr. Busby, of Westminster School. The decorations of the altar are in the Gothic style; but a classic order disgraced the choir from the days of Queen Anne to the reign of George IV. The original stalls of the choir seem to have been retained in a more or less perfect state till late in the last century. They are shown in the view given by Dart, and in that given in Sandford's account of the coronation of James II. The canopies are there supported by single shafts. The sedilia are more than usually curious, from the fact that they are made of wood. They have suffered much since Sir J. Ayliffe had them and the tomb of Avelina, Countess of CHURCHES, WESTMINSTER ASSET. 133 Lancaster, drawn for the Vetusta Honumenta, in 1778. There are four of them : but no trace is found of a piscina. They appear to have been elaborately decorated by processes similar to that which beautified the retabulum, which was discovered by Mr. Blore, in 1827, lying on the top of the effigy cases in the upper chapel of Abbot Islip. It is a rich specimen of thirteenth -century workmanship ; and has been restored to its place at the back of the high altar. The north aisle of the Choir, leading to the Nave, has been described as a sort of Musicians' Corner ; for here rests Purcell, with the striking epitaph, attributed to Dryden : " Here lies Henry Purcell, Esq., who left this life, and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded." On the same pillar is a memorial of Samuel Arnold ; both Purcell and Arnold were organists of the Abbey. Opposite is a tablet to Dr. Blow ; and close by lies Dr. Croft, another organist of the Abbey, whose death is said to have been brought on by his attendance at the coro- nation of George II. Coronations. In this Abbey-church the following monarchs and consorts have been crowned : Jan. 6, 1066, Harold ; Dee. 25, William ; Sept. 26, 1087, William II. ; Aug. 6, 1094, Henry I. ; Dec. 26, 1135, Stephen of Blois; March 22, 1135-6, Matilda of Boulogne; Dec. 19, 1154, Henry II. and Eleanor of Aquitaine; Sunday after St. Barnabas' day, 1170, Prince Henry; Sept. 3, 1189, Richard I.; May 27, 1199, John; Oct. 28, 1216, Henry III., and again Feb. 1236, with Eleanor of Provence; Aug. 19, 1272, Kdward I. with Eleanor of Castile ; Quinquagesima, 1308, Edward II., and Isabella of France; Feb. 2, 1327, Edward HI., and Philippa of Hainault; Richard II., July 16, 1377 ; Jan.14,1382, Anne of Bohemia; Oct. 13, 1399, Henry IV., and Feb. 26, 1403, Joan of Bretagne, with the sacred un- guent of Rheims; April 9, 1421, Henry V., and Feb. 24, 1421, Katherine of Valois ; Nov. 6, 1421, Henry VI.; May 30, 1415, Margaret of Anjou; June 8, 1460, Edward IV., and Ascehsion-Dav, 1465, Elizabeth Woodville; July 5, 1433, Richard HI.; Oct. 30, 1485, Henry VII., and Mov. 25, 1487, Elizabeth of York; George's Day, 1661, Charles II. ; St. George's Day, 1685, James II., and Mary of Modena; April 18, 1689, William of Orange and Mary, when Lord Danby had to produce twenty guineas at the oflertory, as the purse had been stolen at the king's side [the Bishop of London put the crown on the king's head, as Dr. Saucroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, would not take the oaths to their Majesties] ; April 23, 1702, Anne ; Oct. 20, 1714, George 1., who rudely repulsed Dean Atterbury's ceremonious offer of the canopy and chair of state, but refused to wear his crown while receiving the Holy Com- munion, saying it was indecent so to appear before the King of kings; Oct. 11, 1727, George II. and Caroline of Anspach ; Sept. 22nd, 1761, George III. (the kiss of charity was omitted, and mitres were first disused by the prelates) : July 19, 1821, George IV. ; Sept. 8, 1831, William and Adelaide, without coro- nation feast and procession, or champion's challenge ; June 28, 1838, "The Hanover Thursday," Queen Victoria ; when, for the first time since the Revolution, a sovereign was desired to lay aside the crown be- fore receiving the Holy Communion ; and a procession of coaches was substituted for the ancient proces- sion on foot. Walcott's Guide to the Cathedrals, 1858. Upon most occasions, the sacred ceremony was followed by a banquet in the Great Hall of the Palace of Westminster. The last of these festivities was that at the coro- nation of George IV. On the night previous, the King reposed on a couch in the tapestry-room of the Speaker's official residence in the Old Palace ; and next morning the royal procession advanced along a raised platform, covered by an awning, from West- minster Hall to the Abbey Church, where the King was crowned ; and then returned to the Great Hall, where the banquet was served. The entire cost of this Coronation is stated to have exceeded a quarter of a million, or more than 268,OOOJ. It has been commemorated in one of the most costly works of pictorial art ever produced the Illustrated History of the Coronation of George IV., by Sir George Nayler : containing forty-five splendidly coloured plates, atlas folio, price fifty guineas per copy. Sir George lost a considerable sum by the publication, although Government voted 50001. towards the expenses. Sir George also under- took a much more costly memorial of this Coronation for George IV., but it was never completed. The portion executed contains seventy-three coloured drawings, finished like enamels, on velvet and white satin : the portraits are very accurate likenesses, and many of the coronets have rubies, emeralds, pearls, and brilliants set in gold ; each portrait costing fifty guineas, first-hand. H. Bonn's Catalogue. At the coronation of Queen Victoria, temporary reception apartments were erected at the great western entrance to the Abbey Church ; the Nave was fitted with galleries and seats for spectators, as were also the Choir and Transepts ; the peers were seated in the North Transept, and the peeresses South ; and the House of Commons in a gallery over the altar ; and the orchestra of 400 performers in front of the organ. At the intersection of the Choir and Transepts was the theatre, or pulpitum, covered with rich carpets and cloth of gold, in the centre of which, upon a raised platform, stood the Chair of Homage. At the north-east corner of the theatre was the pulpit, whence " the Coronation Sermon " was preached. The crowning in St. Edward's Chair took place in the Sacrarium, before the altar, in front of St. Edward's Chapel ; 134 -CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. and behind the altar was " the Queen's Traverse," or retiring-room. (/See " Corona- tion Chairs," described at p. 132.) At the altar were married the Princesses Joan and Margaret, May 2, 1284 ; and Henry and Elizabeth, January 18, 1486; here were offered the spoils of Wales, April, 1285 ; here, when Prince Edward was made a Knight, two knights were stifled in the crowd, and the King swore him and his nobles on the two golden swans that were carried up in procession, to avenge John Corny n- and conquer Scotland. Here Henry V. offered the trappings of his coursers on his return from France, to be con- verted into vestments. Here, August 11, 1381, the Constable of the Tower and Sir Ralph Farren slew a squire who had fought at Najara, and a monk who endeavoured to save him, before the Prior's stall : as in 1380 Wat Tyler's mob slew a man before the Shrine. Here Abbot Weston celebrated mass in armour, when Sir T. Wyatt was marching on London ; and afterwards silenced his opponents in a famous disputation, saying, " You have the word, but we have the sword." Walcott's Handbook. The Nave has almost every variety of memorial sarcophagus and statue, bust and brass, tablet and medallion, mostly modern. Immediately behind the memorial of Fox, on the left, as the visitor enters the great western door, are a marble bust of Sir James Mackintosh, and busts of Zachary Macaulay, Tierney, and other public men. In the southern aisle of the Choir, leading to the Nave, 5s Bird's monument to Sir Cloudesley Shovel, personifying " the brave, rough English Admiral" by a periwigged beau, which was so justly complained of by Addison and the pious Dr. Watts. Opposite is Behnes's bust of Dr. Bell, the founder of the Madras System of Education ; and near it is the monument .to Thomas Thynne, of Longleat, Wilts : he was shot in his coach, at the end of the Haymarket, Sunday, Feb. 12, 16S2, as sculptured on the tomb. Here, too, is a fine bust, by Le Scour, of Sir Thomas Richardson, Lord Chief-Justice (temp. Charles I.) ; and a bust of Pasquale de Paoli, the Corsican chief. Here, also, are the monuments to Dr. South, the witty prebendary of the Church; Dr. Busby, master of Westminster School ; and Dr. Isaac Watts, buried in Bunhill Fields. In the two side arches of the Choir screen are the monuments of Sir Isaac Newton, and James, first Earl Stanhope ; both designed by Kent, and executed by Rysbrack : Newton's is characterized by the celestial globe, with the course of the comet of 1681, and the genius of Astronomy above it. In the screen niches are statues of Edward the Confessor, Henry III., and Edward I., and their respective queens. In the Nave north aisle is a weeping female, by Flaxman, to the memory of George Lindsay Johnstone a touching memorial of sisterly sorrow. One of the few old monuments here is that to Mrs. James Hill a kneeling figure and sheeted skeleton, and the mottoes : " Mors mihi lucrum," and " Solus Christus mihi sola salus." Near the above is the Parliamentary figure-group, by Westmacott, to Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister, shot by Bellingham, in the lobby of the House of Commons, May 11, 1812 ; the assassination is sculptured rearward of the figures. Here also are several interesting monuments to heroes who have fallen in battle : as, Colonel Bringfield, killed by a cannon-shot at Ramilies whilst remounting the great Duke of Marlborough on a fresh horse ; the three brothers Twysden, who fell in their country's service in three successive years; Captains Harvey, Hutt, and Montagu, who fell in Lord Howe's victory of June 1 ; Sir Richard Fletcher, killed at St. Sebastian ; and the Hon. Major Stanhope, at Corunna. Here, too, is a plain tablet to Banks, the sculptor, R.A. ; a monument to Sir Godfrey Kneller, the painter, by Rysbrack, after Sir Godfrey's own design, Pope furnishing the epitaph : Kneller is buried in Twickenham Church. To- wards the middle of the Nave are the gravestones of Major Rennell, the geographer ; and Thomas Telford, the engineer ; and near Banks's tablet is buried Ben Jonson, his coffin set on its feet, and originally covered with a stone inscribed " O rare Ben Jonson !" By his side lies Tom Killigrew, the wit of Charles the Second's court ; and opposite, his son, killed at the battle of Almanza, in Spain, 1707. In the north aisle, too, is a large brass to the memory of Sir Robert Wilson, the soldier and politician, and Dame Jemima, his wife ; with figures of a mediaeval warrior in coat of mail, and of a mediaeval lady, under canopies ; and below are two groups of seven boys and seven girls ! Side by side are memorials of Robert Stephenson, the engineer, and John Hunter, the surgeon, removed here in 1859, from the Church of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields; the memorials are of polished granite, inlaid and bordered with brass. CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 135 Over the west door "is Westmacott's statue- memorial to the Right Hon. William Pitt : it cost 6300Z.J then the largest sum ever voted by Government for a national monument. To the left is a large marble monument to Lord Holland, by Baily, R.A., erected by public subscription in 1848 ; the design the prison-house of Death, with three poetic figures in lamentation, bassi-relievi on the two sides, and the whole sur- mounted by a colossal bust of the deceased Lord is, perhaps, the finest architectural and sculptural combination in the Abbey. We now reach the south tower of the western front, used as the Consistory Court, and Chapel for Morning Prayers. In the south aisle of the Nave, commencing from the west, is the tomb of Captain Cornewall, who fell in the sea-fight off Toulon, 1743; this being the first monument voted by Parliament for naval services. Next is the statue of the Right Hon. James Craggs, the friend of Pope and Addi- son ; and Bird's bust-monument to Congreve, the great dramatic poet, erected at the ex- pense of Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, to whom Congreve, " for reasons not known or not mentioned," bequeathed 10,0001. Among the noticeable personages interred here, without memorials, is Dean Atterbury the place his own previous choice, being, as he told Pope, " as far from kings and ka3sars as the space will admit of;" also Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, buried " in a very fine Brussels-lace head, a Holland shift, with a tucker and double ruffles of the same lace, a pair of new kid gloves," &c. ; to which Pope thus alludes : " Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke, (Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke) : No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face; One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead And Betty, give this cheek a little red." Eastward is the sculptural burlesque deservedly known as "the Pancake Monument," to Admiral ^yrrell, with its patchy clouds, coral rocks, cherubs, harps, palm-branches, and other allegorical absurdities. Between three successive windows are the monuments, by Roubiliac, of Lieut.-Gen. Hargrave, Maj.-Gen. Fleming, and Marshal Wade, all in the conventional school of allegory. Next are a good bust, by Bird, of Sidney, Earl of Goclolphin, chief minister to Queen Anne ; alto-relievo and figures to Lieut.-Col. Townsend, killed by a cannon-ball at Ticonderago, in his 28th year ; and a monument, by Bushnell, to Sir Palmes Fairborne, governor of Tangier, with inscription by Dryden. We now reach the tomb of Major Andre, who was executed by the Americans as a spy in 1780; his remains were removed here in 1821 : the bas-relief shows Andre as a prisoner in the tent of Washington, with the bearer of a flag of truce to solicit his pardon. This monument was put up at the expense of George III. ; the heads of the principal figures have been several times mischievously knocked off, but as often restored. The new pulpit, on the north side of the Nave, was designed by Scott, R.A* and executed by William Farmer. Its sculptural details are as follow : The pulpit is composed principally of magnesian limestone from the Mansfield Woodhouse quarry. It is octagonal, with a capping of red Devon marble. The cornice is ornamented with leaves and flowers of the columbine. At the angles are figures of the four Evangelists and of St. Peter and St. Paul under canopies. In one panel is the face of our Lord, in white marble, well sculptured by Monro. In the other panels are lozenges containing circular medallions of mosaic work in different coloured marbles. The capping of the string which runs round the bottom of the panels is of grey Derbyshire marble : the string is ornamented with First Pointed foliage. The pulpit is supported on columns of Devonshire marble at the angles, and a larger one in the centre ; the capitals being of Early Pointed character. The columns of the staircase are of the same. The figures of the Apostles are well carved. The nave has been fitted for special Sunday services. The Jerusalem Chamber, adjoining the south tower of the Western front, is now used as the Chapter-house. Its northern window has some stained glass, temp. Edward III. ; and here hangs the ancient portrait of Richard II. in the Coronation chair. In the Jerusalem Chamber died Henry IV., brought from the Confessor's Shrine in the Abbey in a fit of apoplexy, March 20, 1413. Being carried into this Chamber, he asked, on rallying, where he was ; and when informed, he replied, to use the words of Shakspeare, founded on history " Laud be to God ! even here my life must end : It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die but in Jerusalem." King Henry IT., Part 2, act iv. sc.4. 136 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Here the body of Congreve lay in state, before bis pompous funeral, at which noble- men bore the pall. Here, too, Addison lay in state, before his burial in Henry VII.'s Chapel, as pictured in Tickell's elegy : "Can I forget the dismal night that gave My soul's best part for ever to the grave ? How silent did his old companions tread, By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead : Through breathing statues, then unheeded things ; Through rows of warriors, and through walks of tings," &c. The CJiapter-Jiouse, an exquisitely beautiful specimen of mediaeval Gothic architec- ture, was originally built by Edward the Confessor ; the existing walls are of the time of Henry III. Fabric-rolls and other papers discovered by Mr. Burtt have proved the very important fact that the Chapter-house, which is the latest part of the work of Henry III., was finished ready for glazing so early as 1253 ; and a Parliament was held here in 1264. The Chapter-house was the most usual place of meeting of the House of Commons through the Middle Ages, until the dissolution of the Collegiate body of St. Stephen had put the Royal Chapel of the Plantagenets at the disposal of the Legislature. Originally lent by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster for the casual use of Parliament, the building was quietly appropriated by the Tudors after the reason of the loan had passed away. Room was wanted for records, and the Chapter- house provided a tempting expanse of wall space. So the rich tile floor was boarded over, and thereby luckily preserved ; the traceried windows were gutted and walled up ; the vaulted roof was demolished by some builder, after Wren had refused the job, and the whole interior choked with recesses and galleries equally concealing wall- painting and carved-work. Mr. Scott thus gives the details : It is an octagon of 18 feet diameter, and had a vaulted roof, which was supported by a central pillar about 35 feet high. It is entirely of Purbeck marble, and consists of a central shaft, surrounded by eight subordinate shafts attached to it by three moulded bands. The capital, though of marble, is most richly carved. The doorway itself has been truly a noble one. It was double, divided by a single central pillar and a circle in the head, whether pierced or containing sculpture cannot be ascertained, as it is almost entirely destroyed. The jambs and arch are magnificent. The former contains on the outer side four large shafts of Purbeck marble ; their caps are of the same material, and most richly carved, and the spaces between the shafts beautifully foliated. The walls below the windows are occupied by arcaded stalls, with trefoiled heads. The five which occupy the eastern side are of superior richness and more deeply recessed. Their capitals, carved in Purbeck marble, are of exquisite beauty. The spandrels over the arch are diapered, usually with the square diaper so frequent in the church, but in one in- stance with a beautifully executed pattern of roses. One of the most remarkable features in the Chapter- house is the painting at the back of the stalls. The general idea represented by this painting would appear to be our Lord exhibiting the mysteries of the Redemption to the heavenly host. In the central compartment our Lord sits enthroned ; His hands are held up to show the wounds, and the chest bared for the same purpose; above are angels holding a curtain or dossel, behind the throne, and on either side are others bearing the instruments of the Passion. The whole of the remaining spaces are filled by throngs of cherubim and seraphim. The former occupy the most important position, and are on the large scale. And on one of its sides is a statue called " St. John," said to be one of the oldest sculptures in the Abbey. This was a beautifully-decorated building, with painted walls and coloured and gilded arcades, and high arched windows in seven of its sides, now sadly obscured. The restoration of the Chapter-house has very properly been undertaken by the Government, under the direction of Mr. Scott. Beneath the present building, the walls of which are 5 feet thick, is a crypt with walls of the enormous thickness of 17 feet. From a straight joint which separates the lower wall into two concentric por- tions, Mr. Scott is of opinion that the bulk of the subterranean masonry is of the date of the Confessor, the foundation having been enlarged for the new chapter-house of King Henry III., which was coeval with the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. The crypt is called the Chapel of the Confessor, but is part of the original Norman church. The crypt contains an altar, a piscina, and aumbry. The outer walls are of a great thickness, and solid masonry. There are no indications, as is the case in many crypts, of iron rings for the suspension of lamps. Here is the Library of the Dean and Chapter, (about 11,000 volumes): it was formed from the monks' parlour by Dean Williams, whose portrait hangs at the south end. The great treasure of the place was William the Conqueror's Domesday Book,* in excellent condition, from searchers not being * On the night of the burning of the Houses of Parliament, in 1834, Sir Francis Pa'grave and Dean Ireland were standing on the roof of the Chapter-house, looking at the fire, when a sudden gust of wind seemed to bring the flames in that direction. Sir Francis implored the Dean to allow him to carry Domesday Book and other valuable records into the Abbey, but the Dean answered that he could not think of doing so without first applying to Lord Melbourne or the Board of Works! CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 137 allowed to touch the text, or writing. Here, too, were Clement the Seventh's Golden Bull, conferring the title of Defender of the Faith on Henry VIII.; a treaty of per- petual peace between Henry VIII. and Francis I., with a gold seal, 6 inches diameter, said to be the work of Cellini ; the original wills of Richard II., Henry A 7 "., Henry VIII. ; and the Indenture between Henry VII. and the Abbot of Westminster, a glorious specimen of miniature-painting and velvet binding, with enamelled and gilt bosses. Cloisters. South lie four of the early Abbots of Westminster. Here is " Long Meg," a slab of blue marble, traditionally the gravestone of twenty-six monks who died of the Plague in 1349, and were buried in one grave. Here is a tablet to William Lawrence, which records : " Short-hand he wrote : his Flowre in prime did fade, And hasty Death Short-hand of him hath made. Well cooth he Nv'bers, and well mesur'd Land; Thvs doth he now that Grovd whereon yov stand, Wherein he lyes so Geometricall : Art maketh some, bvt thvs will Natvre all." This quaint conceit is in the North Walk ; where also are the graves of Spranger Barry, the actor, famous in Othello ; and Sir John Hawkins, who wrote a History of Music, and a Life of Doctor Johnson. East Walk ; medallion monument to Bonnell Thornton (" the Connoisseur"), inscrip- tion by Joseph Warton ; monument to Lieut. -Gen. Withers, with inscription by Pope, " full of commonplaces, with something of the common cant of a superficial satirist " (Johnson) ; tablet to Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (d. 1678,) buried in St. Martin's-in- the-Fields ; graves of Aphra Behn, the lady dramatist (temp. Charles I.) ; and Mrs. Bracegirdle, the fascinating actress. West Walk : bust and alto-relievo, by Banks, R.A., to William Woollett, the engraver, buried in Old St. Pancras' churchyard : tablets to George Vertue, the engraver ; Dr. Buchan, who wrote on " Domestic Medicine ;" and Benjamin Cooke, organist of the Abbey, with the musical score of " the Canon by twofold augmentation " graven upon the slab. In the Cloisters, too, are interred Henry Lawes, the composer of the music of Comus, and " one who called Milton friend ;" Tom Brown, the wit ; Thomas Betterton, who " ought to be recorded with the same respect as Roscius among the Romans ;" Samuel Foote, the actor, and dramatist ; Aphra Behn, above-mentioned, Thomas Betterton, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Samuel Foote, Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Rowe, and Mrs. Gibber, all well-known professors of the dramatic art; so that the Cloisters may be termed the Actors' Corner. Here is a wall monument, with this inscription : " Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, Kt. being lost on the 4 Id. Octob. 1678 was found five days after murdered after a most cruel and barbarous manner. History will inform you further." At the entrance of the Little Cloisters is Litlington Tower, built by Abbot Litling- ton, and originally the bell-tower of the Church :* the four bells were rung, and a small flag hoisted on the top of this tower (as appears in Hollar's view), when great meetings or prayers took place in St. Catherine's Chapel ; pulled down 15*71. The bells (one dated 1430, and two 1598) were taken down, and, with two new bells, were hung in one of Wren's western towers. Litlington Tower was restored by its tenant, Mr. R. Clark, one of the choir, who also erected in its front the original Gothic en- trance to the Star-Chamber Court, and its ancient iron bell-pull. Mr. Scott has recently discovered an old hall of the date of Abbot Litlington, no doubt the hall of the Infirmarer's house, and probably used by the convalescent patients. The garden now called the College Garden, was originally the Infirmary garden. There are preserved several models of churches, one of which is the model con- structed by Sir Christopher Wren, in the reign of Queen Anne, of his proposed * An author of the fourteenth century says: "At the Abbey of St. Peter's, Westminster, are two bells, which over all the bells in the world obtain the precedence in wonderful size and tone." We read also, that " in the monasterye of Westminster ther was a fayr yong man which was blynde, whom the monks hadde ordeyned to rynge the bellys." 133 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. alteration of the Abbey Church, by erecting an elevated spire on the central tower. We believe that the other models are those of St. Mary's and St. Clement's in the Strand, St. Paul's, Covent-garden, and St. John's, Westminster. Here are also, it is said, some models by lloubiliac. Music. In 1784 took place the " Commemoration of Handel," in the Abbey Nave ; and similar festivals in 1785-6-7, and 1790-91 ; and in 1834 was a Four Days' Festival, commencing June 24, when King William IV., Queen Adelaide, and the Princess Victoria, were present^ " It is full fifty years since I heard last, Handel, thy solemn and divinest strain Eoll through the long nave of this pillar" d fane, Now seeming as if scarce a year had pass'd." W. Lisle Bowles, 1834. Oct. 28, St. Simon and St. Jude. Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Tallis cele- brated ; his Cathedral Service performed at morning prayers. Tallis was organist to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Elizabeth. Organs. The small organ, the oldest, was repaired by Father Smith, in 1694 : this organ is represented in the prints of the Choir of the Abbey, at the coronation of James II., in Sandford's Book of the Coronation. It was placed under one of the arches on the north side of the Choir, and had a small projecting organ-loft over the Stalls. The larger organ, built by Schreider, who succeeded Schmidt, about 1710, as organ-builder to the Royal Chapels, is a very fine instrument. " Mr. Turle's accom- paniment of the Choral Service is quite a model of that kind of organ playing." A Short Account of Organs, 1847. Tombs. The numerous specimens of early Italian decorative art make Westminster Abbey the richest church north of the Alps. The tomb of William de Valence is stated to be a French work, probably executed by an enameller from Limoges. Labarte, in his Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages, after quoting a document cited by Mr. Albert Way, which tells us that an artist of Limoges, " Magister Johannes Livnovi- censis," was employed about the year 1276, to construct the tomb and effigy of Walter de Merton, Bishop of Oxford, says : " This curious monument was despoiled of its enamelled metal at the Reformation, but there still exists in England an evidence of the high repute in which the enamelled work of Limoges was held, in the effigy of William de Valence, in Westminster Abbey. There can be no doubt that this curious portraiture was produced by an artist of Limoges." The effigy is of wood, overlaid with enamelled and engraved copper, and includes an enamelled shield displaying twenty-eight bars, alternately argent and azure, diapered ; or, rather, ornamented with inlaid scroll-work ; and having nineteen martlets, gules, displayed around the circumference of the shield. Mr. Scott observes : Taking the tombs of the Confessor, of Henry III., and his daughter, and of young de Valence, in connexion with the pavement before the high altar, and that of the Confessor's Chapel, I should doubt whether I will not say any church north of the Alps but, I may almost say, whether any country north of the Alps contains such a mass of early Italian decorative art ; indeed, the very artists em- ployed appear to have done their utmost to increase the value of the works they were bequeathing to us, by giving to the mosaic work the utmost possible variety of pattern. The tombs at Westminster have been at least spared from the hand of the early restorers, if not from the destroyers. The earliest tomb erected after the completion of the new Choir was that of the beautiful little dumb princess, daughter of Henry III., who died 1257, in her fifth year. Painted and Stained Glass. (Ancient.) North Aisle of Nave, figure, said to be Edward the Confessor ; South Aisle, given to the Black Prince, Edward III., and Richard II. See also clerestory windows east of Choir, east window of Henry VII.'s Chapel, and Jerusalem Chamber. (Modern.) Great west window, the Patriarchs ; large rose window, North Transept, Apostles and Evangelists a noble mass of brilliant colour and delicate stone tracery ; marigold window in South Transept (put up in 1847), figures nearly three feet high ; also windows above Henry VII.'s Chapel, and in east end of triforium. The lost original tracery of the great rose windows of the Tran- septs has been imaginatively restored from the pattern of some encaustic paving-tiles still remaining in the Chapter-house. Amongst the recent works set up in the Abbey, must be mentioned, too, a small painted glass window, in the East Aisle of that Tran-. sept, by Lavers and Barraud, commemorative of Vincent Novello, musical composer : CHURCHES WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 139 the subject is St. Cecilia. Here is the Stephensoii memorial a window filled with stained glass, by "VVailes : in the body are represented some of the greatest archi- tectural and engineering works ; and above these, at the top of the window, are in five- foil, bust-portraits of eminent engineers. Robert Stephenson is placed in. the centre ; above, his father, George Stephenson ; on one side, Thomas Telford ; on the other, John Smeaton ; and below these, James Watt and John Eennie. The archi- tectural works represented are bordered with ornamental tracery, and consist of, on the one half of the window, the Ark, the erecting of the Tabernacle, the first Temple, the second Temple, and Menai Bridge; and on the other half, the building of Nineveh, the Treasure Cities of Egypt, Aqueduct near Pygro, the Colosseum at Rome, and the High-Level Bridge at Newcastle. Metal-work. There are five examples of metal-work remaining in the Abbey Church. These are the grille at the top of the tomb of Queen Eleanor, lately rein- stated by Mr. Scott ; the railing round Archbishop Langham's effigy ; that at the west end of the Chantry of Henry V. ; the brass or copper gates of Henry VII.'s Chapel; and the beautiful brass grille round the tomb of the latter King. The metal- work that protected the tomb of Queen Philippa, that " most gentyll quene " of Edward III., had previously kept guard round the tomb of a bishop in St. Paul's Cathedral ; this and the railing of Edward I.'s are, however, lost to us. In 1822 the Dean and Chapter ordered the removal of most of the railings around the tombs; although some of the metal-work then taken down has been discovered in the vestry. Across the Transept, looking north, new ironwork has been put up from the designs of Mr. Scott. The gate and the grille is for the most part of wrought iron; it is 30 feet in length on each side, and was executed by Potter, for the sum of 700Z. Brasses. There are still fifteen Brasses in the Church : the principal are in the Chapels of St. Edmund, St. John the Baptist, and Edward the Confessor. The present conservating architect of the Abbey is Mr. George Gilbert Scott, R.A. The following are the principal Admeasurements : Nave. Length, 166 ft. ; breadth, 38 ft. 7 in. ; height, 101 ft. 8 in. ; breadth of aisles, 16 ft. 7 in. ; ex- treme breadth of nave and its aisles, 71 ft. 9 in. Choir. Length, 155 ft. 9 in. ; breadth, 38 ft. 4 in. ; height, 101 ft. 2 in. Transepts. Length of both, including choir, 203 feet. 2 in. ; length of each transept, 82ft. 5 ill.; breadth, including both aisles, 84 ft. 8 in. ; height of south transept, 105 ft. 5 in. Interior. Extreme length, from western towers to the piers of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 383 ft. ; ex- treme length, from western towers, including Henry VII.'s Chapel, 511 ft. 6 in. Exterior. Extreme length, exclusive of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 416 ft. ; extreme length, inclusive of Henry Vll's Chapel, 530 ft. ; height of western towers, to top of pinnacles, 225 ft. 4 in. Henry VII,'* Chapel. Exterior. Length, 115 ft. 2 in. ; extreme breadth, 79 ft. 6 in. ; height to apex of roof, 95 ft. 5 in. ; height to top of western turrets, 101 ft. 6 in. (Interior.) Nave : length, 103 ft. 9 in. ; breadth, 35 ft. 9iu. ; height, 69 ft.7in. Aisles : length, 62 ft. 5 in. ; breadth, 17 ft. 1 in. ; height of west window, 45 ft. Admission. The Abbey is open to the public between the hours of 11 and 3, generally; and in sum- mer, between 4 and 6 in the afternoon. There is no charge for admission to the Nave, Transept, and Cloisters; but the fee for admission to view the Choir and Chapels, and the rest of the Abbey, is 64. each person, with the attendance of a guide. The entrance is at Poets' Corner. The admission-money was originally lod. each person, when it usually produced upwards of 15001. per annum, mostly distri- buted among the minor canons, organists, and lay-clerks. The Chapter is composed of a Dean and eight Canons ; there are six minor canons, twelve lay vicars, and twelve choristers. There are two daily services choral and a weekly celebration of the Holy Communion. The capitular revenue was, in 1852, 30,6577. ; and the expenditure on the fabric in fourteen preceding years, 29,949Z. " In Westminster Abbey," observes Horace Walpole, " one thinks not of the build- ing : the religion of the place makes the first impression." One more walk through its aisles was the dying wish of the exile Atterbury. " Westminster Abbey or Victory !" were the watchwords which fired the heart of Nelson himself. From the design of applying the Abbey property, under the care of Sir T. Wroth, to the repairs of St. Paul's, on the dissolution of the bishopric, came the cant proverb to rob Peter to pay Paul. The following is from a thoughtful and eloquent paper by Dean Stanley : " The Abbey of Westminster owes its traditions and its present name, revered in the bosoms of the people of England, to the fact that the early English Kings were interred within its walls, and that through its associations our Norman rulers learnt to forget their foreign paternity, and to unite in fellowship and affection with their Saxon fellow-citizens. There is no other church in the world, except, perhaps, the Kremlin 140 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. at Moscow, with which Royalty is so intimately associated. There our Sovereigns are crowned and buried under the same roof, whereas in Russia the coronation takes place in one church, the marriage in another, while a third is reserved for the reception of the dead. It was in the reign of Henry III. that the Abbey began to assume that national character which now belongs to it so fully. The third Henry was the first thoroughly English King after the Conquest that is to say, the first who was born in England, and who never resided in Normandy. The Abbey never possessed a bishop's throne, except for a short time in the reign of Henry VIII., and so was not a cathedral in the ordinary sense ; but from the time of Edward I. it always contained the Coronation Chair, in which is fixed ' the fatal stone of Scone.' This throne, which gives to the Abbey the constructive character of a cathedral, has never since the time of the first Edward been removed from the church except once, and that was in the time of Oliver Cromwell so jealous were the people of monarchical attributes and privileges." The Dean then traces the burial-places of our Kings and Queens from the time of Henry III. to Elizabeth's reign ; " after the death of the latter, tombs ceased to be erected in the Abbey to the memories of Sovereigns. This was owing to the pecu- liar course of succession, for none of the monarchs from the Tudors to those of the Hanoverian dynasty had any peculiar interest in honouring the names of their prede- cessors. The second George was the last of our Kings who was buried in the Abbey ; but another of Royal blood, though of a different dynasty and a different country, had found his last resting therein the Duke de Montpensier, younger brother of Louis Philippe." More striking than the edifice and its general associations are its personal monu- ments and contents. Here, for example, beyond a doubt, lies the body of the Con- fessor himself, like the now decayed seed from which the wonderful pile has grown. Around his shrine are clustered not only the names but the earthly relics of the prin- cipal actors in every scene of our history. No less than seventeen of our Kings, from the Confessor to George II., and ten of our Queens, lie within the Abbey, amid statesmen, poets, divines, scholars, and artists. " It has," says Mr. Scott, " claims upon us archi- tects I will not say of a TdgTier but of another character, on the ground of its in- trinsic and superlative merits, as a work of art of the highest and noblest order ; for, though it is by no means pre-eminent in general scale, in height, or in richness of sculpture, there are few churches in this or any other country, having the same exqui- site charms of proportion and artistic beauty which this church possesses." On Dec. 28, 1865, being the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and just 800 years since the dedication of the Abbey by Edward the Confessor, the Dean and Chapter com- memorated the event by special services and the celebration of the Holy Communion. The sermon, eloquently descriptive, was preached by the Dean (Dr. Stanley) from John x. 21, 22 : " And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it wag winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch." The whole of the music was selected from composers who either in the past or present were connected with the Abbey namely, Thomas Tallis, who died in 1585, organist to Henry VIII. ; Henry Purcell, organist of Westminster Abbey, who died in 1695, and was buried in the north aisle ; William Croft, organist of Westminster Abbey, who died in 1727, and was also buried in the north aisle ; George Frederick Handel, who died in 1759, and was buried in the south transept; Benjamin Cooke, organist of Westminster Abbey, who died in 1793, and was buried in the west cloister ; J. L. Brownsmith, John Foster, and Montem Smith, vicars choral; and James Turle, organist, all of Westminster Abbey. The words of the hymn for the introit, commencing " Hark, the sound of holy voices," were written by Dr. Wordsworth, Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster, and the tune for it, entitled " All Saints," was composed by Mrs. Frere, niece of the late Eev. Temple 1'rere, Canon of Westminster. CHAPEL ROYAL, St. James's Palace, is situated on the western side between the Colour Court and the Ambassadors' Court. It is oblong in plan, with side galleries, the Royal Gallery being at the west end. The superb ceiling, painted by Holbein in 1540, is one of the earliest specimens of the new style introduced by him into England. The rib-mouldings are of wooden frame-work, suspended to the roof above ; the panels have plaster grounds, the centres displaying the Tudor emblems and devices. The subject is gilt, shaded boldly with bistre; the roses glazed with a red colour, and the arms emblazoned in their proper colours ; leaves, painted dark green, ornamented each subject ; the general ground of the whole was light blue. The mouldings of the ribs are painted green, and some are gilt; the under side is a dark blue, on which is a small open running ornament (cast in lead), gilt. The ceiling has undergone several repairs, in one of which the blue ground was painted white. In 1836, when the chapel was enlarged under the direction of Sir Robert Smirke, the blue ground was discovered, as were likewise some of the mottoes in the small panels ; thus, "STET DIEV FELIX: HENBICQ BEX 8 H. A. YIVAT. KBX. 1540. DIEV. ET. MO. DBOIT," &C. Divine Service is performed here as at our Cathedrals, by the gentlemen of the choir, CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 141 and ten choristers (boys). The establishment consists of a Dean (usually the Bishop of London), the Sub-Dean, Lord High Almoner, Sub- Almoner, Clerk of the Queen's Closet, deputy-clerks, chaplains, priests, organists, and composer ; besides violist and lutanist (now sinecures), and other officers; and until 1833, there was a "Confessor to the Royal Household." Each of the Chaplains in Ordinary preaches once a year in the Chapel Royal. The hours of service are 8 A.M. and 12 noon. There are seats for the nobility, admission-fee 2s. George III., when in town, attended this Chapel, when a nobleman carried the sword of state before him, and heralds, pursuivants-at-arms, and other officers, walked in procession ; and so persevering was his attendance at prayers, that Madame d'Arblay, one of the robing- women, tells us, in November 1777, the Queen and family, dropping off one by one, used to leave the King, the parson, and His Majesty's equerry, to " freeze it out together." In this Chapel were married Prince George of Denmark and the Princess Anne ; Frederick Prince of Wales and the daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha ; George IV. and Queen Caroline ; and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Before the building of the Chapel at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty and the Court attended the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The silver candelabra and other altar-plate are magnificent. The fittings of the Chapel and Palace for the last royal marriage cost 9226Z. The Chapel is supposed to be the same building that was used when St. James's Palace was first founded as an Hospital for fourteen leprous females. In the liber Niger Domus Regni (temp. Edward IV.) is an ordinance naming "Children of the Chapelle viij. founden by the King's privie coft'eres for all that longeth to their apperelle by the hands and oversyghte of the deane, or by the master of song assigned to teache them ;" such being the origin of the present musical establishment of the Chapel Royal. Ordinances were also issued for the impresi- ment of boys for the royal choirs : in 1550, the master of the King's Chapel had license "to take up from time to time children to serve the King's Chapel." Tusser, the " Husbandrie" poet, was, when a boy, in Elizabeth's reign, thus impressed for the Queen's Chapel. The Gentlemen and Children of the Chapel Royal were the principal performers in the religious dramas or Mysteries; and a "master of the children," and " singing children," occur in the chapel establishment of Cardinal Wolsey. In 1583, the Children of the Chapel Royal, afterwards called the Children of the Revels, were formed into a company of players, and thus were among the earliest performers of the regular drama. In 1731, they performed Handel's Esther, the first oratorio heard in England ; and they continued to assist at oratorios in Lent, so long as those performances maintained their ecclesiastical character entire. " Spur-money," a fine upon all who entered the chapel with spurs on, was formerly levied by the choristers at the doors, upon condition that the youngest of them could repeat his gamut ; if he failed, the spur-bearer was exempt. In a tract dated 1598, the choristers are reproved for " hunting after spur- money ;" and the ancient Cheque-book of the Chapel Royal, dated 1622, contains an order of the Dean, decreeing the custom. " Within my recollection," wrote Dr. Rimbault, in 1850, " the Duke of Welling- ton (who, by the way, is an excellent musician) entered the Royal Chapel 'booted and spurred,' and was, of course, called upon for the fine. But his Grace calling upon the youngest chorister to repeat his gamut, and the ' little urchin' failing, the impost was not demanded." Notes and Queries, No. 30. CHAPEL ROYAX, Whitehall, the Banqueting House of the Palace, designed by Inigo Jones, commenced June 1, 1619, finished March 31, 1622, cost 14,940Z. 4s. Id. The above hall was converted into a Chapel in the reign of George I., who, in 1724, appointed certain preachers, six from Oxford and six from Cambridge University, to preach in successive months on the Sundays, at a salary of 301., through the year. The edifice has, however, never been consecrated as a Chapel, which fact was mentioned in the House of Commons by Sir Robert Inglis, several years ago, when it was proposed to use the Hall as a picture-gallery. It was shut up in 1829, and remained closed till 1837, during which interval it was restored and refitted, under the direction of Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. The lower windows were then closed up, the walls were hung with drapery (1400 yards of drugget), and the floor carpeted, to remedy the excessive echo. The Guards formerly attended Divine Service here ; they now attend at the Chapel in Wellington Barracks, St. James's Park ; and the gallery in which they sat at Whitehall has been removed. The organ originally placed here was sold by order of Cromwell, and is now in Stanford Church, Leicester- shire ; the present organ is of subsequent date. The hall is exactly a double cube, being 111 feet long, 55 feet 6 inches high, and 55 feet 6 inches wide. Over the prin- cipal doorway is a bronze bust of James I., attributed to Le Sceur ; above is the organ-loft, and along the two sides is a lofty gallery. Above the altar were formerly placed eagles and other trophies taken from the French at Barossa, in Egypt, and at Waterloo ; but they have been removed to Chelsea Hospital. The Whitehall ceiling is divided into panels, and painted black, and gilded in parts. These are lined with oil 142 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. pictures on canvas, painted abroad by Rubens in 1635, it is stated for 30001., by com- mission from Charles I. There are nine compartments : the largest in the centre, oval, contains the apotheosis of James I., who is trampling on the globe, and about to fly on the wings of Justice (an eagle) to heaven.* On the two long sides of it are great friezes, with genii, who load sheaves of corn and fruits in carriages drawn by lions, bears, and rams : each of the boys measures 9 feet. The northernmost of the large compartments represents the King pointing to Peace and Plenty, embracing Minerva, and routing Rebellion and Envy ; at the south end (the altar) the King is on the throne, appointing Prince Charles his successor. The four corner pictures are allegorical representations of Royal Power and Virtue. The whole are best viewed from the south end of the apartment. Dr. Waagen considers these pictures to have been principally executed by the pupils of Rubens : they have undergone restora- tions : in 1687, under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren ; and about 1811, by Cipriani, who was paid 20002. Vandyck was to have painted the sides of the Banqueting House with the history and procession of the Order of the Garter. Divine Service is performed in the Chapel on Sundays, Saints' Days, &c., the gentlemen and choristers of the Chapels Royal executing the musical service. The Maundy is dis- tributed in this Chapel on the day preceding Good Friday, Maundy Thursday. (See ALMONBY, p. 7.) The Royal closet is large and massive, situated on the right-hand side in the centre of the Chapel, opposite the pulpit. King William IV. and Queen Adelaide often attended this Royal Chapel, and it is said that the King was here pre- sent for the last time at a public service only six weeks before his death. The Royal closet is described in the reports as being within a few feet of the spot on which King Charles I. was executed. This is hardly correct ; for, according to a memorandum of Vertue, on a print in the library of the Society of Antiquaries, through a window be- longing to a small building abutting from the north side of the present Banqueting House, the King stepped upon the scaffold, " which was equal to the landing-place of the Hall within side." The Boyle Lectures, founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle for proving the truth of the Christian religion against notorious infidels are sometimes delivered in the Chapel Royal. For many years these lectures were delivered in the City churches, where scarcely half a dozen persons could be obtained to listen to them. The preachers are enjoined to perform the office following : " To preach eight sermons in the year for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels viz., Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans, not descending lower to any controversies that are among Christians themselves." CHAPEL ROYAI, SAVOY, in the rear of the south side of the Strand, occupies a site granted by King Henry III., in 1245, to Peter Count of Savoy (hence its name) on his arrival to visit his niece Queen Eleanor. It was afterwards possessed by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster (1267), and John of Gaunt, during whose tenure of it the palace was destroyed ; after which, being inherited by his son, Henry IV., it was vested in the Crown as part of the Duchy of Lancaster, and thus acquired its peculiar dignities and privileges as a Royal manor. An Hospital was erected in the Savoy under the will of Henry VII., and in the reign of Henry VIII. a perpetual Hospital was incorporated. This was one of the institutions declared to be illegal in the 1st of Edward VI., and it was given up to the King. It was re-established in the fourth year of Philip and Mary, but was converted into a military hospital and marine infirmary in the reign of Charles II., and shortly afterwards was used as a barrack. The Hospital was, there- fore, declared to be dissolved in 1702. Strype, in his edition of Stow's Survey, 1755, says : " In the year 1687, Schools were set up and ordained here at the Savoy; the masters whereof were Jesuits;" the classes soon consisted of 400 boys, about one-half of whom were Protestants ; the latter were not required to attend mass. All were taught gratis, buying only their own pens, ink, paper, and books ; and in teaching no distinction was made, nor was any one to be persuaded from the profession of his own religion; yet they were generally success- ful in promoting the Roman religion. The Schools were, however, soon dissolved upon the ceasing of the government of King James. And the clock that was made for the use of the Savoy School, was bought and set up upon a gentleman's house in Low Layton. The College gave rise to many other schools in the metropolis : the Blue Coat School, in St. Margaret's, Westminster, is one of these. There is a contemporary ballad, entitled " Religious Reliques ; on the Sale at the Savoy, upon the Jesuits breaking up their School and Chapel." Printed in Notes and Queriet, 2nd S., No. 14, Jan. 1856, * Bubens's original sketch is in the National Gallery, Trafalgar-square. CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 143 Several persons of note are buried here, and had figure monuments. Among them was one, in the chancel, of Sir Eobert Douglas and his lady (seventeenth century). In a pointed niche was the figure of a lady kneeling Jocosa, daughter of Sir Allan Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower, sister of Mrs. Hutchinson. In the western wall, near the altarpiece, was an ornamental recess, in the back of which had been effigies incised in brass ; and near this was a small tablet to the memory of Anne Killigrew, daughter of one of the Masters of the Savoy, and niece to the well-known jester. This was the lady described by Dryden as " A grace for beauty and a muse for wit." Over the door was a small kneeling figure, with a skull in her hands, inscribed " Alicia Steward." A recumbent figure was, it is thought, improperly named the Countess Dowager of Nottingham. Here, also, is a brass over the grave of Gawin Douglas, who translated Virgil ; and here rest George Wither, the poet, without a monument ; the Earl of Feversham, who commanded King James II.'s troops at the Battle of Sedgmoor j and Dr. Cameron, the last person who suffered for the Rebellion of 1745, to whom was erected a marble relief tablet by his great-grandson, in 1846, " one hundred years after the Battle of Culloden." Here, also, was placed a tablet to the memory of Richard Lander, the traveller in Africa ; and in the burial-ground is the tomb of Hilton, R.A., the historical painter, whose works were barely appreciated in his lifetime. In the Chapel was a monument, rather sumptuous, erected about 1715, in honour of a merchant; the sole statement of the epitaph was, that he had bequeathed 51. to the poor of the Savoy Precinct, and a like sum to the poor of the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand ; while at the side, and occupying about half the breadth of the marble, the money was expressed in figures, just as in a page of a ledger, with lines single and double, perpendicular and, at the bottom, horizontal ; the whole being summed up, and in each line two cyphers for shillings and one for pence. The epitaph concluded, " which sum was duly paid by his executors." The Savoy was last used as barracks and a prison for deserters until 1819, when the premises were taken down to form the approach to Waterloo Bridge. The roadway to the Bridge from the Strand, or Wellington-street and Lancaster-place, covers the entire site of the old Duchy-lane and great part of the Hospital. We see the river front of the Savoy in Hollar's prints and Canaletti's pictures ; and Vertue's ground-plan shows the Middle Savoy Gate, where Savoy-street now is ; and the Little Savoy Gate, where now are Savoy-steps. Ackermann published a view of the ruins as they were in their last condition, before they were swept away. The pulling down of the ruins, in 1816, when the chapel was left isolated, was a work of immense labour, so massive was the masonry. Not the least amusing incident was that of the gamins picking out the softest parts of the Royal palace walls and cutting them into hearth- stones to clean hearths and the steps before doors ! The Chapel is a parochial benefice in the gift of her Majesty, in right of her Duchy of Lancaster; it was endowed by Henry VII., and the incumbent to this day receives an annual fee by Royal warrant. The interior dimensions of the chapel are 90 ft. by 24 ft. ; its style English Perpendicular, late and plain, except the ceiling, which was rich and coloured, and one of the finest pieces of carved work in the metropolis. It was wholly of oak and pear tree, and divided into 138 quatrefoil panels, each enriched with a carved ornament sacred or historical. The panels numbered twenty-three in the length of the chapel and six in its width. Ten of the ranges had each a shield in the centre presenting in high relief some feature or emblem of the Passion and Death of the Saviour ; and all devised and arranged in a style of which there are many examples in sacred edifices in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The panels throughout the rest of the ceiling contained bearings or badges indicating the various families from which the Eoyal lineage was derived, and more particularly the alliances of the house of Lancaster; each panel being surrounded by a wreath richly blazoned and tinted with the livery colours of the different families. For a long series of years they were hidden under repeated coats of whitewash, but in 1843 Mr. John Cochrane, a bookseller in the Strand, having been appointed chapel warden, brought his antiquarian knowledge to bear on the neglected ceiling, and it was restored. The Savoy has a certain literary aspect : all Proclamations, Acts of Parliament and Gazettes, used to issue from the Royal Printing-press established in the precinct j and there Fuller lectured, if he did not write his Worthies. It was in the Chapel, also, that the memorable Conference between the Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines on the Book of Common Prayer was held in 1661. Here many of the bishops were con- secrated, and among them WiUon, Bishop of Sodor and Man, by Archbishop Sharpe, in 1698 ; and among those who have held the benefice was Dr. Anthony Horneck, the favourite chaplain of King William III. The Savoy precinct became as notorious for thieves and beggars, as for the lame, 144 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. the sick, and the vagabond, who considered themselves privileged to claim succour from the Master of the Hospital of the Savoy, an office which was much coveted, and which Cowley struggled ineffectually to obtain. While the Dutch, German, and French congregations met quietly within the precinct, a favour which was originally owing to Charles II., all sorts of unseemly marriages were celebrated by the " Savoy parsons," there being five private ways by land to this chapel, and two by water. The Rev. Mr. Wilkinson, the father of Tate Wilkinson, the actor, for performing the illicit ceremony, was informed against by Garrick, and the reverend gentleman was transported. A letter to Lord Burleigh in 1581, as to an outbreak of rogues, states, " the chief nurserie of all these evell people is the Savoy, and the brick kilnes near Islington." The Chapel was built, in 1505, of squared stone and boulders, with a low bell-tower and large Tudor windows ; and, standing in a small burial-ground, amid a few trees and evergreens, it resembled the church of a rural hamlet ; it was all that remained of the Hospital. Thither John, King of France, was brought prisoner from Poictiers by Edward the Black Prince ; and there, in his " autient prison," King John died. The chapel was originally dedicated to the Saviour, the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist ; but when the old church of St. Mary-le-Strand was destroyed by the Pro- tector Somerset, the parishioners united themselves to the precinct of the Savoy, and the chapel, being used as their church, acquired the name of St. Mary-le-Savoy, though before the householders beyond the precinct were permitted to use it as their parish church they signed an instrument renouncing all claim to any right or property in the chapel itself. There is a tradition that when the Liturgy in the vernacular tongue was restored by Queen Elizabeth, the chapel of the Savoy was the first place in which the service was performed. The Chapel Royal was restored chiefly through the instrumentality of George IV. The interior wa3 destroyed by fire, but was repaired at the expense of Queen Victoria, in 1843 ; the fine ceiling was restored and emblazoned by Willement, by whom it has been minutely illustrated. Mr. Willement also reglazed the altar-window. In the lower centre was a figure of St. John the Baptist ; the side compartments contained emblems of the other Evangelists ; and in other parts were the ducal coronet, the red rose of Lancaster, and the lions, also fleurs-de-lis of the Plantagenet escocheon, and over all the inscription " This window was glazed at the expense of the congregation, in honour of God, and in gratitude to our Queen Victoria." The altar-screen, said to have been the work of Sir Reginald Bray, was restored by Mr. Sydney Smirke, in 1813. In July, 1864, the Chapel was again destroyed by fire, save the walls ; the fine altar-screen and window, the carved ceiling, and many tif the old monuments, were entirely consumed. It has been rebuilt at a cost of about 5000L (it was insured for 4000Z.), under the superintendence of Mr. Sydney Smirke ; the roof has been embellished much after the design of that which was destroyed, but different in detail ; the great window over the altar has been magnificently painted, and a fine Organ erected at the southern end of the Chapel. Over the window is a Latin inscrip- tion to the effect that it was presented by the inhabitants of the precinct in 1843, destroyed with the chapel in 1864, and restored by Queen Victoria in memory of the Prince Consort in 1865. A beautiful font has been contributed by Mrs. De Wint, a parishioner ; a carved oaken pulpit of chaste design has been presented by another p rishioner, Mr. Burgess, of the Strand. The benefice is a " peculiar ;" building uncon- secrated ; clergy unlicensed. Her Majesty pays every current expense belonging to the chapel, its officers, and services. On the Sunday following Christmas-day it has been customary to place near the door a chair covered with a cloth : on the chair being an orange in a plate. This curious custom at the Savoy has not been explained. ST. ALBAN THE MARTYB, Baldwin's Gardens, Grays'-Inn-lane, was built and endowed at the sole expense of Mr. Hubbard, M.P. The site was given by Lord Leigh : Butterfield, architect ; consecrated Feb. 20, 1863 ; the choir entirely from the parishioners of the district. The church comprises a clerestoried Nave and a Chancel, both with aisles, and a saddle-back tower at the west end. The building is of brick, with stone, alabaster, and terra-cotta dressings. Externally, the bricks are of the CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 145 ordinary stock brick character, with very slight bandings of red ; and internally, red and yellow bricks are disposed in patterns mixed with stone ; the latter being orna- mented with incised scroll-work filled in with black mastic. The use of constructive polychrome, and the absence of carving, are characteristics of the edifice. At the west end is a narthex, or Galilee porch, supported by an arch of imposing span and height, and lighted by a noble west window. Here, according to the custom of the early churches, are the north and south doors. The Chancel is approached by two steps, and the altar is raised on a platform considerably higher. Over it is a large marble cross, enriched, let into the wall. The chancel walls are lined witli alabaster, banded with tile, and ornamented with niello work. On the flat east end, above the second story, is a series of panels filled with ten water-glass pictures, designed by Le Strange, from Our Lord's life, the central place being occupied with a picture of the Annunciation. Alow wrought-iron screen separates the Nave from the Chancel; and lofty iron parcloses divide the chancel from its aisles. The columns of the clerestory here, as in the Nave and in the arcading against the north and south walls of the aisles, are of red terra-cotta, in short lengths. The roof is of wood, ornamented with colour. The font has a rich character in design and form, and in the coloured stone of its inlaid work. In the Chancel is a brass lectern. The pulpit is of oak, simple in design, on a pedestal of stone and terra cotta. The entrance to the belfry story is by a staircase opening into the church at the centre of the west wall : over the door is inscribed, " I believe in one baptism for the remission of sins,'' under a sculptured bas-relief of the Last Supper. Incense and the vestments are used. Here is a tenor bell, one of an intended peal of eight. Near the entrance of the church is placed a drinking- fountain. The whole cost of the church, without the pictures, is about 15,000. ST. ALBAN'S, "Wood-street, Cheapside, is stated to have been named from its belong- ing to the monastery of St. Albans. Stow thinks it to be " at least of as antient standing as King Adelstane the Saxon (925 to 941), who, as the tradition says, had his house at the east end of this church," and which gave name to Adel-street. Maitland supposes the church to have bean one of the first places of worship built in London by Alfred, after he had driven out its destroyers, the Danes. It was rebuilt by Inigo Jones, but destroyed by the Great Fire, and again rebuilt by Wren in 1685, " Gothic, as the same was before the Fire," with clustered columns, flat pointed arches, and boldly groined roof. To the right of the reading-desk, within twisted columns, arches, &c., and in a frame richly ornamented with angels sounding trumpets, &c., is an hour-glass, such as was common in churches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, " that when the preacher doth make a sermon, he may know the hour passeth away :" the hour-glass frame and the spiral column upon which it is mounted are of brass. Butler, in Hudibras, has : As gifted Brethren preaching by A carnal Hour-glass do imply. Canto 3, v. 1061, and Note. The exterior of the church is ill designed, and has a pinnacled tower 92 feet high. The whole was restored in 1859, by G. Gilbert Scott, architect. The interior is wainscoted with Norway oak. One of the St. Alban's rectors, Dr. Watts, who died in 1649, assisted Sir Henry Spelmau in his Glossary, and edited Matthew Paris's Historia Major. ALLHALLOWS BABKING, at the east end of Great Tower-street, so called from having belonged to the Abbot and Convent of Barking, in Essex, narrowly escaped the Great Fire, which burnt the dial and porch, and vicarage-house. The church contains a curiously-carved communion-table, font-cover, and screen with altar-wreaths ; and some funeral brasses of early date, among the best in London. The headless bodies of the poet Surrey, Bishop Fisher (More's friend), and Archbishop Laud, who were exe- cuted on Tower Hill, were interred in Allhallows Church and churchyard, but have been removed for honourable burial. The body of Fisher was carried on the halberds of the attendants, and interred in the churchyard. There has been published, by the archaeologist curate of this parish, BerJcynge Churche Juxta-Turrim collections in illustration of the architecture and monu- 146 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. merits, notices of vicars, &c. Much of the church is Perpendicular ; the chancel- window is late Decorated. The whole building had a narrow escape at the Great Fire; for, as Pepys records, the dial and porch were hurnt, and the fire there quenched. Mr. Leyborne, in Strype, B. ii. p. 36, relates that over against the wall of Barking Churchyard, a sad and lamentable accident befel by gunpowder in this manner. At a ship-chandler's, upon Jan. 4, 16 19, about seven o'clock at night, being busy in his shop barrelling wp gunpowder, it took fire, and in the twinkling of an eye blew up, not only that, but all the houses thereabouts to the number (towards the street and in back alleys) of fifty or sixty. The number of persons destroyed by this blow could never be known, for the next house but one was the Rose Tavern, a house never (at that time of night) but full of company ; and that day the parish dinner was at the house. And in three or four days after digging, they continually found heads, arms, legs, and half bodies, miserably torn and scorched, besides many whole bodies, not so much as their clothes singed. In the digging, strange to relate, they found the mistress of the Rose Tavern sitting in her bar, and one of the drawers standing by the bar's side, with a pot in his hand, only stifled with dust and smoke ; their bodies being preserved whole by means of great timbers falling across one another. Next morning there was found on the upper leads of Barking Church, a young child lying in a cradle, as newly laid in bed, neither the child nor the cradle having the least sign of any fire or other hurt. It was never known whose child it was, so that one of the parish kept it as a memorial; for in the year 1666 (says the narrator), I saw the child, grown to be then a proper maiden, and came to the man that had kept her all that time, where he was drinking at a tavern with some other company then present. And he told us she was the child that was so found in the cradle upon the church leads, as aforesaid. According to a tablet which hung beneath the organ gallery of the church, the quantity of gunpowder exploded in this catastrophe was twenty-seven barrels. ALLHALLOWS, Bread-street, was built by Wren, in 1680 : the old church, in which Milton was baptized, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but the register preserves the entry of the poet's baptism. Here was buried Alderman Richard Reed, who re- fusing to pay to " a benevolence" levied by Henry VIII., was sent to serve as a soldier, " both he and his men at his own charge," in the Northern wars. Reed was taken prisoner by the Scotch, and was glad to make his peace with the King, and purchase- his ransom at a heavy rate. Laurence Saunders was rector of this parish in 1553. In Queen Mary's reign he preached most zealously against Romish errors, and was im- prisoned fifteen months, degraded Feb. 4, 1555, and next day was carried to Coventry, where, on the 8th, he suffered martyrdom. " There are but few residents in the parish, which is chiefly filled with warehouses, nearly every one of which has a padlock on the door on Sunday. The congregation usually averages nine ! Mackeson. ALLHALLOWS THE GEEAT AND LESS, Upper Thames-street, built in 1683, has a richly carved oak rood-screen the whole width of the church. It was manufactured at Hamburgh, and presented in the reign of Queen Anne to the church by Hanse Merchants, who formerly resided in this parish in considerable numbers. William Lichfield was Rector in 1440. He composed during his ministry 3083 sermons, which were found in his own handwriting, after his decease. Pepys speaks of Allhallows the Great as one of the first churches that set up the King's Arms before the Restoration, while Monk and Montague were as yet undecided. Theodore Jacohson, the architect of the Foundling Hospital, is buried here. ALLHALLOWS, Honey-lane, a small parish church, in the ward of Cheap, on the site of Honey -lane Market ; it was destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. Here was buried John Norman, draper, Mayor, 1453, " the first Mayor that was rowed to Westminster by water, for before that they rode on horseback." (Stoic.) Thomas Garrard was Rector in 1537, and having circulated forbidden theological books, was attainted by Parliament, and burned in Smithfield, 1540. ALLHALLOWS, Lombard-street, destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1694, contains an exquisitely-sculptured white marble font ; carved figures of Time and Death, in wood, besides a carved curtain, which seems to hide foliage behind it. The churchyard was closed in the cholera year, 1849, and laid out as a garden. In 1580, one Peter Symons left 31. 2s. 8d. to the parish of Allhallows, in order that, after a sermon and the usual morning service upon Whit-Sunday, a penny and a packet of plums should be given to sixty boys belonging to Christ's Hospital. Each lad receives a new penny and a packet containing about a quarter of a pound of plums. Another version of the Will states the distribution to be in the burying-ground in Old Bethlem to sixty poor people of the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. The penny loaves have increased to twopenny loaves, and the burial-ground of Old Bethlem has been invaded by railway companies. Of late years the loaves have been given away in the garden of Mr. Elwin. Gifts of bread, buns, and money, from a local source, are also then given to the charity children, and to .many of the poorer inhabitants of the parish. ALLHALLOWS STAINING, Mark-lane, escaped the Great Fire, and Stow thinks wag CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 147 called Stane church to distinguish it from others in the City of the same name, built of timber. The tower and a portion of the west eud alone are ancient. The Princess Elizabeth, on May 19, 1554, after her release from the Tower, performed her devotions in this church ; and afterwards is said to have dined off pork and peas at the King's Head in Fenchurch-street, where a metal dish and cover used on the occasion are shown ; and a commemorative dinner was held annually on Elizabeth's birthday, but discontinued thirty years since. The churchwardens' books contain payments for ring- ing the bells " for joye of ye execution of ye Queene of Scots :" also for the return of King James II. from Feversham ; and, two days after, on the arrival of the Prince of Orange. In De Laune's History of London, published 1681, mention is made of charities connected with Allhallows Staining ; and that " John Costin, a Girdler, who dyed 1244, gave the poor of the parish a hundred quarters of charcoals for ever." ALLHALLOWS-IN-THE-WALL, Broad-street Ward, is named "of standing close to the wall of the City." (Stow.) It was built in the shape of a wedge, east end broadest, by Dance, jun., 1765, and contains an altar -picture, painted and presented by Sir X. Dance, of P. da Cortona's " Ananias restoring Paul to sight." The parish books (commencing 1455) record the benefactions of an " ancker," or hermit, who lived near the old church which escaped the Great Fire. Here is a tablet to the Rev. William Beloe, translator of Herodotus, and twenty years rector of this parish ; his successor in the living was Archdeacon Nares, so well known by his Glossary. ALL SAINTS EISHOPSGATE, Skinner-street, a Gothic church, built in 1830, at the expense of Bishop Blomfield, when rector of St. Botolph's. ALL SAINTS, Kennington Park, W. White, architect, completed in 1853, presents in its materials stone of various colours, Devonshire marble, and different coloured tiles and brickwork ; in the clerestory, part of each window-head is filled with mosaic work, instead of being pierced ; and large squares of stained glass in place of the ordinary perishable quarry lights. This church owes its erection mainly to the munificence of the Rev. Dr. Walker, rector of St. Columb Major, after the model of whose beautiful church in Cornwall the church of All Saints is built. ALL SAINTS, Knightsbridge, in the Lombardic or Byzantine style, by Vulliamy, con- secrated 1849 : incumbent, the Rev. W. Harness, one of the editors of Shakspeare ; senior curate, the Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, author of Memorials of Westminster, 1819. ALL SAINTS, Lower Marsh, Lambeth, built in 1846, in the Anglo-Norman style, has a tower and spire 160 feet high, and upwards of 100 feet from the body of the church, with which it is connected by a passage. ALL SOULS, Langham-place, built by Nash in 1822-25, has been much ridiculed, but is suited to its angular plan ; the circular tower, surrounded with Ionic columns, has a Corinthian peristyle above, and a stone cone or spire ; it is well adapted to its situation, having the same appearance whichever way viewed. The surface is fluted, and the point finished with metal. The interior is formed on the model of the older churches in the Italian style, and is divided " by colonnades into nave and " aisles : it contains an altar-picture by Westall, R.A., of Christ crowned with thorns. ALL SAINTS, Margaret-street, W. Butterfield, architect, was designed as a model churcli, in art-development, and " in strict conformity with all the distinctive tenets and limitations of the pure reformed church." The first stone was laid by the Rev. Dr. Pusey, on All Saints' Day (Nov. 1, 1850) ; and the conduct of the work was un- dertaken on his own responsibility by Mr. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, with a very limited number of subscriptions, one of which, however, is stated to have been 30,OOOZ. from an anonymous benefactor. The ground, which includes the site of Margaret-street Chapel, was purchased chiefly by Mr. Hope for 10,000. The church forms one side of a small court, two sides of which are formed by houses (schools and clergy house), connected with the church, and the fourth side opens to Margaret-street. It consists of a nave and chancel, with aisles to each : its length is 109 feet, its width 64 feet. The length of the nave internally is 63 feet 6 inches, and of the chancel, which is vaulted, 38 feet 6 inches. The external height of the building itself is 75 feet ; and that of the tower and spire, one of the noblest features in the design, 227 feet. L 2 148 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. The style of the entire mass is Early Middle Pointed, i.e., the style of about A.D. 1300 The material of the whole is red brick, chequered, in the church itself, by mosaic patterns of black brick, and courses of Danby Dale stone ; in the collegiate buildings by patterns of black brick, which is used, especially above the window arches, with great boldness. The court is separated from the road by an iron screen standing on a low per- peyn wall ; the entrance is by a pedimented gateway, and immediately opposite a but- tress is converted into a kind of churchyard cross. In its upper part it is ornamented with a sculpture of the Annunciation; above that, it carries a metal cross at the height of 55 feet. The tower is at the west end of the south aisle. Its union and harmony with the spire, and the treatment of the belfry windows, are, beyond comparison, finer than the Marien Kirche of Lubeck. The decoration of the tower consists principally of courses of Danby Dale stone, edged by a border of black brick, and relieved by a chevron of the same ; mosaic patterns being introduced. The spire is broached ; it is covered with slates, and relieved with bands of lead, and carries a very noble metal cross. It is (1866) the highest spire in London, being more elevated than that of Bow Church or St. Bride's. The interior is the most gorgeous in the kingdom, and the one in which ecclesio- logical teaching has been most studiously followed j every part of it having been executed in accordance with mediaeval precedent and symbolism. The Nave is divided into three bays, the south-western being inclosed so as to form a Baptistery. The clustered columns which support the arches of the Nave are of polished Aberdeen granite, with plinths of black marble, and boldly foliaged capitals of alabaster ; the spandrels of the arches are inlaid with coloured stones and encaustic tiles in geometrical patterns. The roof is of wood in seven bays, painted of a chocolate colour relieved with white and pricked out with blue. The great Chancel arch is of alabaster ; the wall above is inlaid with black, white, and coloured work, and has a large " cross of glory," in the centre. All the windows are of stained glass : the one of the south aisle and great window (the Root of Jesse) by Gerente of Paris, represent scriptural subject?. The clerestory windows are of geometrical patterns, by O'Connor. The pulpit is of coloured marble, and cost nearly 4CKM. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles ; there are neither pews nor forms, but chairs are used. The Chancel is mainly lined with alabaster and statuary marble ; the arches dividing the Chancel from its aisles being filled with tracery of alabaster, resting on shafts of dark red serpentine ; while on the ground-line of the sanctuary beyond, these rich materials are sculptured into canopied arcades, forming graceful sedilia. There is no east window, the entire end of the chancel above the altar being occupied by a series of fresco paintings by W. R. Dyce, R.A., on a diapered gold ground, and each in a canopied frame of alabaster; the detached shafts are of serpentine. In the lowest stage is "the Nativity;" the Madonna, with the infant in her lap occupies the centre ; whilst three of the Apostles are in panels on either side. In the middle stage in the centre is a representation of " the Crucifixion," and the rest of the Apostles occupy the side panels; the upper space is devoted to a large representation of " the Celestial Court, with our Lord in Majesty in the centre," the Saviour being seated in front of an elliptical aureole, around which is a choir of angels, while below are Saints of the church, standing and kneeling in adoration. The upper portion of the Chancel is decorated with geometrical and mosaic work, in coloured marbles. The roof, which is externally more elevated than the nave, is groined in stone ; the main ribs of the arches and vaulting are gilt ; the low screen, which shuts off the altar, is of alabaster and coloured marble. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles. The Organ, divided into two parts, occupies portions of the Chancel aisles, the trackers passing under the floor. The Baptistery (the ground-floor of the tower) is ornamented with polished red granite, serpentine, and alabaster j the font is of coloured marble, resembling in style the pulpit. The ceiling contains a figure of the emblematic pelican. Throughout the building is a rich display of Gothic brasswork. The grilles dividing the chancel from the transept are light and graceful ; the stalls are very unobtrusive and neat ; the holy table is of various precious woods. Mr. Bntterfield's design and intention evidently was to produce a whole profusely but delicately coloured, bright and luminous, refreshing to the eye, and satisfying (if it comes to be reflected upon) to CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. UJ) the mind. The key-note of the colour was to be struck by the lovely natural marbles so largely used throughout the church ; white was to be the foundation of the system, relieved indeed and decorated, but never overpowered, by the stronger and more decided hues, whether of marble, of paint, or of gilding, employed to surround it and give it force ; the result is admirable. The low marble screen, chiefly of white and light brown marble ; the side arches filled with tracery of serpentine and alabaster full of manly strength and beauty ; the magnificent alabaster reredos ; the general use of alabaster and green marble on the sides of the chancel, and alabaster and faintly coloured chalkstone in the groining, together with most of the encaustic tiles and the woodwork, are Mr. Butterfield's. The pillars carrying the vaulting are of green Jlona marble, with alabaster capitals. The alabaster ribs are completely covered with gold, and have the effect of bars of simple metal ; the capitals of the columns and large masses of the reredos are covered with gold. The church is not absolutely large. The height of the roof, however, increased to the eye by the use of white plaster between the carved beams ; the broad and stately arches ; the large, bold, and bright patterns inlaid upon the walls ; all combine to create an impression of breadth and dignity altogether uncommon. The mingling of the coloured bricks, the white stone, the pink granite, and the alabaster arches and capitals, is very happy. The carvings of the capitals were long since remarked upon by Mr. Buskin, with perfect justice, as unequalled in modern times. Abridged from the Guardian. The church is the parish church of a " Peel " parish, formed, in 1849, out of the district rectory of All Souls', St. Marylebone, in the perpetual patronage of the Bishop of London. Its present and first incumbent is the Rev. W. Upton Richards. The church was, in the main, finished in 1859, and is understood to have cost 70,0002. One of our ablest ecclesiologists, himself a leader among the exclusively Gothjc architects of our time, Mr. G. E. Street, observes : " Though I have a rather large acquaintance with English and foreign works executed since the revival of Pointed Art, I cannot hesitate for an instant in allowing that this church is not only the most beautiful, but the most vigorous, thoughtful, and original of them all." ALL SAINTS, Poplar-lane, India-road, was first built in 1650-54, by subscription, on ground given by the East India Company, and was nearly rebuilt by them in 1776. It has a very good peal of ten bells. Here are monuments to Robert Ainsworth, the lexicographer ; and Flaxman's sculpture in memory of George Steevens, the illustrator of Shakspeare : it is a bas-relief of Steevens earnestly contemplating a bust of our great Dramatic Bard ; the poetical inscription is by Hayley. ST. ALPHAGE, London Wall, escaped the Great Fire, and was rebuilt in the last century : it has a porch with sculptured heads and pointed arches, stated to be a remnant of the ancient Elsing Priory. Its registers record, within a few years, about forty persons in this parish who certified that they had been touched by Charles II. for the Evil. ST. ANDREW'S, Canal-road, Kingsland-road, built of brick of divers colours, C. A. Long, architect, has a recessed porch at the west end, and a square tower and zinc spire at the east: opened 1865. ST. ANDEEW'S, Holborn, was rebuilt by Wren, upon the site of the old church, in 1686; the original tower (date Henry VI.), 110 feet high, was recased in 1704. It is one of the best placed churches in London : " for as the west end is nearly at the summit of Holborn-hill, the foundation was necessarily continued throughout on this level to the east end in Shoe-lane ; so that the basement is there considerably elevated above the houses." {Godwin.') The interior is rich in gilding and stained glass. The Organ was built from the famous instrument constructed by Harris for the Temple Church, part of which was sent to Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, but was sold for 500J., and is now in Wolverhampton Church. When Dr. Sacheverell entered upon the living of St. Andrew's, he found that the organ, not having been paid for, had, from its erection in 1690, been shut up ; when Sacheverell, by a collection amongst his parishioners, raised the amount, and paid for the instrument. St. Andrew's has been called " the Poets' Church," from the sons of Song connected with it : John Webster, the dramatic poet, a late contemporary of Shakspeare, is said to have been parish-clerk here, but this is not attested by the register ; Robert Savage was christened here, Jan. 18, 1696-7 ; the register records, Aug. 28, 1770, " William " (Thomas) " Chatterton," with " the poet " added by a later hand, interred in the burial-ground of Shoe-lane Workhouse, now the site of Farringdon Market ; and in the churchyard lies Henry Neele, the gravestone bearing a touching epitaph written by him on his father. Among the eminent rectors of the church were Hacket and Stillingfleet, afterwards bishops ; and Sacheverel, the partisan preacher, who is buried in the Chancel. In the south aisle is a tablet to John Emery, the comedian, d. 1822. Some of the registers date from 1558. II' 150 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ST. ANDREW'S UNDERSHAFT, Leadenliall-street, nearly opposite the site of the East India House, is a Tudor church, before whose south side was set up on every May- day morning a long shaft or May-pole, which was higher than the church-steeple. It was last raised in 1517, on " Evil May-day," " so called of an insurrection made by apprentices and other young persons against aliens :" it was then hung on iron hooks over the doors and under the "pentices" of Shaft-alley, until 3rd King Edward VI., when one St. Stephen, a curate, preaching at Paul's Cross, " said that this shaft was made an idol, by naming the church of St. Andrew with the addition of ' under-that- shaft.' " Stow heard this sermon, and describes how the parishioners in the afternoon lifted the shaft from the hooks whereon it had rested thirty-two years, sawed it in pieces, " every man taking for his share so much as had lain over his door and stall, the length of his house ; and they of the alley divided among them so much as had lain over their alley-gate " (Stow) : and thus was this idol " mangled and after burned." The present church, rebuilt 1520-1532, consists of a nave and two side aisles, with ribbed and flattened roof, painted and gilt with flowers and shields. The Chancel has also paintings of the heavenly choir, landscapes, and buildings. St. Andrew's has much stained glass; and a large pointed windo.v at the east end of the Nave contains whole-length portraits of King Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and Charles II. The church was pewed soon after 1520. It contains many brasses, tablets, and monuments, the most characteristic of which is that of John Stow, author of A Survey of London (1598). This monument is of terra-cotta, and was erected by Stow's widow ; it contains the figure of the chronicler, once coloured after life : he is seated at a table, pen in hand, with a book before him, and a clasped book on each side of the alcove : above are the arms of Stow's Company, the Merchant Tailors'. John Stow was born in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill, in the year 1525. There is abundant proof that he was by trade a tailor. In 1549, he was dwelling near the well within Aldgate, now known as Aldgate pump ; where the Bailiff of Kumford was, to use Stow's own words, "executed upon the pavement of my door, where I then kept house." Amidst the toils of business, Stow wrote his Chronicles, his Annales, and his Survey, a " simple and unadorned picture of London at the close of the 16th and commencement of the 17th century;" besides other works, printed and manuscript, which, to use his own words, " cost him many a weary mile's travel, many a hard-earned penny and pound, and many a cold winter night's study." He enjoyed the patronage of Archbishop Parkef, the friendship of Lambarde, and the respect of Camden; yet he fell into poverty, and all he could obtain from his sovereign, James I., for the toil of near half a century, was a license to beg ! Stow died a twelvemonth after, on the 6th of April, 1605, in the parish of St. Andrew Undershaft, and was buried on April 8 : but, according to Maitland, in the year 1732, certain men removed Stow's " corpse, to make way for another." His collections for the Chronicles of England, occupying 60 quarto volumes, are now in the British Museum. Of the various editions of Stow's Survey, it may suffice to commend to the reader's notice the reprint from the edition of 1603, carefully edited by W. J. Thorns, F.S.A.. 1842. In a desk in this church are preserved seven curious old books, mostly in black letter, with a portion of iron chain attached to them, by which they were formerly secured under open cages. ST. ANDREW BY THE WARDROBE, in Castle Baynard Ward, was named from its con- tiguity to the King's Great Wardrobe, destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, in 1692. Here is a monument, by the elder Bacon, to the Rev. William Romaine ; the bust very good. ST. ASTDEEW'S, Wells-street, Marylebone, built by Daukes and Hamilton, in 1845-7, is fine Early Perpendicular, and has a tower and spire 155 feet high : the Anglican musical service is fully performed here ; seats free and open. ST. ANNE'S, Blackfriars, was destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. It was " pulled down with the Friars' Church, by Sir Thomas Cawarden, Master of the Revels ; but in the reign of Queen Mary, he being forced to find a church for the inhabitants, allowed them a lodging chamber above a stair" (Slow). The parish register records the burial of Isaac Oliver, the miniature painter ; Nat Field, the poet and player ; Dick Robinson, the player ; William Faithorne, the engraver. Van Dyck lived and died in this parish j his daughter Was baptized the day her illustrious father died, December 9, 1641. ST. ANNE'S, Limehouse, built by Hawksmoor, pupil of Wren, 17J 2-24, at a cost of 35,OOOZ., has a tower, with four angular turrets, and a more lofty one in the centre, CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 151 original and picturesque. At 130 feet high is the clock, put up by Messrs. Moore in 1839 : it is the highest in the metropolis, not excepting St. Paul's, and has four dials, each 13 feet in diameter ; the hours heing struck on the great bell (38 c\vt.), inscribed : " At proper times my voice I'll raise, And sound to my subscribers' praise." The whole of the interior of the church, including a fine organ, was destroyed by an accidental fire on the morning of Good Friday, March 29, 1850 ; but has been judi- ciously restored. ST. ANNE'S, Soho, was finished in 1686, and occupies a spot formerly called Kemp's Fields. It was dedicated to St. Anne in compliment to the Princess Anne of Denmark. The tower and spire were rebuilt about 1806 by the late S. P. Cockerell; the clock is a whimsical and ugly excrescence. The interior is very handsome, and has a finely- painted window at the east end. In this church is a tablet to the memory of Theodore Anthony Neuboff, King of Corsica, who died in this parish in 1756, soon after his liberation from the King's Bench Prison by the Act of Insolvency. The friend who gave shelter to this unfortunate monarch, whom nobles could praise when praise could not reach his ear, and who refused to succour him in his miseries, was himself so. poor as to be unable to defray the cost of his funeral. His remains were therefore about to be interred as a parish pauper, when one John Wright, an- oilman in Compton-street, declared, he for once would pay the funeral expenses of a Icing, which he did. The tablet was erected at the expense of Horace Walpole, who inscribed upon it " The grave, great teacher, to a level brings Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings; But THEODORE this moral learn'd ere dead ; Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head, Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread." In the church is buried David Williams, founder of the Literary Fund ; and in the churchyard, William Hazlitt, the clever essayist. In the church are monuments to Sir John Macpherson, Governor-General of India, and William Hamilton, R.A., painter. ST. ANTHONY'S (St. Antholin's or St. Antling's), in Budge-row, at the corner of Sise-lane, is of ancient foundation, being mentioned in the twelfth century. The church was rebuilt about 1399 and again 1513 ; and being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, was rebuilt by Wren in 1682, when the parish of St. John Baptist, Watling- street, was annexed to that of St. Antholin. The interior has an oval dome, supported on eight columns ; and the carpentry of the roof is a fine specimen of Wren's con- structive skill. The exterior has a tower rising directly from the ground, with an octagonal spire, terminating with a Composite capital, at the height of 154 feet. In 1559, there was established, "after Geneva fashion," at St. Antholin's, an early prayer and lecture, the bells for which began to ring at five in the morning. This service is referred to by our early dramatists, and the preacher (a Puritan) and the bell of St. Antliu's were proverbially loud and lengthy. The chaplains of the Commis- sioners from the Church of Scotland to King Charles, in 1610, preached here: and " curiosity, faction, and humour," drew such crowds, that on Sundays, from daybreak to nightfall, the church was never empty. The churchwardens' accounts present (iu an unbroken series) the parish expenditure for nearly three centuries. ST. AUGUSTINE'S, Watling-street, was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, in 1682. The ancient church stood near the gate that led from Watling-street into St. Paul's churchyard. In 1387 (^ays Strype) was founded the fraternity of St. Austin's, in Watling-street (corrupted from St. Augustine's), who met in this church on the eve of St. Austin's, and in the morning at high mass, when every brother offered a penny, afterwards they were ready either " at mangier or at revele " to eat or to revel, as the master and wardens of the fraternity directed. After the Great Fire, the parish of St. Faith-under-Paul's (so called because a part of the crypt of that cathedral was formerly their church) was united to St. Augustine's. ST. BARNABAS', Queen-street, Pimlico, is a portion of a college founded on St. Barnabas' Day, 1846, including schools and residentiary house for the clergy, upoa 152 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ground presented by the first Marquis of Westminster. The buildings are in the Early Pointed style, Gundy, architect; and the church has a Caen -stone tower and spire 170 feet high, with a peal of ten bells, the gifts of as many parishioners. The windows throughout are filled with stained glass by Wailes, of Newcastle ; the subjects from the life of St. Barnabas. The open roof is splendidly painted ; the rood dividing the Choir from the Chancel, and other fittings, are entirely of oak ; the lectern is a brass eagle : the superb altar-plate, the font, illuminated office-books, the corona lucis in the chancel, and other costly ornaments, are the gifts of private individuals. The funds were contributed by the inhabitants of the district of St. Paul, Knightsbridge, through the pious zeal of the Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, the incumbent. There is an organ by Flight, of great richness, variety, and power ; and full choral service is per- formed. During the Anti-Papal agitation towards the close of 1850, this church was more than once the scene of disgraceful interruption by intolerant mobs, who, but for the intrepidity of the officiating clergy, would have set aside the right to undisturbed worship. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of London, on St. Barnabas' Day (June 11), 1850. The clergy and services are maintained by the offertory, as there is no endowment. In 1849-50, sermons were preached here by the Bishop of London. (Blomfield), the Bishop of Oxford, Archdeacon Manning, the Regius Professors of Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge (Dr. Mill and Dr. Pusey), Mr. Sewell (of Oxford), Mr. Paget, Mr. Gresley, Mr. Keble, Mr. F. Bennett, Mr. Kennaway, Mr. Neale, Mr. H. Wilberforce, Mr. Richards, Mr. R. Eden, and Mr. W. J. E. Bennett. The ancient practice of singing the Litany at a faldstool, at the entrance to the chancel, has here been revived, and in all other respects the most approved Catholic usages have been observed, in so far as they are applicable to our own ritual. The stone altar has been replaced by a wooden one, a table. ST. BAKNABAS, Bell-street, Edgware-road, stands north and south, instead of east and west, owing to the peculiar form of the site. Over the altar is a metal cross, affixed to the wall, bearing in its centre a circular mosaic representing the Lamb, on a gold ground. Above the Chancel arch is a figure of the Saviour seated, painted in fresco ; and the north window is of stained glass. A. W. Blomfield, architect. ST. BAKTHOLOMEW BY THE EXCHANGE, rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire, mostly with the old masonry, was taken down in 1840 : the tower was in eccentric taste, appearing as though the upper part bad been blown down, and a door-way or window-frame been left on each side. Here was buried Miles Coverdale, our first translator of the Bible, whose remains were removed to St. Magnus' Church, London Bridge, on the taking down of St. Bartholomew's. This church has been rebuilt in Moor-lane, Cripplegate, under the direction of C. R. Cockerell, R.A. The interior details are Tuscan ; the altar-piece, pulpit, &c., are richly-carved oak ; and the com- munion end is lighted by a stained Catherine-wheel window. From the western door the whole interior to the east is discovered through a triumphal arch, formed by a novel and ingenious construction of the choir-gallery in front of the organ. ST. BAKTHOLOMEW THE GEEAT, in West Smithfield, is part of the ancient Priory of St. Bartholomew the Great, founded about 1102, by Rahere, the King's MinstreL who became first Prior. Originally, the church consisted of a low central tower, with four other towers, one at each of the angles of the edifice, and all crowned with conical spires. Of Rahere's church, founded as above, in the reign of Henry I., and finished about 1123, nothing remains but the Choir, with an aisle or procession-path surrounding its apsidal east end, the crossing (at the original intersection of the transepts), and one bay only the easternmost one of the Nave. These remains are coeval with the naves of the cathedrals of Durham, Norwich, and Peterborough. The original length of St. Bartholomew's seems to have been about 280 feet, and its breadth 60 feet a little less than those of Rochester Cathedral. At the Dissolution of religious houses the Nave was pulled down, and the conventual buildings were disposed of to various per- sons. The Choir and Transepts were granted in 1544 to the parishioners, for their use as a parish church; and so remained till now except that about the year 1628 the original tower was taken down and a new one built of brick. The Nave is supposed to have originally extended to the house-fronts in West Smithfield, where is the entrance-gate, CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 153 an excellent specimen of Early English, with the toothed ornament in its mouldings. Mr. Parker has, however, explained that the above gateway was not the doorway to the south aisle, as it had been considered. The grant of the Priory by Henry VIII. defines the Nave as it was then, " a void ground, 87 feet in length and 60 feet in breadth," and it was reserved as a churchyard, for which purpose it had been used to our time. The discrepancy of the present dimensions with those in the grant, it is remark- able had not before occurred to antiquaries. Mr. Parker has also explained that the size of the doorway and extent of the mouldings are altogether unsuited to the position assigned to them in the church. Here are the details : At present the building is 132 ft. by 57ft, and 47ft. high, having an open timber roof, which is supposed to be equal in age to the building itself. The square brick tower at the end of the south aisle is 75 ft. high, and was erected in 1628. It contains five bells. The six bells belonging originally to the edifice were sold at the Dissolution of the monastery to the parish church of St. Sepulchre. On the east side of the south wing stood a beautiful chapel of the time of Edward III., with a large western archway, which was destroyed by tire in 1830. Attached to the east end of the church was a Lady Chapel, of Norman style, now a fringe manufactory, the side walls of which still remain. The prior's house, infirmary, refectory, dormitory, chapter-house, and cloisters originally surrounded the building. The walls of the chapter-house, of the time of Henry III., were remaining in 1809, as high as the window- sills. It had three arched entrances to the cloister, with arcades on the north and south sides. On the south side of the church is an oriel window built by Prior Bolton early in the 16th century, and supposed to have been used, like that at Worcester Cathedral, by the sacristan for the supervision of the tights burning at the altar. It is ornamented by the Prior's rebus, an arrow, or some such thing, inserted through a tun. The interior of the church contains several very ancient monuments in good preserva- tion ; among others the effigy and tomb of Rahere, the first prior, inserted within a screen ; the Elizabethan tomb of Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who died in May, 1589 ; and of Rycroft, the king's printer of the Polyglot. Le Soaur, the sculptor, and Milton lived in Bartholomew-close, hard by ; and William Hogarth was baptized in the church in November, 1697. Archer, in his Vestiges of Old London, has engraved the west gate of the Priory and that portion of it which is now the " Coach and Horses" public-house, at the entrance to Bartholomew-close, formerly the Priory close. The kitchen is now a dwell- ing-house, from which a subterranean passage communicated with the church. Mr. Archer identified the mulberry-garden from an old plan, and the decayed stump of a celebrated mulberry-tree was grubbed up just before his visit in 1842. This church, the oldest beyond all question in the whole City of London, having been erected nearly 750 years ago, is about to be restored to its primitive grandeur at the cost of a large sum of money, under the direction of a Committee. ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE LESS, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, was formerly the Chapel of the Brotherhood of St. Bartholomew, and was founded by Rahere the first Prior, and contained a chapel for the poor. It escaped the Great Fire, but becoming dilapidated, was taken down, except the tower, and replaced by an octagon wooden building by Dance. This again was taken down, and a stone building erected, in 1823, by Hardwicke, R.A. During the operation, the arms of Edward the Confessor, in stone, were found under the tower (they are now in the Vestry), and as these arms were assumed by the Edwards, it is supposed that the old church was erected during one of their reigns. The tower contains very fine Norman and Early English arches and pillars ; the piscina from the ancient church is used as a font. A beautiful Chancel has been built in the style of the Lady Chapels in Nor- mandy ; the reredos of marble and alabaster, as is also the pulpit, with bas-reliefs of the Sermon on the Mount ; stained glass windows by Powell. Mackeson. ST. BESET, Gracechurch-street, is one of Wren's least attractive edifices, rebuilt after the Great Fire. The original church is mentioned as " S. Benedicti, Graschurch," in a survey made in the twelfth century ; according to Stow, it was called Grass-church, to distinguish it from other churches of the same name, because that the herb-market was held opposite its western door. Weever mentions only one monument of early date (1491) in the church ; but the parish books contain many curious entries. Thus, at the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553 : " Paid to a plasterer, for washing owte and defacing of such Scriptures as in the tyme of King Edward VI. were written aboute the chirche and walls, we being commanded to do so by y e Right Hon. y e lord bishopp of Winchester, L d Chan r of England, 3*. 4d. ;" and " Paid to the paynters for the making y e Roode, with Mary and John, Gl. ;" while in the first year of Queen Eliza- beth's reign, 1558, occur, " Payd to a carpenter for pulling down the Roode and Mary, CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. 4*. and 2d. ;" and " Paid three labourers one (lay for pulling down the altars and John, 2s. 4d." Later still, in 1642, were sold " the superstitious brasses taken off the grave- stones for 9s. and 6d." The tower of Wren's church, at the north-west angle, is, with the cupola and spire, 140 feet high. The interior of the church is a double cube of 60 feet by 30 feet, with a groined ceiling, crossed by bands. In the register is : " 1559, April 14, Robert Burges, a common player." The yard of the Cross Keys Inn, Grace- church-strect, was one of our early theatres. ST. BENNET FINK, named from Robert Finke, the original founder (as also of Finch- lane adjoining), was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, rebuilt by Wren, but taken down in 1842-44. The remains were sold by auction, Jan. 15, 1846, when lot 12, the carved oak poor-box, with lock, &c. (date on the lock 1683), fetched four guineas ; and lot 17, the carved and panelled oak pulpit, with sounding-board, &c., fifteen guineas. The paintings of Moses and Aaron, the carved and panelled oak fittings of the altar, marble floor, and the two tablets with inscriptions in gold, were purchased for 501. The parish registers record the marriage of Richard Baxter, the celebrated Nonconformist, to Margaret Charlton, Sept. 10th, 1662 ; and the baptism of " John, the son of John Speed, merchant-tailor," March 10, 1608. ST. BENNET, Paul's Wharf, or ST. BENET HTJDE or HYTHE, was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, in 1683. The burial register records Inigo Jones, the architect ; Sir William Le Neve (Clarencieux) ; John Philpott (Somerset Herald) ; and William Oldys (Norroy). Inigo Jones's monument (for which he left 100?.) was destroyed in the Great Fire. Eh'as Ashmole, the antiquary, was married to his first wife in this church. ST. BENNET SHEEEHOG,or SYTH, Ward of Cheap, was destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. Stow says its most ancient name is Shorne, from one Robert Shorne, citizen and stock-fish monger, " a new builder, repairer, or benefactor thereof, in the reign of Edward II. ;" so that Shorne is but corruptly Shrog, or more corruptly, Sherehog. ST. BOTOLPH WITHOUT AiDERSGATE escaped the Great Fire, and was rebuilt in 1796. Here are monuments to Dame Anne Packington, believed to have written The W~hole Duty of Man ; Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Richardson ; Elizabeth Smith, with cameo bust by Roubiliacj and a tablet to Richard Chiswell, bookseller. ST. BOTOLPH, AIDGATE, at the corner of Houndsditch, opposite the Minorics, was rebuilt by G. Dance, 1741-44. It contains monuments of good sculpture to Lord Dacre, beheaded 1537 ; and Sir Nicholas Carew, of Beddington, beheaded 1538 ; also an effigies monument to Robert Dowe, who left the St. Sepulchre's Bell, &c. (see p. 48). In the churchyard is a tomb inscribed with Persian characters, of which Stow gives the following account : " August 10, 1626. In Petty France [a part of the cemetery unconsecrated], out of Christian burial, was buried Hodges Shaughsware, a Persian merchant, who with his son came over with the Persian ambassador, and was buried by his own son, who read certain prayers, and used other ceremonies, according to the custom of their own country, morning and evening, for a whole month after the burial ; for whom is set up, at the charge of his son, a tomb of stone with certain Persian characters thereon, the exposition thus : This grave is made for Hodges Shaughsware, the chicfest servant to the King of Persia for the space of twenty years, who came from the King of Persia, and died in his service. If any Persian cometh out of that country, let him read this and a prayer for him. The Lord receive his soul, for here lieth Maghmote Shaughsware, who was born in the town Kovoy, in Persia." Stow'g Survey, ed. 1633, p. 173. ST. BOTOLPH'S is situate without the walls of London, near one of the ancient entrances to the City, supposed to have been built by a bishop, and thence called Bishopsgate. The old church narrowly escaped the Great Fire of 1666 ; it was re- built in 1725-29 by James Gold; its peculiarity is, that the tower rises at the east end, in Bishopsgate-street, and the lower part forms the chancel. The living, valued at 1650Z., with a Rectory-house, is the richest in the City and Liberties of London. The Crown exercises the right of patronage in consequence of having raised the then rectors to the Episcopal Bench. Dr. Blomfield (the late Bishop of London) was rector from 1820 until his consecration as Bishop of Chester in 1828 ; and Dr. Grey was rector from 1828 until his consecration as Bishop of Hereford in 1832. In the chancel is the monument to Sir Paul Pindar, whose residence in Bishopsgate-street Without is now CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 155 the Sir Paul Pindar's Head public-house. He was a rich merchant (temp. James I. and Charles I.), and like many other good subjects, was ruined by his attachment to the latter monarch. He was charitable and hospitable, and often gave " the parish venison" for public dinners : yet the parishioners made him pay for a license for eating flesh. Sir Paul presented the parish yearly with a venison pasty; for in 1634 we find charged in the parish book Ids. Id. for the mere " flour, butter, pepper, eggs, making, and baking." Another curious entry is in 1578 : " Paid for frankincense and flowers, when the Chancellor sate with us, lls. The ecclesiastical custom of a new Eector "tolling himself in," or, legally speaking, taking up " the livery of possession," was performed by the Rev. William Rogers, M.A., the present Hector, with the formalities described at p. 46, BELLS. The "reading himself in" took place on the following 1 Sunday. The above induction custom seems to imply the general authority of the Rector over the peal of bells; and there is an old saying, that the number of strokes given on the occasion will corre- spond with the years the incumbent is to hold the living. Bow CHUECH, see St. MAEY-LE-BOW, page 183. ST. BIUDE'S, or St. Bridget, Fleet-street, was built by Wren, upon the site of the old church, destroyed in the Great Fire. It was completed in 1703, cost 11,430Z., and is remarkable for its graceful steeple. " Ye first stone was layed on the 4th day of October, 1701, and was finished, and the wether-cocke was put up in September, 1703 ; it being in height 234 feet 6 inches from... the surface of ye earth to ye top of the cross, ye wether-cocke from ye dart to ye end is 6 feet 4 inches." In June 1764, this beautiful steeple was so damaged by lightning, that it was found requisite to take down eighty-five feet of the stone-work, and in restoring it, the height was lowered eight feet : the whole cost was 30001. In 1803 the steeple was again struck by lightning : " The metal vane, the cramps with which the masonry was secured, and the other ironwork employed in the construction, led the electric fluid down the steeple, in the absence of any continued or better conductor ; and as at each point where the connexion was broken off, a violent disruption necessarily ensued, the stonework was rent in all parts and projected from its situation. One stone, weighing nearly eighty pounds, was thrown over the east end of the church, and fell on the roof of a house iu Bride-lane ; while another was forced from the bottom of the spire, through the roof of the church, into the north gallery." (Godwin's Churches of London, vol. ii.) The Philosophical Transactions for 1764 also contains two scientific investigations of the above damage. The upper part was, for a long time, preserved on the premises of a mason in Old-street Road. The entire spire is one of Wren's most beautiful designs, and consists of four stories, the two lower Tuscan, the third Ionic, and the fourth Com- posite, terminating in an obelisk, with a ball and vane. In height and lightness it approaches nearer to the exquisite spires of the Pointed style than any other example; the details, however (in Portland stone), are hastening to decay. In the north face of the tower is a transparent clock-dial, first lit with gas in 1827, and one of the earliest in the metropolis. In the tower is a peal of twelve bells (see p. 47) ; and the Organ, by Harris, is goad. The interior is handsome : the great eastern window, above the altar, is filled with a copy, in stained glass, of Rubens's " Descent from the Cross," in Antwerp Cathedral : this was executed by Muss in 1824-5, and is a fine produc- tion. The marble font bears the date 1615. Richardson, the author of Clarissa Harlowe, and who printed his own novels in Salisbury-square, is buried in the church ; and in the vestibule, beneath the tower, is a tablet to Alderman Waithman (interred here), who sat in five Parliaments for the City of London. The registers of St. Bride's were saved at the destruction of the first church : they commence from 1587 : and the vestry-books, which date from 1653, minutely chronicle the Great Fire, a relic of which is the doorway into a vault, to the right of the entrance from Bride-passage. In the old church were buried Wynkin de Worde, whose printing-office was in Fleet- street ; Thomas Sackville, Earl of Dorset (d. 1608), the poet, who commenced The Mirrourfor Magistrates ; Sir Richard Baker, the chronicler, who died in the Fleet Prison, 1644-5 ; Richard Lovelace, the poet, who died a broken cavalier, " very poor in body and purse," in Gunpowder-alley, Shoe-lane, in 1658. The register also records the burial of Ogilby, the translator of Homer (d. 1676) ; Mary Carlton, or Frith, the " English Moll " of Hudibras, alias Moll Cutpurse, an infamous cheat and pick- pocket, hanged at Tyburn 1672-3 ; also, the burial of Flatman, the poet and painter : 156 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains, And rides a jaded Muse whipt with loose reins. Lord Rochester. The present church and much of its elegant spire were hidden by houses until after a destructive fire in Bride-passage on Nov. 14, 1824, when an avenue was opened from Fleet-street : it was designed by J. B< Papworth ; this improvement cost 10,OOOZ., of which Mr. Blades, of Ludgate-hill, advanced 6000Z. One of Milton's London abodes was in St. Bride's churchyard : here, after his return from Italy, he lodged with one Russel, a tailor, and devoted himself to the education of his nephews, John and Edward Phillips, and to the politics of the day. Thence, how- ever, he soon removed to " a pretty garden-house " in Aldersgate- street. BEITISH AND FOREIGN SAUCES' CHUECH (the) was opened April 30, 1845, in the Danish Church, Wellclose-square, Ratcliffe Highway. An inscription over the entrance states it to have been built in 1696, by Caius Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, at the cost of Christian V., King of Denmark, for such merchants and seamen, his sub- jects, who visited the port of London. The architect and his son, Colley Cibber, are buried in the vaults ; and in the church is a tablet to Jane Colley. The pulpit has four sand-glasses in a brass frame, by which preachers formerly regulated the length of their sermons. CAMDEN CHTTECH, Camberwell, has a Byzantine Chancel, G. G. Scott, R.A., architect. The stained glass window is by Ward, Frith-street, assisted by hints from Mr. Euskin (a member of the congregation). The carving and decorations through- out the church are good. CATHEEINE CEEE (or Christ Church), on the north side of Leadenhall-street, was rebuilt in the year 1629, and consecrated by Laud, Bishop of London, Jan. 16, 1630-31 ; when persons were stationed at the doors of the church to call with a loud voice on his approach, " Open, open, ye everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may enter in." When Laud had reached the interior, he fell on his knees, and lifting his hands, exclaimed, " This place is holy, the ground is holy ; in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I pronounce it holy ;" then throwing dust from the ground into the air, he bowed to the Chancel, and went in procession round the church. These and other ceremonies, fully described in Rushworth, were made grave accusations against Laud, and brought about his death. The present church is debased Gothic and Corinthian. Among the monuments removed from the old church is a canopied figure of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton (d. 1570), from whom Throgmorton-street is named. By the Will of Sir John Gager, Lord Mayor in 1646, provision is made for a sermon to be annually preached on the 16th of October, in St. Catherine Cree Church, in com- memoration of his happy deliverance from a lion, which he met in a desert whilst travelling in the Turkish dominions, and which suffered him to pass unmolested. The old church was the reputed burial-place of Holbein, upon tfhich Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A., remarks, in connexion with the recent discovery of the great Painter's Will : Walpole observes that " the spot of his (Holbein's) interment was as uncertain as that of his death;" and he might have added (if the circumstances of the " Plague " had been considered) 1554 was not a Plague year of the time of his death also. He alluded to Strype's story of Lord Arundel's desire to erect a monument to the painter's memory. Strype's words are (speaking of St. Catherine Cree Church) : " I have been told that Hans Holbein, the great and inimitable painter in King Henry VIII.'s time, was buried in this church; and that the Earl of Arundel, the great patron of learning and arts, would have set up a monument to his memory here had he but known whereabouts the corpse lay." So uncertain is tradition, that, although this rumour must have originated in a knowledge of the neigh- bourhood where Holbein died, yet a wrong place is assigned for his burial ; for Cree Church and Undershaft are situate in the same street, on the same side of the way, and within 200 yards of each other. The beautiful pile of Undershaft escaped the Fire of London, but the register from 1538 to 1579 inclusively, has not been preserved ; and if it were extant who would believe that a John Holbein, dying and buried in 1543, was the Hans Holbein whose life had been prolonged by all biographers to 1554, unless upon the infallible testimony of the Will now brought to light ? ArchcEologia, vol. xxxix. ST. CHAD, Haggerston, has all seats free : " altar cross, and lights at every celebra- tion of the Holy Communion." Mackeson. CHBIST CHUECH, Broadway, Westminster, was designed in 1842, in the Early CHUECHES AND CHAPELS. 157 Pointed style, by Poynter ; upon the site of the former New Chapel : the spire not built. It has some good stained glass by Willement, especially in the centre window. The New Chapel was built about 1631 ; Archbishop Laud contributing to the funds 1000. and some most curious glass. At the Rebellion, Sir Robert Harley defaced the window, laid the painted glass in heaps upon the ground, and trod it to pieces, calling his sacrilegious antics "dancing a jig to Laud." The troopers of the Commonwealth stabled their chargers in the church aisles ; and Cromwell and his officers are said to have used it as a council-room. In the adjacent ground was buried Sir William Waller (d. 1688), the famous Parliamentarian General in the Civil Wars. On June 26, 1739, Margaret Patten was interred here, at the age of 136 years (?) : she was born at Lochborough, near Paisley, and was brought to England to prepare Scotch broth for King James II.; but after his abdication she fell into poverty, and died in St. Mar- garet's Workhouse, where her portrait is preserved. "None would recognise the description given of this burial-ground now so crowded upon by houses towards the beginning of the last century, that it was ' the pleasantest churchyard all about London and Westminster.' " ( Walcott's Westminster, p. 286.) CHRIST CHURCH, Clapham, of Gothic geometrical design, by Ferrey. " Incense and the vestments are used ; this was the first church in London at which they were used." MacJceson. CHRIST CHUBCH, Down-street, Piccadilly, a stone building ; Messrs. Francis, archi- tects ; style, " Middle Pointed French Gothic ;" only the eastern half built. CHEIST CHURCH, Highbury, designed by T. Allom, in 1848, has a tower and spire in the angle between the North Transept and Nave, the spire having gabled and crocketed lucarnes. Internally, the plan is equally novel, in the centre becoming an octagon of eight arches, so as to allow the pulpit and reading-desk, placed against the pillars of the Chancel arch, to be distinctly seen from all parts of the church. CHRIST CHUECH, Newgate-street, was built by Wren between 1687 and 1704, and occupies part of the site of the ancient Grey Friars' Church, destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The tower rises directly from the ground, and with the steeple is 153 feet high ; the basement-story being open on three sides, and forming a porch to the church. A large gallery at the west end is appropriated for the Christ's Hospital Boys; and here, since 1797, have been preached the " Spital Sermons." In 1799, the Spital Sermon on Easter Tuesday was preached by the celebrated Dr. Parr, who occu- pied nearly three hours in its delivery. The Spital Sermons originated in an old custom by which some learned person was appointed y the Bishop of London to preach at St. Paul's Cross, on Good Friday, on the subject of " Christ's -." on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following, three other divines were appointed to yearly by the Bishop of London to preach at St. Paul's Cross, on Good Friday, on the subject of " Christ's Passion-." on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following, three other divines were appointed to uphold the doctrine of " The Resurrection " at the Pulpit Cross in the " Spital " (Spitalfields). On the Sunday following, a fifth preached at Paul's Cross, and passed judgment upon the merits of those who had preceded him. At these Sermons, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attended; ladies also on the Monday forming part of the procession ; and at the close of each day's solemnity, his Lordship and the Sheriffs gave a private dinner to such of their friends among the Aldermen as attended the Sermon. From this practice, the civic festivities at Easter were at length extended to a magnificent scale. The children of Christ's Hospital took part in the above solemnities ; so that, in 1594, when it became necessary to rebuild the Pulpit Cross at the Spital, a gallery was erected also for their accommo- dation. In the Great Rebellion, the pulpit was destroyed, and the Sermons were discontinued till the Restoration; after which, the three Spital Sermons, as they were still called, were revived at St. Bride's Church, in Fleet-street. They have since been reduced to two, and from 1797 have been delivered at Christ Church, Newgate-street. It was on their first appearance at the Spital that the children of Christ's Hospital wore the blue costume by which they have since been distinguished. Instead of the subjects which were wont to be discussed from the Pulpit Cross of St. Mary's Spital, discourses are now delivered commemorative of the objects of the five sister Hospitals; and a Report is read of the num- ber of children maintained and educated, and of sick, disorderly, and lunatic persons for whom pro- vision is made in each respectively. On each day, the Boys of Christ's Hospital, with the legend " l9C IS rtSCn " attached to their left shoulders, form part of the civic procession ; walking on the first day in the order of their schools, the King's Boys bearing their nautical instruments ; and on the second, according to their several wards, headed by their nurses. Abridged from the Rev. Mr. Trollope's SMory of Chritt's Hospital. CHEIST CHUECH, Poplar, cruciform, with spire, was built at the expense of Alderman William Cubitt, twice Lord Mayor ; some stone from old London Bridge was used in the building : it has five bells and a good organ. CHEIST CHUECH, Spitalfields (originally a hamlet of St. Dunstan's, Stepney), was 158 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. built by Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren, and consecrated July 5, 1729. It is entirely of stone, very massive, and has one of tbe loftiest spires in London, 225 feet high, or 23 feet higher than the Monument. It contains a peal of 12 bells, scarcely inferior in power and sweetness to any in the kingdom ; the tenor weighing 4928 Ibs. It has a large organ, the masterpiece of Bridge, containing 2126 pipes. Here is a monument to Sir Robert Ladbroke, a whole-length figure, in tbe full dress of Lord Mayor : one of the early works of Flaxman. This church was greatly injured by fire on Feb. 17, 1836, shortly after the parishioners had finished paying 8000Z. for repairs. On the morning of Jan. 3, 1841, the spire and roof of the church were greatly damaged by lightning, at ten minutes before seven, when the clock stopped. The lightning struck the cone, or upper part of the spire ; thence it descended to a room above the clock-room, forcing the trap-door from the hinges down to the floor, melting the iron wires connected with the clock, scorching the wooden rope-conductors, breaking many of the windows, and making a considerable fracture in the wall, where the lightning is supposed to have escaped. The roof was partially covered with large stones, which broke in the lead-work by their weight in falling ; and the lead near the injured masonry was melted in several places. ST. CLEMENT'S, Eastcheap, Clement's-lane, City, is of uncertain foundation: it was. rebuilt, except the south aisle and steeple, in 1658, but destroyed in the Great Fire ; after which it was rebuilt by Wren in 1686, and made to serve the two districts of St. Clement and St. Martin Orgar, which church stood in St. Martin's-lane. The tower remains to this day, and serves as an entrance to the site of the old church, occupied as a burial-ground for the united parishes. St. Clement's Church has little that is noteworthy ; but the parishioners were satisfied with its architect : for we find in the Register-book, date 1685, " To one-third of a hogshead of wine given to Sir Christopher Wren, 41. 2s." The tower is 88 feet high. The church has a fine organ, and an elaborately carved pulpit and desk, and sounding-board ; and a marble font, with a curious oak cover. In the list of rectors is Dr. Benjamin Stone, presented to the living by Bishop Juxon in 1637 ; but deemed popishly affected, and declared unfit to hold office, in Cromwell's time, and confined in Crosby Hall ; thence removed to Plymouth, and set free by paying 601. fine : but Stone recovered his benefice in 1660. Another celebrated rector was Bishop Pearson, who, in the old church, delivered the Lectures forming his Exposition of the Creed, which, when published in 1658, he dedicated to the parishioners of St. Clement, Eastcheap ; the work is to this day used as a text- book in the examination of candidates in divinity. Among the former organists at this church were Purcell, Battishil], and Whitaker. ST. CLEMENT'S DANES, Strand, the first church west of Temple Bar, is said by Stow to have been so called " because Harold, a Danish king, and other Danes, were buried there." Strype gives another reason : that the few Danes left in the kingdom married English women, and compulsorily lived between Westminster and Ludgate; and tbe,-e built a synagogue, called " Ecclesia Clementis Danorum." This account Fleetwood, the antiquary, Recorder of London in the reign of Elizabeth, reported to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, who lived in this parish. The body of the old church was taken down in 1680, and rebuilt to the old tower in 1682, by Edward Pierce, under the gratuitous directions of Wren, as recorded on a marble slab in the north aisle. In 1719, Gibbs added the present tower and steeple, about 116 feet high, with a peal of ten bells. The clock strikes the hours twice, " the hour being first struck on a larger bell, and then repeated on a smaller one, so that has the first been miscounted, the second may be more correctly observed." (A. Thomson's Time and Timekeepers, p. 77.) In addition to the clock is a set of chimes, which play the old 104th Psalm, though somewhat crazily. In the church are buried Otway and Nat Lee, the dramatic poets ; and Ryrner, compiler of the Foedera, &c. Dr. Johnson was a constant attendant ab the service of St. Clement's Danes, in one of the pews of which (No. 18), in the north gallery, he had a seat for many years against the large pillar at the end, which bears the following inscription, written by the Rev. G. Croly, LL.D., Rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook : " In this pew and beside this pillar, for many years attended Divine Service, the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson, the philosopher, the poet, the great lexicographer, the profound moralist, and chief CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 159 writer of his time. Born, 1709 ; died, 1784. In remembrance and honour of nohle faculties, nobly employed, some inhabitants of the parish of St. Clement Danes have placed this slight memorial, A.D. 1851." ST. CLEMEXT'S, Islington, of Gothic design, G. G. Scott, R.A., architect, was erected at the sole expense of George Cubitt, Esq., M.P. : it has three good bells ; organ by Walker ; and stained windows in the Chancel by Clayton and Bell. ST. CLEMENT'S, York -place, Barnsbury, is a spacious brick church, designed by G. G. Scott, R.A., and built at the expense of George Cubitt, Esq., M.P. ; cost nearly 80001. ; opened 1865. The west front is striking ; it is lofty, has a good doorway, over which are lancet windows, and above these a well-carved seated statue of St. Clement, within a niche ; whilst the gable is crowned by a stepped open bell-cote, having two large bells in the lower and a smaller one in the upper stage. The interior is spacious ; the Nave, of six bays, is divided from the aisles by cylindrical stone columns, which support tall brick arches, and a clerestory with triplet lancet windows over each arch. The Chancel is similarly lighted, and has a painted oval light, filled, like the windows below, with painted glass. The Chancel arch is noble, and the roof an open timber one, of high pitch : the walls are of plain yellow brick. . ST. DIONIS' BACKCHURCH (behind the line of Fenchurch-street), is the third church upon this site, and was rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire of 1666 : it has a tower 90 feet high. In the vestry -room are preserved four of the large syringes, at one time the only engines used in London for the extinction of fires ; they are about 2 feet 3 inches long, and were attached by straps to the body of the fireman. The organ, for which, in 1722, the sum of 74H. 9*. was subscribed, was built by Bvfield, Jordan, and Bridge : " this magnificent instrument is in its original state." (Dr. JRimbault.) There is a peal of ten bells, for which, in 1727, a sum of 479Z. 18s. was subscribed. ST. DUNSTAX'S-IX-TIIE-EAST, between Tower-street and Upper Thames-street, was nearly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1606, and was restored by Wren in 1698 : ifc has a stone tower and spire, supported on four arched ribs, springing from the angles of the tower: this is Wren's best work in the Pointed style; but it generally re- sembles the spire of St. Nicholas' Church, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, built in the fifteenth century. John Carter, however, says : " St. Nicholas's tower is so lofty, and of such a girth, that, to compare great things with small, our London piece of vanity is but a mole-hill to the Newcastle ' mountain/ the pride and glory of the northern hemisphere." There is a tradition, that the plan of St. Dunstan's tower and spire was furnished by the architect's daughter, Jane Wren, who died in 1702, aged 26, and was buried under the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Lady Dionysia Williamson, in 1670, gave 4000L towards the rebuilding of St. Dunstan's. After the dreadful storm in London through the night of the 26th November, 1703, Wren hearing next morning that some of the steeples and pinnacles had been damaged, quickly replied, " Not St. Dunstan's, I'm quite sure." The old church had a lofty leaden steeple. The body of the present church was rebuilt of Portland stone, in the Perpendicular style, by Laing and Tite, in 1817. The interior is divided into three aisles by clustered columns and pointed arches. The east window represents symboli- cally the Law and the Gospel ; the north, Christ Blessing Little Children ; and the south, the Adoration of the Magi. ' In the vestry is a wood carving, by Gibbons, of the arms of Archbishop Tenison. In the south churchyard is a Rookery. ST. DUNSTAN'S-IHT-THE-WEST, Fleet-street, was designed by John Shaw, F.R.S. and F.S.A., in 1831-33, set back 30 feet from the site of the former church, which projected considerably beyond the street-line. It just escaped the Great Fire of 1666, which stopped within three houses of it ; as did also another fire in 1730. A View in 1739 shows the oldest portion to be the tower and bell-turret, the latter containing a small bell which was rung every morning at a quarter before seven o'clock. The body of the church is Italianized Gothic, with battlements and circular-headed windows ;' shops with overhanging signs are built against the south and west walls, though pre- viously the churchyard was thus built in, and was a permanent station for booksellers, as appears by many imprints. Thus, " Epigrams by H. P.," &c. " and are to be soulde by John Helme, at his shoppe in St. Dunstan's Churchyarde, 1608, qto." John 160 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Smethwick had " his shop in St. Dunstan's churchyard, in Fleet-street, under the Diall ;" and here, in 1653, Richard Marriott published the first edition of Walton's Angler, for 18d. The church clock was one of London's wonders : it had a large gilt dial, overhanging Fleet-street, and above it two figures of savages, of life-size, carved in wood, and standing within an alcove, each bearing in his right hand a club, with which they struck the quarters upon two suspended bells, moving their heads at the same time. This clock and figures were the work of Mr. Thomas Harrys, in 1671, then living at the lower end of Water-lane, who received for his work 35Z. with the old clock, and the sum of 41. per annum to keep the whole in repair.* Originally the clock was within a square ornamental case with a semicircular pediment, and the tube from the church to the dial was supported by a carved figure of Time, with expanded wings, as a bracket; when altered, in 1738, it cost the parish 1101. Strype calls the figures " two savages, or Hercules ;" Ned Ward, " the two wooden horolo- gists;" and Cowper, in his Table Talk, likens a lame poet to " When labour and when dulness, club in hand, Like the two figures at St. Dunstan's, stand." In 1766, the elegant statue of Queen Elizabeth, which stood on the west side of Ludgate, was put up at the east end of St. Dunstan's Church ; and the other figures, King Lud and his two sons, were deposited in the parish bone-house. The old church was taken down in December, 1829, when the materials were sold by auction : the bell-turret for 10*. ; the flag and flag-staff for 12*. ; and an iron standard, with copper vane, warranted 850 years old (?), weighing three-quarters of a cwt., was sold for 21. Is. At another sale, in 1 830, the statue of Queen Elizabeth sold for 16Z. 10s., and a stained-glass window for 4'N CHAPEL, one of " the Old Buildings," was built in 1621-23 : Dr. Donne laid the first stone, and preached the consecration sermon, the old chapel being then in a ruinous condition. Inigo Jones was the architect of the new chapel, as stated in the print by Vertue, in 1751 : it stands upon an open crypt or cloister, in which the students of the Inn met and conferred, and received their clients. Pepys records his going to Lincoln's-inn, " to walk under the chapel, by agreement." It is now enclosed with iron railings, and was used as a burial-place for the Benchers. The chapel has side windows and intervening buttresses, style, temp. Edward III.; the large eastern window has a beantifuDy traceried circle, divided into twelve trefoiled lights. At the south-west angle is a turret with cupola and vane, and containing an ancient bell, traditionally brought from Spain about 1596, among the spoils acquired by the gallant Earl of Essex at the capture of Cadiz. The ascent to the chapel is by a flight of steps, under an archway and porch, the latter built by Hardwick in 1843. The windows are filled with glass, unusually fine : those on the sides have figures of prophets and apostles, by Flemish artists ; the great eastern and western windows have armorial embellishments. The carved oaken seats are of the time of James I., but the pulpit is later. The Organ, by Flight and Robson (1820), is of great power and sweetness of tone ; and the choral service is attentively performed. In the porch is a cenotaph, with Latin inscription, to the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval ; and on the ascent to the chapel is a marble tablet to Eleanora Louisa (d. 1837), daughter of Lord Brougham (a Bencher of Lincoln's-inn), with a poetic inscription, in Latin, by the celebrated Marquis Wellesley, written in his 81st year. Among the remarkable persons buried in the cloister under the chapel are John Thurloe, Secretary of State to Oliver Cromwell ; and William Prynne, who preserved many of our public records. In the list of preachers in this chapel are the great names of Gataker, Donne, Ussher, Tillotson, Warburton, Hurd, Heber, J. S. M. Anderson, &c. Here are delivered annually the Warburtonian Lectures. (Selected principally from a carefully-written account of Lincoln's-inn and Us Library, by W. H. Spilsbury, Librarian. 1850.) ST. LUKE'S CHAPEL, Consumption Hospital, Fulham-road, built at the cost of Sir Henry Foulis, Bart., in* memory of a deceased sister ; consecrated June, 1850 ; styTe, Early English, E. B. Lamb, architect. It is exclusively for the officers and patients of the Consumption Hospital. The chapel, the details of which are very elegant, consists of a Nave, north and south transeptal projections, and a Chancel ; and is con- nected with the Hospital by a corridor, externally ornamented with pinnacled but- tresses and gable crosses, and an octagonal bell-turret. The Organ, by Holdich, is unique. The windows are traceried, and filled with stained glass ; the roof is open timbered ; the Chancel has florid sedilia of stone, and is separated from the nave by a low traceried screen. The interior fittings are of oak, some bearing the arms and crest of the founder, heraldically : " Arg. three bay-leaves proper ; crest, a crescent arg. surmounted by a cross sa. ;" the motto is " Je ne change qu'en mourant." The crest has been most frequently used, as applicable to the building " Christianity over- coming Paganism." The floor is partly paved with tiles of armorial patterns. The seats are specially adapted for the patients. This is stated to be the only con- secrated chapel attached to any metropolitan hospital. MAGDALEN HOSPITAL CHAPEL, Blackfriars-road, is attractive by the singing of a choir of the reclaimed women. The " Magdalen House" was originally established in Prescot-street, Goodman's- fields, in 1758 ; where Dr. Dodd was chaplain, and rendered great service to the Charity by his eloquent preaching. MABGAEET-STEEET CHAPEL, Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, was first converted into a chapel in 1783. Huntington preached here with Lady Huntingdon's people, when he first came to London. In 1833, the minister was the Rev. W. Dodsworth. 214. CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. who has since seceded to the Roman Catholic Church. At Margaret-street may be said to have been the first development of " Puseyism" in the metropolis. In 1842, the chapel was under the direction of the Rev. Frederick Oakeley, a non-resident Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. served to awake the suspicions of the wary; and in conjunction with a course of zealous and earnest preaching, and the self-denying lives of the chief minister and his friends, to persuade the frequenters of the chapel that here, at least, was a true ' Catholic revival,' and that by the multiplication of Margaret Chapels the whole Anglican Establishment might be at length ' un-Protestantized.' To Margaret Chapel also was due no little of that phase of the movement which consisted in the ' adapting" of Catholic books to 'the use of members of the English Church ;' and by the employment of which it has done so much good in preparing the minds of its congregations for the reception of the Catholic faith. This system was soon taken up by no less important a person than Dr. Pusey himself." The Bambler, a Roman Catholic Journal, Feb. 1851. In 1845, Mr. Oakeley resigned his license as minister of Margaret Chapel, which then fell to his curate, the Rev. Mr. Richards. Mr. Oakeley subsequently joined the Roman Catholic Church. The chapel in Margaret-street was taken down in 1850 ; the site is included in that of All Saints' Church, described at pp. 146-7. ST. MASK'S, North Audley-street, a chapel-of-ease to St. George's, Hanover-square, is of original and not inelegant design, by Gandy Deering, R.A., 1828 ; the order is Ionic from the Erechtheium; the portico has two handsome fluted columns, with an enriched entablature ; and above is a turret of Grecian design, with pierced iron- work sides and pyramidal stone roof, with gilt ball and cross. The entrance is a very good example of the portico in antis, i.e., columns standing in a line, in front, with the outer or projecting ends of the side walls of the chapel. Some of the adjoining houses are in the heavy style of Sir John Vanbrugh. ST. MAKE'S CHAPEL, Fulham-road, attached to the National Society's Training College for Schoolmasters, in the Byzantine style j Blore, architect, 1843 ; cruciform in plan, with semicircular eastern end, and twin towers with high-pitched brocJie roofs, resem- bling an early German church. The east end has some stained glass of olden character. It serves as a place of worship for the adjoining district, as well as for the inmates of the College ; and the musical service, including cathedral service and anthems, is by the students ; offertory on Sundays and festivals, to defray the expenses of the chapel. PERCY CHAPEL, Charlotte-street, was built by the Rev. Henry Matthew, an early patron of Flaxman (Cunningham). It was the scene of the showy, eloquent preaching of the Rev. Robert Montgomery, author of The Omnipresence of the Deity, a poem. ST. PETEE'S EPISCOPAL CHAPEL, Queen-square, Westminster, was originally a royal gift for the special use of the Judges of Westminster, and was frequented by the mem- bers of the Royal Household. In 1840, it was much injured by a fire, which originated in the adjoining mansion of Mr. Hoare ; and the altar-piece, then nearly destroyed, was one of the finest specimens of ancient oak-carving in England. Here have officiated the venerable Romaine, Guun, Basil Woodd, Wilcox, and Shepherd : the latter for fifty years held the chaplaincy, with the lectureship of St. Giles's-in-the- Fields. St. Peter's was, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the chapel of the Spanish Embassy ; and here preached Antonio Gavin, a secular priest, who having been con- verted from Popery to the Church of England, was licensed to officiate in this chapel in the Spanish language, by Dr. Robinson, the Bishop of London ; and sermons in Spanish preached here by Gavin were published. Gent. Mag., Feb. 1827. ST. PETER'S (formerly OXFORD) CHAPEL, Vere-street, Oxford-street, designed by Gibbs, was built about 1724, and was once considered the most beautiful edifice of its class in the metropolis. It has a Doric portico and a three-storied steeple. The Duke of Portland was married at this chapel in 1734. The Rev. F. D. Maurice is the in- cumbent. " This is a Government church : the Government collects and reserves the pew-rents, and pays 450Z. to the incumbent. No free seats, no poor, and no district. The offertory alms are paid to the rector of All Souls, Langharn-place." Mackeson's Churches. CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 215 ST. PHILIP'S CHAPEL, Regent-street, midway between Waterloo-place and Picca- dilly, was built by Repton, and consecrated in 1820. It has a tower copied from the Lantern of Demosthenes at Athens ; and a Doric portico, with sacrificial emblems on the side porticos or wings. PORTLAND CHAPEL, now ST. PAUL'S, in Great Portland-street, was built in 1776, on the site of a basin of the Marylebone Waterworks : it was the cause of many fatal accidents, and the scene of as many suicides ; there is a view of the basin engraved by Chatelain. The chapel was not consecrated at the time of its erection ; but Divine Service was performed in it until 1831, when the consecration was performed, and it was dedicated to St. Paul. At the Portland Hotel, north of the chapel, Captain Sir John Ross lodged after his return from the North Polar Expedition, in 1833. QUEBEC CHAPEL, Quebec-street, Marylebone, was built in 1788, and is celebrated for its sweet-toned Organ and musical service. The interior of the chapel is described as " a large room with sash-windows." RAGGED CHUBCH. In Brewer's-court, Wild-street, exists a ragged church with its affiliated institutions a ragged school, ragged mothers' meeting, and ragged Sunday- school teachers. The congregation meet every Sunday. Their homes are in Lincoln- court, Wild-court, and other dreary bays, into which is washed up the refuse of a London population. Many of them have been for various terms in prison, or in penal servitude. In winter, every hearer receives a loaf of bread on retiring. Some hearers have no coats, some no shirts, and others ragged trousers. They are visited at their homes by the ministers of the Ragged Church during the week ; and on Sunday about a hundred and fifty of them flock to the service and sermon at the church. ROLLS CHAPEL is attached to the Rolls House, between 14 and 15, Chancery-lane, and was originally built of flints, with stone finishings, early in the seventeenth cen- tury. Pennant states that it was begun in 1617, and that Dr. Donne preached the consecration sermon. The large west window has some old stained glass, including the arms of Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Harbottle Grimston ; and here are a large Organ, and presses in which the Records are kept. Among the monuments are : to Dr. John Young, Master of the Rolls (temp. Henry VIII.), a recumbent figure, in a long red gown and deep square cap, the face fine ; above, in a recess, is a head of Christ, be- tween two cherubim, in bold relief this tomb is attributed to Torrigiano ; to Lord Kinloss, Master of the Rolls to James I.," reclining figure in a long furred robe, and before him a kneeling figure in armour, supposed his son, killed in a desperate duel with Sir Edward Sackville ; also, kneeling figure in armour of Sir Richard Allington, his wife opposite, and three daughters on a tablet ; and here lies Sir John Trevor, Master of the Rolls (d. 17 17), and other Masters. Bishops Burnet, Atterbury, and Butler, were eloquent preachers at the Rolls' ; and Butler's volume of fifteen sermons delivered here contains the germ of his great work, the Analogy of Religion. Rolls Chapel occupies the site of a house founded by Henry III. for converted Jews, and in 1377, annexed by Edward III. to the new office of Custos Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Rolls, who was his chaplain and preacher : in 1837 the estate was vested by Parlia- ment in the Crown, the salary of the Master of the Rolls being fixed at 7000Z. a year in lieu of fines and rents. TENISON'S CHAPEL, between Nos. 172 and 174, east side of Regent-street, was founded by Archbishop Tenison, who, in 1700, conveyed to trustees (of whom Sir Isaac Newton was one) this chapel or tabernacle, to be employed as a public chapel or oratory for St. James's parish ; at the same time giving 500/. to be laid out in the pur- chase of houses, lands, or ground-rents. Out of the revenues and the Archbishop's charity were to be provided two preachers for the chapel, and a reader " to say Divine Service every day throughout the year, morning and afternoon;" a clerk to officiate; and schoolmasters to teach without charge poor boys of the parish to read, write, cast accounts, and in five years to assist them in becoming apprentices. There are forty boys on the foundation ; non-foundationers pay 12s. 6d. per quarter : the school is at No. 172, Regent-street. The Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being is visitor of 216 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. this excellent charity. The chapel was erected in 1702, and was refronted in building Regent-street. TEINITY CHAPEL, Conduit-street, now a neat brick edifice, was originally a small wooden room upon wheels, resembling a caravan. Evelyn describes it as " formerly built of timber on Hounslow-heath, by King James for the mass priests, and being begged by Dr. Teuison, rector of St. Martin's, was set up by that public-minded, charitable, and pious man." Pennant writes : " The history of Conduit-street Chapel, or Trinity Chapel, is very remarkable. It was originally built of wood by James II., for private mass, and was conveyed on wheels, attendant on its royal masters excursions, or when he attended his army. Among other places, it visited Hounslow-heath, where it continued some time after the Revolution. It was then removed and enlarged by the Rector of the parish of St. Martin's, and placed not far from the spot on which it now stands. Dr. Tenison, when Rector of St. Martin's, got permission of King William to rebuild it; so, after it had made as many journeys as the house of Loretto, it was by Tenison transmuted into a good building of brick, and has rested ever since on the present site." TEINITY (HOLT) CHAPEL, Knightsbridge, was formerly attached to a Hospital be- longing to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. There is, in the British Museum, a grant of James I. providing a supply of spring water from Hyde Park, " by pipe of lead." It has always been traditionally told in Knightsbridge, that during the fatal year of the Plague, 1665, the Hospital was given up to plague patients ; and it is also said that the inclosed spot on the Green was the burial-place of the victims. The chapel is of ancient foundation, and was rebuilt in 1699 ; the front was extended in 1789. Many of our readers may possibly remember the quaintly-inscribed stone slabs under the upper windows : one bearing the words, " Rebuilte by Nicho. Birkhead, Gould- smith, of London, Anno Dom. 1699 ;" and the other (the westernmost), " Capella Sanctae Indiuiduse Trinitatis." It was frequently dignified with the name of church. In the list of ministers was the Rev. H. J. Symons, who read the burial service over Sir John Moore at Corunna. He gained the notice of the Duke of York in this pulpit, and quitted it for the Peninsula, with a regiment, to which he was chaplain. The chapel was noted for its irregular marriages ; Shadwell, in his play of The Sullen Lovers, 1668, speaks of " a person at Knightsbridge, that yokes all stray people to- gether ;" and in the O-uardian, No. 14, March 27, 1713, we read of a runaway mar- riage being cele'brated "last night at Knightsbridge." Here Sir Samuel Morland married his fourth wife, who was recommended to him as an heiress, and Morland, being " distracted for want of moneys," was " led as a fool to the stocks, and married a coachman's daughter, not worth a shilling," and whose moral character proved to be none of the purest ; but he got divorced from her. At Trinity Chapel, July 30, 1700, Robert Walpole was married to Katharine Shorter, daughter of a Lord Mayor, and mother of Horace Walpole. (See extracts from the Registers, in Me- morials of Knightsbridge, pp. 51-92.) The chapel has been rebuilt; Brandon and Eyton, architects. Its roof is entirely new in its construction, introducing an entire range of clerestory lights on each side, to compensate for the want of lights in the side walls ; the building being adjoined, on each side, by ordinary houses. YOEK-STBEET CHAPEL, on the north side of St. James's-square, is a chapel-of-ease to St. James's. In 1815, it was occupied by Swedenborgians. It was originally the chapel of the Spanish Embassy (then at the present No. 7, St. James's-square) ; and the " Tower of Castile," the arms of Spain, appears on the parapet of the front. FOREIGN PROTESTANT CHURCHES. DUTCH CHURCH, Austin Friars. The German, Dutch, or Flemish Branch was at first composed of the Polish exile Jean & Lasco, and the members of his church at Embden in East Friesland. To these German Protestants were united the Dutch and Flemish refugees ; they are all included in the Charter of Edward VI., as forming one sole nation, Germanorum ; and the church was subsequently known as the Flemish Church. The " Temple du Seigneur Jesus," in Austin Friars, is occupied by the members of the Dutch Church : on its painted windows is inscribed, " Templum Jesu, 1550." It originally belonged to the House of Augustine Friars, founded by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford aryl Essex; it had "a most fine-spired steeple, CHURCHES FOREIGN PROTESTANT. 217 small, bigh, and straight." Henry VIII., at the Dissolution, gave away the house and grounds, but reserved the church, which his son, Edward VI., gave to the Dutch or German nation (1550) " to have their service in, for avoiding of all sects of Ana- Baptists, and such like." From that time to this it has continued to that use. The church contains some very good Decorated windows. Strype says : " On the west end, over the skreen, is a fair library, inscribed thus : ' Ecclesiae Londino-Belgise Bibliotheca, extructa sumptibus Marije Dubois, 1659." In this library are divers valuable MSS., and letters of Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others, foreign Reformers." The books have been presented to the Library of the Corporation, at Guildhall. On July 24, 1850, the tercentenary of the Royal Charter of Edward VI. was solemnly commemorated in this church by a special service, as also in the French Protestant Church hi St. Martin's-le-Grand ; and the members of the consistories of both churches dined together in the evening, and drank "To theinemory of the pious King Edward VI." The present church is the Nave only of the original building, which was granted by Edward VI. to the strangers in London. This contained, also, north and south transepts, choir, chapels of St. John and St. Thomas, chapter-house, cloisters, &c., and there was a remarkable spire, or fibclie, at the intersection of the cross, all of which were destroyed by the Marquis of Winchester, to whom they had been granted at the Reformation. The church was founded upwards of 600 years ago namely, in 1253, as an inscription over its western entrance indicates ; but the Nave was erected a century later. " It is," wrote Mr. Gilbert Scott, the architect, " a noble model of a preaching nave, for which purpose it was no doubt specially intended, being of great size and of unusual openness. It is upwards of 150 feet by 80 feet internally, supported by light and lofty pillars, sustaining eighteen arches, and lighted by large and numerous windows with flowing tracery. It is, in fact, a perfect model of what is most practically useful in the nave of a church." In November, 1862, the roofs of the nave and north aisle were almost wholly destroyed by fire, when it was proposed to take down the edifice and erect a small chapel on its site. Mr. Scott, however, showed that the walls and internal stonework could be easily restored, and this has been effected. The roof, which is now of wood, and open and elegant in design, sub- stituting an unsightly flat ceiling, is supported on twenty graceful columns, with arches springing from each pillar, and towards the east end there are six dormers in it, three on each side to light up the chancel. The church consists now, as before, of a lofty nave and two side aisles. Its interior is 136 feet in length, by 80 feet ; the nave is 50 feet high, and each of the side aisles 37 feet. Besides the main or western door, there is a porch at the south side of the building. In addition to the dormers in the roof, the fabric is lighted by eighteen windows, with flowing tracery, including the western window, which, next to that of Westminster-hall, is said to be the largest of any building in London. The tracery in twelve of the windows, which had been wholly destroyed by time and the fire together, is restored in Portland stone. The pre- vailing style of architecture throughout the edifice is pure Gothic. The new Organ, by Hill and Sons, has a magnificent effect in this lofty and almost cathedral edifice. FBEXCH. There are in London two branches of the Church of Foreign Protestants founded by Charter of Edward VI., July 24, 1550. The French Branch was at first exclusively composed of the refugees who quitted France before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.* They first assembled with their German and Dutch brethren in the " Temple du Seigneur Jesus " hi Austin Friars ; but their number having greatly increased, they subsequently met for public worship in the chapel of St. Mary, dependent on the Hospital of St. Antony, in Threadneedle-street, and belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. This chapel was taken down in 1841, consequent on the fire which destroyed the Royal Exchange ; the congregation having retained almost uninterrupted possession of the site for nearly three centuries. The first church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but was speedily rebuilt. The congrega- tion next removed to a new church in St. Martin' s-le- Grand, nearly opposite the General Post-office : this church, designed by Owen, and opened in 1842, is a tasteful * The number of French Protestants who took refuge in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes is estimated at 80,000. Of these, 13,000 settled in London, in the districts of Long Acre, Seven Dials, Soho, and Spitalfields. At least one-third of these refugees joined the French Church in the years 1686, 1637, and 1683. Manifesto, 1850. 218 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. specimen of Gothic, and has a large east window with flamboyant tracery, flanked by lofty turrets. We may here mention that about a third of the Nantes refugees met in the first church. James II. gave permission for another French church to be founded in London ; in 1688 was opened the Temple de PHopital, in Spitalfields, afterwards the Eglise Neuve. During: succeeding reigns, there were established in London alone no less than twenty-two foreign congregations, some of which adopted the Anglican rite, while others preserved the discipline of the Reformed Church of France. In a sermon, preached in the French Church of the Artillery in Spital- fields, in 1782, the preacher lamented that, out of twenty flourishing churches which existed on his arrival, nine had been closed, and others were declining ; while M. Baup, in 1841, mourned that, of these eleven, three only remained. " As our two sisters, the Eglise des Grecs and that of the Quarre", have adopted the Anglican rite, we remain the only representatives in London of the Reformed French churches; while we are also alone, among all the foreign churches in this kingdom, in having, in common with the Dutch Church, preserved our rights to the charter of Edward VI." LA SAVOY, Bloomsbury-street, was designed by Ambrose Poynter, and built for the congregation first established in the Savoy : it is in the Gothic style, and has a Pointed gable, and a large Decorated eastern window. "In the year 1646, the French Protestant refugees commenced their church services in Pembroke House, near Whitehall. In 1660, the congregation had increased to 2000, with two ministers. Charles II. granted them the use of the Savoy Chapel, in the Strand: they adopted the ritual of the English Church, and received letters-patent from the King, under the title of the French Pro- testant Episcopal Chapel of the Savoy. The congregation increased so rapidly that, in less than twenty years, there were three separate churches the Savoy, the Greek Church in Soho, and a church in Spring Gardens. In 1733, the Savoy Chapel was abandoned for want of funds to repair it; and in 1700, the congregation only possessed the Greek Church, in Soho, and after being transferred to a build- ing in Edward-street, Soho, they built the above church in Bloomsbury-street, which was consecrated Tinder the name of St. John, by the Bishop of London, on 22nd of December, 1845. The Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Church was celebrated on the 14th July, 1801." Mackeson's Churches. Swiss. There were considerable numbers of Swiss in this country previously to the Rebellion of 1745, when George II. availed himself of the offer of the Swiss to furnish him with a regiment ; the monarch acknowledged this devotion by presenting them with a standard, bearing this inscription : "These colours were presented by King George the Second to the Swiss residents in this country, as a mark of the sense which his Majesty was graciously pleased to entertain of the offer made by them of a battalion of 500 men towards the defence of the kingdom oil the occasion of the Rebellion" (Scottish, 1745). About 1722, the Swiss, with the approval of George I., granted the ground for building a church near Charing Cross, but they were not sufficiently numerous to raise the funds. But, in 1762, the Swiss having increased in numbers, a congregation of Protestant worshippers met in Castle-street, Holborn, in a building styled the Eglise Helvetique. One of the principal promoters of this church was M. Franfois Justin Vulliamy, a native of Berne, who had settled in London, and became the founder of the house of Vulliamy, in Pall Mall, clockmakers ; there is in the Eglise Suisse a clock given to the church by Francois Vulliamy, above named. On the 27th of June, 1762, M. Buignon preached the inauguration sermon from the text, " It is good for us to be here." The little chapel in Castle-street was so crowded that there was not standing- room. It was a neat building, and cost little more than 1000J. Before the expiry of the lease of the church in Castle-street, in 1770, to endeavour to raise subscriptions and build on lease another church, appeals were made to the Swiss in London, and to all who felt any interest in Switzerland. One curious answer was made to this appeal the present of a " lottery ticket, No. 2110," by a M. des Barres, as his " voluntary subscription to the building of the chapel ;" it is presumed to have turned up a blank. The royal family were memorialized, and a petition in French presented to George III. to aid the fund, but without effect. However, on the 22nd of March, 1775, was laid the first stone of the Eglise Helvetique, in Moor-street, Seven Dials. In this church Protestant service was conducted in the French language till 1855. The Prince of Orange, while an exile in England, owing to the troubles arising out of the French Revo- lution, was a frequent attendant ; and the Swiss congregation subsequently numbered among its occasional worshippers the Princess Charlotte, the daughter of George IV. A tablet which is placed in the present Eglise Suisse explains the interest which her Bx>yal Highness took in the minister and his flock. The former, Alexandre Sterky, who was born in the Canton de Vaud, in 1767, and died in London in 1838, had been French tutor to the Princess. He was the minister of the church for forty-six years. The present church, the Eglise Suisse, Endell-street, was opened in 1855. There are CHAPELS DISSENTERS'. 219 some three hundred attendants, about two-thirds of whom are Swiss, or of Swiss origin. The entire service is conducted in French. The singing at the Eglise Suisse is accompanied by an Organ and the whole congregation. Here are preserved the colours presented by George II. DISSENTERS' CHAPELS. \ LBIOX CHAPEL, Moorgate-street, next to 116, London Wall, designed by Jay, -*- has a pleasing diastyle Ionic portico. It belongs to a United Presbyterian con- gregation. BAPTIST CHAPEL, Little Wild-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields : here is annually preached a sermon in commemoration of the Great Storm, Nov. 26, 1703. The preacher in 1846, the Rev. C. Woollacott, in describing the damage by the Storm, stated : " In London alone, more than 800 houses were laid in ruins, and 2000 stacks of chimneys thrown down. In the country upwards of 400 windmills were either blown down or took fire, by the violence with which their sails were driven round by the wind. In the Xew Forest, 4000 trees were blown down, and more than 19,000 in the same state were counted in the county of Kent. On the sea the ravages of this frightful storm were yet more distressing : 15 ships of the Royal Navy, and more than 300 merchant vessels, were lost, with upwards of 6000 British seamen. The Bdflystone Lighthouse, with its ingenious architect, Mr. Winstanley, was totally destroyed. The Bishop of Bath and Wells and his laoy were killed by the falling of their palace. The sister of the Bishop of London, and many others, lost their lives." This annual custom has been observed upwards of a century. The chapel is built upon the site of Weld House and gardens, the mansion of the son of Sir Humphrey Weld, Lord Mayor of London in 1608. It was subsequently let : Ronquillo, the Spanish ambassador, lived here in the time of Charles II. and James II. : and in the anti- Popish riots of the latter reign the house was sacked by the mob, and the ambassador compelled to make his escape at a back door. BAPTIST CHAPEL, on the west-side of Bloomsbury -street, was designed by Gibson, and opened Dec. 2, 1848 : it is in elegant Lombardic style ; the central portion has a gable pediment, large wheel-window, flanked by two lofty spires, and is very pic- turesque. It was built by Sir Morton Peto, at the expense of 12,OOOZ., and will hold from 1500 to 2000 persons. South is the French Protestants' Gothic Chapel ; and the tasteless pile to the north is Bedford Chapel. The sole condition which Sir Morton Peto imposed upon the Baptist congregation was that they should repay, at their con- venience, one-third of the expense, which he, on his part, undertook should be laid out in opening another chapel for the denomination in some other part of the town. Sir Morton Peto subsequently purchased the building formerly known as the " Diorama," in the Regent' s-park, and had it converted at his expense into a chapel for the Baptist denomination, by extensive alterations. The roof, for instance, which was a forest of complicated timbers, depended in a great measure for support upon framed parti- tions extending across the building in different directions. All these had of necessity to be removed, and a wrought-iron girder, 84 feet span, was substituted. Upon this girder, directly or indirectly, the whole roof is now supported, leaving the area of the chapel unobstructed. The style of architecture adopted is the Byzantine. Among the houses taken down near Bloomsbury-street, and towards the centre of what is now New Oxford-street, stood the Hare and Hounds public-house, a noted resort of the Londoners of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries : till the reign of Charles II. it bore the sign of the Beggar's Bush, when the name was changed, owing to a hunted hare having been caught there, and cooked and eaten in the house. BAPTIST CHAPEL, THE, Netting Dale, built in 1863, is a curiosity in its way. It is a slip (eleven bays) of one of the annexes of the International Exhibition Building, 1862, reconstructed by Mr. Owen Jones, who has made the interior quite gay by the application of his favourite red, white, and blue to the well-remembered old roof tim- bers, and with greys and yellows and pretty classical borderings round walls and win- dows, brought the whole into harmony, at a trifling expenditure on common distemper colour and stencil patterns. Companion to the Almanac, 1864. CALEDOXIAN CHAPEL, Cross- street, Hatton Garden, was the chapel at which the Rev. Edward Irving first preached in the metropolis. " Irving's London reputation was made by Canning. Irving removed to London in the year 1822, being then thirty years of age. He came at the invitation of the Caledonian Chapel in Hatton Garden, 220 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. where a small sprinkling of Scotch assembled together. Among these was Sir James Mackintosh, who was especially delighted with one phrase which Irving let fall when he spoke of orphans cast upon ' the fatherhood of God.' One night, hi the House of Commons, he reported the phrase to Canning. The latter was anxious to hear the tartan, and both he and Mackintosh went the following Sunday to the Caledonian Chapel. A few nights afterwards, from the Treasury bench, Canning had to rise, and to make some remarks on clerical affairs. In the course of his speech he referred to the sermon which he heard from Irving's lips as the most eloquent that he had ever listened to. That speech was the making of Irving. All the fashion of London flocked to him. His chapel was crowded to overflowing. His powers grew as encouragement increased, and he rose into notoriety as the greatest pulpit orator of the day." Life of Irving, by Mrs. Oliphant. CANONBtrEY CHAPEL, St. Paul's-road, Islington, was built for a congregation of Evan- gelical Nonconformists ; Habershon, architect. The height of the building to the apex of gables is 57 feet; the interior height to lantern, 60 feet; the span of the roof is 66 feet. There are transverse arches at the four transepts, and three large windows and eight clerestory windows. The London Congregational Chapel Building Society has stated that "The large and rapidly increasing district of Islington has a population of about 110,000, with church and chapel accommodation for less than 30,000; that is, for little more than one-fourth of the population. That the present number of inhabitants is about twice as great as it was fifteen years ago, and, during that period, very little has been done by all religions bodies for providing increased accommodation for public worship. Only one additional chapel has been erected by the Congregationalists for ail additional population of about 55,000 persons." CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHTTECH, Gordon-square, was commenced in the year 1853, for the community who take this title. It was designed by Raphael Brandon, and consists of Chancel (with an eastern chapel, occupying the usual position of a Lady chapel), north chancel aisle (provision is made for a south aisle at some future period), north and south transepts, with lantern at intersection, Nave and aisles. The height from the floor of nave to the ridge is 90 feet. The carving in the chapel is exceedingly well done, especially that in the arches of the last three divisions on the south side of the arcade which encompasses the walls. The Chancel has a stone groined roof, with some excellent carving in the bosses. As an adaptation of the Early English style, this church must be considered one of the most successful modern works. CONGREGATIONAL NONCONFORMIST CHTTECH, Kentish Town, designed by Hodge and Butler, and opened in 1848, is in the Ecclesiastical style of the fifteenth century, and has several richly-traceried windows filled with stained glass, including a splendid wheel-window, 15 feet diameter. ESSEX-STEEET CHAPEL, Strand, the head-quarters of the Unitarians of the metro- polis, is built upon part of the site of Essex House, taken down in 1774. In a portion of it was kept the Cottonian Library from 1712 to 1730; one of its large apartments was let to Paterson, the auctioneer, and was next hired by the patrons of Mr. Lindsey and Dr. Disney (Unitarians), to preach in. In 1805, on the death of Dr. Disney, Mr. Thomas Belsham removed to Essex-street Chapel from the Gravel-pit congregation at Hackney, where he had succeeded Dr. Priestley. At Essex-street, Belsham continued pastor during the rest of his life, acquiring great popularity by his eloquent and argu- mentative preaching; he died in 1829, aged 80, and was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Madge. HOEBTTBY CHAPEL, Kensington-Park-road, Notting-hill, was built by subscription of the Independent denomination, and opened Sept. 13, 1849. The design, by Tarring, is transition from Early English to Decorated, with a pair of towers and spires ; the principal windows are filled with stained glass. INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, Robinson's-row, Kingsland, was built about 1792: here the Rev. John Campbell, the benevolent South-African missionary, was thirty-seven years minister, and is buried ; and a monument to his memory has been erected by his flock. JEWIN-STREET CHAPEL, Aldersgate -street, was built in 1808, for a congregation of English Presbyterians, who removed thither from Meeting-House-court, Old Jewry. Among the eminent pastors were the eloquent John Herries ; Dr. Price, F.R.S., the writer on finance ; and Dr. Abraham Rees, editor of the Cyclopcedia with his name. MOEAVIAN CHAPEL, Fetter-lane, is the only place of worship belonging to the CHAPELS DISSENTERS'. 221 Moravians (United Brethren) in London, by whom it was purchased in 1738, on their settling in England. The interior is remarkably plain, and bespeaks the simple cha- racter of its occupants ; there is a small organ, for they have church music and singing ; there are no pews, but seats for males and females, apart. The chapel is capacious, but the auditory does not exceed from 200 to 300 persons : the support is voluntary. There is a burial-ground for the members, with a small chapel, at Lower Chelsea, near the Clock-house. At Chelsea, in June, 1760, died Count Zinzendorf, who first introduced the Moravians into this country. The chapel in Fetter-lane lies in the rear of the houses, one of the entrances to it being through No. 32 : it was possibly so built for privacy. It escaped the Great Fire of 1666, and was originally occupied by Nonconformists. Turner, who was its first minister, was very active during the Great Plague ; and having been ejected from Sunbury, he continued to preach in Fetter-lane till towards the close of the reign of Charles II. Here also Baxter, the eminent Non- conformist divine, preached after the Indulgence granted in 1672 ; and he held the Friday-morning lectureship until August, 1682. NATIONAL SCOTCH CHURCH, Crown-court, Little Russell-street, Covent Garden, has a cement Norman fa9ade, with the staircases effective outside features. The minister is the Rev. Dr. Gumming, who preached before Queen Victoria, at Crathie, Balmoral, Sept. 22, 1850 ; and who ably controverted the claims of Dr. Wiseman the same year. OLD GBAYEL-PIT MEETING-HOUSE, Hackney, was built in 1715 : here Dr. Price, F.R.S., and Dr. Priestley were ministers; next Mr. Belsham, the congregation being Anti-Trinitarians ; succeeded by the Rev. Robert Aspland, who remained here till the erection of the New Gravel-pit Meeting-house, " Sacred to one God the Father," in Paradise-fields. OXENDON CHAPEL, Haymarket, was built abotit 1675, by Richard Baxter, the Non- conformist divine, in Oxendon-street, on the west side, at the back of the garden-wall of the house of Mr. Secretary Coventry, from whom Coventry -street derives its name. Baxter's principles were so little to the liking of Secretary Coventry, that he instigated the guards of Charles II. to come under the windows and flourish their trumpets and beat their drums whenever Richard preached. Finding that not a word he said could be heard, and that remonstrating with these gentry was dangerous, Baxter sought to dispose of the building. Dr. Lloyd, rector of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, kindly introduced the affair to the vestry of St. Martin's. By his mediation poor Baxter obtained the handsome rental of 401. per annum for the building from the vestry, and it was forthwith consecrated as a " Tabernacle" to St. Martin's-in-the- Fields. Oxendon Chapel now belongs to the Scotch Secession. PRESBYTERIAN DISSENTERS' CHAPEL, Mare-street, Hackney, was established early in the seventeenth century : here Philip Nye and Adoniram Byfield, two eminent Puritan divines, preached in 1636 ; and Dr. W. Bates and Matthew Henry were pastors late in the seventeenth century. The old meeting-house has been taken down, and a new one built opposite, and occupied by Independents. PRESBYTERIAN MEETING-HOUSE, Newington-green, established soon after the Restoration, was rebuilt about 1708 : in the list of ministers are Richard Biscoe, Hugh Worthington, M.A., John Hoyle, Dr. Richard Price, F.R.S., Dr. Amory, Dr. Towers, Mr. Lindsey, Dr. Isaac Maddox (afterwards Bishop of Worcester), Thomas Rees ; and Mr. Barbauld, husband of the authoress. PROVIDENCE CHAPEL, Little Titchfield-street, Marylebone, was built by a congre- gation of Independents for Huntington, S.S. (" the Coal-heaver," as he called himself), upon his credit with " the Bank of Faith," when he quitted Margaret Chapel : when it was finished, " I was in arrears," says Huntington, " for 1000Z., so that I had plenty of work for faith, if I could but get plenty of faith to work ; and while some deny a Providence, Providence was the only supply I had." This chapel was burnt down, with seven houses adjoining, July 13, 1810, and the site became a timber-yard. PROVIDENCE CHAPEL, on the east side of Gray's-Inn-lane, nearly opposite Guilford- 222 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. street, was built for Huntington, S.S., by his flock, after the destruction of the Titch- field-street Chapel : this second edifice he named from the pulpit for these reasons: that " unless God provided men to work, and money to pay them, and materials to work with, no chapel could be erected ; and if He provided all these, Providence must be its name." The chapel was, accordingly, built in Gray's-Inn-lane, and upon a larger scale than the last ; it was made over to him as his own, and bequeathed in his will to his widow, who, however, resigned it to the congregation. It was subsequently altered and opened as an Episcopal Chapel, the Rev. T. Mortimer, B.D., minister. REGENT-SQUARE CHAPEL, Gray's-inn-road, was built for the Rev. Edward Irving, in 1824-5, W. Tite, the architect, adapting the west front from York Cathedral : the twin towers are 120 feet in height. Here the " unknown tongues" attracted large and fashionable congregations. When the charm of novelty was worn off, the chapel in Cross-street, Hatton Garden, was still insufficient for Mr. Irvine's congregation, and they resolved on the erection of another chapel of larger dimensions. For this purpose 7000/. was in a short time subscribed, and a piece of ground purchased on the south side of Sidmouth-street, Brunswick-square, for the sum of 18001. The Duke of Clarence had undertaken to lay the foundation-stone, but was prevented by illness, and it devolved upon the Earl of Breadalbane. "I undertook to open Irving's new church in London," says Dr. Chalmers. " The congregation, in their eagerness to obtain seats, had already been assembled three hours. Irving said he would assist me by reading a chapter for me. He chose the longest in the Bible, and went on for an hour and a half. On another occasion he offered me the same aid, adding, ' I can be short.' I said, ' How long will it take you ?' ' Only an hour and forty minutes.' " Still Irving drew the crowds. " The excitement which Irving created in London held the throngs together for hours. They were first assembled for hours before he made his appearance, and then they listened to his lofty discourse for hours more. His sermon for the London Missionary Society was three hours long, and he had to take rest twice in the middle of it, asking the congregation each time to sing a hymn." SCOTCH CHTJBCH, THE, Swallow-street, Piccadilly, was originally a French Pro- testant Chapel, founded in the year 1692 : it was purchased by James Anderson, and converted into a Presbyterian Meeting-house ; and in the Treasury Crown Lease Book (No. 1, p. 71) will be found a letter from the Surveyor-General, dated 1729, giving a history of the foundation of this church, and Anderson's petition for a lease, which was granted by the Lords of the Treasury ; but the chapel being much out of repair, and the congregation poor, the fine was remitted ; the building was then valued at 201. The above document is printed in Notes and Queries, 2nd S., No. 3. The chapel has been rebuilt of red brick, with a low spire. SOUTH-PLACE CHAPEL, Finsbury, is of Ionic design, and was built for a Unitarian congregation, under the ministry of Mr. W. J. Fox, the eloquent M.P. for Oldham. SPA-FIELDS CHAPEL, Exmouth-street, Spa-fields, though consecrated for " Lady Huntingdon's Connexion," nearly 80 years since, was originally built for, and opened as, a place of public amusement, called the Pantheon, in 1770, in imitation of the Pan- theon in Oxford-road. The Spa-fields building is circular in plan, and had a statue of Fame on the top. The interior had galleries entirely round the whole ; and in the centre was a curious stove, with fire-places all round, from which the smoke was carried off without any chimney, and the building was warmed in the severest weather. There were also a garden, with shrubs and fruit trees, and boxes and tea-rooms for company. Upon the same site was previously the " Ducking Pond House," with a fine view of Hampstead, Highgate, and the adjacent country. The Pantheon lost its character, and was closed in 1776. The pious Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, then proposed to convert the place into a chapel, but was discouraged by Toplady. It was then fitted up, and opened upon Evangelical principles, as Northampton Chapel, and became very popular. In 1779 it was opened " in the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon." In 1780, it narrowly escaped being pulled down by the Rioters. The congregation became wealthy and influential : the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, often attended here ; the pulpit was for many years supplied with ministers from Cheshunt College. The chapel will hold 2000 persons, and is lighted by a monster ring of gas- jets. Large schools are attached to the chapel. In the large house adjoining, formerly the tea-rooms of the Pantheon, Lady Huntingdon resided twelve years, and here she died in 1791, in her 84th year. She had expended 100,0002. in works of charity : she had founded, wholly or in part, 64 chapels in her connexion. The exten- sive plot of ground in the rear of Spa-fields Chapel became, soon after its opening, a CHAPELS DISSENTERS'. 223 burial-place for Nonconformists and others. It contains 42,640 square feet, and would decently inter 1361 adult bodies ; yet within 50 years 80,000 bodies were deposited here, averaging 1500 per annum. To make room, bones and bodies were burnt for upwards of a quarter of a century, to the constant annoyance of the neighbourhood; until, in 1845, the lessees of the ground were indicted, and the pestilential nuisance stopped. This agitation brought about the Abolition of Burials in Towns. (See Pinks's History of Clerkenwell, 1865, pp. 141^151.) The old chapel was noted for the four lofty pillars which supported the roof, they having been presented for the purpose by the States-General of Holland in 1764 ; and being, consequently, a memorial of the friendly intercourse then subsisting between the English Nonconformists and the Dutch. STEPNEY MEETING, THE, erected for Congregationalists in 1863, in place of one of the oldest Independent chapels about London, is of Second Pointed Gothic, and of hammered stone in irregular courses, with Bath stone dressings : it has a stone spire, 150 feet high, with clustered pinnacles at the base ; and a wheel window with graceful tracery, and filled with stained glass. The roof is high-pitched, curved, and panelled : cost 10,OOOZ. ; architects, Searle, Son, and Yelf. SURREY. CHAPEL, corner of Little Charlotte- street, Blackfriars-road, is of octagonal form, and was built in 1783, for a congregation of Calvinistic Dissenters, the Rev. Rowland Hill, pastor, who preached here in the winter season for nearly 50 years : he had a house adjoining, where he died, aged 88, in 1833, and was buried in a vault under the chapel. Adjacent, in Hill-street, are Almshouses for 24 poor widows, built and maintained by the Surrey Chapel congregation. SWEDENBORG CHURCH, Argyle-square, King's-cross, was opened Aug. 11, 1844, for the followers of Swedenborg, whither they removed from a small chapel in the City, built about forty years previously. The new church is in the Anglo-Norman style, Hopkins, architect, with two towers and spires, 70 feet high, each terminating with a bronze cross ; the intervening gable has a stone cross, and a wheel window over a deeply-recessed doorway. The interior has a finely-vaulted roof; the altar arrange- ments are peculiar ; and there is an Organ and choir. The founder of the sect of Swedenborgians, the learned Baron Swedenborg, who died in 1772, is buried in the Swedish Church, Prince's-square, Ratcliffe Highway. TABERNACLE, THE, in Moorfields, was built in 1752; previously to which, in 1741, shortly after Whitefield's separation from Wesley, some Calvinistic Dissenters raised for Whitefield a large shed near the Foundry, in Moorfields, upon a piece of ground lent for the purpose, until he should return from America. From the temporary nature of the structure it was named, in allusion to the tabernacles of the Israelites in the Wilderness ; and the name became the designation of the chapels of the Calvinistic Methodists generally. Whitefield's first pulpit here is said to have been a grocer's sugar-hogshead, an eccentricity not improbable. In 1752, the wooden building was taken down, the site was leased by the City of London, and the present chapel was built, with a lantern roof : it is now occupied by Independents, and will hold about 4000 persons. This chapel was the cradle of Methodism ; the preaching-places had hitherto been Moorfields, Marylebone-fields, and Kennington-common. Silas Todd describes the Tabernacle in Moorfields as "a ruinous place, with an old pantile covering, a few rough deal boards put together to constitute a temporary pulpit, and several other decayed timbers, which composed the whole structure." John Wesley preached here (the Foundry, as it was called), at five in the morning and seven in the evening. The men and women sat apart ; and there were no pews, or difference of benches, or appointed place for any person. At this chapel the first Methodist Society was formed in 1740. TABERNACLE, METROPOLITAN, was built for Mr. Spurgeon, upon part of the site of the Fishmongers' Company's Almshouses, at Newington, in 1861. The exterior large hexastyle Corinthian portico, and four angle turrets ; the interior is remarkable for its great size, luminousness it being lighted both from roof and windows and unecclesiastical appearance : it was modelled from the Surrey Music-hall, in which Mr. 224 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Spurgeon for some time carried on his ministration. The ceiling and galleries are supported by thin iron columns, of salmon colour, with gilt capitals j the florid gallery fronts are white and gold. Instead of a pulpit there are two raised platforms with balconies ; from the upper one the minister, with his church officers sitting around him, preaches and conducts the service. The chapel will hold 6500. TBINITY INDEPENDENTS' CHAPEL, East India-road, Poplar, was erected in 18-40-1, by Hosking, at the expense of Mr. George Green, the wealthy shipbuilder of Blackwall, principally for shipwrights in his employ, and for inducing the seamen in the neigh- bourhood to attend Divine worship. The chapel has a Greek Corinthian portico, and fa9ade with enrichments of shells, dolphins, and foliage; and a classic bell -tower, the summit 80 feet high. The interior has a Keene's-cement pulpit, highly decorated ; and a powerful Organ by Walker, in a Grecian architectural case. UNITED PBESBYTEBIANS. Thiee or four noteworthy churches were built in 1863. Park Church, Highbury New Park, Habershon, architect, is a modification of the Anglo-Italian of Hawksmoor's time, and has a tower with pinnacled spire. At Clapham, a Presbyterian church has been erected, its chief feature being a lofty 1 Corinthian portico. Another at Shaftesbury-place, Kensington, J. M. M'Culloch, archi- tect, is Second Pointed Gothic, with short transepts, a tower with spire, and a large five-light traceried window. UNITY CHTTBCH, Islington, T. C. Clarke, architect, was completed in 1862, for the congregation formerly meeting in Carter-lane, City, and is remarkable for its strictly ecclesiastical character. It is cruciform, has a broad Nave with narrow aisles, and a shallow semi-octagonal chancel j a handsome tower with double buttresses, cornice, gurgoyles, &c., and a spire 120 feet high. The principal entrance, in Upper-street, is Second Pointed in style, but Italianized : the window-heads have elaborate tracery, and in the tympanum of the entrance is a relievo of Christ's Charge to Peter. The interior has much good carving, some polychromy ; stone pulpit, with shafts and inlay of coloured marbles and alabaster, with reliefs on the panels; large stained-glass windows ; and the organ treated as part of the design. The building has a curiously orthodox appearance, considering for whose use it has been constructed : it cost upwards of 10,000/. WEIGH-HOUSE CHAPEL, Fish-street-hill, is named from the Weigh-house of which it occupied the site, whereon formerly stood the church of St. Andrew Hubbard, before the Great Fire. The chapel, which belonged to the Independent connexion, was rebuilt about thirty years ago upon a small freehold plot, which cost 7000Z., but which was sold, in 1866, to a Railway Company for 95,000?., besides compensation to the minister of the chapel, the Rev. Thomas Binney. William Hone, who was per- suaded by his Independent friends to try his talent as a preacher, appeared frequently in the pulpit at Weigh-house Chapel, where, in 1835, he was struck by paralysis. WESLEYAN CHAPEL, City-road, was built in 1778, upon ground leased by the City : thither John Wesley removed from the Foundry in Moorfields, the lease of which had expired ; and thenceforth the City-road Chapel became the headquarters of the Society of Methodists. Wesley laid the first stone, in which his name and the date were inserted upon a plate of brass : " This was laid by John Wesley, on April 1, 1777." " Probably," says he, " this will be seen no more by any human eye, but will remain there till the earth and the works thereof are burnt up." John Wesley, who died March 2, 1791, aged 88, was buried here in a vault which he had prepared for him- self, and for those itinerant preachers who might die in London. " During his last illness, Wesley said, ' Let me be buried in nothing but what is woollen ; and let my corpse be carried in my coffin into the chapel.' This was done, according to his will, by six poor men, each of whom had 20*. ; ' for I particularly desire,' said he, ' that there may be no hearse, no coach, no escutcheon, no pomp, except the tears of them that love me, and are following me to Abraham's bosom.' On the day preceding the interment, Wesley's body lay in the chapel, hi a kind of state becoming the person, dressed hi his clerical habit, with gown, cassock, and band, the old clerical cap on his head, a Bible in one hand, and a white handkerchief in the other. The face was placid, and the expression which death had fixed upon his venerable features was that of a serene and heavenly smile. The crowds who flocked to see him were so great, that it was thought prudent, for fear of accidents, to accelerate CHAPELS DISSENTERS'. 225 the funeral, and perform it between five and six in the morning. The intelligence, however, could not be kept entirely secret, and several hundred persons attended at that unusual hour." Southey's Life of Wesley, 3rd edit. vol. ii. p. 403. WESLEYAX CHAPEL, Kentish Town, is of ecclesiastical character: it is built of stone, has a handsome west window of seven lights, with good tracery ; and a tower with a tall stone spire. It has an open-timher roof, and apsidal termination, which serves as an organ-loft, not chancel j in front is the pulpit, large enough to contain three or four ministers ; architect, J. Tarring. WESLEYAN CHAPEL, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, huilt in 1811, has a tasteful fa9ade, added hy Jenkins in 1841, consisting of a small Ionic tetrastyle forming a portico, crowned by a pediment ; above is a Venetian triple window, and a handsome cornicione. The front is executed in beautiful Talacre stone from North Wales, and is the earliest instance of its being employed in our metropolitan buildings. WESLEYAN MODEL CHAPEL, East India-road, Poplar, named from its improved plan, was built in 1848, James Wilson, architect, by subscription, to which one person gave 500/. The style is Decorated, and the materials are Caen and rag stone. The windows are richly traceried ; there are two turrets, each 80 feet high, and the build- ing is finished with a pierced parapet, pinnacles, and roof-cresting. WESLEYAN CHAPEL, at the angle of the Islington end of the Liverpool-road, is in the Decorated style : it has a turret on the front gable 76 feet in height, and the parapets are pierced with trefoils and quatrefoils. The principal windows have flowing tracery ; and the interior, divided by arches and octangular columns, whence spring the roof timbers, is altogether of ecclesiastical character. " The Wesleyans have now five or six edifices in London, clothed in the Gothic dress of various periods, and following the usual arrangements of a mediaeval church, except having no tower and no extensive chancel, resembling in this respect the churches erected between the Eeformation and the late abandonment of church design. The average capacity of these buildings is for 1300 persons. One, nearly facing St. John's, Clerkenwell, affects the complete Gothic above, and has a neat original front, but thin." Companion to the Almanac, 1851. WHITEFIELD'S TABERNACLE, Tottenham-court-road, was designed by the Rev. George Whitefield, and commenced building in 1756, upon a plot of ground near the Field of Forty Footsteps, and the Lavender Mills, Coyer's Gardens. It was first opened for public worship, Nov. 7, 1756. In 1759 or 1760 was added an octangular front, which gave it the appearance of two chapels ; the addition being called " the Oven," and the chapel itself, " Whitefield's Soul-Trap." This enlargement is said to have been aided by Queen Caroline, consort of George II., who seeing a crowd at the door unable to obtain admission, observed it was a pity that so many good people should stand in the cold, and accordingly sent Whitefield a sum of money to enlarge the chapel ; it was called "the Dissenters' Cathedral." When Whitefield preached there it was visited by many persons of rank and distinction. The Prince of Wales and his Royal brothers and sisters, Lord Chesterfield, Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Halifax, Horace Walpole, David Hume, and David Garrick, are all reported to have been among Whitefield's hearers. The existing pulpit is the same from which Wnitefield preached. In the vestry there is a good portrait of Whitefield, taken when he was young, and also a fine bust of him ; with portraits of all the ministers since the commencement, viz., the Rev. George Whitefield, M.A. ; the Rev. Josiah Joss, the Rev. Joel Abraham Knight, the Rev. Matthew Wilks, the Rev. John Hyatt ; the Rev. John Campbell, D.D. ; the Rev. Joseph Wilberforce Richardson ; and the present minister, the Rev. James H. Boulding. Whitefield here preached his last sermon in England on the 2nd of September, 1769 ; he died on the 20th of September, 1770, at Boston, America. It had been agreed between Whitefield and Wesley that whichever of them died first, the survivor should preach the funeral sermon. Wesley preached Whitefield's funeral sermon in Tottenham-court-road Chapel, on the 30th of November in the above year. Another instance of a clergyman preaching his own funeral sermon occurred in this chapel on the 16th of August, 1787. This was the Rev. Henry Peckwell, D.D., the cause of whose death was a prick of his finger with a needle, at a post-mortem examination, when some of the putrid blood got into the wound, which caused morti- fication in a few days. At this time Dr. Peckwell was doing duty for the minister of Q 226 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Tottenham-court-road Chapel. Being conscious of his approaching end, he ascended the pulpit with his arm in a sling, and preached, from St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 7, 8, an affecting sermon, at the conclusion adding that this was his farewell sermon. " My hearers," he said, " shall long bear it in mind, when this frail earthly body shall be mouldering in its kindred dust." The congregation were unable to con- jecture his meaning; but next Sunday morning, a strange minister ascended the pulpit and informed them that Dr. Peckwell had breathed his last on the evening before ! The burial-ground which surrounds this chapel was made from the mould which was brought from the burial-ground of the church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks, in the City of London, when that church was taken down, in 1764, to enlarge the Bank of England, which now occupies the same site. By this cunning, it is stated, the consecration fees were saved. On Thursday, May 13, 1824, the Rev. Edward Irving here delivered in Whitefield Chapel his celebrated missionary oration of three hours and a half. In 1828, Whitefield's lease expired, and the chapel was closed until 1830, when it was purchased by trustees for 20,OOOZ., and altered at a great cost, the exterior being coated with stucco. It was well adapted for hearing, the octagonal portion serving as a kind of funnel or trumpet to the voice : it will seat from 7000 to 8000 persons. In 1834, an unhappy difference arose between the minister, the Rev. Dr. Campbell, and the trustees of Whitefield Chapel, which caused the chapel to be placed in Chancery : the trial respecting it occupied between three and four days. In 1857, the chapel was considerably damaged by fire. It was, however, repaired, and some years later it was sold to the London Congregational Chapel Build- ing Society for 4700J. It has by them been almost rebuilt. The front has a portico and octagonal tower, with a dome. The interior is lighted from the dome by a star- light ; and behind the pulpit is a fine Organ, built by J. Walker. Here are monu- ments to Whitefield, the founder ; to Toplady, the zealous Calvinistic controversialist with John Wesley ; and to John Bacon, the sculptor, who wrote his own epitaph, as follows : " What I was as an Artist Seemed to me of some importance while I lived ; But what I really was as a Believer Is the only thing of importance to me now." ZOAE CHAPEL, in Zoar-street, leading from Gravel-lane to Essex-street, Southwark, was the meeting-house in which the celebrated John Bunyan was allowed to preach, by favour of his friend, Dr. Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, to whom it belonged ; and if only one day's notice was given, the place would not contain half the people that attended ; 3000 persons have been gathered together there, and not less than 1200 on week-days and dark winter mornings at seven o'clock. There is a print of this chapel in Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, and a woodcut vignette of it in Dr. Cheever's Memoir of Bunyan, prefixed to the Pilgrim's Progress (Bogue, 1858). The chapel was used as a wheelwright's shop prior to its being pulled down, when the pulpit in which Bunyan had preached was removed to the Methodist Chapel, Palace- yard, Lambeth. Another " true pulpit " is shown in Jewin-street Chapel, Aldersgate- street. Bunyan's Pulpit Bible was purchased by Mr. Whitbread, M.P., at the sale of the library of the Rev. S. Palmer, at Hackney, in 1813. FRIENDS' OE QUAKERS' MEETING-HOUSES. fPHERE are six Friends' Meeting-houses in the metropolis : 1. Devonshire House -*- (Houndsditch) ; 2. Bishopsgate-street Without ; 3. Peel (Peel-court, John-street, Smithfield) ; 4, Ratcliffe (Brook-street) j 5. Southwark (Redcross-street) ; 6. Westmin- ster (Peter's-conrt, St. Martin's-lane). The first established was that in White Hart- court, which was taken down in 1865. " The Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends is held in London, opening always on a Wednesday in the latter end of May, and continuing into the month of June, generally lasting about ten days or a fortnight. Of course it is the most important event in their religious system, the most interesting season in their year. To this great meeting the business of all their lesser meetings points, and is here consummated. To it delegates are sent from every quarter of the island ; by it committees are appointed to receive appeals against the decisions of minor meetings, to carry every object which is deemed desirable, within their body or beyond it, into effect ; by it Parliament is petitioned ; the Crown addressed; religious ministers are sanctioned in their schemes of foreign travel, or CHURCHES GREEK. 227 those schemes restrained; and funds are received and appropriated for the prosecution of all their views as a society. The City is their place of resort ; and the Yearly Meeting is held in Devon- shire House. " The mingling of plain coats, broad hats, friendly shawls, and friendly bonnets, in the great human stream that ever rolls along the pates of the City, in that neighbourhood, at this season, becomes very predominant. Bishopsgate Within and Bishopsgate Without, Gracechurch-street, Houndsditch, Liverpool-street^ Old Broad-street, Sun-street, almost every street of that district, fairly swarms with Friends. The inns and private lodgings are full of them. The White Hart and the Four Swans are full of them. They have a table-d'hote, at which they generally breakfast and dine. Every Friend's house at this time has its guests ; and many of the wealthy keep a sort of open house. " At a Friends' Meeting, the men are sitting all on one side by themselves, with their hats on, and presenting a very dark and sombre mass; the women sitting together on the other, as light and attrac- tive. In the seats below the gallery are sitting many weighty friends, men and women, still apart ; and in the gallery a long row of preachers, male and female, perhaps twenty or thirty in number. You may safely count on a succession of sermons or prayers. Men and women arise, one after another, and preach in a variety of styles, but all peculiar to Friends. Suddenly a man-minister takes off his hat, or a woman-minister takes off her bonnet ; he or she drops quietly on the bass before them ; at the sight the whole meeting rises, and remains on its feet while the minister enters into ' supplication.' Most singular, striking, and picturesque are often the sermons you hear." William Howitt. GEEHK CHURCHES. pREEK CHURCH, London Wall, the first ecclesiastical structure erected by the VJ Greek residents in London, was opened in 1850, on Sunday, Jan. 6, o.s., and in the Greek Kalendar, Christmas-day. The edifice is Byzantine (from Byzantium, the capital of the Lower Greek Empire), with Italian interior details. The north front has three horse-shoe arches fringed, and Byzantine columns, between which are the entrance doorways ; and in the upper story is a similar arcade, containing three windows : above is this inscription, in Greek characters : " During the reign of the august Victoria, who governs the great people of Britain, and also other nations scattered over the earth, the Greeks sojourning here erected this Church to the Divine Saviour, in veneration of the rights of their fathers." Above is a pediment surmounted with a cross. In plan, the church is a cross of equal parts ; the ceiling is domed in the centre : on the north and south sides are galleries, with flower-ornamental fronts, and supported on decorated arches and pillars, with fine capitals. The altar-screen has these panel pictures, painted in Russia : the Annun- ciation ; the Virgin holding the infant Jesus ; Jesus sitting on a throne ; and St. John the Baptist. In a centre panel is inscribed, in Greek : " O Lord, the strength of those who trust in Thee, uphold the Church which Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood." Within the Iconostasis, or screen, is the altar in " the holy place," symbolic of the Holy of Holies in the Jewish ritual. A magnificent chandelier, with wax-lights, is sus- pended from the ceiling. The congregation stand during the whole service j but there are seats made to turn up, as in our cathedral stalls ; and knobs are placed on the upper arms, to serve as rests. The officiating priest is richly robed, and attended by boys bearing a wax-taper, each in a surplice with a blue cross on the back. Upon the high altar are placed a large crucifix, candelabra with lights, &c. At a portion of the Mass a curtain is drawn before the altar, whilst the priest silently and alone prays for the sanctification of the Sacrament j he then re-appears, "bids peace to all the people," and blesses them. The sermon is preached in the pulpit, the priest wearing a black robe and a black hat ; this is covered with the KoAuTrrpa, or veil, to indi- cate that the wearer is under the influence of the Gospel. The church at London Wall (designed by T. E. Owen, of Portsmouth), cost about 10,0001. ; yet the number of Greek residents at the date of its opening, in 1850, did not exceed 220. RUSSIAN EMBASSY CHAPEL, Welbeck-street, James Thomson, architect,has some points of special interest, not only on account of being one of the only two places in the metro- polis devoted to divine service according to the Greek ritual, the other being in London Wall ; but also in a class of architecture of which we have fewer examples than of most others. The style is Byzantine, and the distinctive feature it aims to embody, is that of firmamental expanse, as contradistinguished from the flat ceilings of the Latin or pointed roofs of Gothic churches. This is effected by means of arched ceilings throughout, the centre having a domical roof or cupola superimposed upon a polygonal tambour. The chapel consists of a parallelogram : the length is divided into three compartments, of which two are devoted to the auditorium, and the third, formed into 223 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. an apse, is limited to the sanctum. This latter is raised and approached by three circular steps, on each side of which is a small platform for the choristers, the whole being enclosed with a dwarf metal railing. Between this and the altar is erected an ornamental screen formed of solid masonry, with carved mouldings and marble pillars, having alabaster caps and bases : this, while on the one hand it represents the veil of the temple, separating the body of the chapel from the " Holy of Holies," serves also as an Iconostasis, not for sculptured images, but for paintings, in niches : they are the production of Russian artists, and represent the Saviour, the Virgin, St. Nicholas (patron saint of Russia), St. George, and the archangels Gabriel and St. Michaeli ; and in the crowning panel of the screen is a picture of the Holy Supper, after the eminent Russian painter, Bruloff. The holy doors are carved and splendidly gilt, and inlaid with metals of different hue. They contain small heads of the Evangelists, and a picture of the Annunciation. The folding of these doors is managed so that, when closed, they appear as an impassable barrier, which, at the proper time, the high priest is able to unfold with ease, so as to give access to the altar. The whole of the paint- ings and screen are the gift of-H. Basil Gromoff, a Russian gentleman of St. Peters- burg. Behind the screen doors is the customary curtain of damask silk, which, when drawn aside, displays the sacred altar and its insignia. The Russian mode of worship being wholly a standing or kneeling service, there are no pews or stall seats provided. The cupola is constructed of iron, and contains twelve lunettes five feet high ; four have glass paintings, representing figures of the four great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, and eight of the minor prophets ; above these, in mural painting, are heads of the twelve Apostles upon gold discs. A gilt band encircles the upper part of the cupola, on which is inscribed, in Sclavonic characters : " Turn Thee again, thou God of hosts ; look down from heaven ; behold and visit this vine and the place of the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted." At the east end is a semicircular apse, having a vaulted ceiling, painted azure and studded with gold stars, which are embossed on the surface, gra- duating and concentrating from the base upwards to the apex, where the monogram representing the name of Jehovah is placed. The fittings of the apse consist of the altar table, within the holy doors ; the screen, or Iconostasis, corresponding to the veil of the Temple; and, behind the altar, a triangular pedestal of oak, fitted with a bronze socket, to hold the seven-branch candlestick. To terminate the apse, a freestone arch, supported on black marble pillars, with carved capitals, contains a stained glass window, representing the Saviour, at whose feet, upon a verde-antique marble slab, is inscribed, in Greek characters : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." A large niche on each side contains tables and small enshrined pictures formerly belonging to churches at Bomarsund, presented by the British Government. A credence or cupboard of oak, fashioned as a miniature ark, with sloping roof, contains the chalice, patens, and other holy vessels used in the celebration of the Eucharist. Other pictures on the side wall are St. Alexander Nevsky and St. Mary Magdalen ; the latter figure bearing the alabaster box of precious ointment. In advance of all are placed two elegant barriers of graceful pattern and rich material, mounted on brass standards 16ft. high, with crosslets carved and gilt; upon them are painted, as medallions, representations of the Baptism and Resurrection. JEWS' SYNAGOGUES. BEVIS MARKS, St. Mary Axe : here is the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which occupies part of the site of the ancient house and gardens of the Bassets, then of the Abbots of Bury, or Burie's Marks, corruptly Bevis Markes. DTJKE'S-PLACE. When the Jews returned to England, at the time of the Common wealth, most of the settlers being Portuguese, they built the first Synagogue in King- street, Duke's-place, in 1656 ; and in 1691, was built in Duke's-place the first German Synagogue. NEW SYNAGOGUE, in Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, was built by Davies, in 1838. It is in rich Italian style, with an open loggia of three arches resting upon Tuscan columns. The sides have Doric piers, and Corinthian columns above, behind which are ladies' galleries, fronted with rich brasswork. There are no pews ; the centre floor has a platform, and seats for the principal officers, with four large brass-gilt candelabra. At the south end is the Ark, a lofty semicircular-domed recess, consisting of Italian Doric pilasters, with verde antico and porphyry shafts, and gilt capitals ; and Corinthian columns, with sienna shafts, and capitals and entablature in white and gold. In the upper story the intercolumns are filled with three arched windows of stained glass, arabesque pattern, by Nixon ; the centre one having Jehovah, in Hebrew, and the Tables of the Law. The semi-dome is decorated with gilded rosettes on an azure ground ; there are rich festoons of fruit and flowers between the capitals of the Corinthian columns, and ornaments on the frieze above, on which is inscribed in Hebrew, " Know in whose presence thou standest." The centre of the lower part is fitted up with recesses for Books of the Law, enclosed with CHURCHES AND CHAPELS ROMAN CATHOLIC. 229 polished mahogany doors, and partly concealed by a rich velvet curtain fringed with gold ; there are massive gilt candelabra ; and the pavement and steps to the Ark are of fine veined Italian marble, partly carpeted. Externally, the Ark is flanked with an arched panel ; that on the east containing a prayer for the Queen and Koyal Family in Hebrew, and the other a similar one in English. Above the Ark is a rich fan-painted window, and a corresponding one, though less brilliant, at the north end. The ceiling, which is flat, is decorated with thirty coffers, each containing a large flower aperture for ventilation. This congregation had been previously established about eighty years in Leadenhall- street, and there known as the " New Synagogue." NEW SYNAGOGUE, UPPEE BKYANSTONE-STEEET, was erected in 1861, for the con- venience and use of those members of the Jews of the Spanish and Portuguese congregations who reside at the west end of London ; Lett, architect. The general character of the building is Saracenic freely treated. The elevation to Bryanstone-street is composed of a centre and two wings; the west wing being gabled, with cornice supported by cut tresses, and the east rising as a tower and spire. The facade is built of parti-coloured bricks, with stone dressings. The porch leads to a loggia or vestibule, from which branch off on either side Port- land stone stairs leading to the ladies' galleries, as by the requirements of the Jewish ritual the sexes are separated during divine worship. The " Synagogue " itself is entered from this loggia, and affords accommodation on the ground-floor for 240 males. The interior of the Synagogue is divided into nave and side aisles, by light ornamental columns in two stages, the first supporting the ladies' gallery and the upper arches of a slight horseshoe form, above which is a clerestory with semicircular windows filled in with stained glass. Between the windows and over each column are ornamental brackets, from which spring arched ribs, dividing the ceiling into coffers, the centre of each of which is occupied by a flower communicating with ventilating apparatus. At the east end of the Synagogue an elliptical recess or apex forms the sanctuary, which is approached by a flight of marble steps. The lower portion of the sanctuary is formed into closets, in which are deposited the sacred scrolls of the Law, the upper part being formed with windows filled with painted glass, having inscribed there, in Hebrew characters, the Ten Commandments, &c. The ceiling of the sanctuary is formed in a domical shape, pierced with small star-shaped apertures, filled in with diiferent coloured glass, which throw light on the scrolls of the law when the doors of the closet containing the game are thrown open. WEST LOXDOX SYNAGOGUE, Margaret- street, Cavendish-square, designed by D. Mocatta, was completed in 1850. It is square in plan, and consists of Ionic columns supporting the ladies' gallery, whence rise other columns, receiving semicircular arches, crowned by a bold cornice and lantern-light. The Ark composes cleverly with the semicircular arches, which hang as pendants before it, and complete the fourth side of the building; the steps, platform, stylobate, and columns, are all of scagliola surmounted by a decorated entablature, which supports a niche-head, in which are placed the tablets of the Ten Commandments, surrounded and shadowed by the palm-leaf. There are in London other Synagogues : the chief one is the German, in Duke's-place, Houndsditch, in the midst of the Jewish population. The Sabbath commences at sunset on Friday, when the Syna- gogue is opened ; and again at ten o'clock on Saturday morning. The singing, handed down from the Temple service, and the chanting of the Law, said to be the manner in which it was revealed to Moses, are impressive. The Jews, and the officers in attendance, are most kind and polite to strangers. The interest of the visit is enhanced by procuring a Jewish prayer-book, with the English translation on the opposite page. Strangers are reminded not to take off their hats as they enter : it is an abomination to the Jews, who worship with their heads covered. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. A MBASSADORS' CHAPELS : Spanish Place Chapel is attended by the members \- of the Spanish Embassy ; Warwick-street, Golden-square, by the Bavarian Embassy (the former Chapel was destroyed in the Riots of 1780); Duke-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, by the Sardinian ; and Little George-street, King-street, Portman- square, by the French. Celebrated foreign preachers are occasionally heard here, chiefly in Lent. BAVAEIAN CHAPEL, Warwick-street, Regent-street, has an altar-piece, occupying the whole space of the end of the chapel, with four Corinthian columns, six pilasters, and sub-pilasters running the whole height. In the centre is a large sculptured tablet, 14 feet high and 7 feet wide, representing the Virgin Mary, and cherubim, by Carew, lighted from above. 230 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ST. GEOBGE'S CntrKCn, St. George's Fields, nearly facing the eastern wing of Bethlem Hospital, is built upon the site of the focus of the " No Popery " Riots of 1780 : it is the largest Roman Catholic Church erected in England since the Refor- mation ; and with the quaint conventional buildings (priests' houses and schools, and a convent for Sisters of Mercy) at the north end, was designed by A. W. Pugin. The church is a high example of Roman Catholic symbolic details : it is in the Decorated style (temp. Edward III.), is cruciform in plan, and consists of a nave and aisles, chancel, and two chapels ; and a tower at the north-west end, to be surmounted by a rich hexagonal spire, 320 feet high. The church is about 235 feet in length, and will seat 3000 persons. It is lit by traceried windows, some filled with stained glass, by Wailes, of Newcastle ; the great chancel-window was given by John Earl of Shrewsbury, and represents the root of Jesse, or genealogy of our Lord. The large window- over the principal entrance, in the great tower, has figures of St. George, St. Michael, and other saints. There is no clerestory, but each roof is gabled; slender pillars and arches divide the nave and sida aisles, in which are confessionals ; and between the nave and chancel is a double stone screen bearing a rood-loft, with a crucifix of Belgian fifteenth-century work, and images of the Virgin and St. John, nearly life-size, and coloured. The chancel is panelled with oak, with crocketed arches round the sanc- tuary ; the high altar has bas-reliefs of the Transfiguration, Resurrection, and Ascension; the tabernacle is richly dight and painted, the metal doors being chased and gilt, and studded with large crystals. Behind the altar is an elaborately- carved stone reredps, with niches filled with images of angels, and the Saints Peter and Paul. The high altar furniture is very superb and massive ; the chancel is floored with encaustic tiles ; and the chapels are superbly decorated in gold and colour. In the baptistery is an octagonal stone font, with sculpture and Gothic panelling. Outside the church, between two con- fessionals, is a Perpendicular chantry to the late Hon. Edmund Petre, for the repose of whose soul Mass is offered herein daily ; this being the first foundation for the support of the church. " The Adorable Presence is day and night in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Look for the red light ; it is there." St. George's was opened with great pomp, July 4, 1848 ; and was the scene of the solemn enthronization of Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, Dec. 6, 1850. The cost of this church to July, 1848, had been 38,000. The number of persons attend- ing this church is stated at from 12,000 to 13,000 persons. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHTJECH, Farm-street, Berkeley-square, designed by Scoles, and built at the expense of Jesuits, is the first ever possessed by the Order in London : it was opened 1849. The style is the Decorated, the south front much resem- bling that of Beauvais Cathedral. The altar and organ-loft windows are filled with brilliant stained glass : the rose in the latter is very elegant ; and each of the 22 flank windows has different tracery. The interior is large and lofty, and has no aisles or rood-screen : the high altar, designed by A. W. Pugin, cost about 1000Z., and was presented by Miss Monica Tempest, of Broughton Hall, Yorkshire; and her brother, Sir Charles Tempest, presented the Missal, which cost about 501. " Confraternities of the Bona Mors of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, are established in this church." The services are performed by Jesuits. " Roman Catholic churches seem to be distinguished from those of the national faith, at present, only by the occupation of niches that in the latter would be left vacant. It is remarkable, however, that they all seem to affect the style of one period, viz., the first half of the fourteenth century, their designers apparently disdaining the representation of either an immature or a declining form of art ; but fixing always on the fully developed Gothic, just at the turning point of its career." Companion to the Almanac, 1851. ST. JOHN OP JERUSALEM, Great Ormond-street, was generously founded by Sir George Bowyer, Bart., M.P., and built from the designs of Goldie. The fafade of the exterior, of Portland stone, is of two orders, Ionic and Corinthian : upon the upper cornice is inscribed : " Servi : Dominorum : Pauperum : Infirmorum :" and on the lower are the following words : " Ecclesia : S : Milit : ord : S : Johan : Hierosol :" In the pediment is the cross of the Order of St. John ; and the Imperial crown and shield adorn the window, which forms a feature in the upper order, flanked by two sculptured wreaths. The principal entrance doorway is surmounted by a marble tablet, on which is commemorated, in an inscription, the fact of the foundation. The church within presents a parallelogram. Slight recesses stand in the place of transepts, and beyond them is the choir for the religious of the adjoining Convent and Hospital, whilst between rises the cupola above the ceiling of the church. An elaborate cornice runs round the church below the ceiling, and rests on pilasters of the Corinthian order, all formed of polished red marble, with marble bases and plinths. At the upper CHURCHES AND CHAPELS EC-VAN CATHOLIC. 231 end of the Nave a doorway gives access to the Hospital ; and above it, carried on carved stone consols, is a tribune of polished alabaster, opening into the lowest ward for the use of the sick. The floor of the Nave is of coloured tiles, arranged in a fret pattern. A marble step lifts the sanctuary floor above the nave level, and this upper floor is entirely composed of white marble. The high altar is placed beneath a marble canopy, under a cupola, adorned with the same materials, the most frequent decoration being the Maltese Cross of eight points, in white, inlaid in the brown veined marble ; it stands immediately beneath the centre of the dome, and is surmounted by a baldachino of marbles of various colours, with a panelled ceiling of wood. Two side altars, both ancient, stand on either side in the small transeptal recesses. The nuns' choir, behind the high altar, is supported by marble scrolls, and is fitted up on three sides with stalls, and inlaid crosses of the Order of St. John, all polished. The front bears the arms of the founder, who has presented this church to the Hospital. Against the extreme end wall of the church is a largo tribune, carried on stone brackets, with a gilt lattice front, for the Organ. The whole of the interior is decorated with gilding and colour. ITALIAN (Si. PETER'S) CHURCH, Hatton-wall ; architect, J. M. Bryson. The walls are of grey stock bricks. The triforium arches are supported by York stone columns, of the Ionic order, in the Roman Basilica style, and is the only church of the same style in the kingdom. There are two side aisles, a Nave and a Chancel : in the latter are statues of the four Evangelists. There are two galleries, one over each of the side aisles (as triforia), with access by stone stairs. Under the Chancel is a subterraneous church, or crypt, capable of holding 200 persons. The ceilings are flat, in panels, which will eventually be painted, as also will be the walls. There will be a tower at the south-west end of the church, carried up to a height of 100 feet, where will be hung a bell weighing four tons. The high altar has four polished black and gold marble columns, standing on pedestals, with white marble caps and bases of the Composite order, surmounted with a cornice wreath, crown canopy, and cross, which will be gilt. The tabernacle and steps of the high altar are of different coloured marbles, all of which have been obtained from Italy. The body of the church is lighted by clerestory windows, in each of which is a design in the shape of a cross, made of iron and wood. The chancel is lighted by windows of a similar design. The church is planned to hold 3400 persons. The funds have been collected abroad by the priests connected with the church. It was opened in 1863. ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S, Duncan-terrace, Islington, was opened in 1843. It was designed by Scoles, in the Anglo-Norman style, and has an eastern gable, flanked by two spires, each 130 feet high. The church itself is a large structure, Basilican in plan, very lofty and effective in composition ; its aisles are narrow, set off for chapels and special altars. In one of these is the fresco, painted by Armitage, against the ex- ternal wall of the church. " The figures are life-size ; the subject, St. Francis of Assisi, in 1210, receiving the approval of Pope Innocent the Third to the Rule of the Order of the Fratres Minores, or Franciscans, as they are now called. Their founder stands, his head humbly bent, his hands held together before the enthroned Pope, who reads article by article the Rule of the Order. A monk on each side of the saint kneels, as do others behind him. The Pope is supported by a cardinal on each side, seated all splendidly dressed. Attendants stand behind the throne. The scene is an open-sided hall in the Capitol, where the Pope is presumed to have lived at the period in question. Through the arcade we look over Rome and its ruins as in the thirteenth century. Following that sound rule of Art which demands character every- where, Mr. Armitage has given a portrait-like character to his heads, which in the broad style he follows individualizes each figure and face, and gives a striking look of truth to the whole. The expressions are effective, without anything of the theatre ; the design, large and simple in composition, suits the subject and the material perfectly." Athenceum. In the apse of the church is the fresco representing Christ and the Apostles. In the semi-dome above the last is a fresco representing God the Father with the Angels, &c., painted by A. Aglio about 1844. Under the chancel is a crypt, or mortuary chapel : and adjoining is a spacious cemetery. This church has a Holy Guild attached ; the Eev. Frederick Oakeley officiates. ST. MART'S, Moorfields, corner of East-street, Finsbury-circus, opened in 1S20, has an embellished entrance fa9ade, in the pediment of which are sculptured two figures kneeling at the Cross. The interior is very superb : it was re-decorated throughout by Charles Kuckuck, in 1858. 232 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. It is divided transversely, by a series of columns, into a spacious Nave and side aisles, the ceiling of the former being elliptical and the latter flat, and the latter terminated at the western ends by alcoves, which form minor altars. Over the high altar is a semi-elliptical dome, supported by six fluted columns, which have gilded capitals, modelled from the example of the monument of Lysicrates, at Athens. The surface of this semi-dome is embellished by thirteen oaken panels, which are filled with foliage and fruit and flowers, in admirable imitation of reliefs. Behind this semi-dome, on a curved ground, which is the extreme termination of the church, and forms the back of the high altar, ingeniously lighted from the roof, is a magnificent large painting of the Crucifixion, which produces a splendid effect. In the centre of the ceiling of the Nave is a large painting in fresco, representing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, attended by the heavenly choir, and the Four Evangelists ; and on each side of the spring- ing of the arched ceiling are oblong panels painted with figures in bas-relief of the Nativity, the Adora- tion of the Magi, the Infant Saviour, &c. The ceilings of the aisles are divided into various compartments, and painted in white, to resemble moulded panels and enrichments in plaster, on a deep gold ground. The series of columns, with their surmounting entablature, are profusely decorated, their bases being to imitate white and their shafts sienna marble. The capitals, together with the dentals of the cornice, are gilded. The moulded por- tion of the entablature is relieved with white,- green, red, and blue, picked in with deep brown, and the front of the corona is painted to resemble rouge royale marble. The general surfaces of the walls above the surbase mouldings are of a lavender tint, and underneath the cornice around the windows is a richly- ornamented border. The lower portions of the altar are very richly decorated, their pilasters having enriched silver ornaments on their faces, picked out with brilliant colours on a solid gilt ground, and the base and back of the altar under the large picture of the Crucifixion, to which we have previously adverted, is formed in imitation of various kinds of marble. The sacramental plate was presented by Pope Pius VII. Carl Maria von Weber was buried in the vaults of this chapel, June 21, 1826 ; but his remains have since been removed to the Catholic churchyard in the Friederichstadt, Dresden. ST. MONICA'S is in connexion with the Irish Augustinian Monastery, in Hoxton- sqnare. It is a curious fact that the old house inhabited by the Fathers was formerly a favourite place of resort of King Charles II., who had a house not far distant, between which and the house in question a subterranean passage communicated. Some traces of the passage are still discernible. ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI, King William- street, Strand, was originally an Assembly Room : here the Rev. F. W. Faber, author of the Cherwell Water Lily, and other poems, preached (in 1850) to a large and deeply-moved audience. About thirteen years ago, a Roman Catholic builder purchased a plot of ground, three acres, beside the church of the Holy Trinity at Brompton, and here commenced buildings for the future residence and church of the Oratorian Fathers. " The Roman Catholic population in the parish, or mission, under the spiritual direction of the Fathers of the Oratory, now comprises between 7000 and 8000 souls. The average attendance at Mass on Sundays is about 5000, and the average number of communions for two years has been about 45,000 annually. In the schools attached are 1000 pupils." Tablet, 1865. OTTR LADY'S, Grove-end-road, St. John's Wood, designed by Scoles, 1834, was built and endowed by two ladies, the Misses Gallini. The site formerly belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (whence St. John's Wood), whose predecessors, the Knights Templar, held the same estate, and built the Temple Church, the proto- type of the present cross church, which is Early Pointed, thirteenth century. The western front, with its three gables and crosses, Catherine-wheel and lancet windows, and pinnacled turrets, is a fine composition. The gables of the north and south fronts are surmounted with canopied niches, containing sculptured groups of the Madonna and Child ; and the east front has a large window filled with stained glass. The in- terior has acutely-arched and richly -bossed roofs, springing from slender shafts j and the high altar is backed by a rich open screen. In the schools are educated and clothed, gratuitously, three hundred poor children. ST. PATRICK'S, Sutton-street, Soho, is much frequented by the poor Catholic popu- lation of St. Giles's. The festival of St. Patrick (March 17) is observed here as a double of the first class, with High Mass. SARDINIAN CHAPEL (the), Duke-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, is the oldest foundation of the metropolitan places of worship now in the hands of the Roman Catholics of London. It was built in the year before Charles I. was beheaded : that is, in 1648, just at the close of the Great Rebellion, and the practical commencement of Oliver Cromwell's rule. During the existence of the penal laws, the only entrance to the chapel was through the Sardinian ambassador's house, in Lincoln's-inn-fields. The Riots of 1780 commenced with the partial demolition of this building: the mob were especially savage in attacking it it being the mother-chapel, the oldest in London, and at that CITY WALLS AND GATES. 233 time the resort of all the leading Koinan Catholics. In derision of their worship, a cat was dressed in the miniature vestments of a priest, an imitative host or wafer was placed in its paws, and thus it was hung to the lamp-post of the chapel. The edifice was rebuilt after the Riots, and was enlarged by adding to it at the west end the Am- bassador's stables. It has some painted glass, a finely-toned organ, and splendid church-plate, used only on solemn festivals : the altar-furniture was presented by the late King of Sardinia, and cost 1000 guineas; and the painting over the altar, " The Taking down from the Cross," is valued at 700. The choir was formerly maintained at a great expense ; though on Whitsunday, during Dr. Baldaconi's chief chaplaincy, Malibran, Persiani, Lablache, and Rubini, and the principals of the Italian Opera orchestra, gave their aid gratuitously. The choir is now scarcely above mediocrity ; but the services are conducted with great solemnity. All-Saints' day (Nov. 1) is one of the best in the year on which to witness the splendour of the worship. About thirty years ago the district of the chapel extended to Islington, and the congregation numbered about 12,000 souls. This district has been much diminished by the building of other chapels; but the Sardinian congregation is very large. There are four resident priests, one expressly for the Italians. The Savoyard organ-boys much resort here. SPANISH CHAPEL, Spanish-place, Manchester-square, was built in 1797, by Joseph Bonomi, and enlarged in 18 16, when a picturesque campanile, 70 feet high, was added by C. Parker : its interior is a Lady Chapel, and forms a second south aisle. The chapel is lighted from the roof with a most captivating effect of architectural chiaro- scuro, and is divided by Corinthian columns. CITY WALLS AND GATES. fTlHE small space within the Walls of old London has been described as almost exactly J- of the same shape and the same area as Hyde Park. It was, in fact, a, dun, or Celtic hill-fortress, formed by Tower-hill, Cornhill, and Ludgate-hill ; and effectually protected by the Thames on the south, the Fleet on the west, the great fen of Moorfields and Finsbury on the north, and by the Houndsditch and the Tower on the east. Taylor's Words and Places. The City Wall is believed to have been a work of the later Roman period, when London was not unfrequently exposed to hostile attacks. Its direct course was as follows : Beginning at a fort on part of the site of the present Tower of London, the line was continued by the Minories, between Poor Jury-lane and the Vineyard (where now is Vine-street), to Aid-gate. Thence, forming a curve to the north-west, between Shoemaker-row, Bevis-marks, and Houndsditch, it abutted on Bishop' s-gate, from which it extended nearly in a straight line, through Bishopsgate churchyard, and behind Bethlem Hospital and Fore-street, to Cripple-gate. At a short distance further, it turned southward, by the back of Hart-street and Cripplegate churchyard ; and thence, continuing between Monkwell-street and Castle-street, led by the back of Barber- Surgeons' Hall and Noble-street to Dolphin-court, opposite Oat-lane, where,, turning westerly, it approached Alders' -gate. Proceeding hence, towards the south-west, it curved along the back of St. Botolph's churchyard, Christ's Hospital, and Old New- gate, from which it continued southward to Lud-gate, passing at the back of the College of Physicians, Warwick- square, Stationers' Hall, and the London Coffee-house, on Ludgate-hill. From Ludgate it proceeded westerly by Cock-court to Little Bridge- street, where, turning south, it skirted the Fleet-Brook to the Thames, near which it was guarded by another fort. The circuit of the whole line, according to Stow, was two miles and one furlong neaily. Another wall, defended by towers, extended the whole distance along the banks of the Thames between the two forts. The walls were defended by strong towers and bastions ; the remains of three of which, of Roman masonry, were, in Maitland's time, to be seen in the vicinity, of Houndsditch and Aldgate. The height of the perfect wall is considered to have been 22 feet, and that of the towers 40 feet. The following course of the Wall is shown in a plan drawn by order of the Corpo- ration of London, to ascertain the extent of the Great Fire, and now preserved in the Comptroller's Office, Guildhall. It may be distinctly traced as the southern boundary 234 Offj&iOBIHBS OF LONDON. of the churchyard of St. Botolph, at the back of Bull-and-Mouth-street. Hence it pro- ceeded due east, across Aldersgate- street, to Aldersgate, whence it continued, in the same direction perhaps, about 200 feet, where it formed an angle, and had a curious bastion. It then went rather to the north-north-east of Falcon-square, eastward of Castle-street, where it is now standing, externally incorporated with the walls of the houses (a semi- circular tower was uncovered in the rear of No. 27, in the year 1865) ; thence it proceeds, and exhibits large remains in the churchyard of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. "The latter, including a bastion, are the most perfect relics. The base of the Wall is composed of small rough flints, to the height of one foot six inches, resting on a fine loam, upon which are placed four feet six iuches of rough Kentish ragstone (the green sandstone of geologists), with pieces of ferruginous sandstone irregularly interposed. Then come two courses of bricks, each measuring eighteen inches by twelve, and one and three-quarters thick, on which is laid more of the ragstone for two feet six inches ; again a double course of tiles, and above that one foot six inches of the ragstone. Total existing height, nineteen feet seven inches. It is nine feet six inches in width at the base, and two feet at the top." IT. D. Saull,F.&.3. Mr. Eoach Smith has shown that the area and dimensions of the Roman city may be conjecturally mapped out from the masses of masonry forming portions of its boundaries, and many of which have come to light in the progress of City improvements. The position of the Gates, besides intervening remains, enables us to trace the course of the Wall on the western, northern, and eastern sides of London. Mr. Roach Smith shows that it runs in a straight line from the Tower to Aldgate, where, making an angle, it takes again the straight line to Bishopsgate ; from Bishopsgate it runs east- ward to St. Giles's churchyard, where it turns to the south as far as Falcon-square, and at this point pursues a westerly direction by Aldersgate, running under Christ's Hospital towards Giltspur-street, near which it forms an angle, and proceeds directly south by Ludgate towards the Thames. From Ludgate, however, it did not take a direct line towards the river, but traversed the ground now occupied by The Times offices, and from this spot diverged towards St. Andrew's-hill. Excavations in Upper Thames-street have brought to light a portion of it nine feet below the level of the present street, at the foot of Lambeth-hill. Hence it continued as far as Queenhithe ; and it is curious to observe, that though this portion of the wall had disappeared from above the surface as early as the days of Fitzstephen, many of the large stones which formed its lower part were found to be sculptured and ornamented with mouldings, denoting their use in the friezes or entablatures of edifices at some period antecedent to its construction. Excavations have also proved that within the area thus enclosed most of the streets of the present day run upon the ruins of Roman houses, and " we may safely conclude that the streets and buildings of the Roman city, if not quite so dense and continuous as those of the modern city, left but little space throughout the entire area unoccupied, except a portion of the district between Lothbury and Prince's- street, and London-wall, and the ground adjoining the wall from Moorgate-street towards Bishopsgate." Mr. Tite, the architect of the Royal Exchange, in 1853, unearthed a beautiful tessellated pavement under Greshain House, in Old Broad-street ; and next, in Trinity- square, Tower-hill, a portion of the ancient wall still existed above ground, which, though not Roman, was supposed to rest on Roman foundations. In 1841, the Blackwall Railway, much further north than this point, cut through Roman remains of the great wall ; but it was not until the autumn of 1864 that further traces were found. Then, in some large works in Cooper's-row, was discovered a very extensive fragment of a Norman wall, with narrow slits for archers to shoot their arrows. This fragment was 110 feet long, and in height, from the bottom of the foundation to the top of the parapet, 41 feet. All the foundations, and a considerable portion of the lower wall, were undoubtedly Roman, built of square stones, in regular courses, with bonding- courses of Roman brick of intense hardness, and excellent cement, as hard as any red earthenware ; and was, as was always the case with the Roman, more of what we should call a tile, being 1 foot square and l|in. thick. The mortar between the bricks was nearly as thick as the bricks themselves, and abound- ing in portions of pounded brick. The exact place of these remains Mr. Tite has shown in an ancient plan of London in the reign of Elizabeth, when the walls and gates were in existence. Undoubted Roman remains of these walls are traceable, viz., Camomile-street (found by Dr. Woodward, in 1707) ; the street still called London- CITY WALLS AND GATES. 235 wall (portions removed 1817-18, when Bethlem Hospital was taken down) ; and near Moorgate. Mr. Tite points out that there could have been no walls at the time when Suetonius abandoned London, A.D. 61. Some Norman historians refer the walls to a period as late as the Empress Helena ; but Mr. Tite's opinion seems to be that they dated about the second century of our era. The distinctly Norman work above this level Mr. Tite attributes to the troubled times of King John, when the associated Barons arrived at Aldgate, in 1215, the Sunday before Ascension Day, and entered the City while the inhabitants were at Divine service. After this, the walls being in a ruinous state, they restored them, using the materials of the Jews' houses existing in the neigh- bourhood, and then destroyed to build up the defences, which, as chroniclers relate, were in a subsequent reign in a high state of excellence. In 1257, Henry III. caused the whole of the walls of the City to be repaired at the common charge. In 1282 and 1310, the walls were again repaired; and, in 1477, the patriotic Mayor, Ralph Joscelyne, completely restored all the walls, gates, and towers, in which work he was assisted by the Grocers' and other companies, and by Sir John Crosby. " The gold- smiths," says Stow, "repaired from Cripplegate towards Aldersgate, and there the work ceased." The total area inclosed by the Walls which still constitute " the City of London " is only about 380 acres. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A, in describing the primitive site of Roman London, cites Roman authors, as Tacitus and Antoninus, to prove that Londinium was not a colonia, but an oppidum, surrounded by walls, for the protection of its commerce and trade, and having a treasurer. He entirely refutes the opinions to prove that primitive London was situate upon the south side of the Thames, by showing that the whole of that low ground was covered by a lake, which extended from the high ground of Greenwich, Cainberwell, Brixton, and so on to Lambeth ; and he is confirmed in this opinion by the direction of the principal streets, which all converge to a centre on the north side. Prom the measures he has taken, in his opinion the primitive site of London was between Walbrook on the east, and Fleet River on the west. The north wall, he believes, ran from Aldersgate, through Lad-lane, to the Walbrook, and from Doctors' Commons to the same brook, through Old Fish-street, on the south. The discovery of several pieces of -old Roman wall on the line confirms this view. The forum, or market-place, would be in Cheap, from which the principal roads diverged. The commerce of the city increasing, it necessitated the enlarging of the city, and we find many of the streets were altered, as for instance, Broad-street used to be the way to Bishopsgate, which was changed for Threadneedle-street ; and a new street was formed from Cheapside to Aldgate. In the Sutherland View, 1543, and in Tapperell and Innes's large Map, the Great Wall is seen entire, with its embrasures, its large and lofty gates, and intervening towers. These gates are minutely described by Stow. Chamberlayne, in his MagnaB BritanicB Notitia, 1726, says : " Most of the gates of that old Wall still remain : those which were burnt down at Ludgate and Newgate are rebuilt with great solidity and magnificence ; and those which escaped, as Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Moorgate, Aldgate, are kept in good repair, and are shut up at every night, with great diligence and a sufficient watch, at ten o'clock ; none being suffered to go in or out without examina- tion. Most of these gates are of good architecture, and adorned with statues of some of our kings and queens ; as is that, likewise, called Temple Bar, in Fleet-street, near the Middle Temple Gate." The Gates, except the latter, were taken down 1760-62 : a statue of Queen Elizabeth, from Ludgate, is now placed on the outer wall of the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West ; and the statues of Lud and his sons, from the same gate, are in the grounds of St. Dunstan's Villa, Regent's Park (the Marquis of Hertford's). These statues were supposed by Flaxman to have preserved the likeness of the originals, as copies, or possibly liberal restorations, of the actual figures. (Archer's Vestiges of Old London, part iv., with six views.) Four of the figures from New-gate are in the south front of the present prison of that name. The City of London, properly so called, consists of that part anciently within the Walk, together with that termed the Liberties, which immediately surrounded them. The Liberties are encompassed by the Line of Separation, the boundary between them and the county of Middlesex : and marked by the Bars, which formerly consisted of posts and chains, but are now denoted by lofty stbne obelisks, bearing the City arms, which may be seen, eastward, in Whitechapel, the Minories, and Bishopsgate- street; northward, in Goswell-strcet, at the end of Fan-alley, and in St. John's-street ; and westward, 236 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. at Middle-row, Holborn; while at the western end of Fleet-street the boundary is the stone gateway called Temple Bar. G. J. Aungier. See also a Comparative Plan of that part of the City of London which was destroyed by the fireat Fire in 1666, and its altered condition in 1819, by 1- rancis Wliishaw, C.E. ; wherein old London is shown by strong lines, and modern London by dotted lines. CLERKENWELL, A LARGE parish north-east of High Holborn, and named from a well around which the parish clerks, or clerken, were wont to assemble to act Scripture plays. The whole district was originally a village, which grew up around the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, north, and the Nunnery of St. Mary, south, of what is now Clerkenwell- green. It was then a succession of gentle pastures and slopes, with the " River of Wells," or " Fleet," flowing between two hills on its western border : and its rural character is kept in mind by its Coppice and Wilderness rows, Saffron-hill, Vineyard- gardens, Field-lane, Clerkenwell-green, and Cow-cross ; whilst Turnmill-street recals the " noise of the water-wheels" mentioned by Fitzstephen in 1190. In the Suther- land View of London, 1543, we see St. John's with a lofty spire, with trees extending to St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield ; and westward the village green and St. James's Church, formerly of St. Mary's Nunnery, and then just made parochial. The nave, aisles, and bell-tower of St. John's were, however, pulled down to supply materials for building the proud Protector Somerset's palace. Aggas's map, in 1563, shows us a few houses bounded on three sides by little else than fields. By 1617, however, a number of fine houses had been built in the district, and were inhabited by persons of note. Hence to the village of Islington lay through green fields and country paths ; and so lately as 1780, " persons walking from the City to Islington in the evening, waited near the end of St. John's-street, in what is now termed Northampton-street (but was then a rural avenue planted with trees, called Wood's Close), until a sufH- cient party had collected, who were then escorted by an armed patrol." (Storer and Cromwell's Clerkenwell.) The whole locality is covered with crowded streets. Here is still a large house, once the town residence of the Northampton family ; the garden- ground is now Northampton- square ; and Compton, Percival, Spencer, Wynyatt, and Ash by streets are named from the titles of the Marquis of Northampton, the principal ground-landlord of the district. Passing to olden Clerkenwell, the Priory-gate of St. John has been transformed into a tavern ; and the Square, once part of the Priory precincts, and afterwards tho residence of the titled and wealthy, is now mostly tenanted by watchmakers and jewellers: in this Square died Bishop Burnet. Jerusalem- passage leads to Ay lesbury- street, between which and St. John's Church stood the town-house of the Earl of Aylesbury, in the reign of Charles II. At the corner of Jerusalem-passage and Ayles- bury-street, Thomas Britton, the " musical small coal-man," held his music meetings from 1678 to 1714, in a low and narrow room over the coal-shop, to which all the fashion of the age flocked ; Britton himself playing in the orchestra the viol-di-gamba. In Woodbridge-street, branching from Aylesbury-street, was the celebrated Red Bull Theatre, conjectured to have been originally an inn-yard, used for performances late in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and where the King's Players under Killigrew acted until they removed to Drury-lane. At the Red Bull, women first acted on the English stage : its site is probably now occupied by part of a distillery. St. James's Church was rebuilt in 1788 as we .now see it. The Nunnery Close became Clerken- well-close, on the east side of which was Newcastle House, built by the Earl of New- castle, and where the eccentric literary Duchess Margaret held a sort of academic court for many years after the Restoration. " Of all the riders of Pegasus," says Walpole, " there have not been a more fantastic couple than his Grace and his faithful Duchess, who was never off her pillion." Pepys notes a visit of Charles II. to her Grace at Newcastle House, in April, 1667. Another eccentric inhabitant of Newcastle House was Elizabeth Duchess of Albcmarle, and after- wards of Montague. She was married in 1669 to Christopher Monck, second Duke of Albemarle, then a youth of 16, whom her inordinate pride drove to the bottle and other dissipation. After his death, in 1698, at Jamaica, the Duchess, whose vast estate so inflated her vanity as to produce mental aberration, resolved never again to give her hand to any but a sovereign prince.- She had many suitors ; but true to her resolution, she rejected them all, until Ralph Montague, third Lord and first Duke of that name, CLERKENWELL. 237 achieved the conquest by courting her as Emperor of China : and the anecdote has been dramatised by Colley Cibber, in his comedy of " The Double Gallant, or Sick Lady's Cure." Lord Montague married the lady as " Emperor," but afterwards played the truant, and kept her in such strict confinement, that her relations compelled him to produce her in open court, to prove that she was alive. Eichard Lord Ross, one of her rejected suitors, addressed to Lord Montague on his match : " Insulting rival, never boast From one that's under Bedlam's laws Thy conquest lately won ; What glory can be had ? No wonder that her heart was lost, For love of thee was not the cause : Her senses first were gone. It proves that she was mad." The Duchess survived her second husband nearly thirty years, and at last " died of mere old age," at ^Newcastle House, August 28, 1738, aged 96 years. Until her decease, she is said to have been constantly served on the knee as a sovereign. On the east side of the Close stood a large house, by unauthorized tradition said to have been inhabited by Oliver Cromwell ; but Cromwell-place, built upon the house- site, has been named from this story. Another inhabitant of the Close was Weever, the antiquary, who dates the Epistle to the first edition of his Ancient Funerall Monu- ments from his " House in Clerkenwell-close," May 28, 1631 : he died in the next year, and was buried in old St. James's Church. On Clerkenwell-green is the Middlesex Sessions-House (Rogers, architect), built in 1779-82 : it has a handsome east front, and a large hall, with a lofty dome. Here the County Sittings were re- moved from " Hicks's Hall," in St. John's-street, opposite the Windmill Inn, and named after Sir Baptist Hicks, of Kensington, one of the justices of the county, after- wards Viscount Campclen, who built the Hall in 1612; from this site, " the spot where Hicks's Hall formerly stood," the distances on the mile-stones on the Great North Road were formerly measured. In this Hall, the patriotic William, Lord Russell, was tried, 1683. In St. Johu's-lane are the remains of an Elizabethan house, with the sign of the Baptist's Head (probably in compliment to Sir Baptist Hicks) : it is said to have been frequented by Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith, in their transactions with Cave, the printer, at St. John's Gate ; and in the taproom is a fine old armorial chimney-piece, engraved in Archer's Vestiges of Old London, part iii. Upon the site of Back-hill and Ray-street was the Bear-garden of Hockley-in-the- Hole, not only the resort of the mob, but of noblemen and ambassadors, to witness the cruelties of bear and bull baiting by greater brutes, and " the noble science of defence ;" for, says Mrs. Peachum (Beggar's Opera), " You should go to Hockley-in-the-Hole to learn valour ;" but the nuisance was abolished soon after 1728. The locality, however, still retains its foul stain of moral degradation and squalid misery in its alleys and courts, several with but one narrow entrance ; and three-storied houses let in tene- ments, where men, women, and donkeys find shelter together. The tract immediately eastward of the Fleet River was rich in springs, many of them medicinal : hence Coldbath-fields, Bagnigge-wells, Sadler's-wells, Islington Spa, the London Spa, and the " Wells" of the earlier topographers. Spa-fields, the hot-bed of Radical riot in 1817, is now covered with streets. Bagnigge Wells was another of these springs, and became a place of public resort in 1767. Near the Pindar of Wakefield, in Gray's-inn-road, was Bagnigge House, a picturesque gabled house, covered with vines, traditionally said to have been the sum- mer residence of Nell Gwynne ; and here was a memorial stone, inscribed " This is Bagnigge House, near the Pindar of Wakefield, 1680." The Clerks' Well (whence the parish had its name), in Ray-street, now taken down, was left by gift by the Earl of Northampton, in 1673, for the use of the poor of St. James's parish, but was let by the authorities, for 40*. a year. The property was neglected, when the churchwardens, in 1800, placed here a pump, with a tablet, giving a brief historical account of the Well. Fitzstephen tells us that " London, in place of stage plays and scenic decorations, hath dramas of more sacred subjects representa- tions of those miracles which the holy confessors wrought ; or of the sufferings wherein the glorious constancy of martyrs did appear ;'' and it is an undoubted fact that sacred dramas were performed on this spot before the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I., which were the era of Fitzstephen. Cromwell, in his History of this parish, suggests that the observance of this custom here may be of more remote antiquity ; that Cierken being an Anglo-Saxon compound, the custom must be referred to that period. In Aggas's Civitas Londinensis, 1560, is a rude representation of the Clerks' Well in the time of Elizabeth ; it was the spring of St. Mary's Nunnery. The Clerks' Well be- \ 238 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. came neglected. Near it was the Skinners' Well, now no longer to be recognised, nor its precise situation determined. In a narrow thoroughfare leading from Baker's- row into Ray-street, is a small public-house, known as the Pickled Egg, from a former landlord selling here pickled eggs, such as are still prepared in Hants and Dorset. Charles II. is said to have halted here, and partaken of a pickled egg. The house had formerly a noted cockpit ; in 1775 there were cocking-matches here " between the gentlemen of London and Essex." West of Ray-street is Vine-street, formerly Mutton-hill, thought, in PinJcs's History of Clerkenwell, p. Ill, to be derived from the word meeting, anciently spoken moteing, in reference to the Clerks' Mote (Saxon) or meeting-place by the Well. Cold Bath-square, hard by, is named from the famous Cold Bath discovered here in 1697 : it ' is now surrounded with houses. In this square, near the Cold Bath, in 1733-36, lived Eustace Budgell, the relative and friend of Addison, for whom he wrote in the Spectator. Here, too, for ninety years, lived the eccentric " Lady Lewson." She died here, in 1816, at the reputed age of 116. At the corner of Cobham-row and Cold Bath-square, there stood to our day a noble horse-chestnut tree, which, tradition tells us, was one of a grove of trees that once grew here in the extensive grounds of the ill-fated Sir John Oldcastle, afterwards Lord Cobhaui, the great Reformer; and who, by the barbarous inhumanity and perse- cuting spirit of the age in which he lived, was hung in chains as a heretic, and burned in St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, in the year 1418, for his noble advocacy of the doctrines of Wyckliffe, and an alleged conspiracy against the government of Henry V. His family mansion became Sir John Oldcastle's Tavern; subsequently a Small-pox Hospital, specially for the reception of patients in the incipient stages of that disease, and such as caught it naturally. The building was afterwards reconstructed, and continued to be used as an hospital till 1795, when the charity was removed to the chief establish- ment at King's-cross. At a later period the property passed into the hands of the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion, when the hospital building was converted into private dwelling-houses, on the north side of the thoroughfare well known as Cobham- row. Mr. Pinks could not, however, trace Sir John Oldcastle's residence here. Watchmakers, clockmakers, and jewellers settled in Clerkenwell in great numbers early in the last century, and several streets are mostly occupied by them; as " escapement-maker," " engine-turner," " fusee-cutter," " springer," " secret-springer," " finisher," and " joint-finisher," inscribed upon door-plates, attest ; for in no trade is the division of labour carried to a greater extent than in watchmaking. (See ST. JOHN'S GATE.) The HMory of Clerkenicell had been compiled and written, with rare fidelity and minuteness, by William J. Pinks, who, dying before the completion of the work, it was finished by E. J. Wood; it originally appeared in the Clerkenwell Nevm, and was reproduced in a large handsome volume of 800 pages, by Mr. Peckburn, Myddelton House, Clerkenwell. The author spent six years in collecting his materials: and the editor nearly three years in his labours. The History is mainly the work of Mr. Pinks : it is one of those laborious results of devotedness, which can scarcely be overrated. The book is rich in sketches of eccentric persons, who seem to have abounded in Clerkenwell, from early times. CLIMATE OF LONDON. THE temperature of the air in the metropolis is raised by the artificial sources of heat existing in it no less than two degrees on the annual mean above that of its .mmediate vicinity. Mr. Howard, in his work on Climate, has fully established this fact, by a comparison of a long series of observations made at Plaistow, Stratford, and Tottenham Green (all within five miles of London), with those made at the apartments of the Royal Society in London, and periodically recorded in the Philosophical Transactions. In explanation, Mr. Howard refers to the heat induced by the population (just as the temperature of a hive of bees), and from the domestic fires, and from the foundries, breweries, steam-engines, and other manufactories. " When we consider that all these artificial sources of heat, with the exception of the domestic fires, continue in full operation throughout the summer, it should seem ^hat the excess of the London temperature must be still greater in June than it is in January, but the fact is other- wise. The excess of the City temperature is greater in winter, and at that period seems to belong entirely to the nights, which average 3'710 warmer than the country ; while the heat of the days, owing, without doubt, to the interception of a portion of CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 239 the solar rays by a constant veil of smoke, falls, on a mean of years, about a third of a degree short of that in the open plains." In the winter of 1835, Mr. W. H. White ascertained the temperature in the City to be 3 higher than three miles south of London Bridge ; and after the gas had been lighted in the City four or five hours, the temperature increased full 3, thus making 6 difference in the three miles. Dr. Prout found that when his observations were made during the prevalence of wind (his station being at the western extremity of London), the air blowing from the east contained a minute portion of oxygen less than that which blew from the west. The difference was exceedingly small; still, it tended to show that the air which has passed over the busy streets of the metropolis differs in its amount, not only of car- bonic acid, but also of oxygen, from the air which has not reached those scenes. Change of air in the metropolis is mostly effected by the mixture of the gases com- posing it. There are hundreds of places in London into which the wind never finds admission ; and even among the wider streets there are many through which a free current is rarely blown. It is only in the night, when combustion in some measure ceases, and the whole surface of the earth is cooled, that the gases are gradually re- moved, and the whole atmosphere of the City is brought nearly to an equality. Nothing, indeed, can be more striking than the difference even in the sensible qualities of the air of London in the early morning and in the evening : in the former it has a coolness and refreshing clearness, which those who know it in the heat of later hour can scarcely imagine. Every one has observed upon dirty windows in the metropolis small tree-like crystal- lizations : these consist of sulphate of ammonia, which is produced in the atmosphere by the burning of vast quantities of coal, combining with the sulphurous acid in the atmosphere. Owing to the smoke, many species of flowers (the yellow rose, for instance), will not bloom within ten miles of London ; Paris, on the contrary (where wood is almost universally burnt), produces the finest flowers, not alone in the gardens of the Tuileries and Luxembourg, but in the nursery-grounds of the famous rose-growers, Noisette and LafFay ; which, in the Faubourg St. Germain, enjoy advantages such as it would be necessary to retreat some miles from London to secure. In London, in sunny weather, some fine effects of light and shade may be witnessed in the neighbourhood of the public buildings. Miss Landon refers to a bright day in spring as " a very spendthrift of sunshine, when the darkest alley in London wins a golden glimpse, and the eternal mist around St. Paul's turns to a glittering haze." CLUSS AND CLUS-HOUSES. A LTHOUGH the Club was a social feature of the last century, to the preseut age is -Q- due the establishment of a system of Club Living upon a scale of splendour and completeness hitherto unattainable. Formerly the Club resembled an ill-appointed coffee-house or tavern ; often, however, redeemed by the brilliancy of the wit which was " wont to set the table in a roar," and animated by a conversational spirit com- paratively little indulged in the present day. There has been an excess of controversy and surmise as to the origin of the Club ; but neither of the guesses reaches the good sense of Addison, who truly said, "all celebrated Clubs were founded upon eating and drinking, which are points where most men agree, and in which the learned and the illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part." It has been pleasantly observed, that Clubs are gradually working as complete a revolution in the constitution of society as they have already effected in the archi- tectural appearance of our streets. In the year 1800, there were only White's, as old as Hogarth's time ; Brooks's and Boodle's ; the Cocoa-Tree, Graham's, and another : now there are nearly fifty Clubs, each possessing a well-appointed mansion. The facilities of living have been wonderfully increased by them, whilst the expense has been greatly diminished ; and for a few pounds a-year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no fortune except the most ample can procure. \ 240 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ALFRED CLUB, the, No. 23, Albemarle-street, established in 1808, is described by Earl Dudley, in his time, as the dullest place in existence, " the asylum of doting Tories and drivelling quidnuncs." It was at this Club that " Mr. Canning, whilst in the zenith of his fame, dropped in accidentally at a house-dinner of twelve or fourteen, stayed out the evening, and made himself remarkably agreeable, without any of the party suspecting who he was." (Quarterly Review, No. 110.) The Alfred had, ab initio, been remarkable for the number of travellers and men of letters, who formed a considerable proportion of its members. Yet, strangely enough, its cockney appellation was Half-read. Lord Byron was a member, and he tells us that " it was pleasant, a little too sober and literary, and bored with Sotheby and Francis D'lvernois ; but one met Rich, and Ward, and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known people ; and it was, in the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or Parliament, or in an empty season." The Alfred joined the Oriental in 1855. ALMACK'S CLUB, the original Brooks's, was founded in Pall Mall, in 1764 (on the site of what is now the British Institution), as a gaining Club. Some of its members were Maccaronis, the " curled darlings" of the day : they were so called from their affectation of foreign tastes and fashions, and were celebrated for their long curls and eye-glasses. "At Almack's," writes Walpole in 1770, "which has taken the^a* of White's, is worthy the decline of our empire, or commonwealth, which you please : the young men of the age lose ten, fifteen, twenty thousand pounds in an evening." The play at this gaming club was only for rouleaus of 501. each, and generally there was 10,OOOZ. in specie on the table. The gamesters began by pulling off their embroidered clothes, and put on frieze greatcoats, or turned their coats inside outwards for luck. They put on pieces of leather (such as are worn by footmen when they clean the knives) to save their laced ruffles ; and to guard their eyes from the light and to prevent tumbling their hair, wore high-crowned straw hats with broad brims, and adorned with flowers and ribbons; masks to conceal their emotions when they played at quinz. Each gamester had a small neat stand by him, to hold his tea ; or a wooden bowl with an edge of ormolu, to hold the rouleaus. Almack's was subsequently Goosetree's. In the year 1780, Pitt was then an habitual frequenter, and here his personal adherents mustered strongly. The members, we are told in the Life of Wilberforce, were about twenty-five in number, and included Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden), Lords Euston, Chatham, Graham, Duncannon, Althorp, Apsley, G. Cavendish, and Lennox ; Messrs. Eliot, Sir Andrew St. John, Bridgeman (afterwards Lord Bradford), Morris Robinson (afterwards Lord Rokeby), R. Smith (afterwards Lord Carrington), W. Grenville (afterwards Lord Grenville), Pepper Arden (afterwards Lord Alvanley) ; Mr. Edwards, Mr. Marsham, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Thomas Steele, General Smith, Mr. Windham. Gibbon, the historian, was a member, and he dated several letters from here. ALPINE CLUB, 8, St. Martin's-place, a small Society founded in order to bring to- gether those who, whether as explorers, artists, or men of science, take an interest in the Alps, or in any of the other great mountain ranges. During the winter and spring, meetings are held, at which are read papers descriptive of mountain excursions, glacier phenomena, and other cognate subjects. See the Alpine Journal. APOLLO CLUB was held at the Devil Tavern, Fleet-street, between Temple-bar and Middle Temple-gate, a house of great resort in the reign of Jamej I., and then kept by Simon Wadloe. Ben Jonson wrote The Devil is an Asse, played in 1616, when he " drank bad wine at the Devil." The principal room, called " the Oracle of Apollo," was spacious, and apart from the tavern. Above the door was a bust of Apollo; and at the entrance, in gold letters on a black board, was inscribed the famous " Welcome all, who lead or follow, To the Oracle of Apollo," &c. Beneath these verses was the name of the author, thus inscribed " Rare Ben Jonson," a posthumous tribute from his grave in Westminster Abbey. The bust appears modelled from the Apollo Belvedere, by some skilful person of the olden day, but has been several times painted. " The Welcome," originally inscribed in gold letters, on a thick black-painted board, has since been wholly repainted and gilded ; but the old thickly-lettered inscription of Ben's day may be seen as an embossment upon the modern painted background. These poetic memorials are both preserved in the banking-house of the Messrs. Child. CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 241 " The Welcome," says Mr. Burn, " it may be inferred, was placed in the interior of the room ; so also, above the fireplace, were the Rules of the Club, said by -early writers to have been inscribed iu marble, but were in truth gilded letters upon a black-painted board, similar to the verses of the Welcome. These Rules are justly admired for the conciseness and elegance of the Latinity." They have been felici- tously translated by Alexander Broome, one of the wits who frequented the Devil, and who was one of Ben Jonson's twelve adopted poetical sons. Latin inscriptions were also placed in other directions, to adorn the house; over the clock in the kitchen there remained one in 1731. In the Rules of theApollo Club, women of character were not excluded from attending the meetings. AEMY AXD NAVY CLUB-HOUSE, Pall Mall, corner of George-street, designed by Parnell and Smith, was opened February, 1851. The exterior is a combination from Sansovino's Palazzo Cornaro, and Library of St. Mark at Venice ; but varying in the tipper part, which has Corinthian columns, with windows resembling arcades filling up the intercolumns ; and over their arched headings are groups of naval and military symbols, weapons, and defensive armour very picturesque. The frieze has also effec- tive groups symbolic of the Army and N, by Decimus Burton, cost 26,0001. The style is Italian ; the ground- story is rusticated, and terminated by a lace band, or string-course, enriched with the Vitruvian scroll ; this forms a basement to three other stories, surmounted by a bold and enriched cornice. The principal floor has handsome balconies, Corinthian columns, and pediments ; but the whole fa9ade is too narrow for its height. The entrance is beneath a portico with coupled Doric columns. The building contains 77 chambers, coffee and dining-rooms, and offices. The whole is ventilated, and wanned by hot water, with complete skill ; and is supplied with water from a well 250 feet deep, which is raised to the attic story by a steam-engine, also employed for lifting coals, furniture, &c. The Chambers are let in suites by the proprietors. They occupy the site of a house built by Mr. Nash for Charles Blicke, Esq. ; it was filled with articles of vertu and superb decoration ; among which was a small circular temple, supported by Corinthian columns with brass capitals; and a conservatory embellished with models from Canova. Altogether, this was one of the most elaborately-decorated houses in the metropolis. COCOA- THEE CLUB, the, was the Tory Chocolate-house of Queen Anne's reign ; the 246 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Whig Coffee-house was the St. James's, lower down, in the same street, St. James's. The party distinction is thus defined : " A Whig will no more go to the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than a Tory will be seen at the coffee-house of St. James's." The Cocoa- tree Chocolate-house was converted into a Club, probably before 1746, when the house was the head-quarters of the Jacobite party in Parliament. Horace Walpole, in a letter to George Montagu, says : " The Duke has given Brigadier Mordaunt the Pretender's coach, on condition he rode up to London in it. That I will, sir,' said he ; ' and drive till it stops of its own accord at the Cocoa-tree.' " Gibbon was a member of this Club, and has left this entry, in his journal of 1*762 : " Nov. 24. I dined at the Cocoa-tree with * * *, who, under a great appearance of oddity, conceals more real humour, good sense, and even knowledge, than half those who laugh at him. We went thence to the play (The Spanish Friar) ; and, when it was over, retired to the Cocoa-tree. That respect- able body, of which I have the honour of being a member, aifords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps, of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and fortune, supping at little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of a coffee-room, upon a bit of cold meat, or a sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch. At present we are full of King's counsellors and lords of the bed- chamber, who, having jumped into the ministry, make a very singular medley of their old principles and language with their modern ones." Bribery, high play, and foul play, were common at the Cocoa-tree. Walpole tells, in 1780, of a cast at hazard here to 180,0002. The Cocoa-tree was one of the Clubs to which Lord Byron belonged. CONSERVATIVE CLTJB-HOUSE, on the site of the old Thatched House Tavern, 74, St. Jarnes's-street, was designed by Sydney Smirke and George Basevi, 1845. The upper portion is Corinthian, with columns and pilasters, and a frieze sculptured with the imperial crown and oak- wreaths ; the lower order is Koman Doric ; and the wings are slightly advanced, with an enriched entrance-porch north, and a bow-window south. The interior is superbly decorated in colour by Sang : the coved hall, with a gallery round it, and the domed vestibule above it, is a fine specimen of German encaustic embellishment, in the arches, soffites, spandrels, and ceilings ; and the hall floor is tesselated, around a noble star of marqueterie. The evening room, on the first floor, nearly 100 feet in length and 26 in breadth, has an enriched coved ceiling, and a beautiful frieze of the rose, shamrock, and thistle, supported by scagliola Corinthian columns ; the morning room, beneath, is of the same dimensions, with Ionic pillars. The library, in the upper story north, has columns and pilasters with bronzed capitals ; and beneath is the coffee-room. Here is no grained or imitative wood-work, the doors and fittings being wainscot-oak, bird's-eye maple, and sycamore. The kitchen is skilfully planned ; exceeding the Reform Club kitchen in completeness. This is the second Club of the Conservative party, and many of its chiefs are honorary members, but rarely enter it ; the late Sir Robert Peel is said never to have entered this Club-house, except to view the interior. COUNTY CLUB, the (Proprietary), 43 and 44, Albemarle-street, consists of noblemen, . members of the Church, the learned professions, officers of the army and navy, and gentlemen, without reference to political distinction. The Duke of Wellington, president of the committee, 1866. COVENTEY HOUSE CLUB (the AMBASSADOES') was at 106, Piccadilly : the mansion occupies the site of the old Greyhound Inn, and was bought by the Earl of Coventry of Sir Hugh Hunlock, in 1764, for 10,000/., and 75. per annum ground rent. CEOCKPOED'S CLUB-HOUSE, 50, west side of St. James's-street, was built for Crockford in 1827 ; B. and P. Wyatt, architect. It consists of two wings and a centre, with four Corinthian pilasters with entablature, and a balustrade throughout ; the ground- floor has Venetian windows, and the upper story large French windows. The entrance hall has a screen of Roman-Ionic scagliola columns with gilt capitals, and a cupola of gilding and stained glass. The coffee-room and library have Ionic columns, from the Temple of Minerva Polias ; the staircase is panelled with scagliola, and enriched with Corinthian columns. The grand drawing-room is in the style of Louis Quatorze : azure ground, with elaborate cove, ceiling enrichments bronze-gilt, doorway paintings a la Watteau ; and panelling, masks, and terminals heavily gilt. The interior was redecorated in 1849, and opened for the Military, Naval, and County Service Club, but was closed in 1851. It is now " the Wellington" Dining-rooms. CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 247 Crockford started in life as a fishmonger, in the old bulk-shop next door to Temple Bar Without, which he quitted for " play " in St. James's. He began by taking Watier's old Club-house, where he set up a hazard-bank, and won a great deal of money ; he then separated from his partner, who had a bad year, and failed. Crockford now removed to St. James's-street, had a good year, and built the magnificent Club-house which bore his name; the decorations alone are said to have cost him 94,0002. The election of the Club members was vested in a committee; the house appointments were superb, and Ude was engaged as maitre d'hotel. "Crockford's" now became the high fashion. Card-tables were regularly placed, and whist was played occasionally ; but the aim, end, and final cause of the whole was the hazard-bank, at which the proprietor took his nightly stand, prepared for all comers. His speculation was eminently successful. During several years, everything that any body had to lose and cared to risk was swallowed up ; and Crockford became a millionaire. He retired in 1840, " much as an Indian chief retires from a hunting country when there is not game enough left for his tribe ;" and the Club then tottered to its fall. After Crockford's death, the lease of the Club-house (thirty-two years, rent 140W.) was sold for 29001. DILETTANTI SOCIETY originated in 1734, with a party of Dilettanti (lovers of the fine arts), who had travelled or resided in Italy. In 1764, they commissioned certain artists to journey to the East, to illustrate its antiquities ; and by the aid of the Society several important works, including Stuart's Athens, have been published. The Dilettanti met at Parsloe's, in St. James's-street, whence they removed to the Thatched House, in 1799, where they dined on Sundays from February to July. In the list of members, between 1770 and 1790, occur the names of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Earl Pitz- william, Charles James Fox, Hon. Stephen Fox (Lord Holland), Hon. Mr. Fitzpatrick, Charles Howard, Duke of Norfolk, Lord Robert Spencer, George Selwyn, Colonel Fitzgerald, Hon. H. Conway, Joseph Banks, Duke of Dorset, Sir William Hamilton, David Garrick, George Colman, Joseph Windham, K. Payne Knight, Sir George Beaumont, Towneley, and others of less posthumous fame. The funds of the Society were largely benefited by the payment of fines. Those paid " on increase of income, by inheritance, legacy, marriage, or preferment," are very odd: as, five guineas by Lord Grosvenor, on his marriage with Miss Leveson Gower; eleven guineas by the Duke of Bedford, on being appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; ten guineas compounded for by Bubb Dodiugton, as Treasurer of the Navy ; two guineas by the Duke of Kingston for a Colonelcy of Horse (then valued at 400. per annum) ; twenty-one pounds by Lord Sandwich on going out as Ambassador to the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle ; and twopence three-farthings by the same noble- man, on becoming Recorder of Huntingdon ; thirteen shillings and fourpence by the Duke of Bedford, on getting the Garter ; and sixteen shillings and eightpence (Scotch) by the Duke of Buccleuch, on getting the Thistle ; twenty -one pounds by the Earl of Holdernesse, as Secretary of State ; and nine pounds, nineteen shillings and sixpence, by Charles James Fox, as a Lord of the Admiralty. The Society, in 1835, included, among a list of sixty-four names, those of Sir William Gell, Mr. Towneley, Richard Westmacott, Henry Hallam, the Duke of Bedford, Sir M. A. Shee, P.B.A., Henry T. Hope ; and Lord Prudhoe, afterwards Duke of Northumberland. The Dilettanti have never built themselves a mansion. They continued to meet at the Thatched House Tavern, the large room of which was hung with portraits of the Dilettanti. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted for the Society three capital pictures : 1. A group, in the manner of Paul Veronese, containing the portraits of the Duke of Leeds, Lord Dnndas, Constantine Lord Mulgrave, Lord Seaforth, the Hon. Charles Greville, Charles Crowle, Esq., and Sir Joseph Banks. 2. A group, in the manner of the same master, containing portraits of Sir William Hamilton, Sir Watkin W. Wynne, Kichard Thomson, Ksq., Sir John Taylor, Payne Galway, Esq., John Smythe, Esq., and Spencer S. Stanhope, Esq. 3. Head of Sir Joshua, dressed in a loose lobe, in his own hand. The earlier portraits in the collection are by Hudson, Reynolds's master. There is a mixture of the convivial in the portraits j many are using wine-glasses, and of a small size. Lord Sandwich, in a Turkish costume, has a brimming goblet in his left hand, and a capacious flask in his right. Sir Bourchier Wray is mixing punch in the cabin of a ship ; the Earl of Holdernesse, in a red cap, as a gondolier, Venice in the background ; Charles Sackville, Duke of Dorset, as a Roman senator, dated 1738 ; Lord Galloway, in the dress of a Cardinal ; Lord Le Despencer as a monk at bis devo- tions. The late Lord Aberdeen, the Marquises of Northampton and Lansdowne, Colonel Lecky, Mr. Broderip, and Lord Northwick, were members. The Society now meet at the Clarendon Hotel ; the Thatched House being taken down. An excellent account of the Dilettanti Society will be found in the Edinburgh Review, No. 214. The character of the Club, however, became changed ; the members being originally persons almost exclusively devoted to art and antiquarian studies. The Dilettanti are now a publishing society, like the Roxburghe, the Camden, and others. EAST INDIA UNITED SERVICE CI/PB-HOUSE, St. Jarnes's-square, was erected iu 248 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. I860, upon the site of two houses, No. 14 and 15. The style is handsome Italian; architect, Charles Lee. The East India United Service Club was founded, in 1848, to meet the wants of the various services which administer the Indian Government. It has, however, gradually lost its exclusively Indian character, especially since the transfer of our Eastern Empire to the Queen, and it has now on its rolls many officers belonging to the home forces. The Club numbers upwards of 1760 members, of whom generally about 800 are in England. The new building has been designed to accommodate over 1000 members. The classic facade next the new Club-house was built by Athenian Stuart for Lord Anson ; and No. 15 was the residence of Lady Francis, who lent the house to Caroline, Queen of George IV. ECCENTRIC CLUBS. In Ward's Secret History, we read of the Golden Fleece Club, a rattle-brained society, originally held at a house in Cornhill, so entitled. They were a merry company of tippling citizens and jocular change-brokers. Each member on his admission had a characteristic name assigned to him ; as, Sir Timothy Addlepate, Sir Nimmy Sneer, Sir Talkative Do-little, Sir Skinny Fretwell, Sir Rumbus Rattle, Sir Boozy Prate-all, Sir Nicholas Ninny Sipall, Sir Gregory Growler, Sir Pay-little, &c. The Club flourished until the decease of the leading member ; when they adjourned to the Three Tuns, Southwark. " It appears, by their books in general, that, since their first institution, they have smoked fifty tons of tobacco, drunk thirty thousand butts of ale, one thousand hogsheads of red port, two hundred barrels of brandy, and one kilderkin of small beer. There had been likewise a great consumption of cards." ECCENTBICS, THE. Late in the last century, there met at a tavern kept by one Fulham, in Chandos-street, Covent-garden, a convivial club called " The Eccentrics," which was an offshoot of " The Brilliants." They next removed to Tom Rees's, in May's-buildings, St. Martin's-lane ; and here they were flourishing at all hours, some five-and-twenty years since. Amongst the members were many celebrities of the literary and political world ; they were always treated with indulgence by the authori- ties. An inaugural ceremony was performed upon the making of a member, which terminated with a jubilation from the president. The books of the Club, up to the time of its removal from May's-buildings, are stated to have passed into the possession of Mr. Lloyd, the hatter, of the Strand, who, by the way, was eccentric in his business, and published a small work descriptive of the various fashions of hats worn in his time, illustrated with characteristic engravings. From its commencement, the Eccentrics are said to have numbered upwards of 40,000 members, many of them holding high social position : among others, Fox, Sheridan, Lord Melbourne, and Lord Brougham. On the same memorable night that Sheridan and Lord Petersham were admitted, Hook was also enrolled ; and through this Club membership, Theodore is believed to have obtained some of his high connexions. In a novel, published in numbers, some five-and-twenty years since, the author, F. W. N. Bayley, sketched with graphic vigour the meetings of the Eccentrics at the old tavern in May's-buildings. Club Lije of London, vol. i. p. 308, 1866. EHECHTHEIUM CLUB-HOUSE, was in St. James's-square (entrance, 8, York-street), and was the house of Wedgwood, whose beautiful " ware" was shown in its rooms. It was formerly the site of RoniDey House ; and from its windows William III. used to witness the fireworks in the Square at public rejoicings. The Club, long extinct, was established by Sir John Dean Paul, Bart., the banker, and became somewhat noted for its good dinners. ESSEX HEAD CLUB, the, was established by Dr. Johnson, at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, Strand, then kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's : it was called "Sam's." Sir Joshua Reynolds refused to join it; but Daines Barrington, Dr. Brocklesby, Arthur Murphy, John Nichols, Dr. Hursley, and Mr. Windham, and Boswell, were of the Club. Dr. Johnson wrote the Rules, when he invented the word " clubbable." Alderman Clark, Lord Mayor and Chamberlain, was, probably, the last surviving member of this Club; he died in 1831, aged 92. FAEMEKS' CLUB, the, originally formed at the York Hotel, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, " open to practical farmers and scientific men of all countries," has now a handsome Club- house (the Salisbury Hotel), Salisbury-square, Fleet-street; architect, Giles ; built 1865. CLUBS AND OLUB-KOU8E8. 249 FIELDINO CI/IJB, Maiden-lane, Covent-garden. Albert Smith was a leading mem- ber ; and the Club gave several amateur representations " for the immediate relief of emergencies in the literary or theatrical world." FOTJB-IN-HAND CLUB, the, originated some seventy years ago, when the Hon. Charles Finch, brother to the Earl of Aylesford, used to drive his own coach-and-four, disguised in a livery great-coat. Soon after, " Tommy Onslow," Sir John Lade, and others, mounted the box in their own characters. The Four-in-Hand combined gastronomy with equestrianism and charioteering : they always drove out of town to dinner. The vehicles of the Club which were formerly used, are described as of a hybrid class, quite as elegant as private carriages, and lighter than even the mails. They were horsed with the finest animals that money could secure. In general, the whole four in each carriage were admirably matched; grey and chestnut were the favourite colours, but occasionally very black horses, or such as were freely flecked with white, were preferred. The master generally drove the team, often a nobleman of high rank, who commonly copied the dress of a mail-coachman. The company usually rode outside, but two footmen in rich liveries were indispensable on the back seat ; nor was it at all uncommon to see some splendidly-attired female on the box. A rule of the Club was, that all members should turn out three times a week ; and the start was made at mid-day, from the neighbourhood of Piccadilly, through which they passed to the Windsor-road the attendants of each carriage playing on their silver bugles. From twelve to twenty of these handsome vehicles often left London together. Forty years back, there were from thirty -four to forty four-in-hand equipages to be seen con- stantly about town. Their number is now considerably less. GAEEICK CLTTB-HOFSE, Garrick-street, Covent Garden, contains a collection of theatrical paintings and drawings, assembled by Charles Mathews, the elder, and be- queathed by a member of the Club : they include : Elliston as Octavian, by Singleton; Macklin (aged 93), by Opie; Mrs. Pritchard, by Hayman; Peg "Wellington, by E. Wilson; Nell Gvvynne, by Sir Peter Lely; Mrs. Abington; Samuel Foote, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Colley Gibber as Lord Foppington; Mrs. Bracegirdle; Kitty Clive; Mrs. Robinson, after Reynolds; Garrick as Macbetb, and Mrs. Pritehard, Lady Macbeth, by Zoffany; Garrick as Richard III., by Morland, sen. ; Young Roscius, by Opie; Quin, by Hogarth; Rich and his Family, by Hogarth; Charles Mathews, four characters, by Harlowe; Nat Lee, painted in Bedlam; Anthony Leigh as the Spanish Friar, by Kneller ; John Liston, by Clint; Munden, by Opie ; John Johnstone, by Shee; Lacy in three characters, by Wright ; Scene from Charles II., by Clint ; Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth, by Harlowe; J. P. Kemble as Cato, by Lawrence; Macready as Henry IV., by Jackson; Edwin, by Gains- borough ; the twelve of the School of Garrick ; Kean, Young, Elliston, and Mrs. Inchbald, by Harlowe ; Garrick as Richard III., by Loutherbourg ; Rich as Harlequin ; Moody and Parsons in the " Committee," by Vandergucht; King as Touchstone, by Zoffany; Thomas Dpgget; Henderson, by Gainsborough; Elder C'olman, by Reynolds ; Mrs. Oldfield, by Kneller : Mrs. Billingtpn ; Nancy Dawson ; Screen Scene from the " School for Scandal," as originally cast; Scene from " Venice Preserved " (Garrick and Mrs. Cibber), by Zoffany; Scene from "Macbeth" (Henderson); Scene from "Love, Law, and Physic" (Mathews, Liston, Blanchard, and Emery), by Clint; Scene from the " Clandestine Marriage" (King and Mr. and Mrs. Baddeley), by Zoffany ; Weston as Billy Button, by Zoffany. The following have been presented to the Club: Busts of Mrs. Siddons and J. P. Kemble, by Mrs. Siddons ; of Garrick, Captain Marryat, Dr. -Kitchiner, and Malibran ; Garrick, by Roubiliac ; Griffin and Johnson in the " Alchemist," by Von Bleeck ; miniatures of Mrs. Robinson and Peg Woffington ; Sketch of Kean, by Lambert ; Gar- rick Mulberry-tree Snuff-box ; Joseph Harris as Cardinal Wolsey, from the Strawberry-hill Collection ; proof print of the Trial of Queen Katharine, by Harlowe. In the Smoking-room is a splendid sea-piece, by Stanfield ; and Balbec, by David Roberts ; portrait of R. Keeley, by O'Neil ; Frederick Yates and Mrs. Davison ; also a statuette of Thackeray ; and a most valuable collection of theatrical prints. The pictures may he seen by the personal introduction of a member of the Club on Wednesdays (except in September), between eleven and three o'clock. The Garrick Club was instituted in 1831, " for the general patronage of the Drama ; the formation of a Theatrical Library, and Works, and Costume; and for bringing together the pairons of the Drama," &c. The Garriclc is noted for its summer gin-punch, thus made : Pour half-a-pint of gin on the outer peel of a lemon, then a little lemon-juice, a glass of maraschino, a pint and a quarter of water, and two bottles of iced soda-water. The Club originally met at 29, King-street, Covent Garden, previously " Probatt's" hotel. The old place, inconvenient as it was, will long preserve the interest of associa- tion for the older members of the Garrick. From James Smith (of Rejected Ad- dresses) to Thackeray, there is a long series of names of distinguished men who have marie the Garrick their favourite haunt, and whose memories are connected with those rooms. The Club removed to their present mansion, built for them ; Marrable, architect. The style is elegant Italian. 250 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. GEESHAM CLUB-HOUSE, St. Swithin's-lane, King William-street, City, was built in 1844, for the Club named after Sir Thomas Gresham, who founded the Royal Ex- change. The Club consists chiefly of merchants and professional men. The style of the Club-house (H. Flower, architect) is Italian, from portions of two palaces in Venice. GRILLION'S CLUB, of which the Fiftieth Anniversary was celebrated, May 6, 1863, by a banquet at the Clarendon, the Earl of Derby in the chair, was founded half a century since, by the Parliamentary men of the time, as a neutral ground on which they might meet. Politics are strictly excluded from the Club : its name is derived from Grillion's Hotel, in Albemarle-street, at which the Club originally met. On Jan. 30, 1860, there was sold at Puttick and Simpson's a series of seventy-nine portraits of members of this Club, comprising statesmen, members of the Government, and other highly distinguished persons during the last half century. These portraits, all of which were private plates, were engraved by Lewis, after drawings by J. Slater and G. Richmond. There were also four duplicate portraits, a vignette title, Rules of the Club, and list of its members. In this list, the only original surviving members are four. Notes and Queries, 3rd S. ; May 23, 1863. The members present at the 60th Anniversary were the Earl of Derby, K.G., chairman, sup- ported by the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.; the Earls of St. Germans, G.C.B., of Devon, of Clarendon, K.G., G.C.B., of Carnarvon, of Harrowby, K.G., Somers, and of Gosford; Viscounts Sydney, G.C.B., and Eversley ; the Bishop of Oxford ; Lords Stanley, Elcho, Bobert Cecil, Clinton, Lyttclton, Wodehouse, Monteagle, Cranworth, Ebury, Chelmsford, and Taunton; the Secretaries of State for the Home and Indian Departments; the Hoiis. John Ashley, E. Pleydell Bouverie, and G. M. Fottescue; the Eight Hons. Sir P. Baring, Sir Thomas Premantle, Spencer Walpole, Edward Cardwell, Sir Edmund Head, and C. B. Adderley ; Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood ; the Lord Advocate ; Sirs P. De Grey Egerton, Thomas Dyke Acland, W. Heathcote, James East, J. Shaw Lefevre, K.C.B., and Hugh Cairns ; Messrs. Hastings Russell and Thomas Dyke Acland ; Colonel Wilson Patten ; Messrs. Baring, Buller, Childers, C. C. Greviile, Monckton Milnes, Morier, Ker Seymer, W. Stirling, Wrightson, and Richmond. The undermentioned members were unavoidably absent : The Marquis of Westminster, K.G. ; Earls De Grey, Russell, and Grosvenor ; Viscounts Sandon, Stratford de RedcUfie, G.C.B., and Lovaine; Lord Kingsdowu, the Hon. R. Curzon, Sir C. Lemon, Sir Roundell Palmer, and the Rev. H. Wellesley. GUARDS' CLUB, the, was formerly housed in St. James's-street, next Crockford's; but, in 1850, they removed to Pall Mall, No. 70. The new Club-house was designed for them by Henry Harrison, and is remarkable for compactness and convenience. The architect has adopted some portion of a design of Sansovino's in the lower part or basement. INDEPENDENTS, the, established in 1780, was a Club of about forty members of the House of Commons, opponents of the Coalition Ministry, whose principle of union was a resolution to take neither place, pension, nor peerage. In a few years, Wilberforce and Bankes were the only ones of the incorruptible forty who were not either peers, pensioners, or placemen. IVY-LANE CLUB, Paternoster-row, was formed by Dr. Johnson ; his friend, Dr. Richard Bathurst ; Hawksworth j and Hawkins, the attorney, afterwards Sir John Hawkins. The Club was shut up the year before Johnson's death. About this time he instituted a Club at the Queen's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard. JUNIOR CARLTON, the, was instituted in 1864, and " is a political Club in strict con- nexion with the Conservative party, and designed to promote its objects. The only persons eligible for admission are those who profess Conservative principles, and ac- knowledge the recognised leaders of the Conservative party," which Rule each mem- ber, on joining, signs. The Club is temporarily located at 14, Regent-street ; but a freehold site on the north side of Pall Mall has been secured for a new Club-house, to cost 37,000^., and to be ready in 1868. The Club, in May, 1866, consisted of 1624 members ; the subscriptions in 1865 amounted to 17,OS1Z. ; cost of wines and spirits, 3109Z. ; cigars, 458/. KING OF CLUBS, the, set on foot about 1801, by Bobus Smith (brother of Sydney), met at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand. Among the members were " Conver- sation Sharp ;" Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger ; Rogers, the poet ; honest John Allen; Dumont, the French emigrant; Wishart, and Charles Butler. Curran often met Erskine here. KIT-EAT CLUB, a society of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen, zealously attached to the Protestant succession in the House of Hanover. The Club is said to have originated about 1700, in Shire-lane, Temple Bar, at the house of Christopher Kat, a CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 251 pastrycook, where the members dined : he excelled in making muttou-pies, always in the bill of fore, and called Kit-kats ; hence the name of the Society. Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, was secretary. Among the members were the Dukes of Somerset, Rich- mond, Grafton, Devonshire, and Marlborough; and (after the accession of George I.) the Duke of New- castle, the Earls of Dorset, Sunderland, Manchester, Wharton, and Kingston ; Lords Halifax and Somers; Sir Robert Walpole, Garth, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Granville.Addison, Maynwarinu, Stepney, and Walsh. Pope tells us that " the day Lord Mohun and the Earl of Berkeley were entered of the Club, Jacob said he saw they were just going to be ruined. When Lord Mohun broke down the gilded emblem on the top of his chair, Jacob complained to his friends, and said that a man who could do that would cut a man's throat. So that he had the good and the forms of the Society at heart. The paper was all in Lord Halifax's writing, of a subscription of 400 guineas for the encouragement of good comedies, and was dated 1709. Soon after that they broke up." (Spence's Anecdotes.) Tonson had his own and all their portraits painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller ; each member gave him his ; and, to suit the room, a shorter canvas was used (viz., 36 by 28 inches), but sufficiently long to admit a hand, and still known as the Kit- kat size. The pictures, 42 in number, were removed to Tonson's seat at Barn Elms, where he built a handsome room for their reception. At his death in 1736, Tonson left them to his great-nephew, also an eminent bookseller, who died in 1767. The pictures were then removed to the house of his brother, at Water-Oakley, near Windsor ; and, on his death, to the house of Mr. Baker, of Hertingfordbury, where they now remain. Walpole speaks of the Club as " the patriots that saved Britain," as having " its beginning about the Trial of the Seven Bishops in the reign of James II.," and consisting of "the most eminent men who opposed the reign of that arbitrary monarch." Garth wrote some verses for the toasting-glass of the Club, which have immortalized four of the reigning beauties at the commencement of the last century : the Ladies Carlisle, Essex, Hyde, and Wharton. Halifax similarly commemorated the charms of the Duchesses of St. Albans, Beaufort, and Richmond ; Ladies Sunderland and Mary Churchill ; and Mdlle. Spanheime. LAW lysTiTUTioy, the, west side of Chancery-lane, was built in 1832 (Vulliamy, architect), for the Law Society of the United Kingdom ; and combines a valuable library with a hall and office of registry, with Club accommodation. The Chancery- lane front has a Grecian-Ionic portico, with a pediment of considerable beauty ; and the Club front in Bell-yard resembles that of an Italian palace. The Society consists of attorneys, solicitors, and proctors practising in Great Britain and Ireland, and of Writers to the Scottish Signet and Courts of Justice ; and certificates of attorneys and solicitors must be registered here before granted by the Commissioners of Stamps. Law lectures, limited to one hour, are delivered here during term in the Great Hall. LITERARY CLTJB, the, was founded in 1764 by a knot of good and great men, who met at the Turk's Head Tavern, in Soho, first at the corner of Greek-street and Comp- ton-street, and subsequently iu Gerard-street, the founders being Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Johnson. The members were limited to nine, including Reynolds, Johnson, Hawkins, and Burke, and Goldsmith, notwithstanding Hawkins's objection to Oliver as " a mere literary drudge." The members met one evening at seven for supper, in 1772. The supper was changed to a dinner, and the members increased to twenty, and it was at length resolved that it should never exceed forty. In 1783 the land- lord died, and the tavern was converted into a private house. The members then re- moved to Prince's, in Sackville-street ; and on this house being soon shut up they removed to Baxter's, afterwards Thomas's, in Dover-street. In 1792 they removed to Parsloe's, in St. James's-street, and thence to the Thatched House, in the same street. The reader will recollect Lord Chancellor Thurlow's rough reply to the prim Peer, who, in a debate in the House of Lords, having pompously cited certain resolutions passed by a party of noblemen and gentlemen at the Thatched House, said, " As to what the noble Lord in the red ribbon told us he had heard at the ale-house," &c. From the time of Garrick's death, the Club was known as " The Literary Club," since which it has certainly lost its claim to this epithet. It was originally a club of authors ty profession ; it now numbers few except titled members, which was very far from the intention of the founders. The name of the Club is now " The Johnson." The centenary of the Club was commemorated in 1864 at the Clarendon, when were present in the ' chair, the Dean of St. Paul's ; his Excellency M. van de Weyer, Earls Clarendon and Stanhope, the Bishops of London and Oxford ; Lords Brougham, Stanley, Cranworth, Kingsdown, and Harry Vane ; the Right Hon. Sir Edmund Head, Spencer Walpole, and Robert Lowe ; Sir Henry Holland, Sir C. East- lake, Sir Roderick Murchison, Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood, the Master of Trinity, Professor Owen, Mr. G. Grote, Mr. C. Austen, Mr. H. Reeve, and Mr. G. Richmond. Among the few members prevented from attending were the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Carlisle, Earl Russell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Overstone, Lord Glenelg, and Mr. W. Stirling. Mr. N. W. Senior, who was the political economist of the Club, died a few days previously. The Secretary is Dr. Milman, Dean of St. Paul's ; who keeps the books and archives of the Club; the autographs are valuable. Among the me- morials is the portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with spectacles on, which he painted and presented to the Club. See Club Ltfe of London, vol. i. pp. 204218. 1866. 252 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. MERMAID CLUB, the, was long said to have been held in Friday-street, Cheap- side; but Ben Jonson has settled it in Bread-street; and Mr. \V. Hunter, in his Notes on Shalcspeare, has, in a schedule of 1603, " Mr. Johnson, at the Mermaid, in Bread-street." Mr. Burn, in the Beaufoy Catalogue, explains : " The Mermaid in Bread-street, the Mermaid in Friday-street, and the Mermaid in Cheap, were all one and the same. The tavern, situated behind, had a way to it from these thoroughfares, but was nearer to Bread-street than Friday-street." Mr. Burn adds, in a note, " The site of the Mermaid is clearly defined, from the circumstance of W. R., a haberdasher of small wares, ' 'twixt Wood-street and Milk-street,' adopting the same sign ' over against the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside.' " The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire. Here Sir Walter Ealeigh is traditionally said to have instituted " The Mermaid Club." Gifford has thus described the Club, adopting the tradition and the Friday-street location: "About this time [1603J Jonson probably began to acquire that turn for conviviality for which he was afterwards noted, Sir Walter Raleigh, previously to his unfortunate engagement with the wretched Cobham and others, had instituted a meeting of beaux espriti at the Mermaid, a celebrated tavern in Friday-street. Of this Club, which combined more talent and genius than ever met together before or since, our author wa " the wits attended it under his presidency, and you will have made a real contribution to our knowledge of Shakspeare's time, even if you fail to show that our Poet was a member of that Club." The tradition, it is thought, must be added to the long list of Shakspearian doubts. Nevertheless, Fuller has described the wit-combats between Shakspeare and Ben Jonson, which he beheld meaning with his mind's eye ; for he was only eight years old when Shakspeare died. Club Life of London, vol. i. p. 91. 1866. MULBEBBIES, the, a Club originated in 1824, at the Wrekin Tavern, Covent- garden, with the regulation that some paper, or poem, or conceit, bearing upon Shakspeare, should be contributed by each member. Hither came Douglas Jerrold and Laman Blanchard, William Godwin, Kenny Meadows ; Elton, the actor ; and Chatfield, the artist ; " that knot of wise and jocund men, then unknown, but gaily struggling." The Mulberries' Club gathered a number of contributions, " mulberry- leaves," but they have not been printed. The name of the Club was changed to the Shakspeare, when it was joined by Charles Dickens, Justice Talfburd, Maclise, Macready, Frank Stone, &c. The Mulberries' meetings are embalmed in Jerrold's Cakes and Ale. There were other Clubs of this class, as the Gratis and the Rationals, the Hooks and Eyes and Our Club. MUSEUM CLUB, the, at the north end of Northumberland-street, was established in 1847, as " a properly modest and real literary Club." Jerrold, and Mahony (Father Prout) enjoyed their " intellectual gladiatorship" at the Museum ; but its life was brief. NATIONAL CLUB-HOUSE, 1, Whitehall-gardens, has a noble saloon, 80 feet in length, hung with large tapestry pictures, in the manner of Teniers : they are of considerable age, yet fresh in colour. NATAL CLUB, THE ROYAI, originated as follows : About the year 1674, according to a document in the possession of Mr. Fitch, of Norwich, a Naval Club was started " for the improvement of a mutuall Society, and an encrease of Love and Kindness amongst them ;" and that consummate seaman, Admiral Sir John Kempthorne, was declared Steward of the institution. This was the precursor of the Royal Naval Club of 1765, which, whether considered for its amenities or its extensive charities, may be justly cited as a model establishment. (Admiral Smyth's Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club, p. 9.) The members of this Club annually distribute a con- siderable sum among the distressed widows and orphans of those who have spent their days in the naval service of their country. The Club was accustomed to dine together at the Thatched House Tavern, on the anniversary of the Battle of the Nile. It is confined exclusively to members of the Naval Service : it "has numbered among its members men from the days of Boscawen, Rodney, and the ' first of June' downwards. It was a favourite retreat for William IV. when Duke of Clarence; and his comrade, Sir Philip Durham, the survivor of Nelson, and almost the last of the " old school," frequented it. CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 253 NAVAL AND MILITARY CLUB, the, 94, Piccadilly Cambridge House, the town residence of the late Viscount Palmerston. NOVIOITAGIANS. The more convivially-disposed members of learned London Socie- ties have, from time to time, formed themselves into Clubs. The Eoyals have done so, ab initio. The Antiquaries appear to have given up their Club and their Anniver- sary Dinner ; but certain of the Fellows, resolving not to remain impransi, many years since, formed a Club, styled " Noviomagians," from the identification of the Roman station of Noviomagus being just then reputedly discovered. One of the Club-founders was Mr. A. J. Kempe; and Mr. Crofton Croker was president more than twenty years. Lord Londesborough, Mr. Corner, the Southwark antiquary, and Mr. Fairholt, were also Noviomagians; and in the present Club-list are Sir William Betham, Mr. Godwin, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Lemon, &c. The Members dine together once a month, during the season. Joking minutes are kept, among which are found many known names, either as visitors or associates : Theodore Hook, Sir Henry Ellis, Britton, Dickens, Thackeray, John Bruce, Jordan, Planche', Bell, Maclise, &e. The wits have found Arms for the Club, with a butter-boat rampant for the crest. In 1855, Lord Mayor Moon, F.S.A., entertained the Noviomagians at the Mansion House. OCTOBER CLUB, named from its " October ale," was formed at the Bell Tavern, King- street, Westminster, and, in 1710, were for impeaching every member of the Whig party, and for turning out every placeman who did not wear their colours, and shout their cries. Swift was great at the October Club : in a letter, February 10, 1710-11, he says : " We are plagued here with an October Club ; that is, a set of above a hundred Parliament-men of the country, who drink October beer at home, and meet every evening at a tavern near the Parliament, to consult'affairs, and drive things on to extremes against the Whigs, to call the old ministry to account, and get off five or six heads." Swift's Advice humbly offered to the Members of the October C'ub had the desired efi'eet of softening some, and convincing others, until the whole body of malcontents was first divided and finally dissolved. The red-hot " tantivies," for whose loyalty the October Club was not thorough-going enough, seceded from the original body, and formed the March Club, more Jacobite and rampant in its hatred of the Whigs than the Society from which it branched. ORIENTAL CLUB, the, was established in 1824, by Sir John Malcolm, the traveller and brave soldier. The members were noblemen and gentlemen associated with the administration of our Eastern empire, or who had travelled or resided in Asia, at St. Helena, in Egypt, at the Cape of Good rfope, the Mauritius, or at Constantinople. The Oriental was erected in 1827-8, by B. and P. Wyatt, and has the usual Club cha- racteristic of only one tier of windows above the ground-floor; the interior has since been redecorated and embellished by Collman. The Alfred, in 1855, joined the Oriental, which had been designated by hackney-coachmen as " the Horizontal Club." "Enter it," said the New Monthly Magazine, some thirty years since, "it looks like an hospital, in which a smell of curry-powder pervades the 'wards' wards filled with venerable patients, dressed in nankeen shorts, yellow stockings and gaiters, and facings to match. There may still be seen pigtails in all their pristine perfection. It is the region of calico shirts, returned writers, and guinea-pigs grown into bores. Such is the nabolery into which Harley -street, Wimpole-street, and Gloucester-place daily empty their precious stores of bilious humanity." Time has blunted the point of this satiric picture, the individualities of which had passed away, even before the amal- gamation of the Oriental with the Alfred. OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CLUB-HOUSE, 71, Pall Mall, for members of the two Universities, was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., and his brother, Sydney Smirke, 1835-8. The Pall Mall facade is 80 feet in width by 75 in height, and the rear lies over against the court of Marlborough House. The ornamental detail is very rich : as the entrance-portico, with Corinthian columns ; the balcony, with its panels of metal foliage ; and the ground-story frieze, and arms of Oxford and Cambridge Universities over the portico columns. The upper part of the building has a delicate Corinthian entablature and balustrade ; and above the principal windows are bas-reliefs in panels, executed in cement by Nicholl, from designs by Sir R. Smirke, R. A. Centre panel : Minerva and Apollo presiding on Mount Parnassus ; and the river Helicon, surrounded by the Muses. Extreme panels : Homer singing to a warrior, a female, and a youth ; Virgil singing his Georgics to a group of peasants. Other four panels: Milton reciting to his daughter; Shakspeare attended by Tragedy and Comedy ; Newton explaining his system ; Bacon, his philosophy. Beneath the ground-floor is a basement of offices, and an entresol or mezzanine of chambers. The principal apartments are tastefully decorated : the drawing-room is 254 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. panelled with papier-mache; and the libraries are filled with book-cases of beautifully- marked Russian birch-wood. From the library rearward is a view of Marlborough House and its gardens. PALL MALL was noted for its tavern Clubs more than two centuries since. " The first time that Pepys mentions Pell Mell," writes Cunningham, " is under the 26th of July, 1660, where he says, ' We went to Wood's' (our old house for clubbing), ' and there we spent till ten at night.' This is not only one of the earliest references to Pall Mall as an inhabited locality, but one of the earliest uses of the word ' clubbing/ in its modern signification of a Club, and additionally interesting, seeing that the street still maintains what Johnson would have called its ' clubbable' character. In Spence's Anecdotes (Supplemental), we read : " There was a Club held at the King's Head, in Pall Mall, that arrogantly called itself ' The World.' Lord Stanhope then (now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, &c., were members. Epigrams were proposed to be written on the glasses, by each member, after dinner ; once, when Dr. Young was in- vited thither, the Doctor would have declined writing, because he had no diamond ; Lord Stanhope lent him his, and he wrote immediately : " ' Accept a miracle, instead of wit ; See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.' " The first modern Club mansion in Pall Mall was No. 86, opened as a subscription house, called the Albion Hotel. It was originally built for Edward Duke of York, brother of George III., and is now the office of Ordnance (correspondence). The south side of Pall Mall has a truly patrician air in its seven costly Club-houses, of exceedingly rich architectural character, and reminding one of Captain Morris's luxurious resource : " In town let me live then, in town let me die ; For in truth I can't relish the country, not I. If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, Oh, give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall." /" PARTHENOK CLTJB-HOTJSE, east side of Regent-street, nearly facing St. Philip's Chapel, was designed by Nash : the first floor is elegant Corinthian. The south divi- sion was built by Mr. Nash for his own residence ; it has a long gallery, decorated from a loggia, of the Vatican at Rome : it is now the " Gallery of Illustration." The Parthenon Club, now no longer in existence, was taken by Mr. Poole, for his memorable paper, " The Miseries of a Club," in the New Monthly Magazine. PHCENIX CLTTB, 17, St. James's-place, consists of the Public Schools' Club, amal- gamated with the Universities Union, and intended to include gentlemen educated at the Universities and Public Schools, together with Woolwich, Sandhurst, and Royal Naval College. PORTLAND CLTJB, 1, Stratford-place, Oxford-street. PBINCE OF WALES'S CLTTB, 43, Albemarle-street. PEINCE OF WALES'S YACHT CLOT, Freemasons' Tavern. REFORM CLTTB-HOUSE, between the Travellers' and Carlton Club-houses, has a frontage in Pall Mall of 135 feet, being nearly equal to that of the Athenaeum (76 feet) and Travellers' (74 feet). The Reform Club was established by Liberal Members of the two Houses of Parliament, to aid the carrying of the Reform Bill, 1830-32. The Reform was built in 1838-39, from the designs of Barry, R.A. ; and resembles the Farnese Palace at Rome, designed by Michael Angelo Buonarotti, in 1545. The Club- house contains six floors and 134 apartments : the basement and mezzanine below the street pavement, and the chambers in the roof, are not seen. The points most admired are extreme simplicity and unity of design, combined with very unusual richness. The breadth of the piers between the windows contributes not a little to that repose which is so essential to simplicity, and hardly less so to stateliness. The string-courses are particularly beau- tiful, while the cornicione (68 feet from the pavement) gives extraordinary majesty and grandeur to the whole. The roof is covered with Italian tiles ; the edifice is faced throughout with Portland stone, and is a very fine specimen of masonry. In the centre of the interior is a grand'hall, 56 feet by 50, resembling an Italian cortile, surrounded by colonnades, below Ionic, and above Corinthian ; the latter is a picture- gallery, where, inserted in the scagliola walls, are whole-length portraits of eminent CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. political Reformers. The floor of the hall is tesselated ; and the entire roof is strong diapered flint glass, by Pellatt & Co. The staircase, like that of an Italian palace, leads to the upper gallery of the hall, opening into the principal drawing-room, which is over the coffee-room in the garden front, both being the entire length of the build- ing; adjoining are a library, card-room, &c., over the library and dining-rooms. Above are a billiard-room and lodging-rooms for members of the Club ; there being a separate entrance to the latter by a lodge adjoining the Travellers' Club. The basement comprises two-storied wine-cellars beneath the hall, besides the Kitchen Department, planned by Alexis Soyer, originally chef-de-cuisine of the Club : it contains novel employments of steam and gas, and mechanical applications of practical ingenuity, the inspection of which was long one of the privileged sights of London. The cuisine, under M. Soyer, enjoyed European fame, fully testified in a magnificent banquet given by the Club to Ibraham Pasha, July 3, 1846. Another famous banquet was that given July 20, 1850, to Viscount Palmerston, who was a popular leader of the Reform. This fes- tival was, gastronomically as well as politically, a brilliant triumph. REFOBM CLTJB, JUNIOB ; Club-house to be erected in Jennyn-street. ROBIX Hoot), the, was a Debating Society, which met, in the reign of George II., at a house in Essex-street, Strand, at which questions were proposed for discussion, and any member might speak seven minutes ; after which, " the baker," who presided with a hammer, summed up the arguments. Arthur Mainwaring and Dr. Hugh Chamber- lain were early members ; and the Club was visited by M. Beaumont, as a curiosity, in 1761. This was the scene of Burke's earliest eloquence. Goldsmith came here, and was struck by the imposing aspect of the President, who sat in a large gilt chair. ROTA, the, or COFFEE CLTTB, as Pepys calls it, was founded in 1659, as a kind of Debating Society for the dissemination of republican opinions, which Harrington had painted in their fairest colours in his Oceana. It met in New Palace Yard, at the then Turk's Head, " where they take water, the next house to the staires, at one Miles's, where was made purposely a large ovall-table, with a passage in the middle for Miles to deliver his coffee." Here Harrington gave nightly lectures on the advantage of a commonwealth and of the ballot. The Club derived its name from a plan, which it was its design to promote, for changing a certain number of Members of Parliament annually by rota- tion. Sir William Petty was one of its members. Round the table, " in a room every evening as full as it could be crammed," says Aubrey, sat Milton and Marvell, Cyriac Skinner, Harrington, Nevill, and their friends, discussing abstract political questions. Aubrey calls them " disciples and virtuosi." The Club was broken up at the Restoration. Dr. Nash notes : " Mr. James Harrington, sometime in the service of Charles I., drew up and printed a form of popular government, after the King's death, entitled the Commonwealth of Oceana. He endeavoured likewise to promote his scheme by public discourses, at a nightly Club of several curious gentlemen, Henry Nevil, Charles Wolseley, John Wildman, Dr. (afterwards Sir William) Petty, who met in New Palace-yard, Westminster. Mr. Henry Nevil proposed to the House of Commons that a third part of its members should rote out by ballot every year, and be incapable of re- election for three years to come. This Club was called the Rota." ROXBUEGHE CLUB, the, was founded by the Rev. T. Frognall (afterwards Dr.) Dibdin, at the St. Albans Tavern, St. James's, on June 17, 1812, immediately after the sale of the rarest lot in the Roxburghe Library, viz., II Decamerone di Boccaccio, which produced 2260Z. The members were limited to 24, subsequently extended to 31. The President of this Club was the second Earl Spencer. Among the most celebrated members were the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Blandford (the late Duke of Marlborough), Lord Altborp (late Karl Spencer), Lord Morpcth (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), Lord Gower (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), Sir Masterman Sykes, Sir Egerton Brydges, Mr. (afterwards Baron) Holland, Mr. Dent, Mr. Townley, Rev. T. C. Heber, Rev. Rob. Hoi well Carr, Sir Walter Scott, &c. : Dr. Dibdin being Secretary. The avowed object of the Club was the reprinting of rare and neglected pieces of ancient literature ; and, at one of the early meetings, " it was proposed and concluded for each member of the Club to reprint a scarce piece of ancient lore, to be given to the members, one copy being on vellum for the chairman, and only as inany copies as members." It may, however, be questioned whether the " dinners " of the Club were not more important than the literature. They were given at the St. Albans', at Grillion's, at the Clarendon, and the Albion Taverns. Of these entertainments some curious details have been recorded by Mr. Joseph Haslewood, one of the members, in a MS., entitled "Roxburghe Bevels; or, an Account of the Annual Display, culinary and fettivous, interspersed with Matters of Moment or Merriment :" a selection from its rarities has appeared in the Athenceum : at the second dinner, Mr. Heber in the chair, a few tarried until, " on arriving at home, the click of time bespoke a quarter to four." Among the early members was the Rev. Mr. Dodd, one of the masters of Westminster School, who, until 1818 (when he died), enlivened the Club with Eobin Hood ditties. At the fourth dinner, at Grillion's, Sir Masterman Sykes 256 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. chairman, 20 members present, the bill was 571. At the Anniversary, 1818, at the Albion, Mr. Heber in. the chair, 15 present, the bill was 85?. 9*. 6d., or 5?. Us. each; including turtle, 12?. 10s. ; venison, lo/. 10*. ; and wine, 30*. 17. " Ancients, believe it," says Haslewood, " we were not dead drunk, and therefore lie quiet under the table for once, and let a few moderns be uppermost." The Roxburglie Club still exists : it may justly be considered to have suggested the publishing Societies of the present day ; as the Camden, Shakspeare, Percy, &c. ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB, the, was founded in 1743, and was at first styled "the Club of Royal Philosophers." It originated some years earlier with Dr. Halley and a few friends, who dined together once a week ; at length, they removed to the Mitre Tavern, No. 39, Fleet-street, to be handy to the Royal Society, which then met in Crane- court. In 1780, the Club removed to the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand ; in 1848, to the Freemasons' Tavern : and thence, when the Royal Society removed to Burlington House, Piccadilly, the Club removed to the Thatched House Tavern, St. Jarnes's-street. The dinners were plain, black-puddings figuring for many years at each repast. The presents made to the Club became very numerous ; and haunches of venison, turtle, and game, were rewarded by the donors' healths being drunk in claret. The circumnavigator, Lord Anson, presented the Club with a magnificent turtle ; and on another occasion with a turtle which weighed 4001bs. James Watt dined at one of these turtle-feasts ; " and never was turtle eaten with greater sobriety and tempe- rance, or with more good fellowship." Then we find mighty chines of beef, and large carp among the presents ; and Lord Macartney sent " two pigs of the China breed." Fruits were presented for dessert; and Philip Miller, who wrote the Gardener's Dic- tionary, sent Egyptian Cos lettuces, the best kind known ; and Cantaloupe melons, equal in flavour to pine-apples. For thirty years the Club received these presents in lieu of admission-money, until thinking it undignified to do so, the practice was discontinued. The charge for dinner rose from 1*. 6d. to 10s., and 2d. to the waiter ! Then, the Club laid in its own wine, at Is. Gd. per bottle, and the landlord charged 2s. 6d. The consumption of wine, per head, of late, averaged less than a pint each. "Among the distinguished guests of the Club are many celebrities. Here the chivalrous Sir Sidney Smith described the atrocities of Djezza Pasha; and here that cheerful baronet Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Dass, Tuckey, Horsburgh, &c. ; while the Polar explorers, from the Hon. Constantine Phipps in 1773, down to Sir Leopold M'Clintock, in I860, were severally and individually welcomed as guests. But, besides our sterling sea-worthies, we find in ranging through the documents that some rather outlandish visitors were introduced through their means, as Chet Quang and Wanga Tong, Chinese ; Ejutak and Tuklivina, Esquimaux ; Thayen-danega, the Mohawk chief; while Omai, of Ularetea, the celebrated and popular savage, of Cook's Voyages, was so frequently invited, that he is latterly entered on the Club papers simply as Mr. Omai." Admiral Smyth's Account of the Royal Society Club ; Club Life of London, vol. i. pp. 65-81. 1866. ROYAL THAMES YACHT CLUB, 49, St. James's-street. SCEIBLEEXTS CLUB, the, was founded by Swift, in 1714, in place of " the Brothers ;" it was rather of a literary than political character. Oxford and St. John, Swift, Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay> were members. Oxford and Bolingbroke led the way, by their mutual animosity, to the dissolution of the Club ; when Swift made a final effort at reconciliation, but failing, retreated in dudgeon. See BEOTHEES CLUB, p. 244. SMITHFIELD CLUB, the, Half-moon-street, has the management of the Cattle Show- held annually at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, and the award of Silver Cups and Gold and Silver Medals as prizes for Stock, Implements, &c., exhibited. " The Smithfleld Cattle and Sheep Society " was instituted December 17, 1798, by a party of noble- men and gentlemen, amongst whom were most conspicuous Francis, Duke of Bedford ; the Karl of "Winchelsea, Lord Spmerville, and Sir Joseph Banks. The Club has shifted its scene of annual display several times. In 1799 and 1800, the Club exhibited in Wootton's Livery-stables, Dolphin-yard, Smithfield; in 1804, the Show was held in the Swan-yard- in 1805, at Dixon's Repository, Barbican; in 1808, in Sadler's-yard, Goswell-street; and in 1839 the Club, moving westward, gave its first exhibition in Baker-street. From Mr. Brandreth Gibbs's H'utoi-t/ of the Origin and Progress of the Smithfield Club, we learn that, at the first exhibition, the Club only received from the public 40Z. 3s. The receipts of the first Baker-street Show were 3002. ; and in 1857 no less a sum than 7001. was taken at the doors. The prizes annually distributed have increased as follows : value in 1799, 50 guineas; 1800, 120 guineas; 1810, 220 guineas ; and in 1840 plate and money 330/,. ; and hi 1857, 1050Z. Concurrent with the early career of the Smithfield Club were the Spring Cattle Shows, established by Lord Somerville, who, in 1805, at bis own cost, gave six prizes amount the exhibitors was George the Third. CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 257 The Duchess of Rutland became a member of the Smithfield Club in 1823; and the Queen visited the Show in Baker-street in 1844, and again in 1850. The Royal visit in 1844 is believed to be the first occasion of an agricultural show being attended by the Sovereign of Great Britain ; but it was not the first time that Royalty took an interest in the Club shows. George the Third was an exhibitor in 1800; the Duke of York gained a prize in 1806 ; and the Prince Consort, who, together with the late Duke of Cambridge, became a member of the Club in 1841, carried oft' several prizes at the Baker-street exhibi- tions with animals fed at the " Royal Flemish" and " Royal Shaw "farms. The silver-cup and the shepherd-smock schools combined for the same good end the production of delicious meat at moderate prices ; and he will not act inappropriately who, whilst thanking God for his Christmas-dinner, has a grateful recollection of the men who contributed to bring the Roast Beef of Old England to its present perfection. Athenasum, No. 1728, abridged. THATCHED HOUSE. Admiral Smyth, in 1860, gave the following list of Cluhs, which then dined at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James's-street : Actuaries, Institute of; Catch Club; Johnson's Club; Dilettanti Society; Farmers' Club; Geo- graphical Club ; Geological Club; Linnseau Club ; Literary Society; Navy Club; Philosophical Club; Physicians, College of, Club ; Political Economy Club; Royal Academy Club ; Royal Astronomical Club; Royal Institution' Club ; Royal London Yacht Club; Royal Naval Club (1765); Royal Society Club; St. A Iban's Medical Club; St. Bartholomew's Contemporaries; Star Club; Statistical Club ; Sussex Club; Union Society, St. James's. Account of the Royal Society Club, privately printed. Ton's CoFFEE-norsE CLUB, the, was held at 17, north side of Russell-street, Covent-garden ; the house was taken down in 1865. The original proprietor was Thomas West, who died in 1722. The upper portion of the premises was the coffee- house, under which lived T. Lewis, the original publisher, in 1711, of Pope's Essay on Criticism, In The Journey through England, 1714, we read, " There was at Tom's Coffee-house playing at piquet, and the best conversation till midnight ; blue and green ribbons with stars, sitting and talking familiarly." M. Grignon, sen., had seen " the balcony of Tom's crowded with noblemen in their stars and garters, drinking their tea and coffee, exposed to the people." In 1764 was formed here, by a guinea subscrip- tion, a Club of nearly 700 members. On the Club-books we find " Long Sir Thomas Robinson ;" Samuel Foote; Arthur Murphy, lately called to the Bar; David Garrick, who then lived in Southampton-street (though he was not a clubbable man) ; John Beard, the fine tenor singer ; John Webb ; Sir Richard Glynne ; Robert Gosling, the banker ; Colonel Eyre, of Marylebone; Earl Percy; Sir John Fielding, the justice; Paul Methuen, of Corsham; Richard Clive ; the great Lord Clive; the eccentric Duke of Montagu; Sir Fletcher Norton, the ill- mannered; Lord Edward Bentinck ; Dr. Samuel Johnson ; the celebrated Marquis of Granby ; Sir F. B. Delaval, the friend of Foote ; William Tooke, the solicitor ; the Hon. Charles Howard, sen. ; the Duke of Northumberland; Sir Francis Gosling; the Earl of Anglesey; Sir George Brydges Rodney (afterwards Lord Rodney); Peter Burrell; Walpole Eyre; Lewis Mendez; Dr. Swinney; Stephen Lushington; John Gunning ; Henry Brougham, father of Lord Brougham; Dr. Macnamara; Sir John Trevelyan; Captain Donellan ; SirW. Wolseley; Walter Chetwynd ; Viscount Gage, &c. ; Thomas Payne, Esq., of Leicester House ; Dr. Schomberg, of Pall Mall ; George Column, the dramatist, then living in Great Queen-street; Dr. Dodd, in Southampton-row ; James Payne, the architect, Salisbury-street, which he rebuilt ; William Bowyer, the printsr, Bloomsbury-square ; Count Bruhl, the Polish Minister ; Dr. Gold- smith, Temple (1773), &c. Many a noted name in the list of 700 is very suggestive of the gay society of the period. Among the Club musters, Samuel Foote, Sir Thomas Kobinson, and Dr. Dodd are very frequent : indeed, Sir Thomas seems to have been something like a proposer-general. Dance painted the elder Haines, the landlord, who, for his polite address, was called among the Club " Lord Chesterfield." The coffee-house business closed in 1814, when the premises became occupied by Mr. William Till, the well-known numismatist ; the card-room and club-tables in their original condition. On the death of Mr. Till, I\Ir. Webster succeeded to the tenancy and collection of coins and medals, which here- moved to No. 6, Henrietta-street ; he possesses, by marriage with the grand-daughter of the second Mr. Haines, the Club-books ; as well as the Club-room snuff-box, of large size, tortoiseshell ; upon the lid, in high relief, in silver, are the portraits of Charles I. and Queen Anne, the Boscobel oak, with Charles II. amid its branches, &c. See Illustrated London News, 1865. TBAYEI/LEBS' CLTJB-HOTJSE, adjoining the Athenceum, in Pall Mall, was designed by Barry, R.A., and built in 1832. The architecture is the nobler Italian, resembling a ' Roman palace : the plan is a quadrangle, with an open area in the middle, so that all the rooms are well lighted. The Pall Mall front has a bold and rich cornice, and the windows are decorated with Corinthian pilasters; the garden- front varies in the windows ; but the Italian taste is preserved throughout, with the most careful finish : the roof is Italian tiles. The Travellers' Club originated shortly after the Peace of 1814, in a suggestion of the late Marquis of Londonderry, then Lord Castlereagh, with a view to a resort for gentlemen who had resided or travelled abroad ; as well as S 258 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON accommodation of foreigners, who, when properly recommended, receive an invitation for the period of their stay. (Quarterly Review, No. HO, 1836.) By one of the rules, " no person is eligible to the Travellers' Club who shall not have travelled out of the British Islands to a distance of at least 500 miles from London in a direct line." Prince Talleyrand, during his residence in London, generally joined the muster of whist-players at this Club. TREASON CLUB, the, at the time of the Eevolution, met at the Rose Tavern, Covent- garden, to consult with Lord Colchester, Mr. Thomas Wharton, and many others ; and it was then resolved that the regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Langdale's command should desert entire, as it did, on a Sunday, November, 1688. UNION CLUB-HOUSE, Cockspur-street, and west side of Trafalgar-square, was com- pleted in 1824, from designs by Sir R. Smirke, R.A. James Smith (" Rejected Ad- dresses") has left us a sketch of his every-day life at this Club : " At three o'clock I walk to the Union Club, read the journals, hear Lord John Russell deified or diablerised, do the same with Sir Robert Peel or the Duke of Wellington, and then join a knot of con- versationists by the fire till six o'clock, consisting of lawyers, merchants, and gentlemen at large. We then and there discuss the Three per Cent. Consols (some of us preferring Dutch two-and-a-half per Cents.), and speculate upon the probable rise, shape, and cost of the New Exchange. If Lady Harrington happen to drive past our window in her landau, we compare her equipage to the Algerine Ambassador's ; and when poll tics happen to be discussed, rally Whigs, Radicals, and Conservatives alternately, but never seriously, such subjects having a tendency to create acrimony. At six, the room begins to be deserted ; wherefore I adjourn to the dining-room, and gravely looking over the bill of fare, exclaim to the waiter, ' Haunch of mutton and apple-tart !' These viands despatched, with the accompanying liquids and water, I mount upward to the library, take a book and my seat in the arm-chair, and read till nine. Then call for a cup of coffee and a biscuit, resuming my book till eleven j afterwards return home to bed." Comic Miscellanies. The Union has a capital smoking-room, with paintings by Stanfield and Roberts. The Club has ever been famed for its cuisine, upon the strength of which we fare told that next door to the Club-house, in Cockspur-street, was established the Union Hotel, which speedily became renowned for its turtle ; it was opened in 1823, and was one of the best-appointed hotels of its day ; Lord Panmure, a gourmet of the highest order, is said to have taken up his quarters in this hotel, for several successive seasons, for the sake of the soup.* Adams's London Clubs. UNITED SERVICE CLUB, the, one of the oldest of modern Clubs, was instituted the year after the Peace of 1815, when a few officers of influence in both branches of the Service had built for them, by Sir R. Smirke, a Club-house at the corner of Charles- street and Regent-street a frigid design, somewhat relieved by sculpture on the entrance-front, of Britannia distributing laurels to her brave sons by land and sea. Thence the Club removed to a more spacious house, in Waterloo-place, facing the Athenamm, the Club-house in Charles-street being entered on by the Junior United Service Club ; but Smirke's cold design has been displaced by an edifice of much more ornate exterior and luxurious internal appliances. The United Service Club (Senior) was designed by Nash, and has a well-planned interior, exhibiting the architect's well- known excellence in this branch of his profession. The principal front facing Pall Mall has a Roman-Doric portico ; and above it a Corinthian portico, with pediment. One of the patriarchal members of the Club was Lord Lynedoch, the hero of the Peninsular War, who lived under five sovereigns : he died in his 93rd year. Stanfield's fine pic- ture of the Battle of Trafalgar ; and a copy by Lane (painted 1851) of a contemporary portrait of Sir Francis Drake ; are amoug the Club pictures. The Windham was once considered the most expensive Club, and the United Service the cheapest ; the latter, probably, from the number of absent members. The Duke of Wellington might often be seen dining at this Club on a joint; "and on one occasion, when he was charged 15d. instead of 1*. for it, he bestirred himself till the odd threepence was struck off. The motive was obvious ; he took the trouble of objecting to give his sanction to the principle." Quarterly 'Review, No. 110, 1836. UNITED SERVICE CLUB, the JUNIOR, at the corner of Charles-street and Regent- street, was erected upon the site of the former Club-house, by Sir R. Smirke, R.A., in 1855-57, Nelson and James, architects, and is enriched with characteristic sculpture by John Thomas. The design is in the Italian style of architecture, the bay-window * The West-end Clubs contribute largely to the feeding of the poor. The Union Club distributed in the \ear 1844, to the poor of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, no less than 3101 Ibs. of broken bread, 4556 Ibs. of broken meat, 114.7 pints of tea-leaves, and 1158 pints of coffee-grounds. CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 259 in Regent-street forming a prominent feature in the composition, above which is a sculptured group allegorical of the Army and Navy. The whole of the sculpture and ornamental details throughout the building are characteristic of the professions of the members of the Club. Upon the angle-pieces of the balustrade are bronze lamps, sup- ported by figures. The staircase is lighted from the top by a handsome lantern, filled with painted glass. On the landing of the half-space are two pairs of caryatidal figures, and single figures against the walls, supporting three semicircular arches. On the upper landing of the staircase is the celebrated picture, by Allan, of the Battle of Waterloo. The evening-room, which is also used as a picture-gallery, 24 feet high, has a bay-window fronting Regent-street. Here are portraits of military and naval commanders ; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert ; the Emperor Napoleon, and ail allegorical group in silver, presented to the Club by his Imperial Majesty. UNIVERSITY CLUB, the, Suffolk-street, Pall Mall East, was instituted in 1824; and the Club-house, designed by Deering and Wilkins, architects, was opened 1826. It is of the Grecian Doric and Ionic orders ; and the staircase walls have casts from the Parthenon frieze. The Club consists chiefly of Members of Parliament who have re- ceived University education ; several of the judges, and a large number of beneficed clergymen. This Club has the reputation of possessing the best-stocked wine-cellar in London, which is of no small importance to members, clerical or lay. UNIVERSITIES UNION CLUB-HOUSE, the, is at 20, Cockspur-street, Charing Cross ; and its sphere is intended to embrace all gentlemen whose names have been on the books of any college at Oxford or Cambridge, or Durham, or on those of the Scotch Universities, or of Trinity College, Dublin. URBAN CLUB, the, held at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, consists of authors, actors, and artists, who meet in the great room of the Tavern over the gateway. VOLUNTEEE SERVICE CLUB, 49, St. James's-street. WATIER'S CLUB was the great Macao gambling-house of a very short period. Mr. Thomas Raikes, who understood all its mysteries, describes it as very genteel, adding that no one ever quarrelled there, " The Club did not endure for twelve years altogether ; the pace was too quick to last : it died a natural death in 1819, from the paralysed state of its members ; the house was then taken by a set of blacklegs, who instituted a common bank for gambling. To form an idea of the ruin produced by this short-lived establishment among men whom I have so intimately known, a cursory glance to the past suggests the following melancholy list, which only forms a part of its deplorable results None of the dead reached the average age of man." In the old days, when gaming was in fashion, at Watier's Club, princes and nobles lost or gained fortunes between themselves. Captain Gronow also relates the following account of the origin of this noted but short-lived Club : "Upon one occasion, some gentlemen of both White's and Brooks's had the honour to dine with the Prince Regent, and during the conversation the Prince inquired what sort of dinners they got at their Clubs ; upon which Sir Thomas Stepney, one of the guests, obserred ' that their dinners were always the same, the eternal joints or beef-steaks, the boiled fowl with oyster-sauce, and an apple-tart: this is what we have at our Clubs, and very monotonous fare it is.' The Prince, without further remark, rang the bell for his cook Watier, and, in the presence of those who dined at the Royal table, asked him whether he would take a house, and organize a dinner-club. Watier assented, and named Madison, the Prince's page, manager ; and Labourie, the cook, from the Royal kitchen. The Club flourished only a few years, owing to the night-play that was carried on there. The Duke of York patronized it, and was a member. The dinners were exquisite : the best Parisian cooks could not beat Labourie. The favourite game played there was Macao." WEDNESDAY CLUB, in Friday-street, Cheapside. Here, in 1695, certain conferences took place under the direction of William Paterson, which ultimately led to the esta- blishment of the Bank of England. Such is the general belief; but Mr. Saxe Bannister, in his Life of Paterson, p. 93, observes : " It has been a matter of much doubt whether the Bank of England was originally proposed from a Club or Society in the City of London. The Dialogue Conferences of the Wednesday Club, in Friday-street, have been quoted as if first published in 1695. No such publication has been met with of a date before 1706 ;" and Mr. Bannister states his reasons for supposing it was not preceded by any other book. Still, Paterson wrote the papers entitled the Wednesday Club Conferences. 8 2 260 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. There was likewise a Wednesday Club held at the Globe Tavern, in Fleet-street, where songs, jokes, dramatic imitations, burlesque parodies, and broad sallies of humour were the entertainments ; and Oliver Goldsmith was in his glory. Here was first heard the celebrated epitaph (Goldsmith had been reading Pope and Swift's Miscellanies) on Edward Purdon : " Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, Who long was a bookseller's hack ; He had led such a damnable life in this world, I don't think he'll wish to come back." WESTMINSTER CLUB, 23, Albemarle-street. WHIST CLUBS originated with whist becoming popular in England about 1730, when it was closely studied by a party of gentlemen, who formed a sort of Club at the \f) \\3 Crown Coffee-house, in Bedford-row. Hoyle is said to have given instructions in the game, for which his charge was a guinea a lesson. A Committee, including members of several of the best London Clubs, well known as whist-players, has drawn up a code of rules for the game ; and these rules, as governing the best modern practice, have been accepted by the Arlington, the Army and Navy, Arthur's, Boodle's, Brooks's, Carlton, Conservative, Garrick, Guards', Junior Carlton, Portland, Oxford and Cam- bridge, Reform, St. James's, White's, &c. The Laws of Short Whist were, in 1865, published in a small volume ; and to this strictly legal portion of the book is appended A Treatise on the Game, by Mr. J. Clay, M.P. for Hull, one of the best modern whist-players. WHITE'S (Tory) CLUB-HOUSE, 36 and 37, St. James's-street, has an elegant front, designed by James Wyatt, restored and enriched in 1851 : the medallions of the Four Seasons above the drawing-room story are classic compositions. The Club, as White's Chocolate-house, was originally established about 1698, near the bottom of the west side of St. James's-street : the Club-house, then kept by Mr. Arthur, was burnt down April 28, 1773 ; and plate 6 of Hogarth's " Rake's Progress " shows a room at White's so intent upon then* play, as neither to see the flames nor hear the watchmen, who are bursting into the room to give the alarm. Sir Andrew Fountayne's collection of pictures, valued at 3000Z., was destroyed in the fire ; and the King and the Prince of Wales were present, encouraging the firemen and people to work the engines. In 1736, the principal members of the Club were the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Chesterfield, Sir John Cope, Bubb Doddington, and Colley Gibber : before this date it was an open Chocolate-house. It soon became a gaming Club and a noted supper-house, the dinner- hour being early a century since. Betting was another of its pastimes ; and a book for entering wagers was always laid upon the table. The play here was frightful; it was for White's that Walpole and his friends composed the famous heraldic satire. Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, Sept. 1,1750: " They have put into the papers a good story made at White's. A man dropped down dead at the door, and was carried in ; the Club immediately made bets whether he was dead or not ; and when they were going to bleed him, the wagerers for his death interposed, and said it would affect the fairness of the bet." " At the time that White's Chocolate-house was opened at the bottom of St. James's-street the close of the last century it was probably thought vulgar ; for there was a garden attached, and it had a suburban air. At the tables in the house or garden more than one highwayman took his chocolate, or threw his main, before he quietly mounted his horse, and rode slowly down Piccadilly towards Bag-shot. The celebrated Lord Chesterfield there ' gamed, and pronounced witticisms among the boys of quality.' Steele dated all his love news in the Tatter from White's. It was stigmatized as ' the common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies ;' and bets were laid to the effect that Sir William Burdett, one of its members, would be the first baronet who would be hanged. The gambling went on till dawn of day ; and Pelham, when Prime Minister, was not ashamed to divide his time between his official table and the piquet table at White's. White's ceased to be an open Chocolate-house in 1736." Dr. Doran's Table Traits. The Club, on June 20, 1814, gave at Burlington-house, to the Allied Sovereigns then in England, a ball, which cost 9489Z. 2*. Qd. ; and on July 6 following, the Club gave a dinner to the Duke of Wellington, which cost 2480Z. 10s. 9d. (See Cunning- ham's Handbook (" White's ") for several very interesting extracts from the Club-books, and from writers of the middle of the last century, " curiously characteristic of the state of society at the time." WHITTINGTON CLUB and METROPOLITAN ATHEN.EUM, Arundel-street, originated in 1846 with Mr. Douglas Jerrold, who became its first president. It combines a literary society with a Club-house, upon an economical scale, for the middle classes ; con- COFFEE-HOUSES. . 261 taining dininp and coffee-rooms, library and reading-rooms, smoking and chess-rooms ; and a large room for balls, concerts, and soirees. Lectures are given here, ,and classes held for the higher branches of education, fencing and dancing, &c. In the ball-room is a picture of Whittington listening to Bow-bells, painted by F. Newenham, and pre- sented to the Club by its founder. All the original Crown and Anchor premises, wherein the Club first met, were destroyed by fire in 1854 : they have been rebuilt, and the establishment is now styled the Whittington Club. WINDHAM CLUB, 11, St. James's-squarc, was founded by the late Lord Nugent, for gentlemen " connected with each other by a common bond of literary or personal acquaintance." The mansion was the residence of William Windham ; next, of the accomplished John Duke of Roxburghe ; and here the Roxburghe Library was sold in 1812, the sale commencing May 18, and extending to forty-one days. Lord Chief- Justice Ellenborough lived here in 1814 ; and subsequently, the Earl of Blessington, who possessed a fine collection of pictures. COFFEE-HOUSES. /"COFFEE was first drunk in London about the middle of the seventeenth century. vJ " The first coffee-house in London," says Aubrey (MS. in the Bodleian Library), " was in St. M5chael's-alley, in Cornhill, opposite to the church, which was set up by one Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it), in or about the year 1652. 'Twas about four yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by Mv. Farr. Jonathan Paynter, over-against to St. Michael's Church, was the first apprentice to the trade, viz., to Bowman." Another account states that one Edwards, a Turkey merchant, on his return from the East in 1657, brought with him a Ragusan Greek servant, Pasqua Rosee, who prepared coffee every morning for his master, and with the coachman above named set up the first coffee-house in St. Michael's-alley ; but they soon quarrelled and separated, the coachman establishing himself in St. Michael's churchyard. Sir Hans Sloane had in his Museum in Bloomsbury-square, " part of a coffee-tree, with the berriss and leaves thereon ; it was brought over from Moco, in Arabia, by Mr. E. Clive, of London, merchant," who has described it in Philo$. Tram. No. 208. Coffee is first mentioned in our statute-book anno 1660 (12 Car. II., c. 24), when a duty of 4d, was laid upon every gallon of coffee made and sold. A statute of 1663 directs that all coffee-houses should be licensed at the Quarter Sessions. In 1675, Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up the coffee-houses, charged with being seminaries of sedition ; but in a few days he suspended this proclamation by a second. As coffee declined in fashion, the Coffee-houses mostly became Taverns and Dining- houses, or Chop-houses. The first on our list is an instance. BAKER'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 1, Change-alley, Lombard-street, was originally for the sale of coffee, but has been for nearly half a century noted for its chops and steaks, broiled in the coffee-room, and eaten hot from the gridiron. BALTIC COFFEE-HOUSE, 58, Threadneeclle-street, is the rendezvous of merchants and brokers connected with the Russian trade, or that in tallow, oil, hemp, and seeds. The supply of news to the subscription-room is, with the exception of the chief London, Liverpool, and Hull papers, confined to that from the north of Europe and the tallow- producing countries on the South American coast. In the upper part of the Baltic Coffee-house is the auction sale-room for tallow, oils, &c. BEDFORD COFFEE-HOUSE, " under the Piazza, in Covent Garden," north-east corner, in Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-house, two editions, 1751-1763, is described as having been " signalized for many years as the emporium of wit, the seat of criticism, and the standard of taste. Names of those who frequented the house : Foote, Mr. Fielding, Mr. Woodward, who mostly lived here, Mr. Leone, Mr. Murphy, Mopsy, Dr. Arne. Dr. Arne was the only man in a suit of velvet in the dog-days. Stacie kept the Bed- ford when John and Henry Fielding, Hogarth, Churchill, Woodward, Lloyd, Dr. Goldsmith, and many others met there and held a gossiping shilling- rubber club. Henry Fielding was a very merry fellow." In the Connoisseur, No. 2, we read : 262. CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. " This Coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and Ion-mots are echoed from box to box : every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or performance of the theatres, weighed and determined." Foote and Garrick often met here. Garrick, in early life, had been in the wine-trade, and had supplied the Bedford with wine ; he was thus described by Foote as living in Durham- yard, with three quarts of vinegar in the cellar, calling himself a wine-merchant. Churchill's quarrel with Hogarth began at the shilling-rubber club, in the Bedford parlour : " Never," says Walpole, " did two angry men of their abilities throw mud with less dexterity." Young Collins, the poet, who came to town in 1744 to seek his fortune, made his way to the Bedford, where Foote was supreme among the wits and critics. Like Foote, Collins was fond of fine clothes, and walked about with a feather in his hat, very unlike a young man who had not a single guinea he could call his own. A letter of the time tells us that " Collins was an acceptable companion everywhere ; and among the gentlemen who loved him for a genius may be reckoned the Doctors Armstrong, Barrowby, Hill, Messrs. Quin, Garrick, and Foote, who frequently took his opinion upon their pieces before they were seen by the public. He was particularly noticed by the geniuses who frequented the Bedford and Slaughter's Coflee-houses." (Memoir, by Moy Thomas.) In 1754, Foote was supreme in his critical corner at the Bedford. The regular frequenters of the room strove to get admitted to his party at supper ; and others got as nearly as they could to the table, as the only humour flowed from Foote's tongue. The Bedford was now in its highest repute : Dr. Barrowby was the great newsmonger of the day. Of two houses in the Piazza, built for Francis, Earl of Bedford, we obtain some minute information from the lease granted in 1634 to Sir Edmund Verney, Knight Marshal to King Charles I. ; these two houses being just then erected as part of the Piazza. There are also included in the lease the "yards, stables, coachhouses, and gardens now layd, or hereafter to be layd, to the said messuages," which description of the premises seems to identify them as the two houses at the southern endof the Piazza, ad- joining to Great Russell-street, and now occupied as the Bedford Coffee-house and Hotel. They are either the same premises, or they immediately adjoin the premises, occupied a century later as the Bedford Coffee-house. (Mr. John Bruce, Archtsologia, xxxv. 195.) The lease contained a minute specification of the landlord's fittings and customary accommodations of what were then some of the most fashion- able residences in the metropolis. In the attached schedule is the use of the wainscot, enumerating separately every piece of wainscot on the premises. The tenant is bound to keep in repair the " Portico Walke " underneath the premises ; he is at all times to have " ingresse, egresse and regresse " through the Portico Walk ; and he may " expel, put, or drive away out of the said walke any youth or other person whatsoever which shall eyther play or be in the said Portico Walke in offence or disturbance to the said Sir Edmund Verney." Club Life of London, vol. ii., p. 81, 1866. At the present Bedford Coffee-house, or Hotel, the Beef-steak Society met before their removal to the Lyceum Theatre. BRITISH COFFEE-HOTTSE, Cockspur-street, " long a house of call for Scotchmen," has been fortunate in its landladies. In 1759, it was kept by the sister of Bishop Douglas, so well known for his works against Lauder and Bower, which may explain its Scottish fame. At another period it was kept by Mrs. Anderson, described in Mackenzie's Life of Home as " a woman of uncommon talents, and the most agreeable conversation." BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOTJSE, " over against Tom's, in Covent-garden," was established in 1712, and thither Addison transferred much company from Tom's. In July, 1713, a Lion's Head, " a proper emblem of knowledge and action, being all head and paws," was set up at Button's, in imitation of the celebrated Lion at Venice, to receive letters and papers for the Guardian. Here the wits of that time used to assemble ; and among them, Addison, Pope, Steele, Swift, Arbuthnot, Count Viviani, Savage, Budgell, Philips, Davenant, and Colonel Brett ; and here it was that Philips hung up a birchen rod, with which he threatened to chastise Pope for " a biting epigram." Button, the master of the Coffee-house, had been a servant in the Countess of Warwick's family ; and it is said that when Addison suffered any vexation from the Countess, he withdrew the company from Button's house. Just after Queen Anne's accession, Swift made acquaintance with the leaders of the wits at Button's. Ambrose Philips refers to him as the strange clergyman whom the frequenters of the Coffee-house had observed for some days. He knew no one, no one knew him. He would lay his hat down on a table, and walk up and down at a brisk pace for half an hour without speaking to any one. Then he would snatch up his hat, pay his money at the bar, and walk off, with- COFFEE-HOUSES. 263 out having opened his lips. He was called in the room " the mad parson." Here Swift first saw Addison. Sir Walter Scott gives, upon the authority of Dr. Wall, of Worcester, who had it from Dr. Arbuth- not himself, the following anecdote, less coarse than the version usually told. Swift was seated at the fire at Button's : there was sand on the floor of the coffee-room, and Arbuthnot offered him a letter which he had been just addressing, saying at the same time " There, sand that." " I have no sand," answered Swift ; " but I can help you to a little gravel." This he said so significantly, that Arbuthnot hastily snatched back the letter, to save it from the fate of the capital of Lilliput. At Button's the leading company, particularly Addison and Steele, met in large flowing flaxen wigs. Sir Godfrey Kneller, too, was a well-dressed frequenter. The master died in 1731, when in the Daily Advertiser, October 5, appeared the follow- ing : " On Sunday morning, died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button, who formerly kept Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent-garden ; a very noted house for wits, being the place where the Lyon produced the famous Tatlers and Spectators, written by the late Mr. Secretary Addison and Sir Richard Steele, Knt., which works will transmit their names with honour to posterity." Mr. Cunningham found in the vestry-books of St. Paul's, Covent-garden : " 1719, April 16. Received of Mr. Daniel Button, for two places in the pew No. 18, on the south side of the north Isle, 21. 2s." J. T. Smith states that Button's name appears in the books of St. Paul's as receiving an allowance from the parish. (See Streets of London, Part 1. p. 159.) Button's continued in vogue until Addison's death and Steele's retirement into Wales, after which the house was deserted ; the coffee-drinkers went to the Bedford Coffee- house, the dinner-parties to the Shakspeare. In 1720, Hogarth mentions " four draw- ings in Indian ink " of the characters at Button's Coffee-house. In these were sketches of Arbuthnot, Addison, Pope, (as it is conjectured,) aud a certain Count Viviani, iden- tified years afterwards by Horace Walpole, when the drawings came under his notice. They subsequently came into Ireland's possession. (Sala's vivid William Hogarth, Cornhill Magazine, vol. i. 428.) Jemmy Maclaine, or M'Clean, the fashionable high- wayman, was a frequent visitor at Button's, which subsequently became a private house ; and here Mrs. Inchbald lodged, probably, after the death of her sister, for whose sup- port she practised such noble and generous self-denial. Phillips, the publisher, offered her a thousand pounds for her Memoirs, which she declined. The memorable Lion's Head is tolerably well carved : through the mouth the letters were dropped into a till at Button's; and beneath were inscribed these two lines from Martial : " Cervantur magnis isti Cervicibus nngues : Non nisi delicti pascitur ille fera." The head was designed by Hogarth, and is etched in Ireland's Illustrations. Lord Chesterfield is said to have once offered for the Head fifty guineas. From Button's it was removed to the Shakspeare Head Tavern, under the Piazza, kept by a person named Tomkyns ; and in 1751, was, for a short timo, placed in the Bedford Coffee-house immediately adjoining the Shakspeare, and there employed as a letter-box by Dr. John Hill, for his Inspector. In 1769, Tomkyns was succeeded by his waiter, Camp- bell, as proprietor of the tavern and Lion's head, and by him the latter was retained until Nov. 8, 1804, when it was purchased by Mr. Charles Richardson, of Richardson's Hotel, for 17/. 10*., who also pos- sessed the original sign of the Shakspeare Head. After Mr. Richardson's death in 1827, the Lion's Head devolved to his son, of whom it was bought by the Duke of Bedford, and deposited at Woburn Abbey, where it still remains. Communicated by Mr. John Or een. See also Guardian, Nog. 85, 93,11-1,112. CHAPTEE COFFEE-HOUSE, 50, Paternoster-row, is mentioned in No. 1 of the Connois- seur, January 31, 1754, as the resort of " those encouragers of literature, and not the worst judges of merit, the booksellers." Chatterton dates several letters from the Chapter. Goldsmith frequented the coffee-room, and always occupied one place, which, for many years after, was the seat of literary honour there. The Chapter had its leather token. Alexander Stephens left some reminiscences of the many literati and politicians who frequented the Chapter from 1797 to 1805. The box in the north-east corner was called the Witenagemot, and was occupied by the " Wet Paper Club." Here assembled Dr. Buchan, author of Domestic Medicine; Dr. Berdmore, Master of the Charter-house ; Walker, the rhetorician ; and Dr. Towers, the political writer ; Dr. George Fordyce, and Dr. Gower of " the Middlesex," who, with Buchan, prescribed the Chapter punch ; Robinson, King of the Booksellers, and his brother John ; Joseph Johnson, the friend of Priestley and Paine, and Cowper and Fuseli ; Alexander Chalmers, the workman of the Robinsons ; the two Parrys, of the Courier, then the organ of Jacobinism; Lowndes, the electrician; Dr. Busby, the writer on music; Jacob, an Alderman and M.P. ; Waithman, then Common Councilman; Mr. Blake, the banker, of Lombard-street ; Mr. Patterson, a North Briton, who taught Pitt mathematics; Alexan- der Stephens ; and Phillips (afterwards Sir Richard), who here recruited for contributors to his Monthly Magazine. The Witenagemot lost its literary celebrities ; but the Chapter maintained its reputation, for good punch and coffee, scarce pamphlets, and liberal supply of town and country newspapers. 264 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Mrs. Gaskell has left the following account of the Chapter in 1818 : " It latterly became the tavern frequented by university men, and country clergymen, who were up in London for a few days, and, having no private friends or access into society, were glad to learn what was going on in the world of letters, from the conversation which they were sure to hear in the coffee-room. It was a place solely frequented by men ; I believe there was but one female servant in the house. Few people slept there : some of the stated meetings of the trade were held in it, as they had been for more than a century ; and occasionally country booksellers, with now and then a clergy- man, resorted to it. In the long 1 , low, dingy room upstairs, the meetings of the trade were held." The Chapter is now a modernized public-house. CHILD'S COFFEE-HOUSE, St. Paul's Churchyard, was one of the Spectator's houses, who smoked a pipe here, and whilst he seemed attentive to nothing but the Postman, overheard the conversation of every table in the room. It was much frequented by the clergy, and Fellows of the Royal Society. Dr. Mead often came here. Child's was, in one respect, superseded by the Chapter, in Paternoster-row. CLIFFOED-STBEET COFFEE-HOUSE, corner of Bond-street, had its debating club. (See ante p. 245.) During a debate, the refreshment was porter, to a pot of which Canning compared the eloquence of Mirabeau, as empty and vapid as his patriotism " foam and froth at the top, heavy and muddy within." COCOA-TEEE, 64, St. Jarnes's-street. (See COCOA-TEEE CLUB, p. 246.) DICK'S COFFEE-HOUSE (now a Tavern), 8, Fleet-street, near Temple Bar, was ori- ginally called Kichard's, from its landlord, Richard Torver, or Turver, in 1680. Here Steele takes the "Twaddlers," in the Tatler, Nos. 86 and 132. The coffee-room was frequented by the poet Covvper, when he lived in the Temple. The room retains its olden panelling, and the staircase its original balusters. " In 1737, Dick's was kept by a Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter, who were the reigning toasts with the frequenters, and were supposed to be ridiculed in the comedy of ' The Coffee-house,' by the Rev. James Miller. This was stoutly denied by the author : but the engraver having inadvertently fixed upon Dick's Coffee-house as the frontispiece scene, the Templars, with whom the ladies were great favourites, became by his accident so confirmed in their suspicions, that they united to damn the piece, and even extended their resentment to everything suspected to be this author's for a considerable time after." Biographia Dramatica. The Coffee-house was, wholly or in part, the original printing-office of Richard Tottel, law-printer to Edward VI., Queens Mary and Elizabeth ; the premises were attached to No. 7, Fleet-street, which bore the sign of " The Hand and Starre," where Tottel lived, and published the law and other works he printed. No. 7 was subse- quently occupied by Jaggard and Joel Stephens, eminent law-writers, temp. Geo. I. III.; and at the present day the house is most appropriately occupied by Messrs. Butterworth, who follow the occupation Tottel did in the days of Edward VI., being law-publishers to Queen Victoria; and they possess the original leases, from the earliest grant, in the reign of Henry VIII., to the period of their own purchase. GEOBGE'S COFFEE-HOUSE (now a hotel), 213, Strand, near Essex-street, is men- tioned by Foote, in his Life of A. Murphy, as an evening meeting-place of the town wits of 1751. Shenstone was a frequenter of George's, where, lor a shilling sub- scription, he read " all pamphlets under a three shillings' dimension." It was closed in 1843. GBECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE, Devereux-court, Strand, was originally kept by one Con- stantine, a Grecian. From this house Steele proposed to date his learned articles in the Taller ; it is mentioned in No. 1 of the Spectator ; and it was much frequented by Goldsmith and the Irish and Lancashire Templars. The Spectator's face was very well known at the Grecian, " adjacent to the law." Occasionally it was the scene of learned discussion. Thus, Dr. King relates that one evening, two gentlemen, who were constant companions, were disputing here, concerning the accent of a Greek word. This dispute was carried to such a length, that the two friends thought proper to determine it by their swords : for this purpose they stepped into Devereux-court, where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was Fitzgerald) was run through the body, and died on the spot. The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. Here Goldsmith occa- sionally wound up his "Shoemaker's Holiday" with supper. The house was also COFFEE-HOUSES. 265 frequented by Fellows of tho Royal Society. The premises have, since 1843, been the " Grecian Chambers ;" and over the door is the bust of Devereux, Earl of Essex. GAEEAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 3, Change-alley, Cornhill, had a threefold celebrity : tea was first sold in England here ; it was a place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble ; and was throughout a house of great mercantile transactions. The original proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man, the first who retailed tea, recommending it for the cure of all disorders; the following is the sub- stance of his shop-bill : " Tea in England hath been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds the pound weight, and in respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees till the year 1651. The said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into those Eastern countries ; and upon knowledge and experience of the said Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality, have ever since sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Ex- change-alley, aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to the end that all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and others, who have occasion for tea in leaf, may be supplied, these are to give notice that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from sixteen to fifty shillings per pound." (See the document entire in Ellis's Letters, series iv. 58.) Ogilby, the compiler of the Britannia, had his standing lottery of books at Garway's from April 7, 1673, till wholly drawn oft; and, in the Journey through England, 1722, Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's, are described as the three celebrated Coffee-houses : the first, the people of quality, who have business in the City, and the most consider- able and wealthy citizens, frequent; the second, the foreign banquiers, and often even foreign ministers ; and the third, the buyers and sellers of stock. Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle" that is, by auction, while an inch of candle burns. Swift, in his " Ballad on the South Sea Scheme," 1721, did not forget this Coffee-house : " Meanwhile, secure on Garway's cliffs, A savage race by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead." The reader may recollect with what realistic power of incident and character Mr. E. II. Ward painted, some twenty years ago, the strange scene in the Alley; and his characteristic picture is, fortunately, placed in our National Gallery, as a lesson for all time. In the background is shown the Garraway's of 1720. Dr. Radcliffe, who was a rash speculator, was usually planted at a table at Garra- way's, to watch the turn of the market. One of his ventures was five thousand guineas upon one project. When he was told at Garraway's that it was all lost, " Why," said he, " 'tis but going up five thousand pair of stairs more." " This answtr," says Tom Brown, " deserved a statue." Garraway's was long famous as a sandwich and drinking-room, for sherry, pale ale, and punch. Tea and coffee were also served. It is said that the sandwich-maker was occupied two hours in cutting and arranging the sandwiches before the day's consump- tion commenced. The large sale-room was an old-fashioned first-floor apartment, with a small rostrum for the seller, and a few commonly-grained settles for the buyers ; there were also other sale-rooms. Here sales of drugs, mahogany, and timber were periodically held. Twenty or thirty property and other sales sometimes took place in a day. The walls and windows of the lower room were covered with auction placards. The first Garway's Coffee-house was destroyed in the Great Fire ; the house was rebuilt, and again burnt in the fire in Cornhill, in 1748 ; and again rebuilt, and finally closed August 18, 1866. The basement, used as wine-vaults, was ancient, of fourteenth and sixteenth century architecture, of ecclesiastical character, and had a piscina. It is remarkable that Garraway's, where tea was first sold, and the Angel, at Oxford, where coffee was first sold, were both taken down in 1866. Illustrated London News. GEAT'S-INN COFFEE-IIOUSE, eastern corner of Gray's-inn Gate, Holborn : here were formerly held the Commissions De Lunaiico inquirendo. It was closed in 1865. ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE, the famous Whig Coffee-house from the time of Queen 266 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Anne till late in the reign of George III. It was the last house but one on the south- west corner of St. James's-street, and is thus mentioned in No. 1 of the Tatler : "Foreign and domestic news you will Lave from St. James's Coffee-house." It occurs also in the Spectator. The St. James's was much frequented by Swift ; letters for him were left there. Here Swift christened the coffee-man Elliot's child, "when," says he, " the rogue had a most noble supper, and Steele and I sat amongst some scurvy company over a bowl of punch." Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Town Eclogues were first read over at the St. James's Coffee-house. From its proximity to the Palace, it was much visited by the Guards. But the St. James's is more memorable as the house where originated Goldsmith's celebrated poein, Retaliation. The poet belonged to a temporary association of men of talent, some of them members of the Club, who dined together occasionally here. At these dinners he was generally the last to arrive. On one occasion, when he was later than usual, a whim seized the company to write epitaphs on him, as " the late Dr. Goldsmith," and several were thrown off in a playful vein. The only one extant was written by Garrick, and has been preserved, very probably, by its pungency : " Here lies poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll; He wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll." Goldsmith did not relish the sarcasm, especially coming from such a quarter ; and, by way of retaliation, he produced the famous poem, of which Cumberland has left a very interesting account, but which Mr. Forster, in his Life of Goldsmith, states to be " pure romance." The poem itself, however, with what was prefixed to it when published, sufficiently explains its own origin. The St. James's was closed about 1806, and a large pile of buildings looking down Pall Mall erected on its site. The globular oil-lamp was first exhibited by its inventor, Michael Cole, at the door of the St. James's Coffee-house, in 1709 : in the patent he obtained, it is mentioned as " a new kind of light." JAMAICA COFFEE-HOUSE, 1, St. Michael's-alley, Cornhill, is noted for the accuracy and fulness of its West India intelligence. The subscribers are merchants trading with Madeira and the West Indies. It is the best place for information as to the mail-packets on the West India station, or the merchant vessels making these voyages. JERUSALEM COFFEE-HOUSE, 1, Cowper's-court, Cornhill, is one of the oldest of the City news-rooms, and is frequented by merchants and captains connected with the commerce of China, India, and Australia. " The subscription-room is well furnished with files of the principal Canton, Hong Kong, Macao, Pcnang, Singapore, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Sydney, Hobart Town, Launceston, Adelaide, and Port Philip papers, and Prices Current; besides shipping-lists and papers from the various intermediate stations or ports touched at, as St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, &c. The books of East India shipping include arrivals, departures, casualties, &c. The full business is between two and three o'clock, P.M. In 1845 ? John Tawell, the Slough murderer, was captured at the Jerusalem, which he was in the habit of visiting, to ascertain information of the state of his property in Sydney." The City, 2nd edit., 1848. JONATHAN'S, Change-alley Coffee-house, is described in the Tatler, No. 38, as " the general mart of stock-jobbers ;" and the Spectator, No. 1, tells us that he "sometimes passes for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers at Jonathan's." This was the rendezvous where gambling of all sorts was carried on ; notwithstanding a formal prohibition against the assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the City of London, which prohibition continued unrepealed until 1825. Mrs. Centlivre, in her comedy of A Sold Stroke for a Wife, has a scene from Jonathan's at the above period : while the stock-jobbers are talking, the coffee boys are crying, " Fresh coffee, gentlemen, fresh coffee ! Bohea tea, gentlemen !" LANGBOUBN COFFEE-HOUSE, Ball-alley, Lombard-street, rebuilt in 1850, has a broiling-stove in the coffee-room, whence chops and steaks are served hot from the gridiron ; and here is a wine and cigar room, embellished in handsome old French taste. LLOYD'S, Royal Exchange, celebrated for its priority of shipping intelligence, and COFFEE-HOUSES. 267 its marine insurance, originated with one Lloyd, who kept a coffee-house in Lombard- street. One of the apartments in the Exchange is fitted up as Lloyd's Coffee-room. (See EXCHANGES.) LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE, Ludgate-hill (now a hotel and tavern), was opened May, 1731, as " a punch house, Dorchester Beer, and Welsh Ale Warehouse, where the finest and best old Arrack, Rum, and French Brandy is made into Punch." In front of the London Coffee-house, immediately west of St. Martin's Church, stood Ludgate ; and on the site of the church Wren found the monument of a Roman soldier of the Second Legion, which is preserved in the Arundelian Collection. The London Coffee-house is noted for its publishers' sales of stock and copyrights. It was within the rules of the Fleet Prison : and in the Coffee-house are " locked up " for the night such juries from the Old Bailey Sessions as cannot agree upon verdicts. The house was long kept by the grandfather and father of Mr. John Leech, the celebrated artist. At the bar of the London Coffee-house was sold Rowley's British Cephalic Snuff. A singular inci- dent occurred here many years since ; Mr. Brayley, the topographer, was present at a party, when Mr. Broadhurst, the famous tenor, by singing a high note, caused a wine-glass on the table to break, the bowl being separated from the stem. MAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE, in Scotland-yard, near the water-side, took its name from the proprietor, Alexander Man, and was sometimes known as Old Man's, or the Royal Coffee-house, to distinguish it from Young Man's and Little Man's minor establishments in the neighbourhood. MILES'S COFFEE-HOTTSE, New Palace-yard, Westminster, was the place of meeting of the noted Rota Club. (See CLUBS, p. 255.) MTJNDAT'S COFFEE-HOUSE, Maiden-lane, was a noted sporting resort in the days of Captain England, Dennis O'Kelly, Hull, the Clarkes, and others of turf notoriety. It was one of Sheridan's retreats, secure from his creditors. NANDO'S COFFEE-HOUSE was the house at the east corner of Inner Temple-lane, 17, Fleet-street, and next door to the shop of Bernard Lintot, the bookseller; though it has been by some confused with Groom's house, next door. Nando's was the favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow, before he dashed into law practice. At this Coffee-house a large attendance of professional loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the charms of the landlady, which, with the small wits, were duly admired by and at the bar. The house, formerly Nando's, was also the depository of Mr. Salmon's Waxwork. It has been for many years a hair-dresser's. It is inscribed, " Formerly the Palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey." But the structure is of the time of James I., when it was the Council Office of the Duchy of Cornwall j an entry in 1619 is from " Prince's Council Chamber, Fleet-street." NEW ENGLAND AND NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICAN COFFEE-HOUSE, 59 and 60, Threadneedle-street, had a subscription-room, with newspapers from every quarter of the globe. Here the first information could be obtained of the arrival and departure of steamers, packets, and traders engaged in the commerce of America, whether at Mon- treal and Quebec, or Boston, Halifax, and New York. The heads of the chief American and continental firms were on the subscription-list, and the representatives of Barings, Rothschilds, and other wealthy establishments, attended the room as regularly as 'Change ; as did also American captains, and the " City Correspondents" of the morning and evening press. From 300 to 400 files of newspapers were kept here, ranging from America to the East or West Indies, thence to Australia, the Havana, France, Ger- many, Holland, Russia, Spain, and Portugal. (Abridged from The City, 2nd edit.) Adjoining was the Cock Tavern, with a large soup-room, named after the Cock, which faced the north gate of the old Royal Exchange, and was long celebrated for the excellence of its soups, served in silver. This house was taken down in 1841 ; when, in a claim for compensation made by the pro- prietor, the trade in three years was proved to have been 344,720 basins of various soups viz., 166,240 mock turtle, 3920 giblet, 59,360 ox-tail, 31,072 bouilli, 84,128 gravy and other soups : sometimes 500 basins of soup were sold in a day. PEELE'S, 177 and 178, Fleet- street, east corner of Fetter-lane, was one of the coffee- houses of the Johnsonian period ; and here was long preserved a portrait of Dr. 268 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Johnson, on the keystone of a chimney-piece, stated to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Peele's was noted for its files of newspapers from these dates : Gazette, 1759; Times, 1780; Morning Chronicle, 1773; Morning Post, 1773; Morning Herald, 1784 ; Morning Advertiser, 1794. Peele's is now a tavern and hotel. PERCY COFFEE-HOUSE, the, Rathbone-place,- Oxford-street, no longer exists ; but it will be kept in recollection for its having given name to one of the most popular pub- lications, of its class, in our time, namely, the Percy Anecdotes, " by Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery of Mont Benger," in 44 parts, com- mencing in 1820. So said the title-pages ; but the names and the locality were sup- pose. Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerley, who died in 1824 ; Sholto Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died in 1852. The name of the collection of Anecdotes was not taken, as at the time supposed, from the popularity of the Percy Reliques, but from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over the joint work. PIAZZA COFFEE-HOUSE, the, was opened in that portion of the Piazza houses in Covent-garden which is now the Tavistock Hotel. Here Macklin fitted up a large Coffee-room, or theatre for oratory ; a three-shilling ordinary, and a shilling lecture : he presided at the dinner-table, and carved for the company, after which he played a sort of " Oracle of Eloquence." Fielding has happily sketched him in his Voyage to Lisbon : " Unfortunately for the fishmongers of London, the Dory only resides in the Devonshire seas ; for could any of this company only convey one to the Temple of Luxury under the Piazza, where Macklin, the high priest, daily serves up his rich offerings, great would be the reward of that fishmonger." Foote, in his fun upon Macklin's Lectures, took up his notion of applying Greek tragedy to modern subjects, and the squib was so successful, that Foote cleared by it 50QI. in five nights, while the great Piazza Coffee-room in Covent- garden was shut up, and Macklin in the Gazette as a bankrupt. Eastward was the Piazza Coffee-house, much frequented by Sheridan and John Kemble ; and here is located the well-known anecdote told of Sheridan's coolness during the burning of Drury-lane Theatre, in 1809. It is said that as he sat at the Piazza, during the fire, taking some refreshment, a friend of his having remarked on the philo- sophical calmness with which he bore his misfortune, Sheridan replied : " A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside." The Piazza fa?ade and its interior were of Gothic design : the house has been taken down, and in its place is built the Floral Hall, after the Crystal Palace model, thus breaking the continuity of Inigo Jones's arcade. RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE (now a tavern), 15, Fleet-street, by the Inner Temple Gate, was the second Coffee-hcuse opened in London, and had its token-money : " JAMES FAEB, 1666. A Rainbow. R, IN FLEET-STREET. In the centre, HIS HALFPENNY. It is well known that James Farr kept the Rainbow, in Fleet-street, at the time of the Great Fire, the very year of which is marked on this token. Farr was a barber; and in the year 1657 was presented by the In- quest of St. Dunstan's-in-the-West for making and selling ' a sort of liquor called " coffee," whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neighbours by evill smells ; and for keeping of fire for the most part night and day, whereby his chimney and chamber hath been set on fire, to the great danger and affright ment of his neighbours.' " However, Farr was not ousted; he probably promised reform, or amended the alleged annoyance : he remained at the Rainbow, and rose to be a person of eminence and repute in the parish. He issued the above token, date 1666 an arched rainbow based on clouds, doubtless, from the Great Fire to indicate that with him all was yet safe, and the Rainbow still radiant. There is one of his tokens in the Beaufoy collection, at Guildhall, and so far as is known to Mr. Burn, the Raiubow does not occur on any other tradesman's token. The house was let off into tenements : books were printed here at this very time " for Samuel Speed, at the sign of the Rainbow, near the Inner Temple Gate, in Fleet-street." The Phoenix Fire Office was established here about 1682. Hatton, in 1708, evidently attributed Farr's nuisance to the coffee itself, say- ing : " Who would have thought London would ever have had three thousand such nuisances, and that coffee would have been (as now) so much drank by the best of quality, and physicians ?" The nuisance was in Farr's chimney and carelessness, not COFFEE-HOUSES. 269 in the coffee. The Spectator, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the Rainbow : " I have received a letter desiring me to he very satirical upon the little muff that is now in fashion ; another informs me of a pair of silver garters, buckled below the knee, that have lately been seen at the Rainbow Coffee-house, in Fleet-street." Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780 this house was kept by his grand- father, Alexander Moncrieff, when it retained its original title of " The Rainbow Coffee- house." It has vaulted cellars, excellent for keeping stout j the old coffee-room originally had a lofty bay-window at the south end, looking into the Temple ; in the bay was the large table for the elders. The room was separated by a glazed partition from the kitchen, where was a clock with a large wooden dial. The house has long been a tavern : all the old rooms have been swept away, and a large and lofty dining- room erected in their place. There are views of the old entrance to the Rainbow in Hughson and Malcolm's London, 1807 and 1808. SALTERO'S (DON) COFFEE-HOUSE, 18, Cheyne-walk, Chelsea, was opened by a barber named Salter, in 1695. Sir Hans Sloane, whose valet Salter had been, contributed some of the refuse gimcracks of his own collection ; and Vice- Admiral Munden, who had been long on the coast of Spain, named the keeper of the house Don Saltero, and his coffee-house and museum, Don Saltero's. Steele, in the thirty-fourth number of the Taller, describes Salter as "carrying on the avocations of barber and dentist. You see the barber in Don Quixote is one of the principal characters in the history, which gave me satisfaction on the doubt why Don Saltero writ his name with a Spanish termination. Ten thousand were gimcracks round the room, and on the ceiling ; and a sage of thin and meagre countenance, of that sort which the ancients call ' gingivister,' in our language, ' tooth-drawers.' " Among the curiosities presented by Admiral Munden was a coffin, containing the body or relics of a Spanish saint, who had wrought miracles ; also, " a straw hat, which," says Steele, " I know to be made by Madge Peskad, within three miles of Bedford ; and he tells you ' It is Pontius Pilate's wife's chambermaid's sister's hat.' " The Don was famous for his punch and his skill on the fiddle : he also drew teeth, and wrote verses ; he described his museum in several stanzas, one of which is " Monsters of all sorts here are seen : Strange things in nature as they grew so ; Some relicks of the Sheba queen, And fragments of the fam'd Bob Crusoe." Don Saltero's proved very attractive as an exhibition, and drew crowds to the Coffee- house. A Catalogue was published, of which were printed more than forty editions. Smollett, the novelist, was among the donors. The edition of 1760 comprehended the following rarities : Tigers' tusks ; the Pope's candle; the skeleton of a Guinea-pig ; a fly-cap monkey; a piece of the true Cross ; the Four Evangelists' heads cut on a cherry-stone ; the King of Morocco's tobacco-pipe ; Mary Queen of Scots' pincushion ; Queen Elizabeth's prayer-book ; a pair of nun's stockings ; Job's ears, which grew on a tree ; a frog in a tobacco-stopper ; and five hundred more odd relics ! The Don had a rival, as appears by " A Catalogue of the Karities to be seen at Adams's, at the Eoyal Swan, in Kingsland-road, leading from Shoreditch Church, 1756." Mr. Adams exhibited, for the entertainment of the curious, " Miss Jenny Cameron's shoes ; Adam's eldest daughter's hat ; the heart of the famous Bess Adams, that was hanged at Tyburn with Lawyer Carr, January 18, 1736-7 ; Sir Walter Raleigh's tobacco-pipe; Vicar of Bray's clogs; engine to shell green peas with; teeth that grew in a fish's belly; Black Jack's ribs ; the very comb that Abraham combed his son Isaac and Jacob's head with ; Wat Tyler's spurs; rope that cured Captain Lowry of the head-ach, ear-ach, tooth-ach, and belly-ach; Adam's key of the fore and back door of the Garden of Edeii," &c. &c. These are only a few out of five hundred others equally marvellous. In Dr. Franklin's Life we read : " Some gentlemen from the country went by water to see the College, and Don Saltero's Curiosities, at Chelsea." These were shown in the coffee-room till August, 1799, when the collection was mostly sold or dispersed ; a few gimcracks were left until about 1825, when we were informed on the premises, they were thrown away ! The house was taken down in 1866. (See CHEL- SEA, p. 90.) SAM'S COFFEE-HOUSE, in Exchange- alley; and in Ludgate-street. The latter is mentioned in State Poems, 1697 and 1703 ; and in 1722 there were two large mul- berry-trees growing in a little yard in the rear of the house in Ludgate-street. 270 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. SEELE'S COFFEE-HOUSE, Carey-street, is thus mentioned in No. 49 of the Spectator i " I do not know that I meet in any of my walks, objects which move both my spleen and laughter so effectually as those young fellows at the Grecian, Squire's, Serle's, and all other Coffee-houses adjacent to the Law, who rise for no other purpose but to publish their laziness." SLAUGHTEE'S COFFEE-HOUSE, famous as the resort of painters and sculptors, in the last century, was situated at the upper end of the west side of St. Martin's-lane, three doors from Newport-street. Its first landlord was Thomas Slaughter, 1692. A second Slaughter's (New Slaughter's) was established in the same street about 1760, when the original establishment adopted the name of " Old Slaughter's," by which designation it was known till within a few years of the final demolition of the house to make way for the new avenue between Long-acre and Leicester-square, formed 1843-44. For many years previous to the streets of London being completely paved, " Slaughter's" was called " The Coffee-house on the Pavement." Besides being the resort of artists, Old Slaughter's was the house of call for Frenchmen. Hogarth was a constant visitor here : he lived at the Golden Head, on the eastern side of Leicester-fields, in the northern half of the Sabloniere Hotel. Koubiliac was often to be found at Slaughter's ; and young Gainsborough and Cipriani ; Jervis and Hayman met here, and seldom parted till day- light. Wilkie, in early life, was the last dropper-in here for a dinner; and Haydon was often his companion. J. T. Smith refers to Slaughter's as " formerly the rendez- vous of Pope, Dryden, and other wits." Thither came Ware, the architect of Chesterfield House ; also Gwynn, who competed with Mylne for Blackfriars Bridge ; and Gravelot, who kept a Drawing-school in the Strand. Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti por- traits; M'Ardell, the mezzotinto- scraper; and Luke Sullivan, the engraver of Hogarth's March to Finchley, also frequented Old Slaughter's ; likewise Theodore Gardell, the portrait-painter, who was executed for the murder of his landlady; and Old Moser, keeper of the Drawing-academy in Peter's-court. Richard Wilson, the landscape painter, was not a regular customer here. Parry, the Welsh harper, though totally blind, was one of the first draught-players in England, and occasionally played with the frequenters of Old Slaughter's ; and here, in consequence of a bet, Roubiliac introduced Nathaniel Smith (father of John Thomas), to play at draughts with Parry, when Smith won. Kawle, the inseparable companion of Capt. Grose, the antiquary, came often to Slaughter's ; as did also Collins, the young poet. SMYBNA COFFEE-HOUSE, Pall Mall, is frequently alluded to by the writers of Queen Anne's reign ; and was one of the most celebrated of the West-end houses. Prior and Swift were among its most distinguished frequenters; its "seat of learning," and " cluster of wise heads." Prior and Swift were much together at the Smyrna ; we read of their sitting there two hours, " receiving acquaintance." It seemed also to be a place to talk politics. Subscriptions were received there by Thomson, for publishing his Four Seasons ; with a Hymn on their Succession." We find the Smyrna in a list of Coffee-houses, in 1810. SOMEESET COFFEE-HOUSE, 162, Strand, has a literary association, from the Letters of Junius having been sometimes left at the bar. SQUIEE'S COFFEE-HOUSE was in Fulwood's-rents, Holborn, running up to Gray's Inn, and described by Strype as " a place of good resort, and taken up by coffee-houses, ale-houses, and houses of entertainment ;" among which were the Castle Tavern and the Golden Griffin Tavern. Here was John's, one of the earliest Coffee-houses ; and adjoining Gray's-inn-gate, a deep-coloured red brick house, once Squire's Coffee house, kept by Squire, who died in 1717. The house is very roomy ; it has been handsome, and has a wide staircase. Sqnire's was one of the receiving-houses of the Spectator: in No. 269, January 8, 17J1-12, he accepts Sir Roger de Coverley's invitation to " smoke a pipe with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I take delight in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and accordingly waited on him to the Coffee-house, where his venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated himself at the upper end of the high table, but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax candle, and the Supplement (a periodical paper of that time), with such an air of cheerfulness and good humour, that all the boys in the coffee-room (who seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed on his several errands, insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea until the Knight had got all his conveniences about him." COFFEE-HOUSES. 271 Gray's-inn Walks, to which the Rents led, across Field-court, were then a fashionable promenade ; and here Sir Roger could " clear his pipes hi good air ;" for scarcely a house intervened thence to Hampstead. TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE, Birchin-lane, Cornhill, though in the main a mercantile resort, acquired some celebrity from its having been frequented by Garrick, who, to keep up an interest in the City, appeared here about twice in a winter at 'Change time, when it was the rendezvous of young merchants. Hawkins says : " After all that has been said of Mr. Garrick, envy must own that he owed his celebrity to his merit ; and yet of that himself seemed so diffident, that he practised sundry little but innocent arts to insure the favour of the public :" yet he did more. When a rising actor complained to Mrs. Garrick that the newspapers abused him, the widow replied, " You should write your own criticisms ; David always did." Tom's was also frequented by Chatterton, as a place " of the best resort ;" here was first established " the London Chess-Club." (See CHESS-CLUBS, p. 95.) The premises were long held on lease from Lord Cowper, at a rent of 150. per annum, but had been sublet at 1000Z. TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE, Devereux-court, Strand, was much resorted to by men of letters; among whom were Dr. Birch, who wrote the History of the Royal Society ; also Akenside, the poet ; and there is in print a letter of Pope's, addressed to Fortescue, his " counsel learned in the law," at this Coffee-house. TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 17, Russell-street, Covent-garden, opposite Button's, was kept by Thomas West, and was in the reign of Queen Anne, and more than half a century after, a celebrated resort. (See CLUBS, p. 257.) TOM: KING'S COFFEE-HOUSE was one of the old night-houses of Covent-garden Market : it was a rude shed immediately beneath the portico of St. Paul's Church, and was one " well known to all gentlemen to whom beds are unknown." Fielding, in one of his prologues, says : " What rake is ignorant of King's Coffee-house ?" It is in the background of Hogarth's print of "Morning," where the prim maiden lady, walking to church, is soured with seeing two fuddled beaux from King's Coffee- house caressing two frail women. At the door is a drunken row, ill which swords and cudgels are the weapons. Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, p. 293, in the account of the boys elected from Eton to King's College, contains this entry : " A.D. 1713, Thomas King, born at West Ashton, in Wiltshire, went away scholar in apprehension that his fellowship would be denied him; and afterwards kept that Coffee-house in Covent- garden, which was called by his own name." Moll King was landlady after Tom's death : she was witty, and her house was much frequented, though it was little better than a shed. " Noblemen and the first "beaux" said Stacie, " after leaving Court, would go to her house in full dress, with swords and bags, and in rich brocaded silk coats, and walked and conversed with persons of every description. She would serve chimney-sweepers, gardeners, and the market-people in common with her lords of the highest rank." Captain Laroon, an amateur painter of the time of Hogarth, who often witnessed the nocturnal revels at Moll King's, made a large and spirited drawing of the interior of her Coffee-house, which was at Strawberry Hill : it wa bought for Walpole by his printer. There is also an engraving of the same room, which is extremely rare. TUBE'S HEAD COFFEE-HOUSE, Change-alley, established in 1662; the sign was Morat the Great, who figures as a tyrant in Dryden's Aureng Zebe. There is a token of this house with the Sultan's Head in the Beaufoy Collection. Another token, in the same collection, is of unusual excellence, probably by John Roettier. It has on the obverse, " Morat ye Great Men did mee call, Sultan's Head ;" reverse, " Where eare I came I conquered all. In the field, Coffee, Tobacco, Sherbet, Tea, Chocolat, Retail in Exchange Alee." " The word ' tea,' " says Mr. Burn, " occurs on no other tokens than those issued from ' the Great Turk ' Coffee-house, in Exchange-alley." In a news- paper of 1662, customers and acquaintances are invited the New Year's-day to the Great Turk new Coffee-house, in Exchange-alley, " where coffee will be free of cost." There was also a Sultan Morat's Head Coffee-house, which had a token, rev. " In Bar- bican formerly in Pannyer Ally." TUEK'S HEAD COFFEE-HOUSE, 142, in the Strand, was a favourite supping- 272 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Louse with Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in whose Life of Johnson are several entries, commencing with 1763 " At night, Mr. Johnson and I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, in the Strand. ' I encourage this house,' said he, ' for the mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much business.' " Another entry is " We concluded the day at the Turk's Head Coffee-house very socially." And, August 3, 1673 " We had our last social meeting at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, before my setting out for foreign parts." The name was afterwards changed to " The Turk's Head, Canada and Bath Coffee-house," and lasted as a well-frequented tavern until the house was rebuilt, at the cost of 8000?. as " Wright's Hotel :" it is now an insurance office. The house has two stories below the level of the street. WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE,* the predecessor of Button's, and even more celebrated than that Coffee-house, was so called from William Urwin, who kept it, and was the house on the north side of Russell-street at the corner of Bow-street the corner house (rebuilt) now occupied as a ham-and-beef shop, and numbered 21. Pepys, in his Diary, records his first visit to Will's, 3 Feb. 1663-4, "where Dryden the poet (I knew at Cambridge), and all the wits of the town, and Harris the player, and Mr. Hoole of our college," with " very witty and pleasant discourse." Ned Ward sarcastically calls it " the Wits' Coffee-house." Wycherley, Gay, and Dennis were frequenters. " It was Dryden who made Will's Coffee-house the great resort of the wits of his time." (Pope and Spence.) The room in which the poet was accustomed to sit was on the first floor ; and his place was the place of honour by the fireside in the winter ; and at the corner of the balcony, looking over the street, in fine weather ; he called the two places his winter and his summer seat. This was called the dining-room floor in the last century. The company did not sit in boxes, as subsequently, but at various tables which were dispersed through the room. Smoking was permitted in the public room : it was then so much in vogue that it does not seem to have been considered a nuisance. Here, as in other similar places of meeting, the visitors divided themselves into parties ; and we are told by Ward that the beaux and wits, who seldom approached the principal table, thought it a greac honour to have a pinch out of Dryden's snuff-box. Tom Brown describes " a Wit and a Beau set up with little or no expense. A pair of red stockings and a sword-knot set up one, and peeping once a day in at Will's, and two or three second-hand sayings, the other." Addison passed each day alike, and much in the manner that Dryden did. Dryden employed his morning in writing, dined en famille, and then went to Will's, " only he came home earlier o' nights." Pope, when very young, was impressed with such veneration for Dryden, that he persuaded some friends to take him to Will's Coffee- house, and was delighted that he could say that he had seen Dryden. Sir Charles Wogan, too, brought up Pope from the forest of Windsor, to dress a la mode, and introduce at Will's Coffee-house. Pope afterwards described Dryden as " a plump man with a down look, and not very conversible ;" and Gibber remembered him " u decent old man, arbiter of critical disputes at Will's." Prior sings of "the younger Stiles, Whom Dryden pedagogues at Will's !" Most of the hostile criticisms on his plays, which Dryden has noticed in his various prefaces, appear to have been made at his favourite haunt, Will's. Swift was accus- tomed to speak disparagingly of Will's, as in his Rhapsody on Poetry : " Be sure at Will's the following day Lie snug, and hear what critics say." Swift thought little of the frequenters: he used to say that "the worst con- versation he ever heard in his life was at Will's," In the first number of the Tatter, poetry is promised under the article of Will's Coffee-house. The place, however, changed after Dryden's time. " You used to see songs, epigrams, and satires in the hands of every man you met; you have now only a pack of cards; and instead of the * Will's Coffee-house first had the title of the Red Cow (says Sir Walter Scott), then of the Rose, and, we believe, is the same house alluded to in the pleasant story in the second number of the Tatter: " Supper and friends expect we at the Rose." The Rose, however, was a common sign for houses of public entertainment. COLLEGES. 273 cavils about the turn of the expression, the elegance of the style, and the like, the learned now dispute only about the truth of the game." The Spectator is sometimes seen " thrusting his head into a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in these little circular audiences." Although no exclusive subscription belonged to any of these, we find by the account which Colley Gibber gives of his first visit to Will's, in Covent-garden, that it required an introduc- tion to this society not to be considered as an impertinent intruder. Will's was the open market for libels and lampoons. One Julian attended Will's, and dispersed among the crowds who frequented that place of gay resort copies of the lampoons which had been privately communicated to him by their authors. After Dryden's death, in 1701, Will's continued for about ten years to be still the Wits' Coffee-house. Pope, it is well known, courted the correspondence of the town wits and Coffee-house critics. WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 7, Serle-street, Lincoln's-ihn, was much frequented by the legal profession, and by actors and gay company when Portugal-street had its theatre. In the Epicure's Almanac, 1813, it is described as " a house of the first-class for turtle and venison, matured port, double-voyaged Madeira, and princely claret ; wherewithal to wash down the dust of making law-books, and take out the inky blots from rotten parchment bonds." It no longer exists. There are in the metropolis about 1000 Coffee-shops or Coffee-rooms ; the establish- ment of the majority of which may be traced to the cheapening of coffee and sugar, and to the increase of newspapers and periodicals. About the year 1815, the London Coffee-shops did not amount to 20, and there was scarcely a Coffee-house where coffee could be had under 6d. a cup ; it may now be had at Coffee-shops at from Id. to 3d. Some of these shops have from 700 to 1600 customers daily ; 40 copies of the daily newspapers are taken in, besides provincial and foreign papers, and magazines. Cooked meat is also to be had at Coffee-shops, at one of which three cwt. of ham and beef are sometimes sold weekly. COLLEGES. ST. BARNABAS COLLEGE, Queen-street, Pimlico, consists of a church, schools, and residentiary house for the clergy, built 1846-50, in the Pointed Early English style, Cundy, architect. The residentiary house is for clergymen who attend to the parochial duties of the district, minister in the church, teach in the schools, and super- intend the twelve choristers. The schools were opened on St. Barnabas Day, 1847, and the church in 1850. (See CHURCHES, p. 151.) The freehold site of the College was given by the first Marquis of Westminster, and is in the poorest part of the district. The College was built by subscription, to which the Eev. W. J. E. Bennett, then incum- bent of the district, contributed the bulk of bis fortune, and the most zealous pastoral care. A " Home of Refuge," under the management of the clergy of the parish, is situated in the Commercial-road. Davis's Knightsbridge, p. 253. CHURCH OF ENGLAND METROPOLITAN TRAINING- INSTITUTION, Highbury (late Highbury College), was instituted 1849, to train pious persons as masters and mistresses of juvenile schools connected with the Established Church, " upon principles Scriptural, Evangelical, and Protestant." CHURCH MISSIONARY COLLEGE, the, Barnsbury-place, Upper Islington, is an impor- tant branch of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East ; and here the students are trained for future missionaries. Among the early founders of this Society were Wilberforce, Scott, Cecil, Newton, Venn, and Pratt : it was chiefly matured at the " Eclectic Society" assembling then at the vestry of St. John's Chapel, Bedford- row. The annual cost of the College operations averages 100,OOOZ., or about 1000/. for every station. (See Low's Charities of London, pp. 412-13.) CHEMISTRY, COLLEGE OF (ROYAL), 16, Hanover-square, was founded in 1845, for instruction in Practical Chemistry at a moderate expense, and for the general advance- ment of Chemical Science. The first stone of the three new laboratories was laid by Prince Albert, President of the College, June 16, 1846 j James Lockyer, architect. I 274 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. The Oxford-street front has a rusticated ground-floor, and an upper story decorated with six Ionic columns. DTJLWICH COLLEGE, in the pleasant hamlet of Dulwich, exactly five miles south of Cornhill, was built and endowed in 1613-19, by Edward Alleyn, "bred a stage-player:" he became a celebrated actor, erected the Fortune Theatre, and with Henslowe, was co-proprietor of the Paris Bear-Garden at Bankside. Alleyn named the foundation at Dulwich " the College of God's Gift ;" for a master and warden, four fellows, six poor brethren, six sisters, and twelve scholars ; and thirty out-members lodged in alms- houses. By the founder's statutes, the master and warden should bear the name of Alleyn, or Allen, and both continue unmarried, or be removed from the College ; yet the first master and warden (Alleyn's kinsmen) were both married, and Alleyn himself was twice married. He bequeathed his books and musical instruments, and his " seal- ring with his arms, to be worn by the master." The gross annual income of the College is about 8000Z., or nearly tenfold the value settled by the founder. The only eminent master or warden was John Allen, one of the earliest writers in the Edinburgh Review. Little of the old buildings remains in the present structure, three sides of a quadrangle ; the entrance gates are curiously wrought with the founder's arms, crest, and motto " God's Gift." In the centre is the Chapel, with a low tower ; the altar- piece is a copy, by Julio Romano, of Raphael's Transfiguration; the front is inscribed with a Greek anagram, the same read either way. Alleyn (d. 1626) is buried here. Adjoining the College is "the Grammar-school of God's Gift College," built by Barry, R.A., in 1842 ; and the Dulwich Gallery of Pictures, famous for its Cuyps and Murillos ; Soane, R.A., architect. In the College and Master's Apartments are several portraits, including Alleyn the founder, full length, in a black gown ; also left by Cartwright, player and bookseller, 1687, portraits of " the Actors " Eiehard Burbage, Nat. Field, Richard Perkins, Thomas Bond, &c. ; and of the poet Drayton ; Lovelace the poet, and " Althea " with her hair dishevelled ; a Lady in a richly-flowered dress, large ruff, and pearls ; and a Alerchant and his Lady on panel, their hands resting upon a human skull placed on a tomb, below which is a naked corpse. The library chimney-piece is made out of " the upper part of the Queen's barge," purchased by Alleyn in 1618. The books number about 4200 volumes : those relating 1 to the theatre have been exchanged or filched away ; and a very valuable collection of old plays was exchanged by the College with Garriek for modern works, and eventually purchased for the British Museum. The College possesses an original letter written by Alleyn to his first wife, Joan Woodward, from Chelmsford, in 1593, when he was one of " the Lord's strange Players." Here also is the MS Diary and. Account Book of Phillip Henslowe, printed by the Shakspeare Society ; and in the old carved Treasury Chest, a memorandum-book in Alleyn's handwriting ; besides other " Dulwich papers." See Collier's Memoirs of Alleyn. When the office of Master of the College becomes vacant, the Warden immediately succeeds to it, and a new Warden is elected by the Master, the four Fellows, and six Assistants ; the latter being two churchwardens from each of the parishes of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate ; St. Luke's, Old-street-road ; and St. Saviour's, Southwark. In 1851, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as official Visitor of the College, extended the education at the School to surveying, chemistry, engineering, and the allied sciences. In 1858 was passed an Act of Parliament, by which its educational system will be kept expanding in proportion to its wealth. There are now two Schools ; an upper, which provides a more advanced education for boys of the better class, and a lower, intended for the preparation of youths for commercial life ; each school about 300. The fees in the upper school amount to 81. per annum for each boy, and in the lower to II. In addition to these scholars there are foundation-boys in both schools, boarded and lodged at the expense of the charity. To provide for this extension, new buildings were com- menced in 1866, on a site of 30 acres, between the present College and the Crystal Palace. The centre of the building is a large hall for dining and for the general gathering of the boys ; there are a cloister between the two schools, and official resi- dences for the masters. There is a Speech-day for classic and dramatic orations ; and the performance of a play, preference being given to Shakspeare's. GniSHAM COLLEGE, Basinghall-street, a handsome stone edifice, designed by George Smith, was opened Nov. 2, 1843, for the Gresham Lectures. It is in the enriched Roman style, and has a Corinthian entrance-portico. The interior contains a large library, and professors' rooms ; and on the first floor a lecture-room, or theatre, to hold 500 persons. The building cost upwards of VOOOZ. The Lectures, on Astronomy, Physic, Law, Divinity, Rhetoric, Geometry, and Music, are here read to the public gratis, during "Term Time," daily, except Sundays ; in Latin, at 12 noon; English, at COLLEGES. 275 1 P.M. ; the Geometry and Music Lectures at 7 P.M. Gresham College was founded by Sir Thomas Gresham, who, in 1575, gave his mansion-house and the rents arising from the Royal Exchange, which, on the death of Lady Gresham, in 1597, were vested in the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company, who were conjointly to nominate seven professors, to lecture successively, one on each day of the week ; their salaries being 50?. per annum : a more liberal remuneration than Henry VIII. had appointed for the Regius Professors of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, and equiva- lent to 400Z. or 500J. at the present day. The Lectures commenced June 1597, in Gresham's mansion, which, with almshouses and gardens, extended from Bishopsgate- street westward into Broad-street. Here the Royal Society originated in 1645, and met (with interruptions) until 1710. The buildings were then neglected, and in 1768 were taken down, and the Excise Office built upon their site ; the reading of the Lectures was then removed to a room on the south-east side of the Royal Exchange ; the lecturers' salaries being raised to 100Z. each, in place of the lodging they had in the old College, of which there is a view, by Vertue, in Ward's Lives of the G-resham Professors, 1740.* On the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange, the Gresham Committee provided a separate edifice for the College, as above. Above its entrance portico are sculptured the following arms : City of London. Gresham. Zfercers' Company. Arg. a cross, and in Arg. a chev. erm. Gu. a demi-virgin couped below the shoulders, issu- the dexter chief a betw. three mul- ing from clouds, all ppr. veiled or crowned with sword erect gu. lets pierced sa. an eastern coronet of the last, her hair dishevelled, all within a bordure nebuly arg. HERALDS' COLLEGE (College of Arms), College of Advocates, and Doctors of Law, east side of Benet's hill, Doctors' Commons, was built in 1683, from the design of Sir Christopher Wren, upon the site of the former College (Derby House), destroyed in the Great Fire ; but all the valuable documents and books were fortunately saved. Sir William Dugdale, then Norroy King-of-Arms, built the north-west corner at his own expense : the hollow arch of the gateway on Benet's-hill is a curiosity. On the north side of the court-yard is the grand hall, in which the Court of Chivalry was formerly held. On the right is the old library, opening into a fire-proof record-room, built in 1844 : to contain the MS. collection of Heralds' visitations, records of grants of arms, royal licenses, official funeral certificates, and public ceremonials. Here, too, were several portraits, including those of Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King-at-Arms ; John Anstis, Garter ; Peter Le Neve, Norroy ; John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, &c. In the grand hall was the judicial seat of the Earl Marshal ; " but the chair is empty, and the sword unswayed." On the south side of the quadrangle is a paved terrace, on the wall of which are two escutcheons ; one bearing the arms (and legs) of Man, and the other the Eagle's claw both ensigns of the house of Stanley, and denoting the site of old Derby House, though they are not ancient. The College of Arms received the first charter of incorporation from Richard III., who gave them for the residence and assembling of the Heralds, Poulteney's Inn, " a righte fayre and stately house," in Coklharbour. They were dispossessed of this property by Henry VII., when they removed to the Hospital of Our Lady of Rouuceval, at Charing Cross, where now stands Northumberland House. They next removed to Derby or Stanley House, on St. Benet's-hill, granted by Queen Mary, July 18, 1555, to Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King-of-Arms, and to the other Heralds and Pursuivants at Arms, and their successors. The service of the Pursuivants, and of the Heralds, and of the whole College, is used in marshalling and ordering Coronations, Marriages, Christenings, Funerals, Interviews, Feasts of Kings and Princes, Cavalcades, Shows, Justs, Tournaments, Combats, before the Constable and Marshal, &c. Also they take care of the Coats of Arms, and of the Genealogies of the Nobility and Gentry. Anciently, the Kings-at-Arms were solemnly crowned before the sovereign, and took an oath : during which the Earl Marshal poured a bowl of wine on his head, put on him a richly embroidered velvet Coat of Arms, a Collar of Esses, a jewel and gold chain, and a crown of gold. Chamberlayne's Magnae Britannia Notitia, 1726. The College has, since 1622, consisted of thirteen officers : Kings: Garter, Principal ; Clarencieux ; Norroy. Heralds : Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond, Windsor, York, Chester. Pursuivants : Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Portcullis, Blue Dragon. These hold their places by appointment of the Duke of Norfolk, as Hereditary Earl Marshal. Few rulers have been insensible to the pageantry of arms : even the royalty-hating * In Vertue's print, at the entrance archway are two figures, designed for Dr. Woodward and Dr. Mead, Professors, who having quarrelled and drawn swords, Mead obtained the advantage, and com- manded Woodward to beg his life : " No, Doctor, that I will not, till I am your patient," was the witty reply ; but he yielded, and is here shewn tendering: his sword to Mead. T 2 276 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Cromwell appointed his King-at-Arms ; and the heraldic expenses of his funeral were between 400/. and 5001. The Court of Chivalry was nearly as oppressive as the detestable Star Chamber ; for we read of its imprisoning and ruining a merchant- citizen for calling a swan a goose ; and fining Sir George Markham 10,OOOZ. for saying, after he had horse-whipped the saucy huntsman of Lord Darcy, that if his master justified his insolence, he would horse-whip him also. The severest punishment of the Court is the degradation from the honour of knighthood, of which only three instances are recorded in three centuries : this consisted in breaking and defacing the knight's sword and gilt spurs, and pronouncing him " an infamous errant knave." In our time, the banner of a Knight of the Bath has been pulled down by the heralds, and kicked out of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster. The herald's visitations were liable to strange abuses, and ceased with the seventeenth century. Another trusty service of the Officers-at-Arms is the bearing of letters and messages to sovereign princes and persons in authority ; these officers were the " Chivalers of Armes," or Knights Eiders, the original King's Messengers ; and adjoining the College is Knight-Rider-street. Among the Curiosities of the College are, the Warwick Roll, with figures of all the Earls of Warwick from the Conquest to Richard III. ; a Tournament Roll of Henry VIII.'s time ; a sword, dagger, and turkois ring, said to have belonged to James IV. of Scotland, who fell at Flodden-field ; portrait of the warrior Talbdt, Earl of Shrews- bury, from his tomb in Old St. Paul's; pedigree of the Saxon kings from Adam, with beautiful pen-and ink illustrations (temp. Henry VIII.); and a volume in the hand- writing of " the learned Camden," created Clarencieux in 1597. Among the other officers of note were Sir William Dugdale, Garter ; Elias Ashmole, Windsor Herald, who wrote the History of the Order of the Garter; John Anstis, Garter; Francis Sandford, Lancaster Herald, who wrote an excellent Genealogical History of England ; Sir John Vanbrugh, who was made Clarencieux as a compliment for building Castle Howard, but sold the situation for 20001. ; Francis Grose, Richmond Herald ; and Edmund Lodge, Lancaster Herald. (See the excellent paper by J. R. Planche, Somerset Herald, in Knight's London, vol. vi.) A Grant of Arms is thus obtained : The applicant employs any member he pleases of the Heralds' Office, and through him, presents a memorial to the Earl Marshal, setting forth that he the memorialist is not entitled to arms, or cannot prove his right to such ; and praying that his Grace will issue his warrant to the King of Arms authorizing them to grant and confirm to him due and proper armorial ensigns, to be borne according to the laws of heraldry by him and his descendants. This memorial is presented, and a warrant is issued by the Earl Marshal, under which a patent is made out, exhibiting in the corner a painting of the armorial ensigns granted, and describing in official terms the proceed- ings that have taken place, and the correct blazon of the arms. This patent is registered in the books of the Heralds' College, and receives the signatures of the Garter and of one the Provincial Kings of Arms. Thus an " Armiger " is made. The fees on a Grant of Anns amount to seventy-five guineas ; an ordi- nary search of the records is 6*. ; a general search, one guinea. Arms that are not held under a Grant must descend to the bearer from an ancestor recorded in the Herald's visitations. No prescription, however long, will confer a right to a coat-armour. If the grantee be resident in any place north of the Trent, his patent is signed by Garter and Norroy Kings of Arms ; if he reside south of that river the signatures are those of Garter and Clarencieux Kings of Arms. The arrangement of the College consists of several houses occupied by the Doctors of Law, with the Courts, noble Dining-room and Library, large open quadrangular area and garden ; exclusive of which the number of rooms is 140. The total area is 34,138 feet, or more than three-quarters of an acre. The whole of the buildings are to be taken down in forming the new street from Blackfriars Bridge to the Mansion House. KING'S COI/LEGE AND SCHOOL, Somerset House, extend from the principal entrance in the Strand to the east wing of the river-front, designed by Sir William Chambers, but left unfinished by him : its completion by the College being one of the conditions of the grant of the site : here resided the Principal and Professors. The College fafade, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., is 304 feet in length, and consists of a centre, decorated with Corinthian columns and pilasters ; and two wings with pilasters, upon a basement of piers supporting arches, which extend the whole length of the building. On the interior ground-floor are the theatres or lecture-rooms, and the hall, with two grand staircases, which ascend to the Museum and Library ; the Chapel occupying the centre. Over the lofty entrance-arch in the Strand are the arms of the College : motto, " Sancte et sapienter." (See MUSEUMS.) COLLEGES. 277 King's College and Schools are proprietary. The College was founded in 1828, for the education of youth of the metropolis in the principles of the Established Church. There are five departments : 1. Theological; 2. General Literature; 3. Applied Sciences ; 4. Medical; 5. The School. The age for admission to the latter is from 9 to 16 ; and each proprietor can nominate two pupils to the School, or one to the School and one to the College at the same time. The first Conference of Degrees by the University of London took place in the hall of King's College, May 1, 1850. In connexion with the Medical Schools has been established King's College Hospital, in Portugal-street, Lincoln's-Inn-fields. ST. MAEK'S TRAINING COLLEGE, Chelsea, was established for training school- masters for the National Society. The College, fronting King's-road, is of Italian design; the Chapel, facing the Fulham-road, is Byzantine; to the west is an octagonal Practising School ; and the grounds contain about fifteen acres. The term oi' training is three years : it comprises, with general education, the industrial system, as the business of male servants in the house, managing the farm produce, and garden- ing. Still, the religious service of the Chapel is, as it were, the keystone of the system of the College. (See CHAPELS, p. 214.) There are also other training insti- tutions connected with the National Society.* NEW COLLEGE, St. John's Wood, was commenced building in 1850, when the first stone was laid, May 11, by the Ilev. Dr. John Pye Smith, known as a divine, and as a man of science from his work on Scripture and Geology. The building was completed in 1851, and opened October 8. It has been erected by the Independent Dissenters for the education of their ministers, and is founded on the union of Homerton Old College and Coward and Highbury Colleges. The classes are divided into two faculties, Arts and Theology ; the former open to lay students, and having chairs of Latin and Greek, mathematics, moral and mental philosophy, and natural history. The building, of Bath stone, designed by Emmett, in the Tudor (Henry VII.) style, is situated about a mile and a half north of Regent's-park, between the Finchley-road and Bellsize-lane. The frontage is 270 feet, having a central tower 80 feet high. The interior dressings are of Caen stone, and the fittings of oak ; some of the ceilings are of wrought wood-work, and the windows of elaborate beauty. The main building contains lecture-room, council-room, laboratory, museum, and students' day-rooms ; at the north end is the Principal's residence, and at the south a library of more than 20,000 volumes. PHYSICIANS, COLLEGE OF, was founded in 1518, by Linacre, physician to Henry VII. and V11I., who lived in Knight-Rider-street, and there received his friends, Erasmus, Latimer, and Sir Thomas More. Linacre was the first President of the College, and the members met at his house, which he bequeathed to them ; the estate is still the property of the College. Thence they removed to a house in Amen Corner, where Harvey lectured on his great discovery, and built in the College garden a Museum, upon the site of the present Stationers' Hall. The old College and Museum being destroyed in the Great Fire, the members met for a time at the President's house, until Wren built for them a College, in Warwick-lane, upon part of the site of the mansion of the famed Earls of Warwick ; the new College was commenced in 1674, but not completed until 1689. It had an octangular porch of entrance, 40 feet in diameter, the most striking portion of Wren's design. The interior, above the porch, formed the lecture-room, which was light, and very lofty, being open upwards to the roof of the edifice. It was opened in 1689 : the entrance-porch was surmounted by a dome, as described by Garth in his satire on the quarrel between the Apothecaries' Company and the College : " Not far from that most celebrated placet Where angry Justice shews her awful face, \Vhere little villains must submit to fate, That great ones may enjoy the world in state, There stands a Dome, majestic to the sight, And sumptuous arches bear its oval height ; A golden globe, plac'd high with artful skill, Seems to the distant sight a gilded pill." The Dispensary. " The theatre was amphitheatrical in plan, and one of the best that can be imagined * Kneller Hall (between Hounslow and Twickenham) was formerly in the possession of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who pulled down the manor-house and erected a new house on the same site, as inscribed upon a stone: " The building of this house was begun by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bart., A.D. 1709." It had a sumptuously painted staircase, by Kneller's own hand. The hall was almost wholly taken down, and a Training School was built upon its site. t Newgate. 278 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. for seeing, hearing, and the due classification of the students, and for the display of anatomical demonstrations or philosophical experiments upon a table in the centre of the arena, of any building of its size in existence." (Elmes.) This portion was latterly occupied as a meat-market, and the other College buildings by braziers and brass- founders. The buildings comprised a lofty hall, with a magnificent staircase ; a dining- room, with a ceiling elaborately enriched with foliage and flowers in stucco, and carved oak chimney-piece and gallery. On the north and south were the residences of the College officers ; on the west, the principal front, consisting of two stories, the lower decorated with Ionic pillars, the upper by Corinthian and by a pediment in the centre at the top. Immediately beneath the pediment was the statue of Charles II., with a Latin inscription. On the east was the octangular side, with the gilt ball above, and a statue of Sir John Cutler below. It appears by the College books that, in 1675, Sir John Cutler, a near relation of Dr. Whistler, the President, was desirous of con- tributing towards the building of the College, and a committee was appointed to thank him for his kind intentions. Cutler accepted their thanks, renewed his promise, and specified parts of the building of which he intended to bear the expense. In 1680, statues in honour of the King and Sir John were voted by the members ; and nine years afterwards, the College being then completed, it was resolved to borrow money of Sir John Cutler to discharge the debt incurred ; but the sum is not specified. It appears, however, that in 1699 Sir John's executors made a demand on the College for 70001., supposed to include money actually lent, money pretended to be given, but set down as a debt in Sir John's books, and the interest on both. The executors, however, accepted 20001., and dropped their claim to the other five. Thus Sir John's promise, which he never performed, had obtained him the statue ; but the College wisely obliterated the inscription which, in the warmth of gratitude, had been placed beneath the figure : " Omnis Cutleri cedat Labor Amphitheatre." Hence it was called Cutler's Theatre, in Warwick -lane. The miser Baronet has, how- ever, received a more enduring monument from the hand of Pope, in his Moral Essay : " His Grace's fate sage Cutler could foresee, And well (he thought) advised him, ' Live like me." As well his Grace replied, ' Like you, Sir John ? That I can do, when all 1 have is gone.' " The College buildings were mostly taken down in 1866 ; the carved oak fittings and a celebrated stucco ceiling being preserved, with the statue of Cutler. In the garrets of the old College were formerly dried the herbs for the use of the dispensary ; and, on the left of the entrance portico, beneath a bell-handle, there remained till the last, the inscription, " Mr. Lawrence, surgeon night bell," recalling the days when the house belonged to a learned institution. We remember it leased to the Equitable Loan (or Pawnbrokirig) Company, when the " Golden Globe" was partially symbolical of its appropriation. The Physicians, in 1825, had emigrated westward, where Sir Robert Smirke built for them a College of classic design, in Pall Mall East and Trafalgar-square, at the cost of 30,OOOZ. It was opened June 25, 1825, with a Latin oration by the President, Sir Henry Halford. The style is Grecian-Ionic, with an elegant hexastyle Ionic por- tico. The interior is sumptuous. In the dining-room are portraits of Dr. Hamey, the Commonwealth physician ; of Dr. Freind, imprisoned in the Tower ; and of Sir Edmund King, who bled Charles II., in a fit, without consulting the Royal physicians, and who was promised for the service lOOOZ. by the Council, which was never paid. In the oak-panelled Censors' Room is a portrait of Dr. Sydenham, by Mary Beale ; of Linacre, surmounted by the College arms in oak, and richly-emblazoned shield ; of the thoughtful Sir Thomas Browne, who wrote Beligio Medici ; of the good-humoured Sir Samuel Garth, by Kneller ; and of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII. (after Holbein), and Andreas Vesalius, the Italian anatomist ; other portraits ; and a marble bust of Sir Henry Halford. In the Library, lighted by three beautiful lanterns, is a fine por- trait of Radcliffe, by Kneller ; and of Harvey, by Jansen. Here is a gallery filled with cases, containing preparations, including some of the nerves and blood-vessels, by COLLEGES. 279 Harvey, and used by him in his lectures on the discovery of the circulation of the blood. Adjoining is a small theatre, or lecture-room, where are busts of George IV., by Chantrey ; Dr. Mead, by Koubiliac ; Dr. Sydenham, by Wilton ; Harvey, by Schee- inakers ; Dr. Baillie, by Chantrey ; Dr. Babington, by Behnes. Here also is a picture of Hunter lecturing on Anatomy before Royal Academicians (portraits), by Zoffany ; besides a collection of physicians' canes. The whole may be seen by the order of a physician, Fellow of the College. The Harveian Oration (in Latin) is delivered annu- ally by a Fellow, usually on June 25. In the Library is a copy of the Homer published at Florence in 1488, an immortal work for this early period of typography : in the whiteness and strength of the paper, the fineness of the character, the elegant disposition of the matter, the exact distance between the lines, the large margin, and various ornaments. PEECEPTOES, COLLEGE OF (the), 28, Bloomsbury-square, a proprietary institution, established 1847, to elevate the character of the profession of teachers, irrespective of distinctions of sects and parties ; and to grant certificates and diplomas to candidates duly qualified, after examination. QUEEN'S COLLEGE, LONDON, 67, Harley-street, was established 1848, for general female education, and for granting to Governesses certificates of qualificcition. The instruction is given in lectures by gentlemen connected with King's College, and other professors ; there are also preparatory classes and evening classes, the latter gratuitously : the whole superintended by ladies as visitors. SIGN COLLEGE, London Wall, is built on the site of the Priory of Elsinge Spital, and consists of a college for the clergy of London, and almshouses for twenty poor persons, founded 1623, by the will of Dr. Thomas White, vicar of St. Dunstan's-in- thc-West ; to which one of his executors, the Rev. John Simson, rector of St. Olave's, Hart-street, added a library. " Here," says Defoe, " expectants may lodge till they are provided with houses in the several parishes in which they serve cure ;" and the Fellows of the College are the incumbents of parishes within the City and Liberties of London. The library is their property : a third of the books was destroyed in the Great Fire, which consumed great part of the College. The collection contains more than 50,000 volumes, mostly theological, among which are the Jesuits' books seized in 1679. By the Copyright Act, 8 Anne c. 19, the library received a gratuitous copy of every pub- lished work till 1836, when this privilege was commuted for a Treasury grant of 363Z. a year, now its chief maintenance. It is open to the clergy of the diocese and their friends, and to the public by an order from one of the Fellows ; but books are not allowed to be taken out, except by Fellows. Here are several pictures, including a costume-portrait of Mrs. James, a citizen's wife in the reign of William and Mary. STTKGEONS, ROYAL COLLEGE OF, on the south side of Lincoln's-inn- fields, was originally built by Dance, R.A., for the College, who removed here from their Hall on the site of the New Sessions House, Old Bailey, on their incorporation by royal charter in 1800. It was almost entirely rebuilt by Barry, R.A., in 1835-37, when the stone front was extended from 84 to 108 feet, and a noble Ionic entablature added, with this inscription : JDoES CoLLEGii CHIRVBGOBVM LONDINENSIS DIPLOMATS REGIO COEPOEATI A.D. MDCCC. The interior contains two Museums, a Theatre, Library, and vestibule with screens of Ionic columns. On the staircase-landing are busts of Cheselden and Sir W. Banks. In the Library are portraits of Sir Cajsar Hawkins, by Hogarth ; Serjeant-Surgeon Wiseman (Charles II.'s time); and the cartoon of Holbein's picture of the granting of the charter to the Barber-Surgeons. In the Council Room (where sits the Court of Examiners) are Reynolds's celebrated portrait of John Hunter, and other pictures : bust of John Hunter, by Flaxrnan ; of Cliue, Sir W. Blizard, Abernethy, and George III. and George IV., by Chantrey ; of Pott, by Hollins ; and Samuel Cooper, by Butler. The Museum, with Hunter's collection for its nucleus, was erected in 1836 ; and the College has since been enlarged by adding to it the site of the Portugal-street Theatre, late Copeland's china warehouse, taken down in 1848. (See MUSEUMS.) In the Theatre is annually delivered the Hunterian Oration (in Latin), by a Fellow of tho College, on Feb. 14, John Hunter's birthday. 280 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, east side of Upper Gower-street, was designed by Wilkins, R.A. ; the first stone laid by the Duke of Sussex, April 30, 1827 j and the College opened Oct. 1, 1828. It has a bold and rich central portico of twelve Corinthian columns and a pediment, elevated on a plinth 19 feet, and approached by numerous steps, arranged with fine effect. Behind the pediment is a cupola with a lantern light, in imitation of a peripteral temple ; in the Great Hall under which are the original models of the principal works of John Flaxman, R.A., presented by Miss Denman. In the vestibule is Flaxman's restoration of the Farnese Hercules ; beneath the dome is his grand life-size Michael and Satan ; and around the walls are his various monu- mental and other bas-reliefs ; " in all the monumental compositions there is a touch- ing story, and the sublimity of the poetic subjects is of a quality which the Greeks themselves have never excelled." (Art Journal.) An adjoining room contains Flax- man's Shield of Achilles, and other works. The University building extends about 400 feet in length : in the ground- floor are lecture-rooms, cloisters for the exercise of the pupils, two semicircular theatres, chemical laboratory, museum of materia medica, &c. In the upper floor, on entering by the great door of the portico, the whole extent of the building is seen. Here are the great hall, museums of natural history and anatomy, two theatres, two libraries, and rooms with naturo-philosophical apparatus. The principal library is richly decorated in the Italian style ; here is a marble statue of Locke. The Laboratory, completed from the plan of Prof. Donaldson, in 1845, combines all the recent improvements of our own schools with that of Professor Liebig, at Giessen. University College is proprietary, and was founded in 1828, principally aided by Lord Brougham, the poet Campbell, and Dr. Birkbeck, for affording " literary and scientific education at a moderate ex- " its professors has been founded University College Hospital, opposite the College, in which the medical students receive improved instruction in medicine and surgery. Wilkins also designed the National Gallery, a far less happy work than University College, which is unfinished ; the original design comprised two additional smaller cupolas. The works seem hardly to be the production of the same architect ; in the National Gallery the dome being as unsightly a feature in composition as in the College it is graceful. In the rear of the College, on the west side of Gordon-square, is University Hall, designed by Prof. Donaldson, 1849, and built for instruction in Theology and Moral Philosophy, which are excluded by the College. The architecture is Elizabethan-Tudor, in red brick and stone ; the grouping of the windows is cleverly managed. In the Great Hall the students breakfast and dine ; and the establishment is a sort of students' club-house or model lodging-establishment. WESLEYAN NOBMAL COLLEGE, Horseferry-road, Westminster (James Wilson, architect), has been erected for the training of schoolmasters and mistresses, and the education of the children in the locality. It is in the Late Perpendicular style, of brick, with stone dressings; and consists of a Principal's Eesidence, a quadrangular Normal College for 100 students, with Lecture and Dining Halls ; Practising Schools, and Masters' Houses : beyond is the Model School, in Early English style, with porch and lancet windows : the buildings and playgrounds occupying upwards of 15 acres, with a large central octagonal tower, which, with the embattled parapets, pointed gables, and traceried oriel- windows, forms a picturesque architectural group. COLOSSEUM (THEJ. TpHE Colosseum, upon the east side of the Regent's-park, was originally planned by -*- Mr. Hornor, a land-surveyor; and the building was commenced for him 1824, by Peto and Grissell, from the designs of Decimus Burton. The chief portion is a polygon of sixteen faces, 126 feet in diameter externally, the walls being 3 feet thick at the ground; and the height to the glazed doom is 112 feet. Fronting the west is an entrance portico, with six Grecian-Doric fluted columns, said to be full-sized models of those of the Parthenon. The external dome is supported by a hemispherical dome, constructed of ribs formed of thin deals in thicknesses, breaking joint and bolted together, on the principle educed by M. Philibert de 1'Orme in the 14th century, and COLOSSEUM (THE). 281 stated to be introduced here for the first time in England. The second dome also supports a third, which forms a ceiling of the picture, to be presently described. The building resembles a miniature of the Pantheon, and has been named from its colossal size, and not from any resemblance to the Colosseum at Rome; but it more closely resembles the Roman Catholic Church at Berlin.* The building is lighted entirely by the glazed dome, there being no side windows. Upon the canvassed walls was painted the Panoramic View of London, completed in 1829 ; for which Mr. Hornor, in 1821-2, made the sketches at several feet above the present cross of St. Paul's Cathedral (as described at p. 115). The view of the picture was obtained from two galleries: the first corresponds, in relation to the prospect, with the first gallery at the summit of the dome of St. Paul's; the second with the upper gallery of the cathedral. Upon this last gallery is placed the identical copper ball which formerly occupied the summit of St. Paul's; above it is a fac-siinile of the cross ; and over these is hung the small wooden cabin in which Mr. Hornor made his drawings. A small flight of stairs -leads from this spot to the open parapet gallery which surrounds the domed roof of the Colosseum. The commuication with the galleries is by spiral staircases, built on the outside of a lofty cylindrical core in the centre of the rotunda ; within which is also the " Ascending Room," capable of con- taining ten or twelve persons. This chamber is decorated in the Elizabethan style, and lighted through a stained-glass ceiling ; it is raised by secret machinery to the required elevation, or gallery, whence the company viewed the panorama. The hoisting mechanism is a long shaft connected with a steam-engine outside the building, working a chain upon a drum-barrel, and counterbalanced by two other chains, the ascending motion being almost imperceptible. The painting of the picture was a marvel of art. It covers upwards of 46,000 square feet, or more than an acre of canvas ; the dome on which the sky is painted is 30 feet more in diameter than the cupola of St. Paul's ; and the circumference of the horizon from the point of view is nearly 130 miles. Excepting the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, there is no painted surface in Great Britain to compare with this in mngnitude or shape, and even that offers but a small extent in comparison. It is inferred that the scaffolding used for constructing St. Paul's cupola was left for Sir James Thornhill, in painting the interior; and his design consisted of several com- partments, each complete in itself. Not so this Panorama of London, which, as one subject, required unity, harmony, accuracy of linear and aerial perspective ; the com- mencement and finishing of lines, colours, and forms, and their nice unity; the per- pendicular canvas and concave ceiling of stucco was not to be seen by, or even known to, the spectator ; and the union of a horizontal and vertical surface, though used, was not to be detected. After the sketches were completed upon 2000 sheets of paper, and the building finished, no individual could be found to paint the picture in a sufficiently short period, and many artists were of necessity employed : thus, by the use of platforms slung by ropes, with baskets for conveying the colours, temporary bridges, and other ingenious contrivances, the painting was executed, but in the peculiar style, taste, and notion of each artist ; to reconcile which,' or bring them to form one vast whole, was a novel, intricate, and hazardous task, which many persons tried, but ineffectually. At length, Mr. E. T. Parris, possessing an accurate knowledge of mechanics and perspective, and practical execution in painting, combined with great enthusiasm and perseverance, accomplished the labour principally with his own hands ; standing in a cradle or box, suspended from cross poles or shears, and lifted as required, by ropes. The Panorama was viewed from a balustraded gallery, with a projecting frame * In 1769, there was constructed in the Champs Elyse'es, at Paris, a vast building called Le Colisee, for fetes in honour of the marriage of the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI. Here were dances, hydrau- lics, pyrotechnics, &c. ; the building did not resemble the Pantheon, as ours in the Regent's-park, but the Colosseum at Rome. It contained a rotunda, saloons, and circular galleries, skirted with shops, besides trellis-work apartments and four caffs. In the centre of Le Cirque was a vast basin of water, with fountains ; beyond which fireworks were displayed. The whole edifice was completely covered with green trellis-work ; the entire space occupied by the buildings, courts, and gardens, was sixteen acres ; and the cost was two and a half millions of money. There were prize exhibitions of pic- tures ; and Mr. Hornor projected similar displays at the Colosseum, but the idea was not taken up by the British artists. In 1778, the Parisian building was closed, and two years afterwards was taken down. It is mentioned by Dr. Johnson, in his Tour, in 1775. CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. beneath it, in exact imitation of the outer dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, the perspective and light and shade of the campanile towers in the western front being admirably managed. The spectator was recommended to take four distinct stations in the gallery, and then inspect in succession the views towards the north, east, south, and west ; altogether representing the Metropolis of 1821, the date of the sketches. The North, comprises Newgate-market, the old College of Physicians, Christ's Hospital (before tha rebuilding of the Great Hall), St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and Smithfield Market; and the New General Post-Office, then building. These are the objects near the foreground: beyond them are Clerkenwell, the Charterhouse, and the lines of Goswell-street, St. John-street, Pentonville, Islington, and Hoxton. In the next, or third distance, are Primrose-hill, Chalk Farm, Hampstead, and a con- tinued line of wooded hills to Highgate, where are the bold Archway and the line of the Great North Koad from Islington; whilst Stamford-hill, Muswell-hill, part of Epping Forest, and portions of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex bound the horizon. The East displays a succession of objects all differing from the former view in effect, character, and associations. Whilst the north exhibits the rustic scenery of the environs of London, the east pre- sents us with the Thames, and its massive warehouses and spacious docks; the one a scene of rural quiet, the other a focus of commercial activity. In the foreground is St. Paul's School-house; whilst the lines of Cheapside, Cornhill, Leadenhall-street, and Whitechapel carry the eye through the very heart of the City, and thence to Bow, Stratford, and a fine tract of woodlands, in Essex. On the ri^-lit and left of this line are the towers and steeples of Bow Church, St. Mary Woolnoth ; St. Michael, Corn- hill ; St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, and others of subordinate height ; the Bank, Mansion-house, Koyal Exchange (since destroyed by fire), East India House, and several of the Companies' Halls. Another line, nearly parallel, but a little to the east, extends through Watling-street (the old Roman road) to Cannon-street, Tower-street, and the prison, palace, fortress, and museum the Tower. The course of the Thames, with its vessels and wilderness of masts, the docks and warehouses on its banks : the palace- hospital of Greenwich and the beautiful country beyond it, contrasted with the levels of the Essex bank are all defined in this direction. Southward, the eye traces the undulating line of the Surrey hills in the distance ; and in the fore- part of the picture the Thames, with its countless craft, among which are civic barges and steamers, characteristic of ancient and modern London. Here also are shown old London-bridge, and Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, Westminster, and Vauxhall Bridges, whilst the river-banks are crowded with interesting structures, among which are the old Houses of Parliament. The Western view presents a new and different series of objects. First, in effect, in beauty of exe- cution and imposing character, are the two campanili, the pediment, and the roof of the western end, of St. Paul's Cathedral. The painting here is masterly and magical ; it BO deceives the eye and the imagination, that the spectator can scarcely believe these towers to be depicted on the same canvas and the same surface as the whole line of objects from Ludgate Hill to St. James's-Park. This view to the west embraces the long lines of Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, and the Strand, Piccadilly, &c. ; Holbprn-hill and Oxford-street, with the Inns of Court; Westminster; numerous churches and public buildings, right and left ; and Hyde-park, Kensington-gardens, and a long stretch of flat country to Windsor. Erief Account, by John Brittou, F.S.A., 1829. A staircase leads to the upper gallery, whence the spectator again commanded the whole picture in a sort of bird's-eye view. Another flight of stairs communicates with the room containing the copper ball and fac-simile cross of St. Paul's. A few more steps conduct to the outer gallery at the summit ; where, in fine weather, the spectator might compare the colouring, perspective, and effects of nature with those of art within. The Panorama was first exhibited in the spring of 1829. It was almost repainted by Mr. Parris in 1845 ; when also a Panorama of London by Night, essentially the same as the day view, was exhibited in front of the latter, and had to be erected and illuminated every evening : the moonlight effect upon the rippling river ; the floating, fleecy clouds and twinkling stars ; the lights upon the bridges, in the shops, and in the open markets, formed a rare triumph of artistic illusion. In May, 1848, a moonlight Panorama of Paris, of the same dimensions as the night view of London, was painted by Danson, and was very attractive in illustration of the localities of the recent Eevolution. In 1850, both views gave way to a Panorama of the Lake of Thun, in Switzerland, painted in tempera by Danson and Son ; and in 1851, the Panorama of London was reproduced as a more appropriate sight for visitors during the International Exhibition season. The Picture, however, was but one of the many features of the Colosseum. The basement of the Rotunda has a superb Ionic colonnade, as a sculpture-gallery, named the Glyptotheca : the columns and entablature are richly gilt ; and the frieze, nearly 300 feet in circumference, is adorned with bas-reliefs from the Panthenaic friezes of the Parthenon, exquisitely modelled by Henning ; the ribbed roof being filled with embossed glass. Southward and eastward of the Rotunda are large Conservatories, a Swiss chalet, and mountain scenery interspersed with real water: these were executed by Mr. Hornor, whose enthusiasm led him to project a tunnel beneath the Regent's-park- COLUMNS. 283 road, and to anticipate a grant from the opposite enclosure to be added to the Colosseum grounds. But the ingenious projector failed : the property passed into the hands of trustees ; after which it lost much of its status as a place of public amusement j but on May 11, 1843, it was bought for 23,000 guineas by Mr. David Montague, who altogether retrieved and elevated the artistic character of the establishment. The Colosseum, as altered, with the exception of the Panorama, was principally executed in 1845, from the designs of the late Mr. W. Bradwell, formerly chief machinist of Covent Garden Theatre. The eastern entrance, in Albany-street, was then added, with an arched corridor in the style of the Vatican, and leading to the Glyptotheca, the Arabesque Conservatories, and the Gothic Aviary, the exterior promenade, with its model ruins of the Temple of Vesta and Arch of Titus, the Temple of Theseus, and golden pinnacles and eastern domes, a chaos of classic relics of the antique world. A romantic pass leads to the chalet, or Swiss Cottage, originally designed by P. P. Robinson : the roof, walls, and projecting fireplace are fancifully carved; and the bay-window looks upon a mass of rock-scenery, a mountain-torrent and lake, a model picture of the sublime. In another direction lies a large model of the Stalactite Cavern at Adelsberg, in Carniola ; constructed by Bradwell and Telbin. At Christmas, 1848, was added a superb theatre, with a picturesque rustic armoury as an ante-room. The spectatory, designed and erected by Bradwell, resembles the vesti- bule of a regal mansion fitted up for the performance of a masque : it is decorated with colossal Sienna columns, and copies of three of Raphael's cartoons in the Vatican (School of Athens, and Constantine and the Pope), by Horner, of Rath bone-place ; the ceilings are gorgeously painted with allegorical groups ; and upon the fronts of the boxes is a Bacchanalian procession, in richly-gilt relief. Upon the stage passed the Cyclorama of Lisbon, depicting in ten scenes the terrific spectacle of the great earthquake of 1755 the uplifting sea and o'ertopping city, and all the frightful devastation of flood and fire ; accompanied by characteristic performances upon Bevington's Apollonicon. The scenes are painted by Danson, in the manner of Loutherbourg's Eidophusicon, which not only anticipated, but in part surpassed, our present dioramas. The entire exhibition has long been closed. In March, 1855, the Colosseum, with the Cyclorama, were put up to auction by the Messrs. Winstanley. It was then stated that the Colosseum was erected at a cost of 23,000?. for Mr. Thomas Hornor, who held a lease of it direct from the Crown, at a ground rent of 2622. 18s. for a period of ninety-nine years, sixty-nine of which were unexpired on the 10th of October, 1854. He subsequently expended above 100,0002. to carry out the objects for which it was intended, by decorating the interior, pur- chasing pictures, &c. In August, 1836, the lease was sold to Messrs. Braham and Yates. Mr. Braham laid out about 50,0002. on the building, which in a few years afterwards became the property of Mr. Turner, who added the Cyclorama, which cost 20,0002., to the establishment, with many decorations, at several thousand pounds' expense ; so that the entire edifice has cost above 200,0002. The sum of 20,0002. was bid, but the property was not sold. COLUMNS. NELSON COLUMN (the), south side of Trafalgar-square, was erected between 1839 and 1852, by public subscription and the aid of the Government. It was designed by W. Railton, and is of the exact proportion of a column of the Corinthian temple of Mars Ultor at Rome : Mr. Railton choosing the Corinthian order from its being the most lofty and elegant in its proportions, and having never been used in England for this purpose ; whilst it is in keeping with the surrounding buildings, and tends more than any other species of monument to bring the entire scene into general harmony, without destroying the effect of any portion of it. The foundation rests upon a 6-feet layer of concrete in a compact stratum of clay, about twelve feet below the pavement ; upon which is the frustrum of a brick-work pyramid, 48 feet square at the base, and 13 feet high, upon which the superstructure commences with the graduated stylobate of the pedestal, the first step of which is 33 feet 4 inches wide. Prom this 284 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. point to the foot of the statue, the work is of solid granite, in large blocks admirably dressed ; and in the shaft they are so well connected as to give the fabric almost the cohesion of a monolith. The granite was brought from Foggin Tor, on the coast of Devon ; and was selected for its equable particles and intimate distribution of mica, feldtspar, and quartz. The shaft (lower diameter 10 feet) is fluted throughout, the base being richly ornamented the lower torus with a cable, the upper with oak-leaves. The pedestal is raised upon a flight of steps; and at the angles are massive cippi, or blocks, intended to receive four recumbent African lions. The capital is of bronze, and was cast from old ordnance in the Arsenal foundry at Woolwich, from full-sized models carefully prepared by C. H. Smith. " The foliage is connected to the bell of the cap by three large belts of metal lying in grooves, and rendering it needless to fix pings into the work, with the concomitant risk of damage from the galvanic action of metals." (&. Godwin, jun., F.B.S.) One of the lower tiers of leaves weighs about 900 Ibs. Upon a circular pedestal on the abacus is a colossal statue of Nelson, with a coiled cable on his left; E. H. Baily, R.A., sculptor. The figure is of Cragleith stone, in three massive blocks, presented by the Duke of Buccleuch; the largest block weighing upwards of 30 tons. The statue measures 17 feet from its plinth to the top of the hat ; it was raised on Nov. 3 and 4, 1813; and on Oct. 23 previous, fourteen persona partook of a dinner on the abacus of the Column. The scaffolding used in constructing this Column was a novelty of mechanical skill. Instead of the usual forest of small round poles, there were five grand uprights or standards on the east and west sides, in six stages or stories, marked by horizontal beams and curbs, at nearly equal intervals, the base being greatly extended, and the sides strengthened by diagonal and raking braces. By means of a powerful engine moving on a railway, and a travelling platform, blocks of stone from six to ten tons weight, were, at a rate of progression scarcely more'perceptible than the motion of a clock-weight (being only thirty feet in the hour), raised to a great elevation, and set down with less muscular exertion than would be expended on a lamp-post ; one mason thus setting as much work in one day as was done in three days by the old system, even without the aid of six labourers, who are now dispensed with. The timber used in erecting this scaffold was 7700 cubic feet, and its cost was 24/01. for labour in erecting. The pedestal has on its four sides the following bronze reliefs : North (facing the National Gallery), Battle of the Nile: designed by W. F. Woodington. Nelson, having received a severe wound in the head, was caught by Captain Berry in his arms, as he was falling, and carried into the cockpit ; the surgeon is quitting a wounded sailor that he may instantly attend the Admiral. "No," said Nelson; " I will take my turn with my brave fellows." Some of the parts project 15 inches, and the figures are 8 feet high: the casting weighs 2 tons 15 cwt. 2 qrs.; and the metal is three-eighths of an inch thick. South (facing Whitehall), Death of Nelson at Trafalgar : designed by C. E. Carew. Nelson is being 1 carried from the quarter-deck to the cockpit by a marine and two seamen. " Well, Hardy," said Nelson to his captain, " they have done for me at last." " I hope not," was the reply. "Yes; they have shot me through the backbone." At the back of the centre group is the surgeon. To the left are three sailors tightening some of the ship's cordage ; another kneels, holding a handspike and leaning on a gun, arrested by the conversation between the dying hero and Captain Hardy, in the front, lying on the deck, are an officer and marines, who have fallen to rise no more. Behind stand two marines and a negro sailor. One of the former has detected the marksman by whose shot Nelson fell, and is point- ing him out to his companion. The latter has raised his musket, and has evidently covered his mark ; whilst the black, who stands just before the two marines, is grasping his firelock. The figures are of life-size; the casting weighs about five tons. Beneath are Nelson's memorable words, " England ex- pects every man will do his duty." East (facing the Strand), Bombardment of Copenhagen : designed by the late Mr. Ternouth. Nelson is sealing, on the end of a gun, his despatch, to send by the flag of truce ; a group of officers surround him, and a sailor holds a caudle and lantern : in the foreground are wounded groups ; and in the distance are a church and city (Copenhagen) in flames. West (facing Pall Mall), Battle of St. Vincent : commenced by Watson and finished by Woodington. Nelson, on board the San Josef, is receiving from the Spanish admirals their swords, whicli an old Agamemnon man is putting under his arm ; in the foreground is a dying sailor clasping a broken flag-staff. A monument to Nelson was first proposed in 1805 (the year of his death), when the Committee of the Patriotic Fund raised 1330Z. Reduced 3 per Cents, which, with the ' accumulated dividends, amounted in June, 1838, to 5545Z. 19*. Meanwhile, in 1816, the monument was proposed in Parliament, as " a duty which the nation ought, per- haps, to have discharged not less than thirty years ago." The subject, however, rested until 1838, when a subscription was raised, Trafalgar-square chosen as the site, .and a column recommended by the Duke of Wellington. In January, 1839, 118 drawings and 41 models were submitted, and the first prize, 2501., awarded to Mr. Railton for his column; in May following, a second series of designs (167) was exhibited, but the Committee adhered to their former choice. In 1844, the subscriptions,* 20,483Z. 11*. 2d., had been expended ; and the Government undertook the cornple- * To which Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, contributed BOOl. COLUMNS. 285 tion of the monument, estimated at 12,OOOZ. additional. The column itself cost 23.000Z. building ; the statue, capital, and reliefs, 50001. ; 20001. architect's commis- sion ; four lions have been estimated at 30001. Trafalgar-square was much objected to as the site : in the Parliamentary examination, eight architects and sculptors were in favour of it, and four architects were against it. Chantrey considered Trafalgar- square to be "the most favourable that could be found or imagined for any national work of art ; its aspect is nearly south, and sufficiently open to give the object placed on that identical spot all the advantage of light and shade that can be desired ; to this may be added the advantage of a happy combination of unobtrusive buildings around : but to conceive a national monument worthy of this magnificent site is no easy task." Chantrey objected to a column as a monument, unless treated as a biographical volume, with the acts of the hero sculptured on the shaft, as on the columns of Trajan and Antoninus. Annexed are the comparative dimensions of the principal monumental columns : ' Height to Date. Climate. Site. Order. the top of Diameter. Capital. A.D. Feet. Feet. 118 Trajan . . Rome . Doric . 115 12 162 Antoninus . Rome . Doric . 123 13 1671 Monument . London Doric . 172 15 1806 Napoleon Paris . Doric . 115 12 1832 Duke of York London Tuscan 111 11 1839 Xelson . . London Corinthian 145-6 lO'lf 11-71 Nelson Column, 145 feet 6 inches ; statue and plinth, 17 feet ; = 162 feet 6 inches. YOEK CoLrMN, Carlton-gardens, built 1830-33, in memory of the Duke of York (d. 1827), Commander-in -Chief of the army, and forty -six years a soldier; whose statue is placed on the summit. The building fund, about 25,0002., was raised by subscription, to which each individual of the service contributed one day's pay. The Column (Tuscan), designed by B. Wyatt, is of fine Aberdeenshire granite, the lower pedestal grey, and the shaft of red Peterhead ; the surface fine-axed, or not polished. The abacus of the capital is enclosed with iron railing, and in its centre is the pedestal for the statue. Within the pedestal and shaft is a spiral staircase of 168 steps, which, with the newel, or central pillar, and outer casing, are cut from the solid block. The masonry throughout, by Nowell, is remarkably good. The statue, of bronze, by Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A., represents the Duke in the robes of the Order of the Garter. The weight is 7 tons 800 Ibs., or 16,480 Ibs. ; it was raised April 8, 1834, between the column and the scaffolding, seven hours labour, at a cost of 400/. The column may be ascended from 12 to 4, from May to Sept. 24, 6d. each person : the view from the gallery of the Surrey hills and western London is fine ; the latter showed the magnificence of Regent-street, and the skill of the architect, Nash, in the junction of the lines by the Quadrant. On May 14, 1850, Henri Joseph Stephan, a French musician, committed suicide by throwing himself from the gallery, which has since been entirely enclosed with iron caging. The height of the column is 123 feet 6 inches; of the statue, 13 feet 6 inches = 137 feet; or viewed from the bottom of the steps, at the level of St. James's Park, 156 feet : upper diameter of shaft, 10 feet If inches ; lower diameter, 11 feet 7^ inches. The foundation, laid iu * concrete, is pyramidal, 53 feet square at the base. The height of the balcony of the York Column is very nearly that of the under side of the great tube of the Britannia Bridge, over the Menai Straits, above high water. The entire length of the bridge is 1832 feet 8 inches ; considerably more than that of Waterloo-place, from the York Column to the foot of the Quadrant. Proceeding! of the Society ofArtt, 1851. Dr. Waagen condemns this monument as a bad imitation of Trajan's Column, very mean and poor in appearance, with a naked shaft, and without an entasis : whereas the bas-reliefs on the shall of Trajan's Pillar give it, at least, the impression of a lavish profusion of art. Besides, the statue on the York Column, though as colossal as the size of the base will allow, appears little and puppet-like com- pared with the column ; and the features and expression of the countenance seem wholly lost to the spectator. See also MONUMENT, THE. 286 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. COMMON COUNCIL. THE constitution of the Corporation of London presents a remote and illusory re- semblance to the coustitution of the State. There are the Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and the Court of Common Council. Strictly speaking, the Court of Common Council includes the Chief Magistrate and the Aldermen; but in ordinary language it is understood to mean the Commons of the City, being somewhat like the House of Commons : the Court of Aldermen bearing some analogy to the House of Lords : and the Lord Mayor to the Sovereign. Lord Brougham, 1843. The two corporate assemblies can be traced back to a very distant period, and there are records of disputes between the two Courts six centuries ago. In the reigns of Edward I. and II., a body analogous to the Common Council was formed by the repre- sentatives from the different Wards of the City. But the Common Council appears to have been first constituted in its present form only in the reign of Eichard II., by a civic ordinance ; whilst in an Act of Parliament of the previous reign (28 Edw. III. c. 10), the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen are invested with the redress and correction of errors, &c., in the City of London, for default of good government. Altogether there are 26 Wards, but the custom of holding an election in each was not originally the mode of representation, though it is said to have been customary for nearly five centuries. Before that period the election of the Common Council rested with the trades, or guilds, and the whole body of liverymen used to assemble in Guildhall yearly to send delegates there. It is said there are ancient records in the Corporation Library which show that those meetings were commonly so turbulent, that in 1386, early in the reign of Eichard II., the plan of voting by wards was tried as an experiment, and has ever since obtained without interruption. Still the trades, to some extent, continued to be represented as such in the Court of Common Council, as the names of many of the Wards yet prove, as in the cases of Candlewick, Cprdwainer and Vintry Wards, it being a usage for divers trades and crafts to be carried on in fixed localities ; but now, as for many ages, it is a settled rule for the Lord Mayor to issue a precept directing the election of Councilmen in the various Wards on St. Thomas's Day, December 21, and the ceremony of election takes place before the Alderman of each Ward, who invariably wears his robes of office on the occasion ; and, if he has been chief magistrate, his gold chain and badge. Of all the several 26 members of the Court of Aldermen, the only one without a constituency, or with but a small one, if any at all, sits for the Ward of Bridge, so called after London-bridge, of which it is chiefly, if not solely, composed. In the time of old London-bridge, when there were many inhabited houses on that structure, the Alderman of the Ward represented an actual community of citizens, though small in comparison ; now it is not so, though the custom of its sending a delegate to the Court of Aldermen is maintained. The City laws against foreigners appear to have been formerly very stringent. An order of Common Council, 1605, enjoins a penalty of 51. per day on any foreigner or stranger, not free, keeping a retail shop in the City or liberty ; and if any freeman employs a foreigner to work for him in the City or liberty, he forfeits 51. per day. By stat. 21 Hen. VIII., a stranger, artificer in London, &c., shall not keep above two stranger servants, but he may have as many English servants and apprentices as he can get. It is an ancient custom of London, that if one stranger or foreigner buys any thing of another stranger, it shall be forfeited to the mayor and commonalty of the City. Vide Jacob's City Libertiet, 1732. The number of members of the Common Council have been, from time to time, altered as follows : 1273. 1st Edward I., 40 men elected from all the Wards the original number. 1317. 2nd Edward II., the Commonalty elected from the following Wards : Vintry, Bread-street, Cripplegate, Farringdon, Alders- gate, Queenhithe, and Coleman-street=72men. 1322. 16th Edward II., 2 men from each Ward=48. 1347. 20th Edward III., 8, 6, or 4 men elected, according to the size of the Ward : 133. 1351. 25th Edward III., elected from the 13 Misteries=54. 1376. 50th Edward III., from 47 Misteries=156. 1383. 7th Eichard II., 4 persons from each Ward =96. 1533. 25th Henry VIII., Cornhill Ward to return 6 instead of 4. 1549. Edward VI., total, 187 ; but there is nothing to show how the number increased, except the 2 for Cornhill. 1639. 15th Charles I., 5 added to Farringdou Without. 1641. 17th Charles I., 1 added to Portsoken. 1645. 21st Charles I., 4 added to Coleman-street Ward. 1654. 6th Charles II., Cheap Ward to choose 12 members. 1656. 8th Charles II., 4 added to Tower Ward= 234. 1736. 10th George II., 2 added to Farringdon Within ; total, 236. 1826. 7th George IV., 4 added to Cripplegate Without ; total, 240. 1840. 8th May. The number fixed at 206, the present number. From 1660 to 1676, several attempts were made by the Aldermen to limit the choice of the Wardmote to citizens of the higher class ; but no permanent regulation was the result. In 1831, a Committee reported that persons convicted of defrauding in weights or measures, or having compounded with their creditors, or of having been bankrupt, without paying 20*. in the pound, were ineligible as Common Councilmen. Each Common Councilman wears a gown of Mazarine-blue silk, trimmed with badger's fur a costume, probably, of the reign of Edward VI. They formerly wore black gowns ; the change is thus alluded to in the chorus to a political song of 1766 : "Oh, London is the town of towns ! Oh, how improved a city ! Since chang'd her Common Council's gowns from black to blue so pretty !" They, however, discontinued wearing their gowns in Court in 1775 ; perhaps in consequence of a Common Councilman being called " a Mazarine." Nor has he escaped the severer whipping of the satirist : CONDUITS. 287 " The cit a Common-Councilman by place, Ten thousand mighty nothings in his lace. By situation, as by nature, great, With wise precision parcels out the state ; Proves and disproves, affirms and then denies, Objects himself, and to himself replies ; Wielding aloft the politician rod, Makes Pitt by turns a devil and a god ; Maintains, ev'n to the very teeth of pow'r, The same thing right and wrong in half-an-hour. Now all is well, now he suspects a plot, And plainly proves whatever is is not : Fearlully wise, he shakes his empty head, And deals out empires as he deals out thread : His useless scales are in a corner flung, And Europe's balance hangs upon his tongue." Churchill. The Court held their sittings in a Chamber on the north side of the Guildhall, where the Lord Mayor presides in a chair of state ; and visitors are admitted below the bar, at which petitions, &c., are presented in due legislative form. The entire Court were entertained by George I. at a banquet at St. James's Palace in 1727. CONDUITS. OPRING water was formerly conveyed to public reservoirs in the City by leaden pipes *J from various sources in the suburbs viz., from Tyburn in 1236, from Highbury in 1438, from Hackney in 1535, from Hampstead in 1543, and from Hoxton in 1546. For these useful works the citizens were indebted to the munificence of mayors, sheriffs, and other individuals. Stow devotes a section of his Survey to " ancient and present rivers, brooks, bowers, pools, wells, and conduits of fresh water, serving the City :" he also gives a long list of benefactors to the Conduits, the principal of which were in Aldgate, Leadenhall, Cornhill, West Cheape, Aldermanbury, Dowgate, London Wall, Cripplegate, Paul's-gate, Old Fish-street, Oldbourne, &c. In a large Map and Draw- ing* of London and Westminster, early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the several Conduits occupy central positions in the roadways. BAYSWATEE was noted for its Conduit-Heads ; and the association is preserved in Conduit-street, Tyburnia, the town built between 1839 and 1849, in the rear of Hyde Park Gardens. CANONBUBY. The Priory of St. Bartholomew was supplied from Canonbury ; for a water-course is specified in the grant made to Sir Richard Rich, Knight, at the Sup- pression, as " the water from the Conduit-head of St. Bartholomew, within the manor of Canonbury, as enjoyed by Prior Bolton and his predecessors." CHEAPSIDE. The Great Conduit stood at the east end of Cheapside, at its junction with the Poultry ; and, says Stow, " was the first sweete water that was conveyed by pipes of lead under ground to this place in the citie from Paddington." Another Great Conduit stood in West Cheape, at the west end of Cheapside, facing Foster-lane and Old 'Change. CONDUIT-MEAD. " New Bond-street was, in 1760, an open field, called Conduit- mead, from one of the conduits which supplied this part of the town with water ; and Conduit-street received its name for the same reason." (Pennant). Carew Mildmay, who died between 1780 and 1785, told Pennant that he remembered killing a wood- cock on the site of Conduit-street, when it was open country. CORNIIIIL. The Conduit, " castellated in the middest" of Cornhill, opposite the south entrance to the present Royal Exchange, was called the Tun, from its being like a tun standing on one end. It was a prison-house until 1401, when " it was made a cistern for sweet water, conveyed by pipes of lead from Tiborne, was from thenceforth called the Conduit upon Cornhill." (Stoiv.) A well, which adjoined, was then planked over, and a timber cage, pillory, and stocks, set upon it ; these were removed in 1546, the well revived, and made a pump ; since renewed, with the following inscription : " On this spot a well was first made, and a House of Correction built by Henry Wallis, Mayor of London in 1285. The well was discovered, much enlarged, and this pump * Dimensions, 6 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 6 inches, with References and Historical Notes, Published by Taperell and Innes, 2, Winchester-building, Old Broad-street, 1850. 288 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. erected in 1799, by the contributions of the Bank of England, East India Company, and the neighbouring Fire Offices, together with the Bankers and Traders of the ward of Cornhill." Bound the head of the pump are the devices of the Fire Offices. " The Standard in Cornhill" was a sort of Conduit, set up in 1582, by Peter Morris, who, by an " artificial forcer," conveyed Thames water in pipes of lead over the steeple of St. Magnus' Church, and from thence to the north-west corner of London Wall, the highest ground of all the City, where the waste of the main-pipe rising into the Standard at every tide, ran by four mouths, and thus served the inhabitants, and cleansed the streets towards Bishopsgate, Aldgate, London Bridge, and Stocks Market. This Conduit appears only to have run from 1598 to 1603 : from its site have since been measured distances, and hence " the Standard in Cornhill" on our old milestones. DALSTON and ISLINGTON had their Conduit-heads ; and the Report of a View of them, dated 1692, describes the entire course of this supply until it reaches the Conduit at Aldgate. This Report mentions " the White Conduit," fed by sundry springs, in a field at Islington, and resorted to by the Carthusian friars of the monastery upon the site of which Sutton founded the Charterhouse, supplied also from the above conduit. It likewise gave name to White Conduit House. (See AMUSEMENTS, Tea-gardens, p. 17.) The small stone house built over the well or conduit in 1641 was taken down in 1832. It was, however, survived by the Old Conduit at Dalston, the remains of which, in 1849, served as a tool -house in the nursery -ground of Mr. Smith. The Charter-house Conduit was rebuilt by the executors of Thomas Sutton ; it bore the date 1641, and upon it were sculptured the arms and initials of Sutton ; no vestige of it now remains. FLEET- STEEET. Another famous Conduit stood at the south end of Shoe-lane, Fleet- street, surmounted with automaton figures, chimes, &c. ST. JAMES'S. A print by Godfrey, after a drawing by Hollar (probably temp. Charles I.), shows a stone conduit in St. James's- square, on or near the spot now occu- pied by Bacon's equestrian bronze statue of William III. : the whole of Pall Mall was then clear of houses, from the village of Charing to St. James's Palace. The above conduit is mentioned by Francis Bacon (Works, vol. ii.) in connexion with one of his experiments. In 1720, a basin of water, with a fountain and pleasure-boat, had taken the place of the conduit ; into this basin were thrown the keys of Newgate Prison during the riots of 1780. KENSINGTON. On the Palace-green was formerly a four- gabled Conduit, built temp. Henry VIII. ; and a Water Tower, erected by Sir John Vanbrugh, temp. Queen Anne ; both were very fine specimens of brickwork, and communicating by pipes with the wells on the green, supplying the Palace with water, which was raised in the tower by a horse and wheel. By forming the great sewer for Palace Gardens adjoining, all the wells on the green, except one, were unexpectedly drained : the Conduit and tower were taken down, and the Palace has since been supplied from Chelsea Water-works. LAMB'S CONDUIT was founded by William Lamb, sometime a Gentleman of the Chapel to Henry VIII., citizen and clothworker: "neere unto Holborn," says Stow, " he founded a faire conduit and a standard, with a cocke at Holborn-bridge, to con- veye thence the waste," in 1577. The conduit is described by Hatton, in 1718, as "near the fields (now Lamb's Conduit-street], affording plenty of water, clear as crystal, which is chiefly used for drinking. It belongs to St. Sepul- chre's parish, the fountain-head being under a stone, marked S. S. P., in the vacant ground a little south of Ormond-street, whence the water conies in a drain to this conduit; and it runs thence in lead pipes (2000 yards long) to the conduit on Snow-hill, which has the figure of a Lamb upon it, denoting that its water comes from Lamb's Conduit. The sign of the Lamb public-house, at the north-east end of Lamb's Conduit-street, is the effigy of a lamb cut in stone, believed to be one of the figures which stood upon Lamb's Conduit, as a rebus on his name. When the Foundling Hospital was erected, we learn from Hatton that the Conduit was taken down, and the water conveyed to the east side of Red Lion-street, at the end (now Lamb's Conduit-street) ; an inscrip- tion stating the waters to be preserved " by building an arch over the same ;" and in 1851, Mr. J. Wykeham Archer discovered, beneath a trap-door in the pavement of the Lamb-yard, a short flight of steps, a brick vault, and the covered well ; as well as on CONVENTS. 289 the north wall of the next yard southward, this inscription cut in wood, over a recess now bricked up : " Lamb's Conduit, the property of the City of London. This pump is erected for the benefit of the publick." The water is perfectly clear, and is slightly astringent ; and the Mansion House is said still to derive a supply from this source. In the garden of the house, No. 30, East-street, Lamb's Conduit-street, are a pump and spring ; and on the opposite wall a stone stating this to be " the head of the spring Lamb's Conduit Water." Tyburn furnished nine Conduits, and with Bayswater, was viewed periodically by the Lord Mayor on horseback, accompanied by ladies in wagons. Strype notes that on Sept. 18, 1562, "the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and many worshipful persons, rode to the Conduit-heads to see them, according to the old custom ; and then they went and hunted a hare before dinner, and killed her ; and thence went to dinner at the Banqueting House at the head of the Conduit, where a great number were handsomely entertained by their Chamberlain. After dinner they went to hunt the fox. There was a great cry for a mile, and at length the hounds killed him at the end of St. Giles's, with great hollowing and blowing of horns at his death ; and thence the Lord Mayor, with all his company, rode through London to his place in Lombard-street." The Banqueting House was at the end of the street now Stratford-place, Oxford-road; and when the mansion was taken down in 1737, the cisterns beneath were arched over. The establishment of the Waterworks at London Bridge, in 1512, and the subse- quent introduction of the New River in 1618, having superseded the use of the Tyburn water, the Corporation let the water of these Conduits on a lease for forty-three years, for the sum of 700Z. per annum. Many of the City Conduits were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 ; and others were removed in 1728, it is stated, to compel the public to have the New River water laid on to their houses. Upon great festal occasions, the Conduits flowed with wine instead of water : at the procession of Anne Boleyn, June 1, 1533, the Great Cheap Conduit ran with white and claret wine all the afternoon. Probably the last of these prodigal events was in 1727, on the anniversary of the Coronation of George 1., when Lamb's Conduit ran with wine. Westminster Abbey has been, from a very distant period, supplied with spring- water from a Conduit-head at Bayswater, communicating with a Gothic conduit, erected by the Dean and Chapter (bearing their arms), at the lower end of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. West of the Lodge at Hyde Park -corner, and facing the Knightsbridge- road, is a square building, inclosing a tank filled from the above Conduit-head, for the supply of Buckingham and St. James's Palaces ; the water is remarkably fine, and the building bears on a tablet " IV. G. R., 1820," the date of its repair. The leaden pipes pass through the Green Park, and the end of the ornamental water in St. James's Park, at a spot denoted by a stone, and through Queen-square to the Abbey. Westminster Palace had its Conduit. In the Close Rolls (Hen. III. 1244) the king commands a payment to be made out of his treasury to Edward of Westminster, on account of " our conduit ;" and by a singular precept of the same year is a grant to Edward, that " from the aqueduct which the king had constructed to the Great Hall at Westminster, he might have a pipe to his own court at Westminster, of the size of a goose-quill." In a memorandum of works executed (Edw. II. 1307-1310), is the following entry : " The Conduit of water coming into the palace, and into the King's Mews, for the falcons, which in various places was obstructed and injured, and the underground pipes stolen, was completely repaired, and the water returned to its proper courses and issues, both at the palace and at the mews." " A beautiful fountain, which fell in large cascades, and on jubilee days was made to pour forth streams of choice wine, stood rather towards the west, and on the north side of the court. Permission to make use of the surplus water which flowed from this conduit was granted, on Feb. 3 (25 Hen. VI.), to the parish. Under the date 1524, the churchwardens for the time being note, ' Memtn. the King's charter for the Condett at the Pales'-gate remayneth in the custody of the churchwardens." The fountain was removed in the reign of King Charles II." Walcott's Westminster. Lastly, in the very curious Harleian MS., numbered 433 (Rich. 111. 1484), we find mentioned, " the lytcll water conduct." CONTENTS. P ELIGIOUS Houses and Hospitals, for ages before the Reformation, occupied nearly JLu two-thirds of the entire area of London. Independently of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, the following Friaries and Abbeys existed almost immediately prior to the Reformation : Friaries : Black Friars, between Lndgate and the Thames ; Grey FriarS, near old Newgate, now Christ's Hospital ; Augustine Friars, now Austin Friars, near Broad-street : White Friars, near Salis- U 290 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. bury-square ; Crouched or Crossed Friars, St. Olave's, Hart-street, near Tower-hill : Carthusian Friars, now the Charter House ; Cistercian Friars, or New Abbey, East Smithfield ; Brethren de Sacco, or Sort Homines, Old Jewry. Priories : St. John's of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell ; Holy Trinity, or Christ Church, on the site of Duke's-place, and near Aldgate ; St. Bartholomew the Great, near Smithfield ; St. Mary Overie's, South- wark; St. Saviour's, Bermondsey. Gunneries : 'Benedictines, or Black Nuns, Clerkenwell ; St. Helen's, Bishopsgate-street ; St. Clare's, Minories ; Holy-well, between Holy well-lane and Norton-folgate. Colleges, $c. : St. Martin' s-le-Grand ; St. Thomas of Acres, Westcheap ; Whittington's College and Hospital, Vintry Ward; St. Michael's College and Chapel, Crooked- lane; Jesus Commons, Dowgate. Hoipitals (having resident Brotherhoods) : St. Giles's in the Fields, near St. Giles's Church ; St. James's, now St. James's Palace : Our Lady of Eounceval, near Charing-cross : St. Mary, Savoy, Strand ; Elsing Spital, now Sion College; Corpus Christi, in St. Lawrence Pountney; St. Passey, near Bevis Marks; St. Mary Axe; Trinity, without Aldgate; St. Thomas, Mercers' Chapel; St. Bartholomew the Less, near Smithfield: St. Giles's, and Corpus Christi, without Cripplegate; St. Mary of Bethlehem, on the eastern side of Moorfields ; St. Mary Spital, without Bishopsgate ; St. Thomas, Southwark ; Lok Spital, or Lazar, Kent-street, Southwark; St. Katherine's, below the Tower. Fraternities : St. Nicholas, Bishopsgate-street ; St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, or the Holy Trinity, Aldersgate-street ; St. Giles, Whitecross-street; the Holy Trinity, Leadenhall; St. Ursula-le-Strand ; Hermitage, Nightingale-lane, East Smithfield; Corpus Christi, St. Mary Spital; the same at Mary Beth- lehem, and St. Mary Poultry. The majority of these establishments disappeared at the Reformation ; but a glance at the Sutherland View of London in 1543, and at Tapperell and Jnnes's Map (early in the reign of Elizabeth), shows us many of these important buildings entire, and others lying distant in the fields. Almost the only remains now traceable are around the Abbey Church at Westminster, where some of the monastic offices are tenanted as the School ; of Grey Friars, the cloisters exist ; of the Augustine Friars, the church ; of the Carthusian Friars, the wooden gate and a few other relics ; of St. John of Jerusalem, the gateway ; of St. Bartholomew the Great, the church cloister and crypt ; of St. Mary Overie's, the church-choir and lady-chapel ; and at Bermondsey, the great gate-house remained nearly entire till 1807 ; of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, the church remains ; of St. Bartholomew's the Less, the church-tower ; and St. Katherine's " by the Tower " disappeared in 1827. Such are the principal Monastic Remains in the metropolis. Since the relaxation of the penal laws, Roman Catholic Convents have been erected in London and the suburbs. Of these, one of the earliest was the Convent for the Order of the Sisters of Mercy, founded by subscription, at Dockhead, Bermondsey, in 1838, and opened for the Sisterhood December 12, 1839 ; when Sister Mary, the Lady Barbara Eyre, sister to Francis the eighth Earl of Newburgh, took the vows, with five other ladies of fortune, and liberal benefactresses to the chapel and convent. In addition to the services of their religion, the Sisters devote themselves to the education of poor girls, the visitation and comfort of the sick and afflicted, and the protection of distressed reputable females. The reception of a postulant into the Sisterhood, or the "taking of the veil," is an impressive cere- mony performed in the chapel of the convent, or in the church adjoining; when the whole sisterhood walk in procession, dressed in the habit of their order, each bearing a lighted taper, and followed by the postulants, in white dresses, and head-wreaths of white flowers and evergreens. The choir then chant " Gloriosa virginum ;" the priest invokes the prayers of the Virgin in behalf of the postulants, to each of whom he presents a lighted taper, " as a corporal emblem of inward light." The superioress and her assistant then conduct the postulants to the celebrant, who inquires if they enter the order by their own free will, andif it be "their firm intention to persevere in religion to the end of their lives." Theseques- tions being answered satisfactorily, the postulants withdraw with the superioress, put off their secular dress, and return wearing the sombre habit of the Order. The superioress then girds them with the cincture; and the celebrant holds a white veil over the head of each, requesting her to accept it as " the emblem of purity." They are subsequently habited with " the cloak ot the Church;" each of the novices sings : " My heart hath uttered a good word; I speak my words to the King,"&c.; each novice embraces the superioress and each member of the sisterhood, and they retire as they entered, hi procession. CORNHILL, A PRINCIPAL street of the City, extending from the western end of Leadenhall- street, crossing westward to the Mansion House. It was named " of a corn- market time out of mind there holden." (Stow.) Here was the " Tun" prison, built in 1283, upon the spot now occupied by a pump ; also a castellated conduit, and its water " Standard" (1528) near the junction of the street with Leadenhall-street. Cornhill has been the site of the Merchants' Exchange for nearly three centuries. On the west side, adjoining the Bank of England, was St. Christopher-le-Stocks Church, with a lofty pinnacled tower, which escaped the Great Fire of 1666 : the church was COENHILL. 291 rebuilt by Wren, but taken down in 1781, and its site included within the Bank. About the same time were erected Bank-buildings, designed by Sir Robert Taylor, wedge- like in plan, in place of a block of houses built after the Great Fire ; the former were removed in 1844 : the end house extended to the site of the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. In excavating for the new Royal Exchange, in 1841, was discovered a gravel-pit, supposed by Mr. Tite, the architect, to have been sunk during the earliest .Roman occupation of London ; and then to have been a pond, gradually filled with rubbish. In it were found Roman work, stuccoed and painted ; fragments of elegant Samian ware ; an amphora, and terra-cotta lamps, 17 feet below the surface : also pine- wood table-books and metal styles, sandals and soldiers' shoes, a Roman strigil, coins of Vespasian and Domitian, &c. ; and almost the very foot-marks of the Roman soldier. The locality is now the most embellished area of the City, and the nucleus of new streets and sump- tuous architecture. Cornhill was formerly noted for its shops of " much stolen gear," mentioned by Lydgate early in the fifteenth century, as well as for its taverns, where was " wine one pint for a pennie, and bread to drink it was given free in every tavern." Here was the famous Pope's-Head Tavern, whence Pope's- Head-alley. Finch-lane, properly Fiuke-lane, is so called of the Finke family, the elder of whom new-built the parish church of St. Bennet (Finke). In Finch-lane, in the year 1765, James Watt obtained work with John Morgan, an instrument-maker. Here Watt became proficient in making quadrants, parallel rulers, compasses, theodolites, &c., and contrived to live upon eight shillings a week, exclusive of his lodging. Sir -chin-lane, properly Birchover-lane, from its builder, was anciently tenanted by wealthy drapers. Anderson states that, in the year 1372, in the reign of Edward III., at least twenty houses in Birchin-lane, in the very heart of the City, came under the denomination of cottages, and were so conveyed to St. Thomas's Hospital, in Southwark. The shops also, at this time, appear to have been detached and separate tenements, or, at least, unconnected with houses, as they are drawn to appear in Aggas's Map of London, where you may know the shops from the dwelling-houses by the signs attached. In Birchin-lane lived Mnjor Graunt, said to have written The Observations on the Sills of Mortality, 1661-2. The houses in the lane were in our time small : twenty years ago it contained 23 houses, now it has but 16 : what it has lost in number is made up in altitude. The lease for 80 years, from 1862, of the premises of the London and Middlesex Bank, "No. 21, Finch-lane, with a frontage of 18ft. 6in., was sold by auction, in 1864, and realized 10,100., subject to a rental of 500Z per annum. On the east side of Cornhill is Change-alley, a maze of thoroughfares. " With some- thing like four or five entrances, two from Lombard-street, two from Cornhill, and one rom Birchin-lane, there is great danger of losing your way either to the right or the left : you may- possibly find that, instead of going as you intended through the Alley, and reaching Cornhill, you have in reality only taken another turning which leads you into Lombard-street, whence you started." (The City, p. 169.) In Change-alley was Garraway's coffee-house, described at page 265. No. 15, Cornhill, Birch's, the cook and confectioner's, is probably the oldest shop of its class in the metropolis. This business was established in the reign of King George I., by a Mr. Horton, who was succeeded by Mr. Lucas Birch, who, in his turn, was succeeded by his son, Mr. Samuel Birch, born hi 1757; he was many years a member of the Common Council, and Alderman of the Ward of Candlewick. He was also Colonel of the City Militia, and served as Lord Mayor in 1815, the year of the battle of Waterloo. In his Mayoralty, he laid the first stone of the London Institution; and when Chantrey's marble statue of George III. was inaugurated in the Council Chamber, Guildhall, the inscription was written by Lord Mayor Birch. He possessed considerable literary taste, and wrote poems and musical dramas, of which The Adopted Child remained a stock piece to our time. The Alderman used annually to send, as a present, a Twelfth-cake to the Mansion House. The upper portion of the house in Cornhill has been rebuilt, but the ground-floor remains intact, a curious specimen of the decorated shop-front of the last century; and here are preserved two door-plates, inscribed, "Birch, Successor to Mr. Horton," which are 140 years old. Alderman Birch died in 1840, having been succeeded in the business in Corn- hill, in 1836, by the present proprietors, Ring and Brymer. Dr. Kitohiner extols the soups of Birch, and his skill has long been famed in civic banquets. Chambers's Book of Day i, vol. ii. p. 164. At a corner house, between Cornhill and Lombard-street, Thomas Guy, the wealthy stationer, commenced business. (See HOSPITALS.) This " lucky corner " was subse- quently Bidding's Lottery-office. There were several other lottery-offices in Cornhill, including that of George Carroll, knighted as Sheriff in 1837; Lord Mayor in 1846. Don Thomas Isturitz was one day walking near the Royal Exchange during the drawing of the lottery in 1815, and feeling an inclination to sport twenty pounds, went into the office of Martin & Co, V 2 292 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Cornhill, where, referring to his pocket-book, he counted the number of days that had elapsed from that of his providential escape from Madrid (and the tender mercies prepared for him by the beloved Fer- nando), he found them amount to 261, and then demanded to buy that ticket ; but it was nearly half an hour before it could be obtained, and only after a strict search amongst the lottery-offices in the city. At length, a half ticket of No. 261 was procured at two o'clock ; and at five it was drawn a prize of forty thousand pounds, the only one ever exhibited to that amount in England. The lucky Don lay down that night twenty thousand pounds richer than he had risen. Cornhill has heen the scene of two calamitous fires one, March 25, 1748, com- menced at a peruke-maker's, in Exchange-alley, and burnt, within twelve hours, from 90 to 100 houses (200.000/. loss), including the London Assurance Office, the Fleece and Three Tuns Taverns, and Tom's and the Rainbow Coffee-houses, in Cornhill ; the Swan Tavern, with Garraway's, Jonathan's, and the Jerusalem Coffee-houses, in Ex- change-alley ; besides the George and Vulture Tavern, and other coffee-houses : many lives were lost. Among the houses burnt was that in which was born the poet Gray, whose father was an Exchange broker ; the house was rebuilt, and was, in 1774, occu- pied by one Natzell, a perfumer ; and in 1824 it was still inhabited by a perfumer No. 41, a few doors from Birchin-lane. The second fire commenced also at a peruke-maker's, in Bishopsgate-street, adjoining Leadenhall-street, November 7, 1765, when all the houses from Cornhill to St. Martin Outwich Church were burnt ; and the church, parsonage house, Merchant Tailors' Hall, and several houses in Threadneedle-street were much damaged. The White Lion Tavern, purchased for 3000. on the preceding evening, and all the houses in White Lion-court, were burnt, together with five houses in Cornhill and others in Leadenhall- street, when several lives were lost. COVENT GARDEN, T YING between the north side of the Strand and Long-acre, has been a locality of J-^ great interest and celebrity for six centuries past. In 1222 most of the present parish of St. Paul, Covent-garden, was occupied by the garden of the Abbey at West- minster; unde Convent, corrupted to Covent-garden, which name occurs in a deed of 2 August, 9 Elizabeth. Strype also tells us that it " hath probably the name of Covent-garden because it was the garden and fields to that large convent or monastery where Exeter House formerly stood." Although this is the true orthography of the word, we see it commonly, if not invariably, written Covent, as being taken from the French convent, more immediately than from the Latin conventus; and in 1632 we find Sir Syniond d'Ewes writing it " Coven or Common Garden." In 1627, only two persons were rated to the poor of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, under the head Covent-garden. The parish of St. Paul, Covent-garden, is completely encircled by that of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields ; but the boundary of each, upon the site of Bedford House and grounds, towards the lower end of Southampton -street, has been contested since the eighteenth century. Although the Market dates from the reign of Charles II., in 1726 and later, it was called Convent-garden ; and by the vulgar " Common-garden" (Sir John Fielding, 1776). In digging for the foundations of the new market, in 1829, a quantity of human bodies was exhumed on the north side of the area, supposed to have been the Convent burial-ground. After the Dissolution, this garden, and the lands belonging to it, were granted by Edward VI. to his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, upon whose attainder they reverted to the Crown. In 1552, they were granted by patent, with seven acres, called Long-acre, of the yearly value of 61. 6s. 8d., to John Earl of Bedford, who built a town residence, principally of wood, upon the site of Southampton-street, where it remained till 1704 ; the garden extending northward nearly to the site of the present market. Southampton-street was then built, and named after Lady William Russell, daughter of the Earl of Southampton ; and other streets were named from the Russell family as Russell, Bedford, Tavistock, Chandos; King and Henrietta streets, from Charles I. and his queen; and James and York streets, from the Duke of York, afterwards James II. In 1634, Francis Earl of Bedford cleared the area ; in 1640, Inigo Jones built for his lordship the church of St. Paul, on the west side (see CHTJKCHES, p. 195) ; and lines of lofty houses upon arcades on the north and east sides, a near imitation of the piazza at Livorno ; Tavistock-row being built, in 1704, upon the south. The area was COVENT GARDEN. 293 inclosed with railings, at 60 feet from the buildings ; and in the centre was a dial, with a gilt ball, raised upon a column. One of Hollar's prints, temp. Charles II,, shows the place as above, with uniform houses, one on each side of the church. In 1671, the Earl of Bedford obtained a patent for the Market, which, however, was for a long time only held on the south side, against the garden-wall of Bedford House ; for we read of " bonefires" and fire-works in the square in 1690 and 1691. From its contiguity to the Cockpit and Drury-lane theatre, Coverit-garden, " amo- rous and herbivorous," became surrounded with taverns. Here, in 1711, stood " Punch's Theatre," which thinned the congregation in the church ; quacks used here to harangue the mob, and give advice gratis. These adventitious notorieties did not improve the morals of the locality . " Where holy friars told their beads, And nuns confess'd their evil deeds : But, oh, sad change ! oh, shame to tell How soon a prey to vice it fell ! How? since its justest appellation Is Grand Seraglio to the nation." Satire, 1756. " The convent becomes a playhouse ; monks and nuns turn actors and actresses. The garden, formal and quiet, where a salad was cut for a lady abbess, and flowers were gathered to adorn images, becomes a market, noisy and full of life, distributing thousands of fruits and flowers to a vicious metropolis." W. S. Landor. Covent-garden was the first square inhabited by the great ; for immediately upon the completion of the houses on the north and east sides, after Inigo Jones's design, they were every one of them inhabited by persons of the first title and rank, as appears by the parish-books of the rates at that time. Part of the cast side was destroyed by fire, but not rebuilt in corresponding manner. The chambers occupied by Richard Wilson, now the Tavistock breakfast-rooms, were portions of the house successively inhabited by Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James Thornhill. Covent-garden, even so late as Pope's time, retained its fashion, as may be seen in the Morning Advertiser, March 6th, 1730 : " The Lady Wortley Montague, who has been greatly indisposed at her house in Covent-garden for some time, is now perfectly recovered, and takes the benefit of the air in Hyde Park every morning, by advice of her physicians." The parish of St. Paul was at that time the only fashionable part of the town, and the residence of a great number of persons of rank and title, and artists of the first eminence. A concourse of wits, literary characters, and other men of genius, frequented the numerous coffee-houses, wine and cider-cellars, jelly-shops, &c.,within the boundaries of Covent-garden; the list of whom particularly includes the names of Butler, Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Otway, Dryden, Pope, Warburton, Cibber, Fielding, Churchill, Bolingbroke, and Dr. Samuel Johnson; Rich, Woodward, Booth, Wilkcs, Garrick, and Macklin ; Kitty Clive, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, the Duchess of Bolton, Lady Derby, Lady Thurlow, and the Duchess of St. Albans ; Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James Thornhill ; Vande- velde, Zincke, Lambert, Hogarth, Hayman, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, and Samuel Foote. The Garden became -famous when its opulent inhabitants exchanged their resi- dences for the newly-built mansions in Hanover, Grosvenor, and Cavendish squares, and Holies and the other streets adjacent. It was at that period that Mother Needham, Mother Douglas (alias, according to Foote's Minor, Mother Cole), and Moll King, the tavern-keepers and gamblers, took possession of the abdicated premises. Beneath St. Paul's portico was " Tom King's Coffee-house." Upon the south side of the market- sheds was the noted " Finish," originally the Queen's Head, kept by Mrs. Butler, open all night the last of the Garden night taverns, and only cleared away in 1829. Shuter was pot-boy here and elsewhere in the Garden, and, from carrying beer to the players behind the scenes, joined them as an actor. The north and east sides are principally occupied as hotels and taverns. At the Old Hummums (in Arabic, " harnmam"), when a bagnio, died Parson Ford, who conspicu- ously figures in Hogarth's Midnight Modern Conversation. There is a capital ghost- story connected with his exit, told in Croker's edition of Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. (See BEUFOBD COFFEE-HOUSE, p. 261.) The scene of Dryden's Sir Martin Mar-all is laid in this once fashionable quarter of the town; and the allusions to the square, the church, and the piazza are of constant 294 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. occurrence in the dramas of the age of Charles II. and Queen Anne. Gay, in his- Trivia, gives this picture of the place : " Where Covent-garden's famous temple stands, That boasts the work of Jones' immortal hands, Columns with plain magnificence appear, And graceful porches lead along the square. Here oft my course I bend, when lo ! from far I spy the furies of the foot-ball war : The 'prentice quits his shop to join the crew Increasing crowds the flying game pursue. Oh ! whither shall I run? the throng draws nigh; The ball now skims the street, now soars on high; The dexterous glazier strong returns the bound, And jingling sashes on the penthouse sound." The Piazza was very fashionable when first erected, and much admired. However, a century ago, it must have been " a sad place." Shenstone writes in 1774 : " London is really dangerous at this time ; the pickpockets, formerly content with mere filching, make no scruple to knock people down with bludgeons in Fleet-street, hi the Strand, and that at no later hour than eight o'clock at night ; but in the Piazzas, Covent-garden, they come in large bodies, armed with couteaus, and attack whole parties, so that the danger of coming out of the playhouse is of gome weight in the opposite scale, when I am disposed to go to them oftener than I ought." Otway has laid a scene in the Soldier's Fortune in Covent-garden Piazza; and Wycher- ley, a scene in the Country Wife. Thomas Killigrew, the wit, lived in the north-west and north-east angles; in the latter (corner of James-street), in 1676, dwelt "Viscountess Musketry, the celebrated Princess of Babylon of De Grammont's Memoirs. The famous George Kobins, of the Piazza, for fifty years, by his hammer, dispersed more property than any other man of his time. Lord Byron used to say his order could not go on long without George Robins to set their affairs right : he was beloved in literary and theatrical circles. His auction-rooms were formerly the studio of Zoffany, who painted here Foote, in the character of Major Sturgeon. Hogarth's Marriage-a- la-Mode pictures were exhibited here gratis. One of the earliest records of artistic Covent-garden, is that of Charles I. establishing at the house of Sir Francis Kynaston, in "the Garden," an academy called "Museum Minervse," for the instruction of gentlemen in arts and sciences, knowledge of medals, antiquities, painting, architecture, and foreign languages. Mr. Cunningham's Handbook is pleasantly anecdotic of the residence of many eminent persons resident in this locality. Till the present century, the neighbouring streets were a fashionable quarter ; and Tavistock and Henrietta streets, famed for perruquiers, were crowded with carriages at shopping hours. In Russell-street, eastward, were Will's, BUTTON'S, and TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSES. (See pp. 272, 262, 271). In James-street, northward, was formerly held a Bird-market on Sunday mornings. In the house which occupied the site of Evans's Hotel, at the south-west corner of the Piazza, lived Sir Harry Vane, the younger ; and next Sir Kenelm Digby, of " Sympathetic Powder" fame. Aubrey says : " Since the Restoration of Charles II., he (Sir Kenelm Digby) lived in the last faire house westward in the north portico of Covent-garden, where my Lord Uenzil Holies lived since. He had a laboratory there. I think he dyed in this house." In the same house, from 1681 to 1689, lived Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham ; and it appears from the books of St. Paul's, Covent-garden, that almost all the foundlings of the parish were laid at the door of the bishop's house. The exterior was much altered for Russell, Earl of Orford, the English Admiral, who, in 1692, defeated the French off Cape la Hogue ; and people are found who see a fancied resemblance in the front of the house to the hull of a ship. Lord Orford's house was subsequently occupied by Thomas Lord Archer; and by James West, the 'great collector of books, prints, drawings, &c., the sale of whose collection in this house occupied the auctioneer six weeks. After this sale, in the house was established the first family hotel in London, by David Low. About 1790, Mrs. Hudson, the proprietor, advertised her house, "with stabling, for one hundred noblemen and horses." In the garden was formerly a small cottage, in which the Kembles, when in the zenith of their fame at Covent Garden Theatre, occasionally took up their abode ; and here was born the gifted Fanny Kemble, in the chamber whi^h now forms the gallery to the Music-room of Evans's Hotel. Evans was succeeded by Mr. John Green, for whom was built the magnificent room, designed by Finch Hall, and opened in 1855. Here is a very inte- resting collection of portraits of eminent dramatists, actors, and actresses. CO VENT GARDEN. 295 In King-street lived the lady for whom mahogany was first used in England; and a few of the houses in the street have doors of solid mahogany. Next door, westward of the original Garrick Club-house, in King-street, lived Arne, the upholsterer; his son, Dr. Arne, the composer, and his daughter, Mrs. Gibber, were born in this house ; where had lodged the Indian Kings, commemorated in the Tatler and Spectator. The house has long been tenanted by Mr. William Cribb, who was the first to appreciate the genius of Mr. Thomas Sydney Cooper, R.A. It was in Rose-street (Dec. 18th, 1679) that Dryden, returning to his house in Long-acre, over against Rose-street, was barbarously assaulted and wounded by three persons, hired by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. There are many allusions to this Rose- alley Ambuscade, as it is called, in our old State Poems. Butler, the author of JLudibras, lived, in the latter part of his life, in Rose-street, " in a studious and retired manner," and died there in 1680 : the house was taken down in 1863. Butler is said to have been buried at the expense of Mr. William Longueville, " though he did not die in debt." Some of his friends wished to have interred him in Westminster Abbey with proper solemnity ; but not finding others willing to contribute to the expense, his corpse was deposited privately, " in the churchyard of St. Paul's, Covent- garden." In 1786 a marble monument was placed on the inside south wall of the church, with this inscription : " This little monumert was erected in the year 1796, by some of the parishioners of Covent-garden, in memory of the celebrated Samuel Butler, who was buried in this church, A.D. 1680. "A few plain men, to pomp and state unknown, O'er a poor bard have raised this humble stone ; Whose wants alone his genius could surpass Victim of zeal ! the matchless Hudibras ! What though fair freedom suffer'd in his page, Reader, forgive the author for the age ! How few, alas ! disdain to cringe and cant, When 'tis the mode to play the sycophant. But, oh! let all be taught from Butler's fate, Who hope to make their fortunes by the great, That wit and pride are always dangerous things, And little faith is due to courts and kings." In 1721, Alderman Barber erected to Butler a monument in Westminster Abbey, upon its epitaph Samuel Wesley wrote these stinging lines : "While Butler, needy wretch, was still alive, No generous patron would a dinner give ; See him, when starved to death, and turned to dust, Presented with a monumental bust. The poet's fate is here in emblem shown : He ask'd for bread, and he received a stone." It was soon after this proposed to erect a monument in Covent-garden Church, for which Dennis, the critic, wrote an inscription, with these lines : " He was a whole species of poet in one : Admirable in a manner In which no one else has been tolerable : A manner which began and ended in him, In which he knew no guide, And has found no followers." In TavistocTc-row, No. 4, lived Miss Reay, the mistress of Lord Sandwich : she was shot in the Piazza, in 1779, by the Rev. W. Hackmau, in a fit of jealousy : " A Sandwich favourite was his fair, And her he dearly loved; By whom six children had, we hear; This story fatal proved. A clergyman, wicked one ! ]n Covent-garden shot her; No time to cry upon her God, It's hoped He's not forgot her." &rub-street Ballad. In Southampton-street is a bar-gate ; the Duke of Bedford having power to erect walls and gates at the end of every thoroughfare on his estate. Here, in 1711, Bohea-tea was sold at 26*. per pound, at the sign of the Barber's Pole. At No. 27 lived David Garrick, before he removed to the Adelphi. No. 31, late Godfrey and Cooke's, was the oldest chemist's and druggist's shop in London ; but was removed from, here in 1863. Here phosphorus was first manufactured in England ; the above 296 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. premises having been the house, shop, and laboratory of Ambrose Godfrey Hanckwitz, who, immediately after the discovery of phosphorus by Brandt, the alchemist, under the instructions of the celebrated Robert Boyle, succeeded in preparing an ounce of solid phosphorus; such as he subsequently sold at 50*. and 60*. an ounce. His laboratory was a fashionable resort in the afternoon on certain occasions, when he performed popular experiments for the amusement of his friends. It opened into a garden, which extended as far ast he Strand. Curious prints exist of the laboratory in its former state ; also a portrait of Hanckwitz, engraved by Vertue (1718), which he had distributed among his customers as a keepsake. Hanckwitz died in 1741. His successors, Godfrey and Cooke, maintained the date 1680 on their premises in Southampton-street, and over the entrance to the laboratory, in the rear. In Maiden-lane, Andrew Marvell lodged in a second-floor while he sat in Parliament for Hull, and refused a Treasury order for 1000., brought to him by Lord Danby from the king. Voltaire lodged at the White Peruke. More in character with the place was the Cyder Cellar, opened about 1730, and described in Adventures Under- ground, 1750; and by Charles Lamb in the London Magazine. In the house, No. 26, nearly opposite, lived William Turner, who dressed wigs, shaved beards, and, in the days of queues, topknots, and hair-powder, waited on the gentlemen of the Garden at their own houses. A door under the arched passage on the right led to the shop, in the room above which was born, in 1775, his son, Joseph Mallord William Turner, landscape-painter. The great painter's natal house has been taken down : here, and in the above house, Turner painted 59 pictures, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy. At the house at the south-east corner of Bedford-street, Clay sold his papier-mache. Clay was a pupil of Baskerville, of Birmingham, and first applied papier-mache to tea- trays in 1760, by which he realized a fortune of 80,000/. Some of the finest of his trays were painted by early members of the Royal Academy, among whom was Wheatley. " At the Riding-hood Shop, the corner of Chandos and Bedford-street," Humphry Wanley, the antiquary, was lodging in 1718. CRANE-COURT. OF the four-and-thirty streets, lanes, courts, and alleys leading from Fleet-street, the most notable is Crane-court, eastward of Fetter-lane ; though this court does not lead anywhere, it being a cul-de-sac. It was originally named Two Crane-court. It was rebuilt immediately after the Great Fire, and contains a few specimens of fine brickwork. Strype describes Crane-court as " a very handsome open place, graced with good buildings, well inhabited by persons of repute." Until about 1782 it was paved with black and white marble. The large end house was built by Sir Christopher Wren, and was inhabited by Dr. Edward Brown, an eminent physician, until 1710, when it was purchased, with the " adjoyning little house," by the Royal Society ; the President, Sir Isaac Newton, recommending it as being " in the middle of the town, and out of noise." On the meeting-nights, a lamp was hung out over the entrance to the court from Fleet-street. The Society met here until 1782, when they removed to Somerset House, and sold that in Crane-court to the Scottish Hospital and Corporation, who now occupy it. This Company originated in " the Scottish Box," in 1613 : the members then numbered only 20, and met in Lamb's Conduit-street ; their Charter dates from 1665. The Hospital now distributes about 22001. a year, chiefly in 101. pensions to old people ; and the princely bequest of 76,495^., by Mr. W. Kinloch, allow s 1800Z. being given in pensions of 4Z. to disabled soldiers and sailors. The monthly meetings of the Society are preceded by Divine service in the chapel, in the rear of the bouse. The meeting-room has an enriched ceiling of finely-carved oak. The walls are hung with portraits of the Duke of Lauderdale, by Lely; Mary Queen of Scots, by Zucchero; the Earl of Bedford; the Duke of Queensberry; the second Duke of Sutherland ; James, third Duke of Montrose ; the Scottish Regalia ; and a large whole-length portrait of William IV., painted by Wilkie, and presented by him to the Scottish Hospital, &c. Crane-court had a few other notabilities. In the first house on the right (now rebuilt) lived Dryden Leach, the printer, who, in 1763, was arrested on a general warrant, upon suspicion of having printed Wilkes's North Briton, No. 45 : Leach was CROSBY HALL. 297 taken out of his bed in the night, his papers were seized, and even his journeymen and servants were apprehended ; the only foundation for the arrest being a hearsay that Wilkes had heen seen going into Leach's house. Wilkes had been sent to the Tower for the No. 45 ; after much litigation he obtained a verdict of 4000Z., and Leach 300Z. damages from three of the king's messengers, who had executed the illegal warrant. Crane-court has long been a sort of nursery for newspapers : here was the office of the Commercial Chronicle ; the Traveller removed to No. 9 from Fleet-street, and remained here until its junction with the Globe. In the basement of another house were printed the early numbers of Punch ; or, the London Charivari ; and in No. 10 (Palmer and Clayton's), immediately opposite, was first printed the Illustrated London News, projected and established by Herbert Ingram, in the spring of 1842. The Society of Arts first met in apartments over a circulating library in Crane-court ; and here the Society awarded its first prize (151.) to Cosway, then a boy of fifteen, and afterwards a fashionable miniature-painter. The circulating library in the court was one of the earliest established in the metropolis ; the first was Batho's, about 1740, at No. 132, Strand ; in 1770 there were but four. CROSS Y HALL, IN Bishopsgate-street, and north of the entrance into Crosby-square, is a portion of Crosby Place, built upon ground leased of the Prioress of St. Helen's in 1466, by Sir John Crosby, alderman, one of the sheriffs in 1471, knighted by Edward IV. in the same year, and deceased in 1475 : " so short a time enjoyed he that his large and sumptuous building ; he was buried in St. Helen's, the parish church ; a fair monu- ment to him and his lady was raised there." (Stow.) The next possessor of Crosby Place was Richard Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III.; and here Shakspeare has laid a portion of his drama of that name; though " the historian is compelled to say, that neither at the death of Henry VI. in 1471, nor at the marriage of Richard with the Lady Anne in 1473, is it probable that Richard was in possession of Crosby Place ;" but here he determined upon the deposition, and perhaps the death, of the young King Edward V., and here plotted his own elevation to the vacant throne. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, in his New Illustrations of Shakspeare, says : " In the course of my researches only one document has presented itself which is entirely unknown, containing a notice of Shakspeare during: the course of his London life. It shows us, what has hitherto remained undis- covered, in what part of London he had fixed his residence at the period of his life when he was pro- ducing the choicest of his works. We have evidence of the most decisive nature, that on October 1, in the fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth, which answers to the year 1598, Shakspeare was one of the inhabitants of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, and consequently a near neighbour of Crosby Hall. In an assess- ment-roll of that date, for levying the first of three entire subsidies which were granted to the Queen in the thirty-ninth year of her reign, the name of William Shakspeare occurs in connexion with that of Sir John Spencer, and other inhabitants of the parish of St. Helen's, with the sum 51. 13*. 4d., the assessment, against the poet's name. This document gives us the names of his neighbours ; among whom we find Sir John Spencer; Dr. Richard Taylor, Dr. Peter Turner, Dr. Edward Jordan, all well- known physicians ; Dr. Cullimore, Robert Honeywood, and the heads of the wealthy families of Read and Robinson." Crosby Place was next purchased by Sir Bartholomew Read, who kept here his mayoralty, 1501. Its next possessor was Sir John Best, Mayor in 1516 (the year of Evil May-day), and by him it was sold to Sir Thomas More, in what year is uncertain ; but it was probably soon after his return from his mission to Bruges, in 1514 and 1515 ; and as this journey forms the groundwork of the Utopia, there is reason to infer this charming romance to have been written at Crosby Place, to which the picture in the preface of Sir Thomas's domestic habits may apply. There is little or no doubt that More wrote his History of Richard the Third at Crosby Place, however it may be with the Utopia. Here, too, More probably received Henry VIII. j for this was just the time he was in high favour with the king, who then kept his court at Castle Baynard's, and St. Bride's. In 1523 More sold Crosby Place to his dearest friend Antonio Bonvisi, a rich merchant of Lucca, who leased the mansion to William Rastell, More'* nephew; and to William Roper, the husband of More's favourite daughter Margaret. In the reign of Edward VI., Bonvisi, Rastell, and Roper were driven abroad by religious persecution, and Crosby Place was forfeited, but restored on the accession of Mary. The next proprietors were Jermyn Cioll, who married a cousin 2P8 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. of Sir Thomas Gresham ; and Alderman Bond, who added to the edifice a lofty turret, though no traces of it are now to be found. In 1594, Sir John Spencer purchased Crosby Place, and in it kept his mayoralty that year. He greatly improved the Place, and " builded a most large warehouse near thereunto." He was the " rich Spencer," worth nearly a million of money ; and here he entertained Sully, when he came on a special embassy from Henry IV. of France to James I. Sir John Spencer's daughter and sole heiress married William, the second Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, and ancestor of the present Marquis. During Lord Compton's proprietorship, the celebrated Countess of Pembroke, " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," lived many years in Crosby Place. Spencer, Earl of Northampton, son of the last-mentioned proprietor, resided here in 1638. Two years previously, the property was leased to Sir John Langham, sheriff in 1642, during whose occupation it was frequently used as a prison for Royalists. His son, Sir Stephen Langham, succeeded him; and during his tenancy, Crosby Place was so injured by fire, that it was never afterwards used as a dwelling. In 1672, the Upper Hall was con- verted into a Presbyterian meeting-house by the Rev. T. Watson ; he was followed by Stephen Charnock ; Dr. Grosvenor, a pupil of Benjamin Keach ; and Edmund Calamy, jun. The congregation continued to meet here till 1769, when it was dispersed; previously to which a farewell sermon was preached here by the Rev. Mr. Jones, the predecessor of the Rev. Dr. Collyer, of Peckbam. The Hall was then let as a packer's warehouse. In 1677, the present houses in Crosby-square were built on the ruins of the old mansion. In 1831, the packer's lease of the Hall expired ; when public attention was drawn to its restoration, as the finest example in the metropolis of the domestic mansion of Perpendicular work. Its long list of distinguished tenants, above all, its association with Richard III., greatly popularized the proposed restoration ; and, on June 27, 1836, the first stone of the new work was laid by Lord Mayor Copeland, alderman of Bishopsgate Ward ; when the Hall was fitted up with banners, strewed with rushes, and an Elizabethan breakfast served upon the long tables. On July 12, 1838, a musical performance was given in the Hall, after service in St. Helen's Church, in commemoration of Sir Thomas Gresham : the place is fraught with musical memories, for under its shadow once lived Byrde, Wilbye, and Morley, the celebrated madrigalists. The restoration was completed in 1842 : repairs have been made, and much of the original mansion has been built : the Hall, the Council-chamber, with the Throne- room above, remain ; and the vaults are a fine specimen of early brickwork. The entrance to Crosby-square is through a small gateway from Bishopsgate-street. The Hall consists of one story only, lighted by lofty and elegant windows, and a beautiful oriel window, reaching from the floor to the roof. The Council-chamber* was stripped of many of its decorations in 1816 by the proprietor, who removed them to adorn a dairy at his seat, Fawley Court, Bucks ; but the finely -coved ceiling became the pro- perty of Mr. Yarnold, of Great St. Helen's, at the sale of whose Collection, in 1825, this lot was purchased by Mr. Cottingham, the architect, who fitted it as the ceiling of his Elizabethan Museum at No. 43, Waterloo-bridge-road : at the dispersion of which, in 1851, the relic was again sold. The Throne-room has an oak-ribbed rounded roof ; and among its windows, is one reaching the entire height of the apartment. The Great Hall, the innermost sanctuary, is 54 ft. long, 27J broad, and 40 feet high. It has a minstrels' gallery,, but not a dais. The glory of the place is, however, the roof, which is an elaborate architectural study, and decidedly one of the finest specimens of timber-work in existence. It differs from many other examples in being an inner roof; it is of cork or chestnut, of low pointed arches, approaching to an ellipse. From the main points of intersection hang pendants, which end in octagonal ornaments, pierced with small niches, each pendant forming the centre of four arches ; so that, in whatever point it is viewed, the design presents a series of arches of elegant construction, whilst the spandrels are pierced with perpen- dicular trefoil-headed niches. The principal timbers are ornamented with small flowers, or knots of foliage, in a hollow ; and the whole springs from octangular corbels of stone attached to the piers between the windows. Here the superior taste of the architect is strikingly displayed in the method by which he has avoided an horizontal import to his ceiling, by constructing arches of timber corre- * In 1794, Mr. Capon painted for John Philip Kemble, at Xew Drury-lane Theatre, the Council Chamber, for the play of Jane Shore ; a correct restoration of the original apartment, as far as existing- documents would warrant. CRUTCHED FRIARS. 299 spending with the ornamental portions of the roof above the lateral windows, and thus completely avoiding a horizontal line, which was as much the abomination of our ancient architects as it is the favourite of our modern ones. These arches are surmounted by an elegant entablature, of a moulded architrave, a frieze of pierced quatrefoils in square panels, and an embattled cornice ; each quatrefoil contained a small flower, of which fifty-six originally existed on each side of the Hall, the designs being dissimilar. The oriel, forming an ornamented recess in the side of the Hall, has ever been re- garded as one of its best features : it is vaulted with stone, beautifully groined, the ribs springing from small pillars attached to the angles; while knots of foliage and bosses are at the points of intersection. Among them is a ram trippant, the crest of Sir John Crosby. Tliis and the other windows have been, for the most part, filled with stained glass, decorated with the armorial bearings of the several personages famous in the history of Crosby Place, as well as of persons of taste who have contributed to its restoration. The lower aperture has been closed by the same piece of wood-work that was formerly elevated above it. The floor is paved with stone in small squares arranged diagonally. In the north wall is a fire-place, which is at least singular, if not unique, in a Hall of this age. Crosby Hall, in its restored state, has been let for musical performances and lectures ; and it was, for some time, the meeting-place of a Literary Society. The west front of the premises, next Bishopsgate-street, has been composed in the style of the half- timbered houses of the Crosby period. Here is a statue of Sir John Crosby, by Nixon j with his arms and crest. CRUTCHED FRIARS. rpHIS picturesque fragment of old London, which Hatton describes " as a very con- -L siderable, though crooked street," lies between Jewry-street and Hart-street, the oldest portion being a short distance towards Tower-hill, from Fenchurch-street. Here remained till lately a group of houses, but little altered since Queen Elizabeth's days j the quaint gables, the highly-pitched roofs, the peculiar arrangement of the water- troughs, the projections over the shop windows little more than seven feet in height, the thick window-frames and small squares of glass all denoted the considerable age the structure. The street derives its name from being on the site of the ancient monastery of Crouched or Crossed Friars (Fratres SanctcB Crucis), founded in 1298, by Ralph Hosier and William Sabernes, who became friars here. Originally they carried in their hands an iron cross, which they afterwards exchanged for one of silver. They wore a cross, made of red cloth, on their garment, which at first was grey, and in later times altered to blue. One Adams was the first prior, and Edmund Streatham the last. Their annual income seems to have been small. Henry VIII. granted their house to Sir Thomas Wyat, the elder, who built a handsome mansion on part of the site. This house afterwards became the residence of John Lord Lumley, a celebrated warrior in the time of Henry VIII., who greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Flodden, by his valour and the number of men he brought into the field. " John Lord Lumley, grandson to the first," says Pennant, " was amongst the few of the nobility of that time who had a taste for literature." He married his sister Barbary to Hum- phrey Llwyd, of Denbigh, and by his assistance formed a considerable library, which at present makes a valuable part of the British Museum. The refectory was converted into the first glass-house ever established in England, which was burned down in 1575. On the site was subsequently erected a stupendous tea-warehouse for the East India Company. Near this place stood a Northumberland House, which was inhabited in the reign of Henry VI. by two of the Earls of Northumberland. One lost his life at the battle of St. Albans, and the other his son in that of Toulon. Being deserted by the Percies, the gardens were converted into bowling-alleys, " and other parts," says Stow, " into dicing-bouses." This was probably one of the first of those evil places of resort. In the valley, now crossed by a viaduct of the Blackwall Railway, were the Almshouses of the Drapers' Company, erected and endowed in 1521, by Sir John Milborne. They were taken down in 1862; they are described under ALMS- HOUSES, p. 8. The neighbourhood has, however, a far more remote antiquity, for an inscribed stone T 300 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. found in the Tenter-ground, in Goodman's-fields, while making an excavation in a garden at a depth of about seven feet below the surface, takes us back to the Roman occupation of Britain. Several fragments of urns were found at the same time. The inscription connects it with the Sixth Legion; and from it this portion of the Roman army is presumed to have been stationed for a time in or near London. In 1865, there was excavated in Jewry-street a portion of the western wall of old London. Almost upon the very day that the above discovery was made of the western wall, near Aldersgate- street was excavated a portion of the eastern. The wall runs in a straight line from the Tower to Aldgate, by Trinity-square, where a portion has been discovered, which, though not Roman, was supposed to rest on Roman founda- tions. In 1841, the Blackwall Railway, much further north than this point, cut through Roman remains of the great Wall, nearly opposite Milborne's Almshouses. These remains are engraved in Knight's London, vol. i. p. 164, where the fragment is described as " recently excavated behind the Minories." In August, 1864, was dis- covered an extensive fragment of a Norman wall, upon undoubtedly Roman foundations ; and partly behind the Minories, on the east side of the lower end of Jewry-street, which had been cleared of a number of small houses, remains were found at various levels ; as, masses of Roman stonework, with bondings of Roman bricks, or, as we should call them, tiles; a superstructure of earlier date; and in the lowest depths horns of oxen and other remains in abundance. East of the site is Vine-street, named from a vine- yard anciently there, in the rear of the Minories. Some of the entire Roman bricks, cleared of cement, &c., were fine specimens of the building materials of our conquerors. (See GOODMAN'S FIELDS.) CRYPTS. HE Crypts, vaults, or undercrofts remaining in the metropolis, are interesting specimens of its ecclesiastical and domestic architecture. The Crypt or Lower Chapel of Old London Bridge belongs to the past : it was constructed in the tenth or f;reat pier, and was entered both from the upper apartment and the street, as well as by a flight of stone stairs winding round a pillar which led into it from outside the pier : whilst in front of this latter entrance the sterling formed a piatform at low-water, which thus rendered it accessible from the river. This Crypt was about 60 feet in length, 20 feet high, and had a groined roof, supported by stone ribs springing from clustered columns ; at the intersections were bosses sculptured with cherubs, epis- copal heads, and a crowned head (probably Richard Coeur-de-Lion), grouped with four masks; and near the entrance was a piscina for holy water. Here was a rich series of windows looking on to the water, and the floor was paved with black and white marble : herein was buried Peter of Colechurch, the priest-architect of the bridge. The Chapel was taken down in 1700 : the Crypt had been many years used as a paper warehouse ; and though the floor was always from 8 to 10 feet under the surface at high-water mark, yet the masonry was so good that no water ever penetrated. In front of the bridge-pier a square fish-pond was formed in the sterling-, into which the fish were carried by the tide, and there detained by a wire grating placed over it ; and " an ancient servant of London Bridge, now (1827) verging upon his hundredth summer, well remembers to have gone down through the Chapel to fish in the pond." Thomson's Chronicles, p. 517. ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CRYPT, Smithfield, exists in good preservation under the dining-hall or refectory of the priory, of which also there remain other appurtenances. The crypt is of great length, has a double row of beautiful aisles, with Early-Pointed arches, divided by Middlesex-passage, leading from Great to Little Bartholomew- close ; a door at the extremity is traditionally said to have communicated by a subterranean passage with Canonbury, at Islington. Beneath the " Coach and Horses" public- house, probably once the hospitium, within the west gate of the monastery, is the remains of another crypt. BISHOPSGATE-STREET WITHIN, No. 66 (taken down in 1865), was built upon a crypt, of ecclesiastical architecture. Bow CHURCH CRYPT, Cheapside, consists of columns and simple Romanesque groin- ings, said to be of the age of the Conqueror ; it is the crypt of the ancient Norman church, but it was mistaken by Wren for Roman workmanship. It has long been used as a dead-house, is ventilated, and the coffins are put in fair order. At Messrs. Grow- coek's, in Bow Churchyard, is a small portion of another crypt or undercroft. It is difficult to understand how Wren was led to the belief that the above remains were Roman ; unless, as was pointed out by Mr. Gwilt, in an admirable description of the crypt ( Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v. plates 61 to 65), Wren was deceived by the fact CRYPTS. 301 that Roman bricks are used in the construction of the arches ; or did he mean that they were more Romano, or in the Roman manner ? ST. ETHELEEDA'S CHAPEL CRYPT, Ely-place, originally a burial-place, is not vaulted, but has for its roof the chapel-floor, supported by enormous chestnut posts and girders. During the Interregnum, when Ely House and its offices were converted into a prison and hospital, this crypt became a kind of military canteen ; it was sub- sequently used as a public cellar to vend drink in ; and here were frequently revellinga heard during divine service in the chapel above. GABEAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 3, Change-alley, Cornhill, had a crypt of fourteenth and sixteenth century architecture, was of ecclesiastical character, and had a piscina ; it was used as the coffee-house wine-cellar, and extended under Change-alley. GEEAED'S HALL CEYPT, Basing-lane, was the only remaining vestige of the mansion of John Gisors, pepperer, Mayor of London in 1245 ; " a great house of old time, builded upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone brought from Cane in Normandy" (Stow) ; Gisors' Hall being corrupted to Gerard's Hall. The date of this crypt was probably late in the thirteenth century. The groined roof was supported by sixteen columns : the crypt, although generally resembling a subterranean ecclesiastical edifice, was constructed solely for the stowage of merchandize, and was thus an example of the warehouse of the wealthy London merchant of the thirteenth century. The great house called the Vintrie stood upon similar vaults, which were used for the stowage of French wines; it was likewise occupied, in 1314, by Sir John Gisors, who was a vintner. Gerard's Hall Crypt, with the modern inn which had replaced the hall, was removed in forming a new street in 1859, when some curious old merchant's marks were found. Here was preserved the tutelar effigies of " Gerard the gyant," a fair specimen of a London sign, temp. Charles II. Here also was shown the staff used by Gerard in the wars, and a ladder to ascend to the top of the staff; and in the neighbouring church of St. Mildred, Bread-street, hangs a huge tilting- helmet, said to have been worn by the said gyant. The staif, Stow thinks, may rather have been used as a May-pole, and to stand in the hall decked with evergreens at Christmas ; the ladder serving for decking the pole and hall-roof.^<7. W. Archer. GUILDHALL CEYPT is the finest and most extensive undercroft remaining in London, and is the only portion of the ancient hall (erected in 1411) which escaped the Great Fire. It extends the whole length beneath the Guildhall from east to west, divided nearly equally by a wall, having an ancient Pointed door. The crypt is further divided into aisles by clustered columns, from which spring the stone-ribbed groins of the vaulting, composed partly of chalk and bricks ; the principal intersections being covered with carved bosses of flowers, heads, and shields. The north and south aisles had formerly mullioned windows, now walled up. At the eastern end is a fine Early-English arched entrance, in fair preservation ; and in the south-eastern angle is an octangular recess, which formerly was ceiled by an elegantly groined roof; height, 13 feet. The vault- ing, with four-centred arches, is very striking, and is probably some of the earliest of the sort, which seems peculiar to this country. Though called the Tudor arch, the time of its introduction was Lancastrian. (See Weale's London, p. 159.) In 1851 the stone-work was rubbed down and cleaned, and the clustered shafts and capitals were repaired ; and on the visit of Queen Victoria to Guildhall, July 9, 1851, a ban- quet was served to her Majesty and suite in this crypt, which was characteristically decorated for the occasion. Opposite the north entrance is a large antique bowl, of Egyptian red granite, which was presented to the Corporation by Major Cookson in 1802, as a memorial of the British achievements in Egypt. " GTTY FAWKES'S CELLAB" was a crypt-like apartment beneath the old House of Lords, the ancient Parliament-chamber at Westminster, believed to have been rebuilt by King Henry II. on the ancient foundations of Edward the Confessor's reign. " The walls of this building were nearly seven feet in thickness, and the vaults below (' Guy Fawkes's Cellar') were very massive. Piers of brickwork (possibly of Charles the Second's time) had been raised to strengthen the ceiling and sustain the weight of the Parliament-chamber floor, together with strong rafters of oak, supported by twelve octagonal oak posts, on stone plinths. This building was taken down about the year 302 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. 1823, when it was ascertained that the vaults had been the ancient kitchen of the Old Palace; and near the south end the original huttery -hatch was discovered, together with an adjoining pantry or cupboard." (Britton and Bailey's Westminster Palace, p. 421.) The conspirators obtained access to the vaults through a house in the south- east corner of Old Palace-yard, which was at one time occupied as the Ordnance Office, and afterwards as the entrance to the House of Lords. After the Gunpowder Plot, Nov. 5, 1605, it became the custom to search and carefully examine all the vaults and passages under the Houses of Parliament, previous to the Sovereign opening the Session. This precautionary inspection, continued to our time, was performed by certain officers of Parliament, headed by the Usher of the Black Rod, who went through the vaults, and examined the various nooks and recesses that might, if conspirators were so inclined, again hold combustibles, with the intent, " suddenly and with one blast, to blow up and tear in pieces " those assembled on the occasion in Parliament. The search took place 011 the morning of the day of the Royal ceremonial. HOSTELBY OF THE PBiOES OF LEWES CBYPT, the, was discovered in Carter-lane, Southwark, in 1832. This vaulted chamber was supported by six demi-columns, attached to the side walls ; the columns and arches of wrought stone, and the vaultings of chalk. In 1834 was discovered another cryptal chamber, with a plain massive round pillar in the centre, from which sprang elliptic-ribbed arches, forming a groined roof. This vault is supposed to have been the cellar of "the Hostelry for Travellers, which had the sign of the ' Walnut Tree.' " (Stow.) Both Crypts originally belonged to the town-lodging of the Priors of Lewes ; the larger Crypt being under the great Hall, which had been used as the grammar school-room of St. Olave's, founded by Queen Elizabeth. These crypts were destroyed in making the approaches to the New London Bridge. ST. JOHN'S CRYPT, Clerkenwell, is semi-Norman and Early English, and part of the magnificent Priory Church of St. John of Jerusalem ; the superstructure of the present Church of St. John being mostly the patched-up remains of the choir. This Crypt in modern times (1762) has been rendered notorious by the detection of the imposture known as the Cock-lane Ghost. The most interesting remaining portions of the Crypt comprise the central avenue and a small compartment on each side of it by the entrance at the east end. The Crypt appears to have been originally above ground, and not subterraneous : an entrance to it may be seen in Hollar's view of the east end as it appeared in 1661 from St. John-street, with the hospital gardens and boundary-wall. The central portion of the crypt consists of four severeys or bays : two simple and plain, being semi-Norman, and two Early English, and very perfect, the details and mouldings being worthy of careful examination. The ribs of the Early-English bays spring from triple-clustered columns, in each angle of the bays, with moulded capitals and bases ; the upper moulding horizontally fluted, similar to some Grecian-Ionic bases. The central shafts of the clustered columns are pointed, and the diagonal ribs have three mouldings : the central one is pointed and the outer are rolls. This pointed bowtell occurs frequently in semi-Norman and Early- English work, and is coeval with the introduction of the pointed arch. Suspended from the keystone of each arch is an iron ring. On each side of the two western bays of the central aisle is a deeply-recessed pointed widow : the doorways are trefoil-headed. LAMBETH PALACE CETPT, or Under- chapel, is considered to be the oldest portion of the Palace. It consists of a series of strongly-groined stone arches, supported cen- trally by a short, massive column, and by brackets in the side walls. These vaults are now converted into cellars ; they might, possibly, have been originally used for Divine . worship, as there are two entrances to them from the cloisters. " Lambeth Palace Chapel retains a Crypt, a doorway, and windows of great beauty, but the Chaprl has otherwise been quite barbarised ; and the remainder of this archiepiscopal residence, though founded as early as the reign of Richard Cceur-de-Lion (before which it was a residence of the Bishop of Rochester), now forms only a confused medley of buildings, with no fragment older than the fifteenth century." AVeale's London, p. 145. LAMB'S CHAPEL CETPT, Monkwell-street, is a remarkably pure and finished speci- men of the Norman style. The vaulted roof has been supported by nine short columns, six of which remain, with very ornate capitals j and the interesting ribs of the groining are decorated with zig-zag mouldings and a spiral ornament. The carved work is of Caen stone. The chapel was originally " the Hermitage of St. James's" in the wall, CRYPTS. 303 a cell to the Abbey of Quorndon, in Leicestershire, and said to have been founded by Henry III., but evidently upwards of a century earlier. The Chapel and its appur- tenances were granted by Henry VIII. to William Lamb, who bequeathed and endowed it at his death for the benefit of the Clothworkers' Company, of which be was a mem- ber. (See LAMB'S COXDTTIT, p. 288.) LEATHER-SELLERS' HALL CRYPT, at the east end of St. Helen's-place, Bishopsgate, adjoins the church of St. Helen on the north side, and extends beneath the present hall : it is boldly groined. In the wall which separated this Crypt from the church were two ranges of small apertures, made in an oblique direction, so that the high altar might be seen by those in the Crypt when mass was performing. The position of one set of these openings (" The Nuns' Grating") is marked out within the present church by a stone-canopied altar affixed to the wall. The Crypt has been engraved by J. T. Smith. ST. MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND CETPT was laid open in clearing for the site of the new General Fost-Office, in 1818, the area formerly occupied by the Church and Sanctuary of St. Martin. There were then found two ranges of vaults, which had served as cellars to the houses above ; one of these being the crypt of St. Martin's (taken down in 154-7), and afterwards the cellar of a large wine-tavern, the " Queen's Head," This was in the Pointed style of Edward III., and was most likely the work of William of Wykeham. The second or westernmost range, which must have supported the nave, was of earlier date, and was a square, vaulted chamber, divided by piers six feet square : here were found a coin of Constantino, and a stone coffin containing a skeleton ; and in digging somewhat lower down, Roman remains were met with in abundance. In St. Martin's-le-Grand also, between Aldersgate and St. Ann's-lane end, was the large tavern of the "Mourning Bush," whose vaulted cellars, as they remain from the Great Fire of 1666, disclose the foundation-wall of Aldersgate, and a remarkably fine speci- men of early brick arch -work. ST. MARY ALDERMARY, Bow-lane. In 1835, upon the removal of some houses in "Watling-street, at the east end of this church, a building, thought to be the Crypt of the old church commenced by Sir Henry Keble in 1510, was brought to light. In 1851, in widening the thoroughfare by way of Cannon-street, just opposite St. Swithin's Church and London Stone, an ancient vault or crypt, of considerable length, was opened ; it had stone cross-springers, forming a Pointed arch, and was vaulted with chalk. MERCHANT TAILORS' HALL CRYPT was brought under notice during some repairs in 1855, this being the crypt of the former Hall, destroyed by the Great Fire. The kitchen, seen in the way to the Crypt, may be older than the time of the fire, probably about the time of Henry VIII. On a conspicuous part of the wall is the excellent motto " WASTE NOT, WANT NOT." There are some Pointed arches and windows, and also two corbels, visible. The Crypt is at a considerable depth below the kitchen, and has been used for some time past as a coal-cellar : the walls and 'filling in between the groins are of chalk. The Company have preserved it. About seven feet from this Crypt, and under the late open yard of the Hall, another old vault has been since discovered : it is 7 feet wide, and quite full of garden-mould. The walls are of chalk- rubble, and the voussoirs of Kentish rag. ST. MICHAEL, ALDGATE. A subterranean passage is said to conduct from the Tower to the ancient Chapel or Crypt of St. Michael at Aldgate, situated under the house at the south-east corner of London Wall-street, hard by Aldgate pump. It has some marks of the semi-Norman, or Transition style, but it is assigned to Prior Norman, in 1108. The central clustered column is Norman ; the bosses remain perfect, and contain roses and grotesque heads. A means of approach from the street has existed ; and there are indications of two other passages, one said to have run to Duke's-place, and the other to the Tower. ST. PAUL'S CRYPT extends beneath the whole of the church, and, like the body of the Cathedral, is divided into three avenues by massive pillars and arches j except the portion beneath the area of the dome, it is well lighted and ventilated by windows 30 i CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. opening into the churchyard. The north aisle is a place of sepulture for the parishioners of St. Faith. (See CHURCHES, p. 113.) In the crypt of Old St. Paul's the stationers of Paternoster-row had warehoused their stocks of books, which were destroyed in the Great Fire. ST. STEPHEN'S CBYPT, WESTMINSTER PALACE, also called " St. Mary's Chapel in the Vaults," formed the basement of St. Stephen's Chapel, founded by King Stephen, and rebuilt by Edward I. in 1292 : a roll of this date records the purchase of two shiploads of chalk, besides burnt lime, ashes, and sand, for the foundation of the chapel, thus proving it to have been raised on a concrete basis ; and how substantially is proved by the Crypt remaining in excellent preservation, notwithstanding the super- structure has been twice destroyed by fire in 1298 and 1834. Like other crypts, this is of low proportions, but has no division by detached pillars ; the masses pro- jecting inwards, and dividing window from window in short massive clusters, the vault-ribs and all other members partaking of the same bold, thick character; whilst the tracery of the windows is exquisitely beautiful. Strength, solidity, fine propor- tions, and skilful execution, are the characteristics of this basement chapel" (Britton and Brayley), which " is the last fragment in London that can be decidedly classed in the first or progressive period of English architecture." (Weale's London?) This Crypt was fitted up as the state dining-room of the Speaker of the House of Commons ; it was much damaged in the great fire of 1834, but has been restored as a chapel for the officers of the House of Commons; and during the works, on January 17, 1852, the workmen discovered, beneath a window-seat, the embalmed body of an ecclesiastic, without any coffin. The corpse lay with the feet towards the east (said to be an unusual position for an ecclesiastic) ; it was wrapped in several folds of waxed cloth sewn together with coarse twine ; its right hand, on which was probably the ring or jewelled glove, was lying on the breast. Over the left arm was the pastoral staff* a crook of oak, beautifully carved. On the feet were sandals, with leathern soles sharply pointed. Upon removing the cere-cloth, the face proved to be in remarkable preservation, with hair on the chin and upper lip. The remains are presumed to be those of William Lyndwoode, Bishop of St. David's, who founded a chantry in St. Stephen's Chapel, and died in 1446 ; and in the patent roll of 32 Henry VI. there is a license to the bishop's executors for one or two chaplains to celebrate divine service daily " for the soul of the aforesaid bishop, whose body lies buried in the said under- chapel," &c. The relics were inspected by a deputation from the Society of Antiqua- ries on Jan. 31, 1852 ; and a cast of the face having been taken for Her Majesty, the remains were placed in an elm coffin, and buried in a grave in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey ; the pastoral staff and sandals being sent to the British Museum. TOWEB OP LONDON. The Crypt, or large range of vaults, beneath the White Tower, is half underground, and now covered by modern brickwork. These vaults were formerly occupied as prisons ; and among the inscriptions still remaining on a wall of a subterranean cell is one cut by the unfortunate Bishop of Rochester, John Fisher, who was beheaded for his opposition to the Reformation. CUEIOSITT-SSOPS. THE principal locality for dealers in Curiosities, including ancient furniture and carvings, pictures, china and enamels, painted glass, metal-work, and church- furniture, has long been in Wardour-street, Soho, and Oxford- street. Formerly it was also noted for its book-stalls; but in the spreading taste for Curiosities within the last quarter of a century, the book- stalls have mostly disappeared, and the Curiosity - dealers here now number sixteen. Wardour-street is especially famous for old furniture and carvings ; Hanway-street (formerly Hanway-yard, at the east end of Oxford-street), being more exclusively celebrated for its china-dealers. There are also good specimens of well-stocked Curiosity-shops towards the middle of the Strand. These several shops are principally supplied from the Continent ; but it is a profitable business to collect specimens from our provinces, where an Elizabethan bedstead has been bought for five shillings, and sold for twice as many pounds in Wardour-street. CUSTOM-HOUSE (THE). 305 The marks on porcelain denote its age and manufacture ; but there is no such warrant for genuine old furniture ; and rough work which has just left the carver's hands, and has been pickled and charred, ante-dated, and even shattered, to imitate age, is often sold for the ingenuity of the two preceding centuries. The revival of the style of Louis XV. has done much to foster this false taste ; and our collectors, "not content with ransacking every pawnbroker's shop in London and Paris for old buhl, old porce- lain, and old plate, old tapestry and old frames, even set every manufacturer to work, and corrupt the taste of every modern artist by the renovation of this wretched style." Hope's Hist. Architecture, The dispersion of famed collections (as Strawberry Hill, in 1842 ; Mr. Beckford's, in 1845; Stowe, in 1849; and Bernal's in 1855;) is a benefit, direct and indirect, to Curiosity-dealers. The taste for Medieval art in church-fittings and painted glass has also greatly encouraged this trade, as well as the copying of olden works in new materials. Certain auction-rooms are noted for the sale of Curiosities : as Christie and Hanson's, King-street, St. James's, especially for pictures. Phillips's, New Bond- street ; Foster, Pall-majl ; and Oxenhams', Oxford-street, are known for their sales of articles of vertu, and collections, as well as " importation sales." Here the accumula- tion of a lifetime is often distributed in a week or a day. (See CASTINGS IN WOOD, pp. 78-81, and CHELSEA PORCELAIN, p. 94.) The Fox public-house, in Wardour-street, was formerly kept by Sam House, " publican and repub- lican," who commenced politician in 1763, and became conspicuous in the memorable Westminster election-contest between Lord Lincoln and Mr. Fox, in 1780 : a picture, with Fox arm-in-arm with House, was sold by Christie and Manson in 1845. In the window of Harrison, the pawnbroker, 95, Wardour-street, the writer remembers to have seen the Ireland Shakspearean MSS. (" great and impu- dent forgery," Dr. Parr) lying for sale upon a family Bible. With Harrison, who was a liberal man, Sheridan was accustomed occasionally to deposit his valuables. CUSTOM-HOUSE (THE), T OWER THAMES-STREET, immediately east of Billingsgate-dock, was origi- -U nally designed by David Laing : the foundations were laid in 1813, upon piles driven into the old bed of the river, and extending eastward beyond the site of the Custom-house, destroyed by fire Feb. 12, 1814, when the greater part of the trade records were consumed. The northern elevation, fronting Thames-street, is pkin ; but the south front towards the Thames has in the wings Ionic colonnades and a pro- jecting centre, the attic of which was decorated with terra-cotta bas-relief figures of the Arts and Sciences, Commerce and Industry ; and natives of the principal countries of the globe, with emblems of their arts. The clock-dial, nine feet in diameter, was supported by colossal figures of Industry and Plenty ; and the royal arms by Ocean and Commerce. Unfortunately, the piling gave way; and in 1825 the re-centre was taken down, the foundation relaid, and the Thames front erected as we now see it, by Sir Robert Smirke. The expense was 180,00(W., which, added to the original expendi- ture, 255,0002., made the total cost of the edifice nearly half a million, or two-thirds the cost of St. Paul's Cathedral. The river facade is 488 feet in length, or nearly one tenth of a mile. It is fronted by a noble esplanade, or quay ; but as the breadth of this quay is not equal to the height of the Custom-house, its facade, which is of Portland stone, is not seen to advantage from that point, but from London Bridge or the middle of the river. The interior contains, besides warehouses and cellars, about 170 apartments, classified for contiguity and convenience of the several departments. In the Board- room are portraits of George III. and George IV., the latter by Lawrence. The Long Room, in the centre of the building, is probably the largest apartment of its kind in Europe: its length is 190 feet, width 66 feet, and height between 30 and 40 feet; but it is not so handsome as the " Long Room " taken down after the failure of the foundation. The officers and clerks form three divisions : the inward department, with its collectors, clerks of rates, clerks of ships' entries, computers of duties, receivers of plantation duties, wine duties, &c. ; the outward department, with its cocket-writers, &c. ; and the coast department. Here a Trinity-house officer sits for the collection of lighthouse dues ; and here is a constant succession of ship-brokers and ship-owners, and their clerks, and of skippers and wholesale merchants. Defoe relates Count Tallard to have said, that nothing gave him so true and great an idea of the richness and grandeur of England as seeing the multitude of payments made in a morning in the Long Room ; since this was said, the Customs have increased tenfold. X 306 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. On the ground-floor is the Queen's Warehouse, with diagonal-ribbed roof. The cellars in the basement form a groined crypt, and are fire-proof ; the walls are extraor- dinarily thick ; and here are kept the wines and spirits seized by the officers of the Custom-house. The condemned articles are disposed of quarterly by auctions or " Custom-house Sales," at which the lots are not produced, but have been previously viewed in the Queen's Warehouse and at the Docks. The following is an average dally report of the principal articles passed through the Custom House, and issued to the public for consumption ; and to arrive at a year's amount these figures must be multi- plied in many instances 300 times : Anchovies, 1455 Ibs. ; arrow-root, 101 cwt. ; cattle, 172 ; cocoa and coffee, 78,63-1 Ibs. ; corahs, 1042 pieces ; elephants' teeth, 395; gloves, 2237 pairs ; gum, 450 packages; handkerchiefs, 791 pieces ; hemp, 587 bales ; hides, 780; honey, 17 cwt. ; horns, 1500 ; indigo, 274 chests ; iron, 5760 bars ; isinglass, 6 cwt.; jute, 636 bales; leeches, 1801. value; lemon-pec), 20 pipes; litho- graphic stones, 953; manufactures, 63522. value; marble, 12 blocks; molasses, 1176 cwt.; nutmegs, 414 Ibs. ; oil, 546 packages ; oil, scented, 810 Ibs. ; onions, 800 bushels ; pepper, 11,832 Ibs.; quicksilver, 40S9 bottles; rags, 67 bales; rice, 215 cwt.: sago, 70 cwt.; sheep, 65; silk, 382 bales; spelter, 638 cakes; spirits, 19,875 gallons; sugar, 11,151 cwt.; tallow, 327 cwt.; tea, 89,742 Ibs.; timber, 1900 loads; tobacco, 14,143 Ibs.; whale-fins, 279 bundles; wine, 10,765 gallons; wool, 354 bales. Ware- housed in one day : anchovies, 250 barrels ; butter, 539 casks ; coffee, 2650 bags ; cork, 19 bales ; hams, 600; manufactures, 168 packages ; marble mortars, 50; mats, 1000; raisins, 750 drums; rice, 581 bags; rum, 111 casks ; spirits, 554 cases or casks ; sugar, 13-15 packages; tallow, 191 packages; tobacco, 000 packages ; tin, 1075 slabs ; timber, 12,635 deals and pieces ; wine, 896 cases or casks. The present is the fifth Custom -house built nearly upon the same site. The first was erected by John Churchman, Sheriff of London in 1385. (Stoio.) The second \vas built in the reign of Elizabeth, and appears in the 1543 View of London with several high-pitched gables and a water-gate : it was burnt in the Great Fire of 166G. It was rebuilt by Wren, at a cost of 10,OOOZ. ; and this third House was consumed by fire in 1718, and was the only one of Wren's buildings that in his long life was destroyed. Wren's Custom-house was replaced by Bipley, who introduced the " Long Room," and' embellished the river front with Ionic columns, pediments, and a Tuscan colonnade : this fourth House was burnt in 1814. The taxes levied on imported and exported commodities having been repeatedly altered, to meet the necessities of the State, or serve political purposes, their amount at different periods is not of tself a correct test of the increase of trade. In 1613, the date of one of the earliest notices preserved, the Customs duties collected in London amounted to 109,5722., being nearly thrice as much as was col- lected in all the rest of the kingdom (England), the whole Customs duties then amounting to 143,0752. There are now no heaps of money at the Custom-house such as excited Tallard's admiration. The duties are paid into the Receiver-General's Office in the Custom-house, and almost invariably in paper, so that only very small sums of metallic money pass in collecting the twenty-two millions. The value of the Exports and Imports at the Port of London in 1700 was about 10,000,0002. ; in 1791 the amount increased to 31,000,0002. London is distinguished among the ports of the world by the enormous quantity and value of its imports, rather than of its exports, yet the value of the exports alone reached, in 1864, to above 36,000,0002. The gross Customs revenue of the United Kingdom irf 1864 was 22,498,2102., of which London contributed 11,491,4122. Thus, the London Customs Duties are nearly double the amount levied at all the other ports of England put together, and more than double the amount taken in all Scotland and Ireland. DAGTTEEEEOTYPE (THE). rFHE first experiment made in England with the Daguerreotype was exhibited by M. J- St. Croix, on Friday, September 13, 1839, at No. 7, Piccadilly, nearly opposite the southern Circus of Regent-street ; when the picture produced was a beautiful minia- ture representation of the houses, pathway, sky, &c., resembling an exquisite mezzotint. M. St. Croix subsequently removed to the Argyll Rooms, Regent -street, where his experimental results became a scientific exhibition. One of the earliest operators was Mr. Goddard. The discovery was patented by Mr. Miles Berry, who sold the first licence to M. Claudet for 100Z. or 2002". a-year ; and in twelve months after disposed of the patent to Dr. Beard, who, however, did not take a Daguerreotype portrait until after Dr. Draper had sent from New York a portrait to the Editor of the Philosophical Magazine, with a paper on the subject. With reference to the conditions of a London atmosphere, as regards its influence upon Daguerreotypic or Photographic processes, there are some very peculiar pheno- mena ; for the following details of which we are indebted to Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., the author of many valuable researches in Photography. The yellow haze which not unfrequcntly prevails, even when there is no actual fog over the town itself, is fatal to all chemical change. This haze is, without doubt, an accumulation, at a considerable elevation, of the carbonaceous matter from the coal-fires, &c. Although a day may appear moderately clear, if the sun assume a red or orange colour, it will be almost impossible to obtain a good Daguerr^o- type. Notwithstanding in some of the days of spring our photographers obtain very fine portraits DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM. DIORAMA AND 008MOBAMA. 307 or views, it must be evident to all who examine an extensive series of Daguerreotypes, that those which are obtained in Paris and New York are very much more intense than those which are gene- rally procured in London. This is mainly dependent upon the different amounts and kinds of smoke diffused through the atmospheres respectively of these cities. At the same time, there is no doubt the peculiarly humid character of the English climate interferes with the free passage of those solar rays which are active in producing photographic change. It was observed by Sir John Herschel, when he resided at Slough, that a sudden change of wind to the east almost immediately checked his photo- graphic experiments at that place, by bringing over it the yellow atmosphere of London : this is called by the Berkshire farmers blight, from their imagining that smut and other diseases in grain are pro- duced by it. It is a curious circumstance, that the summer months, June, July, and August, notwithstanding the increase of light, are not favourable to the Daguerreotype. This arises from the fact, now clearly de- monstrable, that the luminous powers of the sunbeam are in antagonism to the chemical radiations, and as the one increases, the other diminishes. This may be imitated by a pale yellow glass, which, although it obstructs no light completely, cuts off the chemical rays, and entirely prevents any photo- graphic change taking place. DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM. THE first Asylum or School established in England for the Deaf and Dumb was opened in 1792, in Fort-place, Bermondsey, under the auspices of the Rev. John Townsend, of Jamaica-row Chapel ; and of the Rev. H. Cox Mason, then curate of Bermondsey. The teacher was Joseph Watson, LL.D., who held the situation upwards of thirty-seven years, and taught upwards of 1000 pupils, who were thus able to read articulately, and to write and cipher. This tuition was commenced with six pupils only. In 1807 the first stone of a new building was laid in the Old Kent-road, whither the establishment was removed October 5, 1809 ; when the Society celebrated the event by a public thanksgiving at the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, the Rev. C. Crowther preaching the sermon. A memorial bust of the Rev. Mr. Townsend is placed in the committee-room. The pupils, male and female, are such children only as are deaf and dumb, not being deficient in intellect. Other children are admitted on payment of 201. anually for board ; and private pupils are also received. The term of each pupil's stay is five years : they are taught to read, write, draw, and cipher ; to speak by signs, and in many instances to articulate so as to be clearly understood. They are wholly clothed and maintained by the charity, are instructed in working trades, and in some cases apprentice-fees are given. The Asylum is amply supported by the wealthy ; and besides its annual receipts from subscriptions, donations, and legacies, &c., it has a funded stock. The pupils are elected half-yearly, without reference to locality, sect, or persuasion. The importance of this Asylum is attested by the fact that in 1833, in 20 families of 159 children, 90 were deaf and dumb. There is also at 26, Red-lion-square, Bloomsbury, an Institution for the Employment, Relief, and Religious Instruction of the Adult Deaf and Dumb ; who are taught shoemaking, tailoring, dressmaking, shoebinding, fancy-work, &c., the produce of their labour being added to the funds of the Society. In the chapel the Scriptures are expounded, and church services regularly held, at which the deaf and dumb are ready and interested attendants. DIORAMA AND COSMOEAMA. THE Diorama, on the eastern side of Park-square, Regent's-park, was exhibited in Paris long before it was brought to London, by its originators, MM. Bouton and Daguerre; the latter, the inventor of the Daguerreotype, died 1851. The exhibition- house, with the theatre in the rear, was designed by Morgan and Pugin : the spectatory had a circular ceiling, with transparent medallion portraits; the whole was built in four months, and cost 10,000?. The Diorama consisted of two pictures, eighty feet in length and forty feet in height, painted in solid and in transparency, arranged so as to exhibit changes of light and shade, and a variety of natural phenomena ; the spectators being kept in comparative darkness, while the picture received a concentrated light from a ground-glass roof. The contrivance was partly optical, partly mechanical ; and consisted in placing the pic- tures within the building so constructed, that the saloon containing the spectators revolved at intervals, and brought in succession the two distinct scenes into the field of view, without the necessity of the spectators removing from then? seats ; while the scenery itself remained stationary, and the light was distributed by transparent and z: 2 ft 308 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. movable blinds some placed behind the picture, for intercepting and changing the colour of the rays of light, which passed through the semi-transparent parts. Similar blinds, above and in front of the picture were movable by cords, so as to distribute or direct the rays of light. The revolving motion given to the saloon was an arc of about 73 ; and while the spectators were thus passing round, no person was permitted to go in or out. The revolution of the saloon was effected by means of a sector, or portion of a wheel, with teeth which worked in a series of wheels and pinions ; one man, by turn- ing a winch, moved the whole. The space between the saloon and each of the two pictures was occupied on either side by a partition, forming a kind of avenue, propor- tioned in width to the size of the picture. Without such a precaution, the eye of the spectator, being thirty or forty feet distant from the canvas, would, by anything intervening, have been estranged from the object. The combination of transparent, semi- transparent, and opaque colouring, still further assisted by the power of varying both the effects and the degree of light and shade, rendered the Diorama the most perfect scenic representation of nature ; and adapted it peculiarly for moonlight subjects, or for showing such accidents in landscape as sudden gleams of sunshine or lightning. It was also unrivalled for representing archi- tecture, particularly interiors, as powerful relief might be obtained without that ex- aggeration in the shadows which is almost inevitable in every other mode of painting. The interior of Canterbury Cathedral, the first picture exhibited, in 1823, was a triumph of this class ; and the companion picture, the Valley of Sarnen, equally admirable in atmospheric effects. In one day (Easter Monday, 1824), the receipts exceeded 2001. In viewing the Diorama, the spectator was placed, as it were, at the extremity of the scene, and thus had a view across or through it. Hence the inventor of the term compounded it of the Greek preposition dia, through, and orama, scene ; though, from there being two paintings under the same roof in the building in the Regent's-park, it is supposed the term was from dis, twice, and orama ; but if several paintings of the same kind were exhibited, each would be a Diorama. (Slack.) Although the Regent's-park Diorama was artistically successful, it was not commer- cially so. In September, 1848, the building and ground in the rear, with the ma- chinery and pictures, was sold for 6750Z. ; again, in June, 1849, for 48001. ; and the property, with sixteen pictures, rolled on large cylinders, was next sold for 3000/. The building has since been converted into a Chapel for the Baptist denomination at the expense of Sir Morton Peto, Bart. Dioramas have also been painted for our theatres by Stanfield and Roberts, the Grieves, and other artists. Other Dioramic exhibitions have been opened in the metropolis. In 1828, one was exhibited at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford- street ; in 1829, the picture was "The Destruction of York-Minster by Fire," during the exhibition of which, May 28, the scenery took fire, and the premises were entirely burnt. In 1841, there was exhibited at the Bazaar, St. James's-street, a Diorama, of five large scenes, of the second funeral of Napoleon; but, though most effectively painted by members of" The Board of Arts for the Ceremony," and accompanied by funeral music by Auber, the spectacle excited little interest. At Easter, 1849, was opened the Gallery of Illustration, in the large saloon of the late residence of Mr. Nash, the architect, No. 14, Begent-street, a series of thirty-one Dioramic pictures of the Over- land Mail Route from SouthaMfKn to Calcutta ; the general scenery painted by T. Grieve and W. Telbin, human figures by John Absolon, and animals by J. F. Herring and H. Weir : in picturesqueness, aerial effect, characteristic grouping, variety of incident, richness of colour, and atmosphere skilfully varied with the several countries, this Diorama has, perhaps, scarcely been equalled : it was exhibited between 1600 and 1700 times, and visited by upwards of 250,000 persons. THE COSMORAMA, though named from the Greek (Kosmos, world ; and orama, view, because of the great variety of views), is but an enlargement of the street peep- show ; the difference not being in the construction of the apparatus, but in the quality of the pictures exhibited. In the common shows, coarsely-coloured prints are suffi- ciently good; in the Cosmorama a moderately good oil-painting is employed. The pictures are placed beyond what appear like common windows, but of which the panes are really large convex lenses, fitted to correct the errors of appearance which the nearness of the pictures would else produce. The optical part of the exhibition is thus complete ; but as the frame of the picture would be seen, and thus the illusion be destroyed, it is necessary to place between the lens and the view a square wooden frame, which, being painted black, prevents the rays of light passing beyond a certain line, according to its distance from the eye : on looking through the lens, the picture is seen as if through an opening, which adds very much to the effect. Upon the top DOCKS. 309 of the frame is a lamp, which illuminates the picture, while all extraneous light is care- fully excluded by the lamp being in a box, open in front and top. A Cosmorama was long shown at Nos. 207 and 209, Regent-street, where the most effective scenes were views of cities and public buildings. Cosmoramas have also formed part of other exhibitions. At the Lowther Bazaar, 35, Strand, the " Magic Cave" (cosmoramic pictures) realized 1500/. per annum, at 6d. for each admission. DOCKS. f"PHE Docks of London are entirely the growth of the present century, and the result J- of the vast increase in the commerce of the preceding 25 years, which was as great as in the first 70 years of the century : a hundred years since, London had not one- twentieth of its present trade. Hitherto, merchandize was kept afloat in barges, from want of room to discharge it at the legal quays, when the plunder was frightful lightermen, watermen, labourers, the crews of ships, the mates and officers, and the revenue officers, combining in this nefarious system, which neither the police nor the terrors of Execution Dock could repress. At length, in 1789, Mr. Perry, a shipbuilder, constructed at Blackwall the Brunswick Dock, to contain 28 East Indiamen and 50 or 60 smaller ships; and in ten years after, the construction of public Docks was commenced. The district north and south of the Thames, from the Tower to Blackwall, is the most remarkable portion of London. Here have been formed for the reception, dis- charge, and loading of vessels, on the north, St. Katharine's Docks, the London Docks, the West-India Docks, the East-India Docks, the Victoria Docks; and on the south the Grand Surrey Docks and the Commercial Docks ; these comprise hundreds of acres of water, surrounded by miles of walls, and sheltering thousands of ships ; here have been spent, not simply thousands, but millions of pounds, and all this has been effected in about half a century. Before there were any Docks, an East Indiaman of 800 tons was not usually delivered of her cargo in less than a month, and then the goods had to be taken in lighters from Blackwall nearly to London Bridge. For the delivery of a ship of 350 tons, not 70 years ago, eight days were necessary in summer and fourteen in winter : now, a ship of 500 tons may be discharged without any difficulty in two or three days. The mass of shipping, the vastness of the many-storied warehouses, and the heaps of merchandize from every region of the globe, justify the glory of London as " the great emporium of nations," and " the metropolis of the most intelligent and wealthy empire the sun ever shone upon, and of which the boast is, as of Spain of old, that upon its dominions the sun never sets." These several Docks have been constructed at the expense of Joint-stock Companies, and have been moderately profitable to their projectors, but more advantageous to the Port of London. COMMERCIAL DOCKS, Rotherhithe, on the south bank of the Thames, are, upon the authority of Stow, said to include the commencement of Canute's trench, cut early in the llth century from thence to Battersea; and into which the river was diverted when the first stone bridge across the Thames was built, temp. King John. The present Commercial Docks, however, originated in the " Howland Great Wet Dock," which existed in 1660, and extended about 10 acres in Queen Anne's time, larger than the famous basin of Dunkirk. It was then engaged for the Greenland whale-fishery vessels, next for the Baltic trade in timber, deals, tar, corn, &c. ; and in 1809 was opened as the Commercial Docks. One of the timber ponds covers 7 acres, and will float above 6000 boards. The Docks, seven in number, extend over 150 acres ; the ponds will float 50,000 loads of timber, and the yards hold 4,000,000 deals. The cargo of one timber ship would cover 32 acres, were the deals placed side by side. EAST INDIA DOCKS, Blackwall, lie below the West India Docks, and immediately adjoin the Blackwall Railway and Brunswick Wharf. These Docks, designed by Ralph Walker, C.E., were originally constructed for the East India Company, and completed in 1808. Since the opening of the trade to India, they have been the property of the East and West India Company. Their water area is 30 acres, and their great depth (24 feet) accommodates vessels of very large size ; they have a cast-iron wharf, 750 feet in length, in which are more than 900 tons of metal. 310 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. GRAND SURREY DOCKS, on the south bank of the Thames : new works, in 1858, cost upwards of 100,000/. ST. KATHARINE'S DOCKS, just below the Tower, were planned by Telford, and con- structed by Hardwick : in clearing the ground, the fine old church and other remains of the Hospital of St. Katharine (founded 1148 by Matilda of Boulogne, wife of King Stephen), with 1250 houses and tenements, inhabited by 11,300 persons, were pur- chased and pulled down : the Hospital and Church were rebuilt in the Regent's-park. (See CHURCHES, p. 166.) The Docks were commenced May 3, 1827, and upwards of 2500 men worked at them till their opening, Oct. 25, 1828 ; a labour of unexampled rapidity. The excavated earth was carried by water to Millbank, and there used to fill up the reservoirs of the Chelsea Water-works, upon which has been built a new town south of Pimlico. The cost of St. Katharine's Docks was 1,700,000?. ; or at the rate of 195,640/. per acre. The lofty walls constitute it a place of " special security," and surround 23 acres, of which 11 acres are water, and will accommodate 120 ships, besides barges and other craft. The lock from the Thames is crossed by a vast iron swing-bridge 23 feet wide : it can be filled or emptied by a steam-engine of 200-horse power, and 14 feet depth can be made by the gate-paddles in six minutes. This lock is sunk so deep that ships of 700 tons burden may enter at any time of the tide ; and the depth of water at spring-tides is 28 feet, or equal to that in any other dock of London : the machinery of the gates, by Bramah, is very fine. At these Docks was first pro- vided accommodation for landing and embarking passengers without using small wherries. The frontage of the quays is paved with cast-iron. The warehouses, five and six stories high, are supported on cast-iron columns, 3 feet 9 inches diameter ; they have massive granite stairs, huge machinery over the wells or shafts, and powerful cranes on the quays, so that goods can be taken out at once into the warehouses from the ships, and in one-fifth of the time required in the earlier-constructed docks. A ship of 250 tons burden can be discharged at St. Katharine's in twelve hours, and one of 500 tons in two or three days. One of the cranes cost about 20001., is worked by ten or twelve men, and will raise from 30 to 40 tons. The vaults below for wine and spirits have crypt-like arches : " lights are distributed to the travellers who pre- pare to visit these cellars, as if they were setting out to visit the catacombs of Naples or Rome." (Baron Dupin.) From the vaultings hang vinous fungi, like dark woolly clouds, light as gossamer, and a yard or more in length, a piece of which applied to name will burn like tinder ; in the spirit-vaults the Davy safety -lamp is used. LONDON DOCKS lie immediately below St. Katharine's Docks, and were opened in 1805 ; John Rennie, engineer. They comprise 90 acres : 35 acres of water, and 12,980 feet of quay and jetty frontage ; with three entrances from the Thames Her- mitage, Wapping, and Shadwell, where the depth of water at spring-tides is 27 feet. The western Dock comprises 20 acres, the eastern 7 acres, and the Wapping Basin 3 acres, besides a small dock exclusively for ships laden with tobacco. The two large Docks afford water-room for 302 sail of vessels, exclusive of lighters ; warehouse-room for 220,000 tons of goods ; and vault-room for 80,000 pipes of wine and spirits. The superficial area of the vault-room is 890,545 feet ; of the warehouse-room, 1,402,115 feet. The enclosing walls cost 65,OOOZ. The capital of the Company is four millions of money. Six weeks are allowed for unloading, beyond which period a farthing per ton is charged for the first two weeks, and then a halfpenny per week per ton. In 1839 a magnificent jetty and sheds cost 60,OOOZ. ; and in the previous twelve years a million of money had been expended in extensions and improvements. In 1858 two new locks were constructed to admit the immense vessels now built : each has 28 feet depth of water, and they are probably the most perfect works of their kind yet erected ; engineers, Messrs. Rendell. In these Docks are especially warehoused wine, wool, spices, tea, ivory, drugs, tobacco, sugars, dye-stuffs, imported metals, and other articles. These, except the wine, tea, spices, and ivory, may be inspected by an order from the Secretary j for the wine a " tasting order" must be obtained from the owners. The shipping and people at work may be seen without any order. Rummage sales are those by order of the Dock Company, for payment of charges, pursuant to Act 9 Geo. IV., cap. 116, sec. 106. . Of the Wine-vaults, one alone, formerly 7 acres, now extends under Gravel-lane, DOCKS. 311 and contains upwards of 12 acres : above is the mixing-house, the largest vat containing 23,250 gallons. The Wool-floors were considerably enlarged and glass-roofed in 1850 : the Lnnual importation is 130,000 bales ; value, 2,600,0002. A vast Tea-warehouse was completed in 1845; cost, 100,000^.; stowage for 120,000 chests of tea. To inspect the Ivory-warehouse requires a special order : here lie heaps of elephant and rhi- noceros tusks, the ivory weapons of sword-fish, &c. The great Tobacco-warehouse, "the Queen's," is rented by Government for H,000l. per annum : it is five acres in extent, and is covered by a skilfully iron-framed rof, supported by slender columns: it will contain 24,000 hogsheads of tobacco, value f,800,000. ; the huge casks are piled two in height, intersected by passages and alleys, each several hundred feet long. There is another warehouse for finer tobacco; and a cigar-floor, in which are frequently 1500 chests of cigars, value 150,OOOZ. Near the north-east corner of the Queen's Warehouse, a guide-post, inscribed " To the Kiln," directs you to " the Queen's Pipe," or chimney of the furnace ; on the door of the latter and of the room are painted the crown-royal and V.R. In this kiln are burnt all such goods as do not fetch the amount of their duties and the Customs' charges : tea. having once set the chimney of the kiln on fire, is rarely burnt; and the wine and spirits are emptied into the Docks. The huge mass of fire in the furnace is fed night and day with condemned goods : on one occasion, 900 Austrian mutton-hams were burnt ; on another, 45,000 pairs of French gloves ; and silks and satins, tobacco and cigars, are here consumed in vast quantities : the ashes being sold by the ton as manure, for killing insects, and to soap-boilers and chemical manufacturers. Nails and other pieces of iron, sifted from the ashes, are prized for their toughness in making gun-barrels ; gold and silver, the remains of plate, watches, and jewellery thrown into the furnace, are also found in the ashes. Lastly, in the London Docks in brisk times are employed nearly 3000 men : and this is one of the few places in the metropolis where men can get employment without either character or recommendation. At the Dock-gates, at half-past seven in the morning, " may be seen congregated swarms of men, of all grades, looks, and kinds. There are decayed and bankrupt master-butchers, master-bakers, publicans, grocers, old soldiers, old sailors, Polish refugees, broken-down gentlemen, discharged lawyers' - clerks, suspended government-clerks, almsmen, pensioners, servants, thieves indeed, every one who wants a loaf and is willing to work for it." Henry Mayliew. The two Companies of the St. Katharine's Docks and the London Docks are now amalgamated, and have offices in Leadenhall-street, built in 1866. MILLWALL CANAL AND GRAVING DOCKS, engineer, Wilson, extend across the Isle of Dogs, from east to west, with a branch projecting at right angles from the centre. VICTORIA LONDON DOCKS, the, in the Plaistow Marshes, Bidder, engineer, opened 1855, provide a much larger area of water, and will admit larger vessels, than the other London Docks. The lock-gates, cranes, and capstans, are all worked by hydraulic power. The first estimate of cost was a million of money. The basin covers 90 acres, and contains more than a mile of quay and wharfage : contractors, Peto, Betts, and Brassey. In the course of the works, various ancient British and Roman coins were discovered, some Roman urns, a circular shield of tin, bones of deer and some other animals. The ground, which was excavated, consisted of the deposit of the Thames, which, like a huge lake or sea, formerly covered all the now green marshes of Essex. The Victoria Docks, from the peculiarity of position, cost less, it is said, than any hitherto formed. Area of Names of Docks. Capital. Water Accom- Cost per acre. modation. Acres. St Katharine's 2,152,800 11 195,640 London Docks 3,939,310 23 140,654 East and West India Docks including Canal and Pond 2,003,000 112 17,834 Victoria Docks, estimate for Works and Land, to 430,000 00 5,000 312 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. WEST INDIA DOCKS, the, lie between Limehouse and Blackwall, and their long lines of warehouses, and lofty wall, 5 feet thick, are well seen from the Blackwall Railway. These Docks were designed by Ralph Walker, C.E., as " the Merchants' Place." in 1799, and were commenced 1800, when the Rt. Hon. William Pitt laid the first stone ; they were opened 1802. Their extent is (including the canal, made to avoid the bend of the river at the Isle of Dogs) 295 acres ; this canal is nearly three-quarters of a mile long, with lock-gates, 45 feet wide, and is used as a dock for timber-ships. Tne northern or Import Dock will hold 250 vessels of 300 tons each : when original!/ opened, it took ten hours to fill, 24 feet deep, though the water was admitted at 800 gallons per second. The southern or Export Dock will hold 1 95 vessels. Here the ship is seen to the greatest advantage, fresh -painted, standing-rigging up, colour-flying, &c. ; whereas in the Import Dock, the vessels, though more picturesque, have their rigging down and loose, the sides whitened by the sea, and contrasting with outward-bound vessels. The warehouses will contain 180,000 tons of merchandize ; and there have been at one time, on the quays and in the sheds, vaults, and warehouses, colonial produce worth 20,000,OOOZ. sterling ; comprising 148,563 casks of sugar, 70,875 barrels and 433,648 bags of coffee, 35,158 pipes of rum and Madeira, 14,000 logs of mahogany, and 21,000 tons of logwood, &c. In the wood-sheds are enormous quantities of mahogany, ebony, rosewood, &c., logs of which, four or five tons weight, are lifted with locomotive cranes, by four or five men. For twenty years from their construction, these Docks were compulsorily frequented by all West India ships trading to the Port of London, when the maximum revenues amounted to 449, 421/., in 1813 ; since the expiry of this privilege, and the depreciation of the West India trade, the revenues have much declined. The Docks are now used by every kind of shipping, and belong to the East and West India Dock Company. DOCTORS' COMMONS, A COLLEGE of Doctors of Civil Law, and for the study and practice of the Civil Law, is situated in Great Knight-rider-street, south of St. Paul's Churchyard ; in the south-west corner of which is an arched gateway, and within it the Lodge of Porters to direct strangers to "the Commons." The civilians and canonists were originally lodged in a house, subsequently the Queen's Head tavern, in Paternoster- row ; whence they removed to a house purchased for them in Elizabeth's reign by Dr. Harvey, Dean of the Arches ; here they " were living (for diet and lodging) in a collegiate manner, and commoning together," whence the college was named Doctors' Commons : and the doctors still dine together on every court-day. This house was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666 ; when the College removed to Exeter House, Strand, till the rebuilding of the edifice in Great Knight-rider-street, in 1672, as we now see it, with a side entrance on Benet's-hill, nearly opposite Heralds' College. The buildings are of brick, and consist of two quadrangles, chiefly occupied by the Doctors; a hall for the hearing of causes, &c. In Doctors' Commons are the Court of Arches, named from having been formerly kept in Bow Church, Cheapside, originally built upon arches (see CHTJECHES, p. 183), and the supreme ecclesiastical court of the whole province ; the Probate Court, which has supplanted the Prerogative Court ; the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London ; and the High Court of Admiralty : all these courts hold, or held, their sittings in the College Mall, the walls of which above the wainscot are covered with the richly- emblazoned coats of arms of all the doctors for a century or two past. The COURT of AECHES has jurisdiction over thirteen parishes or peculiars, which form a deanery exempt from the Bishop of London, and attached to the Archbishop of Canterbury : hence the judge is named Dean of the Arches. The business included, in Chaucer's time, and down nearly to the present, cases " Of defamation and avouterie, Of church reves and of testaments, Of contracts and lack of sacraments, Of usury and simony also;" beside those of sacrilege, blasphemy, apostacy from Christianity, adultery, partial or entire divorce, &c. ; also, brawling and smiting in churches or vestries : but the DOCTORS' COMMONS. 313 majority of cases were matrimonial, and all these are now transferred to the Divorce Court, and Wills to the Probate Court. The DIVOECE COUBT, established by the 20th and 21st Victorias, cap. 85, whether sitting in the City of London or Westminster, is now the only Court of original jurisdiction for the trial of causes matrimonial, and for breaking the marriage tie. There may be from this court an appeal to the House of Lords in decrees of absolute divorce ; otherwise the House of Lords only hears questions of divorce, as one of the members of the Legislature, which has to pass a special Act of Parliament to effect a divorce. In the PREROGATIVE COTJRT Wills (until the establishment of the COURT OF PROBATE by the 20th and 21st Victoria;, cap. 77) were proved, and all administrations granted, that were the prerogative of the Archbishop of Canterbury. There are several Registries in Doctors' Commons, under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops. Some of the very old documents connected with them are deposited for security in St. Paul's Cathedral and Lambeth Palace. At the Bishop of London's llegistry, and the Registry for the Commission of Surrey, Wills (until the 20 and 21 Viet., cap. 77, the Probate Act) were proved for the respective dioceses, and Marriage Licenses are granted. At the Vicar- General's Office and the Faculty Office, Marriage Licenses are granted for any part of England. The Faculty Office also grant Faculties to notaries public, and dispensations to the clergy ; and for- merly granted privilege to eat flesh upon prohibited days. At the Vicar-General's Office, records are kept of the confirmation and consecration of bishops. Marriage Licenses, special and general, if to be solemnized according to the laws of the Established Church, are procured upon personal application to a proctor by one of the parties : a residence of fifteen days is necessary by either party in the parish or district where the marriage is to be performed. The expense of an ordinary license is 21. 12s. 6d. ; but if either is a minor, 10. fid. further charge ; and the party appearing swears he has obtained the consent of the proper person having authority in law to give it : there is no necessity for either parents or minor to attend. A Special License for Marriage is issued after a fiat or consent has been obtained irom the archbishop ; and is granted only to persons of rank, judges, and Members of Parliament, the archbishop having ajight to exercise his own discretion. The expense of a Special License is usually twenty-eight guineas. This gives privilege to marry at any time or place, in private residence, or at any church or chapel situate in England ; but the ceremony must be performed by a priest in holy orders, and of the Established Church. With the marriages of Dissenters, including Roman Catholics, Jews, and Quakers, the Commons has nothing to do, their licenses being obtainable of the Superintendent- Registrar. A Divorce when sought was carried through one of the courts in the profession (according to the diocese), and was conducted by a proctor ; the evidence of witnesses was taken privately before an examiner of the court, and neither the husband, wife, nor any of the witnesses had to appear personally in court. This is now all altered in the DIVOECB COUBT. The HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY consists of the Instance Court and the Prize Court. The Instance Court has a criminal and civil jurisdiction: to the former belong piracy and other indictable offences on the high seas, which are now tried at the Old Bailey ; to the latter, suits arising from ships running foul of each other, disputes about sea- men's wages, bottomry, and salvage. The Prize Court applies to naval captures in war, proceeds of captured slave-vessels, &c. A silver oar is carried before the judge as an emblem of his office. The business is very onerous, as in embargoes and the pro- visional detention of vessels, when incautious decision might involve the country in war ; the right of search is another weighty question. Lord Stowell, the judge, in one year (1806) pronounced 2206 decrees. The Admiralty Registry is in Paul's Bakehouse- court, Doctors' Commons, where are kept records of prizes adjudicated. The practi- tioners in this Court are advocates (DD.C.L.) or counsel, and proctors or solicitors. The judge and advocates wear in court, if of Oxford, scarlet robes and hoods lined with taffety ; and if of Cambridge, white minever and round black velvet caps. The proctors wear black robes and hoods lined with fur. The College has a good library in civil law and history, bequeathed by an ancestor of Sir John Gibson, judge of the Prerogative Court; and every bishop at his consecration makes a present of books. The PRINCIPAL REGISTRY of the COURT OF PROBATE is a most interesting esta- blishment. Wills are always to be found here, and generally in a few minutes. They are kept in a fire-proof " strong-room." The original Wills begin with the date 1483, and the copies from 1383. The latter are on parchment, strongly bound, with brass clasps, and fill the public-room and other apartments. The searches amount to an 314 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. enormous number each year. Some entries of early wills, engrossed by the monks, are beautifully illuminated, the colours remaining fresh to this day. To obtain Perusal of a Will. Having obtained a shilling probate stamp, apply, on entering the office at the first small box or recess on the right hand, where a clerk, on receiving the stamp, and the surname of the maker of the Will required, directs the applicant to the Calendars, which are arranged chronologically and alphabetically on the left-hand side of the room. A search must then be made through these volumes for the entry of the Will ; which being found, a clerk at the further end of the room, on being furnished with the exact title and date of the Will, ushers the inquirer into another apartment, lit by a skylight, and furnished with a table and benches. Here two clerks are seated ; and the actual Will being brought to the inquirer, he may inspect it at his leisure. He must not, however, copy any thing from it, or make even a pencil memorandum ; and if he attempt to do so, he will be checked by the clerks. To obtain the Copy of a Will. Apply to the clerks in Ihe room, and they will state the expense per folio. The order for a copy must be left at the box at the entrance of the office, where the time will be named for the delivery of the copy within a few days, on payment of the cost. To insure correctness, the copy is read out to the applicant in the office, and compared with the original will ; and the copy is moreover duly attested by public authority. If the applicant merely desires to see the copy of a Will, the clerk in the outer room, on being shown the entry in the Calendar, will refer him by a written note to an attendant, who will at once bring the copy to him ; the same rules against copying and making extracts prevail here also. The principal Registry of Wills is open daily from 10 to 4. Within the last five years, Wills, up to the year 1699, have been, on permission obtained from the judge of the Court of Probate, allowed to be inspected or copied for literary or historical purposes. Under this privilege, a volume of Wills has been published by the Camden Society. The Wills of celebrated persons are the Curiosities of the place. Here is the Will of Shakspeare, on three folios of paper, each with his signature, and with this interlinea- tion in his own handwriting : *' I give unto my wife my brown best bed, with the furniture." Shakspeare's Will, which consists of three sheets of brief-paper, has been, carefully cleaned, and each sheet has been placed in a polished oak frame, between sheets of plate glass. The frames are made air-tight, and on the top of each is a brass plate, engraved, " Shakspeare's Will, March 25, 1616," and each one is fastened with a patent lock. Next is the Will of Milton, a nuncupative one, the great poet being blind; but which was set aside by a decree of Sir Leoline Jenkins, the judge of the Prerogative Court. The Will of Edmund Burke is here, leaving nearly every thing he had in the world to his " entirely beloved, faithful, and affectionate wife." . The Will of Napoleon I., deposited here, has been surrendered on the application of his nephew, the Emperor Napoleon 1IL D OMESDA Y-E OOK. rjlHE Register of the lands of England, framed by order of William the Conqueror, J- the earliest English record, and " not only the most ancient, but beyond dispute the most noble monument of the whole of Britain" (Spelman), is preserved to this day in its pristine freshness, fair and legible as when first written. It is comprised in two volumes one a large folio, the other a quarto. The first is written on 382 double pages of vellum, in one and the same hand, in a small but plain character, each page having a double column. Some of the capital letters and principal passages are touched with red ink, and others are crossed with lines of red ink. The second volume, in quarto, is written in 450 pages of vellum, but in a single column, and in a large fair character. At the end of the second volume is the following memorial, in capital letters, of the time of its completion : " Anno Millesimo Octogesiino Sexto ab Incarna- tione Domini, vigesimo vero regni Willielmi, facta est ista Descriptio, non solum per bos tres Comitatus, sed etiam per alios." From internal evidence, the same year, 1086, is assignable as the date of the first volume. Although in early times Domesday, precious as it was always deemed, occasionally travelled, like other records, to distant parts, till 1696 it was usually kept with the King's Seal at Westminster, by the side of the Tally Court, in the Exchequer, under three locks and keys ; in the charge of the auditors, the chamberlains, and deputy- chamberlains, of the Exchequer. In 1696 it was deposited among other valuable records in the Chapter House, where it long remained, and was kept " in the vaulted porch never warmed by fire. From the first deposit of Domesday volume in the Treasury at Winchester, in the reign of the Conqueror, it certainly never felt or saw a fire, yet every page of the vellum is bright, sound, and perfect." (Sir F. Palgrave.) In making DRURY-LANE. 315 searches or transcript, you are not nllowed to touch the text, a rule which has been kept from time immemorial, and to which the excellent condition of the record may be partly ascribed. It is a remarkable fact that Domesday- Book, which is usually so minute in regard to our principal towns and cities, is deficient in respect to London. It only mentions a vineyard in Holborn belonging to the Crown ; and ten acres of land near Bishopsgate, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's : yet certainly, observes Sir Henry Ellis, in his Introduction to Domesday, no mutilation of the manuscript has taken place; since the account of Middlesex is entire, and is exactly coincident with the abridged copy of the Survey taken at the time, and now lodged in the office of the King's Remembrancer in the Exchequer. Still, a distinct and independent survey of the City itself might have been made at the time of the general Survey, although now lost or destroyed, if not remaining among the unexplored archives of the Crown. The parish of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields possesses a Book of Record, called Domesday- Book, which is of vellum, and was made in 1624, by direction of the then Bishop of London, as a perpetual parish record ; entitled " Treasure deposited in Heaven, or the Book of God's House ; of things worthy to be remembered in this parish of St. Giles- in-the-Fields, and in the first place of the church now lately restored, some account." DRUEY-LANE, IN Aggas's plans, of about 1570 and 1584, Drury-lane is represented at the north end, as containing a cluster of farm and other houses, a cottage, and a blacksmith's shop ; and the lane in continuity to Drury -place forms a separation from the fields by embankments of earth, something like those of Maiden-lane, Battle-bridge. It was, in fact, a country-road to Drury-place, the Strand, and its vicinity. A low public-house, bearing the sign of the " Cock and Pye," two centuries ago, was almost the only house in the eastern part of Drury-lane, except the mansion of the Druries. The Lane extends from the north side of the Strand to Broad-street, Bloomsbury, and was originally in the "Via de Aldwych," still preserved in Wych-street. At this end was the mansion of the Druries, wherein Dr. Donne had apartments assigned him by Sir Robert Drury; and here, in 1612, Mrs. Donne died of childbirth, at the same day and hour that Dr. Donne, then at Paris, saw her in a vision pass twice before him, " with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms." William Lord Craven, the hero of Creutznach, became the next owner of Drury House, which he rebuilt in four stories a large square pile of brick, afterwards called raven House, where the Earl died in 1697. This mansion was taken down in 1803, and the ground purchased by Philip Astley for the site of his Olympic Pavilio^n. In its latter time, the Craven mansion was a public-house with the sign of " The Queen of Bohemia" a reminiscence of its former occupancy by the daughter of James I., through whom the family of Brunswick succeeded to the throne of England, and who is suspected to have been secretly married to her heroic champion, Lord Craven. Craven- buildings, erected in 1723, occupy a portion of the grounds of Craven House. On the end wall of Craven-buildings was formerly a fresco portrait of Earl Craven in armour, with a truncheon in his hand, and mounted on his white charger ; on each side was an earl's and a baron's coronet, and the letters " W. C." This portrait was twice or thrice repainted in oil, the last time by Edward Edwards, A.R.A. (Brayley's Londiniana, vol. iv. p. 301.) Hayman, the painter, once lived in. Craven-buildings ; Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress, had here a house, afterwards tenanted by the equally celebrated Mrs. Pritchard; and in the back parlour of No. 17, Dr. Arne composed the music ofComus. The Cock and Pye public-house (opposite Craven-buildings) above mentioned, still remains, and is now a book -shop. Next door is one of the few panelled houses exist- ing ; and the east side of Drury-court, facing the church of St. Mary-le-Straiid, is a range of old houses, apparently contemporary with the Cock and Pye, or probably two centuries and a half old. Wych-street, which runs at an obtuse angle with this pas- sage, likewise contains some houses of considerable antiquity. Archer's Vestiges, part v. In the Coal-yard, at the Holboru end of Drury-lane, was born Nell Gwynne j and in Maypole-alley (now Drury-court) she lodged when Pepys saw her looking at the dance around the Strand Maypole : " 1 st May, 1667. To Westminster, in the way meeting many milkmaids with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them ; and saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodging-door, in Drury- lane, in her smock-sleeves and bodice, looking upon one : she seemed a mighty pretty creature." CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Drury-lane was nobly tenanted till late in the seventeenth century ; but a paper by Steele in the Tatler, No. 46, represents the lane in its decline ; and Gay's propitiatory lines " Oh, may thy virtue guard thee through the roads Of Drury's mazy courts and dark abodes !" are almost as applicable now as at the day they were written : Hogarth has made it the locality of the " Harlot's Progress." Pitt-place (above Princes-street) was the site of the Cock-pit, the first Drury-lane Theatre. (See THEATBES.) EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON. FROM Mr. Milne's elaborate Register of Earthquakes in Great Britain,* the most complete record of its class, we select the majority of the following details of shocks felt in the metropolis : 1692, September 8, London and Flanders. 1750, February 8, London and Westminster. Motion of ground from "W. to E. Several chimneys thrown down and walls rent. A shepherd at Kensington heard the noise rush past him, and instantly he saw the ground, a dry and solid spot, wave under him like the face of the river ; the tall trees of the avenue where he was nodded their tops very sensibly, and quivered. Pkilos. Trans, vol. xlvi. 1750, February 8, between 12 and 1 P.M., all over Westminster. " Stacks of heavy chimneys were dislodged, and the Thames became greatly agitated. The barristers were greatly alarmed, for they thought that Westminster Hall was falling down." Walcott's Westminster, p. 22. 1750, March 8. Motion from E. to W. ; houses near the Thames were most shaken. Near London there was a continued and confused lightning till within a minute or two of the shock ; dogs howled, fish jumped three feet out of water; sound in air preceded concussions; flashes of lightning and a ball of fire were seen just before explosion. The President of the Royal Society (Martin Folkes) stated that he did not on this occasion perceive that lifting motion which he was sensible of on 8th February, but he felt very quick shakes or tremors horizontally. A boatman on the Thames felt his boat receive a blow at the bottom, and the whole river seemed agitated. The Rev. Mr. Pickering stated that he was lying awake in his bed, which stood N. and S. He first " heard a sound like that of a blast of wind. I then perceived myself raised in my bed, and the motion began on my right side, and inclined me towards the left." In the Temple Gardens, the noise in the air was greater than the loudest report of cannon. At the same instant, the buildings inclined over from the perpendicular several degrees. The general impression was, that the whole city was violently pushed to S.E., and then brouglijt back again. The sound preceded the concussions, resembling the discharge of several cannon, or distant thunder in the air, and not a subterranean explosion. Flashes of lightning were observed au hour (before ?) and a vast ball of fire. At Kensington, the bailiff of Mr. Fox, at a quarter past five A.M., heard (when in the open air) a noise much like thunder at a distance, which, coming from N.W., grew louder, and gave a crack over his head, and then gradually died away. The sky was clear, and he saw no fire or appearances of lightning. Immediately after the crack, the ground shook, and it moved like a quagmire. The whole lasted a minute. Philo- sophical Transactions, vol. xlvi. " At half-past five A.M. the whole city of Westminster was alarmed by another shock more severe than the former (Feb. 8), accompanied by a hollow rumbling noise; and numbers of people were awakened in amazement and fear from their sleep. Great stones were thrown from the ' new spire ' of Westminster Abbey, and fish jumped half a yard above the water; and in several steeples the bells were struck by chime-hammers. An impostor pretended to foretel an earthquake on a particular day, which would lay Westminster in ruins ; and when the appointed time arrived, the people ran out in crowds into the country to escape such a terrible catastrophe. The churches could scarcely contain the throngs of worshippers. The pulpits and public prints were employed in deprecating God's wrath and calling 1 a degenerate people to repentance. But, unhappily, it was a devotion as shortlived only as their fear." Walcott's Westminster, p. 22. Horace Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann, March 11, 1750 : " In the night, between Wednesday and Thursday last (exactly a month since the first shock), the earth had a shivering fit between one and two; but so slight, that if no more had followed, 1 don't believe it would have been noticed. I had been awake, and had scarce dozed again, when on a sudden I felt my bolster lift up my head ; I thought somebody was getting from under my bed, but soon found it was a strong earthquake, that lasted near * Notices of Earthquake Shocks felt in Great Britain. By David Milne, Esq., P.E.S.E., M.W.S. F.G.S., &c. Communicated to Jameson't Journal, No. 61. EASTCJTEAP. 317 half a minute, with a violent vibration and great roaring. I rang my bell, my servant came in frightened out of his senses : in an instant we heard all the windows in the neighbourhood flung up. I got np, and found people running into the streets, but saw no mischief done; there has been some two old houses flung down, several chimneys, and much china-ware. The bells rung in several houses. Admiral Knowles, who had lived long in Jamaica, and felt seven there, says this was more violent than any of them. Francesco prefers it to the dreadful one at Leghorn. * * * It has nowhere reached above ten miles from London. The only visible effect it has had was on the Ridotto, at which, being the fol- lowing night, there were but 400 people. A parson who came into White's the morning of earthquake the first, and heard bets laid on whether it was an earthquake or the blowing up of powder-mills, went away exceedingly scandalized, and said, ' I protest they are such an impious set of people, that I believe if the last trumpet was to sound, they would bet puppet-show against Judgment."' 1756, February 8. About 8 A.M., a shock felt at Dover and London. 1761, February 8. A shock most sensibly felt along the banks of the Thames from Greenwich near to Richmond. At Limehouse and Poplar, chimneys were thrown down ; and in several parts of London, the furniture was shaken, and the pewter fell to the ground : at Hampstead and Highgate, it was also very perceptible. 1761, March 8. A more violent shock, between five and six A.M., the air being very warm, and the atmosphere clear and serene ; though, till within a few minutes preceding, there had been strong but confused lightning in quick succession. The violence of the motion caused many persons to start from their beds and flee to the street, under the impression that their houses were falling. In St. James's Park, and in the squares and open places about the West-end of the town, the tremulous vibration of the earth was most distinguishable ; it seemed to move in a south and north direction, with a quick return towards the centre, and was accompanied with a loud noise as of rushing wind. A crazy life-guardsman predicted a third earthquake within a month from the above, and drove thousands of persons from the metropolis ; whilst another wight advertised pills " good against earthquakes." In 1842, an absurd report gained credence among the weak-minded, that London would be destroyed by earthquake on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day. This rumour was founded on certain doggerel prophecies : one pretended to be pronounced in the year 1203, and contained in the Harleian Collection (British Museum), 800 b. folio 319 ; the other by Dr. Dee, the astrologer (1598, MS. in the British Museum). The rhymes, with these "authorities," inserted in the newspapers, actually excited some alarm, and a great number of timid persons left the metropolis before the 17th. Upon re- ference to the British Museum, the " prophecies " were not, however, to be found ; and their forger has confessed them to have been an experiment upon public credulity. In 1863, Oct. 6, the centre and western parts of England were shaken j and in London and the suburbs the shock was slightly felt. EASTCHEAP. THIS ancient thoroughfare originally extended from Tower-street westward to the south end of Clement's-lane, where Cannon-street begins. It was the Eastern Cheap or Market, as distinguished from West Cheap, now Cheapside ; and was crossed by Fish-street-hill, the eastern portion being Little Eastcheap (now Eastcheap), and the western Great Eastcheap : the latter, with St. Michael's Church, Crooked-lane, dis- appeared in the formation of the new London Bridge approaches. Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., considers Eastcheap to have been the principal or Praetorian gate of the Roman garrison, leading into the Roman Forum ; and in 1831 there were found here a Roman roadway, two wells, the architrave of a Roman Building, &c. ; in Miles-lane, a' piece of the Roman wall, cinerary urns, coins of Claudius and Vespasian ; and in Bush-lane, remains of the Prsetorium itself, in fragments of brick, with inscriptions designating them as formed under the Prsetorsbip of Agricola. Gent. Mag. March, 1842. Eastcheap was next the Saxon Market, celebrated from the tune of Fitzstephen to the days of Lydgate for the provisions sold there : " Then I hyed me into Est-Chcpe, One cryes ribbes of befe and many a pye : Pewter pottes they clattered on a heape." London Lyckpenny. In Great Eastcheap was the Soar's Head Tavern, first mentioned temp. Richard II. ; the scene of the revels of Falstaff and Henry V., when Prince of Wales, in Shakspeare's Henry IV., Part 2. Stow relates a riot in " the cooks' dwellings " here on St. John's Eve, 1410, by Princes John and Thomas, for unceremoniously quelling 318 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. which the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs were cited before Chief Justice Gascoigne, but discharged honourably, the king reproving his own sons. The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt within two years, as attested by a boar's head cut in stone, with the initials of the landlord, I. T., and the date 1668, above the first- floor window. This sign-stone is now in the Guildhall library. The house stood between Small-alley and St. Michael's-lane, and in the rear looked upon St. Michael's churchyard, where was buried a. drawer, or waiter, at the tavern, d. 1720 : in the church was interred John Rhodoway, " Vintner at the Bore's Head," 1623. Maitland, in 1739, mentions the Boar's Head, with " This is the chief tavern in London " under the sign. Goldsmith (Essays], Bos well (Life of Dr. Johnson), and Washington Irving (Sketch-book), have idealized the house as the identical place which Falstaff frequented, forgetting its destruction in the Great Fire. The site of the Boar's Head is very nearly that of the statue of King William IV. In 1834, Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries a carved oak figure of Sir John Falstaff, in the costume of the sixteenth century. It supported an ornamental bracket over one side of the door of the Boar's Head, a figure of Prince Henry sustaining that on the other. The Falstaff was the property of Mr. Thomas Shelton, brazier, Great Bastcheap, whose ancestors had lived in the shop he then occupied ever since the Great Fire. He well remembered the last Grand Shakspearean. Dinner-party at the Boar's Head, about 1784. A boar's bead with silver tusks, which had been sus- pended in some room in the tavern, perhaps the Half- Moon or Pomegranate (see Henry IV., act ii. sc. 4), at the Great Fire fell down with the ruins of the house, and was conveyed to Whitechapel Mount, where, many years after, it was recovered and identified with its former locality. At a public-house, No. 12, Miles-lane, was long preserved a tobacco-box with a painting of the original Boar's Head Tavern on the lid. HAST INDIA HOUSE, OR the House of the East India Company, " the most celebrated commercial Associa- tion of ancient or modern times, and which has extended its sway over the whole of the Mogul Empire," was situated on the south side of Leadenhall-street, and was taken down in 1862. The tradition of the House is, that the Company, incorporated December 31, 1600, first transacted their business in the great room of the Nag's Head Inn, opposite St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate-street. The maps of London, soon after the Great Fire, place the India House on a part of its late site in Leadenhall-street. Here originally stood the mansion of Alderman Kerton, built in the reign of Edward VI., rebuilt on the accession of Elizabeth, enlarged by its next purchaser, Sir William Craven, lord mayor in 1610 : here was born the great Lord Craven, who in 1701 leased his house and a tenement in Lime-street to the Company, at 100/. a-year. A scarce Dutch etching in the British Museum shows this house to have been half-timbered, its lofty gable sur- mounted with two dolphins and a figure of a mariner, or, as some say, of the first Governor ; beneath are merchant-ships at sea, the Royal arms, and those of the Com- pany. This grotesque structure was taken down in 1726, and upon its site was erected "the old East India House," to which, in 1799 and 1800, was built a handsome stone front, 200 feet long, by Jupp, and other enlargements by Cockerell, R.A., and Wilkins, R.A. It had a hexastyle Ionic portico of six fluted columns, from the ancient temple of Apollo Didymseus, and in the tympanum of the pediment were sculptured by Bacon, jun., figures emblematic of the commerce of the East, shielded by George III. : on the upper acroterium was a statue of Britannia ; and on the two lower, a figure of Europe on a horse, and Asia on a camel. The interior contained many fine statues and pictures. The new Sale-room approached in interest the Rotunda of the Bank of England. The Court-room (Directors') was an exact cube of 30 feet ; was richly gilt, and was hung with six pictures of the Cape, St. Helena, and Tellicherry : and over the chimney was a large marble group of figures, supported by caryatides. The general Court-room (Proprietors') had in niches statues of Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, the Marquis Cornwallis, Sir Eyre Coote, General Lawrance, Sir George Pococke, and the Marquis Wellesley. The Finance and Home Committee-room had one wall entirely occupied by a picture of the grant of the Dewanee to the Company in 1765, the foundation of the British power in India : here also were portraits of Warren Hastings and the Marquis Cornwallis ; Mirza Abul Hassan, the Persian envoy to London in 1809, &c. The Library contained, perhaps, EGYPTIAN- HALL, PICCADILLY. SIS the most splendid assemblage of Oriental MSS. in Europe, many with illuminated draw- ings; Tippoo Sultan's Eegister of Dreams (with interpretations), and his Koran; a large collection of Chinese printed books ; and a MS. Sanscrit tract on the Astrolabe, of which Chaucer's celebrated treatise is a literal translation, though the poet may have translated it from an Arabic or a Latin version. The auction sale of the materials of the India House occupied five days ; the most valuable of the contents having been transferred to the temporary quarters of the Indian Government, in Victoria-street, Westminster. There were 15,000 feet of York and Portland paving; 4000 feet run of Portland coping, stone sills, stringing, cornice, and other stonework ; 2000 feet of sheet copper, 200 tons of lead on the roofs, 2000 squares of flooring boards ; 1700 doors of all kinds, including some of solid mahogany ; and an immense variety of other materials, covering an acre and a half of ground. The Museum, with elegantly slender, moulded, and decorated columns, supporting the interior of an areaded quadrangle, surmounted by an ornamental domed lantern, and paved in mosaic work, was a beautiful example of Moorish and Indian architecture, erected about three years previously from the designs of Digby Wy att : it cost several thousand pounds, and was sold for 791. 10. The site was subsequently sold for 155.000Z., at the rate of something more than lOO.OOOZ. per acre; 10.000Z. per acre more than was given for the site of Gresham House. Hereupon has been erected a vast collection of Chambers, principal front 300 feet long ; E. N. Clifton, architect : the structure is a very fine piece of Italian street architecture. In clearing the site were found the remains of a Roman house, at a considerable depth ; opposite the East India House portico, in 1803, was found the most magnificent Soman tesselated pavement yet discovered in London. It lay at only 9J feet below the street, but a third side had been cut away for a sewer ; it appeared to have been the floor of a room more than twenty feet square. In the centre was Bacchus upon a tiger, encircled with three borders (inflexions of serpents, cornucopia, and squares diagonally concave), and drinking-cups and plants at the angles. Surrounding the whole was a square border of a bandeau of oak, and lozenge figures and true-lovers' knots, and a five-feet outer margin of plain red tiles. The pavement was broken in taking up, but the pieces are preserved in the library of the East India Com- pany ; a fragment of an urn and a jaw-bone were found beneath one corner. "In this beautiful speci- men of Roman mosaic," says Mr. Fisher, who published a coloured print of it, " the drawing, colouring, and shadows are all effected by about twenty separate tints, composed of tessellas of different materials, the major part of which are baked earths ; but the more brilliant colours of green and purple, which form the drapery, are of glass. These tessellse are of different sizes and figures, adapted to the situations they occupy in the design." Mr. W. H. Black, F.S.A., accounts for various discoveries of tessellated pavement and other remains in the neighbourhood of Leadenhall-street, by these places being outside Walbrook, the eastern boundary of what Mr. Black regards as Roman London. He contends that these remains, in all probability, belong to the villas of Roman citizens, in what, until the time of Constantino, were the suburbs of the City. Proc. Soc. Antiq., 1864. The East India Company became an exclusively political institution; the Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., pro- longing the charter till 1854, debarring the Company from the privilege of trading. Before this reduc- tion, nearly 400 men were employed in the warehouses, and the number of clerks was above 400. The fifteen warehouses often contained 50,000,000 Ibs. (above 22,000 tons) of tea : and 1,200,000 Ibs. have been sold in one day. (In 1668, the Company ordered " one hundred pounds weight of good teye " to be sent home on speculation !) The clerks' business was very heavy : from 1793 to 1813, the explanatory matter from the Indian Government filled 9094 large folio volumes ; and from that year to 1829, 14,414 ; and a military despatch has been accompanied with 199 papers, containing 13,511 pages. In 1826, the patronage of each East India Director for the year was estimated at 20,0002. sterling. The twenty-four Directors received 300Z. each, and 5001. for their " chairs," being a charge on the Hindoos of 7700Z. per annum. Except a few satrapies, cadies, high- priests, and teachers of hosts, the directors exercised the whole patronage of nomination to Indian office, civil, military, and clerical. Hoole, the translator of Tasso ; Charles Lamb, the author of Elia ; and James Mill, the historian of British India, were clerks in the East India House. " My printed works," said Lamb, " were my recreations my true works may be found on the shelves in Leadenhall-street, filling some hundred folios." The Company's Museum has been removed to Fife House, Whitehall. (See MU- SEUMS, &c.) EGYPTIAN HALL, PICCADILLY. THIS edifice, and a smaller structure in Welbeck-street, are, in single features and details, the only specimens of Egyptian architecture in London. The latter was, as originally erected, the most correct in character, but has since been almost spoiled. The Hall in Piccadilly conforms to the style in the columns and general outline, as indicated by the inclined torus-moulding at the extremity of the front, the cornice, &c. ; 320 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. though the composition itself is at variance with the principles of genuine Egyptian architecture, the front being divided into two floors, with wide instead of narrow windows to both. The details are mostly from the great temple of Tentyra, with the scarabseus, winged mundus, hieroglyphics, &c. The architect's name, G. F. Robinson, is inscribed upon the fafade. The entablature is supported by colossal figures of Isis and Osiris, sculptured by L. Gahagan. The Hall cost 16,000/., and was built in 1812 for a museum of natural history collected by W. Bullock, F.L.S., during thirty years' travel in Central America, which was exhibited here until 1819, when it was sold in 2248 lots.* The Egyptian Hall contains lecture-rooms, a bazaar, and a large central room, " the Waterloo Gallery." As the Hall has been a sort of Ark of Exhibitions, we enumerate the Curiosities which have been shown here : 1816. The Judgment of Brutus, painted by Le Thiere, president of the Academy of St. Luke, at Kome. Water-co lour Paintings of Minerals and Shells, by Chev. de Barde. Napoleon's Travelling, Chariot, built for his Russian campaign, and adapted for a bed-room, dressing-room, pantry, kitchen, &c. ; captured at Waterloo : seen at the Egyptian Hall by 800,000 persons ; transferred to the Tussaud Exhibition, in Baker-street, Portman-square. 1819. Sale of Bullock's Museum: produce, 9974?. 13*.; cost, 30,0001. 1821. Fac-simile of the Tomb of Psammuthis, King of Thebes, discovered by Belzoni ; constructed and painted from drawings and wax -impressions taken by him of all the original figures, hierogly- phics, emblems, &c. ; the two principal chambers illuminated : first day, 1900 admissions, at 2s. (id. each. 1822. Laplanders and Reindeer : 1001. per day taken for six weeks. Pair of Wapeti, or Elks, from the Upper Missouri ; and a pretended Mermaid, visited by 300 and 400 persons daily .t 1824. Mexican Museum, ancient and modern. Esquimaux Man and Woman. Hatching Chicken* by Artificial Heat. 1825. Rath, or Surmese, Imperial State Carriage, captured by the British in 1824 : the coach and the throne-seat, studded with 20,000 gems, are stated to have cost 12.500J. at Tavoy. Model of Switzerland. 1826. The Musical Sisters, four and six years old, harpist and pianist. Altar-piece, by Murillo. The Pecilorama, views painted by Stanfield. 1827. The Tyrolese Minstrels, four males and one female. 1828. Pictures of Battles of the French Armies, painted by General Le Jenne. The Death of Vir- ginia, painted by Le Thiere. Haydon's Picture of the Mock Election in the King's Bench, bought by George IV. for 500 guineas, and sent from the Egyptian Hall to St. James's Palace. 1829. Troubadours (singers). The Siamese Twins, two youths of eighteen, natives of Siam, united by a short band at the pit of the stomach " two perfect bodies, bound together by an inseparable link." 1330. Vox Bipartitus, or two voices in one. Sculpture, by Lough. Tableaux Vivans (ancient pic- tures by living figures). Michael Boai, or the chin-chopper, a la Buckhorse. 1831. Model of the The'dtre Frangais, Paris. A Cobra di Capello, the first brought alive to Europe. Two Orang-outangs and a Chimpanzee. A Double-sighted Boy, M'Kean, aged eight years. Scrymepour's Picture of the First Sign in Egypt. Double-sighted Boy. The Egyptian Hall converted into a Bazaar. 1832. Museum of Etruscan Antiquities. Royal Clarence Vase, of glass, made at Birmingham. The Brothers Xpeller, singers, from Switzerland. Haydon's Pictures of Xenophon and the 10,000 ; and his Mock Election, lent by George IV. for exhibition ; Death of Eucles, &c. 1835. Views of Paris, painted by M. Dupressoir. 1837. A Living Male Child, with four hands, four arms, four legs, four feet, and two bodies, born at Staleybridge, Manchester. Masquerades. 1838. Le Brun's Picture of the Battle of Arbela, embossed on copper, by Szentpetery. Captain Siborne's Model of the Battle of Waterloo, with 190,000 figures ; now in the Museum of the United Service Institution. 1839. Skeleton of a Mammoth Oa. Pictorial Storm at Sea, introducing Grace Darling and the " For- farshire Wreck." 1840. Aubusson Carpets. Vng-ka-puti (Gibbon monkey), from Sumatra. Bioplulax, or Life and Property Protector. Haydon's large Picture of the General Anti-Slavery Contention. 1841. Catlin's North American Indian Gallery of 310 portraits of chiefs, and 200 views of villages, religious ceremonies, dances, ball-plays, buifalo-hunts in all, 3000 full-length figures, with costumes and other produce, from a wigwam to a rattle, filling a room 106 feet long. The Missouri Leviathan Skeleton. The Great Pennard Cheese, presented to the Queen. 1843. Sir George Hayter's Great Picture of the First Reformed Parliament, figures half-life size. Model of Venice. The Napoleon Museum. 1844. The American Dwarf, " Tom Thumb," whose exhibition often realized 1251. a day ; while, in sickening contrast, in an adjoining room, the pictures of Haydon (to whom Wordsworth wrote " High is our calling, friend ") were scarcely visited by a dozen persons in a week. The " Banishment of Aristides," Haydon's last picture, was shown here, and its failure hastened the painter to his awful end. Nine Ojibbeway Indians, from Lake Huron, in their native costumes, exhibiting their war-dances and sports. German Dwarf s. 1845. The Eureka, a machine for composing hexameter Latin verses ; a practical illustration of the law of evolution. Second Exhibition of Captain Siborne's Model of the Battle of Waterloo. * Bullock's " Liverpool Museum" was opened at 22, Piccadilly, in 1805, in the room originally occu- pied by Astley for his evening performance of horsemanship; his amphitheatre not being roofed until 1780, and therefore allowing only day exhibitions. t In Manners and Customs of the Japanese, published in 1841, the above " Mermaid " (the head and shoulders of a monkey neatly attached to a headless fish) is proved to have been manufactured in Japan brought to Europe by an American adventurer, and valued at 1000J. A pretended Mermaid was also exhibited in London in 1775 ; and in Broad-court, Covent-garden, in 1794. ELY-PLACE. 321 1846. Prof. Faker's Euphonia, or speaking automaton, enunciating sounds and words ; played by keys. Mammoth Sorse. Polar Doff. Bosjesman Family. The Rock Harmonicon. Curiosities from Australia. Professor Kit's Poses Plastiques. A Dwarf dressed in a bear-skin: the " What in it f immediately detected. 1S47. Second Family of Soijesmen (Bushmen), from Southern Africa. Models of Ancient and Modern Jerusalem, by Brunetti. Exhibition of Modern Paintings ; free to artists. 1S43. Pictures of Recent Political Events in Paris. The Mysterious Lady. Figure of a Russian XaJy in veined marbles. Hanvard's Dioramic Picture of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, 3000 miles, stated to be painted on three miles of canvas (!) ; sketched before the painter was of age. 1850. Panorama of Fremont's Overland Route to California. Bonomi's Panorama of the Hile, 800 feet long : representing 1720 miles distance, closing with the Pyramids and Sphinx. 1852. March 15. Mr. Albert Smith first gave the narrative of his Ascent of Mont Blanc in 1851, ac- companying the exhibition of cleverly- painted moving dioramic pictures of its perils and sublimities. Mr. Smith continued to give, at the Egyptian Hall, his popular representations until within a few days of his lamented death, May 23, 1860, the day before he attained the age of 44. 1860. A " Miraculous Cabinet," invented and produced by II. Xadolsky. This cabinet measures only 5 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 18 inches deep : it contains 150 pieces of furniture, of the same size as in ordinary use ; namely, a judge's-table, with ornaments, books, and 6 chairs ; 4 card-tables, 2 Chinese- tables, a smoking-table, a lady's work-table, 2 Chinese toilet-tables, a chess-table, 4 work-boxes, 4 flower- pots with flowers; a what-not, candelabrum, bed with hangings, and a swing-cot; toilet-table, embroidery-frame, flower-table, 7 Chinese lamps, 2 Chinese candlesticks, 12 fancy boxes, 1 footstool, a painter's easel, 4 music-stands, dining-table laid with 26 covers ; 4 dishes, 23 plates, 30 cups, salt-cellars, &c.; a chandelier with 12 wax-lights ; 9 garden-chairs, 4 candlesticks; Chinese writing-desk, inkstand and tapers, rulers, and bell ; tea-tray table, throne, throne-chair, 4 flower-tables ; and a large table inlaid with shells, glass top, &c. When the various articles were taken out of the cabinet, and spread over the apartment, the notion of putting them back again into the same cabinet seemed almost absurd. The Hall was subsequently let for various performances and exhibitions ; including Mr. Arthur Sketchley's Entertainment ; Colonel Stodare's Mystery and Magic ; Mrs. Fanny Kemble's Readings ; Madame Lind-Goldschmidt's Concert ; the Exhibition of Chang, the Chinese Giant ; a Panorama of the Holy Land; Exhibition of Mr. John Leech's Sketches; and the General Society of Painters in Water- colours. Here, in the " Dudley Gallery," was deposited the valuable collection of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Dudley, during the erection of his own Gallery at Dudley House, Park-lane. ELY-PLACE. ALL that remains of this celebrated palace, anciently Ely House, which stood on the north side of Holborn-hill, and was the town mansion of the Bishops of Ely, is the chapel of St. Ethelreda, already described at page 161. The site is otherwise occupied by two rows of houses known as Ely-place, and a knot of tenements, streets, and alleys ; but the locality is fraught with the various historic associations of five centuries. Its first occupier, Bishop John de Kirkby, dying in 1290, bequeathed a messuage and nine cottages on this spot to his successors in the see of Ely. William de Luda, the next bishop, annexed some lands, added to the residence, and in 1297 devised them to the sec, on condition that his successor should provide for the service of St. Ethelreda's Chapel. John de Hotham, who died in 1336, planted a vineyard, kitchen-garden, orchard, &c. Thomas de Arundel, preferred to the see in 1374, re-edified the episcopal buildings and the Chapel ; and erected a large gate-house towards Holborn, the stone- work of which remained in Stow's time. Ely House was in part let by the see to noblemen. Here " old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster," died Feb. 13, 1399 ; and Shakspeare has made it the scene of Lancaster's last interview with Richard II. Following Hall and Holinshed, too, Shakspeare refers to this Place when Richard Duke of Gloucester, at the Council in the Tower, thus addresses the Bishop : " D. of Glou. My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there ; I do beseech you send for some of them. IS. of Ely. Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart." Richard III., act iii. sc. 4. At Ely House were kept divers feasts by the Serjeants-at-Law : at one, in 1495, Henry VII. was present with his queen; and at another feast in 1531, on making eleven new Serjeants, Henry VIII. and Queen Katharine were banquetted here with sumptuousness wanting " little of a feast at a coronation ;" and open-house was kept for five days. In 1576, at the mandatory request of Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Cox leased to Sir Christopher Hatton for twenty-one years the greater portion of the demesne, on payment at Midsummer-day of a red rose, ten loads of hay, and Wl. per annum ; the Bishop reserving to himself and his successors the right of walking in the gardens, and gathering twenby bushels of roses yearly. Hatton largely improved the estate, and then petitioned the Queen to require the Bishop to make over the whole property ; whereupon ensued the Bishop's remonstrance, and Elizabeth's undignified threat to "unfrock" him: and in 1578, the entire property being conveyed to Hatton, 322 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. Elizabeth further retaliated by keeping the see of Ely vacant for eighteen years from the death of Bishop Cox in 1591. Aggas's map shows the vineyard, meadow, kitchen-garden, and orchard, of Ely Place to have extended northward from Holborn-hill to the present Hatton-wall and Vine- street ; and east and west, from Saffron-hill to nearly the present Leather-lane : but except a cluster of houses (Ely Rents) on Holborn-hill, the surrounding ground was entirely open and unbuilt on ; the names of Saffron-hill, Field-lane, and Lily, Turnmill, and Vine streets, carry the mind's eye back to this suburban appropriation. The Sutherland View, 15-13, also shows the gate-house, chapel, great banquetting-hall, &c. Sir Christopher lived in great state in Hatton House, as Ely Place was now called; but Elizabeth " which seldom gave loans, and never forgave due debts," pressed the payment of some 40,OOOZ. arrears, which the Chancellor could not meet ; so it went to his heart, and he died Nov. 20, 1591. He was succeeded by his nephew, whose widow, the strange Lady Hatton, in 1598 was married to Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney- general, but who could not gain admission to Hatton House : she died " at her house in Holbourne," Jan. 3, 1646. The Bishops of Ely made several attempts to recover the entire property ; but, during the imprisonment of Bishop Wren by the Long Par- liament, most of the palatial buildings were taken down, and upon the garden were built Hatton-garden, Great and Little Kirby-streets, Charles-street, Cross-street, and Hatton-wall. During the Interrugnum, Hatton House and Offices were used as a prison and hospital. In 1772 the estate was purchased by the Crown ; a town-house was built for the Bishop, No. 27, Dover-street, Piccadilly ; and about 1773, the present Ely-place was built, the chapel remaining on the west side. A fragment of the episcopal residence is preserved in, and has given name to, Mitre-court, leading from Hattoii- garden to Ely-place. Here, worked into the wall, as the sign of a public-house, is a mitre, sculptured in stone, with the date 1546; which probably once decorated Ely Palace, or the precinct gateway. The stage-play of Christ's Passion was acted in the reign of James I. "at Elie House in Holborn, when Gondomar (the Spanish ambassador), lay there on Good Friday at night, at which there were thousands present " (Prynne's Histriomastix, p. 117, note) ; this being the last performance of a Religious Mystery in England. At Ely House, also, was arranged the the grand Masque given by the four Inns of Court to Charles I. and Queen Henrietta Maria, at Whitehall, on Candlemas-day, 1634, at the cost of 21,0001. ; when the masquers, horsemen, musicians, dancers, with the grand committee including the great lawyers Whitelocke, Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon), and Selden went in procession by torchlight from Ely House, down Chancery-lane, along the Strand to Whitehall. EXCHANGES. JT1HE Royal Exchange, at the north-western extremity of Cornhill, is the third -*- Exchange built nearly on the same site, for the meeting cf merchants and bankers. The first " goodely Burse" was projected by Sir James Gresham, Lord Mayor in 1538, who submitted to Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy-Seal, a plan taken from the Burse at Antwerp. This application failed; but the project was renewed twenty years later by Thomas Gresham, the younger son of Sir James, born in London in 1519, apprenticed to his uncle, Sir John Gresham, and admitted in 1543 to the Mercers' Company ; in their Hall is a contemporary portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham, who was royal agent at Antwerp to Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, and was knighted when ambassador at the court of the Duchess of Parma. Like other bankers and merchants of that day, Gresham had his shop in Lombard- street, as yet the only Exchange. The house was on the site of No. 68, the banking-house of Martin, Stone, and Co. : over the door was Gresham's crest,* a grasshopper, as a sign, which was seen by Pennant, but disappeared by piecemeal. * The letters of James Gresham, in the Paston Collection, are sealed with a grasshopper ; sufficient refutation of a tradition accounting for the adoption of that heraldic symbol by Sir Thomas Gresham, from a grasshopper having saved his life when he was a poor famished boy, by attracting a person to the spot where he lay in a helpless condition ! Still, it were almost a pity to disturb the popular legend, teaching, as it simply does, reliance upon God's providence. EXCHANGES, ROYAL. 323 On June G, 1566, the first stone of the Burse was laid in Cornhill, by Sir Thomas Gresham and several aldermen, each of whom " laid a piece of gold, which the work- men picked up." The City had previously purchased and taken down eighty houses, and prepared the site ; the whole having been conveyed to Sir Thomas Gresham, who " most frankly and lovingly" promised, that within a month after the Burse should be finished, he would present it in equal moieties to the City and the Mercers' Company ; as a pledge of which Gresham, before Alderman Rivers and other citizens, gave his hand to Sir William Garrard, and drank a carouse to his kinsmen Thomas Howe. "How rarely do ancient documents furnish us with such a picture of ancient manners!" By November, 1567, the Burse was finished. ! As Flemish materials, Flemish work- men, and a Flemish architect (Henryke) had been employed, so the design closely imi- tated a Flemish building, the Great Burse of Antwerp. Two prints, date 1569, and probably engraved by Gresham's order, show the exterior and interior : a quadrangle, with an arcade ; a corridor, or pawn* of stalls above ; and in the high-pitched roof, chambers with dormer-windows. On the east side of the Cornhill entrance was a lofty bell-tower, from which, at twelve at noon and at six in the everting, was rung a bell, the merchants' call to 'Change ; on the north side, a Corinthian column rose twice the height of the building; and both tower and column surmounted by a grasshopper, also placed at each corner of the quadrangle. The columns of the court were marble ; the upper portion was laid out in a hundred shops, the lower in walks and rooms for the merchants, with shops on the exterior. Thus there were the " Scotch Walk," "Hambro'," and the "Irish," " East Country," "Swedish," "Norway," "American," " .Jamaica," " Spanish," " Portugal," " French," " Greek," and " Dutch and Jewel- lers' " walks. Long after the opening of the Burse, the shops remained " in a manner empty;" when, upon a report that the Queen was about to visit it, Gresham prevailed upon the shopkeepers in the upper pawn to furnish their shops with " wares and wax- lights," on promise of " one year rent-free." The rent was then 40*. a shop, in two years raised to four marks, and then to 4:1. 10s. a-year, all the shops being let. " Then the milliners or haberdashers sold mouse-traps, bird-cages, shoeing-horns, Jews' trumps, &c. ; armourers, that sold both old and new armour ; apothecaries, booksellers, goldsmiths, and glass-sellers." (Howes.) All being prepared, on Jan. 23, 1570-1, amidst the ringing of bells in every part of the City, " the Queen's Majesty, attended with the nobility, came from her house in the Strand called Somerset House, and entered the City by Temple Bar, through Fleet-street, Cheap, and so by the north side of the Burse, through Threadneedle-street, to Sir Thomas Gresham's house in Bishops- gate-street, where she dined. After dinner, her Majesty returning through Cornhill, entered the Burse on the south side" (Stow) ; and having viewed the whole, especially the pawne, which was richly furnished with the finest wares, the Queen caused the Burse, by herald and trumpet, to be proclaimed " The Royal Exchange :" " Proclaim through every high street of the city, This place be no longer called a Bnrse ; But since the building's stately, fair, and strange, Be it for ever called the Royal Exchange." Queen Elizabeth's Troubles, Part 2. A Play, by Thomas Hoywood, 1609. Sir Thomas Gresham died suddenly, Nov. 21, 1579, in the evening, on his return from the Exchange ; " being cut off by untymely death, having left a part of his royall monument unperformed : that is, xxx. pictures (statues) of kings and queenes of this land ; and to that purpose left thirty rooines (niches) to place them in." It was then proposed that before any citizen should be elected alderman, he should be " enjoyned to pay the charge of makyng and fynishing one of the forsaid kings or queenes theire pictures, to be erected in the places aforesaid in the Exchange, not exceeding 100 nobles (661. 6s. 8d.) ; the pictures to be graven on wood, covered with lead, and then gilded and paynted with oyle-cullors;" and the Court of Common Council subsequently made the erection of one such statue a part of the fine for being freed from the office * Corrupted from bahn, German for a path or walk. There is a curious tradition, not unsupported by facts, that the framework of the Exchange was constructed upon Gresham's estate at Einxhall, near Battisford, Suffolk, formerly rich in wood ; the remains of saw-pits are still discernible. The stone, slates, iron, wainscot, and glass, were brought from Antwerp. 324 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. of Sheriff. The building was often in danger from feather-makers, and others that kept shops in the upper pawne, using " pannes of fyer," which were therefore for- bidden by an order of the Court of Aldermen. A print by Hollar, date 1644, shows the merchants in full 'Change, with the picturesque costumes of the respective countries : " The new-come traveller, With his disguised coat and ringed ear, Trampling the Bourse's marble twice a day." The statues, from Edward the Confessor to Queen Elizabeth, were thus provided : and subsequently James I., Charles I., and Charles II, The statue of Charles I. was re- moved immediately after his execution, and on its pedestal was inscribed Exit tyran- norum ultimus ; which was in turn removed, and replaced with a new statue, after the Restoration. Here also, on May 28, 1661, the acts for establishing the Commonwealth were burned by the hands of the common hangman. Gresham's Exchange was almost entirely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 ; " when the kings fell down upon their faces, and the greater part of the building after them, the founder's statue only remaining." Pepys refers to " Sir Thomas Gresham in the corner" as the only statue that was left standing. After the death of Sir Thomas Gresham, the affairs of the Royal Exchange passed under the management of the Gresham Committee, as the trustees appointed under his will, with certain members nominated by the Corporation. Thus originated the Grand or Joint Committee, under whose direction the Exchange was rebuilt after the Great Fire upon the old founda- tions, by Edward Jerman, one of the City Surveyors, and not by Sir Christopher Wren, as often stated; but Wren was consulted in the project of the rebuilding. Mr. Jupp, of Carpenters' Hall, possesses two large and beautiful drawings of Jerman's design for the building, executed in Indian ink upon vellum. Meanwhile, the merchants met " in the gardens or walkes of Gresham College," being the site of the great court-yard of the Excise Office ; on which a temporary Exchange was erected for a similar pur- pose, after the burning of the second Exchange in 1838. Among the payments for Jerman's buildings is one by the Committee to Sir John Denham, the poet, " His Majestie's Surveyor-General of his Workes, for his trouble from time to time in coming down to view the Exchange and streetes adjoining; as also in furthering theire addresses to his Majesty, and giving them full warrants for Portland stone ;" the Committee therefore ordered provision to be made " of six or eight dishes of meate att the Sun Tavern, on Wednesday next, to intertayne him withal at his comeing downe, and to present him with thirty guinney-pieces of gold, as a toaken of theire gratitude." Among other entries, we find that Cains Gabriel Gibber was appointed carver ; the clock was to be set up by Edward Stanton, under the direction of Dr. Hooke, having chimes with four bells, playing six tunes ; William Wightman was to furnish a set of sound and tuneable bells, at 61. 5s. per cwt. ; four balconies were to be made from the inner pawn into the quadrangle, at a charge of not more than 3001. ; and the signs to the shops in the pawns were not to be hung forth, but set over the frieze of each shop. The celebrated Sir Robert Viner, on March 22nd, 1668 (1669), proffered to give his Majesty's statue on horseback, cut in white marble, to stand upon the Koyal Exchange : this offer was declined, because of the "bignesse " of the statue, which Sir Robert Viner afterwards gave to be erected over the conduit at Stocks'-market ; though the royal figure was an altered John Sobieski. The King interested himself so far in the architectural appearance of the edifice as to desire that portions might be built on all sides of the Exchange; and hence the difficulties which arose between the Committee and the possessors of the property required ; and in especial with Van Swieten, or Sweetings, as he is usually called. About seven hundred superficial feet were wanted of his ground at the east end of the Exchange, and about one thousand four hundred feet more for a street or passage; for which he declared that he expected to be paid according to the cheapest rate that any other ground should be bought at. When, however, he appeared before the sub-committee, he demanded 1000?. for six hundred and twenty-seven feet, which was thought so unreasonable that they laid it aside. On Oct. 23rd, 1667, Charles II. fixed the first pillar on the west side of the north entrance to the Exchange. " The King was entertained by the City and Company with a chine of beef, grand dish of fowl, gammon of bacon, dried tongues, anchovies, caviare, etc., and plenty of several sorts of wine. He gave 201. in gold to the work- men. The interteynment was in a shedd built and adorned on purpose, upon the Scotch walke." On the 31st, the Duke of York founded the corresponding pier; and on Nov. 18th, Prince Rupert fixed the pillar on the east side of the south entrance; both princes being similarly entertained. This second Exchange was opened Sept. 28, 1669 ; its cost, 58,962?., being defrayed in equal moieties by the City and the Mercers' Company. It was quadrangular in plan, and had its arcades, pawn above, and statues in niches, like Gresham's Exchange ; EXCHANGES, ROYAL. 325 it had also a three-storied tower, with lantern and gilt grasshopper vane. The edifice thus remained until the extensive repairs of 1820-26 (George Smith, architect), when a stone tower, 128 feet high, was built on the south front, in place of the timber one : these repairs cost 33,000/., including 60001. for stone staircases and floors. The Corn- hill front had a lofty archway, with four Corinthian columns ; emblematic statues of the four quarters of the globe ; statues of Charles I. and II. by Bushnell ; statue of Gresham by E. Pierce ; four busts of Queen Elizabeth ; alto-relievos of Britannia, the Arts and Sciences, &c., and of Queen Elizabeth and her heralds proclaiming the original Exchange. The area within the quadrangle was paved with " Turkey stones ;" in the centre was a statue of Charles II. by Gibbons ; in the arcade was a statue of Uresham by Gibber; and of Sir John Barnard, placed there in his lifetime (temp. George II.). The arcade and area were arranged, nominally, into distinct walks for the merchants. " For half an hour he feeds : and when he's done, In 's elbow-chair he takes a nap till one ; From thence to 'Change he hurries in a heat (Where knaves and fools in mighty numbers meet, And kindly mix the bubble with the cheat) ; There barters, buys and sells, receives and pays, And turns the pence a hundred several ways. In that great hive, where markets rise and fall, And swarms of muckworms round its pillars crawl, He, like the rest, as busy as a bee, Remains among the henpeck'd herd till three." Wealthy Shopkeeper, 1700. The royal statues were, on the south side, Edward I., Edward III., Henry V., and Henry VI. ; on the west, Edward IV., Edward V., Henry VII., and Henry VIII. ; on the north, Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Charles II., and James II. ; on the east were William and Mary, in a double niche, George I., George II., and George III. These figures were in armour and Roman costume, the Queens in the dresses of their respective times ; most of them were originally gilt. George III. was sculptured by Wilton, George I. and George II. by Rysbrack, and the major part of the others by Caius Gabriel Gibber. Originally, the offices in the upper floors were let as shops for rich and showy arti- cles ; but they were forsaken in 1739 (Maitland), and the galleries were subsequently occupied by the Royal Exchange Assurance Offices, Lloyd's Coffee-house, the Merchant Seamen's Office, the Gresham Lecture-room, and the Lord Mayor's Court Office : the latter a row of offices divided by glazed partitions, the name of the attorney being in- scribed in large capitals upon a projecting board. The vaults beneath the Exchange were let to different bankers ; and the East India Company, for the stowage of pepper. Surrounding the exterior were shops, chiefly tenanted by lottery-office keepers, news- paper-offices, watch and clock makers, notaries, stock -brokers, &c. The tower con- tained a clock, with four dials, and chimes, and four wind-dials. On Jan. 18th, 1838, this Exchange was entirely burnt : the fire commenced in Lloyd's Rooms shortly after 10 P.M., and before three next morning the clock-tower alone remained, the dials indicating the exact times at which the flames reached them : north at Ih. 25m. ; south, 2h. 5m. : the last air, played by the chimes at 12, was, " There's nae luck about the house."* The conflagration was seen twenty-four miles round London ; the roar of the wind, and the rush and crackling of the flames, the falling of huge timbers, and the crash of roof and walls, were a fearful spectacle. At the sale of the salvage, the porter's large hand-bell, rung daily before closing the 'Change (with the handle burnt), fetched 31. 3>. ; City Griffins, 301. and 351. the pair ; busts of Queen Elizabeth, 101. 15*. and 181. the pair ; figures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 110Z. ; the statue of Anne, \0l. 5. ; George II., 91. 5.; George III. and Elizabeth, III. 15*. each ; Charles II., 92.; and the sixteen other royal statues similar sums. The copper-gilt grasshopper vane was reserved. Mr. Scott, the Chamberlain of London, states, that if, from the Great Fire in 1666, when the first Royal Exchange was destroyed, down to 1839, when it was a second time destroyed by fire, a sum equiva- lent to the fire-insurance rate of 2*. per cent, and 3s. duty had been annually raised and allowed to accumulate, it would have been sufficient to defray forty-seven and a half times over the cost of 200,UOW. for rebuilding the Exchange as it now exists. After an interval of nearly four years, the rebuilding of the Exchange was com- * The chimes played at 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock on Sunday, the 104th Psalm ; Monday, " God save the King ;" Tuesday, " Waterloo March ;" Wednesday, " There's nae luck about the house ;" Thursday, " See the conquering hero comes;" Friday, "Life let us cherish;" Saturday, "Foot-Guards' March." 326 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. menced from the designs of William Tite, F.R.S. ; the site being enlarged by the removal of Bank-buildings, west of the old Exchange, and the buildings eastward, nearly to Finch-lane. In excavating for the foundations was found a deep pit full of remains of Roman London, specimens of which are preserved in the Museum at Guildhall. (See COENHILL, p. 291.) Mr. Tite thinks it probable that " this pit had been sunk during the earliest times of the Roman occupation of London, for the mere purpose of obtain- ing the gravel, required perhaps for making a causeway or road across the banks of the adjoining marshy stream of the Wall-Brook. When the excavation had served this purpose, it remained for years (perhaps centuries), forming a dirty pond to receive the refuse and rubbish of all the neighbourhood, and in this way it must have been gra- dually filled up; at the time of building the Roman wall the accumulation was firm enough again to receive a bed of gravel, slightly concreted, laid on the top of the mud, so as to be covered up and become apparently solid ground. The builders of the Old Exchange, however, found out its deficiency, and supported their work on piles, which had evidently yielded." The foundation-stone of the new Exchange was laid by Prince Albert, on Monday, Jan. 17th, 1842, in the mayoralty of Alderman Pirie ; the circum- stances being recorded in a Latin and English inscription upon a zinc plate, placed in the foundation-stone. The Exchange was completed within the short space of three years, for somewhat less than the architect's estimate, 137,600. ; or, including the sculpture, architect's commission, &c., 150,0002. The new Exchange was formally opened by her Majesty, Oct. 28, 1844, when the Royal and Civic Pro- The Royal Exchange, first opened for business Jan. 1, 1845, stands nearly due east and west; extreme length, 308 feet; west width, 119 feet; east, 175 feet. The foun- dation is concrete, in parts 18 feet thick ; and the walls and piers are tied together by arches, the piers strengthened by beds of wrought-iron hooping. The foundation of Gresham's Exchange, as just stated, was laid upon piles. The architecture is florid, and even exuberant, characteristic of commercial opulence and civic state. The leading idea of the plan is from the Pantheon at Rome : material, finest Portland stone. The West front has a portico " very superior in dimensions to any in Great Britain, and not inferior to any in the world." It is 96 feet wide and 74 high, and has eight columns (the architect's Composite), 4 feet 2 inches in diameter and 41 feet high, with two intercolumniations in actual projection, and the centre also deeply recessed; the interior of the portico is strikingly magnificent, in the vastness of the columns, and the beauty of the roof of three arches, enriched after a Roman palace. Flanking the cen- tral doorway are two Venetian windows, with the architect's monogram, W. T., beneath. On the frieze of the portico is inscribed : ANNO xni. ELIZABETHS B. COKDITVM. ANXO vni. VICTOBIA E. BESTAVBATVM. Over the central doorway are the Royal arms, by Carew. The key-stone has the mer- chant's mark of Gresham; and the key-stones of the side arches, the arms of the merchant adventurers of his day, and the staple of Calais. North and south of the portico, and in the attic, are the City sword and mace, with the date of Queen Elizabeth's reign and 1844; and in the lower panels, mantles bearing the initials of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria respectively : the imperial crown is 12 inches in relief, and 7 feet high. The tympanum of the pediment of the portico is filled with sculpture, by Richard Westmacott, R.A. ; consisting of 17 figures, carved in limestone, nearly all entire and detached. The centre figure is Commerce, with her mural crown, 10 feet high, upon two dolphins and a shell ; she holds the charter of the Exchange : on her right is a group of three British merchants, as lord mayor, alderman, and common-councilman; a Hindoo and a Mahommedan, a Greek bearing a jar, and a Turkish merchant : on the left are two British merchants and a Persian, a Chinese, a Levant sailor, a negro, a British sailor, and a supercargo : the opposite angles are filled with anchors, jars, packages, &c. Upon the pedestal of Commerce is this inscription : " THE EABTH is THE LOBD'S, AND THE FULNESS THEBEOF." Psalm xxiv. 1. The ascent to the portico is by thirteen granite steps. The East front has four composite columns, which support the tower, in the first story of which is a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham, 14 feet 6 inches high, by Behnes; above are the clock-faces ; arid next a circular story, with Composite columns and a EXCHANGES, EOYAL. 327 dome carved in leaves, surmounted by the original grasshopper vane, of copper gilt, 11 feet long ; height of tower and vane, 177 feet. Beneath the tower is the great eastern entrance to an oblong open area, where are the entrances to Lloyd's Rooms and the Merchants' Area. The Clock was manufactured by Mr. Dent in 1843, and has since been pronounced by the Astro- nomer Royal to be the best public clock in the world ; the pendulum, which weighs nearly 4 cwt., is compensated, and the first stroke of the hour is true to a second. This clock has Mr. Airey's construc- tion of the going- fuzee introduced, by which the winding is effected without stopping the motion. This clock is a great improvement on that placed in this building in Sir Thomas Gresham's days, respecting which it was reported, in 1624, that " the Exchange clocke was pr'sented for not being kept well, it standing in one of the most eminent places in the Cittie, and being the worst kept of any clock in that Cittie." The Chimes consist of a set of fifteen bells, by Mears, cost 5001. ; the largest being also the hour- bell of the clock. In the chime-work, by Dent, there are two hammers to several of the bells, so as to play rapid passages ; and three and five hammers strike different bells simultaneously. All irregularity of force is avoided by driving the chime-barrel through wheels and pinions ; there are no wheels be- tween the weight that pulls and the hammer to be raised ; the lifts on the chime-barrel are all epicy- eloidal curves ; and there are 6000 holes pierced upon the barrel for the lifts, so as to allow the tunes to be varied : the present airs are, " God save the Queen," " The Roast Beef of Old England," " Rule Britannia," and the 104th Psalm. The bells, in substance, form, dimensions, &c., are Irom the Bow- bells patterns ; still, they are thought to be too large for the tower. The South front has a line of pilasters, upon ground-floor rusticated arches ; the three middle spaces deeply recessed, and having richly-embellished windows, a cornice, balustrade and attic. Above the three centre arches are the Gresham, City, and Mercers' Company arms, which are repeated on the east front entablature. The North front has a projecting centre, and otherwise differs from the south : in niches are statues of Sir Hugh Myddelton, by Joseph ; and Sir Richard Whittington, by Carew. Over the centre arch is Gresham's motto, Fortun a my ; on the dexter, the City motto, Due. dirige nos ; and on the sinister, the Mercers' Company, Honor Deo. The principal or First floor has four suites of apartments : 1. Lloyd's, east and north ; 2. Royal Exchange Assurance, west ; 3. London Assurance Corporation, south ; 4. Offices originally intended for Gresham College, south and west. The Ground-floor externally, as in the two former Exchanges, is occupied by shops and offices, each having a mezzanine and basement. The Interior consists of the open Merchants' Area, resembling the cortile of an Italian palace ; its form, as that of the building, is parallelogram, and the inner area exactly a double square. The ground-floor is a Doric colonnade, and rusticated arches ; the upper floor has Ionic columns, with arches and windows, and an enriched parapet, pierced. The key-stones of the upper arches are sculptured with national arms, in the order determined at the Congress of Vienna. At the north-east angle is a statue of Elizabeth, by Watson ; at the south-east, Gibbons's marble statue of Charles II., for- merly in the centre of the old Exchange, nearly upon the spot where is now a marble statue of Queen Victoria, by Lough : the sovereigns in whose reigns the three Exchanges were built. The encaustic decorations of the Ambulatories having become obscured, the plaster-work was removed in 1859-60, and replaced by fresco-painting, designed by Sang, executed by Beensen, of Munich. Above the west and principal entrance, are placed the Gresham arms; those of Sir Thomas Gres- ham, the founder of the institution, in combination with the arms of the Mercers' Company, to which he belonged ; together with the City arms. On the panel of the ceiling immediately within this entrance are the Royal arms. To the right are the national arms of Sweden and Norway ; and proceeding round by the right, next are the following national and distinguished arms, emblazoned on the various panels in the order : Prussia, the East Indies, Australia, Brazil, America, Portugal, Naples, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Austria, Holland ; followed by those of Brandenburg, Hamburg, and Lubeck, conjoined with and succeeded by those of Hanover, Bavaria, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, China, Turkey, and Russia. On the upper corners of the panels crests of various members of the Gresham committee, under whose direction the building is maintained, have been placed ; their names will be found recorded on a granite slab which occupies the south-west corner of the building. The ceiling panels are interspersed with the Gresham, the Mercers', and the City arms, together with the mottoes of the two latter, "Honor Deo "and " Domine dirigenos," in numerous designs and combina- tions ; while above the statues of Elizabeth and Charles II. the Royal arms are again conspicuous. The different Walks of the Merchants and their peculiar trades are in these new decorations much more readily recognisable by the coats of arms of the respective countries, and each particular trade is repre- sented according to the ancient custom resorted to by the frequenters of the Royal Exchange. The temporary decorations had little or no reference to this important question, but now the coats of arms form the chief ornaments of the large arched panels of the walls, the borders of which are filled with a rich Raphaelesque margin upon a purple ground, intersected with emblematic medallions, the main or central leading colour being an aerial and sunny yellow of the most cheerful hue. 328 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. " Here are the same old- favoured spots, changed though they be in appearance ; and notwithstanding we have lost the great Rothschild, Jeremiah Harman, Daniel Hardcastle (the Page No. 1 of the Times), the younger Rothschilds occupy a pillar on the south side of the Exchange, much in the same place as their father; and the Barings, the Bateses, the Salomons, the Doxats, the Durrants, the Crawshays, the Curries, and the Wilsons, and other influential merchants, still come and go, as in olden days." (City, 2nd edit.) Many sea-captains and brokers still go on 'Change ; but the " Walks " are disregarded. The hour of High 'Change is from past 3 to \ past 4 P.M., the two great days being Tuesday and Friday for foreign exchanges. Lloyd's Subscription Rooms are approached by a fine Italian staircase ; the stairs are each a single block of Cragleith granite, 14 feet long. In the vestibule is a marble statue of Prince Albert, by Lough ; a marble statue, by Gibson, R.A., of the late Mr. Huskisson, presented by his widow ; a mural testimonial to the Times' exposure of a fraudulent conspiracy in 1851 ; and a monument to John Lydekker, Esq., who be- queathed 58,00(M. to the Seamen's Hospital Society : it has figures of disabled seamen, and a scene from the Southern Whale Fishery. Lloyd's is the rendezvous of the most eminent merchants, shipowners, underwriters, insurance, stock, and exchange brokers, &c. Here is obtained the earliest news of the arrival and sailing of vessels, losses at sea, captures, re-captures, engagements, and other shipping intelligence; and the proprietors of ships and freights are insured by the underwriters. Lloyd's originated with a coffee-house keeper of that name, at the corner of Ab- church-lane, Lombard-street : " To Lloyd's Coffee-house, he never fails 'i'o read the letters and attend the sales." Wealthy ShopJceeper,l700. In 1710, Steele dates from Lloyd's (Taller, No. 246) his Petition on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvenders ; and Addison, in Spectator, April 23, 1711, speaks of the auction pulpit at Lloyd's : but the auction business was transferred to Garrawny's Coffee-house. Lloyd's was subsequently removed to Pope's Head-alley, and in 1774 to the north-west corner of the Royal Exchange, where it remained until the fire in 1838 ; the subscribers then met at the South-Sea House, till they returned to their present location in the new Exchange. The rooms are in the Venetian style, with Roman enrichments. They are: 1. The Subscribers' or Underwriters', the Mer- chants', and the Captains' Room. The Subscribers' Boom is 100 feet long by 48 feet wide, and is opened at 10 o'clock and closed at 5 : annual subscription, four guineas; if an underwriter or insurance-broker, he pays also an entrance-fee of twenty-five guineas ; admissions and questions determined by ballot, each underwriter having his own seat. At the entrance of the room are exhibited the Shipping Lists, received from Lloyd's agents at home and abroad, and affording particulars of departures or arrivals of vessels, wrecks, salvage, or sale of property saved, &c. To the right and left are " Lloyd's Books," two enormous ledgers : right hand, ships " spoken with," or arrived at their destined ports ; left hand, records of wrecks, fires, or severe collisions, written in a fine Roman hand, in " double lines." To assist the underwriters in their calcula- tions, at the end of the room is an Anemometer, which registers the state of the wind day and night; attached is a rain-gauge. On the roof of the Exchange is a sort of mast, at the top of which is a fan, like that of a windmill, the object of which is to keep a plate of metal with its face presented to the wind. Attached to this plate are springs, which, joined to a rod, descend into the Underwriters' Room upon a large sheet of paper placed against the wall. To this end of the rod a lead-pencil is attached, which slowly traverses the paper horizontally, by means of clock-work. When the wind blows very hard against the plate outside, the spring, being pressed, pushes down the rod, and the pencil makes a long line down the paper vertically, which denotes a high wind. At the bottom of the sheet, another pencil moves, guided by a vane on the outside, which so directs its course horizontally that the direction of the wind is shown. The sheet of paper is divided into squares, numbered with the hours of night and day ; and the clock- work so moves the pencils, that they take exactly an hour to traverse each square : hence the strength and direction of the wind at any hour of the twenty-four are easily seen. The subscribers number about 1900 ; and, with the underwriters, represent the greater part of the mercantile wealth of the country. (See City, 2nd edit, pp. 108 to 122.) Above the Subscribers' Room is the Chart-room, where hangs an extensive collection of maps and charts. The Merchants' Room is superintended by a master, who can speak several lan- guages : here are duplicate copies of the books in the underwriters' room, and files of English and foreign newspapers. EXCHANGES. 329 The Captains' Boom is a kind of coffee-room, where merchants and ship-owners meet captains, and sales of ships, &c. take place. The members of Lloyd's have ever been distinguished by their loyalty and benevolent spirit. In 1802, they voted 2000?. to the Life-boat subscription. On July 20, 1803, at the invasion panic, they commenced the Patriotic Fund with 20,000?. 3 per cent, consols; besides 70,312?. 7. individual subscrip- tions, and 15,000?. additional donations. After the battle of the Nile, in 1798, they collected for the widows and wounded seamen 32,423?. ; and after Lord Howe's victory, June 1, 1794, for similar pur- poses, 21,281?. They have also contributed 5000?. to the London Hospital; 1000?. for the suffering inhabitants of Russia in 1813 ; 1000?. for the relief of the militia in our North American colonies, 1813 ; and 10,000?. for the Waterloo subscription, in 1815. The Committee vote medals and rewards to those who distinguish themselves in saving life from shipwreck. Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping, No. 2, White-lion-court, Corn- hill, was originally established in 1760, and re-established in 1834, and gives the class and standing of vessels, date of building and where built, materials, &c., ascertained by careful surveys ; but is a distinct body from Lloyd's Subscription Rooms. The entrance-gates in each front of the Exchange are fine specimens of iron-casting, bronzed. The western or principal gates, cast by Grissell, are 22^ feet high, 11 feet 4 inches wide. The design is Elizabethan : on the flanks and around the semicircle, are the shields of the twelve great City companies ; in the crown of the arch, Gresham's arms, and beneath is his bust, upon a mural crown, backed by the civic mace and sword ; on the panels are the arms of Elizabeth and Victoria. The cost of enlarging the site, including improvements and widening of Cornhill, Freeman's-court, Broad-street, and removal of the church of St. Benet Fink, the French Protestant Church, Bank-buildings, SweetingValley, &c., was 223,578. Is. IQd. City Chamberlain's Return, October 30, 1851. " Sir Thomas Gresham left the Exchange during the life of his widow to her use ; and at her death, he left his mansion in Threndneedle-street, since occupied by the Excise Office, for a college, to be called Gresham College, as a London University, the funds for its support being provided by the rents of the shops and pawns of the Exchange. By the Great Fire, this source of income was entirely cut off; and not only so, but the two Corporations of the City of London and the Mercers' Company incurred a debt of nearly 60,000?. in rebuilding the Exchange. They, notwithstanding, out of their own resources con- tinued the College until the year 1745, when the debt amounted to 111,000?. In 1768, the College was put an end to by an Act of Parliament, and the site let to the Commissioners of Excise. The Gresham Professors were always continued, and gave their lectures in a room in the Exchange up to the fire of 1838. The Gresham Committee have, from their own funds, rebuilt Gresham College, in Gresham- street, at an expense of upwards of 15,000?. : and the debt incurred by the two Corporations, in main- taining the Exchange and rebuilding it twice, in maintaining the Gresham Professors, and some alms- houses founded also by Sir Thomas Gresham, amounts now to considerably more than 200,000?." W. Tite, F.E.S. A large medal, by Wyon, R.A., bears on the obverse Lough's statue of the Queen in profile ; on the reverse is a bust in high relief of Gresham, in the cap and starched frill of his period. COAL EXCHANGE. Three hundred years ago, when the use of coal instead of wood had only just commenced in the metropolis, two or three ships were enough for the supply. A charter of Edward II. shows Derbyshire coal to have been then used in London, though a proclamation of Edward I. shows its introduction as a substitute for wood to have been much opposed; and in the reign of Elizabeth, the burning of stone- coal was prohibited during the sitting of Parliament, lest it should affect the health of the members. An Exchange for the trade in the new fuel was early established. The " Coal Exchange," up to 1807, was in the hands of private individuals ; in that year it was purchased by the Coi-poration for 25,600/. In 1845, the coal-trade peti- tioned for the enlargement and rebuilding of the Exchange. This was done by the City architect, J. B. Bunning; and the new Exchange was opened with great Iclat, by Prince Albert, accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, Oct. 29, 330 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. 1849 ; when the Lord Mayor (Duke), himself a coal-merchant, received a patent of baronetcy. The Exchange has two principal fronts of Portland stone, in the Italian style, one in Lower Thames-street, and the other in St. Mary-at-Hill ; with an en- trance at the corner by a semicircular portico, with Roman-Doric columns, and a tower 106 feet high, within which is the principal staircase. The public hall, or area for the merchants, is a rotunda 60 feet in diameter, covered by a glazed dome, 74 feet from the floor. This circular hall has three tiers of projecting galleries running round it ; the stancheons, galleries, ribs of dome, &c. are iron, of which about 300 tons are used. The floor of the rotunda is composed of 4000 pieces of inlaid woods, in the form of a mariner's compass, within a border of Greek fret : in the centre are the City shield, anchor, &c. ; the dagger-blade in the arms being a piece of a mulberry-tree planted by Peter the Great, when he is stated to have worked as a ship- wright in Deptford Dockyard. The entrance vestibule is richly embellished with vases of fruit, arabesque foliage, terminal figures, &c. In the rotunda, between the Raphaelesque scroll supports, are panels painted with impersonations of the coal-bearing rivers of England : the Thames, Mersey, Severn, Trent, Hurnber, Aire, Tyne, &c. : and above them, within flower- borders, are figures of Wisdom, Fortitude, Vigilance, Temperance, Perseverance, Watchfulness, Justice, and Faith. The arabesques in the first story are views of coal- mines : Wallsend, Percy Pit-Main, Regent's Pit, &c. The second and third story panels are painted with miners at work : and the twenty-four ovals at the springing of the dome have upon a turquoise-blue ground figures of fossil plants found in coal-formations. The minor ornamentation is flowers, shells, snakes, lizards, and other reptiles, and nautical subjects. The whole is in polychrome, by Sang. The gallery-fronts and other iron-work are cable pattern. The cost of the enlarged site, the building, and approaches, was 91,167Z. lls. 8d. In a basement on the east side of the Exchange are the remains of a Roman bath, in excellent preservation, discovered in excavating the foundations of the new building ; there is a convenient access to this interesting relic of Roman London. COBN EXCHANGE (the), Mark-lane, was established in 1747, when the present system of factorage commenced. It consists of an open Doric colonnade, within which the factors have their stands; it resembles the atrium, or place of audience, in a Pompeian house ; with its impluvium, the place in the centre in which the rain fell. ( W. H. Leeds.) In 1827-8, adjoining was built a second Corn Exchange (G. Smith, architect) : it has a central Grecian-Doric portico, surmounted by the imperial arms and agricultural emblems ; the ends have corresponding pilasters. Here lightermen and granary -keepers have stands, as well as corn-merchants, factors and millers ; the ceed market is in another part of the building. " This is the only metropolitan market for corn, grain, and seeds. The m&rket-days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ; hours, ten to three. Wheat is paid for in bills at one month, and other corn and grain in bills at two months. The Kentish ' hoymen,' distinguishable by their sailor's jackets, have stands free of expense, and pay less for metage and dues than others ; and the Essex dealers enjoy some privileges : in both cases said to be in consideration of the men of Kent and Essex having continued to supply the City when it was ravaged by the Plague." Knight's London, vol. iii. p. 365. KING'S EXCHANGE (the), " for the receipt of bullion to be coined," was in Old Exchange, now Old 'Change, Cheapside. " It was here that one of those ancient officers, known as the King's Exchanger, was placed ; whose duty it was to attend to the supply of the Mints with bullion, to distribute the new coinage, and to regulate the exchange of foreign coin. Of these officers there were anciently three : two in London, at the Tower and Old Exchange, and one in the City of Canterbury. Subsequently, another was appointed with an establishment in Lombard-street, the ancient rendezvous of the merchants ; and it appears not improbable that Queen Elizabeth's intention was to have removed this functionary to what was pre- eminently designated by her ' the Eoyal Exchange,' and hence the reason for the change of the name of this edifice by Elizabeth." W. Tite, FJR.S. No. 36, Old 'Change was formerly the " Three Morrice-Dancers " public-house, with the three figures sculptured on a stone as the sign and an ornament, (temp. James I.) : the house was taken down about 1801 : there is an etching of this very characteristic sign-stone. NEW EXCHANGE, en the south side of the Strand, was built by the Earl of Salisbury on the site of the stables of Durham House, and was opened by James I. and his EXCHANGES. 331 queen, who named it " the Bursse of Britain." It was erected partly on the plan of the Itoyal Exchange, with vaults beneath, over which was an open paved arcade; and above were walks of shops occupied by perfamers and publishers, milliners and sempstresses : " The sempstress speeds to 'Change with red-tipt nose." Gay's Trivia, b. ii. 1. 337. When, at the Restoration, Covent Garden rose to be a fashionable quarter, the New Exchange became very popular. It is a favourite scene with the dramatists of the reign of Charles II., and was the great resort of the gallants of that day. At the "Three Spanish Gipsies," in the New Exchange, lived Anne Clarges, married to Thomas Ratford, who there sold wash-balls, powder, gloves, &c., and she taught girls plain work. Anne became sempstress to Colonel Monk, and used to carry him linen : " she was a woman," says Lord Clarendon, " of the lowest extraction, without either wit or beauty;" but who contrived to captivate Monk, " old George," and was married to him at St. George's Church, Southwark, in 1G52, it is believed while her first hus- band was living. " She became the laughing-stock of the court, and gave general disgust." (Pepys, iii. 75.) She died Duchess of Albemarle, leaving a son, Christopher, who succeeded to the Dukedom ; he is said to have been " suckled by Honour Mills, who sold apples, herbs, oysters, &c." At the Revolution, in 1688, there sat in the New Exchange, as a sempstress, Francis Jennings, the reduced Duchess of Tyrconnel, wife to Richard Talbot, lord-deputy of Ireland under James II. : she supported herself for a few days (till she was known, and otherwise provided for) by the little trade of this place : to avoid detection, she sat in a white mask and a white dress, and was therefore known as " the white widow."* Another romantic story is told of the place. In November, 1653, a quarrel having arisen in the public walk of the Exchange be- tween M. Gerard (at that time engaged in a plot against Cromwell) and Don Panta- leon Sa (brother to the Portuguese ambassador) ; the latter next day came to the Ex- change, accompanied by assassins, who mistaking another person, then walking with his sister and mistress, for M. Gerard, seized upon him, and stabbed him to death with their poniards. For this crime Don Pantaleon was condemned to death ; and, by a strange coincidence, he suffered on the same scaffold with M. Gerard, whose plot had been discovered. The Exchange latterly became famous for its exhibitions of waxwork, and for a magnificent stock of English and foreign china kept for sale ; but by the intrigues, assignations, and indecent licenses of the fops with the milliners, the place lost its character, was little resorted to after the death of Queen Anne, and in 1737 was taken down, and the site covered with houses ; the name is retained in Exchange-court. In the Strand, exactly opposite Ivy Bridge (a short distance east of the New Exchange site), Thomas Parr, the "olde olde man," had lodgings, when he came to London to be shewn as a curiosity to Charles I. The authority for this fact is a Mr. Greening, who in the year 1814, being then about 90 years of age, mentioned it to the author, saying that he perfectly well remembered, when a boy, having- been shown the house by his grandfather, then 88 years of age. The house, which stood at the com- mencement of the present century, had been known for more than 50 years as the " Queen's Head" public-house. Smith's Streets of London, edit. 1849, p. 145. STOCK EXCHANGE, the heart of "the Bank for the whole world" (Rothschild), is in Capel-court, Bartholomew-lane, facing the eastern front of the Bank of England. The speculators in stock, who greatly increased with the National Debt, hitherto met at Jonathan's Coffee-house, Change-alley; then at a room in Threadneedle-street, admission 6d. ; and bargains in stocks were next made in the Bank rotunda. In 1801, the present building was commenced by subscription (James Peacock, architect), in Capel-court, the site of the offices and residence of Sir William Capel, lord mayor in 1504. The inscription placed beneath the foundation-stone states, "at this era the public funded debt had accumulated in five successive reigns to 552,730,924Z. ;" adding propitiatorily, " the inviolate faith of the British nation, and the principles of the con- stitution, sanction and secure the property embarked in this undertaking. May the blessing of that constitution be secured to the latest posterity !" The building was opened March, 1802 ; and in 1822 the business in the foreign funds was removed here from the Royal Exchange. The Stock Exchange was considerably enlarged in 1854, at the expense of 20,OOOZ. * This anecdote was ingeniously dramatised by Mr. Douglas Jerrold; and produced at Covent-garden Theatre, in 1840, as " The White Milliner." 332 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. The fabric belongs to a private Company, consisting of 400 shareholders ; and the shares were originally of 501. each, but are now of uncertain amount. The affairs of this Company are conducted, under a deed of settlement, by nine "managers," elected for life by the shareholders. The members or subscribers, however, entirely conduct their own affairs by a Committee of thirty of their own body. There are three branches, or houses : the English, for stocks and Exchequer- bills ; the Foreign, for stocks ; and the Kailway or Share-market, a market for mining shares being added in 1850. Lists are daily published of the prices of stocks and shares, and twice a week of bullion and foreign exchanges. The members give security to the Stock Exchange Com- mittee, partly as a guarantee of their own individual respectability, and partly of their good faith. In some cases they give sureties to the amount of 9001., and in others of 5001. or 6001. ; the smaller amount being required of brokers who have for some time before been recognised clerks of members of the Stock Exchange ; but in all cases, the time during which such security lasts is limited to two years. The money received in the event of defalcation by a broker from his sureties goes solely to the members of the Stock Exchange ; and the bonds given to the Stock Exchange are required for the protection of that body only, and not for the public. Each member, as well as the Committee, has to meet the proba- tion of re-election every Lady-day. A bankrupt ceases to be a member, and cannot be re-admitted unless he pays 6s. 8d. in the pound beyond that collected from his debtors. The names of defaulters are posted on the " black board," and they are termed " lame ducks ;" this rule was established in 1787, when twenty-five " lame ducks waddled out of the Alley." To avoid a libel, the notice runs thus : " Any person transacting business with A. B. is requested to communicate with C. D." Only members are allowed to transact business at the Stock Exchange, as notified at each entrance; and strangers who stray in are quickly hustled out : but a view of the Exchange can be obtained through the glass-doors in the entrance from Hercules-court. The brokers usually deal with the jobbers ; and among the Exchange cries are, " Borrow money ?"" What are Exchequer ?"" Five with me," "Ten with me," making up a strange Babel. "A thousand pounds' consols at 96J-964." ("Take 'em at 96|," is the vociferous reply of a buyer:) "Mexican at 27^-27; Portuguese fours at 32J-324 ; Spanish fives at 21; Dutch two-and-a-halfs at 50^-50J :" and so on till the hour for closing strikes. Railway companies and bankers often lend large sums, and bankers are sometimes borrowers, as are also the Bank of England and were the East India Company. The fluctuations in the rate of interest enjoin " watching the turn of the market ;" for, on the same day, money has been lent at 4 per cent, in the morning, and at 2 o'clock could scarcely be borrowed at 10 per cent. The Stock Exchange has had its vocabulary of terms for than a century traceable to the early transactions in the stock of the East India Company. A Bull is one who speculates for a rise ; whereas a Sear is he who speculates for a fall. The Bull would, for instance, buy 100,0002. consols for the account, with the object of selling them again during the intervening time at a higher price. The Bear, on the contrary, would sell the 100,000?. stoi-k (which, however, he docs not possess) for the same time, with the view of buying in and balancing the trans- action at a lower price than that at which he originally sold them. If consols fall, the Bull finds him- self on the wrong side of the hedge ; and if they rise, the poor Bear is compelled to buy in his stock at a sacrifice. The City, 2nd edit. Certain of the legitimate dealers and brokers, originally formed themselves into a Stock Exchange, on the principle of admitting only those who could give assurance of their respecta ility, and of dismissing summarily any of their own body who should be guilty of irregularity. On the whole, the scheme has worked greatly to the public advantage, and has rendered the London Money-market the resort of all the world. Notwithstanding the transactions are so enormous, the amounts so large, and the confidence reposed so unlimited, the instances of delinquency in the members are sur- prisingly few. Nevertheless, the reminiscences of the "Alley," together with the equivocal conduct of the " stags " who haunt its purlieus, still attach, though unjustly, to the Stock Exchange itself. The benevolence and charity of the members are well known: in any sudden calamity, the Stock Exchange men are always amongst the first to succour the afflicted. There is, moreover, a fund subscribed by the members for their decayed associates, the invested capital of which, exclusive of annual contribu- tions, amounts to upwards of 50.0CKM. The Builder. The Stock Exchange has many startling episodes of fraud and panic, rise and ruin- Speculation often produces permanent benefit to the public : to the fever of 1807 and 1808, London owes Vauxhall and Waterloo Bridges. Late in Napoleon's career the funds varied 8 and 10 per cent, within an hour ; but the immediate effect of the battle of Waterloo news on the funds was only 3 per cent. : the decrease of the public expen- diture was two millions per month. At the panic of 1825, which more affected the public funds than did the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba, the extrance to the Stock Exchange became so choked up, that a fine of 5Z. was imposed upon each person who stopped the way. Pigeon-expresses for the earliest intelligence were chiefly worked from May to September ; the birds generally used were the Antwerp breed, strong on the wing, and fully feathered : they are, however, superseded by the electric telegraph and the cable. Exchequer-bills let in fraud the year after their creation. The last fraud in Exchequer-bills was that committed by Beaumont Smith, chief clerk in the Audit Office, and the victim of Rapallo, an Italian jobber. Political hoaxes, from the reported death of Queen Anne to the fraud of 1814, in which Lord Cochrane was implicated, chequer the Stock-Exchange chronicles ; and victims flit about its gates from the Goldsmids, whose credit was whispered away by envy, to the poor Miss Whitchead, whose wits were turned to melancholy by the forgeries of her brother. The recollection of large loans raised here reminds one of EXCHANGE-ALLEY EXCISE OFFICE (THE) 333 the mighty power which reigns supreme on this very spot, once the most opulent part of Roman London. " The warlike power of every country depends on their Three-per-Cents. If Csesar were to re-appear on earth, Wettenhall's List would be more important than his Commentaries ; Rothschild would open, and shut the Temple of Janus ; Thomas Baring, or Bates, would probably command the Tenth Legion ; and the soldiers would march to battle with loud cries of ' Scrip and Omnium reduced !' ' Consols and Caesar !' " Rev. Sydney Smith. The most remarkable man among the stockbrokers of our time was the late Mr. Francis Baily, F.K.S., the astronomer, who retired from the Stock Exchange, in 1825. In 1839, in the garden of his house, Tavistoek-place, Russell-square, was constructed a small observatory, wherein Mr. Baily repeated the " Cavendish experiment," the Government having granted 5001. towards the expense of the apparatus, &o. This is the building in which the earth was weighed, and its bulk and figure calculated ; the standard ineasureof the British nation perpetuated, and the pendulum experiments rescued from their chief source of inaccuracy. Mr. Baily died President of the Astronomical Society, in 1841. The Stock Exchange, as rebuilt by Allason, architect, 1853, stands in the centre of the block of buildings fronting Bartholomew-lane, Threadneedle-street, Old Broad- street, and Throgmorton -street. The principal entrance is from Bartholomew-lane, through Capel-court : there are also three entrances from Throgmorton-street and one from Threadneedle-street. The area of the new house is about 75 squares, and it would contain 1100 or 1200 members : there are, however, seldom more than half that number present. The site is very irregular, and has enforced some peculiar construc- tion in covering it, into which iron enters largely. For the cupola, laminated ribs are used. The vault which covers the centre of the building, 39 feet in span, is of timber and iron. The whole of this, together with the dome, &c., is covered with lead to the extent of about 80 tons. The vitiated air is got rid of by an extracting- chamber on the apex of the dome, heated by a sunburner with 500 jets : during the day the sun- burner is concealed from view by a perforated sliding metal screen j but, when required, sufficient illuminating power is to be obtained by withdrawing the screen, to light up the house without further burners. The Builder. EXCHANGE-ALLEY. "pXCHANGE-ALLEY now 'Change-alley, between No. 24, Cornhill, and No. 70, -*-^ Lombard-street, is described by Strype as " a place of a very considerable concourse of merchants, seafaring men, and other traders, occasioned by the great coffee-houses that stand there. Chiefly now brokers, and such as deal in the buying and selling of stocks, frequent it." Thither Jews and Gentiles migrated in 1700 : for a century it was the focus of all the monetary operations of England, and in great part of Europe ; and even to this hour, the Stock Exchange bears the generic designation of " the Alley." It was the great arena of the South-Sea Bubble of 1720. In a print called the " Bubblers' Melody " are " stock -jobbing cards, or the humours of 'Change-alley." " The headlong fool that wants to be a swopper Of gold and silver coin for English copper, May in 'Change-alley prove himself an ass, And give rich metal for adulterate brass." Nine of Hearts, in a Pack of Bubble Cards. 1706 was a South-Sea year in East India stock, when patriots were made or marred by jobbing : " from the Alley to the House," said Walpole, " is like a path of ants." " The centre of the jobbing is in the kingdom of Exchange-alley and its adjacencies. The limits are easily surrounded in about a minute and a half, viz., stepping out of Jonathan's into the Alley, you turn your face full south ; moving on a few paces, and then turning due east, you advance to Garraway's ; from thence, going out at the other door, you go on still east into Birchin-lane ; and then halting a little at the Sword-blade Bank, to do much mischief in fewest words, you immediately face to the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces there in your way west ; and thus having boxed your compass, and sailed round the whole stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jonathan's again ; and so, as most of the great follies of life oblige us to do, you end just where you began." The Anatomy of Exchange-alley, 1719. EXCISE OFFICE (THE), OLD Broad-street (Dance, sen., architect), occupies the site of Gresham College, which the Gresham trustees sold, in 1768, to the Crown for a perpetual rent of 5001. per annum ; when 18,000. was also paid out of the Gresham fund to the Com- missioners towards pulling down the College, and building an Excise Office ! (Burgon.) The business was removed in 1848 to the Inland Revenue Office, Somerset House. In 334 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. the court-yard of the Broad-street Excise Office a temporary Exchange was put up for the merchants in 1838 ; and was used during the rebuilding of the Royal Exchange. (See GBESHAM COLLEGE, p. 274.) The Excise system was established by the Long Parliament, in 1643, to raise funds for the war against the King ! The Commissioners first sat in Haberdashers' Hall, and then at their office in Smithfield, which was taken down in 1647, the mob carrying off the materials in triumph. In J 680, the office was at Cockaigne House, formerly the mansion of Eliah, the brother of Dr. William Harvey, the illustrator of the Circulation of the Blood. Thence the Excise Office was removed to Sir John Frederick's mansion, Old Jewry ; and then to Old Broad-street. EXETER HALL, NO. 372, on the north side of the Strand, a large proprietary establishment, was commenced in 1829 (Gandy Deering, architect), and was originally intended for religious and charitable Societies, and their meetings. It has a narrow frontage in the Strand, but the premises extend in the rear nearly from Burleigh-street to Exeter- street. The Strand entrance is Grseco-Corinthian, and has two columns and pilasters, and the word IAAAE AEION (Loving Brothers) sculptured in the attic. A double staircase leads to the Great Hall, beneath which are a smaller one, and passages leading to the offices of several Societies. The Great Hall, opened in 1831, is now used for the " May Meetings" of religious societies, and for the Sacred Harmonic Society's and other concerts. This Hall has been twice enlarged, is now 131 ft. 6 in. long, 76 ft. 9 in. wide, and 45 ft. high, and will accommodate upwards of 3000 persons. At the east end is an organ and orchestra, the property of the Sacred Harmonic Society ; at the west end is a large gallery, extending partly along the sides ; and on the floor are seats rising in part amphitheatrically ; also a platform for the speakers, and a large carved chair. In 1850, the area of the hall was lengthened nearly forty feet ; the flat-panelled ceiling was also removed, and a coved one inserted, without disturbing the slating in the roof; S. W. Daukes, archi- tect. Nearly eighty tons of iron were introduced into the roof, which, with the new ceiling, is one-third less weight than the original roof. Thus the ceiling gained 15 feet in height at the ends, and 12 feet in the centre; and the sound and ventilation are much improved. The Orchestra is on the acoustic prin- ciple successfully adopted by Mr. Costa at the Philharmonic Society ; it is 76 feet wide, 11 feet more than the Birmingham Town- Hall orchestra. Every member can see the conductor ; the organ-player sees his baton in a glass, among the phalanx of instrumental- ists. The works of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart are here given with mighty effect ; and Spohr and Mendelssohn have here conducted then? own productions. The Organ, built by Walker in 1840, is 30 feet wide and 40 feet high : it has 2187 pipes ; the longest are 20 feet from the base, diameter 15 inches, weight of each 4 cwt. j in gilding one-half of each pipe 750 leaves of gold were used : there are three rows of keys and two octaves of pedals. From April to the end of May, various Societies hold their anniversary meetings at Exeter Hall. The smaller hall holds about 1000 persons, and a third hall 250, Haydon has painted the Meeting of Anti-Slavery Delegates in the Great Hall, June 12, 1840, tinder the presidency of the venerable Thomas Clarkson, then in his 81st year. On June 1, 1840, Prince Albert presided in the Great Hall at the first public meeting of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, this being the Prince's first ap- pearance at any public meeting in England. Exeter Hall, with its various religious and benevolent aggregations, is one field with many encampments of distinct tribes. " Wesleyan, Church, Baptist missionary socie- ties, all maintain a certain degree of reserve towards each other, all are jealous of the claims of rival sects, and yet all are attracted by a common sense of religious earnest- ness. The independent and often mutually repelling bodies who congregate in Exeter Hall are ne in spirit, with all their differences. Without a pervading organization, they are a church." Spectator newspaper. Mr. H ullah's system of popular Singing was formerly illustrated here, when 2000 pupils combined their voices in the performances. EXETER HOUSE AND 'CHANGE FETTER-LANE. 335 EXETER SOUSE AND EXETER 'CHANGE. T7XETER 'CHANGE is now only kept in remembrance by a clock-dial, inscribed -*-^ with its name in place of figures, upon the attic-front of the house No. 353, east- ward of the 'Change site, on the north side of the Strand. Here was formerly the parsonage-house of the parish of St. Martin, with a garden, and a close for the parson's horse; till Sir Thomas Palmer (temp. Edward VI.) obtained it by composition, and tegan to build here " a magnificent house of brick and timber" (Stow). But upon his attainder for high treason (1 Queen Mary), the property reverted to the Crown, and so remained until Queen Elizabeth presented it to Sir William Cecil, lord treasurer, and the great Lord Burleigh (properly Burghley), who completed the mansion, with four square turrets ; whence it was called Cecil House and Burleigh House, and afterwards Exeter House, from the son of the great statesman Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter. The mansion fronted the Strand, and extended from the garden-wall of Wimbledon House (on the site of D'Oyley's warehouse) to a green lane, the site of the present Southamp- ton-street, westward. Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Burleigh at Exeter House j and here his obsequies were celebrated by a lying-in-state.* In the chapel attached, the pious John Evelyn, on Christmas-day, 1657, was seized by the soldiers of the Common- wealth for having observed " the superstitious time of the Nativity," and was tem- porarily shut up in Exeter House. Here lived the first Earl of Shaftesbury, and here was born his grandson, who wrote the Characteristics. After the Great Fire, the courts of Doctors' Commons were held in Exeter House until 1672. Exeter 'Change was built, as a sort of bazaar, by Dr. Barbon, the speculator in houses, temp. William and Mary, when Exeter House was taken down j and probably some of the old materials were used for the 'Change, including a pair of large Corinthian columns at the eastern end. (See a View, by G. Cooke.) About the same time, Exeter- street was erected. The 'Change extended from the house No. 352 to the site of the present Burleigh-street : it projected into the Strand, the northern foot-thoroughfare of which lay through the shops or stands of the lower floor, first occupied by sernpsters, milliners, hosiers, &c. The body of the poet Gay lay in state in an upper room of the 'Change ; here, too, were upholsterers' shops, the offices of Law's Land Bank, auction-rooms, &c. Cutlery then became the merchandise of the lower floor. Thomas Clark, "the King of Exeter 'Change," took a stall here in 1765 with 1CKM. lent him by a stranger. By parsimony and trade, he grew so rich that he once returned his income at 60001. a year; and long before his death, in 1816, he had rented the whole ground-floor of the 'Change. He left nearly half a million of money, and one of his daughters married Mr. Hamlet, the celebrated jeweller. The upper rooms of Exeter 'Change were occupied as a menagerie successively by Pidcock, Polito, and Cross ; admission to Pidcock's, in 1810, 2s. 6d. The roar of the lions and tigers could be distinctly heard in the street, and often frightened horses in the roadway. During Cross' tenancy, in 1826, Chunee, the stupendous elephant shown here since 1809, in an oak den which cost 350Z., was shot, and his skin sold for 501. ; his skeleton, sold for 100Z., is now at the College of Surgeons. (See MUSEUMS.) Cross' Menagerie was removed in 1828 to the Kings' Mews, Charing-cross j and Exeter 'Change was entirely taken down in 1829. NEW EXETER CHANGE, an Arcade which led from Catherine-street to Wellington- street, Strand, is described at page 20. FETTER-LANE, FLEET-STREET, eastward of St. Dunstan's Church, extending to Holborn-hill, "is so called of fewters (or idle people) lying there, as in a way leading to gardens" {Stow) before the street was built ; but when he wrote "it was built through on both sides with many fair bouses." Here lived the leatherseller of the Revolution, " Praise God Barebones," and his brother, " Damned Barebones," both in the same house. * Burghley died at Theobalds, Aug. 4, 1598, where the body lay. Hentzer, however, states that when he called to see Theobalds at Cheshunt, there was " nobody to shew the palace, as the family was hi town attending the funeral of their lord." 336 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON. Hobbes of Malmesbury liad a house in this street. In No. 16, over Fleur-de-lis-court, Dryden is said to have lived ; but not by his biographers. His name does not appear in the parish books ; but he may have been a lodger. " This period in Dryden's life may have been about the time when he wrote prefaces and other pieces for Hering- ham, the bookseller in the New Exchange, or soon after." J. W. Archer, whose im- pression was that the authority consisted in a letter of Dryden's, dated from Fetter- lane, and in Mr. Upcott's collection of autographs. At the right-hand corner of Fleur-de-lis-court, the infamous Mrs. Brownrigg murdered her apprentices in 1767 ; the cellar-grating, whence the poor child's cries issued, is on the side of the court : " She whipped two female 'prentices to death, And hid them in the coal-hole For this act, Did Brownrigg swing." Canning, Antijacolin. On the Rolls estate, nearly opposite, was commenced a new Record Office, by Penne- thorne, in 1851. No. 32, Fetter-lane is the entrance to the Moravian Chapel, which was attacked and dismantled in the Sacheverel riots. (See DISSENTERS' CUAPELS, p. 220.) The Fleet-street and Holborn ends of Fetter-lane were, for more than two centuries, places of public execution. At the Holborn end, Nathaniel Tomkins was executed, July 5, 1643, for his share in Waller's plot to surprise the City. At the Fleet-street end Sarah Malcolm was executed, March 1733, for the murder of three women. (See Mr. Serjeant Burke's Romance of the Forum, vol. i. pp. 224-38.) Hogarth painted and engraved Sarah Malcolm : the print, for which the Duke of Roxburghe gave 81. 5s., is the rarest of Hogarth's portraits : this impression is now in Mr. Holbert Wilson's collection. " Immediately after Sarah Malcolm underwent the extreme penalty of the law, a confession made by her was published in a pamphlet form; the edition was exhausted at once, and as much as twenty guineas is said to have been offered for an impression." Romance of the Forum, 2nd series, vol. i. p. 237. " After her execution her corpse was carried to an undertaker's on Snow-hill, where multitudes of people resorted, and gave money to see it ; among the rest, a gentleman in deep mourning kissed her, and gave the attendants half-a-crown." Ireland, vol. ii. p. 320. Quoted in Mr. Holbert Wilson's Cata- logue, privately printed. Fetter-lane has still a few old houses : towards the Holborn end are some of the oldest chambers of Barnard's Inn. Strange labyrinths of courts and alleys lie between Chancery, Fetter, and Shoe lanes, which, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, intersected gardens and straggling cottages. This district was the principal part of Saxon London, and was nearly all burnt A.D. 982, when the City had " most buildings from Ludgate towards Westminster, and little or none where the heart of the City now is ; except in divers places was housing that stood without order." (Stow.) The White Horse Inn, Fetter-lane (now a cheap lodging-house), was formerly the great Oxford house : here Lord Eldon, when he left school and came to London, in 1776, met his brother, Lord Stowell. " He took me," says Lord Eldon, " to see the play at Drury-lane. Love played Jobson in the farce ; and Miss Pope played Nell. When we came out of the house it rained hard. There were then few hackney-coaches, and we both got into one sedan-chair. Turning out of Fleet-street into Fetter- lane, there was a sort of contest between our chairman and some persons who were coming up Fleet- street, whether they should first pass Fleet-street, or we in our chair first get out of Fleet-street into Fetter-lane. In the struggle, the sedan-chair was overset, with us in it." Lord Eldon's Anecdote-Book. FIELD-LANE, AN infamous rookery of " the dangerous classes," extended from the foot of Holborn- hill, northward, parallel with the Fleet Ditch, but has been mostly taken down since it was thus vividly painted in 1837 : "Near to the spot on which Snow-hill and Holborn meet, there opens, upon the right hand as you come out of the City, a narrow and dismal alley leading to Saffron-hill. In its filthy shops are exposed for sale huge bunches of pocket-handkerchiefs of all sizes and patterns for here reside the traders who purchase them from pickpockets. Hundreds of these handkerchiefs hang dangling from pegs outside the windows, or flaunting from the door-posts ; and the shelves within are piled with them. Confined as the limits of Field-lane are, it has its barber, its coffee-shop, its beer-shop, and its fried-fish ware- house. It is a commercial colony of itself the emporium of petty larceny, visited, at early morning and setting-in of dusk, by silent merchants, who traffic in dark back-parlours, and go as strangely as they come. Here the clothesman, the shoe-vamper, and the rag-merchant, display their goods as sign- boards to the petty thief; and stores of old iron and bones, and heaps of mildewy fragments ofwoollen- stufl' and linen, rust and rot in the grimy cellars." Charles Diekens's Oliver Twwt, 1837. From Field-lane, northward, runs Saffron-hill, named from the saffron which it once FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS FINSBURY. 337 bore ; next is Vine-street, the site of Ely-house vineyard. Strype (1720) describes this locality as "of small account both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pestered with small and ordinary alleys and courts, taken up by the meaner sort of people;" others are " nasty and inconsiderable." In 1844 was taken down part of Old Chick-lane, which debouched into Field-lane. Here was a notorious thieves' lodging-house, formerly the Red-Lion Tavern : it had various contrivances for concealment ; and the Fleet Ditch in the rear, across which the pursued often escaped by a plank into the opposite knot of courts and alleys. FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS. THE fields behind Montague House, Bloomsbury, appear to have been originally called Long Fields ; and afterwards (about Strype's time) Southampton Fields. On St. John Baptist's Day, 1694, Aubrey saw at midnight twenty-three young women in the pasture behind Montague House, looking for a coal, beneath the root of a plantain, to put under their heads that night, and they should dream who would be their husbands. The fields were the resort of depraved wretches, chiefly for fighting pitched battles, especially on the Sabbath-day : such was the turbulent state of the place up to 1800. A legendary story of the period of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion relates a mortal conflict here between two brothers, on account of a lady, who sat by : the combatants fought so ferociously as to destroy each other ; after which their footsteps, imprinted on the ground in the vengeful struggle, were said to remain, with the in- dentations produced by their advancing and receding ; nor would any grass or vege- tation ever grow over these forty footsteps. Miss Porter and her sister, upon this fiction, founded their ingenious romance, Coming Out, or the Field of Forty Footsteps ; but they entirely depart from the local tradition. At the Tottenham-street Theatre was produced, many years since, an effective melodrama, by Messrs. Mayhew, founded upon the same incident, entitled the Field of Forty Footsteps. Southey records this strange story in his Commonplace Book (second series, p. 21). After quoting a letter from a friend, recommending him to " take a view of those wonderful marks of the Lord's hatred to duelling, called The Brothers' Steps," and describing the locality, Southey thus narrates his own visit to the spot : " We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, of Montague House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at work, directed us to the next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we found what we sought, about three- quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham-court-road. The steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six ; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of grass. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat." Southey adds his full confidence in the tradition of the indestructibility of the steps, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the circumstance. Notes and Queries, No. 12. Joseph Moser, in one of his Commonplace Books, gives this account of the foot- steps, just previous to their being built over : " June 16, 1800. Went into the fields at the back of Montague House, and there saw, for the last time, the forty footsteps ; the building materials are there, ready to cover them from the sight of man. I counted more than forty, but they might be the footprints of the workmen." Dobie's St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. George, Bloomsbury; and Dr. Rimbault, in Notes and Queries, No. 14. FINS BUST, OR Fensbury, named from its fenny ground, is a manor of high antiquity, which abuts in part upon the City, Cripplegate, and Moorgate boundaries, and was anciently named Vynesbury. A great part of the manor is held by the Corporation of London, by virtue of a lease dated 22nd May, 1315, from Robert de Baildok, pre- z 338 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. bendary of Haliwell and Finsbury, in St. Paul's Cathedral, at an annual rent of 20*. The lease, which has been renewed from time to time, will expire in the year 1867. The Corporation appoints the steward and other officers of the manorial courts ; but the manor is not within the jurisdiction of the City. The Finsbury court leet and baron are holden in October every year, before the senior Common Pleader, to whose office the stewardship of the manor of Finsbury is incident. (Municipal Corporation Report, pp. 3, 136 ; and Maitland's London, vol. ii. 1369.) Finsbury has been drained and built over, and is now a populous parliamentary borough, including the ancient district of Moorfields, to be described hereafter. In early times, the chief magistrate of London was no more than a provost. Afterwards, the title of Mayor that is, Major Chief was given to him ; but in all the olden chronicles and documents he is simply called by that name, without the prefix of Lord. When the manor of Finsbury was annexed to the City property, and the mere marsh was turned into a place of general recreation, he was, in virtue of his office, Lord of the Manor of Finsbury. Hence, in process of time, the compound title of Lord Mayor : Mayor, that is, of London, and Lord of the Manor of Finsbury. Aggas's Plan, 1560, shows Finsbury as a rural suburb ; with " Finsburie Fyeld," with its four wind- mills; its archers; drying-grounds, with women spreading clothes on the grass; the " dogge-house," &c. "Moor-gate opens to the moor, or fen hence the district name Fin, or Fensbury, and that of the near- to-hand Moor-lane. Fore-street appears before the City wall. The City-road is a footpath, near the junction of which with Old-street, another footpath, stands Finsbury-court. Tenter-street still attests the presence of the ' tenters,' whose frames in Aggas's Plan are sketched on the site which is now so styled ; thus also do Ropemaker and Skinner-streets indicate old trades of suburban custom. Cherry-terrace, Crabtree-row, Willow-walk and Wilderness, Windmill, Lamb, Pear, Rose, Primrose, Acorn, Ivy, Elder, Blossom, Orchard, and Beech-streets, all in the neighbourhood, suggest odours and sights that have long left the spot. Tabernacle, Chapel, Worship, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Paradise, Quaker, Providence, and Great PearJ-streets hint at later occupants." Athenceum, 1866. In the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. (says Cunningham), Finsbury was a favourite walk with the citizens of London on a Sunday ; hence Hotspur's allusion to Lady Percy : " And giv'st such sarcenet security for thy oaths, As if you never walk'st further than Finsbury." Shakspeare, Pint Part of Henry IV. The Prebend of Finsbury now (1866) has revenues of 7000Z. per annum ; they will shortly be eight or nine times that amount. (See BUNHILL FIELDS, p. 76.) The City's proportion of the net proceeds of the Finsbury Estate is, annually, 42,977. FIRE OF LONDON (THE), OR the GREAT FIEE of 1666, broke out about one o'clock on Sunday morning, Sep- tember 2, and raged nearly four days and nights. It commenced at the house of one Farryner, the " King's Baker," in Pudding-lane, near New Fish-street-hill, and within ten houses of Lower Thames-street, into which it spread within a short time ; nearly all the contiguous buildings being of lath and plaster, and the whole neigh- bourhood mostly close passages and narrow lanes and alleys, of wooden pitched houses. Driven by a strong east-north-east wind, the flames spread with great rapidity : how- ever, it was proposed to the Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas Bludworth), who came before three o'clock, to pull down some houses, to prevent their extending ; but he neglected this advice, and before eight o'clock the fire had reached London Bridge. The tremendous event is finely described by Evelyn in his Diary, wherein he tells us that it made the atmosphere as light as day " for ten miles round about ; . . all the skie was of a fiery aspect, like the top of a burning oven, the light seen above forty miles round about. Above 10,000 houses all in one flame ; the noise and cracking and thunder of the impetuous flames, y e shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, the fall of towers, houses, and churches, was like an hideous storme, and the air all about so hot and inflam'd, that at last one was not able to approach it, so that they were forc'd to stand still and let y e flames burn on, w ch they did for neere two miles in length, and one; in bredth. The clouds of smoke were disinall, and reached upon computation neer 50 miles in length." On the 5th, Evelyn writes : " In this calamitous condition, I return'd with a sad heart to my house, blessing and adoring the mercy of God to me and mine, who, in the midst of all this mine, was like Lot, in my little Zoar, safe and sound." Pepys's account, in his Diary, is fully as minute as that of Evelyn, but is mingled with various personal and official circumstances. Pepys was then clerk of the Acts FIRE OF LONDON (THE). 339 of the Navy : his house and office were in Seething-lane, Crutched Friars ; he was called up at three in the morning, Sept. 2, by his maid Jane, and so rose and slipped on his nightgown, and went to her window ; but thought the fire far enough off, and so went to bed again, and to sleep. Next morning, Jane told him that she heard above 300 houses had been burnt down by the fire they saw, and that it was then burning down all Fish-street, by London Bridge. " So," he writes, " I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places, and saw the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side of the bridge," &c. On Sept. 5, he notes : " about two in the morn- ing my wife calls me up, and tells me of new cries of fire, it being come to Barking Church, which is at the bottom of our Lane." The fire was, however, stopped, " as well at Mark-lane end as ours ; it having only burnt the dyall of Barking Church, and part of the porch, and there was quenched." The limits of the Great Fire, according 1 to the London Gazette, Sept. 8, 1666, were : "at the Temple Church, near Holborn Bridge, Pye Corner, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, near the lower end of Coleman- street, at the end of Basinghall-street, by the Postern ; at the upper end of Bishopsgate-street and Leadenhall-street, at the Standard in Cornhill, at the Church in Fenchurch-street, near Clothworkers* Hall, in Minoing-lane, at the middle of Mark-lane, and at the Tower Dock." " It is observed and is true, in the late Fire of London, that the Fire burned just as many parish churches as there were hours from the beginning to the end of the Fire; and next, that there were just as many churches left standing in the rest of the City that was not burned, being, I think, thirteen in all of each; which is pretty to observe." Pcpys' Diary, Jan. 7, 1667-8. The Fire consumed almost five- sixths of the whole City; and without the walls, it cleared a space nearly as extensive as the one-sixth part left unburnt within. Public edifices, churches, and dwelling-houses were alike consumed ; and it may be stated that the flames extended their ravages over a space of ground equal to an oblong square of a mile and a half in length, and half a mile in breadth. In one of the inscriptions on the Monument, which was drawn up from the reports of the surveyors appointed after the Fire, it is stated that " the ruins of the City were 436 acres (viz. 373 acres within the walls, and 63 without them, but within the liberties) ; that of the six-and-twenty wards, it utterly destroyed fifteen, and left eight others shattered and half burnt; and that it consumed eighty-nine churches, four of the City gates, Guildhall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a great number of stately edifices, 13,200 dwelling-houses, and 460 streets. Lord Clarendon says, that " the value or estimate of what that devouring Fire consumed could never be computed in any degree." A curious pamphlet upon the Burning of London, first published in 1667, however, estimates the loss at 7,335,0002. j but it is believed to have been nearer ten millions sterling. Whether the Great Fire were the effect of design or of accident, has been much controverted. Lord Clarendon admits the public impression to have been, " that the Fire was occasioned by conspiracy and combination;" and although he himself main- tains the negative, his own account furnishes opposite testimony. " It could not be conceived," he says, " how a house that was distant a mile from any part of the Fire could suddenly be in a flame, without some particular malice ; and this case fell out every night." One Robert Hubert, a French Papist, seized in Essex, confessed to have begun the Fire ; and was hanged accordingly : he stated that he had been, " suborned at Paris to this action ;" that there " were three more combined with him to do the same thing," and that " he had set the first house on fire." Yet Lord Clarendon strangely remarks, that " neither the judges, nor any present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that he was a poor distracted wretch weary of his life, and chose to part with it in this way." This was not credited by Howell, then recorder of London. " Tillotson believed the City was burnt on design." (Burnet.) On the 26th of April, 1666, a plot was discovered for taking the Tower and firing the City, which was to have been put in execution on the 3rd of September, a day regarded as peculiarly lucky to the anti-royalist faction. It is worthy of remark that the "Great Fire of London" broke out on the 2nd of September in that year, the very day before that appointed by the conspirators. An extremely impressive narrative of the progress of the conflagration, and of the distress and con- fusion it occasioned, has been given by the Rev. T . Vincent, a nonconformist divine, in his tract, God'* Terrible Advice to the City by Plague and Fire, of which thirteen editions were published within five years. The stationers and booksellers lost their stocks, which they had deposited in St. Paul's crypt : too eager to ascertain its condition, as the fire subsided, they caused an z 2 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. aperture to be made in the smouldering pile, when a stream of wind rushed in and con- sumed the whole : "Heavens, what a pile ! whole ages perish'd there; And one bright blaze turn'd learning into air." Aubrey relates that on St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30), 1666, as he was riding in a coach towards Gres- ham College, at the corner of Holborn Bridge, a cellar of coals was opened by the labourers, and " there were burning coals which burnt ever since the Great Fire ; but being pent so close from air, there was very little waste." Nat. Hist. Witt*. Westminster Hall was filled with the citizens' goods and merchandize ; and Pepys oddly complains that he could not " find any place in Westminster to buy a shirt or pair of gloves j Westminster Hall being full of people's goods." A Court of Judicature was appointed by Parliament, to settle all differences arising in respect to the destroyed premises : and the judges of this Court gave such satisfac- tion, that their portraits were painted, at the expense of the citizens, for 601. a piece, and are now in the Courts of Common Pleas and Queen's Bench, Guildhall. Not more than six persons lost their lives in the Fire ; one of whom was a watch- maker, living in Shoe- lane, behind the Globe Tavern, and who would not leave his house, which sunk him with the ruins into the cellar, where his bones, with his keys, were found. (See Hollar's small view of London before and after the Fire j and an ingenious picture-plan by F. Whishaw, C.E., showing the part of the City destroyed, and its altered condition in 1839.) Whilst the City was rebuilding, temporary edifices were raised, both for divine worship and the general business. Gresham College, which had escaped the flames, was converted into an Exchange and Guildhall ; and the Royal Society removed its sittings to Arundel House. The affairs of the Custom-house were transacted in Mark- lane ; of the Excise Office in Southampton-fields, near Bedford House j the General Post-Office was removed to Brydges-street, Covent-garden ; Doctors' Commons to Exeter House, Strand; and the King's Wardrobe was consigned from Puddle Wharf to York-buildings. The inhabitants, for a time, were mostly lodged in small huts, built in Finsbury and Moorfields, in- Smithfield, and on all the open spaces in the neigh- bourhood of the metropolis. The whole calamity was bravely borne : Evelyn mentions that the merchants complied with their foreign correspondence as if no disaster had happened, and not one failure was heard of. Within two days after the conflagration, both Wren and Evelyn had presented to the King plans for a new City : neither of these was accepted ; but London was principally rebuilt within little more than four years after its destruction. (See MONUMENT, the.) MEMOEAELE FIRES. Southwark burnt by William the Conqueror, about twenty years before the Domesday Survey. 962. St. Paul's Minster burnt. 1036. All the houses and churches from the west to the east gate burnt. (Baker's Chronicle.) 1087. The Winchester Chronicle makes entry of the burning of the Church of St. Paul's and of London. The Waverley Chronicle says that St. Paul's, with many other churches, and the greater and better part of the whole City, were then de- stroyed by fire. 1093. The wooden houses and straw roofs of the London citizens again in flames, and great part of the City destroyed. 1102. "London was twice burnt,"aphrasewhich shows how quickly the City could then be rebuilt, and that the houses must have been made of very combustible materials. 1104. London and Lincoln were burnt. 1113. The Tower of London partially destroyed by fire. 1131. " Londonia tota combusta est " London entirely burnt. 1135. The first year of Stephen. A great fire broke out at the Bridge, and destroyed not only all the wooden and thatched houses, but every edifice, including St. Paul's, between the bridge and St. Clement Danes. 1136. The houses burnt from near London- stone eastward as far as Aldgate; and to the shrine of St. Erkenwald, in St. Paul's Cathedral, west. 1161. By the Winchester Chronicle, not only London burnt, but Winchester, Canterbury, and Exeter. 1212. July 10. Southwark, with the Chapel of St. Thomas (on London Bridge) and the Priory of St. Mary Overie, was consumed. The Wacerley Chronicle says : " A great part of London in the neighbourhood of the Bridge, with the Southwark Priory, was burnt down." Three thousand bodies, some half-burnt, were found in the river Thames : besides those who perished altogether by fire. " It broke out on the south side of the Bridge. Multi- tudes of people rushed to the rescue of the inhabi- tants of houses on the bridge, and while thus en- gaged the fire broke out on the north side also, and hemmed them in, making a holocaust of those who were not killed by leaping into the Thames. The fire spread north and south; from John's reign to that of Charles the Second it was known as the Great Fire, but that name is now only FIRE BRIGADES. 341 applied to the conflagration of 1666, which ex- tended from the north-east gate to Holborn- bridge, and from the Tower to the Temple Church, leaving between four and five hundred acres covered with ruins of many thousands of houses to mark its devastation." Athenaum, 1866. 1512. Great part of the Palace of Westminster "once again" burnt (4 Hen. VIII.), and not since re-edified; only the Great Hall, with adjoining offices, kept in good repair. 1531. Aug. 16. The Mews, Charing Cross, burnt. 1613. June 29. The Globe Theatre, Bankside, burnt. 1619. Jan. 12. The old Banqneting-house, Whitehall Palace, burnt. 1621. Dec. 9. The Fortune Theatre burnt. Dec. 20. Six Clerks' Office, Chancery-lane, burnt. 1691 April 10. At Whitehall Palace all the buildings over the stone gallery to the water-side burnt ; 150 houses, chiefly of the nobility, con- sumed, and 20 blown up. 1697. Jan. 4. Whitehall Palace, except Inigo Jones's Banqueting-house, burnt; all its pictures destroyed, and 12 persons perished. 1632-33. Feb. 3. More than one-third of the houses on London Bridge burnt; the Thames almost frozen. 1666. The GREAT FIBE. (See preceding article.) 1671-2. The King's Theatre, Drury-lane, burnt. 1676. May 26. The Town-hall and part of Southwark (600 houses) burnt. 1718. Custom-house (Wren's) burnt. 1726. Great fire at the South-end of London Bridge; stopped by the Stone Gate. 1743. March 25. In Cornhill ward : 200 houses burnt; commenced in 'Change-alley, and was the largest since the Great Fire of 166(5. (See COEN- HILL, p. 235.) 1758. April 11. The temporary wooden London Bridge destroyed by fire, stopping all commuuica- tion between the City and Southwark. This pro- duced the Act of Parliament making any wilful attempt to destroy the Bridge or its works to be death without benefit o clergy. 1760. April 18. Fresh Wharf and part of St. Magnus' Church, London Bridge, burnt. 1765. Nov. 7. The southern half of Bishops- gate-street Within, including St. Martin Outwich Church, destroyed by fire; the four corners of Cornhill, Bishopsgate-street, Leadenhall-street, and Gracechurch-street, were inflames at the same time. 1789. June 17. Italian Opera-house (Van- brugh's) burnt. 1794. June 18. At Limehouse Hole, many houses burnt. July 22, 23. At Ratcliffe Cross ; 630 houses and an East India warehouse burnt : loss, 1,000,000;. 1808. Sept. 20. Covent-garden Theatre burnt. 1809. Feb. 24. Drury-lane Theatre burnt. 1814. Feb. 12. The Custom-house and adjoin- ing houses destroyed. Aug. 28. Oil and mustard mills, Bankside, burnt; remains of Winchester Palace discovered in the ruins. 1834. Oct. 16. Both Houses of Parliament de- stroyed by a fire which was not extinguished several days : libraries and state papers preserved. In 1828, Sir John Soane, noticing the great quantity of timber used in the House of Lords, propheti- cally asked : " Should a fire happen, what would become of the Painted Chamber, the House of Commons, and Westminster Hall ? Where would the progress of the fire be arrested?" The latter was saved by the favourable direction of the wind ; for had the flames and flakes of fire from the two Houses been wafted towards the vast timber roof of the Hall, it must have been inevitably destroyed. Among the strange stories in support of the fire being the work of political incendiaries, is the statement of Mr. Cooper, an ironmonger, of Drury- lane, that he heard at Dudley, in Worcestershire (119 miles from London), a report of the confla- gration about three hours after it broke out. 1838. Jan. 10. The Eoyal Exchange burnt within five hours; with a great amount of pro- perty, documents of corporations, &c. 1841. Oct. 30. Conflagration in the Tower; the great storehouse, with 280,000 stand of arms, and the Bowyer and Butler Towers, burnt. 1843. Aug. 17. Great fire at Topping's Wharf, London Bridge : Watson's telegraph tower and St. OJave's Church burnt. 1849. March 29. The Olympic Theatre and a dozen other buildings burnt in three hours. Oct. 6. Extensive fire at London-wall ; Carpenters' Hall injured : loss, 100,000 J. 1850. March 29. St. Anne's Church, Limehouse, destroyed. Sept. 19. Great fire in Mark-lane and Seething-lane ; loss, 100,0002. In the ruins was discovered a tablet, inscribed : " This was rebuilt in 1792. The foundation, or 'base courts,' are the re- mains of the original palace where the City standard of weights and measures were formerly kept, and designated, in Saxon phraseology, ' Assay Thing Court,' the entrance to which was in, as is now called, ' Seething-lane.' " 1861. June 22. Conflagration in Tooley-street, London Bridge ; property destroyed half a million. FIRE SEIGADE. THE early precautions for the prevention of Fires in the metropolis were remarkable. A householder, within the liberty of the City, who dared to cover his house with thatch, was sure to see his dwelling razed to the ground by the authorities. From the time of the Fire in Stephen's reign, it was forbidden to bakers to light their oven-fires at night (brewers were under similar stringent regulations) with reeds or loose straw ; nothing but wood was legal. Lead, tile, or stones, were alone permitted in Edward the Third's time for roofing. In the first year of Richard I., the Wardmotes ordered : " Item, that all persons who dwell in great houses within the ward have a ladder or two ready and prepared to succour their neighbours in case misadventure should occur from fire. Item, that all persons who occupy such houses, have in summer-time, and especially between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of St. Bartholomew (August 24th), before their doors a barrel full of water for quenching such fire, if it be not a house which has a fountain of its own. Item, that the reputable men of the ward, with the aldermen, provide a strong crook of iron, with a wooden handle, together with two chains and two strong cords, and that the bedel have a good horn and loudly sounding. Of persona wander- 342 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. ing by uiglit, it is forbidden that any person shall be so dareing as to be found wandering about the streets of the City after the curfew rung out at St. Martin's-le- Grand, St. Laurance, or at Berkyngchirch, upon pain of being arrested." The earliest mechanical contrivance for the extinction of fires in London appears to have been a syringe or squirt, numbers of which were kept by the parochial authorities. In the vestry-room of St. Dionis, Back-church, Fenchurch-street, are preserved three of these squirts : each is about 2 feet 3 inches long, and when used was attached by straps to the body of a man : others were worked by three men, two holding the squirt by the handles and nozzle, while a third worked the piston within it. Such was the rudiment of our first fire-engine. " Now streets grow throng'd, and busy as by day : Some run for buckets to the hallow'd quire ; Some cut the pipes, and some the engines play, And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire." Dryden's Annus ~M.iraW.is (1666). The " engines" were the syringes, which were greatly increased after the Great Fire, but were shortly afterwards superseded by regular fire-engines. By order of the Corporation of London, a Fire Police was established in 1668 ; the several parishes were provided with leathern buckets, ladders, pickaxes, sledges, shovels, and hand- squirts of brass ; which supply the companies, aldermen, and subsidy-men contributed ; and among other provisions was the ringing of a bell. The fire-cocks, and the " F.P." and " W.M." upon houses to denote the place of the fire-plug and water-main ; and the rewards for bringing the parish-engines, date from stat. 6 Anne, cap. 31. The Great Fire led to the establishment of Insurance Offices against losses by fire : in 1681, the Court of Common Council attempted to establish one, but unsuccessfully ; the earliest was the Phoenix, at the Rainbow Coffee-house, Fleet-street, in 1682 ; the Friendly Society, 1684 (badge a sheath of arrows) ; and the Hand-in-Hand, established in 1696 ; next was the Sun, projected by one Povey, about 1706, and by the present Company in 1710 ; the Westminster Fire Office, 1717 ; each office keeping its firemen in liveries, with silver badges ; and their fire-engines, which they from time to time improved. In 1676 was patented an engine with leathern pipes, for quenching fire ; and about 1720 two Germans had at Bethnal-green a manufactory of water-tight seamless hose. Here is Gay's mock-heroic picture of a fire of this-period : " Now with thick crowds th' enlighten' d pavement swarms, The fireman sweats beneath his crooked arms ; A leathern casque his vent'rous head defends, Boldly he climbs where thickest smoke ascends. Mov'd by the mother's streaming eyes and prayers, The helpless infant through the "flame he bears, With no less virtue than through hostile fire The Dardan hero bore his aged sire. See forceful engines spout their leveled streams, To quench the blaze that runs along the beams ; The grappling-hook plucks rafters from the walls, And heaps on heaps the smoky ruin falls. * * * * * e Hark ! the drum thunders ! far, ye crowds, retire : Behold ! the ready match is tipt with fire, The nitrous store is laid, the smutty train With running blaze awakes the barrell'd grain, Flames sudden wrap the walls ; with sullen sound The shatter'd pile sinks on the smoky ground." Trivia, b. iil. In 1798 was formed the Fire-watch or Fire-guard of London ; the Insurance Offices still keeping their separate engine establishments. In 1808, Sir F. M. Eden, then chairman of the Globe Insurance Company, proposed to form a general fire-engine esta- blishment, but the attempt failed. About 1825, the Sun, Union, and Royal Exchange formed a brigade. In 1832, eight Insurance Companies formed an alliance for assisting each other at fires ; hence the " London Fire-Engine Establishment," which commenced operations in 1833. By the rules, London was divided into five districts : in each were engine-stations : besides a floating-engine off Rotherhithe and Southwark Bridge ; these required more than 100 men each for working, and threw up two tuns of water per minute. A certain number of the men or " Fire Brigade," superintended by Mr. Braidwood, were ready at all hours of the day and night, as were also the engines, to depart at a minute's alarm, in case of fire. The Associations awarded gra- FIRE BRIGADE. 343 tuities to policemen who gave an alarm to the nearest engine-station ; and the director or captain of each engine paid strangers or bystanders for aid : it required from twenty to thirty men to work each engine ; and at a large fire, 500 strangers were sometimes thus employed. Sometimes the engines were summoned by electric tele- graph, and conveyed by railway to fires in the country. The number of engines kept was 37; of the Fire Brigade, 96. The men wore a dark grey uniform, trimmed with red, black leather waist-belts, hardened leathern helmets, reminding one of the leathern casque and "the Dardan hero " of Gay's Trivia. The engines were provided with scaling ladders ; a canvas sheet, with handles of rope round the edge, to form a fire-escape ; besides ropes, hose, branch-pipes, suction-pipes, a flat rose, goose-neck, dam-board, boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole- axe, screw-wrench, crow bar, portable cistern, two dog-tails, strips of sheep-skin, small cord, instruments for opening the fire-plugs, and keys for turning the stop-cocks of the water-mams. Another ingenious provision was a smoke-proof dress, consisting of a leathern jacket and head cover- ing, fastened at the waist and wrist, so that the interior is smoke-proof: two glass windows served for the eyes to look through, and a pipe attached to the girdle allowed fresh air to be pumped into the interior of the jacket, to support the respiration of the wearer : thus equipped, the fireman could dare the densest smoke. Steam-power was first applied to work a fire-engine in 1830. (See AB