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P!^CFESS3R C.A. KOFQif
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CUEIOSITIES
OP
LONDON:
EXHIBITING THE MOST
EAEE AITD REMAEKABLE OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN
THE METEOPOLIS;
WITH NEARLY
By JOHN/riMBS, F.S.A.
" I'll see these Things !— They're rare and passing curious."— Old Plat.
"I walked up to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass, saw
all the world in yellow, blue, and green, running at the ring of pleasure."— Steenb.
In " the wonderful extent and variety of London, men of curious inquiry may see such
modes of life as very few could ever imagine." ♦ * " The intellectual man is struck with it
as comprehending the whole of humau life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is
inexhaustible."- BOSWELL's Life of Johnson.
" The man that is tired of London is tired of existence."— JOHNSOW.
A NEW EDITION, COERECTED AND ENLARGED.
LONDON :
LONGMANS, GKEEN, READER, AND DYER.
MDCCGLXVIII.
' : .'« '. ; : : .
(C ( c, CC(
• 'e* r r re
GIFT OF
TRCFESSOR C.A. KOFOIO
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.
iirt^l7C>4^^
PBEFAGS.
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. Panoras, 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 thQ
PREFACE.
very footmarks of the Koman 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 1
Such are the leading Archgeological 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 TIMBS.
HORNSEY-ROAD,
Dec, 1867.
PREFACE
TO
THE FIRST EDITION
LITTLE need be said to bespeak the interest of readers in the staple of
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 pubHsher'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 a long 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.
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 Rare Art and
Virtu, Public Buildings, Royal 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 weU 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, Sfc,
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. ; among which are the following, entitled to special
note : —
Page 36. — ■Bitnhtli-I'ielCs BtrRiAL-GRorND. By Act of Parliament, the
management of this property has been transferred by 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. — BwrtJiolomeiv' 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 dep6t. {See p. 640.)
Page 49. — Bermondsey Priory. See Annates Monastici, vol. iii., edited by H. R.
Luard, 1866.
Page 74. — Top line, for Jolliffe Banks, read Jolliffe and Banks.
'Pnop 80. — The Speaker's State Coach is now kept at the Speaker's stables,
Millbank.
1 age 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 Cheisey," measures 52 by 21
inches.
Page 144. — Church of S. Alhan the Martyr : the choir entirely /or the parishioners.
Page 153. — S. Benet's Church, Gracechurch-street, has been taken down.
Page 238. — For Peckburn read PickburH.
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 Britton and Brayley.
Page 312. — Doctors' Commons. The buildings were taken down in 1867.
Page 350. — Fleet-stkeet. No. 50, (not 13,) formerly the Amicable life As-
surance Office, is now the Office of the Norwich Union Society.
Page 430. — Middle Bow has been taken down.
Page 469. — Geat's Inn. For *' Corner-court," read Coney-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 10,000Z. to be expended in Statuary for the Egyptian
Hall; and the Statues now in the Hall were ordered.
Page 608. — Strand Music Hall. For " Old," read New Exeter 'Change.
Page 716. — Spitalfields. For «' Lottesworth," read Lolesworth.
1
CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON.
ABELPEI, 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 (aSeX^oy, brother) from its architects, the four
brothers Adam, who built vast arches over the court-yard of old Durham House, and
upon these erected, level with the Strand, Adam-^tTQQt, leading to John, Moherty
James, and William-stxQQts ; the noble line of houses fronting the Thames being the
Adelphi-terrace. The view from this spot is almost unrivalled in the metropolis for
variety and architectural beauty : from Waterloo Bridge on the east, with the majestic
dome and picturesque campanili of St. Paul's, to Westminster Bridge on the west,
above which rise the towers of Lambeth Palace and Westminster Abbey ; the massive
entrance and lofty clock-tower, and pinnacled and bristling roofs of the Houses of Par-
liament : beneath lies the river, spanned with manifold bridges. The prospect is, how-
ever, partially disfigured with huge and shapeless railway buildings.
In passing- through Parliament the Bill for the Embankment of part of the Thames adjoining
Durham-yard, a violent contest arose between the City and the Court. The Lord Mayor, as Con-
servator of the river, considering the rights of the citizens exposed to encroachment, they were heard
by counsel in Parliament. They produced a grant of Henry VII. of all the soil and bed of the river,
from Staines Bridge to a place in Kent, near the Medway ; and showed a lease granted by them, sixty-
six years before this period, of a nook of the river at Vauxhall, under which they still continued to
receive rent. On the other side a charter of Charles II. to the City was produced, in which he reserved
the bed of the river ; and it was contended that the City, by receiving the latter grant, abandoned the
former ; that the charter of Henry VII. extended only to the soil of the river within the City and
subnrbs. The lease of Vauxhall was said to be a mere encroachment, and the right of the City was
utterly denied. These arguments prevailed : the Bill passed both Houses : and the magnificent pile of
buildings called the Adelphi was erected on the site. The brothers Adam were chosen the Court
architects, through the influence of the Earl of Bute, and did not escape the satire of the day : —
" Four Scotchmen, by the name of Adam,
Who keep their coaches and their madam,"
Quoth John, in sulky mood, to Thomas,
" Have stole the very river from us."
Foundling Hospital for Wit, vol. iv.
In the centre house of the Terrace, No. 4, David Garrick lived from 1772 till his
death, Jan. 20, 1779 : the ceiling of the front drawing-room was painted by Antonio
Zucchi, A.R.A. ; the white marble chimney-piece cost 300Z. Garrick died in the back
drawing-room ; and here his remains lay in state, previous to their interment in West-
minster Abbey, Feb. 1. Johnson says : " His death eclipsed the gaiety of nations;'*
but Walpole, " Garrick is dead ; not a public loss ; for he had quitted the stage."
There were not at Lord Chatham's funeral half the noble coaches that attended
Garrick's ; Burke was one of the mourners, and came expressly from Portsmouth to
follow the great actor's remains ; and Lord Ossory was one of the pall-bearers. Walpole
writes to the Countess of Ossory : —
" Yes, madam, I do think the pomp of Garrick's funeral perfectly ridiculous. It is confounding the
immense space between pleasing talents and national services. What distinctions remain for a patriot
hero, when the most solemn have been showered on a i)layer ? . . , Shakspere, who wrote when
Burleigh counselled and Nottingham fought, was not rewarded and honoured like Garrick, who only
acted."— Letter. Feb. 1,1779.
;2V; ;._; •; ; _ ; :.\ ,CJjRIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Garrick's widow also died in the front drawing-room of the same house, in 1822, at
the Adelphi-terrace. The floor is now the chambers of the Eoyal Literary Fund
Society. In another of the Terrace houses lived Sir Edward Banks, one of the builders of
Waterloo, Southwark, London, and Staines bridges, over the Thames. He was one of
the earliest railway " navvies,*' and worked on the Mersthara Railway, in Surrey,
about the year 1801 : by natural abilities and the strictest integrity, he raised himself
to wealth and station : he died July 5, 1835.
At the north-east corner of Adam-street, No. 73, Strand, Becket, the bookseller,
kept shop, — the rendezvous of Garrick, who never went to taverns, seldom to coflee-
houses. At No. 1, Adam-street, lived Dr. Viccsimus Knox, one of "the British
Essayists ." In the first floor of the same house resided, for twenty years, in almost
total seclusion, George Blamire, barrister-at-law, of very eccentric habits, but sound
mind. No person was allowed to enter his chamber, his meals and all communications
being left by his housekeeper at the door of his ante-room. He was found dead in an
arm-chair, in which he had been accustomed to sleep for twenty years. He died of
exhaustion, from low fever and neglect ; at which time his rooms were filled with fur-
niture, books, plate, paintings, and other valuable property.
At Osborne's Hotel, John-street, in 1824, sojciurned Kamehameha II., King of tho
Sandwich Islands, and his sister the Queen, with their suites : at this time was written
the song of " The King of the Cannibal Islands." The Queen died here of measles,
July 8 ; and the King died of the same disease at the Caledonian Hotel on the 14th. '
Their remains lay in native pomp at Osborne's, and were then deposited in the vaults
of St. Martin's Church, prior to their being conveyed in the Blonde frigate to the
Sandwich Islands for interment. The poor King and Queen were wantonly charged
with gluttony and drunkenness while here ; but they lived chiefly on flsh, poultry, and
fruit, and their favourite drink was some cider presented to them by Mr. Canning.
In John-street also, on the north side, is the house built for the Society of Arts by
the Adams, and extending over part of the site of the New Exchange, Strand. In
the second-floor chambers at No. 2, James-street, lived, for nearly thirty years, Mr.
Thomas Hill, the " Hull " of Theodore Hook's novel of Gilbert Gurney. Hill died
here December 20, 1841, in his eighty-first year, and left a large collection of curio-
sities, including a cup and a small vase formed from the mulberry-tree planted by
Shakspeare at Stratford -upon- Ayon. Neither of these, however, is the Shakspeare
Cup presented to Garrick by the Mayor and Corporation of Stratford at the time of
the Jubilee. This celebrated relic was bought on May 5, 1825, for 121 guineas, by
Mr. J. Johnson ; and by him sold, July 4, 1846, for 40Z. 8*. Qd., to Mr. Isaacs, of
Upper Gower-street.
The Adelphi vaults, in part occupied as wine-cellars and coal-wharfs, in their grim
vastness, remind one of the Etruscan Cloaca of old Rome. Beneath the " dry arches,"
the most abandoned characters have often passed the night, nestling upon foul straw ;
and many a street-thief escaped from his pursuers in these dismal haunts, before the
introduction of gas-light and a vigilant police.
ADIIIBALTY OFFICE, TEF,
FORMS the left flank of the detachment of Government Offices on the north side of
Whitehall. It occupies the site of Walhngford House, from the roof of \vhich
Archbishop Usher saw King Charles I. led out to execution in the front of Whitehall
Palace, and swooned at the sad scene.
Wallingford House was sold to the Crown in 1680, and thither the business of tho
Admiralty was removed from Crutched Friars, and Duke-street, Westminster. The
street front was rebuilt by Thomas Ripley, about 1726.
" See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall."
The Diinciad, B. iii.
The Admiralty is a most ugly edifice. To conceal its ugliness, the court-yard was
fronted with a stone screen, by Adam, in the reign of George III. This screen is a
very characteristic composition; its sculptured hippocampi, and prows of ancient
vessels, combining with an anchor in the pediment of the portico of the main building,
ALCHEMISTS.
I
to denote the purposes of the office — the administration of the affairs of the Royal Navy.
In one of the large rooms the body of Lord Nelson lay in state, January 8, 1806 ; and
next day took place the solemn funeral procession, with a military force of nearly 8000
men, from this spot to St. Paul's Cathedral.
The office of Lord High Admiral was, in 1827, revived, after the sleep of a century,
and was conferred by patent (similar to that of Prince George of Denmark), upon the
Duke of Clarence, who resided at the Admiralty. His Royal Highness was thought by
the Duke of Wellington, then Premier, to have mixed up with the business of the office
too much jaunting and cruising about, presenting of colours, and shows, on sea and
land, " more expensive and foolish than in any way serviceable." On a long account
for travelling expenses being sent in to the Treasury by the Duke of Clarence, the
Premier endorsed the paper, " No travelling expenses allowed to the Lord High Admiral,'*
and dismissed it ; when His Royal Highness retired ; the salary was 5000Z. a year.
On the roof of the Admiralty Office, many years since, was placed a Semaphore (the
invention of Sir Home Popham) ; the arms of which, extending laterally at right
angles, communicated orders and intelligence to and from the sea-ports ; previous to
which was used the shuttle telegraph, invented by R. L. Edgeworth. The Semaphore
has, however, been superseded by the Electric Telegraph, of which wires are laid from
the office in Whitehall to the Dockyard at Portsmouth, &c.
ALCSIIMISTS.
SOME sixty years since, there died in his chamber, in Barnard's Inn, Holborn, Peter
Woulfe, the eminent chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society. According to Mr.
Brande, Woulfe was " the last true believer in alchemy." He was a tall, thin man ;
and his last moments were remarkable. In a long journey by coach, he took cold ;
inflammation of the lungs followed, but he strenuously resisted all medical advice. By
his desire, his laundress shut up his chamber, and left him. She returned at midnight
when Woulfe was still alive ; next morning, however, she found him dead ; his coun-
tenance was calm and serene, and apparently he had not moved from the position in
which she had last seen him. These particulars of Woulfe's end were received by the
writer from the Treasurer of Barnard's Inn, who was one of the executors of Woulfe's
last will and testament. Little is known of Woulfe's life. Sir Humphry Davy tells
us that he used to affix written prayers, and inscriptions of recommendations of his
processes to Providence. His chambers were so filled with furnaces and apparatus,
that it was difficult to reach the fireside. Dr. Babington told Mr. Brande that he once
put down his hat, and could never find it again, such was the confusion of boxes, pack-
ages, and parcels, that lay about the room. His breakfast-hour was four in the
morning : a few of his friends were occasionally invited, and gained entrance by a
-secret signal, knocking a certain number of times at the inner-door of the chamber.
He had long vainly searched for the Elixir, and attributed his repeated failure to the
want of due preparation by pious and charitable acts. Whenever he wished to break
•an acquaintance, or felt himself offended, he resented the supposed injuries by sending a
present to the offender, and never seeing him afterwards. These presents sometimes
consisted of an expensive chemical product, or preparation. He had an heroic remedy
for illness, which was a journey to Edinburgh and back by the mail-coach ; and a cold
taken on one of these expeditions terminated in inflammation of the lungs, of which he
died. — A Century of Anecdote, vol. ii., pp. 315, 316.
"About 1801, an adept lived, or rather starved, in the metropolis, in the person of an Editor of an
evening' journal, who expected to compound the alkahest if he could only keep his materials digested
in a lamp-furnace for the space of seven years. The lamp burnt brightly during six years, eleven months,
and some odd days besides, and then, unluckily, it went out. Why it went out the adept never could
guess ; but he was certain that if the flame could only have burnt to the end of the septenary cycle his
experiment must have succeeded." — Paper on Adrohgy and Alchemy, hy Sir Walter Scott ; Quarterly
Review, 1821,
In Catherine-street, Strand, lived for many years, one John Denley, a bookseller,
who amassed here a notable collection of the works of alchemist, cabalist, and astro-
loger. He is the individual so characteristically portrayed by Sir Edward Lytton
Bulwer, in the introduction to his Zanoni,
B 2
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Within the last fifteen years, there has been printed in England, a volume of consi-
derable extent, entitled, A Suggestive Inquiry/ into the Sermetie Mystery : London,
T. Saunders, 1850. This work, which a Correspondent of Notes and Queries describes
as " a learned and valuable book," is by a lady (anonymous), and has been suppressed
by the author. By this circumstance we are reminded of a concealment of alchemical
practices and opinions, some thirty years since, when it came to our knowledge that a
man of wealth and position in the metropolis, an adept of Alchemy, was held in
ierrorem by an unprincipled person, who extorted from him considerable sums of money
under a threat of exposure, which would have affected his mercantile credit.
ALMACK'S
ASSEMBLY-ROOMS, on the south side of King-street, St. James's, were built by
Robert Mylne, architect, for Almack, a Scotchman, and were opened Feb. 12,
1765, with an Assembly, at which the Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, was
present. Gilly Williams writes to George Selwyn : —
" There is now opened at Alraack's, in three very elesrant new-built rooms, a ten-guinea subscription,
for which you have a ball and supper once a week, for twelve weeks. You may imagine by the sum
the company is chosen ; though, refined as it is, it will be scarce able to put old Soho (Mrs. Cornelys')
out of countenance. The men's tickets are not transferable, so, if the ladies do not like us, they have
no opportunity of changing us, but must see the same persons for ever." . . . , " Our female Almack's
flourishes beyond description. Almack's Scotch face, in a bag-wig, waiting at supper, would divert
you, as would his lady, in a sack, making tea and curtseying to the duchesses."
The large ball-room is about one hundred feet in length, by forty feet in width ; it
is chastely decorated with gilt columns and pilasters, classic medallions, mirrors, &c.,
and is lit with gas, in cut-glass lustres. The largest number of persons ever present
in this room at one ball was 1700.
The rooms are let for public meetings, dramatic readings, lectures, concerts,
balls, and dinners. Here Mrs. Billington, Mr. Braham, and Signor Naldi, gave
concerts, from 1808 to 1810, in rivalry with Madame Catalan!, at Hanover-square
Rooms ; and here Mr. Charles Kemble gave, in 1844, his Readings from Shakespeare.
Almack's Rooms are often called " Willis's," from the name of their present pro-
prietor. Many public dinners now take place here.
Almack's has declined of late years ; " a clear proof that the palmy days of exclusive-
ness are gone by in England j and though it is obviously impossible to prevent any
given number of persons from congregating and re-establishing an oligarchy, we are
quite sure that the attempt would be ineffectual, and that the sense of their importance
would extend little beyond the set." — Quarterly Review, 1840.
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.
ALDUEMAN.
THE oldest office in the Corporation of London, and derived from the title of the
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 iu
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'Saxcm times, the person was styled "Alderman" who is now
called " Judge " and " Justiciar," as set forth in the Liher Custumarum. These alder-
men, too, in respect of name as well as dignity, were anciently called " Barones,"
and were buried with baronial honoxirs ; 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 Albus; the White Book, B. 1, Pt. 1, translated by Riley, 1861.
ALVEBMAK
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 fur, 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 Faryngdon 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 118S
to 1274, in the Liber de Antiquis Legihus, 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, Fenchurch-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 war 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; 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 M'hich
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 electa one Alderman for life, or " during good
behaviour." The fine for the rejection of the office is 500^. ; but it is generally sought
6 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
as a stepping-stone to the Mayoralty, each Alderman being hi 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 f
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 Koyal 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 fi'om Temple Bar to the Exchange.
ALMONRY, TEE,
OB 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 beings
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 Keed
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-street. Bagford describes this house as of brick, with the
sign of the King's Head : it is said to have partly fallen down in Xovember, 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 Flaye 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 Ahhey, Mr. Burges suggests, not altogether
without probability, that it was in the spacious triforium 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."
" There is an old brick house in Tothill-street, opposite Dartmouth-street, which was probably at
one time connected with the Almonry. It has upon its front, sunken in the brickwork, the letters E.
(Eleeraosynaria ?) T. A. (perhaps the initials of the almoner's name), with, however, a late date, 1571.
A heart, which is above the inscription, was the symbol used in the old Clog Almanacks for the Annun-
ciation, the Purification, and all other Feast-days of Our Lady."— F'a?cofrs Westmimter, 1849.
ALMONRY— ALMSHOUSES.
ALMONRY, ROYAL.
THIS OflSce, in Middle Scotland-yard, Wliitehall, is maintained expressly for the
distribution of the Royal Alms, or Bounty, to the poor. The duties of the
Hereditary Grand Almoner, first instituted in the reign of Richard 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 honafelomim 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, 4'i. -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
twopences, 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 J but on the death of Archbishop Harcourt, in November, 184-7, 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, theSub-Almouer, 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, 1^. 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 IZ. 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 reheved exceeded 1000 persons, among whom
very many were blind, paralyzed, and disabled, some exceeding 90 years of age. Formerly bread, meat,
and fish were distributed ui large wooden bowls, ahd 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, in 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.
ALMSKOUS^S,
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 Comj^lete 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-street, 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 i-emembered; 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 momiment 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 8000Z.,
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 Alms-
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 20,000^.
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 25,000^.
Edward Alleyn, the distinguished actor, and friend of Ben Jonson and Shakspeare,
besides founding Dulwich 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, July 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, Avith 20d. a week ; president, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for
thQ time being. The College has been rebuilt.
AIIUSEMENTS. 9
The East India Almshouses, Poplar, were estahlished at the granting of the first
charter, in the l7th 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 SOL to 80^. 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 72L 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, 12,000Z. 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 500^. 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, Eali'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.
ARCHERY 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 T. there was formed a society entitled
the Archers of Finsbury. Here, in the reign of Henry VIT., all the gardens were
destroyed 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 Dale'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 At/me for Finsburie
Archers, 1628; and the A^me for the Archers of St. George's Fields, 1664.
10 CUBIOSITIES OF LOKDOK
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 iised to summon the officers of his several divisions under the
titles of Marquis of Barlo, of Clerkenwell, of Islington, of Hoxton, of Shacklewell,
Sec, 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 Smithfield, 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 had been customary at
Bartholomew-tide for the Lord Mayor, with the sheriffs and aldermen, to go into th&
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. 5Sir 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-case tied.
Where arrows stick with mickle pride;
Like ghosts of Adam Bell and Clymme,
Sol sets— for fear they'll shoot at him ?"
Pepys records, in his Diary, that, vvhen 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
tlieir 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 rights
—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 1791', 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, 5/. annually, entrance-fee 5Z., and other expenses : they possess the original
silver badge of the old Finsbury Archers. They meet every Friday during the Springs
and Summer ; the shooting is at 60, 80, and 100 yards ; and many prizes are shot foi-^
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 SQOZ.-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 " 'Twas 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. 11
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 a for one 'penny, in former days
the price of a single ballad ; and liere 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.
Beae akd 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 Boll e Bating Theatre," near the " Beare Baitynge
House," nigh where London Bridge now comvnences. 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 Figg, by the prize-fighting swains
Sole monarch acknowledged of Marybone plains."
At Tothill Fields, Westminster, was in l793, 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 VIIL, who added
to Whitehall " tennise-courtes, howling-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 j 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 j 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 Turnm ill-street ; Bowling-green-lane in Clerkenwell and Southwark ;
Bowling-green-buildings, Bryanston-square ; and Bowling-green-walk at Hoxton.
Caed-Plating 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 l7th century ; and Basset-tokens are preserved : —
" Who the bowl or rattling dice compares
To Basset's heavenly joys and pleasmg 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 day
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 green or red baize door
at the end of the passage were conspicuous in the vicinity of St. James's j 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-lane,
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.
Ceicket 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 Winchilsea, 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-
AMUSEMENTS. 13
wood-road, and is about 1\ acres in extent, and devoted almost exclusively, in May,
June, and July, to the matches and practice of the Marylebone Club j 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 lend of the club, which, it is thought,
denotes Cricket to have been a gradual improvement of the Club and Ball. 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 ; Primi'ose Hill ; Vincent-square,
Westminster ; and at Bow, Millwall, and Putney. Of the younger London clubs is
the Civil Service, consisting exclusively of members of the Civil Service.
DxTCK-HuNTiNa 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 Bethlem 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.
Equesteianism 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. Mai'y 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,
Avas 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 hves 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
** May 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.
FiEEWOEKS, 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 fire,"
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 Marybone 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-ChapeUe, in 1748 ; and on August 1, 1814-, 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 3034Z. 18*. ^d.
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 1. to the
citizens to " have chaces, and hunts :" and Strype, so late as the reign of George L,
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 ofiicer 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 j 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-Fields, &c.
Masquerades were introduced into England from Italy in 1512-13, by Henry VIII.
They were i'requent 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 cairied 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 hy George III., at whose request Foote ahstained from giving a
masquerade at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket. At Ranelagh 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 and May-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 ; it was broken with a high wind a fe\y 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 I7l7, 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** May poal, in y^ 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
Paille-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 wrestUng-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 flocks 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 L, 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.
Peisok Baes, or 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 Ehzabethan 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 imder 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 Colher's very agreeable volume. Punch and Judy. Haydon painted Punch,
with Hogarthian humour, in 1829 ; and Webster, R.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 10^. a day ; but he died in St. Giles' workhouse. A set of Punch figures costs about
15Z., and the show about 3^. 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 10^. Chinese Shades consist of a frame like Punch's, with a transparent curtain
and movable figures ; shown only at night, with much dialogue.— -Seiec^ed 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
C3ntury. 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 castanet;s, and throwing balls and
knives alternately into the air and catching them as they full, with catching oranges
upon forks, formed part of the puppet-showman's exhibition.
* In a 14th-century manuscript of the French romnnce of Alexander, in the Bodleian Library, is an
illumination of Punch's show, the figures closely resembling the modem Punch and Judy.
AIIUSEMENTS. 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 1841< ; 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 Gaedens 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 Bickerstaff"'s 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.
18 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Next we reach Highbury, where originally stood the Barn 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, xij(^.
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 Wliite 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 Review ^ 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 tem'p. 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 T. 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 Booms, 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 VIIL 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. In
AF0LL0NIC0N—ARGADE8. 1 9
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
Killigrew's comedians performed for some time. There are in Holborn, Blackfriars,
and Southwark thoroughfares known as " Tennis-courts," denoting the game to have
been formerly played there.
Thames Sports. — 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 5Z. 5^. per day. The great civic barge, the
Maria 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.
Theatees 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.)
AJPOLLONICON, TRU.
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, ispinned 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. Tlie 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 Zauherfldie, Figaro,
and Idomeneo ; Beethoven's Frometheus ; 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
10,000?., under the patronage of George IV. Its performances were popular for many
years.
AECADFS.
ONLY a few of these covered passages (series of arches on insulated piers) have
been constructed in London; although Paris contains upwards of twenty jpawaye*
or galleries of similar design.
c-2
20 CUBI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
BUELINGTON Aecade. — When, in 1815, Burlington House was purchased of the Duke
of Devonshire by 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 4000^. a year ; though the property, by sub-letting and otherwise,
is stated to yield double that amount a year.
Exeter Change (the second building of the name, but on a different site from tlie
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.
LowTHER 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 Arcade oe Covent Gaedek, 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.
ABCRIJS.
LONDON differs essentially from many other European capitals in the paucity
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/.
ABCEES. 21
The Geeen Paek 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. E. 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 j
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
Nash from the Arch of Constantine, at Rome ; but it is by no means so richly em-
belhshed. 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 j
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 fi\ce 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 4,340^. The original cost
of the Arch was 75,000/.
Of the two arches, St. Jokn's Gate and Temple Bae, separate histories will be
given.
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
ARGYLL HOOMS.
THIS place was originally a large lioiise purchased by Col. Greville, of sporting
notoriety, and converted into a place of public entertainment, where balls, concerts,
masquerades, and amateur plaj^s were much patronized by the haul 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 50Z.,
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 Vict., 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 lOZ. 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
our hest 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 l{eynolds fifty guineas for it ;
the last, the Marquis of Hertford, was delighted m obtaining it for 2100 guineas, — Art Union Beport.
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 on art), and would have distributed in aid of art and artists, the
sum of 324,000^.; 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 489Z. For the present year the sum of
11,743/. has been subscribed. The subscriptions for the year amount to the sum of 13,648i., shewing
aa increase of 1941Z. on Ijist -^eax.— Report, 1866,
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 Colonics, in
Amei'ica, &c., including Canton ; it has expended about 15O,0OOZ. 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 10,000/. 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.
AUTESIAN 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 12,412Z. 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 170 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
4000^., independent of the 8000^. 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; Meux
and Co.'s Brewery, 435 feet ; Norwood, Middlesex, 414 feet, unsuccessful at this depth ; West India
Export Dock, 360 feet; Zoological Gardens, Eegent's-park, 227 feet, cost 1957^.; Barclay and Perkins*
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 4444^. ; Reid and
Co.'s Brewery, shaft sunk the whole depth, 259 feet, cost 17001. ; Blackwall Railway, depth not given,
cost 8000^.; Pentonville Prison, 370 feet, cost 1600^. ; 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, 3JX) feet; Piccadilly (St. James's Church), 240 feet; Elliott's Brewery, 390 feet; Royal Mmt,
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 natui-ally expected to occur immediately below the gault; but the gault was found to
be succeeded by 176 feet of a scries 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 8000^. ; 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 France. They were, how-
«yer, 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.
Buckland 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 favourable than in France.
AETILLIIBY COMFANY.
THIS 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" (Stoio, hy Howell) in " the Old Artillery Ground," demised to them out of
the ancient manor of Finsbury, or Feusbury, originally a field called Tassel (or Teasel,
from teasels being grown 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 : —
AETILLERY C03IPANY. 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
their 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."— ^w<. Rebellion^
edit. 1826. iv. 236.
Howell, in his Londonopolls, 1657, tells us that London had then " 12,000 Trained
Band Citizens perpetually in readiness, excellently armed j" 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 oificer 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 500Z.), 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 6*. Sd. per annum. This ground, with the houses adjoining, realizes to the
Company a yearly income of 2000Z., 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 Tatler, 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
(l709) 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, hreaJcing doion gates, ^c,
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. Georpe, 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 staff, *
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 ASCLNTS.
THE following are the more memorable Balloon Ascents made from the metropolis
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 Crictet
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 3 9, 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
261. to 50^. : this wa^ 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 500Z. ;
in 1836 it cost 21001.
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.
BANK 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.
Goxwell, 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 afibrd 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 abilitj^ 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 Newgate, 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 onccs
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 withdrav/ing 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
inore dense, till the cause was evident, it being mixed with mist rising from the ground, the southern
limits of which were bounded by an 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 afitthig 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 defined. 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. 1 h.'ive 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."
BANK OF ENGLAND, THE,
S an insulated assemblage of buildings and courts, occupying three acres, minus nine or
ten yards, north of the Royal Exchange, Cornhill ; bounded by Prince's-street, west ;
I
28 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Loth bury, north ; Bartholomew -lane, east ; 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, l,2OO,O0OZ., 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 aiFairs.
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-Stocks
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 Kobert 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 Sibyl 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 500^. 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 200,000Z. 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 Constantine'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 lbs. 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 buildinars, by Sir Kobert Taylor, that formerly stood between the
Bank and the Mansion House, where the Wellington Statue is now.
BANK OF ENGLAND. 29
800Z.), 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 lbs. to
80 lbs. troy ; second, a balance, by Sir John Barton, for gold ; and a third, by Mr.
Bate, for dollars, to amounts not exceeding 72 lbs. 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 lbs., 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 j 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 lbs. •
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
2,201,27lZ. 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 20*.
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 1,300,000Z.
It has since transpired that there was not 100,000?., probably not 50,000Z. ! 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 Feel, 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 sum thus clubbed was expended in printmg 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 340Z. per million for the first 600,000,000Z,, and SOOl. per
million for the remainder. This amounts to about 250,000Z. 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 HxcTiequer, 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 j 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,
*7\ 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 800Z. ; the patronage is in the hands of the directors, of whom there
are twenty-four, eacli having a nomination to admit one clerk, provided he be found
qualified on examination. The vacancies are not, as in most public ofiices, 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 surroimding
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 Utcrary celebrities; among them those of Lady
Sale; and Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt.
BANK 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 tlie 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 Bank of England, the condition of credit, and the effects of a high or low rate of interest, are the
circnrastances 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 yeai*s, 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 are assured that it is
completely filled by the number retunied during one month.
Jfotes of the Bank, at its establishment, 20 per cent, discount ; in 1745 under par. Bank Bills paid
in silver, in 1745. Bank Post Bills first issued, 1754. Small Notes issued, 1759. Cash payments dis-
continued, Feb. 25, 1797, and Notes of \l. and 21. put into circulation. Cash payments partially resumed,
Sept. 22, 1817. Eestriction altogether ceased, 1821. May 14, 1832, upwards of 300,000^. weighed and
paid to bankers and others. Quakers and Hebrews not eligible as Directors. Qualification for Director,
2000Z. Bank Stock; Deputy-Governor, 3000/. ; Governor. 4000Z. 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^ per cent, per
annum. Silver Tokens issued, Jan., 179S. Issue on paper securities not permitted to exceed 14,000,000Z.
Capital punishment for forgery, excepting only forgeries of wills and powers of attorney, abandoned in
1832. — (See Francis's popular History of the Bank of England, 3rd edit. 1848.)
1852, Oct. 1, West-end Branch opened at Uxbridge Hoiise, Burlington Gardens.
The total of deposits held ten years ago by the Bank of England was about
14,300,000^. ; it is now (1866) 20,140,000^.
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 Melibceus 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
of the Bank was fortified by Sappers and Miners, and a strong garrison within. The
Bank has now its own company of Rifles, 150 strong, with two subdivisions each,
having a lieutenant and ensign, and fully armed and equipped.
BANKSIBE.
THAT part of the Liberiy of Paris Garden called by old writers the "Bank"
simply, and afterv;ards Bankside, bordering on the Thames, was the site of several
early theatres, namely, the Globe, the Hope, the Rose, and the Swan -, and superseded
the circus for " Bull-bayting" and " Bear-baiting," shown in Aggas's Map, about 1560.
{See Theatres.) The stews here were as old as the reign of Henry II., and in the
time of Richard II. belonged to Sir William Walworth who slew Wat Tyler, who
had several stew-houses on the Bankside. They had signs painted on the walls ; as a
Boar's Head, the Cross Keys, the Gun, the Castle, the Cranes, the Cardinal's Hat, the
Bell, the Swan, &c. These stews, which were regulated by Parliament, were put down
by sound of trumpet in 1546; about 1506 this part was known as Stews-bank.
Bears were baited here from a very early period, but the bear-garden was removed to
Clerkenwell about 1686; the site at Bankside is now occupied by the Eagle iron
foundry and Bear-garden wharf. In 1720, the Bank was chiefly inhabited by dyers,
" for the conveniency of the water." In the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I.,
Edward AUeyn, the founder of Dulwich College, kept the garden on the Bankside, in
conjunction with his father-in-law, Philip Henslowe, who was originally a dyer here.
Here were the Bishop of Winchester's park and garden and palace : of the latter a
fragment remains ; and here is " Cardinal's Cap-alley," and " Pike-garden."
32 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
BARBICAN,
THIS old street, which is a portion of the line of thoroughfare, eastward from West
Smithfield to Finsbnry-square, is named from its proximity to a barbican, or
watch-tower, attached to the City wall, the remains of which were visible within the
last eighty years. It was the advanced post of Cripplegate; and, like the others that
surrounded the City, was intrusted to some person of consequence in the State. This
tower was granted by Edward III. to the Earl of Suffolk, and he made it his town re-
sidence. After the removal of the City gates all vestiges of the Barbican dis-
appeared, except its name ; this became applied to the street, which R, B., in Strype,
describes as " a good broad street, well inhabited by tradesmen, especially by salesmen
for apparel both new and old ; and, fronting Redcross-street, is the watcbhouse, where
formerly stood a watch-tower called Burgh, and Ken, a place to view or ken from,"
which is the derivation given by Sir Henry Spelman, the antiquary, who resided in
this street at the time of his death in 1640.
Camden, in his Britannia (published 1586), says : " The suburb also which runs out
on the north-west side of London is large, and had formerly a watch-tower or military
fence, from whence it came to be called by an ArabicJc name — Barbacan."
The tower is described as built on high ground, and of some good height : from
thence " a man," says Stow, " might behold and view the whole city towards the south,
and also into Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, and likewise every other way, east, north, or
west." Mr. Godwin, F.S.A., in 1850 read to the British Archaeological Association
an ingenious paper illustrative of the term Barbican.
Milton lived here, 1646-7, in a house, No. 17, on the north side of the street : it
was taken down in 1 864. In Barbican was the mansion of the poet's early patrons, the
Bridgewater family; and here lived Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King-at-arms;
whence Bridgewater-square, Brackley-street, and Garter-court. Beech-street, the east
continuation of Barbican, was, peradventure, named from Nicholas de la Beech, Lieu-
tenant of the Tower of London, temp. Edward III. Here, in Drury House, lived
Prince Rupert. Its remains in 1766 were engraved by J. T. Smith. Barbican was,
in 1865-6, in part taken down, to make room for the Metropolitan (Extension to
Finsbury) Railway.
BAETSOLOMHTF FAIR,
THIS ancient Fair presents, through its seven centuries' existence, many phases of
our social history with such graphic force, that " he may run that readeth it."
The Fair originated in two Fairs, or Markets, one begun by a grant of land from
Henry I. to his jester, Rayer, or Rahere, who founded a Priory to St. Bartholomew, in
West Smith field, previous to which, however, a market called "the King's Market,"
had been held near Smithfield. Out of the two elements, the concourse of pilgrims to
the Miraculous Shrine of St. Bartholomew, and the concourse of traders to the King's
Market, Bartholomew Fair grew up. Rayer's miracles were most ingenious, for he
cured a woman who could not keep her tongue in her mouth : if the wind went down,
as sailors far at sea were praying to the denuded saint, they called it a miracle, and
presented, in procession, a silver ship at the Smithfield shrine. The forged miracles
gave way to the imitative jugglers and mastery players; and these three ele-
ments — the religious, the dramatic, and the commercial — flowed on till the Refor-
mation.
The Priory Fair, which was proclaimed on the Eve of St. Bartholomew, and con-
tinued during the next day, and the next morrow, was granted for the clothiers of
England and the drapers of London, who had their booths and standings within the
Priory churchyard (the site now Cloth Fair), the gates of which were locked every
night, and watched, for the safety of the goods and wares. Within its limits was held
a court of justice, named Pie Poudre, from pieds poudreux — dusty feet — by which,
persons infringing upon the laws of the Fair, its disputes, debts, and legal obligations,
&c., were tried the same day, and the punishment of the stocks, or whipping-post.
(
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. 33
summarily inflicted ; and this court was held, to the last, at the Hand and Sheai's, Cloth
Fair, by the Steward of the Lord of the Manor.
" Thus we have in the most ancient times of the Fair, a church full of worshippers, among whom were
the sick and maimed, praying for health about its altar ; a graveyard full of traders, and a place of jest-
ing and edification, where women and men caroused in the midst of the throng ; where the minstrel anb
the story-teller and the tumbler gathered knots about them ; where the sheriff caused new laws to de
published by loud proclamation in the gathering places of the people; where the young men bowled at
nine-pins, while the clerks and friars peeped at the young maids ; where mounted knights and ladies
curvetted and ambled, pedlars loudly magnified their wares, the scholars met for public wrangle, oxen
lowed, horses neighed, and sheep bleated among their buyers; where great shouts of laughter answered
to the ' Ho ! ho r of the devil on the stage, above which flags were flying, and below which a band of
pipers and guitar bearers added music to the din. That stage also, if ever there was presented on it
the story of the Creation, was the first Wild Beast Show in the Fair; for one of the dramatic effects
connected with this play, as we read in an ancient stage direction, was to represent the creation of
beasts by unloosing and sending among the excited crowd as great a variety of strange animals as could
be brought together, and to create the birds by sending up a flight of pigeons. Under foot was mud
and filth, but the wall that pent the city in shone sunlit among the trees, a fresh breeze came over the
surrounding fields and brooks, whispering among the elms that overhung the moor glittering with
pools, or from the Fair's neighbour, the gallows. Shaven heads looked down on the scene from the
adjacent windows of the buildings bordering the Priory inclosure, and the poor people whom the
friars cherished in their hospital, mada holiday among the rest. The curfew bell of St. Martin's-le-
Grand, the religious house to which William the Conqueror had given with its charter the adjacent
moorland, and within whose walls there was a sanctuary for loose people, stilled the hum of the crowd
at nightfall, and the Fair lay dark under the starlight."— JLfemoirs of Bartholomew Fair. By Henry
Morley. 1858.
After the Reformation, Bartholomew Fair flourished with unabated vigour, the clergy
having no longer any interest in veiling its debaucheries. The Priory, together with
the rights formerly exercised by the monks, had been granted to the founder of the
Rich family, who was Solicitor-General to Henry VIII., and afterwards Lord Chancellor ;
they were enjoyed by his descendants till the year 1830, when they were purchased
from Lord Kensington by the Corporation of London. The Fair greatly declined, as
a cloth fair, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and the mysteries and moralities being
succeeded by productions more nearly resembling the regular drama, the Corporation
granted licences to mountebanks, conjurors, &c., and allowed the Fair to be extended to
fourteen days, the Sword-bearer and other City officers being paid out of the emolu-
ments. Hentzner, in 1578, describes a tent pitched for the proclamation of the Fair,
and wrestling after the ceremony, with the crowd hunting wild rabbits, for the sport of
the Mayor and Aldermen. Here was also formerly a burlesque proclamation on the
night before, by the drapers of Cloth Fair snapping their shears and loudly shouting
all through Smithfield.
Ben Jonson, in his play of Bartholomew Fath, tell us of its motions, or puppet-
shows, of Jerusalem, Nineveh, and Norwich ; and the " Gunpowder Plot, presented to
an eighteen or twenty pence audience nine times in an afternoon." The showman
paid three shillings for his ground ; and a penny was charged for every burden of goods
and little bundle brought in or carried out. A rare tract, of the year 1641, describes
the " variety of Fancies, the Faire of Wares, and the several enormityes and mis-
demeanours" of the Fair of that period. At these, the sober-minded Evelyn was
shocked. Pepys (Aug. 30, 1667) found at the Fair " my Lady Castlemaine at a
puppet-show," her coach waiting, " and the street full of people expecting her." The
sights and shows included wild beasts, dwarfs, and other monstrosities ; operas, and
tight-rope dancing, and sarabands ; dogs dancing the Morrice, and the hare beating
the tabor ; a tiger pulling the feathers from live fowls ; the humours of Punchinello,
and drolls of every degree. An ox roasted whole, and piping-hot roast pig, sold in
savoury lots, were among the Fair luxuries : the latter, called Bartholomew Pigs, were
railed at by the Puritans, and eating them was " a species of idolatry." The pig-
market was at Pye Corner, and pig was not out of fashion in Queen Anne's time.
Among the celebrities of the Fair was Tom Dogget, the old comic actor, who " wore
a farce in his face," and was famous for dancing the Cheshire Round. One Ben
Jonson, the actor, was celebrated as the grave-digger in Hamlet, in which he intro-
duced a song preserved in Durfey's Pills. Tom Walker, the original Macheath, was
another Bartholomew hero. William Bullock, from York, is alluded to by Steele, in
The Father, and is censured for " gagging :" in 1739 he had the largest booth in the
Fair. Theophilus Cibber was of the Fair, but there is no evidence that Colley Cibber
ever appeared there. Cadman, the famous flyer on the rope, immortalized by Hogarth,
D
34 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was a constant exhibitor at Bartholomew, as well as Southwark Fair. William
Phillips was a famous Merry Andrew, and some time fiddler to a puppet-show, in
which he held many a dialogue with Punch. Edward Phillips wrote Britons Strike
Some for the Pair ; and Kitty Clive played at the booth of Fawkes, Winchbeck, &c.,
in that very farce. Harlequin Phillips was in Mrs. Lee's company, and afterwards
became the celebrated Harlequin at Drury-lane, under Fleetwood. Penkethman and
Dogget, though of very unequal reputation, are noticed in the Spectator. The first
in that humorous account of the Projector, in the 31st number, where it is proposed
that " Penkethman should personate King Poms upon an elephant, and be encountered
by Powell, representing Alexander the Great, upon a dromedary, which, nevertheless,
Mr. Powell is desired to call by the name of Bucephalus." Dogget is commended
(No. 502) as an admirable and genuine actor.
The public theatres were invariably closed at Bartholomew Fair time ; drolls, like
Estcourt and Penkethman, finding Bartholomew Fair a more profitable arena for
their talents than the boards of Dorset-garden or old Drury-lane. Here Elkanah
Settle, the rival for years of Dryden, was reduced at last to string speeches and con-
trive machinery J and here, in the droll of St. George for England, he made his last
appearance, hissing in a green leather dragon of his own invention.
Here we may mention another class of sights, — " a large and beautiful young camel
from Grand Cairo, in Egypt," says the advertisement : " this creature is twenty-three
years old ; his head and neck are like that of a deer," and he " was to be seen or sold
at the first house on the pavement from the end of Hosier-lane, during Bartholomew
Fair." And we read that later. Sir Hans Sloane employed a draughtsman to sketch
the wonderful foreign animals in the Fair.
There are scores of other Bartholomew celebrities — actors, mummers, tumblers,
nonjurors, and exhibitors of various grades, as Burling and his famous monkey;
William Joy, the English Samson ; Francis Battalia, the Stone Eater ; Topham, the
Strong Man ; Hale, the Piper ; the Auctioneer of Moorfields, who regularly, for a
series of years, transferred his book-stall to Smithfields Bounds ; James Spiller, the
original Mat o' the Mint of the Beggar's Opera, at one time the " glory of the Fair :"
this piece was played at Smithfield in 1728. Punchinello was another Bartholomew
attraction : —
" 'Twas then, when Auffust near was spent.
That Bat, the grilliado'd saint,
Had ushered iii his Smithfield revels,
"Where Fujichinellos, popes and devils.
Are by authority allowed.
To please the giddy, gaping crowd."
Hudibras Eedivivus, 1707.
Powell, too, the Puppet-show man, was a great card at the Fair, especially when
his puppets played such incomparable dramas as Whittington and his Cat, The Children
in the Wood, Dr. Faustus, Friar Bacon, Mohin Hood and Little John, Mother
Shipton, " together with the pleasant and comical humours of Valentini, Nicolini, and
the tuneful warbling pig of Italian race." No wonder that such attractions thinned
the theatres, and kept the churches empty. Steele makes mention of " Powell's books
if they were books of his performances, what a treasure they would be in our day ! |
The two great characters of Jewish history — Judith and Holophernes — long kept in j
popular favour; for Setchel's fan-print of 1728 depicts Lee and Harper's great]
theatrical booth, with an announcement of the play of Judith's Adventures as its chief j
attraction : elevated from puppet performers to regular living actors, Judith herself j
being seated on the platform of the show in a magnificent dress, and the high head-
dress and false jewellery that captivated the wicked Holophernes, who strides towards]
her in the full costume of a Roman general.
Among Bagford's collection in the British Museum, is a Bartholomew Fair bill of I
the time of Queen Anne, of the playing at Heatly's booth, of "a little opera, called]
the Old Creation of the World newly revived, with the addition of the Glorious battle]
obtained over the French and Spaniards by his Grace the Duke of Marlborough P* '
Between the acts, jigs, sarabands, and antics were performed, and the whole entertain-
ment concluded with The Merry Humours of Sir John Spendall and Punchinello ; j
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR. 35
tvith several other things not yet exposed'' Heatly is supposed to have had no better
scenery than the pasteboard properties of our early theatres : —
" The chaos, too, he had descried
And seen quite through, or else he lied;
Not that of pasteboard which men shew
For groats at Fair of Barthol'mew."— ^wiiJrcw, canto i.
Henry Fielding had his booth here. Dr. Rimbault tells us, after his admission into
the Middle Temple. That Fielding should have turned " strolling actor," and have
the audacity to appear at Bartholomew at the very moment when the whole town was
ringing with Pope's savage ridicule of the " Smithfield Muses," would of com'se be
an unpardonable offence. Fielding's last appearance at Bartholomew Fair was in
1736, as usual, in the George Inn Yard, at " Fielding and Hippisley's Booth." Don
Carlos and the Cheats of Scapin, adapted from Moliere, were the two plays ; and
Mrs. Pritchard played the part of Loveit, in which she had made her first hit at
Bartholomew. Other celebrities, who kept up the character of the Fair for another
quarter of a century, were Yates, Lee, Woodward, and Shuter, the two last well known
for their connexion with Goldsmith's comedies. Shuter played Croaker in the Good-
natured Man, and Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer. Woodward played Lofty in
the former piece. With Shuter, " the history of the English stage " (says Mr. Morley)
*' parted entirely from the story of the Fair." Garrick's name is connected only with
the Fair by stories which regard him as . a visitor : although Edmund Kean is stated
to have played here when a boy.
Among the notorieties of the Fair was Lady Holland's Mob (Lord Rich having been
ancestor of the Earl of Warwick and Holland), — hundreds of loose fellows, principally
journeyman tailors, who used to assemble at the Hand and Shears, in Cloth Fair.
They were accustomed to sally forth knocking at the doors and ringing the bells of
the peaceable inhabitants, and assaulting and ill-treating passengers. These ruf-
fians frequently united in such strength as to defy the civil power. As late as 1822,
a number of them exceeding 5000 rioted in Skinner-street, and were for hours too
powerful for the police.
The Fair was annually proclaimed by the Lord Mayor, on the 2nd of September,
his lordship proceeding thither in his gilt coach, " with City Officers and trumpets ;"
and the proclamation for the purpose read before the entrance to Cloth Fair. It was
the custom for the Lord Mayor, on this occasion, to call upon the keeper of Newgate,
and partake, on his way to Smithfield, of " a cool tankard of wine, nutmeg, and sugar."
This custom, which ceased in the second mayoralty of Sir Matthew Wood in 1818,
was the cause of the death of Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor in 1688. In holding the
tankard, he let the lid slip down with so much force, that his horse started, and he was
thrown to the ground with great violence. He died the next day.
The Fair dwindled year by year : the writer remembers it at midnight, before gas had
become common : viewed from Richardson's, the shows, booths, and stalls, with their
flaring oil-lamps and torches, shed a strange glare over the vast sea of heads which
filled the area of Smithfield and the adjacent streets. As lately as 1830, upwards of
200 booths for toys and gingerbread crowded the pavement around the Fair, and over-
flowed into the adjacent streets. Richardson, Saunders, and Wombwell were late in
the ascendant as showmen. Among the latest " larks " was that of young men of caste
disguising themselves in working clothes, to enjoy the loose delights of "Bartlemy"
Fair, in September.
For 300 years the Lord Mayor and Aldermen had in vain attempted to suppress
the Fair ; when, in 1840, upon the recommendation of the City Solicitor, Mr. Charles
Pearson, having purchased Lord Kensington's interest, they refused to let the ground
for the shows and booths but upon exorbitant prices, and limited the Fair to one day ;
and the State proclamation of the Lord Mayor was given up. In 1849, the Fair was
reduced to one or two stalls for gingerbread, gambling-tables for nuts, a few fruit-
barrows and toy-stalls, and one puppet-show. In 1852, the number was still less.
"The Mayors had withdrawn the formality as much as possible from public observation, until in the
year 1850, and in the mayoralty of Alderman Musgrove, his lordship having walked quietly to the
appointed gateway, with the necessary attendants, found that there was not any Fair left worth a
Mayor's proclaiming. After that year, therefore, no Mayor accompanied the gentleman whose duty it
D 2
86 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was to read a certain form of words out of a certain parchment scroll, under a quiet gateway. After
five years this form also was dispensed with, and Bartholomew Fair was proclaimed for the last
time in the year 1855. The sole existing vestige of it is the old fee of three and sixpence still paid
by the City to the Kector of St. Bartholomew the Great, for a proclamation in his ■parish."— Morley.
It was held that the proclamation was part of the charter for holding the market,
on which account it continued to he read, until the Act of Parliainent for removing
the market to Copenhagen-fields at length relieved the Corporation of going through
the useless ceremony.
Hone, in his JEvery-day Book, describes the Bartholomew Fair of 1825, with the
minuteness of Dutch painting : Hone visited the several sights and shows, accom-
panied by Samuel Williams, by whom the wood-cut illustrations were cleverly drawn and
engraved. Mr. Morley's History of the Fair, which has been referred to, is a laborious
work, with some original views.
BAETHOLOMJETf^'S (ST.) SOSPITAL,
IN West Smithfield, is one of the five Royal Hospitals of the City, and the first
institution of the kind established in the metropolis. It was originally a portion
of the Priory of St. Bartholomew, founded by Rahere, in 1102, who obtained from
Henry I. a piece of waste ground, upon which he built an hospital for a master,
brethren and sisters, sick pers?ons, and pregnant women. Both the Priory and the
Hospital were surrendered to Henry VIII., who, at the petition of Sir Richard Gresham,
Lord Mayor, and father of Sir Thomas Gresham, re-founded the latter, and endowed it
with an annual revenue of 500 marks, the City agreeing to pay an equal sum ; since
which time the Hospital has received princely benefactions from charitable persons.
It was first placed under the superintendence of Thomas Vicary, sergeant-surgeon to
Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth ; Harvey was physician to the Hos-
pital for thirty- four years; and here, in 1619, he first lectured on the discovery of the
Circulation of the Blood.
The Hospital buildings escaped the Great Fire in 1666 ; but becoming ruinous,
were taken down in 1730, and the great quadrangle rebuilt by Gibbs ; over the en-
trance next Smithfield is a statue of Henry VIII., and under it, " St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, founded by Rahere, a.d. 1102, re-founded by Henry VIIl., 1546;" on the
pediment are two reclining figures of Lameness and Sickness. The cost of these
buildings was defrayed by public subscription, to which the munificent Dr. Radclifie
contributed largely ; besides leaving 500Z. a year for the improvement of the diet, and
lOOZ. a year to buy linen. The principal entrance, next Smithfield, was erected
in 1V02 ; it is of poor architectural character.
The Museums, Theatres, and Library of the Hospital are very extensive ; as is also
the New Surgery, built in 1842. The Lectures of the present day were established
by Mr. Abernethy, elected Assistant-Surgeon in 1787. Prizes and honorary distinc-
tions for proficiency in medical science were first established in ] 834 ; and their annual
distribution in May is an interesting scene. In 1843 was founded a Collegiate
Establishment for the pupils' residence within the Hospital walls. A spacious Casu-
alty Room has since been added.
The interior of the Hospital, besides its cleanly and well-regulated wards, has a
grand staircase ; the latter painted by Hogarth, for which he was made a life-governor.
The subjects are — the Good Samaritan ; the Pool of Bethesda ; Rahere, the founder,
laying the first stone ; and a sick man carried on a bier, attended by monks. In the
Court Room is a picture of St. Bartholomew holding a knife, as the symbol of his
martyrdom; a portrait of Henry VIII. in Holbein's manner ; of Dr. Radclifie, by
Kneller ; Perceval Pott, by Reynolds ; and of Abernethy, by Lawrence.
In January, 1846, the election of Prince Albert to a Governorship of the Hospital
was commemorated by the president and treasurer presenting to the foundation three
costly silver-gilt dishes, each nearly twenty-four inches in diameter, and richly chased
with a bold relief of^l. The Election of the Prmce; 2. The Good Samaritan; 3. The
Plague of London.
The Charity is ably managed by the Corporation : the president must have served
as Lord Mayor; the qualification of a Governor is a donation of 100 guineas.
I
BATES, OLDEN. 37
" From a search made in the official records of the City, it appears that for more than three hundred
years, namely, since 1549, an alderman of London had always been elected president of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital; until 1854, whenever a vacancy occurred in the presidency of the Royal Hospitals (St.
Bartholomew's, Bethlehem, Bridewell, St. Thomas's, or Christ's Hospitals), it was customary to elect
the Lord Mayor for the time beinpr, or an alderman who had passed the chair. This rule was first
broken when the Duke of Cambridge was chosen President of Christ's Hospital over the head of
Alderman Sidney, the then Lord Mayor ; and again when Mr. Cubitt, then no longer an alderman, was
elected President of St. Bartholomew's in preference to the then Lord Mayor. This question is, how-
ever, contested by the foundation-governors or the Corporation, and the donation-governors."
It has been shown that King Henry VIII. in 1546 vested the Hospital of St.
Bartholomew in the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, and their successors,
for ever, in consideration of a payment by them of 500 marks a year towards its
maintenance, and with it the nomination and appointment of all the officers. In
September, 1557, at a general court of the Governors of all the Hospitals, it was ordered
that St. Bartholomew's should henceforth be united to the rest of the Hospitals, and
be made one body with them, and on the following day ordinances were made by the
Corporation for the general government of all the Hospitals. The 500 marks a year
have been paid by the Corporation since 1546, besides the profit of many valuable
leases.
This charity has an existence of nearly seven centuries and a half. The Hospital
receives, upon petition, cases of all kinds free of fees; and accidents, or cases of
urgent disease, without letter, at the Surgery, at any hour of the day or night.
There is also a " Samaritan Fund," for relieving distressed patients. The present
buildings contain 25 wards, consisting of 650 beds, 400 being for surgical cases, and
250 for medical cases and the diseases of women. Each ward is presided over by a
" sister" and nurses, to the number of nearly 180 persons. In addition to a very ex-
tensive medical staff, there are four resident surgeons and two resident apothecaries,
who are always on duty, day and night, throughout the year, to attend to whatever
may be brought in at any hour of the twenty-four. It further possesses a College
within itself, a priceless museum ; and a first-class Medical School, conducted by thirty-
six professors and assistants. The "View-day," for this and the other Royal Hospitals
of the City, is a day specially set apart by the authorities to examine, in their official
collective capacity, every portion of the establishment ; when the public are admitted.
BATHS, OLBBN.
THE most ancient Bath in the metropolis is " the old Roman Spring Bath'^ in
Strand-lane ; but evidently unknown to Stow, though he mentions the locality
as " a lane or way down to the landing-place on the banks of the Thames." This
Bath is in a vaulted chamber, and is formed of thin tile-like brick, layers of cement
and rubble-stones, all corresponding with the materials of the Roman wall of London ;
the water is beautifully clear and extremely cold. The property can be traced to the
Danvers, or D'Anvers, family, of Swithlaiid Hall, Leicestershire, whose mansion
stood upon the spot.
St. Agnes-le-Clair Baths, Tabernacle-square, Finsbury, are supposed originally to
have been of the above age, from finding the Roman tiles through which the water
was once conveyed. Stow mentions them as " Dame Anne's the clear." The date
assigned to these Baths is 1502. This famous spring was dedicated to St. Agnes ;
and, from tlie transparency and salubrity of its waters, denominated St. Agnes-le-
Clair. It has claims to antiquity, for it appears that in the reign of Henry VIII. it
was thus named : — " Fons voc" JDame Agnes a Clere." It is described as belonging to
Charles Stuart, late king of England. This spring was said to be of great efficacy in
all rheumatic and nervous cases, headache, &c.
Peerless Pooly Baldwin-street, City-road, is referred to by Stow as near St. Agnes-le-
Clair, and " one other clear water, called Perilous Pond, because divers youths, by
swimming therein, have been drowned ;" but this ominous name was change to Peerless
Pool ; in 1743, it was enclosed, and converted into a bathing-place.
The Cold Bath, Clerkemoell, was originally the property of one Walter Baynes, who
purchased a moiety of the estate, in 1696 ; when it comprised Windmill-hill, or Sir
John Oldcastle's Field, extending westward from Sir John Oldcastle's to the River
CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Fleet, or, as it was then called, Turiimill-brook ; and southward, by Coppice-row, to
the same brook, near the Clerks' Wells : while Gardiner's Farm was the plot on
which stands the Middlesex House of Correction. Baynes's attention was first
directed to the Cold Spring, which, in 1697, he converted into a Bath, spoken of,
eleven years afterwards, in Hatton's New View, as " the most noted and Jirst about
London," wliich assertion, written so near the time at which it states the origin of our
Cold Bath, disproves the story of its having been the bath of Nell Gwynn, whom a
nude figure, on porcelain, preserved by the proprietor, is said to represent. In Mr.
Baynes's time, the charge for bathing was 2s. : or, in the case of patients who, from
weakness, required the " chair," 2^. 6d. The chair was suspended from the ceiling,
iu such a manner that a person placed in it could be thereby lowered into the water,
and drawn up again in the same way. The spring was at the acme of its reputation
in 1700. Of its utility, in cases of weakness more especially, there can be no ques-
tion. Besides which, its efiicacy is stated in the cure of scorbutic complaints, nervous
afiections, rheumatism, chronic disorders, &c. It is a chalybeate, and deposits a saline
incrustation. The spring is said to supply 20,000 gallons daily. The height to
which it rises in the marble receptacles prepared for it, is four feet seven inches.
Until the sale of the estate in 1811, the Bath House, with the garden in which it
stood, comprised an area of 103 feet by 60, enclosed by a brick wall, with a summer-
house (resembling a little tower) at each angle : the house had several gables. The
garden was let on building-leases, and the whole is now covered with houses, the
Bath remaining in the midst. In 1815, the exterior of the Bath House was nearly all
taken down, leaving only a small portion of its frontage, which it still retains.
The Duke's Bath, or Bagnio, is minutely described by Samuel Haworth, in 1683, as
" erected near the west end of Long Acre, in that spot of ground called Salisbury
Stables." Here dwelt Sir William Jennings, who obtained the royal patent for making
all public bagnios or baths, either for sweating, bathing, or washing. " In one of the
ante-rooms hangs a pair of scales, to weigh such as out of curiosity would know how
much they lose in weight while they are in the bagnio. The bagnio itself is a stately
oval edifice, with a cupola roof, in which are round glasses to let in light. The
cupola is supported by eight columns, between which and the sides is a * sumptuous
walk,' arched over with brick. The bagnio is paved with marble, and has a marble
table ; the sides are covered with white gully-tiles, and within the wall were ten seats,
such as are in the baths at Bath. There are also fourteen niches in the walls, in
which are placed so many fonts or bashis, with cocks over them of hot or cold water.
On one side of the bagnio hangs a very handsome pendulum-clock, which is kept to
give an exact account how time passeth away. Adjoining to the bagnio there are four
little round rooms, about eight feet over, which are made for degrees of heat, some
being hotter, others colder, as persons can best bear and are pleased to use. These
rooms are also covered with cupolas, and their walls with gully-tiles." We refer the
reader to Haworth's account for the details of "the entertainment," as the bath is termed.
On the east side of the Bagnio fronting the street, is •* The Duke's Bagnio Coffee-
house." A great gate opens into a courtyard, for coaches. In this courtyard is visible-
the front of the Bagnio, having this inscription upon it in golden letters, upon a carved
stone : — " The Duke's Bagnio." On the left of the yard is a building for the accom-
modation required for the bath, on the outside of which is inscribed in like manner —
« The Duke's Bath." The building is about 42 feet broad, 21 feet deep, and three
stories high. There is on the lower story a room for a laboratory, in which are chemic
furnaces, glasses, and other instruments necessary for making the bath waters. On
the accession of the Duke of York to the throne, the Baths were improved, and re-
opened, under the name of the " King's Bagnio," in 1686, by Leonard Cunditt, who,
in his advertisement, says — " There is no other Bagnio in or about London besides this
and the Boyal Bagnio in the City." This, Malcolm supposes, was in allusion to the
Bagnio we shall next describe, which seems to have been the first we had in the capital.
TJie Bagnio, in Bagnio-court (altered to Bath-street in 1843), Newgate-street, was
built by Turkish merchants, and first opened in December, 1679, for sweating, hot
bathing, and cupping. It has a cupola roof, marble steps, and Dutch tile walls, and
was latterly used as a cold Bath.
I
BATHS, OLDEN. 39
Queen Anne's Bath was at the back of the house No. 3, Endell-street, Long-acre, on
the west side of the street. It has been converted into a wareroom by an iron-
monger whose shop is in the front of the premises. The part occupied by the water
has been boarded over, leaving some of the Dutch tiles which line the sides of the
Bath visible. The water, which flows from a copious spring, is a powerful tonic, and
contains a considerable trace of iron. Thirty years ago it was much used in the
neighbourhood, when it was considered good for rheumatism and other disorders. The
house in which the Bath is situate was formerly No. 3, Old Belton-street : it was
newly-fronted in 1845 ; the exterior had originally red brick pilasters, and a cornice, in
the style of Inigo Jones. It does not seem clear how this place obtained the name of
Queen Anne's Bath. It might be supposed that this had been a portion of the King's
Bagnio. Old maps of London, however, show this could scarcely be correct, for the
Duke's, afterwards the King's Bagnio was on the south side of Long-acre, and the
above Bath is about a hundred yards to the north of that thoroughfare. " Queen
Anne's Bath" is engraved from a recent sketch in the Builder, Oct. 12, 1861 ; whence
the preceding details of the three Baths are abridged.
The BCummums, in Covent- garden, now an hotel, with baths, was formerly *'a
Bagnio, or Place for Sweating ;" in Arabic " Hammam.'* Malcolm says : " The Arabic
root hama, \.^^, signifies calescere, to grow warm : hence by the usual process of deriv-
ing nouns from verbs in that language, hummum, ^,^», a warm bath. They are known
by that name all over the East." The Bagnio at the hot Baths at Sophia, in Turkey,
is thus described by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, in her Letters, vol, i., and probably
her description suggested the name of the Old and New Hummums :" —
" It is built of stone, in the shape of a dome, with no window but in the roof, which gives light
enough. There are five of these domes joined together ; the outermost being less than the rest, and
serving as a hall, where the portress stood at the door. Ladies of quality generally gave this woman a
crown or ten shillings. The next room was a large one, paved with marble, and all round it are two
raised sofas of marble, one above the other. There were four fountains of cold water in this room,
falling first into marble basins, and then running on the floor in little channels cut for that purpose,
which carried the streams into the next room, which is something less, and fitted with the same sort of
marble sofas; but from the streams of sulphur proceeding from the bath adjoining to it, it is impossible
to stay with one's clothes on. Through the other two doors were the hot baths; one of which had
cocks of cold water turned into it— tempering it to what degree of warmth the bather please to have."
Queen JElizaheth's Bath formerly stood among a cluster of old buildings adjoining the
King's Mews, at Charing Cross, and was removed in 1831. Of this Bath a plan and
view were presented to the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 9, 1832, and are engraved in
the Archceologia, XXV. 588-90. The building was nearly square on the plan, and was
constructed of fine red brick. Its chief merit consisted in its groined roof, which was
of very neat workmanship, and formed by angular ribs springing from corbels. The
form of the arch denoted the date of this building to be the fifteenth century.
The Floating Baths (of which there were two in our day) upon the Thames, in plan
remind one of the Folly described by Tom Brown as a " musical summer-house,"
usually anchored opposite Somerset House Gardens. The Queen of William III. and
her court once visited it ; but it became a scene of low debauchery, and the bath build-
ing was left to decay, and be taken away for firewood.
The Turkish Bath, which closely resembles the Bath of the old Eomans, was
introduced into Ireland and England in 1856 : and in London handsome baths
were erected in Victoria-street, Westminster; those were taken down in 1855-6.
Tlie most extensive establishment of this class in London is the Hammam, or hot-air
Batli, opened in 1862, No. 76, Jermyn-street, St. James's, and formed under the
superintendence of Mr. David Urquhart j its cost is stated at 6000Z. j the architecture
is from Eastern sources.
Baths and WAsn-noiiSES, for the working classes, originated in 1844, with an
" Association for Promoting Cleanliness among the Poor," who fitted up a Bath-house
and a Laundry in Glass-house Yard, East Smithfield; where, in the year ending June
1847, the bathers, washers, and ironers amounted to 84,584; the bathers and washers
costing about one penny each, and the ironers about one farthing. The Association
also gave whitewash, and lent pails and brushes, to those willing to cleanse their own
wretched dwellings. And so strong was the love of cleanliness thus encouraged, that
40 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
women often toiled to wash their own and their children's clothing, who had heen com-
pelled to sell their hair to purchase food to satisfy the cravings of hunger. This
successfial experiment led to the passing of an Act of Parliament (9 and 10 Vict. c. 74),
" To Encourage the Establishment of Baths and Wash-houses." A Committee sat at
Exeter Hall for the same object ; a Model Establishment was built in Goulston- square,
Whitechapel ; and Baths and Wash-houses were established in St. Pancras, Maryle-
bone, St, Martin-in-the-Fields, and other large metropolitan parishes.
BAYNARD'S CASTLE.
A STRONGHOLD, « built with walls and rampires," on the banks of the Thames
below St. Paul's, by Bainiardus, a follower of William the Conqueror. In 1111
it was forfeited, and granted by Henry I. to Robert Fitzgerald, son of Gilbert, Earl of
Clare ; from whom it passed, by several descents, to the Fitzwalters (the chief ban-
nerets of London, probably in fee for this castle), one of whom, at the commencement
of a war, was bound to appear at the west door of St. Paul's, armed and mounted,
with twenty attendants, and there receive from the Mayor the banner of the City, a
horse worth 201., and 201. in money. In 1428, the castle became, probably by
another forfeiture, crown property ; it was almost entirely burnt, but was granted to
Hiimphrey, Duke of Gloucester, by whom it was rebuilt ; upon his attainder, it again
reverted to the Crown. Here Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, presented to Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, a parchment purporting to be a declaration of the three estates in
favour of Richard; and in the "Court of Baynard's Castle" Shakspeare has laid
scenes 3 and 7, act iii., of King Richard III. ; the latter between Buckingham, the
Mayor, Aldermen, and citizens, and Gloucester. Baynard's Castle was repaired by
Henry VII., and used as a royal palace until the reign of Queen Ehzabeth, when it
was let to the Earls of Pembroke ; and here, in 1553, the Privy Council, " changing
their mind from Lady Jane," proclaimed Queen Mary. The castle subsequently
became the residence of the Earls of Shrewsbury. Pepys records King Charles II.
supping here, 19th June, 1660 ; and six years after the castle was destroyed in the
Great Fire. ' The buildings surrounded two court-yards, with the south front to the
Thames, and the north in Thames-street, where was the principal entrance. Two of
the towers, incorporated with other buildings, remained till the present century, when
they were pulled down to make way for the Carron Iron Company's premises. The
ward in which stood the fortress-palace is named Castle-Baynard, as is also a wharf
upon the site ; and a public-house in the neighbourhood long bore the sign of " Duke
Humphrey's Head."
In Notes and Queries, No. 11, it is shown that Bainiardus, who gave his name to
Baynard's Castle, held land here of the Abbot of Westminster ; and in a grant of 1653
is described " the common field at Paddington" (now Bayswater Field), as being " near
to a place commonly called Baynard's Watering." Hence it is concluded " that this
portion of ground, always remarkable for its springs of excellent water, once si;pplied
water to Baynard, his household, or his castle ; that the memory of his name was pre-
served in the neighbourhood for six centuries ;" and that this watering-place is now
Bayswater. ,"
BAZAARS.
THE Bazaar is an adaptation from the East, the true principle of which is the classifi-
cation of trades. Thus, Paternoster-row, with its books; Newport Market, with
its butchers' shops ; and Monmouth- street with its shoes; are more properly Bazaars
than the miscellaneous stalls assembled under cover, which are in London designated by
this name. Exeter 'Change was a great cutlery bazaar ; and the row of attorneys'
shops in the Lord Mayor's Court Office, in the second Royal Exchange, were a kind of
legal Bazaar, the name of each attorney being inscribed upon a projecting signboard.
The Crystal Palace of 1851, and the Great Exhibition of 1862, were vast assemblages
of Bazaars. The Crystal Palace at Sydenham partakes of this character.
The introduction of the Bazaar into the metropoUs dates from 1816, when was
opened the Soho Bazaar, at 4, 5, and 6, Soho-square. It was planned solely by Mr.
BAZAARS. 41
John Trotter, with a truly benevolent motive. At the termination of the War, when
a great number of widows, orphans, and relatives of those who had lost their lives
x)n foreign service were in distress and without employment, Mr, Trotter conceived that
an establishment in the hands of Government would promote the views of the respect-
able and industrious (possessing but small means) by affording them advantages to
begin business without great risk and outlay^ of capital. Mr. Trotter having at that
time an extensive range of premises unoccupied, without any idea of personal emolu-
ment, offered them to Government, free of expense, for several years, engaging also to
undertake their direction and management on the same disinterested terms. His
scheme was, however, considered visionary, and his offer rejected. Mr. Trotter then
undertook the responsibility himself; the Bazaar was opened 1st February, 1816, and
by excellent management, the establishment has since flourished ; this success being
mainly attributable to the selection of persons of respectability as its inmates, for whose
protection an efficient superintendence of several matrons is provided. The counters
are mostly for fancy goods, and to obtain a tenancy requires a testimonial respectably
signed. The success of the Soho Bazaar led to establishments formed by private
individuals, but with only temporary success.
The Westeen ExcnANGE, Old Bond-street (with an entrance from the Burlington
Arcade), was burnt down, and not re-established.
The Queen's Bazaar, on the north side of Oxford-street, the rear in Castle-street,
was destroyed. May 28, 1829, by a fire which commenced at a dioramic exhibition of
*' the Destruction of York Minster by fire." The Bazaar was rebuilt ; but proving
unsuccessful, was taken down, and upon the site was built the Princess* Theatre.
The Pantheon Bazaar, on the south side of Oxford-street, with an entrance in
Great Marlborough-street, was constructed in 1834, from the designs of Sydney Smirke,
A.R.A., within the walls of the Pantheon Theatre, built in 1812; the fronts to Oxford-
street and Poland-street being the only remains of the original structure. The mag-
nificent staircase leads to a suite of rooms, in which pictures are placed for sale ; and
thence to the great Basilical Hall or Bazaar, which is 116 feet long, 88 feet wide, and
60 feet high ; it is mostly lighted from curved windows in the roof, which is richly
decorated, as are the piers of the arcades, with arabesque scrolls of flowers, fruit, and
birds ; the ornaments of papier-maeM by Bielefield. The style of decoration is from
the loggias of the Vatican. The galleries and the floor are laid out with cou-nters, and
promenades between. From the southern end of the hall is the entrance to an elegant
conservatory and aviary, mostly of glass, ornamented in Saracenic style. Here are birds
of rich plumage, with luxuriant plants, which, with the profusion of marble, gilding,
and. colour, have a very pleasing effect in the heart of the smoky town.
The Bazaar in Baker-street, Portman-square, was originally established for the
sale of horses; but carriages, harness, furniture, stoves, and glass are the commodities
now sold here. Madame Tussaud's Wax-work Exhibition occupies the greater part ;
and here, annually, in December, the Smithfield Club Cattle Show formerly took place.
The Pantechnicon, Halkin-street, Belgrave- square, is a Bazaar chiefly for carriages
and furniture. Here, too, you may warehouse furniture, wine, pictures, and carriages,
for any period, at a light charge compared with house-rent.
The LowTHER Bazaar, nearly opposite the Lowther Arcade, Strand, was a reposi-
tory of fancy goods, besides a " Magic Cave," and other exhibitions. The establish-
ment was frequently visited by Louis Philippe from 1848 to 1850. The Magic Cave,
with its cosmoramlc pictures, realized 1500/. per annum, at Gd. for each admission.
This and the house adjoining, eastward, have fronts of tasteful architectural design.
St. James's Bazaar, King- street, St. James's-street, was built for Mr. Crockford,
in 1832, and has a saloon nearly 200 feet long by 40 wide. Here were exhibited, in
1841, three dioramic tableaux of the second obsequies of Napoleon, in Paris, at Decem-
ber, 1841. And in 1844 took place here the first exhibition of Decorative Works for
the New Houses of Parliament.
The CosMORAMA, No. 207-209, Regent-street, originally an exhibition of views of
42 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
places through large convex lenses, was altered into a Bazaar, subsequently, the
Prince of Wales's Bazaar.
The Anti-Coen-Law League Bazaar was held in the spring of 1845, when the
auditory and stage of Covent-garden Theatre were fitted up for this purpose, and in six
weeks 2o,000l. was cleared by the speculation, partly by admission-money. The
Theatre was painted as a vast Tudor Hall, by Messrs. Grieve, and illuminated with gas
in the day-time ; the goods being exhibited for sale on stalls, appropriated to the great
manufacturing localities of the United Kingdom. At this time the Theatre was let
to the League at 3000 guineas for the term of holding the Bazaar, and one night per
week for public meetings throughout one year.
The PoETLAND Bazaar, 19, Langham-place, is noted for its « German Fair," and
its display of cleverly-modelled toy figures of animals.
BUGGABS.
BEGGING, although illegal, and forbidden by one of our latest statutes, is followed
as a trade in the metropolis, perhaps more systematically than in any other
European capital. It has been stated that the number of professional Beggars in and
about London amounts to 15,000, more than two-thirds of whom are Irish.
The vigilance of the Police, and the exposure of Beggars' frauds by the press and
upon the stage (from the Beggar's Opera to Tom and Jerry), have done much towards
the suppression of Begging. The Mendicity Society, in Ked Lion-square, Holborn,
established in 1818, has also moderated the evil by exposing and punishing impostors,
and relieving deserving persons. The receipts of this institution are upwards of 4000Z.
a year. In one day it has distributed 3300 meals. The Society has a mill, stone-
yard, and oakum-room, m which, during one day, there have been employed 763
persons, who would otherwise have been begging in the streets. A record is kept of
all begging-letter cases, from which police-magistrates obtain information as to the
character of persons brought before them. There are other societies for similar objects.
Sir John Fielding, in his " Cautions," published in 1776, gives a curious picture of
the SJcy Farmers who imposed upon the benevolent, as " good old charitable ladies,"
with dreadful stories of losses by fire, inundations, &c., for which the cheats collected
subscriptions entered in a book, setting out with false names. Sir John says : —
There are persons in this town who get a very good livehhood by writing letters and petitions of this- ;
Btamp. A woman stufled up as if she was ready to lie in, with two or three borrowed children and a.^
letter, giving an account of her husband's falling off a scaffold and breaking his limbs, by being drowned {
at sea, is an irresistible object.
Many years ago, there died in Broad-street Buildings, aged 81, John Yardley^
Vernon, who wore in the streets the garb of a beggar, though he possessed 100,000^,,
which he realized as a stockbroker.
Mr. Henry Mayhew has given us the fullest report of the Beggar-life of our time !
which has been supplemented by Mr. Halliday : all tending to prove that indiscrimi*]
nate relief of street-beggars is most delusive and dangerous.
With the ordinary types of " disaster beggars," such as shipwrecked mariners, blown-up miners
*' those having real or pretended sores vulgarly known as the scaldman dodge," we are all familia
But there are oddities and niceties even in this humble department of the Begging art. There are
for instance, the lucifer droppers. The business of these persons is to take a box or two of lucifers, anfl
offer them for sale at a crowded and dirty corner. They choose a victim, and contrive to get in his way
Down go the lucifers in the mud, and the professional sets up a piteous howl. The gentleman '
ashamed of having done so much mischief, and to quiet the complainant, who is generally of the softi
Bex, he gives her many times the worth of her dropped lucifers. " Famished Beggars " seem highlj
successful in their own line, but their success demands the natural advantages of a corpse-like face, ar*
emaciated frame, and a power of enduring the winter's cold in rags. Among those endowed with Ihes
requisites, the more accompUshcd performers have invented many ingenious subtleties. One device *
the " choking dodge." The famished beggar seizes on a crust and eagerly devours it ; but he has ber
too long without food— he tries in vain to swallow it, and it sticks in his throat. Another device is th
of the " offal-eaters." These people decline absolutely to eat anything but what they find in the gutter
Wlien we hear of all the trouble and ingenuity that is expended in deceiving us, we may well feel "iclme
to ask, as a beggar was once asked, " Don't you think you would have found it more profitable had yo
taken to labour or to some honester calling than your present one ?" But the candid answer returne
is suggestive, " Well, sir, p'raps I might," he replied; "but going on the square is so dreadfully cor
^umS'"— Saturday Review, 1862.
BELGBAVIA— BELLS AND CHIMES. 43
SJSLGBAVIA
WAS originally applied as a sobriquet to Belgrave and Eaton Squares and the
radiating streets, but is now received as the legitimate name of this aristocratic
quarter. In 1824, its site was " the Five Fields," intersected by mud-banks, and occu-
pied by a few sheds. The clayey swamp retained so much water, that no one would
build there ; and the " Fields " were the terror of foot-passengers proceeding from
London to Chelsea after nightfall. At length, Mr. Thomas Cubitt found the strata to con-
sist of gravel and clay, of considerable depth: the clay he removed, and burned into bricks j
and by building upon the substratum of gravel, he converted this spot from the most
unhealthy to one of the most healthy, to the immense advantage of the ground-land-
lord and the whole metropolis. This is one of the most perfect adaptations of the
means to the end to be found in the records of the building art. In 1829, the same
land, consisting of about 140 acres, was nearly covered with first and second class
houses, the nucleus being Belgrave-square, designed by George Basevi ; the detached
mansions, at the angles, by Hardwick, Kendall, and others; the area, originally a
nursery garden, about ten acres. The level is low ; for it has been ascertained that the
ground-floor of Westbourne-terrace, Hyde Park Gardens, 70 feet above the Thames
high-water mark, is on a level with the attics of Eaton and Belgrave Squares. Yet
Chelsea acquired a proverbial salubrity in the last century by Doctors Arbuthnot^
Sloane, Mead, and Cadogan residing there.
Mr. Thomas Cubitt, who died in 1856, was, in his nineteenth year, working as a journeyman car-
penter ; he then took one voyage to India and back as captain's joiner, and on his return to London
with his savings, commenced business in the metropolis as a carpenter. In about six years, upon a tract
of ground in Gray's Inn-road, he erected large workshops. About 1824, he engaged with the Duke of
Bedford and Lord Southampton for the ground on which Tavistock-square and Gordon-square, with
Woburn-place, and adjoining streets, now stand. In the same year he engaged with the Marquis of West-
minster and Mr. Lowndes, to cover large portions of " the Five Fields," and ground adjacent : the results
are Belgrave-square, Lowndes-square, Chesham-place, and other ranges of houses. He subsequently
engaged to cover the vast open district lying between Eaton-square and the Thames, now South Bel-
gravia. His works and establishment were at Thames Bank: they were destroyed by fire, by
which Mr. Cubitt lost 30,000Z. ; when he was apprised of the calamity, his noble reply was, " Tell the
men they shall be at work within a week, and I will subscribe 600^. towards buying them new tools."
His large engagements as to Belgrave-square, begun in 1825, had just been completed in the year of his
death ; and his own dwelling-house at Denbies, in which he died, had only been just finished, as the
future residence of his family. His portrait has been painted and engraved. He had two brothers.
Alderman Cubitt, twice Lord Mayor ; and Lewis Cubitt, the eminent engineer, architect of the Great
Northern Railway Terminus. — Memoir in the Builder, 1856.
bi:lls and chimes.
THE histories of the various peals of Bells in the metropolis, and the Societies by
which their ringing has been reduced to scientific standards are interesting.
Commencing from the Conquest, we have
The Cuefew. — Although the Couvrefeu law was abolished by Henry I., who restored
the use of lamps and candles at night after the ringing of the Curfew-bell, which had
been prohibited by his predecessors ( Will. Malmesb., fol. 88), yet the custom of ringing
the bell long continued ; and in certain parishes of the metropolis, and in some parts
of the country, to the present time,
" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."
Among the charges directed for the wardmote inquests of London, in the second
mayoralty of Sir Henry Colet (a.d. 1495), it is said : " Also yf there be anye paryshe
clerke that ryngeth curfewe after the curfewe be ronge at Bowe Chyrche, or Saint
Brydes Chyrche, or Saint Gyles without Cripelgat, all suche to be presented."
(Knight's Life of Dean Colet). The same charge is in the wardmote inquest 1649.
" The church of St. Martin's-le-Grand, with those of Bow, St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and Barkin, had
its Curfew-bell long after the servile injunction laid on the Londoners had ceased. These were sounded
to give notice to the inhabitants of those districts to keep within, and not to wander in the streets;
which were infested by a set of ruffians, who made a practice of insulting, wounding, robbing, and
murdering the people whom they happened to meet abroad during the mghty—Strype's Stow, v. L
book iii. p. 106.
"The Coiiore-feu is still rung, at eight o'clock, at St. Edmund the King, Lombard-street. At
Bishopsgate (St. Botolph's) ; St. Leonard's, Shoreditcli; Christchurch, Spitalfields; St. Michael's,
Queenhithe; St. Mildred's, Bread -street ;* St. Antholin's, Budge-row ; and in some other City churches,
* The bell at this church was silenced by order of vestry, December, 1847.
44 CUBI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
there are bells, whicli are popularly known as the caavre-fm, but some of which are really, I believe
prayer-bells.
" On the southern side of the Thames, the couvre-feu was, till within these six or seven years, nightly
rung at St. George's Church, Borough." — Mr. Syer Cuming : Proceedings of the British Archceological
Association, April 12, 1848.
Mr. Cuming also states that at St. Peter's Hospital, Newington (the Fishmongers'
Almshouses, taken down in 1851), there was " a bell rung every evening from eight
o'clock till nine, which the old parishioners were wont to denominate the couvre-feu ;
but it is now said that this was rung to warn all strangers from the premises, and the
ahnspeople to their several apartments."
The Curfew was not always rung at eight o'clock, for the sexton in the old play of
the Merry Devil of Ddmonton (4to. 1631) says : —
" Well, 'tis nine a cloke, 'tis time to ring curfew."
The Curfew-bell, strictly as such, had probably fallen into disuse previous to the time
of Shakspeare, who, in Borneo and Juliet, applies the term to the morning bell : —
" The second cock hath crow'd.
The curfew-bell has rung, 'tis three o'clock."
At Charterhouse, the Chapel-bell (which bears the arms and initials of Thomas
Sutton, the founder, and the date 1631) is rung at eight and nine to warn the absent
pensioner of the approaching hour ; and this practice is, we think, erroneously adduced
as a relic of Curfew-ringing.
" There is one peculiarity attached to the ringing, which is calculated to serve the office of the
ordinary passing-bell ; and that is the number of strokes, which must correspond with the number of
pensioners. So that when a brother-pensioner has deceased, his companions are informed of their
loss by one stroke of the bell less than on the preceding evening." — Chronicles of Charterhouse, p. 180.
The Couvre-feu formerly in the collection of the Rev. Mr. Gostling, and so often engraved, passed
into the possession of Horace Walpole, and was sold at Strawberry Hill, in 1842, to Mr. William Knight.
It is of copper, riveted together, and in general form resembles the " Dutch-oven" of the present day.
It is stated to have been used for extinguishing a lire, by raking the wood and embers to the back of
the hearth, and then placing the open part of the couvre-feu close against the back of the chimney, in
February, 1842, Mr. Syer Cuming purchased of a curiosity-dealer in Chancery-lane a couvre-feu closely
resembling Mr. Gostling's; and Mr. Cuming considers both specimens to be of the same age, of the
close of the loth or early part of the 16th century ; whereas Mr. Gostling's specimen was stated to be
of the Norman period. A third example of the couvre-feu exists in the Canterbury Museum. Another
Couvre-feu was sold by Messrs. Foster, in Pall Mall, April 11, 1866; reputed date 1063.
The Bell of the Clochard, or Bell-tower, of the ancient Palace at Westminster
had a curious destination. Although we find the details of building the tower, by King
Edward III., we find nothing respecting the construction or even placing of the clock,
or the casting of not one, but three bells ; but bell-ropes and a vice or engine are
mentioned. In later accounts (Henry VI.) we, however, have the expense of maintain-
ing the clock and bells, for the superintendence of which Thomas Clockmaker received
135. M. a year as his salary ; he was but a subordinate officer ; the account being
rendered by Agnes de la Van, the wife of Jeffrey de la Van, who was himself the
deputy of John Lenham, who is designated " Custos orologii domini Regis infra pala-
tium suum Westmonasterio." — Rev. J. Hunter, F.S.A. : ArchcBologia, xxxvii. 23.
Aubrey, in his Natural History of Wiltshire, ed. Britton, p. 102, has this note :
" The great bell at Westminster, in the Clockiar at the New Palace Yard, 36,000 lih.
weight. * * It W5\s given by Jo. Montacute, Earle of (Salisbury, I think). Part
of the inscription is thus, sc* annis ah acuto monte Johannis.' " The
three clock-bells when taken down, however, weighed less than 20,000 lb. The metal
of the largest bell is now part of the great bell of St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Geeat Bell for the Westminster Palace Clock was cast at Norton, near
Stockton-on-Tees, from the design of E. B. Denison, Q.C., in 1856, by Warner and
Sons, Cripplegate ; its metal was nearly as hard as spring-steel, and it cracked in the
sounding at Westminster, before it was attempted to be raised. It was then broken
into pieces, and carted away to Mears's Foundry, Whitechapel, and there re-cast, with
2|; tons less metal ; the clapper weighs about 6 cwt. : the former weighed 12 cwt. It
was raised Nov. 18, 1858 j weight of bell, \\\ tons : name, " St. Stephen ; " note,
nearer the true E natural than that of the first bell. This great bell having cracked,
the clock for a time struck the quarters on the four quarter-bells, and the hour also on
the largest of them, which is smaller, but more powerful, as well as sweeter in tone,
than the great bell of St. Paul's : its weight is 4 tons. The great or hour bell has been
repaired, and is now in use.
BELLS AND CRIMES. 45
St. Paul's Cathedkal has four bells, — one in the northern, and three in the
southern or clock-tower : the former is tolled for prayer three times a day, and has a
clapper ; but neither of the four can be raised upon end and rung, as other church-bells.
In the clock-tower are hung two bells for the quarters, and above them is hung the
Great Bell, on gudgeons or axles, on which it moves when struck by the hammer of
the clock. It was cast principally from the metal of a bell in the clock-tower opposite
Westminster Hall Gate, which, before the Reformation, was named "Edward;'*
subsequently to the time of Henry VIII., as appears by two lines in Eccles's Glee, it
was called "Great Tom," as Gough conjectures, by a corruption of grand ton,
from its deep, sonorous tone. On August 1, 1698, the clochard, or tower, was granted
by William III. to St. Margaret's parish, and was taken down: when the bell was
found to weigh 82 cvvt. 2 qrs. 21 lbs., and was bought at lOcZ. per lb., producing
385Z. 17*. Qd., for St. Paul's. While being conveyed over the boundary of West-
minster, under Temple Bar, it fell from the carriage ; it stood under a shed in the
Cathedral Yard for some years, and was at length re-cast, with additional metal,
the inscription stating it to have been "brought from the ruins of Westminster."
It was cast in 1709, by Richard Phelps, of Whitechapel, whose successors in the
foundry, Charles and George Mears, state the dimensions, &c., as follows : — " Diameter,
6 feet 9| inches; height to top of crown, 6 feet 4|- inches; thickness at sound bow,
5|- inches; weight, 5 tons 4 cwt. We have a portion of the agreement made between
the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's and Mr. Phelps, dated July 8th, 1709, it which it
is stipulated that the hour-bell and quarters should be delivered at the Cathedral by
the 1st of October in the same year."
" The key-note (tonic) or sound of this bell is A flat (perhaps it was A natural,
agreeably to the pitch at the time it was cast), but the sound heard at the greatest
distance is that of E flat, or a fifth above the key-note; and a musical ear, when close
by, can perceive several harmonic sounds." — W. Farry.
The Great Bell is never used, except for the striking of the hour, and for tolling at
the deaths and funerals of any of the Royal Family, the Bishop of London, the Dean
of tiie Cathedral ; and the Lord Mayor, should he die in his mayoralty. The same
hammer which strikes the hours has always been used to toll the TdcH', on the occasion
of a demise; but the sound then produced is not so loud as when the hour is struck,
in consequence of the heavy clock-weight not being attached when the bell is tolled,
and causing the hammer to strike with greater force than by manual strength.
It was the Westminster " Great Tom " which the sentinel on duty at Windsor
Castle, during the reign of William III., declared to have struck thirteen instead of
twelve times at midnight, and thus cleared himself of the accusation by the relief-
guard of sleeping upon his post. The story is told of St. Paul's Bell ; but the
Cathedral had no heavy bell until the above grant by King William, who died in 1702 ;
the circumstance is thus recorded in the Fublic Advertiser, Friday, June 22, 1770 : —
"Mr. John Hatfield, who died last Monday at his house in Glasshouse Yard, Aldersgate, aged 103
years, was a soldier in the reign of William and Mary, and the person who was tried and condemned by
a court-martial for falling asleep on his duty upon the Terrace at Windsor. He absolutely denied the
charge against him, and solemnly declared that he heard St. Paul's clock strike thirteen; the truth of
which was much doubted by the court, because of the great distance. But whilst he was under sentence
of death, an affidavit was made by several persons, that the clock actually did strike thirteen instead of
twelve ; whereupon he received his Majesty's pardon."
This striking thirteen, instead of twelve, is mechanically possible, and was caused by
the lifting-piece holding on too long.
The ancient Societies of Bell-ringers in London, called " College Youths," " Cumber-
land Youths," &c., it is very probable, are relics of the ancient Guilds ; for, as early as
the time of Edward the Confessor, there was in Westminster a guild of ringers. They
were re-organized by Henry III.; and by a patent roll in the 39th year of his reign,
the brethren of the Guild of Westminster, who were appointed to ring the great bells
there, were to receive annually out of the exchequer 100 shillings — 50 at Easter and 50
at Michaelmas — until was provided the like sum for them payable out of lands for the
said ringing. And "that the brethren and their successors for ever enjoy all the
privileges and free customs which they have enjoyed from the time of Edward the Con-
fessor, to the date of these presents.'^
In the library of All Souls', Oxon, is a manuscript of " The orders agreed upon by
46 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the company exercising the arte of ringing, knowne and called by the name of the
Schollers of Cheapsyde, in London, begun 2nd February, 1603." This MS. contains
the names of all the members down to the year 1634. After this date, in 1637, the
Society of College Youths was established by Lord Brereton, Sir Cliff Clifton, and
several other gentlemen, for the practice of ringing. They used to ring at St.
Martin's Vintry, on College-hill, near Doctors' Commons, upon a peal of six bells.
This church was burnt in the Great Fire of London, and never rebuilt; but the
Society still retains the name derived from College-hill, and has in its possession a
massive silver bell, which formed the top of the staff which used to be carried by the
beadle of the Society when the members attended divine service at Bow Church, on
the anniversary of its foundation, and other occasions ; also an old book, in which the
names of its members are entered. This book was lost at the time of the Great Fire,
but was subsequently recovered. The names in it are sufficient to show that ringing
was considered an amusement worthy of nobles, divines, and scholars. Among the
notables who have been elected members are the Hon. Robert Cecil (Marquis of
Salisbury), Sir John Bolles and Sir Watkin W. Wynne, baronets ; Sirs Francis Withins,
Martin Lomly; Richard Everard, Henry Tulse, aldermen, Richard Atkins, Henry
Chauncey, Thomas Samnell, Gilbert Dolbin, William Culpeper; John Tash, alderman;
Henry Hicks, and Watkin Lewis, knights.
About 1700, another Society was formed, which was called *' The London Scholars."
In 1746, the name was changed to the present title, " The Cumberland Youths," in
consequence of the great victory under the Duke of Cumberland, at the battle of
Culloden in that year. The London Scholars rang the bells of Shoreditch Church
as the victorious Duke passed by on his return from the battle ; for which a medal of
the Duke and his chargers was presented to the Society, and is still worn by the
master of the Society of Cumberland Youths, at their general meetings. The St.
James's Youths, another society, was established on St. James's-day, 25th July, 1824,
at St. James's Church, Clerkenwell. The grandsire ringing principally belongs to
this society, as it is the first rudiment of the half-pull ringing. About 1841, the
Society rang a peal of 12,000 changes of grandsire quatres at All Saints' Church,
Fulham j also 7325 of grandsire cinques at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, in 1837 ; and
many other peals besides, as recorded in London church-belfries. The head-quarters
of the society are at St. Clement Danes, Strand. The parochial ringing churches
are St. Andrew's, St. Sepulchre's, St. Dunstan's in the West, St. Clement's, West-
minster Abbey, St. John's, Waterloo-road; and St. Mary's, Lambeth : —
There are certain Bells still remaiiiing in London, notwithstanding the Great Fire, which have
historical notes. That, for instance, at the top of the Bell-tower which adjoins the Governor's lodgings
in the Tower, which was probably tolled at the execution of Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, and other
State prisoners, and probably sounded alarms of fire and other calamities in early days. This bell
seems to have been more particularly used by the Tower authorities than that in St. Peter's Church,
which stands near the spot where the scaffold was usually erected. The bells of St. Bartholomew's,
Smithfield, are old, and were probably rung when the Court has come to the tournaments and jousting
at Smithfield. With the exception of Westminster Abbey, St. Saviour's, All Hallows Barking, Cripple-
gate, and Old St. Pancras, there are few of the ancient bell-towers of the metropolis remaining. Several
of the bells, however, may have been saved from the ruins of the Great Fire. There is also the bell
of the Charter-house, which has tolled at the departure of a brother from soon after the death of Thomas
Sutton. Many will still remember that, while the fire of the second Royal Exchange was raghig, the
self-acting bells played merrily the tune of " There is nae luck about the house," and eventually fell
with a crash amidst the blazing ruins. — Communications to the Builder,
The curious custom of a new rector tolling himself into his new benefice, is observed
in the City churches. Before the Reformation, no layman was allowed to be a
*• ringer," and the ecclesiastics had to perform their office in surplice. The " tolling-
in" is as follows : — " The rector is met at the door of the church by the trustees of the
church property belonging to the parish, and the churchwardens. Having obtained
possession of the keys of the church, the new rector unlocks the doors : then, having
closed them, he proceeds alone to the belfry, and for a few minutes tolls one of the
bells, thus complying with the custom imposed by the ordinances of the Church, by
announcing to the parishioners at large his acceptance of the rectorship, and his pos-
session of the church property.
Bow Bells are of ancient celebrity; and it was from the extreme fondness of tb
citizens for them in old times that a genuine Cockney has been supposed to be bo;
I
BELLS AND CHIMES. 47
within the sound of Bow Bells. According to Fynes Morison, the Londoners, and all
within the sound of Bow Bells, are, in reproach, called Cockneys, and eaters of " but-
tered toasts." Beaumont and Fletcher speak of " Bow Bell suckers," i.e., as Mr.
Dyce properly explains it, " children born within the sound of Bow Bells."
From a book of ordinances of the City of Worcester, Mr. Burtt quotes certain annual payments,
dating from very early times, for ringing " day-bell" and " bow-bell," the latter being doubtless the
same as the curfew, although now rung at eight instead of at nine, as at the time of the ordinances.
There is no local explanation of the term bow-bell, but Mr. Burtt considers Mr. Wolf's suggestion
feasible— that as the curfew bell of London was rung at Bow Church, the name of that church was
adopted in other places, and applied to the bell. — Proceedings of the British Archceological Association,
April, 1866.
In 1469, by an Order of Common Council, Bow bell was to be rung nightly at
nine o'clock, and lights were to be exhibited in the steeple to direct the traveller.
When the church was rebuilt, the belfry was prepared for twelve bells, but only
eight were placed : these got out of order, and in 1758 the citizens petitioned the
vestry, that the tenor bell being the completest in Europe, and the other seven
very inferior, they requested to be allowed, at their own expense, to recast the
seven smaller bells, and to add two trebles. This was permitted, after Dance and
Chambers, the architects, had reported that "neither such additional weight, nor
any weight that can be put upon the steeple, will have any greater effect than
the bells now placed there." Accordingly, the set of ten bells was completed by
subscription, and was first rung June 4, 1762, the anniversary of the birth of King
George III. In the year 1822, some fear was expressed that the use of the bells
would endanger the steeple, when, by order of vestry, the bells were rung for trial;
and from a subsequent examination, there did not appear to be any cause for alarm.
The present set is much heavier, and much more powerful in tone, than the first peal
of bells : it requires two men to ring the largest (the tenor, 53 cwt., key C), in conse-
quence of its not having been properly hung. In 1837, the College Youths rang
a grand peal of Stedman quatres on Bow Bells; also, in 1840, a peal of triple ten,
at the same church. Mr. W. H. Burwash, the sexton of St. James's, Clerkenwell,
rang the triple to both peals, and conducted them j and Mr. A. C. Frost rang the
tenor to both : weight, 2 tons 13 cwt. 22 lb., stated to be the greatest bell rung by a
single man in England.
St. Bride's has a fine peal. A century ago, the College Youths, at their own
expense, placed the two small bells in St. Bride's tower, to make the present peal of
twelve beUs ; and, about 1730, twelve members of the Society rang the first peal of
triple-bob maximus that was ever known to be rung on twelve bells. Rear-Admiral Sir
Francis Grey and Lord Chief- Justice Hale were members of this Society, and rang
in the peal. There is still a record of this feat in St. Bride's ringing-room. On
Monday evening, March 13, 1843, the Cumberland Society rang a complete peal of
cinques on Stedman's principle, consisting of 5146 changes, in four hours two
minutes, at St. Bride's ; it being the first peal in that scientific method ever performed
on the bells.
Cheistchtjech, Spitalfields', Bells are scarcely inferior to any in the kingdom ; the
tenor weighs 44 cwt., or 4928 lbs. In the spring of 1836, by a fire which broke out
in the belfry, and reached the loft, the tenor fell upon the other bells, and the whole
were shivered to pieces, or fused by the heat of the conflagration ; the clock and
chimes were also destroyed : they have all been replaced.
St. Leonaed's, Shoreditch. — Here the London Society of Cumberland accomplished
their greatest achievement in olden times — a peal of 12,000 changes of triple-bob
royals, which took nine hours and five minutes on 10 bells, March 27th, 1784, of which
there is a record in the tower, written on copper. The Society, in 1820, added two
new small bells to St. Leonard's, to make a peal of 12 bells, at their own cost-
over lOOZ. ; but it is to be regretted that the great bell of the peal has been cracked.
St. Maetin's-in-the-Fields. — The peal of 12 bells has been put in good ringing
order, and all the bells made to strike true, to the satisfaction of the parochial ringers
and the Cumberland Society, who regard the ringing as now more easy and more
48 CTTBI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
merry, as well as more musically true. The hammer of the church-clock, too, has
been altered so as to strike downwards instead of upwards, thus givinj^ greater force
and clearness to the tone. The ringing-room itself has also been improved; boxes
have been placed to the bells, and the place lit with gas, as well as the staircase and
bell-chamber. On Nov. 19, 1862, the Cumberland Society rang here a peal of
5050 changes of Stedman's quatres, in three hours and twenty-eight minutes, in
honour of the Prince of Wales attaining his majority.
St. Michael's, Comhill, had in Stow's time, six bells, the sixth being " rung by
one man by the space of 160 yeares"; (?) Upon one St. James's night, on the
ringing of a peal, during a storm, the lightning entered at the north window, which so
terrified the ringers that "they lay down as dead." The present tower, rebuilt
1723, has a fine peal of 12 bells, with which, in March, 1866, twelve members of the
College Youths rang a fine and good peal of treble-bob maximus, consisting of 5088
changes, occupying three hours and fifty-two minutes ; this being the first peal on
treble-bobs, on twelve bells ever rung, when the tenor man conducted the peal.
St. Saviour's, Southwark, has a beautiful tenor and 12 large bells ; a spacious ringing-
room with great marble tablet, put up at the expense of the various societies of ringers
in London : a record of a grand peal by the Cumberland Society cost 20 guineas.
The 12 bells of St. Saviour's, were not rung at the opening of New London Bridge,
in 1831, on account of the alleged insecurity it would occasion to the tower. The
tenor of this peal weighs 52| cwt. ; that of Bow, 53 cvvt.
St. Sepulchee's Bell has a melancholy history. In 1605, Mr. R. Dowe left 50Z.
to this parish, on condition that a person should go to Newgate in the still of the night
before every execution-day, and, standing as near as possible to the cells of the con-
demned, should, with a hand-bell (which he also left), give twelve solemn tolls, with
double strokes, and then deliver this impressive exhortation : —
" All you that in the condemned hole do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch, all, and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not t' eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre's Bell to-morrow tolls.
The Lord have mercy on your souls !
Past twelve o'clock I"
Dowe likewise ordered that the great bell of the church should toll on the morning j
and that, as the criminals passed the wall to Tyburn, the bellman or sexton should
look over it and say, "All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners,
who are now going to their death ;" for which he who says it is to receive 11. 6s. 8d.;
let us hope that the gift ere long will be a free one.
St. Stephen's, Rochester-row, Westminster. — Miss Burdett Coutts has given to
this church, built at her cost, a fine peal of eight bells, with a tenor of 1 ton 5 cwt. j
and to St. Ann's, Highgate-rise, a peal of eight bells.
Chimes. — The only church chimes now existing in the metropolis are those of St.
Clement Danes, in the Strand; St. Giles's, Cripplegate; St. Dionis, Fenchurch-street ;
and St. Bride's, Fleet-street. The Cripplegate chimes are the finest in London ; they
were constructed by a poor working man. Formerly, several churches in London, includ-
ing those of St. Margaret and St. Sepulchre, had chime-hammers annexed to their bells.
In each Royal Exchange, the business has been regulated by a bell : in Gresham's
original edifice was a tower " containing the bell, which twice a day summoned mer-
chants to the spot — at twelve o'clock at noon, and at six o'clock in the evening."
(Burgon's Life and Times of Sir T. Oresliam, ii. 345).
The Chimes at the Royal Exchange, destroyed by fire in 1838, played, at intervals of
three hours, " God save the Queen," " Life let us cherish," " The Old 101th Psalm (on
Sundays), and " There's nae luck about the house," which last air they played at
twelve o'clock on the night of the fire, just as the flames reached the chime-loft.
In the new Exchange, chimes have not been forgotten. The airs have been arranged
BEBMONDSEY. 49
by Mr. E. Taylor, the Gresham Professor of Music ; which Mr. Dent has applied on
the chime-barrel. The airs are : —
1. A Psalm tune, by Henry Lawes, the friend of Milton; it is in the key of B flat, so as to exhibit
the capability of the chimes to play in different keys.
2. God save the Queen, in E flat. 3. Rule Britannia.
4. An air selected by Professor Taylor to exhibit the power of the bells. The key in which the bells
are set is E flat. There are fifteen bells, and two hammers to several, so as to play rapid passagres.
There are frequently three hammers striking different bells simultaneously, and sometimes five. Tho
notes of the bells are as follows :— B flat, A natural, A flat, G, F, E flat, D natural, D flat, C, B flat, A
natural, A flat, G, F, and E flat. The flrst bell, B flat, weighs 4cwt.261bs., and its cord, 8c wt. 2qrs. 5 lbs.;
the four bells, A flat, G, F, and E flat, weigh severally, lOcwt. Iqr. 9 lbs., 12cwt. 2qrs. 27 lbs,,
15 cwt. 2 qrs. 141bs., and 23 cwt. 2 qrs. 24 lbs. The united weight of them is 131 cwt. 1 qr. They were
cast by Messrs. Mears, of Whitechapel.
SJEBMONDSET
IS a large parish in Surrey, adjoining the borough of Southwark ; and named Beor-
mund's eye, or island, from its having been the property of some Saxon or Danish
Thane, and the land being insulated by watercourses connected with the Thames, In
1082, a wealthy citizen built here a convent, wherein some Cluniac Monks settled in
1089, to whom William Rufus gave the manor of Bermondsey ; and numerous dona-
tions and grants followed, until this became one of the most considerable alien priories
in England. From its vicinity to London, the monastery occasionally became the
residence of royal personages. Katherine of France, widow of Henry V., retired to
this sanctuary, and died here, Jan. 3, 1437; and Elizabeth Widvile, relict of
Edward IV., was committed to the custody of the monks by her son-in-law, Henry VII.,
and ended her days here, in penury and sorrow, in 1492. Among the persons of note
interred here is said to have been Margaret de la Pole, wife of Edmund de la Pole,
afterwards Earl of Suffolk, who was executed by Henry VIII., in 1513. The Abbey
occupied the ground between Grange-walk (where was a farm) and Long-walk, which
w^as a passage between the monastic buildings and the conventual church ; the latter a
little south of the present parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, originally founded by
the Priors of Bermondsey for their tenantry; rebuilt in 1680, and since repaired.
Among the communion-plate is an ancient silver alms-dish, supposed to have belonged
to the abbey.
A drawing formerly in Mr. Upcott's collection shows the monastery as rebuilt early in
the reign of Edward III., and the cloisters and refectory in 1380. After the surrender of
the establishment to Henry VIII., he granted it to Sir Robert Southwell, Master of the
Rolls : it was by him sold to Sir Thomas Hope, who, in 1545, pulled down the ancient
Priory Church, and with the materials built Bermondsey House, where died Thomas
Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex (Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth), in 1583. The east
gate of the monastery was taken down about 1760 j the great gate-house was nearly
entire in 1806, shortly after which all the ancient buildings were removed, and Abbey-
street built on their site. Bermondsey-square now occupies the great close of the
Abbey, and Grange-road was its pasture-ground, extending to the farm ; the ancient
watercourse, Neckinger, was once navigable from the Thames to the Abbey. Adjoining
was an Almonry, or Hospital, for " indigent children and necessitous converts," erected
by Prior Richard in 1213, but not to be traced after the Reformation.
There is, in the Spa-road, St. James's Chapel, a Grecian edifice, opened in 1829 j
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 500^. 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
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
than in any other parish of the kingdom. It has heen 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.
The tidal ditches, with their filthy dwellings, produced cholera in 1832 and 1848-49 j
in the latter year 189 deaths occurred in 1000 inhabitants. Here is Jacob's Island,
so powerfully pictured in Dickens's novel of Oliver Tioist.
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 toTcens 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 Eegisters, 1604, is the " forme of a solemne Vowe made betwixt a Man and
his Wife, having been longe absent, tlirough which occasion the Woman beinge married
to another Man, took her again."
"Viewed from the Greenwich Railway, which crosses its north-eastern side, Ber-
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 uncommoa
in the burial registers.
JBjSTRNAL GBJEUN,
A 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 stafi" of the parish beadle." — (JLysons.) The incidents
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 chm-ches, 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 13ethnal 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.— 4<Ae«c£i{j», 1862.
I
BETHLEM HOSPITAL. 51
BETHLEM OR BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL.
THE history of the word Bedlam, by which this Hospital was called, within recollec-
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 mediima of much practical good that we seldom ^ive 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 estabHshment 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 17,000Z., 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 j 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-sculptm-ed figures of Raving and Melancholy JNIadness, by
Caius Gabriel Cibber, the father of CoUey.
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 buildmg, from the
windows of which we have seen them look out upon the unafflicted 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 heen 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 tbe 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 122,572Z. 8*,, 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 hexastyle Ionic portico of six columns, with the
royal arms in the pediment, and underneath the motto : — Hen. viii. eege • fun-
DATVM • civirM • LAHGITAS * 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^. 85. 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
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 Cibber'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 j there are cells lined and
floored with cork and india-rubber for refractory patients. The building is flre-proof
throughout, and warmed by hot air and water.
From the first reception of limatics 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 Ic^. 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 coverec^
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 universallyl
substituted for the strait- waistcoat. One Norris, stated to be refractory, was chain edj
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,!
BETELEM 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, 660Z. 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 4000^. a year. Most of the criminals were confined
for murder, committed or attempted. Amongst them was Margaret Nicholson for
attempting to stab George III. j 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, in eluding Edward Oxford, who so nearly assassinated the Queen,
in 1840 ; Macnaughten, who murdered Sir Robert Peel's secretary, at Charing Cross j
and the celebrated Captain Johnston, who under such terrible circumstances killed all
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
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 Commissioners in Lunacy m 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 36Z. 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. ; in other asylums, from 13 to 22 per cent." — {Registrar-
General's Report, 1850.)
The income of Bethlem and Bridewell Hospitals amounts to about 33,000Z. 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 Coui't,
until their abolition.
Patients are admitted by petition to the Governors from a near relation or friend j
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
ordqrs 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 arms of the Hospital,— ^r^cn/, itoo bars sable,
a file of Jive points gules, on a chief azure an etoile of sixteen rays or, charged icith a plate, thereon a
cross of the third, between a human skull placed on a cup, on the dexter side, and a basket 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 fije 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 etoile, 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 etoile 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 cliief azure, between two fleurs-de-lis. — Famphlet by Feter Laurie,
Esq., LL.B. ; privately printed.
BILLINGSGATJS
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 Beling 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 1699, 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 Dictionarij, 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.
BLACKFBIABS. 55
Not only has the virago disappeared, but the iiaarket-plaee 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 ; cofiee 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, whoso
carts are waiting in the adjoining streets. The wholesale market is now over; the
hummarees 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
<;wt., 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 1,904,000 ; of turbots, 87,958. The speculation in lobsters is
very great : in 1816, one Billingsgate salesman is known to have lost 1200Z. 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 lbs. a
penny ; soles, 2d. ; large plaice, \d. 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 \l. 155., 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.
BLACKFRIAES
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 Koman wall, upon which is a
Norman or early English reparation ; and upon that are the remains of a passage and
v/indow, 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
21,000Z. The commissioners valued it at near 3000Z. The parishioners offer towards
the removing of them 100^. 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 165^. 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 Vandyck 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 hi 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 Cheynie; the Lord Laware; the Lord Russell; 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 EoUes; the
Queene's Sollicitour ; Mr. Thomas Fanshawe ; 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 Eailway
from the viaduct across the Thames at Blackfriars, great part of the east side of Bridge-
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
an author-publisher, he formed a considerable collection of pictures, mostly portraits of
eminent men of letters.
BLACKWALLy
ON the north bank of the Thames, and at the eastern extremity of the West India
Docks, is said to have been originally called Bleak wall, 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, A\ 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 his court in the East ; besides the philo-
58 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
«ophers of the Royal Society; and her Majesty's Cabinet Ministers, who wind up the
Parliamentary session with their " annual tish dinner," the origin of which is stated to
be as follows : —
On the banks of Dagenham Lake or Eeach, in Essex, many j'ears 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
tlie Right Hon. George Kose, 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 contmued 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 steam is the jpriinum
mobile.
In the East India Docks, at Blackwall, arrived, April, 1848, a large Chinese Junk,
the first ever seen in England.
BLINB-SCSOOL (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 Bethlem
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 500^. 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 their 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
j^uick in superintending the pupils. The men and boys make wicker baskets, cradl
1
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
100,000Z. 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 lOZ., or more than 20Z.,
per year, to each blind person, the selection being left to Trustees : the Charity is
named " The Blind Man's Fund."
breweei:es.
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
€ach 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.
Wliitbread's Brewery, in Chiswell-street, Finsbury, dates more than two centuries
back : we find it at the head of the hst in 1*787 ; 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 ; prinds 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,
and 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 avaU themselves of such permission. The
Brewery and its appurtenances occupy about twelve acres of ground, immediately
60 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
adjoining Banksitle, and extending from the land-arches of Southwark Bridge nearly
lialf 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 hound 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, vras a long, straggling place,
with ditches on each side, the passage to the houses being over little bridges with
little garden-plots before them [Strype's Stow).
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 Sheriff of Surrey and M.P. for Southwark, and died
in 1V58. 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 j yet the
Brewery, through Thrale's unfortunate speculation elsewhere, was at one time, accord-
ing to Mrs. Thrale, 130,000Z. 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,OOOZ. " 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 20,000Z 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
hot weather.
The machinery is worked throughout the Brewery by steam. The furnace-shafb 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 5000?., 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,
axe 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 below ; 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
imder-pan, whence it is immped back to the emptied copper, from whence it receives the hot water, and
there, mixed with hops, it is boiled, and again run otF 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. The largest vat will contain about 3500 barrels of
porter, which, at the retail price, would yield 9000?. 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 80?. each.
Truman, Hanhury, Buxton, 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 depot. 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 Raid 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 5000?. building,
and would contain from 10,000 to 12,000 barrels of beer, valued at 20,000?. 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 500,000?. and 600,000?.
The handsomest edifice of this class in the metropolis is the Lion Brewery, built for
Goding, 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 barrels 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 ; 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 j 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 j thus, Barclay and Perkins, the Anchor ; Calvert's (now the City of
London), the Hour-glass ; Meux, Horseshoe, &c.
JBRIDHWELL HOSPITAL,
UPON one of the oldest historic sites in the City of London stood the ancient palace
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 Koman, 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." — (Stoto.) 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 lodgingg '
in the Blackfriars." — (Stow.) The whole third act of Shakspeare's Henry VIII. is
laid in " the palace at Bridewell," which is historically con-ect. 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, 1555, the Mayor and Aldermen entered
Bridewell and took possession, with seven hundi'ed marks land, 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 j 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 vaj^ants, 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. 6JJ
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'*
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 ta
work, is seen standing on tiptoe to reach the stocks, in which his hands are fixed,
while over his head is written, " Better to Avork 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 Hudihras 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.
Bridev^ell 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 Brideivell ; a house of correction ; 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
their being sent home to their respective parishes; and a certain number of boys
were brought up to different trades ; and it is still used for apprentices committed
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 labour, 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. 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 j 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 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
disposal of the building and the estates of the governors of the Hospital. Reforma-
tory schools are also to be 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 eflfectually 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, Eoberfc
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 j 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 500Z. to 50Z.,
" depensilled in gold characters." In this hall the governors dined annually, each
steward contributing 15Z. 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 ]862 — 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, r,S,A., remarked, in 1859, that " it is not now regarded as Holbein's
work, as it bears no comparison with his capital pictui-e 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." — ArcTiceologia 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 pastoi*.
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 Father's. Henry Ains-
wortli 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 contempoi'aueous with the Angli-
can movement. — See Historical Pa'pers : No. 1, Richard Fitz.
JBBIDGHJS.
THERE 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 Beidge, 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 Sweyn, King
of Denmark, in 994; and it was nearly destroyed by the Norwegian Prince Olaf
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 in 1205, having, it would appear, Icfc 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 JValks and Talks about London, 1865, pp. 31-38.
66 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Chronicles of Old London Bridge (pp. 70, 7l). 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 Rolls, 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 jvidth,
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 1
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. I
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 1754, 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, \i\iich.\w3i%\
burnt in 1561. Beneath the view this is stated to be " the oldest view of London extant ;" but we havej
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 thaj
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 usj
to attempt to recite. In 1212, within four years after the bridge being finishec
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. wa
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 — I
" 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-thu'd of the houses!
BRIDGE— OLD LONDON. 67
were consumed in an accidental conflagration ; and in 1666 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, Waterworlcs 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 10,000^. from the New 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 Tt^pograpMcal 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 pi-oduced. 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 of
Fisher, Bishop of Eochester, 1535, displaced in fourteen days by the head of Sir
Thomas More. • In 1577, the se'v eral heads were removed from the north eiid 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 befidlen 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
was, 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 and Guardian, when broken down in character and reduced to poverty,
took a boat at Somerset Stairs ; and ordering the waterman to row down the river,
Budgell threw himself into the stream as they shot London Bridge. He, too, had
filled his pockets with stones, and rose no more : he left in his secretary a slip of paper,
P 2
CTTBIOSITIES OF LONBON.
on which was written a broken distich : " What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot
be wrong." This is a wicked sophism ; there being as httle resemblance between the
cases of Budgell and Cato as there is reason for considering Addison's Cato written
in defence of suicide.
Of a healthier complexion is the anecdote of Edward Osborne, in 1536, leaping
into the Thames from the window of one of the Bridge houses, and saving his master's
infant daughter, dropped by a nurse-maid into the stream. The father. Sir William
Hewet, was Lord Mayor in 1559, and gave this daughter in marriage to Osborne,
whose great-grandson became the first Duke of Leeds.
In 1716, a very remarkable phenomenon occurred at London Bridge. The Thames,
from long continued drought, and the consequent stopping of the supplies by its
tributaries, was reduced to so low a pitch, that many persons walked over its bed from
Southwark to the city, and vice versa. During the twenty-four hours which this
extraordinary ebb — assisted as it was by a gale of wind from W.S.W. — lasted, many
interesting observations were made in respect to the foundation of the bridge, and a
variety of relics were found. To allow of extensive changes and repairs, a temporary
wooden bridge was built on the sterlings, or ancient coffer-dams, to protect the piers ;
it was burnt April 10, 1758, but rebuilt in a month. The centre pier and two arches
adjoining were then taken down and replaced by one large arch, the bridge widened
several feet, and reopened in 1759. These alterations are said to have cost
the large sum of 100,000^.
The annual loss of life and property that occurred through the dangerous state of
the navigation under the arches (the fall being at times five feet), and the perpetually
recurring expense of keeping the Bridge in repair, suggested, about the beginning of
the present century, its demolition and rebuilding ; but not until 1824- was the new
structure commenced, the first pile being driven March 15. It was designed by John
Eennie, F.R.S., and is about 100 feet westward of the old Bridge. In excavating the
foundations, were discovered brass and copper coins of Augustus, Vespasian, and later
Roman empei'ors; Venetian tokens, Nuremberg counters, and a few Tradesmen's
Tokens ; brass and silver rings and buckles, ancient iron keys and silver spoons, the
remains of an engraven and gilt dagger, an iron spear-head, a fine bronze lamp (head
of Bacchus), and a small silver figure of Harpocrates : the latter preserved in the
British Museum. We may here notice, that upon the old Bridge grew abundantly
Sisymbrium Iris, or London Eocket, with small yellow flowers and pointed leaves : this
plant probably appeared here soon after the Great Fire of 1666, when it sprung up
thickly from among the City ruins.
Mr. Rennie died in 1821 ; but the works were continued by his sons, Mr. (now Sir
John) Rennie and Mr. George Rennie ; the builders being Mr. W. Jolliffe and Sir
Edward Banks. On June 15, 1825, the first stone was laid in a coffer-dam nearly
forty -five feet below high-water mark, opposite the southern arch (fourth lock), with
great ceremony, by the Lord Mayor (Garratt), in the presence of the Duke of York j
and in the evening the Monument was illuminated with portable gas, to commemorate
the event. Two large gold medals were also struck on the occasion. The first arch
was keyed August 4, 1827 ; the last Nov. 19, 1828 ; and the Bridge was opened with
great state, August 1, 1831, by King William IV. and Queen Adelaide, who went and
returned by water, and were present at the banquet given on the Bridge ; the Lord
Mayor (Key) presiding ; and the King and Queen partaking of the loving-cup.
New London Bridge is unrivalled in the world " in the perfection of proportion and
the true greatness of simplicity."
" It consists of five semi-elliptical arches, viz. two of 130 feet, two of 140 feet ; and the centre, 153
feet 6 inches span, and 37 feet 6 inches rise, is perhaps the largest elliptical arch ever attempted : the
roadway is 52 feet wide. This bridge deserves remark, on account of the difficult situation in which it
was built, being immediately above the old bridge, in a depth of from 25 to 30 feet at low water, on a
soft alluvial bottom, covered with large loose stones, scoured away by the force of the current from the_
foundation of the old bridge, the whole of which had to be removed by dredging, before the cotfer-daras'
for the piers and abutments could be commenced, otherwise it would have been extremely difficult, if
not impracticable, to have made them water-tight; the difficulty was further increased by the old bridge
being left standing, to accommodate the traffic, whilst the new bridge was building ; and the re-
stricted water-way of the old bridge occasioned such an increased velocity of the current as materially
to retard the operations of the new bridge, and at times the tide threatened to carry away all before it.
The great magnitude and extreme flatness of the arches demanded unusual care in the selection of
BBIDGE -LONDON. 69
the materials, which were of the finest blue and white granite from Scotland and Devonshire; great
accuracy in the workmanship was also indispensable. The piers and abutments stand upon platforms
of timber resting upon piles about 20 feet long. The masonry is from 8 feet to 10 feet below the bed
of the river. — Sir John Bennie, F.R.S.
The time occupied in the erection of the Bridge, from driving the first pile, March 15,
1824, to its completion in July, 1831, was seven years five months and thirteen days,
during which it employed upwards of 800 men. Its building was attended with so
many local difficulties, that forty persons lost their lives in the progress of the works.
The total quantity of stone in the bridge is stated at 120,000 tons; and the ends of
the parapets consist of the largest blocks of granite ever brought to this country. A
single cornice runs along the upper part of the bridge, supported on dentils formed
of solid beams of granite, marking externally the line of the roadway; this is sur-
mounted by a close parapet, four feet high, upon which are lofty and massive bronzed
standards, with gas lanterns.
The amount paid to Messrs. Jolliffe and Banks for this bridge was 425,081Z. 9s. 2d. ;
but the whole sum expended on it, including the approaches, was 1,458,311?. 8^. W\d.
The latter are very fine, especially the roadway into the City, where, at the suggestion
of Mr. Alderman Gibbs, a granite statue of King William was set up, to commemorate
the opening ; and a bronze equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, in front of
the Eoyal Exchange, was erected as an acknowledgment by the citizens of his Grace's
exertions in facilitating the means of erecting the new bridge.
The old Bridge was not entirely removed until 1832, when the bones of the builder,
Peter of Colechurch, were found beneath the masonry of the chapel, as if to complete
the eventful history of the ancient structure. The superstructure was enormously
thick. The roadway was 8| feet above the crowns of the arches, and had apparently
risen by the accumulations of five different strata, one of which was composed of charred
wood, the debris of the houses that had been destroyed by fire. The foundations were
very defective. The masonry was but 2^ feet below low-water mark, and rested on
oak planking 16 inches wide by 9 inches thick, which in turn was supported by a mass
of Kentish rabble, mixed with chalk and flints, thrown in and held together by star-
lings. Parts of the piers had been faced at some early period, but very ill and care-
lessly, and no part of the original work rested on piles.
At the sale of the materials of this Bridge, Mr. Weiss, the cutler, of the Strand,
purchased all the iron, amounting to fifteen tons, with which the piles had been shod;
and such portions as had entered the ground produced steel infinitely superior to any
which Mr. Weiss had ever met with. Upon examination, it was inferred that the
extremities of the piles having been charred, the straps of iron closely wedged between
them and the stratum in which they were imbedded, must have been subjected to a
galvanic action, which, in the course of some six or seven hundred years, produced the
above effects.
The stone proved finely-seasoned material : a portion of it was purchased of
Alderman Huniphery by Alderman Harmer, and used in building his seat. Ingress
Abbey, near Greenhithe; the balustrades, of good proportions, were preserved.
Many snuff-boxes and other memorials were turned from the pile-wood.
The traffic across the old Bridge, in one day of July, 1811, amounted to 89,640
persons on foot, 769 waggons, 2924 carts and drays, 1240 coaches, 485 gigs and taxed
carts, and 764 horses. The present Bridge is capable of accommodating four continuous
streams of vehicles, with the addition of wide pavements for foot-passengers. The
traffic over the Bridge during the 24 hours ending at 6 p.m. has comprised : — Vehicles —
cabs, 4483 ; omnibuses, 4286 ; waggons, carts, &c., 9245 ; other vehicles, 2430 j
horses, led or ridden, 54 — total, 20,498. Passengers : — In vehicles, 60,836 ; on foot,
107,074 — total, 167,910. — [See Chronicles of London Bridge, by an Antiquary
(Richard Thomson), 1827 ; where the researches of a lifetime appear to be condensed
into a single volume.]
Westminster Beid(^ was opened in 1750, until when the only communication
between Lambeth and Westminster was by the ferry-boat near Lambeth Palace Gates,
the property of the Archbishop of Canterbury, granted by patent under a rent of 20d.
and for the loss of which ferry 2205Z. were given to the see.
70 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Attempts to obtain another bridge over the Thames, besides that of London, were
made in the several reigns of Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and II., and George I. ;
but it was not until the year 1736 (10 Geo. II.), that Parliament authorized the build-
ing of a second bridge. The architect was Charles Labelye, a native of Switzerland :
the first stone was laid by the Earl of Pembroke, Jan. 29, 1738-9; and the bridge was
opened Nov. 18, 1750. It consisted of fifteen semicircular arches, the centre seventy-six
feet span ; 1223 feet long by 44 feet wide. It was originally intended for a wooden
bridge, and was partly commenced on this principle. The bottom courses of the piers,
were laid, or built, in floating- vessels, or caissons, which when so loaded, were conducted
to their proper positions, and there sunk upon the natural alluvial bed of tlie river ;
the bottom of the caissons thus forming, when the sides had been removed, the plat-
forms or foundations of the masonry, unsustained by underpiling, or any other support
than that of the gravel or sand on which they rested.
In the Oentleman's Magazine for 1750, a view of Westminster Bridge as then finished is given, with
this jnemorandum : — " This structure is certainly a very great ornament to our metropolis, and will be
looked on with pleasure or envy by all foreigners. The surprising echo in the arches, brings much
company with French horns to entertain themselves under it in summer ; and with the upper part, for
an agreeable airing, none of the public walks or gardens can stand in competition." For the protection
of passengers over it at night there was at this time a watch of twelve men !
Labelye states the quantity of stone in this Bridge to be nearly double that employed
in building St. Paul's Cathedral. " The caissons contained upwards of 150 loads of
timber, and were of more toimage than a forty-gun vessel." (Sutton's Tracts). The
original cost of the Bridge is given as 393,1 89Z., of which 145,057^. went to contrac-
tors and 248,132Z. to other parties. The approaches cost 109,054^. It is worthy of
note that long before Labelye's bridge was erected, the place of crossing was known as
Westminster Bridge. (See Dr. Wallis to S. Pepys, Oct. 24, 1699.) In the old maps
the landing-place on the north shore is so marked.
Vast sums were expended in the repair of this Bridge. Within forty years it cost
nearly half a million of money ; whereas the property of the Bridge only realized
7464^. 11*. 8d. In 1838, Mr. W. Cubitt found the caissons in a perfect state, the
wood (fir) retaining its resinous smell. After the removal of London Bridge, as Tel-
ford foresaw, more than one of the Westminster piers gave way ; to stay their sinking,
in Aug. 1846 the thoroughfare was closed ; the balustrades and heavy stone alcoves
were removed, the stone-work stripped to the cornice, and the roadway lowered, thus
lightening it of 30,000 tons weight ; timber palings were put up at the sides, and the
Bridge was re-opened. The proportions of the sides are stated to have been so accurate,
that if a person spoke against the wall of any of the niches on one side of the way, he
might be distinctly heard upon the opposite side ; even a whisper was audible in the
stillness of the night. This was the last metropolitan bridge which had a balustrade
parapet, that of Blackfriars Bridge having been removed in 1839.
Westminster Bridge was built of magnesian limestone, containing from 24 to 42 per
cent, of carbonate of magnesia, from which Epsom salts are obtained by the application of
sulphuric acid. " If," said Dr. Ryan, in a lecture before the Royal Agricultural
Society, " Westminster Bridge, built of that rock, were covered with water and sul-
phuric acid, it would be converted into Epsom salts."
It was upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1803, that Wordsworth poured forth
this truly majestic sonnet : —
Earth has not anything to show more fair :
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty :
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning ; silent, bare.
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples, lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep !
The river glideth at its own sweet will :
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep, ^
And all that mighty heart is lying still !
At length the construction of a new Bridge was commenced as near as possible to
the old one, the latter being used as a temporary bridge. The works were com-
BBIDGE-WBSTMIN8TEB. 71
menced by T. Page, C.E., somewhat lower down the river, in the middle of 1859. No
coffer-dams were used j but on the site of each pier, elm piles were driven deep below
the bed of the river into the London clay. Round these again were forced massive
iron circular piles, grooved at the edges, so as to admit of great sheets of cast iron
being slid down like shutters between them; the space they shut in being care-
fully dredged out of mud to the bed of the river, the piles tied together with iron
rods, and the space filled in between with concrete up to low-water mark, when the
masonry — enormous slabs of granite, weighing from eight to twelve tons — was fixed
for the pier, and on these were raised the massive stone piers themselves. The arches
of the Bridge are seven in number, each formed of seven ribs, w'hich are of cast-iron
nearly up to the crown, where, to avoid danger from the concussion of heavy loads,
they are of wrought metal. The arches vary in span, from the smallest, of 90 ft., to
the largest in the centre, of 120 ft., and from a height above high- water level of from
16 ft. to 20 fb. In the spandrels of the arches are Gothic quatrefoils, filled with shields
of the arms of Westminster and England. The materials used in the construction of
the whole bridge were 4200 tons of cast and 1400 tons of wrought-iron, 30,000 cubic
yards of concrete, 21,000 cubic yards of brickwork set in Portland cement, 165,000
cubic feet of granite, and 46,000 cubic feet of timber. Its gradient is 12 ft. lower than
the old Bridge, and its total width more than double, so that it is, size for size, the
cheapest Bridge over the Thames that has yet been built, costing per superficial foot
less than half the pi*ice of any similar structure in London. The length, breadth, and
cost of each of the metropolitan Bridges have been as follows-: —
London
Southwark .....
Blaekfriars .....
Waterloo 1380
Hmigerford
Westminster, old 1160
Westminster, new ....
Vauxhall
Chelsea
New Bridge at Blaekfriars
Thus it will be seen that the new Bridge is very nearly twice as wide as any of the
bi'idges over the Thames. Within the parapets it is 84 ft. 2 in. Of this the footways
occupy 28 ft., the road for the light trafiic 39 ft., the tramways 14 ft. 8 in,, and the
space between them 2 ft. 6 in. The tramways consist of iron-plates, bolted to timbers,
and laid upon an elastic bed of cork and bitumen. The kerb of the footway is formed
of Ross of Mull granite; the footway itself is of Blashfield's terra-cotta, in diamond-
shaped tiles, grooved transversely. The Bridge was completed in 1863, and opened
May 24, Her Majesty's birthday, at a quarter to 4 o'clock, the precise time when the
Queen was born ; and at that hour a salute of 25 guns was fired, a number correspond-
ing to the years of her reign.
" The unparalleled width produces a most striking effect as yonipass on to the Bridge : if you approach
it from the Surrey side of the river, it is singularly imposing, as it stretches its wide way before you,
spanning the broad unseen river, and backed by the magnificent mass of the Houses of Parliament, —
never so well seen before, the visitor should see it for the first time thus— it is a thing to remember.
From the river the Bridge is less impressive. It ia not so majestic as London Bridge, nor so beautiful as
Waterloo. The arches seem to press upon the wSiteT."— Companion to the Almanack, 1863. Still, with
certaui artistic defects, this is a noble bridge.
The old Bridge was taken down in 1861; the last arch, April 25, and the foundations
three months later : altogether, including the arches, more than 2,100,000 cubic feet
of masonry and brickwork were taken out.
Blackpeiaes Beidge originated with a committee appointed, in 1746, to examine
Labelye's designs for improving London Bridge ; though the architect of Blaekfriars
Bridge was Robert Mylne, a native of Edinburgh. " The first pile of it was driven in
the middle of the Thames, June 7, 1760 ; and the foundation-stone was laid by Sir
Thomas Chitty, Lord Mayor, Oct. 31. On Nov. 19, 1768, it was made passable as a
bridle- way, exactly two years after its reception of foot-passengers ; and it was finally
and generally opened on Sunday, Nov. 19, 1769. There was a toll of one halfpenny
Length.
Breadth.
Cost per
reet.
¥t. in.
Square ft.
90i
63 6
. £11 6
800
43 6
11 5 10
994 .
42
3 15 6
1380
41 6
10
1536
13 4
4 16 6
1160
43
7 16
990
85
4
840
36 2
9 16
923
40
2 6
980
. 76 .
3 5
72 CURIOSITIES OF LOKDOK
for every foot-passenger, and one penny on Sundays j but on January 22, 1785, the
tolls were redeemed by Government. The toll -house was burnt down in the Riots of
1780, when all the account-books were destroyed." — (Chronicles of London Bridge,
pp. 568, 569.) The total cost of building and completing the Bridge and avenues
thereto was 261,579Z. Os. B^d. ; including 21,250^. l7s. 6d. paid to the Watermen's
Company for the Sunday ferry.
" L'nder the foundation-stone were placed several pieces of gold, silver, and copper coins of George
II., together with a silver medal given to Mr. Mylne, the architect, by the Academy of St. Luke, with a
copper rim round it, having the following inscriptions. On the one side, ' In architectura prsestantiae
premium (ipsa Roma judice), Roberto Mylne pontis hujus architectoni grato animo posuit.' " Upon
" a plate or plates of pure tin" was a Latin inscription, stating the Bridge to have been undertaken
by the Common Council of London (amidst the rage of an extensive war), and that there might re-
main to posterity a monument of this city's aflection to the man, who, by the strength of his genius,
the steadiness of his mind, and a certain kind of happy contagion of his probity and spirit (under the
Divine favour and fortunate auspices of George XL) recovered, augmented, and secured the British
Empire in Asia, Africa, and America, and restored the ancient reputation and influence of this country
amongst the nations of Europe, the citizens of London unanimously voted this bridge to be inscribed
with the name of William Pitt. It was for a short time called " Pitt Bridge," which was soon
changed to Black friars Bridge; but the names of William and the Earl of Chatham still live in
William-street, Earl-street, and Chatham-place.
Mylne's success was owing, in a great measure, to the exertions of his friend, John
Paterson, City Solicitor; and they being of the Anti-Wilkes party, and of the same
country as Lord Bute, the unpopular First Minister of the Crown, Churchill, in his
poem founded on tlie Cock -lane Ghost story, has scathed both Mylne and Paterson.
The Bridge was built of Portland stone, and consisted of nine semi- elliptical arches,
then introduced about the first time in this country, in opposition to Gwyn, who, in
his design, proposed the semicircular arch. The columns were the most objectionable
feature in Mylne's '"!esign, architecturally ; for the line of the parapet being a curve,
the pillars were necessarily of different heights and diameters. Between 1833 and
1840, the Bridge was thoroughly repaired by Walker and Burgess, at an expense of
74,035Z., it is stated at a loss to the contractors. The foot and carriage ways were
lowered; the removal of the balustrades, and the substitution of a plain parapet,
altogether spoiled the architectural beauty of the structure. It is traditionally said
that our great landsape-painter, Richard Wilson, used to make frequent visits to Black-
friars Bridge, to study the magnificent view of St. Paul's Cathedral obtained from it.
At length, the Court of Common Council resolved to build a new Bridge upon the
site of the old Bridge, but much wider ; and the design of Joseph Cubitt was selected
—to consist of five iron arches, surmounted by an ornamental cornice and parapet, and
the iron floor covered with a layer rf concrete, and paved with granite; eacb of the
four piers having a massive i. lumn o" red polished granite. A temporary wooden
bridge GOOft. in length, having three arches of 75ft. span for the river traffic ; the
carriage-wsy is 26ft. wide, aid above it, at an elevation of 16ft., two footways, each
9ft. wide, were erected : the old bridge was then closed, and its demolition commenced
forthwith ; the rubble and masonry above the arch-turnings was nearly 20,000 tons
weight. The cost of this Bridge, four equestrian statues, and the temporary bridge, is
stated at 265,000Z., or SI. per foot super. At 150 feet eastward an iron lattice girder-
bridge hf.d been constructed for 'the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway.
Vauxhall Beidge, communicating with Millbank, had, in consequence of disputes,
four engineers : Ralph Dodd, Sir Samuel Bentham, John Rennie, F.R.S. ; and lastly,
James Walker, who carried the design into effect at the expense of a public Company.
The Bridge is of cast-iron, but was originally intended to be of stone : hence the
narrowness of the nine arches, which would not have been necessary for an iron
structure. The first stone of the pier begun by Mr. Rennie was laid by Lord
Dundas, as proxy for the Prince Regent, May 9, 1811. The building was then sus-
pended, but transferred to Mr. James Walker ; the first stone of the resumed works
was laid by the late Duke of Brunswick, August 21, 1813 ; and on June 4, 1816,
the bridge was opened.
The width of the river is 900 feet at this Bridge, the length of which, clear of the
abutments, is 806 feet ; its 9 arches are each 78 feet span, and its 8 piers, each 13
feet wide ; height of centre arch, at high water, 27 feet. The bridge cost upwards of
300,000?.; its half-year's clear revenue from tolls in 1849-50 was 2986Z. 3*. 4d. The
BRIDGES— WATEBLOO—SOUTHWABK 73
low grounds west of the bridge, and formerly known as the Neathouse Gardens, were
elevated to a level with the Pimlico-road, by transporting hither the soil excavated
from St. Katherine's Docks ; and upon this artificial foundation several streets were
built. The roadway on the south side crosses the site of the Cumberland Tea Gardens.
Wateexoo Bridge has been dignified by Canova as '* the noblest bridge in the
world," and by Baron Dupin as " a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris and the
Caesars." It was partly projected by George Dodd, the engineer, and desigped for
him by John Linnell Bond, architect, who died in 1837 ; but the bridge was eventually
built for a public Company by John Eennie, F.R.S. It crosses the Thames from the
Strand, between Somerset Place and the site of the Savoy, to Lambeth, at the centre
of the site of Cuper's Gardens, where the first stone was laid October 11, 1811.
This Bridge consists of nine semi-elliptical arches, each 120 feet span and 35 feet
high, supported on piers 20 feet wide at the springing of the arches; with "useless
and inappropriate Grecian-Doric columns between the piers, surmounted by the anoma-
lous decoration of a balustrade upon a Doric entablature." — (Elmes.) The width of
the Thames at this part is 1326 feet at high water ; the entire length of the bridge
is 2456 feet — the bridge and abutments being 1380 feet, the approach from the Strand
310 feet, and the land-arch causeway on the Surrey side 766 feet. The roadway upon
the summit of the arches is carried upon brick arches to the level of the Strand ; and
by a gentle declivity upon a series of brick arches over the roadway upon the Surrey
bank of the river to the level of the roads near the Obelisk by the Surrey Theatre.
This district, until the building of the Bridge, was known as Lambeth Marsh, was
low-lying and swampy, with thinly scattered dwellings ; but in a few years it became
covered with streets of houses.
The Bridge is built of granite, • " in a style of solidity and magnificence hitherto
unknown. There elliptical arches, with inverted arches between them to counteract
the lateral pressure, were carried to a greater extent than in former bridges ; and
isolated cofier-dams upon a great scale in a tidal river, with steam-engines for pump-
ing out the water, were, it is believed, for the first time employed in this country ; the
level line of roadway, which adds so much to the beauty as well as the convenience of
the structure, was there adopted." — (Sir John Eennie, F.H.S.) The Bridge was
opened by a procession of the Prince Regent and the Dukes of York and Wellington,
and a grand military cavalcade, on June 18, 1817, the second anniversary of the battle
of Waterloo, whence it is named. The Bridge itself cost about 400,000?., which, by
the expense of the approaches, was increased to above a million of money — a larger
sum than the cost of building St. Paul's, the Monument, and seven of our finest metro-
politan churches. It has been a ruinous speculation to the Company, the tolls amount-
ing to little more than 20,000Z. per annum.
Formerly, the average number of suicides annually committed from Waterloo
Bridge was 40 ; in September, 1841, there were nine attempts made, within a few
days, to commit suicide from Blackfriars Bridge.
SouTHWAEK Beidge, designed by John Kennie, F.E..S., was built by a public
Company, and cost about 800,000/. It consists of three cast-iron arches : the centre
240 feet span, and the two side arches 210 feet each, about forty-two feet above the
highest spring-tides : the ribs forming, as it were, a series of hollow masses, or
voussoirs, similar to those of stone, a principle new in the construction of cast-iron
bridges, and very successful. The whole of the segmental pieces and the braces are
kept in their places by dove-tailed sockets and long cast-iron wedges, so that bolts are
unnecessary ; although they were used during the construction of the bridge, to keep
the pieces in their places until the wedges had been driven. The spandrels are similarly
connected, and upon them rests the roadway of solid plates of cast iron, joined by iron
cement. The piers and abutments are of stone, founded upon timber platforms, resting
upon piles driven below the bed of the river. The masonry is tied throughout by
vertical and horizontal bond-stones, so that the whole acts as one mass in the best
position to resist the horizontal thrust. The first stone was laid by Admiral Lord
Keith, May 23, 1815, the Bill for erecting the Bridge having been passed May 6, 1811.
^e iron-work, weight 5700 tons, had been so well put together by the Walkers, of
74 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. "
Rotherham, the founders, and the masonry by the contractors, Jolliffe Baiiks ; that
when the work was finished, scarcely any sinking was discernible in the arches. From
experiments made to ascertain the extent of the expansion and contraction between
the extreme range of winter and summer temperature, it was found that the arch rose
in the summer about 1 inch to 1^ inch. The works were commenced in 1813, and
the bridge was opened by lamp-light, March 24, 1819, as the clock of St. Paul's
Cathedral tolled midnight. Towards the middle of the western side of the
bridge is a descent from the pavement to a steamboat pier. The bridge was opened
free of toll, for six months, by the Lord Mayor (Lawrence), Nov. 8, 1864, with a view
to its purchase, ultimately, by the City of London.
" Within a fraction, London Bridge has as much traffic as all the rest put together, the
proportions being — London equal to all ; Westminster half of London ; Blackfriars
half of Westminster ; Waterloo one third of Blackfriars ; and Southwark one-fourth
of Waterloo." — JBennoch on the Bridges of London, 1853.
HuNaEEroED SusPEKSiON-BEiDGE,from Hungerford Market toBelvedere Road, Lam-
beth, was constructed by I. K. Brunei, F.R.S., and was a fine specimen of mechanical skill.
It consisted of two lofty brick piers, or towers, in the Italian style, designed by Run-
ning, 58 feet above the road, and built in brickwork and cement on the natural bed of
the river, without piles. In the upper part of these towers, four chains passed over
rollers, so as to equalize the strain : they carried the platform or roadway, in two
lines, with single suspension rods, 12 feet apart ; the chains being secured in tunnels at
the abutments to iron girders, embedded in brickwork and cement, and strengthened
with concrete. There were three spans, the central one between the piers being
676| feet, or 110 feet wider than the Menai Bridge ; and second only to the span of
the wire suspension-bridge at Fribourg, which is nearly 900 feet. The length between
the abutments of the Hungerford Bridge was 1352^ feet. The roadway was in the
centre 32 feet above high-water mark, or V feet higher than the crown of the centre
arch of Waterloo Bridge. The height above the piers was 28^ feet. Thus was
gained additional height for the river traffic, and a graceful curve, with the appearance
of swagging prevented. The Bridge was commenced in 1841, and was built without
any scaffolding but a few ropes, consequently, without impediment to the navigation of
the river. The iron-work, between 10,000 and 11,000 tons, was by Sandys and Co.,
Cornwall. The entire cost of the Bridge was 110,000Z., raised by a public Company.
The toll was a halfpenny each person each way. The Bridge was opened May 1,
1845, when, between noon and midnight, 36,254 persons passed over. Hungerford
was then the great focus of the Thames steam -navigation, the embarkations and
landings here exceeding 2,000,000 per annum. The Bridge was taken down in 1863,
and the chains were carried to Clifton, for the Suspension-Bridge erecting there.
Upon its site has been constructed the Bridge for the Charing Cross Extension of the
South Eastern Railway : it has on each side a foot-path and ornamental balustrade ;
and in the centre four lines of rails, expanding fanwise into seven lines on approaching
the Charing Cross terminus. The Bridge for carrying the Railway across the Thames
to the City terminus, in Upper Thames-street, is similar to the Charing Cross Bridge,
but 12 feet wider.
Hammeesmith Stjspension-Beidge is one of the most elegant structures of its
kind ; and, unlike other suspension-bridges, has part of the roadway supported on, and
not hanging from, the main chains. The weight of the masonry abutments on each
bank is 2160 tons, to resist the pull of the chains. Cost, 80,000Z. ; engineer, W.
Tierney Clarke; first stone laid by the Duke of Sussex, May 7, 1826 ; finished If
w^ff
Chelsea Suspension-Beidge, opened in 1858, forms a communication betwe
Pimlico, Belgravia, and Chelsea, on one side of the Thames, and Battersea Park, and
the neighbourhood, on the other (the Middlesex roadway crossing the site of Eane-
lagh), and was built with funds granted by Parliament in 1846 ; Geo. Gordon Page,
engineer. The length of the Bridge is 704 feet : it consists of a centre opening of
333 feet, with two side openings 166 feet 6 inches each. The piers terminate in
I
BUGKLEESBTmY—BUNHILL-FIELBS. 75
curved cutwaters: the width of the Bridge is 47 feet; the roadway at the centi-e of the
Bridge is 24 feet 6 inches above high-water, and has a curve of 18 inches rise, com-
mencing at the abutments. The towers and ornamental portions are of cast-iron.
The girders and flooring of the platform are of wrought iron : ironwork by Howard,
Eavenhill, & Co. The piers are built upon caissons, below which the ironwork spreads
out at the bottom on bed-plates that rest upon York stone landings, laid on piles, and
concrete supports ; externally, the piers are cased with ornamental ironwork. The
abutments and piers rest upon piles driven 20 feet beyond low-water mark. On each side
of the carriage way is a tram for heavy traffic. A very large amount of additional
strength is obtained over the ordinary suspension construction by two longitudinal
lattice girders, of wrought iron, which separate the roadway from the footpaths. At
each end of the bridge are rectangular lodges, with terra-cotta terminations. The
four iron towers that rise from the caissons and piers have their upper portions of
moulded copper, gilded and painted to resemble bronze, and crowned with globular
lamps. The towers bear the royal arms and V, A. Yet, this public way across the
Thames — although built ostensibly with the public money to afford the inhabitants of
Middlesex access to Battersea//*ee park — had a horse, carriage, and foot toll, an anomaly
which was loudly reprehended.
At a short distance eastward is the Bridge for the Victoria Station and Pimlico
Eailway; tlie ironwork by Bray and Waddington, of Leeds; Towler, engineer;
opened in 1860. The stone piers, and the framework of the spandrels of the four flat
and segmental iron arches, each 175 feet span, and the iron cornice, render this one of
the handsomest railway bridges over the Thames.
Lambeth Suspension Bridge, connects Horseferry-road, Westminster, with
Church-street, Lambeth, P. W. Barlow, engineer ; and though constructed for both
carriage and foot traflSc, it cost, including the approaches, only 4O,000Z. Its entire
length is 1040 feet; it has three spans of 280 feet each, of wire cable, bearing wrought-
iron platforms, suspended from piers, each of two iron cylinders, 12 feet in diameter",
sunk into the London clay, 18 feet below the bed of the river, filled with concrete and
brickwork ; the novelty consists in placing under the bridge, on each side, a longi-
tudinal tubular iron girder, a cross girder between, so as to reduce to the minimum the
upward, downward, and lateral movement.
B UCKLBBSB UB Y,
A SHORT street at the point where the Poultry meets Cheapside : here formerly
stood the great Conduit which brought water from Conduit Mead, near Oxford-
road and Paddington. Stow writes : " Bucklersbury, so called of a manor and tene-
ments pertaining to one Buckle, who dwelt there, and kept his courts." The manor-
house, in Stow's time, bore the sign of the Old Barge, from its being said, that when
"Walbrook lay open, barges were rowed or towed out of the Thames up here : hence
the present Barge Yard. Bucklersbury was a noted place for grocers and apothecaries,
drugsters and furriers. In Shakspeare's days it was, probably, a herb-market ; for he
has the comparison of smelling " like Buckler's-bury in simple-time." — {Merry Wives
of Windsor t Act iii. sc. 3.)
BUNHILL-FIBLBS, .
IVrEAR Finsbury-square, one of the three great fields of the manor of Finsbury,
J-^ named Bonhill Field, Mallow Field, and the " High Field, or Meadow Ground,
where the three windmills stand;" Bonhill was erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
on a deposit made of " more than 1000 cartloads" of bones removed from the charnel
of old St. Paul's, which, it is believed, gave rise to the name Bonehill or Bunhill Fields.
In 1553, a lease was granted to the Corporation of this with other land, being the
property of the Prebendal Stall of Finsbury, iii St. Paul's Cathedral ; and by various
renewals of this lease, the Corporation held the land until 176^, when the last of
the leases expired. Prior to this tlie Statute of Charles II. had passed, by which
persons of all degrees were prohibited from granting leases of Church property
76 CTTBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
for longer periods than forty years ; and thus, in 1769, the growth of London having
rendered it desirable that the land should be built over, a private Act was passed
authorizing the then Prebend, Dr. Wilson, to lease the land to the Corporation for
ninety-nine years, upon the terms of two-sixths of the net income to be received by
them being paid to the Prebend as his own property (in lieu of any fine for the grant
of the lease), one-sixth to the Prebendal Stall, and the remaining three-sixths to be
retained by the Corporation. This lease will expire in 1868. Wilson-street is named
from the Prebend, the Rev. Dr. Wilson.
The earliest known record of the Bunhill-fields themselves, as distinguished from the
rest of the land in the lease, is that the City leased them to one Tindal, for fifty-one
years, from Christmas, 1661 : in that lease they are described as meadow-land, and
the lease contains a provision for the citizens using them for recreation. Both this
provision and the description of the land are at direct variance with its having been
used as a place of burial up to that date. In four years afterwards, however (1665),
London was visited with the Great Plague, and in the next year with the Great Fire j
and it is extremely probable that in the disturbance of social order which these two
visitations caused, the living sought for their dead a burial-place outside the City, and
found it at Bunhill-fields. Certain it is, that before the expiration of Tindal's lease
it had become a burial-ground. As such, however, the Corporation had nothing to do
with it, until the year 1788, when they determined not to renew the lease, but take it
into their own hands, and so it has remained to this day.
Since 1788 the Prebend has year by year received his moiety of the income of the
ground as a cemetery, and as that cemetery now reverts to those claiming under the
Prebend, i.e., the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, they have imposed upon them the obliga-
tion of preserving the ground for the purpose for which they have received the money.
There remains but one point from which liability is sought to be imposed upon the
Corporation. It is said the Act of Parliament authorized the renewal of the lease in
perpetuity, and that the City, through their negligence in not having obtained a re-
newal of the lease, must indemnify the owners of graves. It were to be wished, for
the City's sake, that the renewal were authorized, as they lose in 1868, through the
expiring of the lease, an income of 40,000^. per annum ; but, unfortunately, this is not
the fact. The mistake has arisen from the marginal note saying the lease is renew-
able ; but there is nothing in the Act to warrant the note, and no one at this distance
of time can explain how the error has arisen. — {Communicated to the City Press ^
Curll published a Register of the interments here to I7l7, with the inscriptions, &c
Among these are the following : —
" Here lyeth interred the body of Edward Tucker, late of Weymouth, who (by his own prediction)
departed this life, March 4th, 1706-7, aged 86 years." " This ground, six foot long eastward, is bought
for Elizabeth Chapman." This notice is valuable, as conclusively showing that, even at that early
period, graves were sold in perpetuity, and any attempt to sell the soil for secular purposes would be a
most unwarrantable desecration. " Here lyeth the body of Francis Smith, Bookseller, who in hia
youth was settled in a separate congregation, sustaining, between 1659 and 1688, great persecutions, by
Imprisonments, exile, fines, and for printing petitions for caling of a Parliament, with several things
against Popery. After nearly 40 imprisonments, he was fined 5001. for printing and selling the speech
of a noble peer, and three times suft'ered corporeal punishment. He was for said fine five years a
prisoner in the King's Bench, which hard duress utterly impaired his health. He dyed House-
keeeper in the Custom House, December 22nd, 1691." Eugraved on the side of a handsome tomb,
" Mordecai Abbott, Esq., Receiver-General of His Msyesty's Customs, obiit 29 Feby. 1699, setat. 43 :
Here Abbott, virtue's great example, lies,
The charitable, pious, just, and wise ;
But how shall fame in this small Table paint
The Husband, Father, Master, Friend, and Saint?
A soul on Earth so ripe for glory found ;
So like to theirs, who are with glory crown'd,
That 'tis less stranse such worth so soon should go
To Heaven, than that it staid so long below."
Mr. A. J. Jones, in a voluine published in 1849, gives a transcript of most of the
inscriptions that remained in Bunhill-fields at that period, about three hundred.
Among the eminent persons interred here, in an altar-tomb, east end of the ground,
is Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the Independent preacher, who attended Oliver Cromwell on
his deathbed. Also Dr. John Owen, Dean of Christchurch and Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford when Cromwell was Chancellor ; he preached the first sermon before the Parlia-
BUNHILL-FIELDS. 77
ment after the execution of Charles I. But more attractive is the resting-place of
John Bunyan, in the vault of his friend Strudwick, the grocer, Holborn Bridge, at
whose house Bunyan died. His name is not recorded in the Register, nor is it in Curll's
List ; but the place was long marked by a monument, with this inscription : — " Mr. John
Bunyan, Author of The Pilgrim's Progress, ob. 31 Aug, 1688, set. 60.
The ' pilgrim's' progress now is finished,
And Death has laid him in this earthly bed."
This inscription was cut many years after Bunyan's funeral. Southey tells us, with grave
humour, " People like to be buried in company, and in good company. The Dissen-
ters regarded Bunhill Fields' Burial-ground as their Campo Santo, and especially for
Bunyan's sake. It is said that many have made it their desire to be interred as near
as possible to the spot where his remains are deposited." In May, 1852, the above me-
morial was replaced by an altar-tomb, upon which is the recumbent figure of Bunyan,
book in hand ; the end panels have sculptures from The Pilgrim's Progress.
Here, too, sleeps Lord-Deputy Fleetwood, of the Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell's son-
in-law, and husband of the widow of Ireton : there was a monument to his memory,
which has been obliterated or removed.
Here also rest Dr. Daniel Williams, founder of the Library in Eedcross-street ; John
Dunton, author of his own Life and Errors ; the Rev. D. Neal, author of the History
of the Puritans ; Dr. Lardner, author of the Credibilitij of the Gospel History ; Dr.
John Guise, Dr. Gill, Dr. Stennett, Dr. Harris ; Dr. Richard Price, author of Rever-
sionary Payments ; Dr. Henry Hunter, Dr. Fisher, the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey;
Dr. A. Rees, editor of the Cyclopcedia ; George Walker, of Nottingham and Man-
chester ; and the Rev. Thomas Belsham, the Unitarian Minister.
Defoe, the author of Rohinson Crusoe, who was born and died in the parish of St.
Giles, Cripplegate, is buried in Bunhill-fields, with his second wife, the spot unknown.
The entry in the register, written, probably, by some ignorant person who made a
strange blunder of his name, is as follows : — " 1731, April 26. Mr. Dubow, Cripple-
gate." Here lies, with a headstone to her memory, Susannah Wesley, mother of John
Wesley, founder of the people called Methodists j and Charles Wesley, the firsit person
who was called a Methodist. Near the centre of the ground is a monument to Dr.
Isaac Watts ; Joseph Ritson, the antiquary, lies here, spot unmarked ; William Blake,
the painter and poet, 25 feet from the north wall, without a monument ; and Thomas
Stothard, R.A., best known by his Canterbury Pilgrimage. Near the street rails is'
a monument to Thomas Hardy, who was tried for treason in company with John Home
Tooke. Hardy's memorial bears a long and somewhat defiant semi- political inscription.
In 1864, Mr. Deputy Charles Reed, F.S.A., presented to the Common Council a
memorial, influentially signed, praying the Court to take steps for the preservation of
Bunhill-fields burial-ground. This memorial eloquently says :— •
" In this burying-ground are interred men whose memory and writings are among the most precious
of our national heirlooms ; some of the most fearless asserters of civil and religious liberty at critical
periods of (5ur history ; notable men of all professions and of all religious communities ; divines,
artists, reformers ; a crowd of worthies and confessors whose learning, piety, and public services not
only adorned the age in which they lived, but have proved a permanent blessing to the land, and whose
names the world will not willingly let die. The Nonconformist bodies, especially, look upon this as the
holy field of their illustrious dead, because here lie buried those whose remains were refused interment
in the graveyards of the churches in which they had long faithfully ministered, and whose memory is
reverently cherished in the hearts and homes of their religious descendants."
George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, is erroneously said to have been
buried here ; but he lies in Colenian-street, which was part of Finsbury Manor Farm,
and was, before Fox's death, acquired by the Friends as their place of interment ;
besides, the Friends were looked upon in no favourable manner by the other dissenting
bodies, who had acquired Bunhill-fields. In Fox's diary it is related how, after the
meeting in White Hart Court, Gracechurch- street, he went to Henry Goldney's, close
by, and there admitted to others that " he thought he felt the cold strike to his heart as
he came out of the meeting." It was " the 13th of the 11th month," 1690, being in
the 67th year of his age, that Fox died. On the day appointed for his interment a meet-
ing of Friends was held in White Hart Court, and "the body was borne, accompanied
by very great numbers, to the Friends' burying-ground, near Bunhill Fields." Hasty
readers have inferred from this that it was in the larger cemetery George Fox was buried.
78 CTJBI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
CANON BURT TOWEM,
AT the northern extremity of the parish of Islington, denotes the site of the country-
house of the Prior of the Canons of St. Bartholomew ; hence, it is supposed, the
name of Canons'-bury, hury being synonymous with hurgh, a dwelling. On a garden-
liouse hard by is sculptured the rebus or device of Bolton, the last prior — a holt, or
arrow for the crossbow, through a. tun:
" Old Prior Boltoii, with his bolt and tun."
The Tower, which is of red brick, is believed to have been built by Sir John
Spencer, of Crosby-place, who purchased the estate in 1570. Elizabeth, his only
daughter and heiress, married William, second Lord Compton, who is traditionally said
to have contrived her elopement from her father's house at Canonbury in a baker's
basket. In 1618, he was created Earl of Northampton, and from him the present
owner of Canonbury, who is the eleventh Earl and third Marquis of Northampton, is
lineally descended.
The Tower is 17 feet square, and nearly 60 feet in height, and consists of seven
stories and 23 rooms. For many years it was let in lodgings. Amongst its tenants
was Ephraim Chambers, whose CyclopcBdia was not only the basis of Rees's work,
but originated all the modern Cyclopaedias in the English and the other European
languages. Chambers died at Canonbury, May 18, 1740, and was biu-ied in West-
minster Abbey, under a short Latin inscription, his own composition. Newbery, the
bookseller, lodged here ; and in his apartments Goldsmith often lay concealed from his
creditors, and under a pressing necessity he there wrote his Vicar of Wakefield ; " he
was the most diligent slave that ever toiled in the mill of Grub-street."
"A silly notion at one time prevailed that there was formerly a subterranean com-
munication between Canonbury House and the Priory of St. Bartholomew. Similar
vulgar and absurd stories are current at most of the large monasteries ; as Malmesbury,
Netley, Glastonbury, &c." — [Godwin's Churches of London.)
The ancient priory mansion covered the entire site now occupied by Canonbury-
place, and had attached to it a park of about four acres, with large gardens, a fish-
pond, &c. j most of which were included in the premises of Canonbury Tea-gardens and
•Tavern, in the middle of the last century but a small ale-house- It was enlarged and
improved by a Mr. Lane, who had been a private soldier ; but its celebrity was chiefly
owing to the widow Sutton, who resided here from 1785 to 1808, and laid out the
bowling-green and grounds. The streets which now cover the Canonbury estate are
mostly named from the titles of the Marquis of Northampton, the ground landlord.
CARVINGS IN WOOD.
THE art of Sculpture in Wood has ever been royally and nobly encouraged in
England ; and the metropolis contains many fine specimens of ancient and modern
skill in this tasteful branch of decoration.
The figures carved upon the chestnut roof of Westminster Hall show the degree of
excellence the art had attained in this country so early as the reign of Richard II.
The sculptured arms on the corbels are those of Prance and England, quarterly ; and of
St. Edward the Confessor, as borne by Richard II. ; whose favourite badge, viz., the
white hart, lodged, ducally gorged and chained, and his crest of a lion guardant
crowned, standing on a chapeau and helmet, are also carved, in alternate succession,
on the cornice.
There is every reason to suppose the timber architectm'e of Old London to have been
elaborate and beautiful. Till about the year 1625, nearly all the houses were built of
wood : the interiors of the better sort were often richly carved, particularly in the
panels of rooms, chimney-pieces, ceilings, and staircases ; and the exteriors displayed a
similar love of ornament in the doors and barge-boards, and story corbels.
The Great Fire of 1666 spared few specimens of early wood-carving ; but several
exist in quarters not reached by the destroyer. Of existing Gothic work may be
I
CABVINGS IN WOOD. 79
mentioned the decorations of Crosby Hall, much injured, however, by " restoration/*
The excellently carved stalls in the church of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, and those of the
Chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster, are unusually magnificent, and were mostly
executed by foreign workmen summoned to England by Henry VII.
In the reign of Elizabeth, not only the houses of the nobility were decorated, but
furniture made of British woods was richly carved : the late Mr. Cottingham, F.S.A.,
assembled many unique specimens of this period, which were dispersed in 1851.
In the Elizabethan style may also be mentioned :—
Two splendid brackets (griffins), dated 1592, supporting the yard entrance at 21, Princes-square,
Wilson-street, Finsbury.
Two house-fronts in Aldersgate-street.
Some boldly carved brackets (1595), at the Old Boar's Head, Gray's-Inn-lane,
Panel and trusses over the mantel of the Cock Tavern, Fleet-street (temp. James I.). The room was
formerly panelled opposite the fire-place. The sign bird, over the entrance doorway from Fleet-street,
is in the manner of Gibbons, and gilt.
Brackets {temp. James I.) at the back of the house, 61, Gray's-Inn-lane.
There was some fine Elizabethan panelling in the Star Chamber at Westminster, taken down in 1835 ;
but restored for the Hon. E. Cust, Leasowe Castle.
Brackets, very fine, at the corner of Cloth Fair, Smithfield.
House-front, 94, Fenchurch-street.
Several house-fronts, rather later, in Whitechapel Market.
The Sir Paul Pindar's Head, Bishopsgate-street-without, has a finely carved front, and a carved ceil-
ing in one of the unmodernized rooms.
The projecting house-front (now gilt), 17, Fleet-street, opposite Chancery-lane.
Mask brackets {temp. James I.), at the front and back of the Old Cheshire Cheese, 48, Hart-street,
City; and a spirited grotesque head (same date) within the court of Red-Lion-place, Cock-lane.
A fine staircase, attributed to Inigo Jones (probably later), at 96, St. Martin's-lane, Charing Cross.
At the White Horse Inn, Church-street, Chelsea, (burnt Dec. 14, 1840,) were four grotesque Eliza-
bethan brackets, carved chimney-pieces ; and a carved frame for the sign, dated 1509.
The most celebrated carver after the Great Fire was Grinling Gibbons, who, Wal-
pole tells us, so delicately carved a pot of flowers, that they shook in the room with the
motion of coaches passing in the street. Most of the interior carvings of St. Paul's
Cathedral were executed by Gibbons, or by Dutch workmen under his superintendence ;
the cherubs in the choir are in the highest style of the art.
One of the best carvers employed by Wren was Philip Wood, who came up a poor lad
from Suffolk, and carved as a specimen of his skill a sow and pigs, for . which he re-
ceived ten guineas. According to the Commissioners' Report, between the years 1701
and 1707, Wood was paid large sums of money for carved work in St. Paul's Cathedral.
It is not generally known that the pulpit at St. Paul's was designed by Mylne, and
executed about sixty years since by one of the finest flower-carvers of the time, named
Mowatt, then employed by a relative of Edward Wyatt, the carver and gilder, in Ox-
ford-street. The pulpit is carved in Spanish mahogany and satin-wood; the foliage
is marvellously played with in the volutes.
Many of the Halls of the City Companies are decorated with reputed Gibbons's work ;
as well as the interiors of most of the churches built by Sir Christopher Wren. St.
James's, Piccadilly, has some fine pulpit, altar, and pew carvings; and the churchwardens'
pews at AUliallows Barking (with the symbols of the four Evangelists), are amongst
the most delicate decorations of their time in the metropolis. The Hall of Heralds*
College is also well enriched in the Gibbons style ; and a beautiful specimen of Gibbons's
skill in fruit, fish, game, shells, &c. is preserved at the New River House, Clerkenwell.
At Canonbury House, Islington, the great chamber contauis a quaintly carved oak
fireplace, in which are small statues of Mars and Venus draped. The room had
originally wood panelling and carved pilasters placed at intervals ; all this, with the
exception of two or three pilasters, has disappeared ; the doorway with the busts of
the old English gentleman and dame in the quaint costume of the time, is very curious.
These doorways generally projected like small screens into these great rooms, and were
used as a protection from the cold. Its Roman moulding and enriched frieze-like running
ornament throughout the building of the same character as the latter. The ceiling of
the room bears the date 1559, probably that year when Sir John Spencer came to re-
side on the spot. Besides the great chamber, there are several other long rooms full
of rich carvings, especially one on the ground-floor, which retains all its original de-
coration : this was formerly the parlour of the old mansion. The whole of the carving
of these old buildings is carefully protected by the noble owner, the present Marquis
so CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
of Northampton : the tenants being strictly directed in their leases to uphold, maintain,
&c., all the several antiquities submitted to their charge. (J. C. Richardson, Architect.)
In 1861, there was sold amongst the old materials of No. 108, Cheapside, which
stood immediately opposite Bow Church, the " fine old oak panelling of a large dining-
room, with chimney piece and cornice to correspond, elaborately carved in fruit and
foliage, in excellent preservation, 750 feet superficial." This " oak-clad room," was
bought by Mr. Morris Charles Jones, of Gunrog, near Welshpool, in North Wales,
for 721 10s. 3d., including commission and expenses of removal, being about Is. 8d.
per foot superficial. It has been conveyed from Cheapside to Gunrog. This room was
the principal apartment of the house of Sir Edward Waldo, and stated, in a pam-
phlet by Mr. Jones, " to have been visited by six reigning sovereigns, from Charles II. to
George III., on the occasion of civic festivities and for the purpose of witnessing the Lord
Mayor's Show." (See Mr. Jones's pamphlet, privately printed, 1864.) A contem-
porary (the Builder) doubts whether this room can be the work of Gibbons ; " if so, it
is a rare treasure, cheaply gained. But except in St. Paul's, a crown and ecclesiastical
structure, be it remembered — not a corporate one — there is not a single certain example
of Gibbons's art to be seen in the City of London proper."
About the same year that Gibbons died, Nicholas Collet was born. This clever
carver lived until 1804. He executed the carving of Queen Anne's state-carriage, and
it is probable that to him we are indebted for the best of the decorated doors in
Ormond-street, Queen-square. William Collins, the inseparable companion of Gains-
borough the painter, was an excellent modeller and carver.
Smith, in his London Antiquities, says — " Samuel Monette, a native of Paris, now
living in London, claims the highest encomiums I can possibly bestow : his art is prin-
cipally confined to flowers, and when I say that Grinling Gibbons was a mouse to him,
I shall not utter too much ; his carvings in wood are so light and playful, that they
may be blown away." This artist designed the pulpits of St. Paul's Cathedral, St.
Paul's, Covent- garden, St. Margaret's Westminster, &c. Smith also speaks well of
the carving of Burns, famous for carving wheat-sheafs ; one of these wheat-sheafs stiU
remains in a shop in the West Strand, not far from the Electric Telegraph Station. —
Builder, 1854.
Gog and Magog, the giants in Guildhall, which are masterly examples of carving, are
of wood and hollow : they are composed of pieces of fir, and are said to be the pro-
duction of a ship-carver. It is also reported that they were presented to the City by
the Stationers' Company, which, if true, might have given rise to the common report
of their being made of paper.
London once aboimded in richly-carved doorways and over-doors of the l7th and 18th
centuries : there were good examples in Great Ormond-street ; in Shire-lane, Temple
Bar, where Gibbons once lived ; in Cavendish-square, especially at No. 33 ; the entrance
to Langbourn Chambers, Fenchurch-street ; and some old mansions in Mark-lane ;
there was formerly a very fine one over the door of the Ship Tavern, Water-lane.
State Coaches present fine carving. Such are the Lord Mayor's Coach, kept at the
Green Yard, Whitecross-street ; the Queen's Coach, at the Royal Mews, Pimlico ; and
the Speaker's Coach, Prince's-street, Westminster.
In private collections, some juagnificent specimens of early carving are preserved :
such were the Italian bedstead-pUlars of the 16th century, and the bas-relief after
Rubens, in the Earl of Cadogan's collection ; and the collection, dating from the
15th to the 18th centuries, the property of G. Field, Esq., of Lister House, Clapham.
Carving received considerable check from the introduction of stucco in the reign of
George II. ; but the art has received a fresh impetus in the present century. Some
fine church carving was executed in 1839-42 for the Temple Church ; and in 1847 8
for the choir of Westminster Abbey, then refitted with canopied stalls, organ- case, screen,
&c,, by Messrs. Ruddle, of Peterborough. The church of St. Mary-at-Hill, Billings-
gate, was redecorated in 1849-50, by W. Gibbs Rogers : the pulpit alone cost upwards
of 500Z. ; the stairs have an elaborate string-course, and all the banisters are on the
rake ; the bosses and flowers of the sounding-board exceed a foot in projection : the
organ-gallery front has flowers festooned with musical instruments, and the prett
conceit of a crab crawling over a violin. Mr. Rogers has also carved, from a desi
cty
1
CmiETEBIES. 81
suggested by the Queen, a boxwood cradle in rich Italian style, most delicately finished,
and first used for the infant Prince Arthur, born 1850 : it is cleverly engraved and
described in the Art Journal for August 1850.
St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, has also been redecorated by Mr. Rogers, with carvings
of elaborate detail, which will be described hereafter, from the carver's pamphlet.
The interior enrichments of the New Palace at Westminster present some fine
specimens of contemporary carving. Much of the work has, however, been executed
by machinery, and finished by hand. The new Hall of Lincoln's Inn has also some
fine new work.
The great depository for old carvings is War dour -street, Oxford-street, where the
dealers mostly keep shop : much discrimination is requisite in making purchases.
CEMETERIES,
OH public burial-grounds, planted and laid out as gardens around the metropolis, are a
novelty of our times; although they were suggested just after the Great Fire of 1666,
when Evelyn regretted that advantage had not been taken of that calamity to rid the
City of its burial-places, and establish a necropolis without the walls. He deplores that
" the churchyards had not been banished to the north walls of the City, where a grated
inclosure, of competent breadth, for a mile in length, might have served for an universal
cemetery to all the parishes, distinguished by the like separations, and with ample walks
of trees ; the walks adorned with monuments, inscriptions, and titles, apt for contempla-
tion and memory of the defunct, and that wise and excellent law of the Twelve Tables
restored and renewed."
The several Cemeteries in the suburbs are the property of Joint-Stock Companies.
From the costliness of interment in them, they at first but little abated the evil
of intramural burial, as stated in the Report of the Board of Health in 1850. By the
Metropolitan Interment Act, passed in the above year, the evil has been abolished, and
Cemeteries provided for the several metropolitan parishes.
Kensal Geeen Cemeteey was the first established. It lies upon high ground,
left of the Harrow Road and the hamlet of Kensal Green, about two miles from Padding-
ton Green. It is divided into two grounds : the westernmost consecrated Nov. 2,
1832 ; the smaller ground being for the interment of persons whose friends desire a
funeral service dififering from that of the Church of England. The same distinction
is observed in each of the Cemeteries ; and each is planted and laid out in walks, par-
terres, and borders of flowers, and other styles of landscape-gardening. A register is
kept of interments for both portions of the grounds, and a duplicate is lodged with the
registrars of parishes in the diocese. Each Company has its scale of charges for inter-
ment in catacomb, vault, or grave.
Within three years from the opening of the Kensal-Green Cemetery, there took
place in it about 1000 interments. Each ground has its chapel and colonnades ; in
the latter are placed mural tablets, and beneath are vaults or catacombs. The memorials
in this Cemetery are very numerous : altar-tombs, " monumental urns," sarcophagi,
and the broken column ; capacious tomb-houses, encompassed with flower-beds or
overhung with funereal trees; pillars, bearing urns; weeping and praying figures,
medallion portraits, and groups of insignia are most frequent ; though emblems are
borrowed ahke from the Pagan temple and the Christian church. The cross, in its
picturesque varieties, and the plain but massive slab, are side by side. Among the
most conspicuous is, at the entrance, a monument to Madame Soyer, by a Belgian
sculptor ; the pedestal and a colossal figure of Faith are upwards of twenty feet in height.
The tombs of St. John Long, the " counter-irritation " surgeon ; of Morison, the
" hygeist ;" and of Ducrow, the equestrian ; are also prominent : the latter left a sum
of money for flowers, shrubs, and repairs. The memorial to Thomas Hood, the popular
humorist, with sculptures from his poems, is in better taste. Here is interred the
Duke of Sussex, according to especial directions left by that prince : his grave, near the
chapel, is covered by an immense granite tomb ; and near it rest the remains of the
Princess Sophia, his sister, beneath a handsome sarcophagus tomb of Sicilian marble
G
82 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
erected in 1850, by subscription of Queen Victoria, the King of Hanover, Adolphus
Duke of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Gloucester. Beyond Kensal Green, is a large
Cemetery for Roman Catholics : here is interred Cardinal Wiseman.
The South Meteopolitan and Norwood Cemetery Avas consecrated Dec. 6,
1837 : the chapels, by Tite, in the pointed style, are very beautiful ; and the grounds
are hilly, and picturesquely planted.
HiaHGATE AND Kentish Town Cemeteet, consecrated May 20, 1839, lies imme-
diately below Highgate Church. It has a Tudor gate-house and chapel, and cata-
combs of Egyptian architecture ; the ground is laid out in terraces, tastefully planted ;
and the distant view of the overgrown Metropolis, from among the tombs, is sug-
gestive to a meditative mind.
Abney Paez Cemeteey and Arboretum, lying eastward, at Stoke-Newington, was
opened by the Lord Mayor, May 20, 1840. It was formed from the Park of Sir
Thomas Abney, the friend of Dr. Isaac Watts, to mark whose thirty-six years' resi-
dence here a statue of the Doctor, by Baily, E.A., was erected in 1845. The Abney
mansion was taken down in 1844 ; many of the fine old trees remain.
Westminster and West oe London Cemetery, Earl's Court, Fulham-road, was
consecrated June 15, 1840 ; it has a domed chapel, with semi-circular colonnades of
imposing design. In the grounds is a large altar-tomb, with athlete figures, modelled
by Baily, and erected by subscription, to Jackson the pugilist.
NuNHEAD Cemetery, Peckham, was consecrated July 29, 1840.
The City oe London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery, lies at the extremity of
Mile-End Road, north of Bow Common ; and Victoeia Paek Cemetery, about eleven
acres, at Bethnal Green, north of the Eastern Counties Railway. There are also large
Cemeteries for Marylebone and Paddington ; Islington and St. Pancras.
A few suburban churchyards are planted similarly to the Cemeteries ; as that of St.
John's Wood Chapel, where are buried Joanna Southcot ; Richard Brothers " the
prophet ;" and John Jackson, R.A., the portrait-painter. The churchyard of St. Giles's-
in-the-Pields, Lower Pancras Road, consecrated so long ago as 1804, has many
flowery graves : here is the handsome tomb of Sir John Soane, overhung with
cypresses. The burying- ground of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Pratt-street, Camden
Town, is also planted : here lies Charles Dibdin, the song- writer.
The burial-grounds for Jews are mostly laid out and planted in the cemetery
manner. Formerly their burial-place was outside the City Wall, at Leyrestowe,
*' without Cripplegate."
CSANCESY-LANU
" A CQUIRED its ominous name about the time of Richard I. There is extant
-^ a deed, by which Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, devised certain messuages in thi
Chancellor's-lane, heretofore the New-street." — (Archceological Journal, No. IS
p. 375.) This is the greatest " legal thoroughfare" in London, and extends froi
Fleet-street, opposite Inner Temple Gate, to Holborn, nearly opposite Gray's Ini
In Edward I.'s time it was so foul and miry as to be barred up, to prevent accident
Entering by Fleet-street, on the left were until lately some half-timbered houses, wit]^
projecting windows, overhanging stories, and gabled fronts. Izaak Walton kept
draper's shop at the second house on the left, taken down when that end of the lai
was widened; he subsequently removed, according to Sir Harris Nicolas's Life oi
Walton, five doors higher up in the lane. Opposite is Serjeants' Inn, rebuilt by Sii
Robert Smirke in 1838 ; but the old Hall remains. Higher up, on the west, is th^
Law Institution, with a noble Grecian-Ionic portico, built of stone by Vulhamy, ii
1842 ; it contains a library and club accommodation for the legal profession. In thiij
ancient thoroughfare have been built several edifices of ornamental character, includinj
the large premises for the Union Bank, at the cost of 30,000/.
The Bishop of Chichester formerly had a palace in Chancery-lane, where are sti
CBABINQ CROSS.
Chichester Kents and Symonds Inn ; the latter, to this day, owned by the see. The
large old house, with low -built shops before it, and between Bream's Buildings and
Cursitor-street, is said to have been the Bishop's palace. Nearly opposite is the red-
brick gatehouse of Lincoln's Inn ; a Tudor arch between two massive towers, built by
Sir Thomas Lovell, 1518, and bearing his arms.
The Survey of Aggas, in 1560, shows Chancery -lane with only a few houses at the
end, the intervening road flanked with gardens; and there is no reason to doubt
Aubrey's statement that young Ben Jonson worked with his father-in-law, a brick-
layer, in building the garden-wall of Lincoln's Inn, when, as Fuller says, " having a
trowel in his hand, he had a book in his pocket."
The stone buildings at the northern end of the lane are the Accountant- General's
and Inrolment Offices. Opposite, upon the site of Southampton Buildings, was
Southampton House, inherited by the ill-fated William, Lord Kussell, by his marriage
with the daughter of Thomas, last Earl of Southampton.
" It was in passing this house, the scene of his domestic happiness, on his way to the scaffold in
Lincoln' s-Inn- Fields, that the fortitude of the martyr for a moment forsook him (W. Lord Russell) ; but
over-mastering his emotion, he said ' The bitterness of death is now past.' It is from this house that
some of Lady Rachel Russell's celebrated letters are dated. A former entrance to the chapel of South-
ampton House appears to correspond with the motdding of the fiat timbered roof, which is of the time
of Henry VII. This part of the edifice retains its original proportions, except that its height is divided
by a modern floor. Its length is about 40 feet by about 20. Other portions of Southampton House have
been incorporated with the surrounding dwellings, one of which contains a beautiful Elizabethan stair-
case. Old mouldings and panelling appear likewise in 47, Southampton Buildings, which house seems
to have been constructed upon a portion of the ancient mansion."— y. Wykeham Archer.
CSAMINa CROSS.
THE large area at the meeting of the Strand, Whitehall, and Cockspur-street, with
Trafalgar-square on the north, is named from the Village of Cherringe, near
Westminster, and seems to have been the border or neutral ground between the City
and the King's western palace. Tradition traces it to the stone cross erected there,
to Eleanor, the Chhre Seine of Edward I. ; but this tradition is fanciful.
In the narrative of the quarrel between the merchants of London and Northampton,
in the Liber de Antiquis Legibus, the following passage occurs : — " Quibus Uteris im-
petratis, ecce ! rumores quod predicti p'sones fuerunt apud Cherringe juxta Westmon-
asterium ubi Maior et Ballivi Norehamptone illos adduxerunt." This was in 1260, and
Queen Eleanor (the Chere Heine in question) died in 1291. But, the association is of
older date, for in King JEdward Z, Neale's Works, edited by Dyce, we read : —
" Erect a rich and stately carved cross
Whereon her statue shall with glory shine.
And henceforth see you call it Charing Cross ;
For why ? the chariest and the choicest queen.
That ever did delight my royal eyes
There dwells in darkness."
This was the last spot at which the Queen's body rested on its way to Westminster for
burial. Mr. Hudson Turner, in Manners and Sowsehold JExpenses ofTlngland in the \^th
and 15th Centuries, gives some curious particulars of the nine Eleanor Crosses, of which
two were those at Charing and Cheap. Charing Cross was built of Caen stone, and
Dorset marble steps, by Richard and Roger de Crundale; it was highly decorated,
and had paintings and metal figures, gilt ; besides Eleanor and others, sculptured in
Caen stone by Alexander of Abingdon, and modelled by Torel, a goldsmith, probably
an Italian. It has been much discussed whether this and the other Eleanor Crosses
were erected by Edward I. as memorials of his "conjugal affection," or by him as one
of the executors of the Queen ; but, surely, " the very last thing that a husband who
desired to express his own affection for the deceased wife would do would be to appear,
not in his proper person, but as one of her legal representatives." — {Athenceum.)
That the Crosses were raised by command of the King is founded on the authority of
Walsingham and his predecessors, handed down by Sandford and others to the present
day : see Mr. Abel's paper upon the Inquiry.
' The Cross appears in the Sutherland View, 1543, with only a few houses near it, and
St. Martin's Church literally " in the fields." A century later, puritanical bigotry
was at its full height ; and April 23, 164!3, " by order of the Commission or Committee
G 2
84 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
appointed by the House, tlie sign of a tavern. The Golden Cross, at Charing Cross, was
taken down as superstitious and idolatrous." Next followed the Cross itself, it being
pulled down in Jxme, July, and August 1647, and knife-hafts made of some of the stone,
or marble. Then the wits had their gibe :
" Undone, undone, the lawyers are, —
They wander about the towne,
Nor can find the way to Westminster,
Now Charing Cross is downe.
At the end of the Strand they make a stand.
Swearing they are at a loss,
And chaffing say. That's not the way,
They must go by Charing Cross.
The Dotcnfalle of Charing Cross.
Next, regicides were executed " at the said place, where Charing Cross stood." In
1674, was placed here the noble equestrian statue of Charles I., by Le Soeur, which had
been cast in 1633, but long lay concealed. A memorandum in the State-Paper Office
points to the statue having been originally ordered of Le Soeur by Lord Treasurer
Weston, afterwards Earl of Portland, to be set up in his gardens at Roehampton. The
stone pedestal, long attributed to Gibbons, is proved by written evidence to be the
work of Joshua Marshall, master-mason to the Crown.
Where the Post-office at Charing Cross now stands, there was once a hermitage,
within which the patent rolls of the 47th Henry IIL grant permission to William de
Eadnor, Bishop of Llandaflf, to lodge with all his retainers, whenever he came to Lon-
don. Opposite this stood the ancient Hospital of St. Mary Roncevalles, founded by
William Marechal, Earl of Pembroke. It was suppressed by Henry V. as an alien
priory, restored by Edward IV., and finally suppressed by Edward VI., who granted it
to Sir Thomas Carwarden, to be held in free soccage of the honour of Westminster.
Canalletto painted for his patron, Algernon Sidney, Baron Percy, created in 1749
Earl of Northumberland, a view of Northumberland-house and Charing Cross ; the
picture is now in that mansion ; it was painted about 1746 ,and shows the houses of the
street-lines, with their signs, among which is prominent the Golden Cross.
Charing Cross was a favourite pitch for Punch, or Punchinello, as he is termed in sun-
dry entries in the Overseers' books of St. Martin's- in-the-Fields, dated 1666, March 29,
which Mr. Cunningham states to be the earliest mention of Punch in England.
It was at the Rummer Tavern, Charing Cross, that Matthew Prior was brought up
by his uncle, the landlord, who had him educated at Westminister School. The Swan,
at Charing Cross, was a favourite tavern of Ben Jonson. Proclamations were read
here : hence Swift,
•♦ Where all that passes inter nos,
May be proclaimed at Charing-cross,"
—a popular saying in our day. Edmund Curll, the notorious bookseller, stood here
the pillory. Sir Harry Vane, the younger, had his residence next to Northumberlanc
House. Isaac Barrow, the divine, died in mean lodgings over the saddler's long shop]
at Charing Cross, which lasted till our time. Rhodes, the bookseller, hung out his|
sign of the Ship in the same locality. Here, according to Pyne, William Hogartl
stood at a window of the old Golden Cross making sketches of the heralds and thel
sergeant tinimpeter's band, and the yeoman guard, who rendezvoused at Charing Cross,
purposing to make a picture of the ceremony of proclaiming the new King, George III.I
On June 21, ]837, Queen Victoria was proclaimed herein fitting state : the High!
Constable and High Bailifi" of Westminster, Knight-marshalmen, drums and trumpets,!
sergeants- at- arms, pursuivants, heralds, and other authorities, in official costume,]
standing within a cordon of Life Guards, round the statue, and the Somerset Heralc^
reading aloud the proclamation.
" I talked," says Boswell, " of the cheerfulness of Fleet-street, owing to the quici
succession of people which we perceive passing through it." Johnson — " Why, Sir,'
Fleet-street has a very animated appearance, but I think the fuU tide of human exis-
tence is at Charing Cross." (Boswell, CroJcer^s ed., p. 433).
The changes at Charing Cross within the last forty years have been very strik-
ing. We well remember the paved area about St. Martin's Church, with thel
siirrounding labyrinth of courts, and alleys, and lanes, which the gallants of Elizabeth!
CHABTEBEOFSE. 85
or James's time, who had cruised in search of Spanish galleons, wittily named " the
Bermudas."
" Here the valorous Captain Bobadil must have lived in Barmecidal splendour, and have taught his
dupes the true conduct of the weapon. Justice Overdo mentions the Bermudas with a righteous indig-
nation. ' Look,' says that great legal functionary, ' into any angle of the town, the Streights or the Ber-
mudas, where the quarrelling lesson is read, and how do they entertain the time but with bottled ale
and tobacco ? At a subsequent period the cluster of avenues exchanged the title of Bermudas for that
of the C'ribbee Islands, the learned m)ssessors corrupting the name into a happy allusion to the arts
cultivated there. Gay, writing in 17K, describes the small streets branching from Charing Cross as
resounding with the shoeblacks' cry, ' Clean your honour's shoes ?' Porridge Island was the cant name
for a paved aUey near St. Martin's Church, which derived its name from being full of cookshops. A
writer in The World (1753) describes a man like Beau Tibbs, who had his dinner in a pewter-plate
from a cookshop in Porridge Island, and with only 1001. a year was foolish enough to wear a laced suit,
go every evening in a chair to a rout, and return to his bedroom on foot, shivering and supperless, vain
enough to glory in having rubbed elbows with the quality of Brentford," — Pictures of the Feriod.
In the improvements, commenced in 1829, was swept away the lower part of St.
Martin's-lane. Westward disappeared Duke's-court, where lived Roger Payne, the
celebrated bookbinder, whose chef-d'oeuvre, ^schylus, in Lord Spencer's library,
cost fifteen guineas binding. Then, at the Mews'-gate, lived honest Tom Payne, the
bookseller, whose little shop in the shape of L was named the Literary Coffee-house,
from its knot of literary frequenters.
CHAETEEHOUSE.
NOT far from Smithfield, once the town-green of the City of London, the chivalrous
Sir Walter Manny, Lord of the town of Manny, in the diocese of Cambray, and
Knight of the Garter in the reign of Edward III., founded in 1371 a monastery of
Carthusian monks. The site (now Charterhouse-square) was in part a lonely field,
bearing the name of " No Man's Land." Ralph Stratford bought it as a place of
burial for the victims of the pestilence of 13 i9, "where was buried in one year,"
says Camden, " no less than sixty thousand of the better sort of people." Thirteen
acres of adjoining groimd, bought at about the same time of St Bartholomew's
Spittle, and called the Spittle Croft, had also been enclosed and consecrated. The
monastery was devoted to the use of the Carthusian monks, whose name of Chartreuse
time has corrupted into Charterhouse. It was the third Carthusian monastery
instituted in this country, and its title and address was — " The House of the Saluta-
tion of the Mother of God, without the Bars of West Smithfield, near London."
The last prior was executed at Tyburn, May 4, 1535 — his head set on London
Bridge ; and one of his limbs over the gateway of his own convent — the same gateway,
it is said, which is sfcill the entrance from Charterhouse-square. The priory, thus
sternly dissolved, was first set apart by King Henry VI 1 1, as a place of deposit for
his " hales and tents " — i.e., " his nets and pavilions." It was afterwards given by
the King to Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor, by whom it was sold to Sir Thomas
North, Baron North of Kirtling, Lord North subsequently parted with it to John
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, on whose execution and attainder in 1553 it
reverted to Lord North by a grant from the Crown. In 1565, by deeds, and in con-
sideration of the sum of 2820Z., Roger, second Lord North, sold it to Thomas Howard,
Duke of Norfolk, on whose execution and attainder in 1572 it again reverted to the
Crown. Queen Elizabeth subsequently granted it to the Duke's second son, Thomas,
afterwards Earl of Suffolk, founder of Audley End, in Essex, and father of Frances,
Countess of Essex and Somerset, the infamous heroine of " the great Oyer of Poison-
ing," in the reign of James I.
On May 9, 1611, the property was sold by Lord Suffolk to Thomas Sutton, of Camps
Castle, in the county of Cambridge, for 13,000/J. His wealth was great : he had dis-
covered rich veins of coal near Newcastle-on-Tyne, which he worked so profitably as to
be reputed worth the then vast sum of 50,000Z. He added greatly to his fortune by mar-
riage ; and in privateering service he captured a Spanish vessel with a cargo valued at
2O,O00Z. On June 22, follows his purchase of Charterhouse ; Sutton endowed it as a
charity by the name of " the Hospital of King James," " for poor brethren and
scholars." Sutton died almost an octogenarian in the same year, Dec. 12th, before his
good work was complete, and was buried in the chapel of the Hospital, beneath a
CURIOSITIES OF LOKDOK
sumptuous monument, the work of Stone and Jansen. On opening the vault, in
1842, the body of the founder was discovered "lapt in lead," like an Egyptian
mummy-case. Sutton has been charged with avarice in acquiring the money he
bequeathed, and has been pointed out as the original of Volpone, the Fox ; but this
Gifford disproves. In the chapel, Burrell, the preacher to the Hospital, paid the
first tribute of praise to the memory of Sutton in a sermon, printed in 1629, but
now as rare as a manuscript. ^
The buildings and grounds of Charterhouse occupy about thirteen acres of land.
Entering by the gate over which one of the quarters of the last prior of the monastery
was placed, on the right is part of the " fair dwelling " erected about 1537 ; the
Middle or Monitors' Court is of about the same date, though the Long Gallery is
reduced by half j the Washhouse Court is one of the few remaining portions of the
monastery. The Preacher's Court contains the chapel, which, from a plan, date about
1500, seems to be identified with the monastery chapel. In some repairs in 1842 an
ancient ambrie was discovered towards the south corner of the east wall. The Chapel
contains several fine monuments, besides that of Sutton. The Ante-Chapel, which,
like the Evidence Eoom above it, has a groined roof, bears the date 1512. The Great
Chamber, or Old Governors' Eoom, was either built or decorated by Thomas, fourth
Duke of Norfolk, between 1565 and 1571 : it was restored in 1838, and is now the
most perfect Elizabethan apartment in London. It has a chimney-piece of wood, a
centre and two wings, in two stories, Tuscan and Ionic, reaching to the ceiling, deco-
rated with escutcheons of the House of Norfolk. In this room Queen Elizabeth and
James I. kept their court on their visits here. And here, on Founder's Day, is delivered
the Annual Oration : the walls are richly painted, and hung with six pieces of tapestry.
The Great Hall has a screen, music-gallery, sculptured chimney-piece, and lantern in
the roof: here hangs a noble portrait of Sutton, and here is celebrated " the Founder's
Day," Dec. 12, when the Carthusians dine together by subscription. At the Poor
Brothers' celebration was formerly sung the old Carthusian melody, with this chorus :—
" Then blessed be the memory
Of good old Thomas Sutton,
Who gave us lodging — learning,
And he gave us beef and mutton."
In the Upper Hall the foundation scholars dine daily ; and, in another Hall, the
Master, the Preacher, and other ofiicers.
This " triple good," as Bacon calls it — this " masterpiece of Protestant English
charity," as it is called by Fuller, — was also " the greatest gift in England, either in Pro-
testant or Catholic times, ever bestowed by any individual." It is under the direction
of the Queen, fifteen Governors selected from the great officers of state ; and the
Master of the Hospital, whose income is 800Z. a year, besides a capital residence
within the walls. The value of the estates bequeathed by Sutton has increased
tenfold ; yet the gross rental, which was, in the year 1691, 5391Z., is stated to average
less than 21,000Z. Upon the foundation are maintained eighty pensioners, or poor
brothers, whom the Governors nominate in rotation ; they live together in collegiate
style, provided with apartments, and all necessaries, except apparel, in lieu of which
they are allowed 141. a year and a gown each. Next are the scholars, in two divi-
sions — the foundation, or gown boys, and the boarders received by the masters ; the
former are fed and clothed at the expense of the Hospital ; the latter by their friends.
The foundation scholars also enjoy the right of election to exhibitions of from 80^.
to lOOZ. a year, at either university, besides the preference over the scholars of presen-
tation to valuable church preferments in the gift of the Governors. The sum of 40/.
was formerly paid with every boy, either to advance him in college, or as an apprentice-
fee in trade ; but no youth has been apprenticed from the school since John Philip
Kemble was bound to his uncle, the comedian, to learn the histrionic art. The total
number of scholars does not exceed 200; formerly the number was 480, when
boarding-houses were allowed in the neighbourhood ; now the scholars are only allowed
to reside within the walls.
The present school-house is a modern brick building (1803), on a mound in the j
playground ; the large central door is surrounded by stones bearing the names of former
CHAETEBH0U8K ' 87
Head Masters, and the names of the boys as they leave the seliool. The internal
economy of the establishment is vested in the Master ; the manciple, or house-steward,
provides the diet of the Hospital, for which he has " to pat/ in ready money"
Charterhouse is more healthily placed than any other public school in the metro-
polis. John Wesley imputed his after health and long life to his strict obedience to
his father's injunction — that he should run round the Charterhouse playing-green
three times every morning. There are two play-greens — for the " Uppers" and
" Unders ;" and by the wall of the ancient monastery is a gravel-walk upon the site of
a range of cloisters. The Master has his flower-garden, with its fountain ; there are
courts for tennis, a favourite game with Carthusians ; a wilderness of fine trees, inter-
sected by grass and gravel walks ; the cloisters, where football and hockey are played ;
the old school, its ceiling charged with armorial shields; the great kitchen, probably
the banqueting-hall of the old priory ; the chapel ; and lastly, the burial-ground for the
poor brethren. There are besides solitary courts, remains of cloisters and cells, and old
doorways and window-cases, which assert the antiquity of the place ; and the Governors
have wisely extended the great object of the founder by the grant of a piece of
ground, where a church and schools for the poorer classes have been built.
There are three schoolrooms : one very large, and two smaller, for French and
study. The system of education includes Greek and Latin and mathematics;
modern history, geography, natural science ; the French and German languages ; and
singing, fencing, and drilling classes. The foundation scholarships are competed for
annually. There are other prizes, including the Havelock Exhibition, founded in I860,
in honour of General Sir Henry Havelock, who was a Carthusian.
Oliver Cromwell was elected Governor in 1652, and was succeeded by his son
Eichard, in 1658. The most eminent Master of the house was Dr. Thomas Burnet,
author of The Sacred Theory of the 'Earth ; and the most eminent Schoolmaster, the
Rev. Andrew Tooke, author of the Pantheon.
Upon the register of pupils are many illustrious names, including Crawshay, the
poet ; Isaac Barrow, the divine and mathematician ; Sir William Blackstone, author of
the Commentaries; Joseph Addison, and Richard Steele, both here together; John
Wesley, the founder of the Wesleyans ; Lord Chief- Justice EUenborough (buried in the
Chapel) ; the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool ; Bishop Monk ; Baron Alderson ; and
General Sir H. Havelock—" Old Phlos," he was called in the school : he is described
to have been then a gentle and thoughtful lad, who used to stand looking on while
others played^ and whose general meditative manner procured for him the name of
" Philosopher," and occasionally " Old Philos ;" W, M. Thackeray, the novelist ; and
John Leech, the celebrated artist; Sir C. L. Eastlake, President of the Royal
Academy ; the two eminent historians of Greece, Bishop Thirlwall and Mr. George
Grote, were both scholars together in the same form, under Dr. Raine.
Among the Poor Brethren were Elkanah Settle, the rival and antagonist of Dryden;
John Bagford,the antiquary, originally a shoemaker in Turnstile ; Isaac de Groot, nephew
of Hugo Grotius ; and Alexander Macbean, who assisted Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary.
In the Master's Lodge are several excellent portraits : the Founder, engraved by
Vertue; Isaac Walton's good old Bishop Morley; Charles II.; Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham ; the Duke of Monmouth ; Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury ; William, Earl
of Craven; Archbishop Sheldon; Lord Chancellor Somers; and one of Kneller's finest
works, the portrait of Dr. Thomas Burnet.
" Dr. Burnet, elected Master in 1665, died here in 1715, and was buried in the chapel of the institution.
Soon after Burnet's election, James II. addressed a letter to the Governors, ordering them to admit one
Andrew Popham as pensioner into the Hospital upon the first vacancy, without tendering to him any
oath, or requiring of him any subscription or recognition in conformity with Church of England doc-
trine, the K ing dispensing with any statute or order of the Hospital to the contrary. Burnet, as junior
Governor, was called upon to vote first, when he maintained that by express Act of Parliament, 3 Car. I.,
no officer could be admitted into that Hospital without taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
An attempt was made, but without effect, to overrule this opinion. The Duke of Ormond supported
Burnet, and on the vote being put, Popham was rejected : and notwithstanding the threats of the King
and the Popish Party, no member of the communion was ever admitted into the Charterhouse."
The history of this noble foundation has been written by Bearcroft, Hearne, and
Smythe; and in 1847 appeared Chronicles of Charterhouse, by a Carthusian, a
clever work, with illustrations. Charterhouse is also well described in Staunton's
88 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Great Schools of IJngland, 1865, where are thus sketched the saturnalia of the "fags,"
now abolished : —
"In former times there was a curious custom of the School termed ' puUing-in,' by which the lower
boys manifested their opinion of the seniors in a rough but very intelligible fashion. One day in the
year the fags, like the slaves in Rome, had freedom, and held a kind of saturnalia. On this privileged
occasion they used to seize the upper boys one by one and drag them from the playground into the
Schoolroom, and accordingly as the victim was popular or the reverse he was either cheered and mildly
treated, or was hooted, groaned at, and sometimes soundly cufted. The day selected was Good Friday ;
and, although the practice was nominally forbidden, the officials for many years took no measures to
prevent it. One ill-omened day, however, when the sport was at the best, ' the Doctor ' was espied
approaching the scene of battle. A general se same quipeut ensued ; and in the hurry of flight a meek
and quiet lad (the Hon. Mr. Howard), who happened to be seated on some steps, was crushed so dread-
fully that, to the grief of the whole school, he shortly after died. ' Pulling-in ' was thenceforth sternly
interdicted."
In the head monitor's room is preserved the iron bedstead on which died W. M.
Thackeray -, and in the chapel are memorial tablets to Thackeray and Leech, erected
by fellow Carthusians.
cri:apsibi:,
THE street extending from the Poultry and Bucklersbury to St. Paul's and New-
gate-street, was, some three centuries ago, worthily called " the Beauty of London -"
and was famed for its " noted store " of goldsmiths, linendrapers, haberdashers, &c.
It is named from the Saxon word Chepe, or market : the name, therefore, is the
Market-side.
"In 1269, the pillory that stood in Chepe was broken through the negligence of the Bailiffs, and for
a long time unrepaired ; wherefore, in the meantime no punishment was inflicted upon the bakers,
who made their loaves just as they desired, so much so that each of their loaves was deficient in one-
third of the weight that it ought to weigh ; and this lasted for a whole year and vaoxe."~Chronicle of the
Mayors and Sheriffs, p. 127.
In 1331 the south side only was built upon, and the north side was an open field,
where jousts, tournaments, or ridings, were often held. By this road passed many a
royal pageant ; as when, in the reign of Edward I., Queen Margaret came from the
Tower, "there were two bretassches (wooden towers) in the road of Chepe, from
which there were eight outlets discharging wine from above ; the road was covered
with cloths-of-gold against her first coming." The Chepe was also the scene of many
tragical deaths; as when, in the reign of Edward XL, Stapleton, Bishop of Exeter,
who had been proclained a traitor, was met near Saint Paul's Church, dragged from
his horse and carried into Chepe, and there he was despoiled, and his head cut off;
and one of his esquires, and his warden, were beheaded the same day in Chepe.
Stow describes one of the joustings held in the reign of Edward III., Sept. 21,
1331 ; when, " the stone pavement being covered with sand, that the horses might not
slide when they strongly set their feet to the ground, the King held a tournament
three days together, with the nobility, valiant men of the realm, and other strange
knights. And to the end the beholders might with the better ease see the same, there
was a wooden scaffold erected across the street, like unto a tower, wherein the Queen
PhiHppa, and many other ladies, richly attired, and assembled from aU parts of the
realm, did stand to behold the jousts." This frame brake down; after which the
King had a stone shed built "for himself, the queen, and other estates, to stand on,
and there to behold the joustings and other shows, at their pleasure, by the Church of
St. Mary Bow." This shed, or " seldam," was similarly used in after reigns, especially
to behold the Great Watches on the eve of St. John Baptist and St. Peter at Mid-
summer. In 1510, on St. John's Eve, King Henry VIII. came to this place, then
called the King's Head in Chepe, in the livery of a yeoman of the guard, with au
halbert on his shoulder, and there beholding the watch, departed privily when the
watch was done ; " but on St. Peter's night next following, he and the Queen came
royally riding to the said place, and there with their nobles beheld the Watch of the City,
and returned in the morning." When Bow Church was rebuilt. Wren provided, in place
of the shed or sild, a balcony in the tower, immediately over the principal entrance
in Cheapside ; and though the age of tournaments had passed away, the Lord Mayor's
pageants were long viewed from this balcony.
Opposite Bow Clmrch was taken down, in 1861, No. 108, the house built by Sir
CHELSEA. 89
Edward Waldo, after the Great Fire, and subsequently leased to David Barclay,
linendraper ; which house was visited by six reigning sovereigns, from Charles II. to
George III., on civic festivities, and for witnessing the Lord Mayor's Show j in
this house Sir Edward Waldo was knighted by Charles II. ; and the Lord Mayor, in
1V14, was created a baronet by George I. When the house was taken down in 1861,
the fine old oak-panelled dining-room, with its elaborate carvings, was purchased
entire, and removed to Gunrog, near Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, whose proprietor,
Mr. M. C. Jones, has written a description (privately printed) of the panelling, the
royal visits, the Barclay family, &c. (See Carvings, p. 80.)
Cheapside Cross, which stood facing Wood-street, was the most magnificent (except
that of Charing) of the crosses built by Edward I. to his Queen Eleanor, and was (Mr.
Hudson Turner states) the work of Alexander of Abingdon. It was " re-edified" by
John Hatherly, Mayor, by license procured in 1441 of Henry VI. ; it was regilt in
1522, for the visit of the Emperor Charles V. ; and in 1533 for the coronation of
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn j newly burnished at the coronation of Edward VI. j
and again newly gilt, 1554, against the arrival of King Philip. After this the Cross
was presented by juries as standing " in the highway to the let of carriages ;" but
they could not get it removed ; and it was by turns defaced and repaired, and its
images stolen and replaced, until May 2, 1643, when it was demolished to the " noyse
of trumpets," the workmen being protected by soldiery.
Nearly opposite Honey -lane was the Standard, the place of execution ; and between
Bucklersbury and the Poultry stood Westcheap, or the Great Conduit, which brought
the first supply of sweet water to London, from Paddington; facing Foster-lane
stood the Little Conduit. Westward of the site of the Great Conduit, on the north
side, is Mercers' Hall and chapel, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 ; the original
chapel being an hospital purchased at the Dissolution by means of Sir Richard Gresham.
Westward, next No. 142, is Saddlers' Hall ; the old street front has been taken down,
and replaced by an elegant stone facade.
The handsome stone-fronted house. No. 73, built by Sir C. Wren, was, before the
erection of the Mansion House (1737), sometimes tenanted by the Lord Mayor, during
his year of office : here Mr. Tegg, the publisher, amassed a large fortune ; he restored
the house front, which has since been considerably altered. Nearly opposite, between
Ironmonger-lane and King-street, is the Atlas Insurance Office, with three enriched
fronts, granite basement, and stone superstructure : built in 1839.
The house-front. No. 39, has the sign-stone of the noted Nag's Head tavern, which
gtood at the east end of Friday-street.
chi:lsea,
A LARGE and populous parish upon the north bank of the Thames: it was a
village of three hundred houses in the last century, but now extends from beyond
Battersea or Chelsea Bridge almost to Hyde Park Corner. It lies about fifteen feet
above the river ; and, according to Norden, is named from its strand, " like the chesel
(ceosel or cesel) which the sea casteth up of sand and pebble-stones, thereof called
Cheselsey, briefly Chelsey, as is Chelsey (Selsey) in Sussex." In a Saxon charter, how-
ever, it is written Cealchylle ; in Domesday, CerecJiede and Chalced ; and Sir Thomas
More wrote it ChelcJiitTi, though it began to be written Chelsey in the sixteenth
century. The Rev. J. Blunt derives the name from Cealc, chalk, and Hyd, or Hythey
a harbour, adding that this Hythe was used for landing chalk, and so had given a
name to the place. It was at Chelsea that two important councils were held under
Offa, King of Mercia. Among the possessors of the manor were Sir Reginald Bray
{temp. Henry VII.) ; it was given by Henry VII L to Katherine Parr as a portion of
her marriage settlement; here she lived with her second husband, Thomas Seymour,
the Lord Admiral, afterwards beheaded ; and here, in the same house with them, lived
Queen Elizabeth, when a girl of thirteen. The manor was bought of Lord Cheyne by
Sir Hans Sloane in 1712, from whom it passed by marriage and bequest to Baron
Cadogan of Oakley, in whose family the property remains : hence the names of Cheyne
Walk, Cadogan and Hans Places, and Sloane and Oakley Streets.
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
At Chelsea lived Sir Thomas More, in a mnnsion at the north end of Beaufort-row, with gardens
extending to the Thames. Here More was visited by Henry VIIL, who, " after dinner, in a fair garden
of his, walked with him by the space of an hour, holding his arm about his neck ;" and used to ascend
with him to the house-top to observe the stars and discourse of astronomy. A more illustrious visitor
was Erasmus, who describes the house as " a practical school of the Christian religion." Holbein worked
here for near three years, upon portraits of the Chancellor, his relations, and friends. More also hired
a house for aged people in Chelsea, whom he daily relieved. His own establishment was large : Erasmus
gays, "there he converseth with his wife, his son, his daughters-in-law, his three granddaughters with
their husbands, with eleven great-grandchildren." More resigned the Great Seal in 1533, and retired
to Chelsea for study and devotion; but dismissed his retinue, and gave his barge to his successor in the
Chancellorship. More's mansion was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, and taken down in 1740.
Sloane dwelt in the New Manor-House, nearly opposite the site of the present Pier.
The grounds of More's house were extensive, and the porter's lodge became the Clock-
house and Herb-distillery, in the King's-road.
After the death of Katherine Parr the Duke of Somerset obtained a grant of the manor and palace of
Marlborough, which had formed part of the Queen's dower. On the attainder and death of Somerset,
it was granted by the young King (Edward VI.) to the heir of Northumberland, and after his attainder
and death, to John Caryll, who sold it to James Basset ; yet, in the Herald's order for the funeral of
Anne of Cleves, who died at Chelsea, July, 1557, the manor is described as Crown property. Elizabeth,
in the second year of her reign, granted it to the widowed Duchess of Somerset, who lived there. The
Lords Cheyne then became Lords of the Manor, whence the ground on which stood the Queen's palace
and the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, from Morley in 1633 to North in 1820. Further west,
near the river side, was the Chelsea China Manufactory.
Lady Llanover, in her piquant notes to the Autobiography, ^c. of Mrs. Delany, thus notices
Blacklands in the Marlborough-road, Chelsea, formerly called Bl'acklands-lane. " Bowack, in his Anti-
quities of Middlesex (1700), says : — William Lord Cheyne, Viscount Newhaven in Scotland, has two
good seats in Chelsea. The first is the mansion-house, where Queen Elizabeth was nursed, east end
of the town, near the Thames. The other some distance north of the town, called Blacklands
House, both (1705) let to French boarding-schools." It adjoins the old manor-house at Chelsea,
which forms part of the premises of Messrs. Scott and Cuthbertson (paper manufacturers), called
Whitelands. Blacklands has still a good garden and old iron gates ; and the centre of the house is
evidently part of the original structure.
The beautiful Duchess of Mazarin (niece of the Cardinal) died in difficulties, in 1699,
in a small house which she rented of Lord Cheyne. Lysons had iieard that it was
usual for the nobility and others who dined at her house to leave money under their
plates to pay for their entertainment ; she appears to have been in arrears for the
parish-rates, during the whole time of her residence at Chelsea.
Here too was Lindsey House, the residence of the Bertics, Earls of Lindsey, now
the site of Lindsey -row ; Danvers House, where lived Sir John Danvers, the site is now
Danvers-street. Here were also Essex House, and Shrewsbury or Alstone House ; Lau-
rence-street is named from Sir John Laurence {temp. Charles I.) and his descendants.
In Cheyne-walk was the Museum and Coffee-house of Don Saltero, renowned in the
swimming exploits of Dr. Franklin. The landlord, James Salter, was a noted barber,
who made a collection of natural curiosities which acquired him the name (probably
first given him by Steele) of Don Saltero. (See Tatler, Nos. 34, 195, and 226.) The
tavern was taken down in 1866, but the Museum was dispersed about 1807. In a
large meanly-furnished house in Cheyne-walk, died August 30, 1852, John Camden
Neild, who bequeathed 500,000Z. to Queen Victoria. The old Chelsea Bun-house pos-
sessed a sort of rival Museum to Don Saltero's. It was taken down in 1839. Eastward
is the Royal Hospital; and on part of its garden was the gay Ranelagh, from 1740
to 1815. Here, too, are the Apothecaries' Company's Gardens ; one of the fine old
cedar trees was blown down in 1854. Nearly opposite was the Red House at Battersea,
fifty yards west of which Cajsar is believed by some antiquaries to have forded the Thames.
Chelsea has two churches dedicated to St. Luke. The old river-side church was
built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and has an eastern chapel added by
Sir Thomas More. In the chancel is a black marble tablet to More, placed there by
himself in 1532, three years before his death : it was restored by Sir John Lawrence
about 1644, and by subscription in 1833 : the inscription, in Latin, is by More. Here
are also memorials of Jane, wife of the ambitious John Dudley, Duke of North-
umberland ; and of Lady Jane Cheyne, by Bernini. In the churchyard is the tomb of
Sir Hans Sloane, egg-shaped and entwined with serpents ; also monuments to Philip
Miller, the writer on gardening ; and Cipriani the painter.
St. Luke's new church, between King's-road and Fulham-road, was built by Sava
in 1820, in the style of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and has a pinnacl
tower 142 feet high.
CHELSEA BUNS. 91
Above Battersea Bridge was Cremorne House, formerly the elegant villa of Lord
Cremorne, who had here a tine collection of Italian and Flemish pictures; adjoining was
the residence of Dr. Benjamin Hoadly (son of the bishop), the author of The Suspicious
Husband. Cremorne has been converted into a place of public entertainment, for
which the grounds are well adapted.
Chelsea was once a place of courtly resort : many of the nobility, as well as schoT^irs
and philosophers, resided here ; and its noted taverns and public gardens were much
frequented in the iVth and 18th centuries. The principal features now are its palace-
Hospital for soldiers, its Botanic Gardens, its Dutch-like river terrace (Cheyne-walk),
mostly brick-built, and fronted by lofty trees ; and its olden church, with a brick tower.
In a river-side cottage, beyond the church, upon the road to Cremorne Gardens, J. M. W. Turner,
the great landscape-painter, ended his days, having shut up his house in Queen Anne-strect. His
fondness for Thames scenery was great : he fell sick at Chelsea, at the close of 1851, but was daily
wheeled in a chair to the window of his room, that he might look on the calm December sunshine, the
river, and its craft. From a sort of gallery upon the house-top the great painter enjoyed the river
traffic, and watched those beautiful atmospheric changes which Turner could so ably transfer to
canvas. Here, in these cheap Chelsea lodgings. Turner, imder the assumed name of " Admiral Booth,"
went to his rest, on the 19th of December, 1851.
In the hamlet of Little Chelsea lived Bulstrode Whltelock ; Mr. Pym, member of
the Long Parhament ; Bishop Fowler, Sir Ilichard Steele, Addison, and John Locke j
Lord Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristics, in the house now St. George's
additional workhouse ; and here Tobias Smollett retired after his failure in practice at
Bath. Dean Swift had lodgings " a little beyond the church ;" and Sir Kobert Wal-
pole had a house adjoining Gough House ; hence, Walpole-stroet.
The Five Fields, Chelsea, are commemorated by Steele in the Tatler ; and at the
Willow Walk, Jerry Abershaw (that other Johnny Armstrong) had his secluded
house, in the midst of " cuts," or reservoirs of water. In the King's-road, on the
spot where is now the West London Literary and Scientific Institution, the Earl
of Peterborough was stopped by highwaymen, in what was then a narrow lane ; and
the robbers, being watched by the soldiers on guard at the gate of the Chelsea College,
were fired at from behind the hedge. One of the highwaymen was a student in the
Temple, named Brown, whom Mr. Vernon, the Secretary of State, in a letter to the
Duke of Shrewsbury, says, " a friend of his (Sir John Talbot) knew well ; and
his father, losing his estate, Mr. Brown lived by plav, sharping, and a little on the
highway."
JSTumerous signs at Chelsea have military associations : as " The Snow Shoes,"
a recollection of Wolfe's glorious campaign ; " The General Elliot ;" and " The Duke
of York;" and "Nell Gywnne" from association with Chelsea Hospital.
Chelsea Water-works were originally constructed in 1724 ; a print of the Works was
published by Boydell, in the year 1756.
CHELSEA BUNS.
CHELSEA has been famed for its Buns since the commencement of the last century.
Swift, in his Journal to Stella, 1712, writes : — " Pray are not the fine buns sold
here in our town, as the rare Chelsea buns ? I bought one to-day in my walk," &c.
They were made and sold at " the Old Original Chelsea Bun-house," in Jews'-row, a
one-storied building, with a colonnade projecting over the foot-pavement. It was
customary for the Royal Family and the nobility and gentry to visit the Bun-house in
the morning. George II,, Queen Caroline, and the Princesses frequently honoured the
proprietor, Richard Hand, with their company ; as did also George III. and Queen
Charlotte ; her Majesty presented Mrs. Hand with a silver half-gallon mug, and five
guineas in it. On Good Friday morning upwards of 50,000 persons were assembled
here, when disturbances often arose among the London mob ; in one day more
than 250/. have been taken for buns. The Bun-house was also much frequented by
visitors to Ranelagh, after the closing of which the bun-trade declined. Notwith-
standing, on Good Friday, April 18, 1839, upwards of 240,000 buns were sold here.
Soon after, the Bun-house was sold and pulled down ; and at the same time was dis-
persed a collection of pictures, models, grotesque figures, and modern antiques, which
had for a century added the attractions of a museum to the bun celebrity. Another
92 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
bun-house was built ; but the olden charm of tlie place had fled. In the Mirror
for April 6, 1839, are two views of the old Bun- house, sketched just before its
demolition. Here is a glance at the sale of the curiosities :
There were two leaden figures of Grenadiers, about three feet high, in the dress of 1745, presenting
arms, which sold for 4^. 10s. An equestrian plaster figure of William Duke of Cumberland, with other
plaster casts, 21. 2s. A whole length painting of " Aurengzebe, Emperor of Persia," 4tl. 4«. A large
old painting, an interior, with the King and Queen seated, and perhaps the baker, &c., 21. 10«. A
model of the Bun-house, with painted masquerade figures on two circles, turned round by a bird
whilst on its perch in a cage at the back of the model, 19s. A large model in cut paper, called St.
Mary Ratclifl" Church, sold with its glazed case for 21. 2s. A framed picture, worked by a string, re-
called the exploits of the Bottle Conjuror. After the death of Mrs. Hand the business was carried
on by her son, an eccentric character, who dealt also largely in butter, which he carried round to
his customers in a basket on his head. Upon his death his elder brother came into possession ;
he had been an officer in the Stafford Militia, was one of the Poor Knights of Windsor, and not much
less eccentric than his brother. It is not known that he left any relations, and his property, it is said,
reverted to the Crown.
There is a folio-print, engraved in the reign of George II.; under it, "A perspective view of David
Loudon's (probably the owner before Hand) Bunn House at Chelsey, who has the honour to serve
the Royal Family. 52 by 21 ft." Over the print, in the centre, is the Koyal Arms. On each side
stands a grenadier, three figures of Freemasons, with Masonic emblems ; and on the left hand is a coat
of arms. These arms are reversed, as if copied on the copper immediately from a piece of silver plate.
Below them is a motto (not reversed), " For God, my King, and Country." It is not impossible that
these were the arms of some respectable family, whose servant David Loudon had been.
Chelsea Bun-house has given name to one of Miss Manning's clever novels, pub-
lished in 1854.
CEBLSBA SOSPITAL
OCCUPIES the site of " Chelsea College," commenced by Dr. Sutcliffe, Dean of
Exeter, in the reign of James I., but only in part built. Its object was to main-
tain fellows in holy orders, " to answer all the adversaries of religion," and others to
write the history of their own times. It was nicknamed " Controversy College " by
Archbishop Laud ; the whole scheme and its originator were mercilessly ridiculed by
the wits of the day, and thus failed. It was given by Charles II. to the then newly-
established Koyal Society, who, in 1681-82, sold the property to Sir Stephen Fox for
1300Z., as a site for a Royal Hospital for aged and disabled soldiers, the building of
which has been attributed to the influence of Nell Gwynne, which tradition is kept
in countenance by the head of Nell Gwynne having been for very many years the
sign of a public-house in Grosvenor-row, Pimlico. But more than one entry in
Evelyn's Diary proves, that Sir Stephen Fox " had not only the whole managing " of the
plan, but was himself " a grand benefactor " to it. He was mainly advised by Evelyn,
who arranged the offices, "would needes have a library, and mentioned several
bookes." Here are a few other evidences :
The idea, it is said, originated with Nelly, and I see no reason to doubt the tradition, supported, as
it is, by the known benevolence of her character, her sympathy with the suffering, and the fact that
sixty years ago at least Nelly's share in its foundation was recorded beneath her portrait serving as
the sign of a public-house adjoining the Hospital. {Lysons.) The sign remains, but not the inscrip-
tion; yet the tradition is still rife in Chelsea, and is not soon likely to die out. Ormonds, and Granbys,
and Admiral Vernons disappear, but Nelly remains, and long may she swing with her favourite lamb
in the row or street commemorated forever in the Chelsea Pensioners of Wilkie— (Peter Cimningham's
Story of Nell Gtvynne, 1852, p. 146.) Nell's residence at Sandy End is doubted; but it is certain that
her mother lived near the Neate House, in Pimlico. In the records of Knightsbridge Chapel,
Jan. 13, 1667, is the marriage of Robert Hand and Mary Gwin, thus connecting Nelly's family with the
Chelsea Bun-house.
Sir Christopher Wren was appointed architect of the Hospital ; and the foundation
stone was laid, Feb. 16, 1682, by Charles II., who promised to provide the funds, and
was assisted by public subscription. The progress of the building is recorded in this
inscription on the southern front : —
" In subsidium et levamen emeritorum venio, belloque fractorum, condidit Carolus Secundus, auxil.
Jacobus Secundus, perfecere Gulielmus et Maria, Rex et Regina, mdcxc."
The building, which cost 150,000Z., is of red brick, with stone quoins, cornices, pedi-
ments, and columns, and is remarkable for its harmonious proportions. It consists of
three courts, two of which are spacious quadrangles ; the third, the central one, is
open on the south side, next the Thames ; and in the area is a statue of Charles II.,
in Roman imperial armour, sculptured by Gibbons, for Tobias Rustat. In the eastern
and western wings of this court are the wards of the Pensioners. At the extremity of
I
CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 93
the eastern wing is the Governor's house, with a state apartment ; and portraits of
Charles I., his queen, and two sons — Charles, Prince of Wales, and James, Duke of
York; Charles II., William III., and George III. and Queen Charlotte. The north
front is of great extent, and faced by avenues of limes and horse-chestnuts. In the
centre is a tetrastyle Eoman-Doric portico, surmounted by a handsome lofty clock-
turret in the roof.
Beneath are the principal entrances. To the right is the chapel, the furniture and
plate of which were given by James II., and the organ by Major Ingram; the altar-
piece has a painting of the Ascension, by Sebastian Ricci. In the left wing is the Hall,
wherein the Pensioners dine : here is an equestrian portrait of Charles II., by Verrio
and H. Cooke ; and an allegorical picture of the victories of the Duke of Wellington,
by James Ward, R.A. Both the Hall and Chapel are paved with black and white
marble : in each are suspended colours captured by the British army j in the chapel
are thirteen eagles taken from Napoleon I. : and in the Hall fragments of the standards
captured at Blenheim ; in addition are dragon Chinese banners, and the trophies of
the Sikh campaign of 1840.
In the Hall the remains of the great Duke of Wellington lay in state, Nov. 11-17, 1852. The Vesti-
bule, Hall, and Chapel were hung with black drapery. On a dais in the Hall, upon a cloth-of-gold
carpet, and black velvet bier, was placed the coffin, crimson and gold; above the bier were sus-
pended stars and orders, " in numbers and importance far surpassing anything of the kind ever
possessed by a single individual." The whole bier was surrounded with a silver balustrade adorned
with heraldic devices, and the Marshal's eight batons, and the Duke's standard and guidon ; and
attached to all, gold lion supporters, two feet high, bearing shields and banners. At the back of
the bier was her Majesty's escutcheon, surrounded by the Wellington bannerols, upon a cloth-of-
gold hanging, surmounted by a magnificent canopy, with a plume of feathers— the curtains being of
black velvet, with linings, cornice, and fringes of silver, and draped in graceful festoons. The Hall
was lighted with wax-tapers, and the dais with twelve magnificent silver candelabra, each with five
wax-lights ; here were also ten columns of spears, feathers, laurel, and escutcheons, lighted by gas.
Along the side walls stood picked soldiers of the Grenadier Guards, their arms reversed ; around
the catafalque. Yeomen of the Guard, and seated mourners ; and the chair of the chief mourner
concealed at the head of the coffin. The whole was designed by Mr. Cockerell, the architect. Two
persons died, and several were seriously hurt by the pressure of the vast crowd of spectators.
The old soldiers receive pensions from funds voted by Parliament : in 1850 there
were nearly 70, 000 out-pensioners, who received 6d.,9d., and Is. per diem ; there were 539
in-pensioners, who were well clothed and fed in the Hospital, and were allowed Id. a day
for tobacco, which is called " her Majesty's bounty." They wear long scarlet coats,
lined with blue, and the original three-cornered cocked hats of the last century : undress,
a foraging cap, inscribed R.H. Their ages vary from 60 to 90 years, and two veterans
had in 1850 attained the age of 104. The annual rate of mortality among the Pen-
sioners is 27 per cent.
Adjoining the Hospital is a burial-ground for Pensioners, wherein are the following
data: — William Hisland, died 1732, aged 112 — he married when upwards of 100 years
old ; Thomas Asbey, died 1737, aged 112 ; Captain Laurence, died 1865, aged 95 ; Robert
Comming, died 1767, aged 115 ; Peter Dowling, 1768, aged 102; a Soldier who fought
at the battle of the Boyne, 1772, aged 111 ; Peter Bennet, of Tinmouth, died 1773,
aged 107.
In 1739 was interred here Christian Davis, alias Mother Ross, who had served in
campaigns under William III. and the Duke of Marlborough, and whose third husband
was a Pensioner in the Hospital.
The Hospital Gardens are, in a measure, open to the public, but are little frequented.
The river terrace is bordered with dwarf limes, and there are besides some fine shady
trees. " The Old Men's Gardens " have been cleared away.
North of the Hospital is the Royal Military Asylum, for the support and education
of the children of soldiers and non-commissioned officers : the first stone of the building
was laid by the Duke of York, in 1801. The Hospital and Asylum may be seen
daily, from 10 till 4 : the boys parade on Fridays.
Eastward of the Hospital was the famous Ranelagh, which see. Upon part of the
site was built a large house, with a portion of the materials of Ranelagh : it had a
large Queen Anne staircase : this house was taken down in 1854, in forming the road
to the new Chelsea Bridge.
94 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
CHELSEA FOECLLAIN,
THE earliest manufactories of porcelain in England were those at Bow* and
Chelsea, both which have long been extinct. " The Chelsea ware, bearing a very-
imperfect similarity in body to the Chinese, admitted only of a very fusible lead glaze ;
and in the taste of its patterns, and the style of their execution, stood as low, perhaps,
as any on the list." (A. Aikin ; Trans. JSoc. Arts.) This character, however, applies
only to the later productions. The period of the greatest excellence of the Chelsea
porcelain was between 1750 and 1763 ; and there was so much demand for it, that
dealers are described as surrounding the doors of the works, and purchasing the pieces
at large prices, as soon as they were fired.
Faulkner, in his History of Chelsea, (1829,) states : " The Chelsea China Manufac-
tory was situate at the corner of Justice-walk, and occupied the houses to the upper
end of the street. Several of the large old houses were used as show-rooms. It has
been discontinued for more than forty years, the whole of the premises pulled down,
and new houses erected on the site."
Justice-walk took its name from a magistrate who resided in the house at the south
corner of Church-street, whence formerly an avenue of lime-trees extended to Lawrence-
street ; and in the latter were the ovens of the Chelsea China Manufactory, where Dr.
Johnson made experiments on tea-cups.
Johnson had conceived the idea that he was possessed of a peculiar 'secret for making porcelain ;
he obtained permission to have his compositions baked in the ovens af Chelsea, and here he watched
them day by day. He was not allowed to enter the mixing-room, but had free access to all other parts
composition in a room by himself. He failed in all " '
jar the heat of firing. He at last gave up his att
mpie ingredient was sufficient to form the body of pore
whereas Stephens, who managed the manufactory, declared to him that in the composition of the
of the manufactory, and roughly modelled his composition in a room by himself. He failed in all his
trials, for none of the articles he formed would bear the heat of firing. He at last gave up his attempts
in disgust. He always conceived that one simple ingredient was sufficient to form the body of porcelain ;
Chelsea paste no less than sixteen difierent substances were blended together.
" The premises were not far distant from Church -street, and near the water-side.
They subsequently became a stained paper manufactory, conducted by Messrs. Echardts
and Woodmason, in 1786 ; afterwards by Messrs. Bowen and Co. ; and in 1810 by
Messrs. Harwood and Co." {T. Crqfton Crolcer, F.S.A.) The works were discontinued
in 1764, and the manufacture was then removed to Derby, and the ware was called
Chelsea-Derby : it has the mark of a D crossed by an anchor ; it is very beautiful,
but as dear as silver.
In July, 1850, we saw in the stock of Mr. Heigham, Fulham-road, a set of three
Chelsea vases, remarkably fine in form and colour ; each bearing a view of the old
church at Chelsea and the china- manufactory.
"Martin Lister mentions a manufacture at Chelsea as early as 169S, comparing its productions wit
those of St. Cloud, near Paris. It was patronized by George II., who brought over artificers froi
Brunswick and Saxony ; whence, probably, M. Brongniart terms Chelsea a ' Manufacture Royale.' It
reputation commenced about 1740 ; and in 1745 the celebrity of Chelsea porcelain was regarded wit
jealousy by the manufacturers of France, who therefore petitioned Louis XV. to concede to thei
exclusive privileges. About 1750, it was under the direction of M. Spremont, a foreigner. The pr
ductions of the Chelsea furnaces were thought worthy to vie with those of the celebrated manufactorie
of Germany. Walpole, in his correspondence with Sir Horace Mann, mentions a service of Cheise
porcelain sent by the King and Queen to the Duke of Mecklenburg, which cost 1200^. The Duke
Cumberland took much interest in promoting the success of this interesting manufacture. The mar
is an Anchor, in gold, burnished on the best specimens, and red on the inferior." — Forster's Notes to '
Stowe Catalogue, 1848.
At Stowe, in 1848, the finest specimen " of rare old Chelsea-china " sold was a pai^
of small vases, painted with Koman triumphs, 23?. 10*. Few specimens of Cheise
ware were sold at Strawberry Hill, in 1842. At the sale of Sir John Macdonald's col
lection, in 1850, a pair of Chelsea cups and saucers, painted with birds, brought 36Z. It
In 1854, some fine examples of Chelsea porcelain were exhibited in the Cryst
Palace, Sydenham. There was a Chelsea tea-pot which had belonged to Dr. Johnsoi
In the Bernal Collection, sold in March, 1855, a pair of Scalloped Chelsea Vas
painted with birds, brought llOZ. 5s. ; a pair of oval dishes, 13Z. 13*. ; a two-handle
cup and saucer, 21/. ; and an ecuelle, very delicately painted with flowers, 27Z. 6*.
* Bow Cliina, formerly made at Stratford-le-Bow, is always marked with a crescent, or hoio : it rauc
resembles in quality the old Worcester or Derby, and is mostly of blue pattern ; it is scarce, but neve
CHBISrS HOSPITAL. 95
CHi:SS CLUBS.
IN 1747, the principal, if not the only Chess Club in the metropolis met at Slaughter's
Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane. The leading players of this Club were — Sir
Abraham Jannsen, Philip Stamma (from Aleppo), Lord Godolphin, Lord Sunderland,
and Lord Elibank ; Cunningham, the historian j Dr. Black and Dr. Cowper ; and
it was through their invitation that the celebrated Philidor was induced to visit
England.
Another Club was shortly afterwards founded at the Salopian Coffee-house, Charing
Cross : and a few years later, a third, which met next door to the Thatched House
Tavern, in St. James's- street. It was here that Philidor exhibited his wonderful
faculty for playing blindfold ; some instances of which we find in the newspapers of
the period : —
" Yesterday, at the Chess Club in St. James's-street, Monsieur Philidor performed one of these
wonderful exhibitions for which he is so much celebrated. He played three different (fames at once with*
out seeing either of the tables. His opponents were Count Bruhl and Mr, BowdJer (the two best
players in London), and Mr. Maseres. He defeated Count Bruhl in one hour and twenty minutes, and
Mr. Maseres in two hours ; Mr. Bowdler reduced his games to a drawn battle in one hour and three-
quarters. To those who understand Chess, this exertion of M. Philidor's abilities must appear one of
the greatest of wliich the human memory is susceptible. He goes through it with astonishing accuracy,
and often corrects mistakes in those who have the board before them."
In 1795, the veteran, then nearly seventy years of age, played three blindfold
matches in public. The last of these, which came off shortly before his death, we find
announced in the daily newspapers thus : —
" Chess Club, 1795. Parsloe's St. James's Steeet.
By particular desire, Mons. Philidor, positively for the last time, will play on Saturday, the 20th of June,
at two o'clock precisely, three games at once against three good players ; two of them without seeing
either of the boards, and the third looking over the table. He most respectfully invites all the members
of the Chess Club to honour him with their presence. Ladies and gentlemen not belonging to the
Club may be provided with tickets at the above-mentioned house, to see the match, at five shillings each."
Upon the death of Philidor, the Chess Clubs at the West-end seem to have de-
clined ; and in 1807, the stronghold and rallying point for the lovers of the game was
** the London Chess Club," which was established in the City, and for many years held
its meetings at Tom's Coffee-house, in Cornhill. To this Club we are indebted for
many of the finest chess-players of the age ; and after the lapse of nearly a century,
the Club still flourished, and numbered among its members some of the leading
proficients.
About the year 1833, a Club was founded by a few amateurs in Bedford-street,
Covent Garden. This establishment, which obtained remarkable celebrity as the arena
of the famous contests between I^a Bourdonnais and M'Donnell, was dissolved in 1840;
but shortly afterwards, through the exertions of Mr. Staunton, was re-formed under
the name of "the St. George's Club," in Cavendish-square, since removed to 20,
King-street, S.VV.
In addition to the above, and the London Chess Club, which held its meetings at the
George and Vulture Tavern, Cornhill, there are many minor institutions in various
parts of the metropolis and its environs, where Chess, and Chess only, forms the staple
recreation of the members. There are also the magnificent Cigar Divan, No. 100,
Strand, belonging to Mr. Hies ; and Kilpack's well-appointed Divan, 42, King-street,
Covent Garden; at each of which the leading Chess publications are accessible to
visitors, and where as many as twenty Chess-boards may often be seen in requisition at
the same time.
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.
"XIITE owe the foundation of this, " the noblest institution in the world," to the ex-
^ » ertions of the City of London to provide for a large houseless population, in
which good work the citizens were greatly assisted by grants from King Henry YIII.
It was long customary to designate King Edward VI. as its special founder ; but his-
torical records show that King Edward had little to do with the foundation of Christ's
96 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Hospital : both the house itself, and the revenues for its support, came from his pre-
decessor, or were raised by the bounty of the citizens themselves ; the young King
Edward bestowed upon the Hospital its name, and conferred upon it certain grants for
its support, in connexion with the hospital of Bridewell, which the King had founded ;
and St. Thomas's which the citizens themselves had purchased. The story runs, that
the King's attention was directed to this foundation by a sermon preached before him
by Bishop Ridley, in the year 1552 ; and that in consequence, the King sent by the
Bishop a letter to the Mayor, " declaring his special commandment, that the Mayor
should travail therein," which are the words of the old chronicler Grafton. But this
was not until after the citizens had done what they could, and found that they re-
quired certain aid from the Crown. Bishop Ridley himself, in his farewell letter to
his friends, written shortly before his martyrdom, attributed the chief merit to the
City magistrates ; first to Sir Richard Dobbs, in whose mayoralty the renewed effort
was made ; and next to his successor. Sir George Barnes.
When the Grey Friars came to London in the thirteenth century, they established
themselves on the north side of what we now call Newgate-street. Here, aided by the
citizens, they built first a chapel, then a church, and then again a much larger church,
— the latter between 1301 and 1327. In 1539 they surrendered to King Henry VIII.,
in whose hands the house remained for some time. Just before his death, he provided
that the church of the Gi ey Friars should become the parish church of " Christ's
Church within Newgate."
It appears that Christ's Hospital was not originally founded as a school ; its object ,
was to rescue young children from the streets, to shelter, feed, clothe, and lastly
educate them. The citizens had already received from the King the monastery of the
Grey Friars ; and from its new parish church came the name of " Christ's Hospital.*^
When the citizens had collected sufficient funds, they repaired the Grey Friars build*
ings, and on the 23rd of November, 1552, the poor children were received to tb«
number of almost four hundred. When the Lord Mayor and Aldermen rode
St. Paul's on the following Christmas-day, all the children stood in array "from St
Laurence-lane-in-Cheap towai-ds Paul's," attired in a livery or dress of russet cottoi
the boys with red caps, and the girls with kerchiefs on their heads, having a woms
keeper between every twenty children ; and accompanied also by the physician ar
four surgeons, and the masters of the Hospital.
At the following Easter, the boys and " mayden children" were in *' plonket/
blue ; hence Christ's Hospital also became called the Blue Coat School. It has beer
imagined that the coat was the mantle, and the yellow, as it is technically termed, tl
sleeveless tunic of the monastery ; the leathern girdle also corresponding with tl
hempen cord of the friar. There is an old tradition among the boys that the dre
was originally of velvet, fastened with silver buttons, and an exact fac-simile of tl
ordinary habit of King Edward VI.
It is most reasonable to regard the dress as copied from the costume of the citizei
of London at this period (1552), when long blue coats were the common habit
apprentices and serving-men, and yellow stockings were generally worn [the School
vulgarly called " the Yellow Stocking School ] ; the coat tits closely to the body, but hs
loose sleeves, and beneath is worn a sleeveless yellow under-coat ; around the waist
a red leathern girdle ; a clerical band round the neck, and a small flat black cap abou
the size of a saucer, complete the costume.
While the citizens were perfecting the good work. King Edward was seized witl
small-pox, from the effects of which he never recovered. When, however, the scher
for the endowment of the Royal Hospitals was placed before the pious prince, an^
according to the usual practice, a blank had been left for the amount of property whicl
the City were to receive for this object, Edward, with his own hand, wrote in the suraj
•* four thousand marks by the year ;" and then exclaimed, in the hearing of his Counci
" Lord, I yield Thee most hearty thanks that Thou hast given me life thus long,
finish this work, to the glory of Thy name !"
Among the early bequests is the following : — When the Hospital was erecte
and put into good order, there was one Richard Castel, alias Casteller, shoemakej
dwelling in Westminster, a man who was called " the Cock of Westminster," becat
CEBISrS HOSPITAL. • 97
both winter and summer he was at work by four o'clock in the morning. This man,
thns steadily and honestly labouring for his living, purchased lands and tenements
at Westminster, worth Ml. per annum ; and having no child, with the consent of his
wife, who survived him, gave the same lands wholly to Christ's Hospital, and for the
" succour of the miserable sore and sick harboured in other hospitals about London."
The ancient Hospital buildings suffered materially in the Gre^it Fire of 1666, when
the church of the monastery was entirely destroyed. The Hospital was rebuilt by the
Governors, anticipating its revenue from the endowment of the King, and other
sources. The Great Hall was rebuilt by Alderman Sir John Frederick, at a cost of
5000Z. The first important addition to the foundation, after the Fire, was the
Mathematical School, founded by Charles II. 1672, for forty boys, to be instructed in
navigation : they are called " King's boys," and wear a badge on the right shoulder
Lest this mathematical school should fail for want of boys properly qualified to supply
it, one Mr. Stone, a governor, left a legacy to maintain a subordinate Mathematical
School of twelve boys (" the Twelves"), who wear a badge on the left shoulder ; and to
these have been added " the Twos."
The Mathematical School was originally designed by Samuel Pepys, then Secretary
to the Admiralty. There is preserved a collection of letters between Pepys and
Major Aungier, Sir Isaac Newton, Halley, and other persons, relating to the manage-
ment of the Mathematical School ; and containing details of the career of some of the
King's scholars after leaving school. The letters extend from 1692 to 1695, and are
the original letters received by Pepys, with his drafts of the answers. , {Notes and
Queries, No. 227.) Pepys, it appears, printed and handed about privately, some
letters about the abuses of Christ's Hospital ; he certainly saved from ruin the Mathe-
matical foundation. This was the first considerable extension of the system of educa-
tion at the Hospital, which originally consisted of a grammar school for boys, and a
separate school for girls; the latter being taught to read, sew, and mark. Pepys
relates the following curious story of a Blue-coat girl : —
" Two wealthy citizens are lately dead, and left their estates, one to a little Blue-coat boy, and the
other to a Blue-coat girl, in Christ's Hospital. The extraordinariness of which has led some of the
magistrates to carry it on to a match, which is ended in a public wedding— he in his habit of blue satin,
led by two of the girls, and she in blue with an apron green, and petticoat yellow, all of sarsnet, led by
two of the boys of the house, through Cheapside to Guildhall Chapel, where they were married by the
Dean of St. Paul's, she given by my Lord Mayor, The wedding dinner, it seems, was kept in the Hos-
pital hall."— Pc^j^s to Mrs. Steward, Sept. 20, 1695.
The East Cloister and South front were next (in 1675) rebuilt by Sir Eoberfc
Clayton, alderman, and cost him about 7000Z. ; but it was not known who was the
benefactor until the whole was finished. The Writing School was built by Sir Chris-
topher Wren, in 1694, at the expense of 5000Z. to Sir John Moore, of whom a marble
statue is placed in the front : this school is situated on the west side of the play-
ground, and is supported on cloisters, which shelter the boys in bad weather ; the ward
over the east side cloister was rebuilt in 1705, by Sir Francis Child the banker ; and
in 1795 was erected the Grammar School. Some of the buildings of the ancient
monastery were standing early in the present century, but they had become ruinous
and unsafe ; and in 1803 was commenced a fund for rebuilding the whole, the Cor-
poration of London granting 5000^., and many private benefactions being made. The
refectory of the monastery originally served as the dining-hall of the Hospital : after
the Great Fire, the hall was rebuilt ; this was taken down, and partly upon its site, and
partly on the ancient City wall, was erected a vast edifice in the Tudor style by John
Shaw, F.R.S., F.S.A., architect ; the first stone laid by the Duke of York, April 25,
1825. The back wall stands on the site of the ditch that anciently surrounded London,
and is built on piles driven twenty feet deep ; in excavating for the foundation there
were found some Roman arms and coins, and some curious leathern sandals. The
southern or principal front, facing Newgate-street, is supported by buttresses and has
an octagonal tower at each extremity ; and the summit is embattled and pin-
nacled. On the ground story is an arcade open to the play-ground; here also are
the Governors' meeting-room, and the Hospital wardrobe ; and in the basement are
the vast kitchen, 67 feet by 33 feet ; and buttei'ies and cellars. In the rear of the
Hall is the Infirmary ; and on the east and west sides of the cloister are the dormi-
9S OTTBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
tories. Tlie arcade beneath the Hall is built with blocks of Haytor granite, highly-
wrought ; the remainder of the front is of Portland stone. Over the centre arch of the
arcade is a bust of Edward VI. The area in front or play-ground, is enclosed by
handsome metal gates, enriched with the arms of the Hospital: argent, across gules,
in the dexter chief, a dagger of the first (The City of London), on a chief azure, be-
tween two fleurs-de-h*or, a rose argent.
The Dining-hall, with its lobby and organ-gallery, occupies the entire story, which
is 187 feet long, 51 feet wide, and 47 feet high ; it is lit by nine large windows, filled
with stained glass on the south side ; and is, next to Westminster Hall, the noblest
room in the metropolis.
In the Great Hall hangs a large picture of King Edward VI. seated on his throne, in a scarlet and
ermined robe, holding the sceptre in his left hand, and presenting with the other the charter to the
kneeling Lord Mayor. By his side stands the Chancellor, holding the seals, and next to him are other
officers of state. Jiishop Ridley kneels before him with uplifted hands, as if supplicating a blessing on
the event ; whilst the Aldermen, &c., with the Lord Mayor, kneel on both sides, occupying the middle
' ground of the picture ; and lastly, in front, are a double row of boys on one side, and girls on the
other, from the master and matron down to the boy and girl who have stepped forward from their re-
spective rows, and kneel with raised hands before the King.
This picture was long erroneously attributed to Holbein ; but it is now considered
to be of the period of James I., or Charles I. ; it is SO feet long. Here is also a still
larger picture, in which James II. is receiving the " Mathematical boys," though there
are girls as well as boys. This was painted by Verrio, who also painted the full length
of Charles II., which hangs near it. Here are likewise full-length portraits of Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert, by Grant ; and a picture of Brook Watson's escape, when
a boy, from a shark, with the loss of a leg, while bathing, painted by Copley, father
of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst.
In the Treasurer's house is a portrait of Edward VI., considered by Mr. J. Gough
Nichols to have been evidently painted towards the end of the King's life. There is
also at the Hospital another portrait, inscribed " Edwardus, Wallise Princeps, anno
aetatis suae 9." These portraits have been ascribed to Holbein ; but by the recent
discovery of the will of Holbein, it is proved that at his death Edward VI. was only
in his sixth year. Neither is there better evidence of the Charter picture in the
Great Hall: the event took place in 1553; and "it is now ascertained beyond dis-
pute that Holbein could have produced no work later than the year 1534 ; whilst
hitherto his era has been extended for eleven years longer." — Nichols. See also
Archceologia ; vol. xxxix., pt. 1, 1863.
In the Hall the boys, now about 800 in number, dine ; and here are held the " Sup-
pings in Public," to which visitors are admitted by tickets, issued by the Treasurer and
by the Governors. The tables are laid with cheese in wooden bowls ; beer, in wooden
piggins, poured from leathern jacks ; and bread brought in large baskets. The official
company enter ; the Lord Mayor, or President, takes his seat in a state-chair, made of
oak from St. Katherine's church by the Tower ; a hymn is sung, accompanied by the
organ ; a " Grecian," or head-boy, reads the prayers from the pulpit, silence being en-
forced by three drops of a wooden hammer. After prayer, the supper commences, and
the visitors walk between the tables. At its close, the " trade-boys" take up the I
baskets, bowls, jacks, piggins, and candlesticks, and pass in procession, the bowing to the
Governors being curiously formal. The " Suppings in Public" are held every Sun-
day, from Quinquagesima Sunday to Easter Sunday, inclusive ; they are a picturesque
sight, and always well attended. This interesting spectacle was witnessed by Queeu j
Victoria and Prince Albert, on Sunday evening, March 9th, 1845.
In this Hall, too, St. Matthew's Day (September 21st) the day of the annual Com-
memoration is a festival set apart from the first year of their foundation for the General
Court of the several Royal Hospitals ; and it is still observed with the usual solemnity.
The Lord Mayor and Aldermen having met the Governors of each hospital in the
Great Hall, the children pass before them, leading the way to Christ Church, where
the sermon is preached. The company return to the Hall to hear the Grecians, or
head-boys, deliver Orations before the Lord Mayor, Corporation, and Governors, and
their friends ; this being a relic of the scholars' disputations in the cloisters. After the
Orations, a collection is made for the speakers in furtherance of their support at the
University. Trollope, in 1834, stated about \2Ql. to be usually contributed. The de-
CHBISrS HOSPITAL. 99
livery of the list of Governors follows tlie collection ; and, according to the " Order of
the Hospitals," all the beadles are called before the Court, and, delivering up their
staves, retire to the bottom of the Hall, " that the opinion of the Court may be heard
touching the doing of their duties : to the intent, if any of them be faultye, that he
or they may be rebuked or dismissed, at the discretion of the said Court ; and there-
upon to deliver unto suche as then remayne their staves, and again astablishe them.'*
These forms concluded, the Court is dissolved, and the company, having partaken of
refreshments, retire. It appears from the journal of Sheriff Hoare, 1740-41, that
" sweet cakes and burnt wine" were then handed round on these occasions, and the
usual breakfast was " roast beef and burnt wine."
The Spital or Hospital Sermons are preached in Christ Church, Newgate-street, on
Easter Monday and Tuesday. On Monday the children proceed to the Mansion
House, and return in procession to Christ Church, with the Lord Mayor, Lady
Mayoress, and City authorities, to hear the sermon. On Tuesday the children again go
to the Mansion House, and pass through the Egyptian Hall, before the Lord Mayor,
each boy receiving a glass of wine, two buns, and a shilling ; the monitors half-a-crown
each, the probationers half-a-guinea each, and the Grecians a guinea — all in coins fresh
from the Mint; they then return to Christ Church, as on Monday.
The boys formerly visited the Royal Exchange on E-ister Monday ; but this has
been discontinued since the burning of the last Exchange, in 1838.
At the first drawing-room of the year the forty Mathematical boys are presented
to the Sovereign, who inspects their charts, and who gives them 81. 8s. as a
gratuity. To this other members of the Royal Family formerly added smaller sums,
and the whole was divided among the ten boys who lefc the school in the year.
During the illness of King George III. these presentations were discontinued; bxit
the Governors of the Hospital continued to pay 1^. 3^., the amount ordinarily
received by each, to every boy on quitting. The practice of receiving the boys was
revived by William IV., and is continued by her present Majesty. Each scholar
having passed his Trinity- House examination, and received testimonials of his good
conduct, is presented with a tvatcJi, as a reward, worth from 9Z. to 13/. ; in addition
to an outfit of clothes, books, mathematical instruments, a Gunter's scale, a quadrant,
and a sea-chest.
Christ's Hospital, by ancient custom, possesses the privilege of addressing the
Sovereign on the occasion of his or her coming into the City to partake of the hos-
pitality of the Corporation of London. On the visit of Queen Victoria in 1837, a booth
was erected for the Hospital boys in St. Paul's Churchyard ; and on the Royal carriage
reaching the Cathedral west gate, the senior scholar, with the Head Master and
Treasurer, advanced to the coach-door, and delivered a congratulatory address to her
Majesty, with a copy of the same on vellum.
The School has always been famous for its penmen. The education consists of
reading, writing, and arithmetic, French, the classics, and the mathematics. There are
sixteen Exhibitions for scholarships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge,
besides a '" Pitt Scholarship," and a " Times Scholarship," the latter founded by the
proprietors of that journal, with a fund subscribed by the public in testimony of their
detection of the Bogle Fraud, 1841.
Among the more eminent Blues, as the scholars are termed, are Joshua Barnes,
editor of Anacreon and Euripides; Jeremiah Markland, the eminent critic, particularly
in Greek literature ; Camden, the antiquary ; Bishop Stillingfleet. [Pepys has this
quaint entry in his Diary: "January 16, 1666-7, Sir R.Ford tells me how the famous
Stillingfleet was a Blue Coat boy."] Samuel Richardson, the novelist ; Thomas
Mitchell, the translator of Aristophanes ; Tliomas Barnes, many years editor of the
Times newspaper; and Coleridge, Charles Lamb, and Leigh Hunt, who have published
many interesting reminiscences of their contemporaries in the School. Lamb's
" Recollections of Christ's Hospital," and " Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years
Ago" (says Peter Cunningham, once a Deputy Grecian), have done much to uphold the
dignity of the School.
The Library is a recent addition ; it is a spacious room, divided into boxes and pro-
vided with tables : on the walls hang useful maps, and engravings of the steam-engine 5
n2
I
100 PURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
at one end is stored a small but well-chosen collection of books, and on the table are
several illustrated periodicals. Another addition is the erection of a Gymnasium.
The old cloister of the Grey Friars Priory, repaired by Wren, and nearly deprived
of its ancient appearance, formerly served as a public thoroughfare from Newgate-street
to Smithfield, but has been stopped up. In 1855, in excavating for some new houses
on the north side of Newgate-street, were exposed, under Christ's Church yard three
pointed arches, 10 feet in span, and covered with masses of chalk and concrete, to
within three feet of the surface, the rest being earth j these being vestiges of the Grey
Friars buildings ; as also are the gateway and a portion of the brick building under
which it opens, together with the cloistered passage in rear of the basement. The brick-
work of the superstructure, of about Elizabeth's reign, is marvellously fine.
The customs of the School have varied with time. Formerly the Saints' days were
kept as holidays ; money-boxes for the poor were kept in the cloister ; and unruly
boys were kept confined in dungeons ; but these regulations have been discontinued.
Bread and beer are no longer the breakfast. Nor do the boys perform common menial
offices as heretofore. The wards or dormitories, in which the boys sleep, are seventeen
in number ; each boy makes his own bed, and each ward is governed by a nurse and
two or more monitors. There is a curious feature in most of the sleeping wards : in
one corner, near the roof, and reached by a staircase, is a wooden box, which serves as
a resting-place and study for the " Grecian " of the ward. From this eminence he is
enabled to notice any delinquency below.
The general burial-ground of the Hospital is between the south cloister and the
houses in Newgate-street, where the funerals formerly took place by torch-light, and
the service was preceded by an anthem, thus reviving the monastic associations of the
place. The Burials are now by daylight.
A book is preserved, containing the records of the Hospital from its foundation, and
an anthem sung by the first children.
The income of the institution has known much fluctuation ; and consequently, also,
the number of inmates. The 340 children with which the Hospital opened had
dwindled in 1580 to 150. The object of the institution has also, in the lapse of time,
become materially changed, which may in a great measure be attributed to the influence
of the Governors, or benefactors, its chief supporters. The government is practically
vested in a committee of 50 almoners. The system of education is not considered to
have kept pace with the requirements of the times.
We have seen that there were abuses in the management of the Hospital in Pepys's
time ; they have lasted to our day. In 1810, Mr. Waithman, one of the Common
Councllmen for the Ward in which the Hospital is situated, showed that instead of
being a beneflt to the children of the poor and friendless, it was engrossed almost ex-
clusively by the rich. Presentations were, at that time, sold at an average of thirty
guineas each. By recommendation of Sir Samuel Romilly, and Mr. Bell, the Lord
Chancellor was petitioned for an inquiry into the conduct of the Hospital Committee ;
but, in 1816, its object failed. As testimonies to the original designs of the foun-
dation, a statue of a Blue Coat Boy, in each of the four corners of the cloister, had,
within the recollection of several persons living, the following painted notice underneath : ;
"This is Christ's Hospital, where poor Blue-Coat boys are harboured and educated."— lirw(/7i80J2'* j
Walks through London. \
There is printed annually, and freely circulated, " A True Report of the Number of Children and ,
ether poor People maintained in the several Royal Hospitals in the City of London, under the pious care j
of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Governors thereof, for the year last past." ,
This document, in appearance, resembles a sheet almanack : it is headed by the Easter anthem set to |
music ; and it is enclosed in a woodcut border, the design of which indicates the custom of printing i
these Reports to have been of lone standing. In the upper portion of the border are the Royal Arms; j
at the sides are the City Arms, ancient and modern ; in medallions at the corners are three figures of the
Christ's Hospital boys, and one of a girl ; at the foot is an emblematic group, with the old Hospital ia "
the background; and beneath it is inscribed on a ribbon, " Pray remember the Poor."
The income arising from early endowments and bequests, which may be set down as j
exceeding 40,000Z.per annum, is largely augmented by the contributions of Governors, '
cf whom, on an average, twenty-five are elected annually ; and as they give 500Z. eachj
on election, 12,500^. a year arises from this source.
In 1S65, the gross receipts amounted to 71,855/. 13s. \0d., more than one half of which is derived]
CEUBCHE8 AND CBAPEiS. ' ' ' tOl '
from the rents of estates, quit-rents, tithe-rent charges, &c. The benefactions were 8021/. ; leeracies,
6830Z. 2». lid. The expenditure contains among other items, 2720/. 18». M. payments under'bene-
faetions, wills, deeds of gift, &c., to various parishes and companies for their poor and for other objects,
to pensioners, for relief of prisoners for debt, for setting up in business young men and women educated
in the Hospital, and other purposes, 2827/. The sum available for the purposes of the Hospital was
57,389/, Os. \\d. The washing at the two establishments' amounted to 2010/. 9.^. M. The provisions and
stores (less the sum received by sale of kitchen-stuff and dripping), amounted to 10,342/. Os. 4i.;
coals and fuel, 783/. 18s. 8d. ; gas'lighting and water supply, 1565/. 7s. ; the charges for apparel, linen,
bedding, shoes, and leather, were 6408/. The average number of children maintained and educated in
the London and Hertford establishments in 1865 was 1205 : and the average expenditure per child,
m.\s.7\d.
Boys, whose parents may not be free of the City of London, are admissible on Free
Presentations, as they are called ; as are also the sons of clergymen of the Church of
England. The Lord Mayor has two presentations annually ; and the Court of Alder-
men one each : it was the good practice of the late Alderman Humphery, to give his
presentations to inhabitants of the Ward over which he presided. The rest of the
Governors have presentations once in three years. A list of the Governors who have
presentations for the year is printed every Easter, and may be had at the Counting-
house of the Hospital. No boy is admitted before he is seven years old, or after he is
nine ; and no boy can remain in the School after he is fifteen. King's boys and Grecians
alone excepted. There are about 500 Governors, at the head of whom are the Queen,
the Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred. The President is the Duke of Cambridge,
whose election to that office was a departure from the custom, which had hitherto been
to elect the Lord Mayor for the time being. The qualification for a Governor is pay-
ment of 500Z. ; but an Alderman has the power of nominating a Governor for etection
at half price. About 200 boys are admitted annually (at the age of from seven to
ten years), by presentations in rotation, so that the privilege occurs about once in three
or four years. A list of the Governors having pi'esentations is published annually in
March, and is to be had at the counting-house of the Hospital.
The subordinate establishment is at Hertford, to which the younger boys are sent
preparatory to their entering on the foundation in London, which takes place as
vacancies occur. The building at Hertford was erected by the Hospital Governors in
1683, and has extensive grounds for recreation; when full, it will contain 416 children,
of whom about 200 are taught the classics. There is likewise accommodation here for
80 girls.
The Report published in 1865 states that all the early and chief gifts of the property held by the Hospital
are expressed to be for the benefit of poor children, without distinction of sex; nor does the Hospital
during the early periot^ of its institution appear to have been appropriated more to boys than to girls.
For many years past, however, up to a recent period, only six girls were admitted (at Hertford) every
year, besides those received under specific trusts. The education of a boy so as to advance him in life
was thought to be of much greater material advantage to a family than the education of a girl ; so that
it was a common expression that a governor " threw away " his presentation on nominating a girl. But
the purpose of the foundation being the public good, it is considered that the general good would have
been better promoted if at least an equal share of the lunds of the Hospital had been expended in the
education of girls.
In 1858, there were 61 girls in the establishment at Hertford, which, in its teaching, was below the
level of a good parish 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 pharity to the Blind, by the Rev. W. Hetherington, since augmented by many bene-
factors, is the wealthiest of all : in one year, 6520^. have been paid to 652 aged blind
persons. To this fund the late Richard Thornton, Esq,, bequeathed 10,000Z.
CSURCSES AND CMAFJELS.
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 Seberfc, their king, when Mellitus was driven out, and
' lOS ' ' ^ ■' ' (JUBiOSITIES 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, wbich 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, Holywell,
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 chui'ches 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 other parishes.
The following were the City Churches burnt and not rebuilt :—
AUhallows, 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 W^eigh House Chapel.
St. Ann, Black friars, Ireland-yard, now graveyard. St. Benet Sherehog, Pancras-lane, near Bucklers-
bury, now graveyard. St. Botolph Billingsgate, over against Botolpli-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,
Penchurch, in Fenchurch-street, graveyard exists, St. Gregory, in St. Paul's-churehyard, 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,
Poster-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,
bt. 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 Oates' House, now pulled down, St, Mary
Woolchurch 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; 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 liUtheran 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 t
" 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 2800^.
to upwards of 15,000Z. 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 Koman 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 Boyal 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
CHUBGEES AND CEAPELS. 103
(I'T'Ql) 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 ; thispseudo 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 subscription-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 Loudon 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 the most 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
churt-h 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, 9f 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
Churches Fund," estabhshed 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
j-equircments. 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 2081?. 95. 4d., for St. Botolph, Bishops-
gate ; and the smallest but one is 40?., 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 chjirch destitution observable principally in the Bethnal-green district, which became even
at the outset metropolitan. It 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 Oxibrd residents generally, the
Tract- writers and their friends, took it up and forwarded it ; but it was the Bishop's conception and
execution." — The Gtiardiari'
104 CVmOSITIES OF LONDON.
OLD SAINT PAUL'S.
THE present Cathedral of St. Paul is the third church dedicated to that saint, and
built very nearly upon the same site. The first church was founded about
A.r. 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; 6i 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 15^ 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 rehcs 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 churchward stood a square cloclier, or bell-tower, with four bellsj
rung to summon the citizens to folkmotes held here. These bells belonged to St.
Faith's under St. Paul's, a church so situated, but 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, witJdn 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 llowers 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.
I
CHUBCHES-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 Vowly'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 hexagonftl 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 1449.
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 onelje," 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 informs 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
\ihe 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
ofiered 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., Richard 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 Giiy 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 tomhs 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. Ii
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 witl
black and escutcheons ; and the herses were magnificently adorned with banner-rol
and other insignia of vainglory.
The floor of the church was laid out ia 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 at
Paul's," or " Paul's Walk," was commonly called " Duke Humphrey's Walk," from Sii
John Beauchamp's monument, unaccountably called " Duke Humphrey's Tomb," beingfl
the only piece of sculpture here ; and as this walk was a lounge for idlers and hunter
after news, wits and gallants, cheats, usurers, and knights of the post, dinnerless per-
sons who lounged there were said to dine zvith Dulce Humphrey. Here " each lawy(
and Serjeant at his pillar heard his client's cause, and took notes thereof upon hia
knee." (Dugdale's Orig. Jurid.) Here masterless men, at the Si quis door, set uj
their bills for service. Here the font was used as a counter for payments. Here spi
money was demanded by two choristers from any person entering the Cathedra
during divine service with spurs on. Hither Fleetwood, Recorder of London, came
" to learn some news" to convey by news-letter to Lord Burghley. Ben Jonson ha
laid a scene of his JEvery Man out of his Humour in " the middle aisle in Panic's
Captain Bobadil is a " Paul's man ;" and Falstaff bought Bardolph in Paul's. Greene
in his Theeves Falling Out, Sfc, says : " Walke in the middle of Paul's, and gentlemen']
teeth walk not faster at ordinaries, than there a whole day together about enquii
after news." Bishop Earle, in his Microcosmographia, 1629, says : " Paul's Walk
the Land's Epitome, or you may call it the lesser He of Great Brittaine. ^ * ^ * ^he
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 commor
thoroughfare for porters and carriers, for ale, beer, bread, fish, flesh, fardels of stuf
and " m\iles, horses, and other beasts ;" drunkards lay sleeping on the benches at the
choir-door ; within, dunghills were suffered to accumulate j and in the choir peopU
walked " with their hatts on their heddes." Dekker, in his Chidl's RornhooTc, tel
us that the church was profaned by shops, not only of booksellers, but of other trade
such as " the seraster's shops," and " the new tobacco office." So great had thi
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 chani
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 th^
cloisters were let out to trunkmakers, whose " knocking and noyse" greatly disturbe
the church-service. Houses were built against the outer walls, in which closets anc
window-ways were made : one was used " as a play-house," and in another the owne
"baked his bread and pies in an oven excavated within a buttress;" for a ti-ifling fee
the bell-ringers allowed wights to ascend the tower, halloo, and throw stones at th<
passengers beneath. The first recorded Lottery in England was drawn at the wes^
door in 1569. Dekker describes " Paul's Jacks," automaton figures, which struck th<
quarters, on the clock. We read, too, of rope-dancing feats from the battlements
St. Paul's exhibited before Edward VI., and in the reign of Queen Mary, who, the da^
before her coronation, also witnessed a Dutchman standing upon the weathercock
the steeple, waving a five-yard streamer ! Another marvel of this class was the ascend
of Bankes, on his famous horse Marocco, to the top of St. Paul's, in the year 1600,
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 taughj
his horse to count and perform a variety of feats. When the novelty had somewh
lessened in London, Bankes took his wonderful horse to Paris, and afterwards
CHUBCEE8—8T. PAUL'S CATEEDBAL. 107
Eorae. " He had better have stayed at home, for both he and his horse (which was
shod with silver) were burnt for witchcraft." (Ben JonsoTi'sJEpigrams.) Shakspeare
alludes to " the dancing horse" {Love's Labour Lost) ; and in a tract called Maroccus
Uxtaticus, 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 effectual 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 101,330^. ; and the repairs progressed until about one-third of the
money was expended, in 1G42, 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 Eire : —
" 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,
Hcav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire."
Dryden's Annus Mirdbilu.
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 spiit 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 tlie church was reduced to a heap of ruins ; and books valued at
150,000^., which had been placed in St. Faith's (the crypt) for safety by tiie 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 eifigies 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 Qd. each.
ST. FAUUS CATIILDBAL.
NEARLY eight years elapsed after the Great Fire ere the ruins of the old Cathedral
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
lOS
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 j 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 Roman 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 j
and on digging deeper,
marine shells wei*e 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 Catliedrals. \\^q 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 Eoyal Highness the Duke of Sussex, &e., &c.,
and W. Master of the Lodge of Antiquity,
I 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 Kihg Charles the Skcohd
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.
Br Brother Sib Christopher vVken, li.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 Plioenix rising from the flames, with the
motto Resurgam, sculptured by Gibber in the pediment over the southern portico.
In 1678 Wren set out the piers and pendentives of the dome.
CHUBCEESST. 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,
«rvants, 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 hrought up to the
same height. On Dec. 2, 1697, the choir was opened on the day of Thanksgiving for
the peace of Rvswiek, 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,^. 4&2. 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
owinar to the neglect of some workmen, who thought the timber sufficiently fastened without theraj
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,
200Z. 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 10,000Z. annually.
Exterior. — St. Paul's occupiesvery 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 Hampstead
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,
100 feet in height — the upper Composite,
Ground Plan of St. Paul's Cathedral.— A. Nave.
B. Great Dome. C. North Transept. D. South
Transept. E. Choir.
110 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
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 ai 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 ; " 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." {Gwill.) 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 Phoenix, and the north with the royal arms
and regalia ; and on each side are five statues of the Apostles. The main building Is
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 thereof of the church. The bell-tower is similarly protected. Ey 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, Sept. 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
UiicT/cloj^adia 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 CO feet in height, in the form of a paraboloid. Its tliickness 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 tlie
external dome, which is of oak, and its base 220 feet from the pavement, — its summit being level wi'h
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 lbs.), 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 1
exterior of the cone. Externally, the intervals of the columns and pilasters are occupied by windovvaj
and niches, with horizontal and semicircular heads, and crowned with pediments.
CRUBGHES—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 cyUndrical 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
qfnamented with pilasters, between which are two tiers of rectangular windows. From 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 doubleaux.
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 rismg 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-
cm 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 distmct 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 fafade."
The ascent to the Whispering Gallery is by 260 steps ; 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 Jloom, 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 Cloch Room.
The ClocJc 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 lbs. each ; and the hour-hands are 5 feet 9 inches long, and weigh 44< lbs. each.
The pendulum is 16 feet long, and the bob weighs 180 lbs. ; 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.
edi
112 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Clock, "going eight days," strikes the hour on the Great Bell* suspended
about 40 feet from the floor : the hammer lies on the outside brim of the bell ; it h
a large head, weighs 145 lbs., is drawn by a wire at the back part of the clockvvorkj
and falls again by its own weight upon the bell. The clapper weighs 180 lbs. 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 cwt. 2 qrs. 25 lbs. : the
smaller, 12 cwt. 2 qrs. 9 lbs. 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 u
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 coni'usion. 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.
Tlie organ, built by Bernard Schmydt, in 1694, at a cost of 2000^., 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 1
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 eff"ort
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 bioilding 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 militai'y 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 W atch Making, 1850.
CHURCHES—ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 113
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 Eeynolds, 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 south transept are monuments
to Sir Ralph Abercrombie and Lord CoUingwood, 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 vixit annos ultra nonaginta,
JN"on sibi sed bono publico. Lector,
Si monumentum requiris,
Circumspice.
Obiit XXV. Feb., Anno MDCCXXIII., setat. 91.
Beneath lies Christopher Wren, builder of this church and City, who lived upwards of ninety years,
not for liimself 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
FoeW 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. B. Leslie, E.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-toinbs of Robert Mylne, the architect of
the first Blackfriars Bridge; and John Rennie, 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 Wolsoy, 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
X
114 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
presented to Nelson by his friend Ben Hallowell, captain of the Swiftsure. Nelson's
flag 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 palm?, 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 40*. per square yard ! Putting on one
side the vital error in 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,bv aid of 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
CHUBCHE8—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 lifrht 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 the
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 Vieiv from the Outer Golden Gallery is very minute : the persons in the
streets below " appear like mice ;" 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
Higligate. 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 Reigate 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. Horner'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 lbs. They were designed by M.
Tijoue, and cast at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst, in Kent ; they cost Qd. per
pound, and with other charges, amounted to 11,202?. Os. Qd. 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
aiscoveied his awful situation.— Jlfr. Horner's Narrative.
I S
116 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was '736,752Z. 25. 3d. j in all, 747,954Z. 2.9. 9d., equal to 1,222,437^. 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 1849, the sum received
from visitors to the body of the Cathedral, at 2d. each, was 430Z. 3s. 8d.y which v/as
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 smnmoned
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 Flymley), d. 1845, and the Rev. R. H. Barham {Thomas
Ingoldshy), 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 Llaii-
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 briUiant 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 Anniv^ersary
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 gi'ouping 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 j)referred 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 facade, and gives in exchange nothing but its
deep sides and cavernous soffit, at least 40 feet wide."
CEURGEES— 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
HeightofCentre, exclusive of Dome 210
Height of Nave, Choir, and Transepts 100
Height from floor of Crypt to top of Cross 40i
Height from Nave pavement to top of Cross ....... 330
Height of Western Towers 220
Height of Western Front las
Diameter of Interior Dome 100
Height of Dome 60
Height of Dome from ground-line , , . 215
Diameter of opening at top of Dome 14 10|
Height of Lantern Gallery 274 9
Diameter of opening at lop of Upper Dome 8
The following are the comparative dimensions of St. Paul's and St. Peter's :
E. toW. West end, Ditto, Tran- Height
within. in. out. sept. to top.
St. Paul's . 500 100 138 223 360 English feet.
St, Peter's . 669 226 395 442 432
St. Peter's occupies au acre of 227.069 superticial 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 Fitzgei-ald.
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 gas 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 1000^.
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 1200Z. a year : there are more
than 8500 square feet, or two acres, of lead work 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 450,0i)0 feet, or ten
and a half acres, of stonework likewise exposed to the sulphureous vapours and smoke of London ; to
say nothing of the interior, of which the superficial area (including crypt) is about twelve acres. A con-
siderable portion of the fund (236^.) is devoted to insuring the church from fire to the extent of 95,000/.
its total value may be estimated at 1,500,000^,, but damage by fire could not be done to a greater extent
than, perhaps, 600,000/.
118 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
peninsula of the purest sand and gravel, which may be seen in the foundations of the
Abbey. 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." (Bean Auckland.) This church was not, however, com-
pleted until about 361 years after, by King Edgar, when it was named from being the
"Minster 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 had 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 Eolls we gather that the outlay going
on at Westminster for the King's Palace and the Abbey Church was from 20,000^. to
40,000Z. 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 St. 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 ^ec^e, 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 tact, scarcely a trace of any original detail of the eastern
portion of the exterior left." The Bayeux tajjcstry 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." — Dugdale's Monasticon, 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 masoniy 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 fact 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.—^ Fortioji of the Journal of T. Maikes, Esq.
I
CHUBCEE8,--WESTMm8TEB ABBEY. 119
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 N. 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. pialled down the Chapel of the Vii'gin, 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
iSanctuary, 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 off(3rings 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 ;
lie also proposed a central spire, as originally intended, for its beginnings appear
on the corners of the cross, " but left ofi" before it rose so high as tlie 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 73
I'ect 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 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 111., 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 Accoimt of Ancient and Modern Westminister.
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
Eenson the Dean. In 1541, the Church was turned into an Episcopal See, having
Middlesex for its diocese ; but was^oon 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 choii*, to the number of
30 ; 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
regaha 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 III., 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 JExterior 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 eflect from the hills about Wandsworth
CHURCEE8— WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 121
and Wimbledon." — {HandhooJc, 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 I.
The Western Front bears the date of 1735 : the height of the towers (225 feet)
telis 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
Rembrandtish 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 Romanesque or semicircular arches, and thick, short, round
shafts.
Eastward is the mngnificent entrance to the Chapter-house, which is to be repaired
under 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, of 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-
hook, 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, St. 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 sacred dust below
Was Dryden 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 rehef,
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 Polyolhion : 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 ; " O rare Ben Jonson !" inscribed beneath the head. Samuel Butler, author of
Hudihras : 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, EA., 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. i and statues of Thalia and Clio, by Rysbrack. St. Evremond, the
French Epicurean wit : bust and tablet ; and below it, profile medallion, by Chantrey,
B.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 Netv Bath Guide : tablet on the next column ; and at the back
of St. Evremond's moimment, a tablet to Mrs. Pritchard, the eminent tragic actress.
William Shakspeare: the subscription monument; 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 \vrote 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 ABBEY. 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 VII.'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
Fersius 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 Ehza-
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, " rare Sir Wilham
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 Denham, 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
200/. to 3001. for a statue, and from 150Z. to 2001. for a bas-relief; for Lord Holland's
monument, 20 feet square, 300Z. 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 unduly 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-hill, 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.
The 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 ornaments, 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 2^'orman 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 jpalm-branch on each
side, and a figure of St. Peter ; considered by the late Sir C. L. Eastlake, P.R.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 IIl.'s struc-
ture : they are lighted by lofty windows, with arches enclosing circles, above which are
windows within triangles, also enclosing circles.
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TTin
I
Ground Plan of Westminster Abbey.— A. Jerusalem Chamber. B. College Dining Hall. C. Kitchen.
D. Larder. E. Ancient remains. F. Confessor's building (Pix). G. Dark Cloisters. H. Hall o£
Kefeetory. 1. High Altar. 2. Henry V.'s Chapel. 3. Porch to Henry VII.'s Chapel. 4. Henr
VII.'s Tomb.
1. St. Benedict's Chapel. — The oldest tomb here is that of Langham, Archbishop of]
Canterbury (d. 1376) ; his eflSgies 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 ; toml
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 anc
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) i
alabaster figures of William of Windsor and Blanch de la Tour, children of Edward III.
CEUBCHE8,— 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 Kobert de Waldebj', Archbishop of York (d. 1397)— both the most per-
fect 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 560^., the year before her death ;
monument of Bishop Dudley, his original brass efiigies 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 efiagies (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 1500^. : 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 :
BEGNO COHSOETES
BT VENA HIC OBDOB-
MIMUS XLIZABETHi.
BT MAEIA SOBOEES
Ilf SPE BESVBEEC-
TIONIS.
Sir F. Madden; Frivy-Purse Expenses of the Princesa Mary, if c.
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. Westmacott, R.A., of the Duke 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, wha
"had to her great-grandfather King Edward IV., to her grandfather King Henry VII.,
to her uncle King Henry VIIL, 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
1628), 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^. Avas spent in repairs, chiefly of the exterior.* In 1793, James
Wyatt stated that the repairs, necessary and ornamental, would amount to 25,200Z.
The restoration was commenced in 1810; contrary to Wyatt's estimate, it occupied
thirteen years instead of three, and cost over 42,000Z.
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 aud
the chalk hills to the north.— Webster; Oeolog. Trans.
I
CTIUBCHE8,— WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 127
Bishop Finch had to pay eighteenpence 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
instiillation 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
yoiir 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 mai-ble, gildings
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 EaiFaelesque sculptures of Henry
the Fifth's chantry, is the sitting statue of James Watt, the engineer, by Chantrey,
E.A., strangely out of place in a medieval Church : the inscription, which contains not a
word of flattery, is by Lord Brougham. Next westward you ascend a small staircase,
leading to
6. Edtvard the 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 i*
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 dight 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 Fab^'an'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.
Eichard II. and his Queen, Anne of Bohemia, are commemorated by a tomb of
Petworth marble, inlaid with latten ; the fabric cost 250Z., the images 400/., 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 tlie 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,
flanked 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 hira 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 Chajpel, you enter
128 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
8. St. John the Baptises 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 Cary, 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 allovv'her statue to be laid
in the left side space, still vacant. The alabaster monument to Colonel Edward
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 very 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 high
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 v/ill speak presently." Near this tomb is
Roublliac's famous monument to Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale, where Death, as a skeleton,
is launching his Jart at the beautiful wife, who sinks into the arms of her agonized
husband . her right arm is the perfection of sculptiu-e : " life seems slowly receding
from her tapering fingers and quivering wrist." {Allan Cunningham^ Roubiliac
died the year after its erection, 1762 : this work touclies 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 Caiupbell ; she is in her
famous walkmg dream as Lady Macbeth. Here is also an alto-relievo, by J. Bacon,
jun., to Admiral R. Kempenfeldt, drowned by the sinking of the Roi/al George, 1782 :
" When Kempenfeldt went down
With twice four hundred men."
Opposite is the colossal statue of Telford, the eminent engineer, by Baily, R.A.j 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 Flaxman.
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 " Hawkin 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 whit
alabaster. These niches contained thirty statuettes of different personages, connected by relationship or
marriage with the queen. Nearly the whole of the tabernaele-work, though shown as perfect in the
prints of the early part of the last century, has since disappeared.
\
CHUBCHES,— 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."— Dri/den.
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 Ricbard 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 in 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 LitHngton'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 ^ven 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. 17s. 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
130 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Bcaffoldinp, erected for the coronation of James II., 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 I 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 last of our Stuart kiugs. Their destiny is, I believe, un-
known.
With their backs 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 10| inches
thick. The companion chair was made for the coronation of Mary, Queen of
William HI. 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 incuiTcd 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 11. 19s, 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 tesserse 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
Eodney'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 I —
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 Africai
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 guinet
i
CHURCHES— WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 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 Horner, 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, Kemble, and Lieut.-Gen.
Sir Eyre Coote. Next, also, are the bust of Warren Hastings, by Bacon ; Thrupp's
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
«ays : — " 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. Burges 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 contiimous 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 Koman 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 Rome in its finished state ; an examination
•will show that the Italian ground for mosaics, cippoUno, 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 Ic Favour
"pro pavimento faciendo in Ecclesia 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
£2
132 CURIOSITIES OF LOJWON.
Jan. 4, 1644, were transferred to the Parliament House, given back at the Restoration,
and finally removed in l707 : 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 mom
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
immber 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 facie 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
VIIl.'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. Thej
sediha are more than usually curious, from the fact that they are made of wood. They f
have suffered much since Sir J. Ayliff'e had them and the tomb of Avelina, Countess of]
CHUBCHES,— WESTMINSTER ABBEY, 133
Lancaster, drawn for the Vetusta Monumenta, 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 j 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; Dec. 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, Kichard 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 III., and Philippa of Hainault; Richard II., July 16, 1377 ; Jan. 14, 1382,
Anne of Bohemia; Oct. 13, 1399, Henrv 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, 14i5, Margaret of Anjou; June 8, 1460, Edward IV., and Ascension-Dav, 1465, Elizabeth
Woodville; July 5, 1483, Richard III.; Oct. 30, 1485, Henry VII., and Nov. 25, 1487, Elizabeth of York;
June24, 1509, Henry VIII. and Catherine of Aragon; Whitsun-Day 1533, Anna Boleyn; Shrove Tues-
day, 1547, Edward VI. ; Oct. 2, 1552, Mary; Jan. 13, 1558-9, Elizabeth ; July 25, 1603, James I. (the service
for the first time being in the English tongue) ; Feb. 2, 1626, Charles I., ominously clad in white satin ; St.
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 otiertory,
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. Sancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, would not take the oaths to their Majesties] ;
April 23, 1702, Anne ; Oct. 20, 1714, George I., 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
Carohne 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, WiUiam 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.— Walcotf 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
268,000Z. 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 5000^. 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. Bohn'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 Comyn 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, is 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, 16.'^2, as sculptured on the tomb. Here,
too, is a fine bust, by Le Soeur, 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 BeUingham, 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
coffm set on its feet, and originally covered wdth 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, l707. 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 mediaival warrior in coat of mail, and
of a media3val 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.
CHUBCHES—WESTMmSTEB ABBEY. 135
Over the west door is Westmacott's statue- memorial to the Eight Hon. William
Pitt : it cost 6300?., 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 Eight 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 10,000?. Among the noticeable personages interred
here, without memorials, is Dean Atterbury — the place his own previous choice, being,
as he told Pope, " as for from kings and ksesars 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 rufiles 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 Tyrrell, with its patchy clouds, coral rocks, cherubs, harps, palm-branches, and
other allegorical absurdities. Between three successive windows are the monuments, by
Eoubiliac, 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
Godolphin, 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, E.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 roimd the bottom of the panels is of grey
Derbyshire marble : the string 13 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 Eichard 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 Henri/ IV., 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 kings," &c.
The Chapter -house, 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 Purbeek 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 riclily
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 Purbeek 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
arcade d stalls, with trefoiled heads. The five which occupy the eastern side are of superior richness and
more deeply recessed. Their capitals, carved in Purbeek 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!
CHVBCHE8— 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 V., 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 biu-ied in one grave. Here is a tablet to William
Lawrence, which records :
V " 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 Camus,
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 j" Samuel
Foote, the actor, and dramatist ; Aphra Behn, above-mentioned, Thomas Betterton,
Mrs. Bracegirdle, Samuel Foote, Mrs. Yates, Mrs. Rowe, and Mrs. Cibber, all well-known
professors of the dramatic art; so that the Cloisters may be termed the Actors' Corner.
Here is a waU 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), v/hen great
meetings or prayers took place in St. Catherine's Chapel ; pulled down 1571. 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 Roubiliac.
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
EoU through the long nave of this pillar'd fane,
Now seeming as if scarce a year had pass'd."— TF. Lisle Bowles, 1834.
Oct. 28, St. Simon and St. Jude. Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Tallis cele-
brated J 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 vei*y fme 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.
Tomhs. — 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
Sandhook of the Arts of the Middle Ages, after quoting a document cited by Mr.
Albert Vv'ay, which tells us that an artist of Limoges, " Magister Johannes Limovi-
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.
Fainted 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 Vtl.'s Chapel, and in east
end of triforium. The lost original tracery of the great rose windows of the Tran-
8cj)ts 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 Abbay,
must be mentioned, too, a small painted glass window, in the East Aisle of that Tran-.
Bept, by Lavers and Barraud, commemorative of Vincent Novello, musical composer :
CHUBGEE 8,- WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 139
the subject is St. Cecilia. Here is the Stephenson memorial — a window filled with
stained glass, by Wailes : 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. Kobert Stephenson is placed in the
centre ; above, his father, George Stephenson j 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-worJc. — 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 efiigy ; 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'a
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 VOOZ.
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 : —
iVare.— 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.
CAoir.— Length, 155 ft. 9 in. ; breadth, 38 ft. 4 in. ; height, 101 ft. 2 in.
Transepts.— Length of both, including choir, 203 feet. 2in. ; length of each transept, 82 ft. 5 in.;
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.
Jixterior.— Extreme length, exclusive of Henry VII.'s Chapel, 416 ft.; extreme length, inclusive of
Henry VII's Chapel, 530 ft. ; height of western towers, to top of pinnacles, 225 ft. 4 in.
Henri/ VII.'s Cha2]el. Exterior.— Jjengih, 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. 9m. ; height, 69 ft.7in. Aisles : length, 62 ft. 6 in. ; breadth, 17 ft. 1 in. ; height of west
window, 45 ft.
Admissio7i.— 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 6<f.
each person, with the attendance of a guide. The entrance is at Poets' Corner. The admission-money
was originally 15d. each person, when it usually produced upwards of 1500Z. 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,
30,657^. ; 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
feUow-citizens. There is no other church in the world, except, perhaps, the Kremlin
140 CUBI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
at Moscow, with which Royalty is so intimately associated. There our Sovereigns are
crowned and buried under the same roof, whereas in Eussia 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 owuig 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 Phihppe."
jMore 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 higher 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 was
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, wlio 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 " AH Saints," was
composed by Mrs. Frere, niece of the late Rev. Temple i'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 groimd 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 eex 8 — H. A.
VIVAT. E»X. 1540. DIEV. ET. MO. DKOIT," &C.
Divine Service is performed here as at our Cathedrals, by the gentlemen of the choir.
CHUBCHES 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 2^. 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 Ziber Niger Domus Hegni {temp. Edward IV.) is an ordinance naming " Children of the
Chapelle viij. founden by the King's privie cofferes 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 impress'
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
Eoyal 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 Koyal, 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 Koyal, 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 Eoyal 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 Royai, Whitehall, the Banqueting House of the Palace, designed by
Inigo Jones, commenced June 1, 1619, finished March 31, 1622, cost 14,940^. 4^. 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 30Z., 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 3000Z., 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 2000Z. 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
Almonet, p. V.) 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 Royal, Satot, 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 VL, 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 " lieligious Reliques ; on the Sale at the Savoy, upon the Jesuits
breaking up their School and Chapel."— Printed in JSotes and (Queries, 2nd S., No. 14, Jan. 1856^
• Eubens's original sketch is in the National Gallery, Trafalgar-square.
CHUBCHES AND CHAFELS. 143
Several persons of note are buried here, and had figure monuments. Among them
was one, in the chancel, of Sir Robert 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 ;
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 monutment, 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 Precmct, 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 rehef 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 WiLon, 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 " antient 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 EUzabeth, the chapel of the Savoy was the first place
in v/hich the service was performed.
The Chapel Royal was restored chiefly through the instrumentality of George IV.
The interior was 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
1843. In July, 1864, the Chapel was again destroyed by fire, save the walls ; the
fine altar-screen and window, the carved ceiling, and many of the old monuments,
were entirely consumed. It has been rebuilt at a cost of about 5000^. (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 eff'ect 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 Maetye, 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
I
CHUBGHES 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 witlx 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. A low 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 15,000Z.
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 been 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 Sudibras, 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 Spelman in his Glossary, and edited Matthew Paris's
Sistoria Major.
Allhallows Baeking, 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, JBerlcynge
CJiurche Juxta-Turrim — collections in illustration of the architecture and monu-
I.
146 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
nients, 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 burnt, 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, 1649,
about seven o'clock at night, being busy in his shop barrelling up gunpowder, it took fire, and in the
twinkUng of an eye blew up, not only that, but aU 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 Eose 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, growii 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 sufiered martyrdom.
" Tliere 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 Jacobson,
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." — (Sfoio.)
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. 2«, 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 STAiNiNa, Mark -lane, escaped the Great Fire, and Stow thinks was
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 end 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 Sistory of London, pubhshed 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 waU 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
N. 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 Glossa/ry.
All Saints Bishopsgate, 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 j 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, 1849.
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
church, 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 30,000^. 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.
1.2
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 j 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 (1 866) 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 ; 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 j 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 subjects.
The clerestory windows are of geometrical patterns, by O'Connor. The pulpit is of
coloured marble, and cost nearly 400/. 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 ; 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. Butterfield'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 uponj to
CEUECHES AND CHAPELS. 149
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. I3utterfield's. The pillars carrying
the vaulting are of green Mona 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. Ruskin, with perfect justice, as unequalled in modem
times. — Abridged from the Gruardian.
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 70,000?.
One of our ablest ecclesiologists, himself a leader among the exclusively Gothic
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. Andeew'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. Andrew's, Holborn, was rebuilt by Wren, upon the site of the old church, in
1686 j 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 5001., 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 1699, been shut up ; when Sacheverell, by
a collection amongst Ms 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.
150 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
St. Andeew's Undeeshat't, Leadenhall-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-
shaffc.' " 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 flgure 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 1625. 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 Annates, 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 Parker, 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. Thoms, F.S.A., 1842.
In a desk in this chirrch 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. Andeew by the Waedeobe, 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 Kev. William
Romaine; the bust very good.
St. Andeew'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 c 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" {Stow). 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 ; 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
35,000^., has a tower, with four angular turrets, and a more lofty one in the centre.
1
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 being struck on the great bell (38 cwt.),
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 Neuhoff, 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 Theodoee 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 Flr^ 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. Antlin's v/ere proverbially loud and lengthy. The chaplains of the Commis-
sioners from the Church of Scotland to King Charles, in 1640, 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 (in
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 (says 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, upon.
152 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
ground presented by the first Marquis of Westminster. The buildings are in the
Early Pointed style, Cundy, architect; and the church has a Caen -stone tower and
spire l70 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 ofiertory, 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. .T. 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. Barnabas, 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. Baetholomew 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 had 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. Bartholomew 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 57 ft., and 47 ft, 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 fire 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-
Bills. 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 lights
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
Soeur, 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. Baetholomew 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. — MacJceson.
St. Benet, Gracechurch -street, is one of Wren's least attractive edifices, rebuilt afler
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 Jierh-marJcet 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 Sci-iptures as in the tyme of King Edward VI. were written aboute the
chirche and walls, we being commanded to do so by y« Right Hon. y^ lord bishopp of
Winchester, L<^ Chan' of England, ^s. 4d. ;" and " Paid to the paynters for the
making y^ Roode, with Mary and John, 61. ;" while in the first year of Queen Eliza-
beth's reign, 1558, occur, " Payd to a carpenter for pulling down the Roode and Mary,
154 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
4s. and 2d. ;" and " Paid three labourers one day for pulling down the altars and John,
2s. 4:d." Later still, in 1642, were sold " the superstitious brasses taken off the grave-
stones for 9*. 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
€0 feet by 30 feet, with a groined ceiling, crossed by bands. In the register is : " 1559,
April 14, Robert Bnrges, a common player." The yard of the Cross Keys Inn, Grace-
church-street, 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 50Z. 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 Hude or Hytite, 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) j
and William Oldys (Norroy). Inigo Jones's monument (for which he left lOOZ.) was
destroyed in the Great Fire. Elias 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 Aldeesgate escaped the Great Fire, and was rebuilt in
1796. Here are monuments to Dame Anne Packington, believed to have written The
Whole Dtdy of Man ; Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Richardson ; Elizabeth Smith,
with cameo bust by Roubiliac; and a tablet to Richard Chiswell, bookseller.
St. Botolph, Aldgate, at the corner of Houndsditch, opposite the Minories, was
rebuilt by G. Dance, 1741-44. It contains monuments of good sculpture to Lord
Dacre, beheaded 1537; and Sir Nicholas Cafew, 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 chiefest 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 Novoy, m Persia."— yS^otc's Survey,
ed. 1633, p. 173.
St. Botolph's is situate ivithout 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
I
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 195. 7d. 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, 11*.
The ecclesiastical custom of a new Rector " tolling himself in," or, legally speaking, taking up " the
livery of possession," was performed by the Rev. William Rogers, M.A,, the present Rector, with
the formalities described at p. 46, Bells. The "reading himself in" took place on the following
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 Church, see St. Maey-le-Bow, page 183.
St. Bride'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 l703, cost 11,430?.,
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 j 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 3000?. 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 in
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 earhest
in the metropolis. In the tower is a peal of twelve bells {see p. 47) ; and the Organ,
by Harris, is good. 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
Sarlowe, 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 chronicle!', 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 Ilatmau, 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 hy 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. Papwortb ; this improvement
cost 10,000Z., of which Mr. Blades, of Ludgate-hill, advanced 6000^.
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.
British and Foreign Sailors' Church (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 Church, 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. Ruskin (a member of the congregation). The cawing and decorations through- '
out the church are good.
Catherine Cree (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 which Mr. W. H.
Black, F.S.A., remarks, in connexion with the recent discoverv 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 " PlagTie " 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 memoi7. 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?—
ArchcBologia, vol. xxxix.
St. Chad, Haggerston, has all seats free : " altar cross, and ligJds at every celebra-
tion of the Holy Communion." — MacJceson.
Christ Church, Broadway, Westminster, was designed in 1842, in the Early
CHURCHES 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 j 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,
1V39, 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.'" — {W'alcoU's Westminster, p. 286.)
Chkist Chttech:, 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." — MacTceson.
Cheist Chuech, Down-street, Piccadilly, a stone building ; Messrs. Francis, archi-
tects ; style, " Middle Pointed French Gothic ;" only the eastern half built.
Cheist Chuech, Highbury, designed by T. AUom, in 1848, has a tower and spire in
the angle between the North Transept and Nave, the spire having gabled and crock eted
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.
Cheist Chijech, 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
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 Kesurrection " 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 Sherifi's 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
Eestoration; after which, the three Spitd 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
" 1|e IS risen " 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.
TroUope's History of Christ'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 Chijech, Spitalfields (originally a hamlet of St. Dunstan's, Stepney), was
158 CURIOSITIES OF LONBON.
built by Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren, and consecrated July 5, 1729. It is entirely
of stone, very massive, and has one of the 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 lbs.
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 the 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 8000^.
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.
Clonent 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 16S5, " To one-third of a hogshead of wine given to Sir Christopher
Wren, U. 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
oflSce, in Cromwell's time, and confined in Crosby Hall ; thence removed to Plymouth,
and set free by paying 60Z. 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, Battishill, 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 j
and the.'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 j and Rymer, compiler of the Foedera, &c.
Dr. Johnson was a constant attendant at 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 "
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
Samuel Johnson, the philosopher, the poet, the great lexicographer, the profound moralist, and ct
CHUBGEE8 AND CHAPELS. 159
writer of his time. Born, 1709 ; died, 1784. In remembrance and honour of noble faculties, nobly
employed, some inhabitants of the parish of St. Clement Danes have placed this slight memorial, a.d.
1851."
St. Clement'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 8000Z. ;
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' Backchuech (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 tbe 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 741 Z. 9*. was subscribed, was built by By field, Jordan,
and Bridge : " this magnificent instrument is in its original state." — {Dr. RimhauU.)
There is a peal of ten bells, for which, in 1727, a sum of 479^. 18^. was subscribed.
St. Dtjnstan's-in-tiie-East, between Tower-street and Upper Thames-street, was
nearly destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, and was restored by Wren in 1698 : it
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. Dunstun's tower
] and spire was furnished by the architect's daughter, Jane Wren, who died in 1702,
J aged 26, and was buried under the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Lady Dionysia
j Williamson, in 1670, gave 4000Z. 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,
j 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-in-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
1789 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
souide 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 18c?. 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 35?. with the
old clock, and the sum of 4?. 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 ^tered, in 1738, it cost the parish llOZ. Strype
calls the figures " two savages, or Hercules ;" Ned Ward, " the two wooden horolo-
gists;" and Cowper, in his Tahle 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 1830, the statue of Queen Elizabeth sold for IQl. 10s., and
a stained-glass window for 4?. 5*. The clock, figures, &c. were purchased by the late
Marquis of Hertford, and placed in the grounds of his villa in the Regent's Park,
where they strike the hours and quarters to this day. The new church of St. Dunstan
was consecrated July 31, 1832, which the architect did not live to witness, he having
died July SO, 1831, the twelfth day after the external completion of the edifice.f It
is in the latest Pointed style, and has a lofty tower surmounted by an elegant lantern,
130 feet high (of Ketton stone), different from any other in the metropolis, but resem-
bling St. Botolph's, Boston, Lincolnshire ; St. Helen's, York ; and St. George's, at
Ramsgate, built in 1825. Over the entrance-porch are sculptured the heads of Tyndale,
the Reformer ; and Dr. Donne, who was once vicar of the church : they are considered
faithful portraits. Above is a clock, with three dials, curiously coloured and gilt in
the embellished taste of the architectural period ; and a belfry, with eight fine bells
from the old church, the sound of which receives effect from the four large windows
which are the main features of the tower. The enriched stone lantern is perforated
with Gothic windows of two heights ; the whole being terminated by an ornamental
pierced and very rich crown parapet. The body of the church is of octagon form,
and has eight recesses, with as many windows above, containing good stained glass.
The roof is formed by eight iron spandrel-beams, projecting from an angle towards the
centre, and there connected by an iron ring ; and from the enriched keystone hangs
the chandelier. The northern recess contains the altar-table, of oak elaborately
carved : and the altar-piece presents three admirably carved canopies, of foreign work-
manship. Above is a large Pointed window, filled with stained glass, by Willement,
in the ancient manner : it contains figures of the Evangelists ; the crown of thorns and
the nails ; the spear and sponge upon a reed ; the Holy Lamb ; and the inscription, in
black letter, " Deo et ecclesise fratres Hoare dicaverunt, anno Domini mdcgcxxxii."
This is, altogether, one of the most elegant church interiors in the metropolis. In
May, 1839, the statue of Queen Elizabeth, already mentioned, was placed in a niche,
flanked with two pilasters, above the doorway of the parochial schools, east of the
principal entrance to the church. On the west side is the Law Life Insurance Office,
designed by John Shaw, in the style that prevailed between the last period of Pointed
* So early as 1478 there was a similar piece of mechanism in Fleet-street. Stow describes a conduit
erected in the above year, near Shoe-lane, with angels having " sweet-sounding bells before them ;
whereupon, by an engine placed in the tower, they, divers hours of the day and night, with hammers
chimed such an hymn as was appointed." There is, we believe, a like contrivance to that at St.
Dunstan's, at Norwich Cathedral, (See also Paul's Jacks, p. 106.)
t The Ulterior was finished by his son, John Shaw.
CHUBGHES AND CHAPELS. 161
architecture (of which St. Dunstan's Church is an example), and the complete revival
of the architecture of Greece and Rome. In the old church was a large hour-glass, in
silver frame ; of the latter, in 1723, two heads were made for the parish staves. The
Rev. William Romaine was rector of the old church in 1749, when it was generally so
crowded that the pew-opener's place was worth 50Z. per annum. The font is ancient.
St. Dunstan's, Stepney, a Perpendicular church, is famed in story for its legend
of " The Fish and Ring," and the popular ballad of " The Cruel Knight, or Fortu-
nate Farmer's Daughter ;" her identity is referred to Lady Berry, whose tomb is on
the outer east wall, with the fish and annulet in the arms thereon : but the finding
of a ring in a fish is an incident of much greater antiquity than Lady Berry's
time (1696), and occurs in the Arabian Nights' ^Entertainments. The churchyard is
noticed in the Spectator, by Steele, for the number and oddity of its epitaphs. Here
lies the father of Dr. Mead, who was born over the antique brick gateway opposite the
rectory, and first began practice at Stepney ; also Rev. W. Vickers, author of the Com-
panion to the Altar ; and Roger Crab, who lived long on bran, dock-leaves, grass, and
water. Within the church is the splendid tomb of Sir Henry Colet, Lord Mayor in
1486 and 1495, and father of the founder of St. Paul's School. Here also is a marble
monument of the Good Samaritan, by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A., to B. Kenton, Esq.
(d. 1800), leaving 63,500?. to charity schools, and 30,O00Z. to his friends. In the
western porch is a stone reputed to have been brought from the wall of Carthage.
St. Edmund's (the King and Martyr), Lombard-street, has also been called St.
Edmund's Grass Church, because of a grass-market held here : whence Grasschurch-
street, now Gracechurch-street. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and re-
built by Wren : it has a tower and incongruous steeple, 90 feet high, and a projecting
bracket clock. The altar-piece has some fine carvings, and two paintings of Moses and
Aaron by William Etty, 1833 : above is a stained glass window, with the arms of
Queen Anne, " set up in the memorable year of union, 1707 ;" besides two other
stained glass windows, of superior excellence, representing St. Paul and St. Peter.
St. Ethelbuega's, Bishopsgate-street, a Gothic church, which escaped the Great
Fire, and retains some of its Early English masonry ; it has been restored by Withers :
it was anciently in the patronage of the Convent of St. Helen. It is well known for
the " short services for City men," and, according to tradition, is frequented by sailors
leturning from voyages, or immediately previous to sailing. Here incense is used on
Saints' Days; and stoles and altar vestments, according to the canonical colours.
{Maclceson.) Traces of a reredos were found during the repairs, and Roman coins and
bricks have been discovered in the churchyard. The western arch is said to have
formed part of the gateway of St. Helen's Priory. Under it John Hudson and many
of his crew came to receive the Holy Sacrament before they left their native shores in
1610 (Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1863.) The church-
wardens of St. Ethelburga appear, from the accounts, to have provided profusely for
their Ascension-Day dinner, 1686 : — " Three quarters of lamb ; 600 of sparagrasse,
sallatering, and spinnage j 400 oranges and lemmons, three hams, Westphalia bacon, and
"I lb. of tobaccoe." There are also charges for " yew and box to decke ye church j"
" hearbes" for the same ; " wands and nosegays," " strawings and greenes." Dryden's
antagonist, Luke Milbourne, died, April 15, 1720, rector of St. Ethelburga's. " The
view of this church, by West and Toms (1737) exhibits several of the adjoining houses,
and is one of the most interesting of Old London illustrations." — Cunningham.
St. Ethelreda's, Ely-place, Holborn, is all that remains of the ancient palace of
the Bishops of Ely, and retains much of its original aspect : the interior roof is boldly
arched j on each side is a row of noble windows, though their tracery has disappeared ;
the pinnacle-work between and overtopping them is very fine, and at the east end is
" one fine Decorated window, of curious composition," Evelyn records the consecra-
tion here of Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, in 1668, when Dr. Tillotson preached ;
and April 27, 1693, Evelyn's daughter Susannah was married here to William Draper,
Esq., by Dr. Tenison, then Bishop of Lincoln. Cowper thus chronicles an amusing
U
162 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
occurrence in this chapel, at the time of the defeat of the Young Pretender by the
Duke of Cumberland, in 1746 : —
" So in the chapel of old Ely House,
When wanderinpr Charles, who meant to be the Thu*d,
Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,
The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,
And eke did roar right merrily two staves.
Sung to the praise and glory oiKing George."
The chapel, after being leased to the National Society for a school-room, was for
some time closed; but on Dec. 19, 1843, was opened for the service of the Established
Church in the Welsh language ; this being the first performance of the kind in London.
St. Geoege's, Campden-hill, Kensington, E. B. Keeling, architect, cost 7000Z.,
defrayed by Mr. J. Bennett. In plan it is cruciform, and has a tower with a lofty
spire, and an apsidal Chancel. It is of Early Second Pointed style, but of French
character. The tower is ornamented with bands, mouldings, and dressings. The
entrance is by a continued porch or Galilee at the west. The interior is lofty, lined
with various coloured bricks, and shafts of red Mansfield stone. The roof is of very high
pitch, and decorated in polychromy j behind the altar is a tall reredos. Opened 1864.
St. George's, Hanover-square, was completed by John James in 1724 ; the parish
being taken out of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. St. George's is built upon ground given
by Lieut.-Gen. W. Stewart : it has a stately and august Corinthian portico, and a
handsome and well-proportioned steeple ; still, it can only be viewed in profile ; but
** were it not for two or three intervening houses, it would be seen in the noblest point
of sight in the world." The interior has a large altar-picture of the Last Supper,
attributed to Sir James Thornhill ; above it is a painted window, foreign, of the 16th
century, with the Virgin and Child, the Crucifixion, ecclesiastical personages, masonic
emblems, &c. ; the altar-piece, in its sculptured framework, and the painted glass in
its architectural recess, is efiective ; but this Gothic window in a Roman church is a
glaring absurdity.
." The view down George-street, from the upper side of Hanover-square, is one of the most enter-
taining in the whole city : the sides of the square, the area in the middle, the breaks of building that
form the entrance to the vista, but above all, the beautiful projection of the portico of St. George's
Church, are all circumstances that unite in beauty, and make the scene perfect." — Balph.
St. George's, Hanover -square, also possesses a burial-ground at a short distance on
the Bayswater-road. Here is the grave of Sterne, with a stone set up by two
*' Brother Masons :" here, too, lay Sir Thomas Picton, who fell at the Battle of
Waterloo, in 1815 ; his remains were removed to St. Paul's Cathedral in 1859.
St. Geoege's itt the East, Eatcliffe Highway, designed by Hawksmoor, 1715-29,
in an original and massive style, has a very picturesque spire. The altar-piece is a
painting of " Jesus in the Garden," by Clarkson. In the churchyard is buried Joseph
Ames (d. 1759), author of Typographical Antiquities, originally a plane-maker, and
afterwards a shipchandler at Wapping ; he lies in a stone cofiin, in virgin earth, at the
depth of eight feet. This church was, for a considerable period, the scene of disgrace-
ful riots upon the plea of opposition to the manner of conducting the service.
In this parish are the Schools and Asylum founded by Mr. Eaine, a wealthy brewer, in 1717 and
1736 ; who also provided that on May 1 and December 26, annually, a marriage-portion of lOOZ, should
be presented to two young women, former inmates of the School, and who* have attained the age
of twenty-two years. The bridegrooms must be inhabitants of St. George's-in-the-East, or of Wapping,
or Shadwell ; and the young women draw lots for the portion, one hundred new sovereigns, usually
put into a handsome bag, made by a young lady of St. George's parish, and presented at a dinner of the
trustees. In the morning a discourse is preached in the Church, " On Diligence and Industry in our
Calling;" after which the drawing takes place at the Asylum.
St. Geoege's, Hart-street, Bloomsbury, was designed by Hawksmoor in handsome
style, and was consecrated in 1731 ; a district for its parish being taken out of that of
St. Giles's-in-the-Fields. This church is remarkable for standing north and south:
the tower and steeple are placed by the side of the main edifice, the favourite practice
of Palladio. Upon the tower, on the four sides, rises a range of unattached Corinthian
pillars and pediments ; above is a series of steps, with lions and unicorns at the corners,
guarding thtj royal arms, and which supports at the apex, on a short column, a statue.
CEUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 163
in Roman costume, of George I. The design is from Pliny's description of the first
mausoleum, the tomb of King Mausolus, in Caria. Walpole calls this steeple a master-
stroke of absurdity, and it has provoked this epigram : —
" When Harry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch,
The people of England made him head of the Church;
But Georg'e's good subjects, the Bloomsbury people,
Instead of the church, made him head of the steeple."
More admired is the magnificent portico of eight Corinthian columns, which Hawks-
moor added to his design, influenced by Gibbs's portico at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields,
then just completed ; but St. George's is the better, from its height above the level of
the street. Here are a tablet to the great Lord Mansfield ; and a monument to Mr.
Charles Grant, by Bacon, R.A.
St. Geoege the Maktye, Queen-square, Bloomsbury, built in 1706, as a chapel of
ease to St. Andrew's, Holborn, was declared a parish church in 1723 ; of which Dr.
Stukeley, the Roman-British antiquary, was many years the rector : in his MS. Diary,
1749, formerly in the possession of Mr. Britton, is described the then rural character of
Queen-square and its vicinity. The parish burial-ground is in the rear of the Found-
ling Hospital : a strong prejudice formerly existed against new churchyards, and no
person was interred here till the ground was broken for Robert Nelson, author of
Fasts and Festivals, whose character for piety reconciled^others to the spot : people
like to be buried in company, and in good company. Nancy Dawson, the dancer, of
Covent Garden and Drury-lane Theatres (noted for hornpipes) lies here.
St. Geoege the Maetye, Southwark, was built in 1733-36, by John Price, upon
the site of the old church ; the parish having been originally given by William the
Conqueror to the noble family of Arderne, and for some time attached to the Priory
of Bermondsey. Stow describes the former church as almost directly over against
Suffolk House, formerly the mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, the brother-
in-law of Henry VIII. ; now the site of the premises of Mr. Pigeon, the distiller.
There were buried in the old church, Bonner, Bishop of London, who died in the Mar-
shalsea -, and Rushworth, author of the Collections, who died in the King's Bench ;
both these prisons being in the parish. Edward Cocker, engraver and teacher of
writing and arithmetic, is also stated upon a sexton's evidence to have been interred
here : his Arithmetic, a posthumous work, was first published " by John Hawkins,
writing-master, near St. George's Church." Thq present church has a lofty stone
spire and tower, with a fine peal of eight bells; the large bell is tolled nightly, and
thought to be a relic of the curfew custom. Hogarth, in his plate of Southwark Fair,
represents Figg, the famous prizefighter, and Cadman, flying by a rope from the tower
of St. George's Church ; the fair being held in that part of the Mint which lies in the
rear of the houses opposite.
There is preserved a curious handbill, or affiche, printed in black letter, which must have been
promulgated previous to the suppression of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII, It is sur-
mounted by a small woodcut of St. George slaying the Dragon, and by a child. It appears from
Staveley's History of Churches in England, p. 99, that the monks were sent up and down the country
with briefs of a similar character to the above, to gather contributions of the people; and it is most
probable that the collectors were authorized to grant special indulgences proportionate to the value of
the contributions. One of these handbills is reprinted in Hotels and Queries, No. 84.
St. Giles's, Camberwell, is one of the largest churches built in England since the
Reformation : it occupies the site of the old brick church, burnt on Sunday, Feb. 7,
1841. The new church, designed by Scott and Moffatt, is massively built entirely of
stone, and was consecrated Nov. 21, 1844 : it is in the Transition style, from Early
English to Decorated j cruciform in plan, with a large central tower and spire, 207 feet
high, and the tower thirty feet square ; it has a fine peal of bells, by Mears. The out-
side length of the church exceeds 153 feet. The interior has an open timber roof, and
oak fittings ; a very powerful Organ by Bishop ; and several stained glass windows by
Ward and Nixon, the largest, over the altar, enriched with the symbolism of the
thirteenth century.
St. Giles's, Cripplegate, is the successor of a church founded by Alfun, subsequently
the first hospitaller of the Priory of St. Bartholomew. It was built in 1090, near the
164 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
postern in the City wall, called Cripple-gate, from an adjoining Hospital for lame
people {Camden), or from the numerous cripples begging there (Stow); and it was
dedicated to St. Giles, as the patron of cripples ; it was small, and its site was " where
now standeth the vicarage-house." In the year 1545, it suffered greatly from fire, but
was soon repaired, and partially rebuilt ; and in 1682, the tower was raised 15 feet ; it
has a peal of twelve bells, besides one in the turret, and a very musical set of chimes,
said to have been constructed by a working mechanic. The interior is divided into a
Nave and aisles by clustered columns and pointed arches, and the ceiling of the Chancel
is painted with cherubim. Here are buried John Fox, the martyrologist, described in
the register as " householder, preachar ;" John Speed, the historian, with his bust, once
painted and gilt ; John Milton and his father, under the clerk's desk : a bust of the
poet, by Bacon, R.A., with a tablet, were set up on the north side of the nave, by
Samuel Whitbread, in 1793. The entry in the parish register is : " 12 November,
1674, John Milton, gentleman, consumpcon, chancell." In the Chancel, too, are tab-
lets to Constance Whitney and Margaret Lucy, both descendants of Sir Thomas Lucy,
of Charlecote, Warwickshire : the former represents a female rising from a coffin, and
has been erroneously supposed to commemorate a lady who, having been buried while
in a trance, was restored to life through the cupidity of a sexton in digging up the
body to get possession of a ring left upon her finger. Several of the actors from
the Fortune Theatre, Golding-lane, are buried here. Here, too, rests Sir Martin
Frobisher, one of the earliest of the Arctic voyagers (d. 1594-5) ; and Henry Welby,
the Grub-street hermit, yet a man of exemplary charity (d. 1636). And the register
records the marriage of Oliver Cromwell with Elizabeth Bowchier, August 20, 1620.
In 1861, the restoration of the church was commenced, " in honour of the memory of
John Milton ;" a monument has been erected, as a memorial of the poet, in the south
aisle, near the chancel. The cenotaph is nearly 13 feet high, and about 8 feet wide at
the base; and the body of the work, consisting of carved Caen stone, is divided by
pillars of coloured marble, thus forming three canopied niches. In the central niche
the bust of the poet, which was executed by Bacon, has been placed. Beneath this is
a marble tablet, with the following simple record : — " John Milton, author of • Para-
dise Lost.' Born December, 1608. Died November, 1674." The date of his father's
death in 1646, and the name of Mr. Samuel Whitbread, who placed the tablet in the
church in 1793, are also engraved thereon. Milton lived in the parish — first in
Barbican, subsequently in Jewin-street, and finally, in Artillery-walk, where he died.
There is an apocryphal story of th^ poet's remains being irreverently disturbed, and
scattered, in the year 1790 ; but the evidence of identity is weak, and it is recorded
that the corpse then found was that of a female, and of smaller stature than that of
the poet. The story of the assumed desecration is told in " The Diary of General
Murray," in the Monthly Magazine, August, 1833. The restoration of the church in-
cludes windows of rich memorial glass contributed by parishioners; the reconstruction
of the Chancel with an open roof, and the reglazing of a magnificent window, long
blocked up. In the adjoining burial-ground remains a bastion of the old London wall.
St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, on the south side of High-street, was formerly in the
fields, and the parish the village of St. Giles ; the church being traceable to the chapel
of a Hospital for Lepers, founded about 1117, by Queen Matilda, consort of Henry I.
The ancient church was taken down in 1623, and a brick edifice was erected in its
place : this was removed in 1730, and the present church, designed by Henry Flit-
croft, was completed in 1734. It is built of Portland stone, and has a tower and
spire, 160 feet high, with eight bells. Above the entrance gateway, in the lunette,
is " The Day of Judgment," in alto-relievo, brought from the Lich-gate, or Resurrec-
tion-gate of the old church in 1687; it is well described by Mr. George Scharf,jun., in
a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries, in 1855, upon " Representations of the Last
Judgment :" —
The figures (he tells us) are very small in proportion to the semicircular lunette they occupy. The
Saviour stands in the clouds, surrounded by rays, holding the banner of redemption, and with lUs
right hand pointing upwards. Angels playing musical instruments, and tumultuously expressing the
joys of heaven, completely surround Him. Neither the Virgin Mary nor Apostles are to be seen in
order. The prominent attitudes of the rising dead, and of the condemned, betray markedly the in-
fluence of Michael Angeloj they have been directly and ignorantly copied from his outhne conception.
CEUBCEES AND CHAPELS. 165
This alto-relievo is very curious, and, being^ both elaborate and well preserved, deserves to be care-
fully drawn and published. (It forms one ofthe many illustrations of Mr. Scharf's paper in the Archceo-
loyia, vol. xxxvi. part 20.) The treatment is very unworthy of the subject, but, as a piece of carving, it
is remarkably good.
This sculpture was formerly placed over the north-western gateway, which has heen
taken down, and a new gateway erected opposite the western or principal door of the
church, over which is placed the alto-relievo.
At St. Giles's were buried Chapman, the translator of Homer; Lord Herbert of
Cherbury, who lived in Great Queen-street ; Shirley, the dramatist, and his wife ; Sir
Eoger L'Estrange, the political writer ; and Andrew Marvell, " a man in whose repu-
tation the glory of the patriot has eclipsed the fine powers of the poet." The monu-
ment to Chapman, built by Inigo Jones at his own expense, is now in the churchyard,
against the south wall of the church. In the churchyard, too, is the altar-tomb of
Richard Pendrell, who aided in the escape of Charles II.; and a few years since was
revived the custom of decorating this tomb on Restoration Day (May 29) with branches
of oak. The finest monument in the present church is the recumbent efiigies of the
Duchess Dudley (d. 1670), preserved in grateful memory of her munificence to the
parish. At the place of public execution, a short distance north-west of the church.
Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was hung in chains and roasted over fagots in 1417,
during the reign of Henry V., his early friend. The phrase, " St. Giles's Bowl," is
referred to the custom of giving, at the Hospital gate, every malefactor on his way to
Tyburn a bowl of ale, as his last worldly draught, which practice was also continued
at an hostel built upon the site of the monastic house ; of this the Bowl Brewery,
taken down in 1849, was the representative ; and the bowl itself is said to be in ex-
istence. The transparent clock- dial of the church was lit with gas in 1827, the first
in the metropolis ; and opposite, in 1842, was made one of the earliest experiments
with wood-paving. In Endell-street, in 1845, was built a district church, in the Early
Pointed style, by Ferrey — a timely provision for the spiritual destitution of the parish.
St. Giles's possesses a cemetery in the Lower St. Pancras-road, where are buried, each
beneath an altar-tomb, John Flaxman, our greatest Enghsh sculptor ; and Sir John
Soane, the architect. {See Cemeteries, p. 82.)
St. Geegoey by St. Paul's was contiguous to the Lollards' Tower, which had
once been used as a prison for heterodox divines. It stood at the south side of the
Cathedral, in Castle IJaynard Ward. It was very ancient, for the body of Edmund,
king of the East Angles, who was martyred by the Danes in 870, rested there for three
years. — Newcourt.
St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, on the east side of Bishopsgate-street Within, was once
the church of the Nunnery of St. Helen, the site of which, judging from pavements
found here, was originally occupied by a Roman building.
The church consists of two broad aisles, 122 feet in length, and two chantry chapels.
The north aisle, known as the Nuns' Quire, was appropriated to the use of the inmates
of the Convent, and separated from the south or parish aisle by a wooden screen ; this
screen, together with the altar, was removed at the dissolution of the House. For-
tunately, 17 of the original carved miserere seats have been preserved, and the hagio-
scope which formerly communicated with the crypt still remains. The interior of the
edifice, with its columns and pointed arches, is picturesque : it contains more monu-
ments, perhaps, than any other church in the metropolis ; and these being altar-tombs
upon the floor, increase the appearance of antiquity and solemnity. They include a
freestone altar-tomb, with quatrefoil panels enclosing shields; upon the ledger lie
full-length alabaster effigies of Sir John Crosbie and his first wife Anneys or Agnes ;
the knight wears his aldermanic gown over plate armour. Also, a canopied monument
to Sir W. Pickering, in dress armour, reclining upon a pillow of matting (d. 1542) ;
several kneeling figures, elaborately painted and gilt, in memory of Sir Andrew Judd
(in armour) (d. 1558) ; a very large sculptured altar-tomb to Sir Thomas Gresham,
who founded the Royal Exchange ; a monument representing Martin Bond, captain of
the trained bands at Tilbury when the Spanish Armada was expected — he is sitting
within a tent, with sentries, &c. (d. 1643) ; a tomb of Francis Bancroft (d. 1726),
built in his lifetime, when he directed that his body should be embalmed, and placed
166 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
in a coflnn unfastened; and a table monument by N. Stone to Sir Julius Cajsar,
Master of the Kolls to James I. (1636), the monument erected in the previous year,
with the Latin inscription sculptured, as if on a folded deed, an engagement of the
deceased to pay the debt of nature whenever it shall please God to appoint it. In the
vestibule also are several elaborate monuments, displaying figures ; and an alms-box
supported by a curiously-carved figure of a mendicant. Here are also fine monumental
brasses of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The church was restored in 1866.
St. Kathaeike's, the church of the Eoyal Hospital of St. Katharine, rebuilt in
1827, on the east side of the Eegent's Park, after the demolition of the ancient
Hospital and Church, " at the Tower," for the site of St. Katharine's Docks.
More than 700 years ago, in the reign of King Stephen, 1148, Queen Matilda founded
and endowed, on the east side of the Tower of London, a Hospital dedicated to St.
Katharine; the foundation was confirmed by the grants of succeeding sovereigns,
and the revenues increased by Queen Eleanor, and other royal donors. The mastership
is in the gift of the Queen Consort ; if there be no such personage, the Queen Dowager.
Provision was made for a master, who, according to an ordinance of Queen Philippa,
was to be a priest. There were to be maintained also three Brothers, who were to be
priests, and three Sisters, all under obligation of perpetual chastity, and to " serve and
minister before God," and do works of charity. Masses were to be said daily in the
chapel, one to be for the souls of all the Kings and Queens of England. Provision
was to be made also for 24 poor men and 10 poor women ; and the charter of Queen
Eleanor directed that when in future times the means of the Hospital should augment,
the number of chaplains and poor men and women relieved should be increased. In
the reign of Henry VIII. the income was about 365Z. a year.
The Church and Hospital, in the Regent's Park, designed by A. Poynter, is in the
florid Gothic style, has octagonal towers, with a large painted window of beautiful
tracery. Among the relics of the old church is a finely enriched tomb, part of a
chantry chapel, thus inscribed :
"This monument was erected in the Collegiate Church of St. Katharine, near the Tower, to the
memory of John Holland Duke of Exeter, Earl of Huntingdon and Ivry, Lord of Sparr, Admiral of
England, Ireland, and Aquitaine, Knight of the most noble order of the Garter, and Constable of the
Tower, He died the V. of August, M.CCCCXLVII. Also, to the memory of his two wives, viz. : Anne,
daughter of Edmund Earl of Stafford, by whom he had issue Henry Holland, the late Duke of Exeter of
that surname, who married Anne, sister of King Edward the Fourth, and died without issue; and Anne,
daughter of John Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, by whom he had issue one daughter, mother to Kalph
Nevil, third Earl of Westmoreland." Below is engraved —
" These remains, having been carefully removed from the original place of interment, were deposited
in this chapel, as were those of the other persons whose monuments and gravestones were transferred
to it from the Collegiate Church aforesaid."
In some parts along the mouldmgs are well-designed groups of sporting subjects—" Reynard" and
the goose, monkeys in chains, and other quaint devices. The shields of arras and crests are coloured
and gilt. The effigies represent the Duke, one of his wives, and his sister.
The old wood pulpit from St. Katharine's is also preserved, and is a curious example
of the elaborate carved work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries : in the panels
are two views of old St. Katharine's. Some of the carved seats, similar to those in
Henry the Seventh's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, have also been saved ; as have
likewise some of the corbels formed by crowned angels, bearing shields. These, with
additions, have been arranged round the present church, with the arms and dates of
the reigns of the Enghsh Queens from Matilda's time. The Organ, of about the
reign of George II., has also been preserved; and among the old monuments is one
with this inscription on a gold plate within a frame :
" Here dead in part whose best part ne'er dyeth,
A benefactor, William Cuttinge, lyeth ;
Not deade if good deedes could keepe man alive,
Nor all deade, since good deedes doe men revive.
Gonvile and Kaies his good deeds men record,
And will, no doubte, his praise for them aflbrd ;
Saincte Katrins eke neer London can it tell :
Goldsmythes and Marehant Taylers know it well.
Two Country's towns his civil bounty bleste.
East Dareham and Nortonlitzwarren West :
More did he then this table can unfold,
The worlde his faime this earth his earth doth hold.
" He deceased ye 4daie of March, 1599,"
CEUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 167
According to an official Keport issued in 1866, the income of the Hospital now
exceeds VOOOZ. a year ; and if the system of letting the estates on leases for lives with
fines for renewal were abandoned, the income would probably be nearly 11,000Z,, to be
increased to nearly 15,000^. when the Tower-hill leases fall in in the year 1900. The
site of the Hospital has now become a dock, and when the new hospital was about to
be erected in the Regent's Park, unfortunately, the removal was made in such a
manner as to involve much expense that might have been avoided. To the inquiry,
'• What is done with this 70001. a year ?" an answer is given in this Report. The
Master receives nearly 1500Z. a year, increased to 2000^. by the rent of his official
house, which, as he is non-resident, he lets. His house and gardens occupy two acres,
and it is considered to be, for its size, one of the most desirable residences in London,
He attends the meetings of the Chapter, which are held about three times in a year ;
but is seldom, if ever, at the chapel; he occasionally visits the schools; but these
are considered to be sufficiently superintended by the Brothers and Sisters in residence.
He was appointed by Queen Adelaide, whose vice-chamberlain he was. Each of the
three Brothers receives above 3601. a year, and has also a sufficiently convenient residence,
though much less costly than the Master's. Each Brother is in residence four months
in the year. One of them has been presented by the Hospital to the living of Kings-
thorpe, near Northampton, with a net income of '7001. a year and a house. Tlie
junior Brother became British vice-consular chaplain at Dieppe in 1863, and has since
let his official residence, which is considered to be worth 100^. a year ; but he occupies
rooms in it during his term of residence. Each of the three Sisters receives about
240^. a year, besides having a residence provided. The senior Sister has always been
non-resident, and lets her house. The junior has done the like until recently, her
duties as preceptress to the Royal Princesses requiring her constant attendance at
Court ; but these having ceased, she has now virtually, if not actually, entered upon
residence. There are various officers and attendants provided for the establishment.
There remain funds sufficient to pay lOZ. each to 20 Bedesmen and 20 Bedeswomen
(decayed tradespeople and worn-out governesses and servants), and to maintain a school
in which 33 boys and 18 girls, the children of clerks, tradespeople, artificers, and
servants are freely educated and clothed, and then apprenticed or presented with outfits
for entering domestic service.
It is suggested in the Report that the large and increasing resources of this institu-
tion should by competent authority be made productive of more extended benefit than
they are at present. Thus, a scheme has been propounded, which proposes the restora-
tion of the Hospital to the east of London ; and the establishment there of a collegiate
church, with the Master and Brothers for dean and canons, each of them, by virtue of
his office, holding a benefice, with cure of souls, in that quarter ; the three Sisters, with
stipends of not less than 250Z. a year each, to reside within the limits of these parishes
or places, and superintend and direct the work of the bedeswomen, who should also
reside within the same limits, and perform the duties of parochial mission women
and nurses ; the bedesmen, also resident in the limits, to perform the duties of Scripture
readers, or lay assistants. The four benefices might either be acquired by exchange,
or newly constituted by the Crown. The scheme contemplates also that a portion of
the income of the foundation be devoted to educational or eleemosynary purposes in
the east of London. The scheme was proposed by, or on behalf of, a Committee of the
local clergy, comprising seven incumbents in the immediate neighbourhood of the site
of the ancient Hospital, which forty years since was required and taken for the construc-
tion of St. Katharine's Docks.
St. James's, Aldgate, Mitre-square, was built on the site of the wealthy Priory of
the Holy Trinity, in tasteless style, 1622. Here is service on great festivals and on the
last night of the year. And here, every Whit-Tuesday evening is preached the
** Elower Sei-mon," on a topic allied to fiowers. The church is decked with flowers,
and the congregation carry nosegays, and a bouquet is placed in the pulpit. On Whit-
Tuesday evening, 1866, the Sermon was preached by the Rev. W. M. Whittemore,
the Rector. His text was Genesis i. 11, " Let the earth bring forth grass."
The following is an outline of the discourse :— Pleasantness of a walk in the fields, conversing with
dear friends, resting from the care and toil of a busy City life, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.
168 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and striving to gather spiritual lessons from the objects around us. A single blade of grass, how much
it may teach us ! How full of testimony to the goodness of the Creator, who has covered the earth
with this enamelled carpet of soft, fragrant verdure, to refresh and gladden our hearts. How full, also,
of solemn teachings of our frail mortality. All flesh is grass. This was shown to be true literally, as
well as figuratively. Then the preacher brought out several lessons, which he bade his youthful hearers
to remember. 1. The value of little things. A blade of grass is full of creative skill ; the combining
of many little blades covers the hills and valleys of the world. 2. The union of firmness with gentleness
of character. The grass bends easily, yet is coated with flint, and its root is remarkably tenacious. 3.
Discrimination necessary in striving to be useful. Some one sowed grass-seed, as he thought, but it
grew up chiefly chickweed and groundsel. 4. Unity may consist with great diversity. There are 500O
species of grasses, yet they have many features of aspect, structure, and growth in common, so that no
class of plants is so easily identified.
St. James's, Clerk enw ell, on the north side of Clerk enw ell- green, has replaced
the church of a Benedictine monastery, founded about 1100; it served the nuus and
inhabitants until the Dissolution of the convent, when it was made parochial, and
dedicated to St. James the Less instead of the Virgin Mary. In the Sutherland View
of 1543, we see it far in the fields. In 1623, the steeple and tower both fell, and
destroyed part of the church ; both were rebuilt. In 1788, the whole was taken
down, rebuilt by Carr, and consecrated in 1792. In the vaults are preserved some
coffins from the old church, and among them that of Bishop Burnet, who died
1714^1 5 in St. John's-square, close by, though the fanatic rabble threw dirt and stones
at his funeral procession. His handsome mural monument was removed to the present
church, which has a peal of eight musical bells.
St. James's, Garlick Hithe, on the east side of Garlick-hill, Upper Thames-street, is
named from its being near the chief garlick market of the City. It was rebuilt in
1326 : among the persons interred here was Richard Lj'ons, a wine-merchant and
lapidary, beheaded in Cheapside by Wat Tyler in the reign of Richard II. Stow
describes his " picture on his gravestone very fair and large, with his hair rounded by
his ears, and curled ; a little beard forked ; a gown girt to him down to his feet, of
branched damask, wrought with the likeness of flowers : a large purse on his right side
hanging in a belt from his left shoulder ; a plain hood about his neck, covering his
shoulders, and hanging back behind him." The following citizens who had served
Mayor were also buried here : John of Oxenford, Mayor in 1341 ; Sir John Wrotch, or
Wroth, 1360; William Venor, 1389; William More, 1385; Robert Chichell, 1421;
James Spencer, 1527. The old church was destroyed in the Great Fire : it was
rebuilt by Wren, 1676-83, with a tower and lantern, 98 feet high, and a projecting
clock-dial, with a carved and gilt figure of St. James : a large organ, built by Bernard
Schmidt, in 1697 ; and a clever altar-picture of the Ascension, by A. Geddes. In this
church Steele heard the Common-Prayer service read so distinctly, so emphatically, and
so fervently, that it was next to an impossibility to be inattentive. Steele proposed that
this excellent reader (Mr. Philip Stubbs, afterwards Archdeacon of St. Alban's),
upon the next and every annual assembly of the clergy of Sion College, and all other
convocations, should read before them. — Spectator, No. 147, August 18, l7ll.
Here is a curious story, by Newcoiart, of Arthur Bulkley, D.D., Rector of St. James's
in 1531, who was promoted to the Bishopric of Bangor in 1541. " This man sold away
five fair bells out of the steeple of his cathedral, and it is certainly reported, that going
to the sea-side to see them shipped off, he had not set three steps on his way home-
ward before he was stricken with blindness, so that he never saw afterwards."
St. James the Less, Garden-street, Westminster, was built in 1861, at the expense
of Miss Monk, in memory of her father, the late Bishop Monk, of Gloucester, a
Canon of Westminster ; G. E. Street, architect ; style, Byzantine Gothic ; cost about
8500Z. The church is situated in the poor district of St. Mary, Tothill-fields. It
consists of a Nave and Chancel, with north and south aisles to both. It has a detached
steeple, forming ante-porch, with porch connecting it with the north aisle. The height
of the tower and slated spire is 134 feet. The materials used are mainly red and
black bricks, stone, and marble. The apse has windows of three lights, with a rose-
window in the head, filled with stained glass, representing types and antitypes of
Christ. Between these descend the groining-ribs, to rest upon banded shafts of
polished marble. The reredos below the line of lights is of white stone, inlaid (with
a black composition) with figures of holy women, commencing on the left with Mary
CEUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 169
the mother of James, then Mary Magdalen, St. Elizabetli, and the Virgin Mary ; then,
on the other side of the reredos proper, come the wife of Manoah, Hannah, Ruth, and
Sarah. Bands of red and yellow tiles are inserted between these figures, which are
represented in niches, dividing them into twos. Immediately over the altar is a cross
of vari-coloured Irish marbles, set with studs of Derbyshire spar. Within the apse
come the transept aisles ; in that on the left is the Organ. Two drop arches, on
broad shafts of polished granite, with carved caps, and resting on tall plinths (the
height of the choir seats), divide these Transept aisles from the Choir. Each Transept
aisle is, in itself, divided by a shaft of Bath stone in its centre, whence spring arches
to the side piers of the Choir, The two shafts which are on each side of the Nave aro
of polished red granite, with bands of Bath stone midway of their heights ; the caps
are carved, illustrative of the Parables and Miracles. Over the Chancel arch is a fresco
painted by G. F. Watts, representing a sitting figure of Our Lord in the centre,
with groups of angels on each side, and the four Evangelists below, on a gold ground.
The pulpit is of stone and marble, and is very richly sculptured : it contains figures of
the four Doctors of the Western Church and the four Evangelists, and on the panels,
which are divided from each other by shafts of green marble, are illustrations of
preaching : — 1. St. John the Baptist preaching ; 2. Dispute with the Doctors ;
3. The Sermon on the Mount; 4. St. Augustine of Canterbury preaching. The
Chancel is groined in brick, with stone ribs. The screens and gates round the
Chancel are of wrought iron and ornamental brasswork. The pavement of the body
of the church is formed of Maw's tiles, and that of the Chancel has marble inserted.
The steps leading to the Chancel and altar are of black Isle of Man limestone.
The roof has been painted by Clayton and Bell, with the Tree of Jesse and the
Genealogy of our Lord, typical busts of the personages being introduced in medal-
lions along the sides of the span in a line on either hand. The stained glass through-
out is also by Clayton and Bell.
*
St. James's, Piccadilly, or St. James's, Westminster, was built by Wren, at the
cost of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's, whose arms are placed above the south
door; consecrated Sunday, July 13, 1684; it was originally a chapel of ease, and con-
stituted a parish church in 1685. It has a tower and spire, 150 feet high ; the latter
was not the work of Wren. It was built a few years after the church, and was from a
design supplied by one Mr. Wilcox, a carpenter in the parish, which, strange to
say, was made choice of by the Vestry in prefei-ence to a design for the same furnished
by Wren himself, the cost of the erection of which was estimated to exceed the other
by only 1001. It was covered with cement in 1850, when the interior of the church
was repaired throughout. The clock was the gift of Mr. H. Massey, and the original
dial was gilded and painted by Mr. Highmore, H.M. Serjeant-Painter : its diameter is
10 feet. The interior. Wren's masterpiece, is in its plan Basilical, Nave and aisles
being formed by two ranges of six piers and columns, in two stories. The piers,
which are of the Doric order, panelled, carry the galleries; the fronts of the latter
of oak, with carved enrichments, forming the entablature of the order, with a low
attic above, to complete the breastwork. The upper order is the Corinthian ; columns
rise from the breastwork of the galleries, and the highly-enriched entablature of these,
stretching across from each column to the side walls, serves as imposts to a series of
transverse arches from column to column, forming the covering of the aisles ; whilst
from the abacuses also springs the great semicircular vault that covers the Nave ; the
whole roof being divided into sunk panels, ornamented with festoons of drapery and
flowers in relief, " producing," as Mr. J. Gwilt observes, " by its unity, richness, and
harmonious proportions, a result truly enchanting." These ceilings and their enrich-
ments, as now seen, were put up in 1837, when the decayed state of the timbers had
rendered an entire new roof to the church necessary. The work was strictly a restora-
tion. Wren, in a letter printed by Elmes, says : — " I can hardly think it practicable
to make a single room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold 2000 persons,
and all to hear the service and see the preacher. I endeavoured to eflect this in build-
ing the parish church of St. James's, Westminster, which, I presume, is the most
capacious, with these qualifications, that hath yet been built."
170 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The noble Organ was built for James II., and intended for his Eoman Catholic
Oratory at Whitehall, but given to this parish by Queen Mary in 1691.
It is in two oaken cases, standing one before the other, the organist's place being between them ; his
face to the great organ, and his back to the smaller one, to the latter of which the action passes beneath
his feet and seat. The great case is in the florid style of the period of its original construction (Louia
XIV.). The carving of Fames, angels, cherubs' heads, &c. with which it is adorned, strikingly mark,
by their great beauty, the master-hand of Gibbons, This favourite old instrument, originally made by
the celebrated Renatus Harris, anno 1678, was entirely rebuilt by the late Mr. Bishop, in 1852, on a
much more comprehensive scale, but retaining the old pipes — for these, the mellowing hand of time
had rendered of more than ordinary value— when also the old case was restored, with the original
decoration, and the detached front choir added.
In 1738, the Prince of Wales gave crimson velvet and gold hangings, valued at
lOOL, for the holy table and pulpit. The end above the altar-screen is nearly all
occupied by a Venetian window, in 1846 filled with stained and painted glass.
The window is illustrative by six principal pictures— one to a compartment — of the narrative of our
Blessed Lord's Sacrifice for the Redemption of Mankind, In the lower central division is displayed the
Crucifixion, with the praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the left ; and the Bearing of the Cross
on the right. The upper central compartment is the Ascension, with the Entombment on the left, and
the Resurrection on the right. Very wide mosaic borders surround each of these pictures, in which, as
well as in the other parts of the filling in, are numerous minute representations of other scriptural
subjects ; with details of immense variety, consisting of religious emblems, symbols, monograms, &c.
&c. For this glass Wailes, of Newcastle, received 1000^.
It is intended also to fill in with stained and painted glass the whole of the ten gallery windows,
designed to form, when completed, a series of paintings, illustrative of the history of our Blessed
Saviour's life and ministry, commencing with the " Nativity," in the easternmost window on the south
side— the succeeding windows to carry on the subject, progressively, as follows :— No. 2, The Adoration of
the Magi ; 3, Baptism of Christ ; 4, Christ and the Woman of Samaria ; 5. Christ with Peter on the
Sea. And returning eastward on the north side with— 6, The Transfiguration ; 7. Christ with Martha
and Mary ; 8. Christ Blessing Little Children ; 9, The Raising of Lazarus ; 10. Entry into Jerusalem.
Thus connecting the narrative with the Passion, as represented in the great altar window. Nos, 2 and
4 have been executed (also by Mr. Wailes) at a cost of 125^. each,
Evelyn, in his Diary, thus describes the altar and east end of the church : —
. Dec. 16, 1684. — I went to see the new church at St. James's, elegantly built. The altar was especially
adorned, the white marble inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and garlands about the
walls by Mr. Gibbons, in wood : a pelican, with her young at her breast, just over the altar in the carv'd
compartment and border invironing the purple velvet fringed with (black) I. H. S. richly embroidered,
and most noble plate, were given by Sir R. Geere, to the value (as was said) of 200^. There was no
altar anywhere in England, nor has there been any abroad, more handsomely adorned."
The wood is lime, with cedar for the reredos ; the marble scrolls have been replaced
by bronze. In addition, a noble festoon ending in two pendants, which extends nearly
the whole length of the screen, displays all the varied representations of fruit and
flowers, in the highest relief. This elaborate and delicate work having become much
injured by the casualties of 160 years, was in 1846 thoroughly repaired by two Italian
artists — a work of protracted labour ; several thousand bits of carving, more or less
minute, requiring to be added, in order to restore the groupings to their pristine state.
l^acing the western entrance is the white marble font, exquisitely sculptured by
Gibbons : it is nearly five feet high, and the bowl is about six feet in circumference.
The shaft represents the tree of life, with the serpent twining round it, and offering
the forbidden fruit to Eve, who, with Adam, stands beneath : these figures are 18
inches high. On the bowl are bas-reliefs of the Baptism of the Saviour in the Jordan ;
the Baptizing of the Treasurer of Candace by St. Philip the Deacon j and the Ark of
Noah, with the dove bearing the olive-branch. The cover of this font (shown in
Vertue's engraving), held by a flying angel and a group of cherubim, was stolen about
the beginning of the present century, and subsequently hung up as a sign at a spirit-
shop in the neighbourhood. — (Brayley's Londiniana, vol. ii. p. 282.) i
In the church are interred Charles Cotton, the companion of Walton in the Comi
plete Angler; Dr. Sydenham, with a marble tablet erected by the College of Physiciai
in 1810; Hayman, the portrait-painter; the two Vanderveldes, the marine painters j
and Michael Dahl, the Swedish portrait-painter ; Dr. Arbuthnot, the friend of Poj
Swift, Gay, and Prior ; Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, so touchingly deplore
by Pennant, in the preface to his British Zoology ; Dr. Akenside, the poet ; Jamt
Dodsley, the bookseller, with a tablet ; G. H. Harlow, who painted " The Trial
Queen Katherine;" also Sir John Malcolm. Here lies Thomas d'Urfey, dramati
and song-writer, to whom there is a tablet on the outer south face of the church-towerj
inscribed " Tom d'Urfey, dyed February 26, 1723," In the vestry are the portraits
the St. James's rectors, that of Dr. Birch alone missing: the first rector. Dr. Tenisoni
CHUBGHE8 AND CHAPELS. 171
the third. Dr. Wake ; and the seventh, Dr. Seeker; became Archbishops of Canterbury*
(See Walcott's Handbook of St. James's.)
Nollekens, the sculptor, when a lad, had an idle propensity for bell-tollmg, and
whenever his master missed him, and the dead-bell of St. James's Church was tollmg,
he knew perfectly well what " Joey " was at.
The church exterior and interior were in 1857 greatly improved ; and an ornamental
arched entrance to the churchyard, and a large Vestry-hall erected.
St. James's, Shoreditch, Curtain-road, of Early English architecture, erected 1838,
" stands on a site occupied by a theatre in Shakspeare's time. He lived close by, in a
place called Gillura's Field. At this theatre a curtain was for the first time used ;
hence the name of the road. The theatre was afterwards removed to South Lambeth.
Tradition says that Shakspeare himself acted at the theatre, and that his Hamlet was
first performed there." — Mackeson's Churches.
St. James's, Spa-road, Bermondsey, contains a large altar-picture, painted for 500?.,
by John Wood, upon conditions detailed at p. 49. The subject is the Ascension of our
Saviour ; the figures are considerably above the natural size : on a canvas of 275 square
feet (25 feet by 11), in the upper part, a full-length figure of the Saviour occupies
nearly one-half of the picture ; a nimbus around the head illumining the upper sky ; the
eleven disciples are in various positions, standing, kneeling, prostrated, with uplifted
hands and faces, and bodies bent with reverential awe and devotion; and their personal
identity, costume, and colouring, are very successful.
St. John's, formerly St. Atjgustin's, at Hackney, was taken down in 1798, except
the tower, of the sixteenth century, which still remains, with a clock and a peal of
eight bells ; the body of the church was rebuilt northward of the ancient edifice ;
eastward is the chapel of the Eowe family, built in 1614, and preserved as a
mausoleum. The churchyard has thoroughfare paths, lined with lofty trees, but
the funereal yew is not among them. The old church, before its demolition, was ex-
tremely rich in monuments and brasses, some of which were removed to the porches
and vestibules of the new church.
St. John's, Bethnal Green, designed by Sir John Soane in 1828, was the first church
consecrated by Bishop Blomfield in the diocese of London. (See Gentleman's Maga-
zine, Feb. 1831.)
St. John's, Clerkenwell, a modern church, in St. John's-square, has an ancient
crypt (part of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem), in which the detection of the
Cock -lane Ghost hoax was consummated.
" While drawing in the crypt of St. John's, Clerkenwell, in a narrow cloister on the north side (there
being at that time coffins, and fragments of shrouds, and human remains lying about in disorder), the
sexton's boy pointed to one of the coffins, and said the woman in it was ' Scratching Fanny.' This
reminding me of the business of the Cock-lane Ghost, I removed the lid of the coffin, which was loose,
and saw the body of a woman, which had become adipocere; the face perfect, handsome oval, with
aquiline nose. [Will not arsenic produce adipocere?] She was said to have been poisoned, although
the charge is understood to have been disproved. I inquired of one of the churchwardens of the time
(Mr. Bird, I believe), and he said the coifin had always been understood to oontain the body of the
woman whose spirit was said to have haunted the house in Cock-lwaQ."— Communicated by John Wyke-
ham Archer, 1851.
St, John the Evangelist, Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square, designed by Hugh
Smith, in the Norman or Romanesque style, was opened in 1846, its west front having
two towers, and a spire 120 feet high, and a large wheel- window beneath the inter-
vening gable. The second spire has not been built.
St. John the Evangelist, Horselydown, one of the Fifty New Churches (10-
Anne), was finished in 1732 : it has a tower, with an ill-proportioned Scamozzian Ionic
column, seen to the eastward from the London and Greenwich Railway.
St. John the Evangelist, Smith-square, Westminster, was the second built of the
Fifty New Churches (10 Anne), finished in 1728, after the designs of Archer, pupil of
Vanbrugh; before which it began to settle, and a tower and lantern-turret were
added at each corner to strengthen the main building ; " and these would have beea.
172 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
beautiful accompaniments to the central tower and spire intended by the architect."
\Elmes.) These towers reminded Lord Chesterfield of an elephant thrown on its
back, with its four feet erect in the air; and Charles Mathews, of a dining-table up-
side-down, with its four legs and castors. Meanwhile, justice has not been done to the
originality and powers of the architect : the whole composition is impressive, and its
boldness loses nothing by the graceful playfulness of the outline ; it has some in-
accuracies of detail, but is, altogether, a very striking pi'oduction of the Vanbrugh
school. {Donaldson.) It has semicircular apses east and west, and imposing Doric
porticoes north and south. The interior of the church (said to have been the first in
London lit with gas) is without columns, and is highly embellished : the east window
is filled with ancient painted glass brought from Normandy ; and above the altar-table
is a copy of the celebrated picture of Christ bearing his Cross, by Ribalta, in the
Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford. The elegant marble font, designed by
C. Barry, jun., sculptured by J. Thomas, was placed here in 1847. The Organ,
erected by a German builder, in 1727, and repaired by Hill, in 1840, is handsome and
powerful. Churchill, the satirist, born in the parish, succeeded his father in 1758, in
the curacy and lectureship of this church : he soon disgraced the holy office, and substi-
tuted for the clerical costume a blue coat, gold-laced waistcoat and hat, and large
ruffles ; remonstrances ensued, and he resigned.
St. John's burial-ground contains " the ashes of an Indian cliief, who died of small-pox, in 1734, and
■was buried in the presence of the Emperor Toma, after the custom of the Karakee Creeks, sewn up in
two blankets, between two deal boards, with his clothes, some silver coins, and a few glass beads." —
Walcott's Westminster y p. 314.
St. John the Evangelist, Waterloo-road, was built in 1822-24, from the design
of P. Bedford : it has a Grecian-Doric hexastyle portico, and lofty steeple, with an
excellent peal of eight bells ; tenor, 1900 lbs. weight. The font is of white marble, and
was brought from Italy. In a vault here is interred R. W. Elliston, the comedian.
The site of St. John's was a swamp and horse-pond ; the district commences at the
middle of Westminster Bridge, whence an imaginary boundary-line passes through the
middle of the River Thames and Waterloo Bridge.
St. John op Jerusalem, South Hackney, Middlesex ; a large and beautiful church
in the best Pointed style, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, by E. C. Haltewill ;
consecrated July 20, 1848. The plan is cruciform, with a tower and spire of
equal height, together rising 187 feet ; the latter has graceful lights and broaches, and
the four Evangelists beneath canopies at the four angles ; the Nave has side aisles
with flying buttresses to the clerestory ; each Transept is lit by a magnificent window,
29 feet high ; and the Choir has an apsis with seven lancet windows : entire external
length, 11)2 feet; materials, Kentish rag and Speldhurst stone. The principal entrance
is at the west, through a screen of open arches. The roof, of open-work, is of 60 feet
highest pitch, with massive arched and foliated ribs ; and the meeting of the Transepts,
Chancel, and Nave is very effective. The Chancel has a stone roof, and the walls of the
apse are painted and diapered — red with fleur-de-lis, and blue powdered with stars ; the
pulpit and reading-desk are also diapered ; and the seats are of oak, and mostly formed
of stall-ends with finials : the two first seats are well-carved ; on one is the crest of the
Rector and the badge of the patron Saint ; and on the other side the dove with the
olive-branch, and the lynx, as an emblem of watchfulness. All the windows are filled
with painted, stained, or richly-diapered glass, by Wailes, Powell, &c. ; and a me-
morial clerestory window, Christ Blessing Little Children, and Raising Jairus's
Daughter, is beautifully painted by Ward and Nixon. The altar-floor is laid with
Minton's tiles ; the font is nicely sculptured ; the Organ is from the old church at
Hackney : the tower has a fine peal of eight bells.
St. John's, Notting-hill, an Early English cross church, designed by Stevens andj
Alexander, and consecrated Jan. 22, 1845, stands upon an elevated portion of Ken-
sington Park, facing Ladbroke Grove, and has a tower 156 feet high, seen to]
picturesque advantage.
St. John's, Oxford-square, Paddington, is a debased imitation of New College-;
CHUBCEES AND CHAPELS. 173
Chapel iu the exterior; architect, Towler : it possesses a good stained glass window of
the Twelve Apostles.
St. Jude's, Gray's Inn Road, was the first church which received aid from the
Bishop of London's Fund ; founded, Noveraher, 1862 ; style. Early English ; archi-
tect, Joseph Peacock. The tower, at the south-east angle, is 100 feet liigh, ter-
minating with an iron finial. All the chancel windows are of stained glass. The
three lancet windows, the gift of a lady, represent the Birth, Crucifixion, and Resurrec-
tion, of Our Lord. The large rose-window is a thank -offering of the congregation : in
the centre circle is the Ascension ; and in the tracery around the Annunciation are —
Disputing in the Temple, the Baptism, the Agony, Bearing the Cross, the First
Appearance to Mary, the Journey to Emmaus, and the Pentecost. The reredos is of
Caen stone, and represents the Last Supper carved in relief, the wall on each side being
richly covered with tiles in pattern. The Organ, which is of original arrangement, is
in the Chancel aisle, under the tower, and is free and open to the choir.
St. Lawrence Jewet, King-street, Cheapside, was commenced by Wren, in 1671,
upon the site of the old church, destroyed in the Great Fire : it has a tower and
steeple 130 feet high, with, for a vane, a gilt gridiron, the emblem of St. Lawrence ;
the east end, in King-street, is so pure as to be almost Grecian. The interior has
some excellent plaster-work, in wreaths and branches ; and the organ-case, pulpit, and
doorways are richly-carved oak. In the centre is a large pew for the Lord Mayor and
Common Council, the church being used for Corporation Sermons. Here Tillotson was
Tuesday lecturer ; was married 1663-4 ; and buried in 1694, three years after he was
consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury : his sculptured monument is on the north wall
of the church. The Vestry -room walls are entirely cased with fine dark carved oak ;
and che ceiling has elaborate plaster foliage, and a painting, by Thornhill, of St. Law-
rence. In the old church, mentioned 1293, was buried Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wilt-
shire, whose daughter Anna married King Henry VIII., and was the mother of Queen
Elizabeth : here lay also the remains of Richard Rich, mercer (d. 1469), from whom de-
scended the Earls of Warwick. There are a fine peal of bells, two good windows by
Clayton and Bell, and an excellent Organ by Schmidt.
St, Leonaed's, Eastcheap, destroyed In the Great Fire, and not rebuilt, had a curious
aflax. Newcourt oddly says : — " On Fish-street-hill, in the Ward of Bridge Within,
stood St. Leonard Milk Church, so called after one William Melker, the builder
thereof."
St. Leonard's, Shoreditch (anciently Soresdich), occupies the site of a church
mentioned in grants early in the thirteenth century. The last church (which had four
gables in a line, and a low square tower) was taken down in 1736 : and the present
church built by the elder Dance in 1740 : it has a steeple imitated from that of St.
Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, and a fine peal of twelve bells. The Organ is by Bridge.
Holywell-street, in this parish, now High-street, Shoreditch, was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth
and James I. inhabited by players of distinction, connected with the Curtain Theatre, the Blackfriars
Theatre, and the Globe on the Bankside. The parish register (within a period of sixty years) records
the interment of the following celebrated characters :— Will Sommers, Henry VIIl.'s jester ; Richard
Tarlton, the famous clown of Queen Elizabeth's time ; James Burbage, and his more celebrated son,
llichard Burbage ; Gabriel Spenser, the player, who fell in 1598, in a duel with Ben Jonson ; William
Sly and Eichard Cowley, two original performers in Shakspeare's plays ; the Countess of Kutland, the
only child of the famous Sir Philip Sidney ; Fortunatus Greene, the unfortunate offspring of Kobert
Greene, the poet and player. Another original performer in Shakspeare's plays, who lived in Holywell-
street, in this parish, was Nicholas Williamson alias Tooley, whose name is recorded in gilt letters on
the north side of the altar as a yearly benefactor of 6^. 10s., still distributed in bread every year to the
poor of the parish, to whom it was bequeathed.— Cunningham's Handbook, p. 285.
In the register is entered, among the " Burialles, Thomas Cam, y« 22d inst. of
Januarye, 1588, Aged 207 years, Holywell-street. George Garrow, parish clerk." [Is
not 2 written for 1 in the number of years ?] At St. Leonard's is annually preached the
endowed Lecture founded by Mr. Thomas Fairchild, gardener, who carried on his busi-
ness in Selby's Gardens, extending from the west end of Ivy-lane to the New North-road.
By his will, in 1728, he bequeathed the sum of 25Z., the interest of which he desired
might be given annually to the lecturer of St. Leonard's, for preaching on Whit-
Tuesday a sermon on " The Wonderful Works of God in the Creation," or " On the Cer-
174 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
tainty of the Resurrection of the Dead, proved by certain changes of the Animal and
Vegetable parts of the Creation." The bequest came into operation in 1730, and has
been continued ever since. The sum bequeathed by Mr. Fairchild was increased by
subscriptions to 100^. South-Sea Annuities, producing 31. per annum, which was trans-
ferred to the President and Council of the Royal Society. To the subscription added
to the bequest, Archdeacon Denne added 291. out of the money he, the first lecturer,
had received for preaching the sermon. It was the custom for the President and
Fellows of the Royal Society to hear this sermon preached. Stukeley records : —
*' Whitsunday, June 4, 1750, 1 went with Mr. Polkes, and other Fellows, to Shoreditch,
to hear Dr. Denne preach Fairchild's sermon. On the Beautys of the Vegetable World.
We were entertained by Mr. Whetman, the vinegar-merchant, at his elegant house by
Moorfields ; a pleasant place, encompassed with gardens well stored with all sorts of
curious flowers and shrubs, where we spent the day very agreeably, enjoying all the
pleasures of the country in town, with the addition of philosophical company." —
MS. Journal.
St. Luke's, Nutford-place, Edgware-road, was erected in 1856, Evvan Christian,
architect, as a thank-ofiering for the exemption from cholera, where, at the time, fifty
in a thousand was the rate of mortality in some parishes, and only two in a thousand
suffered. The cost was 13,782Z., of which 60001. was for the site ; the church was
built chiefly for working-men, by whom it is well attended.
St. Luke's Church, Chelsea (the Old Church), near the river, consists of a Nave,
Cliancel, and side aisles ; the chancel rebuilt early in the sixteenth century j chapel at
the east end added by Sir Thomas More about 1520; and the tower of brick, built
1667-1674. The interior has been much altered. Its tombs of " divers persons of
quality" are very interesting. In the chancel is an ancient altar-tomb, without in-
scription, supposed to belong to a Bray, of Eton. Here, on the south wall, is the
black marble tablet, erected by Sir Thomas More, in 1532 (see ante, p. 90), with
the famous biographical epitaph, in Latin, from More's own pen, and the following to
More and his two wives : —
"Chara Thomje jacet hie Joanm-a uxorcula Moki,
Qui tumulum Alicia hunc destine, quique mihi.
Una mihi dedit hoe conjuncta virentibus annis,
Me vocet ut puer, et trina puella patrem.
Altera privignis (qua? gloria rara novercaj est)
Tarn pia, quam quatis, vix fuit ulla suis.
Altera sic mecum vixit, sic altera vivit,
Charior incertum est, quse sit an ilia fuit.
simul, O juncti poteraraus vivere nostros,
Quam bene, si fatura religioque sinant.
At societ tumulus, societ nos, obsecro, ccelum !
Sic mors, non potuit quod dare vita, dabit."
This elegant Latin is considei^ed to be not excelled by any epitaph in that or an;
other language. In the biographical epitaph, the word " hereticisque" was purposely
omitted when the monument was restored on both occasions : there is a blank spac«
left. Over the tomb are the crest of Sir Thomas More, namely, a Moor's head ; th(
arms of himself and his two wives.
Sir Thomas More is stated to have been buried here, but this is disputed : most probably, he wai
buried in the chapel of St. Peter-in-the-Tower; though Aubrey distinctly states that " after More wai
beheaded, his trunk was interred in Chelsey Cliurch," beneath the monument already described. Th«
decapitated head of More was long kept in the Tudor mansion of Baynard's, in Surrey, by More's favourit<
daughter, Margaret Roper, who once lived here. The skull of Sir Thomas was finally deposited in th«
vault of the Ropers, in St. Dunstan's Church, in the suburbs of Canterbury, where it was seen by E.
W. Brayley, about sixty years ago.— (ASee Note in Brayley's Survey/, vol. v. p. 183.)
The Rev. Mr. Blunt suggests that the ancient dedication of the church was to All Saints, thougl
it has long been appropriated to St. Luke. The Chancel, with the chantries north and south of it, an
the only portions of ancient work left. The north chantry, called the Manor Chantry, once contanied
the monuments of the Brays, now in very imperfect condition ; having been destroyed or removed to
make space for those of the Gervoise family. There remains, however, an ancient brass in the floon
Of the south, or More Chantry, Mr. Blunt states that the monument of Sir Thomas More was removed
from it to the chancel, and the chantry had been occupied by tlie monuments of the Georges family, nov«
also removed, displaced, and destroyed. Notwithstanding the current contrary opinion, founded ot
Aubrey's assertion, the More monument (says Mr. Blunt) is the origmal one for which Sir Thomas Morfl
himself dictated the epitaph. .. ,
Mr. Bumell, the architect of the improvements eflfected subsequently to 1857, speaks positively at
to the non-existence of a crypt which conjecture had placed under the More chautry. The foundation
CEUBGHES AND CEAPELS. 175
of the west end of the church, before it was enlarged in 1666, he found west of Lord Caere's tomb. On
the north side of the chancel an aumbry, and on the south a piscina, were found, coeval with the chancel
(early fourteenth century). The arch between the More Chantry and the chancel is a specimen of
Italian workmanship, dated 1528 ; a date confirmed by the objects represented in the carved ornaments,
those objects being connected with the Roman Catholic ritual. It is a remarkably early instance of the
use of Italian architecture in this country.
Here are these monuments : one with kneeling figures, to Thomas Hungerford ; to
the daughter of Sir Theodore Mayerne, wife of Peter de Caumont, Marquis de Cugnac ;
Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland, beheaded for proclaiming Lady Jane Grey,
mother of Queen EHzabeth's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester ; her daughter
Mary was the mother of Sir Philip Sidney [" her monument at east end of south
chapel is not unlike Chaucer's in Westminster Abbey, but sadly mutilated ;" — Cun-
ningJiam]; Gregory, Lord Dacre, and Lady Ann, his wife: the latter founded the
almshouses in Westminster which bear her name ; she was sister to Sackville, Earl of
Dorset, the poet. In a chapel of the north aisle lie the Laurence family, after whom
" Lawrence- street," Chelsea, was called. In the same aisle is the monument (said by
Walpole to be by Bernini, and cost 500Z.), to Lady Jane Cheyne, and wife of Charles
Cheyne, Esq., whence Cheyne-row ; she is represented lying on her right side, and
leaning on a Bible.
In the south-west corner of the church is a mural monument to Dr. Edward
Chamberlayne, with a punning Latin epitaph : it mentions that some of his books
[MSS.], inclosed in wax, were buried with him j yet when his tomb fell into decay
not a vestige of them could be found. Erom a Latin epitaph on his daughter, we
learn that on June 30, 1690, she fought valiantly in men's clothing six hours against
the French, on board a fire-ship under the command of her brother.
In the church are interred, ivithout monuments, the mother of John Fletcher, the
poet ; the mother of George Herbert and Lord Herbert of Cherbury : Dr. Donne
preached her funeral sermon in this church, and Izaak Walton tells us he heard him ;
Thomas Shadwell, the Mac-Flecknoe : his funeral sermon was preached in this church
by Nicholas Brady, Nahum Tate's associate in the Psalms ; Abel Boyer, author of a
Life of Queen Anne and the French Dictionary which bears his name ; Cipriani, the
elegant painter and designer ; Dr. Martyn, translator of Virgil ; Henry Mossop, the
actor ; Dr. Kenrick, the annotator of Shakspeare ; Sir John Fielding, the magistrate j
and Henry Sampson Woodfall, printer of Junius.
In the churchyard is the mystic monument of the great naturalist and virtuoso. Sir
Hans Sloane, M.D., who attended Queen Anne in her last illness, and was the first
medical man created a baronet j his collections became the nucleus of the British
Museum. Here, too, is a pyramidal monument erected by the Linnean and Horticul-
tural Societies to Philip Miller, author of the Gardeners' Dictionary ; he was nearly
fifty years gardener to the Apothecaries' Company's Garden at Chelsea.
The Register, under Feb. 13, 1577-8, records the baptism of " Charles, a boy by
estimacon 10 or 12 yers olde, brought by Sir Walter Rawlis from Guiane." John
Larke, presented to the rectory of Chelsea, in 1530, by Sir Thomas More, was exe-
cuted at Tyburn, in 1544, for following the example of his patron, in denying the
King's supremacy.
St. Luke's New CnrECH, Chelsea, was founded in 1820 ; Savage, architect, one of
the restorers of the Temple Church ; style, Gothic, 14th and 15th centuries. The build-
ing is of brick, cased with Bath stone. It has a pinnacled towt?r, 142 feet high, with
arcaded entrance porch. The north and south fronts have bold buttresses ; and the
east front is magnificent. The vaulting, 60 feet in height, is entirely of stone ; and
under the clerestory windows is a triforium ; the Nave is divided from the aisles by an
arcade and clustered pillars. The altar-screen is ably sculptured, and in the centre is
a picture of the Ascension, stated to be by Northcote. The interior length of the
church is 130 feet. The Organ, built by Nicholls, contains 33 stops and 1876 pipes,
and is one of the most powerful instruments in the metropolis.
In the churchyard lie Blanchard and Egerton, the actors, side by side. Captain
M'Leod, who wrote the Voyage of tlie Alceste, 1817 ; and Alexander Stephens, who
wrote a Life of John Some TooJce, and edited the Annual Biography and Obituary.
In a cemetery in the King's-road, given to St. Luke's parish in 1733, by Sir Hans
176 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Sloane, is buried Andrew Millar, the bookseller, who lived in the Strand, " at
Buchanan's Head " (see his imprint to Thomson's Seasons) ; his grave is marked by an
obelisk in the centre of the ground.
St. Luke's, near the centre of Old- street -road, is one of the fifty Queen Anne
churches, and was consecrated on St. Luke's day, Oct. 16, 1733. It is built of stone,
and has an obelisk spire, a masterpiece of absurdity. The parish was taken out of St.
Giles's, Ci-ipplegate.
St. Magnus the Maette, London Bridge, was burnt in the Great Fire, and
rebuilt by Wren, 1676. It has a tower, octagon lantern, cupola, and spire, added
in 1705, which are very picturesque. The footway under the tower, on the east side,
was made in 1760, through the recesses and groined arches originally formed in the
main building by Wren, as if he had seen its necessity whenever tbe street leading to
Old London Bridge required widening.
This improvement was made after the destruction of the church roof by fire, April 18, 1760, which
began in an oilman's premises in Thames-street, adjoining the church, and consumed seven houses and
all the warehouses on Fresh Wharf. This conflagration was occasioned by the neglect of a servant,
who left some inflammable substances boiling while he went to see Earl Ferrers return from his trial and
condemnation for murder : before the man could get back, the shop was in flames.
Miles Coverdale was for a short time rector of St. Magnus : he was buried in St. .
Bartholomew's by the Exchange, which being taken down in 1840, Coverdale's remains
were removed, and interred in St. Magnus', where a monument to his memory was
erected in 1837.
The inscription upon Coverdale's tomb states:— "On the 4th of October, 1535, the first complete
English version of the Bible was published under his direction." The third centenary of tliis e>ont
was celebrated by the clergy throughout the churches of England, October 4, 1835 ; and several medals
were struck upon the occasion.
The handsomely carved and gilt projecting dial, affixed to St. Magnus' tower, was tho
gift of Sir Charles Duncomb, in 1709, and cost 485Z. 5s. 4d. : Sir Charles, it is related,
when a poor boy, had once to wait upon London Bridge a considerable time for his master,
whom he missed through not knowing the hour ; he then vowed that if ever he became
successful in the world, he would give to St. Magnus' a public clock, that passengers-
might see the time j and this dial proves the fulfilment of his vow. It was originally;
ornamented with several richly gilded figures : upon a small metal shield inside the clock,
are engraven the donor's arms, with this inscription : " The gift of Sir Charles Duncomb,
Knight, Lord Maior, and Alderman of this ward. Langley Bradley fecit, 1709.'
Sir Charles also presented the large Organ in St. Magnus' Church : it was built by
Jordan, in l7l2, as announced in the Spectator :
"Whereas, Mr. Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have with their own hands, joynery excepted,
made and erected a very large Organ in St. Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of
four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling the notes, which
never was in any Organ before ; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next, the performance
by Mr. John Robinson. The abovesaid Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers,,
that he will attend every day next week at the said church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who
shall have a curiosity to hear it."— Spectator, Feb. 8, 1712.
This instrument still exists, but has been much altered and modernized by Parsons
and at present, only three of the original four sets of keys remain. — A Short Account
of Organs, kc, 1847.
The tower has a peal of ten bells. A bronzed or copper medalet, date 1676, bears
on its obverse a view of old St. Magnus' Church. Here was buried Hervey Yevele, or
Zenely, described by Stow as Free-Mason to Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV. :.
he assisted to erect the tomb of Richard II. in Westminster Abbey, between 1395 and
1397, and prepared plans for raising the walls of Westminster Hall.
St. Maegaeet's, Lothbury, destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in
1690, has a steeple 140 feet high ; two carved and painted figures of Moses and
Aaron, brought from St. Christopher-le-Stocks, when that church was taken down;
and a marble font attributed to Gibbons, resembling that in St. James's Church, Pic-
cadilly. The Organ is by England.
St. Maegaeet Patten's, Fenchurch-street, destroyed in the Great Fire, and re- 1
built by Wren in 1687, contains a fine altar-picture — Angels ministering to Christ in
CHUBGEE8 AND CHAPELS. 177
the Garden — ascribed to Carlo Maratti. About the altar-piece are some exquisitely-
carved flowers. Agauist the south wall is a large monument, by Rysbrack, to Sir P.
Delme, Lord Mayor in 1723. The church was named from the patten-makers, who
formerly mostly lived in the neighbourhood.
St. Maegaret's parish church, Westminster, is placed a short distance from the
north door of Westminster Abbey : it was originally built about 1064, by Edward the
Confessor, for the people who had thickly settled around the Abbey, and were greatly-
increased by those who sought here the privilege of Sanctuary. This Norman edifice
was destroyed, and the church rebuilt in the reign of Edward I., of which period there
exist a few remains. It was considerably altered in the time of Edward IV., v/hen,
probably, a flight of steps led up to the church-door, the surrounding level having
been raised about nine feet above the original surface : a stone cross and a pulpit
formerly stood here, as at St. Paul's. Soon after the ancient Chapel of St. Stephen
had been given up for the sittings of the House of Commons, it is supposed the mem-
bers attended Divine Service in St. Margaret's, as the Lords went to the Abbey
Church. On Sept. 25, 1642, the Covenant was read from St. Margaret's pulpit, and
taken by both Houses of Parliament, the Assembly of Divines, and the Scots Commis-
sioners. Here also were preached the lengthy Fast-day Sermons; and Hugh
Peters, "the pulpit bufibon," persuaded the Parliament to bring Charles " to condign,
speedy, and capital punishment," while the churchyard was guarded by soldiers with
pikes and muskets. St. Margaret's did not escape plunder by the Puritans ; but in
1660, " the State's Arms," richly carved and gilt, were set up in the church, and they
are still preserved in the vestry. In 1641, a gallery was built over the north aisles;
and in 1681, another over the south aisles, " exclusively for persons of quality," the
latter erected at the expense of Sir John Cutler, the miser satirized by Pope. Doctors
Burnet and Sprat, old rivals, once preached here before Parliament in one morning ;
and on Palm Sunday, 1713, Dr. Sacheverell preached here first after the term of his
suspension : 40,000 copies of this sermon were sold. In 1735, St. Margaret's was
repaired at the expense of Parliament, when the tower was faced with Portland stone
and raised 20 feet, being now 85 feet high : it has a fine peal of ten bells, the tenor
weighing 26 cwt. In 1753 was placed over the altar-table a relievo of our Lord's
Supper at Emmaus, sculptured in limewood, by Aiken of Soho, from Titian's celebrated
picture in the Louvre. In 1758, the east end was rebuilt and made apsidal ; and the
great east window removed, and replaced by the present beautiful cinque-cento window,
said to have occupied five years executing, at Grouda in Holland, intended as a present
from the magistrates of Dort to Henry VIT.
This celebrated glass painting represents the Crucifixion, with angels receiving the blood-drops from
the Saviour's wounds ; an angel wafts the soul of the good thief to paradise, and a dragon (the devil)
bears the soul of the wicked thief to eternal punishment. The six upper compartments are filled with
as many angels, bearing the cross, the sponge, the crown of thorns, the hammer, the rods, and nails.
In the lower compartment (right) is Arthur Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII., and above him
St. George and the red and white rose ; and to the left is Catherine of Arragon, Arthur's bride, with
above her the figure of St. Cecilia, and a bursting pomegranate, the emblem of Granada. The window
is also said to have been ordered by Ferdinand and Isabella, on Prince Arthur being affianced, in 1499,
to the Princess Catherine, their portraits being procured for the purpose. It was probably finished
after his brother's death, to be sent as a gift to Henry VIII. The king gave it to Waltham Abbey,
Avhere it remained until the Dissolution, a.d. 1540 ; when the last abbot sent it for safety to his private
chapel at New Hall, which, by purchase, subsequently became the property of Sir Thomas, father of
Anne Boleyn, queen of Henry VIII. The chapel remained undisturbed until General Monk becoming
possessor of New Hall, to save the whidow from destruction by the Puritans, had it buried underground.
After the Restoration, Monk replaced the window in the chapel. Subsequent to his death, the seat fell
into decay, and the chapel was taken down : but the window was preserved for some time cased up,
until purchased by Mr. Conyers, of Copt Hall, Essex, by whose son it was sold, in 1758, to the church-
wardens of St. Margaret's for 400 guineas : it was then placed in the church, re-opened in 1759, a fine
anthem for the occasion being composed by Dr. Boyce. A prosecution was now instituted against the
parishioners by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, for putting up what was attempted to be proved
*' a superstitious image or picture." After seven years' suit, the bill was dismissed ; in memory of
which Mr. Churchwarden Peirson presented, as a gift for ever, to the churchwardens of the parish, a
richly-chased cup, stand, and cover, silver- gilt, weighing 93 oz. 15 dwt., which is the loving-cup of St.
Margaret's, and is produced with especial ceremony at the chief parochial entertainments.
St. Margaret's is otherwise rich in painted glass : the north-east window is filled with gold mosaia
designs, the Holy Monogram, the red and white roses, and portcullis, and a saint (lago of Compostella?)
bearing an open book. The crescent beside the rose, Mr. Kickman thought, denoted some " expectancy
of regal amplitude ;" so Shakspeare :
" Fompey, My power 's a crescent, and my auguring hope
Says it wUl come to the i\A\,"—Ant. and Cleop. act ii. sc. 1.
178 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
In this and the south-east windows are the arms of Edward the Confessor, represented as blazoned by
the heralds temp. Henry VIII. The saint in the centre is St. Michael overcoming the dragon.—
Abridged from Walcott's Westminster.
The Chancel is decorated in polychrome by Willement : and over the reredos are
crocketed canopies, coloured ruby, azure, and emerald diaper, and richly gilded. In
1802, the present beautifully carved pulpit and reading-desk, by Lenox, were erected ;
the Speaker's chair of state was placed in the front of the west gallery j and a new
Organ, by Avery, was built. Altogether, the votes of the House of Commons for the
repairs of this church have been frequent and considerable. Upon certain occasions,
as Restoration Day (May 29), the Chaplain of the House of Commons preached here ;
when the House was usually represented by the Speaker, the Serjeant-at-Arms, the
clerks and other officers, and some eight or ten members. These and similar obser-
vances, as on Jan. 30, King Charles's Martyrdom, and Nov. 5, Gunpowder Plot, have
been discontinued since 1858. The church originally consisted of a Nave and Choir,
with side aisles ; with chapels or altars in the latter to St. Margaret, St. George, St.
Katherine, St. Erasmus, St. John, and St. Cornelius, besides two to St. Nicholas and
St. Christopher : the churchwardens' accounts bear evidence of the maintenance of
these shrines. In the ambulatory is a carved stall of the 16th century.
Among the names of the more eminent of the Puritans who preached in St. Margaret's, are those of
CaJamy, Vines, Nye, Manton, Marshall, Gauden, Owen, Burgess, Newcomen, Keynolds, Cheynell,
Baxter, Case (who censured Cromwell to his face, and when discoursing before General Monk, cried
out, " There are some will betray three kingdoms for filthy lucre's sake," and threw his handkerchief
into the General's pew) ; the critical Lightfoot ; Taylor, " the illuminated Doctor ;" and Goodwyn, " the
windmill with a weathercock upon the top."— Walcott's Westminster.
The monuments are very numerous : among them are a tablet to Caxton the
printer, by Westmacott, raised 1820 by the Roxburgh Club; alabaster figures,
coloured and gilt, to Marie Lady Dudley (d. 1600); brass tablet, put up by subscription,
1845, to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose body was interred within the Chancel of this church
on the day he was beheaded in the Old Palace-yard, Oct. 29, 1618 ; a black marble
slab to James Harrington (d. 1677), who wrote Oceana ; monument near the porch-
door to Mrs. E. Corbet, with what Johnson considered " the most valuable of all
Pope's epitaphs ;" monument to Captain Sir Peter Parker, Bart., R.N., with bas-relief
of his death, 1814, and lines by Lord Byron, in Chancel north aisle : a curious tablet
of Cornelius Van Dun (d. 1577), with a coloured bust in the uniform of the Yeomen
of the Guard : and a small monument to Mrs. Joane Barnett (d. 1674), who left
money for a yearly sermon and poor widows : she is said to have sold oatmeal cakes hard
by the church-door, in memory of which a large oatmeal pudding is a standing dish at
the " Feast." There is but one ancient brass in the church, the rest having been sold
in 1644, at 3d. and 4.d. per pound, as the churchwardens' accounts attest. Weever
records the burial hereof John Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII. (d. 1529); and
the registers contain the burial of Thomas Churchyarde, " Court Poet " (d. 1604). Soon
after the Restoration, several bodies were disinterred from the Abbey, and deposited in
a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard : among them was the corpse of Oliver Cromwell's
mother, from Henry VII.'s Chapel ; Sir W. Constable, one of the judges in the trial of
Charles I.; Admiral Blake; John Pimme; Thomas May, the poet, &c. Here, too,
are buried Sir William Waller, the Parliament General (d. 1668) ; Hollar, the engraver
(d. 1677), in the churchyard, " near N.w. corner of the tower " {Aubrey) ;
Thomas Blood, who attempted to steal the regalia (d. 1680) ; Gadbury the Cavalier
astrologer, and helpmate of Lilly (d. 1704); Frances Whate (d. 1736), a charwoman,
buried in the church ; John Read, the " Walking Rushlight," and the oldest general in
the service (d. 1807). The churchyard is extremely crowded with bodies. In the
report on Extramural Sepulture, ] 850, Dr. Reid stated, " that the state of the bury-
ing-ground around St. Margaret's Church is prejudicial to the air supplied at the
Houses of Parliament, and also to the whole neighbourhood ;" that " these offensive
emanations have been noticed at all hours of the night and morning ;" and that even
*' fresh meat is frequently tainted" by the deleterious gases issuing from this church-
yard. The removal of the church was proposed even in Stow's time, and has often
been revived : it was favoured by Sir Charles Barry, in his design for the completion of
the New Palace of Westminster : if allowed to remain, the church should be restored,
to harmonize with the Abbey, to which it was originally an adjunct. Among the be-
CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 179
quests is an endowment, founded in 1781, by the will of Mr. Edward Dickenson, who
left 5000Z. stock, the interest of which was to be divided, on the first month after
Easter-day, between three newly-married couples from each parish of St. Margaret
and St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, and of Acton. The distribution takes place
with the approbation of the Bishop of London j and petitions are taken into considera-
tion by the trustees on the Wednesday in Easter week, when they decide on the nine
couples to receive the bounty, 15^. each.
A celebrated heirloom of the parish is the " Overseers' Box," originally purchased at Horn Fair for
fhurpence, and presented by a Mr. Monck to his brother Overseers, in 1713. In 1713, the Society of
Past Uverseers commemorated the gift by adding to the Box a silver rim; and in 1726 were added a
silver side-case and bottom. In 1740, an embossed border was placed on the lid, and t'le bottom
enriched with an emblem of Charity. In 1746, Hogarth engraved inside the lid a bust of the Duke of
Cumberland, in memory of the battle of CuUoden. In 1765 was added to the lid a plate with the arms
Of the City of Westminster, and the inscription :— " This Box is to be delivered to every succeeding set
of Overseers, on penalty of five guineas." The original Horn Box thus ornamented has been placed in
fo'ir additional cases, each ornamented by its several custodians, the senior Overseer for the time being,
with silver plates engraved with the following subjects: -Fireworks in St. James's Park (Peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle), 1749 ; Admiral Keppel's Action off Ushant, and his Acquittal by Court Martial ; Battle
of the Nile, 1798; Repulse of Admiral Lmois, 1804; Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 ; Action between San
Fiorenzo and La Piedmontaise, 1808; Battle of Waterloo, 1815; Bombardment of Algiers, 1816; House
of Lords at Trial of Queen Caroline ; Coronation of George IV,, and his visit to Scotland, 1822.
Portraits :— Wilkes, Churchwarden in 1759; Nelson, Duncan, Howe, and Vincent; Fox and Pitt, 1806;
the Prince Regent, 1811; Princess Charlotte, 1817; and Queen Charlotte, 1818. Views :— Interior of
Westminster Hall, with Westminster Volunteers attending Divine Service, on Fast-day, 1803 ; the old
Sessions House ; St. Margaret's Church from north-east, the west front, tower, and altar-piece. In
1S13 was added to the outer case a large silver plate portrait of the Duke of Wellington, commemorating
the centenary of the box. The top of the second case represents the Governors in their board-room,
inscribed, " The original Box and cases to be given to every succeeding set of Overseers, on penalty of
fifty guineas, 1783." Outside the first case is engraved a cripple. In 1793, a contumacious Overseer
detained the Box, and it was deposited "in Chancery" until 1796, when it was restored to the Overseers'
Society ; this event being commemorated by the addition of a third case, of Justice trampling upon an
unmasked man and a serpent, and the Lord Chancellor (Loughborough) pronouncing his decree. On
the fourth, or outer case, is the Anniversary meeting of the Past Overseers' Society, and the delivery of
the Box to the succeeding Overseer, who must produce it at certain parochial entertainments, with three
pipes of tobacco at least, under the penalty of six bottles of claret; and must return the whole safe and
sound, with some addition, under penalty of two hundred guineas. Within the Box is a mother-of-
pearl tobacco-stopper, with a silver chain. — Abridged from Walcott's Westminster.
St. Mark's, Kennington Common, a Doric church, designed by Roper, and built
in 1824, on the spot formerly the place of execution for Surrey, and where several per-
sons suffered death in the Stuart cause. Here was executed " Jemmy Dawson," 1746.
St. Maez's, Old-street-road, St. Luke's, a beautiful Early English Church, designed
by Ferrey, and built in 1848 : it has a noble four-storied tower and spire, rising from
the ground 125 feet ; and the windows throughout the edifice are fine.
St. Maek's, Victoria Docks, near the little village of Silv3rtown, was built for the
accommodation of the " Londoners over the border." The style is English Decorated,
fifteenth century : materials, inside and outside, white and coloured bricks ; Teulon,
architect. It contains 1000 sittings, and cost 7000^. : the Organ, a gift, is fine.
St. Maetin's-in-the-Fields, north of the western extremity of the Strand, is the
second church built upon this site; the first having been erected by Henry VII L,
ft'om his disliking the funerals of inhabitants passing Whitehall in their way to Si
Margaret's, at Westminster, as they had no parish church. It is probable that,
there was a building before this, but " only a chapel for the use of the monks of West-
minster when they visited their Convent (Covent) Garden, which then extended to
it."— (J". Gwilt.) The old church had a low square tower, and was strictly " in the
fields :" in 1607, Henry Prince of Wales added a chancel. In this ancient church was
buried Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, his monument adorned with his bust finely carved
in profile, with tools used in sculpture, compasses, &e. : he was engaged in the building
of the Banqueting-house, Whitehall. No doubt the sculpture, scrolls, and other orna-
ments in stone were of his work. In this church also were interred Paul Vaiisomer,
portrait-painter, scarcely inferior to Vandyck ; Nicholas Laniere, painter, musician,
and engraver, and who bought pictures for Charles I. ; Nicholas Lyzard, who had been
in the service of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and who was sergeant-painter to
Queen Elizabeth; Nicholas Hilliard, limner, jeweller, and goldsmith to Queen Elizabeth,
and afterwards to King James I. : he was, perhaps, the best miniature-painter who
S 2
180 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
bad appeared : also Sir Theodore Mayerne, the physician, a friend of Vandyck, to whom
he communicated valuable information relating to pigments ; also Dobson, the English
Vandyck ; George Farquhar, the comic dramatist ; Nell Gwynne was interred in
the church ; and Jack Sheppard in the burial-ground. In the church was buried,
Oct. 31, 1679, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, found murdered in a ditch near Chalk
Farm : the corpse was brought from Bridewell Hospital with great pomp, eight knights
supporting the pall, and attended by all the City aldermen, 72 London ministers,
and above 100 persons of distinction. At the funeral sermon two divines stood by the
preadier, lest he should be assassinated by the Papists. The Hon. Robert Boyle was
buried here, and his funeral sermon was preached by his friend Dr. Burnet. The Organ
was built by Schmydt, in 1676, and he himself was the first organist here, and played
for a salary. Edward, a son of the celebrated Henry Purcell, was elected organist in
1726. The old church was taken down in 1720-21, and the present church commenced
from a design by Gibbs, when King George I., by proxy, laid the first stone, March 19,
1721, gave the workmen 100 guineas, and subsequently, upon being chosen church-
warden, presented the Organ, built by Schreider ; but this has long given place to
another Organ, built by Gray.
The present church was consecrated in 1726: the cost of its erection was 36,891 Z. 10*. 4dJ.
Its length, including the portico, is equal to twice its width : it is in the florid Roman
or Italian style, and has a very fine western Corinthian hexastyle portico : the east end
is truly elegant, and the round columns at each angle of the building render it very
effective in profile. The tower and spire rise out of the roof, behind the portico. The
interior is richly ornamented, " a little too gay and theatrical for Protestant worship.'*
In 1842, 45 feet of the spire were struck by lightning, and had to be restored at the
expense of 1000'. : the ball and vane were also rogilt ; tlie latter is 6 feet 8 inches
high and 5 feet long, and is surmounted with a crown, to denote this the parish of the
Sovereign ; and in its registers are entered the births of the royal children born at
Buckingham Palace. The tower has a fine peal of twelve bells ; but the story of Nell
Gwynne having left a legacy, paid weekly to the i-ingers, has no foundation in fact.
High in tlie steeple hangs a small shrill bell, formerly called the Sanctus, and now
the Saint's or Parson's Bell. " It was rung before the Reformation, when the priest
came to the Sanctus, ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth !' so that those without
the church might participate in the devotions of those present at the most solemn
part of the divine office." — The Parish Choir, No. 59.
The churchyard was paved in 1821) ; and in 1831, the vaults beneath the churc^
were reconstructed, each vault being 10 feet high, 20 wide, and 40 long. Here is pi
served the old parish whipping-post, with a carved head.
In the present church rest Roubiliac, the sculptor ; and Scott, the author of a Visit
to Paris, who was killed in a duel in 1821. The remains of John Hunter were
deposited in the vaults in 1793, whence they were removed with fitting ceremony i^
1859 to Westminster Abbey. fl
St. Mabtin's, Gospel Oak Fields, between Kentish Tomti and Haver stock -hill, is a
carefully finished specimen of that now rare style, the Third Pointed, or Perpendicular.
The tower at the north-west, almost detached from the body of the church, is square,
lofty, has rather large windows, and an angle turret crowned by a small spirelet,
shorter pinnacles capping the other angles ; of which form we remember no oth(
example about London. There are also two capped turrets at the junction of the Na\
and Chancel. The windows have florid tracery ; the roof is an elaborate one, on tl
hammer-beam principle, and is of dark varnished timber, rich in effect. With tl
parsonage, this church is estimated to cost 13,000Z., defrayed by Mr. J. B. Alcroft]
architect, E. B. Lamb. It will accommodate 1000 worshippers, who will all have
almost uninterrupted view of the Chancel, reading-desk, and pulpit ; 400 sittings
free. The tower contains six bells, of deep tone.
St. Maktin's, Ironmonger-lane, was a small church, and also called St. Mar
Pomary, " on what account (saith the antiquary) he knoweth not ; but it is suppos
from apples growing there."
St. Maetin's Ludgate, near the site of the City gate of that name, in Ludgat
/street, was rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire : the steeple has a small gallery, ai
ma
Isi^
CHUBGHE8 AND CHAFJEJLS. 181
^ . ' — —
rises 168 feet. Between Ludgate-street and the body of the church is an ambulatory,
the whole depth of the tower, so as to lessen within the church the noise from the
street. In the vestry -room are a carved seat (date 1690), and several curious coffers
or chests. The font has a Greek inscription, a palindrome, i.e., it reads the same back-
wards as forwards. In the old church was the following epitaph, dated 1590 :—
Earth goes to \ (As mold to mold
Earth treads on I -p^^^r. J Glittermg in gold
Earth as to f ^^^^°- ] Return here should
Earth shall to ) [ Goe ere he would
Earth upon '\ ( Consider may
Earth goes to I p„_ai, J Passed away
Earth though on f ^'^''" 1 Is stout and gay
Earth shall from ; V Passe po'or away.
Tlie spire of St. Martin's, backed by the campanile towers and majestic dome of St.
Paul's, seen from Fleet-street, is a fine architectural group; although the injudicious
have condemned the spire as an obstacle in the view. Extraordinary antiquity has
been claimed for the ancient church of St. Martin : according to Newcourt, it is alleged
that Cadwallo, the valiant King of the Britons, after he had reigned for forty years,
died in 677, and was buried in this place ; and Eobert of Grlo'ster tells us of the said
monarch —
" A Church of St. Martyn, livyng he let rere.
In whych yat men shold Goddys seruyse do.
And sing for his soule and al Christene also."
The former church was dated 1437. Samuel Purchas, known by his Pilgrimages, was
rector here in 1613 : he is styled " the English Ptolemy," but gained more fame than
profit by his pubUcations.
St. Maetin Orgae, now united to the adjacent parish of St. Clement, near East-
cheap, formerly possessed a church on this spot, which, after having served as a place of
worship for French Protestants for about twenty years, was pulled down in the
year 1820. The old clock-tower remained standing till 1851, together with two
adjoining houses belonging to the parish, formerly known as " the rectory." These
have been taken down, and a new clock and bell-tower erected, the lower part forming
part of the rectory -house ; the upper part only being appropriated for the reception
of the clock, whilst the cupoletta, which crowns the composition, receives an ancient
bell, which is highly valued by the parish. The height is about 110 feet to the top of
the pine, which forms the finial. The tower is five diameters high to the top of the
cornice, the proportion adopted in most of Wren's towers. The bracket -clock is
picturesque.
St. Maetin's Outwich (Otteswich), Bishopsgate-street, was originally built in the
fourteenth century, in the Pointed style, with a low tiled roof and square tower ; and
the churchwardens' accounts (1508 to 1545) contain entries of ancient usages previous
to the Reformation : as, " Wyne on Relyks Sondaye, Id. ;" " Paschall or Hallowed
Taper, tenebur Candell and Cross Candell, License to eate flesh," &c. This church
escaped the Great Fire of 1666, but was greatly injured in a conflagration in Nov. 1765,
which burnt fifty houses. In 1796, the present church was built by S. P. Cockerell.
Its form is oval, with a recess for the chancel, in the ceiling of which is a light filled
with stained glass, mostly from the old church. There are also several monuments
from the same, including two recumbent stone figures of John Oterwich and his wife,
their head-cushions supported by angels ; the feet of the man resting against a lion,
and those of the female against a dog. Here also is a canopied tomb, date 1500, with
remains of brass figures, armorial bearings, and labels against the back ; and several
stone effigies to the memory of Alderman Staper (1594) : " hee was the greatest
merchant in his tyme, the chiefest actor in discovere of the trades of Turkey and East
India, &c. ;" also two brass figures of rectors of the church in the fifteenth century.
Few would expect to find these monumental treasures within a church of such un-
ecclesiastical design. It contains also a fine picture of the Resurrection, by Rigaud.
The South Sea House, which is in St. Martin's, was given to the parish by Mrs. Mar-
garet Taylor, in 1667.
St. Maey Abbots', Kensington, the mother-church, was rebuilt 1696 : here are
monuments to Edward, eighth Earl of Warwick and Holland (d. 1759), with bis
182 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
— ■ ^
effigies, seated, and reposing upon an urn ; and to the three Colraans : Francis Colman ;
his son, George, " the Elder ;" and his son, " the Younger :" the two latter wrote
several comedies, and were proprietors of the Haymarket Theatre. In the churchyard
are monuments to Jortin, author of the Life of Erasmus, and Vicar of Kensington ;
and to Mrs. Inchbald (a Roman Catholic), a beauty, a virtue, a player, and authoress
of the Simple Story. Here, too, is buried William Courten, the traveller and
naturalist, whose curiosities, it is said, filled ten rooms in the Middle Temple : this
collection he bequeathed to Sir Hans Sloane, and thus it became part of the nucleus of
the British Museum. James Mill, the historian of British India, is buried here ; and a
son of George Canning, with a headstone by Chantrey. St. Mary's, Kensington, had a
** Vicar of Bray " in one Thomas Hodges, collated to the living by Archbishop Juxon :
he kept his preferment during the Civil War and interregnum, by joining alternately
with either party ; although a frequent preacher before the Long Parliament and one
of the Assembly of Divines, he was made Dean of Hereford after the Restoration, but
continued Vicar of Kensington. — (Murray's Lnvirons of London, p. 69.) The Organ
is a fine old instrument ; and there is a good peal of bells. The ancient church of
Kensington (Chenesit) is mentioned in Domesday, and had for its patron Aubrey de
Vere, who came over with the Conqueror, from whom he received the manor.
St. Mart Abchuech, Abchurch-lane, was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt
by Wren in 1686 : its tower and spire are 140 feet high ; the interior • has a large
cupola, painted by Sir James Thornhill ; and an altar-piece, with fruit and flowers,
exquisitely carved by Gibbons, and originally painted after nature by Thornhill. The
Organ is by Bishop.
St. Maey Aldermaet, Bow -lane, is the third church erected on this site. To the
first, Richard Chaucer, vintner, gave his tenement and tavern, with the appurtenances
in the royal street, the corner of Kerrion-lane, and was there buried, 1348. It is
believed that this was the father of Chaucer the poet. Charles Blunt, Lord Mountjoy,
was buried there about the year 1545. In 1510, Sir Henry Keble, Lord Mayor of
London, began to rebuild the church. This church was destroyed in the Great Fire,
with the exception of the tower, so built by Lord Mayor Keble, the lower part of which
was repaired by Sir Christopher Wren, and the upper part new built in 1681, a sum
equal to 5000Z. being furnished for that purpose by the widow of Henry Rogers, in
pursuance of his will. The clustered columns, fine groinings, large circular ornamental
openings for skylights, the ceilings decorated with flowers, foliage, and shields, and the
fine east window, are admired. In 1835 some houses abutting upon the north wall of
the church were pulled down, which brought to light a crypt, possibly the vaulted ceme-
tery of the old church, about 50 feet in length and 10 feet wide, having five arches on
each side in the Pointed style of architecture. The church is a specimen of Wren's
Gothic, for which his apologists plead that he was required to follow the plan of the
old church destroyed by fire. The tower, with four turrets, is 130 feet high. In the
great storm of 1703, two of these turrets were blown down.
St. Maet's, Battersea, a church of tasteless design, built in 1776, is remarkable
for containing Roubiliac's elegant monument to the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, and
his second wife, a niece of iSadame de Maintenon, In the east window are three
portraits : 1. Margaret Beauchamp, ancestor (by her first husband. Sir Oliver St. John)
of the St. Johns, and (by her second husband, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset)
grandmother to Henry VII. ; 2. the portrait of that monarch; 3. the portrait of
Queen Elizabeth, placed here because her grandfather, Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wilt-
shire (father of Queen Anne Boleyn), was the grandfather of Anne, the daughter of
Sir Thomas Leighton, and wife of Sir John St. John, the first baronet of the family.
Here is a monument to Sir Edward Wynter, who died 1635-6; it has a bas-relief
representing the feats thus commemorated in the inscription :
" Alone, unarm'd, a tyger he oppress'd,
And crush'd to death the monster of a beast ;
Twice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew
Singly on foot ; some wounded, some he slew,
Dispers'd the rest. What more could Samson do ?"
At the top is a large bust of Sir Edward, in a flowing peruke and lace shirt.
CEUBGHES AND CHAPELS. 183
St. Mary-le-Bone, or St. Mary-at-the-Boxirne, at the end of the High-street, verging
on the New-road, was originally the mother-church of Marylebone, and was rebuilt in
1741, on the site of an edifice erected about 1400, on the removal of the ancient
church of Tyburn, " which stood in a lonely place near the highway (on or near the
site of the present Court-house, at the corner of Stratford-place), subject to the depre-
dations of robbers, who frequently stole the images, bells, and ornaments." — (Lysons's
Environs, vol. iii. 1795.) In Vertue's Plan, about 1560, the only building seen between
the village of St. Giles's and Primrose-hill is the little solitary church of Marylebone :
its interior is shown in one of Hogarth's plates of the EaJce's Progress (the Man-iage),
where some ill-spelt verses on the vault of the Forset family, and the churchwardens'
names, are accurately copiad ; this plate was published in 1735, and part of the original
inscription was preserved in the present church, converted into a parish chapel in 1817,
on the consecration of the church in the New-road. In the chapel are tablets to Gibbs,
the architect ; Baretti, the friend of Dr. Johnson ; and Caroline Watson, the engraver ;
and in the churchyard is a monument to James Ferguson, the Astronomer. Among
the burials in the register are James Figg, the prize-fighter ; Vanderbank, the por-
trait-painter ; Hoyle, aged 90, who wrote the Treatise on Whist ; Rysbrack, the
sculptor; and Allan Ramsay, portrait-painter, and son of the author of the Gentle
Shepherd. In Paddington-street are two burial-grounds formerly attached to this
church. In 1511, the Marylebone curate's stipend was only 135. per annum j in 1650,
the impropriation was valued at 80Z. per annum, and Richard Bonner was curate j
before the late separation, the value of the living was 1898Z.
In a Map published in 1742, the diminutive church of St, Mary-le-hone is shown detached from
London, with two zigzag ways leading to it, one near Vere-street, then the western extremity of the
new buildings, and the second from Tottenham-Court-road. Kows of houses, with their backs to the
fields, extended from St. Giles's Pound to Oxford-market ; but Tottenham-Court-road had only one
cluster on the west side, and the spring-water house. The zigzag way above mentioned, near Vere-
street, still retaining its original name of Mary-le-bone-lane, was the communication between the high
road and the village. A friend, bom in 1780, remembers his father and mother relating how they
walked out through the fields, to be married at Marybone Church.
St. Maeylebone (New Church), New-road, opposite York Gate, Regent's -park,
designed by T. Hardwick, father of P. Hardwick, R.A., was originally built " on
speculation " as a chapel ; and was purchased by the parish, and converted into a
handsome church, at the cost of 60,000^. It has a lofty stone clock -tower and portico j
the interior was at first objected to as too theatrical in arrangement : it has an altar-
picture of the Holy Family, painted and presented by B. West, P.R.A. Cosway and
Northcote, Royal Academicians, are buried here.
St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, " for divers accidents happening there, hath been
made more famous than any other parish church of the whole city or suburbs."—
{Stow.) If not originally a Roman temple, as was once believed, this was one of the
earliest churches built by our Norman conquerors. Stow says it was named St. Mary
de Arcuhus, from its being built on arches of stone, the semicircular-arched Norman
crypt, extant to this day : and hence is named the " Court of Arches," formerly held
in the church. About 1190, Longbeard, ringleader of a tumult, took refuge in the
steeple, which was fired to drive him out : in 1271, part of the steeple fell, and killed
several persons ; and some years after its repair, one Ducket, a goldsmith, fled here for
Sanctuary, and was murdered. The old steeple was entirely rebuilt by 1460, when
the Common Council ordered that Bow bell should be rung nightly at nine o'clock, a
vestige of the Norman curfew ; in 1472, two tenements in Hosier-lane (now Bow-lane),
were bequeathed " to the maintenance of Bow bell," which being rung for the
closing of shops somewhat late, the young men, 'prentices, and others in Cheap, made
this rhyme :
" Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes,
For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes."
To which the Clerk replied : —
" Children of Cheape, hold you all still,
For you shall have the Bow bell rung at your will." .
William Copeland, churchwarden, either gave a new bell for this purpose, or caused
the old one to be recast, in 1515 : Weever says the former. In 1512, the arches and
184 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
spire of the tower were provided with lanterns, as beacons for travellers : the latter is
shown in the View of London, 1643 (in the Sutherland Collection) ; it has a central
lantern, or bell-turret, and a pinnacle at each corner. The church was rebuilt, as we
now see it, by Wren, after the Great Fire of 1666, and the belfry was prepared for
twelve bells, though only eight were placed ; but two were subsequently added, and
the set of ten bells was first rung in 1762. (See Bells, p. 46.) The earliest monu-
ment in the old church was that to Sir John Coventry, Mayor in 1425 : Weever gives
his epitaph. The present church contains a large marble sarcophagus, with figures of
Faith and a cherub, and a medallion bust, by Banks, R.A., of Bishop Newton, twenty-
five years rector of this parish, and interred in St. Paul's.
Bow Church is one of Wren's finest works: it is well described in Godwin's
Churches of London. The large Palladian doorways are noble; and the campanile is
one of Wren's most picturesque designs.
The circular peristyle, or continued range of columns, which rises from a stylobate on the top of the
tower (a miniature representation of that around the dome of St. Paul's), let it be viewed from what
point it may be, is the most beautiful feature of the steeple. By the introduction of the combined scrolls
at each angle of the tower, Wren has endeavoured to prevent that appearance of abruptness which
would otherwise have resulted from the sudden transition from the square to the circular form, and has
caused the outline to be gradually pyramidical from the top of the tower to the vane. The flying
buttresses, which appear to support the columns above the peristyle, are introduced chiefly with a view
to effect the same end.
The spire was repaired by Sir W. Staines when a young stonemason ; and in 1820 \t
was in part rebuilt by George Gwilt, F.S.A., but was not lowered, as generally believed.
Its height is 225 feet ; the dragon, ten feet long, was regilt, and a young Irishman
descended from the spire point on its back, pushing it from the cornices and scaffolds
with his feet, in the presence of thousands of spectators.* Over the doorway in
Cheapside is a small balcony, intended as a place to view processions from. The present
bells are much heavier, and more powerful in tone, than the first set. It requires two
men to ring the largest (the tenor, 53 cwt., key C.) The ringers belong to the Society
of " College Youths," founded in 1637, and named from the College of St. Spirit and
Mary, built by Sir Eichard Whittington, on College-hill, Upper Thames-street, and
burnt down in the Great Fire. A book recording the names of the founders and
members of the College Youths, from 1637 to 1724, was lost about the latter date,
and only recovered in 1840. Another Society, called the " Cumberland Society," rang
for a few years at Bow Church. There is a peal called the " Whittington Peal," which
can only be rung on twelve bells. {See Bow Bells, p. 47.)
Independently of ordinary services in the church, prayers are read and the Sacrament administered
at eight o'clock in the morning on every festival throughout the year which does not fall on a Sunday,
This is in compliance with the will of Mr. Eobert Nelson, author of the Companion to the Festivals and
Fasts of the Church of England, who left for the purpose '61. per annum. Formerly, the Boyle lectures
were delivered here, but they have been discontinued for some years past. The Bishops elect of the
province of Canterbury attend at this church, previous to their consecration, to take the oaths of
supremacy, &e.
St. Mart's, Islington, " the old church," is built upon the site of a church with an
embattled tower and bell-turret, and which was presumed to be 300 years old when
taken down in 1751. One of its oldest monuments was that to " Thomas Gore,
parsonne of Isledon and Westhame," who died in 1499 : here were also memorials of
the Fowlers, and Dame Katherine Brook, nurse who " nourished with her milk " the
Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. Dame Alice Owen, foundress of the alms-
houses and school at the top of Goswell-road, was buried here ; and here are two
monumental brasses of the Savills. Dr. Cave, the learned ecclesiastical historian, and
chaplain to Charles II., who became vicar of Islington at the age of 25, was buried in
the old church. The present church was erected by Launcelot Dowbiggin, opened
May 26, 1754. It has a tower and stone spire, 164 feet high, and a fine peal of eight
bells, each inscribed with a couplet inculcating loyalty, love, and harmony. In 1787,
when a lightning conductor was affixed to the spire, one Thomas Bird constructed
round it a wickerwork scaffold, with steps within. Among the persons buried here
are Dr. Hawes, one of the originators of the Humane Society ; Earlom, the mezzo-
* One of Mother Shipton's prophecies was, that when the Dragon of Bow Church and the Grass-
hopper of the Royal Exchange should meet, London streets would be deluged with blood ! In 1820 both
these vanes were lying together in a stonemason's yard in Old-street Road, where the upper portion of
Wren's spire is preserved to this day.
CHUBGEES AND CHAPELS. 185
^ ib.
tinto engraver ; and John Nichols, T.S.A., the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine,
his grave being a few yards from the house in which he was born. During the last
forty years more than sixteen churches have been erected in the district of Islington,
and Dissenting chapels have multiplied in a similar proportion.
St. Maey, Lambeth, the mother-church of the manor and parish, stands within
the patriarchal shade of Lambeth Palace, and has a Perpendicular tower, lately
restored. 'In the Bishop's Kegister at Winchester, date 1377, is a commission to
compel the inhabitants to erect this tower for their church, then newly built. In the
churchwardens' accounts, " pewes " are mentioned as early as the reign of Philip and
Mary. The eastern end of the north aisle, built 1522, by the Duke of Norfolk, is
called the Howard Chapel. In the church are the tombs of these Archbishops of
Canterbury : Parker, d. 1575 ; Bancroft, d. 1610 ; Tenison, d. 1715 ; Hutton, d. 1758;
Seeker (in passage between church and palace), d. 1768 ; Cornwallis, d. 1783 ; Moore,
d. 1805.
In burying Archbishop Cornwallis, were found the remains of Thirlby, the first and only Bishop of
Westminster: he died a prisoner in Lambeth Palace {tem2). Elizabeth). The body was discovered
wrapped in fine linen, the face perfect, the beard long and white, the linen and woollen garments well
preserved ; the cap, silk and point lace, as in portraits of Archbishop Juxon ; slouched hat, under left
arm ; cassock, like apron with strings ; and pieces of garments like a pilgrim's habit.
Here also are the tombs of Alderman Goodbehere ; Madame Storace, the singer ;
Peter Dollond, inventor of the achromatic telescope ; and Elias Ashmole, the antiquary.
In the churchyard is the altar-tomb of the Tra descants, father and son :
" These famous antiquarians that had been
Both gardeners to the Eose and Lily queen."— ijjtiapA.
The tomb is sculptured with palm-trees, hydra and skull, obelisk and pyramid, and
Grecian ruins, crocodile, and shells. In the Register are entered the burials of Simon
Forman, the astrologer ; and Edward Moore, who wrote the tragedy of The Gamester,
In a window of the middle aisle is painted a pedlar with his pack and dog, said to
represent the person who bequeathed to the parish of Lambeth " Pedlar's Acre," pro-
vided his portrait and that of his dog were perpetually preserved in one of the church
windows. When the painting was first put up is unknown, but it existed in 1608;
" a new glass pedlar " was put up in 1703, but removed in 1816.
The name of the benefactor is unknown; but it has been suggested that this portrait was intended
father as a rebus upon the name " Chapman" than upon his trade : for in Swaff ham Church, Norfolk,
is the portrait of John Chapman, a great benefactor to that parish ; and the device of a pedlar and his
pack occurs in several parts of the church, which has given rise to nearly the same tradition at Swaff ham
as at Lambeth. {Preface to Hearne'a Caii Antiquitates, p. 84) Besides, Pedlar's Acre was not originally
so called, but the Church Hopes, or Hopys (an isthmus of land projectmg into the river), and is entered
in the Register as bequeathed by " a person unknown." — Popular Errors Explained, Sfc. p. 293.
The church, except the tower, has been rebuilt by Hardwick in correct design ; the
font is fine, and many of the windows are filled with memorial stained glass- The
bells and Communion-plate are of very considerable age, the latter of great value.
St. Makt-at-Hill, Eastcheap, "called on the hill because of the ascent from
Billingsgate," rebuilt by Wren, after the Great Fire, had this singular custom:
"On the next Sunday after Midsummer, every year, the Fellowship of the Porters of London, time
outof mind, came to this church in the morning, and whilst the Psalms were reading, they went up
two by two towards the rails of the Communion table, where were set two basins, and there they make
their offerings. Afterwards the inhabitants of the parish, and their wives, make their offerings ; and
the money thus offered is given to the poor, decrepit porters of the Company for their better support."
The church was built by Wren, between 1672 and 1677, the west-end tower being
of subsequent date : the exterior of the east end alone remains. In 1848-9, the interior
was entii-ely refitted, with such an extent of carving as had not been executed before
in the City for many years. The pillars supporting the organ gallery are ornamented
with fruit and flowers. The great screen has a frame of oak ; the Rector's pew and
reading-desk are enriched with carved open tracery, and brackets surmounted with
the royal supporters, bearing shields with V.R. 1849. The pulpit is entirely new,
and is very elaborately carved : in the sounding-board are bosses of flowers of 12-inch
projection ; from the eyes of the volutes garlands of flowers are suspended, which pass
through the split trusses, and fall down, crossing and uniting behind ; and within the
pulpit, at the back, is a well-executed drop of fruit and flowers : on the front of the
186 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
organ-gallery are bold clusters of musical trophies and garland of flowers, with birds
and fruit ; and the royal arms, with a mantle scroll, about ten feet long, form a per-
forated screen on the top of the gallery. All the carved work is by W. Gibbs Rogers.
The organ was built by Hill, on the German plan, and contains two manuals and a
pedal organ. Brand, who compiled the Popular Antiquities, and was Secretary to the
Society of Antiquaries, was Rector of St. Mary-at-Hill from 1789 till his death in
1806 : he is buried in the Chancel. Dr. Young, author of NigM Thoughts, was
married here.
St. Maet Magdalene, Bermondsey, was originally founded by the monks of Ber-
mondsey,it is supposed, early in the reign of Edward III. ; but taken down in 1680, when
the present church was built upon the same site : in 1830, the west front was remodelled,
the tower repaired, and the large pointed window restored. Among the communion
plate is an ancient silver salver, supposed to have belonged to the Abbey of Bermond-
sey : in the centre, a knight in plate armour is kneeling to a female, about to place a
helmet on his head, at the gate of a castle or fortified town : from the fashion of the
armour and the form of the helmet, this relic is referred to the age of Edward II.
In the church is a monument to Dr. Joseph Watson, more than thirty-seven years
teacher to the first public institution in this country for the education of the deaf and
dumb, established in this parish, 1792. In the churchyard is buried Mrs. S. Utton,
who was tapped twenty-five times for dropsy, and had 157 gallons of water taken from
her; also Mrs. S. Wood, tapped ninety-seven times, water 461 gallons; and the
husband of the latter, who died 1837, aged 108 years !
The registers commenced in 1538, have been continued with great exactness, and
with very few interruptions up to the present time : some of the entries are very
eccentric.
St. Maet Magdalen, Old Fish-street, in Castle-Baynard Ward, was rebuilt by
Wren, after the Great Fire, and contains a small brass tablet, date 1586, with the
figure of a man, and the following lines in black letter :
" In God the Lord put all your truste,
Repente your formar wicked waics,
Elizabethe our Queen moste juste
Bless her, Lord, in all her daies ;
So Lord encrease good councelers.
And preachers of his holie worde
Mislike all papistes desiers
O Lord, cut them off with thy swords.
How small soever the gift shall be
Thank God for him who gave it thee.
Ill penie loaves to III poor foulkes
Geve every Sabbath day for aye."
This church serves as well for the parish of St. Gregory-by-St. Paul's. St. Ms
Magdalen, Milk-street, was on the site of the City of London Schools.
St. Maey Magdalen, Munster-square, Regent's Park, was designed by R.
Carpenter, and consists of a Nave with south aisle, large and lofty Chancel, and tower ;
style. Geometric, of the fourteenth century. The Nave and Aisle have massive open
gabled roofs, of Baltic fir timber. The Chancel roof is arched with timber, boarded
and panelled. The east window of the Chancel, which is of seven lights, is filled witl
stained glass, at a cost of 400Z. by Hardman of Birmingham, and was one of the la
works upon which Pugin was engaged. The lower part of the Chancel is adorned '
richly carved arcades, with shafts of St. Ann's marble, and panels in the spandrel
The arcades and the Chancel roof are highly enriched with colour and gilding, execute
by Crace. The arcade on the south side of the Chancel is varied, to form sediHa '
the officiating clergymen, and the floor is raised three steps above that of the Nave, ai
is separated from it by a stone septum. The west window of the Nave, a fine one,
five lights, has been filled with stained glass, in memory of the architect. In tl
service, the Eucharistic vestments are used daily, and incense at high celebration
Sundays.
St. Maet's Mateelon, Whitechapel, at the eastern end of High-street, was orij
nally a chapel-of-ease to Stebenhith, or Stepney j its second name being from MatfA
CHUBGHE8 AND CHAPELS. 187
in Hebrew, a woman recently delivered of a son. Stow traces the name to the wives
of the parish having slain out of hand a certain Frenchman who had murdered and
plundered a devout widow, by whom he had been cherished and brought up of alms
This occurred in 1428, the sixth of King Henry VI. j but Stow also finds the name as
early as the twenty-first of Richard II. The old church was taken down in 1673,
and rebuilt nearly as at present : it has a gas-lit clock-dial.
The Parish Eegister records that Eichard Brandon was buried in the churchyard, June 24, 1649 ;
and a marginal note (not in the hand of the Registrar, but bearing the mark of antiquity), states :
" This R. Brandon is supposed to have cut off the head of Charles I." He was assisted by his man
Ralph Jones, a ragman in Rosemary-lane ; and a tract in the British Museum, entitled, " The Confes-
sion of Richard Brandon, the Hangman, upon his Deathbed, concerning the Beheading of His late
Majesty," printed in 1649, relates that the night after the execution he returned home to his wife, living
in Rosemary -lane, and gave her the money he had received, 301. ; that about three days before he died,
he lay speechless. " For the burial whereof, great store of icines were sent by the sheriff of the City of
London, and a great multitude of people stood waiting to see his corpse carried to the churchyard, some
crying out, ' Hang him, rogue ! ' 'Bury him in the dunghill !' others pressing upon him, saying they
would quarter him for executing the king, insomuch that the churchwardens and masters of the parish
were fain to come for the suppression of them ; and with great difficulty he was at last earned to
Whitechapel churchyard." See Ellis's Letters on Llnglish History, vol, iii. second series ; and the Trial
of Charles I. vol. xxxi. Family Library,
St. Mary's, Newington-butts, was built in 1791-^3 by Hurlbatt, in place of a
smaller church. It contains a monument with statues to Sir Hugh Brawne, buried
in the old church, 1614, and who " for the space of twenty-two years was the whole
ornament of the parish." Here, too, is a tablet to Dr. Fothergillj and to Captain M.
Waghorn, one of the few persons who escaped from the sinking of the Royal George,
in 1782. The parsonage-house was originally built of wood, and surrounded by a
moat, now filled up. In this parish was a small water-course called the river Tigris,
part of Cnut's trench ; and a parishioner who died at the age of 109 years, early in the
present century, remembered when boats came up as far as the church at Newington.
In the church is buried Mr. Sergeant Davy (d. 1860). He was originally a chemist at Exeter : and
a sherift" 's officer coming to serve on him a process from the Court of Common Pleas, he civilly asked
him to drink ; while the man was drinking, Davy contrived to heat a poker, and then told the bailiflf
that if he did not eat the writ, which was of sheepskin and as good as mutton, he should swallow the
poker ! The man preferred the parchment; but the Court of Common Pleas, not then accustomed to
Mr. Davy's jokes, sent for him to Westminster Hall, and for contempt of their process, committed him
to the Fleet Prison. From this circumstance, and some unfortunate man whom he met there, he ac-
quired a taste for the law ; and on his discharge he applied himself to the study of it in earnest, was
called to the bar, made a sergeant, and was for a long time in good practice.— See Manning and Bray's
Mistory of Surrey.
St. Maet'S, Paddington, on the Green, was rebuilt in 1788-91 ; and its churchyards
are remarkable as the burial-place of several eminent artists; among whom are,
Bushnell, the sculptor of the statues on Temple Bar; Barrett, the landscape-painter;
Banks and Nollekens, the sculptors ; Vivares, Hall, and Schiavonetti, the engravers :
Caleb Whitefoord (see Goldsmith's Retaliation) ; Mrs. Siddons, the great actress ;
Collins, the painter ; and Haydon, historical painter. Hogarth was married in this
church to the daughter of Sir James Thornhill, March 23, 1729.
St. Maet's, Rotherhithe, close to the shaft of the Thames Tunnel, was rebuilt in
1736-39, upon the site of the old church, which had stood above 400 years. This new-
church has a lofty spire : in the vestry-room is a portrait of King Charles I., in his
robes, kneeling at an altar, and holding a crown of thorns, the composition resem-
bling the frontispiece to the JEikon BasiliJce. In the churchyard is buried Prince Lee
Boo, a native of the Pellew Islands, d. Dec. 29, 1784, at. 20 ; over his remains a
monument has been erected by the East India Company, in testimony of his father's
humane and kind treatment of the crew of the Antelope, wrecked off Goo-roo-raa, one
of the Pellew Islands, on the night of August 9, 1783.
St. Maey's Someeset (Summer's hith, or wharf), was destroyed in the Great
Fire of 1666, and rebuilt by Wren in 1685 : it has a tower, with pedestals and urns
and obelisks upon the summit, 120 feet high ; and the keystones of the arches are
sculptured with grotesque heads.
St. Maey's, Stoke Newington {2\ miles north from London), in the patronage of
the Prebendary of Newington, in St. Paul's Cathedral, was repaired, or " rather now
188 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
builded " (Siow), in 1563, of hewn stones, flint, and pebbles, but has been much
modernized. It has a square embattled tower, about 60 feet high, with six bells,
with an additional bell in a wooden cupola, and a clock made 1723. The chapel, and
a portion of the body of the church, under two other roofs, formed the whole of the
;aicient structure. The painted altar- window represents the Virgin Mary and the
Purification, the Birth and Preaching of St. John the Baptist, and the arms of Queen
Elizabeth ; and in the Chancel windows are the arms of the Drapers' Company and
the City of London. Among the communion-plate is a large silver offertory alms-dish.
In the Chancel is an elegant coloured alabaster monument to John Dudley, Esq., and
his widow, afterwards married to Thomas Sutton, Esq., founder of Charterhouse :
the writer of the long Latin inscription was rewarded with 10*., according to the roll
of Mr. Dudley's funeral expenses : and the tomb was restored in 1808 by subscription
of grateful Carthusians. Behind the church is Queen Elizabeth's Walk, a grove of
tall trees ; and at Newington Green is King Harry's Walk. At Stoke Newington
lived many years Mrs. Burbauld, the amiable educationist, who taught Lord Denman
•when a boy the art of declamation ; and Mr. Barbauld, her husband, was for four
years morning preacher to a Unitarian congregation at Newington-green.
St. Maet-le-Steand, erected on the site of a very ancient church, St. Ursula of
the Strand, and nearly upon the site of the old Maypole, was the first built (1714-17) of
Queen Anne's Fifty Churches, but was to our day called " the New Church." It was
not consecrated till Jan. 1, 1723. Gibbs, the architect, was desired by the Commis-
sioners " to beautify it," on account of its public situation : hence it is overloaded with
ornament. It was originally to have had only a small bell-tower at the west end,
changed to a steeple, which therefore appears to stand on the roof j it consists of three
receding stories, surmounted by a vane : when it was last repaired, at an expense of
4/71. 10s., the scaffolding cost 30Z. The exterior of the body is of two stories, Ionic
below, the lower wall " solid, to keep out noises from the street j" and Composite above,
surmounted by a balustrade and urns : during the procession to proclaim Peace, in
1802, one of these urns was accidentally pushed down on the crowd below, when three
persons were killed, and several ethers much hurt. The west end haa a semicircular
Ionic portico, and occupies the Maypole site. The interior is grand, but too florid,
with Corinthian and Composite pilasters, ceiling crowded with ornaments, and the
semicircular altar-part, with the triangular symbol of the Trinity glorified, and
cherubim, &c. The windows are hung with crimson drapery, and in the side inter-
columniations are paintings of the Annunciation and the Passion, by Brown. The old
church was " next beyond Arundell House, on the street side," and was " called of
the Nativitie of our Lady (St. Mary), and the Innocents of the Strand." (Stow.)
Seymour states, that its site became part of the garden of Somerset House, and that
when the Protector pulled down this old church, he promised to build a new one for
the parishioners, but death prevented his fulfilling that engagement. The Rev. Joshua
Denham was rector of St. Mary-le-Strand ; he wrote a brief History of the Chv/rch of
St. Dunstan'S'in-the- West.
St. Mary's, Windham-place, Marylebone, was designed by Sir Robert Smirke,
R.A., and consecrated Jan. 7, 1824, when the Rev. T. Frognall Dibdin, D.D., was
instituted rector. This church has a large painted east window, of the Ascension,
said to have cost 250 guineas. The circular tower and cupola, 135 feet high, are
picturesquely effective,
St. Maey's Woolnoth, one of the most striking and original churches in the
metropolis, is between the western ends of Lombard-street and King William-street.
This has been the site of a Christian church from a very early period, and previously
of a pagan temple. The church was rebuilt early in the fifteenth century, much in-
jured by the Great Fire, and repaired by Wren in the following year; to this Alderman
Sir R. Viner, living in Lombard-street, contributed liberally, to commemorate which,
says Stow, " a number of vines were spread over that part of the church which faced
Ms house." In 1716, the church, as we now see it, was rebuilt by Hawksmoor : the
west front, which has an elongated tower, like two towers united, has no prototype in
I
CJIUUGHE8 AND CRAPELS. 189
England ; but its details are so heavy as to indicate rather a fortress and prison than a
church. The interior, on the model of a Roman atrium, is nearly square : it has twelve
Corinthian columns, admirably arranged, and is profusely ornamented with panels and
carved mouldings. It contains an Organ built by Father Schmidt, in 1681. Here is
a tablet to the Rev. John Newton, the friend of Cowper, and Rector of this church for
twenty-eight years: it bears this inscription, written by himself:
" John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich
mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the I'aith.he had long laboured to destroy."
" 1 remember, when a lad of about fifteen, being taken bymy uncle to hear the well-known Mr. Newton
(the friend of Cowper the poet) preach his wife's funeral sermon in the church of St. Mary's VVoolnoth,
in Lombard-street. JSewton was then well stricken in years, with a tremulous voice, and in the cos-
tume of the full-bottomed wig of the day. He had, and always had, the entire possession of the ear of
his congregation. He spoke at first feebly and leisurely, but as he warmed, his ideas and his periods
seemed mutually to enlarge : the tears trickled down his cheeks, and his action and expression were at
times quite out of the ordinary course of things. It was as the ' mens agi^aws molem et magno se
corpore miscens.* In fact, the preacher was one with his discourse. To this day 1 have not forgotten his
text, Hab. iii. 17-18 : ' Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation.' Newton always preached extemporaneous." — Dr. Dibdin's Reminiscences of a Liter j,ry
Life, vol. i. p. 162.
The origin of Woolnoth is uncertain ; but is attributed to the beam for weighing wool,
which stood in the churchyard of St. Mary's Woolchurch, in the Stocks Market, on the
site of the Mansion-house : this church was burnt in 1666, and the parish is now united
to St. Mary's Woolnoth.
St. Mary's Woolnoth was saved from destruction in 1863, although it had been some time •priced for
sale. At a vestry meeting, the I-ord Mayor (Alderman Rose) as a parishioner by his tenancy of the
Mansion House, ably supported the opposition to the "amalgamation" scheme, and an amendment
rejecting it was carried unanimously. In the Report of the Ecclesiological Society, the committee
recorded that the parishioners had successfully resisted a scheme put forward under the auspices
of the Bishop of London's Act for the demolition of the remarkable church of St. Mary Woolnoth
(Hawksmoor's chef-d'oeuvre), which it was proposed to destroy for the convenience of the General
Post Office."
St. Matthew's, Oakeley-crescent, City-road, built by G. G. Scott, in 1848, in the
Early English style, has an ornamented four-storied tower and spire, eastern lancet
windows, filled with stained glass, and other meritorious details ; a picturesque stone
porch was added July, 1866.
St. Matthias, Stoke-Newington, a Gothic church, Butterfield, architect ; seats,
all free. Incense and the Eucharistic vestments are used ; and all expenses are paid
from the weekly offertory, except a small endowment for the incumbent.
St. Matthew's, Bethnal-Green, built in 1740, has at the west end a low square
tower, with a large stone vase at each angle. A second church, St. John's, was built
by Sir John Soane, and much resembles the Grecian church of the Holy Trinity,
Regent's Park. In 1839, there were only these two churches for a population of
80,000, and schools for about 1000 children, "there were next built in the parish ten
churches : St. Matthew's, St. John's, St. Peter's, St. Andrew's, St. Philip's, St. James
the Less, St. James the Great, St. Bartholomew's, St. Jude's; and St. Simon Zelotcs,-
the latter at the sole expense of Mr. W. Cotton. These churches owe their origin to
the exertions of Bishop Blomfield ; there have been added three churches since the
accession of Bishop Tait in 1856. St. Matthew's church, except the walls, was burnt
on the night of Dec. 18, 1859, during a hard frost ; the water froze as it was poured on
the burning ruins. It was rebuilt by a rate levied on the parish. The apse is very
handsomely coloured, and has a carved stone reredos, with cross, and scenes from the
life of Christ. There is a good east-end window of the Crucifixion ; the stone pulpit
and font are finely carved. There is a curious old staff" used by the beadle, the head of
which (in silver gilt) presents the legend of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green and his
daughter, as in the old ballad ; the date 1669. — Mackeson's Churches.
St. Matthew's, Brixton, at the junction of the Tulse-hill and Brixton-hill roads, is
of Grecian Doric design, by Porden, and was consecrated in 1824 : it has a noble por-
tico, resembling the pronaos of a Grecian temple ; at the east end is a tower surmounted
190 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
with an octa<ronal temple, from that of Cyrrhestes, at Athens. In the churchyard is a
costly mausoleum of Grecian design, upwards of 25 feet high.
St. Michael and all Akgels, Paul-street, Finsbury, is built of yellow brick ;
style, First and Second Pointed ; architect, J. Brook ; opened, 1865. The interior, de-
signed for " ffisthetic service," is of great width, height, and length ; and " the deep
Chancel, narrower than the Nave, and raised several steps, gives importance to the
skilftiUy-arranged grouping of priests and choristers, banners and crosses, millinery and
flowers, and saves even the processions from appearing mean." (Companion to the
Almanack, 1866.) It will accommodate nearly 1000 persons ; cost of site, 4700Z.,
of which one gentleman contributed 3000^. ; the building cost 7500^., towards which
another (or the same) anonymous donor gave 6000/. The bare walls look cheerless, but
the architect designed them to be covered with paintings and other decorations. And
apart from its aesthetic character, the interior is a success ; the nave columns scarcely
intercept the sight, and the acoustic principles seem good — you hear the preacher and
reader well from very different parts of the church, and the tones of the organ pro-
duce no awkward reverberation.
St. Michael's Bassishaw (haugh, or hall, of the Basing family), Basinghall-
street, was originally founded about 1140, and rebuilt in 1460 ; here was interred Sir
John Gresham, uncle to Sir Thomas Gresham, and Lord Mayor in 1547 : at his funeral,
on a fast-day, a fish dinner was provided for all comers :
" He was b'oried with a standard and pennon of arms, and a coat of armour of damask (Damascus
steel), and four pennons of arms ; besides a helmet, a target, and a sword, mantles and the crest, a goodly
hearse of wax, ten dozen of pensils, and twelve dozen of escutcheons. He had four dozen of great staff
torches, and a dozen of great long torches. The church and street were all hung with black, and arms
in great store ; and on the morrow there goodly masses were sung." — Stow.
The old church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1676-79. It
contains a beautifully sculptured monument to Dr. T. Wharton, who did so much to
stay the Great Plague of 1665 ; and here rests Alderman Kirk man, sheriff-elect in 1780,
who died, at the age of 39, of a cold taken in aiding to suppress the Riots.
St. Michael's, in Chester-square, Pimlico, is a picturesque church in the Decorated
style of the fourteenth century, and has a tower and spire rising from the ground at
the west end, 150 feet high ; Cundy, architect, 1844; the details are very characteristic
St. Michael's, Comhill, was destroyed by the Great Fire, except the great tower,
which contained a celebrated set of ten bells : the body was first rebuilt by Wren, and
fifty years later (1729) the tower itself, which is an imitation of tlie splendid chapel
tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, built in the fifteenth century, and 145 feet high;
but St. Michael's is only 130 : it has a set of twelve bells. The site is presumed to
have been occupied by a church since the Saxon dynasty ; it had a cloister and pulpit
cross. Of the old steeple, destroyed in 1421, a pen-and-ink drawing upon vellum is
preserved on the fly-leaf of a vellum vestry-book (temp. Henry V.) belonging to the
parish. In the old church and churchyard were buried Robert Fabyan, the chronicler
and sheriff ; and the father and grandfather of John Stow, the antiquary. In the pre-
sent church was buried Philip Nye, with " the thanksgiving beard," in 1672 ; Nye was
curate of St. Michael's from 1620 to 1633. The architect, in rebuilding the tower,
adhered to the Gothic style, and though the details are poor, the general outline is
noble and effective. It was long shut in, but some of the houses which intervened
between the north side of the tower and Cornhill being cleared away, to obtain an
entrance there to the church, a porch has been built, and two stages of the tower itself
have been repaired and altered, windows with tracery, and a new circular window with
wheel tracery immediately above the porch, having been inserted. The six shafts in
the jambs of the principal doorway are of red polished granite.
The sculpture in the gable of the doorway represents Our Lord in the act of benedic-
tion. In the tympanum below is a group representing Michael disputing with Satan
about the body of Moses. The other carving consists of medallions of angels, bosses of
foliage, &c. Architects, Scott and Mason. The church has been entirely refitted wif
carvings executed by Rogers, under the direction of Scott and Williams, architects.
The pulpit is hexagonal, on a dwarf column of Portland stone, with the hand-rail supported
om^nicntal brass-work. On the angles are twisted pillars, each with various designs, and supporting
I
I
CEUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 191
a cornice with branches of the hawthorn. The panels have each a different diaper pattern, with boldly-
carved symbols of the four Evangelists in roundels. The reading-desk has two double arches and ten
pilasters. The centre pillars are round, resting on square bases. On each of the angles are heads of
the dragon, in reference to the prowess of the patron Saint. The perforated friezes in the screens
behind the choir-seats in the chancel are of foliated scroll-work, mterspersed with sacred fruits and
emblematical flowers— the passion-flower, trefoil, pomegranate, lily/figs, and olives.
Sixteen panels have been carved for the chancel-gates : Moses in the Bulrushes ; the Tablets of the
Law, with the sword of Justice ; the Star of Bethlehem ; the Gospel of Peace, over which is a dove ;
the Brazen Serpent m the Wilderness; the Seven-branch Golden Candlestick; emblems of the Sacra-
ment (wheat and grapes) ; chalice and paten. Solomon's Glory, represented by three crowns rising
out of three full-blown liJies ; the Crown of Victory; emblems of the passion-flower; the Resurrection,
emblematized by a butterfly issuing from a chrysalis; Light out of Darkness, the Snowdrop; Faith,
Hope, and Charity ; the Trinity in Unity.
The first seat south of the chancel is a representation of the Agony in the Garden. The cup is en-
closed in foliage at the top, and at the back is a branch of olives copied from one gathered by E. T.
Eogers, vice-consul of Caiffa, Palestine, in the garden of Gethsemane : around the outer edge of this
bench-end are the words, " Not my will, but Thine be done."
The fronts and backs of the seats have a double row of variously enriched panelling, 180 in number,
the upper row being alternately relieved by sprigs or branches of sacred flowers bound with labels, and
having suitable inscriptions in raised letters, such as " In the midst of judgement He remembers
mercy ;" " Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him," &c. &c.
At the chancel end of the centre aisle there are seven seats set apart for special purposes. On the
right is the royal pew, with an enriched double shield surmounted by the crown, V.R., and the motto
"Dieu et mon droit ;" her Majesty's monogram, "Victoria, in the form of a Greek cross, enclosed in foli-
age and flowers, the rose, thistle, and shamrock. The Diocesan pew has ecclesiastical shield with
croziers, mitre, and the crossed swords representing the martyrdom of St. Paul ; the Corporation pew,
the City arms and representation of St, George, «S:c. ; the pew of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, en-
riched shield, date, and motto of the company, " Unto God only be honour and glory," surmounted by
the triple crown issuing from clouds, with rays of light : on the inside are a triple branch of lilies, the
emblem of the Virgin, the patroness of the Company, the shield of Fitzalwyn, the first mayor of London.
On the pew of the Merchant Tailors* Company are the shield, &c. of the Company, and in one part is
introduced an illustration of a text from St. Augustine's 19th chapter of St. John,— God is all to thee : if
thou be hungry. He is bread : if thou be thirsty, He is water : if in darkness. He is light : and, if
naked, He is a robe of immortality." In this instance Mr, Eogers has figured the star of light, the
bread, chalice, and the robe, in a manner which describes the text. Next are the pews of the Cloth-
workers' Company, and the Rector's pew ; on the former the teasel is conspicuous, and on the latter the
monogram of the Rev. T. W, Wrench, surmounted by a branch of olives. All the bench-ends in this
aisle have a shield, emblazoned on the outside, enclosed by Greek foliage : on the inside are fruits and
flowers, such as the gourd of Jonah, Syrian dates, nut fruit, oak and acorns, chestnuts, wheat ears,
mulberry, pine fruit, the Rose of Sharon, olives, figs, &c. Amongst the carvings on the benches for
the north aisle, is a female figure of Charity, seated in an ecclesiastical chair, supported by pelicans : she
is feeding and protecting three children, the idea from an early sculpture in Valterra marble. On other
seats are the pelican in her piety ; the fall of man represented by the serpent coiling round the for-
bidden tree. On the back is the lily of the valley. The sage-plant of Palestine is combined with the
primrose of England, the stork of the wilderness, &c. On some of these are the sage-plant of the East,
combined with a branch of oak ; the ivy and the anemone, and the common flowers of the East ; a
cluster of pomegranates and bell-flowers, Aaron's rod, a triple branch of lily rising out of a bulbous root,
which is given in the form of a heart. On the device of a Latin cross is suspended the passion-flower;
the carving of the scape-goat wandering in the wilderness, with the mark of the High Priest on his
forehead: in the background is forked lightning, indicating the wrath of God. On the back of this
standard is a crown of thorns,—" On him was laid the iniquity of us all." In the design of these
numerous carvings Mr. Rogers has been assisted by his son, Mr. W. H. Rogers.— (See the descriptive
pamphlet, by Mr, Rogers.)
The colouring of the w^alls and ceiling of the church, the altar of alabaster and
marble, and the stained glass in the windows, are all executed with great richness.
St. Michael's, Crooked-lane, was of ancient foundation, before the year 1304. In
1336, John Loveken, four times Lord Mayor, rebuilt the church, which received several
additions and benefactions from Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor in 1374, and for-
merly servant to Loveken. St. Michael's was a general burial-place of stockfish-
mongers; Loveken and Walworth rested here. The church was destroyed in the
Great Fire, but rebuilt by Wren in 1687; it had a Portland stone tower, 100 feet high,
and a picturesque steeple, with clock, vane, and cross. This handsome church was
taken down in 1831, in forming the New London Bridge approaches. Crooked-lane,
** so called of the crooked windings thereof," was then in part taken down ; it was
famous for its bird-cage and fishing-tackle shops.
St. Michael's Pateknoster Eotal, Thames-street, is partly named from its neigh-
bourhood to the Tower Koyal, wherein our sovereigns, as early as King Stephen, re-
sided. The church was rebuilt by the munificent Whittington, who was himself buried
in it, under a marble tomb with banners, but his remains were twice disturbed : once
by an incumbent, in the reign of Henry VI., who fancied that money was buried with
him ; and next by the parishioners, in the reign of Mary, to rewrap the body in
lead, of which it had been despoiled on the former occasion (Godwin's Churches of
192 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
London). Whittington's church was destroyed by the Great Fire, but rebuilt by
Wren, and has a somewhat picturesque steeple. The interior has a beautiful altar-
picture, by Hilton, R.A., of Mary Magdalen anointing the feet of Christ : this fine
work was presented by the Directors of the British Institution in 1820. There was
long no memorial to Whittington in the present church, until the Eector contributed a
handsome painted window. The rights and profits of the old church Whittington
bestowed on a College and almshouses close by, the site of which is now occupied by
the Mercers' Company's School.
St. Michael's, Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire, was rebuilt by Wren in
1677 : it is chiefly remarkable for its spire, 135 feet high, with a gilt vane in the form
of a ship in full sail, the hull of which will contain a bushel of grain — referring to the
former traffic in corn at the Hithe.
St. Michael's, Wood-street, Cheapside, stands at the corner of Huggin-lane, named
from a resident there about the time of Edward I., and known as " Hugan in the
lane." The old church was destroyed by the Great Fire, and the present edifice
completed in its place by Wren, in 1675 : it is of very unecclesiastical design, but the
Wood-street front is well-proportioned Italian. The head of James IV. of Scotland,
slain at Flodden Field, Sept. 9, 1513, is said by Stow to have been buried here ; the
body was conveyed, after the battle, to London, and thence to the monastery of Sheen,
in Surrey, where it was seen by Stow, lapped in lead, but thrown into a waste room.
" Some workmen, for their foolish pleasure, hewed ofi" his head, which Launcelot
Young, master-glazier to his Majesty, brought to his house in Wood-street, where he
kept it for a time ; but at length gave it to the sexton to bury amongst other bones,"
&c. This statement is contradicted by the Scottish historians ; but Weever is positive
that Sheen was the place of James's burial.
St. Mildred's, Bread-street, destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren,
1677-83, is remarkable for being roofed by a large and highly enriched cupola ; and has
a pulpit and sounding-board and altar-piece exquisitely carved in the style of Gibbons.
St. Mildeed's, Poultry, was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren;
when was united with it the parish of St. Mary Colechurch, the church of which stood
at the south end of the Old Jewry; its chaplain was "Peter of Colechurch," who in
part built old London Bridge. St. Mildred's has a tower 75 feet high, surmounted by
a gilt ship in full sail. In the former church was buried Thomas Tusser, who wrote
the Points of Suslandrie, and was by turns chorister, farmer, and singing-master.
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, Fish-street-hill, destroyed by the Great Fire, and re-
built by Wren in 1677, has a tasteless steeple, 135 feet high, but some fine interior
carvings ; the parish register-books contain a list of persons, with their ages, whom
King James II. at his coronation touched for the cure of the Evil.
St. Olave, Hart-street, escaped the Great Fire : it is of Norman, Early English,
Decorated, and Perpendicular work ; the foundation and walls are of rubble, and the
upper part brick. There does not exist any account of its erection ; and the first men-
tion of its Eector, WDliam de Samford, who held that ofiice prior to 1319, and whose
salary was 2\ marks per annum, refers to an earlier structure than the present St.
Olave's. It has an interesting interior, with clustered columns and pointed arches and
windows, and the ceilings of the aisles powdered with stars. This church is often
mentioned in the Diary of Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Navy {temp. Charles II.
and James II.), who lived in a house belonging to the Navy Office, in Seething-lane,
and resided subsequently in Hart-street : he was buried in St. Olave's at nine at night,
" in a vault of his own makeing, by his wife and brother," "by y^ Communion Table,"
June 4, 1703 ; and there is a monument to his wife in the chancel. There ai-e also
several figure tombs and brasses ; and a marble figure of Sir Andrew Riccard (d. 1672),
who bequeathed the advowson of the living to the parish. There is likewise a monu-
ment to John Orgone and Ellyne his wife, with a quaint inscription, which is soi
times found in Latin :^
1
CHUBCEES AND CHAPELS. 193
" As I was so .be ye,
As 1 am you shall be.
That I gave that I have.
That I spent that 1 had.
Thus 1 ende all my cost.
That I left that 1 loste.— 1584."
St. Olave's was repaired in 1863 ; one of the towers at the west end of the south aisle,
hitherto bricked up, has been thrown into the church, and now forms a baptistry; the
roof, which is of oak, has been varnished, and the bosses, &c., gilt. A new reredos
has been erected, from a design of G. G. Scott j it is composed of Caen stone, and has
five panels of alabaster. In the churchyard are interred a number of victims to the
Great Plague : the first entry in the register is dated July 24, 1665 : " Mary, daughter of
William Ramsay, one of the Drapers' Almsmen ;" and there is a tradition that the pesti-
lence first appeared in the Drapers' Almshouses, Cooper's-row, in this parish. Here is
a peal of six bells, five made by Anthony Bartlet, in 1662; the sixth by James
Bartlet, in 1694.
St. Olave's, Jewry, a brick church, rebuilt by Wren, in 1763-76, upon the site of
the old church, destroyed in the Great Fire, is alone remarkable for containing the
remains of Alderman Boydell, the eminent engraver and printseller, who expended a
large fortune in founding the English School of Historic Painting : he was Lord Mayor
in 1790 (d. 1804); and on the north wall of the church is a tablet to his memory,
surmounted by his bust.
St. Olave's, Tooley-street, Southwark, in Bridge Ward Without, was designed in
1737-39, by Flitcroft, a pupil of Kent ; the funds being mostly advanced by a French
emigrant, on an annuity for his life ; and he dying soon after, it became a saying that
the Organ had cost more than the church : it had a richly- decorated interior, and a fine
peal of bells. The interior was burnt almost to the walls on August 19, 18 i3; when
also was destroyed Watson's Telegraphic Tower, originally a shot manufactory. St. Olave's
Church has since been handsomely restored. The former church was of the fourteenth
century, with a low square tower and bell-house. The first church was certainly
founded prior to the Norman Conquest, from its dedication to St. Olave, or Olaff", King
of Norway, who, with Etholred, in 1008, destroyed the bridge at London, then occupied
by the Danes. The present church is nearly on the site of this exploit ; for the first
bridge was somewhat eastward of the old bridge, taken down after the building of the
present bridge. St. Olave has been corrupted into St. Oley and Tooley-street.
St. Panceas-in-the-Fields, one of the oldest churches in Middlesex, is situated
on the north side of the road leading from King's Cross to Kentish Town. Norden, in
his Speculum Britannice, describes it, in 1593, as standing " all alone, utterly forsaken,
old and wether-beten ;" "yet about this structure have bin manie buildings, now
decaied, leaving poore Pancras without companie or comfort." St. Pancras is a pre-
bendal manor, and was granted by Ethelbert to St. Paul's Cathedral about 603. It was
a parish before the Conquest. Its ancient church, which Stukeley says occupied the
site of a Roman camp, was erected about 1180 ; it consisted of a nave and chancel,
built of stones and flints, and a low tower, with a bell-shaped roof. St. Pancras con-
tained, in 1251, only forty houses. Pancras was corrupted to " Pancredge" in Queen
Elizabeth's time. In 1745 only three houses had been built near the church. In
1775 the population was not 600. It is now the most extensive parish in Middlesex,
being eighteen miles in circumference. The annual value of land (including the
houses built upon it, the railways, &c.) is 3,798,521^.
*' Of late," says Strype, " those of the Roman Catholic religion have afiected to be
buried here, and it has been assigned as a reason that prayer and mass are said daily in
St. Peter's at Rome for their souls, as well as in a church dedicated to St. Pancras, in
the south of France." In Windham's Diary, we find another explanation of the choice :
— "While airing one day with Dr. Brocklesby, in passing and returning by St. Pancras
Church, he (Dr. Johnson) fell into prayer, and mentioned, upon Dr. Brocklesby inquiring
why the Catholics chose that spot for their burial-place, that some Catholics in Queen
Elizabeth's time had been burnt there." It is also understood that this church was the
last whose bell tolled in England I'or mass, and in which any rites of the Roman
o
194 CURI08ITJES OF LONDON.
Catholic religion were celebrated before the Reformation. The crosses with " Requiescat
in Pace," or the initials of those words, " R. I. P.," on the monuments and tombstoncF,
are very frequent. At the beginning of the present century the French clergy were
buried here at the average rate of thirty a-year. There is said to have been in the
church a silver tomb, which was taken away at the time of the Commonwealth, The
edifice, reconstructed and enlarged by A. D. Gough, was reopened July 5, 1848 : the
style adopted was Anglo-Norman : the building was lengthened westward ; the old tower
was removed, and a new one built on the south side ; and to the west end was added a
Norman porch, and a wheel- window in the gable above. In the progress of the works
were found Roman bricks, a small altar-stone. Early Norman capitals, an Early
English piscina, and Tudor brickwork. Under the old tower, which was then removed,
is said to have been privately interred, in a grave 14 feet deep, the body of Earl
Ferrers, executed at Tyburn, in 1760. The Chancel windows are filled with stained
glass, by Gibbs, as is also the western wheel-window. On the north wall, opposite
the baptistery, is the Early Tudor marble Purbeck memorial, supposed to have belonged
to the Gray family, of Gray's Inn ; the recesses for brasses removed, and neither dates
nor arms remaining. On the south-east interior wall is the marble tablet, with palette
and pencils, to Samuel Cooper, the celebrated miniature-painter ; the arms are those of
Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II., at
whose expense it is probable the monument was erected. The ancient communion-
plate of the church, date 1638, discovered in 1848, is now again in use.
In the burial-ground of Old St. Pancras are deposited scions of the noble families of Abergavenny,
Arundell, Barnewall, Calvert, Castlehaven, Clifford, Dillon, Fleming, Howard, Litchfield, Montagu, llut-
land, Waldegrave, Wharton, and other distinguished persons. Here lies Lady Barbara Belasyse,whose-
father was grandnephew of the Lord Falconberg who married Cromwell's daughter. Among the illus-
trious foreigners interred here are Count Harlang; Louis Charles, Count de Herville, Mareschal < "
France; Philip, Count de Montlosier, Lieutenant-Gene ral in the French army; Angelus Francises
Talaru de Chalmaret, Bishop of Coutances, in Normandy; Francois Claude Amour, Marquis deBouill^j
Augustinus Kenatus Ludovicus Le Mintier, Bishop and Count of Treguier : Alexandre Marquis de LirCj
Louis Claude Bigot de St. Croix, dernier Ministre de Louis XVI. ; Louise d'Esparbes, de Lussan, Com-
tesse de Polastron, Dame de Palais de la Keine de France; Louis Andr^ Grimaldi d'Antibes des Prince
de Monaco, Eveque, et Comte de Noyon, Pair de France; Jean Francois de la Marche, Bishop of Pc
St. Leon; Henri, Marquis de I'Ostanges, Grand Seneschal de Quercy, and Field Marshal of France j
Baroness de Montalembert ; Pascal de Paoli, the Corsican patriot, kinsman of the Bonapartes, and
such of the present Emperor of the French ; Pasqualino Philip St. Martin, Comte de Front, the
scription on whose tomb is — " A foreign land preserves his ashes with respect."
Near the church door is a headstone to William Woollett, the engraver, and his widow ; it was
restored some years since. On the north side of the churchyard is an altar-tomb to William Godwin,
author of Caleb Williams, and his two wives, Mary Wolstoncrofl Godwin and Mary Jane. Here, too,
is a headstone to John Walker, author of the Pronouncing Dictionary. Here, also, were buried
Abraham Woodhead, reputed by some the author of The Whole Duty of Man; and near him his friend,
Obadiah W^alker; Dr. Grebe, editor of the Sepluagint; Jeremy Collier, who wrote against the immor
rality of the stage in the time of Dryden; Lewis Theobald, the editor of Shakspeare; Lady Henricttj
Beard, daughter of an Earl Waldegrave, widow of Lord Edward Herbert, and wife of Beard, th(
singer; S. F. Ravenet, the engraver; Arthur liichard Dillon (of Lord Dillon's family). Bishop ol
Evreux, Archbishop of Narbonne, and President of the States of Languedoc ; the Chevalier D'Eon, &e
And here rests Father Arthur O'Leary, to whom Earl Moira erected a monument, which has beer
repaired by public subscription.
St. Pangeas, near Euston-square, Euston-road, was built by Messrs. Inwood ; the
first stone being laid by the Duke of York, July 1, 1819. The cella, or body of the
church, is designed from the Erechtheium, dedicated to Minerva Pohas and Pandrosua
at Athens ; and the steeple, 168 feet high, is from the Athenian Tower of the Winds,
with a cross, in lieu of the Triton and wand, symbols of the wind, in the original
The clock-dials are but 6| feet in diameter, though at the height of 100 feet, and there
fore are much too small. The western front of the church has a fine portico of sii
columns, with richly-sculptured voluted capitals ; beneath are three enriched doorways^
designed exactly from those of the Erechtheium, and exquisite in detail. Towards the
east end are lateral porticoes, each supported by colossal statues of females, on a plinth,
in which are entrances to the catacombs beneath the church, to contain two thousand
coffins : each of the figures bears an ewer in one hand, and rests the other on an iuJ
verted torch, the emblem of death ; these figures are of terra-cotta (artificial stone)J
formed in pieces, and cemented round cast-iron pillars, which in reality support the enj
tablature.
These figures are ill-executed, as may be seen by reference to the original Caryatides from the Pan
drosium, in the Elgin Collection in the British Museum. The St. Pancras figures, and other artificia
stone details for the church, were executed by Eossi, from Messrs. Inwood's designs, and cost 5400^
CHUBGEES AND CHAFELS. 195
The eastern front varies from the ancient Temple in having a semicircular termination,
round which, and along the side walls, are terra-cotta imitations of Greek tiles. The
interior is designed in conformity with the general plan of ancient temples. The
pulpit and reading-desk are made from the trunk of " the Fairlop Oak," in Hainaulfc
Forest, blown down in 1820. The cost of this classic edifice, much too close a resem-
blance to a Pagan temple to be appropriate for a Christian church, was 76,679/. The
fine Organ, recently erected, was originally built by Gray and Davison for the New Music
Hall at Birmingham, and cost nearly 2000/.
St. Paul's, Avenue-road, St. John's-wood, is of red and black brick, in various
pattei'ns, with stone window-frames and dressings ; the tiled entrance surmounted by
a wooden bell-cote. The roof is of high pitch and wide span, and is borne by the
walls, which have internal buttresses dividing them into five bays : there are, conse-
quently, no pillars to obstruct light or sound, but all is clear and open : architect,
S. S. Teulon; completed 1859.
St. Paul's, Camden New Town, St. Pancras, was built in 1848-9 (Ordish and
Johnson, architects) ; it is majestically situated, and consists of a nave and aisles, with
transepts and chancel, and a tower and spire at the west end, 156 feet high ; the
windows are Decorated, the roofs have crosses and crestings, and the arrangement is
very picturesque : this large church, for 1200 persons, cost less than 9000/.
St. Paul's, Covent Garden, was commenced for the ground-landlord, Francis Earl
of Bedford, by Inigo Jones, in 1631, but not finished till 1638 ; this being the last of
that great architect's works. The Earl's commission is stated to have been for a chapel
" not much bigger than a barn ;" when Jones replied, " Well, then, you shall have the
handsomest barn in England." The truth of this anecdote has been questioned : for
the fabric cost 4500/., a large sum for those days. Pennant ascribes the church to the
second Duke of Bedford, "whom," says Walpole (Letters, Sept. 18, 1791), "he takes
for the first, and even then would not be right, for I conclude Earl Francis, who died
in 1641, was the builder, as the church was probably not erected after the Civil War
began." It was built of brick, with a portico at the east front, consisting of a pediment
supported by four Tuscan columns of stone, and the roof was covered with tiles :
Hollar's print of it shows a small bell-turret surmounted with a cross. Within the
pediment was placed a pendulum clock, made by Richard Harris in 1641, and stated
by an inscription in the vestry to be the first made.
If this inscription be correct, it negatives the claim of Huyghens to having first applied the pendu-
lum to the clock, about 1657; although Justice Bergen, mechanician to the Emperor Kodolphus, who
reigned from 1576 to 1612, is said to have attached one to a clock used by Tycho Brahe. Inigo Jones,
the architect of St. Paul's, having been in Italy during the time of Galileo, it is probable that he com-
municated what he heard of the pendulum to Harris. Huyghens, however, violently contested for the
priority ; while others claimed it for the younger Galileo, who, they asserted, had, at his father's sugges-
tion, applied the pendulum to a clock in Venice which was finished in 1649.— Adam Thomson's Time
and Timekeepers, pp. 67, 68.
The ceiling of the interior was beautifully painted by E. Pierce, senior, a pupil of
Van Dyck. Inigo Jones was present at the consecration by Bishop Juxon, Sept. 27,
1638. In 1725 it is recorded that the Earl of Burlington gave 300/. or 400/. to
restore the portico, which had been spoiled by some injudicious repairs. Its appearance
in the middle of last century is familiar from one of Hogarth's prints of " The Times
of the Day." In the picture of " Morning " the front of this church is represented.
The church dial points to a few minutes before seven a.m., and two very incongruous
gi'oups appear — Miss Bridget Alworthy, with her foot-boy carrying her prayer-book,
going to the early service, while some dissipated rakes are staggering out of Tom
King's Coffee-house, hard by.
In 1788, the walls of the church were cased with Portland stone ; and the rustic
gateways at the east front, which Jones had imitated in brick and plaster from Palladio,
were then rebuilt with stone. In 1795, the interior of the church was burnt, the fine
old roof, the stained glass, and some pictures, including one of Charles I., by Lely,
being then destroyed ; but the portico and the walls remained, and the edifice was
restored by the elder Hardwick. The altar-piece has two figures of angels, sculptured
by Banks, R.A, Among the eminent persons interred here are Samuel Butler, author
2
196 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of Kudibras, whose friends could not aiford to bury him in Westminster Abbey ; Sir
Peter Lely, the painter, to whom there was a monument, with a bust by Gibbons,
destroyed with the old church ; Edward Kynaston, the famed actor of female parts,
who played Juliet to Betterton's Romeo ; William Wycherley, the witty dramatist,
who had " a true nobleman look ;" Susannah Centlivre, who wrote The Wonder ;
Grinling Gibbons, the sculptor and wood-carver ; Dr. John Armstrong, known by his
didactic poem, The Art of Preserving Health ; and Charles Macklin, the actor, at the
supposed age of 107 : the two last in a vault under the Communion-table. Another
centenarian, named by Strype, is Marmaduke Conway, buried here 17 17, at the age of
108 years and some months : he was in the service of the royal family from the reign of
King James I. to his dying day, and was much liked by Charles I. for his skill in hawking.
Here, too, lie Michael Kelly, the musical composer ; and Estcourt, the founder of the
original Beef-steak Club. Wolcot (Peter Pindar,) lies beneath the vestry -room ; and
Butler in the churchyard, abutting on King-street. Dr. Arne's remains are also said to
rest here without any tombstone or memorial. In the churchyard lies Sir Robert
Strange, the engraver, who published his own prints at " the Golden Head," Henrietta-
street. Holland and Edwin, and many players of minor note, are also buried in the
churchyard. The portico and overhanging roof of the church are picturesque in
eftect ; and the whole building is impressive from its vastness, and agreeable from the
simple rusticity of the order.
Du Val, the famous highwayman, executed at Tyburn, Jan. 21, 1669, after lying in state at the
Tangier Tavern, St. Giles, was buried in the middle aisle of St. Paul's ; his funeral was attended with
flambeaux, and a numerous train of mourners, including many of the fair sex.
Before the portico of St, Paul's Chuich is erected the hustings for the election of members of Par-
liament for Westminster. Contests are now restricted to one day ; but Westminster was, for many
Parliaments, the cockpit wherein battles of Court and people were fought, when " madman's holiday"
extended to fifteen days; from Bradshaw and Waller to Fox and Sheridan; Burdett, Cochrane, and
Hobhouse ; and the popular dii minores. Hunt and Cartwright.
St. Paul's, Herne-hill, between Camberwell and Dulwich, was built in 1844-5, by
Stevens and Alexander, in the Perpendicular Gothic style of the 15th century. It had
a lofty stone tower and spire, and a highly-decorated interior : the ceiling was divided,
by moulded beams and Gothic tracery, into panels, elaborately painted ; the beams
had illuminated Scripture texts ; all the windows were filled with stained glass ; the
open seats were of polished oak ; the floor is laid with coloured encaustic tiles, and the
chancel-steps with tasteful porcelain, by Copeland ; the Decalogue, &c., was written in
illuminated characters upon porcelain slabs ; and the pulpit panels were filled with paint-
ings of the Evangelists and Apostles. As this was one of the earliest specimens of
modern High-Church embellishment, so it was one of the most beautiful. The interior
was destroyed by fire in 1858, but has been rebuilt (Street, architect) in an earlier
style, and according to stricter ecclesiastical principles. Mr. Ruskin has pronounced
the church to be, as it now stands, " one of the loveliest churches of the kind in th(
country, and one that makes the fire a matter of rejoicing."
St. Paul's, Lorimore-square, Walworth, erected 1857, H. Jarvis, architect ; Earl;
English, with Transition details; has a tower and spire of good form, at the north-east
angle, 122 feet high.
St. Paul's Chukch por Seamen op the Poet of London, near the Londo:
and St. Katharine's Docks, the Sailors' Home, and the Seamen's Asylum, was found
by Prince Albert, May 11, 1846, and consecrated July 10, 1847 ; H. Roberts, archite(
The style is Early English, with a western tower and spire 100 feet high. Prin(
Albert gave the east window and communion-plate, and was present at the consecratioi
" In the course of a year it is computed that about 7000 seamen come to this church
field of usefulness that can scarcely be overrated." — (Low's Charities of London, p. 390.]
St. Paul's has superseded the Episcopal Floating Church, originally the Brazen sloo;
of-war: she was moored in the Pool, and fitted with a small organ; and boa1
were provided on Sundays at the Tower-stairs for the free passage of sailors
attend the ship service, which was under the direct superintendence of Dr. BlomfieL
Bishop of London.
St. Paul's, Shadwell, named from its being in the patronage of the Dean am
Chapter of St. Paul's, was originally built in 1656 ; but rebuilt, as we now see itj
I
CEURCHES AND CHAPELS. 197
1820-1, by Walters, who died in the latter year : it has a beautiful spire, and is
throughout a very meritorious design. The parish, formerly a hamlet of Stepney, was
called Chadvvelle, from a spring dedicated to St. Chad, within the churchyard.
St. Paul's, Virginia-row, Bethnal-green, VV. Wigginton, architect, is an inexpensive
church, built for a very poor neighbourhood. It is of ordinary stock brick, with red
and black bands ; has a four-light east window, with tracery ; and at the north-east
angle a square chamfered tower of four stages, with a short broach spire.
St. Paul's, Wilton-place, Knightsbridge, designed by Cundy, was consecrated by
the Bishop of London, May 30, 1843. It has an Early Perpendicular and eight-
pinnacled tower, 121 feet high. It consists of a nave and two aisles, and a chancel,
the latter very handsome ; here, in advance of the reading-desk and pulpit, is the
lectern. On the south are three sedilia ; over the Communion-table are three com-
partments of stonework, terminating in a reredos, above which is the great window of
stained glass, by Wailes, portraying the Prophets and the Twelve Apostles : the
window and stonework cost lOOOZ. The font is of Caen stone, and has eight sculptured
panels, angels holding a shield or book, plant bosses, &c. The Organ is a very powerful
one, and has a richly-canopied case ; it covers 14 feet square, and is 30 feet high.
The roof is open, and is said to be the largest unsupported by pillars of any ecclesias-
tical edifice in the metropolis. Eight of the side windows are filled with stained
glass, by Wailes, representing scenes and actions of St. Paul and other Apostles. The
choral service is efiiciently performed; the silver-gilt Communion- plate is very massive;
the altar appointments are truly Anglican. The cost of this church was 11,000Z.,
exclusive of fittings. The Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford,
appointed to the incumbency in 1843, resigned in 1850, and was succeeded by the
Hon. and Rev. R. Liddell. The furniture and services of this church have given rise
to much ritualistic controversy and litigation.
St. Petee's, Belsize-park, Hampstead, is a cruciform Decorated church, with a nave,
five bays, and a handsome east window of five lights ; all the windows are of stained
glass, stated to be the work of the incumbent : completed 1859.
St. Peter's, Cornhill, was rebuilt of brick by Wren, after the Great Fire; it has
a tower and spire 140 feet high, surmounted by an enormous key, the emblem of St.
Peter. Here is a tablet recording the death by fire, Jan. 18, 1782, of the seven
children of James and Mary Woodmason, of Leadenhall- street. The nave and
chancel are separated by a carved wainscot rood-screen, set up by direction of Bishop
Beveridge, who was 32 years rector of St. Peter's, and who paid special attention to
the appropriateness of church furniture and repairs. An inscription upon a brass plate
in the vestry-room describes the old church as founded a.d. 179, — a statement un-
supported by facts. Stow records a murderer to have fled to St. Peter's for sanctuary
in 1230 J and one of the priests was murdered in 1243.
St. Peter's, Eaton-square, Pimlico, an Ionic Church; H. Hakewill, architect;
consecrated in 1827. The altar-piece, " Christ crowned with Thorns," painted by W.
Hilton, R.A., was presented to the church by the British Institution.
St. Peter's, Saffron-hill, a district church of St. Andrew's, Holborn, was designed by
C. Barry, R.A., in the Anglo-Norman Style, and consecrated in 1832 : it has been placed
in a proverbially depraved locality, with the most salutary effect.
St. Peter's, Sumner-street, Bankside, designed by Edmunds, and consecrated 1839,
is in the plain Pointed style, and has an embattled tower 84 feet high.
St. Peter's-le-Poor, Old Broad-street, was taken down in 1788, rebuilt by Jesse
Gibson, and consecrated by Bishop Porteus in 1792. The church is traceable to
1181 : it was " sometime peradventure a poor parish" (Stow), but scarcely now con-
tains one pauper.
St. Peter's, Vauxhall, occupies part of the site of the once famous Vauxhall
Gardens, was designed by J. L. Pearson, and consecrated in 1864. The style is First
Pointed, of French type. It has two aisles, a western vestibule, nave, baptistery attached
to the west side of the south aisles, and polygonal aisleless chancel ; there are four
198 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
bays to the nave, which comprises a sort of blank triforium, to be hereafter filled wi
pictures, the subjects of which, it is suggested, should be from the Old and New Test
ments, on the respective appropriate sides. The triforium of the chancel is open5
composed of seven coupled lights, with rear-vaults and detached shafts ; the clerestory
of the chancel is composed of acute lancets deeply splayed. The reredos of alabaster,
carved, is by Poole ; the mosaics on the wall are executed by Dr. Salviati, of Venice.
Beneath the triforium arcade of the east end it is proposed to place a line of frescoes,
representing the Passion. The whole of the church is groined in brick, with stone
ribs springing from vaulting-shafts of red stone, with carved capitals. The pulpit is
square, and of stone, with an incised picture towards the west, representing St. Peter
preaching on the Day of Pentecost : it is also richly carved. " Mr. Pearson's excellent
Church of St. Peter's is memorable as the first example, in London, in the present
revival, of a church vaulted throughout." — Eeport of the JEcclesiological Society.
St. Peter's ad Vinccjla, the chapel of the Tower, situate north-west of the White
Tower, dates as early as Henry I. : it was restored by Edward III., who added 18Z. to
the original 3Z. of rectorial endowment. The seats are appropi-iated to the inhabi-
tants of the Tower. It is a very old rectory, and was put under the jurisdiction of
the Bishop of London by Edward VI. and Queen Mary : it is extra-parochial. The
present chapel was erected te'^np, Edward 1. ; it is of squared stones and flints, and has a
small bell-tower. The interior consists of a chancel, nave, and north aisle, the two latter
separated by flat-pointed arches springing from clustered columns j but little of the
original building remains. This chapel is extremely interesting, as the burial-place of
these eminent persons, executed within the Tower walls or upon Tower-hill : Queen
Anne Boleyn (beheaded 1536) ; Queen Katherine Howard (beheaded 1542) ; Sir
Thomas More (beheaded 1535) ; Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex (beheaded 1540) ;
Margaret Countess of Shrewsbury (beheaded 1541) ; Thomas Lord Seymour, Lord
Admiral, beheaded 1549, by warrant of his own brother, the Protector Somerset, who
in 1552 was executed on the same scafibld; John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
(beheaded 1553).
" There lyeth before the High Altar in St. Peter's Church, two Dukes between two Queenes, to wit,
the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland, between Queen Anne and Queen Katherine,
all four beheaded." — Stow (Houeg's).
Lady Jane Grey and her husband. Lord Dudley (beheaded 1553-4) ; Robert Deve-
rcux. Earl of Essex (beheaded 1600) : under the communion table lies the Duke of
Monmouth (beheaded 1684) ; and beneath the gallery. Lords Kilmarnock and Bal-
merino (beheaded 1746) ; and Simon Lord Lovat (beheaded 1747). The Register
records the burial in this chapel of Sir Thomas Overbury, poisoned in the Tower, 1613 :
and here lies Sir John Eliot, who died a prisoner in the fortress, his son IJeing refused
by King Charles I. permission to remove the body to Cornwall for interment. Also
are buried in St. Peter's, John Roettier, " his Majesty's engraver at the Tower ;" and
Colonel Gurwood, who edited the Wellington Despatches. In the north aisle is the
altar-tomb, with effigies, of Sir Richard Cholmondeley (Lieutenant of the Tower,
temp. Henry VII.) and his wife. Lady Elizabeth. In the chancel is a rich marble
monument to Sir Richard Blount and his son Sir Michael, Lieutenants of the Tower,
sixteenth century ; with figures of the knight and his sons in armour, and of his wife
and daughters. Here also is the tomb of Sir Allan Apsley, Lieutenant of the Tower ;
and in the nave-floor is the inscribed gravestone of Talbot Edwards, keeper of the
Regalia in the Tower when Blood stole the crown. In the Tower Liberties the paro-
chial perambulation on Holy Thursday is triennial : after service in the church of St.
Peter, in the Tower, a procession is formed of the headsman bearing an axe, a painter
to mark the bounds, yeomen-warders with halberts, the Deputy-Lieutenant, and other
officers of the Tower, &c. ; the boundary-stations are painted with a red broad arrow
upon a white groimd, while the Chaplain of St. Peter's repeats " Cursed be he who j
removeth his neighbour's landmark." ■
St. Peter's, Walworth-road, in the parish of St. Mary, Newington, was built in
1823-5, and cost about 19,000Z. It is one of Soane's classic churches ; the west front
decorated with Ionic columns, and the tower has two stories, the lower Corinthian
and the upper Composite. The interior is in elegant and original taste.
CHUECHE8 AND CHAPELS. 199
St. Petee's, Great Windmill-street, is in close juxtaposition with the Argyll
llooms. The first stone was laid by the Earl of Derby, in 1860 : it was built by
subscription of the richer of the parish of St. James's, to supply the wants of the
poorer. To the fund of 12,000^., Lord Derby contributed 4500/. It is remarkable
for its picturesque west front, the only portion not shut in by the surrounding houses :
the church cost about 6000Z., and the site a like sum : architect, Raphael Brandon ;
style. Decorated Early English.
St. Saviour's, Cedars-road, Clapham Common, built by the Rev. Wentworth
Bowyer, rector of Clapham ; James Knowles, architect ; cost about 10,000Z. ; is cruci-
form, and has, at the intersection of the nave and transepts, a central pinnacled tower,
120 feet high. The windows are filled with stained glass by Clayton and Bell, a con-
nected series, illustrating the life of our Lord on earth. Under the tower, and in
front of the altar rails, is an altar-tomb, bearing on it a recumbent effigy of Mrs.
Bowyer, co-foundress of the church, who died just before its completion. The style is
Second Pointed : the mouldings, tracery, and carving are good.
St. Savioue's, Hoxton, built 1866, J. Brooks, architect, of brick, with stone bands ;
in the First Pointed Gothic style, of Continental cast. The apse with half-conical roofj
the Nave roof 75 feet high, and the spirelet, rising like a sanctus bell, are externally
€ffective ; Lancet clerestory windows, good.
St. Saviour and Cross, Wellclose-square, was built at the expense of Christian V.
King of Denmark, in 1696, by Caius Gabriel Cibber, wl o erected here a monument to
his wife Janie, mother of Colley Cibber, the famous drau atist. King Christian VII. of
Denmark, attended the church in 1768 while he remained in this country : it is still
used by the Danes, as well as by St. George's Mission.
St. Saviour's, Pimlico ; architect, T. Cundy ; Second Pointed in style, has a tower
and spire 190 feet high, only 12 feet less than the height of the London Monument.
It cost 12,000Z., towards which the Marquis of Westminster contributed ^OOOZ.
St. Saviour's, Southwark, a short distance from the south foot of London-bridge,
ranks in magnitude and architectural character as the third church in the metropolis,
and is one of the few churches in the kingdom possessing a Lady Chapel. Roman
masom-y and pottery have been found below the church floor.
A romantic tradition is associated with this church. Stow, in the account which he received from
Linsted, the last Prior, describes it as " Saint Mari/ ouer the Bie, or Overy, that is, over the water.
This church, or some other in place thereof, was (of old time, long before the Con<iuest) an House
of Sisters, founded by a mayden named Mary, unto the which House and Si.-ters she left (as
was left to her by her parents) the ouersight and profits of a Crosse Ferrie, or traueise ferrie ouer the
Thames, there kept before any bridge was builded." {See London Bbidge, p. 65.) This story has
however, been much discredited. The shrouded figure now in the north aisle has been gossipingly
assigned to Audery, the Ferryman, father of the foundress of St. Mary Overie's, There is a curious,
although probably fabulous, tract of his life, entitled, "The True History of Ihe Life and sudden Death
•of old John Overs, the rich Ferry-Man of London, shewing how he lost his life by his own covetousness.
And of his daughter Mary, who caused the church of St. Mary Overs in Southwark to be built; and of
the building of London Bridge." There are two editions : the first, 1637, with woodcuts ; the second,
1774, " Printed for T. Harris at the Looking-Glass on London Bridge." It is among S. W. Musgrave's
Biographical Tracts in the British Museum. A synopsis of the story is given in the Chronicles of
London Bridge, pp. 40-44.
This was originally the church of the Augustine Priory of St. Mary Overie, and was
founded by the Norman knights, William Pont de I'Arche and William Dauncy. The
nave of the church is attributed to Giffbrd, Bishop of Winchester in 1106 (7th
Henry I.) ; and an arch, an apsis, and other remains of this date, have been uncovered
by the removal of the masonry of the church, altered in the reigns of Richard II. and
Henry IV. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, this church was purchased of
Henry VIII. by the people of Southwark ; and in 1540, it was made parochial as St.
Saviour's, and united with the two parishes of St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret-
at-Hill. The church is cathedral or cruciform in plan, with a nave, transepts, choir, and
Lady Chapel, and a lofty embattled tower at the central intersection ; besides Mary
Magdalen's and the Bishop's Chapels, now removed. An etching, by Hollar, executed
for Dugdale's Monasticon, shows the church about 1660. The Choir and Lady Chapel
were commenced in the Lancet style, according to an ancient chronicle: "John
200 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
anno X° (1208). Seynte Marie Overie was that yere begonne." In 1618, the fine
perspective of nave and choir was destroyed by an organ- screen, set up in place of the
ancient rood-loft. In 1624, the Lady Chapel, which had been let out as a bakehouse
for 60 years, was restored ; and in 1689, the tower was repaired, and the pinnacles were
rebuilt : height 150 feet. From the roof Hollar drew his celebrated Views of London,
before and after the Great Fire, lately rendered familiar by Martin's pen-and-ink
lithograph. The choir, transepts. Lady Chapel, and tower are the work of Bishop de
Kupibus, and afford a good specimen of the architecture of the commencement of the
thirteenth century, when the Pointed style flourished in its greatest purity. The
windows are lancet-shaped, the buttresses large and massive, united to the choir by
segments of arches ; the pinnacles which finish the buttresses closely resemble the cor-
responding works of Wykeham at Winchester. The eastern gable of the choir and
the foliated cross on the apex are very fine. " Of the east end," says Mr. George Gwilt, '
*' no remains of the more ancient building existed j for this part of the restoration, the
eastern end of Salisbury Cathedral furnished the requisite data, and this is fully borne
out by Wyngrerde's Drawing of London, 1543,"
For a long interval, the only repairs of the church tended to its disfigurement, by
barbarous brick casing and the destruction of beautiful windows ; until, in 1818, the
repair of the entire edifice was commenced with the tower. Ascending the tower, it
will be seen that a great portion of its elevation was open to the church as a lantern,
before the present painted ceiling, with its trap, was set up. " This tower," says Mr.
Gwilt, " if we may indicate the period of its erection from a well-preserved bust on
the north- west pier, must have been built so long ago as the time of King John. It
was not so much time, as the tremendous vibration caused by the ringing of a fine peal
of twelve bells, containing nearly eleven tons of metal (the tenor bell alone weighing
about 2^ tons), which split the tower on two sides, causing a fissure of three inches in
breadth. The further progress of this impending ruin was checked by the application
of cast-iron ties ; imperceptibly encircling each angular pier, as well as the four sides of
the tower, secured to octangular rings, ample allowances being provided for changes of
temperature." The pinnacles and embattled parapets were rebuilt, also windows in-
serted. This restoration was superintended by Mr. George Gwilt, F.S.A., who also,
in 1822-24, took down the east end of the church to the clerestory, and gave the pre-
sent face to the structure — his own design — consisting of an enriched gable, with an
elaborately foliated cross on its apex ; pinnacled staircase turrets, with niches at the
angles ; and a new triple lancet window, in the more florid style of the thirteenth cen-
tury, instead of the original window of five lights {temp. Henry VII.); besides a Catherine-
wheel window, of extraordinary richness and beauty. Over the vaulting a cast-iron
roof was erected, and covered with copper ; and the piers of the flying buttresses on
each side were cased with stone, the aisle windows built anew, &c. ; in all which Mr.
Gwilt has rigidly adhered to the former work, " not only in the general design, but
in the minutest details, wherever prototypes could be found." In 1829-30, the
transepts were restored from the designs of R. Wallace, architect; groined roofs were
added ; and in the south was introduced a circular window, designed from that in the
ruins of Winchester Palace, Bankside, discovered through a fire in 1814. In the north
transept has been inserted a window of circular tracery, in the style of Westminster
Abbey ; but the side windows, originally of beautiful length, have been injudiciously
shortened. Within, the transepts present a beautiful vista, second only to the choir.
The four magnificent arches which support the tower remain unaltered.
The Lady Chapel was used by Bishop Gardiner as a Consistorial Court in the reign
of Queen Mary. In 1555, a commission sat here for the trial of heretics. Bishop
Hooper and John Rogers being the first victims to the stake ; but within four years,
the Popish vestments were sold for the repairs of the church, and next the valuable
Latin records of the Priory were burnt as superstitious remains of Popery. The Lady
Chapel was restored in 1832, by j^ublic subscription, at the expense of 4027^. 19*. Ic^.,
Mr. G. Gwilt giving his gratuitous superintendence as architect. It possesses the sin-
gularity of four gables, which has a very beautiful eftect. The groined roof of the
Lady Chapel is very fine. Here is the marble tomb of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of
Winchester, with his full-length effigies, formerly in the Bishop's Chapel, where also
I
CHUBGEES AND CHAPELS. 201
his leaden coffin was found. Some stained-glass windows, in memory of Protestant
martyrs, have heen put up in the Lady Chapel, and are effective as seen from the choir.
The Nave, it is believed, the oldest part of the structure, was, in 1839, taken down
within 7 feet of the ground, and was sold for 150 guineas ! — by order of vestry —
the Organ being then moved up to form a temporary end to the Choir. The roof of the
nave had wooden bosses, sculptured with grotesque heads, shields, dragons, flowers,
fruits, &c. The trusses of the roof had knees, springing from stone corbels, carved
into winged angels, bearing shields painted with various colours. The roof of each
aisle was groined and ribbed, with bosses at the intersections. The timber roof of the
nave was a fine specimen of carpentry, said to have been put up by Bishop Fox (temp,
Edward IV.) At the west end were Tudor doorways, to let down tapestry on high
festivals over the walls. In the ruined nave have been found a semicircular-headed
door and some other portions of the Norman church ; and a semicircular apse at the
north-east corner of the vestry, formerly St. John's Chapel, was brought to light.
These fragments, together with some ether remains, would seem to show that the
church of the date of 1106 was situated on the north side of the present Choir. Thus
dismantled stood the roofless walls, and the massive Tudor doorway at the west end,
until, in 1838-9, the Nave was rebuilt for Divine Service in poor, incongruous style;
and being separated from the Choir, St. Saviour's now presents the anomalous appear-
ance of two churches in one ; but had the Nave been restored according to the ancient
example, the groined roof of the church would exhibit an uninterrupted perspective of
208 feet. The most picturesque views are from the clerestory vaultings of the Choir.
The commonplace oak and plaster of the last century have been removed from the
eastern end, thus unveiling the stone altar-screen, a beautiful composition of niches,
&c. ; and which, from its resembling that in Winchester Cathedral, and bearing Bishop
Fox's device of the pelican feeding her young, is inferred to be his workmanship : it
was restored in 1833, at the cost of 7001.
"In the fifteenth century, sculpture and painting lent their aid to complete and embellish this snmp-
tuous display of architecture. Upon the altar and under the central canopy, in the first range, stood
the crucifix ; the large niche above was appropriated to the statue of the Blessed Virgin, the patroness
of the church ; and the corresponding niche in the upper range we may as confidently assign to the
representation of the sacred Trinity ; the minor niches might be occupied by the sainted bishops of the
see. Above the whole, the design was carried on in the painted glass of the east window, inclosed as
it were in a richly sculptured frame : in this perfect state, what a magnificent scene was displayed in the
Choir !" — £1. J. Carlos, Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1834.
The church is very rich in painted sculpture tombs. In the south transept is the
Perpendicular monument of the poet Gower, removed from the north aisle of the nave
in 1832, when it was restored and coloured at the expense of the first Duke of
Sutherland, a presumed collateral descendant from the poet.* Here Gower and his
wife are buried ; the poet beneath the above monument, triple canopied, and richly
dight with gold and colour inscription, with the recumbent effigies of Gower in prayer :
his hair auburn, and long to the shoulders, and a small forked beard ; on his head a
purple and gold rose fillet, with the words, " Merci Ihu ;" a habit of purple, damasked,
down to his feet ; a collar of esses, gold, about his neck ; his head resting upon three
gilded volumes, the "Speculum Meditantis," "Vox Clamantis," and " Confessio
Amantis ;" on the wall at his feet are his arms, and a hat or helmet, with a red hood,
ermined, and surmounted by his crest — a dog. Opposite Gower's tomb is the coloured
bust of John Bingham, saddler to Queen Elizabeth and James I. In the north
transept is a richly-painted, carved, and gilt monument, with angels, rocks, suns, and
serpents, to William Austen, Esq., who wrote a poem of " Meditations." Next lies
Dr. Lockyer, the empiric {temp. Charles II.), his reclining effigies in thick curled wig
and furred gown :
" His virtues and his pills are so well known,
That envy can't confine them under stone." — Epitaph.
* "We are afraid, on the showing of Sir H. Nicolas and Dr. Pauli, that the family of the Duke of
Sutherland and Lord EUesmere must relinquish all pretension to being related to, or even descended
from, John Gower. They have hitherto depended solely upon the possession of a MS. of the Confessio
Amantis, which was supposed to have been presented to an ancestor by the poet ; but it now turns out,
on the authority of Sir Charles Young, Garter, that it was the very cupy of the work which the author
laid at the feet of King Henry IV., while he was yet Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby!" —
Review of Dr. Pauli's edition of the Confessio Amantis ; Athenaeum, No. 1537, p. 468, Baker is the only
Chronicler who gives the date of Gower's death correctly, namely, 1403, as in his Will ; most if not
all other writers represent Gower as dying in 1402 or 1403.
202 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
In the north aisle is the monument to John Trehearne, gentleman-porter to James I.,
Avith the costumed bust of himself and wife. Opposite is the tomb of Alderman
Humble {temp. James I.), . with kneeling figures of himself and his two .wives, and
representations of their children; and an inscription, slightly varied from a poem
attributed to Francis Quarles, commencing —
" Like to the damask rose you pee.'
Here, too, is an oaken effigy, supposed of one of the Norman knights, founders of the
church ; and near it is the figure of an emaciated man, wrapped in a shroud, and finely
sculptured. The burial register records, under 1607, " Edmond Shakespeare, a player,
in the church," the great dramatist's brother, and who, doubtless, was followed to the
grave by him as chief mourner ; under 1625 is " Mr. John Fletcher, a man, in the
church" (Beaumont and Fletcher) j and Philip Massinger, " a stranger," in the church-
yard, 1638-9. Beneath a gravestone in the Choir lies Sir John Shorter, who died
Lord Mayor, in 1688 ; and his wife, who died in 1703 : he was the grandfather of
Lady Walpole, wife of Sir Robert, and mother of Horace Walpole.
In the church was married, in 1406, Edmund Holland, last Earl of Kent, Lord
Admiral of England, and grandson of the Fair Maid of Kent, to Lucia, eldest daughter
of Barnaby, Lord of Milan : King Henry IV. gave away the bride at the church-door.
Here, on the termination of his sentence, the Rev. Dr. Sacheverel preached in
1713, on the Christian Triumph, or Duty of Praying for Enemies ; and the booksellers
gave him lOOZ. for the sermon.
The tower has a fine peal of twelve bells, and in the belfry are recorded exploits
performed upon them by the College and Cumberland Youths j though these
bells were not rung at the opening of London Bridge, in 183], from the alleged in-
security to the masonry. The clock, put up in 1795, has a dial 31 feet in circum-
ference; length of minute-hand, 5 feet; circumference of bell, 11 feet 6 inches. The
tower, east end, and Lady Chapel, originally concealed by the west side of the old High-
street, were opened to view in forming the approaches to New London Bridge, thus
presenting, perhaps, the finest architectural group in the metropolis : its restoration in
the present century has cost above 60,000Z.
St. Sepulchre's, anciently "in the Bailey," at the east end of Skinner-street, and
adjacent to Newgate, was damaged in the Great Fire, which just reached Pye Corner,
northward of the church. It was rebuilt about the middle of the fifteenth century.
The south-west entrance-porch, resembling a transept, has a groined roof, with bold_
ribs and beautifully-sculptured bosses ; adjoining is an ancient chapel, erected by tl
Popham family. The body of the church was refitted by Wren after the Fire. Tl
Organ, one of the largest and finest in London, was built by Harris, second only
Schmidt, in 1677, and has been enlarged ; the pedal organ, with ten stops, or fourtee^
ranks of pipes throughout, is unequalled in England. St. Sepulchre's was, in Newl
court's time, " remarkable for possessing an exceedingly fine Organ, and the playing i|
thought so beautiful that large congregations are attracted, though some of tl
parishioners object to the mode of performing Divine service." The pulpit has
sounding-board, like a parabolic reflector, with ribs of mahogany, the grain radiating
from the centre. Among the monuments is that of Capt. John Smith, Governor
Virginia, and a romantic traveller (d. 1631) : his eccentric epitaph, recorded by Strype
has disappeared. The benefactions to the parish include that of Mr. Richard Dow€
who left a hand-bell, to be rung, with certain forms, to the condemned criminals
Newgate, and on their way to Tyburn for execution, when it was also customary
present a nosegay to each. St. Sepulchre's tower, " one of the most ancient in th^
outline in the circuit of London" (^Malcolm), has four pinnacles with vanes, rebuil
1630-33, and is 140 feet high : it has a fine peal of ten bells ; the clock regulates th«
hanging of criminals at Newgate. " Unreasonable people," says Howell, " are as hai
to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never looked all four upon on^
point of the heavens." On April 10, 1600, one William Dorrington threw himsel
from the roof of this tower, leaving there a written prayer for forgiveness.
On St. Paul's Day, service is performed in the church in accordance with the will of Mr. PaulJervia
who in 1717, devised certain land in trust, that a Sermon should be preached in the church upon ever
Paul's Day, upon the excellence of the Liturgy of the Church of England; the preacher to receive ■'^
CHUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 203
for such sermon. Various sums are also bequeathed to the Curate, the Clerk, the Treasurer, and
Masters of the parochial schools. To the poor of the parish he bequeathed 20s. a-piece to ten of the
poorest housekeepers within that part of the parish of St. Sepulchre commonly called Smithfield
quarter; 4Z. to the Treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; and 6s. 8d. yearly to the Clerk, who shall
attend to receive the same. The residue of the yearly rents and prolits is to be distributed unto and
amongst such poor peopleof the parish of St. Sepulchre, London, who shall attend the service and sermon.
At the close of the service, the Vestry Clerk reads aloud an extract from the Will, and then proceeds to
the distribution of the money. In the evening the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Common CouncUmen of
the Precinct, dine together.
St. Simon's, Moore-street, Chelsea, J. Peacock, architect, is of Gothic design,
cruciform, with an interior of some polychromatic display, by means of coloured
marble shafts ; and it has a very large east window of five lights, filled with stained
glass : completed 1859.
St. Stephen's, Coleman-street, was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by
Wren, as we now see it, with a tower and bell-turret 65 feet high. Among the monu-
ments is a marble bas-relief, by E. W. Wyon, erected in 1847, to the Rev. Josiah
Pratt, Vicar of the parish, whose missionary labours are personified by the Angel of
the Gospel addressing an African, Hindoo, and New Zealander. A curious square oak
carving, about 5 feet by 2|, in alto-reli(jf, is inserted over the gateway of St. Stephen's,
which Mr. George Scharf thus describes : —
" From the two upper corners seems to hang a festoon of clouds, upon which in the centre, the
Saviour is seated in cumbrous drapery, holding the banner of Redemption in the right hand, and the
ball and cross in the left ; the significant action of the Judge is, therefore, entirely lost. He has a large
beard and rough hair, but no nimbus.
" Immediately beneath the Saviour, in front of the clouds, Satan is falling. He is represented
of a slim human form, with hideous face, horns and bats' wings : his feet are tied together ! The
entire space below is filled with the dead— all entirely naked— issuing from their coffins, which are
shaped like those now in use. At each end some figures are seen issuing from caverns. The central
figures below are large, fat children; but otherwise there is no distinction of age or sex. One angel, to
the left of the Saviour, sounds the trumpet.
" There are no musical instruments nor indications of entrance to the places of final reward. The
Book of Life also is not represented. The remaining space within the line of clouds is filled with winged
angels, many of them exceedingly graceful, busied in assisting the aspirants to heaven by reaching'
their hands over the clouds. Many of the figures, in their excitement, seem ready to scale the walls
of heaven; but the treatment of the whole is very unworthy of the subject. As a piece of carving it is
remarkably good, and superior to that over the lich-gate of St. Giles's."— ArchcBologia, vol. xxxvi. p.
389. See St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, p. 165.
In the old church was buried Master Antony Munday, who wrote a continuation of
Stow's Survey, and for more than forty years arranged the City pageants and shows.
Of this parish John Hayward was under-sexton during the Great Plague, when he
carried the dead to their graves, and fetched the bodies with the Dead Cart and Bell,
yet " never had the distemper at all, but lived about twenty years after it." — {See
Defoe's Memoirs.)
St. Stephen's the Maetye, Avenue-road, Portland-town, is a large Decorated
church, by Daukes, with a tower and spire 136 feet high ; towards building which
two individuals gave lOOOZ. each ; the freehold of the site and 500^. being also given
by the Duke of Portland.
St. Stephen's the Mautyr, Rochester-row, "Westminster, is a stately church, built
and endowed at the sole cost of Miss Burdett Coutts, as a memorial to her patriotic
father. Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., M.P. for Westminster thirty years. The site was
presented by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and is nearly opposite the Alms-
houses founded by Emery Hill in 1674. The first stone of the church was laid by
Miss Coutts, July 20, 1847 ; it was consecrated June 20, 1850. The style is the
Decorated, of the reigns of the first three Edwards j and the architect, Ferrey. The
church consists of a Nave with aisles, and a Chancel ; and on the north side a massive
tower and spire, 200 feet high, with a peal of eight bells by Mears ; all the windows
are richly traceried. The Chancel ceiling is coloured blue, powdered with gold stars ;
the walls are decorated with texts ; and the reredos is of the Canterbury diaper, picked
out in gold and colour : the altar-cloth was presented by the Duke of WelHngton, and
the chancel carpet was wrought in Berlin work by forty ladies of rank, the border by
the girls of St. Stephen's Schools ; the design consists of shields and heraldic devices
and panels of the fleur-de-lis and Tudor rose, within a Tudor rose border. The Organ,
by Hill, has a screen of diapered pipes, and cost 800 guineas. The nave and aisle roofs
204 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
are of oak ; and the arcade rests upon clustered shafts, with sculptured capitals. The
pulpit is of stone, and enriched with tracery ; and the font is sculptured with Scripture
subjects. The windows are filled with stained glass, by Wailes, and Powell's stamped
quarries. The stalls and seats are of oak, and for about 900 persons : in the chancel
is a handsome corona of gas-burners and candlesticks. Adjoining are Schools, of very
picturesque design, also by Ferrey. By an Order in Council, in the Gazette, April 9,
1856, no one is to be buried in St. Stephen's Church besides Miss Coutts and Mrs.
Brown (widow of Mr. Brown, who is already buried there) ; and their bodies are to be
imbedded " in a layer of powdered charcoal, six inches at least in thickness, and be
separately entombed in brickwork well cemented."
St. Stephen's, Spitalfields, E. Christian, architect, on the east side of Commercial-
street, was completed in 1862. It is of yellow brick, with red and black bricks,
sparingly introduced ; its distinctive feature being the apse, which, instead of serving
as the chancel, as is usual, is placed at the west-end of the nave — a fashion borrowed,
with some other features, from Germany. Beside it is a parsonage, as quaint as the
church. The interior of the church is an exact square, without the apse. The walls
are plastered, but the piers and arches are faced with red and white bricks.
St. Stephen's, Walbrook, is the third church of that name and locality : the first,
according to Dugdale, stood on the ivest side of the " Brook ;" the second, built in
1428, on the east side, was destroyed by the Great Fire ; and the present church.
Cinque-cento style, was built upon the same site, 1672-79, from the designs of Wren, at
a salary of lOOZ. a year ; and the parish accounts show that a hogshead of claret was
presented to the architect, and twenty guineas to his lady. The exterior is plain :
tower and spire 128 feet high. The interior is one of Wren's finest works, with its
exquisitely-proportioned Corinthian columns, and great central dome of timber and
lead, resting upon a circle of light arches springing from column to column ; its
enriched Composite cornice, the shields of the spandrels, and the palm -branches and
rosettes of the dome-coff'ers, are very beautiful ; and as you enter from the dark vesti-
bule, a halo of dazzhng light flashes upon the eye through the central aperture of the
cupola. The fittings are of oak : and the altar-screen. Organ-case, and gallery, have
some good carvings, among which are prominent the arms of the Grocers' Company,
the patrons of the living, and who gave the handsome wainscoting. The carved pulpit
has festoons of fruit and flowers, and canopied sounding-board, with angels bearing
wreaths. The church was cleansed and repaired in 1850, when West's painting of
the Martyrdom of St. Stephens, presented in 1779 by the then Rectoi-, Dr. Wilson,
was removed from over the altar and placed on the north wall of the church. The
large east window, painted by Willement, represents the ordination and death of the
proto-martyr, to whom the church is dedicated : the other windows, by Gibbs, are a
memorial to the late rector. Dr. Croly, the eloquent poet and imaginative prose-
writer, whose bust by Behnes, and monument by Philip, are here. In a niche is also
placed a bust of the architect of St. Stephen's, Sir Christopher Wren. There are four
large windows, two at either end of the church, and thirteen smaller ones. The sub-
jects of the large windows at the west end of the church are the Nativity and Baptism
of Christ ; at the east end, the Crucifixion and Ascension. The small windows at the
north side are illustrative of the Parables of our Lord : the Sower, Good Samaritan,
Prodigal Son, Dives and Lazarus, Pharisee and Publican, the Ten Virgins, and the
Good Shepherd. On the south side, the miracles represented are— Turning Water
into Wine, Raising Jairus's Daughter, Restoring the Bhnd to Sight, Feeding the
Five Thousand, the Pool of Bethesda, and Christ Walking on the Sea. The Organ
was built by England, and is very sweet-toned j the case harmonizes with the
beautiful architecture of the church.
This church, unquestionably elegant, has been overpraised. The rich dome is considered by John
Carter to be Wren's attempt to " set up a dome, a comparative imitation (though on a diminutive scale)
of the Pantheon at Rome, and which, no doubt, was a kind of probationary trial previous to his gigantic
operation of lixing one on his octangular superstructure in the centre of his new St. Paul's." Mr. J.
GwiltsaysofSt. btephen's: " Compared with any other church of nearly the same magnitude, Italy
cannot exhibit its equal ; elsewhere its rival is not to be found. Of those worthy notice, the Zitelle at
Venice (by Palladio), is the nearest approximation in regard to size, but it ranks far below our church
in point of composition, and still lower in point of eflect." Again: " Had its materials and volume
CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. 205
been as durable and extensive as those of St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren had consummated
(in St. Stephen's) a much more efficient monument to his Avell-earned fame than that fabric affords."
St. Stephen's serves also for the parish of St. Bennet Sherehog. Upon the north side
of Pancras-lane is a small enclosed piece of ground, and upon a stv^ne on an adjoining
house is inscribed, " Before the dreadful fire, anno 1666, here stood the parish church
St, Bennet Sherehog."
Pendleton, the celebrated Vicar of Bray, known by his multiversations, subsequently became rector
of St. Stephen's, WaJbrook. It is relatedthatinthereignof Edward VI., Lawrence Sanders, the martyr,
an honest but mild and timorous man, stated to Pendleton his fears that he had not strength of mind
to endure the persecution of the times ; and was answered by Pendleton that " he would see every drop
of his fat and the last morsel of his flesh consumed to ashes ere he would swerve from the faith then
established." He, however, changed with the times, saved his fat and his flesh, and became rector of
St. Stephen's, whilst the mild and diffident Sanders was burnt in Smithfield.
The oldest monument in the church is that of John Lilburne : Sir John Vanbrugh,
the wit and architect, is buried here, in the family vault. During the repairs in 1850,
it is stated that 4000 coffins were found beneath the church ; they were covered with
brickwork and concrete to prevent the escape of noxious effluvia.
St. Swithin's, London Stone, Cannon-street, was destroyed by the Great Fire,
and rebuilt by Wren, in 1680, as we now see it. It has a tower and spire 150 feet
high ; but is chiefly remarkable for having against its outer south wall, within a modem
stone case, all that remains of the ancient " London Stone," a Roman miliarium.
Before it was removed from the opposite side of Cannon-street it was well secured, for
Sir John Fielding, in his London and Westminster, 1776, tells us, " it was fixed so
very deep in the ground, and was so thoroughly fastened by bars of iron, that the most
ponderous carriages could do it no injury."
Temple Chuech {St. Mary's), in the rear of the south side of Fleet-street, was the
church of the Knights Templars after their removal from their chief house on the site
of old Southampton House, without Holborn-bars.* It consists of " the Round,"
built in 1185, and consecrated by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, some two cen-
turies, or nearly so, before the addition of the Gothic Latin Chapel of the time of
Edward II., as erected by the Knights of St. John after the expulsion of the Templars.
The inscription (from the Saxon) beneath the western entrance is :
"Ab incarnatione Domini MCLXXXV., dedicata haec ecclesia in honore beatae Mariis, a domino
ERACLIO, Dei gratia Sanctse Resurrectionis ecclesise patriarcha, IV. idus Februarii, qui earn anna-
tim petentibus de injuncta sibi penitentia LX. dies indulsit."
This is one of the four circular churches built in England after the Templars' return
from the first and second Crusades; the other three existing at Cambridge, Northampton ;
and Maplestead, in Essex. The architecture is midway between Romanesque and Early
English Gothic : the western entrance semicircular arches and capitals are richly sculp-
tured and deeply recessed ; within, Purbeck marble columns, with boldly -sculptured
capitals, support a gallery or triforium of interlaced Norman arches ; and the clerestory
has six Romanesque windows, one filled with stained glass, bright ruby ground, with
a representation of Christ, and emblems of the Evangelists j and the ceiling, of Sara-
cenic character, is colouied. On the gallery well-staircase is a "penitential cell."
The arcade in the aisle beneath has sculptured heads of astonishing variety, copies exe-
cuted by Sir R. Smirke in 1827 ; and here are pointed arches with Norman billets.
Upon the pavement are figures of Crusaders, " in cross-legged effigy devoutly stretched,"
but originally placed upon altar-tombs and pedestals.
These effigies of feudal warriors are sculptured out of freestone. The attitudes of all are different,
but they are all recumbent with the legs crossed. They are in complete mail with surcoats ; one only
is bare-headed, and has the cowl of a monk. The shields are of the heater or Norman shape, but the
size is not the same in all ; one of them is very long, and reaches from the shoulder to the middle of
the leg. Their heads, with one exception, repose on cushions, and have hoods of mail. Three of them
have flattish helmets over the armour, and one has a sort of casque. They have been well restored by
Mr. Richardson. Th&best authorities assign five of them as follow : to Geoffry de Magnaville, Earl of
* In the rear of the house No. 322, High Holborn, is a room or hall, for some unexplained reason,
called "the chapel:" it has a finely panelled oak ceiling, about a.d. 1500; a large window opening,
and a pointed doorway, now filled up. A few yards westward may be traced the position of the Round
Church of the Templars, which they possessed previous to the erection of the present Temple Church
in Fleet-street. Stow relates that adjoining the old Temple Church was the inn of the Bishop of Lin-
coln; and afterwards a house belonging to the Earl of Southampton, to which the room in question
appears to pertain.— J. Wykeham Archer, 1850.
206 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Essex, A.D. 1144 (right ami on his breast and large sword at his right)— he is not mentioned by
Weever; William Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, a-tj. 1219 (sculptured in Sussex mai-ble, with his
sword through a lion's head) ; Robert Lord de Eos, a.d. 1245 (head uncovered, with long flowin»
hair), whose effigy is said to have been brought fromHelrasley Church, Yorkshire; WiUiam Mareschall,
junior, Earl of Pembroke, 1231 (with lion rampant on shield, and sheathing his sword); Gilbert
Mareschall, Earl of Pembroke, 1281 (drawing his sword, winged dragon at feet).— 4 Glance at the
Temple Church, by Henry Cole. See also 'Richa.rdson'a, Illustratio7is, 1845.
In 1841 were discovered the ancient lead coffins containing the bodies of these knights, who did
not appear to have been buried in their armour; and none of the coffin ornaments were of earlier date
than the beginning of the 13th century.
There has also been found in the Church an early inscribed monument, upon which Mr. W. S.
Walford has succeeded in deciphering the name of Philip de St. Hilaire, who was of a Norman family,
allied with the Clares and the Earl of Arundel at the close of the twelfth centui-y; and the name has
been found by Mr. Waterton among the Knights Templars of the century.
In the Temple Round, lawyers received clients as merchants on 'Change :
" Retain all sorts of witnesses.
That ply i' the Temple under trees ;
Or walk the Round with Knights o' the Posts,
About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts."— Hudihras, pt. iii c. 3.
Dugdale says : " Item, they (the lawyers) have no place to walk in and confer their
learnings but the churcJi; which place all the term-times hath in it no more quietness
than the Pervise of Paules, by occasion of the confluence and concourse of such as are
suitors in the law." " The Round" is the nave or vestibule to the oblong portion, which
is the Choir, in pure Lancet style, almost rebuilt in the restorations and alterations in
1839-42 by Savage and Sydney Smirke. The groined roof, richly coloured in ara-
besque, and ornamented with holy emblems, is rendered very efi^ective by the floods of
light from the triple lancet-headed windows.
The Temple Church Organ has a strange history. It was built late in the reign of
Charles II. by competition. First was set up an organ by Schmidt, when Dr. Blow and
Purcell, then in their prime, performed on the instrument on appointed days, to dis-
play its excellence. Another organ was built in a different part of the church, by
Harris, who employed Sully, organist to Queen Catharine, to touch this organ, which
brought it in favour ,- and the rival organs competed for nearly a year. At length,
Harris challenged Schmidt to make additional reed-stops in a given time; these were the
vox humana, Cremorne, the double-cartel, or double-bassoon, and some others ; and
these stops, which were new to English ears, delighted the crowd at the trial. At
length, Judge Jefferies, of the Inner Temple, terminated the controversy in favour of
Schmidt ; and Harris's Organ was removed. The partisanship ran so high, that, accord-
ing to the Hon. Roger North, " in the night preceding the last trial of the reed-stops,
the friends of Harris cut the bellows of Smith's organ in such a manner that when the
time came for playing upon it, no wind could be conveyed into the wind-chest."
The TempleOrgan is considered Schmidt's masterpiece, and though additions have been made by
Byfield, and by Bishop, it retains all the original pipes in great organ and choir organ. The swell was
constructed by Byfield, and perhaps still contains the pipes of the original also. This organ is remark-
able for possessing quarter-tones, so that there is a diflerence of tone between G sharp and A flat, and
also between D sharp and E flat. Originally this arrangement occurred only in the choir organ and
great organ ; and it seems to have been introduced either as an object of curiosity, or to render it iu
some way more perfect than its rival, since probably Harris was unprepared for the novel contrivance.
(See A short Account of Organs built in England, 1847.) This organ is a grand instrument, but far too
large for the church. The Musical Service here is very fine.
In the little vestry beneath the Organ-gallery is a marble tablet to Oliver Gold-
smith, buried in the ground east of the choir, April 9, 1774. The choir-stalls and
benches are beautifully carved in oak from ancient examples : the altar is new, in the
style of Edward I., and contains five canopied panels, gilt and illuminated; here are an
ambry, piscina, and sacrarium or tabernacle for the Eucharist ; and behind the altar
are three ancient niches for sacred utensils. On the south is the monumental effigies
of a bishop in pontificals, supposed to be that of Silverston de Eversdon, Bishop of
Carlisle, d. 1255, and buried here. To the left is a white marble tomb over the re-
mains of the learned Selden, d. 1654, in Wliitefriars ; his funeral sermon was preached
by Archbishop Usslier. In the triforium are the tombs of Plowden, the jurist; Howell,
writer of the Familiar Letters ; and Edmund Gibbon, an ancestor of the historian :
the views of the church from this gallery are very picturesque. Here are also several
memorials of eminent lawyers ; and among them, a marble bust, by Rossi, of Lord
Chancellor Thurlow (d. 1806). On the south wall is a tablet to Ann Littleton (d.
1623), daughter-in-law to Sir Edward Littleton, with a quaint epitaph, endhig —
CRUBGHES AND CHAPELS. 207
" Keep well this pawn, thou marble chest j
Till it be called for, let it rest :
For while this jewel here is set.
The grave is but a cabinet."
It is mentioned in Dugdale's Monasticon that both King Henry II. and his Queen
Eleanor directed that their bodies should be interred within the walls of the Temple
Chapel, and that the above monarch by his Will left 500 marks for that purpose. The^
walls are inscribed with Scripture texts in Latin ; and between the top of the stalls and
the string-course beneath the windows, is the Hymn of St. Ambrose. The windows,
by Willement, are among the finest specimens of modern stained glass : the altar sub-
jects are from the life of Christ, the interspaces being deep-blue and ruby mosaic, with
glittering borders. Knights Templars fill the aisle windows ; but that opposite the
organ has figures of angels playing musical instruments.
A brief history of the Templars in England and of this church may be read in the rude eflRgies of
the successive kings during whose reigns they flourished, now painted on the west end of the chancel.
At the south corner sits Henry I. (a.d. 1128), holding the first banner of the Crusaders, half black, half
white, entitled " Beauseant ;" white typifying fairness towards friends ; black, terror to foes. This
banner was changed during the reign of Stephen (a.d. 1116) for the red cross :
*' And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord."
Henry II. and the Round Church are represented by the third figure. Richard I., with the sword which,
he wielded as Crusader, and John, his brother, are the next kings ; and in the north aisle is portrayed
Henry III., holding the two churches; the chancel, or square part, having been added in Ms reign, and
consecrated on Ascension-day, 1240. — Cole's Glance at the Temple Church.
Externally, the east end has three high gables, with crosses ; and the bell is hung in a
new stone turret on the north side. The church has been thrown open to view ; and
in removing the house over the porch, a western wheel-window was exposed in the
Norman Round. The groined western Norman porch has been restored, and covered
with a leaded gable roof. The renovated ashlar-work has been carried throughout the
Round ; a new cone or spire has been placed on the top, in place of the former roof,
dormer lights introduced, and the spire terminated in a large metal gilt vane — a
strictly mediseval bird. By the clearance of buildings, a sort of new location is given
to the Norman Round and porch, and the sunken grassy churchyard with its ancient
tombs. These works* are by S. Smirke and St. Aubyn. During their progress, the
dust and bones of the learned John Selden were " carted away and shot into a dust-
hole." Opposite the bell-turret, in the burial-ground, was found a decayed blue flag or
slate ledger-stone, inscribed with uncial letters, ending den, which slab was once laid
over the remains of Selden, whose dust and remains were ignominiously treated as
above by the workmen. This is remarkable, seeing that, according to Aubrey, at the
time of the interment of Selden, no pains seem to have been spared to render the deposi-
tory secure. Aubrey tells us : —
" His (Selden's) grave was ten foot deep or better, walled up a good way with brick, of which also
the bottome was paved, but the sides of the bottome for about two feet high were of black polished
marble, wherein his coffin (covered with black bays) lyeth, and upon that wall of marble was presently
lett downe a huge black marble stone of great thickness with this inscription : ' His jacet corpus
Johannis Selden, qui obiit die Novembris, 1654).* Over this was turned an arch of brick (for the
House would not give their ground), and upon that was throwne the earth, &c.— Letter to The Timen,
late in 1864.
North-east of the Choir is the house of the Master of the Temple, as the preacher at
the church is called : it is fronted by a garden, beneath which is the Benchers' Vault.
One of the most learned Masters was Hooker, author of the Ecclesiastical Politi/ ;
another eminent Master was Sherlock, afterwards Bishop of London.
The Offertory alms are distributed to the poor, chiefly old servants of the Temple, at
Midsummer and Christmas.
In March, 1862, at a short distance south of the Round of the church were exca-
vated some pillars and part of the basement of St. Anne's Chapel, which connected
the convent of the Temple with the church. This chapel was taken down in 1827 :
here Almeric de Montfort, the Pope's chaplain, who had been imprisoned by Edward I.^
was set at liberty at the instance of the Roman Pontiff".
St. Thomas the Apostle stood in Knightrider-street. It was an endowment of
the Canons of St. Paul's, and is spoken of so early as 1181. Sir Wm. Littlebury,
alias Horn (so named, saith Stow, by King Edward IV., because he was an excellent
208 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
blower on the horn), was buried here. He bequeathed his house, called the George, in
Bread-street, to iind a priest for the sanctuary, who was to have a stipend of 61. 13s. 4d,
yearly j also to every preacher at Paul's-cross and the Spittle, Ad. for ever ; to the
prisoners at Newgate, &c., 10*. at Christmas and Easter, for ever, which legacies were
soon forgotten. He further gave four new bells to the church, and 500 marks towards
repairing the highways between London and Cambridge. His house, garden, &c,, to
be sold and bestowed in charity, " as his executors would answer before God." The
church of St. Thomas the Apostle was destroyed in the Great Fire, and was not rebuilt.
St. Thomas, CHAETEBHorsE, Goswell-street-road, a brick church in the Anglo-
Norman style, was designed by E. Blore, and consecrated 1842. A portion is set
apart for the Brethren of the Charterhouse.
St. Thomas's, Southwark, in St. Thoraas's-street, was originally the church of the
Monastery or Hospital of St. Thomas, but was made parochial after the Dissolution :
in 1702 it was rebuilt of brick, with a square tower, closely resembling that of the
former church. The Register records the marriage, Jan. 27, 1613, of the father
and mother of John Evelyn. Johnson, the younger, the sculptor of the Stratford
bust of Shakspeare, is ascertained, by Cunningham and Halliwell, to have lived in this
parish.
Teinitt, Holt, Bessborough Gardens, close to Vauxhall Bridge, a district church of
St. Margaret's and St. John's, Westminster, was erected at the sole expense of Arch-
deacon Bentinck, Prebendary of Westminster ; the foundation-stone was laid by Mrs.
Bentinck, Nov. 8, 1849, on which day also was founded another church, in Great Peter-
street, in the same parish. Holy Trinity Church is designed in the Early Decorated
style (temp. Edward I. and IT.) : at the intersection of the four arms rises an enriched
tower and spire, 193 feet high : the east-end window of seven lights is large and fine.
The church has been decorated and furnished by subscription.
Trinity, Holy, Bishop's-road, Paddington, a Perpendicular church, built byCundy
in 1844-6 ; it has a richly crocketed spire and pinnacled tower, 219 feet high, and a
magnificent stained chancel-window : the crypt is on a level with the roofs of the
houses in Belgrave-square.
Trinity, Holy, Brompton, a church in the Early English style, by Donaldson ;
vdth a lofty tower, and stained glass of ancient design and colour ; consecrated 1829.
It occupies, with the burial-ground, the site of a nursery-garden ; here flowers and
funereal shrubs decorate the graves. John Eeeve, the comic actor, is buried here.
Trinity, Holy, Hartland-road, Haverstock-hill, is a district church of St. Pancras,
and was consecrated 1850. It is built in the Middle Pointed style, Wyatt and Brandon,
architects, and consists of a Nave, with north and south aisles. Chancel, and tower
and spire 160 feet high ; the chancel is novel, the arches producing an elegant play
of lines.
Trinity, Gray's-inn-road, district church of St. Andrew's, Holborn, designed by
. Pennethorne, was built in 1837-8 : it has a pedimented centre, and belfry with cupola
roof and cross, and catacombs beneath for 1000 bodies. Adjoining is the old burial-
ground of St. Andrew's, its crowded graves interspersed with trees and shrubs.
Trinity, Albany-street, Marylebone, designed by Soane, R.A., in classic taste, has the
first story of the tower of beautiful design ; but the second puny, owing to lack of
fimds. The basement has spacious catacombs.
Trinity, Holy, Minories, was originally the church of the Priory of the Holy Trinity,
founded by Matilda, Queen of Henry I., in 1108. The church was without the walls
of London, and escaped the Great Fire ; but becoming insecure, it was taken down
and rebuilt in 1706 ; the font was taken from the old church ; a spring in Haydon-
square was the Priory fountain. It is stated by Strype, that Trinity pretended to
privileges, as " marrying without a license." In the Chancel is the tomb of the loyal
WQliam Legge, who bore the touching message of Charles I. from the scaffold to his
son, the Prince of Wales, enjoining him to " remember the faithfullest servant ever
prince had." Here, too, is buried Legge's son, the first Earl of Dartmouth ; and his
CHUBCRES AND CEAFELS, 209
grandson, the second Earl ; and annotator of Burnet. Some bones from the battle-
field of Culloden are deposited in the churchyard, bearing date 1745.
St. Vedast's, Foster-lane, destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, has
an original and graceful spire, in three stories. The interior has a ceiling enriched
with wreaths of flowers, and fruits, and foliage ; and a carved oak altar-piece, with
winged figures, palm-branches, a pelican, &c. In the vestry -room is a print of " West
Cheap " in 1585, with the church of St. Michael on the north side of Paternoster- row,
the burial-place of the antiquary, Leland (d. 1552). "The only church clock in London
— or, perhaps, the kingdom — without a face, is St. Vedast's, Foster-lane, at the back
of the Post-Office, which strikes on a small shrill bell, supernumerary to the peal
of six."
TowEES AND Spikes. — The Churches of London give much beauty to every view of
the metropolis, and have, moreover, many valuable and interesting associations. In
the "Union of Benefices Act is nothing that shall authorize the pulling down the
churches of St. Stephen, Walbrook ; St. Martin, Ludgate j St. Peter, Cornhill ,• and
St. Swithin, Cannon-street." To preserve the other works of this class, a meeting was
held on the top of St. PauVs, at which six architects examined the various towers and
steeples, with the view of saying which should be preserved. The sight was wonderful,
and those present found few spires to the destruction of which they were willing to
assent. A memorial was agreed on, and, being signed by the President of the Institute of
Architects and members of the Council, presented to the House of Commons, praying that
the following towers and steeples be added to those exempted from destruction, namely :
Saint Alban's, Wood-street; Allhallows, Bread-street; Allhallows, Lombard-street; Allhallows,
Thames-street; Samt Andrew's, Holborn ; Saint Antholin's, Watling-street ; Saint Augustine's, Wat-
ling-street; Saint Bartholomew's the Great ; Saint Benet's, Thames-street ; Saint Bride's, Fleet-street ;
Christchurch, Newgate-street ; Saint Dionis* Backchurch; Saint Dunstan's in the East; Saint Dun-
stan's in the West ; Saint Edmund the King's ; Saint George's, Botolph-lane ; Saint Giles's, Cripplegate ;
Saint James's, Garlick-hill ; Saint Lawrence's, Jewry ; Saint Magnus's, London Bridge ; Saint Mar-
garet's, Lothbury; Saint Margaret Pattens' ; Samt Mary Abchurch; Saint Mary Aldermary; Saint
Mary's-le-Bow ; Saint Mary's, Somerset ; Saint Mary Magdalen's, Old Fish-street-hill ; Saint Michael's,
Cornhill; St. Michael's, Queenhithe; Saint Michael's Eoyal; Saint Mildred's, Bread-street; Saint
Mildred's, Poultry; Saint Sepulchre's ; Saint Vedast's, Foster-lane.
According to Mackeson's trustworthy Guide to the Churches of London and its
Suburbs, 1866, their entire number is 368.
EPISCOPAL CKAPELS.
ASYLUM (Female Oephan) Chapel, Westminster-road, Lambeth, was built for
the Charity, established 1758, at the suggestion of Sir John Fielding, the police-
magistrate. The chapel service was rendered attractive by the singing of the Orphan
children, and by popular preachers, thus contributing to the support of the institution
by a collection. The Asylum was rebuilt in the country, in 1866, with the chapel,
when the premises in Westminster-road were taken down.
St. Bartholomew's, Kingsland, was an ancient and picturesque wayside clfapel,
near the toll-gate, and taken down in 1846. Its walls were of flint and rubble, the
window -frames of stone, in the Perpendicular style, and in the roof was a wooden
bell-turret. It was originally the chapel of a hospital or house of lepers, called " Le
Lokas," and was long an appendage to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to which it was a
kind of outer ward till 1761, when the patients were removed from Kingsland,
and the site let for building. Upon the petition of the neighbouring inhabitants, the
chapel was repaired, and service performed there, the chaplain being appointed by the
governors of St. Bartholomew's. It was so small as scarcely to contain 50 persons.
It is engraved in Archer's Vestiges of Old London, part i. 1850.
Bedeoedbtjet Chapel and School. — Bedfordbury is a narrow street running
out of New-street, Covent Garden, to Chandos-street, and was built about 1637. On
the west side of this, a compound edifice, part chapel, part school, has been erected —
the school-room placed over the chapel ; and opened (not consecrated) with an after-
noon service. Dr. Tait, Bishop of London, preaching. The site is about 60 feet by 40
feet. The building is entered from Bedfordbury, through a small gabled tower. The
P
210 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
doorway has an arched head, the tympanum being filled with sculpture representing
" The Good Shepherd." The chapel consists of a Nave and south aisle, a small Chancel
raised two steps, and a sacrariura one step higher. The material employed, inside and
out, is brick, relieved with bands of red. The nave is divided from the aisle by a
brick arcade, carried on Bath stone columns with carved capitals. The arch to the
sacrarium is carried on small columns of slate with carved capitals and corbels. The
sacrarium is decorated in a somewhat novel manner in sgrafito. There is a credence
table and a reredos, in stone, alabaster, and marble, by Earp, who executed all the
carving ; the east window, of five lights, is filled with stained glass : the other windows
are filled with rough plate-glass (not in quarries). Light is admitted, too, by dormers
in the south aisle. The ceiling is boarded, and separated into compartments by the
girders which carry the floor of the school-room. A harmonium has been presented
to the chapel by Lady Overstone. The building, exclusive of the site, cost 2300Z.,
raised by subscription, headed by the Queen and Prince Albert, 250Z. ; Miss Burdett
Coutts, 300Z. ; architect, A. W. Blomfield.
Bentinck Chapel, Chapel-street, New-road, was built in 11*12, and opened by the
Kev. Mr. Hunt, father of the originator of the Uxaminer newspaper. The Rev.
Basil Woodd was minister of this chapel 45 years.
Chaelotte Chapel, Charlotte-street, Buckingham-gate, was built in 1776 for " the
nnfortunate Dr. Dodd," who laid the first stone in July. " Great success attended the
undertaking," writes Dodd j " it pleased and it elated me." In the following year,
June 27, Dodd was hanged at Tyburn for forgery. Charlotte Chapel, now St. Peter's,
was also occupied by Dr. Dillon ; it was refitted in 1850.
DxjKE-STEEET Chapel, Westminster, was originally the north wing of the house
built for Lord Jeiferies, Lord Chancellor to King James II., who permitted a fiight of
stone steps to be made thence into St. James's-park, for Jefieries's special accommoda-
tion : they terminate above in a small court, on three sides of which stands the once
costly mansion. One portion of it was used as an Admiralty House, until that ofiice
was removed by William III. to Wallingford House. The north wing (in which
Jefferies transacted his judicial business out of term) was formed into a chapel in 1769,
with a daily service ; Dr. Petti n gale, the antiquary, was for some time incumbent. —
See Walcott's Westminster, p. 72.
PouNDLiNG Hospital Chapel, Guilford-street, was designed by Jacobson, in
1747, and built by subscription, to which George II. contributed SOOOl. Handel gave
the large profits of a performance of his music ; and his Messiah, performed in the
chapel for several years under his superintendence, produced the Charity 7000^. At
the west end of the edifice are seated the children and the choir ; and in the centre
is the Organ, given by Handel : the altar-piece, " Christ presenting a little Child," is
by West, who retouched the picture in 1816. Several blind " foundlings," instructed
in music, by their singing, greatly added to the funds of the Charity, by pew-rents
and contributions at the doors, and for several years the latter exceeded lOOOZ. ; the
net proceeds of the chapel have been stated at 687/. the year, after paying the pi'ofes-
sional choir. Beneath the chapel are stone catacombs : the first person buried here was
Captain Coram, the founder of the Hospital. Lord Chief-Justice Tenterden is interred
here ; and his marble bust is placed in the eastern entrance to the chapel. Children
who died in the Hospital were formerly buried in the churchyard of St. Pancras. —
When the Rev. Sidney Smith came to London, in 1804, he was elected one of the
chaplains to the Foundling Hospital, where his sermons were very attractive, espe-
cially those on the objects of the Charity, so often misunderstood and misrepresented. The
chaplain's salary was but '50/. a-year. Mr. Smith resided in Doughty -street, and here
he eai'ly obtained the acquaintance and friendship of several eminent lawyers in that
neighbourhood ; the most distinguished of whom were Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Scarlett
(Lord Abinger), and Sir James Mackintosh. To these may be added Dr. Marcefc,
M. Dumont, Mr. Whishaw, Mr. R. Sharpe, Mr. Rogers, &c. Mr. Smith likewise
officiated at Berkeley Chapel, May-fair; and at Fitzroy Chapel. — Lives of Wits and
Mumourists, vol. ii. pp. 216-219. 1862.
CHUBGHES AND CHAPELS. 211
Geay's-inn Chapel, on tlie south side of Gray's-inn-square, on the site of a chapel
built long anterior to the Keformation, has special seats assigned to the Benchers,
Barristers, and Students, and others unappropriated. It has been much modernized.
Here are three good windows by Gibbs, on the north side : 1. Christ in the Temple, in
the midst of the Doctors. 2. Christ delivering the Sermon on the Mount. 3. The
Ascension. These windows were presented by Samuel Turner, Esq., one of the
Benchers, and Dean of th(? chapel, 1862. In the east window are the arms of the
various prelates who have been either honorary Members or Benchers of the Society.
A new Organ was set up in 1863. The sermons are preceded by "the Bidding
Prayer." The Offertory is dispensed to the poor of the Inn. The music is chiefly
from the old English masters, sung by the choir, established 1850. There do not
appear to be any records of the Preachers earlier than 1574, when Mr. W. Cherke, or
Charke, was appointed : he was afterwards Preacher of Lincoln's-inn and Fellow of
Eton. There have been 23 preachers since his day, among whom were Dr. Roger
Fenton, one of the translators of the Bible ; Dr. Richard Sibbes, the celebrated Puritan,
author of the Bruised Reed ; Dean Nicholas Bernard, Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell,
and one of his almoners ; Bishop Wilkins, the mathematician ; Archbishop Wake j
Dean Robert Moss; Archdeacon Stebbing; Bishop Walker King; Dr. Matthew
Raine, Head-master of Charterhouse School; and Dr. George Sheppard, an elegant
and sound scholar, who died in 1849. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Hessey,
Head-master of Merchant Tailors' School, &c., the present preacher.
Gkosvenor Chapel, South Audley-street, contains in its vault the remains of
Ambrose Philips, the Whig poet, whom Pope ridiculed, but Tickell, Warton, and
Goldsmith eulogized; of Lady Mary Wortley Montague; and John Wilkes, cha-
racteristically designated by himself on a tablet as " a Friend to Liberty."
Hanovee Chapel, Regent-street, between Prince's and Hanover-streets, was built
in 1823-28, C. R. Cockerell, R.A., architect, and is of the Ionic order of the Temple
of Minerva Polias at Priene : it has a well-proportioned portico extending across the
footpath, and picturesquely breaking the street-line; two square turrets, of less
felicitous design, finish the elevation. The interior is square, and mostly lighted by a
large glazed cupola, surmounted with a cross; and the arrangement generally
resembles that of St. Stephen's, Walbrook : the altar-piece is a splendid composi-
tion of imitative antique marbles, enriched with passion-flowers and lilies, superbly
coloured.
HorsE OF Chakity Chapel, Greek-street, Soho, was built in 1863, from designs
by Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., and intended for the Wardens, Sisters, Council, and Associates,
together with the inmates of the Hospital, known as the House of Charity.
The chapel has been built on the type of the early apsidal churches, with round aisles. The chapel
of St. Croix, attached to the Abbey of Mount Majour, furnished the idea of the applicability of apsidal
aisles as being specially adapted to the requirements of the House. The original arrangement of the
plan was Basilican. The bema containing the Bishop's chair, with the Clergy round the altar, with the
retable behind, standing in advance on the chord of the arc. The two apsidal divisions on each side
of the chapel, as aisles, are for the inmates — for the women on the north side and the men on the south,
the easternmost apses being for communicants. The centre of the chapel, which has a lofty iron fleche,
besides the celebrants, is occupied by the Associated Members, and there are grilles on either side, as
parcloses to ante-chapels from the nature of the ground could not be provided. The chapel is closed
from the western narthex by wrought-iron gates, and the narthex (which serves as the entrance
from those three) being closed, becomes available on festivals. The chapel has been erected with much
care, both as regards solidity and polychromatic effect. The walls are built in a variety of stones, com-
bined with reference to colour, and are lined internally with chalk as a vehicle of future frescoes. The roofs
and all the woodwork are of oak. The floor of the sacrarium with the marble steps is very striking. The
altar is of oak, the retable of stone, with the super-altar of marble. The ordinary hangings of the altar
arc exquisitely wrought by the ladies who undertook this costly work. The needlework of the sedilia, the
steps, the Bishop's chair in applique, are equally worthy of the offering. Mr. Arthur O'Connor, an
Associate, executed the painted glass with which the whole chapel is fUled. Eound the chapels and
the bcma are low stone seats, with the stall or chair for the Bishop, as visitor, at the extreme end of the
latter. The Choir and Clergy have oak stalls set on the paving, with chairs for the Council, Associates,
and inmates. The chapel is open to Rose-street, with a low wall in front. The entrance into the
interior quadrangle, and to the chapel, is through a covered passage at the west end ; and ultimately
the chapel will form one side of this court, with a covered way round.
The House of Charity was originally established in 1846, at a house in Rose-street,
for affording gratuitous temporary board and lodging to deserving persons, who, by
P 2
212 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON.
such afflictions as the death of parents, husband, or employer, are brought ahnost to
the verge of destitution. The house. No. 1, Greek-street, where the institution is
now located, was the town residence of Alderman Beckford, the father of the builder
of Fonthill Abbey : it is a fine house, and in the requisite alterations its elaborate
plaster ceilings, carved chimney-pieces, and wainscot panelling, have been preserved.
St. James's Chapel, Hampstead-road, is a chapel-of-ease to St. James's, West-
minster. In the burial-ground adjoining lie George Morland, the painter (d.
1804), and his wife; John Hoppner, the portrait-painter (d. 1810); and, without a
memorial, Lord George Gordon, the leader of the Eiots of 1780, who died in New-
gate in 1793.
St. James's Chapel, Pentonville, is a chapel-of-ease to St. James's, Clerkenwell,
and was built by T. Hardwick. Here is interred R. P. Bonington, the landscape-
painter (d. 1828) ; and in the burial-ground lies poor Tom Dibdin, the playwright,
close by the grave of his friend, Joseph Grimaldi, " Old Joe," the famous clown,
who died in 1837.
St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row, at the corner of Chapel-street and Great James-
street, was the frequent scene of schism from its first erection for Dr. Sacheverell : it
was subsequently occupied by the Rev. Mr. Cecil (Lov/ Church) ; by the Rev. Dr.
Dillon, of unenviable notoriety ; the Rev. Daniel Wilson (Bishop of Calcutta) ; the
Rev. Mr. Sibthorp, given to change ; and by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, who
after 22 years' ministry, preached his farewell sermon here, Dec. 3, 1848 ; and on
Aug. 9, 1849, was publicly baptized in John-street Chapel, of which he became
minister. St. John's has been altered and enlarged, and re-opened in 1866.
Kentish Town Chapel, or district church, is a spacious and costly edifice in the
Early Decorated style; Bartholomew, architect. It has two lofty steeples, and a
large painted altar-window ; and four smaller windows, inscribed with the Decalogue,
Creed, &c., within sacramental borders of corn and vines ; the altar recess has some
good sculpture.
King's College Chapel, Strand, is of Romanesque design, G. G. Scott, architect :
the choir consists of students, and of boys on the foundation as " Choral Exhibitioners."
St. John's-wood Chapel, north-west of the Regent's-park, is of the Ionic order,
and was designed by T. Hardwick : it has a tetrastyle portico, and a tower, surmounted
with a Roman-Doric lantern. Here, or in the adjoining cemetery, which is taste-
fully planted with trees and shrubs, are buried John Farquhar, Esq., of Fonthill
Abbey, Wilts, with a medallion portrait ; Richard Brothers, " the prophet ;" Tred-
gold, the engineer ; Joanna Southcott, " the prophetess," with prophetic quotations
from Scripture, in gilt letters upon black marble ; John Jackson, R.A., the portrait-
painter, &c. " About 40,000 persons lie interred in this cemetery." — (Smith's Mary-
lelone, 1833.)
Lamb's Chapel was originally founded in the reign of Edward I., in the hermitage
of St. James's-in-the-Wall, which was a cell to the Abbey of Gerendon, in Leicester-
shire, certain monks of which were appointed chaplains here ; on which account, and
a well belonging to them, called Monks' Well, the street was called Monkswell-street.
The chapel of St. James, with its appurtenances, was granted by Henry VIII. to
William Lamb, one of the gentlemen of his chapel, and a citizen and clothworker,
who gave it to the Clothworkers' Company ; they have four sermons preached to them
annually, and after the sermon, relieve, with clothing and money, twelve poor men,
and as many poor women. Lamb's Chapel (the ancient Hermitage Chapel) contained
a fine old bust of the founder, in his livery-gown, placed here in 1612, with a purse ii
one hand and his gloves in the other ; and in the windows were paintings of St. Jam(
the Apostle, St. Peter, St. Matthew, and St. Matthias. The chapel was noted for man^
private marriages. Beneath the old chapel was a crypt, with Saxon or Norms
capitals ; and upon this crypt the chapel and almshouses were re-built in 1825, AngeH
architect ; style, Elizabethan. The bust of Lamb, painted in colours, is in th<
west wall.
CHUBCEES AND CEAPELS. 213
Leadenhall Chapel, built within the precincts of Leadenhall by Sir Simon
Eyre, in 1417, some time an upholsterer, was fair and large, and over the porch was
written " Dextra Domini exaltavit me." He gave 3000 marks to the Drapers' Com-
pany, that Divine service might be kept up for ever ; but his munificent bequests were
not carried out as they should have been.
Lincoln's-inn 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 beautifully 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 its 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 ;
style, 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.
Maegaeet-street Chapel, Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, was first converted
into a chapel in 1781). 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 Koman 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.
** Flowers, and altar-candlesticks, and Gregorian chantings, and scarce-concealed bowings, and strange
modes of reading prayers, and frequent services, with a conspicuous cross over the communion-table,
served to awake tlie 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 ' Cathohc 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 Soman 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 j 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 rootj with gilt ball and cross. Tlie entrance is a very good
example of the portico in antis, i.e., columns standmg 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. Maek's Chapel, Fulham-road, attached to the National Society's Training
College for Schoolmasters, in the Byzantine style ; Blore, architect, 1843 ; cruciform in
plan, with semicircular eastern end, and twin towers with high-pitched hrocJie 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 j 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 (Cunning ham). It was the scene of the showy, eloquent preaching
of the Rev. Robert Montgomery, author of The Omnipresence of the Deity, a poem.
St. Peter'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, Gunn, 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 ofiiciate 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 Oxeord) Chapel, Vere-street, Oxford-street, designed byj
Gibbs, was built about 1724, and was once considered the most beautiful edifice of it
class in the metropolis. It has a Doric portico and a three-storied steeple. The Duk<
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 th«
pew-rents, and pays 450/. to the incumbent. No free seats, no poor, and no district
The offertory alms are paid to the rector of All Souls, Langham-place." — Mackeson*^
Churches,
CHUBCHES AND CHAPELS. 215
St. Philip's Chapel, Kegent-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 Chuech. — 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 Smiday. 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 VIIL), 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 RoUs 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 Su* John Trevor,
Master of the Rolls (d. I7l7), 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 500i^. 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 12?. Qd. 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 l702, 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. Tenison, 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 master's
excui-sions, 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 Nieho. Birkhead, Gould-
smith, of London, Anno Dom. 1699;" and the other (the westernmost), "Capella
Sancta? 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 Guardian, 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 KnigMshridge, 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-STEEET Chapel, ou the north side of St. James's-square, is a chapel-of-ease to
St. James's. In 1815, it was occupied by Svvedenborgians. 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, LutcJi, or Flemish Branch was at
first composed of the Polish exile Jean a 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 and Essex; it had "a most fine-spired steeple.
CHUBCHE8— FOREIGN PROTESTANT. 217
small, high, and straight." Henr}'^ VITI., 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 : * Eeclesiae Londino-BelgisB
Bibliotheca, extructa sumptibus Marise Dubois, 1659.' lu this library are divers valuable MSS., and
letters of Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others, foreign Eeformers." The books have been presented to
tlie 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 in St. Martin's-le-Grand ; and the members of the consistories of both churches
dined together in the evening, and drank "To the memory 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 fihcTie, 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.
Feench. — 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 " in 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-tliird of these refugees joined the French Church in
the years 1686, 1687, and 1088.— Manifesto, 1850.
218 CUBIOSITmS 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 Vliopital, in Spitalfields, afterwards
the JEglise 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
Beformed 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 Quarrd,
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 thd
congregation first established in the Savoy : it is in the Gothic style, and has a Point
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 c'
the English Church, and received letters-patent from the King, under the title of the French Pre
testant Episcopal Chapel of the Savoy. The congregation increased so rapidly that, in less thai
twenty years, there were three separate churches — the Savoy, the Greek Church in Soho, and a churcl
in Spring Gardens. In 1733, the Savoy Chapel was abandoned for want of funds to repair it; and ii
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 consecrate<
under the name of St. John, by the Bishop of London, on 22nd of December, 1845. The Tw«
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, at
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 on the occasion of the Rebellion"
(Scottish, 1745).
About 1722, the Swiss, with the approval of George I., granted the ground foi
building a church near Charing Cross, but they were not sufficiently numerous to raisi
the funds. But, in 1762, the Swiss having increased in numbers, a congregation
Protestant worshippers met in Castle-street, Holborn, in a building styled the Eglis
Helvetique. One of the principal promoters of this church was M. Fran9ois Justii
Vulliamy, a native of Berne, who had settled in London, and became the founder of the
house of Vulliamy, in Pall Mall, clockmaliers ; there is in the Eglise Suisse a clocl
given to the church by Fran9ois 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 1000^. 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, anc
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 blanl
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 laic
the first stone of the Eglise Helvetique, in Moor-street, Seven Dials. In this churcl
Protestant service was conducted in the French language till 1855. The Prince oi
Orange, while an exile in England, owing to the troubles arising out of the French Revc
lution, was a frequent attendant ; and the Swiss congregation subsequently numbere
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 hei
Eoyal 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 beer
French tutor to the Princess. He was the minister of the church for forty-six years.
The present church, the JSglise Suisse, Endell-street, was opened in 1855. There
CHAPELS— mSSENTEB8\ 219
scmie three hundred attendants, about two-thirds of whom are Swiss, or of Swiss
oi io;in. 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.
DISSENTJEBS' CEAPELS.
A LBION 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
1816, the Eev. C. WooUacott, 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
^vif li which their sails were driven round by the wind. In the New Forest, 4000 trees were blown down,
and more than 19,000 in the same state were counted in the county of Kept. 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 Bddystone Lighthouse, with its ineenious
areliitect, Mr. Winstanley, was totally destroyed. The Bishop of Bath and Wells and his lady were
killed by the falling of their palace. The sister of the Bishop of London, and many others, lost their
li\ OS."
Tills annual custom has been observed upwards of a century. The chapel is built upon
tlie 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 12,000?., and will hold
. from 1500 to 2000 persons. South is the French Protestants' Gothic Chapel ; and
the tasteless pile to the nbrth is Bedford Chapel. The sole condition which Sir Morton
1 Peto imposed upon the Baptist congregation was that they should repay, at their con-
I venience, one-third of the expense, which he, on his part, undertook should be laid out in
I opening another chapel for the denomination in some other part of the town. Sir Morton
i Peto subsequently purchased the building formerly known as the " Diorama," in.the
I Eegent's-park, and had it converted at his expense into a chapel for the Baptist
j denomination, by extensive alterations. The roof, for instance, which was a forest
I of complicated timbers, depended in a great measure for support upon framed parti-
I tions extending across the building in difierent 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, Notting 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.
Caledonian 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,
bemg then thirty years of age. He came at the invitation of the Caledonian Chapel in Hatton Garden,
220 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
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, in 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.
Canonbtjet 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 religious bodies for providing increased accommodation for public worship.
Only one additional chapel has been erected by the Congregationalists for an additional jMjpulation of
about 55,000 persons."
Catholic and Apostolic Chuech, Grordon-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.
CoNGEEGATiOKAL NoNCONFOEMiST Chuech, 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 Eev.
Thomas Madge.
HoEBUEY 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; th^
principal windows are filled with stained glass.
Independent Chapel, Robinson's-row, Kingsland, was built about 1792: here tl
Rev. John Campbell, the benevolent South-African missionary, was thirty-seven yea
minister, and is buried ; and a monument to his memory has been erected by his flook^
Jewin-steeet Chapel, Aldersgate -street, was built in 1808, for a congregation
English Presbyterians, who removed thither from Meeting- House-court, Old Jewrjl
Among the eminent pastors were the eloquent John Herries ; Dr. Price, F.R.S., tl
writer on finance ; and Dr. Abraham Rees, editor of the Cyclopcedia with his name.
MoEAYiAN Chapel, Fetter-lane, is the only place of worship belonging to
. CHAPELS— DISSENTERS'. 221
Moravians (United Brethren) in London, by whom it was purchased in 1738, on their
settling in England. The iiiterior 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 Chuecu, Crown-court, Little Russell-street, Covent Garden, has
a cement Norman fa9ade, with the staircases effective outside features. The minister
is the Rev. Dr. Cumming, who preached before Queen Victoria, at Crathie, Balmoral,
Sept. 22, 1850 ; and who ably controverted the claims of Dr. Wiseman the same year.
Old Geavel-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 about 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 be
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 40^. per annum for the building from the
vestry, and it was forthwith consecrated as a " Tabernacle" to St. Martin's-in-the-
Fields. Oxendou Chapel now belongs to the Scotch Secession.
Peesbyteeian Dissentees' 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.
Peesbtteeian 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.
Peovidence 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 lOOOZ., 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.
Peovidence 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 Eev. T. Mortimer, B.D., minister.
E-EaENT-SQUAEE 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, llatton Garden, was still
insufficient for Mr. living'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 1800?. The Duke of Clarence
had undertaken to lay the foundation-stone, but Avas 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 smg a hymn,"
Scotch Chuech, 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 o;
without any chimney, and the building was warmed in the severest weather. The:
were also a garden, with shrubs and fruit trees, and boxes and tea-rooms for conipan
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
convert the place into a chapel, but was discouraged by Toplady. It was then fitti
up, and opened upon Evangelical principles, as Northampton Chapel, and became vei
popular. In 1779 it was opened " in the Connexion of the Countess of Huntingdon.'
In 1780, it narrowly escaped being pulled down by the Kioters. The congregati
became wealthy and influential : the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, oft^
attended here ; the pulpit was for many years supplied with ministers from Cheshui
College. The chapel will hold 2000 persons, and is lighted by a monster ring of g
jets. Large schools are attached to the chapel. In the large house adjoinin
formerly the tea-rooms of the Pantheon, Lady Huntingdon resided twelve years, a
here she died in 1791, in her 84th year. She had expended 100,000Z. in works
charity : she had founded, wholly or in part, 64 chapels in her connexion. The extei
sive plot of ground m the rear of Spa-fields Chapel became, soon after its openingj
I
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 ClerJcenwell, 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 j 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 10,000?. ; architects, Searle, Son, and Yelf.
SuEEEY Chapel, corner of Little Charlotte- street, Blackfriars-road, is of octagonal
form, and was built in 1783, for a congregation of Calvinistic Dissenters, the Kev.
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.
SwEDENBOEO- Chtjech, 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, RatcliiTe Highway.
Tabeenacle, 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 Keunington-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.
Tabeenacle, Meteopolitan, was built for Mr. Spurgeon, upon part of the site of
the Fishmongers' Company's Almshouses, at Newington, in 1861. The exterior has a
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,
I
Spurgeon for some time carried on his ministration. The ceiling and galleries are
supported by thin iron columns, of salmon colour, with gilt capitals ; 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.
Teinity Independents' Chapel, East India-road, Poplar, was erected in 1840-1, 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
fafade 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 Peesbyteeians. — 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
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 Chttech, 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 ; 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-hoitse 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.
Wesletan 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 20s. ; ' for 1 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, in a kind of state becoming the
person, dressed in 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
I
CEAPELS^JDISSENTEBS'. 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.
Wesleyan 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-timber roof, and apsidal termination, which
serves as an organ-loft, not chancel ; 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, built in 1811, has a
tasteful facade, added by 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 500Z. 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 Reformation 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.
Whiteeield'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 l759 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
ivisited 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 Whitefield 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
Eev. 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
Eev. 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 betw^een 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 Eev. 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 20,000^., 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 4700/. 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 j to Toplady, the zealous Calvinistic controversialist
with John Wesley j 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 j
But wliat 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, Aldersgatc
street. Bunyan's Pulpit Bible was purchased by Mr. Whitbread, M.P., at the sale
the library of the Rev. S. Palmer, at Hackney, in 1813.
FRIENDS' OE QUAKFES' MFETING-SOUSFS.
THERE are six Friends' Meeting-houses in the metropolis : 1. Devonshire Hous
(Houndsditch) -, 2. Bishopsgate-street Without ; 3. Peel (Peel-court, John-street
Smithfield) j 4c RatclifFe (Brook-street) ; 5. Southwark (Redcross-street) ; 6. Westmin^
ster (Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane). The first established was that in White Har
court, which was taken down in 1865.
" The Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends is held in London, opening' always on a Wednesdaj
in the latter end of May, and continuing into the month of June, generally lasting about ten days or i
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 committcej
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, oi
CHURGEES—GBEEK. 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 paves 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 ifms and private lodgings are full of them. The White Hart and the Four Swans are
full of them. Theyhave a table-d'hSte, 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.
GHEEK CEURCEES.
GREEK CHURCH, London Wall, the first ecclesiastical structure erected by the
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 :
"0 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 ; but there
«re seats made to turn up, as in our cathedral stalls ; and knobs are placed on the
I tipper 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
^ black robe and a black hat ; this is covered with the Kokvirrpa, 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 10,000Z. ; 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
WaU ; 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 firmaraental 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
Q2
228 CUBIOSITIES 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 iov 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, Bruloft'. The holy doors are carved and splendidly gilt, and inlaid
with metals of different hue. They contain small heads of the Evangelists, and a
pictm*e 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, tliou God of hosts ; look down from heaven j behold and visit this vine and the place
of the vineyard vk^hich 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' STNAGOaUES.
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.
Duke'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 1 838.
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-gilu candelabra.
At the south end is ike 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
etandest." The centre of the lower part is fitted up with recesses for Books of the Law, enclosed with
CEUBCHES 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 Royal 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 Betanstone-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 fa9ade 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
ritiial the sexes are separated during divine worship. The " Synagogue " itself is
entered from this loggia, and aifords 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 ceihng 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 different
coloured glass, which throw light on the scrolls of the law when the doors of the closet containing the
same are thrown open.
West London 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 ladles' 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.
JiOMAN CATHOLIC CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.
AMBASSADORS' CHAPELS : Spanish Place Chapel is attended by the members
of the Spanish Embassy ; WaruncTc -street. Golden-square, by the Bavarian
Embassy (the former Chapel was destroyed in the Riots of 1780); Luke-street,
Lincoln's-inn- fields, by the Sai-dinian ; 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-[)iece, 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 LONDOK
St. Geoege's Church, St. George's Fields, nearly facing the eastern wing oj
Betlilem Hospital, is built upon the site of the focus of the " No Popery " Riots ol
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
convent for Sisters of Mercy) at the north end, was designed by A. W. Pugin. Th
church is a high example of Roman Catholic symbolic details : it is in the Decoratedj
style (temp. Edward III.), is cruciform in plan, and consists of a nave and aisi
chancel, and two chapels ; and a tower at the north-west end, to be surmounted by
rich hexagonal spire, 320 feet high.
The church is about 235 feet in length, and will seat 3000 persons. It is lit by traeeried window
some filled with stained :lass, by Wailes, of Newcastle ; the great chancel-window was given by Jo!
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 samts.
There is no clerestory, but each roof is gabled; slender pillars and arches divide the nave and side
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 erocketed 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 reredos, 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 Chuech, 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 lOOOZ., and was
presented by Miss Monica Tempest, of Broughton Hall, Yorkshire ; and her brother.
Sir Charles Tempest, presented the Missal, which cost about 50^. " Confraternities of
the Bona Mors of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and of the Immaculate Heart of Marjj
are established in this church.'* The services are performed by Jesuits.
" Eoman Catholic churches seem to be distinguished from those of the national faith, at preset
only by the occupation of niches that in the latter would be left vacant. It is remarkable, however, ths
they all seem to affect the style of one period, viz., the first half of the fourteenth century, thei
designers apparently disdaining the representation of either an immature or a declining form of art
but fixuig always on the lully developed Gothic, just at the turning point of its caxeew"— Companion '
the Almanac, 1851.
St. John of Jerusalem, Great Ormond-street, was generously founded by Si
George Bowyer, Bart., M.P., and built from the designs of Goldie. The fafade of th(
exterior, of Portland stone, is of two orders, Ionic and Corinthian : upon the upp^
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 am
shield adorn the window, which forms a feature in the upper order, flanked by twc
sculptured wreaths. The principal entrance doorway is surmounted by a marbh
tablet, on which is commemorated, in an inscription, the fiict of the foundatioi
The church within presents a parallelogram. Slight recesses stand in the place o:
transepts, and beyond them is the choir for the religious of the adjoining Convent anc
Hospital, whilst between rises the cupola above the ceiling of the church. An elaborat
cornice runs round the church below the ceiling, and rests on pilasters of the Corinthiari
order, all formed of poHshed red marble, with marble bases and plinths. At the uppc
CEUBCHES AND CHAPELS— BOMAN 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 1 nree 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 large 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 (St. Peter's) Chuech, 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 Basihca 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 loftj'- 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 tiiat somid 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 etfective, without anything of the theatre ; the design, large and simple in composition, suits the
subject and the material T^evkctly. "—AthejicBum.
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
Rev. Frederick Oakeley ofiiciates.
St. Maey's, Moorfields, corner of East-street, Finsbury-circus, opened in 1820, has
an embellished entrance facade, 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 CTTEI08ITIES OF LONDOK
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 fliited 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 gromid, 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 eff'ect. 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 brUhant 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-
.square. 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.
Oeatoet of St. Philip Neei, 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 *;he 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.
Our 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 ; 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.
Saedinian 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 lloman 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 700Z. 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 1846, 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 efibct of architectural chiaro-
scuro, and is divided by Corinthian columns.
CITY WALLS AND GATES.
THE small space within the Walls of old London has been described as almost exactly
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 Mbnkwell-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 nearly. 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 Loudon, to ascertain the extent of the Great Fire, and now preserved in the
Comptroller's OflSce, Guildhall. It may be distinctly traced as the southern boundaiy
234 CUxtiOSITIES 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) j 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 niches 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."— JT. J>. Saull,F.G.S.
Mr. Roach 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 ita
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 aa.
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 Chrisf 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 M
tessellated pavement under Gresham House, in Old Broad-str^t ; 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
aiTows. 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} j 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,.
Camberwell, 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.
From 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 MagncB
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 j none being sufiered 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 wiiUn the Walls, 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 stone obelisks,
bearing the City arms, which may be seen, eastward, in Whitechapel, the Minories, and Bishopsgate-
strcet; northward, in Goswell-strcet, at the end of Fan-alley, and in St. John's-street j and westward.
236 CUBIOSITIES 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 Great
Fire in 1666, and its altered condition in 1849, by t rancis "Whishaw, C.E. ; wherein old London is shown
by strong lines, and modern London by dotted lines.
cli:rk:enwell,
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 Clerkcnwell-
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, S;iffron-hill, Vineyard-
gardens, Field-lane, Clerkenwell-greer, 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 suffi-
cient party had collected, who were then escorted by an armed patrol." (Storer and
Cromwell's ClerJcenwell.) 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
Ashby 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 the
residence of the titled and wealthy, is now mostly tenanted by watchmakers and
jewellers: in this Square died Bishop Burnet. Jerusalem- passage leads to Aylesbury-
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 meetiriirs
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 M'as 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 Albemarle, and after-
wards of Montague, fehe 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.
CLEBKENWELL. 237
achieved the conquest by courting her as Emperor of China : and the anecdote has been dramatised by
Collcy 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. Richard
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 Cromw^ell-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 m 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 Campden, 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
Koad were formerly measured. In this Hall, the patriotic William, Lord Russell, was
tried, 1683. In St. John'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 Ohver 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-fiekls, 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 L,
Avhich 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 Clerken
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 LOKDOK
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 Fhik^s Sistory
of ClerTcenwell, p. Ill, to be derived from the word meeting, anciently spoken moteingy
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
lie wrote in the Spectator. Here, too, for ninety years, lived the eccentric ** Lady
Levvson." 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 Cobham, the great Reformer j 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 History of Clerkenwell 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 News, and was reproduced in a large handsome volume of 800
pages, by Mr. Peekburn, 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 residts 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 PhilosopMcal
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 that 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 heen
lighted in the City four or five hours, the temperature increased full 3°, thus making
6° difierence 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 j 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."
CLUBS AND CLUB-BlOUSES.
ALTHOUGH the Club was a social feature of the last century, to the present age Is
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.
Alfeed 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, ah 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 Salf-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 Kich, 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 gaming 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 j?as 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 tins
gaming club was only for rouleaus of 50?. each, and generally there was 10,000?. 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 j 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 Wilberforee, 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 Eobinson (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. Wilberforee, 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 James 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 — " O 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 in
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 eleerance 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 dock in the kitchen there remained one in 1731. In the Rules of the Apollo
Club, women of character were not excluded from attending the meetings.
Aemy and Nayy 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
upper 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 Navy j the cornice, likewise very bold, is crowned
by a massive balustrade. The basement, from the Cornaro, is rusticated : the entrance
being in the centre of the east or George-street front, by three open arches, similar in
character to those in the Strand front of Somerset House. The whole is extremely
rich in ornamental detail. The hall is fine ; the coffee-room, eighty-two feet by thirty-
nine feet, is panelled with scagliola, and has a ceiling enriched with flowers, and pierced
for ventilation by heated flues above ; adjoining is a room lighted by a glazed plafond;
next is the house dining-room, decorated in the Munich style ; and more superb is the
morning room, with its arched windows, and mirrors forming arcades and vistas
innumerable. A magnificent stone staircase leads to the library and evening rooms j
and in the third story are billiard and card rooms ; and a smoking-room, with a lofty
dome elaborately decorated in traceried Moresque. The apartments are adorned with
an equestrian portrait of Queen Victoria, painted by Grant, R.A. ; a piece of Gobelins
tapestry (Sacrifice to Diana), presented to the club in 1849 by Prince Louis Napoleon ;
marble busts of William IV. and the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge ; and several life-
size portraits of naval and military heroes. The Club-house is provided with twenty
lines of Whishaw's Telekouphona, or Speaking Telegraph, which communicate from the
Secretary's room to the various apartments. The cost of this superb edifice, exclusive
of fittings, was 35,000^. ; the plot of ground on which it stands cost the Club 52,000?.
Aets Club, Hanover-square, was instituted, 1863, for facilitating the social inter-
course of those who are connected either professionally or as amateurs with Art, Litera-
ture, or Science.
Aethue's Club-house, 69, St. James's-street, Is named from Mr. Arthur, the
keeper of White's Chocolate-house, who died 1761. The present Club-house is by
Hopper ; the principal windows are decorated with fluted Corinthian columns.
Athene UM Club, Waterloo-place, Pall Mall, was established in 1823 : the members
are chosen by ballot, one black ball in ten excluding. The present Club-house, designed
by Decimus Burton, was built in 1829-30, on a portion of the court-yard of Carlton
Palace ; the architecture is Grecian, with a frieze exactly copied from the Panathenaic
procession in the frieze of the Parthenon — the flower and beauty of Athenian youth
gracefully seated on the most exquisitely-sculptured horses, — which Flaxman regarded
as the most precious examples of Grecian power in the sculpture of animals. Over the
Roman-Doric entrance-portico is a colossal figure of Minerva, by Baily, R.A. ; and the
interior has some fine casts from chef-d'oeuvres of sculpture : the style of the hall, stair-
case, gallery, and apartments, is grand, massive, and severe. The Athenseum is a good
illustration of the Club system. The number of ordinary members is fixed at 1200 ;
they are mostly eminent persons, civil, military, and ecclesiastical ; peers spiritual and
temporal ; men of the learned professions, science, the arts, and commerce ; and the
distinguished who do not belong to any particular class. Many of these are to be met
with every day, living with the same freedom as in their own houses. For thirty
guineas entrance, and six guineas a-year, every member has the command of an
excellent library (the best Club library in London), with maps ; of newspapers, English
and foreign; the principal periodicals; writing materials, and attendance. The build-
ing is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exactness and comfort as a private
dwelling. Every member is master, without any of the trouble of a master : he can
S
242 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
come when he pleases, and stay away when he pleases, without anything going wrong ;
he has the command of regular servants, without having to pay or manage them ; he
can have whatever meal or refreshment he wants, at all hours, and served up as in his
own house. From an account of the expenses at the Athenaeum in the year 1832, it
appears that 17,323 dinners cost, on an average, 25. 9^d. each, and that the average
quantity of wine for each person was a small fraction more than half-a-pint. The
expense of huilding the Club-house was 35,000^., and 5000Z. for furnishing ; the plate,
linen, and glass cost 2500Z. ; library 21,398Z. ; and the stock of wine in cellar is usually
worth about 5000^. : yearly revenue about 10,000Z. The principal rooms are lighted by
chandeliers fitted with Faraday's perfect ventilation apparatus. In the library is an
unfinished portrait of George IV., which Sir Thomas Lawrence was painting but a
few hours before his decease, the last bit of colour that he ever put upon canvas beings
that on the hilt and sword-knot of the gh-dle.
At the preliminary meeting for the formation of the Athenaeum, Fehruary 16, 1824, were present
Sir Humphry Davy, Bart,, P.R.S., the Eight Hon. John Wilson Croker, Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A.,
Eichard Heber, Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., Dr. Thomas Young, F.E.S., Lord Dover, Davies Gilbert,
the Earl of Aberdeen, P.S.A.., Sir Henry Halford, Sir Walter Scott, Bart., Joseph Jekyll, Thomas Moore,
Charles Hatchett, F.E.S.; Secretary, Professor Faraday.
" The mixture of Whigs, Eadicals, savans, foreigners, dandies, authors, soldiers, sailors, lawyers,
artists, doctors, and Members of both Houses of ParUament, together with an exceedingly good average
supply of bishops, render the melange very agreeable, despite of some two or three bores, who ' con-
tinually do dine,' and who, not satisfied with getting a 6s. dinner for 3s. 6i., * continually do complain.' "
— New Monthly Magazine, 1834.
At the Athena3ura, Theodore Hook was a great card ; and in a note to the sketch
of him in the Quarterly Review, it is stated that the number of dinners at this Club
fell off by upwards of three hundred per aimum after Hook disappeared from his
favourite corner, near the door of the cofiee-room. That is to say, there must have
been some dozens of gentlemen who chose to dine there once or twice every week
of the season, merely for the chance of Hook's being there, and permitting them to
draw their chairs to his little table in the course of the evening. The corner alluded
to will, we suppose, long retain the name which it derived from him — Temperance
Corner. Many grave and dignified personages being frequent guests, it would hardly
have been seemly to be calling for repeated supplies of a certain description ; but the
waiters well understood what the oracle of the corner meant by " Another glass of
toast and water," or, " A little more lemonade."
Athen^um, JiiNioii, the, pro tern. St. James's-square, was originated in 1864, and
consists of members of both Houses of Parliament, members of the Universities, fellows
of the learned and scientific societies, or gentlemen connected with literature, science,
and art. The device adopted by the Club is the Bird of Minerva, a copy of the reverse
of the drachma of the Greeks.
Boodle's, 28, St. James's-street, is the noted "Savoir vivre" Club-house designed
by Holland. It contains portraits of C. J. Fox and the Dake of Devonshire. Gibbon,
the historian, was one of its early members. Next door, 29, Gillray, the caricaturist,
in 1815, threw himself from an upstairs window, and died in consequence.
Beooks's, the Whig Club-house, at 60, west side of St. James's-street, was designed
by Holland, and opened in 1778 ; but was originally established in Pall Mall, in 1764,
by the Duke of Portland, C. J. Fox, and others. It was formerly a gaming-club, kept
by Almack, and then by Brooks, a wine-merchant and money-lender, who left the Club
soon after the present house was built, and died in poverty about 1782. Among the
early members were C. J. Fox, Biirke, Sir Joshua Eeynolds, Garrick, Horace Walpole,
Hume, Gibbon, and Sheridan. When Wilberforce was young and gay, he played here
at faro ; but his usual resort was at Goosetree's, in Pall Mall, where he one night kept
the bank and w^on 600Z. ; but this weaned him from gaming. On March 21, 1772,
Mr. Thynne retired from Brooks's in disgust, because he had won only 12,000 guineas
in two months. The Club was famous for w-agers; and the old betting-book is an
oddity. Lord Crewe, one of the founders of the Club in Pall Mall, died in 1829, after
sixty-five years' membership of Brooks's. The Fox Club meet here.
"At Brooks's, for nearly half a century, the play was of a more gambling character than at White's.
.... On one occasion. Lord Robert Spencer contrived to lose the last shilling of his considerable
fortune given him by his brother, the Duke of Marlborough. General Fitzpatrick being much in the
Bjune condition, they agreed to raise a sum of money, in order that they might keep a faro-bank. The
CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 243
members of the Club made no objection, and ere long they carried out their design. As is generally
the case, the bank was a winner, and Lord Robert bagged, as his share of the proceeds, 100,000^. He
retired, strange to say, from the fcetid atmosphere of play, with tlie money in his pocket, and never
again gambled. George Harley Drummond, of the famous banking-house, Charing-cross, only played
once in his whole life at White's Club, at whist, on which occasion he lost 20,000Z. to Brummell. This
event caused him to retire from the banking-house, of which he was a partner." — Capt. Gronoic.
Beef-steak Society, " the sublime Society of Beef-steaks" (but disdaining to be
thought a Club), consists of twenty-four members, noblemen and gentlemen, who dine
together off beef-steaks at five o'clock on Saturdays, from November until the end of
June, at their rooms in the Lyceum Theatre. The dining-room is lined with oak, and
decorated with emblematic gridirons, and in the middle of the ceiling is the gridiron
first used by the cook. The orthodox accompaniment to the steaks is arraclc punch.
Each member may invite a friend. The Society originated with George Lambert, the
scene-painter of Covent Garden Theatre during Kich's management, where Lambert
often dined from a steak cooked on the fire in his painting-room, in which he was
frequently joined by his visitors. This led to the founding of the Society by Rich and
Lambert in 1735, in a room in the theatre. After its rebuilding, the place of meeting
was changed to the Shakespeare Tavern, in the Piazza ; afterwards to the Lyceum
Theatre; and on its destruction by fire in 1830, to the Bedford Hotel; and thence to
the Lyceum, rebuilt in 1834. The number of members was increased to twenty-five,
to admit the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Charles Howard, Duke of
Norfolk, was a leading member ; and Captain Morris was the laureat, the sun of this
"jovial system :" in 1831 he bade adieu to the Society, but in 1835 revisited it, and
was presented with an elegant silver bowl ; at the age of ninety he sung :
" When my spirits are low, for relief and delight,
I still place your splendid memorial in sight;
And caU to my muse, when care strives to pursue,
'Bring the steaks to my mem'ry, and the bowl to my view.' "
The liquors are limited to port and punch, in quantity unlimited. The Club-button bears the Club-
blazon — a gridiron fumant, odorant. Song, give-and-take jest — not always of the smoothest — and fun
— the more rampant, the welcomer — follow the feast of steaks. At the sale of the Curiosities belonging to
Mr. Harley, the comedian, in Gower-street, in November, 1858, a silver gridiron, won by a member of
the Steaks, was sold for 1^. 3s. The gridiron upon which Rich broiled his solitary steak was saved from
the fire at Covent Garden Theatre, in 1808, and is still preserved. In the above fire was lost the valuable
stock of wine of the Club, and its original archives. Formerly, the damask table-cloths were figured
with gridirons ; and so were the drinking glasses and plates. Among the presents made to the Society
are a punch-ladle, from Barrington Bradshaw; Sir John Boyd, six spoons; mustard-pot, by John
Trevanion, M.P. ; two dozen water-plates and eight dishes, given by the Duke of Sussex ; cruet-stand,
by W. Bolland ; vinegar-cruet, by Thomas Scott. Lord Suffolk gave a silver cheese-toaster ; toasted or
stewed cheese being the wind-up of the dinner.— (See the fullest account of the Beef-steak Society, in
Club Life of London, vol. i. pp. 123—149 : 1866. See, also, Ned Ward's account of the Society, in its
early days.)
There was also a Beef-steak Clul, which is mentioned by Ned Ward in 1709 ; Peg
Wofiington was a member, and the president wore an emblem, a gold gridiron.
Among the other Beef-steak Societies or Clubs was the Club in Ivy -lane, of which
Dr. Johnson was a member ; a political Club, " the Rump-steak or Liberty Club," in
existence in 1733-4, in eager opposition to Sir Eobert Walpole; and at the Bell
Tavern, Houndsditch, was held the Beef-steak Club, established by Beard, Woodward,
&c. — See Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewis, vol. ii. p. 196.
Blue-Stocking Club, the, met at the house of Mrs. Montague, at the north-
west angle of Portman-square. Forbes, in his Life of Beattie, gives the following
account : " This Society consisted originally of Mrs. Montague, Mrs. Yesey, Miss
Boscawen, and Mrs. Carter, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Pulteney, Horace Walpole, and Mr.
Stillingfleet. To the latter this constellation of talents owed that whimsical appella-
tion of *Bas-Bleu.' Mr. Stillingfleet being somewhat of a humorist in his habits
and manners, and a little negligent in his dress, literally wore grey stockings ; from
which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them ' The
Blue-Stocking Society,' as if to intimate that when these brilliant friends met it was
not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction hearing
the expression, translated it literally * Bas-Bleu,' by which these meetings came to be
afterwards distinguished." Dr. Johnson sometimes joined this circle. The last of the
Club was the lively Miss Monckton, afterwards Countess of Cork, " who used to have
the finest hit of blue at the house of her mother Lady Galway." Lady Cork died at
upwards of ninety years of age at her house in New Burlington-street, in 1850.
E 2
244 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Beittsh and Foreign Institute, George-street, Hanover-square, was formed by
James Silk Buckingham, under the patronage of Prince Albert, who was present at
the opening, in 1844. The leading object of the Institute was to afford a point of
union for literary and scientific men from all quarters of the globe, without distinction
of nation, politics, or creed ; to give facilities of introduction to strangers visiting the
metropolis from the country ; and to add to the attractions of literature, science, and
art, the refinements and grace of female society. The Club-rooms had the accommo-
dations of a family hotel. The Institute did not long exist.
Bkothees' Club, the, was founded in 1711, by Lord Bolingbroke, for conversation
and moderate conviviality, but intended to eschew the drunkenness and extravagance
of the Kit Kat and Beefsteak Clubs. Among the other members, besides himself and
Swift, were Arbuthnot, Prior, Sir William Windham, Orrery, and the Duke of Ormond;
Masham and his brother-in-law Hill (?) were also Brothers. They used to dine at the
Star and Garter, in Pall Mall, latterly, to which tavern they had been induced to
transfer their custom, owing to the dearness of their previous landlord.
Carlton Club, the, Pall Mall, is a purely political Club, and was founded by the
late Duke of Wellington, and a few of his most influential political friends. It first
held its meetings in Charles-street, St. James's, in the year 1831. In the following
year it removed to larger premises. Lord Kensington's house, in Carlton-gardens. In
1836 an entirely new house was built for the club, in Pall Mall, by Sir Robert Smirke,
R.A., small in extent, and plain and inexpensive in its architecture. As the Club grew
in numbers and importance, the building soon became inadequate to its wants. In
1846, a very large addition was made to it by Mr, Sydney Smirke ; and in 1854 the
whole of the original building was taken down and rebuilt by Mr. Smirke, upon a
sumptuous scale, in florid Italian style, nearly a fac-simile of Sansovino's Library of St.
Mark, at Venice : the lower order Doric, the upper Ionic ; the six intercolumniations
occupied by arched windows, with bold keystones, and the upper window spandrels,
filled with sculpture ; above are a decorated frieze, rich cornice, and massive balustrade.
The fagade is of Caen stone, but the shafts and pilasters are of polished Peterhead
granite. This new portion is intended to form one-third of the entire fa9ade.
Cavendish Club, the, 307, Regent- street, occupies one-half of the upper fafade of
the Polytechnic Institution, the entrance being wholly distinct. The Reading-room,
42 feet square, and 20 feet high, has a larger supply of foreign and colonial news-
papers and literature than any other Club in the metropolis ; the Cavendish presents
all the usual conveniences of a Club, except dinners.
Chess Clubs, see page 95.
City Club-house, 19, Old Broad-street, occupying the site of the old South Sea
House, was built in 1833, from the design of Hardwick, R.A. The style is handsome
Palladian ; the only sculpture is a rich festooned garland over the doorway. The
Club consists of merchants, bankers, and professional men of the City.
City Club, New, George-yard, Lombard-street, intended for merchants in the
City, was erected from a design by J. H. Rowley, architect, at the cost of 50,000^. :
it is the property of a company of merchants, who reserve to themselves the power of
admitting fresh members. The front is of Portland stone, and in the centre the columns
and pilasters are of polished red granite. The frontage in George-yard is upwards of
100 feet, and there is an additional frontage and entrance in Bell-yard, Gracechurch-
street. The club-house is approached from George-yard through a Doric portico and
vestibule with granite columns and pilasters. The windows have carved key-stones, and
fruits and flowers over the architraves. The frieze and cornice are also enriched.
An agreeable novelty in decoration has been introduced by means of enamelled slate in
panels, imitating malachite and other marble, on the staircase walls. The rooms are all
decorated in gilding and colours, each having its own distinctive character as to colour.
Civil Service Club, the, upon the site of the Thatched House Tavern, St.
James's-street, James Knowles, jun., architect, is occupied by an association of gentle-
men connected with the several branches of the Civil Service. The fa9ade, 99 feet
high, is entirely of stone, and has a very elegant bay window ; the decorative carving,
by Daymond, represents real foliage and birds instead of mere conventional ornaments.
CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 245
In excavating the foundations — which were carried 30ft. below the level of the street,
their superficial extent being about 7500 square feet — a collection of fossils was
discovered, including a good specimen of a lion^s jaw and a variety of mammoth bones,
the ancient denizens of the spot in centuries long passed ; below this surface the earth
was pierced another 80 ft., to which depth the main tube of the hydraulic apparatus
descends, its lifting power being obtained by the gradual rise of water let into the tube as
required. The Club-house rises above the surrounding buildings ; there is an exten-
sive panoramic view of town and country from its upper rooms, to which access is
obtained by two staircases, or by an hydraulic lift, which communicates with every
floor, and is of the newest and safest construction.
Civil Club, established in 1669, three years after the Great Fire, exists to this
day. One of the fundamental rules was, that but one person of the same trade or pro-
fession should be a member, the design being to render mutual assistance in business
matters — a very desirable object, especially after the great calamity above referred to.
The Club appears to have been a sort of court of appeal also. Thus, if one member
in his dealings with another did not feel satisfied with the quality or quantity of the
goods served to him, he could lay his grievance before the Club, who would decide the
matter. Of course, the rules have been somewhat modified, to meet the advanced
spirit of the times. The law excluding two of a trade is adhered to, to some extent.
The Civil Club met for many years at the Old Ship Tavern, Water-lane, whence it
removed to the New Corn Exchange Tavern, Mark-lane. The records show that
among former members were Parliament-men, baronets, and aldermen ; the chaplain
is the incumbent of St. Olave-by-the-Tower, Hart-street. Two high carved chairs, bear-
ing date 1669, are used by the Stewards. This is the oldest Club in existence.
Cliffoed-steeet Club was, in the last century, a debating Society, which met once
a month at the Clifford-street Coffee-house, at the corner of Bond-street. The debaters
were chiefly Mackintosh, Richard Sharp, a Mr. Ollyett Woodhouse ; Charles Moore, son
of the celebrated traveller ; and Lord Charles Townshend, fourth son of the facetious
and eccentric Marquis. The great primitive principles of civil government were then
much discussed. It was before the French Revolution had " brought death into the
world and all its woe."
At the Clifford- street Society, Canning generally took " the Liberal side "of the
above questions. His earliest prepossessions are well known to have inclined to this
side ; but he evidently considered the Society rather as a school of rhetorical exercise,
where he might acquire the use of his weapons, than a forum, where the serious pro-
fession of opinions, and a consistent adherence to them, could be fairly expected of him.
Clttb Chambees, St. James's-square, north corner of King-street (formerly the
mansion of Lord Castlereagh, d. 1822), has been refronted in cement, in the Italian
palazzo style (Johnson, architect) : the ground-floor has some good vermiculated rustic-
work, and the windows of the King-street front are piquant.
Club Chambees, Regent-street, west side, between Pall Mall and Piccadilly, was
built in 1839, by Deciraus Burton, cost 26,000^. 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 warmed 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-TEEE Club, the, was the Tory Chocolate-house of Queen Anne's reign ; the
246 CUBI08ITIES OF LOKDOK
Whig Coffee-bouse 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-bouse 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 Parhament. 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 1762 : —
" Nov. 24. — I dined at the Cocoa-tree with * * *, who, under a great appearance of oddity, conceals
more real humour, pood 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 cotfee-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 180,000Z. The Cocoa-tree was one of the Clubs
to which Lord Byron belonged.
CoNSEEVATiVE Club-hofse, on the site of the old Thatched House Tavern, 74, St.
James'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 Roman Doric j 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.
CoTTNTT 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.
CovENTET House Club (the Ambassadobs') 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 10,000Z., and 751. per annum ground rent.
Ceockfoed'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.
CLTIB8 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 94,000^.
The election of the Club members was vested in a committee ; the house appointments were superb,
and Ude was engaged as maUre 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
eared to risk was swallowed up ; and Crockford became a millionaire. He retired in 1840, " much as au
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 (tliirty-two years,
rent 1400Z.) was sold for 2900Z.
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 Eeynolds, Earl Fitz-
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, E.
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 Dodington, as Treasurer of the
Navy ; two guineas by the Duke of Kingston for a Colonelcy of Horse (then valued
at 400Z. 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 Cell, Mr.
Towneley, Richard Westmacott, Henry Hallam, the Duke of Bedford, Sir M. A. Shee, P.E.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, Eichard Thomson, Esq., Sir John Taylor, Payne Galway,
Esq., John Smythe, Esq., and Spencer S. Stanhope, Esq. 3. Head of Sir Joshua, dressed in a loose
robe, in his own hand. The earlier portraits in the collection are by Hudson, Eeynolds's master.
There is a mixture of the convivial in the portraits ; 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 Bourcliier 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 his 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 DdinhurgJi 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 Seeyice Club-house, St. James's-square, was erected iu
248 auniOSITIES OF LONDON.
1866, upon the site of two houses, Xo. 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 fa9ade 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 JSistory, 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."
Eccenteics, 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 j 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. — Cluh Lije of London, vol. i.
p. 308, 1866.
Eeechtheium Club-hottse, 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 Romney 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.
Faemees' 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 CLUB-nOU8ES. 249
Fielding Club, Maiden-lane, Covent-garden. Albert Smith was a leading mem-
ber ; and the Club gave several amatenr representations " for the immediate relief of
emergencies in the literary or theatrical world.'*
ForE-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 Club-house, Garrick-street, Covent Garden, contains a collection of
theatrical paintings and drawings, a(^sembled 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
Woffington, by E. Wilson; Nell Gwynne, 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 Macbeth, and Mrs. Pritchard, Lady Macbeth, by ZoflFany; Garrick as
Richard IlL, 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 XL, by Clint ; Mrs. Siddons as Lady Macbeth,
by Harlowe; J. P. Kemble as Cato, by Lawrence; Macreadyas 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 Dogget; Henderson, by Gainsborough;
Elder Colman, by Reynolds; Mrs. Oldfield, by Kneller : Mrs. Billington ; Nancy Dawson; Screen Scene
from the " School for Scandal," as originally cast; Scene from " Venice Preserved " (Garrick and Mrs.
Gibber), by ZofiFany; 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 be 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
patrons of the Drama," &c. The Garrick 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 Cltjb-hoiise, 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.
Geillion'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 Chib 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
liighly distinguished persons during the last half century. These portraits, all of
which were private plates, were engraved by Lewis, after di-awings 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 50th Anniversary were the Earl of Derby, K.G., chairman, sup-
ported by the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.; the Earls of St. Germans, G.CB., 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, Robert Cecil, Clinton, Lyttelton, Wodehouse,
Monteagle, Cranworth, Ebury, Chelmsford, and Taunton; the Secretaries of State for the Home and
epartraents; the Hoi
Hons. Sir F. Baring, Sir Thomas Fremantle, Spencer Walpole, Edward Cardwell, Sir Edmund Head, and
Indian Departments; the Hons. John Ashley, E. Pleydell Bouverie, and G, M. Fortescue; the Right
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, Stratfoid de Redcliffe, G.C.B., and Lovaine ; Lord
Kingsdown, the Hon. R. Curzon, Sir C. Lemon, Sir Roundfll Palmer, and the Rev. H. Wellesley.
GuAEDS' Cltjb, the, was formerly housed in St. James's-street, next Crockford's ; but,
in 1850, they removed to Pall Mall, No. VO. 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.
IVT-LANE Club, Paternoster-row, was formed by Dr. Johnson j his friend. Dr.
Richard Bathurst ; Hawksworth ; 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.
JuNiOE Caelton, 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
puirsons eligible for admission are those who profess Consei-vative 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 17,081Z. ; cost of wines and spirits,
3109Z. ; cigars, 458Z.
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 j" Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger ; Rogers, the poet ; honest John
Allen ; Dumont, the French emigrant ; Wishart, and Charles Butler. Curran often
met Erskine here.
KiT-KAT Cltjb, 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 Cliristopher Kat, a
CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 251
pastrycook, where the members dined : he excelled in making mutton-pies, always in
the bill of fare, and called Kit-kats ; hence the name of tlft Society.
Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, was secretary. Among the members were the Dukes of Somerset, Eich-
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, Maynwarins:, 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 CQuld 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 emment 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 Eichmond ; Ladies Sunderland and Mary Churchill ; and Mdlle.
Spanheime.
Law I^fSTiTUTiON, the, west side of Chancery-lane, was built in 1832 (VuUiamy,
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.
LiTEEAEY Club, 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 in Gerard-street, the founders being Sir Joshua Eeynolds
and Dr. Johnson. The members were limited to nine, including Eeynolds, 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 Thm-low'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.
Prom 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
li/ ^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 Deau 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 liobert 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 Glcnelg, and Mr. VV. Stirling. Mr. N. W. Senior, who was the
political economist of the Club, died a few days previously. The Secretary is Dr. Milmau, 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 Ufe of London, vol. i. pp. 204—218. 1866.
252 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Meemaid 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. W. Hunter, in his
Notes on Shakspeare, 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." Gilford has
thus described the Club, adopting the tradition and the Friday-street location:— "About this time
[1603] Jonson probably began to acquire that turn for conviviality for which he was afterwards noted.
Sir Walter Ealeigh, previously to his imfortunate engagement with the wretched Cobham and others,
had instituted a meeting of heaux esprits 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 was a
member; and here for many years he regularly repaired, with Shakspeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden,
Cotton, Carew, Martin, Donne, and many others, whose names, even at this distant period, call up a
mingled feeling of reverence and respect." But this is doubted. A writer in the Athenaeum, Sept. 16,
1865, states :—" The origin of the common tale of Raleigh founding the Mermaid Club, of which Shak-
speare is said to have been a member, has not been traced. Is it older than Giflford ?" Again : " Gifford's
apparent invention of the Mermaid Club. Prove to us that Raleigh founded the Mermaid Club, that
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 m.ind's eye;
for he was only eight years old when Shakspeare died.— CZm6 Life of London, vol. 1. p. 91. 1866.
MuLBEEEiES, 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 Talfourd, Mach'se,
Macready^ Frank Stone, &c. The Mulberries' meetings are embalmed in Jerrold's
Calces 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.
Naval Club, The Royal, 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
Boyal 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
Natal and Militaey Cltjb, the, 94, Piccadilly — Cambridge House, the town
residence of the late Viscount Palmerston.
NoviOMAGTANS. — The more convivially-disposed members of learned London Socie-
ties have, from time to time, formed themselves into Clubs. The Royals 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. Croffcon Croker was president more than
twenty years. Lord Londesborough, Mr. Corner, the South wark antiquary, and Mr. Fairholt, were also
INoviomagians ; 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, Jerdan, Planch^, Bell, Maclise, &c. 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 Chib had the
desired eff'ect 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 Hope, 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 nahohery 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 fa9ade 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 daugliter; 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 CUBI0SITIU8 OF LONDOK.
panelled with papier-mache ; and the libraries are filled with book-cases of beautifully-
marked Kussian 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 MeW," 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 oflBce 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."
Parthenon Clttb-hoitse, 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 Club, 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.
PoETLAND Cltjb, 1, Stratford-place, Oxford-street.
Peince of Wales's Club, 43, Albemarle-street.
Peincb op Wales's Yacht Club, Freemasons' Tavern.
Reeoem Club-house, between the Travellers' and Carlton Club-houses, has a
frontage in Pall Mall of 135 feet, being nearly equal to that of the Athenceum (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
I
CLUBS AND CLUB-HOUSES. 255-
political Reformers. The floo'r of the hall is tesselatedj 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, origmaWy ckef-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 Eeform. This fes-
tival was, gastronomically as well as politically, a brilliant triumph.
Eefobm Club, Junioe ; Club-house to be erected in Jermyn-street.
EoBiN Hood, 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
1V61. 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 Copfee Club, 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."
RoxBUEQHE Club, the, was founded by the Rev. T. Frognall (afterwards Dr.)
Dibdin, at the St. Albans Tavern, St. James's, on .Tune 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 Althorp (late
Earl Spencer), Lord Morpeth (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), Lord Gower (afterwards Earl of Carlisle), Sir
Masterman Sykes, Sir Egerton Brydges, Mr. (afterwards Baron) Bolland, Mr. Dent, Mr. Townley, Eev. T.
C. Ileber, Rev. Rob. Holwell 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 many
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 Revels; or, an Account of the Annual
Display, culinary and festivous, interspersed with Matters of Moment or Merriment :" a selection from
its rarities has appeared in the Athenaum : at the second dinnei", 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 writh Robin Hood ditties. At the fourth dinner, at Grillion's, Sir Masterman Sykea
256 GUBIOSITIES OF LOKDOJSf.
chairman 20 members present, the bill was 571. At the Anniversary, 1818, at the Albion, Mr. Heber in
the chair 'l5 present, the bill was 85/. 9s. 6d., or 51. 14s. each ; including turtle, 121. 10s. ; venison, 10?. 10s. ;
and wine, 3W. 17s. " Ancients, believe it," says Haslewood, " we were not dead drunk, and therefore lie
quiet under the table for once, and let a few modems be uppermost."
The Roxburghe Club still exists : it may justly be considered to have suggested the
piiblishing 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.
James'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 h?nnches 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 Die-
Uonary, 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 Is. Qd. to lO^,, and 2d. to the waiter ! Then, the
Club laid in its own wine, at Is. Qd. per bottle, and the landlord charged 2s. Qd. 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
—by relating the result of his going in a jolly-boat to attack a whale, and in narrating the advantages
specified in his proposed patent for fattening fowls, kept "the table in a roar." At this board, also, our
famous circumnavigators and oriental voyagers met with countenance and fellowship— as Cook, Furneaux,
Gierke, King, Bounty Bligh, Vancouver, Guardian Riou, Flinders, Broughton, Lestock, Wilson, Huddart,
Bass, Tuekey, Horsburgh, &c. ; while the Polar explorers, from the Hon. Constantine Phipps in 1773,
down to Sir Leopold M'Clintock, in 1860, 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,
SCEIBLEETJS Club, the, was founded by Swift, in l7l4, 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 efl'ort
at reconciliation, but faiUng, retreated in dudgeon. — See Brothees Club, p. 244.
Smitheield 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 Smithfield 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 Earl of
Winchelsea, Lord Somerville, 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 History
of the Origin and Progress of the Smithfield Club, we learn that, at the first exhibition, the Club only
received from the public 40?. 3s. The receipts of the first Baker-street Show were 300Z. ; and in 1857,
no less a sum than 7QQI. 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,
330Z. ; and in 1857, 1050?. Concurrent with the early career of the Smithfield Club were the Spring
Cattle Shows, established by Lord Somerville, who, in 1805, at his own cost, gave six prizes ; amongst
the exhibitors was George the Tlurd.
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 184i4, and again in 1850. The Royal visit in 1844 is believed to be the first
occasion of an agricultural shov« being attended by the Sovereign of Great Britain ; but it was not the
first time that Royalty took an interest iu 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 oif 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.— ^^Aew(EM?w, No. 1728, abridged.
Thatched House. — Admiral Smyth, in 1860, gave the followinc^ list of Clubs,
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; Linnaean Club ; Literary Society ; Navy Ciub; Philosophical Club ;
Physicians, College of. Club; Political EconomvClub; Royal Academy Club ; Royal Astronomical Club;
Royal Institution Club ; Royal London Yacht Club ; Royal Naval Club (1765) ; Royal Society Club ; St.
Alban'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.
Tom's Coefee-house Clitb, 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 I^ssay 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 CJive ; 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; SirF.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 Colman, 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 printer, 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 Robinson, 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,
Mr. Webster succeeded to the tenancy and collection of coins and medals, which he re-
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.
Teatellees' Clttb-house, adjoining the AthencBum, 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 to the
258 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON
accommodation of foreigners, who, when properly recommended, receive an invitation
for the period of their stay. (Quarterly Review, No. 110, 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 Revolution, 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, 16S8.
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 politics 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; afterwards return home to bed." —
Comic Miicellanies.
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 lare
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 Seevice 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
Athenseum, 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 Unifed 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 Is. 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."— QwarferZy Review, No. 110, 1836.
United Seevice Club, the Junioe, 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 Itahan style of architecture, the bay-window
* The West-end Clubs contribute largely to the feeding of the poor. The Union Club distributed in
the year 1814, to the poor of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, no less than 3104 lbs. of broken bread, 4556 lbs.
of broken meat, 1147 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 AUan, 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 an
allegorical group in silver, presented to the Club by his Imperial Majesty.
Univeesitt Club, the, Sufiblk-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.
Uniyeesities Union Clttb-hottse, the, is at 20, Cockspur-street, Charing Cross j
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.
Ueban 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.
Volunteer Seevice Club, 49, St. James's-street.
Watiee'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, observed ' 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 lum 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, m Friday -street,
have been quoted as if first published in 1695. No such publication has been met
with of a date before 1706 j" 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.
82
260 CUBI08ITIE8 OF LONDOK
Tliere 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 Cltibs 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
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 Cbibs, 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 modem
whist-players.
White's (Tory) CLUB-HorsE, 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 their 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 CoUey Cibber : 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.
Waipole 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 wUether he was dead or not ; and when they were going to bleed him, the wagerers for his
death interposed, and^aid 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 Bagshot.
The celebrated Lord Chesterfield there ' gamed, and pronounced witticisms among the boys of quality.'
Steele dated all his love news in the Tatler from White's. It was stigmatized as ' the common rendezvous
of infamous sharpers and noble cullies ;' and bets were laid to the eSect that Sir WilUam 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 9489^. 2s. Qd. ; and on July 6 following, the Club
gave a dinner to the Duke of Wellington, which cost 2480^. 10*. 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 Metrotolitak Athenjeiim, 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 clicss-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-square, 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-HO USES.
COFFEE was first drunk in London about the middle of the seventeenth century.
" The first coffee-house in London," says Aubrey (MS. in the Bodleian Library),
*' was in St. Michael'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 Mr. 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 berrisa
and leaves thereon ; it was brought over Irom Moco, in Arabia, by Mr. E. Clive, of London, merchant,"
who has described it in Fhilos. Trans. No. 208.
Coffee is first mentioned in our statute-book anno 1660 (12 Car. II., c. 24), when a
duty of Aid. 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.
Bakeii'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, Threadneedle-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 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
*' This Coifee-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
parbur : " 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 Cofl'ee-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 informatioa
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 end of the Piazza, ad-
joining to Great Russell-street, and now occupied as the Bedford Cotfee-house and Hotel. They are either
the same premises, or they immediately adjoin the premises, occupied a century later as the Bedford
Cotfee-house. (Mr. John Bruce, Archceologia, 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 i& 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 ofl'ence or disturbance to
the said Sir Edmund Verney."— CZm6 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 CoppEE-HorsE, Cockspur-street, " long a house of call for Scotchmen," has
been fortunate in its landladies. In lV59, 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 Cofpee-hotise, " 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 Tip 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 hi.s 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 eoftee-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 Daili/ Advertiser, October 5, appeared the follow-
ing : — " On Sunday morning, died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button, who formerly
kept Button's Coflee-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 Eichard 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 I. p. 159.)
Button's continued in vogue until Addison's death and Steele's retirement into Wales,
after which the house was deserted ; the coflee-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,) and 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,
CornMll 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 ungues :
Non nisi delicta 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 time,
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 17Z. 10s., 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 x&msiLa.i.—CommunicatedbyMr.John Gfreen.—See also Guardian, Nos. 85, 93, 114,142.
Chapter 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 waa
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 andM.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 \ns Monthly
Magazine. The Witenagemot lost its literary celebrities ; but the Chapter maintained its reputatiou
for good punch and coffee, scarce pamphlets, and liberal supply of town and counti-y newspapers.
264 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON".
Mrs. Gaskell has left the following account of the Chapter in 1848 : —
" 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, 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-street 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. James'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 1G80. Here
Steele takes the "Twaddlers," in the Tatler, Nos. 86 and 132. The coffee-room was
frequented by the poet Cowper, 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-oiRce of Richard
Tottel, law-printer to Edward VI., Queens Mary and Elizabeth ; the premises were
attached t-o 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. —
111.; 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.
Geoeqe'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, for a shilling sub-
scription, he read *' all pamphlets under a three shillings' dimension." It was closed
in 1843.
Geecian 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
Tatler ; 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 Eoyal Society. The premises have, since 1843, been the
"Grecian Chambers;" and over the door is the bust of Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Gareawat'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 hi 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 off; and, in the Journey through England, 11 2,2,
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 skiff's.
And strip the bodies of the dead."
The reader may recollect with what realistic power of incident and character
Mr. E. M. Ward painted, some twenty years ago, the strange scene in tlie 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 answer," 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 sandvviches 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 Ldndon News,.
Geat's-inn Coffee-house, eastern corner of Gray's-inn Gate, Holborn : here
were formerly held the Commissions De Lunalico inquirendo. It was closed in 1865.
St. James's Coffee-house, the famous Whig Coffoe-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 have 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 Toion JEclogues
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 poem, Betaliation. The poet belonged to a temporary association of men
of talent, some of them members of tlie 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 augel, 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 l709 : in the patent he
obtained, it is mentioned as " a new kind of light."
Jamaica CoPFEE-HorsE, 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.
Jeeusalem CoPFEE-HorsE, 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, ,
Penang, Singapore, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Sydney, Hobart Town, Launeeston, 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 I
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 Bold 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 !"
LangbcJtten Coffee-hotjse, 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
I
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 CorFEE-HOtrSE, Ludgate-hill (now a hotel and tavern), was opened May,
1731, as " a punch house, Dorchester Beer, and Welsh Ale Warehouse, where the finesfc
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 CoPFEE-HorsE, 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-HOUSE, New Palacc-yard, Westminster, was the place of meeting^
of the noted Rota Club. (See Clubs, p. 255.)
Mundat'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,
IV, 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 Coimcil Office of the Duchy of Cornwall ; an
entry in 1619 is from " Prince's Council Chamber, Fleet-Street."
New England and N'oeth 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, 2ud 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, 1*77 and 178, Fleet- street, east corner of Fetter-lane, was one of the coffee,
houses of the Johnsonian pex'iod ; 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
Keynolds. Peele's was noted for its files of newspapers from these dates : Gazette, 1759;
Times, 1780 ; Morninc/ Chronicle, 1773 ; Morning Post, 1773 ; Morning Herald,
1784; Morning Advertiser, 1794. Peele's is now a tavern and hotel.
Peecy 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 Fercg 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 Cofl'ee-hcuse, 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 ttie 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 fim 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 500Z. 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 hy Ms own fireside." The Piazza facade 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 : —
" Jamks Fare, 1666. A Rainbow. 5= in Fleet-street. In the centre, his haifpenitt. It is well
known that James Fan- kept the Rainbow, in Fleet-street, at the time of the Great Fire, the very year
of which is marked on tliis 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 liath been set on fire, to the great danger and afiright
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 Rainbow 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
C0FFEE-E0USE8.
in the coffee. The Spectator, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the Rainbow :
*' I have received a letter desiring me to be very satirical upon the little muff that is
now in fashion ; another informs me of a pair of silver garters, budded 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; 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.
Salteeo's (Don) Cottee-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 Tatler, describes Salter as "carrying on the avocations of barber and dentist.
You see the barber in Don Quixote is on6 of the principal characters in the history,
vi^hich 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 Eden," &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 Copfee-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 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Seele's Coffee-house, Carey-street, is thus mentioned in No. 49 of the Spectator :
*' 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."
Slatjghtee'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. Roubiliac was often to be found at Slaughter's ; and young
Gainsborough and Cipriani ; Jervis and Hay man 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, Rawle, the inseparable companion of Capt. Grose, the antiquary, came
often to Slaughter's ; as did also Collitis, the young poet.
Smyena 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 talJc 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 I7l7. The house is very roomy ; it has been handsome,
and has a wide staircase.
Squire's was one of the receiving-houses of the Spectator : in No. 269, January 8, 1711-12, he accepts
Sir Roger de Coverley's invitation to "smoke a pipe with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As 1
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 in 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 lOOOZ.
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 Eoyal 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 Coifee-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 Kikg'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 heaux from King's Coffee-
house caressing two frail women. At the door is a drunken row, in 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 heaux," 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, Avho 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 was bought for Walpolef
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 Dry den'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, " Wliere 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-
hican formerly in Fanny er Ally."
Tuek's Head Coffee-house, 142, in the Strand, was a favourite supping-
272 CURIOSITIES OF LONBON.
house 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 8000Z. as " Wright's Hotel :" it is now an
insurance office. The house has two stories below the level of the street.
Will's Copfee-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 desci'ibes " 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 Cibber remembered him
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 varioi
prefaces, appear to have been made at his favourite haunt, Will's. Swift was acct
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 con3
versation he ever heard in his life was at Will's." In the first number of the Tatler,
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 tiie
hands of every man you met; you have now only a pack of cards; and instead of the
* Will's Coffee-house iirst 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 Tatler .—
" 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 gr(!at
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 Cofpee-house, 7, Serle-street, Lincoln's-inn, 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 Chueches, 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 Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, then incum-
bent of the district, contributed the bulk of his 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 Knightshridge, 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, Bamsbury-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 100,000Z., or about 1000^. for
every station. (See Low's Charities of London, pp. 412-13.)
Chemistry, College oe (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, 184<6j James Lockyer, architect.
T
274 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Oxford-street front has a rusticated ground-floor, and an upper story decorated
with six Ionic columns.
DuLWiCH College, in the pleasant hamlet of Dulwlch, 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 ; yefc
the first master and warden (AUeyn'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 GaUery 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 "
Kichard 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 rufP, and
pearls ; and a Merchant 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
to the theatre have been exchanged or filched away; and a very valuable collection of old plays was
exchanged by the College with Garrick 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 AJleyn'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 ofiicial 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 8Z. per annum for each boy, and in the lower to 11. 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.
Geesuam 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 VOOO^. 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 Eoyal 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 501. 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 400^. or 500;. 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 100?. 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 Gresham
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. Mercers' Company.
Kr^. 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.
Heealds' College (College of Arms), College of Advocates, and Doctors of Law,
cast 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 Eichard III., who gave them
for the residence and assembling of the Heralds, Poulteney's Inn,"a righte fayre and stately house," in
Coldharbour. They were dispossessed of this property by Henry VII., when they removed to the
Hospital of Our Lady of Rounceval, 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 Magna Britannics
Notitia, 1726.
The College has, since 1622, consisted of thirteen officers : — Kings: Garter, Principal ;
Clarencieux j Norroy. Seralds : Lancaster, Somerset, Richmond, Windsor, York,
Chester. Pursuivants : Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Portcullis, Blue Dragon. These
hold their places by appointment of the DuJce 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 6001. 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 10,000Z. 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
Com"t 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 Riders, 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 Talbot, 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 2000^. ; 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'
OfiBce, 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 hia
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 Arms amount to seventy-five guineas; an ordi-
nary search of the records is 5«. : 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 j 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 College 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
of 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 Rev. 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 Pinchley-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 VIII., 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, tmtil
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,
"Where 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 JDhpensary.
" 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 tahle 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 oflScers ; 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 VOOOZ., supposed to include money actually lent, money pretended to be given, but
set down as a debt in Sir John's hooks, and the interest on both. The executors,
however, accepted 2000Z., 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 : —
" Omiiis Cutleri cedat Labor Ampliitheatro."
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
JEssay : —
" 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
Pawnbroking) 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 30,000Z. 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 Rellgio 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 Radclifie, 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 Roubiliac ; Dr. Sydenham, by Wilton ; Harvey, by Schee-
makers ; Dr. Baillie, by Chantrey ; Dr. Babington, by Behnes. Here also is a picture
of Hunter lecturing on Anatomy before Royal Academicians (portraits), by Zoffany j
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 strengtli 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 oe (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 CoLLEaE, London, 67, Harley-street, was established 1848, for general
female education, and for granting to Governesses certificates of qualification. 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.
SiON 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-
the-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 363?.
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.
Stjegeons, Royal College op, 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 : Mbies * Collegii • Chieyegoevm • Londinensis • Diplomate • 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 Cffisar 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 Flaxman ; of Cline, 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 Go v\'er- street, was designed by Wilkins,
R.A. ; the first stone laid by the Duke of Sussex, April 30, 1827 ; 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 jvhole 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-
pense ;" but Divinity is not taught. There is a Junior School. The graduates of the University of
London from University College are entitled Doctors of Laws, Masters of Arts, and Bachelors of Law,
Medicine, and Art. The School of Medicine is highly distinguished ; and under the superintendence of
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.
Wesletan Noemal 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 {THE).
THE 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 suppoi-tedby 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 I'Orme in the 14th century, and
1^
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 Eoman 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 j^r^^ 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-simile 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 througli 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. Tt covers upwards of 46,000
square feet, 6r 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 j 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
magnitude or shape, and even that offers but a small extent in comparison. It is
inferred that the scafiblding 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 inefiectually. 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 Elys^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 buildmgr did not resemble the Pantheon, as ours in the Eegent's-park, but
the Colosseum at Rome. It contained a rotunda, saloons, and circular galleries, skirted with shops,
besides trellis-work apartments and four cafes. 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 treUis-work ; the entire space occupied by the buildings, coui ts, 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 1776.
282 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 j
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-Ofiace, 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 U3 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 right
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, Royal
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
€annon-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 South wark,
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 so 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 hues of Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, and the Strand, Piccadilly, &c. ; Holbom-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.—
Brief 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 efiects 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 witl
embossed glass.
Southward and eastward of the Rotunda are large Conservatories, a Swiss chal
and mountain scenery interspersed with real water : these were executed by Mi
Hornor, whose enthusiasm led him to project a tunnel beneath the Regent's-parl
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 ; 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 Rathbone-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 ApoUonicon. 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
23,000Z. for Mr. Thomas Hornor, who held a lease of it direct from the Crown, at a
ground rent of 262^. 18*. for a period of ninety-nine years, sixty-nine of which were
unexpired on the 10th of October, 1854. He subsequently expended above 100,000^.
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 50,000Z. on the building, which in a few years
afterwards became the property of Mr. Turner, who added the Cyclorama, which cost
20,000Z., to the establishment, with many decorations, at several thousand pounds*
expense ; so that the entire edifice has cost above 200,000^. The sum of 20,000^. 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 efiect 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. From this
284 CUBI08ITIE8 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
eap by three large belts of metal lying in grooves, and rendering it needless to fix plugs
into the work, with the concomitant risk of damage from the galvanic action of metals.'*
(G. Godwin, jun., F.R.S.) One of the lower tiers of leaves weighs about 900 lbs.
Upon a circular pedestal on the abacus is a colossal statue of Nelson, with a coiled cable
on his left j 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, 1843; and on Oct. 23 previous, fourteen persons
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 thnber used
in erecting this scaffold was 7700 cubic feet, and its cost was 240^. 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 ; " 1 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
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 candle 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, which 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 5545^. 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, 250^., 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,*
20,483^. 11*. 2d., had been expended ; and the Government undertook the comple-
* To which Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, contributed 5001.
I
COLUMNS.
285
tion of the monument, estimated at 12,000Z. additional. The column itself cost
23,000Z. building ; the statue, capital, and reliefs, bOOOl. ; 2000^. architect's commis-
sion ; four lions have been estimated at 3000Z. 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 :
Date.
Climate.
Site.
Order.
Height to
the top of
Capital,
Diameter.
A.D.
118
162
1671
1806
1833
1839
Tra^jan . . .
Antoninus . .
Monument . .
Napoleon . .
Duke of York .
Nehon . . .
Rome . .
Rome . .
London .
Paris . .
London .
London .
Doric . .
Doric . .
Doric . .
Doric . .
Tuscan .
Corinthian
Feet.
115
123
172
115
111
145-6
Feet.
12
13
15
12
11
10-lf— 11-7-i
Nelson Column, 145 feet 6 inches ; statue and plinth, 17 feet ; = 162 feet 6 inches.
YoEK Column, 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 25,000^., 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 V tons 800 lbs., or 16,480 lbs. ; it was raised
April 8, 1834, between the column and the scaffolding, seven hours labour, at a cost
of iOOl. 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 in
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. — Proceedings of the Society of Arts, 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 shaft 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.
CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
COMMON COUNCIL.
ur^
THE constitution of the Corporation of London presents a remote and illusory
semblance to the constitution of the State, There are the Lord Mayor, the Coi
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 Richard 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 Richard 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, Cordwainer 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 Couneilmen 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 solelj^,
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 foi-merly very stringent. An order of Cominon
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 Liberties, 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 Richard 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 Farringdon 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 Couneilmen.
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 :
I
CONDUITS. 287
" The cit— a Common-Councilman by place.
Ten thousand mighty nothings in his face.
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-au-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.
SPRING water was formerly conveyed to public reservoirs in the City by leaden pipes
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, sheriflfs,
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.
Canonbuet. — 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 Cheapslde, at its junction
with the Poultry j 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.
COENHILL. — 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." {Stoto.) A well, which adjoined, was then planked
over, and a timber cage, pillory, and stocks, set upon it j these were removed in 1546,
1 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,
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
erected in 1799, by the contributions of the Bank of England, East India Company, and
the neighbouring Fire Oflfiees, together with the Bankers and Traders of the ward of
Cornhill." Round 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 Islinqton 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 \\'hite 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.
Kensinqton. — On the Palace-green was formerly a four-gabled Conduit, built
temp. Henry VIII. ; and a Water Tower, erected by Su- 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 groxmd a little
south of Ormond-street, whence the water comes in a drain to this conduit ; and it runs thence in lead 1
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 t'
Lamb-yard, a short flight of steps, a brick vault, and the covered well j as well as
CONTENTS. 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 publiclc." 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 700 Z. 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 I., 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 o^ " 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, * Memm. the King's
charter for theCondett at the Pales'-gate remayneth in the custody of the churchwardens.' The fountain
was removed in the reign of King Charles II." — VValeott's Westminster. Lastly, in the very curious
Harleian MS., numbered 433 (Rich. III. 1484), we find mentioned, " the lytell water conduct,"
CONVENTS.
EELIGIOUS Houses and Hospitals, for ages before the Reformation, occupied nearly
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 Ludgate 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
Son Hommes, Old Jewry.
Friories : 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.
Nunneries : Benedictines, or Black Nuns, Clerkenwell ; St. Helen's, Bishopsgate-street ; St. Clare's,
Minories ; Holy-well, between Holywell-lane and Norton-folgate.
Colleges, ^c. ; St. Martin' s-le-Gr and ; St. Thomas of Acres, Westcheap ; Whittington's College and
Hospital, Vintry Ward ; St. Michael's College and Chapel, Crooked-lane ; Jesus Commons, Dowgate.
Hospitals (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 Rouneeval, 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-laue, 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 j but a glance
at the Sutherland View of London in 1543, and at Tapperell and Innes'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 Memains 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 topersevere 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 Cliurch ;" each of the novices sings r*
" My heart hath uttered a good word; I speak my words to the King," &c.; each novice embraces th '
superioress and each member of the sisterhood, and they retire as they entered, in procession.
COnNKILL,
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 (
market time out of mind there holden." {Stow.) Here was the " Tun" prison, buil^
in 1283, upon the spot now occupied by a pump ; also a castellated conduit, and it
water " Standard" (1528) near the junction of the street with Leadenball-street
Cornhill has been the site of the Merchants' Exchange for nearly three centuries. Or
the west side, adjoining the Bank of England, was St. Christopher-le-Stocks Churcl
with a lofty pinnacled tower, which escaped the Great Fire of 1666 : the church w£
COBNHILL. 291
reljuilt 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.
Mnch-lane, properly Finke-lane, is so called of the Finke familj^ the elder of whom
new-built the parish church of St. Bennet (Finke). In Finch-lane, in the year 1 765,
James Watt obtained w^ork 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 w§ek, exclusive of his lodging. BircTiin-laney
proi)erly 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 Major Graunt, said to have written The Observations on tlie Bills 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. Bin., was sold by auction,
in 1864, and realized 10,100^., subject to a rental of 500/ 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 cofiee-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 in
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 Avhen Chantrey's
marble statue of George 111. 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. Kitchiner extols the soups of Birch, and
his skill has long been famed in civic banquets. — Chambers's Book of Days, 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-
<iuently Pidding^s Lottery-ofiice. 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 poimds, went into the office of Martin & Co.,
V 2
292 CUBIOSITIES 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 lu^ky Don lay down that
night twenty thousand pounds richer than he had risen.
Cornhill has been 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 (200,000Z. loss), including the London Assurance Office, the Fleece
and Three Tuns Taverns, and Tom's and the Rainbow Cofiee-houses, in Cornhill ; the
Swan Tavern, with Garraway's, Jonathan's, and the Jerusalem Cofiee-houses, in Ex-
change-alley ; besides the George and Vulture Tavern, and other cofffee-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
Gutwich 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 3000Z. 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.
cov:ent qahbtin,
LYING between the north side of the Strand and Long-acre, has been a locality of
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 Symond 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 thdi
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
Gl. Gs. 8c?., 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 extendiuj
northward nearly to the site of the present market. Southampton-street was the;
built, and named after Lady Wilham Eussell, daughter of the Earl of Southampton
and other streets were named from the Russell family — as RusseU, Bedford, Tavistock,j
Chandos; King and Henrietta streets, from Charles I. and his queen; and James an("
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 Chueches, 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 w;
I
COVENT GARDEK 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, Covent-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 eonless'd their evil deeds :
But, oh, sad chan.o'e ! 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 everi/ 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 j 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, Wilkes, 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 j Vande-
velde, Zincke, Lambert, Hogarth, Haynaan, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, and Samuel Foote.
The Garden became «re-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, " hammam"), 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 Bedfoed 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 tlie 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 Fiazza 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, in 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
some 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
Muskerry, the celebrated Princess of Babylon of De Grammont's Memoirs. The
famous George Robins, 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 Zofiany,
who painted here Foote, in the character of Major Sturgeon. Hogarth's Marriage-£l-
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 Handhoolc 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 Itussell-street, eastward, were Will's, Button's, and Tom's Copfee-houseS,
{See pp. 272, 262, 271). In James-street, northward, was formerly held a Bird-markei
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 Sii
Kenelm Digby, of " Sympathetic Powder" fame. Aubrey says : —
" Since the Eestoration of Charles II., he (Sir Kenelm Digby) lived in the last faire house westward
in the north portico of Covent-garden, where my Lord Denzil Holies Uved 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 Enghsh Admiral, who, in 1692, defeated the
French ofi" 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,
pruits, 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 ia
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 which 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.
COTENT GABBEK. 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, E.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
Hud'ibras, 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 monumeiit was erected in the year 1786, by some of the parishioners of Covent-garden,
in memory of the celebrated Samuel Butler, who was buried ire 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 sutfer'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 monumentiil 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 TamstocTc-roWy No. 4, lived Miss Reay, the mistress of Lord Sandwich : she was
shot in the Piazza, in 1779, by the Rev. W. Hackman, 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, O wicked one !
In Covent-garden shot her;
No time to cry upon her God,
It's hoped He's not forgot her." — Qrub-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 JEngland ; the above
296 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
premises having been the house, shop, and hiboratory 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), whicli
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 I
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. I
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 80,000Z. 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.
CHANE-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. I
was rebuilt immediately after the Great Fire, and contains a few specimens of fini
brickwork. Strype describes Crane-court as " a very handsome open place, graced witl
good buildings, well inhabited by persons of repute." Until about 1782 it was paved witl
. black and white marble. The large end house was built by Sir Christopher Wren, an
was inhabited by Dr. Edward Brown, an eminent physician, until 1710, when it w:
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 2200Z. a year, chiefiy in 101. pensions to
old people ; and the princely bequest of 76,495?., by Mr. W. Kinloch, allow s 1800?.
being given in pensions of 4?. to disabled soldiers and sailors. The monthly meetings
of the Society are preceded by Divine service in the chapel, in the rear of the house.
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 lar
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
I
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 been 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 jfVat;eZZer 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 (15Z.) 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 Bathe's, about 1740, at No. 132,
Strand ; in 1770 there were but four.
CROSBY SALL,
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. IBs. 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. ; 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
Eastell, More's 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 CUBI0STTIE8 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 thai
year. He greatly improved the Place, and "builded a most large warehouse nei
thereunto.*' He was the " rich Spencer," worth nearly a million of money ; and he
he entertained Sully, when he came on a special embassy from Henry IV. of Prance
James I. Sir John Spencer's daughter and sole heiress married William, the secon(
Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, and ancestor of the present Marqui
During Lord Compton's proprietorship, the celebrated Countess of Pembroke, " Sidney'
sister, Pembroke's mother," lived many years in Crosby Place. Spencer, Earl <
Northampton, son of the last-mentioned proprietor, resided here in 1638. Two yeai
previously, the property was leased to Sir John Langham, sheriflf 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 cott
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, t]
predecessor of the Rev. Dr. CoUyer, of Peckham.
The Hall was then let as a packer's warehouse. In 1677, the present houses u
Crosby-square were built on the ruins of the old mansion. In 1831, the packer'
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 Sfc.
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-
roora 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 (Jouncil-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, 27^ broad, and 40 feet hig]
It has a minstrels' gallery, but not a dais.
«
1
The glory of the place is, however, the roof, which is an elaborate architectural study, and decide^
one of the finest specimens of timber-work in existence. It differs from many other examples in beinj
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 methc^
by which he has avoided an horizontal import to his ceiling, by constructing arches of timber cor
* In 1794, Mr. Capon painted for John Philip Kemble, at New Drury-lane Theatre, the Counc
Chamber, for the play of Jane Shore ; a correct restoration of the original apartment, as far as existi"
documents would warrant.
CBUTCHED FBIABS. 29J>
sponding 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. This 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 thafc
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 ;
with his arms and crest.
CRUTCHED FRIARS.
THIS picturesque fragment of old London, which Hatton describes " as a very con-
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 ;
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 Sanctce Crucis), founded in 1298, by Ralph Hosier
and William Sabernes, who became friars here. Originally they carried in theu* handa
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
800 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-stree<", which
. bad 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.)
c:ryfts.
THE 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 th(
tenth or great pier, and was entered both from the upper apartment and the street, as well as by a flighl
of stone stairs winding round a pillar which led into it from outside the pier : whilst in front of thii
latter entrance the sterling formed a platform at low-water, which thus rendered it accessible from th(
river. This Crypt was about 60 feet in length, 20 feet high, and had a groined roof, supported by ston(
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 giating 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. Baetholomew's Cetpt, Sraithfield, 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 th<
remains of another crypt.
BiSHOPSGATE-STEEET WiTHiN, No. 66 (taken down in 1865), was built upon a,
crypt, of ecclesiastical architecture.
Bow Chuech Cetpt, 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 Normal
church, but it was mistaken by Wren for Roman workmanship. It has long been usi
as a dead-house, is ventilated, and the coffins are put in fair order. At Messrs. GroW"
cock's, in Bow Churchyard, is a small portion of another crypt or undercroft. It
difficult to understand how Wren was led to the belief that the above remains wer(
Roman ; unless, as was pointed out by Mr. Gwilt, in an admirable description of th(
crypt ( Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v. plates 61 to 65), Wren was deceived by the fad
CBYPTS. 801
tliat 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 revellings
heard during divine service in the chapel above.
Gaebaway's CoEFEE-HorsE, 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" {Stoid) ; 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 staft" 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 tiltiug-
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.-— J". 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 waU, 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.
" Guy Fawees's Cellar" 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 CUBI0SITIE8 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 buttery-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 OflEice, '
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 openingthe 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 seai-ch took place on the morning of the day of the Koyal ceremonial.
HosTELEY OP THE Peioes OP Lewes Cetpt, 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 j 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 Ceypt, 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. ThiSj
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 m
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, anc
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 freqiiently 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 Ceypt, 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 Chapoli
has otherwise been quite barbarised ; and the remainder of this archiepiscopaJ residence, though foundeq
as early as the reign of Richard Coeur-dc-Liou (before which it was a residence of the Bishop of Rochester) j
now forms only a confused medley of buildings, with no fragment older than the fifteenth century .'1
Weale's London, p. 145.
Lamb's Chapel Ceypt, 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 ; and the interesting ribs of the groining
are decorated with zig-zag mouldings and a spiral ornament. The carved work is o%
Caen stone. The chapel was originally " the Hermitage of St. James's" in the wall^
CBYPTS. 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 he was a mem-
ber. (-See Lamb's Conduit, p. 288.)
Leathee-Sellees' Hall Cetpt, 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
ball : 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. Maetin's-le-Geand Cetpt was laid open in clearing for the site of the new
General Post-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 1547), 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 Constantine, 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
Pire of 1666, disclose the foundation-wall of Aldersgate, and a remarkably fine speci-
men of early brick arch -work.
St. Maet Aldeemaet, 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.
Meechant Tailoes' Hall Cetpt 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 Cetpt extends beneath the whole of the church, and, like the body of
the Cathedral, is divided into three avenues by massive pillars and arches ; except the
portion beneath the ajrea of the dome, it is well lighted and ventilated by windows
30i CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
opening into the churchyard. The north aisle is a place of sepulture for the parishioner
of St. Faith. {See Chtteches, p. 113.) In the crypt of Old St. Paul's the stationer
of Paternoster-row had warehoused their stocks of books, which were destroyed ii
the Great Fire.
St. Stephen's Crypt, Westminstek Palace, also called " St. Mary's Chapel it
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 t\
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 ; whilsi
the tracery of the windows is exquisitely beautiful. Strength, solidity, fine propor-*
tions, and skilful execution, are the characteristics of this basement chapel" {Briitofi
and Braylei/), which " is the last fragment in London that can be decidedly classed
in the first or pi-ogressive period of English architecture." — (Weale's London.) Thii
Crypt was fitted up as the state dining-room of the Speaker of the House of Commons i
it was much damaged in the great fire of 1834, but has been restored as a chapel fo
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 ai
unusual position for an ecclesiastic) ; it was wrapped in several folds of waxed cloth sewi
together with coarse twine; its right hand, on which was probably the ring c
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 sole
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
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 i
a license to the bishop's executors for one or two chaplains to celebrate divine servic
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 stafi* 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 Kochester, John
Fisher, who was beheaded for his opposition to the Reformation.
CUMIOSITY-SSOPS.
THE principal locality for dealers in Ctiriosities, 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 Wurdour-street.
CUSTOM-HOUSE (THE). 305
The mar^s 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 Mediseval 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 Manson's, King-street, St. James's, especially for pictures. Phillips's, New Bond-
street ; Foster, Pall-mall ; 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 Caevings in Wood,
pp. V8-81, and Chelsea Poecelain, 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),
LOWER THAMES-STREET, immediately east of Billingsgate-dock, was origi-
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 plain ;
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
i 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
I Sir Robert Smirke. The expense was 180,000Z., which, added to the original expendi-
i ture, 255,000Z., made the total cost of the edifice nearly half a million, or two-thirds the
i cost of St. Paul's Cathedral. The river fa9ade 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
I this quay is not equal to the height of the Custom-house, its fagade, which is of
I Portland stone, is not seen to advantage from that point, but from London Bridge or
I 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 " Ijong Room " taken down after the failure of the
foundation. The ofiicers 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 ofiicer 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.
Z
30G 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 daily 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 bemulti-
phed in many instances 300 times :— Anchovies, 1455 lbs. ; arrow-root, 101 cwt. ; cattle, 172 ; cocoa and
cofiec, 78,684 lbs. ; 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, 180^. value; lemon-peel, 20 pipes; litho-
graphic stones, 953; manufactures, 63o2Z. value; marble, 12 blocks; molasses, 1176 cwt.; nutmegs,,
414 lbs. ; oil, 546 packages ; oil, scented, 810 lbs. ; onions, 800 bushels ; pepper, 11,832 lbs.; quicksilver,
4089 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 lbs.; timber, 1900
loads; tobacco, 14,143 lbs.; 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 ; haras,
500; manufactures, 163 packages; marble mortars, 50; mats, 1000; raisins, 750 drums; rice, 581 bags;
rum, 111 casks; spirits, 654 cases or casks ; sugar, 1345 packages; tallow, 191 packages; tobacco, 990
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. Tha first
was erected by John Churchman, Sheriff of London in 1385. (Siozv.) The second was
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 1666. It
was rebuilt by Wren, at a cost of 10,000Z. ; 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 Ripley, who introduced the " Long Room," and
embellished the river front with Ionic columns, pediments, and a Tuscan colonnade :
this/oMr^7i 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 109,572Z., being nearly thrice as much as was col-
lected in all the rest of the kingdom (England), the whole Customs duties then amounting to 148,075^.
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 OflBce 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 10,000,000Z. ; in 1794
the amount increased to 31,000,000^. 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 1S64, to above 36,000,000?. The gross Customs revenue of the United Kingdom in
1864 was 22,498,210Z., of which London contributed 11,491,412Z. Thus, the London Customs Duti^^
are nearly double the amount levied at all the other ports of England put together, and more '
double the amount taken in all Scotland and Ireland.
DAGTLEBRBOTYPE {TEE).
1
THE first experiment made in England with the Daguerreotype was exhibited by M.
St. Croix, on Friday, September 13, 1839, at No. 7, Piccadilly, nearly opposite
the southern Circus of Regent-street ; when the picture produced vA'as a beautiful minia
ture representation of the houses, pathway, sky, &c., resembling an exquisite mezzotini
M. St. Croix subsequently removed to the Argyll Rooms, Regent-street, where hi
experimental results became a scientific exhibition. One of the earliest operators wa
Mr. Goddard. The discovery was patented by Mr. Miles Berry, who sold the firs
licence to M. Claudet for lOOL or 200Z. a-year ; and in twelve months after dispose*
of the patent to Dr. Beard, who, however, did not take a Daguerreotype portrait unti
after Dr. Draper had sent from New York a portrait to the Editor of the PMlosopUca
Magazine, with a paper on the subject.
With reference to the conditions of a London atmosphere, as regards its influeno
upon Daguerreotypic or Photographic processes, there are some very peculiar phena
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 vmfrequently prevails, even when there is no actual fog over the towi
itself, is fatal to all chemical change. This haze is, without doubt, an accumulation, at a considerabi
elevation, of the carbonaceous matter from the coal-fires, &c. Although a day may appear moderate!
clear, if the sun assume a red or orange colour, it will be almost impossible to obtain a good Daguerrec
type. Notwithstanding in some of the days of spring our photographers obtain very fine portrait
DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM.— DIOBAMA AND COSMOBAMA. 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 Kev. 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 Kenttroad,
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.
DIOBAMA AND COSMOBAMA.
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 their seats ; while the
scenery itself remained stationary, and the light was distributed by transparent and
X 2
308 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
movable blinds — some placed bebind 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 2Q01.
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 4800Z. ; and the
property, with sixteen pictures, rolled on large cylinders, was next sold for SOOOl.
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 Eoberts, 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, Eegent-street, a series of thirty-one Dioramic pictures of the Over-
land Mail Eoute from Southampton to Calcutta; the general scenery painted by T. Grieve and W.
Telbin, human figures by John Absolon, and animals by J. P. 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 exhibite(
between 1600 and 1700 times, and visited by upwards of 250,000 persons.
The Cosmoeama, 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 qualitj
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. Th(
pictures are placed beyond what appear like common windows, but of which the panel
are really large convex lenses, fitted to correct the errors of appearance which th<
nearness of the pictures would else produce. The optical part of the exhibition is thul
complete ; but as the frame of the picture would be seen, and thus the illusion bi
destroyed, it is necessary to place between the lens and the view a square woodei
frame, which, being painted black, prevents the rays of light passing beyond a certaii
line, according to its distance from the eye : on looking through the lens, the pictun
is seen as if through an opening, which adds very much to the effect. Upon the toj
JDOCKS. 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 Cosmoraraa was long shown at Nos. 207 and 209, Regent-street, where the most
effective scenes were views of cities and public buildings. Cosmoraraas have also formed
part of other exhibitions. At the Lowther Bazaar, 35, Strand, the " Magic Cave"
(cosmoramic pictures) realized 1500Z. per annum, at 6d. for each admission.
DOCKS.
THE Docks of London are entirely the growth of the present century, and the result
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.
CoMMEECiAL DoCES, 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 11th 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.
810 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Geakd Suerey Docks, on the south bank oi' 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 Chueches, 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,V00,000Z. ; or at the
rate of 195,640Z. 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 borges 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
whei'ries. 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 2000^., 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 moie in length, a piece of which applied to
fiame 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 65,000^. 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 60,000Z. ; 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 tliey 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 ; 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,
BOCKS.
311
and contains upwards of 12 acres : above is the mixing-honse, the largest vat containing
23,250 gallons. The Wool-floors were considerably enlarged and glass-roofed in 1850 :
the annual importation is 130,000 bales ; value, 2,600,000^. A vast Tea-warehouse
was completed in 1845 ; cost, 1 00,000Z. ; 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
14,O00Z. per annum : it is five acres in extent, and is covered by a skilfully iron-framed
roof, supported by slender columns : it will contain 24,000 hogsheads of tobacco, value
4,800,000^. ; 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 150,000Z.
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
spii'its 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
cither 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 lawycrs'-
clerks, suspended government-clerks, almsmen, pensioners, servants, thieves — ^indeed,
every one who wants a loaf and is willing to work for it." — Senry MayJiew,
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 Geaving 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.
Names of Docks.
Capital.
Area of
Water
Accom-
modation.
Cost
per acre.
St Katharine's
2,152,800
Acres.
11
23
112
90
£
195,640
110,654
17,884
5,000
London Docks
3,938,310
East and West India Docks including Canal and
Pond .
2,003,000
450,000
Victoria Docks, estimate for Works and Land, to
be occupied ttierewith
812 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON:
West India Docks, the, lie between Limehouse and Blackwall, and their long lines
of warehouses, and loffcy 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. The
northern or Import Dock will hold 250 vessels of 300 tons each : when originally
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 195 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 20,000,000^. sterling ; comprising 148,563 casks of sugar, 70,875 barrels
and 433,648 bags of cofilee, 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.
DOCTOES' 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 ii
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 Knigbt-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 Churches, 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 Hall, 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 CouET of Arches 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 Bean 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. j 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 Court, established by the 20th and 21st Victorise, 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 PfiEEOGATiVE CoiJET Wills (until the establishment of the Court ov Probate
by the 20th and 21st Victoriae, 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 Registry, and the Registry for the Commission of Surrey,
Wills (until the 20 and 21 Vict., 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. M. ; but if either is a minor, 10s. Qd. 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 obtamed irom the archbishop; and is granted only to persons of
rank, judges, and Members of Parliament, the archbishop having a right 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 Divorce Couet.
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 pinicy
and other indictable offences on the high seas, which are now tried at the Old Bailey j
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. Loi'd 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. WiUs 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
I clasps, and fill the public-room and other apartments. The searches amount to an
S14 CUBIOSITIES 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 thoj
surname of the maker of the Will required, directs the applicant to the Calendars, which are arrange "
chronologically and alphabetically on the left-hand side of the room. A search must then be mac
through these volumes for tlie entry of the Will ; which being found, a clerk at the further end of tt
room, on being furnished with the exact title and date of the Will, ushers the inquirer into anothe
apartment, lit by a skylight, and furnished with a table and benches. Here two clerks are seated ; ai
the actual Will being brought to the inquirer, he may inspect it at his leisure. He must not, howeve
copy any thing from it, or make even a pencil memorandum ; and if he attempt to do so, he will be ehecke
by the clerks.
To obtain the Copy of a TFiM.— Apply to the clerks in Ihe room, and they will state the expense perl
folio. The order for a copy must be left at the box at the entrance of the office, where the time will be]
nrnned for the delivery of the copy within a few days, on payment of the cost. To insure correctnessjj
the copy is read out to the applicant in the office, and compared with the original will j and the copy isl
moreover duly attested by public authority. 1
Jftlie 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 thel
copy to him; the same rules against copying and making extracts prevail here also.
The principal Kegistry of Wills is open daUy from 10 to 4.
Within the last five years. Wills, up to the year 1699, have been, on permission obtainc
from the judge of the Court of Probate, allowed to be inspected or copied for literarj
or historical purposes. Under this privilege, a volume of Wills has been publishc
by the Camden Society.
The Wills of celebrated persons are the Curiosities of the place. Here is the Will <
Shakspeare, on three folios of paper, each with his signature, and with this interline
tion in his own handwriting : '' I give unto my wife my brown best bed, with tl
furniture." Shakspeare's Will, which consists of three sheets of brief-paper, has be
carefully cleaned, and each sheet has been placed in a polished oak frame, betw*
sheets of plate glass. The frames are made air-tight, and on the top of each is a braa
plate, engraved, " Shakspeare's Will, March 25, 1616," and each one is fastened wit
a patent lock. Next is the Will of Milton, a nuncupative one, the great poet beii
bhnd ; but which was set aside by a decree of Sir Leoline Jenkins, the judge of tl
Prerogative Court. The Will of Edmund Burke is here, leaving nearly every thing
had in the world to his " entirely beloved, faithful, and affectionate wife." The Wi|
of Napoleon I., deposited here, has been surrendered on the application of his nephev
the Emperor Napoleon III,
DOMESBAT-BOOK,
THE Register of the lands of England, framed by order of William the Conquerc
the earliest English record, and " not only the most ancient, but beyond disput
the most noble monument of the whole of Britain" {Spelman), is preserved to thi
day in its pristine freshness, fair and legible as when first written. It is comprised u
two volumes — one a larg'e folio, the other a quarto. The first is written on 382 doubW
pages of vellum, in one and the same hand, in a small biit plain character, each pag^
having a double column. Some of the capital letters and principal passages are touche
with red ink, and others are crossed with lines of red ink. The second volume, ii
quarto, is written in 450 pages of vellum, but in a single column, and in a large fa
character. At the end of the second volume is the following memorial, in capit
letters, of the time of its completion : " Anno Millesimo Octogesimo Sexto ab Incarna^
tione Domini, vigesimo vero regni Willielmi, facta est ista Descriptio, non solum pe
hos tres Comitatus, sed etiam per ahos." 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, occasionallj
travelled, like other records, to distant parts, till 1696 it was usually kept with th^
King's Seal at Westminster, by the side of the Tally Court, in the Exchequer, unded
three locks and keys ; in the charge of the auditors, the chamberlauas, 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 w^'irmed 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
JDBUBY-LANE. 315
searches or transcript, you are not rllowed to toucli 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 j 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."
DEUBT-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
Craven 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 Pavilion. 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 of Comus.
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- Strand, is a
range of old houses, apparently contemporary with the Cock and Pye, or probably two
centuries and a half old. Wych-streetj 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 Holborn end of Drury-lane, was born Nell Gvvynne ; and in
Maypole-alley (now Drury-court) she lodged when Pepys saw her looking at the
dance around the Strand Maypole : —
" 1st 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."
316 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 Theatres.)
HARTSQ UAKJES IN L OND ON.
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. — Philos. 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
brought 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 an hoar (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 opeiM
air) a noise much like thunder at a distance, which, coming from N.W., grew loudei
and gave a crack over his head, and then gradually died away. The sky was clea
and he saw no fire or appearances of lightning. Immediately after the crack, tl:
ground shook, and it moved like a quagmire. The whole lasted a mumte. — Fldla
sophical Transactions, vol. xlvi.
" At half-past five a.m. the whole city of Westminster was alarmed by another shock more seve
than the former (Feb. 8), accompanied by a hollow rumbling noise; and numbers of people wi
awakened in amazement and fear from their sleep. Great stones were thrown from the ' new spire '
Westminster Abbey, and fish jumped half a yard above the water; and in several steeples the bells we
struck by chime-hammers. An impostor pretended to foretel an earthquake on a particular day, whic
would lay Westminster in ruins ; and when the appointed time arrived, the people ran out in crowc
into the country to escape such a terrible catastrophe. The churches could scarcely contain thethronf
of worshippers. The pulpits and public prints were employed in deprecating God's wrath and callin
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 Wednesd^
and Thursday last (exactly a month since the first shock), the earth had a shivering fit between one ar
two; but so slight, that if no more had followed, I don't believe it would have been noticed. Ihs
been awake, and had scarce dozed again, when on a sudden I felt my bolster lift up my head ; I though
somebody was getting from under my bed, but soon found it was a strong earthquake, that lasted nea
* Notices of Earthquake Shocks felt in Great Britain. By David Milne, Esq., F.E.S.E., M.W.
F.G.S., &c. Communicated to Jameson's Journal, No. 61.
EASTGHEAP. S17
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 up,
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 elFect it has had was on the Eidotto, 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 Eichmond. 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 l7th. 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 ; and in London
and the suburbs the shock was slightly felt.
EASTCJIUAP.
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 Koman 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 Prtetorium itself, in fragments of brick, with inscriptions
designating them as formed under the Prsetorshipof Agricola. — Gent. Mag. March, 1842.
Eastcheap was next the Saxon Market, celebrated from the time of Fitzstephen to
the days of Lydgate for the provisions sold there :
*' Then I hyed me into Est-Chepe,
One cryes ribbes of befe and many a pye ;
Pewter pottes they clattered on a heape." — London Lychpenny.
In Great Eastcheap was the Boar's Sead Tavern, first mentioned temp. Richard II. j
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), Boswell {Life of Br. 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 Eastcheap, 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 head 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.
JS AST INDIA SOUSE,
OR the House of the East India Company, " the most celebrated commercial Associi
tion of ancient or modern times, and which has extended its sway over tb
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 Didymaius, 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
Coramittee-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 Ha.stings and the Marquis Cornwallis; Mirza Abur
Hassan, the Persian envoy to London in 1809, &c. The Library contained, perhap:
i
EGYPTIAN HALL, PIGGADILLY. Sl^
.tlie 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 soUd 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 arcaded 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 Wyatt :
it cost several thousand pounds, aijd was sold for 791. 10s. The site was subsequently sold for 155,000^,,
at the rate of something more than 100,000Z. per acre; 10,000Z. per acre more than was given for the
site of Greshara 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
JRoman tesselated pavement yet discovered in London.
It lay at only 9^ 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 tessella; 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 lbs. (above 22,000 tons) of tea : and 1,200,000 lbs. 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 20,0O0Z. sterling.
The twenty-four Directors received 300Z. each, and 500^. for their " chairs," being a
charge on the Hindoos of WOOZ. 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 Mia ; 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 facade. 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-rcoms, 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
'Rome.— Water-colour Faintings of Minerals and Shells, hj Chev. deBaxde.—JVapoleon'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 Eaker-street, Portman-square.
1819. Sale of Bullock's Museum : produce, 9974Z. 13«.; cost, 30,000?.
1821, Facsimile of the Tomb of Fsammuthig, 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 2«. 6d. each.
1822. Laplanders and Reindeer : lOOl. per day taken for six weeks. — Fair 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 modevn.— Esquimaux Man and Woman.— Hatching Chickens
hy Artificial Heat.
1825. Bath, or Burmese, 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 12,500i. at Tavoy.-Model of Switzerland.
1826. The Musical Sisters, four and six years old, harpist and piaaist.- Altar-piece, by Murillo.—
The Fecilorama, 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 Flection in the King's Bench, bought by
George IV. for 500 guineas, and sent fi-om the Egyptian Hall to St. James's Palace.
1829. Troubadours (singers).— The Siamese Twins,tvio 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."
1830. 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 Theatre 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. —
Scrymegour's Picture of the First Sign in Egypt. — Double-sighted Boy. — The Egyptian Hall converted
into a Bazaar.
1832. Museum of Etruscan Antiquities. — Eoyal Clarence Vase, of glass, made at Birmingham.—
The Brothers Koeller, singers, from Switzerland. — Haydon's Pictures o/" Xenophon and the 10,000; and
his Mock Election, lent by George IV. for exhibition ; Death of Etccles, &c. _
1835. Views of Paris, painted by M. Dupressoir. M
1837. A Living Male Child, with four hands, four arms, four legs, four feet, and two bodies, bom ifl
Staleybridge, Manchester. — Masquerades. ■
183S. 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 qf a Mammoth Oa.— Pictorial Storm at Sea, introducing Grace Darling and the " For-
farshire Wreck."
1840. Aubusson Carpets.— Ung-ka^puti (Gibbon monkey), from Sumatra. — Bioplulax, or Life and
Property Protector. — Haydon's large Picture of the General Anti-Slavery Convention.
1841. Catlin's North American Indian Gallery of 310 portraits of chiefs, and 200 views of villages,
religious ceremonies, dances, ball-plays, buftalo-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 Grreat Pennard Cheese, presented to the Queen.
1843. Sir George Hayters 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 125^ 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 lOOOZ. A pretended Mermaid was "
exhibited in London in 1775 ; and in Broad-court, Covent-garden, in 1794.
1
ELY-PLACE. 321
1846. Prof. Faber's Euphonia, or speaking automaton, enunciating sounds and words ; played by
keys. — Mammoth Horse. — Polar Do ff. — Bosjesman Family. — The Hock Sarmonicon. — Curiosities from
Australia.— Professor Kist's Poses Plastiques. — A Dwarf dressed in a bear-skin: the " What is it ?"
immediately detected.
1847. Second Family of Bosjesmen (Bushmen), from Southern Mricai,.— Models of Ancient and
Modern Jerusalem, by Brunetti. — Exhibition of Modern Paintings ; free to artists.
1848. Pictures of Recent Political Events in Paris. — The Mysterious Lady. — Figure of a Russian
Lady in veined marbles. — Banvard'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 Nile, 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 H. Nadolsky. 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, 28 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 Headings ;
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.
JELT-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 see, 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 : —
"B. 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 tliem.
£. 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 10/. per
annum ; tiie Bishop reserving to himself and his successors the right of walking in the
gardens, and gathering twenty 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
tlireat to "unfrock" him : and in 1578, the entire property being conveyed to Hatton,
Y
322 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON. I
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, 1543, 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 40,000Z. 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 Holbouruc," 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 w^as 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 Hatton-
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 JUstriotnastix,
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 21,000/!. ; 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. ^—
JEXCEANGES. ■
THE Royal Exchange, at the north-western extremity of Cornhill, is the third '
Exchange built nearly on the same site, for the meeting of 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
their Hall is a contemporary portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham, who was rcj
agent at Antwerp to Henry VIIL, Edward VI., and Elizabeth, and was knighted wh<
ambassador at the court of the Duchess of Parma. Like other bankers and merchar
of that day, Gresham had his shop in Lombard-street, as yet the only Exchange. Tl
house was on the site of No. 68, the banking-house of Martin, Stone, and Co. : over tl
door was Gresham's crest,* a grasshopper, as a sign, which was seen by Pennant, bii
disappeared by piecemeal.
* The letters of James Gresham, in the Paston Colleetion, are sealed with a grasshopper; sufficie
refutation of a tradition accounting for the adoption of that heraldic symbol by Sir Thomas Greshai
from a grasshopper having saved his life when he was a poor famished boy, by attracting a person i
the spot where he lay in a helpless condition ! Still, it were almost a pity to disturb the popular leger
teaching, as it simply does, reliance upon God's providence.
EXGEAKGES, BOYAL. 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
Land to Sir William Garrard, and drank a carouse to his kinsmen Thomas Kowe.
**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, ov 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 evening, 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 405. a shop, in two
years raised to four marks, and then to 4?. 10*. 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" (Stozo) ; 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 j
But since the buildiug'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 ofi" 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 roomes (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. Tlxe stone,
slates, iron, wainscot, and glass, were brought from Antwerp,
y2
324 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of Sheriff. The building was often in danger from feather-makers, and others that
kept shops ill 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 1., Charles I., and Charles II. The statue of Charles I. was re-
moved immediately after his execution, and on its pedestal was inscribed JSxit 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 Commonwealtl
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,
thefounde)''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 Thomaa
Gresham, the aifairs of the Royal Exchange passed under the management of th<
Gresham Committee, as the trustees appointed under his will, with certain member
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 Jerinan, 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 fo
the building, executed in Indian ink upon vellum. Meanwhile, the merchants me
" in the gardens or walkes of Gresham College," being the site of the great court-yar
of the Excise Office ; on which a temporary Exchange was erected for a similar pn
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 po
" His Majestie's Surveyor-General of his Workes, for his trouble from time to time in coming down
view the Exchange and streetes adjoining; as also in furthering theire addresses to his Majesty, an
giving them full warrants for Portland stone ;" the Committee therefore ordered provision to be mai'
•' of six or eight dishes of meate att the Sun Tavern, on Wednesday next, to intertayne him withal
his comeing downe, and to present him with thirty guinney-pieces of gold, as a toaken of thei
gratitude."
Among other entries, we find that Caius Gabriel Cibber was appointed carver ; the clock was to I
set up by Edward Stanton, under the direction of Dr. Hooke, having chimes with four bells, playing si
tunes ; William Wightman was to furnish a set of sound and tuneable bells, at 61. 5s. per cwt. ; fot
balconies were to be made from the inner pawn into the quadrangle, at a charge of not more tha
300^. ; and the signs to the shops in the pawns were not to be hung forth, but set over the frieze <
each shop.
The celebrated Sir Eobert Viner, on March 22nd, 1668 (1669), proffered to give his Majesty's sta
on horseback, cut in white marble, to stand upon the Eoyal Exchange : this offer was declined, becau
of the "bignesse" of the statue, which Sir Robert Viner afterwards gave to be erected over the con du
at Stocks'-market ; though the royal figure was an altered John Sobieski.
The King niterested himself so far in the architectural appearance of the edifice as to desire thai
portions might be built on all sides of the Exchange; and hence the diflSculties which arose between thi
Committee and the possessors of the property required ; and in especial with Van Swieten, or Sweetingi
as he is usually called. About seven hundred superficial feet were wanted of his ground at the east en
of the Exchange, and about one thousand four hundred feet more for a street or passage ; for which '
declared that he expected to be paid according to the cheapest rate that any other ground should
bought at. When, however, he appeared before the sub-committee, he demanded lOOOZ. for six himdr(
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 nortl
entrance to the Exchange. " The King was entertained by the City and Companj
with a chine of beef, grand dish of fowl, gammon of bacon, dried tongues, anchovie
caviare, etc., and plenty of several sorts of wine. He gave 201. in gold to the workJ
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; anc
on Nov. 18th, Prince Rupert fixed the pillar on the east side of the south entrancejj
both princes being similarly entertained.
This second Exchange was opened Sept. 28, 1669 ; its cost, 58,962?., being defraye
in equal moieties by the City and the Mercers' Company. It was quadrangular ii
plan, and had its arcades, pawn above, and statues in niches, like Gresham's Exchange \
EXCHANGES, BOYAL. 325
it had also a three-storied tower, with lantern and gilt grasshopper vane. The edifice
thus remained lantil the extensive repairs of 1820--26 (George Smith, architect), when
a stone tower, 128 feet high, was huilt on the south front, in place of the timber one :
these repairs cost 33,000?., including GOOOl. for stone staircases and floors. The Corn-
Lill 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 Gresham
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.
f
*' 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,
Eemains among the henpeek'd herd till three."
Wealthy Shopkeeper, 1700.
Tlie royal statues were, on the soutli 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 Cibber.
Originally, the ofiices 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 OflSce, 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 diff'erent 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 U. 3s. ; City Griffins, 30^. and 35Z. the pair ; busts of Queen Elizabeth, lOZ. 15«.
and \%l. the pair ; figures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, iiOl. ; the statue of— Anne, 10^. 5s. ;
George II., Ql. 5s.; George III. and Elizabeth, \\l. 15s. each; Charles II., 9Z.j 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
Eoyal Exchange was destroyed, down to 1838, when it was a second time destroyed by fire, a sum equiva-
lent to the fire-insurance rate of 2s. 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,OOOZ.
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. iVth, 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, 137,600Z. ; or, including the
sculpture, architect's commission, &c., 150,000Z.
The new Exchange was formally opened by her Majesty, Oct. 28, 1844, when the Eoyal and Civic Pro-
cessions joined within Temple Bar ; the Aldermen in gowns and chains, and the Lord Mayor in a crimson
velvet robe, collar, and jewel, on horseback ; his Lordship bearing immediately before the Queen's state-
carriage tlie great pearl sword presented to the City of London by Queen Elizabeth on her opening the
first Exchange. The procession of 1844 was altogether the most magnificent pageant of the present
reign. At the Exchange, an address was presented to the Queen, followed by a breakfast, distribution
of commemorative medals, and a procession to the centre of the quadrangle, where the Queen, surrounded
by her Ministers and the City authorities, said : " It is my Royal will and pleasure that this building be
hereafter called 'The Royal Exchange.'" The event was commemorated with great civic festivity; and
the Lord Mayor, Magnay, received a patent of baronetcy.
The Royal Exchange, first opened for business Jan. 1, 1 845, 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 : anito xiii. elizabeth^e b. condittm. anno viii. victoria
E. EESTAVBATvir. Ovcr 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,ll.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-covmcilman ; 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 Chmese, 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 Earth is the Lord's, and the
FULNESS theeeop."— Psalm xxiv. 1. The ascent to the portico is by thirteen granite steps. m
The JEast front has four composite columns, which support the tower, in the fir^
story of which is a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham, 14 feet 6 inches high, by Behnesj
above are the clock-faces ; and next a circular story, with Composite columns and a
I
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 Eoyal 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 Exphange clocke was pr'sented for not being kept well, it
standing in one of the most eminent places in the Cittie, and beuig the worst kept of any clock in that
Cittie."
The Chimes consist of a set of fifteen bells, by Mears, cost 500Z. ; 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 diffierent 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 cliime-barrel are all epicy-
cloidal 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 from the Bow-
bells patterns ; stUl, 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, Dne. dirige nos ; and on the sinister, the Mercers' Company, Sonor Deo.
The j)rincipal 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 comers 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, "if o?Jor Z)eo" and "DoOTMie dm^emos,'' in numerous designs and combina-
tions; while above the statues of EUzabeth and Charles II. the Royal arms are again conspicuous. The
difi'erent 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 colomr bemg 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."— (Ci^y,
2nd edit.) Many sea-captains and brokers still go on 'Change ; but the " Walks " are disregarded. The
hour of High 'Change is from i past 3 to i past 4 p.m., the two great days being Tuesday and Friday for
foreign exchanges.
Zloi/d'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 58,000Z. 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
sliipping intelligence J 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
To read the letters and attend the sales."— Wealthy Shoxikeeper, 1700.
In 1710, Steele dates from Lloyd's {Tatler, 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 Garraway'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 Cnptains' 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 Cifi/, 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.
I
EXCHANGES. 329
The Captains* JRoom 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 2000Z. 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 70,312Z. 7s. 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-
liill, 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 Eooms.
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, Sweeting's-alley, &c., was 223,578Z. 1*. lOd,
~—CHy Chamberlain's Return, October 30, 1851.
. her death,
. ;o 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 60,000Z. 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?."— JF.
Tite,F.R.S.
" Sir Thomas Gresham left the Exchange during the life of his widow to her use ; and at hi
he left his mansion in Threadneedle-street, since occupied by the Excise Office, for a college, to 1
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.
In the neighbourhood of the Exchange are the finest architectural objects in the City. Westward
is the Bank of England, an elaborately-enriched pile, very picturesque in parts ; and beyond it are the
palatial edifices of the Alliance and Sun Insurance Offices. Southward is the Mansion House, in effect a
massive Italian palace. Northward is Royal Exchange-buildings, an enriched specimen of street archi-
tecture. Before the Exchange portico is an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington (the last work
modelled by Chantrey), placed here by the citizens in gratitude for the Government grant of 1,000,000?,
for improvements in their ancient City. From this spot radiate Moorgate and Prince's-streets ; the
former with Italian pa?a2zo offices, less showy but of far better architectural character than Regent-
street ; and King William-street, highly embellished, but more interesting as leading to London-bridge,
which contests with another structure across the same stream the distinction of " the finest bridge in
the world."
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 11. 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 Corporation 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 eclat, by
Prince Albert, accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, Oct. 29,
330 CUEI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
1849 J 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 firuit, 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, Humber, 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 fossU 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 91,167^. ll*. 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 j
there is a convenient access to this interesting relic of Roman London.
CoEN 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 impiuvium, the place in the centre in which the rain fell.
{TF. JET. 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 ; thfl
seed market is in another part of the building. f
" This is the only metropolitan market for com, 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 com
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 oflScers, 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 bv her 'the Koyal Exchange,* and hence the reason for the change of the name of
this edifice by Elizabeth."— fF. Tite, F.E.8.
No. 36, Old 'Change was formerly the " Three Morrice-Dancers " public-house, wit
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 characterist'
sign-stone.
New Exchange, en the south side of the Strand, was built by the Earl of Salisbut
on the site of the stables of Durham House, and was opened by James I. and
EXCHANGES. 331
queen, who named it " the Bursse of Britain." It was erected partly on the plan of the
Royal Exchange, with vaults beneath, over which was an open paved arcade ; and above
were walks of shops occupied by perfumers 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 1652, 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 j 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 scafibld 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 " (RotliscMld), 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 Cofiee-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
1501. 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 20,000Z.
* 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 50^ 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 share
being added in 1850. Lists are daily published of the prices of stocks and shares, and twic
a week of bullion and foreign exchanges. The members give security to the Stock Exchange Cor
mittee, partly as a guarantee of their own individual respectability, and partly of their good faith. Ii
some cases they give sureties to the amount of 900^., and in others of 500Z. or 6001. ; the smaller amountl
being required of brokers who have for some time before been recognised clerks of members of the Stoch
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-admittei
unless he pays 6s. 8d. in the pound beyond that collected from his debtors. The names of defaulter
are posted on the " black board," and they are termed " lame ducks ;" this rule was established in 1787,'
vfhen twenty-five " lame ducks waddled out of the Alley." To avoid a libel, the notice runs thus : " Any
person transacUng 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-eom-t. 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 96f-96^." ("Take 'em at 96^," is the
vociferous reply of a buyer :) "Mexican at 27^-27; Portuguese fours at 32|-32^ ; Spanish fives at 21 j
Dutch two-and-a-halfs at 5O5-5O5 :" 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 mterest enjoin " watching the turn 0^
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 Bear is he who speculates for a fall. The Bui
would, for instance, buy 100,000/. 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?. stock (which
however, he docs not possess) for the same time, with the view of buying in and balancing the tram
action at a lower price than that at which he originally sold them. If consols fall, the Bull finds him-j
self on the wrong side of the hedge ; and if they rise, the poor Bear is compelled to buy in his stock
a sacrifice.— TAe City, 2ud edit.
Certain of the legitimate dealers and brokers, originally formed themselves into a Stoc
Exchange, on the principle of admitting only those who could give assurance of their respecta' ilityJ
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-markef
the resort of all the world. Notwithstanding the transactions are so enormous, the aijnounts
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 (
the "stags" who haunt its purlieus, still attach, though unjustly, to the Stock Exchange itself. Tl
benevolence and charity of the members are well known: in any sudden calamity, the Stock Exchanj
men are always amongst the first to succour the afflicted. There is, moreover, a fund subscribed bj
the members for their decayed associates, the invested capital of which, exclusive of annual contribiM
tions, amounts to upwards of 50,000Z. — The Builder.
The Stock Exchange has many startling episodes of fraud and panic, rise and ruiaj
Speculation often produces permanent benefit to the public : to the fever of 1S07 anc
1808, London owes Vauxhall and Waterloo Bridges. Late in Napoleon's career tl
funds varied 8 and 10 per cent, within an hour ; but the immediate effect of the battl
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 61. was imposed upon each persoi
who stopped the way. Pigeon-expresses for the earliest intelligence were chiefly workeC
from May to September ; the birds generally used were the Antwerp breed, strong 01
the wing, and fully feathered : they are, however, superseded by the electric telegrapl
and the cable. Exchequer-bills let in fraud the year after their creation. The last frauC
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, ii
which Lord Cochrane was implicated, chequer the Stock-Exchange chronicles; and
victims flit about its gates — from the Goldsmids, whose credit was whispered away bj
envy, to the poor Miss Whitehead, whose wits were turned to melancholy by thfl
forgeries of her brother. The recollection of large loans raised here reminds one
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 Cajsar 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 !' " — Eev. Sydney Smith.
The most remarkable man among the stockbrokers of our time was the late Mr. Francis Baily, F.R.S.,
the astronomer, who retired from the Stock Exchange, in 1825. In 1838, in the garden of his house,
Tavistock-place, Eussell-square, was constructed a small observatory, wherein Mr. Baily repeated the
" Cavendish experiment," the Government having granted 500i!. towards the expense of the apparatus,
&c. This is the building in which the earth was weighed, and its bulk and figure calculated ; the standard
measure of the British nation perpetuated, and the pendulum experiments rescued from their chief source
of inaccuracy. Mr. Baily died President of the Astronomical Society, in 1844.
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 ; but, when required,
suflScient illuminating power is to be obtained by withdrawing the screen, to light up
the house without further burners. — The Guilder.
EXCHANGE-ALLET.
EXCHANGE-ALLEY now 'Change-alley, between No. 24, ComhiU, 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 Tack of Bubble Cards.
1766 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 hfe oblige us to do, you end just where you began."— TAe 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
500Z. per annum ; when 18,000Z. 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 Eevenue Office, Somerset House. In
334 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
i
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 Gresham 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 j and then to Old Broad-street.
JEXETER BALL,
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 Graco-Corinthian, and has two columns and pilasters.
and the word $IAA AEA^EION (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 their 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. ; 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,
under 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 witl
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 earnes
ness. The independent and often mutually repelling bodies who congregate in Exet^
Hall are ne in spirit, with all their difierences. Without a pervading organizatio]
they are a church." — Spectator newspaper.
Mr. HuUah's system of popular Singing was formerly illustrated here, when 20'
pupils combined their voices in the performances.
I
:EXJETEB house and 'change— FETTEB-LANE. 335
UXIJTEE SOUSE AND EXETER 'CHANGE.
EXETER '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
began 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'Oy ley's warehouse) to a green lane, the site of the present Southamp-
ton-street, westward. Queen Elizabeth visited Lord Burleigh at Exeter House ; 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 ; 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 sempsters,
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 ofiices of Law's Land Bank, auction-rooms, &c. Cutlery
then became the merchandise of the lower fioor.
Thomas Clark, "the King of Exeter 'Change," took a stall here in 1765 with 1001. lent him by a
stranger. By parsimony and trade, he grew so rich that he once returned his income at 6000^. 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, 2*. 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
50Z. ; his skeleton, sold for lOOZ., is now at the College of Surgeons. {See Museums.)
Cross' Menagerie was removed in 1828 to the Kings' Mews, Charing-cross ; and Exeter
'Change was entirely taken down in 1829.
Ne^vv 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 Holbom-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 houses." 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. Hen tzer, however, states that when
he called to see Theobalds at Cheshunt, there was " nobody to shew the palace, as the family was iutown
attending the funeral of their lord."
336 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Hobbes of Malmesbury had 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 j
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, Antijaeohin.
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 Dissentees' Chapels,
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
divers places was housing that stood without order." {Stow.)
The White Horse Inn, Fetter-lane (now a cheap lodging-house), was formerly the great Oxfo:
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 in
Fetter-lane. In the struggle, the sedan-chair was overset, with us iu it."— -Lord Eldon's Anecdote-£<
FIE Lit- LA NB,
AN" infamous rookery of " the dangerous classes," extended from the foot of Holboi
hill, northward, parallel with the Fleet Ditch, but has been mostly taken dov
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 yo
come out of the City, a narrow and dismal alley leading to Saffron-hill. In its filthy shops are expose
for sale huge bunches of pocket-handkerchiefs of all sizes and patterns — for here reside the traders wh
purchase them from pickpockets. Hundreds of these handkerchiefs hang dangling from pegs outsid
the windows, or flaunting from the door-posts ; and the shelves within are piled with them. Confine
as the limits of Field-lane are, it has its barber, its coffee-shop, its beer-shop, and its fried-fish war
house. It is a eommei'cial colony of itself— the emporium of petty larceny, visited, at early mornir
and setting-in of dusk, by silent merchants, who traffic in dark back-parlours, and go as strangely
they come. Here the clothesman, the shoe-vamper, and the rag-merchant, display their goods as sig
boards to the petty thief; and stores of old iron and bones, and heaps of mildewy fragments ofwoolleB
stuff and linen, rust and rot in the grimy cellars."— Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, 1837.
From Field-lane, northward, runs Saffron-hill, named from the saffron which it one
1
FIELD OF FORTY F00T8TFP8—FINSBUBY. 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 efifective melodrama, by Messrs. Mayhew,
founded upon the same incident, entitled the Field of Forty Footsteps.
Southey records this strange story in his Commonplace Booh (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 Brother^ 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 j 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 indestructibihty of
the steps, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the
circumstance. — I^otes and Queries, No. 12.
Joseph Moser, in one of his Commonplace Boohs, 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.
FINSBTJRY,
OR JPewsbury, 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-
338 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
bendary of Haliwell and Pinsbury, 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 Pinsbury court leet and
baron are holden in October every year, before the senior Common Pleader, to whose
office the stewardship of the manor of Pinsbury is incident. (Municipal Corporation
Seporf, pp. 3, 136 ; and Maitland's London, vol. ii. 1369.) Pinsbury has been drained
and built over, and is now a populous parliamentary borough, including the ancient
district of Moorfields, to be described hereafter.
Ill early times, the chief magistrate of Loudon was no more than a provost. Afterwards, the title of
Mayor— that is, Major Chief— yf&s 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, i
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 Ions
left the spot. Tabernacle, Chapel, Worship, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Paradise, Quaker, Providence, and ]
Great Pear^streets hint at later occu^paxits."—AthencBum, 1866.
In the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. (says Cunningham), Pinsbury was a |
favourite walk with the citizens of London on a Sunday : hence Hotspur's allusion to i
Lady Percy : —
" And giv'st such sarcenet security for thy oaths.
As if you never walk'st further than Finsbury."
Shakspeare, First Part of Senry IV.
The Prebend of Pinsbury now (1866) has revenues of 7000^. per annum; they will]
shortly be eight or nine times that amount. {See Bunhill Pields, p. 76.) The]
City's proportion of the net proceeds of the Pinsbury Estate is, annually, 42,977^.
FIEB OF LONDON {TKF\
OR the GrEEAT PiEE 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 Parryner, the " King's Baker," in Pudding-lane, near New Pish-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 j
three o'clock, to pull down some houses, to prevent their extending ; but he neglecte '
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 milesj
round about. Above 10,000 houses all in one flame ; the noise and cracking and thunder j
of the impetuous flames, y^ 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^ flames burn on, w*^^ they did for neere two miles in length, and]
one in bredth. The clouds of smoke were dismall, and reached upon computation neer]
50 miles in length."
On the 5th, Evelyn writes : " In this calamitous condition, I return'd with a
heart to my house, blessing and adoring the mercy of God to me and mine, who, in the!
midst of all this ruine, 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]
FIBE OF LONDON (THF). 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 ojff, 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 to the London Gazette, Sept. 8, 1666, were : "at the Temple
Church, near Holbom 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 Comhill, at the Church in Fenchurch-street, near Clothworkers*
Hall, in Mincing-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."— Pepys' 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) j 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 7,335,000^. ;
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, Ood'»
Terrible Advice to the City hy blague 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
840
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. Wilts.
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 ; 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 60^. a pieces
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 ; 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 ; 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.)
MEMOEABLE FIRES.
Southwark burnt by William the Conqueror,
about twenty years before the Domesday Survey.
962.— St. Paul's Minster burnt.
1086. — All the houses and churches from the
west to the east gate burnt.— (^a^er'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.
1 102 . — " London was twice burnt,"aphrase whi ch
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 Waverley
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
FIEE BBIGAJDES.
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." — AthencBum, 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
oflBces, kept in good repair.
1534.— Aug. 16. The Mews, Charing Cross,
burnt.
1613.— June 29. The Globe Theatre, Bankside,
burnt.
1619.— Jan. 12. The old Banqueting-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 Geeat Fiee. {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.
1748.— March 25. In Cornhill ward : 200 houses
burnt; commenced in 'Change-alley, and was the
largest since the Great Fire of 1666. (-See Coen-
HiLt,, p. 235.)
1758.— April 11. The temporary wooden London
Bridge destroyed by fire, stopping all communica-
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 of 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 in flames at the same
time,
1789.— June 17. Italian Operarhouse (Van-
brugh's) burnt.
1794.— June 18. At Limehouse Hole, many
houses burnt. July 22, 23. At Ratcliff'e 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 Royal 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. Olave'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, 100,000Z.
1850.— March 29. St. Anne's Church, Limehouse,
destroyed. Sept. 19. Great fire in Mark-lane and
Seething-lane ; loss, 100,000^. 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 j property destroyed half a million.
FISE BRIGADE.
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
I 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
1 Third's time for roofing.
1 In the first year of Richard I., the Wardmotes ordered : — " Item, that all persona
I 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 loujdly sounding. Of persons wander-
342 CUEI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
ing by niglit, 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 tbe 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 J
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 Annua Mirabilis
The "engines'* were the syringes, which were greatly increased after the Great
Fire, but were shortly afterwards superseded by regular fire-engines. By order
the Corporation of London, a Fire Police was established in 1668 ; the several parishes!
were provided with leathern buckets, ladders, pickaxes, sledges, shovels, and Ti-and-
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 j and tl
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 i
in 1681, the Court of Common Council attempted to establish one, but unsuccessfully]
the earliest was the Phoenix, at the Kainbow Coffee-house, Fleet-street, in 1682 ; th«
Friendly Society, 1684 (badge a sheath of arrows) ; and the Hand-in-Hand, establishe
in 1696 ; next v/as the Sun, projected by one Povey, about 1706, and by the preseni
Company in 1710 ; the Westminster Fire Office, I7l7 ; each office keeping its firem(
in liveries, with silver badges ; and their fire-engines, which they from time to tii
improved. In 1676 was patented an engine with leathern pipes, for quenching firej
and about 1720 two Germans had at Bethnal-green a manufactory of water-tigh^
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,
*** * * s
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. iii.
In 1798 was formed the Fire-watch or Fire-guard of London ; the Insurance Office
still keeping their separate engine establishments. In 1808, Sir F. M. Eden, the
chairman of the Globe Insurance Company, proposed to form a general fire-engine est
blishment, but the attempt failed. About 1825, the Sun, Union, and Roya
Exchange formed a brigade. In 1832, eightflnsurance Companies formed an alliance fo
assisting each other at fires ; hence the " London Fire-Engine Establishment," whic'
commenced operations in 1833. By the rules, London was divided into five districts
in each were engine-stations : besides a fioating-engine off" Rotherhithe and Southwai
Bridge ; these required more than 100 men each for working, and threw up two tin
of water per minute. A certain number of the men or " Fire Brigade," superintende
by Mr. Braidwood, were ready at all hours of the day and night, as were also tl
engines, to depart at a minute's alarm, in case of fire. The Associations awarded gra
FIEE 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, witli handles of rope round the edge, to form a fire-escape ; besides ropes, hose,
branch-pipes, suction-pipes, a iiat rose, goose-neck, dam-board, boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole-
axe, screw-wrench, crowbar, 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-mains.
Another ingenious provision was a smoke-proof dress, consistingof 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 AEaTLl Rooms,
p. 22.) There is also on the Thames a steam floating-engine, the machinery of which
either propels the vessel, or works the pumps, as required. Subsequently were intro-
duced the land steam fire-engines, by which is diminished damage by water, which is
driven by such force by steam that almost every drop does its full duty.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire was first established in
1836 j re-organized in 1843; for estabhshing Fire-escape Stations and Conductors;
supported by voluntary subscriptions and parochial vestries.
As London grows and grows, the number of Fires recorded every year in the vast
agglomeration of brick and mortar increases also. Thus in 1863 the total was 1404,
being 101 more than in 1862. In the latter year, the Parliamentary Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into the existing arrangements for the Protection of Life and Pro-
perty against Fire in the Metropolis, reported that twenty years previously the number
of fires in London was about 450, and in 1862 the total number was 1183. According
to Sir Richard Mayne's estimate, the whole of the Metropolitan Police area and the
City of London together, extending over 700 square miles, may be considered as con-
taining rather above 3,000,000 of inhabitants, residing in about 475,000 houses, and
the rental for taxation about 14,800,000^. The magnitude of the interest at stake was
also shown by Mr. Newmarch, who stated in his evidence that the total value of pro-
perty insurable against fire within six miles of Charing Cross was not less than
900,000,000?., and of this not more than about 300,000,000?. were insured.
A new force, under the management of the Board of Works, and with the title of the
Metropolitan Fire Brigade, embodying the whole of the present force and engines of
the London Fire Establishment, is doubly strengthened. The plan decided on is that of
Captain Shaw, who has been appointed its chief superintendent. The force consists of
chiefs and 350 officers and men, 4 steam floating-engines, 4 large land-steamers, 27
small land-steamers, and 37 large manual engines, with horses, drivers, &c. These are
distributed among 33 large and 56 small fire-stations, protecting an area of about 117
square miles. Compared with the previous Fire Brigade, the increase is 72 additional
stations, 219 extra firemen, 2 large floating and 2 large land-steamers, 21 small land-
steamers, and 61 manual engines. The cost of its maintenance is not to exceed 50,000?.
per annum, partly contributed by a public rate of \d. in the pound, 10,000?. contributed
by the various metropolitan fire-insurance companies, and 10,000?. from the Govern-
ment. There are nearly 500 parish engines in the metropolis, but not more than 20
were considered to be sufficiently efficient to be accepted in the new force.
By the establishment of telegraphic communication between the central station in
Watling-street and the other principal stations, the necessary force of men and engines
can be despatched to the required spot in a much shorter time than formerly. There
are also telegraph lines to docks, railways, wharves, and warehouses.
By the aid of the telegraph the firemen at each station can now be informed of the locality of a fire
with much greater certainty than formerly. By means of fixed compasses at each observatory, "cross-
bearings are taken from distant points," and the results sent to the central station in Watling-street.
The exact locality is then ascertained by observing on a map the spot at which the lines converge. The
process is simply the reverse of that by which a ship's position is ascertained at sea," and can be easily
accomplished in the three minutes occupied in turning out an engine. — (Capt. Shaw's Eeport, 1864.)
The crowds at fires are now kept ofi" by stretched wire-ropes.
344. CUEI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
FLUJET FEISON (THE),
ABOLISHED and removed in 1846, after nearly eight centuries' existence, was in-
disputably named from the creek or stream of the Fleet, upon the eastern bank of
which it was erected. This was once a busy river covered with ships and small craft j
now it is a dark, hidden stream.
The prison was formerly held in conjunction with the manor of Leveland, in Kent,
and with " the king's houses at Westminster :" the whole being part of the ancient
possessions of the See of Canterbury, traceable in a grant from Archbishop Lanfranc,
soon after the accession of William the Conqueror. The wardenship or serjeancy of
the prison was anciently held by several eminent personages, who also had custody of
the king's palace at Westminster.* It was "a place," in the worst sense of the
phrase ; for, so long ago as 1586, the persons to whom the Warden had underlet it
were guilty of cruelty and extortion — crimes, however, characteristic of the Court of
Star Chamber, of which the Fleet was at this time the prison. Up to this period, its
history is little better than a sealed book; the burning of the prison by the followers
of Wat Tyler seeming to have been the only noticeable event.
In the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, the Fleet was tenanted by several victims of
religious bigotry. Bishop Hooper was twice committed to the Fleet, which he only
quitted (1555) for the stake and the fire at Gloucester; upon his way whither, he slept
at the Angel Inn, St. Clement's : in the Fleet, his bed was " a little pad of straw, with
a rotten covering ;" his " chamber was vile and stinking."
The Warden's fees in the reign of Elizabeth were : an Archbishop, Duke, or Duchess,
for his commitment-fee, and the first week's " dyett," 2iU. 10s. ; a lord, spiritual or
temporal, lOZ. 5*. \0d.; a knight, hi.; an esquire, 3Z. 6*. %d.', and even "a poor man
in the wards, that hath a part at the box, to pay for his fee, having no dyett, 7*. 4id"
The Warden's charge for license to a prisoner " to go abroad" was 20d. per diem.
From the reign of Elizabeth to the sixteenth year of Charles I. (1641), the Star-
Chamber Court was in full activity ; and several bishops and other persons of distinction
were imprisoned in the Fleet for their religious opinions. Thither, too, were consigned the
political victims of the Star Chamber : two of the most interesting cases of this period
being those of Prynne and Lilburne. Prynne was taken out of the prison, and, after
suffering pillory, branding, mutilation of the nose and loss of ears, was remanded to the
Fleet. Lilburne — " Freeborn John" — and his printer, were committed to the Fleet
for libel and sedition : the former was smartly whipped at the cart's tail, from the
prison to the pillory, placed between Westminster Hall and the Star Chamber ; and
subsequently double ironed in the prison wards.
Another tenant of the Fleet at this period was James Howel, the author of the
Familiar Letters, several of which are dated from the prison. By a letter " to the
Earl of B., from the Fleet," Nov. 20, 1643, Howel was arrested " one morning be-
times," by five men armed with " swords, pistols, and bils," and some days after com-
mitted to the Fleet ; " and," he adds, " as far as I see, I must lie at dead anchor in this
Fleet a long tune unlesse some gentle gale blow thence to make me launch out." Then
we find him consoling himself with the reflection that the English people are in
effect but prisoners, as all other islanders are. Other letters, by Howel, date from the
Fleet, 1645-6-7.
After the abolition of the Star Chamber, in 1641, the Fleet became a prison for
debtors only, and for contempt of the Court of Chancery, Common Pleas, and Ex-
chequer. It appears to have been used for the confinement of debtors from the thir-
teenth century, at least, by a petition from John Frauncey, a debtor in the Fleet,
A.D. 1290.
The prison was burnt down in the Great Fire ; when the prisoners were removed to
Caroone or Caron Hoiise, in South Lambeth, until the Fleet was rebuilt on the original site.
Long after the Star Chamber was abolished, the Wardens continued their extor-
tionate fees, and loading debtors with iron : their cruelties were exposed in 1696. In
1727, after a parliamentary investigation, Bambridge and Huggins (Wardens) and some
• To the "Warden belonged the rents of the shops in Westminster Hall.
FLEET PBISOK. 345
of their servants were tried for different murders, yet all escaped by a verdict of not
guilty ! Hogarth has, hov^ever, made them immortal in their infamy, by his picture
of Bambridge under examination, whilst a prisoner is explaining how he has been
tortured.
One Dance, the son of the architect, was imprisoned in the Fleet as a debtor, and,
in a poem entitled the Sumours of the Fleet, 1749, has described the inmates of '* this
poor but merry place," its rackets, or wrestle, billiards, backgammon, and whist ; the
rough justice of drenching disturbers of the peace beneath the pump. Dance's book
has a frontispiece of the prison-yard : a new-comer treating the gaoler, cook, and
others, to drink ; racket-playing against the high brick-wall, with cJievaux-de-frise
mountings, and a pump and a tree in one corner. Dance tells of a " wind-up to-day in
a prison," — that watchmen repeated. Who goes out ? from half-past nine till St. Paul's
clock struck ten, to give visitors notice to depart ; when the last stroke was given, they
cried. All told; the gates were locked, and nobody suffered to go out upon any
account. The reader will, doubtless, recollect Mr. Dickens's life-like pictures of the
Fleet, in his Pickwick Papers.
In the Riots of 1780, the Fleet was destroyed by fire, and the prisoners liberated by
the rioters. Most of the papers and Prison records were lost ; though there remain
scattered books and documents of several centuries back. The Warden had been
directed by the Lord Mayor not to make any resistance to the mob, which, as an eye-
witness informed the writer of a short History of the Fleet published in 1845, might
have been easily dispersed by a few soldiers. The rioters were polite enough to send
notice to the prisoners of the period of their coming ; and, on being informed it would
be inconvenient on account of the lateness of the hour, postponed their visit to the
following day.
Immediately after " the Riots," the prison was rebuilt : it consisted chiefly of one
long brick pile parallel with Farringdon -street, and standing in an irregularly -shaped
area, so as to leave open spaces before and behind, connected by passages round each
other : this pile was called the Master's Side. The front in Farringdon-street had an
jarched opening into a room, and was technically called " the grate," from its crossed
(iron bars. Above was inscribed, " Pray remember the poor prisoners having no allow-
ance ;" a small box was placed at the window-sill, to receive the charity of passengers
jin the street, while a prisoner within shouted in suppliant tone the above prayer. This
jwas a relic of the ancient prison, corresponding with the "begging at the grate" in some
K)ld comedies; and "having a part at the box" already mentioned. Disorderly
[prisoners were put in the stocks, or strong-room ; and those who attempted to escape were
jContined in a tub at the prison-gate. There was likewise " the Running Box ;" that is,
la man running to and fro in the neighbouring streets, shaking a box, and begging the
Jpassengers to put money into it, for the poor prisoners in the Fleet. In Tempest's Cries
of London, 1710, is a representation of the bearer of the Running Box, inscribed,
{"Remember the poor prisoners/' At his back is suspended, by leathern straps, a
(Covered basket for broken victuals j he carries in one hand a staff, and in the other a
small round deep box, with an aperture in the lid for receiving alms in money,
i Above the entrance to the prison was the figure 9 ; so that a delicate address given
by the prisoners was " No. 9, Fleet Market."
Alack ! what " strange bedfellows" did debt — a phase of misery — make men acquainted with in the
Fleet ! If a prisoner was unwilling to go to the Common Side (for which he paid nothing), he had the
choice of going down into " Bartholomew Fair," the lowest and sunken story, where he paid Is. 3d. for
the undisturbed use of a room ; or up to some of the better apartments, where he paid the same rent,
but was subject to chummage — i.e., a fellow-prisoner put into his room, or " chummed upon him," but
who might be got rid of by a payment of 4s. 6d. per week, or more, according to the fulness of the
prison. The latter prisoner would then provide himself with a common lodging, by letting which
prisoners in the Fleet were known to have accumulated hundreds of pounds in the course of a few years.
The prison sometimes had 1000 inmates.
It was throughout a sad scene of recreant waste, vagabondism, and rufiBan recklessness : it had a
skittle-shed ; and a racket-ground, where Cavanagh was a noted fives-player. {See Hazlitt's life of him.
Examiner, Feb. 17, 1819.) Here you might hear the roar of the great town from without, in contrast
with the stagnant life within the prison- walls, above the chevaux-de-frise of which might be seen a
3hurch-spire or two.
Happily, this pest of a prison, the Fleet, by Act of Parliament, 1842, was abolished,
and its few inmates were drafted to the Queen's Prison. The property, covering nearly
346 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
an acre of ground, was purchased of the Government by the Corporation of London for
25,000Z. The prison was taken down, and the materials sold, in 1846 ; comprising nearly
three millions of bricks, 50 tons of lead, 40,000 feet of paving, &c. The ground, after
lying almost useless for 17 years, was sold to the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway
Company for the erection of their Ludgate station.
The liberty of the JRzdes and the Bay-Rules of the Fleet may be traced to the time of Eichard II.,
when prisoners were allowed to go at large by bail, or with a baston (tipstaff), for nights and days
together. This license was paid for at Qd. per day, and \2d. for his keep that shall be with him. These
were Day-rules. However, they were confirmed by a rule of Court during the reign of James I. The
Eules wherein prisoners were allowed to lodge were enlarged in 1824, so as to include the churches of
St. Bride's and St. Martin's, Ludgate; New Bridge-street, Blackfriars, to the Thames; Dorset-street and
Sahsbury-square, and part of Fleet-street, Ludgate-hiU and street, to the entrance of St. Paul's
Churchyard, the Old Bailey, and the lanes, courts, &e., in the vicinity of the above ; the
extreme circumference of the liberty about a mile and a half. Those requiring the rules had to
provide sureties for their forthcoming, and keeping within the boundaries, and to pay a percentage
on the amount of debts for which they were detained ; which also entitled them to the liberty of the
Day-rules, enabling them during term, or the sitting of the Courts at Westminster, to go abroad during
the day, to transact or arrange their affairs, &c. The Fleet and the Queen's Bench were the only prisons
in the kmgdom to which these privileges had for centuries been attached.
Fleet Marriages, i.e. clandestine marriages, were performed in this prison pre-
viously to the year 1754 ; and though not legal and regular, they were tacitly recog-
nised as being valid and indissoluble. Many of these weddings were really performed
in the chapel of the prison ; though, as the practice extended, "the Fleet parsons" and
tavern-keepers in the neighbourhood fitted up a room in their lodgings or houses as a
chapel ; and most of the taverns near the Fleet kept their own registers. In 1702,
the Bishop of London interfered to prevent this scandalous practice, but with little
effect J and it was not until the Act of Parliament came into operation, March 25,
1754, that the custom was put an end to. On the day previously (March 24,) in one
register-book alone, were recorded 217 marriages, which were the last of the Fleet
weddings. In 1821, a collection of these register-books, weighing more than a ton
(recording Fleet marriages between 1686 and 1754), was purchased by Government,
and deposited in the Registry Office of the Bishop of London, Godliman-street, Doctors'
Commons. Many celebrated names figure in these registers j and although they are
not now, as formerly, received in evidence on trials, they are not altogether useless as
matters of record, &c. For their history, their parsons, and registers, see Mr. J. Bum's
volume.
Pope commemorates the Fleet Prison as a " Haunt of the Muses." Lord Surrey, the poet, was twice
imprisoned here; as was Nash for writing the satirical play of the Isle of Dogs. Wycherley, the wit and
dramatist, lay in the Fleet seven years, ruined through his Countess' settlement being disputed. Sir
Eichard Baker was one of the most unfortunate debtors confined here : he married in 1620, and soon
after got into pecuniary difficulties, and was thrown into the Fleet, where he spent the remaining years
of his life, writing his Chronicle and other works as a means of subsistence ; he died in 1644-5, in
extreme poverty, and was interred in old St. Bride's Church. Francis Sandford, author of the Qenea-
logical History, died in the Fleet, in 1693. Passing to another class of committals — Keys was sent here
for marrying the Lady Mary Grey, the sister of Lady Jane Grey ; Dr. Donne for marrying Sir Georg£
More's daughter without her father's knowledge ; Sir Robert KiUigrew, for speaking to Sir Thomas
Overbury, as he came from visiting Sir Walter Ealeigh ; the Countess of Dorset, for pressing into tht
Privy Chamber, and importuning James I., " contrary to commandment ;" and Lucius Carey, Viscou
Falkland, for sending a challenge. Curll's Corinna (Mrs. Thomas) was a prisoner in the Fleet for so'
time ; Mrs. Cornelys died here in 1797 ; and Parson Ford, in 1731. Parson Keith, of May Fair, was I
in 1758; and Eobert Lloyd, Churchill's friend, in 1764. Arthur Murphy, provoked by the satire
ChurchiU and Lloyd, describes them as among the poor hacks
" On Ludgate-hill who bloody murders write.
Or pass in Fleet-street supperless the night."
Howel's icWers, already mentioned, have had a parallel in our time, in Eichard Oastler's.
Papers, " a weekly epistle on public matters," inscribed to Thomas Thornhill, Esq., of Fixby Hall, Yo
shire, whose steward Oastler had been, and at whose suit he was imprisoned here ; he was liberated
subscription, Feb. 12, 1844: and a bronze group, by Philip, has been erected at Bradford, in mem
of his advocacy of the Ten Hours' Factory Bill. Mr. Eowcroft also wrote a volume of Fleet Fapers,^
FLFFT BIVFR AND FLFFT BITCH.
THE small, rapid stream Fleet, which has given name to the Prison and Street,
the portion of the City Wall ditch from Holbom to the Thames, has its origii
a nursery-ground on the eastern ridge of Hampstead Hill. Here it becomes a sev
after which it issues from the side of a bank below Well Walk ; and then flows do\
small valley of gardens and orchards to near the reservoir of the Hampstead water-hea
to feed which the springs of the Fleet were collected in 1589, and were afterwards lea
FLEET BIVEB AND FLEET LITCE. 347
out by the City of London. From Hampstead the Fleet may be traced to the upper
part of Kentish Town, after which it is diverted from its original course for the sewer-
age of Camden Town ; but its ancient channel may be traced at the back of the Castle
Tavern, Kentish Town, next in the King's-road, near St. Pancras Workhouse ; and
about 1825, the Fleet was conspicuous all along the Bagnigge-wells-road, but is now-
covered over. Its further course is under the walls of the House of Correction, in
Cold-bath-iields, thence to the workhouse in Coppice-row, under Eyre-street (for-
merly Hockley-in-the-Hole), having here been formerly joined by " the River of the
Wells," formed by Clerken, Skinners', and other wells ; and thus to the bottom of
Holborn. Here it received the waters of the Old Bourne, which rose near Middle-row,
and the channel of which forms the sewer of Holborn Hill to this day. Thence the
united streams flowed beneath what is now called Farringdon-street into the Thames.
Stow mentions " that a Parliament being holden at Carlisle in the year 1307, the
85 Edward I., Henry Lacy Earle of Lincolne complained, that whereas (in times past)
the course of water, running at London under Old -borne Bridge, and Fleet Bridge, into
the Thames, had beene of such bredth and depth that ten or twelve ships. Navies at
once, with Merchandises, were wont to come to the aforesaid bridge of Fleet, and some
of them unto Old-borne Bridge," &c. An anchor has been discovered as high as the
present Bagnigge-wells-road ; and even, it is said, the remains of a ship, in the bed of
this ancient river, near Camden Town. The upper supply of water being diverted, the
ditch became stagnant, and into it were thrown all sorts of ofial, dogs and cats, and
measled hogs, which Ben Jonson has minutely described : it became also a kind of
cloaca maxima, impassable with boats ; in 1652 it was ordered to be cleansed, but the
nuisance was scarcely abated.
The Fleet was anciently crossed by four bridges within the boundary of the City :
the first of these, Holborn Bridge, was covered up in 1802, but the arch and part of
the parapet were discovered during the repair of the ditch, in 1841.
In the bed of the Fleet many Eoman and Saxon coins have been discovered. In 1670 various Eoman
utensils were found between Holborn and Fleet Bridge; besides Eoman coins, including silver ring-
money. At Holborn Bridge were dug up two brazen lares, about four inches long,— Bacchus and Ceres ;
also arrow-heads, scales, and seals, with the proprietors' names upon them in Saxon characters ; spur-
rowels, keys, and daggers ; medals, crosses, crucifixes, &c.
The second was Fleet-lane Bridge, near the Prison. Fleet Bridge, the third, con-
nected Fleet-street with Ludgate-hill : it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 j
and in its place, another, the breadth of the street (Strype), was erected, ornamented
with pine-apples and the City arms; it was finally removed in 1765. The fourth
bridge crossed the Fleet opposite Bridewell, formerly the site of a tower, supposed to
have appertained to the Saxon kings of England.
After the Great Fire, the Fleet, or Town Ditch, between Holborn and the Thames,
was cleansed and deepened by the Corporation, so that barges ascended to Holborn
Bridge, as formerly : wharfs and landing places were constructed ; and Seacoal and
Newcastle lanes, and large inn-yards, remaining to this day, attest the barge traffic.
Seacoal-lane is mentioned under that name (Secol-lane,) as early as 1253; where,
doubtless, the coal was brought in barges up the Fleet river, and stored for domestic
purposes. This " New Canal," as it was called, cost 27,777^., but proved unprofitable :
it became choked with Thames mud, and again relapsed into a common sewer. Gay
sings of its " muddy current ; and Pope points
" To where Fleet-ditch, with disemboguing streams
EoUs the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames,
The king of dykes ! than whom no sluice of mud
With deeper sable blots the silver flood." — The Dunciad, book ii.
Swift thus revels in its delicice, in his City Shower : —
" Now fronj all parts the swelling kennels flow,
And bear their trophies with them as they go;
Filth of all hues and odours seem to tell
What street they sail'd from by their sight and smell.
They, as each torrent drives its rapid force,
From Smithfield to St, 'Pulchre's shape their course.
And in huge confluence joined at Snowhill ridge.
Fall from the Conduit prone to Holborn Bridge ;
Sweepings from butchers' stalls, dung, guts, and blood,
Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud.
Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood."
348 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Fleet Ditch is engraved as the frontispiece to Warburton's Pope, vol. v. {TA
Dunciad.) The ditch grew to be so pestilential a nuisance,* its slime smothering mar
persons who fell into it, that the space between Holborn Bridge and Fleet-street wi
arched over, and Stocks Market removed here, changed to Fleet Market, and opene
for the sale of meat, fish, and vegetables. Sept, 30, 1737 ; and upon the site of Stocl
Market was built the Mansion House. The remaining portion of the Fleet, the mout
of which Pennant describes as " a muddy and genuine ditch," continued open unt
1765, at the buijding of Blackfriars Bridge ; the foul stream was then arched ov(
and entered the Thames on the west side of the bridge, to be conveyed some distanc"
into the river by a culvert ; the vaulting at this end is 12 feet high, and the channel
18 feet wide. {See Sewees.)
Since 1841, Fleet Ditch, parallel with Field-lane, has been covered over j but it might
be traced in the alleys at the back of Cow-cross, whence it continued open to Eay-street,
Clerkenwell ; while Brookhill and Turnmill streets kept in memory the brook which
ran here into the Fleet, and the mill belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,
which was turned by its waters.
In 1829 was completed a new market between the north end of Farringdon -street
and Shoe-lane; whither, on Nov. 20, was removed Fleet Market, the premises of
which were then taken down. At the south end of Farringdon -street is a granite
obelisk, erected in 1839 to the memory of Alderman Waithman, who commenced busi-
ness as a linendraper close to this spot in 1785 ; was Lord Mayor in 1823-24, and was
returned six times to Parliament for the City of London. Opposite Waithman's obelisk
is a monument which bears the name of a much less worthy citizen, John Wilkes,
and the year of his mayoralty, 1775.
In 1855, the valley of the Fleet, from Coppice-row to Farringdon-street, was cleared
of many old and decaying dwellings, many of a date anterior to the Fire of London.
From Coppice-row a fine view of St. Paul's Cathedral was opened by the removal of
these buildings.
In making the excavation for the great sewer which now conveys from view the Fleet Ditch, at a
depth of about 13 feet below the surface in Ray-street, near the corner of Little Saifron-hill, the work-
men came upon the pavement of an old street, consisting of very large blocks of ragstoue of irregular
shape. An examination of the paving-stones showed that the street had been well used : they are worn
quite smooth by the footsteps and traffic of a past generation. IJelow the old street was found another
phase of Old London. Thickly covered with slime were piles of oak, hard and black, which had seem-
ingly been portions of a mill-dam. A lew feet below were very old wooden water-pipes, nothing but the
rough trunks of trees. The course of time and the weight of matter above the old pavement had pressed
the gravel, clay, granite, portions of tiles, &c., into a hard and almost solid mass, and it was curious to
observe that near the old surface were great numbers of pins. Whither have the pins gone ? is a query
which has puzzled many. The now hard concrete, stuck with these useful articles, almost like a pin-
cushion, is a partial reply to the query. The 13 feet of newer deposit would seem to have accumulated
in two or three centuries : it is not unUkely that a portion of the rubbish from the City after the Great
Tire was shot here. — The Builder.
FLEET- stbi:et,
NAMED from the river Fleet, and extending from the junction of Farringdon-
street and New Bridge-street, is one of the most ancient and celebrated thorough-
fares in London. For many centuries it has been noted for its exhibitions and proces-
sions ; its printers, stationers, and booksellers ; its early coffee-houses and taverns, and
banking-houses. It has leading from it thirty-four streets, lanes, and courts.
Fleet-street was noted for its signs : the counting of them, " from Temple Bar to the furthest con-
duit in Cheapside," &c., is quoted as a remarkable instance of Fuller's memory. {Life, &c., p. 76, ed.
1662.) The swinging of one of these broad signs, in a high wind, and the weight of iron on which it
acted, sometimes brought the wall down^ and one front-fall of this kind in Fleet-street maimed several
persons, and killed' two young ladies, a cobler, and the King's jeweller."— 2%e Doctor, by E. Southey,
one vol. edit p. 237.
Before the Great Fire, and long after. Fleet-street was badly paved ; the houses,
mostly of timber, overhung in all imaginable positions ; and the shops were rude sheds
with a penthouse, beneath which the tradesmen unceasingly called " What d'ye lad
gentles? What d'ye lack ?" It was then but a suburb. Temple-bar was original'
* Chamberlayne (1727), however, mentions it as "a mighty chargeable and beautiful work:
curious stone bridges over it; the many huge vaults on each side thereof, to treasure up Newcastle co
for the use of the poor."
FLEET-STREET. 349
a wooden gatehouse across the road to divide the City from Westminster ; and often in
Fleet-street might be seen men playing at football.
The street was encumbered with posts, upon which the performances at the theatres were announced ;
hence posting-bills. Taylor, the water-poet, relates that Master Field, the player, riding up Fleet-street
at a great pace, a gentleman called him, and asked him what play was to be played that day ? He being
angry to be stayed on so frivolous a demand, answered that he might see what play was to be played on
every post. " I cry your mercy," said the gentleman ; " I took you for a post, you rode so fast."
Fleet-street retains its celebrity for printing-offices in the adjoining lanes and courts,
greatly increased by the newspapers of the last half century. The Great Fire stopped
three houses eastward of St. Dunstan's, and within a few doors of the Inner Temple-
gate, nearly opposite.
No. 103 (now Sunday Times office) was formerly the shop of Alderman Waithman,
whither he removed from the south end of Fleet-market. At No. 106, the sign of the
Ked Lion, Hardham's 37-snuff was first made and sold by John Hardham, olim
Garrick's " numberer." In 1824, Nov. 14, several old houses on the south side of the
street were destroyed by fire, besides that in which Milton had lodged, in St. Bride's
Churchyard. Subsequently was opened the present architectural avenue to St. Bride's
Chui-ch, designed by J. B. Papworth : cost, 10,000^. At the east corner. No. 86, was
published by D. Bogue, in 1855, the first edition of the Curiosities of London, of which
3000 copies were sold.
In Bride-lane is the ancient St. Bride's Well, over which is a pump ; and here is
Cogers' Hall, a tavern, where the Cogers met from 1756. Curran made his first
oratorical effort among the Cogers; Daniel O'Connell was a member; as was also
Judge Keogh.
In Shoe-lane, leading to Holborn-hill, was a notorious cockpit in Pepys's time. At the
north end, from 1378 to 1647, was the town-house of the Bishop of Bangor; and a
part of the garden, with lime-trees and a rookery, existed in 1759 ; the mansion
was taken down in 1828. Shoe-lane is associated with four poets : in the burial-
ground of St. Andrew's Workhouse, now covered by Farringdon Market, was buried
Chatterton ; in St. Andrew's Churchyard lies Henry Neele ; in Gunpowder-alley, in
1658, died in abject poverty, Eichard Lovelace, the cavalier poet, " the most amiable
and beautiful person that eyes ever beheld ;"* in 1749, in a wretched lodging-house off
Shoe-lane, died Eichard Boyce. In Gunpowder-alley, too, lived Evans, the astrologer,
the friend and instructor of Lilly, the " Sidrophel" of Sudihras.
Opposite Shoe-lane was the famous Fleet-street Conduit. {See p. 288.) At No. 134,
the Globe tavern, frequented by Goldsmith, and Macklin the actor, was held the Eobin
Hood Club. Salisbury -cowrt, nearly facing, was once the inn of the bishops of Salis-
bury ; then of the Sackvilles, and was called Sackville House and Dorset House ; whence
Dorset-street. After the Great Fire, Wren built for Davenant " the Duke's Theatre,"
opened 1671, where Betterton played : it had a picturesque front to the Thames ; upon
its site are the City Gas-works. Salisbury or Dorset- court had also its play-house,
originally the granary of Salisbury House ; it was pulled about by sectarian soldiers in
164;9, rebuilt in 1660, but destroyed in the Great Fire. The court was a scene of the Mug-
house Eiots of 1716, and here was a noted Mug-house. In Salisbury-court (now square)
!j Eichardson wrote his PameZa, and printed his own novels; his printing-office being at
I the top of the court, now No. 76, Fleet-street : Goldsmith was once Eichardson's
" reader ;" and here was printed Maitland's London, folio, 1739. Eichardson was
visited here by Hogarth, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Young ; Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury ;
and Mrs. Barbauld, when a playful child. Here was also the printing-office of Gillett,
twice destroyed, in 1805 and 1810, by fire : the premises were rebuilt ; and here, in
1814. were burnt 10,000 copies of the Memoir of the notorious Mary Anne Clarke, upon
condition of her debts being paid, and an annuity of 400^. granted her : the burning
occupied three entire days.
Water-lane (now WTiitefriars-sireet) leads to Whitefriars, named from a convent of
white-robed Carmelites, and called Alsatia from 1608 to 1696 {see Scott's Fortunes of
Nigel) ; extending from Fleet-street to the Thames, and from the western side of
Water-lane to the Temple : it was a privileged sanctuary, abohshed in 1697 : a notorious
* George Petty, haberdasher, in Fleet-street, carried twenty shillings to Lovelace every Monday
morning, from Sir Many, and Charles Cotton, Esq., for months, mitil the poet's death.
350 CUmOSITIES OF LOIH^ON,
retreat for cheating creditors, had its cant Lombard-street ; and had many a Cheatly,
Shamwell, Hackum, and Scapeall. (See Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia.) At the
Harrow, in Water-lane, lived Filby, Goldsmith's tailor. No. 64, Tleet-street, much
altered, is the Bolt-in-Tun Inn, mentioned in a grant to the White Friars in 1443,
as " Sospitium vocatum Le Boltenton ; " the sign is an arrow, or holt, partly in a tun.
In Whitefriars-street, adjoining, is the Black Lion, a small inn-yard, with the exterior
wooden gallery in part remaining.
At the east corner of PeterhorougTi-court was one of the earliest shops for the
Instantaneous Light apparatus, " Hertner's Eupyrion" (phosphorus and oxymuriate
matches, to he dipped in sulphuric acid and asbestos), the costly predecessor of the
Lucifer-match. Nearly opposite were the works of Jacob Perkins, the engineer of the
steam-gun, exhibited at the Adelaide Gallery, Strand ; and which the Duke of Wel-
lington truly foretold would never be advantageously employed in warfare. About
midway on the north side lived Thomas Hardy, the bootmaker, who was tried with
Home Tooke, in 1794, for treason j he was also one of the three who commenced the
London Corresponding Society, and its secretary : he died in his 82nd year, and is
buried in Bunhill-fields, beneath a semi-political monument.
On the north side is Bolt-court, where, at No. 8, Dr. Johnson lived from 1776 till
his death in 1784 j while here, Johnson unsuccessfully applied (in 1776) to the Earl
of Hertford, requesting apartments in Hampton Court Palace. Johnson's house was
subsequently Bensley's printing-office, and was burnt June 26, 1819. The Johnson's
Head tavern was not contemporary with the Doctor. (See Notes and Queries, No.
123.) At No. 4, Ferguson, the astronomer, died Nov. 1776. In the court, Cobbett
wrote, printed, and published his Political Megister, and sold Indian corn. The
Register was subsequently published at No. 83, Fleet-street, where was exhibited a
large iron Gridiron, which Cobbett had made for his political sign. No. 3, Bolt-court,
was bequeathed to the Medical Society of London by Dr. Lettsom ; over the door is
an emblematic bas-relief. The Society removed, in 1851, to 33, George-stree
Hanover-square.
Wine-office-court : Goldsmith lodged here in 1761, when Johnson first visited him^
Goldsmith then wrote for the Public Ledger newspaper, and began the Vicar of
Wakefield. Here is an old chop-house, the Cheshire Cheese, long noted for punch.
Johnson' s-court : at No. 7, Samuel Johnson lived 1765 to 1776 ; the JoJm Pull
newspaper was commenced here, at No. 11, in 1820, with Theodore Hook as editor.
Northward is Gough-square, where, at No. 17, Johnson compiled the greater portion
of his Dictionary, 1748 to 1758.
Serjeants' Inn, on the south side of Fleet-street, was formerly an inn of court ; the
handsome offices were designed by Adam. No. 13, Fleet-street, the Amicable Life
Assurance office, was rebuilt in 1839 ; the Society was first chartered by Queen
Ceane-coubt. {See p. 296.)
Ped Lion-court : printing-offices of John Nichols {Gentleman's Magazine), b
Feb. 8, 1808; of Messrs. Valpy {Classics), where Punch was next printed; and
Richard Taylor, F.R.S. {Philosophical Magazine).
Hare-court (originally Ram-alley), opposite Fetter-lane, was noted for its pub]
houses and cook-shops, often mentioned in 17th century plays : it was a sanct
until 1697.
No. 17, Fleet-street, is an interesting specimen of olden street-architecture ; abo
the gateway to the Inner Temple, of plain Jacobean design, with a semicircular an
and the Pegasus in the spandrils. It was built in 1609, and was not as inscrib(
"Formerly the Palace of Henry VIIL and Cardinal Wolsey."
One of the Curiosities of Fleet-street was Mrs, Salmon's Moving Waxwork, originally established
the Golden Salmon, St. Martin's, near Aldersgate (Harl. MS. 5931 : Brit. Mus.) : *' it would have b
ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the sign of the Trout." (The Spectator, No. '
Thence the Waxwork was removed to No. 189, Fleet-street, site of Messrs. Praed's banking-house,
the death ot Mrs. Salmon, aged 90, the collection was purchased by Mr. Clarke, a surgeon (father of
Charles Mansfield Clarke, M.D.), as an investment for his wife. Mrs. Clarke continued the exhibiti
as Mrs. Salmon's, at No. 189, until 1795, when it was removed to No. 17, nearly opposite, at the c
corner of Inner Temple-lane ; and here shown, with a figure of Anne Siggs, on crutches, at the do
until Mrs. Clarke's death in 1812. The collection, much reduced, was then sold for 50^., and subsequent
shown at the west corner of Water-lane. Mrs. Salmon, with more probability, styled the above hou
" once the Palace of Henry Prince of Wales, son of King James I. ;" but this residence is not mentios
I
FLEET-STREET. 351
by his biographers : the first-floor front-room has, however, an enriched plaster ceiling, inscribed P.
(triple plume) H., which, with part of the carved wainscoting, denote the house to be of the time of
James I. Still, we do not find in the lives of Prince Henry any indication of this house as a royal
palace. It appears that the house, though never the residence of Prince Henry, was the qffice
in which the Council for the Management of the Duchy of Cornwall Estates held their sittings, in his
time ; and in the Calendar of State Papers, edited by Mrs.Green, we find entries dated from the Council-
Chamber, in Fleet-street. The interior of the house is in the style of Inigo Jones, whose first office was
Surveyor of the Works to Henry, Prince of Wales, until the year 1613.
In Fleet-street are the oldest banking firms, except Stone, Martin & Co., Lom-
bard-street, who claim to be the siiccessors of Sir Thomas Gresham. No. 1, Fleet-
street (formerly the Marygold) is the banking-house of Child and Co., who date from
soon after the Restoration; they occupy the rooms over Temple-bar for stowage of
their books of accounts.
This firm was founded in. the reign of Charles I., when Francis Child, apprentice to William Wheeler,
a goldsmith, whose shop was on the site of the present banking-house, laid the foundation of his fortune
by marrying his master's daughter, by which he succeeded to the estate and business. ■> Messrs. Child
have the accounts of Nell Gwynne; and among the records of the firm are the accounts of the
partner. Alderman Backwell, for the sale of Dunkirk to the French. The principal of the firm is the
Countess of Jersey, wife of George Child Villiers, Earl of Jersey, who assumed the name of Child upon
his Countess inheriting the estates of her maternal grandfather, Robert Child, Esq., of Osterley Park,
Middlesex. " In the catalogue of a sale of prints, &c., by Mr. Hodgson, 9th June, 1834, lot 270, is an
original sketch in oil by Hogarth, representing a memorable occurrence in the house of Child and Co.,
j when they were delivered by temporary munificence of the Duchess of Marlborough."
Next is Gosling's, No. 19, sign of Three Squirrels, in the iron-work of a window,
originally on a lozenge shield.
Gosling, as founder of the house, is thus mentioned in the account of Secret Service Monies of
Charles II. and James I, : " To Richard Bakenham, in full, for several parcells of gold and silver lace,
bought of William Gosling and partners, on 2nd May, 1674, by the Dutchess of Cleveland, for the wedding-
i clothes of Lady Sussex and Lichfield, 640Z. 8s."
I Messrs. Hoares', No. 37 (Golden Bottle), dates from 1680.
The Golden Bottle is said to represent the flask carried by the founder of the establishment, when
! journeying to Loudon, as the story-books say, to seek his fortune. Richard Hoare, Esq., the principal of
the firm, succeeded Sir F. Child as Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Without ; was SherifiTin 1740-41,
in which year there were three Lord Mayors. Mr. Hoare has left a manuscript journal of his shrievalty,
illustrating various customs, privileges, and " treats " of the City, and concluding thus : " after being
regaled with sack and walnuts, I returned to my own house in my private capacity, to my great con-
solation and comfort." He was Lord Mayor in 1746.
I Fleet-street was long ago the abode of dentists and makers of artificial teeth. An
! Almanac of 1709, advertises, " John Watts, operator, who applies wholly to the said
business, and lives in Racquet- court, Fleet-street."
Fleet-street has been the cradle of printing, almost from its first introduction : Wynkyn de Worde
j (assistant of Caxton), at the Golden Sun, Swan, and Falcon, the latter in Falcon-court ; the imprint to
the Demaundes Joyous is as follows :
" Emprynted at London in Fletestre
te at the signe of the Swane by
me Wynkyn de Worde
In the yere of our
lorde A M
c C CO
and XI
There, however, exists a book inscribed : " emprynted by me Richarde Pynson at the temple barre of
London 1493." To these may be added Rastell, " at the signe of the Starre;" of Richard Tottel, the
eminent law printer and publisher, " within Temple bar, at the signe of the Hande and Starre," now the
house and property of Messrs. Butterworth, who possess all the original leases of the same, including
Tottel's, in the reign of Henry VIII., to the present time.
The following were also contemporary printers in Fleet-street, viz.: Robert Copland, stationer,
printer, bookseller, author, and translator : his sign, in 1515, was the Rose Garland. John Butler lived
at the sign of St. John the Evangelist in ] 529. Thomas Bertholit, King's printer, dwelt at the Lucretia
Romana : he retired from business about 1541. John Bedel, stationer and printer, lived, in 1531, at the
sign of Our Lady of Pity. John Waylond, citizen and stationer, lived at the Blue Garland, 1541. Lawrence
Andrew, a native of Calais, was a printer at the Golden Press, by Fleet-bridge. Thomas Godfrey, the
printer of Chaucer's works, lived near the Temple-bar.
Here, too, we find the cradle of steam-printing : Bensley, of Bolt-court, being the first to aid the
labours of Konig, who had applied to German and other Continental printers unsuccessfully. Konig and
Bensley were joined by Woodfall and Taylor, printers; and out of their joint exertions grew cylmdrical
printing, of which Mr. Walter, of the Times newspaper, was the first to avail himself, 28th of November,
1814 ; Bensley's inking apparatus was, however, superseded by Cowper's— a very important advance.
Soon after the above date, we remember to have seen a large working cylinder-machine, which had been
invented by Winch, a printer's joiner, while he was confined in the King's Bench Prison for debt.
Two of the most disastrous fires in Fleet-street were those at the printing-office of S. Hamilton, in
Falcon-court, when printing materials, &c., were consumed to the value of 80,000^., February 21, 1803 •
and at Bensley's, Bolt-court, June 1819, where the costly woodcuts and printed stock of Dalloway's'elabo^
rate Sistory qf Simex were destroyed.— Abridged from Walka and Talks about London,
352 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The old Fleet-street taverns and coffee-houses are mostly up passages. Upon the site
of Child' s-place was the Devil Tavern, sign St. Dunstan pulling the Devil's nose : here,
in the ApoUo chamber, over the door, were inscribed the verses by Jonson, commencing,
" Welcome, all who lead or follow.
To the oracle of Apollo."
Here Ben Jonson and his sons used to make their liberal meetings i the rules of Ben's
Club in gold letters over the chimney. {Tatler, No. 79.) These are preserved in the
premises, at the back of Child's bank. No. 1, with a terra-cotta bust of Apollo : the
contemporary landlord was Sim Wadlow, "the king of skinkers." (Jonson.) The
club-room, fitted with a music-gallery, was afterwards used for balls and entertain-
ments J and the house continued to be the resort of the wits of the last century : " I
dined to-day" (Oct. 12, 1710) « with Dr. Garth and Mr. Addison, at the Devil Tavern,
near Temple-bar ; and Garth treated." (Swift's Journal to Stella.) Here Dr. Johnson
presided at a supper celebrating the publication of Mrs. Lennox's first book, when the
whole night was spent in festivity. The tavern was taken down in 1788 : opposite is
Apollo-court ; and next door east, is the Cock Tavern, with an old carved and gilt sign-
bird. {See Tatebns.) The Horn Tavern, now Anderton's Hotel, No. 164, was famous
in 1604. {See Coffee-houses : Dick's, Rainbow, and Peele's, pp. 264, 267, 268.)
No. 39 was " the Mitre, in Fleet- street," the tavern so often referred to in Boswell's
Lif^ of Johnson : the Mitre, in Mitre-court, was of much later date. At the Mitre,
in Fleet-street, in 1640, Lilly met old Will Poole, the astrologer, then living in
Ram-alley. The Royal Society Club dined at the Mitre from 1743 to 1750 ; and the
Society of Antiquaries met here for some time : the house had its token. This was
Dr. Johnson's favourite supper-house, the parties including Goldsmith, Percy, Hawkes-
worth, and Boswell. Chamberlain Clark, who died in 1831, aged 92, was the last
surviving of Johnson's Mitre friends. It was a favourite house with Lord Stowell.
The premises became Macklin's Poets' Gallery in 1788 ; and lastly Saunders's Auction-
rooms : they were taken down to enlarge the site for Hoare's new Banking-house.
In the bay-windowed house, Nos. 184 and 185, lived Drayton, the poet. At No.
186, was commenced, Nov. 3, 1849, Notes and Queries. West of St. Dunstan's is the
Law Life Assurance Office, of Jacobean street-architecture, built by Shaw in 1834 :
next is the passage to Clifford's Inn. Chaucer, when a student of the Inner Temple,
was fined 2*. by the Society for beating a Franciscan friar in Fleet-street ; so states
Speght, the illustrator of the poet. Cowley was born near Chancery -lane ; his father
was an engrosser, not a grocer, as long stated. Isaac Walton lived two doors west of
Chancery -lane, whither, in 1632, he removed. {See Chanceky-lane, p. 82.) At No. 197
was Rackstrow's Anatomical Museum, and collection of natural and artificial curiosi-
ties, natural magic, &c-, exhibited from 1736 to 1798. Bell-yard and Fetter-lane were
once noted for fishing-tackle shops.
Shire-lane (now Lower Serle's-place), hard by Temple-bar, named from its dividing
the City from the Shire, was once a place of note. Here was born Sir Charles Sedley,
the poet, and witty contemporary of Rochester ; here lived Elias Ashmole, by turns ■
astrologer, alchemist and antiquary, who called "father" one Backhouse, an adept
Fleet-street, over against St. Dunstan's Church.
S
In 1658, Ashmole left the astrologers and alchemists; in 1660, he was called to the bar inMid(
Temple Hall ; and on Jan. 26, 1679, by a fire in his chambers in the Middle Temple, he lost most of ]
library, a cabinet of 9000 coins, besides, seals, charters, &c., and a curious collection of engraved
portraits.
At the upper end of Shire-lane lived Isaac BickerstafT, the Tatler, who led tl
deputation of " Twaddlers" down the lane, across Fleet-street, to Dick's Coffee-houa
At the Trumpet (afterwards the Duke's Head) public-house, in Shire-lane, the Tatl^
met his club ; and in the lane lived Christopher Kat, at whose house originated tl
Kit-Kat Club. {See pp. 250, 251.)
Fleet-street was the scene of the annual grand burning of the Pope (on November 17) in
reign of Charles II. ; the torchlight procession beginning at Moorfields, and ending at Fleet-stre
where the eiRgy of the Pope was burnt, opposite Middle Temple-gate. These saturnalia were kept
until after the expulsion of James II. ; when the anti-popish mummery was transferred to Nov. '
(See Temple and Temple Uae.)
Towards the west end of Fleet-street have been erected several buildings of higl
FOG OF LONDON. 353
ornamental character ; as at the junction of Chancery-lane and Fleet-street, handsome
Italian; the Crown Insurance Offices, Venetian, of marble, granite, and coloured
stone ; No. 21, Italian, of the Palladian school ; No. 29, of Portland stone, granite,
marble, &c.
Among the Fleet-street booksellers of our time, William Hone must be mentioned :
he commenced business at No. 55, about the year 1812 ; where he published a
pamphlet in vindication of the ill-fated Eliza Fenning, who is now believed to have been
guiltless of the crime for which she suffered : the mystery has been thus cleared up by
one of Fenning's family attesting that a nephew of Mr. Turner, in Chancery-lane,
when upon his death-bed, in Chelmsford, disclosed that, " many years since, irritated
with his uncle and aunt, with whom he resided, for not supplying him with money, he
availed himself of the absence for a few minutes of the servant-maid from the kitchen,
stepped into it and deposited a quantity of powdered arsenic on some dough he found
mixed in a pan. Eliza Fenning, he added, was wholly ignorant of these facts.*'
FOG OF LONDON.
THIS phenomenon is caused by the millions of blazing coal-fires in the metropolis
contributing a vast quantity of fuliginous matter, which, mingling with the
vapour, partly arising from imperfect drainage, produces that foggy darkness which
Londoners not inaptly term " awful." Sometimes it is of a bottle-green colour ; but
if the barometer rise, it will either totally disappear or change into a white mist. At
other times it is of pea-soup yellow ; in the midst of which the street gas-lights appear
like the pin-head lamps of old. The latter is the genuine November London Fog.
Oh, Chemistry, attractive maid.
Descend, in pity, to our aid :
Come with thy all-pervading gases,
Thy crucibles, retorts, and glasses.
Thy fearful energies and wonders,
Thy dazzling lights and mimic thunders;
Let Carbon in thy train be seen,
Dark Azote and fair Oxygen,
And Woliaston and Davy guide
The car that bears them at thy side,
If any power can, any how,
Abate these nuisances, 'tis thou ;
And see to aid thee in the blow,
The bill of Michael Angelo,
join (success a thing of course is)
Thy heavenly to his mortal forces ;
Make all chimneys chew the cud
Like hungry cows, as chimneys should !
And since 'tis only smoke we draw
Within our lungs at common law.
Into their thirsty tubes be sent
Fresh air, by act of parliament."
Henry Luttrel.
"First at the dawn of lingering day.
It rises of an ashy grey;
Then deepening with a sordid stain
Of yellow, like a lion's mane.
Vapour importunate and dense,
It wars at once with every sense.
The ears escape not. All around
Eeturns a dull, unwonted sound.
Loath to stand still, afraid to stir,
The chilled and puzzled passenger.
Oft blundering from the pavement, fails
To feel his way along the rails ;
Or at the crossings, in the roll
Of every carriage dreads the pole.
Scarce an eclipse with pall so dun
Blots from the face of heaven the sun.
But soon a thicker, darker cloak
Wraps all the town, behold, in smoke,
Which steam-compelling trade disgorges
Prom all her furnaces and forges
In pitchy clouds too dense to rise,
Descends rejected from the skies ;
Till struggling day, extinguished quite.
At noon gives place to candle-light.
The Fog, too, sensibly affects the organs of respiration : hence a Scotch physician has
asked, " If a person require half a gallon of pure air per minute, how many gallons of
this foul atmosphere must be, as it were, fdtered by his lungs in the course of a day ?"
Sometimes the Fog is caused by a very ordinary accident, — a change of wind, thus
accounted for : the west wind carries the smoke of the town eastward in a long train,
extending twenty or thirty miles, as may be seen on a clear day from an eminence five
or six miles from the town, — say, from Harrow-on-the-Hill. In this case, suppose the
wind to change suddenly to the east, the great body of smoke will be brought back in
an accumulated mass ; and as this repasses the town, augmented by the clouds of smoke
from every fire therein, it causes the murky darkness.
By accurate observation of the height of the Fog, relatively with the higher edifices,
whose elevation is known, it has been ascertained that the Fogs of London never rise
more than from 200 to 240 feet above the same level. Hence the air of the more
elevated environs of the metropolis is celebrated for its pure and invigorating qualities,
being placed above the fogs of the plain, and removed from smoky and contaminated
atmosphere. The height of the Norwood hills, for example is 390 feet above the sea-
level at low water ; and thus enjoys pre-eminent salubrity.
A A
354 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Wliat is often called Fog, which darkens the metropolis in winter, is, in reality, the smoke of millions
of coal-fires, which are much increased in very cold weather. To prevent this, a Correspondent of the
Times recommends this simple plan : — Before you throw on coals, pull all the fire to the front of the
grate towards the bars, fill up the cavity at the back with the cinders or ashes, which will be foimd under
the grate, and then throw on the coals. The gas evolved in the process of roasting the coals will then
be absorbed by the cinders— will render them, in an increased degree, combustible. The smoke will
thus be burnt, and a fine glowing, smokeless fire will be the result. This rule should be enforced from
the kitchen upwards.
FORTIFICA TIONS.
THE defence of the City of London by the wall built by our later Roman colonist*
has been already described. {See City Walls and Gates, p. 233.) In later
times, the metropolis had again to be fortified.
During the Civil Wars, in 1642, the Parliament ordered that trenches and ramparts
should be made near the highways leading to the City, and in different parts about
London and Westminster. These Fortifications consisted of a strong earthen rampartjj
flanked with bastions, redoubts, &c., surrounding the whole City and its liberties, ir
eluding Soutbwark. In Tyburn-road, in 1643, there were three forts erected — viz.,
redoubt, with two flanks, near St. Giles's Pound ; a small fort at the east end of th
road ; and a large fort, with four half bulwarks, across the road opposite to Wardout
street. From The Perfect Diurnal of this period, we gather that many thousands (
men, women, and servants assisted in the works ; as did also a great company of tl
Common Council, and other chief men of the City; and the Trained Bands, with spadt
shovels, and pickaxes; likewise feltmakers, cappers, shoemakers, and porters, to tl
number of many thousands, assisted in raising the defences.
Upon the site of Mount-street was the fort of " Oliver's Mount ;" and on the groun
now occupied by Hamilton-place at Hyde-park-corner was a large fort with foi
bastions,
" From ladies down to oyster-wenches,
Labour'd like pioneers in trenches."
Butler's Hudihras, Part ii. canto 2.
The women, andeventhe ladies of rank and fortune, not only encouraged the men, but worked
their own hands. Lady Middlesex, Lady Foster, Lady Anne Walker, and Mrs. Dunch, have
particularly celebrated for their activity. — Dr. Nash's Notes.
There are in existence drawings of London Fortifications ascribed to Hollar, ai
Captain John Eyre of Oliver Cromwell's own regiment, dated 1643 ; but they are no
by competent judges, regarded as genuine. The latter have been etched.
The Parliamentary Fortifications of London are described in Maitland's History
a Plan of the City and Suburbs, 1642 and 1643, wa:s engraved by George Vertu(
1738 J and a small Plan of the same works appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, a
few years afterwards.
During the last Civil War, a Fortification was erected at the Brill Farm, near 0|
St. Pancras Church, where, 120 years later, Somers Town was built ; a view of it
engraved. — Notes and Queries, No. 230.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL (THE),
Pr Guilford-street, was established by Royal Charter, granted in 1739 to Thom^
Coram (master of a trading vessel), " for the reception, maintenance, and education
of exposed and deserted young children," in a hospital erected " after the example of
France, Holland, and other Christian countries." This shows that Coram contemplated
the indiscriminate admission of all foundlings, as is the case in the above countries ; and
such was the practice up to the commencement of the present century. The Governors
first opened a house in Hatton-garden, on March 25, 1740-1 ; and any person bringing
a child, rang the bell at the inner door, and waited to hear if the infant was returned
from disease or at once received, no question whatever being asked as to whom the
child belonged, or whence it was brought ; and when the full number of children ha
been taken in, a notice of " The House is full" was affixed over the door : often the
were 100 children offered, when only 20 could be admitted ; riots ensued, and thenc
forth the women balloted for admission by drawing balls out of a bag.
The present Hospital was built by Jacobson ; and the children, 600 in number, we
removed there in 1745, when the expenses of the establishment were more than &i
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL {TEE). 355
times the amount of the income. The Governors afterwards applied to Parliament, who
voted them 10,000/., and sanctioned the general admission of children, the estahlish-
ment of country hospitals, &c.* A basket was hung at the gate of the hospital in
London, in which the children were deposited, after ringing a bell to give notice to the
officers in attendance.-]- On June 2nd, 1756, the first day, 117 children were thus
received. In 1757 printed bills were posted in the streets apprising the public of their
privilege. The consequences were lamentable : prostitution was greatly increased by
this easy means of disposing of illegitimate offspring ; and from the want of means of
rearing so many children, the greater number died : of 14,934 children received in three
years and ten months, 10,389 perished. At length, in 1760, this indiscriminate ad-
mission was discontinued by Act of Parliament, the legislature undertaking to support
all the children who had been already received at its suggestion. Still, so late as
1795 the practice of admitting children without inquiry, on payment of 100/., had not
become extinct ; but it was abolished in 1801.
Hogarth, one of the earliest " Governors and Guardians," greatly assisted his friend
Captain Coram, whose full-length portrait he painted and presented to the Hospital,
with other pictures. These were shown to the public, and became very attractive ;
and out of this success grew the first Exhibition of the Koyal Academy, in the Adelphi,
in the year 1760. The painters often met at the Hospital ; the exhibition of their
pictures drew daily crowds of spectators, in their splendid equipages ; and a visit to
the Foundling became the most fashionable morning lounge of the reign of George II.
The grounds in front of the Hospital were a favourite promenade; and brocaded
silks, gold-headed canes, and laced three-cornered (Eghara, Staines, and Windsor) hats
formed a gay bevy in Lamb's-Conduit-fields.
The pictures represent the state of British art previously to the patronage of West
by George III. In the collection is Hogarth's March to Finchley, and Moses brought
to Pharaoh's Daughter ; Dr. Mead, by Allan Eamsay ; Handel, by Kneller ; Lord
Dartmouth, by Sir Joshua Beynolds; Views of the Foundling and St. George's Hos-
pitals, by Richard Wilson ; the Charter-House (Sutton's Hospital), by Gainsborough ;
Chelsea and Bethlem Hospitals, by Haytley ; Christ's Hospital, St. Thomas's and
Greenwich Hospitals, by Wale; a bas-rehef by Rysbrack; a bust of Handel, by
Roubiliac ; and a presumed original portrait of Shakspeare.
The Chapel has an altar-piece (Christ presenting a little Child), painted by West.
At the suggestion of Handel, the musical service has been a source of great profit to
the Hospital funds. (See Chapels, p. 210.) Dr. Burney attempted to found an
"Academy of Music" on this basis, just as an Academy of Arts had been raised; but
the project failed. Several blind children, who had been received into the Hospital
during the indiscriminate admission, were trained as a choir. Mr. Grenville, the
organist; Mr. Printer, Miss Thetford, and Jenny Freer, singers, were all blind
foundlings.
Coram is buried in the vaults. Here also rest several benefactors, including Lord
Chief-Justice Tenterden, whose bust is at the eastern entrance to the chapel : some
verses written by his Lordship are sung at the Festival of the Governors. Upon the
lodges are two characteristic bas-relief medallions, nicely executed.
From 1760, the Institution ceased to be a hospital for foundlings—
"A race unknown,
At doors expos'd, whom matrons call their own." — Dry den.
Unfortunately, the name has been retained : hence great misapprehension in the public mind as to the
present objects and purposes of the Charity. The present practice of admitting children requires that
they be illegitimate ; that the mother have borne a good character previous to her misfortune ; and
that she be poor and have no relations able or willing to maintain her child. There are other con-
ditions enforced by the Governors ; their benevolent object being, "to hide the shame of the mother,
as well as to preserve the life of the child," and dismiss her from the Hospital with the charge to
* Branch establishments were opened in the country ; and at one of them (Ackworth, in Yorkshire)
was made cloth, in suits of which several of the artist-patrons appeared at the Festival of 1761.
Another branch Hospital was at Aylesbury : of this John Wilkes (M.P. for that borough) was appointed
Treasurer ; but when he left the kingdom in 1764, his accounts were deficient,
t An aged banker in the north of England, received into the Hospital, being desirous of ascertain-
ing his origin, all the information afforded by the books of the establishment was, that he was put into
the basket at the gate naked.
A A 2
356 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
"sin no more." There are several eloquent defences of the objects of the Hospital, Sterne
preached a sermon for the Charity in 1761 ; and the Rev. Sydney Smith was one of the appointed
preachers.
There are at present 500 children supported by the Charity, from extreme infancy to the age of
fifteen ; the Governors have not the privilege of presenting children, after the manner of other esta-
blishments, the claim for admission depending upon the proven misery of the case. The general health
of the children within the walls of the Hospital is remarkably good ; indeed, the building occupies one
of the healthiest sites in London. At an apprenticeable age, the girls are put out to domestic service,
and the boys to trades.
Tlie qualification of a Governor is a donation of 50Z. The revenue of the Hospital
is principally derived from the improved value of the Lamb's-Conduit estate (56 acres),
which the Governors purchased as a site for the Hospital, in 1741, for the sura of
5500Z., collected by benefactions and legacies ; when the Charity bought the whole
estate, not because they required it, but because the Earl of Salisbury, its owner, would
not sell any fractional part of it. As London increased, it approached this property ;
and the ground is now mostly covered with squares and streets of houses, the ground-
rents producing an annual income equal to the purchase-money ! The Governors have
likewise established a Benevolent Fund, for the relief of aged and destitute persons who
were inmates of the Hospital when infants. (See Ilemoranda of the Foundling Sos-
pital, by John Brownlow, Secretary, third edition, 1865.) A stone portrait-statue of
Coram, Calder Marshall, sculptor, is placed upon the central pier of the entrance-gates.
FOUNTAINS.
LONDON had, until lately, in comparison with Continental cities, but few decorative
Fountains, of " the nature that sprinkleth or spouteth water." Early in the
last century, however, the Fountains were more numerous. Hatton (1708) mentions
in Privy Garden, at Somerset House, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and King's-square,
" the most publick ones." The court-yards and gardens of mansions had also their
fountains : Montague House was celebrated for them. The courts of the Companies'^
Halls and City-merchants' houses boasted of their fountains, but few of which remaii
The private garden of Drapers' Hall had a basin, with a fountain and statue.
Old Somerset House had its geometrical water-garden and fountain.
Whitehall had its fountains ; and Queen Elizabeth had a cascade made to play u
her gardens, which, when touched by a distant spring, sprinkled all who aj)proached
The King's (Soho) Square fountain had in the middle of the basin a stone statue
Charles II. in armour, on a pedestal enriched with crowns and foliage j on the foi
sides of the base were as many figures, with inscriptions, of the Thames, Severn, Tyn€
and Humber rivers, spouting water. The statue of Charles remains, but the basin ha
been filled up, and is now a flower-garden.
St. James's-square had in its centre, in 1720, a basin with a jet of water 15 fee
high ; the basin was filled from York -buildings, was 6 or 7 feet deep, and 150 feet ii
diameter, and upon it was kept a pleasure-boat : the site is now occupied by an eques
trian statue of William III.
The fountain was a popular ornament of our old tea-gardens : Bagnigge Wells hac
a curious specimen — half fountain, half grotto ; and the fountain lingered among the
cool delights of Vauxhall Gardens to the last.
Kensington Gardens had a lofty sculptured fountain in the basin opposite the palace :
but here, and in the Parks, the jets-d'eau were, until lately, tasteless and unornamental. \
In the middle of New-square, Lincoln's Inn, was a fluted Corinthian column, and
clock with three dials near its vertex ; and at each angle of the pedestal was a Cupic
blowing water through a short twisted shell. In the Benchers' Garden, Lincoln's Inn,
in the centre of a basin, was the figure of a mermaid rising out of reeds, with a loftj
jet of water.
The fountain in Fountain-court, Middle Temple, rises from a marble-bordered ba5in,J
and in Hatton's time was kept " in so good order as always to force its stream to
vast and almost incredible altitude. It is fenced with timber palisades, constituting a|
quadrangle, wherein grow several lofty trees, and without are walks extending on everj
side of the quadrangle, all paved with Purbeck, very pleasant and delightful." Tht
timber palisades have given way to iron railing ; the jet was half-inch, and threw the
FOUNTAINS. 357
water 10 feet high, and the effect of its sound and sparkle through the trees was very
refreshmg. Miss Landon has left a poem of pensive beauty, commencing thus : —
" The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind.
Like a melody bringing sweet fancies to mind ;
Some to grieve, some to gladden : around them they cast
The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past.
Away in the distance is heard the vast sound,
From the streets of the city that compass it round.
Like the echo of fountains or ocean's deep call :
Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all."
A more decorated design has been substituted for the formal jet.
In the ornamental garden adjoining the Bank (of England) Parlour is a stone basin,
with a jet of ^vater 20 feet high ; already described at p. 30.
The pair of fountains and basins in Trafalgar square are the largest works of the
kind in the metropolis. They were designed by Sir C. Barry, R.A., and executed in
Peterhead granite by M'Donald and Leslie, Aberdeen. Around each base are four
dolphins' heads and fins, supporting a large flat vase and a pedestal, with a smaller
vase, in the centre of which is the jet whence the water is thrown up ; while a flat
stream issues from each of the dolphins' mouths. The water is supplied from two
Artesian wells, one in Orange-street, 300 feet deep, and the other in front of the
National Gallery, 395 feet, connected at 170 feet depth by a tunnel to contain 70,000
gallons of water; the wells and tunnel at rest holding about 122,000 gallons. The
wells are worked, the jets of the fountains thrown, and the water otherwise supplied,
by a large Cornish pumping steam-engine, and a small inverted direct-action engine :
outlay 9000/. ; annual rent 500^. ; engineers, Easton and Amos, Southwark. The con-
tract for " spouting water" is thirteen hours per day in summer, and in winter seven
hours; the height of the jets varies with the weather, from 25 to 40 feet from the
ground ; supply, 500 gallons per minute ; to the Treasury, Admiralty, Houses of Par-
liament, and other public offices, 100 gallons per minute.
Such were the original works. In 1862 was added to each of the semicircular bays
of the basins a group of jets, consisting of a centre and 16 surrounding it. Thus there
are 68 jets, throwing 300 gallons per minute, rising from the surface of the basins.
Within each is an octagon, from each angle of which a jet throws the water 20 feet
high into the upper basin of the central fountain. These 8 jets throw 200 gallons per
minute, and their curve is about 30 feet in length. Here are again two inferior
squares surrounding the central group, and from each of the angles a jet is thrown out-
wards, crossing those from the octagon, rising 20 feet, and curving about 17 feet : these
throw together 200 gallons per minute. There are also 8 feather jets, which throw up
200 gallons per minute, and form a display resembling the Prince of Wales's Feathers.
The whole may be played at once, in not less than 25 different continuations or
changes. It has been the fashion to abuse the designs of these fountains, without
making due allowance for the cause — the insufficiency of the sum voted for their
erection, and desirable decorative character.
Hitherto, fountains had, in our time, been mostly ornamental, but they have of late
been adapted for Drinking purposes, to promote temperance and sanitary benefits.
The first Drinking-fountain set up in the metropolis was that at St. Sepulchre's, the
parish in which, nearly three centuries ago. Lamb, citizen and clothworker, and some-
time gentleman of the chamber to Henry VIII., " founded a faire conduit and a
standard, with a cocke, at Holborn-bridge, to convey thence the waste." The con-
duit itself was in the fields — now Lamb's-Conduit-street. (See Conduits, p. 288.)
The Metropolitan Free Drinking-Fountains Association has setup in various quarters,
by means of a public subscription, fountains in localities where they are most required.
As many as 8000 persons have been known to drink at a single fountain in one day ; and
more than 30,000 have been estimated to drink daily in the summer at 140 fountains.
Many of the contributions to this good work of the Association exhibit great liberality on
the part of the donors, as well as an occasional tinge of eccentricity. Cattle-troughs
and dog-troughs have been added to the fountains. Benevolent individuals have con-
tributed to their own localities. Thus, we read of 601. from a lady in Brompton, and
lOQl. from a gentleman in Pimlico, for the two fountains just opened by the Society
358 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON.
outside the Kensington Museum, and in the high road leading to Battersea Park. A
gentleman in Fifesbire offered to pay the cost of a fountain near the Kensington
Potteries, where, by the way, water was always wanted ; and a lady at St. John's-
wood sent to the Society a donation for the new cattle-trough just fixed in Finsbury-
square. One of the Reports of the Society states that a lady, who requested that
her name should be kept secret, sent 1000^. to the treasurer; and that an Indian Prince
furnished a similar sum to be expended upon a fountain in Hyde Park. Mrs, Rosetta
Waddell, amongst other bequests, left hOOl. for the erection of a fountain in Warwick-
square, Newgate-street. Mr. Gurney, the founder of the Association, contributed
between 300Z. and 400Z. yearly towards the objects which it had in view. The Associa-
tion requires lOOOZ. a-year to keep one hundred fountains in repair.
Some of these drinking-fountains, erected at the cost of private individuals, are
admirable works of art, as well as acts of public spirit. Sir Morton Peto has erected
on Islington-green a statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton, with two fountains, and the New
River Company supply the water gratis ; and the Company, in 1859, set up a fountain
against their own wall. In the above year, the Association announced seventy sites,
whereon they had erected fountains, or were under engagement to erect.
The Government have erected, very appropriately, drinking-fountains in the Parks.
The largest and most important is placed in the geometrical garden in Hyde Park,
learly opposite Grosvenor-gate. This is a simple and massive fountain, with a group
of a boy and dolphin, in Carrara marble, 6 feet high, sculptured by Alexander Munro.
It is placed on a block of red granite chiselled to represent a rock. The basin, of
polished Sicilian marble, is nine feet in diameter, and is believed to be the largest basin
of a single block of marble in England. This rests on a square plinth of Dove marble,
leading up to which are three circular steps in grey granite, the lowest step being
eighteen feet in diameter. The whole work is upwards of twelve feet in height. The
group represents a sturdy boy wrestling with a dolphin ; the water issuing in jets
from the nostrils of the dolphin.
On the south side of St. James's Park, near Storey's-gate, backed by trees, is
a group, sculptured by R. Jackson, of a boy seated, with a pitcher at his side,
and holding a scallop-shell as if to dip into the pitcher, and offer its contents to one
towards whom his head is slightly turned. On the front of the granite pedestal
is a relief of bulrushes and other water-plants, and from the mouth of a dolphin the
water trickles into a conch-shell.
In the Regent's Park, a drinking-fountain has been erected from the designs of
R. Westmacott, R A. : it consists of a polished red granite column, on which is a female
figure in bronze ; the water flows from the bills of two bronze swans, at the base of tl
column, into a large tazza of black enamelled slate.
The Ornamental Waterworks, in Kensington Gardens, contain two large fountai
with some good sculpture, by John Thomas.
In Victoria Park, at the Hackney entrance, is a drinking-fountain, of unusu
dimensions and costliness, a present from Miss Burdett Coutts. It is a Gothic oc-
tagonal structure, crowned by a cupola, nearly 60 feet high ; the shafts and bases
of polished granite. Within are marble figures in niches, which pour water fr(
vases into basins beneath ; vases for flowers, and coloured marbles, complete the deco
tion : cost, above 5000Z. ; designer, H. A. Darbishire.
Another large and important design is the Buxton Memorial Drinking Founti
at the corner of Great George-street and St. Margaret's Churchyard, Westminsi
The base is octagonal, having open arches on the eight sides, supported on cluste:
shafts of polished Devonshire marble around a large central shaft, with four massr
granite basins. Surmounting the pinnacles at the angles of the octagon are eig]
figures of bronze, representing different rulers of England : the Britons represen
by Caractacus, the Romans by Constantine, the Danes by Canute, the Saxons
Alfred, the Normans by William the Conqueror, and so on, ending with Qm
Victoria. The following is the inscription : —
" This fountain is intended as a memorial of those Members of Parliament who, with Mr. Will
force, advocated the Abolition of the British Slave Trade, achieved in 1807; and of those Members)
Parliament who, with Sir T, Fowell Buxton, advocated the Emancipation of the Slaves throughout f
ale
1
nal
FREEMASONS' LODGES. 359
British dominions, achieved in 1834. It was designed and built, by Charles Buxton, M.P., in 1865, the
year of the final extinction of the Slave Trade and of the Abolition of Slavery in the United States."
The upper portion is covered with plaques of iron, with raised patterns, giving
shadow, and enamelled coloured surfaces. Superintendent architect, S. Teulon ; stone-
work and sculpture, hy Earp ; cost, upwards of 12,001., exclusive of the water supply,
undertaken hy the Drinking-Fountains Association.
Another memorial monumental fountain has been erected in Guildhall-yard, by the
vestry of the united parishes of St. Lawrence Jewry, imd St. Mary Magdalene, Milk-
street, to the memory of the benefactors of these parishes. This memorial, designed in
the Pointed style of architecture which prevailed in Italy during the fourteenth cen-
tury, is 9 ft. square at the base, and 32 ft. in height. The materials are Portland
stone, and Bath stone, with polished granite shafts. On the east and west sides are
statues of the patron saints of the two parishes j and on the other two sides are marble
slabs, on which are engraved the names of the benefactors. On the east side, facing
Guildhall-yard, is a bronze bas-relief of Moses striking the Rock, an admirable pro-
duction, which forms the drinking-fountain ; cost has been 66ol. ; designed by John
Eobinson, architect ; statues and bas-relief are by Joseph Durham, R. A., sculptor.
Fountains are useful ornaments of markets. At Billingsgate is a cast-iron fountain,
with a basin about 15 feet in diameter, and a stem of rushes whence the water rises :
and around the basin-lip he twelve dolphms, which discharge water for the use of the
market-people.
FREEMASONS' LODGES.
OUR glance at Freemasonry in the metropolis dates from two centuries back (1666),
when Sir Christopher Wren was nominated Deputy-Grand-Master under Earl
Rivers, and distinguished himself above all his predecessors in legislating for the body
at large, and in promoting the interests of the Lodges under his immediate care. He
was Master of the St. Paul's Lodge, which, during the rebuilding of the Cathedral
after the Great Fire, assembled at the Goose and Gridiron, in St. Paul's Churchyard,
and is now the Lodge of Antiquity, acting by immemorial prescription, and regularly
presided at its meetings for upwards of eighteen years. During his presidency, he pre-
sented the Lodge with three mahogany candlesticks, beautifully carved, and the trowel
and mallet which he used in laying the first stone of the Cathedral, June 21, 1675,
During the building of the City, Lodges were held by the fraternity in different
places, and several new ones constituted, which were attended by the leading architects
and best builders of the day, and amateur brethren of the mystic craft. In 1674 Earl
Rivers resigned his grand-mastership, and George Villiers, Duke of Bucliinghara, was
elected to the dignified office. He left the care of the Grand Lodge and the brother-
hood to the Deputy-Grand-Master Wren and his Wardens. During the short reign
of James II., who tolerated no secret societies but the Jesuits, the Lodges were but
thinly attended ; but in 1685 Sir Christopher Wren was elected Grand-Master of the
Order, and nominated Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, and Edward Strong, the master
mason of St. Paul's and other of the City churches, as Grand- War dens.
Many of the oldest Lodges are in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's ; but the head-
quarters of Freemasonry is the Grand Hall in the rear of Freemasons' Tavern, 62,
Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields : it was commenced May 1, 1775, from the designs
of Thomas Sandby, R.A., Professor of Architecture in the Royal Academy : 5000/. was
raised by a Tontine towards the cost ; and the Hall was opened and dedicated in solemn
form. May 23, 1776 ; Lord Petre, Grand-Master. " It is the first house built in this
country with the appropriate symbols of Masonry, and with the suitable apartments
for the holding of Lodges, the initiating, passing, raising, and exalting of brethren."
(Elmes.) Here are held the Grand and other Lodges, which hitherto assembled in the
Halls of the City Companies.
Freemasons' Hall, as originally decorated, is shown in a print of the annual proces-
sion of Freemasons' Orphans, by T. Stothard, R.A. It is a finely-proportioned room,
92 feet by 43 feet, and 60 feet high ; and will hold 1500 persons : it was re-decorated
in 1846 : the ceiHng and coving are richly decorated ; above the principal entrance is
360 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
a large gallery, with an organ j and at the opposite end is a coved recess, flanked by a
pair of fluted Ionic columns, and Egyptian doorways ; the sides are decorated with
fluted Ionic pilasters j and throughout the room in the frieze are masonic emblems,
gilt upon a transparent blue ground. In the intercolumniations are full-length royal
and other Masonic portraits, including that of the Duke of Sussex, as Grand-Master, by
Sir W. Beechey, R.A. In the end recess is a marble statue of the Duke of Sussex, exe-
cuted for the Grand Lodge, by E. H. Baily, R.A. The statue is seven feet six inches
high, and the pedestal six feet ; the Duke wears the robes of a Knight of the Garter, and
the Guelphic insignia ; at his side is a small altar, sculptured with Masonic emblems.
Freemasons' Hall was, however, not reserved for the exclusive use of the Masons. In
1863, the erection of a great Masonic building was decided on; architect, F. P.
Cockerell, son of the late Professor Cockerell, R.A.
The front, which is 89 ft. in length, is built entirely of Portland stone. The sculp-
ture, including the four figures representing Wisdom, Fidelity, Charity, and Unity,
are executed by W. G. Nicholl. The section, comprising the greater part of the Masonic
building, was completed in May, 1866. The old hall is re-embellished in a corresponding,
style.
St. Paul's, 604, and St. Peter's, Westminster, 605, were built by Freemasons. Gundulph, Bishop of
Rochester, who built Rochester Castle, and, it is said, the White Tower (of London), governed the Free-
masons. Peter of Coleehurch, architect of old London Bridge, was Grand-Master. Henry VI L, in a lodge of
Master Masons, founded his Chapel at Westminster Abbey. Hampton Court Palace was built by Free-
masons, as appears from the accounts of the expenses of the fabric extant among the public records of
London, Sir Thomas Gresham, who planned the Royal Exchange, was Grand-Master: as was also
Inigo Jones, who built the Banqueting-House, Whitehall ; Ashburnham House, Westminster, &c. Sir
Christopher Wren, Grand-Master, founded St. Paul's with his Lodge of Masons, and the trowel and
the mallet used are preserved. Covent Garden Theatre was founded, 1808, by the Prince of Wales,
Grand-Master ; and the Grand Lodge. Sir Francis Palgrave, however, maintains that " the connexion
between the operative masons and a convivial society of good fellows— who, in the reign of Queen Anne,
met at the * Goose and Gridiron, in St. Paul his Church-yard '—appears to have been finally dissolved
about the beginning of the eighteenth century. From an inventory of the contents of the chest of the
Worshipful Company of Masons and Citizens of London, it appears not long since to have contained a
book wrote on parchment, or bound or stitched in parchment, containing 113 annals of the antiquity,
rise, and progress of the art and mystery of masonry. But this document is not now to be found.— Sir
F. Palgrave, Edinburgh Seview, April, 1839.
There is in existence, and known to persons who take an interest in the History of Free-
masonry, a copperplate List of Freemasons' Lodges in London in the reign of Queen Aiine, with a
representation of the Signs, and some Masonic Ceremony, in which are eleven figures of well-dressed
men, in the costume of the above period. There were then 129 Lodges, of which 86 were in London,
36 in English cities, and 7 abroad.
According to the books of the Grand Lodge of England, there are 53 Masonic Lodges in the City,^
distributed as follows : Albion Tavern, Aldersgate-street, 7 ; London Tavern, Bishopsgate, 9 ; Badley's
Hotel, Bridge-street, 9; Anderton's Hotel, Fleet-street, 8: Ship and Turtle, Leadenhall-street, 8 ;
London Coffee House, Ludgate-hill, 5; Masons' Hall, Basinghall-street, 3 ; Masons' Rooms, Little
Bell-alley, Moorgate-street, 1; Cheshire Cheese, Crutched-friars, 1; Falcon Tavern, Fetter-lane, 1; and
Dick's Tavern, Fleet-street, 1, Formerly the most ancient lodge in the City, and which dates from
time immemorial, was the " Lodge of Antiquity " (No. 2), but having removed from the Goose and
Gridiron, St. Paul's Churchyard, to the Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen-street, the Eoyal Athelstan
(No. 19), became the most ancient City Lodge, while the most modern are the City of London (901,)
and Engineers (902). In the City there are also fourteen Lodges of Instruction. There are 333
Chapters of Royal Arch Masons, 12 of which are in the City.
" Three explanations, widely different, have been given of the origin and progress of Freemasonry. .
Some see in Freemasonry a secret system deriving its teaching from Egyptian mysteries, preserved
through the night of history. Others see in it a secret body, exclusive in its formation, and passing
through the world irrespective of the polities and religion of all countries, but advocating brotherly
love and inculcating moral duties. There are others who, having regard to the principle of cause and
effect, see in it a speculative brotherhood, the legitimate and lineal descendants of the operative guilds
» which flourished in the M iddle and early ages. Whichever explanation or theory may be true, one thing
is indubitable— namely, that the origin and duration of Freemasonry together furnish a most wonder-
ful fact in the history of mankind. It is universal in its scope and expansive and tolerant in its
tendency ; it rejects all partisan theories and condemns all sectarian animosities ; it forms a nucleus to
all the nations of the world, and aims at linking all mankind in enduring friendship by inculcating
moral responsibility and social duty, loyalty, peace, and good citizenship, and the relief of human sor-
row and aflliction."— Rev. A. F. Woodford, Grand Chaplain.
FEOSTS, AND FROST-FAIES ON TRF THAMES.
1281-2. " From this Christmas till the Purification of Our Lady, there was such a frost and snow, as '
no man living could remember the like : wherethrough, five arches of London Bridge, and all Rochester
Bridge, were borne downe and carried away by the streame; and the like happened to many bridges in
England. And, not long after, men passed over the Thames, between Westminster and Lambeth, dry-^
shod."— iSfow, edited by Howes, 1631.
1410. "Thysyere was the grete frost and ise and the most sharpest winter that
FROSTS, AND FROST-FAIES OJV THE THAMES. 361
ever man sawe, and it duryd fourteen wekes, so that men myght in dyvers places both
goo and ryde over the Temse." — Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London.
1434-5. The Thames frozen from below London Bridge to Gravesend, from Dec. 25
to Feb. 10, when " the merchandise which came to the Thames mouth was curried to
London by land." — Stow.
1506. " Such a sore snowe and a frost that men myght goo with carttes over the
Temse and horses, and it lastyd tylle Candlemas." — Chronicle of the Grey Friars of
London.
1515. The Thames frozen, when carriages passed over the ice from Lambeth to
Westminster.
1564, Dec. 21. Stow and Holinshed state that on New-year's eve —
"People went over and alongst the Thames on the ise from London Bridge to Westminster. Some
plaied at the foot ball as boldlie there, as if it had beene on the drie land ; diverse of the Court being
then at Westminster, shot dailie at prickes set upon the Thames ; and the people, both men and women,
went on the Thames in greater numbers than in anie street of the City of London. On the third dale
of January at night it began to thaw, and on the fifth there was no ise to be seene between London
Bridge and Lambeth, which sudden thaw caused great floods and high waters, that bare downe bridges
and houses and drowned manie people in England."
1608. Great frost described in Howes's conthiuation of Stow :
"The 8th of December began a hard frost, and continued until the 15th of the same, and then
thawed ; and the 22d of December it began againe to freeze violently, so as divers persons went halfe-
way over the Thames upon the ice ; and the '30th of December, at every ebbe, many people went quite
over the Thames in divers places, and so continued from that day until the 3d of January." From Jan.
10th to 15th, the ice became firm, and men, women, and children went boldly upon it; some shot at
prickes, others bowled and danced, and many " set up booths and standing upon the ice as fruitsellers,
victuallers, that sold beere and wine, shoemakers, and a barber's tent :" the ice lasting until Feb. 2.
There is a very rare Tract, describing this frost, mentioned by Gongh, in his British Topography, vol i.
p. 731, which has a woodcut representation of it, with London Bridge in the distance; it is entitled —
" Cold Doings in London, except it be at the Lottery," &c., 4to, 1608.
1609. Great frost commenced in October, and lasted four months. The Thames
frozen, and heavy carriages driven over it.
1683-4. From the beginning of December until the 5th of February, frost "con-
gealed the river Thames to that degree, that another city, as it were, was erected
thereon ; where, by the great number of streets and shops, with their rich furniture,
it represented a great fair, with a variety of carriages, and diversions of all sorts ; and
near Whitehall, a whole ox was roasted on the ice." (Maitland.) Evelyn, who was
an eye-witness of the scene, thus describes it, Jan. 24, 1684 : —
"The frost continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planted with
boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnished, and all full of commodities, even to a
printing presse, where the people and ladies tooke a fancy to have their names printed on the Thames ;
this humour tooke so universally, that 'twas estimated the printer gained 51. a day for printing a line
onely, at sixpence a name, besides what he got by ballads, &c. Coaches plied from Westminster to the
Temple, and from several other staires, to and fro, as in the streetes ; sheds, sliding with skeetes, and
bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet-plays and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places;
50 that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water."
King Charles II. visited these diversions, and even had his name printed on the ice,
jwith those of several other personages of the royal family. Mr. Upcott possessed a speci-
men — a quarter of a sheet of coarse Dutch paper; within a type border, were the
names of —
Charles, King.
James, Dukk.
KATnilKINK, QuEEir.
Mary, Dutchess.
Anne, Princess.
George, Prince.
Hans in Keldee.
London : Printed by G. Croom, on the Ice, on
the River of Thames, January 31, 1681.
Feb. 6, the day after the break-up of this great frost, Charles II. died.
In some curious verses, entitled " Thamasis's Advice to the Painter, from her frigid
sone," &c., " printed by G. Croom, on the river of Thames," occurs :
362 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
" To the Print-house go.
Where Men the Art ofFrinting soon do know ;
Where, for a Teaster, you may have your JVame
Printed, hereafter for to show the same :
And sure, informer Ages, ne'er was found
A Press to print, where men so oft were dround !"
The principal scene of this " Blanket-Fair" was opposite the Temple-stairs, as we
in a pencil and Indian-ink sketch, supposed by Thomas Wyote, dated "Munday,
February the 4th, 1683-4:" in front are various groups of figures, and a line of tentsj
** Temple-street" stretches across the Thames. This drawing, with some prints, &c.j
illustrative of this frost, is in the Croivle Pennant.
1688-9. Great frost, Dec. 20 to Feb. 6 : pools frozen eighteen inches thick, and the
Thames' ice covered with streets of shops, bull-baiting, shows, and tricks ; hackney-
coaches plied in the ice-roads, and a coach and six horses was driven from Whitehall
almost to London-bridge ; yet in two days all the ice disappeared.
1709. The Thames again frozen over, and some persons crossed it on the ice : in the
Croivle Pennant is a coarse bill, within a woodcut border of rural subjects, containing,
* Mr. John Heaton, printed on the Thames at Westminster, Jan. the Vth, 1709."
1715. Severe frost, from the end of November until Feb. 9 following, when the
sports of 1683 were all renewed : in the Croiole Pennant is a copperplate view, with a
line of tents from Temple-stairs, and another marked " Thames-street ;" " Printed on
the Thames, 1715-16 ;" and above it, " Frost Fair on the River Thames."
1739-40. Dec. 25, another severe frost : the Thames floated with rocks and shoals
of ice j and when they fixed, represented a snowy field, everywhere rising in masses
and hills of ice and snow. Several artists made sketches ; tents and printing-presses
were set up, and a complete Frost Fair was again held upon the river, over which
multitudes walked, though some fell victims to their rashness. It was in this fair that
Doll, the noted pippin-woman, lost her life :
" Doll every day had walk'd these treacherous roads ;
Her neck grew warp'd beneath autumnal loads
Of various fruit ; she now a basket bore ;
That head, alas ! shall basket bear no more.
Each booth she frequent past, in quest of gain.
And boys with pleasure heard her thrilling strain.
Ah, Doll ! all mortals must resign their breath.
And industry itself submit to death !
The cracking crystal yields ; she sinks, she dies, —
Her head, chopt off from her lost shoulders, flies ;
Pippins, she cried, but death her voice confounds.
And pip, pip, pip, along the ice resounds." — Gay's Trivia, b.ii.
Another remarkable character, " Tiddy Doll," died in the same place and mann€
{J. T. Smith.) In the Crowle Pennant are several prints of this Frost and Ice F^n
Some vintners in the Strand bought a large ox in Smithfield, to be roasted whole on
the ice ; and one Hodgeson, a butcher in St. James's Market, claimed the privilege of
felling or knocking down the beast as a right inherent in his family, his father having
knocked down the ox roasted on the river in the Great Frost, 1684; as himself
that roasted in I7l5, near Hungerford Stairs : Hodgeson to wear a laced cambi
apron, a silver-handled steel, and a hat and feathers. The breaking-up of this fr
was an odd scene ; the booths, shops, and huts being carried away by the swell of
waters and the ice separating.
1768. A violent frost, Jan. 1-21, when the piles of London Bridge sterlings we
much damaged by the ice ; on Jan. 5, a French vessel was wrecked upon a sterling
and two others were driven through the centre arch, losing their main-masts,
carrying away the lamps from the parapet.
1789, Jan. 8. The Thames frozen over, several purl-booths erected, and ma
thousands of persons crossed upon the ice from Tower-wharf to the opposite shore,
frost had then lasted six weeks. No sooner had the Thames acquired a sufficient coi
sistency, than booths, turnabouts, &c., were erected ] the puppet-shows, wild-beasts, &^
were transported from every adjacent village; and the watermen broke in the ice clc
to the shore, and erected bridges, with toll-bars, to make every passenger pay a hal
penny for getting to the ice. A large pig was roasted on one of the roads, and a youi
FULWOOD'S BENTS. 363
bear hunted on the ice near Rotherhithe ; and the printing-press was erected, as usual,
to commemorate the strange scene. Vast quantities of boiling water were every morn-
ing poured upon the bridge water-works, to set the wheels in motion, and twenty-five
horses were used daily to remove the ice from around them ; while at Blackfriars the
masses of ice were 18 feet thick. The sudden breaking-up of the ice, with the rush of
the people to the shores, at night, was a fearful scene. A vessel lying off Rotherhithe,
fastened by a cable and anchor to a beam of a public-house, in the night veered about
and pulled the house to the ground, killing five sleeping inmates.
1811, January. The Thames frozen over.
1813-14. Great frost, commenced Dec. 27, with a thick fog, followed by two days*
heavy fall of snow. During nearly four weeks' frost, the wind blew almost uninter-
ruptedly from the north and north-east, and the cold was intense. The river was
covered with vast heaps of floating ice, bearing piles of snow, which, Jan. 26-29, were
floated down, filling the space between London and Blackfriars Bridges ; next day,
the frost recommenced, and lasted to Feb. 5, uniting the whole into a sheet of ice.
Jan. 30, persons walked over it ; and Feb. 1, the unemployed watermen commenced
their ice-toll, by which many of them received 61. per day. The Frost Fair now com-
menced : the street of tents, called the City -road, put forth its gay flags, inviting
signs, and music and dancing : a sheep was roasted whole before sixpenny spectators,
and the " Lapland mutton " sold at a shilling a slice ! Printing-presses were set up,
and among other records was printed the following :
iFrost Jair,
Amidst the Arts which on the Thames appear
To tell the wonders of this ici/ year
Pkinting claims prior place, which at one view
Erects a monument of That and You.
Printed on the Kiver Thames, February 4, in the 54th year of the reign of King
George III. Anno Domini 1814.
One of the invitations ran thus :
" You that walk here, and do design to tell
Your children's children what this year befell,
Come buy this print, and then it will be seen
That such a year as this hath seldom been."
In the Fair were swings, book-stalls, dancing in a barge, suttling-booths, playing at
skittles, frying sausages, &c. The ice and snow, in xipheaved masses, as a foreground
to St. Paul's and the City, had a striking effect ; and the scene, by moonlight, was
singularly picturesque. On Feb. 5, the ice cracked, and floated away with booths,
printing-presses, &c. ; the last document printed being a jeu-de-mot " to Madame
Tabitha Thaw." Among the memorials is a duodecimo volume, pp. 124, now before
us: it is entitled, " Frostiana; or, a FListory of the River Thames in a frozen state,
with an Account of the late Severe Frost, &c. ; to which is added the Art of Skating.
London : Printed and published on the Ice on the River Thames, February 5, 1814,
by G. Davis j" the title-page was worked upon a large ice-island between Blackfriars
and Westminster Bridges. In the Illustrated London News, No. 138, is an engraving
of the Frost Fair of 1814, from a sketch near London Bridge, by Luke Clennell.
FUL WOOF'S FFNTS,
"TTTJLGO, " Fuller's Rents," in Holborn, nearly opposite Chancery-lane, is a court, now
^ meanly inhabited ; but was of much better repute in the time of James I., when its
possessor, Christopher Fulwood, Esq., resided here. Strype describes it as running up
to Gray's Inn, "into which it has an entrance through the gate" (now closed); "a
place of good resort, and taken up by coffee-houses, ale-houses, and houses of enter-
tainment, by reason of its vicinity to Gray's Inn. On the east side is a handsome
open place, with a freestone pavement, and better built, and inhabited by private
housekeepers. At the upper end of this court is a passage into the Castle Tavern, a
house of considerable trade, as is the Golden Griffin Tavern, on the west side." Here
364 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was John's, one of the earliest coffee-houses ; and adjoining Gray's Inn gate, on the
west side, is a deep-coloured brick house, once Squire's Coffee-house, whence some of
the Spectators are dated : it has been handsome and roomy, with a wide staircase.
Within one door of Gray's Inn was Ned Ward's {London Spy) punch-house, much
frequented by the wits of his day.
For some time before 1699, until his death in 1731, Ward kept this house, which he
thus puffs in his London Spy ; being a vintner, we may rest assured that he would
have penned this in praise of no other but himself: —
" To speak but the truth of my honest friend Ned,
* The best of all vintners that ever God made ;
He's free of the beef, and as free of his bread.
And washes both down with his glass of rare red.
That tops all the town, and commands a good trade ;
Such wine as will cheer up the drooping King's head.
And brisk up the soul, though our body's half-dead j
He scorns to draw bad, as he hopes to be paid ;
And now his name's up, he may e'en lie abed ;
For he'll get an estate— there's no more to be said."
The Castle Tavern, mentioned by Strype, was many years kept by Thomas Winter
(" Tom Spring "), the pugilist, who died here, August 20, 1851.
About the centre of the east side of Pulwood's Rents is a curious gabled and^
projecting house, temp James I. Mr. Archer has engraved a ground-floor room,
entirely panelled with oak; the mantelpiece is well carved in oak, with caryatidesij
and arched niches ; the ceiling beams are carved in panels ; and the entire room isf
original, except the window. A larger room on the first floor contains another oldj
mantelpiece, very florid. The front of the house is said to be covered with ornament,
now concealed by plaster. (Vestiges of Old London, part v.)
GAMJDUWS.
FITZSTEPHEN records that in the time of Henry II. (1154-1189) the citizens
London had large and beautiful gardens to their villas. The royal garden at]
Westminster was noted for its profusion of roses and lilies in 1276 ; and there is extant]
an order of Edward I. for pear-trees for his garden, and that at the Tower.
" Within the compass of one age, Somerset House and the buildings were called country-houses;
and the open places about them were employed in gardens for profit : and also many parts within the ]
City and liberties were occupied by working gardeners, and were sutReient to furnish the town witl
garden-ware ; for then but a few herbs were used at the table in comparison to what are spent now.'
— Stow.
About two and a half centuries since, the citizens took their noon-tide and evening
walks in their gardens. Cornhill was then an open space, and the ground from thence
to Bishopsgate-street was occupied as gardens, as were also the Minories. Goodman'
Fields were an extensive inclosure ; and most of East Suiithfield was an open space,J
partly used for bleaching. Spitalfields were entirely open. From Houndsditch,
street, but interspersed with gardens, extended nearly to Shoreditch Church, then-j
nearly the last building in that direction. Moorfields were used for drying linen;
cattle grazed and archers shot in Finsbury Fields, at the verge of which were three|
windmills. Goswell-street was a lonely road ; and Islington Church stood in the dis-
tance, with a few houses and gardens near it. In Smithfield, horses were exercised,
and on the western side was a row of trees. Clerkenwell was mostly occupied by the|
precincts of St. John's Priory, beyond which, on the Islington-road, were a few de-j
tached houses, with gardens. From Cow Cross to Gray's Inn-lane, the ground was
either waste or in gardens ; and between Shoe-lane and Fetter -lane was much open I
ground. At Drury-lane commenced the village of St. Giles: near the church were a
few houses surrounded with trees. Beyond the church all was open country, the maini
roads being distinguished by avenues of trees. Leicester Fields and Soho were open!
ground. Spring Garden was literally a garden, reaching to the site of the present]
Admiralty. The dwellings in the lower part of Westminster were inns and poor cot-
tages, with small gardens. Whitehall-palace had its stately gardens, as had also th<
several noble mansions on the south side of the Strand. Isaac Walton quotes from a |
contemporary German poet : —
GARDENS. 365
" So many gardens, dressed with curious care,
That Thames with Royal Tiber may compare."
These gardens had their water-gates ; one of which, York-house-gate, remains, with
a terrace shaded by lime-trees.
Leicester House, at the north-east corner of Leicester-square, had its spacious
gardens, now the site of Lisle-street, built in 1791.
Holborn (Old-bourne) was famed for its gardens : Ely-place had its kitchen and
flower gardens, vineyard and orchard, and the bishops were celebrated for raising choice
fruit. {See Ely Place, p. 321.) Gerarde was an apothecary, and, before the year
1597, had a large physic-garden near his house in Holborn, where he raised 1000
plants and trees ; a proof " that our ground could produce other fruits besides hips a\id
haws, acorns, and pignuts." Gerarde had another physic-garden, in Old-street : his
earliest publication was the Catalogue (in Latin) of his own garden in Holborn, printed
in 1596, 4to; reprinted in 4to, 1599. The first edition was dedicated to Lord
Burghley, whose garden Gerarde had superintended for twenty years : the second
edition was dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh. A copy of the first edition (of extreme
rarity) is in the British Museum ; and it proved of great use to Mr. Alton in preparing
his Hortus Kewensis, by enabling him to ascertain the time when many old plants
were first cultivated. Gerarde dated the first edition of his Herbal from Holborn.
Wood calls him "the best herbalist of his time." Among the Lansdowne MSS. in the
British Museum, is a letter of Gerarde's own drawing-up, for Lord Burghley to re-
commend to the University of Cambridge the establishment of a physic-garden there,
to encourage the " facultie of simpling." Several London localities of Gerarde's sim-
'pling may be gathered from his Herbal. Thus, he says : " Of water violets I have
not found any such plenty in any one place as in the water ditches a(iljoining to Saint
George his fielde, near London." He describes Mile End, Wliitechapel, as " the
common near London where penny-royal grows in great abundance." " The small
wild buglosse grows upon the drie ditch bank about Pickadilla ;" and he found " white
saxifrage, burr-reedes, &c.," in the ditch, right against the place of execution, St.
Thomas-a- Waterings, now the Old Kent-road.
Baldwin's Gardens, between Leather-lane and Gray's-inn-lane, were, according to a
stone upon a corner-house bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, named after Richard
Baldwin, one of the royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589.
Montague House, Bloomsbury, had its spacious gardens, " after the French manner ;"
and the gardens of the houses in Great Russell-street were noted for their fragrance.
Strype (1720) describes the north side as having gardens behind the houses, with the
prospect of pleasant fields up to Hampstead and Highgate, " inasmuch as this place is
esteemed the most healthful in London."
The garden of the Earl of Lincoln was highly kept, long before the mansion became
an Inn of Court. The Earl's bailiff's accounts (24 Edward I.) show it to have pro-
duced apples, pears, large nuts, and cherries sufiicient for the Earl's table, and to yield
by sale in one year 135Z., modern currency. The vegetables grown were beans, onions,
garlick, leeks ; hemp was grown ; the cuttings of the vines much prized ; of pear-trees
there were several varieties j the only flowers named are roses. {T. Hudson Turner.)
The " walk under the elms," celebrated by Ben Jonson, was a favourite resort of
Isaac Bickerstaff. In 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, the walk under the trees in the
coney-garth* or cottrel-garden was made; and in 15 Car. II. 1663, the said garden
was enlarged, and a terrace-walk made on the left side ; of which Pepys says : " to
Lincoln's-Inn, to see the new garden which they are making, which will be very
pretty." The garden-wall in Chancery-lane is said to have been partly the labour of
Ben Jonson.
" Gray's Inn for walks, Lincoln's Inn for wall.
The Inner Temple for a garden, and the Middle for a wall."
Lincoln's Inn. By W. H. Spilsbury, Librarian, 1850.
The Inns of Court always boasted of their gardens. The Middle Temple has its
gardens with an avenue of limes ; the Inner Temple, a more extensive garden and pro-
* The coney-garth was " well stocked with rabbits and game," and by various ordinances of the
Society, temp. Edw. IV., Henry VII., and Henry VIII., penalties were imposed on the students hunting
the rabbits with bows and arrows, or darts.
CUEI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
menade. In " the Temple Garden," Sbakspeare has laid the scene of the origin of the
red and white roses as the cognisances of the houses of York and Lancaster : Richard
Plantagenet plucks a white rose, and the Earl of Somerset a red one ; an altercation
ensues, when the Earl of Warwick thus addresses Plantagenet :—
" In signal of my love to thee.
Against proud Somerset and William Poole,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose :
And here I prophesy, — this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple Garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night."
First Fart of Henry VI., act ii. sc. 4.
The red and white Provence rose no longer blossoms here ; but both the Temple
Gardens are well kept, and chrysanthemums here attain surprising perfection until
mid- winter : —
" Still alone, 'mid the tumult, these gardens extend ;
The elm and the lime over flower-beds bend :
* « « « «
The boat, and the barge, and the wave, have grown red ;
And the sunset has crimsoned the boughs over-head :
But the lamps are now shining, the colours are gone,
And the garden lies shadowy, silent and lone." — L. E. L.
Both Lincoln and Gray's Inn had an uninterrupted view over fields and gardens to
Hampstead and Higbgate, which had then scarcely lost the rich woodland scenery of
the ancient forest of Middlesex. Gray's Inn Gardens were laid out under the direction
of Francis Bacon, who wrote so practically upon gardening.
" In the 40 Eliz., at a pension of the bench, ' the summe of 71. IBs. 4d. laid out for planting elm trees '
in these gardens, was allowed to Mr. Bacon (afterwards Lord Verulam and Lord Chancellor). On the
14th November, in the following year, there was an order made for a supply of more young elms ; and
it was ordered ' that a new rayle and quickset hedges ' should be set upon the upper long walk, at the
discretion of Mr. Bacon and Mr. Wilbraham ; the cost of which, as appeared by Bacon's account,
allowed 20th April, 42 Eliz., was 601. 6s. 8d. Mr. Bacon erected a summer-house on a small moimt on
the terrace, in which, if we may be allowed the conjecture, it is probable he frequently mused upon
the subjects of those great works which have rendered his name immortal."— Pearce's Inns of Court.
To this day here is a Cataljpa tree, raised from one planted by Lord Bacon, slips
which are much coveted. The walks were in high fashion in Charles II.'s time ; an^
we read of Pepys and his wife, after church, walking " to Gray's Inne, to obser\
fashions of the ladies, because of my wife's making some clothes."
The City Halls, and mansions of the civic aristocracy, usually had their garder
with terraces and lime-tree walks, fountains, and summer-houses, and decorativ
grottoes.
Grocers' Hall had in 1427 its pleasant garden, to which the citizens were admitted on petition to tt
Company : it contained alleys, hedge-rows, and a bowling-alley, but was reduced in 1802, as we nov
see it. Drapers' Hall had its garden in 1551, when rents were paid for admission-keys, and it became i
fashionable promenade ; it is now open to the public. Merchant Tailors' Hall had its garden, Avit'
alleys and a terrace, a treasury and summer banqueting-room. Salters' Hall (Oxford-place) had its lara
garden, into which the infamous Empson and Dudley {temp. Henry VII.), living in " two faire houses '"
the rear, "had a dore of intercourse ;" and here "they met and consulted of matters at their pleasures^
{Stow) ; this being originally the garden of the Priors of Tortington. Ironmongers' Hall had also it
garden, for which we find charges for " cutting of the vines and roses, and knots of rosemary."
Sir Paul Pindar, contemporary with Sir Thomas Gresham, had his garden and pari
with an embellished lodge in the rear of his mansion, now a public-house in Bishops
gate-street ; the grounds are covered with lanes, alleys, and blind courts, reaching
Finsbury-square. Gresham-house had also its spacious walks and gardens.
Finsbury-circus has a fine garden, which was threatened with devastation by
Eailway Company, in 1862, when it was saved by the energy of the Directors, one o|
whom, Mr. Alfred Smee, F.R.S., thus successfully advocated the preservation of tl '
lung of the City of London : — •
The centre constitutes a circle planted with exquisite taste with the choicest trees, and forms a ton
ensemble which might be admired in any part of tlio world. It challenges for beauty the garden of anjj
square in London, and it is the admiration and astonishment of foreigners as an aflair of private enter^
prise, and not a creation of the State.
A return made by the gardener shows that it contains three trees 60 feet high, and ISO feet ;
the circle of the head ; 20 trees between 45 and 55 feet high : 34 trees between 35 and 45 feet high]
60 trees between 25 and 35 feet high ; and 107 trees between 15 and 30 feet high ; besides upwards d
700 fine shrubs, and several beautiful weeping trees, all of more than half a century of growth. Th<
effect of trees in the centre of towns cannot be too much appreciated. They carry up lai'ge quantitie
GABDENS. 367
of water into the over-dried atmosphere, and this little forest of trees must play an important and
beneficial part to the neighbom-hood.
At the present time the City is too crowded, and contains by far too few open spaces and trees. There
are two trees in the Bank of England and one in Cheapside, two or three smaller ones in St. Paul's-
churchyard, but where are such trees as we possess in Finsbury Circus ?
Clerkenwell was, iu the present century, famous for its gardens. About the year
1830, the lined slope on the east side of Bagnigge-wells-road, had a pleasant rural aspect
from its number of " Myddelton Gardens," which belonged to private individuals resi-
dent in Clerkenwell, who, in their leisure hours, cultivated here flowers and vege-
tables. On these extensive garden-grounds streets and squares of houses have been
erected. Another famous group of Clerkenwell gardens, formerly belonging to the Hos-
pital of St. John of Jerusalem, and adjoining Clerkenwell-green, were called Garden-
alleys; after the Dissolution, the Hospital- close, of three acres, was converted into gardens,
Milton had a poetic liking for ^^garden-houses" of which there were many in his
time : his house in Aldersgate-street opened into a garden ; in 1651, he lived in Petty
Prance, now Westminster (York-street, No. 19), " a pretty garden-house, opening into
the Park ;" a cotton-willow tree is said to have been planted here by the poet's hand.
Aaron Hill had a house in Petty France, with a garden reaching to St. James's Park,
and a grotto in it, described in his Letters at some length.
Sir John Hill's famous "physic-garden" was at Bayswater j here he cultivated
medicinal plants, and prepared essences, tinctures, &c. The site, after being long con-
verted into tea-gardens, is now covered with handsome houses.
Goring House, which occupied the site of Buckingham Palace, had a fountain-garden,
westward of which was the cherry-garden and kitchen-garden of Hugh Audley, Esq.,
from whom Audley-street, Grosvenor-square, is named. Here, too, was a grove of
mulberry-trees, planted by King James I. ; afterwards '* the Mulberry Garden." There
was another mulberry plantation at Chelsea, upon part of the grounds of Beaufort House.
Waller describes the wall in St. James's Park as
"All with a border of rich fruit-trees erown'd."
Brompton-park Nursery can be traced from 1681. Evelyn describes it as a large
and noble assembly of trees, evergreens, and shrubs, for planting the boscage, wilder-
ness, or grove ; with elms, limes, platans, Constantinople chestnuts, and black cherry-
trees : its " potagere, meloniere, culiniere" garden ; seeds, bulbs, roots, and slips, for
the fl.owering garden : occupying about 56 acres. In 1705, its plants, at \d. each,
were valued at 40,000Z. ; and it had a wall half a mile long, covered with vines. London
and Wise were the proprietors in 1694 : they are praised by Addison in the Spectator
for their laying out of Kensington-gardens, where we also see Kent's ha-ha. The
" Brompton Stock" is a memorial of the celebrity of this district, which extended to
Chelsea ; but the gardens have mostly disappeared, and their ground is built upon :
the site of Trinity Church, Brompton, was, in 1828, a market-garden. Chelsea Hospital,
however, retains its terrace, little canals, shady lime- walks, and gigantic plane-trees — a
curious specimen of the Dutch style, temp. William III. ; it has an octagon summer-
house, built by Sir John Vanbrugh. " The Old Men's Gardens" to the south-east,
including a part of the site of old Ranelagh, were added in 1826, when Lord John
Kussell was Paymaster-General : here each pensioner had his garden, the dressing of
which afforded society and employment ; but these gardens have disappeared.
In a garden at Little Chelsea the loTiite moss-rose was first discovered, and success-
fully cultivated. As the eighteenth century advanced, the Botanic Gardens at Chelsea,
and its curator, Philip Miller, came into notice.
Buckingham-Palace Gardens comprise about forty acres, of which nearly five are a
lake : upon a mount is a pavilion of Chinese design, the interior decorated in the Pom-
peian and Raphaelesque style, with paintings from Milton's Comus, and Scott's novels
I and poems, by Eastlake, Maclise, Ross, &c. : the grounds are secluded by majestic
ielms; whilst the principal front of the palace commands the landscape-garden of St.
James's Park. The old palace of St. James's and Marlborough House, have their
I gardens ; and in the same line were the grounds of Carlton House, with conservatories
and rookery, now occupied by lofty terraces of mansions ; but Buckingham House, and
j the several Club-houses on the south side of Pall Mall, have their gardens.
j Kensington Palace has its flower-garden of quaint design. In this direction lies
368 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
Holland House, with its stately cedars, oaks, and planes ; its flower-garden, with ever-
greens clipped into fantastic forms ; beds of Italian and old English character, fountains
and terraces befitting the architectural garden of this Elizabethan mansion : in the
" French Garden," in 1804, was first raised in England the Dj},hha, from seeds sent by
Lord Holland from Spain.
Campden House, Kensington, had a sheltered garden, in which the wild olive once
flourished ; and here a caper-tree prdduced fruit yearly for a century.
Vauxhall, noticed by Evelyn in 1661, as "the New Spring Garden, a pretty-
contriv'd plantation," is mentioned otherwise than as a mere promenade : Monoconys,
about 1663, describes its squares " inclosed with hedges of gooseberries, within which
were roses, beans, and asparagus."
Hard by was Tradescant's garden at South Lambeth, well stored with rare and
curious plants collected in his travels : including roses from Rose Island, near Port St.
Nicholas. This garden existed in 1749, and is described in Philos. Trans, vol. xlvi.
Tradescant was " King's Gardener," temp. Charles T. ; and, with his son, assembled
at Lambeth the rarities which became the nucleus of the Ashmolean Museum.
In the Catalogue of their Garden, published by the second Tradescant, are Hollyhocks, Southern-
wood, Wormwood, the classical Acanthus, Prince's Feathers ; that " great Flouramour, or purple flowre
gentle;" Anemones of all sorts; Dogsbane; the "Arbor Judse, or Judas Tree, with red flowres;" the
l{irth worts of the south ; numerous North- American plants ; Meadow Saffrons from Constantinople ;
that "FragrariaNovsB Angliae nondam descripta," the mother of our Keen's Seedlings, and Scarlet and
British Queen Strawberries; the " Hippomarathrum," or Rhubarb of the Monks; Marvels of Peru;
" Paralysis fatua, foolish Cowslip, or Jack-an-apes on Horseback," probably the green monster of the
common Oxlip; Pappas, or Virginian Potatoes; "Populus alba Virginiana Tradescanti," apparently
one of our Tacamahacs ; Musk Roses, Double Yellow Roses, and " Muscovie Roses ;" Fox Grapes, from
Virginia; White and Red Burlett Grapes, Currant Grape, Muscadells, " Frontinack or Musked Grape,
white and red; " and other rarities, filling more than 100 pages.— Gariewer's Chronicle, 1852.
Lambeth was formerly noted for its public gardens. Here was Cuper's garden, laid
out with walks and arbours by Boydell Cuper, gardener to Thomas Earl of Arundel,
who gave Cuper some of the mutilated Arundelian marbles (statues), which he set up
in his garden : it was suppressed in 1753 : the site is now crossed by Waterloo-
road. The site of St. John's Church, and Christ Church, Blaekfriars-road, was
formerly occupied by gardens, through which lay the old Halfpenny Hatch footpath.
{^See St. GEORaE's Fields, p. 376.)
Opposite the Asylum were the Apollo Gardens, opened about 1788 : the old orchestra
was removed to Sydney Gardens, Bath. In the present South wark -bridge-road was
Finch's Grotto and Garden, established about 1760 : here Suett and Nan Cattley acted
and sang : the old Grotto house was burnt in 1795, but was rebuilt, and a stone inserted
with this inscription : —
•' Here Herbs did grow,
And Flowers sweet;
But now 'tis call'd
St. George's-street."
Attached to some of the modern mansions in the town are pleasant kndscaj
gardens : from the rear of Devonshire House is a rus-in-urhe seemingly extending
Berkeley-square, by means of the sunken passage between the grounds of Lansdo\
and Devonshire Houses.
The gardens in the centres of the several Squares are oases highly kept. Mr. Loudo
was one of the first to recommend the lighter trees, as the Oriental plane, the syc
more, the almond, and others, which now add greatly to the beauty of the London Square
The Nursery and Market Gardens around London have yielded to railways ai
the building of suburban towns.
The growth of London has pushed the Market Gardener gradually into the country; and now, i
stead of sending up his produce by his own waggons, he trusts it to the railway, and is often throv
into a market fever by a late delivery. To compensate him, however, for the altered state of the time
he often sells his crops like a merchant upon 'Change, without the trouble of bringing more than a f&
hand-samples in his pockets. He is nearly 70 years of age, but looks scarcely 50, and can rememb'
the time when there were 10,000 acres of ground within four miles of Charing-cross under culti^
tion for vegetables, besides about 3000 acres planted with fruit to supply the London consumptic
He has lived to see the Deptford and Bermondsey gardens curtailed ; the Hoxton and Hackney garde
covered with houses; the Essex plantations pushed further off; and the Brompton and Kensingto
nurseries— the home of vegetables for centuries— dug up and sown with International Exhibitic
temples, and Italian gardens that will never grow a pea or send a single cauliflower to market. E
has lived to see Guernsey and Jersey, Cornwall, the Seilly Islands, Holland, Belgium, and Portugal
with many other more distant places, competing with the remote outskirts of London bricks and morf"
GARDENS. 369
,nd has been stajrgered by seeing? the market supplied with choice early peas from such an unexpected
uarter as French Algeria.— ConihiU Magazine, 18(56.
In the heart of London, some gardens are ranch frequented by birds. The garden
ttached to the house of Mr. John Britton, at the south end of Burton-street, St.
'ancras, was much resorted to by the sparrow, robin, tomtit, wren, crow, starling, and
irhitethroat, the latter having bred here for several years.
In St. George's, Bloomsbury, and a few other parishes, are held Working Men's
i'lower-shows of window-sill floriculture — as fuchsias, geraniums, and other flowering
lants ; annuals are grown in pots by Sunday-school children, who thus rear dwarf
range and lemon-trees, walnut-trees, and even date-palms and locust-trees, from stones
nd seeds.
Churchyards, no longer used for interments, are now laid out as gardens. Sc,
{otolph's, Bishopsgate, has its flower-beds enriched with terra-cotta tiles, instead of box
dging ; .Virginia stocks, scarlet and yellow nasturtiums, are favourite flowers ; the
hrubs are mostly poplars and planes : a sum is yearly voted by the vestry to keep
p this garden. The south-eastern portion of the burial-ground of St. Paul's Cathedral
as also been laid out in flower-beds, and planted with shrubs.
Botanic Gardens. — In Great Britain, the first Botanic Gardens were called Physic
rardens, and were used principally as places for growing and studying medigal plants,
'he first English Botanic Garden of which we have any distinct account was at Syon
louse, where it was under the superintendence of Dr. Turner, one of our earliest
nglish botanists. This was about the middle of the sixteenth century ; but a few
ears later we find botany extensively cultivated in England; and L'Obel, after whom
16 genus Lobelia was named, was styled herbalist and botanist to James I. In the
ext reign, as we have seen, Tradescant had his botanic garden at South Lambeth ; and
I the reign of Charles II., that at Chelsea was established.
Botanic Garden, or " Physic Garden," op the Apothecaries' Company, upon
le Thames Bank at Chelsea, is maintained by the Company for the use of the medical
radents of London. The ground was first laid out in 1673. Evelyn saw here, in
585, a tulip-tree and a tea-shrub, and the first hot-house known in England; "the
ibterranean heat conveyed by a stove under the conservatory, all vaulted with brick,"
that " the doores and windowes" are open in the hardest frosts, excluding only the
low. On Sir Hans Sloane purchasing the manor of Chelsea in 1721, he graiited the
eehold of the Garden to the Apothecaries' Company, on condition that the Professor
ho gave the lectures to the medical students should deliver annually to the lioyal
pciety fifty new plants, well cured and specifically described, and of the growth of
jie Garden, till the number should amount to 2000. This condition was complied
ith, and a list of the new plants published yearly in the Philosophical Transactions,
)T about fifty years, when, 2500 plants having been presented, the custom was dis-
^ntiimed. The garden is about three acres in extent: it contains a marble
atue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Rysbrack, set up in 3733; and it formerly had
Vo noble cedars, planted in 1683, when about three feet high : in 1766, they measured
lore than twelve feet in circumference at two feet from the ground, and their branches
^tended forty feet in diameter. One of these cedars is said to have been brought from
ebanon for Sir Hans Sloane ; one was blown down in the year 1854. The Apothecaries*
ompany give annually a gold and silver medal to the best informed students in
)tany who have attended this Garden; and they still observe an old custom of
Immer herharizing, or simpling excursions to the country, when the members axe
peompanied by apprentices or pupils.
I Botanic Society (Royal), incorporated in 1839, have gardens occupying a portion
" the Inner Circle, Regent's Park, formerly Jenkins's Nursery. They consist of about
Ighteen acres, but they have been laid out by Marnock with so much skill as to
bpear of very much greater extent : they contain a winter garden ; besides a conser-
i,tory, entirely of glass and iron, covering 15,000 square feet, which cost about 6000^.,
id will accommodate 2000 visitors. The Society hold exhibitions, and distribute prize
edals. The Rock, Winter, and Landscape Gardens, with their lake and artiticisil
ound, are very picturesque, and of the natural school. There are, also, a Library j
370 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and an useful Museum, illustrative of the varieties of structure in the parts of plants,
their products and uses. In several parts of the botanic ground are privet hedges, en eh
forming the segment of a circle, and curiously cut so as to make each look like a minia-
ture green wall. These hedges are for the purpose of sheltering some of the more
tender plants from the wind. Beyond the arrangement of plants according to the
Natural System, is a medical garden. Fartlier on is a collection of British plants,
arranged according to the classes and orders of Linnseus, as an example of the Linnaean
System.
HoRTiciTLTUEAL SOCIETY'S Gaedens, The, at Chiswick, are thirty-three acres in
extent, and were commenced in 1821 : they comprise Orchard and Kitchen, Hot-house
and Tender and Hardy departments, the latter containing the arboretum and flower-
garden; besides a conservatory, 184 feet long, 25 feet high, and about 30 feet wide.
The arboretum contains the richest collection of trees and shrubs in Europe; the
orchard is the most perfect ever formed ; and the forcing-houses and hot-houses are
complete. The Society distributes plants, seeds, and cuttings, to Members, foreign
correspondents, and the British colonies. In 1861, the Horticultural Society decided
upon forming another Garden at South Kensington, where the Commissioners of the
Great Exhibition of 1851 let to the Society the upper part of the great centre square
of their estate, about twenty -two acres ; the Commissioners expending about 50,000/.
in building arcades in the new Gardens; the Society expending an equal amount iu
terraces, fountains, conservatories, and in laying out the grounds. The arcades were
designed by Sydney Smirke and Captain Fowke, and the Gardens were laid out by
Nesfield.' The great Conservatory, at the northern extremity of the Garden, is of glass
and iron, and is 263 feet long, and 75 feet 6 inches in height : the span of the arched
roof is 45 feet ; the columns are 15 feet apart ; there is an arcade, with flights of stairs,
leading to the gallery and to the top of the upper arcades in the Garden. The arcade
in the conservatory is formed with terra- cotta columns, and ornamented brick arches.
The works are thus jocosely described: — " So the brave old trees which skirted th«
paddock of Gore House were felled, little ramps were raised, and little slopes sliced
off, with a fiddling nicety of touch which would have delighted the imperial grandeur
of the Summer Palace ; and the tiny declivities thus manufactured were tortured into'
curvilinear patterns, where sea-sand, chopped coal, and powdered bricks atoned for the
absence of flower or shrub." {^Quarterly Review.) Tlie area was inclosed with Mr.
Srairke's Renaissance arcades, in brick at the upper portion, and the terra-cotta imita-
tion of the Lateran cloister, produced by the Department round the southern half*
Among the more prominent ornamental objects in the Gardens are the cascade and its
stupendous basin, and Minton's superb Majolica Fountain. The Gardens are elaborately
described in The Book of the Royal Horticultural Society, 1862-1863. (See
Museums: South Kensington.)
Kew Royal Bota.nical Gaedens are generally considered the richest in England,
though comparatively of recent formation. The Prince of Wales, son of George II.;
and father of George III., lived at Kew House, which had extensive pleasure-grounds j
and, after his death, his widow, the Princess Dowager, assisted by the Earl of Bute,
established the Botanic Garden. Several years afterwards Sir Joseph Banks bestowed]
upon it the immense collection of plants and seeds he had obtained in his voyages ; auc
other travellers following his example, the Gardens soon became filled with the rarest
and choicest plants. The new Palm-house is 362 feet 6 inches long ; the ribs and
rolumns are of wrought iron, and the roofs are glazed with sheet glass, slightly tingodj
green ; the floor is of perforated cast-iron, under which are laid the pipes, &c., fori
warming by hot water ; and the smoke is conveyed from the furnaces by a flue, 4791
feet, to an ornamental shaft or tower, 60 feet in height. The cost of this magnificentj
Palm-house has been upwards of 30,000/. The Gardens, under the judicious curator- 1
ship of Sir W. J. Hooker, were greatly extended and improved. Among the rarities]
here is a weeping willow, raised from that which overshadowed Napoleon's remains at]
St. Helena;* the Egyptian papyrus; the bread-fruit-tree from the South Sea Islands-
* Willows from slips broughtfrom Napoleon's trees at St. Helena were, in the year 1836, flou-islungr
in the garden ol' Captain Stevens, Beaumont-square, Mile End ; in the grounds of the late Sir Thomas j
GAS-LIGHTING. 371
the cocoa-nut, coffee, and cow trees ; the banana and cycas (sago) ; the gigantic
Tussack grass, &c. The Gardens are the richest in the world in New Holland plants.
The Herbarium receives large collections from important Government expeditions;
applications for advice from persons proceeding to take charge of plantations of tea,
cinchona, cotton, coffee, &c. ; and the redoubled activity of the colonies in the publica-
tion of their Floras, which, though paid for by the Colonial Government, can only be
prepared at Kew, or by persons in direct and constant correspondence with its Her-
baria and Museums. The Flora of the British possessions in India is proceeded with
upon the same plan as the colonial Floras. Very satisfactory has been the success of
the introduction of cinchona plantations in India, in the establishment of which Kew
has had so large a share.
GAS-LIGSTING,
THE Very Rev. Dr. Clayton, Dean of Kildare, having experimentally ascertained that
a permanently elastic and inflammable aeriform fluid is evolved from pit-coal j
described the same in a letter to the Hon. Robert Boyle, who died in 1691 ; though the
discovery was not published in the Fhilosophical Transactions till the year 1739.
Hughes, in his Treatise on Gas-works, 1853, says : — " To the celebrated Dr. Watson,
Bishop of Llandaff, we are indebted for the first notice of the important fact, that coal
gas retains its inflammability after passing through water into which it was allowed to
ascend through curved tubes;" but there is evidence in the Miscellanea Curiosa,
1705-6-7, vol iii. p. 281, to show that Dr. Clayton also discovered that gas retains its
inflammability after passing through water. (See Notes and Queries, 2nd S., No. 38,
pp. 324-5.)
Although the Chinese have, for ages, employed natural Coal-Gas for lighting their
streets and houses, only within the present century has Gas superseded in London the
dim oil-lights and crystal-glass lamps of the preceding century. Dr. Johnson is said to
have had a prevision of this change ; when, one evening, from the window of his house
in Bolt-court, he observed the parish lam-plighter ascend a ladder to light one of the
glimmering oil-lamps : he had scarcely descended the ladder halfway when the flame
expired ; quickly returning, he lifted the cover partially, and thrusting the end of his
torch beneath it, the flame was instantly communicated to the wick by the thick
vapour which issued from it. "Ah !" exclaimed the Doctor, "one of these days the
streets of London will be lighted hy smoJce !'* {Notes and Queries, No. 127.)
Coal-gas had been used for lighting by William Murdoch, in Cornwall, Birmingham,
and Manchester as early as 1792, when F. A. Winsor, a German, after several experi-
ments, lighted the old Lyceum Theatre in 1803-1804; he also established a New
Light and Heat Company, with 50,000Z. for further experiments ; in 1807 he lighted
one side of Pall Mall, and on the King's birthday (June 4,) brilliantly illuminated the
wall between Pall Mall and St. James's Park ; and next exhibited Gas-light at the
Golden-lane Brewery, August 16, 1807.
In 1809 Winsor applied to Parliament for a charter, when the testimony of Accum,
the chemist, was bitterly ridiculed by the Committee. In 1810-12 was esta-
blished the Gas-Light and Coke Company, in Cannon-row, Westminster ; removed to
Peter- street, or Horseferry-road, then the site of a market-garden, poplars, and a tea-
garden. In 1814 Westminster Bridge was lighted with gas ; and the old oil-lamps
were removed from St. Margaret's parish, and gas lanterns substituted ; and on Christmas-
day, 1814, commenced the general lighting of London with gas. Yet the scheme had
been so ridiculed, that Sir Humphry Davy, F.R.S., asked " if it were intended to take
the dome of St. Paul's for a gasometer." Dr. Arnott has truly said, with respect to the
mistakes about gas-lighting, that " such scientific men as Davy, Wollaston, and Watt,
at first gave an opinion that coal-gas could never be safely applied to the purposes of
street lighting."
" Winsor's patent Gas" first illumined (Jan. 28, 1807,) the Carlton House side of
Farquhar at Eoehampton ; in the garden of the Roebuck Tavern, Richmond Hill ; at No. 1, Canonbury-
place, Islington; in Mr. Bentley's garden, Highbury Grange; at No. 10, King-street, St. James's; in the
Surrey Zoological Gardens; at Kew ; and at No. 11, Brompton-row.— J. H. Fennell, in Loudon's Arhore-
turn Britannicwm,
B B 2
872 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON.
Pall Mall; the second, Bishopsgate- street. The writer attended a lecture given by
the inventor ; the charge of admittance was three shillings, but, as the inventor was
about to apply to Parliament, members of both houses were admitted gratis. The
writer and a fellow -jester assumed the parts of senators at a short notice. " Members
of Parliament !" was their important ejaculation at the door of entrance. " What places,
gentlemen ?" " Old Sarum and Bridgewater." " Walk in, gentlemen." Luckily, the
)cal Simon Pures did not attend. This Pall Mall illumination was further noticed in
Horace in London : —
" And Winsor lights, with flame of gas,
Home to King's-place his mother."
In the Peace Eejoicings of 1814, the Chinese bridge and pagoda on the canal, in St.
James's Park, were lighted with gas. Mr. Jerdan, in his Autohiographi/, relates : —
" My friend, David Pollock, who was about the earliest promoter of the introduction of gas from
the invention of Mr. Winsor — the first successful experimentalist with it in his ^own dwelling — and
for 30 years Governor of the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, was so concerned in the applica-
tion, that he hastened to London from the Circuit to be present at the lighting of the bridge and pagoda
with this new flame. Mortifying to relate, it will be remembered that the pagoda caught fire : the gas
was put cut, happily without explosion, and every part thrown into smouldering darkness."
In 1814, a Committee of Members of the Royal Society was appointed to inquire
into the causes which led to an explosion of the Gas-works in Westminster, which had
only just been established. The Committee consisted of Sir Joseph Banks, Sir C.
Blagden, Col. Congreve, Mr. Lawson, Mr. Rennie, Dr. Wollaston, and Dr. Young
They met several times at the Gas-works, for the purpose of examining the apparatus,
and made a very elaborate Report. They were strongly of opinion that if gas-
lighting was to become prevalent, the Gas-works ought to be placed at a considerable
distance from all buildings, and that the reservoirs, or gasometers, should be small and
numerous ; and always separated from each other by mounds of earth, or strong party-
walls. (Weld's Hist. Royal Society, vol. ii. pp. 235-6,) ^
In 1822, St. James's Park was first lighted with gas ; and the last important locality
to adopt gas lighting was Grosvenor- square in 1842.
Theatres were first lighted in 1817-18 ; church clock-dials in 1827. The Hay-
market was the last of the London theatres into which gas was introduced, in conse-
quence of some absurd prejudice of the proprietor of that theatre, who bound the lessee
to adhere to the old-fashioned method of lighting with oil. The change took place
April 15, 1853.
Coal-gas is made from coal enclosed in red-hot cast-iron or clay cylinders, or retorts ;
when hydro-carbon gases are evolved, and coke left behind ; the gas being carried away
by wide tubes, is next cooled and washed with water, and then exposed to lime in close
jjurifiers. It is then stored in sheet-iron gas-holders, miscalled gasometers : some of
which hold 700,000 cubic feet of gas ; and the several London Companies have storage
for millions of cubic feet of gas. Thence it is driven by the weight of the gas-holders
through cast-iron mains or pipes under the streets, and from them by wrought-iron
service-pipes to the lamps and burners.
The London Gas Company's works, Vauxhall, are the most powerful and complete
in the world : from this point, their mains pass across Vauxhall-bridge to western
London; and by Westminster and Waterloo Bridges to Hampstead and Highgate,
seven miles distant, where they supply gas with the same precision and abundance as
at Vauxhall.
Gas made from oil and resin is too costly for- street-lighting, but has been used for
large public establishments. Covent-garden Theatre was formerly lighted with oil-
gas, made on the premises ; and the London Institution, with resin-gas, first made by
Mr. Daniell. The lime-ball, Bude, Boccius, and electric lights have been exhibited
experimentally for street-lighting, but are too expensive. Upon the Patent Air-light
(from the vapour of hydro-carbon, mixed with atmospheric air), proposed in 1838,
upwards of 30,000^. were expended unsuccessfully.
What has the new light of all the preachers done for the morality and order of London, compared
to what had been eflected by gas lighting ! Old Murdoch alone has suppressed more vice than the
Suppression Society ; and has been a greater police-officer into the bargain than old Colquhoun aud
Sir Richard Birnie united, — We»tminster Beview, 1829.
From a recent Parliamentary Ketum, it appears that in the year 1865, the total revenue paid by the
GATE-HOTISE-GEOLOGT OF LOKDOK 373
consumers and the public for gas in the metropolis, amounts to the large sum of 1,767,261Z. 19s. 9d. per
annum. This total increases every year with the growth of the metropolis and the increased consump-
tion of gas.
A public lamp has been kept up in a part of Billingsgate, where, upwards of 200 years ago, a citizen
Ml at night and broke his leg, and afterwards bequeathed a sum of U. a year for the maintenance
there of a public light at night for all time. The money has been paid for two centuries ; and, since the
introduction of gas, to a gas company, who have kept up the light.
An ordinary candle consumes as much air while burning as a man in health while
breathing ; the same may be said with regard to gas, oil-lamps, &c., bearing a propor-
tion to the amount of light evolved. One hour after the gas of London is lighted, the
air is deoxydized as much as if 500,000 people had been added to its population.
During the combustion of oil, tallow, gas, &c., water is produced. In cold weather we
see it condensed on the windows of ill-ventilated shops. By the burning of gas in
London during twenty-four hours, more water is produced than would supply a ship
laden with emigrants on a voyage from London to Adelaide.
GATE- SOUSE (THE), WESTMINSTEE, .
BUILT temp. Edward III. as the principal approach to the Monastery, stood at the
western entrance of Tothill-street, and consisted of two gates, the southern, leading
out of Great Dean's-yard, and a receptacle for felons. On the east side was the Bishop
of London's prison for clerks-convict ; the rooms over the other gate adjoining, but
tovi-ards the west, being a prison-house for state, ecclesiastical, and parliamentary
offenders, prisoners from the Court of Conscience, as well as for debtors and felons.
The latter were brought hither through Thieving-lane and Union-street, to prevent
escape by entering the liberties of Sanctuary.
Among the distinguished prisoners confined here were, Nicholas Vaux, for propagating
the Romish religion — he died here of cold and hunger, 1571 ; Lady Purbeck, for
adultery, 1622 — she escaped to France, disguised in a man's dress; John Selden,
1630 ; Sir Walter Raleigh, his last prison-house, whence he was led to the block in
Old Palace-yard ; Lovelace, the Cavaher poet, who wrote here his loyal song, " To
Althaea, from prison ;** Sir Charles Lyttleton, whom Clarendon said was " worth his
weight in gold;" in 1690, Pepys, the diarist, charged with being affected towards the
abdicated James II. ; Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the court-dwarf, suspected of joining the
Popish Plot, died here; in l701, five "men of Kent," for a "scandalous, insolent, and
seditious" petition to the House of Commons ; in 1716, Thomas Harley, for prevarica-
tion to the House of Commons; the nonjuring Jeremy Collier, 1692; and Richard
Savage, the poet, committed here for the murder of Mr. Sinclair in a tavern fray. The
debtors used to let down upon a pole an alms-box, to collect money from the passers in
the street. The Gate-house was taken down in 1777 ; except one arch, which remained
till 1836 in the wall of the house once inhabited by the Right Hon. Edmund Burke.
{See Walcott's Westminster, p. 273.)
G:E0L0GT OF L ONE ON.
WE give the views of certain of our leading geologists. The area on which the
metropolis is situated, as well as the surrounding district to a distance varying
from a radius of ten to twenty or thirty miles, consists of the marine tertiary eocene
(dawn of recent) strata, which have been deposited in, and still occupy a depression or
excavation of the chalk called the London basin. Around this formation the chalk
forms a distinct boundary, on the south, west, and north rising up into chains of hills
or downs, averaging 400 feet in height above the level of the Thames ; but on the east
the range is broken, and the tertiary basin lies open to the sea, affording a passage for
the Thames and its tributary streams. (Mantell.)
The chalk, so prominent in the country around Gravescnd, Croydon, and Epsom,
passes beneath London at a depth not exceeding 150 to 250 feet. It is covered, first,
by a series of beds of sand and mottled clays, 50 to 80 feet thick j and these are again
overlaid by the London clay, from 100 to 400 feet thick : in the south-east comer of
the county it is only 44 feet thick ; while at White's Club-house, St. James's- street, it
is 235 feet. This clay is usually very tough and tenacious, with the exception of a por-
tion of its upper beds, which is mixed with sand. Mr. R. W. Mylne, F.G.S., in his
374 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
** Geological and Topographical Maps," 1852, was the first to point out the exact extent
of these higher beds, upon the nature of the surface on which the pleasant character of
the country of Highgate and Hampstead is dependent.* But the most remarkable
variety in the geological features — a variety attended by a corresponding diversity of
scenery — occurs in the district between Woolwich, Greenwich, Blackheath, and Lewis-
ham. We there find the outcrops of no less than five different groups of strata, com-
mencing with the chalk and ending with the London clay. Throughout a great part
of London, this clay is ovei'laid by drift gravel, varying from 5 to 20 feet in thickness.
The chalk basin, formed by the strata bending or dipping in the middle, contains pure
water ; into this formation the Artesian Wells of London are often carried down ; but
it is a question as to the quantity. (See Artesian Wells, p. 23.)
The gravel is not confined to the low grounds, but caps the highest summits of the
districts — e.g., Highgate on the north, and Shooter's Hill on the south, of the Thames.
To explain this distribution of the gravel by the operation of the actual rivers, we must
first suppose that an uniform plain originally existed from the summit of Highgate to
the Hertfordshire chalk downs, and from the top of Shooter's Hill to those of Kent, on
the surface of which the rivers once flowed; secondly, that these rivers have subse-
quently washed away all that immense mass of material which would be requisite thus
to re-construct the surface ; and thirdly, that after having worn down that surface into
nearly its present form, the rivers perpetually shifted their channels, so as to distribute
the gravel equally over the whole plain of London, yet remained long enough in each
channel to lodge there deposits of this gravel 20 or 30 feet thick. {Conyheare.)
Mr. Prcstwich, F.R.S., F.G.S., has, in three lectures, entitled The Ground beneath
Us, most lucidly explained its geological phases and changes. Thus, immediately below
the vegetable soil, in many parts of the metropolis, we find a bed of ochreous-coloured
gravel, which is the great source of water-supply to all the historic pumps of the City
and of Westminster. The greater part of this gravel was brought firom the hills of
Surrey and Sussex, which have sent us alike the flints, the sandstone and the chert,
which compose the bulk of it. A few pebbles formed of quartz, slate and other sub-
stances, have evidently been brought from the north-west, by forces acting in a direc-
tion diametrically opposite to those which wore down the chalk of Southern England,
and deposited its flints in the London basin. How the gravel came is explained by
these hypotheses: — 1. A great body of water may have swept from the southward into
the valley of the Thames ; 2, a large river flowing through Sussex and Surrey may have
brought down fragments of the rocks over which it passed ; 3, marine currents may have
scattered the gravel over the surface of the country ; 4, ice may have brought its vast,
and, as yet, perhaps, imperfectly understood power to aid in the production of the
phenomena around us. To all these theories there are objections ; but we may pro-
visionally accept them all, and allow that the force to which each would assign a too
exclusive pre-eminence may have done its part in heaping up that mighty gravel-bed
which is so important to the health of the " world-city on the banks of the Thames."
Mr. Prestwich has examined both the position of the gravel in the geological series, and
the organic remains which are found in various parts of it ; in which investigation he
has drawn largely upon Professor Owen's British Fossil Mammals and Birds. On the
whole, he concludes that the gravel was spread over Clapliam-comraon before the land
in the neighbourhood of London had quite assumed its present configuration.
The London clay immediately underlies the gravel of the metropolis, at a depth
generally of from three to twelve feet; although, of course, it is really separated from
it by a vast interval of geological time, by part of the Eocene and by all the Miocene
and Pliocene periods. The London clay is very homogeneous in its mass, and where
fiilly developed it measures from 400 to 500 feet in thickness. In the middle of the
Thames Valley a great portion of it has been swept away, and at Clapham it is only
about 200 feet thick. After determining the position of the London clay in the geo-
* Mr. Mylne has issued a "Map of the Geology and Contours of London and its Environs," 1857,
which, to a scale of 3f inches to one mile, exhibits an area of 176 square miles— extending from Kew-
bridge on the west to Plumstead Marshes on the east, distant sixteen miles; and from Hornsey on the
north, to the Crystal Palace on the south, distant eleven miles— showing the variations of level by
contour lines, and the geological features of the surface of the ground in and around Loudon, and giving
much other useful information.
ST. GE0EGW8 FIELDS. 375
logical scale, Mr. Prestwich examines the organic remains of the formation, from the
microscopic foraminifera up to pachyderms allied to the tapir of South America. The
plants of Sheppey are also noticed. The characteristic pyritized fruits and twigs of
the London clay may be found by tens of thousands upon the open beach at Sheerness.
Lower London Tertiaries are a much less homogeneous deposit than the mass of clay
which lies above it. It is divided into three sub-groups, the highest of which is known
as the " basement bed" of the London clay. This is a marine deposit, agreeing in
mineralogical character with the strata which lie beneath it, but closely connected with
the superincumbent mass by the character of its fossils. Next comes the " Woolwich
and Reading Series," a group of fresh water and estuary origin. Still lower we have
the " Thanet Sands," a small marine deposit.
The " Thanet Sands" are economically of great importance, as forming " underneath
London and the adjacent districts a large water-bearing stratum — that which supplies
all the early and many of the later Artesian wells." A large layer of chalk flints of a
deep olive or bottle-green colour lies at the base of the " Thanet Sands," and separates
them from the upper surface of the chalk. Mr. Prestwich sets before us that wonderful
period, comparatively so near to us, when, during the period of the " London clay,"
tinder a sun such as now shines on Ternate and Tidore, taU palms and gigantic lianes,
and stiff-leaved evergreens were haunted by great troops of monkeys and by huge
pachyderms. There are also some very interesting remarks which bear likewise upon
the phenomena of the coal period, as to the impossibility of accounting for the hot
climate of the Lower Eocene by a mere change in the relative position of land and
water. — Paper in Saturday Eevieio, 1858.
Amongst the contents of the London basin are balls of imperfect ironstone {septaria), of which
Parker's cement is made ; branches and stems of trees, penetrated by the teredo navalin, are found here,
as is also a species of resin. A fossil tree and nautili were found in digging the Primrose-hill railway-
tunnel. Remains of turtles and crocodiles, and elephants' teeth and tusks, have been dug out of the
clay at Highgate and Islington.
Fossils are occasionally found on the rising slopes near Holloway, formed by the earth thrown up in
1812, when the Highgate tunnel was made. Fine specimens of echinus mannus (sea urchin) have been
picked up in a field contiguous to the archway, together with a fish resembling a sole; another fish,'
resembling a mackerel, in the brick-fields ; and a narrow stratum of dusty earth abounds with mussels,
pectines, and other fossil bivalves ; with large quantities of iron combined with sulphur, in the form
of pyrites. In a meadow behind Caen Wood is a spring highly impregnated with iron.
In 1813, Mr. Trimmer's brick-fields, at Brentford, yielded such a collection of sea-shells, sharks'
teeth, bones of the elephant, hippopotamus, ox, and deer, together with fresh-water shells, as to remind
one of the relics of a vast menagerie of animals from all quarters of the globe; and in 1840, in excavat-
ing 40 feet deep near Kew Bridge, were found several nautili, and smaller marine shells. For the
disappearance of the British mammoths, whose remains are found here, Sir R. I. Murchison accounts
by viewing England as the comparatively small island she was, when the ancient estuary of the Thames,
including the plains of Hyde Park, Chelsea, Hounslow, and Uxbridge, were under water, and the
country thus afforded but insufficient feeding-grounds for these stupendous quadrupeds. In the days of
the Mammoths, we had in England a hippopotamus larger than the species which now inhabits the Nile.
Of our British hippopotamus some remams were dug up by the workmen in preparing the foundations
of the New Junior United Service Club-house, in Regent-street,
Bocene is Sir Charles Lyell's term for the lowest group of the Tertiary system in which the dawn of
recent life appears ; and any one who wishes to realize what was the aspect presented by this country
during the Eocene period, need only go to Sheerness. If, leaving that place behind him, he walks down
the Thames, keeping close to the edge of the water, he will find whole bushels of pyritized pieces of
twigs and fruits. These fruits and twigs belong to plants nearly allied to the screw-pine and custard-
apple, and to various species of palms and spice-trees which now flourish in the Eastern Archipelago.
At the time they were washed down from some neighbouring land, not only crocodilian reptiles, but
sharks and innumerable turtles, inhabited a sea or estuary which now forms part of the London dis-
trict; and huge boa-constrictors glided amongst the trees which fringed the adjoining shores.
ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS,
BETWEEN Lambeth and the borough of Southwark, were anciently an important
district, occupied by the Romans, attested by the large quantities of coins, bricks^
an urn full of bones, tessellated pavements, &c., found here ; the urn is preserved in the
Museum of the Royal Society. St. George's Fields were also crossed by the great
Roman road, Watling-street, presumed to have passed from Kent through Old Croydon,
or Woodcote (supposed to be the ancient Noviomagus), Streatham, and Newington, to
Stone-street in Southwark j and thence by a ferry over the Thames to Dowgate and
the Watling-street of our day. A branch of the Ermine-street, from Chichester in
Sussex, is also conjectured to have assumed the name of Stone-street on entering Surrey ;
376 CURIOSITIES OF LONBOK
and to have passed by Dorking, Woodcote, Streatham, Kennington, and Newington,
across St. George's Fields, into Southwark. This Roman occupation is, however, disputed.
Maitland, who carefully examined this district, says, " It can hardly be supposed that the sagacious
Romans would have made choice of so noisome a place for a station as fet. George's-in-the-Fields must
have been ; for to me it is evident, that those fields must have been overflowed by every spring tide.
Notwithstanding the river being at present confined by artificial banks, I have frequently at spring-
tides seen the small current of water which issues from the river Thames through a common sewer at
the Falcon not only fill all the neighbouring ditches, but also at the upper end of Gravel-lane, overflow
its banks into St. George's Fields ; and considering that a twelfth part of the water of the river is
denied passage by the piers and sterlings of (old) London-bridge (it flowing at an ordinary spring-tide
upwards of 19 inches higher on the east than on the west side of the said bridge), I think that this is
a plain indication that before the Thames was confined by banks, St. George's-in-the-fields must have
been considerably under water every high tide, and that that part of the said fields, called Lambeth-
marsh was under water not an age ago."
St. George's Fields anciently included the whole space peninsulated by the bend of the river Thames,
commencing at Greenwich, and terminating at Nine Elms. This was, probably, originally a large
marshy bay, across which were several lines of transit at low water, leading from the rising grounds at
Norwood, Camberwell, and Dulwich, to fords at various places across the Thames. Ptolemy (second
century) mentions that the Romans had then settled south of the river, though the north bank was
their original station : subsequently, the tract called St. George's Fields having been partially drained,
and causeways (as at Newington) through the marshes constructed, forts and other buildings were
erected, and a southern suburb of London gradually arose, — Brayley's Surrey, vol. v. p. 337.
Nearly to the present century, the Fields lay waste, and were the scene of brutalizing
sports, political meetings, and low places of entertainment. In their water-ditches
Gerarde found plenty of water-violets : and scores of gardens existed here to our time.
Here a riot was raised by the mobs who met to visit Wilkes in the King's Bench
Prison, in 1768 ; and here Lord George Gordon's rioters met, June 2, 1780 ; and on
the 7th, the 700 prisoners in the King's Bench were liberated, and the building set
on fire by the populace. Here were the Dog and Duck Wells, in 1695, which grew to
be a iSabbath-breaking tavern ; the premises were last tenanted as the School for the
Indigent Blind; the site is now included in Bethlem Hospital, and the sculptured
sign-stone preserved in the boundary-wall denotes the site of the tavern-entrance.
{See Bethlem Hospital, p. 51; Blind School, p. 58; and St. Geoege's Roman
Catholic Chuech, p. 238.)
ST. GILES'S,
ORIGINALLY a village in the north-west suburbs of London, was named from an
Hospital for lepers, dedicated to the Saint, built on the site of a small church or
oratory, and nearly upon the site of the present church, about 1117, by Matilda, queen
of Henry I. The gardens and precincts extended between High-street and Hog-lane
(now Crown-street), and the Pound,* west of Meux's brewery. In 1213, the village
was laid out in garden-plots, with cottages; it had its ancient stone cross; and about
1225 there was a blacksmith's shop at the north-west end of Drury-lane, which re-
mained long after the suppression of the Hospital,t or about 1600, when the " verie
pleasant village" was built over ; "on the High-street, Holborn," says Stow, "have
ye many faire houses builded, and lodgings for gentlemen, inns for travellers, and such
like, up almost, for it lacketh little, to St. Giles's-in-the-Fields."
Aggas's plan shows fields and gardens from St. Giles's Hospital wall to Chancery,
lane, eastward, with a few houses at the north end of Drury-lane, and opposite the pre-
sent Red Lion-street, Holborn. Thence to the north side of the Strand are two or
three houses in Covent-garden ; Drury House, at the bottom of Drury-lane ; and cattle
grazing on the site of Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields. Early in the reign of
Queen Anne, the whole parish of St. Giles's, except the neighbourhood of Bedford-
square and the present Bloomsbury, was covered with houses.
The village of St. Giles's was noted for its early inns and houses of entertainment. Here was
Croche House {Le Croche Hose, or the Crossed Stockings, sign), which belonged to the Hospital cook,
anno 1300, and was opposite the north end of Monmouth-street. The Swan on the Hoop, in Holborn,
* The exact site of St. Giles's Pound (whence miles on the Oxford road were measured), is an area
of 30 feet of the broad space where St. Giles's, High-street, Tottenham-court-road, and Oxford-street,
meet ; around it was a nestlmg-place of crime :
" At Newgate-steps Jack Chance was found.
And bred up near St. Giles's Pound."
+ The celebrated Dr. Andrew Boorde rented for many years the Master's House, temp. Henry VIII,
ST. GILES'S. 377
east of Drury-lane, is mentioned 34 Edward III.; and the White Hart, corner of Holborn and Drury-
lane, is shown in Aggas's plan, 1560, and was an inn till 1720. Not far eastward was the Rose, named
in a deed, Edward III. ; with the Vine, a little east of Kingsgate-street, supposed to have been on the
site of the Vineyard in Holborn, named in Domesday Book. The Vine was taken down in 1817, and
the house built on its site was occupied by Probert, the accomplice of the murderer John Thurtell,
The Maidenhead inn, in Dyott-street, flourished early in the reign of Queen Hlizabeth. The Turnstile
Tavern, south-west corner of Great Turnstile, was bequeathed to the parish in 1640 ; and the Cock and
Pye was in the fields of that name.
About the year 1413, the gallows was removed from the Elms in Smithfield to the
north end of tlie garden- wall of St. Giles's Hospital ; and it is figured in an ancient
plan of the district.
1416. " Thys yere the xiiij day of December Sir John Oldecastell Knyghte was drawne from the
tower of London un to eent Gylles in the fekle and there was hongyd (on a gallows new made) and
brent. — Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London.
The gallows was again removed westward to Tyburn, when St. Giles's became a sort
of half-way house for condemned criminals, who stopped at the Hospital, and afterwards
at an hostel built near its site, and were there presented with a large bowl of ale. This
gave a moral taint to St. Giles's, and made it a retreat for noisome and squalid outcasts.
The Puritans made stout efforts to reform its morals ; and, as the parish books attest,
"oppressed tipplers" were fined for drinking on the Lord's-day, and vintners for per-
mitting them ; fines were levied for swearing oaths, travelling and brewing on a fast-
day, &c. Again, St. Giles's was a refuge for the persecuted tipplers and ragamuffins of
London and Westminster in those days ; and its blackguardism was increased by harsh
treatment. It next became the abode of knots of disaffected foreigners, chiefly French-
men, of whom a club was held in Seven Dials. Smollett speaks, in 1740, of " two
tatterdemalions from the purlieus of St. Giles's, and between them both there was but
one shirt and a pair of breeches." Hogarth painted his moralities from St. GUes's :
his " Gin-lane" has for its background St. George's Church, Bloomsbury, date 1751 :
" when," says Hogarth, " these two prints (' Gin-lane' and * Beer-street') were
designed and engraved, the dreadful consequences of gin-drinking appeared in every
house in Gin-lane ; every circumstance of its horrid effects is brought to view in ter-
rorem — not a house in tolerable condition but the pawnbroker's and the gin-shop* — the
coffin-maker's in the distance." Again, the scene of Hogarth's " Harlot's Progress"
is in Drury-lane ; Tom Nero, in his " Four Stages of Cruelty," is a St. Giles's charity-
boy ; and in a night-cellar here the " Idle Apprentice" is taken up for murder. Here
were often scenes of bloody fray, riot, and chance-medley ; for in this wretched district
were grouped herds of men but little removed from savagery. The Round-house
(Watch-house) of St. Giles's was probably one of the last that remained : it stood in
an angle of Kendrick-yard, and its back windows looked upon the burial-ground of St.
Giles's Church ; it was built in a cylindrical form, like a modern martello tower, though,
from bulging, it resembled an enormous cask set on its end : it was two stories high,
and had a flat roof, surmounted by a gilded vane, in the shape of a key. {See W. H.
Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard.)
Seven Dials was built temp. Charles II. for wealthy tenants. Evelyn notes, 1694 :
*' I went to see the building near St. Giles's, where Seven Dials make a star from a
Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area, said to be by Mr. Neale (the intro-
ducer of the late lotteries), in imitation of Venice, now set up here for himself twice,
and once for the state."
" Where famed St. Giles's ancient limits spread,
An in-rail'd column rears its lofty head ;
Here to seven streets seven dials count their day,
And from each other catch the circling ray :
Here oft the peasant, with inquiring face,
Bewilder'd trudges on from place to place ;
He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze,
Enters the narrow alley's doubtful maze.
Tries every winding court and street in vain.
And doubles o'er his weary steps again."— Gay's Trivia, book ii.
The seven streets were Great and Little Earl, Great and Little White Lion, Great
* A Middlesex magistrate said, in 1817 : " In the early part of my life (I remember almost the time
which Hogarth has pictured) every house in St. Giles's, whatever else they sold, sold gin ; every chand-
ler's shop sold gin : the situation of the people was dreadful."
378 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and Little St. Andrew's, and Queen ; though the dial-stone had but six faces, two of the
streets opening into one angle. The column and dials were removed in June, 1773, to
search for a treasure said to be concealed beneath the base : they were never replaced,
but in 1822 were purchased of a stone-mason, and the column was surmounted with a
ducal coronet, and set up on Weybridge Green as a memorial to the Duchess of
York, who died at Oatlands in 1820. The dial is now a stepping-stone at the adjoin-
ing Ship Inn.
"Everybody whose affairs lead him to be constantly running about London knows the dirty
labyrinth of Seven Dials ; indeed, we might rather say everybody does not know it, for it takes a long
apprenticeship in pavement-polishing to become acquainted with its bearings and intricacies. The
respective gin-shops at its corners arc the only guides. In other wildernesses of natural objects, instead
of bricks and mortar, the sun and stars would serve to indicate points of the compass, but in Seven
Dials the sun and the stars are seldom visible. A heavy tarpaulin of fog, and smoke, and reeking odours,
covers the entire district, shutting out the heavens by a murky medium, under which increases and
multiplies the most unlovely race of the mammoth metropolis. They never get a lung-full of good
air. The only innocuous atmosphere they breathe is that which sometimes surges down over the roofs
of the many-peopled houses from the adjacent brewery, and even that is artificial." — Albert Smith.
Long Acre, the Seven Dials, and Soho, were Cock and Pie Fields, the resort of the idle
and dissolute, until, temp. William III., Mr.Neale built upon the ground. Great Wild-
street is named from the mansion here of the Welds, the Dorset Roman Catholic family;
Bainbridge and Buckeridge streets, from their owners, men of wealth, temp. Chai'les II. ;
and Dyott-street (now George-street), from Sir Thomas Dyott, who died in the same
reign, devising the property, since Dyott and other streets, upon the condition that it
should be appropriated to the same style of building, and the same description of in-
habitants that so long kept possession of it. Out of these very streets was formed the
Eookery, removed for New Oxford-sti-eet. Here the Irish first colonized London, in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth ; hence St. Giles's has been called Little Dublin ; and iu
1637 cellars are first mentioned in the parish-books as places of residence.
On Sept. 27, 1841, died, aged 70, in the house in which he was born, Mr. Eobert Smith, 12, Great St.
Andrew-street, Seven Dials, a smith, possessed of £400,000 in funded, freehold, and leasehold property :
he built between 150 and 200 houses in the Hampstead-road.
Monmouth (now Dudley) street, said to be named after the unfortunate Duke (who
had a mansion on the site of Bateman's-buildings, Sobo-square), was long noted for its sign-
board painters j its dealers in amateur theatrical properties, singing-birds, old clothes,
and Second-hand boots and shoes ; but the " laced and embroidered coats in Mon-
mouth-street," mentioned by Lady Mary Wortley IMontague, have become exchanged
for the sombre suits of our fashion. Here also were public-houses noted for fancy-dog
shows. Whole families and schools lived in the cellars. In 1797, many horse-shoes
nailed to the thresholds to hinder the power of witches, were seen in Monmouth-street ;
in 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes ; in 1841 there were six ; in
1852, eleven. Jews preponderate in this street, Irish abounding most in the lanes
and courts.
The modem St. Giles's is bounded north by the brewery in Bainbridge-street;
south by the brewery in Castle- street ; and extends from Crown-street on the west
to Drury-lane on the east. The literature of St. Giles's has long fixed its abode
in the Seven Dials ; and in Great White Lion-street, Mrs. Pilkington exhibited in her
lodging window, "Letters written here." Printing-presses, booksellers, stationers,
and circulating-libraries abounded here ; Pitts and Catnach being the great ballad-
printers. {See Ballad-singing, p. 10.) One of their authors confessed to Mr.
Henry Mayhew —
" The little knowledge I have, I have picked up bit by bit, so that I hardly know how I have come
by it. I certainly knew my letters before I left home, and I have got the rest off the dead walls and out
of the ballads and papers 1 have been selling. I write most of the Newgate ballads now for the printers
in the Dials, and, indeed, anything that turns up. I get a shilling for a ' Copy of verses written by the
■wretched culprit the night previous to his execution.' I wrote Courvoisier's sorrowful lamentation : I
called it ' A Woice from the Gaol.' 1 wrote a pathetic ballad on the respite of Annette Meyers. I did
the helegy,too, on Rush's execution : it was supposed, like the rest, to be written by the culprit himselt,
and was particularly penitent. I didn't write that to order— I knew they would want a copy of verses
from the culprit. The publisher read it over, and said, ' That's the thing for the street public' 1 only
got a shilling for Eush. Indeed, they are all the same price, no matter how popular they may be. I
wrote the life of Manning in verse. i3csides these, 1 have written the lau.eat of Calcraft the Hangman
on the decline of his trade, and many political songs." — Morning Chronicle.
" The Rookery" was a triangular space bounded by Bainbridge, George, and High
ST. GILES'S. 379
streets : it was one dense mass of houses, through which curved narrow tortuous lanes,
from which again diverged close courts — one great mass, as if the houses had originally
been one block of stone, eaten by slugs into numberless small chambers and connecting
passages. The lanes were thronged with loiterers ; and stagnant gutters, and piles of
garbage and filth infested the air. In the windows, wisps of straw, old hats, and lumps
of bed -tick or brown paper, alternated with shivered panes of broken glass; the walls
were the colour of bleached soot, and doors fell from their hinges and worm-eaten
posts. Many of the windows announced, " Lodgings at Sd. a night," where the wild
wanderers from town to town held their nightly revels. With such scenes the public
were familiarized by Pierce Egan's Life in London (1820), upon our minor metropolitan
stages, where they excited as much curiosity as a romance of savage life. The Rookery
has, however, almost entirely disappeared ; and in its place stands a block of " Model
Houses for Families," with perfect ventilation and drainage, and rents lower than the
average paid for the airless, dark, and fetid rooms of the old Rookery. Elsewhere,
lanes and alleys of squalid tenements have disappeared, and their site is now occupied by
the embellished lines of New Oxford-street. (See Rookeries ofLondon, 1850.)
" The degraded condition of the Seven Dials (says a Report of 1848) is notorious— vagrants, tliieves,
sharpers, scavengers, basket-women, charwomen, army-seamstresses, and prostitutes, compose its mass :
infidels. Chartists, Socialists, and blasphemers exist there as in head-quarters. In addition to the street
traffic on the Sabbath, there are 150 shops then open in the streets. Lodging-houses of the lowest and
dirtiest descrip'tion afford temporary shelter to the vagrant and the criminal. In the very heart of this
debasedand debasing locality is situated a Ragged School ; its entrance-door in the extreme angle of
an irregular, three-cornered yard— so uninviting that few respectable persons have courage to venture
through it." The flagrant evil cannot be more formidably met ; and the moral regeneration of the
district is thus rapidly pi'ogressing.
We rarely pass St. Giles's Church without reflecting upon the great changes which
have come over this locality within the last twenty years, by the sweeping away of the
greater part of that festering spot of criminal London, known as St. Giles's. And
when we look at the narrow gorge opposite the church, and remember that through it
formerly poured the rabble rout with the Tyburn cart, which halted hereabout, for the
condemned criminals to drink a bowl of ale, we say, with such a stream of pollution
how could St. Giles's be otherwise than a nestling-place of crime and wretchedness ?
It could once show its pound, its cage, its round-house and watch-house, its stocks, and
its whipping-post, and at one time its gallows. We have parted with all these terrors ;
and built here churches and chapels, schools, and reformatory institutions of every class.
Dr. Buchanan, medical officer of Health for the St. Giles' district, tracing its history from the dedica-
tion of a leper hospital to St. Giles in the twelfth century, shows that the district has always presented
points of interest to the students of hygienic science. From the time of the earliest census an excess in
the mortality of St. Giles's has been steadily conspicuous. The reason of this excess is mainly to be
attributed to the extreme density of the population, which has from one cause and another been greater
here than elsewhere since the days of Elizabeth. It was in St. Giles's that the Great Plague of 1665
first broke out, and two-thirds of the poorer inhabitants were destroyed in the year. The district
declined from comparative opulence in the seventeenth century to the point of its lowest debasement,
delineated by Hogarth and Fielding ; thence again increasing in prosperity with the growth of Blooms-
bury. In spite, however, of this new association, the entire district has maintained its evil pre-eminence
on the death-registers down to the year 1857. In the most crowded localities the rate of mortality was
uniformly the highest. Measures have been adopted in St. Giles's to remedy this fatal condition of
- *' overcrowdino'." Among the results which have already followed the use of sanitary measures are :
from mere drainage improvements, the deaths from fevers and other zymotic diseases, in Dudley-street,
had fallen in 1858 to exactly one-half the number in 1857. In the whole district there were, in one year,
fewer deaths than the average by 120, although the year was much less healthful than its predecessor
to the metropolis at large. The evils of overcrowding have been much abated by these clearances.
In the southern district of St. Giles's there were on the night before the Census of 1861 was taken, 21
houses, not one of which had less than ten families sleeping in it, without counting single men and women
at all. In a lodging-house in the same district of that parish 81 persons passed the night.
In 1831, there were, opposite each other, in George-street, St. Giles's, two barbers' shops, whose weekly
customers averaged 3000; and in one of the shops was a man who frequently on a Sunday mowed 500
chins, the majority being Irish labourers with beards of a week's growth.
The old map of St. Giles's and St. George's made in 1815, by Mr. Mawley, owing
to the great alterations in every direction since that time, having been rendered entirely
useless, has been re -drawn by Mr. George J. J. Mair, and handed over to the Vestry,
A plan of each property is shown, and at a glance is distinguished from the adjoining
properties by an arrangement of cross hatching ; a book of reference gives a further
description. The parishes contain 245 acres (38 of which are open ground in squares),
and 4701 dwelling-houses.
380 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
GILT SPUR- STREET
WAS in Stow's time also called Knight-riders'-street, " of the knights and others
riding that way into Smithfield." The portion beyond the Compter prison was
originally Pie-corner, " noted chiefly for cooks' shops and pigs drest there during Bar-
tholomew Fair." {Strype.) Here the Great Fire of London ended j to commemorate
which, was erected against a public-house (The Fortune of War) in Pie-corner, a
carved wooden figure of a boy upon a bracket, his arms folded upon his breast, and the
following inscription written from under the chin downward : " This boy is in memory
put up for the late Fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." This is
no longer legible. The whole is engraved by J. T. Smith, and in Lester's Illustra-
tions, 1818. The houses that escaped the Fire on this spot were taken down in 1809.
On the west side of Giltspur-street is Cock-lane, the scene of " the Cock-lane ghost"
imposture in 1762 : " the house is still standing, and the back room, where * scratching
Fanny' lay surrounded by princes and peers, is converted into a gas-meter manufactory."
{Notes and Queries, No. 16.) An account of the detection of the imposture was
printed by Dr. Johnson ; a pamphlet describing the whole affair was written by Gold-
smith, and is reprinted in Cunningham's edition of Goldsmith's Works. Churchill, in
his poem. The Ghost, satirized the hoax, and caricatured Johnson as a believer in it ;
which Boswell has disproved.
GOG ANL MAGOG.
" rpHE two Giants in Guildhall" are supposed to have been originally made for
J- carrying about in pageants, a custom not peculiar to London ; for " the going of
the giants at Midsummer" occurs among the ancient customs of Chester, before 1599.
Puttenham (1 589) speaks of " Midsummer pageants in London, where, to make the
people wonder, are set forth great and uglie gyants, marching as if they were alive,"
&c. Again, "one of the gyants' stilts" that stalks before my Lord Mayor's Pageants
occurs in the old play of the Dutch Courtezan. {Marston's Works, 1633.) Bishop
Hall, in his Satires, compares an angry poet to
" The crab-tree porter of the Guildhall,
While he his frightful Beetle elevates."
In 1415, when Henry V. entered London by Southwark, a male and female giant
stood at the entrance of London Bridge; in 1432, here a "mighty giant" awaited
Henry VI.; in 1554, at the entry of Phihp and Mary, "Corinseus and Gog-magog"
stood upon London Bridge ; and when Elizabeth passed through the City the day
before her coronation (Jan. 12, 1558), these two giants were placed at Temple Bar.
{F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A.) Jordan, in describing the Lord Mayor's Pageant for 1672,
notices as exceeding rarities " two extreme great giants, at least 15 feet high, that do
sit and are drawn by horses in two several chariots, talking and taking tobacco as they
ride along, to the great admiration and delight of all spectators."
Ned Ward describes the Guildhall giants in his London Spy, 1699 ; and among the
fireworks upon the Thames, at the coronation of James II. and his queen, April 24,
1685, " were placed the statues of the two giants of Guildhall." Bragg, in his Ob- '
server, Dec. 25, 1706, tells us that when the colours taken at Ramilies were put up in
Guildhall, " the very giants stared with all the eyes they had, and smiled as well as
they could." {Malcolm.)
" Before the present giants inhabited Guildhall, there were two giants made only of wicker-work and
pasteboard, put together with great art and ingenuity ; and those two temble giants had the honour
to grace my Lord Mayor's Show, being carried in great triumph in the time of the pageants; and wlien
that eminent annual service was over, remounted their old stations in Guildhall— till by reason of theij:
very great age, old Time, with the help of a number of City rats and mice, had eaten up all their entrails.
The dissolution of the two old weak and feeble giants gave birth to the two present substantial and
majestic giants ; who, by order, and at the City charge, were formed and fashioned," by Captain Richard
Saunders, an eminent carver in King-street, Cheapside ; and then " were advanced to those lofty sta-
tions in Guildhall, which they have peaceably enjoyed ever since the year 1708." We quote this from
a very rare "Gigantick History of the Two famous'Giants in Guildhall, London," third edit. 1741, pub-
lished within Guildhall, when shops were permitted there. This work also relates that "thefiist
honour which the two ancient wicker-work giants were promoted to in the City, was at the Restoration
of King Charles II., when, with great pomp and majesty, they graced a triumphal arch at the end of
GOODMAN'S FIELD8-GBEY FBIAES. 381
King-street, in Cheapside." This was before the Great Fire, which the City Giants escaped, till their
infirmities and the " City rats " rendered it necessary to supersede them ; and the City accounts in the
Chamberlain's Office contain a payment of 701. to Saunders, the carver, in 1707.
The " Gigantick History" supposes the Guildhall giants to represent Coriiiaeus and
Gog-magog, in Geoffry of Monmouth's Chronicle, in Milton's JSarli/ History of Britain,
and thus in a broadsheet of I669 :
"And such stout Corinmus was, from whom
Cornwall's first honour, and her name doth como.
For though he showeth not so great nor tall.
In his dimensions set forth at Guildhall,
Know 'tis a poet, only a poet can define
A gyaiit's posture in a gyant's line.
And thus attended by his direful dog,
The gyant was (God bless us) Gogmagog."
British Bihliogr. ir. p. 227.
"Each of these giants," says Archdeacon Nares {Glossary), "measures upwards of
14 foet in height ; the young one is believed to be Corinseus and the old one Gog-
magog," whence " Gog and Magog."
The present costumes of the giants are in rococo taste, as follow :
GoG.— Body-armour a la Romaine, with a red scarf across the shoulder : plumed helmet, with the
City Dragon for a crest; a sword by his side, and in his hands a halbert, and a shield ensigned with a
spread eagle.
Magog.— Body-armour and scarf as Gog ; sword at side, bow and arrows over his shoulder, and in
his hand a " morning-star ;" his hair long and flowing, and encircled with a " couronne d'honneur."
In 1815, the Giants were removed from the north side of the Hall, when Mr. Hone
examined them, and found them to be " made of wood, and hollow within ; and from
the method of joining and gluing the interior, are evidently of late construction ; but
they are too substantially built for the purpose of being either carried or drawn, or
any way exhibited in a pageant." (Hone, on Ancient Mysteries.) In 1837, the
dresses of the giants were renewed, their armour polished, &c. This year also, copies
of the giants, 14 feet high, were introduced in the Lord Mayor's show : each walked
by means of a man within side, who turned the giant's face, which was level with the
first-floor windows.
00 OB MAN'S FIELDS
ARE described by Stow to have been, in his time, a farm belonging to the Abbey of
the Nuns of St. Clare, called the Minories ; " at the which farm (says Stow) I myself,
in my youth, have fetched many a halfpennyworth of milk, and never had less than three
ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor less than one ale quart for a halfpenny in the
winter, always hot from the kine, as the same was milked and strained." One Trolop,
and afterwards Goodman were the farmers ; and next Goodman's son, who let out the
ground first for grazing of horses, and then for garden-plots. Strype (1720) describes
the Fields covered with Pescod or Prescot, Ayliffe, Leman, and Maunsell streets, the
initials of which names make the word palm ; these streets are mostly inhabited by-
thriving Jews. Strype also mentions tenters for cloth-workers, and a roadway out of
Whitechapel into Well-close. In digging the foundations for houses about 1678, were
found a vast number of Roman funereal urns, some with ashes of bones in them,
denoting Goodman's Fields to have been originally a Roman burying-place.
Goodman's-stile, Goodman's-gardens, and Rosemary-lane, denote this rural district.
On the site of Letnan-street was the New Wells Spa, now denoted by Well-yard.
{See TuEATEES : Goodman's Fields.)
GEFY FRIABS.
IN 1224, four of the Friars Minors, or Grey Friars, arrived in London from Italy,
and were first entertained in the house of the Friars Preachers, or Dominicans.
Afterwards, they hired a house in Cornhill, of John Travers, then sheriff, where they
made some small cells, and continued until the following summer; when the devotion
of the citizens enabled the Friars to purchase the site of their future residence near
Newgate. Their first and principal benefactor was John Iwyn, citizen and mercer.
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
who gave them some land and houses in the parish of St. Nicholas-in-the-Shamhles, hy
deed 9th Henry III. Upon this they erected their original building. The first chapel,
which became the choir of the church, was built at the cost of Sir William Joyner,
mayor of London in 1239 ; the nave was added by Sir Henry Waleys, mayor during
several years of the reign of Edward I. ; the chapter-house by Walter the potter,
citizen and alderman (sheriff in 1270 and 1273), who also presented all the brazen pots
for the kitchen, infirmary, &c. : the dormitory was erected by Sir Gregory de Rokes-
ley, mayor from 1275 to 1282 ; the refectory by Bartholomew de Castro, another
citizen; the infirmary by Peter de Helyland; and the studies by Bonde, king of the
heralds. The convent was principally supplied with water by William, called from hia
trade the Taylor, and who served King Henry III. in that capacity.*
A more magnificent church was commenced in 1301, and completed 1327 : first, the
choir was rebuilt, chiefly at the cost of Margaret of France, the second wife of King
Edward I., who assigned it for her place of interment ; and the nave was added from
the benefactions of John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, and his niece Mary, Countess
of Pembroke : it was 300 feet long, 89 feet wide, and 64 feet high ; all the columns
and the pavement were of marble. In 1421, was added the library, " furnished with
desks, settles, and wainscoting or ceiling," by Sir Richard Whittington, the celebrated
mayor in the reign of Henry V.
On St. George's Day, 1502, the Grey Friars relinquished the " London russet," which
they had for some time worn, and resumed the midyed wJiite-grey, which had been
their original habit. On the feast of Saint Francis, July 16, 1508, the mayor and
aldermen were received with grand procession as founders, which custom continued
long after j but not until 1522 did the convent provide a feast for the corporation on
that anniversary. In 1524, King Henry and Cardinal Wolsey personally visited the
house. In 1528, in the case of a prisoner who had broken away from the sessions at
Newgate, the convent asserted its right of Sanctuary, a privilege that could scarcely
be often put in requisition, as the much-frequented Sanctuary of St. Martin-le-Grand
was in the immediate vicinity. The Franciscans seem to have passively acquiesced in
the course of events : for, November 12, 1539, their warden, and twenty-five of his
brethren, signed and sealed their deed of surrender to the king, being convinced " that
the perfeccion of Christian livyng dothe not consiste in doine ceremony es, wering of a
grey coatte, disgeasing our selffes after straunge fassions, dokynges, nodyngs, and
bekynges, in gurding our selffes wythe a gurdle ftill of knots, and other like papisticall
ceremonyes," &c.
After the surrender, the house of the Grey Friars was not given up to immediate
destruction ; but remained unoccupied in the king's hands, until 1544, when, with the
houses of the late Austin and Black Friars, it became a receptacle for the merchandize
captured at sea from the French ; every part of the Grey i'riars Church being filled
with wine : it was not, however, dismantled ; for in 1546 the " partitions" or screens
remained; the altars, pictures, images, and pulpit; the monuments and grave-stones;
the candlesticks, organs, and desks. .Subsequently, by the king's gift, the church of
the Grey Friars was to become the parish church of " Christ's Church within New-
gate ;" but the king dying in the same year and month, the altars, stalls, &c., were
removed, and the church reduced in length, the nave being rented to a schoolmaster
for 105. per annum. All the tombs and grave-stones were sold for about 5Z. ; and
Weever states there to have been buried in the church four queens,t four duchesses,
four countesses, one duke, two earls, eight barons, and some thirty-five knights ; in all,
663 persons of quality : the catalogue of the monuments is preserved, and is a very
valuable genealogical record.
These details are abridged principally from Mr. Nichols's Preface to the Chronicle
* In the chapter of the Register, the main channel or pipe is traced under Newgate, through the
rivulet at Holbom Bridge, up Leather-lane (Liworne-lane), and so to the Conduit-heads in the fields.
t The Queens were— the foundress of the church, Margaret, consort of Edward I.; Isabella, consort
of Edward II. ; Joan, Queen of Scots, daughter of Edward 11.; and Isabella, Queen of Man. Besides
these, the church had received the heart of a fifth Queen, Alianor, consort of Henrj' III.; and also the
heart of King Edward II., deposited under the breast of his queen's effigy. The catalogue is not, how-
ever, complete; for, during some excavations on the site about 1834, were found two ancient inscribed
grave-stones not in the Register : they commemorate a monk of Ely, and a supposed Italian merchant,
and are preserved in the burial-ground of Christchurch.
GBUB-8TBEET. 383
of the Orey Friars of London, printed for the Camden Society (1852), from the
register-book of the Fraternity. The history of the Grey Friars Convent next merges
into that of the establishment of Christ's Hospital, which Mr. Nichols refers to Henry's
grant of the Grey Friars' House to the City, aided by their subscriptions, and not to
Edward VI., who merely recognised the hospital which the citizens themselves had set
on foot.
" Moreover, Christ's Hospital was not founded as a school; its object was to rescue young children
from the streets, to shelter, feed, and clothe, and lastli/, to educate them— in short, to do exactly what
in later times has been done by each individual parish for the orphan and destitute ofispring of the
poor."— Nichols.
The great picture in the hall of Christ's Hospital is commonly referred to as contemporary evidence
of King Edward's share in the foundation. " This pi ture is usually attributed to Holbein, but in error.
It is an amplification of Hulbein's picture of the same subject which is at Bridewell Hospital. That
picture contains only eleven figures, including the painter himself; the picture at Christ's Hospital has
ninery or more, and not only is it very inferior as a work of art, but obviously of posterior date in point
of costume." Mr. Nichols adds : 'the picture at Christ's Hospital is derived from Holbein's-, so far as
the principal fi,'ures go : my own impressson is that it is of the period of James I. or Charles I."
Some of the buildings of the ancient convent, including the fratry and refectory,
were standing in the early part of the present century. The walls and windows of
Whittington's library were to be traced in a mutilated state on the north side of the
cloisters. Even now, the southern walk of the friars' cloisters remains, and its pointed
arches and buttresses may be seen from the exterior. The western walk of the clois-
ters was under the Great Hall, which was pulled down in 1827, as was Whittington's
library about the same time. The shield of Whittington, with a quatrefoil, was in-
serted in various parts of this building ; and a stone so carved has been preserved in
the museum of Mr. E. B. Price, F.S.A., and is etched at the end of Mr. Nichols's
Preface to the Chronicle. {See Chkist's Hospital, pp. 95-101.)
GBUB.STEEJET,
CRIPPLEGATE, is now called Milton-street, " not after the great poet, as some
persons have asserted, but from a respectable builder so called, who has taken the
whole street on a repairing lease." Such was the statement of Mr. Elmes, in 1830, in
his Topographical Dictionary ; but it is contradicted by the editor of Notes and
Queries (2nd S. ix.), who asserts, upon the authority of " a gentleman who was present
at the meeting when the nomenclature was discussed, that it was named after the great
poet, from his having resided in the locahty." Grub-street was originally tenanted by
bowyers, fletchers, makers of bow-strings, and of everything relating to archery. It is
the last street shown in Aggas's map ; all beyond, as far as Blshopsgate-street Without,
being gardens, fields, or morass. After the Great Fire, the Goldsmiths' Company met
in Grub-street, temporarily, in the house of Sir Thomas Allen, grocer, and Lord Mayor in
165U. Here, before the discovery of printing, lived the text-writers, who wrote all
sorts of books then in use, namely, A. B. C. with the Paternoster, Ave, Crede, Grace,
&c., and retailed by stationers at the corner of streets. In Grub-street lived John
Foxe, the martyrologist.
"Many letters in the Harleian collection illustrate the influence of Foxe at this lime. They are
addressed to him in Grub-street, and must, therefore, though no date appears on theai, have been written
after 15/2. A letter from Foxe to otie of his neighbours, who had so built his house as to darken Foxe's
windows, is curious as a specimen of religious expostulation, for an injury wliich possibly he could not
aflbrd to remedy by law."— Mr. Canon Townsend's L>fe of John Foxe, edit. 1641, p. 194.
It appears, however, very doubtful when Foxe went to Grub-street, and how long
he resided there. He did not write there his Book of Martyrs, published in 1563,
and the second edition in 1570. Here resided honest John Speed, the tailor and his-
torian, the father of twelve sons and six daugliters; there, too, lived >i aster Richard
Smith, whose amusing Obituary has been edited by Sir Henry Ellis for the Cainden
Society — " A person," says Antony Wood, " infinitely curious in, and inquisitive after
books." From this renowned and philosophic spot, celebrated as the Lyceum of the
Academic Grove, issued many of the earliest of our English lyrics, and most of our
miniature histories, and the flying sheets and volatile pages dispersed by such charac-
ters as Shakspeare's Autolycus ; and the Grubean sages first published Jack the Giant
Killer, Reynard the Fox, The Wise Men of Gotham, Tom Hickathrift, and a
hundred others.
384 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Nor must we forget Henry Welby, Esq., "the Grub-street Hermit/' who lived here
forty-four years, during which he was only seen by his maid-servant, who died Oct. 23,
1636 ; and Welby, in six days after, aged 84 : he owned a large estate in Lincolnshire,
but betook himself to this seclusion in misanthropic resentment of an attempt made
upon his life by a younger brother. In the old print of the Hermit, we see in tlie
distance boys flying kites in the fields adjoining his house. His diet was bread, water,
gruel, milk, and vegetables ; and now and then the yolk of an egg. He passed his
days in most exemplary charity and piety. There exists a rare quarto Tract, entitled
The Fhoenix of these late Times, showing " the first occasion and reasons " of Welby's
seclusion, with Epitaphs and Elegies (the latter occupying several pages), by Shakerley
Marmion, John Taylor, the Water-poet j Thomas Heywood, Thomas Brewer, &c.,
1637. It has a full-length portrait, by W. Marshall, of Welby : the copy of this Tract
in Sir Mark Sykes's library, sold for 61. 5*.
In Grub-street, Dec. 9, 1695, one Stockden, a victualler, was murdered by four men, three of whom
were revealed in three successive dreams to the victualler's widow, and were tried, condemned, and
hanged ; the narrative attested and published " by the Curate of Cripplegate !"
During the Commonwealth era a larger number than usual of seditious and libellous
pamphlets and papers were surreptitiously printed. The authors of these were, for
the most part, men whose indigent circumstances compelled them to live in the most
obscure part of the town. Grub-street, then abounding with mean old houses let out
in lodgings, afforded a fitting retreat for persons of this description. The offensive
term Grub-street is thought to have been first applied to the writings of John Fox,
the martyrologist, who, as we have seen, lived in Grub-street. However, there are
various other conjectures, which it may be interesting to notice. The inquiry has been
cleverly annotated by Mr. Henry Carapkin, F.S.A.
Possibly, from Grub-street being the booksellers' suburb of Aldersgate and Little
Britain it became the abode of small authors. In Goswell- street, to this day, several
old or second-hand booksellers keep shop. Arbuthnot speaks of " the meridian of
Grub-street ;" and Gay of ** Grab-street lays." In the Tailer, No. 41, the authors
are mentioned as faithful historians of an exercise at arms of the Artillery Company.
In the /Spectator, No. 184, " one of the most eminent pens in Grub-street is employed
in writing the dream of the miraculous sleeper," Nicholas Hart ; and the orators of
Grub-street dealt very much in plagues. (Spectator, 150.) There was also a Grub-street
Journal ; and Swift wrote a Grub-street Elegy on the pretended death of Partridge,
the almanack- maker, and Advice to the Grub-street Versifiers. The halfpenny news-
paper-stamp duty of 1712, however, occasioned "the fall of the leaf," and utter ruin
among Grub-street authors.
" Do you know that all Grub-street is dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now
for love or money." — Swift to Stella, July 9, 1712, et passim.
The Memoirs of the Grub-street Society were commenced Jan. 8, 1730 (the year before the Gentle'
man's Magazine), and were published weekly until the close of 1737. The avowed objects of the work
were to counteract the original Grubeans, who " made themselves most remarkably infamous for want
of integrity, by wilfully publishing what they knew to be false :" and to repress "the exorbitances of
Authors, Printers, Booksellers, and Publishers." The Society met once a week at the Pegasus, in Grub-
street; and the principals of the staff were Dr. John Martin and Dr. Richard Russel* (Bacias and
McBvius), the latter being secretary until 1735. The work was then conducted by a committee, but was
dropped in 1737, after a struggle of six years, eleven months, and two weeks : it was revived as the
lAterarif Courier of Grub-street, of which only a few numbers were printed.
In these Memoirs, most of the personages of the Dunciad are unsparingly satirized, and the pro-
ductions of Eusden, Gibber, Concanen, Ciirll, Dennis, Henley, Ralph, Arnall, Theobald, Welsted, &c.,
are treated with great severity. The Memoirs " meeting with encouragement," says Sir John Hawkins,
"Cave projected an improvement thereon in a pamphlet of his own;" and in the following year ap-
peared the Gentleman' s Magazine.
Grub-street thus figures in the Dunciad : —
" Not with less glory mighty Dulness crown'd,
Shall take through Grub-street her triumphant round."
" Pope's "arrows are so shirp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that the reader's sympathies are often
enlisted on the side of the devoted inhabitants of Grub-street. He it was who brought the notion of a
vile Grub-street before the minds of the general public; he it was who created such associations as
author and rags— author and dirt— author and gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble
through his graphic description of misery, and the literary profession was for a long time destroyed. —
W. M. Thackeray.
* Dr. Russel subsequently settled at Brighthelmstone, and wrote a Treatise on Sea- Water, advocat-
ing the practice of Sfea-bathing, which laid the foundation of the unexampled prosperity of iirighton.
GBUB-8TBEET. 385
In his notes to the Dunciad, Bisliop Warburton describes a libeller as " nothing but
a Grub-street critic run to seed." Dr. Johnson's friend, John Hoole,* received his
early instruction in Grub-street, from his uncle " the metaphysical tailor," who used to
draw squares and triangles on his shopboard. (Boswell's Johnson, vol. iv.)
Grub-street was formerly " much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries,
and temporary poems : whence any mean production is called Grub-street." (Johnson's
Dictionary.) The Doctor himself " was but a Grub-street man, paid by the sheet,
when Goldsmith entered Grub-street, periodical writer and reviewer." (Forster's Life
of Ooldsmith, p. 73.)
" Grub-street performances " had long been applied to *• bad matter expressed in a
bad manner, false confused histories, low creeping poetry, and grovelling prose,"
whetlier written in the Court or in the City, or elsewhere. Hence " a Grub-street
author " became a term of common reproach, and we remember it in frequent use ; this
however, has passed away with the change in the social position of men of letters, who
no longer resemble the literary hacks of the reign of George II. : but literature takes
rank with other learned professions ; and those authors who neglect it as a means of
subsistence are, in a twofold sense, foremost in their abuse of it.
However, Grub-street was not always tenanted exclusively by low pretenders to
learning ; for we read that James Whitelocke (Justice of the King's Bench), who was a
Merchant-tailors' boy, and won honour at Oxford, went through a course of Hebrew
with a professor of that ancient tongue, one Hopkhison, who lived in Grub-street
•* an obscure and simple man for worldly aflFayres, but expert in all the left-hand tongs.''*
" Great learned men," we are told, came to consult Hopkinson in these languages, and
*' among them no less a person than Lancelot Andrews." {See notice of Whitelocke's
Liber Famelictis, edited by Bruce ; Athenceum, No. 1612.)
Grub-street, now Milton-street, is noted for its great number of alleys, courts, and
backways, and old inn-yards : in Hanover-court was a house, temp. Charles I., tradi-
tionally the residence of General Monk. Opposite Hanover-court is a large building,
once the City Chapel ; in 1831 opened as a theatre, but with poor success. It next
became the City Baths ; facing which, in odd contiguity, were the City Soap Works,
established in 1712; the premises were burnt down in August, 1855, but have been rebuilt.
In one of the columns of Town and Table Talk, with which Mr. Peter Cunningham,
in years past, used to regale the readers of the Illustrated London News, we find,
Jan. 27, 1855, the following piquant parallel of Grub-street with our day : —
" This week has produced a remarkable proof that our Newgrate Last Dying Words and Confession
Poetry has not improved, or altered, indeed, in any way, since the times of Dick Turpin and Governor
Wall. We have before us, while we write, the penny broadside which Grub-street has given us on the
execution of BartJ^^lemy, on Monday last. We have the same artless way of telling a story, with the
same rough lines, and still rougher rhymes, common to the Catnach school of Old Bailey poetry. What
is still more remarkable, the very cuts are the identical blocks of bygone times. The view of the
dangling murderer, of St. Sepulchre's Church, and Newgate itself, is one that has done like duty
on many other hanging occasions. The female costume of the cut is that in vogue long before (to
use Mr. Thackeray's expression) Plancus was consul. Stranger still, the cut which represents the
murderer shooting Mr, Moore, is the actual ballad-block of Bellingham shooting Mr. Perceval in the
lobby of the House of Commons ! We may yet see it reproduced on an occasion of the same kind. The
identical wood-cut of Tarlton, the famous clown, who drew tears of delight from the eyes of Queen
Elizabeth, was in use in Grub-street between 1580 and 1820, or nearly two centuries and a half,"
One of the most noted Grub-street traffickers was Curll, for whom the notorious Mrs.
Thomas (Corinna of the Dunciad) got up the absurd story of young Jeffreys and the
funeral of the poet Dryden, the groundlessness of which was fully exposed by Malone
some sixty years since ; and Sir Walter Scott alludes to it in Life of Dryden as " a
memorable romance." It formed one of Curll's " Grub-street pamphlets."
The first use of the term Grub-street in its offensive sense, was made by Andrew
Marvell, in The Rehearsal Tra,nsposed : " He, honest man, was deep gone in Grub-
street and polemized divinity." " Oh, these are your Nonconformist tricks ; oh, you
have learnt this of the Puritans in Grub-street." " I am told that preparatory to
that, they had frequent meetings in the City ; I know not whether in Grub-street,
with the divines of the other party." Pope calls its versifiers " the Grub-street Choir.**
* Father of the Rev. Samuel Hoole, who was born in a hackney-coach, which was conveying his
mother to Drury-lane Theatre to witness the performance of the tragedy of Timanthes, written by her
husband. Mr. Samuel Hoole prayed with Johnson in his last illness : he long kept as memorials the
chair in which the Doctor usually sat, and the desk upon which he mostly wrote his Rambler. Mr. Hoole
died in March, 1839.
386 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
GUILDS ALL {TEE).
AT the north end of King-street, Cheapside, is the " Town-hall" of the City of
London, where the principal Corporation business is transacted, and its magnificent
hospitality exercised. The first Alderman's Bery or Court-hall was a low and mean
building, in the street named therefrom, Aldermanbury, which occurs in a deed of the
year 1189 : " the Courts of Maior and Aldermen were held here until the new Guildhall
was built. I myself (says Stow) have seen the ruines of the old court-hall in Alder-
manbery-streete." The first entry which Mr. Horace Jones, the City architect, was
able to find, is in the year 1212, the 14th of John. It is in a roll of the Hustings
Court, which was held here. The edifice must have been a very large building,
from the number of persons stated to have been present. " This was, undoubtedly,
the original Guildhall spoken of by Fabyan, Grafton, and Stow : the old Berry Court,
or Hal continued, and the Courts of the Mair and Aldermen were continually holden
there. They had an entrance in Aldermanbury. This we will call the first Guildhall.'*
The second Guildhall, according to the Corporation records, was built in 1326, the
20th Edward II. Part of the crypt of this building exists, though much defaced by
fire ; it extends beneath half the present hall, and adjoins the present crypt, being divided
by a stout brick wall. We might reasonably infer from this evidence that the second
building was a part, or occupied a part, of the present site. In Aggas's map, 1560,
there is a representation of the old entry from Aldermanbury. There was no entry
for carriages, or even an opening into Gresham-street, as now.
We now come to the present, or third Guildhall, " begun to be builded new," says
Fabyan, in the year 1411, the 12th of Henry IV., "by Thomas Knoles, then
Majjor, and by his brethren the Aldermen ; and the same was made of a little cottage
and a large great house, as it now standeth." The cost was defrayed by benevolences,
fees, fines, and amercements for ten years. The Mayor's Court and Chambers were
added, and a stately entrance-porch, " beautified with images of stone." Divers alder-
men glazed the windows, as appeared by their arms painted on each. Among the
individual contributions was the making and glazing of " two louvers," for which Sir
W. Harryot, Mayor, gave 40Z. The hall was twenty years in building ; the kitchen
was built " by procurement" from the companies, of Sir John Shaw, goldsmith. Mayor,
knighted on Bosworth Field; the kitchen was first used for dressing Sir John's
mayoralty banquet, in 1501 j and he " was the first that kept his feast there;" " since
which time the Mayor's feasts have been yearly kept there, which before time were
kept in the Taylors' Hall and the Grocers' Hall." " Nicholas Alwin, grocer. Mayor,
1499, deceased 1505, gave by his testament for a hanging of tapestrie to serve for the
principal dales in the Guildhall, seventy-three pounds 6*. M." In 1614-15 was
erected a new Council Chamber, and Record-room over. Among the early enter-
tainments given in the Guildhall, was that of 1357, when John, King of France,
and Edward the Black Prince, were received and entertained most sumptuously by the
Mayor and citizens, May 24. Again, in 1419, King Henry V. was entertained by the
Corporation at the Guildhall, when, it is reported, the Mayor, Sir Richard Whittington,
burnt the bonds for money lent to King Henry, to the value of 60,000^. Here, 1483,
June 24, the Duke of Buckingham attended with the Mayor and Sheriffs, by command
of Richard Duke of Gloster, and addressing a great multitude of Liverymen assembled
in the Common Hall, pointed out to them the bastardy of King Edward V., and
urged the superior claim of Richard Plantagenet, as depicted in Shakspeare's
IticJiard III., act iii. scene 5.
Glo. Go after, after, Cousin Buckingham,
The Mayor towards Guild Hall hies him in all post;
There, at the modest vantage of the time.
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children :
Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen.
Only for saying— he would make his son
" Heir to the Crown." Meaning, indeed, his House^
Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so.
And again : —
Suck. I go ; and towards three or four o'clock
Look for the news that the Guild Hall affords.
d
GUILDEALL. 387
1843. Here took place the trial and condemnation of Anne Askew for heresy, before Bishop Bonner ;
she was burnt at the stake, in Smithfield. 1547.— Trial of the Earl of Surrey, and his conviction of high
treason. 1553, Nov. 13.— Trial and condemnation of Lady Jane Grey and her husband. 1554, April 17.
— Trial and acquittal of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, for participation in Thomas Wyatt's rebellion against
Queen Mary. 1606, March 28.— Trial and conviction of the Jesuit Garnet. (Gunpowder Plot.) 1642,
Jan. 5. — Charles I. attended at a Common Council, and claimed their assistance in apprehending
Hampden and other patriots, who had taken shelter in the City to avoid arrest. During the Civil War
and the Commonwealth, the Guildhall was the arena of many a patriotic movement. In Pepys's Diary,
11th Feb. 1659-60, he records the reception of Gen. Monk at the Guildhall. After the abdication of
James II. the Lords Parliament assembled here, and declared for the Prince of Orange.
In the Great Fire the oak roof was entirely destroyed, and the principal front
much injured. " That night (Tuesday Sept. 4, 1666), the sight of Guildhall was a
fearfull spectacle, which stood the whole body of it together in view for several hours
together, after the fire had taken it, withoiat flames (I suppose because the timber was
of such solid oake), in a bright shining coale, as if it had been a pallace of gold or a
great building of burnished brasse." The roof was an open timber one, springing
from the capitals of the clustered columns, which subsequently bore guideron shields with
the arms of the twelve Great Companies. After the Fire an additional story was raised
to the lofty pitch of the original roof, the ceiling covering this being flat and square
panelled : eight circular-headed windows on each side were added. These reparations
have been attributed to Sir Christopher Wren. Elmes acknowledges " the modern
roof and ceiling of Guildhall" to be Wren's, but "built over it in haste and for imme-
diate use, and evidently a temporary covering." (See Wren and Ms Times, p. 266.)
The present mongrel front of Guildhall was erected by Mr. George Dance, the City
architect, in 1V89.
The chief approach to the Hall was by a two-storied porch, far in advance of the main
■building. It had been much altered in the reign of Elizabeth or James I. It had, on
each side of the entrance, two ornamented niches, and two figures in other niches, with
figures in the upper story. These figures were taken down by Dance in 1789, and they
lay in a cellar until Alderman Boydell induced the Corporation, in 1794, to permit
them to pass into the hands of Thomas Banks, the eminent sculptor, who held them in
great estimation as works of art ; and after his death, in 1809, they were purchased by
Mr. Bankes, M.P. These figures have been placed in the screen at the east end of the
hall. The crypt beneath is the finest and most extensive now remaining in London.
Its height is 13 feet from the ground to the crown of the arches. In 1851 the stone-
work was rubbed down and cleaned, and the clustered shafts and capitals were re-
paired; and, on the visit of her present Majesty to the City, July 9, 1851, a banquet
was served to the Queen and suite in this crypt, which was characteristically decorated
for the occasion. In the chambers and offices all sorts of styles and decorations of all
periods prevail — poor Gothic and painted ceihng, and marble sculpture, and mean
wall-decoration ; and the floors are of various levels. The interior of the Great Hall,
in coarse imitation of the nave of Winchester Cathedral, was also poor and mean. For
more than 150 years did the citizens bear the reproach of having their noble hall dis-
figured by the incongruous upper story and flat roof. A pointed roof was modelled,
but was proceeded with no further. With increasing public taste the anomaly became
more and more condemned. The covering was dilapidated and unsightly, and its
removal was long pressed upon the Court of Common Council, chiefly by Mr. Deputy
Lott, F.S.A., as offensive to architectural and archaeological taste. At length, a
committee of the Court of Common Council, to whom the subject had been referred,
reported in favour of a series of extensive improvements, involving the entire recon-
struction, on a new plan, of most, if not all, the offices of the Corporation. First,
however, it was resolved to proceed with a new roof for the Great Hall j and the
committee of the Corporation set about this great work, and determined upon an open
oaken roof, with a central louvre and a tapering metal spire.
The roof and other restorations were confided to Mr. Horace Jones, the City archi-
tect, with the assistance of Mr. Digby Wyatt, F.S.A., and Mr. Edward Roberts, F.S.A.
The nev»- internal cornice of the roof was commenced, with some ceremony, on the"
22nd day of June, 1864, when the members of the Improvement Committee, the
chaplain to the Lord Mayor, and the principal oificers of the Corporation, assembled on
the roof, and laid the first stone.
C C 2
388 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Tbe new roof and its general construction is as nearly as possible in accordance with
the period in which the Hall was originally built ; and with a drawing, still extant, of
the old roof as it existed before its destruction in the Great Fire ; a number of windows
by which the interior of the building was lighted from both sides, and which had been
closed for generations, have been reopened with excellent effect ; and, by the removal
of an unsightly coating of plaster and cement, all the characteristic outlines of the
internal architectural embellishments have been brought prominently out. One of the
southern windows has been filled with stained glass, designed by Mr. F. Halliday, and
executed by Lavers and Barraud : the subjects refer to the granting of charter, coining
money, Wat Tyler, and a Eoyal tournament. The new roof is of oak, with rather a
high pitch : it is lighted by sixteen dormers, eight on each side, and from the centre
springs a louvre for the purposes of light and ventilation, as well as ornament, and it
will have a lofty spire. The following are the dimensions : — The fair average width
of the Hall is 49 feet 6 inches. The cluster of shafts project about 2 feet on each side,
and their height to the springing of the arch ribs is 34 feet. The height from the present
pavement to the underside of the ridge is 89 feet. The total length is 152 feet, and
there are eight bays and seven principals. The length of the collar between the queen
post is 29 feet, and was cut out of timber about 2 feet 8 inches square. One pecu-
liarity of the construction of the roof is that there is a double lining, one of 2-inch oak
and another of 1^-inch deal : on this latter the slates are laid.
In a History of London by Allen and Wright, is a note stating that a Col. Smith,
formerly Deputy-Governor of the Tower, had a painting, representing London after
the Great Fire, in which about one-third of the roof of Guildhall appeared standing,
showing a gable-roof; and that in Hollar's View of London, circa 1647, the roof
appears with two lanterns arising from it.
At each end of the Hall is a large Gothic window occupying the whole width, the
arches resting on short columns, and retaining perfect their rich tracery. The upper
compartments are filled with painted glass (restored and modern) of the royal arms,
and stars and jewels of the Garter, Bath, Thistle, and St. Patrick, in the east window ;
and the City arms, supporters, &c. in the west window. Beneath the eastern window,
under canopies, and at the back of the spot where the ancient Court of Hustings was
holden, are statues of Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, and King Charles T. from the
Guildhall chapel. By an entry in the City records, the figure of Charles I. originally
occupied a place in the Royal Exchange.
In the angles at the opposite end of the hall, on lofty octagonal pedestals, are the
celebrated colossal figures of the giants Gog and Magog, sometimes called Gogmagog
and Corinseus. (See p. 380.) They were placed in their present position during the
alterations of 1815, having formerly stood on each side of the steps leading to the
upper rooms, these steps being where now is placed Beckford's monument, which then
stood against the great western window.
This old entrance was very picturesque : on each side of the steps was an octangular
turreted gallery, balustraded, for the hall-keeper ; each surrounded by iron-work palm-
trees, supporting a balcony and ornamented three-dial clock, and a resplendent gilt
sun underneath. The flanking giants, in their singular costume, gave the whole an
unique character. At the sides of the steps, under the hall-keeper's offices, were two
dark cells, or cages, in which unruly apprentices were occasionally confined, by order
of the City Chamberlain : these were called Little Lase, for a boy could not stand up-
right in them. In 1706, Queen Anne made a present to the City, to be hung in the
hall, of 26 standards, 63 colours, and a kettledrum, a part of the spoil from the field of
Ramifies ; these have been long removed. There are several sculptured monuments
erected at the expense of the Corporation — to Admiral Lord Nelson, by J. Smith, 1810,
inscription by Sheridan; Alderman Beckford, Lord Mayor in 1762 and 1769, by
Moore ; the Earl of Chatham, by Bacon, 1782, inscription by Burke ; the Right Hon. W.
Pitt, by Bubb, 1813, inscription by Canning. Upon Beckford's monument is the speech
which was long beheved to have been addressed by him to George III. on his throne.
Gifford {Ben Jonson, vol. vi. p. 481) denies this ; and Isaac Reed asserts that " Beckford did not utter
one syllable of this speech. It was penned by Home Tooke, and by his art put on the records of the
City and on Beckford's statue, as he told mc, Mr. Braithwaitc, Mr. Seyers, &c., at the Athenian Club."
GUILDHALL. 389
The style of these monuments (which cost 3000 and 4000 guineas each) is ill adapted for a Tudor
hall, and they rank low as works of art: for example, in that to Xelson, the only indication of its objeit
is a small medallion at the hero; in Beckford's, the decline of the City and Commerce is represeuicd by
figures in a drooping state !— a literal allegory.
The memorial group of the great Duke of Wellington, by John Bellj central statue
of the hero, and two emblematic figures ; is in better taste.
The Guildhall will contain between 6000 and 7000 persons. Here have been held
the Inauguration Dinners of the Lord Mayors since 1501. Charles I. was feasted
here, in 1641, with a political object, which failed. Charles II. was nine times enter-
tained here at dinner.
Charles II. dined with the citizens the year that Sir Bobert Viner was mayor, who getting elated
with continually toasting the royal family, grew a little fond of his majesty, "The king understood
very well how to extricate himself in all kinds of difficulties, and, with an hint to the company to avoid
ceremony, stole off, and made towards his coach, which stood ready for him in Guildhall-yard. But the
mayor liked his company so well, and was grown so intimate, that he pursued him hastily, and catching
Mm fast by the hand, cried out with a vehement oath and accent, ' Sir, you shall stay and take t'other
bottle !' The airy monarch looked kindly at him over his shoulder, and with a smile and graceful air
(for I saw him at the time, and do now) repeated this line of the old song : —
' He that is drunk is as great as a king,'
and immediately returned back and complied with his landlord."— -Specto^or. No. 462.
From 1660, with only three exceptions, our sovereign has dined at Guildhall on Lord
Mayor's Day, after his or her accession or coronation. The exceptions were James II.,
who held the City Charter upon a writ of quo warranto at his accession ; George IV.,
who was rendered unpopular by his quarrel with his Queen ; and William IV., who
apprehended political tumult. But George IV. (when Regent) was entertained here,
June 18, 1814, with Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and Frederick- William III., King
of Prussia, when the banquet cost 25,000Z., and the value of the plate used was
200,000^. : [on that clay year was fought the Battle of Waterloo.] On July 9, 1814,
the Duke of Wellington was entertained at dinner in Guildhall. The banquet to
George III. cost 6898Z., when 1200 guests dined in the Hall; that to Queen Victoria,
Nov. 9, 1837, cost 6870^. ; and an evening entertainment to her Majesty, July 9, 1851,
to celebrate the Great Exhibition, cost 5120^. 14?. 9d., being 129^. 5s. 3d. less than the
sum voted : invitations, 1452. Here, in 1831, were entertained the members of the
Legislature, and others who promoted and supported Parliamentary Reform ; in 1837,
her present Majesty the Queen, on her accession to the throne: in 1838, the foreign
Ambassadors and other distinguished personages, in celebration of her Majesty's coro-
nation ; in 1855, the Emperor and Empress of the French were feted here (the Lord
Mayor raised to the baronetcy as Sir Francis Graham Moon) ; in 1863, the Prince
and Princess of Wales, shortly after their marriage.
The Guildhall is magnificently decorated for royal entertainments, when the sovereign,
is seated beneath a state canopy at the east end. The lighting of the vast Hall with
gas is by stars, mottoes, and devices of 6000 or 7000 jets in the large windows, filled
with planking and sheet-iron, to prevent accident by fire : a stupendous crystal star, and
a Prince of Wales's plume in spun glass, nine feet high, are superb insignia j the archi-
tectural lines of the edifice were marked out with 5000 gas-jets ; and from the roof hung
two painted chandeliers, each 12 feet diameter ; the whole flood of gaslight exceeding
that of 45,000 wax-candles ; this being the former mode of lighting : the present is
by gas chandeliers, of appropriate design.
Tlie Dinner on Lord Mayor's Lay is a magnificent spectacle : the Lord Mayor and
his distinguislied guests advance to the banquet by sound of trumpet ; and the superb
dresses and ofllcial costumes of the company, about 1200 in number, with the display of
costly plate, is very striking. The Hall is divided : at the upper, or hustings tables, the
courses are served hot ; at the lower tables the turtle only is hot. The baron of beef
is brought in procession from the kitchen into the Hall in the morning, and being placed
upon a pedestal, at night is cut up by " the City carver." The old Kitchen, wherein
the dinner was dressed, was a vast apartment ; the principal range was 16 feet long
and 7 feet high, and a baron of beef (3 cwt.) upon the gigantic spit was turned by
hand. There were 20 cooks, besides helpers ; 14 tons of coals were consumed. Some 40
turtles are slaughtered for 250 tureens of soup ; and the serving of the dinner requires
about 200 persons and 8000 plate- changes. Next morning the fragments of the Great
Feast are doled out to the poor.
300 CUEI08ITIES OF LONDON.
The following, from Pepys's Diary y is the earliest account we have of the Lord
Mayor's Inauguration Dinner : —
"29th Oct, 1663.— To Guildhall, and up and down to see the tables ; where under every salt there
was a bill of fare, and at the end of the table the persons proper for the table. Many were the tables,
but none in the Hall but the Mayor's and Lords of the Privy Council that had napkins or knives, which
was very strange. I sat at the Merchant Strangers' table, where ten good dishes to a messe, with plenty of
wine of all sorts ; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins nor change of trenchers, and drank
out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes."
The Guildhall Inauguration Dinner, including wines, usually costs about 1500Z.,
which is supposed to he paid out of the public money ; but the City contribute only
200/., the remainder being paid half by the Lord Mayor and half by the two Sheriffs.
The procession costs about 300Z., and the decoration of the hall 800Z., which is similarly
apportioned.
The Court of Hustings held in the Guildhall, was the Saxon Folkmote : the word
Hustings in Saxon signifies the Souse of Causes, a general Council or Court. The
Court is considered the highest Court of Judicature j the presiding judges, the Lord
Mayor and Sheriffs. The proceedings are similar to the County Courts, with the
addition, anciently, of the enrolment of deeds and wills, &c. The following entries
are from the English Chronicle, and show the uses the Hall was put to in the holding
of this Court in past ages : —
In 1441 Maister Roger and Master Thomas were tried in the Guildhalle of Londoun for tresons and
sorcery. On the 18th of November, in the same year, Maister Roger Bollyngbrooke was arreymcd for
tresonn agens the Kyngis persone, and thereof, by XII men of Londoun, he was founde guilty. Lord
Say (Save) was brought out of the Tour unto Guyldehalle to be tried, Saturday, July 4, 1450.
The following entries are from the Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant Taylor of London : —
"In 1550-1, the xiiij day of Marehe was rayned at the Yeld-halle a C (hundred) mareners for robyng
on the see, and the Captayne, belying a Skott, was cared to Nugate the same day, and certen cast (con-
demned). In 1552, the vij day of June, the Duke of Northumberland and dyvers of the Kynges Consell sat
at Yeld-hall to hear certain causys, and toke up my Lord Mayre and his brodurne for vetell, because he
lokyd not to it, and for sellyng of the same, and oder causys. In 1559, the furst day of December, was
raynyd at the Yeld-hall, Master Grymstou, Captayn."
The Entrance. — The Hall is approached by a porch consisting of two divisions, formed
by an arch and columns crossing in the centre ; the wall on either side is subdivided into
smaller compartments, with tracery and quatrefoil turns. The groined roofj with
stone ribs springing from the sides, are intersected in the centre with sculptured bosses
with various devices of the arms and bearings of Edward the Confessor.
The Crypt, already described on page 301, has, at each intersection of the groins, a
boss, bearing shields with the arms of Edward the Confessor, the City arms, well-
sculptured roses, &c.
The Chapel. — This ancient appendage to the Guildhall was founded by Peter Fan-
love, Adam Francis, and Henry Frowick, citizens, and dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen
and all Saints, and called London College, in 1299. In the records of the Corporation
of the date of 1326, there is an account of timber and lead granted for the building,
and in 1379, the surplus materials not used in the building of the Guildhall vvere given
for the same purpose.
1413. — In Holinshed's Chronicle, vol. iii. p. 56, there is the following entry : — " He (Richard Whit-
tington) also builded for the ease of the Maior of London, his brethren, and the worshipful citizens, on
the solemne days of their assemblie, a Cliapell adjoining to the Guildhall, to the intent that before they
entered into any of their worldiie affaires, they should begin with prayer and invocation to God for his
assistance."
In the mayoralty of John Welles, grocer, the Chapel was rebuilt, 1431.
From Machyn's Diary. — "The vj day of May (1554) was a goodly evyng song at Yeldhall Colege, by
the Masters of the Clarkes and ther felowshyppe of Clarkes, with syngyng and playing, as youe have
hard. [The morrow after was a great Mass at the same place, by the same fraternity, when every Clerk
offered a halfpenny. The Mass was sung by divers of the Queen's Chapel and children.] The xxvij day
of May (1555) was the Clarkes Prossessyon from Yeldhall College, and a goodly Masse he hard (or has
been heard), and evere Clarke havying a crosse and garland, with C. (hundred) shewers borne, and the
whettes (waits) playing round Chepe, and so to Ledynhall (unto St. Albro Chyrehe) (Ethelburga), and
there they putt off their gayre (gear), and there was the blessyd Sacrament borne with torche light
abowt, and from thens unto Barbur-hall to dener. The tomb of Sir Thomas Kneesworth, late Mare of
London, repaired by John Bullok, xvij of June, 1562."
This Chapel was not so much injured by the Great Fire as to lose its architectural
features. It consisted of a main and side aisle ; the latter, to the north, not having had
any regular communication with the former. The west had a large window with tracery-
entire, and beneath it a handsome pointed arch entrance, under a square architrave,
having sculptured capitals with quatrefoils and shields with arms in the spandrels t
GUILDHALL. 391
against the windows were three niches, large and heavy. They contained good figures
of King Edward VL; Queen Elizabeth, with a Phoenix under her; and of Charles I.,
treading upon a globe, sculptured by Stone; the spaces of wall on each side, and under
the window, were ornamented with panels. At the Dissolution of the religious houses
the Chapel was purchased by the Mayor and Commonalty, and used as the Court of
Requests. It was taken down in 1822 to make way for the present Courts of Law ;
the window is preserved in the Chamberlain's office ; there are remains of the crypt,
with the stairs leading to the Chapel.
North of the Hall is the Court of ^Exchequer, formerly the King's Bench Court. It
was built immediately after the Great Hall (temp. Henry VI.) for the Mayor's Court,
still held here. Some of the windows were glazed by the executors of Whittington,
and emblazoned with his arms : Stow describes among the glass, " the Mayor pictured
sitting in habite, party-coloured, and a hood on his head ; his sword before him, with
an hatte or cap of maintenance ; the common clearke and other officers bare-headed,
their hoodes on their shoulders." This Court had at the back of the judges' seats
paintings of Prudence, Justice, Religion and Fortitude. Here is a large picture by
Alaux of Paris, presented by Louis- Philippe, representing his reception of an address
from the City on his visit to England in 1844 ; Humphery, mayor, and many other
portraits. Here also are portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, by Ramsay;
and William III. and Queen Mary, by Van der Voort.
27ie Common- Council Chamber contains, in a niche behind the Mayor's chair, a
marble statue of George III., by Chantrey, the inscription by Alderman Birch, in
whose mayoralty, 1815, the statue was erected. On the right is a whole-length portrait
of Queen Victoria, by Hayter; and left are half-lengths of Caroline, queen of
George IV., and her daughter the Princess Charlotte, both by Lonsdale. Here are the
following busts : Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, J. Durham, sculptor ; Prince
of Wales, by Marshall Wood; H. B. Beaufoy, F.R.S., by Calder Marshall; Thomas
Clarkson, R. L. Jones, and Major-General Sir H. Havelock, by W. Behnes; T. H.
Hall, by J. Durham ; Lord Nelson, by the Hon. Mrs. Darner ; Granville Sharp, by
Chantrey; the Duke of Wellington, by Turnerelli.
North side: Portraits— Chamberlain Clarke, by Lawrence; Aldermen Waithman and Wood, by
Patten; Nelson, by Beeehey ; Lord Denman, by Mis. Pearson. Paintings — Defence of Gibraltar and
burning of gun-boats, 1782, by Paton ; Rodney's Victory, 1782, by Dodd ; and Sir William Walworth
killing Wat Tyler, in Smithtield, by Northcote. East side : Siege of Gibraltar, by Copley, father of Lord
Lyndhurst : it covers the entire side, and was painted by the artist raised on a platform. South side :
Alderman Boydell, by Beeehey ; Lord Heathfield, by Reynolds ; Murder of Rizzio by Opie ; Lord Corn-
wallis, by Copley; Defence and Eehef of Gibraltar, by Paton; Rodney breaking the French line, 1782,
by Dodd.
Here are also three pictures of municipal ceremonies and festivities : the Civic Oath administered to
Alderman Newnham, as Lord Mayor, on the Hustings in the Guildhall, Nov. 8, 1782, with 140 portraits;
the Lord Mayor's Show by Water— boats by Paton, figures by Wheatley; and the Royal Entertainment
in GuildhaU, June 18, 1814, by Daniell, R.A.
The Court of Aldermen is profusely gilded, and painted with allegorical figures of
the City of London, Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude, by Sir James
Thornhill, who was presented by the Corporation with a gold cup, value 225^. 7^.
The Chamberlain's Office is on the north-east : he is keeper of the City cash,
regalia, and trust-money; admits, on oath, persons to the freedom of London, and
registers and enrols all apprentices, adjudicates between them and their masters, and
has power to commit either to Bridewell. The Chamberlain bears on state occasions
an ancient staff, surmounted with a jewelled crown : this sceptre is presented with the
City keys, mace, and sword, on the entry of the sovereign by Temple Bar ; and is
formally surrendered on the yearly re-election of the Chamberlain, November 18.
There is neither record nor tradition of a defalcation in his office in upwards of 700
years. The Chamberlain's ancient seal is a royal crown, lion passant, the City sword,
and two keys : legend, Sigillum Camerce Londini.^ In the office hangs the picture of
the Battle of Towton, painted by Alderman Boydell ; and here, where the City appren-
tices sign their indentures, suggestively hangs a fine set of Hogarth's prints of the
* Wilkes was Chamberlain from 1779 until his death in 1797 : he was succeded by Alderman Richard
Clark, who, when sheriff", took Dr. Johnson to a judges' dinner at the Old Bailey ; the judges being Black-
stone and Eyre. Mr. Clark, when 15, was introduced to Johnson, whom he last met at the Essex Head
Club. Chamberlain Clark died in " Cowley's House," at Chertsey, in 1831, aged 92,
392 CUBIOSITIJES OF LONDON.
Industrious and Idle Apprentices. In the Chamberlain's Parlour are duplicate
copies of the freedoms and thanks voted to distinguished personages by the City ; they
are line specimens of penmanship, mostly by Mr. Tomkins, whose portrait, by Key-
nolds (and said to be his latest picture), hangs here. In the Waiting Room, among
the pictures are Reynolds's portrait of the great Lord Camden, and Opie's Murder of
James I. of Scotland.
A large folding screen, painted, it is said, by Copley, represents the Lord Mayor Beckford delivering
the City sword to King George III. at Temple Bar; interesting for its portraits and record of the cos-
tumes of the period ; presented by Alderman Salomons to the City in 1850. Here, too, is a large picture
of the battle of Agincourt, painted by Sir Robert Ker Porter, when 19 years of age, assisted by Mr. Mul-
ready, subsequently R.A,, and presented to the City in 1808,
In the Library, rich in books, tracts, and MSS. relating to the City, and first opened
in 1828, are portraits of several aldermen ; and a Museum of relics discovered at Old
London Bridge, the Royal Exchange, and elsewhere in the City. {See Musefms.)
In the Courts of Common Pleas and Queen's Bench, built upon the site of Guildhall
Chapel, by Montague, in 1823, are portraits of the judges who justly adjudicated the
disputed properties of the citizens after the Great Fire. These and other pictures were for-
merly hung in the Guildhall : in stormy political times they were occasionally injured ; for,
in the London Gazette of 1681, the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen advertised a
reward of 500Z. for the discovery of the person who offered an indignity to the portrait
of the Duke of York (James II.) in the Guildhall, to show their deep resentment at
that " insolent and villanous act."
In the portraits of Sir Matthew Hale, and other judges of his time, hung up in the Courts at Guildhall,
they are represented with beards and skull-caps ; but these portraits are not much better painted than
the portraits of the Scottish Kings at Holyrood, and may not be entitled to rank higher as authorities.
The i^owdered wig gradually degenerated into an ordinary flaxen one; even that began to be left off
about 1825; and since the death of Mr. Justice Littledale, not a single judge is distinguishable in a
drawing-room from the ordinary mob of gentlemen by his dress. Bishops are degenerating in the
same manner.
Two new Law Courts have been added to the Guildhall ; and a portion of the
ancient crypt has been appropriated as a kitchen ; the site of the old kitchen being
that of the north court. There being no external elevations to these new courts, the
roof is of thick glass in ironwork frames.
Guildhall and the offices and buildings connected therewith, the Mansion House, the
Sessions House, and other Corporation property are insured against fire in amounts not
exceeding in the whole the sum of 200,000/. The several amounts expended upon the
Guildhall and the buildings connected therewith, from the year 1800 to 1865,
distinguishing the cost incurred in temporary buildings and erections upon special
public occasions, were as follow: 72,101/. 7*. 5c?. expended on repairs and alterations;
32,928/. 19s. lid. upon fittings upon Lord Mayor's-day ; 42,382/. 85. Id. for special
entertainments ; and for law courts the sum of 25,911/. 5^. Qd., making a total of
173,323/. 145. hd, expended upon the Guildhall during the above period.
SACKNEY-COACRLS.
COACHES were first let for hire in London in 1625, and were hence called hackney-
coaches ; that they were named from being first employed in conveying the
citizens to their villas at Hackney, is a popular error, though supported by Maitland.
The term is said to be from the French haquenee, a slow-paced or ambling nag ; as,
"he had in his stable an hacTcenay." (Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose.) But
haquenee " does not include the idea of hiring. To hack is to oflfer a thing for common
sale or hire ; and a coach (along with the horses) kept for hire is a hackney-coach."
(David Booth's Analytical Dictionary, p. 304.) Hackney-coaches were first kept at
inns, but soon got into the streets, as appears in Strafford's Letters, April, 1634 : —
•'One Captain Bailey hath erected some four Hackney-coaches, put his men in livery, and appointed
them to stand at the May-Pole in the Strand (where St. Mary's Church now is), giving them instructions
at what rates to carry men into several parts of the town, where all the day they may be had. Other
hackney-men seeing this way, they flocked to the same place, and perform their journeys at the same
rate. So that sometimes there is twenty of them together, which disperse up and down ; that they
and others are to be had everywhere, as watermen are to be had by the water-side."
A successful rival, however, soon appeared ; when Sir Saunders Duncombe, upon
petition to Charles I., stated the streets to be greatly encumbered with the coaches
EALL8 OF THE CITY COMPANIES. 393
and that in naany parts beyond sea people were much carried in chairs that are covered,
whereby few coaches were used among them ; and the king granted Duncombe " the
sole privilege to use, let, or hire a number of the said covered chairs for fourteen years ;"
the fare being l.y. per mile. Yet the hackney-coaches had so increased in 1635, as to
be considered a nuisance by the Court, and to be limited by Star-chamber. In 1637,
however, Charles granted a special commission to his master of the horse to license
fifty hackney-coachmen in London and Westminster, each to keep twelve horses, for
about 200 coaches, which Sir William Davenant describes as " uneasily hung, and ?o
narrow that he took them for sedans on wheels." Their rates were fixed by Act 14!
Charles II. In 1694 they were limited to VOO.
Hackney-coaches were first excluded from Hyde Park in 1695, when "several persons of quality
having been affronted at the Ring by some of the persons that rode in hackney-coaches with masks, and
complaint thereof being made to the Lord Justices, an order is made that no hackney-coaches be per-
mitted to go into the said Park, and that none presume to appear there in masks." {Pod-Boy, June 8,
1695.) And the exclusion continues to this day.
By coach was the usual mode of sight-seeing : — " I took {Tatler, June 18, l709) three
lads, who were under my guardianship, a-rambling in a hackney-coach, to shew them
the town ; as the lions, the tombs. Bedlam," &c. Gay's Trivia glances at this period :—
" When on his box the nodding coachman snores.
And dreams of fancy'd fares."
In 1771 the number of coaches was fixed at 1000, and their fares were raised ;
again increased in 1799, and the ofiice removed to Somerset House 1782 ; since 1833,
their number has not been limited. In 1814 hackney-chariots were introduced ; and
in 1820 cabriolets, or cahs. The double-seated hackney-coach was usually a cast-ofi^
carriage, often to be seen covered with the emblazbned arms of its former noble owner;
and the driver was notoriously " rude, exacting, and quarrelsome." Both coaches and
chariots were drawn by a pair of horses ; but the cab dispenses with one horse, and the
fare is thus reduced half. The cab (from Paris) was at first open and chaise-like,
with a pair of wheels, but very liable to accidents, which soon begat a host of " safety"
improvements. The cab, or sedan -like coach-body upon four wheels, often reminds one
of a seventeenth-century-coach, such as we see sculptured on Thynne's tomb in West-
minster Abbey.
SALLS OF THF CITY COMPANIES.
I FOREMOST in vastness and antiquity is the Guildhall of the City of London, just
described. The latter affords the best idea of the Companies' ancient halls the
majority of which were destroyed in the Great Fire. They were the guild-halls, from
the gild-hallas of the Anglo-Saxons, wherein wares were exposed for sale, as in most
towns of the Middle Ages.
The ancient Hall mostly had an open timber roof ; whence the Tishmongers', and
probably other Companies, suspended the properties of their pageants. In the centre
of the roof was a louvre, or lantern ; at the sides were Gothic windows, filled with
painted glass ; and beneath hung gorgeous tapestry, which, in the Merchant-Tailors*
Hall, contained the history of their patron, St. John the Baptist. The fioor was
strewed with rushes; the tables were planks placed on tressels ; a reredos, or grand
screen, crossed the apartment, hiding the entrances to the buttery, larder, and kitchen ;
"the minstrailes" were in a gallery aloft : and there were temporary platforms and
stages for players. Other passages branched to the wine and ale cellars, and to
the chambers. Annexed to the buttery were the bakehouse and brewhouse; the
kitchen passage was guarded by a spiked hatch, and was well stored with " spittes,
rakkes, and rollars." There is also named in Brewers' Hall, temp. Henry VI. " the
tresaunce," or cloister between the great kitchen and the hall ; and an " almarie cup-
board," for the Company's alms (apparently broken provisions), in the great kitchen.
The Companies possessed halls from the date of their first charters, under Edward
III. The Merchant-tailors, however, had a hall at the back of the Red Lion, in
Basing-lane, long before they bought their Hall in Threadneedle-street, in 1331. The
Weavers, Bakers, Butchers, and other ancient guilds, must also have had halls in very
remote times : these, and other meeting-places, particularly of the Minor Companies,
were probably, at first, but mean buildings, as the original Guildhall in Aldermanbury j
394 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and before tlie founding of their halls, the Companies met at various great mansions in
the City, lent for the purpose.
In their Halls the Twelve Great Companies gave grand feasts to various monarchs,
who enrolled themselves as members. In the Interregnum they were the meeting-
pljces of the Government Commissioners ; by the Parliamentary commanders they
were converted into barracks ; by the puritanical clergy into preaching-places ; and by
successive Lord Mayoi-s into temporary mansion-houses. In Elizabeth's and the
Stuarts' reigns, every Hall was obliged to have also a granary and an armoury ; and
the Company's almshouses adjoined the Hall, that the alms-folk might be ready to join
in processions and pageants.
The donations of plate to the Companies included drinking-cups, gallon-pots, basins
and ewers, large silver salvers, goblets and salts of " sylver, sylver-guylte, parcel-gylte, or
sylver- white :" and to the entry of the name and gift was usually attached an ejaculatory
prayer for the donor, as " Ih'u be mercyfuU unto his soul ;" " God send him long life
and welfare," &c.
Liveries are not mentioned to have been worn by any of the Companies before temp.
Edward I. ; the hood, evidently copied from the monk's cowl, was an indispensable
appendage; and the Company's "trade conizances" were embroidered conspici^ously on
the dress.
The Companies were, at first, half-ecclesiastical bodies. " This demi-religious character evidenced
itself in the mode of their foundation : in their choosing patron-saints and chaplains ; founding altars
to such saints in the churches they held the advowson of, and in various other ways. None of the trades
assembled to form fraternities, without ranging themselves under the banner of some saint ; and, if pos-
sible, they chose a saint who either bore a relation to their trade, or to some other analogous circum-
stance. The Fishmongers adopted St. Peter, and met at St. Peter's Church ; the Drapers chose the
Virgin Mary, mother of the ' Holy Lamb,' or fleece, as the emblem of that trade, and appropriately-
assembled, in like, manner at St, Mary Bethlem church, Bishopsgate ; the Goldsmiths' patron was St.
Dunstan, reported to have been a brother artisan ; the Merchant-Tailors, another branch of the draping
business, marked their connexion with it by selecting St. John Baptist, who was the harbinger of the
holy Lamb, so adopted by the Drapers; and which, as being anciently cloth-dealers, still constitutes the
crest of that Society.
" In other cases, the Companies denominated themselves fraternities of the particular saint in whose
church or chapel thev assembled, and had their altar. Thus, the Grocers called themselves the fraternity
of St. Anthony, because they had their altar in St. Anthony's church; the Vintners, ' the fraternity of
St. Martin,' from the like connexion with St. Martin's Viptry church ; and the Skinners and the Salters,
both societies of Corpus Christi, from meeting, the one at the altar of that name in St. Laurence Poultry
church; and the other at Corpus Christi chapel, in All Saints, Bread-street."— (Herbert's Hist, of the
Twelve Great Livery Companies, vol. i. pp. 666-7.) Nor until after the Eeformation could the fraterni-
ties be regarded as strictly secular.
In their processions to church the Companies were joined by the religious orders in
there rich costumes, bearing wax torches and singing, and frequently attended by the
Lord Mayor and great civic authorities in state. Funerals were as religiously observed
by them ; and to celebrate with becoming grandeur the obsequies of deceased members,
almost the whole of these fraternities kept a state-pall, or hearse-cloth, a few of which
are preserved to this day ; members of superior rank were followed to interment by the
Lord Mayor and civic authorities ; and it was customary to provide funeral dinners, with
sums left by the deceased, or sent after death by the relatives to their Halls : such sums,
temp. Elizabeth and James, were generally not less than 2QI.
"The great Sir Philip Sidney, who was publicly buried at St. Paul's Cathedral in 1587, was a brother
of the Grocers' Company, and was attended by that livery in all their formalities, who were preceded by
the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, ' rydinge in purple.' The number of the Grocers' livery amounted
to 120, and are represented in a print of the procession by De Brie."— Nichols's Progresses of Queen
jElizabeth, ii. pp. 19-26.
At the funeral of Sir Thomas Lovell (of Shakspeare memory, at Holywell Nunnery, Shoreditch),
"the gentlemen of the inns of court (Sir Thomas built Lincoln's Inn fine gateway), with certeyn crafts
of London," received the corpse at the convent gate, accompanied by the Mayor and aldermen, who, on
the body being placed under the hearse, or canopy, encircled the rails, and repeated the Be profundis.
Meanwhile, " there was a drynkynge in all the cloister, the nones, halls and parlors of the said place."
The Election Feasts in the Halls, temp. Henry IV., were partaken of by the first
nobility, and even princes, besides the City dignitaries ; when the luxuries included
the mighty "baron" or "ribbes of beef," "frumentie with venison," brawn, fat swan,
boar, conger, sea-hog, and other delicacies stored above the salt;* whilst "sotilties" of
* The salt, or salt-cellar, was a magnificent piece of plate, forming, in the Middle Ages, a division
between the upper and lower part of the table. Mr. Fosbroke believed one, in the Tower of London,
and of silver-gilt, to belong to the Mercers' Company. To be seated above the salt was a mark of
honour; and our ancestors seem often to have placed persons below it in order to mortify them.
HALLS OF TEE CITY COMPANIES. 395
the Company's patron, trade, or saint, recalled the origin of the fraternity j and there
were "voyds of spice-bread, ypocras, and comfits," to the renewed "noise" (music) of
the minstrels, or waits, or the higher merriment of the London clerks "playing
some holy play."
Thus, 5th September, 1419, 17 Henry V., we have the following Election-dinner of the Brewers' Com-
pany, the " Ordinaire de la Feste," in Norman-French.
First Course.— Brawn with mustard; cabbages to the pottage; swan standard; capons roasted; great
custards. (For the " fat swan" and the cygnet, the citizens had their annual swan uppings.)
Second Cotirse.— Venison in broth, with white mottreids; cony standard; partridges with cocks
roasted ; leche lumbard, doucetts with little parneuse.
Third Course.— Vears in syrop; great birds with little ones together; fritters, paynpuffs with a cold
baked meat.
The cost of another Election Feast of the Brewers, a.d. 1425, was 38Z. 4s. 2d., a very large sum, con-
sidering that money was then of five times its present value. Melted fat, or lard, was then used where
we now use butter, then a great dainty, as was also sugar, the place of which was supplied by honey.
Furmenty, the furmentaria of Ducange, was wheat boiled in milk, such as is eaten to this day. " Aroma-
tising" the Hall with the precious Indian wood, sanders, and Brazil wood, by fumigation, greatly
enlivened the table. Not only did widows, wives, and single women, who were members of the Company
join the feast ; but from the Grocers' ordinances of 1348, "bretherene" could introduce their wives or
companions, and damsels j indeed, a wife was not to be excused, unless " malade, ou grosse danfant, et
pres sa deliverance."
The Election Ceremonies took place after the feast, when the newly-elected principals
were crowned " with garlondes on their hedes." Then followed the " loving cup,"
as is still the custom ;* and next the minstrels and players ; the minstrels including
harpers, who played and sang in the intervals of the others sounding their cornets,
shalms, flutes, horns, and pipes. The dramas then in fashion often consisted of single
subjects ; and this taste continued till long after the establishment of the regular
theatres. In the Guildhall library is an original licence from the Master of the Revels,
in 1662, authorizing " George Bailey, musitioner, and eight servants, his company, to
play for one year a play called Noah's Flood;" these eight persons personating the
patriarch and his family.
The Companies' Barges also formed stately pageants. Thus, at the coronation of
the queen of Henry VII., she was attended "from Greenwich" by water, by "the
Maior, shrifes, and alderman of the citie, and divers and many worshipful commoners,
chosen out of every crafte, in their liverays, in barges freshly furnished with banners
and stremers of silk, rechely beaton with the armes and bagges of their craftes." In
the same reign, among " a great and goodly nombre of barges," either fastened up, or
" roweing and skym'ying in the riv' and Thamys," was, " first for the cittie of London,
the Mayer's barge, the sherevys' barge, aldermens dy''rs bargs ; and then the crafts of
the cytie, having their standards and stremers, w' ther conizances right weel dekkyd,
and replenyshid w* w^shipfuU company of the citizens.'*
The earliest Triumph, Pageant, or " Riding," connected with the trades, occurred in 129S, on the
return of Edward I. from his victory over the Scots, when " every citizen, according to their severall
trades, made their several shew." They also joined in coronation processions, as that of Henry IV. in
1399, when Froissart states Cheapside to have had seven fountains running with red and white wine ;
the dift'crent Companies of London, led by their wardens, were clothed in their proper liveries, and bore
banners of their trades. Chaucer describes an idle City apprentice of his day : —
" When there any ridings were in Chepe,
Out of the shoppe thider would he lepe ;
And till that he had all the sight ysein,
And danced wel, he would not come again."
Prom this sketch of the early Halls of the Companies, and their ancient state and
observances, we proceed to the City Halls of the present day, commencing with the
* " The Loving Cup" is a splendid feature of the Hall-feasts of the City and Inns of Court. The
Cup is of silver, or silver-gilt, and is filled with spiced wine, immemorially termed "sack." Imme-
diately after the dinner and grace, the Masters and Wardens drink to their visitors a hearty welcome;
the cup is then passed round the table, and each guest, after he has drunk, applies his napkin to the
mouth of the cup before he passes it to his neighbour. The more formal practice is for " the person
who pledges with the loving cup to stand up and bow to his neighbour, who, also standing, removes the
cover with his right hand, and holds it while the other drinks; a custom said to have originated in the
precaution to keep the right, or 'dagger-hand,' employed, that the person who drinks may be assured
of no treachery, hke that practised by Ellrida on the unsuspecting King Edward the Martyr, at Corfe
Castle, who was slain while drinking. This was why the loving cup possessed a cover."— JP. W,
Fairholt, F.S.A.
396 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
HALLS OF THE GREAT COMPANIES,
IN THEIR OEDEE OF PRECEDENCY.
1. Mergers' Hall.— The Mercers is generally referred to as " the most ancient
of all the great leading companies." But several are of greater antiquity, although
the Mercers Company takes precedence of rank.
Charter
Order of Precedence. granted.
No. 19. Bakers 1307
Charter
Order of Precedeiice. granted .
No. 1. Mercers 1393
No. 2. Grocers 1345
No. 4. Fishmonj^ers 1384
No. 5. Goldsntiiths ) tqot
No. 6. Skinners j ^^"^^
No. 25. Saddlers 1280
No. 26. Carpenters 1319
No. 42. Weavers 1164
No. 88. Parish Clerks 1232
Mercers' Hall, Cheapside, between Ironmonger-lane and Old Jewry, occupies the
site of the ancient hospital of St. Thomas Aeon's, whereon the Mercers first settled in
London, hence called " the Mercery." On the site of the present entrance to the
Hall from Cheapside stood the house of Gilbert Becket, father of Becket, Archbishop
of Canterbury; after whose murder his sister Agnes and her husband built
here a chapel and hospital, destroyed in the Great Fire. Soon after were built upon
the same site the , present Hall and Chapel ; the front of the latter, by Wren, now
only remains : above the ornamented doorway are cherubim mantling the Virgin's
head, the cognisance of the Company ; the front has also figures of Faith, Hope, and
Charity ; the whole in stone kept in handsome repair.* The chapel is at the extremity
of the ante-chapel ; over which, upon Doric columns, is the hall, handsomely wains-
coted and carved : here are held the Gresham Committees. Among the paintings are
original portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Dean Colet ; and a fanciful portrait of
Whittington. Among the Mercers' Trust-estates are St. Paul's and Mercers' Schools.
Of the Mercers' Company there have been several kings, princes, and nobility ; and to 1708, ninety-
eight had been lord mayors, and one as early as 1214; Richard II., who granted the first charter in
1393, was a mercer ; as were also Whittington and the illustrious Gresham. Among the Company's
documents are a curious illustration of Whittington dying (ordinances of his college), and portraits of
the first three wardens. In 1513, the Mercers possessed Conduit Mead, now covered by New Bond-
street, which, had they retained, it would more than quadruple the value of all their present estates.
(Herbert.) Among their property is the north side of Long Acre (about 8^ acres), and the adjacent
streets, including Mercer-street; in 1650, "part of the possessions of Charles Stuart, late King of Eng-
land, for which the warden and company tlien paid to the Crown 138. 4d. per annum. There is scarcely
a single mercer in the Company at the present day." (Herbert.) Sir Baptist Hicks (founder of the
Campden family) was a great mercer in Cheapside, who supplied the Court when James I. and " his
bare Scotch nobility and gentry came in :" he built the first Hicks's Hall, and was one of the first citizens
that after knighthood kept their shops.
The Mercers' Company lend money to livery-raen, or freemen, without interest, upon approved
security. The Company also established the first insurance office for lives, in 1698. (Hatton.) The
Golden Lectureship is in their gift. William Caxton, England's first printer, was a liveryman of this
Company.
The Mercers' Election-Cup, of early sixteenth-century work, is silver-gilt, decorated
with fretwork and female busts ; the feet, flasks ; and on the cover is the popular
legend of an unicorn yielding its horn to a maiden. The whole is enamelled with coats
of arms and these lines : —
" To elect the master of the mercerie hither am I sent.
And by Sir Thomas Leigh for the same intent."
The Company also possess a silver-gilt Wagon and Tun, covered with arabesques and
enamels, of sixteenth-century work. The Hall was originally decorated with carvings ;
the main stem of deal, the fruit, flowers, &c., of lime, pear, and beech ; these becoming
worm-eaten, were, long since, removed from the panelling, and put aside, but they
have been restored by Mr. Henry Crace, who thus describes the process :
" The carving is of the same colour as when taken down. I merely washed it, and with a gimlet
bored a number of holes in the back, and into every projecting piece of fruit and leaves, on the face, and
placing the whole in a long trough, 15 inches deep, 1 covered it with a solution prepared in the following
manner :— 1 took 16 gallons of linseed oil, with 2 lbs. of litharge, finely ground, 1 lb. of camphor, and
2 lbs. of red lead, which I boiled for six hours, keeping it stirred, that every ingredient might be per-
fectly incorporated. I then dissolved 6 lbs. of beeswax in a gallon of spirits of turpentine, and mixed
the whole while warm, thoroughly together.
"In this solution the carving remained for twenty-fotir hours. When taken out, I kept the face
* In a shop in the porch of Mercers' Chapel, Guy (founder of Guy's Hospital) was apprenticed to a
bookseller in 1660 j and the house, rebuilt after the Great Fire, was rented by Guy, then a master-
bookseller.
J
SALL-GEOGERS: 397
downwards, that the oil in the hole m\^\\i soak down to the face of the carving-, and on cutting some of
the wood nearly 9 inches deep, I found it had soaked through ; for not any of the dust was blown out,
as I considered it a valuable medium to form a substance for the future support of the wood ; this has
been accomplished, and as the dust became saturated with the oil, it increased in bulk, and rendered the
carving perfectly solid."
2. Grocers' Hall, Grocers' Hall-court, Poultry — anciently, " Conningsliop-lane,'*
i.e. cony-sliop-lane, from the sign of three conies (rabbits), hanging over a poulterer's
stall at the lane end— is the third edifice built for fciie Company, upon " voide grounde
sum tynie the Lord Fitzwalter's halle :" the first was completed in 1428, in a large
garden, and had an ancient turret, probably part of the Fitzwalter mansion, and one of
the oldest buildings witliin the City walls. This Hall was let " for dinners, funerals,
county feasts, and weddings;" in 1641, "the Grand Committee of Safety" removed its
sittings from Guildhall here ; Cromwell and Fairfax were feasted here by the Grocers ;
and at the Restoration, Gen. Monk. In the Great Fire, the roof and woodwork of the
Hall only were destroyed ; the old walls were then newly roofed, and in 1668-9, the
parlour and dining-room were rebuilt by Sir John Cutler, four times master of the
Company, who passed him " a strong vote of thanks," and his statue and picture, thus
proving Cutler to have been the reverse of the miser described by Pope, whose satire,
however, has reached far beyond the Grocers' gratitude. The old Hall, which had
" a Gothic front and bow-windows," was renovated, in 1681, by Sir John Moore, who
kept his mayoralty at Grocers' Hall, and paid the Company 200^. rent ; and it was let
for the same object till 1735. The Bank of England held their courts here from 1694
to 1734. The present Hall was built upon the ancient site between 1798 and 1802*
(T. Leverton, architect), and thoroughly repaired in 1827, when the statue of Sir John
Cutler, weather-beaten in the garden, was renovated, and removed into the Hall ; and
the garden-front was enriched with the arms of the Company on each side their crest,
and a loaded camel, emblematic of the ancient conveyance of the grocer's commodities.
The Hall is spacious, and has a music-gallery : here are Cutler's portrait, a fine picture;
portraits of Sir John Moore and Sir John Fleet : and on the staircase are the Com-
pany's arms, painted on glass by Willement. The Grocers munificently support various
free schools, almshouses, exhibitions, &c. ; and the gifts for loans to poor members
amount to 4670^.
The Grocers' Company, originally Pepperers, next united with the Apothecaries, was incorporated
by Edward III., in 1435, as *• the Mystery of Grocers :" among other privileges, they possessed the
management of the Kings' Beam, at the Weighing-house. Charles II. and William III. were masters of
the Company; and among the eminent Grocers were the Duke of York, afterwards James II.; George
Monk, Duke of Albemarle ; and Sir Philip Sidney, at whose funeral the Company rode in procession. In
the reign of Henry IV., twelve aldermen were of the Grocers' Company at the same time. The frater-
nity also boasts of the patriotic Sir John Philpot; John Churchman, who founded the Custom House;
Thomas Knoles, who began the Guildhall; Sir John Crosby, of Crosby House; Sir William Laxton,
founder of Oundle School ; and Laurence Shireff", of Rugby; besides the viUfied Sir John Cutler. The
Company sold their plate in aid of the defence of the City in the Civil Wars, and were famed for their
loyal and costly pageants. In the Great Fire, they lost nearly all their property, except a few tenements
in Grub-street, when they assembled in the turret-house in their garden : their Hall was once seized for
debt, in part from loans made to the City -, but the Grocers, like the rest of the Companies, recovered
their position before the Eevolution of 1688 ; and in the year after, William became sovereign master of
the Grocers. By a charter of Henry VI., confirmed by Charles I., the wardens of the Company, or their
deputies, could, like modern excisemen, enter druggists', apothecaries', and confectioners', as well as
grocers* shops, and impose fines, and even imprisonment, for deceits ; always seizing the spurious articles.
The statutes of the ancient Pepperers (mentioned temp. Henry II., and probably a guild long before)
exist among the City archives. The Grocers first existed as a sort of club. Twenty-two Pepperers in
Sopers-lane, Cheapside (now a part of Queen-street), on the 12th of June, 1345, after dinner, elected two
of their number wardens, and appointed a chaplain to celebrate divine offices for their souls. Every
member at the feast subscribed Is. to pay for it, and contributions were then made towards the
chaplain's salary.
The Grocers met in 1345 and 1346, at the town-mansion of the Abbot of Bury, in
St. Mary Axe, now Bevis Marks ; in 1347, " at the abbot's place of St. Edmund /' in
1348, " at the house of one Fulgeman, called the Ryngdehall," near Garlickhythe j
where, and at the hotel of the abbot of St. Cross, they continued till 1383, when they
took up their temporary residence in Bucklersbury, at the Cornets' Tower, used by
Edward III. as his exchange of money and exchequer. The hall is spacious, and has a
music gallery ; the feasts of the Company being noted for their orchestra.
* The garden was then nearly severed in half for enlarging Prince's-street. For this latter slice,
which tost the Grocers 31i. 17«. M. in 1433, the Company received from the Bank of England more than
20,000Z. (Herbert.)
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Mr. John Gougli Nichols, in a communication to Notes and Queries, Second S., xi.
p. 352, notes Grocers' Hall being used for the Lord Mayor's Feast in 1682 : —
" This was the first time, as far as I have seen, that the City feasters deserted Guildhall on Lord
Mayor's day. It appears to be attributable to the perturbed state of politics. It is remarkable that
Grocers' Hall should be preferred to that of the Merchant-Taylors, although the Lord Mayor [Sir William
PritchardJ belonged to the latter Company, and the spaciousness of their hall is well known. The
choit-e of Grocers' Hall was probably directed by its convenient situation. It was used annually for the
feast from this time [1682] till 1695, with a few exceptions, when the King came or was expected. In
1695, and two following years. Skinners' Hall was employed. Then Guildhall till 1703 ; in which, and
the two following years, and perhaps more. Drapers' Hall was adopted." — London Fageants, 8vo,
1831, p. 118.
" 1 have not means readily at hand to trace further the locality of the Lord Mayor's feast after 1705 ;
but at the period previously in question, in the reigns of Charles II., James II., and William, Grocers'
Hall was in fact the mansion-house, or residence of the Lord Mayor during his year of office. In Some
Account of the Ghroeers' Company, privately printed by John Benj. Heath, Esq., F.R.S. and S.A., it is
distinctly stated at p. 31 (second edition, 1854), that after the Hall had been repaired and considerably
enlarged, subsequently to the Great Fire, Sir John Moore, who had contributed the sum of 500?.
towards the cost, " was the first Chief Magistrate who [in 16811 kept his Mayoralty at Grocers' Hall
[but his feast at Guildhall], and he paid the Company a nett rent of 200Z. for the use of it. It continued
to be let for the same object for many years ; and in 1735, as the Company's circumstances had much
improved, it was ordered by the Court of Assistants that the haU should not, for the future, be let but
to a Lord Mayor attached to the Company."
" But the year 1735 is not the date of the cessation of the occupancy of Grocers' Hall as the
mansion-house ; for it had been converted forty years before to a purpose which some will esteem still
important. On the 4th Oct. 1694, it was demised for eleven years to the Bank of England, then first
established ; and it continued to be so employed during forty years, until the Bank removed to Thread-
needle-street in 1734 : so that the resolution of the Court of the Grocers in 1735, above quoted from
Mr. Heath, was consequent upon the repairs of their hall which ensued after it was vacated by the
Bank of England, not by the Lord Mayors."
John Dunton, the famous bookseller, of the Poultry, dined at the Lord Mayor's
Feast at Grocers' Hall, in 1693, when his Lordship sent " a nolle spoon" to
each guest's wife. It is still usual, in some Companies, for a spoon and fork of
bone to accompany the service of dried fruit and confectionery provided for the same
purpose.
3. Deapees' Hall is in Throgmorton-street, where the Company settled in 1541, in
a large mansion built temp. Henry VIIL, " in the place of olde and small tenements,
by Thomas Cromwell, Mayster of the King's Jewel-house," and afterwards Earl of
Essex J upon whose attainder, the property was purchased by the Drapers and made
their " Common Hall," till about the period of the Great Fire, which was here stopped
in its progress northward.
Stow relates that his father had a garden adjoining Cromwell's, and close to his south pale a house,
which, by the Mayster's order, was removed upon rollers, so as to gain a strip of ground, as Cromwell
had taken from other neighbours. " No man," says Stow, " durst go to argue the matter, but each man
lost his land, and my father payed his whole rent, which was vjs. vijd. the yeare, for that halfe which
was left. Thus much of mine owne knowledge have I thought good to note, that the sodaine rising of
some men causeth them to forget themselves."
Cromwell's House is figured on Aggas's plan with four embattled turrets. The
garden, which is well kept up to this day, became celebrated in 1551, when the pleasant
country lay open in its rear nearly all the way to Hampstead and Highgate. {See
Gardens, p. 366.)
Although the Fire of London stopped at Drapers' Hall, it was " all consumed to
ashes ;" but the Company's property was saved by removing it into the garden, and
" watching it ther for seaven days and nights." The Hall was rebuilt by Jarmau, but
nearly destroyed by fire in 1774, after which it was partly rebuilt (as we now see it)
by the brothers Adam. It consists of a quadrangle surrounded by an ambulatory of
arches and columns j the front in Throgmorton-street is highly enriched with stone-
work; the Drapers' arms over the gateway have for supporters lions instead of
leopards. On the noble stone staircase is a marble bust of King George IV. The Hall
ceiling is embellished with Phaeton and the signs of the zodiac ; the screen is curiously
carved, and above it is a fine portrait of Lord Nelson by Beechey : over the master's
chair is a half-length portrait on panel (in oil, and therefore not contemporary) of Fitz-
Alwin, the first Mayor of liondon, whom the Drapers claim as of their Company, whereas
Stow and other w^riters describe him of the Goldsmiths'. In the wainscoted gallery
are full-length portraits of the English sovereigns from William III. to George IV.,
the last by Lawrence ; with the celebrated whole-length of Mary Queen of Scots and
her son James L, ascribed to Zucchero, traditionally said to have been thrown over the
b:all-brapebs\ 399
wall into the Drapers' garden during the Tire of London, and never afterwards owned :
it has been copied by Spiridione Roma, and engraved by Bartolozzi.
" There is another tradition of this picture : that Sir Anthony Babington, confidential Secretary to
Queen Mary, had her portrait, which he deposited for safety either at Merchant-Tailors' Hall or Drapers*
Hall, and that it had never come back to Sir Anthony or his family. It has been insinuated that Sir
William Boreman, clerk to the Board of Green Cloth in the reign of Charles II., purloined this picture
from one of the royal palaces. Some have suggested that it is the portrait of Lady Dulcibella Boreman,
the wife of Sir WUUam j but the style and costume are much older." — The Crypt, No. 4, 1827.
In the Court-room is a marble bas-relief of the Company receiving their charter. In
the ladies' chamber, balls are given. In the Livery-room, among other portraits, is a
three-quarter length of Sir Robert Clayton, by Kneller, 1680 ; and a small portrait of
Thomas Bagshaw (d. 1794), beadle to the Company forty years. The windows of this
room look into the private garden, where are a fountain and statue.
The Drapers' Company was founded in 1332, and incorporated in 1364 ; they possess seven original
charters, finely written, and claim to reckon more lord mayors than any other Company,— Strype states
87 years'. Their grant of arms, in 1439, is the only document of its kind of so early a date ; the
Heralds' College possessing none of the arms of the London Livery Companies, The Drapers' grant is
kept at the British Museum, and contains illustrative historical notices of the Company ; and the books
continue its history for above two centuries. In the Wardens' accounts are apprentice-fees, called " Spoon.
Silver;" "potacions at our Lady Fair in Southwark," &c. In an entry of 1485, pippins are first men-
tioned; 1491, "the aldermen of the taylo's were treated with brede and wine at Drapers' halle:"
1494, "for cresset-staffs and banners, and bread, ale, and candell, in keeping xij. days' watch after the
riot at the Steel-yard," lis, 9^^. ; " for a barge two times to the Shene (Richmond), to speak wth the
King;" 1496, the Drapers "riding to the king at Woodstock," accompanied by "Mr. Recorder, Mr.
Fabyan," and other eminent persons ; 1509, 114^. " for xij. torches for the beryall of King Henry the
Vllth, weighing ccxxlb* and 1 quartr; 1521, the Drapers took the lead in settling the contribution
required by the Government from the Great Companies towards furnishing ships of discovery under
the command of Sebastian Cabot.
The Company had " the Drapers' EU" granted to them by Edward III., for measuring the cloth sold
at St. Bartholomew's and Southwark fairs; it bore the name of "the Yard," "the Company's standard,"
&c. In the entries for relief " to those fallen in poverty," 1526, is ijs. and iiijd. to Sir Laurence Aylraer,
one of the Drapers, two or three times Master of the Company, Sheriff 1501, and Lord Mayor 1507-8.
The Dress or Livery of this Company varied more than that of any other, and the colours were
changed at almost every election until temp. James I., when a uniform livery was adopted ; their ob-
servances consisting of election ceremonies, funerals, obits, and pageantries at state and civic triumphs.
At their last public procession in 1751, their poor carried a pair of shoes and stockings, and a suit of
clothes, an annual legacy.
The Drapers had a Hall in St. Svvithin's-lane, Cannon-street, whither they removed
from Cornhill. The St. Swithin's-lane Hall is first mentioned in 1405 ; when we find
entered " a hammer to knock upon the table," the great parlour, the " high table" of
the dining-hall (then strewed with rushes), the ladies' chamber, and the chekker cham-
ber, all which at feasts were hung with tapestry ; the kitchen had three fire-places.
The ladies' chamber (an apartment which the Drapers still retain) was solely for the
sisters of the fraternity, and in which they occasionally had separate dinners, instead
of mixing with the company in the hall. The married ladies only, and those of the
highest class, were the guests, " the chekker chamber being for maydens." A ladies'
feast in 1515 included brawn and mustard, capon boiled, swan roasted, pyke, venison
baked and roast, jellies, pastry, quails, sturgeon, salmon, and wafers and ipocras.
The Drapers thus early gave more splendid feasts than any other Company, their
guests usually being the dignified and conventual clergy ; including the abbot of Tower
Hill, the prior of St. Mary Overy, Christchurch, and St. Bartholomew ; the provincial
and the prior of " Freres Austyn's," the masters of St. Thomas Aeon's and St. Law-
rence Pulteney. The sisters formed part of the usual guests, as did also the wives of
members, whether enrolled amongst them or not : and visitors of high rank were per-
sonally waited on by the heads of the Company. Among the items of the Midsummer
Feast, 1514-15, is perhaps the earliest mention oi players as companies : " To Johan
Slye and his company, for ij. plays on Monday and Tewsday," including " Robert
Williams, the Harp, and Henry Colet, the Lut, iiij*." Among the rules " for the syt-
tyng in y^ halle" was, " No brother of the frat'nite to presume to sytte at any table in
the halle tyll the mayr and the states have wasshed and be sett at the hygh table, on
peyne of iij^. iiijV
The Drapers' Company have very large estates, and are trustees of numerous bene-
ficent bequests, besides Almshouses. There are many females free of the Company,
who invariably come on the list to participate iu the charities. The Earls of Bath and
400 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Essex, the Barons Wotton, and the Dukes of Chandos, derive their descent from mem-
bers of the Drapers' Company.
Drapers' Hall had long been the usual rendezvous on Lord Mayor's day, according
to the poetical programme of the show repeated in many of Jordan's Pageants: —
"Selected Citizens i' th' morning all
At seven o'clock do meet at Drapers' Hall."
And in much earlier times the feast had been held there, until some new kitchens were
completed at Guildhall in 1501.
4. FiSHMONGEEs' Hall, at the north-west foot of London Bridge, was rebuilt by
Koberts in 1830-3, and is the third of the Company's Halls nearly on this site, part of
which was then purchased at the rate of 630,000^. per acre. It is raised upon a lofty
basement cased with granite, and containing fireproof warehouses, which yield a large
rental. The river front has a balustraded terrace, and a Grecian-Ionic hexastyle and
pediment. The east or entrance front is enriched with pilasters and columns, and has
in the attic the arms of the Company, and two bas-reliefs of sea-horses. The entrance-
hall is separated from the great staircase by a screen of polished Aberdeen granite
columns j and at the head of the stairs is a statue, carved in wood by E. Pierce, of Sir
William Walworth, a Fishmonger, who carries a dagger.
In his hand was formerly a dagger, said to be the identical weapon with which he stabbed Wat
Tyler, though in 1731 a publican of Islington pretended to possess the actual poniard. Beneath the
statue is the inscription :
" Brave Walworth, knight, lord-mayor, yt slew
Rebellious Tyler in his alarmes ;
The King, therefore, did give in liew
The dagger to the City armes.
In the 4th year of Richard II. anno Domini 1381."
A common but erroneous belief was thus propagated : for the dagger was in the City arms long
before the time of Sir William Walworth, and was intended to represent the sword of St. Paul, the
patron saint of the Corporation,
The reputed dagger of Walworth, which has lost its guard, is preserved by the Company : the
workmanship is of Walworth's period. The weapon now in the hand of the statue (which is spmewhat
picturesque, and in our recollection was coloured en costume) is modern.
The Company has numbered about fifty lord mayors, among whom was Sir William
Walworth, who, in his second mayoralty, slew Wat Tyler, commemorated in a pageant
in 1740 by a personation of Walworth, dagger in hand, and the head of Wat Tyler
carried on a pole. Next among the lord mayors was Sir Stephen Foster, who rebuilt
Ludgate prison ; also. Sir Thomas Abney, the friend of Dr. Isaac Watts. Dogget, the
comedian, was a Fishmonger ; and his bequest of a coat and a silver badge is in the
direction of this Company, who have added four money-prizes.
Thomas Dogget, who wrote The Country Wake, a comedy, 1696, was born in Castle-street, Dublin.
He first appeared on the Dublin stage; and subsequently, with Robert Wilks and CoUey Cibber, became
joint-manager of Drury-lane Theatre. He was a friend of Congreve, who wrote for him the characters
of Fondlewife in the Old Bachelor, and Ben in Looe for Love. Dogget's style of acting was very origi-
nal, and he was an excellent dresser. He died in 1721, and being a staunch Whig, bequeathed a sum
of money to purchase a coat and silver badge, to be rowed for on the Thames on the 1st of August
annually, to commemorate the accession of the House of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain:
*• Tom Dogget, the greatest sly drole in his parts,
In acting was certain a master of arts ;
A monument left— no herald is fuller,
His praise is sung yearly by many a sculler ;
Ten thousand years hence, if the world* lasts so long,
Tom Dogget will still be the theme of their song;
When old Noll, with great Lewis and Bourbon, are forgot,
And when numberless kings in oblivion shall rot."
Written on a window-pane at Lamheth, August 1, 1736.
The Garrick Club possess an original portrait of Dogget. {See p. 249.)
The Court dining and drawing rooms face the river, of which they have a fine view»
with the Kent and Surrey hills. The banqueting-hall is 73 feet by 38 feet, and 33
feet high, and has Sienna scagliola Corinthian pilasters, between which are suspended
the arms of the benefactors and past prime-wardens of the Company ; at one end of
the hall are the royal arms, and opposite, those of the Fishmongers, in stained glass :
on the front of the music-gallery are emblazoned the arms of the City and Twelve
Great Companies : this introduction of heraldic insignia in a Grecian hall, being novel
but very striking, and especially when lighted up by eight chandeliers. Among the
I
HALL— FISHMONGERS*. 401
Cv/riosities, besides Sir W. Walworth's dagger, is liis funeral-pall, of clotli-of-gold ; the
sides embroidered with the Saviour giving the Keys to St. Peter, and the Fishmongers*
Arms ; and the ends with the Deity and ministering Angels : here, too, is a plan of the
show at Walworth's installation as mayor, probably the oldest representation of a lord
mayor's show extant. Here also are eight curious pictures of fish, by Spiridione Roma,
skilfully grouped and correctly coloured. Among the portraits are William III. and
Queen, by Murray ; George II. and Queen, by Shackleton ; the Duke of Kent and
Admiral Earl St. Vincent, by Beechey ; and Queen Victoria, by Herbert Smith. Here
also is preserved the old flag presented to Earl St. Vincent by the crew of the Ville de
Faris, in which the shot-holes have been carefully darned over and repaired. In the
Court dining-room is a splendid silver chandelier, made in the year 1754, v/eight
1350 oz. 14 dwts.
The several apartments were re-decorated by Mr. Owen Jones, in 1865.
The presidential chair of the Prime Warden (the Fishmongers have not a Master) is a relic of Old
London Bridge, and commemorative of the new one; bridge piers form the angles, arches support the
seats, and across the back are carved the old and present London Bridges and other Thames bridges.
On a silver plate in the back is inscribed : " This chair vras made by J. Ovenston, 72, Great Titchfield-
street, London, from a design given by the Rev, William Jolliffe, Curate of Colmer, in Hampshire ;
and it was made entirely from the wood and stone taken up from the foundation of Old London
Bridge, in July 1832, having remained there 656 years, being put down, in June 1176, by the builder,
Peter, a priest, who was Vicar of Colechurch; and 'tis rather curious that a priest should begin the
bridge, and, after so long a period, that a parson should clear it entirely away." Upon the seat of the chair
is incised: " I am part of the first stone that was put down for the foundation of Old London Bridge, iii
June 1176, by a priest named Peter, who was Vicar of Colechurch, in London; and I remained there
imdisturbed, safe on the same oak piles this chair is made from, till the Rev. William John Jolliffe, Curate
of Colmer, Hampshire, took me up in July, 1832, when clearing away the old bridge, after New London
Bridge was completed."
The Fishmongers were incorporated 500 years since, and they existed as a guild two centuries earlier.
By letters patent 10th of July, 37 Edward IIL (1364), the fraternity was incorporated anew, by the name
of the Mystery of the Fishmongers of London. They were among the earliest of the metropolitan
guilds, and were amerced in the reign of Henry II. The earliest Parliamentary enactment on our
statute-books relative to fish is that of 1 Edward I., who was glorified, on his return from his Scottish
victory, in 1298, witli a most splendid pageant by the Fishmongers, in which figured gilt sturgeons and
silver salm.on, and a thousand horsemen. In the year before their incorporation the Company had made
Edward III. a present of money towards carrying on his French wars, the sum being 40l, only one
pound less than the Mercers, the highest Company. In 1382, Parliament enacted that " no Fishmonger
should for the future be admitted Mayor of the City," which prohibition was, however, removed next
year. Before the union of the Salt and Stock Fishmongers, they had " six several Halls : in Thames- street,
twain ; in New Fish-street, twain ; and in Old Fish-street, twain." {Stow.) Next, the Fishmongers' Com-
pany was formed by the junction of the two Companies of Salt Fishmongers and Stock Fishmongers, and
was incorporated by Henry VIII., in 1536.
The first Hall of the joint Company in Thames-street, in Hollar's view, 1647, has a
dining-hall across the original quadrangle : the whole pile was of stone, embattled, and
reaching to the water's edge ; it had Tudor-shaped windows and square wing-towers,
and altogether resembled a castle. In the Great Fire,
" A key of fire ran all along the shore.
And frighten'd all the river with a blaze." — Dryden's Annus Mirdbilis.
The Hall was entirely destroyed, but was rebuilt in 1674, not by Wren, as generally
stated, but by Jarman, as proved by the Company's books : this edifice had a stately
river-front, with an entrance from Thames-street, and was taken down in 1831, the
Company having sold a portion of the land to the City for the new London Bridge
approach. The cellars had been let as " Wine Shades," from the year 1697, the entrance
being from the quay : here " the citizens drank their genuine old port and sherry,
drawn from the casks, and viewed the bridge-shooters and boat-racers." The " Shades'*
were subsequently removed to the house of Alderman Garratt, who, as Lord Mayor, laid
the first stone of the present London Bridge.
Among the Trust-estates and Charities of the Company is St. Peter's Hospital, origin-
ally erected at Newington, but taken down in 1851, and rebuilt on Wandsworth Common.
{See Almshouses, p. 8.)
The Stock Fishmongers, from the earliest times, adopted St. Michael's Church, Crooked-
lane (rebuilt and enlarged by their two eminent members, John Lovekyn and William
Vv'alworth), as their general burial-place, to which they added "the Fishmongers'
Chapel." St. Michael's was destroyed in the Great Fire, was rebuilt by Wren, but
was taken down in 1831 for the new London Bridge approach.
The history of the Fishmongers abounds with curious details of their trade and
D i>
402 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
mystery ; and their regulations, even to the crying of fish, are very minute. The ancient
market can be traced. The Fishmongers' statutes have not entirely fallen into desue-
tude : they had power in early times " to enter and seize bad fish ;" and to this day two
inspectors are employed by the Company, and report to the Court the number of unwhole-
some fish destroyed. The Charter by which the Company is now governed was granted
in the reign of James I. The property of tlie Fishmongers has greatly increased in
value J and the Charity Commissioners, at their latest visitation, bore testimony to the
excellent administration of the funds of the Company. Curious it is to look back at
the empty enactment of 500 years since, " that no Fishmonger be Lord Mayor of this
City,'' and contrast it with the records which show that more than fifty of the Company
have been Lord Mayors. Stow tells us of " these Fishmongers having been jolly
citizens, and six Mayors of their Company in the space of twenty-four years ;" and ia
our time Aldermen Sir Matthew Wood and Mr. William Cubitt, Fishmongers, each
filled the civic chair twice, in successive years.
On Feb. 12, 1863, the Prince of Wales took the first step towards becoming a member
of the Corporation of the City of London, by taking up his freedom of the Company of
Fishmongers, of which his Royal Highness's father and grandfather were also freemen.
On July 10, 1864, the Company had been incorporated 500 years : the day was Sun-
day ; and, on Tuesday following, the event was celebrated by a festival at Fishmongers*
Hall, the Prime Warden, Mr. James Spicer, presiding, and prefacing the toast of the
evening with a precis of the history of the Company.
5. Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster-lane, Cheapside, back of the General Post OflBce,
built by Philip Hardwick, R.A., 1832-35, is the most magnificent City Hall, and the
third erected for the Company on this site j its cost being defrayed without trenching
on their funds for charitable purposes. The architecture is Italian, seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries ; the building is 180 feet in front and 100 feet in depth, com-
pletely insulated ; the basement is Haytor granite, and the superstructure fine Portland
stone. The west or principal fa9ade has six attached Corinthian columns, the whole
height of the front, supporting a rich Corinthian entablature and bold cornice of extra-
ordinary beauty, continued all round the building. The east, north, and south fronts
are decorated with pilasters, which also terminate the angles. The plinth is 6 feet
high, and some of the blocks in the column-shafts and entablature weigh from 10 to
12 tons each. The windows of the principal story have enriched and bold pediments,
supported by handsome trusses, and the centre windows have massive balustraded
balconies : the echinus moulding in this story is much admired. The intercolumnia-
tions of the centre above the first floor, in place of the continuation of the windows of
the second story, have the Company's arms, festal emblems, and naval and military
trophies, floridly sculptured. The entrance-door is a rich specimen of cast-work ; the
Hall roof is entirely covered with lead.
This noble Hall is disadvantageously placed, but its sumptuous architecture is best
appreciated when seen from the rear of the Post Office. The interior is correspondingly
superb : from the vestibule branches right and left a grand staircase, on the balustrade
of which are four marble statuettes of the Seasons by Nixon ; in the central niche is a
marble bust of William IV. by Chantrey ; and above are portraits — of George IV. by
NorChcote ; and George III. and his Queen, by Ramsay. The ascent is to a gallery,
with screens of scagliola verde antique columns, between which are statues of Apollo
Belvidere and Diana and the hart ; from the dome hangs a magnificent chandelier : the
effect of the whole is fascinating and scenic, particularly when viewed through the four
piles of columns. The banqueting-hall, 80 by 40 feet, and 35 feet high, has a range of
Corinthian columns along its sides, which are raised on pedestals and insulated. The five
lofty and arched windows are filled with armorial bearings ; and at the north end is a
spacious alco\'e for the display of plate, lighted from above. On the sides is a large
mirror, with busts of George III. and IV. by Chantrey. Between the columns are
lofty portraits of Queen Adelaide, by M. A. Shee; and William IV. and Queen
Victoria, by Hayter. The Court-room has an elaborate stucco ceiling ; and here, be-
neath glass, is preserved a Roman altar (sculptured with figures of Apollo and a dog,
and a lyre), which was found in digging the foundations of the present Hall. In the
Court-room is Janssen's portrait of Sir Hugh Myddelton (a Goldsmith), who brought
HALL— GOLDSMITHS'. 403
the New Eiver to London : the picture is in the style of Vandyck ; Sir Hugh wears a
black habit, his hand rests upon a shell, and near him is inscribed " Fontes Fodinae."
Next is a portrait (said by Holbein), of Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor 1545, intro-
ducing the cup he bequeathed to the Goldsmiths' Company : here also hangs a large
painting of St. Dunstan (patron of the Goldsmiths), in rich robe, and crozier in hand ;
in the background the saint is taking the devil by the nose, and the heavenly host ap-
pears above : the marble chimney-piece of this room was brought from Canons, and its
two large terminal busts are attributed to Ronbiliac. The drawing-room (crimson,
white, and gold), has immense mirrors, and a ceiling exquisitely wrought with flowers,
fruits, birds, quadrupeds, and scroll-work, relieved with gay coats of arms. The Court
dining-room has in the marble chimney-piece two boys holding a vn-eath, encircling the
head of Richard II., by whom the Goldsmiths' incorporation was confirmed.
In the Livery tea-room is a conversation-picture by Hudson (Reynolds's master),
containing portraits of six Lord Mayors, all Goldsmiths : Sir H. Marshall, 1745 ; W,
Benn, 1747; J. Blachford, 1750; R. AUsop, 1752; Edmund Ironside and Sir Thomas
Rawlinson, both in 1754, the former having died during his mayoralty.
The Goldsmiths' Company, anciently the " Gilda Aurifabrorum," was probably of
foreign origin, and was fined as Adulterine, by Henry II. in 1180 : incorporated in
1327, 1st of Edward III. ; the grant being confirmed' by Richard II., in 1392. The
Company have altogether fifteen charters. They purchased the site of their present
Hall, with tenements, in 1323 ; their second Hall was built by Sir Drew Barentyne,
Goldsmith, and Lord Mayor in 1398 : it was hung with Flemish tapestry, representing
the history of St. Dunstan, whose silver-gilt statue stood on the reredos, or screen :
Sir B. Rede, when mayor, gave in this hall a feast, with " a paled park, furnished with
fruitfuU trees and beasts of venery." The Hall, from 1641 tiU the Restoration, was
the Exchequer of the Parliamentarians, wherein was stored up the money accumulated
by sequestrations, or forfeitures of the Royalists' estates, as we read in the news-
papers of that day. The Hall was nearly destroyed in the Great Fire, after which
it was repaired and partly rebuilt. This hall was taken down in 1829 : it was very
large, and the interior was sumptuously decorated.
Cheapside, Old 'Change, Foster-lane, St. Martin's-le-Grand, and the avenues near Goldsmiths' Hall,
were the oldest localities of the goldsmiths' trade ; there were also Gutter-lane, Seynt Marten's, May-
deny ng-!ane, "Westminster, South wark. Bush-lane, Lombard-street, Silver-street, and other places. The
moneyers, or sheremoniers (such as cut out the plates to be stamped), occupied the Old 'Change and
Sermon-lane. The shopkeepers, or sellers of plate, " sat in the High-street of Chepe." The Gold!?mith3
always strove to prevent foreign workmen from settling m London, the best artists being Italians, —
from Cavalini, who made the shrine of Edward the Confessor, to Torregiano, the maker of the superb
brazen monument of Henry VII, ; and in the fourth year of Edward IV. a trial of skill between English
goldsmiths and foreign ones took place at the Pope's-Head Tavern, Cornhill (now Pope's-Head-alley),
which was adjudged in favour of our workmen. Various entries show the Company to have been both
operative goldsmiths and at the same time bankers.
Among the mayors of the Goldsmiths' Company were, Gregory de Eokesley (six times mayor) •
Nicholas de Faringdon, appointed mayor in 1308 by Edward II., "as long as it pleased him;" Sir
John Chace, M.P., and Bartholomew Rede; Sir Martin Bowes, who lent Henry VIII. 300^.: Sir
Eobert Vyner ; Sir John Shorter ; Sir Francis Child, banker ; and Sir Charles Duncombe.
The Goldsmiths' Pageants were of old very costly; they formerly maintained a
Bplendid barge, and they possess a rich pall or hearse-cloth. St. Dunstan's image, of
silver-gilt, set with gems, once adorned their Hall; and they drank his memory
from " St. Dunstan's Cup."
The Company's plate is very magnificent, and comprises a chandelier of chased gold,
weighing 1000 ounces ; two superb old plates of gold, having on them the arms of
France quartered with those of England, but without those of Hanover ; the cup be-
queathed by Sir Martin Bowes, and out of which Queen Ehzabeth is said to have drunk
at her coronation. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Company awarded lOOOZ. to
the best artists in gold and silver plate ; and, as a further commemoration, resolved to
add to their treasures 5000Z. worth of plate of British manufacture.
The Assai/ possessed by the Goldsmiths' Company compels every article of manufacture in gold or
silver to be marked with the " Hall mark " before it leaves the workman's hands, and authorizes the
Wardens to break whatever article is below standard. The Assay, anciently "the touch," with the
marking or stamping and proving of the coin at " the Trial of the Pix," were privileges conferred on
the Goldsmiths' Company before the statute 28th Edward I. ; and they had an assay-office more than
500 years ago. " The same Act orders all goldsmiths' work to be stamped with the leopard's head, —
that animal, before the adoption of the lion, being the armorial cognisance of England." {Herbert)
" The touch-wardens and assay-master have large steel puncheons and marks of different sizes." The
S D 2
404 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
manner of making the assay is thus : " The assay-master puts a small quantity of silver upon trial in
the fire • and then taking it out again, he, with his exact scales, that will turn with the weight of the
hundredth part of a grain, computes and reports the goodness or badness of the gold and silver."—
Touchstone for Goldsmiths' Waret. ^, t. ^ i. t j t. ^ 7 • i-i.
The Ball mark shows where manufactured, as the leopard's head for London. Duty mark is the
head of the sovereign, showing the duty is paid. Bate mark is a letter of the alphabet, which varies
every year • thus, the Goldsmiths's Company have used, from 1716 to 1755, Roman capital letters ;
1756 to 1775, small Roman letters; 1776 to 1795, Old English letters; 1796 to 1815, Roman capital letters,
from A to U, omitting J; 1816 to 1835, small Roman letters, a to u, omitting j ; from 1836, Old English
letters. There are two qualities of gold and silver ; the inferior is mostly in use : the quality marks
for silver are Britannia, or the head of the reigning monarch; for gold, the lion passant, 22 or 18,
which denotes that fine gold is 24-carat, 18 only 75 per cent, gold ; sometimes rings are marked 22.
The Manufacturer's mark is the initials of the maker.
The Company are allowed 2^ per cent., and the fees for stamping are paid in to the Inland Revenue
Office. At Goldsmiths' Hall, m the years 1850 to 1863 inclusive, ihere were assayed and marked 85
22-carat watch cases, 316,347 18-carat, 493 15-carat, 1550 12-carat, 448 9-carat, making a total of 318,923
cases, weighing 467,250 ounces, 6 dwts., 18 grains. The Goldsmiths* Company append a note to this
return, stating that they have no knowledge ofthe value of the cases assayed, except of the intrinsic value
as indicated by the weight and quality of the gold given in the return. The silver watch cases assayed
at the same establishment in the fourteen years numbered 1,139,704, the total weight being 2,302,192
ounces, 19 dwts. In the year 1857, the largest number of cases were assayed out of the fourteen. The
precise' number in that year was 106,860, this being more than 10,000 above any year in the period named.
In a subsequent year the number was only 77,608. A similar note with regard to value is appended to
the return of silver cases as to the gold.
6. Skixners' Hall, Dowgate-hill, rebuilt after the Great Fire, was refronted by
Jupp about 1790 : in the pediment are the Company's arms, and the frieze is orna-
mented with festoons and leopards' heads. The drawing-room is lined with odorife-
rous cedar, carved and enriched, and has been restored by George Moore, F.R.S., who
has also rebuilt the dining-hall, in Italian style with an enriched ceiling, and an Ionic
gallery for minstrels. The pediment bears the Company's arms. The staircase still
displays some of the many ornaments in fashion after the Great Fire. On the walls
above the wainscot are panels for frescoes. Here is the portrait of Sir Andrew Judd,
Skinner, Lord Mayor 1551, and founder of the Tunbridge School, the affairs of
which are managed by the Company.
Among Judd's bequests was his " croft of pasture, called the Sandhills, on the backside of Holborn,"
in the parish of St. Pancras, which probably let for a few pounds at the time ofthe testator's decease,
but is now covered with houses, the ground-rents of which amount to several hundreds a year. At
the expiration ofthe present leases in 1906, the rental of this estate alone will exceed 20,000Z. a-year—
a vast income for a public school." — Britton's Tunbridge Wells, 1832.
The Company also possess much property, especially in Clerkenwell, where, near the
Clerks' Well, was Skinners' Well, around which the skinners of London acted Holy
plays ; one of which, in 1408, lasted eight days, and was " of matter from the Creation
of the World."
The Skinners were incorporated in the first year of Edward III., 1327, and became
a brotherhood in the reign of Richard II. Twenty-nine Lord Mayors have been chosen
from this Company. They have been honoured by the membership of six kings, five
queens, one prince, nine dukes, two earls, and a baron. The existing charter was
granted by James I. : few of the members are now furriers.
Gradually the use of furs by male persons ceased, except in the case of peers and
magistrates for their state robes, ermine for kings, and fur trimmings for liverymen.
The Skinners were proud of the antiquity of their guild, and in 1339 disputed with the
Fishmongers for precedence, and a skirmish ensued. The municipal authorities seized
some of the ringleaders; they were rescued, and the Mayor with his officers mal-
treated, when " these desperate fellows were apprehended, tried, and condemned at
Guildhall, and executed in Cheapside, the king granting an indemnification to the
Mayor." In 1395 they seem to have carried on their business operations in the parish of
St. Mary Axe. Strype says that *' in his days they removed to Budge-row and Walworth.'*
Choosing officers of the Company was thus described to Mr. Herbert : — " The principals
being assembled on the day of election, ten blue-coat boys, with the almsmen and
trumpeters, enter the hall. Three large silver cocks or fowls, so named, are then
brought in and delivered to the Master and Wardens. On unscrewing these pieces of
plate, they are found to form drinking-cups, filled with wine, and from which they
drink. Three caps of maintenance are then brought; the old Master tries on the
first, and finding it will not fit, gives it for trial to those next to him ; failing to fit
any of them, it is then given to the intended new Master, and on its duly fitting, he is
BALL—MEECEANT'TAIL0It8\ 405
then announced with acclamations as the Master-elect. Like ceremonies are repeated
with the other caps on the Wardens."
At a dinner at Fishmongers' Hall, December 9, 1858, the toast of " the City Companies " was ac-
knowledged by Mr. Locke, Si. P., Master of the Skinners' Company, in virtue of an old award by which
the Skinners' Company and the Company of Merchant Tailors took precedence of each other in alter-
nate years. Both these companies were estabUshed in the reign of Edward III., and for a long period
were'at deadly feud on the point of precedence, their processions never meeting in the streets of the
city without a fight. In the reign of Richard III. one of these conflicts was so violent that several
persons were killed on both sides ; in consequence of this event the point at issue was decided by the
Lord Mayor of the time, who made an award by which the two companies were given precedence of
each other alternately, and this old regulation is still observed; according to it Mr. Locke spoke to
the toast, though the representative of the Merchant Tailors' Company was present, Mr. Locke also
stated that the Prime Warden of the Fishmongers 'Company then presiding was lineal descendant of
the Lord Mayor Boddington, who so long ago made the peace-preserving decision.
7. Meechant-Tailoks' Hall, Threadneedle-street, was built by Jarman soon after
the Great Fire. The banqueting-room is the most spacious of the City Companies' Halls,
and has a stately screen and music-gallery. Upon the walls are shields emblazoned
with the Masters' arms, and whole-length portraits of King William and Queen Mary,
and other sovereigns. The Hall has, from an early period, been frequently lent to public
corporations : the " Sons of the Clergy" anniversary meeting is held here ; a splendid
banquet was given here in 1815 to the Duke of Wellington, when he was invested
with the freedom of the Company. Among the great political feasts held here was
the dinner to Sir Robert Peel, May 11, 1835, at which the Duke of Wellington and
many Conservative members of the House of Commons were present.
Among the pictures in the hall, court-room, &c., is a head of Henry VIII. by Paris Bordone ; head
ofCharlesl. ; three-quarter and full-length of Charles II. ; full-lengths of James II. and Queen Anne ;
George III. and his Queen, by Ramsay; the Duke of York, by Lawrence; Lord Chancellor Eldon,
by Briggs ; the Duke of Wellington, by Wilkie : Mr. Pitt, by Hoppner. Here too are portraits of Sir
Thomas White, Master of the Company 1561, founder of St. John's College, Oxford ; portraits of other
lord mayors, Merchant-Tailors ; and a modern picture of Henry VII. presenting his Charter of Incor-
poration, attended by Archbishop Warham, Fox Bishop of Winchester, and Willoughby Lord Brooke.
The Merchant-Tailors, anciently " Taylors and Linen Armourers," arose from a guild dedicated to
St. John Baptist, originally incorporated by Edward IV. in 1466, but re-incorporated in 1503 by
Henry VII., one of its members.
Their first hall, in Threadneedle-street, was the mansion of E. Crepm, and was called the " New
Hal, or Taylers' lune," to distinguish it from their old hall in Basing-lane. This Hall was rebuilt, was
hung with tapestry of St. John Baptist, and had on the screen a silver image of St. John in a tabernacle ;
the windows were painted with armorial bearings ; the floor strewed with rushes ; from the ceiling hung
silk flags and streamers : and on feast-days the tables on tressels were covered with the richest damask
linen and glittering plate. Among the other Hall buildings was the Treasury, in the garden, for plate,
money, securities, &c. : the King's Chamber, for the reception of the royal personages, who visited the
Merchant-Tailors oftener than any other Company ; and the Summer banqueting-room, in the garden.
The Company's armoury is first mentioned in 1600, when there were state-palls and eighteen banners,
besides pavises and pennons. After the Great Fire, from among the Hall ruins was collected the
Company's melted plate (200 lbs. weight of metal), which they sold to begin a fund to rebuild.
One of the most splendid festivals in the old Hall was that given to James I. and
Prince Henry in 1607, when a child " delivered a short speech containing xviii. verses,
devi.-ed by Mr. Ben Johnson;" and "in the Ship which did hang aloft in the Hall were
three rare men and very skilful, who song to his Majesty." James dined in the King's
chamber, where Mr. John Bull, doctor of music, and a brother of the Company, played
a pair of organs all the dinner-time. Then his Majesty came down to the Great Hall,
where " the three rare men in the shippe" sang a song of farewell, which so pleased
the King, that he caused the same to be sung three times over.
The Company are possessed of, and are Trustees to, great estates for noble pur-
poses, besides the eminent School which bears their name. {See Meechant-Tailoes'
School.) In 1664, the scholars acted in the old Hall Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy
of " Lovie's Pilgrimage."
In the list of the distinguished freemen of the Company are eleven sovereigns, about
as many princes of the blood-royal, thirteen dukes, two duchesses, nearly thirty arch'
bishops and bishops, fifteen abbots and priors, and a long list of the nobility.
One of the most eminent tailors (professionally so) was Sir John Hawkwood,
" Johannes Acutus," who " twined his needle into a sword, and his thimble into a
shield," and became " the first general of modern times ; the earliest master, however
imperfect, in the science of Turenne and Wellington." (Hallam's Middle Ages.) Sir
Ealph Blackwell, stated to have been a fellow-apprentice of Hawkwood, and, like him,
knighted for his valour by Edward III., was also a Merchant-Tailor ; as were Speed
406 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and Stow, the historians, both tailors by trade. Stow enjoyed an annuity from
the Company, who keep in repair his monument in the church of St: Andrew, Under-
shaft. (See Chueches, p. 150.)
In the Merchant-Tailors' records, we find this gratifying entry : " 1654, 131. 6«. 8^. given to Ogilby
the poet, free of this Company, on his petition that he had, at much study and expense, translated
Virgil into English metre, with annotations, £ind likewise ^sop's Fables, both which he had presented
to them fairly bound." Herbert's Twelve Cheat Livery Companies, vol.ii. p. 406.
Edward I. granted a licence which recognised the Merchant-Tailors as a guild;
Edward III. granted their first charter, and testified his regard for the Company by
becoming the first of its Eoyal members. His grandson and successor, Richard II.,
and all the sovereigns of the Houses of Lancaster and York (excepting Edward V.),
became honorary freemen of the Company. They also confirmed its charter and ex-
tended its privileges. Henry VII. re-incorporated the Company under its present
title, and presented the new charter to the Master and Wardens from the throne. He
afterwards conferred upon them the great honour of presiding as Master at a festival
held in their Hall. At a subsequent date James I. was entertained here by this
Company on his accession to the English throne ; and his Majesty's two sons, Henry
Prince of Wales and Charles Duke of York (afterwards King Charles I.), were en-
rolled as honorary members. King James II. and Prince George of Denmark were
also honorary members of this ancient fraternity. At a much more recent date, the
Dukes of York and Cambridge, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke
of Kent, and Prince Albert, were admitted to the honourable freedom of this Company ;
and on St. Barnabas Day, June 11, 1863, the Prince of Wales was enrolled a Merchant-
Tailor. The representatives of the old English houses of Stanley, Percy, and Cecil are
honorary members of this Company ; as are Sir John Lawrence and Sir George Pollock;
while death only deprived the Company of the honour of such names as Dalhousie and
the brave and good Havelock being added to the roll.
8. Habeedashees' Hall, No. 8, Gresham-street West, is built upon ground be-
queathed to the Company in the reign of Edward IV. by a worthy citizen and haber-
dasher, with houses and premises, in the whole about half an acre of ground, of which
there is a plan among the Company's documents ; it is now part of Gresham-street
West, nearly opposite Goldsmiths' Hall. The ancient Hall of the Haberdashers, with
many of the Company's records and property of much value, were destroyed in the
Great Fire. This must have been a structure of some magnitude, from the Parliament
Commissioners having held their meetings in it during the Interregnum. The
Hall was destroyed as above, except the strong-room, in which the ancient muni-
ments and plate of the Company were deposited ; these were saved intact on that
occasion, the intensity of the ordeal to which they were exposed being shown to this
day in the molten wax attached to the deeds, though they were inclosed in a place with
Walls seven feet thick during the fire. In the year after the Fire, 1667, the rebuild-
ing of the Hall was commenced by Wren. Herbert says : — " It has nothing to merit
description ; indeed, it much needs rebuilding." The hall was lofty and spacious, had
a screen and music- gallery, and several large glass chandeliers; it was let in winter
for City balls and assemblies. However, Wren's poor work was redeemed by a fine
foliaged ceiling, which was destroyed some years since. There were, besides the
banqueting-room, houses, and offices, and a chapel. In some Corporation improvements
a portion of the front premises of the Hall in Gresham-street was removed to widen
the thoroughfare. A new entrance was then constructed, with two richly-carved oak
staircases ; besides a kitchen, with gas and other cooking-stoves, ovens, &c.
In a great conflagration, September 19, 1864, in which nearly half a million's worth
of property was destroyed, Haberdashers' Hall was damaged to the extent of 10,000^.,
besides the loss of historical relics : it had just been restored at 4000^. cost. Of the
banqueting-hall remained only the four walls, of fine proportions, being about 60 feet
long by 30 feet in width. It was ornamented with portraits by eminent painters, or
benefactors of the Company, and the arms of other distinguished members of the
Guild were emblazoned on the windows. The Hall has been restored. Among the
pictures, which were saved, are portraits of George I., George II., and Queen Caroline,
Prince Frederick, when a youth (father of George III.), and Augusta, his consort ; also
HALLS— 8ALTEBS\ IBOmiONGEBS". 407
portraits of benefactors, including Robert Aske, who left the Company 30,000?. to build
and endow almshouses at Hoxton ; and William Jones, merchant-adventurer, who also
bequeathed 18,000Z. for benevolent purposes. Here are a small statue of Henry VIIT.;
a painting of the Wise Men's Offering ; also a portrait of Sir George Whitmore, Lord
Mayor in 1631, who entertained Charles I. and his Queen in his noble mansion and gar-
dens of Baumes, or Balmes, Kingsland-road, Hoxton. The wrought-iron gates are fine.
The Company's Court books extend only to the reign of Charles I. ; but they possess a
small vellum book of ordinances, which has a good illumination of St. Katherine, the
Haberdashers' patron saint.
The Haberdashers, or Hurrers of old, date their ordinances from 1372, and were incorporated by
Henry VI. in 1447. They were also called Milliners, from dealing in merchandize from Milan. They
were originally a branch of the Mercers, and Lydgate places their stalls together in the Mercery at
Chepe. Here were also haberdashers of hats, as well as of small wares. In the reign of Edward VI.
there were only twelve milliners' shops in all London, but in 1580 the town became full of them; and
this encouragement of foreign manufacture doubtless led to the sumptuary regulations anciently issued
to the Companies and City.
The location of the Company's Charities is denoted in Haberdashers' Place, Street,
and Walk, at Hoxton; Haberdashers' Square, Cripplegate; and Court, Snow-hill.
The original Hospital, built and endowed with Aske's princely bequest, was a truly
Palladian design, by Dr. Robert Hooke, the fellow student of Sir Christopher Wren.
The present Hospital, by Roper, has in the centre a Doric tetrastyle portico leading
to the Hall and Chapel. The lodging-rooms of the almsmen, at Hoxton, are on each
side of a quadrangle, in which is a statue of Aske, whose bequest also includes a
School, in Bunhill-row. The Charities amount to between 3000?. and 4000?. annually.
9. Saltees' Hall, St. Swithin's-lane, Cannon-street, the fifth hall of the Salters'
Company, was rebuilt by Henry Carr, architect, 1823-27 : it has a handsome Ionic
portico, surmounted by the Company's arms. The Great Hall has a music- gallery, and
is hung with banners from the ceiling. Over the doorways are busts of George IIL
and IV., the Duke of York, and Nelson, and Wellington. In the Election Hall are por-
traits of Charles I. ; Adrian Charpentier, painted by himself, 1760 ; and William III.
on horseback. In the waiting-room is preserved the bill of a feast to fifty Salters in 1506
— 11. 13s. 2^d. Their old plate includes a massive silver punchbowl, more than two
hundred years old ; and several loving-cups, one of which has been in the possession of
the Company since the year before the Great Fire.
In the Company's books is a receipt " For to make a moost choyce Paaste of Gamys to be eten at ye
Teste of Chrystemasse " (17th Richard II. a.d. 1394). A pie so made by the Companys cook in 1836
was found excellent. It consisted of a pheasant, hare, and capon ; two partridges, two pigeons, and
two rabbits : all boned and put into paste in the shape of a bird, with the livers and hearts, two
mutton kidneys, forced-meats, and egg-balls, seasoning, spice, catsup, and pickled mushrooms, filled up
with gravy made from the various bones.
The Salters' (Dry Salters) Company was not regularly incorporated till 1558; a
Salter attended the Mayor as chief-butler at the coronation of Richard III., 1483, and
was represented at the coronation of George IV. The original of the Salters' only
printed pageant was sold in Bindley's sale, in 1818, for twenty guineas.
The Salters' ^^5^ Hall was in Bread-street, next their kindred tradesmen the Fish-
mongers, in the Old Fish-market, Knight-rider-street. This Hall was rebuilt. The
Company's third Hall was the town inn or mansion of the Priors of Tortington, pur-
chased in 1641, and afterwards " Oxford-place," from John de Vere, 16th Earl of
Oxford. It adjoined the dwellings of the infamous Empson and Dudley, temp,
Henry VII., who met in the garden of Oxford-place, now Salters' Garden. The fourth
Hall succeeded the Great Fire, and had an arcade opening into the garden ; adjoining
it was Salters'-Hall Meeting-house, rented of the Company, but taken down in 1821.
In the garden, the growth of shrubs and flowers is marvellous, amidst the bricks-and-
mortar and smoke, in the centre of the City : here rhododendrons bloom the second
year ; ferns and ivy flourish ; the medlar and fig fruit well ; dahlias and geraniums
abound ; and bulfinches and sparrows congregate.
10. Ironmongees' Hall, Fenchurch-street, nearly opposite Mark-lane, built by
T. Holden, in 1748, has a handsome stone front, of Italian architecture, with Ionic
pilasters, and a well-proportioned pediment, in which are sculptured the Company's
iirms, &c. From the vestibule, divided by Tuscan columns, a large staircase leads to
408 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the banqucting-hall ; the decorations of which are in Louis Quatorze taste, in Jack-
son's papier-mache and carton-pierre imitative oak, aided by old carvings, and thus
economically effective. The Company's pictures consist chiefly of portraits of benefac-
tors, including Mr. Thomas Betton, a Turkey merchant, who, in 1723-24, left 26,000?.,
half the interest of which was to be expended in ransoming British subjects, captives
in Barbary or Turkey. Here also is a fine portrait of Admiral Lord Viscount Hood, by
Gainsborough, presented by his lordship, in 1783, when he was admitted to the free-
dom of the Company, in testimony of his distinguished naval services. One of the
hall windows contains a very curious whole-length portrait, in painted glass, of Sir
Christopher Draper, date 1639.
The Ironmongers* were first incorporated by Edward IV. in 1464 : their first " House," built upon
the site of the present hall, had a gate-house, the refectory strewed with rushes, court-chamber hung'
with tapestry; and an armoury containing, in 1556, 17 back and breast plates, 17 pair of splints, 12
gorgets, 12 swords, and 11 daggers ; to which were afterwards added corslets, skull-caps and red caps,
black bills, and morris pikes, white coats with red crosses, 14 sheaves of arrows, &c. At the raising qf
the army of the Earl of Essex, in 1642, the Company lent, " to be returned or paied for," 10 russet
armours, 10 pikes, 10 swords with belts, 10 head-pieces, 10 musquets with bandelores and rests, and 10
murrions. In 1523, the Company lent Henry VIII. a large sura of money, by selling some of their plate
and pawning the rest ; and Elizabeth compelled the Company to lend her money, which forced the
citizens to borrow of her at 7 per cent, on pledges of gold and silver plate, &e.
In the list of Masters and Wardens is John London, Esq., 1727, who gave name to
London-street, nearly opposite Ironmongers' Hall. Now Wardens are chosen at the
end of the Election dinner, when the wafers are brought in : —
1671, Sept. 21. " I din'd in the city at the Fraternity Feast in Ironmongers' Hall, where the four
stewards chose their successors for the next yeare, with a solemn procession, garlands about their heads,
and music playing before them ; so coming up to the upper tables where the gentlemen sate, they drank
to the new stewards, and so we parted."— Evelyn's Diary.
The Company's pageants were very costly and characteristic ; one having Vulcan
and his forge, with smiths at work ; and an " estridge" (ostrich), ridden by an Indian
boy, from the common belief that this bird could eat and digest iron ; the supporters of
the Company's arms are salamanders, supposed, like iron, to be unhurt by fire. A feast
item of l7l9 is "for playing on the tongs, lOs. j" and a meat breakfast in 1542 is
charged "for the cook, turnspit, and woman, for dressing, viijcZ." Funeral feasts were
glso celebrated in the Hall.
Among the Company's charities are the handsome almshouses in the Kingsland-road,
originally founded by the will of Sir Robert GefFery, Lord Mayor in 1686.
The Company possess— the Eichmond Cup, date 1460, and regarded as unique ; Mazer Bowl, about
six inches in diameter, the silver-gilt rim inscribed : " Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum, bene-
dicta tu in mulieribus : et benedictus fructus ventris tui ;" the Ironmongers' Arms : Pair of Hour-glass
Salt-cellars, early sixteenth century. Also the following :— Grant of Arms by Lancaster, King of Arms,
to the Company, dated 24 Henry VI. ; Confirm.ation of Arms, by William Hervy, Clarencieux, to the
Ironmongers' Company, May 28, 1560 : Charter of Incorporation to the Guild or Fraternity of Iron-
mongers, March 20, 3 Edward IV. ; the Pall given to the Company by " John Gyva, late ironmonger of
London, and Elizabeth, his wyfte;" the Master's Garland, of velvet, and ornamented with the arms and
crest of the Company, engraved on silver ; Grant from the Prior of Rochester to M atthew de la Wyke,
of the Manor of Norwood, in Middlesex, a.d. 1241. To this charter is appended the very beautiful
seal (in green wax) of the Church of Eochester; two Volumes of the manuscript collections for a his-
tory of the Ironmongers' Company, compiled by the present Master, John Nichols, Esq., F.S.A.
In the banqueting-hall is a marble statue of Alderman Beckford, by Moore ; for-
merly at Fon thill, and presented to the Company by the Alderman's son, the author
of Vathelc, when residing at Bath.
11. ViNTNEEs' Hall, Upper Thames-street, near Southwark-bridge, was rebuilt
by Wren, after the Great Fire ; when were destroyed the first Hall, in a quadranty
given by Sir John Stodie, vintner, and Lord Mayor in 1357 ('S'^o"') ; and the adjoining
almshouses devised to the Company by Guy sliuldham, in 1446. The present Hall
has been refronted, and is wainscoted and richly carved. In the Court-room are whole-
length portraits of Charles IL, James II. and his queen, George Prince of Denmark j
and a picture, attributed to Vandyck, of St. Martin (tutelar Saint of the Company)
dividing his cloak with the beggar.
* In Ironmonger-lane, Cheapside, the trade first congregated ; and many eminent ironmongers were
buried in the church of the adjacent parishes of St. Clave, Jewry, and St. Martin, Ironmonger-lane,
strype subsequently speaks of the removal of " the ironmongers of Ironmonger-lane" into Thames-
Btreet, where the iron-masters have extensive wharfs.
HALL-CLOTEWOBKEBS\ 409
The Vintners were incorporated as Wine-Tunners by Henry Vl!in 1437; Edward III. having granted
them, in 1365, a charter for the exclusive importation of wines from Gascony : the freemen, or " free
vintners" of the Company have the privilege of retailing wine without a licence. Stow tells us the
Vintners were of old called "Marchants Vintners ofGascoyne," and "great Bourdeous merchants of Gas-
coy ne and French wines." In the reign of Edward III. Gascoyne wines were sold in London at 4^.,
and Khenish at 6d., the gallon.
The Vintry, which gives name to the "Ward, was part of the north hank of the
Thames, where Vintners' Hall and Queen-street-place are now built; it was at the
south end of Three Cranes-lane, so called from the implements with which the mer-
chants " craned their wines out of lighters and other vessels," and landed them : it was
so magnificent a building, that Henry Picard, vintner and Mayor in 1356, entertained
therein the kings of England, Scotland, France, and Cyprus, in 1363. After the Great
Fire, the Vintners' Almshouses were rebuilt in the Mile-End-road. This Company,
as well as the Dyers, continues to keep swans on the Thames {see p. 415).
12. Clothwoekers' Hall (which just escaped destruction by the Great Fire), on
the east side of Mincing-lane, Fenchurch-street, was an edifice of red brick, adorned with
fluted brick pilasters. The Hall was richly wainscoted, and had life-sized carved figures
of James I. and Charles I. In the windows were painted arms of benefactors, including
Samuel Pepys, Master of the Company in 1677, who presented them with a silver
election-cup and cover, embossed and parcel-gilt ; the foot inscribed " Samuel Pepys,
Admiraliti Angliae Secretes et Societ. : Pannif : Lond. Mr. (Master) An. 1677."
The Clothworkers were originally incorporated by Edward IV. in 1482 as Shermen (Shearers), and
were united with the Fullers in 1528 by Henry VIII., the conjoined fraternity being then named Cloth-
workers. James I. incorporated himself into the Clothworkers, "as men deahng with the principal
and noblest staple wares of all these islands, woollen cloths." Among their pageants was that of Sir
John Kobinson, Lord Mayor 1662-63, reviving " the true English and manlike exercise of wrestling,
archery, sword, and dagger ;" when at his mayoralty feast in Clothworkers' Hall, he entertained the
Kin?, Queen, and Queen-mother, the Duke and Duchess of York. In the Great Fire "strange," says
Pepys, " it is to see Clothworkers' Hall on fire these three days and nights in one body of flame, it
having the cellars full of oyle." The Gazette of Sept. 8, 1666, announces the Fire to have stopped near
Clothworkers' Hall, The hst of the Company's Charities is remarkable for its number of anniversary
sermons and lectures, and for its bequests for blind persons. The Clothworkers' Almshouses (now at
Islington) were originally in Whitefriars, on part of a garden belonging to Margaret Countess of Kent,
held by her of the prior of that friary.
Howes relates that James I., being in the open Hall, inquired who was Master of the Company; and
the Lord Mayor answering " Sir William Stone," to him the King said, " Wilt thou make me free of the
Clothworkers ?" " Yea," quoth the Master, " and think myself a happy man that I live to see this day."
Then the King said, " Stone, give me thy hand; and now 1 am a Clothworker."
Clothworkers' Hall has been rebuilt upon an enlarged plan, Samuel Angell, archi-
tect, and was completed in 1860. The fa9ade is of Portland stone, and the style florid
Italian, rich in ornamentation. The main building includes a grand hall, or banquet-
ing-room, and a staircase-hall, to both which there is nothing equal in efiect in other
City Halls. The Livery and Court drawing-rooms, on the first floor, are highly
enriched. The banqueting-room is thus described : —
The Great Hall is 80 feet by 40 feet, length and breadth, and 40 feet high in the centre. An order of
Corinthian three-quarter columns, with polished red granite shafts, and the pedestals and podium of
coloured marbles and granite, surrounds the walls ; the intercolumns being filled in with windows on
one side, and arch-headed recesses, chiefly for mirrors, on the other, the archivolts springing from richly-
ornamented pilasters. Two recesses at the principal end of the hall contain statues of honoured
members of the Company ; and the centre recess behind the president's chair encloses a buffet to exhibit the
cup of Samuel Pepys, and other plate. At the opposite end of the hall, behind the columns, is a gallery
for musicians, appearing as three separate balconies, in the intercolumns, supported by ornamented
shafts, forming a framework to mirrors. The mirrors can be raised suflBciently to pass in what is
required from the serving-rooms. Above the entablature of the order is a series of lunettes filled with
stained glass ; and the arches over these groin into a deep cove to the ceiling, which last is formed in
one deep panel, divided into coffers ornamented with rosettes. The whole of the upper part of the Hall
is profusely enriched. The spandrel spaces of the cove have alto-rilievos personifying the principal cities
of Great Britain and Ireland : on the soffits of the arches, over the lunettes in which the stained glass
displays the arms of the Twelve Companies, are the names in each case of a founder of the company in gilt
letters in an ornamented panel ; and the cove is separated from the cornice by a roll moulding enriched with
fruit and flowers. The chandehers hang from the points of the groining at the summit of the cove. The
decorative features of the upper part of the staircase are clustered Ionic pilasters and archivolts with
enriched mouldings, and the architraves and cornices of the doors, which open on to the landings. The
angles of the square plan, pendentives, or spandrels, joining the square with the octagon, are orna-
mented with shields and branches of foliage. The octagon dome, 27 feet in span, starts from a bold
cornice with trusses ; it is divided into variously-formed compartments by enriched bands, all the prin-
cipal compartments being glazed with ground glass, with a pattern in light blue thereon. At the top is
a small open lantern. The effect of the dome, with the method of lighting, is novel and good. The
doors and jambs throughout the building are of polished wainscot. The architrave mouldings and
cornices are of painted wood, with enrichments in carfore-pierre.— Abridged from the Builder, 1859,
410 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Among the charities of the Clothworkers are : the " St. Thomas's Eve gift," dis-
tributed to one hundred and fifty poor freemen and widows, who are yearly clothed by
the Company, and regaled with a Christmas dinner. On St. Stephen's Day, is dis-
tributed the gift of Robert Hitchin, a former member of the Court, by which forty
poor men and women, twelve of the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and the rest
free of the Company, are clothed yearly. On St. Luke's Day, the Master and Wardens
of the Company, attended by twenty aged freemen, clothed at the expense of the
Company, agreeably to the will of Sir William Lamb, walk in procession to St,
Michael's church, where a sermon is preached suitable to the occasion.
HALLS OF THE MINOR CITY COMPANIES.
Of the sixty-nine Minor Companies, nearly half possess Halls. Each Company has its
position in the order of precedence, commencing with the Dyers' and ending with
the Carmen ; but here the arrangement is alphabetical.
Apothecaries' Hall, in Water-lane, Blackfriars, at the east end of Union-street,
Bridge-street, was built for the Company of Apothecaries, in 1670. Here are several
portraits, including James I., Charles I., William and Mary ; and a bust of Gideon
Delanne, who brought about the separation of the Company from the Grocers'. Ad-
joining the Hall are laboratories, warehouses, drug-mills, and a retail shop for the sale of
medicines to the public. Here are prepared medicines for the army and navy.
On June 4, 1842, Mr. H. Hennell, the principal chemical operator to the Apothe-
caries' Company, met a terrible death in the laboratory -yard, by the explosion of be-
tween five and six pounds of fulminating mercury, which he was manufacturing for the
East India Company.
The Apothecaries rank as the fifty-eighth in the list of City Companies. Their arms
are azure, Apollo in his glory, holding in his left hand a bow, and in his right an
arrow, bestriding the serpent Python ; supporters, two unicorns ; crest, a rhinoceros,
all or ; motto, Opiferque per orhem dicor.
AETtTOiJEEEs' AND Beaziees' Hall, Coleman-strcet, is a modern building, with a
Doric portico, on the site of the Armourers' old Hall of the Company, incorporated in
1422 by Henry VI., who also became a member. They forn'.erly made coats of mail ; and
made and presented a gilt suit of armour to Charles I. when Prince of Wales. In the
banqueting-ball is Northcote's picture of the JEntrt/ of Eichard II. and BolinghroJce
into London, purchased by the Company from Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in 1825.
The Hall is characteristically decorated with armour.
The Company possess ancient Grants, with curious seals, some dating 500 years back. Also MS.
Volume, containing the marks allowed to the workmen Armourers' freemen of the Company, dated 1619;
the Eichmond Cup and Cover, gilt, about 1460, an invaluable example of early art ; the large Mazer
Bowl, given between 1460 and 1483, by Everard Frere (the first Master, after incorporation of the Com-
pany ; an Owl Pot of stone, with silver mountings, temp. 15th century ; a parcel-gilt Pot, 1574 : a Salt
and Cover, with initials, 1604— a fine specimen of early plate ; three elegant Wine Cups ; a unique collec-
tion of ancient Spoons, ranging from 1580 to the middle of the 17th century. Here is likewise a
collection of six dozen Apostles' Spoons, dating from 1560 to 1630, showing the changes in fashion ;
also the Forbidden Gauntlet (of great rarity) and other Cups.
Bakees' Hall, No. 16, Harp-lane, Great Tower-street, is on the site of the ancient
mansion of John Chicheley, Chamberlain of London, and nephew of Archbishop
Chicheley. Among the pictures in the wainscoted banqueting-hall is one of St.
Clement, patron of the Company, incorporated by Edward II. in 1307. The Hall was
last repaired by James Elmes, who wrote the Memoirs of Sir Christopher Wren.
Baebee-Stjegeons' Hall, Monkwell-street, has its semicircular end supported on a
bastion of the City Wall, and was built a few years after the Great Fire, which
destroyed the original Hall : the street entrance had a shell canopy, enriched with the
Company's arms, and festoons of fruits and flowers : this picturesque entrance has been
removed. The Theatre of Anatomy, built by Inigo Jones, in 1636, escaped the Great
Fire, through being detached.
" The room contained four degrees of cedar seats, one above another, in elliptical form, adorned
HALL—JBABBEB-SUBGEONS*. 411
with figures of the seven Liberal Sciences, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and a bust of King Charles I.
Thereof was an elliptical cupola. This, as Walpole calls it, 'one of the best of Jones's works,' was
repaired in the reign of George I. by the Earl of Burlington, and was pulled down in the latter end of
the last century, and sold for the value of the materials. ' The designe of the Chirurgeons' Theatre/
an oval, dated 1636, is preserved in the portfolio of Jones's drawings at Worcester College, Oxford."—
Jji/'e, by P. Cunningham ; printed for the Shakspeare Society.
The United Company of barbers and surgeons were first incorporated by Edward IV., in 1461-2 ; and
it would even seem that, of the two professions, that of barber was, at this period, considered the most
respectable ; at, least, if we may judge from their adopting, and petitioning to be distinguished by,
the style and title of the Mystery of Barbers. The barber-surgeons, through whose immediate in-
fluence the charter was obtained from the king, were Thomas Monestede, sheriff of London in 1436,
and chirurgeon to Kings Henry IV., V., and VI.; Jaques Fries, physician to Edward IV.; and
William Hobbs, "physician and chirurgeon for the same king's body." — Jesse's London and ita
Celebrities.
In 1512, an Act was passed to prevent any besides barbers practising surgery within
the City and seven miles round, excepting such as were examined by the Bishop of
London or Dean of St. Paul's, or their assistants. In 1540 they were united into one
corporate body ; but all persons practising shaving were forbidden to intermeddle with
surgery, except to draw teeth and let blood ; whence Barber- Surgeons.
The Kev. John Ward, vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon 1662 to 168,1, relates that when
he came to London, he lodged at the Bell, in Aldersgate-street, " to be near Barber-
Chirurgeons' Hall," then the only place in the metropolis where anatomical lectures
were publicly delivered.
In the Court-room, which has an enriched ceiling, is Holbein's celebrated picture of King Henry
VIII. presenting the Charter to the Company. This painting is 10 feet 6 inches long and 7 feet high,
contains 18 figures, nearly life-size, and represents a room in the palace hung with tapestry. In the
centre, on a throne, sits the King, seemingly thrusting the Charter into the hands of Master Thomas
Vicay, who receives it kneeling; the King's costume and ornaments are as fine as miniature-painting.
Around him are the members of the Court kneeling: Sir John Chambre, in a cap and furred gown;
the famous Dr. Butts, whose conduct in the scene in the play of Henry VIII. of the degradation of
Cranmer, while waiting at the door of the council-chamber, is so well drawn by Shakspeare. All the
heads are finely executed; the flowered and embroidered robes, gold chains, jewels, and rings of the
chirurgeons, their moustaches and beards, are most carefully painted. Seven of the figures are livery-
men of the Company. Every part of the picture is most elaborately and delicately finished; the colour-
ing is chaste, and the care and style of the whole admirable. Pepys tried, after the Great Fire, to buy
this picture, "by the help of Mr. Tierce (a surgeon), for a little money. I did think," he adds, "to
give 200Z. for it, it being said to be worth lOOOi. : but it is so spoiled that I have no mind to it, and is
not a pleasant though a good picture."— Z)ia}*y, 29th Aug. 1668.
Next is a whole-length of Sir Charles Scarborough, by Walker, chief physician to Charles II.,
James II., and William III. : he is lecturing in the doctor's scarlet cap, hood, and gown ; on the left
is the demonstrating surgeon, Anthony Bligh, in the livery-gown, holding up the arm of a dead sub-
ject, which lies on a table partly covered with a sheet. Next are portraits of Dr. Arris and Dr. Thomas
Arris, and Dr. Nehemiah Grew. Here, too, is a curious portrait of Mr. Lisle, barber to Charles II. ;
and of John Paterson, clerk to the Company, and the projector of several improvements in the City of
London after the Great Fire. — Abridgedfrom the Art-Union, 1839.
Holbein's picture was painted in the 32nd of Henry VIII., when were united the
Barbers and Surgeons, formerly separate companies, which they again became in 1745 j
the Surgeons then removed to their Hall in the Old Bailey, and subsequently into
the Royal College in Lincoln's-inn-fields. {See Colleqes, p. 279.) Holbein's picture
has been engraved by Baron, and the minutes of the Company have the following entry
concerning the print : —
" 27th August, 1734. — Copper plate of Holbein's picture ordered of Mr. Baron, for
150 guineas, — 50 guineas on finishing the drawing, 50 guineas on delivery of the plate,
and 50 guineas on 100 prints."
As an evidence of the estimation in which the picture was held by contemporaries,
Mr. Pettigrew quotes a letter from King James to the Company which runs thus : —
" James R.— Trusty and wellbeloved, we greet you well. Whereas we are informed of a table of
painting in your Hall, wherein is the picture of our predecessor of famous memory. King Henry VIII.,
together with divers of your Company, which being very like him, and well done, we are desirous to have
copied : wherefore our pleasm-e is that you presently deliver it unto this bearer, our wellbeloved ser-
vant Sir Lionel Cranfield Knight, one of our masters of requests, whom we have commanded to receive
it of you, and to see it with all expedition copied, and redelivered safely ; and so we bid you farewell. —
Oiven at our court at Newmarket the 13lh day of January, 1617."
The original cartoons from which this picture was painted are in existence. The
portraits were taken on four portions of paper, which are now in the possession of the
Royal College of Surgeons, and have been put together and made to form a picture.
Among the Barber-Surgeons' Plate is : 1. A Silver-gilt Cup, given by Henry VIII. in 1540 : it is
richly embossed with the rose, fleur-de-lys, and portcullis, and lions' masks, in the style of Holbein
412 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
from the bowl hang bells, and inside are the Company's arms. 2. A Silver Cup, with Cover, given in
16/8 by Charles II.; the stem and bowl an oak-tree, with four pendent acorns, and the lid the Royal
crown ; royal badges, the Company's arms, &c. 3, Two Chapluts, with perforated silver oak-foliage
borders, the Company's arms, &c.; besides a large chased silver Punch-bowl, presented by Queen
Anne ; several tankards, &c.
Pepys wrote of the Silver-gilt Cup, 1622-23:— "To Chyrurgeons* Hall, where we had a fine dinner
and good learned company, many doctors of physique, and we used with extraordinary great respect.
Among other observables, we drank the King's health out of a gUt cup given by Henry VIII. to this
Company, with bells hanging at it, which every man is to ring by shaking after he hath drank up the
whole cup." The Company sold this cup with other plate in the 17th century to build their hall, but,
as Mr. Pettigrew pointed out, it was purchased by Edward Arris (Master of the Company ia 1651), and
presented by him again to the Company.
The Barber- Surgeons are exempt, as formerly, from serving as constables or on the
nightly watch, on juries, inquests, attaints, or recognisances. After the separation of
the two professions, the barbers continued to let blood (whence the pole) and draw
teeth until our time : the latest we remember of this class, and with pain, was one
Middleditch, in Great Suffolk-street, Southwark, in whose window were displayed heaps
of drawn teeth.
Blacksmiths' Hall, Lambeth-hill, Doctors' Commons, is now let as a warehouse;
the Company's business being transacted at Cutlers' Hall.
Beewees' Hall, No. 19, Addle-street, Wood-street, Cheapside, is a modern edifice,
and contains among other pictures a portrait of Dame Alice Owen, who narrowly
escaped braining by an archer's stray arrow from Islington Fields, in gratitude for
which she founded a hospital. {See ALMSnorsES, p. 8.) In the Hall windows is
some old painted glass. The Brewers were incorporated in 1438. The quarterage in
this Company is paid on the quantity of malt consumed by its members. In 1851, a
handsome schoolhouse was built for the Company, in Trinity-square, Tower-hill.
In 1422, Whittington laid an information before liis successor in the Mayoralty, Eobert Childe,
against the Brewers' Company, for selling dear ale, when they were convicted in the penalty of 2QI. j
and the Masters were ordered to be kept in prison in the Chamberlain's custody, until they paid it.
Among the records of the Brewers' Company is one relative to the introduction of pewter pots as
measures for ale, and the " sealing" (or stamping) of them by the City magistrates. There is an entry
in one of them made on the authority of Eobert Chicheley, Mayor, in 1423, in the reign of Henry VI. : —
" That retailers of ale should sell the same in their houses in pots of peutre, sealed and open ; and that
whoever carried ale to the purchaser should hold the pot in one hand and a cup in the other, and that
all who had pots unsealed should be fined.
Beicklayees' Hall, behind No. 53, Leadenhall-street, is now let as a Synagogue
for Dutch Jews. The Tilers and Bricklayers were incorporated by Queen Elizabeth,
in 1568. There are preserved by the Company two chests full of papers, descriptive
of their craft. They appear to have been at various periods embroiled with the Car-
penters as to the respective merits of brick and timber buildings.
" In 1647, the Carpenters sent a remonstrance to the Court of Aldermen concerning the Bricklayers,
and in 1650 they conveyed * their reasons that tymber buildings were more commodious for this citie
than brick buildings were.' In the following year, on 18th of February, they spent 2s. 9d. at the Three
Tuns in Gratious-street, with the Masters and Wardens of the Bricklayers' Company, to settle some
of their difl'erences. After the Great Fire, instead of further squabbling, the two Companies united
against " ff'orreyne " workmen being allowed to work in the City as masters : all who were not freemen
were " fiforreyners." By an Act of the Common Council, in Mov. 1667, the Bricklayers' Company (as
well as others) were bound to elect yearly a certain number of men to be ready on all occasions of fire
to attend the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for quenching the same.
" In the earliest minute-book, 1580, nearly all the members of the Court made their 'mark,' instead of
writing their name ; and these marks are not simply a cross or an initial, but are similar to those to be
seen on the face of stones in old buildings in England, France, Germany, and Belgium. One Order,
passed on St. Lawrence's day, 1591, decrees 'that noe man shall reveale words spoken in the house.'
In the charter and oaths, dated 1684, it is ordered that no person shall be a liveryman who holds not
communion with the Church of England, or who ' frequents conventicles or any other unlawful meet-
ings !' There is one deed addressed to Sir Nicholas Bacon and others, containing stipulations as to
the trade, which gives them the right of claiming a farthing per thousand on all bricks made within
a certain distance. In the reign of George I. (1723) power was given to the company to fine those who
made bricks or tiles of bad earth. In one of the chests there is the early French edition of Serlio,
1551, and a black-letter Bible and chain. — Note, in Builder, No. 595.
BuTCHEEs' Hall, Pudding-lane, Eastcheap, was rebuilt after a fire in 1829, which
destroyed the old Hall. The Butchers were fined by Henry II., in 1180, for setting
up an unlicensed guild; but they were not incorporated till 1605, by James I.
Caspentees' Hall, on the southern side of London Wall, is one of the few City
EALL—OABPENTEBS'. 413
Halls which escaped the Great Fire, which surrounded it.* The Hall was originally
built in 1429 : the walls of old London faced it, and bej^ond were Moorfields, Finsbury,
and open ground. The exterior possesses no traces of antiquity. The Court-rooms
were built in 1664, and the principal staircase and entrance-hall by W. Jupp about
1780 : the latter is richly decorated with bas-reliefs of carpentry figures and imple-
ments ; with heads of Vitruvius, Palladio, Inigo Jones, and Wren, designed by Bacon ;
and the street archway has also a fine bust of Inigo Jones, by Bacon.
The Great Hall has a rich and beautiful ceiling, put up in 1716, the supporting
pillars springing itom the corbels of the old arched timber roof. On the western side,
surmounted by an embattled oak beam, is a series of four fresco paintings, which were
discovered in 1845 by a workman in repairing the Hall. The subjects are divided by
columns painted in distemper : the groundwork is laths, with a thick layer of brown
earth and clay held together with straw, and a layer of lime, upon which the paintings
are executed.
The subjects are : 1. Noah receiving the commands from the Almighty for the construction of the
Ark; in another portion of the picture are Noah's three sons at work, 2. King Josiah ordering the
repair of the Temple. (2 Kings chap, xxii., mentioning carpenters and builders and masons as having
no reckoning of money made with them, " because they dealt faithfully.") 3. Joseph at work as a car-
penter, the Saviour as a boy gathering the chips; Mary spinning with the distaff :t the figure of Joseph
represents that in Albert Durer's woodcut of the same incident, executed in 1511. 4. Christ teaching in
the Synagogue : '* Is not this the carpenter's son ?" Each painting has a black-letter inscrij tion, more or
less perfect. The figures are of the school of Holbein ; the costumes are temp. Henry VIII, Above the
pictures in the spandrel of the arch, are painted the Company's arms, and " shreeves" and " Kobard" of an
inscription remain, intimating it to commemorate the benefit of some sheriff's. The southern wall has
some decorative Elizabethan work. The eastern window has carved oak mullions and Renaissance bases,
and has some armorial painted glass, date 1586. There are a few carved wooden panels, besides the series
of corbels, some of good workmanship. — F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A.
The east window is painted with the Royal arms ; the City arms, 1586 ; and the names
of the Masters and Wardens of the Company, from 1627 to 1684.
After the Great Fire, the Hall was let to the Drapers', Goldsmiths', Felt-makers',
and Weavers' Companies ; and next, the Lord Mayors, Sir W. Bolton, Sir W. Peeke,
Sir W. Turner, and Sir S. Sterling, rented the Hall during their mayoralties.
The books of the Company contain many entries connected with the impressment of
workmen for the service of the Crown. Amongst the latest instances is this : — " 1668,
22nd July — Spent with Sir John Deuham, the King's surveyor, and others, about the
twelve carpenters charged to be impressed for the King's work at Whitehall, 35*. 6d."
The Carpenters' Company's earliest charter is dated 1174; their common seal and
grant of arms 1466; but a guild of carpentry is noticed in 1421-2. The earliest
entry in the Company's books is dated 1438 : they contain many proofs of their power
over the trade. Among the pictures are portraits of William Portington, master car-
penter to the Crown temp. Elizabeth and James I. ; and John Scott, ordnance carpen-
ter and carriage-maker temp. Charles II. The company also possess four very curious
caps or crowns (the oldest 1561), still used by the Master and Wardens. Among their
plate are three silver-gilt hanaps (1611, 12, 28), which are borne in procession round
the Hall on Election-day. Cakes are presented to the members of the Court on
Twelfth Day, and ribbon-money to them on Lord Mayor's Day. (Sec An Historical
Account of the Company, by E. Basill Jupp, Clerk. 1849.)
The custom of crowning the new Master and Wardens still exists in the Company,
and the crowns or garlands used for the purpose are the same which were in their
possession nearly three centuries ago. It was customary at one time for the Company
to invite certain official personages to the entertainment on the election day. The
King's Carpenter was a constant guest on that occasion and on others. The King's
Surveyor also frequently honoured the Company with his presence, and in this capacity
the books show that Sir Christopher Wren received an invitation to dinner together
with his wife.
* Carpenters' Hall was also nearly destroyed in a great fire, Oct. 6, 1849, when the end walls and
windows were burned out, and tlie staircase and roof much damaged ; while the burning building was
only separated from Drapers' Hall by the garden and forecourt.
t Nash, the Elizabethan satirist, mentions the chips " which Christ in Carpenters' Hall is paynted
gathering up, as Joseph his father strewes, having a piece of timber, and Mary his mother sitts spin-
ning by."
414 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Among the Curiosities possessed by the Carpenters are : — Grant of Arms to the Company, by William
Hawkeslowe, Clarencieux, dated Nov. 24, 6 Edward IV. Book of Ordinances, 16th century; containing,
also, the marks or devices used by the various Masters and Wardens of the Company. The Crowns of
the Master and three Wardens (date 1561). The Master's cap is of crimson silk, embroidered with
fold and silver lace. On it are represented, in silver shields, the arms of the City of London (with
ate 1561) and the Carpenters' Company, enamelled in proper colours ; the Merchants' mark, and
initials of John Tryll, Master in 1561, are also on the cap. The Crowns of the Three Wardens are
very similar to the Master's, and are of the same date. Three Wardens* Cups, of similar design ;
these cups show the change in covers to plate drinking vessels, being no longer essential as a means
for avoiding poison. The Masters' Cup (date 1611), is silver-gilt, and of elegant workmanship and
design. The Beadle's Staff, which is said to be the handsomest possessed by any of the City companies,
is of silver, and consists of a square pillar and four shields, with the Company's arms and motto ; it
is dated 1 725. Here also is a Possett or Caudle Cup, supposed to have been used in the families of
the Company on interesting occasions.
CoACHMAKEES' Hall, Noble-street, Foster-lane, was originally built for the
Scriveners' Company, who, falling into poverty, sold it to the Coachraakers, originally
incorporated by Charles II., in 1669, as the Coach and Coach- Harness Makers. The
Company hold Industrial Exhibitions to encourage the workmen in the almost endless
branches of the coach trade to exhibit the best specimens of manufacturing skill, the
best working drawings of the vehicles now most in vogue, and the best designs for
improving their general convenience and simplifying their mechanical contrivances.
Coachmakers' Hall was noted in the last century as the resort of " a kind of religious Robin Hood
Society, which met every Sunday evening for free debate." (Boswell's Johnson.) But the most
memorable meeting ever held in the Hall was on May 27, 1780, when the whole body of the Protestant
Association, by formal resolution, undertook to attend in St. George's Fields, on June 2nd, to accom-
pany Lord George Gordon to the House of Commons on the deUvery of the Protestant petition." The
association accordingly met ; the result was " the Riots of 1780," and a week's defiance of all govern-
ment. The flowers of rhetoric, however, continued long to bloom in Coachmakers' Hall, John
Britton, in his early days (1798), joined a debating society held here,
COOPEES' Hall, Basinghall-street, was handsomely built, and had a large wains-
coted banqueting-room. The Coopers' Company was incorporated by Henry VII, in
1501 J and Henry VIII. empowered them to search and gauge beer, ale, and soap
vessels in the City and two miles round, at a farthing for each cask. At Coopers*
Hall were formerly drawn State Lotteries; the drawing of the last Lottery, on
October 18, 1826, is described in Hone's Every-day BooJc, vol. ii. Coopers' Hall was
taken down in 1866 for the enlargement of the site for the Guildhall offices.
CoEDWAiisrEEs' Hall, Great Distaff-lane, Friday-street, is the third of the same
Company's halls on this site, and was built in 1788 by Sylvanus Hall : the stone front,
by Adam, has a sculptured medallion of a country girl spinning with a distaff, emble-
matic of the name of the lane, and of the thread of cordwainers or shoemakers ; in
the pediment are their arms. In the hall are portraits of King William and Queen
Mary ; and here is a sepulchral urn and tablet, by Nollekens, to John Came, a munifi-
cent benefactor to the Company.
The Cordwainers were originally incorporated by Henry IV. in 1410, as the " Cordwainers and Cob-
hlers," the latter then signifying dealers in shoes and shoemakers. In the reign of Richard II,,
" every cordwainer that shod any man or woman on the Sunday, to pay thirtie shillings." Among the
Company's plate is a piece for which Camden the antiquary left 16^, Their charities include Came's
bequests for blind, deaf, and dumb persons, and clergymen's widows, 1000<f, yearly ; and, in 1662, the
Bell Inn at Edmonton was bequeathed for poor freemen of the Company.
The Cordwainers possess some curious old plate, and a charter, in which the name of Shakspeare,
aS a party interested, occurs,
CuEEiEES' Hall, London Wall, was originally built in 1670 : the banqueting-room
had a Corinthian wainscot screen, with carvings, and paintings of Plenty, Justice, and
Temperance. Here Calamy's son, in the reign of Charles I,, preached every Sunday,
to a little flock of Dissenters. This Hall, which stood among goodly trees, was taken
down in 1820, and a smaller edifice erected upon part of the site, the remainder being
covered with private dwellings. The Curriers serve their wine after dinner in mag-
nums, upon carved vine-leaf stands ; and the toasts are preceded by a prolonged whistle
on a small instrument, not emitting more than one note. The Curriers combined as a
Guild so early as 1363. Sir Matthew Wood, twice Lord Mayor, was of this Company^
CiTTLEEs' Hall is in Cloak-lane, Dowgate-hill. The Cutlers maintained a dispute
with the Goldsmiths before Parliament in 1405. They were originally forgers of
blades, or bladers, makers of hafts, and sheath-makers, united as cutlers by Henry IV.
in 1425. In the Hall is a portrait of Mrs. Craythorne, who, in 1568, bequeathed the
HALLS— DYERS', FOUNDERS', GIBDLEBS', JOINERS'. 415
Belle Sauvage Inn, on Ludgate-liill, to tlie Cutlers, for charitable purposes. Here an
old house bears the Company's crest, sculptured in stone, and placed within a niche —
an elephant bearing a castle on its back. Cutlers' Hall was taken down in 1854, and
rebuilt.
Dyers' Hall, College-street, Upper Thames-street, was built about 1776, and re-
built 1857. The Dyers were incorporated in 1472 ; their ancient Hall, in Upper Thames-
street (upon the site of Dyers' Hall Wharf), was destroyed in the Great Fire.
The Dyers and Vintners are the only Companies who have the privilege of keeping Swans on the
Thames: to catch and take up which, " Swan- voyages," termed Swan-upping, are made in August,
when the cygnets are marked, and the marks on the old bird renewed. The marks are cut upon the
upper mandible, in the presence of the Royal Swanherd. Thus, the swan-mark of the Vintners' is two
nicks, probably intended for a demi-lozenge on each side, and V for a chevron reversed. Besides being
heraldic, that these swan-marks have the initial of the word " Vintner" and form also the Roman
numeral V, is supported by one of the regular stand-up toasts of the day being, " The Worshipful
Company of Vintners, with Five!" The swans are not so numerous as formerly; at one period the
Vintners alone possessed 500 birds; the male is called a Col, the female a Flu. {A. J. Kempe, F.S.A.)
The swanherds wear swan-feathers in their caps, and the uppings are still held; they were formerly
made by the Companies in their state-barges, with much festivity.
Embkoideeees' Hall, Gutter-lane, Cheapside. Company incorporated in 1561.
FouNDEEs' Hall, Founders'-court, Lothbury, is now a Dissenters' meeting-house.
Stow tells us that " Lothburne, Lathberrie, or Loadberrie, is possessed for the most
part by founders, that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice mortars, and such like
copper and laten vs^orks, and do afterwards turn them with the foot and not with the
wheel, to make them smooth and bright with turning and scrating (as some do term
it), making a loathsome noise to the by-passers, that have not been used to the like,
and therefore by them disdainfully called Loth-berie." The Company of Founders
was incorporated by letters patent of the 12th of King James I., a.d. 1614. " All
makers of brass weights are to have each weight marked by the Company's standard,
and such of these weights as are of avoirdupois weight to be sealed at the Guildhall of
this City, and those of troy weight at Goldsmiths' Hall." Chamberlain (1770) says, " It
is not only used for transacting the business of the Company, but likewise let out to a
congregation of Scotch Kirk, of which denomination there is but one other in England."
Founders' Hall was, in 1792, nicknamed " the cauldron of sedition." Here Waithman
made his first political speech, and, with his fellow-orators, was routed by constables sent
by the Lord Mayor, Sir James Sanderson, to disperse the meeting. The Company's
motto is " God the only Founder." They possess a beautiful glass cup on a
silver-gilt stem, taken at the siege of Boulogne, in the reign of Henry VIII., and be-
queathed to the Company by Richard Wesley, Master in 1631.
GiEDLEEs' Hall, No. 39, Basinghall-street, was rebuilt after the Great Fire, on the
site of the Company's ancient Hall. The Girdlers' or Girdle-makers' Company was
incorporated by Henry VI. in 1449, confirmed by Elizabeth, in 1658, and then united
with the Pinners and Wire-drawers. The gridiron or girdle-ivon in their arms is
thought to be a rebus on the Company's name. {See Thoms's Stow, p. 107.) The
Company possess a document, dated 1464, by which Edward IV. confirmed the privi-
leges granted to them by Richard II. and Edward III., among which was the follow-
ing : — In the girdles then worn, silver and copper were used in their fabrication and
embroidery, and power was given to the Company to seize all girdles found within the
City walls with spurious metals. At the annual Election, the Clerk of the Company
crowns the Master with a crown embroidered in gold on silk with the Girdlers' devices ;
and the Masters with three ancient caps ; whereupon they pledge their subjects in a
loving cup of Rhenish wine — a picturesque ancient ceremonial.
Innholdees' Hall, College-street, Upper Thames-street, was rebuilt after the
Great Fire : the Company incorporated 1515.
JoiNEEs' Hall, between Nos. 79 and 80, Upper Thames-street, has entrance gate-
way piers of good workmanship, with leaden statues of river gods on them. There is
also a handsome cornice, with neat window frames and pediment enriched ; while the
Company's crest (a demi-savage, life-size, wreathed about the head and waist with oak-
leaves) surmounts the entrance to the Hall. In 1771, the building was described as
416 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
"remarkably curious, for a magnificent screen at the entering into the hall-room
having demi-savages, and a variety of other enrichments carved in the right wainscot.
The great parlour is wainscoted with cedar." It is recorded that, in 1827, "the
Joiners' Company have a capital painting over the chimney of their Court of Assistants'
parlour, of a former court of assistants, small whole-lengths."
Leatheesellees' Hall, St. Helen's-pLice, Bishopsgate-street, was rebuilt about
1815, upon the site of the Company's old Hall, a portion of the hall of St. Helen's
Priory, taken down in 1799; it was wainscoted, had a curiously-carved Elizabethan
screen, and an enriched ceiling with pendants. Beneath the present Hall is the priory
crypt. (See p. 303.) In the Hall yard is a pump sculptured by Caius Gabriel
Cibber in 1679, in payment to the Company of his livery fine of 25Z. : the design, a
mermaid pressing her breasts, is very characteristic. The crypt, kitchen, and pump,
are engraved by J. T. Smith. The Leathersellers were incorporated by Richard II. in
1442 J and by a grant from Henry VII., the Wardens were empowered to inspect sheep,
lamb, and calf-leather throughout the kingdom.
Masons' Hall is in Masons'-alley, between Basinghall-street and Coleman-street.
The Masons, with whom arc united the Marblers, were incorporated about 1410 as " the
Free Masons," and received their arms in 1474 j incorporated 1677. ,
Paintek-stainees' Hall, Little Trinity-lane, Upper Thames-street, occupies the
site of the old Hall, destroyed in the Great Fire. The Painters, otherwise Painter-
stainers' Company, had its origin in a fraternity of artists formed in the reign of
Edward III., and styled a company, though not then incorporated. They called them-
selves Fumter-stainers, from their chief employment, which, in the words of Pennant,
was " the staining or painting of glass, illuminating missals, or paintinoj of portatif or
other altars, and now and then a portrait ; witness that of Richard II., and the por-
traits of the great John Talbot and his wife, preserved at Castle Ashby." In the year
1575, continues Pennant, " they found that plaisterers, and all sorts of unskilful
persons, intermeddled in their business, and brought their art into disrepute by the
badness and slightness of their work." They, therefore, determined " to keep their
mystery pure from all pretenders," and were incorporated by Queen Elizabeth in 1582,
but existed long before as a guild. Hatton describes them as Face-Painters, History*
Painters, Arms-Painters, and House- Painters, and of the panels of the wainscot and
ceiling of their Hall, as " imbellished with great variety of History and other Painture
exquisitely performed," &c. Stow, writing before the Great Fire, identifies them on
their present site of habitation, or in 1598, saying, — "In Trinity-lane, on the west side
thereof, is the Painter- stainers' Hall, for so, of old time, were they called, but now that
workmanship of staining is departed out of use in England."
In Painters' Hall the Belief Commission of the Plague met, in the days of Charles II., recorded in
John Evelyn's Diary, under dates Nov. 16, 1664, and July 3, 1665 ; while on July 4, in the latter year,
he says he went to the liord Chancellor " to desire ye use of ye Star Chamber for our Commissioners to
meete in, Painters' Hall not being so convenient." Evelyn's letter to Sir Thomas Clifford is dated
•♦Paynters' Hall, Lond., 16 June, 1665."
Among their minutes are orders to compel foreign painters resident in London to pay
fines for practising their art without being free of the Painter-stainers' Company. Inigo
Jones and Vandyck were asked together to their dinners, as appears by an entry in the
Company's books. {Life, by P. Cunningham : Shakspeare Society.) Camden, whose father
was a Painter-stainer in the Old Bailey, bequeathed the Company 161. to buy a silver cup,
to be inscribed : " Gul. Camdenus, Clarencieux, filius Sampsonis, Pictoris Londinensis,
dono deditj" which cup is used at every Election-feast on St. Luke's day. Verrio and
Sir Godfrey Kneller belonged to the Company, as did Sir James Thornhill, Sir Joshua
Reynolds ; and Charles Catton was master of the Painter-stainers' Company in 1784 ; he
was known for his heraldic painting, more especially for his emblazonment of the Lord
Mayor's state coach.
Amongst the Company's pictures are — St. Luke wrriting his Gospel, by Van Somer; Eeason governing
Strength, C. Catton, R.A. ; Landscape by Lambert, with figures by Hogarth ; Queen Anne (medallion), by
Feilot ; the Fire of i.ondon, by Waggoner ; Charles I., copied from Vandyke, by Stone ; Charles 1 1, and his
Queen, by Huysman; Queen Anne, by Dahl; William 111,, by Kneller; Camden, in his tabard, as Claren-
cieux. Architecture by Trivett, or Trevit, Master in 1713 ; and some works of Hondius, Baptist, Sebas-
tian Eicci, Smirke, E.A., Houseman, Hals, and others. There is a portrait of Camden in the Hall, from
HALL— PARISH CLERKS'. 417
which an enamel was copied by the late H. Bone, R.A., for his Elizabeth Gallery. A card of invitation
to " accompany the Society of Painters, at St. Luke's Feast, kept on Thursday, ye 24tli November, 1687,
at 12 of the clock, in Paynter Stayners' Hall, where you shall be entertained by us," and signed " An-
thony Verrio, Nicholas Shepherd, Godfrey Kneller," and *' Ed. Polehampton, Stewards," was designed
by Sir Godfrey Kneller ; and of this an engraving is in the Hall. The Painters' Company gave the first
idea for a Royal Academy, and in the present century they have set the laudable example of reviving the
" art and mystery," so long laid aside by the other City guilds. In 1860, they gave the first of a series
of annual exhibitions of Works of Decorative Art, by bestowing prizes on skilful artisans.
The Charities of the Company are chiefly to the blind ; amongst them is Mr. John Stock's " Charity of
Poor Lame Painters, more or less incapacitated from illness arising from the injurious elfects of Painters'
colours, who receive pensions of lOZ. per annum." The Company also assist diseased and paralysed
Painters in going to Bath to drink the waters.
Paeish-cleeks' Hall, No. 24, Silver-street, Wood-street, is the third hall of the
Company. In the seventeenth year of Henry III., a.d. 1233, the Parish Clerks
became an incorporated guild as " The Fraternity of St. Nicholas," and " so excelled
in church music, that ladies and men of quality on this account became members."
In 1391, the Parish Clerks performed miracle plays at Skinners' Well. Henry VI.
was the head of the Parish Clerks' patrons, as appears by a MS. vellum roll in their
possession, dating from 1440 to 1525. From this MS. there was one leaf missing,
which has fortunately been recovered : it contains about 400 tiames, and has an illumi-
nated initial ; date of first entry 1523.
The Camden Society have published the curious Diary of Henry MacMn, who
appears to have been in that department of the trade of a Merchant-Tailor, which
we should now call an undertaker or furnisher of funerals. The banners, &c., which
he provided were probably painted by men who worked as hii journeymen.
Under date 1555, there is a curious entry :— " The xxvij. day of May was the clarke's prossessyon from
Yerdhall College, and ther was a goodly masse be hard, evere clarke having a cope and a garlande
with C stremers borne and the whettes playinge rounde Chepe, and so to Ledynhall unto St. Albro'
(Ethelburga), churche, and ther they put off" ther gayre, and ther was the blessyd sacrament^ borne with
torchlight abowt, and from thens unto the Barbur Hall to dene)"." " In the Catholic times they were an
important society, and many ecclesiastics, and other persons of the first quality, both male and female,
were of the number of their members. They attended all great funerals, at which their office was im-
mediately to precede the hearse, with their surplices hanging on their arms, and singing solemn dirges
all the way till they came to the church door. Their fraternity had the sole direction of the music em-
ployed in public worship." — Cromwell's Clerkenwell.
Previous to the year 1560, the Parish Clerks met in the Chapel at Guildhall, for
even-song, and on the next day to dinner at Carpenters* Hall ; but two years after
this, they met in their own Hall, receiving seven persons into their brotherhood, and
attending "a goodly play of the children of Westminster, with waits, regals, and
singing." The Parish Clerks commenced the *' Bills of Mortality," in 1592 ; and in
January, 1611, James I. re-incorporated them, in consequence of their brotherhood
having been dissolved, and their hall and property seized. Besides this re-incorpora-
tion, they were, about 1625, licensed by the Star Chamber to keep a printing-press in
their hall, for the printing of the " Bills," which they were bound to make up each
week, consisting of the births and burials, with some account of the diseases, age, &c.,
of the persons dying. During the Great Plague, these " Bills" were very, important ;
they are still to be seen in the Guildhall Library, as well as others, dating from 1657
to 1758. The " Weekly Bill" has long ceased to be issued from Parish Clerks' Hall,
and in its place (since July 1, 1837), the " Table of Mortality in the Metropolis"
has been issued from the office of the Registrar-General, at Somerset House. The
first Hall was at the sign of the Angel, in Bishopsgate-street, with seven almshouses
for poor widows adjoining ; the second stood in Broad-lane, Vintry ; and the present
Hall was erected after the Great Fire. Their organ, purchased in 1737, is placed in
the Court-room. They have a few portraits of benefactors, among which a^ears that
of William Roper, son-in-law of the celebrated Sir Thomas More. The east window
is emblazoned with the arms of Charles II. ; and here are two small portraits : David
performing on the harp ; and St. Cecilia at the organ, accompanied by angels.
The Company have a coat-of-arms, with a motto, " Unitas Societatis Stabilitas" (Unity the Stability
of Society). They have a row of neat almshouses for the widows or daughters of their deceased
brethren, situated on the south side of Denmark-road, Camberwell.
Their privileges exempt the Clerks from all parish offices, except that of their official duty as Clerk :
their Charter allows them to administer admission-oaths, to have a printer and printing-press in their
hall, and to frame all rules necessary for their government ; to elect a Master, two Wardens, and seven-
teen Assistants; but it does not confer upon them a Livery, nor hereditary nor City Freedom.
B B
418 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
There was foi-merly published a very useful sort of Clerical Guide to the Parishes
within the Bills of Mortality, " collected by the Company of Parish Clerks," whose
arms the volume bears.
Pewteeees' Hall, No. 17, Lime-street, contains a portrait of Sir William Small-
wood, Master of the Company in the second year of Henry VII., and who gave them
their Hall, &c. The Pewterers were incorporated in 1474 : they assay pewter- ware,
and use a mark, or touch, registered on a pewter-plate. The Hall was formerly let for
lectures; and here Macklin, the actor, commenced his "school of oratory and
criticism," lecturing in full-dress, but to be laughed at by Foote and other wits.
From the records of the Pewterers' Company (much older than the Brewers* record as dated), we
find that the name of that guild was spelt Peutr's Co., so that the authorized pots originated in Henry
VI.'s time were made of pewter metal. {See ante, p. 412.) Up to the present day, the name of the officer
appointed by the City Lands Committee to stamp the publicans' pots and brand the wooden measures
is " Sealer and Stamper in Weights and Measures."
PiNMAKEES' Hall, Pinners' -court, Old Broad-street, is on the site of part of the
Priory of St. Augustine, or Austin Friars. The Hall has been, since the reign of
Charles II., let as a Dissenters' meeting-house, and is now so occupied. The Pinners'
Company as an unincorporated guild is mentioned in the year 1376. In the 11th
Charles I., 1636, it was incorporated; motto, " Virginitas et Unitas Nostra Fraternitas.'*
Pinmakers' Hall, according to Chamberlain, was formerly situated in Addle-street,
Wood-street (now Plasterers' Hall), but after the dissolution of Austinfriars (Nov. 12,
1539), according to Pennant, part of the priory was converted into a Venetian
glass manufactory, with James Howel as steward. Afterwards this manufactory
became the property of the Pinmakers' Company, " who," says Herbert, " occupied
the Austinfriars Hall, afterwards called ' Pinners' Hall Meeting-house.' " In 1771, it
was " the only meeting-house in London where the audience were not Calvinists, the
Independents meeting on the Sunday morning, and the Anabaptists on the Sunday
afternoon."
By more than one authority the Pinmakers' Company have been said to be " defunct," but upon a
reference to the Corporation Commissioners' second Report, it will there be found stated, that though no
returns appear in the Chamberlain's books for forty years past, yet "it is supposed that one or two indi-
viduals belonging to the Company are yet living."
Plasteeees' Hall, Addle-street, Wood-street, Cheapside, is now occupied as a
warehouse ; some of the rich ceilings remain. Malcolm has engraved a curious coat-of-
arms, which he saved from the east window. The Company was incorporated by
Henry VII. in 1501, motto, " Let brotherly love continue." Among the curiosities is
an inscribed silver bell, the gift of Captain Abraham Stanyan, Master, 1647-48 ; a
silver cup or vase, with two handles, the arms of the Company on the bowl, and dated
1706 ; and the head of an ancient beadle's staff.
A statute was passed in the first year of the reign of James I,, 1603, c. 20, which enacted that no
Plasterer should exercise the "art" of a painter in the City or suburbs of London: but an apprentice
was exempt from the meaning of the Act. The penalty was 5L, but a proviso allowed the Plasterer to
use whiting, blacking, and red ochre mixed with size, without oil. This was a very important statute
indeed, for it at once cleared up the several disagreements existing in 1575, between the Plasterers and
the Painters, the latter retaining their privileges by becoming incorporated in 1581.
Plitmbees' Hall, Great Bush-lane, Cannon-street, is a modern brick building : the
Company was incorporated by James I. in 1611.
PoETEES' Hall is on St. Mary's-hill, Billingsgate. The Fellowship was incor-
porated in 1646, and consists of tackle and ticket porters ; with the City arms for
their armorial badge, and the Alderman of Billingsgate ward for their governor. They
claim the exclusive privilege, under the appointment and control of the Common
Council, of unloading all vessels that come to the port of London laden with corn,
malt, seeds, potatoes, fruit, salt, fish, &c., at a fixed rate of prices ; which, being high
in comparison with the rates in the Docks and at the various outports of the kingdom,
were greatly reduced in 1852, to meet the Free-trade exigencies.
The Ticket-porter of our times, " Toby Veck who waited for jobs outside the church-door, with wind,
and frost, and snow, and a good storm of hail, his red-letter days, and was called Trotty from his
pace, which meant speed if it didn't make it"— is the best character in Charles Dickens's Christmas
story. The Chimes.
HALLS— SADDLERS', SGBIVENEBS\ 419
Saddlers' Hall, No. 143, Cheapside, lias an elegant stone entrance front, built in
1865, in place of a brick and stone frontage, surmounted by a large coat of the Com-
pany's arms {azure, a chevron, between three saddles, or ; crest, a horse bridled and
saddled ; supporters, two horses bridled), with the motto, " Our Trust is in God." The
Hall was rebuilt in 1823 ; Hatton, in 1708, described the former Hall " adorned with
fictwork and wainscot."
"The Saddlers' Company claims to be the oldest civic guild, dating its descent from the Anglo-Saxon
times. In the reign of Kichard Cceur de Lion, a convention was made between the Canons of St. Martin's-
le-Grand and the guild and fraternity of the Saddlers. According to ancient statutes existing between
their church and this fraternity, the Saddlers were brothers and partakers of all benefits arising by day or
by night in all masses, psalms, prayers, and vigils, performed in the said church. Two especial masses were
granted them weekly; one for the living, another lor the dead, and freely and honourably the bells of the
church should toll, and a procession formed to convey the departed brother to his last resting-place on
earth. The Canons of St. Martin's were also to assist in the house of the Saddlers; and the latter,
according to ancient statutes, were, on the fast of St. Martin, accustomed to be present with wax-tapers,
and to offer alms to the saint. And lastly, when St. Martin's bell tolled forth the funeral knell, the
Saddlers' guild paid eightpence to the church."— Kempe's Rist. St. Martin' s-le- Grand.
We have already seen that the Company conducted funerals 700 years ago : they
possess a rich pall of crimson velvet, the centre yellow silk. On one side is embroi-
dered, in raised gold work, " In te, Domine, speravi," in old English characters ; on
the other side is worked, " Ne me confunde in ceternum." The head and foot of the
pall have the Company's arms, four kneeling angels surrounding the letters " I.H.S-,"
encircled by a glory, and bordered by a broad gold fringe.
In the Hall is Frye's whole-length portrait of Frederick Prince of Wales (father of
George III.), who became Master of the Company from having accepted an invitation
to witness the Lord Mayor's Show from their stand.
Sir Richard Blackmore, schoolmaster, physician, and small poet, "the Cheapside Knight" and "the
City Bard," and the general butt of the wits of his day, probably wrote some poems recited at Saddlers'
Hall ; whence Sir Samuel Garth addressed these .lines : " To the merry Poetaster at Saddlers' Hall, in
Cheapside.
*' Unwieldy Pedant, let thy awkward Muse
With Censures praise, with Flatteries abuse.
To lash, and not be felt, in Thee's an Art ;
Thou ne'er mad'st any but thy School-boys smart.
Then be advis'd, and scribble not agen ;
Thou'rt fashion'd for a Flail, and not a Pen.
If B I's immortal Wit thou would'st descry.
Pretend 'tis he that writ thy Poetry.
Thy feeble Satire ne'er can do him wrong ;
Thy Poems and thy Patients live not long."
**To Sir K Bl , on the two Wooden Horses before Saddlers' Hall:
"'Twas kindly done of the good-natured Cits,
To place before thy door a brace of tits." — Tom Brown.
Charles II., by charter, dated December 24th, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign,
granted several privileges; and this the Company consider their governing charter.
It is a very wealthy guild, and on August 30, 1859, was laid the first stone of
*' Honnor's Home," for poor Freemen and widows, at Spring Grove, near Isleworth.
ScEiVENEEs' Hall. — The Scriveners are an ancient guild, evident from the fact
that, in 1483, they sent four members, in murry-coloured coats, to attend, with other
Companies, the entry of Richard III. into London. In 1485, they sent twenty men to
attend the marching watch of the City ; while on August 31, in the same year, they
sent four members (among other guilds) to welcome Henry VII. on his entering
London ; and in 1487, on his return from Kenilworth.
The Scriveners were anciently denominated " The Writers of the Court Letter of
the City of London," but in the reign of James I., 1616, they were incorporated.
Being at one period a very wealthy guild, they built themselves a fine Hall in Noble-
street, near St. Martin's-le-Grand ; but becoming in time much reduced, they were
compelled to sell the building to the Company of Coachmakers, in whose hands it now
remains.
Mr. Hyde Clarke has thrown much light on the connexion of Milton with the
Scriveners' Company. Their records tell us, that on Feb. 27, 1599, John Milton, son
of Richard Milton, of Stanston, co. Oxon, and late apprentice to James Colbron, citizen
and writer of the Court Letter of London (Scrivener), was admitted to the freedom of
£ £ 2
420 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the Company. The grandfather and father of the poet are the two personages here
alluded to. The latter, who appears to have only served four years' apprenticeship,
instead of seven,* commenced business in 1599, and married about a twelvemonth after.
Sir Robert Clayton, Knight, Lord Mayor in the year 1680, was also a Scrivener.
He is often alluded to in the Diary of Evelyn, and appears to have been a wealthy and
worthy man, " there never having been any who, for ye stateliness of his palace, pro-
digious feasting, and magnificence exceeded him."
Of another Scrivener, John Ellis, who died Dec. 31, 1791, at the venerable age of
ninety-four,
Johnson once remarked to BoswcU, " It is wonderful, sir, what is to be found in London. The most
literary conversation that I ever enjoyed was at the table of Jack Ellis, a money-scrivener, behind the
Royal Exchange, with whom I, at one period, used to dine generally once a week." Boswell adds,
" There is a good engraved portrait of him by Pether, from a picture by Frye, which hangs in the hall of
the Scriveners' Company."
The business of a Scrivener was the making of leases, writings, assignments, and
money securities, by which he became, as it were, a banker and a conveyancer ; but the
designation money-scrivener having expired with the above Ellis, the business is now
transacted by attorneys and others. The Company, however, still retain the title.
Statiokees' Hall, Stationers' Hall-court, Ludgate-hill, occupies the site of Bur-
gaveny House, whither the Stationers' Company removed in 1611 : it was destroyed in
the Great Fire ;t after which the present Hall was erected ; the eastern front was
cased with stone about the year 1800.
The Company of Stationers retain their original character intact, and is the only
London Company restricted to the members of its own craft ; or members of the
bookselling, stationery, printing, bookbinding, printselling, or engraving trades ; while
it practises " the mystery or art" to which its ancient title nominally refers.
The Company existed as a fraternity long previous to the introduction of Printing. Their
first Hall was in Milk- street. They were first incorporated May 4, 1557 (3rd and 4th Philip and
Mary): this charter was renewed by Elizabeth in 1588; amplified by Charles II. 1684; and con-
firmed by William and Mary, 1690, which is the existing charter of the Company. These charters
gave them inquisitorial privileges of search and seizure of obnoxious books ; printers were compelled to
serve their time to a member of the Company ; and every publication, from a Bible to a ballad, was
required to be "Entered at Stationers' Hall," The first entry on the books is 1558: "To William
Pekerynge, a ballad, called A Ityse and Wake, 4d." The Registers of the Stationers' Company are valu-
able authorities. Mr. Payne Collier has given many quotations from them in the two volumes which
he edited for the Shakspearc Society in 1848 and 1849; and hascontumed the extracts, with illustrations
and anecdotes (from 1687), in Notes and Queries, 2nd s., vol. xii.; 3rd s., vol. i. & ii., et seq.
The Company likewise had granted to them by James I., in 1603, the privilege
of the sole printing of Prymers, Psalters, and Psalms ; as well as " almanacks and
prognostications, and the Latin books used in the grammar-schools." Under the
Copyright Act, the proprietor of every published work is required to register his claim
for his own protection, in the books of the Stationers' Company, before any legal pro-
ceedings can take place ; the fee is 5*. To each apprentice bound at the Hall is given
a Bible, which excellent custom originated in the bequest of Thomas Parkhurst, Master
of the Company in 1683; he likewise left S7l. to purchase annually Bibles with
Psalms, to be given to the poor. In corrupt times, the Company aided the Star-
chamber, and hence they became stigmatized as its "literary constables." Their
authority has been disputed ; for, in the last century, Thomas Carnan, the bookseller,
of St. Paul's Churchyard, contested with the Company the exclusive right to publish
almanacks : Lord North sided with the Stationers, but the eloquence of Erskine
strongly controverted their claim.
Their almanacks, to this day, maintain their superior accuracy and trustworthiness,
and adaptation to the requirements of the day. Thus, we have Francis Moore's
* In confirmation of this, an entry in the Scriveners' records tells us that^ames Colbron was ad-
mitted into the Company, April 1, 1595. The question remains whether Milton \yas a " turnover," from
some other Scrivener to Colbron. Mr. Clarke adds, that he discovered that the Scriveners " had no
especial custom or exemption of a shorter apprenticeship than seven years, and that Milton must have
served seven years with one master or another." He was bom in 1578, and died in March, 1646-7. Sarah,
his wife, died April 3, 1637. The poet was born December 9, 1608.
t Hansard's Typographia contains a view of Burgaveny House as altered for the Hall of the Sta-
tioners, printed from the original block engraved Ibr the Company.
BALL— STATIONERS'. 421
Almanack, with the fullest account of Eclipses and Astronomical Phenomena; the Lady's
and Gentleman's Diary, commenced in the last century, contains Papers and Questions
contributed by some of the first mathematicians of the day, as well as Enigmas and
Charades ; John Partridge's Almanack, which Swift thought to extinguish in 1709, is
still published ; as is the Sheet Almanack commenced by Vincent Wing, the astronomer,
who published for the Company, also, a hoolc almanack : his portrait hangs in the
Hall. Among the more popular of the late additions to the Company's list are
almanacks for clergymen, parochial officers, and parish clerks; and a Gardener's
Almanack, the first of which class was published by John Evelyn, the diarist.
In the Hall, on Almanack-day, in November, are pubhshed the Almanacks printed
for the Company. The Stationers employed Lilly, Partridge, and Moore : Lilly's
hieroglyphics were stolen from old monkish manuscripts : Moore it is stated has stolen
them from him. The Company's astrological and other predictions in their almanacks
continued, though modified, to our times ; one year they experimentally omitted from
Moore's Almanack the column on the moon's influence on the parts of the human
body, when most of the copies were returned upon their hands. (Baily, on the Nau-
tical Almanac.) The invested capital of the Company is upwards of 40,000^., divided
into shares ; but their only publications are almanacks and a Latin Gradus.
The Court-room has some fine carvings, attributed to Gibbons ; and at the extremity
is West's touching picture of King Alfred dividing a loaf with St. Cuthbert the
pilgrim, presented by Alderman Boydell, Master of the Company ; and of whom here
is a portrait as lord mayor, with allegorical absurdities, by Graham. In the Stock-room
and Hall are excellent portraits of Prior and Steele, presented by John Nichols ; of
Samuel Richardson, the novelist, and his wife, by Highmore (Richardson was Master
of the Company in 1754) ; of Vincent Wing ; of John Bunyan, presented by Mr.
Hobbs, the singer ; a half-length of Bishop Hoadley ; Robert Nelson, by Kneller ;
Andrew Strahan, and his father, William Strahan ; and a bust of William Bowyer,
*• last of the learned printers," with a grateful inscription written by himself. The
Hall has also a large window filled with painted armorial glass. Here was held for
nearly twenty years, the Music Feast on St. Cecilia's day, 22nd of November, for which
Dryden wrote his celebrated Ode, last performed here in 1703.
Tbe Company's Charities consist chiefly of pensions ; and foremost among the bene-
factors ai'C the respected names of Guy, Bowyer, Boydell, and Strahan. Over the
gate in Stationers' Hall-court are the arms, the Bible, the glory, and the dove, and the
motto, " Verbum Domini manet in seternum," bespeaking the holier labours of the Com-
pany ; and the notice-boards below, the benevolence of its wealthier members.
From early times, the Stationers' Company has been celebrated for its sumptuous
state, and its attendance upon the Lord Mayor's Shows, &c. ; "the comeliest per-
sonages of the Company" attended the lord mayor on horseback, in velvet coats, chains
of gold, and with staff torches, to escort Queen Elizabeth from Chelsea to Whitehall.
They kept, until within a few years, a superbly-gilt barge, in which, on the morning of
Lord Mayor's-day, they visited Lambeth Palace ; when the household of the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury brought on board the barge hot spiced ale, buns and cakes, and
wine ; the latter being served to the Stationers in small wooden " sack-cups," or bowls,
with two handles, which were provided by the beadle of the Company. This custom
is stated to have originated as follows : wlaen Tenison possessed the See, a near relation
of his, who was Master of the Stationers' Company, thought it a compliment to call at
the Palace in his stately barge on the morning of Lord Mayor's-day, when the Arch-
bishop sent out a pint of wine for each liveryman, with bread and cheese and ale for
the watermen and attendants ; and this grew into a settled custom. Certain fees
amounting to 21. 12s. 6d. were paid to the Archbishop's servants on this occasion ; the
Bargemaster's bill was 20 guineas, the charge for music, 121., besides other expenses,
to enable the CoiTipany to " attend my lord mayor with fitting state." On the dis-
continuance of the aquatic civic pageant, the Stationers' Company sold their barge,
and the regale at Lambeth was thenceforth discontinued. The Company formerly sub-
mitted their several almanacks to tbe Archbishop of Canterbury, for his Grace's
approval ; this is no longer observed, but the Stationers continue to present annually
to the Archbishop an entire set of their almanacks.
422 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Stationers' Company have erected in Bolt-court, Fleet-street, a School-house,
at a cost of about 9000?. The School is no!: confined to the sons of liverymen and
freemen of the Company : it will accommodate upwards of 300 boys, and affords an
education similar to that of the City of London School. The speeches and awards of
prizes take place at Midsummer before the Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants,
in the Stationers' Hall. The buildings were repaired and re-decorated in 1866-7 : the
Court-room is a noble and picturesque apartment.
The funeral feast of Thomas Sutton, of the Charter-house, was given May 28, 1612, in the former
Stationers' Hall ; the procession having started from Dr. Law's, in Paternoster-row. For this repast
were provided 32 neats' tongues, 40 stone of beef, 24 m.arrow-bones, 1 lamb, 46 capons, 32 geese, 4
pheasants, 12 pheasants' pullets, 12 godwits, 24 rabbits, 6 hearnshaws, 48 turkey- chickens, 48 roast
chickens, 18 house-pigeons, 72 field-pigeons, 36 qnails, 48 ducklings, 160 eggs, 3 salmons, 4 congers, 10
turbots, 2 dories, 24 lobsters, 4 mullets, a firkin and keg of sturgeon, 3 barrels of pickled oysters, 6
gammons of bacon, 4 Westphalia gammons, 16 fried tongues, 16 chicken-pies, 16 pasties, 16 made
dishes of rice, 16 neats'-tongue pies, 16 custards, 16 dishes of bait, 16 mince-pies, 16 orange-pies, 16
forst back-meats, 16 gooseberry-tarts, 8 redcare-pies, 6 dishes of whitebait, and 6 grand salads. —
Malcolm.
Stocki2TG-weayees' Hall, Redcross-street, Cripplegate, long since taken down, was
noted for containing a curious picture, illustrative of the history of the stocking-loom.
In this old picture William Lee or Lea is pointing out his stocking-loom to a female knitter;
beneath which is this inscription: "In the year 1589, the ingenious William Lee, Master of Arts of St.
John's College, Cambridge, devised this profitable art for stockings (but being despised, went to
France,) yet of iron to himself, but to us and others of gold : in memory of whom this is here painted."
By some the picture is thought to have suggested the story of Lee's having invented the machine to
expedite knitting, and thus allow the girl, of whom he was enamoured, more time to listen to his love-
making; or the picture may be an illustration of the story. Aaron Hill gives the invention to a poor
student of Oxford, to supersede his wife's knitting for tlieir family's support ; but Hill wrote this in
1715 upon hearsay; and Lee is named as the inventor in a petition of the Framework-knitters, or
Stocking-makers, to Cromwell for a charter, subsequently granted by Charles II. in 1663. Hill's ver-
sion has, however, been adopted by Elmore in his very clever j)icture of " the Invention of the
Stocking-loom," painted in 1847.
The painting of Lee and his wife, however, was parted with by the Company at a
period of pecuniary embarrassment. Mr. Bonnet Woodcroft has collected some par-
ticulars of the disposal of the picture, in the hope that they may lead to its restoration.
In a list, dated 1687, of plate, paintings, &c. belonging to the Company, is an item :
** Mr. Lee's picture, by Balderston :" it is also described in Hatton's London, 1708.
From 1732, the Company's books show no more meetings at their Hall, or any further
entry of the picture. The Stocking Weavers subsequently let their Hall, and met at
various taverns. The head of the Court Summons, dated 1777, is engraved from Lee's
picture ; and from this plate is copied an engraving in the Gallery of Portraits of In-
ventors in the Great-Seal Patent Office. The picture is thought to have passed, about
1773, into the hands of an influential member of the Court of Framework Knitters,
who, from time to time, lent the Company money, as their books testify.
TALLOW-cnANDLEES' Hall, Dowgate-hill, is built in the style of Wren, with a
colonnade of Tuscan arches. The Company was incorporated by Edward IV. in 1460.
Wateemen's Hall, St. Mary-at-Hill, Billingsgate, was built in 1786. The Com-
pany's old Hall was in Cold-harbour, and faced the Thames.
The fares of the Thames Watermen and Wherrymen were regulated by Henry VIII. in 1514. Taylor
the Water-poet, temp. Elizabeth, states the Watermen between Windsor and Gravesend at 40,000. They
were made a Company by Philip and Mary in 1555, with eight overseers and rulers, " the most wise,
discreet, and best sort of watermen," selected by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen ._ This
statute regulates the dimensions of the boats and wherries, then dangerously "shallow and tickle;"
the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to limit the watermen's fares, to be confirmed by the Privy Council.
Strype was told by one of the Company that there were 40,000 watermen upon their rolls ; that they
could furnish 20,000 men for the fleet ; and 8000 men were then in the service. Taylor the Water-poet,
with his fellow-watermen, violently opposed the introduction of coaches as trade-spillers. The Company
condemned the bui-aing of Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, for their injury to the ferries between
Vauxhall and tJie Temple, the profits of which were given to the poor, aged, decayed, and maimed
Watermen and their widows ; and in both cases the Company were compensated for their losses. The
substitution of steam-boats for wherries has, however, been as fatal to the watermen as railways have
proved to stage-coachmen. The above statement of the number of Watermen is very questionable.
In 1633, Taylor, the Water-poet, sent in a petition to Lord Cottington, on behalf of
his Majesty's watermen. It is in rhyme : —
*• Shows that your Lordship is so well inclined
To pay us, that our order you have signed,
For which we humbly thank you, though as yet.
We sue, and seek, and can no payment get.
BALLS— WAX-CHANI)LEB8\ WEAVERS'. 423
We live in debt, we coin and credit lack.
And Ave do fear Sir Robert Pye is slack.
Or else unwilling ; therefore we implore
Your Lordship to remember him once more ;
And we shall pray unto the power supernal
To bless your Lordship, temporal and eternal.
Wax-chandlees' Hali, No. 13, Gresbam-street West, nearly opposite Haber-
dashers' Hall, was taken down in 1852, and has been rebuilt. The Wax- Chandlers'
Company was incorporated by Richard III. in 1483. The chandler of old set his mark
to the several articles which he made ; lent out wax-tapers for hire ; and in Roman
Catholic times wax was brought to the chandlers, to be made into " torches, torchettes,
prykettes or perchers, chaundelle or tapers for women ayenst Candelmas."
Among the Company's Curiosities are a Grant of Arms to the Company, temp. Eichard TIL, a most
magnificent document, the Company's Charter of Incorporation, beautifully illuminated. The Wax-
chandlers also have several very interesting examples of the 17th century silver plate. The late Mr.
Gregory, of Wax-chandlers' Hsill, left a very interesting collection of civic antiquities.
Weavers' Hall, Basinghall- street. The Weavers enjoy the privilege of being the
first to whom a charter was granted, of any of the City Guilds. That Guilds were
originated for the purposes of trade is borne out by the fact that the Weavers' Guild
is older than the charter of the City itself; and persons belonging to that Guild are
entitled to trade in the City, though they are not free of the City. The Company,
originally cloth and tapestry weavers, was first incorporated in the reign of Henry I.,
and paid 16^. a year to the Crown for their immunities. Their privileges were con-
firmed to them at Winchester by Henry XL in 1184, the charter being sealed by
Thomas a Becket, the celebrated Chancellor of that reign. The chief officers of the
Company retain the distinctive titles of Upper Bailiff and Renter Bailiff. The motto
is *• Weave Truth with Trust." Hatton (1708) describes the Hall as greatly adorned
■with hangings, fretwork, and a screen of the Ionic order. Their arms are curious :
Azure, on a chevron, argent, between three leopards' heads, having each a shuttle in his mouth, or, as
many roses, gules, seeded proper : crest, a Leopard's Head crowned with a ducal coronet, and a shuttle
as before ; supporters, two Weeverns, ermine, whiged or, membered gules.
The old Hall, which had a decorative ceiling, and a staircase with carvings, was taken
down in 1856, and has been rebuilt in handsome style.
The existing Companies are so many trusteeships for "charitable purposes" and
** chartered festivals;" and their earliest object was the formation of a common stock
for the relief of poor or decayed members. Stow devotes some twenty-five folio pages
of his Survey to charities for this purpose, and which he characterizes as " the Honour
of Citizens and Worthiness of Men." These charities comprise pensions to decayed
members, almshouses, gifts of money to the poor ; funds for the support of hospitals,
schools, exhibitions at the universities; prisoners in the City gaols; for lectures and ser-
mons, and donations to distressed clergymen ; loans to young beginners in business, &c.
Of the eighty-nine Companies, eight are practically extinct ; and a ninth, the Parish
Clerks, has no connexion with the municipality of London. The others are divided by
the Parliamentary Commissioners into three classes: 1, Companies still controlling
their trade, namely, the Goldsmiths and the Apothecaries : both these also belong to
Class 2. 2. Companies exercising the right of search, or making wares, &c., including
the Stationers', at whose Hall all copyright books must be " entered ;" the Gun-makers,
who prove all the guns made in the City; the Founders, who test and mark weights;
the Saddlers, who examine the workmanship of saddles; the Painters, who issue a
trade price-list of some authority ; and the Pewterers and Plumbers, who make assays.
3. Companies into which persons carrying on certain occupations in the City are com-
pelled to enter: such are the Apothecaries, Brewers, Pewterers, Builders, Barbers,
Bakers, Saddlers, Painter- stainers. Plumbers, Innholders, Founders,* Poulterers, Cooks,f
* The Fruiterers' Company have no Hall : they present the Lord Mayor yearly with fruit, formerly
twelve bushels of apples, and are entertained by his Lordship.
t The Cooks' Company have no Hall. By their Charter of Charles II. they claim to serve the sove-
reign on all civic occasions, as well as exemption from serving on juries. They also claim the right of
selling beer without a license ; but the Court of Excise have decided against this privilege by an Act
of Parliament which exempts only members of the Vintners' Company from the wine license. The
Cooks' Company are, however, exempted from serving on juries in the City courts.
42! CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Weavers, Scriveners, Farriers, Spectacle-makers, Clockmakers,* Silk- throwers, Dis-
tillers, Tobacco-pipe-makers, and Carmen; the last mentioned exclusively consisting of
persons belonging to the trade. Admission to the body of freemen is obtained by
birth, apprenticeship, purchase, or gift ; and thence into the livery by fees.
The Needlemakers' is the only City Company not incorporated by a crowned head, they having
received their Charter from Cromwell in 1656. They have no Hall, but these characteristic arms : vert^
three needles infess argent, each ducally crowned or : crest, a Moor's head, couped at the shoulders in
profile proper, wreathed about the temples argent, and in his ear a pearl (the crest originally was an
apple-tree and serpent) ; supporters, a man and woman (termed Adam and Eve), wreathed round the
waist with leaves, all proper, in the woman's dexter hand a needle argent ; motto, " they sewed fig-
leaves together and made themselves aprons." Stow tells us that needles were sold in Cheapside in
the reign of Queen Mary, and were then made by a Spanish negro, by a secret art ; they are also said
to have been made in London by a native of India, in 1545; and by one Elias Krause, a German, in
1566. Needles were first made, or rather finished, in Whitechapel, by one Mackenzie : hence the cry
of " Whitechapel needles, twenty-five for a penny." The trade then removed to the borders of War-
wickshire and Worcestershire ; but Whitechapel labels are still used, and the fame of " Whitechapel
sharps" has reached the interior of Africa.
The arms of the several Companies (some very curious) are correctly given in Moule's
English Counties : Middlesex. Their records are ancient ; for the Great Companies*
title-deeds mostly extend to the thirteenth century.
HALLS, MISCELLANEOUS.
AGEicrLTTTEAii Hall, Islington, was built in 1862, and opened wdth the Smithfield
Club Cattle Show, in December. The principal entrance is in Liverpool-road, beneath
a lofty arch, flanked by towers, with cupolas, 95 feet high. The capital was raised
by a Joint-Stock Company, Limited, composed of agriculturists, agricultural implement
makers, and cattle salesmen. The whole sum expended in the building, fittings, &c.,
was 53,000Z. The first chairman of the Company was the late Mr. Jonas Webb, of
Babraiiam, the celebrated breeder of South-down sheep and short-horned cattle. The
ground-plan and cattle fittings were designed by Mr. John Giblett, the eminent cattle-
salesman, of the Metropolitan Market. The vice-chairman is Mr. Shuttleworth, the
agricultural implement maker, of Lincoln. The main hall is 384- feet in length, by
2l7 feet in breadth, and has galleries on the four sides, 30 feet wide. There is also a
minor hall, 100 feet square ; and au entrance-arcade 150 feet long from Islington
Green. The great hall has an iron arched roof, glazed, 130 feet span. Mr. F. Peck
was the architect. The first stone was laid by Lord Berners, as President of the Club.
The Hall was originally established by members of the Smithfield Club, after an
existence of more than sixty-two years. The Club has, since its first institution, had
at least five different places of exhibition. In 1799 and 1800, the Club exhibited in
Wootton's Livery Stables (Dolphin Yard), Smithfield; in 1804, the Show was held in
Swan-yard ; in 1805, the next selected spot was Dixon's Repository, in Barbican ; the
display for 1808 took place 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 History of the Origin and Progress of the Smithfield Cluh, we learn that, at
the first exhibition, the Club only received from the public 4QI. 3*. The receipts of
the first Baker-street Show were 300Z.
At the first Cattle-show in the Agricultural Hall, in five days, 134,669 persons paid one
sliilling each for admission. Since that date, besides the annual Show of cattle, sheep,
pigs, and agricultural implements, there have been held here four Dog-shows, at one of
which 2000 dogs were entered : that held in 1863 brought 60,800 paying visitors. The
first Horse-show was held in 1864. The Hall Company have the credit of originating a
Show of this description under cover, with horses exhibited, saddled and harnessed,
in an arena sufficiently large to display their paces, and accommodations which have
never been excelled. A Horse-show is now held here every year in the week between
Epsom and Ascot Races, and attracts the most fashionable company in London. The
judges are invariably selected from noblemen and gentlemen ; as for instance, the Earls
of Chesterfield and Portsmouth, Lords Suffield and Combermere.
_ * The Clockmakers' Company have a lending library, rich in treatises on Horology and the allied
sciences ; besides a cabinet of specimen watches, &c. The Company have no hall, but au office, 6, Cowper's-
court, Cornhill; whence the Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants, May 10, 1852, memorialized
Her Majesty's Commissioners of Works and Buildings against the order given direct to I\lr. Dent to
make the great Clock for the New Palace at Westminster, instead of submitting it, as originally
intended, to competition.
HALLS, MISCELLANEOUS. 425
There are also at Christmas, Equestrian Performances, with chariot-races, &c.,
reminding one of the sports of Old Rome. There have likewise been several Industrial
and Musical Exhibitions : the Metropolitan Working Men's Exhibition held here ten
weeks in the autumn of 1866, was visited by more than half a million persons. One
evening, when the Messiah oratorio was sung by the Tonic Sol-fa Association, upwards
of 23,000 persons paid twopence each for admission in little more than two hours.
The Company, up to January, 1865, when the Cattle-show was seriously affected by
the cattle plague, had paid four dividends, averaging eight pounds per cent. Mr. John
Clayden of Littlebury, Essex, is the present chairman. The Secretary and Manager of
the Hall is Mr. Samuel Sidney, a well-known writer on colonization, civil engineering,
and agriculture.
Bakewell Hall formerly stood in front of the Guildhall, over the ground now
occupied by the Law Courts, and extending almost to Basinghall-street. (See the Plan
of Bassishaio Ward, Strype's Stow, vol. i. j also Maitland's History of London ;
edition 1760, vol. ii. ; Aggas's Flan of London, 1560. For a view of the first hall,
in the time of Henry VII !., see Newton's Flan of London.) Stow says it was
first called Basing's Hall, after its owners, the noble family of the Basings, who, in the
reign of King John, were appointed chief magistrates, and many served the office of
mayor and sheriff: Subsequently, this large building, in the reign of Edward III., was
inhabited by Thomas Bakewell. In the twentieth year of Eichard II. the King, for
the sum of 50Z. which the mayor and commonalty had paid into the Hanaper, assigned
to them the Hall, gardens, &c., for the use of the Corporation ; and Bakewell Hall,
from that time, was chiefly employed as a weekly market-place for woollen cloths,
broad and narrow, brought from all parts of this realm to be sold there. The first
hall was taken down and rebuilt in the space of ten months, in 1558, at the charge of
2500^. 300^. was a legacy of Mr. Richard May, merchant-tailor ; but this building
did not escape the Great Fire ; it was again rebuilt in 1672. The Corporation gave to
Christ's Hospital the profit arising from the lodging and pitching of the cloth in the
several warehouses or halls — for it was divided into several. This last building was
taken down to make room for the new Law Courts. Bakewell Hall, or Blakewell Hall,
as it was subsequently called up to the last century, was the great cloth-market of
London, and the neighbourhood is still noted for the warehouses of wholesale woollen-
drapers. — W. H. Overall, Guildhall Libarian : Citt/ Fress.
Commercial Hall, Mincing-lane, for the public sale of colonial produce, was built
in 1811, from the designs of Joseph Wood, F.S.A,, author of Letters from an Archi-
tect ; it has some characteristic bas-reliefs, by J. G. Bubb.
Flaxman Hall, University College, Gower-street, is the central apartment beneath
the cupola, designed by Cockerell and Donaldson, for the receipt of Flaxman's models,
presented by his sister-in-law. Miss Maria Denman. The collection consists of about
140 casts in plaster from the original models, statues and groups of figures, and reliefs,
some retouched by the great sculptor. Immediately beneath the lantern is the group
of Michael and Satan ; and around and above are his monumental and other reliefs,
arranged in compartments. In the niche in the vestibule is the large group of
Hercules and Omphale ; in adjoinirjg rooms are the Pastoral Apollo, the Shield of
Achilles, small models of Raphael and Michael Angelo, and other of Flaxman's works j
and on the landing is a fine statue of the sculptor by M. L. Watson.
Floeal Hall, at the south-east corner of the Piazza, Covent Garden, was built in
1863, by taking down a portion of Inigo Jones's Arcade ; E, M. Barry, architect. It
is of iron and glass, and has a large dome. It is an adjunct to Covent-garden opera-
house, and occasionally used for concerts, flower-shows, &c.
Hall op Commeece, No. 52, Threadneedle-street, was designed and built in 1840-43
by Mr. Moxhay, formerly a biscuit-baker in the same street : it occupies the site of the
French Protestant Church, in clearing away which a fine Roman tesselated pavement
was discovered, and is now in the British Museum.
The Hall facade has a bas-relief 73 feet, in length, with life-size figures, by M. L. Watson : the cen-
tral tigui-e is Commerce, with outspread wings and hands, encouraging the Fine Arts j the groups
426 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
symbolizing' the intellectual and physical advantages of Commerce. Thus, sinister are Peace ; Industry,
agricultural and mechanical figures bringing fruits and produce, and others spinning ; next is Naviga-
tion, guided by Astronomy and Geography ; and Education and Civilization, with Liberty freeing the
Slave. Dexter is History ; next is a group of the Arts and Sciences ; Enterprise guided by Genius,
and awaiting their arrival is a group of aborigines. The sculptor died young, in 1847.
The building was opened as a mercantile club-house; right and left were two
superb halls, with Corinthian columns and pilasters, picturesque friezes, and elegantly
coved ceilings. In the larger hall, 130 feet long, 44 wide, and 50 feet high, March 1,
1851, was given the dinner to Mr. Macready on his retirement from the stage;
upwards of 500 guests. The Hall of Commerce, after Mr. Moxhay's death in 1849,
was sold for 44,000Z. ; the site alone is stated to have cost him 35,000^. The building
was next altered for the Bank of London.
HiCKs's Hall, whence the miles on the Great North Road were formerly measured
(or, " from the spot where Hicks's Hall formerly stood"), merits record. In the wide
part of St. John- street, Clerkenwell, some two hundred yards from Smithfield, an
inscription on a public-house states that Hicks's Hall there formerly stood. It was
erected some two hundred and fifty years since — the year in which the New River was
brought into London. It was built by and named after Sir Baptist Hicks, of Ken-
sington, one of the justices, who, " out of his worthy disposition," gave it to the
justices of the county for ever. It got out of repair, and much impeded the traffic.
Another Sessions-House was commenced building on Clerkenwell-green; this was finished
in 1782 (Rogers, architect) : it contains a carved chimney-piece, of Jacobean character,
with an inscription recording Hicks's gift, removed from the old Sessions- House.
Strype says the Hall cost about 900^., or thereabouts; elsewhere, he states 600^.
Howes thus describes the building, and the naming of it :
Sir Baptist Hicks, Knight, one of the justices of the county, builded a very stately Session House
of brick and stone, with all offices thereunto belonging, at his own proper charge ; and upon Wednes-
day, the 13th of January, this yere, 1612, by which time this house was fully finished, there assembled
twenty-six justices of the county, being the first day of their meeting in that place, when they were all
leasted by Sir Baptist Hicks; and then they all, with one consent, gave it a proper name, and called it
Hicks' Hall, after the name of the founder, who then freely gave the same house to them and their suc-
cessors for ever. Until this time, the Justices of Middlesex held their usual meeting in a common inn,
called the Castle (near Smithfield Bars).
Hicks's Hall had other celebrity besides its milestone distinction. It occurs in
SudibraSy part iii. canto 3 : —
" An old dull sot, who told the clock.
For many years, at Bridewell Dock,
At Westminster and Hicks's Hall,
And hiccius-doctius played in all."
In Hicks's Hall, William Lord Russell, the patriot, was sentenced to death for high
treason, July 14, 1683 ; here, too. Count Koningsmarck was tried for the murder of
Mr. Thynne, and acquitted ; and in March, 1765, a bill of indictment was found at
the sessions here against Count de Guerchy, for the absurd charge of a conspiracy to
murder the Chevalier d'Eon. Hicks's Hall, we gather from a drawing in Mr. Holbert
Wilson's collection, scarcely reaches Howes's description : it was not large, had a bay-
window in the upper floor, and above it a gable.
Hudson's Bat Company's Hall, Fenchurch-street, is a handsome edifice, with an
interesting collection of Curiosities from the countries to which the Company trade
by barter and otherwise, for rich furs, skins, &c., sold here in spring and autumn.
The Company was incorporated by Charles II. in 1670. Their hunting-ground extends
from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific, and from the United States' frontier to the Arctic
Sea. In the Hall is a vast pair of horns of the Moose Deer, weighing 56 lbs. ; and in
another room, the picture of an Elk, the European Moose, killed in the presence of
Charles XI. of Sweden : it weighed 1229 lbs.
St. James's Hall and its appurtenances (originated by Mr. Willert Beale) are
situated between the Quadrant in Regent-street and Piccadilly, and Vine-street and
George-court. There is a frontage in Regent-street, and another in Piccadilly; the
latter is characteristically embellished with a sculptured figure of Music, supported by
two Cupids, in the tympanum over the upper windows ; and between the upper and
lower window is o. frieze of children playing various musical instruments. The interior
HALLS, MISCELLANEOUS. 427
consists of a great hall and two smaller halls. The dimensions of the great hall are
139 feet by 60, and 60 feet in height; and it will seat about 2500 persons. It has
a semicircular-headed ceiling, and a recessed orchestral gallery at one end, and an
alcove at the other end, containing a large organ by Gray and Davidson. The walls
and ceiling have been decorated by Mr. Owen Jones. The ceiling is divided into
lozenge-shaped panels, by principal ribs that traverse the roof diagonally, and intersect
each other ; within these panels are others formed by lesser ribs. The semicircular-
headed windows are surrounded with flowing scroll ornaments, on a ground of orange-
chrome yellow ; and the windows have groups of figures in bold relief, holding scrolls,
on which are inscribed the names of Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Haydn, Auber,
Meyerbeer, Spohr, Weber, Gluck, Purcell, Rossini, Cherubini, and other eminent com-
posers. The ceiling is rich in colour and gilding ; the smaller panels are Alhambran
gold on a red ground. The Hall is not lighted at night by a central chandelier, but
by gas stars of seven jets each, suspended from the ceiling. The figures in the various
designs were modelled by Monti ; the other enrichments, by De Sarchy, are of plaster
and canvas run into moulds. The floor of the Hall is of marqueterie. It was opened
with a musical performance for the benefit of the Middlesex Hospital on the 25th of
March, 1856. The Hall is not, however, appropriated exclusively to music.
Public Dinners are given in this Hall. The first took place June 2, 1858, Mr. Eobert Stephenson,
M,P., presiding, when handsome plate and 26781. were presented to Mr. F. Pettit Smith, in testimony
of his brinaing into general use the system of Screw Propulsion in ships. The subscribers to the
Testimonial were 138, chiefly eminent naval oflBcers, engineers, ship-builders, ship-owners, and men of
science ; and the Festival intellectually commemorated " one of those bloodless triumphs of 'civilization,
of which this age and country have reason to be proud."
St. Maetin's Music Hall, No. 89, Long Acre, was originally designed by R.
Westmacott, for Mr. HiiUah's Singing Classes : the style Elizabethan, with iron arches
and panelled wood roof, of immense span; the Hall was first opened Feb. 11, 1850.
It was partly destroyed by fire, but was restored and lengthened in 1853, and is now
121 feet 6 inches long ; an entrance-hall was then added.
Union Hall, Union-street, South wark, was built by subscription, upon the site of
the Greyhound inn, in 1781, for the use of the justices of the peace, before which they
sat at the Swan Inn. They attended at Union Hall daily till the passing of the Police
Act in 1793, when it was made one of the oflaces; the business was next removed to a
new office at Stones' End ; Union Hall was then let as warehouses ; it was destroyed by-
fire Dec. 6, 1851.
Wesleyan Centenary Hall and Mission House, Bishopsgate-street, faces
Threadncedle- street. The Centenary Hall was formerly the City of London Tavern.
The great Hall for Wesleyan meetings will hold 1200 persons. In the rear is the
Mission House, built in 1842 : here is the picture by Parker of the rescue of John
Wesley from the flames, when a boy. The arrangement of the warehouses, for books,
clothes, implements, and other outfittings of the missionaries, illustrates the extent of
the Society's transactions geographically : here Ashantee, there Tonga ; there Caffraria,
Gambia, &c.
An interesting Sale of Thank-offerings from the Friendly and Fejee Islands to the Wesleyan Mis-
sionary Society was held in their Hall, June 19 and 20, 1851 ; including temples, cloths, and mats :
spears and clubs, shells and bowls; elephants' and whales' teeth; costumes, idols, and musical instru-
ments ; — all picturesquely grouped, and touching as a lesson of gratitude exemplary to the silken baron
of civilization.
Westminster Guildhall, on the south side of the Sanctuary, near the Abbey, was
built in 1805, by Cockerell, upon the site of the market-house, erected by subscription
in 1568. The Guildhall is octagonal in plan, and has a Doric entrance-portico : here
are held the sessions.
ToTTN Halls and Vestry Halls have been erected within the last twenty years
in most of the large parishes of the metropolis and its environs : some are good specimens
of Gothic and classic architecture.
See also. Bridewell, Charter-House, Christ's Hospital, Crosby Hall,
Egyptian Hall, Exeter Hall, Freemasons' Lodges, Gresham Hall, Lambeth
Palace. Halls are likewise attached to the Inns of Court and Chancery, which
see. Also, Westminster Hall.
428 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
nATMARKJET {TEE).'
•* A VERY spacious and public street, length 340 yards, where is a great market for
xJL hay and straw." {Ilatton, 1708). Hay was sold here in the reign of Elizabeth ;
and Aggas's plan has " the Haymarket," with hedgerows and a few straggling houses j
and washerwomen then dried their linen on the grass of the site of the present Opera-
house. A Token in the British Museum denotes one of the earliest vendors of sea-coa^
to have lived here : " Nathaniel Robins, at the Sea-coal seller, 1666." (Reverse.)
** Hay Markett in Pickadilla, his halfpenny." Charles II. granted the right of holding
a cattle-market in the street twice a week, opened 1664; it was paved 1697, by fines
on the carts ; ^d. for each load of hay, and 2d. for straw. The market for Hay was
removed by Act of Parliament, in 1830, to Cumberland Market, Regent's Park.
The acclivity of the Haymarket at 490 feet from Piccadilly was, in 1842, 1 foot in
22 : this has been ingeniously overcome in building the front of Her Majesty's Theatre,
the divisions of which have been taken advantage of to lower the lines, whilst the great
length of the fagade has rendered the rise unnoticeable : it was designed by Novosielski,
but re-fronted by Nash and Repton, 1818. Nearly opposite is the Haymarket Theatre,
built by Nash, in 1821, with a fine Corinthian portico: the site of Potter's "Little
Theatre " is occupied by the Cafe de I'Europe.
Opposite Her Majesty's Theatre is Suffolk-place, leading to Siffolk-street, the site
of a mansion of the Earls of Suffolk. In Strype's time the houses were handsome :
Moll Davies lived here from 1667 to 1673, in a mansion richly furnished for her by
Charles 1I„ which Pepys thought "a most infinite shame:" she kept also "a mighty
pretty fine coach." Here lived Sir John Coventry, who, on his way home, when at the
corner of the street, had his nose cut to the bone, " for reflecting on the king," in 1669 ;
whence dates the Coventry Act against cutting and maiming.
Suffolk-street has some classic house-fronts : No. 2 has four characteristic oil-jars ;
No. 6, next the Society of British Artists' Gallery, is from Andrea Palladio's house at
Vicenza. The Gallery, No. 6|, has a Roman-Doric tetrastyle portico on three semi-
circular arches, by Nash : the suite of five rooms, planned by James Elmes, were lit by
large ceiling lanterns, inclined from the perpendicular, and diffusing even light. No.
19 is the stage-door of the Haymarket Theatre.
On the east side of the Haymarket is James-street, dated 1673 ; where was the
Tennis-court of Shavers' Hall {see Tennis, p. 18), the last house in Faithorne's plan of
1658. Above is Panton- street, which, with Panton-square, Coventry- street, was
named from Colonel Panton, the ground-landlord : he was a noted and successful
gamester, of the time of the Restoration, and the last proprietor of Piccadilly Hall, which
stood at the corner of Great Windmill-street and Coventry-street : the Tennis-court
remained to our time in Great Windmill-street.
Colonel Panton, it is said, in one night won as many thousands as purchased him an
estate of above 1500Z. a year. After this good fortune he would never handle cards or
dice again ; but lived handsomely on his winnings to his dying day, which was in the
year 1681. He was in possession of land, the site of streets which bear his name, as
Panton-street and Panton-square, as early as the year 1664. Yet we remember to
have seen it stated that Panton street was named from a particular kind of horse-shoe
called Bi panton; and from its contiguity to the Haymarket, this origin was long credited.
In 1772, Puppets were exhibited in Panton-street, and were visited by Burke and Goldsmith.
"Burke praised the dexterity of one puppet in particular, who tossed a pike with military precision.
'Psha!' remarked Goldsmith, with some warmth, 'I can do it better myself.'" (Forster's Goldsmith.)
Boswell relates that Goldsmith " went home with Mr. Bnrke to supper, and broke his shin by attempt-
ing to exhibit to the company how much better he could .iurap over a stick than the puppets."
On the west is Nornis-street, leading to St. James's Market, once the great western
butchers' and poulterers' market, noted by Pepys in 1666 as just built by my Lord
St, Albans : in a room over the market-house Richard Baxter used to preach. Here,
too, is Jermyn-street, named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans.
At the corner of Market-street, extending into Jermyn-street, lived Wheeler, the
linen-draper, and uncle of Hannah Lightfoot, "the fair Quakeress," who, while
serving in her uncle's shop, caught the eye of Prince George (afterwards King
George III.), in his walks and rides from Leicester House to St. James's Palace.
BOLBOElS. 429
Facing Piccadilly Hall, occupying the whole south side of the present Coveutrj'-
street, between the Hayraarket and Hedge-lane, stood the Gaming-house built by the
barber of the Earl of Pembroke, and hence called Shavers' Hall : it is described by
Garrard, in a letter to Lord Stratford in 1635 as " a new Spring Gardens erected in
the fields beyond the Mews."
Prom a survey of the premises, made in 1650, we gather that Shavers' Hall was strongly built of
brick, and covered with lead : its large " seller" was divided into six rooms : above these four rooms,
and the same in the first storey, to which was a balcony, with a prospect southward to the bowling-
alleys. In the second storey were six rooms; and over the same a walk, leaded, and enclosed with
rails, " very curiously carved and wrought," as was also the staircase, throughout the house. On the
west were large kitchens and coal-house, with lofts over, " as also one faire Tennis Court," of brick,
tiled, " well accommodated with all things fitting for the same ;" with upper rooms ; and at the entrance-
gate to the upper bowling-green, a parlour-lodge ; and a double flight of steps descending to the lower
bowling-alley ; there was still another bowling-alley, and an orchard-wall, planted with choice fruit-
trees ; '' as also one pleasant banqueting-house, and one other faire and pleasant Roome, called the
Greene Eoome, and one other Conduit-house, and 2 other Turrets adioiniuge to the walls."
EOLBOMN,
A THOROUGHFARE of varying widths, extends from the north end of Farringdon-
strcet to Broad- street, Bloomsbury. It was anciently called Old-bourne, from
being built upon the side of a brook or bourne, which " broke out of the ground about
the place where now the bars do stand, and ran down the whole street till Old-bourne
Bridge, and into the River of the Wells, or Turnemill Brook." {Stow.) 1502. "The
deche from the Temse to Holborne-brygge new cast." {Grey Friars' Chronicle.) The
stream now runs the same course along the common sewer ; and the arch of Holborn-
bridge was uncovered in 1841. Holborn was first paved in 1417, at the expense of
Henry V., when the highway " was so deep and miry that many perils and hazards
were thereby occasioned, as well to the king's carriages passing that way, as to those
of his subjects." (Rymer's Fccdera, vol. ix. p. 447.) By this road criminals were con-
veyed from Newgate and the Tower to the gallows at St. Giles's and Tyburn;
whither a ride in the cart " up the Heavy Hill" implied going to be hung, in Ben
Jonson's time.
*' As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling.
Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling.
He stopt at the George for a bottle of sack,
And promised to pay for it when he came h&c^."— Swift, 1727.
"An old Counsellor in Holborn used every execution-day to turn out his clerks with this compli-
raent : Go, ye young rogues ; go to school and improve."— Tow Brown.
To remedy the declivities of Holborn and Snow Hill, various plans have been proposed,
by viaducts crossing the valley of the Fleet, and otherwise. Alderman Skinner, who
built Skinner-street, proposed to construct a bridge from Snow-hill across the valley
to Holborn-hill ; and to lift the valley 17 feet forms part of Mr. Charles Pearson's
plan. The traific is much larger than is generally believed : for example, of 9950
vehicles passing over Holborn-hill, 1013, or about one-tenth, go up and down from the
low levels ; and of 10,723 passing through Skinner-street and Snow-hill, 3219, or about
three-tenths, go up and down from the low levels.
The Corporation plan provides that the line of improvement from east to west shall
commence at or near the Old Bailey, and terminate at a point 55 feet beyond the
western side of Hatton-garden by a high-level roadway formed 80 feet wide, with an
almost imperceptible gradient. Farringdon-street is to be crossed by a bridge with
a minimum central headway of 21 feet. Two new streets are to be laid down, both
starting from Farringdon-road, to afford communication for vehicles between the upper
and lower levels.
No. 94, Holborn-hill, opposite Shoe-lane, the well-known house of Messrs. Fearon, was established at
the beginning of the present century. The amount of the wines and spirits sold there was much
controverted in the Times newspaper, in 1829 : a Correspondent, December 14, stated that he had
"watched one shop in Holborn, and saw, on an average, six individuals enter per minute, being equal to
360 in an hour." At this time liquors were consumed upon the premises, but this has long been discon-
tinued. The general business is still very extensive at this establishment, and in twelve months reaches
a quarter of a million customers. Messrs. Fearon have been celebrated in the verse of Thomas Hood,
who, writing home to his wife, in 1835, from Rotterdam, implied that he had taken some English gin
with him as a travelling companion, perhaps a parting present from Mrs, Hood; for he says : —
" The flavour now of Fearon's,
That mingles in my dram,
Reminds me you're in England,
And I'm in Rotterdam."
430 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
And he concludes with —
"The girl I love in England
I drink at Eotterdam."
Thefounder of the house was Mr. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, who visited America in 1818, and on
his return published " A Narrative of a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and
Western States."
On the north side is Ely-place, built upon part of the site of the palace of the
Bishops of Ely. {See Ely House, p. 321.)
In Holborn are Thavie's, Barnard's, Furnival's, Staple's, and Gray's Inns. {See Inns
OP Court.) At the corner of Furnival's Inn, and in Queen-street, Cheapside, Mr.
Edward Kidder, the famous pastry-cook (who died April, 1739, aged 73 years), had two
schools, in which he taught nearly six thousand ladies the art of making pastry.
Kidder published his receipts, engraved on copper, in a thin 8vo, with his portrait
as a frontispiece.
At No. 39, Brooke-street, died Chatterton. Of the house, occupied by Mr. Jefford,
a plumber, Mr. Hotten, in his Adversaria, gives these very interesting reminiscences : —
" We know, from the account of Sir Herbert Croft, that Chatterton occupied the garret— a room look-
ing out into the street, as the only garret in this house does. I remember this room very well, as it was
twenty-six years ago, soon after which the occupier made some alterations in it. It must then have
been substantially in the same condition as in 1770 ; for the walls were old and dilapidated, and the
flooring decayed. It was a square and rather large room for an attic. It had two windows in it —
lattice-windows or easements— built in a style which I think is called "Dormer." Outside ran the
gutter, with a low parapet-wall, over which you could look into the street below. The roof was very
low, so low, that I, who am not a tall man, could hardly stand upright in it with my hat on ; and it had
a very long slope extending from the middle of the room down to the windows. It is a curious fact,
that in the well-known picture (The Death of Chatterton, by Wallis) exhibited at Manchester, St. Paul's
is ^visible through the window : I say a singular fact, because, although this is strictly in accordance
with the truth, as now known, the story previously believed was, that the house was opposite, where no
room looking into the street could have commanded a view of St. Paul's. This, however, could only
have been a lucky accident of the painter's. About the period 1 have mentioned, the tenant divided the
garret into two with a partition, carried the roof up, making it horizontal, and made some other altera-
tions, which have gone far to destroy the identity of the room. It is a singular coincidence, seeing the
connexion between the names of Walpole and Chatterton, that my friend, Mrs. Jefford, the wife of the
now occupier, who has resided there more than twenty years, was for some years in the service of Horace
Walpole, afterwards Lord Orford. She is a very old lady, and remembers Lord Orford well, having
entered his family as a girl, and continued in it till he died, near the end of the last century."
Gerarde, the herbalist, had a large physic-garden in Holborn. Howel dates one of
his Familiar Letters, Holborn, 3 Jan. 1641, "to Sir Kenelm Digby, at his house in
Saint Martin's-lane." Sir Kenehn lived, before the Civil Wars, between King-street
and Southampton-street ; Milton in Holborn-row, in a house opening into Lincoln's-
inn-fields ; and Dr. Johnson, in 1748, at the Golden Anchor, Holborn-bars. These
were the City boundaries, now marked by two granite obelisks near Middle-row, at
the south-east corner of which Sir James Branscomb kept a lottery-office forty years :
he had been footman to the Earl of Gainsborough, and was knighted when sheriff of
London and Middlesex in 1806.
Next is Middle-roio, which has, for two centuries, been considered an obstruction.
Howel, in his Ferlustration of London, 1657, p. 344, observes : — " Southward of
Gray's-inn-lane there is a row of small houses, which is a mighty hindrance to Holborn
in point of prospect, which, if they were taken down, there would be from Holborn
Conduit to St. Giles's-in-the-Fields one of the fairest rising streets in the world."
These obstructive buildings have been condemned for removal. The old row is shown
in Faithorne's Ichnographical Delineation of London in the reign of Charles I., a fac-
simile of which, engraved on copper, has lately been executed.
Southampton-buildings, Holborn, denotes the site of the mansion of the Wriothesleys,
Earls of Southampton ; and Brooke-street that of the residence of Sir' Fulke Greville,
Lord Brooke, the friend of Sir Philip Sidney. Gate-street, and Great, Little, and New
Turnstiles, lead into Lincoln's-Inn-fields ; between the north side of which and the
south side of Holborn is Whetstone's Park, a profligate resort of two centuries since,
commemorated in the plays of Dry den, Shadwell, and Wycherley.
Paul Whitehead was born in Castle-yard, Holborn, on 6th February, 1710, o.s., being St. Paul's-day,
from which circumstance he is said to have derived his Christian name, ludicrously unsuitable to his
character, and made more memorably ridiculous by his brother satirist Churchill's well-known
lines : —
" May I (can worse disgrace o'er manhood fall ?)
lie bom a Whitehead, and inspired a Paul."
HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON: 431
On the north side of High Holborn, between Nos, 110 and 77 (see boundary-marks
in the pavement), is the Holhorn Charity Estate of St. Clement Danes parish,
which plot of ground and some old buildings were purchased in 1552, for 160 Z., when
Holborn was almost a country road from the City to the village of St. Giles. The pro-
perty now produces 4000^. a year, expended in schools, almshouses, and other charities.
The almshouses were first built at the east end of St. Clement's Church, Strand ; next,
about 1790, at the back of Clement's Inn Hallj and in 1848-9 the Charity was removed
to forty almshouses built in Garratt-lane, Streatham : infant-schools were erected in Mil-
ford-lane. Strand, in 1852. Upon the Holborn Estate is Day and Martin's Blacking
Factory, Nq. 97, built at a cost of 12,000Z. : here Mr. Day amassed great wealth, and,
dying in 1836, left 100,000Z. for the benefit of persons, like himself, deprived of sight.
In Endell-street (formerly Old Belton-street), High Holborn, leading to Long-acre,
on the east side, is the Early English Christ Church, erected in 1845 ; next is the
British Lying-in Hospital, a picturesque Elizabethan structure, built in 1849 ; and a
handsome Italianized edifice for Baths and Wash-houses, built in 1852, not far from
the site of " Queen Anne's Bath ;" whilst, nearly in a line with Endell-street, are
the Industrial Schools, opened in 1852 j and in Bloomsbury-street, northward, side
by side, are three chapels in Early Pointed, Lombardic, and rococo styles : six of these
seven edifices of religion and philanthropy were erected within eight years.
Kingsgate-street, between 116 and 117 High Holborn, is named from the King's-
gate, this being the royal road to Newmarket ; and Pepys records, 3 March, ] 668-9,
the King and the Duke of York, and the Duke of Monmouth, leaving Whitehall at
three in the morning, in their coach, which was overset at the King's-gate : " it was
dark, and the torches did not, they say, light the coach as they should do.'' Here, in
1852, was an old public-house, sign the Red Gate.
In Holborn also are Field-lane, Ely-place, Fettee-lane, Ftilwood's-eents,
Chanceey-lane, and Deijey-lane, which names see. From Farringdon-street to
Fetter-lane is " Holborn Hill j" Fetter-lane to Brooke-street, " Holborn ;" and from
Brooke-street to Drury-lane, " High Holborn."
On the south side, nearly upon the site of Warwick House, is the Holborn Theatre,
built in 1866, and opened Oct. 6.
In the reign of Edward the Sixth, the authorities ordered the removal of all the King's revels and
masques from Warwick House, Holborn, to "the late dissolved house of Blackfriars, London." The
players who removed from Holborn to Blackfriars opened the latter theatre with scenery and machinery,
long before the period at which those adjuncts are said to have been introduced by Davenant. When
the Puritans closed the theatres, the ejected actors complained that they were not allowed to act at all,
while the drama of " Bel and the Dragon," performed by puppets, was creating an uproar at the foot
of Holborn-bridge. — AthenoBum, No. 2033.
On the north side was the old historic inn, the George and Blue Boar, upon the site
of w^hich has been erected the Inns of Court Hotel.
HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON,
A LITTLE west of the town, and about two miles from the metropolis, is a pic-
turesque Elizabethan pile, placed in a beautiful park about midway between the
Kensington and Uxbridge roads. This mansion, which is the manor-house of Abbots
Kensington, was built in 1607 for Sir Walter Cope, and descended to his son-in-law,
Henry Rich, first Earl of Holland ; whence it was named Holland House. The Earl
was twice made prisoner here — by Charles I. in 1633, for his challenging Lord Weston ;
and by command of the Parliament, after his attempt to restore the king, for which
he was beheaded in 1649. Holland House was next occupied by Sir Thomas Fairfax,
afterwards Lord, the Parliamentary General, as his head- quarters.
"The Lord-General (Fairfax) is removed from Queen-street to the late Earl of Holland's house at
Kensington, where he intends to reside."— Perfect JDiurnal, 9th to 16th July, 1649.
The mansion was, however, soon restored to the Countess of Holland. During the
Protectorate, " in Oliver's time," plays were privately performed here. In 1716 the
estate passed to Addison the Essayist, by his marriage with Charlotte, Countess
Dowager of Holland and Warwick ; and here Addison died June 17, 1719 : having
432 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
addressed to the dissolute Earl of Warwick these solemn words : " I have sent for you
that you may see how a Christian can die !" he shortly after expired :
" There taught us how to live, and— oh, too high
The price of knowledge ! — taught us how to die."
The young Earl himself died in 1721. About the year 1762, the estate was sold to
Henry Fox, the first Baron Holland of that name, whose second son, Charles James
Fox, passed his early years at Holland House ; and here lived his nephew, the accom-
plished peer, at whose death, in 1840, the estate descended to his only son, the last
Lord Holland, by whom the olden character of the mansion and its appurtenances
was studiously maintained : the latest restorations are by Barry, R.A.
Thorpe's drawings of Holland House are preserved in the Soanean Museum. Its
plan is that of half the letter H ; it first consisted of the centre and turrets only, to
which Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, added the wings, and their connecting arcades :
the materials are deep-red brick, with stone finishings; but the exterior has lost many
of its original features. Eastward is a stone gateway, designed by Inigo Jones, and
carved by N. Stone ; the lodges and enriched metal gates in the Kensington-road were
added in 1838. The raised terrace, with an open parapet and vases of plants, was
added to the south front in 1848, when also the public footpath was diverted to the
east side of the Park. In the Hall is the model of Westmacott's statue of Fox, erected
in Bloomsbury-square. In the Journal-room (which contains a complete set of the
Journals of the Lords and Commons) is a large collection of preserved birds, reptiles,
insects, shells, minerals, &c. The Great Staircase and the Gilt Room are of the time
of James I. ; the former has massive balustrades, carved into arches, &c. The Gilt
Room is mostly by Francis Cleyn, who was much employed by James I. and
Charles I. : the ceiling " in grotesque," by Cleyn, fell down during the minority of the
third Lord Holland ; the wainscot panels have alternately gold fleurs-de-lis on blue,
within palm-branches ; and gold crosslets on red, encircled with laurel ; with the arms
of the Rich and Cope families, and the punning motto, Ditior est qui se? — Who more
rich than he ? The entablature has a painted leaf enrichment, with gilt acorns be-
tween ; the compartments of the two fire-places are painted with female figures and
bas-reliefs from the antique fresco of the Aldobrandini Marriage, executed by Cleyn,
and not unworthy of Parmegiano : among the furniture are carved and gilt shell-back
chairs, also by Cleyn, and a table from the Charter-house hall. Here are marble busts
of George IV. when Regent; William IV.; Henry IV. of France; the Duke of
Sussex ; the Duke of Cumberland of Culloden, by Rysbrack ; the third Lord Holland ;
C. J. Fox, by Nollekens, a duplicate made for the Empress Catherine of Russia;
Napoleon, by Milne; Ariosto, copied from his tomb; and Henry Fox, first Lord
Holland, often declared by Bartolozzi to be " one of the finest specimens of sculpture
since the days of Phidias or Praxiteles." In the bow recess are models of Henry
Earl of Pembroke and Thomas Winnington, Esq. [See Richardson's Architectural
Semains of the Reigns of lElizaheth and James I.)
In the breakfast-room are family portraits by Lely, Kneller, Reynolds, Hoppner,
&c. ; and in the Great Drawing-room (40 feet by 18 feet) are some very fine pictures,
including a scene by Hogarth from Dryden's Indian Emperor, acted by children, all
portraits ; a Sea-port, by Velasquez ; a Holy Family, on copper, by Murillo ; a Man
and Boy eating Fruit, by Velasquez ; Hope nourishing Love ; and half-lengths of
Garrick and Sterne, by Reynolds. The Library, or Long GaUery, 102 feet by 17 feet
4 inches, forms the eastern wing of the mansion : the collection exceeds 18,000, besides
MSS. and autographs, including three plays of Lope de Vega. In the other apartments
are valuable pictures, miniatures, drawings, sculptures ; with enriched cabinets, vases,'
carvings in ivory, china, filagree-work, time-pieces, &c. In the Ante-room is the
famous collection of miniatures. Here, too, is Reynolds's celebrated picture of Lady
Susan Lennox leaning from a bay-window on the north side of Holland House, to
receive a dove from Lady Susau Strangways, near whom is Charles James Fox,
when a boy of fourteen.
This ** brave old house" is charmingly placed upon high ground :
" Thou hill, whose brow the antique structures grace."
Tickell, On the Death of Addison
E0B8E-FEBBY (THE). 433
the upper apartments are stated to be on a level with the stone gallery of St. Paul's
Cathedral. The southern park is enclosed with noble elms. Against the house grow
some curious old exotic plants. The gardens abound with architectural quaintness :
of parterres in Italian scrolls and devices, and box and dwarf oaks clipped into globes ;
flower beds in the forms of a fox (in allusion to the family name), and the old Eng-
lish 3^ ; the effect of the flowers aided by coloured sand, and the outlines of box-edging.
In a parterre near the house, upon a granite column, is a bronze bust of Buonaparte,
by Canova, the pillar inscribed with a verse from Homer's Odyssey ; and in the north
garden-wall is an arbour with this distich by Vassall Lord Holland :
" Here Rogers sat— and here for ever dwell
With me those ' Pleasures' which he sang so well."— YH. H*!.
Beneath are some lines added in 1818 by Henry Luttrel.
In the French garden, in 1804, was first raised in England the Dahlia, from seeds
sent to Vassall Lord Holland from Spain. The grounds westward, with their stately
oaks and cedars, were laid out and planted in 1769 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton, of
Pains Hill, in Surrey.
Aubrey relates two supernatural appearances at Holland House : the first to " the beautiful Lady
Diana Rich, daughter to the Earl of Holland, as she was walking in her father's garden at Kensing-
ton," when she ^'met with her own apparition, habit and every thing, as in a looking-glass. About a
month after she died of the small-pox." Aubrey's second story is that the third daughter of Lord
Holland, not long after her marriage with the first Earl of Breadalbane, " had some such warning of
approaching dissolution."
In a meadow west of Holland House was fought, March 7, 1804, a fatal duel
between the late Lord Camelford and Captain Best, R.N. : upon the spot where Lord
Camelford fell is an antique Roman altar, placed there and thus inscribed by Vassall
Lord Holland : " Hoc dIs man . voto discordiam depeecamxje."
The Highland and Scottish Societies' gatherings, with their characteristic sports and
pastimes, have been frequently held in Holland Park north, since 1849.
There is a traditional story that Addison, to escape from his termagant countess,
often walked from Holland House to the White Horse Inn, at the corner of " Lord
Holland's Lane" (no longer a thoroughfare), on the site of the present Holland Arms
Inn ; and there enjoyed " his favourite dish, a fillet of veal, his bottle, and perhaps a
friend." {Sjpence}) Before his marriage, Addison lived in Kensington-square.
Holland House is associated " with the courtly magnificence of Rich, with the loves of Ormond, the
councils of Cromwell, with the death of Addison." It has been for nearly two centuries and a half the
favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen.
In the lifetime of Vassall Lord Holland it was the meeting-place of " the Whig Party;" and his liberal
hospitality made it " the resort not only of the most interesting persons composing English society,
literary, philosophical, and political, but also to all belonging to those classes who ever visited this
country from abroad." (Lord Brougham.) In this delightful circle, " every talent and every accomplish-
ment, every art and science, had its place. . . The last debate was discussed in one corner, and the
last comedy of Scribe in another; while Wilkie gazed with admiration on Reynolds's Baretti; while
Mackintosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to verify a quotation; while Talleyrand related his conversa-
tion with Barras at the Luxembourg, or his ride with Lannes over the fields of Austerlitz." (Murray's
JEnvirons of London.) " Holland House " (says Macaulay) " can boast of a greater number of
inmates distinguished in political and literary history than any other private dwelling in England."
SORSE-FERRY (THE),
BETWEEN Westminster and Lambeth, was the only Horse-ferry permitted on the
Thames at London, and was granted by patent to the Archbishop of Canterbury ;
the ferry-boat station being near the palace-gate. Here were two inns for the recep-
tion of travellers, who arriving at night, did not choose to cross the water at such an
hour, or in case of bad weather, might prefer waiting for better. On opening West-
minster Bridge, 1750, the ferry ceased, and compensation was granted to the See.
(Beidges, p. 69.)
The rates were, for a man and horse, 2s. ; horse and chaise. Is. ; coach and two
horses, 1^. 6d. ; coach and four horses, 2^. ; coach and six horses, 2s. 6d. ; cart loaded,
2*. 6d. ; cart or wagon, each 2^.
At the time of the Usurpation, a wooden house was built for a small guard posted here. M. de
Lauzun mentions the ferry in his account of the escape of the Queen of James II., Dec. 9, 1688: Sir
Edward Hales being in attendance with a hackney-coach, " we drove from Whitehall to Westminster,
and arrived safely at the place called the Horse-ferry, where I had engaged a boat to wait for me."
The same author adds : " The King, attended by Sir Edward Hales, who was waiting for bim.
434 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
descended the back stairs, and crossing Privy Gardens, as the Queen had done two nights before, pro-
ceeded to the Horse-ferry, and crossed the Thames in a little boat with a single pair of oars to Vauxhall.
He threw the Great Seal into the river by the way ; but it was afterwards recovered, in a net cast at
random, by some fishermen."
" V^ery early one morning, the Duke of Marlborough, with his hounds, desired to cross by the Ferry;
one Wharton, the waterman at hand, was subsequently rewarded by the Duke obtaining for him a
grant of the Ferry-house, the present owner of which is a descendant of Wharton." — Walcott's West-
minster, 1849, p. 333.
HORSE-GUARDS (TSS),
AT Wliitehall, is named from a troop of Horse-Guards being constantly on duty
here : the buildings comprise the offices of the Secretary-at-War, the Commander-
in-Chief, the Adjutant-General, and Quartermaster-General. The Horse-Guards were
originally raised by Charles II., who had built for them stables and barracks in the
Tilt-yard of Whitehall, which Pennant has engraved, with " the Banqueting-house,
one of the gates, the Treasury in its ancient state, and the top of the Cock-pit in the
back view." These stables and barracks were removed in 1751, and the present
Horse-Guards was built of stone from a design commenced by Vardy, and completed
by Kent, " broken into complex forms, much in the picturesque style of Vanbrugh."
(Weale's London.) It consists of a centre and two pavilion wings, with a turret and
clock ; the west front opening into St. James's Park, by a low and mean archway j
the entree for carriages is only for royal and other privileged personages. In
the rear is the parade-ground, part of the ancient Tilt-yard, with a guard station for
infantry; and here inspections of the troops take place. In the vestibule of the
building is the boundary-line of the parishes of St. Martin's and St. Margaret's, West-
minster, denoted by inscriptions. In the Audience-room, facing the Park, the Military
Secretary and the Commander of the Forces hold their levees : here are portraits, by
Gainsborough, of George III. and his Consort; and a bust of Field Marshal the Duke of
York. Attached to the Quartermaster-General's office is a Board of Topography, with a
depot of maps, plans, and a library of military works. In the Guards' Mess-room is a
portrait of Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in armour, commander of Charles II.'s
" Kegiment of Horse," and after whom were named the " Oxford Blues," now the
Eoyal Horse-Guards Blue.
In two stone alcoves, flanking the gates, facing Whitehall, is stationed a guard of two mounted
cavalry soldiers from ten to four o'clock, relieved every two hours ; when the doors in the rear are
thrown open, and the two relieving guards enter ; whilst those relieved ride out in front, describe a
semicircle, meet, and ride side by side through the central gate, and so back to their stable. Orders
concerning all the the Guards in London are given out by the field officer on duty at the Horse-Guards.
The marching and countermarching of the Guards drawn from the cavalry barracks at Knightsbridge
and the Eegent's Park, is a picturesque scene, as the troop passes through the Parks, on the march
line of Portland-place, Kegent-street, and Waterloo-place: their stately cuirassed and helmeted
figures, and the splendour of their accoutrements, rendering them the most magnificent " Household
troops " in Europe.
The Horse-Guards' Clock has about the same popular reputation for correct time at
the west end of the town, that St. Paul's clock holds in the City. The Horse-Guards'
Clock was originally made by Thwaites, in 1756. The Clock was repaired, and im-
provements added by Vulliamy and Sons, 1815-16 : it has since measured time with
sufficient accuracy for any practical purpose not connected with astronomical observa-
tions; but much of its reputation may be conventional — from the rigid punctuality with
which the slightest military movement is executed. The dials are each 7 feet 5 inches
diameter, and painted white, with black numerals and hands ; the Whitehall dial is
very effijctively illuminated at night by a strong light thrown from a lamp, with a
reflector, placed on the projecting roof in front of the clock-tower.
On the night before the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington, Nov. 18, 1852, the remains were removed
from Chelsea Hospital to the Audience Room in the Horse-Guards. Upon the parade-ground was
erected a gigantic pavilion, beneath which was the car of state, upon which, next morning, was placed the
coffin. At the word of command, " Present a?ms !" every musket and sword were raised, the muffled
drums gave a long and heavy roll, minute-guns fired a funeral salute, the troops were ordered to
" Reverse arms !" and there, in the attitude of mourners, and in view of the body of the illustrious
deceased, the military awaited the signal to move ofi". The word of command was given ; every band
played " the Dead March in Saul ; " a tremendous roll of drums denoted that the Coldstreams were
in motion, and the procession moved on. The twelve horses attached to the funeral car drew it from
under the tent; the colonels carrying the bannerols surrounded the car, and their gaily-painted flags,
the rich bronze of the car, the gilt bier, the trophies of modern arms, the canopy of silver tissue and
the crimson and gold of the coffin, the pall powdered with silver heraldic collars ; with such pomp
and stateliness, the mortal remains of Wellington left the scene consecrated by his labours no less than
by his victories.
HOSPITALS. 435
SOSPITALS.
OF the Charitable Institutions of the Metropolis, one quarter consists of General
Hospitals, Medical Charities for special purposes. Dispensaries, and Societies for
the preservation of life and public morals, mostly supported by donations and annual
subscriptions. We can only describe a few of such of these establishments as have
remarkable histories.
Of the Five ancient Royal Hospitals of the City of London, three are Medical : two
of these have been described as follows: — St. Baetholomew's, p. 36 ; Bethlehem,
p. 56. The third, St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark, was originally a house of
alms, founded by the Prior of Bermondseye, in 1213, adjoining the wall of that
monastery. After the Surrender in 1539, it was purchased by the City of London,
chartered, in 1551, as one of the five royal foundations, and opened in 1552. In 1569,
the funds were so low that a lease was pawned for 50?. Strange mutations have come
over this spot, which for six centuries and a half had been the site of a Hospital, or
nearly three centuries and a half before it was refounded and endowed by the pious
King Edward VI., who confirmed the gift only ten days before his death j and it was
delivered over by charter (the 5th and 7th of Edward VI.) to the mayor, commonalty,
and citizens of London, and was named the London House of the Poor in Southwark,
to be situated in Loudon or Southwark, for poor, sick, infirm, wayfaring people. Much
injury was done to the property belonging to the establishment by the fires which took
place in Southwark in 1676, 1681, and 1689, although the Hospital itself suffered no
damage on either occasion. The Fire of 1676 consumed five hundred houses in Southwark,
*' yet," says Hatton, " as by the particular will of Heaven, was extinguished at this Hos-
pital." However, at the close of the seventeenth century the buildings had become so
much decayed that there was founded a subscription fund, to which Robert Clayton,
the President, contributed 600Z. ; he also bequeathed to the sick poor 2300Z. The
Hospital was enlarged in 1732 : the wards Frederick and Guy were named from their
founders, the latter of whom built a pair of large iron gates ; on the two piers were
statues of cripples. The Hospital was, in part, reconstructed in 1835, by Sir Robert
Smirke and Mr. Field. The site of the new north wing of the Hospital, at the south
end of London-bridge, was purchased of the City of London for the sum of 40,850?.,
which was not considered an extravagant price, though at the rate of 54,885?. per acre.
The site of two houses adjoining the above spot was sold by the Hospital to the City
at the enormous rate of 69,935?. per acre ! The Hospital consisted of three courts, and
colonnades : in the first court was a bronze statue of Edward VI., by Scheemakers, set up
by Charles Joyce, Esq., in 1737. In the second court was the chapel for patients —
service daily ; St. Thomas's church, described at p. 208 ; the hall, and kitchen ; and over
the Doric colonnade was the Court-room, with portraits of Edward VI., William III.
and Queen Mary, Sir Robert Clayton, and other of the Hospital presidents. In the
third court was the statue of Sir Robert Clayton, robed as Lord Mayor, erected in his
life-time by the Hospital governors. In a smaller court were the cutting-ward,
surgery, bathing-rooms, theatre, and dead-house. There were twenty wards for
patients, eacli superintended by a Sister. The Hospital, of four acres, and buildings
■were on the east side of High-street, Southwark, and the site was sold to the Charing-
cross Railway Company; the Governors claiming as compensation 750,000?. The
Railway Company oifered them terms equivalent to 400,000?. ; and, after a litiga-
tion which absorbed Httle less than 25,000?., 296,000?. were awarded by the arbi-
trator. The patients were then removed to a temporary hospital, late a Music-hall,
Surrey Zoological Gardens. It was next proposed to rebuild the Hospital in the
country j but the choice of a site in the metropolis prevailed. It was contended that in
1631 the Lord Mayor counted 16,880 persons in Southwark, and that now Southwark
and the neighbouring parishes, all of which are obliged to avail themselves largely of
the aid of this Hospital, contain more than half a million persons, the great majority of
whom are poor hardworking people. The site was definitively settled in Stangate,
facing the Thames, immediately west of the southern end of Westminster Bridge.
The income of the Hospital has increased from 12,000?. to 35,000?. since the beginning
of the century. Among the expenditure for 1861 is 5942?, for provisions, 2634?. for
I- r 2
436 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
drugs, 932?. for wine and spirits, 353Z. for porter, 777?. for washing, 3I56Z. for salaries
to medical officers, 2257Z. for wages to sisters and nurses, 151?. for hospital dinners,
and 747?. for insurance against fire. The in-patients of the year were 3948 in num-
ber, the out-patients 41,814.
In November, 1866, was decided in the Court of Queen's Bench, the case relating to the right of the
Corporation of London as to the election of presidents of the four great City Hospitals. The question
was whether it was necessary that the president should be an alderman who had arrived at the dignity
of Lord Mayor; or, at all events, an alderman. There were two candidates, of whom Mr. Cubitt (since
deceased), who had the majority of votes, having resigned his gown— although he had "passed the
chair"— was not an alderman ; and his opponent, Alderman Rose, was at the time Lord Mayor, so that
he was both alderman and " Grey cloake"— the term used in the ordinances to denote those aldermen
who had passed the chair. Judgment was given for the defendants— that is, for the Hospital. The
result of the decision is that the Governors of the great Hospitals have free choice in the election of
their Presidents.
Chaeing-ceoss Hospital, Agar-street, was commenced by Decimus Burton, as a
portion of the West- Strand Improvements, in 1831 ; when the first stone was laid,
Sept. 1 5, with Masonic solemnity, by the Duke of Sussex, Grand Master of the Free-
masons. The Charity, founded in 1818, comprises a Dispensary and Casualty Hospital,
being the eighth established in the metropolis, the population of which had doubled
since the seventh Hospital was instituted. The architecture is Grecian, and the circular
termination of the plan well accords with the form of the site. Although upwards of
1000 in-patients and 17,000 out have been treated in one year, the annual average ex-
penditure of the establishment is stated at only 2506?.
One day a gentleman called at the Charing-cross Hospital and inquired of the porter whether some
money he had just put into one of the collecting-boxes would be safe. Having been assured it would,
he immediately went away. The same day a friend of the institution, walking past the above-men-
tioned box, saw, or fancied that he saw, something in it. On applying his penknife carefully, he suc-
ceeded in extracting twenty-two lOZ.-notes. Having taken these into the Hospital and informed the
resident officers of the circumstance, the box was examined, and three more notes found, making a total
of 2501. thus freely and anonymously contributed to the funds of this deserving charity.
Consumption Hospital, Brompton, fronting the Fulham-road, was commenced in
1844, June 11, when Prince Albert laid the first stone ; the site was formerly a nursery
garden, and the genial, moist air of Brompton has long been recommended for con-
sumptive patients. The Hospital is in the Tudor style, of red brick, with stone finish-
ings ; Francis, architect ; it was opened in 1846. In 1850 was attached an elegant
memorial chapel {see Chapels, p. 213) ; and in 1852 was added the western wing of
he Hospital, towards which Mdlle. Jenny Lind, when residing at Old Brompton, in
July, 1848, munificently presented 1606?. 16*., the proceeds of a concert held by her
for its aid. This noble act is gracefully commemorated by Mdlle. Lind's bust being
placed upon the Hospital staircase : here also is a painted window, of characteristic
design, presented by a governor. The Hospital is ventilated by machinery, worked by
a steam-engine ; and is warmed by water heated by two large Arnott stoves. In the
kitchen, steam is used for boiling caldrons of beef-tea, mutton-broth, arrow-root, coffee,
chocolate, &c. ; and the provisions are wound up a shaft to the respective wards. The
patients take exercise in the well-ventilated passages : and the wards are tempered by
warm fresh air, which enters at the floor, and escapes by valves in the ceiling. There
are a library for the in-patients, and the Rose Charity Fund for convalescents. The
deaths in this new Hospital have never exceeded one in every five in-patients, whereas
in the former Hospital they were one in four.
Feench Peotestant Hospital, Victoria Park, South Hackney, was built in 1866,
in the pure French domestic style of the early part of the sixteenth century, corre-
sponding to our Tudor ; R. L. Roumieu, architect. It is 200 feet long, and stands on
three acres of pleasure-ground ; it has 60 inmates, and a chapel for 120 persons. The
hospice owes its origin to a bequest of M. Gastigny, who held an appointment under
William III., and dying in 1708, left 1000?. towards founding a permanent home and
place of temporary relief for poor French Protestants and their descendants resident
in England. To this fund the wealthier French Protestants contributed liberally, and
premises were built in a bye-lane leading from Old-street, St. Luke's, to Islington, now
Bath-street, City-road. Here the hospital remained until the removal to Victoria Park.
The old buildings in Bath-street are now the City of London Middle-Class School.
St. Geoege's Hospital, Hyde-Park Corner, originated with a party of dissentient
HOSPITAL— GUTS. 437
Governors of Westminster Hospital, who, in 1733, converted Lanesborougli House,
Grosvenor-place, into an Infirmary. Pennant describes the old mansion as the country'
house of
"The sober Lanesborow dancing, in the gout:"
hence also the quaint distich inscribed on the house-front : —
"It is my delight to be
Both in town and country."
The Hospital has been rebuilt; architect, Wilkins, R.A., 1831; the grand front,
facing the Green Park, is very elegant. William Hunter vi^as a surgical pupil at St.
George's in 1741, when he resided with the eminent Smellie, at that time an apothe-
cary in Pall Mall. William's brother, John Hunter, was appointed surgeon to St,
George's in 1768 ; and here, in 1793, he died of disease of the heart.
Guy's Hospital, Southwark, on the south side of St. Thomas's-street, was built by
Dance, the City architect, in 1722-4, at the sole expense of Thomas Guy, the book-
seller in Lombard-street, who by printing and selling Bibles made a fortune : this ha
greatly increased by purchasing seamen's tickets at a large discount, and afterwards
investing them in the South-Sea Company.
Guy was the son of a lighterman at Horselydown, where he was born in 1644. He was apprenticed
to John Clarke, bookseller and binder, in a house in the porch of Mercers' Hall, Cheapside, in 1660. In
this house, rebuilt after the Great Fire, Guy commenced business for himself; and he subsequently re-
moved to the house between Comhill and Lombard-street, subsequently known as "the Lucky Corner,"
and Pidding's Lottery Office, nearly on the site of the Globe Insurance Company's offices. Guy had
agreed to marry his housekeeper, who, however, displeased him, and thenceforth he devt)ted his immense
fortune to works of charity. In 1707, he built and furnished three wards of St. Thomas's Hospital ; the
stately iron gate, with the large houses flanking it in High-street, Guy also built at the expense of 3000^.
He was a liberal benefactor to the Stationers' Company ; built and endowed almshouses and a library
at Tamworth, in StaflFordshire, the place of his mother's birth, and which he represented in Parliament.
In his 76th year, he took of the president and governors of St. Thomas's Hospital a piece of ground
opposite the south side of their Hospital for 999 years, at a ground-rent of ZQl. a year ; thereon, in the
spring of 1722, Guy laid the first stone of a Hospital for the cure of sick and impotent persons ; and Uie
building was roofed in before his death, Dec. 27, 1724. The expense of erecting and finishing the Hos-
pital was 18,792Z. 16s., and the sum left to endow it was 219,499^. 0«. M. ; the largest sura ever left by an
individual for charitable purposes. His noble example was followed by Mr. Hunt of Petersham,
who, in 1829, bequeathed to the Hospital 196,115;., stipulating for the addition of accommodation for
100 patients. About 10,000?. was also received from other benefactors.
" The annual income is now between 25,000?. and 30,000Z., arising chiefly from estates purchased with
the valuable bequests of Guy and Hunt, in the counties of Essex, Hereford, and Lincoln. The usual
number of governors is 60, who are self-elective. The office cannot be constituted by any contribution,
and there is no published list of benefactors."— Low's Charities of Loridon, 1850.
Guy's Hospital consists of a centre and two wings; behind is a quadrangle, and
beyond is a lunatic house for twenty-four insane patients, with a garden and airing-
ground for their recreation ; in 1839, one of these patients had been in the Hospital
fifty-three years. In the wings are the officers' apartments, a surgery, apothecary's
shop, laboratories, medical and operating theatres, and a room for the application of
electricity and galvanism. Here, too, are a museum, library, a very fine anatomical
collection, models in wax by Towne, &c. Westward is the Chapel ; and eastward, the
Court-room. Attached to the Hospital is a botanic garden for the students. In 1852
were added two handsome wings, heated by Sylvester, and ventilated by a shaft 200
feet high, with an open cupola, and a wind-vane which sends down the shaft fresh
air into the wards ; while two lower shafts carry off the effluvia. In the front court
is a metal statue of Guy, in his livery-gown, by Scheemakers ; the pedestal bears
representations in relief of Christ healing an impotent man ; the Good Samaritan ;
Guy's arms, and an inscription. In the centre of the front are two characteristic
statues by John Bacon, a native of Southwark.
In the Chapel is a fine marble statue of Guy, by Bacon, which cost lOOOZ. : he stands
in his livery-gown, with one hand raising an emaciated figure from the ground, and
with the other pointing to a second sufferer, as he is borne on a bier into the Hospital,
at the back : on the pedestal are emblematic medallions and a glowing inscription,
asserting that Guy "rivalled the endowment of kings.'* Here is buried Sir Astley
Cooper, the distinguished surgeon, to whom there is a marble monument. In the
Court-room, over the president's chair, is a portrait by Dahl, a Danish painter, of Guy,
in the black gown and long flowing wig of his time : on the ceiling is painted hi:5
apotheosis.
438 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
King's College Hospital, Carey-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, was established in
1839 for the sick poor, for affording practical instruction to the medical students of
King's College, under their own professors. The building of a new Hospital, by sub-
scription, was commenced June 18, 1852, when the first stone was laid by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury : the wards are very spacious, light, and airy ; with ventilation
by opposite windows and open fire-places, without artificial aid ; and the arrangements for
teaching include an operating theatre and chapel, dispensary, laboratory, &c.
Lock Hospital, Harrow-road; Chapel and Astlijm, Westbourne-green : the
Hospital established 1746, for the treatment of the peculiar disease incident to profli-
gate women ; the Asylum founded 1787 by the Bible commentator, the Rev. Thomas
Scott, for the reclamation ^of the cured inmates to virtuous habits ; and the Chapel
in 1764, for the ministration to the unfortunate patients and inmates. The establish-
ment was originally formed in Grosvenor-place, where the Chapel, by its popular
preachers, became a source of income to the institution. This is the only Asylum ex-
isting in connexion with a hospital ; all penitentiaries are necessarily shut against the
sick and dying outcasts ; and for such there is no complete refuge save " the Lock
Hospital." (See Low's Charities, p. 99.) In 1842, the Institution was removed to
its present site; in 1849, the success of an autograph appeal by the Duke of
Cambridge provided for the admission of double the number of patients.
The Lock Hospital is so called from the Loke or Lock, in Kent-street, Soathwark, a spittal for
leprous persons of early date. The name has been referred to the old French loques, rags, from the
linen applied to sores ;• " but otherwise, and with more probability, from the Saxon loq, shut, closed, in
reference to the necessary seclusion of the leper on account of the infectious nature of his disease."
(Archer's Vestiges, Part I.) We find Lock " an infirmary" in Bailey's Dictionary. Others trace the
Southwark Hospital to the stream, or open sewer, called " the Lock," which divided the parishes of St.
George and St. Mary, Newington, and is shown in Rocque's large map of Surrey. The Hospital knowa
to have existed temp. Edward II., had a chapel dedicated to St. Leonard. {Tanner.) It came into the
possession of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, whence it received patients : falling into decay, it was let in
tenements, was taken down in 1809, and its site laid into the Dover-road; a portion of the site was,
however, consecrated as the parish burial-ground more than a century since, and so continues.
There were other " Locks :"— 2. Between Mile End and Stratford-le-Bow. 3. At Kingsland. between
Shoreditch and Stoke Newington, the chapel of which, St. Bartholomew's, remained till 1840. (&«
Chapkls, p. 209.) A sun-dial on the premises formerly bore this inscription, significant of sin and
sorrow : —
** Post voluptatem misericordia."
Prior to its alienation from the mother hospital, the house had a communication with the chapel so con-
trived that the patients might take part in the service without seeing or being seen by the rest of the
congregation : and there was a similar arrangement in the Lock-chapel in Grosvenor-place. 4 At
Knightsbridge, east of Albert-gate, was a lazar-house under the patronage of the Abbot and Convent
of Westminster : the Hospital chapel (Holy Trinity) remains : it was rebuilt in 1627, by a licence from
Dr. Laud, then Bishop of London, as a chapel of ease to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, within the precincts
of which it was situated ; but it was subsequently assigned to the parish of St. George, Hanover-square,
and now forms part of Kensington. — Notes and Queries, No. 114.
The two largest Leper Hospitals were, however, St. James's, Westminster, founded before the Con-
quest {Stow), and made a royal palace by Henry VIII. ; the original gateway remams. Next was-
8t. Giles' s-in-the-Fields, founded about 1117. (-See St. Giles's, p. 376.)
London Hospital, Whitechapel-road, originally "the London Infirmary," was^
instituted 1740, in a large old mansion in Prescott-street, Goodman's Fields ; it was
incorporated in 1758, and the present Hospital built on " the Mount," Whitechapel-
road. The Charity was established for the poor sick, particularly manufacturers, sea-
men, watermen, coal-heavers, shipwrights, labourers on the river, and children. In
1791, a Samaritan Society, at the suggestion of Sir W. Blizard (the first established),
was appended to this Hospital, for the benefit of homeless convalescents, sending them
to the sea-side, &c.
A new west wing to the Hospital was founded, July 4, 1864, by the Prince of
Wales, when nearly 32,000Z. was subscribed, of which 30001. was given in one dona-
tion by Mr. T. Fowell Buxton ; Mr. J. Gurney Barclay, SOOOl. ; and the Hon. Jamsetjee
Jejeebhoy, 2000Z. One ward is set apart for the exclusive use of members of tho
Hebrew persuasion, of whom large numbers reside in the neighbourhood. The Lon-
don Hospital has been in active operation more than one hundred and twenty years,
during which period it has afforded medical and surgical assistance to one million three
hundred thousand persons.
St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics was first established 1751, in a house upon
Windmill-hill, on the north side of Moorfields, nearly opposite the present Worship-
H0SPITALS-8T. LUKE'S, MABYLEBONE, MIDDLESEX. 439
street. In 1753, pupils were admitted to the Hospital ; and Dr. Battle, the original
physician, allowed medical men to observe his practice. This practice fell into disuse,
but was revived in 1843, and an annual course of chemical lectures established, at
which pupils selected by the physicians of the different metropolitan hospitals are
allowed to attend gratuitously. In 1754, incurable patients were admitted on payment
to the Hospital on Windmill-hill. In 1782, was commenced the present St. Luke's, in
Old- street- road, when green fields could be seen in every direction ; the foundation-
stone was laid by the Duke of Montague, July 30 j the cost, about 50,000?., was de-
frayed by subscription ; George Dance, jun., architect.
" There are few buildings in the metropolis, perhaps in Europe, that, considering' the poverty of the
material, common English elamp-bricks, possess such harmony of proportion, with unity and appro-
priateness of style, as this building. It is as characteristic of its uses as that of Newgate, by the same
architect." — Elmes.
'Y\\Q Hospital was incorporated 1838 ; the end infirmaries added in 1841 ; a chapel
in 1842, and open fire-places set in the galleries; when also coercion was abolished,
padded rooms were provided for violent patients, and an airing-ground set apai-t for
them J wooden doors were substituted for iron gates, and unnecessary guards and bars
removed from the windows. In 1843 were added reading-rooms and a library for the
patients, with bagatelle and backgammon-boards, &c. By Act 9 and 10 Vict., c. 100,
the Commissioners of Lunacy were added to the Hospital direction. In 1848, Sir
Charles Knightley presented an organ to the chapel, and daily service was first per-
formed. The Hospital was next lit with gas ; the drainage, ventilation, and supply of
water improved, by subscription at the centenary festival, June 25, 1851.
On St. Luke's Day (October 18), a large number of the Hospital patients are enter-
tained with dancing and singing in the great hall in the centre of the Hospital, when
the officers, nurses, and attendants join the festival. Balls are also given fortnightly.
The mode of treatment at St. Luke's has undergone so complete a metamorphosis
within the last few years, by the institution of kindness for severity, and indulgence
for restrictions, that the maladies of the brain have been rendered as subservient to
medical science as the afflictions of the body. Modern experience shows that the old
terrors of the prison, brutal execrations and violence, and those even worse scenes which
were exhibited for a small money payment to the curious, in the madhouses of the
metropolis and elsewhere, were errors. The per-centage of recoveries was, from 1821
to 1830 47^ per cent.; 1831 to 1840, 56^ ditto; 1841 to 1850, 60f ditto; showmg
the results of the improved treatment. But the largest per-centage of recoveries, with
one exception, was 69^, in 1851.
Maeylebone and Paddington Hospital, Cambridge-place, was commenced in
1845, when, June 28 (Coronation-day), the first stone was laid by Prince Albert ; the
site was originally a reservoir of the Grand Junction Water-works. The Hospital,
opened in 1850, is of red brick, similar to Chelsea Hospital : it is warmed and venti-
lated by the circulation of tempered atmospheric air, and the withdrawal of the foul
air from the wards ; there are shafts for conveying the food from the kitchen and medi-
cines from the laboratory, besides other novel mechanical applications. Hon. architect,
Mr. Hopper. The present foundation comprehends three-fourths of the whole plan.
Middlesex Hospital, Charles-street, facing Berners-street, was established 1745 :
the present building was commenced in 1755, then in Marylebone-fields ; and much
enlarged and improved in 1848; the baths, cooking apparatus, laboratory works,
ventilating shaft, and laundry, are supplied with steam-power. The Cancer-ward, a
special addition in this Hospital, was made in 1792, upon a plan by the benevolent
John Howard, at the sole expense of Mr. Whitbread, M.P., who endowed the ward
with 4000Z., that cancer -patients might, if necessary, remain here for life.
In the Council-room is a large vellum Benefaction-book, wherein are beautifully written the names of
the Benefactors to the Hospital, from its foundation. The binding is elaborately carved oak, by W. G.
Kogers ; and the clasps, corners, and bosses are rich ormolu. This sumptuous volume is protected by
an ornamental iron stand ; it is intended to supersede the large black benefaction-boards which cover
the hospital walls.
One day a lady, being permitted to visit the wards, went from bed to bed, and in the most quiet
and gracious manner presented half-a-sovereign to almost every one of the patients as a New Year's
gift, and as a thanks-otlering for her recovery from a dangerous illness. The number of patients bo
relieved amounted to nearly 300.
440 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Ophthalmic [opMJialmos, Gr., the eye) Hospitals, were established in 1804; that
in Moorfields being the first.
It was founded in 1804 ; it has afforded relief to upwards of half a million persons suffering from
diseases of the eye. The number of attendances annually at this hospital is about 80,000. In one year
the new cases alone amounted to 17,000; among these above 350 persons afflicted with blindness from
cataract and other analogous affections were restored to light. The average attendance daily is from
300 to 400. An amount of relief is confidently stated to be thus obtained far greater than that
afforded by any similar establishment in Europe. The explanation may be found in the dense popula-
tion by which it is surrounded, and the high reputation it has so long enjoyed, bringing patients from
India, America, Australia, and our remotest colonies.
The Royal Ivjirmary, Cork-street, was founded in 1804, by Sir Walter Waller
(originally Phipps, the celebrated oculist), submitting to their Majesties a plan suggested
by the sufferings he was then endeavouring to relieve among the soldiers and sailors
who had returned from the Egyptian Expedition. The late ]3uke of Wellington was
president of the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, Chandos- street, Charing-
cross, where patients are admitted without letters.
OethoPjEdic (orthos, Gr., straight, and paidos, of a child) Hospital, Eotal, 6,
Bloomsbury-square, estabhshed 1838 for the cure of club-foot and other contractions,
by dividing the tendons, &c., was founded by Dr. Little, who introduced the Stroraey-
erian operation of subcutaneous tenotomy into the metropolis. The Hospital has been
removed to 315, Oxford-street.
Queen Charlotte's Lying-in Hospital was originally established in 1752 in
St. George's-row, near Tyburn turnpike, whence it was removed to Bayswater in 1791 ;
and in 1810, to Lisson- green ; the Hospital was rebuilt in 1857. This excellent
charity has been patronized by Queen Charlotte, the Duke of Sussex, Queen Adelaide,
and every member of the Royal family. It affords an asylum for indigent females
during childbirth, as well as to out-patients, especially to the wives of soldiers or
sailors ; penitent patients are admitted once, but in no instance a second time.
EoYAL Feee Hospital, Gray's-inn-road, affording free and instant relief to the
destitute sick, was originally founded 1828, in Greville- street, Hatton-garden : in
1832 700 cholera patients were admitted here, when other hospitals were closed against
them ; a demonstration of the free principle which led to the removal of the Hospital,
in 1843, to the present premises, formerly the barracks of the Light-Horse Volun-
teers. The establishment of this Hospital was prompted by its founder, Mr. Marsden,
a surgeon, having seen in the winter of 1827 a wretched young woman lying on the
steps of St. Andrew's Churchyard, Holborn-hill, after midnight, perishing through dis-
ease and famine : she was a stranger in London, without a friend, and died two days
afterwards unrecognised ! The " Sussex Ward" was built as a memorial of the Duke
of Sussex, of whom here is a portrait-statue in a niche in the front.
At the Hospital-gate, in Gray's-inn-road, is a subscription-box, wherein have been found the following
donations by stealth : Dec. 27, 1843, a bank-note for lOOZ., labelled " A Passer-by ;" June 14, 1844, 100^.,
" Another Passer-by ;" Nov. 2, 1844, lOOZ., with " Winter is coming on — £ia dat qui cito dat ;" Oct. 9,
1850, 50Z. J June 21, 1851, 20Z. j and frequently bank-notes of lOZ. and 5/.
KoYAL Maternity Charity (Office, 17, Little Knightrider-street, Doctors' Com-
mons) provides advice and good nurses for delivering poor married women at their
own homes in Eastern London ; and the cases annually average nearly 3500.
This institution was originally founded as " the Lying-in Cliarity," in 1768. The Prince of Wales,
when but five years old, being nominated president, a donation of 500^. was made in his name ; thence-
forth he contributed annually 2^1. George IV. became president in 1818 ; and from the time of his
Kegency to his death, contributed to the Hospital fund 180UZ.
Small-pox and Vaccination Hospital, instituted 1746, for those attacked with
natural small-pox, and for preventing it by vaccination, was first opened at Battle
Bridge, St. Pancras, 1767 ; but this Hospital and site being required for the terminus
of the Great Northern Railway Company, the Hospital was rebuilt in a healthy and
picturesque situation at the foot of Highgate-hill, at a cost of 20,000^., paid out of the
Railway Company's compensation.
Unh'^ersity College Hospital, Upper Gower-street, was founded 1833, under the
presidency of Lord Brougham, in connexion with University College, which the Hospital
building faces : it is attended by the medical officers and students of the College.
Westminster Hospital originated from an infirmary " for relieving the sick and
HOTELS. 441
needy," and is the oldest subscription hospital in the metropolis. It was first
established in Petty France, next in Chapel-street, then in James-street ; and the pre-
sent noble Hospital was built in the Broad Sanctuary, opposite Westminster Abbey,
upon a piece of ground purchased of the Government for 6000^., originally part of the
site of the ancient Sanctuary cruciform church, and subsequently of Westminster
Market. The Hospital foundation is six feet depth of concrete ; the design, by the
Inwoods, is Elizabethan, with windows temp. Henry VII. ; the central and end oriels,
and the embattled porch, are fine ; the whole frontage is 200 feet, and the windows
number two hundred and sixty; the roof, nearly half an acre, is an airing- walk for
the patients. The building is embattled throughout ; the materials are white Suffolk
bricks, with stone finishings; and among the enrichments are bosses of the West-
minster portcullis arms.
The Medical Students of the various Hospitals have long been noted for their irregularities ; and in
1851, Mr. Henry, a Bow-street magistrate, described them as " the most disorderly class with whom the
police and magistrates have to deal." To this unqualified stigma has however been opposed the assertion,
that " almost every idle dissolute young man, who in a fit of drunken folly is guilty of some crime, will, if
he wears a decent garb, arrogate to himself a respectability to which he has no' right, by claiming the
title of a Medical Student." Mr. Albert Smith, himself a " Middlesex man," was the first to sketch the
Medical Student's life in London."— (See Punch, vol. ii.)
Dispensaries were first established in 1770, when the Moyal Dispensary was
founded in Shaftesbury House, Aldersgate-street. There are now upwards of forty
Dispensaries in the metropolis.
" Medicine and every other relief under the calamity of bodily diseases, no less than the daily neces-
saries of life, are natural provisions which God has made for our present indigent state, and which He
has granted in common to the children of men, whether they be rich or poor : to the rich by inheritance
and acquisition ; and by their hands, to the disabled poor. Nor can there be any doubt that Public Dis-
pensaries are the most effectual means of administering sick relief."— JSwAqp Butler.
SOTELS.
THERE is no capital in Europe, always saving Constantinople, which, until recently,
was not better provided with good average comfortable upper and middle-class
Hotels, than London. A few private houses knocked somehow into one have been
thought a large and grand hotel, for it is only within the last few years that the
obvious necessity which existed for constructing a building specially for Hotel purposes has
been slowly recognised in this country. This new class of Hotels originated with the great
Railway Companies.
Thus, we have the Euston, adjoining the terminus of the North- Western Railway;
but this edifice is not remarkable for its architectural embellishment.
The Great- Western Hotel, adjoining the Great-Western Railway Terminus, at
Paddington, is of more ornate character ; it was designed in 1852, P. Hardwick, R.A.,
architect, in the style of Louis XIV., or later ; the curved-roof forms were then a
striking novelty ; four colossal termini, finely modelled, support the central balcony,
and over them are casts of the Warwick vase ; and in the pediment above is a group of
Britannia, surrounded by personations of the six parts of the world, and of their arts
and commerce. The exterior is of stucco ; and the ornaments and projections are in rich
and bold style, the figures by Thomas. The number of bed, dressing, and sitting-
rooms, about 150; the passages and staircases are fire-proof. The chief cofiee-room,
and the saloon above it, are magnificent.
The Great Northern, adjoining the terminus of the Great Northern Railway,
King's Cross, has, architecturally, little to claim notice.
The Palace Hotel, Buckingham-gate, Murray, architect, is a standard model of
what the highest class of Family Hotel should be. Outside it is only a handsome
range of buildings ; inside it has costly and luxurious suites of rooms. The ventilation
is perfectly arranged, and, though there is a constant current of air through all the
building from basement to roof, the Hotel is always kept at a mild and equal tempera-
ture by hot-air pipes along each corridor, and leading into every apartment. Lifts
communicate with each floor, so as to render every story complete in itself, with its
service-room and heating apparatus, for serving dinners on the various landings. The
entire structure is as perfectly fire-proof as the use of stone and brick along all the
various stairvvavs and corridors can make it.
442 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Westminster Palace Hotel, facing the Abbey, has one of the best situations
in London, and is a very good example of French Eenaissance architecture. It
realizes the expectations even of the luxurious of the commercial classes. One-half of
the hotel is let to the India Board, else this building alone would contain three
hundred rooms. It has thirteen sitting-rooms, gentlemen's and ladies' coffee-rooms
(the latter an exceedingly fine apartment), several committee and dining-rooms, with
one himdred and thirty bedrooms, besides servants' apartments.
The London Bridge Hotel, Curry, architect, exactly adjoins the terminus on the
side of the Brighton and South Coast Railway. As a building, it is inferior only to
the Grosvenor in size and external appearance. It contains, in all, about two hundred
and fifty rooms. There is an exceedingly magnificent coffee-room, with a smaller one,
decorated in the same style, for the use of ladies only. There are spacious bed and
dressing-rooms, with suites of apartments for families ; reading, billiard, and smoking-
rooms. This is the only Hotel of the new class which has a billiard-room. Like the
other Hotels, the London Bridge is fire-proof, and is further provided with a powerful
water supply, and fire-mains, with hoses, on each floor. An air-shaft passing up the
building gives the most perfect ventilation to every floor, of which there are seven.
The exterior has a heavy cornice, and terminates in a Mansard roof.
The Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria Station, Pimlico, J. T. Knowles, architect, is of vast
extent — 262 feet long, 75 deep, and 150 high to the top of the roof. The exterior is
elaborately decorated. The spandrels on the first floor are in Portland stone, and
represent her Majesty the Queen, the Prince Consort, Humboldt, Lord Palmerston,
Lord Derby, Lord John Russell, and others. At the side facades are representations
of the four quarters of the globe ; and colossal festoons of flowers are suspended be-
tween the ground- floor windows. The enriched string, the trusses, and the leafage,
are of Portland cement, coloured while " green," to match the stone ; the carving by
Dayman. On the ground-floor are a spacious hall, enriched with scagliola columns,
and reaching to the second-floor corridor ; dining, drawing, and sitting-rooms — the
principal coffee-room, 69 feet by 36, and 18 in height ; a smoking-room, &c. The first
and second floors are chiefly suites of rooms for families ; the upper rooms are bed-
rooms, the top story for servants only. On the first floor is a wide gallery entirely
round the central hall. The whole building contains upwards of 300 rooms, many
superb suites, including suites for wedding-breakfasts. The smoking-room, with its
light, handsome columns, its groined arch roof, and ample windows, looks into the
Station. The principal staircase is one of the finest features in the building : after
the first floor the stairs diverge right and left ; 1500 feet of stone corridors traverse
the centre of the building on its various floors from end to end. There is one staircase
for servants in the northern end of the building j the corresponding space in the
southern wing being occupied by a lift, the cage of which is 8 feet square. This is
worked by a very simple hydraulic apparatus, Easton and Amos, engineers, and passes
up a shaft along the various floors of the building from top to bottom ; it is equal to
raising ten persons at one time. There are bath-rooms in all the landings, with ser-
vices of hot and cold water and speaking-tubes to every floor. The cost of this splendid
building is stated at considerably more than 100,000?.
The Langham Hotel, Portland- place, Giles and Murray, architects, is a sumptuous
pile, and contains forty drawing and private sitting-rooms, and 300 bedrooms. The
Agricultural Hotel, Salisbury-square, Giles, architect, is of much less architectural
pretension. The Inns of Court Hotel, Lockwood and Mawson, architects, has an
Italian front, with polished granite and serpentine shafts, in Holborn ; the original
design includes a large central covered court, and a front in Lincoln's-inn-fields.
The Charing Cross Hotel and Railway Station is in the Italian style, ordet
Corinthian, E. M. Barry, architect. The principal entrances have polished granite
columns, and carving above, and the chimney-stocks have red terra-cotta shafts. The
railway offices are in the basement. The suites of apartments are superb ; there are
250 bedrooms ; the building extends nearly as far down Villi ers-street as along the
Strand. In the court-yard is a reproduction of the Eleanor Cross, at Charing Cross.
HOUNDSDITCE. 44S
The City Teemintts Hotel, Cannon-street, is by the architect of the Charing Cross
Hotel. Both buildings have pavilions at the ends of the principal front, with high
truncated roofs, ornamented in zinc ; they have each a Mansard roof to the portion
between these wings, and chimneys having small columns at their ends ; in each case
there are enclosed porches to the wings, and a pent-roof for the whole length between ;
in each there are balconies with flower-vases on the pedestals, and with the supporting^
cantilevers of the same character of profile.
The City Terminus Hotel has provision for public meetings and banquets, a noble
coffee-room, a great hall for public dinners and balls, and a large meeting-room ; and
it has a restaurant, as well as a chop-room and a luncheon-bar, besides the refresh-
ment-bar and the dining-room immediately attached to the station. Including the
ground-story, chiefly appropriated to the railway booking-offices, there are four ordinary
stories in the principal front of the building, above ground, and two stories in the
roof. In the Charing Cross Hotel there are five stories of ordinary windows, including
a mezzanine : whilst each pavilion has an additional story ; and there are two ranges
of dormers in the centre-portion of the front, and three ranges of dormers and lucarnes
in the pavilions. The frontage of the Cannon-street building is about 213 ft. in length :
that of the Charing Cross Hotel is 227 ft. — the railing in the Strand being 11 ft.
longer. The Cannon-street front comprises eleven bays; the porches project 14 ft.
The height of the main portion of the building, comprising the four ordinary stories,
is 76 ft. 3 in., to the top of the cornice. Above this, to the highest part of
the main roof is about 23 ft., and to the highest part of the pavilion-roofs
32 ft. A tower at the south-east angle, containing a ventila ting-shaft and the
kitchen-flue, rises higher; whilst the highest points of all are reached by the gilded
metal-work finials of the spire-cappings of the two turrets, which are grouped with
the pavilions in the principal front. Much of the space in the building being
devoted to rooms for dinners and meetings, there are few bedrooms in proportion to
the size of the structure, or as compared with the provision in the Charing Crosa
Hotel. There appear to be eighty-four bed and dressing-rooms. Amongst the lead-
ing features of the Cannon-street exterior are the spire-capped turrets and the con-
tinuous balconies. The pilasters on the piers between the windows of the first-floor,
are enriched somewhat in the manner of the Renaissance. The pedestals of the crown-
ing balustrade have rusticated obelisk -formed terminals, of Elizabethan character,
in terra cotta ; each one having a small gilt ball at the top. The dormer windows have
two arch-headed lights, with pilasters and trusses, carrying a pediment whose tympanum
is enriched. In the upper part of the pavilion-roofs there are lucarne-lights. The
roofs are ornamented at the angles, and at the edges round the flat top of each pavilion,
by very bold ornament in stamped zinc, executed, like that of the other Hotel, by
French workmen. Each turret terminates in a belvidere-story, open, above the cor-
nice ; and with a domical covering, ending in a spire. The front of the Hotel looking
into the station has three lofty and bold arches, having coffers in the soflits enriched
with rosettes. The Hotel building is stated to have cost about 100,000Z.
houndsditcb:
EXTENDS from opposite St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate-street, to St. Botolph's,
Aldgate. Beaumont and Fletcher call it Dogsditch.
" Prom Aldgate north-west to Bishopsgate lieth the ditch of the City called Houndsditch, for that
in old time, when the same lay open, much filth (conveyed from the City), especially dead dogs, were
there laid or cast." — Stow.
Into this filthy ditch, by command of King Canute, was thrown Edie, the Saxon, the murderer of his
master, Edmund Ironside, after having been drawn by his heels from Baynard's Castle, and tormented
to death by burning torches. The ditch was subsequently enclosed with a mud wall, against which was
a "fair field," with cottages for poor bed-rid people, and where devout people walked (especially on Fri-
days) to relieve the bed-ridden, who lay on the ground-floor, at the window, with a clean linen cloth, and
a pair of beads, to show to charitable passengers that " there lay a bed-rid body, unable but to pray only."
Houndsditch was first paved 1503. Late in the reign of Henry VIII. a foundry
for casting brass ordnance was established here, which drove the poor bed-rid
people out of their cottages ; and upon their site were built houses and shops for
"brokers, joyners, braziers, and such as deal in old clothes, linen, and upholstery.'*
[Stryjpe.) Braziers abound here to the present day. Here lived Tench, the joiner, ta
444 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
whom it was sworn on the trial of Hugh Peters, 1660, that his orders were given on
the scaffold to prepare the block for the beheading of Charles I. ; and in Rosemary-
lane lived Ralph Jones, the ragman, who assisted Brandon, the common hangman, in
the execution. Anthony Munday speaks indignantly of the unconscionable bi'oking
usurers, a base kind of vermin, who had crept into Houndsditch ; which, with Long-
lane, were the Rag Fairs of two centuries since j and Houndsditch is to this day the
centre of the Jews' quarter.
Houndsditch was also the general name of the different parts of the City ditch. In a
chartulary of St. Giles's Hospital, beginning of fifteenth century, Houndesdic and
Houndesdich are part of the ditch in the parish of St. Sepulchre. Howell's Londino-
polis shows, by the same name, parts of the fosse between Ludgate and Newgate j
and by Barbican.
SOUSES OF OLD LONDON.
ANTERIOR to the reign of Stephen, Houses in London were built much as they
had been in the earlier Saxon times, almost wholly of wood, roofed with straw and
reeds : thus a carpenter is described as " making houses and bowls." Hence the
frequent fires ; and especially the great conflagration of 1097, which spread from
London Bridge to the church of St. Clement Danes, in the Strand. By an assize (1st
year of Richard I.) all houses in London were hereafter to be built of stone, with
party-walls of the same : but this mandate was rarely complied with ; and it was not
until the reign of Edward IV., when brick was made from the clay of Moorfields, that
it occasionally took the place of the timber which had hitherto been used for houses ;
reeds were then replaced by tiles and slates. In two centuries, to gain ground, many
stone houses were taken down, and others of timber built in their place; and it is dis-
tinctly stated that London, to the period of the Great Fire 1666, was chiefly built of
chestnut, filled up with plaster. After the Great Fire, the houses were rebuilt with
brick ; but between 1618 and 1636 several fine brick houses were erected in Alders-
gate-street, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, and Covent Garden. Still, the
general form of roof was the high-pitched gable, whole rows of which have disappeared
in our time, with several specimens of florid plaster and carved wood fronts. Very few
specimens, however, remain.*
Aldersgate-street has several house-fronts with remains of sixteenth and seventeenth
century carving and other ornaments. {See also p. 449.)
Aldgate High-street, No. 76, with central bay-windows, enriched brackets, and a
projecting penthouse-shop, has panels decorated with the Prince of Wales' feathers, the
fleur-de-lis of France, the Thistle of Scotland, portcullis of Westminster, &c.
Ashhurriham Mouse, Little Dean's-yard, and Cloisters, Westminster Abbey, was origi-
nally built by Inigo Jones, on chapter land, for the Ashburnham family ; it was purchased
by the Crown of John Earl of Ashburnham, in 1730. Here the Cotton Library of
MSS. was deposited. On October 23, 1731, a fire broke out here, when of the 948
volumes, 114 were lost or spoiled, and 98 much damaged. All that remains in the
western portion of the house, are an exquisitely proportioned drawing-room; the
dining-room, once a state bed-room, with a graceful alcove ; and a staircase, one of the
finest of Inigo Jones's interior works. Sir John Soane had careful drawings made of
the house. In the cellars, it is said, were some remains of the conventual buildings ;
and a capital of the time of King Edward the Confessor, which was built into the
modern wall.
Bagnio, the, in Bath-street, Newgate-street, was built by Turkey merchants, and
first opened in 1679 {Aubrey), for sweating, rubbing, shaving, hot-bathing, and cup-
ping, after the Turkish model. The cupola-roof and walls neatly set with Dutch tiles,
described by Hatton in 1708, exist to this day : it is now a cold bath.
* The remains of Eoman London consist chiefly of portions of the City wall, foundations of build-
ings ; tesselated pavements, often of so much beauty as to denote a corresponding style in the super-
structure; baths, sewers, bronzes, and various ornaments admirable as works of art. A Roman bath
nearly complete still exists in Strand-lane ; and a Koman hypocaust is preserved beneath the Coal Ex-
change (see p. 329). The remains of the superstructures of Koman London which have yet been dis-
covered, are, however, unimportant.
HOUSES OF OLD LONDON. 445
Bangor Souse, Shoe-lane, south of St. Andrew's Church, is described as the palace
of the Bishops of Bangor in a roll of 48 Edward III. Being deserted as an episcopal
residence, some mean dwellings were built upon the grounds ; yet a garden with lime*
trees, and a rookery, long remained. The last of the mansion, octangular and two-
storied, was removed in 1828 ; but is kept in memory by "Bangor House;" and by
Bangor-court, opposite which are some remains of " Oldborne Hall/' in Stow's time
*' letten out in divers tenements."
Baumesy or Balmes (from two Spanish merchants so named), stood west of the
Ivingsland-road, Hoxton, and was taken down in 1852. It was built by the Balmeses,
about 1440 ; Sir George Whitmore resided here occasionally when lord mayor, 1631 j
and on this spot Sir W. Acton, lord mayor, with the aldermen, &c., waited the arrival
of Charles I. on his return from Scotland, Nov. 25, 1641 ; when the royal coaches were
conducted, by a road formed for the occasion, through Balmes's grounds to Hoxton,
and thence to Moorgate, into the City, the road between Kingsland and Shoreditch
being then impassable by " the depth and foulness of it." Baumes-march was long a
favourite archery and artillery exercise ;* but the ground attached to the house is now
the site of De Beauvoir Town, named from the De Beauvoir family, its owners since
1696. A print of 1580 shows Baumes, with its gate-house, farmery, spacious gardens
and grounds, avenues of fruit-trees and stately elms ; and the Italianized brick mansion
with its two-storied roof, moated and approached by a drawbridge ; the house and moat
were supplied from the ancient well in Canonbury Field. The interior of Balmes was
rich in car\'ed ceilings, panelling and staircase, armorial glass and tapestry.
Brook's Menagerie (subsequently Herring's), an old wooden house at the western
corner of Brook-street, New-road, was standing when Tottenhall Fair was in its glory ;
and almost the only house between St. Giles's Found and Primrose-hill was Tottenh^l,
a house of entertainment in 1645, on the site of which is the " Adam and Eve tavern."
Bulk Shops have only disappeared in our time. In 1846 was taken down an old
house south-west of Temple Bar, which is engraved in Archer's Vestiges, part i. A
view in 1795, in the Crowle Pennant, presents one tall gable to the street ; but the
pitch of the roof had been diminished by adding two imperfect side gables. The heavy
pents originally traversed over each of the three courses of windows ; it was a mere
timber frame filled up with lath and plaster, the beams being of deal with short oak
joints : it presented a capital example of the old London bulk-shop (sixteenth century),
with a heavy canopy projecting over the pathway, and turned up at the rim to carry
off the rain endwise. This shop had long been held by a succession of fishmongers,
among whom was the noted Crockford, who quitted it for " play" in St. James's {see
Club-houses, pp. 246, 247). Crockford would not permit this house-front to be altered
in his lifetime.
Burnet's (Bishop) Souse, St. John's-square, Clerkenwell, is now let in tenements,
and has an arched thoroughfare to a court of houses built on the site of the garden.
In this house Burnet died 1715, and was buried in St. James's Church, when the
rabble threw dirt and stones at his funeral procession. The Bishop's house and tomb
are engraved from original drawings in the Mirror, 1837, No. 836.
Campden Souse, Kensington, originally approached from the town by an avenue of
elms, was built about 1612 by Sir Baptist Hicks, afterwards Viscount Campden, who
purchased the property of Sir Walter Cope ; or, traditionally, won it of him " at some
sort of game." The house was of red brick, with stone finishings, and had a centre
por(;h, bay-window once fitted with armorial glass, and flanking turrets with cupolas.
The great dining-room, in which Charles II. supped with Lord Campden, had a rich
armorial ceiling in stucco, floridly carved wainscot, and a tabernacle mantelpiece, with
Corinthian columns and caryatidal figures, finely sculptured. The State apartments on
the first floor included Queen Anne's bedchamber j and the Globe room, originally a
chapel, and communicating with the garden terrace : the other rooms had richly stuc-
coed ceilings and marble mantelpieces. During the Protectorate, the Sequestration
* The Robin Hood public-house (now refronted) originally looked over Finsbury-fields, and wag
much frequented by the metropolitan archers ; the sign, ilobin Hood and Little John, in Lincoln-green,
formerly swun? from a tree before the door. A few dealers in archery implements, and preservers of
animals, have lingered in the City-road to our day— the last relics of the chivalry of Hogsden, Finsbury,
and Moorfields.
446 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Committee sat here. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, resided five years at
Campden House, with her son the Duke of Gloucester, who kept a regiment of boy-
soldiers here, and had a puppet-theatre built. Lord Lechmere, the lawyer and staunch
Whig, lived here when he had his quarrel with Sir John Guise, ridiculed in Swift's
tallad of "Duke upon Duke :"
" Back in the dark, by Brompton Park,
He turn'd up thro' the Gore,
And slunk to Campden-house so high,
All in his coach and four.
The Duke in wrath called for his steeds,
And fiercely drove them on :
Lord ! Lord ! how rattled then thy stones,
kingly Kensington I"
Swift had lodged at Kensington, and well knew the locality. The gardens, in which
the wild olive and the caper-tree once flourished, had been much reduced; but the
house retained its original front. In the spring of 1862, by a conflagration of remarkable
rapidity, Campden House was reduced to blackened and windowless walls : it has been
rebuilt in the same style. The historic interest of the place had ceased some sixty years
before. Among the relics are two dogs (supporters of the Campden arms), which for-
merly surmounted the gateway-piers, and are cleverly sculptured. Westward is Little
Campden House, built during the Princess Anne's residence at Campden House : it has
an outer arcaded gallery ; and was once occupied by the Right Hon. William Pitt.
Canonhury Place, Islington, was originally the country-house of the Priors of St.
Bartholomew. {See Canonbuet Towee, p. 78.)
" Canonhury House internally is one of the richest specimens of the architecture of James L in the
neighbourhood of London. The house, or rather the remains, form at the present time several large
dwelling-houses ; including a portion of the old great chamber, with a rich ceiling, date 1599, a quaintly
carved oak fireplace, with statuettes of Mars and Venus draped, and a doorway with bust of an old
English gentleman and dame, the Koman mouldings and enriched frieze very fine; several other rooms
are sumptuously carved, and the parlour retains its original decoration." — C.J. Richardson, F.S.A.
Carlisle Sov^e, Carlisle-street, Soho-square, formerly the mansion of the Dowager
Lady Carlisle, was built temp. James II. : it has a marble-floored hall and grand deco-
rated staircase; the rooms are large and lofty, and have enriched ceilings. The
mansion originally stood in the midst of a garden, a portion of which remains in the
rear ; the " cherry-garden" is built upon. The lower walls of Carlisle House are of
old English bond, of brilliant red brick ; the leadwork of the cistern is dated 1669, the
year of the creation of the Earldom of Carlisle. The mansion was long tenanted by
Angelo, the fencing-master ; also by W. Gibbs Rogers, the carver : and in the ball-
room the College of the Freemasons of the Church held their monthly meetings.
" CaxtovbS House" Westminster, and other old houses in the Almonry, are described
at p. 6. The identification of the old Printer's house is very doubtful.
Croshy Hall, Bishopsgate-street, the finest specimen of olden domestic architectm-e
in the metropolis, is described at p. 297.
Drury-lane has the CocTc and Magpie, a low public-house of the seventeenth centui'y,
with a panelled house next door, and a range of tenements in Drury-court of the
same date. These were then the only houses in the eastern part of Drury-lane,
except the mansion of the Drurys. Hither the youths and maidens who on May-day
danced round the May-pole in the Strand, were accustomed to resort for cakes and
ale : Pope has named it the scene of " the high heroic games devised by dulness to
gladden her sons." The old public-house is now otherwise occupied.
" Lyotfs House," Dyott-street, now George-street, St. Giles's, was the mansion of
Richard Dyott, Esq., a vestryman of St. Giles's jjarish temp. Charles II., and was in-
habited till our time by his descendant, Philip Dyott, Esq.
LJlizaletha7> Houses. Among the earliest examples of the Elizabethan period was a
house in Grub-street, engraved in Smith's Antiquities, in which the mouldings, quatre-
foil, and other Gothic ornaments, were combined with the Italianized panels and
brackets of a later date. Malcolm , in his Anecdotes, has engraved two Elizabethan
houses in Goswell-road, built about 1550, and standing in 1807; with bay-windows,
over-hanging upper story, and gable : next door, for contrast, is a house built about
1800, three floors of the former being scarcely equal to two of the latter.
HOUSES OF OLD LONDON. 447
" The roofs (ceilings) of your houses are so low, that I presume your ancestors were very mannerly,
and stood bare to their wives, for I cannot discern how they could wear their high-crowned hois."— Sir
William Davenant.
Fowler's House, Islington, fronts Cross-street : a ceiling bears the date 1595 : at the
extremity of the garden is a lodge, probably built as a summer-house by Sir Thomas
Fowler the younger, whose arms and the date 1655 are in the wall. Sir Thomas
Powler the elder, who died 1624, was a juryman on Sir Walter Raleigh's trial.
Fulwood's Bents, Holborn, has a house temp. James I. {See p. 363.)
Gray' s-Inn-lane, east side, north end, has three Elizabethan houses, originally one,
and probably a hostelry on the road to Theobalds : its three stories project over each
other upward, the top one being of weather-board plastered inside, and the roof
having four pointed gables : at the ends of the first and second stories are carved
brackets, one dated 1559.
Grub-street. In Sweedon's passage, Grub-street, was an ancient timber-built house,
traditionally the residence of Sir Richard Whittington, temp. Henry IV. ; and of Sir
1 Thomas Gresham, temp. Elizabeth. The massive timbers were oak and chestnut, the
ground-floor chimneys being of stone : it had a boldly projecting staircase, which, with
the house, was taken down in 1805, and three small houses were built upon its site,
one inscribed " Gresham House, once the residence of Sir Richard Whittington, Lord
Mayor 1406, rebuilt 1805." (See Smith's Ancient Topography.)
Holborn. In the volume of MS. drawings by John Thorpe, preserved in Sir John
Soane's Museum, is a sketch of a wooden house described as standing in Thorpe's time
at the " water end of Holborn."
" From the garden you ascend by five steps the enclosed terrace in front of the building; this has,
as Thorpe expresses it, a ' terrace overhead :' a small porch leads into the great hall. The kitchen is
on the right ; the larder is the small square room leading out of it. The small room in front on the
same side as the kitchen, is the buttery, with cellar under, the small steps conducting down to it.
Above the hall is ' the great chamber,' the staircase leading to which opens into a gallery communicat-
ing to the rooms of the rest of the building. The square compartments at the back of the house,
represented in plan as staircase and larder, are carried up above the roof as turrets; a small prospect
tower is placed in front of the building." — C. J. Richardson, F.S.A.
Holland House, Kensington, is described at pp. 431-433.
Soxton. A few years since there stood in Hoxton Old Town the reputed " oldest
house in the metropolis," in taking down which was found a brick dated above 150 years
back ; but most of the bricks were of a much earlier period, being deep-red and highly
glazed : the door was beautifully carved with the oak and vine, &c. The Parliamen-
tary Survey, No. 78, as reported in Sir H. Ellis's History of Shoreditch, of which
Hoxton is one of the divisions, states that about this spot, during the Interregnum, a
house was in the possession of Charles Stuart, some time King of England, in 1653,
which was valued at 41. per annum.
Kennington Manor-house, a portion of the royal lodging built of brick upon part of
the site of the old palace near Kennington-cross, exists to this day. Its last royal
tenant was Charles I., when Prince of Wales, Kennington having been an occasional
residence of the Kings of England prior to the Conquest. The manor was annexed to
the Duchy of Cornwall, temp. Edward III., and was tenanted by the Black Prince.
John of Gaunt took refuge here in 1377 from the exasperated Londoners. Henry VII.
and Katherine of Arragon resided here ; and James I. settled the manor on Henry
Prince of Wales, his eldest son ; and upon his decease, 1612, on Prince Charles, after-
wards Charles I. The stables of the earlier palace, built of flint and stone, and known
as the Long Barn, remained till 1795 ; and fragments of flint, chalk, and rubble-stone
walls of the ancient palaces are traceable in houses in Park-place.
Kensington House, nearly opposite the palace-gates, was the residence of the Duchess
of Portsmouth, the French mistress of Charles II. Here Elphinstone, the friend of
Jortin, Franklin, and Johnson, kept a school from 1776 till 1788 : he is unsparingly
ridiculed in Smollett's BodericJc Bandom. The mansion was next a Roman Catholic
boarding-house, where Mrs. Inchbald, the player and novelist, died in 1821. Colby
House, facing the Palace-road gates, was built about 1720, for Sir Thomas Colby : it
has a painted grand staircase with Herculaneum ceiling, and a small chapel. Kensing-
ton National Schools, a stately pile of brickwork, west of the church, were built by Sir
John Vanbrugh, who " is singularly fortunate in this design, his lines presenting a re-
448 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
strained degree of civil architecture, in the middle class of uprights" (John Carter).
Here are costumed figures of a charity boy and girl of the last century.
Male Souse, Earl's-court, traditionally the residence of Oliver Cromwell, long re-
mained dilapidated and desolate ; but retained a few seventeenth-century decorations.
Near the West London Cemetery is Coleherne Rottse, temp. Charles I., the property of
Sir William Lister ; next of Gen. Lambert, the first President of Cromwell's Council ;
and in 1820, of the widow of Major-Gen. Sir W. Ponsonby, who fell at Waterloo.
Lindsey House, Chelsea, west of the old church, was built by Bertie, Earl of Lindsey,
upon the site of the mansion of Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician to James I. and
Charles I. In 1V51 Lindsey House was purchased by the United Brethren, or Moravians,
whose Bishop, Count Zinzendorf, died here in 1760 : in the rear of the house is a
burial-ground for the Brethren, with a small chapel ; but their only place of worship
in London is the chapel in Fetter-lane {see p. 220). Lindsey House is now five
residences : the central one was tenanted by Sir I. K. Brunei and Son, and Braraah,
the engineers ; and next inhabited by John Martin, the epic painter, who in a summer-
house in the garden executed a fine fresco.
Lindsey Souse, on the centre of the west side of Lincoln's-inn-fields, was built by
Inigo Jones for the above Bertie, Earl of Lindsey, and was for some time the residence
of the proud Duke of Somerset : it has a handsome stone fagade, and had formerly
vases upon the open balustrade. At the south-west angle of Lincoln's-inn-fields is
Fortsmouth Souse, built in Inigo Jones's rich style for the Earl of Portsmouth, but
now let in chambers. It gives name to Portsmouth- street, where is the Black- Jack
public-house, frequented by Joe Miller, and long known as " the Jump," from Jack
Sheppard's leaping from one of its first-floor windows, to escape his pursuers.
Little Moorfields, No. 23, was formerly the King's Arms public-house, with a plaster
front richly wrought with flowers, and a pair of large scrolls surmounted with the
Ionic volute. In London Wall was a house-front, temp. Charles L, enriched with
groups of foliage and figures, and engraved in Lester's Illustrations, 1818.
Long-lane, Smithfield, has a few houses remaining of Elizabethan date ; and ClotJb
Fair has relics of this and a later period.
Marylebone Manor-house, attached to the Eoyal Park, was built temp. Henry VIII.,
and was a palace of Mary and Elizabeth. Here, about 1703, was established a school
of great repute ; the interior had a beautiful saloon and gallery, in which private con-
certs were given. The house, which stood at the top of High-street, nearly opposite
the old church, was taken down in 1791. South of the Manor-house site was Oxford
Souse, built especially for the Library and MSS. (Harleian) of the Earl of Oxford, now
in the British Museum.
Milhorn's Almshouses, Crutch ed Friars, were built of brick and timber, in 1535, by
Sir John Milborn, lord mayor in 1521, for thirteen aged poor men and their wives, of
the Drapers' Company. Over the Tudor gateway was sculptured in stone the Assump-
tion, the Virgin supported by six angels. The Almshouses were taken down in 1862.
Newcastle Souse, at the north-west angle of Lincoln's-inn-fields, has beneath its
south wing an arcade over the southern footway of Great Queen-street. It was
originally Powis House, built for the Marquis of Powis, about 1686, by Captain Wil-
liam Winde, a scholar of Webbe, a pupil of Inigo Jones. It was bought by Holies,
Duke of Newcastle, and inherited by his nephew, who led the Pelham administration
under George II.
" Old City of London WorJchouse," Bishopsgate-street Without, the first workhouse
built in London, dates from 1680 : in the court-room is a portrait of Sir Kobert Clay-
ton, the first governor. The house was originally partitioned into the steward's side,
for poor children ; and the keeper's side, for " rogues and vagabonds."
Post-office, Loinbard-street, formerly the General Post-ojfice, was originally built by
*' the great banquer," Sir Robert Viner, on the site of a noted tavern destroyed in the
Great Fire. Here Sir Robert kept his mayoralty in 1675. Strype describes it as a
very large and curious dwelhng, with a handsome paved court, and behind it " a yard
for stabling and coaches."
Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, has on the south side some early brick houses,
built by Inigo Jones and his pupil W^ebbe ; those on the south being charged with the
HOUSES OF OLD LONDON. 449
fleur-de-lis, in compliment to Queen Henrietta-Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France,
after whom the street was named : it was said to have been designed for a square, and
built at the charge of the Jesuits on the site of the common path which anciently
separated Aldewych Close from the northern division of Aldewych, extending to
Holbom. The street was originally entered from the west by " the Devil's Gap," a
narrow passage ; altered 1765.
"In the last century Queen-street was the residence of many people of rank. Among others was
Conway House, the residence of the noble family of that name ; Paulet House, belonging to the Marquis
of Winchester; and the house in which Lord Herbert of Cherbury finished his romantic career. The
fronts of certain houses, possibly of those of others of the nobility, are distinguished by brick pilasters
and rich capitals." — Pennant.
Howel writes to Lord Herbert, 13tli July, 1646 : "God send you joy of your new habitation, for I
understand your Lordship is removed from the King' s-stxQQi to the Queeu'a." — Familiar Letters.
Here lived Sir Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentary general, when he took possession of
Holland House, Kensington. Also, Sir Godfrey Kneller j Hudson, Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds's master ; and Sir Eobert Strange, the engraver. Lord Herbert's house is near
the east corner of Great Wild-street. Another of Howel's Familiar Letters is addressed
"To the R. H. the Earl Rivers, at his house in Queen-street."
" May 26th, 1671. The Earl of Bristol's House, in Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields, was taken for
the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and furnished with rich hangings of the King's. It con-
sisted of seven rooms on a floor, with a long gallery, gardens, &c." — Evelyn's Diary.
Schoraherg House, Pall Mall, Nos. 81 and 82, south side, was built about 1650, when
Pall Mall was planted with 140 elm-trees, " standing in a very regular and decent
manner on both sides of the walk ;" and the above house is described as " a fair mansion
enclosed with a garden." In 1660, at the Restoration, it was occupied by several Court
favourites; and subsequently by Edward Griffin, Treasurer of the Chamber, and
ancestor of the present Lord Braybrooke. In 1670 Schomberg House and the ad-
joining mansions had gardens which extended to St. James's Park, and had earthen
mounds or terraces, from which was a view over the green walks to the Palace.
Next door, on the site of the present No. 79 (tenanted by the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts), lived Nell Gwyn, after her removal from a house at the east end of the north
side of Pall Mall. Evelyn records a walk made March 2, 1671, in which he attended Charles II. through
St. James's Park, where he both saw and heard "a familiar discourse between the King and Mrs.
Nellie, as they called an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top of the
wall, and the King standing on the green walk under it." Part of the terrace or mound on which
Nelly stood may still be seen under the park wall of Marlborough House ; and among Mr. Robert Cole's
Nell Gwyn papers, now dispersed (bills sent to Nelly for payment), there is a charge for this very
mound. (Cunningham's Story of Nell Gwyn, p. 119,) This scene has been admirably painted by
E. M. Ward, R.A.
Here lived the Uuke of Schomberg, who was killed at the Battle of the Boyne, 1690,
and after whom the house is named. It was beautified for Frederick, third and last
Duke of Schomberg, for whom Peter Berchett painted the grand staircase with land-
scapes in lunettes. In 1699, the house had nigh been demolished by a mob of disbanded
soldiers ; and in the Gordon riots of 1780, attempts were made to sack and burn it.
William, Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, took the house in 1760. John
Astley, the painter and " the Beau," who lived here many years, partitioned the man-
sion into three, and placed the bas-relief of Painting above the middle doorway. Astley
also built on the roof a large painting-room, his " country-house," looking over the Park,
to which and some other apartments he had a private staircase. After Astley's death,
Cosway the portrait-painter tenanted the centre. Gainsborough occupied the west
wing from 1777 to 1788, when he died in a second-floor room : he sent for Sir Joshua
Reynolds, and was reconciled to him ; and then exclaiming, " We are all going to
heaven, and Vandyke is of the company," he immediately expired. Part of the house
was subsequently occupied by Robert Bowyer for his " Historic Gallery ;" and by
Dr. Graham, the empiric, for his " Celestial Bed" and other impostures, advertised by
two gigantic porters stationed at the entrance, in gold-laced cocked hats and liveries.
The house was a good specimen of the red-brick seventeenth-century mansion. It was
partly occupied by Payne and Foss, with their valuable stock of old books, until 1850.
The eastern wing of the old mansion has been taken down, and rebuilt in Italian style,
but incongruously, for the War Department.
Shaftesbury House, originally Thanet House, on the east side of Aldersgate-street,
was built by Inigo Jones for the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet j whence it passed into the
Q(3t
450 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
family of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1708 it returned to the
Thanet family ; in 1720, became an inn ; in 1734, a tavern ; 1750, a Lying-in-Hos-
pital : and in 1849, a Dispensary. The facade is of red brick, decorated with eight
pilasters, but painted stone colour. Nearly opposite was London House, originally
Peter House, of handsome brick : it was the town-mansion of the Bishop of London
after the Great Fire of 1666.
Southward retained in High-street some of its olden house-fronts, almost to the re-
building of London Bridge. Tn 1830 were removed two houses with enriched pilaster
decoration and armorial ensigns of the sixteenth century j and the writer witnessed
about 1809, the demolition of a long range of wood and plaster and gable-fronted
houses on the west side of High-street.
" T7ie Spanish Ambassador's Souse," eastward of Houndsditch, in Gravel-lane, was
taken down in 1844. This was one of the " garden-houses," which Stow describes as
built amidst " fair hedgerows of elm-trees, with bridges and easie stiles to pass over
into the pleasant fields." More than a century later Strype adds : " There was a house
on the west side, a good way in the lane, which, when I was a boy, was commonly
called The Spanish Ambassador's House, who, in King James's reign, dwelt here; and
he, I think, was the famous Count Gondomar." The house was built temp. James I.,
in a courtyard, with a fine gateway, upon a flight of steps, approached by *' Seven-Step
Alley :" it had three stories, with pilasters between the windows, the lower rooms were
oak -panelled, and had richly-carved fireplaces and stucco ceilings ; and on the first floor
was a large chamber, with an elaborately -traceried ceiling in Italian taste, charged with
Latin mottoes, and the arms of the founder, Eobert Shaw, and those of the Vintners*
Company, of which he was master : here, too, was a superb fireplace, of coloured
marbles and carved oak {see Archer's Vestiges, part v.).
Staple Inn, Holborn, has three overhanging stories, the upper one with four pointed
gables; the ground-floor has modern sliop-fronts, but the central arched entrance to
the Inn has the original term pilasters of the Jacobean style.
Star Chamber, and Exchequer -buildings, the, stood on the eastern side of New
Palace-yard ; and adjoining northward was an arched gateway (Henry III.), communi-
cating by stairs with the Thames. These buildings, bay-windowed and gabled, were
taken down between 1807 and 1836; the last remaining were the ofi[ices for trials of
the Pix, and printing Exchequer bills. In an apartment here the Court of Star
Chamber sat from temp. Elizabeth until its abolition, 1641 : over the doorway was the
date 1602, E. E. and an open rose on a star. It had a richly-carved Tudor-Gothic
oak ceiling, with moulded compartments, roses, pomegranates, portcullises, and fleurs-
de-lis ; and it had been guilt and coloured, though it had not a trace of gilt stars. The
mantelpiece was decorated with fluted columns, and the chimney-opening was a Tudor
arch. Drawings of the whole were made in 1836. Behind the Elizabethan panelling
were found three Tudor-arched doorways, and under the staircase a Gothic wood-hole
entrance, its spandrels ornamented with roses ; proving this to have been the original
Camera Stellata, newly fitted temp. Elizabeth. The panelling of the Chamber has been
removed to a room at Leasowe Castle, Shropshire, the seat of the Hon. Sir Edward
Cust ; here, too, is " the Dosel, a screen of ornamental woodwork, at the back of the
chair of state." — Sir Bernard Burke's Visitation of Seats and Arms, vol. ii, p. 126, 1853.
St. Mary Axe. — A four-storied Tudor house, opposite the church of St. Andrew's
Undershaft, was taken down in 1864 : it had three overhanging floors, the front was
entirely of wood and plaster, not unpicturesque ; and it had some finely-panelled oak
apartments. Nearly opposite this house was erected on May morning "the great
Shaft of Cornhill," as the street was then called.
The Strand retains a few old house-fronts : as west of the Adelphi Theatre ; and
immediately east of Strand-lane are three houses of the reign of Charles I., retaining a
few of their classic mouldings, cornices, and window pediments.
Tradescant's House, South Lambeth-road, a large brick edifice, nearly opposite
Spring-lane, was the residence of the Tradescants, father and son; and of Elias
Ashmole, who " added a noble room to it, and adorned the chimney with his arm?,
impaling those of Sir William Dugdale, whose daughter was his third wife." The
house, with its museum, was called " Tradescant's Ark." (See Gaedens, p. 368.)
INNS OF OLD LONDON. 451
WaricicTc Souse, Cloth Fair, Smithfield, built temp. Elizabeth, was bought with the
Priory of St. Bartholomew, aud the right to hold the Fair, by Sir Robert Rich, in
1544, and devolved to his descendants, the Earls of Warwick and Solland; whence
that " uproarious rabblement," called Lady Holland's Moh, which assembled on the
eve of St. Bartholomew in mock proclamation of the Fair.
Weather-hoarded house-fronts, in part plastered, are of old date : there was, until
1853, a row of these wood tenements on the east side of Milford-lane, Strand ; and up
a passage in Bell-yard, Fleet-sti'eet, a little north-west of a house temp. Charles I., is
a square court entirely of weather-board and plaster, bespeaking the inflammable
nature of London before the Great Fire.
Winchester-street', Old Broad-street, the most curious specimen of ancient domestic
architecture to be found in the City, disappeared in 1865. It occupied the site of the
gardens of the Priory of St. Augustine. Part of the house which the Marquis of Win-
chester built here still remains. Pinners' Hall, an old building at the- upper end of
Princes'-court, in Winchester-street, was also part of the Augustine Priory ; and was
converted into a glasshouse before it became the property of the Pinmakers' Company,
and, with its gabled house-fronts and ancient air, was rendered still more curious in
contrast with the magnificent edifices and the great railway works around it. Some
of the old shops, without fronts, in this street were very remarkable. During the
removal were dug up some remains which carry us far beyond the Priory occupancy—
as a piece of Samian ware and part of a well-wrought bone stylus ; and an iron knife,
or perhaps a Roman razor, almost exactly like that engraved in Mr. Roach Smith's
Catalogue, p. 72.
Several examples of Old Loudon Houses are engraved and described in the Buildery
Nos. 486, 489, 494, and 515.
INNS OF OLD LONDON.
OF Olden Inns, up gateways, and consisting of rooms for refection below, and long'
projecting balustraded galleries above, leading to the chambers — time and change
have spared a few interesting specimens.
Angel, Islington (actually in St. James's, Clerkenwell), once a busy resort of travel-
lers on the Great North Road, is reputed to have been established upwards of 20O
years : it was rebuilt in 1819. The old inn-yard was nearly quadrangular, with double
galleries, supported by plain columns, and pilasters carved with caryatid and other
figures. (See Pugin's Views in Islington and Pentonville, 1819.) A coloured drawings
of this old inn-yard is preserved here. The Peacock, another inn hard by, was of equal
if not greater antiquity.
Angel, St. Clement's, Strand, retained to the last its gables and portions of covered gal-
leries, with an old lattice-fronted attic passage. Data of three centuries since also attest its
antiquity : Bishop Hooper, the venerated martyr of the Reformation, upon his second
committal to the Fleet Prison in 1553, refusing to recant his opinions, was condemned
to be burnt, in January, 1555. It was expected that he would have accompanied
Rogers, a prebendary of St. Paul's, to the stake ; but Hooper was led back to his cell,
to be carried down to Gloucester, to suffer among his own people. Next morning
he was roused at four o'clock, and being committed to the care of six of Queen Mary's
Guard, they took him, before it was light, to the Angel Inn, St. Clement's, then
standing in the fields ; and thence he was taken to Gloucester, and there burnt with
dreadful torments on the 9th of February.
In the Public Adoertiser, March 28, 1769, is the following advertisement :—
" To be sold, a Black Girl, the property of J . B , eleven years of age, who is extremely handy,
works at her needle tolerably, and speaks English perfectly well; is of an excellent temper and willing-
disposition. Inquire of Mr. Owen, at the Angel Inn, behind St. Clement's Church, in the Strand."
The Angel Inn has been taken down j and upon its site is built the cul-de-sac of
Chambers called " Danes' Inn."
Ape, Philip-lane, London Wall : here Avere formerly two galleried inns, the Ape and
the Cock, of great antiquity : the sign of the former is preserved on the house No. 14.
Baptist, s Head public-house, east side of St. John's-lane, Clerkenwell, just without
the Priory-gate, is a fragment of an Elizabethan mansion, and until its renovation had
an overhanging front grotesquely carved, and lit by large bay windows, with painted
G G 2
452 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
glass : some of the interior scroll-panelling remains. This house was the residence of
Sir Thomas Forster, Knt., one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas; he died
in 1612, and his arms, sculptured upon the chimney-piece of the present tap-room,
have heen collated in Cromwell's ClerJcenwell. The sign may have been chosen in
compliment to Sir Baptist Hicks ; and the public-house is said to have been frequented
by Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith in connexion with their transactions at
Cave's printing-office over St. John's Gate.
Bell, Great Carter-lane, Doctors' Commons : hence, Oct. 25, 1598, Richard Quiney
addressed to his " loveing good ffrend and countryman, Mr. Wm. Schackespere " (then
living in Southwark, near the Bear-garden), for a loan of thirty pounds ; which letter
we have seen in the possession of Mr. R. Bell Wheler, at Stratford upon -Avon : it is
believed to be the only existing letter addressed to Shakspeare. The JBell inn has
disappeared, but has given name to Bell-yard.
JBell, Warwick-lane, Newgate-street : here Archbishop Leighton, the steady advocate
of peace and forbearance, died 1684 ; little of the old inn remaius.
"He often used to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn ; it looking like a
pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all an inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion
in it And he obtained what he desired." — Burnet's Own Times.
Bell Savage, or Belle Sauvage, Ludgate-hill, is a specimen of the players' inn-yard
before our regular theatres were built. The landlord's token, issued between 1648
and 1672, bears an Indian woman holding a bow and arrow. The sign is thus traced:
"As for the Bell Savage, which is the sign of a savage man standing by a bell, I was formerly very
much puzzled upon the conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into the reading of an old romance translated
out of the French, which gives an account of a very beautiful woman who was found in a wilderness,
and is called in the French ' la Belle Sauvage,' and is everywhere translated by our countrymen the Bell
Savage." — Spectator, No. 28.
The sign, however, was originally a bell hung within a hoop, as proved by a grant
temp. Henry VT., wherein John French gives to Joan French, widow, his mother,
" all that tenement or inn called Savage's Inn, otherwise called the Bell on the Hoop.'*
In the London Gazette, 1676, it is termed " an antient inn." Stow affirms it to have
been given to the Cutlers' Company by one Isabella Savage : but their records state by-
Mrs. Craythorne. {^See Cutlees' Hall, p. 414.) Here Sir Thomas Wyut's rebellion
was stopped.
"And he (Wyet) himself came in at Te(tnple Bar, and) boo down alle Flet-strete, and soo un-to the
Belle Savage. And then was his trayne (attacked at) the commandment of the erle of Pembroke, and
sartayne of hys men slayne. And whan (he saw) that Ludgatte was shutt agayne hym, he departed
saynge, ' I have kepte towche,' and soo went (back) agayne ; and by the Tempulle barre he was tane,
and soo brought by watter unto the (Tower) of London." — Chronicle of the Gtrey Friars of London.
Fuller, in his Church History, states that after Wyat's adherents had forsaken him, he flung himself
on a bench opposite the Bell Savage, and began to repent the rashness of his enterprise, and lament his
folly. He was summoned by an herald to submit, which he agreed to do, but would yield only to a gen-
tleman ;— and afterwards surrendered to Sir Maurice Berkeley.
In Bell Savage-yard lived Grinling Gibbons, " where he carved a pot of flowers
which shook surprisingly with the motion of the coaches that passed by." — Walpole.
This was one of the inns at which Bankes exhibited his wonderful horse, Marocco, whose accomplish-
ment was dancing. One of his exploits was going up to the top of St, Paul's Church. The horse is
first mentioned about 1590. He was exhibited not only in England but abroad, where it became sus-
pected that the horse was a demon, and his exhibitor was a sorcerer; and both were burnt at Rome by
the Inquisition. There is an extremely rare tract, Maroccus Extaticiis : or, Bankes's Bay Horse in a
Trance, 1595, a fine copy of which at Mr. Daniel's Canonbury sale, in 1864, fetched 81Z.
The old inn has been taken down, and upon its site and that of the inn-yard have
been erected the extensive printing works of Cassell, Fetter, and Galpin. An old
house, bearing the crest of the Cutlers' Company, cut in stone, remains.
Blossoms, Lawrence-lane, Cheapside, " corruptly Bosoms Inn, hath to sign ' St.
Laurence the Deacon,' in a border of blossoms or flowers," which, says the legend,
sprung up " on the spot of his cruel martyrdom." This was one of the inns hired for
the retinue of Charles V. on his visit to London in 1522, when "xx. beddes and a
stable for ix. horses " were ordered here.
Bolt-in-Tun, Fleet-street, No. 64, in a grant to the White Friars in 1443, is termed
" Hospitium vocatum Le Boltenton," In Whitefriars-street, No. 10 is the Black Lion,
a small inn-yard with exterior wooden balustraded gallery, &c. Among the lands and
tenements in St. Dunstan's occur the Bore's Hede, rented at 4:1. ; le Bolte and Tonne,
4i. i and le Blake Svoanne, 4<L ; all in Fleet-street.
INNS OF OLD LONDON. 4.5'6
Bull, Bishopsgate, in its galleried yard, accommodated audiences for our early actors,
before the building of licensed theatres. Richard Turlton frequently played here.
JBull and Mouth, St. Martin's- le-Grand, and the Bull and Gate, Holborn, had
probably the same origin, the Bullogne Gate, one of the Gates of Bullogne, designed,
perhaps, as a compliment to Henry VIII., who took that place in 1544. This G. A.
Steevens learned from the title-page of an old play. Tom Jones, it will be recollected,
alighted at the Bull and Gate, Holborn, when he first came to London. Strype tells
us that the Bull and Mouth was the great resort of those who bring bone-lace
for sale ; and the house was much frequented by the Quakers before the Great Fire.
This continued to be a great coach-ofiice to all parts of England and Scotland, until the
railways rose up. About this time the house was rebuilt in handsome style by Mr.
Sherman : in the centre between the second-floor windows is a sculptured group of
great absurdity : a Bull, and beneath it, a gigantic open mouth ;* above is a bust of
Edward VI., the founder of Christ's Hospital, to which foundation the rjite belongs.
ClerTcenioell. In St. John-street is the Cross Keys, where the carrier of Daintree
lodged in 1637 ; Hatton mentions the Three Cups, near Hicks's Hall. Here also are
the Golden Lion and the Windmill; and in Woodbridge-street was the i2e(i -B«Zi
inn, the yard once the pit of the Red Bull Theatre, {See Cleekenwell, p. 236.)
Coach and Horses, at the entrance to Bartholomew Close, is a portion of the ancient
priory, probably the hospitium, at the end of the north cloister : the first floor has an
arched roof and 16th-century cornice j the tap-room has an Early-English window : and
the beer-cellar, a crypt, has a 12th-century clustered column. Of St. Bartholomew's,
also, exist the prior's house, and the hall, with an ancient timbered roof, now used as a
tobacco-manufactory. Close by is the monastery kitchen, from which a subterranean
passage, in our time, communicated with the church : it has two panelled rooms, one with
a vaulted roof and carved mantel-piece. {See Archer's Vestiges of Old London, part v.)
CocTc, in Tothill-street, was probably the most ancient domestic edifice in West-
minster : it was built entirely of timber, and at the back was a long inn-yard, with
heavy timber sheds. The upper part of the house consisted of one story, in which
were several rooms on different levels, one of which remained in its original state, a
curious specimen of an early timbered room, being entirely of chestnut-wood. The
exterior was very picturesque, although plastered and painted. The house was
entered by a descent of three steps : in the parlour was a massive oak carving of the
Adoration of the Magi, of Flemish work, well executed and painted to the life.
Another piece of carved work, more in the High German manner, an alto-relievo of
Abraham ofiering up Isaac, was preserved in an adjoining room. The CocTc is said to
have been frequented by the builders of Henry VIl.'s Chapel ; and there is a further
tradition that here was the pay-table of the workmen at the building of the Abbey, temp.
Henry III. In 1845, Mr. Archer found in the kitchen the old sign of the Royal
Arms, which, with the Flemish carving and ancient bedchamber, are engraved in the
Vestiges of Old London, part vi. From this house started the first Oxford coach ; and
a portrait of its original driver was shown here. The old house has some time disappeared.
Cross Keys, Gracechurch-street, was one of the old galleried inns at which Bankes
exhibited the extraordinary feats of his horse Marocco ; the better class of spectators
being in the galleries. Richard Tarlton, the clown, kept a tavern here. He was
chosen scavenger, " and often the ward complained of his slacknesse in keeping the
streets deane." The first stage-coach travelling between Clapham and Gracechurch-
street, once daily, was established in the year 1690, by John Day and John Bundy.
The Cross Keys, Wood-street, Cheapside, was taken down in 1865 : this sign, and that
in Gracechurch-street, taken down in 1866, were derived from adjoining churches
being dedicated to St. Peter, whose emblem is two keys crossed.
Lle'phant and Castle, Newington Butts, was a noted stage-coach house until the
railway times ; and was originally a low- built roadside inn, with outer gallery, a draw-
ing of which hangs in the present tavern. Adjoining was a large sectarian chapel,
inscribed in gigantic capitals " The House of God 1" held by the dupes of Joanna
Southcott, whose dreams and visions were painted upon the walls. There is an odd
* This is referred by some to the story of Milo, who, after killing a bullock with a blow of his fist,
ate it up in a meal !
454 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
notion that this Elephant and Castle sign was founded upon the "finding of elephant
bones near the inn site ; but an elephant and castle is the crest of the Cutlers' Company.
Four Stvans, Bishopsgate-street Without, is perhaps the most perfect old London
inn, its galleries being entire. Hobson, the noted Cambridge carrier, put up here.
" This memorable man stands drawn in fresco at an inn (which he used) in Bishopsgate-street, with
an hundred-pound bag under his arm, with this inscription upon the said bag :
' The fruitful mother of a hundred more.' " — Spectator, No. 609.
George and Blue Boar, Holborn, was associated with a great event in our history :
here is said to have been intercepted Charles I.'s letter, by which Ireton discovered
it to be the King's intention to destroy him and Cromwell, which discovery brought
about Charles's execution ; but the story is disbelieved. Nearly opposite the George
and Blue Boar was the Red Lion, the largest inn in Holborn ; and where the bodies
of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshawe were carried from Westminster Abbey, and next
day dragged on sledges to Tyburn — a retributive coincidence worthy of note. In old
St. Giles's Church was " a red lyon painted in glasse, given by the inneholder of the
Ked Lyon." {Aubrey.)
George, Snowhill, is a relic of the time when this hill was the only highway from
Holborn-bridge eastward ; the house appears to have been an extensive inn for carriers
t a very early date, and
" St. George that swiug'd the dragon,
And sits on his horseback at mine hoste's door,"
though much dilapidated, is a good specimen of a carved sign-stone.
Gerard's Hall, Basing-lane and Bread- street, Cheapside, replaced the ancient Hall of
the Gisors, the fine Norman crypt of which remained for a wine-cellar j but, with the
superstructure, was removed in 1852, in forming New Cannon-street.
Giles's, St, was formerly noted for its large inns. {See St. Giles's, pp. 376-377.)
Green Man, on the site of the commencement of the present Osnaburg-street, was
originally the Farthing Pye-house, kept by Price, the noted rolling-pin and salt-
"box player ; here were sold bits of mutton, put into a crust, and- shaped like a pie,
for a farthing !
Salf-ivay House, Kensington-road, opposite the site of the building for the Great
Exhibition of 1851, and near the Prince of Wales's Gate, Hyde Park, was removed in
1846 at an expense of 3050^., in addition to the purchase of the fee.
Holborn Hill. The Hose has disappeared within our recollection : from this inn
Taylor the Water -poet started in the Southampton coach for the Isle of Weight, 19th
October, 1647, while Charles I. was there :
" Wo took one coach, two coachmen, and four horses.
And merrily from London made our courses,
We wheel' d the top of the heavy hill eall'd Holborn,
(Up which hath been full many a sinful soul borne,)
And so along we jolted past St. Giles's,
Which place from Brentford six or seven miles is."
Taylor's Travels from London to the Isle of Wight, 1647.
The Old Bell, Holborn, bears the arms of Fowler, of Islington, viz., azure, on a
chevron, argent, between three herons, as many crosses formee, gules. These arms also
occur on a building supposed to have been the lodge of Fowler's house in Islington.
King's Arms, Leadenhall-street, No. 122 : in the reign of William III., Sir John
Fenwick and others met here to plan the restoration of James II.
Oxford Arms, situate at the end of a narrow street out of the west side of Warwick-
lane, and southward of Warwick-square and the old College of Physicians, has a red
brick pedimented facade of the period of Charles II. surmounting a gateway leading into
the inn-yard, which has on three of its sides two rows of wooden galleries, with
exterior staircases leading to the chambers on each floor, the fourth side being occupied
by stabling built against part of old London-wall. This house, known as the Oxford
Arms before the Great Fire, must have been then consumed, but was rebuilt on the
plan of the former inn. The Oxford Arms was not, as supposed, part of the Earl of
Warwick's house ; as it belongs, and has belonged of old time, to the Dean and Chapter
of St. Paul's. The houses of the Canons Residentiary of St. Paul's adjoin the Oxford
Arms on the south, and part of London Wall is still remaining in the court-yard of
those houses. There is a door from the old inn leading into one of the back yards of
INNS OF OLD LONDON. 455
the residentiary houses, which is said to have been found useful during the Riots of
1V80, for facilitating the escape of Roman Catholics, who then frequented t'ae Oxford
Arms, from the fury of the mob, by enabling them to pass into the residentiary
houses ; for which reason, as is said, by a clause always inserted in the leases of the
inn, that door is forbidden to be closed up. (Communication to the Builder.) The
London Gazette, 1762-3, No. Y62, has this advertisement :
"These are to give notice that Edward Bartlet, Oxford Carrier, hath removed his inn m London
from the Swan at Holborn Bridge to the Oxford Arras in Warwick Lane, where he did Inn before the
Tire. His coaches and waggons going forth on their usual days, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
He hath also a Hearse with aU things convenient to carry a corps to any part of England."
At the Oxford Arms, in Warwick-lane, lived John Roberts, the bookseller, from
whose shop issued the mejority of the squibs and libels on Pope.
Paul Pindar's Bead, corner of Half-moon-alley, No. 160, Bishopsgate- street
Without, was the mansion of Sir Paul Pindar, the wealthy merchant, contemporary
with Sir Thomas Gresham. The house was built towards the end of the 16th century,
with a wood-framed front and caryatid brackets, the principal windov/s bayed, and
their lower fronts enriched with panels of carved work. In the first-floor front room
is a fine original ceiling in stucco, in which are the arms of Sir Paul Pindar. In the
rear of these premises, within a garden, was formerly a lodge, of corresponding date,
decorated with four medallions of figures in Italian taste.
Piccadilly Inns. At the east end were formerly the Blaclc Bear and White Bear
(originally the Fleece), nearly opposite each other. The Blaclc Bear was taken down
in 1820. The White Bear occurs in St. Martin's parish-books in 1685 : here Chatelain
and Sullivan, the engravers, died ; and Benjamin West, the painter, lodged the first
night after his arrival fi'om America. Strype mentions the White Horse Cellar in
1720 ; and the booking office of the New White Horse Cellar is to this day in " the
cellar." The Three Kings stables' gateway. No. 75, had two Corinthian pilasters,
stated by D'Israeli to have belonged to Clarendon House : "the stable-yard at the back
presents the features of an old galleried inn-yard, and it is noted as the place from
which General Palmer started the first Bath mail coach." (J. W. Archer : Vestiges^
part vi.) The Hercules' Pillars (a sign which meant that no habitation was to be
found beyond it) stood a few yards west of Hamilton-place, and is mentioned as one
extremity of London by Wycherley, in 1676. Here Squire Western "placed his
horses" when he arrived in London with the fair Sophia (see Tom Jones) ; here " the
horses of many of the quality stood ;" and it became the scene of fashionable dinner-
parties of the officers of the army, often headed by the Marquis of Granby. The Hercules'
Pillars, and another roadside inn, the Triwnphant Car, were standing about 1797, and
were mostly frequented by soldiers. Two other Piccadilly inns, the White Horse and
Half -moon, have given names to streets.
Pied Bull, Church-row, Islington, traditionally the residence of Sir Walter Raleigh,
and in the Elizabethan style, was taken down in 1826-7. The late front was modern;
but the parlour (the original dining-room) had an elaborately-carved chimney-piece,
with figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity ; and a stuccoed ceiling, with personifications
of the Five Senses. In a window were painted the arms of Sir John Miller, who lived
there in 1634 ; and a bunch of green leaves above the shield was popularly regarded
as the tobacco-plant introduced by Raleigh.
Queen's Head, Lower-street, Islington, was a still more perfect Elizabethan house
than the above. The walls were strong timber framework, filled in with lath and
plaster; the three stories projected, and the windows were supported by carved
brackets ; the entrance porch being ornamented by caryatides and Ionic scrolls. The
interior had panelled wainscot, and stuccoed ceilings of rich design. The house has
been rebuilt, and portions of the old woodwork are preserved.
Pindar of Wakefield, Gray's-inn-road, was a roadside inn in Aubrey's time, 1685,
who mentions the yellow-flowered Neapolitan bank-cresses, the London rocket, grow-
ing there, as well as on the ruins of London, after the Great Fire.
Eose of Normandy, on the east side of High-street, Marylebone, built in the l7th
century, was the oldest house in the parish, and had the original exterior, staircase, and
balusters. In the rear was a bowling-green, enclosed with walls set with fruit-trees
^nd quickset hedges, " indented like town-walls."
456 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Saracen's Heady Snow-hill (actually in Skinner-street), and of old " without Xew-
gate," was in Stow's time " a fair and large inn for the receipt of travellers."
Saracen's Head, Friday-street, Cheapside, adjoined St. Matthew's Church, and
No. 5, said to have been the dwelling-house of Sir Christopher Wren. The inn con-
sisted of three floors with open galleried fronts, besides the ground-floor : it was taken
down in 1844 ; and upon its site, extending nearly to Old Change, large ]Manchester
warehouses were erected. There was also a Saracen's Head, No. 5, Aldgate : it was
once a common London sign, which Selden thus illustrates : —
" When our countrymen came home from fighting with the Saracens, and were beaten by them, they
pictured them with huge, big, terrible faces (.as you still sec the sign of the Saracen's head is), when in
truth they were like other men. But this they did to save their own credit."— Tai/e Talk.
SouTHWAEK Inks. — Stow enumerates here " many fair inns for receipt of travellers,
by these signs : the Spurr, Christopher, Bull, Queene's Head, Tahard, George, Hart,
King's Head," &c. Of these the most ancient is the Tabard (now Talbot), No. 75,
High- street, opposite the Town-hall site. The tabard is a jacket or sleeveless coat,
worn in times past by noblemen, with their arms embroidered on it, but now only by
heralds, as their coat of arms in service. " This was the hostelry where Chaucer and the
other pilgrims met together, and with Henry Bailly, their hoste, accorded about the
manner of their journey to Canterbury." {Speght, 1598.)
" Befell that in that season, on a day
At Southwark at the Tabard as I lay,
Eeadie to wander on my Pilgrimage
To Canterburie with devout courage,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Well nine-and-twenty in a companie
Of sundrie folke, by adventure yfall
In fellowship, and pilgrimes were they all,
That toward Canterburie wouden ride :
The chambers and the stables weren wide.
And well we weren eased at the best," kc— Chaucer.
The Register of Hyde Abbey, and the Escheat Rolls of King Edward I., show the
acquisition by the Abbey of Hyde of the Tabard and the Abbot's House, in South-
wark, by purchase from William de Lategareshall, in 1304. Henry Bailly, Chaucer's
host of the Tabard, is identified as one of the representatives of the borough of South-
wark in Parliament, in the 50th of Edward III. and 2nd of Richard 11. ; and in the
4th of Richard II. " Henry Baylifi', ostyler, and Christian his wife, were assessed to
the subsidy (in Southwark) at 2s." After the Dissolution of the monasteries, the
Tabard and the Abbot's House were sold by King Henry VIII. to John Master and
Thomas Master ; and the particulars for the grant in the Augmentation Office afford
descriptions of the hostelry called the Tahard, parcel of the possessions of the monas-
tery of Hyde, and the Abbot's Place, with the |stable and garden belonging thereto.
The Tabard is mentioned to have been late in the occupation of one Robert Patty, but
the Abbot's Place, with the garden and stable, were reserved to the late Bishop Com-
mendator, John Saltcote, alias Capon, who had been last abbot of Hyde, and who
surrendered it to King Henry VIII. ; and after being made Bishop of Bangor, in com-
tnendam with the Abbey of Hyde, subsequent to the Surrender of the abbey he was pre-
ferred to the see of Sahsbury, in 1539, which he retained till his death in 1557. Upon
the brestsummer beam of the gateway facing the street was formerly inscribed : "This is
the inne where Sir Jeffry Chaucer and the nine-and-twenty pilgrims lay in their jour-
ney to Canterbury, anno 1383." This was painted out in 1831 : this was originally
inscribed upon a beam across the road, whence swung the sign, removed in 1763, when
the inscription was transferred to the gateway. The sign was changed about 1G76,
when, says Aubrey, " the ignorant landlord or tenant, instead of the ancient sign of the
Tabard, put up the Talbot, or dog !" The buildings of Chaucer's time have disap-
peared, but were standing in 1602 : the oldest remaining is of the age of Elizabeth ;
and the most interesting portion is a stone-coloured wooden gallery, in front of which is
a picture of the Canterbury Pilgrimage, said to have been painted by Blake : immediately
behind is the Pilgrims' Room of tradition, but only a portion of the ancient hall.
The gallery formerly extended throughout the inn buildings. The inn facing the street
was burnt in the Great Fire of Southward : " this house," says Aubrey, " remaining
before the fire of 1676, was an old timber house, probably coeval with Chaucer's time;"
imrS OF OLD LONDON. 457
it is shown in the oldest view of the Tabard extant, in Urry's Chaucer, 1720, repro-
duced in The Mirror, vol. xxii. 1833. Mr. G. R. Corner, F.S.A., who has left us the
fullest and best account of the ancient Inns of Southwark (see Collections of the Surreif
ArchcBological Society, vol. ii. part, ii.), was of opinion, from personal examination
of the premises (at some risk), that there was nothing in the existing remains of the
Tahard earlier than the Fire of 1676, after which was built the supposed "Pilgrims'
Hall," the fireplaces in which are of this date. [The date of the Canterbury Pil-
grimage is generally supposed to have been the year 1383. The MS., almost perfect,
well written, and richly illuminated, was exhibited to the Bi'itish Association, in 1865, by
Archdeacon Moore, at Lichfield Cathedral.] Taylor the Water-poet mentions another
Tabard inn, " neere the Conduit," in Gracechurch-street.
The George is described by Stow as existing in his time ; and it is mentioned at an
earlier period, viz., in 1554, 35th Henry VIII., by the name of the St, George, as
being situate on the north side of the Tabard. In the seventeenth century, two
tokens were issued from TJie George, which are in the Beaufoy collection at Guild-
hall, and described in Mr. Burn's ably compiled Catalogue. The first is a token of
" Anthony Blake, Tapster, y^ George in Southwarke ;" and on the reverse are three
tobacco-pipes ; above them, four beer-measures. The other token is inscribed, " James
Gunter 16 . ." ? — St. George and Dragon, in field. Reverse, " In Southwarke :" in
the field, " I.A.G." Mr. Burn quotes some lines from the Musarum Delicice, 1656,
upon a surfeit by drinking bad sack at The George tavern in Southwark :
" Oh, would I might tume poet for an houre,
To satirize with a vindietive power
Against the drawer ! or 1 could. desire
Old Jonson's head had scalded in this fire :
How would he rage and bring Apollo down
To scold with Bacchus, and depose the clown
For his ill-government, and so confute
Our poet-apes, that do so much impute
Unto the grape's inspirement !"
In the year 1670 The George was, in great part, burnt and demolished by fire ; and
it was totally burnt down in the Great Fire of Southwark, in 1676. The following is
from the Diary of the Rev. John Ward, written a few years later : —
"Cover and his Irish ruffians burnt Southwark, and had 1000 pounds for their pains, said the Narra-
tive of Bedloe. Giflbrd, a Jesuit, had the management of the fire. The 26th of May, 1676, was the dismal
fire of Southwark. The fire begunne at one Mr. Welsh, an oilman, near St. Margaret's Hill, betwixt the
* George' and ' Talbot' innes, as Bedloe in his Narration relates." — Diary of the Rev. John Ward, p. 155.
The Fire was stopped by the substantial building of St. Thomas's Hospital, then
recently erected ; and, in commemoration of the event, there v/as a tablet placed on
the staircase, over the door of the hall or coui't-room, with an inscription. Although
the present building of The George Inn is not older than the end of the seventeenth
century, it seems to have been rebuilt, after the Fire, upon the old plan ; and it still
preserves the character of the ancient English inns, having open wooden galleries
leading to the chambers on each side of the inn-yard.
The White Hart, the head-quarters of Jack Cade and his rebel rout in 1450 (and a
dozen doors nearer London Bridge than the Tabard), has been demolished. The back
part of this inn was burnt in 1699, and the remainder was destroyed in the great Fire
in Southwark in 1676 ; it was rebuilt upon the plan of the older edifice, and is well
engraved from a drawing by Mr. Fairholt, in the Archaeological Collections just quoted.
Shakspeare makes Cade say, " Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates,
that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark." At the Hart lodged
Jack Cade on his arrival in Southwark, July 1, 1450 ; " for," says Fabyan, " he might
not be suflered to enter the Citie." Again, of Cade's rebels, " at the Whyt Harte in
Southwarke one Hawaydine of Sent Martyns was beheddyd." {Chronicles of the Grey
Friars of London.) Hatton (1708) describes the White Hart as "the largest size
about London, except the Castle Tavern, in Fleet-street." Mr. Corner brought to-
gether some curious notices of this inn from the Faston Letters, vol. i. p. 61. The
White Hart of our time is well described in the £ickwicTc Papers, by Charles Dickens.
The other Southwark inns named by Stow remain, except the Christopher ; but they
458 CUItI08Ii:iE8 OF LONDON.
have mostly lost their galleries and other olden features. The King's Sead sign was
within our recollection a well-painted half-length of Henry VIII. The Catherine
Wheel remains ; but we miss the Dog and Bear, which sign, as well as Maypole-alley,
hard by, points to olden sport and pastime.
The White Lion, formerly a prison for the county of Surrey, as well as an inn, is
mentioned in records in the reign of King Henry VIII., having belonged to the Priory
of St. Mary Overey. It is also mentioned by Stow, and it continued to be the county
prison till 1695. The rabble apprentices of the year 1640, as Laud relates in his
Troubles, released the whole of the prisoners in The White Lion. It has been supposed
that the White Lion was the same house that, before the building of New London
Bridge, was called Baxter's Chophouse, No, 19, High-street ; and in old deeds. The
Crown, or The Crown and Chequers, an old plaster-fronted house. The house which
stood in the court beside it, and was formerly called The Three Brushes, or " Holy Water
Sprinklers," was of the time of Elizabeth j and some drawings exist of the interior, as
a panelled room, with an ornamental plaster ceiling, having in the centre the arms of
Queen Elizabeth, with E. R. in support of this opinion. This room is supposed to have
been the court or justice-room in which her Majesty's justices sat and held their sessions.
The house was pulled down about 1832, for making the new street to London Bridge.
Bear at the Bridge-foot was a noted house during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and it remained until the houses on the old bridge were pulled down, in or
about the year 1760. This house was situate in the parish of St. Olave, on the west side
of High-street, between Pepper-alley and the foot of London Bridge. It is mentioned in
a deed of conveyance (dated Dec. 12, 1554, in the first and second years of Philip and
Mary) ; and in the parish-books, of the same date, there is still earlier mention of this
house, for among the entries of the disbursements of Sir John Howard, in his steward's
accounts, are recorded : — " March 6th, 1463-4. Item payd for the red wyn at the
Bere in Southewerke, \\\d." And again, "March 14th (same year). Item payd at
dinner at the Bere in Southewerke, in Costys, ms. i\\d. Item, that my mastyr lost at
shotynge, xxdJ."
Cornelius Cooke, mentioned in the parish accounts of St, Olave's as overseer of the land side as early
as 1630, became a soldier, and ultimately was made captain of the Trained Bands. He rose to the rank
of colonel in Cromwell's time, and was appointed one of the Commissioners for the sale of the king's
lands. After the Restoration, he settled down as landlord of this inn. Gerrard, in a letter to Lord
Stratford, dated January, 1633, intimates that all back doors to taverns on the Thames were commanded
to be shut up, excepting only the Bear at the Bridge-foot, exempted by reason of the passage to Green-
wich. The " Cavaliers' Ballad" on the magnificent funeral honours rendered to Admiral JJeau (killed
June 2, 1653) has the following allusion :—
" From Greenwich towards the Bear at Bridge foot,
He was wafted with wind that had water to't ;
But I think they brought the devil to boot,
"Which nobody can deny."
There is also another allusion in the following lines from a ballad " On banisliing the Ladies out of
Town:"—
*' Farewell Bridge foot and Bear thereby,
And those bald pates that stand so high;
We wish it from our very souls
That other heads were on those poles,
Pepys, on the 24th February, 1666-7, mentions the mistress of the Bear drowning herself, and again
alludes to the inn on the 3rd of April following.
In the year 1761 the Bear was pulled down, on the bridge being widened. In the
JPullio Advertiser, of Saturday, Dec. 26, 1761, is the following announcement: —
** Thursday last, the workmen employed in pulling down the Bear tavern, at the foot
of London Bridge, found several pieces of gold and silver coin of Queen Elizabeth, and
other monies to a considerable extent."
Boar's Head. — Southwark had its Boar's Head, as well as the City of London its
Boar's Head in East Cheap, immortalized by Shakspeare; and while the one is celebrated
as the resort of Jack Falstaff, the other was the property of another of Shakspere's
characters, who has often been erroneously confounded with lean Jack. Sir John Fastolf,
of Caistor, Norfolk, and of Southwark, where (in Stoney-lane) he had his town house,
was a man of military renown, having been in the French wars of Henry VI.; and was
governor of Normandy : he was also a man of letters and learning, and the Boar's
Head formed part of the endowment of Magdalen College, Oxford, founded by his
INNS OF OLD LONDON 459
friend, William Waynfleet, Bishop of Winchester, at whose instance Sir John Fastolf gave
large possessions in Southwark and elsewhere towards the foundation. In the ReliquicB
Searniance, edited by Dr. Bliss, is the following entry relative to this bequest : —
1721. June 2.— The reason why they cannot give so good an account of the benefaction of Sir John
Fastolf to Magd. Coll. is, because he gave it to the founder, and left it to his management, so that
'tis suppos'd 'twas swallow'd up in his own estate that he settled upon the college. However, the
college knows this, that the Boar's Head, in Southwark, which was then an inn, and still retains the
name, tho' divided into several tenements (which brings the college 1501. per annum), was part of
Sir John's gift.
The property above-mentioned was, for many years, leased to the father of the
author of the present work, and was by him principally sub-let to weekly tenants. The
premises were named " Boar's Head-court," and consisted of two rows of tenements,
vis-a-vis, and two houses at the east-end, with a gallery outside the first floors : the tene-
ments were fronted with strong weather-board, and the balusters of the staircases were
of great age. The Court entrance was between the houses Nos. 25 and 26, east side of
High-street, and that number of houses from old London Bridge ; and beneath the
whole extent of the Court was a finely-vaulted cellar, doubtless the wine-cellar of the
JSoar's Head. The property was cleared away in making the approach to the new
bridge. (See Notes and Queries, 2nd s.. No. 109.) In the Beaufoy Collection, afc
Guildhall, is a token of the Boar's Head (a boar's head, lemon in mouth, 1649).
There were at St. Margaret's-hill, a Boar's Head-alley, and Boar's Head Livery Stables.
Spread Eagle, Gracechurch-street, was rebuilt after the Great Fire. Of this inn we
find Taylor, the Water-poet, in his Carrier's Cosmographie, 4to, 1637, mentioning " The
Tabard near the Conduit," and " the Spread Eagle,'' both in " Gracious-street."
The latter was taken down in 1865, but remained to the last nearly entire, with
its outer galleries to the two floors. The plot of ground which it occupied contained
in all 12,600 feet, 5600 feet of which were leasehold for a long term, and the rest
freehold. It was sold for 95,000?. The ground is surrounded on three sides by
Leadenhall Market. There is a good view of the old inn in the Illustrated London
News, Dec. 23, 1865.
The 5/>reai J5:a^/e, besides being an early carriers' inn, became famous as a coaching-house; the
mails and principal stage-coaches for Kent and other southern counties arriving and departing from
here. It was long the property of John Chaplin, cousin of William Chaplin (Chaplin and Home), who
began life as a coachman at Rochester, served as Sheriff of London and Middlesex, and sat in Parlia-
ment for Salisbury. He died chairman of the London and South- Western Eailway, and worth a
quarter of a million of money. He was occupier, at one period, of five inn-yards in London, possessed
2i00 horses, and his receipts for booking parcels amounted to 8000Z. a year.
The Grasse-street of old was a memorable place. To this market for gra
Edward III., it was customary for every cart (not belonging to a citizen) laden with corn or malt going
there to be sold, to pay one] halfpenny; if laden with cheese, twopence. The cart of the franchise'
of the Temple and St. Mart'in's-le-Grand paid a farthing; the cart of the Hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem paid nothing for their proper goods. In Aggas's plan is shown an open place upon which
White Hart-court was built after the Great Fire. Ben Jonson, in one of his masques, alludes to the
poulterer's wife in Grace's-street. Pepys calls the street " Gracious-street." Nov. 28, 1662, he records
the death of " a poulterer in Gracious-street, which was thought rich ;" and, on the 24th of the same
month, Pepys speaks of the conduit in the quarre four at the end of Gracious-street; "the spouts
whereof running very near me upon all the people that were under it." And on Sept. 14, 1665 (the time
of the Plague), he was horrified "to see a person sick of the sores carried close by me by Ghracechurch,
in a hackney-coach." He afterwards calls the street " Gracious-street ;" for he says, Nov. 25, 1668, " So
home, buying a barrel of oysters, at my old oysterwoman's in Gracious-street, but over the way to where
she kept her shop before (the Fire)."" Sir John Fielding, in his Description of London and West-
minster, 1776, calls the street " Grasschurch-street, Cornhill."
Swan loith Two NecJcs, Lad-lane, now Gresham-street, was long the head coach-inn
and booking-oflSice for the North. The sign has been referred to a corruption of two
nicJcs, or the Vintners' Company's swan-marks on the bill ; but this popular notion is
discountenanced by Mr. Kempe, F.S.A. : are the two necks an heraldic monstrosity ?
"The carriers of Manchester doe lodge at the Two-Neck'd Swan in Lad-lane" (Taylor's Carrier'a
Cosmographie, 1637), originally Lady's-lane.
Three Cups, Aldersgate-street, is mentioned by Hatton ; with the same sign in St.
John-street, near Hicks's Hall; and in Bread- street, near the middle. Beaumont and
Fletcher have " the Three Cups in St. Giles's ;" and Winstanley mentions Kichard
Head at the same sign in Holborn, making verses over a glass of Rhenish.
White Hart, Bishopsgate- street, taken down in 1829, bore on the front the date
1480 : it was three-storied, with overhanging upper floor, and occupied the site of " a
460 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
fiiire inne for receipt of travellours, next unto the parish church of St. Buttolph/'
thus descrihed by Stow.
White Hart, Covent-garden, gave name to Hart-street, and is mentioned in
a lease to Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley) of Sept. Vth, 1 570. Weever has pre-
served this epitaph in the Savoy Church on an old vintner of the White Hart, who
died 1586:—
" Here lieth Humphrey Gosling, of London, vintner.
Of the Whyt Hart of this parish a neghbor,
Of vertuous behaviour, a very ^ood archer,
And of honest mirth, a very good company lieeper.
So well inelyned to poore and rich,
God send more Goslings to be sich."
Wliite Hart, corner of Welbeck-street, was long a detached public-house, where
travellers customarily stopped for refreshment, and to examine their fire-arms, before
crossing the fields to Lisson- green. The land westward of the bourn (whence the
parish, now Marylebone, was named) was a deep marshy valley : here was Fenning's
Folly, upon the top of which was built a fishmonger's ; the shop, level with the street,
having been the Folly upper story.
White Horse, Fetter- lane, was formerly the great Oxford house, as already mentioned
under Fettee-lane, p. 336.
Yorlcskire Stingo, New-road, was celebrated for a century and a quarter, and
appears in a plan dated 1757 : here was held annually, on May 1, a Fair, until sup-
pressed as a nuisance.
INNS OF COURT AND CHANCFBY.
THE hostels or abodes of the practisers and students of the law before the reign of
Edward. II. were called Inns of Court, because their inhabitants belonged to the
King's Court, first noticed on the Placita Rolls, 10th Eichard I. One of these, John-
son's Inn, is said to have been at Dowgate; another in Pewter's (Fetter) lane; and a
third in Paternoster-row. The Serjeants and Apprentices (of the Law) then each had
his pillar in St. Paul's Church, where he heard his client's case :
"A Serjeant of the law both ware and wise.
That often had yben at the Pent-yse."— Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
And in the reign of Charles I., upon the making of Serjeants, they went to St. Paul's
in their formalities, and cJtose their pillars.
Sir John Fortescue, Chief Justice to Henry VI., enumerates four Inns of Court —
the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn — and ten Inns
of Chancery : the former frequented by the sons of nobility and wealthy gentry ; and
the latter by merchants and others, who had not the means of paying the greater ex-
penses (about 20 marks per annum) of the Inns of Court. The first were called
apprenticii nohiliores, the latter apprenticii only. On the working days they applied
themselves to the study of law ; on the holydays to holy Scripture. They also learned
singing and all kinds of harmony, dancing, and other noblemen's pastimes. The
only punishment for misdeeds was expulsion (as is the case now), which was greatly
dreaded. They were famous for their revels and other gaieties.
In 1635, the four Inns of Court gave a grand masque to Charles I. and Queen
Henrietta-Maria at Whitehall.
The Court of Star Chamber, however, took care of their morals by desiring the
principals of the Inns of Court and Chancery not to suffer the students to be out of
their houses after six o'clock at night, " without very great and necessary causes, nor
to wear any kind of weapon;" and the Court records prove the Star Chamber to have
cominitted to the Tower the Earl of Surrey, Sir Thomas Wyat, and young Pickering,
for breaking windows, and eating flesh in Lent.
In the reign of Phihp and Mary it was ordained by all the four Inns of Court, "that none except
knights and benchers should wear in their doublets or hose any light colours, save scarlet and crimson;
nor wear any upper velvet cap, or any scarf or wings in their gowns, white jerkins, buskins, or velvet
shoes, double culfs in their shirts, feathers or ribbons in their caps ; and that none should wear their
study gowns in the City any farther than Fleet-bridge or Holborn-bridge; nor, wliile in Commons, wej
Spanish cloak, sword and buckler, or rapier, or gowns and hats, or gowns girded with a dagger on "
back."— Dugdale's Originea Juridicialea.
1
INNS OF COURT AND CRANGEBY. 461
The students in the reign of Henry VI. were : 4 Inns of Court, each 200 = 800 ;
10 Inns of Chancery, each 100 = 1000 ; total, 1800. In 1850 there were in the four
Inns of Court upwards of 4000.
On Ascension-day, or Holy Thursday, when the custom of beating the bounds of most
of the City and other parishes takes place by the children of the parish schools, headed
by the clergy, parochial officers, and many inhabitants, the Temple and other Inns
of Court and extra-parochial places are shut up and guarded, to prevent the pro-
cessions passing through, which might possibly affect the privileges of the different
places. The two Temples and Gray's Inn are extra-parochial, i.e., pay no poor-rates
and maintain their own poor ; but Lincoln's Inn has not entirely that exemption.
The Inns of Court are interesting to others besides lawyers, for they are the last working institutions
in the nature of the old trade guilds. It is no longer necessary that a shoemaker should be approved by
the company of the craft before he can apply himself to making shoes for his customers, and a man may
keep an oyster-stall without being forced to serve an apprenticeship and be admitted to the Livery of
the great 'whig Company ; but the lawyers' guilds guard the entrance to the law, and prescribe the rules
under which it shall be practised. There are obvious advantages in having some authority to govern
Buch a profession as the Bar, but it is sufficiently remarkable that voluntary societies of barristers them-
selves should have managed to engross and preserve it. — Times journal.
TnE Temple lies between Fleet-street and the Thames, north and south; and
Whitefriars and Essex-street, east and west ; divided by Middle Temple-lane into the
Inner and Middle Temple, each having its hall, library, and garden, quadrangles,
courts, &c. Originally there was also the Outer Temple, comprising Essex House and
gardens : a portion of the old Water-gate remains at the foot of Essex-street,
The ancient hostels existed until 1346 (20th Edward III.), when the Knights
Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem (to whom the forfeited estates of the rival
brotherhood of the Templars had been granted by the Pope) demised the magnificent
buildings, church, gardens, " and all the appurtenances that belonged to the Templars
in London," to certain students said to have removed thither from Thavies Inn, Hol-
born, in which part of the town the Knights Templars themselves had resided before
the erection of their superb palaces on the Thames. In this New Temple, " out of the
City and the noise thereof, and in the suburbs," between the King's Court at West-
minster and the City of London, the studious lawyers lived in quiet, increasing in
number and importance ; so that, although the mob of Wat Tyler's rebellion plundered
the students, and destroyed almost all their books and records (" To the Inns of Court !
down with them all !" — Jack Cade), it became necessary to divide the Inn into two
separate bodies, the Hon. Societies of the Inner and Middle Temple; having separate
halls, but using the same church, and holding their houses as tenants of the Knights
Hospitallers until the Dissolution by Henry VIII., and thenceforth of the Crown by
lease. In the sixth year of James I. the two Temples were granted by letters patent
to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Recorder of London, and others, the
bankers and treasurers of the Inner and Middle Temple, which, by virtue of this
grant, are held to this day by an incorporated society of the " students and practisers
of the laws of England."
The Innee Temple is entered from Fleet-street by a gateway, built 5th James I.,
beneath No, 17, Fleet-street, through Inner Temple-lane : at No. 1 lived Dr. Johnson
from 1760 to 1765. Upon the east side of the lane, the old chambers of Churchyard-
court have been taken down, and a noble stone-fronted structure erected in their
place; to this and the opposite new lines have been given the honoured names of
Johnson's and Goldsmith's Buildings. At the foot of the lane is the magnificent
western doorway of the church (described at pp. 205-207) ; and westward are the
cloisters, which were built by Wren after the fire of 1678, which fire Titus Oates
pretended to the Council was "a contrivance." Croion Office-row, facing the garden,
has also been rebuilt with a handsome stone fa9ade. in the former row was the
birthplace of Charles Lamb.
" Some gentlemen of the Inner Temple would not endeavour to preserve the goods which were in the
lodgings of absent persons, nor suifer others to do it, ' because,' they said, ' it was against the law to
break up any man's chamber !' " — Lord Clarendon's Own Life, p. 355.
Upon the broad terrace facing the garden are the Library (containing Bacon's
Kistory of the Alienation Office, in MS.), and the Parliament Chamber in the Tudor
, 462 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
style, completed by Smirke, R.A. in 1835; adjoining is the Hall, built upon the site of
a structure of the age of Edward III. Here are full-length portraits of Coke and
Littleton; and an emblematic Pegasus, by Sir James Thornhill. Here dinner is
served to the members of the Inn daily during term-time ; the masters of the bench
dining on the state or dais, and the barristers and students at long tables extending
down the hall to the carved screen at the western end. On grand days are present
the judges, who dine in succession with each of the four Inns of Court.
" At the Inner Temple, on certain grand occasions, it is customary to pass huge silver goblets (loving
cups) down the table, tilled with a delicious composition, immemorially termed ' sack,' consisting of
sweetened and exquisitely flavoured white wine : the butler attends its progress to replenish it, and
each student is restricted to a gip. Yet it chanced not long since at the Temple, that, though the
number present fell short of seventy, thirty-six quarts of the liquid were consumed I"— Quarterly
Seview, 1836, No. 110.
The gentlemen of the Inner Temple were of old famed for their plays, masques,
revels, and other sumptuous entertainments. Christmas, Halloween, Candlemas, and
Ascension-day, were anciently kept with great splendour in the Hall. In 1661 Charles
II. dined here, and was received with twenty violins, dinner being sensed by fifty
gentlemen of the society in their gowns. Next year, the Duke of York and Prince
Kupert were admitted members. For these feasts, the master of the revels arranged
the dancing and music; after the play, a barrister sang a song to the judges and
Serjeants ; and dancing was commenced by the judges and benchers round tlie sea-coal
fire. This dance is satirized in Buckingham's witty play of the Rehearsal ; and the
revels have been ridiculed by Dr. Donne in his Satires, and Prior in his Alma. Pope
in the Dunciad has :
" The judge to dance, his brother seijeant calls."
Sir Christopher Hatton, with four other students of the Inner Temple, wrote the play of Tancred
and Gismund, which, in 1568, was acted by that Society before the Queen. Sir Christopher wrote the
fourth act, signed " Composuit Chr. Hatton :" it was first printed in 1592, and there is a copy among the
Garrick Plays in the British Museum.
The last revel in any of the Inns of Court was that held Feb, 2, 1733, in the Inner Temple Hall, in
honour of Mr. Talbot, a bencher, having the Great Seal delivered to him. A large gallery built over the
screen was filled with ladies; and music in the little gallery at the upper end of the Hall played all
diimer-time. After dinner, began the play Love for Love, and the farce of The Devil to Fay, by actors
from the Haymarket. After the play, the Lord Chancellor, the Masters, Judges, and Benchers retired
into their Parliament Chamber ; in half an hour they returned to the Hall, and led by the Master of the
Bevels, formed a ring, and danced, or rather walked, roimd the fire-place, according to the old ceremony,
three times ; the ancient song, accompanied with music, being sung by one Tony Aston, dressed in a
bar-gown. This was followed by dancing, in which the ladies from the gallery joined; then a collation
was served, and the company returned to dancing. The Prince of Wales was present.
Among the eminent members were Audley, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII.;
Nicholas Hare (who built Hare-court), Master of the Rolls to Queen Mary ; Littleton
and Coke (in the reign of James I. the Temple was nicknamed "my Lord Coke's
shop ") ; Sir Christopher Hatton, Selden, Heneage Pinch, Judge Jeffreys, and Sir
William FoUett; and the poets Beaumont and Cowper. Speght's statement that
Chaucer studied here is much disputed. Among the Readers was " the judicious
Hooker," of whom, in 1851, a memorial bust was placed at the south-west angle of the
choir of the Temple Church.
" The view from the Temple (Jardens, when, on the opposite side of the river, the
eye ranged over the green marshes and gradually rising ground to the Surrey hills, and
the rich oak and beech woods that clothed them, must have been beautiful." (Pearce's
Inns of Court.) The public are admitted to the Inner Temple Garden, about three acres,
on summer evenings from 6 to 9: it is already described at p. 365. Towards its
south-eastern corner are the New Paper Buildings, of red brick and stone, erected
1848, by Sydney Smirke, A.R.A., with overhanging oriels and angle turrets, assimi-
lating to Continental examples of the Tudor style.
The Middle Temple, west of the lane, is entered from Fleet-street by a red-brick
and stone-fronted gate-house, built by Wren, in 1684, " in the style of Inigo Jones, and
very far from inelegant " {Ralph). It occupies the site of the gate-house erected by
Sir Amias Paulet, as a fine imposed by Wolsey, whose prisoner he was ; and which he
garnished with cardinal's hats and arms to appease "his old unkind displeasure."
Abutting on the garden is Middle Temple Hall, built 1562-'72, in the treasurersbip of
Plowden, the jurist. This Grand Hall is 100 feet long, 40 feet wide, and upwards of
INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY. 463
60 feet in height, and has a fine open timber roof, which omits the principal arched
rib, and multiplies the pendants and smaller curves ; it is very scientifically constructed,
and contains a vast quantity of timber. There is also a Renaissance carved screen and
music-gallery, dight with Elizabethan armour and weapons ; on the side windows are
emblazoned the arms of eminent members, as also on the great bay-windows, on the
dais or state ; " besides the Queen's and the 3 Lyons of England."
The fine collection of State pictures embraces the sovereigns from Charles I. to George I, inclusive.
The most striking of these is the noble equestrian portrait of Charles I. by Vandyck (one of the three
known to be by his hand), which has hung in the Middle Temple hall since 1684, when it was acquired,
by the Society. Charles II.'s portrait is reputed to be the work of Sir Godfrey Kneller : it represents
the King in coronation robes, wearing the Garter; it is a grandly studied work, though the flesh tints
have deepened ; the draperies are unrivalled, so finely are they cast and so brilliantly coloured. The
portrait of Queen Anne was painted from life for the Society. It appears from their records that on the
27th of November, 1702, the benchers directed the treasurer " to put up her Majesty's picture at the
west end of the hall over the bench, and to have it drawn by Mr. Dahl, unless the treasurer thinks fit to
make use of another hand." Dahl was a native of Sweden, and a rival of Kneller, But the treasurer of
the day selected a Scottish artist, Thomas Murray, for the work, who also painted the portrait of King
William HI. Cunningham says : " the portraits are chiefly copies, and not good." Around the Hall
are imitative bronze busts of the twelve Caesars; and on the dais, marble busts of Lords Eldon and
Stowell, by Behnes.
The oaken tables extend from end to end : " they cut their meat on wooden trenchers,
and drink out of green earthen pots." (Hafton, 1708.) Dugdale tells us that " until
the second year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, this Society did use to drink in cups of
aspe^-wood (such as are still in use in the King's Court), but then those were laid aside,
and green earthen pots introduced, which have ever since been continued." Speci-
mens of these green cups have been found in the Inner Temple, in Gray's Inn, and
Lincoln's Inn ; they hold half a pint, are tall, have a lip, and are surmised to have held
the portions assigned to each student, who was also supplied with a drinking-horn.
The item " To Calves'-head, &c." in the old " battles" of thhe Middle Temple, refers to ancient times,
when the chief cook of the Society gave every Easter Terra a calves'-head breakfast to the whole fra-
ternity, for which every gentleman paid at least one shilling. In the eleventh year of James I., how-
ever, this breakfast was turned into a dinner, and appointed to be on the first and second Monday in
every Easter Term. The price per head was regularly fixed, and to be paid by the whole Society, as well
absent as present — a fact which will account for the appearance of the item in the Trinity bills. The
sum thus collected, instead of belonging solely to the cooks, was divided among all the domestics .
of the house (see Herbert's Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery). — JB. Blundell, F.S.A.
In this noble Hall was performed Shakspeare's Tioelfth Night, as recorded in the
table-book of John Manningham, a student of the Middle Temple : " Feb. 2, 1601(2).
At our feast we had a play called * Twelfth Night, or What you will.'"— "It is yet
pleasant to know that there is one locality remaining where a play of Shakspeare was
listened to by his contemporaries, and that play Twelfth Night." (Charles Knight :
'Pictorial 'Edit. Shakspeare.) The Middle Temple feasts were sumptuous : Evelyn
describes that of 1688 " so very extravagant and great, as the like had not been seen
at any time ;" he condemns the revels as " an old but riotous custom.." Aubrey was
admitted 1646 ; here and at Trinity College, Oxford, he "enjoyed the greatest felicity"
of his life. Among his *' Accidents" we find: — " St. John's Night, 1673 : In danger of
being run through with a sword by a young templar, at Burges' chamber in the Middle
Temple." (Britton's Memoir of Aubrey, pp. 14, 19.) Elias Ashmole was called to
the bar at the Middle Temple, in 1660 : he had chambers in Middle Temple Lane.
The Reader at the Middle Temple appointed for the Lent Season, 1861 (Dr. Philli-
more), inaugurated his election to the office by reading, in the ancient hall of the Inn,
a paper on "Minority and Majority in England and Abroad." The Readers are
elected in rotation from the Benchers, and in the olden time their duty was to read
law twice in the year — viz., in Hilary and Trinity Terms : but since the year 1680,
these public readings had been discontinued.
The New Library, built at the river end of Garden-court, and upon additional ground
purchased at the cost of 13,000^., was commenced in August, 1858 ; H. R. Abraham,
architect. It is a beautiful edifice, in the collegiate style of the fifteenth century.
The lower portion is occupied by chambers; the material is Bath stone. The Library,
which is a room of handsome proportions, 96 feet long, 42 wide, and 70 feet high,
occupies the upper portion, and is approached by a winding staircase in an octagonal
tower at the side. The roof, which reminds one of Westminster Hall, except that it
464 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
is two-centred, is of American pitch-pine — the first time this wood has been used for
the purpose in England. The floor is of Portland stone, in panels, with Portland
cement in the centre compartments. There is a stained glass window at each end : the
oriel at the south is illuminated with the arms of the Royal Princes, from the time of
Richard Coeur de Lion down to the present Prince of Wales ; and the window at the
north represents the shields of all who have been Benchers during the time of its
erection. There are five windows at each side, which cast a dim studious light through
silvered glass. Over the door is fitly hung the portrait of the founder of the Library,
Robert Ashley. The Library was opened with due ceremony, October 30, 1861, by the
Prince of Wales, his Royal Highness having previously been enrolled a Member of the
Middle Temple, in form as follows :
Tlie Master Treasurer moved, and the Lord Chancellor seconded, first, "that his Royal Highness
be admitted a member of the Middle Temple;" and next, "thatihis Royal Highness be called to the
degree of the outer Bar, and that the oath, on publication of the Call, be dispensed with." There being
no opposition, both motions were carried unanimously, and the Prince was invested with the Bar gown
and subscribed the Call-book. The next motion, also by the Treasurer, and seconded by the Lord
Chancellor, was " that his Royal Highness be invited to the Bench." This motion was also agreed to,
and the Prince assumed the Bencher's gown, and took his seat as a Master of the Bench, at the right
hand of the Treasurer. The new Master next moved "that the Parliament do adjourn, and proceed to
open the Library."
The event was commemorated by a sumptuous dejeuner and an evening fete to
nearly 1000 guests. The portrait of the Prince of Wales has been painted for the
Society ; and His Royal Highness's bust has been placed in the Library.
There formerly stood in a plot of ground which has since been purchased by the Society of the
Middle Temple, a Turkish (turban) tombstone, which was placed in the earth near a slab in the wall
which marked the boundary of the Duchy of Lancaster. The stone is thought to have been abstracted
from some Turkish cemetery, brought to England, perhaps as ballast, and thus placed as a curiosity in
the little garden. A paper was written concerning this stone by VV. H. Marley : it has disappeared. —
Hotes and (Queries, 3rd s. ix. 109.
Among the eminent members of the Middle Temple were Plowden, the jurist ; Sir
Walter Raleigh; Sir Thomas Overbury; John Ford, the dramatist; Sir Edward
Bramston, who had for his chamber-fellow Mr. Edward Hyde (afterwards Lord Chan-
cellor Clarendon) ; Bulstrode Whitelocke ; Lord Keeper Guildford ; Lord Chancellor
Somers ; Wycherley and Congreve ; Shadwell and Southerne ; Sir William Blackstone ;
Dunning, Lord Aihburton ; Lord Chancellor Eldon and Lord Stowell ; Edmund
Burke ; Richard Brinsley Sheridan ; and the poets Cowper and Moore. Oliver Gold-
smith had chambers in Brick-court, at the window of which he loved to sit and watch
the rooks in Middle Temple Garden ; Goldsmith died here on the 4th of April, 1774, in
his 46th year ; his rooms were at No. 2, second floor, over the chambers of Blackstone,
who was then finishing the fourth volume of his Commentaries.
Middle Temple Garden is well kept, and has an air of seclusion ; here is a catalpa
syringifoUa, related to have been planted by Sir Matthew Hale. The Fountain in the
adjoining Court is described at pp. 356-7.
Sun-dials. — There remain three dials, with mottoes : Temple-lane, " Pereunt et imputantur :" Essex-
court, "Vestigia nulla retrorsum ;" Brick-court, " Time and tide tarry for no man :" in Pump-court and
Garden-court are two dials without mottoes ; and in each Temple Garden is a pillar dial, dated 1770 ;
that in Middle Temple is elaborately gilt. Upon the old brick house at the east end of Inner Temple-
terrace, removed in 1828, was another dial, with this quaint inscription : " Begone about your business."
In Middle Temple-lane are some of the oldest chambers in the Temple, and within
the gate are shops. It was between the Temple Gate and the Bar that, in 1583,
Francis Bacon stood among his brother barristers to welcome Queen Elizabeth into the
City. And in one of the shops within the Gate lived Benj. Motte, the publisher of the
works of Pope and Swift ; his imprint being " at the Middle Temple Gate."
Lincoln's Inn, on the west side of Chancery-lane, occupies the site of the palace of
Ralph Neville, Bishop of Chichester, and Lord High Chancellor to Henry III. ; and
of the ancient monastery of Black Friars in Holborn, granted to Henry de Lacy, Earl
of Lincoln, who built thereon his town-house or inn : soon after whose death, in 1312,
it became an Inn of Court, named from him Lincoln's Inn ; when also the greater part
of the estate of the see of Chichester was leased to students of the law. The Earl of
Lincoln's garden, with a pond or vivary for pike, is noticed at p. 365.
INNS OF COURT— LINCOLN'S INN. 465
The precincts of Lincoln's Inn comprise the old buildings, about 500 feet frontage
in Chancery -lane, erected between the reigns of Henry VII. and James I. The Gate-
house, a fine specimen of Tudor brickwork, was built mostly at the expense of Sir
Thomas Lovell, " double reader" and treasurer of the Society. The entrance is an
obtusely -pointed arch, originally vaulted, between two four-storied square towers. The
bricks and tiles used in the Gatehouse and Hall were made from clay dug from a piece
of ground on the west side of the Inn, and called the Coneygarth, " well stocked with
rabbits and game."
Over the Gatehouse arch are painted and gilt the royal arras of King Henry VIII. within the garter
and crowned, having on the dexter side the arras of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln ; and on the sinister
side the arras and quarterings of Sir Thomas Lovell, K.G. ; beneath, on a riband, '^nno I9oni.
1518. Lower down is a tablet denoting an early repair, inscribed : " Insignia haec refecta et decorata
Johanne Hawles Arniig. Solicitat, General. Thesaurario 1695." The original doors of oak, put up 6 Eliz.
1564, still remain. In the court on the west is the ancient Hall (the oldest structure in the Inn), and the
old kitchen, now chambers ; on the north is the Chapel (described at p. 213) ; and in the centre are the
two Vice-Chancellors' Courts, buUt 1841. — Spilsbury's Lincoln's Inn.
This and the three other courts of chambers were chiefly built temp. James I. At
No. 13, from 1645 to 1650, lived John Thurloe, Secretary of Oliver Cromwell. In
these chambers, it is said, was discussed early in 1649, by Cromwell and Thurloe, Sir
Eichard Willis's plot for seizing Charles II. ; in the same room sat Thurloe's assistant,
young Morland, at his desk, apparently asleep, and whom Cromwell would have
dispatched with his sword, had not Thurloe assured him that Morland had sat up two
nights, and was certainly fast asleep : he, however, divulged the plot to the king, and
thus saved Charles's life. This narrative is given by Birch in his Life of Thurloe,
but rests upon questionable evidence. Here was discovered in the reign of William III.
a collection of papers, concealed in a false ceiling of the apartment : they form the
principal part of Dr. Birch's Thurloe State Tapers. There is a tradition that Cromwell
had chambers in or near the Gatehouse, but his name is not in the registers of the
Society : his son Richard was admitted a student 23 Charles I.
Sun-dials.— On two of the old gables are, 1. A southern dial, restored in 1840, which shows the hours
by its gnomon from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is inscribed " Exhocraoraentopendet seternitas." 2. A western
dial, restored in 1794, the Eight Hon. William Pitt, Treasurer, and again restored in 1848, frora the
ditferent situation of its plane, only shows the hours from noon till night : inscription, " Qua redit,
nescitis horam."
The Old Hall, rebuilt 22 Henry VII., 1506, occupies the site of the original Hall,
and has a louvre on the roof, date 1552, and an embattled parapet ; opposite the
entrance, at the south end, is the old kitchen. The " goodly hall" is about 71 feet in
length and 32 in breadth ; height about equal to the breadth. It has on each side
three large three-light windows, with arched and cusped heads; and a great oriel,
transomed, with arched head and cusps : at each end the room was lengthened ten feet
in 1819, when the open oak roof was removed, and the present incongruous coved
plaster ceiling substituted. At the lower end is a massive screen, erected in 1565,
grotesquely carved, and emblazoned with the full achievements of King Charles II.,
James Duke of York, Prince Rupert, the Earl of Manchester, Lord Henry Howard, and
Lord Newport, date Feb. 29, 1671 : at the end of the Hall, in panels, are the arms of
distinguished members of the Society, including Lords Mansfield, Loughborough, Ellen-
borough, Brougham, &c. On the dais is the seat of the Lord Chancellor. The com*
mons of the Society were held here until the building of the New Hall.
Among the earliest distinguished members of Lincoln's Inn were, Sir John Fortescue,
temp. Henry VI.; Sir Thomas More, who removed here from New Inn;* Lambard and
Spelman, the antiquaries; the learned John Selden; Noy, Attorney-General to Charles I. j
Lenthall, the Cromwellian Speaker ; and the great Lord Chancellor Egerton.
In this ancient Hall were held all the revels of the Society, their masques and Christmasings ; when
the benchers laid aside their dignity, and dancing was eiyoined for the students, as conducive "to the
• " After a careful comparison of the facts and dates connected with both John Mores, the only rea-
sonable conclusion that can be formed seems to be that John More, first the butler, afterwards the
steward, and finally the reader, of Lincoln's Inn, was the Chancellor's grandfather ; and that John
More, junior, who was also at one time the butler there, was the Chancellor's father and afterwards the
Judge. Not only does this descent suit precisely the ' non celebri sed honesta, natus' in Sir Thomas More's
epitaph, but it explains the silence of his biographers, and accounts for the Judge and the Chancellor
attending the readings of a society with which their family had been so closely connected."— ^dtoord
JPoss, 'F.SA. : Archceologia, vol. xxxv. p. 33.
H H .
466 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON'.
makini^ of gentlemen more fit for their books at other times" (Dugdale's Origines) ; and by an order 7th
of James 1. " the under-barristers were, by decimation, put out of commons, for example's sake, because
they had not danced on the Candlemas-day preceding, when the judges were present," Of Christmas,
1661, Pepys writes : "The King (Charles II.) visited Lincoln's Inn to see the revels there; there being,
according to an old custome, a prince and all his nobles, and other matters of sport and charge." Here
were present. Clarendon, Ormond, and Shaftesbury, at the revels of Hale ; Ley, and Denham the poet ;
and the gloomy Prynue standing by. At these entertainments the Hall cupboard was set out with
the Society's olden plate, which includes silver basins and ewers, silver cups and covers, a silver college-
pot for festivals, and a large silver punch-bowl with two handles.
In 1671 Charles II. made a second visit, with his brother the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and the
Duke of Monmouth, who were entertained in the Hall, and admitted members of the Society, and
entered their names in the admittance-book, which contains also the signatures of all members from the
reign of Elizabeth to the present time. Sir Matthew Hale entered here student in 1629 : he bequeathed
a large collection of MSS. to the Library.
Not many years ago it was the custom at Lincoln's Inn for one of the servants, attired in his usual
robes, to go to the threshold of the outer door about twelve or one o'clock, and exclaim three times,
*' Venez manger!" when neither bread nor salt was upon the table.
New Square, southward of the ancient buildings, was completed in 1697, by Mr.
Henry Serle, a bencher of the Inn : in the centre was formerly a Corinthian column,
with a vertical sun-dial j and at the base were four Triton jets d'eau : the area was
enclosed and planted in 1845. In the reign of Charles II. this was open ground,
known as X<ittle Lincoln's Inn Fields, or Fickett's Fields : it is not part of the Inn.
The Stone Buildings, at the north-east extremity of the Inn, were designed by Sir
Bobert Taylor, and completed by Hardwick, in 1845 : the architecture is beautiful
Corinthian. This is only part of a design, in 1780, for rebuilding the whole Inn.
" The working drawings were made by a young man of the name of Leech, then a clerk in Taylor's
oflBce, who afterwards became a student of Lincoln's Inn, and died filling the high and lucrative office
in the law of Master of the Rolls. Leech's drawings are preserved in the library of Lincoln's Inn. —
Cunningham's Handbook, p. 473.
The garden was enlarged, and the terrace-walk on the west was made, in 1663 : —
"To Lincoln's Inn, to see the new garden which they are making, which will be very pretty,— and
to the walk under the chapel by agreement." — Pepys's Diary.
Into Lincoln's Inn walks Isaac Bickerstaff sometimes went instead of the tavern {Tatler, No. 13) ;
and a solitary walk in the garden of Lincoln's Inn was a favour indulged in by several of the benchers,
Isaac's intimate friends, and grown old with him in this neighbourhood (Tatler, No. 100).
The ruined gamester {Tatler, No. 13) in the morning borrows hall-a-crovvn of the maid who cleans
his shoes, " and is now gaming in Lhicoln's-inn Fields among the boys for farthings and oranges, until
he has made up three pieces ; and then he returns to White's, into the best company in town."
The Gardens were much curtailed by the building of the New Hall and Library;
when disappeared " the walks under the elms," celebrated by Ben Jonson. Among
the officers of the Society is a " Master of the Walks." (See Gaebens, p. 365.)
And, in 1662, was revived the ancient custom of electing a Lord-Lieutenant, and Prince
of the Grange.
On the western side of the garden, almost on the site of the Coneygarth, are the
New Hall and Librari/, a picturesque group, finely situated for architectural effect, in
the late Tudor style (temp. Henry VIII.), having a corresponding entrance-gate from
Lincoln's-inn-fields ; architect, Philip Hardwick, R. A. The foundation-stone was laid
April 20, 1843 : the hall is arranged north and south, and the library east and west;
the two buildings being connected by a vestibule, flanked by a drawing-room and
council-room. The materials are red bricks, intersected with black bricks in patterns,
and stone dressings. The south end has a lofty gable, inscribed, in dark bricks, " P. H."
(Philip Hardwick), and the date 1843 ; flanked on each side by a square tower, battle-
mented ; beneath are shields, charged with lions and milrines, the badges of the Society :
between the towers is the great window of the Hall, of seven lights, transoined, and the
four-central arch filled with beautiful tracery. On the apex of the gable, beneath a
canopied pinnacle, is a statue of Queen Victoria ; Thomas, sculptor. The side buttresses
are surmounted by octagonal pinnacles. The roof is leaded, and in its centre is an
elegant louvre, surrounded by slender pinnacles bearing vanes ; the capping has crockets
and gurgoyles, and is surmounted by a vane with direction-points in gilded metal- work—
the whole very tasteful. The entrance to the Hall is at the south-east tower, by a
double flight of steps to the porch, above which are the arms of the Inn. Above is the
clock, of novel and beautiful design, with an enriched pedimental canopy in metal-
work.
The central building, the entrance to the Library and Great Hall, has end oriels,
and an octagonal embattled crown or lantern, filled with painted glass, and reminding
INNS OF COURT— LINCOLN'S INN. 467
one of the octagon of Ely Cathedral. From the esplanade is the entrance by flights of
steps to a porch, the gable bearing the lion of the Earl of Lincoln holding a banner ;
and at the apex of the great gable of the library roof is a circular shaft, surmounted
by an heraldic animal supporting a staff and banner. The Library has large end
oriels, of beautiful design, and five bay-windows on the north side ; the lights being
separated by stone compartments, each boldly sculptured with heraldic achievements
of King Charles II., James Duke of York, K.G., Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, K.G.
(all visitors of the Society), and Albert Edward Prince of Wales. The buttresses
dividing the bays are terminated by pillars, surmounted by heraldic animals. At the
north-west angle of this front is an octagonal bell-turret. On the western front
towards Lincoln's-inn Fields, the clustered chimneys have a beautiful effect : they are
of moulded red brick, resembling those at Eton College and Hampton Court Palace.
The bosses, gurgoyles, and armorial, grotesque, and foliated ornaments throughout the
building are finely sculptured.
Entering by the southern tower, the corridor is arranged on the plan of the college
halls of the Universities, and has a buttery-hatch, and stairs leading to the vaulted
kitchen, 45 feet square and 25 feet high, with one of the largest fire-places in England ;
adjoining are cellars for one hundred pipes of wine.
From the corridor, through a carved oak screen, you enter the Hall : length, 120
feet ; width, 45 feet ; height to the apex of roof, 62 feet. In size it exceeds the halls
of the Middle Temple, Hampton Court Palace, and Christ-church, Oxford ; but is ex-
ceeded in length by the hall of Christ's Hospital, which is 187 feet. The upper part
of the screen serves as the front of the gallery, between the arches of which, upon
pedestals, in canopied niches, are costumed life-size figures of these eminent members of
the Society: Lord Chief- Justice Sir Matthew Hale; Archbishop Tillotson, one of the
preachers of Lincoln's-inn j Lord Chief- Justice Mansfield; Lord Chancellor Hard-
wicke ; Bishop Warburton, one of the preachers ; and Sir William Grant, Master of
the Rolls. The sides of the Hall are panelled with oak, and the cornice is enriched
with gilding and colour. The five large stained- glass windows on either side contain,
in the upper lights, the arms, crests, and mottoes of distinguished members of the
Society, chronologically arranged, from 1450 to 1843 ; and the lower divisions are
diapered with the initials " L. I." and the milrine. Above the windows is a cornice
enriched with colour and gilding.
The roof is wholly of oak, and is divided into seven compartments by trusses, each
large arch springing from stone corbels, and having two carved pendants (as in Wolsey's
Hall at Hampton Court), at the termination of an inner arch, that springs from
hammer-beams projecting from the walls. These pendants are illuminated blue and
red, and gilt, and they each carry a chandelier to correspond. Between the wall
trusses is a machicolated cornice, panelled and coloured.
Here is a nobly-designed fresco by G. F. Watts — " The Origin of Legislation."
This great work was the gift of Mr. Watts, the artist ; commenced in 1854, but soon
after discontinued through illness, and not renewed till 1857 — finished Oct. 1859.
On April 25, 1860, Mr. Watts was entertained in the Hall— an honour before conferred on no painter
except Hogarth, who dined there in 1750— was presented by this Society with a silver-gilt cup, value 150?.,
and purse of 500^. ; the testimonial being "not in the character of compensation, but as a testimony of
the friendly feeling of the Society for the man who had selected it as the recipient of so valued a gift,
and of its appreciation of his genius as an artist."
On the northern wall, above the dais panelling, is the picture of Paul before Felix,
painted in 1750 by Hogarth, and removed from a similar position in the Old Hall.
The composition is good ; but the conception of character commonplace.
By the will of Lord Wyndham, Baron of Finglass, and Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, the sum
of 2001. was bequeathed to the Society, to be expended in adorning the Chapel or Hall, as the benchers
should think fit. At the recommendation of Lord Mansfield, Hogarth was engaged to paint the pic-
ture, which was at first designed for the chapel.— Spilsbury's Lincoln' s Inn, p. 103.
At the opposite end of the Hall is a noble marble statue, by Westmacott, of Lord
Erskine, Chancellor in 1806.
On either side of the dais, in the oriel, is a sideboard for the upper or benchers'
table ; the other tables, ranged in gradation, two crosswise and five along the hall, are
for the barristers and students, who dine here every day during term : the average
H a 2
468 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
number is 200 ; and of those who dine on one day or other during the term, " keeping
commons," is about 500.
The western oriel window contains, in the upper lif?ht,ihe armorial bearings of Ralph Neville, Bishop
of Chichester : Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln: William de Haverhyll, Treasurer to King Henry III. ,
Edward Sulyard, Esq., by whom the inheritance of the premises of Lincoln's Inn was transferred to the
Society in 1580 : whose arms are also here— motto : " Longa professio est pacis jus." In the middle of
the window are the arms of King Charles II. within tlie garter, and surmounted by the crown, with the
supporters and motto ; also the arms of James Duke of York and of Prince Rupert. On the other side,
the quarrels of the whole windows are diapered, like the other windows of the hall, with the milrine
and L. I. The oriel window, on the eastern side, contains all the stained glass removed from the old
hall, consisting of the armorial insignia of noblemen, legal disrnitaries, &c. All the heraldic decora-
tions, with the exception of the eastern oriel, are by Mr. Willement.— Spilsbury's Lincoln's Inn,
pp. 104-6.
From the dais of the Hall large folding-doors open into the vestibule, east of which
is the Council-chamber ; and west, the Drawing-room : the stone chimney-pieces are
finely sculptured. In the Drawing-room are portraits of Justice Glanville, 1598 ; Sir
John Granville, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1640 ; Sir Matthew Hale, 1671,
by M. Wright (acquired by the Society, with his collection of MSS.) ; Sir Richard
Rainsford, Lord Chief- Justice K.B., 1676, by Gerard Soest j Lord Chancellor Hard-
wicke, 1737, after Ramsay ; Lord Chancellor Bathurst, 1771, by Sir N. Dance ; Sir
John Skynner, Lord Chief Baron, 1771, by Gainsborough; Sir William Grant, Master
of the Rolls, by Harlow; Francis Hargreave, Treasurer in 1813, by Sir Joshua Rey-
ndlds ; and Sir H. Haddington, Speaker of the House of Commons.
In the Council-room is a portrait of Sir John Franklin, of Mavourn, Beds, Knight,
a master in chancery thirty-three years ; ob. 1707. Here are also several copies from
the old masters ; and a Lady with a Guitar, by William Etty, R.A. The walls of both
Council and Drawing-rooms are also hung with a valuable collection of engraved por-
traits of legal dignitaries, eminent prelates, &c.
The Library, 80 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 44 feet high, has an open oak roof, of
much originality. The projecting book-cases form separate apartments for study, and
have an iron balcony running roimd them about midway, and another gallery over
them against each wall. Each of the oriel windows displays arms of the present
benchers ; as also the five northern windows, except the lower lights of the central one,
which are filled with the arms of Queen Victoria, of brilliant colour and broad
treatment. The glass of the windows consists of small circular panes, termed beryl
glazing, of remarkable brilliancy.
The Society's valuable collection of MSS., mostly bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale;
are deposited in two rooms opening from the Library. The books and MSS. exceed
25,000 : the collection of law-books is the most complete in this country, and here are
many important works on history and antiquities. The Library, founded in 1497, is
older than any now existing in the metropolis ; and many of the volumes still retain
iron rings, by which they were secured by rods to the shelves. The early Year-books
are chiefly in their original oah binding ; and foiir of them belonged to William
Rastell, nephew of Sir Thomas More. Among the other rarities are, Le Mirror a
Justices, per Andrew Home, in a hand of the reign of James I. ; Flacita of the whole
reign of Edward II. on vellum, written in the fourteenth century; two volumes of
Statutes on vellum, Edward III. and Henry V. ; a MS. Year-book, Edward III. ; the
fourth volume of Prynne's Records, bought for 335Z. by the Society at the Stowe sale,
in 1849 (it was published in the year of the Great Fire, when most of the copies were
burnt) ; several MSS. in the handwriting of Sir Matthew Hale, Archbishop Usher,
and the learned Selden ; a beautiful copy of the works of King Charles I., which had
belonged to King Charles II. ; Baron Maseres's copy of his Scriptores Logarithmici,
six vols. 4to; Charles Butler's fine copy of Tractatus Universi Juris, with index,
twenty-eight vols, folio, &c. {See Spilsbury's Lincoln's Inn, specially devoted to the
Library ; to which carefully-written work we are much indebted.)
The New Hall and Library were inaugurated October 30, 1845, by Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert, when Her Majesty held a levee in the Library, at which the
Treasurer of the Inn, J. A. F. Simpkinson, was knighted; the Prince became a
member of the Society, and with the Queen signed his name in the Admittance-book.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert then partook of an early banquet in the Great Hall;
this being the first visit of a sovereign to the Inn for nearly two centuries.
nmS OF COURT— GBAY'S INlSr. 469
Lincoln's Inn is exempted from poor-rates as extra-parochial. The ground on which
the New Hall is built belonged, at the time of building, to the parish of St. Giles in
the Fields ; but was, by agreement, subsequently severed from that parish, and
annexed to the vill or township of Lincoln's Inn, the Society paying annually a com-
pensation to the parish for the rates.
The Old-buildings are continued to New-square, where may be noted some vine and
fig trees. There are some very old houses and shops near the Carey-street gate : some
shops are stuck up against the main building : these in former days had been book-stalls.
At Lincoln's Inn and at Gray's Inn the Curfew-bell is rung every night at nine
o'clock ; though, in this respect, the societies do not stand alone, for curfew-ringing is a
practice still preserved in many towns scattered about England.
Ghay's Inn, on the north side of Holborn, and west of Gray's-Inn-lane, appears to
have been "a goodly house since Edward III.'s time." (^Stow.) It was originally the
residence of the noble family of Grey of Wilton, who, in 1505, sold to Hugh Denny,
Esq., " the manor of Portpoole (one of the prebends belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral),
otherwise called Gray's Inn, four messuages, four gardens, the site of a windmill, eight
acres of land, ten shillings of free rent, and the advowson of the chantry of Portpoole."
The manor was next sold to the prior and convent of East Sheen, in Surrey, who
leased "the mansion of Portpoole" to "certain students of the law," at the annual
rent of 6^. 13*. 4d. ; and after the Dissolution by Henry VIII. the benchers of Gray's
Inn were entered in the King's books as the fee-farm tenants of the Crown, at the same
rent as paid to the monks of Sheen.
The principal entrance to Gray's Inn is from Holborn, by a gateway erected 1592,
a good specimen of early brickwork, leading to South-square (formerly Holborn-court),
separated by the hall, chapel, and library from Gray's-inn-square. Westward is
Field-court, with a gate, now blocked up, to Fulwood's Rents (see p. 363) ; and
.opposite is the lofty gate of the gardens; Verulam-buildings east; Raymond-buildings
west; the northern boundary-wall being in King's- road. The old name of Gray's-inn-
square was Corner-court, an evident relic of the Manor of Portpoole.
The Hall was completed in 1560. It has an open oak roof, divided into seven bays
by Gothic arched rilDs, the spandrels and pendants richly carved ; in the centre is an
open louvre, pinnacled externally. The interior is wainscoted, and has an oaken screen,
decorated with Tuscan columns, caryatides, &c. The windows are richly emblazoned
with arms. The men of Gray's Inn had their masques and revels, and were " prac-
tisers" of gorgeous interludes and plenteous Christmasings : a comedy acted here
Christmas, 1527, written by John Roos, a student of the Inn, and afterwards serjeant-
at-law, so offended Wolsey, that its author was degraded and imprisoned. Adjoining
is the Chapel, probably on the site of the "chantry of Portpoole," wherein masses
were daily sung for the soul of John, the son of Reginald de Gray, for which lands
were granted to the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew, Smlthfield : at their ex-
pense divine service was subsequently performed here on behalf of the Society ; and
after the Dissolution, the chaplain's salary was paid out of the Augmentation Court.
At the Reformation, the Popish utensils, with a pair of organs, were sold, but were
restored by Mary; and by command of Henry VIII. was taken out a window, " wherein
the image of St. Thomas a Becket was gloriously painted." Richard Sibbs, author of
The Bruised Reed, was one of the preachers.
I» 29 Elizabeth, for the better relief of the poor in Gray's-inn-lane, alms were distributed thrice by
the week at Gray's Inn gate. •
James 1. signified by the .judges that none but gentlemen of descent should be admitted of Gray's Inn.
The Headers had liberal allowances of wine and venisor.; vis. viiit^. was paid I'ur each mess; tf,'^s
and green sauce were the breakfast on Lenten-days ; and beer did not exceed 6s. per barrel. Caps
were compulsorily worn at dinner and supper ; and hats, boots, and spurs, and standing with the buck
to the tire, in the hall, were forbidden under penalty. Dice and cards were only allowed at Christmas,
Lodging double was customary in the old inn ; and at a pension, 9 July, 21 Henry VIII., Sir Thomas
Nevile accepted Mr. Attorney-General (Sir Chribtopher Hales) to be his bedfellow in his chamber here.
Gray's Inn has been noted for its exercises, called by Stow "Boltas Mootes, and putting of cases."
Bailey defines "Bolting (in Gray's Inn), a kind of exercise, or arguing cases among the students." (Diet.,
3rd edit. 1737.) " Bolting is a term of art used in Gray's Inn, and applied to the bolting or arguing at'
moot cases" (Cowell's Law Diet.) ; and he argues the bolting of cases to be analogous to the bouUing
or sitting of meal through a bag. Judge Hale has " beats and bolts out the truth." Danby Pickering,
Esq., of Gray's Inn, was the last who voluntarily resumed these mootings.
The Garden (Gray's-inn-walks) was first planted about 1600, when Mr. Francis
470 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Bacon, after Lord Venilam, was treasurer. {See Gaedens, p. 366.) Howell, in a letter
from Venice, June 5, 1621, speaks of Gray's-inn-walks as the pleasantest place about
London, with the choicest society j and they were in high fashion as a promenade and
place of assignation in Charles II.'s time, when from Bacon's summer-house, on a
mount, there was a charming view towards Highgate and Hampstead. The Garden
was formerly open to the public, like those of the Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn.
Hall the chronicler, and Gascoigne the poet, studied at Gray's Inn : Gascoigne and
his fellow-student Kinwelmersh translated the Jocasta of Euripides, which was
acted in Gray's-inn-hall 1566. Bradshaw, president at the trial of Charles I., was a
bencher. Sir Thomas Holt was treasurer of Gray's Inn ; and his son. Lord Chief-
Justice Holt, was entered upon the Society's books before he was ten years old ; he is
Verus the magistrate, in the Taller, No. 14.
Lord Burghley entered at Gray's Inn in 1541, and made genealogy his special
study. Sir Nicholas Bacon kept his terms here, was called to the bar of the Society,
and was elected Treasurer 1552 ; and his son Francis, Lord Verulam, was admitted
here, and made an ancient in 1576 : here he sketched his great work the Organum,
though law was his principal study. In 1582, he was called to the Bar ; in 1586,
made a Bencher; in 1588, appointed Reader to the Inn ; and in 1600, the Lent double
Header : in the interval he wrote his Essays, dedicated " from my chamber at Graie's
Inn, this 30 of Januarie, 1597." In 1583, he stood among the barristers at Temple
Bar to welcome Queen Elizabeth into the City. Bacon had chambers in Gray's Inn
when Lord Chancellor ; and here he received the suitors' bribes, by which his name
became tarnished with infamy. After his downfall and distress, when he had parted
with York House, he resided, during his visits to London, at his old chambers in
Gray's Inn ; whence, in 1626, on a severe day, he went in his coach to Highgate, took
cold in stuffing a fowl with snow as an anti-putrescent, became too ill to return to
Gray's Inn, and was carried to the Earl of Arundel's house at Highgate, where he died
within a week. Bacon is traditionally said to have lived in the large house facing
Gray's Inn garden-gates, where Fulke Greville, Lord Broolie, frequently sent him
home-brewed beer from his house in Holborn. Basil Montagu,* however, fixes Bacon's
chambers on the site of No. 1, Gray's-inn-square, first floor; the house was burnt
Feb. 17, 1679, with 60 other chambers. {Historian's Guide, 3rd edit. 1688.) Lord
Campbell speculatively states that Bacon's chambers " remain in the same state as when
he occupied them, and are still visited by those who worship his memory." {Lives of
the Lord Chancellors, vol. ii. p. 274.) The association with Bacon is recorded in
** Verulam-buildings."
David Jones, the patriotic Welsh judge, temp. Charles I., was of Gray's Inn;
Romilly was also a member; and Soutliey was entered here on leaving Oxford. The
students were formerly often refractory. Pepys writes in May, 1667 : " Great talk of
how the Barristers and Students of Gray's Inn rose in rebellion against the Benchers
the other day, who outlawed them, and a great deal to do ; now they are at peace again."
Within Gray's-inn-gate, next Gray's-inn-lane, lived Jacob Tonson, who published
here Dryden's Spanish Friar, 1681, said to be the first work published by the Tonsons :
Jacob was the second son of a barber-chirurgeon in Holborn. At Gray's-inn-gate, also,
lived Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who gave 13,000Z. for the books from the Har-
leian Library, for the binding of a portion of which Lord Oxford is stated by Dibdin
to have paid 18,000?.
The Gray's Inn Jov/rnal, in the style of the Spectator, was started by Arthur
Murphy, in 1752, and continued weekly two years. Murphy studied the law, was
refused admission to the Societies of the Temple and of Gray's Inn because he had
been an actor as well as author, but was admitted of Lincoln's Inn. He was of a
high family. He died a Commissioner of Bankrupts, 1805. Clergymen are admitted
to Inns of Court and to the Bar, though they were not so until very lately.
In Gray's Inn lived Dr, Rawlinson (" Tom Folio" of the Tatler, No. 158), who
stuffed four chambers so full with books, that he slept in the passage. In Holborn-
* Mr. Montagu, who died in 1852, possessed a glass and silver-handled fork, with a shifting silver
gpoon-bowl, which once belonged to Lord Verulam, whose crest, a boar, modelled in gold, surmounts-
the fork-handle.
IJSfNS OF GSANGEBY. 471
court (now South-square) were the chambers of Joseph Eitson, the literary antiquary
and rigid Pythagorean : the site is now occupied by the libraries, between the hall and
chapel, built by Wigg and Pownall in 1841 ; style, elegant Itahan.
Admission to the Inns, and Call to the Bar. — The four Inns of Court, viz. the two Temples, Lincoln's
Inn, and Gray's Inn, have exclusively (through their board of Benchers, usually their Queen's Counsel)
the power of conferring the degree of Barrister-at-Law, requisite for practising as an advocate or
counsel in the Superior Courts. Lincoln's Inn is generally preferred for students who contemplate the
Equity Bar ; it being the locality of Equity Counsel and Conveyancers, and of Eqxiity Courts or Courts
of Chancery. If the student design to practise the common law, either immediately as an advocate at
Westminster, the assizes, and sessions, or as a special pleader (a learned person who, having kept his
terms, is allowed to draw legal forms and pleadings, though not actually at the bar), his choice lies
usually between the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, and Gray's Inn, though he may adopt Lincoln's
Inn. The Inner Temple, from its formerly insisting on a classical examination before admission, be-
came more exclusive than the Middle Temple or Gray's Inn. Gray's Inn has been numerously attended
by Irish students, and has produced some of the greatest luminaries at the Irish Bar, including Daniel
O'Connell. In the present day, Mr, Justice Lush, Serjeant Payne, Lord Romilly, M.K., and Mr.
Huddleston, Q.C., have been students of Gray's Inn, and the two latter are still among its benchers.
To procure admission to either of these Inns, the student must obtain the certificate of two bar-
risters, coupled in the Middle Temple with that of a bencher, to the effect that the applicant is a fit
person to be received into the Inn for the purpose of being called to the Bar. Once admitted, the
student has the useof the Library, and is entitled to a seat in the church or chapel of the Inn, and to have
his name set down for chambers. He is then required to keep commons, by dining in the hall for twelve
terms (four terms occur in each year); on commencing which, he must deposit with the treasurer lOOl.,
to be retained with interest until he is called; but resident members of the Universities are exempt from
this deposit. The student must also sign a bond with sureties for the payment of his commons and
term fees. In all the Inns no person can be called unless he is above twenty-one years of age and three
years' standing as a student. The call is made by the benchers in council; after which the student be-
comes a barrister, and takes the usual oath at Westminster. A Council of Legal Education has, how-
ever, of late years been established by the four Inns of Court, to superintend the subject of the educa-
tion of students for the Bar ; and, by order of this council, law lectures are given by learned professors
at the four Inns, all of which any student of any of the Inns can attend. Examinations also take place,
and scholarships, certificates, and other marks of approbation are the rewards of the successful students.
Nevertheless persons may still be called to the Bar, regardless of the lectures and examinations; but
in all cases keeping commons by dining in the hall is still absolutely necessary.
A Hall Dinner is a formal scene. At five or half-pp,st five o'clock, the barristers, students, and other
members in their gowns, having assembled in the hall, the benchers enter in procession to the dais;
the steward strikes the table three times, grace is said by the treasurer or senior bencher present, and
the dinner commences : the benchers observe somewhat more style at their table than the other mem-
bers do at theirs : the general repast is a tureen of soup, a joint of meat, a tart, and cheese, to each
mess consisting of four persons ; each mess is also allowed a bottle of port-wine. The dinner over, the
benchers, after grace, retire to their own apartment. At the Inner Temple, on May 29, a gold cup of
" sack " is handed to each member, who drinks to the happy restoration of Charles II. At Gray's Ina
a similar custom prevails, but the toast is the memory of Queen Elizabeth. The Inner Temple Hall
waiters are caUed jjanniers, from the panarii who attended the Knights Templars. At both Temples
the form of the dinner resembles the repast of the military monks : the benchers on the dais represent-
ing the Knights ; the barristers, the JEh-eres, or Brethren ; and the students, the Novices. The Middle
Temple still bears the arras of the Knights Templars, viz. the figure of the Holy Lamb.
The entrance expenses at the Inner Temple (the average of the costs at other Inns) are 4/01. lis. Bd.,
of which 251. Is. Sd. is for the stamp ; on call, S2l. 12s., of which 521. 2s. 6d. is for the stamp : total
1231. 38. The commons bill is about 121. annually.
Arms of Temple, Inner: Az. a pegasus salient, or. Temple, Middle: Arg. on a cross gu. a paschal
lamb or, carrying a banner of the first, charged with a cross of the second. Lincoln's Inn : Or, a lion
rampant purp. These were the arms of Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. Chray'a Inn : Sa. a griffin segreant, or,
INNS OF CSANCEET.
THESE Inns were formerly the nurseries of our great lawyers ; but they are at pre-
sent attached only by name to the parent Inns of Court : the Inner Temple had
three, Clement's, Clifford's, and Icon's Inns; the Middle Temple one. New Inn;
Lincoln's Inn one, Thavie's ; and Gray's Inn two, Barnard's and Stable Inns.
BajRNAEd's Inn, Holborn, anciently Mackworth's, from having belonged to Dr.
John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln, temp. Henry VL, was next occupied by one Bar-
nard, when it was converted into an Inn of Chancery ; the arms of the house are those
of Mackworth, viz. party per pale, indented ermine and sables, a chevron, gules, fretted
or. The ancient Hall, maintained in the olden taste, is the smallest in the London
Inns : it is 36 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 30 feet high.
In Barnard's Inn, No. 2, second-floor chambers, lived the chemist, Mr. Peter Woulfe, F.E.S.,
a believer in alchemy. {See Alchemists, p. 3.)
Westward, in Holborn, in Dyer's-buildings (the site of some almshouses of the Dyers*
Company), lived William Roscoe when he published his edition of Pope's Works, with
notes and a life of the poet, 10 vols. 8vo, 1824.
472 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
^
Clement's Tnn, Strand, is named from being near the church of St. Clement Danes,
and St. Clement's Well. It was a house for students of the law in the reign of
Edward IV. The Elizabethan iron gate, erected in 1852, bears the device of St.
Clement, an anchor without a stock, with a C couchant upon it; as also does the
Hall, built in 1715. In the small garden is a kneeling figure supporting a sun-dial;
it is painted black, and has hence been called a blackamoor.
Shakspeare has left us a picture from this Inn at his period :
" Shallow. I was once of Clement's Inn where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet.
"Silence. You' were called lusty Shallow then, cousin.
" Shallow. By the mass, I was called any thinp ; and I would have done any thing indeed, and roundly
too. There was I and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and Black George Barnes of Staffordshire, and
Francis Pickbone and Will Squele, a Cotswold man ; you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the
Inns of Court again."
Then Shallow tells of Sir John Falstaff breaking "Skogan's head at the court-gate, when he was
a crack not thus high ; and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, be-
hind Gray's Inn."
" Shallow. Oh, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the Windmill in St. George's
Fields?
" Falstaff. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.
" Shallow. I remember at Mile-End Green (when I lay at Clement's Inn), I was then *' Sir Dagonett "
in Arthur's Show."
Then Falstaff" says of Shallow : " I do remember hira at Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper
of a cheese-paring." — Henry IV. Part II. act iii. se. 2.
Sir Edmund Sanders, Lord Chief- Justice of the Court of King's Bench from 1681
to 1683, was originally a poor boj'^, who used to beg scraps at Clement's Inn, where an
attorney's clerk taught him to earn some pence by hackney-writing. St. Clement's
Well, on the east of the Inn, and lower end of Clement's- lane, is mentioned by Eitz-
stephen : it is now covered, and has a pump placed in it.
Clifford's Inn, behind St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet-street, is named from Robert
Clifford, to whom the property was granted by Edward II., and by his widow was
let to students of the law. The arms are those of Clifford, viz. cheeky, or and
azure, a fesse and bordure gules, bezante. Sir Edward Coke was admitted of this
Inn, 1571 ; and Selden, 1602. Harrison, the regicide, was an attorney's clerk here :
in the same office with him was John Bramston, cousin of Sir John Bramston, who
records: "When the warr begann, his fellow-clerke, Harrison, perswaded him to
take armes (this is that famous rogue Harrison, one of the King's judges), which he
did, that he might get to the King, which he soon did." — Autobiography.
The Hall is modern Gothic, but has some old armorial glass. Here is an oaken case,
in which are the Society's rules written on vellum, with illuminated initials and the
arms of England, temp. Henry VIII. In this Hall Sir Matthew Hale and the judges
sat after the Great Fire of 1666, to adjudicate in disputes between landlords and
tenants, &c. The most authentic record of any settling of the Law Societies in the
reign of Edward III. is a demise, in the 18th year, from Lady Clifford apprenticiis de
Banco, " of that house near Fleet-street called Clifford's Inn."
A very peculiar dinner-custom is observed in the Hall, which is believed to be unique. The Society
consists of two distinct bodies — "the Principal and Rules," andthejuniormembers, or" Kentish Mess."
Each body has its own table : at the conclusion of the dinner, the chairman of the Kentish Mess, first
bowing to the Principal of the Inn, takes from the hands of the servitor four small rolls, or loaves of bread,
and, without saying a word, he dashes them three several times on the table ; he then discharges them
to the other end of the table, from whence the bread is removed by a servant in attendance. Solemn
silence— broken only by three impressive thumps upon the table — prevails during this strange ceremony,
which takes the place of grace after meat in Clifford's Inn Hall; and concerning which, not even the
oldest member of the Society is able to give any explanation, — Notes and (Queries, 2nd S., No. 4. in
No. 7, Mr. Buckton, of Lichfield, says: "Cakes, sacred to Ceres, usually terminated the ancients' feasts;
and the rolls at Clifford's Inn may be thrown down as an offering to Ceres, legifera, as she first taught
mankind the use of laws"— a remote probability.
In CUfford's Inn "lived Robert Pultock, author of Peter Wilkins, with its Flying
Women. Who he was is not known — probably a barrister without practice ; but he
wrote an amiable and interesting book." — Leigh Hunt.
Clifford's Inn has a terrace and raised garden, rearward of which is*the new Record
Office, of late Gothic or Tudoresque style, somewhat of a German character, with
massive buttresses and Decorated windows.
Fijenival's Inn, between Brook-street and Leather-lane, was originally the town
mansion of the Lords Furnival, and was an Inn of Chancery in the 9th of Henry IV. ;
was held under lease temp. Edward VI., and the inheritance in the then Lord Shrews-
INNS OF GRANCEBY. 473
bury was sold early in Elizabeth's reign to the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn, who leased
the property to the Society of Furnival's Inn. Sir Thomas More was Reader here for
three years. The original buildings were mostly taken down in Charles I.'s time, and
then re-edified with a lofty street-front of fine brickwork, decorated with pilasters.
The old Gothic Hall remained until 1818, when the entire Inn was taken down, and
rebuilt of brick by Peto in modern style, with stone columns and other accessories. In
the square is a statue of Peto. Thomas Fiddall, attorney of this Inn, in 1654 wrote a
Conveyancing Guide, published with his portrait. Furnival's Inn is let in chambers,
but is no longer an Inn of Court or Chancery. Part of its interior is occupied by a
well-appointed hotel.
" In the 32d of Henry VI,, a tumult betwixt the gentlemen of innes of court and chancery and the
citizens of London happening in Fleet-street, in which some mischief was done,. the principals of Clif-
foord's Inne, Furuivalle's Inne, and Barnard's Inne, were sent prisoners to Hartford Castle." — Stow's
Annals.
Lyon's Inn, Strand, between Holywell-street and Wych-street, was originally a
guest-inn or hostelry, held at the sign of the Z^on, and purchased by gentlemen, pro-
fessors and students in the law, in the reign of King Henry VIIL, and converted
to an Inn of Chancery. Hatton describes the Inn, in 1708, as follows : —
Lyon's Inn, an Inn of Chancery, situate on the Sh. side of Witch Str. It has been such an Inn
since Anno 1420, or sooner. It is governed by a Treasurer and 12 Ancients ; those of this House are 3
weeks in Michaelmas Term, other Terois 2 in Commons ; and pay 5». for the Reading Weeks, for others
2s. 6d. Here are Mootings once in 4 terms, and they sell their chambers for 1 or 2 Lives. Their
Armorial Ensigns are Chequy Or and Azure, a Lyon Rampant Sable. They have a handsome Hall,
built in the year 1700.
Herbert, in his Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery ^ the materials for
which he mostly derived from Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, says : — " It (Lyon's
Inn) is known to be a place of considerable antiquity from the old books of the
stewards' accounts, which contain entries made in the time of King Henry V. How
long before that period it was an Inn of Chancery is uncertain." Sir Edward Coke,
the year after his call to the Bar in 1579, was appointed Reader at Lyon's Inn, where
his learned lectures brought him crowds of clients ; this bsing the start of our great
constitutional lawyer.
The whole of the Inn was taken down in 1863 ; and a sketch of certain of its late
tenants will be found in Walks and Talks about London, 1865. In chambers at the
south-east corner of the Inn lived the gambler, William Weare, who was murdered by
John Thurtell and others, at Elstree, in Hertfordshire, as commemorated in a ballad
of the time, attributed to Theodore Hook : —
" They cut his throat from ear to ear,
His brains they battered in :
His name was Mr. William Weare,
He dwelt in Lyon's Inn."
He left his chambers on the afternoon of October 24, 1823, for Elstree, whence he
never returned alive. Lyon's Inn Hall bore the date 1700, and a lion sculptured in its
pediments. The Inn formerly had its sun-dial, and a few trees. Here lived Philip
Absolon, who, in conjunction with E. W. Brayley, wrote a History of Westminster
Abbey. The place had long ceased to be exclusively tenanted by lawyers.
New Inn, Wych-street, adjoins Clement's Inn : the Hall and other buildings are
modern. On the site, about 1485, was a guest inn, or hostelry, with the sign of the
Virgin Mary, and thence called Our Lady's Inn. It was purchased or hired by isir
John Fineux, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in the reign of Edward IV., at Ql.
per annum, for the law-students of St. George's Inn, in St. George's-lane, Little Old
Bailey ; here also the students of the Strand Inn nestled, after they were routed from
thence in the reign of Edward VI. by the Duke of Somerset. The armorial ensigns
of New Inn are, vert, a flower-pot argent. Sir Thomas More studied here in the
reign of Henry VII., before he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn ; and in after-life he
spoke of "New Inn fare, wherewith many an honest man is well contented." Against
the Hall is a large vertical sun-dial ; motto, " Time and tide tarry for no man."
Seejeants' Inn, Chancery-lane. — There were originally three Inns provided for
the reception of the Judges and such as had attained to the dignity of the coif — viz..
474 CUBIOSITLES OF LONDON.
first. Scroop's Inn or Serjeants' Place, opposite St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, now long
deserted by the Serjeants ; secondly, Serjeants* Inn, Fleet-street, which was held by lease
under the Dean and Chapter of York, and is now deserted as an inn for Serjeants ; and
thirdly, Serjeants' Inn, Chancery -lane, the only place that can with propriety be at present
called Serjeants' Inn. Scroop's Inn belonged to John Lord Scroop, and was afterwards
known as Scroop's-court. After his death it was let out to some Serjeants, who adopted it
as their place, whence it was called Serjeants' Inn in Holborn, After they disused it,
the site was used for tenements and gardens. The Serjeants about the beginning of
the reign of Henry VI., and not before, resorted to the Fleet-street Inn, which had a
very fine chapel and hall and a stately court of tall brick buildings. It likewise
retained a steward, a master cook, a chief butler, with other attendants and servants,
and a porter. The old Inn in Holborn having been sold, and the Fleet-street Inn
having beconr.e dilapidated, the Serjeants were quite ready to entirely emigrate to Chan-
cery-lane, the third and chief Inn to which one need invite attention. It bore once
the name of " Faryndon Inn," and it was known as early as the 17 Richard II., when
the inheritance belonged (and has done since) to the Bishop of Ely and his suc-
cessors. In the " accompt" of the Bishop's bailiff 12 Henry IV., it was called " Faryn-
don Inne," and it was stated " that the serjeants-at-law had lodgings there." In 1416,
7 Henry V., the whole house was demised to the judges and others learned in the law.
The freehold, after having passed through various hands, came to be held for three
lives by Sir Anthony Ashley, Knight, under whom the judges and Serjeants continued
to rent it. Eventually the serjeants negotiated with the Bishop of Ely for the purchase
of the fee simple of the property, and the same was ultimately vested in the Society by
an Act of Parliament, creating the Society of Serjeants' Inn, Chancery-lane, for the
purpose, a Corporation, upon the annual payment for ever of a fee farm rent to the
Bishop and his successors. The oflScers belonging to this Inn are similar to those in
Fleet-street — namely, a steward, a master cook, a chief butler, and their servants, and a
porter. In 1837-8 the Inn was rebuilt (under the auspices of Serjeant Adams, the
then treasurer) by Sir Robert Smirk e, R.A., except the old diuing-hall of the Society,
which was then fitted up as a court for Exchequer equity sittings, but is now used as
the state dining-room of the serjeants, including the common law judges, who are
always serjeants-at-law. The handsomest room is, however, the private dining-room,
which contains one of the finest collections of legal portraits in the kingdom, including
those of Sir Edward Coke, by Cornelius Jansen ; of Lord Mansfield, Lord King, Sir
Francis Buller, Chief Justice Tindal, Lords Eldon, Denman, and Lyndhurst, all by
painters of note. The windows (containing the arnaorial ensigns of judges and
serjeants) are finely executed. The chambers where the judges of the common law sit
to hear summonses and other private matters are in this Inn. The arms of Serjeants'
Inn are, or, a stork ppr.
This Serjeants' Inn is the exclusive property of the serjeants-at-la\f, or Servientes ad
Legem, who are the highest degi-ee in the common law. The serjeantcy-at-law, more-
over, is somewhat of a title or dignity as well as a degree, being created by the Queen's
writ. In his armorial ensigns, the Serjeant bears a helmet open and front face, like
that of a knight, and not with the vizor down as an esquire's is. He, in a knightly
way, gives, on his appointment, gold rings to the Queen, the Lord Chancellor, and to
his own legal friends. The serjeants-at-law form a brotherhood to which the judges of
the Common Law Courts at Westminster must belong. For this reason, as being of
the same body, the judges of the Common Law Courts at Westminster invariably
address a serjeant as " Brother j" and they never apply the term to any other counsel.
The serjeants are a body incorporated by Act of Parliament. The robes of the ser-
jeant vary in colour on particular days ; and peculiar to him is " the coif," or circular
black patch on the top of his wig. By that mark, peculiar to his order, the serjeant-
at-law may always be recognised in court. The serjeant, on joining Serjeants*
Inn, quits entirely the Inn of Court to which he, as a student and barrister, be-
longed.
At some of the Inns of Court, if the new-made serjeant leaves the Inn in term-time,
the following ceremony occurs : after giving a breakfast to the benchers of the Inn in their
council chamber, the new serjeant proceeds to the banqueting-hall, and is there presented
ISLE OF BOGS. 475
by the treasurer with a silver purse containing ten guineas, as a retaining fee for any
occasion on which the Society may in future require his services. A bell is then rung
as a warning that he has ceased to be a member of the Inn.*
SeejeaihTs' Inn, Fleet-steeet. — This other, but obsolete Inn, in Fleet-street,
already described, still bears the name of Seejeants' Inn, and this is liable to
be mistaken for the now only real Serjeants' Inn, in Chancery-lane. The Fleet-street
Inn was destroyed in the Great Fire, was rebuilt in 1670, and again rebuilt, as we
now see it, with a handsome stone-fronted edifice, designed by Adam, the architect.
This Inn is now let in private chambers to any one who likes to rent them.
Staple Inn, Holborn, nearly opposite Gray's-inn-lane, is traditionally named from
having been the inn or hostel of the Merchants of the (Wool) Staple, whither it was
removed from Westminster by Richard II. in 1378. It became an Inn of Chancery
temp. Henry V. ; and the inheritance of it was granted 20th Henry VIII. to the
Society of Gray's Inn. The Holborn front is of the time of James I., and one of the
oldest existing specimens of our metropoHtan street-architecture. The Hall is of a later
date, has a clock-turret, and had originally an open timber roof : some of the armorial
window-glass is of date 1500 ; there are a few portraits, and at the upper end is the
wool-sack, the arms of the Inn ; and upon brackets are casts of the twelve Caesars. In
the garden adjoining was a luxuriant fig-tree which nearly covered the south side of
the Hall. Upon a terrace opposite are the offices of the Taxing Masters in Chancery,
completed in 1843, Wigg and Povvnall, architects ; in the purest style of the reign of
James I,, with frontispiece, arched entrances, and semicircular oriels, finely effective :
the open-work parapet of the terrace, and the lodge and gate leading to Southampton-
buildings, are very picturesque.
Dr. Johnson lived in Staple Inn in 1759 : in a note to Miss Porter, dated March 23, he informs her
that " he had on that day removed from Gough-square, where he had resided ten years, into chambers
at Staple Inn ;" here he wrote his Idler, seated in a three-legged chair, so scantily were his chambers
furnished. In 1760, Johnson removed to Gray's Inn. Isaac Keed lived at No. 11, Staple Inn.
Steand Inn, or Chestee Inn from its being near the Bishop of Chester's house,
was taken down temp, Edward VI., by the Duke of Somerset for building his palace ;
it occupied part of the site of the present Somerset House. Occleve, the pupil of
Chaucer, in the reign of Henry V., is said to have studied the law at " Chestre's
Inn."
Stmond's Inn, Chancery-lane, though named from a gentleman of the parish who
died in 1621, is stated to be the only portion retained by the Bishops of Chichester of
their property in Chancery -lane, where they formerly had a palace; and here are
Bishop's-court and Chich ester-rents.
Thavie's Inn, between Nos. 56 and 57, Holbom-hill, was originally the dwelling of
John Thavie, of the Armourers' Company, who let the house temp. Edward III. to
apprentices to the law : it was subsequently purchased as an Inn of Chancery by the
benchers of Lincoln's Inn, by whom it was sold in l77l ; destroyed by fire, and re-
built as a private court. In the adjoining church of St. Andrew is a monument to
John Thavie, who, in 1348, " left a considerable estate towards the support of this fabrick
for ever," from which property the parish now derive an annual income of 1300/.
ISLE OF BOGS {TRF),
APART of Poplar Marsh, lying within the bold curve of the Thames between
Blackwall and Limehouse, was originally a peninsula j in a Map drawn in 1588
by Robert Adams, engraved in 1738, this name is applied to an islet in the Thames,
still in part existing, at the south-west corner of the peninsula, and from this spot the
name appears to have extended to the entire marsh. {Notes and Queries, No. 203.)
In 1799-1800, a canal was cut through the isthmus by the Corporation of London, to
* Nearly opposite Serjeants' Inn, Chancery-lane, were two houses, date 1611, taken down in 1853.
The richly-carved and picturesque house at the south-west corner, in Fleet-street (often engraved), was
taken down for widening the lane in 1799.
476 CTTBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
save ships the long passage round the Isle ; but since sold to the West India Dock
Company, and now a timber-dock. Here Togodumnus, brother of Caractacus, is said
to have been killed in a battle with the Romans under Plautius, a.d. 46. Traditionally,
it was named from the hounds of Edward III. b-jing kept there, for contiguity to
Waltham and other royal forests in Essex. Again, Isle of Dogs is held to be cor-
rupted from Isle of Ducks, from the wildfowl u>ion it. Here (says Lysons) stood the
chapel of St. Mary, mentioned in a will of the fitteenth century, " perhaps an hermitage
founded for saying masses for the souls of mariners." The remains of the chapel
existed to a very late date. Pepys speaks of it as " the unlucky Isle of Doggs." He
also speaks of a ferry in the Isle of Dogs, which is named as a horse-ferry by Norden
in the Speculum BritannicB, 1592 (MS.). This ferry is still used. The ground is
very rich, and in Strype's time oxen fed here sold for 34Z. apiece : the grass was long
prized for distempered cattle. The island is a pleistocene drift or diluvial deposit, in
which has been found a subterranean forest of elm, oak, and fir trees, eight feet below
the grass, and lying from south-east to north-west; some of the elms were three feet four
inches in diameter, accompanied by human bones and recent shells, but no metals or
traces of civilization : the marsh is now enclosed by a pile and brick embankment.
Here Captain Brown, R.N., established his works for the manufacture of iron suspen-
sion-bridges and iron cables : fn 1813, he built here a suspension-bridge for foot-
passengers, weighing only 38 cwt., but carts and carriages passed safely over it j the
span was 100 feet. Captain Brown also constructed the chain-pier at Brighton, in
1822-3. About this time the Isle of Dogs began to be thickly inhabited : here is
St. Edmund's Roman Catholic Chapel. The late Aldennan Cubitt built here a large
number of houses, named Cubitt-town, and a Gothic church. The Isle is partly covered
with stone- wharves, iron ship-building and chemical works, &c. Adjoining are the
dockyards of the Wigrams and Greens, formerly Perry's, mentioned by Pepys in
1660-61 : the picturesque old masting-house is 120 feet high. Near the principal
entrance to the West India Docks is a bronze statue (by Westmacott) of Mr. Milligan,
by whom the Docks were begun and principally completed. (See Millwall.)
The working men of the Isle of Dogs number some 15,000, engaged in the numerous
factories and shipyards ; for whose recreation has been formed a Free Library, to
provide them with amusement for evenings too often spent in dissipation.
ISLINGTON,
CALLED also Iseldon, Tseldon, Eyseldon, Isendune, and Isondon, and of all the vil-
lages near London alone bearing a British name, was originally two miles distant
north of the town, to which it is now united. Iseldon is conjectured to signify the
lower fort, or station ; and as there was undoubtedly a Roman camp at Highbury, this
name may have been given to the camp which a few years since was visible in the field
beside Barnsbury Park. Iseldon, in Domesday Book, possesses nearly 1000 acres of
arable land alone; and so well cleared was the property, that there only remained
"pannage for 60 hogs" (woodlands) adjoining Hornsey.
The great benefactor of Islington was Richard de Cloudesley, who by will, dated 1517, among other
bequests to the parish, left to poor men gowns with the names of Jem and Maria upon them ; also -iOs.
for repairing and amending the causeway between his house and Islington Church ; and a load of
straw to be laid upon his grave : but superstition would not let Cloudesley's " bodie rest until certain
exorcises, at dede of night," had quieted him, with " diuers diuine exorcises at torchlight." The name
of this benefactor is preserved in Cloudesley Square and Terrace. Algernon Percy, Earl of Xorthura-
berland, is said to have resided at Newington Green, where Henry Vill. was a frequent visitor, pro-
bably on his hawking excursions ; and one of his proclamations, in 1516, commands that " the ga es of
hare, partridge, pheasant, and heron, be preserved for his owne disport and pastime ; that is to saye,
trom his palace of Westminster to St. Gyles in the Fields, and from thence to Islington, to our Lady of
the Oke, to Higligate, to Hornsey Parke, to Hamsted Heath," &c.
Islington retained a few of its Elizabethan houses to our time, and its rich dairies
are of like antiquity : in the entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth
Castle, in 1575, the Squier Minstrel of Middlesex glorifies Islington with the motto,
" Lac caseus infans ;" and it is still noted for its cow-keepers. It was once as famous
for its cheese-cakes as Chelsea for its buns ; and among its other notabilities were cus-
tards and stewed " pruans," its mineral spa, and its ducking-ponds— Ball's Pond dating
ISLINGTON. 4:71
from the time of Charles I. At the lower end of Islington, in 1611, were eight inns,
principally supported by summer visitors : —
" Hogsdone, Idington, and Tothnam Court,
For cakes and creame had then no small resort."
Wither's Britain's Eemembrancer, 162S.
Cowley, in his poem " Of Solitude," points to Islington of the seventeenth century,
in thus apostrophizing "the monster London" : —
" Let but thy wicked men from out thee go.
And all the fools that crowd thee so,
Ev'n thou, who dost thy millions boast,
A village less than Islington will grow,
A solitude almost."
Lord Macaulay, in like vein, says, " Islington was (temp. Charles I.) almost a solitude,
and poets loved to contrast its silence and repose with the din and turmoil of the mon-
ster London." — History of JEngland, vol. i. pp. 349-350.
Islington parish includes Upper and Lower HoUoway, three sides of Newington-
green, and part of Kingsland; the southern portion of the village being in the parish
of St. James, Clerkenwell. Besides St. Mary's, the mother-church, here are a large
church in Lower HoUoway ; St. John's, Upper Holloway ; St. Paul's, Ball's Pond ;
and Trinity, Cloudesley -square — all three designed by Barry, E.A., 1828-9, architect,
also of St. Peter's, in 1835 ; Christchurch, Highbury, designed by Allom, in 1849, has
a picturesque tower and spire, and interior of novel plan. There are also other district
churches ; St. John the Evangelist's (Roman Catholic), with lofty gable and flanking
towers ; besides numerous chapels for every shade of dissent : Claremont Chapel, built
in 1820, was named in memory of the lamented Princess Charlotte.
Canonbury, about half a milo north-east of the old church, was once the country-
house of the Prior of the Canons of St. Bartholomew : the tower is described at p. 78.
An old Islingtonian has favoured us with these details of the New Eiver : Act of Parliament passed
160(5 ; begun Feb. 20, 1608 ; the labourers received 2«. M. per day ; stopped at Enfield for want of
funds; completed in five years; opened with great ceremony at the Head, Sadler's Wells, Michaelmas
Day, 1613, before the Lord Mayor and Lord Mayor Elect, SirThomas Myddelton, brother of Sir Hugh ;
King James, and Sir Hugh Myddelton.
The New River enters Islington by Stoke Newington, and passing onward, beneath
Highbury, to the east of Islington, ingulfs itself under the road, in a subterraneous
channel of 300 yards ; again rises in Colebrook-row, and still coasting the southern
side of Islington, reaches its termination at the New River Head, Sadler's WeUs.
Prom this vast circular basin the water is conveyed by sluices into large brick cisterns,
and hence by mains and riders to all parts of London. {See New Rivee.) Upon the
Green, now planted and inclosed as a garden, is a portrait-statue in stone of Sir Hugh
Myddelton, with a drinking fountain, presented by Sir Morton Peto, Bart., M.P.
The centre of Islington is perforated by the Regent's Canal brick tunnel, com-
mencing westward of White Conduit House, and terminating below Colebrook-row,
This tunnel is 17 feet wide, 900 yards long, and 18 feet high, including 7 feet 6 inches
depth of water.
Sighhury was originally a summer camp of the Romans, and adjoined the Er-
mine-street. The manor was given to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem between
1271 and 1286, and was the Lord Prior's country residence, destroyed by Jack Straw
in 1371. The site is now occupied by Highbury House, where is a lofty observatory,
partly built by John Smeaton, F.R.S.
Among the more eminent inhabitants of Islington were John Bagford, the antiquary and book and
print collector ; William Collms, whilst under mental infirmity, was visited here by Dr. Johnson ;
Alexander Cruden, compiler of the Concordance, died here in 1770; Oliver Goldsmith, and Ephraim
Chambers the cyclopaedist, lodged in Canonbury tower ; Quick, the comedian, in Hornsey-row; John
Nichols, F.S.A., editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, lived in Highbury-place; where Kichard Percival,
F.S.A., formed a matchless collection of drawings and prints of Islington ; William Knight, F.8.A., of
Canonbury, a collection of angling-books and missals, William Upcott, F.S.A., the bibliographer and
autograph-collector, died here in 1845; and Charles Lamb retired from his clerkship in the India House
to a cottage in Colebrook-row, in 1825 : "the New River (rather elderly by this time) runs (if a mode-
rate walking pace can be so termed) close to the foot of the house." (C. Lamb.) The house remains, but
has been much altered ; and the New River has been covered over. Hard by was " Starvation Farm,"
where the owner, a foreign baron, kept his emaciated stock.
In July, 1864, was dispersed by auction the valuable Library of the late Mr. George Daniel, of 18,
Canonbury-square, together with his collection of Original Drawings and Engraved Portraits of Actors
and Actresses, Water-colour Drawings, Pottery and Porcelain, &c. The Library included the i'irst
478 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Four Folios of Shakspeare's Works, the First Folio producing 682 guineas : the Quarto Plays com-
prised several first editions, 300Z. each and upwards ; Sonnets, one of the only two perfect copies known,
with the same imprint, 215 guineas; and a choice edition of the Poems; also, a collection of Black-letter
Ballads, 1559-1597, 750Z. A great number of the Books were unique, or nearly so, and included Garlands,
Jests, Drolleries, and Songs : two Missals of high class; Autograph Letters, Drawings, and Engravings,
illustrative of the lives and times of Burns, Chatterton, Cowper, Goldsmith, Gray, Johnson, Kemble,
Pope, &c. The sale occupied ten days.
Among the old inns and public -Tiouses were — near the church, the Fled Bull,
popularly a villa of Sir Walter Raleigh's ; in Lower-street, the Crown, apparently of
the reign of Henry VII., and the Queen's Sead, a half-timbered Elizabethan house ;
near the Green, the Duke's Head, kept by Topham, " the Strong Man of Islington ;"
in Frog-lane, the Barley-mow, where George Morland painted ; at the Old Parr's
Sead, in Upper-street, Henderson the tragedian first acted j TThife Conduit Souse
has been twice rebuilt within our recollection ; and Sighhury Barn, though now a
showy tavern, nominally recals its rural origin ; the Three Sats, near the turnpike,
was taken down in 1839 j and the Angel was originally a galleried inn. Timber
gables and rudely-carved brackets are occasionally to be seen on Islington house-fronts
bearing old dates ; also here and there an old •* house of entertainment," which, with
the little remaining of " the Green," reminds one of Islington village.
Islington abounds with chalybeate springs, resembling the Tunbridge Wells water ;
one of which was rediscovered in 1683, in the garden of Sadler's music-house, subse-
quently Sadler's Wells Theatre ; at the Sir SugJi Myddelton's Sead tavern was
formerly a conversation-picture with twenty-eight portraits of the Sadler's Wells Club.
In Spa-Fields, about sixty years ago, was held " Gooseberry Fair," where the stalls of
Gooseberry-fool vied with the " threepenny tea-booths " and the beer at " my Lord
Cobham's Head."
The following amusing Curiosities of Islington Taverns are selected and abridged
from Pinks's Sistory of ClerTcenwell, 1865 : —
Less than half a century ago, the Old Bed Lion Tavern, in St. John-street-road, the existence cf
which dates as far back as 1415, stood almost alone; it is shown in the centre distance of Hogarth's
print of Evening. Several eminent persons frequented this house : among others, Thomson, the author
of The Seasons ; Dr. Johnson, and Oliver Goldsmith. In a room here Thomas Paine wrote his infamous
book, The Eights of Man, which Burke and Bishop Watson demolished. The parlour is hung with
choice impressions of Hogarth's plates. The house has been almost rebuilt.
Opposite the Bed Lion, and surrounded by pens for holding cattle on their way to Smithfield, was
an old building called " Goose Farm ;" it was let in suites of rooms: here lived Cawse, the painter;
and in another suite, the mother and sister of Charles and Thomas Dibdin — the mother, a short, squab
figure, came on among villagers and mobs at Sadler's Wells Theatre, but, failing to get engaged, she
died in Clerkenwell Poorhouse. Vincent de Cleve, nicknamed Polly de Cleve, for his prying qualities,
who was treasurer of Sadler's Wells for many years, occupied the second-floor rooms above the Dibdins.
" Goose Yard," on the west of the road, serves to determine the site of the old farmhouse.
The public-house facing the iron gates leading to the Sadler's Wells Theatre, with the sign of The
Clown, in honour of Grimaldi, who frequented the house, was, in his day, known as the Kijig of
Prussia, prior to which its sign had been that of the Queen of Hungary. It is to this tavern, or rather
to an older one upon the same site, that Goldsmith alludes in his JEssay on the Versatility of Po2)ular
Favour. " An alehouse-keeper," says he, " near Islington, who had long lived at the sign of The
French King, upon the commencement of the late war with France, pulled down his own sign, and put
up that of the Queen of Hungary. Under the influence of her red face and golden sceptre, he con-
tinued to sell ale till she was no longer the favourite of his customers ; he changed her, therefore, some
time ago for the Ki7ig of Prussia, which may probably be changed in turn for the man that shall be set
up for vulgar admiration." The oldest sign by which this house was distinguished was that of The
Turk's Head.
At The Golden Ball, near Sadler's Wells, was sold by auction, in 1732, "the valuable curiosities,
living creatures, &c., collected by the ingenious Mons. Boyle, of Islington," including " a most strange
living creature, bearing a near resemblance of the human shape; he can utter some few sentences and
give pertinent answers to many questions. Here is likewise an Oriental oyster-shell of a prodigious
weight and size ; it measures from one extreme part to the other above three feet two inches over. The
other curiosity is called the Philosopher's Stone, and is about the size of a pullet's egg, the colour of it
is blue, and more beautiful than that of the Ultramarine, which, together with being finely polished, is
a most delightful entertainment to the eye. This unparalleled curiosity was clandestinely stolen out of
the late Great Mogul's closet; this irreparable loss had so great an eflect upon him, that in a few
months after he pined himself to death : there is a peculiar virtue in this precious stone, that princi-
pally relates to the Fair Sex, and will effectually signify, in the variation of its colour, by touching it,
whether any of them have lost their virginity."
At the Bising Sun, in the Islington-road, in Mist's Journal, Feb. 9, 1726, we read that for the ensu-
ing Shrove Tuesday "will be a fine hog ba/rhyqu'd — i.e., roasted whole— with spice, and basted with
Madeira wine, at the house where the ox was roasted whole at Christmas last."
In the Islington-road, too, near to Sadler's Wells, was Stokes's Amphitheatre, a low place, though
resorted to by the nobility and gentry. It was devoted to bull and bear baiting, dog-fighting, boxing",
and sword-fighting; and in these terrible encounters, with naked swords, not blunted, women engagwf
each other to " a trial of skill :" they fought a la mode, in close-fitting jackets, short petticoats, Hoi-
JAMES'STBEEZ WESTMINSTER. 479
land drawers, white thread stockings, and pumps ; the stakes were from 101. to 20Z. Here we read of a
day's diversion— a mad bull, dressed up with fireworks, to be baited; cudgel-playing for a silver cup,
wrestling for a pair of leather breeches, &c. ; a noble, lar^e, and savage incomparable Russian bear,
baited to death by dogs; a bull, illuminated with fireworks, turned loose; eating farthing pies, and
drinking half-a-gailon of October beer in less than eight minutes, &c
The increase of population in Islington has been enormous. By the census of 1851
it stood at 95,154 : by that of 1861 it is seen to be 156,000, showing an increase in
ten years of 60,846 persons. This is not entirely owing to the new buildings which
have been erected there, great as the number of them is : the decadence of some of the
streets must also be taken into account, many houses in which, formerly occupied by one
family in each, now contain several. To meet these requirements at Islington have
been erected, with a portion of the funds munificently presented by an American
merchant, Mr. Peabody, to trustees for the poor of London, four blocks of buildings, to
comprise in all 155 tenements, with ample accommodation for upwards of 650 persons.
The whole cost of these buildings, exclusive of the sum paid for the land, will amount,
when the accounts shall have been closed, to 31,690^. They are appropriately named
Peabod^-square.
Solloivay was once famous for its cheese-cakes, which, within recollection, were
cried through London streets by men on horseback. Du Val's-lane was tradition-
ally the scene of the exploits of Du Val, the highwayman, executed at Tyburn Jan. 21,
1690, " to the great grief of the women." Within memory, the lane was so infested
with highwaymen, that few people would venture to peep into it, even at mid-day : in
1831 it was lighted with gas. {J. T. SmithJ) At Lower Holloway, Mrs. Foster,
grand-daughter of Milton, kept a chandler's-shop for several years ; she died in poverty
at Islington, May 9, 1V54, when the family of Milton became extinct.
Between Islington and Hoxton was built in 1786, a curious windmill for grinding
white-lead, worked by five flyers, at right angles to which projected a beam with
smaller shafts. In 1853 was built at the Rosemary Branch Gardens a Circus, to seat
five thousand persons. At Hoxton were the " Ivy Gardens'* of Fairchild, who, dying
rich, left to the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, 50Z. (increased to 1001. by the
parishioners), the interest to be devoted to a lecture on Whit-Tuesday in the parish-
church, " Gn the goodness of God as displayed in the Vegetable Creation." In Fairchild's
employ was William Bartlett, " a simpler," who died at the age of 102 years ; and his
eon James, " a simpler," aged 80.
In the Lower-road was " the Islington Cattle Market," originated with a view to the
removal of the cattle-market from Smithfield, and established by Act of Parliament
in 1835 ; but it failed as a market, and has since been only used for the lairage of
cattle ; it occupied fifteen acres of land, walled in. {See Makkets.)
JAME8.8TEEET, WESTMINSTER,
FACING St. James's Park and Buckingham-gate, has been the abode of two dis-
tinguished literati. At No. 11 lived the poet Glover, whose song of " Hosier's
Ghost" roused the nation to a Spanish war, and will be read and remembered long
after his Leonidas is forgotten. At No. 6 died, December 31, 1826, William Gilford,
editor of the Quarterly Review from its commencement in 1809 to 1824 ; and working
editor of the Anti-Jacobin Review, writing the refutations and corrections of " the Lies,'*
*' Mistakes," and " Corrections." Gifford also translated Juvenal, wrote the satires of
the Baviad and Mceviad ; and edited Massinger, Ben Jonson, Ford, and Shirley.
On the west side of James-street stood Tart Hall, partly built in 1638, by N. Stone,
for Alathsea Countess of Arundel ; after whose death it became the property of her
second son William, the amiable Viscount Stafford, beheaded on Tower-hill, Dec. 29,
1680, upon *' the perjured suborned evidence of the ever-infamous Gates, Dugdale, and
Tuberville." The gateway of Tart Hall was not opened after Lord Stafford had passed
tinder it for the last time. The second share of the Arundel Marbles was deposited
here, and produced at a sale in 1720, 8851Z. 195. ll^d. (Minutes, Soc. Antiquaries.)
Dr. Mead bought a bronze head of Homer for 136/. ; it is now in the British Museum,
catalogued as a head of Pindar. The Hall was taken down soon after the sale:
Walpole told Pennant it was very large and venerable. According to Strype, it was
480 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
part in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and part in St. James's ; on the garden-
wall, a boy was whipt annually to remember the parish bounds ; upon the site of the
wall was built Stafford-row : in one of the adjoining passages, Mrs. Abington, the
actress, had an incognito lodging, for card-parties. Sir Kichard Phillips, in his Morning's
Walk from London to Kew, 1817, writes —
At Pimlico the name of Stafford-row reminded me of the ancient distinction of Tart Hall, once the '
rival in size and splendour of its more fortunate neii,'hbour, Buckingham House, and long the deposi-
tory of the Arundelian Tablets and Statues. It faced the Park, on the present site of James-street; its
garden-wall standing where Staflbrd-row is now built, and the extensive livery-stables being once the
stables of its residents,"
Dr. Kimbault believes Tart Hall was called so from its proximity to the Mulberry
Garden, which was famous for its tarts. It is so called in the inventory of " household
stuffs," &c., taken in 1641. {Harl MS., No. 6272) ; in Algernon Sydney's Letters to
Senry Savile ; in several documents in the State Paper OflBce, &c. {Notes and Queries^
2nd S. ; ix. p. 407.)
In the Harleian MS. we read of four pictures : 1. A Goundelowe. 2. A Mountebanke. 3. A Brave.
4. " King Henry 7. his wife and children," " The Great Roome, or Hall," was situated " next to the
Banketing House." " My Lord's Room" was hanged with yellow and green taffetas, A closet had the
floor covered with a carpet of yellow leather. The roof of one of the rooms was decorated with a
" picture of the Fall of Phaeton." Mr. Arden's room was " hanged with Scotch plad." Among the
pictures named are — Diana and Actseon, by Titian (now in the Bridgewater Gallery ?) ; Jacob's Travel-
ling, by Bassano (now at Hampton Court ?) ; A Martyrdom, by Tintoret ; The Nativity of Our Saviour,
by Honthorst. No statues are mentioned. The site is marked in Faithorne's Map of London, 1658. —
Cunningham.
In James-street was the residence of Lord Milford, facing St. James's Park, and
first fitted up as the Stationery Office in 1820 : it was taken down on the removal of the
office to the new buildings in Prince's-street, Westminster.
8T, JAMES'S.
ALTHOUGH the Hospital dedicated to St. James is believed to have been founded
prior to the Norman Conquest, and was rebuilt as a palace in 1532, not two
centuries have elapsed since St. James's formed part of the parish of St. Martin's-in-
the-Fields, and occupied the furthest extremity of the western boundaries of West-
minster. " The Court of St. James's " dates from after the burning of Whitehall in
the reign of William III., when St. James's became the royal residence; the church
was consecrated in 1685, in honour of the reigning monarch, to St. James.
Hatton (1708) describes the parish as "all the houses and grounds comprehended
in a place heretofore called St. James's Fields, and the confines thereof, containing
about 3000 houses, and divided into seven wards." In the reign of Queen Anne it
had acquired the distinction of the Court quarter.
" The inhabitants of St. James's, notwithstanding they live under the same laws and speak the i
same language, are a distinct people from those of Cheapside ; who are likewise removed from those of]
the Temple on the one side, and those of Smithfield on the other, by several climates and degrees in
their way of thinking and conversing together."— Addison, Spectator, No. 403, 1712.
St. James's-steeet, in 1670, was called "the Long Street,'* and is described by^
Strype as beginning at the Palace of St. James's, and running up to the road against
Albemarle-buildings ; the best houses, at the upper end, having a terrace-v.-alk before
them. Waller, the poet, lived on the west side from 1660 till 1687, when he died at
Beaconsfield ; Pope lodged " next door to y^ Golden Ball, on y^ second terras.-
Gibbon, the historian, died Jan. 16, 1794, at No. 76, then Elmsley, the bookseller's
who would not enter upon " the perilous adventure" of publishing the LecUne am
Fall, by which the publishers have profited ten times the amount paid to the author
for his copyright.
Horace Walpole relates : " I was told a droll story of Gibbon the other day. One of those book-^
sellers in Paternoster-row, who publish things in numbers, went to Gibbon's lodgings in St. James'i
street, sent up his name, and was admitted. ' Sir,' said he, ' I am now publishing a. History of Evylana
done by several good hands ; 1 understand you have a knack at them there things, and should be gla
to give you every reasonable encouragement.' As soon as Gibbon had recovered" the use of his legs anc
tongue, which were petrified with surprise, he ran to the bell, and desired his servant to show thi'
eucourager of learning downstairs."
Here was the Thatched House Tavern, originally a thatched house in St. James's
ST. JAMES'S, • 481
Fields. It was taken down in 1814 and 1863, having been for nearly two centuries
celebrated for its club meetings; and its large public room, wherein were hung the
Dilettanti pictures. Beneath the tavern front was a range of low-built shops, including
that of Rowland, or Rouland, the fashionable coiffeur of huile Macassar fame.
Through the tavern was a passage to the rear, where, in Catharine Wheel-alley, in
the last century, lived the widow Delany, some of whose fashionable friends then
resided in Dean-street, Soho. Upon part of the site has been built the Civil Service
Club-house, described at pp. 244, 245. Sheridan called St. James's-street the Campus
Martins of the beaux' cavalry.
Facing St. Jaraes's-street, upon the site of Alberaarle-street, was Clarendon House, on the road
whither, on Dec. 6, 1670, between six and seven in the evening, the great Dulie of Ormond was dragged
from his carriage by Blood and his accomplices, tied to one of them on horseback, and carried along
Piccadilly towards Tyburn, there to be hanged ; but the alarm being given at Clarendon House, the
servants followed and recovered his grace from a struggle in the mud with the man he was tied to,
Hnd who, on regaining his horse, fired a pistol at the duke and escaped. In the Historian's Guide,
third edit. 1688, are stated to have been " six ruffians mounted and armed ;" the duke's six footmen,
who usually walked beside his carriage, were absent when the attack was made.
BdEY (properly Berby) street, on the east, is named from the ground-landlord
a half-pay officer temp. Charles I. : he died Nov. 1Y33, aged above 100 years. Swift
and Steele, Crabbe and Thomas Moore, occasionally lodged in Bury-street. Swift paid
for a first floor — a dining-room and bed-chamber, — eight shillings a week, " plaguy dear."
Jermtn-street, on the east side of St. James's-street, was named from Henry
Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans. Here, in 1665-81, lived the Duke of Marlborough, when
Colonel Churchill, at the west end, south side. Gray, the poet, lodged here, at the
east end. Sir Isaac Newtou lived in this street before he removed to St. Martin's-
street, Leicester-square ; as did also Wilham and John Hunter. East of St. James's
Church is the entrance-front of the Museum of Practical Geology, a lofty Italian
building by Pennethorne ; completed in 1850. (See Museums.)
In Jermyn-street, near St. James's Church, about 1713, lived Mrs. Howe and her husband, who was
absent from her seventeen years, as she supposed in Holland; though, in fact, living disguised in a
mean lodging in Westminster. From Jermyn-street, Mrs. Howe removed to Brewer-street, Golden-
square ; Mr. Howe often visited at an opposite house, whence he saw his wife in her dining-room re-
ceiving company ; and for seven years he went every Sunday to St. James's Church, and there had a
view of his wife, but was not recognised by her. (See Dr. King's Anecdotes of his own time.)
King-street, leading to St. James's-square, has at the south-east corner the St.
James's Bazaar, described at p. 41. Here is the St. James's Theatre, designed by
Beazley for Braham the singer (it occupies the site of Nerot's Hotel, No. 19), which
cost Braham 8000^. (See Theatres.) Nerot's was of the time of Charles II., and
had a carved staircase, and panels painted with the story of Apollo and Daphne. Next
are Willis's Rooms (see Almack's, p. 4) ; and opposite are Christie and Manson's
(late Christie's) auction-rooms, celebrated for sales of pictures and articles of vertu.
(See an account of these sales in the Shilling Magazine, vol. i.) At No. 16, in
King-street, lodged Louis Napoleon, in a house which he pointed out to his Empress,
as he rode up St. James's-street, on their visit to Queen Victoria in 1855. There are
four streets in this neighbourhood named from King, Charles, and the Duke of Yor/c.
In King-street, St. James's, was born, May 4, 1749, Charlotte Smith, the poet and novelist ; and here
she mostly resided with her father, Mr. N. Turner, from her twelfth to her fifteenth year, when she
married Mr. Richard Smith, a West India merchant, aged 21.
In St. James's-street (west side) Thomas Wirgman, goldsmith and silversmith, kept
shop, and after making a large fortune, squandered it as a regenerating philosopher — a
Kantesian. He had tinted papers made especially for his books, one of which, 400 pages,
cost him 2276^. printing. He published a grammar of the five senses, and metaphysics
for children, and maintained that when his system was universally adopted in schools,
peace and harmony would be restored to the earth, and virtue would everywhere
replace crime. Sir Christopher Wren had a house in St. James's-street, where he
died, Feb. 25, 1723. Lord Byron lodged at No. 8, in 1811 ; Gillray, the caricaturist,
lodged at No. 24, Humphrey the printseller's, when, in 1815, he threw himself from
an upstairs window, and died in consequence.
Humphrey was the publisher of Gillray's caricatures, the copperplates of which were estimated, in
1815, to be worth 7000?. After Humphrey's death his widow could raise only lOOOZ. upon the plates ;
subsequently, when offered by auction, they were bought in at 500Z. j and upon the widow's death, her
I I
482 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
executors, unable to dispose of the plates as enpfravings, sold them to Mr. H. G. Bohn, the publisher
as old copper, for as many pence as they were originally said to be worth pounds ; and sets are now to
be bought at one-fifth of the first cost. (See the Account, &c. by Wright and Evans, 1851.)
About IVOS, Peyrault's, or Pero's " Bagnio," now Fenton's Hotel, was in high fashion.
At the south-west end was the St. James's Coffee-house (Whig), taken down in 1806 :
it was the Foreign and Domestic News-house of the Tatler, and the " fountain head"
of the Spectator. Here, too, was the Tory house, Ozinda's; and the Cocoa-tree, to
which belonged Gibbon and Lord Byron.
In St. James's-street are several Club-houses, already described {see pp. 241-260).
At White's is a pair of views by Canaletti : one, London Bridge, with the houses, from
Old Somerset House Gardens; and Westminster Bridge (just built), taken from the
water, off Cuper's Garden.
Next to Brooks's Club, in iTSl, lived C. J. Fox. At No. 62 was Betty's fruit-shop,
famous in Horace Walpole's time. Mason has, in his Heroic Epistles —
" And patriot Betty fix her fruit-shop here."
It was a famous place for gossip. Walpole says of a story much about, " I should
scruple repeating it, if Betty and the waiters at Arthur's did not talk of it publicly.'*
Again : " Would you know what officer's on guard in Betty's fruit-shop ?"
In Cleveland-row, extending from St. James's-street to the Stable-yard of the Palace, Theodore
Hook took a handsome house in 1827, which he furnished at the cost of 2000?. or 3000?. Then came
heavy embarrassments, in which he was assisted by the liberality of his publishers, Bentley and Col-
bum, and the sale of his share in the John Bull for 4000Z. While residing in Cleveland-row, Hook fell
in with the Rev. Mr. Barham (Ingoldsby), who called one day. Haynes Bayly was then discussing a
devilled kidney. Hook introduced him, saying, " Barham — Mr. Bayly — there are several of the name :
this is not ' Old Bailey,' with whom you may one day become intimate, but the gentleman whom we call
* Butterfly Bayly' (in allusion to his song, 'I'd be a butterfly"'). "A nusnomer. Hook," repUed Bar-
ham ; " Mr. Bayly is not yet out of the Grub."
St. James's-place, west side of St. James's-street, was built about 1694. Addison
lodged here in 1712. Here also lived Parnell, the poet; Mr. Secretary Craggs;
Bishop Kennett, the antiquary, who died here 1728 ; John Wilkes lived here in 1756
"in very elegant lodgings;" and Mrs. Robinson, the charming actress, lodged at
No. 13. Lady Hervey lived in a house built for her by Flitcrofb, afterwards occupied by
the Earl of Moira (Marquis of Hastings). Spencer House, facing the Green Park,
was designed by Vardy ; the figures on the pediment are by M. H. Spong, a Dane. At
No. 25 lived Lord Guildford, who had his library lined with snake-wood from Ceylon,
of which island he was Governor : the next tenant was Sir Francis Burdett, who
expired here Jan. 23, 1844, of grief for the loss of his wife, who died thirteen days
previously. At No. 22, built by James Wyatt, R.A., lived, from 1808, until his death
in 1855, Samuel Rogers, the poet : here Sheridan, Lord Byron, Sir James Mackintosh,
** Conversation" Sharp, and Thomas Moore, were often guests.
Mr. Rogers' choice collection of pictures, sculpture, Etruscan vases, antique bronzes, and literary
curiosities, were to be seen through the introduction of any accredited artist or connoisseur. The
paintings included these gems from the Orleans Gallery : Christ bearing the Cross (A. Sacchi) ; " Noli
me tangere" (" mellow and glorious union of landscape and poetry"), (Titian) ; Holy Family (Cor-
reggio); large Landscape (Claude) ; Christ on the Mount of Olives (Raphael). Also, Christ disputing
with the Doctors (Mazzolina di Ferrara), and the Coronation of the Virgin (A. Caracci), from the Aldo-
brandini Palace ; Triumphal Procession (Rubens), after Andrea Mantegna; St. Joseph and the Infant
Saviour (Murillo); Landscapes by Rubens and Domenichino, Gainsborough, and R.Wilson: Virgin
and Child (Raphael) ; Knight in Armour (Giorgione) ; Allegory, and Forest Scene, sunset (Rembrandt) ;
Virgin and Child, with six Saints (L. Caracci); a Mill, a small octagon (Claude); Head of Christ
erowned with thorns (Guido) ; Virgin and Child (Van Eyck) ; two large compositions (N. Poussin) ;
Sketch for Mary Magdalen anointing the feet of the Saviour (P. Veronese) ; Sketch for the Miracle of
St. Mark (Tintoretto) ; Study for the Apotheosis of Charles V, (Titian) ; Portrait of Himself (Rem-
brandt) ; Infant Don Balthazar on horseback (Velasquez) ; the Evils of War (Rubens) ; Virgin and
Child, a small miniature (Hemmelinck) ; three original Drawings (Raphael) ; black chalk Study
(Michael Angelo) ; Puck, the Strawberry Girl, the Sleeping Girl, Girl with Bird, Cupid and Psyche, and
the Painter's House at Richmond (Sir Joshua Reynolds) ; Napoleon upon a rock at St. Helena (Hay-
don) ; and twelve Elizabethan miniatures. The paintings were lighted by lamps with reflectors. Among
the sculptures were : Cupid pouting and Psyche couching, and Michael Angelo and Raphael, statuettes
by Flaxman. Here also were seven pictures by Stothard (including a copy of the Canterbury Pilgrims),
and a cabinet with his designs. Among the autographs was the original assignment of Dryden's Virgil
to Tonson, witnessed by Congreve. Milton's agreement with Symons for Faradise Lout, long possessed
by Mr. Rogers, was presented by him to the British Museum in 1852.
This collection was dispersed by auction, after the death of Mr. Rogers, 18th of
JEWS m LONDON 483
December, 1855, in his 93rd year, at his house in St. James's-place, surrounded by the
works of art which his fine taste had brought about him.
(See also Palaces, St. James's ; and Sqtjaees, St. James's.)
J:EWS in LONDON.
THE Jews were settled in England in the Saxon period, a.d. 750. In 1189, great
numbers were massacred on the coronation-day of Richard I., when they lived in
the Jewries, extending along both sides of the present Gresham-street to Basinghall-
street, and Old Jewry on the east ; the first synagogue in the metropolis being at the
north-west corner of Old Jewry, which Stow describes as *' a street so called of Jews
some time dwelling there and near adjoining." The only burial-place appointed them
in all England was the Jews' Garden, Redcross-street, Cripplegate j until 1177, the
24th Henry II., when a special place was assigned to them in every quarter where
they dwelt. (Slow.) The site of the present Jewin-street, Aldersgate-street^ anciently
** Leyrestowe," was granted them as a burial-place by Edward I. Capital punishment
was inflicted for comparatively small offences, and scarcely a day passed without an
execution in the Cheap. To some extent, this universal bloodthirstiness may explain,
if it does not extenuate, the cruelties practised on the unfortunate Jews. For the
king to take ** a moiety of their moveables," whenever he wanted money, was bad
enough ; but on the doubtful charge of the wilful murder of a Christian child at Lincoln,
ninety-two Jews were apprehended, and eighteen of them " were on the same day
drawn, and after the hour of dinner, and towards the close of the day, hanged." In
the week before Palm Sunday, in the year 1263, the Jewry in London was wantonly
destroyed, and more than five hundred Jews " murdered by night in sections" — none
escaping, seemingly, except those whom the mayor and the justiciars had sent to the
Tower before the massacre began. The ground for this outrage (according to Fabyan)
was, that a Jew had exacted more than legal interest from a Christian. Fifteen years
later no less than 293 Jews were " drawn and hanged for clipping the coin." In 1285,
more compendiously still, " all the Jews of England were taken and imprisoned, and
put to ransom on the morrow of St. Philip and James." Finally, a few years after-
wards " it was provided by the King and his Council, upon prayer of the Pope, that
all the Jews in England were sent into exile between the Gule of August and the
Feast of All Saints, under pain of decapitation, if after such feast any one of them
should be found in England."
The Jews made no effort to return to England till the protectorship of Oliver
Cromwell, when they proposed to pay 500,OOOZ. for certain privileges, including the
use of St. Paul's Cathedral as a synagogue ; but 800,000Z. was demanded, and the
negotiation was unsuccessful. They next applied to Charles II., then in exile at
Bruges, when the king proposed they should assist him with money, arms, or ammuni*
tion, to be repaid ; and Dean Tucker remarks, that the restoration of the Stuarts was
attended with the return of the Jews into Great Britain. The Jews themselves aver
that they received a private assent to their re-admission ; and Bishop Burnet assert?
that Cromwell brought a company of Jews over to England, and gave them leave to
build a synagogue. Dr. Tovey, however, in the Jewish registers, finds that, by their
own account, until the year 1663 the whole number of Jews in England did not exceed
twelve ; so that the date of their return must be referred to the reign of Charles II.
The first synagogue was built by Portuguese Jews, in King-street, Duke's-place, in
1656 ; and a school was founded by them in 1664, called " the Tree of Life." The
first German synagogue was built in Duke's-place in 1691, and occupied till 1790,
when the present edifice was erected.
The principal Jewish Cemeteries are two on the north side of the Mile-End-road
belonging to the Portuguese Jews, and a third to the German Jews. The old
Portuguese ground was first used 1657 : some of the tombs bear bas-reliefs from
Scripture ; as the story of Joseph and his brethren, Jacob wrestling with the angel.
Sec. Near Queen's Elm, Fulham-road, is also " the burying-ground of the Westminster
Congregation of Jews," established 1816.
The Jewish quarter of the metropolis is bounded north by High-street, Spitalfields;
I l2
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
east Ly Middlesex-street (Petticoat-lane); south by Leadenhall-street, Aldgate, and
Whitechapel ; and west by Bishopsgate-street.
The Clothes' Exchange of Cutler-street, Houndsditch, is popularly known as Eag
Fairs through which must pass, at one stage or another, half the second-hand habili-
ments of the empire. The trade in renovated clothes, too, is very great, so as to make
the epithet " worn-out" a popular error. Factitious arts make up the mighty
business of Kag Fair ; and Bevis Marks has long been the Oporto of London, noted
for its manufacture of " clieap port-wine."
Saturday in the Hebrew quarter is a day of devotion and rest : every shop is shut ;
and striking is the contrast between the almost conventual silence on that day of Bevis
Marks, Houndsditch, and St. Mary Axe, and the bustle of Whitechapel, Bishopsgate,
and Leadenhall. How the Christian Sabbath is kept is denoted by such a notice as
this : " Business will commence at this Exchange on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock.
By order of the managers, Moses Abrahams." Again, from 8 to 12 o'clock on Sunday
morning, Duke's-place is the great market for the supply of oranges to the itinerant
Jewish retailers.
The wealth of the leading Jews in London is very great, and their influence on the
money-market is overwhelming. Their shipping trade is very extensive. The largest
clothing-establishments are carried on by Jews. The trade in old silver goods, pictures,
old furniture, china, and curiosities, is chiefly carried on by Hebrew dealers.
Jews are admissible to all public offices and dignities, even to a seat in Parliament.
In 1828 baptized Jews were allowed to purchase the freedom of the City of London, a
privilege forbidden by the Court of Aldermen in 1785. Mr. David Salomons (1835)
and Sir Moses Montefiore (1837) served as Sherifis of London, these being the
first Jews who filled that office; and Sir Moses is the first Jew who received a
baronetcy in Britain. Mr. Salomons was elected Alderman for Cordwainers' Ward in
1847, and is the first Jew who ever sat in the Court ; he served as Lord Mayor in
1857-8. Alderman Sir Benjamin S. Phillips, Lord Mayor, 1865-6, received knighthood
for his very able discharge of his duties, and the dignity he imparted to the office.
The Jews take care of their own poor ; and their schools, hospitals, and asylums are
numerous. You may see many poor Jews, but never a Jewish beggar. In 1852, the
amount of offerings during the sacred festivals of the New Year, Day of Atonement,
&c., for the relief of the poor at the principal metropolitan Synagogues, were : — Great
Synagogue, Duke's-place, 800Z. ; Sephardim, ditto ; Bevis Marks, 500Z. ; New, ditto ;
Great St. Helen's, 6001. ; Hamburgh, ditto ; Fenchurch-street, 150^. ; West London
ditto; Margaret-street, 701. — total, 2120Z. The Western Synagogue, St. Albau's-
place, has abolished offerings, substituting in lieu thereof a charge on the seats. In
1852 there were distributed in Passover week to the poor of the Synagogues and the
itinerant poor, 55,000 pounds of Passover cakes, costing 916^. 13*. 4d.
The Rabbinical College, or Beth Hamedrash, Smith's-buildings, Leadenhall-street,
contains one of the most splendid Jewish libraries in Europe, and is open to the
public by tickets : here lectures are delivered gratuitously to the public, on Friday
evenings, by learned Jews.
The Jews' Free School, founded in 1817, is a good specimen of the zealous care with which the Jews
organize their institutions. This School originated in the general feeling then entertained of the
necessity of diffusing knowledge among the poor. Its founders adopted those parts of the various
systems of education then in general use which appeared to them best calculated to advance that object,
and the school has all along been conducted on a plan combining their advantages, mutual instruction
on the monitorial plan being fully recognised. Many children, they state, who would have wandered
idly about the streets, devoid alike of religion and knowledge, and who might easily have been ensnared
into courses of vice and infamy, have by means of this institution been instructed in their religious
duties and the elementary branches of knowledge, and been thus trained to become respectable and.
useful members of society. The School, greatly enlarged, is now established in Bell-lane, Spitalfields,
and for nearly half a century has diffused' the blessings of knowledge and morality among the poor
Jews of the metropolis, according to the design of its founders and supporters, though of late years
the system of education pursued in it has been somewhat modified and enlarged. The Eevised Code
insists that every child presented shall satisfy the inspector in reading, writing, and arithmetic accord-
ing to a classification mider six standards. In this department of the school the highest class was
examined in the highest standard, a degree of proficiency which had not been attained in the first year
of the operation of the Revised Code by any other school in the country : making a small allowance for
unavoidable absences, about 99 per cent, of those children presented passed successfully.
Jews'-EOW, at Chelsea, has been made by Wilkie the background of his picture of
ST. JOHN'S GATE, CLEBKENWELL. 485
•* the Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo," now in the
Duke of Wellington's Gallery, at Apsley House.
"Jews' -row has a Teniers-like line of mean public-houses, lodging-houses, rag-shops, and huckster-
shops, on the right-hand, as you approach Chelsea College. It is the Pall Mall of the pensioners ; and
its projecting gables, breaks, and other picturesque attributes were admirably suited, in the artist's
opinion, for the localities of the picture."— 3fr«. A. T. Thomson.
ST. JOHN'S GATE, CLERKENWELL,
IS nearly all that remains of the magnificent monastery of the Knights of St. John
of Jerusalem, that chivalrous order which for seven centuries " was the sword and
buckler of Christendom in the Paynim war." The priory was founded in 1100, and
was almost of palatial extent. King John resided here in 1212 j and our sovereigns
occasionally held councils here. Three acres of ground lying without the walls, between
the land of the Abbot of Westminster and of the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, was
called No-man's Land. In November, 1326, Anthony d'Espagne, a wealthy merchant,
who collected a burdensome duty of 2*. a tun on wine, was dragged barefoot out of the
City, and beheaded by the populace on No-man's Land — a fitting name for the site of
such an atrocity ! In 1382 the whole commandery was burnt by Wat Tyler's mob ;
and the grand prior was beheaded in the courtyard, the site of St. John's-square, at
the southern entrance of which stands the gateway. Late in the fifteenth century, the
rebuilding of the monastery was commenced by Prior Docwra, who, according to
Camden, " increased it to the size of a palace," and completed this entrance about
1504, " as appeareth by the inscription over the gatehouse yet remaining" {Stow).
In a Chapter held here 11 Jan. 1514, Sir T. Docwra prior, a lease was granted to Cardinal Wolsey
of the manor of Hampton, which the most eminent physicians of England and learned doctors from
Padua had selected as the healthiest spot within twenty miles of London for the site of a palace for
the cardinal. In this curious document (Cotton. MSS. British Museum) is a grant of four loads of
timber annually for piles for the Hampton Weir, to be cut "in and fro Seynt John's Woode, Midd."
This grant is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, January, \%M.
Docwra was grand-prior from 1502 to 1520, and was the immediate predecessor of
the last superior of the house, who died of grief on Ascension-day, 1540, when the
priory was suppressed. Five years subsequently, the site and precinct were granted to
John Lord Lisle, for his service as high-admiral j the church becoming a kind of store-
house " for the king's toyles and tents for hunting, and for the warres." It was,
however, imdermined and blown up with gunpowder, and the materials were employed
by the Lord Protector to King Edward VI. in building Somerset-place ; the Gate would
probably have been destroyed, but from its serving to define the property. The Priory
was partly restored upon the accession of Mary, but again suppressed by Elizabeth. In
1604 the Gate was granted to Sir Roger Wilbraham for his life. Hollar's very scarce
etchings show the castellated hospital, with the old front, eastern side, towards St. John-
street, about 1640 ; also the western side, and Gatehouse.
At this time Clerkenwell was inhabited by people of condition. Forty years later
fashion had travelled westward ; and the Gate became the printing-office of Edward
Cave, who, in 1731, published here the first number of the Gentleman's MagazinSy
which to this day bears the Gate for its vignette. Dr. Johnson was first engaged upon
the magazine here by Cave in 1737 : " his practice was to shut himself up in a room
assigned to him at St. John's Gate, to which he would not suffer any one to approach,
except the compositor or Cave's boy for matter, which, as fast as he composed, he
tumbled out at the door." {Hawkins.) At the Gate Johnson first met Richard,
Savage ; and here in Cave's room, when visitors called, Johnson ate his plate of victuals
behind the screen, his dress being " so shabby that he durst not make his appearance."
One day, while thus concealed, Johnson heard Walter Harte, the poet and historian,
highly praise the Life of Savage. Garrick, when he first came to London, frequently
called upon Johnson at the Gate ; and at Cave's request, in the room over the great
arch, and with the assistance of a few journeyman-printers to read the other parts,
Garrick represented the principal character in Fielding's farce of the Mock Doctor.
Goldsmith was also a visitor here. When Cave grew rich, he had St. John's Gate
painted, instead of his arms, on his carriage, and engraved on his plate. After Cave's
486 CTTBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
death in 1754, the premises became the " Jerusalem" public-house, and the " Jerusalem
Tavern."
The latter name was assumed from the Jermalem Tavern, Bed Lion-street, in whose dank and cob-
webbed vaults John Britten served an apprenticeship to a wine-merchant ; and in reading at intervals
by candle-light, first evinced that love of literature which characterized his long life of industry and
integrity. He remembered Clerkenwell in 1787, with St. John's Priory-church and cloisters ; when
Spa-fields were pasturage for cows ; the old garden-mansions of the aristocracy remained in Clerken-
well-close; and Sadler's Wells, Islington Spa, Merlin's Cave, and Bagnigge Wells, were nightly crowded
with gay company.
In 1845, under the new Metropolitan Buildings' Act, a survey of St. John's Gate
was made, and a notice given to the then owner to repair it : and by the aid of " the
Freemasons of the Church," and Mr. W. P. Griffith, architect, the north and south
fronts were restored.
The gateway is a good specimen of groining of the fifteenth century, with moulded
ribs, and bosses ornamented with shields of the arms of the Priory, Prior Docwra, &c
The south or principal front has a double projection ; has numerous small windows ;
and a principal window over the .-^rown of the arch in each front, in the wide and
obtusely-pointed style. The south front bears the arms of France and England, and
the north or inner front those of the Priory and Docwra. In the west side of the
gateway is an ancient carved oak doorhead, discovered in 1813, when that part of the
building (afterwards a coal-shed) was converted into a watch-house for St. John's parish.
In the spandrels are the monastery arms, as also in a low door-case of the west tower
from the north side of the Gate ; these spandrels also bear a cock and a hawk, and a
hen and a lion. This was the entrance to Cave's printing-office. The east basement
is the tavern-bar, with a beautifully moulded ceiling. The stairs are Elizabethan. The
principal room over the arch has been despoiled of its window-mullions and groined
roof. The foundation-wall of the Gate is 10 feet 7 inches thick, and the upper walls
are nearly 4 feet, hard red brick, stone cased : the view Irom the top of the staircase-
turret is extensive. In excavating there have been discovered the original pavement,
3 feet below the Gate ; and the Priory walls, north, south, and west. Other repairs
were commenced in 1866.
St. John's Church, in St. John's-square, is built upon the chancel and side aisles of
the old Priory-church, and upon its crypt ; the capitals of the columns, ribbed mouldings,
lancet windows, are fine ; from the key- stone of each arch hangs an iron lamp-ring :
in 1849, the crypt was found by excavation to have extended much further westward.
The turret-clock belonged to old St. James's Church, as did also the silver head of the
beadle's staff' (James II. 1685). Here, too, is a portable baptismal bowl, with a
scriptural inscription, and " Deo est sacris :" it was formerly used as the church font.
(See Ye History of ye Priory and Gate of St. John. By B. Foster. 1851.)
The Gate is minutely described in Chapter X. of Pinks's History of ClerJcenwell,
pp. 241-257, with eleven engravings, wherein it is stated : " to Mr. W. P. Griffith,
F.S.A., the inhabitants of Clerkenwell are deeply indebted for saving from positive
defacement, if not from absolute removal, the Gate of the Priory of St. John."
KJENNINGTONy
A MANOR of Lambeth, is named from Saxon words signifying the place or town
of the king. Here, at a Danish marriage, died Hardiknute, in 1041. Here
Harold, son of Earl Godwin, seized the Crown the day after the death of the Confessor,
and is said to have placed it on his own head. Here, in 1231, King Henry III. held
his court, and passed a solemn and stately Christmas ; and here, says Matthew Paris,
was held a Parliament in the succeeding year. Hither, says Stow, in 1376,
came the Duke of Lancaster, to escape the fury of the populace of London, on
Friday, February 20, the day following that on which Wickliffo had been brought
before the bishops at St. Paul's. Hither also came a deputation of the chiefest
citizens to Richard IL, June 21, 1377, " before the old king was departed," " to
accept him for their true and lawfull king and gouernor." Kennington was the occa-
sional residence of Henry IV. and VI. Henry VII. was here shortly previous to his
coronation. Leland teUs us that Katharine of Aragon was here for a few days; after
KENNINGTON. 487
wliich the palace probably fell into decay : Camden, late in the reign of Elizabeth,
says, though erroneously, that " of this retreat of our ancient Kings, neither the name
nor the ruins are now to be found." The early celebrity of the manor of Kennington
as a " Royal property " is attested to this day in the names of Prince's-road and
Chester-place, which refer to the annexation of the manor to the Duchy of Cornwall, in
the reign of Edward III., who was here in 1339, from a document printed in the
Foedera, tested by the Black Prince, then only ten years of age. James I. settled the
manor, with other estates, on his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales : and after his
decease, in 1612, on Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I.), and they have ever since
been held as part of the estate of the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. CharleB
was the last tenant of the palace, which was then taken down, and there was built on
the site a manor-house, described in 1656 as an old, low, timber building ; but of the
palace offices there remained the stable, a long building of flint and stone, used as a
barn : this was taken down in 1795. The palace, there is no doubt, stood within the
triangular plot of ground near Kennington Cross, now bounded by Park-place, Devon-
shire-street, and Park-street ; thick fragments of walls of flint, chalk, and rubble stone
intermixed, may yet be seen in the cellars of some houses in Park-place.
Kennington Common (about twenty acres) was formerly noted for its cricket-matches,
pugilism, and itinerant preachers, and as the exercise-ground of volunteer regiments.
It was the common place of execution for Surrey, before the erection of the County
Gaol, Horsemonger-lane ; and on the site of St. Marie's CTmrcJi, south of the Common,
some of the rebels of 1745, tried by special commission in Southwark, were hanged,
drawn, and quartered : among them was " Jemmy Dawson," the hero of Shenstone's
touching ballad : and of another ditty, set to music by Dr. Arne, and sung about the
streets. On the Common was a bridge, called Merton Bridge, which was formerly
repaired by the Canons of Merton Abbey, who had lands for that purpose. — (Lysons.)
Hjere was a theatre; for. Baker, in his JBiograpMa Dramatica, edit. 1732, vol. ii.
p. 239, says, " the satyrical, comical, allegorical farce," l^he Mock Doctor, published in
8vo, in 1739, was " acted to a crowded audience at Kennington Common, and many
other theatres, with the humour of the mob." Here George Whitefield preached to
audiences of ten, twenty, and thirty thousand persons, as we learn from his published
diary, which is now scai'ce :
" Sunday, April 29, 1731, At five in the evening went and preached at Kennington Common, about
two miles from London, where upwards of 20,000 people were supposed to be present. The wind being
for me, it carried the voice to the extremest part of the audience. All stood attentive and joined in the
Psalm and the Lord's Prayer so regularly, that I scarce ever preached with more quietness in any
church. Many were much affected.
" Sunday, May 6, 1731. At six in the evening went and preached at Kennington ; but such a sight
I never saw before. Some supposed there were above 30,000 or 40,000 people, and near foui- score coaches,
besides great numbers of horses ; and there was such an awful silence amongst them, and the Word of
God came with such power, that all seemed pleasingly surprised. I continued my discourse for an hour
and a half.
" Friday, August 3, 1739. Having spent the day in completing my affairs (about to embark for
America), and taking leave of my dear friends, I preached in the evening to near 20,000 people at Ken-
nington Common. I chose to discourse on St. Paul's parting speech to the elders of Ephcsus, at which
the people were exceedingly affected, and almost prevented my making any application. Many tears
were shed when I talked of leaving them. I concluded with a suitable hymn, but could scarce get to
the coach for the people thronging me, to take me by the hand, and give me a parting blessing."
On Kennington Common was held, April 10, 1848, the great revolutionary meeting of
*' Chartists," brought to a ridiculous issue by the unity and resolution of the metropolis,
backed by the judicious measures of the Government, and the masterly military pre-
cautions of the late Duke of Wellington. In 1852, the Common, with the site of the
Pound of the manor of Kennington, were granted by Act of Parliament, on behalf of
the Prince of Wales, as part of the Duchy of Cornwall estate, to be inclosed and laid
out as " pleasure-grounds for the recreation of the public ; but if it cease to be so main-
tained, it shall revert to the duchy." They comprise twelve acres, disposed in grass-
plots, and planted with shrubs and evergreens ; and at the main entrance have been
reconstructed the model cottages originally erected at the expense of Prince Albert for
the Great Exhibition of 1851 : the walls are built with hollow and glazed brick, and
the floors are brick and stucco ; the whole being fireproof. At Kennington-green, in
1852, was built a large Vestry Hall, in semi-classic style, for the district of Lambeth,
In Kennington-lane is the School of the Friendly Society of Licensed Victuallers, built
1836; the first stone laid by Viscount Melbourne, in the name of King William IV.
488 CURIOSITIES OF LOIWON.
KENSINGTON, BROMPTON, AND KNIGETSBRIBGB.
KENSINGTON, a mile and a half west of Hyde Park-corner, contains the hamlets
of Brompton, Earl's-court, the Gravelpits, and part of Little Chelsea, now West
Brompton j but the royal palace, and about twenty other houses north of the road, are
in the parish of St. Margaret, "Westminster. On the south side, the parish of Ken-
sington extends beyond the Gore, anciently Kyng's Gore, the principal houses between
which and Knightsbridge are also in St. Margaret's. The old church (St. Mary
Abbot's) Bishop Blomfield used to designate the ugliest in his diocese.
The resolution to build this church was adopted by the vestry in 1696, and amon? the con-
tributors were King AVilliam III. and Queen Mary, as well as the Princess Anne. The King
and Queen not only subscribed to the building fund, but presented the reading-desk and pulpit,
which have crowns carved upon them, with the initials W. and M. R. A curtained pew was
in consequence set apart for the Royal family, and long continued to be occupied by residents
in Kensington Palace, among whom the Duke and Duchess of Kent and the late Duke of Cam-
bridge are still remembered. It was in this church that the Duchess of Kent returned thanks
after the birth of her present Majesty. In the parish books there are enti'ies of the expenses incurred
for ringing the church bells on all public occasions since the Revolution. Mr. Wilberforce, who resided
at Kensington-gore, is still remembered sitting in the pew appropriated to the Holland-house I'amily.
George Canning might often be seen seated in the Royal pew. Coke, of Norfolk, had a pew here, which
he regularly occupied, Nassau Senior, the political economist, resided at Hyde-park -gate, and W. M.
Thackeray occupied a house which he had planned and built for himself in Palace-green, where he died
December, 1863. These eminent writers both attended the early service at half-past nine. When Lord
Macaulay came to reside at Holly-lodge, Campden-hill, he desired to have a list of the parochial chari-
ties and a seat in the parish church. Although confined to the house by asthma during the winter, he was
regular in his attendance during the summer ; he died at Holly Lodge, December 20, 1859. The church,
condemned as incapable of being long used for public worship, contams 114 monuments. {See p. 181.)
The extension of Kensington mostly dates from the enlargement of the royal palace j
though the mineral spring which it once possessed may have contributed to the celebrity
of the place. Holland House is described at p. 431. Nearly opposite, in the Kensing-
ton-road, was the Adam and Eve public-house, where Sheridan, on his way to or from
Holland House, regularly stopped for a dram ; and there he ran up a long bill, which
Lord Holland had to pay. {Moore's Diary.) Kensington Palace Gardens lead from
the High-street of Kensington to the Bays water-road, and contain several costly
mansions, including one of German Gothic design, built for the Earl of Harrington in
1852. On Campden Hill is the observatory of Sir James South, one of the founders
of the Royal Astronomical Society : among the working instruments are a 7-feet transit
instrument, a 4-feet transit circle, and one of the equatorials with which, between
1821 and 1823, Sir James South (at Blackman-street, Southwark) and Sir John
Herschel made a catalogue of 380 double stars. In Little Chelsea was born, in 1674,
Charles Boyle, fourth Earl of Orrery, patron of Graham, who constructed for the Earl
an orrery, which was named after his lordship.
In Orbell's-buildings, Kensington, lodged Sir Isaac Newton from January, 1725, until his death,
March 20, 1727, in his 85th year. His body, on March 28, lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, and
was thence buried in Westminster Abbey.
Leigh Hunt has written a remarkably pleasant account of Kensington, under the title
of The Old Court Suhurh. Here are the old mansions, Kensington House and ^blby
House, described at p. 447. Campden House is described at p. 445.
Here was the King's Arms Tavern, the last place in or about London where the old coffee-house style
of society was still preserved, and where members of the legislature and a high class of gentry were to be
met with in rooms open to " the town." It was patronized for many years by the family at Holland
House, and Moore, in his Diary, alludes to it. It was much frequented by members of th2 London
Clubs. Among them was "Vesey junior" (Lord Eldon's Law Reporter), who preserved his forensic
name to his eightieth year, Fiaxman, the sculptor, was fond of retiring thither, and always dined in
one of the small rooms looking over the gardens ; and it was there also that " the Doctor" (William
Maginn) was to be found in his best conversational mood.— Press Newsjpaper.
At Gore House, Kensington Gore, Mr. Wilberforce resided from 1808 to 1821.
He writes : — "We are just one mile from the turnpike at Hyde Park Corner, having
about three acres of pleasure-ground around our house, or rather behind it ; and several
old trees, walnut and mulberry, of thick foliage. I can sit and read under their shade
with as much admiration of the beauties of nature as if 1 were 200 miles from the
great city." Thither came Clarksou, Zachary Macaulay, Komilly, and others, to
KENSINGTON, BBOMPTON, AND KNIGHTSBBIDGE. 489
commune with Wilberforce on measures for the abolition of slavery. He often alludes
to liis " Kensington Gore breakfasts." He was much attached to the place, but its
costliness made him uneasy lest it should compel him to curtail his cbarities. The
Countess of Blessington resided at Gore House for the same period as Mr. Wilberforce
— thirteen years. In her time the place retained much of its picturesqueness, of
which there is an interesting memorial — a large view in the grounds, with portraits
of the Duke of Wellington, Lady Blessington, and other celebrities, including Count
D'Orsay, the painter of the picture. Lady Blessington's Curiosities were sold here in
1819. The house was opened by Soyer as a restaurant (" Symposium ") during the
Exhibition of 1851. In the Temple Bar Magazine, Mr. Sala has described, in his
very clever manner, what he saw and thought, whilst for " many moons he slept, and
ate, and drank, and walked, and talked, in Gore House, surrounded by the very
strangest of company." In 1852, the Gore House estate, twenty-one and a half acres,
was purchased for 60,000L, and the Baron de Villars's estate, adjoining, forty-eight
acres, fronting the Brompton-road, was bought for 153,500^., by the Commissioners of
the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Tlie yellow gravel of Hyde Park and Kensington, so often found covering the London clay, is, com-
paratively speaking, of very modern date, and consists of slightly rolled, and, for the most part, angular
f.ugments, in which portions of the white opaque coating of the original chalk-flint remain uncovered.
—/Sir Charles Lyell, F.G.S.
The eastern extremity of the Gore, now the site of Ennismore Gardens, is the
hiQ:hest point of ground between Hyde Park-corner and Windsor Castle. (Faulkner's
Kensington.) Kingston, next Ennismore, and now Listowel, House, was the residence
of the Duchess of Kingston, " the notified Bet Cheatley, Duchess of Knightsbridge,"
who died here in 1788. Here in 1842 died the Marquis Wellesley ; in the corridor
is a large window, a garden-scene, painted by John Martin when he was a pupil of
Muss. At Old Brompton, upon the site of the Florida Tea Gardens, was Orford
Lodge, built for the Duchess of Gloucester, and subsequently tenanted by the Princess
Sophia of Gloucester, and the Right Hon. George Canning, who was here visited
by Queen Caroline. The house was afterwards called " Gloucester Lodge," and was
taken down in 1852. Here also was Hale or " Cromwell " House taken down in
1853, The large space of ground between the Kensington and Brompton roads in-
cluded the Brompton Park nursery ; and here (in 1853) were remains of the wall of
Brompton Park. Brompton Hall, mostly modern, has a noble Elizabethan room,
wherein Lord Burghley is said to. have received Queen Elizabeth. In the hamlet of
Earl's Court, about 1764, John Hunter, the eminent surgeon, built a house, in which
he lived for nearly thirty years. The house and grounds (where Baird was " surprised
to find so many living animals in one herd from the most opposite parts of the
habitable globe ") remain to this day.
SoTTTH Kensington is the district lying south of the main Kensington-road, the
nucleus being the Gore House estate above mentioned ; added to which were Gray's
Nursery Grounds, Park House, Grove House, and various market- gardens ; the grounds
of Cromwell House and other lands belonging to the Earl of Harrington and the Baron
de Villars, in all eighty-six acres, for 280,000^., at an average of 3250^. an acre. Old
footpaths, &c., were stopped, and houses removed, and nearly two miles of new road-
way formed the chief lines surrounding the best part of the Estate — namely, the
Cromwell-road, the Exhibition-road, and the Prince Albert-road, forming with the
main Kensington-road, four sides of a square. Thereon is now in progress of erection,
" the South Kensington Museum," to be described under Museums. About twelve
acres have been let on building leases, and are covered with lines of lofty and handsome
houses, the Commissioners nearly doubling their original capital by the above specula-
tion. They next let the upper part of the great centre square, about twenty-two
acres, to the Horticultural Society. {See Gakdens, p. 370). Next was erected, south
of the Horticultural Society's Gardens, the buildings for the International Exhibition
of the year 1862.
The main baildingj designed by Captain Fowke, R.E., occupied about sixteen acres of ground : it
measured about 1200 feet from east to west, by 560 feet from north to south. The whole of this ground
was covered by buildings of brick, iron, and glass ; and two long strips of ground, east and west, were
490 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
roofed in by the temporary sheds, or annexes, in which were shown machinery, and large and heavy
objects, this additional area extending to seven acres. The interior space, covered by roofs of various
heights, was divided into nave, transepts, aisles, and open courts ; the latter were roofed with glass, but
the other parts had opaque roofs, and were lighted by clerestory windows. The south front, in Cromwell-
road, 1150 feet long, and 55 feet high, was of brick, had two projecting towers at each end, and a larger
centre tower, in which was the mam entrance to the Picture Galleries, being about as long as the Gallery
of the Louvre, in Paris. In the east and west fronts rose a dome to a height of 260 feet. Under each
noble arched recess was the entrance to the Industrial Courts, and in each tympan was a great rose-
window. At the extreme north and south were two auxiliary Picture Galleries. The only portions of
the building which resembled the Crystal Palace of 1851, were the six courts north and south of the
nave ; they had glass roofs on the ridge-and-valley plan, supported by square iron columns and wrought-
iron trellis-girders. Each dome was at the intersection of the nave and transepts, and was of glass,
with an outer and inner gallery. The interior was variously coloured, and relieved with gold, medal-
lions and inscriptions ; the decorations beneath the dome were grand, harmonious, and rich ; and the
view beneath the nave, 800 feet in length, remarkably etfective. The Exhibition, based upon that of
1851, embraced thirty-six classes, besides those of the Fine Arts. It was opened with befitting cere-
mony. May 1, 1862, by the Duke of Cambridge, by command of the Queen, whose absence — through
the death of the great originator. Prince Albert— greatly dimmed the state pageant. About 22,000 ex-
hibitors were here represented, of whom about 17,000 were subjects of Her Majesty, and 5000 of foreign
States. The absence of artistic treatment in the plan of the building, the general elevation, and the
exterior ornamental details, were very objectionable. Still, under many depressing influences, the
Exhibition proved numerically and practically a success ; the manufactures of the United Kingdom
showed not merely a gratifying advance upon those of 1851, but a still greater improvement as com-
pared with those of other countries ; commercially,, the exhibitors largely benefited by the sale of
works of industrial and fine art, home and foreign. A compact account of the International Exhibition,
1862, will be found in the extra volume of the Year-book of Facts, pp. 362.
In the construction of the building 4000 persons were employed ; the buildings were insured for
400,000^., at a cost of 3300Z. ; the prizes to exhibitors were declared July 11 ; the Exhibition was closed
Nov. 1 ; Great Exhibition Memorial to Prince Albert, inaugurated June 10, 1863. The buildings have since
been taken down, except the Picture Galleries, in which has been held the National Portrait Exhibition.
Beompton has long been frequented by invalids for its genial air. (See Con-
sumption Hospital, p. 43, and Holt Teinity Church, p. 208.) At No. 7,
Amelia-place, died, in 1817, the Right Hon. J. P. Curran. In Brompton-square, at
No. 13, died Charles Incledon, the singer, 1826 ; and in the same year, at No. 22,
George Colman the younger. At the Grange, taken down in 1842, lived Braham,
the singer. At No. 45, Brompton-row, Count Ilumford, the heat-philosopher ; Rev. W.
Beloe, the " Sexagenarian ;" and Sir Richard Phillips, when writing his Million of
Facts. At No. 14, Queen's-row, Arthur Murphy died in 1805, aged 77. The
National School-house attached to Brompton Church was built in 1841, in the Tudor
style, by George Godwin, F.R.S., architect. Brompton was once famous for its
taverns ; southward, among " the Groves," were the Soop and Toy, the Florida, and
other tea-gardens ; at Old Brompton there remains the Swan, with its bowling-green.
In a retired and well-appointed house, eastward. Mademoiselle Jenny Lind resided,
during the zenith of her well-earned fame as a songstress.
Knightsbeidge, or Kingsbridge, which is the more ancient name is doubtful. In
a charter of Edward the Confessor, the wood at Kyngesbyrig is referred to. In a
charter, not royal, namely one of Abbot Herbert, of Westminster, less than a century
thereafter, occurs the name of Knyghtsbrigg. In Domesday it formed part of three
manors — Neyte, Hyde (whence the name of Hyde Park), and Eybury, now spelt
Ebury, which came by marriage to the Grosvenor family, and has been chosen as a
title by one of its members. There is a tradition as to " Knightsbridge," namely,
that two knights, on the way to Fulham, to be blessed by the Bishop of London,
quarrelled and fought at the Westbourn Bridge, and killed each other on the spot. A
commentator of Norden, the topographer, too, gives the following anecdote : " Kinges-
bridge, commonly called Stonebridge, near Hyde Park-corner, where I wish no true
man to walk too late without good guard, as did Sir H. Knyvett, knight, who valiantly
defended himself, there being assaulted, and slew the mastei'-thief with his own
hands." Still, we have the fact that the place was called "Knyghtsbrigg" in a
formal charter (that of Abbot Herbert), long before the time to which either of these
traditions could apply.
The bridge whence the place partly derived its name was one thrown across the Westbourn, which,
rising at West- End in Hampstead, and giving its name to a district of Bayswater, flowed through the
(artificially widened) Serpentine to the Thames. Its course may yet be traced on any map of London
by the irregularities it has caused in laying out Belgravia. Part of it was an open brook so lately as
1854, but it is now wholly covered in ; and is, we need not say, a common sewer, like the Oldbourne or
the Fleet. Pont-street, which opens Belgravia to Sloane-street, must derive its name from the fact
that it was at one time one of the few bridges over the Westboiurne. This brook used formerly to over-
KNIGET8BBIDGK 491
flow after heavy rains. One such flood is remembered in 1809, when for several days passengers had to
be rowed from Chelsea to Westminster by the Thames boatmen.
The Knightsbridge road was infested by footpads, so that even so late as 1799 a
party of light horse patrolled nightly from Hyde Park-corner to Kensington ; and it is
within the memory of some still alive that pedestrians walked to and from Kensington
in bands suflBcient to ensure mutual protection, starting at known intervals, when a
bell was rung to announce the proper time. It was not even safe to sojourn at the
change-houses or inns which stood by the way, for these were the haunts of the high-
waymen. The water supply of the hamlet was anciently by means of springs and
wells, which were very numerous, pure, and valuable. Doubtless, the Westbourn was
also of great use to the inhabitants. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, a
conduit was formed within Hyde Park, by permission of the Crown, for the supply of
Park-side ; and in the fields on each side of Rotten-row there was a row of conduits,
the waters of which were received by one at the end of Park-side, known as St. James's
• or the Receiving Conduit : these supplied the royal residences and the Abbey. A
spring in Hyde Park, in the time of James 1., was allowed to supply the Lazar-house
(now Trinity Chapel, described at p. 216) by " a pipe of lead bringinge the sayde
^ springe of water to the sayde house." — Builder.
West of St. George's Hospital, at No. 14, John Liston, the comedian, lived several years, and here
he died, March 22, 1846. Liston was born in Norris-street, Haymarket, in 1776, and was educated in
Archbishop Tenison's school : he first appeared on the stage, at the Haymarket Theatre, in 1805; and
retired at the Olympic Theatre in 1837 : he died worth 40,000^.
In 1842, opposite the Conduit in Hyde Park, was built the St. George's Gallery,
for the exhibition of Mr. Dunn's Chinese Collection ; subsequently occupied by Mr.
Gordon Cumming's African Exhibition, and Bartlett and Beverley's Diorama of the
Holy Land. The Gallery was then taken down.
The original entrance was copied from a Chinese summer-house, inscribed " Ten thousand Chinese
things." This Collection, formed by Mr. Nathaniel Dunn, in twelve years, and first exhibited in Phila-
delphia, consisted of a vast assemblage from China of its idols, temples, pagodas, and bridges; arts and
sciences, manufactures and trades; parlours and drawing-rooms; clothes, finery, and ornaments;
weapons of war, vessels, dwellings, &c. Here were life-size groups of a temple of idols, a council of
mandarins, and Chinese priests, soldiers, men of letters, ladies of rank, tragedians, barbers, shoemakers,
blacksmiths, boat-women, servants, &c., amidst set scenes and furnished dwellings. Here was a two-
storied house from Canton, besides shops from its streets ; here were persons of rank in sumptuous
costumes, artisans in their working-clothes, and altogether such a picture of Chinese social life as the
European world had never before seen. Part of the collection was subsequently exhibited in 1851, in a
gay pavilion built for the occasion west of Albert Gate; the site of which is now occupied by a hand-
some five-storied mansion.
Westward is Albert-gate, Hyde Park, opened 1846 : the stags upon the piers were
formerly at the Ranger's Lodge, Green Park, and were modelled from a pair of prints
by Bartolozzi. The ground, with the site of the large and lofty houses east and west,
was purchased by the Crown from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, when the
Cannon Brewery was removed : the house east was bought for 15,000Z. by Mr. Hudson,
then " the Railway King." It is now the residence of the French Embassy.
Knightsbridge Green is identified as the burial-pit of the victims of the plague in
the lazar-house and the hamlet generally. On the Green was erected, in 1864, the
New TattersaU's removed from " the Corner," for the increased accommodation and
comfort of the Jockey Club, its subscribers, and the general public.
The plot of ground upon which it stands is nearly two acres in extent. It is approached from the
east by Knightsbridge-green, and i\ie facade consists of two square wing-bloeks, divided by a pedimented
gateway, carved, and two side entrances. The subscription-room is a saloon 60 ft, by 30 ft., with a
clear height of 26 ft. 6 in. : lighted by da,y by two large domes 18 ft. high, covered with lunettes.
A third dome is in the centre of the ceiling, in which an enormous sun-burner is placed by night.
These domes are bordered by a beautiful guilloche pattern, and enriched with coloured devices. The
walls are decorated in the same pattern. The spacious floor is paved, in a tasteful geometric pattern.
A raised dais, about 6 in. in height, surrounds this apartment. It is skirted and edged with marble.
Under each of the two extreme domes a large octagon slab of marble supports the desks used for re-
cording wagers or writing letters. At the south-west corner is an area of about 70 ft. by 40 ft. for open-
air betting, with a telegraph office. The grand or central entrance leads into the principal public yard,
appropriated to sales by auction. In the centre of this area is the old and familiar temple of the other
premises at Hyde Park-corner, covering the aqueduct with its fox and the bust of George IV. when in
early life ; and in the north-west corner, is the well-known pulpit of the auctioneer. The whole yard is
covered by a gigantic roof of Hartley's patent glass.
At Rutland Gate (on the site of a mansion of the Dukes of Rutland) is the house where John Sheep-
shanks, Ksq., formed his collection of 228 pictures (with two exceptions), by modern British artists :
including 6 works by A. Callcott, E.A. ; W. Collins, B.A., 7; John Constable, E.A., 6; C. W. Cope,
492 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
R.A., 7; W, Etty, R.A., 2; Edwin Landseer, R.A., 9; C. Leslie, R.A., 9 ; W. Mulready, R.A., 15; W. Red-
grave, R.A.. 6; C. Stanfield, R.A., 3 ; J. M. W. Turner, R. A., 5; T. Uwins, R.A., 4 ; T. Webster, R.A., 6.
The collection was bequeathed by Mr. Sheepshanks to the National Gallery.
In High-road, between the Green and Rutland-gate, are the oldest houses in the
hamlet. Chatham House is dated 1688. Three doors beyond it is The Rose and Crown
inn, formerly Oliver Cromwell, the front of which is emblazoned with the great Pro-
tector's arms. There is a tradition that his body-guard was once quartered here ; as well
as of its having slveltered Wyat, while his unfortunate Kentish followers rioted on the
adjacent green. At the corner of South-place is the Phoenix Floorcloth Manufactory, the
earliest established, founded by Nathan Smith, 1754 ; burnt down 1794 ; rebuilt 1824 :
at the north end is a clock, with a figure of Time, cut in stone. At Kent House
resided for a few years the Duke of Kent, who largely added to the original house.
Stratheden House was the town residence of Lord Campbell and Lady Stratheden :
Lord Campbell died here, June 23, 1861, aged eighty-one : the first volume of his Lives
of the Chancellors is dated from this house.
In High-row stood the noted Fox and Bull Tavern, of the time of Queen Elizabeth,
and noted for its gay company to our time. The house is referred to in the Taller,
No. 259. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir W. Wynn, the patron of Ryland, and George
Morland, were visitors here; and Sir Joshua painted the sign, which hung till 1807,
when it was destroyed in a storm. The Elizabethan house was panelled and carved
and had enriched ceilings ; and its immense fire-dogs were not disused till 1799. In a
house westward lived Lady Anne Hamilton j then Mr. Chalon and Mr. Davies, both
artists of repute ; and next Mr. White the naturalist, who had here a menagerie. Mr.
Woodburn, the connoisseur in ancient art, once lived here ; and the staircases still bear
evidence of the artistic tenancy.
Ozias Humphry, R.A., resided many years at Knightsbridge ; he died at 13, High-
row, in 1810. At the west end of the row is the Horse Guards' Barracks, built in
1795, and capable of accommodating 600 men and 500 horses. Bensley, the actor,
who in early life had been in the army, was appointed barrack-master, which appoint-
ment he held till his death, in 1817. Hard by are the stables built for the Duke of
Wellington : Hardwick, architect. In Park-row resided, about 1828, Olive, the soi-
disant Princess of Cumberland, and next door. Sir Richard Phillips. (Abridged chiefly
from Davis's Memorials of Knightsbridge, 1859.)
Lowndes-square occupies the site of a famous place of amusement — Spring Gardens,
so called after the still more celebrated Spring Gardens at Charing-cross : the
World's End, at Knightsbridge, mentioned by Pepys and Congreve, is supposed to
have been a synonym of this fashionable house of entertainment. The building itself
survived till 1826. There was another famous place of entertainment in the same
neighbourhood, called Jenny's Whim. Its site is now occupied by St. George's-row,
near the Chelsea Water- works ; and the house, distingtnshablc by its red-brick and lat-
tice-work, was not removed until November, 1865. Angelo says it was established by
a firework-maker, in the reign of George I. ; here were a large breakfast-room, bowling-
green, alcoves, and arbours ; a fish-pond, a cock -pit, and duck-hunting pond ; a grotto,
and a decanter of Dorchester for sixpence ; a large garden with amusing spring
deceptions; and a piece of water with large fish or mermaids.
Knightsbridge-grove, approached through a stately avenue of trees from the road,
was a sporting house, where the notorious Mrs. Cornelyus endeavoured to retrieve her
fortunes after her failure at Carlisle House ; but she again failed in 1785. Ten years
after, she reappeared at Knightsbridge as Mrs. Smith, a retailer of asses'-milk, in a
suite of breakfast-rooms — but in vain.
The existence of Belgravia only dates from 1825. Before that, the district was a
marshy tract, bounded by mud-banks, and partly occupied by market-gardens. The
sites of Belgrave and Grosvenor Squares were nursery-grounds. Grosvenor Bridge,
where the King's-road crosses the VVestbourne, was not built till the time of Charles II. ;
and it was long called Bloody Bridge, from the number of murderous robberies there
committed. It is curious that the whole of this district was built over, not gradually,
but in two distinct movements — one from 1770 to 1780, and the other, after a pause
of nearly fifty years, beginning in 1825, and still in operation.
KENSINGTON GARDENS. 493
KENSINGTON GARDENS.
THESE delightful gardens, which, in our time, induded an area of ahove 350 acres,
did not, when purchased by William III., soon after his accession, exceed 26 acres,
which he added to Hyde Park. In 1691 they were described by the Rev. Dr.
Hamilton, to the Society of Antiquaries, as " not great, nor abounding with fine plants.
The orange, lemon, myrtle, and what other trees they had there in summer, were all
removed to London or Mr. Wise's greenhouse at Brompton Park, a little mile from
there." Queen Anne added 30 acres, and planted the design as we now have it.
Evelyn notes : " Sept. 2nd, 1701. — I went to Kensington aad saw the houses, plan-
tations, and gardens, the work of Mr. Wise, who was there to receive me." {Diary y
vol. ii. p. 75.) Bowack, in 1705, described the gardens as "beautified with all the
elegances of art (statues and fountains excepted). There is a noble collection of
foreign plants, and fine neat greens, which makes it pleasant all the year ; the whole,
with the house, not being above 28 acres. Her Majesty has pleased lately to plant
near 30 acres more towards the north, separated from the rest only by a stately green-
house, not yet finished." Thus, previous to 1705, Kensington Gardens did not extend
farther north than the conservatory; and the eastern boundary was nearly in the line
of the broad walk which crosses before the east front of the palace. The kitchen
gardens, which formerly extended northward towards the gravel-pits, and the 30 acres
north of the conservatory, added by Queen Anne to the pleasure-gardens, may have
been the 55 acres "detached and severed from the park, lying in the north-west
corner thereof," granted in the 16th of Charles II. to Hamilton, Ranger of the Park,
and Birch, Auditor of Excise ; the same to be walled and planted with " pippins and
red-streaks," on condition of their furnishing apples or cider for the King's use. At
the end of the avenue leading from the south front of the palace to the wall on the
Kensington-road, is a large and lofty architectural alcove, built by Queen Anne's
orders ; so that Kensington Palace, in her reign, seems to have stood in the midst of
fruit and pleasure gardens, between the Kensington and Uxbridge roads. Addison, in
the Spectator, No 477, dignifies Wise and London as the heroic poets of gardening,
and is enraptured with their treatment of the upper garden at Kensington, which was
at first nothing but a gravel-pit ; the hollow basin and its little plantations, and a
circular mount of trees, as if scooped out of the hollow, greatly delighting the essayist.
Tickell opens his elegant eclogue with the oft-quoted glance at the morning promenade
of his day; where—
*' The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair
To gravel walks and unpolluted air :
Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies.
They breathe in sunshine, and see azure skies ;
Each walks with robes of various dyes bespread.
Seems from afar a moving tulip-bed,
Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow.
And chintz, the rival of the showery bow."
Queen Anne's JBanqueting-house, north of the palace, completed in 1705, is a fine
specimen of brickwork: the south front has rusticated columns supporting a Doric
pediment, and the ends have semicircular recesses. The interior, decorated with
Corinthian columns, was fitted up as a drawing-room, music-room, and ball-room ; and
thither the Queen was conveyed in her chair from the western end of the palace.
Here were given full-dress fetes a la Watteau, with a profusion of "brocaded robes,
hoops, fly-caps, and fans," songs by the court lyrist, &c. But when the Court left
Kensington, Queen Anne's building was converted into an orangery and greenhouse.
{See Palaces.)
Caroline, queen of George II., formed the Serpentine, dividing the Palace grounds
from the open Hyde Park by a sunken fosse and wall, thus adding 300 acres to the
gardens or private grounds; the ha-ha, now extending from the Bayswater-road to the
powder magazine, remaining identically as it was then formed. With the soil dug
was raised a mount to the south-east, with a revolving prospect-house. The Gardens
were planted and laid out by Bridgeman, who banished verdant sculpture, but adhered
to straight walks and clipped hedge, varied with a wilderness and open groves.
494 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
A plan of 1762 shows the formal Dutch style on the north of the palace. On the
north-east, a fosse and low wall reaching from the Uxbridge-road to the Serpentine at
once shut in the Gardens, and conducted the eye along their central vista, over the
Serpentine (formed between 1730 and 1733), to its extremity ; and across the Park to
the east of Queen Anne's gardens, immediately in front of the palace, a reservoir was
formed into " the round pond ;" thence long vistas were carried through the wood that
encircled it, to the head of the Serpentine, to the fosse and Bridgeman's ha-ha wall,
affording a view of the Park ; and to the mount already mentioned, which, with its
evergreens and temple, has disappeared within recollection. Bridgeman, " Surveyor of
the Royal Gardens," died in 1738 ; and was succeeded by Samuel Milward and John
Kent. Kensington Gardens long maintained its rural character ; for, in a minute of
the Board of Green Cloth, 1798, we read of a pension granted to a widow, whose hus-
band was accidentally shot while the keepers were hunting foxes in Kensington
Gardens.
After King William took up his abode in the palace, a court end of the town
gathered round it. The large gardens laid out by Queen Caroline were opened to the
public on Saturdays, when the Kuig and Court went to Richmond ; all visitors were
then required to appear in full-dress. When the Court ceased to reside at Kensington,
the Gardens were thrown open in the spring and summer ; and next open throughout
the year, as at present. On stated days in the London season, military bands per-
form. Here is a refreshment-room : " Gentlemen are requested not to smoke in the
vicinity of the music platform and refreshment room, as much complaint has been
made by visitors to the gardens in consequence of this practice. — Office of Works,
August 20, 1855."
Of late years Kensington Gardens have been greatly improved by drainage, re-laying
out, and the removal of walls and substitution of open iron railing. Viewed from
near the palace, eastward are three avenues through dense masses of ancient trees.
Immediately in front of the palace is a quaintly-designed flower-garden, between
which and Kensington are some stately old elm-trees. The broad walk, 50 feet in
breadth, was once the fashionable promenade. On the southern margin of the Gar-
dens is a walk, bordered by the newer and rarer kind of shrubs, each labelled with its
Latin and English name, and its country. The most picturesque portion of the Gar-
dens, however, is at the entrance from near the bridge over the Serpentine, where is a
delightful walk east of the water, beneath some noble old Spanish chestnut-trees. The
elegant stone bridge across the west end of the Serpentine was designed by Sir John
Rennie in 1826, and cost 36,500Z. A pair of magnificent Coalbrook-dale iron gates
(from the Great Exhibition of 1851) has been erected adjoining the southern lodge.
An unornamented gate has been opened in the Bayswater-road. In 1860, a ride
was formed in the Gardens, which had hitherto (except during the Exhibition year
1851) been kept from equestrian intrusion. In 1861 was formed another ride, adapted
only for summer, and entering Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park, through the
gateway in the south-western arch of the bridge; proceeding along the edge of the
Serpentine between a bank of rhododendrons and fine trees ; then through a broad
and shady avenue, and returning along an open space to the entrance-gate.
On this side of the Gardens are the Ornamental Water-works, completed in 1861.
They consist of a small Italian garden, with an engine-house, 48 feet high, Italian in
style, and an engine to pump the water in to large reservoirs, with a jet in the centre
of each ; the tower end separated from the Serpentine by a screen, with vases ; and in
the centre a large octagonal fountain ; the whole supplying the Serpentine. The
sculpture here is by John Thomas ; and the engineer of the water-works, Hawksley.
A large portion on the west side of the Gardens, including the extensive kitchen-
gardens (which date from 1738), pursuant to 5 Vict., c. 1., has been appropriated to a i
ifine public road from Kensington to Notting-hill : here are several handsome man- I
sions, the gardens of those on the west side extending to the old red-brick wall of the '
Palace kitchen-gardens, which remains. By the formation of this road, Kensington
Palace Gardens, the royal gardens were reduced to 261 acres, their present extent, j
Their efiect is not exhilarating, but a relief to the in-dwellers of London. \
KEJNT-STBEET, SOUTHWABK— KENTISH TOWN. 495
KENT-STREET, SOUTHWAEK,
ORIGINALLY " Kentish-street," is a wretched and profligate part of St. George's
parish. In 1633 it was described as " very long and ill-built, chiefly inhabited
by broom-men and mumpers ;" and for ages it has been noted for its turners' shops,
and broom and heath yards. Evelyn tells of one Burton, a broom-man, and his
wife, who sold kitchen-stuff in Kent-street, whom God so blessed that Burton became
a very rich and a very honest man, and Sheriff of Surrey. At the east end of Kent-
street, in 1847, was unearthed a pointed arched bridge of the 15th century, probably
erected by the monks of Bermondsey Abbey, lords of the manor. In Rocque's Map,
1750 (when the Kent-road was lined with hedge-rows), this arch, called Lock's- bridge,
from being near the Lock Hospital, carries the road over a stream which runs from
Newington-fields to Bermondsey. Yet, what long lines of conquest and devotion, of
turmoil and rebellion, of victory, gorgeous pageantry, and grim death, have poured
through this narrow inlet of old London! The Roman invader came along the
rich marshy ground now supporting Kent-street (says Bagford, in a letter to his
brother-antiquary, Hearne) ; thousands of pious and weary pilgrims have passed along
this causeway to St. Thomas's of Canterbury ; here the Black Prince rode with his
royal captive from Poictiers, and the victor of Agincourt was carried in kingly state to
his last earthly bourne. By this route Cade advanced with his 20,000 insurgents
from Blackheath to Southwark j and the ill-fated Wyat marched to discomfiture and
death. To the formation of the Dover-road, in our time, Kent-street continued
part of the great way from Dover and the Continent to the Metropolis.
Smollett, in his Travels, 1766, describes "the avenue to London by the way of Kent-street, which is
a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A foreigner, in passing through this beggarly
and ruinous suburb, conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and magnificence
of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian
from Dover in his own post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his friend
might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter."
KENTISH TOWN,
A HAMLET of St. Pancras, and a prebendal manor of St. Paul's, was formerly
written Kaunteloe, and is the property of the Camden family. Here was the
Castle tavern, which had a Perpendicular stone chimney-piece ; the house was taken
down in 1849 : close to its southern wall was a sycamore planted by Lord Nelson, when
a boy, at the entrance to his uncle's cottage; the tree was spared. Opposite were
the old Assembly-rooms, taken down in 1852 : here was a table, with an inscription by
an invalid, who recovered his health by walking to this spot every morning to take
his breakfast in front of the house. Kentish Town Chapel, originally built by Wyatt
in 1784, has been enlarged and altered to the Early Decorated style : here is buried
Grignon, the engraver. {See p. 212.) In 1848, was built here a large Congregational
Nonconformist Chapel, in ecclesiastical style. In Gospel-terrace is the Roman Catholic
Chapel of St. Alexis, established 1847. In 1848 were 'erected the National Infant and
Sunday Schools, by Hakewill, upon the plan of the Committee of Privy Council on
Education ; the site is part of an estate bequeathed by the witty divine, Dr. South, to
Christ Church, Oxford. Near Highgate Rise is the Grove, where Charles Mathews
the elder made his collection of paintings, prints, and other memorials of theatrical
history, now at the Garrick Club-house. Nearly opposite (at the corner of Swain's-
lane, leading to the Highgate and Kentish Town Cemetery — see p. 82), was " a minia-
ture Wanstead House" (the design copied from Wanstead House, Essex), the villa of
Mr. Philip Hurd, of the Inner Temple, who collected here a costly library, including
the celebrated Breviarium Eomanum, purchased by him, in 1827, from Mr. Dent's
library, for 378?. : it consists of more than 500 leaves of vellum, iUmninated by Flemish
painters in Spain, of the fifteenth century, with miniatures and borders of flowers, fruit,
and grotesque figures, upon a gold ground. (See Dibdin's Bibliographical Eecameron,
vol. i. pp. 163-7.) The villa was taken down in 1851, and upon the site are built
handsome houses. From the rear of Mr. Hurd's house, some twenty-five years since,
406 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON:
not a liouse could be seen, so rural was this neighbourhood ; now little can be seen but
bricks and mortar. The river Fleet, which runs in the rear of the hamlet, has its
source from springs on the south side of the hill between Hampstead and Highgate. In
July, 1846, were sold 27 acres of building-ground in Gospel-Oak and Five-Acr^ Fields,
between Kentish Town and Hampstead, for nearly 400^. an acre. Beneath the Gospel
Oak preached some of our earliest Reformers, and Whitefield the Methodist.
In the last century, the road between the metropolis and Kentish Town was beset with highwaymen.
In the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, Jan. 9, 1773, appears : " Thursday night some villains
robbed the Kentish Town stage, and stripped the passengers of their money, watches, and buckles.
In the hurry they spared the pockets of Mr. Corbyn, the druggist; but he, content to have neighbour's
fare, called out to one of the rogues, ' Stop, friend, you have forgot to take my money !* " — Notes and
Queries, No. 62.
The original "Mother Red Cap," Kentish Town, was a place of terror to travellers, and is believed
to have been the "Mother Damnable " of Kentish Town in early days; at this house "Moll Cutpurse,"
the highwayman of the time of Oliver Cromwell, dismounted and frequently lodged.— Smith's Book for
a Rainy Bay, p. 20.
Camden Town, begun 1791, built on the estate of the Marquis Camden; and Somers
Town, begun 1786, on the estate of Earl Somers — are also hamlets of Pancras parish,
and both are now united with London, and are portions of the metropolis.
Walpole writes, .Tune 8, 1791 : " There will soon be one street from London to Brentford ; ay, and from
London to every village ten miles round 1 Lord Camden has just let ground at Kentish Town for
building fourteen hundred houses — nor do I wonder ; London is, I am certain, much fuller than ever
I saw it. I have twice this spring been going to stop my coach in Piccadilly, to inquire what was the
matter, thinking there was a mob— not at all; it was only passengers." ,
KILBUEN,
A HAMLET about two and a half miles north-west from London, at the south-
western extremity of the parish of Hampstead, is named from Cold-bourne, a
stream which rises near West End, and passes through Kilburn to Bayswater ; and
after supplying the Serpentine reservoir in Hyde Park, flows into the Thames at
Ranelagh. Kilburn has its station upon the London and North- Western Railway. In
the last century, the place was famed for its mineral spring (Kilburn Wells), which
rises about 12 feet below the surface, and is enclosed in a brick reservoir, the door-arch
of which bears on its keystone 1714. The water is more strongly impregnated with
carbonic acid gas than any other known spring in England. In 1837 was taken down
a cottage at Kilburn in which Oliver Goldsmith had resided.
Kilburn originated from Godwyn, a hermit, who, temp. Henry II., built a cell near the little rivulet
called Cuneburna, Keelebourne, Coldbotirne, and Kilboume, on a site surrounded with wood. Between
1128 and 1134, Godwyn granted his hermitage and adjoining lands to the conventual church of St. Peter
at Westminster, who soon after assigned the property to Emma, Gunilda, and Cristina, maids-of-honour
to Maud (queen of Henry I.), herself a Benedictiu^ nun ; and hence the cell of the anchorite became a
nunnery ; Godwyn being appointed its master or warden, and guardian of the maidens, for his life.
Certain estates were granted to the nuns in South wark and Knightsbridge (which manor still belongs
to Westminster), the latter property in the place called Gara, probably Kensington Gore. Provisions,
kitchen-fare, wine, mead, and beer were also assigned; and in return the vestals prayed for St, Edward
the Confessor, and the church at Westminster.
At the Dissolution, in 1536, the "Nonre of Kilboume" was surrendered; when the inventory shows
the chamber furniture to have included " bedsteddes, standing bedd wt 4 postes, fetherbedds, matteres,
cov'lettes, woUen blankettes, bolsters,. pillowes of downe, sheetes," &c. The name of the last prioress
was Anne Browne. Soon after the King assigned the priory estate, with other lands, to Weston, prior of
the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, in exchange for Paris Garden in Surrey, &c. The church was
dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the Baptist ; the latter, in his camel-hair garment, is portrayed on
the priory seal. The Abbey Farm at Kilburn includes the site of the priory: the only view known of ,
the conventual buildings is an etching, date 1722. j
Several relics, including pieces of pottery, a few coins, and a bronze vessel, all r
medieval, were found on the Priory site in the autumn of 1853, and shown to the
Archa3ological Institute. In the Oraphic and Historical Illustrator, pp. 336-340, is
a good account of Kilburn Priory, mostly derived from Park's Hampstead,
ZAMJBETH,
ALSO called Lanibhith, LambJiyde, and Lamhhei, is probably derived from lam, dirt,
and hyd or hythe, a haven ; or from lamb and Jiythe. It was anciently a village
of Surrey, but is now united with Southwark ; and is one of the metropolitan boroughs, ■
returning two members to Parhament under the Reform Act of 1832. The
5 parish |
LAMBETH. 497
ranges along the south bank of the Thames from Vauxhall towards Southwark, and
extends to Norwood, Streatham, and Croydon; in Aubrey's time it included part of the
forest of oaks called Norwood, belonging to the see of Canterbury, wherein was the
Vicar's Oak (cut down in 1679), at which point four parishes meet.
In the earliest historical times, the greater part of modern Lambeth must have been
a swamp, overflowed by every tide, and forming a vast lake at high water. The Romans
have tbe credit of having embanked the Thames on the south side, and of having done
sometliing towards draining the marsh. Roman remains have been discovered at St.
George's Fields and at Kennington ; and some antiquaries have thought that it was
among the Lambeth marshes that Plautius got entangled after his victory over the
Britons, and that he retired thence to the strong entrenchment still to be traced in the
picturesque upland of Keston, near Bromley. The great Roman road from the south
coast at Newhaven, through East Grinsted to London, entered Lambeth at Brixton
{Brixii lapidem), crossed Kennington Common to Newington, and there divided ; the
eastern branch going to Southwark, and the western across St. George's Fields toStangate,
where was a ferry. In 1016, Canute laid siege to London, and finding the east side of the
bridge impregnable, conveyed his ships through a chaimel (" Canute's Trench") dug in
the marshes south of the Thames, so as to attack it from the -west. Maitland, writing
in 1739, imagined that he had succeeded in tracing this canal from Rotherhithe to
Newington Butts, and thence to the river at Vauxhall. But two more probable and
far shorter courses have been indicated for this channel, neither of which would reach
Lambeth at all. Is it not possible, we ask, that the draining works executed by
the Romans left certain water-courses which might have been made available for the
purpose of this stratagem by the invading fleet ? A few years later, in 1041, Kenning-
ton — the " King's Town" — was the scene of the sudden death of Hardicanute. There
was a royal palace there, in which the nuptials of two scions of noble Danish families
were celebrated. The King expired (says the Saxon Chronicle) " with a tremendous
struggle" " as he stood drinking" — not without suspicion of poison. A popular holiday
commemorated this event for many generations ; and we have records of " Hog's Tide'*
or " Hock Tide" being kept as late as 1618. In Lambeth parish, the Churchwardens*
Accounts show entries, till 1566, of sums gathered at these festivals and applied to the
repairs of the church. Harold, in 1062, granted the manor of Larabehythe to Waltham
Abbey ; and in Domesday there are mentioned twelve villans, twenty-seven bordars, a
church, and nineteen burgesses in London, and wood for three hogs ; and the value of
the manor is stated at 111. It passed, after sundry changes, to Bishop Gundulph, of
Rochester, who taxed it with an annual supply of 500 lampreys ; and his successor
demanded, in addition, a yearly salmon — t^be caught of course off the river boundary.
In 1197 the manor came by exchange into the hands of the Archbishops of Canterbury,
with whom it has remained ever since. King John gave leave for the establishment
within it of a weekly market and a Fair of fifteen days, on condition that it would not
be prejudicial to the City of London. Tliis Fair was suppressed by Archbishop Herring in
1757. A strange attempt was made, at the close of the twelfth century, by Archbishop
Baldwin, to found somewhere in Lambeth a collegiate church of secular canons which
should humble the refractory monks of Canterbury by superseding them in their right
of election to the metropolitan see. The scheme was vehemently opposed, and Pope
Celestine being prevailed upon to withdraw the sanction granted by his predecessor
Urban, the buildings were razed by the mob. After many intrigues, the design was
finally abandoned. We derive this jprecis of the early history of Lambeth from a
paper in the Saturday Review,
Lambeth mother-church (St. Mary's) adjoins the Palace, and is described at p, 185.
Beneath its walls, Mary, queen of James II., found shelter with her infant son, having
crossed the river by the horse-ferry from Westminster : here the Queen remained a
whole hour in the rain on the night of December 9, 1688, until a coach arrived from
the next inn, and conveyed her to Gravesend, whence she sailed for France. St.
Mary's Church was rebuilt in 1851-2, save the tower, in the same style as formerly,
except the open timber roof. Memorial and other windows are filled with stained
glass ; " the Pedlar and his Dog " has been replaced, and the tombs and monumental
brasses have been restored. The district churches have little that is noteworthy.
498 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The site of SL John's, Waterloo-road, was a swamp and horse-pond : the church (built 1823-4) has a
peal of eight bells, tenor 1900 lbs. weight : in a vault is buried Robert William Elliston, the comedian
(d. 1831). The district commences at the middle of Westminster Bridge, whence an imaginary boun-
dary-line passes through the middle of the river Thames to Waterloo Bridge.
On the south side of Church-street was Norfolk House, the mansion of the Earl of
Norfolk temp. Edward 1. : here resided the celebrated Earl of Surrey when under the
tuition of John Leland, the antiquary. The house has long been demolished, and its site
and grounds occupied by Norfolk-row and Hodges's distillery. The Dukes of Norfolk
also had in Lambeth, on the banks of the Thames, a garden, which was let to Boydell
Cuper, who opened it as Cuper's Gardens, and decorated it with some fragments of the
Arundelian marbles, given him by the Earl of Arundel, whose gardener he had been.
Other fragments of the sculptures were set up in a piece of ground adjoining, and
afterwards were buried with rubbish from the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, then re-
building by Wren; but the sculptures were subsequently disinterred, and the site was
let to Messrs. Beaufoy for their Vinegar-works — removed to South Lambeth on the
erection of Waterloo Bridge.
Carlisle Street, Lane, and Chapel, keep in memory Carlisle House, the palace
of the Bishops of Eochester from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, when
Henry VIII. granted it to the see of Carlisle. Here, in 1531, Richard Boose or Rose,
a cook, poisoned seventeen persons j for which he was attainted of treason and boiled to
death in Smithfield, by an ex post facto law passed for the purpose, but repealed in the
next reign. On the grounds of Carlisle House was subsequently built a pottery,
which existed temp. George II. The house then became a tavern, brothel, dancing-
school, and academy ; and was taken down in the year 1827.
Lambeth has long been celebrated for its places of public amusement. VauxTiall
Gardens are mentioned by Evelyn, in his Diary, July 2, 1661 : " I went to see the
New Spring Garden, at Lambeth, a pretty contrived plantation;" and the place was
to the last licensed annually as " the Spring Garden, Vauxhall." It was finally closed
in 1859 ; and upon the site have been built the beautiful church of St. Peter ; a School
of Art, and streets of houses. Belvedere House and Gardens* adjoined Cuper's
Gardens in Queen Anne's reign ; and still further west were Cumberland Tea-Gardens
(named after the gi-eat Duke), which existed until 1813 ; their site is now crossed
by Vauxhall Bridge-road. The Log and Luck dates from 1617, the year upon the
sign-stone in the garden-wall of Bethlem Hospital (see pp. 51-54) : here is preserved
a drawing of the old tavern and its grounds. The Hercules Inn and Gardens occu-
pied the site of the Asylum for Female Orphans, opened in 1758 ; and opposite were
the Apollo Gardens and the Temple of Flora, Mount-row, opened 1788. A century
earlier there existed, in King William's reign, Lambeth Wells, in Three Coney Walk,
now Lambeth Walk ; it was reputed for its mineral waters, sold at a penny a quart,
*' the same price paid by St. Thomas's Hospital." About 1750 a musical society was
held here, and lectures and experiments were given on natural philosophy by Erasmus
King, who had been coachman to Dr. Desaguliers. In Stangate are the Bower
Saloon, with its theatre and music-room ; and the Canterbury {Music) Hall.
Astley's Amphitheatre originated with Philip Astley, who in 1763 commenced
horsemanship in an open field near Glover's "Halfpenny Hatch" at Lambeth.
Thence Astley removed to the site of the present theatre, Westminster Bridge-road,
when his ground-landlord had a preserve or breed of pheasants near the spot : the
theatre was burnt in 1794, 1803, and 1841. The Victoria Theatre, formerly the
Coburg, opened in 1818, is built on ground held of the manor of Lambeth : the site
was a swampy open field ; and part of the stone materials of the old Savoy Palace,
Strand, then being cleared away, was used for the theatre foundation. The Royal
Circus, St. George's Fields, was built in 1781, by Dibdin and Hughes, to compete with
Astley ; the Circus was burnt in 1805, and rebuilt as the Surrey Theatre in 1806 ;
burnt in 1865, and rebuilt in the same year.
^ The Asylum for Female Orphans, just mentioned, was established chiefly through
Sir John Fielding, the police-magistrate, whose portrait, attributed to Hogarth, was
* Dr. Rawlinson, in his additions to Aubrey's Surrey (written in 1719), imagines Belvedere Gardens
to have been the site of a saw-mill erected in Cromwell's time, and which he protected by Act of
Parliament.
LAMBETH, 499
preserved there ; with a head of George III. and his youngest son, the Duke of Canx-
bridge, who was long president of the institution : in the chapel is a tablet to his memoryi
The site cost the charity 16,000Z.; premises rebuilt 1826; removed to Beddington in 1866^
In Oakley-street, at the Oahley Arms, November 16, 1802, Colonel Edward Marcus Despard and
thirty-two other persons were apprehended on a charge of high treason : and in February following, th»
Colonel, with nine associates, were tried by a special commission at the Surrey Sessions House ; and
being ail found guilty, seven, including Despard, were executed, February 21, on the top of Horse-
mongcr-lane Gaol,
Lambeth was long noted as the residence of astrologers. At Tradescant's house, in
South Lambeth-road, lived Elias Ashmole, who won Aubrey over to astrology {see
pp. 309 and 396). Simon Forman's burial is entered in the Lambeth parish-register •,
lie died on the day he had prognosticated. Lilly says, Forman wrote in a book left
behind him : " This I made the devil write with his own hand in Lambeth Fields,
1569, in June or July, as I now remember." Captain Bubb, contemporary with
Forman, dwelt in Lambeth Marsh, and " resolved horary questions astrologieally," a
ladder which raised him to the pillory. At the north corner of Calcot-alley lived
Francis Moore, astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster, and the original author of
" Moore's Almanack." Next to Tradescant's house lived the learned Dr. Ducarel, one
of the earliest Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, and librarian at Lambeth Palace.
Lambeth Marshy by Hollar's map, extended from near Stangate to Broadwall ; and
was bounded by the river on the north-west, and the ancient way or road called Lam-
beth Marsh on the south-east. The names of Narrow-Wall and Broad-wall were
derived from the embankments subsequently made.
In cutting for the railway and lines of sewerage at the great terminus near York-road (a space in size
equal to Grosvenor-square), there was found a large deposit from the inundations of the Thames, con-
taining gravel-stones and dark wet clay, or pressed river-mud, imbedding fragments of twigs, bones,
pieces of Roman tile, &c.
Narrow-wall, Vine-street, and Coniwall-road are delineated in views of these
suburbs in Queen Elizabeth's reign : Vine-street is from eight to ten feet below the level
of the adjacent streets. In the Marsh stood, until 1823, an old house, called Bonner's
house, which was traditionally known as the residence of Bishop Bonner. Near the
Marsh resided Thomas Bushell, a man of scientific attainments, who was a friend of
Lord Chancellor Bacon. He obtained from Charles 1. a grant to coin silver money
for the purposes of the king, when the use of his Mint at the Tower was denied to the
king. When Oliver Cromwell assumed the protectorate, Thomas Bushell hid himself in
this house, which it seems had a turret upon it. A large garret extended the length
of the premises ; in this the philosopher lay hid for upwards of a year. This apart-
ment he had hung with black ; at one end was a skeleton extended on a mattress : at
the other was a low bed, on which he slept ; and on the dismal hangings of the wall
were depicted several emblems of mortality. At the Restoration, Charles II. supported
Bushell in some of his speculations. He died in 1674, eighty years of age, and was
buried in the little cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
At South Lambeth, upon the site of Sir Noel Caron's mansion and deer-park, are
Seaufoy's Vinegar and Wine WorJcs. Here were a vessel of sweet wine containing
59,109 gallons, and another of vinegar of 56,799 gallons ; the lesser of which exceeded
the famous Heidelberg tun by 40 barrels. Mr. Beaufoy, F.R.S., was an eminent
mathematician, and a munificent patron of education; his bust is placed in the
Council Chamber, Guildhall. In Lambeth Walk, close upon the South- Western Rail-
way, are the Lambeth Ragged Schools, founded in 1851 by Mr. Beaufoy, at the
expense of 10,000Z., and 4000^. endowment, as a memorial of the benevolent Mrs.
Beaufoy, the wife of the founder.
On part of the site of Belvedere House and Gardens were established, in 1785, the
Lambeth Water-ioorks, first taking their water from the borders of the Thames, then
from its centre, near Hungerford Bridge, by a cast-iron conduit-pipe 42 inches in
diameter ; whence, in 1852, the works were removed to Seething Wells, Ditton, 23
miles by the river-course from London Bridge. Thence the water is supplied to the
Company's reservoirs at Brixton, lOf miles, by steam pumping-engines, at the rate of
10,000,000 gallons daily; from these reservoirs, 100 feet above the Thames, the water
flows by its own gravity through the mains ; but at Norwood it is lifted by steam-
power 350 feet, or the height of St. Paul's Cathedral, above the supplying river.
K £ 2
500 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
In Belvedere-road is Goding's Ale Brewery, built in 1836 : the upper floor is an
immense tank for water, supplying the floor below, where the boiled liquor is cooled ;
it then descends into fermenting tuns in the story beneath, next to the floor for fining,
and lastly to the cellar or store-vats.
Plate-gldss for mirrors and coach-windows was first made, in 1670, by Venetian
artists, with Rosetti at their head, under the patronage of the second Duke of Buck-
ingham, at Fox-hall (Vauxhall), with great success, " so as to excel the Venetians, or
any other nation, in blown plate-glass." But about 1780 the establishment was
broken up, and a descendant of Rosetti's left in extreme poverty. {Hist, of Lamhethy
1786.) The works stood on the site of Vauxhall-square. Some of the finest " Vaux-
hall plates " are to be seen in the Speaker's state-coach. The Falcon Glass-house,
Holland- street, Blackfriars-road, occupies the site of the tide-mill of tlie old manor of
Paris Garden, and has existed more than a century ; here is made about a fortieth part
of the flint-glass manufactured in England.*
Lambeth has long been famed for its stone-ware. The Vauxhall Pottery, esta-
blished two centuries since, by two Dutchmen, for the manufacture of old Delft ware, is
probably the origin of all our existing potteries. Two other Potteries at Lambeth
were commenced in 1730 and 1741. The potters procure the clay from Devon and
Dorset ; and the flint, already ground, from Staffordshire. Salt-glazed stoneware is
made in Lambeth of the yearly value of 100,000^., of which more than one-half is paid
for labour ; at Green's nmnufactory are made chemical vessels for holding from 300
to 400 gallons.
In Hunt's Chemical Worlcs, High-street, are combined the crushing of bones and
the grinding of mustard, with the manufacture of colours, soap, and bone brushes ; and
stearine, glue, hartshorn, and phosphate of lime are obtained by steam-power from the
refuse of slaughtered cattle. Hawes's Soap and Candle Works, at the Old Eoyal
Barge House, have existed for 90 years.
Above Vauxhall Bridge are Price's Stearine Candle Company's Worhs (established 1842) : where
candles are made from cocoa-nut oil brought from the Company's plantations in Ceylon, and palm-oil
from the coast of Africa, landed from barges at the wharf at Vauxhall. The oil being converted by
chemical processes into stearine, is freed from oleic acid by enormous pressure ; is liquefied by steam,
and then conveyed into the mo'ilding machinery, by which 800 miles of wicks are continually being
converted into candles. The buildings are of corrugated iron, and include the auxiliaries of a laboratory,
engineers', carpenters', tinmen's, coppersmiths', and weavers' shops ; forges, a cooperage, a sealing-wax
manufactory, and steam printing-machine; the several furnaces consuming their own smoke. This is
the most colossal establishment in the world in this branch of chemical manufacture.
Shot is made in the lofty towers immediately above and below Waterloo Bridge.
Tlie height of the quadrangular tower is 150 feet: the upper floor is a room
wherein the alloy of arsenic and lead is melted by a furnace; the fluid metal is then
ladled into a kind of cullender, through the holes of which it falls like rain for about
130 feet into water at the lower floor of the building. An iron staircase leads from
the bottom to the top of the tower : on Jan. 5, 1826, the upper floor was destroyed by-
fire, which happening at night, presented a magnificent effect. The circular shot-
tower, 100 feet high, is strikingly beautiful. Mr. Hosking, the architect, considers
this structure to rival the Monument : " They are both," he observes, " of cylindrical
form ; but the one is crowned by a square abacus, and the other by a bold cornice,
which follows its own outline {i.e. of the tower): the greater simplicity and conse-
quent beauty of the latter is such as to strike the most unobservant."
Maudslay and Field's Marine Steam Engine Works, in the Westminster-road, were
commenced in 1810, and employ from 1300 to 1400 workmen, besides steam-power
for the heavy labour. Here are fashioned immense metal screws, like the double tail
of a whale ; parts of engines, several tons weight, are lifted by cranes, to be adjusted
and joined together ; immense cylinders are bored and polished, of such diameter that
a man might almost walk upright through them. Engines cut and shave hard iron, as
if it were soft as wax ; cutting instruments have a force of thirty tons ; steam-hammers
are of ten, twenty, and thirty cwt. ; thick metal plates are pierced by rolling mills and
machinery to be fastened with red-hot rivets.
• Mr. ^psley Pellatt, the proprietor of the Falcon "Works, elected M.P. for Southwark in 1853,
published 0«Wo»t«ef(Q/'G^a8«-»waA;iw^ (1849); the experiences of a lifetime unceasingly devoted to the
studj and practice of the art.
LAMBETH PALACE. 501
In Duke-street, Stamford-street, are Clowes's Printing WorJcs and Foundry, the
largest in the world, commenced by Augustus Applegath, the eminent engineer, and
greatly extended by his successors, Messrs. Clowes.
The " New Cut," from Westminster to Blackfriars-road, has become a street within
the recollection of the writer, who j*emembers low-lying-fields, with a large windmill,
east of the raised roadway. Pedlar's Acre (for the name see p. 185), a portion of
the Marsh, by old admeasurement contains 1 acre 17 poles, with a frontage on the
Thames. In 1504, by the churchwardens' accounts, it was an osier-bed, and in 1623,
Church Osiers; the name of Pedlar's Acre does not occur until 1690, probably from
its being the squatting- place of pedlars, as were the New Cut fields within memory.
In 1504-5, the annual rent of this estate was 2s. %d. ; in 1506, 4». ; 1520, 6«. ; in 1556, 6a. %d. ; in 1564,
13». 4d. ; in 1581, 1^. 6a. %d. ; and in 1651, U., at about which sum it continued until the commencement
of the last century. After the draining of Lambeth Marsh, and the erection of Westminster and Black-
friars Bridges, Pedlar's Acre, in 1752, was held on a long lease at a yearly rent of lOOi. and 800Z. fine.
In 1813, wiien it had been much built upon, it was let by auction for twenty-one years, in three lots, at
78^. per annum, and 6000^. premium. The rents and proceeds are applied to parochial purposes, under
the Act 7 Geo. IV. cap. 46.
At Narrow Wall flourished for nearly 60 years Coade's Manufactory of burnt Artifi-
cial Stone (a revival of terra-cotta), invented by the elder Bacon, the sculptor ; and
first established by Mrs. Coade, from Lyme Regis, in 1769. Of this material are the
bas-relief in the pediment over the western portico at Greenwich Hospital, represent-
ing the Death of Nelson, designed by West, and executed by Bacon and Panzetta ;
and the rood-screen or loft at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The manufacture (now
Austin and Seeley's) has been removed to the New-road.
Lambeth, a few years since a feverish marsh, has been greatly improved by
drainage: Maudslay's Foundry was raised on pillars from the swamp, where at
times a boat might have floated ; it is now, by drainage, firm and dry at all seasons.
Lett's Timber Wharf, from the time of Queen Elizabeth until the beginning of this
century, lay amidst ponds and marsh-streams, but is now dry and healthy. Here are
the timber- wharves of Messrs. Gabriel; Alderman Gabriel, Lord Mayor 1866-7.
Across this thickly-peopled district extends the South-Western Railway from its
terminus in the Waterloo-road to Nine Elms, 2 miles 50 yards, executed at a cost of
800,000^. ; and along the river-bank, anaconda-like, upon arches, trends the extension
of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, and the South Eastern Railway, from
London Bridge.
LAMBETH PALACE,
T AMBETH HOUSE of old, has been for six and a half centuries the mansion of
-'-' the Archbishops of Canterbury, who had resided at Lambeth seventy years pre-
viously; and in 1197 obtained the entire manor, by exchange with the Bishop of
Rochester for certain lands in Kent. Hence the present palace is the manor-house;
and, with the gardens and grounds, forms an extra -parochial district.
The oldest part of Lambeth Palace is the Chapel, and a Crypt, supposed to be a
portion of the ancient manor-house, built by Archbishop Hubert Walter about 1190,
Archbishops Langton, Boniface, Arundel, Chicheley, Stafford, Morton, Warham,
Cranmer, Pole, Parker, and Bancroft, expended great sums on the palace, as have
succeeding archbishops. Cranmer's additions included " the Steward's Parlour," and
"a summer-house in the garden of exquisite workmanship ;" both which have disap-
peared. In Wat Tyler's rebellion, " the commons from Essex" plundered the palace,
and beheaded the archbishop, Sudbury, on Tower Hill. In 1642, the Parliamentary
soldiers dismantled the Chapel, broke the painted windows, which it was alleged
Archbishop Laud had restored "by their like in the mass-book;" while Laud's
" books and goods were seized on, and even his very diary taken by force out of his
pocket." The palace was then used as a prison for the Royalists ; and after its sale
by the Parliament for 7073L, the Chapel was converted into a dancing-room, and
the Great Hall demolished. The latter was rebuilt by Archbishop Juxon, at the
charge of 10,500Z. The palace was attacked by the rioters of 1780, when it was
protected by a detachment of Guards, and subsequently by a militia regiment as a
502 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
garrison for some weeks. Between 1828 and 1848 Archbishop Howley rebuilt the
habitable portion of the palace, and restored other parts, at a cost of 60,000Z. The
garden-front is of Tudor character ; and with its bays and enriched windows, battle-
ments, gables, towers, and clustered chimney- shafts, is very picturesque.
The Gate-house, built by Archbishop Morton about 1490, consists of an embattled
centre and two immense square towers, of fine red brick with stone dressings, and a
spacious Tudor arched gateway and postern. The towers are ascended by spiral stone
staircases, leading to the Secord-room containing many of the archives of the see of
Canterbury. Adjoining the archway is a small prison-room, with high and narrow
windows, and thick stone walls to whicb are fastened three strong iron rings ; and in
the wall are cuttings, including Ko^tt Grafton, and a cross and other figures near it.
The walls and towers of the gate-house, and the ancient brick wall on the Thames
side, are chequered with crosses in glazed bricks.
At this gate the dole immemorially given to the poor by the Archbishops of Canterbury is constantly
distributed. It consists of fifteen quartern loaves, nine stone of beef, and five shillinsrs worth of halN
pence, divided into three equal portions, and distributed every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, among
thirty poor parishioners of Lambeth ; the beef being made into broth and served in pitchers.
The Lollards' Tower, on the left of the outer court, is embattled, and chiefly of
dark-red brick, faced with stone on its outer sides. It was built (1434-5) by Arch-
bishop Chicheley, whose arms are sculptured on the outer wall on the Thames side;
beneath them is a Gothic niche, wherein formerly stood the image of St. Thomas h
Becket. In this tower is the Post-room, with a flat and panelled ceiling, carved with
angels and scrolls, and a head resembling that of Henry VIII. On the east side is an
entrance to the Chapel ; and through a small door you ascend by a steep spiral stair-
case to the Lollards' Prison (in an adjoining square tower on the north side), entering
by a narrow, low, pointed archway of stone, with an oaken inner and outer door, each
3^ inches thick, closely studded with iron rivets and fastenings. This chamber is
nearly 15 feet in length, by 11 feet in width, and 8 feet high; and has two narrow
windows, and a small fireplace and chimney. About breast-high are fixed in the walls
eight large iron rings ; and upon the oaken wainscoting are incisions of initials, names,
short sentences, crosses, cubes, &c., cut by the unhappy captives. It is no longer con-
(Incisions upon the wall of Lollards' Tower.)
sidered that they were exclusively Lollards, nor is there positive evidence that these
followers of Wicliffe were imprisoned here ; although the registers of the see of Can-
terbury record several proceedings against the sect, and Wiclifie himself is said to have
been examined in the Chapel at Lambeth. Archbishop Arundel was the fiercest per-
secutor of the Lollards, and his successor, Chicheley, built " the Lollards' Tower," pos-
sibly on the site of other prisons here, which the registers of the see prove the arch-
bishops to have possessed. To Lambeth House the Popish prelates, Tunstall and
Thirlby, were committed by Queen Elizabeth : and here were confined the Earl of
Essex ; the Earls of Chesterfield and Derby ; Sir Thomas Armstrong, aftei'wards
executed for participation in the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion ; Dr. AHestry, the
eminent divine ; and Richard Lovelace, the poet. In the three stories above the Post-
room are apartments for the archbishop's chaplains and librarian.
The Chapel, entered from the Post-i*oom, is divided by an elaborately carved screen ;
but the arched roof is concealed by flat panelling, bearing the arms of Laud, Juxon,
and Cornwallis. At the east end are five long lancet-shaped lights, filled with
diapered modern glass; and at each side are three triplicated windows, resembling
those of the Temple Church. Here are the archbishop's stall, seats for the officers of
his household, and below for the male servants ; the females being seated in the outer
chapel, in a small gallery, where was formerly an oi-gan. In front of the altar is
buried Archbishop Parker, beneath a marble slab, inscribed, " Corpus Matthtei archi-
LAMBETH PALACE, 503
episcopi tandem hie qviescit."* The tomb, which Parker ** erected while he was yefc
ahve," near the spot where he " used to pray," was demolished by Col. Scot in 1642,
and the Archbishop's corpse thrown into a dung-heap j but it was recovered and re-
interred after the Restoration. Archbishop Bancroft has narrated these facts in an
epitaph of elegant Latin, inscribed on a tomb raised by him to Parker's memory. In
the Chapel have been consecrated upwards of 150 bishops : Dr. Howley's consecration
as Bishop of London (1813) was witnessed by Queen Charlotte, when seventy years of
age : as Archbishop of Canterbury he crowned three sovereigns. The Cr^pt beneath
the chapel has been already noticed at p. 302.
The Library ( Juxon's Hall) and the Great Lining-room (on the site of the Guard-
chamber) form the west side of the inner court. On the north are the new buildings
of the palace, by E. Blore ; the entrance is between two octagonal towers, 84 feet
high. In the Private Library is a portrait on board of Archbishop Warham, con-
secrated 1504 ; this was painted by Holbein, and presented by him to the Archbishop,
with a head of his friend Erasmus : the latter is missing. In the Ante-room is a
whole-length portrait of Charles I., copied from Vandyke ; and a picture on panel of
St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregoryj with the Holy Spirit. (See
a List of the Pictures, in Brayley's History of Surrey, vol. iii.)
The Chiard-chamber is mentioned in 1424 as the " Camera Armigerorum," from the
arms being kept here for the defence of the palace ; but they were carried off in the
plunder of 1642, and were never replaced. In this chamber Archbishop Laud kept his
state, Sept. 19, 1633, the day of his consecration. The apartment is 58 feet long and
27 feet 6 inches wide ; it has a very elegant oak roof, with the lofty two-centred and
bold tracery of Early Perpendicular work ; it was long plastered over, but was restored
by Blore about 1832, when it was under-propped, and the walls were rebuilt. The
roof is panelled, and supported by bold arches springing from octangular corbels ; the
spandrels of the arches being filled by quatrefoils in circles, and trefoil mouldings. On
the gabled sides of the roof similarly enriched arches stretch between the great roof
arches ; on the walls also arches span from corbel to corbel, and support an embattled
frieze ; and the fireplace is turreted.
In this room, besides smaller portraits, is a series of half and three-quarter lengths of all the Arch-
bishops of Canterbury since 1633 : including Laud, by Vandyke ; Juxon (who attended Charles I. on the
scaflfold), from an original at Longleat; Herring, by Hogarth; Seclier, by Reynolds ; Sutton, by Beechey ;
Howley, by Shee. These portraits show the gradual change in the clerical dress, in bands and wigs,
and the large ruff in place of the band : Tillotson's being the first wig, unpowdered, and not unlike the
natural hair. Here also are smaller heads of the earlier archbishops : Arundel, from a curious portrait
at Penshurst; Chicheley, Cranmer, and Grindal ; and Cardinal Pole, from an original in the Barberini
Palace at Rome, Pole maintained great hospitality at Lambeth : in the MS. Library is his patent (4
Philip and Mary) for retaining one hundred servants. The body of the Cardinal lay in great state at
Lambeth during forty days, prior to its interment at Canterbury.
In the hall are given annually, on " public days," a certain number of state entertainments, termed
"Lambeth Palace dinners," to the bishops and leading clergy. The Rev. Sydney Smith facetiously
asks: "Is it necessary that the Archbishop of Canterbury should give feasts to aristocratic London;
and that the domestics of the Prelacy should stand with swords and bag- wigs, round pig and turkey and
venison, to defend, as it were, the orthodox gastronomer from the fierce Unitarian, the fell Baptist, and
the iamished children of Dissent ?"— Second Letter on Church Reform.
In the Picture Gallery, built by Pole, among other paintings are: Archbishop Potter when six years
old (1680), holding a Greek Testament, which he is said then nearly to have read ; Martin Luther, from
Nuremburg ; Cardinal Pole (curious, on board, and probably a genuine likeness) ; Queen Catherine
Parr, original, on board; Luther and his Wife (?), attributed to Holbein, and copied on enamel by Bone;
Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. (full-length, curious costume) ; Bishop Burnet, as Chan-
cellor of the Garter ; an old view of Canterbury Cathedral ; Archbishop Juxon, after his decease ;
Bishop Hoadly, painted by his second wife ; Archbishop Parker,! painted in 1572 by Richard Lyue, who
practised painting and engraving in the palace ; Archbishop Tillotson, by Mrs. Beale.
The Great Hall is built of dark-red brick, with strong buttresses and stone finish-
ings. In the centre of the roof is a two-storied hexagonal lantern, surmounted by a
large vane, in which are the arms of the see of Canterbury, impaled with those of
Juxon (a cross between four negroes' heads), surmounted by the archiepiscopal mitre.
* In this Chapel Archbishop Parker was consecrated, Dec. 5, 1559, according to the " duly appointed
ordinal of the Church of England," as recorded in Parker's Register at Lambeth, and in the Library of
Corpus Christi College at Cambridge; thus falsifying the absurd calumny promulgated by the Romanists,
of Archbishop Parker having been irregularly consecrated at the Nag's Read Tavern, at the east end of
Friday-street, Cheapside, by one bishop only.
t This portrait strongly resembles the small print of the Archbishop engraved by E. Berg (Eemigius
Hogenberg), which Vertue considered to be the first portrait engraved iu England.
504 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The interior was converted into a library for the printed books belonging to the see,
between 1830 and 1834 ; when a new entrance-gateway to the inner court was built,
with a fireproof room over it, in which are kept the MSS. The library has a large
north-west bay-window of richly ornamented stained and painted glass ; in the top
division is a very large coat of the arms of the see and Archbishop Juxon ; and
underneath are the arms of the see and Archbishop Howley, 1829. Around are smaller
coats of the arms of about twenty-four archbishops, each impaled with the arms of the
see. Here are also the arms of Philip II. King of Spain ; but the most curious piece of
painted glass is an ancient portrait of Archbishop Chicheley.
The roof is of oak, and a fine specimen of olden carpentry : it consists of eight main
ribs, with longitudinal braces, springing from corbel brackets, and enriched with
carved spandrels, pendants, enwreathed mitres, and the arms of Juxon and the see of
Canterbury several times repeated. AIdovc the two fireplaces are painted the arms of
the see, impaling those of Bancroft, the founder of the library ; and of Seeker, a
liberal contributor. The books, over-estimated by Ducarel at 25,000 volumes, are kept
in wall and projecting oak cases ; the earliest printed works being in the south-west
bay-window recess. Until Bancroft bequeathed his books in 1610, each archbishop
brought his own private collection. Bancroft's books remained at Lambeth till 1646,
two years after the execution of Laud, when being seized by the Parliament, the use of
them was granted to Dr. Wincocke. They were subsequently given to Sion College,
and many began to get into private hands ; when Selden suggested to the University
of Cambridge a right to them, and they were delivered, pursuant to an ordinance of
Parliament, dated Feb. 1647, into their possession. After the Restoration, and re-
peated demands by Juxon and Sheldon, the books were collected, including those in
private hands, and in the possession of John Thurloe and Hugh Peters. Evelyn writes
to Pepys, in 1 689, that the library was then " replenished with excellent books, but
that it ebbs and flows, like the Thames running by it, at every prelate's accession or
translation." The books left by Archbishops Bancroft, Abbot, Laud, Sheldon, and
Tenison, bear their arms. There is only one volume in the collection known to have be-
longed to Archbishop Parker, which is a volume of Calvin's writing : his arms are on the
outside, and within is written in red lead, " J. Parker," who was the archbishop's son.
The first complete Catalogue made of the printed books was drawn up by Bishop Gibson when
librarian. In 1718 it was fairly copied by Dr. Wilkins, in three volumes folio ; and it has been continued
by his successors to the present time. The library consists of rare and curious editions of the Scriptures,
commentaries of the early fathers, scarce controversial divinity, records of ecclesiastical affairs, English
history and topography ; many fine copies, splendidly embellished.
The early printed books (see the Rev. Dr. Maitland's two Catalogues) include, Caxton's Chroniclet of
jEngland &n& Description of Britain, both "fynsshed" in 1480, the finest copies extant; Lyndwode's
Constilutiones Provinciales, printed by Wynkin de Worde in 1499 ; The Golden Legend, emprynted afc
London in Fletestrete, in the Sygne of the George, by Richard Pynson, in 1507, and another edition of
the same work by Wynkin de Worde, in 1527 ; Gower's Confessio Amantis, a splendid copy by Caxton,
1483; Dives and Pauper, by Pynson, 1493; Chaucer's Works, folio, by John Reynes, in 1452, and Islip,
in 1598. Here, too, is a small folio, executed at Paris, on vellum, about 1500, intituled, La Dance
Macabre (the Dance of Death), printed with old Gothic types and beautifully illuminated. Here, also,
in volumes, is Bancroft's collection of black-letter tracts, namphlets, and sermons ; remarkable for St.
Paul's Cross sermons, Mar-Prelate tracts, and the writings of the Brownisis and other Elizabethan
separatists. Here, too, is a copy of Archbishop Parker's Antiquities printed, by Dayes in 1572 (only
two complete copies extant) : it contains the very rare portrait of Parker, taken just before his deatl^
by Berg.
Among the Manuscripts are, the ancient French version and exposition of the Apocalypse, with
miniature paintings, No. 75; the Latin copy of the Apocalypse, No. 209 (thirteenth century), with 78
brilliant illuminations; and No. 200, a copy of the treatise De Virginitate, in praise of celibacy, by
Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, eighth century. Among the sacred MSS. are Greek Testaments;
the Old Testament in Armenian; the whole Bible, Wicliffe's translation; and Latin Psalters,
beautifully written and illuminated. Here, too, are Scripture expositions of Bede; Anglo-Saxon ser-
mons (tenth century) and Saxon homilies (twelfth century). Among the Missals is a very beautiful
Salisbury missal, folio, on vellum, emblazoned with Archbishop Chicheley's arms. The MSS. of Greek
and Latin classics are extremely valuable. Here are the Lambeth Registers, 40 vols, folio, on vellum;
containing- homages, popes' bulls ; letters to and from popes, cardinals, kings, and princes; commissions
and proxies, marriages and divorces, &c. 1279 to 1747 (except 1644 to 1660) : the registers of the primates
subsequent to Potter, 1747, are kept at Doctors' Commons. Also two large folio volumes of papal bulls ;
ancient charters of the see, 13 vols. ; accurate transcripts of the parliamentary surveys of the property
of bishops, deans, and chapters, made during the Commonwealth, 21 vols.
The collection is stored with MSS. of English history, civil and ecclesiastical, including chronicles
and collections of histories; and important documents, particularly of the relations of France and Eng-
land (temp. Hen. V. and VL). Among the MSS. on Heraldry and Genealogy are many written or
corrected by Lord Burghley. Here are stores of old English poetry and romances : including Lydgate's
Works, and Gawan Douglas's Translation of Virgil's .^jicirf; and the metrical legend of I-ybeaus Disconus.
LAW COURTS. 50r,
Among the Letters are tliose of Lord Verulam, published by Dr. Birch j those of
Ins brother, Anthony Bacon, sixteen vols. ; the letters of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and
of other persons, temp. Henry VIII. to James I, But the most curious and beautifully
written of the miscellaneous MSS. (between 1200 and 1300 in number) is Lord Rivers's
translation from the French of "the Notable Wise Sayings of Philosophers," with
a very fine illumination of Earl Rivers presenting Caxton the printer to King
Edward IV., in presence of his queen and infant son, afterwards Edward V. (Lon-
diniana, vol. iii. p. 316.)
Here is an original copy of Aggas's Map of London, temp. Elizabeth ; and here are
laid up the service-books which have been used at the coronations of different sove-
reigns. The coronation- chairs claimed by the ai'chbishops have descended to their
respective families.
Among the Curiosities is the habit of a priest^ consisting of a stole, maniple,
chasuble, cord, two bands marked P., and the corporal ; also, a crucifix of base metal,
a string of beads, and a box of relics. Here is kept the shell of the tortoise, believed
to have lived in the palace-garden from the time of Laud (1633) to 1753, when it
perished by the negligence of the gardener : the shell is 10 inches in length, and 6^
inches in breadth.
The Gardens and grounds extend to eighteen acres. Here were formerly two fine
white Marseilles fig-trees, traditionally planted by Cardinal Pole against that part of
the palace which he founded : these trees were more than 50 feet in height and 40 in
breadth ; their circumferences 28 and 21 inches. They were removed during the late
rebuilding, but some cuttings from the trees are growing between the buttresses of
the Library. The Terrace is named Clarendon Walk, from having been the scene of
the conference between the great and wise Earl of Clarendon and the ill-fated Laud.
A superb feature in the archbishop's state was formerly a river barge, in which he
went to Parliament ; but this custom has been discontinued a century, or since Arch-
bishop Wake's primacy. The Stationers' Company's Barge, formerly called at Lam-
beth Palace on Lord Mayor's Day, to present copies of their Almanacks ; the origin of
which custom is described under the account of the Stationers' Company, p. 421.
Lambeth House has at various times proved an asylum for learned foreigners who
have been compelled to flee from the intolerant spirit of their own countrymen. Here
the early reformers. Martyr and Bucer, found a safe retreat ; and the learned Antonio,
Archbishop of Spalatro, was entertained by Archbishop Abbot. The archbishops have
frequently been honoured by visits from their respective sovereigns. Henry VII., just
before his coronation, visited Archbishop Bourchier. Henry VIII. was a guest of
Warham, in 1513; and one evening in 1543 he crossed the Thames to Lambeth,
to acquaint Cranmer (whom he called into his barge) of the plot against him
instigated by Bishop Gardiner. Queen Mary is said to have refurnished Lambeth
House, at her own expense, for the reception of Cardinal Pole, whom she several
times visited here during his short primacy. Elizabeth often visited Archbishop
Parker; his successor, Grindal, was oui of favour; but Whitgift, the next archbishop,
was visited fifteen times by Elizabeth, who occasionally stayed two or three days.
James also visited Whitgift. Mary, Queen of William III., had a conference here in
1694 with Archbishop Tillotsou, who received here Peter the Great, to witness the
ceremony of an ordination.
LAW COURTS.
FOR nearly eight centuries, existing record proves Law Courts to have been held at
Westminster, within the palace of the sovereign : one of the earliest notices being in
the Annals of Waverley, 1069, when Elfric, Abbot of Peterborough, was tried before
the king in curia. But it was not until 1225 (9 Hen. III.) that the Law Courts,
hitherto held wherever the king was temporarily resident, were permanently fixed at
Westminster. Here the Courts were frequently held before the monarch in person j
and the phrase of summons, " in banco regince" still is, " before the queen herself."
The old Law Courts in Westminster Hall were thus arrang'ed. At the entry, on the right hand,
were settled the Common Pleas, for civil matters ; at the upper end, in the south-east corner, was the
506 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Kinsr's Bench, for pleas of the Crown ; and in the south-west angle sat the Lord Chancellor, the Master
of the Rolls, and eleven men learned in the civil law, called Masters of the Chancery, deriving its name
from the lattice-work, " cancelli," which separated this Court (in the last century shutting it out of
eight) from the lower part of the Hall. (The screen was removed before the coronation of King George
IV.) Near the King's Bench, going to the large chamber (White Hall) was the Court of Wards and
Liveries, instituted by Henry VIII. ; in this chamber, then called the Treasury, were kept valuable
state-papers. Adjoining, but inferior to the Chancery, was the Equity Court of Requests, or Conscience,
for trying suits made by way of petition to the sovereign ; and sometimes called the Poor Man's Court,
because he could there have right without paying money. It began its sittings in 1493, and was remodelled
in 1517; the Lord Privy Seal sitting as judge. — Walcott's Westminster, p. 252, abridged.
The Old Court of Requests, just mentioned, was, at the Union, fitted up as the
King's Robing-room and the House of Lords; and after the great fire in 1834, this
Court was newly roofed, and fitted up as the House of Commons ; the old Painted
Chamber being similarly provided as the House of Lords.
Of certain of the present Courts we subjoin a few details of popular interest.
Centeal Ceiminal Cofet (the) forms part of the Sessions House, formerly " the
Justice Hall," divided by a broad yard from the prison of Newgate, in the Old Bailey.
The Court, established 1834, sits monthly; so that a prisoner has been apprehended one
day, committed by a magistrate on the second, and tried, convicted, and sentenced on the
third or fourth day. The judges are, the Lord Mayor (who opens the Court), the
Sheriffs, the Lord Chancellor (such is the order of the Act), the Judges, the Aldermen,
Recorder, Common Serjeant of London, judge of the Sheriffs' Court, or City Com-
missioner, and any others whom the Crown may appoint as assistants. Of these, the
Recorder and Common Serjeant are in reality the presiding judges ; a judge of the law
only assisting when unusual points of the law are involved, or when conviction affects
the life of the prisoner. Here are tried crimes of every kind, from treason to the
pettiest larceny, and even ofi'ences committed on the high seas. The jurisdiction com-
prises the whole of the metropolis as now defined; with the remainder of Middlesex j
the parishes of Richmond and Mortlake in Surrey ; and great part of Essex.
The Court-house, built in 1773, was destroyed in the Riots of 1780, but was rebuilt
and enlarged 1809, by the addition of the site of Surgeons' Hall. The Old Court is a
square hall, with a gallery for visitors ; below is a dock for the prisoners, with stairs
descending to the covered passage by vv'hich they are conveyed to and from Newgate ;
opposite is the bench, with the chief seat, above it a gilded sheathed sword upon the
crimson wall ; and a canopy overhead, surmounted with the royal arms. To the left of
the dock is the witness-box, and further left is the jury-box ; which arrangement
enables the jury to see, without turning, the faces of the witnesses and prisoners;
the witnesses to identify the prisoner ; and lastly, the judges on the bench, and the
counsel in the centre of the Court below; keeping jury, witnesses, and prisoners all at
once within nearly the same line of view. The Court formerly sat at 7 a.m. ; the
present hour is 10. Upon the front of the dock is placed rue, to prevent infection.
In 1750, when the jail-fever raged in Newgate, the effluvia entering the Court, caused
the death of Baron Clarke, Sir Thomas Abney, the judge of the Common Pleas; and
Pennant's " respected kinsman," Sir Samuel Pennant, Lord Mayor ; besides members
of the bar and of the jury, and other persons : this disease was also fatal to several
persons in 1772. In the New Court, adjoining, are tried the lighter offences.
In 1841, both courts were ventilated upon Dr. Reid's plan, from chambers beneath the floors, filled
■with air filtered from an apartment outside the building ; the air being drawn into them by an enormous
discharge upon the highest part of the edifice, or propelled into them by a fanner. From the entire build-
ing the vitiated air is received in a large chamber in the roof of the Old Court, whence it is discharged
by a gigantic iron cowl, 15 feet in diameter, weighing two tons, and the point of the arrow of the
guiding-vane 150 lbs. The subterranean air-tunnels pass through a portion of the old City wall.
Above the Old Court is a stately dining-room, wherein, during the Old Bailey
sittings, the dinners are given by the Sheriffs to the judges and aldermen, the Recorder,
Common Serjeant, City pleaders, and a few visitors. Marrow-puddings and rump-
steaks are invariably provided. Two dinners, exact duplicates, are served each day, at three
and five o'clock; the judges relieve each other, but aldermen have eaten both dinnei's;
and a chaplain, who invariably presided at the lower end of the table, thus ate two
dinners a day for ten years. Theodore Hook admirably describes a Judges' Dinner in
his Gilbert Ourney. In 1807-8, the dinners for three sessions, nineteen days, cost
Sheriff" Phillips and his colleague 35^. per day^G65^. ; 145 dozen of wine, consumed
LAW COURTS. 507
at the above dinners, 450Z. : total 1115/. The amount is now considerably greater, as
the sessions are held monthly.
" The Press Yard," between the Court-house and Newgate, recals the horrors of
the old criminal law, in the peine forte et dure (the strong and hard pain) : a torture
applied to persons refusing to plead, who were stripped and put in low dark chambers,
with as much weight of iron placed upon them as they could bear, and more, there to
lie until they were dead ; which barbarous custom of pressing to death continued
until the year 1734.
Memorable Trials at the Old Bailey and Central Criminal Courts : Major Strangwayes, the assassin,
1657 ; Col. Turner and his family, for burglary in Lime-street, 1663 ; the Regicides, 1660 ; Green, Berry,
and Hill, for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, 1678; Count Koningsmark, and three others, for
the assassination of Mr. Thynne, 1681 ; William Lord Russell, William Hone, and two others, for high
treason, 1683 ; Rowland Walters and others, lor the murder of Sir Charles Pym, bart., 1688 ; Harrison,
for the murder of Dr. Clenche, 1692; Beau Fielding, for bigamy, 1706; Richard Thornhill, Esq., for
killing Sir Cholraeley Deering in a duel, 1711; the Marquis di Paleotti, for the murder of his servant
in Lisle-street, 1718; Major Oneby, for killing in a duel, 1718 and 1726; Jack Sheppard, the house-
breaker, 1724; Jonathan Wild, the thief-taker (who lived nearly opposite the Court-house), 1725;*
Catherine Hayes, murder of her husband, 1726; Richard Savage, the poet, for murder, 1727; the
infamous Col. Charteris, 1730; Sarah Malcolm, for murder, 1733; Elizabeth Canning, an inexplicable
mystery, 1753 ; Ann Brownrigg, for murder, 1767 ; Baretti, for stabbing, 1769 ; the two Perraus, for
forgery, 1776; the Rev. Dr. Dodd, for forgery, 1777; the Rev. Mr. Hackman, for shooting Miss Reay,
1779; Ryl,nd, the engraver, for forgery, 1783; Barrington, the pickpocket, 1790; Renwick Williams,
for stabbing, 1790; Theodore Gardelle, for murder, 1790; Hadfield, for shooting at George IIL, 1800;
Capt. Macnamara, for killing Col. Montgomery in a duel, 1803 ; Aslett, the Bank clerk (forgery on
the Bank, 320,000^.), 1803; old Patch, for murder, 1806; HoUoway and Haggerty, for murder, 1807;
Governor Wall, for murder by flogging, 1812 ; Bellingham. the assassin of Perceval, 1812 ; Eliza Fennhig,
for poisoning, 1815; Cashman, the seaman, for riot on Snow-hill (where he was hanged), 1817; Richard
Carlile, for blasphemy, 1819 and 1831; Cato-street conspirators, 1820; Fauntleroy, for forgery, 1824;
St. John Long, the " counter-irritation" surgeon, for manslaughter, 1830 and 1831; Bishop and Williams,
for murder by " burking," 1831 ; Greenacre, for murder, 1837 ; E. Oxford, for shooting at the Queen,
1840; Courvoisier, for the murder of Lord William Russell, 1840; Blakesley, for murder in Eastcheap,
1841 ; Beaumont Smith, for forgery of Exchequer Bills, 1841 ; J. Francis, for attempt to shoot the
Queen, 1843; Mao Naught en, for assassination, 1834; Dalmas, for murder on Battersea Bridge, 1844;
Barber, Fletcher, &c., for Will-forgeries, 1844; Manning and his wife, for murder, 1849; Seven Pirates
convicted of murder on the high seas, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, 1863.
Cleekenwell Session House {see p. 237).
CouET OE Aeches (see Doctoes' Commons, p. 312).
CoFETS op Equity (the) — namely, those of the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the
Eolls, and the Vice- Chancellor of England — sit at Westminster in term-time ; but in
the intervals the Lord Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor sit at Lincoln's Inn ; and the
Master of the Rolls at the Rolls House, in Chancery-lane : the two additional Vice-
Chancellors, appointed in 1841, also sit at Lincoln's Inn. The Lord High Chancellor
was originally a sort of confidential chaplain, or, before the Reformation, confessor to
the king, and keeper of the king's conscience. As chief secretary, he advised his
master in matters temporal; prepared royal mandates, grants, and charters; and when
seals came in, affixed the same : hence the appointment to the office takes place by the
delivery of the Great Seal. His Court has exclusive cognisance of trusts, and the
suitors' property exceeds 40,000,000Z.
CouET OF Chanceey. — The present Law Courts, on the west side of the Great
Hall at Westminster, were built by Soane, 1820-25, upon the site of the old Exchequer
Chamber, &c. There is little to interest the visitor, except in the Lord Chancellor's
Court, where his lordship sits in state, with the mace and an embroidered bag before him ;
in this bag the seal is deposited when the Chancellor receives it from the Sovereign,
and when, upon his retirement from office, he delivers it into the royal hands : formerly,
the Great Seal was worn by the Chancellor on his left side.
The Great Seal itself is a silver pair of dies, which are closed to receive the melted
wax, poured, when an impression is to be taken, through an orifice left in the top. As
each impression is attached to a document by a ribbon or slip ot parchment, its ends
are put into the seal before the wax is poured in ; so that when the hard wax is taken
from the dies, the ribbon or parchment is affixed to it. The impression of the seal is
* Amongst the old manuscript documents in the Town Clerk's Office at Guildhall is a petition from
Jonathan Wild to the Court of Aldermen, dated 1724, praying to be free of the City, for apprehending
and convicting divers felons returned from transportation, since October 1720. In 1839, the skeleton of
Jonathan was in the possession of a surgeon at Windsor.
508 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
six inches in diameter, and three-quarters of an inch thick. On every accession to the
throne, a new seal is struck, and the old one is cut into four pieces and deposited in
the Tower of London. Formerly, the seal was broken " by the king's command," and
the fragments were given to the poor of religious houses.
The present Great Seal was executed by Benjamin Wyon, R.A., in 1839. Obverse : The Queen wear-
ing a flowing and sumptuous robe and regal diadem, bearing a sceptre, and riding a charger richly
caparisoned with plumes and trappings, while a page, bonnet in hand, gracefully restrains the steed.
The legend in the exergue, "Victoria Dei Gratia Britanniarum Regina, Fidei Defensor," is engraved in
Gothic letters ; the interspaces of the words being tilled with heraldic roses; a crown above, and a
trident-head and oak branches beneath. Reverse : The Queen royally robed and crowned, holding the
sceptre and orb, and seated upon a throne beneath a Gothic canopy : on either side is a figure of Jus-
tice and Religion j and beneath are the royal arras and crown ; the whole encircled by a border of oak
and roses.
The Seal-lag is about twelve inches square, of crimson silk embroidered in gold,
with the royal arms on each side, fringed with gold bullion ; to the bag is attached a
stout silken cord, by which it is carried j w^ithin is placed the Seal, in a leathern pouch,
enclosed in a silk purse.
The Chancellor's Mace is silver- gilt, and about five feet long. The stafi" and its
massive bands are deeply chased with the rose, shamrock, and thistle ; the upper por-
tion consists of a large and richly chased crown, surmounted with the orb and cross,
and encircled with crosses-patees and fleurs-de-lis ; and supported on a bold circlet,
ornamented in high relief with the emblems of the United Kingdom. The mace and
seal-bag are laid before the Chancellor when seated upon the woolsack as Speaker of
the House of Lords ; and they are placed upon the table in the Court of Chancery,
accompanied by a large nosegay of flowers, conjectured to be the representative of the
judge's bough or wand.
CoTJET or ExCHEQTJEE (the) was formed by William I. in 1079, as a superior Court
of Kecord, in the place of a similar court in his Ducliy of Normandy : it included the
Common Pleas until 16 John, 1215; it was remodelled into its present form by
Edward I. The name of Exchequer is from the parti-coloured carpet of a table before
the Barons, on which the sums of certain of the king's accounts were reckoned by
counters : the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the treasurer ; he presides only when the
Court sits as a Court of Equity.
The Great Roll of the Exchequer (" the Pipe Roll ") contains an account of the
Crown revenue from 5 Stephen to the present time. To this document nearly every
ancient pedigree is indebted; it has a perfect list of the Sherifis of the different
counties, and almost every name in English history.
The Court of Exchequer regulates the election of Sheriff's. Thus, on the morrow of
St. Martin, November 12, a Privy Council is held in the Exchequer Court, to receive
the report of the Judges of the persons eligible in the several counties to serve as
Sheriff". On the bench sits the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his figured silk gown,
trimmed with gold ; next are Members of the Privy Council, the Lord Chancellor, and
Judges of the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas; below sit the Judges and Chief
Baron of the Exchequer, and on the left the Remembrancer of the Court. At this
meeting the Judges report the names of three persons eligible for Sheriff" in each
county, when excuses for exemption are pleaded. The list is again considered by the
Privy Council, and the names finally determined on the approval of Her Majesty in
Council, which is done by the Sovereign pricking through the name approved on a long
sheet of paper called the Sheriff's' Roll.
The Sheriffs of London and Middlesex are, however, chosen by the Livery ; but are presented, on
the morrow of the Feast of St. Michael, in the Court of Excliequer, accompanied by the Lord Mayor
and aldermen, when the Recorder introduces the Sherifts and details their family history, and the Cursi-
tor Baron signifies the sovereign's approval; the writs and appearances are read, recorded, and filed, and
the Sheriffs and senior under-sheriff take the oaths ; and the late SheriSs present their accounts. For-
merly, the following ancient tenure ceremony was performed in the Court. The Crier of the court made
proclamation for one who did homage for the Sheriff's of London to "stand forth and do his duty;"
when the senior Alderman below the chair rose, the usher of the court handed him a bill-hook, and held
in both hands a small bundle of sticks, which the Alderman cut asunder, and then cut another bundle
with a hatchet. Similar proclamation was then made for the Sheriff" of Middlesex, when the Alderman
counted six horse-shoes lying upon the table, and sixty-one hob-nails handed in a tray; and the num-
bers were declared twice. The sticks were thin peeled twig.s, tied in a bmidle at each end with red
tape; the horse-shoes were of large size, and very old; the hob-nails were supplied Iresh every year.
Ly the first ceremony the Alderman did suit and service for the tenants of a manor in Shropshire, the
LAW COURTS. 509
chopping of sticks betokening the custom of the tenants supplying their lord with fuel. The counting
of the horse-shoes and nails was another suit and service of the owners of a forge in St. Clement
Danes, Sti-and, which formerly belonged to the City, but no longer exists. Sheriff Hoare, in his MS.
journal of his shrievalty, 1740-41, says, where the tenements and lands are situated " no one knows,
nor doth the City receive any rents or profits thereby."
This ancient ceremony is now observed before the Queen's Remembrancer, at his
office, where the City Solicitor, the Secondary of London, and one of the late Under-
Sheriffs, attend " to account as to rent services due to the Crown to be rendered on
behalf of the Corporation ;" when the City Solicitor cuts the fagot and counts the
horse-shoes and nails, and the Remembrancer says, "Good number," according, to
custom.
On Nov. 9 the oath is administered in the Court of Exchequer to thefLord Mayor elect ; the late
Lord Mayor renders his accounts ; and the Recorder invites the barons to the inauguration- banquet at
Guildhall.
The Court of Exchequer has two seals: the Great Seal, used not more than ten or twelve times a
year, except on Seal Days, in passing the accounts in court. The other, a small Initial Seal, which
formerly contained the Chancellor's initials, but now bears the letters C. E,, is affixed to writs, " is ia
daily use, and seldom idle during official hours."— iVb^es, by F. S. Thomas, Record Office.
The Receipt of Exchequer at Westminster, the most ancient revenue department of the State, with
all its antiquated machinery of tallies and checks, was not abolished until the year 1834; when a new
office for the payment of pensions and public moneys, and the receipt of revenue, was opened at the
Bank of England. By the statute of 23 Geo. III. cap. 82, however, indented check receipts were issued
from the Tally Court instead of tallies, which, as instruments of loan, declined with the growth of
Exchequer Bills. An Exchequer Tally, date 1810, is 22^ inches long, and | of an inch extreme width:
notches are cut in its edge to denote the reckoning, and from the cross-line in the lower part has been
stripped off the counter-tally, cutting the date-line of the transaction written on the edge ; so that
identity consisted not only in the wood fitting, but in the halved date and notches corresponding,
like a halved bank-note.
" From "his rug the skew'r he takes.
And on the stick ten equal notches makes ;
With just resentment flings it on the ground.
There, take my tally of ten thousand pound." — Swift.
As one of the Exchequer apartments at Westminster was filled with the old tallies in 1834, it became
advisable to destroy them ; and an order was issued from the Board of Works to burn these ancient
relies, although persons curious in such matters would have purchased bundles of them for museums
and collections. The tallies were, accordingly, burnt in the principal stove of the House of Lords ; and
to the consequent overheating of the flues proceeding in every direction from the stove through the
■wood-work of the House, on October 16, 1834, nearly the whole of both Houses of Parliament was con-
sumed by fire.
Insolvent Debtoes' Cotjet, Portugal-street, Lincoln's-Inn-fields, abolished 1861.
Mr. Dickens has thus vividly sketched its characteristics : —
" A temple dedicated to the genius of seediness," and " the place of daily refuge of all the shabby-
genteel people in London. There are more suits of old clothes in it at one time than will be offered for
sale in all Houndsditch in a twelvemonth ; and more unwashed skins and grisly beards than all the
pumps and shaving-shops between Tyburn and Whitechapel could render decent between sunrise and
sunset. There is not a messenger or process-server attached to the Court who wears a coat that was
made for him ; the very barristers' wigs are ill-powdered, and their curls lack crispness. But the
attorneys, who sit below the commissioners, are, after all, the greatest curiosities. The professional
establishment of the more opulent of these gentlemen consists of a blue bag and a boy. They have
no fixed offices, their legal business being transacted in the parlours of public-houses or the yards of
prisons, whither they repair in crowds, and canvas for customers after the manner of omnibus-cads.
They are of a greasy and mildewed appearance ; and if they can be said to have any vices, perhaps
drinking and cheating are most conspicuous among them." — Pickwick Papers.
Maeshalsea and Palace Couet was an appendage to the royal house at West-
minster: anciently it had exclusive jurisdiction in matters connected with the royal
household, and was presided over by the Earl Marshal. It next became a minor court
of record for actions for debt, &c., within Westminster and twelve miles round it, except
the City of London ; its prison being in High-street, Southwark, until consolidated
with the Queen's Bench and Fleet in 1842. The Court, with the Knight-Marshal for
judge, existed until December 28, 1849, when it was formally adjourned for the last
time, and rose never to resume its sittings; the suits being transferred to the Common
Pleas and County Courts, and the records to the charge of the Master of the Rolls.
The Marshalsea Court sat in Southwark until 1801, and subsequently in Great Scotland-
yard, Whitehall ; but it was probably first held in the " Court of Requests," part of
the Norman Palace at Westminster. Littleton, the eminent lawyer, was appointed by
Henry VL Steward or Judge of the Marshalsea Court.
There were formerly local courts in the metropolis outside the privileged boundary of the " City :"
the various Courts of Request, and the celebrated Palace Court, with a jurisdiction in some respects
resembling the Lord Mayor's Court, and like that Court, under its original constitution, having only a
limited number of privileged counsel and attorneys. The old Courts" of Bequest were swept away by
510 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the County Courts' Acts. The Talace Court survived, and owed its subsequent downfall to the accident
of an energetic writer for the public press having been sued there, and in consequence brought about a
clamour for its abatement as a nuisance. — Alexander Fulling.
Lord Matoe's Court (the) has jurisdiction over all personal and mixed actions
within the City, and is held at Guildhall, nominally before the Lord Mayor and Alder-
men, hut really before the Recorder. The office of the Court was formerly in a long
gallery at the west end of the Royal Exchange. The records of the Court were saved
from the great fire at the Exchange in 1838, and have been arranged in a strong fire-
pi'oof closet in a record-room at Guildhall by the town-clerk ; with other records of the
reigns of Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., "V., and VI.; books of pre-
cedents, James I.; records from Elizabeth to George I. Francis Bancroft was an
officer of this Court, and despised for his mercenary conduct, which he atoned for by
bequeathing his ill-gotten wealth to build almshouses and a school. The Court was,
after 1838, held in Old Jewry ; and next removed to the Guildhall.
The Lord Mayor's Court is presided over by the Eecorder, with an unlimited jurisdiction, both legal
and equitable, for cases which are within the City boundaries, and peculiar modes of procedure, in part
derived from the ancient customs of the City of London, and in part from recent Acts of Parliament,
and possessing the very peculiar power of proceeding by what is caJled/orei^w attachment.
Rolls Court. — In vacation the Master sits at the Rolls House, in the Liberty of
the Rolls, between Chancery -lane and Fetter-lane : it is exempt from the power of the
Sheriff of Middlesex, and of every other officer, except with leave of the Master. The
Court adjoins the Master's House and the Chapel, described at p. 215. The House,
designed by Colin Campbell, was built I7l7, when Sir Joseph Jekyll was Master. A
great portion of the estate was formerly laid out in gardens, upon which has been built
the central portion of a new Record Office. Opposite the Rolls Chapel was Herflet
Inn, belonging to the priors of Nocton Park, and occupied by the Six Clerks in the
Court of Chancery, who subsequently removed to the west side of the north end of
Chancery-lane : they were abolished 1842.
When Sir William Grant was Master of the Rolls, the court sat in the evening from six to ten, and
Sir William dined after the court rose : his servant, when he went to bed, left two bottles of wine on
the table, which he always found empty in the morning. Sir William lived on the ground-floor of the
Eolls House, and when showing it to his successor in the Mastership, he said : " Here are two or three
good rooms; this is my dining-room; my library and bed-room are beyond; and I am told there are
some good rooms upstairs, but 1 was never there."
Sheriff's Courts (the) are held by each of the Sheriffs of London, near Guildhall,
before a judge appointed by him.
Star Chamber (the) was the ancient council-chamber of the palace at Westminster,
wherein the king sat in extraordinary causes. The last-existing Star-Chamber build-
ings are described at p. 450.
Our chief metropolitan tribunals are, at this day, held in the same place, and with
hardly better accommodation, than was accorded to them at the date of Magna Charta,
when the Common Pleas was permanently fixed at Westminster Hall. The demand
for a fitting Palace of Justice for the metropolis, which has been so long pressed on
the attention of the Legislature, is now about to be complied with ; the chosen site
being the district (^\ acres) bounded on the north by Horseshoe-court, Yeates-
court, Carey-street, and Lincoln's-inn ; on the south by the Strand, and the Temple ;
on the east by Bell-yard and Temple-bar; and on the west by New Inn and
Clement's Inn. The competitive designs for the New Law Courts were exhibited to
the public in a temporary building in Old-square, Lincoln's-inn, in February, 1867.
A paper, descriptive of the older occupation of the site, entitled, " Old Houses on the
site of the New Law Courts," by the author of Curiosities of London, with eight
engraved views, appeared in the Illustrated London News, December 15, 1866 : it is
a piece of London topography of considerable historic interest.
LJEAimNHALL STBJEJST,
EXTENDING from Cornhill to Aldgate, and the adjoining Market, are named
from the manor-house of Leadenjiall, which belonged to Shr Hugh Neville in 1309 ;
LEICESTER SQUARE. 511
in 1419 Simon Eyre erected npon its site a granary, which he gave to the Corporation; and
adjoining he built a chapel in the Perpendicular style, for the market-people, Leadenliall
having then become a market. In this Hall were kept the artillery and other arms of
the City ; doles were distributed from here ; in Stow's boyhood, the common beams for
weighing wool, and the scales to weigh meal, were kept here ; and in the lofts above were
painted devices for pageants. Chamberlayne describes it, in 1726, as " a noble ancient
building, where are great markets for hides and leather, for flesh, poultry, and other
sorts of edibles." In 1730 the market-place was partly rebuilt ; and the leather-market
in 1814, when the Chapel and other ancient portions were removed. The " Green
Yard" was a portion of the garden of the Nevilles; and the Chapel, in Eam-alley, was
inacribed " Dextra Domini exaltavit me."
Leadenhall was formerly the great meat-market. Don Pedro de Ronquillo, on visit-
ing it, said to Charles II., that he believed there to be more meat sold in that market
alone, than in all the kingdom of Spain in a year ; and " he was a very good judge."
Beneath No. 71, Leadenhall-street is the ancient chapel of St. Michael, Aldgate (see
Crypts, p. 303). No. 153 has an Early English crypt. Here, too, at " the Two
Fans," Peter Motteux, the translator of Rabelais and Don Quixote, kept an India
House for " China and Japan wares, fans, tea, muslins, pictures, arreck, and other
Indian goods ;" rich brocades, Dutch atlases, and other foreign silks, fine Flanders lace
and linens. (Spectator, Nos. 288 and 552, by Steele). Motteux wjote a poem upon
Tea : he was found dead (murdered) on his birthday, Feb, 19, 1717-18, in a house of
ill-fame in Star-court, Butcher-row, Temple Bar.
In Leadenhall-street are the churches of St. Andrew Undershaft (see p. 150) and
St. Catherine Cree (p. 156). On the wall of the latter is a large sun-dial ; and at
the east end a curious gateway, built 1631. The churchyard was noted for perfor-
mances of miracle-plays, the earliest known of which relates to St. Catherine. (See also
East India House, pp. 318, 319).
Nearly opposite the site of the East India House, now occupied by handsome stone-
fronted buildings, is St. Mary Axe, a street named from the church of St. Mary Axe,
which was " suppressed and letten to be a warehouse" about the year 1565; and the
church derived its particular designation from a holy relic it possessed : " an axe, oon
of the iij that the xjm^ Virgins were behedyd w*." — (Signed Mil, 5 Henry VIII.)
This church was united to St. Andrew Undershaft, in the above year. Nearly
opposite, in 1864, was taken down a four-storied Tudor house, with three over-
hanging floors, the front entirely of wood and plaster ; and some fine oak-panelled
interiors.
At No. 16, St. Mary Axe, lived Joseph Denison, the wealthy banker : here were
born his eldest daughter, afterwards Marchioness Conyngham ; and his son, William
Joseph Denison, M.P., who, dying in 1849, bequeathed two millions and a half of money,
settled on his nephew. Lord Albert Denison, afterwards Baron Londesborough.
LEICESTER SQUARE,
WITHIN memory, was called Leicester Fields, from the mansion at its north-east
corner, built for Robert Sydney, Earl of Leicester, who died 1677. It was let to
Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. : she died here 1661. Colbert and
Prince Eugene resided here. But the fame of Leicester House chiefly rests upon
its having been bought by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II„ when he had
quarrelled with his father and received the royal command to quit St. James's. When
George II. had a similar quarrel with his son Frederick, the Prince of Wales took up his
residence, as his father had done before him, at Leicester House, which Pennant happily
describes as " successively the pouting-place of Princes." Walpole tells us that
Frederick, Prince of Wales added to Leicester House the mansion westward — Savile
House — for his children; a communication being made between the two houses, as Sir
John Fielding phrased it, in 1777, " for the more immediate intercourse of the royal
family." Hence, much of the celebrity of Leicester House became extended to Savile
House, wherein, probably, was performed Addison's play of Cato by the junior
branches of the Prince of Wales's household. Prince George playing Fortius. Tho
512 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Prince resided here until his accession to the throne as George III., when, in front of
the mansion, he was first hailed as King. The last Royal tenant of Leicester House
was the Duke of Gloucester, grandson of George TI. The mansion was next let to Sir
Ashton Lever for his museum, which was removed in 1788. Leicester House was then
taken down : Savile House being left standing. It had, however, been proposed
to build here a theatre ; for, in the Ladies' Magazine, 1790, we read, "The site of the
new opera-house is settled : Leicester- square — the mound occupied by Leicester House."
On the site of its gardens was built New Lisle-street, in 1791. Eastward was the door
which was unceremoniously cut through the wall of the garden of Home, the poulterer,
to make an outlet towards Newport Market for the convenience of the Prince of Wales's
domestics. How the poulterer resisted the encroachment, and triumphed over the
heir-apparent of the English crown, and the obnoxious door was removed, will be re-
membered, as well as its Influence on the political aspirations of the poulterer's son,
John Home Tooke. Westward was built Leicester-street, where, in 1796, Charles
Dibdin, the song-writer, built his theatre, the " Sans Souci."
Savile House was sometimes called Aylesbury House, from the Earl of Aylesbury
residing here. It was let as a town-house for people of fashion : here the Earl of Car-
marthen entertained Peter the Great. It belonged to the Savile family, and here re-
sided Sir George Savile, M.P., in 1780, when, in the Riots, his house was stripped of its
valuable furniture, books, and paintings, which the rioters burnt in the Fields. The
Rev. W. Mason, in a letter to Walpole, 1778, speaks of the political wisdom of Sir
George Savile, " who chooses this very moment to indispose the whole body of Dissen-
ters towards him and his party by rising up the champiou of the Papists." Naturally,
this patron of toleration suffered, and in the Riots " the rails torn from Sir George's house
were the chief weapons and instruments of the mob." Their conduct was ferocious ;
for the accounts state Sir George's life to have been shortened by their threats. How-
ever, he must have been a strong partisan, for Wilberforce notes : " Sir George
Savile was chosen member for Yorkshire by the Whig grandees in the Marquis of
Rockingham's dining-room." The attack upon Savile House by the Rioters of 1780 is
referred to in a letter to Richard Shackleton from Edmund Burke, who then lived in
Cbarles-street, St. James's ; telling how he spent his nights with other volunteer
friends of rank in guarding Sir George Savile's house : — " For four nights," he
says, " I kept watch at Lord Rockingham's, or Sir George Savile's, whose houses
were garrisoned by a strong body of soldiers, together with numbers of true friends
of rank."
At the commencement of the present century, Savile House was rebuilt by the
late Mr. Samuel Page, of Dulwich, an architect of some eminence at the time.
The famous Chancery suit of "Page v. Linwood and others," which lasted forty
years, related to this property. Lord Chancellor Cottenham, when Mr. Pepys, was
counsel for the plaintiff; and Mr. Sugden, now Lord St. Leonards, was counsel for
Miss Linwood.
Miss Limoood's NeedleivorJc was exhibited at Savile House from the commencement
of the present century until the year after her death in 1845, in her 90th year. She
worked her first picture when thirteen years old, and the last piece when seventy-eight
years. The designs were executed with fine crewels dyed expressly for her, on a thick
tammy, and were entirely drawn and embroidered by herself. In 1785, the pictures
were exhibited to the Royal Family at Windsor; next at the Pantheon, Oxford-street;
removed in 1798 to the Hanover-square Rooms ; and then to Leicester-square. The
collection consisted of sixty-four pictures, including a portrait of Miss Linwood, at 19^
from a crayon painting by Russell ; her first piece. Head of St. Peter (Guido) ; Salvatoi
Mundi (Carlo Dolci), for which 3000 guineas had been refused (this picture was be-
queathed by Miss Linwood to her Majesty); Woodman in a Storm (Gainsborough) j
Jephtha's Rash Vow (Opie). The pictures were sold by auction, by Christie anc
Manson, at Savile House, April 23, 1846, when the Judgment upon Cain, which occu-
pied ten years working, brought 64^. l.y. ; the price of neither of the other pictures ex-
ceeding 40Z. The original Hubei-t and Arthur, by Northcote, sold for 38Z. 17*. The |
entire sale did not realize 1000^.
At Savile House the National Political Union held its Reform meetings; and here]
LEICESTEB-SQUABE. 513
was exhibited, in 1849, an extensive moving Panorama of the Mississippi River, &c.
The place has since been a very Noah's Ark of exhibitions, of greater variety than deli-
cacy. The large building, Savile House, was destroyed by fire in less than two hours,
on the night of February 28, 1865.
Leicester-square was built between 1630 and 1671. In 1677, rows of elm-trees
extended in the Fields nearly half the width of the present Square, which was enclosed
about 1738. In 1720, it was described as " ordinarily built and inhabited, except the
west side, towards the fields, where there is a very good house and curious garden
which fronts the fields." In the centre, upon a sculptured stone pedestal, is an equestrian
metal statue of George I., modelled by C. Buchard for the Duke of Chandos, and brought
from Canons in 1747, when it was purchased by the inhabitants of the Square : it was
"finely gilt," and within memory was regilt ; but its history is much disputed.*
Over this statue was built a colossal Model of the Earth, which became one of the
most intellectual exhibitions of the metropolis.
The ground was leased, in 1851, for ten years, for 3000Z., to Mr. Wyld, the geographer, for whom was
erected here (H. R. Abraham, architect), a circular building 90 feet across, enclosing a Globe 60 feet
4 inches in diameter, and lighted by day from the centre of the dome (as at the Pantheon at Rome), and
by gas at night. The frame of the Globe consisted of horizontal ribs, battened to receive the plaster
modelling, thus to figure the earth's surface on the inside instead of the outside of a sphere, and to
show at one view the physical features of the world. The visitor passed into the interior of the Globe,
and by a winding staircase proceeded round it, viewing every part of the model at lour feet distance from
the eye. The scale was ten miles to an inch horizontal, and one mile to an inch vertical, so as effectively
to exhibit the details of hill and valley, lake and river : the great oceans occupying nearly 150,000,000
square miles ; and the old and new continents, and all the islands, only 60,000,000 square miles ; the
gigantic model being made up of some thousand castings in plaster. The Circumpolar Regions were
similarly illustrated. At the termination of the lease the building and Globe were remo^ e 1.
At No. 47, Leicester-square, west side, Sir Joshua Reynolds lived from 1761 till his
death in 1792. Here he built a gallery for his works, and set up a gay coach, upon the
panels of which he painted the Four Seasons.
Here were given those famous dinner-parties, the first great example in this country "of a cordial
intercourse between persons of distinguished pretensions of all kinds : poets, physicians, lawyers, deans,
historians, actors, temporal and spiritual peers, House of Commons men, men of science, men of letters,
painters, philosophers, and lovers of the arts, meeting on a ground of hearty ease, good humour, and
pleasantry, which exalt my respect for the memory of Reynolds. It was no prim fine table he set them
down to. Often was the dinner-board prepared for seven or eight required to accommodate itself to fifteen
or sixteen ; for often, on the very eve of dinner, would Sir Joshua tempt afternoon visitors with intima-
tion that Johnson, or Garrick, or Goldsmith, was to dine there."— Forster's Life of Goldsmith, p. 253.
Sir Joshua painted in an octagonal room ; the sticks of his brushes were 18 inches
long ; he held his palettes by handle ; one of mahogany, 11 by 7 inches, is possessed
by Mr. Cribb, King-street, Covent-garden, whose father received it from Sir Joshua's
niece, the Marchioness of Thomond. Here, in 1790, the good-natured bachelor P.R.A.
painted for two schoolboys a flag bearing the Royal arms, which was borne at the next
breaking-up of King's Academy, Chapel-street, Soho.
Reynolds came to town in 1740, and, probably, lived during his apprenticeship of two years at
Hudson's house, now Nos. 55 and 56, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields ; on returning from Italy
he had rooms at 104, St. Martin's-lane, Thornhill's and Hayman's house, in front of the first studio of
Roubiliac : the site of the latter is now occupied by a Friends' Meeting-house, but, intermediately, was
the subscription drawing-academy under Moser. From St. Maitin's-lane, in 1753, Reynolds removed to
a whole house. No. 5, Great Newport-street. In 1760 he removed, for the last time, to No. 47, Leicester-
square. On going to Great Newport-street, he raised his price for heads to twelve gumeas, and, in a
few years, to fifteen guineas. In 1758 he had no fewer than 150 sitters, and worked prodigiously hard ;
the number of sittings for each portrait varies from five to sixteen. In 1759 he got twenty guineas
for a head ; the following year twenty-five guineas ; soon after this he was earning 6000^. a year. He
left his residuary legatee, the Marchioness of Thomond, nearly, one of the editors thinks, 100,000^. ; and
to others what was, probably, worth nearly 20,000^.
The house was afterwards the Western Literary and Scientific Institution, when was
added a theatre, designed by George Godwin, F.R.S., for lectures. The premises are
now occupied by Puttick and Simpson, the book-auctioneers : the noble staircase
remains, and the wine-cellar is now used as a strong-room.
On the opposite side of the Square, in the house subsequently the northern wing of
the Sabloniere Hotel, lived William Hogarth from 1733 ; his name upon a brass-plate
on the door, and the sign of the Golden Head over it: this head, of pieces of
cork glued together. Smith (in his Life of NolleTcens) tells us was cut by Hogarth's
* This statue has also been described as that of the Duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culladen,
which may have arisen from the Duke's birth at Leicester House in 1721. The Earl of Aylesbury, one
of the trustees of the Canons estate, and who resided in Leicester-square, may have influenced the
statue being placed here.
L L
514 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
own hand. In the ^European Magazine for 1801, it is stated that the apart-
ment which Hogarth had erected for painting was still in existence as the billiard-
room of the Sabloniere, for which its top lighting would peculiarly adapt it.
Hogarth usually took his evening walk within the enclosure of the square, in a scarlet
roquelaure and cocked hat. Hogarth published, by subscription, the Harlot's and Kake's
Progresses, and other prints : he died here suddenly, Oct. 25, 1764. Next door lived
John Hunter from 1783 : in the rear he built rooms for his anatomical collection, lectures,
dissection, Sunday- evening medical levees, &c. ; and from here, in 1793, Hunter was
buried in St. Martin's Church. To No. 28, also east, was removed the National Repository
(on the plan of the Arts et Metiers at Paris) from the King's Mews, taken down in 1830 ;
and here was temporarily housed, in 1836, the Museum of the Zoological Society.
In the centre of the east side of the Square the Panopticon of Science and Art was
erected 1852-3, by a chartered company for a polytechnic exhibition : it has a pair
of minarets nearly 100 feet high, a domed roof, and other eastern features. The
interior had a hall 97 feet in diameter, lecture-theatres, laboratory, colossal machinery
for experiments ; an electrifying machine, plate eight feet diameter, &c. The building
is now the Alhamhra Palace, a gigantic music hall.
Burford's Panorama, at the north-east angle of Leicester-square, was erected in
1783, by a number of patrons of the arts, who were repaid their capital by Robert
Barker, the inventor of the Panorama, succeeded by Henry Aston Barker, and John
and Robert Burford. The building is now a French Chapel.
In Leicester-place, Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, built in 1796 the Sans Souci
theatre for his musical entertainment : the premises. No. 2, now an hotel, occupy the
site of The Feathers public-house, frequented by " Athenian Stuart ;" Scott, the
marine painter ; Luke Sullivan, the miniature painter, who engraved Hogarth's March
to Finchley ; Capt. Grose and Mr. Hearne, the antiquaries ; Henderson, the actor ;
John Ireland, editor of Hogarth Moralised, &c.
In Lisle-street is the Royal Society of Musicians, founded in 1738 for the benefit of
the families of indigent musicians : it originated in the two orphan sons of Kaitch, the
oboist, being seen driving milch-asses down the Haymarket. In Lisle-street lived
Henry Bone, R.A., the enamel-painter, who received for an enamel, 18 by 16 inches,
2200 guineas : he died 1834, aged 80, leaving a long series of Elizabethan portraits.
His collection of beautiful enamels was dispersed by auction, in March, 1856.
In Cranb our ne- alley (named from the second title of the Marquis of Salisbury, the
ground-landlord), lived Ellis Gamble, silversmith, to whom Hogarth was apprenticed
to learn silver-plate engraving, and engraving on copper ; and from l7l8 till 1724 he
earned his livelihood by engraving arms, crests, ciphers, shop-bills, &c. An impression
of Hogarth's allegorical shop-card, dated 1720, has been sold for 25?. The fame of the
place had dwindled to a " Cranbourne-alley bonnet," ere Cranbourne-street was built.
In St. Martin' s-street, next the chapel, is the last town residence of Sir Isaac Newton,
who removed here, in 1710, from Jermyn-street : upon the roof is a small observatory,
built by a subsequent tenant, a Frenchman, but long shown as Newton's. In a scarce
pamphlet, A List of the Lioyal Society, S^c, in 1718, we find : " Sir Isaac Newton,
St. Martin's-street, Leicester-fields." The house was subsequently tenanted by Dr.
Burney, when writing his History of Music : and his daughter, Fanny, wrote here her
novel of Fvelina. Mr. Bewley, " the philosopher of Massingham," died here, during
a visit to Dr. Burney, who, in an anecdote related to Boswell (Life of Johnson),
erroneously states Newton to have died here : he died at Kensington (see p. 488).
Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay), writes from here in 1779 and 1780 {Diary and Letters, vol. i.);
and Mr. Thrale, writing to Miss Burney, styles the inmates of the house in St. Martin's-street, "dear
Newtonians."
In Green-street, at now No. 11, lived William Woollett, the landscape and historical
engraver, known by his masterly plates of Wilson's pictures and his battle-pieces : when
he had finished a plate, he used to fire a cannon on the roof of his house : his portrait,
by Stuart, hangs in the Vernon Collection. He died 1785, and is buried at Old St.
Pancras ; his grave-stones were restored by the Graphic Society in 1846.
In Orange-court, Leicester-fields, lodged Opie, the painter ; and here was born
Dec. 10, 1745, Thomas Holcroft, his father, a shoemaker.
" Cradled in poverty, with no education save what he could pick up for himself, amid incessant
struggles for bare existence— by turns a pedlar, a stable-boy, a shoemaker, and a strolling-player— he
LEVELS.
615
yet contrived to surmount the most untoward circumstances, and at last took his place among the most
distinguished writers of his age as a novelist, a dramatist, and a translator." — Preface to Holcroji't
Life, by William Hazlitt.
Leicester-square has long been the resort and habitat of foreigners ; and Maitland
(1739) describes the parish (St. Anne's) so greatly abounding with French, " that it is
an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France." Of the Hotels in the
Square, the principal were Huntley's and Brunet's ; and La Sabloni^re, named from the
famous Parisian cook.
LEVELS.
THE data for the following Levels, from actual surveys and private documents,
adopting the standard of Trinity High Water Mark at London Bridge, have
been communicated through the courtesy of Mr. Wyld, the geographer.
Feet.
Berkeley-square 57
British Museum 72
Brompton-square 12
Caledonian-road : Great Northern Railway 112
Camden Town : Brecknock Arms .... 150
Camden Town : London and North- Western
Eailway Station 100
Clapham Common (S.W.) 93
Drury-lane, opposite Great Queen-street . 66
Farringdon-street 11
Gloucester-road, Kensington 18
GuUdhall, King-street 37
Hampstead Heath 424
(84 feet higher than the cross of St. Paul's
Cathedral.)
Hampstead Vale (Waterworks) .... 207
(5 feet higher than the top of the Monu-
ment.)
Haverstock Hill : Orphan School .... 258
(28 feet higher than the steeple of St.
Bride's Church, Fleet-street.)
Highbury Barn 132
(12 feet higher than the towers of St.
Michael's Church, Cornhill, and St.
Dunstau's, Fleet-street.)
Highgate Archway (top) 317
„ „ Tavern 179
Highgate Chapel (removed) 412
Holloway : New City Prison (surface) . . 112
Hornsey Wood House and Tavern (site) . 147
Hyde-park : site of Great Exhibition Build-
ing 62
Islington : Angel Inn 99
„ Ball's Pond-road ...... 59
„ Green 115
Mansion House 32
New Oxford-street, opposite Charlotte-st.
Bloomsbury 72
New River : Stoke Newington Reservoir . 87
New-road: Gower-street 76
Notting-hill (by St. John's Wood) ... 85
Notting-hill Reservoir 123
Nunhead Cemetery Hill 189
(14 feet higher than the spire of St. Giles's
Church.)
Park-lane, halfway 69
Feet.
Pentonville Prison (surface) 120
Regent' s-park : York and Albany .... 99
(The houses in Circus-road, St. John's
Wood, .are level with the summit of
Primrose Hill.)
Serpentine (surface) 38
Shooter's-hill 412
Shoreditch Workhouse, Kingsland-road . 51
Smithfield : St. Bartholomew's Hospital . 45
Stamford-hill 97
Strand, average 20
Westbourne - terrace, Hyde-park - gardens
(ground-floor) ; 70 feet above high-water
mark, and on a level with the attics of
Eaton and Belgrave-squares.
Westminster : the further we proceed from
the river, the lower the ground becomes,
thus : —
Above
high-water
mark.
St. Margaret's-street, near Canning's
statue 5 2^
Millbank- street 4 4|
West-end of Tothill-street 9
Broad-way , . 9
New-way 6i
Old Pye-street Sj
Below
high-water.
New Tothill-street 3i
Road in front of Mr. Elliot's dwelling-
house Hi
Palmer's Village 12|f
Mr. Bardwell, the Architect.
The architect of the New Prison was com-
pelled to raise the gromid 7 feet ; the ground
has also been much raised around the New
Palace, over and above that which was made
when the Birdcage Walk was carried over the
site of Rosamond's Pond.
Again, the sill of a door in Park-street is
somewhat more than 8 feet higher than the sill
of a door in Tothill-Btreet, Dartmouth-street
only intervening.
From the Report of the Commissioners for the Improvement of the Metropolis, 1843.
Ft. in.
Chatham-place (pavement at the top of
the Bridge Stairs) 16
Fleet-street (east end of), centre of road-
way ... 15
„ Opposite St. Bride's Church 21
„ „ Crown-court . . 27
„ „ Water-lane ... 30
„ „ St. Uunstan's-court 34
„ „ Fetter-lane ... 38
„ „ St.Dunstan'sChur. 38
„ „ Chancery-lane . .
„ At Temple Bar
The Strand. St. Clement's Church (east
end) 30
„ Opposite Arundel-street . . 34
35 3
Ft. in.
The Strand. Opposite Norfolk-street . . 36 7
„ „ Surrey street . . 37 2
„ „ Somerset House . 39 S
„ „ Wellington -street . 37 3
„ „ Exeter-street . . 36 7
„ „ Southampton-st. . 35 1
„ „ Agar-street ... 35
„ „ Hungerford Market 28 U
„ „ Morley'sHotel(west
angle) .... 19 9
Statue of Charles 1 13
Whitehall. Opposite Craig' s-court ..62
„ „ Scotland-yard ..45
Whitehall-place (west end) 4 8
Whitehall-place (east end) 5 10
L J. 2
616 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Jughest ground in London is about the middle of Panyer-alley, between New-
gate-street and Paternoster-row ; the spot being denoted by a boy sitting upon a
pannier, upon a pedestal, all of stone ; the latter inscribed, " Whek ye have sovght
THE CiTTY EOVND, YET STILL THIS IS THE HIGHT- GEOVND. AVGVST THE 27, 1688/*
The made ground and accumulated debris occurring in the City, and anciently
populated parts adjacent, varies from 8 to 18 feet in thickness; in Westminster, from
6 to 12 feet.
LIBHAEIHS.
" nnHE greatest city in the world is destitute of a public library,*' wrote Gibbon
-L towards the close of the last century; since which period much has been done
to afford the masses facilities for mental culture by an open public library from which
books may be taken out.
Agkicttltueal Society of England (Royal), 12, Hanover-square; library of the
Board of Agriculture, increased by purchases, &c.
Antiqtjaeies, Society op, Somerset House : valuable collections of red Broadsides
and Ballads ; rare Prints, illustrating Ancient London ; the Book of St. Albans, fol.
St. Albans, 1486, finest state. Among the MSS.'are,! 1. Cartulary of the Abbey of
Peterborough. 2. Original MS. of Weever's Funeral Monuments. 3. Indentures for
Coining Money in England and Ireland, from \ Edward " I. to Elizabeth. 4. The
*• Winton Domesday,'* on 33 leaves of vellum, and in the original stamped cuirbouilli
covers : this MS. (temp. Edward I.) contains an exact account of every tenement in
Winchester at that period. 5. Original Letters of Antiquaries and Literary men
(18th century). 6. Letters of Eminent Englishmen (iVth century). Autograph of
John Bunyan, doubtful. The Society's Transactions, Archceologia, commenced 1710.
The library consists of nearly 10,000 volumes, and is richest in topography, its
collection of county histories, &c.
AECHiEOLOGiCAL SOCIETIES, the several, have libraries and museums.
Aetilleey Geoitnd, or Military Yard, behind Leicester House.
Near Leicester-fields, upon the site of Gerrard-street, was a piece of ground waJled in by Prince
Henry, eldest son of James I., for the exercise of arms; where were, an armoury, and a well-furnished
library of books relating to feats of arms, chivalry, military affairs, encamping, fortification, in all
languages, and kept by a learned librarian. It was called the Artillery Ground; and after the Kestora-
tion of Charles II. it was bought by Lord Gerard, and let for building, about 1677.
Asiatic Society (Royal), 5, New Burlington-street: scarce books and MSS.,
including a collection of. Sanscrit MSS., formed by Colonel Tod in Rajasthan. Here
is a Chinese Library, of which see the catalogue, by the Bev. S. Kidd, 1838.
ASTEONOMICAL SOCIETY (Royal), Somerset House : valuable collection of astro-
nomical works, including Peter Apian's Opus CcBsareum, printed at Ingolstadt in 1540 ;
and the library of the Mathematical Society, from Spitalfields.
Bank op England Libeaey, instituted by the Directors for the use of the clerks,
was opened May, 1850 ; the Court having voted 500Z. for the purchase of books.
Baebee-Stjegeons' Hall, Monkwell-street : a curious collection of rare books on
olden Anatomy.
Beaumont Institution, Mile- end, built and endowed with 13,000Z. by Mr. Barber
Beaumont, has a library of 4000 volumes, a music-hall, and museum of natural history.
Bible Society, Beitish and Foeeign, 10 Earl-street, Blackfriars : collection of
versions of the Scriptures, in various languages or dialects. The bulk of this invaluable
biblical library consists of copies of the Scriptures, including, in addition to those in
which the Bible Society has been immediately concerned, rare copies of the first or
early editions of the Bible in various languages; and no national, collegiate, or private
biblical library can approach that of the Society. In addition to the printed Bibles,
there are also valuable copies of more or less of the Scriptures in manuscript, in about
fifty different languages, some of which have never yet appeared in print. A consider-
able portion of this curious collection consists of lexicons, grammars, and other philo-
logic treatises, which refer to the business of translation. This library contains also a
LIBRARIES. 517
large assortment of commentaries, liturgies, catechisms, books of topography and travels,
and the reports of all the Bible Societies in the world. Next in attraction to the Bibles
in all languages, and the MSS. above referred to, is a collection of twelve folio volumes
in manuscript, containing the history of the translations in 94 languages, in which the
Society had been concerned down to 1829; and similar materials are preserved for
continuing these historic records to the present time. Here also are early versions of
the Scriptures in such tongues as Welsh and Bohemian ; and invaluable Ethiopic and
Mexican manuscripts. Some of its rarest curiosities it owes to the liberality of Prince
Louis Lucien Bonaparte, who presented it with copies of the translations of the
versions of St. Matthew he has recently caused to be executed in Basque, and in the
lowland Scotch dialect. Of the former of these only twelve, of the latter only eighteen
copies have been printed.
BoTANiQAL Society, 20, Bedford-street, Covent-garden, has a library of works on
botany for reference and circulation; besides British and general herbaria for the
exchange of specimens.
Beitish Museum. {See Museums.)
Chaetee-House, Aldersgate : a collection presented by booksellers and others for
the reading of the Brotherhood. In 1851 Queen Victoria presented the Quarterly
Review, 86 vols.
Chelsea Hospital : History, Voyages, and Travels, and Military Memoirs, News-
papers, and Periodicals for the pensioners' reading.
Cheist's Hospital, Newgate-street, " formerly the Grey Friars, hath a neat library
for the use of the masters and scholars ; besides a collection of mathematical instru-
ments, globes, ships, with all their rigging, for the instruction of the lads designed for
the sea." {H. Lemoine, 1790.) To the library of MSS., Whittington was a great
benefactor. The most considerable Franciscan collection of books seems to have been
at the London monastery, on the site of Christ's Hospital, Newgate-street, for which
the first stone of a new building was laid by Sir Richard Whittington, on the 21.'- 1 of
October, 1421. After it was completed, 100 marks were expended on a transcript of
the Works of Nicholas de Lira, to be chained in the library. (Stow's Survey, by
Strype.) Whittington's Library was a handsome room, 129 feet long, and 31 feet
broad, wainscoted throughout, and fitted with shelves neatly carved, with desks and
settles : it formed the northern side of the quadrangle.
Chuech Missionaey Society, Salisbury-square, Fleet-street : miscellaneous col-
lection, rich in voyages and travels.
City of London Institution, Aldersgate- street, commenced in 1825, contained
upwards of 7000 volumes for reference and circulation ; dispersed in 1852, when the
Institution was dissolved.
Civil Engineees (Institution op), 25, Great George-street, Westminster : up-
wards of 3000 volumes, and 1500 tracts, upon bridges, canals, railways, roads, docks,
navigation, ports, rivers, and water ; Transactions of Societies, Parliamentary Reports,
&c. Here are some volumes of MS. observations by Telford in his early engineering
career. This library has the advantage of a printed catalogue, admirably arranged by
C. Manby, Secretary to the Institution.
Clockmakees' Company, London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street : a lending library of
valuable English and foreign works on Horology and the allied sciences, with a printed
Club-Houses (The) have extensive general libraries.
College op Physicians, Pall Mall East. {See p. 277.) In this collection are the
libraries of Selden and the Marquis of Dorchester ; and Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician
to James I.
College op Suegeons, Lincoln's-inn-fields : library commenced by John Hunter's
donation of his published works on Anatomy and Surgery in 1786, the unique auto-
graph letter accompanying which is possessed by Mr. Stone, the present Librarian.
Sir Charles Blicke bequeathed his medical library, and 300Z. ; and the collection now
618 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
numbers 30,000 volumes (cost 23,000Z.) ; mostly works on the history, science, and
practice of medicine and the collateral sciences: its collection of Transactions and
Journals is very perfect.
Among the Curiosities is ** Approved Medicines and Cordiall Eeceipies," dated 1580 : it bears iu
several places the signature and initials of Shakspeare ; but it was bought at the sale of forger Ireland's
effects. Among the early books are a Compendium Medicince nondum Medicis sed Cyrurgis utilissimumf
1510, by Gilbertus Anglicus, circ. 1230 : the works of John of Oaddesden, or Johannes Anglicus, circ.
1320. Herbarium Germanic^, 1485, beautifully illuminated, and bound in oak, brass ornaments, dated
1549; a collection of engraved portraits of medical men, formerly possessed by Pauntleroy, the banker,
and presented by him to William Wadd, the facete surgeon. The library, designed by Barry, extends the
entire length of the College facade ; above the bookcases are a gallery and portraits of Harvey, Chesel-
den, Nesbitt, Nourse, Blizard, Hunter, Pott, &c. ; and adjoining is a room with a collection of "Voyages
and Travels, works on Natural History and Science. Members of the College can introduce a visitor.
CoKPOEATiON OF LONDON LiBEAEY, Guildhall. It appears that in 1411 the
Guildhall College was furnished with a library founded by the executors of Richard
Whittington, and that to this was added a portion of the library of John Carpenter,
the Town Clerk of the City, and the founder of the City of London School. The will
of Carpenter says : — " I direct, that if any good or rare books shall be found among
the residue of my goods which, by the discretion of Masters William Lichfield and
Reginald Pocock, may seem necessary for the common library at Guildhall, for the
profit of the students there and those discoursing to the common people, then I will
and bequeath that those books be placed by my executors and chained in that library,
under such form that the visitors and students thereof may be the sooner admonished
to pray for my soul." It appears that in 1457 John Clipstone, priest and bedeman,
was appointed librarian. He was succeeded, in 1510, by Edmund Alison, also a priest ;
and at this date, according to Stow, the books constituted " a fayre and large librarie."
According to this chronicler, the whole of these books, four carts full, were borrowed
by Edward Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector, with a promise of their speedy
return, which, however, never took place. The citizens, thus deprived of their library,
formed a new collection, of which but little is known, except that it was entirely
destroyed in the Fire of 1666. From that period it does not appear that any fresh
library was formed to the present one, founded in 1824, and which now numbers about
25,000 volumes. In 1828 was published A Catalogue of the books, to which have since
been made valuable additions. It is enriched with a choice collection of 950 original Royal
proclamations, published by King Charles L, the Parliament, the Protector, Charles II.,
James II., and William III. ; also 400 volumes of Hebrew and Rabbinical literature,
presented by Mr. Philip Salamons. The present Catalogue contains a valuable Index
of names, ably compiled by the librarian, Mr. W. H. Overall.
The Library is rich in works relating to the Cities of London and Westminster, and
the Borough of Southwark ; rare tracts preceding, accompanying, and following the
Commonwealth ; and several volumes of original proclamations, temp. 1638 to 1698.
Here are Domesday Survey and the Monasticon ; in history, Ven. Bede, Matthew-
Paris, Decern Scriptores, and other old English chroniclers; in foreign history,
Kffimpfer, Pontoppidan, Wormius, Duhalde, D'Herbelot, Mezeray, &c.; Hakluyt's
Voyages, first edit, black letter, and Evans's very brilliant edit. 5 vols. 4to j Lysons's
^Environs of London, with drawings, prints, and armorial bearings, 13 thick volumes,
perhaps the most elaborately illustrated work extant. Among the recent additions are :
the great French work on Egypt, 14 vols, atlas folio, and 9 vols, folio letterpress ;
II Vaticano, by Erasmus Pistolesi, 8 vols, folio ; M'Kenney's History of the Indian
Tribes of North America (superb coloured engravings), 3 vols, folio. Portfolios of
Maps, Views, and Plans of London, of various dates from Aggas to Stanford. The
library of the Dutch Church, Austinfriars, has been deposited here with the MSS.
and letters of the early Reformers and men of science.
Boole Rarities :—Nuremhurg Chronicle, 1493, with MS. Notes, sixteenth century, and Lists of Bailiffs,
Mayors, and Sheriffs of London, 1st Rich. I. to 4 Hen. VIII., with marginal notes of events : woodcuts,
mostly coloured. Complaint of Eoderick Mars, sometime a Gray Fryare (Geneva), said by Kennet to
have been written by Henry Brincklow, a London merchant. Bonner's Profitable and Necessary Doc'
trine, bl. 1. 1555. Declaration of Bonner's Articl<>s, bl. 1. 1561. A Boke made by John Fryth, Prysoner
in the Tower of London, bl, 1. 1546. The Actes of English Votaryes, by John Bale, bl. 1. 1546. The Castel
of Self h (by Sir Jo. Elyot, bl. 1. 1541. The Burnynge of Paule's Church, &c. (written against Popery,
by Pilkmgton, Bishop of Durham), bl. 1. 1591. Legenda Sanctorum, fol. bl. 1. n. d. Codex Sinaiticu»t
presented by the Emperor of Eussia. A collection of early printed Plays and Pageants.
LIjBBABIES. 519
Among the autographic Curiosities is the Charter granted by William the Con-
queror to the City of London in 1067. It is beautifully written in Saxon characters,
iii about four lines, upon a slip of parchment six inches long and one broad.
Also, in a glass-case, is the signature of Shakspeare, purchased in 1843, by the Cor-
poration of London for 145^. : it is affixed to a deed of bargain and sale of " all that
messuage or teute with the app'tennes lyeing and being in the blackfryers in London,
neare the Wardrobe," by Henry Walker to William Shakspeare, dated March 10,
1612-13, and has the seals attached, and the names of the attesting witnesses on the
back. The house is described as " abutting upon a streete leading down to Pudle
wharffe" (now St. Andrew's Hill), and was in Ireland-yard, named after the tenant,
William Ireland, about the time of the above sale : it was bequeathed by Shakspeare in
his will to his daughter, Susannah Hall. Here, too, is the sign- stone of the Boar's
Head Tavern. The Museum attached to the Library is particularly rich in antiqui-
ties discovered in the City of London during numerous excavations.
CoTTONiAN LiBEAEY (The), now in the British Museum, was collected by Sir Robert
Bruce Cotton, the learned antiquary, who greatly profited by the dissolution of monas-
teries half a century before, by which the records, charters, and instruments were
thrown into private hands. Sir Robert Cotton was the friend of Camden, and greatly
assisted him in his Britannia. The library was kept at Cotton House, at the west end
of Westminster Hall, and was greatly increased by Sir Robert's son and grandson ; in
1700 it was purchased by Act of Parliament, and in 1706 Cotton House was sold to
the Crown for 4500Z.; but the mansion falling into decay, in 1712 the library was re-
moved to Essex House, Strand ; and thence, in 1730, to Ashburnham House, West-
minster. Here, October 23, 1731, a destructive fire broke out, by which 111 MSS. were
lost, burnt, or entirely defaced, and 99 rendered imperfect. What remained were re-
moved into the new dormitory of Westminster School. In 1738 was bequeathed to the
collection Major Arthur Edwards's library of 2000 printed volumes ; and in 1757 the
whole were transferred to the British Museum. The Cottonian collection originally
contained 958 volumes of original Charters, Royal Letters, Foreign State Correspon-
dence, Ancient Registers : it was kept in cases, upon which were the heads of the twelve
Caesars J and the MSS. are distinguished by the press-marks of the Caesars. Humphrey
Wanley published a catalogue of the Cottonian Library, which is minutely noticed by
Chamberlayne, Magnce JSritannicB Kotitia, 1726. Above the bookcases were portraits
of the three Cottons, Judge Doddridge, Spelman, Camden, Dugdale, Lambard, Speed,
&c. An extended catalogue was printed in 1802.
Besides MSS., the Cottonian collection contained Saxon and old English coins, and Eoman and
English antiquities, all now in the British Museum. Sir Eobert Cotton aided Speed in his History of
England, and Knolles in his Turkish History. Sir Walter Raleigh, Selden, and Bacon drew materials
from the Cottonian Library ; and, in our time, Lingard's and Sharon Turner's Histories of England, and
numerous other works, have proved its treasures unexhausted. Daniel's, G., Libbabt, Canonbury
(See Museums.)
Department of Peactical Aet, South Kensington : a collection of works of
reference for Manufactures and Ornamental Art, originally formed for the Schools of
Design. About 1500 volumes on architecture, sculpture, painted glass, general antiqui-
ties, and decoration j prints and drawings, including Raphael's Arabesques, coloured ;
original Sketches of the Cathedral of Messina, and the Church of St. Ambrose, Milan ;
and many elementary and practical works on art and ornamental design.
Doctoes' Commons (College of Advocates). {See p. 313.)
DULWICH CoiiliEGE LiBEAEY. {See p. 274.)
Dutch Chtjech, Austin Friars : for the use of foreign Protestants and their clergy :
containing MSS. and Letters of Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others, foreign Reformers :
the Ten Commandments, believed to be in the handwriting of Rubens. This collection
of books and MSS. was made by Maria Dubois, a pious lady, and was placed at the
west end of the church, over the screen, in an apartment inscribed thus : — " Ecclesiae
Londino-Belgiaj Bibliotheca, extructa sumptibus Marise Dubois, 1659." Additions to
the collection were made from time to time by the Dutch Ambassadors, the Dutch East
India Company, and the wealthy members of the congregation. Its autographic trea-
sures include a very interesting collection of letters of the early ecclesiastical Re-
620 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
formers — among others, of Erasmus. Calvin, and Beza, Bucer, Peter Martyr ; Grindal,
Archbishop of Canterbury; Vizet ; John h Lasco, the first Minister of the Dutch
Church in London ; Bulhnger, and of John Fox, the martyrologist ; likewise letters of
the principal founders of the Dutch Republic, including the Prince of Orange, after-
wards William I. ; Sir Philip de Marinix, Count d'Albegonde, the Admiral of the
Dutch fleet. One collection also contains 272 original letters to Abraham Ortelius,
geographer to Philip 11. of Spain, from the chief learned and scientific men of the age.
Here likewise are portrait-etchings of Albert Durer, by himself; Olertius C'lristopher
Plantin, printer of the polyglot h'ible ; of Cardinal Ximenes, Gerard Mercator, William
Camden, Dr. John Dee, the great Lord Burghley ; the Earls of Leicester, Sussex, and
Lincoln ; several of the English Bishops of those times, and of the Lord Mayors of
London ; also the Ten Commandments, believed to be in the handwriting of llubens.
The library principally consists of early theological works in Latin, German, Dutch, and
English ; good editions of the classics ; illuminated Bibles ; Blaeuw's Vieto of the
different Continental States, in 1649, and the Embassy to China, 1670 — in all about
2000 volumes, and with the old fittings complete. In the conflagration at the Dutch
Church, in 1862, this fine library was fortunately saved ; and upon the restoration of
the church, the Library was added to that of the Corporation at Guildhall.
East India Company's Library: printed books and tracts relating to the history
and geography of the Eastern hemisphere ; the history, commerce, and administration of
the East India Company, printed in Europe or India ; books, drawings, and prints of the
people, scenery, and antiquities of Asiatic countries ; MSS. on palm-leaves in Sanscrit,
Burmese, and other languages of the Archipelago, and Sanscrit MSS. in 3000 bound
volumes ; Chinese printed works ; Tibetan Cyclopaedia, in 300 large oblong volumes,
printed with wooden blocks ; Arabic and Persian MSS. ; miniature copies of the Koran ;
another Koran, in old Cufic characters, written out by the Khalif Othman (d. a.d. 655),
and other volumes of the library of Tippoo Sultan; his autograph " Register of Dreams,"
&c. Open to students recommended. When the East India House was taken down,
the Library and Museum were removed to Fife House, Whitehall. {See Museums.)
Ellesmeee Library, Bridgewater House, Green Park, contains many hundred
manuscript plays, by all the dramatists who have written for the stage from the year
1737 to the year 1824. These are the copies which were from time to time sent
oflScially to the Licenser of Dramatic Compositions : and in many instances they bear
his marks and remarks for regulating the performance, and contain passages omitted
not only in the representation but in the editions afterwards printed from the acting
copies. The whole collection illustrates the history of our stage during nearly a cen-
tury — since it proves at once with respect to revived dramas, who was or was not the
author of the additions and alterations — a matter of doubt even within our own memory.
Geographical Society (Royal), 3, Waterloo-place, Pall Mall : upwards of 4000
volumes, mostly geographical; 150 Atlases; more than 1000 pamphlets; 10,000 maps
and charts : available as a circulating library by the Fellows,
Geological Society's Library, Somerset House, contains several rare and curious
treatises, &c., chiefly of the seventeenth century, and relating to the cosmogonical and
hypothetical notions about the earth and its structure, the origin and nature of minerals
and fossils, natural history, early chemistry, &c.
Gresham College, Basinghall- street, has a small library of modern books for the
use of the lecturers. The College does not appear to have originally possessed a
library, but to have used that of the Royal Society, the removal of which to Crane-
court in 1710 proved a great disadvantage to the Gresham Professors. (Ward's Lives,
p. 175.) {See Gresham College, p. 274.) The books subsequently possessed by the
College were burnt in the Royal Exchange, Jan. 10, 1838.
Halls op the City Companies (The), often contain collections of early treatises
upon their arts and mysteries.
Harleian Library and MSS. {See MusEuais : British).
Hebrew Library, Duke's-place, Aldgate.
LIBRARIES. 521
The Jews, in Bevis Marks, had a valuable library in their Synagogue, relating to their ceremonials
and Talmudical worship ; but some narrow minds among them conceiving that if they should get into
the hands of Christians, they would be disgraced by shameful translations, agreed among themselves to
cause them to be burnt; for which purpose they employed some of their scribes, or tephilim writers, to
examine into the correctness of the copies ; and receiving a report agreeable to their wishes, they had
them conveyed to Mile End, where they were all destroyed in a kiln ; for it is contrary to their maxim
ever to make waste paper of the sacred language.— H. Lemoine : Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1790.
Heealds' College (College of Arms), see p. 275. Here is a curious collection of
works on Heraldry, Arms, Ceremonies, Coronations, Marriages, Funerals, Christenings,
and Visitations ; an ancient Nennius on vellum, and Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle.
HoETicuLTURAL SOCIETY, South Kensington : the largest collection of horticultural
works in the kingdom, and an assemblage of drawings of fruits and ornamental plants.
Hospitals, the several, possess medical libraries.
Incoepoeated Law Society, Chancery -lane : the law and literature connected
with the profession ; Votes, Reports, Acts, Journals, and other proceedings of Parlia-
ment ; County and Local Histories : topographical, genealogical, and antiquarian
works, &c.
Inns of Couet. — The Innee and Middle Temple each possesses a good library,
with valuable MSS. The Innee Temple MSS., principally collected by William
Petyt, Esq., Keeper of the Tower Records, were presented by his trustees in 1707 :
they exceed 400 MSS., parliamentary statutes and common law, ecclesiastical records,
year-books, Hoveden, Higden, and other English historians, letters, and papers, with
signs-manual of kings and queens of England. Middle Temple Libeaey, the
new building for which is described at p. 463, dates from 1641, when its founder,
Robert Ashley, a collateral ancestor of the Earl of Shaftesbury, left his whole
library, together with a large sum of money, to the Inn where he had received
his legal education. His example was followed by other distinguished Templars
of the time, and thus the Library was first established. The Irish Lord Chief
Justice Pepys was a large benefactor to it. Ashmole, Bartholomew Shower, and
William Petyt were among its most liberal supporters. Lord Stowell also left a
handsome legacy to it, which was expended chiefly on the purchase of books on
civil, canon, and international law. During the latter part of the last century many
volumes, in some way or other, disappeared from the shelves altogether, among them
some of the most scarce and valuable tracts, and 30 folio volumes of Votes of Parlia-
ment. In civil, canon, and international law books, and in the English, Scotch, Irish,
and American reports it is said to be very strong, and there is also a large collection
of books on divinity and ecclesiastical history. There is likewise an ample collection
of proclamations and other official documents relating to the times of the Civil War.
Lincoln's Inn Library is described at p. 468 ; also in Spilsbury's Lincoln's Inn and
its Library ; Geay's Inn, law and history p. 469. Most of the Inns op Chanceey
have also libraries.
King's College, Somerset House, has large medical and general libraries ; including
the Marsden Library, 3000 volumes on Philosophy and Oriental Literature, presented
in 1835 by William Marsden, F.R.S. The Medical Library contains about 2000 volumes.
Lambeth Palace Libeaey. {See p. 501.)
LiNNEAN Society, Burlington House : the Library and Herbarium of Linnajus,
purchased by Sir James Smith for 1000^. In the Society's house, 32, Soho-square, Sir
Joseph Banks collected his valuable library of works on Natural History, now in the
Banksian department of the British Museum : the catalogue fills five octavo volumes,
and is very rare,
Liteeaey Fund (Royal), 4, Adelphi-terrace : this is a collection of books,
mostly modern, and presents. Here is also the MS. of Thorlaksson's Icelandic
version of Paradise Lost, sent to the Institution by himself, through the Danish
Government. Here is the dagger with which Colonel Blood stabbed Edwards, keeper
of the Regalia in the Tower of London, when Blood attempted to carry off the crown ;
also a dagger taken from Parrot, Blood's accomplice. Both weapons are of French
manufacture, and very curious : they werebeoueathed to the Institution by Mr. Thomas
622 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Newton, who believing himself to be the last descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, left his
entire estate to the Literary Fund.
London Institution, Finsbury-circus, commenced in 1806 with part of the library
of the first Marquis of Lansdowne, contains about 30,000 volumes : rich in English
Antiquities and Topography; scarce collection of Foreign Lawsj several thousand
Tracts ; Bibliography, including rare editions from the early presses of Germany, Italy,
and France ; and fine specimens of the printing of the celebrated Antoine Verard, the
Wechels, the Stephani, Claude Morel, Christopher Plantin, Johann Froben, Guarinus,
Hieronymus Commelin, Henricus Petrus, the Aldi, the Sessse, Gabriel Giolito, and the
Giunti ; with some from the English printers, Julian Notary, Peter Treveris, Richard
Grafton, Thomas Marshe, John Cawood, &c. Professor Porson, William Upcott, and
Richard Thomson, author of the Chronicles of London Bridge, 1827, were successively
librarians. This collection is valued at 40,000^.
London Libkaet, 12, St. James's-square (the house tenanted by Lord Amherst
when Commander-in-chief), was established in May, 1841, at 57, PaU Mall, and removed
to St. James's-square in 1844. It is upon the subscription and lending plan, and the
collection admirable.
Mathematical Society, Crispin- street, Spitalfields, established in I7l7, had a
library, of which a catalogue was published in 1821 ; but the books and archives were
removed to Somerset House in 1845, when the Mathematical Society merged into the
Royal Astronomical Society. [See p. 516.)
Mechanics' Institute, Southampton-buildings, Holborn, founded by the philan-
thropic Dr. Birkbeck in 1823 ; who also, in 1825, advanced a large sum for building
the fine theatre of the Institution. The library has 6000 vols.
Medical and Chieuegical Society, 53, Berners-street, Oxford-street : about
20,000 volumes on Medicine, Surgery, &c.
Medical Society oe London, 32a, George-street, Hanover-square, has a collection
of books, including the library bequeathed by Dr. Lettsom, with a house in Bolt-court,
Fleet-street. {See p. 350.)
Meechant-Tayloes' School Libeaey, Suffolk-lane, Cannon-street, contains a fair
collection of Hebrew and other Oriental works of reference ; some good copies of the
Fathers ; nearly all the standard classical and other Lexicons ; and the best writers in
English Theology. The Merchant-Taylors' Company devote thirty guineas per annum
to the increase and keeping up of this library ; and frequent presents have been made
to it by Members of the Court.
MiCEOSCOPiCAL Society, 21, Regent-street : a library of standard works on the
Microscope; the perfection of which valuable instrument is the object of the
Institution.
Museum oe Peactical Geology, Jermyn-street, St. James's : rare edition of the
works of Aldrovandus j collection of alchemical treatises and histories ; Kircher's
works ; olden Topography, Voyages and Travels j collection of Surveys, &c.
New College, St. John's Wood {see p. 277), possesses a library of 20,000 volumes,
including the theological collections from Coward, Homerton, and Highbury Colleges ;
and is otherwise rich in works for the Congregational denomination.
Paeliament (Houses oe) possess large and valuable libraries.
Patent Seal Office Libeaey. — This free scientific library consists of more than
25,000 volumes, well selected, and of a class character, and there is a conveniently-
arranged catalogue. In days of old the inventive faculty of man was taxed and made
profit of to Chancellors and Chaif-waxers. The records of patents were lodged in the
Rolls Chapel and other places, and the expense of inquiry was great ; the specifications
of patents were not printed, and the cost of obtaining even a specification amounted to
sums which varied from twelve guineas up to 500Z,; the legal expenses of an old patent
amounted to 350?. and upwards. Now, all the specifications of patents have been
printed, and they can be had at the rate of from 2.d. to lOd. each copy. Of the patents
LIBRARIES. 525
under the old patent law, the most ancient is the following : " a.d. 1617. — No. 1.
Engraving and printing maps, plans, &c. ; Rathburne & Burges' patent/' This is the
first patent which has been printed. No. 2 patent is by Nicholas Hilliard, for draw-
ing, engraving, and printing portraits of the royal family. No. 3 is for constructing
locks, sluices, bridges, cranes, and obtaining or applying water-power. No. 4 (1617) —
Protecting arms and armour from rust. No. 5 — Manufacture of swords and rapier
blades, &c. No. 6 — Patent to David Ramsey and Thomas Wildgoose. Ramsey seems
to have been one of the pages of the bedchamber. This invention is described as
follows : —
" Newe, apte, or comodius formes or kinde of engines or instruments, and other profitable invencions,
wayes, and means for the good of our commonwealth, as well to plough grounde without horse or oxen,
and enrich and make better and more fertile, as well barren bent, salt, and sea sand, as in land and
upper land grounde within our kingdoms of England and Ireland, and our domynon of Wales ; as also
to rayse waters from anie lowe place to high places, for well watering of cittyes, towns, noblemen's and
gentlemen's houses, and other places now much wanting water, with lesse charges than ever hath beeu
heretofore, and to make boats for the carriage of burthens and passengers run upon the watery as swift in
calm, and more safe in storms, than boats full-sayled in great wayes."
The inventions for the cure of smoke are numerous, and of several dates, notwith-
standing many of her Majesty's subjects are as smoke-dried as formerly. Mops, egg-
boilers, self-adjusting gloves, frying-pans, and other such manufactures have been
patented. There are also beverages and such like made patent; one of these is called
** A new beverage— Gibson's Pinerium ; or. Aerated Sarsaparilla.'*
From 1617 to 1852, when the change in the law took place, we find, in this
library, the record of 14,359 patents : of these the payment for extension to fourteen
years only seems to apply to 7529. Since the new law has made patents more easy of
obtainment, the specifications were more numerous than those which in the Chaff-
wax days were recorded during more than two centuries. On an average about
3000 petitions for provisional protection are presented in each year : only 1950
inventions reach the patented state j and but 550 patents pay the stamp duty re-
quired at the expiration of each year : probably not more than 100 of these 550
patents will pay the additional stamp duty required at the end of the seventh year.
Among the printed records, we see the dawnings of steam-power, the electric tele-
graph, and gas-lighting. In 1652, 262 patents were taken out for fire-arms. One
Puckle puts his specification in rhyme, and says :—
** Defending King George, your country and laws.
In defending yourself and country's cause.
For bridges, trenches, lines and passes.
Ships, boats, houses, and other places."
St. PATJL'a CathedeaIi Library, in the gallery over the southern aisle, was col-
lected by Bishop Compton : 7000 volumes, with MSS. relating to Old St. Paul's.
{See p. 111.)
St. Paul's School, St. Paul's Churchyard, formerly contained the library of Dean
Colet, the founder ; but the books were destroyed in the Great Fire, with Mr. Crom-
lehome, the upper Master's curious stock, the best private collection then about
London : he was a great lover of his books, and the loss of them hastened the loss of
his life. They have been supplied by lexicons, dictionaries, and grammars, in Hebrew,
Chaldee, Greek, and Latin, for the use of the upper scholars. Here is the reputed
copy of Vegetius de re Militari, which Marlborough used when a pupil at the school.
The original statutes of this school were accidentally picked up at a bookseller's by the
late Mr. Hamper, of Birmingham, and by him presented to the British Museum.
Phaemaceutical Society (The), 17, Bloomsbury-square, has a library, museum,
and laboratory.
Royal Academy oe Aets, Trafalgar-square : all the best works on art ; besides
prints, including a valuable collection of engravings from the Italian School, from the
earliest period, collected by George Cumberland. The former library room, at
Somerset-house, has a ceiling painted by Angelica Kauffmann, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and other Academicians. The office of Librarian is usually given to an Academician :
Wilson, Fuseli, and Stothard were librarians.
524 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Royal Academy or Music, 4, Tenterden-street, Hanover-square, has a library of
music, practical, for the use of the students. Here is preserved the original deed,
dated 1719, signed by several noblemen, subscribers to a Eoyal Academy of Music,
from which was formed the first Italian Opera in England.
Royal Institute of Aechitects, Conduit-street, Hanover-square : about 2000
volumes on Architecture and its attendant sciences; including the Prussian Government's
educational works ; that by Lepsius on Egypt ; and large and expensive books of curiosity
and reference, such as Piranesi and Canina. The MSS. and original Drawings comprise
Stuart's commencement of a Dictionary of Architecture ; Weennick's Lives of Flemish
Architects ; and about 2000 drawings of antiquities, modern edifices, and designs by
English, French, Italian, and German architects of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth centuries.
Royal Institution, Albemarle-street : about 27,000 volumes, including the
curious library of Astle, the antiquary ; topographical, antiquarian, clabsical, and
scientific works ; parliamentary history, &c.
Royal Libkaey (The) St. James's Palace, was originally founded by Edward VI,,
who appointed Bartholomew Trahuon, keeper, with a salary of 201. : the first books
mostly collected by Leland, at the Dissolution ; and here were deposited his " Collec-
tions," presented by him to King Edward, but subsequently dispersed. James I.
refounded the library, and added the collection of the learned Isaac Casaubon. The
entire collection was presented to the British Museum, in 1757, by George II.; and
to the gift was annexed the privilege, which the Royal Library had acquired in the
reign of Queen Anne, of being supplied with a copy of every new publication entered
at Stationers' Hall. In St. James's Palace was also the Queen's Library, built by Kent,
for Caroline, consort of George II., in the Stable-yard: here were two fine marble
busts of George II. and Queen Caroline, by Rysbraeck, both now in Windsor Castle.
Royal Society, Burlington House : the Library, in the upper floor, is extremely rich
in the best editions of scientific treatises, besides rare and valuable theological historical
■works, which are lent to Fellows of the Society. The catalogue of books, MSS., and
letters, 1841, fills two volumes 8vo. ("The collection is very poor in some depart-
ments." — A. De Morgan.) The Society also possess upwards of 5000 maps, charts,
engravings, drawings, &c. The library of Arundel House, presented to the Royal
Society by Mr. Henry Howard, 1666-7, forms the nucleus of the present collection,
each book being inscribed Ex dono Henrici Howard, Norfolciensis : " it consists of
3287 printed books, chiefly first editions, soon after the invention of printing; and
Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Turkish, and other rare MSS., 544 volumes." (Maitland.) In
1830, the Arundel MSS. (excepting the Hebrew and Oriental) were sold to the British
Museum for 3559Z., which was expended in purchasing scientific works for the Royal
Society's Library, now exceeding 42,000 volumes.
Here are Chaucer's Canterburie Tales, fol. 1480 (Caxton) ; Copernicus's Siitory of Astronomy, first
edition ; original M S. of the Pnncipia, written by Sir Isaac Newton ; and documents in the Commercium
Epistolicum (invention of Fluxions) ; MS. of Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire.
Royal Society or Liteeature, 4, St. Martin's-place, Trafalgar-square : a valuable
library, greatly enriched by the lexicographical and antiquarian works presented by the
Rev. H. J. Todd, editor and enlarger of Johnson's Dictionary ; also papers by the
most eminent writers on history, philology, poetry, philosophy, and the arts. The
Society's House was built by the leading members upon Crown land granted in 1826
by George IV., who contributed 1100 guineas a year.
It is true that Georjrc IV. was committed to this large annual subscription by a misconception of Dr.
Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury; the king intending a donation of 1000 guineas, and an annual subscrip-
tion of 100 guineas: his Majesty not only cheerfully acquiesced, but amused liimself with the incident.
Russell Institution, Great Coram-street. This Institution was founded in the
year 1808, and amongst its earliest members were Sir Samuel Romilly, Francis Horner,
Mason Good, Henry Hallara, and Lord Abinger. The number of volumes exceeds
16,000. Here is Haydon's grand heroic picture of " Xenophon and the Ten Thousand."
LIBRARIES. 525
It was disposed of by lottery for 800 guineas, in 1836, when it was won by John, Duke
of Bedford, and presented by him to the Institution.
SiON College Libeaet, London Wall (see p. 279), though founded for the clergy
of the City and suburbs of London, is now accessible daily upon the same conditions as
the British Museum Library. The Sion collection was increased by the bequest of the
library of Dr. William Harris : here are many curious black-letter theological works
and scarce tracts of the Puritan times.
SiE John Soane's Museum : Architecture and the Fine Arts generally, by English,
Italian, French, German, and Russian artists and literati; original Drawings and MSS.
by Thorpe, Jones, Vanbrugh, Wren, and Chambers; Pennant's London, illustrated
with 2000 drawings, prints, &c. (Fauntleroy's); Tasso's MS. Gerusalemme Liberata;
first, second, third, and fourth folio editions of Shakspeare, from J. P. Kemble's library.
{See Museums : Sir John Soane's.)
Societies, Liteeaet and Scientific, in Islington, Marylebone, Southwark, and
Westminster, contain modern libraries.
Society of Aets, John-street, Adelphi, has a collection of technical works, which
is very far from complete, but was intended to contain copies of all special treatises on
the arts and manufactures. The most interesting and important part of the library is
the MS. correspondence and journal-books. Amongst the rejected communications and
condeumed inventions are many since the subjects of patents ; and these volumes are
the most remarkable registers in the country of the inventions of the last century.
The books are lent to the members.
Statistical Society, 12, St. James's-square : a large collection of Statistical
Returns, imperfectly catalogued.
Tenison's LiBEAEY, in Castle-street, St. Martin's-lane, immediately behind the
National Gallery, was built by Sir Christopher Wren. It is "a noble structure,
extremely well contrived for the placing of the books and lights, and furnished
with the best modern books in most faculties : the best of its kind in England." —
{H. Lemoine, 1790.) The Library, about 4000 volumes, was formed by the Archbishop
during the reigns of Kings Charles II., James IL, William III., and Queen Anne, and
was established by Tenison in 1685, then Rector of St. Martin's parish. It contained
all the rare books formerly belonging to Father Le Courayer, canon and chief librarian of
St. Genevieve, and author of the celebrated I>issertaUon on the Validity of the Ordi-
nations and the Succession of the Bishops of the Church of England. Some years
before his death the Canon gave all his rare and valuable books to Archbishop Tenison's
Library. The entire collection was dispersed by auction by order of the Charity Com-
missioners, in June, 1864, when some of the MSS. were disposed of as follows : —
The Original Note-Book of Francis Bacon, entirely in his autograph and unpublished, full of curious
and interesting details illustrative of the personal history of this great reformer of philosophy, 69Z. The
Holy Bible, translated by Wickliffe, a manuscript of the fourteenth century, upon vellum, comprising
a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, 150?. Venantii Honorii Clementiani Fortunati, Presbyteri
Italici, Versarium et Prosaica; Expositiones Orationis Dominicse et Symbol!, a fine manuscript, Ssec. X.
or XL, 78?. Higden's Polychronicon, translated into English by John de Trevisa, being the version
used by Caxton, a noble manuscript, wanting a few leaves. It is preceded by two treatises, one
entitled, Dialogus inter Militem et Clericum, and the other, The Defence, before the Fope at Borne, by
Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, which latter has not been printed, 189?. Historical Mis-
cellanies, containing three pages in the autograph of Francis Bacon, 30?. 10s. A charming volume,
entitled, .4?? the King's Short Foesis that are not Frinted, with numerous alterations in the handwritings
of King James the First and Prince Charles (afterwards Charles the First), 68?. 58. Keating's Three
Shafts of Death, composed in the year 1631, and History of Ireland, in the Irish character, 20?. A
chronicle, called Mores Historiarum, by that eminent English historian Matthew of Westminster, a
manuscript of the fourteenth century, 63?. Missale secundum TJsum Sarum, a fine manuscript of the
fifteenth century, with musical notes, 70?. Frudentii Liber de Pugnd Vitiorum et Virtutum, cum Qlossis,
a wonderful manuscript of the tenth century, with eighty illustrations of a highly spirited character,
executed in outline, and exhibiting great artistic skill in the powerful treatment of the various subjects,
273?. Fsalterium, cum Frecibus, a most beautiful manuscript of the thirteenth century, by an English
artist, with many thousand capital letters, various figures, devices and grotesque subjects, executed in
gold and colours in the richest manner, 200?. A curious collection of Theological Treatises in English,
one of them being a discourse against miracle plays, the most singular relic of the kind known to exist,
and said to be the only mediaeval English treatise on such plays yet discovered, 35?. Divers Treatises in
En-lish, by Dr. Wicklifi-e, 37?. 10«.
The Grammar-school, including the Library-rooms, with St. Martin's Workhouse,
526 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
have been purchased of the parish of St. Martin's for 86,000Z.; the site being required
for the enlargement of the National Gallery.
TowEE OP London. — At the commencement of the last century, according to
Bagford and Oldys, the Records in the Wakefield Tower were very curious, and were
then " modeled and digested, and reposited in cases." In the White Tower were a
vast number of records relating to monasteries, &c., several letters of kings, princes,
dukes, &c., from several parts of the world, as Tartary, Barbary, Spain, France, Italy,
&c., to our kings in England. {See Recoeds, Public.)
United Seevice Institution, Middle Scotland-yard, Whitehall: an admirable
library of reference (10,000 volumes), especially valuable in its practical utility to
soldiers ; pamphlets on the services ; engineering papers : rich in old Italian military
literature; a French plan of fortification in MS., corrected in the handwriting of
Vauban.
Uniyeesitt College, Gower-street : about 43,000 volumes, and 8000 pamphlets,
general, legal, and medical ; including the Chinese hbrary, 10,000 volumes, left by Dr.
Morrison j the Ricardo library (political economy), left by David Ricardo ; and a large
collection bequeathed by Dr. Holmes of Manchester. The marble statue of Locke in
the principal library, is by Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A. {See p. 280.)
Westminstee Abbey : (Chapter House). — The Chapter House was once the monks'
** parlour," or " parleying" place, but made a public library by Lord Keeper Williams,
whilst Dean of Westminster. The books were burnt in 1664, and but one MS. saved
out of 320 : they are catalogued in the Harleian MSS. Chamberlayne (1726) de-
scribes " a fair publick library, free for all strangers in term time :" about 11,000
volumes. Among the treasures here are collections of music and classics and early
Bibles; an early vellum book, printed at Oxford, 1482 ; ceremonials of consecrations ;
an Editio FHnceps of Plato; St. Ambrose on vellum; the JPupilla Oculi, and
Litlington's Missal, 1362.
Domesday Book, Rymer's Fcedera, and other ancient records, kept here, have
been transferred to the Rolls Office, Chancery -lane. The Chapter House formerly con-
tained the most valuable muniments, of which, in 1807, an inventory was made ; three
copies only were taken ; one, with coloured drawings of the building, is in the British
Museum. Addit. MS. 8977. The Parliament Rolls were, at the above date, in an old
stone tower, in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster ; and the Papers of State from the
beginning of Henry VIII. were kept in Holbein's Cockpit Gate.
In the room called the Museum, at Westminster School, is a collection of books
given by Dr. Busby for the use of the scholars.
Williams's Libeaet, "the Dissenters' Library," Redcross-street, Cripplegate:
20,000 volumes, collected by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Williams, the Nonconformist, and Dr.
Bates; and bequeathed by the former, with provisions for a building; opened 1729.
This library has been increased by gifts, and by a small income from estates left by Dr.
Williams : it is rich in controversial divinity, is open to the public by a trustee's order,
and books are allowed to be taken out. Here are some manuscripts of the early
history of the Reformation. Dr. Williams purchased most of the books of the heirs of
one Baker, of Highgate : by negligence many of the MSS. were burnt, including the
pompous and rare book of the Eules and Ceremonies of the Coronation of the Kings of
England. {H. Lemoine, 1790.) Also, The Salisbury Liturgy, finely illuminated ; The
Hours of the Virgin, Paris, 1498 ; Illuminated Bible ; miniature copy of the Head of
Christ, from a painting in the Vatican ; the glass baptismal basin of Queen Elizabeth.
Here was a very interesting collection of portraits of Dissenting Ministers.
Before the system of the registration of births, marriages, and deaths had been
established at Somerset House, three denominations of Protestant dissenters, forming a
congregation within twelve miles of London, established a registry of births here, which
was continued from 1742 to 1837, when these records were placed in the care of the
Registrar-General. In these books are entered nearly 50,000 births, attested by
witnesses. The library buildings were taken down in 1864, for the extension of the
Metropolitan Railway ; and the collection has been removed to Lincoln's-inn-fields.
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 527
Zoological Society, 11, Hanover-square : Transactions of learned societies, and
scientific zoological works of modern date.
CiECULATiNG LiBEARiES date from 1740, when one Wright, at No. 132, Strand,
established the first. Dr. Franklin writes in 1725, lodging in Little Britain : " Cir-
cnlatiug libraries were not then in use." Among Wright's earliest rivals were the
Nobles, in Holborn and St. Martin's-court ; Samuel Bathoe, Strand j and Thomas
Lowndes, Fleet-street. Another early Circulating Library was in Crane-court, Fleet-
street, where the Society of Arts met in 1754 and 1755. In 1770 there were but four
Circulating Libraries in the metropolis.
Feee Libeaeies : the first established in Marylebone, 1853.
Mudie's Select Libeaey, New Oxford-street, has about 120,000 volumes actually
in circulation, in addition to a reserve of nearly a million volumes. Rather more than
half of these are works of History, Biography, Religion, Philosophy, and Travels ; the
rest being works of Fiction, chiefly of the higher and standard class. The Library
was formed into a Company, in 1864, under Mr. Mudie's superintendence, and with
increasing success ; number of subscribers, nearly 20,000. The books are kept in a large
and handsome Hall, decorated with Ionic columns ; light iron galleries give access to
the upper shelves, and an iron staircase descends to vaults, filled with solid stacks of
books ; and light trucks circulate laden with books. More than 1000 exchanges are
usually effected in one day. Of the more popular works thousands of copies are
provided : of Livingstone's Travels in Africa, 3250 copies were in circulation at one
time ; of JEs'says and Bevietvs, 2000 copies ; and of the (Quarterly Heview, in which
the Tlssays were answered, 1000 copies; M'Clintock's Voyage in Search of Franklin,
3000 volumes ; of some novels, 3000. Tiie books are distributed throughout the three
Kingdoms to private individuals, country book-clubs, and literary societies. The sys-
tem was commenced by Mr. Mudie in 1842, with the object of providing a supply of
works of a higher class than were usually to be found in circulating libraries. This
is altogether a liberal enterprise, the benefits of which have been rightly appreciated
by the reading public.
LINCOLN'S INN FIELLS,
THIS fine square west of Lincoln's Inn dates from 1618, when "the grounds were
much planted round with dwellings and lodgings of noblemen and gentlemen of
quality, but at the same time were deformed by cottages and mean buildings — en-
croachments on the fields, and nuisances to the neighbourhood." To reform these
grievances, a commission was appointed by the Crown " to plant and reduce to unifor-
mity Lincoln's Inn Fields, as it shall be drawn by way of map or ground-plot by Inigo
Jones." A view, painted in oil, of Inigo's plan is preserved at Wilton House : it is
taken from the south, and the principal feature is Lindsey House, on the centre of the
west side {see p. 448). It still remains, but has lost the handsome vases which
originally surmounted the open balustrade at the top. {Life of Inigo Jones, by Peter
Cunningham. Shakspeare Society, 1848.)
The proportions of the square were long stated to be those of the Great Pyramid of
Egypt ; which, says Walpole, " would have been admired in those ages when the keep
of Kenilworth Castle was erected in the form of a horse-fetter, and the Escurial in the
shape of St. Lawrence's gridiron." But the fact is otherwise ; the base of the Great
Pyramid measures 764 feet on each side, whereas Lincoln's-inn-fields, although 821
feet on one side, is only 625 feet 6 inches on the other, and the area of the Pyramid
is greater by many thousand square feet. (Colonel Howard Vyse, On the Pyramids.)
The west side only was completed by Inigo Jones.
Lincoln's Inn Fields have been used as a place of execution. Here, September 20
and 21, 1586, Babington and his accomplices were "hanged, bowelled, and quartered,
on a stage or scafibld of timber strongly made for that purpose, even in the place where
they used to meet and to conferre of their traitorous purposes." And here in the
middle of the square, July 21, 1683, was beheaded the patriotic William Lord
Russell,
628 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Burnet thus describes the sad scene : " Tillotson and I went with him in the coach to the place of
execution. Some of the crowd that filled the streets wept, while others insulted. He was singing
psalms a great part of the way, and said he hoped to sing better soon. As he observed the great crowd
of people all the way, he said to us, ' I hope I shall quickly see a much better assembly. VVhen he
came to the scaffold, he walked about it four or five times. Then he turned to the sherifts and delivered
his paper ... He prayed by himself, then Tillotson prayed with him. After that he prayed again by
himself, and then undressed himself, and laid his head on the block without the least change of coun-
tenance', and it was cut off at two strokes."
The Fields were long the resort of troops of idle and vicious vagrants : such were
«*Lincoln's-inn-fields Mumpers;" and "Scarecrow, the beggar in Lincoln's-inn-fields,
who disabled himself in his right leg, and asks alms all day, to get himself a warm
supper and a trull at night." (Spectator, No. 6.) Boys gambled for farthings and
oranges j and a favourite game here was " the Wheel of Fortune," played with a move-
able hand pointing to a circle of figures, such as we remember in Moorfields, the
prizes being gingerbread-nuts the size of farthings. Gay, in his Trivia, cautions the
pedestrian :—
" Where Lincoln Inn's wide space is rail'd around.
Cross not with vent'rous step ; there oft is found
The lurking thief, who, while the daylight shone.
Made the walls echo with his begging tone :
That wretch, which late compassion moved, shall wound
Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground."
Lincoln's-inn-flelds Bufflers were wretches who assumed the characters of maimed soldiers, and
begged from the claims of Naseby, Edgehill, Newbury, and Marston Moor; their prey was people of
fashion, whose coaches they attacked, and if refused relief, they told their owners, "*Tis a sad thing
that an old crippled cavalier should be suffered to beg for a maintenance, and a young cavalier, that
never heard the whistle of a bullet, should ride in his coach." '
The Fields were inclosed with iron railing after 1V35, in consequence of Sir Joseph
Jekyll, then Master of the Rolls, being ridden over; "before which time the
Square was a receptacle for rude fellows to air horses, and many robberies were
committed in it." (Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1773.) But Ireland states that
Jekyll was attacked and thrown down by the mob, in consequence of his aid in the
passing of the Act of Parliament to raise the price of gin. In the Fields was often
set up, until its final abolition, the Pillory, handy for the rabble of Clare Market. At
the north-west angle of the inclosure is a picturesque Gothic drinking fountain. On
the north side are Sir John Soane's Museum and the Inns of Court Hotel ; south, the
College of Surgeons (see p. 279); east, Lincoln's-inn New Hall (see p. 466); west,
through Inigo Jones's archway, in Duke-street, is the Sardinian Roman Cathohc Chapel
{see p. 232) ; opposite which, over an Itahan warehouse, lodged Dr. Franklin, when a
compositor in Watts's printing office.
At No. 12, Duke-street, in 1845, was completed by Mr. Smith, a magnificent Silver Fountain, of
extraordinary magnitude and exquisite workmanship, as a present from the East India Company to
Mohammed Ali, Pasha of Egypt. This fountain is upwards of ten feet in height, and contains 10,000
ounces (7f cwt.) of silver. Ii consists of a massive and enriched pedestal, whence springs a shaft, sup-
porting a tier of three basins ; and at each angle of the pedestal are a large vase of flowers, and groups
of fi uit at the base. The likeness of beast, bird, or fish is scrupulously avoided throughout the orna-
ments, in deference to Mahomedan scruples. The style of ornament is that of Louis Quatorze; and the
base bears an inscription in English, Turkish, Arabic, and Latin. This fountain cost 7000i. ; it oecu-
pied more than seven months in the actual manufacture; and is, we believe, the largest silver work ever
executed in England.
Great and Little Turnstile are named from the turning stiles which, two centuries
since, stood at their ends next Lincoln's-inn-fields, to prevent the straying of cattle
therefrom; and Gate-street, north-west, has a similar origin. Sir Edwin Sandys's
curious LuropcB Speculum, 4to, 1637, was " sold by George Hutton, at the Turning
Stile in Holborne." The English translation of Bishop Peter Camus's Admirable
IJvents, 4to, 1639, was also " sold in Holborne, in Turnstile Lane." In 1685 was
built New Turnstile.
Turnstile-alley, leading to Holborn, was first designed as a change for selling Welsh
friezes, flannels, &c. Here Cartwright, the bookseUer, kept shop : he was an excellent
player, and bequeathed his plays and pictures to Dulwich College.
5n the north side of the Fields is Whetstone's ParTc, a row of tenements namec
after William Whetstone, a vestryman of the parish of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields in th(
time of Charles I. and the Protectorate. It was long a place of ill repute, and wai
attacked by the London apprentices in 1682. Since l708, however, it has chieflj
consisted of stables. (Hatton's London, p. 88.)
i
LITERARY FUND {THE ROYAL). 520
" And makes a brothel of a palace.
Where harlots ply, as many tell us,
Like brimstones in a Whetstone alehouse."— ^w^Zer.
The vile place and its loose characters also occur in the plays of Shadwell and
Dryden, and in Ned Ward's London Spy.
The concentration of the Law Courts in Lincoln's Inn Fields was once proposed ; and in 1841 Mr.
Barry designed a larj^e building, of Grecian character, containing a Great Hall (nearly equal to the art'a
of Westminster Hall), surrounded by 12 courts; the whole oecuijying one-third of the area within the
rails, to be belted with plantations. Funds were wanting, and the blocking up of the open space was
objected to : persons had considered this area as their " country walk," and that " they had been in tli^
country when they had been round Lincoln's Inn Fields." (^Evidence before Farliament.)
LITERARY FUND {TEE ROYAL),
ADMINISTERS assistance to authors of published works of approved literary
merit, and to authors of important contributions to periodical literature who may
be in distressed circumstances; such assistance being extended, at the death of an
author, to his widow and children. Of this institution it has been well said ;
"With equal promptitude and delicacy, its committee are ever ready to administer to the necessi-
ties of the unfortunate scholar, who can satisfy them that his misery is not the just punishment of
immoral habits. Some of the brightest names in contemporary literature have been beholden to the
bounty of this Institution, and in numerous instances its interference has shielded friendless merit from
utter ruin."— Quarterly Review.
The Society was established by subscription, in 1790, by Mr. David Williams, who
has detailed its objects in a work entitled The Claims of Literature. It was first pro-
posed by Williams in 1773, to a club which met at the Prince of Wales's Tavern,
Conduit- street, Hanover-square j Dr. Franklin presided, but discouraged Williams by
observing, " the event will require so much time, perseverance, and patience, that the
anvil may wear out the hammer." The first anniversary dinner was held in 1793 : in
1794 an ode was recited; and this practice was continued imtil 1830. Among the
writers of these odes were Captain Morris, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. George
Dyer, Mr. Boscawen, the Rev. Henry Kett, the Rev. Dr. Charles Symmons, the Rev.
George Crabbe, the Rev. Thomas Maurice, Mr, Henry Neele, and Mr. Allan Cunning-
ham. The first patron of the Fund, the Prince Regent, contributed 5455^. ; the
Dukes of Kent, Sussex, York, and Cambridge presided at its dinners ; Prince Albert
presided in 1842, and the Prince of Wales in 1864. In the Society's armorial bear-
ings are the imperial crown and the Prince of Wales's plume. The first house of the
Fund was 86, Gerard-street, Soho, where Williams died in 1816 : he was buried in
St. Anne's Church, and his gravestone bears, " David Williams, Esq., aged seventy-
eight TEAES, Founder of the Literary Fund." Yet Canning, in political spite,
once classed WiUiams amongst " creeping creatures, venomous and low !" The Fund
was incorporated 1818: the average annual number of authors relieved during the
last ten years has been 52, classified under the heads of History and Biography;
Science and Art ; Periodical Literature ; Topography and Travels ; Classical Literature
and Education ; Poetry ; Essays and Tales ; Drama ; Law ; Medicine ; and Miscel-
laneous. The average amount of the annual grants during the last ten years has been
1577^. The Reserve Fund at the end of 1866 was 26,000^. The stock of the pro-
perty bequeathed to the Fund by Mr. Thomas Newton, who believed himself to be the
last descendant of Sir Isaac Newton, amounts to 8167^. 15.?. \0d. ; and the Newton
estate at Whitechapel produces at present 2031. a year in rents. The present Cham-
bers of the Fund are at No. 4, Adelphi-terrace, described at page 1. (See also
Libraries, p. 521.)
LITTLE BRITAIN,
ANCIENTLY Bretagne or Britain-street, west of Aldersgate-street, is named from
the Duke of Bretagne, who had here his magnificent town-mansion.
Little Britain was as remarkable for its booksellers through the reigns of Charles I.
and II., James II., and William and Mary, as Paternoster-row is at present. This
location of booksellers may have been influenced by John Day, the eminent printer,
living over Aldersgate; and from Grub-street being the abode of authors. {See Grub-
btreet, pp. 383-385.) " Bartholomew-close printers " are also mentioned by Dryden.
M M
530 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Eoger North, in his Life of the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North, speaking of the booksellers in tho
reign of Charles II., says : " Little Britain was a plentiful and perpetual emporium of learned authors,
and men went thither as to a market. This drew to the place a mighty trade, the rather because the
shops were spacious and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to meet with
agreeable conversation ; and the booksellers themselves were knowing and conversible men, with whom,
for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest wits were pleased to converse ; and we may judge the
time as well spent there as (in latter days) either in tavern or coflee-house. But now this emporium
has vanished, and the trade contracted into the hands of two or three persons."
Kobcrt Scott appears to have been a principal dealer in Little Britain. A news-
paper of 1644 states 460 pamphlets to have been published here in four years.
Bichard Chiswell, of Little Britain, buried in St. Botolph's Church, Aldersgate, in
1711, is described as " the metropolitan bookseller of England." At the Dolphin, in
Little Britain, lived Samuel Buckley, publisher of the Spectator, commenced March 1,
1711. In 1725, Benjamin Franklin, when working at Palmer's printing-oflSce iu
Bartholomew-close, lodged in Little Britain, next door to Wilcox the bookseller, who
lent Franklin books " for a reasonable retribution."
Milton, after he had left Jewin-street, lodged for a time in Little Britain with Millington, the book-
auctioneer, who was accustomed to lead his venerable inmate by the hand when he walked in the
street, as mentioned by Kichardson, on the testimony of the acquaintance of Milton. (Symmons's Life
of Milton, 2nd edition, p. 501.) Richardson also relates, that, in Little Britain, the Earl of Dorset, whea
beating about for books to his taste, " met with Paradise Lost, and was so struck with some of its
passages that he bought it, the bookseller begging him to speak in its favour if he liked it, for that they
(the copies in his shop, not the impression, as Malone states) lay on his hands as waste-paper. The
Earl read the poem, and sent it to Dryden, who returned it with the memorable opinion : ' This man cuts
us all out, and the ancients too.' "
" The race of booksellers in Little Britain is now almost extinct ; honest Ballard,
well known for his curious divinity catalogues, being their only genuine representative "
{Gentleman's Magazine, No. 1, 1731). He died Jan. 2, 1796, aged 88, in the house
wherein he was born.
Buke-street, formerly Duck-lane, leading into Smithfield, was once celebrated for
refuse book-shops :
"And so may'st thou, perchance, pass up and down.
And please awhile th' admiring court and town,
"Who after all shall in Duck-lane shops be thrown."
Oldham's Satires, circa 1680.
Washington Irving describes the locality as " a cluster of narrow streets and courts
of very venerable and debilitated houses, several ready to tumble down, the fronts of
which are magnificently enriched with old oaken carvings of hideous faces, unknown birds,
beasts, and fishes, and fruits and flowers, which it would perplex a naturalist to
classify " (Sketch-booJc). Most of this grotesque ornamentation has, however, long
LOMBARD STREET,
" A CERTAIN" street of the greatest credit in Europe," {Addison,) is proved by
-lA. stow to have borne that name before the reign of Edward II. ; and is so called
of the Longobards, the first of whom were the Caursini family, a rich race of bankers
who settled here, and their countrymen soon grouped around them. They were also
the goldsmiths, who took pledges in plate, jewels, &c. ; and the badge of the Lom-
bards (the three golden pills of the Medici family) has descended as the sign of the
pawnbrokers.* The black-letter ballad in the Pepys collection makes the husband of
Jane Shore a goldsmith here :
*' In Lombard-street I once did dwelle.
As London yet can witnesse welle ;
Where many gallants did beholde
My beauty iu a shop of golde.
» * » *
I penance did in Lombard-streete
In shameful manner in a sheete."
In the parish of St. Edmund, in Lombard-street, was the hostel of Isabella, Queen
of Edward the Second, whom, with the Prince of Wales, the Queen entertained l)ere,
October 26, 1357. The rent of her house, which belonged to the prioress of St. Helen's,
was twenty-five shillings and twopence half-yearly. — Archceologia, vol. xxxv.
pp. 453-469.
* The sign is also traceable to the three pieces of gold, which are the emblem of the charitable
St, Nicholas. (See Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art.)
LOMBARD STREET. 531
Here the merchants assembled twice daily in all weathers. In 1537, Sir Richard
Gresham proposed to Cromwell (then Lord Privy Seal) " to make a goodely Bursse in
Lombert-strette, for marchaunts to repayer unto." Hence originated the Exchange
built by Sir Richard's son, Sir Thomas Gresham, who was then living in Lombard-
street, described by Hentzner as the handsomest street in London.
Here, like other bankers, Gresham kept a shop on the site of the banking-house
(No. 68) of Martin, Stone, and Martins, who in Pennant's time possessed the large gilt
grasshopper (Gresham's crest) which was placed over his door as a sign. It existed
entire until 1795, when the present house was built, and the sign disappeared.
Hentzner, in 1593, saw in Lombard-street " all sorts of gold and silver vessels exposed to sale, as well
as ancient and modern coins, in such quantities as must surprise a man the first time he sees and con-
siders them." At Gresham's death, much of his wealth consisted of gold chains. Lombard-street has
retained its character as well as its name for at least five centuries and a half; and within the last thirty
years several gold and silver lacemen lived there. — Burgon's Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham,
vol. i. p. 281 : 1839.
The Pope's merchants also chaffered here for their wafer-cakes and pardons. Sir
Simon Eye built here a large tavern, The CardinaVs Hat ; and Pope's Head Alley,
leading from 7^ombard-street to Cornhill, is named from The Fo-pe's Head Tavern^ which
existed in 1464 : it had a finely painted room in Pepys's time. The Alley was once
famous for its print-sellers, for toys, turnery, and cutlery ; and stalls of fine fruit.
It was long believed that the poet Pope was born in Plough-court, Lombard-street, May 22, 1688,
" at the house which is now Mr. Morgan's, an apothecary" (Spence's Anecdotes) ; a name long since for-
gotten, although J. T. Smith took much pains to discover it. It was added that Pope's father was a
linondraper. But, in 1857, it was ascertained from a London Bvrectory, in the Manchester Free Library,
1677, that Alexander Pope, the poet's father, was then living in Broad-street, and was a merchant, not
a linendraper. Mr. Hotten, of Piccadilly, was the first to discover tlie above, as well as a broadside,
which shows that the poet's family were living in Broad-street three years later than the appearance of
the Directory. At what date Pope's father retired is not clearly ascertained, but all accounts agree that
Pope was born in 1688, in the City of London. Looking to the facts, therefore, that the father appears
to have been firmly established in Broad-street as a merchant, and that the tradition of Plough-court,
Lombard-street, is extremely vague, may we not assume it as most probable that Pope was born in
Broad-street, in the parish of St. Bennet Fink? In the Athenwum, May 30, 1857, we find:—
" 1679, 12 August, Buried, Magdalen, the wife of Alexander Pope. Here, then, we have for the first
time evidence that the elder Pope resided in Broad-street in 1677-79, and there died and was buried in
1679, Magdalen, wife of Alexander Pope the elder. There can be no doubt that this Magdalen Pope was
the wife of the poet's father, and the mother of Magdalen Rackett, who, on the evidence of the poet
himself, was the daughter of Pope's father by a first wife ; and thus the question of relationship between
Mrs. Rackett and Pope will be decided after a century of discussion, and against the recorded judgment
of his biographers."
In Ahchurch-lane, named from the parish of St. Mary Abchurch, or Upchurch, as
Stow says he had seen it written, lived Mr. John Moore, author of the celebrated
worm-powder :
" learned friend of Abchurch-lane,
Who sett'st our entrails free !
Vain is thy art, thy powder vain,
Since worms shall eat e'en tl^ee." — Fope.
Lombard-street had also its booksellers. The imprint to Howel's Familiar Letters,
5th edition, is: "London, printed for Thomas Guy, at the Corner-shop of Little
Lombard-street and Cornhill, near Wool-church Market, \ 678." And 1696, Sept. 17,
Lloyd's News was first " printed for Edward Lloyd (Coffee-man) in Lombard-street."
Towards Birchin (anciently Birchover's) lane stood the house of William de la Pole,
created in France, by Edward III., Knight Banneret j he was King's Merchant, and
from him sprang a numerous race of nobility.
In George-yard was the George hostel, the London lodging of Earl Ferrers, whose
brother in 1175, was slain here in the night, and thrown into the dirty street, which
foul deed led to the setting of the night watches.
Lombard-street highway passes over the site of Roman houses, and has been the field of three great
finds of Roman remains, in 1730, 1774, and 1785-6; the latter, in its stratum of wood ashes, supposed
to indicate the burning of London by Boadicea. Ten feet below the street-level was found a wall of the
smaller-sized Roman bricks, pierced by flues or chimneys ; likewise tile and brick pavements ; in Birchin-
lane, a tesselated pavement of elegant design, heaps of Roman coins, glass bottles, keys, and beads;
vessels and fragments of earthenware ; and a large vessel of red Samian ware, richly embellished, and
reminding us that " Rome did not want its Wedgwood." The causeway, which Wren considered the
northern boundary of the Roman station, was then also discovered in Birchin-lane.
By the London Directory, \&11, above quoted, of the forty-four names or firms of
M M 2
532 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
" goldsTiiiths who kept running cashes" in London "twenty-seven were (then) located
in Lombard street." Sir Martin Bowes, the wealthy goldsmith, lived upon the site of
No. 67, now Glyn's banking-house, which Sir Martin bequeathed to the Goldsmiths*
Company, of which he was a distinguished member.
The banking-house of Messrs. Barclay and Co., No. 54, on the north side of Lombard-
street, originally extended backwards to George- court, and is supposed to have been
derived from the gift of Richard Mervayle to the Vintners' Company in 1437, who
leased the premises for seventy years, from Michaelmas, 1778, at the yearly rent of
761. (Herbert's History of the Ttvelve Great Livery Companies, vol. ii. p. 629.)
The staff of Barclay's firm originally consisted of three clerks ; and we are told that,
on the third clerk coming to the office for the first time, he was thus dressed : —
He wore along:, flapped coat, with large pockets. The sleeves had long cuffs, with three large
buttons, something like the coats worn by the Greenwich pensioners of the present day ; an embroidered
waistcoat, reaching nearly down to his knees, with an enormous bouquet in the button-hole : a cocked
hat ; powdered hair, with pigtail and bagwig ; and gold-headed cane, similar to those of the present day
carried by footmen of ladies of rank.— See Reminiscences, by Morris Charles Jones. Privately printed.
Welshpool, 1864.
The banking-house was rebuilt in 1864, P. C. Hardwick, architect : it has four
storeys, reaching 60 feet in height, and 85 feet in width. Lombard-street as the centre
of "the banking world" has realized large sums for building sites, of which the
following are remarkable quotations : —
The banking premises of Heywood, Kennard, and Co., in Lombard-street, were purchased by the
Mercantile and Exchange Bank for 20,000/.; the directors of which let the first floor of the house to the
Asiatic Banking Corporation for lOOOZ. a year. The amalgamation of the London Bank of Scotland
with the Mercantile and Exchange Bank, having made it necessary to value the premises in Lombard-
street, the Directors of the Bank of Scotland paid 10,000Z, to the shareholders in the Mercantile and
Exchange Bank, as their proportion of the incrensed value of the premises, which are now estimated as
■worth 40,000Z. ! The value was thus doubled within the year.
Again, a piece of ground at the corner of Lombard-street, formerly the site of Messrs. Spooner and
Co.'s banking-house, was let to the Agra and Masterman's Bank for ninety-nine years, at G600/. a year.
Owing to a change in the arrangements of that bank, it was next sold to the City Offices Company at a
premium of 70,000?., and a building is now to be erected upon it, at a cost of upwards of 70,090Z., the
gross rental of which is estimated at 22,000?., the London and County Bank paying 12,000Z. for the
ground floor and basement.
One of the best edifices in Lombard-street is the bank of Robarts, Lubbock, and Co.
The basement is suited to the idea of a bank ; it makes no use of columns, but is the
most decorated feature of the design ; P. C. Hardwick, architect. Here is one of Sir
Robert Taylor's best works, the Pelican Fire Office, with its elegant Doric and rusticated
basement, carrying the emblematic group designed by Lady Diana Beauclerk, executed
by Coade, at Lambeth, but now coated with paint. In the London and County Bank,
the whole of the Portland stone used was that of old Westminster Bridge.
The General Post-Office was removed to Lombard-street early in the last century
(see p. 394), and the Chief Office to St. Martin's le-Grand in 1829.
Here are the churches of AUhallows {see p. 146); St. Edmund (p. 161); and St.
Mary Woolnoth (p. 188.)
LONDON INSTITUTION, THL,
"PlNSBURY CIRCUS, was established by a proprietary, 1805, "for the advancement
-L of literature and the diffusion of useful knowledge :" upon its first committee were
Mr. Angerstein and Mr. Richard Sharp (" Conversation Sharp "). The Institution was
temporarily located at 8, Old Jewry (the fine brick mansion of Sir Robert Clayton,
temp. Charles II.), and opened with a library of 10,000 volumes; incorporated in 1807 :
the sun in splendour, a terrestrial globe, open book, and air-pump, among the armorial
ensigns of the common seal, characterizing the objects of the Institution. In 1812 it
was removed to King's Arms-yard, Coleman-street ; and thence, in 1819, to the pre-
sent mansion, built on the north side of Moorfields ; it is a very characteristic design
(Brooks, architect ; the father of Mr. Shirley Brooks, the popular litterateur) ; the first
stone kid November 4, 1815, by the Lord Mayor, Birch : the fa9ade is of Portland
stone, and has a Corinthian portico, modified from the temple of Vesta at Tivoli ; cost
of the building, 31,124^. The library is 97 by 42 feet, and 28 in height, and has a
gallery throughout • the collection of books is " one of the most useful and accessible in
LONDON STONE. 533
Britain" (see Libraries, p. 522). In the rear of the mansion is the Lecture-room,
or Theatre, for 700 auditors ; and adjoining are the Apparatus-room and Laboratory ;
the latter designed by W. H. Pepys, F.R.S., and engraved in Parkes's Chemical
Catechism, 13th edition, 1834. The apparatus in pneumatics, hydrostatics, electricity
and magnetism, is very perfect ; but the great battery of 2000 double plates, and an-
other with a pair of plates 200 feet square, with which Sir Humphry Davy experi-
mented, have long been destroyed.
LONDON STONE,
CANXON STREET, is a fragment of the milliarium (mile-stone) of the Romans,
" a pillar set up by them in the centre of the forum of Agricola's station, the
gnoma or umbilicus castri Londinensis." {A. J. Kempe, F.S.A.) Stow describes it
on the south side of the street, near the channel of Walbrook, " pitched upright, a
great stone, called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of
iron, and so strongly set, that if carts do run against it through negligence, the wheels
be broken, and the stone itself be unshaken." There is evidence to the belief that it
was placed here a thousand years ago ; and Camden considers it to have been the great
central mile-stone, from which the British high-roads radiated, and the distances on
them were reckoned, similar to that in the Forum at Rome.*
The traditional history of the stone is as follows : — It was the altar of the Temple
of Diana, on which the old British kings took their oaths on their accession, laying
their hands on it. Until they had done so, they were only kings presumptive. The
tradition of the usage survived as late, at least, as Jack Cade's time ; for it is not be-
fore he rushes forth and strikes the stone, that he thinks himself entitled to exclaim —
"Now is Mortimer lord of this city !"
Tradition also declares that the stone was brought from Troy by Brutus, and laid by
his own hand as the altar-stone of the Diana Temple, the foundation-stone of London,
and its palladium —
" Tra maen Prydain
Tra lied Llyndain " —
(" So long as the stone of Brutus is safe, so long will London flourish,")
which infers also, it is to be supposed, that if it disappears, London will wane. It has
been, from the earliest ages, jealously guarded and imbedded, perhaps from a super-
stitious belief in the identity of the fate of London with its palladium. — Notes and
Queries, 3rd S., No, 1.
London Stone is referred to as a local mark of immemorial antiquity in Saxon
charters. Stow found it mentioned as a landmark in a list of rents belonging to
Christ's Church, in Canterbury, at the end of " a fair-written gospel-book," given to
that foundation by the West-Saxon King Athelstane, who reigned from 925 to 941.
Of later time we read, that in the year 1135, the 1st of King Stephen, a fire, which began
in the house of one Ailward, near unto London Stone, consumed all east to Aldgate.
Henry Fitz-Alwyn, " the draper of London Stone," was the first Mayor of London,
1189. Lydgate, about 1430, sings :
" Then I went forth by London Stone
Throughout all Canwick Street."— ionion LacTcpenny.
Holinshed mentions the striking of the Stone in describing the insurrection of
Jack Cade ; and Shakspeare has introduced this dramatic incident in the Second Part
of Henry VI. act iv. sc. 6. In Fasquill and Marforius, 1589, we read : ** Set up this
bill at London Stone. Let it be doone solemnly, with drom and trumpet ; and looke
you advance my cullour on the top of the steeple right over against it.'" Also, " if it
please them these dark winter nights, to sticke uppe their papers uppon London
Stone." Here it is presumed to have been customary to affix official papers. Dryden
{The CocJc and the Fox,) has :
" Jack Straw at London Stone with all his rout
Struck not the city with so loud a shout."
* A like stone, of the time of Hadrian (2nd century), was found on the side of the Roman Foss-way
near Leicester, in 1771 ; and is preserved in the Museum of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical
Society.
534 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Watling-street, of which Cannon-street is a continuation, is supposed to have been
the principal street of Roman London ; but it may have been a British road before the
arrival of the Romans, to which earlier period Strype refers London Stone. After the
Great Fire of 1666, the ground in Cannon-street was much disturbed, and the "large
foundations " of London Stone led Wren to consider this to have been some more con-
siderable monument than even the Roman milliarium ; for adjoining " were discovered
some tessellated pavements, and other extensive remains of Roman workmanship and
buildings. Probably this might in some degree have imitated the Milliarium Aureum
at Constantinople, which was not in the form of a pillar, as at Rome, but an eminent
building," containing many statues. The Stone, before the Great Fire, was " much
worn away, and as it were but a stump remaining." {Strype.) It was then cased
over by Wren with a new stone, handsomely wrought and cut hollow, something like
a Roman altar or pedestal, admitting the ancient fragment, "now not much larger
than a bomb-shell," to be seen through a large aperture near the top. The Stone, in
its old position on the south side of the street, being complained of as a nuisance, was
removed to the north side in 1742, close to the kerb : here again it proved an obstruc-
tion ; and in 1798, when St. Svvithin's church was about to be repaired, the venerable
Stone was by some of the parishioners doomed to destruction ; but Mr. Thomas Maiden,
of Sherborne-lane, printer, prevailed on the parish-officers to have it placed against
the south wall of the church, where it now remains.
In Cannon-street is the spacious City Terminus of the South-Eastern Railway.
Luther's Table-Talk, English translation, was first "printed by William Du Gard,
dwelling in Suffolk-lane, near London-stone, 1652."
LONDON WALL,
MOORFIELDS, is a sireet named from its north side occupying the site of that portion
of the City Wall which divided the City Liberty from the Manor of Finsbury, and
against which was built Bethlem Hospital, taken down 1817-8 ; when also the Wall
was removed : " found uncommonly thick, and the bricks double the size of those now
used; the centre filled in with large loose stones, &c." (Hughson's Walks, 1817.)
The level of the street has been in parts raised two feet within the last 40 years. Over
Melmet Court entrance is a helmet, boldly sculptured in stone. Here is Sion CoUegCf
described at page 214.
The Wall, believed to be the work of the later Roman period, when London was
often exposed to hostile attacks, extended from the Tower, through the Minories to
Aldgate, Houndsditch, Bishopsgate, along London Wall to Fore-street, through
Cripplegate and Castle-street to Aldersgate, and so through Christ's Hospital by New-
gate and Ludgate towards the Thames. (See City Wall and Gates, pp. 233-236.)
In October, 1866, excavations at London- wall led to the discovery of a large
quantity of bones of horses, oxen, and deer, the horns in high preservation ; also
goat-horns, attached to portions of skulls ; spear-handles, decayed, and tipped with
horn. Till old Bethlem Hospital was taken down (1817-18), the greatest part of the
ancient wall of London, partly Roman, was to be seen here; and the Hospital itself
was built partly upon the City ditch, filled with rubbish, so that it was requisite to
shore up and underpin the walls.
LONa ACEE,
THE main street between Covent Garden and St. Giles's, and extending from
Drury-lane west to St. Martin's-lane, was {temp. Henry VIII.) an open field,
called the Elms, from a line of those trees growing upon it, as shown in Aggas's plan.
It was next called Seven Acres ; and temp. Charles I., when it was first laid out, it
was changed to Long Acre, from the length of the slip of ground first made a path-
way. In Phffinix-alley, now Hanover-court, on the south, John Taylor, the water-
poet, and a contemporary of Shakspeare, kept an ale-house, first with the sign of
The Mourning Crown^ for which, at the Commonwealth, he substituted his own head,
with this motto :
LONG ACRE. 535
" There's many a head stands for a sign;
Then, gentle reader, why not mine ?"
Taylor, as a Thames waterman, stoutly assailed coaches, among the builders of whicli
he died, in Phoenix- alley, in 1653.
It is related of Prior, the poet, that after spending the evening with Oxford,
Bolingbroke, Pope, and Swift, he would go and smoke a pipe, and drink a bottle of
ale with a common soldier and his wife in Long Acre, before he went to bed. This
woman (also said to have been a cobbler's and an alehouse-keeper's wife) was the
beautiful Chloe of Prior's poems : " he used to bury himself for whole days and nights
together with this poor mean creature " {Pope).
The Journey through England, 1722, describes "the Mug-house Club, in Long Acre, where, every
Wednesday and Saturday, a mixture of gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen, meet in a great room,
and are seldom under a hundred. They have a grave old gentleman, in his own grey hairs, now within
a few months of ninety years old, who is their president, and sits in an arm'd chair some steps higher
than the rest of the company, to keep the whole room in order. A harp plays all the time at the lower
end of the room, and every now and then one or other of the company rises and entertains the rest with
a song, and (by the by) some are good masters. Here is nothing drunk but ale, and every gentleman
hath his separate mug, which he chalks on the table where he sits as it is brought in : and every one
retires as he pleases, as from a coffee-house. The room is always so diverted with songs, and drinking
from one table to another to one another's healths, that there is no room for politicks, or anything that
can sour conversation. One must be there by seven to get room, and after ten the company are for the
most part gone."
Long Acre was at first inhabited by persons of note, and some of the houses are
handsomely built ; but coachmakers, and the subordinate trades of coach-trimmers,
colourmen, and varnish-makers, have probably lived in Long Acre since the general
introduction of coaches, circ. 1630. John Locke (in his Diari/y 1679), recommends
** Mr. Cox, of Long Acre, for all sorts of dioptrical glasses." A few old signs, in-
cluding the goldbeater's gilded arm and hammer, remained to our time, upon the
house-fronts ; but the coachmakers have of late years followed fashion westward. The
chapel on the north side of Long Acre was the private property of the Kev. John
Warner, D.D., an eloquent preacher (d. 1800). In conjunction with Dr. Lettsom and
Mr. Nichols, Dr. Warner originated the erection of the statue of John Howard in St.
Paul's Cathedral. Among the nostrums of Long Acre were Dr. Gardner's Worm-
destroying Medicines, &c. : also, Burchell's Anodyne Necklaces, strongly recommended
for teeth-cutting, by Dr. Turner, the inventor; and by Dr. Chamberlain, who is said
to have possessed the secret.
The removal of part of a labyrinth of alleys at the west end of King-street, Covent-
garden, has been followed by the partial demolition of Rose-street, a dirty thoroughfare
into Long Acre, with a curious literary history. Mr. Cunningham thus carefully narrates :
" It was in this street (Dec. 18th, 1679) that Dryden, returning to his house in Long Acre, over against
Eose-street, was barbarously assaulted and wounded by three persons, hired for the purpose, as is now
known, by Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Fifty pounds were offered by the King for the discovery of the
offenders, and a pardon in addition if a principal or accessory would come forward. But Rochester's
• Black Will with a cudgel' (the name he gives his bully) was bribed to silence, it is thought, by a better
reward. Rochester took offence at a passage in Lord Mulgrave's Essay on Satire; an essay in which
his lordship received assistance from Dryden. There are many allusions to this Rose-alley Ambuscade,
as it is called, in our old State poems. So famous, indeed, was the assault, that Mulgrave's poem was
commonly called the Rose-alley Satire."
Samuel Butler, author of Sudibras, lived the latter part of his life in Rose-street,
" in a studious, retired manner," and died there in 1680 : he is said to have been
buried at the expense of Mr. Longueville, though he did not die in debt. The house
in which he died was not taken down until the street disappeared. In the same
street, Edmund Curll was living when he published Mr. Pope's Literary Corre-
spondence. At the corner of Rose-street, in King-street, lived Mr. Setchel, the book-
seller, whose daughter painted that very clever and popular picture, " The Momentous
Question." Mr. Setchel and his father had kept shop here for seventy years.
Lndell-street, on the north side, leads to Holborn {see p. 431). St. Martin's Sail
was built in 1849, between Charles and Hanover streets {see p. 427) ; and in Castle-
street, in 1850, the St. Martin's Northern Schools, Wyld, architect. The style is
Byzantine, with two tiers of pointed arches; the top story being a covered play-
ground, 100 feet long, opening to the front by a colonnade, — a novel contrivance for
keeping the children from the evil ways of the street.
536 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
LORD MAYOR'S STATE.
THE salary and allowances paid to the Lord Mayor from the City funds during his
year of office, with sums from other sources, amount to about 7900/. He resides
in the Mansion House, which is sumptuously furnished, and provided with plate and
jewelled ornaments said to be worth from 20,000Z. to 30,000^ : his household consists of
twenty gentlemen, including the Sword-bearer, the Common Hunt, the Common Crier,
and the Water-bailiff, all of whom have the title of esquires. He has a splendid retinue
of servants, and keeps three tables ; he is provided with a gorgeous state-coach, but
not with horses ; and he finds the dress-carriage and horses for the Lady Mayoress.
{See State Coaches.) He is expected to give a certain number of state banquets
during the year, in addition to bearing halfof the expense of the inauguration- dinner at
Guildhall on the 9th of November. The Lord Mayor's dinners are provided by con-
tract, but tlie wines are supplied from the Mansion-House cellars. The mayoralty ex-
penses, unless " cool was his kitchen," generally exceed by 4000Z. the City allowance.
The state liveries usually cost 500/.
The Fool was formerly one of the Lord Mayor's household ; and he was bound by
his office to leap, clothes and all, into a large bowl of custard, at £he Lord Mayor's
inauguration dinner : —
"He may, perchance, in tail of a Sheriff's dinner.
Skip with a rime o' the table, trom new nothing'.
And take his almain leap into a custard,
Shall make my Lady Mayoress and her sisters
Laugh all their hoods over tlieir shoulders."— 5era Jonaon.
Custard was a " food much used in City feasts." (Johnson's Dictionary.)
"Now may'rs and shrieves all hush'd and satiate lay;
Yet eat, in dreams, the custard of the day."— Pope,
Costume and Jewels. — On ordinary state occasions the Lord Mayor wears a
massive black silk robe richly embroidered, and his collar and jewel. In the courts
and civic meetings he has a violet silk robe, furred, and barred with black velvet ; and
on the bench at the Mansion House, and in the Central Criminal Court, he wears a
scarlet robe, furred, and bordered with black velvet. In conducting the Sovereign
through the City, the Lord Mayor wears a rich crimson velvet robe, and a court
suit, with point lace ; the velvet hood of old has been superseded by a three-cornered
dress hat, trimmed with black ostrich -feathers. At state banquets, the Lord Mayor
wears an " entertaining robe, richly embroidered with gold :" a new robe, in 1867, cost
160 guineas.
The wear of robes of various colours upon certain days was fixed by a regulation in 1562, and, with
the customs and orders for meeting, was printed in a tract by John Day, now very scarce. But the
present authority for the customs is a pamphlet printed by direction of the Common Council in 1789.
The Collar is of pure gold, composed of a series of links, each formed of a letter S ; a
united York and Lancaster, or Henry VII. rose; and a massive knolt. The ends of
the chain are joined by the portcullis, from the points of which, suspended by a ring
of diamonds, hangs the Jewel. The entire Collar contains 28 SS, 14 roses, and 13
knolts, and measures 64 inches. The Jewel contains in the centre the City arms, cut
in cameo, of a delicate blue, on an olive ground. Surrounding this, a garter, of bright
blue, edged with white and gold, bearing the City motto, " Domine dirige nos," in gold
letters. The whole is encircled with a costly border of gold SS, alternating with rosettes
of diamonds, set in silver. The Jewel is suspended from the collar by a portcullis ;
but when worn without the Collar, is suspended by a broad blue ribbon. The investi-
ture is by a massive gold chain ; and when the Mayor is re-elected, by two chains.
Mace and Swords. — The Mace is silver-gilt, is 5 feet 3 inches in length, and bears
on the lower part W. R.; it is surmounted with a regal crown and the imperial arms,
and has the handle and staff richly chased. The " Pearl Sword," presented by Queen
Elizabeth upon opening the Royal Exchange, has a crimson velvet sheath thickly set
with pearls ; and the handle, of gold, is richly chased in devices of Justice and Mercy.
There are a Sunday sword for church j a common sword for the Sessions ; and a black
sword for the 30th of January ; and Sept. 2nd, the anniversary of the Great Ywq of 1666.
Seali.—ThQ Corporate Seal is circular. Obverse: St. Paul, bearing a sword, and a flag ensigned with
LORD MAYOR'S STATE. 537
three lions passant-gardant, standing in a city, over the gate of which is a key; legend, sioillvm :
BABONVM: LONDONIAEVM. Beverse : the City Arms, with mantlings, &c.; legend, londoni :
DEFEND E : Tvos: DEVS OPTIME : CITES. The sccond Seal, made 4 Richard II., bears the effigies of
SS. Peter and Paul, canopied. Beneath are the present arms of the City : a cross with a dagger in the
dexter quarter, supported by two lions. It appears to have been surmounted with a low-pointed arch.
The centre compartment is flanked with two canopied niches; in each a demi-figure, a serjeant-at-arms,
bearing a mace, and wearing a triangular cap. The pedestals of the canopies sustain kneeling figures
paying adoration to the Virgin Mary, whose effigy (much e9"aced) appears in the centre niche at the top
of the seal. Legend, siqillym officii : majoeatvs : cititatis : londin i : very indistinct
from wear.
The Mayor Las been chief butler to the Sovereign at coronation feasts since the reign
of Richard III., receiving for his fee a gold cup and cover.*
The most memorable name in the civic annals is that of Sir Richard Whittington,
four times Mayor, 1397, 1398, 1406, 1419.
Wliittington was the son of Sir William Whittington, Knight, and his early destitution rests but upon
the nursery tale. His prosperity is referred to the coal-carrying Cat of Newcastle; but a scarce print,
by Elstrake, of Whittington in his mayoralty robes, has a cat beside the figure, showing the version of
the nursery tale to have been then popular : in the early impressions of this plate a skull appears in place
of the cat, which has rendered the original print a rarity of great price among collectors. Whittington's
wealth rebuilt Newgate, and St. Michael's Church, Paternoster Eoyal; built part of St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, and the library of Christ's Hospital, and added to the Guildhall. He also bequeathed his house
at " College-hill" for a college and almshouse, which have been taken down, and the institution removed
to a handsome collegiate building near Highgate Archway, not far from the stone marking the spot
whereon tradition states Whittington to have rested when a poor boy and listened to the bells of Bow ;
the original stone (removed in 1821) is said to have been set up by desire of Whittington, to assist horse-
men to mount at the foot of the hill. Whittington was buried in St. Michael's Church, beneath a costly
marble tomb ; but his remains were twice disturbed before the church was destroyed by fire, and now
there is no olden memorial of Whittington to be traced; his statue has been placed in the Royal Exchange.
Whittington was of the Mercers' Company, " flos mercatorum :" his will at Mercers' Hall bears a curious
illumination of Whittington on his death-bed, his three executors, a priest, &c. Whittington is also said
to have lived in Sweedon's-passage, Grub-street; and in a court in Hart-street, Mark-lane, was formerly
a building termed in old leases " Whittington's Palace."
Sir Geoffry Bullen, Lord Mayor in 1453, was grandfather to Thomas Earl of Wilt-
shire, father to Anne Bullen, and grandfather to Queen Elizabeth; the highest genea-
logical lionour the City can boast of.
"The ennobled families of Comwallis, Capel, Coventry, Legge, Cowper, Thynne, Ward, Craven,
Marsham, Pulteney, Hill, Holies, Osborne, Cavendish, Beunet, and others, have sprung either directly or
collaterally from those who have been either Mayors, Sheriffs, or Aldermen of Loudon ; and a very large
portion of the peerage of the United Kingdom is related either by descent or intermarriage, to the citizens
of the metropolis." — Thomas Moule.
In 1858 the services of the Watermen in the Lord Mayor's State Barge being no
longer required, the sum of 51. each, equivalent to one's year's emolument, was paid,
on the badge, cap, and clothing being delivered up.
In 1865 an old custom was revived at the Mansion House, which had fallen into
disuse since 1857, — that of an officer of the Corporation, wearing an official robe and
carrying a staff of office, escorting the Lord Mayor daily from the Mansion House to
the Court, and announcing him on his taking his seat on the bench. The staff used in
the ceremony is a very ancient symbol of dignity, and is scarcely less part of the in-
signia of the Corporation than the sword and mace. It is about seven feet high, and
is surmounted with a massive representation of the City arms in silver-gilt, and the
official robe of the usher is in keeping.
The table plate is very valuable. Formerly it was always customary for a Lord
Mayor to contribute 100^. towards keeping up the Corporation plate, but this has
not been observed for about the last 30 years.
The total expenses of the Banquet and Procession on Lord Mayor's-day, 1865, amounted to
31021. Us. id. Of this, one-half was paid by the Lord Mayor (Mr. Alderman Phillips) and the other
half by the two Sheriffs (Mr. Alderman Gibbons and Mr, J. Figgins). The contract for the dinner and
wine amounted to 1639^. 14«. lOd. The decorations cost 736Z. 8s. 4d., including 30Z. 12s. for loan of deco-
rations, flags, armour, &c., from War and Store Office ; 4U. for repairing and arranjjing flags ; 40Z. for
hire of looking-glasses; 601. for hire of flowering plants and shrubs; 251. for hire of awning; 105Z. for
gas-fitting; 1001. for gas; 2131. for upholstery; and 331. for plumbing and painting. The procession
cost 276Z. 8s. lOd., and included lOlZ. 7s. for five bands of music; 321. lis. for banners and banner-
bearers; 30Z. 17s. for rosettes and scarfs; 64Z. 3s. lOd. for refreshment of troops and police; 71. 10s. for
gravellmgthe streets; and 401. for decorating Ludgate-hill and Fleet-street. The music in Guildhall cost
601. 198.; the printing and stationery, 143Z. 13». 9d. The general expenses are put down at 255Z. 6s, 7d,
* There is current a piece of City gossip, of a Silver Cradle being customarily presented at the
accouchement of a Lady Mayoress; but in 1735 and 1843, such an event was merely signalized by a con-
gratulatory vote of the Court of Common Council.
538 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
and include some of the most curious items, such as men on the roof, 43. 4«, ; men bringing up provisions
for distribution to the poor, 11. Is.; bell-ringers at ten churches, 203,; Hatley, drummer. Royal London
Militia, donation in consideration of an accident to him in the procession, 51, ; wands and decorations for
Committee, 703. 7s. 6d. ; gold pens and pencil-cases, for Chairman and Secretary, 93. 15s. ; seal for the
Chairman, 63. 14s. ; gloves, 103, 18s. ; toilet articles for ladies' rooms, 293, lis. ; padlocks, 53., &c. &c.
Total, 31023. lis. 4d.
The bill of the feast of the Mayor of Norwich, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when he entertained
the Queen and her court, was — Total charge, 13. 12s. 9^. Three of the items were— Eight stone of beef
at 8d. per stone, and a sirloin, 6s. 8d. ; a hind-quarter of veal, lOd. ; bushel of flour, 6d. ; two gallons of
•white wine and canary, 2s.
LUDGATE, LVD GATE KILL AND STREET.
LUDGATE, one of the principal gates of the City, was situated at the western ex-
tremity of Bowyer's-row, now Ludgate-hill, between the London Coffee-house and
St. Martin's Church. Geoffrey of Monmouth states the gate to have been built by the
British King Lud, 66 B.C. : hence its traditional name ; but more probably from the
Flood, or Find, which ran into Fleet-river. We find no further mention of it until
1215, when it was fortified or rebuilt by the barons leagued against King John, and
who employed as materials the remains of the stone houses of opulent Jews, which had
been destroyed, as proved by a stone discovered in 1586, inscribed in Hebrew, " This
is the ward of Rabbi Moses, the son of the honourable Rabbi Isaac." In 1260 the
gate was again repaired, and ornamented on the east side with statues of Lud and his
two sons ; and subsequently the statue of Queen Elizabeth was placed in the west front.
Ludgate was much injured in the Great Fire of 1666, and is shown in Greffier's picture,
engraved by Birch. The gate is described by Chamberlayne (1726) as a prison " only
for debtors who are freemen of London." In the Spectator, No. 82, is " a voice bawl-
ing for charity at the grate ;" just as in our time the prisoners of the Fleet loudly
called upon those who passed the grate, " Pray remember the poor debtors," as
the board above stated, " having no allowance." Pennant describes Ludgate, within
his memory, " a wretched prison for debtors." It was taken down, 1760-62, when
the statue of Elizabeth was placed at the east end of St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet-street,
and the other statues were disposed of as described at p. 235. By a plan preserved
in St. Martin's vestry-room, the great arch and postern of Ludgate was 37 ft. 6 in.
wide in front, and 39 ft. deep. Ludgate was made a free prison in 1378 (1st Richard
II.) ; but its privileges were soon violated, and it became a place of great oppression.
Rowley's comedy of A Woman never vext, or the Widow of Cornhill, is founded upon
the tradition of the handsome Stephen Foster, Lord Mayor in 1454, legging at the
grate of Ludgate, and attracting the sympathy of a rich widow, who paid the debt for
which he was confined, and afterwards married him : —
"Mrs. 8. Foster. But why remove the prisoners from Ludgate ?
Stephen Foster. To take the prison down and buUd it new.
With leads to walk on, chambers large and fair;
For when myself lay there, the noxious air
Choked up my spirits. None but captives, wife.
Can know what captives feel."— Act v, sc. 1.
Between 1454 and 1463 the prison was much enlarged, and a chapel built by Dame
Agnes Foster and the executors of Stephen her husband, as thus recorded on a copper-
plate upon the walls :
" Deout soules that passe this way,
for Stephen Foster, late Maior, heartily pray.
And Dame Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate,
that of pitie this house made of Londoners in Ludgate^
So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay,
as their keepers shall all answere at dreadful doomes day."
At the rebuilding of Ludgate in 1566, "the verse being unhappily turned inward to the wall," Stow
tells us he had the like " graven outward in prose, declaring him (Foster) to be a fishmonger, because
some upon a light occasion (as a maiden's head in a glass window) had fabled him to be a mercer, and
to have begged there at Ludgate," &c.
A quarto tract. Prison Thoughts, by Thomas Browning, a prisoner in Ludgate,
** where poore citizens are confined and starved amidst copies of their freedom," was
published in that prison by the author in 1682, and is supposed to have suggested Dr.
Dodd's Prison Thoughts.
MAGDALEN HOSPITAL. 539
Lndgate-hill formerly extended from Fleefc-street to St. Martin's Church (see p.
180) ; and 'Lndgo.te -street from thence to St. Paul's. On the hill, opposite the gate,
stopped the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat j and below is the JBell Savage Inn,
described at p. 452. Near this spot lived the famous cobbler whom Steele mentions
as a curious instance of pride j he had a wooden figure of a beau of the time, who
stood before him in a bending posture, humbly presenting him with his awl, or bristle,
or whatever else his employer chose to put in his hand, after the manner of an obse-
quious servant. Ludgate-street and hill were famous for mercers in Stow's time. At
the north-east corner (St. Paul's Churchyard), No. 65, lived John Nevvbery, for whom
Goldsmith wrote Qoody Tivo-sTioes, a pamphlet on the Cock-lane Ghost, a History
of England, and edited the Fublic Ledger newspaper. To Newbery succeeded John
Harris, and next Grant and Griffith, now Griffith and Farran, worthy successors of
Newbery. At " the Dunciad," in Ludgate-street, Dr. Griffiths published the Monthly
jReview, No. 1, May 1749.
On the north is Ave-Maria-lane, leading to Amen-corner and Paternoster-row ; and
Stationers' Hall-court, leading to the hall of the Stationers' Company (see pp.
420-422.) On the south is Creed-lane, with another ecclesiastical name.
In 1792 was discovered a barbican, or watch-tower, between Ludgate and the Fleet-ditch, forming
part of the extension of the City wall in 1276 ; a fine fragment of which exists in St. Martin's-court
opposite the Old Bailey. In a bastion of the wall, in 1800, was found a sepulchral monument, in the
rear of No. 24, the London Coffee-house, where it is now preserved : it is dedicated to Claudina Martina,
by her husband Anencletus, a provincial Eoman soldier. Here are also a fragment of a statue of Hercules,
and a female head.
At No. 32, north side, was the picturesque old shop-front of Rundell and Bridge,
goldsmiths and diamond-jewellers to the Crown, with the sign of the Golden Salmon.
Here was executed Flaxman's Shield of Achilles, in silver-gilt : and here was fitted up
the imperial Crown for the coronation of George IV. in 1821 ; and a silver wine-cooler
which occupied two years in chasing. Mrs. Rundell wrote I'he Art of Cookery (Domestic
Cookery), for which she ultimately received 2000 guineas. At No. 45, William Hone
published his political satires, with woodcuts by Cruikshank ; and his Every-day Book,
Ancient Mysteries, ^c. In the house No. 7, opposite Hone's, was published another suc-
cessful venture, the Percy Anecdotes, contemporary with the Every-day Book.
The lower portion of Ludgate-hill is crossed by the London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway viaduct, which has been much objected to ; yet the inhabitants gave evidence
in its favour ; and the design is identical with that exhibited by the Company, in 1860,
before Parliament. The objections are too numerous to detail here : one is, inter-
ference with one of the finest architectural views in the metropolis. Coleridge, many
years since, remarked : " A Mr. H , a friend of Fox's, who always put himself
forward to interpret the great orator's sentiments, and almost took the words out of
his mouth, put him in mind of the steeple of St. Martin, on Ludgate-hill, which is
constantly getting in the way when you wish to see the dome of St. Paul's." How-
ever, Coleridge's remark is here mal-apropos ; for St. Martin's Church spire improves
the view of St. Paul's. It is true that the level of the bridge is low, but it has unques-
tionably spoiled the view, and its small elevation above the street (18 feet) traffic is an
objection of another class. The street of Ludgate-hill is here only 42 feet wide ;
but, as the Corporation intend, at some future time, to enlarge the thoroughfare, the
span is 18 feet wider than the street, or 60 feet. The bridge is composed of five
girders of wrought iron, screened from sight by ornamental iron- work, and relieved
with decorative brackets, bronze armorial medallions, and handsome gas-lanterns
and standards. It carries four lines of rails. Through Ludgate-hill there have passed,
in twelve hours, 8752 vehicles, 13,025 horses, and 105,352 persons. The entire line
from Bridge-street to St. Paul's is now Jjudgate-hill.
s
MAGDALEN HOSPITAL,
T. GEORGE'S FIELDS, for the relief and reformation of unfortunate women andpeni-
tent prostitutes, was projected by Robert Dingley, Jonas Hanway, and a few others,
640 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
in 1758 ;* and opened at a house in Prescot-street, Goodraan's-fields, when eight un-
happy objects were admitted; and from thence to Feb. 26, 1761, there were received
into "Magdalen-house" 281: of a hundred inmates, not a seventh were 15
years old,
Amoni?the names of the earliest benefactors occurs that of Omychund, the black merchant of Cal-
cutta, He bequeathed between this and the Foundling Hospital 37,500 current rupees, to be equally
divided. Unfortunately, however, " a portion only of this munificent legacy could be extracted from the
grasp of Hurzorimal, his executor, notwithstanding the zealous interference of the Governor-general
(Warren Hastings) and other eminent functionaries," — Brownlow.
Another early promoter was the Rev. William Dodd, *' the unfortunate," who, in
1759, preached a sermon for the benefit of the charity ; and again in 1760, before
Prince Edward, Duke of York : both sermons are eloquent compositions, were printed,
and large editions sold,"!* The Magdalens wore a grey uniform dress, high in the neck,
long black mittens, mob-cap, and a broad black chip hat. In the list of contributors
we find "A Lady unknown, a Lottery Ticket, No. 34987, in the Lottery 1758, a
Prize of 500^. ;" Lord Chesterfield, 21Z. per annum ; " Will's Coffee-house, Lincoln's
Inn, \Gl. \Qs. ;" the " Charity Boxes," in one year, received 458Z. \0s. ; and the
women's needlework produced 2S21, lis. dd. : there being about 100 in the house.
Among their employments was making their own clothes, spinning the thread and making the cloth ;
to knit their stockings : to make bone-lace, black lace, artificial flowers, children's toys, winding silk,
embroidery, millinery, making women's and children's shoes, mantuas, stays, coats, cauls for wigs,
weaving hair for perukes, making leathern and silken gloves and garters, drawing patterns, making
soldiers' clothes and seamen's slops, making carpets after the Turkey manner, &c.
In 1769, the charity was incorporated and the institution declared extra-parochial :
the present Hospital was commenced, 6^ acres of St, George's common fields having
been purchased by the governors. Attached to the Hospital is a chapel, rendered
attractive by the singing of the Magdalens, screened from the congregation ; and the
donations at the chapel doors are very productive to the Hospital funds : formerly, the
admission on Sunday evenings was by ticket. Queen Charlotte patronized this charity
56 years. Queen Victoria became patroness in 1841.
Fit objects for the Magdalen charity are admitted without any recommendation, on their own appli-
cation and petition, on the first Thursday in every month. More than 8000 have been received since the
Hospital was established ; more than two-thirds have been permanently reclaimed, and many have
married and become respectable members of society : all who have behaved well are discharged with
some provision for their future maintenance.
MANSION SOU si:, TEH,
OF the Lord Mayor, and his residence during his year of oflace, occupies the site of
Stocks'-market, nearly facing the area of the Royal Exchange. The foundation
of the Mansion-house was laid in 1739 by Lord Mayor Perry ; but the building was
not finished until 1753, in the mayoralty of Sir Crisp Gascoigne, the first Lord Mayor
who resided in it. The architect was the elder Mr, Dance j the style is that of
Palladio ; and the building, which is entirely insulated, is of Portland-stone, and re-
sembles a massive Italian palace. The principal front has a very fine Corinthian
portico, with six fluted columns, supporting a pediment, in the tympanum of which is
a group of allegorical sculpture by Sir Robert Taylor. In the centre is a female im-
personation of the City of London, trampling on her enemies ; on her right is the
Roman lictor, and a boy bearing the cap of liberty ; and beyond them is Neptune and
nautical insignia. To the left of the centre is another female attended by two boys,
and bearing an olive-branch and cornucopia; the extreme angles being filled with casks,
bales, and other emblems of commerce. On each side a flight of steps, balustraded,
ascends to the entrance beneath the portico ; and in the rusticated basement is the en-
trance to the offices. On the west side is a Roman-Doric porch. A long narrow attic,
called the Mare's (Mayor's) Nest, has been removed from the roof.
The interior of the block of buildings was an open court of elaborate character,
* A plan of the kind was suggested in the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1751; and the Rambler,
No. 107.
t Account ofthe Magdalen Charity; with the above Sermons, Advice to the Magdalens, Prayers,
Eules, &c. Printed m 1761.
MANSIONS. 541
similar to that part of an Italian palace ; but the central area is now filled with the
saloon, which is of wood. This grand banquet-room was designed by the Earl of
Burlington, and is called the Egyptian Hall, from its accordance with the Egyptian
Hall described by Vitruvius. It has two side screens of lofty columns, supporting a
vaulted roof, and lit by a large western window ; it can dine 400 guests, and here the
Lord Mayor gives his State-banquets. In the side walls are sixteen niches, filled with
sculptured groups or figures. {See Statues.)
There are other dining-rooms ; as the Venetian Parlour, Wilkes's Parlour, &c. The
drawing-rooms and ball-room are superbly decorated ; above the latter is the Justice-
room (constructed in 1849), where the Lord Mayor sits daily. In a contiguous apart
ment was the State Bed. There are a few gallery portraits and other pictures. The
kitchen is a large hall, provided with ranges, each of them large enough to roast an
entire ox. The vessels for boiling meat and vegetables are not pots but tanks. The
stewing range is a long broad iron pavement laid down over a series of furnaces ; the
spits are huge cages formed of iron bars, and turned by machinery.
At one time the Household of the Lord Mayor was about twenty- four in number, who held their
offices by purchase, and with a power of alienation. At the head of them were the four esquires of the
Lord Mayor, of whom the Swordbearer was the senior; and amonw the rank and file were the Lord
Mayor's Clerk, the Common Crier, the Common Hunt, three Serjeant Carvers, three Serjeants of the
Chamber, the Serjeant of the Channel, the two Marshals, the Attorneys of the Mayor's Court (four in
number), the Water Bailiff, and several more. When on duty they had all the right to dine at the
Swordbearer's table, and as the services of many of them were in daily requisition, a dinner was provided
daily throughout the year at the cost of the Chief Magistrate for the time being. About the year 1823
the household dinners were limited, by a resolution of the Court of Common Council, to thirteen in the
year, on so many civic state occasions ; and in still more modern times the number has been gradually
curtailed, until the entertainment given annually on Plough Monday is the only one that survives. On
the abolition of the daily table many of the household compounded for the lost privilege by the receipt
of lOOl. a year each, for the rest of their lives, upon the basis of 7s. 6d. a day ; and the official income of
the Lord Mayor was diminished by lOOOZ. a year in consideration of his being relieved from the obhga-
tion of providing it. All the members of the household now hold their offices by election, and no longer
by purchase.
MANSIONS.
APSLEY HOUSE (Duke of Wellington), Hyde-park- corner, Piccadilly, and happily
called by a foreigner " No. 1, London," was built about 1785-6, by the Adams,
for Charles Buthurst Baron Apsley, Earl Bathurst and Lord Chancellor, who died in
1794. Here resided the Marquis Wellesley, elder brother of the great Duke of
Wellington, who purchased the house in 1820. It was then a plain brick mansion, but
was cased with Bath-stone in 1828, by B. Wyatt, who designed the tetrastyle Corinthian
portico and pediment upon a rusticated entrance arcade ; built a gallery and suite of
rooms on the west or Hyde-park side, and enlarged the garden by a strip of ground
from the Park. These additions and repairs are stated to have cost 130,000^
The bullet-proof iron Venetian blinds (the first of the kind) were put up by the late Duke of Wel-
lington, after his windows had been broken by the Reform Bill mobs; and these blinds were not removed
during the Duke's life-time. "They shall stay where they are," was his remark, " as a monument of
the gullibility of a mob, and the worthlessness of that sort of popularity for which they who give it can
assign no good reason, 1 don't blame the men that broke my windows ; they only did what they were
instigated to do by others who ought to have known better. But if any one be disposed to grow giddy
with popular applause, I think that a glance towards these iron shutters will soon sober Wm." The
bhnds have long been removed.
The court-yard is enclosed by richly bronzed metal gates (in which the Grecian honey-
suckle is finely cast) ; and the stone piers have curious chapiters. The hall-door and
knocker belong to the original house. In the waiting-room is Steell's bust of " the
Dukej" Castlereagh, by Chantrey; Pitt, by NoUekens; and a reduced copy of Rauch's
statue of Blucher ; busts of Mr. Perceval, Colonel Gurwood, Mr. Ponsonby, &c. At
the foot of the grand staircase is Canova's colossal marble statue of Napoleon, holding
a bronze figure of Victory in his right hand : it is Canova's noblest and most antique-
looking work ; it is 11 feet high, and, except the left arm, was cut from one block of
marble.
The pictures in the first Drawing-room include the Card-players, by Caravaggio, fine
in expression, and marvellous in colour, light, and shade ; the great Duke of Marlborough
on horseback (from White Knights), probably by Vandermeulen; "Chelsea Pensioner
reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo," a commission to Wilkie from the
542 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON
Duke, for which he paid 1200 guineas in bank notes ; and the companion-picture,
*' Greenwich Pensioners," by Burnet, and bought from him by the Duke for 500
guineas; Van Amburg in the Den with Lions and Tigers, painted by Sir E. Landseer, R.A.,
after the instructions of the Duke, who with the Bible in his hand, pointed out the
passage (Gen. i. 26) in which dominion is given to Adam over the earth and
animals : " he caused the text to be inscribed on the frame as an authority which con-
ferred on him a privilege of power, and gave to himself ' the great commission ' which
he carried out on the fields of battle and chase." (Quarterly/ Review, No. clxxxiv.)
Next are large copies by Bonnemaison, after the four celebrated pictures by Raphael
at Madrid i the Melton Hunt, by Grant, R. A. ; Napoleon studying the map of Europe, a
small full-length ; Mr. Pitt, by Hoppner; the Highland Whisky-still, by Landseer, R.A. ;
and portraits of Marshal Soult, Lord Beresford, Lord Lynedoch, and Lord Anglesey, by
Sir Thomas Lawrence ; Lord Nelson, by Sir William Beechey ; Sir George Murray,
Sir Thomas Picton ; and Sarah, the first Lady Lyndhurst, by Wilkie : the canvas was
pierced by a stone during a Reform Bill riot, but it has been cleverly repaired. Here
are portraits of the Emperor Nicholas, of the Wellesley family, and, by Winterhalter, of
the Duke's godson. Prince Arthur. Here also are George IV. and William IV. (whole-
lengths), by Sir D. Wilkie. There are at least six portraits of Napoleon ; and full-
lengths of the Emperor Alexander ; and Kings of Prussia, France, and the Netherlands.
Still, there is no faithful or worthy representation of the Duke in the collection ; nor
of statesmen of his generation — not even Peel. There is but one battle-scene —
Waterloo, taken from Napoleon's head-quarters by Sir W. Allan ; of this picture the
Duke observed, " Good, very good — not too much smoke."
Among the furniture are two magnificent Roman mosaic tables ; a splendid pair of
Sevres vases, the gift of Louis X VIII. j a malachite vase, from Alexander Emperor of
Russia ; a service of Sevres china, from Louis XVIII., &c.
In the Picture-gallery, in the western wing, the Waterloo Banquet was held annually
on June 18, until 1852. Over the fireplace hangs a copy of the " Windsor " Charles I.
on horseback. Here is the gem of the collection, '•' Christ on the Mount of Olives,"
by Correggio, on panel, the most celebrated specimen of the master in this country : the
light proceeds from the Saviour. This picture was captured in Spain, in the carriage
of Joseph Bonaparte, and restored by the captor to Ferdinand VII., but was presented
to the Duke by that Sovereign. Next in excellence are the examples of Velasquez,
chiefly portraits, and "the Water-seller;" a Female holding a wreath, by Titian;
specimens of Claude, Teniers, and Jan Steen ; the Signing of the Peace of Westphalia, by
Terburg, from the Talleyrand collection. Here is also a repetition of the Madonna della
Sedia of Raphael, by Giulio Romano; and a marble bust of Pauline Bonaparte, by Canova.
In the centre are two majestic candelabra of Russian porphyry, 12 feet high, pre-
sented by Alexander Emperor of Russia; and two fine vases of Swedish porphyry,
from the King of Sweden. The Gallery and the Waterloo Banquet are well seen in
Salter's large picture, engraved by Greatbatch ; and the Duke receiving his Guests has
been painted by J. P. Knight, R.A.
In the China-room, on the ground-floor, are a magnificent Dresden dessert-service, presented by the
King of Saxony, painted with the Duke's victories in India, the Peninsula, and at Waterloo; other ser-
vices of china presented by the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and Louis XVIII. : the silver
plateau, 30 feet long and 30 feet wide, and lighted by 106 wax tapers, the gift of the King of Portugal;
three silver-gilt candelabra (a foot-soldier, life-size), presented by the Corporation of London: the
superb Waterloo Vase, from the City merchants and bankers; and the Welliiigton Shield, designed hj
T. Stothard, R.A., and in general treatment resembling Flaxman's Shield of Achilles. It is silver-gilt,
circular, about 3 ft. 8 in. diameter. In the centre is the Duke of Wellington on horseback, the head of
his charger forming the boss of the shield: around him are his illustrious oiBeers; above is Fame
crowning the Duke with a wreath of laurel : and at his feet are prostrate figures of Anarchy, Discord,
and Tyranny. The wonder of this central group is the management of the horses within the circle (of
oak-branches), the evolutions of the chargers emanating from the centre, — in itself a most original con-
ception. The border of the shield is in ten compartments, each bearing a bas-relief of the principal
events in the Duke's military life, to the Peace of 1814, and are as follows : Assaye, Vimiera, the Douro,
Torres Vedras, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Toulouse, and the Duke receiving his coronet
from the Prince Regent. Stothard's designs are large drawings in sepia : he made his own models for
the chaser, etched the designs the same size as the originals, and received his own demands, 150 guineas.
The columns, by Smirke, stand one on each side of the shield, about 4 ft. 3 in. high, surmounted with
figures of Fame and Victory : each column consists of a palm-tree, with a capital of leaves ; around the
base are emblematic figures, and military trophies and weapons at the angles. The cost of this superb
national gift, completed in 1822, was 7000^.
MANSION'S. 543
In the Chma-room, also, are bronze busts, of great spirit and finish, of Henri
Quatre, the Prince of Conde, Louis XIV., Marshal Turenne, and the Marquis
Wellesley. Beyond is the Secretary's-room, the Great Duke's private room, and lastly
his bed-room, which, early in 1853, the public were permitted to inspect, precisely ar-
ranged as they were last used by his Grace, in September, 1852 : the library he con-
sulted, the books he kept beside him for reference, the mass of papers, maps, and
documents, even to the latest magazine, were undisturbed. The Duke's room 'was
lined with bookcases and despatch-boxes, and had a red morocco reading-chair, a second
chair, a desk to stand and write at ; a circular-topped writing-table ; two engravings
of the Duke, one when young, the other (by Count D'Orsay) when old j a small
drawing of the Countess of Jersey, by Cosway, between medallions of the present
Duchess of "Wellington and Jenny Lind. In the Secretary's-room was a rough un-
painted box, which accompanied the Duke through all his wars ; in which he stowed
away his private documents, and whereon he wrote many of his despatches, and traced
the orders for military manoeuvres.
A short passage to the east leads to "the Duke's bed-room," which is narrow,
shapeless, and ill-hghted; the bedstead small, provided with only a mattress and
bolster, and scantily curtained with green silk ; the only ornaments of the room being
an unfinished sketch of the present Duchess of Wellington, two cheap prints of
military men, and a small portrait in oil. Yet here slept the Great Duke, whose
'* eightieth year was by." In the grounds and shrubbery he took daily walking exer-
cise ; where, with the garden-engine, he was wont to enjoy exertion.* Lastly, " in
fine afternoons, the sun casts the shadow of the Duke's equestrian statue full upon
Apsley House, and the sombre image may be seen gliding spirit-like over the front."
{Quarterly Review, No. clxxxiv.) The house and pictures can only be seen by special
permission. A Catalogue raisonnee is published by Mitchell, Old Bond-street.
Part of the site of Apsley House was a piece of ground given by George II. to an old soldier, Allen,
whom the king recognised as having served in the battle of Dettingen. Upon this spot Allen built a
small tenement, in place of the apple-stall kept by his wife; and on the erection of Apsley House, in
1784, the ground was sold for a considerable sum by Allen's successors to Apsley, Lord 13athurst. The
apple-stall is shown in a print dated 1766.
Argyll House, Argyll-street, centre of the east side, was a plain mansion, with a
front court-yard, and was formerly the residence of the Duke of Argyll, by whom it
was sold, about 1820, to the Earl of Aberdeen : here " the Aberdeen Ministry " was
formed in 1852.
Soon after the succession of the present Earl to the title, in 1864, his lordship had part of the
premises iitted up as an industrial school for about sixty boys ; there were a class-room, in which the
boys were instructed ; a dining or mess room; work rooms, in which useful trades, such as shoemaking,
tailoring, &c., were taught ; and a lecture-room, iu which lectures were given to the poor of the neigh-
bourhood. The coach-house, in Marlborough-mews, was changed into baths and lavatories, and accom-
modation for some of the boys to sleep on the premises. The whole were carried out on a similar
principle to the schools of Dr. Guthrie in Edinburgh. The boys were also clothed and fed by the noble
earl; the most destitute in the neighbourhood were admitted.
The mansion was sold July 5, 1862, for 18,500/., and was taken down : it com-
prised a paved hall, 30 feet by 21 feet j a great drawing-room, 27 feet by 21 feet j a
banqueting-room, 43 feet by 31 feet j a library, 24 feet by 19 feet, &c., all fitted with
statuary, &c. The rooms were stately, but sombre. On August 24th was sold here
the late Earl's valuable parliamentary and miscellaneous library, together with Eng-
lish and foreign works in connexion with architecture and the fine arts; a col-
lection of manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Greek, and Latin, on vellum, and
illuminated in gold and colours. The site is now occupied by a new Bazaar.
Baring, Mr. T., No. 41, Upper Grosvenor-street, has a fine collection of pictures ;
Dutch and Flemish, from the cabinet of the Baron Verstolk, at the Hague j Italian,
formerly Sir Thomas Baring's ; English pictures, mostly from the exhibitions of the
Eoyal Academy. Among the Spanish pictures are four specimens by Murillo, in-
cluding the Madonna on the Crescent. Here, also, is St. Jerome in his Study, an
authentic picture by J. Van Eyck ; with works of N. and G. Poussin, Parmegiano,
* Jan. 2, 1820. General Bonaparte was " amushig himself with the pipe of the fire-engine, spouting
water on the trees and flowers in his favourite garden." — Journal of Capt. Mcholls: Captivity of Na-
poleon at St. Helena ; Sir Hudson Lowe's Letters and Journals, 1853.
64-4 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
L. Caracci, C. Dolci, Salvator Kosa, Morales, &c. The collection can be seen only
through introduction of Mr. Baring's friends.
Bath House (Lord Ashburton), No. 82, Piccadilly, built by the first Lord Ash-
burton upon the site of the old mansion of Sir William Pulteney, Bart. The entrance
is from Bolton-street : the hall occupies the centre of the mansion to the roof, of em-
bossed glass ; and the principal apartments open into its gallery, which has a richly-
gilt balustrade. This hall has a parqueted oak floor, and the walls are painted with
Pompeian subjects : here are antique busts and modern statues ; including Thor-
waldsen's Hebe, and Mercury as the Slayer of Argus. The principal apartments
command a view over the Green Park and St. James's Park, with Buckingham Palace ;
Piccadilly being masked by the terrace-wall : the floors are oak, and doors mahogany.
The Ashburton collection is pre-eminent for its Dutch and Flemish pictures, from the cabinet of
Talleyrand. Here are : Portraits of Jansen, and the writing-master Lieven van Coppenhol, by Rem-
brandt : Moses before the Burning Bush, Domenichino ; Alehouse, and Playing at Nine Pins, Jau
Steen ; La Ferme au Colombier, Wouvermans ; Rape of the Sabines, and Reconciliation of Romans and
Sabines, small, but cost lOOOZ.; St. Thomas of Villaneuva dividing his Cloak with Beggar-boys, and the
Virgin attended by Angels, Muriilo ; Water-mill, Karl du Jardin ; fine specimens of Cuyp, Wouvermans,
Teniers, Ostade, and Paul Potter; Hay-harvest, A. Vandervelde; Lobster-catchers, and Le Fagot, N.
Berghem; the Infant Christ asleep in the arms of the Virgin, an Angel lifting the Quilt, Leonardo da
Vinci (belonged to the Prior of the Escurial) : St. Peter, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalene, and Andrew
of Padua, Correggio ; Daughter of Herodias with the head of St. John, Titian ; Christ on the Mount of
Olives, P.Veronese; Stag-hunt, Velasquez; Wolf-hunt, Rubens; Virgin and Child, and Charles I. and
Henrietta-Maria (full-lengths), Vandyke; Hermit Praying, G. Douw; Boy blowing Bubbles, Netscher;
Street in Utrecht (sunshine), De Hooghe ; Head of Ariadne, Sir Joshua Reynolds ; Head, Holbein ; works
of Wynants, Ruysdael, Hobbema, &c.
In the dining-room of Bath House were wont to meet Thomas Moore, J. W. Croker,
Sydney Smith, and J. G. Lockhart; Dr. Coplestone, Bishop of Llandaff; Rogers,
Hallam, Chantrey, Wilkie, and Theodore Hook.
Bedford, Duke or. No. 6, Belgrave-square : the mansion contains a small but very
choice collection of Dutch pictures, &c.
Here are : Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist, by Giorgione ; study of Two Dogs, by Titian ;
Twelfth Night, by Jan Steen ; Interior, by Bassen and Polemberg ; the Nativity, by A, Werf ; Travellers
by I. Ostade ; Landscape, by Ruysdael ; Moses treading on Pharaoh's Crown, by N. Poussin ; Gulliver
amongst the Houyhnhnms, by Gilpin; Four Cuyps, small but excellent; Dutch Courtship, by A.
Brouwer ; Little Girl, by Rembrandt ; the Pont Neuf at Paris, by P. Wouvermans ; Pair of Landscapes,
by Salvator Rosa; the Death of Hippolytus, study by Rubens; River View, by Van der Capella; Sabine
Mountain City, by G. Poussin ; the Tribute Money, by Sir G. Hayter ; Village Fete, by Teniers (por-
traits) ; Going out Hawking, and Landscape and Cattle, by Paul Potter ; Landscape, by A. and S.
Both ; Heads in grisaille, by Vandyke ; Dead Christ, by Guercino ; Sunset, Claude.
Beenal, Ealph, Esq., No. 93, Eaton-square. Here Mr. Bernal assembled his rare
collection of Works of Art, including ancient Jewellery, Armour and Arms, Seals and
Rings, Medals, Bronzes, Carvings, Clocks and Watches, Enamels, Pottery and Porce-
lain, Glass, Pictures, Plate and Furniture, the sale of which by auction at the house
occupied 32 days, and realized 61,964^ lis. M. The books and prints, seven days,
6587^. 2*. Qd. Thirty-nine days, 68,551Z. 13*. Qd.
Beidgewatee House (Earl of Ellesmere), on the east side of the Green Park, adjoins
Spencer House, and has its south or entrance front in Cleveland-row, named from that
** beautiful fury," Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, to whom Charles II. presented Berk-
shire House, which formerly stood here. The new mansion, designed by Sir Charles
Barry, R.A., is almost a square: south front 142 feet 6 inches; west 122 feet. The
elevations and details are mostly from palaces of Rome and Venice j the chimney-shafts
form architectural features ; the main cornice is richly carved with flowers, and the
second-floor string-course, a folded ribbon, is very picturesque. The fenestration is
very characteristic : the principal windows have arched pediments, each filled with
arabesque foliage, and a shield with the monogram of E E entwined, dos-a-dos ; in the
panel beneath is the Bridgewater motto " Sic donee ;" the first-floor window-dressings
have elegant festoons of fruit and foliage; and the balustrade is surmounted with
sculpture. The entrance-porch on the south is inscribed, " Restauratum 1849 ;" and
the keystone of the arched doorway bears a lion rampant, the crest of the Earl of
Ellesmere. The picture-gallery, on the north side, is the height of the two floors, 110
feet long, and has a separate entrance for the public : it is lighted by glazed panels in
the coved ceiling, at night, from burners outside.
3fA]SfSI0NS. 545
This renowned Collection was formed principally from the gallery of the Duke of Orleans, by the
Duke of Bridgrewater; whence it is called the Bridgewater Gallery; and being left by the duke to his
nephew, the Marquis of Stalford, it is likewise frequently called the Stafford Gallery. It was much
enlarged by the next possessor, the Marquis's second son, Francis, Earl of Ellesmere. It is the finest
private collection in England : from the time of Raphael, the series is unequalled ; and in the Caracci
school it is without rival. Among the 305 pictures are 4 by Raphael, 5 Titian, 7 A. Caracci, 5 L.
Caracci, 5 Domeniehino, 4 Claude, 8 N. Poussin, 8 Teniers, 5 Berghem, 6 Cuyp, 6 A. Ostade, 5 Rem-
brandt, 7 Vandervelde, 2 Paul Veronese, 3 Velasquez, 2 Guido, 3 Rubens, 1 Vandyke, 3 G. Douw, 3 Hob-
bema, &c. The great Assumption of the Virgin, by Guido, has the chief honour of the gallery; the
Vierge au Palmier is one of the purest Raphaels in England ; the Seven Sacraments of N. Poussin, and
Moses striking the Rock, are very fine; Cuyp's Landing of Prince Maurice looks as if the painter had
dipped his pencil in sunlight. Here, also, are Turner's Gale at Sea, nearly equal to the finest Vander-
velde in the collection ; De la Roche's large picture of Charles I. in the Guard-room ; a Wilson equal to
Niobe ; and the Chandos Portrait of Shakspeare, purchased by Lord Ellesmere at Stowe, in 1848, for
355 guineas : it is presumed to have been painted by Burbage, the actor; was left by Taylor, the Poet's
Hamlet, to Sir W. Davenant ; was possessed by Betterton the actor, and Mrs. Barry the actress : and
must be regarded as the most authentic likeness of Shakspeare. The collection is valued at nearly
250,000^. : it vies with the Esterhazy and Lichtenstein galleries, at Vienna ; the Manfrini gallery, at
Venice ; the Zarabeccari collection, at Bologna : and the Borghese, Colonna, Sciarra, and Doria collec-
tions, at Rome.
BucKiiiaHAM House, Pall Mall, builfc by Soane, R, A., for the Duke of Buckingham,
has been purchased by the Government for the office of the Ministcr-at-War, thus placing
the War-office very near to the Ordnance-office.
BuELiNGTON HouSE, No. 49, Piccadilly, was originally built for Richard Boyle,
second Earl of Burlington, by Sir John Denham, Surveyor of the Works to Charles II.
Horace Walpole has given currency to the story that Lord Burlington, " when asked
why he built his house so for out of town, replied, because he was determined to have
no building beyond him." A similar anecdote, however, is told of Peterborough House,
Milbank;" Northumberland House; and of other houses on the verge of the spreading
town; and it could not have been said with truth of Burlington House, because
Clarendon House and Berkeley House were being built to the west of it at the very
same time. The three houses just named are thus mentioned by Pepys : —
20th Feb. 1664-5.— Next that (Lord Clarendon's) is my Lord Barkeley beginning another on one
side, and Sir J. Denham on the other.
28th Sept. 1668.— Thence to my Lord Burlington's house, the first time I ever was there, it being
the house built by Sir John Denham, next to Clarendon-house.
The site was previously occupied by a farmstead. The house built by Denham was
plain and well-proportioned, without any architectural display. A print by Kipp shows
this house in the year 1700, with its quaint gardens, and beyond them the country ^
now covered by Regent-street and Portland-place ; the court-yard is enclosed by a wall
of moderate height, in front of which are planted large trees ; and the carriage entrance
is tlirough tvro plain piers. Lord Burlington, the architect, added a new Portland
stone front to the mansion j and a grand colonnade, borrowed from a palace by Palladio,
at Vicenza. In the centre of the wall was built, in place of Denham's plain gateway,
an archway of triumphal design ; and there are two semicircular side entrances. Horace
Walpole was in Italy when these embellishments were completed, and he thus tells
their impression upon him after his return : — " As we have few samples of architecture
more antique and imposing than that colonnade, I cannot help mentioning the effect it
had upon myself. I had not only never seen it, but had never heard of it, at least
, with any attention, when soon after my return from Italy, I was invited to a ball at
Burlington-house. As I passed under the gate by night, it could not strike me. At
daybreak, looking out of the window to see the sim rise, I was surprised with the
vision of the colonnade that fronted me. It seemed one of those edifices in fairy tales
that are raised by genii in a night-time."
The Doric colonnade and gateway are attributed to Colin Campbell, an architect of
some skill, employed by Lord Burlington, who, when the designs were made, was but
twenty -three years of age : still they were claimed for his Lordship, though he is not
known to have urged his own right. Later in life he designed many architectural
works which render the eulogy of Pope in his fourth " Moral Essay " — the Epistle on
the Use of Riches — which he had addressed to the Earl of Burlington, by no means
exaggerated : —
" You, too, proceed ! make falling arts your care ;
Erect new wonders, and the old repair ;
Jones and Palladio to themselves restore.
And be whate'er Vitruvius was before."
546 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
In Bui'lington House the Earl delighted to assemble the leading artists and men of
taste of his time ; poets and philosophers — the learned, the witty, and the wise. Kent,
the architect and landscape-gardener, had apartments in the mansion, where he re-
mained until his death, in 1748. Here Handel resided with the Earl for three years j
and here Pope, Arbuthnot, and Gay, often met. The latter poet, in his Trivia, after
lamenting the disappearance of the famed structures and stately piles in the Strand,
thus refers to the Piccadilly mansion : —
*' Yet Burlinf?ton's fair palace still remains :
Beauty within, without proportion reigns.
Beneath his eye declining art revives,
The wall with animated pictures lives;
Here Handel strikes the string— the melting strain
Transports the soul, and thrills through every vein ;
There oft I enter (but with cleaner shoes).
For Burlington's beloved by every Muse."
Sir William Chambers has described the mansion as one of the finest pieces of archi-
tecture in Europe, " behind an old brick wall in Piccadilly."
" The interior," says Pennant, " built on the models of Palladio, and adapted more
to the climate of Lombardy, and to the banks of the Adige or the Brenta, than to the
Thames, is gloomy and destitute of gaiety and cheerfulness." Lord Burlington cxin-
verted " Ten-Acres Field," at the back of his gardens, into a little town, bounded by
Bond-street and Swallow-street; and in 1719 he sold a piece of ground in Boyle-street
for a school-house, which he designed for the trustees.
Lord Burlington died in 1753, when the title became extinct, and Burlington House
passed to the Duke of Devonshire. Several alterations were made in the interior by
Ware. The Duke of Portland, Prime Minister to George III., died in this mansion
in 1809, a few days after he had resigned the seals of ofiice. In the western wing
were temporarily deposited the Elgin Marbles, before they were removed to the British
Museum. In 1814, White's Club gave here to the Allied Sovereigns, then in England,
a grand ball, which cost 9849Z.
The lease expired in 1809, and there was some talk of taking the mansion down,
when a renewal was obtained by Lord George Cavendish (afterwards Earl of Burling-
ton), son of William, fourth Duke of Devonshire, and grandson of the architect.
Lord George Cavendish repaired all those portions of the edifice erected by Lord
Burlington ; and by raising the Venetian windows of the south front, completed the
Earl's design for this fa9ade. Lord George Cavendish converted the riding-house and
stables on the east side of the court-yard into a dwelling, as an appendage to the
mansion, and built other stables behind the screen- wall. His Lordship also restored the
terrace and terrace-steps in the garden; and converted a narrow slip of ground on the
west side of the house and garden into the " Burlington Arcade," built by Ware, in
1819 : from the rental of which the Cavendish family are said to have derived but
4000Z. a year, although the actual produce (from sub-leases) is stated to amount to 8640^.
On the east side of the gardens is the high range of buildings called " The Albany ;"
but all its windows are shut out from view of the gardens.
The state apartments of Burlington House are on the first floor. Proceeding east-
ward from the great staircase, they form a suite of six rooms, richly ornamented and
gilt. The ceiling of the saloon was painted by Sir James Thornhill. The great stair- .
case was painted for the Earl of Burlington by Marco Rico and his uncle Sebastian ; '
the same artists painted the ceilings of the state dining-room, and the south-east ante-
room to the great drawing-room. Altogether, Burlington House merited much of the
praise applied to it in 1826 — that it was " the only town residence really fit for a
British nobleman;" but since that period some costly additions have been made to the
mansions of the metropolis. The edifice and grounds are said to occupy about eight
acres. The south front of the house is 130 feet in extent, and the height is 48 feet.
A ground-plan is given in Britton's Public Buildings of London.
The entrance archway may be said to have considerable pretensions to grandeur. It
Las a lofty pediment, flanked by the supporters of the Burlington arms, and supported
by four rusticated columns, coupled. It is commemorated by Hogarth in a caricaiura
print (1731), inscribed " The Man of Taste," containing a view of Burlington Gate :
MANSIONS. 647
on the summit is Kent (served by Lord Burlington as a labourer), flourishing his
palette and pencils over Michael Angelo and Raphael : lower down is Pope white-
washing the front, and bespattering the Duke of Chandos in the street. Ralph refers
to the front as " the most expensive wall in England : the height wonderfully pro-
portioned to the length, and the decorations both simple and magnificent : the grand
entrance is elegant and beautiful : and, by covering the house entirely from the eye,
gives pleasure and surprise, at the opening of the whole front with the area before it
at once." Any passenger who has seen the mansion through the great gateway from
the footpath may appreciate the above effect.
Burlington House, with its gardens, was purchased by Government, in 1854, for
140,000/. The extent of the grounds is about 3^ acres. The building is now occu-
pied by the Royal Society, the Senate of the University of London, the Geographical
Society, the Linnean Society, and the Chemical Society. No income is derived from
the property ; the annual outgoings and cost of maintaining it average 470/.
On the north side of the gardens was commenced in 1866, a building for the Uni-
versity of London, with an entrance from the street we call Burlington Gardens.
Cambridge House, 94, Piccadilly — the site once occupied by an inn — has been
known by the names of Egremont, Cholmondeley, and Cambridge House, from the
names of its various tenants. Here died July 8th, 1850, Adolphus, Duke of Cam-
bridge, youngest son of George III., born 1774. During the Cambridge occupation.
Her Majesty was leaving the house, when she was assaulted by the last of the imbeciles
who hoped to become celebrated by such a guilty proceeding.
One of its early noble tenants used to take his chop and spend his evening at "the Glo'ster Coffee
Honse," when his lady had a rout. " He didn't care for such things," he said, " and liked to be quiet."
The third Earl Cholmondeley acquired Houghton by marrying Sir Robert Walpole's only legitimate
daughter. The son of the first Marquis Cholmondeley (Lord Malpas) embraced the Roman Catholic
faith, was converted from his conversion by the mother of the lady whom he afterwards married, and
subsequently left the Established Church for the Wesleyau comiexion. — AthencBum.
After the death of the Duke of Cambridge, this mansion was the town residence of
Viscount Palmerston ; from hence his Lordship was buried in Westminster Abbey,
October 27, 1865. Cambridge House is now the Naval and Military Club House.
Chestereield House (the Earl of Chesterfield), South Audley- street, was built by
Ware, 1749, for Philip, fourth Earl, who describes the boudoir as " the gayest and
most cheerful room in England," and the library "the finest room in London;'' and
they remain unsurpassed. The columns of the screen facing the court-yard, and the
superb marble staircase (each step a single block twenty feet long), are from Canons
(Duke of Chandos's) ; and the gilt hall-lantern, for eighteen candles, from Houghton
(Sir Robert Walpole's). In the library, above the bookcases, are portraits cf eminent
authors contemporary with the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, who wrote here his cele-
brated Letters to his Son. Under the cornice of the room, extending aU round in
<»pitals twelve inches high, are these lines from Horace :
KTTNC'VETEEUM-LIBEIS'NTJNC'SOMNO'ET-IITEBTIBUS'HOBIS.
I>UCEEB'SOLICITJE'Ji;CX;NDA'OBI.lTIA*VITiE.
Throughout the room are busts of ancient orators, besides vases and bronzes and
modern statuettes. The windows look upon the finest private garden in London, and
in the lofty trees are a few rooks.
In that very pleasant table-book, Host and Guest, by Mr. Kirwan, we are reminded that the great
Lord Chesterfield was the first nobleman who made the most strenuous efforts to introduce French
cookery. He engaged as his cook La Chapelle, a descendant of the famous cook of Louis XIV. La
Oapclle published, in 1733, a treatise on Cookery, in three volumes, which is now rarely met with.
Like Alexis Soyer's books, La Chapelle's Modern Cook was printed for the author : it was sold by Nicho-
las Provost, a Frenchman, over against Southampton-street, in the Strand. About this period Chester-
field was Lord Steward of the Household to George II. His dinners and suppers were deemed perfec-
tion ; and these entertainments were among the few items in which his expenditure was liberal. Lord
Chesterfield lived till 1773 ; and, says Mr. Kirwan, " I more than once heard the late Earl of Essex say,
more than thirty years ago, at Brooks's Club, that he remembered, as a boy of fourteen or fifteen, seeing
the Earl seated on a rustic seat outside the courtyard of his house m May Fair. Chesterfield House was,
ninety-one years ago, at the very extremity of London, and all beyond it was an expanse of green
fields."
Claeence House, on the east side of Stable-yard, St. James's Palace, was built for
N N 2
548 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV. : it has a handsome portico in two
stories, the lower Doric, and the upper Corinthian. Here resided the Duchess of Kent.
The mansion is now the town residence of Prince Alfred.
De Geey, Eakl, No. 4, St. James's-square, possesses a choice gallery of pictures,
including portraits, mostly whole-lengths, by Vandyke ; " Titian's Daughter " holding
a casket ; a pair of landscapes by Claude ; a fine picture by Salvator Kosa j and a few
examples of the Dutch school.
Devonshire House (Duke of Devonshire), Piccadilly, occupies the site of Berkeley
House, formerly " Hay Hill Farm :" it was built by William Kent for the third
Duke of Devonshire, at the cost of 20,000Z., including 1000^. for the design. It was
also called Stratton House.
Berkeley House was built about 1665 for John, Lord Berkeley and Stratton, and is stated by Evelyn
to have cost " neere 30,000Z. :" it was remarkable for its great number of chimneys, noble state-rooms,
cedar staircase, the walls painted by Laguerre, and gardens " incomparable by reason ot the inequalities
of the ground, and a pretty piscina," and holly-hedges on the terrace, advised by Evelyn. The Princess
Anne, afterwards Queen Anne, resided here, from her leaving Whitehall, until 1697 : in the Postman,
No. 94 (1695), is advertised a silver cistern, valued at 7501., stolen out of Berkeley House. The first
Duke of Devonshire purchased the mansion in 1697 ; and March 31, he entertained King William III.
at dinner there. The duke died here in 1701: it was destroyed, October 16, 1733, by fire, through the
boiling over of a glue-pot while the workmen were at breakfast; the house was entirely consumed, but
the hbrary, pictures, medals, and other curiosities were saved.
" Lord Pembroke (Shakspeare's Lord Pembroke), Donne, Waller, Denham, and Dryden read their
verses here. Devonshire House, towards the close of the last century, was famous as the head-quarters
of Whig politics, and for the fascinations of its beautiful Duchess, whose verses on William Tell pro-
duced a burst of admiration from Coleridge :—
' Oh, lady, nurs'd in pomn and pleasure.
Where learnt you that heroic measure ?'
She learnt it from her race (the Spencers); from their family tutor. Sir William Jones; and from her
own cordial nature." — Leigh Hunt.
Devonshire House has an unpretending exterior, with an ill-matched portico : the
old entrance, by a double flight of steps, was removed in 1840 ; and in the rear of the
house has been erected a state staircase, with white scagliola walls, marble stair, gilt-
brass balustrades, and glass hand-rail. The whole interior was re-decorated for William
Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, except a small room, blue and silver, designed by
the celebrated Duchess. The Grand Saloon, originally the vestibule, is superbly deco-
rated and painted in the rich style of Le Brun, and hung with Lyons brocade-silk ;
portraits over the doors, &c. The Ball-room, white and gold, is hung with French silk
brocatelle, blue and gold, and a few magnificent pictures. In this superb room took
place the first amateur performance of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's comedy of Not so
Bad as we Seem, for the benefit of the Guild of Literature and Art, befjre Her Majesty
and Prince Albert, May 16, 1851. The grounds of Devonshire House are a fine
specimen of town landscape-gardening. Upon the gate-piers in Piccadilly are gar-
landed vases, gracefully sculptured. Among the pictures are Dobson's portrait of Sir
Thomas Browne; Lord Burlington, the architect, by Kneller; and Lord Eichard
Cavendish, by Reynolds. In a glass-case are " the Devonshire Gems," 564 cut stones
and medals. Here is the renowned lAbro di Verita, in which Claude Lorraine made
drawings of all the pictures he ever executed : they number about 200, and on the
back of each is Claude's monogram, the place for which the picture was painted, usually
the person ordering it, and the year, the "Claudio fecit" never wanting. By reference ta
this volume, the authenticity of reputed Claudes may be tested; hence it is called " the
Book of Truth ;" it is well known by Earlom's engravings. Upon the back of the first
drawing is inscribed, in Claude's own handwriting.
" Audi 10 dagosto 1677. Ce livre Aupartien a moy que je faict durant ma vie. Claudio Gillee, dit le
Loraine. A Roma ce 23 Aos. 1680."
Among the bibliographical rarities are "the Kemble Plays," and other old English
plays, the richest collection in the world, annotated by the Duke of Devonshire ; also, a
large collection of playbills ; early editions of Shakspeare ; designs, by Inigo Jones, for
buildings, sketches from pictures, costumes for characters in masques, scenery, &c. The
exquisite taste and knowledge displayed by the late Duke of Devonshire in collecting
these valuable treasures in art and literature have been respected by the present Duke
in preserving so valuable a collection intact.
MANSIONS. 549
DoECHESTEE HousE (Mr. R. S. Holford), Park-lane, built by Lewis Vulliamy,
1851-3 : a parallelogram, nearly as large as Bridgewater House, faced with Portland-
stone ; the principal cornice and frieze richly carved by C. H. Smith ; the chief pro-
jecting stones are each 8 feet 4 inches square ; the external walls are 3 feet lO-inches
thick. The grand staircase is of marble. The mansion occupies the site of old Dor-
chester House, in which died the Marquis of Hertford, 1842.
While this mansion was building, Mr. Holford's fine collection of pictures was temporarily placed in
the house No. 65 (formerly Sir Thomas Lawrence's), in Russell-square. The collection includes portraits
by Velasquez, Vandyke, Dosso Dossi, Bellini, S. del Piombo, Titian, and Tintoretto; two of the favnous
Caracei series (by Agostino and Ludovico), from the Giustiniani Palace; among the Dutch pictures is a
long view of Dort, and a large Hobbema; here are exquisite small pictures by Murillo, Grcuze, and
others; and fine works by Teniers, Wouvermans, Paul Potter, C. du Jardin, W. Vandervelde; Giorgione,
Bonifazio, Fra Bartolomeo; Holy Family and Saints, by Andrea del Sarto; Holy Family and St. John,
by Gaudenzio di Ferrara; Evening, by Claude; Rubens' masterly sketches of his Entry of Henry IV.
(Luxemboui-g) ; and the Assumption of the Virgin (Antwerp). The collection may be seen by recom-
mendation of known artists or amateurs.
Dover House (Lady Clifden), Whitehall, opposite the Banqueting House, has a
very tasteful and classical facade, and was built by Payne for Sir Matthew Feather-
stonhaugh. It was subsequently sold to Viscount Melbourne, who sold it to the Duke of
York, for whom Holland added a picturesque Ionic portico and the domed circular hall ;
which, and Carlton House, the residence of the Prince of Wales, being distinguished for its
screen of columns, gave rise to a witticism thus told by Southey in Espriella's Letters.
The buildings being described to Lord North after he had become blind, in the latter
part of his life, he remarked, "Then the Duke of York, it should seem, has been sent
to the Round House, and the Prince of Wales is put in the pillory."
Dudley House (Earl of Dudley), Park-lane, contains a fine collection of 130 pictures,
tracing the Italian and Flemish schools to their source.
Here are the Crucifixion, one of Raphael's earliest works, and the Last Judgment, by Fiesole, both
from Cardinal Fesch's Gallery; small figures of Saints, by Raphael, in tempera; the Virgin and Child,
and the Virgin, Infant Christ, and Joseph, by Francia; Sta. Cateriiia, by Lo Spagna; two figures of
Saints, in pen-and-ink and tempera, by Perugino; Virgin and Child, enthroned, by A. Dasisi; altar-piece
of Saints and Infant Christ, by Pierino del Vaga; altar-piece, Adoration of the Shepherds, by B. Peruzzi ;
the Death of Abel, byGuido; Head of the Magdalen, by Carlo Dolce; four Illuminations by Andrea
Mantegna; Christ bearing his Cross, by L. Caracei; a seated Cardinal, by Guercino; curious specimens
of the Venetian School, by Carlo Crivelli; two Colossal Heads, by Correggio, and a reputed replica of his
Magdalen ; the three Marys, and Dead Christ, by Albert Durer; Celebration of the Mass, by Van Eyck;
St. Peter, by Spagnoletto ; the Burgomaster, by Rembrandt (half-len?th), frorj the Stowe Collection ;
the Mocking of Christ, by Teniers ; Landscape, by Gaspar Poussin ; Venetian V-ew, very fine, by Cana-
letti ; Shipwreck, by Vernet, &c. Here are also several pieces of antique Sculpuir*; ; and a seated Venus,
by Canova; and a duplicate of the Greek Slave, by Hiram Powers.
Gloucestee, House (Duke of Cambridge), Piccadilly, corner of Park-lane, was pre-
viously the Earl of Elgin's. Here were deposited the Elgin Marbles. Lord Byron
sarcastically called Elgin House " a stone-shop," and
" General mart
For all the mutilated blocks of art," — English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
The Marbles were next removed to Burlington House, and to the British Museum in
1816. Gloucester House was purchased by the late Duke of Gloucester, on his mar-
riage with the Princess Mary. In the state drawing-room is a needlework carpet,
presented to the Duchess of Gloucester upon her birth-day, by 84 ladies of the aristo-
cracy, each having worked a compartment. The Duchess died here April 30, 1857,
having bequeathed to her nephew, the Duke of Cambridge, the unexpired lease of
Gloucester House.
Geosvenor House (Marquis of Westminster), Upper Grosvenor-street, has a mag-
nificent open stone colonnade or screen, Roman-Doric : it is 110 feet long, and has two
carriage-ways, with pediments sculptured with the Grosveuor arms, and panels of the
four Seasons above the foot-entrances ; between the columns are massive candelabra,
which, with the metal gates, are composed of demi- figures, rich foliage, fruit and flowers,
and armorial designs. The whole screen is picturesque and elegant, and was completed
in 1842 by T. Cundy, the architect of the western wing of the mansion (the Picture-
gallery) in Park-lane : the latter consists of a Corinthian colonnade, with six statues
and an attic, after the manner of Trajan's Forum at Rome ; on the acroteria are
vases and a balustrade, and between the columns are rich festoons of fruit and liowersj
550 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the whole is grand and architectural. Here is the celebrated " Grosvenor Gallery/*
commenced by Richard, first Earl Grosvenor, by the purchase of Mr. Agar's pictures
for 30,000 guineas ; increased by his son, and grandson, the present noble owner, to
200 paintings, including :
Eaphael, 5; Murillo, 3; Velasquez, 2; Titian, 3; Paul Veronese, 3 ; Guido, 5; Salvator Eosa, 4;
Claude, 10; N. and G. Poussin, 7; Rembrandt, 7; Rubens, 11; Vandyke, 2; Hobbema, 2; Cuyp, 4;
Snyders,2; Teniers, 3; West, 5; Hogarth, 3; Gainsborough, 3 ; with specimens of Lebrun, Paul Potter,
Gerard Douw, Van Huysum, Vandervelde, Wouvermans, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Wilson ; Perugino,
Bellini, Giulio Romano, and Sasso Ferrato: Correggio, Parmegiano, L. da Vinci, &c.
Among the most celebrated are the four (iolossal pictures by Rubens, painted in Spain in 1629, — the
Israelites gatliering Manna, Abraham and Melchisedek, the Four Evangelists, and the Fathers of the
Church, — from the convent of Loeches, near Madrid, purchased for lO.OOOZ. ; Cattle and Landscape, by
Paul Potter, a miracle of art : Gentleman holding a Hawk, and Lady with Fan, by Rembrandt, two of
the finest portraits ever painted ; Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, Sir Joshua Reynolds's masterpiece,
cost 1760Z, In the ante-room is a very large painting, by Canaletti, of a grand Bull-fight in St. Mark's
Place, Venice, in 1740, with many thousand figures.
Among the rarities is a triptych panel-picture by Memmelinck, 15th century : the central compart-
ment contains our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and St. John the Evangelist; the volets, St. John the
Baptist, and Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, with the pot of ointment: of most elaborate exe-
cution; bought by the Marquis of Westminster in 1845.
No private gallery in this country exceeds the Grosvenor Gallery in point of variety. The number
of pictures in the Bridgewater collection is more than double, the series more complete, and some of
them exceed any here in value and variety ; but the fascination of the Claudes, the imposing splendour
of the Rubenses, and the interest attached to a number of the English pictures (' Mrs. Siddons,' 'the
Blue Boy,' and ' General Wolfe,' for instance), long contributed to render the Grosvenor Gallery quite as
popular as a resort for the mere amateur, and not less attractive and improving to the student and
enthusiast.— Mrs. Jameson's Private Galleries of Art.
Among the sculpture is Susanna, life-size, by Pozzi ; Cupid and Psyche, by Sir R.
Westmacott, R.A. ; a Faun (antique) ; and busts of Mercury, Apollo, Homer, Paris
and Helen, Charles I. and Cromwell, &c. The vases are fine ; and the superb plate
includes antique salvers, and a profusion of race-cups, won by the Marquis of Westmin-
ster's .celebrated stud. The pictures are to be seen only, on a specific day, by admis-
sions" obtainable by personal acquaintances of, or introduction to, the Marquis of
Westminster.
Haecoukt House (Duke of Portland), on the west side of Cavendish-square, origi-
nally built for Benson, Lord Bingley, and altered from Archer's design, is described by
Ralph, in.'**"ij4!, as '• one of the most singular pieces of architecture about town ; rather
like a conVerit than the residence of a man of quality," resembling a copy of some of
Ponssin's landscape ornaments : and so it remains to this day. It was originally called
Bingley House. The handsome ofiices in the rear were designed by Ware.
Heetfoed HorsE (Marquis of Hertford), No. 105, Piccadilly, was formerly the
Pulteney Hotel, where Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and his sister the Duchess of
Oldenburg, sojourned in 1814, and where the Duchess of Oldenburg (the Emperor
Alexander's sister) introduced Prince Leopold to the Princess Charlotte. The original
fagade, rich Italian, was by Novosielski, with a Grecian-Doric porch added by Sir
Robert Smirke. The mansion was designed for the Earl of Barrymore, but was un-
finished at his death ; was first let as an hotel, and then to the late Marquis of Hertford.
It was taken down and rebuilt mostly with the same Portland stone, in 1851, when the
house was heightened from 57 to 71 feet. The drawing-rooms have a vista of 114 feet,
and the picture-gallery 50 feet, but the mansion remained some years untenanted after
its rebuilding.
The Hertford collection contains chef-d' ceuvres from the gallery of the King of Holland : Water-mill,
Hobbema; Holy Family, Rubens (cost 2V7SI.) ; Alchemist, Teniers; la Vierge de Fade, A. del Sarto;
Vandyke, by himself; Oxen in a Meadow, Paul Potter; several pictures by Cuyp; the Annunciation, by
Murillo ; Landscape with Herdsman, Claude; his own Portrait, by Rembrandt ; Christ giving the Keys
to St. Peter, Rubens: and, from the Stowe collection, the Sibyl, by Domenichino; and the Unmerciful
Servant, by Rembrandt (sold for 2300^.) The Marquis also possesses a fine collection of china, and costly
objects of art and vertu.
HoLDEENESSE HousE (Marquis of Londonderry), No. 16 Park-lane, contains a
magnificent Sculpture-gallery, wherein are several works by Canova and other great
sculptors ; Tbeseus and the Minotaur, from the Fries Gallery at Florence ; the Kneel-
ing Cupid, &c. ; full-length portraits of British and Foreign Monarchs of the present
century, by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; life-size model of Thomas's Statue of Lord Castle-
reagh, the celebrated minister, placed in Westminster Abbey j and presented to the
MANSIONS. 551
same, a colossal Sevres Vase, by Louis XVIII., and a valuable diamond-hilted sword;
besides cuirasses, helmets, and other trophies, captured by the soldier-Marquis in the
Peninsular War.
Hope Hotjse (Mrs. Hope), south-east corner of Down-street, Piccadilly, was built
in 1849, for the late H. T. Hope, Esq., under the joint superintendence of M. DusiUion,
a French artist, and Professor Donaldson. The fronts are Caen stone, and have panels
of decorative marbles in the piers between the windows ; the arrangement of which is
novel, especially in the attic-story. The total height from the street-level to the balus-
trade (surmounted with superbly-carved vases) is 62 feet. The entrance-porch ia
Down-street is very rich ; in the principal window-pediments are sculptured the armo-
rial bearings of Mr. Hope, repeated with the initial H in the very handsome iron railings
cast by Andre in Paris. The details throughout show very careful and elegant draw-
ing ; and the carving, wholly by French artists, is beautifully executed. The grand
staircase and hall occupy the centre of the building ; the upper hall is paved with
coloured marbles in patterns. The walls are plaster-of- Paris polished, scagliola panels,
and marble plinths ; the floors, fire-proof, are of cast-iron girders and tile arches. The
ceilings are panelled and enriched ; the principal doors are of oak, carved with the
initial H in shields ; some of the chimney-pieces are of pierre-de-tonnerre, panelled with
French marbles ; others are of bronzed metal, with caryatid figures. The stables (for
12 horses) and coach-houses are in the rear of the mansion. W. Cubitt and Co.,
builders ; ornamental work (wainscot doors, ceilings, stone carvings, mahogany case-
ments) by French artists ; cost about 30,000Z. There are few pictures here, the col-
lections having been removed to Deepdene, in Surrey. Among the antiques is Sir
William Hamilton's second collection, made at Naples. The mansion may be seen by
cards obfcuinable by introduction to the owner.
The collection was formed at the celebrated mansion in Duchess-street, Portland-place, in th? deco-
ration of which Mr. Hope, the author of Anastasiua, exemplified the classic principles illustrated in his
larg'e work on Household Furniture and Internal Decoratioyis, 1805, Thus the suite of apartments
Included the Egyptian or Black Room, with ornaments from scrolls of papyrus and mummy-cases ; the
furniture and ornaments were pale yellow and bluish-green, relieved by masses of black and gold. The
■ Blue or Indian Room, in costly Oriental style. The Star Room : emblems of Night below : and above,
Aurora visiting Cephalus on Mount Ida, by Flaxman; furniture, wreathed figures of the Hours. The
Closet or Boudoir, hung with tent-like drapery; the mantel-piece an Egyptian portic Egyptian,
Hindoo, and Chinese idols and curiosities. Picture Gallery .- Ionic columns, entablature, anu pediment
from the Temple of Erectheus at Athens; car of Apollo, classic tables, pedestals, &c. In four separate
apartments were arranged 200 Greek vases, including two copies of the Barberini or Portland Vase ; the
furniture partly from Pompeian models. The New Gallery, for 100 pictures of the Flemish school^
antique bronzes and vases ; furniture of elegant Grecian design. Mr. Hope died at Duchess-street in
1831 : he will ever be remembered for his taste and munificence as the early patron of Chantrey, Flax-
man, Canova, and Thorwaldsen.
Lansdowne House (Marquis of Lansdowne), which, with its garden, occupies the
south side of Berkeley-square, was commenced by Robert Adam for the Marquis of"
Bute, but was sold unfinished to Lord Shelburne, created Marquis of Lansdowne in
1784. The purchase-money was 22,000Z., but the mansion cost Lord Bute 25,000Z.
The Marquis, in 1804, acknowledged the possession of the secret of the authorship of Junius's Letters,,
which he promised to publish; but his lordship died in the following week. The " Letters" are believed
by some to have been the joint production of Lord Shelburne, Colonel Barre, and Dunning, Lord Ash-
burton ; and their three portraits, painted in one picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1781-5, have been
regarded as evidence of the joint authorship. Possibly, therefore, Junius's Letters were written in
Lansdowne, then Shelburne, House. It is better established, that oxygen was discovered here, Aug. 1^
177^, by Dr. Priestley, then librarian to Lord Shelburne.
The reception-room contains a fine collection of sculpture, including about fifty
statues, as many busts, besides bassi relievi : it was commenced by Gavin Hamilton,
who first excavated the site of Adrian's Villa. At the foot of the staircase is a noble
statue of Diana launching an arrow j in the great dining-room are nine antique statues
in niches, including Germanicus, Claudius, Trajan, and Cicero; also the Sleeping
Nymph, the last work of Canova ; in the front drawing-room his Venus quitting the
Bath ; and a statue by Ranch, of Berlin, of a Child holding an alms-dish. In the
gallery, 100 feet in length, at the east end are life-size statues of Hercules, Marcus
Aurelius, Mercury, Dioraede, Theseus, Juno, an Amazon, Juno standing, Hercules
when a youth, Jason, &c. ; and here are two Egyptian black marble statues, found at
Tivoli. On the sides of the gallery are the busts, reliefs, &c.
652 CUmOSITIES OF LONDON.
The collection of pictures, formed by Henry, third Marquis of Lansdowne, since 1809, is famed for
its portraits, including Eembrandt holding a palette, by himself; a Lady (1642), Rembrandt; Velasquez,
by himself; Pope Innocent X., Velasquez; A. del Sario, by himself; a Gentleman, by Titian; Count
Frederigo Bozzola, by Seb. del Piombo; Queen Henrietta-Maria, by Vandyke; Sansovino, the Venetian
architect, by Giorgione ; a Cardinal and Andrea Doria, by Tintoretto; a Burgomaster and Lady in a Ruif,
by Rembrandt ; Charles V. in his cradle, by Velasquez ; Kitty Fisher and Laurence Sterne, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds; Alexander Pope, by Jervas; Dr. Franklin, by Gainsborough; Sir Humphry Davy, byLinnell;
Francis Horner, by Raeburn ; the Marquis of Lansdowne, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; Ladies llchester,
Mary Cole, and Elizabeth Feiiding, by Reynolds ; Peg Woffington, by Hogarth ; Flaxman the sculptor,
by John Jackson; Sir Robert Walpole and his first Wife, Catherine Shorter, by Eckhart, (elaborate
black and gold frame by Gibbons), from the blue bedchamber of Strawberry Hill. Also, here are twelve
pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, including the Strawberry Girl and the Sleeping Girl.
Lansdowne House was long the political meeting-place of the great Whig party :
the first Cabinet Council of Lord Grey's administration was held in this house ; and
here, at the same meeting, it was resolved that Brougham should be Lord Chancellor.
Lord Lansdowne, the aclcnowledged head of the party, died at his seat, Bowood, Jan. 31,
1863 : he was distinguished by his friendship for artists and men of letters.
Ltndhuest (Loed), Nos. 25 and 26, George-street, Hanover- square, was ohe resi-
dence of Jolm Singleton Copley, R.A., and was for more than three-quarters of a
century the dwelling-house of his son, Lord Lyndhurst, who retired from the Chancellor-
ship in 1846. His Lordship died in the house No. 25, Oct. 12, 1863, aged 91. Here
were most of the important works of his father, including —
Portrait of Admiral Viscount Duncan; Sketch of the Princesses Mary, Sophia, and Amelia; Samuel
and Eli ; portrait of Lord Mansfield ; the Boy with a Squirrel, painted in 1760 ; the celebrated original
picture, exhibited anonymously at the Royal Academy, and which was the cause of Mr. Copley's coming
to England in 1764; he went to Rome in the same year. Portraits of John Singleton Copley, R.A., with,
his wile caressing the infant (the future Lord Lyndhurst), and his three other infant children. Portrait
of Archbishop Laud in his robes; and portrait of Lady Middleton inablack dress lined with pink satin,
pearl necklace and earrings, holding flowers, by Vandyke; Death of Major Peirson, the celebrated chef-
d'oeuvre of the artist, engraved by Heath— painted originally for Alderman Boydell, and afterwards
repurchased by Mr. Copley.
Lord Lyndhurst's pictures realized 5147Z. ; the two freehold houses, sold for ]8,000Z.,
have been taken down, and a club-house is built upon the site.
Makchi:ster House, Manchester-square, was commenced for the Duke of Man-
chester in 1V76, but was not completed until 1*788. At the Duke's dtath the house
became the residence of the Spanish Ambassador, who built the Roman Catholic chapel
in Spanish-place. Manchester House was next the town mansion of the Marquis of
Hertford, a lon-vivant companion of the Prince Regent. The French Embassy was
next located here ; with Talleyrand, Guizot, and Sebastian!, successive representatives.
Maelboeough House, Pall Mall, was built by Wren, in 17C9-10, for the great
Duke of Marlborough, upon part of the site of the pheasantry of St. James's Palace,
and of the garden of Mr. Secretary Boyle, the latter taken out of St. James's Park.
The ground was leased by Queen Anne to Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, who states
the Duke to have paid for the building between 40,OOOZ. and 50,000Z., " though many
people have been made to believe otherwise." The house is a fine specimen of red
brickwork, Wren being employed as architect, to mortify Vanbrugh. The great Duke
died here in 1722. The Duchess loved to talk of " neighbour George," the King, at
St. James's Palace ; and here, Jan. 1, 1741, she received the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs,
to thank her for a present of venison : " she received us," says Sheriff Hoare, " in her
usual manner, sitting up in her bed ; . . . . and after an hour's conversation upon
indifferent matters, we retired." The Duchess intended to have improved the entrance
to the court-yard : an archway was opened in the wall, but was blocked up ; for her
Grace was frustrated by Sir Robert Walpole, who, to annoy her, bought the requisite
houses in Pall Mall. The court-yard is dull, but the front towards St. James's Park
has a cheerful aspect, and a garden. In 1817, Marlborough House was purchased by
the Crown for the Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold ; it was the Prince's town-
house for several years : and after the death of William IV. the residence of the
Dowager-Queen Adelaide, whose personal effects were disposed of here, at the price
affixed to each article. In 1850, the mansion was settled upon the Prince of Wales,
on his attaining his eighteenth year. In the meantime, the Vernon collection of
pictures, and otliers of the English school, were removed to the lower apartments of
Marlborough House : and the upper rooms were granted to the Department of Practical
Art, for a library, museum of manufactures, the ornamental casts of the School of
MANSIONS. 553
Design, a lecture-room, &c. Here was designed, in 1852, the Duke of Wellington's
Funeral Car, which was subsequently exhibited to the public in a temporary building
in the court-yard, 1853 : it is now in the Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Georf^e IV, (while Eegent) proposed to connect Carlton House with Marlborough House and St.
James's Palace by a gallery of the Portraits of the Sovereigns and other historic personages of England;
but, unfortunately, Mr. Nash's speculation of buying Carlton House and Gardens, and overlaying St.
James's Park with terraces, prevailed, and the design of a truly National Gallery was abandoned:
although the Crown of England possesses materials for an Historical Collection which would be infinitely
superior to that of Versailles.
Marlborough House has been enlarged and re-embellished to adapt it for the town
residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
An entrance-hall has been added to the north front of the house; the old entrance-hall has been con-
verted into a noble saloon about 40 ft. in length by 30 ft. in width, two stories in height. On the ceiling and
upper partof the walls, on three of the sides, are large oil paintings of the great victories of Marlborough,
the battles of Hochstet and Blenheim, and the taking of Marshal Tallard prisoner ; upon the ceiling are
allegories of the Arts and Sciences. These paintings, the work of Laguerre, had been hidden for many
years beneath successive layers of whitewash and colour, and were boarded and canvassed over. They
have been restored, and in several of them may be recognised the originals of some old engravings of
the battles of Eamillies and Blenheim, in which Marlborough on horseback, leading on the troops, is a
very prominent figure. On the lower part of the hall is hung tapestry, apparently of the date of Louis
Quatorzc, the subjects represented being the adventures of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. In the
centre of the principal side is magnificent Gobelins tapestry, the " Destruction of the Mamelukes." The
sofas and settees are covered with tapestry of the date of Louis Quatorze ; and the furniture includes a
magnificent ebony and gold cabinet, and ebony and ormolu terms for busts. The library is on the west
side of the mansion. In the furnishing and decoration of the State apartments of Marlborough House,
English art and English manufactures have been duly patronized : Spitalfields and Manchester have
supplied the silk and damask, and Wilton the Axmiuster carpets, while the furniture has been made
entirely in London workshops.
One of the rooms on the lirst floor of Marlborough House has been converted into a characteristic
representation of a Turkish mandar'ah or reception-room. The room is hung round with souvenirs of
the Prince's travels : one of the most interesting articles is a fragment of Egyptian hieroglyphic. Here,
also, are amber mouthpieces, embroidered tobacco-bags, a coat of chain armour and a helmet, daggers,
swords, &c., artistically arranged; also, specimens of Eastern dress — waist scarfs, abbas, keffichs; and
in the centre, over the deewan, is another group of Eastern weapons— daggers and swords of rare temper,
armour and helmets.
The new stables have the form of a block with two wings. In the centre of the
block is the Royal entrance, leading into the garden skirting the Mall of St. James's
Park. On either side of the Royal entrance are two coach-houses: the quadrangle in
front, together with the Royal entrance, is covered by an enormous skylight, supported
by light iron columns ; while the quadrangle itself is lighted with gas, provided with
clock, manure-pits, water-tanks, and trapped drains. The stables include forty-five
stalls and twelve loose boxes.
Mo^sTTAGUE House, Bloomsbury. (See Museum, Beitish.)
Montague House (Duke of Buccleuch), Whitehall, was built for Ralph, third
Lord Montague, created in 1689 Duke of Montague and Viscount Monthermer. It
had a spacious marble floored and pillared hall; and a large collection of full-length
portraits of the Montagues and their connexions, by Vandyke, Lely, and Reynolds ;
sketches en grisaille by Vandyke ; a fine assemblage of English Miniatures ; and
View of Whitehall, by Canaletti. The furniture was in the old French style, richly
carved and gilt ; and cabinets in buhl or ebony ; tables of marble, mosaic, or inlaid
wood ; hangings of dark velvet, damask, or satin. In the dining-room and library
were portraits of the British school; a few Gainsboroughs and Wilsons in the boudoir;
and both drawing-rooms were hung with fine old tapestry, representing hunting
scenes in the forest of Fontainebleau. The mansion was screened from the street by
trees and a garden ; and between it and the Thames was a terraced garden, with
venerable trees, fountains, and statues, and an open pavilion commanding a fine view
of the river.
IMontague House was one of the mansions built after the Court had abandoned Whitehall, when
various noble families obtained leases of parts of the Privy Gardens. The Dukes of Richmond for a
hundred years occupied here a stately mansion surrounded with pleasure-grounds, on part of which is
built Richmond-terrace. Pembroke House was erected under like circumstances; between which and
the site of Richmond House stood the mansion inherited from the Montague family by the Duke of
Buccletrch.
The lease of the site of old Montague House was renewed by the Government,
thus securing to the Duke of Buccleuch an acre and a quarter of land, with a river
554 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
frontage for ninety -nine years, from 1856. The old mansion was then taken down,
and a new house erected in the French style^ with lofty Mansard roofs. All the
old materials were ground down and made into a sort of concrete to form the founda-
tion of the new building, and every possible precaution taken to make the new
mansion water-tight in its lower floors. The new house is substantially fire-proof.
Iron has been substituted for wood in all the most important parts of the construction,
and every possible precaution has been taken to prevent fire spreading beyond the
apartment in which it should arise. In front of the Crown property on the bank of
the river, the operation of the Thames Embankment Bill will reclaim no less than five
acres and a half of land which would have been admirably adapted for the erection of
public oflBces, had not the lease of Montague House been renewed. These circum-
stances led to much discussion ; but the mansion was completed for the Duke of
Buccleuch, and is now His Grace's town residence.
Montague House, the elegant detached mansion at the north-west angle of
Portman-square, was built for the celebrated Mrs. Elizabeth Montague, who resided
here many years ; and who annually, on the 1st of May, on the front lawn, regaled
the chimney-sweepers of the metropolis, " so that they might enjoy one happy day in
the year."* The house is now the residence of Lord Rokeby.
Horace Walpole tells us that in February, 1782, he " dined at Mrs. Montague's new palace, and was
much surprised. Instead of vagaries, it is a noble, simple edifice." " When I came home," he atids, " 1
recollected that although I thought it so magnificent a house, there was not a morsel ot gilding. It is
grand, not tawdry, nor larded and embroidered and pomponned with shreds and remnants, and clin-
quant like all the harlequinades of Adam, which never let the eye repose for a moment."
NoRPOLK House (Duke of Norfolk), No. 21, St. James's-square, occupies the site
of the residence of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans (temp. Charles II.) ; the first tenant
of the Norfolk family being the seventh Duke, who died here 1701. The old mansion
extended to the site of Waterloo-place eastward. In old Norfolk House George III.
was born. May 24, 1738 (0. S.) ; and Edward Augustus Duke of York, March 24,
1739 : the room remains, with a ceiling painted by Sir James Thornhill ; the state-
bed is preserved at Worksop. The present Norfolk House was commenced by Bret-
tingham, in 1742, for Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and completed for his brother Edward
in 1762 : the portico was added in 1842. The rooms are gorgeously carved and giit in
the Queen Anne style, and contain a collection of pictures of the Italian, Spanish, and
Flemish schools ; and conspicuous among the plate displayed at state-banquets, are the
coronation -cups received in various reigns by the Dukes of Norfolk as hereditary Earls
Marshal : here Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were sumptuously entertained^
June 19, 1849.
In the old mansion are deposited the records of the Howard, Fitzalan, and Mowbray families.
Among the pictures is a portrait of the first Duke of Norfolk, by Holbein ; shield presented to the chi-
valrous soldier-poet, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, at a tournament in 1537 ; portraits of the family
of Thomas Earl of Arundel, who collected the " Marbles;" portrait of his wife, by Rubens.
Here expired, Dec. 16, 1815, Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk : a few hours before he died, by his
desire, a servant was sent to a bookseller's in Pall Mall to procure Drelincourt's Book of Consolations
against the Fear of Death, which was read to the penitent Duke in his last moments.
NoEMANTON, LoRD, No. 3, Seamorc-placc, May Fair: here are some important
pictures by Holbein ; Holy Family, by Parmegiano j and works of the English school.
Northumberland House (Duke of Northumberland), Strand, occupies the site of
the Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval, founded temp. Henry III. j its large conventual
chapel reaching to the Thames in the Sutherland View of London, 1543. The present
mansion was built, about 1605, for Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, son of the
poet. Lord Surrey. The architects were Bernard Jansen and Gerard Christmas j and
it was then called Northampton Souse. The Earl of Northampton died here in 1614,
having bequeathed the mansion to his nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, when
the name was changed to Suffolk Souse : a drawing by Hollar shows it to have been
quadrangular in plan, with a lofty dome- crowned tower at each angle, in the Dutch
style. It originally had three sides, the fourth remaining open to the gardens and the
Thames; when the quadrangle was completed by the addition of the state-rooms,
* There was a fourth Montague House — viz. the mansion built by Viscount Montague, or his son, upon
irt of the site ot *^ '• — -^ c!^ •»«■ — '^ •- c^—^-' -'- -i--- ■<^i- ^i „;„„<•>>„.• ^j.
Contague Close.
part of the site 6i the priory of St. Mary Overey, in Southwark close, 15i5; the precinct being named.
Ml "'
I
MANSIONS. 555
attributed, but erroneously, to Inigo Jones. After the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter
of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk, with Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumber-
land, in 1642, the mansion was called Northumberland Souse. In 1660 General
Monk was invited to this house by Earl Algernon ; and here, with other leading men
of the nation, he proposed and planned the restoration of Charles II. On the death
of Joscelyne Percy, the son of Algernon, in 1670, without male issue, his only daughter,
Elizabeth, became heiress of the Percy estates. She married, in 1682, Charles Sey-
mour, " the proud Duke of Somerset," who resided at Northumberland House in great
state. On the death of the Duke in 1748, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Alger-
non Earl of Hertford, and seventh Duke of Somerset, created Earl of Northumberland
in 1749, with remainder, failing issue male, to his son-in-law. Sir Hugh Smithson, who
assumed the name and arms of Percy, and was created Duke of Northumberland in
3 766 : he was the grandfather of the fourth Duke, and the immediate predecessor of
his cousin, the Earl of Beverley, the late Duke. Of the old mansion, little more
j than the central stone gateway, facing the Strand, remains ; this being part of the
I original work of Gerard Christmas, and, with its characteristic sculpture, a curious
example of the Jacobean style. It is surmounted by a lion passant, the crest of the
Percys, cast in lead : it is inscribed with the family motto, " Esperance en Dieu."
Along the fa9ade was a border of capital letters, in place of the present ugly parapet :
One of these letters (S) fell down at the funeral of Anne of Denmark, 1619, and killed
a spectator. The date 1749 denotes a year of repairs, and the initials A. S. P. N.,
Algernon Somerset, Princeps Northumbriae. In 1766, great part of the northern
front was rebuilt; as also after the fire in 1780, which consumed most of the upper
rooms. The court-yard is of plain Italian character j and the living apartments are
the southern or garden side of the quadrangle. The boast of the interior is the double
state-staircase, with marble steps ; rich ormolu balustrade, chandelier, and lamps ; and
carved marble podium. The principal drawing-room has medallions by Angelica
Kauffmann, and a Raphaelesque ceiling. Beyond is a small room hung with tapestry,
designed by Zuccarelli, and worked in Soho-square, in 1758. The state-gallery, or
ball-room, is 106 feet long, and 27 wide ; it is gorgeously gilt with groups in relief, of
eagles, boys, and foliage, and is decorated in compartments with paintings after the
Roman school ; the chimney-pieces are supported by Phrygian captives in marble : this
noble room will accommodate 800 guests. Upon the walls are admirable copies, original
size, of the School of Athens, of Raphael, by Mengs ; the Presentation, and Marriage
of Cupid and Psyche, both also after Raphael, by Pompeio Battoni ; and copies of A.
Caracci's Bacchus and Ariadne, by Constansij and Guido's Aurora, by Masaccio.
Here are two cabinets of marbles and gems, once the property of Louis XIV., and
valued at 1000^. each. In the centre is a Sevres china vase, nine feet high, exquisitely
painted with Diana and her Nymphs disarming Cupid : this was presented by Charles X,
to Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland, when Ambassador to France,
The most important original picture in tVie Northumberland collection (principally at Alnwick
Castle), is the portrait-group of the " Cornaro Family " (Evelyn called it " ye Venetian Senators "), by
Titian, which was bought by Algernon Earl of Northumberland, temp. Charles I. from Vandyke, for 1000
guineas. Among the other pictures are San Sebastian, bound on the ground, and two angels in the air,
by Guercino, with figures life-size ; a small "Adoration of the Shepherds," by G. Bassano; "a pretty
Girl with a Candle, before which she holds her hands, by G. Schalcken, of remarkable clearness, and
good impasto" (Waagen); Alnwick Castle, and Westminster Bridge, building and completed, by Cana-
letti; a curious portrait of Edward VI., with a long inscription, by Mabuse ; a Fox-hunt and Deer-hunt
by F. Snyders; Christ crowned with Thorns, by Caravaggio; portrait of Napoleon when First Consul,
by Phillips (a fine likeness) ; several family portraits, including Percy Earl of Northumberland, one of
Vandyke's finest portraits. AJso, carvings in ivory, after pictures by Teuiers and others ; and sump-
tuous ormolu articles. The mansion can only be seen by special permission.
In the Strand front, west of the central gateway, by an ingenious contrivance, a portion of the wall
is opened for the egress of carriages upon state occasions.
Hugh, third duke, who died at Alnwick Castle, was interred from Northumberland House, with
great state, in Westminster Abbey, Feb. 22, 1847; the funeral pageant reaching from Charing Cross to
the western door of the Abbey : and his successor, Algernon, 4th Duke, who also died at Alnwick Castle,
was interred from Northumberland House, with like state, Feb. 25, 1865.
OvEESTONE, LoED, No. 22, Norfolk -street. Park-lane : a valuable collection of
Italian, Flemish, and Dutch masters, the latter including examples from the cabinet of
Baron Verstolk, at the Hague.
Peel, Sie Robeet, Baet., M.P., No. 4, Privy Gardens, Whitehall : the mansion.
556 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
contains a portion of the choice collection cf pictures formed by the late Sir Robert
Peel ; including Ilubens's celebrated Chapeau de Faille, for which Sir Robert gave
3500 guineas : also, 3 by Cuyp ; 4 Coast-scenes, by Collins ; the Poulterer's Shop, by
G. Douw ; 4 by Hobbema ; 2 by Isaac Ostade ; Landscape and Cattle, by Paul Potter,
1654; 2 by Ruysdael ; 7 by D. Teniers; Genoese Senator and his Wife, by Vandyke;
4 by A. Vandervelde; 1 by W. Vandervelde; 6 by Wouvermans; 2 by Wynants.
The Portraits, by Reynolds and Lawrence, have been removed to Drayton Manor. In
the dining-room of the above mansion Sir Robert Peel was placed immediately after his
fatal accident ; and in this room he expired, July 2, 1850. Between the doors hangs
Wilkie's fine picture of John Knox preaching.
Rothschild's, Baeon, Mansion, 147, Piccadilly, occupies a site of 67ft. frontage
by 90ft. in depth, and is built on a bed of concrete extending over the whole
surface of the basement story. The front walls are of Portland stone. The principal
staircase is of marble : its centre flight, opposite the entrance-hall door, is 8ft. wide.
The main landing, as well as the stairs, is of marble, and connects the two ante-rooms,
which are divided from the staircase by marble screens of columns and arches. These
ante-rooms communicate with the first-floor reception-rooms, one of which occupies the
whole of the Piccadilly front.
Rutland House, No. 16, Arlington-street, Piccadilly : here, January 5th, 1827,
died the Duke of York, second son of George 111.
SiBTHOEP, Colonel, 46, Eaton-square. — Here was assembled the rare and costly
collection of articles of vertu : Oriental curiosities, ancient ornamental silver, carvings
in ivory and wood, bronzes. Oriental and Limoges enamel, Raphael and Palissy ware ;
ornamental glass, German, Bohemian, and Venetian ; Dresden, Sevres, old Worcester,
and Chelsea porcelain, silver, silver- gilt, and plated articles,
Spencer House (Earl Spencer), St. James's-place, was built by Vardy, a pupil of
Kent, for the first Earl Spencer, father of the collector of the Bihliotheca Spenceriana.
The mansion fronts the Green Park, and has a pediment, upon which are three graceful
figures by Spong, a Danish sculptor.
Staffoed House (Duke of Sutherland), on the west side of Stable-yard, St. James's
Palace, occupies part of the site of the Queen's Library, built by Kent for Caroline,
consort of George II. : in Pennant's time it was a lumber-i'oom. The Stafford mansion
was commenced in 1825, by B. Wyatt, for the Duke of York, second son of George III.
In 1827, it was proposed to appropriate part of the mansion to the use of the Royal
Society ; the oflfer was accepted subject to future arrangements, but was not taken
advantage of, on account of the increased expenditure which the change would have
involved; whilst the apartments were unsuitable for tho purposes of the Society.
The Duke of York died before the building was completed. The Crown lease was
then sold to the first Duke of Sutherland, for 72,000Z., subject to an annual ground-
rent of 758^. The mansion is entirely of hewn stone ; the north front in Sta])le-yard
has a Corinthian portico of eight columns, beneath which is the entrance. The garden-
fence is curiously made of slate.
The interior was planned by Barry, by whom were added the second and third
stories, the latter concealed by a balustrade. The grandest feature is the hall, or
tribune, and state-staircase, opening through all the stories, and lighted by a lantern
filled with engraved glass, and supported by eighteen palm-trees; the ceiling contains
Guercino's celebrated apotheosis of St. Grisogno ; and beside the fireplace are Murillo's
Prodigal Son's Return, and Abraham and the Angels, from the Soult Gallery. The
walls are imitative Giallo antico, divided by white marble Corinthian columns and
pilasters ; and in compartments are copi*, by Lorenzi, of Paul Veronese's colossal pic-
tures. The whole interior strikingly reminded Dr. Waagen of many of the palaces of
Genoa : it is a square of 80 feet, rising in the centre to 120, the roof richly painted
and gilt, the floor a sea of red and white marble ; and when lighted by scores of can-
delabra, the effect is truly gorgeous. On the first landing is a marble statue of a Sibyl,
by llonaldi. Thence two flights of stairs diverge upwards to a corridor, decorated with
MARKETS, 557
marble columns and balustrades, round three sides of the hall ; the fourth being the
gallery, 120 feet long, with a fretted gold roof, and lighted by Roman candelabra in
gilt-bronze; the walls are hung with paintings of the Italian, Flemish, Spanish, and
modern English schools.
Among the pictures in the gallery are, Vandyke's portrait of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel ;
Morone's portrait of a Jesuit (Titian's Schoolmaster) ; Correggio's Mule-driver, reputed to have been
painted for a tavern-sign ; Christ before Pilate, Honthorst's finest work, from the Lucca collection ;
Christ at Emmaus, by Paul Veronese; Christ bearing his Cross, by Eaphael; Don Francis Eorgia
entering the Jesuits' College, several life-size figures, by Velasquez; and three works of Zurbaran, from
the Soult collection; Lord Strafford on his way to the Scaffold receiving Laud's blessing, by Delaroche;
and Winterhalter's portrait of the Duchess Dowager of Sutherland.
The other three sides consist of eight state-rooms : three towards the Green Park are
drawing-rooms hung with Gobelins tapestry, designed by Delaroche. Northward is the
great dining-room, 70 feet by 30 feet, where is a statue of Ganymede, by Thorwaldsen ;
and on the third side are two saloons hung with a long series of paintings of the old
Italian schools above the bookshelves.
In the dining-room, on the ground-floor, are assembled all the portraits of the Orleans
Gallery ; the royal and historical personages during the reign of Louis XIV., the Orleans
regency, the reign of Louis XV., and the happy part of the life of Louis XVI. and Marie
Antoinette. The adjoining rooms are dedicated solely to modern British art ; including
c7ief-d'oeuvres of Reynolds, Lawrence, Opie, Wilkie, Turner, Landseer, Callcott, &c.;
busts by Chantrey, and elegant groups by Westmacott, senior and junior ; and in her
Grace's drawing-room the chimney-piece supports are statues of her two lovely daughters,
exquisitely sculptured by the younger Westmacott. Other marble chimney-pieces are
adorned with small bronzes and elegant vessels, after the antique ; busts, and bas-relief.
Among the pictures on the ground-floor are, "Winterhalter's Scene from the Decameron ; a River
Scene, by J. Van Goyen, his finest work ; St. Justina and St. Rufina, half-lengths, by Murillo, very fine ;
the Marriage of St. Catherine, by Rubens ; Festival before the Flood (17 figures), by W. Etty, R.A.;
Scene from the Spectator, by T. Stothard, R.A. ; the Breakfast Table, by Wilkie, R.A. ; Cassandra
foretelling Hector's Death, by B. R. Haydon ; the Passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, by F. Danby,
A.R.A.; the Assuaging of the Waters, by John Martin; Death of the Virgin, by Albert Durer ; Headofa
Young Man, by Parmegiano : Lady Gower (now Duchess Dowager of Sutherland) and her Daughter (now
Duchess of Argyle), by Sir Thomas Lawrence; the Day after the Battle of Chevy Chase, by E. Bird,
R.A. Also a drawing, by Prince Albert, of his son, the Prince of Wales; and a life-size bronze statue
of the Marquis of Stafford, by Feueheres. Among the historic memorials is a bronze cast taken from
the face of Napoleon, after death.
The collection of pictures can only be seen by special invitation or permission of the
family.
ToMLiNE*s (Mr. G.), No. 1, Carlton House-terrace, contains a few first-class pictures ;
including the Pool of Bethesda, or Christ healing the Paralytic, by Murillo, purchased
by Mr. Tomline from the Soult collection for 7500^. Here also is the picture of Christ
and the Woman of Samaria, by Annibal Caracci; and the identical portrait of
Charles V., to paint which Titian journeyed to Bologna.
UxBRiDaE House (Marquis of Anglesey), Burlington Gardens, built by Joseph
Bonomi, in 1792, occupies the site of Queensbury House (Leoni, architect, 1726), where
died the poet Gay, December 4, 1732.
MARKETS.
"DEW of the Market-buildings of the metropolis are of tasteful design, such as we are
.1- accustomed to admire in the ancient and modern market-places of the Continent.
The early history and location of the London Markets, are, however, curious.
" Shall the large mutton smoke upon your boards ?
Such Newgate's copious market best affords.
Wouldst thou wish mighty beei augment thy meal ?
See'; Leadenhall ; St. James's sends thee veal ;
Thames-street gives cheeses Covent Garden fruits ;
Moorfields old books, and Monmouth-street old suits." ^
Gay's Trivia, book ii.
Billingsgate is described at pp. 54 and 55. It was once a landing-place for
other merchandise than fish : " 1550. — There came a sheppe ot egges and shurtes and
smockes out ot France to Byllyngesgatte." {Orey Friars' Chron.)
558 CTTBI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
BoEOTJGH Market, Soutliwark, for provisions, occupies the site of a mansion of the
see of Rochester ; and the ground is held of the Bishop by the parish of St. Saviour, at
an annual rent of 141. 13s. 6d.
Clabe Market, at the south-west angle of Lincoln's-inn-fields, for butcher's-meat,
fish, and vegetables, was built by William Hollos, Baron Houghton and Earl of Clare,
in Clement's-inn-fields, about the year 1660, and was first called New Market.
The City and Lord Clare had a long lawsuit concerning' this estate : the City yielded; "and from the
success of this noble lord, they have got several charters for the erecting of several other markets since
the year 1660: as that of St. James, by the Earl of St. Albans; Bloomsbury, by the Earl of South-
ampton ; Brook Market, by the Lord Brook ; Hungerford Market ; Newport Market ; besides the Hay-
market, New Charing Cross, and that at Petty France at Westminster, with their Mayfair in the fields
behind Piccadilly."— ITarZ. MS. 5900.
Here was a chapel for the use of the butchers, whither Orator Henley removed
from Newport Market, and preached in a tub covered with velvet and goldj the altar
being inscribed " The Primitive Eucharist." Henley, " preacher at once, and zany of
the age," lectured " at the Oratory " upon theology, " skits of the fashion^," " the
beau monde from before Noah's flood," and "bobs at the times;" but straying into
sedition, he was cited before the Privy Council, who dismissed him as an impudent
fellow. He lectured here for nearly 20 years ; the admission was Is., and he had
medals struck as tickets. In Gibbon's-court, Clare Market, was a theatre, where
Killigrew's company performed some time. " Nov. 20, 1660. — Mr. Sbepley and I to
the new playhouse near Lincoln's-inn-fields (which was formerly Gibbon's Tennis-
court) where the play of ' Beggar's Bush ' was newly begun : . . it is the finest play-
house, I believe, that ever was in England." {Pepys.) Its remains were long used
as a carpenter's shop, slaughter-houses, &c. Clare Market lying between the two great
theatres, its butchers were the arbiters of the galleries, the leaders of theatrical rows,
the musicians at actresses' marriages, the chief mourners at players' funerals. In and
around the Market were the signs of the Sun; Bull and Butcher, afterwards Spiller's
Head ; The Grange; The Bull's Head, where met the " Shepherd and his Flock
Club," and where Dr. Radcliffe was carousing when he received the news of the loss of
his 5000Z. venture. Hogarth, when an apprentice, was here an early boon companion of
Joe Miller, Next is the Black Jack, in Portsmouth -street, the haunt of Joe Miller,
the comedian, and where he uttered his time-honoured "jests ;" the house remains, but
the sign has disappeared. Miller died in 1738, and was buried in St. Clement's upper
ground, in Portugal -street, where his grave-stone was inscribed with the following
epitaph, written by Stephen Duck : **' Here lie the remains of honest Joe Miller, who
was a tender husband, a sincere friend, a facetious companion, and an excellent come-
dian. He departed this life, the 15th day of August, 1738, aged 54 years.
" If humour, wit, and honesty could save
The humourous, witty, honest, from the grave.
This grave had not so soon its tenant found.
With honesty, and wit, and humour crown'd.
Or could esteem and love preserve our health.
And guard us longer from the stroke of Death,
The stroke of Death on him had later fell.
Whom all mankind esteem'd and loved so well."
The stone was restored by the parish grave-digger at the close of the last century ;
and in 1816 a new stone was set up by Mr. Jarvis Buck, churchwarden^ who added
** S. Duck" to the epitaph. At the Black Jack (also called the Jumip), a club known
as "the Honourable Society of Jackers" met until 1816. {See " Jo : Miller, a biography,"
by W. H. Wills, prefixed to The Family Jo: Miller, 1848.)
Clare Market, which had long been one of the poorest and most squalid neighbourhoods in the me-
tropolis, has of late years been greatly improved by the establishment of a Mission, with a chapel in the
centre ; also, an orphan refuge, a needlewoman's home, a working man's club, soup-kitchen, Bible-class,
&c., to all which the recipients themselves contribute.
Colombia Market, Bethnal Green (Darbishire, architect), has been built at the cdst
of Miss Burdett Coutts, for providing good supplies, with great attention to cleanliness
and sanitary regulation; the shops surrounding the market to be let for various trades.
The design is old English, and the plan quadrangular, of fine brick and stone, and
terra- cotta; in a lofty central tower is the machinery for the water supply. Altogether
this is the most picturesque market-place in the metropolis.
MARKETS. 559
Corn Maeket, Mark-lane. (See Coen Exchange, p. 329.)
Covent-Gaeden Maeket was established towards the end of Charles II/s reign
(see p. 293), on the site of the garden of the Convent at Westminster ; and in
Chamberlayne's Notitia, 1726, it is printed Convent Garden. Strype describes it, in
1698, as held for fruits, herbs, roots, and flowers, "beneath a small grotto of trees," on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, the present market-days. In 1704, when Tavi-
stock-row was built, the market-people were compelled to assemble in the square, and
here their stalls increased to dwellings.
Steele {Tatler, No. 454, Aug. 11, 1712), in his boat-voyage from Eichmond, "soon fell in with a fleet
of gardeners, bound for the several market-ports of London. . . . It was very easy to observe by their
sailing, and the countenances of the ruddy virgins who were supercargoes, the part of the town to which
they were bound. There was an air in the purveyors for Covent Garden, who frequently converse with
morning rakes, very unlike the seeming sobriety of those bound for Stocks Market. ... I landed,
with ten sail of apricot boats, at Strand Bridge, after having put in at Nine Elms and taken in melons,
consigned by Mr, CufFe, of that place, to Sarah Sewell and Co., at their stall in Covent Garden."
Still the market was a strange assemblage of shed and penthouse, rude stall, and
■crazy tenement, coffee-house and gin-shop, intersected by narrow and ill-lit footways,
until the site was cleared for a new market in 1829. The present market-buildings
were designed by Fowler, and are perfectly fitted for their various uses ; evince con-
siderable architectural skill, and are so characteristic of the purpose for which the
market has been erected, that it cannot be mistaken for anything else but what it is ;
unless the inscription, " John Duke of Bedeoed, erected mdcccxxx.," over the east
end, lead posterity to regard this as a patriotic act ; whereas the Bedford family derive
a large rental from the market, stated at 5000^. per annum. The area is 3 acres. The
rent of some of the shops is from 400^. to 500Z. per annum.
The plan consists of a quadrangle, with two exterior colonnades on the north and
south sides, in front of shops; and in the central building an avenue open to the
roof, with shops on each side for forced articles, the choice fruits, vegetables, &c. At
the east end is a quadruple colonnade, with a terrace over, and two large conserva-
tories, a roofed fountain of Devonshire marble, and an emblematical group of figures
on the pediment of a screen between the conservatories. At the west end is a colon-
nade, and below is the iron-roofed Flower Market. There are store-cellars almost
throughout the area ; and water is supplied from an Artesian well sunk beneath the
central path, 280 feet deep, and affording 1600 gallons per hour, distributed throughout
the market by a steam-engine.
The supplies of fruit and vegetables sent to this market, in variety, excellence, and
quantity, surpass those of all other countries. There is more certainty of being able
to purchase a pine -apple here, every day in the year, than in Jamaica and Calcutta,
where pines are indigenous. Forced asparagus, potatoes, sea-kale, rhubarb-stalks,
mushrooms, French beans, and early cucumbers, are to be had in January and
February j in March, forced cherries, strawberries, and spring spinach ; in April, grapes,
peaches, and melons, with early peas; in May, all forced articles in abundance. The
supply of forced flowers, of greenhouse plants, and in summer of hardy flowers and
shrubs, is equally varied and abundant ; and of curious herbs for domestic medicines,
distilleries, &c., upwards of 500 species may be procured at the shop of one herbalist.
From distant counties are sent up the products of acres of turnip-tops, cabbages, and peas ; while
hundreds of acres in Cornwall and Devon grow early potatoes, broccoli, peas, &c., which reach London
by railway. Green peas have been sold here at Christmas at 21. the quart, and asparagus and rhubarb
at 158. the bmidle. Peaches are sold at 60s. a dozen, and cherries at 40«. a pound.
The foreign green-fruit trade of Covent Garden is very extensive in pine-apples,
melons, cherries, apples and pears. The cheap West India pine-apple trade dates from
1844, when pines were first cried in the streets " a penny a slice."
Faeeingdon Maeket, between the west end of Shoe-lane and Farringdori-strect,
covers 1\ acres of ground, and was built by William Montague, the City architect; it
was opened in 1829, on the removal of Fleet Market. It is well placed for drainage,
parallel with Holborn-hill ; the site and buildings (including a clock-tower of Italian
design) cost about 250,000^. ; but the Market is little frequented.
HuNGEEEOED Maeket, West Strand, occupied the site of a market-place built in
1680 by Sir Edward Hungerford, from his town-house and grounds, extendino- to the
560 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Thames. In 1685, Sir Stephen Fox and Sir Christopher Wren were proprietors of
the market-estate ; in the centre was a lofty hall, with a bust of one of the Hunger-
fords, and an inscription stating the market-place to have been erected " utilitati
fuhliccBi" but Strype, in 1720, describes it as " baulk'd at first," and turned to little
account. The old hall and a colonnade remained until 1830, when premises adapted
from a Roman market, were commenced for a company by Fowler, architect of Covent
Garden Market. The lower quadrangle was the fish-market, and the upper for vege-
tables, fruit, meat, &c. The market was publicly opened July 2, 1833 ; but proved
alike unprofitable with the original Hungerford scheme. The market-place has been
removed for the Charing Cross Eailway Terminus and Hotel.
Leadenhall Maeket, Gracechurch-street, is the great poultry and game market,
where 4,000,000 birds, &c., have been sold in one year. Tn 1533 the beef sold here
was not to exceed a halfpenny a pound, and mutton a halfpenny half-farthing.
In severe winters here are large supplies of wild ducks, principally from Holland ; woodcocks, &c. ;
snipes from Ireland ; pigeons from France ; rabbits from Ostend; blackcocks from Scotland. " Some-
times, after a grand battue, there is a glut of hares and pheasants in Leadenhall Market." (Macculloch.)
The returns for poultry, game, and rabbits in one year equal half a million of money. A few years since
Ostend rabbits were hardly saleable in London ; now, from 50 to 100 tons are imported weekly by
steamers, and 1000 persons are employed in this rabbit trade. On Christmas Eve here are displayed
100,000 geese and turkeys, including importations from France, Belgium, Holland, and Ireland. Here,
also, is a market for live animals, — fancy dogs and rabbits, cage-birds, &c.
Metropolitan Cattle Maeket, the, erected to supply the place of Sraithfield,
where the last market was held June 11, 1855, occupies 75 acres of ground. The
Market-place is an irregular quadrangle, with a lofty clock-tower in the centre, and
four taverns at the four corners ; the open area being set off into divisions for the
different kinds of live stock. No less than 400,OOOZ. have been expended upon the
land and buildings. In the parts of the market appropriated for the reception of the
different cattle, each central rail is decorated with characteristic casts of heads of oxen,
sheep, pigs, &c. : these were designed and modelled by Bell, the sculptor. The open
space of the market will accommodate at one time about 7000 cattle and 42,000 sheep,
with a proportionate number of calves and pigs. The calf and pig-markets are covered,
the roofs being supported by iron columns, which act at the same time as water-drains.
In the centre of the whole area is a twelve-sided structure, called " Bank Buildings,'*
surmounted by an elegant campanile, or bell-tower. The twelve sides give entrance to
twelve sets of ofiices occupied by bankers, salesmen, railway companies, and electric
telegraph companies.
In one year, 1862, the returns have been 304,741 bullocks, 1,498,500 sheep, 27,951
calves, and 29,470 pigs. The great Christmas sale in the closing year of old Smithfield
ranged from 6000 to 7000 bullocks, and between 20,000 and" 25,000 sheep. On
December 15, 1862, the bullocks were 8340, being a greater number than ever before
known at any metropolitan market. The market-days for cattle, sheep, and pigs are
Mondays and Thursdays; there is a miscellaneous market for horses, asses, and goats
on Fridays.
Newgate Maeket, between Paternoster-row and Newgate-street, was formerly
kept in the latter street, and was a market for meal. " 1548. This yere before
Alhalloutyd was sett up the bowse for the markyt folke in Newgate Market for to
waye melle in." (Grey Friars' Chron.) It is now the great Meat Market. Upoi
the site of the old College of Physicians, Warwick -lane, is held another meat market.
Butcher-Hall-lane (now King Edward-street), Newgate-street, was originally named from the grea
number of butchers living here ; and there is extant a petition to Parliament, dated 1380, praying tha
they might be restrained from throwing the blood and entrails of slaughtered animals into the rive
Fleet, and that they might be compelled to " kill" at " Knyghtsbrigg," or elsewhere out of London j
this seems to have been done for several reigns.
The City poulterers were strictly prohibited from standing for sale at the Carfeux of Leadenhall, i
place with " four faces," which was expressly reserved for foreigners ; and were compelled, under pain oi
forfeiture, to stand towards the west of the church of St. Michael, on Cornhill. Similar regulation!
were in force at Newgate Market, the object being to prevent " denizens" from meddling with tt
foreigners in sale or purchase. Foreigners were prohibited from carrying their poultry to the houses (
denizen poulterers, or lodging in their houses, and were liable to forfeiture and imprisonment if thej
did not go direct to the market. Any poulterer who sold above the price fixed by the regulations wsu
liable to penalties ; and any person who bought above the price was liable to forfeit what he so bought
and to be further punished by the local authorities.
I
MAEK-LANE. 561
Newport Market, Soho, named from the town-house of the Earl of Newpoi't in
the neighbourhood, is a meat-market, with its butchers, slaughtermen, and drovers.
Here Orator Henley held his mock preaching. The father of John Home Tooke was
a poulterer in Newport market, — as he told his schoolfellows, " a Turkey merchant."
Oxford Market, north of Oxford-street, was built for Edward, Earl of Oxford, in
1731. Barry, the painter, who lived in Castle-street, describes it ironically as " the
most classic London market — that of Oxford."
Smithpield, or West Smithfield (so called to distinguish it from East Smithfield,
east of Tower-hill), was the only "live" market, and the oldest in the metropolis.
The name signifies a smooth plain j " smith " being corrupted from the Saxon smeth,
smooth. Fitzstephen calls it " a certain 'plain field {planus campus), both in reality
and name, situated without one of the City gates, even in the very suburbs :" horses
and cattle were sold here in 1150, horse-racing was common, and the horse-market was
to our day called " Smithfield races." The original extent of Smithfield was about
three acres ; the market-place was paved, drained, and railed in, 1685 ; subsequently
enlarged to 4^ acres, and since 1834 to 6|- acres. Yet this enlargement proved dis-
proportionate to the requirements : in 1731 there were only 8304 head of cattle sold in
Smithfield ; in 1846, 210,757 head of cattle, and 1,518,510 sheep. The old City laws
for its regulation were called the " Statutes of Smithfield." Here might be shown
4000 beasts and about 30,000 sheep, the latter in 1509 pens : and there were 50 pens
f^r pigs. Altogether Smithfield was the largest live market in the world, and its sales
amounted to 7,000,000^. annually. It is thus sketched by Charles Dickens : —
" It was market morning. The ground was covered nearly ankle-deep with filth and mire ; and a thick
steam perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed
to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above. AH the pens in the centre of the large area, and as
many temporary ones as could be crowded into the vacant space, were filled with sheep ; and tied up to
posts by the gutter-side were long lines of beasts and oxen three or four deep. Countrymen,
butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled toge-
ther in a dense mass : the whistling of drovers, the barking of dogs, the bellowing and plunging of
beasts, the bleatmg of sheep, and grunting and squeaking of pigs ; the cries of hawkers, the shouts,
oaths, and quarrelling on all sides, the ringing of bells, and the roar of voices that issued from every
public-house; the crowding, pushing, driving, beating, whooping, and yelling: the hideous and discor-
dant din that resounded from every corner of the market; and the unwashed, unshaven, squalid, and
dirty figures constantly running to and fro, and bursting: in and out of the throng, rendered it a stunning
and bewildering scene wliich quite confused the senses."— OZicer Twist.
The market, with its attendant nuisances of knackers' yards, tainted-sausage makers,
slaughter-houses, tripe- dressers, cat's-meat boilers, catgut-spinners, bone-houses, and
other noxious trades, in the very heart of London, was, however, in 1852, condemned
by law to be removed into Copenhagen Fields, Islington.
The posts and rails of the old cattle pens were turned into printing materials, reglet
chiefly. Upon the site of Smithfield and additional ground, is to be erected a Meat
and Poultry Market, of elegant design.
Stocks Market, for fish and flesh, was established in 1282, on the site of the
present Mansion House, and was named from a pair of stocks placed there for punish-
ing offenders. In the reign of Edward II. it was decreed one of the City Flesh and
Fish Markets. After the Great Fire it became a fine market for fruit, roots, and
herbs, " surpassing all the other fruit-markets in London " {Strype) : " where is such
a garden in Europe as the Stocks Market ?" {Shadwell, 1689). At the north end
was the Conduit ; and the equestrian statue of John Sobieski, set up by Sir Robert
Viner, with a new head, as Charles II. The market was removed for the Mansion
House site in 1779. A few dealers in costly fruit kept shops hard by until our time.
MARK-LANJE,
BETWEEN" Fenchurch-street and Great Tower-street, is now the site of our great
Metropolitan Com Market, which originated as follows. There exists a token —
** Joseph Taylor, in Blanch Appleton-court, at the end of Marke-lane," — referring us to a
spot which now, amid modern alterations and improvements, is somewhat difiicult to
trace. There is no mention of it in the list of streets, courts, &c., in the city of London,
published in 1722 ; nor is it in Maitland's list or plans (edit. 1756), although it is men-
tioned in the text (p. 778) as being " a large open square place with a passage for carts,
o o
662 CURIOSITIES OF LONVON.
and corruptly called Blind Chapel -court." It appears from Stow that the north-east
corner of Mark-lane (now occupied by the premises of Sharp and Son, tea-dealers), was,
as far back as 13 Edward I., the site of a manor-house called Blanch Appleton; and
that a lane at the back of it was granted by the king to be enclosed and shut up.
Attached to the manor was the privilege of holding a market, or mart, but of which^
Stow observes, " nothing remaineth for memory but the name of Mart-lane, and that
corruptly termed Marke-lane." In the reign of Richard II. the manor was possessed
by Sir Thomas Roos. Stow further informs us, that in 3 Edward IV., " all basket-
makers, wyer-drawers, and other forrainers, were permitted to have shops in this mannour
of Blanch Appleton, and not elsewhere in this citie, or suburbs thereof." In- a commu-
nication to the Society of Antiquaries from Mr. T. Lott, relating to the arrangements
made by the city of London for the funeral procession of the body of Elizabeth, Queen
of Henry VII., some curious particulars are given concerning this place, together with
the amount in which the city assessed its inhabitants towards the expense of the pro-
cession, &c. Mr. Lott states that this district, which appears to have been a sort of
sanctuary for non-freemen, is to this day called in the City Chamberlain's books the
*' Blanch Appleton lands." Milton's friend, Cyriac Skinner, was a merchant in this
lane ; and liere Dr. Isaac Watts was minister of a Dissenters' meeting house.
MARTIN'S (ST.), LANE,
EXTENDING northward from Charing Cross and the east side of Trafalgar-square,
to the junction of Long Acre with Cranbourn-street, appears in Aggas's plan
(early in Elizabeth's reign) as a green lane, with only a few houses beyond St. Martin's
Church, abutting into Covent Garden, which extended into Drury-lane. St. Martin's-
lane was mostly built about 1613, and was first named " West Church-lane." A
few of the houses are spacious and have noble staircases, those on the west side being-
the largest ; some exteriors on the east side are good specimens of brickwork. Among
the early tenants was Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician to James I. ; Daniel Mytens,
the painter ; Sir John Suckling, the poet. Sir Hugh Piatt, the most ingenious hus-
bandman of his age, had a garden in St. Martin's-lane in 1606. Howell sends a
maiden copy of his poem " to Sir Kenelm Digby, at his house in St. Martin's-lane,"
in 1641. {Familiar Letters, 5th edit. 16V8, p. 393.) Here also lived the great Earl
of Shaftesbury ; Dr. Tenison, when vicar of St. Martin's ; and Ambrose Philips, the
Whig poet. Here too dwelt, nearly opposite May's-buildings, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
when he first came to London ; Sir James Thornhill, who, at the back of his house,
established an artists' school, from which arose the Royal Academy ; Roubiliac, who
commenced practice in St. Peter's-court, a favourite haunt of artists ; Fuseli, at No.
100 (first floor and staircase good). Old Slaughter's Coffee-house was once the great
evening resort of artists, and Hogarth was a constant visitor. At No. 101 was built
and exhibited the Apollonicon. No. 112 was the picture premises of Mr. Samuel
Woodburn, the eminent English dealer in art, who died in 1853, leaving a valuable
collection of the Italian, German, and Flemish old masters : among the English pictures
was Hogarth's Midnight Modern Conversation, painted for Rich, of Covent Garden
Theatre. No. 31 has a classically decorated exterior, in the style of Inigo Jones, and
is engraved in Hakewell's Architecture of the Seventeenth Century, 1853. The first
floor has an enriched ceiling.
A labyrinth of courts and alleys about St. Martin's church was removed in 1829
including the Bermudas, Caribbee or Cribbe Islands; and Porridge Island, noted for
its cook-shops. Another knot, on the west side of St. Martin's-lane, was cleared away
for Trafalgar-square, including Duke's-court. Hereabout Sir Christopher Wren, in
conjunction with his friend, John Evelyn, in 1685, arranged the building of Archbishop
Tenison's Library.
MARTIN'S (ST.) LE GRAND.
A COLLEGE founded by Withred King of Kent, in 700, and rebuilt and endowed
-^ about 1056 by the Saxon brothers Ingelric and Girard, was dedicated to St.
Martin, to which was added le Grand, from its privileges, granted by monarchs who
i
MABYLEBONK ^63
occasionally resided here. The church and collegiate buildings covered the insulated
ground now occupied by the General Post-OflBce ; and the Sutherland View, 1543, shows
the lofty spire and tower, wherein curfew was rung. Among the deans was WiUiam
of Wykeham, who rebuilt the church : the advowsons were given by Henry VI. to
the Abbots of Westminster. St. Martin's-le- Grand was a noted sanctuary; and after
the demolition of the College, the site was built upon and occupied by non-freemen,
to avoid the City jurisdiction. French, Germans, Dutch, and Scotch abounded here ;
their trades being shoemakers, tailors, makers of buttons and button-moulds, gold-
smiths, &c. ; and here are said to have first settled in England silk-throwsters. Among
its counterfeit finery was the copper " St. Martin's-laee." Each trade had its quarter ;
hence Mould-maker's-row, removed in our time ; and Shoemaker's-row, now the west
side of St. Martin's-le-Grand ; while Dean's, Bell, and Angel alleys denote the old
ecclesiastical locality. In 1828, when the site was cleared for the Post-OflSce, a crypt
by William of Wykeham was destroyed. {See Ceypts, page 303.) Lower down
were found remains of the Roman times : coins, beads, glass, and pottery ; amphorae,
Samian ware, funeral urns, lachrymatories, &c. : denoting this to have been an im-
portant site of Roman London. {See Kempe's St. Martin's-le-Grand.)
Among the distingnished residents of Aldersgate-street, in a line with St. Martin's-le-Grand, was
Mr., afterwards Sir William, Watson ; at whose house, in 1748, were exhibited the effects of the Leyden
phials, then newly invented; and here the Duke of Cumberland, recently returned from Scotland, took
the shock with the point of the sword with which he had fought the battle of Culloden.— JAe Gold-
headed Cane, p. 115.
In St. Martin's-le-Grand was the Taborer's Inn, of the time of Edward II.; and the Crown Tavern,
at the end of Duck-lane, which, in 1709, had a noble room painted with classical subjects. Between
Aldersgate and St. Anne's-lane end, was the Mourning Bush, the owner having painted black his carved
sign (a bush), after the beheading of Charles I. ; its vaulted cellars, with regular courses of Roman
brick, form the foundation of the present New Fost-qffice Coffee Home. Adjoining these massive re-
mains runs a portion of the City wall.
MAHTLBBONE,
A MANOR of the hundred of Ossulton, in Middlesex, and the largest parish of
London (more than twice the extent of the City, and population greater), was, at
the commencement of the last century, a small village about a mile N.W. from the
nearest part of the metropolis. It was originally called Tyburn, or Tybourne, from
its being on the bourne, or brook, which runs from Hampstead into the Thames ; and
its church being dedicated to St. Mary, the parish was named St. Mary-at-the-bourne,
Mary-le-bone, or Marybone. In a record of Henry VIII. it is called Tyborne, alias
Maryborne, alias Marybourne {Lysons). It extends northward to Primrose Hill, west
to Kilburn turnpike, and south to Oxford-street, inclusive : it is 8|- miles in circum-
ference, and contains about 1700 acres of land ; of which, till about 1760, two-thirds
were chiefly pasture-fields.
The Manor of Tyboum, valued at 52 shillings in Domesday book, and in King-
Edward's time at 100 shillings, was exchanged by the then lord, in 1544, with Henry
VIII. for certain church lands; it was leased by Queen Elizabeth, in 1583 and 1595,
at the yearly rent of 16^. lis. ScZ. ; in 1611 it was sold by James I. {excepting the
park) for 8291. 3s. 4d. ; in l7lO it was sold for l7,5o6z., the rental being then 900?.
per annum ; and about 1813 the manor passed from the second Duke of Portland to
the Crown, by an exchange of land valued at 40,000Z. The manor-house, a large
gabled building, not unpicturesque, was taken down in 1791.
Marylehone Park was a hunting-ground in the reign of Queen Elizabeth : in 1600
the ambassadors from Russia and their retinue rode through the City to hunt in
Marylehone Park ; and here Sir Charles Blount (afterwards Earl of Devonshire), one
of the challengers in the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, had a tilt with the Earl of Essex, and
wounded him. The park, reserved by James I., was assigned by Charles I. as a
security for debt ; but was sold by Cromwell for 13,215Z. 6^. 8d., including deer, and
timber, except that marked for the navy. At the Restoration the park was re-assigned,
till the debt was discharged. The site had been previously disparked, and was never
afterwards stocked j but was let on leases, upon the expiry of which the ground was
relaid out, by Nash, and named Regent's Park.
2
'564 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Bowling-greens were also among the celebrities of Marylebone ; where, says the
grave John Locke {Diary, 1679), a curious stranger " may see several persons of quality
bowling, two or three times a week, all the summer." The bowling-green of the
B,ose Tavern and gaming-house in High-street is referred to in Lady Mary Wortley
Montague's memorable line {see p. 8) ; and it is one of the scenes of Capt. Macheath's
debaucheries, in Gay's Beggars' Opera. This and an adjoining bowling-green were
incorporated in Marylehone Gardens, open gratis to all classes ; but the company be-
coming more select, one shilling entrance-money was charged, an equivalent being
allowed in viands. Here were given balls and concerts ; Handel's music was played,
under Dr. Arne's direction, followed by fireworks, and in 1772, a model picture of
Mount Etna in eruption. Burlettas after Shakspeare were recited in the theatre
here in 1774; and in 1776 was exhibited a representation of the Boulevards at Paris,
Egyptian Pyramids, &c. : the gardens were suppressed in 1777-8, and the site built
upon.
A deed of assignment made by Thomas Lowe, the sinper, conveying his property in Marylebone
Gardens, to trustees, for the benefit of his creditors, in 1769, was in the possession of the late Mr. Samp-
son Hoflgkinson, who was familiar with the parochial history of Marylebone. From this deed we learn
that the premises of Rysbraeck, the statuary, were formerly part of the Great (Marylebone) Garden.
(See Smith's St. Marylebone, 1833.)
The orchestra of the Gardens stood upon the site of No. 17, Devonshire-place, nearly
opposite the old church described at page 183.
Chatterton wrote a burletta, entitled The Revenge, to be performed at Marylebone Gardens; and that
fortunate collector, Mr. Upcott, then librarian of the London Institution, found upon the counter of a
cheesemonger's shop in the City, the above drama, in the handwriting of Chatterton, with his receipt
given to Henslow, the proprietor of the Gardens, for the copy-money paid for the piece. It was pub-
lished by Tom King, the bookseller and book-auctioneer; but its authenticity was doubted.
Prize-fighting was a pastime of this period, and Marylebone a place at which " to
learn valour" {Beggars' Opera). Here was the boarded house of Figg, "the Atlas
of the Sword," whose portrait is in the second plate of Hogarth's Rake's Progress.
Near Figg's was Broughton's Amphitheatre, often crowded with amateurs of high
rank. In the Evening Post, March 16, 1715 we find : " On Wednesday last, four
gentlemen were robbed and stripped in the fields between London and Mary-le-bon."
Between 1718 and 1729 was built the north side of Tyburn-road, now Oxford-street ;
and the squares and streets northward were then commenced : still, much of the
ground between the new buildings and the village of Marylebone was pasture-fields ;
and Maitland, in his History of London, 1739, states there to have been then only
577 houses in the parish, and 35 persons who kept coaches. In 1795 there were 6200
houses; in 1861, houses 16,370.
In 1841 the "Vestry of St. Marylebone accepted tenders from certain contractors to the amount of
4150Z. for permission to cart away the ashes (breeze) from the several houses in this vast parish.
Marylebone is a parliamentary borough, containing the three parishes of St. Maryle-
bone, Paddington, and St. Pancras. {See Chukches, St. Marylebone, p. 183.) In
the Parish Register is the following entry : " Georgiana Augusta Frederica Elliott,
daughter of H.R.H. George, Prince of Wales, and Grace Elliott; born 30 March, and
baptized 30 July, 1782."
MAY FAIR,
nPHE district north of Piccadilly, and between Park-lane and Berkeley-square, was
■*- originally Brookfield ; but received its present name from a fair being held there
by grant of James II., after the suppression of St. James's Fair, to commence on
May 1, and continue fifteen days ; where multitudes of the booths were " not for trade
and merchandize, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stage-
plays, and drolls." It was frequented "by all the nobility in town;" but was sup-
pressed in 1708, when the downfall of May Fair quite sunk the price of Pinkethman's
tame elephant, and sent his ingenious company of strollers to Greenwich. {See
Tatler, Nos. 4 and 20). The Fair was, however, revived ; and John Carter describes
its "booths for jugglers; prize-fighters, both at cudgels and back-sword; boxing-
matches, and wild beasts. The sports not under cover were mountebanks, fire-eaters,
ass-racing, sausage-tables, dice ditto,, up-and-downs, merry-go-rounds, bull-baiting,
MEWS, BOYAL. 565
grinning for a hat, running for a shift, hasty-pudding-eaters, eel-divers," &c. The site
of the Fair is now occupied by Hertford-street, Curzon-street, Shepherd's Market,
&c. ; but the old wooden public-house. The Dog and Duck, with its willow-shaded
pond for duck -hunting, is remembered : at fair-time, the second story of the market-
house was let for the playhouse. The Fair was not finally abolished until late in the
reign of George III. In Curzon-street was " the Rev. Alexander Keith's Chapel,"
with an entrance like a country church-porch, where marriages at a minute's notice
were almost as notorious as at the Fleet — 6000 in one year. Keith's charge was one
guinea, with a licence on a five-shilling stamp and certificate. The chapel was much
frequented during May Fair : here the Duke of Kingston was married to Miss Chud-
leigh ; the Baroness Clinton to the Hon. Mr. Shirley ; and James, fourth Duke of
Hamilton, in 1752, to the youngest of the two beautiful Miss Gunnings, with a bed-
curtain ring, half an hour after midnight. The registers of the May-Fair marriages,
in three folio volumes, closely and clearly written, are kept with the parish-books of
St. George's, Hanover-square. A minute description of the above district, entitled,
"The Fair of May Fair," will be found in Walks and Talks about London; and in
London Society, No. 24, with an engraving of the Fair one hundred years ago, from
an original drawing.
MEWS, ROYAL.
UPON the site of the National Gallery, on the north side of Charing Cross, when
falconry was a royal pastime, were kept the King's hawks, in a building called
the Mews. In 1319 (13 Edward II.) John De la Becke had the custody of the King's
Mews {" de mutis apud Charryng juxta Westmonasterium") . Iij the reign of
Bichard II., Sir Simon Burley was Keeper of the King's Falcons; and Chaucer was
Clerk of the King's Works, and of the Mews at Charing. In 1534, the royal stables
at Lomsbery (since Bloomsbury) were burnt j after which the hawks were removed
from Charing Cross, and the premises rebuilt for. the stabling of the King's horses, in
the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary ; the building retaining the name of
Metos, and public stables assuming the same. Here Colonel Joyce was imprisoned by
order of Oliver Cromwell ; being carried away by musqueteers and put into the Dutch
prison, and removed thence to another chamber in the Mews. It was a gamblers' re-
sort : Gay, in his Trivia, says of " careful observers" :
" Untempted, they contemn the juggler's feats.
Pass by the Meuse, nor try the tliimble's cheats."
In 1732 the fa9ade was rebuilt from the design of Kent, with three stone cupolas.
Mac Owen Swiney was made Keeper of the Mews ; he had been manager of Dnu-y
Lane and the Queen's Theatres, and died in 1754, leaving his fortune to Peg Wof-
fington. At the Mews were kept the royal stud, the gilt state-coach, and the other
royal carriages, until their removal to the new Mews at Pimlico, in 1824. The build-
ing at Charing Cross was occupied, in 1828, as the exhibition-rooms of the Nation'il
Repository, and by Cross' Menagerie from Exeter Change ; and here was temporarily
housed a portion of the Public Records. The premises were taken down in 1830, for
the site of the National Gallery. The last of the original Mews was occupied as a
barrack : it was built of red Tudor brick, with buttresses, and crenellated ; stone
window-cases and dressings.
At the Mews-gate lived for more than forty years " honest Tom Payne" (d. 1799), the bookseller ;
whose little shop, in the shape of an L, was the first named a literary coffee-house, from its knot of
literary frequenters.
The Queen's Mews, at the rear of Buckingham Palace, Queen's-row, Pimlico,
was built in 1824, and consists of two quadrangles, entered by a Doric archway beneath
a clock-tower. Visitors are admitted by a ticket from the Master of the Horse. In
the first quadrangle are the coach-houses, and in the second the horses. Here are
usually forty carriages, besides Her Majesty's state-coach : the dress-carriages are fine
specimens of coach-building. The horses include road-teams, saddle-horses, and hacks j
and the dun and black Hanoverian state-horses (generally from twelve to fourteen
of each) for the state-coach ; and here are usually kept the foreign horses presented to
the sovereign. In the harness-room is the red morocco state-harness for eight horses,
h66 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
with massive silver-gilt furniture, the harness for each horse weighing 1 cwt. j besides
the purple morocco state-harness made when George IV. was Regent.
The Mews Clock has stone dials (6 feet 10 inches in diameter), with the fi{?ures sunk (as in the E^-yp-
tian monuments), and a sunk centre for the hour-hand to traverse, so as to bring the minute-hand close
to the figures, and thus avoid nearly all error from parallax— an improvement by Vulliamy.
The Riding-House belonged to Buckingham House: here, in 1771, were publicly exhibited the
Queen's elephants, from one of which Lindley Murray, the grammarian, had a narrow escape.
Royal Mews, Prince's-street, Westminster, was built by Decimus Burton, for stables
to the House of Commons, upon a space formerly occupied by a nursery of 200 trees,
planted upon the site of the markets and narrow streets on the north side of West-
minster Abbey, and removed between 1804 and 1808. Here was kept the Speaker's
State Coach (See State Coaches). In 1854, the Mews was taken down, and upon
its foundations was built the present Stationery Office, by Pennethorne ; the old office.
Lord Milford's house, being taken down, and the site added to Birdcage Walk, in 1855.
MINOELES, TEE,
LEADING from Aldgate High-street to Tower-hill, is named from the"Sorores
Minores," " Minoresses," or nuns of the order of St. Clare, founded 1293, whose
convent stood in this street : upon its site on the east side, is built the church of the
Holy Trinity. The parish was formerly the convent close, and is without the walls of
London, although in the Liberty of the Tower of London ; therefore its inhabitants
have no vote in the Common Council. In Haydon-square is a spring of pure water,
which was the convent fountain; and here lived Sir Isaac Newton when warden and
master-worker of the Mint : the house was taken down in 1852. On May 24, 1853,
during excavations on the west side of Haydon-square, was found a stone sarcophagus
of the late Roman period, sculptured with a basket of fruit, a medallic bust, and foliage,
and containing a leaden coffin with the remains of a child : the sarcophagus is now
in the British Museum. In the Minories neighbourhood have been found sculptured
sepulchral stones and urns, and a third brass coin of Valens. In the churchyard are
deposited some bones taken from the field of Culloden in 1745 j and in the church is
preserved a head, though from what body is unknown.
The parish of Holy Trinity is minutely described in the ArclicBologia, in 1803, by
the Rev. Dr. Fly, F.S.A., 63 years incumbent of the parish ; and the account was re-
printed in 1851 (with additions), by the Rev. T. Hill, incumbent. After the dissolu-
tion of the convent, there were built here " storehouses for armour and habiliments of
war, with divers workhouses serving to the same purpose " (Stoto) :
*• The Mulcibers who in the Minories sweat."— Cowgrreye.
The street has been noted for its gunsmiths to our time : and in 1816 their shops
were plundered by the Spa Fields rioters on their way to " summon the Tower I"
From the Minories station the Blackwall Railway crosses the street by an unsightly
enclosed viaduct.
MINT, THE ROYAL,
LONDON, has been the chief seat of the Mint from the remotest period. Some of
the Roman emperors are presumed to have coined money here ; but " the silver
penny of Alfred," says Ruding, " is the first authentic coin yet discovered which can
with certainty be appropriated to the London Mint." The Mint in the Tower dates
from the erection of that fortress ; and it has been worked in almost every reign from
the Conquest to our own times. The Mint buildings — " houses, mills, and engines " —
used for coining were between the outer and inner ward or ballium, thence named
Mint-street,
The Roman Mint of London has been ably illustrated in a paper read by Mr, De Salis to the Archaeo-
logical Institute, " on the coins issued from a.d. 287 to a.d. 330." He commenced with a description
of the early coins of Carausius, which are of inferior workmanship and without mint-marks. Ihese
were succeeded during the later part of his reign and that of AUectus, by coins of better fabric, bearing
the mint-marks of London and Camulodunum, copper only being found of the latter. The coins of
Carausius and Allectus were struck between 287 and 296, and all the remaining coins with the mint-
marks L, LK, or LOK belong to the reign of Constantine, After the restoration in 296, we have, instead
of the copper denarius issued by the two usurpers, a larger coin called the follis, which gradually de-
creases in size from, say a penny, to a farthing. No gold was issued in London during this period, but
there are billon coins with the exergual mark, plw, of Constantine and his sons. Having described the
MINT, THE ROYAL. 567
coins in issue from 296 to 333, Mr. De Salis remarked that the suppression of the Mint of London was
one of the many administrative changes which attended the transfer to the east of the imperial residence.
It had become an establishment of little importance, not having coined anything but copper and billon
since the downfall of Allectus. A temporary revival of this Mint took place under Magnus Maximus,
who rebelled in Britain in 383. There are very rare gold solidi with the mint-mark avgob, which are
much more likely to belong to Londinium Augusta than to Augusta Trevirorum, of which we have
similar coins of the same usurper, marked teob and smte. No coins with the mint-mark avgob have
been found of the successors of Magnus Maximus, and it is probable that the Mint of London, which he
was obliged to revive after his successful rebellion, was again closed when he found liimself in posses-
sion of the Western Empire after the overthrow of Gratian.
In the 35th Henry III. the Mint warden's salary was 2^. a day. The constitution of
superior officers established in the reign of Edward II., continued with few alterations
until 1815. In 1287, 600 Jews were confined within the Tower at one time for
clipping and adulterating the coin of the realm. In 1546, one William Foxley, a
pot-maker for the Mint, fell asleep in the Tower, and could not be waked for four-
teen days and fifteen nights. Some of the Mint officers are buried m the church of
St. Peter in the Tower, the chaplain and rector of which, by grant of Edward III.,
received 10*. from the clerk of the Mint, 13*. 4id. from the master of the Mint, and
Id. per week from the wages of each workman and teller of coins.
Lully, the alchemist, worked " in the chamber of St. Katherine " in the Tower,
and was believed to supply the Mint with gold ; and Edward III., Henry VI., and
Edward IV. had faith in being able by alchemy to furnish the Mint with cheap gold
and silver. In the reign of Edward III., the masters of the Mint were empowered
by letters patent to take goldsmiths, smiths, and others, for the works of the Mint in
the Tower; and to imprison any rebellious within the said Tower, until the King
should determine their punishment ; and this power was not discontinued in the reign
of Elizabeth, Before the Reformation, ecclesiastics were sometimes comptrollers :
** Should we," says Latimer, " have ministers of the Church to be comptrollers of the
Mint ? .... I would fain know who comptroUeth the devil at home at his parish,
while he comptroUeth the Mint ?" {Sermon, 1548.) During the re-casting of the
corrupt coin in the reign of Elizabeth, the queen publicly coined at the Tower several
jneces with her own hand, and distributed them among her suite.
In 1695, Mr., afterwards Sir Isaac Newton, was appointed warden of the Mint; and
in 1699 he was promoted to the mastership, which post he held till his death : his
mathematical and chemical knowledge was of great service in this office j he wrote an
official Report on the coinage, and drew up a table of assays of foreign coins. Newton
lived some time in Haydon-square, Minories. In 1851 were sold several Mint Curiosi-
ties, once possessed by Stanesby Alchorne, king's assay-master : including the standard
troy pound, determined by the Mint officers in 1758 ; also Crocker's Register-book of
Drawings for Medals, certified by officers of the Mint, and containing thirty autographs
cf Sir Isaac Newton, — purchased by the British Museum.
The old Royal Mint — disused after the year 1810 — occupied but a very small space
within the walls of the Tower of London, and was situated at the north-east corner of
the fortress. " The whole of the mechanical appliances — which were of the rudest
character — and apparatus for executing the coinage of the realm filled but one room,
and that not a particularly large one. The melting department was ridiculously small,
and the crucibles used therein were easily moved by hand-power, even when charged
with metal. The rolling-mills, of comparatively miniature size, were driven by four
horses, ever going their ' weary rounds.' The cutting-out presses, of the most primi-
tive kind, and some of which are retained in the new Royal Mint as curiosities, were
worked by means of levers and by hand. An implement of a peculiar description
called from its shape a * cow,' was used for raising the protecting edges on the coins,
whilst the stamping-presses were put in motion by the muscular strength of gangs of
brawny labourers. In the year 1810 the New Mint superseded the Tower Money
Factory, and to-day an area of ground as large as that covered by the entire Tower
of London itself— within its moat boundary — is occupied by the workshops, coining-
rooms, and offices of the British Mint." — Abridged from the Mechanics' Magazine.
The establishment formerly consisted of a master and worker, deputy-master, comptroller, king's
assay master, king's clerk, and superintendent of machinery and dies ; the master assayer, probationer
assayer, weigher and teller, surveyor of meltings, surveyor ofmoney-pressers, chief and second engraver,
medallist, &c. ; besides the company of moneyers, who had coined the public money from a very early
668 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
period, with exclusive corporate rights. The office of Warden was abolished in 1S17. A new constitu-
tion was introduced in 1815, and was changed in 1851 : it is now vested in the master and his deputy,
subject to the Treasury. The mastership was formerly a political office : it was last so filled by Richard
Lalor Shell; in 1851 was appointed a Master and Worker, Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., the astro-
nomer, a worthy successor to the office once filled by the illustrious Newton. The operative branch of
the Mint consists of the assayer, the melter, and refiner. The moneyers have been abolished, and Go-
vernment now coins for the public on its own account; the Master being the executive head of the
establishment. The present Master is Professor Graham, F.R.S., the eminent chemist.
The present Mint, upon Little Tower-hill, is a handsome stone structure of mixed
Grecian and Roman architecture, commenced by Mr. Johnson, and completed by Sir
Eobert Smirke, between 1806 and 1811 : the cost, including the machinery, was a
quarter of a million of money. It was formerly supplied with water through a tunnel
from the Tower ditch ; and it was one of the earliest public offices lighted with gas.
Upon the site was "sometime a monastery, called New Abbey, founded by King
Edward III. in 1359." (Stow.) After the Suppression, was built here the Victualling
Office, subsequently tobacco-warehouses.
At the Mint is executed the coinage of the three kingdoms, and of many of our
colonies j and such is the completeness of the steam machinery by Boulton and Watt,
Maudslay and Co., and John and George Rennie, that fifty thousand pounds worth of
gold received one morning in bullion may be returned the next in coin, strangely con-
trasting with the old method of striking every piece by hand, and carrying on the
whole process in a single room. The present stupendous machinery is unequalled in
the mint of any other country. The furnaces have long been supplied with smoke-
consuming apparatus. The gold and silver being alloyed, are cast into small bars, are
passed through powerful rollers, and by the draw-bench brought to the exact thickness
required. The circular disks or blanks are then punched out of the sheets of metal
by other machines ; and are then separately weighed, sounded, have the protecting rim
raised, and are blanched and annealed. The blanks are then taken to the coining-room,
and placed in the screw-presses, each of which by the same stroke stamps on both sides,
and mills at the edge, thus making a perfect coin : each press will coin between four
and five thousand pieces per hour, and feeds itself with the blanks. For the dies a
matrix is cut by the Mint engraver in soft steel, which, being hardened, furnishes many
dies. In the coining-room are eight presses, which, by the force of a blow of 40 tons
weight, impress the face of the Queen, the reverse of the coin, and, at the same time,
mill the edge of the coin in the way previously described. From each press, the per*
feet sovereigns are thrown off" at the rate of sixty-four per minute. At this rate, sup-
posing that all the presses could be kept working, a stream of 30,720 sovereigns would
run out in an hour. The newly-coined money is now ready for the Trial of the Fix, when
one of each coin is placed in a pix or casket, sealed with three seals, and secured with
three locks; and the coins are then compared with the trial-plates at Westminster by a
jury from the Goldsmiths' Company, the Lord Chancellor, or the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, presiding. The early matrices, and the collection of coins and medals, at
the Mint, are among its Curiosities.
The following are the best Mint engravers from the reign of Charles I. to the present time : Briot,
Simon, Rawlins, Roettier (3), Croker or Crocker, Tanner, Dassier, Yeo, Natter, Pingo (2), Pistrucci, and
theWyons(3).
Applications to view the Mint must be made in writing to the Master or Deputy-master; the party
of visitors not to exceed six, for whom the applicant is responsible ; the order available only for the day
specified, and not transferable.
MINT (THE), SOUTRWABK,
A LARGE section of the parish of St. George the Martyr, and so called from " a
mint of coinage" having been kept here by Henry VIII. It was originally
named Suffolk Manor ; and opposite St. George's church, upon the site of the premises
of Messrs. Pigeon, the distillers, was Suffolk Place, the magnificent mansion of Cliarles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, brother-in-law of Henry VIII. This house the Duke gave
to the King in exchange for a palace of the Bishop of Norwich in the parish of St.
Martin's-in-the- Fields : it was then called Southwark Place and Duke's Place. In
the Sutherland View of London, 1543, it is shown as " ye Mint."
In the fourth year of Edward VI. (1550) Sir Edward Peckham, Knight was appointed high-treasurer
MINT (THE), SOUTHWABK. 569
and Sir John Yorke under-treasurer, of this Mint ; and in 15ol were issued crowns, half-crowns,
shilhngs, and sixpences, with the mmt-mark Y for Sir John Yorke.
In 1549 Edward VI. came from Hampton Court to visit the Mint, when it was
spoken of as " the capital messuage, gardens, and park in Southwark." Southwark
had also its Saxon and Norman Mint, a.d. 978 to 1135; and corns of Ethelred II.,
Canute, Harold, Edward the Confessor, Will'am I. and II., Henry I. and Stephen,
with the Southwark mint-mark, are known to collectors. The old Saxon spelling of
Southwark was ZVDLUDERE, Suthgwet'e ; and on Saxon coins we find it abhreviated
ZVD, ZVDL, ZVDLE, ZVDLEID, With the reign of Stephen ceased the power of
coining money, granted by the Tower Mint to smaller mints near London, as South-
wark, Stepney, &c. The precise site of the original Mint in South waik is unknown ; but
it was, probably, within the ancient town of Southwark (now the Guildable Manor)
which extended only from St. Mary Overie's Dock, by St. Saviour's Church, to Hay's-
lane, and southward to the back of the modern Town Hall. It is conjectured that
the Saxon Mint may have been attached to the oi'iginal Town Hall, nearly opposite
the church of St. Olave ; or, the Southwark Mint may have been under the direction
of the early Bishops of Winchester, at or near their manor of the Clink, and who may
have been moneyers here, as well as at the Winchester Mint. Of Henry, Bishop of
Winton, and the illegitimate brother of King Stephen, there exists a silver penny
(the only specimen known), which was bought at the Pembroke sale for 201. 10*., and
is now in the British Museum. We cannot suppose the original Southwark Mint to
have occupied the site of the Mint in St. George's parish, which was not within
the ancient town, and was not " the King's Manoi" until after Henry VIII. had ob-
tained it from Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Queen Mary gave the Mint property to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, in
recompense for York House, Whitehall, which had been taken from Cardinal Wolsey
by Henry VIII. Archbishop Heath sold the Mint in 1557, when a great number of
mean dwellings were erected upon the estate ; but the mansion was not entirely taken
down, or it must have been rebuilt, before 1637, when Aldeimtin Bromfield, Lord
Mayor of London, resided at Suffolk Place, which he possessed until 1650.
The Mint is described by Strype as consisting of several streets and alleys ; the
chief entrance being from opposite St. George's church by Mint-street, " rcnning into
Lombart-street, thence into Suffolk-street, and so into George-street ;" each entrance
having its gate. It became early an asylum fcr debtors, coiners, and vagabonds ; and
of the " traitors, felons, fugitives, outlaws, condemned persons, convict persons, felons
defamed, those put in exigent of outlawry, felons of themselves, and such as refuse the
law of the land," who in the time of Edward VI. herded in St. George's parish. The
Mint at length became such a pest, that statutes 8 & 9 William III., and 9 & 11
Geo. I., ordered the aboUtion of its frvcilegcs. One of these statutes (9 Geo. I.,
1723) relieved all those debtors under 50Z. who had taken sanctuary in tlie Mint from
their creditors : and the Weekly Journal of Saturday, July 20, 1723, thus describes
their exodus :
"On Tuesday last, some thousands of the Minlers went out of the land of bondage, alias tlie Mint,
to bo cleared at the quarter sessions at Guildford, according to the late Act of Parliament. Ihe road
was covered with them, insomuch that they looked like one of the Jewish tribes going out of Egypt ;
the cavalcade consisting of caravans, carts, and wagons, besides numbers on horses, asses, and on foot.
The drawer of the Two Fighting-cocks was seen to lead an ass loaded with geneva, to support the spirits
of the ladies upon the journey. 'Tis said that several heathen bailiffs lay in ambuscade in ditches upon
the rood, to surprise some of them, if possible, on their march, if tliey should straggle from the main
body ; but they proceeded with so much order and discipline, that they did not lose a man upon this
expedition."
The Mint was the retreat of poor poets :
" Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme." — Tope.
And one of the offences with which Pope reproached his needy antagonists was their
" habitation in the Mint." " Poor Nahum Tate" (once poet laureate) died in the
Mint in 1716, where he had sought shelter from his rapacious creditors. The place is
a scene of Gay's Beggars' Opera; and "Mat of the Mint" figures in Macheath's
gang. It was also one of the haunts of Jack Sheppard; and Jonathan Wild kept
his horses at the Duke's Head in Red-Cross-street, within the precincts of the Mint.
Illicit marriages were also performed here, as in the Fleet Prison, May Fair Chapel, &c.
570 GTJBIOi^ITIES OF LONDON.
Officers of justice sent here to serve processes were commonly pumped upon
almost to suffocation, and even thrown into "the Black Ditch" of mud and filth.
Here is said to have occurred the first case of Asiatic cholera in London in 1832.
Much of the district still consists of streets and alleys, of wretched tenements in-
habited by an indigent and profligate popiilation; also "lodgings for travellers j"
but very few of the old houses remain.
MONUMENT, THE,
ON the east side of Fish-street-hill, occupies part of the site of St. Margaret's Church,
destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. It was erected by Sir Christopher Wren,
between 1671 and 1677 (pursuant to 19 Charles II. c. 3, s. 29), to commemorate the
€rreat Fire and rebuilding of the City : the expense was about 14,500Z., defrayed out
of the Orphans' Fund. The Monument is of the Italo-Vitruvian- Doric order, and is
of Portland stone, of which it contains 21,126 solid feet. It consists of a pedestal
about 21 feet square, with a plinth 27 feet, and a fluted shaft 15 feet at the base ; ou
the abacus is a balcony encompassing a moulded cylinder, which supports a flaming
vase of gilt bronze, indicative of its commemoration of the Great Fire ; though some
repudiating Roman Catholics assert this termination to be intended for the civic cap of
maintenance ! Defoe quaintly describes the Monument as " built in the form of a
candle," the top making " handsome gilt flame like that of a candle." Its entire
height is 202 feet, stated in one of the inscriptions to be equal to its distance eastward
from the house where the fire broke out, at the king's baker's, in Pudding-lane.
On the front of the house, on the east side of Pudding-lane, was a stone with this inscription :
*' Here, by the permission of Heaven, Hell broke loose upon this Protestant City, from the malicious
Hearts of barbarous Papists by the Hand of their agent Hubert, who confessed, and on the Ruins of
this Place declared the Fact, for which he was hanged, viz. That here begun that dreadful Fire which
is described and perpetuated on and by the Neighbouring Pillar. Erected Anno 1681, in the Mayoralty
of Sir Patience Ward, KV—Ratton, 1708.
The Monument is loftier than the pillars of Trajan and Antoninus at Rome, or that of
Theodosius at Constantinople ; and it is not only the loftiest, but also the finest isolated
column in the world. Within is a staircase of 345 black marble steps, opening to the
balcony, whence the view of the metropolis, especially of its Port, is very interesting.
It was at first used by the members of the Royal Society for astronomical purposes,
but was abandoned on account of its vibration being too great for the nicety required
in their observations. Hence the report that the Monument is unsafe, which has been
revived in our time ; " but," says Elmes, " its scientific construction may bid defiance
to the attacks of all but earthquakes for centuries to come." Wren proposed a more
characteristic pillar, with flames blazing from the loopholes of the shaft, and figured in
brass-work gilt ; a phoenix was on the top rising from her ashes, in brass-gilt likewise.
This, however, was rejected ; and Wren then designed a statue of Charles II., 15 feet
high ;* but the king preferred a large ball of metal, gilt ; and the present vase of flames,
42 feet high, was adopted: when last triple regilt, it cost 120^. On June 15th, 1825,
the Monument was illuminated with portable gas, in commemoration of the laying of
the first stone of London Bridge : a lamp was placed at each of the loopholes of the
oolumn, to give the idea of its being wreathed with flame ; whilst two other series were
placed on the edges of the gallery, to which the public were admitted during the evening.
The west face or front of the pedestal is rudely sculptured by Caius Gabriel Cibber, in
alto and bas-relief: Charles II., be-wigged and be-Romanised, is attended by Liberty,
Genius, and Science ; in the background are labourers at work and newly-built houses :
and at the King's feet is Envy peering from an arched cell, and blowing flames to re-
kindle the mischief. The scaffolding, ladders, and hodmen are more admired for their
fidelity than the monarch and his architect. The north and south sides bear Latin
* A large print of the Monument represents the statue of Charles so placed, for comparative effect,
beside a sectional view of the apex, as constructed. Wren's autograph report on the designs for the
summit was added to the mss. in the British Museum in 1852, A model, scale \ inch to the foot, of the
scaftolding used in building the Monument, is preserved. It formerly belonged to Sir William Cham-
bers, and was presented by Heathcote Russell, C.E., to the late Sir Isambard Brunei, who left it to his
«on, Mr. I. K. Brunei : the ladders were of the rude construction of Wren's time, two uprights, with
nailed treads or rounds on the face.
MOOBFIELDS. 571
inscriptions by Dr. Thomas Gale, afterwards Dean of York ; that on the north record-
ing the desolation of the city ; the south its restoration and improvement, and the means
employed ; while the east is inscribed with the years in which it was begun and finished,
and the names of the Lord Mayors during its erection. Around the base of the
• pedestal was also the following inscription, beginning at the west : —
(W.) *' THIS PILLAR WAS SET VP IN PERPETVAL REMEMBRANCE OF THAT MOST DREADFUI.
BURNING OF THIS PROTESTANT fS.) CITY, BEGUN AND CARRYED ON BY YE TREACHERY AND
MALICE OF YE POPISH FACTIO, IN YE BEGINNING OF SEPTEM IN YE YEAR OF (E^ OUR LORD
1666, IN ORDER TO YE CARRYING ON THEIR HORRID PLOTT FOR EXTIRPATING (N.) THE PRO-
TESTANT RELIGION AND OLD ENGLISH LIBERTY, AND THE INTRODUCING POPERY AND
SLAVERY."
And the north inscription concluded with :
" SED FUROR PAPISTICUS QVI TAMDIU PATRAVIT NONDUM RESTINGVITVR."
These offensive legends are not mentioned by Wren, but were added in 1681, by order
of the Court of Aldermen, amid the horror of the Papists spread by the Titus Gates
plot. They were obliterated in the reign of James II., but recut deeper still in the
reign of WiUiam III., and excited Pope's indignant couplet :
" Where London's column, pointing at the skies.
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies."
The legends were ultimately erased (by an Act of Common Council) Jan. 26, 1831.
Gn the cap of the pedestal, at the angles, are four dragons, the supporters of the City
arms : these cost 200L, and were the work of Edward Pierce, jun. Six persons have
committed suicide by throwing themselves from the Monument gallery: 1. John
Cradock, a baker, July 7, 1788; 2. Lyon Levi, a Jew diamond-merchant, Jan. 18,
1810 ; 3. same year, Leander, a baker ; 4. Margaret Moyes, daughter of a baker in
Hemming's-row, Sept. 11, 1839 j 5. Hawes, a boy. Get. 18, 1839 ; 6. Jane Cooper, a
servant-girl, Aug. 19, 1842. To prevent similar deaths, the gallery has been encaged
with iron-work, as we now see it. William Green, a weaver, is erroneously recorded
as a suicide, June 25, 1750 ; for, on reaching over the railing, to look at a live eagle
kept there in a wooden cage, he accidentally lost his balance, and fell over against the
top of the pedestal, thence into the street, and was dashed to pieces. The fall is
exactly 175 feet. In 1732, a sailor slid down a rope from the gallery to the Three-
Tuns Tavern, Gracechurch- street j as did also, next day, a waterman's boy. In the
Times newspaper of August 22, 1827, there appeared the following burlesque
advertisement :
" Incredible as it may appear, a person will attend at the Monument, and will, for the sura of 2500Z.,
mdertake to jump clear off the said Monument, and in coming down will drink some beer and eat a
jake, act some trades, shorten and make sail, and bring ship safe to anchor. As soon as the sum
stated is collected, the performance will take place ; and if not performed, the money subscribed to be
returned to the subscribers,"
Admittance to the gallery of the Monument from 9 till dusk ; charge reduced, in
1851, from 6d. to 3d. each person. In the reign of George I. the charge was 2d. The
office of Keeper of the Monument is in the gift of the Corporation of London.
mooefii:lds
IS first mentioned by Fitzstephen {temp. Henry II.) as " the great fen or moor which
watereth the walls of the City on the north side," and stretched *' from the wall
Taetwixt Bishopsgate and Cripplegate to Fensbury and to Holywell" (Stow). When
the Moor was frozen, Fitzstephen tells us the young Londoners, by placing the leg-bones
of animals under their feet, and tying them round their ankles, by aid of an iron-shod
pole, pushed themselves with great velocity along the ice ; and one of these bone-skates,
found in digging Moorfields, was in the Museum of Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., 5,
Liverpool-street- In the reign of Edward II., Moorfields was let for four marks a year j
in 1415, the Mayor made a breach in the wall, and built the Moorgate postern. Bricks
are stated to have been made here, before any other part of London, in the l7th
Edward IV., for repairing the City wall between Aldgate and Aldersgate; when
*' Moorfields was searched for clay, and bricks were made and burnt there." Facing
the wall was a black ditch ; hence " the melancholy of Moorditch," (Shakspeare, Henry
672 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
IV. Part 1.) In 1497, the gardens in Moorfields were made plain ; the Moor was
drained in 1527, and laid out in walks and planted in 1606.
Moorfields and Finsbury were the great places for recreative walks ; while all bej'ond
wa,s open ground, stretching right and left to the nearest villages. Moorfields, in the
ancient maps, is covered with linen ; and in Thomas Deloney's Croivn Garland of
Golden Roses, may be seen the ballad history of " the two ladies of Finsbury that gave
Moorfields to the City, for the maidens of London to dry clothes in/' and where he says :
" Now are made most pleasant walks
That great contentment yield ;"
while Finsbury fields was the great school of archery, from the time when every man
was enjoined by law to " draw a good bow and shoot a good shot," until the entire
decay of the science.
There is a curious tract on Moorfields, published by Henry Gosson, in 1607, entitled
"The Pleasant Walks of Moorfields: being the gift of two sisters, now beautified to
the continuing fame of this worthy city," and is the work of Richard Johnson, author
of " Look on me, London." The laying out and planting the fields are here minutely
described. This tract has been reprinted by Mr. Payne Collier.
Evelyn, recording the Great Fire, says the houseless people took refuge about Moor-
fields, under tents and miserable huts and hovels ; and Pepys found Moorfields full of
people, and " poor wretches carrying their goods there ;" next year the fields were built
upon and paved. On the south side was erected Bethlehem Hospital in 1675-6 {see
pp. 51-54), which has disappeared in our time, with the long line of furniture-dealers'
shops from the north side.
" Through fam'd Moorfields extends a spacious seat.
Where mortals of exalted wit retreat ;
Where, wrapp'd in contemplation and in straw.
The wiser few from the mad world withdraw,"
6ai/ to Mr. Thomas Snow, Goldsmith, near Temple Bar.
Under Bethlehem wall, in 1753-4, Elizabeth Canning, by her own testimony, was
seized, robbed, and gagged; thence dragged to Mother Wells's at Enfield Wash, and
there nearly starved to death ; but the whole story was a hoax.
The Moor reached from London Wall to Hoxton ; and a thousand cartloads of human
bones brought from St. Paul's charnel-house in 1549, and soon after covered with
street-dirt, became so elevated, that three windmills were built upon it. (Aggas's
plan shows three windmills on the site of Finsbury-square : hence Windmill-hill, now
street.) The ground on the south side being also much raised, it was named Upper
Moorfields. On the north of the fields stood the Dogge-house, where the Lord Mayor's
hounds were kept by the Common Hunt : hence " Dog-house Bar," City -road. East-
ward the Moor was bounded by the ancient hospital and priory of Bethlehem, separated
by a deep ditch, now covered by Blomfield-street. The lower part of the fields was
paled into four squares, each planted with elm-trees, round a grass-plat, and intersected
by broad gravel- walks ; a favourite promenade in evenings and fine weather, and called
" the City Mall j" where beaux wore their hats diagonally over their left or right eye,
hence called " the Moorfields cock." Here was the Foundry at which, previous to the
year 1706, the brass ordnance for the British Government was cast. Near the Foundry
Whitefield built his Tabernacle {see p. 223). It was roofed vf'iih. pan-tiles.
Moorfields was, till near Pennant's time, the haunt of low gamblers, the great
gymnasium of our capital, the resort of wrestlers, boxers, and football players. Here
mountebanks erected their stages, and dispensed infallible medicines to the gaping gulls.
Here, too, field-preachers set up their itinerant pulpits, beneath the shade of the trees;
and here the pious, well-meaning Whitefield preached so winningly, as to gain from a
neighbouring charlatan the greater number of his admirers.
jMoorgate was erected opposite the site of Albion Chapel, at the south-west angle of
the fields, and was rebuilt in 1672 ; the central gateway higher than usual, for the
City Trained Bands to march through it with their pikes erected. The fields are now
covered by Finsbury-square and Circus, and adjoining streets : the name survives in
" Little Moorfields," and it has been revived in Moorgate-street. Until comparatively
modern times, Moorfields was an open space, uniting with the Artillery-ground {see
p. 21) and Bunhill-fields {see p. 75).
MUSEUM, THE BBITI8H. 573
In Finsbury-place was " the Temple of the Muses," built by James Lackington, the celebrated book-
seller, who came to London in 1773 with only lialf-a-crown in his pocket. In 1792 he cleared 5000Z, by
his business; and in 1798 retired witli a large fortune, amassed by dealing in old books, and reprinting
them at a cheap rate. He was succeeded by his cousin George Lackington, Allen, Hughes, Mavor (a
son of the Eev. Dr. Mavor), Harding, and Co. ; and next by Jones and Co., the publishers of London in
the Nineteenth Century. Lackington's " Temple," which was a vast building, was destroyed by fire in
1841.
Moorfields has a sort of ideal association with the notorious " Calves'-Head Club.'*
In a blind alley about Moorfields met the Calves'Sead Club, where an axe hung up in the Club-
room, and was reverenced as a principal symbol in this diabolical sacrament. Their great feast of
Calves* heads was held the 30th of January (the anniversary of the martyrdom of King Charles I.), the
Club being erected " by an impudent set of people, in derision of the day, and defiance of monarchy."
Their bill of fare was a large dish of calves' heads, dressed several ways; a large pike, with a small one
in his mouth, as an emblem of tyranny; and a large cod's head, to represent the person of the King
(Charles I.) singly, as by the calves' heads before they had done him together with all them that suflered
in his cause ; and a boar's head, with an apple in its mouth, to represent the king by this as bestial, as
by the others they had done foolish and tyrannical. After the repast the Eikon Basilike was burnt,
anthems were sung, and the oath was sworn upon Milton's Defensio Populi Anglieani. The company
consisted of Independents and Anabaptists ; Jerry White, formerly chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, said
grace ; and the table-cloth being removed, the Anniversary Anthem, as they impiously called it, was
sung, and a calf's skull filled with wine or other liquor, and then a brimmer went about to the pious
memory of those worthy patriots that had killed the tyrant, &c. (See the Secret History of the Calves »
Head Club, 6th edit. 1706.)
But the whole affair of the Calves'-Head Club was a hoax, kept alive by the pre-
tended Secret History. An accidental riot, following a debauch on one 30th of January,
has been distributed between two successive years, owing to a misapprehension of the
mode of reckoning prevalent in the early part of the last century ; and there is no more
reason for believing in the existence of a Calves'-Head Club in 1734-5 than there is for
believing that it exists in 1867.— (See Cluh Life of London, vol. i. pp. 25-34. 1866.)
Coleman-street, named from its builder, was originally part of the " Lower Walks of
Moorfields :" it gives name to the Ward. In a house in this street were received and
harboured the Five Members accused of treason by Charles I. At the Star tavern, in
Coleman-street, Oliver Cromwell and several of his party occasionally met, as given in
evidence on the trial of Hugh Peters, In a conventicle in Swan-alley, Venner, a wine^
cooper and Millenarian, preached to the soldiers of King Jesus : an insurrection followed,
and Venner was hanged and quartered in Coleman-street, Jan. 19, 1660-61. The
Cambridge carrier put up at the Bell, in Coleman-street, 1637 ; and in Great Bell Yard,
Bloomfield, author of the Farmer's Boy, worked as a shoemaker. Justice Clement, in
Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Rumour, lived in Coleman-street ; and Cowley wrote
a comedy called Cutter of Coleman-street, 1721,
MUSEUM, THE BRITISH,
GREAT Russell-street, Bloomsbury, occupies the site of Montague House, built for
Ralph Montague, first Baron Montague, of Boughton, by Robert Hooke, the cele-
brated mathematician and horologist. Evelyn describes it, in 1679, as " Mr. Montague's
new palace neere Bloomsberry, built somewhat after the French pavilion way," with
ceilings painted by Verrio. On Jan. 19, 1686, it was burnt to the ground, through the
carelessness of a servant " airing some goods by the fire ;" the house being at the time
let by Lord Montague to the Earl of Devonshire. Lady Rachel Russell, in one of her
letters, describes the sparks and flames covering Southampton House and filling the
court. The loss is stated at 40,000Z., besides 6000Z. in plate; and Lord Devonshire's
pictures, hangings, and furniture. The mansion was rebuilt upon the foundations and
burnt walls of the former one, the architect being Peter Puget. La Fosse painted the
ceilings, Rousseau the landscapes and architecture, and Jean Baptiste Monnoyer the
flowers. Lord Montague, who in 1705 was created Marquis of Monthermer and Duke
of Montague, died here in 1709 ; his son resided here until his mansion was completed
at Whitehall. Montague House was built on the plan of a first-class French hotel, of
red brick, with stone dressings, lofty domed centre, and pavilion-like wings. In front
was a spacious court, inclosed with a high wall, within which was an Ionic colonnade,
the principal entrance being in the centre, by the " Montague Great Gate," beneath a
picturesque octangular lantern, with clock and cupola; and at each extremity of the
wall was a square hiutern. The old mansion was removed between 1845 and 1852,
574. CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
when portions of the painted walls and ceilings. La Fosse's deities, and Baptiste's
flowers, were preserved, and sold with the materials.
Montag'ue House and gardens occupied seven acres. In the latter, in 1780, were encamped the
troops stationed to quell the Gordon Riots ; and a print of the period shows the gardens in the rear of
the mansion, laid out in grass terraces, flower-borders, grass-plots, and gravel-walks, where the gay
world resorted on a summer's evening : the back being open to the fields, extending west to Lisson-
green and Paddington ; north to Primrose Hill, Chalk Farm, Hampstcad, and Highgate; and east to
Battlebridge, Islington, St. Pancras, &c. On the side of the garden next Bedford-square was a fine
grove of elm-trees; and the gardens of Bedford House, in Bloomsbury-square, reached to those of the
British Museum, before that house was taken down, and Russell-square and the adjacent streets were
built on its site. (See Field of Fobty Footsteps, page 337.)
The British Museum has been the growth of a century, between the first purchase
for the collection in 1753, and the near completion of the new buildings in 1853, The
Museum originated in a suggestion in the will of Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753), offering
his collection to parliament for 20,000Z., it having cost him 50,000Z. The offer was
accepted; and by an Act (26th George II.) were purchased all Sir Hans Sloane's
*' library of books, drawings, manuscripts, prints, medals, seals, cameos and intaglios,
precious stones, agates, jaspers, vessels of agate and jasper, crystals, mathematical
instruments, pictures," &c. By the same Act was bought, for 10,000Z., the Harleian
Library of MSS. (about 7600 volumes of rolls, charters, &c.) ; to which were added the
Cottonian Library of MSS., and the library of Major Arthur Edwards. (See Libeaeies,
page 519.) By the same Act also was raised by lottery 100,000Z., out of which the
Sloane and Harleian collections were paid for ; 10,250^. to Lord Halifax for Montague
House, and 12,873^. for its repairs j a fund being set apart for the payment of taxes
and salaries of officers. Trustees were elected from persons of rank, station, and literary
attainments ; and the institution was named the British Museum. There had also
been offered Buckingham House, with the gardens and field, for 30,000Z. j and at one
time it was proposed to deposit the Museum in Old Palace-yard, in the place designed
by Kent for new Houses of Parliament. To Montague House were removed the
Harleian collection of MSS. in 1755 ; other collections in 1756 ; and the Museum was
opened to the public January 15, 1759. At first the Museum was divided into three
departments, viz. — Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Natural History ; the increase of
collections soon rendered it necessary to provide additional accommodation for them,
Montague House proving insufficient. The present by George II L of Egyptian
Antiquities, and the purchase of the Hamilton and Townley Antiquities, made it more
imperative to create an additional department — that of Antiquities and Art — to which
were united the Prints and Drawings, as well as the Medals and Coins previously
attached to the Library of Printed Books and Manuscripts. Next, in 1816, was
provided temporary shelter for the Elgin Marbles, this being the last addition to
Montague House.
Wlien, in 1823, the Library collected by George III. was presented to the nation
by George IV., it became necessary to erect a building to receive it. It was then
decided to have an entirely new edifice to contain the whole of the Museum collections,
including the recently acquired Library. Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., tne architect,
accordingly prepared plans. The eastern side of the present structure was completed in
1828, and the Royal Library was then deposited in it. The northern, southern, and
western sides of the building were subsequently erected, Montague House being re-
moved piecemeal as the new buildings progressed, so that the Museum was not closed
for the rebuilding. Mr. Sydney Smirke, in 1846, succeeded his brother. Sir Robert,
as architect to the Museum. The plan consists of a courtyard, flanked east and west
with the official apartments. The main buildings form a quadrangle, upon the ground
of the gardens of Montague House. The architecture throughout the exterior is
Grecian- Ionic. The southern fa9ade consists of the great entrance portico, eight
columns in width, and two intercolumniations in projection ; on either side is an ad-
vancing wing : entire front 370 feet, surrounded by a colonnade of 44 columns, 5 feet at
their lower diameter, and 45 feet high ; height of colonnade from the pavement 64^
feet. At the foot of the portico are 12 stone steps, 120 feet in width, terminating
with pedestals for colossal groups of sculpture. " Since the days of Trajan or Hadrian,
no such stones have been used as those recently employed at the British Museum, where
800 stones, from 5 to 9 tons weight, form the front. Even St. Paul's contains no ap-
imSEUM, TEE BRITISH. 575
proach to these magnitudes." {Frof. CockerelVs Lectures, 1850.) The tympanum of
the pediment is enriched with a group allegorical of the " Progress of Civilization/*
and thus described by the sculptor, Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A, :
"Commencing at the western end or angle of the pediment, Man is represented emerging from a
rude savage stage through the influence of Religion. He is next personified as a hunter and tiller of the
^f +i!'' ^"^ labouring for his subsistence. Patriarchal simplicity then becomes invaded, and the worship
of the true God defiled. Paganism prevails, and becomes diffused by means of the Arts. The worship
of the heavenly bodies, and their supposed influence, led the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and other nations
to study astronomy, typified by the centre statue— the key-stone to the composition. Civilization is now
P'"^"™ed to have made considerable progress. Descending towards the eastern angle of the pediment
^ Mathematics, in allusion to Science being now pursued on known sound principles. The Drama,
Poetry, and Music balance the group of the Fine Arts on the western side, the whole composition ter-
minating with Natural History, in which such subjects or specimens only are represented as could be
made most effective in sculpture." The crocodile is emblematic of the cruelty of man in savage life, the
tortoise of his slow progress to civilization. The figure of Astronomy is 12 feet high, and weighs between
7 and 8 tons. The several figures are executed in Portland-stone, and the decorative accessories are gilt.
The ornamental gates and railing inclosing the courtyard were commenced in model
by Lovati, who died before he had made much progress ; they were completed by Mr.
Thomas and Messrs. Collmann and Davis. The railing — spears painted dark copper,
with the heads gilt, and with an ornamented band — is raised upon a granite curb. In
the centre of the railing is a grand set of carriage-gates and foot-entrances, strengthened
by fluted columns with composite capitals, richly gilt, surmounted by vases. The frieze
is wholly of hammered iron : the remainder of the iron-work is cast from metal moulds,
and was chiefly piece-moulded, in order to obtain relief. The carriage-gates are moved
by a windlass, both sides opening simultaneously. Each half of these gates weighs up-
wards of five tons. The height of the iron-work is 9 feet to the top rail : the length
of the whole palisade is about 800 feet. The metal-work was contracted for by Walker,
of York, and cost nearly 8000Z. Upon the granite gate-piers are to be placed sitting
statues of Bacon and Newton, and upon the two end piers Milton and Shakspeare.
The buildings have altogether cost upwards of 800,000?.
As you stand beneath the portico, the effect is truly majestic, and you are impressed
with the feeling that this is a noble institution of a great country. The principal en-
trance is by a carved oak door, 9 feet 6 inches in width, and 24 feet in height. The
hall is Grecian-Doric. The ceiling, trabeated and deeply coffered, is enriched with
Greek frets and other ornaments in various colours, painted in encaustic. Here are
three marble statues : the Hon. Mrs. Damer, holding a small figure of the Genius of
the Thames ; Shakspeare, by Roubiliac ; and Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., by Chantrey.
The statue of Shakspeare was bequeathed by Garrick to the Museum after the death of
his widow ; the statue of Sir Joseph Banks was presented by his personal friends. Be-
tween these statues is the doorway to the Grenville Library. East of the hall is
the Manuscripts Department; west, the principal staircase (with carved vases of
Huddlestone stone), and a gallery which forms the approach to the Collection of
Antiquities.
To inspect the several collections in the order in which they are described in the official Guide, the
visitor will ascend to the upper floor by the principal staircase, and enter the exhibition rooms of the
Zoological Department. These rooms form part of the southern, the whole of the eastern, and part of
the northern sides of the upper floor. The Minerals and Fossils which are next described, are contained
in the remaining part of the northern side. The Botanical exhibition is displayed in two rooms in the
southern front of the building, which are entered by a doorway on the eastern side of the Central Saloon
in the Zoological Department. Following still the order of the Guide, the visitor will descend the prin-
cipal stairs to the hall, and enter the Department of Antiquities by the doorway near the south-western
angle. The Antiquities occupy the whole of the western parts of the ground floor, several rooms con-
nected therewith on the basement, and the western side of the upper floor. On the lower floor, the eastern
portion of the south front, and part of the east wing, is the Library of Manuscripts. The remainder of
the east side, and the whole of the northern side of the quadrangle, are occupied by the Printed Books.
The entrance to the Grenville room is on the eastern side of the hall, under the clock. In this room
is deposited the splendid library bequeathed to the nation in 1847 by the Eight Hon. Thomas Grenville,
a marble bust of whom, by Comolli, stands in a recess on the southern side. Here, as well as in the Royal
library, are exhibited various printed books, selected to show the progress of the art of printing, with
specimens of ornamental and curious binding. From the Grenville library the visitor proceeds to the
Manuscript Saloon, where selections of manuscripts, charters, autographs, and seals are arranged for
inspection. The visitor next enters the Royal library, and here, besides the printed books already
mentioned, are exhibited some interesting and valuable specimens from the department of prints and
drawings.
The Zoological Collections. — Specimens from the existing classes of Animals
are contained in three Galleries j and are arranged in two series. The Beasts, Birds,
576 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Reptiles, and Fishes are exhibited in the Wall Cases. The hard parts of the Radiated,
Molluscous, and Annulose Animals, (as Shells, Corals, Sea Eggs, Starfish, Crustacea,)
and Insects, and the Eggs of Birds, are arranged in a series in the Table-Cases of the
several Rooms.
The General Collection of Mammals, or Beasts which suckle their young, is arranged
in three Rooms, the Hoofed Beasts ( Ungulata) being contained in the Central Saloon
and Southern Zoological gallery, and the Beasts with claws ( Unguiculata) in the Mam-
malia Saloon.
Central Saloon. — In the Cases the specimens of the Antelopes, Goats, and Sheep ;
and the Bats, or Cheiroptera. Some of the larger Mammalia are placed on the floor,
such as the Giraffes, and the Morse or Walrus. Also, the full-grown male Gorilla, of
the female, and of a young male, from the Gaboon, Equatorial Africa ; horns of Oxen.
Southern Zoological Gallery. — In Cases, the continuation of the collection of the
Hoofed Quadrupeds, as the Oxen, Elands, Deer, Camels, Llamas, Horses, and the va-
rious species of Swine. Here also are placed the species of Armadillo, Manis, and Slotli.
On the Wall Cases are the horns of Antelopes, and on the floor are arranged the dif-
ferent Rhinoceros, Indian Elephant ; a very young African Elephant, remarkable for
the large size of its ears; specimens of the young, half-grown, and adult Hippopotamus,
and the wild Oxen from India and Java. Here is the aurochs, or shaggy-maned
Lithuanian Bison, presented by Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, and said to be the finest
specimen of stuflBng in the Museum. Above the bison of the prairies is the ornitho-
rhyncus, with a bird-like bill, — the water-mole of Australia.
Maonmalia Saloon. — In the Cases are the specimens of Handed, Rapacious, Glirine,
and Pouched Beasts ; over the Cases are the different kinds of Seals, Manatees, and
Porpoises ; and arranged in Table Cases are the general collections of Corals.
^Eastern Zoological Gallery, 300 feet long and 50 feet wide. — The general collection
of Birds ; the collection of Shells of Molluscous animals, and a series of horns of Deer
and Rhinoceros. Here is a Reeves's Chinese pheasant (tail-feathers 5 feet 6 inches
long) J and next the ostriches are a Dutch painting of the extinct dodo, a foot of the
bird supposed to be more than two and a half centuries old, and a cast of the head ;
also, a specimen of the rare apteryx, or wingless bird of New Zealand.
Above the Wall Cases are 116 portraits of sovereigns, statesmen, heroes, travellers, and men of science,
—a few from the Sloanean and Cottonian collections : including two portraits of Oliver Cromwell (one
a copy from an original possessed by a great-grandson of Cromwell ; the other an original presented by
Cromwell himself to Nath. Rich, a colonel in the parliamentary army, and bequeathed to the Museum,
in 1784, by Sir Robert Rich, Bart.) ; three portraits of Mary Queen of Scots, Richard II., Edward III.,
Henry V., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and II., &c.; three portraits of Sir Hans
Sloane ; Peter I. of Russia, Stanislaus Augustus I. of Poland, Charles XII. of Sweden, and Louis XIV. of
France; Lord Bacon; the poets Pope and Prior; Dr. John Ray, the first great English naturalist;
George Buchanan, 1581, on panel; Sir Francis Drake and Captain Dampier; Martin Luther, 1546, on
panel; Gutenberg, the inventor of printing; Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist; Vesalius, by Sir
Antonio More ; Mary Davis, 1688, " aetatis 74," with a horn-like wen on her head; Sir Robert Cotton,
Dr. Birch, Humphrey Wanley, Sir H. Spelman, and Sir W. Dugdale ; Camden, on panel ; Thomas Britton,
the musical small-coal-man ; Andrew Marvell, said to be the only portrait extant of him; &c. This is,
probably, the largest collection of portraits in the kingdom: many are ill-painted, others very curious,
and some unique; the m^ority of them had long lain in the lumber-lofts of the old Museum, when they
were hung up, chiefly at the suggestion of the late Mr. William Smith, of Lisle-street. A very interesting
catalogue raisonnee of these pictures appeared in the Times, Nov. 27 and Dec. 8, 1838.
Northern Zoological Gallery — five rooms : 1. Nests of Birds and Insects ; larger Rep-
tiles ; rarest small Quadrupeds ; the Aye-aye of Madagascar ; 3. British Zoological Col-
lection — the Vertebrated Animals ; the larger species, such as the Whales, Sharks, Tunny,
&c., are suspended on the Walls, or placed on the Cases j the eggs of the Birds ; a series of
British Annulose Animals ; the stuffed exotic Reptiles and Batrachia ; the hard parts of
the Radiated Animals, including the Sea-Eggs, Sea-Stars, and Encrinites ; 4. The stuffed
collection of exotic bony Fish ; select specimens of Annulose Animals ; Insects — Beetles,
Praying Mantis, Walking Stick, and Leaf Insects, White Ants, Wasps and Bees,
Butterflies, Spiders, Crustacea ; 5. The exotic Cartilaginous Fish, such as the voraciouS
Sharks ; the Rays ; the Torpedo or Numb-fish ; Sturgeons ; the saws of various Saw-fish,
and larger Sponges.
North Gallery. — Fossil Remains in six rooms, partly in Zoological order and partly
MUSEUM, TRE BRITISH.
577
•:i
Rkfebekce.
a. Principal staircase.
ZooLOGicAi, Collections.
Central saloon.
Sontliern Zoological gallery.
Mammalia saloon.
Eastern Zoological gallery.
Ladies' cloak room.
N.E. staircase to ground floor.
Northn. Zoological gallery. 1st room
23
"
"
8rd
;•
"
"
4th
5th
MiN-EEALS AlTD FOSSILS.
n.
lloom I.
12.
.. II.
a
.. in,
,. IV.
- North G
allery
15.
» V.
16.
VI.
17. 18. Botanical Eooms.
Bepabtment of Antiquities.
19. N.W. staircase & Egypt, anteroom
-0. First Egypt, room. 21. Second do
-3, First vase room. 23. Second do.
r4. Bronze room.
is. British and Medlseval room.
i:i3. Ethnographical room.
578 GUBI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
in Geological sequence. 1. Plants. 2. Fishes, arranged chiefly after Agassiz. 3.
Eeptilian Remains : Frog, Tortoise, and Crocodile ; the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus j
gigantic Salamander, mistaken for a human skeleton; remains of Iguanodon, 70
feet long, from Tilgate Forest, Sussex ; of the Hylseosaurus, or Wealden lizard; and the
Plesiosaurus ; the Epyornis, extinct wingless bird from Madagascar, remains referred
by Professor Owen to distinct genera, some of which are still living in New Zealand,
whilst others are, most probably, extinct. Amongst the living species may be noticed
the Notornis Mantelli, a very large species of the Rail family. The Dinornis, wing-
less, and gigantic, from 10 to 11 feet in height, Dicynodon from South Africa, with two
larg? descending tusks ; enormous Tortoise from India. 4. Reptilian Remains; birds
and Marsupials. 5. Mammalian Remains : corals, moUusca, nummulites, stone lilies,
sea urchins, worms, insects, Crustacea, trilobites, fossil shells. 6. Edentata and
Pachydermata : skeleton of the Megatherium ; Elephant, and Mastodon ; cast of the
skeleton of the Megatherium Americanum, found in Buenos Ayres; fossil human
skeleton from Guadaloupe, &c. In Saurian Fossils the Museum is eminently rich ; as
well as in gigantic osseous remains ; and impressions of vegetables, fruit, and fish.
Mineral Collection, mostly on Berzelius's system, in four rooms : mass of Meteoric
Iron (14001bs.) from Buenos Ayres ; native Silver from Konsberg ; trunk of a tree con-
verted into semi-opal ; large mass of Websterite from Newhaven ; Tortoise sculptured
in Nephrite, or Jade, from the banks of the Jumna ; Esquimaux knife and harpoon, of
meteoric iron ; a large collection of Meteoric Stones chronologically arranged. Here,
also, are Diamonds of various forms, and models of celebrated diamonds. The collection
is superior to any in Europe, and includes a splendid cabinet of minerals from the Harz
Mountains.
The BoTANiCAii oe Banksian Department contains the Herbaria of Sir Hans
Sloane (336 v( 1 iraes bound in 262) ; the Herbaria of Plukenet and Petiver ; collections
from those of Merret, Cunningham, Hermann, Robart, Bernard de Jussieu, Tournefort,
Scheuchzer, Kamel, Vaillant, Kajmpfer, Catesby, Houston, and Boerhaave ; the Plants
presented to the Royal Society by the Company of Apothecaries from 1722 to 1796, as
rent paid by the Company for the Botanic Garden at Chelsea. Also the Herbarium
of the Baron de Moll ; the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, mostly in cabinets, nearly
30,000 species, including Sir Joseph's collections upon his voyage with Captain Cook,
and the Plants collected in subsequent voyages of discovery ; Loureiro's Plants from
Cochin China ; an extensive series presented by the East India Company ; Egyptian
Plants, presented by Wilkinson, &c. The Flowers and Fruits preserved in spirits, and
the dried Seeds and Fruits, are fine ; as are also the various specimens of Woods.
Departments or Antiquities. — The collections are divided into two series. The
first, consisting of Sculpture, including Inscription and Architectural remains, occupies the
Ground Floor of the South-western and Western portions of the building ; and to this,
division have been added some rooms in the basement — Assyria and other countries.
The second series, placed in a suite of rooms on the Upper Floor, comprehends all the
smaller remains, of whatever nation or period, such as Vases and Terra-cottas, Bronzes,
Coins, and Medals, and articles of personal or domestic use. To the latter division are
attached the Ethnographical specimens. The four principal series of Sculptures are the
Roman, including the mixed class termed Grseco-Roman, the Hellenic, the Assyrian, and
the Egyptian at right angles to the Roman. To the left of the Hall, on entering the
"building, is the Roman Gallery. On the South side are miscellaneous Roman anti-
quities discovered in this country, belonging to British Antiquities. On the opposite
side is the series of Roman Iconographical or portrait Sculptures, whether statues or busts.
In 1864 were added nine statues from the Parnese Palace at Rome, purchased from the ex-king of
Naples, for 4000Z. These statues are : 1. A Mercury, nearly identical in pose and scale with the cele-
brated statue in the Belvedere of the Vatican. 2. An equestrian statue of a Roman Emperor of heroic
size. The head is that of a Caligula, but doubts have been entertained whether it belongs to the body :
this group is in very fine condition, and especially interesting, as being one of the very few equestrian
statues which have been preserved to us from antiquity. 3. The celebrated and unique copy of the
Diadumenos of Polycletus. This figure, engraved in K. O. Miiller's Denkmdler d. a. Kunst, taf. xxxi.
No. 136, represents a Greek athlete binding a diadem round his head, whence the name Diadumenos:
used as a canon of proportions in the ancient schools, and which, at a later period, sold for the enormous
sum of 100 talents, equal to 25,000^, 4. An Apollo playing on the lyre, in the same attitude as the
beautiful statue from Cyrene, in the British Museum, but naked, 6. An heroic figure, possibly a King
of the Macedonian pericl in the character of a Deity. 7. A Satyr holding up a basket in which is au
I
MUSEUM, TRE BRITISH. 579
Amorino. The two remaininsr statues are a group of Mercury and Herse. An interesting notice of
these statues, from the pen of Professor Gerhard, of Berhn, is to be found in Bunsen's great work on
the Topography of Rome.
Also, a bronze lamp found on the site of Julian's palace, probably of a date prior to the Christian era,
and considered to be Greek — a most beautiful work.
British and Anglo-Roman Remains — Tessellated pavements, Roman altars, sarco-
phagi, Roman pigs of lead; tessellated pavements from the Bank of England and
Threadneedle-street and other parts ; Roman mill fragments from Trinity House-square,
and a sarcophagus from Haydon-square.
In 1864, were added 2000 objects, connected with the first or early appearance of
man on this earth, as flint implements, or weapons found in the drift, a section of a
Danish Kjokkenmodding, relics from caves of the South of France, implements of bone,
engraving and sculpture on bone and horn, remains of the Stone Period, bronze im-
plements, celts and arrow-heads, bronze figures of animals, Roman remains — all ex-
tremely interesting to the antiquary and geologist, &c. Also, the Collection of Remains
found in the cavern at Abbeville, with specimens of the cave bones and stones, illus-
trating the Antiquity of Man.
Greco-Roman Rooms. — Statues and bas-reliefs by Greek artists, or from Greek
originals ; busts of mythological, poetical, and historical personages ; statues and busts
of Roman emperors ; architectural and decorative sculptures and bas-reliefs ; sepulchral
monuments, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman; Roman altars; pavement from Carthage;
bas-relief of Jupiter and Leda; the group of Mithra; the Rondini Faun; torso of
Venus, from Richmond House ; bas-relief of the Apotheosis of Homer, cost 1000^. ;
Persepohtan marbles, presented by Sir Gore Ouseley and the Earl of Aberdeen ; a Venus
of the Capitol ; and other high-class marbles from the collections of Sir W. Hamilton,
R. Payne Knight, and Edmund Burke ; including, from the latter, the copy of the
Cupid of Praxiteles, presented by the painter Barry to Burke. Here also are a sarco-
phagus from Sidon, sculptured with combats of Greeks, Amazons, and Centaurs ; and a
magnificent marble tazza 4 feet 3^ inches high, and 3 feet 7 inches diameter.
The Townley Collection of bas-reliefs, vases, statues, and groups, heads and busts,
includes 83 terra-cottas : the famed Discobolus, or Quoit-thrower, in marble, from the
bronze of the sculptor Myron ; Venus, or Dione, the finest Greek statue seen by Canova
in England; Venus Victrix, of the highest style of art; busts of Pallas, Hercules,
Minerva, and Homer ; bust of " Clytie rising from a sunfiower ;" and busts of Greek
poets and philosophers. The Bacchus is finest — so beautiful, self-possessed, and severe j
Bacchus, the mighty conqueror of India — not a drunken boy — but the 'power, not the
victim of wine.
These stores of Greek and Roman art were collected by Mr. Charles Townley, chiefly at Rome, be-
tween 1765 and 1772 ; and were arranged by him at No. 7, Park-street, Westminster, with accompani-
ments so classically correct, that the house resembled the interior of a Roman villa. The dining-room
had walls of scagliola porphyry ; and here were placed the largest and most valuable statues, lighted by
lamps almost to animation. Mr. Townley died in 1805 ; and his collection of marbles and terra-cottas
was purchased by the British Museum for 20,000^., and first exhibited in a gallery built for their recep-
tion in 1808. Mr. Townley's bronzes, coins, gems, drawings, &c., chiefly illustrating the sculptures,
were subsequently purchased by the Museum for 8200Z. A bust of Mr. Townley, by Nollekens, is placed
near the entrance to the Central Saloon. Subsequent acquisitions have been made by the bequest of the
collection of R. Payne Knight, Esq., in 1824, and by various individual purchases and donations.
Lycian Gallery, — Reliefs, tombs, and sarcophagi discovered and brought to England
by Sir Charles Fellows, principally from the ruins of Xanthus, S. W. Asia Minor ;
dating from the earliest Greek period to that of the Byzantine empire, and earlier than
the Parthenon. Model of the Harpy Tomb, with its actual white marble reliefs, pre-
sumed to represesent the daughters of Pandarus carried ofi" by Harpies : the tomb itself
was a square shaft, 80 tons weight. Model of an Ionic peristyle building, with 14
columns and statues ; the friezes representing the conquest of Lycia by the Persians,
and the siege of Xanthus. Tomb of Paiafa : roof resembling an inverted boat, and an
early Gothic arch ; the sides sculptured with combats of warriors on horseback and
foot ; a chariot, sphinxes, &c. Casts from the sculptured Rock-tomb at Myra, with
■bilingual (Greek and Lycian) inscription.
JElgin Rooms. — The Elgin marbles, brought from the Parthenon at Athens by the
Earl of Elgin : some are the work of Phidias himself. (See in this room two models of
the Parthenon, each 12 feet long, made by R. C. Lucas, described in Remarks on the
P P 2
580 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Parthenon by R. C. Lucas, Sculptor; Salisbury, 1844: 1. The temple after the bom-
bardment in 1687 ; 2. The Parthenon restored.) The Metopes from the Frieze (15
originals and 1 cast), representing the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithas, in alto-
relievo : for the original the English Government agent bid 1000?. at the sale of the collec-
tion of the Count de Choiseul Gouffier ; but he was outbid by the Director of the French
Museum, where the metope now is. The Panathenaic Frieze, 524 feet in length, is
probably the largest piece of sculpture ever attempted in Greece : its men, women, and
children, in all costumes and attitudes ; horsemen, charioteers j oxen and other victims
for sacrifice ; images of the gods ; sacred flagons, baskets, &c., — have an astonishing
air of reality. Of the 110 horses, no two are in the same attitude : " they appear,"
says Flaxman, " to live and move, to roll their eyes, to gallop, to prance, and curvet;
the veins of their faces and legs seem distended with circulation." Here are about 326
feet of the Frieze, IQ feet casts, and about 250 feet of the genuine marble which
Phidias put up.
" The British Museum," says Professor Welcker, " possesses in the works of Phidias a treasure with
which nothinpr can be compared in the whole range of ancient art." Flaxman said that these sculptures
were " as perfect representations of nature as it is possible to put into the compass of the marble iu
which they are executed — and nature, too, in its most beautiful form," Chantrey spoke enthusiastically
of " the exquisite judgment with which the artists of these sculptures had modified the style of workinj?
the marble, according to the kind and degree of light which would fall on them when in their places."
Lawrence said that. " after looking at the finest sculptures in Italy, he found the Elgin marbles superior
to any of them." Canova said, in reply to an application made to him respecting their repair or restora-
tion, that " it would be sacrilege in him or any man, to presume to touch them with a chisel."
Pedimental sculptures, placed upon raised stages : East, the birth of Minerva, Hype-
rion, and heads of two of his horses : Theseus, ideal beauty of the first order, the finest
figure in the collection, of which more drawings have been made than all the other
Athenian marbles put together : " the back of the Theseus is the finest thing in the
world." Head of a horse from the chariot of Night, valued at 250/., the finest possible
workmanship. West pediment : Contest between Athena and Poseidon for the naming
of Athens ; the recumbent statue of the river god Ilissus, pronounced by Canova and
Visconti equal to the Theseus : torso, supposed of Cecrops, grand in outline : fragment
of the head and statue of Minerva. Also, a capital and part of a shaft of a Doric
column of the Parthenon, piece of the ceiling, and Ionic shaft, from the Temple of
Erechtheus at Athens, imperfect statue of a youtli, piece of a frieze from the tomb of
Agamemnon, exceedingly ancient : circular altars from Delos, bronze sepulchral urn,
very richly wrought : casts from the Temple of Theseus, the best preserved of all the
ancient Athenian monuments ; the Wingless Victory and the Choragic monument of
Lysicrates ; from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus, a colossal statue of Bacchus,
inferior only to the Phidian sculptures ; Eros (Cupid), discovered by Lord Elgin within
the Acropolis (headless), has in the limbs the grace and elegance of the age of Praxi-
teles ; the Sigean inscription, most ancient Grecian, in the Boustro;pliedon style : — i.e.
the lines read as an ox passes from one furrow to another.
To Haydon must be conceded the genius of instantly appreciating the beauty of the Elgin Marbles ;
yet they were utterly neglected until Canova, on seeing them, declared, " Sans doute, la verity est telle,
les accidents de la chair et les formes sont si vraies et si belles, que ces statues produiront un grand
changement dans les arts. lis renverseront le systeme math^matique des autres antiques." Haydon
soon roused the public interest in the sculptures, and they were purchased by Parliament for 35,000Z.
" You have saved the marbles," Lawrence said to Haydon, " but it will ruin you."— Hay don's Autobio-
graphy, 1853.
Tuesdays and Thursdays in every week, and the whole month of September in every year (when day-
light is usually the steadiest and strongest), are exclusively devoted t& artists and students in the Elgin
and Townley Galleries.
Hellenic Moom. — The Marbles have been brought from Greece and its colonies,
exclusive of Athens and Attica. Bas-rehefs of the battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha,
and the combat of the Greeks and Amazons, from among the ruins of the Temple of
Apollo Epicurius, near Phigaleia ; built by Ictinus, contemporary with Phidias, and
architect of the Parthenon {Pausanias). Their historical value, representing the art
of the Praxitelian period, is scarcely less than that of the Parthenon marbles. In two
model pediments from the eastern and western ends of the Temple of Jupiter Par-
hollenius, in the Island of ^gina, are, west, 10 original statues, representing Greeks
and Trojans contesting for the body of Patroclus ; east, 5 figures, expedition of Hercu-
les and Telamon against Troy, these statues being the only illustration extant of the
J
MUSEUM, THE BBITISR. 581
armour of the heroic ages. In this saloon, also, are the Canning Marbles, or Bodroum
Sculptures, from Bodroum, in Asia Minor, the site of Halicarnassus ; 11 bas-reliefs
(combat of Amazons and Greek warriors), formerly part of the celebrated Mausoleum
erected in honour of Mausolus, King of Caria, by his wife Artemisia, B.C. 353 : it was
one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These, and other sculptures from Bodroum,
were presented by the Sultan to Sir Stratford Canning (whence their name), and by
him to the British Museum.
Assyrian Galleries. — Assyrian Sculptures, collected by Layard : fragments of the
disinterred Assyrian palaces of Nimroud (Nineveh) and Kouyunjik ; cuneiform (arrow-
headed) and other writing ; gypsum or alabaster bas-reliefs that lined the interior walls ;
detached sculptures ; ivories and other ornaments ; winged lions, weighing 15 tons each ;
winged bulls, each 14 feet high ; sculptured slabs of battle-pieces and sieges, combats,
treaties, and triumphs, lion and bull hunts, armies crossing rivers ; winged and eagle-
headed human figures ; religious ceremonies, sculptured obelisks, incription on a bull,
connecting the Assyrian dynasty of Sennacherib with Hezekiah of the Bible ; fragments
of a temple built by Sardanapalus, and a basalt Assyrian statue, closely resembling the
Egyptian style ; costumes, field-sports, and domestic life of 2000 years since. Here
also are a few stones with cuneiform inscriptions, excavated by Mr. Eich from the pre-
sumed site of Nineveh, near Mosul, but previous to Mr. Layard's researches, " a case
scarcely three feet square enclosed all that remained not only of the great city of
Nineveh, but of Babylon itself !" {See Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, Monu-
ments, ^c.) To these has been added a further collection from the same region, exca-
vated in 1853-55, bv Mr. Hormuzd Rassam and Mr. W. K. Loftus, under the direc-
tion of Sir H. C. Rawlinson, K.C.B.
^Egyptian Galleries. — The monuments in this collection constitute on the whole the
most widely extended series in the range of Antiquity, ascending to at least 2000 years
before the Christian sera, and closing with the Mohammadan invasion of Egypt, a.d.
640. The Sculptures (from Thebes, Karnac, Luxor, and Memphis, and 800 in number)
are placed in chronological order, from north to south : in the vestibule, early period ;
northern gallery, 18th dynasty; central saloon, monuments of Rameses IL; and in
the southern gallery, those posterior to that monarch, descending to tlie latest times
of the Roman empire. The Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek Antiquities are thus ex-
hibited in three parallel lines ; a fourth, or transverse line, along the southern extremity
of the others, being appropriated to Roman remains. Among the sculptures from
Egypt are, the celebrated head of Memnon, from Thebes, of first-class Egyptian art.
The head and arm of a king, a statue originally 26 feet high. Amenoph III. seated
on his throne — the great Memnon in miniature. Two colossal red granite lions, couchant,
from Upper Nubia ; fine specimens of Early Egyptian art in animal forms. Breccia
sarcophagus, supposed tomb of Alexander the Great, carved with 21,700 characters.
The Rosetta Stone, black basalt, the most valuable existing relic of Egyptian history,
inscribed in hieroglyphics, the ancient spoken language of Egypt, and in Greek, with
the services of Ptolemy V. Epiphanes : the deciphering of which has afibrded a key to
ChampoUion, Wilkinson, &c. The Tablet of Abydos, giving a chronological succession
of the monarchy. Sepulchral tablets and fragments of tombs ; Egyptian frescoes, painted
perhaps 3000 years ago, yet fresh in colour. Arragonite vases from the fourth dynasty.
Plaster casts taken in Egypt, and coloured after the originals. Here is a statue
of the son of Rameses the Second, about four feet high. He bears a standard on each
side ; it is of most beautiful workmanship, placed near the head of Memnon. It is in a
very good state of preservation, and is a beautiful specimen of Egyptian Art. It is
curious as a lithological specimen, the breccia being formed of the consolidated sand of
the desert, inclosing jasper, chert, and other siliceous pebbles.
JEgyptian Rooms (two), upstairs, contain divinities, and royal personages, and sacred
animals ; sepulchral remains ; and miscellaneous objects, specially illustrative of the
domestic manners of the Egyptians; mostly from the collections of Salt, Sams, and
Wilkinson. Here are mummies and mummy-cases, wooden figures from tombs, bronze
offerings, and porcelain figures ; painted, gilt, stone, bronze, silver, and porceltiin deities ;
figures of the jackal, hippopotamus, baboon, lion, cat, ram, &c. ; a coffin and body from
682 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the third Pyramid; model of an Egyptian house, granary, and yard; furniture, as
tables, stools, chairs, and head-rests, couches and pillows, keys, locks, hinges, holts, and
handles; from the toilet, the black wig and box, caps, aprons, tunics, sandals, shoes,
combs, pins, studs, and cases for eye-lid paint ; vases and lamps, bowls and cups, agri-
cultural implements, warlike weapons, writing and painting implements, working tools,
and weaving looms, toys, and musical instruments. A stand, with a cooked duck and
bread-cakes, from a tomb ; sepulchral tablets, scarabsei, and amulets ; rings, necklaces,
and bracelets, and mummy ornaments. Above the Wall-cases are casts of battle-scenes,
triumphs, and court ceremonies, coloured after the originals, from temples in Nubia.
The Temple Collection, of antiquities, bequeathed to the British Museum in 185&
by the Hon. Sir William Temple, K.C.B. The majority of the specimens belong to
that large region of Lower Italy which, prior to the Roman dominion, was extensively
colonized and highly cultivated by the Greeks, and thence received the name of Magna
Grsecia. They comprehend, therefore, specimens of the arts of three different races—
the Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans.
Vase Sooms (two) contain Etruscan and Graeco-Italian vases, painted from the
myths or popular poetry of the day : classified into Early Italian, Black Etruscan, and
Red Etruscan ware ; varnished ware, mostly early ; Italian vases, of Archaic Greek
style; vases of Transition style, finest Greek, and the Basil icata and latest period.
(Vaux's HandhooJc.) Here are the ancient fictile vases purchased of Sir William
Hamilton in 1772, and then the largest collection known.
The HamiUon Vase, on being examined in 1839 by M. Gerhard, was found to bear the name of each
personage depicted on it ; from which it appears that the myth, or story, is totally distinct from that
assigned to it by M. D'Hancarville, in his schedules of the Vases of the Hamilton collection; thus over-
turning his theory, and reading a strange lesson to virtuosi and antiquaries.
Here also are Greek and Roman terra-cottas, of various epochs and styles. Above the
Wall-cases are painted fac-similes, by Campanari, of entertainments from Etruscan tombs.
The Barherini or Fortland Vase, the property of the Duke of Portland, has been
deposited in the Museum since 1810.
The Portland Foae was found about 1560, in a sarcophagus in a sepulchre under the Monte delGrano,
2^ miles from Rome. It was deposited in the palace of the Barberini family until 1770, when it wa»
purchased by Byres, the antiquary; and sold by him to Sir William Hamilton, of whom it was bought,
for 1800 guineas, by the Duchess of Portland, at the sale of whose property it was bought in by the
family for 1029L The vase is 9| inches high and 7\ inches in diameter, and has two handles. It is of
glass: yet Breval considered it calcedony; Bartoli, sardonyx; Count Tetzi, amethyst; and De la
Ohausse, agate. It is ornamented with white opaque figures upon a dark-blue semi-transparent ground ;
the whole having been originally covered with white enamel, out of which the figures have been cut,
like a cameo. The glass foot is distinct, and is thought to have been cemented on after bones or ashes
had been placed in the vase. The seven figures, each 5 inches high, are said by some to illustrate the
fable of Thaddeus and Theseus ; by Sertoli, Proserpine and Pluto ; by Winckelmann, the nuptials of
Thetis and Peleus ; Darwin, an allegory of Life and Immortality ; others, Orpheus and Eurydice ; Fos-
broke, a marriage, death, and second marriage ; Tetzi, the birth of Alexander Severus, whose cinerary
urn the vase is thought to be ; while Mr, Windus, F.S.A., in a work published 1845, considers the scene
as a love-sick lady consulting Galen. The vase was engraved by Cipriani and Bartolozzi in 1786 : copies
of it were executed by Wedgwood, and sold at 50 guineas each, the model for which cost 500 guineas:
there is a copy in the British and Mediaeval Eoom.
The Portland Vase was exhibited in a small room of the old Museum buildings until
February 7, 1845, when it was wantonly dashed to pieces with a stone by one William
Lloyd ; but the pieces being gathered up, the Vase has been restored by Mr. Doubleday
so beautifully, that a blemish can scarcely be detected. Tlie Vase is now kept in the
Medal Room. A drawing of the fractured pieces is preserved.
Bronze Boom. — Figures of divinities, furniture, mirrors, tripods, candelabra, lamps
and vases, armour, personal ornaments, &c. ; including copper-bronze lions, bronze
remains of a throne, fragments of glass vessels and of armour, discovered by Layard
in Assyria. A large collection of bronze objects from Greece Proper, from Rome and
of the Roman period : and from the sepulchres of ancient Etruria, and the excavations
at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These include fragments of statues; spear-heads,
daggers, helmets, and Roman eagles ; steelyards, amphorae, and tripods ; candelabra,
vases, votive figures, and statuettes ; mirrors and their cases ; the exquisite 798 bronzes
bequeathed by R. Payne Knight ; and the celebrated bronzes of Siris, from the south of
Italy. Miscellaneous Greek and Roman objects, including astragali of crystal, cornelian,
and ivory ; dice, anciently loaded ; tickets for the games ; hair-pins and ivory busts ;
ancient glass vases and paterae ; fragments of cornelian, onyx, and jasper cups, and a
iniSEUM, ts:e] bbitisr. ms
crystal vessel holding gold ; animals in bronze ; styli for writing ; keys, plates, enamel-
work ; Etruscan and Roman fibula3 and finger-rings. Above the Wall-cases are fac-
simile paintings of Games, from tombs at Vida.
British and Mediceval Room, containing antiquities found in Great Britain and
Ireland, and extending from the earliest period to the Norman Conquest ; also. Medieval
objects, English and foreign ; including
Celts ; stone knives, arrow-heads, and hammers: models of Celtic cromlechs, or sepulchres; paint-
ingfs of Plas Newydd and Stonehenge; bronze celts, swords, daggers, spear-heads, helmet, and buckler;
half-baked pottery from British barrows ; fragments of Roman buildings ; Kimmeridge coal-money ; a
Coway stake from the Thames ; Roman service of plate; Roman glass; Saxon brooches, Mediceval:
personal ornaments and weapons ; ivory chessmen and draughtsmen ; paintings from St. Stephen's
Chapel, Westminster; Dr. Dee's crystal ball and wax cakes ; and (from Strawberry Hill) the Show-stone
(cannel coal) into which Dee " used to call his spirits." Here also are tenure and state swords ; Limoges
enamels ; Venetian glass ; Alhambra tiles ; Bow porcelain ; Wedgwood copy of the Portland Vase, and
two superb Chelsea porcelain vases, valued at 300 guineas, presented by Wedgwood.
The Early Christian Collection contains a number of pieces of glass vases with orna-
ments in gold leaf, all discovered in the Catacombs of Home. The subjects on these
are chiefly from the life of our Lord, or antitypes from the Old Testament, such as
Jonah, Moses striking the rock. There are also figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, and
other saints connected with the Early Roman Church. Here is the famous Blacas
Collection of gems and coins, Greek and Roman bronzes, mural painting from Pompeii
and Herculaneum, sepulchral inscriptions and manuscripts, Greek vases, silver toilet
service of a Roman bride, &c., purchased in 1866, for 48,000^.
The Mediceval Collection contains Sculpture and Carving, chiefly in ivory; Paintings,
Metal-work, Matrices of Seals, Enamels, English Pottery, Venetian and German glass,
Italian Majolica, German Stoneware, &c.
The JEthnographical Room contains objects illustrating the religion, arts, and in-
dustry of various countries ; including the model of a moveable Indian temple j a Chinese
bell, captured from a Buddhist temple near Ningpo in 1844 ; a model of Nelson's ship,
the Victory, and a piece of its actual timber with a 401b. shot in it from the battle of
Trafalgar ; a plaster cast of the Shield of Achilles, modelled by Flaxman from the 17th
book of Homer's Iliad ; a colossal gilt figure of the Burmese idol Gaudama ; Chinese
figures of deities, beggars, mandarins, and trinkets; Hindoo deities, measures, vessels,
and arms ; Chinese and Japanese matchlocks, bows and arrows, shoes, mirrors, screens,
and musical instruments ; richly-decorated cloth from Central Africa : a Foulah cloak
from Sierra Leone ; an Ashantee loom, umbrellas, tobacco-pipes, fly-flappers, and sandals ;
terra-cotta Mexican figures (mostly from Bullock's Museum) ; Aztec vases, idols, and
armaments; Peruvian mummies and silver images ; musical instruments, weapons, tools,
ornaments, and costumes, from Guiana, the Marquesas and Sandwich Islands, Tahiti
and the Friendly Isles, New Zealand and Australia, Borneo, New Guinea, the Pelew
Islands, Siam, &c. ; and a tortoise-shell bonnet from the Navigators' Islands.
The Medal Room contains a collection of Coins and Medals superior to that of
Vienna and Florence, if not Paris. The nucleus of the British Museum collection was-
Sir Hans Sloane's coins, worth VOOOZ. as bullion, to which were added Sir Robert Cot-
ton's coins; 6000 medals from the Hamilton collection; the Cracherode coins and
medals, valued at 6000?. ; coins from the Conquest to George III. (Roberts's), pur-
chased for 4000 guineas ; a series of Papal medals, and a collection of Greek coins j
the Townley Greek and Roman coins ; a vast collection of foreign coins, presented by
Miss Banks ; Payne Knight's Greek coins ; Rich's early Arabian, Parthian, and Sas-
saniau coins; medals and coins attached to the library of George IIL; Marsden's-
Oriental coins ; Burnes's Bactrian coins ; and contributions and purchases of finds of
Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Gallic, and early English coins. The collection is arranged in,
1. Ancient coins — Greek in Geographical order, and Roman chronologically. 2. Modern
coins — Anglo-Saxon, English, Anglo-Gallic, Scotch, and Irish, and the coins of foreign
nations, arranged according to countries : the Anglo-Saxon and English series is
complete from Ethelbert I. The great collection, with medals, 7700 specimens,
formerly in the Bank of England. Of Queen Anne's farthings here are seven varieties,
one only of which circulated, the others being pattern-pieces. 3. Medals, including an
almost perfect series of British medals, besides the Papal and Napoleonic medals. Here
is kept a gold snuff-box set with diamonds, and a miniature portrait of Napoleon, who
584 CTTEIOSITIES OF LONDON.
presented it to the Hon. Mrs. Damer, by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum,
on condition that the portrait should never be copievl. Also a gold snuff-box with a
cameo lid, presented by Pope Pius VI. to Xapo:von, and by him bequeathed to Lady
Holland, with a card in Napoleon's handwriting. liere are tiie engraved gems, antique
paste and glass, and gold trinkets, including the breastplate of a British chieftain.
"The coins are a noble collection: here, as in the other departments of the Museum, the solid value
of the collection consists in the equal and complete manner in which it covers the whole area of the
subject-matter ; and in this respect it stands the highest among collections." — Times, 1863.
LiBKAEiES. — The Royal Library and general collection of Printed Books occupy the
east and north sides of the ground-floor and the internal quadrangle. The King's Li-
Irary is deposited in a magnificent hall 300 feet long and 65 feet wide in the centre,
where are four Corinthian columns of polished Peterhead granite 25 feet high, with
Derbyshire alabaster capitals : the door-cases are marble, and the doors oak inlaid with
bronze. This library, the finest and most complete ever formed by a single individual,
is exceedingly rich in early editions of the classics, books from Caxton's press, history
of the States of Europe in their respective languages, in Transactions of Academies,
and grand geograpliical collections, — 80,000 volumes, exclusive of pamphlets : among
the Jesuits' books, purchased in 1768, was the Florence Homer of 1488. Here is one
of the most extensive and interesting collections of maps in Europe. The entire col-
lection cost 130,000Z. ; catalogue, 5 vols, folio.
An interesting Department is that devoted to Books mscribed with Autographs. The rarest of all
these is a copy of Florio's Montaigne's Esaays, printed in 1603, and bearing the autograph of WiDiam
Shakspeare. Here, too, is the autograph of Ben Jonson, in a presentation copy to John Florio of the
first edition of his Volpone, printed in 1607. In other books we find the autographs of Bacon, Michael
Angelo, Calvin, Martin Luther, Philip Melancthon, Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Walter Scott, Voltaire,
&c. In this department are also some curious Proclamations. There is one issued in 1714, ottering
100,OOOZ. for the apprehension of the Pretender, Prince James, should he attempt to land in England.
Another is a Proclamation of Prince Charles Edward, styling himself Prince of Wales, and ottering
30,OOOZ. for the apprehension of George II., who is therein coolly styled the Elector of Hanover, dated
August 22nd, 1745.
The Grenville Library, 20,240 volumes, cost 54,C00?., was bequeathed to the Mu-
seum by the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, whose bust is placed here. Among its
rarities are a Mazarine Latin Bible on vellum, the eai'liest printed Bible, and the
earliest printed book known (supposed Gutenberg and Fust, Mentz, 1455) ; also the
first Psalter, the first book with a date, and earliest printed in colours.
The General Library ranks with the public libraries of Vienna and Berlin, and is
inferior only to those of Munich and Paris. Among the rarities is Coverdale's Bible,
1535, the first complete edition of the Scriptures in English ; The Game and Playe
of the Chesse, the first book printed in English, from Caxton's press, 1474 ; the first
edition of Chaucer's Tales of Canterburye, only two perfect copies known, &c. ;
pamphlets and periodicals of the Civil Wars of Charles I. ; the musical libraries of Sir
John Hawkins and Dr. Burney ; Garrick's old Plays •* Tracts of the Revolutionary
History of France. The Library is very rich in early folios and quartos of Shakspeare :
there are the folios of 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1695. The quartos comprise the unique
Venus and Adonis of 1602 ; the rare second edition of the same poem of 1594 ; the
JRomeo and Juliet of 1597 ; and many others of fabulous value. Books of Divinity
are bound in blue. History in red. Poetry in yellow, and Biography in olive-coloured,
leather. The catalogues of the several collections are in themselves a library. The
catalogue, 7 vols. 1813-19, has been expanded, by interleaving and manuscript entries,
into 67 folio volumes. About 2000^. is expended annually in adding old and foreign
works to the library ; and, under the Copyright Act, 5 and 6 Vic. cap. 48, a copy of
every book, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of music, chart, or plan, published
within her Majesty's dominions, must be delivered to the British Museum.
" The printed book Library is rich in early and rare editions. It boasts that it can challenge tlie best
library of any nation in the world to show a series of the books of any foreign nation that can compare
* The collection of Shakspeare's Plays are for the most part fi-om the collection of David Garrick; and
it is not generally known that he obtained these precious pamphlets — for such they are in form — from
the trustees of the Dulwich Gallery, who, as recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine of that period,
exchanged AUeyne's collection of stage plays for what they thought, in true churchwarden's phrase,
something more useful— viz., some encyclopaedias of the period, and a collection of voyages and travels,
then modern. This fact gives a threefold value to the British Museum collection, as, besides Shaksppare's
plays, the collection exchanged comprised several acting copies of older dramatists belonging to Alleyne
himselfi and used by Mm in performance.
MUSEUM, TEE BBITI8E. 585
with those on the shelves in London. Out of Russia, Hungary, Germany, and France, respectively, there
are no such Russian, Magyar, German, or French libraries as those of the British Museum," — Times,
1863.
The Netcspapers are the largest collection in England. It was commenced by Sir
Hans Sloane ; and to it, in 1813, was added Dr. Burney's collection, purchased for
1000^. ; since which the Commissioners of Stamps have transferred to the Museum
copies of all the stamped newspapers. The oldest in the collection is a Venetian Ga-
zette of the year 1570. Dr. Birch's Historical Collections, No. 4106, contain The
JEnglish Mercurie of July 23, 1588, long believed "the earliest English Newspaper,"
now proved to be a forgery. In Dr. Burney's library is Newes out of Hollandt
May 16, 1619, the earliest newspaper printed in England; and The Neivs of the
Fresent WeeJcy May 23, 1622, the first weekly newspaper in England.
The Reading Room, in the internal quadrangle of the Museum, occupies an area of
48,000 superficial feet. It originated with Mr. Panizzi, who suggested building a flat,
low, circular Reading-room in the quadrangle ; the architect of the Trustees, Mr.
Sydney Smirke, approved of Mr. Panizzi's suggestion, but proposed a dome and glazed
vaulting, to give more air to the readers and a more architectural character to the
interior. This grew, on maturer consideration, into the much larger dome as erected
from Mr. Smirke's drawings, and under his direction as architect. It occupied three
years in construction, and cost about 150,000Z.
The Reading-room is circular. The entire building does not occupy the whole quad-
rangle, there being a clear interval of from 27 to 30 feet all round, to give light and
air to the surrounding buildings, and as a guard against possible destruction by fire
from the outer parts of the Museum. The dome of this reading-room is 140 feet in
diameter, its height being 106 feet. In this dimension of diameter it is only in-
ferior to the Pantheon of Rome by 2 feet ; St. Peter's being only 139 ; Sta. Maria,
in Florence, 139; the tomb of Mahomet, Bejapore, 135; St. Paul's, 112; St. Sophia,
Constantinople, 107, and the Church at Darmstadt, 105. The new reading-room
contains 1,250,000 cubic feet of space ; its " suburbs," or surrounding libraries,
750,000. The building is constructed principally of iron, with brick arches be-
tween the main ribs, supported by 20 iron piers, having a sectional area of 10 super-
ficial feet to each, including the brick casing, or 200 feet in all. This saving of space
by the use of iron is remarkable, the piers of support on which our dome rests only
thus occupying 200 feet, whereas the piers of the Pantheon of Rome fill 7477 feet
of area, and those of the tomb of Mahomet 5593. Upwards of 2000 tons of iron
were employed in the construction. The roof is formed into two separate spherical
and concentric air-chambers, extending over the whole surface; one between the
external covering and brick vaulting, the object being the equalization of tempera-
ture during extremes of heat and cold out-of-doors ; the other chamber, between
the brick vaulting and the internal visible surface, being intended to carry off the
vitiated air from the reading-room. This ventilation is effected through apertures
in the soffites of the windows, and at the top of the dome ; the bad air passing
through outlets around the lantern.
The Reading-Room is world famous, and does not need description or praise, though the ingenious
fire-proof library that surrounds it may be less known, and is, in fact, part of the vast improvement
created by Mr. Panizzi when his Reading-Room was raised. That Reading-Room, with its light and
cheerful dome, is the type of the modern and the comfortable, not to say social, as the venerable chamber
of the Bodleian is of the older, more severe, and more secluded form of public study. The new library
is the most ingenious application of glass and iron to the purposes of economizing space and providing
effective accommodation for and sufficient light to an enormous number of books that was ever invented.
The space between the dome of the reading-room and the walls of the Museum quadrangle is occupied
by a series of parallel wrought-iron bookcases, with passages between them, and a few square courts left
in places. The floors of the passages are formed of iron gratings, and each passage and the adjacent
bookcases are lit from the roof. This vertical light penetrates to the base of the building, through the
successive galleries or passages, that in some places are in tiers one over the other up to three or four
stories. This most ingenious library is calculated to hold from 800,000 to 1,000,000 volumes, and by its
method of construction solves the problem of future extension for the library, even at its present rapid
growth of 20,000 volumes in the year. Calculated to hold the books that may be added for the next forty
years, this new library thus shows how another million of books may after that be accommodated on a
space of about three-quarters of an acre.— Times, 1863. There are twenty-five miles of book-shelves.
The Reading-Koom is open everyday, except on Sundays, on Ash Wednesdays, Good Fridays, Christ-
mas-day, and on any Fast or Thanksgiving days ordered by authority; except also between the 1st and
7th of May. the 1st and 7th of September, and the 1st and 7th of January, inclusive. The hours are from
9 till 7 during May, June, July, and August (except on Saturdays, at 5), and from 9 till 4 during the rest
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of the year. To obtain admission, persons are to send their applications in writing-, specifying their
Christian and surnames, rank or profession, and places of abode, to the principal Librarian ; or, in his
absence, to the Secretary ; or, in his absence, to the senior under-librarian ; who will either immediately
admit such persons, or lay their applications before ttie next meeting of the Trustees. Every person
applying is to produce a recommendation satisfactory to a Trustee or an officer of the establishment.
Applications defective in this respect will not be attended to. Permission will in general be granted for
six months, and at the expiration of this term fresh application is to be made for a renewal. The tickets
given to readers are not transferable, and no person can be admitted without a ticket. Persons under
18 years of age are not admissible.
The persons whose recommendations are accepted are Peers of the realm, Members of Parliament,
Judges, Queen's Counsel, Masters in Chancery or any of the great law-officers of the Crown, any one of
the 48 Trustees of the British Museum, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, rectors of parishes in
the metropolis, principals or heads of colleges, eminent physicians and surgeons, and Royal Academicians,
or any gentleman in superior post to an ordinary clerk in any of the public offices.
Nichols's Handbook for Eeaders, published in 1866, details the regulations and arrangements affect-
ing the use of the room, and describes the plans and scopes of the various catalogues of the printed books
and manuscripts in the National Library.
Mantjsceipts. — The Manuscript Library is the largest, and both in respect to the
intrinsic value of the documents it contains, and to the order in which they are ar-
ranged and kept, is inferior to none in the world : the Cottonian Collection is espe-
cially rich in historical documents from the Saxons to James I. j registries of English
monasteries ; the charters of the Saxon Edgar and King Henry I. to Hyde Abbey,
near Winchester, written in golden letters ; and " the Durham Book,*' a copy of the
Gospels in Latin, written about 800, splendidly illuminated in the style of the Anglo-
Saxons by the monks of Lindisfarne, and believed once to have belonged to the Vene-
rable Bede. The collection is rich also in royal and other original letters. The
Sarleian Collection abounds in geographical and heraldic MSS. ; in visitations of
counties, and English topography ; legal and parliamentary proceedings ; abbey
registers; MSS. of the classics, including one of the earliest known of the Odyssey of
Homer ; in missals, antiphonaries, and other service-books of the Romish Church ; and
in old English poetry. Also two very early copies of the Latin Gospels, written in
golden letters ; splendidly illuminated MSS. ; an extensive mass of Correspondence ;
nearly 300 Bibles and biblical books, in the Chaldaic, Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and
Latin, in Manuscript; nearly 200 volumes of the writings of the Fathers of the
Church ; and works on the arts and sciences. Here is the oldest specimen of a Miracle-
Play in English, of the earlier part of the reign of Edward III. The Sloanean Col'
lection consists chiefly of MSS. on natural history, voyages, travels, and the arts, and
also on medicine. It comprises the chief of Kaempfer's MSS., with the voluminous
medical collection of Sir Theodore Mayerne, and the annals of his practice at the Court
of England from 1611 to 1649 ; also scientific and medical Correspondence, and his-
torical MSS.; the drawings of animals are beautifully rich and accurate : two volumes
on vellum, by Madame Merian, contain the insects of Surinam. The Royal MSS.
contain the collection by our kings, from Richard II. to George II. ; including the
Codex Alexandrinus, in 4 quarto volumes of fine vellum, written, probably, between
A.D. 300 and a.d. 500, and presumed to be the most ancient MS. of the Greek Bible
now extant in uncial character : it was a present from Cyril, patriarch of Constanti-
nople to King Charles I. Other MSS. came into the royal possession at the dis-
solution of the monasteries. Old scholastic divinity abounds in the collection ; and
many of the volumes are superbly illuminated in a succession of periods to the 16th
century. Here also are several of the domestic music-books of Henry VIII. ; and the
Basilicon Doron of James I. in his own handwrithig. The Lansdowne Collection,
purchased in 1807 for 4y25Z., consists of the Burghley and Csesar papers ; the MSS. of
Bishop Kennet ; numerous valuable historical documents ; and about 200 Chinese
drawings. Here are Hardyng's Chronicle, presented by the chronicler to King Henry
VI. ; a copy of the very rare French version of the Bible, upon vellum, translated by
Raoul de Prede for Charles V. of France; also five volumes of Saxon homilies, tran-
scribed by Mr. Elstob and his sister ; and a fac-simile of the Vatican Virgil, made by
Bartoli in 1642. The Sargreave MSS., added in 1813, contain, besides early Law
Reports, an abridgment of equity practice, in 45 volumes, by Sir Thomas Sewell,
Master of the Rolls. The Burney MSS., collected by the Rev. Charles Burney, and
purchased in 1818, consist chiefly of the Greek and Latin classics, including the
Townley Homer, a MS. of the Iliad similar to that of the Odyssey in the Harleiaa
MUSEUM, THE BRITISH. 587
collection (cost 600 guineas) ; also two early MSS. of Greek rhetoricians j a volume of
the mathematical tracts of Pappas ; and a magnificent Greek MS. of Ptolemy's Geo-
graphy, enriched with maps of the 15th century. The Oriental MSS. include the
valuable collection made by Mr. Rich while Consul at Bagdad, and comprising several
Syriac copies of the Scriptures ; also Arabic and Peruvian MSS. of great value, be-
queathed by Mr. J. F. Hull in 1827. Here also are J^f^S'^S'. of French ffistory and
Literature, bequeathed by the Earl of Bridgewater in 1829. The Soward-Arundel
MSS., acquired from the Royal Society in 1831, more than 500 volumes in every branch
of learning. In illuminated works, the Collection in the British Museum is not sur-
passed, in the art of almost every age from the 4th, or certainly the 8th century to the
16th. Even the collection of Paris, or the Vatican itself, is not superior to that in our
Museum, which is the most comprehensive in existence. The Oriental manuscripts are
of inestimable value.
The Ancient Rolls and Charters of the Museum, many thousands in number, partly
from the Cottonian, Harleian, and Sloanean collections, illustrative of English history,
monastic and other property, are separately catalogued.
Magna Charta, if not the original, a copy made when King John's seal was affixed
to it, was acquired by the British Museum with the Cottonian Library. It was nearly
destroyed in the fire at Westminster in 1731 ; the parchment is much shrivelled and
mutilated, and the seal is reduced to an almost shapeless mass of wax. The MS. was
carefully lined and mounted ; and in 1733 an excellent facsimile of it was published
by John Pine, surrounded by inaccurate representations of the armorial ensigns of the
25 barons appointed as securities for the due performance of Magna Charta. An im-
pression of t\i\s facsimile, printed on vellum, with the arms carved and gilded, is placed
opposite the Cottonian original of the Great Charter, which is now secured under glass.
It is about 2 feet square, is written in Latin, and is quite illegible. It is traditionally
stated to have been bought for fourpence, by Sir Robert Cotton, of a tailor, who was
about to cut up the parchment into measures ! But this anecdote, if true, may refer
to another copy of the Charter preserved at the British Museum, in a portfolio of royal
and ecclesiastical instruments, marked Augustus II. art. 106 ; the original Charter
is believed to have been presented to Sir Robert Cotton by Sir Edward Bering, Lieut.-
Governor of Dover Castle ; and to be that referred to in a letter dated May 10, 1630,
extant in the Museum Library, in the volume of Correspondence, Julius C. III. fol. 191.
The Commissioners on the Public Eecords regarded the original of Magna Charta preserved at
Lincoln to be of superior authority to either of those in the British Museum, on account of several
words and sentences being inserted in the body of that Charter, which in the latter are added at the
foot, with reference-marks to the four places where they were to be added. These notes, however, pos-
sibly may prove that one of the Museum Charters was really the first written, to which those important
additions were made immediately previous to the sealing on Runnemede, and therefore the actual
original whence the more perfect transcripts were taken.— Richard Thomson, Author of An Historical
Ussay on the Magna Charta of King John, Sfc, 1829.
In the Museum, also, is the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope Innocent III. receiving
the kingdoms of England and Ireland under his protection, and granting them in fee
to King John and his successors, dated 1214, and reciting King John's charter of
fealty to the Church of Rome, dated 1213. Also, the original Bull, in Latin, of Pope
Leo X. conferring the title of Defender of the Faith upon Henry VIII.
The Donation Manuscripts include Madox's collection for his History of the Ex-
chequer ; Rymer's materials for his Foedera, used and unused j the historical and bio-
graphical MSS. of Dr. Birch; the Decisions of the Judges upon the Claims after the
Great Fire of London in 1666 ,- also Sir William Musgrave's Obituary ; Cole's collec-
tion for a history of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire, and an Athence Cantahrigienses :
besides many Coptic and other ancient MSS. taken from the French in Egypt ;
Ducarel's abstract of the Archiepiscopal Registers at Lambeth Palace ; and a long
series of Calendars of the original rolls from the 1st of Henry VIII. to the 2nd of
James I. Also Linacre's translation of Galen's Methodus Medendi, on spotless
vellum ; the presentation copies of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey : the former
illuminated with the royal arms, the latter with the Cardinal's hat.
Here are — the Bible written by Alcuin for Charlemagne, large folio, 449 leaves of
vellum, said to have occupied 20 years in transcribing, and illuminated. Psalters of
Henry VI. and Henry VIII. ; and Prayer-books of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Eliza-
588 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
beth. The Breviary of Isabella of Castile, 1496-97 ; a profusely adorned specimen of
Flemish and Spanish art. The Bedford Missal, a Book of Hours, written and sump-
tuously illuminated in France for the Eegent, John Duke of Bedford, and his Duchess,
Anne of Burgundy, between 1423 and 1430. MS. of Valerius Maximus, splendidly
illuminated. Original Letters of all the great Reformers; the English Kings; and
Poets and Philosophers. The MS. of " paper-sparing " Pope's Homer, written on the
backs and covers of letters. Three original assignments : Milton's Paradise Lost to
Simmons ; Dryden's Virgil to Tonson ; and Goldsmith's History of JEminent Persons
to Dodsley, Selections from the Rupert and Fairfax correspondence, 1640-49, includ-
ing letters of Charles 1., Charles II., Fairfax, and Hyde (Lord Clarendon). The original
marriage-contract of Charles I. when Prince of Wales. The pocket-book taken from the
Duke of Monmouth after the battle of Sedgmoor, certified in the handwriting of James II.
Papyri.— In. the Egyptian Room is a framed specimen of this style of writing; and
among the MSS. is a Greek papyrus, probably of B.C. 135, containing the translation
of a deed of sale ; and a book of sheets of papyrus sewn together, brought from Egypt,
and bearing a copy in Greek of part of the Psalms of David. Several Egyptian papyri,
written in the hieroglyphical, hieratical, enchorial, or demotic character, framed and
glazed, are arranged in the staircase leading to the Print-Room.
The Peint-Room has only been an independent department since 1837. In 1836
was purchased from the Messrs. Smith, the Dutch and Flemish portions of Mr. Sheep-
shanks' collection for 5000Z. Valuable additions have since been made, and the Print-
Room now contains the most perfect collection known of the works of the Engravers of
the early Italian, German, Dutch, and Flemish Schools. Among the Curiosities are,
in the Early Italian School, an engraved silver plate (a Roman Catholic Pax), by
Maso Finiguerra, 3| inches high by 2| inches wide, sold in 1824 for 300 guineas. An
impression in sulphur, a similar subject, the first step in the discovery in this branch
of printing, cost 250 guineas. Another similar subject, printed on paper, probably the
earliest exemplar known, cost 300 guineas. Specimens of this description are much
more numerous in the British Museum than in all other collections combined. Early
German School : works of F. Van Bocholt (1466), Martin Schoengauer, Israel van
Meeken, Albert Durer (a beautiful series, including some unfinished plates), Lucas van
Leyden, &;c. Dutch and Flemish Schools : works of Rembrandt, worth probably from
15,0O0Z. to 20,000Z. ; the large portrait of the Dutch writing-master Coppenal is
valued at 500 guineas. French School : an admirable series of etchings by the hand
of Claude. Fnglish School : works of Sir Robert Strange and Woollett; prints after
the pictures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, West, and Sir Thomas Lawrence ; 4000 prints
after Stothard.
The Print-Room also contains an excellent representative series illustrative of Mez-
zotint Engraving : specimens by the inventor. Count Siegen, and by its earliest prac-
tisers. Prince Rupert, the Canon Furstemberg, &c., are remarkably fine and numerous.
Also, an extensive series of British Portraits and British Topography. Some thousand
drawings and prints collected and bequeathed by Mr. Crowle, cost upwards of 7000^.,
including some of Turner's earliest drawings. Original Drawings by Raphael, Albert
Durer, Holbein, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke ; and some beautiful designs by Claude,
a portion of his Liber Verifatis. Here are the finest specimens in the world of Ostade
and Backhuysen ; cost 200 guineas each. In an adjoining room is a small selection of
the most capital drawings, framed and glazed. In the Print-Room, also, is a carving
in hone-stone (Birth of John the Baptist) by Albert Durer, dated 1510, a wonderful
cutting in high relief, v^'hich cost 500 guineas ; also, a beautifully chased silver Cup,
attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. The whole contents of the Print- Room are worth
considerably more than 100,000Z. They can only be seen by very few persons at a
time, and by particular permission.
The first Keeper of the Prints was Mr. Alexander, so well known for his Views and Costumes of
China. He was succeeded by Mr. J. T. Smith, the topographer, and author of the amusing Life and
Times of Nollekens. Mr. Young Ottley, the eminent collector, and author of the Early History of En-
graving, was his successor ; and he was followed by Mr. Henry Jozi, to whose energy a large amoiuit
of the present prosperity of this department is due. On his decease in 1845, the post was given to Mr.
Carpenter, F.S.A., Keeper, to whose attainments and kindness all visitors to the Print-Koom will bear
ample testimony. Mr. Carpenter died in 1S65. The present keeper is Mr. G. Eeid.
IfUSEUMS. 589
Here are a few small portraits — viz., Geoffrey Chaucer, 1400, a small whole-length
on panel ; a limning of Frederic III. of Saxony, by L, Cranach, Moiiere, Corneille,
an unknown head by Dobson, — all on panel ; with the portrait of a Pope or Cardinal.
The public are admitted to the collections of Zoology, Minerals, and Antiquities on Monday, Wed-
nesday, Friday (and Saturday from 12 to 5 during May, June, and July), and the whole of Christmas,
Easter, and Whitsun weeks; November, December, January, and February, 10 to 4; September,
October, March, April, 10 to 5 ; May, June, July, and August, 10 to 6 ; closed the first week in January,
May, and September ; and on Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Ash Wednesday; and on any special
Fast or Thanksgiving Days. The Visitors' Book is in the Hall.
A list of Descriptive Catalogues, &c., published by the British Museum is appended to the Synopsis;
with a list of the prices of casts and photographs from ancient marbles, bronzes, &c. in the Museum.
A list of objects added to the several collections in each year is printed in the Parliamentary Eeturn,
usually in April or May.
Beneath the portico of the Museum haTe been set up casts from portions of the
famous Lion, which was erected on the sepulchre of the Ba3otians who fell in the Battle
of Chajronea, B.C. 338 : a mound was raised, and a gigantic lion set up on its
summit : the mound was excavated, and the fragments found are in almost the finest
style of Greek art. This lion is placed close by that Lion of Cnidus, which is thought
to be of earlier date.
Principal Librarian and Secretary, Mr. J. Winter Jones, who succeeded Mr. Panizz
in 1866. Superintendent of Natural History, Professor Kichard Owen.
MUSEUMS.
ADELAIDE GALLERY op Peactical Science (the), Adelaide-street, Strand, was
built by Jacob Perkins, the engineer, and opened by a Society in 1832, for the
exhibition of Models of Inventions, works of Art, and specimens of Novel Manufacture.
Here, in a canal, VO feet long, and containing 6000 gallons of water, were shown
steamboat models, with clock-work machinery ; experimental steam-paddles ; lighthouse
models, &c. Next were exhibited the combustion of the hardest steel ; the compression
of water; a mouse in a diving-bell j steam sugar-mill and gas-cooking apparatus; a
model of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; electro-magnets; a mechanical
trumpet ; a magic bust ; models, from the Temples of Egypt to the Thames Tunnel ;
looms at work; mummy-cloth 2000 years old ; and Carey's Oxy-hydrogen Microscope,
shown on a disc 17 feet diameter ; automatic ship and sea, &c.
Here Perkins's Steam- Gun was exhibited, propelling balls with four times greater force than that of
gunpowder, the steam being raised to from 3G0 to 600 lbs. to the square inch ; and the balls, on reaching
the cast-iron target, fired at a distance of 100 feet, were reduced to the substance of tin-foil. It was
possible to propel 420 balls in a minute, or 25,200 balls in an hour; and the gun was promised to mow
down a regiment in less than ten minutes ! The Duke of Wellington predicted its failure in warfare.
A living Electrical Eel (Gymnotus) was brought here from South America in 1838 ; its length was
40 inches, and it resembled in appearance dark puce and brown plush. Professor Faraday obtained
from it a most intense electric spark ; and by one shock not only was the needle of a galvanometer de-
flected, but chemical action and magnetic induction were obtained. The eel died March 14, 1843. In
1776, a living Gymnotus was exhibited in London, 5s. each visitor.
Anatomical Mtjsettms, mostly from the Continent, are often exhibited in London;
and Anatomical Collections are attached to the Hospitals.
Antiquaeies, Society's, Mtjsettm, Somerset House, contains Egyptian, Greek, and
Etruscan antiquities ; Roman antiquities, mostly found in Britain ; British and Anglo-
Roman remains ; hair of Edward IV., and fragment of his queen's (Elizabeth) coffin j
dagger, &c., found near the site of Sir W. Walworth's residence ; stone-shot from the
Tower moat; brass-gilt spur from Towton battle-field; reputed sword of Cromwell;
Bohemian astronomical clock, 1525 ; presumed Caxton woodcut-block ; matrices of me-
diaeval seals ; decorative tiles found in London ; coins, medals, and provincial tokens ;
Worcester Clothiers' Company's pall, and human skin from the doors of Worcester
Cathedral; West Indian antiquities and curiosities; geological specimens (elephant's
fossil teeth from Pall Mall) ; Portei''s map of London (Charles I.). A synopsis of the
contents of the Museum is presented to the Fellows of the Society.
Among the old pictures area " Greek paynting on wood;" folding Picture of Preaching at Paul's
Cross, and Procession of James I., 1616 ; the Fire of London, from near the Temple ; 26 ancient pictures
(Kerrick's). Portraits of Philip the Good of Burgundy, Henry V. of England, Henry VI., Edward VI.,
Margaret of York, Richard III., Henry VII. (four portraits), Mary of Austria, Ferdinand the Catholic,
Louis XII., Francis I., Queen Mary, William Powlett, Marquis of Winchester {see Catalogue, by G.
590 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON
Scharf). Drawings of ancient mural paintings in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster (see Catalogue,
by A. Way, F.S.A.) ; portraits of distinguished Antiquaries ; the very curious prescriptions ordered for
Charles II. on his deathbed, signed by 16 doctors {Medicomim Chorus), the names, according to court
etiquette, being written at full length; and not, as ordinarily indicated, by initials only. Among " the
Milton Papers" preserved here is the signature of John Bunyan to a memorial to CromweU and the
Council of the Army, dated 1653.
Antiquities, London. — This extensive collection of Eoman and Mediaeval relics,
was formed by Mr. Charles Koach Smith, at 5, Liverpool-street, City. It consists
chiefly of objects illustrative of the domestic and social life and customs of the inhabi-
tants of London in the time of the Romans and during the Middle Ages. In the first
of these divisions are a bronze shield and weapons from the Thames; remarkably fine
bronze statuettes of Apollo and Mercury; a bronze hand of colossal size; a pair of
forceps elaborately decorated with busts of gods and goddesses, and with heads of
animals ; an extensive series of fictile vessels, among which are embossed red bowls and
vases of great beauty and rarity ; wall-paintings from houses, and tiles for conducting
the heated air to the apartments ; flat glass, such as the Romans, or their predecessors,
used for windows ; also other Roman glass. Some of the tiles used in the buildings are
stamped pe. beit. lon., and are remarkable as presenting, perhaps, the earliest example
extant of an abbreviation of the word Londinium, now London. The leather sandals are
rare and curious specimens of Roman costume. Steel styli for writing, personal orna-
ments, and many examples of coloured and ornamented glass, are also worthy of
reference ; while the coins, chiefly from the Thames, include rare types. Of the later
antiquities, the Saxon knives, swords, and spears present some uncommon examples.
There is also a rival to the celebrated Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean Museum at
Oxford, in an ouche, or brooch, of gold filigree work, set with pearls and enclosing a
portrait of a regal personage, or possibly a saint, exquisitely worked in opaque, coloured,
vitreous pastes. This valuable relic, and some Norman bowls in bronze, preserved in
this collection, have been engraved in the Archceologia. Bone skates curiously illustrate
Fitzstephen's account of an old City pastime, as practised on the ice on the site of
Moorfields ; and the cuir houilli, or stamped leather, shows how artistically this useful
material was worked in the Middle Ages. The shoes of the time of Edward III. and
Richard II. are elegant in their ornamentation ; and one is covered with mottoes in
Latin and in Norman French, and with designs of groups of figures. The Pilgrims'
Signs, in lead, form an almost unique series, illustrative of an old religious observance ;
and there are some fine early leaden Tokens of London tradesmen. A few of the
objects have been engraved in the Collectanea Antiqua; and an illustrated Catalogue
of the whole has been printed, for subscribers. The Collection is now in the British
Museum.
Aechjsological Association and Institute. — Neither of these Societies possesses
a Museum of noteworthy specimens. The Institute has presented its principal articles
to the British Museum, for the room of British Antiquities. Each Society, however,
usually assembles a Museum in the city or town wherein is held its annual meeting.
At the Rooms of the Archaeological Institute, 26, Suffolk-street, in 1853, was exhibited the Fejeveray
3f«aeM}ra, illustrative of the history of Art, and consisting of Egyptian remains, purely artistic; Etruscan
Temains, principally in bronze; engraved gems; Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, ancient Persian,
Etruscan, Greek, and Roman remains. The collection comprises also a noble set of Majolica ware, twenty-
five pieces in number, two painted by Giorgio, two others by Santi, and several after designs by
F. Francia; a very curious ease of niello-work, one piece of which belonged to Luigi Sforza, Duke of
Milan; many curious terra-cottas ; some striking Byzantine objects; artistic antiquities illustrative of
art in Hindostan, China, Persia, &c. &c. ; a mass of Celtic objects ; and a rare assemblage of Hun-
garian, Transylvanian, and Sclavic coins.
The British Archceological Association, 32, Sackville-street, Piccadilly, was estab-
lished in 1843 ; and in the same year The Archceological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland, 1, Burlington Gardens. Each Society publishes its journal quarterly. The
Surrey Archceological Society, 8, Danes Inn, Strand, was established in 1853 ; and
The London and Middlesex Archceological Society in 1856, 22, Hart-street, Blooms-
bury. The objects of these several societies are cognate ; each paying special attention
to the locality specified in the title.
Aechitects, Beitish, Royal Institute Museum, No. 9, Conduit-street, con-
tains a series of busts and portraits of architects ; an original statuette in terra-cotta
MUSEUMS. 691
of Inigo Jones, by Rysbraeck ; medals, &c., of Schaclow and Pemer ; examples of Con-
tinental marbles; two flutes of the Parthenon; "growing stone" from Hieropolisj
auriferous quartz fi'om California ; building-stones, including 117 specimens whence was
chosen the stone for the New Palace at Westminster ; casts of ornaments from ancient
and mediaeval buildings ; models of public buildings, roofs, and scaffoldings j apparatus
for painting the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, &c.
Aecuitectueal Museum (the). South Kensington, originated by Mr. G. G. Scott,
F.S.A., was opened in 1853, as an exhibition and study for workmen sketching and
modelling, in connexion with a School of Art for Architectural Workmen. The leading
objects of this Museum are plaster casts of foliage, figures, &c.; casts or impressions of
ancient seals or gems; tracings of stained glass, wall decorations, ornamental pave-
ments, &c. ; rubbings of brasses and incised stones ; specimens or casts of ancient metal-
work and pottery ; photographs, or other faithful drawings ; architectural books, prints,
&c. Here are casts from effigies in our Cathedrals, Westminster Abbey, and a beauti-
ful selection from the Chapter House ; panels from the Baptistery gates at Florence ;
figures and details from the French Cathedrals, casts from Venice, &c. The Museum
is supported by architects, builders, and sculptors; and small subscriptions from
students, carvers, and other artist-workmen.
Aemoueies : — 1. At the Hall of the Armourers and Braziers* Company, Coleman-street,
where is Northcote's well-known picture of the Entry into London of Richard II. and
Bolingbroke ; 2. Artillery Company's Museum {see p. 25).
Asiatic Society (Royal), 5, New Burlington-street. This Museum contains
oriental coins and medals, marbles and inscriptions; armour and weapons, including
Malay and Ceylonese spears, and an entire suit of Persian armour ; Ceylonese jingals,
and Hindoo statues. The public are admitted on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday,
by Members' tickets.
AuTOGEAPHS.— The collections in the metropolis are too numerous for us to detail,
The late Mr. Robert Cole, F.S.A., assembled nearly 200 volumes of MSS. and Original
Letters, including Queen Caroline's : Her Letters to Lady Anne Hamilton ; the draft
of the Queen's Letter to George IV., claiming the right to be crowned with him : the
Narrative of her sojourn on the Continent, from her leaving England to her return as
Queen, the whole autograph, continued by Lady Anne Hamilton to the Queen's death
in 1821. Also, a mass of Letters and Poetry inscribed to the Queen ; and many of
the original Addresses presented at Brandenburgh House, with drafts of the replies,
in Dr. Robert Fellowes's handwriting. Several hundred Letters from ** the Princess
Olive of Cumberland.'* Nell Gwyn : Treasury order for payment of Annuity to Nell ;
her signature E. G. to receipts ; her power of attorney to Eraser, signed E. G., and
witnessed by Thomas Otway, the poet. Nell's apothecary's bill, and many accounts
for silks and satins, hay and corn, ale, spirits, &c., supplied to her. Lewis Paul : his
papers and Cotton-manufacture Patents, granted many years before Arkwright's,
proving that Paul was the original inventor of Cotton-spii.ning Machinery. Regalia
of Charles II. : Papers relating to those made for his coronation. Flora Macdonald :
her only known letter. Nelson : the introduction letter ; the gunner's expense-book
at the battle of St. Vincent, signed by Nelson. The original Jubilee Address of the
Royal Academy to George TIL, signed by all the Members. Also, Letters, &c. of
James Watt and John Rennie, James Barry, &c. This collection has been dispersed
by auction.*
Botanical Society, 20, Bedford-street, Covent Garden, has an extensive herba-
rium, open to members and other botanists, to facilitate the exchange of British and
foreign specimens in forming herbaria.
Beookes's Museum, Blenheim-street, in the rear of 13, Great Marlborough-street
(subsequently Colburn, the publisher's), was a fine anatomical collection of more than
6000 preparations, models, and casts, made by Joshua Brookes, F.R.S., during thirty
♦ Amoug the Dealers in Autographs is Waller, Fleet-street.
1
692 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
years. The greater part was sold in 1828. Brookes was for more than forty years
a distinguished teacher of anatomy, and had 7000 pupils ; yet he died in comparative
poverty, and in despondency at the dispersion of his Museum.
Bullock's Museum. (See Egyptian Hall, p. 320.)
Civil Engineees, Institution op (the), 25, Great George-street, Westminster,
formerly possessed a Museum of models and specimens, which, on the extension of the
library and theatre, were distributed among other scientific societies. At the
annual Conversazione of the President of the Institution is assembled a large collection
of working models of new machinery, works of art, and specimens of manufacture.
In the theatre are portraits of Thomas Telford, and of succeeding Presidents of the
Institution. {See Libeaeies, p. 5l7.)
The Institution of Civil Engineers first met at the King's Head Tavern, Poultry, Jan. 2, 1818; and
was incorporated 1828. Telford bequeathed to the Society a large portion of his library, professional
papers, and drawings ; and a considerable sum of money, the interest to be expended in annual pre-
miums. Mr. Charles Manby, F.R.S., Hon. Secretary.
College of Physicians' (Royal) Museum, Pall Mall East, contains the very
curious preparations which Harvey either made at Padua, or procured from that cele-
brated school of medicine. They consist of six tables or boards, upon which are
spread the different nerves and blood-vessels, carefully dissected out of the body : in
one of them are the semilunar valves of the aorta, which, placed at the origin of the
arteries, must, together with the valves of the veins, have furnished Harvey with the
most conclusive arguments in support of his novel doctrines of the Circulation of the
Blood. Of the Lectures which he read to the College in 1616, the original MSS. are
preserved in the British Museum. The above preparations were presented to the
College, in 1823, by the late Earl of Winchilsea, the direct descendant of Lord
Chancellor Nottingham, who married Harvey's niece, and possessed his property.
Here also is Dr. Matthew Baillie's entire collection of anatomical preparations, mostly
put up by his own hands, and from which his great work on anatomy is illustrated.
Like Harvey, Baillie gave this collection in his lifetime (1819). The preparations were
restored in 1851, by Mr. G. E. Blenkins, whom the College presented with a silver ink-
stand and a purse of fifty guineas. Here also is a gold-headed cane, which had been
successively carried by Drs. Radcliffe, Mead, Askew, Pitcairn, and Baillie, whose arms
are engraved on the head : presented by Mrs. Baillie. Among the MSS. is Bustorum
aliquot ReliquicB, Baldwin Harvey's account of his contemporaries, and the amount of
their fees ; and in the library are Harvey's MS. notes and criticisms upon Aristophanes.
Admission by a Physician's order.
College op Suegeons' (Royal) Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was commenced
with the collection of John Hunter, of specimens in natural history, comparative
anatomy, physiology, and pathology, purchased by the Corporation of Surgeons, and
first opened in 1813 ; greatly enlarged in 1836, and again in 1853. The total number
of specimens is 23,000, of which 10,000 belonged to Hunter's original Museum, the
remainder having since been added. There are elaborate catalogues of the whole : ar-
ranged in " the Physiological Department, or Normal Structures;" and " the Patho-
logical Department, or Abnormal Structures." Besides the anatomical preparations
are the following Curiosities : fossil shell of a gigantic extinct armadillo ; fossil skele-
ton of the mylodon, a large extinct sloth from Buenos Ayres ; skeleton of a hippo-
potamus ; bones of the pelvis, tail, and left hind-leg of the mighty megatherium ;
skeleton (8 ft. high) of Charles O'Brien, the Irish giant, who died in 1783, aged
twenty-two j skeleton (20 in. high) of Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian dwarf, who died
in 1824, aged ten years ; plaster casts of hand of Patrick Cotter, another Irish giant,
8 ft. 7 in. high; and hand of M. Louis, a French giant, 7 ft. 4 in. high; glove of
O'Brien ; plaster casts of bones of the extinct bird, the dinornis giganteus of New
Zealand, which must have stood 10 ft. high ; skeleton of the gigantic extinct deer, ex-
humed from beneath a peat-bog near Limerick (span of antlers, 8 ft. ; length of antler,
7 ft. 3 in. ; height of skull, 7 ft. 6 in.) ; great penguin from the southernmost point
touched by Sir James Ross; skeleton of the giraffe; skeleton of the Indian elephant
MUSEUMS. 593
Chunee, purchased for 900 guineas, in 1810, to appear in processions on Covent Garden
Theatre stage, and subsequently sold to Mr. Cross at Exeter Change, where it was
shot in 1826, during an annual paroxysm, aggravated by inflammation of one of the
tusks, but not killed until it had received more than 100 bullets (see Hone's Every-
day Bool;, vol. i.) : the skeleton was sold for 100 guineas : the head is 13 ft. fi-om the
ground; the bones weighed 876 lbs., the skin 17 cwt. Plaster cast of a young
negro, and a bust of John Hunter, by Flaxman ; skeleton of a man who died from
water on the braii), skull 48 in. in circumference ; skulls of a double-headed child,
born in Bengal, who lived to be four years old, when it was killed by the bite of a
cobra di capello : the skulls are united by their crowns, the upper head being in-
verted ; it had four eyes, which moved in diflerent directions at the same time, and
the superior eyelids never thoroughly closed, even when the child was asleep. Skeleton,
whose joints are anchylosed, or rendered immovable, by unnatural splints of bone
growing out in all directions. " The shaft case :" the chest of a man impaled by the
shaft of a chaise, the first tug-hook also penetrating the chest, and wounding the left
lung ; the patient recovered, and survived the injury eleven years : the preparation of
the chest is side by side with the shaft. Iron pivot of a try-sail, which, in the London
Docks, Feb. 26, 1831, was driven through the body of John Taylor, a seaman, and
passed obliquely through the heart and left lung, pinning him to the deck ; the try-
sail mast 39 ft. long, and 600 lbs. weight : Taylor was carried to the London Hospital,
where he recovered in five months, so as to walk from the hospital to the College and
back again, and he ultimately returned to his duties as a seaman. Wax cast of the
baud uniting the bodies of the Siamese twins. Among the mummies is the first wife
of the noted Martin van Butchell; and a female who died of consumption in 1775, the
vessels and viscera injected with camphor and turpentine. Also a sitting mummy,
supposed of a Peruvian nobleman, who immolated himself with his wife and child
some centuries ago. Since 1835, Professor Owen, F.R.S., has been Conservator of
the Museum, and the catalogues have been prepared by him. Here are :
Twelve wax models of the anatomy of the Cramp-fish {Torpedo galvanii), presented by Professor Owen.
Fossil Bones of the Dmornis, or extinct gigantic wingless Bird of New Zealand (tibia3feetinleng-th).
Coloured casts of the Eggs of the gigantic extinct Bird of Madagascar (£;?yomis), supposed the
original Roc of Arabian romance. Oiie e^s contains the matter of 12 ostrich-eggs, 140 hen's-eggs, and
10,000 humming-bird's eggs.
Skeleton of the Skulls of the great Chimpanzee {Troglodytes gorilla). This animal is upwards of
5 feet high, of prodigious muscular strength, and much dreaded by the Negroes of the West coast of
Tropical Africa.
A series of prepared Skulls of different classes of Animals, illustrative of Professor Owen's "Arche-
type of the Vertebrate Skeleton."
Skeleton of male Boschman (diminutive Hottentot) ; and plaster casts of the male and female,
from life.
Here, too, are some preparations similar to those of Harvey in the College of
Physicians ; they originally belonged to the Museum of the Royal Society, kept at
Gresham College, and were the gift of John Evelyn, who bought them at Padua,
where he saw them taken out of the body of a man, and very curiously spread
npon four large tables : they were the work of Fabritius Bartoletus, then Veslin-
gius's assistant. The Council of the College of Surgeons has presented to all the
recognised provincial hospitals possessing libraries sets of the valuable illustrated
catalogues of the Museum, of the collective value of 690?. The metropolitan Hospitals,
and many learned and scientific societies both at home and abroad, had previously
experienced a similar act of collegiate liberality.
The Museum is open to Fellows and Members of the College, and to visitors introduced by them,
or by written orders (not transferable), on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from twelve
to four o'clock; on Fridays it is open only for the purposes of study. The arrangements for the ad-
mission of learned and scientific foreigners, state-officers, church and law dignitaries, and members of
scientific bodies, are liberal and judicious.
CoEPOEATiON Museum, Guildhall, contains the relics of Roman London discovered
in excavating for the foundation of the Royal Exchange, ai-ranged by Mr. Tite,
F.R.S. : 1. Pottery and glass : moulded articles, bricks and tiles ; jars, urns, vases,
amphorae ; terra-cotta lamps ; Samian ware ; potters' marks ; glass. 2. Writing
materials : tablets, and styles in iron, brass, bone, and wood. 3. Miscellaneous : do-
mestic articles ; artificers' tools ; leather manufactures. 4. Coins, of copper, yellow
brass, silver, and silver-plated brass, of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian,
Q Q
694 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Domitian, &c. ; Henry IV. of England, Elizabeth, &c. ; foreign, Flemish, German,
Prussian, Danish, Dutch. 5. Horns, shells, bones, and vegetable remains. 6. An-
tiquities and articles of later date. The Catalogue, printed for the Corporation in
1846, is scarce. Here, also, is the City charter (William I.) : the Shakspeare deed of
sale,* &c. (See Libeaeies, pp. 518, 519.)
Here is a Cabinet of the London Traders', Tavern, and Coffeehouse Tokens current
in the l7th century, presented to the Corporation Library by Henry Benjamin
Hanbury Beaufoy, citizen and distiller. They consist of Tokens of iron, lead, tin, brass,
copper, and leather, and 9 Royal (Copper) Farthing Tokens ; in all 1174. The Leaden
Tokens were issued anterior to 1649, and the others from 1649 till 1672, by traders of
the City, as small change and advertisement ; each Token generally bearing the name,
residence, and sign of the house ; the index of them being a record of the olden topo-
graphy and history of London, and a Key to streets and localities long lost. Here is
the Token struck by Farr, of the Eainbow Coffee-house, Fleet-street, which escaped the
Great Fire of 1666 ; and the Tokens of the Turk's Head, in Change-alley ; and the
Soar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap. A Descriptive Catalogue of these Tokens, with
historical notes, ably edited by Jacob Henry Burn, was printed for the Corporation
in 1853 ; and enlarged and reprinted in 1855.
CoTTiNG-HAM MusEUM, 43, Waterloo-road, Lambeth, collected by the late S. N".
Cottingham, F.S.A., architect, contained about 31,000 specimens of Domestic and
Ecclesiastical Architecture, Sculpture, and Furniture ; a complete series of studies
from the Norman period to the close of the reign of Elizabeth. Here was an Eliza-
bethan ante-room and parlour, with a pair of enamelled fire-dogs, once Sir Thomas
More's ; a ceiling from Bishop Bonner's Palace, Lambeth ; busts of Elizabeth, Mary
Queen of Scots, Raleigh, and Burghley j ebony table from Norwich ; Queen Anne
Boleyn's sofa, from the Tower ; a gallery and a ceiling from the council-chamber of
Crosby Place, temp. Richard II. {see p. 298); perforated Spanish brass lantern-
chandelier, temp. Henry VII. ; Spanish pattern lantern, date 1600 ; fireplace from the
Star-chamber, Westminster ; figures of saints and bishops, and busts of English
monarchs ; Flemish oak screen (1490), carved with the history of our Lord, and
figures in niches, richly painted and gilt j a reliquary, sixteenth century, painted and
carved; cabinet with ceiling (Henry VII.), and Decorated window painted with
Henry VII. and his queen j models and casts of tombs of the children of Edward III.,
William of Windsor, and Blanche de la Tour ; a gallery with ceiling, Henry VI. ; oak
panelling from the palace of Layer Marney, Essex ; fac-simile of doorway, Rochester
Cathedral -, altar and altar-piece, with canopied figures ,• ancient stall-seats (thirteenth
century) ; throne, and figures ; grand figiires of the Virgin, Mary Magdalen, &c. ;
splendid fac-similes of lofty tombs, with recumbent effigies j seven rooms filled with
models and casts j branches, with prickets for candles, temp. Henry V.; supposed
canopy of Chaucer's tomb ; marble keystone mask from Pompeii ; cast from the Strat-
ford bust of Shakspeare ; fragments from Hever castle, St. Katherine's-at-the-Tower,
the palace and abbey at Westminster, &c. ; processional cross from Glastonbury Abbey,
&c. The collection, sold by auction in 2205 lots, Nov. 1851, produced but 2009Z. 13*. Qd.,
being depreciated at least fifty per cent, by this dispersion. The collection is well
described in an illustrated Catalogue, by Henry Shaw, F.S.A.
Cox's MuSETJM, Spring Gardens, formed by James Cox, jeweller, consisted
of several magnificent pieces of mechanism and jewelled ornaments : the tickets were
a quarter-guinea each : the collection was disposed of by lottery, by Act of Parlia-
* The most important fact of the town property of Shakspeare is that first pointed out by Mr.
Halliwell in his 8vo Life of the Poet— viz, that the house purchased by him of Henry Walker, in March
1612-13, and the counterpart of the conveyance of which is preserved in the Guildhall Library, with.
Shakspeare's signature attached, and which is described there as "abutting upon a streete leading'
doune to Pudle Wharfe (Blackfriers) in the east part right against the Kinges Majesties Wardrobe,"
18 still identified, or rather sheltered, in the churchyard of St. Andrew's there. The very house was,
most probably, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 ; but the house stands on its proper spot ; and until
within these few years, it had been tenanted by the Robinson family, to whom Shakspeare leased it.
Close behind this house, in Great Carter-lane, stood the Old Bell Inn, mentioned in a letter addressed
to Shakspeare (see p. 452) ; and the poet was probably often in this house, the site of which was
noted, after the destruction of the original building, by a richly-sculptured hell, dated 1687, and sub-
sequently afiaxed to the front of a house in Great Carter-lane, on the north side.
MUSEUMS. 69&
ment, in 1774 ; the schedule contains a descriptive inventory. Walpole mentions
" the immortal lines on Cox's Museum ;" and Sheridan, in the Rivals, " the bull ia
Cox's Museum." At its dispersion, some articles were added to Weeks's Museuia
{See p. 606.)
Cfmingian Musettm, 80, Gower-street, Bedford-square, collected by Mr. Hugh
Cuming, contains upwards of 124,000 species and varieties, including 68,000 specimens
of Shells ; besides Genera in spirits, with the animals carefully preserved ; from Pata-
gonia, Chili, Peru, Columbia, Central America, the Gallapagos Islands, Sumatra, the
Malayan Peninsula, Java, the Philippines, and the South Pacific Islands.
In the luxuriant forests, on the arid plains, the mountain-sides, the sheltered bays and rocl?y shores
of these countries, and by exploring the floor of the ocean, species of Mollusca, hitherto imperfectly
known, were found in abundance, and numerous forms were discovered entirely new to science ; entitling-
Mr. Cuming to rank with Sloane, Hunter, and Montague. The collection has been sold to the British
Museum.
Daniel, Geoege, Museum and Libeaet of, Canonbnry-square, dispersed by-
auction in July, 1864, the sale occupying ten days.
Among the gems was a collection of 70 black-letter ballads, 1559-1597, which brought 7501. Mun-
day's Banquet of Daintie Conceits, 1588, the only known copy, 2501. Joe Miller's Jests, 1st edition, ex-
tremely rare. On the Shakspeare day, a copy of Shakspeare's Sonnets, one of only two perfect copies
known with the same imprint, which cost Narcissus Luttrell one shilling, was knocked down for
215 guineas! Separate plays of Shakspeare, original editions, produced more than 300 guineas each:
the " first folio," bought for Miss Burdett Coutts at 682 guineas. Among the Tokens was that of the
Soar's Head, said to be unique; and the Mermaid Tavern, rare. There were many original drawings,
engraved portraits, and curious examples of art and virtu. Among the portraits were Betterton,
SuUock, and Barton Booth ; the very rare mezzotint of George Harris as Cardinal Wolsey ; Miss Norsa,
painted and engraved by Bernard Lens, exceedingly rare ; and Shuter, as he spoke Joe Haynes's epilogue,
mounted on an ass. Among the oil-paintings were an old portrait of Shakspeare, bought at the sale of
Mr. Symes's effects, at old Canonbury Tower, and a whole length of Napoleon I., taken from life by
Barlow while on board the Bellerophon. Among the memorials was an octagonal casket, with conical
lid, surmounted by the bust of Shakspeare, carved by Sharp from the famed mulberi'y-tree, with vine-
leaves and grapes within ornamented arches, formerly in the possession of Garrick. With this relic was
allotted Garrick's cane, malacca, gold-mounted, presented by Garrick to King the actor, and which he
■used as a stage dress cane in Lord Ogleby, &c. King gave this cane to John Bannister, who gave it ta
John Pritt Harley, at the sale of whose effects, in 1858, it was purchased by Mr. Daniel. A crucifix in
hard wood, exquisitely carved, it was said, by Cellini, and the plinth by Gibbons, brought thirty guineas ;
and the double cup, in silver, from the Strawberry Hill Collection, was sold for 60Z.
Entomological Society's Museum, 12, Bedford-row, Holborn: a collection of
insects, commenced with Mr. Kirby's specimens, from which the first of monographs
ever published was formed. (Kirby and Spence's Introduction.) Here is also a library
of reference on Entomology.
Geology, Peactical, Museum of, Nos. 28 to 32, Jermyn-street, originated in at
suggestion by Sir H. De la Beche, C.B., in 1835, for the collection of geological and
mineralogical specimens during the progress of the Geological Survey of the United
Kingdom. The collections were first exhibited in a house in Craig's-court, Charing
Cross; but becoming too extensive for this accommodation, the present handsome
edifice was erected, with entrance in Jermyn-street, and frontage in Piccadilly : Penue-
thorne, architect ; style, Italian palaazo.
In the lower hall is a collection of British building and ornamental stones — sand-
stones, oolites, limestones, granites, and porphyries, in six-inch cubes. The entrance is;
lined with Derbyshire alabaster j and the hall has pilasters of granite from Scotland,
serpentine from Ireland, and limestones from Devonshire, Derbyshire, &c. On one side is
an elaborate screen, with Cornish serpentine pilasters and cornice; and Irish serpentine-
panels, framed with Derbyshire productions. Here is a large copy of an Etruscan
vase cut in Aberdeen granite ; and on the floors are a very fine tessellated pavement of
Cornish clay, and examples of encaustic tiles ; pedestals of British marbles support
vases and statuettes of artificial stone, cement, &c.
The principal floor has an apartment 95 feet by 55 feet, with an iron roof, glazed
with rough plate-glass. Around run two light galleries. Here are specimens of iron,
copper, tin, lead, manganese, antimony, cobalt, &c., of the United Kingdom and the
colonies j also a good collection of similar ores from the most important metalliferous
countries of the world. The processes of raising these from the mines are illustrated
by an extensive series of models, with the modes of dressing the ores for the market, and
the final production of the metal ; mining tools, safety -lamps, &c. ; including models
of Taylor's Cornish pumping-engine, the water-pressure engine, the turbine and other-
Q Q2
596 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON.
wheels, and a beautiful set of valves. The models of mines can be dissected, and the
mode of working shown ; with the machines for lowering and raising the miners,
models of stamping and crushing engines, and iron-smelting by the hot and cold blast.
Here, also, are tools of the Cornish, German, Russian, and Mexican miners.
The history of the metals may also be read in a collection of bronzes and brasses, and
gold and silver ornaments ; examples of metal casting and steel maimfacture are shown ;
as are also metal statuettes, electrotype deposits, and illustrations of electro-plating and
gilding, and photographic processes. Here is also a large and valuable collection of
ancient glass, in beads, bottles, jugs, &c., historically arranged : the old Venetian glass
is exceedingly curious. The processes of enamelling are illustrated; and here are
specimens of fine Limoges, modern works, and Chinese enamels. Next is a collection
of Roman pottery. The China clays, China stone, and other raw materials of earthen-
ware and porcelain, are shown ; and here is a complete series of the wares of the
Staffordshire potteries ; also, specimens of those of Derby, Worcester, Swansea, Chelsea,
Bow, and other districts, in comparison with the earthenware of the ancients, the
ceramic manufactures of Italy, Germany, France, and the Orientals.
In the galleries round the large room is a very complete collection of British fossils,
arranged in the order of their occurrence and labelled, so that a collector may compare
and identify any specimen he may find.
Attached to the Museum is the Mining Records Office, in which are collected plans
and sections of existing and abandoned mines. Here also are a Library, and a Lecture-
theatre with 580 sittings. Lastly are well-fitted Laboratories, communicating by a
hydraulic lift with a fire-proof room in the basement-story, containing an assay-furnace.
The collections are open to the public gratuitously on the first three days of the week ;
and on the other three days to the students of the Royal School of Mines, &c.
Geoloqical Society's Museum, Somerset House, is rich in the original types of
fossils described in the Geological Transactions. The collection contains a series of
British fossils and rocks, arranged stratigraphically ; likewise, an assemblage of selected
minerals, and a foreign collection geographically arranged. The Society possesses also
a fine library of works upon geological science.
Geoiogical : Me. J. S. Boweebank's Collection, 3, Highbury-grove, Islington,
consisting more especially of British fossils stratigraphically arranged ; and particularly
I'ich in the crag, London clay, and chalk formations ; the whole occupying 400 drawers.
Also the most extensive collection of British and foreign Sponges in Europe, consisting
of many hundred species from Australia, Africa, the West Indies, &c.
Guiana Exhibition, 209, Regent-street (Cosmorama), was a Museum of objects
illustrative of the ethnography and natural history of British Guiana, collected by Mr.
(afterwards Sir) H. Robert Schomburgk, and exhibited in 1840. The saloon was fitted
up as a Guianese hut ; and here were three living natives, part of Schomburgk's boat's
crew, in their picturesque costumes. Besides collections of mammalia, birds, reptiles,
fishes, mollusca, and insects, specimens in osteology, geology, &c., here was a painting
of the Victoria Regia lily ; Guianese furniture, clothing, and other manufactures ;
poisoned arrows and blowpipe ; a native hammock and bark shirt ; the boa, puma, and
ant-eater j splendid rock manakins and humming-birds, &c. The three natives, wearing
only waistcloths, and jaguar-skin cloaks, and teeth necklaces, and feather-caps, and
their skins painted and tattooed, exhibited their blowpipe shooting and dances, which
were very attractive.
At the Cosmorama was revived, in 1839, the "Invisible Girl" of some thirty years previously, the
invention of M. Charles, and detailed by Sir David Brewster in his Natural Magic. The poet Moore
inscribed, with exquisite fancy, "Lines to the Invisible Girl." The invention " consisted of an appa-
ratus with trumpets, communicating by a pipe beneath the floor of the room to an apartment in which
sat a lady, who, through a small hole in the partition, saw what was going on in the exhibition-room,
and answered through the tube accordingly; the sound losing so much of its force in its passage, as to
appear hke the voice of a girl."
Hospitals, the principal, possess Anatomical Museums.
Hudson's Bay Company's Hocise, Fenchurch-street, possessed many years since a
Museum of stuffed Birds, and other objects of natural history from Rupert's Land ; the
IIU8EUM8. 697
greater portion of which has been presented to the British Museum and the Zoological
Society.
Huntee's (William) MusErai was collected at his large house on the east side of
Great Windmill-street, Haymarket. Hunter employed many years in the anatomical
preparations and in the dissections ; besides making additions by purchase from the
museums of Sandys, Falconer, Blackall, and others. Here was a sumptuous library
of Greek and Latin classics ; and a very rare cabinet of ancient medals, besides coins,
purchased at 20,OOOZ. expense. Minerals, shells, and other specimens of natural history
were gradually added to this Museum, which hence became one of the Curiosities of
Europe. The cost of the whole exceeded VO,OOOZ. ; it was bequeathed by Hunter to
the University of Glasgow, with 8000Z. to support and augment the whole.
India Mttseum, Fife House, Whitehall-yard, formerly the residence of the Earl
of Liverpool. This collection was re-arranged in 1858, and has been removed from
the East India House, as above. In the old Museum, so long one of the sights of
London, trophies of war were the most conspicuous objects, and the specimens of
natural history and rare literary treasures were secondary attractions compared with
the silver elephant-howdah and the tiger-organ of Tippoo Sahib. The new collection
contains some monumental and artistic records of the progress of British empire in the
East, but its principal object is to illustrate the productive resources of India, and to
give information about the life and manners, the arts and industry, of its inhabitants.
Here are models and groups of figures representing the varieties of race, caste, dress, occupation,
worship, and everything belonging to the public or the domestic life of the people of India: specimens
of their agricultural implements, manufacturing tools, and rude machinery; of their conveyances by
land and water, of their household furniture and their musical instruments. There is a model of a
Sepoy encampment, the huts with their bamboo framework supporting the walls of Durmah matting,
topped by a heavy roof of straw thatch ; a model, also, of a kutcherrie, or law-court. In the industrial
portion are shown Calcutta and Madras leather; specimens of paper made from jute fibre and plantain
leaf; matwork; metalwork, as — bangles, rings, bracelets, brooches, tassel knots for dresses, hookah
mouthpieces ; Triehinopoly filigree work ; from the Bengal presidency a superb necklace of gold set
with pearls and emeralds ; a gold bracelet thickly set with pearls and diamonds ; a necklace of emeralds,
pearls, and rubies; a bracelet of three rows of large diamonds, about 90 in number; and a number of
curiously formed gold and silver spice boxes. Portrait of Eunjeet Singh, sitting at his Durbar : round
his neck is a string of 280 pearls, said to be the largest and most valuable in the world; (now in the
possession of her Majesty). His head-dress is a perfect mass of rubies and emeralds, while on his arms
is a cluster of armlets of jewels, one a noble emerald. Here are enormous silver chains of great weight
and such strength as to carry the heavy arms and accoutrements of the hill tribes of Thibet, with native
charm rings and rough-looking bracelets. Also, turquoises of the largest size and purest water, uncut
and unpolished, found amid the mountains of Thibet. Specimens of carved woodwork, the inlaid work
of wood, metal, and ivory, and the lackered work of Lahore, Bareilly, and Scinde ; metal works and
brass wares from Madras, Travancore, Darjheeling, Delhi, and Benares. The formidable knives of
the Ghoorkas, the long matchlocks of the men of Oude, the shields and spears of the Santals, the keen-
eds:ed swords of the Rajpoots, and the camel guns of the old Mahrattas. Here, too, is actually a re-
volver musket at least 60 years old, which at once disposes of the claims of both Colt and Adams to
originality even of construction. Tliis revolver, we believe, was taken by Sir David Baird at the storm-
ing of Seringapatam. Among the costumes are dresses embroidered with beetles, &c. Here are marble
statues of Wellington, Clive, and Hastings; pictures; models of Indian craft; antelopes, stags, leopards,
and other large stuffed animals. A fine collection of the Elliot marbles, from the ruins of Amrawutti.
The Museum is open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 10 to 4, free.
King's College Museum, Strand, consists of the collection formed at the Kew
Observatory by King George III., and of a cabinet of natural history specimens from
Kew Palace ; presented to the College in 1843, and known as " George the Third's
Museum." Here are the celebrated " Boyle models," and " forty-one brass plates,
engraved with astronomical, astrological, and mathematical delineations;" a large
orrery, date 1733 ; an armillary sphere, 1731 ; apparatus made for Desaguliers' lectures;
a rude model of Watt's steam-engine ; Attwood's large arch of polished brass voussoirs,
&c. There have been added Wheatstone's speaking-machine ; a model, fifteen feet
long, of the celebrated SchafFhausen timber bridge; a bust of Queen Victoria, by
Weekes ; and a statuette of George III., by Turnerelli. The collection also includes
small philosophical apparatus, entomological specimens, fossils, minerals, &c. Here
also is a portion of Mr. Babbage's Calculating Machine, which has succeeded in printing
mathematical and astronomical tables. At the College is likewise an Anatomical
Museum, a Cabinet of Natural History ; and a Chemical Theatre, with a Daniell constant
battery of great power.
The College possesses a beautifully-illuminated MS. containing the Statutes of the Order of the
Gaiter; a drawing of the House of Lords, temp. Edward I.: and the Statutes in more elegant LatiOj
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
corrected in the handwriting of King Edward VI^ superbly emblazoned with arms, &c. The Museum
■can be seen by the Curator's order.
Leveeian Museum : {See Leicestee-squake, p. 512.)
LiKNEAN Society, 32, Soho-square (the house of Sir Joseph Banks, and bequeathed
by him to the Society), formerly contained in its Museum the herbarium of Linnaeus,
purchased, with the library, by Sir J. E. Smith, for lOOOZ. The herbarium was kept in
three small cases, and was a curious botanical antiquity, of great value in ascertaining
with certainty the synonyms of the writings of Linnaeus. The museum is very rich
in the botanical department, containing the herbaria of Linnaeus, Smith, Pulteney,
Woodward, Winch, &c. ; besides a valuable herbarium presented by the East.
India Company in 1833. The entomological collections are extensive ; the zoology is
rich in Australian marsupials, birds, and reptiles ; and the shells are fine. Here also
•was a collection of paintings, including a portrait of Linnaeus, from the original by
Eoslin at Stockholm, described as the most striking likeness ever executed. This copy
"was painted for Archbishop Von Troil, by whom it was presented to Sir Joseph Banks.
In this house Sir Joseph Banks gave public breakfasts on Thursdays, and conver-
sazioni on Sunday evenings, to the Fellows of the Royal Society, during his long pre-
sidency. He left an annuity of 200Z., his library, and botanical collections, for life, to
his librarian, Mr. Robert Brown, F.R.S., afterwards to come to the British Museum j but
by arrangement the library and collections were at once transferred to the Museum.
MANrFACTUEES AND Oenamental Aet Museum, Marlborough House, Pall Mall
was opened temporarily in 1852, with purchases from the Great Exhibition, with
5000Z. voted by Parliament : including gorgeous scarfs and shawls from Cashmere and
Lahore ; the French shawl of Duche aine et C*% the most perfect specimen of shawl-
weaving ever produced j glittering swords, yataghans, and pistols from Tunis and Con-
stantinople ; the famous "La Gloire" vase from the Sevres manufacture; Marcel
Freres' hunting-knife of St. Hubert; Changarnier's sword, from the workshop ot
Froment Meurice ; Vecte's splendid shield ; a facsimile of the celebrated Cellini cup ;
and other art-illustrations of the highest order. To these were added purchases ; and
the articles were grouped into six classes : woven fabrics, metal works, pottery,
furniture, and miscellanies. The metal-work department consisted also of the rich and
splendid manufacture of the East, with a few rude specimens illustrative of the innate
taste of their workmen ; the silver and bronze materials of France, cups of English
and brooches of Irish manufacture, and Elkington's electrotypes. The division of
pottery was enriched- by the Queen's Sevres collection, and by valuable works from
Baring, Minton, Copeland, Webb, and Farrar : the royal collection, though of forty-
two pieces only, being worth 12,000Z. The casts of ornamental art were re-
moved here from Somerset House ; and the collection included ancient Greek and
Roman, mediaeval or Romanesque, Saracenic or Gothic, Renaissance, figures, busts,
masks, animals, &c. ; the Renaissance (a.d. 1400 to 1600) arranged chronologically.
TJiere was a collection of 3489 specimens of enrichment, British and foreign examples, for the
guidance as to style of the carvers employed in the New Houses of Parliament ; and another collection
of 3283 casts, from models prepared for stone and wood carvings, deposited in the Grovernment Works at
Thames Bank, and at the New Houses of Parliament, These examples cost 7000Z,, and are intended to
lorm part of a National Museum of Mediaeval Art.— i^Yr** Report Bep. Fractical Art, 1853.
The Car for the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington, in 1852, modelled by
Pupils of the Department, was subsequently exhibited here. The collection was re-
moved to South Kensington, upon Marlborough House being prepared for the recep-
tion of the Prince and Princess of Wales ; the Car being removed to St. Paul's Cathedral.
Mead's (De.) Museum was in the garden of No. 49, Great Ormond-street, where
was also a library of 10,000 volumes. The collection included prints and drawings,
coins and medals ; marble statues of Greek philosophers and Roman emperors ; bronzes,
gems, intaglios, Etruscan vases, &c. ; marble busts of Shakspeare, Milton, and Pope,
by Scheemakers; statues of Hygeia and Antinous; a celebrated bronze head of
Homer; and an h-on cabinet (once Queen Elizabeth's) full of coins, among which was a
medal with Oliver Cromwell's head in profile, legend, " the Lord of Hosts, the word at
Dunbar, Sept. 1650;" on the reverse, the parliament sitting. After Dr. Mead's death,
in 1754, the sale of his library, pictures, statues, &c. realized between l5,000Z.andl6,000Z.
MUSEUMS. 599
Mead, when not engaged at home, generally spent his evenings at Batson's coifee-
house, Cornhill ; and in the forenoons, apothecaries came to him at Tom's, Covent
Garden, with written or verbal reports of cases, for which he prescribed without seeing
the patient, and took half-guinea fees. Dr. Mead's gay conversazioni, in Ormond-
fitreet, were the first meetings of the kind.
MissiONAET MirsETJM, The, 8, Bloomfield-street, Finsbury, contributed chiefly by
the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, and travellers generally, is remark-
able for its great number of idols and objects of superstitious regard, costumes, do-
mestic utensils, implements of war, music, &c. from islands in the Pacific Ocean, China,
and ultra-Ganges j India, including the three Presidencies j Africa and Madagascar ;
North and South America ; " especially the idols given up by their former worshippers,
from a full conviction of the folly and sin of idolatry." Here also is an assemblage of
natural history specimens, principally Polynesian : its Tahitian collection rivals Capt.
Cook's, in the British Museum.
Some of the idols are 12 feet high. Among the rarities are 18 model pictures of Japanese costumes
obtained at great risk ; and six coloured etchings by a Chinese artist, the Progress of the Opium-smoker,
a counterpart to Hogarth's "Rake's Progress." Admission by Director's or officer's tickets.
National Repositoky, The, was formed in 1828, in the upper gallery of the south-
west side of the King's Mews, Charing Cross ; and 35 adjoining rooms were reserved
for the reception of products from the chief manufacturing towns. Here were silk-
looms to work at certain hours, English Mechlin lace, crystallo-ceramic ornamental
glass; models of steam-engines, steam-boat paddles, suspension-bridges, and public
buildings ; new kaleidoscopes, rain-gauges, musical glasses, Indian corn-mills, life-
buoys, &c. The exhibition proved unattractive, notwithstanding the King (George IV.)
and his Ministers took much interest in the project. The collection was removed
to a house on the east side of Leicester-square, and there merged into the " Museum
of National Manufactures and the Mechanical Arts." It was soon dispersed; but,
doubtless, suggested the Polytechnic Exhibitions at the Adelaide Gallery, and in
Eegent-street and elsewhere.
Natal Museum (" The Model Room"), Somerset House. Here were models of the
science and trade of ship -building, with sections of interior and exterior construction,
from the Great Sarry and the Sovereign of the Seas to our own time. In the
central room was a large model of the Victoria, 110 guns, laid down in 1839 ; and
above hangs a model of the Victory, built 1735, and lost in 1744, with an admiral and
its entire crew. Here also were models of the Bucentaur ; a Chinese Junk ; a Bur-
mese War -boat; the Queen, 110 guns; and the Agamemnon steam-screw war-
ship, 91 guns. This collection was removed to the Naval Court of the South Kensing-
ton Museum, in 1864.
Phaemaceutical Society, THE,l7,Bloomsbury-square, incorporated 1842, possesses
the most extensive and complete Museum of the kind in existence ; comprising rare
specimens of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; and substances and pro-
ducts used in Medicine and Pharmacy. Also, groups and series of authenticated
specimens, valuable for identifying, comparing, and tracing, the origin and natural
history of products. Here is the valuable Museum of the late Dr. Pereira, including
collections of Cinchona barks by eminent foreign naturalists. The collection may be
seen daily, except Saturdays, by Member's order, or on application to the curator.
Rackstkow's Museum, at No. 197, was a Fleet-street sight of the last century.
Rackstrow was a statuary, and had Sir Isaac Newton's Head for a sign : his museum
consisted of natural and artificial curiosities and anatomical figures ; and " the circula-
tion of the blood, shown by a red liquor conveyed through glass tubes, made in imita-
tion of the principal veins and arteries of the human body ; the heart and its auricles,
and likewise the lungs, are put in their proper motions." Rackstrow died at his house
in Fleet-street, in 1772 ; and in seven years after, the collection was dispersed by
auction. One of the prodigies of the collection was the skeleton of a whale, more than
70 feet long. Donovan, the naturalist, subsequently exhibited here his London Museum,
which was soon after dispersed.
1
600 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
EoTAL Society's Museum, Burlington House, was commenced in 1665, with " the
collecting of a repository, the setting up a chemical lahoratory, a mechanical operatory,
an astronomical observatory, and an optick chamber :" next year Evelyn presented '* the
table of veins, arteries, and nerves, which he had made out of the natural human
bodies, in Italy." Sir R. Moray presented " the stones taken out of Lord Balcarras's
heart, in a silver box ;*' and " a bottle full of stag's tears." Hooke gave " a petrified
fish, the skin of an antelope which died in St. James's Park, a petrified foetus," and
other rarities. In 1681, when Dr. Grew published his curious catalogue, the Museum
contained several thousand specimens of zoological subjects and foreign curiosities ;
among the eighty-three contributors are Prince Rupert, the Duke of Norfolk, Boyle,
Evelyn, Hooke, Pepys, &c. (Weld's History of the Eoyal Society, vol. ii. p. 278.)
Ned Ward {London Spy, part iii.) satirically describes this Museum of Wiseacres' Hall,
or Gresham College. The account of its rarities in Hatton's London, 1708, fills 20
pages ; and it is curious to observe how much it must have propagated error. Thus
we find among Dr. Grew's rarities : —
" The Quills of a Porcupine, which, on certain occasions, the creature can shoot at the pursuing enemy
and erect at pleasure.
" The Flying Squirrel, which, for a good nut-tree, will pass a river on the bark of a tree, erecting his
tail for a sail.
" The Leg-bone of an Elephant, brought out of Syria for the thigh-bone of a giant. In winter, when
it begins to rain, elephants are ma!d, and so continue from April to September, chained to some tree, and
then become tame again.
" Tortoises, when turned on their backs, will sometimes fetch deep sighs, and shed abundance of tears.
"A Humming-bird and Nest, said to weigh but 12 grains; his feathers are set in gold, and sell at a
great rate.
" A Bone, said to be taken out of a Mermaid's head,
"The Largest Whale, liker an island than an animal.
"The White Shark, which sometimes swallows men whole.
" A Siphalter, said with its sucker to fasten on a ship, and stop it under sail.
" A Stag-beetle, whose horns worn in a ring are good against the cramp.
"A Mountain Cabbage : one reported 300 feet high."
Of the Society's pictures there is a good catalogue by Mr. Weld, Assistant Secretary,
who has also, from the Charter-book, collected into a volume fac-similes of 300 of the
Fellows (from the period of the institution of the Royal Society to the present time),
an illustrious set of autographs.
Relics of Sir Isaac Newton. — An autograph note from the Mint Ofiice ; one of the
solar dials made by Newton when a boy ; his richly-chased gold watch, with a medal-
lion of Newton, and inscribed : " Mrs. Catherine Conduitt to Sir Isaac Newton. Jan. 4,
1708." " The first reflecting telescope, invented by Sir Isaac Newton, and made with
his own hands," 1761 ; the mask of his face, from the cast taken after death, which
belonged to Roubiliac j a small lock of Newton's silver-white hair : and three portraits
of him in oil, painted by Jervas, Marchand, and Vanderbank. Here likewise is the
original model of the Safety- lamp, made by Sir Humphry Davy's own hands in 1815.
Saxteeo's (Don) Museum was first established at a cofi'ee-house, afterwards the Swan
Tavern, in Cheyne-walk, Chelsea, in 1695, by one Salter, a barber, who assembled there
a collection of Curiosities : they remained in the coifee-room till August, 1799, when
they were dispersed by public auction ; previous to which printed Catalogues were
sold, with the names of the principal benefactors to the collection. 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. The collection is also noticed at p. 90.
Saull's Museum, 15, Aldersgate-street, was a private collection, which the proprietor
liberally allowed to be inspected. The Antiquities, principally excavated in the metro-
polis, consisted of early British vases, Roman lamps and urns, amphorae, and dishes, tiles,
bricks, and pavements, and fragments of Samian ware ; also, a few Egyptian antiquities ;
and a cabinet of Greek, Roman, and early British coins. The Geological Department
contained the collection of the late Mr. Sowerby, with additions by Mr. Saull ; together
exceeding 20,000 specimens, arranged according to the probable order of the earth's
structure. Every article bore a descriptive label ; and the localization of the antiquities,
some of which were dug up almost on the spot, rendered these relics so many medals of
our metropolitan civihzation. Mr. Saull, F.G.S., died in 1855, when the collection was
distributed to the British Museum and other institutions.
MUSEUMS. 601
Sloanb MrsEUM, The, collected by Sir Hans Sloane, at Chelsea, consisted of
natural and artificial Curiosities, which cost Sir Hans 50,000Z. : after his death in 1753,
they were sold to Parliament for 20,000Z., and formed the nucleus of the British
Museum. The collection consisted of a library of 50,000 volumes; MSS. upon natural
history, voyages and travels, and the arts, especially medicine; 23,000 medals and
coins ; anatomical preparations ; natural history specimens ; and an herbarium of 336
volumes. The Catalogue of the collection extended to 38 vols, folio, and 8 vols. 4to.
{See Beitish Museum, p. 574.)
SoANE Museum, The, 13, Lincoln's Inn Fields (north side), was founded and endowed
by Sir John Soane, the architect, with 30,000^. 3 per cents, and a house in Lincoln's
Inn Fields, to support the Museum. At Soane's death, in 1837, the Trustees appointed
by Parliament took charge of the " Museum, Library, Books, Prints, Manuscripts,
Drawings, Maps, Models, Plans, and Works of Art, and the House and offices ;"
providing for the free admission of amateurs and students in painting, sculpture, and
architecture ; and general visitors.
The Museum is open to general visitors on any Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday in April, May, and
June ; and likewise on the Wednesdays in February, Mareli, July, and August.
Admission is obtained by cards, to be applied for either to a Trustee, by letter to the Curator, or per-
sonally at the Museum.
Access to the books, drawings, MSS., or permission to copy pictures or other works of art, is granted
on special application to the Trustees or the very obliging Curator, Mr. Joseph Bonomi, who resides at
the Museum.
A general description of the Collection, abridged from that printed by Sir John Soane in 1835, may
be had at the Museum. The larger work (only 150 copies printed) is interspersed with poetical illustra-
tions by Mrs. Hofland.
The house, built by Mr. Soane in 1792, was in 1812 faced with a stone screen, in which
are introduced Gothic corbels, 12th century ; and terra-cotta canephorse, copied from
the caryatides of the Temple of Pandrosus at Athens. The entrance-hall is decorated
with medallion reliefs after the antique. The dining-room and library ceiling are
painted by H. Howard, R.A. Here are a large collection of drawings of buildings by
Sir John Soane ;* plaster models of ancient Greek and Roman edifices, restored ; a cork
model of Pompeii ; fictile vases, alabaster urns, and antique bronzes ; windows filled
with old stained glass ; busts of Homer, Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Camden, and Inigo
Jones ; Greek and Etruscan vases, and Wedgwood's imitations ; Sir Joshua Reynolds'
Snake in the Grass, purchased for 510 guineas by Soane, at the Marchioness of
Thomond's sale ; and a portrait of Soane, almost the last picture painted by Lawrence,
1829. Here also is a walnut-tree and marble table, formerly Sir Robert Walpole's :
on this table is exhibited the celebrated Julio Clovis' MS. The Little Study contains
marble fragments of Greek and Roman sculpture, antique bronzes, and some natural
Curiosities. In the Monk's Yard are Gothic fragments of the ancient palace at West-
minster, picturesquely arranged to resemble a ruined cloister. In the Corridor are
casts from Westminster Hall ; and Banks's model of a Sleeping Girl, at Ashbourne ;
also two engravings, the Laughing Audience, and the Chorus, by Hogarth ; and a
drawing by Canaletti. The Monk's Parlour has its walls covered with fragments and
casts of media3val buildings. The Monument Court contains architectural groups of
various nations. The Picture-room has moveable planes, which serve as double walls,
on each side of which are hung the pictures : here are Hogarth's Rake's Progress,
eight paintings, purchased for 570 guineas ; and Hogarth's Election, four paintings, for
1650 guineas ; also, three pictures by Canaletti, one, the Grand Canal of Venice, his
chef-d'oeuvre ; Van Tromp's Barges entering the Texel, by J. M. W. Turner, R.A. j
the Study of a Head, from one of Raphael's Cartoons, — a relic saved from the wreck
of the lost Cartoon, which remained in the possession of the family of the weaver
who originally worked the Cartoons in tapestry ; also copies of two other heads from
the same, by Flaxman ; pictures by Watteau, Fuseli, Bird, Westall, Turner, Callcott,
Hilton, &c. The fifteen Indian-ink Drawings of Psestum, by Piranesi, are very fine.
* Sir John Soane, the son of a Berkshire bricklayer, designed a greater number of public edifices
than any contemporary; from the Bank of England in the City, to Chelsea Hospital at the western
extremity ; from Walworth in the southern to the Ilegent's Park in the north-western suburbs. Hia
last work (1833), the State Paper Office, in St. James's Park, was very unlike any other of his designs.
He died at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Jan. 20, 1837.
€02 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Upon tables are displayed several illuminated MSS., a MS. Tasso, the first three
editions of Shakspeare, sketch-books of Sir Joshua Eeynolds, and other curious works.
In the Catacombs are ancient marble cinerary urns and vases. In the Sepulchral Cham-
ber is the Sarcophagus discovered in 1817, by Belzoni, in a royal tomb near Gournou,
Thebes. It was bought by Sir John Soane of Mr. Salt, the traveller, in 1824, for the
sum of 2000^. When first discovered, this Sarcophagus was considered by Dr. Young to
"be the tomb of Psamnis ; and the hieroglyphics in the cartouche to indicate Osiezi-
menephtha, the father of Ramos II. ; although Sir Gardner Wilkinson considers it was
not that monarch's sarcophagus, but his cenotaph. Mr. Bonomi has illustrated to the
Syro-Egyptian Society Belzoni's very animated description of this Sarcophagus by a
section and plan of the catacomb, which is excavated to a depth of one hundred yards
into the solid rock. The sarcophagus is completely covered with hieroglyphics and
€59 figures (each 2 inches high), all of which were originally filled in with a blue
paste. The subjects on both sides are of a religious character, while that on the floor
of the sarcophagus is personal. Two subjects of particular interest are pointed out,
one as representing the ancient Cosniical philosophy, and the other as exhibiting in a
very perfect manner the doctrine of the Metempsychosis. Mr. Bonomi also considers
that the sarcophagus reveals two remarkable features which have not been seen in
any other example : the first in the existence of two holes at each end of the lid, for
the admission of ropes to ensure the gradual adjustment of the cover into its proper
place J and the next the evidence of a means of preserving the edges of the sarco-
phagus from fracture during the process of lowering, and affording the means of her-
metically closing it. It is formed of a large mass of arragonite, or alabaster : it is
9 feet 4 inches long, and 2 feet 8 inches deep. The seventeen fragments which formed
part of the cover have been put together : and 19 plates of the whole have been
carefully drawn by Mr. Bonomi, and described by Mr. S. Sharpe.
In the Crypt are several cork models of ancient tombs and sepulchral chambers
^scovered in Sicily, the walls decorated with painting and sculpture; and in the
centre the remains of the deceased, amidst vases and other funereal accompaniments.
In various apartments are a plaster cast of the Apollo Belvedere, taken by Lord
Burlington about 1718 ; a marble bust of Sir John Soane, presented by the sculptor,
Chantrey ; a richly-mounted pistol, taken by Peter the Great from the Turkish Bey at
Azof, 1696, presented by Alexander Emperor of Russia to the Emperor Napoleon
at Tilsit in 1807, and given by him to a French officer at St. Helena ; also, a portrait
of Napoleon in his 28th year, by a Venetian artist ; and a miniature of Napoleon,
painted at Elba, in 1814, by Isabey j statuettes of Michael Angelo and Raphael, cast
from the model, by Flaxman, in Mr. Rogers's collection; marble bust of Sir William
Chambers; bust of R. B. Sheridan, by Garrard; carved and gilt ivory table and
chairs, formerly Tippoo Saib's ; the watch, measuring-rods, and compasses used by Sir
Christopher Wren ; a large collection of ancient gems and intaglios ; and a set of the
Napoleon Medals, once the Empress Josephine's. {See Libkaeies, p. 525.)
The Sculpture, Marbles, Casts, and Models, contain 40 specimens of Flaxman, including a plaster
cast of his " Shield of Achilles ;" 10 works of Banks ; and specimens of Michael Angelo, John de Bologna,
Donatello, Rysbraeck, Westmacott, Chantrey, Gibson, Baily, Rossi, &c.
The Architectural department includes drawings, models of buildings, and details. Among the
drawings are those of all Sir John Soane's works, and others by Piranesi, Zucchi, Bibiena, Campanella,
Thornhill, Chambers, Kent, and Smirke; and a volume of drawings by Thorpe, the Elizabethan archi-
tect. There are busts of Palladio, Wren, Chambers, Dance, &c.
The nine Etruscan Vases exhibit the variety of shapes to be found in much larger collections : one
(the Englefield) is of extreme rarity ; and the Cawdor vase is of extraordinary size and elegantly enriched.
Among the Roman antiquities are real specimens and casts from the temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome,
and of the Sibyl or Vesta at Tivoli, &c.
The Antiquities and Curiosities are as useful to artists and pattern-drawers as the new rooms in the
Louvre at Paris, The entire collection cost Sir John Soane upwards of 50,000?.
The Museum is not merely interesting as a sight or show-house, but of great service for artistic
Btudy in architecture, sculpture, painting, and house decoration. The number of visitors in a year are
from 2000 to 3000 persons. The removal of the contents of the Museum has been proposed, to extend
its beneficial eifecls; but it is urged, and we think with success, that the donor intended the Collection
should never be removed from its present location, as he fitted up the house for its reception in the most
elaborate and peculiar manner.— (>See " A Morning in Sir John Soane's Museum," in Walks and Talks
about London; and a paper, with four large engravmgs in the Illustrated London News, May, 1864).
Society oe Aets, 18, John-street, Adelphi (the house built by the brothei-s Adam, in
MUSEUMS. 603
1772-74), has Barry's celebrated pictures upon the walls of the Council-room, and a
few portraits, &c. ; to be seen gratis, between 10 and 4 daily, except Wednesday and
Sunday. The collection is constantly receiving interesting additions.
The Model Repository, 42 feet by 35 feet, on the ground-floor, contains one of the
most extensive collections of models in Europe.
Here are " hands for the one-handed, and other instruments for those who have lost both ; clothes of
all sorts of materials from all countries ; medals of Charles I.'s reign, and the last new stcve of Victoria's;
fire-escape ladders to run down from windows and scaffolds, rising telescope fashion out of a box, to
mount roofs; beehives and tumip-slicers, ploughs and instruments to restrain vicious bulls, pans to pre-
serve butter in hot countries, safety-lamps ; models of massive cranes and of little tips for umbrellas ;
life-buoys and maroon-locks ; diving-bells and expanding keys ; safety-coaches and traps ; clocks, and
tail-pieces for violoncellos; instruments to draw spirits and to draw teeth; samples of tea, sugar, cin-
namon, and nutmegs, in different stages of growth; models of Tuscan pavement; beds for invalids;
methods to teach the blind how to write" (Knight's London) ; also, the first piece of gutta percha seen
in Eiorope, and presented to the Society 1843.
In the Ante-room, upstairs, are Nollekens's medallion of Jephtha's Vow, Barry*s
picture of Eve tempting Adam, &c. The large pictures in the Council-room were
presented gratuitously by Barry, between 1777 and 1783, and were commenced when
he had but sixteen shillings in his pocket ! They are — 1. Orpheus Civilizing the In-
habitants of Thrace. 2. A Grecian Harvest-home. 3. Crowning the Victors at
Olympia. 4. Commerce, or the Triumph of the Thames. 5. The Distribution of
Premiums in the Society of Arts. 6. Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution.
Barry has published etchings of these pictures, and has minutely described the subjects
in his published Works, vol. ii. p. 323, edit. 1809. They were exhibited, and pro-
duced Barry 500Z., to which the Society added 200?. The Victors at Olympia is the
finest work of the series : Canova declared the sight of it to be worth a voyage to
England. In the Distribution picture are introduced portraits of Shipley, Arthur
Young, the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Montagu, Sir George SavUe, Bishop Hurd, Soame
Jenyns, the two beautiful Duchesses of Rutland and Devonshire, the Duke of Rich-
mond, Lord Folkestone, William Lock, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Johnson. The
Retribution contains great and good men of all ages and times. Each of the latter
pictures is 42 feet long. Barry died in 1806, and his remains lay in state in the
room which the grandeur of his genius had so magnificently adorned. In the
ante-room is a portrait of Barry ; and in the large room are portraits of Lord
Folkestone, by Gainsborough : Lord Romney, by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; a marble
statue of Dr. Ward, by Carlini ; busts of Dr. Franklin and Barry ; and casts of Venus,
Mars, and Narcissus, by John Bacon.
The Society have held in the Great Room annual Exhibitions of Decorative Manu-
factures, and ancient and Mediaeval Art ; and the collected works of Mulready, Etty,
and other artists of note. But the benefits which the country has derived from the
Society of Arts culminate in their initiative services in the origin and organization of
the Great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, under the wisdom-tempered zeal of the Royal
President of the Society, Prince Albert, the beneficial efiects of whose sagacity, fore-
sight, and integrity in contributing to the true glory of the nation become, year by
year, the more fully appreciated.
South Kensington Museum commenced with the erection in 1856 of an iron
structure under the superintendence of Sir W. Cubitt (which, from its engineering
unsightliness, got the sobriquet of "the Boilers"), and when completed was given by
the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, into the possession of the Science and
Art Department. Since that date a permanent brick and iron structure, with terra-
cotta decorations, has been erected. The building was planned, and its construction
superintended up to the year 1865, by Captain Fowke, R.E. Its decorations, external
and internal, were designed by Mr. Godfrey Sykes, originally a student of the Sheffield
School of Art. The site is of irregular form, bounded on three sides by straight lines,
and with three slightly acute angles, the narrowed portion being towards the north or
rear. The two longer boundaries abut on the Cromwell and Exhibition Roads ; the
former measuring about 740 feet, the latter about 600 feet ; the principal front and the
entrances towards the south — that is, Cromwell-road. It would occupy more space
than is at our disposal to describe the plan of the several Museum buildings, to be erected
from time to time, as the requisite funds are voted bv Parliament. The central portion
604 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
is Italian in general effect. The most novel characteristics are due to the employment
of coloured materials — namely, for the construction, bright red bricks, in two tints j
and for the ornament, terra-cottas of deep red, and a pale, but not harshly white, hue j
tile tesserae in chocolate and warm grey for mosaics, inserted in panels on the front,
and for a large one in the pediment ; and majolica with white ground, relieved with
yellow and blue, for the soffits of the arches of the columnar recess in front, for the
arcades, &c. The great central columns are modelled with figures testifying the three
divisions of Man's Life, Childhood, Manhood, and Old Age, alternating with a bough
modelled from nature, and laid over fluting. The figures are mediaeval in character,
in the style of Michael Angelo and Raphael. The subject for the tile-mosaic of the
pediment is an allegorical representation of the Queen opening the great Exhibition of
1851. The columns above described stand before the new Lecture Theatre, a handsome
hall, calculated to seat about 600 persons.
The contents of the South Kensington Museum may be classified as follows : —
1. The Art Collections, which now number 12,530 objects, illustrative of the history, principles, and
processes of decorative art in sculpture, carvings in wood and ivory, decorative furniture, metal work,
goldsmiths' work, jewellery and lapidaries' work, engraved gems, niello work, arms, armour, pottery,
glass, enamels, ancient lac work, textile fabrics, miniatures, &c. &c. An important feature in these col-
lections is the reproduction by means of casting, and electrotypy, of rare and costly works of art in
other countries, with which the Department of Science and Art is desirous of effecting exchanges of
such reproductions. Another feature is the permanent Loan Exhibition of valuable objects of art be-
longing to private owners. The Museum also contains a large and valuable number of modern English,
paintings mainly presented by the late Mr. Sheepshanks, and water-colour drawings, principally
bequeathed by Mr. Ellison, as well as the Cartoons of Raphael lent by her Majesty; and it affords
temporary accommodation for the exhibition of many paintings of the British School which belong
to the National Gallery.
2. The Art Library, containing about 15,000 volumes relating to art, and a great number of original
drawings, illuminations, and engravings.
3. The Educational Museum and Library, containing many educational works in various European
languages, and scientiiic apparatus and diagrams, chiefly lent by the inventors and publishers.
4. The Museum of Construction and Building Materials, containing examples of materials and ap-
paratus of use in buildin<r, draining, and decorating houses; and many architectural models.
5. The Museum of Animal Products and Food Collection, principally formed by the transference by
English and Foreign commissions of collections exhibited in the International Exhibitions of Londou
in 1851 and 1862, and of Paris in 1855.
6. The Naval Models, belonging to the Admiralty, supplemented by loans from private builders and
owners. The Admiralty Collection shows the various changes in the construction of meu-of-war from
1416 down to the present time.
The following are the terms on which the Museum is open to the public : —
The Museum is open daily, Sundays excepted, free, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, from
10 A.M. till 10 P.M. The Students' days are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when the public are
admitted on payment of 6d. each person, from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. Tickets of admission to the Museum,
including the Art-library and Educational Reading-room, are issued.
Here, also, is the Museum of Patents, mainly founded by Mr. Benet Woodcroft, and
greatly extended by the zeal of the present curator, F. Petit Smith. The collection
includes " patriarchal models," from the parent engine of Steam Navigation to the
model of the engine of the Great Eastern ; historical locomotives, and machines of
endless ingenuity ; with a collection of portraits of inventors, scientific library, &c.
{See Patent Seal Office Libeaey, p. 522.)
The authorities at the South Kensington have considerably encouraged mosaic decoration. Their
first proposition was to decorate with mosaics the facade of the picture-galleries of the 1862 Exhibition
building. Subsequently they caused a number of mosaics of divers kinds to be inserted in various
parts of the new and permanent buildings of the South Kensington Museum. The most important of
these is the series of figures which are inserted in compartments of the wall-arcade of the south court
of the Museum. Of these the most important are Apelles, Mr. Poynter; Cimabue, Mr. F. Leighton,
A.R. A. ; the Raphael, Godfrey Sykes ; the Giorgione, Mr. Prinsep.
The Sheepshanks' valuable collection of Pictures by modern British artists is fully equal, and is in
some respects superior, to the Vernon Collection. The works of Leslie, R.A., and Mulready, R.A., can
nowhere be studied to greater advantage. Observe : Highland Drovers, The Shepherd's Chief Mourner,
Jack in Office, the Breakfast, all by E. Landseer, R.A. ; Duncan Gray and the Broken Jar, by Sir D.
Wilkie ; Choosing the Wedding Gown, The Ball, Giving a Bite, First Love, all by W. Mulready, R.A. ;
Scene from the Merry Wives of Windsor, Uncle Toby and Widow Wadman, both by C. R. Leshe, R.A.
Paintings in oil, 233 specimens ; Drawings and Sketches, 103 specimens.
On May 20, 1867, here was laid with great State, by Queen Victoria, the first stone
of " the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences," a vast elliptical building, of red
brick, with terra-cotta decorations, estimated to cost 200,000^.
Tradescants' MrsETTM, at South Lambeth (see p. 185), contained not only
stuffed animals and dried plants, but also minerals ; implements of war and domestic
use, of various nations ; and a collection of coins and medals. In the Catalogue en-
MUSEUMS. 605
titled Museum Tradescantium, 1656, we find, " Two feathers of the phoenix tayle ;"
" a natural dragon ;" and a stufied specimen of the Dodo, helieved to have been ex-
hibited alive in London in 1638 ; its head and foot are preserved in the Ashniolean
Museum at Oxford, of which the Tradescants' collection formed the nucleus.
Trinity House Museum, Tower Hill, contains various models of lighthouses,
floating-lights, life-boats, and a noble model of the " Royal William," 150 years old.
Among the naval Curiosities is the flag taken by Sir Francis Drake, in 1588, from the
Spaniards ; pen-and-ink plans of sea-fights, temjp. Charles TI. ; Chinese map ; pair of
colossal globes, &c. j besides a large picture, by Gainsborough, of the Elder Trinity
Brethren, and numerous portraits and busts. To be seen by Secretary's order.
United Seevice Institution Museum, Whitehall-yard, contains an Armoury,
Chinese cabinet and model gallery, antiquities, and an ethnological collection ; a lecture-
theatre and library. This institution, which was founded in 1830, under the patronage
of King William IV. and the Duke of Wellington, has the support of most of the
oflBcers of rank in both services, and has received from her Majesty a Royal charter of
incorporation.
The visitor first passes through rooms containing the arms and armour of the Esquimaux,
New Zealander, inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands, Australia, and of Africa, and then enters
the European armoury. Bound this room are displayed firearms from the time of Henry VIII.
to Victoria; in the windows are cases containing swords of heroes, amongst them the sword of
Cromwell which he carried at the siege of Drogheda; a small sword of Nelson; and dirks and
yataghans from the Greek Islands. In a spacious room are arranged a series of models of steam-
engines from the first appliance of steam to the screw-engines of the present time ; here also are models
of tents by Major Rhodes and Mr. Turner. The next room contains a collection of the arms, accoutre-
ments, clothing, and field equipment of a soldier of the Line and rifleman of our own and of the Prussian,
Austrian, Belgian, and Sardinian armies, with the addition in the case of Sardinia of those of a cavalry
and artillery soldier. These have been presented to the institution by the respective Governments. The
grand staircase is guarded, as it were, by two men-at-arms of the time of Charles I. On the walls are
pikes, spears, helmets, and long two-handed swords, and on either side shirts of ringed mail of the time
of the Crusaders; a genuine English longbow of the time of Henry VIII.; and arrows taken out of the
citadel of Aleppo, supposed to be of the time of the Crusaders. The Asiatic Armoury has its walls
covered with spears, sabres, shields, matchlocks, and o^her descriptions of arms and armour from Borneo,
Java, and Ceylon, to the Punjaub and Afl'ghanistan. In this room are also to be seen the dress worn by
Tippoo Sahib at the capture of Seringapatam, and the pistols taken from his body after his fall. Next
is the Enfield Rifle Room, where is exhibited the Enfieid rifle in all stages of manufacture, from speci-
mens of the raw material to the finished rifle. In the naval departments are models of vessels, from the
most perfect model of a line-of-battle ship, put together in a bottle by one of the French prisoners of
war in Norman Cross Prison, to a large one of the Cornwallis, 74, built in Bombay ; and from the heavy,
cumbrous build of the Dutch man-of-war of 1650 to the beautiful lines of the modern frigate ; also, models
of guns and anchors, Cuningham's plan for reefing topsails from the deck, Clifford's boat-lowering
apparatus, life-boats, and gun-rafts. Next are curiosities : from Drake's walking-stick to Cook's punch-
bowl and chronometer ; models of foreign craft, from the Maltese galley to the Malay proa and the birch-
bark canoe of the Indian. Here, also, is the table made from the wood of the Victory when mider
repair, on which are the relics of the various expeditions in search of Sir J. Franldin. Also, an
Australian Boomerang ; the stone upon which Capt. Cook fell dead at Owhyee ; war implements from all
parts of the world; a piece of the deck of the Victory, from the spot on which Nelson fell; Napoleon
Bonaparte's fusil, razor and shaving-brush, and fragment of his coffin ; articles found on the field of
Waterloo; relies of the Royal George, sunk 1782, and t\i6 Mary Rose, 1545; chronological series of fire-
arms (James II. to William IV.) ; skeleton of the horse Marengo, rode by Napoleon at Waterloo ; Chinese
trophies and chain-shot ; Polar bear and wolf shot by Sir George Back ; wooden Chinese cage for human
prisoner ; first uniform worn in the British navy; hat of Lord Nelson; Chinese magic mirror; models
of ships of all nations; fortification models; great model of Linz and its camp; and pictures of battles.
Also, Capt. Siborne's Model of the Battle of Waterloo; scale, 9 feet to a mile, area 440 square feet;
showing the entire field, and the British, French, and Prussian armies, by 190,000 metal figures ; with
the villages, houses, farmyards, and clumps of trees : cost Captain Siborne 4000Z. ; purchased for the
Institution by subscription. Here, also, are Colonel Hamilton's model of the South of the Crimea ;
models of the different systems of fortification, with relics commemorative of the Peninsular, Waterloo,
and the Crimean campaigns. The Library contains between 11,000 and 12,000 volumes of works on naval
and military history, biography, improvements in arms, and general science. The topographical depart-
ment contains the naval charts, and maps, and plans, supplied by the Admiralty and War Departments ;
here on maps are marked out, by pins and coloured cards, warlike operations or peaceful movements
over the world. The reading-room is well supplied with the military periodicals of the day. During the
season lectures on subjects of passing interest, or bearing on the naval ormihtary services, are delivered.
The United Service Institution is supported by entrance-fees, 11. ; annual subscription, 10». The
public are admitted daily, free, by members' orders.
Univeesity College, Gower-street. The Anatomical Museum, based upon the
collection of Sir Charles Bell, consists of 406(> specimens in catalogue, and large addi-
tions. Also, the models in wax by Tuson, including the celebrated case of Ichthyosis
cornea ; 700 coloured drawings by Sir R. Carswell, and 200 by Armstrong ; the heart
and throat of Ramo Samee (the sword-swallowing Indian juggler), ob. 24 July, 1849 j
a Skull from the Wreck of the Royal G-eorge ; bones and a Skull from ancient Greek
606 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
graves ; a Head from the Catacombs in Paris ; an Elephant's Heart ; reputed fragments
of bones of the Good Duke Humphrey and Robert Bruce ; and a cast from Hervey
Leach (Hervio Nano), ob. March, 1847. Here, also, is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham,
dressed in the clothes which he usually wore, and with a wax face modelled by Dr.
Talrych : also a portion of skin from the body of the first person obtained under the
New Anatomical Act (Lady Barrington). A Museum of Comparative Anatomy, and a
fine Materia Medica collection. The Natural Philosophy Models are good. In the
Drawing School are three marble figures in relief of the Hindoo Trinity, Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva, dug up from the ruins of a city in a forest 50 miles east of Baroda.
In the School, also, is a collection of Casts, including the Apollo made in Rome for
Flaxman, the Laocoon, &c.
Wateeioo Museum, Pall Mall, was a collection of portraits, battle-scenes, costumes,
and trophies, cuirasses, helmets, sabres, and fire-arms, from the field of Waterloo,
exhibited 1815.
Weeks's Museum, 3, Tichborne-street, established about 1810, was famed for its
mechanical Curiosities. The grand room, by Wyatt, had a ceiling painted by Rebecca
and Singleton. Here were two temples, 1 feet high, supported by 16 elephants, and
embellished with 1700 pieces of jewellery. Among the automata were the tarantula
spider and bird of paradise. Weeks's Museum has long been dispersed; after his
death, March 23, 1864, were sold many of the large mechanical pieces originally exhi-
bited at his museum, comprising the large swan of chased silver ; also^temples, birdcages,
clocks, and automaton figures, several with musical movements ; also a great variety of
clocks and candelabra, miniatures, musical birdboxes, watches, &c. The chased silver
swan was in the Great Paris Exhibition of 1867. Weeks's Gallery was subsequently
the show-rooms of the Rockingham Works, where, in 1837, was exhibited a splendid
porcelain dessert-service, made for William IV. : 200 pieces, painted with 760 subjects,
occupied 5 years, and cost 3000^. In 1851 the place was refitted by Robin, the conjuror.
Zoological Society's Museum, The, was originally commenced in Bruton-street,
then removed to No. 26, Leicester-square j and is now contained in a building erected
for it in the Society's Garden, Regent's Park, about 1843. This Museum was pro-
jected upon an extensive scale : during the earlier years of its formation, it was,
scientifically, the great collection of this country ; but it soon became eclipsed by the
rapid accumulation with which Dr. Gray enriched the galleries of the British Museum ;
and as the national collection gradually assumed the important place which it now
occupies among the great public institutions of Europe, the Council of the Zoological
Society withdrew from the competition, and concentrated their efibrts towards their
Vivarium. Their Museum is arranged to convey an idea of the Generic Forms of the
Vertebrate Division of the Animal Kingdom. By this method, most of the essential
difierences of form are well illustrated in a reduced number of specimens, so as to im-
press a casual observer with the distinctive features of each family. Among the animals
preserved are many of the rarest and most curious known to exist, and selected from
the original collection, commenced with the gifts of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the
first President of the Zoological Society : and Mr. N. A. Vigors, its first Secretary.
Peivate Collections. — The following have been mostly dispersed ; or when they
exist can only be seen by private introduction to the proprietors.
Auldjo, Mr. John, Noel Souse, Kensington : an extensive assemblage of Antique
and Mediaeval Articles of Vertu; including a portion of a Greek glass vase, of similar
execution to the Portland Vase : it is ornamented with foliage and birds, and was
found at Pompeii in 1833. This collection has been dispersed.
Gwilt, Mr. George, 8, Union-street, Southward; and Gwilt, Mr. Joseph, 20,
Ahingdon-street, Westminster: Collections of Architectural Antiquities; the former
especially rich in Southvvark relics (some Roman), old London Bridge, &c.
Londeshorough, the late Lord, 8, Carlton House-terrace, formed a collection of
Antiquities ranging from the earliest English period. Saxon remains, urns, arms, and
articles of personal decoration, principally excavated by his lordship from tumuli in
Kent. Also Irish gold antiques, valuable and curious ; and mediaeval gold and silver
MU8IG HALLS.
607
work in jewels, cups, &c., and a very fine collection of Anglo-Saxon relics, principally
ornaments, from the Isle of Wight. Arms and armour, artistically wrought and richly
decorated (but chiefly preserved at Grimstone, in Yorkshire). Lady Londesborough
also collected a series of many hundred antique rings, ranging from the early Egyptian
times to the seventeenth century. These collections were shown at conversazioni
given by Lord and Lady Londesborough during the London season. There is a
privately printed Catalogue, by Mr. T. Crofton Croker, P.S.A.
Magniac, Mr. H., 87, Jermyn- street , St. James's: a collection chiefly remark-
able for its fine Ecclesiastical Works — crosiers, reliquaries, pyxes, &c. Also fine ex-
amples of Ancient Carved Furniture, and other specimens of mediaeval art.
Marrt/at, Mr. Joseph, author of a History of Pottery, until 1866 possessed a large
collection of Ceramic Works, particularly Flemish and German, but exhibiting gene-
rally the varied forms and peculiarities of the entire manufacture : formerly at Rich-
mond-terrace, Whitehall ; removed to the Ynescedwyn Iron-works, Swansea.
Morgan, Mr. Octavius, F.S.A., 9, Pall Mall, possesses a very valuable series of
Ancient Clocks and Watches ; particularly remarkable for its historic illustration of the
gradual improvement in Watches, from the earliest period to that of Quare and
Tompion.
JRothschild, the Baron Lionel de, 148, Piccadilly, has a costly collection of
Mediaeval Art. Also Antique Pottery, including a candlestick formed of white clay,
rare Henry II. ware (French), which cost the Baron 220^. : not more than 27 articles
of this ware are known to exist.
Sainslury, Mr., 13, Upper 'Ranelagh-street, Pimlico : Historical MSS. and
Autographs, 1473 to 1848 ; enamels, miniatures, medals, and coins ; books, drawings,
and prints; Shakspeare relics (including the Garrick cup); Napoleon Collection
exhibited at the "Napoleon Museum," at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. This
collection has been dispersed.
Slade, Mr. Felix, Walcot-place, Lambeth, possesses a collection of Pottery and
Glass of the Middle Ages : the latter unmatched in examples of Venetian workmanship.
Windus, the late Mr. T., Stamford Hill, collected, in a building of style 1550,
carvings in ivory, mother-of-pearl, and wood ; crystals, antique gems, and rings ;
mosaics, cameos, medals, and coins ; Grecian pottery ; drawings by Rubens, Rembrandt,
and Vandyke j fac-simile of the sarcophagus in which the Portland Vase was found.
MUSIC HALLS.
THE following list of these places of entertainment, licensed by the Magistrates under
the Act of George II. for " music and dancing," together with the cost of building
and fittings, and the number of persons accommodated, is thus given in a statement
laid before Parliament : —
Cost of
Buildings
and
Fittings.
..£1,000,000
50,000
50,000
50,000
60,000
5,000
6,000
5,000
20,000
60,000
40,000
30,000
25,000
25,000
25,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
16,000
15,000
Crystal Palace
Agricultural-hall .
St. James's-hall
St. Martin's-hall
Exeter-hall
Gallery of Illustration . . .
Egyptian-hall
Poly graphic-hall
Polytechnic
Alhambra, Leicester-sq. ...
Oxford, Oxford-street ...
Strand, Strand ...
Canterbury-hall, Lambeth
Metropolitan, Edgware-rd.
Eegent, Westminster
Wilton's, Wellclose-sq. ...
Evans's, Covent-garden ...
Weston's, Holborn
Philharmonic, Islington...
Highbury Barn, Highbury
Cambridge, Shoreditch ...
Winchester, Southwark ...
No. of
Cost of
No. of
Persons Ac-
Buildings
Persons Ac-
commodated
and commodated
Daily.
Fittings.
Daily.
... 100,000
Lord Raglan, Theobald's
-rd. £12,000
1,500
... 20,000
Middlesex, Drury-lane
... 12,000
1,200
5,000
London Pavilion, Tich-
4,000
borne-street
... 12,000
... 2,000
6,000
South London, London-rd. 8,000
1,200
500
Marylebone
8,000
800
500
Oriental, Poplar ...
7,000
800
500
Borough
6,000
1,000
1,000
Bedford, Camden-town
5,000
800
5,000
Deacon's, Clerkenwell
6,000
800
2,000
Trevor, Knightsbridge
6,000
800
1,500
Sun, Knightsbridge
6,000
800
1,500
Lansdowne, Islington
4,000
600
2,000
Rodney, Whitechapel
3,000
600
1,500
Apollo, Bethnal-green
3,000
60O
1,500
Westminster, Pimlico
3,000
80O
1,000
Nag's Head, Lambeth
2,000
600
1,500
Woodman, Hoxton
2,000
600
1,500
Eastern Alhambra ...
2,000
1,000
2,000
Swallow-street
2,000
500
2,000
... 2,000
Totals, 41 places ..
. £1,667,000
... 179,300
608 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
From this list a number of small tavern-concert rooms are excluded. It should be
further diminished by the removal of the " Gallery of Illustration," which has been
licensed by the Chamberlain for theatrical entertainments. The first of these places
opened was Canteebuet Hall, Lambeth, with its expensive decorations, its large
marble reliefs by Geefs; and its handsome Picture Gallery, and really good col-
lection of modern paintings. The new enterprise proved very successful, and there
sprang up in different quarters of the metropolis. Music-halls, the great majority of
which were successful speculations, and they are now more numerous than the regular
theatres. The second Music Hall was Weston's, High Holborn, of splendid, if not
tastefiil ornamentation.
The Oxfoed, Oxford-street, is decorated in the Italian style, and is 94 feet in
length, 44 feet in width, between Corinthian columns which support the roof, with a pro-
menade beyond on each side. The ceiling is coved on to the walls, and springs from the
top of an ornamental entablature. The columns are arranged in pairs. A large glass
chandelier here has a very pretty effect from below, — a tree of light. The hall is
lighted with star burners.
The Alhambea Palace, Leicester-square, formerly the Panopticon, according to
a statement laid before Parliament, represents a capital of 100,000^., and employs 320
persons of both sexes, paying wages at the rate of nearly 450Z. per week. It has
increased the wages of ballet-girls at least 20 per cent. It receives on an average
3000 visitors every night, at an average admission price of 1*. per head ; and the
expenditure of each person in drink, eatables, and cigars, averages about 7d. The
working classes, for whom an upper gallery capable of holding 1000 persons is pro-
vided, attend in large numbers. The item in the statement relative to the consump-
tion of refreshments shows that the money expended by the visitors on eating and
drinking amounts to little more than half the money received for admission.
Philhaemonic Hall, Islington, is an Italian Renaissance saloon, of large size, with
a classic entrance, Ionic distyle in antis.
St. James's Hall is described at p. 426 ; and St. Maetin's Hall at p. 427.
Eyans's, Covent Garden, is mentioned at p. 294. This noble room, designed by
Finch Hill, was built in 1855, upon the garden in the rear of Evans's Hotel. It is in
a bold, handsome style, with a coved ceiling, richly ornamented. It is divided by
fluted columns into nave and aisles, and embellished with figures of Poetry, the Drama,
Music, &c. ; and it is brilliantly lighted by gas in ten richly-cut lustres. Here are sung
glees, madrigals, and other fine old melodies; besides pieces from foreign operas, and
songs and ballads by living composers.
Steand Music Hall, Strand, in the main building covers what was the site of
new Exeter Change, and the area and promenade is stated to contain about 6000 square
feet. The roof is of wrought iron and zinc, and here is the large lighting chamber,
v/ith its 350 ventilating tubes, conducted into enormous shafts, to convey the vitiated
air out of the building. The gas-light from several thousand burners passes through
the coloured glass of the roof or ceiling, supported by cast-iron columns, with wrought-
copper foliated capitals. The Strand front (Keeling, architect), is partly of stone, five
stories, elaborately sculptured by Tolmie, with capitals, marble shafts, and medallion
heads of composers (Handel, Mozart, Eossini, Bishop, Mendelssohn, &c.), and metal
work. The porch has scarcely an inch of surface that is not carved : yet, notwith-
standing its sculptured heads, the building does not speak its purpose. Continental
Gothic is the basis of this eclectic design.
Ageicultueal Hall, Islington, is described at p. 424. Its exhibitions and
performances are miscellaneous. In 1865, the profits of the Horse show exceeded those
of 1865 by more than lOOOZ., and those of the Cattle show by more than 9001. The
Metropolitan and Provincial Working Men's Exhibition in 1865 was visited by nearly
half a million persons, and produced to the Company a net rent of nearly a thousand
pounds.
HiGHBTJEY Baen, Islington, has one of the few remaining old assembly-rooms of
the last century ; and in addition, a very elegant theatre for dramatic performances.
NEW BIVEB. 609
Gkecian, City -road, has a large and elegant Hall for dancing, and out-door orchestra,
and platform, in addition to a commodious Theatre.
Hanover Sqtjaee Rooms, on the east side of Hanover-square, were built for con-
certs and balls, by Sir John Gallini, formerly one of the managers of the Itahan Opera
in this country. They have lately been re-decorated in elegant style.
The ceilingr of the larp^e room (the only decorations of which previously to these alterations were the
old pictures by Cipriani) has been ornamented with enrichments in composition and " carton pierre ;"
a trellis pattern being placed in the bands across the ceiling, and a laurel in the longitudinal bands,
with a crest ornament on the ceiling round each panel. The fluted pilasters on the walls have been re-
tained; but the cornice over them has been deepened about 7 in., and has been enriched by the addition
of mouldings, and with festoons of fruit and flowers to the frieze all round. The old Royal box has been
re-constracted in wood and " carton pierre," surmounted by an arched top, having a lozenge with the
Eoyal cipher supported by the figures of two boys, the top being supported by two pilasters and the
figures of two female Caryatides, terminating in scroll-work, with fruit and flowers running down the
panels of the pilasters. The front of the orchestra has been ornamented with musical trophies and
festoons of fruit and flowers, with medallions placed over the two doorways at the sides. The panels
over the looking-glasses are each filled with a medallion, painted in bas-relief, of some of the most cele-
brated composers — Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, Weber, Rossini, Purcell, and others, with their
names, and the century in which they flourished. In the two wide panels in the orchestra are painted
medallions of Callcott and Bishop. The plinth round the room under the pilasters is decorated in imita-
tion of various coloured marbles. The Royal box is finished in white, tufl", and gold, with paintings re-
presenting Peace and Plenty, and the four Seasons, and crimson and gold damask hangings. The old
method of lighting by means of sunlights has been dispensed with, and a novel mode of lighting has
been introduced by suspending from the ceiling, along each side, hemispheres of silvered glass, with the
flat sides upwards, having twelve jets to each, radiating to the centre, in a star-like form underneath. —
Abridged from the Builder.
Surrey Music Hall, Walworth, was erected in 1856, upon the site of the Surrey
Zoological Gardens, Horace Jones, architect. The hall was oblong, with serai-octa-
gonal ends, and three tiers of galleries round three sides, the orchestra occupying one
end. There v/ere four octagonal staircases, one at each corner; and on the side
next the lake were two external galleries. The hall had an arched roof, and externally
cappings, partaking of the Chinese pagoda and the Turkish minaret. The vast,
apartment was 153 feet long, 68 wide, and 77 high in the centre, and would hold
12,000 persons besides 1000 in the orchestra ; it was 20 feet longer and 30 feet wider
than Exeter Hall, and cost about 18,200^. Its acoustic properties were perfect. It
w^as opened in July, 1856. On October 19th, following, during a religious service here,
by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, eight persons were killed, and thirty seriously injured,
in consequence of a false alarm of fire raised in the hall. Its success as a musical
speculation was short-lived ; and the premises were subsequently let for the temporary
St. Thomas's Hospital, removed here from Southwark. {See p. 435.)
NJEW EIKEB,
A FINE artificial stream, yielding almost half the water-supply of London, or nearly
the whole of the City, and a large portion of the metropolis northward of the
Thames. The New River rises from Chadwell Springs, and springs at Amwell, between
Hertford and Ware, 21 miles from London, and is fed by the river Lea and wells sunk
in the chalk. One of these ancient springs — the old Amwell spring — oozed away
silently about 1830 into the bed of the Lea. The Chadwell spring, that mysterious,
circular, chalky pool in the Hertfordshire valley, which has been the drinking
fountain for centuries of countless thirsty millions, no longer gives forth drink with
its accustomed liberality.
The New River was projected by Hugh Myddelton, a native of Denbigh, and
** citizen and goldsmith,'' who proposed to the City tc bring to London a supply of water
at his own cost. His ofier was accepted ; and April 20, 1608, was commenced the
work, with very imperfect mechanical resources. Myddelton embarked the whole of
his fortune in the undertaking; the original number of shares was only 36; the
labourers received half-a-crown a day. The works were stopped at Enfield for want
of funds ; Myddelton applied to the citizens for aid, which they refused ; he then solicited
James I., who, on May 2, 1612, stood by his side and shared his venture. From
the Calendar of State Papers it appears that the total payments out of the Treasury
on account of the New River works amount to 8609^. 14*. 6d. The King obtained
thereby 36 shares for the Crown, of each of which the value is now about 17,000^.,
and all of which the necessities of Charles I. compelled him to alienate for a fee-farm
610 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
rent of 500Z. a year ! The assertions that half-a-million was spent in the construction
of the New River, that Myddelton made it out of the profits of a Welsh silver mine,
that he died in poverty, &c., are without foundation. The river was constructed for
ahout 17,000/!., and Myddelton himself lived long enough to derive a large profit from
its financial prosperity. King James, by the way, tumbled into it ; and when he was
pulled out " there came much water out of his mouth and body j" and much choler
thereupon when he afterwards encountered Myddelton, and complained of his omitting
to put up a fence. Sir Hugh was obliged to part with his 36 shares, when they were
divided among various persons j these are called " adventurers' " shares. The 72 parts
into which the property is now divided are still counted as 36 " adventurers' " and 36
*' King's " shares, and the Royal annuity is still paid out of the profits apportioned to the
latter. It is a curious fact that Sir Hugh precluded James from taking any part in
the management of the company, although he allowed a person to be present at the
meetings, to prevent injustice to his Royal principal. This preclusion still extends
to the holders of the Royal shares. The works were now resumed ; and on the 29th
Sept. 1613, five years and five months from the commencement of the undertaking,
and the day on which Sir Thomas Myddelton, Hugh's brother, was elected Lord Mayor,
the water was let into the basin at Clerkenwell (which had been previously a ducking-
pond — " an open, idoU pool ") with great ceremony, before the Lord Mayor, aldermen,
and principal citizens: a troop of labourers "wearing green Monmouth caps, and
carrying spades, shovels, and pickaxes," marched after drums round the cistern j and
one man delivered forty-eight lines in verse, ending with : —
*' Now for the fruits, then. Flow forth, precious spring.
So long and dearly sought for, and now bring
Comfort to all that love thee; loudly sing,
And with thy crystal murmurs struck together.
Bid all thy true well-wishers welcome hither."
" When the floodgates flew open, the stream ran gallantly into the cisterne, drummes
and trumpets sounding in triumphall manner, and a brave peal of chambers (guns)
gave full issue to the intended entertainment.'^ There is an engraving by George
Bickham of this animated ceremony. It shows the water flowing into a round
reservoir, around which are grouped various persons, conspicuous among whom
is the Lord Mayor, upon a white horse. On his left is Sir Hugh Myddelton,
on the right is his brother, between Sir Thomas and Sir Henry Montague, the
Recorder. Bishop Parker speaks of "the greate distruction of cheese-cakes at the
opening of the New River ;" Islington having long been celebrated for its cakes and
cream.
Then came the diflaculty of distributing the water "by pipes of stone and lead." In
Hughson's London, vol. vi. p. 358, is the copy of a lease granted in 1616 by Hugh
Myddelton to a citizen and his wife "of a pipe or quill of half-inch bore, for the service
of their yarde and kitchene by means of two swan-necked cockes," for 26*. 8d. yearly.
And we read of the governor of Christ's Hospital, in 1631, paying for " New River
water 41." the year. And in 14th Report of Commissioners of Charities, up to 1825 :
Staff'ord's Almshouses in Gray's-inn-lane, for 10 persons, in 1651, stood upon half an
acre taken out of Liquorpond-field ; 30*. per annum paid to the New River Company
for water taken there. Such as lived at a distance from the main were supplied by the
water-carriers, who carried the water in wooden pails slung from a yoke across their
shoulders, and cried, "Any New River water here ?" In Tempest's Cr^es of London,
I7l 1, is engraved one of these old water-bearers. Hone, in 1827, said the cry was
scarcely extinct; and we recollect water thus cried at Hampstead, about 1851.
Myddelton was created a baronet in 1622. The proprietors were incorporated in
1619 as the New River Company, Sir Hugh being appointed the first governor, and
this being the first water company; although Ben Jonson, in 1598, says, "We have
water-companies now, instead of water-carriers." {Every Man in his Humour.)
The Charter makes it a penal offence to cast into the river earth, rubbish, soil,
gravel, stones, dogs, cats, cattle, carrion, &c. ; prohibits, " under penalty of the
King's displeasure," persons from washing clothes, wool, &c., in it, and from conveying
thereto any sink, sewer, ditch, &c. ; and forbids the planting of sallows, willows, or
NEW BIVEB. 611
€lm8 witliin five yards of it. In the Calendar of State Papers of this period are many
entries of grants of rents and profits, and places of emolument; but when, in 1665,
the King recommended Simon, son of Sir Hugh Myddelton, as clerk of the Company,
this appointment was refused. No dividend was made by the Company till 1633,
when 11^. 9*. Id. was divided upon each share. The second dividend amounted to
only 31. 4s. 2d.
Sir Hugh died December 10, 1631, and was buried in the churchyard of St.
Matthew, Friday-street, London. He died, holding shares in the Company, and
others in mines in Wales. He bequeathed to the Goldsmitlis' Company one New
River Share, which formerly produced 314^. per annum, but does not now reach 200^. ;
the produce is distributed half-yearly among the poor of the Company, especially to
men of Myddelton's name or kindred. There is a fine portrait of Sir Hugh, by
Janssen, at Goldsmiths' Hall.
Lady Myddelton, the mother of the last Barcnet, " received a pension of 201. per
annum from the Goldsmiths' Company, which, after her death, was continued to her
son Hugh, though he possessed other property : he was a person of dissipated habits,
and with him the baronetcy became extinct. In July, 1808, the Corporation of London
ordered an annuity of 50^. to be paid to a male descendant of the Myddelton family,
then in great distress. Another lineal descendant, Jabez Myddelton, received a pension
of 621. per annum from the Corporation until his death, 27th March, 1828 ; and in
.Tuly of that year, Mrs. Jane Myddelton Bowyer had 30Z. a year allowed her. This
annuity was reduced to Is. a week in September, when Mrs. Plummer, another of the
family (since dead) was permitted to receive the same weekly stipend. The Cor-
poration have since passed a resolution to the efiect that they will grant no more re-
lief to Myddelton's family." — Pinks's History of ClerJcenwell, p. 468.
The River, in its devious course from the fountain-head at Chadwell, meanders
through the towns and villages of Hoddesden, Cheshunt, Enfield, Hornsey, Stoke
Newington, and Islington; enters the parish of Clerkenwell at the bridge under
the Goswell-road, and flowing through Owen's-row, submerges beneath St. John-street-
Toad ; thence it proceeds between Myddelton-place and Sadler's Wells, and passing
beneath a third bridge, enters the Company's grounds, where its waters are received
into the great reservoir called its Head. By the formation, since the year 1852, of
more direct channels at Warmley, Theobalds, Forty Hill, Enfield, Southgate, Wood
Green, and Hornsey, the river has been shortened by about ten miles. The river,
between the Thatched House, Islington, and Colebrook-row, has, from the first, passed
through an underground arch or tunnel. The stream between Bird's-buildings and the
Head was covered by iron pipes in the year 1861. The Company obtained two Acts
of Parliament — 1852, 15 & 16 Vict,, cap. cix. ; and 1854, 17 Vict., cap. Ixxii. — to
empower them to shorten the river, to filter the water, to cover their filtered water
reservoirs, and otherwise to improve and greatly enlarge their Works, at a cost of
nearly a million sterling. About where the New River enters Islington parish, it was
formerly conducted over the valley by an enormous wooden trough, 462 feet in length,
and 17 feet high, lined with lead, and supported on brick piers, and it then went by
the name of " the Boarded River ;" but in 1776, a passage for the stream was made
in a bank of earth nearly along the old track. There was a similarly boarded aque-
duct constructed at Bush-hill, Edmonton, in 1608. Myddelton's house here gave,
perhaps, the first occasion to the project ; and the great addition this stream made to
the pleasures of Theobalds, encouraged James L, who resided there, to have the design
completed, as it ran through his park and gardens. As a specimen of early engineer-
ing, this great work has an interesting and instructive history.
The New River Head is a vast circular basin enclosed by a brick wall, whence the
water is conveyed by sluices into large brick cisterns, and thence by mains and ridei-s,
named according to the districts which they supply. Here is the Company's house,
originally built in 1613 : the board-room, over one of the cisterns, is wainscoted, and
has a fine specimen of Gibbons's carving; on the ceiling are a portrait of William III.,
and the arms of Myddelton and Green.
North of the New River Head, the stream was formerly let into a tank or reservoir
under the stage of Sadler's Wells Theatre, which was drawn up by machinery for
bb2
612 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
**real water" scenes, the water being sufficiently deep for men to swim in. Formerly,
in the fields behind the British Museum, the New River pipes were propped up six or
eight feet, so that persons walked under them to gather water-cresses.
The entire works have cost upwards of a million and a half of money. The main source
of supply is now the River Lea. The water has only been filtered since 1852 : the filter-
ing-beds, gravel and Harwich sand, have cost upwards of 35,000/. The water having
reached the Works at Islington, is there filtered, and delivered into a tunnel 800 feet
long, and 8ft. by 6ft. 6in. diameter, whence it is passed by steam-engines of 300 horse
power, into the service reservoir and distributing mains : the channels at Islington,
by Mylne, contain two millions and a half of bricks. The east service reservoir at
Pentonville, built in hydraulic lime, contains 4 millions of bricks, of which nearly
40,000 were laid in one day ; and the covering of this reservoir cost 21,000/. The
Stoke Newington Works oompi-ise five filter-beds, each exceeding one acre, fed from a
reservoir, which covers nearly 40 acres; and the engine-house contains six steam-
engines — 1000 horses — which convey the water to service reservoirs, near Highgate,
each of which will contain 1^ million gallons of filtered water. Notwithstanding
this is the oldest metropolitan water supply, it is still called New River. The
Company have removed their old aqueducts and reservoirs in different parts of the
metropolis, and have built on the sites they occupied. The well-known canal which
used to supply the real water to Sadler's Wells Theatre has been drained dry, and
filled in, and large iron water-pipes have been placed in its bed. The reservoir in
Coppice-row has also been removed. The name of Myddelton is honoured in Clerkenwell
and Islington : street and square and hall bear his name, as well as Chadwell and
Amwell; and of Mylne, the engineer of the Company. Upon Islington-green is a
portrait statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton, presented by Sir Morton Peto, Bart., M.P. ;
it is the work of John Thomas, and is of Sicilian marble, 8 feet 6 inches high, the
figure being in the costume of the period. It is on a pedestal sculptured with dolphins
and nautilus-shells, fountains, festoons of shells, water-flowers, &c. ; the group in the
centre of a basin for water, with a bold ornamental curb, in the Italian style.
The marketable value of the Company's shares has varied considerably at different periods. In 1727,
a King's share was valued at 5000 guineas ; in 1766, the clear annual value of a King's share was 154Z. ;
in August, 1770, a similar share, said to yield 240Z. per annum, was advertised for sale, and fetched
7000^.; in 1805, one was sold at the Senegal Coffee House for 44001. ; at Garraway's, in 1813, an adven-
turer's share produced 8000/!., and in 1814, 7450Z. j in August, 1822, a moiety of one of the same shares
sold for 4725?. In 1838, an original share sold for 18,000 guineas ; in 1837, two quarter shares were sold
at the rate of 18,900?. per share; and in the beginning of 1839, two whole shares were sold, one for
17,000?., the other for 17,500?. On Jan. 28, 1852, three-sevenths of a quarter of a King's share sold for
ItOO?., the dividend on this portion producing 90?. per annum. The value of a share at the present time-
is about 20,000?. Sir Henry Nevill, Knt,, who was one of the original adventurers with Myddelton,
mentioned among the grantees of the Company's Charter, June 21, 1619, and who died in 1629, pos-
sessed two parts in thirty-six parts of the Water-course and New River running from Chadwell and
Amwell, then valued at 13?. Os. 4c?. per annum. The annual rental of the Company in 1851 was 135,794?.,
and it is now 204,750?. About 112,000 houses are now supplied with water by the New River. The
daily supply is 25 millions of gallons. The Company have nearly 600 miles of pipes, &c., valued at
about 600,000?.
If^UTF-ROAD,
THE New-road was formed by Act of Parliament of the 29th of Geo. II., in the
year 1756, but not without much petty opposition thereto from the landholders
whose property lay in the line of the proposed new route to the west-end. Horace
Walpole notices, in one of his letters, the objection of the Duke of Bedford to it on
account of the " dust it would make in the rear of Bedford-house ;" and adds, that " the
duke is too short-sighted to see the prospect." A complaint was made by one of the
Duke's tenants, who held from him a large cow-farm in the intended route, at a rental
of SL an acre, " that the dust and the number of people must entirely spoil her fields,
and make them no better than common-land ; she intreats his Grace to prevent such
an evil, as it would be impossible for her to hold his estate without a large abatement
of rent."
On such frivolous opposition the Puhlic Advertizer, of Feb. 20, 1756, remarks that
" all objections to new roads, which arise merely from partial and separate interests,
that happen in this respect to be opposite to the interests of the public, should have no
J
NEW'BOAD. 613
weight." The journalist then proceeds to notice the advantages to the public in general
of the proposed thoroughfare. " How much the communication with almost every
part of the metropolis will be facilitated. Drovers from the west will pass from the
extremity of the city to the centre in one continued straight line. Persons that have
business in other parts may reach them by cross-roads communicating with the main
line ; and persons of fashion, who live in the great squares and buildings about Oxford-
road, may come into the city without being jolted three miles over the stones, or
perhaps detained three hours by a stop in a narrow street. It must also be remem-
bered that those who shall find it necessary to pass througli the streets will pass much
more commodiously, as the number of carriages will be lessened and the pavement
preserved."
In the preamble of the Act of 29th Geo. II., it is stated, " that in times of threatened
invasion, the New Eoad will form a complete line of circumvallation, and his Majesty^s
forces may easily and expeditiously march their way into Essex to defend our coasts,
without passing through the cities of London and Westminster."
When this great trunk-line of road was in course of construction, the progress made
upon it was from time to time noticed in the public journals. Thus, under date May 8,
1756, we are apprised of its early commencement by being informed that on the
Wednesday following, the trustees would meet, and that on the next day the men were
to work upon it. At this period the expense of making the road was computed at
8000^. After the lapse of a few months, during the interval of which the road-makers
must have worked industriously, the following appeared in print on tlie 13th of
September, 1756 : — " It is with pleasure we assure the public that great numbers of
coaches, carriages, and horsemen daily pass over the New-road, from Islington to Battle-
bridge." Five days later, September 17th, we are informed that the banks and fences
of the land between Paddington and Islington were levelled, and the New Road across
the fields opened to the public. In the December of 1756, the expensiveness of the
road was adverted to, and 100,000 cart-loads of gravel estimated to be required for its
completion.
Within half a century, Bedford House was levelled to the ground, and the fields
beyond it are now covered with houses, enlarging by many thousands the income of the
Bedford family, with a reversionary interest in a city of itself. The New-road is the great
omnibus route from Paddington to the City ; whereas in 1798 only one coach ran from
Paddington to the Bank, and the proprietor was nearly ruined by the speculation !
Shillibeer, the first omnibus-proprietor, fared no better in 1829.
The pleasant aspect of this grand thoroughfare during several months of the year,
which the trees and the gardens in front of most of the houses contribute chiefly to
impart, is owing to a clause in the original Act for making the road, prohibiting the
erection of any building within 50 feet of it ; whilst at the same time it empowers the
authorities of parishes througli which the road passes to pull down any sucli erection,
and levy the expenses on the offender's goods and chattels. The lapse of a century,
however, seems to have materially modified this penal enactment, for numerous are the
instances in which the 50-feet plot is built upon.
The New-road is now variously named as follows : — Between the Angel at Islington
and King's-cross, the Pentonville-road ; from King's-cross to Osnaburgh-street,
JEuston-road ; and from Osnaburgh-street to Edgware-road, the Marylehone-road.
J. T. Smith has left this reminiscence of the New-road : —
Wilson was fond of playing at skittles, and frequented the Green Ifan public-house in the New-road,
at the end of Norton-street, originally known as " The Farthing Pye House ;" where bits of mutton
were put into a crust shaped like a pie, and actually sold for a farthing. This house was kept in my
boyish days by a very facetious man named Price, of whom there is a mezzotinto portrait. He was an
excellent salt-box player, and frequently accompanied the famous Abel when playing on the violoncello.
Wilkes was a frequenter of this house, to procure votes for Middlesex, as it was resorted to by many
opulent freeholders.
In 1856, Harley House, in the New-road, was the residence of the ex-lloyal Family
of Oude, with their retinue, 110 persons. Here were the young Prince, the heir-ap-
parent, and his uncle, brother to the deposed King ; and the Queen Mother, with her
female attendants, some thirty in number.
614 CUniOSITIES OF LONDON,
NEWGATE- STEI:ET,
NAMED from the City-gate at its east end, has on the south side the end of New-
gate Prison, and extends eastward to Cheapside, with lanes and courts on the south
leading to Paternoster -row. On the north side is the front of the great hall of Christ's
Hospital, huilt upon the site of Grey Friars' monastery ; the principal gates have cha-
racteristic casts and sculpture. Nearly opposite is WarwicTc-lane, with a bas-relief of
Guy Earl of Warwick, dated 1668. In the Lane was the old College of Physicians,
taken down in 1866. Here are the old inns, the Bell and Oxford Arms. Next ia
Ivy-lane, " so called of ivy growing on the walls of the Prebend-house." {Stow.)
Br. Johnson, in 1748, with Hawkesworth and Hawkins, formed a Club for literary
discussion. Here also have lived piiblishers for two centuries.
" I was at Rayston's shop, in Ivie Lane, Febr. the 8, 1661. Hee printed the Marquis of Winchester's
conference with the King; hee printed most of the Royalists' Works, as Hamonds', Taylor's pieces, and
others." — Diary qfthe Rev. John Ward.
On the north side, up a passage, is Christ Church, described at p. 157. Next is
King Edward-street, so named in 1843 ; formerly Blowbladder-street, Butcher-hall-
lane, Chick-lane, and Stinking-lane. Above Bull-head-court is a stone bas-relief of
William Evans, 7 feet 6 inches high, porter to Charles I. , and Jeffrey Hudson, the
King's Dwarf, 3 feet 9 inches high. Bath-street, first Pincock or Pentecost- lane, and
next Bagnio-court, was named from there being here the first bagnio in town, after the
Turkish manner. {See Baths, p. 38.)
In Newgate-street, nearly opposite, is Banyer-alley, where is the sculptured stone
described at p. 516 : it is stated by Stow to have been a sign. In Ben Jonson's
Bartholomew Fair we read of the stinking tripe of Panyer-alley. In Queen's Head-
passage is a Queen Anne tavern, now Dolly's Chop-house : Gainsborough is said to
have painted Dolly. The Passage is named from the Queen's Head Tavern, which
occupied the site of the premises of Alderman Sir B. S. Phillips, Lord Mayor, 1865-6.
NEWINGTON, OR NEWINOTON BUTTS,
A LARGE parish in Surrey, adjoining St. George, Southwark, north and east;
Camberwell, south ; and Lambeth, west. In Domesday Book (11th century), the
only inhabited part of this parish was Walworth, where, according to the Norman
survey, was a church, upon the rebuilding of which on a new site it probably became
** surrounded with houses, which obtained the name of Neweton, as it is called in the
most ancient records j it was afterwards spelt Newenton and Newington." (Lysons's
Environs, vol. i. p. 389.) Here were hvMs for archery practice : the earliest record of
Neivington Butts is in the register of Archbishop Pole at Lambeth, date 1558. In the
reign of Henry VIII. (1546), three men were condemned as Anabaptists, and " brent
in the highway beyond Southwark, towards Newenton." (Stow's Chronicle, p. 964.)
The only manor in the parish is Walworth, given by King Edmund Ironside to Hitard,
his jester, who, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, gave the vill of Walworth to
the monks of Christ Church at Canterbury. They received from Edward II. a grant
of free-warren here; and in the reign of Edward III. and Richard II., and subse-
quently, the manor is said to have been held by persons of a family named from this
place : thus, Margaret de Walworth, lady of the manor in 1396, was the widow of the
famous Sir William Walworth ; and at Walworth is a modern sign of his killing Wat
Tyler in Smithfield. In the museum of the Society of Antiquaries is a dagger which
was found on the supposed site of Sir William's house at Walworth. {See FiSH-
MONGEEs' Hall, p. 401.) Sir George Walworth died seized of the manor in 1474.
In the valuation of Church property, 26 Henry VIII., it is rated at 37^. 8*. In the
reign of Henry III., the queen's goldsmith held of the king, in capite, one acre of
land in Neweton, by the service of rendering one gallon of honey. The old church
(St. Mary's) is described at p. 187. There are district churches and various sectarian
chapels. South of Newington Causeway (the first road across the swampy fields) is
Horsemonger-lane, opposite which was formerly a hay-market. In the lane are the
County Gaol and Surrey Sessions-house, built upon the site of a market-garden, three
and a half acres, by George Gwilt, 1798-9. At Walworth, upon a demesne once-
NEWSPAPERS. 615
attached to the manor-house, were the Surrey Zoological Gardens, whither Cross re-
moved his menagerie from the King's Mews in 1831 ; and where, in 1856, was
built a large Music Hall, described at p. 609, subsequently occupied as St. Thomas's
Hospital. In Walworth -road is a handsome Vestry-hall, Lombardic in style, red brick,
with dressings of Portland stdne, and shafts of polished red granite.
Maitland notes : west of the Fishmongers* Almshouses {see p, 8) " is a moorish ground, with a
small watercourse denominated the river Tygris, which is part of Cnut's trench ; the outfiux of which is
on the east side of Rotherhithe parish, where the Great Wet Dock is situate." In 1823, when the road
between the almshouses and Newington Church was dug up for a new sewer, some piles and posts were
discovered, with rings for mooring barges; also a pot of coins of Charles II. and William III. A
parishioner named Farns, who died, aged 109 years, early in the present century, remembered when
boats came up this " river " as far as the church at Newington. (Brayley's Surrey, vol. iii. p. 405.) The
old Elephant and Castle is noticed at p. 453.
NEWINGTON, OB STOKE NEWINGTON,
TN Domesday, Newtone, and Stoke Neweton as early as 1391, is named from the
-*- Saxon stoc, wood, it having been part of the ancient forest of Middlesex ; and in
1649 here were upwards of 77 acres of woodland in demesne. It is separated from
Hackney and Ossulston by the great road, anciently the Ermen-street. Tradesmen's
tokens were issued from here in the l7th century : one exists with " Laurence Short,
Adam and Eve" (in the field between Ishngton church and the City-road) ; and
another, " John Ball, at the Boarded House, neere Newington Greene," who kept a
low house for bull-baiting, duck-hunting, &c. at Ball's Pond, long since filled up, but it
gives name to a little hamlet. At Stoke Newington Daniel Defoe (whence Defoe-
road') and Thomas Day (Sandford and Merton) were educated; John Howard
the philanthropist lodged here, and married his landlady; Hannah Snell, the
soldier, lived in Chm-ch-street ; here died Mrs. Barbauld, in 1825, in her 82na
year. The mansion of Sir Thomas Abney, where Dr. Watts resided with his pious
friend, existed until 1844, when the fine grounds were converted into the Abney Park
Cemetery. Mrs. Abney, the daughter of Sir Thomas, ordered by her will that this
estate should be sold, and the produce distributed in charitable donations, which was
accordingly done : it amounted to many thousand pounds.
Newington Green, in the parishes of Stoke Newington and Islington, had, within the
present century, several ancient houses, one of which, on the south side, was tra-
ditionally a palace of Henry VIII. ; and a path leading from the Green to Ball's Pond
turnpike has been, time out of mind, called King Henry's Walk : the house was, how-
ever, evidently built in the reign of James I. At the north-west corner of the Greon
was " Bishop's Place," where Henry Algernon, Earl Percy, is said to have written
his memorable letter disclaiming matrimonial contract with Queen Anne Boleyn, dated
" at Newington Greene," the 13th of May, 28th Henry VIII. Thomas Sutton,
founder of the Charterhouse, was once an occupant of the Manor House ; one of its
ancient hostelries, the Three Croions, was the place of refreshment for .I^niCS VI. of
Scotland when he was met on Stamford-hill by the Lord Mayor, on his way from Holy-
rood to London ; and the Earls of Bath and Oxford had mansions here. Here lived
several of the ejected ministers, towards the close of the l7th century : Colonel Popham
and Charles Fleetwood, two of Cromwell's best men ; and many of the heroes of the
Revolution of 1688 found shelter here. Adjoining Bishop's Place was a porch-house,
wherein was born, in 1762, Samuel Rogers, the poet.
Stoke Newington is one of the few rural villages in the immediate environs.
Though, as the crow flies, but three miles from the General Post Office, it is still rich in
parks, and gardens, and old trees. Here is a cedar which dates from the first intro-
duction of this noble tree into England ; mulberry, oak, walnut, and elm trees abound j
gardens where horticulture is practised according to the latest lights ; and here was
established the first Chrysanthemum Society.
NEWSPAPERS.
THE earliest printed London newspapers are preserved in the British Museum, and
described at p. 585. The News of the Present Week, edited by Nathaniel Butler,
was ridiculed in Ben Jonson's Staple of News, 1625; and a few months after, in Fletchers
616 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Fair Maid of the Inn : it was sold " at the Exchange, and in Pope's-head Pallace."
In 1696 there were nine newspapers published in London, all weekly. In 1709 the
newspapers had increased to eighteen : in this year appeared the Daily Courant, the
first morning paper ; and to the reign of Queen Anne the first publication of " regular
newspapers " must be referred. In 1724 there were three daily, six weekly, seven
three times a week, three halfpenny posts, and the London Gazette twice a week; in
1792, thirteen daily, and 20 semi-weekly and weekly papers.
The English Chronicle, or Whitehall Dvening Post, was started 1747;* the
Public Ledger was commenced Jan. 12, 1760, by Newbery, the bookseller, and in it
appeared Goldsmith's Citizen of the World; the St. James's Chronicle, 1761 ; and the
Morning Chronicle, 1769.
The Morning Chronicle was conducted by William Woodfall till 1789, when he was suc-
ceeded by James Perry, who introduced the present system of reporting the debates in
Parliament. Mr. (Serjeant) Spankie was long editor of the Chronicle; Lord Campbell com-
menced on it his London career, and was its theatrical critic in 1810. Coleridge and
Campbell were contributors. Sheridan names the Chronicle in his Critic : Canning in
a poem ; Byron addressed to it a familiar letter : Hazlitt was its theatrical critic ;
and here first appeared Sketches ly Boz (Charles Dickens). After Perry's death
(1821), the Chronicle was purchased for 42,000?. by Mr. Clement, who, in 1834, sold
it to Sir John Easthope, Bart., who was connected with it until 1847. The Chronicle
was discontinued March 20, 1862. Until 1822, it was printed at 143, Strand: and in the
same office was subsequently printed, by John Limbird, the Mirror, the first of the
cheap illustrated periodicals.
The Morning Post, established in 1772, circulated in 1795 only 350 a-day. Coleridge, in
his Tahle-Talk, states that he raised the sale in one year tc 7000 ; in 1803 it was 4500 :
" Coleridge, long before his flighty pen
Let to the Morning Post its aristocracy."— Byron's Don Juan.
Sir ■ James Mackintosh and Charles Lamb were also contributors ; and Mackworth
Praed, the poet, was some time editor.
The Morning Herald was commenced November 1, 1780, by Mr. Bate, afterwards
Sir Henry Bate Dudley, who seceded from the Morning Post.
The Times was commenced by John Walter, in Printing-house-square, Blaekfriars,
previously the site of the King's Printing-House.f The first number, January 1,
1788 (that in the British Museum has no stamp), was a continuation of the Daily
Universal Register, No. 939, which, with the Times, was " printed logographically,'*
i. e. with stereotyped words and metal letters. In 1803, the late John Walter, son
of the above, became joint-proprietor and exclusive manager of the Times, whence by
priority of its intelligence, it has risen to be the " leading journal of Europe." The
Times of November 29, 1814, was the first newspaper printed by steam, from two
machines made by Koenig, which produced 1800 per hour, until 1827, when they were
superseded by Applfegath and Cowper's four-eylindered machine, yielding 5000 im-
pressions per hour; and in 1848 was erected Applegath's vertical machine,
producing 8000 copies in an hour. Mr. Walter died in Printing-house-square in 1847,
bequeathing a large personal estate, and having erected and endowed a handsome
church at Bearwood, Berks. He devised his interest in the Times to his son, John
Walter, M.P. fi)r Nottingham, the present proprietor ; the journal being thus still in the
hands of the family of its founder, and in this respect standing alone amongst the
morning papers. (Hunt's Fourth Estate, vol. ii. p. 153.) Amongst the many valuable
services rendered by the Times to the commercial world, was the detection and ex-
posure of the Bogle conspiracy in 1841 ; in indemnification of which, 2625?. — the Times
Testimonial — was subscribed by the London merchants and bankers, but was declined ;
and the amount was invested in scholarships at Christ's Hospital and the City of
London School, where and in the Royal Exchange are commemorative tablets, as also
upon the fagade of the Times Office.
The Times Printing Machinery may be inspected by previously obtaining cards, at
* There had previously been a London Chronicle, which was regularly read by George III., whose
copy of it may be seen in the British Museum.— Hunt's Fourth Estate, vol. ii. p. 99.
t Beneath the Times Office is a fragment of the Roman wall, upon which is a Norman or Early Eng-
lish reparation ; and upon that are the remains of a passage and window, which probably belonged to
the Blackfriars raowisiQrj.— National Miscellany, October, 1853.
NEWSPAPERS. 617
11 A.M., when the second edition of the paper is being printed. We can only describe
generally this great improvement in newspaper printing — a machine in which the type
is placed on the surface of a cylinder of large dimensions, which revolves on a vertical
axis, with a continuous rotary motion. The cylinder is a drum of cast iron ; the form,
or pages of type, are made segments of its surface, just as a tower of brick might be
faced with stonco Eight printing cylinders are arranged round the drum, and eight
sheets are printed in every revolution. The type only covers a small portion of the
circumference of the drum, and in the interval there is a large inking table, fixed like
the type on its circular face. This table communicates the ink to eight upright inking
rollers, placed between the several printing cylinders — the rollers, in their turn, com-
municating the ink to the type. So far the arrangement is perfectly simple, the
machine being, in fact, composed of the parts in ordinary use, only made circular and
placed in a vertical instead of a horizontal position. The great problem of the inventor
was the right mode of " feeding," or supplying the sheets of paper to their printing
cylinders in their new position — or changing the sheet of paper (the Times newspaper)
in less than four seconds, from a horizontal to a vertical position and back again ; and
through still more changes of direction; which is done by passing through endless
tapes and vertical rollers in rapid motion, which convey it round the printing cylinders,
each of which always touches the type at the same corresponding point, the surfaces
moving with a great velocity. The Times machines are also well described in Weale's
London, p. 76.
"No description,'* says Hansard {Tlncy. Brit., 8th edit.), " can give any adequate
idea of the scene presented by one of these machines in full work, — the maze of wheels
and rollers, the intricate lines of swift-moving tapes, the flight of sheets, and the din of
machinery. The central drum moves at the rate of six feet per second, or one revolu-
tion in three seconds ; the impression cylinder makes five revolutions in the same time.
The layer-on delivers two sheets every five seconds, consequently fifteen sheets are
printed in that brief space. The Times employs two of these eight-cylinder machines,
each of which averages 12,000 impressions per hour ; and one nine-cylinder, which
prints 16,000." Also, Hoe's American machine, with ten horizontal cylinders, for
working 20,000 impressions in an hour.
The Times has nearly quadrupled its circulation since 1838. Its daily number in
1853 was between 42 and 43,000. The Paper and Supplement, 72 columns, is made
up of more than a million of pieces of type. In 1846, the profit on each paper was
stated to be three-eighths of a penny, out of which were to be defrayed all the expenses
of the journal, except paper and stamp. The annual amount of stamp duty was 60,000^.
Among the largest issues of the Times were, Oct. 29, 1844 (opening of the New Royal
Exchange), 50,000. Jan. 28, 1846, (Sir R. Peel's speech on the Corn Laws and the
Tariff), 52,000, when the usual number was between 27 and 28,000. March 1, 1848
(French Revolution), 48,000. April 11, 1848 (Chartist Meeting), 46,000. May 2, 1851
(opening of the Great Exhibition), 55,000. Sept. 15 and 16, 1852 (Death of the Duke
of Wellington), 2 days, each 53,000. Nov. 19, 1852 (Funeral of the Duke), 70,000.
The advertisements during June 1853 averaged 1500 each day ; and in one day in
June there were 2250 inserted ! then the greatest number that had ever appeared in
one paper. It has been stated, that in printing one of the above large issues were
used 7 tons of paper ; surface printed, 30 acres ; weight of type, 7 tons.
Among the literary coUaborateurs of the Times, the names of Barnes, Sterling, and
Twiss are prominent. Mr. Justice Talfourd and Baron Alderson were once upon its
staff; as were also Mr. Gilbert ^ Beckett, and Mr. Thackeray. The editorship was
offered to Southey, with a salary of 2000/. per annum, but was declined ; and a similar
offer was made to the poet Moore, with a like result.
The Morning Advertiser was established in 1795, as the organ of the interests and
charities of Licensed Victuallers.
The Daily News dates from 1846.
The Star, the first daily evening newspaper, established in 1788 by Peter Stuart,
was long conducted by Dr. Tilloch, editor of the Philosophical Magazine.
Johnson's Sunday Monitor, the first newspaper pnbhshed on the Sabbath, appeared
in 1778. The oldest weekly newspaper is the Observer, established 1792. Bell's
Weekly Messenger dates from 1796.
618 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Illustrated London News, projected by Herbert Ingram, and commenced by
him May 14, 1842, enjoys the largest sale of the high-priced weekly papers. In 1852
there were sold 230,000, double number (Funeral of the Duke of Wellington). The
issues have since far exceeded this number — as at Christmas, double sheet. The sale
throughout the Crimean war approached 200,000 each week.
The City Press is entitled to commendable mention here for its special attention to
London antiquities, as well as its weekly chronicle of current events.
After the remission of the stamp duty, the number of daily newspapers considerably
increased, so that there are now published in the metropolis 25 daily papers.
On Monday, March 9, 1863 (Marriage of the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alexandra of Den-
mark), the circulation of the Tirnen was 135,000 ; of these three papers, at one penny, Daily Telegraph,
230,000; Morning Star and Standard between 80,000 and 100,000 each. The day of the Wedding was
Tuesday, the 10th, and on Wednesday, the 11th, the circulation was sustained and increased. The
Illustrated London News' orders were for 315,000, but only 200,000 could be executed. The value of the
Times' edition amounts to 1687^. 10». : the Daily Telegraph to 958Z. 6s. %d. ; the Illustrated London
News, at \Qd., to 8333Z. 6». 8d. The daily circulation of the Daily Telegraph in 1866 was 138,704.
OLD BAILEY.
THE street extending from Ludgate-hill to Newgate-street ; " outside of Ludgate,
parallel with the walls as far as Newgate." Hence the name — from the halliumf
or outer space, near Ludgate,* its relative position in regard to the ancient wall of the
City ; the remains of which might be traced in some massive stone- work in Seacoal-
lane, at the bottom of Breakneck-steps, west of the Old Bailey ; and opposite its
entrance from Ludgate-hill, in St. Martin's-court. {See p. 539.) Maitland, how-
ever, refers Old Bailey to Bail-hill ; an eminence whereon was situated the hail, or
bailiff's house, wherein he held a court for the trial of malefactors : and the place of
security where the Sheriff keeps the prisoners during the session is still named the
Bail-doclc. Stow states the Chamberlain of London to have kept his court here in
the reign of Edward III. In Pennant's time, here stood Sydney House (then occupied
by a coachmaker), the mansion of the Sydneys till they removed to Leicester-fields
{see p. 511). The Old Bailey Sessions-house is described at pp. 506-507.
"By a sort of second-sight, the Surgeons' Theatre was built near this court of conviction and New-
gate, the concluding stage of the lives forfeited to the justice of their country, several years before the
fatal tree was removed from Tyburn to its present site. It is a handsome building, ornamented with
Ionic pilasters, and with a double flight of steps to the first floor. Beneath is a door for the admission
of the bodies of murderers and other felons, who, noxious in their lives, make a sort of reparation to
their fellow-creatures by becoming useful after death." — Pennant.
After the execution of Lord Ferrers, at Tyburn, in 1760, the body was conveyed
in his own landau and six to Surgeons' Hall, to undergo the remainder of the sentence.
A large incision having been made from the neck to the bottom of the breast, and
another across the throat, the lower part of the belly was laid open, and the bowels
were taken away. The body was afterwards publicly exposed to view in a first-floor
room ; and a print of the time shows the corpse " as it lay in the Surgeons' Hall."
Here sat the Court of Examiners, by whom Oliver Goldsmith was rejected 21st De-
cember, 1758 ; and in the books of the College of Surgeons, amidst a long list of can-
didates who passed, occur : " James Bernard, mate to an hospital. Oliver Goldsmith^
found not qualified for ditto" "A rumour of this rejection long existed; and on a
hint from Maton, the king's physician, Mr. Pryor succeeded in discovering it."
(Forster's Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith, p. 140.) Surgeons' Hall was
taken down in 1809, and upon its site was built the New Sessions-house ; whence
the prison of Newgate extends on the east side of the street, widened at the north end
by the removal of the houses of the Little Old Bailey. Here the place of execution was
changed from Tyburn in 1783, and the first culprit executed Dec. 9. The gallows was
built with three cross-beams, for as many rows of sufferers ; and between February and
December, 1785, ninety-six persons suffered by " the new drop," substituted for the cart.
About 1786, here was the last execution followed by burning the body ; when a woman
was hung upon a low gibbet, and life being extinct, fagots were heaped around her and
over her head, fire was set to the pile, and the corpse burnt to ashes. On one occasion
the old mode of execution was renewed : a triangular gallows was set up in the road
opposite Green Arbour-court, and the cart was drawn from under the criminals' feet.
* The church of St. Peter in the Bailey, at Oxford, derives its appellation from having formerly
stood within the outer ballium of Oxford Castle.
OLD JEWRY. 619
Zlemorahle Executions in the Old Bailey. — Mrs. Phepoe, murderess, Dec. 11, 1797. Governor Wall,
murder, Jan. 28, 1802. Holloway and Hag^erty, murder, Feb. 22, 1807 (30 spectators trodden to death).
Bellingham, assassin of Mr. Perceval, May 18, 1812. Eliza Fanning, poisoning, July 26, 1815. Arthur
Thistlewood and four others (Cato-street gang), murder and treason, May 1, 1820 (their bodies were
decapitated by a surgeon on the scaffold). Fauntleroy, the banker, forgery. Nov. 30, 1824. Joseph
Hun ton (Quaker), forgery, Dec. 8, 1828. Bishop and Williams, murder (burkers), Dec. 5, 1831. John
Fegsworth, murder, March 7, 1837. James Greenacre, murder. May 2, 1837. Courvoisier, murder of
Lord William Russell, July 6, 1840. Francis Muller, murder in a railway carriage, 1864. Seven pirate*
for murder on the high seas, Feb. 23, 1864.
It was formerly the usage to execute the criminal near the scene of his guilt. Those who were punished
capitally for the Riots of 1780 suffered in those parts of the town in which their crimes were committed ;
and in 1790 two incendiaries were hanged in Aldersgate-street, at the eastern end of Long-lane, opposite
the site of the house they had set fire to. Since that period there have been few executions in London,
except in front of Newgate. The last deviation from the regular course was in the case of the sailor
Cashman, who was hung, in 1817, in Skinner-street, opposite the shop of Mr. Beckwith, the gunsmith,
'■ which he had plundered.
In Green Arbour-court, No. 12, at the corner of Breakneck-steps, in Seacoal-lane,
leading from Farringdon-street, lodged Oliver Goldsmith from 1758 to 1760, when he
I wrote for the Monthly Review ; and the editor, Griffiths, became security for the suit of
clothes in which Goldsmith otfered himself for examination at Surgeons' Hall. In this
miserable lodging he was writing his Polite Learning Enquiry, when Dr. Percy called
! upon him, and the fellow-lodger's poor ragged girl came to borrow " a chamberpotful
I of coals." The house was taken down thirty years since.
I Peter Bales, the celebrated penman, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, kept a writing-
' school, in 1590, at the upper end of the Old Bailey, and published here his Writing
Schoolmaster : in a writing trial he won a golden pen, value 201. ; and the " arms of
j caligraphy, viz. azure, a pen or, were given to Bales as a prize." {Sir George Buck.)
j Prynne's Histriomastix was printed *' for Michael Sparke, and sold at the Blue Bible,
I in Little Old Bayly, 1633."
j William Camden, " the nourrice of antiquitie," was born in the Old Bailey, where
his father was a paiuter-stainer. In Ship-court, on the west side, was born William
Hogarth, the painter; and at the corner of Ship-court, No. 67, three doors from
[i Ludgate-hill, William Hone kept a little shop, where he published his noted Parodies
in 1817, for which he was three times tried and acquitted. Next door, at No. 68,
lived the infamous Jonathan Wild.
OLD JEWRY,
A STREET leading from the Poultry to Cateaton-street j and **so called of Jews-
some time dwelling there and near adjoining" (Stow), first brought here by William
Duke of Normandy. They had here, at the north-west corner, a synagogue, suppressed
in 1291 ; it was next the church of the Friars of the Sack : here Robert Large kept his
mayoralty in 1439] Hugh Clopton in 1492; and in Stow's time it was the Windmill
Taveryi, mentioned in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour : its site is denoted by
Windmill-court. " In the reign of Henry VI., at the north end was one of the king's
palaces" {Ration) ; in the reign of Richard III. it was called the Prince's Wardrobe ;
and in 1548, Edward VI., it was sold to Sir Anthony Cope. On the west side,
about 40 yards from Cheapsido, was built in 1670 the Mercers' Chapel Grammar School,
removed in 1787, when Old Jewry was widened.
In a courtyard here was the stately mansion built by Sir Robert Clayton for keeping
his shrievalty in 167 1~2. It was nobly placed upon a stone balustraded terrace, in a
courtyard, and was of fine red brick, richly ornamented. John Evelyn, who was a guest
at a great feast here, describes, in his Diary, Sept. 26, 1672, the mansion as " built
indeede for a greate magistrate at excessive cost. The cedar dining-room is painted
with the history of the Gyants' War, incomparably done by Mr. Streeter ; but the
figures are too near the eye." Mr. Bray, the editor of the Diary ^ adds (1818), " these
paintings have long since been removed to the seat of the Clayton family, at Marden
Park, near Godstone, in Surrey;" in the possession of the present baronet. In 1679-80
Charles 11. and the Duke of York supped at the mansion in the Old Jewry, with Sir
Robert Clayton, then Lord Mayor. The balconies of the houses in the streets were
illuminated with flambeaux ; and the King and the Duke had a passage made for them
by the Trained Bands upon the guard from Cheapside. Sir Robert represented the
620 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
metropolis nearly thirty years in Parliament, and was Father of the City at his decease.
His son was created a baronet in 1731-2. Sir James Thornhill painted the staircase of
the Old Jewry mansion with the story of Hercules and Omphale, besides a copy of the
** Rape of Deianira/' after Guido. The house had several tenants before it was occupied
by Samuel Sharp, the celebrated surgeon. In 1806 it was opened as the temporary
home of the London Institution, with a library of 10,000 volumes. Here, in the rooms
he occupied as librarian of the Institution, died Professor Porson, on the night of
Sunday, Sept. 25, 1808, " with a deep groan, exactly as the clock struck twelve." Dr.
Adam Clarke has left a most interesting account of his visits to Porson here. The
Institution removed from the house in 1810, and it was next occupied as the Museum
of the London Missionary Society, and subsequently divided into offices. The Lord
Mayor's Court was latterly held here. The mansion was taken down in the autumn
of 1863. Although it had been built scarcely two centuries, this mansion was a very
handsome specimen of the palace of a merchant-prince, carrying us back to the sump-
tuous civic life of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when our rich citizens lived
in splendour upon the sites whereon they had accumulated their well-earned wealth.
In Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, Master Stephen dwells at Hogsden, the dwellers of
which have a long suburb to pass before they reach Loudon. " I am sent for this morning by a friend
in the Old Jewry to come to him : it is but crossing over the fields to Moorgate." In the Old Jewry
dwelt Cob the waterman, by the wall at the bottom of Coleman-street, " at the sign of the Water Tan-
hard, hard by the Chreen Lattice." — C. Knight's London, vol. i. p. 368.
OLD STRJEET,
OR JEald-street, is part of a Roman military way, which anciently led from the eastern
to the western parts of the kingdom. Old-street extends from opposite the
north-eastern corner of Charter-house garden to St. Luke's Church {see p. 176) ; whence
to Shoreditch Church (see p. 173) the continuation is Old-street-road, where are St.
Luke's (see p. 438) and the London Lying-in Hospitals. St. Leonard's, Shoreditch,
was anciently a village upon the Eald-street, at some distance north of London ; Hox-
ton, or Hocheston, was originally a small village, and had a market ; and the manor of
Finsbury, in the reign of Henry VIII., consisted chiefly of fields, orchards, and gar-
dens. Old-street was also famous for its nui'sery- grounds ; and here were several alms-
houses, mostly built when this suburb was open, healthful ground. Pest-house-lane
(now Bath-street) was named from a pest-house established here during the Great Plague
of 1665, and removed in 1737. In Brick-lane is one of the three earliest stations es-
tablished by the first Gas Light Company in the metropolis, incorporated in 1812.
Picthatch, a profligate resort, named in the plays of Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, and
Middleton, was supposed to have been in Turnmill-street, Clerkenwell, until Mr. Cun-
ningham identified Picthatch with " Pickaxe-yard," in Old-street, near the Charter-
house. (See Handbook, 2nd edit. p. 400.)
At the corner of Old-street-road, in the City-road, are Vinegar-works, formerly the property of Mr.
James Calvert, who won the first 20,000Z. prize ever drawn in an English lottery, and in a subsequent
lottery gained 5000^.; yet he died in extreme poverty, Feb. 26, 1799.
OMNIBUS, THE,
A HACKNEY carriage for 12 or more passengers inside, is stated to have been tried
■^ about the year 1800, with four horses and six wheels, but unsuccessfully. We re-
member a long-bodied East Grinstead coach in 1808 ; and a like conveyance between
Hemel Hempstead, Herts, and the metropoUs. The Greenwich stages were mostly of
this build; and a character in the farce of Too Late for Dinner, produced in 1820,
talks of " the great green Greenwich coach," the omnibus of that period. Still, its
invention is claimed for M. Baudry, of Nantes. It has been extended to all parts
of the world : even in the sandy environs of Cairo you are whisked to your hotel in an
Oriental omnibus.
Mr. Shillibeer, in his evidence before the Board of Health, states that on July 4,
1829, he started the first pair of omnibuses in the metropolis — from the Bank to the
Yorkshire Stingo, New-road; copied from Paris, where M. Lafitte, the banker, had
OXFORD STREET. 621
previously established omnibuses in 1819. Each of Shillibeer's vehicles carried 22
passengers inside, but only the driver outside ; and each omnibus was drawn by three
horses abreast; the fare was 1*. for the whole journey, and 6d. for half the distance;
and for some time the passengers were provided with periodicals to read on the journey.
Shillibeer's first " conductors " were the two sons of British naval oflBcers, who were
succeeded by young men in velvet liveries. The first omnibuses were called
" Shillibeers," and the name is common to this day in New York. Omnibuses
ruined the elder branch of the Bourbons in 1830: the accidental upset of an
omnibus suggested the first idea of a barricade and thus changed the whole science
of revolutions. Nevertheless, a barricade of vehicles was one of the strategies em-
ployed three centuries before, in England. There are numerous private speculators in
omnibuses, who, no doubt, convey a large amount of passengers ; but the London
General Omnibus Company alone earns from 10,000Z. to 15,000Z. a week, and must
employ several thousand servants. In Exhibition weeks, the receipts have reached
17,000/. (Hackney-Coaches and Cabs, see pp. 392-393.)
OXFORD-STREET,
ORIGINALLY Tyhurn-road, and next Oxford-road (the highway to Oxford), ex-
tends from the site of the village pound of St. Giles's (where High-street and
Tottenham-court-road meet), westward to Hyde Park Corner, 1^ mile in length, con-
taining upwards of 400 houses. Hatton, in 1708, described it " between St. Giles's
Pound east, and the lane leading to the gallows west." It follows the ancient military
road {Via Trinovantica, Stukeley), which crossed the Watling-street at Hyde Park
Corner, and was continued thence to Old-street (Eald-street), north of London. During
the Civil War, in 1643, a redoubt was erected near St. Giles's Pound, and a large fort
with half bulwarks across the road opposite Wardour-street. In a map of 1707, on the
south side. King-street, Golden-square, is perfect to Oxford-road, between which and
Berwick-street are fields ; hence to St. Giles's is covered with buildings, but westward
not a house is seen ; the north side contains a few scattered buildings, but no semblance
of streets west of Tottenham -court -road. A plan of 1708 shows, at the south end of
Mill-hill Field, the Lord Mayor's Banqueting-house, at the north-east corner of the
bridge across Tyburn brook, over which is built the west side of Stratford-place. In
the above plan is also shown the Adam and Fve, a detached roadside public-house in
the "Dung-field," near the present Adam-and-Eve-court, almost opposite Poland-
street ; and in an adjoining field is represented the boarded house of Figg, the prize-
fighter. " The row of houses on the north side of Tyburn-road was completed in 1729,
and it was then called Oxford-5^ree;f" (Lysons's Environs) ; a stone upon a house on the
north side is inscribed, " Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, 1718 :" it was built by Captain
Eathbone. In this year were commenced Hanover- square, and "round about, so many
other edifices, that a whole magnificent city seems to be risen out of the ground. On
the opposite side of the way, towards Marylebone, is marked out a square, and many
streets to form avenues to it." (Weekly Medley, 1718.) Vere-street Chapel and Oxford
Market were built about 1724; five years later were begun most of the streets leading
to Cavendish-square.
A map of 1742 shows the little church of St. Marylebone, in the fields, with two zigzag ways leading
to it : one near Vere-street, then the western limit of the new buildings ; and the second from Totten-
ham-court-road. Rows of houses, with their backs to the fields, extend from St. Giles's Pound to
Oxford Market; but Tottenham-court-road has only one cluster on the west side, and the spring-water
house. Thus, Oxford-street, from Oxford Market to Vere-street, south and west, Marylebone-street,
north, and the site of Great Titchfield-street east, form the limit of the new buildings : the zigzag way
from Vere-street (now Marylebone-lane) leading from the high-road to the village.
Pennant (born in 1726) remembered Oxford-street "a deep hollow road, and full of
sloughs ; with here and there a ragged house, the lui'king-place of cut- throats :" inso-
much that he " never was taken that way by night," in a hackney-coach, to his uncle's
in George-street, but he " went in dread the whole way."
Yet this main arterial thoroughfare was called Oxford-street in the reign of
Charles II., as attested in the following passage from the Statute of 1678, enacting the
boundaries of the parish of St. Anne, then just taken out of St. Martin's : —
€22 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
The houses beginninsr at the sign of the Crooked Billet, near St. Giles's Pound, and bounded by the
way leading from the said sign to the end of Cock-lane near Long-acre, with the south side of the lane
and all the ground called the Military-ground, and all the houses and ground leading thence to Cran-
bourne-strect and Little Leicester-street, alias Bear-street, includhig Leicester-house and garden, as it
is abutting upon Leicester-square, with all the houses on the west side of the square from Leicester-
garden wall to the Sun Tavern, &c„ including the wall abutting on the highway leading from Piccadilly
to the west side of the Military-ground, and abutting on the highway leading to the field called Kemp's-
field, including all the fields to the sign of the Blue Anchor, being the corner house at the south end of
the east side of Soho-street, abutting upon Kemp' s-fields, with all the easi side of Soho-street to the
sign of the lied Cow, being the corner house at the north end of Soho-street, abutting upon the King's
highway, or Great-road (that is, what is now called Oxford-street), with all the houses and grounds
abutting on and upon the said road leading from the sign of the Hed Cow to the Crooked Billet ; and
all the houses, &c., included in these boundaries were erected into the new parish of St. Anne,
Cumberland-place, begun about 1774, was named from the hero of Culloden, of
-whom there is a portrait- sign at a public-house in Great Cumberland-street. No. 58,
Cumberland-street has an elegant portico of terra-cotta, designed by A. H. Morant,
for Lord Strangford. At the western extremity of Oxford- street, in the first house in
Edgware-road, immediately opposite to Tyburn turnpike, lived for many years the
Corsican General Paoli, who was godfather to the Emperor Napoleon. (Notes and
Queries.) Stratford-place was built 1787-90, upon the site of Conduit-Mead. At
the north end is Aldborough House (erected for Edward Stratford, Earl of Aldborough),
with a handsome Ionic stone front and a Doric colonnade. Here, until 1805, stood a
"naval trophied Corinthian column with a statue of George III., set up in 1797 by
Lieut.-Gen. Strode. No. 315, Oxford-street is the fagade of the Laboratories of the
College op Chemistry (see p. 273). The view through the gate of Hanover-
square, the massive church and the lofty and handsome houses, presents a very fine
architectural coup-d'oeil.
Fortland-place was built by the architects Adam, about 1778 : it is 126 feet wide,
and in 1817 was terminated at the north end by an open railing looking over the
fields towards the New-road; when "the ample width of the foot-pavement, the purity
of the air, and the prospect of the rich and elevated villages of Hampstead and High-
gate, rendered Portland-place a most agreeable summer promenade." (Hughson's
London.) At No. 43, lived Sir Felix Booth, Bart., from whom Sir John lioss named
Boothia Felix j Lord Chief- Justice Denman at No. 38. In Park-crescent long resided
the Count de Survilliers (Joseph Bonaparte); and in the garden, facing Portland-
place, is a well-modelled bronze statue (height 7 feet 2 inches), by Gahagan, of the
Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria.
The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was nearly the length of Portland-place. "I walked out one
evening," says Sir Charles Fox, " and there setting out the 1848 feet upon the pavement, found it the
same length within a few yards ; and then considered that the Great Exhibition Building would be
three times the width of that fine street, and the nave as high as the houses on either side."
Newman-street and Berners-street, built between 1750 and 1770, were from the
first inhabited by artists of celebrity. In the former lived Banks and Bacon, the
sculptors ; and West and Stothard, the painters : in the latter. Sir William Chambers,
the architect ; and Fuseli and Opie, the painters. Facing is the Middlesex Hospital,
described at p. 439. The Pantheon, on the south side of Oxford-street, was origi-
nally built by James Wyatt, in 1768-71 ; was burnt down in 1792, but was rebuilt j
taken down in 1812, and again reconstructed. {See Pantheon.) Nearly opposite
the Princess's Theatre, No. 73, formerly the Queen's Bazaar, opened in 1840. {Se
Theatres.) Wardour-street, built 1686, and named from Lord Arundel of WardourJ
is noted for its curiosity-shops. {See Carving, pp. 78-81.) Kanicay -street bears
stone dated 1721, and was originally a zigzag lane to Tottenham- court-road : it w£
called Hanway-yard to our time, and is noted for its china-dealers and curiosity,
shops, as it was in the reign of hoops, high-heeled shoes, and stiff brocade. NoJ
54, corner of Berners-street, has a Renaissance or Elizabethan shop-front and'
mezzanine floor ; a picturesque composition of pedestals, consoles, and semi-caryatid
figures. No. 76 has a Byzantine facade. No. 86 has a front of studied design. At
No. 15 was exhibited, in 1830-32, a large painted window of the Tournament of the ,
Field of Cloth-of-Gold, by Wilmshurst ; destroyed by fire in 1832. At the east end of]
Oxford-street, in 1838, were laid experimental specimens of the various roadway Wood
Pavements.
Nolleiens, the sculptor, one day, in a walk with J. T. Smith, stopped at the corner of Ealhbonc-
PADDINGTOK 623
place, and observed that when he was a little boy, his mother often took him to the top of that street
to walk by the side of a loni? pond, near a windmill, which then stood on the site of the chapel in Char-
lotte-street ; and that a halfpenny was paid by every person at a hatch belonging to the miller, for
the privilege of walking in his grounds. He also told me (continues Smith), that his mother took him
through another halfpenny hatch in the fields, between Oxford-road and Grosvenor-square, the north
side of which was then building. When we got to the brewhouse between Rathbone-place and the end
of Tottenham-court-road, he said he recollected thirteen large and fine walnut-trees standing on the
north side of the highway, between what was then vulgarly called Hanover-yard, afterwards Hanway-
yard, and now Hanway-street, and the Castle inn, beyond the Star Brewery. — Nollekens and Ma
Times, i. 37.
Towards the west end of Oxford-street several houses of lofty and ornamental design
have replaced the incongruous dwellings which reminded one of Oxford-road. Here
was Camelford House, sometime inhabited by the Princess Charlotte and her husband.
Prince Leopold.
New Oxfoed-steeet, extending the houses from 441 to 552, and occupying part
of the site of St. Giles's " Rookery," was opened in 1847 : the house-fronts are of
Ionic, Corinthian, domestic Tudor, and Louis XIV. character, including a glass-roofed
Arcade of shops.
PABBINGTON,
NAMED from the Saxon Fadingas and tun, the town of the Psedings (Kemble's
Saxons in England), was, in the last century, a pleasant little rural village,
scarcely a mile north of Tyburn turnpike, upon the Harrow-road. Paddington is not
mentioned in Domesday Book j and the charters professedly granting lands here by
Edgar to the monks of Westminster are discredited as forgeries. The district would
rather appear to have been cleared, soon after the Norman Conquest, from the vast
forest of Middlesex (with pasture for the cattle of the villagers, and the fruits of
the wood for their hogs), and to have lain between the two Roman roads (now
the Edgware and Uxbridge roads) and the West bourn, or brook, the ancient
Tybourn. In the first authentic document (31 Hen. II.), Richard and William of
Paddington transfer their " tenement " to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster ;
and from the close of the thirteenth century, the whole of the temporalities of Pad-
dington (rent of land, and young of animals, valued at 8Z. 165. 4^?.), were devoted to
charity. Tanner speaks of Paddington as a parish, temp. Richard II. ; and by the
Valor Ecclesiasticus of Henry VIIL, the rectory yielded, like the manor, a separate
revenue to the Abbey. Upon the dissolution of the Bishopric of Westminster, the
manor and rectory were given by Edward VI. to Ridley, Bishop of London, and his
successors for ever ; they were then let at 41^. Qs. 8d., besides 20*. for the farm of
** Paddington Wood," 30 acres.
The population of Paddington, by the Subsidy Roll of Henry VIII. scarcely exceeded
100 ; in Charles II.'s reign it was about 300 ; in 1811, the population was 4609 ; from
1831 to 1841, it increased 1000 per annum ; from 1841 to 1851, above 2000 annually ;
and in 1861, it had 75,807. Thus, from the forest village has risen a large town,
and one of the three parishes forming the Parliamentary borough of Marylebone.
"A city of palaces has sprung up within twenty years. A road of iron, with steeds of steam, brings
into the centre of this city, and takes from it in one year, a ereater number of living beings than could
be found in all England a few years ago ; while the whole or London can be traversed in half the time
it took to reach Holborn Bars at the beginning of this century, when the road was in the hands of Mr.
Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy,"* long the only appointed agents of communica-
tion between Paddington and the City. The fares were 2s. and 3s. ; the journey took more than three
hours ; and to beguile the time at resting places, " Miles's Boy " told tales and played upon the fiddle.
A portion of Paddington is called Tyhumia; but the distinction has not been so readily adopted as in
the case of JBelgracia.
In the middle of the last century, nearly the whole of Paddington had become
grazing-land, upwards of 1100 acres ; and the occupiers of the Bishop's Estate kept
here hundreds of cows. At the beginning of the last century, next to the rurality of
Paddington, the gallows and the gibbet were its principal attractions. About 1790
were built nearly 100 small wooden cottages, tenanted by a colony of 600 journeyman
artificers; but these dwellings have given way to Connaught-terrace.
* Faddington, Fast and Present, by William Eobins, 1853j an able contribution to our local his-
tories.
624 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Paddington consists cliiefly of two hills, Maida-hill and Craven-hill ; the north-
eastern slope of Notting-hill ; and a valley through which runs the Tybourn, a favou-
rite resort of anglers early in the present century, but now a covered sewer. From
this brook, the newly -built district, mostly of palatial mansions, is named Tylurnia.
Haddington Green, now inclosed and iron-bound, was the green of the villagers,
shown in all its rural beauty in prints of 1750 and 1783. Upon a portion of it were
built the Almshouses, in 1714; their neat little flower-gardens have disappeared. South
of the green is the new Vestry-hall. At Dudley Grove was modelled and cast, by
Matthew Cotes Wyatt, the colossal bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington, now
upon the Green Park Arch : it is thirty feet high, and was conveyed from the foundry,
upon a car, drawn by 29 horses, Sept. 29, 1846, to Hyde Park Corner.
Westhoume Green has been cut up by the Great Western Railway; and West-
bourne-place, built by Ware, with the materials of old Chesterfield House, May Fair,
has disappeared. Close by is the terminus of the Great Western RaiUoay, with a
magnificent Hotel, designed in the Louis Quatorze taste, by P. Hardwick, R.A. : the
allegorical sculpture of the pediment is by Thomas : the rooms exceed 130.
At Craven Rill was the Pest-house Field, exchanged for the ground in Carnaby-
street, given by Lord Craven as a burial-place, if London should ever be again visited
by the Plague : but the field is now the site of a handsome square of houses named .
Craven Gardens. Bayswater is a hamlet of Paddington. Knotting, or Notting Sill
seems but to have been a corruption of Nutting ; the wood on and around the hill of
that name having for centuries been appropriately so named. Kensell, or Kensale, is
" the Green-lane " and Kingsfelde Green in a Harleian MS. of Mary's reign. {See
p. 81.) Maida Hill and Maida Vale were named from the famous battle of Maida,
in Calabria, fought between the French and British, in 1806.
The Grand Junction Waterworks vi ere established in 1812; and on Camden-hill is a
storing reservoir containing 6,000,000 gallons. At Paddington the basin of the Grand
Junction Canal joins the Regent's Canal, which passes under Maida-hill by a tunnel ,
370 yards long. On the banks of the canal, the immense heaps of dust and ashes,
once towering above the house-tops, are said to have been worth fabulous thousands.
" The Bishop's ^Estate" (Bishop's-road, Blomfi eld-terrace, &c.) produces 30,000^. a
year to the Bishop of London and the lay lessees. Among the parochial Charities,
the anniversary festival of an Abbot of Westminster is thought to explain " the Bread '
and Cheese Lands;" and until 1838, in accordance with a bequest, bread and cheese
were thrown from the steeple of St. Mary's Church, to be scrambled for in the church-
yard. {See Lock Hospital, p. 438 ; St. Mart's, p. 439.)
Oxford and Cambridge Squares and Terraces will long keep in grateful memory the
munificence of the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, to the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge.
Paddington possessed a church before the district was assigned to the monks of West-
minster, in 1222. An "old and ruinous church" was taken down about 1678, and was
thought, from its painted window, to have been dedicated to St. Katharine. Next, St,
James's Church was built by the Sheldons, temp. Charles I. : here Hogarth was married
to Sir James Thornhill's daughter, in 1729. This church was taken down, and St.
Mary's built upon the Green, 1788-91, " finely embosomed in venerable elms :" near
it were the village stocks, and in the churchyard were an ancient yew-tree and a
double-leaved elder. Here is the tombstone of John Hubbard, who died in 1665, " aged
111 years." Near the grave of Mrs. Siddons lies Haydon, the ill-fated painter, who
devoted " forty-two years to the improvement of the taste of the English people in high
art :" he lived many years at 1, Burwood-place, Edgware-road ; and here, June 22,
1846, with his own hand, he terminated the fitful fever of his existence. St. Mary's
Church is described at p. 187. Next was built Bayswater Chapel, by Mr. Orme, the
printseller, in 1818; Connaught Chapel, in 1826, now St. John's; and at the western
extremity of the Grand Junction-road, St. James's, which in 1845 became the parish
church. In 1844-6 was built Holy Trinity Church, Bishop's-road {see p. 208) : cost
18,458?., towards which the Rev. Mr. Miles gave 4000?. In 1847 was erected, in
Cambridge-place, All Saints Church, upon a portion of the site of the old Grand
Junction Waterworks' reservoir, at the end of Star-street. St. John's, in Southwick-
PAINTED CHAMBEB, THE. 625
crescent, has a fine stained window. The erection of Dissenters' places of worsliip wag
long restricted in Paddington by the Bishops of London ; but there are several chapels,
including one for the Canal boatmen, constructed out of a stable and coach-house. At
the western extremity of the parish is a large Roman Catholic church.
Paddin^ton has long been noted for its old public-houses. The White Lioyi, Edgware-road, dates
1524, the year when hops were first imported. At the Bed Lion, near the Harrow-road, tradition says,
Shalcspeare acted ; and another Med Lion, formerly near the Harrow-road bridge over the bourn, is de-
scribed in an inquisition of Edward VI. In this road is also an ancient Pack-horse ; and the Wheat'
sheaf, Edgware-road, was a favourite resort of Ben Jonson. (See Eobins's Faddington.)
Paddington and Marylebone appear to have been favoured by rehgious enthusiasts.
At No. 26, Manchester-street, died, in 1814, the notorious Joanna Southcott, after having
imposed upon six medical men with the absurd story of her being about to give birth
to the young " Shiloh.'* Richard Brothers, the self-styled "Nephew of God," lodged
at No. 58, Paddington-street, and died in Upper Baker-street, in 1824. Spence, the
disciple of Emanuel Swedenborg, lived in Great Marylebone-street : he was known as
" Dr. Spence," when he was the only surgeon in the village of Marylebone. Paddington,
with all its antique fame, does not make us forget two odd things that have been said
of the district : —
" Pitt is to Addington,
As London is to Paddington." — Canning.
And Lord Byron remarks : " Here would be nothing to make the Canal of Venice more
poetical than that of Paddington, were it not for its artificial adjuncts."
PAINTED CHAMBER, THE,
REPRESENTED to have been the bed-chamber and death-place of Edward the Con-
fessor, in the old Palace at Westminster, existed in its foundation-walls until tlie
Great Fire in 1834. It was also called St. Edward's Chamber; and assumed its second
name after it had been painted by order of Henry III. In the ceremonial of the mar-
riage of Richard Duke of York, in 1477, the Painted Chamber is called St. Edward's
Chamber ; and Sir Edward Coke, in his Fourth Institute, states that the causes of
Parliament were in. ancient time shown in La Chambre Depeint, or St. Edward's
Chamber. This interesting historical apartment had two floors, one tessellated, and
the other boarded : it was 80 feet 6 in. in length, 26 feet wide, and its height from
the upper floor was 31 feet. The ceiling, temp. Henry III., was dight with gilded and
painted tracery, including small wainscot paterae, variously ornamented. It was hung
with tapestries, chiefly representing the Siege of Troy, probably put up temp. Charles
II. Sandford, in his Coronation of James II., mentions these tapestries as " Five
pieces of the Siege of Troy, and one piece of Gardens and Fountains." In 1800, these
hangings and the wainscoting were removed,* when the walls and window-jambs were
found covered with paintings of the battles of Maccabees ; the Seven Brethren ; St.
John, habited as a pilgrim, presenting a ring to King Edward the Confessor ; the
canonization of King Edward, with seraphim, &c. ; and black-letter Scripture texts.
The paintings are noticed in the MS. Itinerary of Simon Simeon and Hugo the Illu-
ininator (Franciscan friars), in 1322 ; who name " that well-known chamber, on whose
walls all the histories of the wars of the whole Bible are painted beyond description :"
and an Exchequer Roll, 20 Edw. I. anno 1292, headed, ^^p'ma op'ac'o picture," or first
work of Painting, contains an account of the disbursements of Master Walter, the
painter, for the emendation of the pictures in the King's Great Chamber, as the
Painted Chamber was then called.f Specimens of these paintings are given by J. T.
Smith in his Antiquities of Westminster ; and in the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi.j and
in 1835, drawings of the pictures were exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries.
In the Painted Chamber, Parliaments were opened, before the Lords sat in the
Court of Requests. Here Conferences of both Houses were held; here sat in private
* About the year 1820, the tapestry was sold to Mr. Charles Yarnold, of Great St. Helen's, for IQl.
t There are also entries in the Close Rolls, 12 Hen. III. (1228), for painting the Great Exchequer
Chamber; and 1236, for the King's Great Chamber; proving that oil-painting was practised in England
nearly two centuries before its presumed discovery by John van Eyck, in 1410.
S S
626 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the High Court of Justice for bringing Charles I. to trisl ; and here the death-warrant
of the unhappy King was signed by the Regicides. The body of Lord Chatham hiy in
State here. After the Fire of 1834, the walls of the Chamber were roofed, and the in-
terior was fitted up as a temporary House of Lords. The building was taken down
in 1852, when the brick and stone work of the north side, and the ends of the
Chamber, including several Gothic stone window-cases, were sold for 50?.
FAINTED GLASS.
npHE finest specimens will be described under Windows, Painted.
PALACLS, ROYAL.
THE three royal metropolitan palaces are, Buckingham Palace, the residence of the
Sovereign and the Court ; St. James's Palace, used exclusively for State purposes ;
and Kensington Palace, the birthplace of Her Majesty, 1819 ; and where she held her
First Council, 1837.
Hatton (in 1708) says : " Of Courts of our Kings and Queens there were heretofore many in London
and Westminster : as the Tomer of London, whore some believe JuUus Caesar lodged, and WiUiam the
Conqueror; in the Old Jewry, where Henry VI.< Baynard's Castle, where Henry VII.; Bridezcell,
where King John and Henry VIII. ; Tower Royal, where Richard U. and King Stephen; Wardrobe^
in Great Carter-lane, where Richard III.; also at Somerset House, kept by Queen Elizabeth; and at
Westminster, near the Hall, where Edward the Confessor and several other kings kept their Courts.
But of later times, the place for the Court, when in town, was mostly Whitehall; a very pleasant and
commodious situation, looking into St. James's Park, the canal, &c. west, and the noble river of Thames
east : Privy Gardens, with fountains, statues, &c., and an open prospect to the statue at Charing Cross,
north. This palace being, in January, 1697, demohshed by fire, except the Banqueting House (built by
Inigo Jones, temp. James I.), there has since been no reception for the Court in town but St. James's
Palace, which is pleasantly situated by the Park ; and Whitehall will doubtless be rebuilt in a short
time, being designed one of the most famous palaces in Christendom.
" Her Majesty has also these noble palaces for the Court to reside in at pleasure : Kevsington Souse
(so near, that it may be said to be in town), Campden Souse, W^indsor Castle, Sampto7i Court, Win-
chester Souse; all which palaces, for pleasant situation, nobleness of building, delightful gardens and
walks, externally ; and for commodious, magnificent rooms, rich furniture, and curious painting, inter-
nally,— cannot be matched in number and quality by any one prince on earth."
Buckingham Palace, the town residence of the Sovereign, on the west side of St.
James's Park, was built by Nash and Blore, between 1825 and 1837, upon the site of
Buckingham House, of which the ground-floor alone remains. The northern side of
the site was a portion of the Mulberry -garden, planted by James I. in 1609, which in
the next two reigns became a public garden. Evelyn describes it in 1654 as " y^ only
place of refreshment about y® towne for persons of y^ best quality to be exceedingly
cheated at ;" and Pepys refers to it as " a silly place," but with " a wilderness some-
what pretty." It is a favourite locality in the gay comedies of Charles IL's reign.
^ Dryden frequented the Mulberry Gardens ; and according to a contemporary, the poet ate tarts ther&
with Mrs. Anne Reeve, his mistress. The company sat in arbours, and were regaled with cheesecakes,
tsyllabubs, and sweetened wine , wine-and-water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards. Sometimes th&
ladies wore masks. " The country ladys, for the first month, take up their places in the Mulberry Gar-
dens as early as a citizen's wife at a new play."— Sir C. Sedley's Mulberry Garden, 1668.
" A princely palace on that space does rise
Where Sedley's noble muse found mulberries."— Dr. Eing.
Upon the above part of the garden site was built Goring House, let to the Earl of
Arlington in 1666, and thence named Arlington House : in this year the Earl brought
from Holland, for 60*., the first pound of tea received in England ; so that, in all
probability, the first cup of tea made in LJfigland was dru7ik upon the site of BucJcing-
ham Palace. There is a rare print of Arlington House, by Sutton Nichols, and a copy
by John Seago. In 1698 the property was sold to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham,
for whom the house was rebuilt in 1703, in the heavy Dutch style, of red brick, with
stone finishings. Some vignettes of the mansion, then BucJcingham House, are en-
graved at the heads of chapters, and in illuminated capitals, of the second volume of
the collected poems of Buckingham, « the Muses' friend, himself a Muse." On the four
sides he inscribed, in gold, four pedantic mottoes : " Sic siti Isetantur Lares ;" " Rus in
urbe ;" " Spectator fastidiosus sibi molestus ;" and « Lente inccepit, cito perfecit." The
house was surmounted with lead figures of Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, Liberty, Truth,
and Apollo ; and the Four Seasons. Defoe describes it as "'one of the great beauties
of London, both by reason of its situation and its building :" its fine garden, noble
PALACE, BUCKINGHAM. 627
terrace (with prospect of open country), a little park with a pretty canal ; and the
basin of water, and Neptune and Tritons' fountain in the front court. The Duke of
Buckingham, in a letter to the Duke of Shrewsbury, minutely describes the mansion :
its hall painted in the school of Raphael ; its parlour by Ricci ', its staircase with the
story of Dido ; its ceiling with gods and goddesses ; and its grand saloon by Gentileschi.
The flat leaded roof was balustraded for a promenade ; and here was a cistern holding
50 tons of water, driven up by an engine from the Thames.
To his third wife, a natural daughter of James II. by Catherine Sedley, the Duke was tenderly
attached, and studied her couvenience in planning Buckingham House : " the highest story of the pri-
vate apartments," he tells us, " is fitted for the women and children, with the floors so contrived as to
prevent all noise over my wife's head during the mysteries of Lueina."
Buckingham House was purchased by George III. for 21,000Z. in 1762, shortly
after the birth of the Prince of Wales at St. James's Palace : their Majesties soon
removed here, and all their succeeding children were born here. In 1775 the property
was settled on Queen Charlotte (in exchange for Somerset House), and thenceforth
Buckingham House was called " the Queen's House." Here the King collected his
magnificent library, now in the British Museum {see p. 584). Dr. Johnson, by per-
mission of the librarian, frequently consulted books ; and here he held his memorable
conversation with George III.
"It is curious that the royal collector (George III.) and his venerable librarian (Mr. Barnard) should
have survived almost sixty years after commencing the formation of this, the most complete private
library in Europe, steadily appropriating 2000Z. per annum to this object, and adhering with scrupulous
attention to the instructions of Dr. Johnson, contained in the admirable letter printed by order of the
House oiCovamovL^."— Quarterly Beview, June, 1826.
In 1766 the Cartoons of Raphael were removed here, to an octagonal apartment
at the south-east angle : thence they were transferred to Windsor Castle in 1788. The
Saloon was superbly fitted as the Throne-room, and here Queen Charlotte held her
public drawing-rooms; in the Crimson, Blue Velvet, and other rooms, was a fine
collection of pictures. Thus the mansion remained until 1825, externally *' dull,
dowdy, and decent ; nothing more than a large, substantial, and respectable-looking
red brick house."
The Palace, as reconstructed by Nash, consisted of three sides of a square, Roman-
Corinthian, raised upon a Doric basement, with pediments at the ends ; the fourth
side, enclosed by iron palisades, with a central entrance arch of white marble, adapted
jfroui that of (Constantino at Rome. Mr. Nash was succeeded by Mr. Blore, who
raised the building a story ; and the palace was opened for public inspection in 1831;
when appeared, in Eraser's Magazine, an architectural description of the Palace,
written by Allan Cunningham. William IV. and Queen Adelaide did not remove
here ; but on July 13, 1837, Queen Victoria took up her residence here. In 1846
the erection of the east side was commenced ; and in 1851 the Marble Arch was re-
moved to the north-east corner of Hyde Park. There have since been added a spacious
Ball-room, &c., on the south side of the Palace.
The East Front of Buckingham Palace is German, of the last century : its extent
is 360 feet, height 77 feet ; extreme height of centre 90 feet ; frontage 70 feet in
advance of the former wings. The four central gate-piers are capped by an heraldic
lion and unicorn, and dolphins ; and the state entrances have golden grilles of rich
design. The wings are surmounted by statues of Morning, Noon (Apollo), and
Night ; the Hours, and the Seasons ; and upon turrets flanking the central shield
(bearing "V. R. 1847") are colossal figures of Britannia and St. George; besides
groups of trophies, festoons of flowers, &c. Tlie Royal Standard is hoisted on the west
front when her Majesty is resident at the Palace. The inner front has a central
double portico; the tympanum is filled with sculpture, and the pediment crowned
with statues of Neptune, Commerce, and Navigation in the centre. Around the
entire building is a scroll frieze of the rose, shamrock, and thistle. The Garden or
Western Front, architecturally the principal one, has five Corinthian towers, and a
balustraded terrace; the upper portion having statues, trophies, and bas-reliefs, by
Flaxman and other sculptors. The materials are Portland-stone and cement.
The Marble Hall and Sculpture Gallery have mosaic bordered floors, and ranges
of Carrara columns with mosaic gold bases and capitals. The sculptures consist
3 3 2
628 CURIOSITIES OF LOKDOK,
chiefly of busts of the Eoyal Family and eminent statesmen. Beyond the Sculpture
Gallevy is the Library. The Grand Staircase is marble, with ormolu acanthus
balustrades : the ceiling has frescoes by Townsend, of Morning, Evening, Noon, and
Night, on a gold ground ; besides wreaths of flowers, imitative marbles, &c., in the
Itahan manner. The brief pageant of the Queen leaving the Palace to proceed in
state to open Parliament may be witnessed by Tickets of admission to the Hall,
issued by the Lord Great Chamberlain. Upon such occasions, the Yeomen of the
Guard, Yeomen Porters, and other oflBcial persons, in their rich costumes, while the
Sovereign proceeds to the State-carriage, present a magnificent scene. The Vesti-
hule is richly decorated with vermilion and gold : here are a marble statue of the
Queen, by Gibson, R.A. ; and of Prince Albert, by Wyatt ; also bas-reliefs of Peace
and War, by John Thomas. The looking-glass and ormolu doors cost 300 guineas a-pair,
and each mosaic gold capital and base 30 guineas.
The principal State Apartments are : the Green Drawing-room, in the centre of the
east front, and opening upon the upper portico : for state balls, Tippoo Sahib's Tent is
added to this room, upon the portico, and is lighted by a gorgeous " Indian sun,"*
8 feet in diameter. Next is the Throne Room, which is 64 feet in length : the walls
are hung with crimson satin ; and the coved ceiling is emblazoned with arms, and
gilded in the boldest Italian style of the fifteenth century. Beneath is a white
marble frieze, sculptured by Baily, with the Wars of the Roses, Stothard's last
great design.* On the north side of the apartment is an alcove, with crimson
velvet hangings, gilding, and emblazonry, and a fascia of massive gilt wTeaths
and figures. In this recess is placed the Royal throne, or chair of state ;
seated in which, surrounded by her Ministers, great oflacers of State, and the
Court, her Majesty receives addresses. In this room also are held Privy Councils.
ITie Picture Gallery, in the centre of the palace, is about 180 feet in length by 26 feet
in breadth, and has a semi-Gothic roof, with a triple row of ground-glass lights,
bearing the stars of all the orders of knighthood in Europe ; but Yon Rauraer con-
siders the light false and insufficient, and broken by the architectural decorations.
Occasionally, this gallery has been used as a ball-room, and for state banquets.
The door-cases have colossal caryatidal figures, and are gorgeously gilt ; and the
marble chimney-pieces are sculptured with medallion portraits of great painters.
The collection of pictures formed by George IV. is pre-eminently rich in Dutch and Flemish art.
The chief exceptions are Reynolds's Death of Dido, his Cymon and Iphigenia, and Sir Joshua's portrait
in spectacles ; the Penny Wedding, and Blind Man's Buff, by Wilkie ; a Landscape by Gainsborough,
and a few recent English works ; and 4 pictures by Watteau. In the collection are an Altar-piece by
Albert Durcr; 7 pictures by Rembrandt, including the Shipbuilder and his Wife, for which George IV.,
when Prince of Wales, gave 5000 guineas ; Rubens, 7; Marriage of St. Catherine, and 4 others, by Van-
dyke; Vandervelde, 7; younger Vandervelde, 4; G. Dow, 8; Paul Potter, 4; A. Ostade, 9; younger
Teniers, 14 ; Vandcrmeulen, 13 ; Wouvermans, 9 ; Cuyp, 9.
In the State Kooms are royal portraits, by Kneller, Lely, A. Ramsay, N. Dance, Copley, Gainsborough,
Wright, Lawrence, Wilkie, Winterhalter, &c.
In the Western Front is the Grand (central) Saloon, north of which is the Yellow
Drawing-room, communicating with the Private Apartments of her Majesty, which
extend along the north front of the palace. The Grand Saloon has a semicircular
bay, and scagliola lapis-lazuli columns with mosaic gold capitals, supporting a rich
architrave, and bas-relief of children with emblems of music ; the domed ceilings are
richly gilt with roses, shamrocks, and thistles, acanthus-leaves, and the royal arms
in the spandrels. The large apartment, formerly the State Ball-room, north of the
Grand Saloon, has scagliola porphyry Corinthian columns, with gilded capitals, carrying
an entablature and coved ceiling, elaborately gilt : here are Winterhalter's portraits of
the Queen and Prince Albert ; and Vandyke's Charles I. and Henrietta-Maria. South
of the Ball-room is the State Dining-room, which has an elegantly wrought ceiling,
and circular panels bearing the regal crown and the monogram V. R. ; the whole in
stone tint : here are Lawrence's whole length of George IV. in his coronation robes,
and other royal portraits.
The South Wing, added since 1850, contains the kitchen and other domestic offices,
• The venerable Stothard was between seventy and eighty years old when he designed this frieze;
yet It possesses all the vigour and imagination which had distinguished his best days. The drawings
were sold at Christie's, on the decease oi the painter; Mr. Samuel Rogers became the purchaser.
PALACE, BUCKINGHAM. 629
on the two lower stories; and above them, a Ball-room, 139 feet long; Supper-room, 76
feet ; and Promenade-gallery, 109 feet ; the wing harmonizing with the Palace, as
built for George IV. The Ball-room was designed to be used for State-balls, State
concerts, and, on special occasions, as a State reception-room and banqueting room.
The ceiling is divided by broad and deep bands into twenty-one square compartments,
resting on a bold and highly- enriched cove, which runs round the whole room. The
enrichments are all executed in plaster, carefully modelled and highly finished. The
walls on each side of the room are divided into thirteen compartments. Fourteen of
the twenty-six are windows, the others being filled in with paintings, representing the ,
twelve hours, copied from the small originals by Raphael, existing in Rome. The j
silk hangings of the walls were woven in Lyons, from a design made to suit the room. [
The lighting of the room is peculiar, and very effective. In each compartment of the ceiling there
is a large sunlight gas-burner (21 in all), each enclosed in a chandelier or lustre of riehly-cut glass,
executed by Osier, and forming a brilliant pendant in the centre of each compartment. A great portion
of the light is, however, obtained, and a most brilliant effect is produced, by the novel method of illumi-
nating the fourteen windows, which in most rooms are left either as dark blots, or are concealed by
draperies. Next the room these windows are glazed with deeply-cut glass stars of large size, surrounded
by borders similarly cut, and lighted by gas-burners, arranged between the outer and inner sashes in
Buch manner as to bring out the full brilliancy of the cut-glass in all its detail. Great attention has
been paid to the ventilation of the room. There are also ten magnificent candelabra of gilt bronze,
each holding 43 wax caudles, and standing upon the raised platform.
At the west end a kind of throne or recess has been formed for the Queen, with Corinthian columns
carrying an entablature and a bold detached archivolt, on which rests a medallion, containing the pro-
files of her Majesty and the Prince Consort, supported by emblematic figures of History and Fame;
these, and all other sculptures, around the doors, above the large mirrors placed opposite the doors, and
throughout the whole suite of apartments, were executed by Mr. Theed. The recess formed at the east
end, above the attendants' rooms, is appropriated to the organ and the orchestra; the latter, for 70 per-
formers, can be enlarged for 120.
The merit of the architectural sculptures is their nationality. The friezes and re-
liefs of scenes in British history are mostly by Baily, R.A. : those of Alfred expelling
the Danes, and delivering the Laws, on the garden-front, and the Progress of Naviga-
tion, on the main front, are fine compositions ; as are also Stothard's Wars of the
Roses, in the Throne-room ; and the eastern frieze of the rose, shamrock, and thistle.
But the marble chimney-pieces and door-cases, sculptured with cai-yatides, fruit and
flowers, and architectural ornament, often present a strange mixture of fragments of
Egypt, Greece, Etruria, Rome, and the Middle Ages, in the same apartment.
In the garden were formerly two Ionic Conservatories ; the southernmost of which
is now the Palace Chapel, consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, March 25,
1843. The aisles are formed by rows of Composite cast-iron columns ; and at the west
end, facing the altar, is the Queen's closet, supported upon Ionic columns from the
screen of Carlton House. In the garden is the western boundary-stone of the parish of
St. Martin's-in-the-Pields, where, on Holy Thursday is performed the ceremony of
•* striking the stone.'*
The Pleasure-grounds comprise about 40 acres, including the lake of 5 acres ; at the
verge of which, upon a lofty artificial mound, is a picturesque pavilion, or garden-house,
with a minaret roof. In the centre is an octagonal room, with figures of Midnight and
Dawn ; and 8 lunettes, painted in fresco, from Milton's Comus, by Eastlake, Machse,
Landseer, Dyce, Stanfield, Uwins, Leslie, and Ross; besides relief arabesques, medallions,
figures and groups, from Milton's poems. On the right is a room decorated in the
Pompeian style, copied from existing remains. The apartment on the left is embel-
lished in the romantic style, from the novels and poems of Sir Walter Scott. {See
Gruner's Illustrations, described by Mrs. Jameson.)
Buckingham Palace has been the scene of two superb Costume Balls — in 1842
and 1845 : the first in the style of the reign of Edward III. ; and the fete in 1845 in
the taste of George II.'s reign.
The Royal Metvs is described at p. 565. The Riding-house has been covered
with cement ornamentation ; in the pediment is a large equestrian group, sculptured
by Theed, and upon the walls have been placed several large circular vases; the bank
has here been raised and planted with trees, to screen the palace-garden.
Immediately under the Palace passes " The King's Scholars' Pond Sewer," the main drain of one of
the principal divisions of the Westminster connexion of sewers, occupying the whole channel of a
rivulet formerly known as Tye Brook, having its source at Hampstead, and draining an area ot 2000
630 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
acres, 1500 of which are covered with houses. A large portion of the sewer arches was reconstructed,
under densely-populated neighbourhoods, without any suspicion on the part of the inhabitants of what
was going on a few feet below the foundations of their houses. In its present complete state, this is,
perhaps, one of the most remarkable and extensive pieces of sewerage ever executed in this or any
other country.
St. James's Palace, Westminster, on the north side of St. James's Park, and at
the western end of Pall Mall, occupies the site of a hospital, founded by some pious
citizens prior to the Norman Conquest, for fourteen leprous females, to whom eight
brethren were added to perform divine service. The good work was dedicated to St.
James, and was endowed by the citizens with lands ; and in 1290, Edward I. granted
to the foundation the privilege of an annual Fair, to be held on the eve of St. James
and six following days. The house was rebuilt by Berkynge, abbot of Westminster,
in Henry III.'s reign ; and in 1450 its perpetual custody was granted by Henry VI.
to Eton College. In 1532, Henry VIIT. obtained the hospital in exchange for Chat-
tisham and other lands in Suffolk : he then dismissed the inmates, pensioned the sister-
hood ; and having pulled down the ancient structure, he " purchased all the meadows
about St. James's, and there made a faire mansion and a parke for his greater com-
moditie and pleasure" (JKolinshed) : the Sutherland View of 1543 shows the palace far
away in the fields. " The Manor House," as it was then called, is believed to have
been planned by Holbein, and built under the direction of Cromwell, Earl of Essex.
Henry's gatehouse and turrets face St. James's-street : the original hospital, to judge
from certain remains of stone muUions, labels, and other masonry, found in 1838, on
taking down some parts of the Chapel Royal, was of the Norman period. It was
occasionally occupied by Henry as a semi-rural residence, down to the period when
Wolsey surrendered WTiitehall to the Crown. Edward and Elizabeth rarely resided at
St. James's : but Mary made it the place of her gloomy retirement during the absence
of her husband, Philip of Spain : here she expired. The Manor House, with all its
appurtenances, except the park and the stables or the mews, were granted by James I.
to his son Henry in 1610; at whose death, in 1612, they reverted to the Crown.
Charles I. enlarged the palace, and most of his children (including Charles II.) were
born in it : here he deposited the gallery of antique statues principally collected for
him by Sir Kenelm Digby. In this reign was fitted up the chapel of the hospital,
on the west side, as the Chapel Royal, described at pp. 140-1. Here Charles I. attended
divine service on the morning of his execution; "from hence the king walked through
the Park, guarded with a regiment of foot and partisans, to Whitehall." (Whitelock's
Memorials, p. 374.) The Queen's Chapel, now the German Chapel, was built for
Catherine of Braganza, in the friary of the conventual establishment founded here by
her Majesty, under the direction of Cardinal Howard.
The Queen first heard mass there on Sunday, September 21, 1662, when Lady Castlemaine, though
a Protestant, and the King's avowed mistress, attended her as one of her maids of honour. Pepys
describes " the fine altar ornaments, the fryers in their habits, and the priests with their fine crosses,
and many other fine things." — Diary, vol. i. p. 312.
At " St. James's House" Monk resided while planning the Restoration. In the old
bed-chamber, now the ante-chamber to the levee-room, was born James (the old Pre-
tender), the son of James II. by Mary of Modena : the bed stood close to the back
stairs, and favoured the scandal of the child being conveyed in a warming-pan to the
Queen's bed. In this reign Verrio, the painter, was keeper of the palace- gardens.
During the Civil Wars, St. James's became the prison-house, for nearly three years,
of the Duke of York and Duke of Gloucester, and the Princess Elizabeth : on April 20,
1648, the Duke of York escaped from the palace-garden into the Park, through the
Spring Garden, to a hackney-coach in waiting for him ; and, in female disguise, he
reached a Dutch vessel below Gravesend. After the Restoration, the Duke occupied
St. James's ; and one of its rooms was hung with portraits of the Court Beauties, by
Sir Peter Lely. Here the Duke slept the night before his coronation as James II., and
next morning proceeded to Whitehall.
On December 18, 1688, William Prince of Orange came to St. James's, where, three
days afterwards, the peers assembled, and the household and other officers of the
abdicated sovereign laid down their badges. Evelyn says : " All the world goes to see
the Prince at St. James's, where there is a greatc court. There I saw him : he is
PALACE, ST. JAMES'S. 631
very stately, serious, and reserved." {Diary, vol. i. p. 680.) King William occasionally
held councils here : but it was not until after the burning of Whitehall, in 1697, that
this Palace became used for state ceremonies, whence dates the Court of St. James's.
William and Mary, however, resided chiefly at Kensington ; and St. James's was next
fitted up for George Prince of Denmark, and the Princess Anne, who, on her accession
to the throne, considerably enlarged the edifice. George I. lived here like a private
gentleman : in 1727 he gave a banquet here to the entire Court of Common Council.
The fourth plate of Hogarth's " Rake's Progress" shows St. James's Palace gateway
in 1735, with the quaint carriages and chairs arriving on the birthday of Caroline,
George II.'s consort : her Majesty died at St. James's in 1737. The wing facing
Cleveland-row was built for Frederick Prince of Wales, on his marriage in 1736.
The State Rooms were enlarged on the accession of George III., whose marriage was
celebrated here September 6, 1761. George IV. was born here August 12, 1762;
and shortly afterwards the Queen's bed was removed to the Great Drawing-room, and
company were admitted to see the infant prince on drawing-room days. The court
was held here during the reign of George III., though his domestic residence was at
Buckingham House. St. James's was refitted on the marriage of the Prince of Wales,
April 8, 1795, in the Chapel Royal. On January 21, 1809, the east wing of the
palace, including their majesties' private apartments and those of the Duke of Cam-
bridge, was destroyed by fire, and has not been rebuilt. In 1814 the State Apartments
were fitted up for the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, when also Marshal
Blucher was an inmate of the palace. In 1822 a magnificent banqueting-hall was
added to the state-rooms. In January, 1827, the remains of the Duke of York lay
in state in the palace. William IV. and Queen Adelaide resided here ; but since the
accession of her present Majesty, St. James's has only been used for courts, levees and
drawing-rooms, and occasionally for State-balls.
The lofty brick gatehouse bears upon its roof the bell of the 0~reat Clock, dated
A.D. 1731, and inscribed with the name of Clay, clockmaker to George II. It strikes
the hours and quarters upon three bells, requires to be wound every day, and originally
had only one hand. A print of the court-yard, with the meeting of Mary de Medicis
and her daughter Henrietta-Maria, in 1638, shows a dial which must have belonged
to a previous clock. The present clock was under the care of the Vulliamys, the Royal
clockmakers, from 1743, until the death of B. L. VuUiamy.
When the gatehouse was repaired in 1831, the clock was removed, and not put up again, on account
of the roof being reported unsafe to carry the weight. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood then me-
morialized WilHam IV. for the replacement of the timekeeper: the King, having ascertained its weight,
shrewdly inquired how, if the palace roof was not strong enough to carry the clock, it was safe for the
number of persons occasionally seen upon it to witness processions, &c. The clock was forthwith re-
placed, and a minute-hand was added, with new dials : the original dials were of wainscot, in a great
number of very small pieces, curiously dovetailed together.
The gatehouse enters the quadrangle, named the Colour Court, from the colours of
the military guard of honour being placed here : in this court one of the three regiments
of Foot Guards is relieved alternately every morning at eleven o'clock, when the keys
of the garrison are delivered and the regimental standard exchanged, during the per-
formance of the bands of music. Westward is the Ambassadors' Court, where are the
apartments of certain branches of the Royal Family ; and beyond it the Stable- Yard,
anciently the stable-yard of the palace, and where was the Queen's Library, upon the
site of Stafibrd House. Here is Clarence House, described at p. 547. On the east
side is the Lord Chamberlain's office, where permission may be obtained to view the
palace. Eastward of the gatehouse is the Office of the Board of Green Cloth ; and
still further, the office of the Lord Steward of Her Majesty's Household. Beyond are
the gates leading to the quadrangle, known of old as " the Chair Court." The State
Apartments, in the south front of the palace, front the garden and St. James's Park.
The Sovereign enters by the garden gate ; and it was here, on the 2nd of August, 1796,
that Margaret Nicholson attempted to assassinate George III. as he was alighting
from his carriage. The State Apartments are reached by the Great Staircase, the
Entree Gallery, the Guard Chamber (its walls covered with weapons in fanciful
devices), and a similar apartment. Here are stiitioned the Yeomen of the Queen's
Guard; and the honours of the Guard-Chamber are paid to distinguished personages
632 CUniOSITIES OF LONDON.
on levee and drawing-room days. George III. held Drawing-rooms much more fre-
quently than they are held at present. To quote the Court Chaide of 1792, " the
King's Levee days are Wednesday and Friday, and likewise Monday during the sitting
of Parliament ; his Drawing-room days every Sunday and Thursday."
Yeomen of the Guard were first instituted in 1485, by Henry VII., upon the model of a somewhat
similar banid retained by Louis XI. of France. They were at first archers; but on the death of
William 111. all took the partisan, as now carried. The dress has continued almost unaltered since
the reign of Charles 11.
The Corps of Oentlemen-at-Arms (changed from Pensioners by William IV.) was instituted by
Henry VIII., disbanded during the Civil Wars, but reconstructed at the Restoration, and at the Revo-
lution of 1688. In 1745, when George II. raised his standard on Finchley Common, these " Gentlemen"
■were ordered to provide themselves with horses and equipment to attend his Majesty to the field.
Their present uniform is scarlet and gold : and the corps carry on parade small battle-axes covered
with crimson velvet. On April 10, 1848, on the apprehension of a Chartist outbreak, St. James's Palace
was garrisoned and guarded by these ancient bodies.
Beyond the Guard-Chamber is the Tapestry 'Room, hung with gorgeous tapestry
made for Charles 11., and representing the amours of Venus and Mars. The stone
Tudor arch of the fireplace is sculptured with the letters H. A. (Henry and Anne
Boleyn), united by a true-lover's knot, surmounted by a regal crown ; also the lily of
France, the portcullis of Westminster, and the rose of Lancaster. Here the sovereigns
of the House of Bnmswick, on the death of their predecessors, are received by the
Privy Council, and from the capacious bay window proclaimed and presented to the
people assembled in the outer court, where are the sergeants-at-arms and band of
household trumpeters. The proclamation of her present Majesty, on June 21, 1837,
was a touching spectacle. Next the Tapestry-Room is Queen Anne's Room, the first
of the four great state apartments. In this room the remains of Frederick Duke of
York lay in State in January 1827. This apartment opens to the Ante- Drawing-
Room, leading by three doors into the JPresence Chamber or Throne Room, beyond
which is the Queen's Closet. The throne, at the upper end of the Presence Chamber,
is large and stately, and emblazoned with arms : the window-draperies here and in
the Queen's Closet are of splendid tissu-de-verre. The entire suite is gorgeously gilt,
hung with crimson Spitalfields damasks, brocades, and velvets, embroidered with gold;
and the Wilton carpets bear the royal arms.
The public are admitted to the corridor by tickets to see the company upon Draw-
ing-room days ; and upon certain occasions, when bulletins of the health of the sove-
reign are issued, they are shown to the public as they pass through the state-rooms.
Pictures in the State Apartments, — Large paintings of the Siege of Tournay, and the Siege of Lisle
by the Duke of Marlborough. Portraits of Charles' II., George I., George II., and Queen Anne;
George III,, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; George IV. and the
Duke of York, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Count La Lippe, and the Marquis of Granby, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds. Beauties of the Court of Charles II., copied from Hampton Court. Lord Nelson, Earl St.
Vincent, and Lord Rodney, by Hoppner. The Battles of Vittoria and Waterloo, by G. Jones, R.A. In
the Entree Gallery are whole-length portraits of Henry VIII., reputed by Holbein; Queen Mary;
Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero ; James I,, Charles I., after Vandyke ; Charles IL, James II., and William
and Mary.
The curious pictures which were here in Pennant's time have been removed : including a Child,
three years six months old, in the robes of a Knight of the Garter, the second sou of James I.; also
Geoffrey Hudson, the Dwarf; and Mabuse's Adam and Eve, painted with navels.
Here George IV. formed a fine collection of pictures, to which was added, in 1828, Ilaydon's "Mock
Election," which the King purchased of the painter for 500 guineas.
Kensington Palace, about two miles west of the metropolis, is named from the
adjoining town, although it is situated in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster :
" High o'er the neighbouring lands,
'Midst greens and sweets, a regal fabric stands." — TicTcell.
The original mansion was purchased (with the grounds, six acres) by King William
III., in 1691, of Daniel Finch, second Earl of Nottingham. Evelyn notes :
"Feb. 25, 1690-1.— I went to Kensington, which King William had bought of Lord Nottingham
and altered, but was yet a patched-up building; but with the gardens, however, it is a very neat villa."
— Memoirs, vol. ii.
In the following November the house was nearly destroyed by fire, and the king
narrowly escaped being burned in his bed. The premises had been possessed by the
Finch family about half a century ; and after Sir Heneage Finch's advancement to the
peerage, the mansion was called " Nottingham House." William III. employed Wren
and Hawksraoor, who built the King's Gallery and the south front; the eastern front
PALACE, KENSINGTON. 633
was added by George I., from the designs of Kent ; the north wing is part of old
K'ottingham House. The entire palace is of crimson brick, with stone finishings; and
consists of the Clock Court, Prince's Court, and Princess' Court. King William lield
councils in this palace ; its decoration was the favourite amusement of Queen Mary ;
and it was next fitted up as the residence of Queen Anne and Prince George of Den-
mark : for her luxurious Majesty was built the Banqueting-House, described at page
493. The principal additions made by Kent, for George 1., were the Cupola Room
and the Great Staircase ; the latter painted with groups of portraits from the Court,
Yeomen of the Guard, pages, a Quaker, two Turks in the suite of George I., and Peter
the Wild Boy. George II. and Queen Caroline passed most of their time here; and
during the King's absence on the Continent, the Queen held at Kensington a court
every Sunday. In this palace died Queen Mary and King William ; Queen Anne and
the Prince Consort ; and George II.
The Great Staircase, of black and white marble, and graceful ironwork (the walls
painted by Kent with mythological subjects in chiaroscuro, and architectural and
sculptural decoration), leads to the suite of twelve State Apartments, some of which
are hung with tapestry and have painted ceilings. The Presence Chamber has a
chimney-piece richly sculptured by Gibbons with flowers, fruits, and heads ; the ceiling
is diapered red, blue, and gold upon a white field, copied by Kent from Herculaneum ;
the pier-glass is wreathed with flowers by Jean Baptiste Monnoyer. The King's
Gallery, in the south front, has an elaborately painted allegorical ceiling; and a cir-
cular fresco of a Madonna, after Raphael. The Cube Room is forty feet in height,
I and contains gilded statues and busts ; and a marble bas-relief of a Roman marriage,
by Rysbraeck. The King's Great Praioing-room was hung with the then new paper,
in imitation of the old velvet flock. The Queen's Gallery in the rear of the eastern
front, continued northwards, has above the doorway the monogram of William and
Mary ; and the pediment is enriched with fruits and flowers in high relief and wholly
detached, probably carved by Gibbons. The Green Closet was the private closet of
William III., and contained his writing-table and escritoire ; and the Patchwork Closet
had its walls and chairs covered with tapestry worked by Queen Mary.
During the reign of George III. the palace was forsaken by the sovereign ; towards
its close, a suite of rooms was fitted up for the Princess of Wales, and her aged mother
the Duchess of Brunswick. The lower south-eastern apartments beneath the King's
Gallery were occupied by the late Duke of Kent : here. May 24, 1819, was born
Queen Victoria; christened here on June 24th following; and on June 20, 1837, her
Majesty held here her first Council, which has been admirably painted by Wilkie.
At Kensington Palace the Princess Victoria received the intelligence of the death of William IV., as
described in the Diaries of a Lady of Qtialiti/ ; " June, 1837. On the 20th, at 2 a.m., the scene closed,
and in a very short time, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham, the Chamberlain, set out
to announce the event to their young Sovereign. They reached Kensington Palace at about five; they
knocked, they rang, they thumped lor a considerable time before they could rouse the porter at the
gates ; they were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where
they seemed forgotten by everybody. They rang the bell, desired that the attendant of the Princess
Victoria might be sent to inform H.R.H. that they requested an audience on business of importance.
After another delay, and another rhiging to inquire the cause, the attt-ndant was summoned, who stated
that the Frincess was in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to disturb her. Then they said, ' We
are come to the Queen on business of State, and even her sleep must give way to that,' It did : and to
prove that she did not keep them waiting, in a few minutes she came into the room in a loose white
nightgown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders — her feet in
slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified.
"The first act of the reign was of course the summoning of the Council, and most of the summonses
were not received till after the early hour fixed for its meethig. The Queen was, upon the opening of
the doors, found sitting at the head of the table. She received first the homage of the Duke of Cum-
berland, who, I suppose, was not King of Hanover when he knelt to her ; the Duke of Sussex rose to
perform the same ceremony, but the Queen, with admirable grace, stood up, and, preventing him from
kneeling, kissed him on the forehead. The crowd was so great, the arrangements were so ill-made,
that my brothers told me the scene of swearing allegiance to their young Sovereign was more like that
of the bidding at an auction than anything else." [Sir David Wilkie has painted the scene— but with a
difference.]
The south wing of the older part of the palace was occupied by the late Duke of
Sussex, who died here April 21, 1843.
Here the Duke of Sussex, during 25 years, collected the celebrated Bibliotheca Sussexiana, number-
ing nearly 50,000 printed books and MSS., purchased volume by volume, at the sacrifice of many
an object of princely luxury and indulgence. The collection included nearly 300 Theological MSS. of
the tenth, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries; besides about 500 early printed books
634 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
relating to the Holy Scriptures. Among the rarities were 48 Hebrew MSS., some rolled ; a richly
illuminated Hebrew and Chaldaic Pentateuch, thirteenth century ; a Greek New Testament, thirteenth
century, illuminated ; 16 copies of the Vulgate, on vellum, two with 100 miniatures in gold and colours ;
a splendidly illuminated Psalter, tenth century ; missals, breviaries, hours, offices, &e. ; La Bible
Moralisee (fifteenth century) ; Historia del Vecchio Testamento, with 519 miniatures of the school of
Giotto ; several copies of the Koran, including that found by the conquerors of Seringapatam in the
library of Tippoo Sultan, with his spectacles between the leaves, as if the perusal of it had been one of
the latest acts of Tippoo's life; Armenian copy of the Gospels, thirteenth century; MSS. in the Pali,
Burman, Cingalese, &c. In the printed books were all the celebrated Polyglots, in fine condition ; 74
editions of the Hebrew Bible; 17 Hebrew-Samaritan and Hebrew Pentateuchs (Bomberg editions), and
the Great Rabbinical Bible, magnificent specimens of Hebrew printing ; Greek Bibles, of precious
value; Latin Bibles, 200 editions; Bibles in other languages, 1200 editions. In the Divinity classes
were, the first Armenian, the first Irish, the first Sclavonic, the first German, and the first Reformed
editions of Luther; the first English Bible, by Coverdale; the first Greek Bible, or Cranmer's, &c. ;
besides Classics, Lexicography, Chronicles, Law, and Parliamentary Histories, of immense extent. The
theological collection filled an apartment 100 feet in length ; and here, seated in a curtained chair, the
Duke passed the life of a toil-worn student. In these rooms His Eoyal Highness gave his conversa-
zioni as President of the Royal Society.
In Kensington Palace was formerly deposited the greater part of the royal collection
of paintings, commenced by Henry Vlll. ; and removed here by William III., as ap-
pears from a catalogue taken in 1700, and now in the British Museum. The collection
was much augmented by Queen Caroline, but after the death of George II., several of
the finest pictures were removed to Windsor and elsewhere. In 1818, however, here
were more than 600 pictures, which were catalogued by B. West, P.R.A. Few now
remain : but in the southern apartments is a collection of Byzantine, early Italian,
German, and Flemish paintings, formerly the property of Prince Louis D'Ottingen
Wallerstein, and purchased by the late Prince Consort. The majority of these 102
pictures are curious specimens of sacred art, — ^triptychs, altar-pieces, and other works
of primitive design and elaborate antiquity.
The Green, westward of the Palace, and called in ancient records " the Moor," was
the military parade when the Court resided here, and the royal standard was hoisted
daily. Here are barracks for foot-soldiers, who mount guard at the Palace. North-
ward of the Palace were the kitchen-gardens, about 20 acres, now Queen's-road, with
two lines of elegant villas. {See Kensington Gardens,* pp. 493, 494).
Caelton House occupied that portion of Waterloo-place which is south of Pall
Mall. It was ori; finally built for Lord Carlton, in 1709 : bequeathed by him to his
nephew. Lord Burl ogton, the architect, and purchased, in 1732, by Frederick Prince of
Wales, father of Gwrge III. : here the Princess of Wales died in 1772. The house
was of red brick. The name of the original architect, in the time of Queen Anne, is
not known, but the celebrated landscape gardener-architect Kent laid out the grounds
when the property was in Lord Burlington's hands, between 1725 and 1732. These
gardens extended along the south side of Pall-mall, and are said to have been in imita-
tion of Pope's garden at Twickenham, with numerous bowers, grottoes, and terminal
busts. Mr. Cunningham speaks of an engraving of them by Woollett. When the
13roperty was assigned in 1783 as the residence of the Prince of Wales— afterwards
<jeorge IV". — great alterations were made in Carlton House, under Holland, the
Prince's architect.
Horace Walpole writes, Sept. 17, 1785 : " We went to see the Prince's new palace in Pall Mall, and
■were charmed. It will be the most perfect in Europe. There is an august simplicity that astonished
me. You cannot call it magnificent ; it is the taste and propriety that strike. Every ornament is at a
proper distance, and not one too large, but all delicate and new, with more freedom and variety than
Greek ornaments [designed by Gobert] . . . and there are three most spacious apartments, all looking
on the lovely garden, a terreno, a state apartment, and an attic. The portico, vestibule, hall, and stair-
case will be superb, and, to my taste, full of perspectives : the jewel of all is a small music-room, that
opens uito a green recess, and winding walk of the gardens. In all the fairy tales you have been, you
never was in so pretty a scene, Madam [Countess of Ossory.) I forgot to tell you how admirably all the
carving, stucco, and ornaments, are executed; but whence the money is to come, I conceive not; all the
A^ "^^"^^.^" Cornwall could not pay a quarter. How sick one shall be after this chaste palace of Mr.
Adam s gmgerbread and sippets of embroidery V— Letters; Cunnmgham's edit. vol. ix. p. 13. J
1 he main front of the house had a central portico, was hexastyle, and of the Cori^
thian order. The hall was square on the plan, and on each side was an opening, orW
recess, with a segmental coffered arch, enclosing two Ionic columns and entablature, the
last supporting vases and chimera. A landing of the staircase was octagonal in pi
* " '^'he gravel of Kensington is of European repute. At the gardens of Versailles, and Case
.icar Naples, the walks have been supplied from the Kensington gravel-pits."— Qttor^erZv Review,
<!xxxix. p. 237. o o i- -t- .y .
ll
PALL MALL. 635
with well-hole and lantern-light ; and the angles of the ceiling there, were formed by
fan-shaped springers. One of the dining-rooms was circular, with columns and re-
cesses, somewhat after the arrangement of those features in the Pantheon at Rome.
At the opposite sides of this room were large mirrors. The general decoration of the
house was of pseudo-classical character. Trophies were freely introduced ; and panels,
even those of doors, were enriched with lyres, wreaths, and festoons. One common
introduction was that of terminal figures. Generally, the ceilings were painted to
represent the sky and clouds. In the furniture gilding was used to a great extent. In
many of the rooms, the furniture was entirely gilt, with crimson or crimson and black
cushions. The most important point for notice as to the interior of Carlton House, is
the absence of the Louis Quinze style. The Carlton House chair and table are re-
membered. Among the rooms were the Crimson Drawing-room ; the Blue Velvet-
room ; the Golden Drawing-room, or Corinthian-room : the Gothic Dining-room. The
conservatory, said to be in " imitation of a cathedral, or Henry VII.'s chapel," but
equally suggestive of Roslyn Chapel : the ribs of the fan-tracery were filled in with
stained glass.
Here was a remarkably fine collection of arms and costumes, including two swords
of Charles I. ; swords of Columbus and Marlborough, and a couteau-de-chasse used by
Charles XII. of Sweden, which relics are now in the North Corridor at Windsor
Castle. Carlton House was sumptuously furnished for the Prince's ill-starred marriage
in 1795 : here, Jan. 7, 1796, was born the Princess, baptized Feb. 11, Charlotte-Augusta ;
and on May 2, 1816, married here to Leopold, subsequently King of the Belgians.
The ceremonial of conferring the Kegency was enacted at Carlton House with great
pomp, Feb. 5, 1811, and on June 19 following, the Prince Regent gave here a superb
supper to 2000 guests ; a stream with gold and silver fish flowing through a marble
eanal down the centre table.
Upon the screen of Ionic columns fronting Pall Mall, Bonorai wrote the following epigram :
" Care colonne, che fatti qua ?
Non sapiamo, in verita : "
Thus anglicized by Prince Hoare:
" Dear little columns, all in a row.
What do you do there ?
Indeed we don't know."
'Sheridan's allusion to these columns was not much more complimentary. About the time that the
Duke of York took possession of Melbourne House, now Dover House, near the Horse-Guards, of which
the most remarkable feature is the cupola in front, some discussions were raised in Parliament about
the debts of the Duke and his royal brother at Carlton House. The virtuous indignation of the Oppo-
sition was tremendous : and some of their remarks having been reported to Sheridan when he entered
the House of Commons, " I wonder," said he, " what amount of punishment would satisfy some people I
Has not the one got into the Roundhouse, and the other into the Fillory ?" This is another version
of the anecdote related at page 549.
In 1827, Carlton House was removed : the columns of the portico (adapted from the
Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome) being subsequently used in the portico of the
National Gallery, and the ornamental interior details (as marble mantel-pieces, friezes,
columns, &c.) transferred to Buckingham Palace. The colonnade pillars are employed in
one of the orangeries in Kew Gardens. Thus disappeared Carlton House. Upon the site of
the gardens have been built the York Column and Carlton House-terrace : the balustrades
of the latter originally extended between the two ranges of houses ; but were removed
to form the present entrance into St. James's Park, by command of William IV., very
soon after his accession. Upon the site of the courtyard and part of Carlton House
are the United Service and Athenaeum Clubhouses, and the intervening area facing
Waterloo- place. The Riding-house and Stables had a semicircular conch-headed recess,
intersected by an entablature ; the Doric columns supporting the latter, being without
bases, and fluted, but Roman in character.
PALL HALL.
^ A FINE spacious street between the Haymarket N.E., and St. James's street S.W."
-Ol (Ration, 1708), and one-third of a mile in length, is named from the French
game of paille-maille having been played there. The space between St. James's
House and Charing Cross, about 1560, appears to have been fields, with three or four
houses at the east end of the present Pall Mall, and opposite a small church, the name
636 CUEIOSITIFS OF LONDON.
of which Pennant could not discover. Down this road came Sir Thomas Wyat, " on
foot, hard by the Court-gate of St. James's, with four or five auncients, Ms men
inarching in good way," and thus proceeded to Charing Cross and Whitehall.
At the east end of Pall Mall, in the reign of Henry VI., stood a group of monastic buildings called
"the Rookery," belons^ing to the monks of Westminster : here resided Erasmus, by favour of Henry VIII.
and the interest of Aiine Eoleyn. When these buildings were demolished at the Reformation, tradition
relates there was found a secret smithy, which had been erected by order of Henry VI. for the practice
of alchemy. The premises were subsequently used as an inn, and upon the site was built the first
Carlton House.
** The Mall," in St. James's-park, not many years since, was commonly regarded as
the place where the game of " Paille-maille " was first played in England, and whence
the Park-avenue was said to have taken its name. Strutt calls it " the game of Mall,'*
and thus favours the above notion ; but, in Hatton's " spacious street" we have preserved
the entire name of the game. Charles II. caused the Mall in the Park to be made for
playing the game, which was a fashionable amusement in his reign ; but it was intro-
duced into England much earlier, and was not played in the Park until the original alley
had grown mto a street, and taken the name of the game itself. Blount, in his Glosso-
grapliy,e6\.t. 1670, says, "this game was heretofore used in the long alley near St. James's,
and vulgarly called Pall Mall." The name, however, occurs much earlier ; for King
James I., in his Basilicon Doron^ recommends "Palle Malle" as a field-game for the
use of his eldest son. Prince Henry ; proving the Mall in the present street to have
existed as early as the reign of the above King. In a crown survey, referred to by
Mr. Cunningham, we find "Pell Mell Close," partly planted with apple-trees (Appletree-
yard, St. James's-square, still exists) : and in the above document are also named 140
elm-trees, standing on both sides of Pall Mall walk ; Faithorne's plan, 1658, shows
a row of trees on the north side ; and the name of Pall Mall, as a street, occurs in the
rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1656. The name is derived
from Falla, a ball ; and Maglia, a mallet ; the implements with which the game was
played. In 1854 were found in the roof of the house of Mr. B. L. Vulliamy, No. 68,
Pall Mall, a box containing four pairs of the mailes, or mallets, and one ball, such as
were formerly used for playing the game upon the site of the above house. Each
maile is 4 feet in length, and is made of lance-wood ; the head is slightly curved, and
measures outwardly 5^ inches, the inner curve being 4^ inches, the diameter of the
maile-ends is 2\ inches, each shod with a thin iron hoop : the handle, which is very
elastic, is bound with white leather to the breadth of two hands, and terminated with
a collar of jagged leather. The ball, is of box wood, 2\ inches in diameter. A pair
of mailes and a ball are now in the British Museum. Mr. Vulliamy was born in the
above house, and died here in January, 1854, aged 74 years; and here his family lived
before him for 130 years, thus carrying us beyond the date of Pepys seeing Paille
Maille first played. The Vulliamys were clockmakers to the Sovereign in five reigns.
B. L. Vulliamy, the scientific horologist, who died as above, bequeathed his large and
very valuable collection of works on Horology to the Institution of Civil Engineers.
At the house of his very old friend, Mr. Vulliamy, died Professor Eigaud, the astro-
nomer, March 16, 1839.
In the reign of Charles TI. Pall Mall was occasionally called Catharine-street.
Faithorne's Plan, 1658, shows a row of trees on the north side. Pepys mentions, in
1660, an old tavern, " Wood's at the Pell Mell." In 1662 was fought here the duel
between Mr. Jermyn and Capt. Thomas Howard, the latter wearing mail under his
dress. The London Gazette of 1685 has an advertisement address, "the Sugar-loaf \n
the Pall Mall." Dr. Sydenham died here, in 1689, at his house next The Golden
Festle and Mortar ; which sign remained to our day, on the north side of the street.
Another olden sign. The Golden Ball, lasted to our time; but The Golden Door and
The Barher's Pole disappeared. Of Sydenham's residence here, Cunningham relates
an anecdote told by Mr. Fox to Mr. Rogers — that Sydenham was sitting at his window,
looknig on the Mall, with his pipe in his mouth, and a silver tankard before him, when
a fellow made a snatch at the tankard and ran oif with it. Nor was he overtaken
(said Fox) before he got among the bushes in Bond-street, where they lost him.
At the corner of St. Alban's-street lived Gilray, the caricaturist, when assistant to
PALL MALL. 637
Holland, the printseller. In a house opposite Market-lane, the " Royal Academy of
Art" met, from the time of their obtaining the patronage of George III. until their
removal to Somerset House, in 1771.
Among the coffee-houses of Pall Mall was the Smyrna, of the days of the Tatler and
Spectator ; where subscriptions were taken in by Thomson for publishing his Seasons,
&c. At the Star and G-arter Tavern, at a meeting of the Nottinghamshire Club,
Jan. 26, 1765, arose the dispute between Lord Byron and his relation and neighbour
Mr. Chaworth, as to which had the most game on his estates : they fought with swords
across the dining-table, by the light of one tallow candle, when Mr. Chaworth was run
through the body, anddied next day. Lord Byron was tried before his peers in Westminster
Hall, and found guilty of manslaughter ; but claiming the benefit of the statute of
Edward VI., he was discharged on payment of his fees. In the same house (the Star
and Garter), Winsor made his gas-lighting experiments ; he lighted the street wall in
1807. {See Gas-lighting, p. 371.) In the old Star and Garter house was exhibited,
in 1815, the Waterloo Museum of portraits, battle-scenes, and arms. At the Queen's
Arms Tavern, Lord Mohun supped with his second on the two nights preceding his fatal
duel with the Duke of Hamilton, in Hyde Park. At the King's Arms met the Liberty
or Rump-steak Club of Peers, in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. AlmaeFs
Gaming Cluh was on the site of No. 50, and is described at page 240.
Nearly opposite the south-west corner of the Opera-house, " Thomas Thynne, Esq.,
on Sunday (Feb. 12, 1681), was barbarously shot with a muskatoon in his coach, and
died next day." The instigator was Count Konigsmarck, in hopes of gaining Lady
Elizabeth Ogle, the rich heiress, to whom Thynne was either married or contracted.
Three of Thynne's ruffians were tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty, and hanged at
the spot whereon the murder was committed. Borosky, " who did the murther," was
hung in chains beyond Mile End Town : the Count was tried as an accessory, but was
acquitted. The assassination is sculptured upon Thynne's monument in Westminster
Abbey. Pall Mall had early its notable sights and amusements. In 1701 were shown
here models of William the Third's Palaces at Loo and Hundstaerdike, " brought over
by outlandish men," with Curiosities disposed of " on public raffling-days." In 1733,
** a holland smock, a cap, checked stockings, and laced shoes," were run for by four
women in the afternoon, in Pall Mall ; and one of its residents, the High Constable of
Westminster, gave a prize laced hat to be run for by five men, which created so much
riot and mischief that the magistrates "issued precepts to prevent future runs to the
very man most active in promoting them." Here lodged George Psalmanazer, when
he passed for an islander of Formosa, and invented a language which baffled the
philologists of Europe. Here lived Joseph Clark, the posture-master, celebrated for per-
sonating deformities : now deceiving, by feigned dislocated vertebrae, the great surgeon,
Moulins ; then perplexing a tailor's measure with counterfeit humps and high shoulders.
At the Chinese Gallery was exhibited, in 1825, " the Living Skeleton" (Anatomic
Vivante), Claude Ambroise Seurat, a native of Troyes, in Champagne, 28 years old.
His health was good, but his skin resembled parchment, and his ribs could be counted,
and handled like pieces of cane: he was shown nude, except about the loins; the arm,
from the shoulder to the elbow, was like an ivory German flute ; the legs were straight,
and the feet well formed. {See Hone's lEvery-day Book.) At No. 59, Salter spent
five years in painting his great picture of the Waterloo Banquet at Apsley House,
engraved for Alderman Moon. At No. 121, Campanari exhibited his Etruscan and
Greek Antiquities, in rooms fitted up as the Chambers of Tombs. In apartments at
No. 120, Captain Marryat wrote his Poor Jack.
Nell Gwyn lived in 1670, "on the east end, north side;" and from 1671 to her
death, in 1687, in a house on the south side, with a garden towards the Park ; and
it was upon a mount in this garden that " the impudent comedian " stood, to hold
her familiar discourse with Charles II., who stood " on y^ green walk " under the
wall. The scene, as described by Evelyn, has been cleverly painted by Mr. E. M.
Ward, R.A. The site of Nell's house is now occupied by No. 79, Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
" Nelly at first had only a lease of the house, which as soon as she discovered, she returned the con-
veyance to the King, with a remark characteristic of her wit, and of the monarch to whom it was ad«
638 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
dressed. The Kinsr enjoyed the joke, and perhaps admitted its truth ; so the house in Pall Mall was
conveyed free to Nell and her representatives for ever. The truth of the story is confirmed by the
fact, that the house which occupies the site of the one in which she lived, now No. 79, is the only free-
hold on the south or Park side of Pall Mall." (Cunningham's Nell Gwyn, p. 115.) Mr. Cunningham
adds : " No entry of the grant is to be found in the Land Revenue Record Office."
A relic of Nell Gwyn, her looking-glass, is preserved in the Visitors' Dining-room of the Army and
Navy Club-house, in Pall Mall. The glass was bought Avith Lord De Mauley's house, which was
taken down for the Club-house site.
Eastward of Nell Gwyn's lived Sir William Temple, and the Hon. Kobert Boyle, and
Bubb Dodington; and on the south side. Doctor Barrow, and Lady Southesk, the
celebrated Countess of De Grammont's Memoirs. In Marlborough House lived the
great Duke of Marborough {see p. 552) ; and in a house in front of the mansion
Sir Robert Walpole. Of Schomberg House, Nos. 81. and 82, built for the great Duke
of Schomberg, the centre and the west wing remain. {See p. 449.)
Dr. Graham's " Goddess of Health," who figured here, was a lady named Prescott.
Mr. CosM'ay, R.A., the next tenant of Schomberg House, was the fashionable miniature-
painter of his day; and here his accomplished wife, Maria Cosway (also a painter), gave
her musical parties, the Prince of Wales being a frequent visitor. Mrs. Cosway made
a pilgrimage to Loretto, which she had vowed to do if blessed with a living child.
{Notes and Queries, No. 147.) At Schomberg House was first concocted the dramatic
scheme of " The Beggars' Opera."
In the Mall, in 1689, resided " the Lady Griffin, who was seized for having treason-
able letters put into false bottoms of two large brandy -bottles, in the first year of his
majesty's reign." De Foe characterizes Pall Mall, in 1703, as " the ordinary residence
of all strangers, because of its vicinity to the Queen's palace, the Park, the Parliament-
house, the theatres, and the chocolate and coffee houses, where the best company fre-
quent." Gay thus celebrates the modish street in his time :
*• bear me to the patlis of fair Pall Mnll !
Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell I
At distance rolls the gilded coach.
Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach ;
No lets would bar thy ways were chairs deny'd.
The soft supports of laziness and pride;
Shops breathe perfumes, through sashes ribbons glow,
The mutual arms of ladies and the hea-n." —Trivia, book ii.
Strype describes Pall Mall as "a fine long street," with garden-houses on the
south side, many with raised mounts, and prospects of the King's garden and St.
James's Park. In gay bachelor's chambers in Pall Mall lived Beau Fielding, Steele's
" Orlando the Fair ;" here he was married to a supposed lady of fortune, brought to
him in a mourning-coach and widow's weeds, which led to his trial for bigamy. Field-
ing's namesake places Nightingale and Tom Jones in Pall Mall, when they leave the
lodgings of Mrs. Miller in Bond-street. Lsetitia Pilkington, for a short time, kept
here a pamphlet and print shop. At the sign of " Tully's Head," Robert Dodsley,
formerly a footman, with the profits of a volume of his poems and a comedy (published
through the kindness of Pope), opened a shop in 1735 ; and here he published his
Annual Register, Economy of Human Life, and Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Dodsley
retired in 1759 ; but his brother James, his partner, continued the business until his
death in 1797 ; he is buried in St. James's Church, Piccadilly. " Tully's Head " was
the resort of Pope, Chesterfield, Lyttleton, Shenstone, Johnson, and Glover ; Horace
Walpole, the Wartons, and Edmund Burke. Walpole writes of 1786, a period when
robberies in capitals appear to have been a sort of fashion — " on Jan. 7, half an hour
after eight, the mail from France tvas robbed in Fall Mall — yes, in the great thorough-,
fare of London, and within call of the guard at the palace. The chaise had stopped,
the harness was cut, and the portmanteau was taken out of the chaise itself. What
think you of banditti in the heart of such a capital ?"
At No. 90 died, in 1849, Mr. W. J. Denison, in his 80th year, bequeathing 2^ mil-
lions sterling : he sat in Parliament 31 years for Surrey. No. 91, Buckingham House,
was built by Soane for the Marquis of Buckingham, 1790-4. At No. 100 lived Mr.
Angerstein, whose pictures were bought for the nation, and were shown here before
their removal to the National Gallery; and at No. 50 died Mr. Robert Vernon, who
PANTHEON, OXFOllD-STBEET. 63^
bequeathed to the country his pictures of the English School, which were for a short
time exhibited here.
No. 50 was built by Alderman Boydell as the Shalespeare Gallery, for his pictures
illustrative of Sliakspeare, painted by West, Reynolds, Northcote, and others, and
which were dispersed by lottery after being engraved. In 1806 the gallery was pur-
chased by a committee of noblemen and gentlemen, by whom was established here the
British Institution, for the exhibition of the works of Living Artists in the spring, and
Old Masters in the autumn. Here was exhibited West's large picture (9 ft. by 14 ft.)
of Christ healing the Sick in the Temple ; bought by the British Institution for 3000
guineas, and presented to the National Gallery. Upon the house-front is a large bas-
relief of Shakspeare attended by Poetry and Painting, for which Alderman Boydell
paid Banks, the sculptor, 500 guineas ; and in the hall is Banks's colossal Mourning
Achilles, a noble work of pathos and heroic beauty. No. 53 is the • House of the New
Society of Painters in Water-colours.
No. 86, the War Office, was originally built for Edward Duke of York, brother of
George III., and was subsequently a Subscription Club-house, called the Albion Hotel;
this being the first modern club-mansion in Pall Mall, which had its "houses for
clubbing" in Pepys's time. In the court-yard of the War Office is the bronze statue of
Lord Herbert of Lea, Secretary of State for War : sculptor, Foley, R.A. ; erected by
public subscription, June 1, 1867. {See Statues.) After the removal of Carlton
House, in 1827, the erection of the present splendid club-houses in Pall Mall was com-
menced with the Senior United Service and the Athenaeum. {See Club HorSES, pp. 241
and 258.) Near Warwick- street stood Warwick House, v/hence the Princess Charlotte,.
in 1814, escaped in a hackney-coach to the house of her mother, as vividly described
by Lord Brougham in the EdinhurgTi Beview. In Warwick-street is a public-house
with the old sign of The Two Chairmen, recalling the sedans of Pall Mall :
" Who the footman's arroofance can quell,
Whose flambeau gilds the sashes of Pall Mall,
When in long rank a train of 1 orches flame,
To light the midnight visits of the dame." — Gay's Trivia, book iii.
Here, in 1731, were found, in digging the great sewer of Pall Mall, the fossil teeth
of an elephant, 28 feet underground : they are preserved in the Museum of the Society
of Antiquaries, Somerset House.
Pall Mall East, on the north side of Cockspur-street, contains the University
Club-house, described at p. 259 ; and the College of Physicians, described at p. 277.
Here also is M. C. Wyatt's equestrian statue of George III. {see Statues). At
No. 4 (Harding, Lepard, and Co.) were exhibited, in 1831, the exquisite water-colour
copies made by Hilton and Derby for Lodge's Portraits of Illustrious Personages,
from pictures by Titian, Holbein, Vandyke, Mark Gerard, Zucchero, Jansen, Betel,
Walker, Van Somer, Honthorst, Lely, Ant. More, Mytens, Kneller, Reynolds, Dahl,
Jarvis, Riley, Rubens, Fleck, Juan de Pantoxa, Mirevelt, and P. Oliver. No. 5 is
the Gallery of the Society of Painters in Water-colours. At No. 1, Dorset-place,
lived John Thelwall, the classic elocutionist and dramatic lecturer, who late in life left
political agitation for the calm pursuits of literature. He was worthily characterized
by Coleridge as " intrepid, eloquent, and honest ; perhaps the only acting democrat
that is honest." Between Whitcomb-street and Charing Cross was formerly Hedge-
lane, 300 yards in length j in the days of Charles I. a lane through the fields, and
bordered with hedges. At a low tavern in Suftblk-street, on January 30, 1735, sprung
the drunken frolic, out of which arose " the Calves' Head Club" {see p. 573).
PANTSBON, OXFORD- STRBET,
ABOUT one-third of a mile on the left from St. Giles's, was originally built by
James Wyatt for musical promenades, and was opened January 27, 1772, when
2000 persons of rank and fashion were present. It contained fourteen rooms, exclusive
of the rotunda : the latter had double colonnades, ornamented with Grecian reliefs ;
and in niches at the base of the dome were statues of the heathen deities, Britannia,
and George III. and Queen Charlotte. Walpole described it as " the new winter
Ranelagh," with pillars of artificial giallo antico, and with ceilings and panels painted
640 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
from Raphael's loggias in the Vatican. In the first winter here were assemblies with-
out music or dancing ; and the building was exhibited at 5s. each person ! In 1783,
Delpini, the clown, got up a masquerade here, to celebrate the Prince of Wales's attain-
ing his majority ; tickets three guineas each. Next year Garrick was present at a
masquerade here as King of the Gipsies. Gibbon was also a frequenter of its gay
bachelors' masque fetes. In 1784, also, the " Commemoration of Handel" was per-
formed here, when the King, Queen, and Royal Family were present. The Pantheon
was next convei'ted into a theatre for the Italian Opera company in 1791, the or-
chestra including Giardini, La Motte, Cramer, Fischer, Crosdil, and Cervetto.
The Pantheon was burnt down January 14, 1792 : Turner painted the conflagra-
tion, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy two years after he became an exhibitor.
The loss by the fire was stated at 80,000^. The Pantheon was rebuilt in 1795,
Wyatt's entrance-front in Oxford-street and in Poland-street being retained. It was
then let as a theatre, and for exhibitions, lectures, and music. The theatre was re-
constructed in 1812, when Miss Stephens (subsequently Countess of Essex), first ap-
peared in London here as a concert-singer ; and first appeared on the stage, at Covent
Garden Theatre, in 1813. In 1814 a patent was sought from Parliament to open the
Pantheon with the regular drama ; but the application failed. In 1832 the property
was sold for 16,000Z. : the premises are freehold, except the Oxford-street front, which
is leasehold. In 1835 the premises were remodelled by Sydney Smirke, A.R.A., and
opened as a Bazaar. (See p. 41.) The building was, in 1867, closed, to be converted
into a Wine Dep6t. Spa Fields Chapel, in Clerkenwell, was originally built in
imitation of the West-end Pantheon.
PANCRAS, ST.,
ORIGINALLY a solitary village " in the fields," north of London, and one mile from
Holborn Bars, is the most extensive parish in Middlesex, being 18 miles in circum-
ference. It is a prebendal manor, and was included in the land granted by Ethelbert
to St. Paul's Cathedral about 603 ; it was a parish before the Conquest, and is called
St. Pancras in Domesday. The history of its church, which Norden thought *' not to
yield in antiquitie to Panics in London," is narrated at pp. 193-4. The prebendary of
St. Pancras was anciently confessor to the Bishop of London : in the list are Lancelot
Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester; Dr. Sherlock, and Archdeacon Paley. Lysons sup-
poses it to have included the prebendal manor of Kentish Town, or Cantelows,* which
now constitutes a stall in St. Paul's Cathedral. The church has about 70 acres of
land attached to it, which were demised in 1641 at lOZ. reserved rent ; and being
subsequently leased to Mr. William Agar, are now the site of Agar Town. In Domes-
day, Walter, a canon of St. Paul's, holds one hide at Pancras, which is supposed to
form the freehold estate of Lord Somers, on which Somers Town is built.
St. Pancras' parish contained, in 1251, only 40 houses; in 1503 the church stood
** all alone," and in 1745 only 3 houses had been built near it. In 1766 the population
was not 600; in 1801, 36,000;
Houses. Inhabitants.
1821 9,405 71,838
1841 15,658 129,969
1851 18,584 166,596
1861 21,928 198,882
A return shows that the single parish of St. Pancras was assessed in 1862, to the pro-
perty tax under Schedule A, the schedule for the annual value of land (including the
houses built upon it, the railways, &c.), at 3,798,521^. This is the most populous pa-
rish in the metropolis : it includes one-third of the hamlet of Highgate, with the ham-
lets of Kentish-town, Battle-bridge, Camden Town, Somers Town, to the foot of
Gray's-Inn-lane : also part of a house in Queen-square " {Lysons), all Tottenham-
court-road, and the r-treets west of Cleveland-street and Rathbone-place.
Stukeley affirmed tLe site of the old church to have been occupied by a Roman
encampment (Caesar's), of which he has published a plan {Itinerarium Curiosum, 1758) ;
and the neighbouring Brill of Somers Town Stukeley traces to a contraction of Bury
* Anciently Kentesstoune, where William Bruges, Garter King-at-arms in the reign of Henry V., had
a country-house, at which he entertained the Emperor Sigismund.
PABIS GABDEK 641
or Burgh Hill, a Saxon name for a fortified place on an elevated site ; following Camden
in hJs illustration of the village of Brill in Buckinghamshire.
At Battle-hridgey in 1842, was discovered a Roman inscription attesting the great
battle between the Britons under Boadicea, and the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus,
to have been fought on this spot.
The inscription bears distinctly the letters lbg. xx. (the twentieth legion), one of the four which
came into Britain in the reign of Claudius ; and the vexillation of which was in the army of Suetonius
Paulinus, when he made that victorious stand in a fortified pass, with a forest in his rear, against the
insurgent Britons. The position is described by Tacitus. On the high ground above Battle-bridge are
vestiges of Roman works ; and the tract of land to the north was formerly a forest. The veracity of the
following passage of the historian is therefore fully confirmed ; — "Deligitque locum artis faucibus, eta
tergo silva clausum ; satis cognito, nihil hostium nisi in fronte, et apertam planitiem esse sine raetu
insidiarum." He further tells us, that the force of Suetonius was composed of " quartadecima legio,
cum vpxillariis mcesimants, et e proximis auxiliares." {Tacit, Annal.Wb.yxv.) So that, almost to the
letter, the place of this memorable engagement seems, by the discovery of the above inscription to be
ascertained.
In Ben Jonson's play, the Tale of a Tub, the characters move about in the fields
near Pancridge (St. Pancras) ; Totten-court is a mansion in the fields ; a robbery is pre-
tended to be committed " in the ways over the country " between Kentish Town and
Hampstead Heath; and a warrant is granted by a " Marribone" justice.
St. Pancras had formerly its mineral springs, which were much resorted to.
Near the old churchyard, in the yard of a house, is the once celebrated St. Pancras'
Well, slightly cathartic. St. Chad's Well, in Gray's-Inn-road, has a similar property ;
and the Hampstead Wells and Walks were given in 1698 to trustees for the benefit of
the poor. The Hampstead Water was formerly sold in flasks in London.
In St. Pancras are the Termini of the two largest Railways in England : the North-
western, Euston-square; and the Great Northern at King's Cross, 45 acres. The name of
King's Cross dates from the accession of George IV., when the streets were commenced
building on the ground known as Battle-bridge, then in ill repute, and subsequently
changed to the royal designation. In a house in Montgomery's nursery-gardens, the
site of the north side of Euston-square, lived Dr. Wolcot {Peter Pindar), tbe satirist.
The vicarage was valued at 28^. in 1650 ; it is rated in the King's books at Ql. j and
at this time is stated at 1700^. St. Pancras Churches, Old and New, are described at
pp. 193-194. Under the belfry of the old church was interred privately, in a grave
14 feet deep, the body of Earl Ferrers, executed at Tyburn in 1760.
The Cemetery for St. Pancras, 87 acres (being the first extra-mural burial-ground
for the metropoUs, by Act 15 and 16 Victoria, cap. 85), was commenced in 1853, on
" Horse-shoe Farm," in the Finchley-road, about 4J miles from St. Pancras Work-
house, and 2 miles from the extreme northern boundary of the parish. St. Pancras
Workhouse often contains upwards of 1200 persons, equal to the population of a large
village. The excellent Female Charity School in the Hampstead-road dates from 1776.
In the northern part of the parish, between Kentish Town and Haverstock Hill, is Gospel Oak Field,
traditionally said to be the spot where the Gospel was first preached in this kingdom ; the site is inclosed
by a wooden railing containing the boundary stone of St. Pancras and the adjoining parish of St. John's,
Hampstead. When Wicklitfe attended the citation at St. Paul's Cathedral, he is said to have frequently
preached under this tree; at the Reformation, from under its branches were promulgated the doc-
trines of Protestantism; and here Whitefield preached nearly three centuries later. Some thirty years
after, the tree died ; and when a young tree was planted in its place, it as often was killed. However,
the site was marked; and within memory, it was the practice, when beating the bounds of the parish, to
regale the children, when the Vicar of the parish attended, and offered iip prayer. There are seven
churches of St. Pancras in England, another in France, another in Giessenin Hesse Darmstadt; another,
indeed many, in Italy, one celebrated church in Rome itself.— See The Life and Times of St. Fancras.
By Edward White. 2nd edit. 1856.
Although the Midland Railway has cut through Gospel Oak Field, here are edifices
in keeping with the ancient religious associations of the place. Here is St. Martin's,
a carefully finished specimen of the Third Pointed, or Perpendicular style ; St. Andrew's,
in the First Pointed, and somewhat Byzantine ; a Congregational Chapel, of some archi-
tectural character ; and a large Roman Catholic Convent. Here, too, is the Birkbeck
School, built in place of the School removed for the Railway.
PARIS GAEBUN,
A PORTION of the manor of that name on the Bankside, and so called from Robert de
Paris, who had a house and grounds there, in the reign of Richard II., and " who,
642 CUBI081TIES OF LONDON.
by proclamation ordained that the butchers of London should buy that garden for re-
ceipt of the garbage and entrails of beasts ; to the end the City might not be annoyed
thereby." — Blount's Qlossographia, edit. 1681.
This manor was given to the monastery of Bermondsey in 1113, and Robert de
Paris must have been a lessee under the Abbot of Bermondsey. In 1537, the manor
was conveyed to Henry VIII. ; and Queen Elizabeth, in the twentieth year of her
reign, granted the manor in exchange, to Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. It was sub-
sequently held by Thomas Cure, saddler to the Queen, and founder of the Almshouses
in Southwark which bear his name ; and lastly by Richard Taverner and William
Angell, citizens. The moated manor-house was called Holland's Leagtier, from
Shakerly Marmion's satirical tract on this house and its inmates, entitled " Holland's
Leaguer, or a Discourse on the life and actions of Donna Brittannia Hollandia, the
Arch-mistress of the wicked Women of Utopia " (4to, 1632). It had succeeded the
stews of Bankside as a public brothel, and in the reigns of James I. and Charles I.
was a fashionable resort. A rude wood-cut of the house, with a draw-bridge crossing
the moat, is prefixed to the tract. The site of the house and garden is partly occupied
by the present Holland street, and Pellatt's Glass-house occupies part of the site of
the Falcon theatre, and is named therefrom. In 1670, the manor of Paris Garden was
constituted the parish of Christchurch, and a church built thereon, rebuilt 1738. In
1867, the Metropolitan Board of Works took a portion of the manor, for which they
paid hOOl. Paris Garden had its theatre, to be described under Theatres.
" There is, or used to be, a ditch or dyke running across Great Surrey-street, Blackfriars-road, but for
some few years past it has been covered or built upon. All buildings thereon are subject to a ground-
rent, payable to the Steward of the Manor of ' Old Paris Garden,' and collected half-yearly."— iV^ofes and.
Queries, No. 265, 1854.
PARKS.
THE Parks have been well denominated by an amiable statesman (Windham), " the
lungs of London ;" for they are essential to the healthful respiration of its inha-
bitants. There are fourteen Royal Parks and Pleasure-grounds in or about London ; the
parks being those of Battersea, Bushy, Greenwich, Hampton Court, Kennington,
Kensington, Regent's, Richmond, St. James's, Green, Hyde, and Victoria; and the
pleasure-grounds of Hampton Court and Kew. The grounds of the Hospital and
Military Asylum at Chelsea, with Holyrood Park and Longford River, are also included
under the above heading, the total estimate of charges connected with which amounts,
for the financial year 1867-8, to 125,326^. Of this sum, 5095?. are paid to the
Ranger's departments of Greenwich, Richmond, St. James's, Green, and Hyde Parks ;
the grounds of the Hospital and Military Asylum at Chelsea costing 1704Z. Tho
income derived from the Royal Parks is about 5000?. per annum, and is paid to the
ConsoHdated Fund.
Albert, or Finsbtjey Paek, equidistant from Regent and Victoria Parks, is to
commence at Highbury Crescent, passing along the right side of Holloway and Hornsey
roads to the Seven Sisters' -road, and including all the space of fields to the west of
Newington Green j afterwards inclimng towards the New River, which it is proposed to
cross north of the Horse-shoe, excluding the Junction Railway, and extending to the
bottom of Highbury Grove, completing the enclosure of 300 acres.
Batteesea Park consisted, prior to its formation, of small Lammas Lands, in lieu of
which a Lammas Hall has been erected in Battersea. In 1846, its conversion into a
park was decided by Act of ParUament. Before it was fit even to walk upon it was
necessary to raise the entire surface. Fortunately, about this time the London Docks
(Victoria) Extension were commenced. It was requisite to excavate and remove
thence to a distance immense quantities of earth, which were gladly received at
Battersea-fields j and from this and other sources not less than 1,000,000 cubic yards
of earth have been deposited on this site. This occupied several years, and the actual
formation of the park could not be commenced till 1856 : the drives, walks, and orna-
mental lake were then laid out and formed; the planting began in 1857. Large
quantities of earth were deposited and formed into undulating mounds and banks, and
PARKS. 643
several acres were thus reclaimed along the hanks of the river. These deposits of earth
were well adapted to the growth of trees and shruhs, which consist of the choicest kinds
of hoth, and this park contains one of the richest collections in or near London. About
200 acres are here appropriated to ornamental and recreative purposes — viz., grass
surface, 100 acres ; water, 20 ; and shrubberies, plantations, drives, and walks, 80.
About 34 acres have been prepared for cricket, in match-grounds and practice-ground
for schools, and for organized clubs. Other large open spaces are used for the drill
and exercises of the troops stationed at Chelsea New Barracks, as also of various
Volunteer corps, and the district Police. Portions are set apart for trap-ball, rounders,
and other games; and when the cricket season terminates football is commenced.
The lake is an artificial one, and is fed partly from the river Thames and partly by a
steam-engine, fixed for the purpose of supplying the park with water for the lodges,
drinking fountains, roads, flower-beds, &c. The depth of the water is too shallow for
bathing, being only 2^ feet deep. The lake, however, is extensively used for boating.
The peninsula, comprising an area of 5^ acres, is laid out in the English landscape
style, combining a series of mounds with gentle slopes, between which are pic-
turesque vistas. Nearly at its centre there is a reservoir, which is excavated below
the level of the neighbouring springs. The water from this self-supplied source is as
clear as crystal ; it is pumped into an elevated tank which holds 20,000 gallons, from
which arc laid service pipes for the supply of the park. A horse-ride has been formed
about 40ft. wide; and the South-eastern portion of the park is appropriated as a
gymnasium and playground.
Here is the Sub-Tropical Garden, nearly 4 acres in extent. Here is a bed of caladium esculentum,
from the West Indies, with big leaves not to be matched in England. Australian tree ferns throw out
their^raceful leaves as luxuriantly as though they were still under glass. The India-rubber plant is
growing in great profusion. So is the Banana and the curious Indian shot plant. Further on we come
to the variegated Croton, and the beautiful scarlet foliage of the Dragon's-blood tree from South America,
Here is a tropical plant, the Cannalimbata, which bravely contends with the rigours of an English winter.
Among many others are— the large-leaved tobacco plant ; a new variety of the sugar-cane from Japan ;
the coral tree, with its beautiful and suggestive flower; the Dracaena nutans, drooping, combined with,
Dpright leaves; a Southern emblem, the Palmetto palm ; the Date palm; the Rice-paper plant of China;
the Papyrus plant of Egypt, and the veritable Bulrush of the Nile. In another part of the park is a
rosary, the soil of which is well suited to the production of the queen of the English garden,
Chelsea Hospital Grounds, on the northern bank of the Thames, have been relaid
out : the surface has been raised on the south 4^ feet, and elsewhere from 10 to 24 feet,
in which work, some 100,000 cubic yards of stufi"have been deposited; an avenue of old
pollard lime-trees, planted some 150 years ago in the centre of the grounds, has been
removed by powerful machines, four or five tons of earth being taken with each tree ; and
the whole of the trees have been formed into two avenues, and the grounds planted with
flowering shrubs. A portion of the grounds occupying the site on which Ranelagh House
formerly stood is devoted to the private use of the inmates of the Hospital, and has been
re-formed and laid out. Here allotments are set apart for the pensioners, consisting of a
square rod each; and they are so successfully cultivated by some of these men, that as
much as 10^. or 111. has been realized on one allotment. This is done chiefly by the
cultivation of the musk plant, of which two and three crops are obtained in a season,
and for which there is an easy sale to hawkers.
Geeen Paek, The, 60 acres in extent, adjoins St. James's Park on the north, and
extends westward to Hyde Park Corner, the line of communication being by the fine
road Constitution Sill. It was formerly called Little St. James's Park, and was reduced
in 1767, by George III., to add to the gardens of Buckingham House. At the Peace
Commemoration, in 1814, here was erected a vast Temple of Concord, with allegorical
paintings and illuminations and fireworks. In 1840-41 the entire Park was drained,
and the surface relaid and planted; and the Deputy-Ranger's Lodge, towards the
north-west corner, was then taken down. At the north-east corner was formerly the
Chelsea Waterworks Reservoir, reconstructed in 1829, 44 feet above Trinity high-
water mark of the Thames, and containing 1,500,000 gallons. The Reservoir has
been filled up. This high ground commands fine views of the Norwood and Wimbledon
hills, and of the roof of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.
On the cast side of the Park is a line of noble mansions, including Stafford House,
T T 2
644 CURIOSITIES OF LOKDOK
Bridgewater House ; and Spencer House, with its finial statues, commended by Sir
William Chambers. The gardens of the several houses are leased of the Crown.
Dr. King relates, that Charles II. having taken two or three turns one morning in St. James's Park,
attended only by the Duke of Leeds and Lord Cromarty, walked up Constitution Hill; and as the king
was crossing the road into Hyde Park, met the Duke of York in his coach, returning from hunting. The
duke- alighted to pay his respects to the king, and expressed his surprise to meet his majesty with such
a small attendance, adding that he thought the king exposed himself to some danger. " No kind of
danger, James ; for I am sure no man in England will take away my life to make you king," was
Charles's reply.
In Constitution-hill-road, near the Palace, three diabolical attempts have been made
to shoot Queen Victoria : by a lunatic, named Oxford, June 10, 1840 ; by Francis,
another lunatic. May 30, 1842 ; and by an idiot, named Hamilton, May 19, 1849. On
June 29, 1850, at the upper end of the road. Sir Robert Peel was thrown from his
horse j he died at his house in Whitehall Gardens, on July 2.
The Arch at the entrance of the road from Hyde Park Corner is a poor adaptation
from the Arch of Titus at Rome, and was originally designed as an entrance to Buckingham
Palace Gardens. It bears the colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington.
The Green Park has been greatly improved, from almost a bare field to a resort of
some picturesqueness and variety. A new horse-ride has been made, from Buckingham
Palace to Stable-yard Gate, St. James's.
Hyde Paek extends from Piccadilly westward to Kensington Gardens, and lies
between the great western and Bayswater roads. It is the site of the ancient manor
of Hyde, which belonged to the monastery of St. Peter, Westminster, until it was con-
veyed to Henry VITI. in 1536, soon after which a keeper of the park is mentioned.
In 1550 the French Ambassador hunted here; and in 1578 the Duke Casimir shot a
doe from amongst 300 other deer in Hyde Park. In 1652 the Park was sold by order
of Parliament, for 17,000Z.; the deer being valued, in addition, at 765?. 6*. 2d.
The park then contained 620 acres, and extended eastward to Park-lane, and on the
west almost to the front of Kensington Palace : it is described in the indenture of sale
as "that impaled ground called Hyde Park;" but, with the exception of Tyburn
meadow, the enclosure for the deer, the old lodge at Hyde Park Corner, and the
Banqueting House, the park was left in a state of nature ; and De Grammont describes it
as a barn-field in the time of Charles II. Ben Jonson mentions its great spring show
of coaches; Brome names its races, horse and foot; and in Shirley's play of St/de
Park, 1637, is the scene of a race in the park between an Irish and English footman.
After the sale by Parliament, tolls were levied.
"11th A.pril, 1653.— I went to take the aire in Hide Park, when every coach was made to pay a
shilling, and every horse sixpence, by the sordid fellow (Anthony Deane, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields,
Esq.) who had purchas'd it of the State, as they were ca.Wd."—Eveli/n.
The park does not appear to have been thrown open to the public until the time of
Charles I., and then not indiscriminately.
In the Character of England, 1659, it is described as " a field near the town, which they call Hyde
Park; the place not unpleasant, and which they use as our course; but with nothing of that order,
equipage, and splendour; being such an assembly of wretched jades and hackney-coaches, as, next a
regiment of carrraen, there is nothing approaches the resemblance. This parke was, it seems, used by
the late king and nobility for the freshness of the air and the goodly prospect; but it is that which now
(besides all other exercises) they pay for here in England, though to be free in all the world besides;
every coach and horse which enters buying his mouthful and permission of the publicane who has pur-
chased it, for which the entrance Is guarded with porters and long staves."
At the Restoration, Mr. Hamilton was appoined Ranger of the park, which he let
in farms until 1670, when it was enclosed with a wall, and re-stocked with deer.
Refreshments were thus early sold ; for 25th April, 1669, Pepys carried his pretty
wife to the lodge, and there in their coach ate a cheesecake, and drank a tankard of
milk. De Grammont describes the promenade as " the rendezvous of fashion and
beauty. Every one, therefore, who had either sparkling eyes or a splendid equipage,
constantly repaired thither ; and the king (Charles II.) seemed pleased with the place."
Maying was a favourite custom here : May 1, 1661, Evelyn " went to Hyde Park to
take the air; where was his Majesty and an innumerable appearance of gallants and
rich coaches, being now the time of universal festivity and joy." Even in the Puritan
times. May (1654) " was more observed by people going a-maying than for divers years
past ; and, indeed, much sin committed by wicked meetings, with fiddlers, drunkenness,
PARKS. 645
ribaldry, and the like. Great resort came to Hyde Park, many hundreds of coaches,
and gallants in attire: but most shameful powdered-hair men, and painted and
spotted women." A few days after, the Lord Protector and many of his Privy
Council witnessed in Hyde Park "a bowling of a great ball by fifty Cornish
gentlemen of one side, and fifty of the other ; one party playing in red caps, and the
other in white. The ball they played withal was silver, and designed for that party
which did win the goal." Evelyn, in May, 1658, " went to see a coach-race in Hyde
Park ;" and Pepys, August, 1660, " To Hyde Park by coach, and saw a fine foot-race
three times round the park." Here a strange accident happened to Cromwell in 1654 :
"The Duke of Holslein made him (Cromwell) a present of a set of gay Priesland coach-horses; with
which, taking the air in the park, attended only with his secretary, Thurloe, and a guard of Janizaries,
he would needs take the place of the coachman, and not content with their ordinary pace, he lashed
them very furiously. But they, unaccustomed to such a rough driver, ran away in a rage, and stopped
not till they had thrown him out of the box, with which fall his pistol fired in his pocket, though with-
out any hurt to himself; by which he might have been instructed how dangerous it was to meddle with
those things wherein he had no experience." — Ludlow.
Cromwell was partial to Hyde Park here Syndercombe and Cecil! lay wait to
assassinate him, when " the hinges of Hyde Park gate were filed ofi", in order to their
escape." The Ring was, from all time previous to the Restoration till far in the reigns
of the Georges, the fashionable haunt. It was situated to the north of the present
Serpentine, and part of the Ranger's grounds cover its sitej some of the old trees
remain, with a few of the oaks traditionally said to have been planted by Charles II.
Near the ring was the lodge called the " Grave Prince Maurice's Head," and in later
times the " Cake house ;" a slight stream ran before it ; and the house, approached by
planks, presented a very picturesque appearance : it is engraved in the Gentleman's
Magazine for 1801.
Reviews have, for nearly two centuries, been favourite spectacles in Hyde Park. At
the Restoration, during a splendid show, the Lord Mayor received notice that " Colonel
John Lambert was carried by the park a prisoner into Whitehall."
Pepys "did stand" at another review in 1664, when Charles II, was present, while "the horse and
)t march by and discharge their guns, to show a French marquisse (for whom this muster was caused)
the goodnesse of our firemen ; which, indeed, was very good, though not without a sUp now and then ;
foot march by and discharge their guns, to show a French marquisse (for whom this muster was caused)
the goodnesse of our firemen ; which, indeed, was very good, though not without a sUp now and then ;
and one broadside close to our coach as we had going out of the parke, even to the nearenesse to be ready
to burn our hairs. Yet methought all these gay men are not the soldiers that must do the king's business,
it being such as these that lost the old king all he had, and were beat by the most ordinary fellows that
eould be."
The Militia review by George II. in 1759, the Volunteers by George III., and the
encampment of the troops after Lord George Gordon's Riots in 1780, also belong to
the military shows of Hyde Park. Here George III. inspected the Volunteers on his
birth-day, June 4th, for several years : in 1800 the troops numbered 15,000. In August,
1814, were held in this park the Regent's Fete and Fair, when a mimic sea-fight was
exhibited on the Serpentine, and fireworks from the wall of Kensington Gardens ; and
here have been held in the present century three " Coronation Fairs," and firework
displays. Of sterner quality was the rendezvous of the Commonwealth troops in the
park during the Civil War. Essex and Lambert encamped their forces here ; and
Cromwell reviewed his terrible Ironsides. In 1643 the citizens threw up the line of
fortification drawn round the City and suburbs, drawn by order of Parliament ; and one
of its strongest works, " Oliver's Mount," faced Mount-street, in Park -lane. {See FoE-
TiFiCATioNS, p. 354.) Here was the celebrated " Mount" Coffee-house.
Hyde Park continued with little alteration, till, in 1705, nearly 30 acres were
added to Kensington Gardens, by Queen Anne ; and nearly 300 acres by Caroline,
Queen of George II. (see Kensington Gaedens, p. 493), by whose order also, in
1730-3, was formed the Serpentine River. The Park has also been reduced by grants
of land, between Hyde Park Corner and Park -lane, for building ; and according to a
survey taken in 1790, its extent was 394 acres 2 roods 38 poles. In 1766, John
Gwynne, the architect, proposed to build in Hyde Park a royal palace for George III. ;
and in 1825, a Member of Parliament published a magnificent design for a palace
near Stanhope Gate.
Permission to " vend victuals " in Hyde Park was granted by George II. to a pilot
who saved him from wreck in one of his voyages from visiting his Hanoverian domi-
nions; and it is stated that the pilot's descendants to this day exercise the privilege*
646 CURIOSITIES OF LONBON.
At the same time the King gave his deliverer a silver-gilt ring, which bears the arma
of Poland impaled with those of Lithuania, surmounted by a regal crown. This ring
was exhibited to the British Archaeological Association, Feb. 9, 1853.
The Conduits of Hyde Park are described at p. 289. Upon the east side, 70 feet
above Trinity high-water mark of the Thames, was the Chelsea Waterworks Reservoir,
which contained about 1,500,000 gallons : the iron railing and dwarf wall were added
to prevent suicides, which were formerly frequent here. The reservoir has been
emptied, and the site laid out as a sunk garden, with much taste ; here is a classic
drinking fountain ; A. Munro, sculptor. Upon the east side was Walnut-tree WalJc,
shaded by two rows of noble walnut-trees, extended to a large circle ; these trees
were cut down about 1800, and the wood was used by Government for the stocks of
soldiers' muskets.
The colossal statue near the south-east comer of the park, cast by Sir R. Westma-
cott, R.A., from twelve 24-pounders, weighing upwards of 30 tons, is about 18 feet
high, and occupies a granite pedestal, bearing this inscription : " To Arthur Duke of
Wellington, and his brave companions in arms, this statue of Achilles, cast from
cannon taken in the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo, is in-
scribed by their countrywomen." On the base is inscribed: " Placed on this spot on
the 18th day of June, 1822, by command of his Majesty George IV." The figure is
copied from one of the antique statues on the Monte Cavallo at Rome, and is most
improperly called Achilles ! it has never received its sword ! The cost of this monument,
lOjOOOZ., was subscribed by ladies.
Gates. — The principal entrance is at Hyde Park Corner, through a triple-arched
and colonnaded screen, designed by Decimus Burton : eastward is Apsley House, nearly
upon the site of which stood the old lodge of the park. In Park-lane is Stanhope-
gate, opened about 1750; and Grosvenor-gate, in 1724, by subscription of the neigh-
bouring inhabitants. Cumberland-gate, at the west end of Oxford-street, was opened
about 1744-5, at the expense of the inhabitants of Cumberland-place and the neigh-
bourhood : it was a mean brick arch, with side entrances : here took place a disgraceful
contest between the people and the soldiery at the funeral of Queen Caroline, August
15, 1821, when two persons were killed by shots from the Horse-guards on duty. In
1822, the unsightly brick and wooden gate was removed ; and handsome iron gates
were substituted, at the cost of nearly 2000^., by Mr. Henry Philip Hope, of Norfolk-
street, Park-lane. In 1851 these gates were removed for the marble arch from Buck-
ingham Palace, and placed on each side of it j the cost of removing the arch and re-
builduag it being 4340?. {See Arches, p. 21.) In the Bayswater-road is Victoria-
gate : nearly opposite is the handsome terrace, Hyde-Park-gardens. Upon the south
side of the park are the Kensington-gate ; the Prince of Wales's-gate, near the site of
the Half-way House ; and Albert-gate, Knightsbridge.
JRotten Row, on the south side of the park, extends about 1^ mile from the lodge
at Hyde Park Corner to the Kensington-gate : it is for saddle-horses, who can gallop
over its fine loose gravel without danger from falling ; and it is crowded with eques-
trians between 5 and 7 p.m., during the high London season. The name Rotten is
traced to rotteran, to muster j which military origin may refer to the park during the
Civil War ; but the derivation is disputed. Between Rotten-row and the Queen's
Drive was erected the Building for the Great Exhibition of 1851 :
"But yesterday a naked sod.
The dandies sneered from Rotten-row,
And sauntered o'er it to and fro.
And see 'tis done !
As though 'twere by a wizard's rod,
A blazing arch ot lucid glass
Leaps like a fountain from the grass.
To meet the sun !
A quiet green but few days since.
With cattle browsing in the shade.
And lo ! long lines of bright arcade
In order raised;
A palace as for fairy Prince,
A rare pavilion, such as man
Saw never since mankind began.
And built and glazed !"
May-day Ode, by W. M. Thackeray : Times, May 1, 1851.
PARKS. 647
The Crystal Palace, as the building was appropriately so named, we believe, by-
Douglas Jerrold, its roof and sides being of glass, was designed by Mr. (subsequently
Sir Joseph) Paxton ; and was constructed by Mr. (subsequently Sir Charles) Fox, and
Mr. Henderson. The ground was broken July 30, 1850 ; the first column was placed
Sept. 26 ; and the building was opened May 1, 1851.
It was a vast expansion of a conservatory design, built at Chatsworth by Mr. Paxton, for the flower-
ing of the Victoria Lily. The Crystal Palace was cruciform in plan, with a transept, nave, and side
aisles ; consisting of a framework of wrought and cast-iron, firmly braced together, and based upon a
foundation of concrete. It was built without a single scaffold-pole, a pair of shears and the Derrick crane
being the only machinery used in hoisting the materials. In the plan, every measurement was a mul-
tiple of 8. Thus the columns were all 24 feet high, and 24 feet apart ; and the centre aisle or nave was
72 feet, or 9 times 8. Again, one single area, bounded by 4 columns and their crowning girders, was the
tjpe of the whole building, which was a simple aggregation of so many cubes, in extreme length 1851
feet, corresponding with the year of the Exhibition; width 408 feet ; with an additional projection on the
north side, 936 feet long by 48 wide. The great avenues ran east and west; very near the centre crossed
the transept, 72 feet high, and 108 wide. Its roof was semicircular, designed by Mr. (subsequently Sir
Charles) Barry, so as to preserve three fine old elms. The other roofs, designed by Mr. Paxton, were flat.
The entire area of the building was 772,784 square feet, or about 19 acres, nearly seven times as much as
St. Paul's Cathedral. " The Alhambra and the Tuileries would not have filled up the eastern and western
nave; the National Gallery would have stood beneath the transept; the palace of Versailles (the largest
in the world) would have extended but a little way beyond the transept; and a dozen metropolitan
churches would have stood erect under its roof of glass." [^AthenoBumy No. 1227.) The ground area was
divided into a central nave, four side aisles, and several courts and avenues; and a gallery ran through-
out the building. There were about 3000 columns, nearly 3500 girders, and altogether about 4000 tons
of iron built into the structure. The iron skeleton progressed with the framing and glazing, requiring 200
miles of wooden sash-bars, and 20 miles of Paxton gutters for the roof, which required 17 acres of glass ;
besides which, th«re were 1500 vertical glazed sashes. Flooring 1,000,000 square feet; total wood- work,
600,000 cubic feet. The hollow cast-iron columns conveyed the rain-fall from the roof. The effective
ventilation was by louvre-boards.
The decoration of the interior, devised by Owen Jones, consisted of the application of the primitive
colours, red, blue, and yellow, upon narrow surfaces : it was charmingly artistic, and was rapidly exe-
cuted by 500 painters. During the months of December and January, upwards of 2000 workmen were
employed throughout the building.
The vast Palace was filled with the World's Industry : in the western portion were the productions
of the United Kingdom, India, and the Colonies ; and the eastern, those of Foreign Coimtries. The
value of the whole (except the Koh-i-noor diamond) was 1,781,929^. 11«, 4d.
The opening of the Exhibition, on May 1, 1851, was proclaimed by Queen Victoria, accompanied by
Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Eoyal. Between May 1 and Oct. 11 the number of
visits paid was 6,063,986; mean daily average 43,536. On three successive days there entered 107,815,
109,915, 109,760 persons, who paid respectively 5175?., 5231 ?., and 5283i. There were counted in the
Palace 93,000 persons at one time. Cost of the building, 176,030?. 13«. 8i. Oct. 15, Jury Awards and
closing ceremonial. The whole building was removed before the close of 1852; and, on Nov. 7, 1853, it
was proposed to place upon the site a memorial of the Exhibition, to include a statue of Prince Albert,
the originator of this display of the Industry of all Nations.
This splendid National Memorial is now (1867) being erected in Hyde Park, as
nearly as may be, at the intersecting point of central lines of the two Great Inter-
national Exhibitions (Hyde Park and South Kensington), originated by the Prince
Consort.
The design by Gilbert Scott, R.A., though in some sense a " Memorial Cross,"
differs widely in type from the form usually described by that term. It is, in fact, a
vast canopy or shrine, overshadowing a colossal statue of the personage to be comme-
morated, and itself throughout enriched with artistic illustrations of or allusions to
the arts and sciences fostered by the Prince, and the virtues which adorned his cha-
racter. The canopy or shrine which forms the main feature of the Memorial is raised
upon a platform approached on all sides by a vast double flight of steps, and stands
upon a basement or podium rising from this elevated platform to a level of about 12
feet. Upon the angles of this podium stand the four great clusters of granite shafts
that support the canopy, which is itself arched on each side from these massive pillars,
each face being terminated by a gable, and each angle by a lofty pinnacle ; while over
all rises Q.jieche or enriched spire of metal work, surmounted by a gemmed and floriated
cross. Beneath the canopy, and raised upon a pedestal, will be placed the quasir-
enthroned statue of the Prince Consort.
The idea of the architect in his design of the canopy, was this : — The first concep-
tion was a shrine. The exquisite metal and jewelled shrines of the 12th and 13th
centuries are nearly always ideal models of larger structures, but of structures of
which the original type never existed. Their pillars were of gold or silver-gilt, en-
riched with wreaths of exquisite pattern-work in many-coloured enamel. Their arches,
gables, and other architectural features were either chased in beautiful foliage cut in
gold or silver, or enriched with alternate plaques of enamel pattern work and of filigree
648 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
studded with gems. Their roofs were covered with patterns of repousse work or
enamel, and enriched with sculptured medallions ; the crestings of roofs and gables
were grilled with exquisite open foliage in gold or silver, while every part was replete with
sculpture, enamel paintings, and jewellery. The architect's aim, then, was to reproduce
in some degree at full size the ideal structure which these wonderful old jewellers,
represented in model. This idea could not, of course, be literally carried out ; but it
has determined the leading characteristics of the monument, and at least so far as the
metal-work is concerned, is being faithfully acted on, while in the more massive parts
of the structure it cannot be carried further than to give its tone to the decorations.
Hyde Park being for the most part high and dry, is perhaps the most airy and
healthy spot in London. The north-west or deer-park, verging upon Kensington
Gardens, is even of a rural character : the trees are picturesque, and deer are occa-
sionally here. The Serpentine has upon its margin some lofty elms : but from other
positions of the park many fine old timber-trees have disappeared, and the famous
Eing of Charles II.'s days can be but imperfectly traced. The drives and walks
have been greatly extended and improved : for the brick wall has been substituted iron
railing ; and the opening of three gates (Victoria, Albert, and Prince of Wales), and
the Queen's Drive south of the Serpentine, denominate the improvements in the
present reign. Prom this high ground the artistic eye enjoys the sylvan scenery of
the park ; the old trees fringing the Serpentine, and its water gleaming through their
branches : backed by the rich woods of Kensington Gardens j and the bold beauty of
the Surrey hills.
Among the floral improvements in Hyde Park is the promenade along the
east side, from Apsley House to the Marble Arch, where the beds of massed flowers
are beautifully efiective ; and they are continued from the gates by Apsley House
down to the Serpentine. Plantations of ornamental trees are extended along the
south side, in pleasure grounds tastefully planted with shrubs and flowers. Finally,
horse-rides have been made to extend from Victoria Gate to the Magazine Barracks.
Flowers are now grown in Hyde Park, with great success. The first attempt was made by Sir
Benjamin Hall, in 1856, when Chief Commissioner of Works ; but Mr. Cowper, in 1860, made a regular
garden of the space between Stanhope-gate and the Marble Arch, where the massing of colours is very
successful; between the Marble Arch and Kensington Gardens, the flowers are in patches among the
trees. The flower-beds were so successful in Hyde Park that they were adopted by the side of Rotten-
row, and in other parks. Pipes are laid under ground for the water-mains, and the Parisian plan of
hose is adopted for watering the flowers and the grass borders.
The Serpentine (so called in distinction from the previous straight canals) is a
pool of water covering fifty acres, formed from natural springs, and originally fed at
the Bayswater extremity by a stream from West-End, near Hampstead, and the over-
plus of certain reservoirs, one of which occupied the site of Trinity Church. In 1834
the stream, or rather sewer, at Bayswater was cut off", and the deficiency was made up
from the Chelsea Waterworks. At the eastern end the Serpentine imperfectly sup-
plies an artificial cascade, formed in 1817 ; and descending into the " leg of mutton"
pond, the stream leaves Hyde Park at Albert Gate, divides the parish of Chelsea from
that of St. George's, Hanover-square, and falls into the Thames at Chelsea. The Ser-
pentine supplies the Knightsbridge Barracks and the Horse-guards, the lake in
Buckingham Palace Gardens, and the ornamental water in St. James's Park. The
depth in Hyde Park varies from 1 to 40 feet, of which Sir John Kennie found, in
1849, in the deepest parts, from 10 to 15 feet of inky, putrid mud — " a laboratory of
epidemic miasma." The Serpentine is deepest near the bridge : the whole sheet was
deepened, at a cost of from 10,000^. to 20,000^. Here 200,000 persons, on an average,
bathe annually, sometimes 12,000 on a Sunday morning ; and in severe winters the
ice is the greatest metropolitan skating-field. In 1847, pleasure-boats for hire were
introduced upon the Serpentine : the boat-houses are picturesque.
On the north margin The Hoy al Humane Society, va. 1794, built their principal
receiving-house, upon ground presented by George U I. In 1834 the house was re-
built, from the design of J. B. Bunning ; the first stone being laid by the late Duke of
WeUington : over the Ionic entrance is sculptured the obverse of the Society's medal,
—-a boy striving to rekindle an almost extinct torch by blowing it ; legend, Lateai
scintillvla forsan — " Perchance a spark may be concealed." In the rear are kept
I
PABK8. 649
boats, ladders, ropes and poles, wicker-boats, life -preserving apparatus, &c. The Royal
Humane Society was founded in 1774, by Drs. Goldsmith, Heberden, Towers, Lettsom,
Hawes, and Cogan. Its receiving -houses in the parks cost 3000Z. a year. In odd
contiguity to the Society's House in Hyde Park is the Government Magazine, con-
taining stores of ammunition and gunpowder.
Duels fouffht hi Hyde Fork. — Temp. Henry VIII., the Duke of B, and Lord B., "near the first tree
behind the Lodge;" both killed.— 1712. The Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun; both killed.—
1763. Wilkes and Mr. S. Martin, the hero of Churchill's Duellist— 1770. Baddeley, the comedian, and
George Garrick.— 1773. Mr. Whately and Mr. Temple.— 1780. The Earl of Shelburne and Col. PuUarton.
—1780. Rev. Mr. Bate and Mr. R., both of the Morning Fost— 1782. Rev. Mr, Allen and Mr. Dulany.—
1783. Lieut.-Col. Thomas and Col. Gordon, the former killed.— 1787. Sir John Macpherson and Major
Browne. — 1792. Messrs. Frizell and Clarke, law-students, the former killed.— 1796. Mr. Carpenter and
Mr. Pride (Americans), the former killed.— 1797. Col. King^ and Col. Fitzgerald, the latter killed. —
Lieut. W. and Capt. I., the latter killed.— 1822. The Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Buckingham.
Near the site of the Humane Society's Receiving-house formerly stood a cottage,
presented by George III. to Mrs. Sims, in consideration of her having lost six sons in
war ; the last fell with Abercrombie at Alexandria, March 21, 1801. This cottage has
been painted by Nasmyth, and engraved in the Art Journal, No. 59, N.S.
The Law, with regard to the Parks, according to the opinion of the law-advisers of
the Crown, November, 1856, is in effect that —
There is a right to close the gates and exclude the public ; or, the gates being open, to exclude per-
sons; but that persons who have once entered cannot be turned out without notice that the license is
withdrawn. No force, therefore, can be brought to bear against bodies or masses, which might contain
many who have not had notice. They also say that it would not be practicable to remove any number
individually and prevent them from returning, and remark on the probability of disorder if even an
individual were turned out. The effect is that the Government have nothing but the common law of
trespass to rely upon with its incidents, which are most important. In July, 1866, the above-mentioned
opinion was submitted to Sir W. Bovill and Sir Hugh Cairns, who were particularly requested to say
whether there was any legal authority to disperse by force any meeting for political purposes in the Park.
Their answer was that there is no such authority for any practical purpose. They state that when per-
sons have once entered the Park they can only be ejected after notice served on or brought home to
each individually. If the assembly remain peaceable the police can do nothing but hand out man after
man. In no case can they legally clear the Park by a charge, and it is most important that this should
be known. The Commissioners of Works, spending public money, represent the public. The Rangers
more properly represent the Crown. All these things are important when we are thrown back upon the
technical law of trespass.
On July 23, 1866, a political meeting in Hyde Park having been forbidden by the
Home Secretary of State, and the gates being closed, under the direction of Sir
Richard Mayne, Chief Commissioner of Police, the railings were torn down, and the
mob entered, and committed wanton damage to the flower-beds and shrubberies. The
cost of the erection of new iron railings and foot-gates round Hyde Park, in the main
rendered necessary by the above riot, is stated at upwards of 10,000/.
Kennington Paek, formerly Kennington Common, which is described at p. 487,
was completed 1852-3. In laying out this little park, of 34 acres, an amalgamation
of the plan geometrical and the English styles has been adopted. It is furnished with
a gymnasium and a playground, which, in that populous neighbourhood, are in constant
use. There is likewise a handsome drinking-fountain, presented by Mr. Felix Slade,
of Lambeth, and designed by Mr. Driver. It is constructed of polished granite, sur-
mounted by a bronze casting, which represents Hagar and Ishmael at the well. There
are two large grass enclosures in the centre of these grounds, in which a very good
plan, and one worthy of adoption elsewhere, is pursued to preserve the turf from utter
destruction. Different portions of the Park are closed and opened alternately to the
public. Were it not for this precaution, there would not be a living blade of grass to
be seen by the end of July ; every vestige of turf would be trampled to death. The
Park is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, backed by a privet-hedge. The area thus
encircled is only about twelve acres ; and around the lodge — which will be recognised
as the model lodging-house of the Exhibition of 1851 — there is an effective arrange-
ment of common garden flowers in sunk panels of turf. Most of the flowers are raised
on the spot.
Poplar Receeation Geotjnds, situated between the High-street and East India
Dock-road have been completed, by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and were
opened in May, 1867. The grounds occupy about five acres in extent, and adjoin the
churchyard of St. Matthias, which occupies nearly the same area. The site was
650 CUEI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
purchased at a cost of 12,000?., towards which the Metropolitan Board of Works con-
tributed 6000?., and 1500Z. has been realized by the sale of old materials. The re-
mainder is borrowed, and 20 years allowed for its repayment.
Pkimeose Hill Paek, about 50 acres at the foot of Primrose Hill, is enclosed and
laid out for cricket, and planted with trees and shrubs, by the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests. On the south side of the hill is a fine open-air gymnasium, which is
more frequented than any other in London.
Regent's Paek, of 403 acres, lies between the south foot of Primrose HiU and the
New-road, and includes "Marylebone Farm and Fields." The relaying out of the estate
was proposed in 1793, and a large premium ofiered for the best design j but it was nob
until 1812 that any plan was adopted — the plan of John Nash, architect, who built most
of the fine terraces by which it is surrounded, and proposed to connect this new part of
the town with Carlton House and St. James's : this has been effected in Regent-street,
which, with the Park, is named from their having been projected and laid out during
the Regency of George IV. The Park is nearly circular in plan, and is comprised
within a ride, or drive of about two miles. The south side is parallel to the Marylebone-
road ; the east side extends northward to Gloucester-gate ; the west side to Hanover-
gate; and the northern curve nearly corresponds with the sweep of the Regent's
Canal, at the north-western side of which are Macclesfield-bridge and gate. In the
south-west portion of the Park is a sheet of water, in outline resembling the three
legs on an Isle-of-Man halfpenny : it is crossed by wire suspension-bridges, and has
some picturesque islets, large weeping- willows, shrubs, &c. There are 18 or 20 acres
of water on which boats are to be had for hire, and where angling from the banks is
permitted at all times while the gates are open. Near the southernmost point is the
rustic cottage of the Toxopholite Society. In the southern half of the Park are two
circles : the Inner Circle, formerly Jenkins's nursery-ground, was reserved by Nash as
the site for a palace for George IV. : it is now the garden of the Botanic Society (see
p. 369). On the eastern slope, at the north end of the Park, is the garden of the
Zoological Society. On the east side, a little south of Gloucester-gate, are the enclosed
villa and grounds of the Master of St. Katharine's Hospital ; the church and domestic
buildings are opposite. (See pp. 166-7.) Among the detached villas in the Park are the
Holme, in the centre, built by William Burton, architect; St. John's Lodge (Sir Francis
Henry Goldsmid's), adjoining the Inner Circle ; St. Dunstan's Villa, and Holford House,
on the Outer Road ; and near Hanover-gate is Hanover Lodge, formerly the Earl of
Dundonald's. The portico of St. Dunstan's Villa is adapted from the Temple of the
Winds at Athens : the roof is Venetian ; and in a recess near the entrance are the two
gigantic wooden figures, with clubs and bells, from old St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet-
street (see p. 160) : they were purchased by the late Marquis of Hertford for 200?.
At the south-east corner of the Park is the Diorama building, converted into a Baptist
chapel in 1854; beyond is the Colosseum, described at pp. 280-3. On the south, east,
and north-west sides of the Park are highly-embellished terraces of houses, in which
the Doric and Ionic, the Corinthian, and even the Tuscan, orders have been employed
with oniate effect, aided by architectural sculpture. In the Inner Circle, adjoining
South Villa, is the Observatory, erected in 1837 by Mr. George Bishop, F.R.S.,
F.R.A.S. It consists of a circular equatorial room, with a dome roof; and an arm
containing the altitude and azimuth instrument, micrometers, &c.
The Avenue, an area of four acres, at the south end of the Broad Walk, has been laid out in flower
gardens. Here the flowers are grouped in ribands, arranged with an artist's eye to colour, the gra-
dations of silver-white, orange, purple, and scarlet seem designed to produce a prismatic effect.
Instead of being mixed with other colours, the yellow calceolaria is massed here and there. The shrubs
and fohage plants grow in great luxuriance. Nearly all the former are flowering shrubs. The spe-
cimens of yucca recurva and the standard hollies— green, golden, and silver, on straight stems— are
especially noticeable. The point d'appui of the garden is a large tazza filled with flowers, and supported
by four griffins. This is placed in the centre of a large curbed bed, and thirty smaller tazzas and vases
are grouped in different parts of the garden. There are fine beds of foliage plants, such as the castor-
oil plant, the Ferdinandia eminens, CanuEe, and Centaurea. The flowering shrubs are enclosed by a
hornbeam hedge, trained as a trellis. A few Lombardy poplars, with their silvery flickers, break the
monotony, and add greatly to the apparent extent of the narrow strip of ground. In the summer the
flowers and shrubs, flanked by the horse-chestnuts in full blossom and the fine elms, make a glorious
show. Here is a not mipicturesque red-brick gardener's cottage ; and there have been added two
fountains— one near Gloucester-gate, and the other in the middle of the Broad Walk, the space roimd
the latter beautifully laid out with exotica.— Abridged from the Times.
FAMES. 651
Unlike the other parks, this contains within its boundaries several handsome private
residences, surrounded by picturesque pleasure grounds. Each of the two elder parks
is completely surrounded by houses, so that in one case we have 1000, and in another
nearly 500 acres of trees, grass, and flowers in the interior of our immense metropolis^
just as are the squares in other cities and towns.
Southwaek: Paez. — The Metropolitan Board, after eight years' deliberation, pur-
chased the land for this new Park, at about 9111. per acre. The site consists of 65
acres of land in the parish of Rotherhithe, bounded by Jamaica Level, Union-road, the
Rotherhithe New-road, and the South-Eastern Railway. Of the 65 acres, only 45
are devoted to the purposes of the Park : the remainder being appropriated to
building plots, and a road to encircle the Park.
St. James's Paek is in plan an irregular triangle, in form resembling a boy*s
kite, eighty-three acres in extent. It was originally a swampy field attached to
St. James's Hospital : the ground was drained and enclosed by Henry VIII., who
thus made it the pleasure-ground both of the Hospital — which he had converted into
St. James's Palace — and of Whitehall, whose tilt-yard, cockpit, tennis-court, and bowling-
green were on the eastern verge of the Park ; but during the reigns of Elizabeth and
the first two Stuarts it was little more than a nursery for deer, and an appendage to
the tilt-yard. A procession of 15,000 citizens, " besides wifflers and other awayters,'*
on May 8, 1539, passed " rounde about the Parke of St. James." In the reign of
Charles I. a sort of royal menagerie took the place of the deer with which the
"inward park" was stocked in the days of Henry and Elizabeth. Charles, as he
walked through the Park to Whitehall on the fatal January 30, 1648-9, is said to
have pointed to a tree which had been planted by his brother, Prince Henry, near
Spring Gardens. Here Cromwell, as he walked with Whitelock, asked him, " What if a
man should take upon him to be king ?" to which the memorialist replied : " I think
that remedy would be worse than the disease." Evelyn, in his Sylva, mentions the
branchy walk of elms in the Park, " intermingling their reverend tresses."
Charles II. added thirty-six acres to the Park, extended the wall towards Pall
Mall, had it planted by Le N6tre, and, it is believed, by Dr. Morison, formerly
employed by the Duke of Orleans. The original account for " workes and services" is
signed by Charles himself. Pepys and Evelyn record the progress of the works :—
" 16 Sept. 1660. To the Park, where I saw how far they had proceeded in the Pell Mell, and in
making a river through the Park." " 11 Oct. 1660. To walk in St. James's Park, where we observed
the several engines at work to draw up water." " 4 Aug. 1661. Walked into St. James's Park, and
there found great and very noble alterations." " 27 July, 1662. I to walke in the Parke, which is now
every day more and more pleasant by the new works upon it." " 1 Dec. 1662, Over the Parke, where
I first in my life, it being a great frost, did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very pretty
art." " 15 Dec. 1662. To the Duke (of York), and followed him into the Parke, where, though the ice
was broken and dangerous, yet he would go slide upon his scates, which I did not like ; but he slides
very well." " 11 Aug. 1664. This day, for a wager, before the king, my lords of Castlehaven and Arran,
a son of my Lord of Ormond's, they two alone did run down and kill a stout buck in St. James's Park." —
Fepys. " 19 Feb. 1666-7. In the afternoon I saw a wrestling match for lOOOZ. in St. James's Park,
before his Maty, a world of lords, and other spectators, 'twixt the Western and Northern men. Mr.
Secretary Morice and Le Gerard being the judges. The Western men won. Many greate sums were
h&tte^."— Evelyn.
The courtly Waller commemorates the Park, "as lately improved by his Majesty,"
1661. Faithorne's plan, taken soon after the Restoration, shows the north half of
the parade occupied by a square enclosure, surrounded by twenty-one trees, with one
tree in the centre ; and in the lower part of the parade broad running water, with a
bridge of two arches in the middle. Later views show the Park with long rows of
young elm and lime trees, fenced with palings, and occasionally relieved by some fine
picturesque old trees.
The Mall, on the north side, a vista half a mile in length, was named from the
game of " pale maille" played here : it was a smooth hollow walk planted on each
side, and having an iron hoop suspended from the arm of a high pole, through which
ring the ball was struck by a maille, or mallet. (See a drawing, temp. Charles II.,
engraved in Smith's Antiquities of Westminster, and a plate in Carter's Westminster!)
Here Charles and his courtiers often played : the earth was mixed with powdered
cockle-shells to make it bind; ** which, however," says Pepys, "in dry weather turua
to dust, and deads the ball." (See the account of the game, at p. 636.)
652 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON. 1
"2 April, 1661. To St. James's Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at pall-mall, the first
time that I ever saw the sport." — Pepi/s,
Gibber tells us that here he bad often seen Charles playing with his dogs and
feeding his ducks, which made the common people adore him.
The Bird-cage Walk, on the south side of the Park, nearly in the same line as
the road which still retains the name, had in Charles II.'s time the cages of an
aviary disposed among the trees which bordered it. The keeper of the Volary, or
Aviary, was Edward Storey, from whom or his house is named Storet/'s Gate. The
carriage-road between this and Buckingham Gate was, until 1828, only open to the
Eoyal Family, and the Hereditary Grand Falconer, the Duke of St. Albans.
In the " inward park" was made a formal Canal, 2800 feet in length and 100
feet broad, running from the Parade to Buckingham House. On the south of this
canal, near its east end, was the Decoy, a triangular nexus of smaller canals, where
water-fowl were kept. Within the channels of the Decoy was Duch Island, of
which Sir John Flock and St. Evremond were, in succession, appointed governors
(with a salary) by Charles II. ; and Queen Caroline is said to have given the sinecure
to the thresher-poet, Stephen Duck : " the island itself," says Pennant, ** is lost in the
late improvements."
The Park, as well as the Palace, sheltered persons from arrest ; for, in 1632, John
Perkins, a constable, was imprisoned for serving the Lord Chief-Justice's warrant upon
John Beard in St. James's Park. To draw a sword in the Park was also a very serious
offence. Cougreve, in his Old Bachelor, makes Bluffe say, " My blood rises at that
fellow. I can't stay where he is ; and I must not draw in the Park.'' Traitorous
expressions, when uttered in St. James's Park, were punished more severely. Francis
Heat was whipped, in I7l7, from Charing Cross to the upper end of the Haymarket,
fined ten groats, and ordered a month's imprisonment, for saying aloud in St. James's
Park, " God save King James III., and send him a long and properous reign !" and, in
1718, a soldier was whipped in the Park for drinking a health to the Duke of Ormond
and Dr. Sacheverell, and for saying " he hoped soon to wear his right master's cloth."
The Duke of Wharton, too, was seized by the guard in St. James's Park for singing
the Jacobite air, " The king shall have his own again." See Cunningham's Handbook,
p. 260; where are printed, from the Letter-book of the Lord Steward's Office, two
letters, dated 1677, sent with two lunatics to Bethlehem : Deborah Lyddal, for offering
to throw a stone at the queen j and Richard Harris, for throwing an orange at the
king, in St. James's Park.
Evelyn thus records the introduction of skating: — "Dec. 1,1662. Having scene
the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St. James's
Park, performed before their Majesties by divers gentlemen and others, with scheets
after the manner of the Hollanders, with what swiftness as they pass, how suddainly
they stop in full career upon the ice, I went home." Some of the cavaliers had, pro-
bably, acquired the art when seeking to while away a Dutch winter ; and but for the
temporary overthrow of the monarchy, we should not thus early have had skating in
England. The Park soon became a resort for all classes, since, in 1683, the Duke of
York records, Dec. 4 (a very hard frost), " This morning the boys began to slide upon
. the canal in the Park."
Evelyn, in 1664, went to " the Physique Garden in St. James's," where he first saw
** orange-trees and other fine trees." He enumerates in the menagerie, " an ornocra-
tylus, or pelican ; a fowle between a storke and a swan ; a melancholy water-fowl,
brought from Astracan by the Russian ambassador ; a milk-white raven ; two Baiearian
cranes," one of which had a wooden leg " made by a soulder :" there were also " deere
of severall countries, white, spotted like leopards ; antelopes, an elk, red deer, roebucks,
staggs, Guinea goates, Arabian sheepe, &c." There were " withy-potts, or nests, for
the wild fowle to hiy their eggs in, a little above y^ surface of y® water."
"25 Feb. 1664. This night I walk'dinto St. James his Parke, where I saw many strange creatures, as
divers sorts of outlandish deer, Guiny sheep, a white raven, a great parrot, a storke. . . . Here are
very stately walkes set with lime trees on both sides, and a fine ^^sWmaW."— Journal of Mr. E. Browne,
ton of Sir Thomas Browne.
Evelyn, on March 2, 1671, attended Charles through St. James's Park, where he
saw and heard " a familiar discourse between the King and Mrs. Nelly, as they called
an impudent comedian; she looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top, and the
PARKS. 653
King standing on the green walk under it." " Of the mount, or raised terrace, on
■which Nelly stood, a portion may still be seen under the park-wall of Marlborough
House." (Cunningham's Nell Qwyn, p. 118.) In the royal garden where Charles
stood, and which was then the northei'n boundary of the Park, we find Master Pepys,
in his Diary, stealing apples like a schoolboy. Pepys also portrays a court cavalcade
in the Park, all flaunting with feathers, in which Charles appears between the Countess
of Castlemaine and the Queen, and Mrs. Stewart.
Succeeding kings allowed the people the privilege of walking in the Mall ; and the
passage from Spring Gardens was opened in 1699 by permission of King William.
Queen Caroline, however, talked of shutting up the Park, and converting it into a
noble garden for St. James's Palace : she asked Walpole what it might probably cost ;
who replied, " Only three crowns." Dean Swift, who often walked here with the
poets Prior and Rowe, writes of skating as a novelty to Stella, in 1711: "Delicious
walking weather," says he ; " and the Canal and Rosamond's Pond full of rabble
sliding, and with skaitts, if you know what it is." The gloomy Rosamond's Pond, of
oblong shape, and overhung by the trees of the Long Avenue, is mentioned in a grant
of Henry VIII. It occurs as a place of assignation in the comedies of Otway, Con-
greve, Farquhar, Southern, and Colley Cibber ; and Pope calls it " Rosamonda's Lake.'*
Its name is referred to the frequency of love-suicides committed here. The pond was
filled up in 1770, when the gate into Petty France was opened for bringing in the soil
to fill up the pond and the upper part of the canal. Hogarth painted a large view and
a cabinet view of Rosamond's Pond : for the latter he received but 11. Is., the receipt in
the handwriting of Mrs. Hogarth. In a house belonging to the Crown, at the south-
east corner of Rosamond's Pond, was born George Colman the Younger, who describes
the snow-white tents of the Guards, who were encamped in the Park during the Riots
of 1780. The Wellington Barracks, built near the site of Rosamond's Pond, were
first occupied by troops on March 1, 1814 ; the Military Chapel was opened May 1, 1838.
The trees have been thinned by various means. Dryden records, by a violent wind,
February 7, 1698-9 : " The graat trees in St. James's Park are many of them torn up
from the roots, as they were before Oliver Cromwell's death, and the late Queen's.'*
The uniformity of Bird-cage Walk has been spoiled by the new road. Samouelle, in his
Compendium of Entomology, figures a destructive moth " found in July, in St. James's
Park, against trees."
St. James's Park was a favourite resort of Goldsmith, and is thus characterized by
him: —
" If a man be splenetic, he may every day meet companions on the seats in St. James's Park, with
whose groans he may mix his own, and pathetically talk of the weather." {Exsays.) The strolling
player takes a walk in St. James's Park, " about the hour at which company leave it to go to dinner.
There were but few in the walks; and those who stayed, seemed by their looks rather more willing to
forget that they had an appetite, than gain one." (Essays.) And dinnerless. Jack Spindle mends his
appetite by a walk in the Park.
After the death of Charles II., St. James's Park ceased to be the favourite haunt of
the Sovereign, but it continued to be the promenade of the people ; and here, in the
summer, till early in the present century, gay company walked for one or two hours
after dinner; but the evening dinner robbed the Park of this charm, and the Mall
became principally a thoroughfare for busy passengers.
"My spirits sunk, and a tear started into my eyes, as I brought to mind those crowds of beauty, rank,
and fashion, which, till within these few years, used to be displayed in the centre Mall of this Park on
Sunday evenings during the spring and summer. How often in my youth had I been a delighted spec-
tator of the enchanted and enchanting assemblage ! Here used to promenade, for one or two hours
after dinner, the whole British world of gaiety, beauty, and splendour. Here could be seen in one
moving mass, extending the whole length of the Mall, 5000 of the most lovely women in this country of
female beauty, all splendidly attired, and accompanied by as many well-dressed men. What a change,
I exclaimed, has a few years wrought in these once happy and cheerful personages. How many of those
who on this very spot then dehghted my eyes, are now mouldering in the silent grave !"— Sir Kichard
Phillips's Morning « Walk from London to Kew, 1817.
For the Peace Commemoration Fete, on August 1, 1814, the Mall and Bird-cage
Walk were lighted with Chinese lanterns ; a Chinese bridge and seven-storied pagoda
were erected across the canal : they were illuminated with lamps, and fireworks were
discharged from them, which set fire to the pagoda, and burnt its three upper stories,
when two persons lost their lives. Canova, when asked what struck him most forcibly
during his visit to England, is said to have replied, " that the trumpery Chinese bridge
654 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
in St. James's Park should be the production of the government, whilst that of Water-
loo was the work of a private company." — Quarterly Review.
The State-Paper Office, further south, occupying part of the site of the house of
Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, was built by Sir John Soane in 1833 : it was his latest work,
and resembled an Italian palazzo : it was taken down for the site of the new Foeeign
AND India Offices. At No. 17, Duke-street, died in 1849, aged 81, Sir Marc Isam-
bard Brunei, the engineer of the Thames Tunnel.
Upon the south side of the Park, too, is Milton's garden-house, in Petty France.
Hazlitt lived in this house in 1813, when Haydon was one of a christening-party of
*' Charles Lamb and his poor sister, and all sorts of odd clever people, in a large room,
wainscoted and ancient, where Milton had meditated." (Haydon's AutohiograpJiy,
vol. i. p. 211.) In the garden-wall is a doorway, now blocked up, but which once
opened into the Park, and was probably that used by Milton in passing from his house
to Whitehall. In Queen-square-place, and looking upon the garden-ground of Milton's
house, was the house of Jeremy Bentham, who died here in 1832.
The hints for supplanting the forest-trees which skirt the Park, by flowering shrubs,
and dressing the ground in a gayer style, so as to convert even the gloomy alleys of
St. James's Park into a lively and agreeable promenade, were first published in " A
Letter to the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Long," &c., 1825.
In 1827 was commenced the relaying out of the inner Park. The straight canal was
altered and extended to a winding lake, with islands of evergreens : at the west end was
a fountain. The borders of the principal walk are planted with evergreens, which are
scientifically labelled ; some of the fine old elms remain. The glimpses of grand archi-
tectural objects from this Park are very striking, and include the towers of Westminster
Abbey and the new Houses of Parliament ; the extensive front of Buckingham Palace ;
the York Column, rising from between terraces of mansions; and the Horse-Guards,
terminating the picturesque vista of the lake ; although the ornamental effect is spoiled
by an ugly engineering bridge. Upon the eastern island is the Swiss cottage of the
Ornithological Society, built in 1841 with a grant of 300^. from the Lords of the Trea-
sury : the design is by J. B. Watson, and contains a council-room, keeper's apartments,
fiteam-hatching apparatus ; contiguous are feeding-places and decoys ; and the aquatic
fowl breed on the island, making their own nests among the shrubs and grasses. In
1849 an experimental crop of Forty-day Maize (from the Pyrenees) was successfully
grown and ripened in this Park. For the privilege of farming the chairs, 25/. is paid
annually to the office of Woods and Forests.
The fine old trees of the grounds of Carlton House formerly overhung the road by
the park-wall, now the site of the Paestum-Doric substructure of Carlton-house-terrace;
the opening in which to the York Column was formed by command of William IV., as
had been the Spring Garden gate by William III. Milk Fair, leftward of this gate,
commemorated by Tom Brown, in 1700, has disappeared. The vista of the Mall,
■which consists of elms, limes, and planes, is terminated by the grand front of Buck-
ingham Palace.
On the Parade is the immense mortar cast at Seville by order of Napoleon, employed
"by Marshal Soult at the siege of Cadiz in 1812, and abandoned by the French army in
their retreat from Salamanca : it was presented by the Spanish Cortes to the Prince
Regent. The gun-metal bed and carriage were cast at Woolwich in 1814, and consist
of a crouching dragon, with upraised wings and scorpion-tail, involving the trunnions ;
it is allegorical of the monster Geryon, destroyed by Hercules. The mortar itself is 8
feet long, 12 inches diameter in bore, and has thrown shells 3^ miles : it weighs
about 5 tons. On the pedestal are inscriptions in Latin and English. When Soult was
in England, in 1838, he good-humouredly recognised his lost gun. Here was also for-
merly a small piece of artillery which had been taken from Bonaparte at Waterloo.
Upon the Parade was marshalled the State Funeral Procession of the great Duke of
Wellington, November 18, 1852. The body was removed from Chelsea Hospital on
the previous midnight, and deposited in the Audience-Chamber at the Horse-Guards.
Beneath a tent upon the Parade-ground was stationed the Funeral Car, whereon tho
coffin being placed, and the command given, the cortege, in slow and solemn splendour,
moved down the Mall past Buckingham Palace, whence the procession was seen by
Her Majesty and the Royal Family.
PABLIAMElSfT HOUSES. 655
ViCTOEiA Paek, Bethnal-green, equal to the entire area of Kensington Gardens,
originated as follows : — In the 4th and 5th years of Her present Majesty's reign, au
Act was passed to enable the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to complete the sale
of York House, and to purchase with the proceeds a Eoyal Park. The Duke of Suther-
land paid 72,000Z. for the remainder of the lease of York House, and this money was
applied to the purchase of about 290 acres of land, situated in the parishes of St. John,
Hackney ; St. Matthew, Bethnal-green ; and St. Mary, Stratford-le-Bow, county of
Middlesex. Nearly one-third of the acreage mentioned is taken for building ground ;
the rest is Victoria Park. Its site had been previously market-gardens and brickfields.
The ornamental lake is made over the rough brickfield, near to which stood Bishop
Bonner's famous hall. The Park is bounded on the north side by Hackney ; on the
south by Sir G. Duckett's Canal, running nearly east and west ; and on the west by the
Kegent's Canal. It is divided into two portions — the Ornamental or West Park, and
the East Park. In the former there is an ornamental lake about ten acres of surface,
with three islands. Here boats are hired out ; and there are waterfowl of various
kinds. On the south-west side of the lake there is a fine avenue of elm trees, with a
carriage-drive and shady walks j and an arcade, furnished with seats. On the north-
west end of the lake is a walk called " The Vale," which is planted with choice trees,
shrubs, and flowers. Close adjacent are the greenhouses and pits for raising and
wintering the plants. In this portion of the Park there are several separate flower-
gardens, riband borders 300 yards long, and mixed flower-beds. The East Park is used
for games, and contains two bathing lakes, which are well supplied with water. These
are much frequented ; as many as 7000 persons often bathe here in one morning. The
extent of these two lakes is about six acres. At the extreme end of the Park is the
cricket-ground, of 35 or 40 acres. Here 60 or 80 wickets are often pitched on
Saturdays. About one-third of the way through the Park is the superb Victoria
Drink ing-fountain, presented by Miss Burdett Coutts, described at page 358 ; and, to
add to the means afibrded for public exercise and recreation, there is a gymnasium, as
there are also swings and merry-go-rounds. The Park has often 30,000 visitors in a
single day. Wednesday afternoon is the children's day. In the neighbourhood has
been swept away a wretched village of hovels, once known as Botany Bay, from so
many of its inJiabitants being sent to the real place. Formerly this Park was on
Sundays the great resort of controversialists, especially such as believe in all manner of
unbelief, and who attracted here congregations of different persuasions; but the preach-
ing of so many of them being language of the most blasphemous description, in 1856,
all preaching here was forbidden by authority.
In fine weather, when the band plays, over 100,000 persons are frequently collected in this Park.
The people are orderly, most of them being of the humbler classes, and their appreciation of the flowers
is quite as keen as that of frequenters of the West-end parks. Some of the Spitalfields weavers have a
great fondness for flowers, and contrive somehow or other in the most unlikely places to rear very
choice varieties. In small, wretched-looking yards, where little air and only the mid-day sun can
penetrate, you may see patches of garden, evidently tended with uncommon care, and yielding to their
cultivators a fair reward in fragrance and in blossom. Some of the weavers even manage by bits of
broken glass and a framework which just holds together, to put up something which does duty as a
greenhouse ; and in this triumph of patience and ingenuity they spend much of their leisure, happy
when they can make up a birthday bouquet for some friend or relation. The flowers in the neighbouring
park, with their novel grouping and striking contrasts of colour, are, of course, a continual fund of
pleasure to these poor artisans, and gladden many a moment when perhaps work is not too plentiful
and home thoughts are not very happy. In Victoria Park the plants and flowers are labelled in letters
which he who walks may read, without need of getting over fence or bordering. A smaller lake than
that in which the boating and the bathing go on is devoted to yacht-sailing. This amusement seems
almost confined to East London ; and here on a summer evening, when a cap-full of wind is to be had,
you may see the lake whitened by forty or fifty toy boats and yachts, of all rigs and sizes, while here and
there a miniature steamboat is pufiing and panting. There is even a yacht-club whose members com-
pete with their toy-yachts for silver cups and other prizes. The expense of keeping up a yacht here is
not considerable, and the whole squadron may be laid up until wanted in a boathouse provided for the
purpose. But the matches and trials of these tiny craft are a special attraction of the Park, and draw-
together every evening hundreds of people. Ample space is available for cricket; and in the two gym-
nasia candidates for swinging, jumping, and climbing appear to be never wanting.— rimes, September.
1864.
FARLIAMBNT HOUSES, TEE,
STYLED also " New Westminster Palace," occupy the site of the Royal Palace of
the monarchs of England, from Edward the Confessor to Queen Elizabeth.
656 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Westminster Falace is first named in a charter of Edward the Confessor, " made'*
Boon after 1052 : here the Confessor died, Jan. 14, 1066. On the Easter succeeding.
King Harold came here from York. William the Norman held councils here ; and in
1069 Alfric, Abbot of Peterborough, was tried before the king in curia at West-
minster, — this being one of the first records of the holding of a law-court on this
spot. William Rufus added the Great Hall, wherein he held his court in 1099 ; as
did also Henry J. Stephen founded the palace chapel, which was dedicated to St.
Stephen. In the reign of Henry II., Fitzstephen records : " on the west, and on the
bank of the river, the Royal Palace exalts its head, and stretches wide, an incom-
parable structure, furnished with bastions and a breastwork, at the distance of two
miles from the City." The Close Rolls, in the Tower of London, contain many
curious entries concerning the palace in the time of John and Henry III. : here,
in a great council, Henry confirmed the Magna Charta and the Charta de Foresta : in
his reign, also, the gibbet was removed from the palace. In 1238 the whole palace
was flooded by the Thames, and boats were afloat in the Great Hall. There are
numerous records in this reign of painting and decorating the palace, storing its
cellars with wine, &c. {See Painted Chambee, p. 625.) Of the repairs of the
mews, the new buttery and kitchen, and the rebuilding and painting of St. Stephen's
Chapel, in the reign of Edward I., there are minute accounts. In 1298 the palace
was nearly destroyed by fire, but was restored by Edward II. St. Stephen's Chapel
was completed by Edward III. The poet Chaucer was clerk of the palace works in
the reign of Richard II., who rebuilt Westminster Hall nearly as we now see it. In
1512 a great part of the palace was "once again burnt, since which time it has not
been re-edified : only the Great Hall, with the offices near adjoining, are kept in good
repairs ; and it serveth, as before it did, for feasts at coronations, arraignments of
great persons charged with treasons, keeping of the courts of justice, &c.; but the
princes have been lodged in other palaces about the City, as at Baynard's Castle, at
Bridewell, and Whitehall (sometimes called York Place), and sometimes at St. James's."
(Strype's Stow's London, vol. ii. p. 628, edit. 1755.) Some buildings were added by
Henry VIII., who is supposed to have built the Star Chamber ; a portion of which,
however, bore the date 1602. Parliaments were held in Westminster Hall temp.
Henry III., and thenceforth in the Painted Chamber and White Chamber. After the
Suppression, the Commons sat in St. Stephen's Chapel, until its destruction by fire
Oct. 16, 1834, with the House of Lords, and the surrounding Parliamentary buildings.
The scene of the conflagration was painted by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.
The demesne of the Old Palace was bounded on the east by the river Thames ; on
the north by the Woolstaple, now Bridge-street ; on the west by the precincts of St.
Margaret's Church and Westminster Abbey, behind Abingdon-street ; and on the
south by the line of the present College-street, where formerly ran a stream, called
the Great Ditch (now a sewer), outside the palace garden-wall.
Among the more ancient buildings which existed to our time, was the Painted
Chamler. Next was the Old House of Lords (the old Parliament Chamber), rebuilt
by Henry II. on the foundations of Edward the Confessor's reign ; the walls were
nearly seven feet thick, and the vaults (Guy Fawkes' cellar) had been the kitchen of
the Old Palace : this building was taken down about 1823, prior to the erection of
the Royal Gallery and Entrance, by Soane, R.A. Southward was the Prince's Chamber
(then also demolished), with foundations of Edward the Confessor's time, and a super-
structure with lancet-windows, temp. Henry III. : the walls were painted in oil with
scriptural figures, and hung with tapestry representing the birth of Queen Elizabeth,
Next was the Old Court of Requests, supposed to have been the Great Hall of the
Confessor's palace : this was, until 1834, the House of Lords, and was hung with
tapestry representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 : it was destroyed in
the Great Fire, after which the interior was refitted for the House of Commons.
The Armada Tapestry was woven by Spiering, from the designs of Henry Cornelius Vroom, at
Haarlem, for Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of the English fleet which engaged the
Armada. It was sold by him to James I., and consisted originally of ten compartments, with borderg
containmg portraits of the officers of the English fleet. These hangings were engraved by Pine in 1739.]
St. Stephen's Chapel had its beautiful architecture and sumptuous decoration hidden.^
PARLIAMENT HOUSES.
e:,7
3S-0RTE.
SOUTH.
658 CUEI OSITIES OF LONDON.
until the enlargement of the interior in 1800, when its painting, gilding, and sculp-
ture, its traceried and brilliant windows, were discovered. Among the mural paintings
were the histories of Jonah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Job, Tobit, Judith, Susannah, and of
Bel and the Dragon ; the Ascension of Christ, and the Miracles and Martyrdom of
the Apostles ; and in the windows were the stories of Adam and Eve, and of Noah and
his family, of Abraham, Joseph, and the Israelites ; and of the Life of the Saviour,
from his baptism to his crucifixion and death. Among the decorations were figures of
angels and armed knights, Edward III. and his family, and heraldic shields. The
jewels, vestments, and furniture of the chapel were very superb. The Cloisters were
first built in 1356, south of the chapel, on the spot subsequently called Cotton Garden.*
The Crt/pt, or under-chapel of St. Stephen is described at p. 304.
On the south side, probably, was the small chapel of St. Mary de la Fewe, or Our
Lady of the Pew ; wherein Richard II. oifered to the Virgin, previously to meeting^
the insurgents under Wat Tyler in Smithfield, in 1381. Westminster Sail will be
described hereafter. Upon its western side were built the Law Courts, by Soane,
R.A., upon the site of the old Exchequer Court, &c. On the east side of New Palace-
yard was an arch, temp. Henry III., leading to the Thames ; and the old Exchequer
buildings and the Star Chamber, described at p. 450. On the northern side of New
Palace-yard, directly fronting the entrance-porch of the Great Hall, on a spot sub-
sequently hidden by the houses on the terrace, stood the famous Clock-tower, built and
furnished with a clock, tem-p. Edward I., with a fine of 800 marks levied on Chief-
Justice Sir Ralph de Hingham for altering a record : the keepers of this clock -tower
were appointed by the Sovereign, and were paid 6(Z. a day at the Exchequer. The
tower was taken down about 1707 ; and its bell, " Great Tom of Westminster," was
subsequently re-cast (with additional metal) for the great bell of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Hatton describes the House of Commons, altered by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1706,
as " a commodious building, accommodated with several ranks of seats, covered with
green cloth (baize ?), and matted under foot, for 513 gentlemen. On three sides of
this house are beautiful wainscot galleries, sustained by cantaleevers, enriched with,
fruit and other carved curiosities.''
Of the House of Lords, in 1778, we have a portion in Copley's fine picture of the
fall of the great Earl of Chatham. Of the several Gates to the old palace, the only
one of which we have any record is that begun by Richard III. in 1484, at the east
end of Union-street, and taken down in 1706 ; and a century later, in a fragment of
this gate built into a partition-wall, was found a capital, sculptured with William Rufus
granting a charter to Gislebertus, Abbot of Westminster : this capital was sold by Mr.
Capon to Sir Gregory Page Turner, Bart., for 100 guineas. A plan of the old palace,
measured 1793-1823, is engraved in Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v.; in J. T. Smith's
Antiquities of Westminster; and in Brayley and Britton's Westminster Palace, 1836,.
admirably illustrated, from drawings by R. W. Billings.
For rebuilding, in 1836 was selected from 97 sets the design of Charles Barry, R.A.
The coffer-dam for the river-front was commenced 1837; the river-wall 1839;
and, on April 27, 1840, was laid the first stone, at the north end of the Speaker's
house. The exterior material is fine magnesian limestone, from Anston, in Yorkshire ;
and Caen stone for the interior ; the river-terrace is of Aberdeen granite ; the whole
building stands on a bed of concrete 12 feet thick. The vast pile covers about eight
acres, and has four principal fronts, the eastern or river being 940 feet in length.
The plan contains 11 open quadrangles or courts, which, besides 500 apartments
and 18 official residences, flank the royal state-apartments, the Houses of Lords
and Commons, and the great Central Hall. The interior walls are fine brick; the
bearers^ of the floors are cast-iron, with brick arches turned from girder to girder ;
the entire roofs are of wrought-iron covered with cast-iron plates galvanized ; so that
timber has not been used in the carcases of the entire building ; and the principle of
making the Palace as nearly fire-proof as possible in the roofs has been thoroughly
carried out.
♦».«* ^j^ J^ol^ert Cotton had a house and garden abutting against the Painted Chamber; and it wa»
*« 1QOA "IS collection of MSS., now in the British Museum, was originally stored. In Cotton House
in i«20, were lodged the Italian witnesses against Queen Caroline on her Trial.
PARLIAMENT BOUSES. 659
The New Palace is the largest public edifice which has been erected for several
centuries in England ; and in the arrangement of its apartments for the transaction
of public business, in its lighting, ventilation, fire-proof construction, supply of water,
&c., it is the most perfect building in Europe. The style is Tudor (Henry VIII.),
with picturesque portions of the town-halls of the Low Countries, and three grand
features : a Cloclc Tower at the northern extremity, resembling that of the Town-
house at Brussels; a great Central Hall, with an open stone lantern and spire;
and the JRo^al or Victoria Tower, at the south-west angle.
In 1841 was issued the Fine Arts Commission for rebuilding the Houses of Parliament ; and in 1843
the Commission to superintend the completion of the New Palace. Certain portions of the external
stonework having decayed, a Commission was issued to investigate the cause; competing chemical
processes were adopted as remedies by hardening or indurating the stone, which had been injudiciously
selected: time can only decide the merits of these processes. For details, see Year-Book of FacU, 1861
and 1862.
The vast edifice covers at least twice the site of the old Palace of Westminster,
about half the new ground occupied being taken from the Thames. The East or
Hiver Front has at the ends projecting wings, each 120 feet in length, with towers
of beautiful design, leaving between them a terrace VOO feet long, and 33 feet wide.
The entire length is 940 feet. The wing-towers have crested roofs, and open-work
pinnacles, which, with those of the bays, carry gilded vanes. Between the principal
and one-pair floors is a rich band of sculpture, composed of the royal arms of England
in each reign, from William I. to Queen Victoria. The band below the principal floor
is inscribed with the date of each Sovereign's accession and decease ; and the panels
on each side of the coat-of-arms have sceptres and labels, with badges and inscriptions.
In the parapet of each bay is a niched figure of an angel bearing a shield. The
carved panels of the six oriel windows have the arms of Queen Victoria, to indicate
that the building was erected in her reign. The wing -towers, with their octagonal
stone pinnacles and perforated iron ornaments at their angles and crests, remind
one of the picturesque roofs of the chateaux and belfry-towers of the Low Countries.
The North Front has bays and buttresses similar to those of the River Front ; the
bands are sculptured with the quarterings of the kings of England between the
Heptarchy and the Conquest, inscriptions and dates of accession, &c. ; while the
niches between the windows in each bay contain eflSgies of the Sovereigns whose arras
are below. This front terminates at the west with the ClocTc Tower and turreted
lantern spire. The height of this tower is 316 feet from high-water mark (Trinity
standard) to the top of the sceptre on its roof. The clock has the largest dials in the
world — that is, where the clock is an integral portion of the design ; the only larger
one being that of Mechlin, the dial of which is of open metal-work, applied over, but
unconnected with the architecture. The roof is fully ornamented and finished with
gilding and colour to an extent not elsewhere to be seen in this country. For this
tower two great hour-bells were provided ; both of which were broken, as described at
p. 44. The weight of gold-leaf used in decorating the clock-tower up to June 30,
1857, was about 95^ ounces; cost of gold-leaf 890/. Qs. Sd.; wages of artificers,
229/. 11*. Bd. ; completion of the work, about 400/. The gold is pure, and treble
the thickness of ordinary gold-leaf.
The Clock was made by Mr. Dent, junior, from the designs of Mr, E. Denison, about 1855. The four
dials are 22 feet in diameter, and are considered to be the largest in the world, with a minute-hand,
which, on account of its great length, velocity, weight, friction, and the action of the wind upon it,
requires at least twenty times more force to drive it than the hour-hand. This clock goes for 8 days.
The great wheel of the going part is 27 inches in diameter; the pendulum is 15 feet long, and weighs
680 pounds ; and the scape-wheel, which is driven by the musical-box spring, weighs about half an
ounce. All the wheels, except the scape-wheel, are of cast-iron. The barrel is 23 inches in diameter,
but only 14 inches long, as it does not require a rope above a quarter of an inch thick. The second
•wheel is 12 inches in diameter. The great wheels have all 180 teeth, the second wheel of the hour
striking part has 105, and a pinion of fifteen. The great wheels in the chiming part of the clock are
38^ inches in diameter. The clock is said to be at least eight times as large as a full-sized cathedral
clock. It occupies its keepers two hours a week in winding it up. It goes with a rate of under one second
a week, in spite of any atmospheric changes. {Curiosities of Clocks and Watches, p. 205.) It reports
its own time to Greenwich by electrical connexion, and the clockmaker who takes care of it receives
Greenwich time by electricity, and sets the clock right whenever its error becomes sensible, which
seldom has to be done more than once a month. It may be relied oa within less than one second a
week, which is seven times greater accuracy than was required in the original conditions. The entire
machinery of the clock occupies a space 16 feet long, by 5 feet in width, and its weight is over four tons.
An arrangement is also made which will admit of the wheels being taken out of the frame singly with-
U IJ 2
660 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
out disturbing the others, and the clock is fitted with the patent gravity escapement of Mr. Dent. The
barrel is so constructed as that the hands will keep going while the clock is being wound up. The lines
of the clock are of patent wire rope, and the pallets of the escapement are jewelled with sapphires, and
not with agate, as is usually the case. The minute-hand is 16 feet long, and, notwithstanding that it is
made of copper and beaten out as thin as is consistent with its length and strength, it still weighs 2 cwt.
The hour hand is nine feet long, and is fastened with the minute-hand to the centre of the dial by a
huge gilt rose (part of the arms of Westminster), which is about the size of a small dining-table. All
the interstices between the figures and work on the clock face are glazed in with enamelled glass, so as
to present the appearance of a white dial in the day and allow it to be illuminated during the night.
Each dial is lit with 60 gas jets, which are turned on and off by a peculiar adaptation of the clock-work.
The light in the dial thus wanes as day dawns and increases with the fading twilight. The cost of the
gas for this is 5001. per annum. The clock, altogether, cost more than 22,000Z.
The South Front resembles the north, has similar decorations chronologically arranged,
and terminates westward with the Victoria Tower.
Saxon Kings and Queens at the South Front, commencing at the wing tower, and proceeding from
base to summit in each bay:— Agatha, Harold II., Editha, Edward III., Hardicanute, Harold, Emma,
Canute, Elgiva, Edmund, Em.ma, EtheLred, Edward II., Elfleda, Edgar, Edwin, Edred, Elgina, Edmund,
Athelstan, Elfleda, Edward I., Elwitha, Alfred, Ethelred, Ethelbert, Ethelbald, Judith, Egbert, Ethel-
wolf; two kings of Mercia, Notthumberland, East Anglia, Wessex, Essex, Kent, and Sussex j the whole
sculptured in stone by John Thomas.
The Victoria Tower is the largest and highest square tower in the world, being 75
feet square, and 336 feet high to the top of the pinnacle, and over 400 feet to the top
of the flag-staff. The foundation is of solid concrete, 9 feet 6 inches deep, with solid
brickwork over that, the whole inclosed and strengthened by piling. The building
was commenced April 2, 1842, and grew at the rate of 23 feet per year until completed ;
it presses upon the foundation with a weight little short of 30,000 tons. The walls
are 12 feet thick up to the base of the first tier of windows, and thence 6 feet. The
storied windows are 44 feet high by 32 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. The figures,
which look so small and infantine in the niches on the sides, are colossal masses, nearly
10 feet high, and weighing many tons. The supporters of the coats of arms of our
kings are as large as horses ; and a well staircase of iron winds up in apparently endless
spirals, till the circling balustrade is merged together in the long perspective, termi-
nating at a dim bluish spot no bigger than your hand, which marks the outlet on to
the tower-roof. A person standing on the ground under the centre of the tower can
see up at a glance, as through a telescope, from the bottom to the top. The tower
is fireproof, and was intended to be used as a grand repository for the State papers,
records, and muniments of the nation j and for this purpose it is divided into eleven
stories, each of which, with the exception of the basement story and the first floor
immediately over it, contains sixteen fireproof rooms. The roof, though made as light
as is consistent with its safety from the wind, nevertheless weighs upwards of 400
tons. That little pierced parapet, which from the street looks scarce sufficient to
prevent a man from falling over, is actually sixteen feet high. The lions and crowns
on its battlemented top are more than six feet high, while even the gilt tops to the
four turrets, which from the ground are hardly distinguishable, are wrought-iron
crowns 5 feet 2 inches in diameter, and weighing one ton each. The roof, sixteen feet
above the parapet, is surrounded with a gilt railing six feet high, the four corners are
guarded by four stone lions twenty feet high ; and from the base of the corners spring four
cast-iron flying arched buttresses, formed in the centre in a kind of crown about thirty
feet above the roof. Here is the colossal flagstaff, of rolled sheet iron bolted together,
110 feet long, 3 feet in diameter at the base, and weighing between sixteen and
eighteen tons. The flag, 60 feet long by 45 feet broad, required upwards of 400 yards
of bunting to make it ; it has to be hauled up by machinery. The little turrets afc
the corners reach ninety feet above the roof. They are divided into two stories, the
first or lower being about sixty feet above the roof; and here a low balcony, with stone
work breast-high, allows the visitor to come right out upon the outside of the turret and
walk around it. The view almost repays the effort made to reach it. All London
lies beneath you, looking Hke a diminished and smoky model of itself, in which some-
how the streets seem broader and more empty, and the houses lower and more regular,
than they ever appear to those on terra firma. On a clear day not only all London
can be seen from the summit of these pinnacles, but even all its suburbs, from Hounslow
to Shooter's-hill on one side, and from Harrow to the red bleak-looking downs beyond
Addington on the other. The portal is of sufficient capacity to admit the Royal State
PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 661
coach to be driven to the foot of the staircase within the tower. Colossal statues of
the Lion of England, bearing the National Standard, flank the portal ; while carving,
rich and emblematical, adorns the walls and groined roof of the interior. High
above a rich quatrefoil band, differing in design, and containing heraldic badges,
foliage, and initials, comes the first tier of windows, with their rich tracery and lofty
two-centred arches. Above these windows are strange devices in the way of shields
and supporters, which here and there show the three lions passant guardant, supported
by such animals as are unknown to modern English heraldry. Nevertheless, these
are the Royal arms of England's former kings. Within the porch and over the arch-
way on the east side are niches, containing statues of the Guardia:n Saints of the United
Kingdom — St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland, and St. Patrick of Ireland ;
while the similar archway on the north side, which forms the access to the Royal stair-
case has niches of accordant design, one containing a large statue of her Majesty Queen
Victoria in the centre, while those on either side contain allegorical figures of Justice
and Mercy. Recurring to the exterior of the Tower, immediately over the above great
entrance, as well as on the south side, is a row of rich niches, the centre one higher
than the rest, and containing a statue of the Queen ; while the others are occupied by
her Mtijesty's father and mother, the late Duke and Duchess of Kent, and other mem-
bers of the Royal Family. (Abridged chiefly from The Times journal.)
The West Front, towards New Palace-yard, is composed of bays divided by bold
buttresses, terminating in rich pinnacles. This land-front will hereafter embrace
the area of the present Law Courts. The niches of the buttresses will contain statues
of eminent commoners. The portion of this front complete, is that opposite Henry the
Seventh's Chapel, called St. Margaret's Porch ; and the gable of Westminster Hall,
which has been advanced southward, the great window being replaced, thus forms St.
Stephen's Porch, with much of the varied and piquant character of the Town-hall of
Louvain. The turrets contain statuettes of Edward III. and Queen Philippa, St. George
and St. Andrew, Henry VII. and Ehzabeth of York, St. Patrick and St. Stephen. In
the gable are statuettes of Edward the Confessor and William Rufus, William IV. and
Queen Victoria ; and this fa9ade is richly sculptured with the Royal arms, the separate
insignia of England, Ireland, and Scotland, badges, &c. The whole composition should
be seen from Poet's Corner, and it combines well with Henry the Seventh's Chapel.
Between the Victoria Tower and St. Stephen's Porch is a range of buildings four
stories in height, with a central clock-tower 120 feet high. Besides the great towers
already named, oriels and turrets add effect to the sky-line of the building, whether
viewed from the exterior or from the courts.
The whole front from St. Stephen's Porch to Victoria Tower is appropriated for offices
of the House of Peers, including peers' private entrance and staircase, committee-rooms,
waiting-rooms, and the numerous other apartments required. It also includes a large
room to be called the Peers' Eobing-Room, which is to be decorated in fresco by Mr.
Herbert, R.A. This is lighted from the top, and fitted up in oak, as is the case with
the other apartments. The frescoes will be eight in number, of large size, — the
subjects Scriptural.
"The Palace of Westminster stands alone and matchless in Europe among the
architectural monuments of this busy age. From the border of the Thames, from
St. James's Park or Waterloo-place, from Piccadilly, or the bridge across the Ser-
pentine, the spectacle of that large square tower, of the central needle, and far away
of the more fantastic Beffroi — all grouping at every step in some different combi-
nation — stamp the whole building as the massive conception of a master mind." —
(^Saturday Review^
One of the Public Entrances to the Houses of Parliament is by St. Stephen's Stair-
case, ascending from St. Margaret's Porch : the bosses, panels, and decorative work of
the ceiling and the supporting arches are very elaborate ; the walls will be embellished
with frescoes. Westminster Hall forms the grand vestibule of approach from the
north. About midway, on the east side of the Hall, is the Members' Entrance to the
House of Commons, through the restored Cloisters of St. Stephen's : the fan -tracery
of the roof, and a small projecting chapel or oratory, are very beautiful. A cloister
built by Henry VIII. has been restored, as a relic of English mediseval art. An upper
662 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
cloister has been added, by which is a staircase to the House of Commons. Eeturning
to Westminster Hall, at the south end is a flight of steps to Si. Stephen's Porch^
65 feet in height: the great central window is 48 feet high and 25 feet wide, and is
filled with stained glass, by Hardman, charged with the insignia of the Sovereigns of
England. On the right is the entrance from St. Stephen's Staircase, and on the left
is a supei^ doorway leading into St. Stephens's Sail, 95 feet long by 30 feet wide,
and 56 feet high, reared upon the ancient Crypt of St. Stephen's, which has been
restored for use as the Palace Chapel. From the floor of St. Stephen's Hall there
is no one step throughout the whole extent, — all is of one level. Next is
The Central Sally an octagon VO feet square, with the largest span of stone Gothic
roof, of similar form, in Europe : the height from the floor to the key-stone is 75 feet,
and the bosses measure 4 feet in diameter. The eight sides contain alternately great
doorways and windows, the latter to be filled with stained glass; and the niches
between the arches contain portrait and costume statues of the English Sovereigns and
their Queens, sculptured in Caen stone by John Thomas. Among the most striking
are William I. ; Henry I. ; Richard I. and his Queen j King John ; Eleanor Queen of
Edward I. ; Edward III. and his Queen Philippa; Henry V. and his Queen Katherine ;
Richard III. j Henry VII. and his Queen Elizabeth. The encaustic-tile pavement is
very fine. Thence a corridor leads north to the Commons' Lobby and House of
Commons, and south to the Peers' Lobby and House of Peers. The archway west
communicates with St. Stephen's Hall : and the east leads to the Lower Waiting Sail ;
the Conference Sail, in the River Front ; and the Upper Waiting Sail, embellished
with frescoes, including the Patience of Griselda (from Chaucer), by Cope ; Disinheritance
of Cordelia by King Lear (from Shakspeare), by Herbert, R.A. ; the Temptation of
Adam and Eve (from Milton), by Horsley; and St. Cecilia (from Dryden), by Tenniel.
The JElectric Telegraph Office (opened April 1, 1853) is in the Central Hall;
whence Avires are laid to the Company's Office and the metropolitan stations. The
north gable of Westminster Hall and the adjoining Law Courts, Sir Charles Barry*
proposed to make accord with this beautiful front ; New Palace Yard being inclosed
by parliamentary buildings, thus making it, by means of an important gateway looking
towards Whitehall, the entrance courtyard of the new Palace, as it was originally of
the old Palace of the time of Richard ll.f
The Royal Enteance is by the Victoria Tower, already described. At the summit
of the Royal Staircase is the Norman Porch, named from its statues of kings of the
Norman line, and frescoes of scenes from Anglo-Norman history ; its beautifully groined
roof and clustered columns, rich bosses and ribs, are of the same period. To the right
is the Queen's Robing -room, painted by Dyce, R.A., with frescoes allegorical of chivalry
fostering generous and religious feelings. Here are two frescoes in large panels, by
Maclise, R.A. : the Meeting of Wellington and Blucher after Waterloo ; the Death of
Nelson — one side only is completed ; Mr. Dyce died February 14, 1864. Next is the
Victoria or Royal Gallery, 110 feet in length by 45 feet in width, and 45 feet high ;
to be decorated with frescoes from English history, an armorial band beneath the
stained-glass windows, and a panelled and superbly enriched ceiling. To this gallery
the public are admitted, by tickets (to be obtained of the Lord Great Chamberlain), to
view the procession of her Majesty to open and prorogue Parliament.
The Prince's Chamber, a kind of ante-room to the House of Lords, has theentrance-
• A very beautiful memorial tablet to perpetuate the memory of the late Sir Charles Barry has been
erected in the nave of Westminster Abbey, over the spot where the distinguished architect of the Houses
of Parliament lies buried; and nearly adjoining the grave of the late Mr. Robert Stephenson, to whom,
it will be remembered, a monumental brass, representing a full-length figure of the eminent engineer,
was inscribed a few years since. The memorial, which has been placed in the Abbey by the family of
the late Sir C. Barry, consists of a large cross let into a massive slab of black marble about 12 feet in
length by 5 feet in width, and the inscription on the cross is as follows:—" Sacred to the memory of the
late Sir C. Barry, R.A., F.R.S., architect of the New Palace at Westminster and other buildings, who
died on the 12th of May, 1860, aged 64 years, and lies buried beneath this brass." The following text
is also inscribed round the outside of the marble slab :— " Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the
Lord and not unto men, for ye serve the Lord Christ." Colossians iii. 23, 24.
t "The new Palace Yard being anciently enclosed by a wall, there were four gates therein, the only
one at present remaining is that on the east side leading to Westminster Stairs— the three others which
were demolished were that on the north which led to Woolstaple, that on the west called Highgate, a
very beautiful and stately edifice, situate at the east end of Union-street : it was taken down in the year
1706, aa was also the third at the north end of St. Margaret's-lane, anno 1731."— Maitland 1739.
PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 663
doorway richly decorated with the national arms, armorial roses and quatrefoils ; and
opposite, on the north side, in a corresponding arch, is the statue of Queen Victoria,
with figures of Justice and Mercy, and bas-reliefs, by Gibson, R.A. Upon the walls
are twelve bas-reliefs, by Theed, carved in oak, of memorable events in Tudor history ;
and over these panels, are twenty-eight portraits of the same period, painted on a gold
ground. The frieze is enriched with oak -leaves and acorns, and armorial shields and
labels ; the windows are painted with the rose, thistle, and shamrock, and regal crowns ;
and the armorial ceiling and Tudor fii'e-places are dight with colour, gilding, and
sculpture. From the Prince's chamber we enter
The House of Loeds, extremely rich in gilding, polychromy, wrought metal, and
carved work. Its dimensions are, length in the clear, 91 feet, breadth 45 feet, and
height 45 feet, so that it is a double cube. The walls are 3 feet 1 inch thick. East
and west are twelve lofty windows, six on either side, filled with painted-glass whole-
length portraits of the kings and queens, consort and regnant, of the United Kingdom :
six containing figures of the royal line of England before the union of the crowns ;
three, of the royal line of Scotland from Bruce to James VI.; and three, of the
Sovereigns of Great Britain from the reign of Charles I. The style of colouring in
these windows is that of 1450-1500.
At each end of the House are three archways, within which are these wall-frescoes : —
Over the Throne : Edward III. conferring the Order of the Garter on the Black Prince; C. "W. Cope,
E.A. The Baptism of St. Ethelbert; W. Dyce, R.A. Prince Henry acknowledging the authority of
Judge Gascoigne ; C. W. Cope, R.A.
Over the Strangers' Gallery: The Spirit of Justice ; D. Maclise, E.A. The Spirit of Religion ; J. C.
Horsley, The Spirit of Chivalry; D. Maclise. R.A.
Between the windows, archways, and in the corners, are canopied niches, with pedestals
supported by angels bearing shields charged with the arms of the eighteen barons who
obtained Magna Charta from King John, and whose bronze efiigies occupy the niches.
Above these niches are segments of arches, which, as trusses, support the main arches
of the ceiling, and are elaborately pierced and carved.
The ceiling is flat, and divided into compartments containing lozenges charged with
devices and symbols : the royal monogram, the monograms of the Prince of Wales and
Prince Consort ; the cognisances of the white hart of Richard II. ; the sun of the
House of York ; the crown in a bush, Henry VII. ; the falcon, dragon, and greyhound j
the lion passant of England, the lion rampant of Scotland, and the harp of Ireland;
sceptres, orbs, and crowns; the scales of Justice; mitres and crosiers, and swords of
mercy ; coronets, and the triple plume of the Prince of Wales. Among the devices
are the rose of England and the pomegranate of Castile ; the portcullis of Beaufort,
the lily of France, and the lion of England ; and the armorial shields of the Saxon
Heptarchy. The massive beams appear like solid gold : they are inscribed on the sides
with religious and loyal mottoes.
Beneath the windows, the walls are covered with oak panelling and carved busts of
the Sovereigns of England ; and above is the inscription " God save the Queen," in
Tudor characters. Thence springs a coving, in the southern division emblazoned with
the arms of lord chancellors and their Sovereigns, and northward with the bishops*
arms. This coving supports a gallery with wrought-metal railing, richly-carved panel-
ling, and pillars which support a brattishing.
The centre of the southern end of the House is occupied by the Throne, on either
side of which is a doorway leading to the Prince's Chamber. At the northern end of
the House, over the principal doorway, is the Strangers' Gallery, behind the Reporters*
Gallery, upon the front of which are painted the badges of the sovereigns of EnglaTid ;
and over the archways are painted on shields the coat-armour of the Saxon, Norman,
I'lantagenet, Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian Houses; the arms of the archiepiscopal
seesj and some of the bishoprics ; and in front of the gallery is a clock with an exqui-
sitely carved case and dial enamelled in colours. On the right of the Bar is the seat of
the Usher of the Black Rod. The Peers' seats (accommodating 235) are ranged
longitudinally from north to south. At the south end is the clerks' table ; and beyond
it are the woolsacks, covered with crimson cloth. At the north end is The Bar, a
dwarf screen, at which appear the Members of the House of Commons, and at which
664 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON:
counsel plead. At the four angles of the area is a supex'b brass candelabrum, by
Hardman, 17 feet high, and weighing 11^ cwt.
The Royal Theone, at the south end, is elevated on steps (the centre three, and
the sides two), which are covered with a carpet of bright scarlet, powdered with white
roses and lions, and fringed with gold-colour. The canopy to the throne is in three
compartments : the central one, much loftier than the others, for her Majesty ; that on
the right hand for the Prince of Wales, and that on the left for the Prince Consort.
The back of the central compartment is panelled with lions passant, carved and gilded,
on a red ground ; and above are the royal arms of England, elaborately emblazoned,
surmounted by the royal monogram and "Dieu et mon droit," in perforated letters;
and a brattishing of Greek crosses and fleur-de-lis crests. Above are the crests of
England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, richly carved ; the ceiling bears the monogram
V. R. within an exquisite border, and the flat surfaces painted with stars. The span-
drels of the canopy, and the octagonal pillars with coronal capitals, are exquisitely
carved. In front of the canopy, above a brattishing of perforated Tudor flowers, are
fi;ve traceried ogee arches : in the central one is the figure of St. George and the
Dragon; and in the two sides are knights of the Garter and Bath, the Thistle and St.
Patrick. The angle-buttresses of this canopy have coronal pendants; on the fronts
and sides are animals, on the summits open-worked royal crowns. On the sides like-
wise are shields of the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, beautifully
carved, painted, and gilded ; and upon pedestals are sitting figures of winged angels
holding shields enamelled with the arms of England. The side compartments of the
canopy have, the one the heraldic symbols of the Prince of Wales, and the other those
of Prince Albert, blended with the architectural features : they have covings, gilded,
and pedestals supporting a lion and unicorn holding shields of arms ; the angle-but-
tresses have coronal pendants, and the shafts are surmounted by crowns. On either
hand is a dwarf wing with pedestal, on which are seated the royal supporters, the lion
and unicorn, holding standards enamelled with the arms of England.
The Queen's Chair of State, or Throne, in general outline resembles " the coronation
chair :" the legs rest upon four lions couchant ; the base has quatrefoil panels, with
crowns and V. R.; sprays of roses, shamrocks, and thistles; and a broad bar of roses
and leaves : in the panels beneath the arms of the chair are lions passant and treillage ;
upon the back pinnacles are a lion and unicorn, seated, holding scrolls and flanking the
gable, within which is a circle of exquisitely quatre-foiled ornament, inclosing the
monogram V. R. ; the exterior ridge is carved with roses, and the apex surmounted
with a richly decorated crown. The back of the chair is bordered with large egg-
shaped pieces of crystal, within which are the royal arms of England, embroidered on
velvet. The Footstool has carved sides, and a crimson velvet top, gorgeously embroi-
dered with roses in a border of fleurs-de-lis.
The State Chairs for the Frince of Wales and Prince Consort are curule-shaped,
have circular-headed backs, embroidered on velvet with the ostrich triple-plume and
the shield of arms. The throne and footstool, and the two princes' chairs, are gilded
throughout.
The House of Peers was first occupied by their lordships April 15, 1847.
The Peers' Lolhy is 38 feet square and 33 feet high, and has on either side a lofty
arch, above which are painted, within arches, the arms of the Saxon, Norman, Plan-
tagenet, Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian royal lines, each surmounted by a royal crown.
The north doorway opens into the House of Commons Corridor, the south doorway
opens into the House of Lords : the arch is boldly sculptured with Tudor roses, royally
crowned; the inner arch is enriched with gilded oak-leaves. The space over is filled
with the royal arms, roses, thistles, and shamrocks, coloured and gilded. The gates
are of massive brass, by Hardman, and of richly floriated design, the frames studded
with Norman roses. These gates weigh 1^ tons, are 11 feet high, and 6 feet wide;
and are of a material not used in England for such a purpose for nearly 400 years.
The side-wall compartments of the Lobby are filled with ogee arches; and the upper
stories are windows, painted by Hardman, and Ballantyne, and Allan, with the arms of
the early families of the aristocracy of England. The roof is painted with roses.
PARLIAMENT HOUSES. 665
thistles, and shamrocks, in squares, on a blue ground, and relieved with gilding. The
pavement is encaustic tiles, by Minton ; alleys of black marble, including " Dieu et
mon droit" in tiles, V. R., the lions of England, &c. j and in the centre is a Tudor rose
of Derbyshire marble, bordered with engraved brass. At each corner of the lobby is a
magnificent gas-standard, about 12 feet high.
The Peers' Libraries are a magnificent suite of rooms ; above the oak book-shelves
is a frieze, with panels of the arms of the Chief Justices of England. The Peers'
Pohing-room it is proposed to decorate with frescoes illustrating Human Justice and
its development in Law and Judgment, by Herbert, R.A. The one executed is in
water-glass; the subject, Moses bringing down the Second Tables of the Law, oc-
cupied the painter three years : size 22 feet by 10 feet 6 inches ; figures life-size.
Returning to the Peers' Lobby, the archway on the north side gives access to the
Peers' Corridor, corresponding with the Commons' Corridor immediately opposite in
the Central Hall, the walls of which are panelled for frescoes, some of which have
been completed. The decorations of the Corridors leading from the Central Hall,
to the Houses of Lords and Commons, are as follows : —
The Peers' Corridor— C. W. Cope, R.A., The Burial of Charles I.; The Parting of Lord and Lady
Russell ; Expulsion of the Fellows of a College at Oxford for refusinsr to sign the Covenant ; The Em-
barkation of the Pilgrim Fathers for New England; The Defence of Basing House; The setting out of
the Train Bands from London to relieve Gloucester; Charles L erecting his standard at Nottingham.
The Commons' Corridor. — E. M. Ward, R.A., Alice Lisle assisting the Fugitives to Escape alter the
Battle of Sedgmoor; Jane Lane assisting Charles II. to Escape after the Battle of Worcester ; The
Last Sleep of Argyle; The Execution of Montrose ; The Landing of Charles II. at Dover.
The Central Hall has been already described. Leaving this through an arched
doorway on the west side, we enter ;S'^. Stephen's Hall, which occupies the site
of the old St. Stephen's Chapel. The Hall has a beautiful stone vaulting, the
bosses of which have subjects from the life of St. Stephen ; its windows are filled with
appropriate glass, and on pedestals are marble statues of Selden, Foley, R.A. j
Hampden, Foley, R.A. ; Lord Falkland, Bell j Lord Clarendon, Marshall, R.A. ; Lord
Somers, Marshall, R.A. j Sir Robert Walpole, Bell ; Lord Chatham, M'Dowell, R.A. ;
Lord Mansfield, Baily, R.A. ; Burke, Theed ; Fox, Baily, R.A.; Pitt, M'Dowell,R.A;
Grantham, Carew. A small staircase at one end leads to St. Stephen's Crypt, de-
scribed at p. 304. In the niches of the doorway to St. Stephen's Hall are twelve
statues of early Kings and Queens. We leave the Hall for St. Stephen's Porch,
whence a fine view is obtained of Westminster Hall, which it was proposed by Sir
Charles Barry to make an antechamber to the House of Legislature. By a beautiful
new doorway on the east side we enter the Cloisters of St. Stephen's, which have been
restored and enlarged. From the upper Cloister by the Lobby we enter
The House op Commons, Y5 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 41 feet high ; the size
being as small as possible for speaking and hearing without effort during the average
attendance of Members, about 300. The twelve side windows are painted with the
arms of boroughs, by Hardman ; and at each end is a stone screen filled with brass
tracery. The ceiling has the sides and ends inclined, and the centre flat : it is divided
by massive ribs into compartments, which are filled with ground-glass tinted with the
rose, portcullis, and floriated circles; behind were originally placed the gas-lights,
with Faraday's patent ventilation, cutting off" connexion between the gas and the air
of the apartment, the vitiated air being conveyed away by tixbes into a chamber above
the ceiling. The artificial light is now supplied from the chamber above the ceilings,
in which about 1000 feet of gas are consumed per hour in the evening sittings ; none
of the products of combustion escape into the House. The floor of the House is of
perforated cast iron, covered with matting, through which hot and cold air are admitted.
The Ventilation at present adopted in the two Houses is that of exhaustion, the air being put in
motion by means of heat applied by coke-fires in grreat upcast shafts, the two chief being in the Victoria
Tower and the Clock Tower. Under as well as above ground are hundreds of air-courses ; some for
supplying cold air, others for warm air, others for carrying off vitiated air. There are in this great
palace steam-pipes, of which the aggregate length is about 15 miles, and 1200 stop-cocks and valves
connected with these pipes. Taking the House that sits longest, we learn from Dr. Percy's able Report,
that the air for the House of Commons is admitted from the Star Court and the Commons Court ; it is
strained through gauze, and then warmed when necessary by Gurney's batteries ; after which it ascends
through the floor of the House. Dr. Percy tells us that, although a great number of minor details are
666 CURIOSITIES OF LOKDON.
defective and need completion, yet all appliances for effective ventilation exist; experiments have
demonstrated that the supply of fresh air passing through the Houses under varying conditions has
generally exceeded the proportion declared by the highest authorities to be amply sufficient. Satisfactory
as this may be, Dr. Percy reminds us that too much fresh air cannot be supplied, provided its tempera-
ture and its state as to moisture be suitable, and no draught be perceptible — a condition which should
be regarded as a fundamental principle in every so-called system of ventilation. While in some instances
the complaints made may be well founded, it is pretty certain that in other instances they resulted from
the special bodily conditions of the individuals making them ; as the state of the stomach as to the
quantity of food which it contains, the amount of alcoholic liquor circulating through the system, the
muscular exertion which the body may have recently undergone, as well as the condition of mental
exertion or excitement, will greatly modify our impressions as to the agreeableness of the temperature
and the perfection of the ventilation.
It is impossible to burn the House down : you might set fire to and destroy the furni-
ture and fittings ; but the flooring, walls, and roof would remain intact The walls
are panelled with oak two-thirds up, carved with the linen-pattern, armorial shields,
pendants, foliated mouldings, and brattishings. Upon three sides are galleries for
Members and Strangers ; the Reporters' Gallery being at the north end, over the
Speaker's Chair, a sort of canopied throne elaborately carved with the royal arms, &c.
Behind the brass tracery above the Reporters' Gallery is a gallery for ladies. At the
northern end of the House is The Bar, temporarily formed by sliding rods of brass ;
and here is the special seat of the Serjeant-at-arms. The Ministerial seats are on the
front bench to the right of the Speaker, the leaders of the Opposition occupying the
front bench opposite. Below the Speaker's Chair is the Clerics' Table, whereon, during
the business of the House, is placed the Speaker's Mace ; not, as generally supposed,
" the fool's bauble" which Cromwell ordered to be taken away, but the mace made at
the Restoration. Along both sides of the House are the Division Lobbies, " Ayes'*
wes£, and " Noes" east; these being oak-panelled corridors, with stained-glass windows:
the chandeliers are of chased brass.
The Commons first assembled in their new House February 3, 1852 ; eight days
after which (February 11), Mr. Barry received knighthood.
The Commons Lobby is a rich apartment 45 feet square, and has on each side an
archway ; carved open screens inscribed " Domine salvam fac Reginam ;" and windows
painted with the arms of parliamentary boroughs : the brass gas-standards, by Hard-
man, are elaborately chased. The doorways lead to the Library, the Post-office,
Vote-paper Office, Central Hall, &c. The Libraries are fitted with dark oak. The
Hefreshment Rooms for the Peers and Commons are similarly arranged, and respec-
tively are divided by a carved oak screen.
The public are admitted to view both Houses of Parliament, and all the piiblic
portion of the New Palace of Westminster, every Saturday between 10 and 4 o'clock,
during the session, by tickets j which are obtainable on Saturdays, between 11 and 4
o'clock, at the Office of the Lord Great Chamberlain, in the Royal Court.
Admission to hear the Debates : Lords — A Peer's order ; Commons — Any Mem-
ber's, or the Speaker's, order. The House of Lords is open to the public, without
ticket, during the hearing of Appeals.
The Speaker's House occupies part of the two pavilions, forming the end of the
river front of the Palace, next Westminster Bridge, and is approached by archways
irom Palace-yard, It comprises from sixty to seventy rooms, and is finished
throughout in the style of the structure generally. The staircase, with its carvings,
tile-paving, and brass-work, is exceedingly effective and elegant, and everywhere there
is a large amount of painted and gilded decoration. Cloisters, approached from the
House, surround a court about 20 feet square : the window openings in the cloisters
are filled with stained glass, containing the arms of all the Speakers, with the date of
election. The principal floor includes the State dining-room ; the drawing-room,
37 feet 3 inches by 28 feet 9 inches ; morning-room, 34 feet 6 inches by 23 feet 9 inches;
and a smaller dining-room, 34 feet by 24 feet 6 inches. The State dining-room is
45 feet by 23 feet 6 inches. Frames are set in the walls to receive a collection of portraits
of past Speakers. The rooms are lighted at night by wax-candles in coronse ; to light
the four rooms requires 400 wax-candles.
A Descriptive Handbook for the Pictures in the Houses of JBarliament, by T. J.
GuUick, Painter (published by authority), will at once satisfy the requirements of
artists and the general public : the accounts of the Pictures are written with care
PATEBNOSTEB-BOW. 667
and discrimination. And a Guide to the Palace is printed by permission of the Lord
•Great Chamberlain, and published by Warrington and Co.
PATEBNOSTEE-BOW,
BETWEEN the north side of St. Paul's Churchyard, and the south of Newgate-
street, is one of a knot of monastic localities ; and is named from the turners of
rosaries, or Pater Nosters (tenth beads), dwelling there, with stationers or text- writers,
who wrote and sold ABC, with the Pater Noster, Ave, Creed, Graces, &c., in the reign
of Henry IV. Hatton describes it 1V08 *' between Cheapside Conduit east, and Amen-
corner west; and the name, as also those of Ave-Maria-lane (at its west end), Creed-lane
(in Ludgate- street, opposite), and Amen-corner, given by reason of the religious houses
formerly of Black and Gray Friars, between which these streets are situated." Pater-
noster-row was next "taken up" by mercers, silkmen, and lacemen: we read of Pepys,
in 1660 buying here " moyre for a morning waistcoat ;" and the street was ofttimes
blocked up with the coaches of the nobility and gentry. But few names of publishers
are met with as carrying on business in Paternoster-row before the Great Fire : one of
these is "R. Harford, in Queen's-head-alley, Paternoster-row, 1642," and another,
"Christopher Meredith, Crane-alley, Paternoster-row." After the Great Fire, the
mercers mostly migrated westward, as to Holywell-street and Covent Garden ; but
in a periodical of 1707 we read of " the sempstresses of Paternoster-row :" and Strype,
in 1720, enumerates among its inhabitants tire-women, mercers, and silkmen. Here
lived Alderman Thomas, the mercer, whose shop bore the motto of Sir WilUam Turner,
** Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you." (Spectator, No. 509.) Strype also
mentions " at the upper end, some stationers and large warehouses for booksellers ;"
"but we find, as early as 1564, that Henry Denham, bookseller, lived at the Star, in
Paternoster-row, with the motto, Os hotnini suhlime dedit. In the reign of Queen
Anne the booksellers removed here from Little Britain ; and, from about 1774, the
trade became changed to publishing books in " Paternoster-row numbers." Among
their publishers were Harrison, Cook, and the Hoggs ; to the latter succeeded their
shopman, Thomas Kelly, Alderman of Farringdon Within, and Lord Mayor, 1836-7.
Here was the printing-office of Henry Sampson Woodfall, the printer of the Public
Advertiser, wherein originally appeared Junius's Letters.
At " the Bible and Crown " (the sign boldly carved in wood, coloured and gilt, in the
string-course above the window), lived the Rivingtons, the High-Church publishers, from
1710 to 1853 : here they continnedthe Annual Register, originally Dodsley's, with Edmund
Burke as a contributor; and here, in 1791, the Rivingtons commenced the British Critic :
but " the old shop," where Horsley and Tomline, Warburton and Hurd, used to meet,
was, in 1854, altered to a " shawl emporium." At No. 47 lived Robert Baldwin, pub-
lisher of the London Magazine, commenced 1732. The premises are now the publishing-
house of Messrs. William and Robert Chambers, of Edinburgh : the former Lord
Provost, 1866. Here the Robinsons established themselves 1763, the head of the firm
being " King of the Booksellers :" here they published the Annual Begister, with a
sale of 7000 copies each volume ; and the unsatisfactory Biographical Dictionary, by
Alexander Chalmers. At No. 39 have lived nearly a century and a half the Long-
mans; the imprint of Thomas Longman, with Thomas and John Osborne, at the sign of
*• the Ship and Black Swan," is dated 1725 ; and the same year we find a book of
Whiston's bearing the same names, although an edition of Rowe's Dramatic Works,
2 vols., 1725, is stated to be the earliest book with Longman's imprint. Here was
commenced the original Cyclopcedia, by Ephraim Chambers, upon which was based the
New Cyclopcedia of Dr. Rees. For several years the firm gave here dinners and soirees
to authors and artists ; and they have acquired world-wide repute as the publishers of
the works of Scott, Mackintosh, Southey, Sydney Smith, Moore, and Macaulay.
Messrs. Longman's own sale of books has amounted to five millions of volumes in the
^ear. They possess some portraits of eminent literary persons.
The premises were rebuilt in handsome Renaissance style in 1863 ; the design in-
■cluding the rebuilding of the adjoining house of Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, of Edin-
66S CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
burgb, at the extreme north-west corner. The fa9ade is executed in Portland stone. The
character of the carving, especially of the lower stories, is somewhat symbolical natural
foliage. On the key-stone of the central arch is represented Literature supported by
the Arts, Sciences, and Education. In the spandrels of the same are the " Ship" and
the " Swan," being half-size copies of two medallions, saved from the old buildings,
and which had been trade signs or parts of these premises since the Great Fire.
No. 33, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., has been rebuilt in handsome style ; also No.
23, Kent and Co. No. 56, the Depot of the Religious Tract Society, was erected
in 1844, at a cost of 12,000Z. : the handsome stone frontage, of 120 feet, is in the
Italian style. The Society commenced operations, in 1799, with a small handbill ; its
annual distribution of books and tracts in 1853 was nearly 26 millions, and its gross
income 9497^. ; in 1866, circulation 46,000,000. The Society issues five illustrated
periodicals, including the Leisure Sour and the Sunday at Home.
No. 50, long the Chapter Coffee-house, described at pp. 263-4, was closed as a coffee-
house, in December, 1853 ; having been for a century and more the resort of authors,
booksellers, and politicians : the house is referred to in the correspondence of Chatterton.
" A contemporary anecdote exhibits Goldsmith paymaster, at the Chapter Coffee-house, for Churchill's
friend, Charles Lloyd, who, in his careless way, without a shilling to pay for the entertainment, had
invited him to sup with some frieads of Grub-street."— Forster's Life of Goldsmith, p. 232.
Between Patemoster-row and Newgate-street is Newgate Market : here, in 1709
{Tatler, No. 44), was exhibited the Groaning Board :
"At the sign of the Woolsack, in Newgate Market, is to be seen a strange and wonderful elm-board ;
H'hichbeing touched with a hot iron, doth express itself as if it were a man dying with groans, &c. It
been presented to the king and his nobles, and hath given great satisfaction." — Advertisement.
Panyer-alley, conjectured to have been named from its having been the standing of
bakers with their paniers, when bread was only sold in markets, and not in shops or
houses, is described at pp. 416 and 614.
At " the sign of the Castle," in Paternoster-row, Tarlton, Queen Elizabeth's favourite
stage-clown, kept an ordinary, stated to have been on the site of Dolly's chop-house.
** The Castle," of which a token exists, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but was re-
built ; and here " the Castle Society of Music " performed. The premises were sub-
sequently the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822, and rebuilt.
Warwick-lane and Ivy-lane are noticed at p. 614.
There are likewise a Paternoster-roio and Little Paternoster-row in Spitalfields,
where was formerly the Priory of St. Mary Spittle.
Fi:NTONriLL:E,
A DISTRICT of St. James's parish, was originally a field of the Clerkenwell
Nunnery. It was in part the estate of Henry Penton, Esq. ; and when the New-
road was formed through it. White Conduit House, and the house attached to Dobney's
Bowling-green, were almost the only buildings here. One of the earliest was Hermes
House (in Hermes-street), built by Dr. de Valangin (a pupil of Boerhaave), who lived
to see Penton's ville or town rising around him. Here lived the noted William Hunt-
ington, S.S., when he married the widow of Sir James Sanderson, Bart., ex-Lord
Mayor. Upon the north side of the New-road (Pentonville-hill) is St. James's
Chapel, built 1788 : it has a clever altar -picture of Christ raising the damsel Tabitha.
Below the Chapel is the London Female Penitentiary, established 1807. In Regent-
terrace died the popular sporting writer. Pierce Egan, in 1849, at the full age of 77 :
and in Penton-place lived Grimaldi, " Old Joe," born in Stanhope-street, Clare-market,
in 1778, the year preceding that in which Garrick died.
Gerard, in his Serhal, edit. 1633, describes certain kinds of orchis growing in dry
pastures and heaths, and upon chalky hills, and " plentifully in sundry places, as in the
field by Islington, near London, where there is a bowling-green, under a iQ\w old
shrubby oaks." The spot alluded to seems to have been Winchester-place, now the
Pentonville-road. Thomas Cooke, the notorious miser, lived here.
PICCADILLY. 669
PICCADILLY,
A LEADING street, 110 yards less than a mile in length, extends, in a line with
Coventry-street, from the north end of the Haymarket westward to Hyde Park
Corner. The name is derived from the ruffs, called " pickadils " or " peccadilloes,"
worn by the gallants of James I. and Charles I. ; and the stiffened points of which re-
sembled spear-heads, or picardills, a diminutive of piea, spear, Spanish and Italian.
Blount, in his Glossographia (1656), interprets it as the round hem about the edge or
skirt of a garment, and a stiff collar or band for the neck and shoulders ; whence the
wooden peccadilloes (the pillory) in Hudihras. Hence the first house built in the road
may have been named " from its being the utmost or skirt house of the suburbs that
way ;" and may not the name have originated from the pillory having been often set
up in this suburb or open ground ? Mr. Peter Cunningham took considerable pains to
unravel this question. Pennant traces the name to Piccadillas, turnovers or cakes,
which may have been sold in the suburban fields. Others say it took name from this :
" that one Higgins, a tailor, who built it, got most of his estate by piccadillas." But
the name occurs many years earlier than the mention of the first house, or Piccadilly
House : thus Gerard, in his lEerhal (1596), states that " the small wild bu-glosse
growes upon the drie ditch-bankes about Pickadilla." The road is referred to, in
Stow's narrative of Sir Thomas Wyat's rebellion in 1554, as " the highway on the hill
over gainst St. James's;" and in Aggas's Map (1560) it is lettered, "The Waye to
Eedinge." The upper part of the Haymarket, and the fields adjoining north and
west, were the Pickadilly of the Restoration. Evelyn quotes the Commissioners'
orders, July 13, 1662, to pave "the Haymarket about Pigudello;" and tradesmen's
tokens of this date bear " Pickadilla " and " Pickadilly."
Piccadilly Hall appears to have been built by one Robert Baker, " in the fields
behind the Mews," leased to him by St. Martin's parish, and sold by his widow to
Colonel Panton, who built Panton-square, and Panton-street. Lord Clarendon, in his
History of the Rebellion, speaks of " Mr. Hyde going to a house called Piccadilly for
entertainment and gaming :" this house, with its gravel walks and bowling-greens, ex-
tended from the corner of Windmill-street and the site of Panton-square, as shown in
Porter and Faithorne's Map, 1658. Mr. Cunningham found (see HandhooJc, 2nd edit,
p. 396), in the parish accounts of St. Martin's, Robte Backer, of Pickadilley Halle ;"
and the receipts for Lammas money paid for the premises as late as 1670. Sir John
Suckling, the poet, was one of the frequenters ; and Aubrey remembered Suckling's
*' sisters coming to the Peccadillo bowling-green, crying, for the feare he should lose all
their portions." The house was taken down about 1685 : a tennis-court in the rear
remained to our time, upon the site of the Argyll Rooms, Great Windmill-street. The
Society of Antiquaries possess a printed proclamation {temp. Charles II. 1671) against
the increase of buildings in Windmill-fields and the fields adjoining Soho; and in the
Plan of 1658, Great Windmill-street consists of straggling houses, and a windmill in a
field on the west side. The spacious house upon the east side was built for Dr. William
Hunter in 1770 : it had an amphitheatre and a magnificent museum {see p. 597). He
died here March 30, 1783. At the north-east end of the Haymarket stood the
gaming-house built by the barber of the Earl of Pembroke, and hence called Shaver's
Hall : it is described by Gerard, in a letter to Lord Strafford in 1635, as " a new
Spring Gardens, erected in the fields beyond the Mews :" its tennis-court remained in
James-street, until 1867, when it was altered for another occupation.
From Piccadilly being applied to the Hall and the buildings in the fields north
and west of the Haymarket (in " Dogs-fields, Windmill-fields, and the fields adjoining
Soho"), early maps show the name to have been extended to the line of street to
Swallow-street, where begins Portugal-street, named after Catherine of Braganza,
queen of Charles II. : in an Act 3 James II. is named " the mansion-house of the Earl
of Burlington, fronting Portugal-street ;" but that it was considered a subordinate
street, is shown by Wren having made the principal front of St. James's Church face
Jermyn-street, with its handsome Ionic door. The name of Piccadilly, however, be-
came gradually extended to the whole line. Hatton, 1708, describes Piccadilly as
670 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON^
between Coventry-street and the end of the Haymarket, and Portugal-street. Until
1721 the road was mostly unpaved, and coaches were often overturned in the hollow.
The line from Devonshire House westward was, until the year 1740, chiefly occupied
by the figure-yards of statuaries, where also " numberless wretched figures were
manufactured in lead for gardens."* About this time an adjoining field was bought by
a brewer for his empty butts at 30Z,, and sold in 1764 for 2500Z. {Malcolm) In 175*7
a tract of ground was leased to James Hamilton, Esq., who built thereon Hamilton-
jplace.
Hamilton-place is called after James Hamilton, Esq., Eanger of Hyde Park in the reign of
Charles II,, and the elder Hamilton of De Grammont's Memoirs. No. 1, in 1813, was inhabited by
Lady Catherine Tylney Long : —
" Long may Long Tylney Wellesley Long Pole live."
In 1818, this house passed to Lord Chancellor Eldon. No. 4, in 1814, passed to the great Duke of
Wellington, whose London house it was when the Battle of Waterloo was won by this fine genius for
war. In this house, the bibliopole, Mr. Grenville, collected the fine Library bequeathed by him to the
British Museum. {See page 584.) No. 5 was bought by Mr, Joseph Denison, M.P., for 10,000 guineas, and
presented to his sister, Marchioness of Conyngham, who assembled here a fine collection of china; she
died in 1861, aged 92. At No. 7, Mr. John Philip Miles, of Leigh Court, made his collection of pictures of
the Italian school. This same No, 7 was afterwards inhabited by the late Mr. H. A. J. Munro, of Novar,
and the rooms refitted with another fine collection of pictures. Here were to be seen the celebrated
" Madonna dei Candelabri," of Raflfaelle, some noble landscapes by Turner, and a View of Venice, by
Bonington. No one house that I can call to mind, has held two private collections of pictures equally
famous as were once to be seen at No. 7. — Peter Cunningham; Builder, March 4, 1865.
Westward was TTie Sercules Pillars, which, with other noted Piccadilly inns, is
described at p. 455. In one of these petty taverns at Hyde Park Corner, Sir Richard
Steele and the poet Savage dined together, after having written a pamphlet, which
Savage sold for two guineas, to enable them to pay the reckoning. Among the strag-
gling houses here was the school kept by a Roman Catholic convert named Deane,
where Pope spent nearly two years of his boyhood ; and got up a play out of Homer,
the part of Ajax being performed by the gardener.
"Towards Hide Park" was Winstanley's mathematical water-theatre, mentioned
in the Taller, No. 74 (Sept. 29, 1709) : it had a windmill at the top ; and the quantity
of water used in the exhibition was from 200 to 300 tuns, " with which curious effects
produced by hydraulic pressure were exhibited in the evening." Evelyn spealcs of
Winstanley, who built the first Eddystone Lighthouse; and of another mechanical
genius. Sir Samuel Morland, who writes from his " hut near Hyde Park Gate."
North Side. — Apsley House, east of Hyde Park Gate, is described at pp. 541-543.
No. 142, Lord Willoughby de Eresby's mansion, was sold in 1866 for 25,250^., crown
lease, forty years ; in the same year its works of art realized upwards of 9000?.
At No. 145, the Marquis of Northampton, as President of the Royal Society, gave his
conversazioni. No. 147, the Baron Lionel de Rothschild's {see p. 547), is partly built
upon the site of the mansion of William Beckford, the author of Vathek. At
Nos. 138 and 139, Piccadilly, lived the Duke of Queensbury, " Old Q.," the voluptuous
millionaire, who died at the age of eighty-six. At No. 138, in 1865, was dispersed
the valuable collection formed by the late Earl of Cadogan of plate ; Sevres, Chelsea,
Dresden, and Qther porcelain; antiquities, and objects of art and virtu, many of
historic interest ; the old silver plate brought from one to three guineas per oz.
No. 137, Gloucester Souse, is described at p. 549. Next is ParJc Lane, formerly
Tybm'n-lane. Twenty years since, or thereabout, the Duke of Wellington was
walking up the narrow roadway of Park-lane, when, opposite Gloucester House, a
carter came along with a country wagon and team of horses : he called to the Duke,
who, being very deaf, did not hear the man, who had very nearly, with his wain,
thrown down and driven over the hero of a hundred fights. Opposite, in the Green
Park, was the Deputy-Ranger's Lodge, built by Robert Adam, 1768, taken down,
1841 ; the pair of graceful stags upon the gate-piers, placed there by Lord William
Gordon, when Deputy-Ranger, was removed to the piers of Albert Gate, Hyde Park.
* East of Hertford House, " near the Queen's Mead House, in Hyde-park -road," was the leaden
figure-yard established by John Van Nost, who came to England with King William III. A favourite
garden figure was an African kneeling with a sun-dial on his head, such as we see to this day in the
garden of Clement's Inn, and commonly said to have been brought from Italy by Lord Clare !
PICCADILLY, 671
At the corner of Down-street (leading to May Faie, see p. 564), is the mansion of
Mrs. Hope, described at p. 551 ; and further east. No. 106, CotENTET House
(see p. 246), closed as a club, March, 1854 ; No. 105, Hektfoed House, p. 550 ;
No. 94, Cambeidge House, p. 547 ; No. 82, Bath House, p. 544 ; Devonshiee
House, p. 548.*
Mr. Hope died at his mansion, in Piccadilly. He was the eldest son of the wealthy capitalist of
Amsterdam (the author oTAnastasiua), by Miss lieresford, youngest daughter of Lord Decies, Archbishop
of Tuam, who married secondly the late Marshal Viscount Beresford. He was consequently brother of
Mr. Adrian Hope, of the banking firm at Amsterdam, and of Mr. Alexander Beresford Hope. He sat in
Parliament for East Looe and Gloucester, and was a Conservative in politics. His only child married,
in 1861, the Earl of Lincoln, now Duke of Newcastle. Mr. Hope was one of the earliest promoters
of the London and Westminster Jomt-Stock Bank; and the first Chairman of the Great Eastern Steam-
ship Company.
Half -moon-street was built in 1730, and was named from the Half-moon Ale-house
at the corner. Clarges-street was built 1717-18, and named from Sir Walter Clarges.
At the south-west corner is the mansion of the Duke of Grafton, designed by Sir
Eobert Taylor : here is the magnificent Louvre portrait of Charles I. on his horse, by
Vandyke. At No. 12, Clarges-street, lived for eight years Edmund Kean, the tragedian^
who kept in the house a tame puma. Next door, at No. 11, lived Lady Hamilton at
the time of Lord Nelson's death.f Bolton-street was in 1708 "the most westerly
street in London, between the road to Knightsbridge south, and the fields north'*
(Hatton). Here lived the Earl of Peterborough, who, in his autobiography (for-
tunately never printed), confesses having committed three capital crimes before he was
twenty years of age.
No. 80, Piccadilly, was the house from which Sir Francis Burdett was taken into
custody, April 6, 1810, by the Serjeant-at-Arms, after a resistance of four days:
" The lady she sate and she played on her lute.
And she sung, ' Will you come to the bower?*
The serjeant-at-arms had stood hitherto mute.
And now he advanced, like an impudent brute.
And said, ' Will you come to the Tower ?' "
In the riot which ensued, the Life Guards charged the mob, whence they got the flash
sobriquet " Piccadilly Butchers."
Stratton-street was named from the Stratton line of the Berkeleys, on whose estate
it was built. No. 1 was the mansion of Mrs. Coutts, the widow of the rich banker,
and afterwards Duchess of St. Albans, " who brought back the dukedom to the point
from which it set out — the stage" {Leigh Sunt). By her grace the mansion was
bequeathed, with the greater portion of her immense wealth, to Miss Angela Burdetfc
Coutts, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, Bart.
BerJceley-street, built in 1642, and then the extremity of Piccadilly, was named from
Berkeley House, on the site of Devonshire House. Dover-street was built about 1688,
upon the estate of Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover, who resided on the east side ; as did
John Evelyn, who had been " oftentimes so cheerful, and sometimes so sad, with
Chancellor Hyde " on that very ground. On the west side lived Dr. John Arbuthnot,
physician to Queen Anne, " Martinus Scriblerus," and the friend of Pope, Swift, Gay,
and Prior. No. 37, sculptured with a mitre, is the town-house of the Bishop of Ely.
At No. 38 lived Lord King, who wrote a life of his profound kinsman, John Locke ;
published 1829. Albemarle-street was built by Sir Thomas Bond, of Peckham, on
part of the site of Clarendon House. In 1708 it was " a street of excellent new
buildings, inhabited by persons of quality, between the fields and Portugal-street."
"The earliest date now to be found upon the site of Clarendon House is cut in stone, and let into
the south wall of a public-house, the sign of The Duke of Albemarle in Dover-street, thus : * This is
* The ticket of admission to the performances of the Guild of Literature and Art (first given at
Devonshire House, 1851), was designed by E. M. Ward, A.R.A. On the left is Richard Wilson, the
painter, with a picture under his arm, entering a pawnbroker's shop. On the right is Daniel Defoe
coming out of Edmund Curll's shop, with the manuscript of Robimon Crusoe in his hand: his wife is
inquiring as to his success in selling the manuscript, and her little girl is standing in front. In the
centre foreground are grouped a palette, brushes, and books ; and at the top is a kneeling child smelling
a rose, and another pouring water into a rose-bud.
t In 1853 were added to the MSS. in the British Museum 63 autograph letters of Lord Nelson,
addressed to Lady Hamilton, from 1798 to 1805; including the last letter i^elson ever wrote, found in.
his cabin, after the battle of Trafalgar, October 21st, 1805.
672 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Stafford-street, 1686.' In a plan of London etched by Hollar, in 1686, it is evident that the centre of
Clarendon House must have occupied the whole of the site of Stafford-street." — Smith's Streets,
Clarendon Souse vt^as commenced by Lord Chancellor Clarendon in 1664, " encou-
raged thereto by the royal grant of land, by the opportunity of purchasing the stones
which had been designed for the repairs of St. Paul's, and by that passion for building
to which he was naturally too much inclined." (jEvelyn.) About the same time,
Lord Berkeley began to build Berkeley House on the west; and Sir John Denham,
Burlington House on the east. During the war and the plague year. Clarendon
employed about 300 workmen, which raised a great outcry against him : " some called
it ' Dunkirk House,' intimating that it was built by his share of the price of Dunkirk :
others called it ' Holland House,' because he was believed to be no friend to the war ;
so it was given out that he had the money from the Dutch. It was visible that in a
time of public calamity he was building a very noble palace." {^Burnet.) Pepys
records that some rude people, in 1667, " had been at my Lord Chancellor's, where
they cut down the trees before his house and broke his windows ; and a gibbet either
set up before or painted upon his gate, and these words writ : * Three sights to be
seen — Dunkirk, Tangier, and a barren queen.' " He was lampooned also in one of the
State Foems, entitled " Clarendon's House-warming." The day before his lordship's
flight, Evelyn " found him in his garden at his new-built palace, sitting in his gowt
wheele-chayre, and seeing the gates setting up towards the north and the fields. He
looked and spake very disconsolately. Next morning I heard he was gone." Evelyn,
dining at Clarendon House with the Lord Chancellor's eldest son, Lord Cornbury,
after his father's flight, describes the mansion as " now bravely furnished, especiaDy
with the pictures of most of our English and modern wits, poets, philosophers, famous
and learned Englishmen ;" most of these pictures have been brought from Cornbury,
a seat of the Earls of Clarendon, Oxon, to the Grove, Watford, Herts.
Clarendon House was subsequently let to the great Duke of Ormond. After Lord
Clarendon's death in exile, it was sold, in 1675, for 26,000?. to the young Duke of
Albemarle, who soon parted with it to Sir Thomas Bond, by whom the mansion was
taken down, and Bond-street and Alhemarle-huildings (now street) and Stafford-street
were built upon the site. A map in the Crowle Pennant shows the entrance-gate to
the court-yard to have been in Piccadilly, directly opposite St. James' s-street ; and the
grounds to have extended to the site of Bruton- street. Two Corinthian pilasters,
long preserved, at the Three Kings' Inn gateway. No. 75, in Piccadilly, are believed to
have belonged to Clarendon House ; the name is preserved in the Clarendon Hotel^
built upon a portion of the gardens between Albemarle and Bond-streets.
" All the waste ground at the upper end of Albemarle and Dover -streets is purchased by the Duke
of Grafton and the Earl of Grantham, for gardening ; and the road there leading to May Fair is ordered
to be turned." — The JBritish Journal, March 30, 1723. (This purchase is commemorated in Grafton-
street.)
In Albemarle-street, at an apothecary's, lodged Dr. Berkeley when he was made
Dean of Derry. Richard Glover, the merchant-poet, who wrote "Leonidas" and
"Admiral Hosier's Ghost," died here in 1785. On the east side is the Royal
Institution ; the columnar fa9ade by L. VuUiamy, 1838, adapted from the remains of
Mars Ultor and Jupiter Stator, and the Pantheon at Rome. No. 23 is the Alfred
Cltjb-hotjse {see p. 240). At No- 50, since 1812, have lived John Murray, father
and son, publishei's; the former, "the friend and publisher of Lord Byron," died
1843. Opposite is Grillion's Hotel, where Louis XVIII. sojourned in 1814 : here and
at the Clarendon were held the Roxburghe Club Dinners.
Bond-street was commenced in 1686 by Sir Thomas Bond, Bart., Comptroller of
the Household to Queen Henrietta-Maria. " Bond-street loungers, who pass from
2 till 5 o'clock," are mentioned in the WeeJcly Journal, June 1, I7l7. At No. 41,
"at the Silk-Bag Shop," died, March 18, 1768, Laurence Sterne, broken-hearted,
neglected, and in debt : some of the most touching scenes in Tom Jones are laid at
Mr. Allworthy's lodgings in Bond-street. Here lodged James Boswell when he gave a
dinner to Johnson, Goldsmith, Reynolds, and Garrick. No. 27 was the library of Ebers,
who in seven years lost 44,080?. by the Italian Opera-house, Haymarket. No. 10 has
a large billiard-room, painted 1850 in encaustic by E. F. Lambert, with panels bordered
with arabesques j the principal subjects being Bacchus and Ariadne, Hebe, " Willie
PICCADILLY. 673
brew'd a peck o' maut," " Let me tbe cannikin clink," and the " Wassail bowl." The
tasteful house-front, No. 21, was designed by the Inwoods, architects of St. Pancras*
Church, Euston-road.
In 1766, the mansion, now the Clarendon Hotel, was let by the Duke of Grafton to Mr. Pitt (Earl of
Chatham), for his town house. M. Grillion, proprietor of the Clarendon Hotel, was once rather unex-
IKJctedly honoured by the visit of two guests, the French ex-Queen Amelie and Prince Napoleon Jerome.
To each the presence of the other was made known, but the ex-Queen acknowledged the right of the
Prince to be in the hotel. The Prince, like a gentleman, offered to withdraw if his presence gave the
venerable lady any displeasure; but the ex-Queen would not hear of his being put to any inconvenience.
The delicacy and courtesy of M. Grillion were taxed, but stood the test. The Clarendon has more issues
than one, and the worthy host contrived that the two illustrious personages should never find them-
selves on the same staircase.— .4^Ac«(EMm, No. 2001.
Surlington Gardens, originally " Ten-Acres Fields," extended from Bond-street to
Swallow-street : here is Uxbridge House, noticed at p. 557 : here died, April 29,
1854, Field-Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey, K.G., aged 86. In Cork-street the
Earl of Burlington designed for Field-Marshal Wade a house with a beautiful front, ill-
contrived inside to suit a large cartoon by Rubens, but in vain : Lord Chesterfield said
that " to be sure he (the Marshal) could not live in it, but intended to take the house
over against it, to look at it " ( Walpole). At the south-east corner of Grajton-street
was the book-shop of Benjamin Tabart, who published so many pretty picture-books
for children. At the corner of Clifford-street was the Clifford-street Club {see p. 245).
^evo Bond-street site was in 1700 an open field called Conduit-mead (now street),
from the Conduit there, remains of which were found in 1867, in excavating large
wine-cellars for Mr. Basil Woodd, at Nos. 34 and 35, New Bond-street : these cellars
cover more than one-third of an acre, and will contain upwards of half a million
bottles of wine. At No. 141, Lord Nelson lodged in 1797. At No. 21 was exhibited,
" Napoleon at St. Helena," painted by Haydon for Sir Robert Peel, and upon which
Wordsworth wrote his memorable sonnet.
In Piccadilly, east of Old Bond-street, are the Buelin&ton Aecade {see p. 20), and
BuELiNGTON HouSE {see p. 545). No. 52, adjoining, are the Albany Chambers, let in
suites to single gentlemen. The centre, designed by Sir William Cliambers, was sold
in 1770, by Lord Holland, to the first Viscount Melbourne, who exchanged it with
the Duke of York for Melbourne, now Dover, House, Whitehall. In 1804 the mansion
in Piccadilly was altered and enlarged, and first let in chambers, named Albany from
the second title of the Duke of York. The ceilings of the mansion were painted for
Lord Melbourne by Cipriani, Wheatley, and Rebecca. In chambers here have lived
George Canning, M. G. (Monk) Lewis, Lord Byron, Lord Lytton, Lord Macaulay,
and Lord John Manners. Upon the site were originally the houses of the Earl of
Sunderland, Sir John Clarges, and Lady Stanhope, with large gardens.
SacJcville-street is the longest street in London without a turning : at the comer
house, east, opposite St. James's Church, died Sir William Petty, the earliest writer
on the science of political economy in England, and ancestor of the Lansdowne family :
a letter from Sir William Petty to Pepys is dated Piccadilly, September, 1687. The
Dilettanti Club met at The Prince, in this street, in 1783.
Swallow-street is named from " Swallow Close," part of the crown lands granted to
Lord Chancellor Clarendon : here was the oldest Scottish Presbyterian church in the
metropolis, and rebuilt (see p. 222). Swallow-street originally extended northward to
Tyburn-road, from the centre of the present Regent-street. St. James's Hall is
described at pp. 426-427. Ayr or Air-street was in 1659 the most westerly street.
South Side. — Hyde Park Corner turnpike-gate was removed in 1825. The long
dead wall of the Park (now open railing) was hung with ballads ; here robberies aft^r
dark were frequent.
Arlington-street, "a very graceful and pleasant street" (Sa^^ow, 1708), was built
upon the property of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, about 1689: hence, also,
Bennet-street. In Arlington-street lived the Duchess of Cleveland, after the death of
Charles II. j Lady Mary Wortley Montague, before her marriage; William Pulteney,
Earl of Bath, on the west side, ne.xt door to Sir Robert Walpole, where was born
Horace Walpole, who wrote in 1768, "From my earliest memory, Arlington-street
has been the ministerial street ;" in 1750 he records a highwayman attacking a post-
chaise in Piccadilly, at 11 o'clock on a Sunday night, and escaping. Upon the site
X X
674 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of Walpole's house Kent built No. 17, for Pelham the Minister, the house now the
Earl of Yarborough's. Lord Nelson lodged in this street in 1800-1, when Lady
Nelson separated from him. At No. 16 (the Duke of Rutland's), the Duke of York,
second son of George III., lay sick, from August 26, 1826, to his death, Jan. 5, 1827,
as touchingly narrated by Sir Herbert Taylor. No. 26, Beaufoet House, was in
1854 sold to the Duke of Hamilton. The houses on the west side of the street com-
mand a charming view of the Green Park.
St. James's-steeet, Bury-street, Jertnyn-streety King-street^ and St. James' s-place,
are described at pp. 480-483.
No. 160, Piccadilly, is the entrance to the Wellington Dining House (formerly Crock-
ford's Club). The Egyptian Hall is described at p. 319.
At No. 169, Wright, the publisher of the Anti-JacoUn, kept shop, which was the
resort of the friends of the Ministry, as Debrett's was of the Opposition. In a first-
floor met the editors of the Anti-Jacohin, including Canning, Frere, and Pitt ; with
Giffbrd as working editor, and Upcott (Wright's assistant) as amanuensis. (See Notes
and Queries ; and Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, new edition, 1854.) In Wright's shop,
Peter Pindar (Wolcot) was castigated by Giffbrd. No. 177 was the shop of William
Pickering, the eminent publisher, whose title-pages bear the Aldine anchor: his
valuable stock of old books, rare works on angling, modern copyrights and reprints,
was dispersed in 1854. No. 182 (Fortnum and Mason's) is designed from a mansion
at Padua, renovated and altered. The Museum of Peactical Geology is described
at p. 595. In the Inventory of Rich's Theatrical Properties {Tatler, July 16, 1709)
is " Aurungzebe's scymitar, made by Will. Brown in Piccadilly." Megent Circus {see
Regent- steeet).
No. 201, Piccadilly, is the St. James's Gallery of Art, where is exhibited a most remarkable collec-
tion of pictures principally in Water-Colours, painted by E. Fa^on Watson, from nature; mostly scenes
of rural life, one hundred in number: they unite solidity with brilliancy of colour, and are distinguished
by the most elaborate care and delicacy of manipulation ; the foliage, flowers, and grasses (especially
the ferns), are of microscopic accuracy, and the atmosphere of remarkable transparency and charac-
teristic beauty. Many of them are executed in a new style in the practice of the art, which is the artist's
secret." They were painted in the leisure of a life-time, and arc unquestionably exquisite works of art.
St. James's Chuech is described at p. 169 : in 1867 the interior was renovated and
altered according to Wren's original intention : it has two large sunlights in the ceiling.
Nollekens, the sculptor, when a boy, with Scheemakers, the sculptor, in Vine-street, " had an idle
propensity for bell-tolling, and in that art, for which many allowed him to have a superior talent, he
■would frequently indulge by running down George-court to St. James's Church, to know how funerals
went on. Whenever his master missed him, and the dead-bell was tolling, he knew perfectly well what
Joey was at."— Smith's Life of Nollekens.
FICTURE GALLERIES {PUBLIC).
NATIONAL GALLERY (The), on the north side of Trafalgar-square, was built
between 1832 and 1838, from the de>;ign of Professor Wilkins, R.A., and was
his latest work. Its length is 461 feet, and the greatest width 56 feet ; and it is
built partly with the materials of the King's Mews, the site of which it occupies. The
best feature is the centre, the Corinthian columns of which are from the portico of
Carlton House, and are adapted from the Temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome.* This
portico has interior columns, the only example in the metropolis ; and the view com-
mands the broad vista of Parliament-street and Whitehall, and the picturesque towers
of the Palace at Westminster. But the Gallery central dome is ill-proportioned and
puny ; and the corresponding cupolas upon the wings are poor imitations of Vanbrugh's
embellishment of private mansions. Through the eastern wing is a thoroughfare to
Duke's-court, claimed by the inhabitants as a right of way long enjoyed by them
through the King's Mews. The vestibule is divided, by screens of scagliola columns
(with scenic effect), into two halls ; and from each is a staircase leading to the upper
floors, each a suite of five rooms. The eastern wing is appropriated to the Royal
Academy of Aets, which see. The western wing is occupied by the national col-
lection of pictures. The ground-floor is mostly official apartments, but was originally
intended as a depository for public records.
In the hall are S. Joseph's marble statue of Sir David Wilkie, R.A., with his palette
* A complete set of casts from these fine specimens of ancient art exists in the Museum of Mr. Joseph
GwUt, F.S.A., Abingdon-street, Westminster.
PICTTTBE GALLERIES (PUBLIC). 675
inserted beneath glass in the pedestal ; a fine alto-relievo, in marble, by T. Banks, K.A.,
of Thetis and her Nymphs rising from the Sea to condole with Achilles on the loss of
Patroclus ; a bronze bust of the Emperor Napoleon; and a marble bust of William
Mulready, R.A., by H. Weekes, R.A.
The National Gallery was founded in 1824, by the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's
collection of pictures for 57,000?. : it is said, upon the suggestion of George IV. ; but
it originated equally in Sir George Beaumont's offer, in 1823, to the Trustees of the
British Museum, to present his collection to the public. The Angerstein pictures (38)
were first exhibited in the house of Mr. Angerstein, 100, Pall Mall, May 10, 1824;
whither Sir George Beaumont's 16 pictures were transferred in 1826. In 1831,
35 pictures were bequeathed by the Rev. W. Holwell Carr ; in 1836, 6 pictures were
presented by William IV. ; 17 bequeathed in 1837 by Lieut.-Col. Ollney ; 15 be-
queathed in 1838 by Lord Farnborough ; 14 bequeathed in 1846 by R. Simmons :
and the Gallery has since been increased, by donations, bequests, and comparatively
few Government purchases, to about 495 pictures ; independently of the Vernon and
Turner collections.
The current expenses connected with the National Gallery amount to an annual
sum of 15,894Z., of which the Director receives lOOOZ., and the Keeper and Secretary
750?. The establishment at Trafalgar-square costs 1523?., of which 327?. is given to
curators, and 786?. to police. A sum of 621?. is spent at South Kensington, 2000?. is
allowed for travelling expenses, agency, &c., and 10,000?. for the purchase of pictures.
The first Catalogue of the National Gallery, by W. Young Ottley, has long been out of print : the
fullest extant is by R, N. Wornum. Among the more notable pictures are two Groups of Saints and the
Baptism of Christ, (eleven pictures,) by Taddeo Gaddi, painted in tempera, bright colour upon a gold
background ; curious specimens of middle-age art.
Italian School: The Virgin and Child, with Saints and a Dead Christ (lunette) from an altar-piece,
by Francesco Francia, early Bolognese School. Virgin and Child, with St. John, by P. Perugino; divinely
holy in character and expression. The Raising of Lazarus, by Sebastian del "Pioinbo : the figure of
Lazarus by Michael Angelo. St. Catherine of Alexandria, the Vision of a Knight, portrait of Pope
Julius II., and fragment of a Cartoon of the Murder of the Innocents, by Raphael; and the Madonna,
Infant Christ, and John, (Garvagh Raphael, 9000/..) Three of Correggio's greatest works : Mercury in-
structing Cupid in the presence of Venus ; the Ecce Homo ; and the Holy Family (La Vicrge au Panier) :
the three pictures cost 14,400Z. A Holy Family, Noli me tangere, and Bacchus and Ariadne, by Titian.
Susannah and the Elders, by Ludovico Caracci. Eight works of Annibale Caracci : Silenus gathering
Grapes ; Pan (or Silenus) teaching Apollo to play on the Reed ; and Christ appearing to St. Peter. Nine
works of Guido, including Susannah and the Elders; Andromeda and the " Ecce Homo." Ten works of
Claude (Landscapes and Seaports), including the Chigi and Bouillon Claudes, the latter the Embarkation
of the Queen of Sheba. A fine Landscape (Mercury and the Woodman) by Salvator Rosa. Gaston do
Foix, by Giorgione. The Madonna and Child enthroned, with Saints John and Christopher, with the
Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, in adoration, by Vittore Carpaceio. St. Rock with the Angel, by Paolo
Morando, Venetian Senator, by Francesco Bonsignori. The Madonna, Infant Christ, and St. Anne, by
Libri. Madonna in Prayer, and Madonna and Child, by Sasso Ferrato. Christ and his Disciples going
to Emraaus, by Melone. Milanese Nobleman, by Solario. " Ecce Homo," by La Spagna.
Spanish School : Philip IV. of Spain hunting the Wild Boar, Portrait of Philip, the Nativity, (in the
Manger,) and the Dead Warrior, by Velasquez. The Holy Family, St. John with the Lamb, and the
Spanish Peasant-boy, by Murillo.
Flemixh School : Portraits of a Flemish Gentleman and Lady, in a bedchamber ; under the mirror is
written "Johannes de Eyck fait hie, 1434." Nine works of Rubens: including the Sabine Women;
Peace and War, presented to Charles I. by Rubens, in 1630 ; the Brazen Serpent ; St. Bavon, harmonious
and picturesqvie ; Rubens's own Chateau ; the Judgment of Paris, from the Orleans Collection ; and the
Apotheosis of James I., sketched for the Whitehall ceiling. Vandyke's magnificent St. Ambrosius and
the Emperor Theodbsius ; and the same painter's " Gevartius," or Vander Geest, a portrait scarcely
equalled in the world,— but by some attributed to Rubens. The Woman taken in Adultery, one of
Rembrandt's finest early works; Christ taken down from the Cross; Christ blessing little Children;
his Adoration of the Shepherds; a Woman Bathing; and three of his marvellous portraits. A sunny
Landscape, with cattle and figures, by Cuyp. The Misers, or Money-changers, by David Teniers.
French School: Eight works of Nicholas Poussin, including two Bacchanalian Festivals, and the
Plague of Ashdod, very fine. Also, six works of Gaspar Poussin, including his masterpiece, a Landscape
with Abraham and Isaac; and his fine classical picture of Dido and iEneas in a Storm.
English School : Sun rising in a Mist, and Dido building Carthage, by J. M. W. Turner. Mr. Lewis,
the comedian, " Gentleman Lewis," by M. A. Shce, bequeathed by the son of Mr. Lewis, with 10,000^. in
money, the proceeds, about 300Z. a year, to be laid out in the improvement of the Fhie Arts.
The Tueneb Pictuees are arranged chronologically, and comprehend three
distinct styles, mostly corresponding with Turner's three visits to Italy in 1819,1829, and
1840. The first period reaches to his 27th year, ■when he was forming a style, by
studying his English predecessors, Wilson, Loutherbourg, and Gainsborougli ; his
earliest oil-pictures resemble those of Wilson in style. In the second period, 1802 to
1830, Turner is seen at first as a follower of Claude and Gaspar Poussin, and then
striking out a style of landscape-painting, entirely original, and wholly unrivalled for
brilliancy of colouring and eflTect ; the majority of his greatest works belong to that
X X 2
676 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
period, from his Calais Pier, 1803, to the Ulysses deriding Polyphemus, 1829. In his
third period, dated from 1830, during the last twenty years of his life, everything else
wa-i sacrificed to the splendour of light and colour ; yet some of Turner's finest works
belong to this period — as his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 1832, and the Temeraire,
1839. The Turner pictures, as arranged by Mr. Wornum, have been hung in the west
room of the National Gallery.
Royal Academy op Aets (the) occupies the east wing of the National Gallery,
already described. The Academy originated in a Society of Artists in Peter's-court,
St. Martin's-lane.* With its apparatus Hogarth established the Society of Incorpo-
rated Artists, who held their first Exhibition at the house of the Society of Arts, in
the Adelphi, April 21, 1760 ; next in Spring Gardens. In 1768 certain artists seceded
from the Society, were constituted a " Royal Academy," removed to Pall Mall, and
elected Reynolds president (at the first Exhibition, in 1769, there were 136 pictures,
and only three sold) ; and George III. granted them, in 1771, apartments in Old
Somerset House.
The Foundation consists of 40 Eoyal Academicians ; 20 Associates, from whom the
members are chosen to fill up vacancies ; and six Associate Engravers. The Academi-
cians elect from among themselves annually the President ; they also appoint a Secre-
tary and Keeper. The Council of eight members elect among the body Professors of
Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture ; and appoint a Professor of Anatomy, who must
be a surgeon. Dr. Johnson was first President of Ancient Literatm-e; and Dr. Gold-
smith, Professor in Ancient History, was succeeded by Edward Gibbon. Lectures are
delivered to the students and exhibiting artists, free of expense : and prize medals are
awarded biennially and annually. Students are also sent to Rome at the expense of
the Academy. The members are under the superintendence and control of the Queen,
who confirms and signs all appointments.
Among the Foundation Members of the Academy were Sir Joshua Reynolds {President); Sir William
Chambers, the architect of Somerset House; Gainsborough and Wilson, the eminent landscape-painters;
Benjamin West {the second Fresident) ; Joseph Wilton, the sculptor; F. Bartolozzi, the engraver;
Charles Catton, Master of the Painter-Stainers' Company; and Angelica Kauffmaun and Mary Moser. —
(iSee Zoffany's Picture of the Boyal Academicians, 1773.)
Upon the rebuilding of Somerset House, apartments in the western wing were given
to the Academicians ; and the first Exhibition here was opened May, 1780.
The Library ceiling was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Cipriani : the centre, by Reynolds,
represents " the Theory of Painting," a majestic female, holding compasses and a label inscribed,
" Theory is the knowledge of what is truly nature." The four compartments, by Cipriani, were per-
sonifications of Nature, History, Allegory, and Fable. The Council-room was painted by West : centre,
the Graces unveiling Nature, surrounded by figures of the Four Elements ; oval pictures of Invention,
Composition, Design, and Colouring, by Angelica Kauffmann; medallions of Apelles, Phidias, Apollodorus,
and Archimedes; and a circle of chiaroscuro medallions of Palladio, Bernini, Michael Angelo, Fiammingo,
Eaffaelle, Domenichino, Titian, and Rubens, painted by Rebecca.
Horace Walpole writes to Mason :— " You know, I suppose, that the Eoyal Academy at Somerset
House is opened. It is quite a Roman palace, and finished in perfect taste, as well as boundless expense.
Gainsborough has five landscapes there, of which one especially is worthy of any collection and
of any painter that ever existed." Walpoie's copy of "the Exhibition Catalogue" for 1780 exhibits
against the landscapes by Gainsborough MS. expressions of " charming," " very spirited," " as admirable
as the great masters."
I
In 1838 the Academy removed to the National Gallery. They possess a library of
prints, and books on art {see p. 464), which is open to students. Here are also several
pictures by old masters. The School for Drawing from the Antique is held in the
Sculpture-room ; the School for Painting in the West-room j and the School for Draw-
ing from the Life-model is held in the interior of the dome of the edifice. In the Hall
of Casts (mostly presented by George IV., and procured through the intervention of h
Canova) are a beautiful group of Niobe and her Daughters ; the graceful Mercury of ■
the Vatican ; Fauns with their Cymbals ; the Egyptian Jupiter, and the Olympian ; ■
Apollo and the Muses ; the Laocoon ; the Fighting and Dying Warrior ; a mutilated
remnant of a statue of Theseus, &c. Upon the ceiling of the Council-room are the \
paintings, by Sir Joshua Reynolds and other Academicians, transferred from the Library
and Council-room at Somerset House.
* This Society (according to Edwards) was formed from a " Life School," or Living Model Academy,
which was established in the house of Peter Hyde, a painter, in Greyhound-court, between Milfbrd-lane
and Arundel-street, Strand, under the direction of Mr. Moser, afterwards the first Keeper of the Royal
Academy. The School removed to Peter's-court about 1739. The houses in Greyhound-court were
taken down between 1851 aud 1854.
I
PICTURE GALLERIES {PUBLIC). 677
The Diploma Pictures and Sculptures (each member presenting a work of art upon
his election) are placed in the Council-room, and include Sir Joshua Reynolds' full-
length portrait of George III. ; Fuseli's " Thor battering the Serpent of Midgard in
the boat of Hymer the Giant;" a Rustic Girl, by Lawrence ; the Tribute-Money, by
Copley ; Charity, by Stothard ; Jael and Sisera, by Northcote ; the Falling Giant, by
Banks ; and Apollo and Marpessa, and a cast of the Shield of Achilles, by Flaxman ;
Christ blessing little Children, by West j Boys digging for a Rat, by Wilkie j Opie's
Infancy and Age; portrait of Gainsborough, by himself; Sir William Chambers, by
Reynolds; and Sir Joshua in his doctor's robes, by himself. Cupid and Psycbe, by
NoUekens ; bust of Flaxman, by Baily ; West, by Chantrey, &c.
There are, also, a celebrated copy, size of the original, of the Last Supper, by
Leonardo da Vinci, made by his pupil, Marco d'Oggione; copies of the Descent from
the Cross, and the two Volets, by Rubens, made by Guy Head ; and copies of the
Cartoons of Raffaelle, by Thornhill, — the size of the originals. Also, small copies in
oil of the frescoes by Raffaelle in the Vatican ; two fine Cartoons (the Holy Family
and St. Anna, and Leda) by L. da Vinci ; bas-relief in marble of the Holy Family, by
Michael Angelo, presented by Sir George Beaumont, &c. Among the memorials pre-
served by the Academy are two palettes of Reynolds and Hogarth. The Diploma
Pictures, &c., may be seen by application in writing to the Keeper of the Gallery.
The Exhibition is opened annually on the first Monday in May ; admission Is., cata-
logue 1*. : it closes the last week in July ; but there is an after-exhibition. All works
sent for exhibition are submitted to the Council, whose decision is final. The receipts
at the door have reached, in one season, 11,600Z.
The qualifications for becoming a Student of the Royal Academy are, an approved drawing or mode
by the applicant, and testimony of his moral cliaracter ; and next, an approved drawing or model of an
antique figure in the Academy, accompanied by outline drawings of an anatomical figure and skeleton,
not less than two feet high, with list, references, &c. A similar rule applies to Architectural Students.
The Annual Dinner is given by the Academicians on Saturday previous to the open-
ing of the Exhibition, in the West Room, where hangs the massive chandelier presented
to the Academy by George IV.
In less than a ninety-nine years "crown and public" tenure of existence [1769-1866] The "Royal
Academy of Arts" in London has had ^ce presidents :—l. Sir Joshua Reynolds ; 2, Benjamin West,
who declined knighthood ; 3. Sir Thomas Lawrence ; 4. Sir Martin Archer Shee ; 5. Sir Charles Lock
Eastlake.
Total sums received from the Annual Exhibition, from 1769 to 1859 (inclusive), less the expenses
attending the same, 267,583^. 15«. 5c?.,— sums received by dividends on stock, &c., 91,567Z. 8h. 9i.,— sums
received from his Majesty's Privy Purse, from 1769 to 1780, 5116Z. 28.,— Turner bequest, 20,000^.,- sums
expended by the Royal Academy, from the commencement of the institution, in the gratuitous instruc-
tion of the students, general management, &c., 218,469i. 5a.,— paid in pensions to distressed and super-
annuated members and their widows, from 1802 to 1859, 28,739^. 0«. 7d., donations to distressed and
superannuated artists and their families, from 1769 to 1859, 32,772^ 5s. lOd. The balance in favour of
the Academy in 1867 was 104,499/. 19«. 8i.
A new Gallery for the Academy is in course of erection in the rear of Burlington
House, Piccadilly, which is to form the frontage of the Academy.
The Sheepshanks' Picttjiies, were, in 1857, by a deed of gift presented to the nation
by Mr. Sheepshanks of Rutland-gate, and are deposited in a building erected for the
purpose at South Kensington.
It comprises 233 oil paintings, cabinet size, ranging over a period of fifty years, and embracing very
choice examples of many of the most eminent painters of the time. The collection is incidentally noticed
at page 604. A complete list appeared in the AthencBum, No. 1530. It is especially rich in the works of
Mulready, Leslie, Landseer, Wilkie, Stothard, and Webster. Of Mulready there are 34 examples—
the earliest painted in 1806, the latest in 1848 : among them is the famous Choosing the Wedding Gown.
By Leslie there are 24 paintings, the best illustrations from Shakspeare, Moliere, and Sterne. By
Landseer there are 16 paintings, besides drawings and sketches ; the largest picture is the Drover's
Departure— scene in the Grampians ; also the Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner. The five pictures by
Turner include, the vessel in distress oif Yarmouth; and Venice. The only fine picture by Wilkie la
The Refusal — Duncan Gray. The six by Webster are all good examples. Stothard's 10 pictures include
several of his Shakspeare pieces. Further, here are 9 examples by Collins ; 6 by Constable ; as many by
Redgrave; 3 each by Stanfield, Roberts, Lee, and Danby; 2 each by Etty, Eastlake, and Creswick; 9 by
Callcott; 11 by Cooke ; 9 by Cope : 4 by Uwins, &c. ; besides drawings by Turner, Prout, &c.
The Vernon Collection of the English School, 162 pictures, temporarily ex-
hibited at South Kensington, was presented to the nation in 1847, by Mr. Robert Vernon,
who died at his house. No. 50, Pall Mall, May 22, 1849, in the 75th year of his age.
Among the pictures are : Sir Joshua Reynolds — the Age of Innocence (very fine), cost Mr. Vernon
1450 guineas. Gainsborough — Landscape: Sunset (fine). Richard Wilson — four small pictures (fine).
Sir A. W. Callcott— Littlehampton Pier (fine). Wilkie— The Newsmongers (fine); The Bagpiper (fine).
678 CUBIOSITIES O F LONDON. ^
Collins, R.A.— Happy as a King. J. M. W. Turner, R.A.— William III. landing at Torbay ; Composition
Landscape (fine) ; Two Views in Venice (fine). Clarkson Stanfield, R.A.— The Entrance to the Zuyder
Zee (fine). David Roberts, R.A.— Interior of St. Paul's at Antwerp (fine). Sir Edwin Landseer, K.A.
—Peace and War (Peace very fine) ; Highland Piper and Dogs ; Spaniels of King Charles's breed ; the
Dying Stag; High Life and Low Life Dogs. W. Mulready, R.A.— The Last In; the Ford. T. Webster
E.A.— The Dame School (fine). D. Maclise, R.A.— Play Scene in Hamlet. E. M. Ward, E.A.— South
Sea Bubble ; Disgrace of Clarendon.
Both the above collections are open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays, free j and
on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (students' days) on payment of 6d. each.
The National Poeteait Galleet, 29, Great George-street, Westminster, was
established in 1856, with a Government grant for 2000Z., when the Earl of Ellesmere
presented the famous Chandos Shakspeare, which he had purchased at the Stowe sale
in 1848, for 355 guineas ; the Gallery has since been supported by an annual grant of
2000/. for purchases, and by donations of portraits of unquestionable importance,
subject to the approbation of the trustees, without partisan or sectarian exclusiveness.
Admission free on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The National Poeteait Exhibition of Pictures, obtained by loan, originated by
the Earl of Derby, was held in the new building at the South Kensington Museum, in
the year 1866-7 ; the historic periods of the paintings extending from the twelfth
century to 1688; and in 1867, fi-om 1688 to 1800.
DuLWiCH Galleey, founded by Sir Francis Bourgeois, E. A., who left to the College
354 pictures, 10,000/. to erect and keep in repair a building, and 2000/. to provide for
the care of the pictures : built by the suggestion of John Philip Kerable, the actor,
at Alleyn's College, Dulwich. (See p. 274.) The Murillos and Cuyps (19) are
especially fine. Teniers, 21 in all. Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickell, by Gainsborough,
full-lengths, very fine. Mrs. Siddons, and his own portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
are indifferent duplicates. This is the only Collection free to the public which afibrds
an opportunity for studying the Dutch masters. Open each week free, except Thursday
and Friday, charge 6d.
Among the private Picture Galleries of London are several to which access can be
obtained by accredited application, by letter, to the proprietor. Such are — the collec-
tion in Devonshire House {see p. 548), rich in Italian pictures, and more particularly
cf the Venetian school ; Sir Robert Peel's, of which Waagen speaks so highly as " a
series of faultless pearls of the Flemish and Dutch schools ;" the Bridgewater, formerly
the Stafford Gallery (p. 545), to which a great worlc in four folio volumes has been
specially dedicated, and which holds the first rank among English collections, being rich
in all schools — pre-eminently so in the highest, and containing above 300 pictures ; the
collection in Stafford House (p. 557), belonging to the Duke of Sutherland ; Lord
Ashburton's (p. 544) ; the Duke of Wellington's (p. 542) ; Mrs. Hope's (p. 551) j and
the Marquis of Westminster's, better known as the Grosvenor Gallery (p. 550), one of
the wealthiest in the country in the works of Rembrandt, and the Dutch and Flemish
painters, and containing many and valuable works in all the other chief schools.
PIMZICO,
A NAME of gardens of public entertainment, often mentioned by our early dramatists,
and in this respect resembling " Spring Garden." In a rare tract, Newes from
Sogadon, 1598 : " Have at thee, then, my merrie boys, and hey for old Ben Pimlico's
nut-browne !" and the place, in or near Hoxton, was afterwards named from him. Ben
Jonson has,
"A second Hogsden,
In days of Pimlico and eye-bright." — The Alchemist.
" Pimlico path " is a gay resort of his Bartholomew Fair ; and Meercraft in The Devil
is an Ass, says : —
"I'll have thee, Captain Gilthead, and march up
And take in Pimlico, and kill the bush
At every tavern."
In 1609 was printed a tract entitled Pimlico, or Prince Eed Cap, 'tis a Mad World at
Hogsden. The name is still preserved in " Pimlico Walk," from opposite St. John's
church to High-street, Hoxton, a " near cut " to the Britannia Theatre. Sir Lionel
PLAGUE, THE GREAT.
Rash, in Greene's Tu Quoque, sends his daughter "as far as Pimlico for a draught of
Derby ale, that it may bring colour into her cheeks." Massinger mentions,
" Eating pudding-pies on a Sunday,
At Pimlico or Islington."— Citi/ Madam.
Aubrey, in his Surrey, speaks of " a Pimlico Garden on Bankside."
Pimlico, the district between Knightsbridge and the Thames, and St. James's Park
and Chelsea, was noted for its public gardens : as the Mulberry Garden, now part of the
site of Buckingham Palace; the Dwarf Tavern and Gardens, afterwards Spring Gardens,
between Ebury-street and Belgrave-terrace ; the Star and Garter, at the end of Five-
Fields-row, famous for its equestrianism, fireworks, and dancing ; and the Orange, upon
the site of St. Barnabas' church. Here, too, were Ranelagh and New Ranelagh. But
the largest garden in Pimlico was Jenny's Whim, to the left of the road over Ebury
(late the Wooden) Bridge, formerly Jenny's Whim Bridge. The site is now covered
by St. George's-row. The tavern was opened temp. George I. for fireworks, and in its
grounds were a pond for duck-hunting, garden-plots, alcoves, and grotesque figures :
it was a summer resort of the upper classes ; and a tract of I'ZSS is entitled "Jenny's
Whim, or a sure Guide to the Nobility and Gentry," &c. In later years it was fre-
quented by crowds from bull-baiting in the adjoining fields. Among the old signs were
the Bag o' Nails, Arabella-row, from Ben Jonson's " Bacchanals j" the Compasses, of
Cromwell's time (near Grosvenor-row) ; and the Gun Tavern and Tea-gardens, Queen's-
row, with its arbours, and costume figures, the last to disappear. Pimlico is still noted
for its ale-breweries.
Upon the verge of St. James's Park were Tart Hall, and Arlington, subsequently
Buckingham, House, architect. Captain Wynde or Wynne, a native of Bergen-op-Zoom.
So late as 1763, Buckingham House enjoyed an uninterrupted prospect south and west to the river,
there being only a few scattered cottages, and the Stag Brewery, between it and the Thames.—
W. Bardtcell.
Pimlico contains the Belgrave district, including Belgrave, Eaton, and Chester
Squares, and the Grosvenor-road ; beyond which the Eccleston sub-district of new
squares, terraces, and streets, extends to the Thames. Here are two churches in the
Early Decorated style : Holy Trinity, close to Vauxhall Bridge j and St. Gabriel's,
Warwick-square, with a spire 160 feet high.
JEhury Street and Square are named from Ebury Farm, 430 acres (lammas land),
leased by Queen Elizabeth at 211. per annum.
In Lower Belgrave-place, corner of Eccleston-street, Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A.,
lived 27 years, and executed his finest busts, statues, and monuments : he died here
Nov. 25, 1841. Next door but one, at No. 27, lived Allan Cunningham, the poet, and
foreman to Chantrey.
In Stafford-row died, in 1796, Richard Yates, the celebrated comedian, and teacher of acting, aged 89.
He was found dead through disappointment of a dinner of eels, which he ordered of his housekeeper,
but which she failed to provide.
At Pimlico, facing the south wing of Buckingham Palace, is the office of the Duchy
of Cornwall, formerly at Somerset House. The site was purchased by the public from
the land revenues, at 4300Z., and the building cost about 10,000Z. The fronts are
mostly formed in cement, painted stone-colour. Here are managed the affairs of the
Duchy of Cornwall, from the revenues of which is derived more than half the income
of the Prince of Wales.
Pimlico is also the name of a place near Clitheroe, in Lancashire ; Lord Orrery (in
his Letters) mentions " Pimlicoe, Dublin ;" and " Pemlico " is the name of a bird of
Barbadoes, " which presageth storms." — Notes and Queries, Nos. 29, 31, and 125.
FLAGUE, TEE GREAT.
LONDON has frequently suffered from the ravages of pestilence ; and thousands and
tens of thousands of the inhabitants have been swept by its virulence into one
common grave. But at no period of its history was the mortality so devastating as in
the year 1665, the " last great visitation," as it is emphatically entitled by Defoe in
his Journal of the Plague Year. This work was originally published in 1722 : now,
as Defoe was only two years of age when the Great Pestilence occurred, his Journal
680 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was long considered as much a work of imagination as his Mohinson Crusoe ; but there
is abundant evidence of his having compiled the Journal from contemporary sources j
as the Collection of all the Bills of Mortality for 1665, published as London's Lread-
ful Visitation ; the Loimologia of Dr. Hodges ; and God's Terrible Voice in the Ciit/y
by the Eev. Thomas Vincent, 1667 ; and many of the events which De Foe records
derive collateral support from the respective Diaries of Pepys, Evelyn, and Lord Claren-
don — works which were not published until very long after Defoe's decease, and the
manuscripts of which he could never have perused. Defoe is believed to have been
familiar with the manuscript Account of the Great Plague by William Boghurst, a
medical practitioner, formerly in the Sloane Collection, and now preserved in the British
Museum : it is a thin quarto manuscript of 170 pages, from which only a few extracts
have been published. Boghurst was an apothecary in St. Giles's-in-the-Fields ; and he
states that he was the only person who had then (1666) written on the late Plague
from experience and observation. Rapin and Hume have recorded the event in little
more than a single sentence; but Dr. Lingard has grouped the details of De Foe's
Journal into a terrific picture, which has been compared to the celebrated delineation
of the Plague of Athens by Thucydides.
"No one can take up the book (Defoe's) without believing that it is the saddler of Whitechapel who
is telling his own story ; that he was an eye-witness to all he relates : that he actually saw the blazing
Btar which portended the calamity ; that he witnessed the grass growing in the streets, read the inscrip-
tions upon the doors of the infected houses; heard the bellman crying, ' ^nw^r om^ yowr dead /' saw the
dead-carts conveying people to their graves, and was present at the digging of the pits in which they
were deposited." — VVilsou's Life and Times of Defoe.
The Great Plague was imported, in December, 1664, by goods from Holland, where,
in Amsterdam alone, 20,000 persons had been carried off by the same infection within
a short time. The infected goods were opened at a house in St. Giles's parish, near
the upper end of Drury-lane, wherein died four persons ; and the parish books record
of this period the appointment of searchers, shutting up of infected houses, and contri-
butions by assessment and subscription. A Frenchman, who lived near the infected
house in Drury-lane, removed into Bear-binder-lane (leading to St. Swithin's-lane),
where he died, and thus spread the distemper in the City. Between December and
the ensuing April the deaths without the walls of the City greatly increased, and in
May every street in St. Giles's was infected. In July, in August, and September the
deatlis ranged from 1000 to 7000 per week ; and 4000 are stated to have died in one
fatal night ! In the latter month fires were burnt in the streets three nights and days,
" to purge and purify the air."
" St. James's Park was quite locked up ; " and, July 22 : " I by coach home, not meeting with but two
coaches and but two carts, from White Hall to my own house, that 1 could observe ; and the streets
mighty thin of people." — Fepys.
" June 7th.— The hottest day that ever I felt in my life. This day, much against my will, I did in
Drury-lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and ' Lord have mercy upon
us!' writ there."— Pepy«.
" Sept. 7.— I went all along the City and suburbs, from Kent-street to St. James's,- a dismal pas-
sage, and dangerous, to see so many coffins exposed in the streets, now thin of people ; the shops shut
up, and all in mov/rnful silence, as not knowing whose turn it might be next." — Evelyn.
" Within the walls,
The most frequented once and noisy parts
Of town, now midnight silence reigns e'en there :
A midnight silence at the noon of day !
And grass, untrodden, springs beneath the feet."— Dryien.
The Court removed from Whitehall to Hampton Court, and thence to Salisbury and
Oxford; and the Londoners, leaving their city, carried the infection into the country;
so that it spread, towards the end of this and the following year, over a great part
of England. The Plague gradually abated in the metropolis ; but it was not until
Nov. 20, 1666, that public thanksgivings were offered up to God for assuaging the
pestilence in London, Westminster, and within the bills of mortality. There were reported
dead of the Plague in 1664-5, 68,596; probably less by one-third than the actual number.
Among the Plague medicines were Pill Rufus and Venice treacle. Another antidote was
sack. Tobacco was used as a prophylactic ; and amulets were worn against infection.
Among many touching episodes of the Plague, is that of a blind Highland bagpiper,
who, having fallen asleep upon the steps of St. Andrew's Church, Holborn-hill, was
conveyed away in the dead-cart ; and but for the howling of his faithful dog, which
waked him from his trance, he would have been buried as a corpse. Of the piper and
POLICE. 681
his dog a group was sculptured by Caius Gabriel Gibber : it was long after purchased
by John the great Duke of Argyll, subsequently to whose death it for many years
occupied a site in a garden in the front of No. 178, Tottenham-court-road, whence it
disappeared about 1825. (See London Magazine, April, 1820.)
Another episode is that of a grocer in Wood-street, Cheapside, who shut himself up
with his family, with a store of provisions, his only communication being by a wicket
made in the door, and a rope and pulley to draw up or let anything down into the
street ; and thus they escaped infection.
In the Intelligencer, for the year 1665, No. 51, appeared the following advertise-
ment : —
" This is to notify that the master of the Cock and Bottle, commonly called the
Cock Alehouse, at Temple Bar, hath dismissed his servants and shut up his house for
this long vacation, intending (God willing) to return at Michaelmas next ; so that all
persons whatsoever who have any accompts with the said master, or farthings belonging
to the said house, are desired to repair thither before the 8th of this instant July, and
they shall receive satisfaction." One of these farthings is still preserved at the Coch
Tavern.
Forty years before, Evelyn records 1625 as " the year in which the pestilence was
so epidemical, that there dy'd in London 5000 a week."
In another great Tlague year, 1603, there died 30,561 : —
♦' London now smokes with vapors that arise
From his foule sweat, himselfe he so bestirres :
'Cast out your dead !' the carcase-carrier cries,
Which he by heapes in groundlesse graves interres.
* * ♦ *
" The London lanes (thereby themselves to save)
Did vomit out their undigested dead,
Who by cart-loads are carried to the grave :
For all these lanes with folke were overfed.
* * • •
" Time never knew, since he begunne his houres
(For aught we reade), a plague so long rcmaine
In any citie as this plague of ours ;
For now six yeares in London it hath laine."
The Triumph of Death, by John Davies, 1609.
It will be recollected, from the several accounts of the Plague in London, that a
cross was affixed by the authorities to the door of the house where there was infection.
In the Guildhall Library, not long since, among some broadsides, was found one of
these " Plague Crosses." It was the ordinary size of a broadside, and bore a cross
extending to the edges of the paper, on which were printed the words, " Lord have
mercy upon us." In the four quarters formed by the limbs of the cross were printed
directions for managing the patient, regulations for visits, medicines, food, and water.
This " Cross" unfortunately, is not now to be found.
POLICE,
THE original Police of the metropolis (which until the commencement of the last
century, comprised only the " City and liberties," with Westminster) consisted of
the aldermen, deputy-aldermen, common-councilmen, ward-clerk, ward-bedell, inquest-
men or leet jury, and constables of the several wards, who were formerly themselves
the night-watchmen by rotation, of Englishmen, — for no stranger was allowed to
discharge so responsible an office: the ward, with its precincts, being no other than the
highest development of the Anglo-Saxon hundred with its tithings. We find this
form of Police to have existed from the earliest settlement of the valley of the Thames
by a northern nation ; and to have continued in use, as the type and model for the rest
of the realm, until the institution of the present Police.
The few officers of the central Police in the City, — the upper-marshal, the under-
marshal, and the marshalraen, — under whom was organized, at a very modern date,
a subordinate force of sixty-eight men, were in like manner the type of the Bow-street
and other police attached to the several magistrates' offices established in the outlying
portions of the metropolis so recently as the close of the last century.
682 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
In tlie metropolitan parishes without the City, the watch was chiefly undei* local
acts ; the establishment in each consisting of a beadle, constables, and generally head-
boroughs, street-keepers, and watchmen, as in the several wards of the City, but
working to a result much worse : the petty constables being served by deputies, in
many instances characters of the worst and lowest description j having no salary, but
living by extortion, and countenancing all species of vice.
To abolish such a system. Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act of the 10th of
George IV. c. 44, was passed, superseding the Bow-street foot-patrol, and the whole
of the parochial police and watch outside the City, by one force both for day and night
duty; in the sole appointment, order, and superintendence of two Commissioners,
acting under the responsibility of the Secretary of State for the Home Department.*
The Metropolitan Police force consisted at the beginning of 1867, of 7548 men —
namely, 27 superintendents, 221 inspectors, 818 sergeants,* and 6482 constables,
a small increase over the return of the previous year. The highest salary of a constable
was 78^., the lowest 49Z. 8*., exclusive of clothing and coals. The cost of the police for
the year 1866, including the dockyard police and all incidental expenses, such as for
refreshments supplied to destitute prisoners and medical aid for poor persons in cases of
accident in the public throughfares, amounted to 621,819Z. The Metropolitan Police-
rate of 1866 produced 383,133^. ; the Treasury contributed 117,519^., besides large
special payments for the dockyard police and services at military stations and public
offices. Private individuals or companies paid 6204?., and the theatres 258Z. for the
services of the police. The cost of the police courts in 1866 amounted to 49,535?. ;
it falls upon the public purse. There is one chief magistrate receiving 1500?. a year,
and 22 magistrates with 1200?. The fees and penalties levied at the police-courts of
these magistrates, and of other justices within the district, amounted to 15,186?.; these
fees and penalties are paid over to the Exchequer.
The first chief magistrate (and, indeed, the first stipendiary magistrate, in the sense of being paid by
stipend only, to the exclusion of fees) was Sir J. Fielding, the half-brother of Henry Fielding, the
novelist. The following is a list of the chief magistrates from the institution of the office to the present
day:— Sir John Fielding, Sir W. Addington, Sir Richard Ford, Mr. Read, Sir Nathaniel Conant, Sir
Robert Baker, Sir Richard Birnie, Sir Frederic A. Roe, Mr. Hall, Sir Thomas Henry. Sir Robert Baker
resigned his office in 1821, in consequence of a complaint that had been made of his conduct in
allowing the funeral procession of Queen Caroline to be diverted from the appointed course. Sir
Frederic A. Roe, who was knighted in 1832, received a baronetcy in 1836, upon succeeding to the
estates of his uncle, Mr. Adair Roe. Sir Richard Bimie was the only chief magistrate who had not been
a junior magistrate.
The great living machine keeps guard over our metropolis, with its millions of
rateable property, and watches at night, in order that its resident population may
sleep in safety; although six thousand professional thieves are constantly on the
watch for opportunities to plunder. During the night the Police never cease pa-
trolling the whole time they are on duty, being forbidden even to sit down. The
Police District is mapped out into divisions, the divisions into subdivisions, the sub-
divisions into sections, and the sections into beats, all being numbered, and the limits
carefully defined. To every beat certain constables are specifically assigned ; and they
are provided with little maps called beat-cards. So thoroughly has this arrangement
been carried into effect, that every street, road, lane, alley, and court within the me-
tropolitan district — that is, the whole of the metropolis — is visited constantly day and
night by some of the police. Within a circle of six miles from St. Paul's, the beats
are ordinarily traversed in periods varying from 70 to 25 minutes ; and there are
points which, in fact, are never free from inspection. Nor must it be supposed that
this system places the wealthier localities at a disadvantage ; for it is au axiom in
police, that you guard St. James's by watching St Giles's.
" Intelligence is conveyed from one constable to the other till it reaches the station-
house ; thence, by an admirable arrangement of routes and messengers, it passes to
the Central Office at Whitehall, thence along radiating lines to each division, and from
the divisional station-house to every constable in the district. In a case of emergency,
* The late Vincent George Dowling claimed to be the originator of the plan on which this new police
system was organized: even the names of the officers— inspector, sergeant, &c.— were published in Bell'g
Life in London (of which newspaper Dowling was editor) nearly two years before the system was pro-
posed by Sir Robert Peel. Mr. T. Duifus Hardy contributed, from documents in the Record Office, im-
portant information to Sir Robert Peel on the ancient police arrangements of London.
POPULATION. 683
the Commissioner could communicate intelligence to every man in the force, and
collect the whole of the men in one place, in two hours. The power of rapid con-
centration has worked so effectually, that since the establishment of the Metropolitan
Police, it has never been found necessary to call the military into actual operation
in aid of the civil force. Nor can clearer proof be given of perfect discipline, than
the fact that 5000 men in the prime and vigour of life, with moderate wages, —
2*. 6d. to 35. per day, — exposed in an unusual degree to the worst temptations of
London, and discharging, for the most part during the night, a very laborious duty,
always irksome and often dangerous, are kept in complete control without any ex-
traordinary coercive power." — Edinburgh Review.
The Corporation have their own Police ; the ordering of the force being vested in
the Commissioner, subject to the approbation of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, or
any three of them ; and also of the Secretary of State for the Home Department.
In addition to a Commissioner, chief superintendent, surgeon, receiver, and four
clerks, the force consists of 1 superintendent, 14 inspectors, 14 station-sergeants, 12
detective-sergeants, 56 sergeants, and 590 constables. The entire annual cost is about
65,000Z. The clothing, helmets, stocks, and armlets cost, for the year, 2951Z. 0^. 2d. ;
lanterns and oil, 310^. The estimated income for the year is 67,161^. 9*. 2d. ; de-
rived from the following sources : — Produce of 8d. in the pound on the assessable
rental of the City (1,518,332^,), after deducting 6 per cent, for poundage and defi-
ciencies, 47,575^. ; proportion of expenses from City's cash, 15,175^. 16*. 6d. ; estimated
fines and penalties, 550/. ; payment out of Bridge-house estate for watching London
and Blackfriars Bridges, 668^. 4s. ; rents from constables, 1078^. 4*. ; payment for
men on private service at the Bank, Post-oflSce, Blackwall Railway, City of London
Union, Inland Revenue-office, IH.mes-o&ce, Guildhall justice-room, as assistant-gaoler,
omnibus time-keepers, Messrs. Gooch and Cousens, Messrs. Pawson and Co., and
Messrs. Kearns, Major, and Field, 21141. 4s. 8d. These accounts show an estimated
surplus of receipts over expenditure amounting to 2597^. 10s. 8d.
The ITorse Patrol was added in 1836 ; and the Thames Police, with the West'
minster Constabulary/ and the Police-office Agency, in 1838, when the old detective
- force was superseded.
Before the establishment of the Thames Police, by Mr. B. Colquhoun, the annual loss by robberies
alone upon the river was half a million sterling; the depredators being termed river-pirates, light and
heavy horsemen, mud-larks, cope-men, scuffle-hunters. They were frequently known to weigh a ship's
anchor, hoist it with the cable into a boat, and when discovered, to hail the captain, tell him of his loss,
and row away. They also cut craft and lighters adrift, ran them ashore, and cleared them. Many of
the light-horsemen cleared five guineas a night; and an apprentice to a game-waterman often kept his
country-house and saddle-horse. In 1797, the first year of the Police, the saving to the West India
merchants alone was computed at 100,000^. ; and 2200 culprits were convicted of misdemeanours on the
river during the same period.
POPULATIOm
TAPERELL and Innes*s Map of London and Westminster in the early part of the reign
of Queen Elizabeth (1560), based upon Vertue's Map, 1737, shows on the east the
Tower, standing separated from London, and Finsbury and Spitalfields with their
trees and hedge-rows; while on the west of Temple Bar, the villages of Charing,
St. Giles's, and other scattered hamlets are aggregated, and Westminster is a distinct
city. The intervening north bank of the river Thames, or the Strand, has a line of
seats and gardens of the nobility. At the date of this map London contained about
145,000 inhabitants. In the narrative of the visit of the Duke de Nayera to the
Court of Henry VIII. in 1543, London is described as one of the largest cities in
Christendom, " its extent being near a league." ** There were 150,000 houses in
London before the Fire. About 15,000 or 16,000 die yearly in London when no
plague, which is thrice more than in Amsterdam. The excise in London comes to
about 12,000Z. a year. London stands on 460 acres of ground. Lost in books 150,000?.
at the Fire of London. London Bridge is 800 feet long, 60 feet high, and 30 broad j
it hath a drawbridge in the middle, and 20 feet between each arch." — Diary of the
PLev. John Ward, 1648 to 1673.
Sir William Petty, in his Political Arithmetic, printed in 1683, after much study of
684. CURIOSITIES OF LONBOK
statistical returns and bills of mortality, demonstrates that the growth of the
metropolis must stop of its own accord before the year of grace 1800; at which
period the population would, by his computation, liave arrived at exactly 5,359,000.
Nay more, were it not for this halt, he shows that the increase would double in forty
years, with a slightly accelerating increment, as he gives the amount of human beings
in the city for 1840 at 10,718,880 ! The identical year 1800, the commencement of a
truly important century, found London still enlarging: brick-fields and scaffolding
were invading all its outskirts ; but the inhabitants, who had increased in a reasonably
rapid ratio, numbered only 830,000.
" There are no accurate accounts of the population of London previously to the Census of 1801. The
population of the City was estimated by Graunt, in his famous Treatise on Bilh of Mortality, at 384,000
in 1661; and adding one-fifth to this for the population of Westminster, Lambeth, Stepney, and other
outlying parishes, he estimated the entire population at about 460,000. {Observatio7is, &•'., 5th ed.
pp. 82, 105.) In 1696 the population of the City and the out-parishes was carefully estimated, by the
celebrated Gregory King, at 527,560; and considering the great additions that liad been made to the
metropolis between the Restoration and the Revolution, this increase does not seem to be greater than
we should havebeen led to infer from Graunt's estimate. The p pulation advanced slowly during the
first half of the last century; indeed, it fell off between 1740 and 1750. In his tract on the population of
England, published in 1782, Dr. Price estimated the population of London in 1777 at only 543,420 (p. 5).
But there can be no doubt that this estimate, like that which he gave of the population of the kingdom,
was very decidedly under the mark; and the probability seems to be, that in 1777 Loudon had from
640, 000 to 650,000 inhabitants."— MaccuUoch's Geographical Dictionary.
A return made in 1867 from the metropolitan police-office states that within a
radius of six miles from Charing-cross there are 2637 miles of streets. Since 1849
the number of houses has increased by upwards of 60,000, and the length of streets by
nearly 900 miles.
The Registrar-General, in his Report for 1866, says : — London is growing greater
every day, and within its present bounds, extending over 122 square miles of territory,
the population amounted last year by computation to 3,037,991 souls. In its midst is
the ancient City, inhabited at night by abo\it 100,000 people ; while around it, as
far as a radius of 15 miles stretches from Charing-cross, an ever-thickening ring of
people extend within the area which the metropolitan police watches over, making the
whole number on an area of 687 square miles around St. Paul's and Westminster
Abbey 3,521,267 souls.
The "London" of the Registrar-General, which is identical with the Poor Law
Union London, and is the London of the Census, stretching from Hampstead to
Norwood, and from Hammersmith to Woolwich, is returned as comprising 194
parishes, 77,997 statute acres, and 2,803,989 people, with property assessed for the
county-rate at more than 12,000,000^. Of its area 2778 acres are covered with
water, being part of the river Thames. Of its population in 1861, 2,030,814 were in
the county of Middlesex, 579,748 in the county of Surrey, and 193,427 in the county
of Kent. Since the Census of 1851 the Middlesex portion of the population, nearly
three-fourths of the whole, had increased 16 per cent., the Surrey portion 20 per
cent., and the small portion in Kent (not much larger than Sheffield) no less than
44 per cent. ; the entire population increased 18*7 per cent., or 441,753 — a number
which would people all Liverpool or Manchester. This is more than a fifth of the
increase in all England and Wales, though the metropolis, even in 1861, did not
contain quite a seventh of the population. In the ten years, 1851-60, 528,306 persons
were married in the metropolis, 864,563 children were b6rn there, and 610,473 persons
died there. Among its varieties it has eight parishes, none of which has 100 in-
habitants ; and it has six parishes, each of which has above 100,000. At the census it
had 5625 in-patients in its hospitals, and 10,658 inmates of its orphan asylums, and_
other principal charitable institutions. It has more than its share of women ; in 185^"
there were 113-47 females to every 100 males, and in 1861 there was one female moi
(114-40) to every 100 males ; but the births within the metropolis in the ten year
1851-60, produced only 96-18 females to every 100 males; such are the clian^
wrought by death and emigration. The returns state that at the date of the census
in districts at the west-end containing 284,000 persons, 6120 residents were out
town, and 2460 visitors were temporarily staying there; it was not the Londc
season, and it was but a week after Easter-day.
The revised Census returns show that on the 8th of April, 1861, the number
TOET OF LONDON. 685
houses inhabited by the population of England and Wales was 3,739,505. There was,
therefore, one house to every 5-36 persons, or 536 persons to 100 houses. In 1851
there were 547 persons to 100 houses, so that notwithstanding increased numbers
there is rather more house-room than there was. In the metropolis, however, taken
as a whole, these returns show that the crowding is rather greater than less than it
was ; in 1851 there were 772 persons to 100 houses, in 1861 780 persons. Mr. Scott,
the City Chamberlain, shows by curious statistics, that, taking the area of the metro-
polis at sixteen miles from Charing Cross — which is the Metropolitan Police district—
the population of London, in 1801, ranged at equal distances, would stand each man
twenty-one yards from his neighbour. In 1851 each person would have stood fourteen
yards apart. In 1866, there would have been only nine yards between each person :
and in fifty years hence, supposing the population to go on increasing at its present rate,
to keep witiiin the sixteen miles area, there will only be standing-room for each person.
A Census of the City shows the night population of the City and liberties numbered
113,387 : the mercantile and commercial population engaged in the City daily amounted
to 170,133 ; the total day population residing in the City to 283,520; and the number
of persons resorting to the City daily in sixteen hours, not included in the above, being
customers, clients, and others, to 509,611. The persons frequenting the City daily in
twelve hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., were 549,613 ; in sixteen hours, from 5 a.m. to
9 P.M., they were 679,744; and in twenty-four hours they were 728,986.
Taken as a whole, the more crowded part of London contained 1,150,000 persons in
1851, and about the same number were found there in 1861 ; but it is something to
have thrown into the suburbs the increase of the ten years — in the whole metropolis
440,000, almost precisely the population of Liverpool.
The present population of London is supposed to represent the number of inhabitants
living in England and Wales four centuries and a half ago, in the reign of Edward III.
A late return shows the number of passengers and vehicles passing over London Bridge in twenty-
four hours. The total number of passengers in carriages and on foot amounted, in the twenty-four
houi s, to 167,910, or at the average rate of about 6996 per hour, night and day. The largest number
passed between ten and eleven in the morning, and eight and nine in the evening, averaging at those
hours 224 per minute. Between three and four in the morning is the quietest time in the streets of
London, and then as many as 111 persons passed over the bridge in an hour. If we take the above
167,910 as an average of the number of passengers who cross London Bridge during the working days,
and only half that number on the Sundays, the number will amount in the year to fifty-six millions.
This is nearly as many as twice the population of the United Kingdom. At times, during the throng
of business, there are 2000 persons on London Bridge. During the twenty-four hours the number of car-
riages amounted to 20,498, or an average of about 854 an hour. The greatest number of carriages in any
hour was between ten and eleven o'clock iu the forenoon, when 1764 carriages passed over the bridge.
POnT OF LONDON.
SIR JOHN HERSCHEL felicitously observes: " It is a fact not a little interesting
to Englishmen, and, combined with our insular situation in the great highway of
nations, the Atlantic, not a little explanatory of our commercial eminence, that London
occupies nearly the centre of the terrestrial hemisphere." — {Treatise on Astronomy).
On the other hand it is held that the great distance of London from the mouth of the
river, and also from the coal country and the centre of manufacturing districts, are
serious drawbacks, in spite of which London has become the immense port she un-
doubtedly is.
Tacitus describes London, in the year 61, as not dignified with the name of a colony,
but very celebrated for the number of its merchants and commerce. In 211 it was
styled " a great and wealthy city ;" and in 359 there were engaged 800 vessels in the
import and export of corn to and from Londinum alone.
An edict of King Ethelred (a.d. 978) refers to the fact that " the Emperor's men,
or Easterlings, come with their ships to Billingsgate." The Easterlings were the
merchants of the Steelyard, and paid a duty to the port. William the Norman fortified
London ; but in the charter which he granted to the inhabitants, he made no mention
of commerce. Henry I. and other sovereigns, however, granted them privileges ; and
Fitz-Stephen, in his Life of St. Thomas a BecTcet, thus describes the merchandize of
London : —
686 CURIOSITIES OF LONBOK
"Arabia's gold, Sabaea's spice and incense,
Scythia's keen weapons, and the oil of palms
From Babylon's deep soil; Nile's precious gems ;
China's bright, shining silks ; and Gallic wines ;
Norway's warm peltry, and the Russian sables ;
All here abound."
Edward I. expelled the Jews, but offered some special advantages to other foreign
traders. Edward III. founded three of the great guilds which at one time held the
commerce of London in their hands — the Goldsmiths, the Merchant Taylors, and the
Skinners ; being the oldest of the now existing companies, with the single exception of
the Fishmongers, which was founded in the reign of Edward I. Before the close of
Edward III.'s reign the Grocers, Salters, Drapers, and Vintners were founded. The
Mercers belong to the reign of Richard II. ; the Haberdashers to that of Henry VI. ;
and the Ironmongers and Clothw^orkers to that of Edward IV.
Under an Act of Charles II., the Port of London is held to extend as far as the
North Foreland. It, however, practically extends 6^ miles below London Bridge, to
Bugsby's Hole, beyond Blackwall. The actual Port reaches to Limehouse, and consists
of the Upper Pool, the first bend or reach of the river, from London Bridge to near the
Thames Tunnel and Execution Dock j and the Lower Pool, thence to Cuckold's Point.
In the latter space colliers mostly lie in tiers ; a fair way of 300 feet being left for
shipping and steamers passing up and down. The depth of the river insures London
considerable advantage as a shipping port. Even at ebb-tide there are 12 or 13 feet
of water in the fair way of the river above Greenwich ; the mean range of the tide at
London Bridge is about 17 feet; of the highest spring-tides about 22 feet. To
Woolwich the river is navigable for ships of any burden ; to Blackwall for those of
1400 tons ; and to St. Katherine's Docks for vessels of 800 tons.
The several Docks are described at pp. 309-312 ; the Custom: House at p. 305 ;
and Billingsgate at p. 54.
"In one day (Sept. 17, 1849) there arrived in the Port 121 ships, navigated by 1337 seamen, with a
registered tonnage of 29,699 tons : 106 British, 15 foreign : 52 cargoes from our colonies, 69 from foreign
states— from the inhabitants of the whole circuit of the globe. The day's cargoes included 32,280
packages of sugar, from the West Indies, Brazil, the East Indies, Penang, Manilla, and Rotterdam j
817 oxen and calves, and 2734 sheep, principally from Belgium and Holland ; 3967 quarters of wheat,
13,314 quarters of oats from Archangel or the Baltic ; potatoes from Rotterdam ; 1200 packages of onions,
from Oporto ; 16,000 chests of tea, from China ; 7400 packages of coffee, from Ceylon, Brazil, and India ;
632 bags.of cocoa from Grenada ; 1460 bags of rice from India, and 350 bags of tapioca from Brazil ; bacon
and pork from Hamburg, and 8000 packages of butter and 50,000 cheeses from Holland ; 767 packages
of eggs (900,000) ; of wool, 4458 bales, from the Cape and Australia; 15,000 hides, 100,000 horns, and
3600 packages of tallow, from South America and India ; hoofs of animals, 13 tons, from Port Philip,
and 140 elephants' teeth from the Cape ; 1250 tons of granite from Guernsey, copper ore from Adelaide,
and cork from Spain; 40,000 mats from Archangel, and 400 tons of brimstone from Sicily; cod-liver oil,
and 3800 sealskins, from Newfoundland; 110 bales of bark from Arica, and 1100 casks of oil from the
Mediterranean; lard, oil-cake, and turpentine, from America; hemp from Russia, and potash from
Canada; 246 bdes of rags, from Italy; staves for casks, timber for our houses, deals for packing-cases ;
rosewood, 876 pieces ; teak for ships, logwood for dye, lignum vitse for ships' blocks, and ebony for
cabinets ; cotton from Bombay, zinc from Stettin, 1000 bundles of whisks from Trieste, yeast from
Rotterdam, and apples from Belgium; of silk, 900 bales from China, finer sorts from Piedmont and
Tuscany, and 200 packages from China, Germany, and France : Cashmere shawls from Bombay; wine,
1800 packages, from France and Portugal ; rum from the East and West Indies, and scheidam from
Holland; nutmegs and cloves from Penang, cinnamon from Ceylon, 840 packages of pepper from
Bombay, and 1790 of ginger from Calcutta ; 100 barrels of anchovies from Leghorn, a cargo of pine-
apples from Nassau, and 50 fine live turtles ; 54 blocks of marble from Leghorn ; tobacco from America ;
219 packages of treasure — Spanish dollars, Sycee silver from China, rupees from Hindostan, and English
sovereigns." — A Day's Business in the Fort of London, by T. Howell, Esq.
"Again, in one day's consumption, we find corahs, or silk handkerchiefs, from India; whale-fins and
sperm-oil from our deep-sea fisheries ; from India shell-lac, indigo, and lac-dye; saltpetre for gunpowder,
and hemp and jute for cordage ; quicksilver from the mines in Spain ; isinglass and bristles from Russia ;
Iceland moss, honey, and leeches from Hamburg; manna from Palermo, camphor from Calcutta, mac-
caroni from Naples, sugar-candy from Holland, and lemon-oil from Messina; 81,0001bs. of currants from
the Ionian Islands. 6760 bars of iron from Sweden, and bees'-wax from the coast of Africa ; tea, sugar,
coffee, pepper, tobacco, spirits, and wine ; watches, clocks, gloves, and glass-ware ; needlework, ladies'
shoes, bonnets, and feathers ; toys, lace, and slate-pencils; zaffery and stavesacre from Hamburg; and
inkle from France." — Ibid.
The river is protected by an admirable system of Police, established in 1798, and
merged into the Metropolitan Police in 1839. Execution Bock, at Wapping, the
name of one of the outlets of the river, preserves the memory of many a tale of murder
and piracy on the high seas ; for here used to be executed all pirates and sailors found
guilty of any of the greater crimes committed on ship-board. Opposite Blackwall we
remember to have seen the gibbets, on which the bodies were left to decay. The loss
POBTUGAL-STRJEET. 687
of life upon the Thames, by collision of vessels and other accidents, is of frightful
amount; 500 persons being annually drowned in the river, and one-third of the number
in the Pool.
FOUTUGAL-STREHTy
IN the rear of the south side of lancoln's-Inn-fields (formerly Portugal-row) has been
the site of three theatres, upon the north side of the street. The first theatre
(named the BuTce's Theatre, from the Duke of York, its great patron ; and the Opera,
from its musical performances), was originally a tennis-court ; it was altered for Sir
William Davenant, and opened in 1662 with his operatic Siege of Rhodes, when
regular scenery was first introduced upon our stage. In the same year was produced
here Cowley's Cutter of Coleman-street. Here Pepys saw, March 1st, 1662, Borneo
and Juliet, " the first time it was ever acted ;" and May 28, " Hamlett done,
giving us fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton." " Nov. 5. To the Duke's
house to see Macbeth, a pretty good play, but admirably acted." Pepys describes
**a mighty company of citizens, ordinary prentices, and mean people in the pit;"
where he first saw Nell Gwyn, April 3, 1665, during the performance of Lord Orrery's
Mustapha, when the king and my Lady Castlemaine were there; Pepys sat in the
pit next to " pretty witty Nell " and Rebecca Marshall, of the King's house. Etherege's
Love in a Tub was so attractive here, that lOOOZ. was received in one month, then a
great sum. Here female characters were first sustained by women ; for which purpose
Davenant engaged Elizabeth Davenport, the first Roxalana in the Siege of Rhodes ;
Mary Saunderson, famous as Queen Katherine and Juliet, and afterwards the wife of
Betterton; Mary or Moll Davis,*= excellent in singing and dancing, afterwards the
mistress of Charles 11. ; Mrs. Long, the mistress of the Duke of Richmond, celebrated
in male characters ; Mrs. Norris, mother of Jubilee Dicky ; Mrs. Johnson, noted as a
dancer, and as Carolina in Shadwell's comedy of JEpsom Wells. The famous
Mrs. Barry was brought out here after Davenant's death.
Among the actors at the Duke's were Thomas Betterton, the rival of Burbage and Garrick, and the
last survivor of the old school of actors : Joseph Harris, famous for acting Romeo, Wolsey, and Sir
Andrew Aguecheek ; William Smith, a barrister of Gray's Inn, celebrated as Zangra in Lord Orrery's
Mustapha; Samuel Sandford, called by King Charles IT, the best representative of a villain in the
world ; James Nokes, famous for his bawling fops ; and Cave Underbill, clever as Cutter in Cowley's
comedy, and as the grave-digger in Hamlet. — Abridged from Cunningham's Story qfNell Qwyn.
Prom 1665 (the Plague) until after the Great Fire, the theatre was closed. Davenant
usually resided here.
"April 9th, 1668. I up and down to the Duke of York's playhouse, there to see, which I did. Sir W.
Davenant's corpse carried out towards Westminster, there to be buried. Here were many coaches and
six horses, and many hacknies, that made it look, methought, as if it were the buriall of a poor poet." —
Fepys.
In 1671-2, in Lord Orrery's play of Henry V., at the Duke's Theatre, the actors
Harris, Betterton, and Smith wore the coronation suits of King Charles, the Duke of
York, and Lord Oxford. This year the company removed to Dorset Gardens ; and
the King's company, burnt out from Drury-lane, played at the Duke's Theatre till
1673-4, when they left it, and it again became a tennis-court. It was refitted and re-
opened in 1695, with (first time) Congreve's comedy of Love for Love. This second
theatre was taken down, and a new house built for Christopher Rich, and opened by
John Rich, in 1714, with Farquhar's comedy of the Recruiting Officer; when also
Rich introduced the first pantomime. Rich himself playing harlequin. Here Quin
played his best parts ; and from a fracas in which he was embroiled, originated the
sergeant's guard at the Theatres Royal. The first English opera was performed here
in 1717-18 ; here was originally used the stage motto, Veluti in speculum ; and here
in 1727-8 the Beggar's Opera was produced, and played sixty-two nights the first
season, making " Gay rich and Rich gay." In 1732, Rich having built a theatre in
Covent Garden, removed there ; and the Portugal-street house was by turns let for
* In the part of Celania, in the Rivals, altered by Davenant from Beaumont and Fletcher's Two
2soUe Kinsmen, Moll Davis sang "My lodging is on the cold ground" "so charmingly, that not long
after it raised her from her bed on the cold ground to a bed royal."— Downes's Boscius Analicanus
p. 24, ed. 1708. ^ '
638 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Italian operas, oratorios, for balls, concerts, and exhibitions ; to Giffard, of Goodman's-
fields, in 1756 ; next as a barrack and auction-room j and Spode and Copeland's China
Kepository, until 1848, when the premises were sold to the College of Surgeons,
August 28, and were taken down for enlarging their museum. Of the theatre little
remained, save the outer walls, built upon an arched cellar : there was a large Queen
Anne staircase, a saloon upon the first floor ; and the attic, lighted by windows in the
roof, had been probably the scene-painting loft. Upon this site the College of Surgeons
completed in 1854 a third Hall for their Museum, by aid of a Parliamentary grant of
15,000?.
In Carey-street, nearly opposite, was a public-house and stable-yard, described in
Sir William Davenant's Playhouse to he Let as " our house inn, the Grange." It was
taken down in 1853 for the site of King's College Hospital, see p. 438. At the
north-east corner of Portugal-street was one of its olden resorts, Will's Coffee-house.
Portugal-street was the last locality in London where stocks lingered; those of
St. Clement Danes' parish being removed from here about 1820 : they faced the
burial-ground, where lay Joe Miller. Portugal-street acquired a sort of cant notoriety
from the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors being here. {See p. 509.)
POST-OFFICE.
THE General Post-office has had five locations since the Postmaster to Charles I.
fixed his receiving-house in Sherborne-lane, in 1635, whence dates " the settling
of the letter-oflBce of England and Scotland." The office was next removed to Cloak-lane,
Dovvgate ; and then to the Black Swan, Bishopsgate-street. After the Great Fire, the
office was shifted to the Black Pillars, in Brydges-street, Covent-garden ; thence, early
in the last century, to the mansion of Sir Robert Viner (close to Sherborne-lane), in
Lombard-street {see pp. 394, 592) ; and the chief office to St. Martin's-le-Grand in 1829.
The General Post-office occupies the site of the College of St. Martin's-le-Grand, at
the junction with Newgate-street. It was designed by Sir R. Srairke, R.A., and was
built between 1825 and 1829 : it is insulated, and is externally of Portland stone ;
400 feet long, 130 wide, and 64 high. It stands in the three parishes of St. Anne and
St. Agnes, St. Leonard, and' St, Michael-le-quern ; and 131 houses and nearly 1000
inhabitants were displaced to make room for this single edifice. Several Roman
remains were found during the progress of the work). The St. Martin's-le-
Grand facade has three Ionic porticoes : one at each end, tetrastyle, of four fluted
columns j and one in the centre, hexastyle, of six columns (from the temple of Minerva
Polias, at Athens) : it is surmounted by a pediment, in the tympanum of which are
sculptured the imperial arms of the United Kingdom ; and on the frieze is inscribed,
" GEOEGio QTJAETO REGE, MDCCCXXix." Beneath are entrances to the Grand Public
Hall, 80 feet long by about 60 wide, divided by Ionic columns into a centre and two
aisles; and in the vaulted basement are the warm-air apparatus and gasometers.
North of the Hall are the offices for newspapers, inland letters, and foreign letters ;
south are the offices of the London local post ; the communication being by a tunnel
and railway under the Hall floor. In the middle story north are the offices for dead,
mis-sent, and returned letters ; south, secretary's offices, board-rooms, &c. The clock,
over the principal entrance, was made by VuUiamy ; the bob of the pendulum weighs
448 lbs., the object being to counteract the effect of wind on the hands of the dial. In
the eastern front, facing Foster-lane, the letter-bags are received. The mechanical
contrivances for the despatch of the business of the office display great ingenuity ; steam-
power is variously employed : two endless chains, worked by a steam-engine, carry, in
rapid succession, a series of shelves, each holding four or five men and their letter-bags,
which are thus raised to various parts of the building.
King James II. has the credit of having established something like an organized foreign post : when
a man could more speedily receive a reply to a letter sent to Madrid than he could to one despatched to
Ireland or Scotland. The home post was in the hands of carriers, and also of pedestrian wayfarers :
and the former even could not convey a note to the North, and bring an answerback, under two months
at the very earliest. Witherings, one of the chief postmasters of Charles I.'s days, reformed this abuse.
He established a running-post, as it was called, between England and Scotland, the riders pushing
forward night and day; and it was hoped, if the thing was not actually accomplished at the time, that
the writer of a letter from London to Edinburgh would receive a reply within a week! When this
POST-OFFICE. 689
running', or rather riding, post was established, very sanguine was Witherings. " If the post," he said,
" be punctually paid, the news will come sooner than thought." He considered that news which passed
from Edinburgh to London in three days and nights, by relays of horses, whose swinging trot never
ceased, was outstripping thought.— ^<AenffiM?n.
The arrangements for the Foreign Mails in the present day show, in a forcible man.
ner, the wonderful extent of British commerce and relationships. Here are depart-
ments for Austria, Baden, Bavaria, France, Norway, Denmark, and the most northern
latitudes; the Brazils, Chili, the Equator, Spain, Sardinia, Switzerland, United States
of America, North America, the various districts of India, Australia, &c. Here arrange-
ments are made for the overland Indian and other mails. The letters, newspapers, and
books are secured in cases of sheet-iron, which, when full, are carefully soldered up and
inclosed in wooden chests, which are branded with crosses of red or black, and marked
with the name of the district, city, &c., at which its arrival is awaited. Each of the
boxes referred to weighs, when filled with letters and papers, about 86 lbs., and the
ordinary Australian mail, exclusive of the portion sent overland, generally consists of
480 boxes of books and newspapers, and 100 boxes of letters — in all 580 boxes. These
would weigh altogether 49,880 lbs., equal to nearly twenty-two tons and a half.
The Mails were originally conveyed on horseback and in light carts, until 1784,
when mail-coaches were substituted by Mr. Palmer. The first mail-coach left the
Three Kings yard, Piccadilly, for Bristol, Aug. 24th, 1784. The speed of the mails
was at once increased from three and a half to more than six miles an hour, and sub-
sequently still greater acceleration was effected. About the year 1818, Mr. Macadam's
improved system of road-making began to be of great survice to the Post-office, by
enabling the mails to be much accelerated. Their speed was gradually increased to
ten miles an hour, and even more ; until, in the case of the Devonport mail, the journey
of 216 miles, including stoppages, was punctually performed in twenty-one hours and
fourteen minutes. In 1830, upon the opening of the line between Liverpool and
Manchester, the mails were for the first time conveyed by railway. In 1835 Lieu-
tenant Waghorn commenced transmission to India, by the direct route through the
Mediterranean and over the Isthmus of Suez, a line of communication subsequently
extended to China and Australia. In 1859 the distance over which mails were con-
veyed by mail-coaches, railways, foot-messengers, and steam-packets was about 133,000
miles per day, this being about 3000 miles more than in the year ending 1857. In
the year 1859 the whole distance traversed by the various mails was thirty-seven
millions, five hundred and forty-five thousand miles ! The annual procession of the
mail-coaches on the birthday of George III. (June 4) was once a metropolitan sight
which the king loved to see from the windows of Buckingham House. The letters are
now conveyed to the railways in omnibuses, nine of which are sometimes filled by one
night's mail at one railway. In 1839 was invented the travelling post-office, in which
clerks sort the letters during the railway journey, and the guard ties in and exchanges
the letter-bags, without stopping the train. Four miles an hour was the common rate
of the first mail-carts ; a railway mail-train now averages twenty-four miles an hour ;
while, between certain stations on certain lines, a speed of fifty miles an hour is attained.
By the Pneumatic Despatch the mail-bags are blown through the tube in iron cars in
about one minute, the usual time occupied by the mail carts being about ten minutes.
Persons have been conveyed through the tube, and returned by vacuum, without having
experienced the slightest discomfort.
The Rates of Postage varied according to distance until December 5th, 1839, wh6n
the uniform rate of M. was tried ; and January 10th, 1840, was commenced the uniform
rate of Id. per letter of half an ounce weight, &c. The Government received 2000
plans for a new system, and adopted that of Mr. Rowland Hill ; but not until the
change had been some years agitated by a Post Magazine established for the purpose.
Among the opponents of the uniform penny stamp was the Secretary of the Post-office,
who maintained that the revenue would not recover itself for half a century, and
that the poor would not write. Lord Lichfield pointed to the absurdity of supposing
that letters, the conveyance of which cost on an average twopence-halfpenny each,
could ever be carried for a penny and leave a profit on the transaction ! The uniform
rate was pronounced by Colonel Maberly to be " impracticable ;" and as to pre-payment,
he was sure the public would object to it, however low the rate might be ! And a Scotch
T Y
690 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
journalist ridiculed the idea of persons having to stick pieces of paper upon their letters !
The stamped postage-covers came into use May 6, 1840 ;* but the idea of a prepaid
envelope is as old as the time of Louis XIV. A pictorial envelope was designed by W.
Mulready, E.A., but little used. A fancied value is attached to this envelope ; for we
have seen advertised in the Times : — " The Mulready Postage Envelope — For sale, an
Indian-proof impression. One of six, from the original block engraved by John Thomp-
son in the year 1840, price 20 guineas." The postage label-stamps were first used iu
1841 ; perforated, 1854.
Number of Zetters.-^The greatest number of letters, under the old system, ever
known to pass through the General Post-office in one day, was received there on July
15, 1839, viz. 90,000 ; the amount of postage being 4050Z., a sum greater by 530^.
than any hitherto collected in one day. In the third week of February the number of
letters is usually highest. The ordinary daily average is 400,000 letters ; on 19th
August, 1853, it reached 630,000. The number of letters which pass through the
Post-office in a year is nearly 400,000,000. In 1864, 679,084,822 letters passed through
the post, being an increase of 37,000,000 over the previous year ; and in the same
period the number of book-packets and newspapers which were transmitted rose to
over 50,000,000, or 7,000,000 more than in 1863.
"It is estimated that there lies, from time to time, in the Dead-Letter Office, undergoing the process
of finding owners, some 11,000^. annually, in cash alone. In July, 184-7, for instance — only a two months'
accumulation — the post-haste of 4668 letters, all containing property, was arrested by the bad super-
scriptions of the writers. They were consigned— after a searching inquest upon each by that efficient
coroner, the " bhnd clerk" — to the post-office Morgue. There were bank-notes of the value of lOlOZ.,
and money-orders for 407^. 12s, But most of these ill-directed letters contained coin in small sums,
amounting to 310^. 9». 5d. On the 17th of July, 1847, there were lying in the Dead-Letter Office bills of
exchange for the immense sum of 40,410^. 5s. 7d." (Dickens's Household Words, No. 1.) The value of
property contained in missing letters, during twelve months, is about 200,000Z.
There are employed in the General Post-office, including the London District letter-
carriers, but exclusive of the receivers, 2500 persons, in different offices : — Secretary's,
Accoimtant's, Receiver's, Dead-Letter, Money- Order, Inland, and London District
Offices. For more than half a century there were only two secretaries to the Post-
office, Sir Francis Freeling and Colonel Maberly. Sir Francis was brought up in the
Post-office, had performed the humblest as well as the highest duties of the department,
and was a protege of Mr. Palmer, the great Post-office reformer. He was succeeded
by Lieut.-Col. Maberly, M.P., who retired in 1854, when Mr. Rowland Hill, the origi-
nator of the penny-post, was appointed secretary ; his services were rewarded in 1846
by a public testimonial of 13,360^. ; Knighthood and grant. It is singular that all postal
reformers have been unacquainted with the department which they have revolutionized.
The net Revenue of the Post Office to the end of the year 1865 was 1,482,522Z. The number of effec-
tive persons employed was 25,082; of pensioners, 1274; salaries, wages, allowances, &c., 1,295,153?.;
postage stamps, 22,064Z. ; stationery, 32,396Z. ; buildings, repairs, &c., 75,331Z. ; conveyance by coaches,
carts, &c., 140,517Z. ; by railways, 528,220Z. ; of mails by private ships and by packets, &c., 796,397Z. ; over
the isthmuses of Suez and Panama, with salaries of Admiralty agents, &c., 28,786/.; and for mail-bags
and boxes, tolls, &c., 22,220Z, ; a total for conveyance of 1,516,442Z.
The Penny Post was originally projected by Robert Murray, a milliner, of the
Company of Clothworkers ; and William Dockwra, a sub-searcher in the Customs. It
was commenced as a foot-post, in 1680, with four deliveries a day. These projectors,
however, quarrelled : Murray set up his office at Hall's Coffee-house, in Wood-street ;
* But a Stockholm paper. The Fryskiften, says, that so far back as 1823, a Swedish officer. Lieutenant
Trekenber, petitioned the Chamber of Nobles to propose to the Government to issue stamped paper
specially destined to serve for envelopes for prepaid letters ; but the proposition, though warmly sup-
ported as likely to be convenient to the public and the post-office, was rejected by a large majority.
For ten years England alone made use of the postage stamp. France adopted it on the Ist of January,
1849; the Tour and Taxis Office introduced it into Germany in the year 1850; and it is now in use in
69 countries in Europe, 9 in Africa, 5 in Asia, 36 in America, and 10 in Oceania. About 50 postage
stamps may be counted in the United States alone. Van Diemen's Land possesses its own; also Hayti,
Natal, Honolulu, and Liberia. A very curious little book gives an account, in the form of a catalogue,
of the postage stamps of all nations. Of these there are more than 1200 varieties. Not only have the
colonies of this and other countries, as the Bahamas and Iceland, their separate stamps, but in America
many cities also, such as New Orleans and Nashville. No effigy is so frequently on postage stamps as
that of Queen Victoria. Some of the colonies, however, have indulged in a little variety. The New
Brunswick 17 cents stamp bears on it the figure of the Prince of Wales in a Scotch dress. In the same
colony a stamp was prepared having on it the effigy of Mr. O'CouneU, the local postmaster-general,
but this appears not to have been issued.
POULTRY. 691
and Dockwra, at the Penny Post-house in Lime-street, formerly the mansion of Sir
Robert Abdy. But this was considered an infringement on the right of the Duke of
York, on whom the Post-office revenue had been settled ; and in a suit to try the
question, a verdict was given against Dockwra. He was compensated by a pension,
and appointed Comptroller of the Penny Post, but was dismissed in 1698. The first
office was in CornhiU, near the 'Change : parcels were received. In 1708, one Povey
set up the " Halfpenny Carriage" private post, which was soon suppressed by the Post-
office authorities. They continued to convey parcels down to 1765, when the weight
was limited to four ounces. The postage was paid in advance down to 1794. In 1801
the Penny Post became a Twopenny Post ; and the postage was advanced to three-
pence beyond the limits of London, Southwark, and Westminster ; but in 1840 they
were consolidated with the Penny General Post.
The Money -Order Office, a distinct branch of the Post-office, is a handsome new
edifice on the west side of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Money-orders are issued by millions
during the year, in numbers and amount, and have considerably added by commission
to the Post-office revenue.
:potjltry.
THE street extending from the east end of Cheapside to Mansion-house-street was
anciently occupied by the poulterers' stalls of Stocks Market, who in Stow's
time had "but lately departed from thence into other streets" (Gracechurch- street
and Newgate-market). In Scalding-alley (now St. Mildred's-court) was a large house
where the poulterers scalded their poultry for sale. It was also called Coneyhope, or
Conning-shop, or Cony-shop, lane, from the sign of three conies (rabbits) hanging
over a poulterer's stall at the lane end. Here was built the chapel of St. Mildred,
called in old records, JScclesia Mildredce super WalbrooJce, vel in Pulletria ; una cum
capella heatcB Maria de Conyhop eidem annexa : the site is now occupied by the
church of St. Mildred in the Poultry, described at p. 192.
On the same side, between Nos. 31 and 32, was the oultry Compter, a Sheriff's
prison, taken down in 1817, and Poultry Chapel built upon the site. To the Compter
were sent persons committed by the Lord Mayor ; and to the prisoners was given the
broken victuals from the Mansion-house tables. " Doctor Lamb," the conjuror, died
in this prison, Jan. 13, 1628, after being chased and pelted by the mob across Moor-
fields ; for which outrage the City was fined 6000Z. Here died six Separatists who had
been committed by Bishop Bonner for hearing the Scriptures read in their own houses.
John Dunton, the bookseller, in 1688, on the day the Prince of Orange entered
London, transferred himself and his sign of the BlacJc Raven opposite the Poultry
Compter, where he prospered for ten years. The prison was, in 1806, in a ruinous
condition ; but the court was cheerful, " having water continually running :" it was
the only prison in England that had a ward exclusively for Jews ; there were " the
Bell," and two other rooms, "very strong, studded with nails," for felons. The
debtoi's were allowed to walk upon the leads with the gaoler.
Hatton (1708) calls the Poultry " a broad street of very tall buildings." At No. 22
lived the booksellers Dilly, famed for their hospitality to literary men: here Dr.
Johnson first met Wilkes; and Boswell, Cumberland, Knox, and Isaac Reed often
met. Dilly was the first publisher of Boswell's Life of Johnson; the firm was also
noted for the works of Doddridge, Watts, Lardner, &c. At No. 31 lived Vernor and
Hood, the publishers of Bloomfield's poems ; and the Beauties of Plngland and Wales,
an imequal and unsatisfactory work. Hood was the father of Thomas Hood, the wit
and humorist, who was born in the Poultry in 1798 : " there was a dash of ink in
my blood (writes Tom) ; my father wrote two novels, and my brother was decidedly of
a literary turn."
No. 25, Poultry, was the old King's PLead Tavern f where Charles II. stopped, on
the day of his restoration, to salute the landlady. It was, to the last, noticed for its
** lively turtle." In the Beaufoy Collection, in the Corporation Library, are Tokens of
the Pose Tavern, in the Poultry, mentioned by Ned Ward {London Spy, 1709) as
Y Y 2
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
famous for its wine ; the Three Cranes, destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt ; and
the Exchange Tavern, 1671, with, on the obverse, a view of the Royal Exchange
quadrangle. At the Three Cranes met "the Mendicants' Convivial Club," sub-
sequently removed to Dyot-street, St. Giles's.
TBIMSOSJB-HILL
WAS named from the primroses that formerly grew here in great plenty, when it
was comparatively an untrodden hillock, in the fields between Tottenham Court
and Hampstead. It has also been called Green Berry-Hill, from the names of three
persons executed for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, whose body was found
here, Oct. 17, 1678. On the south side of the hill, during a summer drought, may be
traced a green line, which was once a ditch, extending from east to the ground west-
ward now occupied by the New-River Reservoir. In that ditch, near the site of the
Waterworks steam-engine chimney-shaft, was found Godfrey's body, as thus described
in a letter written in 1681 :—
"As to the place, it was in a ditch on the south side of Primrose Hill, surrounded with divers closes,
fenced in with high mounds and ditches ; no roads near, only some deep, dirty lanes, made only for the
conveniency of driving cows in and out of the ground ; and those very lanes not coming near five hun-
dred yards of the place, and impossible for any man on horseback with a dead corpse before him at
midnight to approach, unless gaps were made in the mounds, as the constable and his assistants found
by experience when they came on horseback thither."
At the trial, before the Lord Chief- Justice Scroggs, Feb. 10, 1679, the infamous wit-
nesses, Oates, Prance, and Bedloe, declared that the unfortunate magistrate, Godfrey,
" was waylaid and inveigled into the Palace (Somerset House), under the pretence of
keeping the peace between two servants who were fighting in the yard; that he was
there strangled, his neck broke, and his own sword run through his body ; that he was
kept four days before they ventured to remove him ; at length his corpse was first
carried in a sedan-chair to Soho, and then on a horse to Primrose Hill," as represented
on one of the several medals struck as memorials of the mysterious murder. The body
was carried to " the White House," then the farm-house of the estate of Chalcott's,
abbreviated to Chalc's, and then corrupted to Chalk Farm, which was long a tavern
noted for duels fought here. The summit of the hill is 206 feet above the Trinity
high-water mark of the Thames. {See Peimeose-hill Paek, p. 650.)
Primrose Hill is a portion of the land bequeathed by " sundry devout men of London'*
to St. James's Hospital, but granted by Henry VI. to Eton College, surrendered to
Henry VIII., but again returned to the College, who, a few years since, transferred it
to the Government in exchange for a piece of crown-land near Windsor ; which was
done principally through the exertions of Mr. Hume, M.P., and an Association of per-
sons formed for securing the ground to the public. In the ridge adjoining is the Prim-
rose Hill Tunnel of the London and North- Western Railway ; its extent is 3493 feet,
or more than five-eighths of a mile : in tunnelling near the base of the hill, fossil
nautili were discovered.
The View from Primrose Hill comprises not only London, with its masses of houses and hundreds
of spires, but also the once rural retreats of Hampstead and Highgate, now almost become portions of
the great town itself. Opposite is St. John's Wood, and in the rear of St. John's Wood the graceful
spire of Harrow-on-the-Hill; nearer the spectator are the close streets of Portland Town, and the
elegant domain of Regent's Park. The eye, after resting upon St. Paul's as the nucleus ol the vast
city, glances over Islington and HoUoway to the undulating hills of Kent and Surrey; and upon a clear
day may be descried the bright roofs of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.
JPEISOKS.
TTPWARDS of 30,000 criminals and other persons (exclusive of debtors) are stated to
^ pass through the metropolitan gaols, houses of correction, bridewells, and peni-
tentiaries, every year. The number of prisons is smaller than half a century since ;
but the prisons themselves are of much larger extent. In 1796 there were eighteen
prisons in London, which in 1854 had been reduced one-third. About the year 1849
Mr. Dixon wrote in the Daily News an account of the chief prisons, which was re-
printed in 1850 ; and Mr. Henry Mayhew's work on the Criminal Prisons, 1855, was
PBI80NS. 693
completed in 1863. Mr. Dixon tells us that, " All the great London gaols are pro-
vided with stands of arms, by which men could be armed in a few minutes ; beside s
signal- rockets, which would instantly convey intelligence to the Horse Guards, and to
the barracks in St. James's and Hyde Parks, of any attack ; so that 2000 or 3000
men could be concentrated at any prison in half an hour."
BoBOTJGH Compter, Mill-lane, Tooley-street (solely for debtors from the Borough
of Southwark), was originally part of the church of St. Margaret, at St. Margaret's
Hill, where the prison site is denoted by Counter (Compter) street.
Bridewell, Bridge-street, Blackfriars, the prison taken down in 1862, is described
at pp. 62-65.
Beixton County House of Coeeection, Surrey, was built in 1820, for prisoners
sentenced to hard-labour. The plan of the prison is octagonal, with a chapel in the
centre. The prisoners are separated into classes; here have been imprisoned at one
time 340. The treadmill, adapted from an old contrivance, by Cubitt, an engineer,
of Lowestoft, was first set up at Brixton Prison in 1817; from its severity of applica-
tion it became very unpopular, and " Brixton" became a low cant word.
City Peison, Camden-road, Holloway, is built upon land originally purchased by
the Corporation for a cemetery, during the raging of the cholera in 1832. The extent
is 10 acres within the boundary-wall, 18 feet high. The prison, designed by Bunning,
is built in the castellated style, has fortified gateways, and is embattled throughout the
six radiating wings ; the number of cells is 436 ; the building is fire-proof; the venti-
lation is by a shaft 146 feet high ; the water-supply from an Artesian well, 319 feet
deep. The prisoners are variously employed ; and the discipline is neither entire sepa-
ration nor association, but the middle course. The prison was first opened Oct. 6,
1852. Cost, about 100,000^.
Clerkenwell Betdewell. — There were formerly two gaols in Clerkenwell, adjoining
each other ; the oldest was the New Prison, or Bridewell, built by the Justices in 1615,
■upon the site of" the Cage," for the punishment and employment of rogues and vaga-
bonds of Middlesex. On Shrove Tuesday, 1617, the turbulent London 'prentices " had
a cast at the New Bridewell." Between 1622 and 1626, many popish priests were
imprisoned here, among whom was Collington, whose release was granted at the in-
stance of Count Gondomar. A friend of the wife of Pepys was imprisoned here in 1661 ;
and the Diary tells us that he went, December 11, with his "wife by coach to Clerk-
enwell to see Mrs. Margaret Penny, who is at school there," undergoing correction, of
course. On Shrove Tuesday, 1668, a mob of the London 'prentices again assailed the
New Prison, and released a number of their riotous associates imprisoned there. In
1679 the greatest part of the prison was burnt down, suspected to be the wicked
work of a papist prisoner. About 1630, Taylor, the water poet, noticed the prison as
" A jayle for hereticks,
For Brownists, Familists, and Schismaticks."
In 1651 several enthusiasts were committed here for blasphemy. In 1669, Richard
Baxter, the Nonconformist, was confined here for preaching in his own house at Acton.
The honest jailor allowed him to walk in the garden at Clerkenwell, and while here he
published the second part of his Directions to the Converted. Here, 1775, was com-
mitted the first person convicted of dog-stealing. This bridewell was taken down
about 1804. {See New Peison, p. 699.)
Clink, The, Bankside, was named from being the prison of the " Clink Liberty,'*
in Southwark, belonging to the Bishops of Winchester ; and was used in old time " for
such as would brabble, frey, or break the peace on the said bank, or in the brothel-
houses." {Stow.) About 1745, the old prison, at the corner of Maid-lane, was
abandoned, and a dwelling on the Bankside appropriated in its stead; this was burnt
in the riots of 1780, and no other prison has since been established for the liberty.
The palace of the Bishops of Winchester, at Bankside, was made a prison during
the Civil Wars : Sir Kenehn Digby, while confined here as a Royalist, wrote his refu-
tation of Browne's Religio Medici.
. CoLDBATH Fields Peison, oe House of Coeeection, is for criminals sentenced
694 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
to short terms of imprisonment, and is supported out of the county (Middlesex) rates.
The prisoners are compelled to labour as a punishment and towards their support.
The prison is named from the Coldbath well, the site of which is now occupied by the
treadwheel. The original House of Correction was built in the reign of James I.,
the City authorities giving 500^. towards it, for keeping their poor employed. The
present gaol was erected by the county, in 1794, on the eastern slope of the Fleet,
on Gardner's Farm, or Field, the ground being considerably raised ; architect, Charles
Middleton ; cost, 65,656Z., providing for only 232 prisoners, in separate cells, upon the
plan of John Howard. It was opened in 1794, but soon got into disrepute ; " men,
women, and boys were indiscriminately herded together in this chief county prison,
without employment or wholesome control ; while smoking, gaming, singing, and every
species of brutalizing conversation, tended to the unlimited advancement of crime and
pollution." (Chesterton's Revelations of Prison Life). The dungeons were composed
of bricks and stones, without fire or any furniture but straw, and no other barrier
against the weather but iron grates. The Minister Pitt, in the year 1799, visited
the prison, and found the prisoners without fire or candles, denied all society,
exposed to the cold and rain, allowed to breathe the air out of their cells only for an hour,
&c. ; Pitt ironically supposing that those who managed the prison " kindly subjected
the prisoners to so much pain in this world, that less punishment might be inflicted on
them in the next." Coleridge and Southey, in the Devil's Walk, sung :
"As he pass'd through Coldbath Fields he looked
At a solitary cell.
And he was well pleased, for it gave him a hiut
For improving his prisons in hell;
He saw a turnkey tie a thief s hands.
With a cordial tug and a jerk;
* Nimbly,' quoth he, ' a man's fingers can move
When his heart is in his work.' "
Much scandalous mismanagement continued so late as 1829. Captain Chesterton, in his Evidence
before the Magistrates, stated that " on becoming Governor of the House of Correction he found it usual
to fleece the prisoners of every farthing they possessed or could procure from their friends— all the officers
having paid for their posts, and being eager to indemnify themselves. If a prisoner had no money ho
was kicked and buffeted in the most merciless manner. The visit of a magistrate was always known
and prepared for beforehand. Every cell was a depot for contraband articles, especially for wine and
spirits. The prisoners slept three in a cell."
The mixed system means silence by day and sleep at night in separate cells. The mark system means
substitution of a labour sentence for time sentences; instead of a sentence to fourteen years' imprison-
ment, the culprit would be sentenced to perform a certain quantity of labour, represented by marks
instead of money; the criminal to be liberated when the prescribed task was accomplished, whether he
occupied one year or twenty about it. Here 272 persons were employed to superintend 682 prisoners;
yet even this large staff were found insufficient to prevent all intercourse among the criminals. The
necessity for punishment perpetually arose. There were no less than 6794 punishments inflicted for
talking in a single year.
The governor Aris, formerly a baker in Clerkenwell, was denounced as " a reputed
tyrant and torturer ;'* and in 1800, a riot took place in the prison, which the Clerken-
well volunteers suppressed. Volunteers from the adjacent parishes then watched the
prison, and the Clerkenwell cavalry paraded round the outer gates for several nights
to keep the mob oS. Aris was dismissed from his office, and he died in poverty. In
1830, several persons were confined here for selling unstamped newspapers, when an
attack being meditated to liberate the " political martyrs," the prison was put in a
state of defence : " we received," says the late governor, Colonel Chesterton, " in addi-
tion to what we already possessed, from the Tower, 25 carbines, 2000 rounds of ball-
cartridge, and 1500 hand-grenades;" scaling ladders were manufactured, and the
governor's house was fortified, but no attack was made. In 1834 the silent system
was introduced, and 914 prisoners were suddenly apprised that " all intercommunica-
tion by word, gesture, or sign was prohibited." The treadwheel had been previously
introduced, 12,000 feet of ascent being the amount of the daily " hard labour" sentence,
which being injurious to health, was limited to 1200 feet. The picking of oakum or
coir is enforced here, the silent associated system is continued, and the prison " has
the thorough aspect of an old English jail."
The prison uniform is coarse woollen blue cloth for misdemeanants, and dark grey for felons : each
prisoner is known only by the number on his back ; and a star upon the arm denotes good conduct.
The workshop is an interesting scene ; but the oakum-picking-room, with its felon faces, is a painful
Sight : and the treadwheel, employing 320 prisoners at a time, is another repulsive feature. Carpenters,
PRISONS. 695
tinmen, blacksmiths, and other handicraftsmen work here; and in the ground is the upper part of a
vessel, with masts and rigging, for teaching boys the sea-service; there are also schools and reforma-
tory visits. (See Dixon's London Frisons, 1850.)
Large additions have been made to this prison. In 1830, a vagrants* ward for 150
was added, then a female ward for 300 ; the gaol has proper accommodation for
upwards of 1500 prisoners, males only. There were formerly six distinct treadwheels,
there is now tread wheel labour for 160 prisoners : the mill grinds wheat, and from the
flour which it yields (about 30 cwt. daily) bread for the three county prisons is made.
In 1862, there were here upwards of 1700 felons, misdemeanants, and vagrants, and
sometimes are 700 or 800 in excess of the number of cells. The annual ordinary
charge per prisoner has been estimated at 211. 19s. 4d. Monej' received in the year
for products of the prisoners' labour, 1901Z. 3*. 5d. ; prisoners' earnings in work for
the county, 4300Z. 18*. Sd. — viz., shoemaking, bricklaying, and other repairs, tailoring,
washing, needlework, and painting. There are two chapels and two chaplains, two
schoolmasters, and abundance of books of religious and secular instruction. The prison
is well described in Pinks's Ristory of ClerJcenwell, 1865.
In 1820 the Cato-street conspirators were lodged here before being sent to the Tower. John Hunt
was imprisoned here for a libel on George IV. " I sometimes," says Mr. Redding, " beguiled an hour
with him at chess. He had a lofty and comfortable, though small apartment, at the top of the prison,
where the air was excellent. Towusend, one of the Bow-street officers, was governor of the prison, and
an excellent governor he made, John Hunt had the privilege of walking for a couple of hours daily in
the governor's garden, for which he alone was indebted to the governor himself." — Cyrus Bedding's
Mecollection^.
In 1863, the prison was enlarged by the addition of 326 cells on the separate system,
heated, lighted, and ventilated, and each furnished with a bed or hammock ; previously,
about 250 slept every night on the floor of a work-room. The wall circuit has also
been extended, so as to inclose the piece of vacant ground facing the governor's house,
and this has been rebuilt, as well as the lofty prison gateway, with the three sabres
end the conventional fetters, a pair of gigantic knockers, &c. The warders wear blue
uniforms instead of the gaolers' habit as of old.
Fleet Peison is described at pp. 344-346.
GiLTSPUE-STEEET CoMPTEE, or the City House of Correction, was built by George
Dance, in 1791, to supersede the wretched prison in Wood-street, whence the prisoners
were removed in 1791 : it was then only used for debtors, but subsequently for remands
and committals for trial, and minor offenders. The rear of the prison abutted on
Christ's Hospital, and its towers are visible from the yard : the happy shouts of the
boys at play were heard by the prisoners, and the balls often fell within the prison-
yards, as if to remind the fallen inmates how much innocence they had outlived ! In
1808 Sheriff Phillips described Giltspur-street, with its corner, entitled "Ludgate'*
(for citizen debtors, clergymen, proctors, and attorneys), and the whole prison, as
greatly overcrowded by the removal to it of the Poultry Compter debtors. The soli-
tary confinement was in front of the building, where, however, the prisoners could see
the busy street, and the crowds to witness executions in front of Newgate. About 6000
prisoners were annually committed to Giltspur-street ; but it was one of the worst
managed and least secure of the metropolitan prisons, and the escapes from it were the
most frequent. As a proof of the lenity of its management, it is related that, on the
death of Mr. Teague, the humane governor of Giltspur-street Compter, in 1841, nearly
every prisoner wore a black crape hat-band ! The prison was closed in 1854, when
the keeper had a retiring allowance of 300Z. a year : it has since been taken down.
HoESEMONGEE-LANE Gaol, ou the south side of Newington Causeway, was built
upon the plan of John Howard, in 1791-9 (George Gwilt, architect), upon the site of
a market-garden. It is a common gaol for the county of Surrey, under the Sheriff,
Court of Quarter Sessions, and Magistrates, and is for debtors and criminals. Three
sides of the prison quadrangle are for the confinement of felons, and one side for debtors,
the latter arranged in classes. Among several small benefactions to the debtors is a
donation made to the old White Lion Prison in South wark (mentioned by Stow), by
Mrs. Margaret Symcott, or Eleanor Gwynne, of 65 penny-loaves, every eight weeks,
issuing from the Chamberlain's office. (Manning and Bray's Surrey y vol. iii. App.—
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
See Inns, page 458). The employments are knitting, netting, oakum-picking, lime-
washing, and cleansing the gaol : it will contain about 400 prisoners.
Upon the roof of the north lodge were executed, on Feb. 21, 1803, Colonel Edward
Marcus Despard and six associates, who had been tried and found guilty, by a special
commission, of high treason ; Richard Patch for murder, April 8, 1806 ; and Nov. 13,
1849, the Mannings, husband and wife, for murder. Leigh Hunt was imprisoned here
for a libel on the Prince Regent, in 1813; and here he was first introduced to Lord
Byron. (See Leigh Hunt's Autobiography, vol. ii.) In June, 1849, three burglars
escaped from their cells in this prison by means of a key which they made from a
pewter pot ; but they were recaptured in scahng the 20-feet wall.
LuDGATE Prison is described at pnge 538, where the romantic story of Sir Stephen
Forster is narrated. This ancient City gate was made a prison in 1373, for poor debtors
who were free of the City, who, however, had to pay lodgings, chamber-rent, qnd for
water, since Forster's provisions were neglected. When the gate was taken down, the
prisoners were removed to the London Workhouse, in Bishopsgate- street.
This prison had some curious regulations. To preserve order the master, keeper, and prisoners
chose from among themselves a reader of divine service; an upper steward, called the master of the
box; an under steward, and seven assistants by turns daily; a running assistant, two churchwardens,
a scavenger, a chamberlain, a running post; and the criers or beggars at the gate (such as we remem-
ber at the Fleet), who were generally six in number. The reader, besides attending to prayers, had to
ring the bell twice a day, and for a quarter of an hour before nine at night, to warn strangers to
depart the prison : besides his salary and fees, he had a dish of meat out of the Lord Mayor's basket.
The master of the box, with the under steward, assistants, and churchwardens were elected monthly by
the prisoners; and the election of other officers was conducted in the most orderly manner. The offi-
ciating assistant could commit a prisoner to the stocks, or shackles, for abusing any person, and he had
to see the cellar cleared out at ten o'clock ; he had also to set up candles, look after the dock, &c. The
churchwardens had to call to prayers, after the bell had done ringing. The scavenger had to keep the
prison clean, to fetter offenders, and put them in the stocks. The chamberlain took care of all the
prison bedding and linen, and appointed lodgings for new comers, and gave notice to strangers to leave
at ten o'clock. The running post had to fetch in a basket the broken meat from the Lord Mayor's
table, provisions from the clerk of the market, from private families, and the charities given in the
streets. Two of the criers begged daily at the gates ; he at Ludgate-street was allowed a fourth of what
was given, and he on the Blaekfriars' side one-half. Notwithstanding this complex machinery corrup-
tion crept in : the keeper and turnkey of the prison claimed fees without either right or reason. The
prisoners had to pay 8d. a month for clean sheets, and not above two were to lie in a bed ; for a couch.
Id. a week ; for chamber-room, &c.. Id. a week for lamps and candles, A freeman of the City, on being
arrested for debt, could insist upon being carried to the Ludgate Prison ; bailiffs* fees, 4«. or 5«., due
2d. If new comers could not pay the demands, the clothes of the poor prisoner were privately taken
from him, and not returned until the money was paid. He was, however, allowed to go abroad, ou
giving good security to return at night, for the charge of h keeper's fee, Is. 6d.; head turnkey, 2s. 6d.
ften the discharge fees came to more than the debt. Hungry, and at times almost naked, the poor
prisoners lay in these unsanitary dens until death. There was a gift to this prison, called Nell Gwynne's
dole, distributed to prisoners every ninth week. Some of the old statues from Ludgate remain, but
railway trains now rattle over the prison site.
As early as 1218, Ludgate was a common gaol for felons taken in London City ; and
so lately as 1457, Newgate, and not the Tower, was the prison for the nobility and
great officers of State. In 1252, one John Offrem, committed to this prison for having
killed a prior, escaped, which so displeased King Henry III. with the City, that the
sherifis were sent to the Tower, and there remained a month. In 1431, in consequence
of a false complaint made by the keeper of Newgate, eighteen freemen were taken to
the compters, and chained as if they had been felons.
Maeshalsea Prison, "so called as pertaining to the Marshalles of England"
(Stow), stood in High-street, Southwarki Here were confined persons guilty of
piracies and other offences on the high seas. (See page 509). In 1377 it was broken
into by a mob of sailors, who murdered .a gentleman confined in it for killing one of
their comrades, but had been pardoned. During the rebellion of Wat Tyler, in 1381,
the marshal of this prison, and the governor of the King's Bench, Sir John Imworth,
was seized and beheaded.
" To the Marshalsea Bishop Bonner was sent, on losing his see of London for adherence to Rome.
A man meeting him cried, ' Good morrow, bishop quondam ;' to which Bonner replied, ' Farewell, knave
semper.' He lived ten years in the Marshalsea, and died there Sept. 5, 1569; he was buried at mid-
night, with other prisone-rs, in St. George's, Southwark, In the reigns of Henry VIII., Mary, and
Elizabeth, the Marshalsea was the second prison in importance in London, being inferior only to the
Tower. Christopher Brooke, the poet, was confined in the Marshalsea for being concerned in the
wedding of Dr. Donne. George Wither was committed here for writing the satire. Abuses Stript and
WhijJt; but he procured his release by his Satire to the King."— Dixon, London Prisons, abridged.
Garrickplayedfor the benefit of the prisoners, at Drury-laue, "being the first application of this
PRISONS. 697
kind," the Prouote^i Wife, Sir John Brute, Garrick; Lady Fanciful, Mrs, Clive; Lady Brute, Mrs.
Pritchard. Farce of Dttke and No Duke, Trappolin, Mr. Woodward. Tickets to be had at the Marshal-
sea Prison, Southwark.
The Marshalsea escaped the riots of 1780. The old prison, which contained ahout
sixty rooms and a chapel, occupied the site of the house, No. 119, High-street ; it was
then removed to other premises nearer St. George's Church ; and these were taken
down in 1842, when the prisoners were drafted to the Queen's Bench. {See Mar-
shalsea and Palace Coukt, page 509.)
MiLLBANK Peison, Westminster, near the foot of Vauxhall Bridge, is the largest
penal establishment in England. The site was purchased, in 1799, of the Marquis of
Salisbury, for 12,000Z. ; but the building was not commenced until 1812, when a con-
tract was entered into by the Government with Jeremy Bentham ; and the edifice is a
modification of his " Panopticon, or Inspection House." It was next changed into a
regular Government prison for criminals, adult and juvenile, and became the general
depot for transports waiting to be drafted to other prisons, or placed on shipboard for
dockyard labour; and here are sent the most reckless and hardened criminals from all
parts of the country. The soil of the site is a deep peat, and the buildings are laid on
a solid and expensive concrete ; but the situation is low and unhealthy. The prison
cost half a million of money, or about 500Z. for each cell ! The only entrance is in the
Thames front. The ground-plan consists of six pentagonal buildings, radiating from
a circle, wherein is the governor's house; and each line terminates in a tower in the
outer octagonal wall, which incloses about 16 acres; 7 covered with buildings, in-
cluding 12 chapels and airing-yards, and 9 laid out as gardens. . The corridors are
upwards of 3 miles long ; there are about 1550 cells ; and from 4000 to 5000 persons
pass through the prison yearly. There are 40 staircases, making in all 3 miles distance.
In 1843 the name of the Penitentiary was changed, by Act of Parliament, to the
Millbank Prison. From the general resemblance of its conical-roofed towers to those
of the Bastile du Temple at Paris, as well as from the severity of its system, the Peni-
tentiary has been stigmatized as " the English Bastile."
"The dark cells, 20 steps below the ground-floor, are small, ill-ventilated, and doubly barred ; and no
glimpse of day ever enters this fearful place, where the offender is locked up for three days, fed upon
bread and water, and has only a board to sleep on."— Dixon, 1850.
Newgate, on the east side of the Old Bailey, is now used as a gaol of detention for
persons about to be tried at the adjacent Central Criminal Court ; here are also con-
fined prisoners convicted of assaults or offences on the high seas, and those who are
under sentence of death. Until 1815, when Whitecross-street prison was built, New-
gate was used for debtors as well as felons : hence its " Debtors' Door."
Sheriff Hoare, 1740-1, tells us how the names of the prisoners in each gaol were read over to him
and his colleague; the keepers acknowledged them, one by one, to be in their custody; and then ten-
dered the keys, which were delivered back to them again ; and after having executed the indentures, the
Sheriffs partook of sack and walnuts, provided by the keepers of the prison, at a tavern adjoining Guild-
hall. Formerly the Sheriffs attended the Lord Mayor, on Easter-eve, " through the streets, to collect
charity for the prisoners in the City prisons."
Old Newgate prison was over and about the City gate " so called, as built after the
four principal gates were reckoned old." It was merely a tower or appendage to the
gate, which stretched across the west end of Newgate-street ; still, from the time of
King John to that of Charles II., it was sufficient prison-room for the City and county.
It was originally " Chamberlain Gate," and was rebuilt by the executors of Sir Richard
Whittington, whose statue, with the traditional cat, was placed in a niche upon the
wall. Here were also statues of Concord, Mfircy, Justice and Truth, Peace and
Plenty, &c.
" In the Bcaufoy Collection, at Guildhall, is a Newgate Prison Token, No. 715. Obv. Belonging to
ye cellor on the masters side at 1669. Uev. Newgate— View of Newgate and the Debtors' Prison.
This token was struck as a monetary medium among the prisoners, and is of the utmost rarity and
interest, from the delineation of the prison it affords." — Burn's Descriptive Catalogue, p. 138.
Newgate was restored by Wren in 1672, after the Great Fire ; but it was burnt to
the ground in the riots of 1780, when the rioters stole the keys, which were found
some time after in the basin of water in St. James's-square. Dr. Johnson and Dr.
Scott (Lord Stowell) saw Newgate in ruins, " with the fire yet glowing :" the iron bars
were eaten through, and the stones vitrified by the intense heat.
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
On the top of Old Newgate, as shown in prints, was a windmill, an early attempt at ventilation.
" For," says Chamberlain, in 1770, " a contagious disease, called the gaol distemper, has frequently
destroyed great numbers of prisoners, and even carried its contagion into courts of justice, when trials
were held. To prevent as much as possible these dreadful effects, a ventilator has been placed on the
top of Newgate, to expel the foul air, and make way for the admission of such as is fresh; and during
the time that the sessions are held herbs are also strewed in the court of justice, and in the passages
leading thereto, to prevent infection," which practice is continued to this day.
Memorable Imprisonments. — Newgate was used as a state-prison long before the Tower. Robert
Baldock, chancellor to Edward III., died here. Here were imprisoned John Bradford, of Manchester,
the friend of Ridley ; the intrepid John Rough ; John Field and Thomas Wilcox, in 1572, for writing
the celebrated Admonition to Parliament for the Reformation of Church Discipline ; and here, in prison,
they maintained the Whitgift controversy. Dr. Leighton (ten years), for writing his Appeal to Far-
liament. George Wither, the poet, for writing the Vox Vulgi. George Sackville, poet, rake, and Earl
of Dorset, occupied a cell in Newgate. In 1672, Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was confined here
six months, for street-preaching ; Titus Gates and Dangerfield were sent here, and Dangerfield died in
the prison. At the Revolution, IJishops Ellis and Leyburn were confined here, and were visited by
Burnet. Defoe was committed to Newgate for writing his Shortest Way with Dissenters ; and here he
wrote An Ode to the Pillory, and commenced his Review. Major Bernardi, suspected of plotting with
Rookwood against King William, died in Newgate, after seven years' confinement. Richard Akerman,
Boswell's friend, was gaoler. (Abridged from Dixon on the London Prisons.) Dr. Dodd, while impri-
soned here, finished a comedy {Sir Roger de Coverley) : and after conviction, wrote his Prison Thoughts.
Jack Sheppard escaped from " the Castle in Newgate ;" and from "the Middle Stone Room," after his
being retaken in Drury-lane. His portrait was painted in the prison by Sir James Thornhill. The
Beggar's Opera was first called A Newgate Pastoral. The trials are reported in the Newgate Calendar ;
and in the Annals of Newgate, by the Rev. Mr. Vilette, Ordinary,
The present " prison of Newgate" was designed, in 1770, by George Dance, R.A.,
and is one of his finest works : the architecture bespeaks the purposes of the structure,
and its solidity and security at once impress the spectator. The first stone was laid,
23rd May, 1770, by Lord Mayor Beckford, this being his last public act. John
Howard objected to the plan, but was overruled. While yet unfinished, in 1780,
Newgate was attacked by Lord George Gordon's rioters, who broke open the doors of
the tenanted portion, and set 300 prisoners at large; they then set fire to the building,
which was reduced to a shell : it was repaired and completed in 1782. The plan con-
sists of a centre (the keeper's house) ; two lodges, stamped with gloomy grandeur and
severity ; and two wings of yards right and left, but not suited for the classification or
reformation of the prisoners. The fa9ades are 297 feet and 115 feet long, and are
externally a good specimen of prison archi.tecture. The outer walls are three feet
thick. Early in the present century nearly 800 prisoners were confined here at one
time, when a contagious fever raged. In 1808, Sherifi" Phillips states, the women in
Newgate usually numbered from 1(X) to 130 ; and each had only 18 inches breadth
of sleeping-room, packed like slaves in the hold of a slave-ship ! In this shrievalty, the
cells were first ordered to be whitewashed twice a year. Mrs. Fry describes the women
as " swearing, gaming, fighting, singing, dancing, drinking, and dressing up in men's
clothes;" and in 1838, gambling, card-playing, and draughts were common among the
male prisoners. The chapel has galleries for the male and female prisoners : below,
and in the centre of the floor, is placed a chair for the condemned culprit ; but the
public are no longer admitted to hear the " condemned sermons" on Sundays before
executions : the criminal's coffin was also placed at his feet during the service ! For-
merly sixty persons have been* seen on one Sunday in " the condemned pew," the wood-
work of which was cut with the name of many a hardened wretch. Here the Rev.
W. Dodd, D.D., preached his own funeral sermon from Acts xv. 23, on Friday, June 6,
1777, before he was hanged for forgery. The custom practised for many years in
Newgate of having a small portion of scripture read daily and explained, for the pri-
soners to meditate upon, was always attended with good results, but since the prisoners
have been kept separately the influence of it has been far greater.
In the lower room, on the south side of the prison, died Lord George Gordon, of
the gaol distemper, after several years' imprisonment, for libelling the Queen of France.
The culprit in the furthest cell on the ground-floor is within a yard of the busy
passers-by in the street. In the hall is a collection of ropes ; also casts taken from the
beads of the principal criminals who have been executed in the front of the prison.
The kitchen was formerly the hall in which debtors were received : it opens by " the
Debtors' Door," through which criminals pass to the scaffold in the street, a passage
being made through the kitchen by black curtains. The place of execution was changed
to this spot in December, 1783, at the suggestion of John Howard
PRISONS. em
Witliin the walls is a cemetery, where, since 1820, have been buried the bodies of executed criminals :
the first deposited there were Thistlewood and the other Cato-street conspirators. The bodies are
buried, without service, at eight in the evening of the day of their execution, and at each grave is a tall
stone with the rudely-inscribed name.
The Press-yard, between Newgate and the Old Bailey Courts, is described at page
556. It was formerly customary for the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, when proceeding
to proclaim Bartholomew Fair, on Sept. 2, to stop at Newgate, and drink " a cool
tankard" to the health of the Governor of Newgate ; but this practice was discontinued
in the second mayoralty of Alderman Matthew Wood in 1821. Two watchmen are
stationed on the roof of the prison during the night.
One of the last persons confined in Newgate for apolitical offence was Mr. Hobhouse (now Lord
Broughton), for publishing his pamphlet, The Trifling Mistake; when Lord Byron's prediction, that
Hobhouse " having foamed himself into a reformer, would subside into Newgate," literally came to
pass : and great was the enthusiasm of the people in the street at seeing Mr. Hobhouse's hat above the
prison parapet, as he walked upon the'roof for exercise !
The cost of maintaining the prisoners in Newgate is S7l. a head annually. The old
associated system is pursued here ; the silent system at Millbank, in Coldbath-fields,
and Tothill-fields ; and the separate system at Pentonville, Millbank, and the House of
Detention ; yet Newgate has the advantage, as seven out of eight of its prisoners never
return to it. Nevertheless, says an official authority :
*' Newgate prison is a complete quarry of stone, without any order or possibility of order in it. There
are a vast number of rooms in it, over which there is no inspection whatever ; and nothing as a prison
can remedy it. It has a most imposing exterior, which is perhaps its greatest use as a deterrer from
crime, and the worst possible interior." — Captain Williams, Prisons Inspector.
The interior of the prison has been reconstructed upon the cellular system, similar to that of the
City Prison, Holloway. The front portion of Newgate was completed in 1858. In the middle is a large
central corridor that occupies the entire length of the structure. On each side of it are four galleries,
whichcommunicate with the cells of the prisoners There are no fireplaces in the cells, but warming
and ventilation is provided for by the admission of fresh air from an altitude of 40 feet, conveyed down-
wards, and which, passing through a tunnel under the building, comes in contact with a series of pipes
heated by steam. This heated air then passes through flues that have an area of 60 inches, and are
inserted in the middle of the walls, one flue passing to each cell, on the opposite side of which is a large
chamber common to all, by which the air is conveyed to a ventilating shatt, that is highly rarified by
coils of steam-pipes that generate the circulation. For the purposes of warming and ventilation, two
steam boilers have been provided, each 18 feet long by 5 feet 6 inches diameter. The basement of the
structure contains the reception and punishment cells, bath-rooms, boiler-house, and stores. The
building is so isolated all round that if a prisoner, in his attempt to escape, even gained the roof, he
could not possibly escape without running the risk of losing his life. The greatest improvements that
appear to have been effected by the system adopted in the new building, are separating the pri-
soners, affording adequate accommodation for the officers in charge of the inmates, and the provision of
airing-yards to admit of external exercise.
New Pbison was erected towards the close of the seventeenth century, south of
Clerkenwell Bridewell, intended " as an ease for Newgate," for such as were charged
with misdemeanours. Jack Sheppard was committed here, with Edgeworth Bess, on a
charge of felony, when they marvellously escaped. In 1774-5, the New Prison was
rebuilt : on the rusticated stone gate was sculptured a large head expressive of criminal
despair and anguish, chains with handcuffs, fetters, &c. In Howard's time, 1776, there
were 83 felons confined here, with the county allowance of a penny -loaf a day, and each
new comer had to pay 1*. 4d. for " garnish." Near the outer gate was a trap, whence
the prisoners were supplied with liquors at a wicket made for the purpose in the wall.
In the Riots of 1780, the rioters with pickaxes broke open the gates and let the pri-
soners out. In 1812, the prisoners here were not even provided with straw, but slept
in their rugs on the boarded floor, and the county allowance was but one pound of
bread a day. In 1818, this prison was almost entirely rebuilt on a more extensive
plan, and cost upwards of 35,000Z. to provide for 240 prisoners in separate cells. In
1845 the prison was taken down, and upon its site was built the House of Deten-
tion for the reception of prisoners before trial, the accused only : the first built upon
that plan, modified from the separate system at Pentonville ; there are 286 cells.
Here are shown Jack Sheppard's fetters, double the usual weight; and the boundary-
wall of New Prison remains.
Pentonville Prison, in the road from the foot of Pentonville-hill to Holloway, and
over against Barnsbury, was commenced April 10, 1840, during the administration of
Lord John Russell, and completed in 1842, at a cost of nearly 100,000/., upon the plan
of Lieut.-Col. Jebb, R.E. The area within the lofty walls is 6f acres, besides a cur-
700 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
tain-wall, with massive posterns in front, where is a frowning entrance-gateway, its
arched head filled with portcullis-work, and not altogether unpicturesque ; from
the main building rises a lofty Italian clock-tower. From the inspection or central hall
ladiate five wings or galleries, on the sides of four of which are the cells, in three
stories.
Each cell is 13^ feet long by 7^ feet broad, and 9 feet high : it has an iron water-closet, pail, and wash-
basin supplied with water; a three-legged stool, table, and shaded gas-burner, and a slung hammock,
with mattress and blankets ; in the door is an eyelet hole, that the officer may inspect from outside j
and the meals are conveyed through a spring trap-door.
The heating is from stoves in the basement ; and the ventilation is by an immense
shaft from the roof of each wing. The chapel is fitted up with separate stalls or
sittings for the prisoners, of whom the officers have the entire surveillance. The organ
is by Gray. The exercising-yards, between and in front of the wings, are radiated,
so that an officer may watch the prisoners, each in a walled yard. The discipline is
the separate system and the silent system modified ; and here were formerly sent con-
victs for probation, prior to transportation to the penal colonies, the plan being an
adaptation from the Philadelphian system. Each cell cost 180^.; victualling and
management nearly 36^. a head; and the prisoners' labour is unproductive. The
building was first named " the Model Prison," as the plan was proposed for the several
gaols in the kingdom ; but, from its partial success, the name has been changed to the
Pentonville Prison, although it is in the parish of Islington. The prison has been a
costly experiment, and was planned so as to be easily altered in case of failure. A set of
views of the Model Prison appeared in the Illustrated London News, 1843.
Poultry Compter is described at page 628.
Queen's Prison, Southwark, formerly the King's Bench and Queen's Bench, was
situated here in the reign of Richard II., when the Kentish Rebels, under Wat Tyler,
"brake down the houses of the Marshalsey and King's Bench, in Southwarke."
(Stow.) To this prison the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., was committed by
Chief Justice Gascoigne, for endeavouring to rescue a convicted prisoner, one of his
personal attendants (Stow's Chronicle) ■ and the room in which he was confined was
known as the Prince of Wales's Chamber down to the time of Oldys. In 1579 the
prisoners daily dined and supped in a little low parlour adjoining the street. In this
year, through " the sickness of the house," the prisoners petitioned the Queen's Privy
Council for the enlargement of the prison and the erection of a chapel. During the
Commonwealth it was called the Upper Bench Prison. Rushworth, author of the
historical Collections, was confined here for six years; and Baxter, the Nonconformist,
was imprisoned here eighteen months, under a sentence passed by the infamous
Judge Jefireys. The original King's Bench was built on the east side of the High-
street, on the site of Layton's-buildings, adjoining the Marshalsea and White Lion
prisons. Defoe describes the prison-house " not near so good as the Fleet." The
present prison is situated at the lower end of the Borough-road : Wilkes was one of
the early prisoners here.
After his return to Parliament for Middlesex, in 176S, Wilkes was arrested on a writ of capias
utlegatum, when he was rescued by the mob as the officers were conveying him to the King's Bench
Prison, to which he aiterwards went privately. He was still under confinement upon the meeting of
Parliament, when a mob assembled before the prison to convey him in triumph to the House of Com-
mons. A riot ensued— the military fired, and killed and wounded several rioters. Judgment was then
pronounced on Wilkes for two libels, and he was heavily fined, and sentenced to imprisonment for the
two terms often and twelve months ; during which upwards of 20,000^. was raised for the payment of
his fines and debts, and presents of all kinds were heaped upon him— plate, jewels, wine, furniture, and
embroidered purses of gold !
The building was set on fire, and the prisoners were liberated, by the mob in the
Riots of 1780. {See St. George's Fields, p. 376). By the Act 5 Victoria, c. 22, the
Queen's Bench, Fleet, and Marshalsea were consolidated as the Queen's Prison, for
debtors, prisoners committed for libel, assault, courts-martial, &c., under the control
of the Home Secretary of State. The dietary and other expenses, 1500^. a year, were
paid by the English and Welsh counties.
" On the propriety of styling the especial Eoyal Court of Judicature— at which the sovereign
anciently presided in person— the Court of Queen's Bench, some hesitation may arise, determinable,
however, by former practice. Does the Saxon derivation of Queen extend further in strict meaning
than a royal consort; and is not the Queen regnant de facto Ring, as exercising the kingly office?"—
A. J. K., Oentleman'a Magazine, June, 1839
I
PRISONS. 701
" All that is squalid and miserable might now be summed up in the one word— Poet. That word
denoted a creature dressed like a scare-crow, familiar with compters and sponping-houses, and per-
fectly qualified to decide on the comparative merits of the Common Side in the King's Bench Prison,
and of Mount Scoundrel in the Fleet."— Edinburgh Review, No. 107 ; Macaulay on Croker's Boswell.
The prison is inclosed by a wall 35 feet high, surmounted by cTievaux-de-frise ; it
contains 224 rooms and a chapel. The wall is well adapted for rackets, once much
played here. Defoe said, " to a man who had money, the Bench was only the name
of a prison " but the classification of the prisoners abated its licence and riotous living.
In 1820 was published a humorous volume in verse, entitled SJcetcJies of St. George's
Fields. By Giorgione di CasteleUuso. The author portrays the characters and inci-
dents of the King's Bench at the above period in some l70 pages ; and in his Preface
humorously describes the Bench as " a certain spring of great repute," and compares
temporary imprisonment here to drinking the waters (? of oblivion). " I was only,"
he says, " required to drink for some time at the very spring of a certain fountain
in St. George's-fields, over which a pump is placed, and by which a vast casino is built,
capable of containing many hundreds of patients, and surrounded by a lofty wall.
These waters are in infinitely greater repute than those of Aix, of Pyrmont, or
Bareges; and I have in one morning met with inhabitants of remotely-distant
countries gathered together before this famous spring." " It was during the time in
which I partook of the salubrious potations of that spring, which, for I know not what
reason, is called Number Sixteen " — the number of the staircase in the prison.
Memarlcahle persons confined in the King's Bench. — Robert Recorde, physician,
" the first useful English writer," his family Welsh, and he himself a Fellow of All
Souls' College, Oxford, in 1531, died in 1558, in the King's Bench, where he was
confined for debt : some have said he was physician to Edward VI. and Mary.
Sir William Reresby, Bart., son and heir of the celebrated author, Le Neve states,
in his MSS. preserved in the Heralds' College, became a tapster in the King's Bench
Prison, and was tried and imprisoned for cheating in 1711. He was addicted to the
fights of game-cocks, and the fine estate of Dennaby is said to have been staked and
lost by Sir William on a single main. — (Burke's Anecdotes of the Aristocracy, 2nd S.)
The original prison was in that part of the Borough where was held Southwark
Pair ; for we read of Joe Miller mourning his departed master, Dogget, at the Angel
Tavern, which then stood next door to the King's Bench; and among the Burney play-
bills for the year 1722, is this newspaper cutting : " Miller is not with Pinkethman,
but by himself! At ihe Angel Tavern, next door to the King's Bench, who acts a new
droU caUedthe Faithful Couple ; or, the Royal Shepherdess."— (W^. H. Wills.)
Chatterton was here in 1770 : he writes : " A gentleman, who knows me at the
Chapter as an author, would have introduced me as a companion to the young Duke of
Northumberland, in his intended general tour. But alas ! 1 spoke no language but
my own. King's Bench for the present. May 14, 1770." — {Dix, p. 267.)
Colonel Hanger, the youngest son of Gabriel, first Lord Coleraine, was by turns a
successful gamester, a prisoner in the King's Bench, a gallant soldier in King George's
army, fighting against the Americans, and a favourite guest at the Prince of Wales's
table, at Carlton House.
The amiable Valentine Morris, when Governor of the Isle of St. Vincent, and the
colony fell into the hands of the French, was refused reimbursement by the British
Government : thus sinned against, he was thrown into the King's Bench Prison by his
creditors, on his return to England ; and during the space of seven years, endured all
the hardships of extreme poverty. Thus reduced, his wife, who was niece to Lord
Peterborough, and who sold her clothes to purchase bread for her husband, became
insane. Morris was at length released, after long years of sufiering.
George Morland, the painter, was long in the Bench and the Rules, and usually
spent his evenings at a tavern in the latter ; there it was that he astounded an old
gentleman by telling him he knew what would hang him, and then produced — a rope.
Jethro Tull, " the father of the drill and horse-hoeing husbandry," died in the
Bench Prison, where he had been thrown by some merciless creditor.
Lord Cochrane was imprisoned here in 1815, for his Stock Exchange affair ; he
escaped, and went immediately to the House of Commons, whence the Marshal of the
King's Bench conducted him back to prison.
702 CZmiOSITIES OF LONDON.
Henry Constantine Jennings, of Shiplake, Oxon, descended from the Nevils, and wlic
reckoned the celebrated Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, among his progenitors,
supposed to have died in the King's Bench, about 1818 ; his inveterate love of the fii
arts was, no doubt, the cause of it. In 1815 he was living in Lindsey-row, Chelsea j
and in or about the same time he preferred a claim to an abeyant peerage.
About the year 1820, one Winch, a printer's joiner, while confined here for debt,l
constructed the working model of a printing machine, which resembled a mangle.
In 1821, Messrs. Weaver, Arrowsmith, and Shackell, proprietors of the John Bull^
newspaper, were heavily fined, and imprisoned here nine months, for a libel upon the
memory of liady Caroline Wrottesley.
William Hone, while writing his Every-day Boole, was arrested by a creditor, anij
thrown into the King's Bench. Here he remained for about three years, during whicl
time he finished his Every-day Book, in two volumes ; and began and finished hia
Table-book and Year-hooky two volumes. These three works will probably preserve the
name of the compiler after everything else that he did shall be forgotten.
Dr. Mackay, who had lost 40,000^. — which he had amassed in Mexico by a long lifiej
of labour — on the Stock Exchange, was found by Haydon in the King's Bench
1827, planning steam-coaches, and to set off for Mexico as soon as he was free.
A friend finding a poor author in the Queen's Bench for the third time, and in
spirits, said, " Why, you must like it." So — of Haydon — to what humorous account
he turned his difficulties. In 1834 he notes : "Directly after the Duke's (Wellington)
letter came with its enclosed cheque, an execution was put in for the taxes. I made!
the man sit for Cassandra's hand, and put on a Persian bracelet. When the broker'
came for his money, he burst out a laughing. There was the fellow, an old soldier,
pointing in the attitude of Cassandra — upright and steady, as if on guard. Lazarus's
head was painted just after an arrest : Eucles finished from a man in possession ; the
beautiful face in Xenophon in the afternoon, after a morning spent in begging mercy
of lawyers ; and now Cassandra's head was finished in agony not to be described, and
her hand completed from a broker's man." Haydon painted his " Mock Election " and
** Chairing Members " from a burlesque election in the prison when he was confined
there; and thence he petitioned Government, and trumpeted his own distresses.
The best account of the King's Bench of our time will be found in Haydon's Auto-
hiography ; and its motley life is the staple of three volumes of Scenes and Stories of
a Clergyman in Debt, written by F. W. N. Bayley.
In September, 1860, Sir Francis Desanges, who had been Sheriff of London and
Middlesex in 1818, and also Sheriff of Oxfordshire, expired in the Queen's Prison, of
which he had been an inmate upwards of four years, at the suit of a solicitor ; he was
V5 years old, and had long bitterly complained of his imprisonment.
The Rules (privileges for prisoners to live within three miles round the Prison, and
to go out on " day rules ") are said to have been first granted in time of plague. For
these Eules large sums were paid to the Marshal, who, in 1813, received 2823Z. from
the rules and " liberty tickets," and 872Z. from the sale of beer ! These malversations
were, however, abohshed. Kit Smart, the translator of Horace, died within the Rules ; here
Smollett wrote his Sir Launcelot Greaves. Smollett has minutely described the King's
Bench Prison in his Roderick Random, as quarters which Hatchway and Tom Pipes
coveted earnestly. Shadwell, in his comedy of Upsom Wells, 1676, says the Rules
extend to the East Indies ; which Lord EUenborough quoted when he was applied to
to extend the Rules.
PmJMc Advertiser, Oct. 4, 1764: " A gentleman, a prisoner in the Eules of the King's Bench, a branch
orthetamiljr of the Hydes, Earls of Clarendon and Rochester, has a most remarkable coffin by him,
agamst his interment. It was made out of a fine solid oak which grew on his estate in Kent, and
hollowed out with a chisel. The said gentleman often lies down and sleeps in his coffin, with the
greatest composure and serenity." Oct. 6 it was added : the coffin " weighs 500 lbs., and was not long ,
since filled with punch, when it held 41 gallons 2 quarts 1^ pint."
John Palmer, the actor, was living within the Rules of the King's Bench when
was committed to the Surrey Gaol under the " Rogue and Vagrant Act," for illega
performances at the Royal Circus, in 1789. Palmer's engagement at this theatre (c
•which he was acting-manager, at a weekly salary of 20^.) led to the abridgment bj
PRISONS. 703
Lord Chief Justice Kenyou, of the general privileges which debtors had possessed in
Surrey, by excluding public-houses and places of amusement from the Rules.
William Combe was confined here when he received Rowlandson's drawings, upon
which Combe wrote Dr. Si^ntax. He lived a reckless life, by turns in the King's
Bench Prison and the Rules, the limits of which do not appear to have been to him
much punishment. Horace Smith, who knew Combe, refers to the strange adventures
and the freaks of fortune of which he had been a participator and a victim : " a ready
writer of all-work for the booksellers, he passed all the latter portion of his time
within the Rules, to "which suburban retreat the present writer was occasionally invited,
and never left without admiring his various acquirements, and the philosophical
equanimity with which he endured his reverses." We remember him in the Rules, in
St. George's-place, where we learnt that he had written a memoir of his chequered life.
Campbell, in his Life of Mrs. Siddons, states that Combe lived nearly 20 years in the
King's Bench, which is not correct.
Theodore Hook, in April, 1824, was removed from a gpunging house in Shire-lane,
to the Rules (Temple-place), where he worked hard, in addition to the editorship of
the John Bull, in founding his most profitable fame.
The King's Bench Gazette, and other papers published from time to time, have portrayed the
recreant life of the prisoners. When Abbot Lord Tenterden was the Lord Chief Justice, the King's
Bench was nicknamed "Abbot's Priory," and " Tenterden Priory." A Bolter is one who, having the
privilege of a day rule, runs off and leaves his bondsmen, or the marshal, to pay his debt; or who
decamps from the Eules. The Brace Tavern was originally kept by two brothers named Partridge, from
whence it obtained its punning name, they being a brace of partridges. The delicate address of the
Bench was 65, Belvedere-place ; as that of the Fleet Prison was No. 9, Fleet-market.
Latterly, the Prison was governed by Orders appointed by one of the Secretaries of
State ; the Rules were abolished, and the prisoners classified, which changes broke up
the licentious life of the place. It is now used as a military prison.
About the year 1843, the case of a Mr. Miller, who had been imprisoned 47 years for a debt which it is
doubtful if he ever owed, and who still remained in custody in the Queen's Bench, excited great sym-
pathy. A subscription was made to place in a position above penury this poor man, who had reached
ijis 77th year, and who, without some such assistance, would, by the operation of the new Bank-
ruptcy Act, have been thrown penniless on the world.
Lord Chancellor Westbury, in submitting to the House of Lords a Bill for shutting
up this prison, June 28, 1862, gave the following jprm* of its history : —
"The prison, of which the present building was the representative, originated in very early times; it
was probably coeval with the Court of Queen's Bench itself. At a very early period there Avere three
principal prisons m London— the Queen's Bench Prison, the Fleet Prison, and the Marshalsea. The
Queen's Prison was appropriated to prisoners committed by the Court of Queen's Bench, the
Court of Exchequer, and Court of Common Pleas. The Fleet prison received prisoners from the
Court of Chancery ; and the Marshalsea from the Lord Steward's Court, the Palace Court, and the
Admiralty, The first fruits of the measure passed in 1842 for the abolition of arrest for debt on mesne
process was to enable Parliament to reduce the three prisons to one, the Queen's Prison being substituted
for the Marshalsea and the Fleet. The present Queen's Bench Prison was formed in 1759 ; it had
accommodation for 300 prisoners, and occupied an area of ground between two and three acres in extent.
He understood that the value of this space of ground was between 200,000i. and 300,000Z. The sum
hitherto voted by Parliament for maintaining this prison was between 3000^. and 4D001. a year, which
would be saved to the country, with the exception of the allowances and continuous payments to which
an Act of this kind would necessarily give rise Their lordships would, therefore, see that the
necessity for continuing the Queen's Bench had entirely ceased. The object of the present Bill was
to transfer the few prisoners therein confined to Whitecross-street Prison, where there was admirable
accommodation for a much greater number of persons than in all human probabiUty would ever
be confined there for debt. Their lordships were probably aware that even the present number
of persons in the Queen's Bench would not have been so large but for the practice which had
been introduced— he could hardly tell why — under which any debtor in any prison throughout the
country might be removed by writ of habeas to the Queen's Bench. Prisoners often availed themselves
of this privilege, because in the Queen's Bench they had amusements— such as playing at ball and other
games, by which time was whiled away."
At an early clearance by Mr. Hazlitt, one of the Registrars in Bankruptcy, there came before
him the case of Mr. Whittington, who very reluctantly presented himself. In the course of his
examination he stated that he was not in custody for debt, but for costs in an action which
he had brought against Mr. Roupell, M.P., for trespass on some lands. He alleged that the costs
were really costs in the cause, and that besides, as the proceedings were still pending, his incarceration
was wholly illegal. He stated that he had no debts, and that his assets amounted to over 1,000,000^.
in value ; that they consisted for the most pai-t of lands in England, America, Australia, and the Falk-
land Islands. In the Falkland Islands he said he was possessed of 100 square miles of territory, and
he had spent 43,000^. in endeavouring to establish a colony there. He held also mortgages of property
of various kinds to the amount of 20,000i. He was adjudged a bankrupt, with instant discharge, a
course against which he protested.
Savoy Peison, the west end of the ancient Palace of the Savoy, on the south side
704 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of the Strand, was used as a military prison for deserters, impressed men, convict
soldiers, and offenders from the Guards ; at one period their allowance was only four-
pence a day. The gateway bore the arms of Henry VII., and the badges of the rose,
fleur-de-lis, and portcullis. The premises were taken down in 1819, to form the
approach to Waterloo Bridge, after which deserters were imprisoned on board a vessel
moored off Somerset House j but the Savoy may be said to have been first used as a
prison when John King of France was confined here after the battle of Poictiers, in 1356.
ToTHiLL-riELDs' Bridewell was first built, in 1618, as a House of Correction.
" Over the gate is this inscription : ' Here is several sorts of work for the poor of this parish of St.
Margaret's, Westminster; as also correction according to law for such as will beg and live idly in this
City of Westminster, Anno 1655.' " — Ratton.
In the reign of Queen Anne it was converted into a gaol for criminals. *' Howard
describes it as being remarkably well managed in his day ; and holds up its enlightened
and careful keeper, one George Smith, as a model to other governors." (Dixon's Lon-
don Prisons.) Here Colonel Despard, the traitor, was imprisoned in 1803.
Upon a site adjoining was commenced, in 1830, the erection of a new prison, from
the design of Robert Abraham : it was first occupied in June, 1834, when the old
Bridewell was deserted and taken down, and the stone bearing the above inscription
was built into the present garden-wall. The new prison, seen from Victoria- street,
resembles a substantial fortress: the entrance-porch, on the Vauxhall side, is formed
of massive granite blocks, iron gates, portcullis, &c. It is built on the panopticon plou,
and contains a gaol for untried male prisoners, a house of correction for male convicts,
and a prison for women ; 8 wards, 2 schools, and 8 airing-yards ; 42 day-rooms and
348 sleeping-apartments ; besides 120 dark cells in the basement, all ranged round a
well-kept garden ; while in front is the governor's house, over which is built the chapel;
these forming the keep-like mass which is seen from Pimlico and Piccadilly, and is one
of the finest specimens of brickwork in the metropolis. The prison will hold upwards
of 800 prisoners : the only labour is oakum-picking and the treadwheel.
TowEE, The, used as a state-prison from about 1457 to our own time, is described
with the general history of that palace, prison, arsenal, and fortress.
Westminster Gatehouse, used as a prison for State, ecclesiastical, and parlia-
mentary ofienders, as well as for debtors and felons, is described at page 373.
Whitecross-street Prison, in the street of that name, Cripplegate, is entirely a
Debtors' Prison : the first stone was laid by Alderman Matthew Wood, in July, 1813.
The prisoners were classified as Sherifis' prisoners. Queen's Bench prisoners, prisoners
committed from the Bankruptcy Court and the County Courts. The prison is built to
accommodate 365 prisoners. Those who are able to sustain themselves are allowed to
do so, and are kept distinct from those who cannot do so : the latter class are called
dietary prisoners, and have the following diet : — one and a h^ilf pound of bread daily,
cocoa twice a day, three ounces of meat (without bone) daily, half-pound of potatoes four
days a week, and so upon the other two days. The twenty-five dormitories have the
beds separated by corrugated iron partitions. In the yard adjoining the female wards
are two strong rooms or refractory cells, for turbulent prisoners. The doors of the
building are massive, and loaded with iron. The cost for the year ending September
29th, 1862, amounted to no less a sum than 4663^. 13s. 8d., and that for the main,
tenance of an average number of about seventy prisoners. Here are no private apart,
ments, but a modern instance of the wise saw, " Misery acquaints a man with strange
bedfellows." Opposite the Debtors' Door, in Whitecross-street, is the City Green
yard, established in 1771 : here is kept the Lord Mayor's State-Coach.
Wood-street (Cheapside) Compter was first established in 1555, when the prl
soners were removed here from Bread-street Compter. The first Wood-street Compter
was burnt down in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt : its hall was hung with the story oi~
the Prodigal Son ; the prisoners were removed from here to Giltspur-street in 1791
QUJELNSITSL,
UPPER Thames-street, was originally the hithe (wharf or landing-place) of Edredj
the Saxon, and thence called Edred's-hithej but falling into the hands of King!
RAILWAY TERMINI. 705
Stephen, it was given by him to Will, de Ypre, who gave it to the Convent of the
Holy Trinity within Aldgate : however, it came again to the Crown, and it is said to
have been given by King John to his mother, Eleanor, queen of Henry II. ; whence it
was called Ripa Regince, the queen's bank, or queen's hlthe, it being a portion of her
majesty's dowry. It is described by Stow as " the very chief and principal Watergate
of this city," " equal with, and of old time far exceeding, Belinsgate." In the reign
of Henry III., ships and boats laden with corn and fish for sale were compelled to pass
heyond London Bridge, " to the Queen's-hithe only," a drawbridge being pulled up to
admit the passage of large vessels. In 1463, the market at Queen-hithe was " hindered
by reason of the slackness of drawing up London Bridge." Stow enumerates the cus-
toms and dues exacted from the ships and boats, and specifies " salt, wheat, rye, or other
corn, from beyond the seas; or other grains, garlic, onions, herrings, sprats, eels, whit-
ing, plaice, cod, mackerel, &c. :" but corn was the principal trade, whence the quay
was sometimes called Cornhithe. Stow describes here a corn-mill placed between two
barges or lighters, which " ground corn, as water-mills in other places, to the wonder
of many that had not seen the like." The charge of Queenhithe was subsequently
delivered to the sheriffs ; but Fabyan states, that in his time it was not worth above
twenty marks a year. Its trade in fish must, however, have been considerable when
Old Fish-street northward was the great fish-market of London, before Billingsgate, in
1699, became "a free and open market." Beaumont and Fletcher speak of " a Queen-
hithe cold j" and the locality is often mentioned by our old dramatists. It is now
frequented by West-country barges laden with corn and flour ; the adjoining wave-
houses, with high-pitched gables, were built long since for stowage of corn ; and the
opposite church of St. Michael, with its vane in the form of a ship, the hull of which
will contain a bushel of grain, is emblematic of the olden traffic in corn at the Hithe.
Tom Hill was originally a drysalter at Queenhithe j and here he assembled a tine
library, described by South ey as one of the most copious collections of English poetry
in existence : it was valued at 6000Z., when, through a ruinous speculation in indigo.
Hill retired upon the remains of his property to the Adelphi. {See p. 1.) Hill was
the patron of the almost friendless poets. Bloom field and Kirke White.
At Queenhithe, No. 17, lived Alderman Venables, lord mayor 1826-7; at Nos.
20-21, Alderman Hooper, lord mayor 1847-8 ; and at No. 23, Alderman Kose, lord
mayor 1863-4.
Queenhithe gives name to the ward, wherein were seven churches in Stow's time.
Westward is Broken Wharf, " so called of being broken and fallen down into the
Thames.'* Here was the mansion of the Bigods and Mowbrays, Earls and Dukes of
Norfolk ; sold in 1540 to Sir Richard Gresham, father of Sir Thomas Gresham.
Within the gate of this house was built, in 1594-5, an engine, by Bevis Bulmer, for
supplying the middle and west of the City with Thames water.
In 1809 or 1810 was found in the bed of the river, opposite Queenhithe, a massive
silver seal, with a motto denoting it to have been the official seal of the port of London,
temp. Edward I. It is engraved with Laing's Plan of the Custom House.
RAILWAY TERMINI,
LONDON is girdled with Railways, and has an inner and outer circle ; but few of the
Termini present grand or noticeable features. The RlacTcwall line has a terminus
of elegant design, by W. Tite, F.R.S., at Brunswick Wharf. The Great Northern
Terminus, King's Cross, occupies 45 acres of land. For the site of the Passenger
Station, the Small-pox Hospital and Fever Hospital were cleared away. The front
towards St. Pancras-road has two main arches, each 71 feet span, separated by a clock-
tower 120 feet high ; the clock has dials nine feet in diameter, and the principal bell
weighs 29 cwt. The Great Western Terminus, at Paddington, has few artistic
features ; the handsome Hotel adjoining is described at p. 441. The North- Western
Terminus, at Euston-square, has a propylceum, or architectural gateway, pure Grecian
Doric : its length exceeds 300 feet ; its cost was 35,000Z. ; and it contains 80,000 cubic
feet of Bramley Fall stone. The columns are higher than those of any other building
in London, and measure 44 feet 2 inches, and 8 feet 6 inches diameter at the base, or
z z
706 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
only 3 feet 1 inch less than that of the York column. The height, to the summit of
the acroterium, is 72 feet j a winding staircase in one angle leads to an apartment
within the roof, used as the Company's printing-office ; the rich bronze gates are by
Bramah.
This propylaeum is unprecedented in our modern Greek architecture, and "exhibits itself to most
advantage when viewed obliquely, so as to show its line of roof and depth, especially as the cornice is of
unusually bold and new design, being not only ornameated with projecting lion-heads, but crowned by
a series of deep antefixse ; while, when beheld from a greater distance, the large stone slabs are also
seen that cover the roof." — Companion to the Almanack, 1839.
The paved platforms within the gateway contain nearly 16,000 superficial feet of
Yorkshire stone, some of the stones 70 to 80 square feet each j and each shaft of the
granite Doric colonnade is a single stone. The Great Hall, designed by P. C. Hard-
wick, has the ceiling panelled, deeply recessed, and enriched, and is connected with the
walls by large ornamented consoles. The walls are splashed as granite; and the Ionic
columns are painted like red granite, with white caps and bases. The sculpture, by
John Thomas, are a group, Britannia supported by Science and Industry ; and beneath
the ceiling, 8 panels, in alto-relievo, symboHc figures of London, Birmingham, Man-
chester, Chester, Northampton, Carlisle, Lancaster, and Liverpool. The hall is warmed
by some miles of hot- water pipes, on Perkins's system. Here was placed, April 10,
1854, Baily's colossal marble statue of George Stephenson, the originator of the rail-
way system : this statue was purchased by the subscriptions of 3150 working-men, at
2s. ; and 178 private friends, at \U. each.* The South-JEastern station, London Bridge,
is of great extent, and provides for the Greenwich Railway, opened December 14, 1836,
the first completed line from the metropolis. The large Hotel is described at p. 442.
The South-Western, Waterloo-road, is noticed at p. 501. The Charing Cross line from
London Bridge, through Southwark, has a station at Cannon-street, terminus at
Charing Cross, and two stupendous bridges across the Thames. The Hotels are
described at pp. 442-443. The Metropolitan, beneath the crowded streets of
London, Fowler, engineer-in-chief, extends from Paddington to Finsbury, 4-1 miles ;
the difficulties of construction — through a labyrinth of sewers, gas and water mains,
churches to be avoided, and houses left secure — proved an herculean labour; but
one of the greatest difficulties was to construct an engine of great power and speed,
capable of consuming its own smoke, and to give off no steam. This Mr. Fowler sur-
mounted by inventing an engine which, in the open air, works like a common locomo-
tive, but when in the tunnel, consumes its own smoke, or rather makes no smoke, and
by condensing its own steam, gives off not a particle of vapour. It is proposed, by
extensions at either end of the underground line, and by a new line, to be called the
" Metropolitan District Railway," to complete what will form pretty nearly an inner
circle, and will also throw out branches to connect itself with the suburban systems
north and south of the Thames ; so that when the entire scheme is in working order
we shall have something like a combination of two circles — the inner and the outer — as
a thorough railway system for the metropolis. Of the progress of the works a specimen is
afforded in 2000 men, 200 horses, and 58 engines many months working ; and whole
terraces, streets, and squares in south-west London being tunnelled under almost without
the knowledge of the inhabitants. The London, Chatham, and Lover extension line
has a massive bridge at Blackfriars, and Byzantine terminus at Ludgate. The North-
London line has few noticeable works.
The Pneumatic S.ailway, Rammell, engineer, is an extension of the Atmospheric
principle : it had already been tested in a Despatch tube, through which parcels were
propelled on ledges or rails, in cars, on the signal being given, by the exhaustion and
pressure of the air in the tube by a high-pressure engine ; this motive power, in the
Pneumatic Railway, being applied to passengers in an enlarged tube. The propulsion
is likened to the action of a pea-shooter, the train to the pea, which is driven along in
one direction by a blast of air, and drawn back again in the opposite direction by thfr
exhaustion of the air in front of it ; the motion being modified by mechanical arrange-
ments. The air is exhausted from near one end of the tube by means of an apparatus,
* More than 2000 parcels per day are booked at the North-Western Eailway Station. In Christmaa
week, 5000 barrels of oysters have been sent off within twenty-four hours, each barrel containing 100
oy8ters=half a million.— Lardner's Eailway Economy, p. 130.
EANELAGB. 707
from which the air is discharged by centrifugal force. The contrivance may be com-
pared to an ordinary exhausting fan. The rails are cast in the bottom of the tubes ; a
few strips of vulcanized India-rubber screwed round the fore-end of the carriage consti-
tute the piston, leaving three-eighths of an inch clear between the exterior of the
piston and interior of the tube; there is no friction, and the leakage of air does
not interfere with the speed of transit. The Whitehall and Waterloo Pneumatic
Railway will extend from the station in Scotland-yard, carried in brickwork beneath the
tunnel of the Underground District Railway, and then under the Low Level Sewer to
the northern abutment, from which iron tubes of sixteen feet diameter are to be laid
on the clay beneath the Thames.
We shall not be expected to detail the various lines now in course of construction, or
projected, in and around the metropolis ; to attempt this might lead us to record the
construction of works never to be executed, and anticipations never to be realized. The
number of metropolitan lines and branches proposed in 1865 was 148, and the extent of
the whole in miles about 370. " A New Map of Metropolitan Railways" is, from time
to time, published by Stanford, Charing Cross.
Sir Joseph Paxton proposed a magnificent railway extension, for the better communication betweeu
different parts of the metropolis, so as to avoid all underground work. For this purpose he designed
an immense boulevard, or girdle railway, to run in an extended crystal palace of about 11^ miles ; to be
built of iron, and roofed with glass, 72 feet broad and 180 feet high. On either side were to be erected
houses and shops, with an ordinary roadway between them; at the rear of these there were to be two
lines of railway, equal to eight sets of rails. The railways were to be constructed on the top of a raised
corridor, at the average height of 26 feet, so as to enable the line to pass over, without obstruction, the
present streets and thoroughfares ; and the premises under to be used as shops or tenements, were to
have double walls, with a current of air passing between them, which it was said would prevent annoy-
ance from the vibration and noise of the railway. The girdle was to commence at the Royal Exchange,
to cross Cheapside opposite the Old Jewry ; then to cross the river by a bridge of sufficient dimensions
to have houses built upon it, at Queenhithe; the road then to pass through the Borough, and next a
portion of Lambeth to the South- Western Railway ; from which a loop was to be constructed, to pass
over a bridge to be built near Himgerford, to terminate at the Regent-circus. The main line to cross
the South-Western Railway, carried direct over a bridge at Westminster, and thence, by Victoria-
street, through Belgravia, Brompton, Gore House, Kensington Gardens, Notting Hill, to the Great
Western station at Paddington. The line then to be carried on the north side to the London and North-
western and the Great Northern Railways ; and then through Islington to the starting-point at the
Eoyal Exchange, The railways were to be worked on the atmospheric principle. The total cost was
set down at about 34,000,000?,, to be provided by a Government guarantee, at 4 per cent. Among the
receipts, the houses upon the three bridges, it was computed, would let each at 600Z. a year ; and this,
with other revenues, it was estimated, would leave a profit of nearly 4£)0,000Z. The drawings of this
great project were beautifully executed; but the scheme was altogether too gigantic and costly for
execution.
MANELAGS,
A PUBLIC garden, opened in 1742, on the site of the gardens of Ranelagh House,
eastward of Chelsea Hospital, was originally projected by Lacy, the patentee of
Drury-lane Theatre, as a sort of winter Vauxhall. The Rotunda, 185 feet in diameter,
had a Doric portico, an arcade, and gallery outside. There was also a Venetian
pavilion in the centre of a lake, upon which the company were rowed in boats j and a
print of 1751 shows the grounds planted with trees and allees verts. The several
buildings were designed by Capon, the eminent scene-painter. The interior was fitted
with boxes for refreshments, and in each was a painting : in the centre was an ingenious
heating apparatus, concealed by arches, porticoes, and niches, paintings, &c. ; and sup-
porting the ceiling, which was decorated with celestial figures, festoons of flowers, and
arabesques, and lighted by circles of chandeliers. The Rotunda was opened with a
public breakfast, April 5, 1742. Walpole describes the higlx fashion of Ranelagh :
"The prince, princess, duke, much nobility, and much mob besides, were there."
" My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered all his letters to be
directed thither.'* The admission was one shilling j but the ridottos, with supper and
music, were one guinea. Concerts were also given here : Dr. Arne composed the music,
Tenducci and Mara sang ; and here were first publicly performed the compositions of the
Catch Club. Fireworks and a mimic Etna were next introduced j and lastly, masque-
rades, described in Fielding's Amelia, and satirized in the Connoisseur, No. 66, May 1,
1755 ; wherein the Sunday-evening's tea-drinkings at Ranelagh being laid aside, it is
proposed to exhibit the story of the Fall of Man in a masquerade ! Dr. Johnson said
there was more of Ranelagh than of the Pantheon; or rather, indeed, the whole
z z 2
708 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Eotunda appeared at once, and it was better lighted: "the coup d'ceil was the finest
thing he had ever seen." — Boswell's Life of Johnson, vols. ii. and iii.
But the promenade of the Rotunda to the music of the orchestra and organ soon
declined : " There's your famous Eauelagh, that you make such a fuss about ; why
what a dull place is that \" (Miss Burney's JEvelina.) In 1802, the Installation Ball
of the Knights of the Bath was given here ; and the Picnic Society gave here a break-
fast to 2000 persons, when Garnerin ascended in his balloon. Of the Peace Fete which
took place here in 1803, and for which allegorical scenes were painted by Capon,
Bloomfield sings in homely rhyme :
" A thousand feet rustled on mats,
A carpet that once had been green ;
Men bow'd with their outlandish hats.
With corners so fearfully keen.
Fair maids, who at home, in their haste.
Had left all clothing else but a train.
Swept the floor clean, as slowly they paced,
And then — walk'd round and swept it again."
Eanelagh was now deserted, and in 1804 the buildings were taken down. In 1813, the
foundation-walls of the Rotunda, the arches of some cellars, and the site of the
orchestra, could be traced : part of the ground was next included in " the Old Men's
Gardens" of Chelsea Hospital ; and the name is attached to the Sewers District, and
to a long street leading from Pimlico to the site of Eanelagh.
Ranelagh House was built about 1691, by Jones, first Earl of Eanelagh and third
Viscount, who was a great favourite of Charles II. The ground was granted to the
Earl by William III. ; and the mansion is shown in a view of the Thames-bank painted
by Canaletti in 1752.
In 1854, a large house built upon part of the site of Ranelagh, with some of its materials, and another
mansion, Clarence House, were cleared away, to form the new road from Sloane-street to the Suspension-
bridge and Battersea Park.
BLCORLS, PUBLIC.
** rjlHE Eecords of this country have no equal in the civilized world, in antiquity,
-1- continuity, variety, extent, or amplitude of facts and details.* From Domesday
they contain the whole materials for the history of this country, civil, religious, political,
social, moral, or material, from the Norman Conquest to the present day. (Of the
decisions of the Law Courts a series is extant from the beginning of the reign of
Eichard I.) With the Public Eecords are now united the State Papers and Government
Archives, and by their aid may be written the real history of the Courts of Common
Law and Equity ; the statistics of the kingdom in revenue, expenditure, population,
trade, commerce, or agriculture, can from the above sources be accurately investigated.
The Admiralty documents are important to naval history ; and others afford untouched
mines of information relating to the private history of families." — Sir Francis Palgravey
Deputy -Jceeper of the Records.
They include the official Eecords of the Courts of Common Law, of Parliament, of
Chancery, of the Admiralty, the Audit Office, the Eegistrar-General's Office, the Com-
missariat, the Treasury Books, the Customs' Books, the Privy Signet Office, the Welsh
and County Palatinate Courts, &c. These were deposited in more than sixty places,
until the passing of the Public Eecords Act, 1 & 2 Victoria, cap. 94, the great object
of which was the consolidation of aU the Records in one depository ; which has been
attained by the erection of a building on the Rolls Estate, between Fetter-lane and
Chancery-lane. The architect is Mr. Pennethorne ; and the plan is to provide suf-
ficient space not merely for all the Records now in the custody of the Master of the
Rolls, but for all such as may be expected to accrue for fifty years to come. The
building consists of a north front and two wings ; the three portions to contain 228
rooms, 200 of which would receive nearly half a million cubic feet of Records. The front
faces the north : the style is late Gothic, or Tudoresque, somewhat of German character;
the outer walls are supported by massive buttresses, between which are the windows,
which are Decorated. The materials are Kentish rag-stone, with dressings of Anstone-
* William Lambarde.the eminent lawyer and antiquary, was, in 1597, appointed Keeper of the Rolls
ana House of Rolls, in Chancery-lane; and in 1600, Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
RECORDS, PUBLIC, 709
stone. The floors are formed with wrought-iron girders and flat brick arches, laid on
the top with white Suffolk tiles. The sashes and door-frames are of metal, the doors
of slate, the roof iron. The hall, entered from the south side of the building, has a
panelled ceiling, formed in zinc and emblazoned. Two windows are provided for each
room, which is fifteen feet high, divided by a gallery or iron floor : hence the windows
are unusually lofty, to light both floors, and to throw the light twenty-five feet down
the passages between the Records ; accordingly the front is a mass of window. As in the
same architect's Museum of Practical Geology, in Piccadilly, there is no entrance in the
principal fa9ade. Upon the front tower is a statue of Queen Victoria j Durham, sculptor.
In the first consignment of documents to the New Repository were, among the papers
of the Solicitor to the Treasury, the Solicitor's proceedings against Bishop Atterbury
and others ; with an important mass of papers respecting the rebellion of 1745-6 ; and
" very numerous documents relating to prosecutions brought by the Crown against
authors or publishers of pamphlets or newspapers." The charge and superintendence
of the Public Records is vested in the Master of the Rolls, to whose custody the accu-
mulating Records above twenty years old are delivered. Searches may be made at any
of the departments of the Record Office by payment of the fees, and extracts taken ;
but the Deputy-keeper is authorized to grant any literary inquirer permission to search
and make notes, extracts, or copies, in pencil, without payment of fees, on the Deputy-
keeper being satisfied that the application is for a bond fide literary purpose. To show
the value of this privilege to literary inquirers, it may be stated that in 1852 one ap-
plicant consulted nearly 7000 documents, principally at the Rolls Chapel, for compiling
the history of a single township.
To Lord Romilly, Master of the Rolls, the nation is specially indebted for the able and efficient
manner in which has been carried out the recommendations of the Record Commission and the Par-
liamentary Committees of 1800 and 1836. In the latter Report the object first specified is, " to provide
for the better arrangement and preservation of the Records of the Kingdom." This is more fully
expressed in the executory clause of every Commission, which enjoins the Commissioners "to metho-
dize, regulate, and digest the records, rolls, instruments, books and papers in any of our public offices
and repositories, and to cause such of the said records, rolls, instruments, books and papers, as are
decayed and in danger of being destroyed, to be bound and secured." The next object is, with a view to
providing for " their more convenient use, to make Calendars and Indexes of any of the said records,
rolls, instruments, books and papers." Sir John Romilly at once directed that the Calendars of the
diplomatic documents, then preserved in the Record Office in the Tower of London, which had been
some time in hand, should be prepared for publication. He gave directions for printing the Calendars
of documents in the Queen's Remembrancer's Office and Augmentation Office, upon which officers had
also been engaged for fifteen years. This was the true beginning of his task. It was not until the
incorporation of the State Paper Department with the Public Record Office, in the year 1854, that the
Master of the Rolls was enabled to accomplish his design. He applied to the Lords of Her Majesty s
Treasury for assistance. He proposed that a certain number of competent persons, unconnected with
the office, should be employed to co-operate with the officers of the establishment m the compilation ot
Calendars of the Diplomatic Papers, commencing with the reign of Henry VIII., the period at which
the modern history of Europe may be said to commence ; and to leave the portion anterior to that reign
in the Record Repository to be calendared by the officers of the estabUshment, whenever they could be
•spared from the performance of the current business of the office.
The proposition was readily approved by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and a number of
persons, including one lady, were appointed to the work. Every calendar which comes out has its own
interest, its own revelations. Every department of history and biography is enriched from Aay to day
by new discoveries. The life of this nation is being re-written for us, not at third hand, trom the
guesses of those who knew little and invented much, but from the original vouchers of all true history.
These Calendars give us not only a new history of England, but the best history of England that has
ever been \iniim.— {Athenaeum.) In graceful recognition of these eminent services, a marble bust ot the
Master of the Rolls has been placed by subscription in the Record Office.
The several Records have been removed from the Branch Offices to the Repository.
The Chapter House has been entirely cleared of the remaining portion of its contents.
The Records brought from it have been incorporated in the Repository with the Com-
mon Law and other Records to which they respectively belong. In consequence of the
proposed destruction of the State Paper Office to make room for the erection of
new Government Offices, it was found necessary to remove the Records from the State
Paper Branch Office into the Repository. Here, also, have been removed the Home
Office Papers ; and the Records of the Colonial Office have been united with the other
Colonial Documents already to be found in the Repository, which contained about
4000 volumes of Colonial Papers ; together with the Foreign Papers to the end of the
reign of George II. Consequently, the whole of the Home, Foreign and Colonial Papers,
and all other Records, Printed Books, Maps, &c., have been removed to the Repository;
with the exception of the Foreign Correspondence commencing with the reign of
710 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
George Til., and Ratifications of Treaties, intended to be removed to two houses in
Whitehall-yard. In the Record Office are some very fine examples of bookbinding ;
there are also several curiously wrought cases for rolls and books, and coffers, in which
they have been kept for centuries. Amongst the most remarkable of these is an ancient
iron chest, which is called of Anglo-Norman date. The strength and massiveness of
this piece of smithwork is remarkable : it seems as solid as a sarcophagus. In this
•coffer, in the Chapter-house of Westminster Abbey, the famous Domesday Book of
William was for many centuries kept with the greatest care.
In 1860 her Majesty's Government, with the concurrence of the Master of the Rolls
(Lord Romilly), determined to apply the art of photozincography to the production of
a facsimile of the whole of the Domesday Survey, under the superintendence of Colonel
Sir Henry James, R.E., Director of the Ordnance Survey at Southampton, who had
•devoted himself to the improvement of that scientific process, completed in 1863.
The Reports of the Deputy Keeper are annually made and laid before Parliament.
They usually include, in addition to the statement of proceedings in the Public Record
Office, appendices containing inventories and calendars of records made during each
year to which they relate, and refer to documents interesting and \iseful to the public
generally. They have been found especially valuable in assisting persons engaged in
genealogical, topographical, and antiquarian pursuits, and are of great practical use to
Government departments having papers deposited in the Public Record Office.
The Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament was originally intended to be used as a Record
repository ; but the only means of access to this tower is by a narrow winding staircase of 170 iroa
steps up to the first floor ; and to the eighth floor (sixty-four rooms in all) there are 266 steps, which,
added to the 170 from the ground to the first landing, make a total of 436 steps. There are no fire-
places.
BEQENT STRJEUT,
IN length 1730 yards (30 yards less than a mile), was designed by John Nash, in
1813, and named from his patron the Prince Regent ; although in 1766 Gwynne had
proposed a great street to lead nearly in the same line. It commences at Waterloo-
^lacey opposite the site of Carlton House, and proceeds northward, crossing Piccadilly,
by a Circus, to the County Fire-Offiee, designed by Abraham, with a rustic arcade, like
that at Somerset House. The roadway is probably the finest specimen of raacadamization
in the metropolis. On the East side are the Junior United Service Club {see p. 254) j
Gallery of Illustration (p. 308) ; the Parthenon Club (p. 254). On the West are St,
Philip's Chapel (p. 215) ; and Club Chambers (p. 245).
At No. 5, Waterloo-place, in the collection of Thomas Walesby, in 1854, was George IV. and the Duke
of WelUngton on the field of Waterloo, painted by B. R. Haydon; Gore House, Kensington, with por-
traits of the Duke of Wellington, Lady Blessington, Count D'Orsay (the painter of the picture), &c. ;
also, Sir Joshua Reynolds' sitters* chair, after his decease in the possession of Sir Thomas Lawrence
and Sir M. A. Shee'.
From the County Fire-Office, the street trends north-west by a Quadrant, so as to
avoid a commonplace elbow : it exhibits Nash's genius in overcoming difficulties, for
by no other contrivance could this sweep of the street have been made so ornamental;
its geometrical fitness can only be fully appreciated in the view from the balcony of the
York Column. The Quadrant had originally two Doric Colonnades, projecting the ex-
tent of the foot-pavement; the columns of cast-iron, from the Carron Foundry, each 16
feet 2 inches high, exclusive of the granite plinth, supported a balustraded roof. This
was a most scenic piece of street architecture j the continuous rows of columns swept
in charming perspective, and the effect was very picturesque. The colonnades were
removed in November, 1848, and a balcony was added to the principal floor. The
property has been much improved by this change; but the tasteful pubhc unwillingly
parted with this grand street ornamentation, which reminded them of a classic city of
antiquity. The 270 columns were sold at 11. 5^. and 11. 10s. each.
No. 45, the junction of Regent Circus with the Quadrant, has a superb shop-firont, designed, in
1839, by F. Hering, in the Revival style ; with fluted Ionic columns, Italianized arches, enriched pedi-
ment-heads, spandrels, escocheons, cognisances, and panels ; the ornaments being of composition laid
upon wood. Each plate of glass in the windows, 140 inches by 82 inches, cost 160^. ; the plate-glass in
the fajade and interior 1000^. ; and the entire execution nearly 4000^.
BOMAN LONDON. 711
From the Quadrant the vista is very fine : the blocks or groups of liouses, &c. are
by Nash, Soane, Coekerell, Repton, Abraham, Decimus Burton, &c.
Uast — Archbishop Tenison's Chapel, between Nos. 172 and l74, is described at
p. 215. Fouhert's Place, between Nos. 206 and 208, is named from Monsieur or
Major Faubert, who, in 1681, established here a riding-academy, on premises formerly
the mansion of the Countess of Bristol. Evelyn, in his Diary, mentions that Faubert's
project was recommended by the Council of the Royal Society.
" 18th Dee. 1684.— I went with Lord Cornwallis to see the young gallants do their exercise, M.
Faubert having newly railed in a menage, and fitted it for the academy. Here were the Duke of Nor-
folk and Northumberland, Lord Newburgh, and a nephew of (Duras) Earle of Faversham. The exer-
cises were: 1. Running at the ring; 2. Flinging a javelin at a Moor's head; 3. Discharging a pistol
at a mark; and lastly, taking up a gauntlet with the point of a sword; all these perform'd in full
speede."
When Swallow-street was removed, the riding-school premises, then livery-stables, were
taken down, except one house. The Argyll Rooms, built for musical entertainments,
at the corner of Little Argyll-street, were destroyed by fire in 1830. {See p. 22.)
West — Nos. 207 and 209, the Cosmorama {see p. 308). Hanover Chapel, built
1823, by Coekerell {see p. 211). The line crosses Oxford-street by Regent Circus, and
extends thence to the tower and spire of All Souls' Church {see p. 147). The street
then sweeps past the Langham Hotel {see p. 442), built upon the site of the gardens and
houses of Sir James Langham, and part of the site of Foley House, which was bought
by Nash, with the grounds, for 70,000/. : hence the crookedness of Regent-street.
No. 309, Regent-street, the Polytechnic Institution, erected by Thompson in 1838,
and enlarged in 1848, contains a Hall of Maimfactures, with machines worked by
steam-power, and several other apartments filled with models, &c.j Cosmoramic Rooms;
and Theatres for lectures and optical exhibitions. The Diving-Bell, long the paramount
attraction, is of cast-iron, and weighs 3 tons ; 5 feet in height, and 4 feet 8 inches
in diameter at the mouth. The Bell is about one-third open at the bottom, has a seat
all round for the divers, and is lit by 12 openings of thick plate-glass. It is suspended
by a massive chain to a large swing-crane, with a powerful crab ; the chain having
compensation weights, and working into a well beneath. The air is supplied from two
powerful air-pumps, of 8-inch cylinder, conveyed by the leather hose to any depth : the
divers being seated in the Bell, it is moved over the water, and directly let down within
two feet of the bottom of the tank, and then drawn up ; the whole occupying only
two minutes and a half. Each person paid a fee for the descent, which produced
1000/. in one year. The cost of the Bell was about 400/.
In the rear of the premises, at No. 5, Cavendish-square, then the St. George's Chess
Club, was played, 27th May, 1851, the Chess Tournament, by the first general meeting
of players from different parts of the world; among whom were, Szen, Horwitz,
Kieseritzky, Lowenthal, Staunton, and Anderssen. — See the Games, with notes, by H.
Staimton.
ROMAN LONDON.
ALTHOUGH Londinium was in the power of Rome for more than 400 years, or
nearly one-fourth of its existence in history, the aspect of Roman London is but
matter of conjecture ; and tessellated pavements, incised stones, and sepulchral urns,
found upon its site, are but fragmentary evidences that wherever the Roman conquers
Tie inhabits. London was, however, previously a settlement of some importance, and of
British origin, as we read in Llyn-dun, the hill-fortress on the lake ; or Llong-dinas,
the city of ships, from its maritime character ; whence the Roman designation Lon-
dinium. It is not mentioned by Ca3sar, though he entered the Thames ; nor was it
occupied as a Roman station so early as Colchester and Verulam. The Romans are
supposed to have possessed themselves of London in the reign of Claudius, about 105
years after Caesar's invasion. Londinium is first mentioned by Tacitus {Ann. xix. 33)
as not then dignified with the name of a colonia, but still as a place much frequented
by merchants, and as a great depot of merchandize. It was subsequently made a
colonia under the name of Augusta {Amm. JIarcell. xxvii. 8).
Londinium, as we know, was a place of commercial activity before the Roman Conquest.
712 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
It was the principal mart of exchange between Britain and the Continent, and received
for the corn, the cattle, the minerals, the slaves, and the dogs of native production,
every article of southern luxury for which a market was to be found among our rude
ancestors. The site of London was, no doubt, peculiarly advantageous for commerce.
It was the only great maritime port on a tidal river known to the Romans ; and while
it was supplied by a very fertile tract of country behind it, its position on a gentle
declivity, with dense forests in the rear, and a broad expanse of swamp before it, ren-
dered it from the first a place of considerable strength. London probably remained
British, or rather Cosmopolitan; while such places as Colchester, Chester, and Gaerleon,
the stations of legions and seats of government, became merely bastard Italian.
Ptolemy the geographer, who lived in the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus
Pius, places Londinium in the region of the Cantii, and some recent discoveries have
proved that the Roman city or its suburbs did actually extend over what is now known
as Southwark. The Itinerary of Antoninus shows that a large proportion of the British
routes are regulated and arranged with reference to Londinium, either as a starting-
point or a terminus. This city is made the central or chief station to which the main
military roads converge : a map of Roman Britain based on this Itinerary strikingly
resembles one of modern England ; so close is the analogy by which we may assign a
metropolitan importance to Roman London. When in the reign of Diocletian and
Maximian it was sacked by the Franks, it is termed by Eumenius the orator, oppidum
Londiniehse ; and under the dominion of Carausius and AUectus it became a place of
mintage. " P. Lon." {Pecunia Londiniensis) appears on coins of Constantine, Helena,
Fausta, Crispus, Constantine the Younger, and Constantius the Younger ; and in the
Notitia Londinium takes a place among the capitals of the provinces under the title of
Augusta, as the seat of the Treasury of Britain, controlled by a special officer, — Free-
positus thesaurorum Augustensium in Britannis. " Vetus oppidum" says Ammianus
Marcellinus, who wrote about A.D. 380, " quod Augustam posteritas appellavit"
The site of Roman London has been densely built on and inhabited, without inter-
ruption, from the first century of our era to the present time. It has been buried
beneath the foundations of the modern city, or rather beneath the ruins of a city several
times destroyed and as often rebuilt ; and it is only at rare intervals that the excavators
of drains and other subterranean works strike down upon the venerable remains of the
earliest occupation. The Romans found the place a narrow strip of firm ground lying
between the great fen (Moorfields) almost parallel to the river. At right angles to
both ran the Walbrook, and on the east the Langbourne ; habitations ranged closely
from Finsbury to Dowgate, whence to the Tower site, villas studded the bank of the
Thames. The finding of sepulchral remains outside these natural boundaries proves the
Romans to have there had their burial-grounds, as it was their custom always to inter
their dead without their cities. That Southwark, on the opposite bank of the Thames,
was also a Roman settlement, is proved by relics of the reign of Nero; outside which
are likewise evidences of Roman interment.
"Roman London thus enlarged itself from the Thames towards Moorfields, and the line of wall east
and south. The sepulchral deposits confirm its growth ; others, at more remote distances, indicate
subsequent enlargements ; while interments discovered at Holborn, Finsbury, Whitechapel, and the
extensive burial-places in Spitalfields and Goodman's-fields, denote that those localities were fixed on
when Londinium, in process of time, had spread over the extensive space inclosed by the wall." —
C. Roach Smith, F.S.A.
After the Great Fire, the excavations brought to light much of the antiquarian
wealth of " the Roman stratum" of tessellated pavements, foundations of buildings, and
sculptural remains; coins, urns, pottery, and utensils, tools, and ornaments. Whenever
excavations are made within the limits of the City of London, the workmen come to
the floors of Roman houses at a depth of from 12 to 18 or 20 feet under the present
level. (T. Wright, F.S.A. : The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, p. 123.) These floors
are often covered with fragments of the broken fresco-paintings of the walls, of which
Mr. Roach Smith has a large variety of patterns, such as foliage, animals, arabesque,
&c. ; and pieces of window-glass have often been found among these remains. — T.
Wright, F.S.A., ArchcBological Album.
London was inwalled a.d. 306. {See City Wall A^^D Gates, pp. 233-246.)
ROMAN LONDON. 7K
The following are the principal localities in which remains of Roman London have
been, from time to time, discovered : —
Aldgate, 1753. — Stone and brick tower of the Roman wall, discovered by Maitland,
south of Aldgate ; the bricks sound, as newly laid.
Barhican. — A roman specula, or watch-tower (the Castrum JExploratum of Stukeley's
Itinerary), stood without London, near the north-west angle of the walls, and was
called in the Saxon times the Burghkenning or Barhican, which gave name to the
present steet leading from Aldersgate-street to Whitecross-street. — (Brayley's Lon-
diniana, vol. i. p. 40^) See, also, BaebicAN, p. 32.
Bevis Marks. — A fine statue of a youth found, and rescued from the employes of the
Commissioners of Sewers by Mr. Roach Smith.
Billingsgate, 1774. — In the parish of St. Mary-at-Hill were found human bones,
fragments of Roman bricks, and coins of Domitian of the middle brass ; and, in 1824,
urns and pavements were discovered near St. Dunstan's church, north of Billingsgate.
In 1848, portions of an apartment and a hypocaust were laid open in digging the foun-
dation of the new Coal Exchange, nearly opposite Billingsgate. The apartment is
paved with common red tesserse ; the outer wall, 3 feet thick, is built of tile-like bricks
and Kentish rag-stone, the mortar containing pounded brick, an unfailing evidence of
Roman work. The hypocaust, or hollow floor for receiving heated air when wood was
burnt in the furnace, and thus to warm the apartment above (probably a bath), agrees
to half an inch in the dimensions with those given by Vitruvins in his instructions for
the hypocaustum. The bottom is formed of concrete ; and piers support the covering
tiles, ^ also covered with concrete. Pipes were also found, which, opening into the
hypocaust, were inserted in the walls, and conducted the warm air throughout the
building. The whole has been preserved. 1859. — In excavating for a house on the
east side of the Coal Exchange, an additional portion of the Roman building, including
part of a hypocaust, was thrown open. It was found at a depth of about 11 feet from the
present surface. The hypocaust is nearly square, with a semicircle added towards the
east : the covering has been broken down, and exposes the piers formed of square tiles
as in other cases : some of these are also broken down. Bones of various descriptions,
Roman tiles and portions of flues, fragments of pottery and glass, portions of tesseraa
about an inch square, and pieces of vessels of media3val date, were discovered. To the
west of the hypocaust, against the Coal Exchange, is an ancient wall, built upon a
foundation of Roman materials : in one part formed of stones of large size : this may
have been a portion of the old wall of the Thames. {See Billingsgate, p. 54.)
Bishopsgate, 1707. — A tessellated pavement, urns with ashes and burnt bones, a blue
glass lachrymatory, and remains of the Roman wall, found at the west end of Camomile-
street, Bishopsgate, by Dr. Woodward. In rebuilding Bishopsgate Church in 1725,
several \irns, paterae, and other remains were discovered, with a vault arched with
equilateral Roman bricks, and Dr. Stukeley saw there, in 1726, a Roman grave, con-
structed with large tiles, which kept the earth from the body. In 1836 a pavement of
red, white, and grey tesserse, in a guilloche pattern, was discovered under a house at
the south-west angle of Crosby- square, Bishopsgate; supposed very early Anglo-Roman.
(ArchcBologia, vol. xxvii. p. 397.) Maitland describes a similar pavement found on the
north side of Little St. Helen's gateway in 1712 ; the site of St. Helen's Priory was
probably occupied by an extensive Roman building ; and remains of floors prove Crosby
Hall to be on the site of a magnificent Roman edifice.
Blackfriars. — A fragment of the old wall, and parts of the monastic buildings erected
upon it, are still preserved below the offices of the Times newspaper. One part of this
interesting relic is evidently much older than the other, and the most ancient was found
to be so hard, as to set at defiance the tools of the workmen. During alterations, seve-
ral encaustic tiles, the finials of the fleur-de-lis shape, a Roman tile, and in the neigh-
bourhood of the printing-office, several melting-pots and pieces of glass, mostly in a
half-manufactured state, were found : they are carefully preserved at the Times office.
{See Blackfriaes, p. 56.)
Broad-street, Old, 1854. — On taking down the Excise Office, at about 15 feet lower
than the foundations of Gresham House (on the site of which the Excise Office was
built), was found a pavement, 28 feet square.
714 CUEI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
It is a geometrical pattern of broad blue lines, forming intersections of octagon and lozenge com-
partments. The octagon figures are bordered with a cable pattern, shaded with grey, and interlaced
with a square border, shaded with red and yellow. In the centres, within a ring, are expanded flowers,
shaded in red, yellow, and grey ; the double row of leaves radiating from a figure called a true love-
knot, alternately with a figure something like the tiger-lily. Between the octagon figures are square
compartments bearing various devices : in the centre of the pavement is Ariadne, or a Bacchante,
reclining on the back of a panther; but only the fore-paws, one of the hind-paws, and the tail remain.
Over the head of the figure floats a light drapery, forming an arch. Another square contains a two-
handled vase. In the demi-octagons, at the sides of the pattern, are lunettes : one contains a fan orna-
ment ; another, a bowl crowned with flowers. The lozenge intersections are variously embellished
■with leaves, shells, truelove-knots, chequers, and an ornament shaped like a dice-box. At the corners
of the pattern are truelove-knots. Surrounding this pattern is a broad cable-like border, broad bands
of blue and white alternately; then a floral scroll ; and beyond this an edge of demi-lozenges, in alter-
nate blue and white. An outer border, composed of plain red tesserae, surrounds the whole. The
ground of the pavement is white, and the other colours are a scale of full red, yellow, and a bluish grey.
This pavement is of late workmanship. Various Roman and mediaeval articles were turned up in the
same excavation : among these are a silver denarius of Hadrian, several copper coins of Constantine,
and a small copper coin bearing on the reverse the figures of Romulus and Remus suckled by the tra-
ditionary wolf; several Roman and mediaeval tUes and fragments of pottery; a small glass of a fine
blue colour, and coins and tradesmen's tokens.
Cannon-street, 1852. — Tessellated pavement, fragments of Samian ware, earthen
nms and lamp, and other Roman vessels, found from 12 to 20 feet deep, near Basing-
lane, New Cannon-street, upon the supposed site of Tower Eoyal. 1850. — Among
the ruins of a Roman edifice, at 11 feet deep, was found in Nicholas-lane, near Cannon-
street, a large slab, inscribed, "nvm peov beita" (Numini Caesaris Provincia
Britannia).
There was every reason to believe the residue was at hand, but neither the contractor
nor the civic authorities would countenance a search. With some little difficulty the
stone, apparently the dedicatory inscription of a temple, almost unique of its class in
this country, was received into the Gmldhall, and deposited at the foot of the staircase
leading into the library j but it has since disappeared.
CJieapside, 1595. — A vault and pavement found at the depth of 17 feet, at the
north-west comer of Bread-street ; and near it a tree cut into steps, on the supposed
edge of a brook that had run towards Walbrook. In 1671 Sir Christopher Wren, in
digging for the foundation of the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, at 18 feet deep, reached
a Roman causeway, of bricks and rubble firmly cemented, which, it is supposed, formed,
at the time it was constructed, the northern boundary of the colony ; and upon this was
laid the foundation of the church-tower. Wren mistook the crypt of the ancient
Norman church for Roman, from a number of Roman bricks being used in the arches.
(See Godwin's Churches of London, 1839.)
Crutched Friars, 1842. — A group of the Lece Matres discovered in excavating a
sewer in Hart-street, Crutched Friars, at a considerable depth, among the ruins of Roman
buildings ; these sculptured remains are in the Guildhall Library.
Lowgate. — The discovery of a large building and tessellated pavement here has
suggested that Dowgate was the palace of the Roman prefect, and the basilica or court
of justice.
Finshury. — Opposite the Circus, at 19 feet deep, has been discovered a well-turned
Roman arch, at the entrance of which, on the Finshury side, were iron bars, apparently
to restrain sedge and weeds from choking the water-passage.
Foster-lane, 1830. — In excavating for the New Goldsmith's Hall, was found, 15 feet
below the level of the street, in a stratum of clay, a stone altar of Diana, 23 inches
high, sculptured in front with a figure closely resembling the Diana Venatrix of the
Louvre. The sides each contain the type of a tree j on the back are the remains of an
inscription, below which are a tripod, a sacrificial vessel, and a hare. The finding of
this altar supports the inference that the ground was the site of the Temple of Diana,
referred by some antiquaries to the spot where St. Paul's now stands. The altar is
preserved in Goldsmith's Hall. {See Archceologia, vol. xxix. p. 145.)
Grey Friars, 1836. — A fluted pillar, supposed Roman, found in the fragment of a
wall of the Grey Friars' Monastery: it is almost the only specimen of the kind
noticed.
Soundsditch, 1845. — The torso of a white marble statue of a slinger, discovered 17
feet deep, in Petticoat-lane.
ROMAN LONDON. 715
Islington. — In the fields, about midway between White Conduit House and Copen-
hagen House, near Islington, were, until built over, considerable remains of Reedmont
(or Redmont) Field ; a camp said to have been occupied by Suetonius Paulinus, A.D. 61,
whose contest with Boadicea at Battle-bridge has been confirmed by a Roman inscrip-
tion discovered in 1842. Highbury, the summer camp of the Romans, is noticed at
p. 420. In 1825, arrow heads and figured pavement were found at Reedmont.—
(Hone's Every-day BooJcy vol. ii. p. 1566.)
King •William-street f Lothhury, and Prince' s-street, 1834, 1835, 1836. — Various
remains found in forming the new thoroughfare across the heart of the City, from
London Bridge to the line of the old wall at Moorgate. Evidences of Roman habita-
tions, at the depth of 14 and 20 feet, on either side of the line of King William-street.
Near St. Clement's Church, pavement, earthenware lamps, Samian ware, and coins.
Along the line of Princes-street, brass scales, fibulae, styli, needles in brass and bone,
coins, a sharpening steel, several knives, and vessels of Samian ware. In Lothbury, at
10 or 12 feet deep, chisels, crowbars, hammers, &c. ; a leathern sandal, red and black
pottery, &c. j a coin of Antoninus Pius, with Britannia on the reverse. From Lothbury
to London Wall, brass coins of Claudius, Vespasian, and Trajan ; spatulse, styli, needles,
a gold ring, brass tweezers, a hair-pin, and pottery. Near the Swan's Nest in Coleman-
street, a pit of earthen vessels, a coin of Ailectus (296), a boat-hook, and a bucket-
handle. At Honey-lane, under some Saxon remains, a few Roman coins. In Bread-
street, richly figured Samian vases, circular earthen cooking-pans; and wall designs,
fresh in colour, and resembling those of modern paper-hangings. (C. R. Smith, F.S.A.
ArchcBologia, vol. xxvii.) At the corner of St. Swithin's-lane have been found several
skeletons, fragments of pottery ; and coins, in second-brass, of Antonia, Claudius, Nero,
and Vespasian.
Leadenhall-street, 1576. — A pavement found at the Leadenhall-street end of Lime-
street, at 12 feet deep ; and between Billiter-lane and Lime-street, a stone wall and
arched gate, which Stow supposes to have belonged to a Roman house destroyed by fire
in the reign of Stephen. 1803. — A magnificent pavement discovered in front of the
India House, Leadenhall-street, described at p. 319. 1863. — A pavement found near
the site of the portico of the India House in Leadenhall-street. It forms a square ot
about five feet, set in a floor of common red tesserae. The pattern is ingenious. Under
the pavement were found broken portions of plaster, with red, black, and grey stripes,
Tery perfect as to colour.
Lombard-street, 1786. — At about 13 feet deep were found brick ruins, upon three
inches thick of wood ashes, beneath which was Roman pavement, common and tessellated
(Sir John Henniker ; Archceologia, vol. viii.). Also, near Sherborne-lane, at 12 feet
deep, a pavement running across Lombard- street, between which and the Post-oflSce, but
along the north side, ran a wall 10 feet below the street-level, built of " the smaller-
sized Roman bricks," and pierced by perpendicular flues, the chimneys of a mansion.
Other fragments of walls and pavements were found; and in Birchin-lane was un-
covered a tessellated pavement of elegant design ; with great quantities of Roman coins,
fragments of pottery and glass bottles, keys and beads, a large vessel of figured Samian
ware, &c. {See Lombaed-steeet, p. 531.)
London Stone, Cannon-street, is described at pp. 533^534.
Lothbury, 1805. — Tessellated pavement : now in the British Museum.
Ludgate. — Upon the site of the present church of St. Martin, Wren found a small
sepulchral stone monument to Vivianus Marcianus, a soldier of the second legion, erected
by his wife, and sculptured with his effigies and a dedicatory inscription : this monu-
ment is now among the Arundel Marbles at Oxford. 1792. — Barbican or watch-tower
of the City Wall discovered between Ludgate and the Fleet-ditch. 1800. — Sepulchral
monument found in the rear of the London Coffee -house, Ludgate-hill {see p. 539.)
This relic has been removed to the Corporation Museum, Guildhall.
Moorjields. — An inscribed stone, in memory of Grata, the daughter of Dagobitus,
has been discovered at London Wall. Mr. Roach Smith is of opinion that the London
of the Britons was situated in Moorfields ; and on this aboriginal establishment the
Romans afterwards enlarged. In 1818 a large portion of the wall on both sides of
Moorgate was demolished.
716 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Pavements discovered in Busli -lane, Cannon-street, in 1666 ; near St. Andrew's Church,
Holborn, in 1681 ; at Crutched Friars in 1787 ; behind the Old Navy Pay-Office in
Broad-street; in Northumberland- alley, Fenchurch-street ; and in Long- lane, Smith-
field, — about the commencement of the present century; near the church of St.
Dunstan's-in-the-East, in 1824; in East Cheap in 1831 ; at St. Clement's Church, and
in Lothbury, opposite Founders'-court, in 1834; in Crosby-square in 1836; behind
Winchester House, Bankside, in 1850 ; and in various places on both sides of High-
street, Southwark, between 1818 and 1831. (G. L. Craik, in Knight's London, vol. i.)
Some stamped tiles bear the earliest abbreviation of the name of Londinium : they read
PBR LON and P-B-LON, supposed Probatum Londinii proved of the proper quality
at London; or Frima (cohors) BRitonum liO^dinii, the first (cohort) of the Britons
at London. (C. It. Smith, F.S.A.) Or, Mr. Wright interprets P. PR. BR. upon
another tile, as Proprcetor Britannia Londinii, the Propraetor of Britain at Londinium ;
showing that Roman London was the seat of the government of the province. See a
list of potter's stamps on pottery found in different metropolitan localities in the Anti-
quarian and Architectural Year-hook for 1844.
Royal Exchange, 1841. — In excavating for the foundations was opened an ancient
gravel-pit, filled with various Roman relics, described at p. 326 ; many of which are
preserved in the Corporation Museum. Remains of buildings covered the whole site of
the present Exchange, denoting this to have been one of the most magnificent portions
of Roman London.
Shadwell, 1615. — Two coffins (stone and lead), with bones, lachrymatories, and two
ivory sceptres, found in Sun Tavern Fields.
Southwar/c. — Discoveries of tessellated pavements on and about the site of St. Saviour's
Church, and other remains of buildings, pottery, lamps, glass vessels, &c., throughout
the line of High-street, denote this to have been within Roman London ; and a burial-
ground of the period has been discovered on the site of that now attached to the Dis-
senters' Chapel, Deverill-street, New Kent-road.
Spitalfields. — Urns, with ashes and burnt human bones, coins (Claudius, Nero, Ves-
pasian, and Antoninus Pius), lachrymatories, lamps, and Samian ware, found in the
Lottesworth or Spital field.
Strand. — " The Old Roman Spring Bath" in Strand-lane, between Nos. 162 and
163, is of accredited antiquity. The bath itself is Roman : the walls being layers of
brick and thin layers of stucco ; and the pavement of similar brick covered with stucco,
and resting upon a mass of stucco and rubble : the bricks are 9^ inches long, 4| inches
broad, and If inches thick, and resemble the bricks in the City Wall. The property
can be traced to the Danvers (or D'Anvers) family, of Swithland Hall, Leicestershire,
whose mansion stood upon the spot.
St. Georges' s-in-the-East, I7l5. — Many sepulchral remains found in digging the
foundations of St. George's Church, near Goodman's Fields; and in 1787, fragments of
urns and lachrymatories, and an inscribed Roman stone, were dug up in the Tenter-
ground.
St. Martin' S'lane, Vl'72,. — In digging the foundations of the new church of St. Martin-
in-the-Fields, were found, at 14 feet deep, a Roman brick arch ; and " bufialo-heads,"
according to Gibbs, the architect. In Sir Hans Sloane's Museum was a glass vase con-
taining ashes, which was found in a stone coffin upon the site of St. Martin's portico.
St. Martin' s-le-Orand, 1819. — Roman vaultings, discovered in digging for the foun-
dations of the General Post-office.
St. Pancras, 1758, — " Caesar's Camp," near St. Pancras Church, discovered by Dr.
Stukeley (see p. 641).
St. Paul's Churchyard. — In 1675, Wren, in excavating for the foundations of the
present St. Paul's Cathedral, discovered many Saxon and British graves ; and 18 feet
or more deep, Roman urns intermixed,
" belonging to the colony, when the Romans and Britons lived and died together. The more remark-
able Roman urns, lamps, and lachrymatories, fragments of sacrificing vessels, &c. were found deep in
the ground, about a claypit (under the north-east angle of the present choir) which had been dug by
the Roman potters, ' in a stratum of close and hard pot-earth, that extends beneath the whole site of
St. Paul's ;' here ' the urns, broken vessels, and pottery-ware* were met with in great abundance." —
"Wren's Farentalia.
ROMAN LONDON. 717
Wren " rummaged" the ground, but failed to discover any traces of the Eoman Temple
of Diana or Apollo reputed to have been built here. Dr. Woodward, however, possessed
sacrificing vessels, bearing representations of Diana, said to have been dug up at St. Paul's ;
besides a brass figure of Diana, found between the Deanery and Blackfriars and believed
Roman.* As Londinium was the great centre of the commerce of Britain it might be ex-
pected that it would supply specimens of the pottery of antiquity : accordingly noivJiere in
England has such an immense quantity of various kinds been discovered. John Conyers,
the antiquary, in 1677, observed the remains of Roman kilns, which were brought to
light in digging the foundations of St. Paul's. Specimens of the ornamented pottery
made in the Castor district have been also found here, and nowhere has the red glazed
pottery known as "Samian" Ware, been found more plentifully; the potters' stamps
present upwards of 300 varieties.
Thames River. — A silver Harpocrates found in 1825 in the bed pf the Thames, and
now in the British Museum. 1837. — Bronzes found in ballast-heaving in the Thames,
near London Bridge, including Mercury, Apollo, and Atys; probably the penates of
some opulent Roman family. — (C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., ArcTiceologia, vol. xxvii.) Brass
pins of various lengths, stated to have been found on the paper, in a cellar on the
northern bank of the Thames in excavating for the South-Eastern Railway bridge :
they have solid globose heads.
TTireadneedle-street, 1840-1841. — Tessellated pavements found beneath the old
French Protestant Church in Threadneedle-street, at about 12 or 14 feet deep : they
are preserved in the British Museum. In 1854 was found a large deposit of Roman
debris, in excavating the site of the church of St. Bennet Fink ; consisting of Roman
tiles, flue-tiles, fragments of black, pale, and red Samian pottery ; glass, &c. Various
fragments of Roman vases found, together with the lid of an Early-English stone coffin
and part of the tracery of a Gothic window, probably part of the church that stood here
before the Great Fire.
Tower, 1777. — In digging the foundations of a new office for the Board of Ordnance,
within the Tower, at a great depth, were discovered remains of ancient buildings ; a
silver ingot impressed " Ex offic. Honoeii," and three gold coins of Honorius and
Arcadius ; a small glass crown, and an inscribed stone ; thus indicating that the Romans
had a fortress upon the Tower site.
Tower Hill, 1852. — Fragments of a Roman building found at the northern portion
of the City Wall, including the supposed volute of a capital, and other enriched remains ;
besides a Roman sarcophagus nearly entire : now in the British Museum. Also, inscrip-
tion in memory of Alfidius Pompus, set up in compliance with his will by his heir ;
another at the same time, in the same place, commemorating some person of greater
distinction.
Upper Thames-street, 1839. — Opposite Vintners' Hall, at 10 feet from the surface,
were found remains of the Wall parallel with the Thames ; and about the middle of
Queen-street, 19 feet from the surface, was unearthed a fine tessellated pavement.
1865. — At the corner of Suffolk-lane, on part of " the Manor of the Rose," from some
15 or 16 feet deep, a large quantity of Roman foundation-tiles and fragments of the
embankment- wall for the river. 1866, — Several articles from the old Steelyard, in-
cluding bone pins, styli, spatulae, and other Roman antiquities in bronze, together with
some iron keys. The bronze objects were of a brilliant golden hue, derived from the
damp soil in which they had been buried for, probably, not less than eighteen centuries.
Lower Thames-street. — Bricks and coins, urns and pavements ; a very fine hypocaust;
and a portion of a Roman building and another hypocaust, remains of wall, &c.
WalbrooTc, 1774. — Wood-ashes found, 22 feet deep, in making a sewer from Dow-
gate through Walbrook.
Whitechapel, 1776. — Monumental stone to a soldier of the 24th legion, found in a
burial-ground at the lower end of Whitechapel-lane.
* In excavating, in 1853, for Cook's colossal warehouse (built in 90 days), on the south side of St.
Paul's Churchyard, there was found at twenty feet deep a Danish gravestone, inscribed in Runic— Kinta
caused this stone to be laid over, or in memory of, Tuki. The date of this relic is about a.d, 1000 ;
and it is said to be the only Runic monument known to have been discovered m London. — Proc. Royal
Society of Northern Antiquaries.
\^
718 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
In Mr. Charles Eoach Smith's Museum of London Antiquities, described at p, 590, are 528 Roman
items, collected in the metronolis during street-improvements, sewerage, and the deepening of the bed
of the Thames, These objects include Roman sculpture, bronzes, pottery, terra-cotta lamps, red glazed
{lottery, potters' stamps, glass ; tiles, pavements, and wall-paintings ; personal ornaments, sandals ia
eather, utensils and implements, and coins. The Museum contains the same number of Anglo-Saxon
and Norman, and Mediaeval remains. {See the Catalogue, with illustrations by F. W. Fairholt, P.S.A.,
printed for the Subscribers only, 1854.)
The list of Eoman coins found in London and enumerated in the above catalogue
amounts to upwards of 2000 ; yet this list contains those only which, for about the
last 30 years, have passed under the eye of Mr. Roach Smith, chiefly from the bed of
the Thames.
" A much larger number within that period of time must have been found. Six hundred,- or more,
picked up from gravel dredged fl-om the Thames, and strewed along the bank of the Surrey Canal, were
collected by the late Mr. R. Pimm, of Deptford. It is well to record this fact, because the gravel taken
from the bed of the Thames below London-bridge has been extensively used for repairing the banks of
the river at Barnes and other places, and this gravel contained large quantities of coins, the finding of
which in some future day may puzzle and deceive persons ignorant of their history. A hoard of denarii
of the Higher Empire was found in the City, which, the corporation having declined purchasing, was
bought by Mr. Mark Boyd. Vast quantities are said to have been found in removing the piers of old
London-bridge and in excavating the approaches to the new bridge. Of these, and of those exhumed
in the City in former times, scarcely a record has been preserved. The list here presented will not give
more than an imperfect notion of the number actually brought to light, but it will serve to convey a
faint idea of the incalculable quantity which must have been met with, both in modern times and in
past ages."— C. Boach Smith, F.8.A,
MOTEIiRBITSE,
A MANOR and parish between Deptford and Bermondsey, on the Surrey bank of
the Thames, was anciently called Retherhith, probably from the Saxon redhra, a
mariner, and liyth^ a haven — i.e. the sailor's harbour. (Bray ley's Stirrey.) It is vul-
garly Eedriff. At the time of Domesday, it was included in the royal manor of
Bermondsey ; but it was not surrendered, until the reign of Charles I. A fleet was
fitted out at Rotherhithe in the reign of Edward III., by order of the Black Prince
and John of Gaunt. Lambarde states that Henry IV. lodged in an " old stone house
«jhere whiles he was cured of a leprosie ;" and two of Henry's charters are dated here,
'■ July, 1412. The mother-church of St. Mary is described at p. 187 : Gataker, the
erudite Latin critic, was rector from 1611 to 1654 ; he was imprisoned in the Fleet by
Laud, and is buried here. In the churchyard lies Prince Le Boo. The registers, com-
mencing 1556, contain many entries of ages from 90 to 99 years, and one of 120 years.
Admiral Sir Charles Wager possessed the manor between 1740 and 1750. The brave
Admiral Sir John Leake was born here June, 1656 ; but Admiral Benbow, stated by
Manning and Bray to have been born at Rotherhithe, was a native of Coton-hill,
Shrewsbury. (See Gent. Mag. Dec. 1809.) George Lillo, the dramatist, who wrote
the plays of George Barnwell, Arden of Fevershamy and Fatal Curiosity ^ was a jeweller
living at Rotherhithe in 1735.
Swift's Captain Chdliver, he tells us, was long an inhabitant of Rotherhithe. There is such a
reality gi\^en to this person by Swift that one seaman is said to have sworn that he knew Captain
Gulliver very well, but he lived at VVapping, not at Rotherhithe. Lord Scarborough fell in company
with a master of a ship who told him he was very well acquainted with Gulliver, but that the printer
had mistaken ; that he lived in Wapping, not in Rotherhithe. " It is as true as if Mr. Gulliver had
spoken it," was a sort of proverb among his neighbours at Redriflf. Rogers, the poet, remarked in the
churchyard at Banbury several inscriptions to persons named Gulliver, and on his return home, looking
into Gulliver's TraveU, Mr. Rogers found to his surprise that the said inscriptions are mentioned there
as a confirmation of Mr. GulUver's statement, that " his family came from Oxfordshire ;" so completely
is the joke kept up.
*'In five long years I took no second spouse;
What Eedriff wife so long hath kept her vows?"
Gay's Epistle — Mary Gulliver to the Captain,
A fire, June 1, 1765, destroyed here 206 houses, and property worth 100,000?. In
1804, a tunnel from Rotherhithe, beneath the Thames, to Limehouse, was commenced
by Vasey and Trevethick, but failed. The " Thames Tunnel," by Brunei, commences
at a short distance east of St. Mary's Church, The Commercial Docks at Rotherhithe
are described at p. 309.
Gerard mentions the Water Qladiole as growing " by the famous river Thamesis, not far from a
peece of ground called the Divel's neckerchiefe neere Redriffe by London." The Devil's Neckerchief
BOYAL SOCIETY. 719
was a zigzag piece of swarapy ground, which became perverted to NecTcinger, as the vulgar phrase Muck'
inger is applied to a pocket-handkerchief. The ground is now " the Neckinger-road," with Neckinger
Mills, &c. : it is in the parish of Bermondsey, not far from the boundary of Rotherhithe. It has beea
called " the devil's neck in danger," from the dangerous course of the road between two ditches, as
shown in Sayer's Map of London, 1768, in which the name is spelled " Neckincher." In Phillips's Ber-
mondsey, 1841, it is stated that the Neckinger Ditch is an ancient water-course, and was formerly navi-
gable to Bermondsey Abbey.— See Notes and (Queries, 2nd s. Nos. 71 and 73.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS.— See Picture Galleeies, p. 676.
ROYAL EXCHANGE.— See Exchanges, pp. 322-329.
ROYAL INSTITUTION, THE,
NO. 21, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, was founded in 1799, " for diffusing the know-
ledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and
improvements j and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments,
the application of science to the common purposes of life :" hence the motto of the
Institution, Illustrans commoda vitce. It was incorporated in 1800. The Institution
has been worthily designated as " the workshop of the Royal Society ;" for within its
laboratory Sir Humphry Davy made those brilliant discoveries which were published
through the medium of the Transactions of the Royal Society ; and the example of
Davy has been followed by Faraday. Sir Joseph Banks, Count Rumford, and Mr.
Cavendish were among the founders of the Royal Institution. In the basement was an
experimental kitchen, with Rumford stoves, roasters, and boilers ; apparatus for heating
water by steam, &c. ; a workshop for coppersmiths and braziers. Above are a labora-
tory, lecture-theatre, museum, library {see p. 464), and model repository. Here
Davy gave his first lecture, April 25, 1801 ; and in 1807 discovered by galvanism the
composition of the fixed alkalis, and their metallic bases, potassium and sodium : his
great voltaic battery consisted of 2000 double plates of copper and zinc, of 4 inches
square, the whole surface being 128,000 square inches. Davy was succeeded by Brande ;
and Faraday was, in 1833, chosen for a second chair of Chemistry, the FuUerian,
founded by John Fuller, Esq., whose bequests have amounted to 10,000?. The mine-
ralogical collection in the museum was commenced by Davy.
The history of chemical science dates one of its principal epochs from the foundation of the laborar
tory of the Eoyal Institution. Here the researches of Davy and Faraday extended over nearly half a.
century : including the laws of electro-chemical decomposition, the decomposition of the fixed alkalis,,
the establishment of the nature of chlorine, the philosophy of flame, the condensibility of manj
gases, the science of magneto-electricity, the twofold magnetism of matter, and the magnetism of gases.
Here Coleridge gave his celebrated Lectures on Poetry, Among the MSS, in the Library are fifty-six
volumes of Letters, &c., respecting the American War; Papers of Lord Stanhope; and the Laboratoir
Note-Books of Sir Humphry Davy.
The Institution building, originally five houses, received its present architectural
front, by L. Vulliamy, in 1839.
The institution owes much to the talent of Faraday, who, in the words of the Honorary Secre-
tary, " has worked long and much for the love of the Institution, and Uttle for its money. For forty
years, from 1813 to 1853, his fixed income from the Institution was not more than 2001. per annum. la
1853, Professor Tyndall was elected to lecture on Natural Philosophy for 200?. per annum. In 1859, he
received 300?. per annum." Mr. Brande succeeded Sir Humphry Davy as Professor of Chemistry, and
was Irom 1820 associated with Mr. Faraday ; he died in 1866, at "the age of 81.
ROYAL SOCIETY.
THIS is the oldest Society of its kind in Europe, except the Lyncean Academy at
Rome, of which Galileo was a member. The Royal Society originated.in London,
about 1645, in the weekly meetings of " divers worthy persons inquisitive into natural
philosophy, and other parts of human learning ; and particularly the new philosophy, or
experimental philosophy ;" these meetings being first suggested by Theodore Haak, a
German of the Palatinate, then resident in the metropolis. This is supposed to be the
club which Mr. Boyle, in 1646, designated " the Invisible or Philosophical Society.**
They met at Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Wood-street ; at the BulVsSead Tavern, Cheap-
720 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
side; and at Gresham College. About 1648-9, some of the members, including Dr.
(afterwards Bishop) Wilkins, removed to Oxford, and were joined by Seth Smith,
Ralph Bathurst, Sir William Petty, and the Hon. Robert Boyle, who met at Petty's
lodgings in an apothecary's house, " because of the convenience of inspecting drugs."
The members in London continued also to meet, until, in 1658, they were ejected from
Gresham College, which was required for barracks. Evelyn, Cowley, and Sir William
Petty proposed separate plans for a " philosophical college :" Sprat says that Cowley's
proposition accelerated the foundation of the Royal Society, in praise of which he sub-
sequently wrote an ode. At the Restoration, in 1660, the meetings were revived ; and
April 22, 1662, the Society was incorporated by royal charter, by Charles II. This
charter is on four sheets of vellum, and has on the first sheet ornamental initials and
flowers, and a finely executed portrait of Charles in Indian ink; appended is the
Great Seal in green wax. The Charter empowers the President to wear his hat while
in the chair, and the fellows addressed the President bareheaded till he made a sign for'
them to put on their hats ; customs now obsolete. Next year the King granted a
second charter, which is of greater importance than the first ; and his Majesty presented
the Society with the silver-gilt mace.
The Mace is about 4 feet in length, and weighs 190 oz. avoirdupois : its stem is chased with the
thistle, and has an urn-shaped head, surmounted by a crown, ball, and cross. Upon the head are
embossed figures of a rose, harp, thistle, and fleur-de-lis, and the initials C.R. four times repeated.
Tinder the crown are chased the royal arms ; and at the other extremity of the stem are two shields,
one bearing the Society's arms, the other a Latin inscription denoting the mace to have been presented
to the Society by Charles II. in 1663. It was long believed by numberless visitors to be the " bauble"
mace turned out of the House of Commons by Cromwell when he dissolved the Long Parliament ; but
Mr. Weld, the assistant-secretary and librarian, in a communication to the Society, April 30, 1846,
proved this to be a popular error, by showing the warrant for making this mace and delivering it to
Lord Brouncker, the first President of the Society. Again, the " bauble" was altogether different in
form from the Society's mace, and was nearly destitute of ornament, and without the crown and cross,
as described in Whitelock's Memorials, and represented accordingly in West's picture of the Dissolu-
tion of the Long Parliament.
From this session, 1663, date the Philosophical Transactions, wherein the proceed-
ings and discoveries of the Society are registered. This year the Society exercised their
privilege of claiming the bodies of criminals executed at Tyburn, which were to be
dissected in Gresham College. In 1664, the king signed himself in the charter-book
as the founder ; and his brother, the Duke of York, signed as a fellow. In 1667
Chelsea College was granted to the Society, for their meetings, laboratory, repository,
and library ; but the building was too dilapidated, " the annoyance of Prince Rupert's
glass-house" adjoined it, and the property was purchased back for the king's use for
1300Z. The Society then resumed their meetings in Gresham College, until they were
dispersed by the Great Plague and Fire, after which they met in Arundel House in the
Strand. The Fellows now (1667) numbered 200, and their subscription Is. per week;
from the payment of which Newton, who joined the Society in 1674, was excused, on
account of his narrow finances.
In 1674 the Society returned to Gresham College. They were fiercely attacked : a
Warwick physician accused them of attempting to undermine the Universities, to bring
in popery and absurd novelties ; but a severer satire was The Elephant in the Moon,
by Butler. Among their early practices was the fellows gathering May-dew, and ex-
perimenting with the divining-rod ; and the Hon. Robert Boyle believed in the efficacy
of the touch of Greatrakes the Stroker for the evil. In 1686 Newton presented his
Principia to the Society, whose clerk, Halley, the astronomer, printed the work. The
MS., entirely in Newton's hand, is preserved in the library.
In 1703 Sir Isaac Newton was elected president. In 1710 the society purchased the
house of Dr. Brown, at the top of Crane-court, Fleet-street, " being in the middle of
the town and out of noise." This house was built by Wren, after the Great Fire
of 1666, upbn the site of the mansion of Dr. Nicholas Barbon. This new purchase was
considered unfortunate for the society. The hoxise required several hundred pounds'
repairs ; the rooms were small and inconvenient compared with those of Gresham Col-
lege ; and the removal led to the separation of the Society from the College Professors,
after being associated for nearly fifty years. The house in Crane-court fronted a
garden, where was a fishpond. There is a small hall on the ground floor, and a passage
from the staircase into the garden, fronting which are the meeting-room, 25| feet by
SAVOY (THE). 721
16 feet, and a smaller room. In the former apartment, the Society met from 1710 till
1782. It is intact, and is very interesting as the room in which Newton sat in the
presidential chair, which is preserved. The Library and Mnsemn were removed here :
the latter numbered several thousand specimens, the list of which fills twenty pages of
Hatton's London, 1708. The house formerly included the present No. 8, in which was
kept the Society's library, in cedar-wood cases. In 1782 the Society removed to
Somerset House, and sold the Crane-court house to the Scottish Hospital.
The Royal Society then transferred most of their older curiosities to the British
Museum. For their meeting-room they had a noble apartment in the east wing of
Somerset House ; it has an enriched ceiling by Sir William Chambers, and here were
given the conversazioni of the Presidents, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Wollaston, Sir
Humphry Davy, Mr. Davies Gilbert, the Earl of Rosse, and Lord Wrottesley. The
Duke of Sussex received the Fellows at Kensington Palace; and the Marquis of
Northampton at his mansion on the Terrace, Piccadilly. In 1857 the Society removed
to Burlington House, which had recently been purchased by the Government, their
meeting-room at Somerset House being then given to the Society of Antiquaries, who
had hitherto occupied the adjoining rooms.
In " Burlington's fair palace" a large apartment in the western wing of the man-
sion is fitted up as the Royal Society's meeting-room. In the elegant suite of rooms,
with ceilings painted by Ricci, is the library ; and in these apartments the President
holds his annual conversazioni, at which novelties in science and art are shown.
The meeting-room at Burlington House is hung round with the Society's pictures,
of which Mr. Weld has prepared an interesting catalogue raisonnee, privately printed :
they include three portraits of Newton, by Jervas, Marchand, and Vanderbank ; Vis-
count Brouncker (first president), by Lely ; Sir Humphry Davy, by Lawrence ; Davies
Gilbert and the Marquis of Northampton, by Phillips ; Sir John Pringle, by Reynolds ;
Sir Hans Sloane, Lord Somers, Sir J. Williamson, and Sir Christopher Wren, by
Kneller; Dr. Wollaston, by Jackson; the Duke of Sussex, by Phillips, &c. The
Society also possess marble busts of Charles II. and George III., by Nollekens ; Sir
Joseph Banks, by Chantrey ; John DoUond, by Garland ; Davies Gilbert, by Westma-
cott ; Sir Isaac Newton, by Roubiliac j Laplace ; Mrs. Somerville, by Chantrey ; James
Watt, after Chantrey ; and Cuvier, in bronze. The Museum is described at page 600.
Here also are the Exchequer standard yard set off upon the Society's yard : it is of
brass, and is of great value since the destruction of the parliamentary standard ; the
Society's standard barometer ; also the water-barometer, made by Professor Daniell,
whose last official service was the refilling of this instrument, in 1844.
The Royal Society distribute four gold medals annually— the Rumford, two Royal
(value 50 guineas each), and the Copley ; and from the donation-fund men of science
are assisted in special researches.
The Charter-book is bound in crimson velvet, with gold clasps and corners, and inscription-plates—
1. The Shield of the Society; 2. Crest: an eagle or, holding a shield with the arms of England. The
leaves are fine vellum, and bear, superbly blazoned, the arms of England and the Society ; next, the
third charter and statutes (60 pages). Autographs (1st page): ornamented scroll-border and Royal
shield, above the signatures, "Chaeles R., Founder" (written Jan. 9th, 1664-5) ; "James, Fellow ;'*
and " George Rupert, Fellow." In the next page are the autographs of various foreign ambassadors ;
and the third and succeeding pages contam the signatures of the fellows beneath the obligation which
holds each leaf: Clarendon, Boyle, Wallis, Wren, Hooke, Evelyn, Pepys, Norfolk, Flamsteed, and Mew-
ton, are here (the name beneath that of Newton is nearly obliterated by the sad habit of touching).
Seventy-one pages are occupied by the autographs of the fellows (including those on the foreign list).
Here are the autographs of the successive kings and queens of England, and many sovereigns of foreign
countries who have visited England. Queen Victoria has signed her name as patron of the Society ; and
on the same richly illuminated page are the signatures of Prince Albert and the kings of Prussia and
Saxony. — Weld's Ristory of the Boyal Society, vol. i. p. 177 (abridged).
See, also, Ceane-couet, p. 296; Royal Society Club, p. 256.
SAVOT iTHJE).
ON the spot, south side of the Strand, and which still bears the name of Savoy, but
is now mostly occupied by Wellington-street and Lancaster-place, was anciently a
noble palace, magnificently rebuilt by Henry, first Duke of Lancaster. Here was con-
fined John King of France, taken prisoner by Edward the Black Prince, at Poictiers,
3 A
722 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
in 1356 J " and thyder came to se hym the kyng and the quene often tynies, and made
hym gret feest and cheere:" he was released in 1360; but returning to captivity, died
in the Savoy, " his antient prison/' in 1364. The demesnes descended to John of
Gaunt : here the poet Chaucer was his frequent guest ; some of his poems were written
in the Savoy j and Chaucer's Dream allegorises his own marriage with Philippa, a
lady of the duchess' household. But Gaunt, a staunch Wickliffite, had his palace attacked
by the Londoners in 1377. In 1381 it was burnt by Wat Tyler's rebels : the costly
plate and furniture were destroyed or thrown into the Thames, and the great hall and
several houses were blown up. Shakspeare lays a scene of his Richard II. in a room
of the Savoy, which, however, was then in ruins. Thus it lay until 1505, when was
commenced building the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, the history of which, and its
celebrated Chapel Royal, is narrated at pp. 142-144. Here Charles II. established
"the French Church in the Savoy;"* and here were churches for the Dutch, High
Germans, and Lutherans; the German- Lutheran church has been rebuilt. (Sayoy
Peison, see p. 703.)
SCSOOLS, PUBLIC.
THE great Schools of London are as follow : Chaeteehotjse, described at pp. 86-88;
Christ's Hospital (Blue-coat School), described at pp. 95-101. The City
OF London School occupies the site of Honey-lane Market, in the rear of the
houses facing Bow Church, and was designed by J. B. Bunning ; the first stone laid
by Lord Brougham, Oct. 21, 1835. The style is Elizabethan, Avith earlier and more
enriched principal windows and entrance ; the latter, a rich arched doorway, sur-
mounted by a lofty gable pediment, and above, an open gallery of five trefoiled pointed
arches on lofty pillars, flanked by buttress-turrets 76^ feet high, is novel and
picturesque. The cost of the edifice, about 12,000/., was defrayed by the Corporation
of London, who gave the site, which produced a yearly rental of 300Z. The school,
for 400 scholars, is partly supported with 900^. a-year derived from certain lands and
tenements bequeathed by John Carpenter, Town-Clerk and " Secretary" of London in
the reign of Henry VI. ; and who several times represented the City in Parliament,
and was "executor of the will of Richard Whityngton." Carpenter's bequest,
originally but 191. 10s. per annum, was "for the finding and bringing up of four
poor men's children with meat, drink, apparel, learning at the schools, in the univer-
sities, &c., until they be preferred, and then others in their places for ever." (Stoto.)
The bequest was thus appropriated in 1633, when the boys wore " coats of London
russet," with buttons; and they were accustomed from time to time to show their
copy-books to the Chamberlain, in proof of the application of the Charity. In 1827 it
was extended to the education of four boys, sons of freemen, and nominated by the
Lord Mayor, at the Tonbridge Grammar School ; each boy, on quitting, received 1001.,
thus increasing the annual expense to about 420Z. In the lapse of nearly four
centuries, the value of Carpenter's estates had augmented from 19^. 10^. to 900/., or
nearly five-and-forty fold, when the school was re-established as above. The form of
admission must be signed by a member of the Corporation of London ; the general
course of instruction includes the English, French, German, Latin, and Greek
languages. The school is mainly indebted to Mr. Alderman Hale (Lord Mayor 1864-5),
for its re-establishment and great extension.
* The first five churches in London appropriated to the Protestants of France were the old Temple
in Threadneedle-street, and those of the Savoy, Marylebone, and Castle-street; and a church in Spital-
fields, added upon the application of the consistory to James II. To these were successively added
twenty-six others, mostly founded during the reigns of William III., Queen Amie, and George I. :— That
of Leicester-fields, founded in 1688, of which Saurin was minister ; that of Spring-gardens, whose first
pastor was Francis Flahaut ; that of Glasshouse-square, formed in 1688 ; Swallow-street, Piccadilly,
1692; Berwick-street, 1689; Charenton, in Newport-market, 1701; West-street, Seven Dials, which the
refugees called the Pyramid, or the Tremblade; the Carre, Westminster, 1689; the Tabernacle, 1696;
Hungerfori 1689, which subsisted until 1832 ; the Temple of Soho, or the Patent, erected in 1689 ;
Kyder's-courc, 1700; Martin's-lane, City, 1686; St. James's, 1701; the Artillery, Bishopsgate, 1691;
Hoxton, 1748; St. John, Shoreditch, 1687; the Patent, in Spitalfields, or the New Patent, 1689; Cris-
pin-street, 1693; Peart-street, 1697; Bell-lane, Spitalfields, 1718; Swanfields, 1721; Wheeler-street,
bpitalfields, 1703; Petticoat-lane, Spitalfields, 1694; Wapping, 1711; Blackfriars, 1716. Several of
IS^r ^ ^^^^^ ultimately adopted the Anglican ritual.— Weiss' Hist. French Frotegfant Eefiiqees,
SCHOOLS, PUBLIG. 723
There are eight free foundation scholarships available as exhibitions to the Universities, in addition
to the ibllovving: the Times' scholarship {see Christ's Hospital, p. 99), three Beaufoy scholarships, the
Salomons scholarship, and the Travers' scholarship, and the Tegg scholarship (" Sheriff's Fine"), varying
from 35^. to 50Z. a year each ; and there are other valuable prizes determinable by examination at
Midsummer.
Upon the great staircase of the school is a statue, by Nixon, of John Carpenter,
in the costume of his period ; he bears in his left hand his Liber Alhus, a collection of
the City laws, customs, and privileges, compiled in 1419, and still preserved in the
Corporation archives; translated 1861. The statue is placed upon a pedestal inscribed
with a compendious history of the founder, and his many benevolent acts,*
Meecees' School, College-hill, Dowgate, was founded and endowed by the
Mercers' Company, for seventy scholars of any age or place. It is mentioned as early
as 1447, and was then kept at the Hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon ; but was removed
to St. Mary Colechurch, next the Mercers' Chapel. After the Great Fire of 1666,
the school-house was rebuilt on the west side of the Old Jewry. In 1787 it was
removed to 13, Budge-row ; in 1804, to 20, Red Lion-court, Watling-street ; and from
thence, in 1808, to premises on College-hill. The present scliool, designed by George
Smith, is an elegant stone structure (adjoining St. Michael's Church), on the site of
Whittington's Almshouses, removed to Highgate to make room for it. The education,
classical and general, is free ; the boys being selected in turn by the Master and three
Wardens of the Mercers' Company. Among the early scholars were Dr. Colet, Sir
Thomas Gresham, and Bishop Wren.
Merchant Tayloes' School, Suffolk-lane, Cannon-street, was founded in 1561 1^
the Merchant Taylors' Company, principally by the gift of 500^., and other sub-
scriptions by members of the Court of Assistants, among whom was Sir Thomas White,
sometime Master of the Company, and who had recently founded St. John's College,
Oxford. With these funds was purchased part of " the Manor of the Rose," a palace
originally built by Sir John Poultney, Knt., five times Lord Mayor of London, in the
reign of Edward III.; the estate successively belonged to the I)e la Pole or Suffolk
family (whence Suffolk-lane), and the Staffords, Dukes of Buckingham :
" The Duke being at the Kose, withui the parish
Saint Lawrence Poultney." — Shakspeare, Henri/ VIII, act i. sc. 2.
Hence, also, " Duck's-Foot-lane" (the Duke's foot-lane, or private way from the
garden to the Thames), which is hard by. These ancient premises were destroyed in
the Great Fire of 1666, and the present building was erected on the same site, in
1675, by Wren : it is a large brick edifice, with pilasters ; the upper school-room, and
library adjoining, supported by stone pillars, forming a cloister; there are also other
rooms, and the head master's residence. The boys are admitted at any age, on the
nomination of the forty members of the Court of the Company in rotation ; and the
scholars may remain until the Monday after St. John the Baptist's Day preceding
their nineteenth birth. Hebrew, Greek, and Latin have been taught since the
foundation of the school ; mathematics, writing, and arithmetic were added in 1829,
and French and modern history in 1846. The boys are entitled to thirty-seven out of
the fifty fellowships at St. John's College, Oxford, and several other exhibitions at both
the Universities ; the election to which takes place annually on St. Barnabas' Day,
June 11, when the school prizes are also distributed: there is another speech-day,
*' Doctors' Day," in December. Plays were formerly performed by the Merchant
Taylors' boys, who, in 1664, acted Beaumont and Fletcher's Love's Pilgrimage in the
Company's Hall, but under order that this " should bee noe precident for the future.'*
Amongst the eminent scholars educated at Merchant Taylors' were, Bishops Andrewes, Dove, and
Tomson, three of the translators of the Bible; Archbishop Juxon, who attended Charles 1. to the seal-
fold ; Bishop Hopkins (of Londonderry) ; Archbishops Sir William Dawes, Gilbert, and Boulter ; Bishop
Van Mildert, and eleven other prelates ; Titus Gates, who contrived the " Popish Plot ;" James
* At the expense of John Carpenter was "artificially and richly painted" the Dance of Death upon
the north cloister of St. Paul's, and thence called the " Dance at Paul's." It consisted of a long train
of all orders of mankind; each figure having for a partner the spectral Death leading the sepulchral
dance, and shaking the last sands from his hour-glass : intended as a moral memorial of the Plague and
■Famine of 1133. Among Carpenter's property is a lease of premises in Cornhill, granted by the City, lor
eighty years, at the annual service of a red rose for the first thirty years, and a yearly rent of 20«. for
the remainder of the term.
3 a2
724 . CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Whitelock, Justice of the King's Bench ; Bulstrode Whitelock, who wrote his Memorials ; Shirley,
the dramatic poet, contemporary with Massinger; Charles VVheatley, the ritualist; Neal, the historian
of the Puritans; Edmund Calamy, and his grandson Edmund, the Nonconformists— the former died in
1666, from seeing London in ashes after the Great Fire; the great Lord Clive; Dr. Vicesimus Knox, one
of the " British Essayists;" Dr. William Lowth, the learned classic and theologian; Nicholas Amhurst,
associated with Bolingbroke and Pulteney in the Craftsman ; Charles Mathews, the elder, comedian;
Liout.-Col. Denham, the explorer of central Africa; and J. L. Adolphus, the barrister, who wrote a
Mistory of the Eeign of George III. Also, Sir John Dodson, Queen's Advocate ; Sir Henry Ellis, and
Samuel Birch, of the British Museum ; John Gough Nichols, F.S.A. ; Albert Smith, litterateur.
St. Olave's and St. John's Free Geammae-School (originally St. Olave's) was
founded by the inhabitants in 1561 ; and endowed, among other property, with the
" Horseydowne" field, at the yearly rent of a red rose, which is paid by the Church-
wardens and Overseers previously to the annual commemoration sermon on Nov, l7,
by pi'esenting to each of the School Governors a nosegay of tiowers with a rose in it.
The School originated in the bequest of a wealthy brewer named Leeke, who in 1561
left 8^. a-year for a free school in St. Savyor's, which bequest, however, was to go to
St. Olave's, if within two years of his death a school should be built and established
there. St. Olave's contrived to secure the legacy j and in 1 567 the scho^jl was made
free, and incorporated by Queen Elizabeth; charter extended by Charles XL, 1674.
In 1579, Horseydowne (now Horselydown;, was passed over by the parish to the use
of the School. It was originally a large grazing field, down, or pasture, for horses and
cattle, containing about sixteen acres ; but having long since been covered with houses
erected on building leases, which have fallen in, the yearly income of the School from
this source is upwards of 2000Z. The old school, in Churchyard-alley, was taken down
about 1830, for making the approaches to the new London Bridge, when a piece of
ground in Duke-street was granted by the City of London as a site for a new school ;
but this ground was exchanged with the London and Greenwich Railway Company for
a site in Bermondsey-street, where the school was rebuilt, and opened Nov. 17, 1835.
It was in the latest Tudor or Elizabethan style, of red brick, with an octangular
embattled tower, lantern-roofed ; James Field, architect. In 1849, this new building
being required for the enlargement of the terminus of the London, Brighton, and
South-Coast Railway Company, they paid a considerable sum of money for it, the
Governors undertaking to find another site for the school, and rebuild the same ; the
tuition being in the meantime carried on in a temporary building in Maze Pond.
The School is free to " children and younglings," rich or poor, inhabitants of St. Olave's and St.
John's parishes, admitted by presentation from the Governors. The Classical School consists of about
220 boys ; and the branch or English School, in Magdalen-street, and built in 1824, contains about 260
boys. The Governors also award annually four exhibitions at Oxford or Cambridge University, besides
apprentice-fees for poor scholars, and funds for other benevolent purposes. Commemoration-day,
Nov. 17 (accession of Elizabeth).
"The seal of the corporation, dated 1576, and distinguished by a rose displayed, the ancient cog-
nizance of Southwark, represents the master sitting in a high-backed chair at his desk, on which is a
book, and the rod is conspicuously displayed, to the terror of five scholars standing before him."— (?. R.
Corner, F. S. A.
St. Paul's School, east end of St. Paul's Churchyard, was founded in 1512, by Dr.
John Colet, son of Sir Henry Colet, mercer, and lord mayor in 1486 and 1495 ; and it
is " hard to say whether he left better lands for the maintenance of his school, or wiser
laws for the government thereoi" {Fuller). The school is for 153 boys of "every
nation, country, and class;" the 153 alluding to the number of fishes taken by St.
Peter {John xxi. 2). The education is entirely classical ; the presentations to the
school are in the gift of the Master of the Mercers' Company; and scholars are
admitted at fifteen, but eligible at any age. The original school-house was built
1508-12 : this was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt by Wren ; this
second school was taken down in 1824, and the present school built of stone from the
designs of George Smith : it has a handsome central portico upon a rusticated base,
projecting over the street pavement. The original endowment, and for several years
the only endowment of the school, was 55^ 14*. 10\d., the value of estates in Bucking-
liamshire, which now produce 1858^. 16^. 10\d. a-year ; and with other property make
the present income of the school upwards of 5000Z. Lilly, the eminent grammarian,
the friend of Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, was the first schoolmaster of St. Paul's,
and " Lilly's Grammar" is used to this day in the school : the EngHsh rudiments were
written by Colet, the prefiice to the first edition by Cardinal Wolscy; the Latin syntax
1
SCHOOLS, PUBLIC. 725
chiefly by Erasmus, and the remainder by Lilly. Colet directed that the children should
not use tallow but wax candles in the school ; 4c?. entrance-money for each was to be given
to the poor scholar who swept the school; and the masters were to have livery-gowns
" delivered in clothe." The present teachers consist of a high-master, salary 6181. per
annum, with spacious house ; sur-master, 307 Z. ; under-master, or ancient chaplain,
2271. ; assistant-master, 257^. : the last master only having no house. The scholars'
only expense is for books and wax tapers. There are several very valuable exhibitions,
decided at the Apposition, held in the first three days of the fourth week after Easter,
when a commemorative oration is delivered by the senior boy, and prizes are presented
from the governors. In the time of the founder, the "Apposition dinner^' was "an
assembly and a litell dinner, ordayned by the surveyor, not exceedynge the pryce of four
nobles."
In the list of eminent Paulines are — Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Paget, privy councillors
to Henry VIII.; John Leland, the antiquary; John Milton, our great epic poet ; Samuel Pepys, the
diarist; John Strype, the ecclesiastical historian ; Dr. Calamy, the High Churchman; the great Duke
of Marlborough : E. W. EUistou, the comedian : Sir C. Mansfield Clarke, Bart. ; Lord Chancellor
Truro, &c.
On Apposition Day, June 4, 1851, were announced these three additional prizes : 1. "The Chancellor's
Prize," by Lord Truro, lOOOZ. ; the interest to be applied in awarding a gold medal, value ten guineas,
and a purse of twenty guineas, or books to that amount, each yearly Apposition, to the author of the
best English Essay. 2. " The Milton Prize," by Sir C. M. Clarke, Bart., for English Verses on a sacred
subject, annually. 3. "The Thurston Memorial," an annual prize for a copy of Latin Lyrics, given by
the parent of a student named Thurston, recently deceased ; the High Master to apply a portion of the
endowment to keeping up the youth's gravestone in the Highgate Cemetery.
St. Saviour's Geammae-School, Sumner-street, Southwark-Bridge-road, was re-
built 1830-9, nearly adjoining St. Peter's Church. The school was founded by
parishioners in 1562, and chartered by Queen Elizabeth ; the original endowment being
40^. a-year. The scheme, approved by the Court of Chancery in 1850, provides six
governors to manage the school property ; the instruction to comprise religion, classical
learning, English composition, grammar, arithmetic, history, geography, mathematics,
&c., subject to the approval of the Bishop of Winchester ; the head master to be a Master
of Arts, and to be appointed in conformity with the statutes of 1614. Small prizes are
adjudged yearly, and there are two University exhibitions. Among the olden rules for
the choice of a master are the following :
The master to be " a man of a wise, sociable, loving disposition, not hasty or furious, or of any ill
example ; he shall be wise and of good experience, to discern the nature of every several child ; to w'ork
upon the disposition for the greatest advantage, benefit, and comfort of the child ; to learn with the
love of his book." It was necessary then, as now, to add, " if such an one may be got." — The corpora-
tion seal represents a pedagogue seated in a chair, with a group of thickly-trussed pupils before him ;
date, 1573.
The original school-house, on the south side of St. Saviour's churchyard, was burned in
1676, but was immediately rebuilt : it had a richly-carved doorway-head. This build-
ing was taken down after the erection of the new school in Sumner-street. Among the
donations is 500^. by Dr. W. Heberden, the celebrated physician, who is said to have
been partly educated in the school.
Westminsteb, School (St. Peter's College), Dean's-yard, was originally founded
by Henry VIII., on the remodelling of the Abbey establishment j but inadequately
supported until 1560, when Elizabeth restored its revenues, and the foundation of an
Uppt^r and Lower Master, and 40 scholars, and gave the present statutes. The
College consists of a Dean, 12 Prebendaries, 12 Almsmen, and the above 40
" Queen's Scholars," with a Master and Usher ; maintained, since the Kestoration, by
the common revenues of St. Peter's Collegiate Church (the Abbey), at 12,OO0Z. a year.
These scholars wear a cap and gown ; and there are four " Bishop's boys," educated
free, who wear a purple gown, and have 60Z. annually amongst them. Besides this
foundation, a great number of sons of the nobility and gentry are educated here. Of
the Queen's Scholars, an examination takes place on the first Tuesday after Rogation
Sunday, when four are elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, and four to Christ
Church, Oxford ; scholarships about 60Z. a year. The scholars from the 4th, 5th, and
Shell Forms " stand out" in Latin, Greek, and grammatical questionings, to fill up the
vacancies on the Wednesday before Ascension Day; when the " Captain of the Election"
is chaired round Dean's-yard. There are other funds available to needy scholars.
726 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Anj boy may enter at Westminster School ; the entire annual charges (including board and lodging)
are from 76 to 83 guineas ; or if he board and lodge at home, 25 guineas. From the boarders are elected
the Queen's Scholars, who, after four years' residence, have the chance of obtaining good scholarships;
they are charged about 40Z. a year.
The entrance to the school-court, Little Dean's-yard, is under a low groined gate-
way : the school-porch is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones ; and adjoining is
the paved racket-court. The venerable School was once the dormitory of the monks :
it is 96 feet long and 34 feet in breadth, and has a massive open chestnut roof; at one
end is the Head Master's table, and four tiers of forms are ranged along the east and
western walls.* The Upper and Lower Schools are divided by a bar, which formerly
bore a curtain : over this bar on Shrove Tuesday, at 11 o'clock, the College cook,
attended by a verger, having made his obeisance to the Masters, proceeds to toss a
pancake into the upper school, once a warning to proceed to dinner in the Hall.
Upon the walls are inscribed many great names ; in the library is preserved part of the
form on which Dryden once sat, and on which his autograph is cut.
In the Ce7isus Alum7wrum, or list oi foundation scholars, are Bishops Overall and Ravis, translators
of the Bible ; Hakluyt, collector of Voyages; Gunter, inventor of the Scale; "Master George Herbert;"
the poets Cowley and Dryden; South; Locke; Bishops Atterbury, Sprat, and Pearce; Prior and
Stepney, poets and statesmen; Rowe and " Sweet Vinny Bourne," the poets; Churchill, the satirist;
Warren Hastings; Colman the Elder; Everard Home, surgeon; Dr. Drury, of Harrow School, &c.
Among the other eminent persons educated here were Lord Burghley ; Ben Jonson ; Nat Lee ; Sir
Christopher Wren ; Jasper Mayne, the poet ; Barton Booth, the actor, Blackmore, Browne, Dyer, Ham-
mond, Aaron Hill, Cowper, and Southey, the poets ; Home Tooke ; Gibbon, the historian ; Cumberland,
the dramatist; Colman the Younger; Sir Francis Burdett; Harcourt, Archbishop of York; the third
Marquis of Lansdowne ; Lord John Russell ; the Marquis of Anglesey ; Sir John Cam Hobhousc (Lord
Broughton), &c.
Among the eminent Masters are Camden, " the Pausanias of England," who had Ben Jonson for a
scholar; and Dr. Busby, who had Dryden, and who, out of the bench of Bishops, taught sixteen.
Between the years 1810 and 1856 only seven officers of the British army (royalty excepted) rose to tlie rank
of Field Marshal. Of these seven, five were brought up at Westminster, one at Eton, and one at a private
school. The five Westminster boys were — Thomas Grosvenor, Henry Paget, John Byng, Stapleton
Cotton, and Fitzroy Somerset; the Etonian was Arthur Wellesley; and the seventh, Henry Hardinge.
The College Hall, originally the Abbot's refectory, was built by Abbot Litlington,
temp. Edward III. : its dimensions are 47 feet by 27^ feet in width ; the floor is paved
with chequered Turkish marble ; at the south end is a musicians' gallery, now used as
a pantry, and behind are butteries and hatches ; upon the north side, upon a dais, is
the high' table ; those below, of chestnut-wood, are said to have been formed out of the
wreck of the Armada ; and the roof-timbers spring from carved corbels, with angels
bearing shields of the Confessor's and Abbot's arms. A small louvre rises above the
central hearth, upon which, in winter, a charcoal fire used to burn until 1850. The
Library is a modern Italian room, and contains memorials of the attachment of " West-
minsters." The old dormitory, built in 1380, was the granary of the monastery ; and
was replaced by the present dormitory in 1722, from the designs of the Earl of Bur-
lington : it is 161 feet long by 25 feet broad, and its walls are inscribed with names.
Here Latin plays are represented upon the second Thursday in December, and the
Monday before and after that day ; those acted of late years were the Andria, Phor-
mio, Munuchus, and Adelphi, of Terence, with Latin prologue and epilogue.f Warton
mentions, " this liberal exercise is yet preserved, and in the spirit of true classical
purity, at the College of Westminster." The scenery was designed by Garrick j the
modem dresses formerly used were exchanged for Greek costume in 1839. Boating is
a favourite recreation of the Westminsters, who have often contested the championship
of the Thames with Eton. On May 4, 1837, the Westminsters won a match at Eton.
There exists to this day, at Chiswick, the house which was purchased as a retiring-place for the
Master and scholars of Westminster : it was for many years well known as " The Chiswick Press,"
having been long occupied by Mr. Whittingham, and previously by his uncle, who there executed
many works of remarkable typograpliical beauty. The present tenant is bound, as were Messrs. Whit.
• The basement story beneath the school serves as an undercroft, has semicircular groined Saxon
arches, considered to be of the time of Edward the Confessor, whose steward, Hugolin, was buried
here. Here is deposited the standard money, which, when there is a new Master of the Mint, is taken
out to be carried to the Exchequer, for a Trial of the Pix. The outer doors have seven locks, each lock
a different key, and each key a diflerent possessor ; so that the seven holders assemble on the above
occasion. The last trial of the Pix was in 1851, on the admission of Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., to
the Mastership of the Mint, which office was held by Sir Isaac Newton from 1699 until 1728.
t These performances superseded the old Mysteries and Moralities in the reign of Queen Mary,
when the boy-actors were chiefly the acolytes who served at mass.
SEWAGE OB DRAINAGE. 727
tingham, to vacate it at a day's notice in the event of its being required for the " Sick scholars of
Westminster." A large field at the back of the house, known as " The Home Field," is held upon the
same condition.
(See The Great Schools of England, by Howard Staunton, 1865.)
SEWAGE OR DRAINAGE.
A SEWER is, according to Lord Coke, a place where water issues ; or as is said
vulgarly, "suer," whence the word suera or sewer. Callis derives it from the
Saxon sce-ivcBer, that is — a sea fence, a protection against sea-tides ; but this derivation
is ill-founded. The subject is too large for treatment here ; but we may note that
the Institution of Civil Engineers recognise the Commissioners of Sewers as first in-
stituted in the reign of Henry VI., when they acted in every part of the country,
having jurisdiction on the borders of tidal rivers. Their duties were to repair sea or
river banks, and to keep the main drains and outfalls of level districts in repair, and
keep them clear for the passage of water.
The first general measure was the " Bill of Sewers,'* in 1531 j superseded, in
1848, by the "Metropolitan Commission of Sewers," whose jurisdiction extended 12
miles round St. Paul's, and for whom a new block plan of the metropolis was prepared
by the Ordnance Ofiice. By this map, the sewerage amounted to upwards of 7 millions
of cubic feet on the north side of the Thames, and nearly 2\ millions on the south side.
The great receptacle was the Thames ; and of the new system, from 1848 to 1854,
there were constructed 80 miles of brick sewers, and 346 miles of pipe-drainage. The
oldest and largest sewer is the Fleet Sewer, which drains, or drained, by collateral
sewers, an area six or seven times the size of the City of London. {See p. 348.)
The new Main Drainage, by Mr. Bazalgette, engineer, has been executed by the
Metropolitan Board of Works. As much as possible of the sewage is removed by
gravitation ; and for this purpose there are three lines of sewers at each side of the
Thames, termed respectively High, Middle, and Low Level. The two former dis-
charge by gravitation ; but pumping is required for the third ; and for this purpose
double-acting rotative beam engines, with plunger and ram-pumps, have been adopted.
The intercepting plan, as its name implies, consists in cutting three great main drains on both sides
of the river, and which, instead of running due north and south like the former system, run-frora west
to east. These great main lines intercept and cut off all the existing lines of drains from the river,
carry their contents away down below Barking Creek and Erith Marshes, where they are poured into
gigantic reservoirs, and afterwards, when deodorized, turned into the river at high tide, and swept away
by the ebb almost to sea. Thus, the sewage is not only turned out free from smell, but turned out into
a body of water nearly thirty times as great as that into which it used to be poured, and becomes lost
in the volume of water which rolls down between the marshes on each side of the river to far below
Gravesend. The maximum quantity of sewage to be lifted by the engines at Crossness Point will ordi-
narily be about 10,000 cubic feet per minute : but during the night tliat quantity will be considerably
reduced, while, on the other hand, it will be nearly double on occasions of heavy rainfall. These
works were publicly opened by the Prince of Wales April 4, 1867. The High Level, on the
north side, is about eight miles in length, and runs from Hampstead to Bow, being at its rise
4 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and thence increasing in circumference as the waters ol the sewers it inter-
cepts require a wider course, to 5 feet, 6 feet, 7 feet, 10 feet 8 inches, 11 feet 6 inches; and at its termi-
nation, near Lea Kiver, to 12 ft. 6 in. in diameter. Its minimum fall is 2 feet in the mile ; its maximum
at the beginning, nearly 50 feet in the mile. It is laid at the depth of from 20 feet to 26 feet below the
ground, and drains an area of fourteen square miles. The Middle Level, as being lower in the valley
on the slope of which London is built, is laid at a greater depth, varying from 30 feet to 36 feet, and
even more, below the surface. This extends from Kensal Green to Bow. The Low Level will extend
from Cremorne to Abbey Mills, on the marshes near Stratford, and one portion of it will pass through
the Thames Embankment. At Bow, the Low Level waters of the sewer will be raised by engines at a
pumping station to the junction of the High and Middle Level ducts, thence descending by their own
gravity through these tunnels to the main reservoir and final outfall at Barking. On the south side of
the Thames the three great sewer arteries are constructed on similar plans— the High Level from Dul-
wich to Deptford; the Middle from Clapham to Deptford; and the Low Level from Putney to Dcptford.
At this point is a pumping station, which raises the water from the low to the high level, whence it
flows away through a 10 feet tunnel to Crossness Point. One part of this tunnel, passing under
Woolwich, is a mile and a half in length, without a break, and driven at a depth of 80 feet from the
surface. At the outfall another pumping station lifts the water to the reservoir. The southern reservoir
is only five acres in extent ; that on the north is fourteen. In the reservoir takes place the deodorisation.
The two culverts which carry the sewage to the east and west pumping stations are as large almost as
railway tunnels. Before the entrance to the pumps are massive iron strainers, which keep out all
the coarse rel'use brought down the sewer, and which is afterwards dredged up by the filth hoist into
the filth chamber, which is flushed into the river at low water.
There are now about 1300 miles of sewers in London, and 82 miles of main inter-
cepting sewers. Three hundred and eighteen millions of bricks and 880,000 cubic
728 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
yards of concrete have been consumed, and three and a half million cubic yards of
earth have been excavated in the execution of these main drainage works. The total
pumping power employed is 2380 nominal horse-power ; and if at full work night
and day 44,000 tons of coal per annum would be consumed. The sewage, north
of the Thames, at present (1867) amounts to 10,000,000 cubic feet a day, and on
the south side to 4,000,000 cubic feet per day ; but provision is made for an antici-
pated increase up to 11 J millions on the north side, and 5f millions on the south side,
in addition to 28^ million cubic feet of rainfall per diem on the north side, and Vl^
million cubic feet per diem on the south side, or a total of 63 million cubic feet per
diem, which is equal to a lake of 482 acres, 3 feet deep, or fifteen times as large as
the Serpentine in Hyde Park. The cost of these stupendous works had, in 1867, only
amounted to little more than 4,000,000/.
SHERIFFS.
THAT London had its Sheriffs, or " Bailiffs," as they were originally styled (or
Shire Reve, scygerefa, from the Saxon reafan, " to levy, to seize") prior to the
Norman Conquest, is attested by William the Conqueror's second charter being
addressed to William the Bishop and Sweyn the Sheriff. The union of the sheriffwick
of London and Middlesex took place in the reign of Henry I., of whom the citizens
purchased the power of electing the sheriff of Middlesex, " to farm for 300/. :"* the
mayor and citizens now hold the office in fee, and appoint two sheriffs for London,
which by charters is both a city and a county, though they make but one sheriff jointly
for the county of Middlesex. The third charter of King John and the first charter of
Henry TIL minutely describe the sheriff^s office and duties. Any citizen is eligible,
unless he swear himself not worth 15,000?.; and no alderman can be chosen lord mayor
unless he has served as sheriff. A list of citizens is nominated on Midsummer-day,
when two are elected by the Livery in Common Hall. Much of the pomp and circum-
stance of past times incident to the ceremony are still maintained, and there is a good
deal about it that is sentimental and picturesque. The floor of the platform, as of old,
is still strewn over with cut flowers and green herbs, mint and thyme prevailing, and
each high City functionary, from the chief magistrate downwards, carries a bouquet of
flowers ; the persons chosen are obliged to serve, under a penalty of 400Z. and 20 marks;
and the lines paid within the present century have exceeded 70,000Z. In 1734 there
were fined 35 persons, and 11 excused. The fine is 413Z. Qs. Qd., with an additional
2.001. if the lesser fine is not paid within a certain time. In 1806 the fines amounted
to 10,306?. 135. 4t/., and to 9466?. 13*. U. in the year 1815. But the election is
sometimes contested, as in 1830, when there were six candidates. The sheriffs-elect
were formerly presented for approbation to the Cursitor Baron of Exchequer, as the
representative of the Sovereign : that being found most inconvenient, a short Act of
Parliament was passed to do away with the ceremony of presentation, but reserving
all the other ancient ceremonies, appointing the Barons, or their chief officer, the
Queen's Remembrancer, to see the ceremony performed, on the morrow of St. Michael,
as described at pp. 508-509. The numerous trusts of the sheriffs are mostly performed
by the under-sheriffs, but the State-duties by the sheriffs themselves. They receive
from the City about lOOOZ. during their year of office ; but the State and hospitality
they are expected to maintain usually cost each sheriff upwards of 2000 guineas : for
State-chariot, horses, and State-liveries ; the inauguration dinner. The mayor's ban-
quet, at Guildhall, on the 9th of each November, throws on the lord mayor and corpo-
ration but one-third of its cost; the remaining two-thirds devolve on the unhappy
sheriffs, although but eight of their private friends can be invited to the feast. The cost
of this is generally 800?. to each of the sheriffs, being 200?. for each of their guests :
the Old Bailey dinners {see p. 506) ; besides meat at the City prisons, which the sheriffs
* This fee-farm rent has long since been given away by the Crown, is now private property, and is
paid half-yearly by the sheriff. In the charters grranted to the City of London by Henry II., Richard I.,
and in the first charter of King John, no mention whatever is made of the sheriflwick. There are
many City ordinances for the office of sherilf, disobedience to which is in some cases marked by dis-
missal. A History of the Sheriffdom was published in 1723.
SEOEEDITCE. 729
superintend. The sheriffs are always sworn in on the eve of Michaehiaas-day, upon
which the Livery-men meet at Guildhall to elect the Lord Mayor for the ensuing year,
and their first duty is to take part in that ceremony. The first Jew sheriff was Mr.
David (now Alderman) Salomons, 1835 ; and the first Roman Catholic sheriff was Mr.
Richard Swift, M.P., 1851 : the latter was attended in State by a Ronnish priest as his
chaplain. A factious sheriff (Slingsby Bethel) is thus commemorated, as Shimei, by
Dry den :
" No Eechabite more shunn'd the fumes of wine ;
Chaste were his cellars, and his shrieval board
The grossness of a City feast abhorr'd ;
His cooks, with long disuse, their trade forgot —
Cool was his kitchen, though his brains were hot."
Absalom and AcMtophel.
One of the oldest shrievalty customs was that of the Lord Mayor drinking to persons
for nomination to the oflBce : it was revived in 1682, at the request of Charles II.,
with a factious object; when Sheriffs Shute and Pilkington were committed by the
King to the Tower, upon a false charge of riot. In 1685, Alderman and Sheriff Cor-
nish, being implicated in the Rye-house Plot, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at
the end of King-street, Cheapside, fronting his own house.
Sheriff Hoare has left a journal of his shrievalty, in 1740-41, in his own handwriting :
describing his investiture in his scarlet gown, the gold chain taken off the former
sheriff and put on him ; the delivery of the prisoners and prison-keys, and the keeper's
treat of sack and walnuts, Sept. 28th ; how the sheriffs, April 6th, entertained the
Exchequer officers with 52 calves'-heads, dressed in different manners ; how, Sept. 2nd
(anniversary of the Fire of London), the sheriffs went to St. Paul's, in their " black
gowns, and no chains, and heard a sermon ;" how, Sept. 8th, they went with the lord
mayor to proclaim Southwark Fair ; the Christ's Hospital treat of sweei cakes and
burnt toine, on St. Matthew's day (Sept. 21st) ; and sack and walnuts on Sept. 28th,
when the sheriff returned home, to his " great consolation and comfort." In the per-
mission granted to sheriffs to keep condemned prisoners in the Sheriffs' own houses, as
well as in the gaols, is thought to be traceable the origin of the " Sponging-house."
The Sheriffs' Fund was established by Sir Richard Phillips, sheriff 1807-8, who, in his Letter to the
Livery of London, tells us that, after a few visits to Newgate, he discovered so many well-founded
claims of a pecuniary nature on his charity, that it became impossible to meet a tenth part of them.
A Sheriff's Fund was therefore publicly announced, and the design was generally applauded, if not
generally aided ; though the Sheriff collected, in the course of the year, about 500Z., and assisted and
relieved many thousands of distressed individuals and their families, a trifling balance was handed over
to his successors in the Shrievalty. The Sheriffs' Fund, in 1867, amounted to nearly 13,000L
In 1840, Sheriffs Evans and Wheelton were imprisoned by the House of Commons
at Westminster, for an alleged breach of privilege.
ssoreditcb:,
AN ancient manor and parish, extending from Norton Folgate to Old-street, and from
part of Finsbury to Bethnal-green. It was originally a village on the Roman
military highway, called by the Saxons Eald (i.e.. Old) Street. Stow declaf es it to have
been called Soersditch more than 400 years before his time : and Weever states it to
have been named from Sir John de Soerdich, lord of the manor tetnp. Edward III.,*
and who was with that king in his wars with France. The legend of its being called after
Jane Shore dying in a ditch in its neighbourhood, is a popular error, traceable to a
black-letter ballad in the Pepys Collection, entitled. The Woful Lamentation of Jane
Shore, a Goldsmith's Wife in London, some time King Edward IV. his Concubine
" I could not get one bit of bread.
Whereby my hunger might be fed;
Nor drink, but such as channels yield.
Or stinking ditches in the field.
Thus, weary of my life at lengthe,
I yielded up my vital strength
• The same family of Soerdich, or Shordich, it is believed, possessed the manor of Tckenham,
near Uxbridge, and resided at Ickenham Hall, from the reign of Edward ILL to our own time. The
last of this family, Paul Ricaut Shordiche, civil engineer, grandson of Michael Shordiche, of Ickenham
Manor, died at Antigua, July 13, 1865.
730 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Within a ditch of loathsome scent,
Where carrion dogs did much frequent :
The which now, since my dying daye.
Is Shoreditch call'd, as writers saye."
But this ballad is not older than the middle of the l7th century ; and no mention is
made of Jane so dying in a ballad by Th. Churchyard, dated 1587. Dr. Percy erro-
neously refers Shoreditch to " its being a common sewer, vulgarly shore, or drain."
It is sometimes called Sorditch, which is the most correct, according to the above
explanation. An archer of this parish, named Barlo, was styled " Duke of Shoreditch "
by Henry VIII., for having outshot his competitors in a shooting match at Windsor ;
and the Captain of the Company of Archers of London was long after styled " Duke
of Shoreditch." In the Beaufoy Collection are four Shoreditch tokens, one with figures
of Edward IV. and his mistress ; and the sign of Jane Shore is extant at a public-
house in the High-street.
Shoreditch is the scene of another apocryphal tragedy j the old ballad laying here
the locus in quo of George Barnwell's dissipation, where lived Mrs. Millwood, who led
him astray :—
" George Barnwell, then quoth she,
Do thou to Shoreditch come.
And ask for Mrs. Millwood's house,
Next door unto the Oun."
Now, Shoreditch was formerly notorious for the easy character of its women ; and to
die in Shoreditch was not a mere metaphorical term for dying in a sewer. (^Cunning'
ham). See the story in Romance of London, vol. i. pp. 314 — 324. James Smith
wrote the ballad of " George Barnwell travestie ;" and Thackeray a famous caricature
romance, entitled " George de Barnwell."
Holywell Lane and Mount (" heightening of the ground for garden-plots," Stow),
and Holywell Row, m Shoreditch, are named from a holy well there ; and a house of
Benedictine nuns of that name, founded by a Bishop of London, and reouilt, with the
Church of St. John and the chapel, by Sir Thomas Level, of Lincoln's Inn, Treasurer
of the Household to King Henry VII., K.G., &c.
Sir Thomas Lovel was buried there June 8, 1525, "in a tombe of whyte marbell, on the southe syde
of the quyre of the saide churche."— (jBoofc of the College of Arms.) At his funeral there were present
the Bishop of London, Lord St. John, Sir Richard Wyngfield, and many others, nobles and gentlemen.
The Abbot of Waltham, the Prior of St. Mary Spital, four orders of friars, the Mayor and all the alder-
men of London, gentlemen of the Inns of Court, the Lord Steward, and all the clerks of London attended.
Part of the Chapel remains under the floor of the Old King John, and the stone doorway into the porter's
lodge of the Priory still exists. {Notes and Queries, No. 179.) Shoreditch Cross is believed to have
stood on the west side of Kingsland-road, and to have been demolished in 1642.
St. Leonard's Church, at the north end of Shoreditch, is described at p. 173. Near
ihe altar is a tablet to the memory of a descendant of the royal house of Hungary ;
and in the crypt is the noble altar-tomb of a descendant of the great John Corvinus
Huniades, whose son was elected King of Hungary. In the belfry are recorded several
feats of bell-ringing, including 16 March, 1777, when the " College Youths" performed
11,000 changes in eight hours, adding that their names would be handed down to
posterity, *' insaturated with glory." In the churchyard is buried Gardner, the
worm destroying doctor of Long Acre ; his tombstone inscribed, " Dr. John
Gardner's (intended) last and best bed-room." In 1811, a writ of arrest was served
by a sheriffs officer upon a dead body, as it was being conveyed to this churchyard ;
which occasioned Lord Ellenborougb to declare the process altogether illegal. In St.
Leonard's Church is some painted glass from one of the Priory windows. " Neare
thereunto are builded two publique houses for the acting and shewe of comedies,
tragedies, and histories, for recreation. Thereof one is called the Courtain, the other
the Theatre, both standing on the south-west toward the field." (Stow, 1st edit,
p. 349.) Hence the Curtain Theatre, built in Holy well-lane, and Curtain-road;
in the latter, at the Blue Last pubhc-house, porter is traditionally said to have been
first sold, about 1730.
A PubUc Hall has been built for St. Leonard's, facing Old-street, of Corinthian and
Doric architecture ; in the basement are the parochial offices ; and on the first-floor
the Great Hall, to hold 1800 persons. In 1854 were erected almshouses in Brunswick-
etreet, Hackney-road, for twenty aged women of the parish; the architecture is
SMITHFIELD. 731
Jacobean. The Great Eastern Railway crosses the main street, and near the station
is the first of the buildings erected by the trustees to whom the disposal of Mr, Pea-
body's munificent gift to the City of London was referred. Hard by is Colombia
Market, erected at the expense of Miss Burdett Coutts (see p. 558). Philanthropy
has long been at woi*k here, but much remains to be done.
The people of St. Philip's, Shoreditch, are types of a class which is no small one — the quiet poor, the
people who struggle earnestly to obtain subsistence out of the workhouse, who abstain from beggary,
and who are not brought under our notice by their crimes. This district of Bethnal-grecn seems to
consist almost wholly of such persons. A small space of ground is there covered with about fourteen
thousand of them, weavers, costermongers, and others, each family lodged in a single room. The mass
•of this population subsist upon earnings that average little more than threepence a-day, for the main-
tenance of each body, great and small, with shelter, food, and clothing. They are not squalid or
vicious, they will work their hearts away for the most miserable hire, they work and help each other,
they work and grieve and die. In this one district of St. Pliilip's, Shoreditch, which is but a little
island in the world of sorrow, there is work for thousands of warm-hearted people, who with scanty aid
may do great service. — Examiner, abridged,
SKINNER. STEUBT ANB SNOW-KILL,
SKINNER-STREET, extending fi-om Newgate-street to Holborn-hill, was built
about 1802, to avoid the circuit of Snow-hill, also called Snor, Snore, and Sorr-
hillj the projector of the Improvement was Alderman Skinner. Here was a large
seven-storied house, burnt down in 1813, estimated loss 25,000Z. At No. 41, William
Godwin, author of Caleb Williams kept a bookseller's shop, and published his juvenile
works under the name of Edward Baldwin : over his shop-door is an artificial stone
relief of Jilsop narrating his tables to children. Opposite No. 58, in 1817, was hung
Cashman the sailor, who had joined a mob in plundering the gunsmith's shop at the
above house.
In a shop -window on Snow-hill, Vandyke saw the picture by Dobson, which led him
to seek out the painter in a garret, and recommend him to Charles I. At the sign of
the Star, on Snow-hill, at the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, died
12th August, 1688, John Bunyan, author of the JBilgrim^s Progress, and was buried
in that friend's vault in Bunliill-fields burial-ground. At No. 37, King-street, Snow-
hill, was formerly the Ladies' Charity School, which was established in 1702, and
remained in the parish 145 years. Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson were subscribers to
this school ; and Johnson drew from it his story of Betty Broom, in The Idler. In
the school minutes, 1763, the ladies of the committee censured the schoolmistress for
listening to the story of the Cock-lane Ghost, and " desired her to keep her belief in
the article to herself." The School-house is No. 30, John-street, Bedford-row. Great
part of Skinner- street has been taken down in clearances for the Holborn- valley
and the Metropolitan Railway works.
smithfii:li),
ANCIENTLY just outside the City wall, was the great public walk of the citizens,
their race-course, and live market {see p. 561; vulgo, Smiffel). It was a
great field for quintain-matches, and was called " Ruffians' Hall," for its frays and
common fighting with sword and buckler, superseded by the deadly fight of rapier and
dagger. Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomeio Fair, speaks of " the sword and buckler
age in Smithfield " having but recently passed away ; and in the Two Angry Women
of Abingdon, 1599, complaint is made that "the sword and buckler fight begins to
grow out of use." The town-green had its chnnp of trees, " the Elms," which was
the place of public execution until the middle of the 13th century, when it was
removed to Tyburn. At the Elms suffered William Fitzosbert (Longbeard) ; here
** Mortimer was executed, and let hang two days and two nights, to be seen of the
people ;" and here perished the patriot Wallace, on St. Bartholomew's even, 1305 —
the place of blood being in Cow-lane, close to the end of St. John's-court. At Smith-
field, on Saturday, June 15th, 1381, Richard II. met Wat Tyler and his " shoeless
ribalds," the King towards the east, near St. Bartholomew's Priory, and the Commons
towards the west ; when Tyler, seizing the boy -king's horse, was stabbed by Walworth,
732 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
mayor of London ; and a few days after, Jack Straw, the second rebel in command,
was hanged at the Elms. But Smithfield has its sunnier epoch of jousts, tournaments,
and feats of arras. Here Edward III. commemorated the brilliant realities of Cressy
and Poictiers ; and here the doting monarch feasted Alice Pierce (" the lady of the
sun") with seven days' chivalric sports. Richard II. held "a great justing" here in
1390, when was " given first the badge of the White Hart, with golden chains and
crowns ;" and here, in 1396, the king celebrated his marriage by three days' tourna-
ment. In 1393 " certain lords of Scotland came into England, to get worship by-
force of arms in Smithfield" (Froissart). This was likewise the scene of ordeal com-
bats, when the place of battle was strewed with rushes : here was fought the whimsical
combat of Horner and Peter, as told by Holinshed, and dramatized by Shakspeare
{Kinff Henry VI., Part II.)
The reality is thus recorded in the Grei/ Friars* Chronicle, Hen. VI.: "xxv° A°' Thys yere was a
fyghtyng'e in Smythf'elde betwene ane armerar of fletstret and his servant, for worddes agenst the kynge,
whereof hys servant asseld hym; and the servant slew the master in the felde."
In the play of Senry VI. is the king's sentence :
*' The witch in Smithfield shall be bum'd to ashes."
The martyrology of Smithfield forms a still more terrible page of its history. Here
were burnt the martyrs, from John Rogers, " the protomartyr of the Marian persecu-
tion," in 1555, to Bartholomew Leggatt, in 1611, the last martyr who suffered at the
stake in England. Of the 277 persons burnt for heresy in the reign of Mary, the
great majority suffered in Smithfield : a large gas-light (in the middle of the pens)
denoted the reputed spot ; but the discovery in 1849 of some blackened stones, ashes,
and charred human bones, at 3 feet from the surface, opposite the gateway of St.
Bartholomew's Church, induces the belief that here was the great hearth of the bigot
fires. Charred human bones and ashes were also discovered, at 5 feet from the surface,
at the west end of Long-lane, in July, 1854. In Smithfield, likewise, poisoners were
*' boiled to death" by statute, in the reign of Henry VIII.
" xiij° A°* Thys yere was a man soddyne in a cautherne (boiled in a cauldron) in Smythfelde, and
lett up and downe dyvers tymes tyll he was dede, for because he wold a poyssynd dyvers persons."
"xxy° A°* This yere was a coke boylyd in a cauderne in Smythfeld, for he wolde a powsynd the
bishoppe of Rochester, Fycher, with dyvers of hys servanttes ; and he was lockyd in a chayre, and pullyd
up and downe with a gybbyt, at dyvers tymes, till he was dede."
xxxiij° A°- The x day of March was a mayde boyllyd in Smythfelde, for poysyng of dyvers persons."
—Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, edited by J. Gough Nichols, F.S.A. Printed for the Camden
Society, 1852.
From this Chronicle we learn that the gallows was "set up at sent Bartylmewys gate."
The entries of burnings for " errysee " are also very numerous. Burning for other
crimes was, however, continued : Evelyn records, " 1652, May 10. — Passing by Smith-
field, I saw a miserable creature burning who had murdered her husband."
In Stow's time, the encroachments by " divers fair inns, and other buildings," had
left but a small portion of Smithfield for the old uses. After the Great Fire, the
houseless people were sheltered here in huts. Over against Pie-corner is Cock-lane :
Goldsmith's pamphlet respecting the Cock-lane ghost was first included in his collected
Works edited by Peter Cunningham, F.S.A., 1854. This ancient locality has been
much disturbed by the removal of the old market, and by railway encroachments.
Bartholomew Faie, held in Smithfield from the reign of Henry I. to our own
time, is described at p. 32-36. The Fair was finally abolished in 1853. The
Churches of St. Bartholomew and St. Bartholomew-the-Less are noticed at pp. 152, 153.
SMITRFIFLD, FAST,
BETWEEN Little Tower-hill and Ratcliff'-highway, was, according to Stow, before
the reign of King Stephen, made a vineyard by the Constables of the Tower,
being forcibly taken by them from the Priory of the Holy Trinity, within Aldgate.
Here Edward III. founded New Abbey, in 1359, called the White Order, and named
Eastminster. Spenser the poet is said to have been born in East Smithfield ; and here,
24th July, 1629, Charles I. killed a stag, which he had hunted from Wanstead, in
Essex, [stoio.) A plan of East Smithfield in Elizabeth's reign shows the site of an
ancient stone cross, and the stocks and cage.
SOCIETY OF ARTS. 733
SO CIETY OF ANTiq UAEIFS.
THE early history of this Society, from 1707, when the few memhers first met,
" upon pain of forfeiture of sixpence," is noted at page 530 : the plan was drawn
up by Humphrey Wanley; and the minutes date from Jan. 1, 1718, when the
members brought to the weekly meetings, coins, medals, seals, intaglios, cameos,
manuscripts, records, rolls, genealogies, pictures, drawings, &c. The first president
was Martin Folkes, 1751. The Society occupy apartments in Somerset House, formerly
the Koyal Society's. The president is Earl Stanhope, the accomplished historian.
Terms of admission reduced in 1853 from eight to five guineas entrance fee ; and from
four to two guineas annual subscription. The strict form of admission is by the
president or presiding officer placing upon his head a cocked-hat ; in one hand he holds
the Society's iron gilt mace, and with the other hand he welcomes the new Fellow,
saying : " By the authority and in the? name of the Society of Antiquaries of London, I
admit you a Fellow thereof." To the names of the members are usually appended
F.S.A. The Obligation Book contains the signatures of the leading antiquaries,
Fellows of the Society. The Society possess a Libeary, noticed at page 516 ; and a
Museum, see page 590. A synopsis of the contents of the Museum is presented to the
Fellows. The old paintings and memorials in the Meeting-room are curious.
The Society's Transactions (ArchcBologia), published annually, date from 1770. Among their other
publications are Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi., illustrating the Baieux tapestry; Folkes's Tables of
English Silver and Gold Coins ; Wardrobe-book of Edward I. ; Ordinances and Regulations of the Royal
Households, from Edward III. to William and Mary; Roy's Military Antiquities of the Romans in
Britam ; Account of the Collegiate Chapel of St. Stephen, at Westminster ; Accounts of the Cathedrals
of Exeter, Durham, and Gloucester, and of Bath and St. Alban's Abbey Churches ; Csedmon's Metrical
Paraphrase ot the Holy Scriptures in Anglo-Saxon. The Society have also published large historical
prints of the Field of the Cloth-of-Gold, 1520 ; Francis I.'s attempt to invade England, 1545 ; the Pro-
cession of King Edward VI. from the Tower to Westminster; Aggas's Plan of Loudon, &c.
80CIFTF OF ARTS.
*' rilHE Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,**
-L originated with William Shipley, a drawing-master, and brother to the Dean of
St. Asaph. With the concurrence of Jacob Viscount Folkestone, Robert Lord Romney,
and Dr. Maddox, Bishop of Worcester, the Society first met, March 29, 1754, at
Rawthmell's Coffee-house, Henrietta-street, Covent-garden : Shipley acting as Secretary j
and the plan of the Society being drawn up by William Baker, the microscopist.
Oliver Goldsmith took great interest in the early proceedings of the Society, in a
magazine published by Newbery j and the Doctor was a candidate for the secretary-
ship. Much attention was then bestowed upon "the polite arts:" among the first
objects was the offer of premiums for drawings by girls and boys under 16 years of
age. The Society next met, 1754-5, in apartments over a circulating-library in Crane-
court, Fleet-street ; next in Craig's-court, Charing-cross ; at the corner of Castle-
court, Strand; in 1759 they removed to a house (afterwards Dibdin's Sans Souci)
opposite Beaufort-buildings ; and next to their new house in John-street, Adelphi, in
1774. Presidents: Viscount Folkestone, 1755-1761; Lord Rodney, 1761-1793;
the Duke of Norfolk, 1793-1815 ; the Duke of Sussex, 1815-1843 ; Prince Albert,
1843-1861 ; and the present President, the Prince of Wales.
Uarly Awards of the Society. — The first prize to Richard Cosway, then 15. In 1758, Bacon, the
sculptor, for a small figure of Peace; and he gained 9 other high prizes ; 1761, Nollekens, for an alto-
rehevo of Jephtha's Vow, and in 1771 for a more important piece of sculpture; in 1768, Flaxman, and
in 1771 the Society's Gold Medal. Lawrence, when 13, received a silver-gilt palette and 5 guineas for
his crayon-drawing of the Trans flguration. In 1807, to Sir William Ross, then 12, a siver-gilt palette
for a drawing of Wat Tyler; in 1810, a similar reward to Sir Edwin Landseer for an etching ; and to
B. Wyon, in 1818, the Gold Medal for a medal die. Among the other recipients of prizes may be named
Allan Cunningham, Mulready, and Millais.
The first public Exhibition of the works of British Artists was held at the Society's
house in the Strand, in 1760: hence originated the Royal Academy, who, in 1776, with
Sir Joshua Reynolds at their head, refusing to paint the Society's Great Council-room
at the Adelphi, next year Barry, who had signed the refusal with the rest, volunteered
734 CURIOSITIES OF LOISTDOK.
to decorate the room without any remuneration at all : the pictures are described at
page 603 : the room is 47 feet in length, 42 feet in breadth, and 40 in height. Among
the prime objects of the Society were the application of Art to the improvement
of Design in Manufactures, now developed in "Art Manufactures ;'' the improvement of
Agriculture and Horticulture ; and in 1783 a reward was offered for a reaping-machine.
The Society has distributed more than 100,000Z. in premiums and bounties. The
growth of forest-trees was one of its early objects of encouragement ; and among the
recipients of its Gold Medal (designed by Flaxman) were the Dukes of Bedford and
Beaufort, the Earls of Winterton, Upper Ossory, and Mansfield; and Dr. Watson,
Bishop of Llandaff. Then came Agriculture, Chemistry, Manufactures, and Mechanics,
including tapestry and the imitation of Turkey carpets, Marseilles and India quilting,
spinning and lace-making, improved paper, catgut for musical instruments ; straw bon-
nets and artificial flowers. Among the Society's colonial objects were the manufacture
of potash and pearlash, the culture of the vine, the growth of silk- worms, indigo, and
vegetable oils. Very many rewards have been given by the Society to poor Bethnal-
green and Spitalfields weavers for useful inventions in their manufacture.
The Society's Libeaet is described at page ^525 ; and its Museum of Models, and
the Pictures and Sculpture, at pp. 603. Dr. Johnson says of Barry's paintings, " There
is a grasp of mind there which you will find nowhere else." The Society held the first
regular Exhibition of Useful Inventions in 1761, when a Mr. Bailey explained the seve-
ral articles to the visitors. The Premiums are annually presented in the Great Room,
where have been held Exhibitions of Decorative Art unequalled in this country. The
Society chiefly prepared the public mind for the Great Exhibition of 1851 ; and here
Mr. Paxton first developed his plan of its stupendous building, Nov. 13, 1850. Annual
Subscription to the Society, two guineas. Among the Special Prizes is the bequest of
Dr. Swiney of 100 guineas, in a Silver Cup of the same value, to be given every fifth
year for the best treatise on Jurisprudence ; the Cup, designed by D. Maclise, R.A., is
surmounted by figures of Justice, Vengeance, and Mercy ; in the centre is a niello of a
hall of justice; and at the base are four kneeling slaves. The Centenary of the Society
of Arts was celebrated July, 1854, by a banquet in the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.
For many years the office of Secretary was filled by Arthur Aikin, eldest son of Dr. Aikln, the friend
of John Howard, and brother of Lucy Aikin ; and who published a Manual of Mineralogy, Arts and
Manufactures, and a Chemical Dictionary. He died in 1854, aged 80, Among the Society's Vice-
Presidents was Thomas Hope, author of some tasteful works on costume, furniture, and decoration;
and whose house in Duchess-street was a model of artistic design (described at page 551) : liere was a
piece of carved furniture, which, many years after it was executed, was specially noticed by Sir Francis
Chantrey : on being asked the reason, he replied, " That was my first work."
80S0,
A DISTRICT north-east of Piccadily, extending to Oxford-street. Mr. Cunningham has
found the name " Soho" in the rate-books of St. Martin's as early as the year 1632 ;
thus invalidating the tradition by Pegge and Pennant, that Soho* being the watchword
at the battle of Sedgemoor, in 1685, it was given to King-square, in memory of the Duke
of Monmouth, whose mansion was upon the south side. The boundaries of Soho are
Oxford-street, north ; Crown-street, east ; King-street, south ; and Wardour-street and
Princes-street, west. Soho-square and the adjoining fields passed by royal grants to
the Earl of St. Albans, the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth, and the Earl of Portland ;
and the streets are named from this appropriation, or from their builders. The houses
in Soho-square and the streets adjoining are remarkably well built, and were tenanted
by nobility and gentry until our time. Carlisle House and Street, named from
having been the residence of the Earls of Carlisle, are described at p. 446 : here lived Bach
and Abel, the musical composers. GreeJc-street and Church-street are named from the
Greek Church in Crown-street. In Greek-street the elder Wedgwood had warerooms
before he removed to St. James's ; and Mr. (after Sir Thomas) Lawrence, R.A., was
living here in 1806. In Wardour-street (Old Soho) French Protestants were early
* ," ^°^° '^ ^^^ ^^™® ^^ ' ^''^y ^*"P' " (Booth's Analytical Diet.): hencc it may have been applied, in
the above mstance, to the extension of building in this direction, more especially as it was prohibited
by a proclamation in 1671.
SOMERSET HOUSE, OLD. 735
settlers, and probably brought the trade in foreign art. BertoicJc-street is described by
Hatton (1708) as " a kind of row; the fronts of the houses resting on columns, make a
small piazza." In Dean-street lived Sir James Thornhill, at No. 75, which has the
staircase-walls of his painting; and at No. 33 died young, in 1819, Harlowe, the
painter of the Trial of Queen Katharine. Gerard-street is named from Gerard, Earl
of Macclesfield, the owner of the site, formerly "the Military Garden" of Henry Prince
of Wales, eldest son of James I. {see p. 458) ; and Princes-street is built upon part of
the ground : here, in I7l8, lived Halley the astronomer. The landlord's title is also
preserved in Macclesjield- street. In Gerard House lived the profligate Lord Mohun.
At No. 43, Gerard- street, John Dryden resided with his wife. Lady Elizabeth Howard :
his study was the front parlour ; Dryden died here in 1700. In Gerard-street lived
Edmund Burke at the time of Warren Hastings' trial; and here at the Tur¥s Heady
(removed from Greek -street, where met the Loyal Association of 1745), Johnson, Sir
Joshua Eeynolds, and Burke founded the Literary Club in 1764 {see p. 251). Here a
Society of Artists met in 1753 ; and another Society, including West, Wilson, Wilton,
Chambers, Sandby, &c., who, from the Turk's Head, petitioned George III. to patronize
a Royal Academy of Art. In Gerard-street was formerly the chief receiving-house of
the Twopenny Post. Compton-street was built in the reign of Charles II., by Sir
Francis Compton; and New Compton-street was first named Stiddolph-street, after
Sir Richard Stiddolph, the owner of the land. — Dr. Rimbault, in Notes and Queries^
No. 15. {See Squares : Soho.)
The Lion Brewery, in Soho, was formerly the property of the uncle of Sir Richard Phillips, who was
brought up in this establishment, to which he was heir. This prospective fortune did not, however,^
overcome his distaste for the business of a brewer ; and a passion for literature, particularly mathe-
matics and natural philosophy, led him, at the age of 17, to detach himself from his family connexions,.
and seek his own chance of life.
SOMERSET HOUSE, OLD,
OR, SOMERSET-PLACE, on the north side of the Strand, was commenced building
about 1547, by the Protector Somerset, maternal uncle of Edward VI. To
obtain space and materials, he demolished Strand or Chester's Inn, and the episcopal
houses of Lichfield, Coventry, Worcester, and Llandafi", besides the church and tower
of St. John of Jerusalem ; for the stone, also, he pulled down the great north
cloister of St. Paul's ; St. Mary's Church too was taken down, and the site became
part of the garden. The Duke's cofierer's account shows the building, in 1551, to have
cost 10,091^. (present money, 50,000Z.). The architect was John of Padua, contempo-
rary with Holbein ; and there is a plan of the house among Thorpe's drawings in the
Soane Museum; it was the first building of Italian architecture erected in England.
Stow describes it in 1603, as " a large and beautiful house, but yet unfinished." The
Protector did not inhabit the palace; for he was imprisoned in the Tower in 1549, and
beheaded in 1552. Somerset Place then devolved to the Crown, and was assigned by
Edward VI. to his sister the Princess Elizabeth.
" Feb. 1566-7, Cornelius de la Noyne, an alchymist, wrought in Somerset House, and abused many
in promising to convert any raetall into gold."— Lord Burghley'g Notes.
In 1570, Qaeen Elizabeth went to the Royal Exchange, " from her house at the
Strand, called Somerset House ;" it also occurs as " Somerset Place, beyond Strand
Bridge." The Queen lent the mansion to her kinsman. Lord Hunsdon, whose guest
she occasionally became. At her death, the palace was settled as a jointure-house of
the queen-consort ; and passed to Anne of Denmark, queen of James I., by whose
command it was called Benmarlc House. Inigo Jones erected here " new buildings and
enlargements." Here the remains of Anne and James I. lay in State. For Henrietta
Maria, queen of Charles I,, Inigo Jones built a chapel, with a rustic arcade and Corin-
thian columns, facing the Thames; and here the Queen established a convent of
Capuchin friars ; in the passage leading from east to west, under the quadrangle of
the present Somerset House, are five tombstones of the Queen's attendants.
From a manuscript inventory in the library of Mr. Gough, " the chappel goods at Somerset House"
were numerous and costly. Of the goods and furniture appraised in 1649,' the arras hangings and
tapestry were of great value; the state-beds, pavilions, canopies, cloths-of-state, carpets, mantles, table-
linen, &c., were very rich : one of the beds of embroidered French satin was valued at 1000^. Among
736 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the pictures were the Madonna by Raphael, valued at 2000Z. ; a Sleeping Venus by Correggio, at
1000^.; and many by Titian, And. del Sarto, Julio Romano, Guido, Correggio, Giorgione, Vandyke, &c.
Of the tenements " belonging unto Somerset House" (20 inns), the Bed iio», nearly opposite, in
the Strand, is the only remaining one among the signs in the list : the sculptured sign-stone is built
into the house No. 342, Strand.
Iriigo Jones died here in 1652. During the Protectorate, the altar and chapel were
ordered to be burnt ; and in 1659 the palace was about to be sold for 10,000Z. ; but
after the Restoration, the Queen-mother Henrietta returned to Somerset House, which
she repaired; hence she is made to exclaim, in Cowley's courtly verse:—
" Before my gate a street's broad channel goes.
Which still with waves of crowding people flows j
And every day there passes by my side,
Up to its western reach, the London tide,
The spring-tides of the term. My front looks down
On all the pride and business of the town."
Waller's adulatory incense rises still higlier :
" But what new mine this work supplies ?
Can such a pile from ruin rise ?
This like the first creation shows.
As if at your command it rose."
Upon her Majesty's New Buildings at Somerset Souse.
Here was introduced into England the inlaying of floors with coloured woods.
Pepys gossips of " the Queen-mother's court at Somerset House, above our own Queen's ;
mass in the chapel; the garden; and the new buildings, mighty magnificent and
costly," " stately and nobly furnished ;" and " the great stone stairs in the garden,
with the brave echo." The Queen-mother died abroad in 1669. In 1669-70 the
remains of Monk, Duke of Albemarle, " lay for many weeks in royal state" at Somerset
House ; and thence he was buried with every honour short of regality. Thither the
remains of Oliver Cromwell were removed from Whitehall in 1658, and were laid in
State in the great hall of Somerset House, " and represented in effigy, standing on a
bed of crimson velvet ;" he was buried from thence with great pomp and pageantry,
which provoked the people to throw dirt, in the night, on his escutcheon that was
placed over the great gate of Somerset Place ; his pompous funeral cost 28,000Z. On
the death of Charles II., in 1685, the palace became the sole residence of the Queen
Dowager, Catherine of Braganza ; and in 1678 three of her household were charged
with the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, by decoying him into Somerset House,
and there strangling him. {See Peimkose Hill, p. 692.) The Queen had here a small
establishment of Capuchins, who inhabited " the New Friary," as did the Capuchins
in Henrietta Maria's time, " the Old Friary ;" both are shown in a plan 1706.
Strype describes the palace about 1720 ; its front with stone pillars, its spacious
square court, great hall or guard-room, large staircase and rooms of State, larger courts,
and " most pleasant garden ;" the water-gate with figures of Thames and Isis ; and the
water-garden, with fountain and statues. Early in the last century, court masquerades
were given here : Addison, in the Freeholder, mentions one in I7l6 ; and in 1763 a
splendid fete was given here by Government to the Venetian Ambassador. In 1771,
the Royal Academy had apartments in the palace, granted by George III. In 1775,
Parliament settled upon Queen Charlotte Buckingham House, in which she then resided,
in lieu of Old Somerset House, which was given up to be demolished, for the erection upon
the site of certain public offices ; the produce of the sale of Ely House being applied
towards the expenses. The chapel, which had been opened for the Protestant service,
by order of Queen Anne, in l7ll, was not closed until 1777. The venerable court-way
from the Strand, and the dark and winding steps which led down to the garden
beneath the shade of ancient and lofty trees, were the last lingering features of
Somerset Place, and were characteristic of the gloomy lives and fortunes of its royal
and noble inmates. " The best view of the ancient house is preserved in the Dulwich
Gallery."— CAarZes Heed, F.S.A.
SOMFESET SOUSE
rVCCUPIES the site of the old palace, an area of 800 feet by 500, or a few feet less
V-' than the ai ea of Russeli-square. It is the finest work of Sir William Chambers:
SOMERSET HO USE. 737
the first stone was laid in 1776 ; and the Strand front, 7 stories high, was nearly
completed in 1780.* It consists of a rustic arcade basement of 9 arches, supporting
Corinthian columns, and an attic in the centre, with a balustrade at each extremity ;
the whole in Portland stone. The key-stones of the arches are colossal masks of
Ocean, and the eight great rivers of England, — the Thames, Humber, Mersey, Medway,
Pee, Tweed, Tyne, and Severn — sculptured by Carlini and Wilton. In the frieze of
the three middle windows are medallions of George III., his queen, and the Prince of
Wales. In the attic are statues of Justice, Truth, "Valour, and Temperance j the
summit being surmounted by the British Arms, supported by Fame and the Genius of
England. The vaultings of the vestibule are enriched with sculptures from the
antique, and are supported by two ranges of coupled Doric columns. On the east side
are the entrances to the apartments of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries,
the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Geological Society ; and on the west were
those of the Royal Academy, subsequently of the School of Design, next of the Uni-
versity of London Board. Over the central doorway, east, is a bust of Newton ;
west, of Michael Angelo ; by Wilton, R.A.
Facing the vestibule is a massive bronze group of George III. leaning upon a
rudder, backed by the prow of a Roman (!) vessel, and a couchant lion; and at the
monarch's feet is a figure of the Thames, with an urn and cornucopia : the work of
John Bacon, R.A. ; cost 2000Z.
The inner side of the Strand front has in the attic statues of the four quarters of
the globe ; and over the centre are the British Arms, supported by marine deities
holding a festoon of netting filled with fish, &c. Ornaments of antique altars and
sphinxes screen the chimneys; and on the key-stones are sculptured masks of tutelar
deities.
The east, west, and south sides of the edifice are Government Offices, which occupy,
besides the superstructure, two stories below the general level of the quadrangle, the
passages to which are skilfully contrived. The centre of the south side is enriched
with Corinthian columns and pilasters, and a pediment with a bas-relief of the arms
of the navy of Great Britain, a sea-nymph, sea-horses, and tritons ; trophies, vases, &c.
• The Thames front, 800 feet in length, is in the Venetian style, and is enriched with
columns, pilasters, pediments, &c. : at each extremity is an archway opening to
Somerset-place on the west, and King's College on the east ; the latter built by Sir
Robert Smirke, in 1829, in accordance with Chambers's design. In each end a portico
stands on the summit of a semicircular arch, the bases of two out of its four columns
resting on the hollow part, giving an air of insecurity intolerable in architecture.
The Terrace is 50 feet in width, and raised 50 feet above the bed of the river, upon
a massive rustic arcade, which has a central water-gate surmounted with a colossal
mask of the river Thames. The side arches are flanked by rustic columns, and sur-
mounted by stone couchant lions, between 8 and 9 feet in length. The terrace is
skirted with a balustrade ; and here again is a colossal figure of the Thames. The
walk was formerly opened to the public on Sundays : the prospect includes the river,
with its magnificent bridges and picturesque craft; the city, with its domes, towers,
and spires ; the forest of masts ; and the Surrey hills on the south : recalling Cowley's
lines :
" Mj' other fair and most majestick face
(Who can the fair to more advantage place ?)
For ever gazes on itself below,
In the best mirrour that the world can show;
And here behold, in a long bending row,
How two joynt cities make one glorious bow ;
The midst, the noblest place, possessed by me ;
Best to be seen by all, and all o'ersee.
Which way soe'er I turn my joyful eye,
Here the grcdt Court, there the rich Town I spy.
On either side dwells safety and delight ;
Wealth on the left, and Power on the right."
In the quadrangle are the Admiralty Offices, where are the Model Room ; the
Audit Office, the Legacy Duty Office, and Inland Revenue Office (Stamps, Taxes, and
♦ Upon a brick in the wall of the western terrace, or Somerset-place, is cut E.* S. 1780.
3 B
738 CUEIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Excise). The mechanical stamping is executed in the basement : the presses for
stamping postage envelopes, by Edwin Hill, are the perfection of automatic machinery.
In Somerset-place, west, is the office of the Tithe Commission and of the Registrar-
General : to the latter are transmitted registers of a milhon births, deaths, and mar-
riages in a year.
Over the entrance to the Stamps and Taxes Office, on the south side, is a watch-face, popularly
believed to be the watch of a bricklayer, and placed there as a memorial of his life having been saved in
his fall, when the wall was building, by his watch-chain catching in some portion of the scaffold. Such
is the traditional story ; but the watch-face was really put up some forty years since as a meridian-
mark for a transit instrument in a window of the Koyal Society's ante-room, in the inner face of the
north front.
Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook of London, relates the following interesting circumstance, which
he was told by an old clerk on the establishment of the Audit Office, at Somerset House :— " When 1
first came to this building," he said, " I was in the habit of seeing, for many mornings, a thin, spare
naval officer, with only one arm, enter the vestibule at a smart step, and make direct for the Admiralty
over the rough, round stones of the quadrangle, instead of taking what others generally took, and
continue to take, the smooth pavement of the sides. His thin, frail figure shook at every step, and I
often wondered why he chose so rough a footway ; but I ceased to wonder when I heard that the thin,
frail officer was no other than Lord Nelson, who always took," continued my informant, " the nearest
way to the place he wanted to go to."
Telford, the engineer, when he came to London in 1782, got employed on the
quadrangle, then erecting by Sir William Chambers.
Somerset House is almost the only public building which distinguishes the reign of
George III. : it cost half a million of money by the extant accounts. The style is
Italian, " refined to a degree scarcely excelled by Palladio himself." (Elmes.) The
exterior is the perfection of masonry. The Tonic, Composite, and Corinthian capitals
throughout the building were copied from models executed at Rome, by Chambers,
from antique originals : the sculptors employed in the decorations were Carlini, Wilton,
Ceracci, Nollekens, Bacon, Banks, and Flaxman.
The west wing, left incomplete by Sir W. Chambers, was resumed in 1852 (for the
Inland Revenue Office), Pennethorne architect : this wing, 300 feet in length, will face
Wellington-street ; its south end was completed in 1853 : the details are copied from
the main building ; but the ornamental sculpture is very inferior. The central mass
is composed of a pediment, the tympanum of which is filled with the Royal arms,
surrounded with foliage, and the national emblems of the rose, thistle, and shamrockr
in high relief. On the apex of the pediment is a sitting statue of Britannia, 7 feet in
height and 4 feet in width at the base j at the extreme ends are sea-horses. On the
lower range of the fa9ade, standing on pedestals, there are colossal statues, 7 feet
6 inches high, emblematic of Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Dublin, and
Belfast ; and over the principal entrance a group, the centre of which contains a
medallion of Queen Victoria, surrounded by a wreath of laurel, and supported by re-
cumbent female figures of Fame and History. Somerset House covers 12 acres.
SOUTH- si: A ROUSH:, THE,
THREADNEEDLE-STREET and Old Broad-street, was the office of the South-Sea
Company, originated by Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Sir John Blunt (" much
injured Blunt"), in l7ll, for the discharge of nearly ten milhons of public debt j for
which they were granted, in 1720, the monopoly of the trade to the South Seas and
the mines of Spanish America. In April, 1720, the Company's stock rose to 319Z. per
cent. ; and early in June it had risen to 890Z. per cent. The Directors then opened
fresh books for a subscription of 4,000,000^. at lOOOZ. per cent. Before the expiration
of the month, the subscription was at 200Z. per cent premium, and the stock at nearly
llOOZ. Kewton, on being asked as to the continuance of the rising of the South-Sea
Stock, answered, that " he could not calculate on the madness of the people." Prior
writes : " I am tired of politics, and lost in the South Sea. The roaring of the waves
and the madness of the people were justly put together." A journal of Aug. 5 says :
"Our South-Sea equipage increases every day ; the City ladies buy South-Sea jewels,
hire South-Sea coaches, and buy South-Sea estates." With the connivance of the
Government, the scheme reached this climax, when the frauds of the Directors tran-
spired : within three months the stock fell to 86Z. per cent, and " the South Sea-
Bubble" burst. {See Exchange Allet, p. 333.)
S0T7THWABK. 739
The South-Sea scheme was lampooned by Swift, and satirized by Pope:
" Statesmen and patriots plied alike the stocks,
Peeress and butler shared aUke the box ; ^
And judares jobbed, and bishops bit the town.
And mighty dukes packed cards for half-a-crown :
Britain was sunk in lucre's sordid charms."
Among the victims was the poor maniac, "Tom of Ten Thousand" (Eustace Budgell), who lost his
whole fortune and his reason. The Duke of Chandos lost 300,000^. Gay, the poet, possessed 20,000^.
South-Sea Stock, which he neglected to sell, and thus lost profit and principal. (See Mackay's Popular
Delusions.)
The Company has long ceased to be a trading body : and in 1853-4 the South-Sea
Stock, to the amount of ten millions, was converted or paid off. The original office
(formerly the Excise Office) was in Old Broad-street, and was known as " the Old
South-Sea House." The new building in Threadneedle-street had a Doric portico, and
incloses a quadrangle, with a Tuscan colonnade and a fountain : but it had latterly
** few or no traces of goers-in or comers-out — a desolation something like Balclutha's."
(C Lamb) The great hall for sales and the dining-room were hung with portraits of
governors and sub-governors, huge charts, &c. Underneath are vaulted cellars, wherein
were once deposited dollars and pieces of eight. The premises, sold for 53,000^., are
now let in suites of chambers.
SOUTBWAItK.
OF the etymology of this ancient suburb, Mr. Kalph Lindsay, F.S.A., has collected
ninety-seven authorities^ commencing with Su^Spepke, during the Saxon Hep-
tarchy : but there is abundant proof that it was an extensive station and cemetery of
the Romans during an early period of their dominion in Britain, attested by the fictile
vases and pavements (portions of Roman houses) found in Southwark.
In November, 1866, there were found in digging the foundation of a warehouse, between Southwark-
square and Winchester-street, in a space of about 100 feet by 40 feet, sixteen pits, each disclosing
Eoman pottery above piles and puddled clay ; and when this was removed, shells, pebbles, and refuse,
such as is always seen along the water's-edge, although the spot in question is now full 300 yards from
the Thames shore. The piles were of oak and beech, with pointed bases, and masses of Kentish rag,
which Mr. Syer Cuming thinks these groups of piles once supported as lake dwellings, similar to those
formerly in Finsbury and Moorfields ; each group with a kitchen-midden ; latest food relics, oyster-
shells, may indicate the presence of Romans in the neighbourhood; and near the piles was found a
pavement of red tessell«, broken fictilia, piece of a Samian bowl, &c., the remains, probably, of a
Koman villa. The evidence of the a<?e of the piles is questionable; but these discoveries, made north
and south of the Thames, manifest how appropriate and descriptive was the British name of our ancient
metropolis, Jbyn Din, the lake-town. — Proc. British ArchcBological Association.
It was embanked, contemporaneously with the three great Roman roads shown to
have terminated in St. George's Fields, and to have communicated with the City by a
irajectus, or ferry, over the Thames to Dowgate, from Stoney -street, Bankside ; and
another to the Tower, or Arx Falatina, from Stoney-lane, Tooley-street. To its
fortification may be traced the Saxon name, Sudiverche, the south work of London.
It is called Surder-virke in a Danish account of a battle fought here by King Olaf in
1008 ; and Suth-tveorce in the narrative of Earl Godwin's attack in 1052, when here
was a wooden bridge. Southwark was burnt by William the Conqueror. In Domes-
day-book the Bishop of Baieux hath here one monastery (Bermondsey), and one haven
(St. Saviour's dock). On coins of William I. we find Svethewer, or Svetherlc ; on
pennies of William II., Svthevk, Svthewi, and Svthewr ; and about 1086, the annual
revenue derived from it was only 161. In 1327, upon the complaint that Southwark
was the refuge of felons and thieves, Edward IIL sold the vill or town to the citizens
of London, — the king still being lord of the manor, and appointing the bailiff.
Edward IV. granted the citizens an annual Fair ; by charter of Edward VI., the full
control of Southwark was vested in the citizens; and by Act of Common Council,
1550, was constituted a ward of the City, by the name of Bridge Without, — the
first alderman of which was Sir John Ayliffe, 1551. Southwark has sent members to
parliament since temp. Edward I. It was formerly famous for its artists in glass,
who, temp. Henry VII L, glazed the windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge.
On July 1, 1450, Jack Cade arrived in Southwark; and on Feb. 3, 1554, Sir
Thomas Wyat and the " Kentysbemen" appeared here; both, probably, in St. George's
Fields.
8 B 2
740 . CUBI08ITIE8 OF LONDON.
*' At this time was Wyat entered into Kent-street, and so by Sainct George's Church into South-
warke. Himselfe and part of his companye cam in goode array down Barmesey-strete."— TAe Chronicle
of Queen Jane, Queen Mary, &c.
In 1642, Southwark was defended by a fort with four half bulwarks, at the Dog
and Ducky St. George's Fields; a large fort with four bulwarks, near the end of
Blackman-street ; and a redoubt with four flanks, near the Lock Hospital, Kent-
street. The ancient town, however, was but a small portion of what we know as tlie
Borough, and was the Guildable Manor, extending from St. Mary Overy's Dock west-
ward to Hay*s-lane ; Tooley- street, eastward; south as far as the Town-hall, thence to
Counter-street and St. Mary Overy's Dock. The other portions — viz., the King's
Manor and the Great Liberty Manor, were not part of the Borough until they were
purchased by the Corporation of London from King Edward VI. ; the Corporation
being the Lords.
. Southwark was first called fhe Borough in the eighteenth century ; it occupies an
area nearly equal to that of the City of London itself. The principal street, from the
south end of Old London Bridge to St. Margaret's Hill, was formerly called Long South-
ward (Howell's Londinopolis), afterwards High-street, but is now Wellington-street ;
thence St. Margaret's Hill; and next High-street, BlacTcman- street, and Newington
Causeway. The old High-street had many picturesque gabled houses in the present
century,thelastof which were reraovedforthe approach to New London Bridge (5eep.450).
On the east side remain several old inns {see p. 456) ; one of the taverns on the west side
was the Tumble-dotvn-Dich, in our time painted as a drunken toper, but originally a
caricature of the downfall of Kichard Cromwell, " the new Protector." Nearly opposite
the east end of St. Saviour's Church and tower, and the Lady-chapel, was built in
1854 a clock-tower, resembling a market-cross, of Gothic design, with a canopied
niche for a statue of the great Duke of Wellington. Adjoining the Bailway Station^
was St. Olave's School, taken down in 1849 {see p. 726). Here also was St. Thomas's
Hospital, described at p. 435. Tooley-street (eastward of London Bridge) is corrupted
from St. Olave's, or St. Olaff's, street. Here were the Bridge House and Yard, for
the stowage of materials for the repairs of London Bridge; besides corn granaries,
public ovens, and a pubhc brew-house; the site is now Cotton's Wharf and Hay's
Wharf. The site of the Borough Compter, a prison, in Mill-lane, was formerly occupied
by the Inn of the Abbot of Battle, its mill, &c.
Southwark possessed two Mints for coinage, described at pages 508 and 509 : the
ancient mint is thought to have stood upon the site of the house of the Prior of Lewes,
in Carter-lane, nearly opposite St. Olave's Church, in Tooley-street. {See Ceypts,
p. 302.) Here too was " the Abbot's Inn of St. Augustine" (deed 1280), afterwards
belonging to the St. Leger family : and thence called Sellinger {i.e. St. Leger's), now
Chamberlain's, Wharf. Next was the Bridge-house ; and then, eastward, the Inn of
the Abbot of Battle ; and Battle-bridge, over a water-course pertaining to the Abbey.
The Manor of the Maze, Sir John Burcettor's, temp. Henry VI., is kept in memory
by Maze-lane and Maze-pond ; and upon the site of " St. Thomas's Tents" the Pro-
testant refugees of the Palatinate in Germany " pitched their tents" in the reign of
Queen Anne. The Maze was built upon in Aubrey's time, I7th century.
Horselydoivn extends from Tooley-street to Dockhead : it was temp. Elizabeth, a
grazing-field (Horseydowne.) Here was rebuilt, upon a handsome scale, St. Olave's
Grammar-school for 600 boys {see p. 726.)
" This street, Horselydown, (as I was told by a sober counsellor-at-law, and who said he had it from
an old record,) was so called, for that the water, formerly overflowing it, was so efifectually drawn off,
that the place became a plain green field, where horses and other cattle used to pasture and lye down,
before the street was built."— ITa^oM, 1708.
On May 11, 1854, Mr. G. R. Corner, F.S.A., communicated to the Society of Antiquaries Notices of a
Drawing in the Society's possession, being a copy of a picture at Hatfield House, representing &fete on
Horselydown; and of a plan of Horselydown in 1544, belonging to the governors of St, Olave's and St.
John's Grammar-School. The picture shows a view of the Tower of London in the distance. The fore-
ground is occupied by holiday groups ; cooks are preparing a large repast at a kitchen ; and in the mid-
oistance are the stocks with a solitary tenant. Underneath a tree are two figures, supposed to represent
Ben Jonson and Shakspeare, who are not unlikely to have been present at i\asfete. To Mr. Comer we
are indebted for many valuable illustrations of the antiquities of Southwark.
The Priory of St. Mary Overie, and Church of St. Saviour, are described at
SOUTEWABK. 741
pp. 199-202 : in the Cotton Collection is a book which formerly belonged to a Prior.
The church was approached from High-street by " Chain Gate" (the Priory gates).
The restoration of the tower and choir, and the Lady Chapel, by George Gwilt, F.S.A., attest Mr.
Gwilt's scrupulous accuracy in following the mouldings and detail of the former design, and the care
and attention which he has bestowed on the restoration of those parts which had been entirely lost :
of this the gables are instances. A beautiful drawing of the choir, by the architect's eldest son, George
Gwilt, hangs in the vestry : for which this young and promising architect was presented with 100 guineas.
Suffolk House, which is prominent in the foreground of Wyngrerde's view, was
sumptuously built, almost directly over against St. George's Church, by Charles Brandon
(Duke of Suffolk) early in the reign of Henry VIII. ; but coining into the king's
hands, it became Southwark Place, and a Mint of Coinage, as described in p. 569.
After the death of King Henry VIII., Southwark Place became neglected. Edward
VI. occasionally visited it, and feasted here the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs. Queen
Mary granted Southwark Place to Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, as a recom-
pense for York House at Westminster. The Archbishop disliking the situation of
Suffolk Place, sold the buildings, and the estate. The purchasers had most of the
buildings taken down, sold the materials, and a number of small houses were erected
on the site. That part of the building left standing was purchased by Alderman
Broomfield, Lord Mayor, whose son marrying the daughter of Thomas Lant, Esq.,
the estate devolved to the Lant family. Thus, Suffolk-street, Lant-street, the
Mint, and other places in Southwark obtained their names from the owners or occu-
piers of Suffolk-place, and its extensive park. " Brandonne's Place, in Southwerke,"
is mentioned in Sir John Howard's Expenses under the year 1465. One of the last
of the barbers who let blood, and drew teeth, was Middleditch, of Great Suffolk-street,
Soutlnvark, in whose shop- window were displayed heaps of di'awn teeth, and at his
door the barber's pole.
Southwark is a Shakspearean locality. The site of the Globe Theatre is believed
to be included in that of Barclay and Perkins's Brewery. All vestiges of times as
old as Shakspeare and the playhouses there seem to have vanished, except a house
which some think may be part of the the original Falcon Tavern. This is situated
not far from Pellatt's Falcon Glass-works. The register of the burials in St. Mary Overie's,
1607, has "Edmund Shakspeare, the Poet's brother, player, in the church." Gerard
Johnson, the sculptor of Shakspeare's bust on his tomb, in the church, at Stratford-on-
Avon, lived in St. Thomas Apostle's parish, not far from the Globe, and he must often
have seen Shakspeare, as Dugdale assures us. In the Vestry-room of St. Saviour's
church long hung a presumed portrait of Shakspeare, which is now in the collection of
pictures at the Foundling Hospital.
Montague-close, adjoining St. Saviour's Church, was the cloister of the monastery ;
and, after the Dissohition, appertained to the mansion built by Sir Anthony Browne
(Viscount Montague), who obtained a grant of the site of the Priory of St. Mary Overie,
and the messuages, wharfs, shops, &c. ; and in St. Mary Overy's Dock was situated the
Priory mill.
BanJcside, "the Bank" (Thames-bank in Domesday-book), extends from near St.
Saviour's Church to Blackfriars-bridge. Here were two " Beare-gardens, places wherein
were kept beares, bulls, and other beasts, to be bayted; as also mastives, in several
kenles, nourished to bayt them" (Stow). Here Edward Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich
College, kept the Bear-garden, temp. Ehzabeth and James I.; but "His Majesty's
Bear-garden" was removed to Hockley-in-the-Hole, Clerkenwell, in 1686-7. Here
also were the Globe, the Rose, the Hope, and the Swan Theatres (see Theatres).
The Stew-houses were put down by sound of trumpet, by Henry VIII. Before the
Restoration the theatres had disappeared, and Bankside became the abode of dyers, for
" the conveniency of the water." Here are Rose Alley and Globe Alley, from the old
theatres. Pike Garden is named in a parliamentary survey of 1649 as " late parcel
of the possessions of Charles Stuart, late king of England ;" and in another survey,
made in 1652, occurs " the late king's barge-house on the Bankside." (See also p. 31.)
Winchester House, or Palace, founded about 1107, by Bishop Walter Giffard, with
its court, offices, and water-stairs, occupied great part of the " Bank ;" and had, on the
742 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
south, gardens, statues, fountains, and a spacious park : hence Fark-street. The de-
caying palace was let as warehouses and wharfs ; and the venerable remains of its great
hall, with a grand circular gable-window, of rare tracery, were laid open by a fire in
August, 1814. The Vinegar-works of Messrs. Pott are upon a part of the park site, and
are held of the see of Winchester. Adjoining was Rochester House, the residence of
the Bishops of Rochester : it stood on the north side of the Borough Market-place, part
of which was Rochester-yard ; and Rochester-street still exists. This estate, anciently
called Grimes Croft, was granted by William, second Earl of Warren, to the monks of
Rochester, by placing his knife upon the altar of St. Andrew. Rochester House was
taken down in the year 1604.
Deadman's-place, west of the Market, is said to be corrupted from Desmond -place,
where dwelt the Earl of Desmond : here are the College founded by Thomas Cure,
saddler to Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth ; almshouses built by Edward Alleyn, 1616,
and other almshouses.
Soidkwark Tokens.— In the Beaufoy Collection, at Guildhall, are "the Boreas Head," 1649 (between
Nos. 25 and 26, High-street) : it was leased to the family of the author of the present volume, and was
sublet in tenements, as " Boar's-Head-court," taken down in 1830. Next also is a " Bogg and Dvcke"
token, 1651 (St. George's Fields) ; "the Greene Man," 1651 (which remains in Blackman-street) ; "y^
Bull Head Taverne," 1667, mentioned by Edward Alleyn, founder of Dulwich College, as one of ma
resorts ; " Duke of tiuflblk's Head," 1669 ; and the " Swan with Two Necks."
Southwark and the adjacent districts are noted for their manufactures : as rope-
walks and tan-pits at Bermondsey; barge and boat-builders, sawyers and timber-
merchants, at Bk)therhithe j also, hat making, brewing, vinegar-yards, and distilleries,
glass-houses, potteries, and soap and candle works.
The High-street is crossed nearly opposite St. Saviour's church by an ugly railway
bridge, and the line trends thence, anaconda-like, along the south bank of the Thames,
which it crosses by three bridges. In the railway works were demolished some Eliza-
bethan houses in Stoney-street, close to the palaces of the Bishops of Rochester and
Winchester, between the bear-gardens of Bankside and the Clink Prison, chiefly occu-
pied by the licensed keepers of houses of infamous resort, from the twelfth till the six-
teenth century, when that nuisance was at length suppressed by law. Almost parallel
extends Southwark-street, flanked with groups of lofty warehouses, banking-houses.
Hop Exchange, &c. ; eastward, the street is continued into Bermondsey and Rother-
hithe, and is a noble improvement. A subwai/* is formed in the centre of the road,
and is thus described : —
This subway is an arched passage, 12 ft. wide and nearly 7 ft, high, from which are side passages
leading to cellars built beneath the footwalks. In the subway the gas, water-mains, and telegraph-
wires are laid, the side passages conveying the two former necessaries direct into the cellars, and
thence into the houses themselves. The object of this new work is, of course, to do away with the nuisances
caused by the stoppage of thoroughfares to repair a gas or water main. This subway is wide and high
enough to allow of any repairs of this kind being carried on. The drains from the houses are formed of
strong stoneware pipes, passing at a rather steep incline beneath the subway into the main sewer, which
is placed below the floor of the passage in the centre, but not so deep but that it can instantly be opened
for repairs or removal of stoppages. Every part of the subway is ventilated in the most perfect manner.
The Southwark arms are, Arg., a rose displayed. The Bridge-house mark is usually,
but erroneously, used to designate Southwark, because the manors form part of the
Bridge-house estates. That mark is. Azure, an annulet ensigned with a cross patee, or,
interlaced with a saltire conjoined in base, of the second. The City jurisdiction, ac-
cording to the inscription upon the boundary-stone at the western extremity of Beth-
lehem Hospital wall, and other parts of the liberties, extends northward to the Thames,
and eastward to St. Thomas-a- Watering in the Kent-road ; comprehending the parishes
of St. George, St. Saviour (exclusive of the Clink Liberty), St. Thomas, St. Olave, and
St. John. Southwark occupies an area of 590 acres ; the City of London 600 acres.
At No. 6, Blackman-street, Sir Jame-' South (eldest son of a dispensing chemist in
the High-street) made several valuable astronomical observations. {See KENSiKGTOif,
p. 488.) At No. 104, High-street, sign of the Golden Key (of which a Token exists),
lived Mr. Elliotson, chemist and druggist, father of John Elliotson, M.D., F.R.S.
The historic Inns of Southwark are described at p. 456.
_ * Subtva^s, or passages beneath the streets of the metropolis, were advocated in 1828, by Mr.
Williams, of IMrchin-lane, in a bulky octavo volume. In 1859, this great improvement was commenced
by the Board of Works under the new street leaduig from Cranbouru-street to Covent-garden.
8PITALFIELDS, 743
80UTHWARK FAIR,
ANCIENTLY called " Our Lady Faire in Southwark," was granted by Edward VI.,
in 1550, when the sum of 647Z. 2*. Id. was paid by the Corporation of London for
the two manors and divers lands and tenements. The Pair, held on September 7th,
8th, and 9th, was opened by the Lord Mayor and SheriiFs riding to St. Magnus' Church
after dinner, at two o'clock in the afternoon : the former vested with his collar of SS.,
without his hood ; and all dressed in their scarlet gowns, lined, without their cloaks.
They were attended by the Sword-bearer, wearing his embroidered cap, and carrying
** the pearl sword ;" and at the church were met by the aldermen, all of whom, after
evening prayer, rode over the bridge in procession, passed through the Fair, and con-
tinued either to St. George's Church, Newington Bridge, or to the stones pointing out
the City liberties at St. Thomas-a- Watering. They then returned over the bridge, or
to the Bridge House, where a banquet was provided, when the aldermen took leave of
the Lord Mayor ; and all parties being returned home, the bridge-masters gave a supper
to the Lord Mayor's officers. Sheriff' Hoare thus describes the ceremony in 1741 : On
the 8th of September the Sheriffs waited on the Lord Mayor in procession, " the City
music going before, to proclaim SouthwarJc Fair, as it is commonly called ; although
the ceremony is no more than our going in our coaches through the Borough, and
turning round by St. George's Church, back again to the Bridge House ; and this is to
signify the licence to begin the Fair." " On this day the Sword-bearer wears a fine
embroidered cap, said to have been worked and presented to the City by a monastery."
Evelyn and Pepys describe the Fair. Jacob Hall was one of its famous rope-dancers ;
and early in the last century, Crawley's puppet-show of the Creation, " with the addi-
tion of Noah's Flood," Squire and Sir John Spendall; Dancing Dogs, and "the Ball of
Little Dogs," danced before Queen Anne ; were Southwark Fair sights. Hogarth, in
his plate of the Fair, shows Figg the prize-fighter, and Cadman the rope-flyer. In
1743 the Fair continued fourteen days, and extended to the Mint : an attempt was
then made to put down the shows, but the Fair was not finally suppressed until 1763 :
the booth-keepers used to collect money here for Marshalsea prisoners.
8PITALFIFLB8
INCLUDES large portions of Bethnal-green, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, and Mile-end
New- town. Part of the site was anciently Lolesworth, a cemetery of Roman Lon-
don, in breaking up which, " for clay to make brick," about 1576, were found several
nrns full of ashes and burnt bones, and copper coins of Claudius, Vespasian, Nero, Anto-
ninus Pius, Trajan, &c. ; also fragments of Roman Pottery and glass. {See Stoio, p. 64.)
At the same time were found some stone coffins (British or Saxon), which are preserved
in the vaults of Christchurch.
Spitalfields is named from its having been the site and property of the Priory and
Hospital of St. Mary Spittle without Bishopsgate, founded in 1197, by Walter Brune,
citizen of London, and Rosia his wife, for Augustine canons ; at the Dissolution in
1534 it had 130 beds for the receipt of the poor of charity. Bagford, in Leland's Col-
lectanea, mentions the priory, then standing, strongly built of timber, with a turret at
one angle : its ruins were discovered early in the last century north of Spital-square.
In one of the houses built here lived the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke. At the north-
east corner of Spital-square was placed the Pulpit-cross, whence were preached, in the
open air, the Spital Sermons* {see p. 157) : the pulpit was destroyed in the Civil Wars.
In the Map executed in the reign of Elizabeth, the Spittle fields are at the north-east
extremity of London, with only a few houses on the site of the Spital. The map of a
century later shows a square field bounded with houses, with the old Artillery Ground
on the west, which was let by the last prior to the Artillery Company, and is now
the site of Artillery-street. " A Faire in Spittlefields" is described in a scarce pamphlet
* Hatton relates of a Spital-sermon :— " In 1632, three brothers, named Wineopc, were called from
remote places, and preached on the three sermon-days, agreeing so nicely in their subject, that the
second continued what the first began, and the third brought it to a conclusion."
744 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
in the Britisli Museum, whereat William Lilly announces his astrological wares for
sale ; and Nicholas Culpepper, the herbalist, says :
" Bid money, tho' but little ;
For night comes on, and we must leave the Spittle."
Culpepper occupied a house then in the fields, and subsequently a public-house at the
comer of Red-Lion-court. Hard by the priory site is Paternoster-row, where, and not
in Paternoster-row, St. Paul's {see p. 668), some antiquaries maintain, Tarlton, the
player at the Curtain Theatre, " kept an ordinary in these pleasant fields."
An Order in Council, 5th March, 1669, states, the inhabitants of the pleasant locality of Spitalfielda
petitioned the Council to restrain certain persons from digging earth, and making and burning bricks
m these iields, which would not only render them " very noisome," but " prejudice the cloathes which
are usually dryed in two large grounds adjoyning, and the rich stuffs of ddvers colours which are made
in the same place, by altering and changing their colours," &c.
Bethnal-green and Spitalfields were grassy open spaces in the last century ; but
Spital-square, at the south-east corner, has been the heart of the silk district since " the
poor Protestant strangers, Walloons and French," driven from France by the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, settled here, and thus founded the silk-manufacture in England;
introducing the weaving of lustrings, alamodes, brocades, satins, paduasoys, ducapes,
and black velvets : in 1713 it was stated that silks, gold and silver stuffs, and ribbons,
were made liere as good as those of French fabric; and that black silk for hoods and
scarfs was made annually worth 300,000?. Tapestries and hangings of the interiors of
English houses were manufactured in Spitalfields, even before the settlement of the
French refugees in that district. In the Queen's Bedchamber at Windsor Castle was
a bed of state, of rich flowered velvet, made at Spitalfields in the reign of Queen Anne.
About this time, bedchambers were hung with tapestry made in Spitalfields, where an
artist, named Boyston, excelled in tapestries of harvest-fields and other ruralities. After
the discontinuance of the use of tapestry, the skill of the weavers was confined mainly to
the manufacture of silks and velvets. During the reigns of Anne, George I. and II.,
the Spitalfields weavers greatly increased: in 1832, 50,000 persons were entirely
dependent on the silk-manufacture ; and the looms varied from 14,000 to 17,000. Of
these, great numbers are often unemployed; and the distribution of funds raised for
their relief has attracted to Spitalfields a large number of poor persons, and thus
pauperized the district. The earnings of weavers in 1854 did not exceed 10s. per
week, working from 14 to 16 hours a day : the weaving is either the richest or the
thinnest and poorest. In 1867, the Rev. Isaac Taylor, Incumbent of St. Matthias', in
a terrible and touching picture of the condition of his parish, stated :
" The great difBculty which confronts us is the dead level of excessive poverty. A skilful workman,
making costly velvets or rich silks, and labouring from 12 to 16 hours a day, will only earn, on an average,
about 12s. a week. There are many who do not earn above 7s. or 8s. ; and the labour required to gain
these miserable wages is great and excessive. To make a single inch of velvet, the shuttle has to be thrown
180 times, 180 times the treadles have to be worked, 60 times the v/ire has to be inserted, 60 times to
be withdrawn, 60 times the knife has to be guided along the whole breadth of the work, and 60 times
the pressure of the chest has to be exerted on a heavy beam, which is used to compress the work. 600
distinct operations are thus required to make one single inch of velvet, the average payment for making
which is Id. The women, whose strength does not enable them to move so heavy a beam with the
chest, are employed in making velveteens, cheniUes, silk and cotton trimmings, and bead trimmings.
They earn about one-third the wages of the men. For fancy braid the payment is one halfpenny a yard.
Even at these starvation wages work is very scarce ; the men are often for weeks together out of employ,
or, as it is termed by a wretched mockery, ' at play,' Yet these poor people, with all the burden of their
poverty, are wonderfully uncomplaining and self-reliant."
The weavers are principally English, and of English origin ; but the manufacturers
or masters are of French extraction ; and the Guillebauds, the Desormeaux, the Chabots,
the Turquands, the Mercerons, and the Chauvets, trace their connexion with the
refagees of 1685. Many translated their names into English, by which the old
families may still be known: thus, the Lemaitres called themselves Masters; the
Leroys, King; the Tonneliers, Cooper; the Lejeunes, Young; the Leblancs, White;
the Lenoirs, Black ; the Loiseaus, Bird. Many of the weavers still cherish proud
traditions of their ancestry ; though now, perhaps, only clad in rags, they bear the old
historic names of France — names of distinguished generals and statesmen; names
such as Vendome, Ney, Racine, De Foe, La Fontaine, Dupin, Bois, Le Beau, Auvache,
Fontaiueau, and Montier.
SPRING GARDENS. 745
The weavers' houses, built in narrow streets, liave wide latticed \vindows in the
upper stories, which light the work-room. Upon the roofs are bird-traps and other
bird-catching contrivances ; for the weavers supply London with singing-birds, as
linnets, woodlarks, goldfinches, greenfinches, and chaffinches; and many, in October and
March, get their livelihood by systematic bird- catching ; matches of singing or "jerk-
ing" call-birds are determined by the burning of an inch of candle.
Spitalfields weavers have extremely small heads, 6^, 6|, and 6f inches being the
prevailing widths ; and the same fact is observable in Coventry ; the medium size of
. the male head in England is 7 inches. The weavers' practice of singing at their looms
was doubtless brought with them from the Continent, as was the custom of woollen-
weavers.
" I would I were a weaver, I could sing all manner of soin^s."—FaUtaff, in Menry IV. Part I. act ii.
" He got his cold with sitting up late, and singing catches with clothworkers." — Cubbard, in Ben
Jonson's Silent Woman, act iii. sc. I.
Spitalfields was a hamlet of Stepney until 1729, when it was made a district parish,
and Christchurch was consecrated (see p. 157). Among the parochial charities is " cat
and dog money," an eccentric bequest to be paid on the death of certain pet cats and
dogs : a sickening bequest in such a locality of poverty and starvation.
The Sisters of Charity have been working in these districts since the winter of
1854 ; they visit an extent of several miles of habitations of the poor, tending, washing
them, and nursing them, and supplying them with warm food, clothes, and other things
necessary to sickness ; and these ministering angels nurse the sick, who cannot be re-
moved to hospitals, in their own houses.
In Crispin-street is the Government School of Design, where are awarded prizes for
designs for fabrics, drawing and painting from nature, crayon-drawing, &c. Spitalfields
Market is mentioned by Hatton, in 1708, as fine for " flesh, fowl, and roots." In the
district are Victoeia Pake (see p. 655), and the City Consumption Hospital.
In Crispin-street, until 1845, the Mathematical Society occupied large apartments, for their philo-
sophical instruments and library of 3000 volumes. The Society, which also cultivated electricity, was
established in 1717, and met at the Monmouth's Head in Monmouth-street, until 1725, when they
removed to the White Horse Tavern, in Wheeler-street ; from thence, in 1735, to Beri Jonson's Bead, in
Pelham-street ; and next to Crispin-street, The members were chiefly tradesmen and artisans ; among
those of higher rank were Canton, Dollond, Thomas Simpson, and Crossley. The Society lent their
instruments (air-pumps, reflecting telescopes, reflecting microscopes, electrical machines, surveying
instruments, &c.), with books for the use of them, on the borrowers giving a note of hand for the value
thereof. The number of members was not to exceed the square of seven, except such as were abroad or
in the country; but this was increased to the squares of eight and nine. The members met on Saturday
evenings : each present was to employ himself in some mathematical exercise, or forfeit one permy ; and
if he refused to answer a question asked by another in mathematics, he was to forfeit twopence. The
Society long cherished a taste for exact science ; but in 1845, when on the point of dissolution, the few
remaining members made over their books, records, and memorials to the Royal Astronomical Society,
of which these members were elected fellows.— Abridged from "Weld's History of the Royal Society,
vol. i. pp. 467-8. At Bfethnal-green, in 1648, Sir Balthazar Gerbier established "The Academy for
Foreign Languages, and all Noble Sciences and Exercises."
SPRING GARDEN,
ORIGINALLY an appurtenance to the palace of Whitehall, and situate on the
north-western verge of St. James's Park, is named from its water-spring or
fountain, set playing by the spectator treading upon its hidden machinei*y — an eccen-
tricity of the Elizabethan garden. Spring Garden, by a patent which is extant, in
1630 was made a bowling-green by command of Charles I. " There was kept in it an
ordinary of six shillings a meal (when the King's proclamation allows but two else-
where) ; continual bibbing and drinking wine all day under the trees ; two or three
quarrels every week. It was grown scandalous and insufferable : besides, my Lord
Digby being reprehended for striking in the King's garden, he said he took it for a
common bowling-place, where all paid money for their coming in." — (Mr. Garrard to
Lord Strafford.)
In 1634 Spring Garden was put down by the King's command, and ordered to be
hereafter no common bowling-place. This led to the opening of '' a New Spring Gar-
den" (Shaver's Hall), by a gentleman-barber, a servant of the lord chamberlain's.
The old garden was, however, re-opened ; for 13th June, 1649, says Evelyn, " I treated
746 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
divers ladies of my relations in Spring Gardens :" but 10th May, 1654, he records that
Cromwell and his partisans had shut up and seized on Spring Gardens, " w'^'' till now
had been y^ usual rendezvous for the ladys and gallants at this season."
Spring Garden was, however, once more re-opened ; for, in A Character of ^England,
1659, it is described as
" The inclosure not disagreeable, for the solemnness of the grove, the warbling of the birds, and as it
opens into the spacious walks at St. James's It is usual to find some of the young company
here till midnight ; and the thickets of the garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry,
after they have refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at a certain cabaret in the
middle of this paradise, where the forbidden fruits are certain trifling tarts, neat's tongues, salacious
meats, and bad Rhenish."
" The New Spring Garden"* at Lambeth (afterwards Vauxhall) was flourishing in
1661-3 ; when the ground at Charing Cross was built upon, as " Inner Spring Garden"
and " Outer Spring Garden." Buckingham-court is named from the Duke of Buck-
ingham, one of the rakish frequenters of Spring Garden j and upon the site of Drum-
mond's banking-house was " Locket's Ordinary, a house of entertainment much
frequented by gentry," and a relic of the Spring Garden gaiety :
" For Locket's stands where gardens once did spring."
Dr. King's Art of Cookery, 1709.
In Outer Spring Garden lived, 1661, Sir Philip Warwick, author of the Memoirs
which bear his name : " Warwick-street, adjoining, was, I believe, named after him."
(Cunningham.) Here, too, lived Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, 1667-1670. Prince
Kupert resided here from 1674 to his death :
" 1682, Nov. 29.— Died of a fever and pleurisy, at his house in the Spring Garden, Rupert, Prince
Palatine of the Rhine, &c., in the 63rd year of his age."— Historian's Guide, 3rd edit. 1688.
Sir Edward Hungerford lived here in 1631, after he had parted with his estate for
the site of Hungerford Market.
Milton, when first appointed Latin secretary, lodged at one Thomson's, at Charing
Cross, opening into the Spring Garden. Here the witty and beautiful dramatist, Mrs.
Centlivre, died, December 1, 1723, at the house of her third husband, Joseph Centlivre,
*' Yeoman of the Mouth" (head cook) to Queen Anne. CoUey Cibber lived " near the
Bull-head Tavern, in Old Spring Garden," from l7ll to 1714. George Canning, in
1800, resided at No. 13, right-hand corner at Cockspur-street.
Spring Garden was formerly noted for its sights : the Incorporated Society of
Artists exhibited here ; here, in 1806, at Wigley's Rooms, were shown Serres's Pano-
rama of Boulogne ; foreign cities and sea-pieces; also Maillardet's automatic figures,
including a harpsichord-player, a rope-dancer, and a singing-bird. Here also was
exhibited Marshall's Peristrephic Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo, which the
spectators viewed turning round.
Berkeley House, on the right as you enter by the Spring-garden-gate, St. James's
Park, the mansion of the Berkeley family, was taken down in 1862, and upon its
site has been erected the chief office of the Metropolitan Board of Works, of poor but
pretentious design.
SqUAHJES,
THE garden-spaces or planted Squares are the most recreative features of our
metropolis J in comparison with which the jpiazze, plazas, ^wd places of continental
cities are wayworn and dusty areas, with none of the refreshing beauty of a garden or
green field :
'•Fountains and trees our wearied pride do please.
Even in the midst of gilded palaces;
And in our towns the prospect gives delight.
Which opens round the country to our sight."
Sprat, quoted in Wren's Farentalia.
Yet the majority of the London Squares are the growth of the last century ; and few
* Named from the Garden at Charing Cross, as we do not trace any " water-spring" at Vauxhall. Sir
John Hawkins says :— " Sir Samuel Morland having planted the largre garden with stately trees, and
laid it out in shady walks, it obtained the name of Spring Gardens. There was likewise a ' New Spring
Garden' at Pimlico, the name having been applied to a public garden generally."
SQUARES. 747
of the western Squares existed before 1770; tlieir sites being then mostly sheep-walks,
paddocks, and kitchen-gardens. It was at first attempted to name squares " quad-
rates :" in 1732 Maitland wrote, " the stately quadrate denominated King-square, but
vulgarly Soho-square ;" and the phrase is retained in Maitland's edition of 1756.
Bedfoed Squaee, which appears in Harwood's Map, 1799, was formei-ly *' St.
Giles's ruins." The centre house on the east side used to be the official residence of
the Lord Chancellor. Lord Loughborough lived there, and at the time of the Corn-
law Riots it was occupied by Lord Eldon. The mob made an attack on the house at
night, when Lord and Lady Eldon escaped over the back wall into the British Museum
Gardens, and took refuge in the guard-house. Here it was that the Prince of Wales
called upon the Chancellor, and got from him, as he lay in bed with gout, a vacant
Mastership in Chancery for the Prince's friend, Jekyll. The keystone over the en-
trance doorway of some of the houses displays a very fine made head. {Builder^.
No. 651.) Some of the houses were designed by Sir William Chambers.
Belgeave, Chestee, and Eaton Squaees, named from their ground-landlord, the
Marquis of Westminster, are noticed at p. 37 : the centres of the first and third
were nursery-grounds. At No. 19, Chester-square died, in 1852, Dr. Mantell, F.R.S.^
the eminent geologist.
Beezeley Squaee, built 1698, is named from Berkeley House, which occupied the
site of Devonshire House. On the south side of this square is Lansdowne House {see
p. 551) : the beehive upon the gate-piers is one of the family crests. At No. 11 died
Horace Walpole in 1797. No. 44, built by Kent, has a noble staircase and saloon.
At No. 45 Lord Clive destroyed himself in 1774. A few link-extinguishers remain
flanking doorways : the trees in the centre are old and picturesque : here was formerly
an equestrian statue of George III.
Bloomsbtjet, first named Southampton, Squaee, from Southampton House upon
its north side, was built by the Earl of Southampton, whose daughter, Lady Rachel
Russell, dates her Letters from here. Evelyn, in 1665, notes it as " a noble square or
piazza, a little towne," with " good aire." The site formerly constituted the manor of
Lomesbury, in which, according to Hughson, the kings of England anciently had their
stables until removed to the Mews, near Charing-cross. Coming into the hands of
the Russell family, by marriage with the Earl of Southampton, it was called first
Southampton -square, and then Bloomsbury-square. Bedford House has been ascribed
to Inigo Jones, but it would seem erroneously. It was built a few years after his
death. Thornhill's copies of Raffaelle's Cartoons were in one of the wings of this
house. It was sold by auction in the year 1800, and immediately pulled down. Pope
alludes to this once fashionable quarter of the town : —
"In Palace-yard, at nine, you'll find me there,
At ten, for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury-square."
The Grand Duke Cosmo was taken to see Bloomsbury as one of the wonders of
England. Baxter, the Nonconformist divine, lived here when he was persecuted by
Judge Jeffreys. The Earls of Chesterfield had a mansion here. Sir Hans Sloane
lived on the south side ; and here Dr. Franklin came to see Sloane's Curiosities, " for
which," says Franklin, ** he paid me handsomely." Dr. Radcliffe lived here when he
gave 520Z. to the poor Nonjuring clergy. Lord Mansfield's house was at the north-
east corner, when it was burnt to the walls by the rioters of 1780; and his books,
papers, and furniture made into a bonfire in the square. Lord and Lady Mansfield
escaped by a back door from the mob. On the north side is a bronze sitting statue of
Charles James Fox, by Westmacott. Ralph describes this side as " one of the finest
situations in Europe for a palace," with gardens and view of the country. Dr. Aken-
side, and the elder Mr. Disraeli, resided in this square. The latter compiled the
Curiosities of Literature in No. 6, which house was built in 1766, by Isaac Ware, the
editor of Falladio, originally a chimney-sweep, and whose skin, it is said, was so
engrained with soot, that he bore till his dying day the marks of his early calling.
Beidgewateb Squaee, Barbican, was once the site of the mansion and garden*
of the Earl of Bridgewater. " The middle is neatly enclosed with palisado pales
and set round with trees, which renders the place very delightful." — Stryipe.
748 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Befnswick and Mecklenbuegh Sqijaees, with the FoundHng Hospital and
grounds between them, form an airy group ; northward is Toeeington Squaee :
No. 55, residence of Sir Harris Nicolas, the genealogist.
Beyanston and Montague Squaees were built on Ward's Field, and the site
of Apple Village, by David Porter, who was once chimney-sweeper to the village of
Marylebone. At St. Mary's Church, Bryanston-square, June 7, 1838, Miss Landon
(L. E. L.) was privately married, by her brother, to George Maclean, governor of Cape
Coast Castle. The Rev. Dr. Dibdin was Rector (see p. 198).
Cavendish Squaee (between two and three acres), named from the Lady Hen-
rietta Cavendish Holies, the wife of Harley, Earl of Oxford, was planned on the
north side of Tyburn-road in 1715, when the locality was infested by footpads, who
often robbed and stripped persons in the fields between London and Marylebone. Mar-
garet-street Chapel about seventy years since was an isolated building in Marylebone-
fields : a shady " Lover's Walk" passed close by the chapel to Manchester-square j
another walk led through the fields to Paddington. The Square was laid out about
1717; the whole of the north side being taken by "the Grand Duke" of Chandos,
who proposed to build here a palatial residence, and to purchase all the property be-
tween Cavendish -square and his palace of Canons at Edgeware, so that he might
ride from town to the country through his own estate. In- the British Museum is a
vievV of the mansion, designed by John Price : the wings only were built ; one being
the large mansion at the corner of Harley-street, which was occupied by the Princess
Amelia, aunt to George IIL ; also by the Earl of Hopetoun, and the Hopes of
Amsterdam ; next by George Watson Taylor, Esq., who assembled here a very valu-
able collection of paintings. The other wing of the Duke's plan is the corresponding
mansion at the corner of Chandos-street. The centre is principally occupied by two
splendid mansions, with Corinthian columns, designed by James of Greenwich. At
this period Harcourt House on the west side was the only other house here : " it pre-
sents, with its high court- walls and. porte-cochere, more the appearance of a Parisian
mansion than any other house in London." (S. Angell.) The ground was first sold
at 25. Qd. per foot. In the centre of the Square is an equestrian metal statue of
William Duke of Cumberland ; and on the south side a colossal standing bronze statue
of Lord George Bentinck, third son of the Duke of Portland. Southward is Holies-
street, where, at No. 24, Lord Byron was born. Mr. Coke, in 1833, told Haydon, the
painter, that he remembered a fox killed in Cavendish-square, and that where Berke-
ley-square now stands was an excellent place for snipes.
Chaeteehouse Squaee is described by Hatton (1708) as "a pleasant place of
good (and many new) buildings, the whole in the form of a pentagon." Here was
Rutland House, in which the Venetian ambassadors lodged. Baxter the Nonconformist
died in this square in 1691. It has been partly taken down. On the north side is
the Chaeteehouse, see pp. 85-88.
CovENT Gaeden, see pp. 292-296.
Devonshiee Squaee, Bishopsgate Without, " a pretty though very small square
inhabited by gentry and other merchants" {Hatton, 1708), was named from the Earls
of Devonshire having lived there in a mansion previously possessed by the Earl of
Oxford : " the Queen's majesty Elizabeth hath lodged there" (Stoto.) The mansion
was built in the midst of gardens and bowling-alleys, by Jasper Fisher, one of the six
Clerks in Chancery, who thereby outrunning his income, the house was mockingly
called " Fisher's Folly." It next became a conventicle ; hence " Fisher's Folly con-
gregation" {Hudibras.) Here Murray and Dockwra set up the Penny Post in 1680.
Murray also introduced the Club of Commerce (one of a trade) ; and at Devonshire
House he opened a Bank of Credit, where money-bills were advanced upon goods de-
posited.
EusTON Squaee, St. Pancras, is named from the ground-landlords, the Dukes of
Grafton and Earls of Euston. Upon the site of the north side of the square, then a
nursery -garden. Dr. Wolcot, the political satirist (Peter Pindar), ended his misspent
life in blindness.
SQUARES. 749
FiNSBUET Sqttaee was built in 1789, by George Dance, R.A., on the nortli side of
Moorfields. At the north-east corner lived the estimable Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of
Mechanics' Institutions : he died here December 1, 1841, the eighteenth anniversary of
the establishment of the first Mechanics' Institution in London.
FiTZKOY Sqttaee is named from Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton : the
E. and S. sides were commenced by W. and J. Adam in 1790. On the south side
lived Sir W. C. Ross, R.A., the celebrated miniature-painter; and at No. 7, Sir
Charles L. Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy.
Golden Sqitare, Westminster, " not exactly in anybody's way, to or from any-
where," was "so called from the first builder, a very new and pleasant square'*
{Hatton, 1708) j contemporary evidence, more reasonable than Pennant's hearsay
anecdote that the name was Gelding, altered from the sign of a neighbouring inn.
One of its earliest inhabitants was Lord Bolingbroke, when secretary-at-war, 1704-8.
In the centre of the square is a statue of George IT., formerly at Canons, near Edge-
ware. Golden-square is a locality of Smollett's Humphrey Clinker, and of Dickens's
Nicholas Niaklehy.
Haydon Squaee, Minories, is named from Alderman Haydon, the ground-landlord.
Close by were found, in 1852, sculptured gravestones and urns; and in 1853 a sarco-
phagus ; all of Roman work. In Haydon-square lived Sir Isaac Newton when Master
of the Mint : the house was taken down about 1852. Here is Allsopp's Burton Ale
Dep6t, occupying 20,000 square feet ; cargoes of ale are sent here from Burton, by
railway (140 miles), in an afternoon ; and the platforms and wagons are lowered by
hydraulic cranes into the vast cellars. Here also is the spring of pure water, which
formerly supplied the priory of the Holy Trinity upon this spot.
Gordon Square, New-road, has at the south-west angle the Catholic Apostolic
Church : cathedral-like Early English exterior, and Decorated interior, with a trifo-
rium in the aisle-roof; the ceilings are highly enriched, and some of the windows are
filled with stained glass ; the northern doorway and porch, and the southern wheel-
window, equal old examples ; and gothic houses, with projections and gables, pointed-
headed windows, and traceried balconies, group around the church : architects, Bran-
don and Ritchie. " Near the spot occupied by Gordon -square, a circular enclosure was
constructed, about the year 1803, for the exhibition of the " first locomotive," the pro-
duction of Trevithick. Its performance was then so satisfactory that a bet was ofiered
by the proprietors to match the engine to run a greater number of miles in twenty-
four hours than any horse that could be produced, but there were no takers. — Com-
municated to The Builder.
GouGH Square, between Fetter-lane and Shoe-lane, contains the house. No. 17,
wherein Dr. Johnson compiled most of his Dictionary ; his amanuenses working in
the garrets.
Geosvenoe Square, six acres, is named from Sir Richard Grosvenor, who died in
1732. The houses, some of rubbed bricks with stone finishings, are spacious. The
centre landscape-garden was laid out by Kent, and the stone pedestal in the centre
once bore an equestrian statue of George I.; the line of fortification during the Civil
War ran across the space now the square. It is a place of high fashion ; and Dr.
Johnson once desired to be *' Grosvenor of that ilk." Here lived Lord North and
John Wilkes ; and at No. 39 (the Earl of Harrowby's) his Majesty's Ministers were
to have dined on the evening the Cato-street conspirators had planned to assassinate
them, and to bring away the heads of Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh in two bags !
Hanover Square, built about 1718, was named in honour of George I., when it
was proposed to change the place of execution from Tyburn elsewhere, lest the proces-
sion of malefactors might annoy the inhabitants of the new square. Here lived Field-
Marshal Lord Cobham, the owner of princely Stowe. Admiral Lord Rodney died here
in 1792. On the east side are the Hanover Square Rooms ; the great room is 90 feet
by 35 feet, and will hold 800 persons ; the ceiling was painted by Cipriani. No. 11 is
the Zoological Society ; No. 12, the Royal Agricultural Society ; and on the west
side is the Oriental Club {see p. 196). In Tenterden-street is the Royal Academy of
750 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
Music, founded in 1823, incorporated 1830. Upon the south side of Hanover-square
is a colossal bronze statue of William Pitt, by Chantrey.
" This square, iii connexion with George-street, has always struck me as one of the most scenic
architectural displays that London presents : the street expanding towards the square, the unique and
elegant style of the surrounding mansions, the judicious mixture of red brick and stone, Chantrey's
statue, and the successful ecclesiastical work of James (St. George's), altogether produce the most
agreeable effect."— 5. Angell.
St. James's Square, between Pall Mall and Jermyn-street, is built on part of St.
James's Fields. Godfrey's print, from a drawing by Hollar, has a stone conduit near
the centre of the present square. Mr. Cxmningham found several of its tenants rated in
the parish-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in 1676 ; and among them, on the west
side, Madame Churchill, mistress of the Duke of York ; and Madame Davis (Moll Davis),
mistress of Charles II. On the north side was Romney House, where, in 1695 and
1697, King William III. visited the Earl of Romney, to witness fireworks in' the
square; and in the latter year the Dutch Ambassador made before his house a
bonfire of 140 pitch-barrels, and wine was " kept continually running among the
common people." On the north side also was Ormond House, the mansion of the
great Duke of Ormond ; the duchess died here in 1684 ; in 1698 the house was let to
Count Tallard, the French Ambassador, for 600Z. per annum, then a large rent. In the
rear of the present houses is Ormond-yard, now a mews. Appletree-yard, opposite,
keeps in memory the apple-orchards of St. James's Fields. Hatton describes St.
James's-square, in 1708, " very pleasant, large, and beautiful ; all very fine spacious
buildings (except that side towards Pall Mall), mostly inhabited by the prime quality.**
Sutton Nicholls's print, 1720, shows a fountain in the centre of the square, with a basin,
** filled by contract, in 1727, with water from York -buildings." {Malcolm.) A
pedestal for an equestrian statue of William III. was erected in the centre of the
square in 1732 ; but the statue, cast in brass by the younger Bacon, was not set up
until 1808, the bequest in 1724 for the cost having been forgotten, until the money
was found in the list of unclaimed dividends. The Earl of Radnor had on the north
side a mansion, painted by Vanson, over doors and chimney-pieces; the staircase by
Laguerre; and the apartments hung with pictures by Edema, Wyck, Roestraten,
Danckers, old Griffier, young Vandervelde, and Sybricht. At No. 7, lived Josiah Wedg-
wood, and here his stock of classic pottery was dispersed by auction. No. 2 is Lord
Falmouth's : the street-posts are cannon captured by his ancestor. Admiral Boseawen,
off Cape Finisterre. No. 4, Earl de Grey {see p. 548) ; the late Earl received here the
Royal Institute of British Architects. No. 6, Marquis of Bristol. No. 11, Right Hon.
William Windham; Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough in 1814; John Duke of Rox-
burghe; now the Wyndham Club {see p. 261). No. 12, London Library {see p. 522) ;
here lived Lord Amherst when Commander-in-Chief. No. 13, LicJifield Souse, was
built by Athenian Stuart for Lord Anson; from the balcony, on June 20, 1815, the Prince
Regent displayed the trophies just received from Waterloo to the dehghted populace.
No. 15 (Sir Philip Francis's) was lent by Lady Francis to Queen Carohne, in 1820, who
delighted to show herself at the drawing-room windows, and proceeded from thence
daily, in State, to her trial in the House of Lords ; at this time No. 16 was Lord
Castlereagh's. No. 17, the Duke of Cleveland's : here is Lely's fine whole-length
portrait of the Duchess of Cleveland. No. 19, the Bishop of Winchester. No. 21,
Norfolk Souse {see p. 554), occupies the site of the mansion of Henry Jermyn, Earl
of St. Albans, who died here in 1683. No. 22 is London Souse, rebuilt in 1820 for
the Bishops of London. Upon the lower or Pall Mall side lived the father of H. R.
Morland, and grandfather of George Morland, all three painters.
Leicesteb Squaee {see pp. 511-515.)
Lincoln's Inn Fields {see pp. 527-529).
Lowndes Sqttaee, Belgravia, was built 1837-1839, and named from the ground-
landlord, W. Selby Lowndes, Esq. The seven houses at the south end, by Lewis
Cubitt, resemble an Italian palace, with embellished chimney-shafts, Tuscan cornice,
and Venetian balconies. The site of the square was once a coppice, which supplied the
Abbot and Convent of Westminster with wood for fuel.
SQUARES. 751
Manchester Sqtjaee was begun in 1*776, by the building of Manchester House
upon the north side (see p. 552). At the north-west corner of the square is Man-
chester-street, where died, in 1814, the impostor, Joanna Southcott, after imposing
upon six medical men with the story of her being enceinte with the young " Shiloh."
Myddelton Sqtjaee, Islington, near the New Eiver Head, is named from its origi-
nator. Sir Hugh Myddelton, the early engineer.
PoRTMAN Sqtjaee, upon the estate of W. H. Portman, Esq., and once the property
of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, was begun about 1764, but not completed until
1784 ; it is 500 feet by 400. The centre is laid out as a shrubbery wilderness ; and
here is a moveable kiosk, constructed for the Turkish Ambassador about 1808, when he
resided at No. 18 ; his Excellency customarily took the air and smoked here, surrounded
by a party of his retinue. At the north-west angle is Montague House (see p. 554) :
here were the feather-hangings sung by Cowper j here Miss Burney was welcomed, and
Dr. Johnson grew tame. No. 15 (Duke of Leeds) : the architectural embelUshments
of the staircase and principal rooms of this noble mansion, the rich mahogany doors,
sculptured marble chimney-pieces, and the cornices and ceilings, are all in the fine taste
of Robert Adam, who built the Adelphi-terrace.
Peince's Sqtjaee. — " As St. Giles's parish contains the largest square (Lincoln's
Inn Fields), so it also ma^ boast of the smallest, which is situated near it — namely.
Prince's Square, containing only one house " {Dohie), between Little Queen-street and
Gate-street ; a stone tablet is inscribed, " Prince's-square, 1736."
Peince's Sqtjaee, Ratcliffe Highway. — Here is the Swedish Church, in which is
interred Emanuel Swedenborg; in the vestry-room are a few portraits, including
that of Dr. Serenius, Bishop of Stregnas. About the year 1816 the cranium of
Swedenborg was taken from the coffin by a Swedish captain, but was replaced after
his death.
Queen Squaee, Bloomsbury, built in the reign of Queen Anne, has a railed garden
for the north side. Jonathan Richardson, the painter, died here in 1745. At the
north-west corner Dr. John Campbell, editor of the BiograpJiia Britannica, gave his
Sunday-evening conversation-parties, at which Dr. Johnson used to meet " shoals of
Scotchmen." On the south-west side is the church of St. George-the-Martyr, of which
Dr. Stukeley was rector {see p. 163) ; he lived in the square.
Qtjeen Squaee, Westminster, contains a statue of Queen Anne, mentioned in
1708. Here was born in 1684, Admiral Vernon, the hero of Portobello ; here lived the
Rev. C. M. Cracherode, who bequeathed his books, medals, and drawings to the British
Museum. In this square died, in 1784, Dr. Thomas Francklin, the erudite Greek
scholar. (Qtjeen Squaee Chapel, see p. 214). In 1832 died, aged 85, Jeremy
Bentham, in Queen-square-place, where he had resided for nearly half a century.
Red Lion Sqtjaee, " a pleasant square of good buildings, between High Holborn
south, and the fields north" {Ration, 1708), was named from the Med Lion Inn. In 1733,
Lord Chief Justice Raymond lived here ; Sharon Turner, the historian, lived many years
at No. 13 ; the benevolent Jonas Hanway, the traveller, lived and died (1786) here, in a
house, the principal rooms of which he had decorated with paintings and emblematical
devices, " in a style pecuHar to himself :" Hanway was honoured with a public funeral.
Sir John Prestwick, in his Bepublica, tells us " Cromwell's remains were privately
interred in a small paddock near Holborn, on the spot where the obelisk in Red Lion-
square lately stood." Prestwick does not give his authority for this statement ; it
may be a blunder, caused by the bodies of Cromwell, Treton, and Bradshaw being
carried from Westminster Abbey to the Bed Lion Inn, Holborn, and the next day
dragged on sledges to Tyburn. (Wood's Athen. Oxon. art. " Ireton.") No. 13 is the
Mendicity Society. The author of A Tour through Great Britain notes : " This
present year, 1737, an Act was passed for beautifying Red Lyon-square, which had
run much to decay, and no doubt but Leicester-fields and Golden-square will soon follow
these good examples."
Rtjssexl Squaee, north of Bedford-square, occupies part of Southampton Fields
752 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
(1720), subsequently Long Fields. Its dimensions are 665 feet 6 inches north side,
665 feet 3 inches south ; 672 feet 7 inches west ; and 667 feet 1 iiich east — 2665*1
feet square, or about 140 feet less than Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1800 Long Fields
lay waste and useless, with nursery grounds northward; the Toxopholite Society's
ground north-west; and Bedford House, with its lawn and magnificent lime-trees,
south. At the north-east end of Upper Montague-street was " the Field of Forty
Footsteps " (see p. 337). The east side of the square was the house and gardens of
the dissolute Lord Baltimore ; the mansion is now divided.
Bedford House stood across the present Woburn-place. At that time Bolton House, which occupied
the north extremity of the single line of houses forming Southampton-row, was the extreme of London
in that direction, for there was no building in the then clear open " Long-fields" between Bolton House
and the Southampton Arms Tea-garden at Camden-town, to which there was a footpath crossing the
New-road, leaving the Boot, immortalized by Dickens in Barnaby Budge at some distance on the
right. The view northward from Queen-square was then quite uninterrupted. — Builder.
Hero, in No. 21, Sir Samuel Romilly died by his own hand. Lord Chief Justice Tenter-
den died in No. 28. Baltimore House, at the corner of Guilford-street, was long the
residence of Wedderburn, Lord Chancellor Loughborough. Mr. Justice Talfourd was
resident at No. 67. Sir Thomas Lawrence lived for a quarter of a century in No. 65,
In the Gentleman's Magazine, the Rev. John Mitford notes : " We shall ne/er forget
the Cossacks, mounted on their small white horses, with their long spears grounded,
standing sentinels at the door of this great painter, whilst he was taking the portrait of
their general, Platoff " (1818). On the north side is the picturesque bronze sitting
statue of Francis, Duke of Bedford, by Westmacott.
Salisbury Squaee {see Fleet-stkeet, p. 349) ; at the north-west corner was the
printing-office of Richardson, the novelist.
SoHO Square, originally King's-square, was begun in the reign of Charles II. ; the
south side consisting of Monmouth House, built by Wren for the Duke of Monmouth,
and after his death purchased by Lord Bateman ; in 1717 it was an auction room ; part
of the site is now occupied by Bateman's-buildings.
J. T. Smith, in Nollekena and his Times, describes the pulling down of Monmouth House, which he
witnessed : the gate entrance was of massive ironwork, supported by stone piers, surmounted by the
crest of the Duke of Monmouth ; and within the gates was a courtyard for carriages. The hall was
ascended by steps. There were eight rooms on the ground-floor : the principal one was a dining-room
towards the south, the carved and gilt panels of which had contained whole-length pictures. At corners
of the ornamented ceiling, which was of plaster, and over the chimney-piece, the Duke of Monmouth's
arms were displayed. The staircase was of oak, the steps very low, and the landing-places were tessel-
lated with woods of light and dark colours. Upon ornamented brackets were busts of Seneca, Cara-
calla, Trajan, Adrian, &c. The principal room on the first-floor was lined with blue satin, superbly
decorated with pheasants and other birds in gold. The chimney-piece was richly ornamented with
fruit and foliage : in the centre, within a wreath of oak-leaves, was a circular recess for a bust. The
beads of the panels of the brown window-shutters, which were very lofty, were gilt ; and the piers
between the windows had been filled with looking-glasses. The paved yard was surrounded by a red
brick wall, with heavy stone copings, 25 feet in height,
Shadwell, in his plays (1661), mentions " Soho-square ;" Maitland, 1739, " King's-
square," then a sort of Court quarter : Evelyn wintered " at Soho, in the great square,"
in 1690. Bishop Burnet, the historian, lived here before he removed to Clerkenwell; his
Curiosities included the supposed " original Magua Charta," with part of the Great Seal
remaining. The shipwrecked remains of Sir Cloudesly Shovel lay in state in 1707. At the
corner of Greek-street, No. 1, was the mansion of Alderman Beckford, now the House of
Charity {see p. 211) ; and thither came the partisan City procession, who prevailed
upon Beckford to serve his second mayoralty, in commemoration of which he feasted the
poor of St. Anne's, Soho. At the corner of Sutton-street was Carlisle House, where
Mrs. Cornelys gave her concerts, balls, and masquerades; the present Roman Catholic
chapel in Sutton-street having been Mrs. Cornelys's banquetting-room (connected with
the house by " the Chinese bridge "), and the gateway was the entrance for sedan-
chairs. In 1772 the " furniture, decorations, china, &c.," of Carlisle House were sold
by auction ; but it was re-opened in 1774 ; Mrs. Cornelys returned here in 1776 ; and
it was next an exhibition-place of " monstrosities," a " School of Eloquence," and an
" Infant School of Genius j" it was closed in 1797, and taken down in 1803 or ] 804 j
some of its curious paintings were preserved ; and an account of Mrs. Cornelys's enter-
tainments has been privately printed by Mr. T. Mackinlay. {Br. Rimbault ; Notes and
Queries, No. 28.) No. 20, " D'Almaine's," with a banqueting-room ceiling, said to have
SQUARES. 753
been painted by Angelica Kauffmann, was built for Earl Tilney by Colin Campbell,
architect of Wanstead House. No. 32 was Sir Joseph Banks's, P.R.S., next the houso
of the Linnean Society (see p. 598), exempted from the poor-rate in 1854 on account
of its being used for the purposes of science. (Court of Queen's Bench Rep. May 30.)
At a house in Soho-square, Kichard Payne Knight, the classic antiquary (died 1824),
assembled his collection of ancient bronzes, and Greek coins, value 50,000^., which he
bequeathed to the British Museum. At the corner of Bateman's-buildhigs, left, lived
George Colman the elder ; and right, Samuel Beazley, the dramatist, and architect of
the Lyceum and St. James's theatres. The Soho Bazaar (north-west corner) is
described at p. 35. In the centre of the square is a pedestrian statue of Charles II.
(See Fountains, p. 356.) In Frith-street, on the south side of the square, died of
cholera, in 1830, William Hazlitt, the eloquent essayist : he was buried in St. Anne's
churchyard.- where is " a stone raised by one whose heart is with him in his grave.'*
Frith-street is named "from Mr. Fryth, a great (and once rich) builder" (Hatton);
Maitland calls it « Thrift-street."
Tavistock Square, Euston-road, is named from the ground-landlord, the Duke of
Bedford, and Marquis of Tavistock.
Southward is Tavistoeh-place. At No. 31 lived Mary Ann Clarke, mistress of the Duke of York; at
No. 32, Francis Douce, the illustrator of Shakspeare, and subsequently, in the same house John Gait
when editor Of the Courier; at No. 19, Sir Harris Nicolas, K.C.M.G., the peerage antiquary; and at
No. 10, John Britton, before he removed to No. 17, Burton-street. In Tavistock-place, at No. 37,
Francis Baily, F.R.S., President of the Royal Astronomical Society, lived from 1825 to 1840. The
house stands isolated in a garden, so as to be free from any material tremor from passing carriages. A
small observatory was constructed in the upper part ; and herein Mr. Baily contrived a pair of scales
that enabled him approximately to weigh the earth. -The house and room are engraved and described
in Things not generally Known, 1856. " The building in which the earth was weighed, and its bulk
and figure calculated, the standard measure of the British nation perpetuated, and the Pendulum ex-
periments rescued from their chief source of inaccuracy, can never cease to be an object of interest to
astronomers of future generations." — Sir John Herschel, JBart.
Teapalgae Squaee, Charing Cross, formed by the removal of the lower end of St.
Martin's-lane, a knot of courts and alleys, the Golden Cross inn,* and low buildings
adjoining, was planned by Barry, and is named from the last victory of Nelson, to whom
a column is erected on the south side (see p. 283) : the four colossal bronze lions at the
base of the pedestal, modelled by Sir E. Landseer, R.A., were added in 1867. The
whole square is paved with granite, has two large tanks with fountains (see p. 357), and
has on the north side a terrace, which imparts elevation to the National Gallery fagade.
At the north-east and north-west angles are granite pedestals ; the former occupied
by Chantrey's bronze equestrian statue of George IV., intended for the top of the
marble arch at Buckingham Palace. The granite capstan posts in the area are charac-
teristic ; but the square has been condemned as " an artificial stone-quarry." The
massive lanterns at the angles were originally designed by Barry for Bude-lights.
In 1831, upon the ground cleared for Trafalgar-square, was exhibited in a pavilion
the entire skeleton of a Greenland Whale, taken off the coast of Belgium in 1827 ;
total length, 95 feet ; breadth, 18 feet ; width of tail, 22| feet ; length of head, 22
feet; height of cranium, 4^ feet; length of fins, 12^ feet; weight of animal, 249 tons,
or 480,0001b. ; weight of skeleton, 35 tons, or 70,0001b. ; oil extracted, 4000 gallons.
The skeleton was raised upon iron supports, and visitors ascended within the ribs
by a flight of steps. It had been previously exhibited at Paris, where Cuvier and
others estimated the age of this whale at from 900 to 1000 years. (See Mirror^
August 13, 1831.)
Vincent Squaee, Westminster, a portion of Tothill Fields, is named after Dr.
Vincent, then Dean of Westminster. Here is the church of St. Mary the Virgin, con-
secrated 1837 : style. Early Pointed, with lancet windows ; architect, E. Blore.
Wellclose Squaee was originally called Marine-square, from its being a favourite
residence of naval ofiicers. " It is very near a geometrical square, whose area is about
2f acres; it is situated between Knockfergus north and Katcliff Highway south.'*
(Hatton, 1708.) Here is the Danish (now Sailors') Church. In Well-street, ad-
* April 23, 1643, it was ordered by Parliament that the sign of the Golden Cross, at Charing-eross
be taken down, as superstitious and idolatrous 1
3 C
754 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
joining, was the Royalty Theatre, burnt dowi^ April 11, 1826 ; upon the site was built
the Brunswick Theatre ; it was performed in only three nights, and fell to the gi-ound
Feb. 28, 1828 ; within six months of which was built upon the same site the Sailors'
Home.
AVoBTJEN Squaee, St. Pancras, named from a seat of the Duke of Bedford, has in
the centre a Pointed church, by L. Vulliamy, built in 1834 : the spire is 150 feet high.
STATi: CO A ORES.
THE " glistering coach" (Shakspeare) dates from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who,
April 2, 1571, at the meeting of Parliament, rode for the first time in a coach,
drawn by two palfreys, covered with crimson velvet housings, richly embroidered : but
this was the only carriage in the procession ; the Lord Keeper, and the Lords spiritual
and temporal, all attending on horseback. In 1588 the Queen went from Somerset
Place to St. Paul's Cross, to return thanks after the destruction of the Spanish Armada,
in a coach presented to her by Henry Earl of Arundel, and called by Stow " a chariot-
throne." In a print in the Crowle Pennant, in the British Museum, representing
Queen Henrietta-Maria doing penance beneath the gallows at Tyburn, Charles I. is
seated in a large and ornamented coach ; but this print is apoci-yphal.
The Coach of Queen Anne had its panels painted by Sir James Thornhill ; and a
friend of J. T. Smith possessed a portion of a panel. This coach was used by George I.
and II., and by George III. when he first opened Parliament, and also at his marriage ;
after M'hich it was broken up, and the State Carriage now used by the sovereign was
built.
The Queen's State Coach, sometimes called the "Coronation Coach," was de-
signed by Sir William Chambers, R.A., who recommended Joseph Wilton, R.A., and
the sculptor Pigalle, to conduct the building of the carriage. The model was executed
from Chambers's design by Laurence Anderson Holme, a Dane.
Wilton was appointed state-coach carver to the Kinpr, and erected workshops opposite Marylebone-
fields, on the south side of what was afterwards named Queen Anne-street East, now called Foley-place,
and occupying the large house now remaining at the south-east corner of Portland-street, adjoining.
Here Geo. III.'s state-coach was built ; the small model of which [in wax, by Capitsoldi and Voyers, the
panels painted in water-colours by Cipriani], I, when a boy, was carried to see by Mr. Nollekens and my
father, it being then preserved in a back shop, where it remained for many years.— J. T. Smith's
Nollekens and his Times, ii. 172.
The carriage is composed of four tritons, who support the body by cables : the two
placed on the front bear the driver on their shoulders, and are sounding shells ; and
those on the back part carry the imperial fasces, topped with tridents. The driver's
footboard is a large scallop-shell, supported by marine plants. The pole resembles a
bundle of lances ; and the wheels are in imitation of those of ancient triumphal chariots.
The body of the coach is composed of eight palm-trees, which, branching out at the
top, sustain the roof : at each angle are trophies of British victories. On the centre of
the roof stand boy-genii of England, Scotland, and Ireland, supporting the imperial
crown, and holding the sceptre, the sword of state, and ensigns of knighthood ; from
their bodies festoons of laurel fall thence to the four corners of the roof. The intervals
between the palm-trees, which form the body of the coach, are filled in the upper part
with plate-glass, and the panels below with paintings as follow :
Front Panel. — Britannia on a throne, holding a staff of liberty, attended by Religion, Justice,
Wisdom, Valour, Fortitude, Commerce, Plenty, and Victory, presenting her with a garland of laurel ;
background, St. Paul's and the Thames.
Eight Door. — Industry and Ingenuity giving a cornucopia to the Genius of England. Side Panels. —
History recording the reports of Fame, and Peace burning the implements of War.
Back Panel. — Neptune and Amphitrite in a car drawn by sea-horses, attended by the Winds, Rivers,
Tritons, Naiads, &c., bringing the tribute of the world to Britain.
Upper Part of Pack Panel.— The Royal Arms, ornamented with the order of St. George, the Golden
Fleece, the rose, shamrock, and thistle entwined.
Zeft Door.— Mars, Minerva, and Mercury supporting the imperial crown. Side Panels.— The Arts
and Sciences protected.
The body is lined with scarlet embossed velvet, superbly laced and embroidered with
the star, encircled by the collar of the order of the Garter, and surmounted by the
imperial crown, pendant the George and Dragon ; in the corners, the rose, shamrock,.
STATE COACHES. 755
and thistle entwined. The badges of St. Michael, St. George, the Guelph and Bath,
St. Andrew, and St. Patrick are also among the embroidery. The hammercloth is of
scarlet velvet, with gold badges, ropes, and tassels. The length of the carriage and
body is 24 feet; width, 8 feet 3 inches; height, 12 feet; length of pole, 12 feet 4
inches ; weight, 4 tons. The carving was mostly executed by Nicholas Collett, a little
man, whom Waldron the actor (originally a carver in wood) delighted to call " a
Garrick of a carver." The panels were painted by Cipriani, who received for the same
800Z. The chasing was executed by Coit, the coachwork by Butler, the embroidery
by Barrett, the gilding (triple throughout) by Rujolas, the varnishing by Ansel, and the
harness by Ringstead. The whole cost was as follows :
Coaclimaker (including Wheelwright and Smith) . . £1637 15
Carver 2500
Gilder 935 14
Painter 315
Laceman 737 10 7
Chaser 665 4 6
Hamessmaker 3S5 15
Mercer 202 5 10^
Beltmaker 99 6 6
Milliner 31 3 4
Saddler 10 16 6
Woollendraper 436
Covermaker 396
£7528 4 Si
The bill was 8000?. ; but being taxed, was reduced as above, the odd pence arising
from the ribbon-weaver's bill. The superb hammercloth, of scarlet silk Genoa velvet,
with gold badges, fringes, ropes, and tassels, was renewed in 1838. The Royal State
Coach was first used Nov. 16, 1762. Walpole writes to Sir Horace Mann :
"There is come forth a new state-coach, which has cost 8000Z. It is a beautiful object, though
crowded with improprieties. Its supports are Tritons, not very well adapted to land carriage ; and
formed of palm-trees, which are as Uttle aquatic as Tritons are terrestrial. The crowd to see it, on the
opening of the Parliament, was greater than at the coronation, and much more mischief done."
The Coach was kept in a shed at the King's Mews, Charing Cross ; upon the taking
down of which, it was removed to the Royal Mews, Pimlico, where also is kept the
State Harness for the eight horses by which the carriage is di-awn when used by the
sovereign. The Coach and Harness may be inspected upon application. The new
hammercloth in the reign of William IV. cost 500?. {See Mews, Royal, p. 565.)
The Loed Matoe's State Coach is kept at the City Green-yard, Wliitecross-
street, Cripplegate, opposite the Debtors' Door : the coach may be here inspected. It
was built in 1757, by a subscription of 60?. from each of the junior aldermen, or such
as had not passed the civic chair. Subsequently, each alderman, when sworn into office,
contributed 60?. towards keeping the coach in repair ; for which purpose also each
Lord Mayor gave 100?. In a few years, the whole expense fell upon the Lord Mayor,
and in one year it exceeded 300?. The coach was then transferred to the Corporation,
and it has since been kept in repair by the Committee of General Purposes. Twenty
years after its construction, the repairs in one year cost 335?. ; and the average of seven
years' repairs in the present century was 115?. The design of the coach is more mag-
nificent than graceful : the carriage consists of a pair of grotesque marine figures, wlio
support the seat of the driver, with a large scallop-shell as a foot-board ; at the hind-
standard are two children bearing the City arms, beneath which is a large pelican j
the perch is double, and terminates in dolphins' heads; and the four wheels are richly
carved and gilt, and resemble those of ancient triumphal chariots. The body is not
hung upon springs, but upon four thick red leather straps, fastened with large gilt-
brass buckles of spirited design, each bearing the City arms. The roof was originally
ornamented with eight gilt vases ; in the centre is a leafy crown, bearing the City
arms, and from which small gilt flowers trail over the remainder of the roof, painted
red : originally, a group of four boys supporting baskets of fruits and flowers occupied
the centre. The upper intervals of the body, save at the back, are filled with plate-
glass ; and the several lower panels are painted as follow :
Front Panel.— F&ith supporting a decrenit figure beside a flaming altar ; Hope pointing to St.
Paul's Cathedral.
3 c 2
756 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
^acifc.— Charity; a wrecked sailor, with a ship in the offing, and two females casting money and
fruits into his lap.
Upper Back.— The City, attended by Neptune ; Commerce introducing the Arab with his horse, and
other traders with the camel, elephant, &c.
Eight Door.— Fame, with her wreath, presenting a Lord Mayor to the City, who bears the sword and
sceptre, the mace, &c., at her feet. In the very small panel beneath are Iruit and flowers. Side Panels.—
Beauty with her mirror ; female with bridled horse, &c.
Left Door.— The City seated, and Britannia pointing with her spear to a shield inscribed with " Henri
Fitz-Alwin, 1189" (the first Mayor). In the very small panels beneath are the scales of justice and
sword of mercy, grouped. Side Panels. — Justice with her scales and sword; Prudence, &c.
The original heraldic paintings were executed by Catton.. one of the foundation mem-
bers of the Royal Academy. In shields at the lower angles of each door, and of the
back and front panels, are emblazoned the arms of the Lord Mayor for the time being.
The framework is richly carved and gilt : over each door is a scallop-shell; and at the
lower angles of the body are dwarf figures emblematic of the four quarters of the globe.
The smaller enrichments about the panels, as shells, fruits, and flowers, are admirably
carved and grouped : over the upper back panel is an exquisite hit — a serpent and dove.
The perch and wheels are painted red, picked out with gold j and massive gilt bosses
cover the wheel-boxes : the wheels were renewed in 1828. The coach is Ihied with
crimson corded silk and lace ; and in the centre is a seat for the mace and sword
bearers. The hammercloth is crimson cloth, but the original one was of gold lace.
This coach was repaired, new-lined, and regilt in 1812, at an expense of 600?., when
also a new seat-cloth was furnished for 90Z. ; and in 1821 the re-lining cost 206?. In
1812, Messrs. Houlditch agreed to keep the coach in fair wear-and-tear for ten years,
at 48?. per annum. The total weight of the coach is 3 tons 16 cwt. : it is drawn by
six horses, for whom a superb state harness was made in 1833, that for each horse
weighing 1061b.
It is not positively known by whom this coach was carved, nor by whom the panels
were painted. Cipriani is stated by some to be the painter ; but others assert that
after the present Royal State Coach was built in 1762, the old Royal State Coach was
purchased by the City of London, and the panels re-painted by Dance : such is the
statement of Smith, in Nollekens and Ms Times ; but in the Report of the Municipal
Corporation Commissioners, the City Coach is stated to have been built in 1757. The
liord Mayor rode in state upon horseback until 1712, when a state carriage, drawn by
lour horses, was first used. In 1741 the horses were increased to six. This State
Coach is represented in Hogarth's print of the Industrious Apprentice, date 1747 ; it
is somewhat plain, but has ornamental vases upon the roof. In 1762, Lord Mayor
Beckford purchased the very fine set of Flanders mares of M. Boreel, Ambassador of the
States General to the Court of St. James's ; and they were used in Beckford's Mayoral-
ties. Every time the City State Coach is used, it costs the Lord Mayor 20?. : Alderman
Samuel Wilson used the coach twelve times in his Mayoralty, 1839-40. {See Loed
Mayor's State, pp. 536-538.)
" Our Lord Mayor and his golden coach, and Ms gold-covered footmen and coachman, and his golden
chain, and his chaplain, and his great sword of state, please the people, and particularly the womeii and
girls, and when they are pleased the men and boys are pleased ; and many a young fellow has been more
industrious and attentive from his hope of one day riding in that golden co&c\i."—Cobbett.
The Speae:ee's State Coach is traditionally said to have been Oliver Cromwell's ;
but it is more probably of the time of William III. It is elaborately carved and
heavily gilt. Figures of naval and military prowess. Plenty, &c., support the body ;
the box is held by two larger figures of Plenty ; the hammercloth is of crimson velvet,
trimmed with silver fringe ; and the footboard is borne by two lions, and surmounted
with a large grotesque mask. The hind-standard is richly carved with figures and
devices of antique and modern design. The framework of the panels is finely carved ;
and the roof has a pierced parapet or gallery. The upper, side, and front panels are
filled with splendid Vauxhall plates of glass. The lower panels are painted with
emblematic subjects : the door-panel has a seated figure of Britannia, to whom female
figures are bringing fruits, the horn of plenty, &c. The opposite door has also a seated
figure, and another presenting the Bill of Rights, with Liberty, Fame, and Justice.
Beneath each door and panel are sculptured maces, surmounted with a cap, emblematic
of the Speaker's authority. In the four side panels are emblematic figures of
Literature, Architecture, Science, and Plenty. The back panel has a better composi-
STATUES. 767
tion of Britannia, wearing a mural crown ; St. Paul's Cathedral, shipping, &c., in the
distance. The front panel also bears several allegorical figures. In the lower part of
the pictures in the principal panels are emblazoned the Speaker's arms, and in the side-
panel pictures his crest. The coach is lined and trimmed with dark crimson velvet ;
it has two seats, and a centre one : on the latter sit the Speaker's Mace-bearer and
Sword-bearer ; and his Chaplain and Train-bearer sit facing the Speaker. This coach
is used by the Speaker on opening Parliament, presenting addresses to the sovereign,
attending levees, &c., when it is drawn by a pair of horses in state harness. The coach
is kept at the Speaker's stables, Millbank.
STATTLES,
rpHE following are the principal out-door Statues in the Metropolis :
Statues. Sites. Sculptors.
"Achilles" Hyde Park Westmacott.
This group is strangely miscalled "Achilles;" it being copied from one of the statues on Monte
Cavallo, at Rome, which are called Castor and Pollux by the Italian antiquaries Venuti and Vasi, and by
Fiaxman named iiellerophon. The inscription bronze letters have been stolen !
Albert, Princb IJoyd's, Royal Exchange . . . Lough.
Alfkkd, King Trinity-square, Newington.
Anne, Queen of James I. . Temple Bar Bushnell.
Anne, Queen Queen-square, Bloomsbury.
Anne, Queen Queen-square, Westminster.
Anne, Queen St. Paul's Churchyard . . . . F. Bird.
AsKE, Robert Hospital, Hoxton.
Bedford, Dukb of ... . Bedford-square Westmacott.
Bbntinck, Lord Geobge . . Cavendish-square Campbell.
Canning, George .... New Palace-yard Westmacott.
Cartwright, Major . . . Burton-crescent Clarke.
Charles I Charing Cross Le Sceur.
"This noble equestrian statue," says Walpole, "in which the commanding grace of the figure and
the exquisite form of the horse are striking to the most unpractised eye, was cast in 1633, on a spot of
ground near the church in Covent Garden ; and not being erected before the commencement of the Civil
War, it was sold by the Parliament to John Rivet, a brazier, living at the Dial, near Holborn Conduit,
■with strict orders to break it in pieces. But the man produced some fragments of old brass, and con-
cealed the statue and horse underground till the Restoration." M. d'Archenholz relates "that he cast a
vast number of handles of knives and forks in brass, which he sold as made of the broken statue. They
were bought with eagerness by the Royalists, from affection to their monarch— by the rebels as a mark
of triumph over their murdered sovereign." Walpole adds that " they had been made at the expense of
the family of Howard-Arundel ;" but Mr. Cunningham refers to a memorandum in the State- Paper Office,
from which he concludes this statue to have been ordered by the Lord Treasurer Weston, afterwards
Earl of Portland, of Hubert Le Soeur, " for the casting of a horse in brasse, bigger than a great horse by
afoot; and the figure of his Majesty King Charles proportionable, full six foot;" to be set up in the
Lord Treasurer's gardens at Roehampton, in Surrey (see Hand-Book of London, 2nd edit. p. 106). At the
Restoration,* an order of replevin was issued by the House of Lords, upon the information of the Earl
of Portland (son of the Lord Treasurer), for the recovery of the statue from Rivet; but it was not setup
until 1674, when Waller wrote his courtly lines " On the Statue of King Charles I, at Charing Cross."
There is an idle story that Le Sceur, having finished the statue, defied any one to point out a defect in
the work; when, on a person denoting the absence of the girth, the sculptor, in a fit of indignation,
destroyed himself. The assertion of the horse not having a girth is quoted by Malcolm from The
Medley for August, 1719; but there is a girth, which passes over a very strong rein on the right. In
1810, the sword, buckles, and straps fell from the statue ; and about the coronation of Queen Victoria ia
1838, when seats were erected round the group, the sword (a rapier of Charles's period), was stolen.
The George pendent from the ribbon has also been taken away, as denoted by the vacant hole in the
metal where the George should hang.
The stone pedestal, sculptured with the royal arms, trophies, &c., was long admired as the work of
Gibbons; but a written account proves it to be by Joshua Marshall, Master Mason to the Crown. On
the 29th of May (Restoration Day) this statue was formerly decorated with boughs of oak. In the spring
of 1853 a cast of the statue and pedestal was taken by Brucciani, for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham :
for the moulds and casts, 37 tons of plaster and 15 tons of iron were used. The following measurements
■were also then taken : Pedestal, 13ft. 8 in. high ; 9 ft. 11 in. long; 5 ft. 7 in. wide. Statue: height from
foot to top of horse's head, 7 ft. 8 in. ; plinth to top of figure, 9 ft. 2^ in. ; plinth to neck of horse, 6 ft. ;
plinth to top of hind-quarters, 5 ft. 10 in. ; length from head to tail, 7 ft. 9 in. ; circumfercuce of horse
from back of saddle-cloth, 8ft. 2 in.; round chest and hind-quarters, 16ft. The metal casting around
the left fore-foot of the horse bears hvber(t) le svevr (fe)cit 1633.
" Although taken soon after Charles's accession, and at a time when sorrow could hardly have been
put upon him, yet the character of melancholy is deeply impressed on the countenance. The horse is
superb : the action is that which is taught in the menage, the motion of the legs showing the spirit of
the animal ; yet the action is not that of progressing, — it is a movement that would not communicate
motion to the body, but leaves the rider perlectly imdisturbed; the bridle falls almost loose upon the
• In this year a statue of the King was restored in the City : " May 7, 1660. Charles the First his
Statue set up again in Guildhall-yard."— ifw^or. Guide, 1688.
758 CTJEIOSITTES OF LONDON.
neck ; nor does the well-taught steed disturb the reverie of thought expressed in the countenance of ita
master."— Times, Sept. 1, 1838.
Statues. Sites. Sculptors.
Chables I Temple Bar Bushnell.
Charles II Temple Bar Bushnell.
Chaeles II Soho-square.
Charles II Chelsea Hospital Gibbons.
Claytow, Sib Eobeet . , .St. Thomas's Hospital.
Coram, Capt Foundling Hospital Calder Marshall.
The worthy founder of this institution appears in the same style of dress that he wore in life— the
flowing wig, the long waistcoat, and broad-tailed open coat : in one hand he holds the charter of the
hospital. The countenance is most animated and expressive, as if talking to Hogarth, or some others
who worked with him in establishing this foundation. No one will say that the costume of this statue
is impicturesque as treated; and the circumstance ought to encourage us at the present day boldly to
delineate our great men in the form in which they appeared on the stage of life. <.
Crosby, Sib John- .... Crosby Hall (front) Nixon.
CuMBBRLAKD, DuKE OF , . Cavcndish-square ...... Chew.
Elizabeth, Queen . , , .St. Dunstan's, Fleet-street.
Edward VI Christ's Hospital.
Edward VI St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
Edward VI St. Thomas's Hospital .... Scheemakers.
Eldon, Eael oe School, Wandsworlh-road.
C. J. Fox ........ Bloomsbury-square Westmacott.
PEANKLiir, Sib Johit , . . Waterloo-place Noble.
The statue, 8ft. 4 in. high, bronze; pedestal, polished granite. The likeness has been pronounced
by Lady Franklin and others who knew her husband best, to be characteristic and excellent. The
moment selected for representation in the statue is when Franklin was addressing his officers and crew,
and telling them that the North-west Passage had at last been discovered.
The bas-relief on the front of the pedestal represents the funeral of Franklin, at which Captain
Crozier reads the burial service. He is surrounded by the other sorrowing officers and crew of the two
ships, the Erebus and Terror. It is well known that not one of the whole number of these brave fellows
ever returned. Their names, with^ the name of Franklin himself, are recorded on bronze panels at
the side of the memorial. In the panel at the back of the tribute there is an embossed bronze chart
of the Arctic regions, showing the position of the two ships and their crews at the time of the death of
Franklin. The pedestal is further adorned with bronze cable cornice moulding at the plinth, enriched
with oak-leaves and acorns.
Geobge I St. George's Church, Bloomsbury.
George II Golden-square.
George II Leicester-square Buchard.
For the strange history of this statue, see Leicestbe-sqxtabe, pp. 511-515.
Geobge III. (equestrian) . . Berkeley-square Beaupre.
The statue executed in lead mider the direction of Wilton, R.A.
Geobge III Somerset House Bacon.
George III Cockspur-street Wyatt.
George IV Trafalgar-square Chantrey.
In modelling the horse standing still on all four legs, Chantrey has given the sanction of his name to
a bold and judicious innovation on the old custom of representing horses in statues either curveting or
ambling. The horse was modelled for the statue of Sir Thomas Munro.
Guards Memoeial .... Waterloo-place Bell.
A granite pedestal: three guardsmen, bronze; figure of Honour distributing coronals, bronze;
pyramid of cannon; inscription : " To the memory of 2162 officers and men of the Brigade of Guards
who fell during the war in Russia, 1854, 1855, 1856."
Guy, Thomas Guy's Hospital Scheemakers.
Handel, G. F Sacred Harmonic Society . . . Eoubihac.
Heney VIII St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
Heebekt, Loed War Office, Pall Mall .... Foley.
A bronze statue 9 ft. in height, on a carved granite pedestal, the lower grey and the upper portion a
beautiful specimen of red granite. Let into the granite on thiee of its sides are three bos reliefs, also
in bronze, illustrative of subjects to which Lord Herbert chieiiy devoted his attention whilst filling the
office of Secretary of State for War. On the face of the pedestal, beneath the words " Sidney Herbert "
cut deeply into the granite, are the armorial bearings of the family in bronze (with the old French
motto, " Ung je servirai"), and on the sides are the dates of his birth and death— viz., "BornlBtb
Sept., 1810," on the east side, and on the west, " Died August 2, 1861." On the southern side is a
bronze tablet, inscribed, " Erected by public subscription, 1867." The tablet in front of the statue or
northern side, facing Pall-mall, represents an incident in the " Herbert Hospital," Woolwich, Miss
Nightingale instructing nurses in their duties of tending wounded and sick soldiers— very good. On
the east side is a bas relief, representing the volunteer movement, in which a battalion of volunteers
are seen marching; whilst that on the west side exhibits the process of casting and testing the first
Armstrong gun at Woolwich, which event occurred during the administration of Lord Herbert in tho
post of War Minister.
Havelock, Sir Henry . . Trafalgar-square Behnes.
Statue bronze : inscription upon pedestal : "To Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B., and his
brave companions during the campaign in India. ' Soldiers,— Your labours, your privations, your
sufferings, and your valour will not be forgotten by a grateful country !— H. Havelock.' " The in-
scription on the back of the pedestal is as follows :— " The force commanded by Havelock consisted of
the Staff, cavaky. Volunteers, 12th and 13th Irregulars, 3rd Oude Irregulars : Boyal Artillery— 3rd
STATUES, 769
Company, 8th Battaliou ; Bengal Artillery — 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion : 1st Company, 5th Battalion ;
■eth Company, 9th Battalion ; Bengal Engineers; Intantry— 5th Fusiliers, 84ith Regiment, 64th Regi-
ment, 90th Light Infantry, 78th Highlanders, 1st Madras Fusiliers, Ferozepore Regiment of Sikhs. —
Behnes, sculpsit."
Statues. Sites. Sculptors,
Hunter, John College of Surgeons Weekcs.
HusKissojf, William . . . Lloyd's, Royal Exchange . . . Lough,
James I Temple Har Bushnell.
Jamks II Whitehall Gardens Gibbons.
The doubt which long prevailed respecting the artist of this statue has been cleared up by the
following passage in the ^M^oSto^rop^ o/" (Sir J"oAn Brampton, printed by the Camden Society. "On
New Year's day, 1686, a statue in brass was to be seen (placed the day before) in the yard at Whitehall,
made by Gibbons, at the charge of Toby Rustick, of the present kiag, James II." Thus Walpole had a
correct impression of the truth when he wrote, " 1 am the rather inclined to attribute the statue at
Whitehall to Gibbons, because I know of no other artist of that time capable of it." The likeness is
extremely fine, as is the easy attitude of the figure. Many verses were made on thi^ statue at the time
of its erection. The figure looking towards the river, which was then open, was S'aid to prognosticate
the king's flight ; this, however, is not more probable than that he is pointing to the spot where his
father was executed, which has long been proved a vulgar error. At the accession of William III., the
statue was not removed.
Jeknek, Db Kensington Gardens .... Calder Marshall.
Kent, Duke of Portland- place Gahagau.
MiLLiNGAN, RoBEET . . . West India Docks.
MooEE, Sir John .... Christ's Hospital.
Myddelxon, Sib Hugh . . Islmgton-green ...... Thomas.
The figure of the knight is 8 ft. 6 in. in height. It is carved in white Sicilian marble, and represents
Sir Hugh clothed in the costume of the latter portion of the 16th century, with badge and chain,
holding in his left hand a scroll containing the plan of his great and useful work, labelled with the
words "New River." The statue is placed upon a pedestal of gray Devonshire granite, on the front face
of which is carved the following inscription : "Sir Hugh Myddelton, born 1555, died 1631." The base
beneath the pedestal is of Portland stone, and on the right and left of the pedestal are two figures of
boys partly draped, with hair entwined with bulrushes, and seated on pitchers, from which latter the
water pours into the basins. The figures and basins are of carved Sicilian marble. The statue itself,
was given by Sir S. M. Peto, and the rest provided for by subscription, the New River Company having
given 50^. towards the cost. The whole is 21 feet high, the principal statue 8^ feet.
Nelson, Lobd ... . Trafalgar-square Baily.
Baily's statue of Nelson has been likened to a Greenwich pensioner. The four bronze lions, by Sir
Edwin Landseer, were added to the base of the pedestal in 1867. Only one lion was modelled. A slight
variation in treatment enabled the artist to adapt this one design to his four pedestals. The completed
statue is not much above the size of a large full-grown lion, as we know the king of beasts in confine-
ment. The action is the simplest, but grandest ; one natural to the animal and right royal ; he is
couchant, with his massive arms extended straight before him; his huge head, calm in the conscious-
ness of might, erect, and watchful, but with no anger nor defiance, except that which is inseparable
from such strength. The modelling of the head will at once strike every one who sees this noble
design. Into this Sir Edwin has thrown all his unequalled power as a master of animal physiognomy,
and his rapid pencil never rendered the subtle curvatures of bony and muscular surface, the delicacies
of light and shadow, and the secrets of expression with more consummate skill on the canvas than they
are here given by modelling tool and hand together in the day. The difficulties of the mane and the
shaggy fringe which extends along the fore part of the animal have been managed with great judgment.
They are treated in broad and simple masses. {Times.) Even this memorial was not commenced
until three-and-thirty years had elapsed from the day on which were borne in mournful pomp, past this
-very spot, all that was mortal of him
"Whose sacred splendour, and whose deathless name,
Shall grace and guard his country's naval fame."
Napieb, Sir C. J Trafalgar-square Adams.
Peel, Sir Robeet .... Cheapside Behnes.
Pitt, William Hanover-square Chantrey.
RiCHABD CfEUE DE LioN . . Old Palacc-yard Marochetti.
Midway between the Peers' entrance to the Houses of Parliament and the end of Westminstet
Hall, and in a line with the centre of the great window in the Hall. It is placed on a pedestal
of granite about 8 feet 6 inches high; in which two panels are occupied by bronze relievi. The
group is picturesque ; but the hind-quarters of the horse and the fatiguing attitude of the man un-
successful — that the king appears to be sitting on his horse quietly, .just as a groom does when without
a saddle ; whereas, as the attitude is supposed to be a momentary one, the figure should, with uplifted
arm, have been raised in the stirrups. This would have given life to the figure, and would have con-
nected it, as it were, better with tlie horse. No man on a prancing charger would be lifting up his
sword in a supposed dignified position with his feet dangling carelessly in the stirrups. Yet this work
has been authoritatively pronounced by the Edinburgh Review as " by far the noblest equestrian statue
in England !" The pedestal is insignificant.
Shakspeaee, William . . Drury-lane Theatre portico . . Scheemakers.
Executed in lead by Cheere, " the leaden figure-man at Hyde-park Corner." It was presented to the
theatre by Mr. Whitbread, M.P.
Sloane, Sir Hans .... Chelsea Rysbraeck.
Victoria, Queen .... Uoyal Exchange liOugh.
Victoria, Queen .... New Record Office Durham.
Watts, Dk. Isaac .... Abney Park Cemetery .... BaUy.
760 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON.
statues. Sites. Sculptors.
Wellington, Dukb of . . Green Park Arch Wyatts.
This stupendous statue was modelled by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, and his son James Wyatt.at Dudley-
grove House, Harrow-road ; it was commenced in 1840, and occupied three years, and took more than
100 tons of plaster. It represents the Duke of Wellington upon his horse " Copenhagen," at the field
of Waterloo : the Duke sat for the portrait, and the head and likeness are fine. The group is cast in
about eight pieces, which are fastened with screws and fused together, 30 men being often employed at
one time upon the bronze. It was conveyed upon an immense car, drawn by 40 horses, to the Green
Park Arch, Sept. 28, 1846 ; it was raised by crabs. The entire group weighs 40 tons : is nearly 30 feet
high ; and within half of the horse eight persons have dined. The girth of the horse is 22 ft. 8 in. ;
nose to tail 26 feet; length of head 6 feet; length of each ear 2 ft. 4 in. The erection of this group,
which cost about 30,000Z., originated from the close contest for the execution of the Wellington statue
in the City; and the execution of both statues emanated from a suggestion of Mr. T.B. Simpson, of
the Court of Common Council, Lime-street Ward.
Wellington, Dttke op . . Woolwich Milnes,
WELLUfGTON, DuKE OF . . Royal Exchange Chantrey.
WestiRnstees, Old . . . Westminster Broadway . . . Scott.
This monument before the west end of Westminster Abbey, to the " old Westminsters" who perished
in the Crimean war is effective and picturesque.
William III St. James' s-square Bacon, jun.
William IV King William-street .... Nixon.
The several Statues in the East India House, Guildhall, British Museum, Parliament Houses, St.
Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Koyal Exchange, and other pubhc buildings, are described under
their respective names.
At Newgate Prison, in exterior niches, are meritorious statues of Concord and Liberty, Mercy and
Truth, Peace and Plenty,— from the Old Gate.
YoEK, Dukb of York Column Westmacott.
STOCK BXCEANGE, fully described at pp. 331-333.
STRAND {THE)
EXTENDS from Charing Cross to Temple Bar (1369 yards, or f of a mile 49 yards),
and was " probably so called as being at the brink of the Thames, before the space
now built on was gained by raising the ground " {Hatton), which is in some places
20 feet deep. In early ages this was the great thoroughfare between the Court and
City, and the Inns of Court and Westminster. The site of St. Clement's Danes is
recognised in tradition as "the Danes' churchyard," the burial-place of the son of
Canute the Great, Harold Harefoot. Here, close by the Thames, and outside the City
walls, dwelt together as fellow-countrymen the Danish merchants and mariners ; and
their church, like that at Aarhuus in Jutland, and Trondjeun in Norway, was dedicated
to St. Clement, the seaman's patron-saint. {J. J. A. Worsaae, For. F.S.A.) Another
early building was the Hermitage of St. Catherine at Charing, and adjoining or oppo-
site, the Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval (temp. Henry III.) ; also, the palace of the
Savoy, and the iirst church of St. Mary, were built before the 14th century. A peti-
tion to Edward II. (1315) describes the footway interrupted by thickets and bushes;
and in 1383 tolls were granted for paving the Strand from the Savoy to Temple Bar.
The south side was occupied by the mansions of the nobility and prelates, with gardens,
terraces, and water-stairs down to the Thames ; but the spaces between the mansions
showed the river : whilst on the north side were the gardens of the Convent of West-
minster, bounded by lanes and open ground ; the village of St. Giles, and the church
of St. Martin in the fields; and Charing Cross, without a house near it. One of
Canaletto's pictures shows Charing Cross, Northumberland House, and the Strand,
with the signs in front of the houses. Van der Wyngrerde's View, 1543, shows
straggling lines of houses from the har (now Temple Bar) to the Savoy, and beyond it
on the south side ; but the north is open to Convent Garden ; and in the roadway are
St. Clement's and St. Mary's churches, and the Maypole, near upon the site of the
Strand Cross, where "the justices itinerants sate without London" (Stotv). Of the
Thames-bank palaces are shown Somei-set-place, the Savoy, and Durham House. At
this time the Strand was crossed by three water-courses running from the north to the
Thames, over which were bridges ; the sites of two are denoted by Ivy-bridge-lane
and Strand-bridge-lane ; and the remains of a third bridge were unearthed in 1802, a
STRAND. 761
little eastward of St. Clement's church. The Ivy-bridge stream formed the boundary
between the Liberty and Duchy of Lancaster, and the City of Westminster.
Steand : South Side. — Northumberland Souse is described at page 554. Next
door, upon the site of No. 1, Strand, was the oflScial residence of the Secretary of
State, where Sir Harry Vane the elder lived, in the reign of Charles 1. Northumber-
land-court was once known as " Lieutenants' Lodgings :" here Nelson lodged.
Northumberland-street, formerly Hartshorne-lane : here, with his mother and step-
father, a bricklayer, lived Ben Jonson when he went to " a private school in St.
Martin's Church ;" and next to Westminster School, under Camden, then junior
master. Craven-street : at No. 7 lived Dr. Benjamin Franklin, in 1771. At No. 27
died, in 1839, James Smith, one of the authors of the Rejected Addresses, At
No. 18, Strand, was born, 1776, Charles Mathews, the comedian : his father was a
bookseller ; and his shop was the resort of Dr. Adam Clarke, Rowland HiU, and other
Dissenting ministers.
Charing Cross Railway Terminus and Sotel, described at pp. 442-3. The early
history of this spot is glanced at in pp. 559-560 : it was part of the Hungerford
estate : it was long a site of sorry speculations and costly failure.
The beautiful Gothic cross in the court-yard is about 100 yards east of the site of Chariiig-cross, the
Eleanor memorial, of which the new cross is a reproduction, by Edward M. Barry, A.B.A., from scanty
authorities, namely, a rough drawing in the Crowie Pennant, in the British Museum ; a second drawing
in the Bodleian Library ; and a third in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. The height to the top
of the gilt copper cross by which the memorial is surmounted is about 70 feet ; the materials Portland
stone, red Mansfield stone, and Aberdeen granite; sculptor, Thomas Earp, In the upper story are eight
crowned statues of Queen Eleanor, four representing her as queen, with royal insignia, and the other
four with the attributes of a Christian woman. At the feet of the statues are eight figures of kneeling
angels in prayer. The shields in the lower stage are copied from those existing on the crosses of
Waltham and Northampton, and on the tomb, and consist of three varieties. The first displays three
lions passant gardant, first assumed as the Royal arms of England by King Henry II. in 1154, and which,
still forms part of the Royal arms as borne by Queen Victoria. The second is that of Ponthieu, which
Queen Eleanor bore in right of her mother, and simply consists of three bendlets within a bordure. The
third shield represents the arms of Castile and Leon, arranged quarterly; and the representation of the
earliest known quartering of arms. The arms of Castile are a castle, triple towered ; and those of Leon
represents a lion rampant. The order of the shields accords with the arrangement at Northampton,
Waltham, and Westminster. The diaper above the tracery in the lowest stage of the monument is com-
posed of octagonal panels, richly undercut, representing alternately the castle of Castile and the lion
rampant of Leon: the pillow and couch of the effigy have a similar design. The carving generally of the
crockets, capitals, canopies, diapers, gargoyles, &c., agrees with the best remains of English thirteenth-
century art. The cost has not exceeded 1800Z. It is effectively engraved in the Illustrated London Newa^
Dec. 9, 1865.
No. 31, Strand, occupies part of the site of York House, originally the inn of the
Bishop of Norwich ; and being obtained in exchange for Suffolk House, Southwark, by
Heath, Archbishop of York, temp. Queen Mary, the name was changed to York House.
It was let to the Lord Keepers of the Great Seal : here lived Sir Nicholas Bacon ; and
here was born his son. Lord Chancellor Bacon, 22nd January, 1560-1. At York House he
kept his 60th birthday. Here the Great Seal was taken from him : when importuned
by the Duke of Lennox to part with the mansion. Bacon replied, " For this you will
pardon me: York House is the House where my father died, and where I first
breathed ; and there will I yield my last breath, if so please God and the king." He
did not, however, return to York House after his release from the Tower, being
forbidden to come within the verge of the court. The house was next lent to Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham, who, in 1624, obtained the estate by grant from James I. The
mansion was then taken down, and a temporary house built for State receptions, and
sumptuously fitted with " huge panes of glass " (mirrors), of the manufacture of which
in England Buckingham was an early patron. Near the middle of a long embattled
wall, fronting the Thames, he caused to be erected, in 1626, a rustic Water-gate.
After the Duke's death, in 1628, York House was leased to the Earl of Northumberland.
Here was a fine collection of pictures, among which is supposed to have been the lost
portrait of Prince Charles, by Velasquez. Here also was the collection of sculptures
which belonged to Rubens ; and in the garden was John de Bologna's Cain and Abel.
The "superstitious pictures" were sold by order of Parliament in 1645 j and the
house was given by Cromwell to General Fairfax, by the marriage of whose daughter
and heiress with George, second Duke of Buckingham, it was reconveyed to the
Villiers family. The Duke resided here subsequent to the Restoration : but in 1672
762 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
sold the estate for 30,000Z., when the mansion was pulled down, and upon the grounds
and gardens were erected houses named from the last possessor of the mansion :
Georffe-street (now York-buildings), Villiers-street, Duke-street, Of-a\\ey, Bucking-
ham-street. The whole estate was also called York-buildings.
The York Buildings Waterworks Company, for supplying the "West- end of London
with water, was one of the bubbles of 1720. For this purpose, however, a veritable
steam-engine was constructed, which is thus described in the Foreigner's Guide to
London, 1720 :
" Here you see a high wooden tower and a water-engine of a new invention, that draws out of the
Thames above tliree tons of water in one minute, by means of the steam arising from water boiling in a
great copper, a continual fire being kept to that purpose ; the steam being compressed and condensed,
moves, by its evaporation, and strikes a counterpoise, which counterpoise striking another, at last moves
a great beam, which, by its motion of going up and down, draws the water from the river, which mounts
through great iron pipes to the height of tlie tower, discharging itself there into a deep leaden cistern ;
and thence falling through other large iron pipes, fills them that are laid along the streets, and so con-
tinuing to run through wooden pipes as far as Mar-bone fields, falls there into a large pond or reservoir,
from whence the new buildings near Hanover-square and many thousand houses, are supplied with
water. This machine is certainly a great curiosity ; and though it be not so large as that of Marly in
France, yet, considering its smallness in comparison with that, and the little charge it was built and is
kept with, and the quantity of water it draws, its use and benefit is much beyond that."
The Company ceased to work this " fire-engine " in 1731 ; but it was shown for several
years as a curiosity. In All Alive and Merry, or the London Daily Post, April 18,
1741, it is stated that the charge of working the machine, " and some other reasons
concurring, made its proprietors, the York Buildings Company, lay aside the design ;
and no doubt but the inhabitants in this neighbourhood are very glad of it ; for its
working, which was by sea-coal, was attended with so much smoke, that it not only
must pollute the air thereabouts, but spoil the furniture." The failure is the subject of
an amusing jeu d'esprit, entitled " The York Buildings Dragons," reprinted in
Wright's England under the Souse of Hanover, vol. i. Appendix. Many of the
wooden water-pipes have been taken up in excavations in Brook-street, Grosvenor-
square, and in other places along the line. In Buckingham-street, in 1818, were
"the Sea-water Baths," which were supplied by a vessel with water from below
Southend. See James's View on the Thames, in the Hampton Court Picture Gallery.
Evelyn notes : " 17th Nov. 16S3.— I tooke a house in Villiers-streete, York-buildings, for the winter,
having many important concerns to dispatch, and for the education of my daughters,"— Dian^.
Buckingham-street : at the last house on the west side (since rebuilt) lived Samuel
Pepys from 1684 to 1700 ; and No. 15, on the east side opposite, was hired for Peter the
Great in 1698 : the house has some noble rooms facing the river : here the Institution
of Civil Engineers once met. At No. 14, in the top chambers, lived William Etty,
E.A., the painter, from 1826 to 1849. At the south end of Buckingham-street remains
the Water-gate built for York House, which stood a short distance westward.
The Gate is of Portland-stone : on the northern or street side are three arches, flanked with pilasters,
supporting an entablature and four balls; above the keystones of the arches are shields, those at the
«ides sculptured with anchors, and that in the centre with the arms of Villiers impaling those of the
family of Manners. Upon the frieze is the Villiers motto : fidei coticula. ceux (the Cross is the
Touchstone of Faith). The southern or river front has a large archway, opening upon steps to the
water; on each side is an aperture, divided by a small column, and partly closed by balustrades. Four
rusticated columns support an entablature, ornamented with scallops, and crowned with an arched
pediment, and two couchant lions holding shields, on which are sculptured anchors. In the pediment,
within a scroll, are the arms of Villiers, viz., on a cross, five escallops, encircled by a garter, and sur-
mounted by a ducal coronet; at the sides are pendent festoons. This Gate has been ascribed to Inigo
Jones; but in the library of the Soane Museum, in an "Account BookofWorkes done by Nicholas
Stone, sen,. Master-mason to King James I. and King Charles," the ninth article in the list is, " The
Water-gate at Yorke House hee deesined and built, and ye right hand Lion hee did fronting ye Thames.
Mr. Kearne, a Jarman, his brother by marrying his sister, did ye Shec Lion,"
The Gate is approached by an inclosed terrace-walk, planted with lime-trees.
TheAdelphi, east of York-buildings, is described at page 1, John-street occupies the
site of Durham House, which extended from the river to the Strand. It was built by
Thomas Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, 1345-1381, and continued to be inhabited by the
see until Bishop Tunstall exchanged the house for Coldharborough, in Thames-street.
Durham Place was used as a mint by the Seymours. Edward VI. granted the place
to his sister Elizabeth. It next became the residence of Dudley, Earl of Northumber-
land j and here was celebrated his son's marriage with Lady Jane Grey, who, on
assuming the crown, was lodged in Durham Place, and thence escorted to the Tower.
The estate was restored by Queen Mary to Bishop Tunstall ; but Elizabeth, on her
STRAND. 763
accession, claimed Durham Place as one of the royal palaces, and granted it to Sir
Walter Raleigh, who possessed it for twenty years, but surrendered it in 1603 to the
then Bishop of Durham. Aubrey well remembered Raleigh's " study, which was on a
little turret that looked into and over the Thames, and had the prospect, which is as
pleasant, perhaps, as any in the world," The stables fronting the Strand were next
taken down, and upon the ground was built the New Exchange (see pp. 330-331),
demolished in 1737 : the site is now occupied by the houses Nos. 54 to 64 in(j[usive,
the banking-house of Coutts and Co. being the centre : the name survives in Durham-
street At Coutts's (No. 59), formerly in St. Martin's-lane, the sovereign and the royal
family have banked (kept cash), commencing with Queen Anne : the series of accounts
is preserved entire.
Beaufort-luildings occupy the site of a mansion named from its successive owners,
Carlisle House (Bishops of Carlisle) ; Bedford and Bussell House (Earls of Bedford) ;
Worcester House, from its next occupant, the Marquis of Worcester, who wrote the
Century of Inventions ; and from the Marquis's eldest son, created Duke of Beaufort,
Beaufort House. Lord Clarendon lived here while his house was building at the top
of St. James's-street ; and here, in 1660, was married Anne Hyde, the Chancellor's
daughter, to the Duke of York, according to the Protestant rites. The mansion was
taken down, and a smaller house built ; which being burnt down, with some others, in
1695, upon the ground were erected the present Beaufort-buildings. In a house on the
site was born Aaron Hill, the dramatist, 1685. At the east corner, upon the site of
No. 96, Strand, lived Charles Lillie, who sold snuffs, perfumes, &c. ; and took in letters
for the Tatler, Spectator, &c., directed to him at the desire of Steele.
Mr.Rimmel has published a clever book on Perfumery, in which he mentions, besidesLillie, "one Perry,
lesidiiig also in the Strand, at the corner of Burleigh-street. He was, however, reduced to ' blow his
own trumpet;' and in a paper called the Weekly Packet, bearing the date of 28th December, 1718, he
vaunts, besides his perfumes, an oil drawn from mustard-seed, which, at the moderate price of M. per
ounce, is warranted to cure all diseases under the sun."
Nos. 101 and 102, Strand, lues's Divan, a large decorated room for cigars, chess,
and coffee, occupies the site of the Fountain Tavern, noted for its political club, and
described by Strype ; of a drawing academy, at which Conway and Wheatley were
pupils; and of the lecture-room of John Thelwall, the political elocutionist. At
No. 101, lived Rudolph Ackermann, the printseller, who introduced lithography and
*' the Annuals " from Germany : here he illuminated his gallery with Cannel coal,
when gas-lighting was a novelty.
Adam-street presents a handsome specimen of the embellished street-architecture
introduced by the Brothers Adam.
Salisbury-street and Cecil-street are built upon the site of Salisbury House, erected in
1602 by Sir Robert Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to James I., and created Earl of Salis-
bury in 1605. His successor divided the mansion into Great Salisbury House and
Little Salisbury House : part of the latter was taken down, and upon the site was
erected Salisbury-street, rebuilt as we now see it by Paine the architect; another
portion was converted into the Middle Exchange, with shops and stalls, and a flight of
steps to the river ; the latter was taken down in 1696, with Great Salisbury House,
and upon their site was erected Cecil-street. In Little Salisbury House lived the third
Earl of Devonshire, the pupil and pati'on of Hobbes, who, when standing at the gate
a few days after Restoration-day, was kindly recognised by Charles II. as he was
passing in his coach through the Strand. In Cecil-street, and at the Globe in Salis-
bury-street, lived Partridge, cobbler, astrologer, and almanack-maker, whom Swift
humorously killed in 1708, though he actually lived till 1715 ; but Partridge's Alma-
nack {Merlinus Liheratus) continued to be published ; and in 1723 advertised " Dr.
Partridge's night-drops, night-pills, &c., sold as before, by his widow, at the Blue Ball
in Salisbury-street." Opposite Southampton-street lived the Vaillants, foreign book-
sellers, from 1686 imtil late in the last century. Fountain- court is named from the
above tavern ; at No. 3 in this court died, August 27, 1827, Blake, the epic painter,
whose love of religion supported him through a life of unitbrm poverty, and cheered
Jiis death-bed.
Savoy-steps and Savoy-street, see Savoy, pp. 142-144, 722.
I
764 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
At No. 132, Strand (site of Wellington-street) was established in 1740 the first
circulating library in London, by Wright, who had for his rivals Samuel Bathoe and
John Bell. Upon the site of No. 141 lived Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, " at Shak-
gpeare's head, over against Catherine-street, in the Strand." The house was successively
occupied by the publishers, Andrew Millar, Alderman Thomas Cadell, and Cadell and
Davies : Millar, being a Scotchman, adopted the sign of Buchanan's Head, a painting
of which continued in one of the window-panes to our day. No. . 142 occupies the
site of the Turh's Head Coffee-Tiouse, which Dr. Johnson encouraged ; " for the
mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much business." No. 143 (now
Southgate's Fine Arts Auction gallery), site of the first office of the Morning Chronicle
(see Newspapees, p. 616). At No. 147 was published the SpJiinx ; and Jan. 2, 1828,
No. 1 of the AthencBum, edited by James Silk Buckingham, the traveller in the East.
At No. 149, long known to the collectors of shells, minerals and fossils, John Mawe kept shop : here
have been sold shells at 51., 101., and 201. each, now to be bought for a few shillings. Mr. Mawe published
his Travels in the Diamond District of Brazil, 1812 ; A Treatise on Diamonds ; and several elementary
works on Mineralogy, Conchology, &c. His widow was succeeded by James Tennant, F.G.S., Professor
of Mineralogy and Geology in King's College, London.
Somerset House (see pp. 735, 6). King's College Gateway (see p. 276). No.
162, Strand, Somerset Hotel : at the bar letters were left for the author of Junius.
No. 165, Inglis's Warehouse for Scots Pills until 1865 : " Dr. Anderson's pills, sold
by J. Inglis, now living at the Golden Unicorn, over against the Maypole in the
Strand." — Advertisement, 1699.
Strand-lane, leading to the Koman Bath (see pp. 37 and 716), is the site of Strand
Bridge, " and under is a lane or way down to the landing-place on the bank of the
Thames " (Stow). Eastward were Chester's Inn, Strand Inn, and the Inn of the
Bishop of Llandafi".
No. 169, Strand Theatre, previously Barker's Panorama (see Theatees).
Arundel House, eastward, originally the town-house of the Bishops of Bath, was
wrested from them in the reign of Edward VI. by Lord Thomas Seymour, High
Admiral. After his execution, the house, with messuages, tenements, and lands adjoin-
ing, was purchased by Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, according to Strype, for
41^. 6s. Sd.; hence it was called Arundel Palace. Here died, 25 Feb., 1603, the
Countess of Nottingham, after her interview with Queen Elizabeth to implore forgive-
ness for having withheld from her Essex's ring. Here Thomas Earl of Arundel began
to assemble the celebrated Arundelian Marbles : the statues and busts in the gallery of
the mansion ; the inscribed marbles inserted in the garden-walls ; and the statues placed
in the garden : altogether, 37 statues, 128 busts, and 250 inscribed marbles ; besides
sarcophagi, altars, and fragments, and the inestimable gems. The sculpture and
picture galleries are seen in the backgrounds of Van Somer's portraits of the Earl and
his Countess.
To the Earl's " liberal charges and magnificence this angle of the world oweth the first sight of
Greek and Roman statues, with whose admired presence he began to honour the gardens and galleries
of Arundel House, and hath ever since continued to transplant old Greece into England."— ComjjZea^
Gentleman.
" March 1, 1664. — I went to Arundel House, where I saw a great number of old Roman and Grecian
statues, many as big again as the life, and divers Greek inscriptions upon stones in the gardens
March 2.— I went to Mr. Foxe's chamber in Arundel House, where I saw a great many pretty pictures
and things cast in brasse, some limnings, divers pretious stones, and one diamond valued at eleven
hundred pound."— JoarMai of Mr. E. Browne: MS. Sloan. 1906.
To Arundel House the Earl brought Hollar, who here engraved some of his finest
plates. Thomas Parr (" Old Parr ") was conveyed here from Shropshire by the Earl,
to be shown to Charles I. : becoming domesticated in the family of the Earl of Arundel,
his mode of living was changed ; he fed high, drank wine, and died Nov. 14, 1635,
after he had outlived nine sovereigns, and during the reign of the tenth, at the age of
152 years and nine months : his body, by the king's command, was dissected by Harvey,
who attributed Parr's death to peripneumony, brought on by the impurity of a London
atmosphere and sudden change in diet. — Philosophical Transactions, 1669.
The evidence of Parr's extreme age is not, however, documentary; and the birth dates back to a
period before Parish Registers were instituted by Cromwell.— Ce?is({» Report, 1851.
Arundel House and Marbles were given back at the Eestoration, in 1660, to the
STEANB. 765
grandson of the earl, Mr. Henry Howard, who, at the recommendation of Selden and
Evelyn, gave the inscribed marbles to the University of Oxford ; and the library to
the Royal Society, who met at Arundel House 9 Jan., 1666-7. Evelyn records " how
exceedingly the corrosive air of London impaired" the marbles. The mansion was
taken down, 1678; and upon its site were erecte/i Arundel, Surrey, Howard, and
Norfolk streets. Hollar's print* shows the courtyard of Arundel House, with the
great hall, and gabled buildings with dormer windows, but mostly low and mean.
Sully was lodged here at the accession of James I. Surrey-street : here, on the east
side, in a large garden-house fronting the Thames, lived the Hon. Charles Howard, the
eminent chemist, who discovered the sugar-refining process in vacuo. In Surrey-street
died William Congreve, the dramatist, Jan. 19, 1728-9.
Norfolk -street : here, in a house near the water-side, lodged Peter the Great in
1698, and was visited by King William ; and thence he went in a hackney-coach to
dine with his majesty at Kensington Palace. At the south-west corner lived William
Penn, the quaker; and subsequently, in the same house, Dr. Birch, the historian of
the Royal Society. At No. 8, Samuel Ireland, originally a Spitalfields silk-merchant,
whose son, William Henry Ireland, then eighteen, forged the Shakspeare Papers in
1795 : here Dr. Parr and Dr. Warton fell upon their knees and kissed the Mss.,^
" great and impudent forgery," as Parr subsequently called it. In Norfolk-street also
lived Mountfort, the player ; and in Howard-street lodged Mrs. Bracegirdle, the fasci-
nating actress, out of an attempt to carry off whom arose a bloody duel between
Mountfort qijid Lord Mohun, when the former was killed.
Between Arundel and Norfolk streets, in 1698, lived Sir Thomas Lyttleton,
Speaker of the House of Commons ; and next door, the father of Bishop Burnet ; and
the house within memory was Burnet's, the bookseller, a collateral descendant of the
bishop.
Arundel-street, " a pleasant and considerable street " (Ration, l708) :
" Behold that narrow street which steep descends.
Whose building to the shining shore extends ;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame, —
The street alone retains an empty name :
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas warm'd.
And Raphael's fair design the judgment charm' d.
Now hangs the bellman's song, and pasted here,
The coloured prints of Overton appear ;
Where statues breath' d, the work of Phidias' hands,
A wooden pump or lonely watch-house stands."— Gay's Trivia.
On the east side was the Crown and Anchor Tavern, now the Whittington Club
(see p. 260) ; the sign was, probably, in part taken from the anchor of St. Clement's,
opposite. Strype mentions it as " a large and curious house." Here was instituted
the Academy of Ancient Music, in 1710. The great room was 84 ft. by 35 ft. 6 in. :
here, on Fox's birthday, in 1798, took place a banquet to 2000 guests. Dr. Johnson
and Boswell occasionally supped here ; and the Royal Society dinners were held here.
The very handsome Italian-fronted houses at the east and west corners of Arundel-
street were designed by H. R. Abraham.
No. 191 , Strand, was the shop of William Godwin, bookseller, and author of Caleb
Williams, the Life of Chaucer, &c. : he removed here from Snow-hill.
Milford-lane is named from -a ford over the Thames at the extremity, and a wind-
mill in the Strand, near the site of St. Mary's Church, and shown in a print temp,
James I. (See Chron. London Bridge, p. 395) : there is also a token of " the Wind-
mill, withovt Temple Bar." Sir Richard Baker, the chronicler, lived in Milford-lane,
1632-9. (Cunningham's Handbook, p. 337.) The picturesque tenements on the east
side. Strand end of the lane, principally of wood, with bay-windows, are described in a
deed, date 1694 : they were taken down in 1852, and the site is now occupied by
" Milford House," the office of The Illustrated London News. The site of the
Infants' Schools lower down in the lane was that of the old Rectory -house.
* Hollar's View of London from the roof of Arundel House is very rare : an impression at Sir Mark
Masterman Sykes's sale, in 1824, sold for \\l. In a Household Book of Lord William Howard (Belted
Will) are " his expenses whilst living at Arundel House; and amongst them a payment to Mr. 'Shak-
speare,' the parish scavenger."— ^<Ae«c8M}», No. 1403.
766 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON.
In Milford-lane is the Printing-office of H. D, Wocdfall, whose grandfather, in Paternoster-row, first
printed Junius's Letters. The business was first established about the year 1720, in Grocers' Hall-court
and in Angel-court, Skinner-street, George Woodfall printed his edition oi Junius's Letters, 3 vols. 8vo.,
the first book printed there. The latter office was taken down in 1866.
JEssex-street and Deverenx-cowi, formerly the Outer Temple, are named from Robert
Devereux, Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's last favourite. The ground was leased by
the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem to the Bishops of Exeter, who built here a town-
house, in which they lived till the Reformation, when it passed to William Lord Paget;
next to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, son of the poetic Earl of Surrey; to Dudley,
Earl of Leicester ; and then to his step-son, the Earl of Essex : hence it was successively
called Exeter House, Paget House, Norfolk House, Leicester House, and Essex House.
But the chief memory of the place is associated with Essex and his abortive project
for the overthrow of Elizabeth's government : he fortified the house, but was hemmed
in on all sides, artillery being planted against the mansion, and a gun mounted upon the
tower of St. Clement's, when Essex and his followers surrendered. Here was born and
married his luckless son, whose infamous countess was implicated in the poisoning of Sir
Thomas Overbury. Pepys describes Essex House as " large but ugly :" it was tenanted
by persons of rank till after the Restoration, when it was subdivided and let. The
Cottonian Library was kept here from 1712 to 1730, in the portion of the house upon
the site of the present Essex-street Chapel (see p. 220). At the Essex Head Tavern,
now No. 40, Dr. Johnson established, the year before he died, a club called " Sam's,"
from the landlord, Samuel Greaves, who had been servant to Mr. Thrale. In this
street also was held the Robin Hood Society, a debating club, the scene* of Burke's
earliest eloquence ; Goldsmith was also a member.
At the bottom of tlie street is the archway of the water-gate of Essex House. In a view of the
Thames, showing the Frost Fair, in the reign of Charles II,, the King, Queen, and others of the court,
are seen coming down the Temple Garden stairs, to witness the sports on the ice ; and in part of the
background is the archway, and beyond the archway are the gables and other parts of Essex House. A
garden, with terraces, is between the arch and the river.
No. 213, Strand, was George's Coffee-house (see p. 264). Devereux-court : here was
the Grecian Coffee-house (see p. 264). No. 217, Strand, was the house of Snow, the
wealthy goldsmith :
" Disdain not. Snow, my humble verse to hear ;
Stick thy black pen awhile behind thy ear.
******
thou, whose penetrative wisdom found
The South-sea rocks and shelves, where thousands drown'd!
When credit sunk, and commerce gasping lay,
Thou stood'st, nor sent one bill unpaid away.
When not a guinea chink'd on Martin's boards.
And Atwell's self was drain'd of all his hoards.
Thou stood'st (an Indian king in size and hue):
Thy unexhausted shop was our Peru."— Gay.
The firm, originally Snow and Walton, was one of the oldest banking-houses
in London, second only to Child and Co., who date from 1640. At the period of the
Commonwealth, Snow and Co. carried on the business of pawnbrokers, under the sign
of the " Golden Anchor." The firm possessed a book, dated 1672, showing that the mode
of keeping accounts was then in decimals. The banking-firm, subsequently Strahan
(Sir John Dean), Paul, and Bates suspended payment in 1855.
Palsgrave-place was the site of Palsgrave Head Tavern, set up in compliment to the
Palsgrave Frederic, afterwards King of Bohemia, affianced to the Princess Elizabeth in
the old banqueting-house at Whitehall, Dec. 27, 1612. Hard by was Hey cock's Or-
dinary, much frequented by Parliament-men and gallants.
Temple Bae will be described hereafter. The west side, until numbered with the
Strand, was called on tokens, " Without Temple Barr."
Stkand : NoETH Side. — No. 238 was the last of the " Bulk shops," and was kept
by Crockford, the fishmonger ; removed in 1846 (see a sketch of him, at p. 247).
Ship-yard was the site of the Ship Inn, mentioned in a grant to Sir Christopher
Hatton in 1551. There is a token of the tavern, date 1649 ; and it was standing in
1756. John Reynolds, a cook, issued a token (a fox stealing a goose) in Ship-yard in
1666. An old house, engraved in Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, is stated to have
STBAND. 767
been the rcdidence of Elias Ashmole, the antiquary. Faithorne published his Art of
Graving and Etching " at his shop next to y^ signe of the Drake, without Temple barr,
1662." In the Strand, besides the Ship, were the Swan, the Crown, the Rohin Hood,
the White Hart, the Bear and Harrow, the Holy Lanib, and the Angel. Sir John
Denham, the poet, when a student at Lincoln's Inn, in 1635, in a drunken frolic, with
a pot of ink and a plasterer's brush, blotted out all the signs between Temple Bar and
Charing Cross, which cost Denham and his comrades " some monies." — J. H. Burn.
From opposite Ship-yard extended anobtuse-angledtriangleof buildings, the eastern
line formed by the vestry-room and almshouses of St. Clement's, and the sides by shops;
the whole called Butcher-row, from a flesli market granted here 21 Edward I., at first
shambles, but subsequently houses of wood and plaster; one of these, a five-storied
house, temp. James ]., was inhabited by Count Beaumont, the French court ambassador:
here the Duke de Sully was lodged for one night in 1603, until " the palace of Arundel"
could be prepared for him. Beaumont's house-front bore roses and crowns and fleurs-de-
lis, and the date 1581. From a Bear and Harrow orgy, Nat Lee, the dramatic poet,
was returning to Duke-street, when he fell, " overtaken with wine," in Clare-market,
and died. Here also was Clifton's eatinghouse, a dining-place of Dr. Johnson. But-
cher-row was removed in 1802, when were built the opposite crescent-like houses, named
Picket-street from the projector of the improvement. Alderman Picket. During the
sewers' works, eastward of the church, at several feet depth, was discovered an ancient
stone bridge of one arch. The almshouses were removed in 1790 ; here is a well 190
feet deep.
In a house in Butcher-row, east of Clement's Inn, by the confession of Winter, he, with Catcsby,
Wright, and Guy Fawkes, met, and there administered tlie oath of secresy to the conspirators, and after-
wards received the sacrament in the next room. — The Gunpowder Treason, reprinted 1679.
The Foregate led to Clement's Inn and Clement' s-lane, where lived Sir John Trevor,
cousin to Lord Chancellor Jefireys, and twice Speaker of the House of Commons. Bos-
well'Court occupied the site of a mansion of a INIr. Boswell ; here lived Lady Raleigh,
the widow of Sir Walter; Lord Chief Justice Lyttleton, and Sir Richard and Lady
Fanshawe. In New-court was the Independents' chapel of Burgess, Bradbury, and
Winter. The houses from Temple Bar to beyond Clement's Inn were taken down in
1867 for the site of the New Law Courts {see p. 510).
^S"^. Clement's Vestry-hall, Picket-street, contains the altar-piece (St. Cecilia) painted
by Kent for St. Clement's Church, whence it was removed, in 1725, by order of Bishop
Gibson, on the supposition that the picture contained portraits of the Pretender's wife
and children : it was first removed to the Crown and Anchor tavern, and next to the
old vestry room {see St. Clement's Danes, p. 158.)
Wych-street, leading to Drury-lane {see p. 315) : the south side retains some pic-
' turesque house-fronts. Opposite is New Inn (p. 473).
Holywell-street is named from one of the holy springs which Fitzstephen described
as " sweete, wholesome, and cleere ; and much frequented by schollars and youth of
the citie in summer evenings, when they walk forth to take the aire." The " holy well'*
is stated to be that under the Old Dog tavern. No. 24. Here was the old entrance to
Lyon's Inn. Holywell-street was, in Strype's time, inhabited by " divers salesmen and
piece-brokers," who have nearly deserted it : two of their signs long remained ; the Indian
queen, said to have been painted by Catton, R.A. ; and a boldly-carved and gilt crescent
moon. The street is now tenanted by dealers in old clothes, keepers of book-stalls, and
pubhshers and vendors of cheap and low books : a few lofty gabled and bayed housC'
fronts remain. Newcastle-street (formerly Magpye-alley) was named from the ground-
landlord, John Holies, Duke of Newcastle. No. 313 Strand, was formerly the One
Bell livery-stables. The Tatler, March 9, l7lO, announced a stage-coach " twice a
week from the One Bell in the Strand to Dorchester, the proper time for writing pas-
torals now drawing near."
No. 317, corner of Drury-court, is thought to be the locality of " the Forge in St.
Clement's Danes," referred to in the account of the Shrievalty Tenure custom, at
pp. 508-509 ; namely, the site of the forge of a farrier, the father of Nan Clarges,
afterwards Duchess of Albemarle. Aubrey {Life of MonTc, 1680), says : " The shop is
still of that trade j the corner-shop, the first turning on ye right hand as you come out
768 CUBI08ITIB8 OF LONDON.
of the Strand into Drury-lame : the house is now built of brick." To this Mr. Bray-
ley, in his Londiniana, 1829, adds a conjectural MS. note : " the house alluded to is,
probably, that at the right hand corner of Little Drury-lane, now a butcher's, and
whitened over/' Curiously enough, the house in the court, next the corner house.
No. 317, has been for very many years that of a whitesmith, with its forge.
"Where Drury-lane descends into the Strand"
"the Maypole in the Strand," was raised by the farrier to commemorate his daughter's
good fortune.
The Maypole set up at the Eestoration was conveyed to this spot, April 14, 1661, with great ceremony,
a streamer flourishing before it, and drums and trumpets, and the acclamations of the people. This
Maypole, 134: feet high, was in two pieces, which being joined together and hooped with iron, the crowa
and vane, and the king's arms, richly gilded, were placed on the head of it; and a large top, like a
balcony, about the middle of it. It was raised by twelve seamen, "by cables, puUies, and other tacklins,
with six great anchors ;" and " in four hours' space it was advanced upright, as near hand as they could
guess where the former one stood; but far more glorious, bigger, and higher than ever any one that
stood before it." It was, however, broken by a high wind about 1672; and the remaining portion, being
grown old and decayed, was taken down in 1713.
Several traders' and tavern tokens bear on the reverse this Maypole, with a small
building at the foot. Where St. Mary's Church now is, was the first stand for hackney-
coaches, erected in 1634 ; after the church was built, the stand was removed a short
distance westward, and lasted until March, 1853.
No. 332, Morning Chronicle Office, was formerly the White Swan tavern. Here,
in a lodging, to be near his patron, the Earl of Clarendon, in Somerset House, lived
Dr. William King, who wrote the Art of CooTcery, a poem, &c. He was the friend of
Swift. King was luxurious and improvident, and died in poverty in 1712, in the
above house. There is a token of the White Swan in the Beaufoy collection, and the
sign post, with its swinging sign-board, with a decorated iron frame, is shown in
June's ludicrous, but scarce, print of the Lady's Disaster, 1746. At No. 340, Strand,
July 15, 1815, died John Augustine Wade, the popular lyric poet and musical composer.
Catherine-street: on the west was New Exeter 'Change, designed by Sydney
Smirke, with house-fronts temp. James I. {see p. 20) ; now the site of the Steaxd
Music Hall {see p. 608). JBrydges-street, Drury-lane Theatre. No. 346 Strand,
Doily's Warehouse, rebuilt in fanciful Italian style, by Beazley, in 1838, occupies the
site of Wimbledon House, built by Sir Edward Cecil, and burnt down in 1628. Dry-
den names "Doily petticoats;" Steele had "a Doily suit" {Guardian, No. 102); and
Gay a " Doily habit" {Trivia, book i.) ; and Doily introduced the small wine-glass
napkin which still bears his name.
Wellington-street North: on the west side is the Lyceum Theatre, rebuilt by
Beazley. In Hxeter-street, at a staymaker's, was the first London lodging of Dr.
Johnson (1737), where he lived upon 4-\d. per day. When Dr. Johnson first came to
London with his pupil Garrick, they borrowed five pounds, on their joint note, of Mr.
Wilcocks, the bookseller. Strand.* " Near the Savoy in the Strand," east of Exeter
'Change, was the Canary House, probably also Cary House, noted for its sack " with
abricot flavoiii-" (Dryden's Wild Gallant, 1669) ; and Pepys mentions " Cary House,
a house of entertainment." At No. 352 Strand was bom, Jan. 29, 1798, Henry Neele,
the poet, the son of the able map and heraldic engraver. At No. 355, John Lim-
bird commenced publishing the Mirror, No. 1, Nov. 2, 1822. Westward was Exetee
'Change, described at p. 335.
" On the demolition of the building in 1830, the writer saw, out in the stone architrave above the
window at the east end,' Exbtbe Change. 1670,' a date much earlier in its adaptation than is generally
supposed." — J. H. Burn.
In one of the oflSces abutting on the 'Change was published the Literary Gazette,
No. 1, Jan. 25, 1817. Lxeter-street and Burleigh-street are named from their being
• The following were Dr. Johnson's places of residence in and near London : 1. Exeter-street, off
Catherine-street, Strand (1737). 2. Greenwich (1737). 3. Woodstock-street, near Hanover-square
(1737). 4. Castle-street, Cavendish-square, No. 6 (1738). 5. Strand. 6. Boswell-court. 7. Strand again.
8. Bow-street. 9. Holborn. 10. Fetter-lane. 11. Holborn again (at the Golden Anchor, Holbom Bars,
1748). 12. Gough-square, No. I7'(1748). 13. Staple Inn (1758). 14. Gray's Inn. 15. Inner-Temple-
lane. No. 1 (1760). 16. Johnson's^court, Fleet-street, No. 7 (1766). 17. Bolt-court, Fleet-street, No. 8
(1776).— /See BosweU's Life.
TATTEBSALL'S, 769
parts of the site of Burleigh and Exeter House. No. 372, Strand, Exeteb Haii,
is described at p. 334.
Southaynpton-street was named in compliment to Lady Rachel, daughter of Thomas
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and wife of William Lord Russell. Near the foot
of the street stood Bedford House, the town mansion of the Earl of Bedford : it was
principally built of wood, and remained till 1704 ; the garden extended northward, its
wall bounding Covent Garden Market. In Southampton-street is a bar-gate ; the
Duke of Bedford having power to erect Walls and gates at the end of every thorough-
fare on his estate. Bedford-street occupies part of the site. Between these streets,
east and west, is Maiden-lane, where, in a second floor, lodged Andrew Marvell, M.P.
for Hull, when he refused a treasury-order for lOOOZ. brought to him by Lord Danby
from the King. At a perruquier's, with the sign of the White Peruke, lodged Voltaire
during part of his three years' residence in England. Some of his correspondence with
Swift is dated from this house.
At No. 26, Maiden-lane, corner of Hand-court, was born, in 1773, J. M. W. Turner, R.A., the land-
scape-painter. His father was a hair-dresser ; and the painter, when a boy, coloured prints for John E.
Smitli, of Maiden-lane, a mezzotinto engraver. Turner removed to apartments in Hand-court, in
the Lane, and during his residence here he exhibited at the Royal Academy fifty-nine pictures.
Opposite was the Cyder Cellar, opened about 1730 : a curious tract. Adventures
Underground, 1750, contains strange notices of this " midnight concert-room" (Notes
and Queries, No. 28) : it was a haunt of Professor Por son's. At No. 367, Strand, lived
Deville, the lamp-manufacturer, and student of phrenology : when young he was
employed by Nollekens, the sculptor, to make for him casts from moulds j which shows
the phrenologist to have early developed his abilities in this direction. At No. 485,
the Queen's Head public-house, lodged Thomas Parr, when he was brought to Lon-
don to be shown to Charles I. ; as stated to J. T. Smith, in 1814, by a person then
aged 90, to whom the house was pointed out by his grandfather, then 88.
No. 411, Strand, the AdelpM Theatre, Beazley architect (see Theatres). No. 429,
built for the Westminster Fire and Life Insurance OflSce, by Cockerell, R.A., had a
fagade of great originality : the figures (aquarii) over the principal windows beauti-
fully characteristic. No. 430, West Strand commences : King- William-street denotes
the reign in which the improvements were made (see Chaking Ckoss Hospital,
p. 436). No. 437, LowTHER Aecade {see p. 20).
No. 448, Electric Telegraph Office. Upon the roof is the Electric Time Signal
Ball, completed in June, 1852, when the following were its details : —
The signal consists of a zinc ball, 6 feet in diameter, supported by a rod, which passes down the
centre of the column, and carries at its base a piston, which, in its descent, plunges into a cast-iron air-
cylinder ; the escape of the air being regulated so as at pleasure to check the momentum of the ball,
and prevent concussion. The raising of the ball half-mast high takes place daily at 10 minutes to 1 ; at
6 minutes to 1 it is raised to its full height; and at 1 precisely, and simultaneously with the fall of the
ball at Greenwich, it is liberated by the galvanic current sent from the Observatory through a wire laid
for that purpose. The same galvanic current which liberates the ball in the Strand, moves a needle
upon the transit-clock at the Observatory : the time occupied by the transmission being about l-3000th
part of a second ; and by the unloosing of the machinery which supports the ball, less than one-fifth
part of a second. The true moment of 1 o'clock is, therefore, indicated by the first appearance of the
line of light between the dark cross over the ball and the body of the ball itself. In the event of acci-
dental failure at 1 o'clock, the ball is raised half-mast high, and dropped at 2 o'clock. When fully raised
the ball is 129 feet above the level of the Thames, and falls 10 feet.
No. 452, the Golden Cross Hotel : the old coaching inn stood further west. " I
often," says Lamb, " shed tears in the motley Strand, for fulness of joy at so much
life." (Letters, vol. i.)
TATTEBSALL'S,
THE celebrated sporting rendezvous and auction mart for horses, known as the
" Corner" (i.e., at Hyde Park Corner), in the rear of St. George's Hospital, and
approached from Grosvenor-place, was established by Richard Tattersall, in 1766, who
leased the ground, then an open place between Piccadilly and the hamlet of Knights-
bridge, from Earl Grosvenor. Tattersall, who had been stud-groom to the second and
last Duke of Kingston, in 1779, founded his fortune by purchasing from Lord Boling-
broke, then in difficulties, the celebrated stud-horse. Highflyer. Tattersall had pre-
viously sold off the Duke of Kingston's stud; and an injunction was applied for
3 D
770 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
December 14, 1774, to restrain payment of the money to the Duchess, then under
indictment. Tattersall is alluded to in the Belle's Stratagem, first performed 1782 :
** Flutter : Oh, yes ! I stopped at Tattei-sall's as I came by, and there I found Lord
James Jessamy, Sir William Wilding," &c. The Prince of Wales was a constant
patron of Tattersall's, where was a bust of his Royal Highness in his eighteenth year.
Here the Jockey Club erected their club-house, elaborately decorated by Italian artists :
the Duke of Queensbury (" Old Q/') and Selwyn were members of the club. Richard
Tattersall, of whom two portraits exist, died January 20, 1795, aged 72 ; he was suc-
ceeded in his business by his only son Edmund, who carried it on until his death, Jan.
23, 1810 : his son, Edmund, who founded the foreign trade, then succeeded ; who,
dying Dec. 11, 1851, the business came to its present proprietor. In 1852, Tattersall's
annual average of horses brought to the hammer was estimated at 45,000^. ; there
were 97 stalls and 13 loose boxes, or standing for 110. In the counting-house hung
the regulations, dated 1780. The owner of a Derby winner some few years back had
to receive about 70,000Z. from the Ring, and on the settling-day it was in the hands of
his bankers, with the exception of very few hundreds. On show and sale days the
display of horses was often very fine. The " Book-making" before the Derby or St.
Leger was crowded with peers and plebeians, butchers and brokers, betting-list
keepers, insurers, guardsmen and prize-fighters, Manchester manufacturers, Yorkshire
farmers, sham captains, ci-devant gentlemen, &c. In " the Room," which was regu-
lated by the Jockey Club, was a cartoon of the race-horse " Eclipse." We have seen a
clever painting, by Aiken, of the horse-auction at Tattersall's. The lease of the old
premises expii-ed in 1865 j fine fruit had been grown in the gardens, whence were sup-
plied, for many years, the grapes and pines for the Waterloo Banquet, at Apsley House.
In 1864, Tattersall's was removed to newly-erected premises between the junction
of the Brompton and Knightsbridge roads, which is much nearer to the great quarter
of fashion and wealth than Hyde Park-corner was at the beginning of the present
century. The New Tattersall's is described at p. 491.
Tattersall's is the greatest mart for horses in the world. Sales take place here every Monday through-
out the year, and in the height of the season on Thursday also. As many as 150 lots have been offered
in one day ; the average number 100. The proprietors, the Messrs. Tattersall's, also sell annually the
produce of the Royal Breeding Establishment at Hampton Court Paddocks, and other thoroughbred
produce ; also studs of race-horses at York, Doncaster, and Newmarket during the racing season ; and to
them are usually entrusted the sale of packs of hounds. The highest price ever paid for a horse at
Messrs. Tattersall's of late years was 3100 gs. for Orlando ; and the highest price for a pack of hounds,
the property of G. Osbaldeston, Esq., 3000 gs.
TELEGRAPHS, ELECTRIC.
THE Electro-telegrapnic system in London has been carried out by the Electric
Telegraph Company, at their Central Office in Lothbury, which has thus become
the metropolis of stations. Here the whole system was first clearly exhibited ; the
Company having purchased all Cooke and Wheatstone's patents, and adopted their
peculiar features, — the suspended conducting wire and the Double Needle Telegraph ;
and, in certain cases, Mr. Bain's chemical Printing Telegraph. The Office is in
Founders'-court, on the north side of the Bank of England ; where anciently dwelt
founders " that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice-mortars," &c., and " turned
them bright with the feet, making a loathsome noise, whence the name of Loth-Jme,
or court " (Stotv) ; all which is strikingly contrasted with the wonder-working silence
of the Electric Telegraph operations.
The entrance to the office is bold and picturesque : above the doorway is a balcony ;
and between two enriched Ionic pilasters, carrying an arched pediment, is the large
transparent dial of an electric clock. You first enter a hall 42 by 32 feet, entirely
lighted from the coved roof of plate-glass in panels. At the east and west ends is a
screen of two stories ; both communicating with the apartments in which are the
electric-telegraph machines, and the two ends are connected by side- galleries, there
being thus two railed stories or galleries throughout the hall ; at each end, below, are
counters, where clerks, who receive the messages, enter them, and pass them to
another set of clerks, who transmit them to those employed at the machines above by
lifts or small trays, working by cords in square tubes, — a lift and bell to each desk.
i
TELEGRAPHS, ELECTBIO. 771
Behind the counter is the " translating office," where all messages are transferred into
the abbreviated code arranged by the Company. Such messages as descriptions of
persons suspected of dishonesty are not translated, but sent in full : only the lists of
prices in com, share, and other markets are so abbreviated.
Several wires are laid to each terminus, lest any of them become defective, when the
connexion can be carried on by other wires, as the expense of taking up the pavement
would be enormous for so slight a cause. The wires are of copper, and are covered
with gutta-percha. India-rubber, or some resinous substances, which, being non-con-
ductors, prevent the escape of the electricity. The wires from the several railway
termini are brought through iron pipes laid down under the pavement of the streets ;
and meeting in Founders'-court, are continued through the south wall of the basement
of the station, and descending into the " test-box," are fastened there to pegs fitted
into the back of the box. At the bottom run a corresponding number of " house-
wires," and these go to the machines in the galleries. Connexion is maintained
between the line and house- wires by small wires running perpendicularly from one to
the other. All the wires are numbered at the desks to correspond from batteries to
machines, and from machines to the test-box, that the electric circle may thus be
complete. In the galleries the wires are carried along the ceilings from the respective
machines to the battery-chambers and the test-box ; the battery-wires running east
and west, and the house-wires to test-box north and south. Several long and narrow
chambers are devoted to the batteries, which are so numbered and arranged in
reference to the wires, that any defect can be immediately rectified. Each railway
has a division to itself, and thus all risk of confusion is avoided. The communications
are spelt through letter by letter, and each word is verified by the receiver to the
sender as the message proceeds.
In 1851, the Admiralty Semaphores were removed, and the Electric Telegraph sub-
stituted for them. By this means, despatches can be sent off and received by night or
day, and in any kind of weather ; whereas, the Semaphores could only work by day,
and that in fine weather : this was a great inconvenience to Government, especially
the naval department, which had only one line, from the Admiralty, Whitehall, to
Portsmouth ; whilst now, orders can be transmitted in a moment to the Royal
arsenals. In 1851, the Needle Telegraph of Wheatstone was carried round the Great
Exhibition Building in Hyde Park, and thence to the Police Station, Great Scotland-
yard, Whitehall. And in 1852, the exact Greenwich time was first conveyed by the
Electric Telegraph to various parts of England.
Besides the private message department, there is a general intelligence office, in which the news
published in the morning journals is condensed and transmitted to the Exchanges of Liverpool, Bristol,
Manchester, Glasgow, and other chief provincial centres of business. During the day the London and
other news is collected, condensed, and transmitted to the offices of upwards of 400 provincial papers,
which thus receive, during the night before their publication, the most recent intelligence of every sort
received by telegraph from all parts of Europe, besides the current news of the United Kingdom to the
latest moment.
There are also curious special arrangements : thus, a wire is exclusively appropriated to communica-
tions between the Octagon Hall of the Houses of Parliament and the telegraphic station in St. James's-
Btreet, the centre of the West-end clubs. This is a call-wire for Members. The Company employ
reporters during the sitting of Parliament to make an abstract of the business of the two Houses as it
proceeds; this is forwarded, at very short intervals, to the office in St. James's-street, where it is set
up and printed; and this flying-sheet is sent to the principal clubs and to theBoyal Itahan Opera. The
Government wires go from Somerset House to the Admiralty, and thence, in one direction, to Ports-
mouth and Plymouth by the South Western and Great Western Railways ; and in the other to the naval
establishments at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and to the Cinque Ports of Deal and Dover.
They are worked by a staff provided by the telegraph companies, and the more important messages are
usually sent in cipher, the meaning of which is unknown even to the telegraphic clerks employed in
transmitting it. In addition to the wires already spoken of, street branches run from Buckingham
Palace to Scotland-yard (the head police-office), to the station at Charing Cross, and thence to the City;
whilst the Post-office, Lloyd's, Capel-court, and the Corn Exchange communicate directly with the
central offices.— Abridged from Lardner's Electric Telegraph, by Bright, 1867.
** The Nerves of London" is Wheatstone's system of wires which may be seen stretching
across the sky-line of great thoroughfares, and visibly triangvdating the town in every
direction ; and along which, by a simplified apparatus, messages are sent at the rate of
100 letters a minute. The system of fine copper is hung on the iron wires, strained
from poles from the house-tops. At intervals carefully selected, the area of London is
divided by a system of triangulation, the posts that form the meeting-points of three
series of cables becoming the points at which all these wires have to be distributed.
3 s 2
772 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
TEMPLE, INNER AND MIDDLE. {See pp. 461-464.)
TEMPLE PAR,
BETWEEN the east end of the Strand and the west end of Fleet-street, divides the
City of London from the liberty of Westminster; or rather, "it opens not
immediately into the City itself (which terminated at Ludgate), but into the liberty
or freedom thereof" {Satton, 1708). The original division from the county (hence
Shire-lane) was by posts and rails, a chain, and a bar (as at Holborn, Smithfield, and
Whitechapel bars) placed across the street, and named from its immediate vicinity to
the Temple. The bar gave place to " a house of timber " raised across the street,
with a narrow gateway underneath, and an entrance on the south side under the house
above. At the coronation of Queen Mary, " the Temple-barre was newly painted and
hanged" {Stoic). This was taken down after the Great Fire, and it is shown in
Hollar's seven-sheet Map of London ; and in the Bird's-eye View, about 1601. After
the Great Fire, Charles II. insisted upon the citizens taking down the Bar, when
they, pleading their " weak state and inability," on account of the great expense of
rebuilding public edifices consumed in the Great Fire, the King promised to assist them
with funds ; the Corporation undertook the work j the old Bar was accordingly taken
down, and the present Bar erected by Sir Christopher Wren, of Portland-stone, but
the royal promise was not performed. The Bar basement is rusticated ; it has a large
flattened arch in the centre for the carriage-way, and a smaller semicircular arch on
each side for foot-passengers. Each fa9ade has four Corinthian pilasters, an entablature,
and arched pediment. On the west, in two niches, are statues of Charles I. and
Charles II. in Roman costume ; and over the keystone of the centre arch were the
royal arms : on the east, in similar niches, are statues of James I. and his queen,
Anne of Denmark (often described as Elizabeth) ; and over the keystone were the City
arms. Inscription :
" Erected in the year 1670, Sir Samnel Starling Mayor; continued in the year 1671, Sir Eichard Ford
Lord Mayor ; and finished in the year 1672, Sir George Waterman Lord Mayor."
The upper portion has two bold cartouches, or scrolls, as supporters ; but the fruit
and flowers sculptured in the pediment, and the supporters of the royal arms, which
were placed over the extremities of the posterns (now widened), have disappeared ;
the inscription is scarcely legible ; and the stone-work of the whole is weather-worn :
in 1852 the Common Council refused to spend 1500Z. to restore the bar as Wren left
it. The statues are by John Bushnell, who died in 1701 -, that of Charles I. has lost
the baton. A scarce print shows the bar, and the adjoining gabled houses at the com-
mencement of the 18th century. In the centre of each fa9ade is a semicircular-
headed window, lighting an apartment now held of the City, at the annual rent of
50Z., by Messrs. Child, the bankers, as a depository for their account-books. Above
the centre of the pediment, upon iron spikes, were formerly placed the heads and limbs
of persons executed for treason. The first of these revolting displays was one of the
quarters of Sir Thomas Armstrong, implicated in the Rye-House Plot ; and next the
quarters of Sir William Perkins and Sir John Friend, and Perkins's head, who had
conspired to assassinate William III.
"April 10, 1696.— A dismal sight, which many pitied. I think there never was such a Temple Bar
till now, except in the time of King Charles II., viz. Sir Thomas Armstrong."— Evelyn's Diary.
After the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, the heads of some of the victims were placed
npon the Bar ; and in 1723, the head of Counsellor Layer, who had conspired for the
restoration of the Pretender ; Layer's head remained here for 30 years, till blown
down in a gale of wind, when it was picked up in the street by an attorney. But the
heads last set up here were those of Townley and Fletcher, the rebels, in 1746. Walpole
writes, August 16, 1746 : " I have been this morning at the Tower, and passed under
the new heads at Temple Bar, where people make a trade of letting spying-glasses at a
halfpenny a look -" and in 1825, a person, aged 87, remembered the above heads being
seen with a telescope from Leicester Fields, the ground between which and Temple Bar
was then thinly built over. {J. T. Smith.) In 1766 a man was detected discharging
THAMES EMBANKMENT. 773
musket-balls, irom a steel cross-bow, at these two heads ; which, however, remained
there until March 31, 1772, when one of the heads fell down ; and shortly after, the
remaining one was swept down by the wind * The Bar was painted by Rooker in
1772. The last of the iron poles, or spikes, was not removed from the Bar until the
commencement of the present century. Mr. Rogers, the banker-poet, who died
December ]8, 1855, remembered "one of the heads of the rebels upon a pole at
Temple Bar, a black, shapeless lump. Another pole was bare, the head having dropped."
The old gates of Temple Bar remain : they are of oak, panelled, and are surmounted
by a rudely carved festoon of fruit and flowers. These gates were originally shut at
night, and guarded by watchmen ; and in our time they have been closed in cases of
upprehended tumult. Upon the visit of the Sovereign to the City, and upon the procla-
mation of a new Sovereign, or of Peace, it was formerly customary to keep the gates
closed, until admission was formally demanded; the gates were then opened; and upon
the Royal visit, the Lord Mayor surrendered the City sword to the Sovereign, who
re-delivered it to his Lordship.
At Temple Bar the above ceremony was observed when Queen Elizabeth proceeded to St. Paul's to
return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada; when Fairfax and Cromwell and the Parliament
went in state to dine with the City ; when Queen Anne went to St. Paul's to return thanks for the Duke
of Marlborough's victories; when Queen Victoria dined at Guildhall iu the year of her accession, 1837;
and when her Majesty went to open the New Royal Exchanp-e in 1844; but on the Queen's visit in 1851,
the ceremony at Temple Bar was entirely dispensed with. The custom at the Proclamation of Peace, or
the Accession of the Sovereign, had been for a herald, attended by trumpeters, to knock with his baton
at the closed gate, when the City Marshal inquired " Who comes there ?" and the herald having replied,
was admitted, and conducted to the Lord Mayor, who directed that the whole of the cavalcade should be
admitted; and the proclamation was read opposite Chancery-lane. Such was the observance upon the
accession of George IV., William IV., and Queen Victoria. In 1844 the ceremony consisted merely of
closing the gates just before the royal procession reached the Bar, and re-opening them upon the
announcement of the Queen's arrival.
At the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, November 18, 1852, Temple Bar was
entirely covered with draperies of black cloth and velvet, and cloth -of-gold ; decorated
with the annorial bearings and orders of the Duke in proper colours ; silvered cor-
nices, fringe, urns, and a circle of flambeaux upon the pediment ; the whole presenting
an impressive efiect of solemn triumph and gloomy grandeur. The Bar was appro-
priately decorated and illuminated at the marriage of the Prince of Wales and the
Princess Alexandra of Denmark, March, 1863.
THAMES EMBANKMENT.
TO the Romans we are indebted for the first embankment of the Thames; and,
according to Tacitus, they pressed the Britons into the work. The maintenance
and repair of these embankments have been traced to the reign of Edward I. ; but the
encroachments of wharfs and other buildings have materially contracted the water-way
immediately through the centre of the metropolis ; so that the only relic of the old line
is to be seen adjoining Waterloo Bridge. For example : the distance of the river front
from Westminster Hall, in an old plan, is 100 feet ; it is now 300 feet. Several plans
were proposed for the embankment of the Thames; some including railways, arcades,
terraces, promenades, &c. The portions already embanked are the terraces of the Custom
House, Somerset House, the Adelphi, the New Houses of Parliament, Thames Bank;
although, more than a century and a half since. Wren designed " a commodious quay
on the whole bank of the river, from Blackfriars to the Tower." A showy architectural
plan was published by Colonel Trench; and in 1845, John Martin, the painter,
designed a railway along both sides of the Thames, with an open walk from Hunger-
ford to the Tower, and from Vauxhall to Deptford. The next portion was the embank-
ment above Vauxhall Bridge, to be continued to Battersea Bridge.
The Embankment, J. W. Bazalgette, engineer, is now in course of construction by
the Metropolitan Board of Works, on the north side.
The foundations are laid upon a connected line of iron caissons and concrete, upon which is built the
brick granite-faced embankment- wall ; behind which, and underneath the roadway, it is proposed to con-
* See Temple Bar, the City Oolgotha, by a Member of the Middle Temple, sm. 4to, 1853, for a narra-
tive of these occurrences, in illustration of the revolting eft'ects of capital punishments and public
executions.
774 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
struct the subways and sewers, an arrangement which will add much to the stability of the embankment-
wall. The total length of the embankment is about 7000 ft., but it is completely divided by the bridges
into three sections : the first section from Westminster to Hungerford bridge, the second from Hunger-
ford bridge to Waterloo, and the third from Waterloo to Blackfriars bridge.
At Westminster-bridge the roadway, which rises at an inclination of 1 in 80 to the level of the bridge,
is set back some 30 or 40 feet from the face of the embankment-wall, and the intervening space reserved
as a promenade and steamboat-pier, having access from the bridge by a wide and imposing flight of steps
opposite the Houses of Parliament. Between Westminster and Hungerford bridges will be landing-stairs
for smaller craft, and here it is proposed to introduce the beautilul water-gate now situate at the end of
Buckingham-street. On either side of Hungerford and Waterloo bridges, will be steam-boat landing-places,
massive granite piers with moulded pedestals rising about 30 ft. above the roadway, to be enriched with
bas-relieis and surmounted by groups of statuary. Half way between Hungerford and Waterloo bridges,
will be a flight of landing steps 60 ft. wide, projecting into the river, and flanked at each end with massive
piers, rising to the level of a few feet above the roadway, and to be surmounted with colossal figures
of river deities, or other appropriate groups. The central feature will be an approach for foot-passengers
from the high level roadway to the river by a second flight of steps, descending to the level of the lower
or embankment roadway. On either side of this approach a line of shops is to be erected on the land side
of the embankment roadway, the backs of which would form a retaining wall to the ornamental crescent
and promenade above them. Between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges, and in front of Arundel-street,
a steamboat pier will be constructed, in lieu of the present Essex-street pier, designed upon the same
principle as those adjoining the bridges. The embaukment-wali itself is to be enriched with mouldings
of a simple character down to the level of high-water mark, the continuous line of moulding being broken
hj the introduction, at intervals, of massive blocks of granite to carry ornamental lamps, and by occa-
sional recesses for promenade seats.
The section between Temple Gardens and Blackfriars bridge will be constructed on arches, so as to
admit of the passage under it to docks between the roadway and the shore of barges and lighters ;
besides a subway for gas and water pipes and electric telegraphs. The embankment will pass by an easy-
curve to the level of Bridge-street, Blackfriars, where the line of roadway will be continued by the new
street to the Mansion House.
The Embankment on the south side, between Westminster bridge and "Vauxhall, was commenced in
1865 ; the foreshore of the first section being the site of the new St. Thomas's Hospital; the new em-
bankment here redeeming six acres from the Thames. There will also be a new road, 60 feet wide, in
the rear of the Hospital, continuing Stangate to Lambeth Palace.
TEAMJSS EIVEE, THE,
THE metropolis, extending about 15 miles along the Thames, although occupying
little more than one-thirtieth of its entire course, renders it the most important
commercial river in the world. The name is inferred to be of British origin : Caesar
writes it Tamesis, evidently Tames or Thames with a Latin termination. The river
rises in the south-eastern slopes of the Coteswold Hills ; for a short distance it divides
Gloucestershire from Wiltshire; next Berkshire from Oxfordshire, and then from
Buckinghamshire ; it then divides Surrey and Middlesex, separating the cities of West-
minster and London from Lambeth, Southwark, Bermondsey, and Kotherhithe ; thence
to its mouth, it divides Kent and Essex, and falls into the sea at the Nore, about 110
miles nearly due east from the source, and about twice that distance measured along
the windings of the river. From having no sand-bar at its mouth, it is navigable for
sea-vessels to London Bridge, about 45 miles from the Nore, or nearly one-fourth of its
entire length ! In its course through the metropolis, it varies from 800 to 1500 feet
in breadth ; gradually expanding, as it approaches the Nore, to seven miles broad.
Drayton describes, as renowned for " ships and swans. Queen Thames." Cowley
thus refers to Old London Bridge impeding the prospect :
"Stopp'd by the houses of that wondrous street,
Which rides o'er the broad river like a fleet."
"London wi'th Westminster, by reason of the turning of the river, much resembles the shape (includ-
ing Southwark) oi a great whale: Westminster being the under jaw; St. James's Park the mouth; the
Pall Mall, &c., northward, the upper jaw: Cock and Pye Fields, or the meeting of the seven streets, the
eye ; the rest of the City and Southwark to East Smithfield, the body ; and thence eastward to Lime-
house, the tail: and 'tis, probably, in as great a proportion the largest of towns, as that is of fiahes."—
Hatton, 1708.
The very bold reach made by the Thames adds greatly to the eifect of the prospect ; and by this
means, before the addition of the present front of Buckingham Palace, the Sovereign, when seated upon
her throne, commanded a view of the dome of St. Paul's, and the spires and towers of the City churches.
The Tide ascends about 15 miles above London Bridge to Teddington (Tide-end-
town) : here an immense volume of fresh water, derived from the arc of the drainage
of the Thames (calculated at 800,000,000 gallons a day, or about 16 square miles, 90
feet deep), flows over Teddington Lock, and mixes with the water below. Even at
ebb-tide there are 12 or 13 feet of water in the fair way of the river above Greenwich ;
the mean range of the tides at London Bridge is about 17 feet ; of the highest spring-
TSAMBS BWEB. 775
tides about 22 feet. Up to Woolwich the river is navigable for ships of any burden;
to Blackwall for those of 1400 tons.
Thames Sports and Pageants. — Fitzstephen chronicles the water tournament and
quintain. Richard II. was rowed in his tapestried barge, probably the first royal
barge upon the Thames : and here the king, seeing the poet Gower, called him on
board, and commanded him " to make a book after his best," which was the origin of
the Confessio Amanfis. In the 15th and 16th centuries, and onward to very recent
days, each palace on the north bank of the Thames had its water-gate, and its retinue
of barge and wherries. The Thames was the royal road from Westminster and White-
hall to the Tower, and from thence to Greenwich. State prisoners were conveyed by the
Thames to the Traitors' Gate at the Tower, and the Star-Chamber victims to a similar
gate at the Fleet. The landing-places on the Thames appear to have been even less
changed than the thoroughfare itself; for in the account of the penance of Eleanor
Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, in 1440, we find named Temple-bridge (stairs), the
Old Swan, and Queenhithe ; and in early maps of London, are Broken Wharf, Paul's
Wharf, Essex Stairs, and Whitehall Stairs ; all which exist by the same names to the
present day. Cardmal Wolsey, when he delivered up York Place, " took his barge at
his privy stairs, and so went by water to Putney," on his way to Esher. Sir Thomas
More kept his great barge at Chelsea, which he gave to Sir Thomas Audley, his suc-
cessor in the chancellorship, with whom he placed his eight watermen. In the Aqua
Triumphalis, in 1662, the City welcomed Charles II. from Hampton Court to White-
hall, the barges of the Twelve Companies being carried as far as Chelsea ; and mostly
all ended with a pageant. James II., 1688, embarked at Whitehall : " I saw him take
barge," says Evelyn ; " a sad sight." The last primate who kept his state barge at
Lambeth was Archbishop Wake, who died 1737. Early in the l7th century, Howel
numbered among the river glories, " forests of masts which are perpetually upon her ;
the variety of smaller wooden bottoms playing up and down ;" and Stow computes
that there were in his time 2000. In 1630, the river had its own laureat, John
Taylor " the Water-poet," who thus sings : —
" But, noble Thames, whilst I can hold a pen,
I will divulge thy glory unto men ;
Thou, in the morning, when my coin is scant.
Before the evening doth supply my want."
Taylor knew Ben Jonson ; and the Water-poet " probably had the good fortune to
ferry Shakspeare from Whitehall to Paris Garden." — (C Knight.)
The Folly on the Thames was a floating " musical summer-house" usually moored
between Somerset-stairs and the Savoy ; the Queen of William III. once vi^sited it.
The existing sports on the Thames consist of rowing, boat-racing, and yachting, or
sailing, throughout the summer and autumn ; by clubs, numbering several members
of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London ; the scholars of Westminster,
St. Paul's, and other academic foundations. The match for Dogget's coat and silver
badge is rowed for every 1st of August under the direction of the Fishmongers' Com-
pany, of which Dogget was a member, as described at page 400.
The Thames Watermen formerly had their cant dialect, of which Ned Ward and
Tom Brown give specimens ; and the " Thames ribaldry" {^Spectator) has lasted to our
time, in which watermen's disputes have been settled by Joe Hatch, " the Thames
Chancellor." Strype was told by a member of the Watermen's Company, that there
were in his day, about 110 years ago, 40,000 watermen on the rolls of the Company,
and that upon occasion they could furnish 28,000 men for the fleet, and that there
were then 8000 in service j but these numbers are questionable.
State Barges. — The first water pageant of the City of London dates from 1454,
when John Norman, the Mayor, was rowed to Westminster in his barge ; but the Com-
panies had their barges for water processions half a century before this; and the
Grocers' accounts, temp. Henry VI., mention the hiring of barges to attend the
Sheriffs' show by water. Hall chronicles the Mayor and citizens accompanying Anne
Boleyn at her coronation, in 1533, from Greenwich to the Tower, in their barges.
The barge was retained in the Lord Mayor's state until our time, and included the
Water-bailiflf, one of his lordship's esquires, with a salary of 500Z. a year, a shallop and
^"7^ CUBI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
eight men ; and in the suite were a barge-master, and thirty-two City watermen. The
Lord Mayor's barge was richly carved and gilt, and cost in 1807, 2579Z. A few of the
City companies maintained their state-barges " to attend my Lord Mayor :" as the
Fishmongers, Vintners, and Dyers, Stationers, Skinners, and Watermen. The Gold-
smiths' Company sold their barge in 1850, and have not replaced it. A capacious
barge, built in 1816, named the "Maria Wood" (from the then Lord Mayor's
eldest daughter), cost 5000Z. The Queen long maintained her river state ; and one of the
royal barges, built more than a century and a quarter since, is a curious craft : the
rowers wore scarlet state-liveries. The Lords of the Admiralty had likewise their state
barge ; and in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries is one of their old massive
silver badges. This river-state has, however, been abolished i and excursions are now-
made in steamers. The Dyers' and Vintners' Companies still keep swans on the river.
State Funerals by the Thames are rare : the remains of Anne of Bohemia, and
Henry VII., who died at Richmond, were conveyed with great pomp by the river to
Westminster ; and the body of Queen Elizabeth was " brought by water to Whitehall."
The remains of Lord Nelson, after lying in state in the Painted Hall of Greenwich
Hospital, were conveyed by the Thames* to the Admiralty, Jan. 8, 1806, and next day
were deposited in St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Poet of London is described at pp. 685-687.
The Bridges across the Thames at the metropolis are described at pp. 65-75.
The two churches immediately below London bridge attest the occupation of London by the Danes
and Northmen : St. Olave's Southwark, originally dedicated to the Norwegian king, Olaf the Saint; and
St. Magnus the Martyr, from St, Magnus, a Norwegian jarl, killed in the 12th century in Orkney, where
the cathedral in Kirkwall is also dedicated to liim.
The Docks (which have cost more than 8,000,OOOZ. in the present century) are
described at pp. 309-312.
The earliest Water-supply was derived from the Thames, by direct carriage, or from
the bournes or streams which flowed through the town, but are now covered sewers.
The water was laid from these springs in leaden pipes, as early as the reign of Henry III.,
to Conduits in various parts of the town {see pp. 287-289), whence it was conveyed
in buckets and carts : from Tyburn in 1236 ; from Highbury in 1438 j from Hackney
in 1535 ; from Hampstead in 1543 ; and from Hoxton in 1546. Lilly, the astrologer,
when a youth, went to the Thames, accompanied at times by City apprentices, to carry
water in buckets from the river, for domestic purposes. In 1535, water was brought
from six fountains in the town of Tyhurn, this being the first instance on record of
water being conveyed to the city by means of pipes. In 1581, Peter Morice threw
a jet of the Thames over old St. Magnus' steeple, before which " no such thing was
known in England as this raising of water.'* Next year were formed London Bridge
Waterworks, described at p. 67. In 1613 was opened the New Rivee {see pp. 609-612),
when commenced the modern systems of supply, now executed by eight Companies.
Msli. — Fitzstephen describes the Thames, at London, as " a fishful river ;•" and its
fishermen were accustomed to present their tithe of salmon at the high altar of St.
Peter, and claim on that occasion the right to sit at the Prior of Westminster's own
table. At this period the river, even below the site of the present London Bridge,
abounded with fish. In 1376-77, a law was passed in parliament for the saving of
salmon and other fry of fish ; and in 1381-82, " swannes" that came through the bridge,
or beneath the bridge, were the fees of the Constable of the Tower. Howel says : —
"When the idler was tired of bowls, he had nothing to do but to step dov/n to Queen-
hithe or the Temple," and have an afternoon of angling. " Go to the river : what a
pleasure it is to go thereon in the summer time, in boat or barge, or to go a-floundering
among the fishermen !" In the regulations, too, of the " Committee of Free Fisher-
men" is a provision that fishermen were not to come nearer London than the Old Sivan,
on the north bank of the river, and St. Mary Overies, on the south. Pennant desci-ibes
the catch of lamprey of the greatest importance, immense quantities being exchanged
with the Dutch fishermen for other descriptions of fish. Formerly Blackfriars and
Westminster bridges w^ere anglers' stations ; but the fish disappeared from the Thames
at London. Blackwall is, however, still famed for its whitebait {see pp. 57-58), and
fish are taken in the docks below London Bridge.
• The Author of this volume, born August 17, 1801, has a distinct recollection of having seen this
Poneral Procession upon the Thames from a back window of a house at the south foot of London Bridge.
TEAMES-STBEET. 777
1749, June 7. — Two of the greatest draughts of salmon were caught in the Thames, below Richmond,
that have been known for some years ; one net having thirty fine large salmon in it, and the other
twenty-two, which lowered the price of fresh salmon at Billingsgate from Is. to 6d. per \h.— Gentle-
man's Magazine.
Strange fish have strayed here. In 1391, a dolphin, " ten feet in length,'* played
himself in the Thames at London to the bridge. Evelyn tells of a whale, fifty-eight
feet in length, killed between Deptford and Greenwich in 1658 ; and nearer the mouth
of the river (at Grays) a whale of the above length was taken in 1809, and another in
1849. " In 1783, a two-toothed cachalot, 21 ft. long, was taken above London Bridge."
The Steam Navigation of the Thames exceeds that of any other river in the world.
The first steam-boat left the Thames, for Richmond, in 1814 ; the next for Gravesend,
in 1815 ; and in the same year for Margate. The Gravesend steamers soon superseded
the sailing-boats with decks, which, in 1737, had displaced the tilt-boats mentioned temp.
Richard II. The Margate steamers, in like manner, superseded the sailing "hoy."
The steam traffic attained vast numbers. In the year 1861, 3,207,558 passengers
landed and embarked at Old Shades-pier on board the penny boats of the London and
Westminster Steamboat Company. This number has, however, been considerably
reduced by railway competition.
Water. — In 1858, the water had become very impure by the sewer-water emptying
itself into the Thames, and the sulphate of lime in it causing an insufierable stench,
the chloride of sodium denoting its origin among the human habitations on the
banks of the river ; added to which were the organic matters. Man pours into the
Thames the refuse of a hundred towns and villages, besides the washings of manured
lands, before it gets to Teddington Lock. The water, already impure, is taken at the
rate of 100,000,000 of gallons a day, and after washing London and its inhabitants,
inside and out, is again returned to the Thames, bearing with it the vegetable and
animal refuse of dwelling-houses, mews, cow and slaughter-houses, and all sorts of
manufactories in which organic matters are used. — (Dr. LanJcester). In the following
yeai', 1859, the cleansing of the Thames by disinfectants was commenced; and during
the season there were employed about 4281 tons of chalk-lime, 478 tons of chloride of
lime, and 56 tons of carbolic acid, at a cost of 17,733Z.
Notwithstanding the many early measures to purify the Thames, we read in the
London chronicles of frequent and terrible ravages by the Plague, Sweating Sick-
ness, and other disorders. The Thames was then a pure and pleasant stream : still the
Plague raged, and carried ofi" thousands, and that at a time when the population of
London was probably under 300,000 persons — not many more than the population of
St. Pancras at present. This shows that the purity of the Thames alone did not
prevent the pestilence.
The Conservancy of the Thames by the Corporation of London datea from 1st
Edward IV. ; the Mayor acting as bailiff over the waters (in preserving its fisheries
and channels), and as meter of marketable commodities — fruit, garden-stufi^, salt, and
oysters, corn and coal — from Staines to Yantlett Creek (80 miles). The Admiralty
also claimed a certain jurisdiction; and the Corporation of the Trinity House had
authority to remove shoals, to regulate lastage and ballastage, to provide lighthouses
and beacons, to license pilots, mariners, &c. The powers of the Corporation were
neither large nor well defined, and the result not being satisfactory, a Board of Con-
servancy was, in 1857, created by Act of Parliament, consisting of 12 members, of whom
the City nominated six in addition to the Lord Mayor, who was ex officio chairman ; and
the Admiralty, Board of Trade, and Trinity House nominated the other five members.
This Board has greatly improved the river, and done much to develope its capabilities.
Feosts and Frost Faies on the Thames, see pp. 360-363.
The Isle of Dogs, the horse-shoe curve between Limehouse and Blackwall, is
described at p. 475.
THAMES- STREET,
IN Stow's time called StocJcfishmonger's Row, extends from Puddle Dock, Blackfriars,
to the Tower. The line abounds with archseological interest.
Upi-EE Tmames-steeet. — Ruddle Dock was the wharf of one Puddle, and next
1
778 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Puddle Water, from horses watered there. Ben Jonson calls it " our Abydos." Shad-
well, in his comedy of Epsom Wells, 1676, has " the Countess of Puddle Dock," and
Hogarth, in 1732, met " the Duke of Puddle Dock," at the Dark-house, Billingsgate.
Upon the site of old Puddle Dock is built the City Flour Mill, by far the largest
flour-mill in the world, and a gigantic example of mechanical skill. It is constructed
entirely upon piles, and occupies rather more than an acre, or 250 feet long by 60 feet
wide. The mill consists of eight stories ; two steam-engines, of the consecutive power
of 300 horses, drive 60 pairs of enormous mill-stones, and work the Archimedean
screws and buckets, by which the flour is conducted through the different processes.
This mill has stowage for 40,000 quarters of grain ; can prepare 4000 quarters per
week, and requires only one-sixth of the number of hands which were employed by
he old system.
Castle Baynard Wharf denotes the site of Baynard's Castle, described at p. 40.
Nearly opposite is Adel or Addle Sill, where stood the palace of the Anglo-Saxon
kings, erected by Athelstan. Boss-court is so called (says Stow) from a spring-water
loss, or mouth, put up by the executors of Sir Richard Whittington. From Lamheth'
Mil to Queenhithe have been excavated portions of the rirer-wall mentioned by Fitz-
stephen. Queenhithe, see p. 704. QarlicTc-Mll was of old the garlick hithe.
Dowgate, or Downegate, was named from its steep descent to the river ; or from
its being the Dowr or Water gate to Watling-street (Maitland) ; near the church of
St. Mary Bothaw (destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt), was the mansion of
Sir Francis Drake. Here is the City Terminus of the South-Eastern Railway, de-
scribed under Watltng- Steeet.
The Steelyard is named from its having been the place where the King's steel-
yard, or beam, was set up for weighing goods imported into London (T. Hudson
Turner). See a good account of the Steelyard, with historic details, by T. C. Noble,
in the Builder, September 5, 1863.
Coldharhov/r-lane denotes the site of Coldharlour, a magnificent mansion, 13
Edward II. (Rymer's Foddera). It was next the property of Sir John Poultney;
in 1397, John Holland, Duke of Exeter, entertained here Richard II.; Henry V.
possessed it when Prince of Wales j Richard III., in 1485, granted it to the College
of Heralds ; Henry VIII. exchanged it for Durham House, Strand : it is shown in
ruins, in Holland's View of London after the Great Fire. The etymology of Cold-
harbour is a quastio vexata. Sir John Poultney received for his mansion, yearly, a
rose at midsummer, whence, or from the wars of York and Lancaster, the estate was
named "the Manor of the Rose." Upon Laurence Pountney-hill are two elaborately
carved doorways ; and some of the houses have stone-groined vaults. Upon Laurence
Pountney-hill lived Dr. William Harvey, with his brothers Daniel and EUab, mer-
chants ; here Harvey made his researches on the circulation of the blood.
In Suffolk-lane is Merchant Tayloes' School {see p. 725).
Old Swan Stairs was a Thames landing-place in the 15th century. Here were the
Old Wine Shades, established in 1697, beneath the terrace of the former Fish-
mongers' Hall ; the present Shades is the house built for Lord Mayor Garratt, who
laid the first stone of London Bridge in 1825.
At Old Swan House, facing the river, three successive heads of the mercantile
concern served the offices of Sheriff and Lord Mayor ; and it is stated that no such
succession in the list of magistrates is to be found in the City. Here traded Mr. Richard
Thornton, who died June 20, 1865, leaving more than two millions and three quarters
of money, which he disposed of as follows :
To his nephew, Mr. Thomas Thornton, the testator left all his freehold, copyhold, and leasehold
property for his absolute use. To his sister, 100,000^. ; to his nephew, Mr. William Thornton West,
300,000Z.; to two of his clerks, 20,000^. each; to his nurse, for her faithful services and attention to him
in his illness, lOOOZ. ; to each of his other domestic servants, 500i. ; to the LeatherscUers' Company,
6000;.; to Christ's Hospital, 5000Z.; and 10,000^. to Hetherington's Charity for the Blind. To 24 other
charities in London, 2000^. each; to the schools at Merton, lO.OOOZ.; and to the poor of Merton, lOOOZ.
To the schools at Burton and Thornton, 10,000^. ; and to the poor of Merton, 500^. To Mr. R. N. Lee,
one of the executors, the munificent legacy of 400,000?., on condition of his obtaining a licence within
twelve months to take and use the surname of " Thornton." To the wile of another executor, a life
interest is devised in the sum of 300,000Z. To the Misses Margaret and Eliza Lee, of Ventnor, Isle of
Wight, there is a life interest in the sum of 200,000?. There are also liberal bequests to others of the
testatoi's nephews, nieces, and other persons.
THAMES TUNNEL. 779
At the upper end of Martin' s-lane. Cannon-street East, has been built a Rectory-
house, with a handsome campanile, 110 feet high.
Some idea of the ancient commercial wealth of England may be gathered from a glance at the rapid
increase of trade from about the middle of the 14th century. Thus, in 1363, Picard, who had been mayor
some years before, entertained Edward 111. and the Black Prince, the Kings of France, Scotland, and
Cyprus, at his own house in the Vintry (Upper Thames-street), and presented them with handsome gifts.
Philpot, an eminent citizen in the reign of Richard 1I„ when the trade of England was greatly annoyed
by privateers, hired 1000 armed men ai.d despatched them to sea, where they took 15 Spanish vessels
with their prizes : Philpot-lane, in Lower Thames-street, is " so called of Sir John Philpot (one of this
family), " that dwelt there, and was owner thereof." — Stow.
The south side of Upper Thames-street is mostly occupied by wharfs, once the site of river-side
palaces. In the lanes, upon the north side, are several merchants' mansions, " which, if not exactly
equal to the palaces of stately Venice, might at least vie with many of the hotels of old Paris. Some of
these, though ihe great msgority have been broken up into chambers and counting-houses, still remain
intact."— 5. D'Israeli.
Upper Thames-street retains some old signs : as, a bas-relief of a Gardener with a spade, 1670 ; the
Doublet (upon iron, once gilt), at Crawshay's iron- wharf. No. 36 (originally the "Sir John Anvill" of
the Spectator, No. 299). Upon Lambeth-hill, over Crane-court, is a crane carved in stone.
Thames-street has long been noted for its cheese-factors* warehouses : " Thames-
street gives cheeses." — (Gay's Trivia.)
Lower Thames-stkeet : Fish-street Hill; the Monument (see pp. 570-571)
Here was the entrance to CrooJced-lane, noted for its old fishing-tackle shops, handy
for the anglers at London Bridge. At Pudding-lane (from butchers scal^g hog's
puddings there) commenced the Geeat Fiee {see pp. 338-340).
Next is Billingsgate (p. 54). Coal Exchange (p. 329).
In Water-lane was the Old Trinity House, built by Wren ; and at the lower end
of the lane was the finely-carved door-headway of the Ship Tavern. The Custom
House is described at pp. 305-306.
At the east end of the street, in Stow's time, were the remains of a stone mansion,
said to have been the lodging of the Princes of Wales ; hence this part of the street
was called Petty Wales. It was also called Galley Quay, from the galleys formerly
lading and landing there. Tradesmen's tokens in the seventeenth century were struck
here, and were hence called, vulgOy " Galley-quay halfpence."
A
THAMES TUNNEL,
BRICK arched double roadway, under the Thames, between Wapping and
Rotherhithe, is one of the grandest achievements of engineering skill.
In 1799 an attempt was made to construct an archway under the Thames, from Graveseud to Tilbury
by Ralph Dodd, engineer; and in 1804 the "Thames Archway Company" commenced a similar work
from Rotherhithe to Limehouse, under the direction of Vasey and Trevethick, two Cornish miners;
and the horizontal excavation had reached 1040 feet, when the ground broke in, under the pressure of
high tides, and the work was abandoned ; 54 engineers declaring it to be impracticable to make a tunnel
under the Thames of any useful size for commercial progression.
The Thames Tunnel was planned by M. I. Brunei, in 1823 : among the earliest sub-
scribers to the scheme were the late Duke of Wellington and Dr. Wollaston ; and in
1824 the " Thames Tunnel Company " was formed to execute the work. A brickwork
cylinder, 50 feet in diameter, 42 feet high, and 3 feet thick, was first commenced by
Mr. Brunei at 150 feet from the Rotherhithe side of the river; and on March 2, 1825,
a stone with a brass inscription-plate was laid in the brickwork. Upon this cylinder,
computed to weigh 1000 tons, was set a powerful steam-engine, by which the earth
was raised, and the water was drained from within it ; the shaft was then sunk into
the ground en masse, and completed to the depth of 65 feet ; and at the depth of
63 feet the horizontal roadway was commenced, with an excavation larger than the
interior of the old House of Commons. The plan of operation had been suggested to
Brunei, in 1814, by the bore of the sea-worm. Teredo navalis, in the keel of a ship ;
showing how, when the perforation was made by the worm, the sides were secured,
and rendered impervious to water, by the insect lining the passage with a calcareous
secretion. With the auger-formed head of the worm in view, Brunei employed a
cast-iron " Shield," containing 36 frames or cells, in each of which was a miner who
cut down the earth ; and a bricklayer simultaneously built up from the back of the
cell the bi'ick arch, which was pressed forward by strong screws. Thus were com-
pleted, from Jan. 1, 1826, to April 27, 1827, 540 feet of the Tunnel. On May 18 the
780 CUBIOSITIES OF LONBOK
river burst into the works ; but the opening was soon filled up with bags of clay, the
water pumped out of the Tunnel, and the work resumed. At the length of 600 feet,
the river again broke in ; six men were drowned ; and the rush of the water carried
Mr. Brunei, jun., up the shaft. The Tunnel was again emptied; but the work was
now discontinued, for want of funds, for seven years.
Scores of plans were next proposed for its completion, and above 5000Z. were raised
by public subscription. By aid of a loan sanctioned by Parliament (mainly through
the influence of the Duke of Wellington), the work was resumed, and a new shield
constructed, March, 1836, in which year were completed 117 feet; in 1837, only
29 feet; in 1838, 80 feet; in 1839, 194 feet; in 1840 (two months), 76 feet; and by
November, 1841, the remaining 60 feet, reaching to the shaft which had been sunk at
Wapping. On March 24, 1843, Brunei was knighted by Queen Victoria ; on August 12
he passed through the Tunnel from shore to shore ; and March 25, 1843, it was opened
as a public thoroughfare, lighted with gas, to passengers, day and night, at one penny
toll; in each passage a carriage-road and footway. The opening was celebrated
annually by a Fair held in the Tunnel.
The Tunnel cost about 454,000^. ; to complete the carriage-descents would require
180,000Z. ; total, 634,000Z. Tlie dangers of the work were many : sometimes portions
of the shield broke with the noise of a cannon-shot ; then alarming cries told of some
irruption of earth or water ; but the excavators were much more inconvenienced by
fire than water ; gas explosions frequently wrapping the place in a sheet of flame,
strangely mingling with the water, and rendering the workmen insensible. Yet, with
all these perils, but seven lives were lost in making the Thames Tunnel; whereas
nearly forty men were killed during the building of New London Bridge. In 1833
Mr. Brunei submitted to William IV., at St. James's Palace, " An Exposition of the
Facts and Circumstances relating to the Tunnel;" and Brunei has left a minute
record of his great work : it is well described and illustrated in Weale's Quarterly
I*apers on JEngineering. A Visitor's Book is kept at the Tunnel, wherein are the
signatures of the many illustrious persons who have inspected the works. It was
visited by Queen Victoria, July 26, 1843. In 1838 the number of visitors was 23,000 ;
in 1839, 34,000. A fine medal was struck at the completion of the work : ohv. head
of Brunei ; rev. interior and longitudinal section of the Tunnel.
Width of the Tunnel, 35 feet; height, 20 feet; each archway and footpath, clear width, about 14|
feet; thickness of earth between the crown of the Tunnel and the bed of the river, about 15 feet. A^
full tide, the foot of the Tunnel is 75 feet below the surface of the water. 1
The Tunnel has been paralleled, as an engineering triumph, by Stephenson's Tubular
Eailway-bridge.
THEATRES.
A DELPHI THEATRE, No. 411, Strand, was commencGd in 1802 by John Scott
colourman, and opened Nov. 27, 1806, as the Sans Fareil, with musical enter
tainments, and next year with dramas. In 1820-1 Scott sold the theatre to Rodwell
and Jones, who named it the Adelphi ; in 1825 it was sold to Terry and Yates ; and
after Terry's secession, Yates was joined by Charles Mathews the elder, who gave here
his later " At Homes." The compo front of the theatre was designed by Beazley,
in 1840. Yates was succeeded by Webster, with Madame Celeste as directress. One
of its chief attractions was the comic humour of John Reeve. The theatre was rebuilt
in 1858 upon an enlarged plan, by Wyatt (from the Opera Comique in Paris) for Mr.
Webster ; style, Italian ; decoration, French Renaissance ; illuminated by a sunlight.
Astley's.Amphitheatee, Bridge-road, Lambeth, is the fourth theatre erected upon
this site. The first was one of the 19 theatres built by Philip Astley, and was opened
in 1773, burnt in 1794; rebuilt 1795, burnt 1803; rebuilt 1804, burnt June 8, 1841,
within two hours, from the house being principally constructed with old ship-timber.
It was rebuilt, and opened April 17, 1843, and has since been enlarged. The theatre
was built for equestrianism ; and the stud of trained horses usually numbered from
50 to 60. It has since been cleverly remodelled by Mr. Boucicault, for performances
of the regular drama.
1
THEATRES. 781
Philip Astley, orij^inally a cavalry soldier, commenced horsemanship in 1763, in an open field at
Lambeth : he built his first theatre partly with 60^., the produce of an unowned diamond ring which he
found on Westminster Bridge. Andrew Ducrow, subsequently proprietor of the Amphitheatre, was born at
the "Nag's Head," Borough,in 1793, when his father, Peter Ducrow, a iiative of Bruges, was "the Flemish
Hercules" at Astley's. The fire in 1841 arose from ignited wadding, such as caused the destruction of
the old Globe Theatre in 1613, and Covent Garden Theatre in 1808. Andrew Ducrow died Jan. 26, 1842,
of mental derangement and paralysis, produced by the catastrophe of the burning of his theatre and
several favourite horses.
Bankside Theatees. The earliest was the Circus built for bull-baiting and bear-
baiting, about 1520, in Faris Garden. In this theatre, plays were also performed
temp. James I., when Henslowe and Alleyn were lessees. Nash, in his Strange
Netves, 1590, mentions the performance of puppets there ; and Dekker asserts that
Ben Jonson had acted there (Satiromastix). Aggas's Map, drawn about 1560, shows
two circd lower down on " the Bank ;" but still lower were the Globe, the ICope, and
the Hose. The Globe was built by agreement, dated Dec. 22, 1593, for Richard
Burbage, the famous actor. In 1603 James I. granted a licence to Shakspeare and
others to act " at their now usuall house, called the Globe." It was of wood, hexa-
gonal in exterior form, and was occupied by Shakspeare as a summer theatre. At
Dulwich College, in a paper, occurs " Mr. Shaksper," in a list of " Inhabitants of
Sowtherk, JuUy, 1596 ;" he was assessed in the liberty of the Clink in 1609, though
his occupation as an actor at the Globe did not continue after 1604:* his brother,
Edmond Shakspeare, was buried in St. Saviour's church, 1607. The Globe was de-
stroyed by fire June 29, 1613, when Ben Jonson was present ; it was rebuilt in 1614, but
is not mentioned after 1648 : it was built on the site of Globe- alley, which led from
Maid-lane to " the Bank,'' and is now included in the premises of Barclay and Perkins's
Brewery (see the Map in Strype's Stow, 1720). The Hope, used both for bear-baiting
and as a playhouse, was situated near the Rose : in 1614 Ben Jonson's Bartholomew
Fair was first acted here ; later it was used for prize-fighting, and in 1632 again for
bear-baiting. The Rose, probably the oldest theatre upon Bankside, except Paris
Garden {Collier), was built long before 1597: it was held for some years by Philip
Henslowe, afterwards Alleyn's partner; it occupied the site of Rose-alley, west of
Globe-alley {see Strype's Map). The Swan-sNQ.s in repute anterior to 1598. Both the
Rose and Swan, after 1620, were only occupied occasionally by gladiators and fencers;
and about 1648 all theatres were suppressed. (See the Antwerp View of London.)
Blackfeiaes Theatee was built in 1575, upon part of the site of the monastery
of Blackfriars, between Apothecaries' Hall and Printing-house-square, and upon Flay-
house-yard. The first proprietors were James Burbage and his fellows, who, with
other players, had been ejected from the City by an act of Common Council : it was a
winter theatre, arranged like an inn-yard (the earliest theatre), but with a roof over
it. Shakspeare was a sharer in the Blackfriars playhouse in 1589 ; it was rebuilt in
1596 ; and was leased by Edward Alleyn in 1618 {see his Diary, at Dulwich College).
It was taken down in 1655 (Collier's Life of ShaTcspeare), and dwelling-houses were
built upon the ground {see Blackfkiaes, p. 56.)
Beitannia Theatee, High-street, Hoxton, was commenced building soon after the
destruction by fire, of the Rosemary Branch Equestrian Theatre, Islington Fields,
July 27, 1853, when seven horses and eleven dogs were burnt. The Britannia (Finch
and Paraire, architects), is provided with promenades and refreshment saloons. The
auditory is very spacious, and elegantly decorated. The pit is nearly 80 feet wide and
60 feet deep. The stage is 76 feet wide by 50 feet deep ; opening at proscenium
34 feet wide by 37 feet high. The house is effectively ventilated by openings left
in ornamental portions of the ceiling, in immediate communication with the internal
area of the roof, and thence with the open air, by means of louvres extending from
one extremity of the building to the other. The provisions against fire are well
planned, and the extent of the theatre is considerable.
Bkunswick Theatee was built upon the site of the Royalty Theatre, within
seven months, by Stedman Whitwell, C.E. The fa9ade resembled that of San Carlos
* The Globe Theatre stood upon a spot of ground now occupied by four houses contiguous to the
present Globe-alley, Maid-lane.— (If irror, March 31, 1832), We remember a large tavern, the Globe, iu
Chaingate, destroyed by fire about 1812. Pennant was told that the door of the Globe Theatre was very
lately (1790) standing.— iSee Knight's Stratford Shakspeare^ vol. i. 1854.
4
782 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
at Naples. It was opened Feb. 25, 1828 ; but within three nights, on Feb. 28, during
a day rehearsal, the whole theatre fell to the ground, and killed ten persons, among
whom was a proprietor, D. S. Maurice, the tasteful printer, of Fenchurch-street.
The catastrophe was caused by the unsafe iron roof and the great weights attached
to it : the fall of the theatre was well described at the time by one of the company.
City of London Theatee, 36, Norton Folgate, was built 1837, for Mrs. Honey,
the pretty actress, and first called the Norton Folgate-street Theatre.
City Theatee, Milton-street (Grub-street), was opened about 1830, with operatic
performances. " A new theatre has here arisen, where boards have been graced with a
Tree and an Ay ton ; and within these few months, its boxes have been graced with
the presence of my Lords Brougham and Grey." — {Mirror, Nov. 19, 1831.) The
theatrical concern did not succeed, and the premises next became a chapel.
Cockpit or Phcenix Theatee (from its sign), Drury-lane, occupied the site of
Cockpit-alley, now Pitt-place, opposite the Castle Tavern, St. Giles's-in-the-Fields. It
was altered from a cockpit, and when a theatre it was twice nearly destroyed by the_
London apprentices ; and was pulled down in 1649 by soldiers, instigated by sectaria
bigots. At the Restoration, Rhodes, a bookseller, rebuilt the theatre, but soon vacat
it ; and Sir W. Davenant, with Betterton and Kynaston in his company, performs
here till 1662, when they removed to Portugal-row (see p. 687). At the Cockpit ws
performed the first play in print, T%e Wedding, by Shirley, printed in 1629, and ex^
pressly said to have been acted at Drury-lane.
Coyent Gaeden Theatee, Bow-street, is the third theatre built here. The fir
■ theatre was built upon part of the Convent site, by Shepherd, architect of Goodman'^
Fields Theatre. Covent Garden was opened Dec. 7, 1732, by Rich, the celebrate '
harlequin j and Hogarth's caricature of " Rich's Glory, on his Triumphant Entry int
Covent Garden," refers to his removal here : it shows one entrance, a magnificent Ionic
archway, at the end of the eastern arcade of the Piazza. Here the Beefsteak Societj
was formed in 1735, by Rich, and Lambert the scene-painter. In 1746 Garrick playet
here for the season. In 1803 John Kemble became a proprietor and stage-manager<j
On Sept. 20, 1808, the theatre was burned to the ground, and twenty persons kilU
in the ruins. It was rebuilt by R, Smirke, R.A. Tlie first stone was laid by the
Prince of Wales, Dec. 31, 1808; and the theatre was opened Sept. 18, 1809, whei
the " new prices " caused the 0. P. (old prices) riot of seventy-seven nights, sine
■which " a London audience has been found more captious than they previously hac
l)een" (C. Dibdin). In 1817 John Kemble here took leave of the public; and ii
1840 retired his brother, Charles Kemble. The theatre was subsequently leased
Mr. C. Mathews and Madame Vestris, and Mr. IMacready. In 1843-45 it was let
the Anti-Coru-Law League, who held a bazaar here in 1845 (see p. 42). In 184ii
the auditory was entirely reconstructed, at a cost of 40,000Z., by Albano, and openec
as an Italian Opera House April 6. The exterior retained Smirke's Grecian-Doric por*
taco, copied from the Temple of Minerva at Athens ; statues of Tragedy and Comedy j|
and two panels of bas-relief figures, by Flaxman.
The northern panel has figures of ^schylus, Aristophanes, and Maander ; Thalia, Polyhymnia
Euterpe, and Clio; Minerva and Bacchus; Melpomene, two Furies, and Apollo. In the southern pa7ie\
are figures of Shakspeare summoning Caliban, Ferdinand, Miranda, Prospero, and Ariel ; Hecate anf
Lady Macbeth. Also Milton, with Urania and Samson Agonistes, an incident from Comus, &c.
This theati'e was destroyed by fire, March 5, 1856, at the close of a masked ball.
The ruins lay uncleared for nearly fifteen months. The fa9ade was saved, anf
Plaxman's statues and bas-reliefs were adapted in the design for a new theatre, b]
E. M. Barry, which was opened as an Italian Opera House, in 1858. It is externalb
nearly 100 feet high by 120 feet broad, and 240 feet long, has a grand Corinthiai
portico, facing Bow-street, about one-fifth larger than the late theatre, and the sara(
size as the celebrated La Scala of Milan, hitherto the largest theatre in the work"
The interior decorations are white and gold, and pale azure. Adjoining the theatre ia
the Floral Hall, of " Crystal Palace" design. (See Royal Italian Opeea, p. 789.)
First Appearances.— \T\c\QAon, the singer, 1790; Charles Kemble, 1794; Mrs. Glover, 1797; G. PJ
Cooke (Richard III.), Oct. 31, 1800; Miss Stephens (Countess of Essex), 1S12: Miss (rNeill (LadJ
Beecher), 1814; Macready, 1816; AV. Farren, 1818 : Fauny Kemble, 1829; Adelaide Kemble, 1841. Her
Ldmund Kean last acted, 1833.
THEATRES. 783
Cttetatn Theatre (The), Holywell, is mentioned in 1577. Stow, speaking of the
priory of St. John Baptist, says : " Near thereunto are builded two puhliqtie houses
for the acting and sliowe of comedies, tragedies, and histories for recreation; whereof
the one is called The Courtein, the other The Theatre, both standing on the south-
west side, towards the field " {Stow, 1st edit. 1599). Both theatres are mentioned in
North brook's Treatise against Diceing, Dancing, Vain Plays or Interludes, 1577 ; by
Stubbes in his Anatomic of Abuses, 1583 ; in a black-letter ballad, in the Pepysian
collection, occurs " the Curtain at Holywell j" and in an epigram by Heath, 1610.
Sir H. Herbert's office-book shows that in 1622 the Curtain was occupied by the
servants of Prince Charles. Aubrey (1678) describes it as "a kind of nursery or
obscure playhouse, called the Greene Curtain, situate in the suburbs towards Shore-
ditch." After it was abandoned as a playhouse, prize-fighters exhibited here. Sir
Henry Ellis {Hist. Shoreditch, 1798) quotes from the parish books several entries of
the marriage, burial, &c., of players. Maitland {Hist. London, 1772) mentions some
remains of the Curtain standing at or near his time. It is said to have occupied the
site of the curtain close of the priory, and is conjectured to have been named from its
being the first theatre to adopt that necessary appendage of the stage, the curtain.
The name survives in Curtain-road.
Deuey-lane Theatee, between Drury-lane and Brydges-street, forms the east
side of Little Russell-street. The first theatre here was built precisely upon this site
for Thomas Killigrew, and opened April 8, 1663 ; the company being called " the
King's Servants," as Davenant's were " the Duke's Servants," both under patents
granted by Charles II. in 1660. Drury-lane, " the King's Theatre," had the chief
entrance in Little Russell-street. Pepys's Diary records many of his visits to " the
King's House," and other London theatres, from 1660-1670. " The King's House "
was burnt down Jan. 1671-72. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, and opened
March 26, 1674, with a prologue and epilogue by Dryden. Mr. Collier has printed in
the ShaJcspeare Society's Papers, vol. iv. p. 147, an indenture showing Dryden to
have been joined with Killigrew, Hart, Mohun, and others, in the speculation of this
" new playhouse." In 1682 the King's and Duke's companies played here together.
Rich, Steele, Dogget, Wilks, Cibber, and Booth were successively patentees; and
Garrick in 1747, when he opened the theatre, Sept. 15, with the well-known prologue
written by Dr. Johnson, and commenced the revival of Shakspeare's plays. On
June 10, 1776, Garrick here took leave of the stage. Sheridan then became part-
proprietor; and, in 1788, John Kemble manager. In 1791 the old theatre was taken
down, rebuilt by Holland, and the new theatre opened March 12, 1794.
It was called by Mrs. Siddons " The Wilderness." The opening for the curtain was 43 feet wide and
38 feet high, or nearly seven times the height of the performers. There were seats for 3600 persons ; but
upwards of 6000 persons are known to have been squeezed into this theatre.
It was burnt down Feb. 24, 1809. The present house, built by B. Wyatt, from
the plan of the great Bordeaux theatre, was opened Oct. 12, 1812, with a prologue by-
Lord Byron. In 1818 the theatre was let, at 10,200Z. per annum, to Elliston, for
whom Beazley reduced the auditory, added the Doric portico in Brydges-street, and
the cast-iron colonnade in Little Russell-street in 1831. In the hall is a cast of
Scheemakers's statue of Shakspeare, and a statue of Edmund Kean by S. Joseph. The
staircases and rotunda are magnificent, and the interior circular roof of the auditory is
geometrically fine.
First Appearances. — Nell Gwynne, at "the King's House," 1666; Barton Booth, 1701; Mrs. Siddons,
1775; John P. Kemble, 1783; Harriet Mellon (Duchess of St. Albans), 1795; Edmund Kean, 1811. Hero
Macready took leave of the stage, Feb. 26, 1851.
The first Drury-lane Theatre was sometimes called Covent Garden Theatre; and the late Mr.
Eichardson, the Coffee-house keeper, possessed a ticket inscribed, " For the Music at the Playhouse in
Covent Garden, Tuesday, March 6, 1704."— J^, T. Smith.
DoBSET- GARDENS THEATRE was built at the extremity of Salisbury-court, Fleet-
street, and had a handsome front and flight of stairs to the Thames. It was opened in
1671, xmder the management of Lady Davenant. Dryden, in his prologue to Marriage
a-la-Mode, 1672, leaves contemptuously to the citizens " the gay shows and gaudy-
scenes " of Dorset-gardens. Here Shadwell's operatic version of Shakspeare's Tempest
was produced with great splendour in 1673. After 1697 the theatre was let to
wrestlers and fencers, but was taken down about 1720, and the site is now occupied by
784 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the City Gas-works. The theatre was designed by Wren, and the sculpture by
Gibbons, included figures of Comedy and Tragedy surmounting the balustrade.
Duke's Theatre, "the Opera," Lincoln's-inn-fields. (See Poktijgal-steeet,p.6S7.)
Here, May 10, 1735, Macklin killed his brother-actor Hallam, by accident, in a quarrel.
Effingham Theatre (modern), in the rear of the Earl of Effingham Tavern, 235,
Whitechapel-road, was, in part, taken down in 1867, and rebuilt to hold 4000 persons.
FoETUNB Theatre — named from its sign,
" The picture of Dame Fortune
Before the Fortune playhouse" {Keywooct) —
was built for Philip Henslowe and William Alleyn, in 1599-1600, on the east side of
Golding-lane, without Cripplegate. It cost 1320Z., and was opened May, 1601. It
was a square timber and lath-and-plaster building, and was burnt Dec. 9, 1621
(AUeyn's Eiary) ; but was rebuilt on a circular plan, of brick, and tiled. The interior
was burnt in 1649 — Prynne says by accident, but it was fired by sectarians. In the
Mercurius Politicus, Feb. 14-21, 1661, the building, with the ground belonging, were
advertised " to be lett to be built upon j" and it is described as standing between
" Whitecross-street and Golen-lane," the avenue now Playhouse-yard. ,
Gaerick Theatre, Leman-street, Goodman's Fields, was built in 1830, and named
from its proximity t» the scene of Garrick's early fame. The theatre was burnt down
November 4, 1846, when it belonged to Messrs. Conquest and Gomersall, the latter
remembered for his impersonation of-Napoleon Bonaparte. The theatre has been rebuilt.
Gibbon's-couet Theatre, Clare Market. {See p. 558.)
Goodman's Fields Theatre was first opened as a silk-throwster's shop, in 1729,
by Thomas Odell, and was rebuilt by Henry Giffard ; both of whom were, however,
compelled to close the theatre by the puritanical clamour raised against it. Gifi'drd
returned to Goodman's Fields in 1737 ; and here, Oct. 19, 1741, David Garrick first
appeared in London as Richard III. He drew an audience of the nobility and gentry,
whose carriages filled the whole space from Temple Bar to Whitechapel. Gray, in a
letter to Chute, writing respecting these performances, says, " Did I tell you about
Mr. Garrick, that the town are horn mad after ? There are a dozen dukes of a night
in Goodman's Fields sometimes." The theatre was taken down about 1746. Garrick's
first appearance here arose from the proprietor being also manager of the Ipswich
company, in which Garrick first appeared on the stage.
Grecian Theatre, adjoining the garden of the Eagle Tavern, City-road, was
built by Thomas Rouse for regular dramatic entertainments. The establishment has
been enlarged and improved by Mr. Conquest, the present proprietor : it has a spacious
ball-room, elegantly decorated, open without extra charge ; and the garden is illumi-
nated in the Vauxhall taste, with the advantages of gas-lighting, open-air orchestra,
lights among the shrubs, &c.
Hatmaee:et Theatre, the " Little Theatre," was originally built by one Potter,
and opened Dec, 29, 1720, by "the French comedians :" it was first called " the New
French Theatre." In 1723 it was occupied by English actors ; 1726, Italian operas,
rope-dancing, and tumblers, by subscription ; in 1727 the Beggar's Opera was pro-
duced here; 1731, gladiators and backswordsmen ; 1732, English opera upon the
Italian model ; 1734-5, Fielding opened the theatre with " the Great Mogul's Com-
pany of Comedians," for whom he wrote his Pasquin, the satire of which upon the
Walpole administration gave rise to the Licensing Act (10th of Geo. II. cap. 28). In
1738 a French company reopened the theatre, but were driven from the stage the first
night. In 1741, English operas were played here ; 1744, Samuel Foote first appeared
here as Othello; 1747, Foote became manager, and continued so for thirty years,
commencing with his own Entertahiments. Jan. 16, 1748-9, the Bottle Conjuror
hoax and riot. 1762, the Haymarket was established as a regular summer theatre.
1777, it became a Theatre Royal, when Foote sold his interest to George Colman for
a life annuity of 1600^., and Foote died in the following October. In the green-room
is a gilt clock, which belonged to Foote. Colman died in 1795, and was succeeded by
his son, George Colman the younger, licenser of plays. Feb. 3, 1794, sixteen persons
THEATRES. 785
were trodden to death, or suffocated, in attempting to gain admission on a royal visit.
The " Little Theatre " was taken down in 1820 ; the present theatre was built, at a
few feet distant, with a lofty Corinthian portico, by Nash, and opened July 14, 1821 :
here was produced Paul Fry, with Liston, in 1825. In 1853, Mr. B. Webster con-
cluded here a lesseeship of 16 years ; the theatre was then let to Mr. Buckstone, who
has rendered the Haymarket famous for its excellent performance of the legitimate
drama ; and this while one of our great national theatres was devoted to Italian opera.
Fimt Appearances. — Henderson, Eannister, Mathews, Elliston, Liston, and Young ; Miss Fenton
(Duchess of Bolton), Miss Farren (Countess of Derby) ; Edmund Kean, in "little business," 1806; Miss
Paton (Lady W. Lennox). Here Macready gave his final performances.
HoLBORN Amphitheatre occupies the site of the Metropolitan Horse Bazaar,
opposite the Inns of Court Hotel. Its length is 130 feet, width 68 feet from box to
box. The private boxes form a semicircle in front of the house, a row of stalls, called
the "Grand Balcony," being ranged immediately before them on the same tier.
Above them is a gallery called the Amphitheatre. The performances are chiefly
equestrian, and the ring is surrounded by pit-stalls.
HoLBORN Theatre, built 1866, nearly upon the site of Warwick House. {See p. 431.)
St. James's Theatre, King-street, St. James's, was designed by Beazley, for John
Braham, the singer, and cost 50,000^., independently of the site, which cost 8000^.
The facade is Roman, of the Middle Ages ; and the interior, by Crace, originally re-
sembled the theatre of the Palace of Versailles. The St. James's Theatre was opened
in 1835 ; and next year was produced here an operatic burletta written by Charles
Dickens, the music by John HuUah. Here French plays are occasionally performed.
Lyceum Theatre, Wellington-street, Strand, was originally built by James
Payne, architect, in 1765, as an academy (or lyceum) for a society of artists ; of whom,
on the re-establishment of the Royal Academy, Garricb bought the lease of the pre-
mises, to prevent their becoming a theatre. They were next purchased by Mr. Ling-
ham, a breeches maker, in the Strand, and opened about 1790 for musical perform-
ances ; in 1794 or 1795 Lingham leased the adjoining ground to Dr. Arnold, who built
here a theatre, the licence for which was suppressed, and it was let for music, dancing,
and horsemanship, exhibition of paintings, &c. : a foreigner gained a large fortune by
showing here the first phantasmagoria seen in England ; and here, in 1803-4, Winsor
exhibited his experimental gas-lighting. In 1809, the theatre was enlarged by Mr. S.
A. Arnold, and opened as the English Opera-house : it was rebuilt, in 1816, by
Beazley ; was destroyed by fire, Feb. 16, 1830 ; and again rebuilt by Beazley somewhat
further west, the site of the former theatre being included in Wellington-street, then
formed from the Strand northward. The new theatre cost 35,000Z. ; it has an
elegant Corinthian portico : it was opened with English opera, July 14, 1834 ; and
was re-decorated in rich Italian taste, for Madame Vestris, in 1847. Here were given
the best performances of the Keeleys; and the admirable Shakesperean and melo-
dramatic impersonations of Mr. Charles Fechter.
Marionette Theatre, Adelaide-street, Strand, was originally the Adelaide Gallery,
and was altered for the clever performances of Marionettes, or puppets, in 1852,
Marylebone Theatre, Church-street, Paddington, was built and opened in 1842,
as " a penny theatre :" it was enlarged in 1854, to hold 1200 persons.
Milton-street Theatre, see Grub-street, p. 782.
Newington Butts : here was a theatre built before the Globe at Bankside : it is
mentioned in the Diary of Philip Henslowe, which shows that from June, 1594, the
performances were jointly by the Lord Admiral's men and the Lord Chamberlain's
men : here were acted Titus Andronicus, Samlet, and the Taming of a Shreio.
Nursery (the), in Golding-lane, was built by a patent of Charles II. as a school for
the education of children for the stage :
*• Near these a Nursery erects its head.
Where queens are formed, and future heroes bred,
Wliere unfledged actors learn to laugh and cry.
Where infant punks their tender voices try.
And little Maximins the gods defy."— Dryden's Mac FlecTcnoe.
3 B
786 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Bayes, in the Behearsal, speaks of " the service of the Nursery ;" and Pepys first went
there 24th Feh. 1667-8. The house, with the royal arms and a figure of Charity, in
plaster, on the front, existed to our time, and has been erroneously described as the
Fortune Theatre. There was a similar Nursery in Hatton-garden, at which Joe
Haynes, the dancer, performed,
Olympic Theatee, "Wych-street, was originally erected by Philip Astley, upon
the site of old Craven House, and Avas opened with horsemanship, Sept. 18, 1806 ; it
was principally built with the timbers of Xa Ville de Paris, the ship in which William IV.
served as midshipman j these materials were given to Astley, with a chandelier, by
George III. The theatre was leased in 1813 to EUiston, who removed thence ta
Drury-lane ; and subsequently to Madame Vestris, before she became lessee of Covent-
garden ; both which changes were ruinous. The Olympic Theatre was destroyed by
fire, within an hour, March 29, 1849 : it was rebuilt the same year, and opened
Dec. 26. Here William Farren was sometime lessee.
First and last at the Olympic Theatre have appeared Elliston and Mrs. Edwin; Oxberry and Power;
Keeley and Fitzwilliam ; Charles Kean and Ellen Tree ; Madame Vestris, Mrs. Nesbitt (Lady Boothby),
Mrs. Keeley, and William Farren; Charles Mathews first appeared here ; and Miss Foote (Countess of
Harrington), Mrs. Orger, and Liston, last played here. In Craven-buildings, adjoining the theatre^
have resided " three favourite actresses, from the time of Dryden to our own— Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs.
Pritchard, and Madame Vestris."
Pantheon Theatee, Oxford-street {see p. 639).
Pavilion Theatee, Whitechapel, one of the largest theatres in the metropolis,
covers nearly an acre of ground : it is nearly 60 feet high, yet has but two tiers of
boxes and one gallery ; depth and width, nearly 50 feet each ; decorations, dead- white,
gold, and crimson.
Peincess's Theatee, Oxford- street, originally built as the Queen's Bazaar {see
p. 41), was designed by Nelson, and opened Sept. 30, 1841, with promenade concerts.
It cost 47,000Z. ; but the unique character of its Eenaissance decoration, by Crace, has
been spoiled : originally it consisted entirely of four tiers of boxes. This theatre, under the
management of Mr. Charles Kean, became famous for his reproduction of Shakspeare's
historic plays, excellently acted, with scenic accessories hitherto unprecedented.
For these efibrts to improve the tone, and elevate the character of our stage, Mr, Charles
Kean was, in 1862, presented with a costly service of plate, by public subscription.
Queen's Theatee (now the Peince op Wales's) Tottenham-street, Tottenham-
court-road, was originally Francis Pasquali's Concert-room, enlarged for the Concerts
of Ancient Music by Novosielski, who built here a superb box for George III. and
Queen Charlotte (Dr. Eimbault, Notes and Queries, No. 10). In 1802 Colonel
Greville fitted it up for the performances of the " Pic-nic Society," a body of distin-
guished amateurs, whose celebrity rendered them objects of alarm to the professional
actors of the day, and exposed them to the attacks of the caricaturist Gilray. In 1808
it was an equestrian establishment under the management of Saunders. Two years
afterwards it was opened as a theatre, but Mr. Patil, the first manager, proved unsuc-
cessful. About 1821, it passed into the hands of Mr. Brunton, whose daughter, after-
wards so justly celebrated as Mrs. Yates, was one of its chief attractions. In the first
bill issued by Mr. Paul, the first theatrical lessee, it is simply called the " New Theatre,
King's Ancient Concert Rooms, Tottenham-street." Afterwards it became the Regency,
the Theatre of Variety, and the West London ; and on the accession of William IV.
was designated the Queen's, in compliment to Queen Adelaide. An attempt to render
the theatre a sort of English opera-house was made in 1831 by Mr. Macfarren (fatherj
of the popular composer), and in 1833 it acquired a temporary brilliancy under thej
new name of the Fitzroy. Here the burlesques, chiefly written by Mr. Gilbert ^j
Beckett, gained considerable fame in their day -, and still more celebrated were Mr. H.
Mayhew's Wandering 3Iinstrel, and his local drama of the Field of Forty Footsteps.
Here French plays were first performed after the Peace of 1815. Frederick Lemaiti
appeared ; Mademoiselle George i^layed in Voltaire's tragedy Merope ; and M. Lapori
afterwards manager of Covent-garden and Her Majesty's Theatres, was a principal
comedian. In 1835 it was reopened by Mrs. Nesbitt, who formed a really powerfi '
company, comprising the most noted comic performers of the time, and revived th<
name of the " Queen's." It received its present designation under the managemeni
THEATRES. 787
of Miss Marie Wilton. Here Young, the tragedian, first appeared on the stage, in
1807, at a private performance.
Queen's Theatee, formerly St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, opened 1867.
Red Bull Theatre (the), upon the site of Red Bull-yard, St. John-street, Clerken-
well, was originally an inn-yard, but rebuilt about 1633: here the King's Company,
Tinder Killigrew, acted until Drury-lane was ready for them. During the Interregnum,
"Drolls" were performed here, and afterwards published by Kirkman, one of the
players, with a frontispiece of the interior of the theatre. {See Cleekenwell, p. 236.)
There is a well-compiled account of the Red Bull Theatre in Pinks's Sistory of
Clerkenwell, pp. 190-196.
Sir William Davenant, to whom Charles I. granted a patent in 1639, continued recreation and music,
after the manner of the ancients, at Rutland House, Bridgewater-square, and subsequently at the Cock-
pit, till the Restoration, when the few players who had not fallen in the wars or died of poverty assembled
under Davenant at the Red Bull : the actors' clothes were " very poore, and the actors but common
fellows."— Pc/?^8, 1661.
Royalty Theatee, Well-street, Wellclose-square (named from Goodman's Field
Wells, 1735), was built by subscription, and opened in 1787, when John Braham first
appeared on the stage, as Cupid, and John Palmer was manager ; Lee Lewis, Bates,
Holland, and Mrs. Gibbs, were also of the company. It was purchased about 1820 by
Mr. Peter Moore, M.P.; was burnt down April 11, 1826; and upon the site was
erected the Brunswick Theatre, noticed at p. 781.
Sadlee's Wells, the oldest theatre in London, is on the S.W. side of Islington,
and named in part from a mineral spring, which was superstitiously dispensed by the
monks of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, probably from the time of Henry I.
or Stephen. In the reign of Charles IL, one Sadler built here a music-house, and in
1683 re-discovered in the garden the well of " excellent steel waters," which in 1684
was visited and drunk by hundreds of persons every morning. Evelyn, on June 11,
1686, went to " the New Spa Well, near Myddelton's receptacle of water at the New-
River." The entertainments were rope-dancing, tumbling, and gluttonous feats. The
well, ceasing to attract, was covered over ; and in 1764 the old music-house (engraved
in the Mirror, No. 971) was taken down, and the present theatre built by Rosoman.
King (of Drury-lane) was long a partner and stage-manager ; and Charles Dibdin and
his sons, Thomas and Charles, were proprietors. Grimaldi, father, son, and grandson,
were famous clowns at this theatre ; and Belzoni was a posture- master here before he
travelled to the East. In 1804 the New River water was introduced in a tank under
the stage, where also is a mineral well ; but the old well is between the stage-door and
the New River. Wine was sold and drunk on the premises until 1807 : under the old
regulation, " for an additional sixpence, every spectator was allowed a pint of either
port, Lisbon, mountain, or punch." But the more honourable distinction of Sadler's
Wells Theatre is its admirable representations of Elizabethan plays, under the manage-
ment of Mr. Phelps, who has been efficiently succeeded by Miss Marriott,
Salisbuey-couet Theatee {see p. 349).
Sans Souci Theatee, Strand, was built by Dibdin, the song-writer, in the rear of
his music-shop, and opened Feb. 16, 1793. Dibdin planned, painted, and decorated
this theatre ; wrote the recitations and songs, composed the music, and sang and ac-
companied them on an organized pianoforte of his own invention. He built another
Sans Souci theatre in Leicester-place.
SoHO Theatee, now the New Royalty, was built for Prances Kelly, in 1840, as a
school for acting, in the rear of No. 73, Dean-street. It will hold 600 persons.
Stand AED Theatee, Shoreditch, occupies the site of the former theatre, burnt
Oct. 28, 1866, and is larger than any one in London, excepting the ItaUan Opera-
house, Covent Garden. The main building is 149 feet long and 90 wide. The ex-
treme height of the auditorium part is 84 feet, and that of the stage 94 feet, to
give room for drawing up the scenery, which will not any of it be used from the
sides. The stage from the footlights to the back is 61 feet, and the widest part of the
horseshoe is 56 feet. All the passages and staircases are of stone, with iron rails.
The outlets are numerous, and the auditorium is lighted by five sun burners above a
ground-glass ceiling painted in oil.
3 £ 2
788
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
Steand Theatre, No. 169, Strand, originally Barker's Panorama, was altered in 1831
for Kayner, the low comedian, and Mrs. Waylett, the singer. Here were produced
Douglas Jerrold's early plays. The theatre has since become famous for its burlesques.
Stjeket Theatee, St. George's-fields, was first built by Charles Hughes andl
Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, and was opened Nov. 4, 1782, as the Royal Circus^
for equestrianism. John Palmer was acting manager in 1790, when he was living
within the Rules of the King's Bench .{See p. 702.) The theatre was destroyed by
fire Aug. 12, 1805, but was rebuilt in 1806 by Cabanel, in Blackfriars-road. Amon^
its lessees were Elliston and Thomas Dibdin. Here Buckstone first appeared. This
theatre was destroyed by fire, Jan. 30, 1865, but was rebuilt upon an enlarged plan,
and opened within eleven months.
" The Theatee" was built, in 1576, on the site of the Priory of St. John Baptist,
at Holywell, Shoreditch ; and is conjectured by Malone to have been " the first build-
ing erected in or near the metropolis purposely for scenic exhibitions :" it is noticed
in John Stockwood's sermon at Paul's Cross, in 1578, as "the gorgeous playing-
place erected in the fields." It was a wooden building; and in the Star-Chamber
records is proof that, in 1598, " the Theatre" was taken down, and the wood removed
to Bankside for rebuilding or enlarging the Globe Theatre.
ViCTOEiA Theatre, New Cut, Lambeth, was originally named "the Cobourg,"
from the first stone having been laid by proxy for Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg,
Oct. 15, 1817 : it has in its foundation pare of the stone of the old Savoy Palace.
The theatre was designed by Cabanel, a carpenter from Liege, who also constructed
the stage of old Drury-lane Theatre, and invented a roof known by his name.
The Cobourg Theatre was first opened May 13, 1818 : for its repertoire, Clarkson
Stanfield, subsequently R.A., painted scenery ; and here was constructed a looJcing-glass
curtain, of large plates of glass, enclosed in a gilt frame. The house was leased to
Egerton and Abbott in 1833, when the name was changed to " Victoria," and the
Princess (her present Majesty) visited the theatre.
Whitefriaes Theatee (the) was originally the hall of Whitefriars monastery,
outside the garden-wall of Dorset House. From a survey in Mr. Collier's possession,
we learn that the theatre was fitted up in 1586 ; it was taken down in 1613. Howes,
in his continuation of Stow, describes, " the erection of a new fair playhouse near the
Whitefriars," 1629 : this was " the Private House in Salisburie-court."
Opeea Houses, Italian. — Her Majesty's Theatre. — The first theatre for the
performance of Italian operas in England was built by subscription, by Sir John Van-
brugh, at the south-west corner of the Haymarket, and was opened April 9, 1705 :
but operas were not performed here wholly in Italian until 1710, when Almahide was
produced ; and next year Handel's Rinaldo, in Italian, and by Italian singers. On
Jnne 17, 1789, the theatre was burnt down; and upon the same site, enlarged,
April 3, 1790, was laid the first stone of the present Opera House, designed by Novo-
sielski, who introduced the horse-shoe form of auditory, from the Italian theatres. luj
1820 the exterior was altered by Nash and Repton in the Roman-Doric style, as we
now see it, fronted with arcade and colonnade : each of the iron columns is a single]
casting. The Haymarket front bears a basso-relievo, by Bubb, of lithargolite, or arti-
ficial stone, illustrating the progress of Music ; Apollo and the Muses occupying thel
centre. The interior, at the time of its erection, was larger than that of La Scala at
Milan, or the Theatre Italien at Paris. The audience and stage ground are held on
two distinct leases. The whole theatre is lined with thin wood in very long pieces, as]
the best conductor of sound. It was entirely re-decorated in the Raphaelesque andj
Roman style in 1846. Horace Walpole's box was No. 3, on the grand tier. Therej
are 177 boxes, the freehold of some of which has been sold for 7000 and 8000 guineas ;
the season-rent is 300 guineas; a small box, fourth tier, has been let for one night ati
12 guineas. When Mr. Lumley purchased the theatre in 1844, he realized 90,000^.
by selling boxes in perpetuity. The house will accommodate about 3000 persons. The]
drop-scene was painted by Stanfield, R.A. The decorations, after ancient masters, arej
extremely beautiful. Here is a model of the theatre, 10 feet high. Part of the|
scenery is deposited at " the Barn," James-street, Haymarket.
The Italian Opera House ia the Haymarket has ever been a costly speculation. In 1720 George 1.1
TOKENS.
789
headed a subscription of 5O,00OZ. for its support. Ebers lost 44,080^. (see his Seve7i Tears of the King's
Theatre, 1829). For two seasons he paid 15,000L rent per annum. One season's expenses : — Opera,
8636/. ; ballet, 10,678^.; orchestra, 326li.; scene-painting and wardrobes (50,000 dresses), 6372Z.; lighting,
1281 Z.; salaries, 257SZ.; servants, 403Z. ; military guard at the doors, 1501.; fittings of the king's box, in
1821, 3001.; nightly expenses from 7001. to lOOOZ. The largest receipts were in the seasons when Jenny
Lind sang. Her Majesty's is stated to be the only theatre which has no lease. It claims the exclusive
right to produce foreign operas, from a deed made in 1792, covenanting that " the patents of Dniry Lane
and Coveut Garden shall never be exercised for the purpose of Italian operas." See an able account of
Her Majesty's Theatre, by Shirley Brooks, Morning Chronicle, March 20, 1851. Mr. Lumley's greatest
seasons were those in which Mile. Jenny Lind gave her matchless performances in opera.
EoYAL Italian Opera, Covent Garden Theatre, was opened April 6, 1847, with
Semiramide (Grisi), and M, Costa as musical director. The originator of this second
Italian Opera House was Mr. C. L. Griineisen, with Mr. T. F. Beale as director. In
the seasons of 1848 and 1849 wore expended 60,000Z. ; and the salaries of Alboni,
Viardot, Grisi, and Mario, were between 4000Z. and 5000Z. each. (See p. 782.)
The Act 6th and 7th of Victoria, cap. 68 (1843), which is the most important of all. authorizes the
Lord Chamberlain to license houses for stage-plays in London, Westminster, Brighton, and New
Windsor, and wherever the precincts of tlie Court may for a time be; also authorizes justices of the
peace to license houses beyond the Lord Chamberlain's jurisdiction : also authorizes the Lord Chamber-
lain to license stage-plays throughout Great Britahi, This Act was looked upon at the time as a most
liberal measure. It abolished the privileges of the patents, and allowed the Lord Chamberlain to license
within certain districts as many theatres as he pleased, all endowed with equal rights, thus depriving
the expression "minor theatre" of its distinctive signification.
The number of London Theatres licensed by the Lord Chamberlain for the per-
formance of any kind of drama whatever in 1866 was 23. Of these we give a list,
together with the number of persons which each will contain, extracted from one of
the statements laid before Parliament : —
Her Majesty's 2200
Drury-lane 2500
Covent-gardeu 2500
Haymarket ..... 1500
Princess's 2000
St. James's lOJO
Adelphi 1800
Lyceum 1700
Marylebone 1200
Olympic 1000
Strand 700
Astley's 2200
Victoria 2000
Besides 3 theatres since opened, and the Standard and Effingham rebuilt,
2000
Pavilion 2300
Grecian 2M)
Britannia 2400
City of London .... 1400
Standard 2000
Garrick ..,,.. 1100
New Royalty 600
Queen's 900
Sadler's Wells .... 1300
23 theatres, containing . 38,300
TnEEADNEEDLE-STREET,
OR Three-Needle-street (Stow), originally extended from Bishopsgate-street to Stocks
Market, but now terminates at the Bank of England. The name is from three
needles, the charge on the shield of the Needlemakers' Company's arms ; but Pennant
traces the iinal cause to the Hall of the Merchant-Taylors, Taylors, and Linen-armourers
in this street. Ilatton refers it to "such a sign." (See Meechant-Tailoes' Hall,
Softh-Sea House, and Hall of Commebce.) Upon part of the site of the latter
lived Sir William Sidney, one of the heroes of Flodden Field; and his son. Sir Henry
Sidney, in whose arms died Edward VI. Sir Henry then retired to Penshurst, where
was born, in 1554, his son, the famed Sir Philip Sidney. Upon the site of the present
chief entrance to the Bank of England, in Threadneedle-street, stood the Crown Tavern,
" behind the 'Change :" it was much frequented by Fellows of the Royal Society, when
they met at Gresham College, hard by. The Crown was burnt in the Great Fire, but
was rebuilt ; and a century since, at this tavern, " it was nob unusual to draw a butt
of mountain, containing 120 gallons, in gills, in a morning.'* (Sir John HawTcins.) At
No. 20 lived Alderman (now Sir Francis Graham) Moon, F.S.A., the eminent print-
publisher : he was Lord-Mayor in 1854-5, when he received his patent of baronetcy.
TOKENS.
IN the reign of Elizabeth (1558), the great want of halfpence and farthings led to
private Tokens, or farthings, of lead, tin, latten, and leather, being strucic for ale-
house-keepers, chandlers, grocers, vintners, and other traders ,- the figure and devices
being emblematical of the various trades, victuallers especially adopting tneir signs.
They were made without any form or fashion j and some of them (as the leaden tokens
of Elizabeth's reign) are now of extreme rarity. Every one issuing this useful specie
790 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
was compelled to take it again when offered; and this practice continued until 1672,
when Charles II. struck halfpence and farthings. Within the present century, however,
many tokens obtained general circulation in London, by which means tradesmen adver-
tised their business : such tokens also recorded great events, portraits of public men,
views of places and of entertainments, which might otherwise have been lost. They
mostly disappeared on Watt's new copper coinage of George III. The great national
collection of tokens in the British Museum is the finest we possess. Mr. Roach Smith's
collection, now in the British Museum, contains about 500 media3val leaden tokens,
and many tradesmen's tokens in brass, from about 1648 to 1674. (See Catalogue,
1854.) The Beaufoy Cabinet, presented to the Corporation Library, consists exclu-
sively of London traders', tavern, and coffee-house Tokens current in the l7th century,
1174 in number : they are well described and annotated in a Catalogue by Jacob
Henry Burn, printed for the Corporation, 1853 j and reprinted 1855. See also the
work on Tradesmen's Tokens current in London, 1648 to 1672, by J. Y. Akerman,
r.S.A., 4to, 1849.
Tokenhouse-yard, on the north side of Lothbury, is named from the Mint-house,
or office for the issue and change of these farthings or tokens : it was built in the
reign of Charles I., and occupied the site of the house and garden of the Earl of
Arundel j and from its proximity to the brassfounders of Lothbury, they are thought
to have minted the Tokens.
TOTTENnAM- CO URT-It OAD,
FROM Oxford-street to the Hampstead-road, was the old way from the village of St.
Giles's to the prebendal manor of Totham, Toten, or Totten Hall (named in
Domesday), and temp. Henry III. the mansion of William de Totenhall. It stood at the
north-west extremity of the present road, and is mentioned as a house of entertainment
in the parish-books of St. Giles's, in 1645, when Mrs. Stacye's maid and two others
were fined "for drinking at Tottenhall Court, on the Sabbath dale, x\^d. a-piece." It
was then altered to the Adam and Eve public-house, which, with the King's Head and
Tottenham Court turnpike, is shown in Hogarth's " March to Finchley," at the Found-
ling Hospital. At the Adam and Eve were a music-room and tea-gardens; here
Lunardi ascended in his balloon. May 16, 1785. A portion of the old court-house
remained to our time ; the gardens were built upon between 1806 and 1810, and the
public-house has been rebuilt. J. T. Smith, in his Boole for a Rainy Lay, remembers, in
1773, Capper's Farm, behind the north-west end of Russell- street, noted for its garden-
houses in Strype's time. From Capper's Farm were straggling houses, but Totten-
hara-Court-road was then " unbuilt upon," The first house (No. 1) in Oxford-street
bore on its front, cut in stone, " Oxford-street, 1725." The Blue Posts, corner of
Hanway-street, was once kept by Sturges, the famous draught-player, author of a
Treatise on Lraughts, The site of Gresse-street (named from Gresse, the painter)
was then gardens, recommended by physicians for the salubrity of the air. Stephen-
street was then built : George Morland the painter, lived here, at No. 14, in 1780.
Whitefield's chapel was built in 1754, upon the site of " the Little Sea" pond ; and a
turnstile opened into Crab-tree Fields, which then extended to the Adam and Eve.
" Totten-Court, a mansion in the fields," is a scene in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub : and the scene of
Thomas Nash's Tottenham-Court, a pleasant comedy (1639), is laid in "Marrowbone Park."
TOWER HILL
IS described by Hatton (1708) as " a spacious place extending round the west and
north parts of the Tower, where are many good new buildings, mostly inhabited
by gr^ntry and merchants. Upon this hill such persons as are committed to the Tower
and found guilty of high treason are commonly executed. And Stow says " the scaffolds
were built at the charge of the City, but in the reign of Edward IV. the same was
erected at the charge of the King's officers; and that many controversies have been
between the City and Lieutenant of the Tower touching their liberties." A century
Drevious the spot was noted for its salubrity :
" The Tower Hill,
Of all the places London can afiford,
Hath sweetest ayre."— Haughton's Unglishmenfor my Money, 1616, 4ta
TOWEB OF LONDON. 791
The " bounds " of the Tower Liberties are perambulated triennially, when, after
service in the church of St. Peter, a procession is formed upon the parade : including
a headsman, bearing the axe of execution ; a painter to mark the bounds ; yeomen
wai'ders, with halbards ; the Deputy Lieutenant and other officers of the Tower, &c. :
the boundary-stations are painted with a red " broad arrow " upon a white
ground, while the chaplain of St. Peter's repeats, " Cursed be he who removeth his
neighbour's landmark." Another old custom of lighting a bonfire on Tower Hill on
Nov. 5th was suppressed in 1854.
Lady Raleigh lived on Tower Hill after she had been forbidden to lodge with her
husband in the Tower. William Penn was born April 14th, 1644, in a court on the
east side of Tower Hill. At the £ull public-house died, April 14th, 1685, Otway the
poet, it is said of hunger. " In a by cutler's shop of Tower Hill," says Sir Henry
Wotton, " Felton bought a tenpenny knife (so cheap was the instrument of this great
attempt)," with which he assassinated the Duke of Buckingham.
JPostern-row, with a few posts set across the footpath (opposite about the middle
of the Tower moat), denotes the site of the Postern-gate, at the south-eastern termi- ^
nation of the City Wall. Here is the rendezvous for enlisting sailors and soldiers,
which formerly had its press-gangs. The shops display odd admixtures of marine
stores, pea-jackets and straw-hats, " rope, hour-glasses, Guiiter's scales, and dog-
biscuits."
The Place of ^Execution, on Great Tower Hill, is shown in the old plan of the Tower
at p. 793; the space eastward is Little Tower Hill.
Notable Persons Executed on Tower mil.— June 22, 1535, Bishop Fisher. July 6, 1535, Sir Thomas
More. July 28, 1540, Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Jan. 21, 1547, Earl of Surrey, the poet. March 20, 1549,
Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord Admiral, by order of his brother, the Protector Somerset,
■who was beheaded Jan. 22, 1552. Feb, 12, 1553-4, Lord Guildford Dudley, husband of Lady
Jane Grey. April 11, 1554, Sir Thomas Wyat. May 12, 1641, Earl of Strafford. Jan. 10, 1644-5,
Archbishop Laud, Dec. 29, 1680, William Viscount Stafford, " insisting on his innocence to the very
last." Dec. 7, 1683, Algernon Sidney. July 15, 1685, the Duke of Monmouth, Feb. 24, 1716, Earl of
Derwentwater and Lord Kenmuir, Aug. 18, 1746, Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino, Dee. 8, 1746,
Mr. Radcliffe, who had been, with his brother Lord Derwentwater, convicted of treason in the Rebelliou
of 1715, when Derwentwater was executed ; but Radcliffe escaped, and was identified by the barber who,
31 years before, had shaved him in the Tower. Chamberlain Clark, who died in 1831, aged 92 years,
well remembered (his father then residing in the Minories) seeing the glittering of the executioner's
axe in the sun as it fell upon Mr. Radcliile's neck, April 9, 1747, Simon Lord Lovat, the last beheading
in England, and the last execution upon Tower Hill, when a scaffolding built near Barking-alley fefl.
with nearly 1000 persons on it, and 12 were killed.
On the west side of Tower Hill is Great Tower-street : No. 48, on the south side, is
the Czar's Head, built upon the site of the former tavern, where Peter the Great (Czar
of Muscovy) and his companions, after their day's work, used to meet, to smoke pipes
and drink beer and brandy. In Little Tower-street, No. 12, was Watts's Academy,
where Thomson was tutor when he wrote his Summer.
At the south-west corner of the Hill is Tower BocJc, where Sir Walter Raleigh,
disguised, embarked in a boat for Tilbury ; but being betrayed, he was arrested on the
Thames, and committed to the Tower.
TOWER OF LONDON, THF,
** rpHE citadel to defend or command the City" (Stow), stands on the north bank of
-*- the Thames, about a mile below London Bridge, and in the oldest part of 'the
metropolis ; " between the south-east end of the City Wall and the river, though the
west part is supposed within the City,* but with some uncertainty ; and in what
county the whole stands is not easy discovered." {Hatton, 1708.) It comprises
within the walls an area of 12 acres 5 roods. Tradition has assigned its origin to
Julius Caesar, and our early poets have adopted this antiquity :
" Prince Edward. I do not like the Tower of any place.
Did Julius Csesar build that place, my lord ?
Buckingham. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place.
Which since succeeding ages have re-edified.
Prince Edward. Is it upon record, or else reported
* " It was proved in the case of Sir Thomas Overbury, upon a question as to whether his murder
was committed within the boundaries of the City or in the county of Middlesex, that the City Wall
traversed the buildings contained within the Tower; and his apartment being on the west of it, the
crimuials came accordingly under the jurisdiction of the City."— Archer's Vestiges, part iii.
792 CUBI08ITIES OF LONJDOK
Suucessiveli' from a<?e to age, he built it ?
Buckingham. Upon record, my gracious lord."
Shakspeare's Eichard III., actiii. sc. 1.
This, however^ is unsupported by records ; but that the Romans had a fortress here in
a subsequent age is probable, from the discovery of Roman remains upon the site ;
and a Roman wall is still visible near the ditch. The Saxon Chronicle leads to the
belief of there having been a Saxon fortress upon the spot.
The oldest portion of the present fortress is the Keep, or White Tower, so named
from its having been originally whitewashed, as appears from a Latin document of the
year 1241. This tower was built about 1078, for William the Conqueror, by Gundulph,
bishop of Rochester, who also erected Rochester Castle ; and the two fortresses have
points of resemblance. William Rufus greatly added to the Tower. At the close of
his reign was sent here the first prisoner, Ralph Flambard, or Firebrand, who con-
trived to escape by a window which is shown. Henry I. strengthened the fortress j
and Stephen, in 1140, kept his court here.
Fitzstephen describes it as "the Tower Palatine, very large and very strong, whose court an 1 walls
rise up from a deep foundation. The mortar is tempered with the blood of beasts. On the west are
two castles, well fenced."
About 1190, the Regent Bishop Longchamp surrounded the fortress with an em-
battled stone wall and " a broade and deepe ditch :" for breaking down part of the
City wall he was deposed, and besieged in the Tower, but surrendered after one night.
King John held his court here. Henry III. strengtheneil the White Tower, and
founded the Lion Tower and other western bulwarks ; and in this reign the palace-
fortress was alternately held by the king and the insurgent barons. Edward 1. en-
larged the moat, and on the west made the last additions of military importance prior
to the invention of cannon. Edward II. recired here against his subjects ; and hel-e
was born his eldest daughter, Joan of the Tower. Edward III. imprisoned here many
illustrious persons, including David king of Scotland, and John king of France with
Philip bis son.* During the insurrection of Wat Tyler, King Richard II. took refuge
here, with his court and nobles, 600 persons : Richard was deposed whilst imprisoned
here, in 1399. Edward IV. kept a magnificent court here. In 1460 Lord Scales was
besieged here by the Yorkists, and was taken and slain in endeavouring to escape by
water. Henry VI., twice imprisoned in the fortress, died here in 1471 ; but the tra-
dition that George Duke of Clarence was drowned here in 1478, in a butt of malmsey-
wine, is of little worth. The beheading of Lord Hastings, in 1483, by order of the
Protector Gloucester (on a log of timber in front of the Chapel) ; the seizure of the
crown by Richard ; and the supposed murder of his nephews, Edward V. and the Duke
of York, — are the next events in the annals of the fortress. Henry VII. frequently
resided in the Tower, where also his queen sought refuge from " the society of her
sullen and cold-hearted husband :" the king held a splendid tournament here in 1501 ;
his queen died here in 1503. Henry VIII. often held his court in this fortress : here,
in great pomp, Henry received all his wives previous to their espousals ; here were be-
headed his queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. About this time (1548) oc-
curred a great fire in the Tower :
*'ij A° (Edw. VI.) Item the xxij day of November was in the nyghte a grete fyer in the tower of
London, and a gret pesse burnyd, by menes of a Frencheman that sette a barrelle of gonnepoder a fyere,
and soo was burnyd hymselfe, and no more persons, but moch hurte besyde." — Chron. Orey Friars of
London,
Edward VI. kept his court in the Tower prior to his coronation : here his uncle, the
Protector Somerset, was twice imprisoned before his decapitation on Tower Hill, in
1552. Lady Jane Grey entered the fortress as queen of England, but in three weeks
became here a captive with her youthful husband : both were beheaded. Queen Mary,
at her court in the Tower, first showed her Romish resolves : her sister, the Princess
Elizabeth, was imprisoned here on suspicion of favouring Sir Thomas Wyat's design ;
she was compelled to enter at the Traitors' Gate, when she exclaimed, " Here landeth
as true a subject, being a prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs ; and before Thee, O
God, I speak it." Queen Elizabeth did not keep her court in the Tower, but at no
period was the state prison more " constantly thronged with delinquents." James I.
No oerson was allowed temp. Edward III. to bathe in the Tower, or in the Thames neai the
lower; under 2>enaltyo death.
TOWER OF LONDON.
793
resided here, and delighted in combats of the wild beasts kept here. In Charles I.'s
reign many leading partisans were imprisoned here ; and under the government of
Oliver Cromwell, and in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., the Tower was
filled with prisoners, the victims of state policy, intrigue, tyranny, or crime. The
Courts of Justice, the King's Bench and Common Pleas were held here ; the former in
the Lesser Hall, beneath the east turret of the White Tower ; the latter in the Great
Hall, by the river. Almost from the Conquest, our sovereigns, at their coronations,
went in great state and procession from the Tower, through the City, to Westminster;
the last observance being at the coronation of Charles II. All the domestic apart-
ments of the ancient palace within the Tower were taken down during the reigns of
James II. and William and Mary. In 1792 the garrison was increased.
A. White Tower. B. Wardrobe Tower. C. St. John's Chapel, in the White Tower. D. Cold
Harbonr. E. Bloody Tower. F. St. Thomas's Tower. G. Traitor's Gate. H. Well Tower. I. Cradle
Tower. K. Hall Tower. L. Lantern Tower. M. Salt Tower. N. Tower above the Iron Gate.
Tower leading to the Iron Gate. P. Broad Arrow Tower. Q. Constable Tower. R. Martin
Tower. S. Brick Tower. T. Bowyer's Tower. U. Flint Tower. V. Bell Tower. W. Devilin Tower
X. Beauchamp Tower. Y. Bayard Tower. Z. Middle Tower.
1. Posts of the Scaffold. 2. Cage. 3. Barkin Church. 4. The Bulwark Gate. 6. Lyon Tower.
6. Lyons Gate. 7. St. Peter's Church. 8. Postern Gate. 9. The Stone Kitchen. 10. Lieutenant's
Lodgings. 11. Jewel House. 12. Hall decayed. 13. Queen's Gallery.
Gate. 16. Thames-street. 17. Queen's Lodgings.
10. Lieutenant
14. Private Gardens. 15. Iroa
794 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON,
"Several hundred men were employed in repairing the fortifications, opening the embrasures, and
mounting cannon ; and on the western side of the fortress a strong barrier was formed with old casks
filled with earth and rubble ; the gates were closed at an early hour, and no one but the military allowed
to go on the ramparts."— ^a^^cj/.
The Tower Palace occupied the south-eastern portion of the inner ward, as shown
(p. 793) in the plan of the fortress in the reign of Elizabeth, within a century from
which period much of its ancient character was obliterated by small buildings between
its towers and courts. Northward of the White Tower was built, temp. James II. and
William III., the Grand Storehouse for the Royal Train of Artillery, and the Small
Armoury for 150,000 stand of arms : this building, 345 feet in length, was destroyed
by fire October 30, 1841 ;* since which the Tower has been " remodelled," many
small dwelling-houses have been cleared away, and several towers and defences have
been rebuilt. The houses of Petty Wales and the outworks have been removed, with
the Menagerie buildings at the entrance from the west.
The Lion Tower was built by Henry III., who commenced assembling here a
menagerie with three leopards sent to him by the Emperor Frederic II., " in token of
his regal shield of arms, wherein those leopards were pictin-ed." Here, in 1255, the
Sheriffs built a house " for the King's elephant," brought from France, and the first
seen in England. Our early sovereigns had also a mews in the Tower :
"Merry Margaret, as Midsomer flowre,
Gentyll as faucon and liawke of the Towre." — Skelton.
To the Lion Tower was built a semicircular enclosure, where lions and bears were
baited with dogs, in which James I. and his court much delighted. A lion was named
after the reigning king ; and it was popularly believed that " when the king dies, the
lion of that name dies after him" {see also Addison's Freeholder, No. 47). " Washing
the Lions on the first of April" was another popular hoax. The menagerie greatly
declined until 1822, when it revived under the management of Mr. Cops ; the last of
the animals were, however, transferred to the Zoological Society's Gardens, in the
Regent's Park, in 1834 : but the buildings were not entirely removed until 1853 ; the
Refreshment-room and ticket-office occupy part of the site of the Lion Tower. See
The Tower Menagerie, with woodcut portraits drawn by Harvey.
The Tower Moat or Ditch was drained in 1843, filled up, and turfed, for the exercise
of the garrison : occasionally sheep feed here. The banks are clothed with thrivii
evergreens j and en the north-east is a pleasant shrubbery-garden.f
"In draining the moat were found several stone shot, which had probably been projected against tl
fortress during the siege of 1460, when Lord Scales held the Tower for the king, and the Yorkists cai
nonaded him from a battery on the Southwark side of the river."— Hewitt's Toicer and its Armouries,
The land entrance to the fortress is by the Middle Tower, and a stone bridge
anciently a drawbridge, crossing the IMoat, at the south-west angle, to the Bywai
Tower : these towers were strongly fortified, and provided each with a double portcuUi
On the right, a small drawbridge crosses the Moat, and leads to the wharf fronting thi
Thames. Here is St. Thomas's Tower : Ings, the Cato-street conspirator, was tl
last person confined in this Tower. Beneath it is Traitors' Gate, with a cut whic
until lately connected the ditch with the river : by this entrance state prisoners w(
formerly brought into the Tower ; and through it
"Went Sidney, Russell, Raleigh, Cranmer, More."— Sogers.
"When it was found necessary, from any cause, to carry a prisoner through the streets, the Sherif
received him from the king's lieutenants at the entrance to the City, gave a receipt for him, and took
another on delivering him up at the gates of the Tower. The receipt of the Governor for the body of
the Duke of Monmouth— his living body— is still extant." — Dixon's Prisons of London, 1850.
Traitors' Gate is now a modernized sham. Eastward is the basement-story of tl
Cradle Tower, in good condition ; the Well Tower is used as a warder's residence.
* There were 94,500 stands of arms, of which 4000 were saved : loss by the fire, about 260,C
Among the objects destroyed and lost were a cannon of wood, and the state swords of Justice and Merc
carried before the Pretender when he was proclaimed in Scotland in 1715.
t In 1830 the Tower Ditch was filled with water, and cleansed, by order of the Duke of Welling,. .
as Constable ; which measure was gravely described at the time as putting the fortress into a state (
security against the Reform Bill agitation !
TOWEB OF LONDON. 795
The front wall is embattled, and mounted with cannon ; and on the wharf were for-
merly fired the " Tower Guns." Hatton describes them, in 1708, as " 62 guns, lying
in a range, fast in the ground, always ready to be discharged on any occasion of vic-
tories, coronations, festivals, days of thanksgiving, triumphs, &c." The guns are now
fired from a new " Saluting Battery," facing Tower-hill.
Between the outer and inner wards extends a narrow street, in part formerly occu-
pied by the buildings of the Mint, removed to Tower Hill in 1810. The towers of
the inner ward are — commencing from the south-east, the Bell Tower, containing the
alarm-bell of the garrison j it is said to have been the prison-lodging of Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester, and subsequently of the Princess Elizabeth: "at this point, in former
times, were other gates, to prevent an enemy getting possession of the lines, and to
guard the approaches to the inner ballium." — Hewitt.
Between the JBell Tower and the Beauchamp Tower was formerly a passage by the
leads, used as a promenade for prisoners, of whom the walls bear memorials j among
them is " JRespice Jinem, W. D." Next, northward, is the Beauchamp or Cobham
Tower, a curious specimen of the military architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries.
This tower is named from Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, being confined here in 1397, and
the Cobhams in 1554. It was restored by Anthony Salvin in 1854.; when lithographed copies of the In-
scriptions, Memorials, and Devices cut on the walls of the rooms and cells, were published by W. R. Dick.
It is much to be regretted that these records in stone have been removed from
their original places into the large room.
Upon the wall is a rebus of Dr. Abel, chaplain to Catherine of Aragon j a bell in-
scribed TA, and Thomas above. Couplets, maxims, allegories, and spiritual truths
are sometimes added : of these we can only select a few :
" Thomas Willyngar, goldsraithe. My hart is yours tel dethe." By the side is a figure of a bleedmg
"hart," and another of "dethe ;" and " T. W," and " P. A."
" Thomas Rose,
Within this Tower strong
Kept close
By those to whom he did no wrong. May 8th, 1666."
The figure of a man, praying, underneath " Ro. Bainbridge" (1587-8).
"Thomas Bawdewin, 1584, Jvly. As vertve maketh life, so sin cawseth death."
"Walter Paslew, dated 1569 & 1570. My hope is in Christ." Devices of the Peverelsj and crucifix
and bleeding heart. " J, C. 1538." " Learne to feare God." " Reprens . le . sage . et . il . te armera.—
Take wisdom, and he shall arm you."
Over the fireplace is inscribed :
"Quanto plus afflictionis pro Christo in hoc sajculo,
Tanto plus gloriae cum Christo in future.
ArundeU, June 22, 1587."
*' Gloria et honoro eum coronasti Domine :
In memoria asternaerit Justus. Atuch ....."
One of the most elaborate devices is that of John Dvdle, Earl of Warwick, tried
and condemned in 1553 for endeavouring to deprive Mary of the crown ; but being
reprieved, he died in his prison-room, where he had wrought upon the wall his family's
cognizance, the lion, and bear and ragged staflP, underneath which is his name ; the
whole surrounded by oak-sprigs, roses, geraniums, honeysuckles, emblematic of the
•Christian names of his four brothers, as appears from this inscription :
*' Yow that these beasts do wel behold and se.
May deme with ease wherefore here made they be
Withe borders eke wherein (there may be found)
4 brothers* names, who list to serche the grovnd."
Tlie names of the four brothers were Ambrose, Robert, Guildford, and Henry : thus,
A, acorn ; R, rose ; G, geranium ; H, honeysuckle : others think the rose indicates
Ambrose, and the oak Robert (robur). In another part is carved an oak-tree bearing
acorns, signed R.D. ; the work of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
" I h 8 1571, die 10 Aprilis. Wise men ought circumspectly to see what they do, to examine before
they speake, to prove before they take in hand, to beware whose company they use, and above all things,
to whom they truste. Charles Bailly." Another of Bailly's apophthegms is : " The most vnhapy man
in the world is he that is not pacient in adversities; for men are not killed with the adversities thej
iave, but with ye impacience which they svffer."
796 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
" . Lord . whic . art . of . heavn . King . Graunt . gras . and . lyfe . everlastig . to . Miagh . thy ,
servant . in . prison . alon . with * * * * Thomas Miagh." Again :
"Thomas Miagh, whiche lieth here alon.
That fayne wovld from hens be gon.
By tortyre straunge mi troth was
tryed, yet of my libertie denied. 1581, Thomas Myagh."
(A prisoner for treason, tortured with Skeffington's irons and the rack.)
" Hit is the poynt of a wyse man to try and then trvste, for hapy is he whome fyndeth one that is
ivst. T. C." Again : " T. C. I leve in hope and I gave credit to mi frinde in time did stande me moste
in hande, so wovlde I never do againe, excepte I hade him sver in Ijande, and to al men wiche I so vnlea,
ye svssteine the leke lose as I do. Vnhappie is that mane whose actes doth procvre the miseri of this
hovs in prison to indvre. 1576, Thomas Clarke."
In the State Prison Eoom occurs twice the name of "jane" (Lady Jane Grey),'
probably inscribed by one of the Dudleys, who were all imprisoned here in 1553, and
one of whom, Guildford, was the lady's husband : this is the only memorial preserved
of Lady Jane in the Tower. Wallace, the Scottish hero, is erroneously named among
the prisoners here ; for Wallace was not confined in any part of the Tower, as proved
in a paper by Mr. W. Sydney Gibson, F.S.A., Notes and Queries, No. 213, p. 509.
The memorial of Thomas Salmon, 1622, now let into the wall of the middle room,
was formerly in the upper prison-lodging :
A shield surrounded by a circle ; above the circle the name "T. Salmon ;" a crest formed of three
salmons, and the date 1622; underneath the circle the motto Nee temere, nee timore — "Neither rashly
nor with fear." Also a star containing the abbreviation of Christ, in Greek, surrounded by the sentence.
Sic vivevt vivas — "So live that thou may est live." In the opposite corner are the words, Et morirena.
morierig — "And die that thou mayest die not." Surrounding a representation of Death's head, above
the device, is the enumeration of Salmon's confinement : " Close prisoner 8 moneths, 32 wekes, 224 dayes,
6376 houres."
On the ground-floor is incised :
"The man whom this house can not mend,
Hath evill becom, and worse will end."
" Round this (Beauchamp) chamber a secret passage has recently been discovered in the masonry, in
which spies were, no doubt, set to listen, and report the conversation or soliloquies of prisoners, when
they, poor souls, believed themselves alone. The men who live in the Tower have christened this pas-
sage the Whispering Gallery."— Dixon's Prisons, 1850, p. 70.
Raleigh was thrice imprisoned in the Tower ; in 1592 (eight weeks), for winning
the heart of Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of Elizabeth's maids of honour; "not only a
moral sin, but in those days a heinous political offence." In 1604 he was again com-
mitted to the Tower, and in the frenzy of despair attempted to stab himself to the
heart ; he remained here a captive nearly thirteen years, part of the time with Lady
Raleigh : here, 1605, was born Carew, their second son. Sir Walter's prison-lodging
is thought to have been the second and third stories of the Beauchamp Tower ; here
he devoted much time to chemistry and pharmaceutical preparations. " He has con-
verted," says Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower, " a little hen-house in the
garden into a still-house, and here he doth spend his time all the day in distilla-
tions ; ... he doth show himself upon the wall in his garden to the view of the
people :" here Raleigh prepared his " rare cordial,"* wrote his political discourses,
and commenced his famous History of the World. He was at length liberated,
but again committed to the Tower, about two months before his execution atj
Westminster.
Ealeigh's constant study was in the pages of that Divine book, by which, as he told the clergyman
who rebuked him for his seeming lightness, on the eve of his beheadal, he had prepared himself to
look fearlessly on death. His last hours were each an episode, and his acts and words have been
carefully recorded. On the morning of his execution, his keeper brought a cup of sack to him, and
inquired how he was pleased with it? "As well as he who drank of St. Giles's bowl as he rode to
Tyburne," answered the knight, and said, " it was a good drink, if a man might but tarry by it."
• Prithee, never fear, Beeston," cried he to his old friend Sir Hugh, who was repulsed from the scaffold
by the sheriff, " I shall have a place !" A bald man, from extreme age, pressed forward " to see him,"
he said, " and pray God for him." Raleigh took a richly-embroidered cap from his own head, and
placmg it on that of the old man, said, " Take this, good friend, to remember me, for you have more
need of it than I." " Farewell, my lords," was his cheerful parting to a courtly group, who affectionately
took their sad leave of him, " I have a long journey before me, and I must e'en say good-bye." "Now
« Tiv? ^?^"^ ^^ God," said that heroic spirit, as he trod the scaffold ; and, gently touching the axe, added,
( 1 his IS a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases." Tlie very headsman shrank from beheadings
* Raleigh's "Rare Cordial," with other ingredients introduced by Sir Kenelm Digby and Sir.
Irazer, is the Confectio aromatica of the present London Pharmacopoeia.
TOWER OF LONDON. 797
one so illustrious and brave, until the unquailing soldier addressed him, " What dost thou fear J* Strike,
man !" In another moment, the mighty soul had fled from its mangled tenement.
Ealeigh's shifting imprisonments must have been very irksome. Thus, in 1603,
" In the course of a few months Raleigh was first confined in his own house, then conveyed to the
Tower, next sent to Winchester Gaol, returned from thence to the Tower, imprisoned for between two
and three months in the Fleet, and again removed to the Tower, where he remained until released
thirteen years afterwards, to undertake his new expedition to Guiaua." (Mr. J. Payne Collier;
ArchfBoloffia, vol. xxw. p, 218,) Mr. Collier possesses a copy of that rare tract, " A Good Speed to
Virginia,'' 4to. 1609, with the autograph on the title-page, " W". Ralegh, Turr. Lond. ;" showing that
at the time this tract was published, and read by Raleigh, he recorded himself as a prisoner in the
Tower of London.
We learn from the Memorials of the Tower, by Lord De Ros, the Lieutenant-
Governor, that the late Prince Consort interested himself to preserve the remains of the
original building, and caused it to be declared that "no edifice within the Tower walls
should be built, altered, or restored until the plans and elevations should have been
submitted for the Queen's personal approval."
North of the Beauchamp Tower is the Devereux Tower, which has been rebuilt
under the direction of the Ordnance. The original tower, with walls 11 feet thick,
was the prison-lodging of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ; in the lower chambers
were passages leading to the adjoining Chapel of St. Peter, described at p. 198.
Eastward are the Mint, Boioyer, and Brick Towers, which have also been rebuilt
by the Ordnance. In the Bowyer Tower resided the Master and Provider of the
King's Bows ; and in a work-room over this tower originated the fire which destroyed
the Grand Storehouse in 1841 : the basement, strongly groined and vaulted, has been
restored. Beneath the floor is a still more dreary vault, with a trap-door opening
upon a flight of steps. The Brick Tower, the reputed prison-house of Lady Jane
Grey, had its modernized superstructure destroyed in the fire of 1841 ; but the original
basement and a dungeon beneath remained.
The Martin Tower, at the north-east angle, was formerly a prison-lodging, and next
the Jewel Tower. Anne Boleyn was imprisoned here : on the walls is a coat-of-arms
and " Boullen :" she slept in the little upper room. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex,
and Lord Southampton (Shakspeare's friend), were also prisoners in the Martin Tower j
and here were confined, by James XL, Archbishop Sancroft and the six bishops. The
Keeper of the Regalia resides here. Thence, southward, is the Constable Tower, rebuilt
by the Ordnance. Next is the JBroad Arrow Tower, in its original condition : Lady
Jane Grey was a prisoner here : the Latin couplet which Fox states Jane scratched
with a pin upon the walls of her chamber, can nowhere be found. The Salt{petre)
Tower is called " Julius Caesar Tower " in a survey temp. Henry VIIL, and is sup-
posed to be actually of the reign of William Rufus. It is circular, and has a vaulted
dungeon : in the first-story chamber, among the devices and inscriptions cut in the
wall, is a sphere with the signs of the zodiac, and
•'Ilew : Draper : of: Bristow : made : thys : spheer : the : 30 : daye : of: Maye : anno 1561."
Draper was a wealthy tavern-keeper at Bristol, and was committed here "as suspect
of a conjuror or sorceror," practising against "Sir William St. Lowe and my ladie;'*
but he aflSrmed that "longe since he soe misliked his science, that he burned all his
books." A view of the Salt Tower, taken in 1846, is etched in Archer's Vestiges,
part iii. : it has been restored by Salvin.
Next the Salt Tower, westward, was the Lantern Tower, removed for the Ordnance
Office, greatly heightened in 1854. Further west is the Record Tower, also called
Walcefield, from the imprisonment of the Yorkists here after the battle of Wakefield,
1460 : this was also anciently the Hall Toioer, from its proximity to the great hall of
the palace : the basement is Norman, probably of the reign of William Rufus ; the
walls are 13 feet thick. The upper chamber has been a Record-room since the reign
of Henry VIII. : here are the cartes antiques and chancery rolls, chronologically ranged
in presses. Opposite the chamber in which Henry VI. is supposed to have been
murdered, is the Record-keeper's room, where hang some of the Keepers' portraits :
WiUiam Lambarde, the topographer; the learned Selden; the Puritan, William
Prynne ; and William Petyt, Samuel Lysons, and Henry Petrie, were distinguished
Record-keepers. The Octagon is " Edward the Confessor's Room."
798 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Adjoining the Record Tower, westward, is the Bloody Tower: here, in a darl
vvindowless room, in which one of the portculhses was worked, George Duke o
Clarence is said to have been drowned in malmsey ; in the adjoining chamber, the tw<
princes are said to have been " smothered ;" whence the name of Bloody Tower. Thi
has been much disputed; but in a tract temp. James I. we read that the abov
" turret our elders termed the Bloody Tower ; for the bloodshed, as they say, of th
infant princes of Edward IV"., whom Richard III., of cursed memory (I shudder
mention it), savagely killed, two together at one time." In the latter chamber waa
imprisoned Colonel Hutchinson, whose wife, daughter of Sir Allen Apsley, Lieutenant
of the Towei*, where she was born, related the above traditions. This portion waa
formerly called the Garden Tower ; it was built temp. Edward III., and is the only
ancient place of security, as a state prison, in the Tower : it is entered through a small
door in the inner ballium j it consists of a day-room and a bed-room, and the leads on
which the prisoner was sometimes allowed to breathe the air. The last person who
occupied these apartments was Arthur Thistlewood, the Cato-street conspirator.
Westward are the Lieutenant's Lodgings (the Lieutenant's residence), chiefly timber-
built, temp. Henry VIII. ; in 1610 was added a chamber having a prospect to all the
three gates of the Tower, and enabling the lieutenant to call and look to the warders.
In the " Council Chamber " the Commissioners examined Guy Fawkes and his accom-
plices, as commemorated in a Latin and Hebrew inscription upon a parti-coloured
marble monument ; and elsewhere in the building there was discovered, about 1845,
"an inscription carved on an old mantelpiece relating to the Countess of Lenox,
grandmother of James I., *commytede prysner to thys Logynge for the Marige of her
Sonne my Lord Henry Darnle and the Queen of Scotlande.' " (Hewitt's Tower, &c,)
Here a bust of James I. was set up, in 1608, by Sir William Wade, then Lieutenant;
the walls are painted with representations of men inflicting and suffering torture ; and
the room is reputed to be haunted ! The last person confined in the lodgings here
was Sir Francis Burdett, committed 1810, for writing in Cobbett's Weekly Register.
" Besides the ' prison lodgings,* there were other still more terrible chambers in the Tower ; chamber*
especially constructed with a view to the torture of their inmates. One of these was called ' Little Ease ;*
a cell so small in its dimensions, that it was impossible for the prisoner to stand erect or to lie down
except in a cramped position (Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 825). Another was named 'The Pit.' Others are
said to have been full of vermin, especially rats, which at high water were driven up in shoals from the
Thames. The Devil's Tower probably took its name from some contrivance of this kind." — Hewitt.
" An inscription recently found in an adjoining room tells us a State secret, that Margaret Douglas,
Countess of Lennox, mother of unhappy Darnley, was confined in these lodgings by Elizabeth, on sus-
picion of being concerned in the marriage of her son with Mary Queen of Scots. Margaret lived in
London for many years." — Mr. Hepwortk Dixon's Paper read to the Archaeological Institute, 1866.
The Place of Execution within the Tower on the Green was reserved for putting to
death privately ; and the precise spot, nearly opposite the door of St, Peter's Chapel, is
denoted by a large oval of dark flints : hereon perished Anne Boleyn and Catherine
Howard, Margaret Countess of Salisbury, and Lady Jane Grey.
The Bloody Tower gateway, built temp. Edward III. (opposite Traitors'' Gate), is
the main entrance to the Inner Ward : it has massive gates and portcullis, complete,
at the southern end; but those at the north end have been removed.
" The gates are genuine, and the portcullis is said to bo the only one remaining in England fit for
use. The archway forms a noble specimen of the Doric order of Gothic. For a prison entrance we know
of no more perfect model." — Weale's London, p. 160.
Westward of the White Tower, between the Chapel and Lieutenant's Lodgings, was
the " Tower Green," now the parade-ground of the garrison. Northward, upon the
site of the Grand Storehouse,* are the Waterloo Barracks (to receive 1000 men), in
the " modern castellated style," its only ancient features being battlements and machi-
colations : the first stone was laid June 14, 1845, by the Duke of Wellington, of whom
here was a pedestrian stone statue, by Milnes, upon a pedestal, now removed to
Woolwich Arsenal.
North-east of the White Tower is another " modern castellated " range of buildings
for the officers of the garrison. South-eastward are the unsightly piles of the
Ordnance Office and Store-houses.
^ * The large pediment of the Storehouse, filled with bold sculptures of the royal arms, guns, and
military trophies, was preserved, and has been set up opposite the Martin Tower.
TOWEE OF LONDON. 799
The White Towee, citadel, or keep (for many years of itself "the Tower of
London," the other buildings having been added as outworks), was begun by Bishop
Gundulpli, in 1078, on the site of a work said to have been destroyed by floods. The
external dimensions of the White Tower are 176 feet north and south by 96 feet east
and west, with an eastern semicircular projection, the apsis of the chapel. The eleva-
tion is 92 feet ; it is embattled ; and its angles are finished with turrets, the vanes of
which are surmounted with the royal crown. The north and south-western turrets
are square, with a slight projection ; the south-eastern turret is built upon the summit
of the wall ; and that at the north-eastern angle is an irregular circle, and was pierced
to receive four clock-dials in 1854. This tower was called the Observatory, and was
employed by the " Astronomical Observator, John Flamsteed," who had " an hundred
poundes yearly payd him out of this ofiice (of Ordnance) :" it contains a staircase
which communicates with each of the floors, from the vaults to the roof, which is
covered with lead, and was once a promenade for the prisoners. Traces of a large
archway on the north side indicate the original grand entrance, shown in the oldest
views ; the present entrances, north and south, are modern. The external walls are
from 10 to 12 feet thick, and the internal walls 7 feet j of these there are only two,
which divide each floor into three apartments. The White Tower was first considerably
repaired about the middle of the 13th century j next, with Caen stone, in 1532 ;
" it was almost new erected in 1637 and 1638, being built of boulder and square stone"
{Hatton) ; and windows and other ancient features were obliterated in the reign ot
William III. On the eastern side is a wing occupied for Ordnance books and papers.
Here, circ. 1708, were " 3000 barrels of gunpowder at a time, with vast quantities of
match ; also swords and gin for mounting great guns ; and on the east side is a place
where the powder is proved before the surveyor and other ofiicers."
On the first floor is Queen JElizaheth's Armoury, with a vaulted roof: on the north
side a door opens to a cell, 10 feet by 8, in the thickness of the wall ; this is said to
have been the prison-lodging of Sir Walter Raleigh; near the cell entrance are
inscribed Rudstone, Fane, and Culpeper, all implicated in Sir Thomas Wyat's
rebellion.
" He that indvreth to the ende shal be savid
M : 10 R. Kvdston. Dar. Kent. Ano. 1553."
" Be faithfvl vnto the deth and 1 wil give thee a crown e of Life,
T Fane 1554."
"T Cvlpeper of Ailsford, Kent."
On the second floor, reaching to the roof, is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, the
most perfect specimen of Norman architecture in the metropolis ; it has an apsis, and
a gallery supported by 12 massive round columns, united by semicircular arches : here
our early sovereigns knelt before the King of kings. Three stained-glass windows
•were added to this chapel by Henry III. : it was long used as a record depository.
In the third floor is the Council Chamber, a state apartment, with a massive timber
roof: here the Protector Gloucester ordered Lord Hastings to be led to instant execu-
tion in front of St. Peter's Chapel ; and commanded the arrest of the Archbishop of
York, the Bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley. King John of France was lodged in the
White Tower in 1357. The vaults underneath were occupied as prisons : among their
inscriptions is one carved by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Throughout the building
there is no trace of a fireplace or of a well. The Council Chamber and Banqueting
Hall are now filled with rifles ready for use. Hitherto, they had been used as store-
rooms, and the present alteration was made at the suggestion and from the designs of
the late Prince Consort. They now form two splendid armouries, the Council Chamber
containing 20,000 and the Banqueting Hall 31,000 Enfield and short rifles, ready at
any time for immediate use. The passages, walls, ceilings, beams, &c., are richly
ornamented with swords, bayonets, lances, pistols, and various other weapons, some of
them now obsolete.
A paper drawn up by a yeoman-warder, in 1641, shows the White Tower to have then been the Office
of Ordnance; the Martin Tower was assigned to the Porter of the Mint; the Byward and Water-gate
Towers to the warders; and eleven other towers were "prison-lodgings."
Mr. Hep worth Dixon's paper, elsewhere quoted, is a very attractive precis of the
800 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
history of the Tower, narrated with poetic verve, and archfeological identification.
Charles of Orleans, the hrave soldier and poet-prince, who was captured at Agincourfc,
and remained prisoner in the Tower five-and-tweiity years, Mr. Dixon tells us, there ia
in the MS. department of the British Museum a copy of the prince's French poems
nohly illuminated. " One of the drawings in this MS. is of peculiar interest : in the
first place, as heing the oldest view of the Totver extant ; in the second place, in fixing
the exact chamber in the White Tower in which the poet was confined, and displaying
dramatically the life which he led. First we see the pi-ince at his desk, composing hi
poems, with his gentlemen in attendance, and his guards on duty. Next we observe
him on a window-sill looking outwards into space. Then we have him at the fbot of
the White Tower, embracing the messenger who brings him the ransom. Again, wt
see him mounting his horse. Then we have him and his friendly messenger riding
away from the Tower. Lastly, he is seated in a barge, which lusty rowers are pulling
down the stream, for the boat which is to carry him to France." Mr. Dixon's pape
is printed in the Athenceum, No. 2021.
Imprisonments. — Upwards of 1000 prisoners have been confined in the chamber8|
and cells of the Tower at one time. Among the celebrated persons imprisoned here,
besides those already named, were : a.d. 1100. Ralph Flambard, the militant Bishop
of Durham. 1296. Balliol, King of Scotland, and Scottish chieftains. 1307. Lady
Badlesmere, for refusing the queen of Edward II. lodging in her castle of Leeds, Kent.
1347. Charles of Blois, and the twelve citizens of Calais with the governor. 1386.
Geoffi-ey Chaucer, said to have here written his Testament of Love. (Chaucer was
appointed clerk of the works, July 13, 1389, 13th Richard II.) 1415. The Duke of
Orleans, father of Louis XII., composed here a volume of English poems, which contains
the earliest view of the Tower. 1534. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester ; and Sir
Thomas More. 1540. Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. 1547. The Duke of Norfolk
and his son, the poet Earl of Surrey.
" xxxviij° A° (Hen. VIII.) Thys yere the xijth day of December the dewke of Norffoke and the yerle
of Sorre hys sonne ware comyttyd unto the tower of London, and the dewke went be watter from the
lorde chaunselers place in Holborne that was sometyme the byshoppe of Ely's, and soo downe un to the
watter syde, and so be watter un to the tower ; and hys sonne the yerle of Sorr^ went thorrow the cy tte
of London, makynge grete lamentacion. • * Item the 13. day of January was the yerle of Sorrey browte
from the tower of London un to the yelde halle of London, and there he was from ix. unto yt was v. at
nyght, and there had hys juggement to be heddyd ; and soo the xix. day of the same month it was done
at the Towre hylle." — Chron. Grey Friars of London.
1553. Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley. Latimer was also a prisoner here from 1541 to
1547. 1554. Sir Thomas Wyat. 1562. The Earl of Southampton, the friend of
Shakspeare. 1606. Guy Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators. 1622. Lord Chancellor
Bacon, "a broken reed;" Sir Edward Coke, a close prisoner. 1613. Sir Thomas
Overbury, supposed to have been poisoned by his gaoler. 1616. The Countess of
Somerset,* for Overbury's murder. 1626. " Mr. Moor was sent to the Tower for
speaking (in Parliament) out of season ; and Sir William Widdrington and Sir Herbert
Price for bringing in candles against the desire of the House." {Bwarris, on Statutes,
p. 83.) 1628. Felton, the assassin of the Duke of Buckingham; Sir John Elliot,
second imprisonment ; John Selden. 1641. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford j
Archbishop Laud, and Bishop Hall. 1648. The pious Jeremy Taylor. 1651. Sir
William Davenant, whose life was saved by Milton and Whitelock. 1656. Lucy
Barlow, mother of the Duke of Monmouth : she was liberated by Oliver Cromwell.
1661. Harrington, who wrote the Oceana. 1679. Viscount Stafford, beheaded 1680.
1679. Samuel Pepys, the diarist, suspected of connexion with the Popish Plot ; liberated
on bail for 30,000Z. 1681. The Earl of Shaftesbury. 1683. William Lord Russell
and Algernon Sidney. 1685. James Duke of Monmouth. 1688 (the Revolution).
The infamous Lord Jeffreys ; William Penn, for street preaching ; the Seven Bishops.
1692. The great Duke of Marlborough. 1712. Sir Robert Walpole, for receiving
bribes. 1715. Harley, Earl of Oxford; the Earls of Derwentwater and Nithsdale.
1717. William Shippen, " downright Shippen" {Pope). 1722. Bishop Atterbury and
the Earl of Orrery. 1746. Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat. 1760. Earl
* The Countess of Somerset's " only child, born in tlie Tower during her imprisonment, and named
Anne, after the name of the Queen, in the hopes thereby of propitiating her majesty, was afterwards
married to the Duke of Bedford, and was the mother of William Lord Kussell."— Jmos.
TOWEB OF LONDON. 801
Ferrers, hanged for murder. 1762. John Wilkes ; no charge specified. 1780. Lord
George Gordon (Riots). 1794. John Home Tooke, Hardy, Thelwall, Holcroft, and
others. 1810. Sir Francis Burdett. 1820. Cato-street conspirators.
The Constable of the Tower was formerly styled the Constable of London, the
Constable of the Sea, and the Constable of the Honour of the Totoer ; which post was
conferred by William I. upon Geoifry de Mandeville, in reward of his services at the
battle of Hastings. The Constable, besides his salary, privileges, and perquisites,
temp. Edward II. received a custom of 2d, from each person going and returning by
the Thames, on a pilgrimage to St. James's shrine. In the reign of Richard II. the
Constable received yearly 100^., with fees from his prisoners, according to their rank,
*' for the suit of his irons :" of every duke committed, 20Z. : and for irons, earl, 20
marks ; baron, 101. ; knight, 100 shillings. The Constable's salary is now a little
under 950^., with an oificial residence. The great Duke of Wellington was Constable
from 1820 to his death in 1852, and was succeeded by Viscount Combermere, at whose
death Sir John Fox Burgoyne received the appointment. On taking possession, the
new Constable is by the Lord Chamberlain presented with the keys of the fortress, in
the name and on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen ; the Yeomen Warders, following
an ancient custom on such occasions, respond " Amen" in chorus, the troops give a
Royal salute and present arms, and the band plays the National Anthem. The Con-
stable is then formally presented to the officers of the garrison, and conducted over
the armoury. The Lieutenant of the Tower is next in rank to the Constable ; but the
duties of both offices are performed by the Deputy-Lieutenant and the Tower Major.
Colonel Gurwood, editor of the Duke of Wellington's Despatches, was long Deputy-
Lieutenant. The Gentleman Gaoler had the custody and locking-up of the state
prisoners. The Teamen Warders, of whom there were forty-five, originally kept
watch over the prisoners: in the reign of Edward VI., the Duke of Somerset, in re-
turn for the attention and respect they paid him whilst in confinement, procured them,
after his liberation, " to be sworne extraordinary of the guard, and to weare the same
livery they doe." The old uniform is now only worn on State occasions. The new
dress was made in 1858. The old cut is retained, the alterations being in the colour
of the cloth and the trimmings. The tunic or frock is of dark blue cloth, with a
crown in red cloth on the breast, and V.R. underneath; two bands of red cloth
round the sleeves, the same as the skirt. A cloak is supplied for inclement weather.
The Yeomen at present number forty-eight : they are old and deserving non-com-
missioned officers.
Locking-up the Tov)er is an ancient, curious, and stately ceremony. A few minutes
before the clock strikes the hour of eleven — on Tuesdays and Fridays, twelve — the
Head Warder (Yeoman Porter), clothed in a long red cloak, bearing a huge bunch of
keys, and attended by a brother warder carrying a lantern, appears in front of the
main guard-house, and loudly calls out, " Escort keys !" The sergeant of the guard,
with five or six men, then turns out and follows him to the " Spur," or outer gate ;
each sentry challenging as they pass his post, " Who goes there ?" — " Keys." The
gates being carefully locked and barred, the procession returns, the sentries exacting the
same explanation, and receiving the same answer as before. Arrived once more in
front of the main guard-house, the sentry there gives a loud stamp with his foot, and
asks, " Who goes there ?" — " Keys." " Whose keys ?" — " Queen Victoria's keys.'*
" Advance Queen Victoria's keys, and all's well." . The Yeoman Porter then exclaims,
" God bless Queen Victoria !" The main guard respond, " Amen." The officer on
duty gives the word, "Present arms !" the firelocks rattle; the officer kisses the hilt
of his sword; the escort fall in among their companions; and the Yeoman Porter
marches across the parade alone to deposit the keys in the Lieutenant's Lodgings.
The ceremony over, not only is all egress and ingress totally precluded, but even within
the walls no one can stir without being furnished with the countersign.
The Tower has a separate coroner ; and the public have access to the fortress
only by sufferance. When Horwood made his Survey of London, 1799, he was
denied admission to the Tower ; and the refusal is thus recorded upon the map :— .
" The Tower : the internal parts not distinguished, being refused permission to take
the survey."
3 p
802 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The Tower is extra-parochial ; and in 1851 the population was 882, and the military
in barracks 606.
The Akmoueies. — The fortress has been the depository of the national arms and
accoutrements from the earliest ages of our monarchy ; and writs of various dates
enumerate warlike stores contained in or issued from the Tower by " the Keeper of
the Arms." In an inventory temp. Edward VI. are mentioned many of the articles
in the present collection ; and Hentzner describes the Armouries in the reign of Eliza-
beth as one of the sights of London.
The Horse Armoury, 150 feet long, is on the south side of the Wliite Tower, and
was built in 1826, when it was arranged by Sir Samuel Meyrick. In the centre is a
line of twenty-two equestrian figures, in the armour of various reigns from Edward I.
to James II. Over each figure is a crimson banner bearing the name and time of the
king or knight represented by the effigy below ; but only a few of the armours have
been actually worn by the persons to whom they are assigned. Around the room are
ranged other figures in armour, interspersed with military trophies and emblems ; be-
sides other mounted figures ; arms of different ages ; helmets, cuirasses, shields, &c. ;
and on the ceiling are displayed obsolete arms and accoutrements in fanciful devices.
The equestrian figures are of the time of
Edward I. (1272).— Suit of a hauberk, with sleeves and chaussees, and a hood with camail; square-
topped shield ; prick-spurs ; surcoat and baudric, modern.
Henry VI. (1450).— Back and breast plates of flexible armour; chain-mail sleeves and skirt ; fluted
gauntlets; helmet a la Cade, with a frontlet and surmounting crest; the horse housing emblazoned
with the arms of France and England; fluted chauftron.
Edward IV. fl465).— Tournament suit, with tilting lance; war-saddle, somewhat later; horse
housings, bl^ck, powdered with the kmg's badges— the white rose and sun; a spiked chauffron on
horse'shead.
Knight, ifcmp.Uichard III. (1483-1485).— Ribbed German armour; tilting apparel and original tilting
lance : this suit was worn at the Eglinton Tournament by the Marquis of Waterford.
Knight, temfl. Henry VII. (1485-1509).— Fluted (German) suit ; burgonet helmet. Suit of fluted
armour of the ^ame reign; ancient sword, battle-axe, and war-saddle; horse armour fluted, and only
wanting the flanchards.
Henry VIII. (1520). — Damasked armour actually worn by this king. Two suits of the same reign,
worn by Charles Brandon, Duke of SuSblk, and Edward Clinton, Earl of Lincoln. In a recess is " one of
the most curious suits of armour in the world," of German workmanship, once gilt, and made to comme-
morate the marriage of Henry VIII. and Katherine of Arragon: it is most elaborately engraved with
the rose and pomegranate, portcullis, fleurs-de-lis, and red dragon; "H. K.," united by a true-lover's-
knot ; saintly legends, mottoes, &c.
Edward VI, (1552). — Russet armour, covered with beautiful filagree-work ; burgonet helmet ; horse
armour complete, embossed with the combined badges of Burgundy and Granada.
Francis Hastings, Earl of Hu7itingdon (1555). — Richly gilt suit, with indented slashes; weight of
body armour exceeds 100 lbs.
IRobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1560). — Tilting suit actually worn by Leicester, temp. Elizabeth :
it bears the initials "R. D.," and the earl's cognizance of the bear and ragged staff: this suit "was kept
in the tilt-yard, where it was exhibited on particular days" {Meyrick),
Sir Henry Lea (1570). — Suit of plate.
Bobert Bevereux, Earl of Essex (1581).— Suit of armour, richly engraved and gilt; burgonet helmet.
This armour was worn by the King's Champion at the coronation of George II.
James I. (1605). — Plain suit of tilting armour. Of the same period are the suits of cap-a-pie armour
assigned to Sir Horace Vere, and Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.
Henry Prince of Wales (1612).— Richly-gilt suit made for the prince; engraved with battles,
Bieges, &c.
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1618). — Full suit of plate.
Charles Prince of Wales (1620). — Suit made for the prince when about twelve years old,
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (1635). — Armour continued only to the knees.
Charles I. (1640). — Magnificent suit presented to Charles, when Prince of Wales, by the Armourers'
Company of the City of London: it is richly gilt and arabesqued; face is carved by Gibbons. This suit
was laid on the cofiin of the great Duke of Marlborough, in his funeral procession.
James II, (1685). — Cuirass over a velvefcoat; casque and pierced visor : the head was carved by
Gibbons, as a portrait of Charles II.
Here also are : a swordsman (Henry VII.). A man-at-arms and foot-soldier
Henry VIIL). "Armour cap-a-pe, rough fi'om the hammer, said to be King Henry ye
Sths." Suits belonging to the Princes Henry and Charles, sons of James I. Cavaliers
and pikemen {temp. Charles I.). A fragment of " penny plate armour.*' Magnifi-
cent suit of Italian armour, engraved and gilt. Cuirasses from Waterloo. Ancient
suits of chain-mail. Halbards,* shields, and helmets. " The Norman Crusader,"
really an Asiatic suit of mixed chain and plate. Very curious helmets. Pieces of a
* 'The halbard remained in use among our troops till within 60 years, and may strll be seen as an
official weapon in our courts of justice. The warders of the Tower are still armed with the partisan : it
is still carried by the watchmen in Denmark.
J
TOWER OF LONDON. 803
puffed and engraved suit of armour {temp. Henry VIII.), extremely rare. Ancient
German bone saddle, with Teutonic inscription. The " Anticke Headpiece with rames
Homes and speckakels on it of Will Somers," jester to Henry VIII. Specimens of
hand firearms. Ancient warder's horn, of carved ivory. Chinese military dresses
from Chusan. Helmet, belt, straight sword, and scimitars of Tippoo Saib. Concave
rondelle with spiked boss, such as is seen in the picture of "Henry the Eighth's Em-
barcation at Dover," at Hampton Court.
Part of a horse armour of cuir bouilli, extremely rare and curious. On the columns
are groups of arms now in use among continental powers ; arms employed in England
from the time of James II. to the present reign ; and projects for the improvement
of war implements.
Here are celts ; ancient British axes, swords, and spears, of bronze (one axe found
near Hastings, supposed temp. Harold) j a British battle-axe found in the Thames in
1829 ; Roman spear-head ; Saxon daggers and battle-axes.
At the top of the stairs are two rudely -carved wood figures, *' Gin" and " Beer,"
from over the buttery of the old palace at Greenwich. A very curious Indian suit of
armour, sent to Charles II. by the Great Mogul. Ten small cannon, presented by the
brass-founders of London to Charles II. when a boy.
Queen Elizaheth's Armoury, cased with wood in the Norman style, is entered at the
eastern side of the White Tower : the windows are filled with stained glass, in part
ancient. Here is an equestrian figure of Elizabeth, in a fac simile of the robe worn
by her on going to St. Paul's to return thanks. The weapons collected here were
brought originally from " The Spanish Weapon House," and were long called " The
Spanish Armoury," misintei-preted as the spoils of the Spanish Armada. These
weapons were mostly used temp. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The collection of spears
is interesting. Here is the Morning-star, or Holy- water (blood) Sprinkle, a spiked
ball on a pole, used by infantry from the Conquest tiU temp. Henry VIII. The walls
are hung with early shields. Two bows of yew, from the wreck of the Mary Rose,
1545 ; early kite shield ; two cross-hilted swords, temp. Crusaders, authentic and rare.
Thumb-screws, or thumbikins ; the " Iron CoUer of Torment, taken from y« Spanyard
in y* yeare 1588 ;" the iron Cravat, " Scavenger's or Skeffington's Daughter." Ancient
Cresset, with spear-head. Mace-cannon, carried at the saddle-bow. Long-pikes and
boar-spears, in the Tower temp. Edward VI. Large pavoise, or archer's shield. " Great
Holly-water Sprincle, with three gonnes in the top." Spontoon of the guard of
Henry VIII. Guisarmes and glaives, partisans, lances, pikes, and halbards. On the
floor is the heading-axe with which the Earl of Essex was executed, temp. Elizabeth.
Heading-block on which Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, and Lovat were decapitated
on Tower-hill, in 1746. The money received for admission to the Armouries is ex-
pended in adding to the collection ; thus, in 1853, a beautiful suit of Greek armour,
found in a tomb at Cumae, was purchased for 2001. : it is shown in the Horse
Armoury.
Among the Curiosities mentioned by Hatton, 1708, is the sword which Lord
Kingsale took from a French guard, for which he and his posterity have the favour of
being covered in the king's presence. On the stairs is part of the keel of the Royal
George, sunk in 1782.
In the Ante-room added to Queen Elizabeth's Armoury, fitted up in 1581, from the
plan of Mr, Stacey, Ordnance Storekeeper, are a group of cannon from Waterloo, two
kettle-drums from Blenheim ; and specimens, ancient and modern, of every description
of weapon now in the Tower. Here are also the sword and sash of Field Marshal the
Duke of York ; and General Wolfe's cloak, on which he died before Quebec. In the
<»ntre of the room is a beautifully ornamented bronze gun. Here are two large brass
guns taken at Quebec by General Wolfe, a stand of cross-bows, and four figures in
armour. In the western compartment are chiefly oriental arms and armour : suit of
chain-mail (reputed Bajazet, 1401) ; Asiatic iron boot; Saracenic and Indian armour;
memorials from Tippoo Saib's armour; collection of Chinese armour; brass gun taken
from the Chinese in 1842, inscribed, " Richard : Philips : made : this : Pece :
An : Dni : 1601 ;" arms from Kaffraria ; hempen armour from the South Seas ; New
Zealand implements, and chief's robe ; rich Indian and Moorish arms and accoutre-
3 F 2
804 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
ments, from the Gi*eat Exhibition of 1851 : and a cabinet of oriental armour,
weapons, horse-furniture, &c., presented by the Hon. East India Company. Here
is the large anchor taken at Camperdown by Admiral Duncan. In 1854 were added
2000 stands of arms from Bomarsund, the first spoils of the Russian war.
Outside the White Tower, on the south-east, are : an ancient gun for stone shot ; two
brass guns, temp. Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; French, Spanish, and Chinese guns;
guns from the wreck of the Royal George ; and several mortars, including one of 18
inches, used at the siege of Namur by William III.
Mr. Hewitt's work, already mentioned, is by far the most accurate and illustrative
Guide-book to the Tower Armouries.
The Eegalia, oe Ceown Jewels, have been exhibited to the public for a fee
since the Restoration of Charles II. They had been previously kept sometimes in the
Tower, in the Treasury of the Temple or other religious house, and in the Treasury at
Westminster. The Royal Jewels were several times pledged to provide for the exi-
gencies of our monarchs : by Henry III., Edward III., Henry V., Henry VI. ; and
Richard II. offered them to the merchants of London as a guarantee for a loan. The
office of Keeper of the Regalia, conferred by the king's letters patent, became in the
reigns of the Tudors a post of great emolument and dignity, and " the Master of the
Jewel-house" took rank as the first Knight Bachelor of England : the office was some-
time held by Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex. During the civil war under Charles I.
the Regalia were sold and destroyed.* On the Restoration of Charles II. new Regalia
were made, for which was paid to the king's goldsmith. Sir Robert Vyner, 21,978^. 9s. lid.
{Treasury Order, 20th June, 1662.) The emoluments of the Master of the Jewel-
house were now so reduced, that Sir Gilbert Talbot obtained permission to show the
Regalia to strangers for a fee ; which proved so profitable, that Sir Gilbert, upon the
death of his servant who showed the jewels, was ofiered 500 gold broad-pieces for the
place. In this reign. May 9, 1671, Colonel Blood made his daring attempt to carry
cfi" " the crown, globe, and sceptre." The Regalia were then kept in a strong vaulted
chamber of the Martin Tower, and were shown behind strong iron bars : through
these, in 1815, a woman forced her hands and tore the royal crown to pieces. The
Regalia were next shown at one view by the light of six argand lamps, with powerful
reflectors.
In 1842, a new Jewel-house was built in the late Tudor style, south of the Martin
Tower : where the Regalia are shown upon a pyramidal stand, enclosed within plate-
glass ; and over the whole is an open iron frame, or cage, of Tudor design, surmounted
by a regal crown of iron.
The Regalia are : — St. lEdward's Crown, or the ancient Imperial Crown, made
temp. Charles II., to replace that said to have been worn by Edward the Confessor :
and with which the Sovereign is crowned at the altar. This is the crown which Blood
stole : the arches, flowers, and fillets are covered with large multi-coloured jewels ; and
the purple velvet cap is faced with ermine.
Prof. Tennant, P.G.S., thus describes her Majesty's State Crown :— -
" The Imperial State Crown of Her Majesty Queen Victoria was made by Messrs. Eundell and Bridge
in the year 1838, with jewels taken from old Crowns, and others furnished by command of her Majesty.
It consists of diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, set in silver and gold ; it has a crimson
velvet cap, with ermine border, and is lined with white silk. Its gross weight is 39 oz. 5 dwts. Troy.
The lower part of the band, above the ermine border, consists of a row of one hundred and twenty-nine
pearls, and the upper part of the band a row of one hundred and twelve pearls, between which, in front
of the Crown, is a large sapphire (partly drilled), purchased for the Crown by His Majesty King George
the Fourth. At the back is a sapphire of smaller size, and six other sapphires (three on each side),
between which are eight emeralds. Above and below the seven sapphires are fourteen diamonds, and
around the eight emeralds one hundred and twenty-eight diamonds. Between the emeralds and
sapphires are sixteen trefoil ornaments, containing one hundred and sixty diamonds. Above the band
are eight sapphires surmounted by eight diamonds, between which are eight festoons consisting of one
hundred and forty-eight diamonds. In the front of the Crown, and in the centre of a diamond Maltese
cross, is the famous ruby said to have been given to Edward Prince of Wales, son of Edward III.,
called the Black Prince, by Don Pedro, King of Castile, after the battle of N^era, near Vittoria, a.d.
1367. This ruby was worn in the helmet of Henry V, at the battle of Agincourt, a.d. 1415. It is pierced
qmte through after the Eastern custom, the upper part of the piercing being filled up by a small ruby.
Around this ruby, to form the cross, are seventy-five brilliant diamonds. Three other Maltese crosses,
forming the two sides and back of the Crown, have emerald centres, and contain respectively one
• The State Crown of Charles I., found in the upper Jewel-house, contained 7 lbs. 7oz. of gold: in
one oitYiQ JleurS'ie'lit was "a picture of the Virgin Mary."
TOWEB OF LOKDOK 805
hundred and thirty-two, one hundred and twenty-four, and one hundred and thirt)' brilliant diamonds.
Between the lour Maltese crosses are four ornaments in the form of the French fleur-de-lis, with four
rubies in the centres, and surrounded by rose diamonds, containing respectively eighty-five, eighty-six,
eighty-six, and eighty-seven rose diamonds. From the Maltese crosses issue four imperial arches com-
posed of oak leaves and acorns; the leaves containing seven hundred and twenty-eight rose, table, and
brilliant diamonds ; thirty-two pearls forming the acorns, set in cups containing fifty-four rose diamonds
and one table diamond. The total number of diamonds in the arches and acorns is one hundred and
eight brilliant, one hundred and sixteen table, and five hundred and fifty-nine rose diamonds. From
the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendant pear-shaped pearls, with rose diamond
caps, containing twelve rose diamonds, and stems containing twenty-four very small rose diamonds.
Above the arch stands the mound, containing in the lower hemisphere three hundred and four brilliants,
and in the upper two hundred and forty-four brilliants ; the zone and arc being composed of thirty-three
rose diamonds. The cross on the summit has a rose-cut sapphire in the centre, surrounded by four
large brilliants, and one hundred and eight smaller brilliants.— Summary of Jewels comprised in the
Crown: 1 large ruby irregularly polished ; 1 large broad-spread sapphire; 16 sapphires; 11 emeralds;
4 rubies; 1363 brilliant diamonds; 1273 rose diamonds; 147 table diamonds; 4 drop-shaped pearls;
273 pearls."
There are correct woodcuts of the crown, by S. Williams, in Britton's Dictionary/ of
Architecture, and Sharp's Peerage. Haydon, in his Autohiography (1830), vol. ii.
p. 236, has this odd entry as to the crown of George IV. : —
" The Crown at the Coronation was not bought, but borrowed. Eundell's price was 70,0001!. ; and
Lord Liverpool told the King he could not sanction such an expenditure. Eundell charged 7000Z. for
the loan; and as some time elapsed before it was decided whether the crown should be bought or not,
Eundell charged 3000Z. or 4000Z. more for the interval,"
The Frince of Wales's Crown, of pure gold, plain, without jewels : it is placed upon
a velvet cushion, in the House of Lords, before the seat of the Heir Apparent, when
Her Majesty opens or prorogues Parliament ; for which occasions it is conveyed with
the imperial crown of the sovereign from the Tower, by the Keeper of the Jewel-ofHce,
attended by warders, in a coach. — The Queen Consort's Crown, of gold, set with
diamonds, pearls, and other jewels; made for the queen of William III. — The Queen's
Diadem, or Circlet of Gold, made for the coronation of Maria d'Este, consort of
James II., at the cost of 111,000Z. (Sandford) : it is set with diamonds, and sur-
mounted with a string of pearls. — St. Edivard's Staffs, of beaten gold, 4 feet 7 inches
in length ; surmounted by an orb and cross, and shod with a steel spike ; the orb is
said to contain a fragment of the true Cross. The staif weighs 9 lbs. — The Royal
Sceptre, or Sceptre with the Cross, of gold : the pommel is set with rubies, emeralds,
and diamonds ; i\ie fleurs-de-lis have been replaced by the rose, shamrock, and thistle,
in gold ; and the cross is covered with jewels, and has a large centre table-diamond,—
The Rod of Equity, or Sceptre with the Dove, of gold, 3 feet 7 inches long, is set
with diamonds, &c., and is surmounted with an orb, banded with rare diamonds, sup-
porting a Jerusalem cross, on which is a gold dove with expanded wings. — The Queen's
Sceptre and Cross, ornamented with large diamonds; made for the coronation of
Mary, Queen of William III. — The Queen's Ivory Sceptre, made for Maria d'Este,
mounted in gold, and bearing a golden cross, and a dove of white onyx : it is some-
times miscalled Queen Anne Boleyn's. — An ancient Sceptre, found behind the wains-
coting of the old Jewel-office in 1814 : it is set with jewels, and is supposed to have
belonged to Mary, Queen of William III. — The Orb, of gold, 6 inches in diameter ;
the bands are set with precious stones and roses of diamonds, and edged with pearls ;
a very large amethyst supports the gold cross, set with diamonds, &c. — The Queen's
Orb, resembling the former, but of smaller dimensions. — The Sword of Mercy, or
Curtana, of steel, but pointless; ornamented with gold. — The Swords of Justice,
Ecclesiastical and Temporal. — The Armillce, or Coronation Bracelets, of gold, chased
with the rose, fleur-de-lis, and harp, and edged with pearls. — The Royal Spurs, of
curiously wrought gold : they are used at the coronation of king or queen. — The
Ampulla, of pure gold, in the form of an eagle ; is used at coronations for the holy oil,
which is poured from the beak into the Gold Anointing Spoon, supposed to be the
only relic of the ancient Regalia; its date is about the 12th century. The Ampulla is
said to have been brought from Sens Abbey, in France, by Thomas k Becket. — The
Gold Saltcellar of State, set with jewels, and chased with grotesque figures, is in the
form of a round castle, and has been miscalled " a Model of the White Tower :" it has
a central turret, and four at the angles, the tops of which are removed for the salt;
around the base are curious figures. It was presented to the crown by the City of
Exeter, and was last used at the coronation banquet of George IV. — The Baptismal
806 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Font, silver-gilt, elaborately chased, and formerly used at the christening of the Royal
Family, but superseded by a new font of picturesque design. A large Silver Wine
Fountain, presented by the Corporation of Plymouth to Charles II.; 12 Golden
Saltcellars, chased ; two massive gold " Coronation Tankards ;" the Banqueting Dish,
Gold Spoons, and other Coronation Plate. Also, a Service of Sacramental Plate, one
dish bearing a fine alto relievo of the Last Supper ; used at Coronations, and in the
chapel of St. Peter in the Tower.
Admission daily (Sundays excepted), to the Armouries, 6d. each person ; and to see
the Regalia, 6d. each ; in parties of twelve, conducted by a warder, every half-hour,
from 12 to 4 o'clock inclusive.
TOWFR ROYAL,
A SHORT street or lane between St. Antholln's Church, "Watling-street, and the
south end of St. Thomas Apostle, was removed in 1853-4, in forming New
Cannon-street West. It occupied the site of a building stated by Stow to have
anciently belonged to the kings of England, as early as Stephen j but it was sub-
sequently discastled, and held as a tenement by one Simon of Beauvais, surgeon to
Edward I. Mr. Hudson Turner states it to be invariably called in early records
la Real, la Riole, or la Ryle or Ryole, but not a tower; and he could not find it
occupied by royalty until Edward III., in 1331, granted it to his queen Philippa as a
depository for her wardrobe ; by whom la Real was externally repaired, if not rebuilt.
In 1370, Edward bestowed it upon the canons of St. Stephen's, Westminster ; but it
reverted to the Crown, and was called "the Queen's Wardrobe" in the reign of
Richard II. It was a place of strength ; and the king's mother fled here for shelter
when Wat Tyler had seized the Tower of London. Leon III., King of Armenia, when
driven from his kingdom by the Turks, was lodged and entertained in Tower Royal by
Richard II., in 1386- It was granted by Richard III. to the first Duke of Norfolk of
the Howard family, as entered in that king's ledger-book. In Stow's time. Tower
Royal had become stabling for the king's horses, and was let in tenements : the whole
was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. In removing the modern houses upon the
site, in 1852, were found the remains of a Roman villa: the earth was interspersed
with horns, bones, teeth of goats and oxen ; tusks of boars ; fragments of flanged tiles,
scored flue-tiles, amphorae, mortaria, urns, glass vessels, and Samian pottery. Some of
these relics are engraved in the Illustrated London News, No. 554.
TREASURY AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICES.
ON the west side of Whitehall are the Government Offices : the Admikaltt {see
p. 2) ; HoKSE GiiAEDS (p. 434). In 1724, 600 planks of mahogany were brought
from Jamaica for the inner doors and tables of the Admiralty ; and, judging by the way
in which the wood is mentioned in the public papers, it was evidently far from well
known.
The Tkeastjet occupies a portion of the site of Whitehall Palace. To make way for
the north wing, the last portion of old York House was taken down in 1846 : it had
been refronted, but the Tudor doorway was ancient. The principal Treasury building,
however, faces the parade-ground, St. James's Park : it was built by Kent, in 1733,
and consists of three stories, Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic. The Whitehall front consists of
the Treasury, Board of Trade, and Privy Council Offices; designed by Barry, R.A.,
in 1846-8, partly in place of Sir John Soane's fa9ade (the centre and south wing),
decorated with three-quarter columns from those of the Campo Vaccino at Rome.
Soane's exterior, exposed to the criticism of every passenger, was much censured ;
" whilst the interior, in which the skill and taste of the architect are most manifest, and
particularly the Council Chamber, is but little seen, and known only to a few persons."
{Britton.) Barry's design consists of a long series of attached Corinthian columns on
rusticated piers, and currying a highly -enriched entablature and frieze ; the attics have
carved drops of fruit and flowers, and the balustrade carries urn-shaped vases : the
I
i
TREASURY AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICES. 807
whole facade is 296 feet long. The Council Office occupies the site of the old Tennis-
court of the Palace. — See the print {temp. Charles II.) in Pennant's London, 5th edit.
At the Cockpit died General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, Ith Jan. 1670 ; and in the
same month his duchess. Nan Clarges. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, fled
down the back stairs, in 1688, to join her father's enemies. Lord Dorset and Bishop
Compton riding on each side of the hackney-coach as an escort. Hatton, in 1708, de-
scribes the Treasury Office kept at the Cockpit, " where the Lord High Treasurer sits
to receive petitions, and give orders, warrants, &c." Here, March 8, l7ll, Guiscard
attempted to stab with a penknife Harley, Earl of Oxford, but was struck down by
the swords of Lord Paulet and Mr. St. John. The Cockpit itself occupied nearly the
site of the present Board of Trade Office, and it existed early in the present century :
the King's speech was read " at the Cockpit" on the day before it was delivered at
the opening of the Session of Parliament ; and the discontinuance of this practice
was much complained of by the Opposition. The term " Given at the Cockpit at
Westminster" was in use within the writer's recollection. The Lord High Treasurer
formerly carried a staff of office (see the portrait of the great Lord Burghley) ; and
he sat in a needlework chair, which is preserved at the Office of the Comptroller of the
Exchequer, Whitehall -yard. " The sovereign occasionally presided at the Board of
Treasury until the accession of George III. j and the royal throne still remains at the
head of the table." {Notes ly F. S. Thomas, Record Office.) The Board of Treasury
has long ceased to manage the revenue. An interesting series of Treasury Minutes,
from 1667 to 1834, is appended to the " Seventh Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the
Public Records."
Some curious relics of the ancient Eoyal Treasury at Westminster are preserved. Among these are
a skippet, or turned box, of the time of Edward III., and a smaller hamper, or hanaper of twyggys, of
the succeeding reign. Both were used for the preservation of title-deeds of the Crown. The skippets
■were packed away in an outside chest, or forcer, a cist, or coifer, of all which specimens have been
found in the Pyx Chamber, at Westminster ; the storehouse of the Royal Treasury, from the period
when the reigning Sovereign occupied the palace close at hand. The forcer is nearly round, made of
stout leather, bound with small bars of iron ;' the cist is also iron-bound. The Royal plate and jewels
were usually deposited in the former. In the reign of Edward I. the Treasury was plundered of these
valuables, in addition to 100,000^., upwards of 2,000,000?. of our present money.
Next is Downing-street, " between King-street E. and no thorow fair West." {Hatton).
It was named from Sir George Downing, Bart., a political " sider with all times and
changes," who, after serving Cromwell, became Secretary to the Treasury under
Charles II., 1667. At the Revolution, the property, then belonging to Lee, Lord
Lichfield, was forfeited to the Crown. The largest house was, temp. George I., the
office of the Hanoverian minister, Baron Bothmar, at whose death the mansion was
given by the King to Sir Robert Walpole, who, in 1735, would only accept it for his
office of First Lord of the Treasury, to which post he got it annexed for ever." {Mdes
Walpoliance.) It has accordingly since been the official residence of successive prime
ministers : here Lady Hester Stanhope received Mr. Pitt's guests : but the rooms are
ill adapted for State assemblies. The adjoining house was purchased within the
present century, for the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and Office of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. To this cul-de-sac a street of smaller houses was added : the south side
was taken down in 1828 : at the corner next King-street was the noted Cat and
Bagpipes, used as a chop-house in early life by George Rose, subsequently Secretary
of the Treasury, and the originator of Savings-banks. — See " The Last Days of
Downing-street," in Walks and Talks about London, 1865.
In one of the above mansions, in 1763, died Aubrey de Vere, last Earl of Oxford. In the street
lived, in 1723, John Boyle, Earl of Orrery, the friend of Swift, and contributor to The World and
Connoisseur. Here resided Boswell, the biographer of Johnson; and Lord Sheffield, the friend of
Gibbon, the historian. In the Colonial Office, No. 14 in the street, in a small waiting-room on the
right hand as you entered, the Duke of Wellington— then Sir Arthur Wellesley— and Lord Nelson,
both waiting to see the Secretary of State, met— the only time in their Uves. The Duke knew Nelson
from his pictures; Lord Nelson did not know the Dnke, but was so struck with his conversation, that
he Btept out of the room to inquire who he was. Mr. Cunningham relates this meeting, which has
been painted and engraved.
The new Government Offices, commenced in 1863, are in course of erection,
and are to include the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the
Navy Office; the whole to form a large quadrangle, fronting St. James'-pai'k, and
Parliament-street. The architecture will be of Italianized character; the various
808 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
fronts will dispLiy a large amount of characteristic sculpture. The India Office was so
far completed as to have been the site of a magnificent fete given to the Sultan of
Turkey, in the summer of 1867.
TRINITY SOUSE,
TRTNITY-SQUARE, on the north side of Tower Hill, was built by Samuel Wyatt,
1793-5, for the ancient guild founded by Sir Thomas Spert, commander of the
great ship Harry Grace de JDieu, and Comptroller of the Navy to King Henry VIII.,
and incorporated 1515. It was then a guild or fraternity of mariners of England for
the encouragement of the science of Navigation j and was first empowered to build
lighthouses and erect beacons by an Act passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Before the charter of Henry VIII. the society was of a purely monastic character, and
had been established for kindred but comparatively limited purposes. The office of
the Master of the Corporation at various times has been held by princes and statesmen.
From 1816, when Lord Liverpool occupied the office of Master, it was held in suc-
cession by the Marquis Camden, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV.;
Marquis Camden again, the Duke of Wellington, the Prince Consort, and Viscount
Palmerston; the present Master, the Duke of Edinburgh — a period of half a century.
The Corporation has in charge the lighthouses and sea-marks, and the licensing of
pilots, tonnage, ballastage, beaconage, &c., producing about 30O,00OZ. a year j the net
revenue, about one-fourth, is principally expended in maintaining poor disabled seamen
and their widows and orphans, by pensions, in the Corporation hospitals at Deptford-
Strond ; which the Master, Deputy-Master, and Brethren visit in their state-yacht, in
grand procession, on Trinity Monday. A state banquet has been given annually since
the Restoration, when there is a fine display of the ancient plate, some more than 250
years old. The Trinity House is of the Ionic order; upon its principal front are
sculptured the arms of the Corporation, medallions of George III. and Queen
Charlotte; genii with nautical instruments; the four principal lighthouses on the
coast, &c. The interior has busts of Vincent, Nelson, Howe, and Duncan ; W. Pitt
and Capt. J. Cotton, by Chantrey; George III., by Turnerelli, &c. The Court-room
is decorated with impersonations of the Thames, Medway, Severn, and Humber ; and
among the pictures is a large painting, 20 feet long, by Gainsborough, of the Elder
Brethren of the Trinity House. In the Board-room are portraits of James I. and II.,
Elizabeth, Anne of Denmark, Earl Craven, Sir Francis Drake, Sir J. Leake, and
General Monk ; King William IV., the Prince Consort, and the Duke of Wellington,
three of the past Masters ; and George III., Queen Charlotte, and Queen Adelaide.
The Museum is noticed at p. 605. The arms of the Corporation are, a cross between
four ships under sail.
The present is the third House built for the Corporation : the first was destroyed in
the Great Fire of 1666. Pepys records : " Sept. 4, 1 after supper walked in the dark
down to Tower-street, and there saw it all on fire ; at the Trinity House on that side,
and the Dolphin Tavern on this side." The second House was erected in Water-lane
in 1671, and is described by Hatton as " a stately building of brick and stone, and
adorned with ten oustos.'*
TYBURN AND "TYBURN TRDEJ*
TYBURN was anciently a manor and village west of London, on the Tylourn or
brook, subsequently the Westbourn, the western boundary of the district, now
incorporated in the parish of Paddington. This stream (within memory a favourite
resort of anglers) is shown descending from the high ground about Hampstead in the
maps by Saxton, 1579; Speede, 1610; Seller, 1733; in Morden's and Seales's, and in
Rocque's surveys. Upon its bank was the place of execution for criminals convicted
in London and Middlesex as early as 1196, when William Fitzosbert, or Longbeard,
was executed at Tyburn, as we learn from Roger de Wendover. In 1330, Roger de
Mortimer was " drawn and hanged" at " the Elms," described by Holinshed as '•' now
TYBTJBN ANB « TYBUBN TBEB." 809
Tiborne;" and Elms-lane, Baysvvater, is pointed out to this day wliere the fatal elm
grew, and the gentle Tiborne ran :
" Then fatal carts through Holborn seldom went,
And Tyburn with few pilgrims was content."— Oldham's Satire, 1682.
Elms-lane is the first opening on the right hand after getting into the TTxbridge-road from the
Grand-Junction-road, opposite the head of the Serpentine ; the Serpentine itself being formed in the
bed of the ancient stream, first called Tybourn, then Westbourn, then Ranelagh Sewer; while the
stream which crossed Oxford-street, west of Stratford-place, first bore the name of Eyebourn, then
Tybourn, then King's Scholars' Pond.— Robins's Faddington, 1853, p. 8.
The gallows, " Tyburn-tree," was a triangle upon three legs, and is so described
in the 16th and 17 th centuries. If Mr. Robins's location of the gibbet be correct, it
was subsequently changed ; for in the lease of the house No. 49, Connaught-square
(granted by the Bishop of London), the gallows is stated to have stood upon that spot.
In 1811, Dr. Lewis, of Half Moon-street, Piccadilly, was about to erect some houses in Connaught-
place (Nos. 6 to 12, 1 think), and during the excavation for foundations a quantity of human bones was
Jbund, with parts of wearing apparel attached thereto. A good many of the bones, say a cart-load,
were taken away by order of Dr. Lewis, and buried in a pit dug for the purpose in Connaught-mews. —
Communication, by Mr. Charles Lane, to the Times, May 16, 1860.
Smith {Hist. St. Mary-le-JBone) states the gallows to have been for many years a
standing fixture on a small eminence at the corner of the Edgware-road, near the turn-
pike, on the identical spot where a tool-house was subsequently erected by the Uxbridge-
road Trust. Beneath .this place lie the bones of Bradshaw, Ireton, and other regicides,
which were taken from tl
buried under the gallows.
On May 7, 1860, in the course of some excavation connected with the repair of a pipe in the road-
way, close to the foot pavement along the garden of Arklow House, the residence of Mr. A. J. B.
Beresford Hope, at the extreme south-west angle of the Edgeware-road, the workmen came upon
numerous human bones, obviously the remains of the unhappy persons buried under thegallows.— Com-
municated by Mr. Rope to the limes. May 9, 1860.
The gallows subsequently consisted of two uprights and a cross-beam, erected on the
morning of execution across the roadway, opposite the house at the corner of
Upper Bryanston-street and the Edgware-road, wherein the gibbet was deposited
after being used ; and this house had curious iron balconies to the windows of the
first and second floors, where the sheriffs attended the executions. After the place
of execution was changed to Newgate in 1783, the gallows was bought by a carpenter,
and made into stands for beer-butts in the cellars of the Carpenters' Arms public-house,
hard by. Formerly, when a person prosecuted for any offence, and the prisoner was
executed at Tyburn, the prosecutor was presented with a ticket which exempted him
from serving either on juries or any parochial business; by virtue of the Act 10 and 11
Will. III. This Act was repealed by 58 Geo. III. Mr. George Phillips, of Charlotte-
street, Bloomsbury, was the last individual who received the Tyburn ticket, for a
burglary committed by two housebreakers on his premises. In the autumn of 1856,
however, Mr. Pratt, armourer, of Bond-street, claimed and obtained exemption from
serving on an Old Bailey jury by reason of his possession of a Tyburn ticket ; the
judge probably not remembering the Act which repealed the privileges of the holders
of Tyburn tickets.
Around the gibbet (" the fatal retreat for the unfortunate brave") were erected
open galleries like a race-course stand, wherein seats were let to spectators at
executions : the key of one of them was kept by Mammy Douglas, " the Tyburn pew-
opener." In 1758, when Dr. Henesey was to have been executed for treason, the
prices of seats rose to 2s. and 2s. Gd. ; but the doctor being " most provokingly re-
prieved," a riot ensued, and most of the seats were destroyed. The criminals were
conveyed thither from Newgate :
"thief and parson in a Tyburn cart." — Prologue by Dry den, 1682,
The oldest existing representation of the Tyburn gallows is in a German print in
the Crowle Pennant, in the British Museum ; wherein Henrietta-Maria, queen of
Charles I., is kneeling in penance beneath the triple tree: it is moonlight; the
confessor is seated in the royal coach, drawn by six horses ; and at the coach-door is a
servant bearing a torch. The "pore queene," it is stated, walked afoot (some say
810 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
barefoot) from St. James's to Tyburn, to do homage to the saintship of some recently
executed papists : but this is denied by the Marshal de Bassompierre ; the above print
is of later date than 1628, the year of the reputed pilgrimage, and its authenticity is
disbelieved.
Memorable Executions at Tyburn.— 1S30 (4th Edw. III.), Roger de Mortimer, for treason; 1388
(12th Richard II.), Judge Tresilian and Sir N. Brembre, treason; 1499 (14th Hen. VII.), Perkin
Warbeck was executed here for plotting his escape from the Tower; 1534 (24th Hen. VIII.), the Holy-
Maid of Kent and her confederates ; 1535, the last Prior of the Carthusian Monastery (Charter House) ;
1595, Robert Southwell, Elizabethan sacred poet ; 1615, Mrs. Turner, hanged in a yellow-starched ruff, for
the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury ; 1628, John Felton, assassin of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham;
1660-1 (Jan. 30), the first anniversary of the execution of Charles I. after the Restoration : the dis-
interred bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw hung in their shrouds and cerecloths at each
angle of Tyburn gallows till sunset, when they were taken down and beheaded, and the bodies buried
under the gallows, the heads being set on Westminster Hall ; 1660-62, five persons who had signed the
death-warrant of Charles I.; 1684, Sir Thomas Armstrong (Rye House Plot); 1705, John Smith, a
burglar, having hung above a quarter of an hour, when a reprieve arrived, be was cut down, and being
let blood, came to himself {Satton, 1708). 1724, Jack Sheppard, housebreaker ; 1725, Jonathan Wild,
thief and thief-taker; 1726, Catherine Hayes, for the murder of her husband : she was burnt alive, for
the indignant mob would not suffer the hangman to strangle her, as usual, before the fire was kindled.
1760, Earl Ferrers, for the murder of his steward : he rode from the Tower, wearing his wedding-clothes,
in his landau drawn by six horses ; he was indulged with a silken rope, and " the drop" was first used
instead of the cart ; the executioners fought for the rope, and the mob tore the black cloth from the
scaffold as relics ; the landau stood in a coach-house at Acton until it fell to pieces; and the bill for the
silken rope has been preserved. 1767, Mrs. Brownrigg, for murder ; 1774, John Rann (Sixteen-Stringed
Jack), highwayman; 1775, the two Perreaus, for forgery; 1777, Rev. Dr. Dodd, forgery; 1779, Rev.
James Hackman, assassination of Miss Reay: he was taken from Newgate in a mourning-coach ; 1783,
Eyland, the engraver, for forgery; 1783, John Austin, the last person executed at Tyburn.
The road between St. Giles's Pound and Tyburn gallows was first called Tyhurn-
road, now Oxford -street; the lane leading from which to Piccadilly was called
Tyhurn-lanCy now ParJc-lane. The original turnpike-gate stood close to St. Giles's
Pound ; then at Tyburn, removed in 1825 ; then at Winchester-row ; next at Pine-
apple-place ; and next at Kilburn. Strange have been the mutations in which the
rural Tybourn "welled forth away" through pleasant fields to the Town, there
became linked with the crimes of centuries, and lost in a murky sewer ; but left its
name to Tyhurnia, the newly-built city of palaces north-west of Hyde Park. {See
Paddington, p. 563.)
In 1785, William Capon made a sketch of Tyburn gallows ; and at the foot of a
drav/ing made by him from this sketch, in 1818, are the following notes :
" View looking across Hyde Park, taken from a one-pair-of-stairs window at the last house at the
end of Upper Seymour-street, Edgware-road, facing where Tyburn formerly was. The eastern end
of Connaught-place is now built on the very plot of ground, then occupied by a cow-lair, and dust
and cinder heaps. The shadow on the right of the Edgware-road is produced by one of the three
galleries which were then standing, from which people used to see criminals executed. They were
standing in 1785, at which time the original sketch was made from which the picture is done."
A portion of Tyburn gate exists :
" The arch and door, forming the centre portion of the gate, which was removed about 1825, with
the old clock, are still standing at the entrance to a wooden cowshed, on the premises of Mr. Baker, a
farmer at Cricklewood, who bought them at the time when the gate was taken doym."— Curiosities of
Clocks and Watches, p. 163. 1866.
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, TSE,
SOMERSET HOUSE, was instituted Nov. 28, 1836, for « rendering academical
honours accessible, without distinction, to every class and every denomination."
The University consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, and senate ; and graduates. It
is solely an examining body, and confers degrees on the graduates of University
College and King's College, London ; and the colleges not belonging to the other
universities ; besides all the medical schools in the empire, and most of the colleges of
the Roman Catholics, Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyans. The degrees are con-
feri'ed, and the honours bestowed, in public ; and the senate first met for this purpose
on May 1, 1850, in the large hall of King's College, Somerset House ; the Earl of
Burlington, Chancellor of the University, presiding. A new edifice was, in 1867,
commenced building for the University in the rear of Burlington House.
VAUXHALL GARDENS. 81t
VAUXSALL GARDENS,
FOR nearly two centuries a place of public amusement, was named from its site in the
manor of " La Sale Faukes," mentioned in the charter of Isabella de Fortibus,
Countess of Aumale and Devon, and Lady of the Isle of Wight, dated in 1293, by
which slie sold her possessions to King Edward I. In the Testa de Nevill we read,
under Surrey : " Baldwin, son and heir of the Earl of the Isle, is in the custody of
Fulke de Breaute ; he should be in the ward of the lord the king ; also his lands in
the hundred of Brixton, and they are worth 18Z. per annum." Fulke de Breaute, tho
celebrated mercenary follower of King John, married Margaret, Earl Baldwin's
mother, and thus obtained the wardship of her son. He appears to have built a hall,
or mansion-house, in the manor of South Lambeth, during his tenure of it ; and from
this time it was called indifferently Faukeshall, or South Lambeth, and is so termed
in the tenth year of Edward 1. The capital messuage, with its garden, named
" Faukeshall," was valued in the twentieth of the same reign at 2s. yearly. We have
therefore satisfactory evidence that Vauxhall owes its origin and name to an obscure
Norman adventurer, who became suddenly rich during the turbulent reign of John,
and was ignominiously driven from the country in the minority of Henry III.
{Archceological Jowrnaly vol. iv.) The land on which Fulke erected his hall now
belongs to Canterbury Cathedral. The manor of Fulkeshall fell, by attainder, to the
Crown. It was successively held by the Despencers and the Damories ; but the latter
exchanged it with Edward III. for an estate in Suffolk ; and the manor was conferred
on Edward the Black Prince, who piously left it to the Church of Canterbury ; and
the bequest was spared by Henry VIIT. to the Dean and Chapter.
The old manor-house had its name of Faukeshall changed to Copped, or Copt, Hall. Here Lady
Arabella Stuart was held captive, under the guardianship of Sir Thomas Barry. The tradition that it
ever belonged to Guido or Guy Fawkes only rests upon the coincidence of names. The estate in the
manors of Lambeth and Kennington belonged to a family named Faucke, or Vaux, in the reigns of
Elizabeth and James I.; and, in 1615, Jane Vaux, widow, held property of that description here, and
the mansion-house connected with it. Mr. Nichols, in his History of Lambeth Parish, mistakenly
affirms that Guy Vaux had a mansion here, and that it was named from him Vauxhall: he then con-
jectures that Jane Vaux was the relict of the infamous Guy, who was executed the 31st of January,
1606; but, as Mr. Bray, who was a lawyer as well as the county historian, remarks, Guy Vaux could not
have been the owner of the copyhold belonging to Jane Vaux in 1615 ; for if she had been his widow, it
would have been forfeited as the estate of a traitor. Besides, his father's name was Fawkes, and had
long spent his estate; and Jane was the widow of a much better man— John Vaux, an honest vintner of
Loudon, who bequeathed property for the erection of seven almshouses in this parish. Nevertheless,
the house in which the conspirators stored their powder and other combustibles, during the digging of
the mine, was certainly at Lambeth, and near the river-side; but that house did not belong to any one
of them, it being merely hired for the purpose in the summer of 1604. Neither history nor tradition
has recorded the exact site of the conspirators' storehouse; but we have the following evidence of it&
destruction by fire. In an anniversary sermon, preached at Lambeth Church by Dr. Featley, on
November 5, 1635, is this passage :— " You have heard the miracles of God's providence in the discovery
of this powder-plot : behold now the rairrour of His justice. The first contriver of the fire- workes first
feeleth the flame ; his powder-sin upbraids him, and fleeth in his face," It is added, in a note :— ' This
last yeare, the House where Catesby plotted this treason in Lambeth was casually burnt downe to the
ground by powder."— Featley's Clavis Mystica, p. 824 ; 1636.
Vauxhall Gardens were first laid out about 1661. Evelyn records : " 2 July, 1661,
I went to see the New Spring Gardens* at Lambeth, a pretty contrived plantation ;"
and Balthasar Monconys, early in the reign of Charles II., describes the gardens well
frequented in 1663.
Sir Samuel Morland "built a fine room at Vaux-hall anno 1667, the inside all of looking-glass, and
fountains very pleasant to behold, which is much visited by strangers ; it stands in the middle of the
Garden." (Mr. Bray thought this room to have been erected by Morland for the entertainment of
Charles II. when he visited this place with his ladies.) " Without the New Spring Garden is the
remainder of a kind of horn-work, belonging to the lines of communication made about 1643-4."
(Aubrey's Surrey, vol. i. pp. 12, 13.)
Morland's room is believed to have stood where the orchestra was after-
wards built ; and in 1794 a leaden pump was removed bearing Sir Samuel's
mark as annexed :
A large mound of earth, said to have been thrown up for defence, remained to our
time near the firework-shed. North of the Gardens is believed to have stood a Boman
* To distinguish it from Spring Garden, Charing Cross.
812 CUEI0SITIE8 OF LONDON.
fort or cainp ; and Roman pottery has been found here, Canute's Trench has been
traced through the Gardens to its influx: into the Thames (Maitland).
In a plan dated 1681 the place is named Spring Garden, and " marked as planted
with trees and laid out in walks." Pepys's Diary has entries in 1665-8 of his visits
to Fox-hall and the Spring Garden ; and of " the humours of the citizens, pulling off
cherries, and God knows what ;'* " to hear the nightingale and the birds, and here
fiddlers, and there a harp, and here a Jew's trump ; and here laughing, and there fine
people walking, is mighty diverting." Pepys also tells of " supper in an arbour,"
ladies walking '* with their masks on," &c. ; and —
" July 27, 1668. So over the water, with my wife aiid Deb, and Mercer, to Spring Garden, and there
eat and walked; and observed how rude some of the young gallants of the town are become, to go into
people's arbours where there are not men, and almost force the women, which troubled me to see the
confidence of the vice of the age ; and so we away by water with much pleasure home."
Tom Brown, a dozen years later, speaks of the close walks and little wildernesses,
which " are so intricate that the most experienced mothers have often lost themselves
in looking for their daughters."
Wycherley refers to a cheesecake and a syllabub at New Spring Garden. And in
the Spectator y No. 383 (May 20, 1712), Addison describes his going with Sir Roger
de Coverley on the water from the Temple Stairs to Spring Garden, " which is
exquisitely pleasant at this time of year :" a mask tapped Sir Roger upon the shoulder
and invited him to drink a bottle of mead with her. The usual supper of that period
was " a glass of Burton ale, and a slice of hung beef." Cheesecakes and syllabubs
were the earlier fare in Wycherley's day ; and punch and ham were not yet heard of.
In 1728, Spring Gardens were leased by Elizabeth Masters, for 30 years, to
Jonathan Tyers, of Denbies, Surrey, at the yearly rent of 250Z. Tyers's lease
enumerates the Dark Room, Ham Room, Milk-house, Pantry-room ; and among the
arbours, covered and paved with tiles, are the names of Checker, King's Head,
Dragon, Oak, Royal Arbour, York, Queen's Head, Royal George, Ship, Globe, Phoenix,
Swan, Eagle, and the Barge. The hatch at the Water-gate was of Tyers's time.
The Gardens were opened by Tyers, Jnne 7, 1732, with a Ridotto al fresco.
Prederick, Prince of Wales, was present, and the company wore masks, dominoes, and
lawyers' gowns. The admission was one guinea : 400 persons were present ; and there
were 100 Foot- Guards posted round the Gardens to keep order. The admission-ticket
was designed by the younger Laguerre.
The author of A Touch at the Times, or a Trip to Vauxhall, 1737, sings —
" Sail'd triumphant on the liquid way,
To hear the fiddlers of Spring Garden play."
Tyers set up an organ in the orchestra j and in the Garden, in 1738, a fine statue
of Handel, as Orpheus playing a lyre, by Roubiliac, his first work in England.*
Here was also a statue of Milton, by Roubiliac, cast in lead, and painted stone-colour.
The season of 1739 was for three months, and the admission only by silver tickets, at
25s. each, to admit two persons. These silver tickets were struck after designs by
Hogarth : the obverse bore the number, name of the holder, and date ; and the
reverse a figure of Euterpe, Erato, or Thalia.
Hogarth, who was then lodging in Lambeth-terrace,t suggested to Tyers the em-
bellishment of the Gardens with paintings ; in acknowledgment of which Tyers pre-
sented Hogarth with a Gold Ticket of perpetual admission : it bears on its obverse,
" Hogarth," and beneath it, " In perpetuam heneficii memoriam ;" on the reverse are
two figures surrounded with the motto, " Virtus voluptas felices una.'' This ticket
(for the admission of six persons or " one coach") was last used in the season of 1838 ;
it was purchased for 20Z. by Mr. Frederick Gye. Hogarth designed for the pavilions
in the Gardens the Four Parts of the Day, which Hayman copied; besides other
pictures. In 1745, Tyers added vocal to his instrumental music, and Dr. Arne com-
posed ballads, duets, &c. j Mrs. Arne, Lowe, Beard, and the elder Reinhold, were
singers.
* This statue was sold, in 1854. to the Sacred Harmonic Society for 2001., and is now in their com-
mittee-room at Exeter Hall, Strand.
t The house which Hogarth occupied is still shown; and a vine is pointed out which he planted.—
Allan Cunningham, Lives qf British Fainters, ^c, 1829.
VATTXHALL GARDENS. 813
Horace Walpole, in June, 1V50, went with a large party to the Gardens ; and their
visit is admirably described in one of Walpole's Letters.
Fielding, in his Amelia, 1751, describes the Vauxhall of that date: "the coaches
being come to the water-side, they all alighted, and getting into one boat, proceeded to
Vauxhall. The extreme beauty and elegance of the place is well known to almost
every one of my readers ; and happy is it for me that it is so, since to give an adequate
idea of it would exceed my power of description."
In England's Gazetteer, 3751, the entertainments are described as "the sweet song
of numbers of nightingales, in concert with the best band of musick in England.
Here are fine pavilions, shady groves, and most delightful walks illuminated with
above 1000 lamps."
In 1751, the walks are described as illuminated with above 1000 lamps ; but the
print of this date shows glass vase-shaped lamps on posts, and suspended in the
music-house, though in no great profusion. The walks are wide and open; the
straggling groups of company are in happy ease : the ladies in their hoops, sacques,
and caps, as they appeared in their own drawing- rooms; and the gentlemen in their
grotesque hats, and wearing swords and bags,
" At Vauxhall the artificial ruins are repaired : the cascade is made to spout with several additional
streams of block-tin; and they have touched up all the pictures which were damaged last season by the
fingering of those curious connoisseurs who could not be satisfied without feeling whether the figures
were aUve." — Connoisseur, May 15, 1755.
Then follows the story of a parsimonious old citizen going there with his wife and
daughters, and grumbling at the dearness of the provisions and the wafer-like
thinness of the slices of ham. At every mouthful the old fellow exclaims : " Thei-e
goes twopence ! there goes threepence ! there goes a groat !" Then there is the old
joke of the wafery slices of ham, and the expert carver who undertook to cover the
Gardens — eleven acres — with slices from one ham !
It is curious to find Sir John Fielding commending the Garden of 1757 for " its
elegant eatables and drinkables, in which particular Vauxhall differs widely from the
prudent and abstemious Ranelagh, where one is confined to tea and coffee."
In 1752, Tyers purchased a moiety of the estate for 3800/. ; and a few years after-
ward?, as Lysons informs us from the records in the Duchy of Cornwall Office, " he
bought the remainder," — probably at the expiration of his original lease, in 1758.
Goldsmith thus describes the Vauxhall of about 1760 :-^
" The lights everywhere glimmering through scarcely moving trees ; the full-bodied concert bursting
on the stillness of night ; the natural concert of the birds in the more retired part of the grove, vieing
with that which was formed by art ; the company gaily dressed, looking satisfied ; and the tables spread
with various delicacies, — all conspired to fill my imagination with the visionary happiness of the Arabian
lawgiver, and lifted me into an ecstasy of admiration. ' Head of Confucius,' cried I to my friend, 'this
is fine! This unites rural beauty with courtly ma^niiieence,' "—{Citizen of the World, Letter Ixxi.)
" The last gay picture in Goldsmith's life is of himself and Sir Joshua (Reynolds) at Vauxhall. And not
the least memorable figures in that sauntering crowd,— though it numbered princes and ambassadors
then; and on its tide and torrent of fashion floated all the beauty of the time: and through its lighted
avenues of trees glided cabinet ministers and their daughters, royal dukes and their wives, agreeable
Young ladies and gentlemen of eighty-two,' and all the red-heeled macaronies,— were those of the
President and the Ancient History Professor of the Royal Academy."— Forster's Goldsmith, p. 676.
Miss Burney also lays scenes of her Evelina and Cecilia in Vauxhall Gardens.
Tyers subsequently bought the property : he died in 1767 : " so great was the delight
he took in this place, that, possessing his faculties to the last, he caused himself to be
carried into the Gardens a few hours before his death, to take a last look at them."
They were called Spring Garden until 1785 ; and the licence, every season, was to
the last obtained for " Spring Garden, Vauxhall." The property remained with
Tyers's family until it was sold in 1822, for 28,O0OZ., to Bish, Gye, and Hughes (the
London Wine Company), who retained it till 1840. Their most profitable season was
in 1823 ; 133,279 visitors, 29,590Z. receipts : the greatest number of persons in one
night was Aug. 2, 1833, the second night of the revival of the shilling admission, when
20,137 persons paid for admission. In 1827, Charles Farley, of Covent-garden
Theatre, produced in the gardens a representation of the Battle of Waterloo, with set-
scenes of La Belle Alliance and the wood and chateau of Hougomont; also horse
and foot soldiers, artillery, ammunition- waggons, &c. In July, 1841, the estate (about
eleven acres), with its buildings, timber, covered walks, &c., was offered for sale by
814 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
auction, but bought in at 20,200^. The Gardens were open from 1732 to 1840
without intermission ; in the latter year they were closed, but were re-opened in 1841.
At the close of this season there was a sale of moveable property, when twenty-four
pictures by Hogarth and Hayman produced small sums ; they had mostly been upon
the premises since 1742 ; the canvas was nailed to boards, and much obscured by dirt.
Among' these pictures were:— By Hogarth: Drunken Man, 41. 4«.; a Woman pulling out an Old
Man's Grey Hairs, 31. 3«.; Jobson and Nell in the Devil to Pay, 41. is.; the Happy Family, 91. 15s.;
Children at Play, 41. lis. 6d. By Hayman : Children Birds'-nesting, 51. 10«.; Minstrels, dl.; the Enraged
Husband, 41. 48.; the Bridal Day, 61. 6s.; Blindman's Buff, 31. 8s. ; Prince Henry and Falstaff, 71.; Scene
from the Rake's Progress, 9^, 15s.; Merry-making, II. 12s.; the Jealous Husband, 4^,; Card-party, 6^.;
Children's Party, 41. los. ; Battledore and Shuttlecock, 11. lOs.; the Doctor, 41. 14s. 6d.; Cherry-bob,
21. 15s.; the Storming of Seringapatam, 81. 10s.; Neptune and Britannia, 81. 15s. Four busts of
Simpson, the celebrated Master of the Ceremonies, were sold for 10s. ; and a bust of his royal shipmate-
William IV., 19s.
The Gardens were finally closed July 25, 1859 j and in the following month were
sold the theatre, orchestra, dancing-platform, firework-gallery, fountains, statues,
vases, paintings, &c., which brought small sums. The most attractive lot was the
Gothic orchestra, built by a carpenter named Maidman, and which, in 1738, had re-
placed Tyers's music-house. This Gothic orchestra produced 99^.
The price of admission to the Gardens was 1*. until 1792, except on particular
nights, as on the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary, when it was 10*. 6d. After
1792 the admission was raised to 2*., including tea and cofiee ; in 1809 to 3*. 6d. ; in
1850 reduced to Is. ; and since various. At the Vittoria Fete, July 1814 (admission
one guinea), 1350 visitors dined in the rotunda, the Duke of York presiding ; there
were also present the Dukes of Clarence, Kent, Sussex, and Gloucester ; the Princess
of Wales, and the Duchess of York. The fireworks were by Colonel Congreve.
The Gardens are well described in the Ambulator, 12th edition, 1820 ; where the paintings in the
supper-pavilions, by Hogarth and Hayman, are enumerated. Very little alteration was made in the
arrangement of the walks or the position of the buildings since they were originally laid out or
constructed by the elder Tyers, as may be seen by comparing' the different views of the Gardens.
One of the earliest representations, dated 1737, shows the seats and supper tables in the quadrangle
surrounding the orchestra, together with a perspective of the Long Walk, and an Herculean statue at
its extremity.
The general plan of the Gardens was a quadrangular grove, with the orchestra near its centre,
surrounded by broad covered walks, frora the roofing of which were suspended, by wires, illumination
" bucket-lamps :" the earlier lamps resembled the street-lamps of the last century. At the head of the
quadrangle was the Prince's Pavilion, originally built for the accommodation of Frederick Prince of
Wales. To the right and left of the grove were semicircular sweeps of supper-boxes. The rotunda,
seventy feet in diameter, had part of its area enclosed as a ride for equestrian performances. At some
distance northward of the quadrangle was the theatre, where for many years were exhibited a mechanical
cascade, water-mill, and moving figures ; but latterly this theatre had been used for ballets and dramatic ■
pieces. The number of lamps upon extra gala-nights exceeded 20,000. The fireworks were discharged
T'rom a lofty tower, at the end of a long walk ; whence Madame Saqui descended along a rope several
hundred feet in length in a shower of fire, or II Diavolo Antonio swung by one foot on the slack-rop^
playing a silver trumpet as he swung.
"See ! the large, silent, pale blue-light
Flares, to lead all to where the bright.
Loud rockets rush on high,
Like a long comet roaring through
The night, then melting into blue.
And starring the dark sky ;
And Catherine-wheels, and crowns, and names
Of great men, whizzing in blue flames ;
Lights, like the smiles of hope ;
And radiant, fiery palaces.
Showing the tops of all the trees ;
And Blackmore on the rope."
London Magazine, 1824.
Balloons were celebrated exhibitions of late. The first ascent was made from the
Gardens in 1802. Green made several ascents from here, the most memorable of
which was his voyage from Vauxhall to Weilburg, in the Duchy of Nassau, in 1836,
in the stupendous balloon constructed in the Gardens, at the cost of 2100Z. ; height,
80 feet ; circumference, 157 feet. This balloon was subsequently sold to Green for 500^.
Music. — Among the Vauxhall composers were Arne, Boyce, Carter, Mountain,
Signer Storace, and Hook (organist upwards of 40 years, father of Theodore Hook,
and uncle of Dr. Hook, Dean of Chichester). Male singers : Beard, Lowe, Webb,
Dignum, Vernon, Incledon, Braham, Pyne, Sinclair, Tinney, Robinson, Bedford, and
Sharp. Females : Miss Brent, Mrs. "Wrighten, Mrs. Weischel (mother oi Mrs.
WALBBOOK.—WAPPING. 815
Billington), Mrs. Mountain, Signora Storace, Mrs. Crouch, Mrs. Bland, Miss Tryrer
(afterwards Mrs. Liston), Miss Graddon, Miss Love, Miss Tunstall, &c. Italian operas
were performed here in 1829. The band were the last to wear the semicircular or
cocked hat.
Fireworlcs were first occasionally exhibited at Vauxhall in 1798. The late Mr. John
Fillinliam, of Walworth, possessed a large collection of Vauxhall bills of entertainment,
engravings, and other interesting records of the Gardens.
The site was cleared, and a church, dedicated to St. Peter, was built upon a portion
of the ground ; this church being memorable as the first example in London, in the
present revival, of a church vaulted throughout. Here, too, have been erected a School
of Art; and roads, called Auckland-street, Burnett-street, Brunei-street, Leopold-
street, Gye-street, and Italian-walk." — See Walks and Talks about London, 1865.
WALJBROOK,
A NARROW street named from the stream or brook which, rising on the north of
Moorfields, entered the City through the walls, between Bishopsgate and Moor-
gate, and proceeded nearly along the line of the new street of that name j thence,
according to Stow, across Lothbury, beneath the kitchen of Grocers' Hall and St.
Mildred's Church, through Bucklersbury, past the sign of the " Old Barge" (from
Thames barges being rowed up there) ; and thence through the present Walbrook-
street, under which it still runs as a sewer, and discharges itself, by a part of Elbow-
lane, down Greenwich-lane, into the Thames at Dowgate. The Walbrook was crossed
by a bridge connecting Budge-row and Cannon-street, and several other bridges, but
was vaulted over with brick, and its banks built upon, long since : so that in Stow's
time the course of Walbrook was " hidden under ground, and thereby hardly known.*'
The brook was navigable not merely to Bucklersbury but as far as Coleman-street,
where a Roman boat-hook has been found ; and with it was found a coin of Alectus,
who ruled in Britain towards the close of the third century. In forming Prince's-
street, the workmen came upon the course of the brook, which the Romans had em-
banked with wooden piles ; and the bed was thickly strewn with coins, brass scales,
styli, knives, tools, pottery, &c. In Walbrook was one of the three taverns in London
licensed to sell sweet wines in the reign of Edward III. Walbrook gives name to the
ward : at its north-east corner is St. Stephen's Church, described at p. 204. Lower
down, upon the brook, at Dowgate-hill, was the church of Allhallows the Less, destroyed
in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt ; but its burial-ground, with a solitary altar- tomb,
remains. Nearly opposite London Stone, in June, 1852, was unearthed part of the
cloister of the church of St. Mary Bothaw, which stood near Walbrook bank at Dow-
gate, and was named Boat-haw from being near a yard where boat-building was car-
ried on : in the church was interred Fitzalwin, first Mayor of London. The writer of
a quarto History of London, 1805, states that, in 1803, he saw the Wallbrook " still
trickling among the foundations of the new buildings at the Bank.'*
WAPPING,
A HAMLET of Stepney, is now a long street extending from Lower East Smith-
field, on the north bank of the Thames, to New Crane. It was commenced
building in 1571, to secure the manor from the encroachments of the river, which made
the whole site a great wash j the Commissioners of Sewers rightly thinking that " the
tenants would not fail being attentive to their lives and property." Stow calls it
" Wapping in the Wose," or Wash.
Here was Execution Dock, "the usual place for han^ng of pirates and sea-rovers, at the low-water
mark, and there to remain till three tides had overflowed them ; but since the gallows being after
removed farther oft', a contmual street or filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements or cottages
built, inhabited by sailors' victuallers, along by the river of Thames almost to Kadelitie, a good mile
from the '£ovfer."—Stow.
Pennant notes : " Execution Dock still remains at Wapping, and is in use as oftert
as a melancholy occasion requires. The criminals are to tliis day executed on a tem-
porary gallows placed at low-water mark ; but the custom of leaving the body to be
overflowed by the sea tides has long been omitted." — London, 5th edit.
816 CURIOSITIES OF LONDOK
In 1703 a destructive fire took place at Execution Dock, by which the sufferers,
mostly seamen, sea-artificers, and poor seamen's widows, lost 13,040^. And in 1794,
a great fire occurred at Wapping, burning 630 houses, and an East India warehouse
containing 35,C00 bags of saltpetre — the loss was 1,000,000^.
To Wapping, in 1688, Lord Chancellor Jeffreys fled in the disguise of a coal-porter,
and was captured in the Bed Cow ale-house, in Anchor and Hope-alley, near King
Edward's Stairs. He was identified by a scrivener he had formerly insulted, lolling out
of window in all the confidence of misplaced security. {Cunningliam.) But at Leather-
head, where Jeffreys had a mansion, it is traditionally asserted that he was betrayed
by the butler who accompanied him in his flight, for the sake of the reward.
Joseph Ames, P.R.S., author of the Typographical Antiquities, and Secretary to
the Society of Antiquaries, was a ship-chandler at Wapping, where he died in 1758 :
" he was a person of vast application and industry in collecting old printed books,
prints, and other curiosities, both natural and artificial." {Cole.) John Day, with
whom originated "Fairlop Fair," in Hainault Forest, was a block and a pump
maker at Wapping. Here the first Fuchsia brought to England from the West
Indies, being seen by Mr. Lee, the nurseryman, became, in the next flowering season,
the parent of 300 fuchsia-plants, which Lee sold at one guinea each.
Wapping is noted, as in Stow's time, for its nautical signs, its ship and boat builders,
rope-makers, biscuit-bakers and provision-dealers ; mast, oar, and block makers ; ship-
chandlers and sail-makers : and the name Wapping was probably derived from the
ship's rope called a wapp ; or from wapin-scliaw, a periodical exhibition of arms, which
may formerly have been held upon this open ground. In the list of subscribers to
Wren's Parentaliay 1750, is " The Mathematical Society of Wapping ;" and nautical
instrument makers are said to have abounded here.
Among the thirty-six taverns and public-houses in Wapping High-street and Wapping Wall, we find
the signs of the Ship and Pilot, Ship and Star, Ship and Punch-bowl, Union Flag and Punch-bowl, the
Gun, North American Sailor, Goldeu Anchor, Anchor and Hope, the Ship, Town of Eamsgate, Queen's
Landing, Ship and Whale, the Three Mariners, and the Prospect of Whitby.
Between Nos. 288 and 304 are " Wapping Old Stairs," in Wapping-street, on the
western side of the church ; but the wood-built wharf and house fronts towards the
river are fast disappearing.
Strype relates that "on Friday, the 24th of July, 1629, King Charles having
hunted a stag or hart fi'om Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in Nightingale-lane, in the
hamlet of Wapping, in a garden belonging to one , who had some damage among
his herbs, by reason of the multitude of people there assembled suddenly."
The village of Radcliffe, to which Wapping joins, is of some antiquity. From hence
the gallant Sir Hugh Willoughby, on May the 20th, 1553, took his departure on his
fatal voyage for discovering the north-east passage to China. He sailed with great
pomp by Greenwich, where the Court then lay. Mutual honours were paid on both
sides. The council and courtiers appeared at the windows, the people covered the
shores. The young King alone lost the noble and novel sight j for he then lay on his
death-bed ; so that the principal object of the parade was disappointed. — SaJcluyt,
i. 239. Pennant's London, 5th edit.
WATLING-STRJEJET,
pOMMENCINGr at the north-east corner of St. Paul's-churchyard, and formerly
^ extending through Budge-row and Cannon-street, is considered to have been the
principal street of Roman London, and " one of the four grand Roman ways in Bri-
tain ;"* as well as a British road before the arrival of the Romans : " with the Britons
it was a forest-lane or trackway j with the Romans it became a stratum, street, or
* The Watling-street Thistle (Eryngium campestre) is named from this ancient road being its only
Known habitat in England.— Bake. 's Northamptonshire Glossary, ii. 386. Watling-street, part of
which remains, is one of the narrowest and most inconvenient streets in the metropolis :
'Who would of Watling-street the dangers share.
When the broad pavement of Cheapside is near?"
—Gay's Trivia,
I
WATLING-STBEET. 817
raised road, constructed according to their well-known manner." (A. J. Kempe,
ArchcBologia, xxvi. 467.) This is corroborated by the discovery of British remains on
the line, in Cannon-street. The Romans made it part of their grand route from the
point of their invasion, through a portion of Kent and the north-eastern corner of
Surrey, and thence from Stoney-street over the Thames to Dowgate, north of the river,
by the present Watling-street, to Aldersgate ; where, quitting the City, it ran along
Goswell-street to the west of Islington, through Hagbush-lane (the road in part
remains), to Verulamium, or St. Albans. Dr. Stukeley, however, maintains that the
old Watling-street did not enter London, but, in its course from Verulam, crossed the
Oxford-road at Tyburn, and thence ran over part of Hyde Park, and by May Fair
through St. James's Park, to the Wool-staple at Westminster, and crossed the
Thames by Stanegate-ferry, through St. George's Fields, and south of the Lock Hospital,
Kent-street, to Deptford and Blackheath. Stukeley adds : " as London increased,
passengers went through the City by Cannon-street, Watling-street, and Holborn, this
being a vicinal branch of Watling-street." Wren, however, considers it to have been
the centre or Praetorian way of the old Roman station ; the principal gate being at
Eastcheap. In 1853, in excavating Budge-row, there was discovered a fragment of
Roman wall.
In a folio Map of Middlesex, by Bowen, 1709, a Eoman road appears from the corner of the
Tottenham-court-road, where the Hampstead-road and the Euston-road now meet, running through
what must now be the Regent's Park, until it reaches Edgware, and thence to Brockley Hills, called
SuUoniacse, an ancient city in Antonine's Itinerary. In this Map, or in another with the same route,
Watling-street is printed upon the highway that "leads to Tyburn Turnpike, in a manner to show the
■whole of that distance is meant. The Roman road from Tottenham Court, after making its appearance
in a variety of other maps, up to a certain date, about 1780, is nowhere to be found since in any of the
Middlesex Maps. It is, however, certain that the part of Watling-street crossing Oxford-street at
Tyburn, must have led to Edgware.
*' Watling-street crossed the Walbrook by a bridge at the junction of Cannon-street and Budge-row,
and then branching oif at London Stone, in Cannon -street, ran along the Langbourne to Aldgate ; whilst
a smaller road ran from the ferry at Dowgate towards Cripplegate, one of the three City gates during
the Roman rule. Enough of remains of houses have been found in Budge-row and Watling-street to
show that the rudiments of a street, in continuation of the line from Aldgate, existed on the west side
of the htook."— National Miicellany, No. 6.
This street, says Lcland, was formerly called Atheling (or Nolle) street, from being
near the Old Change, where the Mint formerly was; and afterwards, corruptly,
Watheling and Watliug street : but from this Stow dissents. By another, Watling
is traced to the ancient British words, gwaith, work, aud lea, legion, whence gioaith-
lea — i.e., legion work (Gent. Hag. 1796). Dr. Jamieson states it to have been "called
by the Romans Via Lactea (Milky Way), from its fancied resemblance to a broad
street, or causeway, being as it were paved with stars." Moxon, in his Tutor to
Astronomy, 1670, describing the Milky Way, observes : " some, in a sporting mannei',
call it Watling-street ; but why they call it so I cannot tell, except it be in regard to
the narrowness it seemeth to have," which narrowness is now contrasted with the fine
broad thoroughfare of Cannon-street West. We must make room for a few more
etymons of this much disputed word :
" The two words Watling Street are compounded of three English roots, which are identical with the
Anglo-Saxon roots waetling-straet. No etymology hitherto advanced approximates so near, or is so sig-
nificant or appropriate as this. We have to bear in mind that long before embankment and drainage
were attended to in this country, the meadows {ings) were flooded after rain; and the mode of passing
along the streets (the straight or direct ways), where such impediment occurred, was by wattles or
hurdles, called by the French fascines, and which are now used for the same purpose in military opera-
tions, 'with so clear an etymological deduction, we can dispense with Hoveden's strata quamjilii regis
Wetidae straverunt {Annates, 342), with Camden's Vitellianus, in British Guetalin, and even with
Thierry's Qwydd-elin-sarn, Road of the Gaels or Irish {Norman Conquest, i. 165), which are the only
other etymologies deserving attention. It is to be noted that Anglo-Saxon names were given to works
already ancient, when such names were imposed."— T. J. Buckton, Notes and Queries, 2nd S., vii.
The following is considered a good derivation: the name a Saxon corruption of the Cymric
Gwydelinsarn (the way of the Gael), so called because it led to the country of the Gwyddyl— Ireland.
It is much more probable that it was the work of that people during its dominancy in South Britain ;
just as were the houses whose ruins, two centuries ago, were called by the Welsh the houses of the Gael.
(Thierry's Norman Conquest, vol. i. p. 2, note. Notes and Queries, 2nd S., No. 40.) It is also suggested
to have been called by corruption only Yitellin, or Watling-street, from the name of Vitellianus.
Mr. T. Reveley, of Kendal, suggests that the Romans probably employed brushwood in forming the
foundations of their roads,* and may have wattled it to give it greater consistency ; and that the name
had been given to the several roads so called by the Anglo-Saxons from the wattling, the remains of
which they had found. It would thus be synonymous with the name Wicker-street, which occurs in the
tenth Antonine Itinerary.— Froc. Soc. Antiq., vol. iv. p. 256.
* Fagots are, to this day, used in mating our roads.
3 G
818 CUBIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Watling-street has been, since Stow's time, inhabited by " wealthy drapers, retailers
of woollen cloths, both broad and narrow, of all sorts." Hatton describes it as " much
inhabited by wholesale grocers, tobacconists, and other great dealers." Several of the
new buildings in Cannon-street are mansion-like warehouses. At the east end are
immense warehouses of the Manchester and silk trades ; the German bronze and Bohe-
mian glass trades ; the pin and needle trade j and about the centre the paper trade.
Near St. Swithin's-lane, are the wholesale tea and grocery and spice trades. Here, too,
are leading houses of the shipping-trade, and Colonial Banks and Assurance Companies.
Messrs. Lawrence and Sons (Alderman W. Lawrence, Lord Mayor, 1863-4) are the
builders of several of these noble piles, and are the ground-landlords. Here is the
City station of the South-Eastern Railway.
The water-front towers of the Station hare gilded metal finials, with weather-vanes and arms. The
edifice, with its vast arch, its spacious platforms, its ten lines of rails, its broad carriage-way, and, at
the end, the handsome inner front of the hotel, and the flank erections, is probably the finest station in
London. The elaborate apparatus of the Cannon-street signal-box stretches across nearly the entire
width of the roadway, and has above the loof 24 semaphore arms, and 16 lamps showing red, green,
and white lights. The switches which work the points and signals are adjusted in a metal frame in one
straight line, and are an admirable and elaborate piece of mechanism. The levers, 67 in number, are
coloured yellow, white, black, blue, and red, and numbered progressively by circular brass plates on their
fronts. The yellow levers work the distance signals, and are nine in number ; tne white, of which there
are three, are indicators, and relate to the station ; the black levers, of which there are 30, work the points,
which appear very complicated, there being as many as 12 pairs of rails passing under the signal box.
The blue levers work the semaphore arms for trains outward j and the red levers, 16 in number, signal
the train inwards.
London Stone, the famous Roman relic of Watling-street, is described at pp. 533-534.
WAX- WORK SHOWS.
THE oldest Exhibition of Wax-work in England of which we have any record was
that at Westminster Ahhey, called " the Play of the Dead Volks," and " the
Ragged Regiment," shown by the keeper of the tombs. From a passage in a rhyming
account of the tombs in Westminster Abbey, in the Mysteries of Love and Moqttence,
1658, it would appear that at that time the following were the waxen figures exhibited
in the presses :— -
" Benry the Seventh, and his fair Queen,
Edward the First, and his Queen ;
Henry the Fifth here stands upright.
And his fair Queen was this Queen.
" The noble prince. Prince Henry,
King James's eldest son ;
King James, Queen Anne, Queen Elizabeth,
And so this chapel's done."
In Peacham's Worth of a Penny, 1667, we read : " For a penny you may hear a
most eloquent oration upon our English kings and queens, if, keeping your hands off,
you will seriously listen to David Owen, who keeps the monuments in Westminster."
Of the wax-work (which is mentioned at p. 128) we find the following account in a
description of the Abbey, " its monuments and curiosities," " printed for J. Newbery,
at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1754 :"
" Over this chapel (Islip, otherwise St. Erasmus) is a chantry in which are two large wainscot presse9_
full of the effigiess of princes and others of high quality, buried in this Abbey. These efiBgies resemble
the deceased as near as possible, and were wont to be exposed at the funerals of our princes and othfl
great personages in open chariots, with their proper ensigns of royalty or honour appended. The
that are here laid up are in a sad mangled condition ; some stripped, and others in tattered robes, bo
all maimed or broken. The most ancient are the least injured, by which it would seem as if the cost'
ness of their clothes had occasioned this ravage; for the robes of Edward VI., which were once i
crimson velvet, but now appear like leather, are left entire; but those of Q. Elizabeth and K. Jame
the First are entirely stript, as are all the rest, of every thing of value. In two handsome wainscc
presses are the efiigies of K. William and Q. Mary, and Q. Anne, in good condition, and greatly admire
by every eye that beholds them." The figure of Cromwell is not here mentioned ; but in the accouE
of his lying-in-state, the efiigies is described as made to the life, in wax, apparelled in velvet, gold lac^
and ermine. This figure was laid upon the bed-of-state, and carried upon the hearse in the fuuerr
procession ; both were then deposited in Westminster Abbey : but at the Restoration, the hearse wa
broken in pieces, and the efiBgies was destroyed after hanging from a window at Whitehall.
Under date of 1761, Horace Walpole complains that " the Chapter of Westminste
sell their church over and over again : the ancient monuments tumble upon one's hea(j
through their neglect, as one of them did, and killed a man, at Lady Elizabeth Percy*!
funeral ; and they erect new waxen dolls of Queen Elizabeth, &c., to draw visits ar
money from the mob."
WAX-WOBK 8H0WS. S19
In the Picture of London, 1806, the collection is described as " a variety of figures
in wax, in cases with glass doors, which are shown as curious to the stranger j" their
exhibition was continued until 1839.
Nollekens, the sculptor, used to describe the collection as " the wooden figures, with,
wax masks, all in silk tatters, that the Westminster boys called ' the Ragged Kegiment ;*
and carried before the corpse formerly ; kept in narrow closets between the wax figure*
of Queen Elizabeth and Lord Chatham in his robes ; in Bishop Islip's Chapel, where
you have seen the stained glass of a boy slipping down a tree, a slip of a tree, and the
eye slipping out of its socket."
New Exchange, Strand, was also noted for its Wax-work shows.
Mes. Salmon's Wax-woek, in Fleet-street, is described at p. 350. The minor
Exhibitions of wax-work are too numerous to mention ; but we may instance a collec-
tion of figures shown at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford-street, in 1830; and Dubourg's
Mechanical Exhibition, in Windmill-street, Haymarketj as admirable specimens of
foreign ingenuity in wax-modeUing. To these may be added the lifelike and spirited
figures of costumed natives of Mexico, and American Indians, modelled in wax with
surprising minuteness and artistic feeling both in the position and grouping, varied
expression, and anatomical development; inese figures, at the Great Exhibition of
1851, gained for their artist, N. Montanari, a prize medal.
Madame Tussaud and Son's Collection, Baker-street, Portman-square, is stated to
be the oldest exhibition in Europe. It was commenced on the Boulevard du Temple
at Paris in 1780, and was first shown in London, at the Lyceum, Strand, in 1802. It
now consists of upwards of 300 figures in wax, in the costume of their time, and several
in the dresses which they actually wore ; besides a large collection of paintings and
sculpture, arranged in superb saloons.
Madame Tussaud was born at Berne, in Switzerland, in 1760. When a child she was taught ta
model figures in wax, by her uncle M. Curtius, at whose house she often dined with Voltaire, Rousseau,
Dr. Franklin, Mirabeau, and La Fayette, of whose heads she took casts. She taught drawing and
modelling to the Princess Elizabeth, and many of the French noblesse, just before the Revolution of
1789. She also modelled in wax Robespierre, Marat, and Danton ; and often took models of heads
severed on the scaffold. Thus she commenced her collection of royalists, revolutionists, generals,
authors and men of science, and distinguished ladies ; with which she came to London in 1802. She
has left her Memoirs and Eeminiscences, published in 1838 ; a very curious narrative of the old French
Revolution, and its leading characters en costume. Madame Tussaud died in London, 15 April, 1850,
aged 90; her mother lived to the same age, her grandmother to 104, and her great-grandmother to 111.
The Tussaud Collection not only contains fine specimens of modelling in wax, but a
curious assemblage of costume and personal decoration, memorials of celebrated
characters, historical groups, &c. Among the most noteworthy are the costumed
recumbent efiigies of the Duke of Wellington ; a group of Henry VIII. and his six
queens ; Edward VI. and Henry VII. ; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert ; the Prince
and Princess of Wales ; the Prince and Princess of Hesse ; and the rest of the Royal
Family; Alexander Emperor of Russia, taken from life, in England, in 1814 ; Napoleon
Bonaparte, from life, in 1815 ; Louis XVI., his queen and children, modelled from
life, in 1790, and exhibited at La Petite Trianon ; Lord Nelson, the cast taken from
his face ; the beautiful Madame I'Amaranthe ; Madame Tussaud, taken by herself^
William Cobbett, very like ; Madame Grisi as Lucrezia Borgia ; Richard III., from
the portrait at Arundel Castle ; Voltaire (taken from life a few months before his
death), and a Coquette of the same period, both admirably characteristic ; Loushkin,
the Russian giant, 8 feet 5 inches high ; Jenny Lind, very like ; Sir Walter Scott,
modelled by Madame Tussaud, in Edinburgh, in 1828 ; the Empress Eugenie and the
Prince Imperial of France; Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico; Garibaldi, Count Cavour,
Poerio, Antonelli, and Count Bismarck ; Presidents Lincoln and Johnson (United
States) ; Queen Victoria (recently added). The sovereigns of the world, heroes and
statesmen, are well-timed additions.
Hall of Kings. — Kings and Queens of England, since the Conquest, thirty-six in
number ; the costumes and ornaments worn at the various periods, copied from historical
authorities, by Mr. Francis Tussaud and assistants. This series has proved an especially
attractive addition. The celebrities of the reigns are added ; as Wickliffe, Wykeham,
Chaucer, Caxton, Shakspeare, &c. The ceiling of the Hall of Kings is painted by Sir
3 G 2
820 CUBI08ITIES OF LONDON.
James Thornbill. Here are portraits of Queen Victoria (Hayter); Prince Albert
(Patten) ; George IV. (Lawrence) ; William IV. (Simpson) ; George III. and Queen
Charlotte (Reynolds) ; George II. (Hudson) ; Louis XIV. (Parosel). Also a group of
figures of Queen Victoria (the throne from Carlton Palace) ; the Queen Dowager, the
Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge, and the Princess Augusta, in Coronation robes;
George III. taken from life in 1809 ; William IV. as Lord High Admiral.
In the richly-gilt chamber adjoining is George IV. in his Coronation Eobe, which,
with two other robes, contain 567 feet of velvet and embroidery, and cost 18,000Z. :
the chair is the homage-chair, used at the Coronation; and the crown and sceptre, orb,
orders, &c., are copies from the actual regalia. Here is a large picture of the Birth of
Venus, by Boucher ; and of the Marriage of George IV., with many portraits.
Napoleon Belies. — The camp-bedstead on which Napoleon died ; the counterpane
stained with his blood. Cloak worn at Marengo. Three eagles taken at Waterloo.
Cradle of the King of Rome. Bronze posthumous cast of Napoleon, and hat worn by
him. Whole-length portrait of the Emperor, from Foutainebleau ; Marie Louise and
Josephine, and other portraits of the Bonaparte family. Bust of Napoleon, by Canova.
Isabey'fi portrait table of the Marshals. Napoleon's three carriages : two from
Waterloo, and a landau from St. Helena. His garden chair and drawing-room chair.
" The flag of Elba." Napoleon's sword, diamond, tooth-brush, and table-knife ; dessert
knife, fork, and spoons ; coffee-cup ; a piece of willow-tree from St. Helena ; shoe-socks
and handkerchiefs, shirt, &c. Model figure of Napoleon in the clothes he wore at
Longwood ; and porcelain dessert-service used by him. Napoleon's hair and tooth, &c.
Miscellaneous Belies. — Nelson's Order of the Bath, and coat worn at the Nile.
Snuff-box of James II. Shirt worn by Henry IV. of France when stabbed by
Ravaillac (from Cardinal Mazarin's collection). Coat and waistcoat of the Duke of
Wellington, given to Haydon, the painter. Model of Longwood, St. Helena.
The Chamber of Horrors contains portrait figures of the murderers Rush and the
Mannings, Good and Greenacre, Courvoisier and Gould, Burke and Hare ; Dumollard
and his wife, believed to have murdered seventeen or eighteen persons ; Nana Sahib ;
George Townley. Pierri, Pianori, and Orsini, who attempted to assassinate the Emperor
of the French. William Palmer and Catherine Wilson, the poisoners. Oxford and
Francis, who shot at Queen Victoria. Franz Miiller, murderer ; Fieschi and the
infernal-machine ; Marat, taken immediately after his assassination ; heads of French
Revolutionists ; the knife and lunette used in decapitating 22,000 persons in the first
French Revolution, purchased from M. Sanson, the grandson of the original executioner,
now residing in Paris. Also a model of the guillotine, &c. ; this being a class of models
in which Madame Tussaud excelled in her. youth. Admission to the general collec-
tion, \s. ; Chamber of Horrors, Qd. Music, instrumental, in the evening.
The Oeiental akd Turkish MusErM, Knightsbridge, opened 1854, contained
models from Eastern life, with costumes, arms, and implements; set scenes of Turkish
baths, coffee-shops and bazaars, a wedding, repasts, and councils; the palace, the
harem, and the divan; street scenes, &c.; the figures were modelled in wax, by James
Boggi, with wonderful variety of expression and character. i
WESTMINSTER.
nPHE general title of the western portion of the metropolis, but properly applying
-*- only to the City of Westminster, or " the parish of St. Margaret, including the
ecclesiastical district of St. John the Evangelist ; the other parishes constituting the
Liberties of Westminster." {Eev. M. E. C. Waleott.) It is named from the found-
ing of St. Peter's Minster on Thorney Island in the seventh century, which was called
West Minster to distinguish it from St. Paul's, the church of the East Saxons : thus
the town grew up around the monastery from which it took its name. The island site,
" formed by the rude channel worn by the river tides," in a charter of King Offa,
A.D. 785, is called "Torneia in loco terribili, quod, dicitur set. Westmunster." King
Edgar's charter describes Westminster to extend from Fleet Ditch, next the City of
London, to the Military Way, now the Horseferry-road ; and from Ty bourn and
WESTMINSTER. 821
Holbonrne to the Thames. Subsequently, the boundary of the City of London was
extended from Fleet Ditch to Temple Bar.
Thorney Idand, 470 yards long and 370 yards broad, was insulated by a small
stream, called in modern times Long Ditch, which has been traced fi'om the Thames at
Manchester-buildings, across King-street by Gardener's-laue, by Prince's-street (where
it is the common sewer), to Tothill-street, and thence to the Thames at the end of
Abingdon-street.
"This island comprised the precinct of the Abbey and Palace, which were further defended by lofty
stone walls : those on the east and south of the College gardens being the last remains of such defences
of a later date. They were pierced with four gateways : the first in King-street ; the second near New
Palace-yard, the foundations of which were seen in December a.d. 1838, in excavating for a sewer; the
third opening into Tothill-street; and the fourth near the mill in College-street. The precinct was
entered by two bridges : one crossed the water of Long Ditch, at the east end of Gardener's-lane,
having been built by Queen Matilda, the consort of King Henry I., for foot passcnsrers ; the other still
exists at the east end of College-street, underneath the pavement,— it connected Millbank with Dirty-
lane."— Walcott's Westminster, p. 3.
Westminster, like Chelsea, Lambeth, and all the ow-lying western districts of London, stands upon
gravels and sands of a depth of 25 to 30 feet, with a breadth of from two to two and a-half miles, over-
lying a thick stratum of London clay. In the Westminster gravels mammalian remains are frequently
found. From the sandy beds abutting against the abrupt line of London clay in excavations for sewers
in St. James's-square, and for the foundations of the Junior United Service Club, Charles-street, Hay-
market, tusks, teeth, and bones of the elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, ox, &c., were obtained,
specimens of some of which are preserved carefully at the above-named club.— -B. W. Mylne, F.O.S.
In Domesday -Book, Westminster is designated a village, with about 50 holders of
land, and " pannage for a hundred hogs," probably in part of the forest of Middlesex,
on the north-west ; so that the Liberty of Westminster thus early extended northward
to Tyburn : the whole of the Abbey and Palace precinct, south of Pall Mall, was called
by the Normans, " Thorney Island and tout le champ." In Domesday, also, occurs " the
vineyard lately made by Baynard," a nobleman that came in with William the Con-
queror. Westward, the parish of St. Margaret's extends to Chelsea, and includes
Kensington Palace. In 1174, Fitzstephen describes the Royal Palace as about two
miles westward of the City of London, with an intervening suburb of gardens and
orchards. Around the Old Palace the courtiers and nobility fixed their town residences.
The establishment of the Woolstaple at Westminster made it the early resort of
merchants ; the Law Courts were fixed here, and thenceforth Parliaments were more
frequently held ; and in the reign of Henry VIII., Westminster obtained the title of
City, from its having been for a short time the residence and see of a bishop. St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields became a parish 1353-61.
Early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, about 1560, a plan shows Westminster united
to London by a double line of buildings, extending from the palace of Whitehall (built
by Henry III.), by Charing Cross and along the Strand. Around Westminster Abbey
and Hall, the buildings formed a town of several streets; and at the close of Charles
ll.'s reign they had extended westward along the south side of St. James's Park; and
southward along Millbank to the Horseferry opposite Lambeth Palace. In the reign
of Elizabeth, Westminster was the abode of great numbers of felons, masterless men,
and cutpurses ; and in the next reign, " almost every fourth house was an alehouse,
harbering all sorts of lewd and badde people." To the church of St. Margaret
(originally built by Edward the Confessor) was added, in 1728, St. John's near Mill-
bank J and in 1747 was completed Westminster Bridge. The old streets were so
narrow, that " opposite neighbours might shake hands out of the windows ;" and a
knot of wretched lanes and alleys were called " the desert of Westminster." Among
the old Westminster signs, mentioned in the parish-books, are Tke Rose (the Tudor
badge) ; The Lamb and, the Saracen's Read (Crusades) ; and The White Hart (Richard
II.), to this day the sign of Elliot's Brewery at Pimlico. Westminster is governed
by a High-Steward and a High-BailifF. The first High-Steward was the great Lord
Burghley. The City has returned two members to Parliament since 1 Edward VI.
Abingdon-street has been built in place of Dirty-lane. Almonry, the {see p. 6),
has disappeared. iS*^. Anne's-lane, named from the Chapel of the Mother of Our
Lady, was part of the orchard and fruit-gardens of the Abbey. Henry Purcell and
Dr. Heather, the famous musicians, lived here. Artillery-place was the ground for
the men of Westminster's shooting at " the butts ;" and early in the last century it
was " made use of by those who delight in military exercises."
§22 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Barton-street was built by Barton Booth, the celebrated actor ; and Cowlet/streef
is named from Cowley, in Middlesex, where Booth resided. Broadway, west of
Tothill-street, was granted as a hay-market by James I. and Charles II. Here were
"the White Horse and BlacJc Horse Inns; there being none in the parish of St.
Margaret at Westminster for stage-coaches, waggons, or carriers." {Survey, circ.
1700.) In one of the Broadway courts lodged Turpin, the highwayman ; and from
his mare. Black Bess, a tavern took its sign. In the Broadway lived Sir John Hill,
the empiric, of physic-garden fame. {See Cheistchuech, Broadway, p. 156.)
Canon-row formerly extended from the Woolstaple northward to the south wall of
the orchard of Whitehall. It is named from the dean and canons of St. Stephen's Chapel
lodging there.
" 'Twas the old way when the King of England had his house, there were canons to sing service in
his chapel ; so at Westminster is St. Stephen's Chapel (where the House of Commons sits) from which
canons the street called Canon-row has its name, because they lived there."— Selden's Table-talk.
It has been vulgarly called Channel-row, and in our time Cannon-row. Upon the site
of the canon's houses were built several mansions, the gardens of which reached to the
Thames : for one of these the Comptroller of the Household of Edward VI. paid only
30.y. annually. Here Anne Duchess of Somerset, sister-in-law to Queen Katherine
Parr, built a stately house, wherein Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, was born in
1590 : upon this site is Dorset-court. In 1618, William Earl of Derby built here a
mansion, which was surrendered to Parliament temp. Charles I. ; and here died, in
1643, John Pym, their patriotic leader : the house was temporarily, in the reign of
€harles II., the Admiralty Office ; it occupied the site of Derby-court. In Canon-row
lived Lady Wheler, to whom Charles I,, two days before his execution, sent, by his
Attendant Herbert, a token-ring : the lady handed him a cabinet, with which he returned
to the King, who opened it on the morning of his execution ; it contained diamonds and
jewels, most part broken Georges and garters: "You see," said he, "all the wealth
now in my power to give my cliildren." Here is the Office of the Board of Control
for the Affairs of India, originally built for the Ordnance Office, by William Atkin-
son : " the Ionic portico of this chaste and fine building is one of the best proportioned
and best applied in the metropolis" (JElmes), Manchester-buildings occupy the site of
a mansion of the Montagues, Earls of Manchester. Charles-street : at No. 19 lived
Ignatius Sancho, a negro, who had been butler to the Duke of Montague, and gave his
last shilling to see Garrick play Kichard III. Here Garrick and Sterne visited him ;
and Mortimer, the painter, often consulted him.
Dean's-yard, south-west of the Abbey, has a green, or playground, for the West-
minster Scholars, whereon have played, in " careless childhood," Ben Jonson, George
Herbert, Cowley, Di-yden, Nat. Lee, Rowe, Prior, Churchill, Dyer, Cowper, and
Southey; Hakluyt, the voyager; Sir Christopher Wren, Locke, South, Atterbury,
Warren Hastings, and Gibbon. In Dean's-yard lived Sir Symonds d'Ewes, the anti-
quary, who delighted in bell-ringing. Bishop Wilcocks, whom Pope Clement VIII.
called " the blessed heretic," was born in Dean's-yard in 1673 ; in the cloisters, in
1708, died the excellent Bishop Beveridge; Carte, the Jacobite historian, lived in
Dean's-yard, where Mrs. Porter, Gibbon's aunt, built and occupied a boarding-house.
In Little Dean's-yard is Ashbuenham House, described at p. 444. Downing -
street is described at p. 807. Duke-street, " a spacious and pleasant street between St.
James's Park N., and Long Ditch S., mostly (especially the W. side) inhabited by
persons of quality " (Hatton, 1708). In a house facing Charles-street lived the poet
Prior. Bishop Stillingfleet, author of Origines Britannicce, died here 1699 ; Archbishop
Hutton, 1758; and Dr. Arnold, the musical composer, 1802. Duke-steeet Chapel is
described at p. 210.* At the corner of the south end of Delahay-street and Great
George-street lived Lady Augusta Murray, " Duchess of Sussex."
• The chapel was a portion of the magnificent house built for Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, upon a plot
of ground which he obtained by grant from Charles II., on the east side of St. James's I'ark. "As
Boou as the building was completed, the architect, of course, called upon him for payment, but was put
off; he called a^ain and again, but never could see him, and was often repulsed from his gate by the
porter, with rudeness and ill language. The general character and despotic power of Jeffreys pre-
vented the architect from taking any legal steps in the business, till Jeffreys' power began to wane.
WESTMINSTER 823
Fludyer-streetj between King-street and St. James's Park, was named from Sir
Samuel Fludyer, Bart., the ground-landlord, who, when lord-mayor in 1761, enter-
tained George III. and Queen Charlotte at Guildhall. Fludyer-street occupied the
site of Axe-yard, from the Axe brewhouse, named in a document 23 Hen. VIIT. Pepys
had a house here. Fludyer-street has been taken down for the site of the new Govern-
ment offices.
Gardener' s-lane extends from Duke-street to King-street : here died, in 1677, Wen-
ceslaus Hollar, the celebrated engraver, aged 70, at the moment when he had an execu-
tion in his house ; he desired of the sherifTs officers " only the liberty of dying in his bed,
and that he might not be removed to any other prison but his grave " {Oldys). He
was buried in the New Chapel yard, near the place of his death ; and no monument
was erected to his memory. Hollar engraved 2400 prints, and worked for the book-
sellers at 4d. per hour ; yet his finest prints bring rare prices. The Gatehouse is
described at p. 373. Great George-street, named from the House of Hanover, was
completed in 1750 : the site was an arm of the Thames, when the tide flowed up from
Bridge-street to the canal in St. James's Park. Here was Storey's Gate, nam^d from
Edward Storey, who constructed the decoys in St. James's Park for Charles II., and
who lived upon the site : this gate was taken down in 1854. At No. 15, Great
George-street, died Lord Chancellor Thurlow, 1806. At No. 25 (then Sir Edward
Knatchbull's) the body of Lord Byron lay in state two days, before it was removed,
July 12, 1824, for interment at Hucknall, Notts. No. 25, Great George-street,
has a handsome architectural front, and is now the Institution of Civil Engineers
(see LiBEAEiES, p. 517 ; and Museums, p. 592). At No. 24 the Reform Club was
commenced ; and here subsequently lived Alderman Sir Matthew Wood, Bart., M.P.
At the corner of the street, facing St. Margaret's Churchyard, is the magnificent
Buxton Memorial Drinking Fountain, described at p. 358.
Sorseferry (the) is described at p. 433.
James-street is described at p. 479. It was partly taken down in 1854 for the
Pimlico improvements, and the offices of the Duchy of Cornwall.
In 1763 there were but few houses in James-street, and none behind it; nor any filthy courts
betweu Petty France and the Park ; nor any buildings in Palmer's Village, or in Totlull-ficlds, or on
the Artillery-groimd, or to the south of Market-street,— ^ardireiZ.
King-street was the principal street of Westminster temp. Henry VIII., with
Cockpit-gate at the north end, and High-gate south. Here the poet Spenser died
** for lake of bread," in an obscure lodging, Jan. 16, 1599 j here also died Sir Thomas
Knevett, who seized Guy Fawkes. Cromwell lived here when member of Parliament,
north of Blue Boar's Head-yard. Dr. Sydenham lived upon the site of Barn's Mews.
Near the south end, on the west side, was Thieven- (Thieves) lane,* the passage for
thieves to the Gatehouse prison, so that they might not escape into the Sanctuary.
The roadway was so bad, that faggots were thrown into the ruts to facilitate the passage
of the state-coach when the Sovereign went to Parliament. Here, at the Bell Tavern,
met the October (Queen Anne) Club. Here lodged the poet Carew, who wrote the
inasque of Caelum Britannicum for Charles I. Through King-street, Elizabeth and
James and Charles I. proceeded to the Houses of Parliament in their state-coaches ;
and the republicans of Cromwell's days on foot and horseback. After the burning of
Whitehall Palace, a broader road was made by Parliament-street. Cromwell, when he
went to Ireland in 1649, took horse at his house in King-street.
Cromwell lived on the west side of the street, in a house, the precise situation of which is thus pre-
served in a communication to Cunningham's Handbook of London, 1850 : —
upon the first flight of King James. He then made his way into Jeffreys* study, saw him, and pressed
for his money in very urgent terms. Jeffreys appeared all humble and much confused, made many
apologies for not settling the matter before, said he had many weighty affairs pressing on his mind at
that time ; but if he would call the Tuesday ibllowing it should be finally settled. The architect went
away after this promise: but between that and Tuesday, Jeffreys, in endeavouring to make his escape
from England, was found out, reviled, and much bruised by the populace."— Jfitropeare Magazine, 1795,
p. 243. Part of the then " magnificent house" is No. 23, Duke-street, with passage and steps leading
to the chapel and park. There, after the terrible judge's sudden fall, as Macaulay tells us, the exultant
rabble congregated, and read on the door, with shouts of laughter, the bills which announced the sale
of his property.
* Thieven or Thieving-lane was also called Bow-street, from it« bowed line; and Bow-street^ Covent
■Garden, to this day the terror of thieves.
CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
" Shortly before the great Trial, in 1838, between the parish of St. Marpraret and the inhabitants of
Privy-gardens, a very rigid examination of the old parochial rate-books took place; and in one of them
Lieutenant-General Oliver Cromwell was found rated for a house in King-street, which was ascertained,
■with as mi;ch certainty as the extensive alterations in the vicinity would admit, to be one of two very
ancient tenements lying between the north side of the gateway entrance to Blue Boar's Head-yard and
the wall of Kams'-mews; and there was strong ground for believing that the two ancient tenements
had originally been one. These tenements, as well as the Blue Boar's Head public-house, situated on
the south side of the gateway, and a portion of the stable-yard behind, for a distance of about two or
three hundred feet from King-street, are the property of one of the colleges at Oxford. The public-
house {Blue Boar's Head), as rebuilt about 1750, is now (1850) standing." — George H. Malone.
In the Cole MSS. in the British Museum is a copy of a letter of Cromwell to his wife from Dunbar,
Sept. 4, 1650, addressed to her in this street.
At the north end of King-street was built, by Henry VIII., the "Westminster or King's
Gate, of stone, as a communication, by a passage over it, of Whitehall Palace with the
Park : it was of Tudor design, with four round-capped turrets : each front was
enriched with Ionic pilasters and an entablature, roses, the portcullis, and the royal
arms, and glazed biscuit-ware busts. In this Gatehouse lived the Earl of Rochester
and Herr von Auls : it was taken down in 1723.
MillbanTc-streety in 1745 called the High- street at Millbank, was named from the
Abbey water-mill, built by Nicholas Litlington, at the end of the present College-
street, and turned by the stream which flowed by the Infirmary garden-wall eastward
into the Thames {Walcott). Upon the site of the mill was built Peterborough House,
by the first Earl of Peterborough, in the reign of Charles I., and shown in Hollar's Map
of London, 1708. Stow describes the mansion with a large front court, and fine gardens
behind ; " but its situation was bleak in winter, and not over-healthful." The house
was purchased by the Grosvenor family, and rebuilt : it was taken down in 1809. In the
middle of Millbank lived Mr. Vidler, the Government contractor : hence the mail-coach
procession started annually on the king's birthday. The Penitentiary, at Millbank, is
described at p. 697. In Neto-way, adjoining, was a chapel where Romaine preached.
Palace-yard, New, is named from William Rufus's intended new palace, of which the
hall only was built j here was a beautiful Conduit, removed temp. Charles II. Opposite
Westminster Hall gate, temp. Edward I., Lord Chief- Justice Hengham built a large
stone clock-tower, taken down 1698. In this yard King Edward I. appealed to the
loyalty of his people, from a platform erected against the front ot Westminster Hall, in
1297; here Perkin Warbeck was set in the stocks, in 1498; Stubbs, the Puritan
attorney, and his servant, had their hands cut off in New Palace-yard, in 1580, for a
libel against Queen Elizabeth ; and William Parry was here hung and quartered for
high treason, in 1578 ; here Lord Sanquhar was hanged for murder, 1612 ; Archbishop
Leighton's father was pilloried and publicly whipped for libel, 1630 ; William Prynne
was pilloried here, and his Sistrio-Mastix burned, 1634 ; here the Duke of Hamilton,
the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, were put to death for treason, in 1649 ; Titus
Gates was pilloried here in 1685 ; and John Williams, in 1765, for publishing No. 45
of Wilkes's North Briton. Here was the lurk's Head, Miles's Coffee-house, where
the noted Rota Club met, whose republican opinions Harrington has glorified in his
Oceana. The Tudor buildings of the old Palace were principally taken down in 1793 ;
but a range, including the Star Chamber, on the eastern side of the court, were not
removed until 1836 : they are described at p. 450. At his ofiicial residence, east of
Westminster Hall porch, died William Godwin, the novelist, April 7, 1836, aged 81.
Palace-yard, Old, south-west of the Houses of Parliament, had on the west the old
Lady Chapel of the Abbey, and abutting upon it the White Sose Tavern, and the
house of Chaucer, in which he died (the site is now occupied by the mausoleum of
Henry VII.) ; and in a house between the churchyard and the Old Palace died Ben
Jonson ; so that two of England's greatest poets died almost upon the same spot. At
the south-east corner of Old Palace-yard stood the house through which the conspirators
in the Gunpowder Plot carried their barrels into the vault ; and in the Yard, Guy
Pawkes, Winter, Rookwood, and Keyes, suffered death in 1606. Here, 29th Oct. 1618,
Sir Walter Raleigh was executed at eight in the morning of Lord Mayor's Day, " so that
the pageants and fine shewes might draw away the people from beholding the tragedie
of one of the gallantest worthies that ever England bred." In the Pepysian Collection
at Cambridge is a Ballad with the following title : " Sir Walter Rauleigh his Lamenta-
tion, who was beheaded in the Old Pallace of Westminster the 29 of October 1618.
To the tune of Welladay.*'
WESTMINSTER. 825
Palmer's Village, west of the Almonry, was a low-lying district (12| inches below
high-water mark), consisting of straggling cottages around the twelve almshouses built
in 1566 by the Eev. Edward Palmer, B.D., with a chapel and school attached. Forty
years since, here was an old wayside inn (the Prince of Orange), rows of cottages
with gardens, and the village- green, upon which the Maypole was annually set up : this
rurality has now disappeared, and with it from maps and plans the name of " Palmer's
Village." ParJc-street, built circ. 1708, northward from Carteret- street, making ifc
like a T, contains the house of Mr. Charles Townley, who, in 1772, assembled here his
first collection of marbles, terra-cottas, bronzes, &c., commenced in 1768 at Rome.
{See British Museum, p. 579.) Mr. Townley died here 3rd January, 1805. The
house and collections are well described by J. T. Smith, in Nollelcens and Ms Times,
vol. i. pp. 261-266. " The late Royal Cockpit, which afforded Hogarth an excellent
scene for his humour, remained a next-door noisy nuisance to Mr. Townley for many
years." Petty France {Petit France, Hatton, 1708), and now YorTc-street, from
Frederick Duke of York, son of George II., having temporarily resided here, extends
from Tothill-street to James-street. In Petty France was Milton's pleasant garden-
house, described at p. 654. Prince's -street was formerly Long Ditch : here was an
ancient conduit, the site of which is now marked by a pump ; at the bottom of the
well is a black marble image of St. Peter, and some marble steps. The southern
extremity of this street was called Broken Cross : here, about the middle of last
century, was the most ancient house in Westminster. Upon the east side of the street
was built ITer Majesty's New Stationery Office, in neat Italian style, in 1854, upon
the site of the Westminster Mews. In Prince' s-court, at the south end of the street,
lived the notorious pohtician, John Wilkes, in 1788.
Queen-square is described at p. 751. In Queen-street w^as born, in 1642, James
Tyrrell (a grandson of Archbishop Ussher) ; he wrote a History of England, 3 vols,
folio, valuable for its exact references to the ancient chronicles.
Pochester-row is named from the Bishops of Rochester, who were also Deans of
Westminster. Here are Emery Hill's Almshouses; and opposite are the Church of St.
Stephen, and Schools, built and endowed by the munificence of Miss Angela Burdett
Coutts. {See p. 203.)
Sanctuary (the) of Westminster Abbey is described as the space by St. Margaret's
churchyard, between the old Gatehouse S.W., and King-street N.E. The right of
sanctuary — i.e., protection to criminals and debtors from arrest — was retained by West-
minster after the Dissolution in 1540; and "sanctuary men" were allowed to use a
whittle only at their meals, and compelled to wear a badge. The privilege of sanctuary
caused the houses within the precinct to let for high rents ; but it was totally abolished
by James I. in 1623 : it is called by Fabyan, " the Seyntwary before the Abbey."
Here were two cruciform churches, built one above the other, the lower a double cross ;
the upper, the Rev. Mr. Walcott thinks, for the debtors and inhabitants of the Broad
and the Little Sanctuaries; the lower for criminals. "They could not leave the
precinct without the Dean's licence, or between sunset and sunrise." In Little
Sanctuary was the Three Tuns Tavern, built upon part of the church vaults, which
served as the inn-cellar. The tower of the church, rebuilt by Edward II., contained
three bells, the ringing of which " sowered all the drinke in the town." The church
was demolished in 1750. Fifty years later was removed from Broad Sanctuary the
old market-house, built in 1568 ; and upon the site was erected, in 1805, the present
Guildhall, with a Doric vestibule, S. P. Cockerell architect. Here also are the Office
and Central Schools of the National Society ; the Westminster Hospital, built 1833.
The Sanctuary churches are described by Dr. Stukeley, who remembered their standing
{Archaologia, i. p. 39). There were other sanctuaries in London; but the Westminster
site alone retains its ancient name.
Here Judgre Tresilian (temp. Kichard II.) fled, but was dragged to Tyburn and hanged. In 1441,
Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, accused of witchcraft and treason, was denied refuge. In
1460, Lord Scales, as he was seeking sanctuary here, was murdered on the Thames. Elizabeth
Woodville, queen of Edward IV., and her family, escaped from the Tower, and registered themselves
" sanctuary women ;" and here, "in great penury, lorsaken of all friends," she gave birth to Edward V.
More describes her sitting " alow on the rushes," in her grief. The Register of the Sanctuary, Gough
states, was bought out. of Sir Henry Spelman's Collection, by Wanley, the antiquary, for Lord Wey-
mouth, and is preserved in the library at Longleat.
826 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The vacant ground was let, in 1821, to speculators in seats to view the coronation-
procession of George IV., upon a raised platform, from Westminster Abbey to West-'
minster Hall. In 1854 was built, adjoining the west end of the Abbey, a block of 1
houses in the Mediaeval style, G. G. Scott, R.A., architect ; the centre opening being the
entrance to Dean's-yard. Here is the same architect's picturesque Memorial to
the " Old Westminsters" who perished in the Crimean War.
Tothill Melds, between Pimlico and the Thames, anciently the manor of Tothill,
belonged to John Maunsel, chancellor, who, in 1256, entertained here Henry III. and
his court, at a vast feast in tents and pavilions. The Normans called this district tout
le champ, which is thought to have been clipped into tout le, and then corrupted into
toutle and Tot-hill. (Bardwell.) It occurs, however, in an ancient lease as Toot-hill
or Beacon Field,* which Mr. Hudson Turner suggested to Mr. Cunningham as the
probable origin. The Rev. Mr. Walcott restricts it within the Sanctuary of the Abbey.
At the Tothill were decided wagers of battle and appeals by combat, Necromancy,
sorcery, and witchcraft were punished here ; and " royal solemnities and goodly jousts
were held here.'* In Culpepper's time the fields were famous for parsley. In 1642
a battery and breastwork were here erected. Here were built the " Five Houses," or
" Seven Chimneys," as pest-houses for victims to the Plague ; and in 1665 the dead
were buried " in the open Tuttle Fields." The Fields are described as of great use,
pleasure, and recreation to the king's scholars and neighbours; and in 1672 the parish
made here a new Maze, which was " much frequented in summer time in fair after-
noons." {Aubrey,) In Queen Anne's reign, here was William Well's bear-garden,
upon the site of Vincent- square. St. Edward's fair was removed from St. Margaret's
churchyard to Tothill Fields, 34 Hen. III., who granted the Abbot of Westminster
** leave to keepe a markette in the Tuthill every Munday, and a faire every yeare for
three days ;" and Edward III. granted a fair of thirty-one days. Both fairs were sup-
pressed by James I. Here, in 1651, the Trained Bands were drawn out j and in the
same year. Heath's Chronicle records the Scotch prisoners " driven like a herd of swine
through Westminster to Tuthill Fields, and there sold to several merchants, and sent
to the Barbadoes." One of " the Civil War Tracts of Lancashire," printed by the
Chetham Society, states there were " 4000 Scots, Highlands, or Redshanks," many
with their wives and bairns, of whom 1200 were buried in Tuttle Fields. The fields next
became a noted duel-ground : here, in l7ll. Sir Cholmeley Bering, M.P., was killed
"by the first shot of Mr. Richard Thornhill, who was tried for murder and acquitted,
but found guilty of manslaughter, and was burnt in the hand. Here also was an
ancient Bridewell {see p. 704).
Tothill-street, extending from Broad Sanctuary to York-street, has lost most of its
picturesque old houses. In Tothill-street lived the Bishop of Chester, 1488; William
Lord Grey of Wilton, " the greatest soldier of the nobility," died 1563 ; Sir George
Carew, at Caron House, 1612 ; and Lincoln House was the Ofiice of the Revels, 1664.
Southerne, the dramatic poet, lived ten years at No. 56, then as now, an oilman's : it
bears the date 1671. Betterton, the actor, was born in this street. In the reign of
Elizabeth, the houses on the north side had gardens extending to the Park ; and those
on the south to Orchard-street, once the orchard-garden of the Abbey. Here, in 1789,
died, aged 97, Thomas Amory, who wrote the Memoirs of John Buncle. Of the
Fleece public-house. No. 70, a token exists, date 1666. The old Cock public-house,
taken down in 1853, is described at p. 453. Tufton-street was built by Sir Richard
Tufton (d. 1631) : here was a cock-pit, which existed long aftei- that in St. James's
Park was deserted.
Victoria-street, commenced by the Westminster Improvement Commission in 1845,
extends across the sites of the Almonry, Orchard-street, Duck-lane, New Pye-street,
and part of Old Pye-street (named from Sir Robert Pye, who resided here), to Strutton-
ground, named from Stourton-house, the mansion of the Lords Dacre of the South.
Thence the new street crosses Artillery-place, through Palmer's Village, on the north
side of Westminster Bridewell, past Elliot's Brewery, to Shaftesbury-terrace, Pimlico.
Victoria-street is above 1000 yards, or nearly five furlongs in length, and 80 feet wide :
* Others refer it to Toote Hill, shown in Kocque's map (1746), just at a bend in the Horseferry-road,
tut now lost in the adjacent made ground v />- y -^
WESTMINSTEU BALL. 827
the houses are 82 feet in height ; Henry Ashton architect. The ornamentation of the
house-fronts, worked in cement, is extremely artistic : the interiors are mostly arranged
in flats, as in Edinburgh and Paris. In the line of street are the three churches of
St. Mark, the Holy Trinity, and Christchurch j and at the north-west rear is St.
Andrew's Church, in the Geometrical style ; the nave aisles showing five gables on each
side, filled with large and lofty windows ; architect, G. G. Scott, R.A.
Vine-street denotes the site of a vineyard, probably that of the Abbey. In the
overseer's book, 1565, is rated " the vyne-garden " and " myll," next to Bowling-alley ;
the vine-garden called " because, perhaps, vines anciently were there nourished, and
wine made." {Stow.) In Edward VI.'s time it was inclosed with buildings. Bowling^
street and alley denote the site of the green where the members of the convent played
at bowls. Opposite Boioling- alley is a house where the notorious Colonel Blood died,
Aug. 24, 1680: upon the house-front was a shield with a coat of arms. (Walcott.)
Wood-street, described in 1720 as " very narrow, being old boarded hovels ready to
fall," has disappeared. Here lived John Carter, the diligent antiquary. At 13, North-
street, lived Elliston, the comedian, who dearly loved his art: " wherever Elliston walked,
sat, or stood still, there was the theatre."— C. Lamb.
Woolstaple (the) was, in 1353, appointed for weighing all the wool brought to
London. The Long Staple (upon the site of Bridge-street) consisted of a strong round
tower and a water-gate, which was destroyed to make room for the western abutment
of Westminster Bridge, in 1741. Here was St. Stephen's Hospital, founded by Henry
VIII. in 1548, and removed in 1745, when eight almshouses were rebuilt in St. Anne's-
lane, inscribed " Woolstaple Pensioners, 1741." In 1628, in the overseers' books of
St. Margaret's, is rated in the Woolstaple, " Orlando Gibbons, ijd."
Westminster Abbbt.— In 1867, a Parliamentary return showed that the Dean and Chapter of
Westminster devote to the maintenance of the fabric of the Abbey one-fifteenth part of the whole
divisible income of the capitular body, together with the fees received for monuments placed in the
Abbey, and the profits derived from the sale of timber on the capitular estates. In the last six years
the funds thus devoted to the fabric averaged 3412i. a year. In the same six years the money taken at
the Abbey for the admission of persons to view the Royal tombs and private chapels averaged 1292?.
a year. This has been applied first in payments to the High Constable and to the guides who show the
tombs and chapels, and there has been an average annual surplus of Tlbl. a year, which has been
applied to ornamental improvements of the Abbey. The charge for viewing the tombs and chapels is
M. for each person. The transepts and the great nave of the Abbey are open free to the public
all day.
Westminstee Abbey is described at pp. 117-140.
WJESTMINSTBB SALL
WAS originally added to the ancient Palace at Westminster by William Rufus, who
held his first court herein, 1099. In 1394-9 Richard II. had its walls heightened
two feet, the windows altered, and a new timber roof constructed, from the design of
Henry de Yeveley, who was master-mason to three successive kings, and to Westmin-
ster Abbey. During the repairs of 1835 the work of the two kings (William II. and
Richard II.) was distinguishable, including a Norman arcade connecting the clerestory
windows. The exterior is of modern design, except the north porch and window,
which, with the internal stone-work (except the south end), is one of our earliest speci-
mens of the Perpendicular style, and is thought to have been the work of William of
Wykeham. The original walls (chiefly rubble and grout-work) were then cased 1 foot
*1 inches thick with stone, flying buttresses were erected as abutments on the east and •
west sides, and the embattled flanking towers and porch of the north front added : the
towers were restored 1819-22. The roof was originally covered with lead ; for which,
on account of its immense weight, slates were substituted. The lantern, of cast-iron, is
an exact copy of the original one erected near the end of the 14th century : it is glazed.
The interior dimensions of Westminster Hall are 239 feet by 68, and 42 feet high.
The immense timber-framed roof is one of the finest existing examples of scientific con-
struction in carpentry ; its only bearing being at the extremities of the great ribs,
which abut against the side walls, and rest upon twenty-six sculptured stone corbels.
At half this height the timber arches spring from the stone string-course, sculptured
with the white hart couchant under a tree, and other devices of Richard II. ; so that .
828 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
the upper half of the height of the edifice is entirely of timber (oak), unrivalled for its j
accurately moulded detail.
A record in St. Miehan's Church, verified by Hanmer's Chronicle, in the library of Trinity College,
Dublin, states that the roof over Westminster Hall was constructed with timber procured from the "j
site of this church; and clumps of trees have been found during recent excavations. The record i
states : " The faire greene or commune, now called Ostomontowne-greene, was all wood, and hee that ^
diggeth at this day to any depth shall finde the grounde full of great rootes. From thence, anno 1098, jj
King William Rufus, by license of Murchard, had that frame which made up the roofes of Westminster
Hall, where no English spider webbeth or breedeth to this day." — Proc. Boyal Institute Irish Architects.
Loudon, however, states the roof to be of British oak, quercus sessi^ora, which is so deficient in graia^
as not to be distinguishable, at first sight, from chestnut.
The hammer-beams are sculptured with angels bearing shields of the arms of Richard II.
or Edward the Confessor, which show the excellence that sculpture in wood had*
attained in England so early as the fourteenth century. From the roof were formerly '
hung "guidons, colours and standards, ensigns and trophies of victory;" in Hatton's-
time (1708), 138 colours and 34 standards, from the battles of Naseby and Worcester,
Preston and Dunbar, and Blenheim : Hatton describes fourteen, with their mottoes ■
Englished. The roof was thoroughly repaired in 1820-21, when forty loads of oak,
from old ships broken up in Portsmouth Dockyard, were used in renewing decayed
parts, and completing the portion at the north end, where it had been left unfinished ;
the roof was also greatly strengthened by tension-rods added to the principals in 1851.
Abutting on the southern end was the Galilee, finished by Edward III., and adapted
by Richard II. with a flight of steps to the approach from the Great Hall to the Chapel
of St. Stephen and the principal chambers of the Palace. Above the side line of windows
are dormers (added in 1820-21), which improve the chiaroscuro ; and above are aper-
tures, opened in 1843, to aid the effect of an Exhibition of Cartoons. The Hall now
forms the vestibule to the new Houses of Parliament; which Sir Charles Barry
effected by removing the large window from the south end to form an archway to St.
Stephen's Porch, wherein he fixed the Hall window, with an additional transom and
row of lights. (See St. Stephen's Forch, p. 662.)
The statues by John Thomas, flanking the archway in the Hall, are :
^ - « w 5
Sir Charles Barry contemplated raising the roof fourteen feet, closing the doors of
the Law Courts, and decorating the walls with frescoes, &c. The heraldic decorations
of the corbels and string-course are described by Mr. Willement in the Collectanea
Topogr. et Gen. vol. iii. p. 55 ; and the architectural discoveries in 1835 are detailed
by Mr. Sydney Smirke in Archceologia, vols. xxvi. and xxvii.
The floor of the Hall, from its low level, was occasionally flooded by the Thames.
Holinshed mentions two floods in the reign of Henry III., in 1237, when he says boats
might have been rowed up and down ; and in 1242, when no one could get into the
Hall except they were set on horseback. He records another, 1555, when the Hall
was flooded " unto the stairfoot, going to the Chancerie and King's Bench, so that
when the Lord Maior of London should come to present the Sheriffs to the Barons
of the Exchequer, all Westminster Hall was full of water." Also, in 1579, when the
water rose so high in the Hall " that, after the fall thereof, some fishes were found
there to remain." — Stow. These visitations were repeated in the last century, in
1735 and 1791, and to some extent even so lately as 1841.
The kings held their courts, or, as it was called, " wore their crowns," at the time
of the Conquest, and long after, but not in Westminster Hall until the reign of
Henry II. By a clause in Magna Charta, 15th June, 1215, it was declared that
" Common Pleas shall not follow the Court, but shall be held in some certain place,"
doubtless Westminster Hall; and when the Aula Begia was abolished, the present
arrangement of the Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, and Exchequer, as well as the
Common Pleas, was established, with separate Judges appointed to preside over each
Court. {Foss.)
WESTMINSTER BALL. 829
"In the reign of Charles I., the King's Servants, by his Majestie's special order, went to West-
minster Hall in Term-time, to invite gentlemen to eat of the King's Acates or Viands ; and in Parlia-
ment-time, to invite the Parliament men thereunto."— Delaune's Anglice Metropolis, 1690.
" The Hall itself was also occasionally used as a high court of criminal justice for the
solemn trials before the peers of great delinquents, impeached by the House of Com- ~
mons. One of the earliest, of which there is a particular account, is that against
Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Chief Justice Tresilian, and others, in the reign of
Eichard II., which king himself was deposed by the Parliament in this same Hall. In
subsequent times these trials often took place before commissioners appointed from
among the peers, assisted by some of the judges and other commoners. Sir Thomas
More and Bishop Fisher were tried in this manner ; but it is doubtful whether the
Great Hall was used on these occasions, or only the Court of King's Bench. Queen
Anne Boleyn's trial took place in the hall on a ' scaffold ' there erected. There is a
print of Westminster Hall as it was prepared for the trial of the Earl of Strafford in
1640, in which the Queen is portrayed as looking out of her cupboard upon a scene
in which her royal consort was a few years after to appear as a condemned prisoner." —
W. Foss ; Faper read to the Archceological Institute, 1866.
Memorable Trials in Westminster Hall. — 1305, Sir William Wallace condemned for treason (in
Eufus's Hall); 1417, Sir John Oldcastle the Wickliffite; 1522, Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, for
treason ; 1535, Sir Thomas More arraigned here ; 1551, the Protector Somerset brought to trial, with
"bills, halberts, and pole-axes attending him," the clamour of the people "heard to the Long Acre
beyond Charing Crosse;" 1554, Sir Thomas Wyat; 1557, Lord Stourton, for murder; 1600, Kobert
Devereux, Earl of Essex ; 1606, Guy Fawkes and his fellow-conspirators ; 1616, the profligate Earl and
Countess of Somerset, for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury; 1640 (18 days' trial), Wentworth, Earl
of Strafford, before Charles I. and his queen; 1649, King Charles I. (in 1661, the Act for the King's
Trial was burned by the common hangman in the Hall while the court was sitting) ; 1688, the Seven
Bishops; 1710, Dr. Sacheverell; 1716, Viscount Kenmure and the Earl of Derwentwater ; 1746-47, the
rebel Lords Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat; 1760, Earl Ferrers, for murder; 1776, the Duchess of
Kingston, for bigamy; 1788 to 1795, Warren Hastings's seven years' trial; 1806, Lord Melville.
Parliaments assembled in this Hall as early as 1248 (33 Henry III.) and 1265
(49 Henry III.), the latter being the first representation of the people in its present
form.
By a curious conjunction, one and the same person in the early reigns held the two
offices of Warden of the Palace of Westminster and Warden of the Fleet Prison. Two
records, of the 12th and 24th Edward III., show that there were then stalls for mer-
chandize in, and stables under, Westminster Hall ; and that the holder of those offices
was allowed to take for his profit Sd. per annum for each stall and stable, and 4id. for
each stall only. By a " rental " of 38 Henry VI., the rents of shops varied from 2*'.
to 3s. M. a term ; and the " goers in the Halle," as they were called, were charged
from Ad. to 12id. for the same period. The shops or stalls (resembling those in Exeter
Change) are shown in the picture by Gravelot, painted in the reign of George II.
" Ranged along the left side, as you enter, are shops of booksellers, mathematical instrument makers,
haberdasliers, and sempstresses. At the further end of the Hall are the two Courts of King's Bench
on the left, and of the Chancery on the right, divided by a flight of steps which led to the entrances of
both. In the print these Courts are inclosed to a certain height, but not covered, so that the noise in
the Hall, and the flirtations of the barristers and attorneys with the sempstresses, must have occa-
sionally disturbed the arguments of the counsel, and disarranged the gravity of the Judges. On the
right side is the same array of shops, except where it is interrupted by the Court of Common Pleas,
which projects into the Hall, and is similarly inclosed and uncovered. On both sides of the Hall, above
the shops and the Court of Common Pleas, was a continuous display of banners, which at the date of
the picture were probably those taken at the battle of Blenheim, and the other victories of Marlborough.
The Court of Common Pleas was subsequently removed to the outside of the Hall, and the inclosure of
the two other Courts was completed and carried up to the roof, and thus divided from the exterior
noise and racket. Counters and stalls for books (at one time sold by poor scholars of Westminster
between school-hours), as well as other merchandize, were to be seen here in term-time, and during
the session of Parliament, even in the beginning of the reign of George III. The Courts of Chancery
and King's Bench are removed, with the other courts, to more convenient sites on the western exterior
of the Hall, with entrances into it. Thus, the edifice is now little more than a magnificent vestibule to
them and to the two Houses of Parliament, and a place of congregation for lawyers and their clients
when attending the Courts during term time."— Mr. Foss, ut supra.
Archbishop Laud, in his Diary, records that on Sunday, February 20, 1630-1, the
Hall was found on fire, " by the burning of the little shops or stalls kept therein. It
was soon extinguished, and the damage quickly repaired." In the Great Fire of 1834,
by which the Parliament Houses were destroyed, the noble hall was saved by the
favourable direction of the wind. At the Great Fire of 1666, the Hall was filled with
" the people's goods," for safety.
830 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
After great part of the Palace was burnt in 1512, only the Great Hall was kept ii
repair ; " and it serveth, as before it did, for feasts of coronations, arraignments
great persons charged with treasons, keeping of the courts of justice, &c." (Stow.
Hither came 411 of the rioters of Evil May-day, 1517, each with a halter about hi
neck, crying to the king upon his throne for mercy ; when " the general pardon beinj
pronounced, all the prisoners showted at once, and cast their halters towards the roo
of the Hall." (Stow.)
Here Cromwell was inaugurated Lord Protector, 26th June, 1657, upon an elevate
platform at the south end of the Hall, in the ancient coronation-chair, " under a prince-
like canopy of state," with the Bible, sword, and sceptre of the Commonwealth before
him : the Protector entering the Hall, with the Lord Mayor bearing the City sword
before him. On May 8th, 1660, King Charles II. was proclaimed at " Westminster
Hall Gate." Upon the south gable were set up the heads of Cromwell, Ireton, and
Bradshaw : Cromwell's head remained 20 years.
" Abutting on the west side of Westminster Hall, and in part beneath it, were " certain placeg
designated Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, names that seem to indicate that they were appropriated, as
two of them certainly were, to the confinement of delinquents, according to the varied degrees of
punishment for their respective offences. We see from the illuminations of the Courts lately published
in the 39th volume of the ArchcBologia, which are attributed to the reign of Henry VI., that at the bars
of the three Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, certain prisoners are represented,
and their place of incarceration might probably be in one or the other of these cells. Some have
thought that these extraordinary names were suggested by the titles of the three parts of Dante'»
Divina Commedia ; but at least one of the names occurs in the reign of Henry III., before Dante
was born. In the original accounts of the expenses in that reign, occurs : ' Door of Hell, in the
Exchequer.' This is followed by another, to which the former probably applies : * House called Holle
under the Exchequer.' A third place named in the list may perhaps be the same which afterwards
went by the name of Paradise or Heaven : ' Le Godeshouse, in the receipt of the Exchequer.' What-
ever were the uses to which these places were originally applied, the custody of them was made a
source of emolument, and was granted to the * squires of the king's body,' and other favourites."—
JPaper by Mr. Foss, ut ante, abridged.
Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, and another building called " Heaven," were subse-
quently converted from cells of confinement into taverns, which were much frequented
by lawyers' clerks. In Ben Jonson's Alchemist, Dapper is forbidden to " break his
fast in Heaven and Sell."
" False Heaven at the end o' th' HalVSudibrcu.
Pepys records dining at Heaven, and spending the evening in one of these taverns with
Lock and Purcell, and hearing Lock's new canon, Domine salvum fac Regem. " The
prison-keys of Purgatory, attached to a leather girdle, are still preserved." (Walcott*s
Westminster, p. 221.) Here were kept the " ducking-stools," with which the bur-
gesses of Westminster (by statute 27 Elizabeth) were empowered to punish common
scolds, &c. Heaven and Purgatory were taken down about 1741, and Hell about
1793.
For the preparation of the Coronation banquets, the courts, when within the Hall,
were removed, and the shops and stalls boarded over. A petition of the shopkeepers
in the reign of George I. prays that, as their shops are boarded up for the ceremony of
the Coronation, the leads and the outsides of the windows of the west side of the Hall
may be granted for their use and advantage. Strype describes, at the upper end of
the Hall, a long marble stone, 12 feet in length and three feet in breadth j also a
marble chair, where the Kings of England formerly sat at their Coronation dinners,
and at other solemn times the Lord Chancellor ; but not to be seen, being built over by
the two Courts of Chancery and King's Bench.
Edward I. held here his Coronation feast, for which the Hall was whitewashed.
At the Coronation feast of Richard II. (July 16, 1377), Sir John Dymock, as
successor of the Marmions, and in right of his wife, Margaret de Ludlow, claiming the
privilege by his tenure of the manor of Scrivelsby, in Lincolnshire, having chosen the
best charger save one in the king's stables, and the best suit of armour save one in the
royal armoury, rode in, armed to the teeth, and challenged, as the king's champion, all
opposers of the young monarch's title to the crown ; this picturesque ceremony was
last performed at the coronation of George IV.
Haydon, the historical painter, describes the Coronation Festival of George IV. {Autoliographj,
vol. ii.), which he witnessed from the Chamberlain's box : " The Hall doors were opened, and the
WHITECHAPEL. 831
flower-girls entered, strewing flowers. The distant trumpets and shouts of the people, the slow march,
and at last the appearance of the King, crowned and under a golden canopy, and the universal burst of
the assembly at seeing him, afl'ected everybody After the banquet was over came the most
imposing scene of all, the championship. Wellington, in his coronet, walked down the Hall, cheered
by the officers of the Guards, He shortly returned, mounted, with Lords Anglesea and Howard. They
rode gracefully to the foot of the throne, and then backed out. The Hall doors opened again ; and
outside, in twilight, a man in dark-shadowed armour appeared against the shining sky. He then
moved, passed into darkness under the arch, and suddenly Wellington, Howard, and the champion
stood in full view, with doors closed behind them. This was certainly the finest sight of the day.
The herald then read the challenge : the glove was thrown down. They all then proceeded to the
throne,"
The coronation of George IV., in the Abbey, is described at p. 133 ; and the cere-
mony and the banquet in the admirable letter by Sir Walter Scott. The bill of fare of
the banquet in the Hall is printed in Mr. Kirwan's very interesting Sost and
Guest, and is as follows : —
JSTof Dishes.— 160 tureens of soup ; 80 of turtle; 40 of rice; 40 of vermicelli; 80 dishes of turbot;
40oftrout; 40 of salmon; 80 dishes of venison; 40 of roast beef ; 3 barons of beef; 40 dishes of mutton
and veal; 160 dishes of vegetables; 4S0 sauce boats; 240 lobsters; 120 of butter; 120 oi miut.— Cold
Dishes.— '80 of braised ham ; 80 of savoury pies ; 80 of geese, d la daube, two in each dish ; 80 of
savoury cakes ; 80 of braised beef; 80 of braised capons, two in each dish; 1190 side dishes ; 320 of
mounted pastry ; 400 of jellies and creams ; 80 of lobsters ; 80 of cray-fish ; 161 of roast fowls ; 80 of
house lamb.
Total Quantities.— Beef, 7442 lbs.; veal, 7133 lbs.; mutton, 2474 lbs.; house lamb, 20 quarters;
legs of ditto, 20 ; lamb, 5 saddles ; grass lamb, 55 quarters ; lamb sweetbreads, 160 ; cow-heels, 389 ;
calves' feet, 400; suet, 250 lbs. ; geese, 160; pullets and capons, 720; chickens, 1610; fowls for stock,
620; bacon, 1730 lbs. ; lard, 550 lbs. ; butter, 912 Uis. ; eggs, 8400.
The Wines.— Chamvagne, 100 doz. ; Burgundy, 20 doz. ; claret, more than 200 doz. ; hock, 50 doz. ;
Moselle, 50 doz. ; Madeira, 50 doz. ; sherry and port, about 350 doz. ; iced punch, 100 gallons.
Dessert— The glut of fruit was unprecedented : a gentleman of Lambeth cut 60 ripe pine-apples on
the occasion ; and many hundreds of pines, remarkable for size and flavour, were sent from all parts of
the country; one from Lord Cawdor's weighed 10 lbs., and formed part of the royal dessert. The
expenses of the above Banquet and the Coronation together amounted to more than 268,000?. The
Coronation (crowning only— no banquet) of William IV. did not cost 50,000Z.
Besides the Coronation Banquets, we have record of many others from the earliest time. On Wevr
Year's Day, 1236, King Henry the Third feasted 6000 poor men, women, and children. In 1241 the
same King sumptuously entertained there the Pope's Legate and his nobility ; and again in 1243 he
celebrated there the nuptials of his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, with a banquet, at which it is
said there were no less than 30,000 dishes, though ,-vhere room was found for them it is difficult to
imagine. When the repairs of the Hall were completed in 1399, King Richard the Second is recorded
to have plentifully entertained 10,000 in it: it is cautiously noted, "in other rooms of the palace;"
for it is clear that the guests would not otherwise have had elbow-room. Fabyan relates in his
Chronicle that Henry the Seventh, in the ninth year of his reign, kept a royal feast there ; and the same
King used the Hail for certain entertainments under the name of " disguisyngs," which were exhibited
to the people at Christmas ; and we have the following proof that they were provided or assisted by
the Government. An entry occurs in the Issue Roll of a payment of 281. 3s. 5fi. (a large sum in those
days) to Richard Doland, " for providing certain spectacles or theatres, commonly called scaffolds,"
for these performances.
Westminster Hall is called the Great Rail, to distinguish it from the Little or
Lesser Hall, the House of Commons after the fire of 1834. The Great Hall is erro-
neously stated to be the widest in Europe without any intermediate support, for
there are two roofs in Italy which surpass it. The next largest ancient apartment in
England is the dormitory attached to the great monastery of Durham.
In the hall have been found, in a crevice of the masonry of the old walls, the leather
sheath of a knife, stamped with fleurs-de-lis and with lions passant, together with a
quantity of bones, &c., remnants of the royal feasts held in the hall, and which had
probably, together with the sheath, been dragged into the holes and crevices by rats
and mice.
WHITHCHAPEL,
" A VERY extraordinary spacious street, between Whitechapel Bars (to which the
-tX. freedom reaches) W., and the road to Mile-end E." {Hatton, 1708). It was,
until the construction of the Eastern Counties Railway, the great Essex road : hence
its numerous inns, some with old galleried yards. Upon the south side, west end,
among the butchers' shops, is No. 76, a picturesque house-front, bearing the Prince of
Wales's feathers and H. S. (Henry Stuart), the arms of Westminster, the fleur-de-lis
of France, and the thistle of Scotland. On the north side was a prison for debtors, in
the manor of Stepney, under the sum of 5Z., of which there is in the Beaufoy Collec-
tion a Token, 1656 ; also a Whitechapel pawnbroker's Token, thought to be unique
Defoe lived here in safety during the Great Plague year ; and he describes the richer sort
832 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
of people thronging out of town from the City by this road, with their families and ser-
vants. Whitechapel has been sanitarily improved by the furnaces of the factories con-
suming their own smoke. In Wentworth- street are the Model Baths and Wash-houses,
established 1845. St. Mark's Church, Whitechapel, is described at p. 146, Here
was the offensive altar-piece, painted by W. Fellowes, in which Judas the traitor
greatly resembled Dean Kennet (see the print in the Society of Antiquaries' Library) :
the picture, now in St. Albans Abbey-church, is attributed to Sir James Thornhill.
In Colchester-street, Leman-street, in 1854, was burnt the house No, 1, built 1667,
and noted as the rendezvous of Claude Duval, the highwayman. Near the lower end
of Whitechapel-lane was a Roman cemetery, in which was found, in 1776, a monu-
mental stone inscribed to a soldier of the 24th legion. In 1854, there was living in
the Whitechapel-road a corn-dealer aged 107, active in business as a man of 60. At
No. 267, Whitechapel-road, is the Bell-foundry of Chas. and Geo. Mears, where have
been cast many thousands of single bells : they have often 30 tons of molten metal in
their furnaces. Here were cast, in 1835, " the New Great Tom of Lincoln," 5 tons
8 cwt. ; the Great Bell of Montreal, 13 tons 10 cwt.; Great Peter of York, 11 tons;
the bells of the New Royal Exchange, &c. And here was re-cast the Great Bell for
Westminster clock, " St. Stephen," described at p. 44.
JFMITEFRIARS,
THE streets, lanes, and alleys between Water-lane (now Whitefriars-street) and the
Temple, and Fleet-street and the Thames ; formerly the site of the house and
gardens of a convent of Carmelites, or White Friars, founded by Sir Richard Gray in
1241, upon ground given by King Edward I. The church was rebuilt by Hugh
Courtenay, Earl of Devon, about 1350 ; and Robert Marshall, Bishop of Hereford,
about 1420, added the steeple, as shown in the Sutherland View of London, 1543.
Stow gives a long list of benefactors and nobles buried in the church. At the Refor-
mation, the chapter-house was given by 'ilenry VIII. to his physician, Dr. Butts. In
the next reign, the church, with its stately tombs, was demolished ; and in its place
were " many fair houses built, lodgings for noblemen and others" (Stow). Here lived
Sir John Cheke, Tutor and Secretary of State to Edward VI. The hall or refectory
of the dissolved monastery was used as the Whitefriars Theatre. The precinct had
long possessed the privileges of Sanctuary, which were confirmed by charter of James I,
in 1608 ; hence it became the asylum of characterless debtors, cheats, and gamblers,
here protected from arrest : it acquired the cant name of " Alsatia," and is the scene
of Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia, the characters of which " dare not stir out of White-
fryers :" one of its cant-named portions, Lombard-street (its " lewd women" were
complained of by the Friars in the reign of E^'ward III.), exists to this day ; as does
Lombard-street in the Southwark Mint. Poets and players were attracted to White-
friars by the contiguous theatre in Dorset Gardens: dancing-masters and fencing-
masters flocked here ; and here, in the reign of James I., Turner the fencing-master
was assassinated by two ruffians hired by Lord Sanquhar, whose eye Turner had put out
during a fencing lesson several years before, but he had been forgiven the accident.
The two assassins were hanged opposite Whitefriars gates in Fleet-street ; and Lord
Sanquhar was hanged in Old Palace-yard. In the Friary -house, Selden lived with
Elizabeth, Countess-dowager of Kent, who bequeathed him the mansion : he died here,
Nov. 30, 1654, and was buried in the Temple Church. The finest edition of Selden's
works, by Wilkins, 3 vols, folio, was printed in Whitefriars by William Bowyer, father
and son j their printing-office was the George Tavern, Dogwell-court, a scene in Shad-
well's Squire of Alsatia; in this house, William Bowyer, jun., was born in 1699.
The premises are now the printing-office of Bradbury, Evans, and Co., who main-
tain the excellence of their predecessors. Few other traces of old Whitefriars remain.
Hanging- Sword- Alley, east of Water-lane, is named from " a house called the Hang-
ing Sword," mentioned by Stow. In Temple-lane are the Whitefriars Glass-works,
established circ. 1700.
The White Friars spared no cost to procure books for their monastery : no book was
to be sold, but they had their emissaries provided with money to buy it.
WHITEHALL. 833
WHITEHALL,
THAT part of Westminster which extends from near Charing Cross to Canon-row,
and from the Thames to St. James's Park, was the site of the royal Palace of
Whitehall from 1530 to 1697. It was formerly called Yorlc-place, from having heen
the town residence of the Archbishops of York : one of whom, Walter de Grey,
purchased it in 1248 from the Convent of Black Friars of Holborn, to which it had
been bequeathed by Hubert de Burgh, the Justiciary of England, and famous minister
of Henry III., who had bought the inheritance from the monks of Westminster for
140 marks of silver. The property was conveyed by Walter de Grey to his successors
in the see of York. Cardinal Wolsey was the last Archbishop of York by whom the
palace was inhabited: he built extensively, a^jd "lived a long season" here, in
sumptuous state :
" Where fruitful Thames salutes the learned shore
Was this grave prelate and the muses plae'd,
And by those waves he builded had before
A royal house with learned muses grae'd,
But by his death imperfect and defac'd,"
Storer's Metrical History of Wolsey, 1599.
Upon the fall of Wolsey, in 1529, York Place was taken from him by Henry VIII.,
and the broken-hearted prelate left in his barge on the Thames for Esher. The name
of the palace was then changed to White Hall,* possibly from some new buildings
having been constructed of white stone, at a time when bricks and timber were
generally used, —
" You must no more call it York Place— that is past :
For since the Cardinal fell, that title's lost;
'Tis now the King's, and call'd White Hall."
Shakspeare's King Henry VIII., act iv. sc. 1.
Here Henry and Anne Boleyn were married in a garret of the palace, says Lingard ;
Stow says, in a closet. Henry built a noble stone gallery, from which, in 1539, he
reviewed 15,000 armed citizens : from this gallery also the court and nobility witnessed
the jousts and tournaments in the Tilt-yard, now the parade-ground of the Horse
Guards. The King " most sumptuously and curiously builded many beautiful, costly,
and pleasant lodgings, buildings, and mansions ;" and added a tennis-court, bowling-
alleys, and a cock-pit, " for his pastime and solace."
Whitehall was seven years in building ; and in 1536 (the old palace of Edward the
Confessor having been in utter ruin and decay since the fire in 1512), it was enacted
by Parliament that all the ground, mansion and buildings, the park, and the entire
space between Charing Cross and the Sanctuary at Westminster, from the Thames on
the east side to the park-wall westward, should be cleared and called the King's Palace
of Westminster. Here Henry VIII. assembled many pictures, which afterwards
became the nucleus of the splendid collection of Charles I. Henry made munificent
proposals to Raphael and Titian, and the former painted for him a " St. George." The
King also took into his service Hans Holbein, and gave him apartments at Whitehall,
with a pension, besides paying him for his pictures. Holbein built, opposite the
entrance to the Tilt-yard, a magnificent Gate-house, of small squared stones and flint
boulder, glazed and tessellated : on each front were four terra-cotta busts, naturally
coloured, and gilt. This' gate was removed in 1750, when it was begged by William
Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., with the intention of rebuilding it in the
Great Park at Windsor ; the stones were numbered for this purpose, which was never
fulfilled. Three of the busts, Henry VII. and VIII. and Bishop Fisher, are now at
Hatfield Priory, Essex. The Gate-house was used as a State-paper Office many years
before its removal, and was known as the Cockpit Gate. At Whitehall, on December
30, 1546, Henry signed his will, and on January 28 expired. Edward VI. held a
Parliament at Whitehall :
1553. "And this yere thefurst day of (March was the) parlament, and kepte wythin the kynges
pally 8 at Westmyster, Whythalle." — Chron, Orey Friars Lond.
* The " White Hall " was a name not unfrequently given by our ancestors to the festive halls of
their habitations: there was a White Hall at Kenilworth; and the Hall formerly the House of Lords
was the White Hall of the royal Palace of Westminster, and is so called by Stow.
3 H
834 CURIOSITIES OF LONBON.
Bisbop Latimer preached before tbe Court in tbe Privy Garden, tbe King sitting at
one of tbe palace windows. Queen Mary went from Wbitehall by water to her coro-
nation at Westminster, Elizabeth bearing the crown before her. Whitehall palace
was attached by Sir Thomas Wyat's rebels, who "shotte divers arrowes into the
courte, the gate beying open ;" and looking out over the gate, the Queen pardoned the
Kent men, with halters about their necks. From the palace the Princess Elizabeth
was taken captive to the Tower on Palm Sunday, 1554. At Whitehall, November 13,
1555, ditd Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, at mid-
night, exclaiming : " I have sinned, I have not wept with Peter." Hentzner describes,
in 1598, Elizabeth's library of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French books ; a little one,
in her own handwriting, addressed to her father; and a book of prayers written by
Ehzitbeth in five languages, with her own miniature and that of her suitor, the Due
d'Anjou. In her 67th year, " she appoints a Frenchman to doe feates upon a rope in
the conduit court. To-morrow she liath commanded the bear, the bull, and the ape
to be bayted in the tilt-yard. Upon Wednesday she will have solemn dawncing."
(Eotcland White.) Elizabeth revived the pageants and joustings at Whitehall j and
here she built " the Fortress or Castell of perfect Beautie," a large wooden banquet-
ing-house on the north-west side of the palace. In 1561 Sackville and Norton's
tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex was acted here by gentlemen of the Inner Temple.
In the great gallery, Elizabeth received the Speaker and Commons House, when they
came " to move her grace to marriage." On March 24, 1603, " then deceased," from
Richmond, " the Queen was brought by water to Whitehall."
In the Orchard of Whitehall the Lords in Council met; and in the Garden,
James I. knighted 300 or 400 judges, Serjeants, doctors-at-law, &c. Here the Lord
Monteagle imparted to the Earl of Salisbury the warning letter of the Gunpowder
Plot; Guy Fawkes was examined in the King's bedchamber, and carried hence to the
Tower. In 1617, when James visited Scotland, Lord Keeper Bacon resided at White-
hall. James L, in 1608, had "the old, rotten, slight-builded Banqueting House"
removed, and next year rebuilt ; but it was destroyed by fire in 1619. In this reign
were produced many *' most glorious masques" by Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson ; and
Inigo designed a new palace, the drawings for which are preserved in Worcester Col-
lege, Oxford.
In magnitude, Inigo Jones's plan would have exceeded that of the palace of Diocletian, and would
have covered nearly 24 acres. It was to have consisted of seven courts, to have extended 874 feet
fronting the Thames, and the same length along the foot of St. James's Park : presenting one front
to Charing Cross, of 1200 feet long; and another, the principal, of similar dirsensions towards West-
minster Abbey. (See Fourdrinier's large print.) A more distinct idea may be formed of this extent
by comparing it with that of other palaces : thus, Hampton Court covers 8 or 9 acres, St. James's 4,
Buckingham 2^ acres.
Of Jones's magnificent design, only the Banqueting-house was completed. Charles I.
commissioned Rubens to paint the ceiling, and by his agency obtained the Cartoons of
Raphael. In the Cabinet- room of the palace, built also by Inigo Jones, fronting west-
ward to Privy Garden, Charles assembled pictures of almost incalculable value ; the
royal collection containing 460 paintings, including 28 by Titian, 11 by Correggio, 16
by Julio Romano, 9 by Raphael, 4 by Guido, and 7 by Parmegiano. Upon the Civil
War breaking out, Whitehall was seized by the Parliament, who, in 1645, had " the
boarded masque-house" pulled down, sold great part of the paintings and statues, and
burnt the " superstitious pictures." Here, Jan. 30, 1649, in the Cabinet-room Charles
last prayed ; in the Horn-chamber he was delivered to the officers, and thence led out
to execution upon a scaffold in front of the Banqueting-house.
The King was taken on the first morning of his trial, Jan. 20, 1649, in a sedan-chair, from Whitehall
to Cotton House, where he slept pending his trial in Westminster Hall ; after whi( h the king returned
to Whitehall ; but on the night before his execution he slept at St. James's. On Jan. 30 he was " most
barbarously murthered at his own door, about two o'clock in the afternoon." (Histor. Guide, 3d imp.,
1688.) Lord Leicester and Dugdale state that Charles was beheaded at Whitehall gate. The scaffold
was erected in front of the Banqueting-house, in the street now Whitehall; and Herbert states that the
king was led out by " a passage broken through the wall," on to the scaffold ; Lut Ludlow states that
it was out of a window, according to Vertue, of a small building north of the Banqueting-house, whence
the king stepped upon the scaflold. A piciure of the sad scene, painted by Weesop, in the manner of
Vandyke, shows the platform, extending only in length, before two of the windows, to the commence-
ment of the third casement. Weesop visited England from Holland in 1641, and quitted England in
1650, saying " he would never reside in a country where they cut off their king's head, and were not
WHITEHALL. 835
ashamed of the action."— (-See painful inquiries upon the identity of the place of execution, m
2fote8 and Queries, 3rd s. iii. 213, 292; iv, 195.
Cromwell, by vote of Parliament in 1650, had " the use of the lodging called the
Cockpit, of the Spring Garden, and St. James's House, and the command of St. James's
Park," for some time before he assumed the supreme power. To Whitehall, in 1653,
April 20th, he returned with the keys in his pocket, after dissolving the Long Parha-
ment, which he subsequently explained to the Little or Barebones Parliament assembled
in the Council-chamber of Whitehall. Here the Parliament desired Cromwell to
** magnify himself with the title of King ;" here Milton was Cromwell's Latin Secre-
tary, Andrew Marvell his frequent guest, with Waller his friend and kinsman, and
sometimes the youthful Dryden. Cromwell repurchased the Cartoons and many other
pictures, and in 1656 Evelyn found the palace " very glorious and well-furnished."
Here Cromwell expired, Sept. 3, 1658, "the double day of victory and death."
Eichard Cromwell resided here. Charles II., at the Restoration, came in grand pro-
cession of seven hours from the City to Whitehall. To the Lords Commissioners of the
Treasury Charles assigned the Cockpit j and in this locality their chambers have ever
since remained. Charles collected by proclamation the plate, hangings, and paintings,
which had been pillaged from the palace : he also built a stone gallery to flank Privy
Garden, and below it suites of apartments for his " Beauties." Evelyn describes the
Duchess of Portsmouth's apartment, " twice or thrice pulled down and rebuilt to satisfy
her prodigal and expensive pleasures ;" its French tapestry, " Japan cabinets, screens,
pendule clocks, great vases of wrought plate, table-stands, chimney-furniture, sconces,
branches, brasenas, &c., all of massive silver, and out of number." Evelyn also sketches
a Sunday evening in the palace :
" The king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarin, &c. ; a
eneh boy singing love-songs in those glorious galleries ; whilst about twenty of the great courtiers
and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2000^. in gold before
French boy singing love-songs in those glorious galleries ; whilst about twenty of the great courtiers
and other dissolute persons were at Basset 1 ' ' - • - •
them. Six days after all was in the dust."
In Vertue's plan are shown the buttery, bakehouse, wood and coal yards, charcoal-
house, spicery, cider-house ; and, beneath the Banqueting-house, the king's privy cellar.
Owing to its low level, Whitehall was liable to floods from the Thames. Pepys, in
1663, records a high tide having drowned the whole palace ; and Charles II., when he
received the Lords and Commons in the Banqueting-hall at the Restoration, desires
them to mend the ways, so that his wife " may not find Whitehall under water."
At Whitehall Charles collected about 1000 volumes, dedicated or presented to him :
including an illuminated Breviary given by Henry VII. to his daughter, Margaret
Queen of Scots, with his autograph ; a curious MS. in high Dutch on the Great Elixir ;
a French MS. 300 years old, with paintings of plants in miniature ; and a journal, &c.
in the handwriting of Edward VI. Charles II. died at Whitehall, Feb. 6, 1685 ; and
his successor was immediately proclaimed at the palg^ce-gate. James II. resided here :
he washed the feet of the poor with his own hands on Maundy Thursday in the Chapel
Royal : here he admitted Penn, the Quaker, to his private closet ; nnd he rebuilt the
chapel for Romish worship, with marble statues by Gibbons, and a fresco by Verrio.
The King also erected upon the Banqueting-house a large weathercock, that he might
calculate by the wind the probable arrival of the Dutch fleet. {See Canaletti's view.)
On Dec. 18, 1688, James left Whitehall in the state-barge, never to return. In 1691
a destructive fire reduced the palace to " nothing but walls and ruins :" 150 houses
were burned down, and twenty blown up with gunpowder. In 1697 a fire broke out
in the laundry j all the pictures in the palace were destroyed, and twelve persons
perished. The remaining portions of the site of Whitehall were given away by the
Crown. Charles Duke of Richmond had a mansion on the south-east side of Privy
Garden : it was rebuilt from a plan by the Earl of Burlington, and was burnt down in
1791 ; its site is now occupied by Richmond-terrace.
His Grace was a liberal patron of the fine arts, and in 1758 ordered a room to be opened at his
house in Whitehall, containing a large collection of original plaster casts, from the best antique busts
and statues at Rome and Florence, to which all artists, and youths above twelve years of age, had
ready access : he also bestowed two medals annually ou those who executed the two best models.
In Privy Garden was also built PemhroJce Rouse ; and subsequently, Crwydir RousSf
now the OflSce of the Poor-Law Board.
3 H 2
836 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
Gardens and Dials. — Whitehall gardens were laid out in terraces and parterres, and]
ornamented with marble and bronze statues, a few of which are now at Hampton
Court and Windsor. In Privy Garden was a dial set up by Edward Gunter, professor
of astronomy at Gresham College (and of which he published a description), by
command of James I., in 1624. A large stone pedestal bore four dials at the four corners,
and " the great horizontal concave " in the centre ; besides east, west, north, and
south dials at the sides. In the reign of Charles II. this dial was defaced by an intoxi-
cated nobleman of the Court :
" This place for a dial was too unsecure,
Since a guard and a garden could not defend ;
For so near to the Court they will never endure
Any witness to show how their time they misspend."— 3farrcW.
In the court-yard facing the Banqueting-house was another curious dial, set up in
1669 by order of Charles II. It was invented by one Francis Hall, alias Lyne, a
Jesuit, and professor of mathematics at Liege. This dial consisted of five stages rising
in a pyramidal form, and bearing several vertical and reclining dials, globes cut into
planes, and glass bowls ; showing " besides the houres of all kinds," " many things also
belonging to* geography, astrology, and astronomy, by the sun's shadow made visible to
the eye." Among the pictures were portraits of the King, the two Queens, the Duke
of York, and Prince Rupert. Father Lyne published a description of this dial, which
consisted of seventy-three parts : it is illustrated with seventeen plates. (The details
are condensed in No. 400 of the Mirror.) About 1710, William Allingham, a mathe-
matician in Canon-row, asked 500^. to repair this dial: it was last seen by Vertue at
Buckingham House.
Remains of ancient Whitehall have been from time to time discovered. In 1831,
Mr. Sydney Smirke, F.S.A., in the basement of " Cromwell House," Whitehall-yard,
found a stone-built and groined Tudor apartment — undoubtedly a relic of Wolsey's
palace, and con-esponding with the wine-cellar in Vertue's plan, — which is remarkably
larger than the chapel. Mr. Smirke also found a Tudor arched doorway, with
remains of the arms of Wolsey and the see of York in the spandrels; a portion of the
river-wall and circular bastions ; and two stone mullioned Tudor windows, at the back of
the Almonry-office, corresponding with the back wall of the apartments of " the Yeomen
of the Wood-yard," in Vertue's plan. In 1847 were removed the last remains of York
House, a Tudor embattled doorway, which had been built into a later fa9ade of the
Treasury. {Arch(Bologia,yo\. xxv.)
Among the relics, comparatively but little known, is a range of chambers, with groined roofings of
stone, at the Rolls Offices in Whitehall-gardens, which, probably, are a portion of the ancient palace of
Wlutehall. Part of the external wall of these remains is still visible opposite the statue of James II.—
S. Moaford, F.S.A.
Upon the site of the small-beer cellar (engraved in No. 4 of Hollar's prints of
Whitehall) is the house of the Earl of Fife. Here were some fine Gobelins tapestry ;
a marble picture of Mary Stuart, with her infant ; and in Pennant's time here was a
head of Charles I. when Prince of Wales, said to have been painted at Madrid by
Velasquez, in 1625.* The mansion was sold, in 1809, for 12,000^. to the Earl of
Liverpool, who possessed it until his death in 1828. In an adjoining wall is the Tudor
arched entrance to the palace water-stairs. In Privy Garden was the celebrated
Museum formed by the Duchess of Portland : here Pennaut was shown a rich pearl
surmounted with a crown, which was taken out of the ear of Charles I. after his head
was struck off: here also was the Barberini or Portland Vase, purchased by the Duchess
of Sir William Hamilton for 1800 guineas. The museum was sold by auction, in lots,
April 24, 1786, when the vase was bought by the Duke of Portland for 1029 guineas,
and deposited by his grace in the British Museum in 1810.
In Whitehall Yard is the United Service Institution Museum, described at
page 545. No. 3 is the Office of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer, where is
held "the Trial of the Pyx."
• In 1845, Mr. Snare, of Reading, bought at a sale of pictures at Eadley Hall a painting which he
believed to be "the lost portrait" of Prince Charles by Velasquez, and so denoted by the Earl of
Fife in a catalogue of his pictures at Fife House, in 1798. (5'ee Account of the Picture, &c.
Beading, 1847.)
WINDOWS OF PAINTED AND STAINED GLASS. 837
The ceremony of the Pyx is a very ancient custom, and takes place every five, six, or seven years, at
the above offices, or in Old Palace-yard. It is a sort of trial of the Masters and Officers of the Mint, to
ascertain if the coinage which they have issued is pure and standard gold and silver, fair weights,
and proper quantities of alloy. A jury of eminent goldsmiths being sworn, the Master of the Mint
produces the great pyx box. The chest, which requires six men to carry it, contains several thousand
sovereigns and some silver— principally florins, shillings, sixpenny, and threepenny pieces— the results
of the accumulation since the previous trial. As soon as the chest is full the trial must take place.
The chief clerk of the Exchequer produces the box containing "the pyx," that is, a plate of gold and
one of silver, made in the time of George III. The pyx is always kept' in the ancient chapel at West-
minster; the Controller of the Exchequer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Treasury, each possessing
a separate key of the box in which the pix is kept. After the usual formalities, the Lord Chancellor
cuts off two strips of metal from the pix plates, one from the gold and the other from the silver, and
handg them to the foreman of the jury of goldsmiths, by whom the assay is to be made. After this the
pix is taken back to the Chapter-house and locked up, while the jury and the chief clerk, with the
standard weights, proceed to Goldsmiths' Hall, where the coins from the Mint pix box are assayed by
the acid test and weight. The ceremony and the actual process are weU described in the Times,
Jan. 20, 1866.
In WJiiteJiall Gardens (till our time called by the old name. Privy Garden) is
Montague House {see p. 553) ; No. 4 is Sie Robeet Peel's {see p. 555). No. 7
is PemhroTce House (formerly the Earl of Harrington's) : in 1854, it was fitted up for
the War Minister.
Whitehall commences at Scotland-yard, named from its having been the site of
the palace " for receipt of the Kings of Scotland, when they came to the Parliament
of England :" to this statement by Stow, it has been objected that Scotland has always
been an independent nation — a short period of possession under the Edwards excepted.
Strype, quoting a pamphlet of 1548, states the Palace to have been built by Kenneth
III., King of Scotland, in 959, on ground given him by King Edgar, for his making
thither an annual journey to do homage for the kingdom of Scotland : but this account
is less credited than Stow's.
" The Scottish Kings appear to have been anciently regarded as members of the English Parlia-
ment; and there are instances, among the Tower records, of the issuing of writs to summon their
attendance. In Pinkerton's Iconographia Scotica is engraved Edward I. sitting in Parliament, with
Alexander, King of Scots, on his right, and Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, on his left hand : this is stated
to have been taken from a copy of an ancient limning, formerly in the English College of Arms. When
the Scottish Sovereigns, in later times, attended to do homage for their tiefs of Cumberland and West-
moreland, they usually lodged in their palace, in Scotland-yard." — Note : in Brayley's Londiniana,
ii. 277-8.
Scotland-yard is now the head-quarters of the Metropolitan Police. See pp. 681 — 683.
Here are Palace-row, and a large Conduit-house. Milton, when Latin Secretary to
Cromwell, had apartments in Scotland-yard, where died the poet's infant son. The
Crown Surveyor had his official residence in Scotland-yard; and here lived Inigo Jones,
Sir John Denham, and Sir Christopher Wren, who successively fiUed the above office.
Near his house in Scotland-yard, Inigo Jones, uniting with Nicholas Stone, the sculptor, buried his
money in a private place. "The Parliament published an order encouraging servants to inform of
such concealments ; and as four of the workmen were privy to the deposit, Jones and his friend
removed it privately, and with their own hands buried it in Lambeth Marsh."— Life by Cunningham.
Here Sir John Vanbrugh built himself a house out of the ruins of Whitehall Palace :
Swift has ridiculed the house of " brother Van" for its resemblance to a goose-pie :
Vanbrugh died here in 1726.
WINDOWS OF PAINTED AND STAINED GLASS.
THE more noteworthy specimens in the Metropolis are incidentally noticed in
describing the edifices which contain them. The following are recent additions : —
St. PauVs Cathedral. — One of a series of windows is that presented by Mr.
Thomas Brown, late of the house of Longman and Co. — the subjects depicted being
from the Life of St. Paul. The cartoons were designed by Schnorr, and Professor
Strahuber is the artist, who was asked by Schnorr himself to carry his designs into
effiict. Inspector von Aiumiller was requested in like manner to take in hand the
architectural accessories. The window is divided into two parts. The upper and
principal part represents the " Vision " seen by the Apostle, and in the lower portion
Ananias is seen coming to St. Paul when blind. To the right and left, the donor and
his wife are represented in a kneeling posture, and beneath are their coats of arms and
other decorations. The composition and the architectural portion — chiefly from
motifs by the English architect, Penrose, who superintends the works of restoration-
arc excellent.
8S8 CURIOSITIES OF LONDON.
The GuildTi all,— Amongst the enrichments of the Hall are several windows, one of
which, presented by Mr. Cornelius Lea Wilson, is of fine historical design, by Gibbs.
It is in four compartments, the subjects being the presentation of the four prin-
cipal charters of the City j the figures are richly coloured and jewelled on diapered
backgrounds, and are surmounted by canopies on a rich ruby ground ; the arms of the
City and those of the donor are introduced in the tracery lights. The first subject is
William the Conqueror holding in his hand the first charter granted to the City. The
second subject is Henry I. presenting the charter granting to the City to hold Middle-
sex with London, and the right of hunting in the forests. The third subject is
Eichard I. granting the charter to the City of the conservancy of the river Thames, in
order that the fishery might be nurtured and preserved, and the navigation encouraged
and protCx^ted. The fourth and last subject is Edward VL presenting the charter of the
four Royal Hospitals.
A large specimen of Glass-painting was exhibited at No. 15, Oxford-street, in 1830.
The subject was the Tournament of the Field of Cloth-of-Gol J, between Henry VIII. and Francis I.,
at Ardres ; the last tourney, June 25, 1520 : painted by Thomas Wilmshurst (the horses by Woodward),
from a sketch by R. T. Bone. This window was 432 square feet, or 18 by 24 feet; and consisted of 350
pieces, iitted into metal astragals, falling with the shadows, so that the whole picture appeared an
entire sheet of glass ; it was exhibited in a first-floor room, decorated in the taste of the time of
Henry VIll. The picture was composed from the details of Hall's Chronicle, and contained upwards
of 100 life-sized figures (40 portraits, mostly after Holbein) : including the two Queens, Wolsey, Anne
Boleyne, and the Countess of Chateaubriant ; Charles Erandon, Duke of Suffolk ; Queen Mary, Dowager
of France ; the ill-fated Duke of Buckingham, &c. The gorgeous assemblage of costume, gold and
jewels, waving plumes, glittering arms, velvet, ermine, and cloth-of-gold, with heraldic emblazonry,
picturesquely managed. The work cost the artist 3000^. On the night of Jan. 31, 1832, the house was
destroyed in an accidental fire, and with it the picture ; not even a sketch or study was saved, and the
property was wholly uninsured.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS,
UPON the north-west side of the Regent's Park, consist of a triangular garden south of
the outer road, and a northern garden upon the banks of the Regent's Canal : they
are connected by a tunnel beneath the road, and their extent is about 17 acres. The
soil being originally the London clay very near the surface, was cold and damp, and,
for a time, caused great mortality among the animals of the Menagerie j but the whole
has been thoroughly drained and tastefully planted.
The Zoological Society was instituted in 1826, "for the general advancement of
zoological science." It had been proposed
" The great objects should be, the introduction of new varieties, breeds, and races of animals, for
the purpose of domestication or for stocking our farm-yards, woods, pleasure-grounds, and wastes ;
with the establishment of a general zoological collection, consisting of prepared specimens in the
dilierent classes and orders, so as to afibi d a correct view of the Animal Kingdom at large, in as com-
plete a series as may be practicable; and at the same time point out the analogies between the animals
already domesticated, and those which are similar in character, upon which the first experiments may
be made. * * * * Should the Society flourish and succeed, it will not only be useful in common
life, but would likewise promote the best and most extensive objects of the Scientific History of
Animated Nature, and ofier a collection of living animals such as never yet existed in ancient or modern
times."— Prospectus, privately circulated, 1824.
Among the founders of the Society were Sir Stamford Raffles, Sir Humphry Davy,
Earl Darnley, Sir Everard Home, Mr. Davies Gilbert, Dr. Horsfield, the Rev. W
Kirby, Mr. Sharpe Macleay, and Mr. N. A. Vigors ; and into the new Society merged
the Zoological Club. At the same time was commenced the formation of a Museum,
at No. 33, Bruton-street, with the magnificent collection of Sir S. Raffles. A plot of
ground in the Regent's Park was granted to the Society by the government, and laid
out by Decimus Burton, who also built the first houses and inclosures for the animals.
Sh* Francis Chantrey took great interest in the Society, and the embellishment of the
Gardens. In 1827, the lake in the Park, with its islands and water-fowl, and a site
for breeding and rearing, were likewise granted to the Society. The Gardens were
first opened to the public in 1828, by members' orders, and one shilling each person ;
and during seven months there were upwards of 30,000 visitors : there were then
in the Menagerie 430 animals ; and the year's expenses were 10,000Z.
Among the earliest tenants of the Menagerie were a pair of emus from New
Holland ; two Arctic bears and a Russian bear ; a herd of kangaroos ; Cuban mastiff's
and Thibet watch-dogs ; two llamas from Peru ; a splendid collection of eagles, falcons.
ZOOLOGICAL SOGIETTS GARDENS, 839
and owls ; a pair of beavers ; cranes, spoonbills, and storks ; zebras and Indian cows ;
Esquimaux dogs ; armadilloes ; and a collection of monkeys. To the collection have
since been added an immense number of species of Mammalia and Birds, lists of which
are appended to the several annual Reports. To these was added, in 1849, a collection
of Reptiles ; and in 1853, a collection of Fish, Mollusca, Zoophytes, and other Aquatic
Animals. Among the royal donors to the collection are the Emperor of Russia, the
late Queen of Portugal, the Viceroy of Egypt, and Queen Victoria. In 1830, the
menagerie collected by George IV. at Sandpit-gate, Windsor, was removed to the
Society's Gardens ; and 1834 the last of the Tower Menagerie was received here. It
is now the finest public Vivarium in Europe.
The following are some of the more remarkable animals which the Society have
possessed, or are now in the Menagerie : —
Antelopes, the great family of, finely represented. The beautiful Elunds were bequeathed by the
late Earl of Derby, and have bred freely since their arrival in 1851. The Leueoryx is the first of her
race born out of Africa. Ant-eater, Giant, brought to England from Brazil in 1853, and was exhibited
in Broad-street, St. Giles's, until purchased by the Zoological Society for 200^, (See the admirable
paper by Professor Owen.) Apteryx, or Kiwi bird, from New Zealand; the first living specimen
brought to England of this rare bird. The Fish-house, built of iron and glass, in 1853, consisting of
a series of glass tanks, in which fish spawn, zoophytes produce young, and alga? luxuriate; Crustacea
and moUusca live successfully, and ascidian polypes are illustrated, together with sea anemones, jelly-
fishes and star-fishes, rare shell-fishes, &c. : a new world of animal life is here seen as in the depths of
the ocean, with masses of rock, sand, gravel, corallines, sea-v/eed, and sea-water ; the animals are in a
state of natural restlessness, now quiescent, now eating and being eaten. Aurochs, or European
Bisons : a pair presented by the Emperor of Russia, in 1847, from the forest of Bialovvitzca : the male
died in 1848, the female in 1849, from pleuro-pneumonia. Bears : the collection is one of the largest
ever made. Elephants : including an Indian elephant calf and its mother. In 1847 died here the
great Indian elepliant Jack, having been in the gardens sixteen years. Adjoining the stable is a tank
of water, of a depth nearly equal to the height of a full-grown elephant. In 1851 the Society possessed
a herd off our Elephants, besides a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros, and both species of tapir ; being the
largest collection of pachydermata ever exhibited in Europe. Giraffes : four received in 1836 cost the
Society upwards of 2300^., including lOOOi. for steamboat passage : the female produced six male fawns
here between 1840 and 1851. Hippopotamus, a young male (the first living specimen seen in England),
received from Egypt in May, 1850, when ten months old, seven feet long, and six and a half feet in
girth ; also a female luppopotamus, received 1854. Humming-birds : Mr. Gould's matchless collection
of 2000 examples was exhibited here in 1851 and 1852. Iguanas, two from Cuba and Carthagena,
closely resembling, in everything but size, the fossil Iguanodon, The Lions nu.nber generally from
eight to ten, including a pair of cubs born in the gardens in 1853. Orang-utan and Chimpanzee : the
purchase-money of the latter sometimes exceeds 300i. The orang " Darby," brought from Borneo in
1851, is the finest yet seen in Europe, very intelligent, and docile as a child. Farrot-houses, the, some-
times contain from sixty to seventy species. Rapacious Birds : so extensive a series of eagles and
vultures has never yet been seen at one view. The Reptile-house was fitted up in 1849 ; the creatures
are placed in large plate-glass cases : here are pythons and a rattle-snake, with a young one born
here; here is also a case of the tree-frogs of Europe: a yellow snake from Jamaica has produced
eight young in the gardens. Cohra de Capello, from India: in 1852, a keeper in the gardens was
killed by the bite of this serpent. A large Boa in 1850 swallowed a blanket, and disgorged it in
thirty-three days. A one-horned Rhinoceros, of continental India, was obtained in 1834, when it was
about four years old, and weighed 26 cwt. ; it died in 1850 : it was replaced by a female, about five
years old. Satin Bower-Birds, from Sydney: a pair have built here a bower, or breeding-place. Tapir
of the Old World, from Mount Ophir ; the nearest existing form to the Paleotherium. Tigers : a pair
of magnificent specimens, presented by the Guieowar of Baroda in 1851 ; a pair of clouded tigers, 1854.
The Wapiti Deer breeds every year in the Menagerie.
The animals in the Gardens, although reduced in number, are more valuable and
interesting than when their number was higher. The missions of the Society's head-
keeper, to collect rare animals for the Menagerie, have been very profitable. The
additional houses, from time to time, are very expensive: the new monkey-house,
fittings, and works cost 4842^.; and in 1864, the sum of 6604^. was laid out in
permanent additions to the establishment. In 1863, the income amounted to
20,284<I. 12s. lid. — a sum unexampled, except in the two Exhibition years; but the
income of 1864 reached 21,7l3Z. 13*. lOd. The visitors of all classes to the Gardens
during the year 1864 were 507,169 — a number falling little, if at all, short of that of
the visitors to the British Museum, which is open to the public gratuitously. The
yearly income of the Society ipay now be reckoned, under ordinary circumstances, to
reach the amount of 20,000/.; and the ordinary expenses of the present large
establishment, 1*7,0001. The greater part of the above large sum is produced by the
shillings and sixpences taken at the gates of the Society's Gardens for the admission of
visitors^ In 1864, upwards of 12,700Z. accrued to the Society's revenues in this way,
and the corresponding amount in each year generally exceeds 10,000Z. Visitors on
Mondays and holidays, who pay only sixpence a head, contribute by far the larger pro-
840 CURIOSITIES OF LOKDON.
portion of this sum — their numbers being much more than double those of the visitors
on the other days of the week who pay one shilling each.
The number of Fellows and Annual Subscribers at the close of 1866 was 2459. Income, 24,379^.
Visitors, 527,349. Animals in the Menagerie, 2013; Quadrupeds, 535; Birds, 1305; Keptiles, 173.
Expenditure, 22,418Z.; cost and keep of Animals, 14D91. Menagerie expenses, lObSl. Provisions,
8837^.— New Buildings and Works, 3983^.
The Society's Museum, which is in the South Garden, is described at p. 606. An
excellent Guide to the Gardens is published.
ZOOLOGICAL GAEDI:NS, SURREY,
WERE established in 1831, by Mr. Edward Cross, upon the demesne which had
been attached to the manor-house at Walworth. Thither Cross removed his
menagerie from the King's Mews, where it had been transferred from Exeter Change.
The Gardens were laid out by Henry Phillips, author of Sylva Florifera ; when a glazed
circular building, 100 feet in diameter, was built for the cages of the carnivorous animals
(lions, tigers, leopards, &c.) j and other houses for mammalia, birds, &c. Here, in
1834, was first exhibited a young Indian one-horned rhinoceros, for which Cross paid
SOOZ. ; it was the only specimen brought to England for twenty years : in 1836 were
added three giraffes, one fifteen feet high. To the zoological attraction was added a
large picture-model, upon the borders of the lake, three acres in extent : the first
picture. Mount Vesuvius (with the natural lake for the Bay of Naples), was produced
in 1837, when fireworks were also first introduced, for the volcanic eruption ; in 1839,
Iceland and its volcanoes; 1841, the City of Rome; 1843, Temple of Ellora; 1844,
London and the Great Fire of 1666 ; 1845, Edinburgh ; 1846, Vesuvius, reproduced ;
1848, Rome, reproduced ; 1849, Storming of Badajoz. These picture-models, mostly
painted by Danson, were of great extent; that of Rome occupying five acres, and a
painted surface of 260,000 square feet. They probably originated in the Ranelagh
spectacles of the last century; for in 1792 was exhibited there Mount Etna, 80 feet
high, with the flowing lava, and altogether a triumph of machinery and pyrotechnics.
Balloon-ascents, flower-shows, and other sights, with out-door concerts, were added to
the attractions of these Gardens. In 1856, the property was sold, the Menagerie
removed, and there was built upon the site the Surrey Music Hall, described at p. 609.
TRE CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM.
ALTHOUGH this stupendous structure is not, like its prototype, the 1851 Great
Exhibition building in Hyde Park, placed within the limits of the town, the
" Curiosities of London" would scarcely be complete without some notice of the contents
of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. It occupies the summit of a hill between the
Brighton Railway and the Dulwich Wood, the fall from its site to the railway being
200 feet ; the main floor of the Palace being on a level with the cross at the top of
St. Paijl's Cathedral. In its construction the materials of the 1851 Exhibition building
have been employed; but it is larger than its predecessor by 1628 feet, and by nearly
one-half in cubic contents. It is almost entirely of iron and glass, coveis nearly 16 acres
of ground; and its height from the garden-front to the top of the louvres is 208 feet, or
6 feet higher than the Monument. The nave is covered with an arched roof, raising it
44 feet higher than the nave in Hyde Park; and the centre and two end transepts
have similar roofs. From there Windsor Castle may be seen on the one side,
Knockholt beeches (near Seven Oaks) on the other. Nearly 10,000 tons of iron
have been used in the main building and wings; and the superficial quantity of glass
is 25 acres.
The Nave is entered at the south end, through an ornamental screen of niches filled
with statues of kings and queens by John Thomas. In the area, statues are pic-
turesquely grouped with stupendous pines, palms, and other ti-opical plants of luxuriant
beauty, backed by the brilliant fa9ades of the various Industrial and Fine Arts Courts.
East and west are groups illustrating the ethnology, zoology, and botany of the Old
and New Worlds ; and at each end is a spacious basin, for a fountain to throw up water
from 70 to 200 feet. In the Courts, and dispersed throughout the building, are the
THE CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM. 841
works of French and Italian, German and English, Roman and Greek sculptors ; and
models of celebrated ancient and modern edifices. Throughout the whole Palace are
galleries devoted to the exhibition of pictures, sculpture, and other objects of fine art
and industry. The most beautiful works are the Courts representing the architecture
and sculpture of each nation : Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Pompeian, Alhambra, Assyrian,
Byzantine, and Romanesque ; German, English, French, and Italian mediaeval ; Renais-
sance, Elizabethan, Italian, &c.
The great Orchestra in the centre Transept, erected for the Handel Festivals, is
capable of containing four thousand performers. The Handel Festivals are held trien-
nially. The four festivals held in 1857, 1859, 1862, and 1865, were attended by
254,234 persons, the receipts being upwards of 100,000^. The large Organ crowning
the great Orchestra was built expressly for these festivals by Messrs. Gray and
Davison. In width this enormous Orchestra is double the diameter of the dome of
St. Paul's.
Up to this time — a period of between thirteen and fourteen years — the Palace has
been visited by upwards of twenty-one millions of visitors. On holiday and great fete
days it is no uncommon occurrence to find from 40,000 to 60,000 persons attending.
On one occasion (a Forester's fete) 83,721 visitors passed the stiles in one day.
The income of the Company annually varies from 120,000Z. to 140,000Z. per annum.
Of this large sum about 20,000^. arises from season tickets, a nearly similar amount
from royalties on refreshments, and about 15,000^. from exhibitors' rental.
Descending across the terraces, decorated with marble vases filled with flowers and
figures emblematical of all nations, to the Italian and English Landscape-Garden and
the Park, we find Science and Philosoph}"- teaching their sublime truths in a geological
illustration of the Wealden formation, " so well known in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex,
and formerly the great metropolis of the Dinosaurian orders, or the largest of gigantic
lizards :" the various strata are here represented ; and here Mr. Watei'house Hawkins,
under the guiding eye of Professor Owen, has built up gigantic animals of a former
world, and in some Instances restored them from fossil remains.
The series of fountains are a great attraction and are unrivalled in extent. The two
largest jets throw water 240 feet in height, being in volume and extent equal to the
great steeple of Bow Church, Cheapside.* The Palace, Park, Gardens, and Fountains,
&c., were designed and laid out by the late Sir Joseph Paxton, M.P.
The Palace is approached by a branch from the Brighton Railway, and also by a
high level railway connected with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway main
stations, Victoria and Ludgate. By the latter, the entire system of the Metropolitan
(Underground) Railway communicates with the Palace. Similar communication also
exists by Kensington with the North London Railway. .On the completion of the East
London (Tunnel) Railway, the Palace \vill be in direct communication with all the
great railways entering London, and excursions may be run from all parts of the
country thereto. The building was opened by her Majesty, June 10, 1854. It has
cost nearly a million and a half of money j and in grandeur of purpose is a marvel of
enlightened enterprise.
The eontents of the Palace are all that its magic-suggestive name promises. For picturesque elFects
we have fountains and fishpools, flowers and plants; for art-teaching purposes we have statues and
paintings, with nooks of Spain, Pompeii, Nineveh, and Egypt ; for examples of industrial arts, manu-
factures from all the civilized nations. In this building we can again take art from its cradle in Assyria
or Egypt, and trace, after its long sojourn on the banks of the Nile, its progress through Greece and
Kome, and during the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance. No need to draw upon the imagination. Here
are casts and faithful representations of the most important objects that modern research has discovered.
The English artisan, with little time for study, and less hope of travel, is, by this means, made
acquainted with the works of races whose names were unknown to his forefathers, and familiar with
antediluvian monsters, whose pre-Adamite existence- was but faintly shadowed out in the griffins and
dragons of romance.]
* A portion of the north end of the Palace was destroyed by fire caused by the explosion of gas in the
flues heating the 50 miles of hot-water pipes within the Palace, on Sunday, December 30, .1866 : a
considerable portion of the damaged part has, however, already been reconstructed.
INDEX.
A DELPHI :
■^ Adams, architects, 1
Banks, Sir Edward, 2
Becket, the bookseller, 2
Blamire, George, death of, 2
Embankment of Thames, 1
Garrick's House and Public
Funeral, 1
Hill, Thomas : Curiosities, 2
Knox, Vicesimus, 2
Literary Fund chambers, 2
Sandwich Islands, King and
Queen of, 2
Terrace and View, 1
Admiralty Office:
Clarence, Duke of. Lord
High Admiral, 3
Nelson's Funeral, 3
Kipley, architect, 2
Screen, by Adam, 2
Semaphore, and the Electric
Telegraph, 3
Wallingford House, 2
Alchemists :
Brande's account, 3
Hermetic Mystery, sup-
pressed work, 4
Last true believer in, 3
Woulfe, P., Barnard's Inn, 3
Aldermen :
Barber, printer, 5
Birch, Boydell , and Wilkes, 5
Butler's Character of, 5
Court at Guildhall, 6
Election of, 5
Farringdon Ward, 5
Norton's Commentaries, 5
Head, Richard, foot soldier, 5
Saxon origin, 4
W^allace, William.gaoler of,5
Wards or Guilds, 5
Almack's :
Dechne of, 4
First opened, 4
Norel and Key, 4
"Williams, Gilly, describes, 4
Almonry, Royal :
Almoner, Q. Adelaide's, 7
Coronation Alms, 7
High Almoner, 7
Maundy Thursday distri-
bution, 7
WhitehaU Chapel, 7
Almonry :
Ancient house, 6
Caxton's Printing-press, 6
Great and Little Almonry, 6
Harrington, James, 6
Westminster Abbey, 6
Almshouses :
Alleyn's, 8
Architecture of, 9
Bancroft's, 8
Clock and Watchmakers', 9
Cure's, 8
Dramatic College, 9
Drapers', 8
East India, 9
Emmanuel Hospital, 8
Fishmongers', 8
French Protestant, 9
Goldsmiths', 9
Haberdashers', 9
King William's, 9
London, 9
London Companies', 7
Marylebone, 9
Morden College, 9
Norfolk, 9
Owen's, 8
Palmer's, 9
Salters', 8
Societies, various, 9
Surrey Chapel, 9
Trinity, 8
Van Dun's, 8
Westminster, 7, 8
Whittington's, 8
Amusements :
Archery, 10
Ballad singing, 10
Bear and Bull-baiting, 11
Bowls, 11
Card-playing, 10
Cock-fighting, 12
Cricket, 12
Duck-hunting, 13
Equestrianism, 13
Fairs, 13
Fireworks, 14
Football, 14
Hunting and Poaching, 14
Masquerades, 14
Mayings and May -games, 15
Parks, Sports and Pastimes
in, 15 I
Amusements — continued.
Punch's Street Show, 16
Prison Bars, or Base, 16
Puppet shows, 16
Racket and Tennis, 17
Salt-box Music, 17
Skittles, 17
Tea-gardens, 17
Thames Sports, 19
Theatres, 19
Apollonicon :
Construction and Perfor-
mances, 19
Arcades :
Burlington, Covent Garden,
Exeter 'Change, Lowther,
20
Arches :
Buckingham Palace, Greeu
Park, and Hyde Park, 21
Argyll Rooms:
Braithwaile's Steam Fire
Engine; Chabert, "Fire
King;" and Velluti, 22
Art Union of London:
Pictures in demand, 22
Prizes drawn, 22
Artesian Wells:
Breweries', various, 23
Buckland, Dr., on, 23
Covent Garden, 23
Hampstead-road, 23
Origin of, 23
Prestwick on, 24
Supply of, 23
Tottenham, 23
Various, 23
Artillery Company :
Archers of Finsbury, 24
Armorial Ensigns, 26
Armoury House, 25
Captaiu -General, and Colo-
nels, 25
Musters and Marchings, 25
Trained Band, 24, 25
B
ALLOON ASCENTS :
Coxwell's Ascents, 27
Glaisher's Scientific As-
cents, 27
Green's Ascents, 26
London, from a balloon, 27
Memorable, 26, 27
INDEX.
843
Balloon Ascents — contd.
Baths — continued.
Bethlem— con^inweff.
Montgolfier, 26
Hummums, or Warm Baths,
Gibber's Raving and Jlelau-
Nassau, Great, 27
Covent Garden, 39
choly Madness, 51, 52
Parachutes, 26
Peerless Pool, 37
Criminal Lunatics, 53
Smith, Albert, ascent of, 27
Queen Anna's, 39
Curable Patients, 53
Bank of England:
Queen Elizabeth's, 39
History of the word, 51
Area of, 27
Roman, 37
Horrore of old Bethlem, 52
Bank-note Machinery, 29
Turkish, 39
House of Occupation, 52
Building- and Architects, 28
Bazaars :
Improved Management, 52
Bullion Office, 28
Anti-Corn-Law League, 42
Old Bethlem described, 51
Clock, 29
Baker- street, 41
Origin of the name, 5 1
Coins and Curiosities, 30
Corinthian, 543
Rebuilt on St. George's
Forgeries, 30
Cosmorama, 42
Fields, 52
Garden Court and Fountain,
St. James's, 41
Second Bethlem, 51
30
Lowther, 41
Tom 0' Bedlam, 52
Grocers' Hall and Mercers'
Pantechnicon, 41
Bethnal Green:
Hall, 28
Pantheon, 41
Blind Beggar, 50
Newland, Abraham, 30
Portland, 42
Bishop Bonner's Palace, 50
Notes and amounts, 31
Principle of the Bazaar, 40
Habits of the people, 50
Panics and Huns, 29
Soho, 40
Billingsgate :
Rifles, Company of, 31
Western Exchange, 41
Billingsgate discourse, 5 4
Weighing Office, 29
Baynard's Castle :
Fish consumed inLondoii,o5
Bankside :
Bainiardus, founder, 40
Fishfag and Origin of the
Bear and Bull-baiting, 31
Baynard's Watering- and
name, 54
Stews and Theatres, 31
Bayswater, 40
Fish -trade, 55
Barbican :
Humphrey and Richard,
Market Rebuilt, 55
Ancient Watch-tower, 32
Dukes of Gloucester, 40
Blackfriars :
Milton's House, 32
Beggars :
Bedstead, curious ancient, 57
Origin of Barbican, 32
Frauds, 42
Bible translators, 57
Bartholomew Fair :
Mendicity Society, 42
Charles V. lodged, 55
Ben Jonson, Dogget, and
Sky Farmers, 42
Henry VIII. and Katherine
Pepys, 33
Belgravia :
of Arragon, 56
Celebrities, 33, 34
Belgrave-square built, 43
Hunsdon House and " Fatal
City Rights, 33
Five Fieldtf, 43
Vespers," 56
Cloth Fair, 33
Cubitt,Thomas, sketch of, 43
Monastery, 55, 56
Discontinuance of, 36
Bells and Chimes :
Mylne, the architect, 57
Fielding, Shuter, and Wood-
Bride's, S., 47
Painters resident, 56
ward, 35
Charterhouse, 44
Parliaments held, 55
Hentzner at, 33
Christchurch, 47
Phillips, Sir Richard, 57
Hone's account of the Fair
Clochard, Westminster, 44
Playhouse, 56
of 1825, 36
College and Cumberland
Shakspeare's house, 56
Lady Holland's Mob, 35
Youths, 45
Railway Station, 57
Kensington, Lord, 33
Curfew, or Couvre-feu, 43
Vandyck resided, 56
Morley's Memoirs, 33
Historical bells, 46
BlACKWALL :
Origin of the Fair, 32
S. Leonard's, 47
Cabinet Fish Dinner, 58
Pie Poudre Court, 32
London Scholars, 46
Chinese junk exliibited, 58
Priory Fair, 32
S. Martin's, 47
Iron Ship-building, 58
Proclamations and Cool
S. Mary-le-Bow, 46
Whitebait Ashing, 57
Tankard, 35
S. Michael's, 48
Blind School:
Punchinello and Puppet
Rector tolling in, 46
Day's Charity for Blind, 59
shows, 34
Royal Exchange chimes, 48
Origin of, 58
Rahere, or Rayer, 32
S. Paul's Cathedral, 45
Tudor School-house built, 58
Bartholomew's, S. Hospital:
S. Saviour's, 48
Work by the Blind, 58
Corporation Management,
S. Sepulchre's, 48
Breweries :
36, 37
S. Stephen's, 48
Barclay & Perkins's, CO
Henry VIII. founded, 37
Societies of Ringers, 45
Globe Theatre site, 00
Hogarth's Painted Stair-
Westminster Palace Bells, 44
Johnson, Dr., and Thrale,60
case, 36
Bermondsey :
Meux & Co., 61
Origin of the Hospital, 36
Beormund's Eye, or Island,
Lion Brewery, 61
Rebuilt, 36
49
Porter, origin of, 59
Samaritan Fund and View-
Leather Market, 50
Reid & Co., 61
day, 37
Monastery, founded, 49
Signs of Breweries, 62
Baths, Olden :
Prize altar Picture, 49
Thrale's Brewery, 60
Agnes-le-Clair, 37
Roman Catholic Convent, 49
Truman, Hanbury, & Co., 61
Bagnio, Newgate street, 38
Skin Market, 50
Water for Brewing, 50, CO
Baths and Wash-houses, 39
Spa, old, 50
Whitbread's Brewery, 59
Cold Bath, Clerkenwell, 37
Bethlem or Bethlehem
Bridewell Hospital:
Duke's, or Bagnio, 38
Hospital :
Bridewell Boys, C3
Floating, 39
Arras of the Hospital, 54
Burial-place, 64
844
INDEX.
Bridewell — continued.
Chamberlain's, City, juris-
diction, 64
Charter picture, not by Hol-
bein, 64
City ApprenMces, refrac-
tory, committed, 63
Congregational Church, first,
established, 64
"Flock of Slaughter," in
Bridewell, 64
Flogging loose pprsons, 63
Hogarth's Harlot's Tro-
gress, 63
Hospital rebuilt, 62
House of Occupation, 63
Lob's Pound, 63
Norman Palace, 62
Pictures, 64
Presented to the City by
Edward VI., 62
Bridges :
Length, breadth, and cost, 71
Blackfriars Bridge :
Foundation-stone, 72
Mylne, architect, 71
New Bridge, by Cubitt, 72
Suicides from, 73
Chelsea Suspension, by Page,
74
Hammersmith Suspension, 74
Hungerford Suspension, built
by I, K. Brunei, 74
Lambeth Suspension, 75
London Bridge :
Budgell and Temple sui-
cides, 67
Cost of, 69
Described by Sir John
Rennie, 69
Fires, Insurrections, and
Sieges, G6
First Stone bridge, 65
Heads on the gate-houses,
67
Houses on, 66
Iron from old piles, 69
Norden's View, 66
London, first, 65
Opened by William IV., 68
Osborne and the Leeds
family, 68
Peter of Colechurch, 65, 69
Railway Bridges, 72, 73, 74
Rebuilt by Rennie, 68
Trades, old, 67
Traffic, 69, '74
"Waterworks, 67
SouthAvark Bridge :
Built of Iron, by John
Rennie, 73
Opened, 74
Vauxhall ;
Built of Iron, by Walker, 72
"Waterloo Bridge :
Built by John Rennie, 73
Great cost of, 73
Opened, 73
Suicides from, 73
Bridges — continued.
"Westminster Bridge :
Labelye, engineer, 70
Lambeth Palace Ferry, 69
New Bridge, by Page, 71
Wordsworth's Sonnet, 70
BUCKEERSBURY, 75
Barge-yard andWalbrook,75
Conduit, Great, 75
Herb-market, and Simplers,
75
BuNHiEii Fields :
Bunyan and Defoe buried
here, 77
Curll's Register of inter-
ments, 75
Inscriptions, curious, 76
Leased to the Corporation, 75
Origin of the name, 75
Persons of note buried here,
76, 77
Plague burials, 76
Tiudal's Lease, 76
CANONBURY TOWER;
Canons of S. Bartholo-
mew, 78
Chambers and Goldsmith, 78
Spencer, Sir John, 78
Carvings in Wood :
Canonbury House, 79
Chapel of Henry VIL, 79
Cheapside, No. 108, 80
Cradle for Prince Arthur, 80
Crosby Hall, and S. Helen's,
Bishopsgate, 79
Gibbons's carving, 79
Gog and Magog, Guildhall,
80
Halls of the City Com-
panies, 79
S. Mary-at-Hill Church, 80
S. Michael's Church, Corn-
hill, 80
Ormond-st., Queen-sq., 80
Pulpit of St. Paul's, 79
State Coaches, 80
Temple Church and West-
minster Abbey, 80
Westminster Hall roof, 78
Westminster New Palace, 80
Wood carvings, 79
Cemeteries :
Abney Park, 82
Churchyards planted, 32
Evelyn proposed, 81
Highgate, 82
Jews' Burial-grounds, 82
Kensal Green, 81
Norwood, 82
Nunhead, 82
Victoria Park, 82
West London, 82
Chancery-lane :
Chichester, Bishop's Palace,
82
Lincoln's Inn gateway, 83
Name, 82
Serjeants' Inn, 82
Chancery-lane — continued.
Southampton House and
Lord W. Russell, 83
Walton, Isaak, his shop, 82
Charing Cross:
Bermudas, the, 85
Canaletti's View, 84
Cherringe village, 83
DownfcMe of Charing Cross,
84
Eleanor Cross, the, 83
Golden Cross Inn, 84
Hermitage and Hospital, 84
Statue of Charles I.. 84
Payne, the bookbinder, 85
Proclamations, 84
Taverns, 84
Charterhodse :
Burnet, Dr. Thomas, 87
Carthusians, eminent, 87
Chapel and Monuments, 86
Charterhomse grounds and
buildings, 86
Charterhouse Monastery, 85
Elizabethan Chamber, 86
Fags at Charterhouse, 88
Hall, the Great, 86
Havelock, General, 87
Hospital of King James, 85
Manny, Sir Walter, 85
Poor Brethren, 87
Portraits, 87
Prior, the last, 85
School- rooms, 87
Sutton's estates, 86
Sutton's tomb, 85
Cheapside :
Barclay's house, 88
" Beauty of London," 88
C/iepe, or Market, 88
Cross, Siandard, and Con-
duit, 89
Joustings and Watches, 88
Mercers'& Saddlers'Hall8,89
Nag's Head Tavern, 89
Wren, house designed by, 89
Chelsea :
Beaufort and Lindsey Old
Mansions, 90
Blacklaods and White-
lands, 90
Cheyne, Lord, 90
Churches, St. Luke's, 90
Cremorne House, 91
Five Fields, 91
Highwaymen at, 91
Little Chelsea, 91
Manor, 89
Mazarin, Duchess of, 90
More, Sir Thomas, mansion
of, 90
Origin of Name, 89
Saltero's Museum, and
Coffeehouse, 90
Signs, curious, 91
Sloane, Sir Hans, 90
Turner, the painter, death
of, 91
Waterworks, 91
INDEX.
845
Chelsea Buns :
Bun-house, Old, 91
Curiosities of, 92
George II. and III., and
their Queens, 91
Swift and Stella, 91
Chelsea Porcelain :
Bow porcelain, 94
Dr. Johnson's experiments,
94
Manufactory, 94
Kare specimens, 94
Chess Clubs :
Philidor, 95
St. George's, London, Di-
vans, Parsloe's, Salopian,
Slaughter's, 95
Christ's Hospital :
Abuses, alleged, 100
Bequests, early, 96
Blue-coat girl, 97
"Blue Coat School," 96
Blues, eminent, 99
Charity to the Blind, 101
Cloisters of Hospital, 100
Drawing-room presenta-
tions, 99
Edward VI., grant from, 96
Exhibitions for Scholar-
ships, 99
Foundation of, 95
Girls' School, Hertford, 101
Grants from Henry VIII., 95
Grey Friars' monastery, 96
Hall, Great, 97
Hertford establishment, 101
Hospital, originally, 96
Hospital rebuilt, 97
Income, 100
Library, 100
Livery or Dress, 96
Mathematical School, 97
Orations, 98
Penmanship, 99
Pictures, 98
Presentations, and Gover-
nors, 101
President, election of, 101
Reports, 100, 101
Ridley, Bishop, 96
Spital Sermons, 99
Suppings in Public, 98
Writing School, 97
Chapels, Dissenters :
Albion, Moorgate, 219
Baptist, Little Wild-st., 219
Baptist, Bloomsbury-st., 219
Baptist, Notting Dale, 219
Caledonian, Hatton Garden,
219
Canonbury, Islington, 220
Catholic and Apostolic, Gor-
don-square, 220
Congregational, Kentish
Town, 220
Essex-street, Strand, 220
Highbury, 220
Independent,Kingsland,220
Jewin-8t., Aldersgate, 220
Chapels — continued.
Moravian, Fetter-lane, 220
National Scotch Church,
Covent Garden, 221
Old Gravel-pit,Hackney,221
Oxendon, Hay market, 221
Presbyterian, Hackney, 224
Presbyterian, Newington-
green, 221
Providence, Marylebone, 2 2 1
Providence, Gray's-inn-lane,
221
Regent's-square, Gray's-inn-
road, 222
Scotch Church, SwaUow-
street, 222
South-place, Finsbury, 222
Spa-fields, 222
Stepney Meeting, 223
Surrey, 223
Swedenborg Church, Ar-
gyle-square, 223
Tabernacle, Metropolitan,
223
Tabernacle, Moorfields, 223
Trinity Independents, Pop-
lar, 224
United Presbyterian, 224
Unity Church, Islington, 224
Weigh-house, Fish-street-
hill, 224
Wesleyan, City-road, 224
■Wesleyan,Kenti8h-town,225
Wesleyan, Great Queen-
street, 225
Wesleyan, Liverpool-rd., 225
Whitefleld's Tabernacle,Tot-
tenham-court-rd., 225,790
Zoar (Bunyan's) Southwark,
226
Chapels, Episcopal :
Asylum for Female Or-
phans, 209
S. Bartholomew's, Kings-
land, 209
Bedfordbury, 209
Bentinck, Chapel-street,
New-road, 210
Charlotte (Dodd's), Pimlico,
210
Duke-st., Westminster, 210
Foundling Hospital, Guil-
ford-street, 210
Gray's-Inn, 211
Grosvenor, South Audley-
street, 211
Hanover, Kegent-street, 211
House of Charity, Soho, 211
S. James's, Hampstead-road,
212
S. James's, Pentonville, 212
S. John's, Bedford-row, 212
Kentish-town, 212
King's College, 212
S. John's Wood, 212
Lamb, Monkwell-st., 212
Leadenhall, 203
Lincoln's Inn, 213
S. Luke's, Fulham-road, 213
Ch A pel s — continued.
Magdalen Hospital, Black-
fiiars-road, 213
Margaret-street, 213
S. Mark's, North Audley-
street, 214
S. Mark's, Fulham-rd., 214
Percy, Charlotte-street, 214
S. Peter's, Queen-sq., 214
S. Peter's, Vere-street, 214
S. Philip's, Regent-st., 216
Portland, Great Portland-
street, 215
Quebec, Quebec-street, 215
Ragged Church, 215 .
Rolls, Chancery -lane, 215
Tenison's, Regent-st., 215
Trinity, Conduit-street, 216
Trinity, Knightsbridge, 216
York-st., St. James's, 216
Churches, Foreign Pro-
testant :
Dutch, Austin Friars, 216
French, 217
Savoy, 217
Swiss, 217
Roman Catholic Churches
AND Chapels:
Ambassadors' Chapels, 229
Bavarian, Warwick-st., 229
S. George's, S. George's
Fields, 230
Immaculate Conception,
Farm-street, 230
Italian, Hatton-wall, 231
S. John of Jerusalem, Great
Ormond-street, 230
S. John, Evangelist, Isling-
ton, 231
S. Mary's, Moorfields, 231
S. Monica's, Hoxton, 232
Oratory, Brompton, 232
Our Lady's, S. John's-wood,
232
S. Patrick's, Sutton-8t., 232
Sardinian, Lincoln's - Inn
Fields, 232
Spanish, Spanish-pl., 233
Churches of London :
Bishop of London's Fund,
103
Churches destroyed in the
Great Fire, and not re-
built, 102
City Churches, great num-
ber of, 103
Metropolis Churches Fund,
103
Middle Ages, 102
Queen Anne Churches, 102
Saxon, 101
Wren's churches, 102
S. Paul's, Old :
Bankes's Horse, 106
Cloisters, Dance of Death,
104
Conversion of S. Paul, An-
niversary, 104
Dimensions of cathedral, 104
846
INDEX.
Churches — continued.
Duke Humphrey'8Tomb,106
St. Faith's and Gregory's
Churches, 104
First and Second Churches,
S. Paul's, 104
Great Fire of 1666, 107
Miracles, Penances, and
Shrines, 105
Monuments, 105, 106, 115
Paul's or Powly's Cross, 105
Paul's Jacks, 106
Paul's Walk, 106
Portico, by Inigo Jones, 107
Kuins cleared, 107
Spire burnt, 104
S. Paul's:
Admission money, 116
Ball and Cross, 115
Chapter-house, 116
Clock and Great Bell, 112
Crypt, 113
Dimensions of cathedral,117
Dome, Thornhill's Pictures,
114
Exterior, 109
Fabric Fund, 11 7
Festivals, 116
F-rst stone laid by Charles
II., 108
Galleries, Outer, 115
Grave of Wren, 113
Ground-plan, 109
Gwilt, Joseph, on, 110
Heights, 110
Horner's Sketches from, 115
Model-room, 111
Monuments, 112
Nelson's Tomb, 113
Order against S\vearing,109
Organs, 112
Painted Windows, 117
Painters' Comer, 113
Picton's remains, 114
Plot against Queen Anne,
109
Position of Old and New
Cathedrals, 108
Ke-decoration, 117
Secured from Lightning,110
State Processions, 116
Views, 116, 117
Wellington's Funeral and
Tomb, 114
Wellington's Funeral Caj-,
exhibition of, 114
Whispering Gallery ex-
plained, 111, 112
Wightwick on the architec-
ture, 111
Wren's Design, and Model,
107
Westminster Abbey :
Admeasurements, 139
Altar-painting, curious
early, 124
Ambulatory, 125
Ancient Remains described,
120
Churches — continued.
Centenary, Eighth, Celebra-
tion of, 140
Clmpels : Abbot Islip's, 128 ;
S. Benedict's, 124; S.
Blaise's, 123 ; S. Ed-
mund's, 124 ; Edward the
Confessor's, 127 ; S. Eras-
mus's, 127; Henry VII. 's,
125 ; S. John Baptist's,
128; S. Nicholas's, 125;
S. Paul's, 127
Chapter-house, Cloisters,
North Transept, South
Side, Western Front, 121
Chapter-house described, 126
Choir, Monuments, and
Pavements, 131, 132
Choir refitted, 132
Choir Screen, 134
Cloisters, Monuments, 137
Coronations in the Abbey
Church, 133
Coronation of GeorgelV.l 33
Coronation of Queen Vic-
toria, 133
Coronation Chairs, 1 30
Domesday Book, 137
Edward the Confessor, 118
Elizabeth, Queen, reor-
ganizes, 120
Exterior Views, 120
Fees for Monuments, 123
Foundation, 117, 118
Gravestones in South Tran-
sept, 123
Ground-plan, 121, 124
Henry III. rebuilds, 118
Interior described, 121
Jerusalem Chamber, 135
Library of the Dean and
Chapter, 136
Litlington's buildings, 119
Litlington Tower, 137
Metal work and Brasses, 139
Models, various, 137
Musical Festivals, 138
Nave and its monuments,
134, 135
Nave rebuilt, 119
North Transept, Monuments
in, ISO, 131
Organs described, 138
Painted and Stained Glass,
138
St. Peter, dedication to,119
Poets' Corner, Tombs in,
122, 123
Pulpit, new, 135
Eemains, most ancient, 120
Sanctuary, 119
Sebert's Church, 117
Shrine of Edward the Con-
fessor, 129, 130
Shrine of Henry V., 129
Spur-money, 126
Stanley, Dean, on West-
minster Abbey, 139, 140
Tablets to Queen Mary, 126 j
Churches — contimied.
Tombs, celebrated, 138
Waxwork Exhibition, 12X
818
Chapel Royal, St. James's :
Children of the Chai
Royal, 141
Choral service, 140
Holbein's ceiling, 140
Spur Money, 141
Chapel Royal, Savoy :
Altar-screen, 144
Architecture, 143
Christmas-day customs, 144
Fires and Restorations, 144
Grant of Henry III., 142
Persons of note buried, 143
Prison of the Savoy, 144 I
Royal Closet, 142
Royal Printing-press, 143
Rubens's ceiling, 142
Savoy Marriages, 143
Schools at the Savoy, 142
Chapel Royal, WhitehaU:
Boyle Lectures, 142
Hospital, 142
Maundy distribution, 142
Not consecrated, 141
Churches :
S. Alban's, Baldwin's Gar-
dens, 144
S, Alban's, Wood-street,
Cheapside, 145
Allhallows Barking, Great
Tower-street, 145
Allhallows, Bread-st.,146
Allhallows, Great and Less,
Upper Thames-street, 146
Allhallows, Honey-lane, 146
Allhallows, Lombard-st.,146
Allhallows Staining, Mark-
lane, 146
Allhallows - in - the - Wall,
Broad-street Ward, 147
All Saints, Bishopsgate, 147
All Saints, Knightsbridge,
147
All Saints, Lambeth, 147
All Souls, Langham-pl., 147
All Saints, Margaret-st.,147
All Saints, Poplar-lane, 149
S. Alphage, London Wall,
149
S. Andrew's, Kingsland-
road, 149 '
S. Andrew's Holbom, 149
S. Andrew's Undershaft,
Leadenhall-street, 150 ;
Stow, sketch of, 150
S. Andrew by the Ward-
robe, Castle Baynard, ISO
S, Andrew's, Wells-st., 150
S. Anne's, Blackfriars, 150
S. Anne's, Limehouse, 150
S. Anne's, Spho, 151
S.Anthojiy'8,Budge-row,151
S. Augustine's, Watling-
street, 151
S. Barnabas, Pimlico, 161
INDEX,
847
Churches — continued.
S. Barnabas, Edgware-rd.
152
S. Bartholomew by the Fx
chang-e, 152
S. Bartholomew the Great,
152
S. Bartholomew the Less,
153
S. Benet,Gracechurch'8treet,
153
S. Bennet Fink, 154
S. Bennet, Paul's-wharf, 154
S. Bennet Sherehog, 154
S. Botolph's, Aldgate, 154
S. Botolph's, Bishopsgate,
154
Bow church, see S. Mary-
le-Bow
S. Bride's, Fleet-street, 155
British and Foreign Sailors',
Wellclose-square, 156
Camden Church, Camber-
well, 156
S. Catherine Cree, Leaden-
hall-street, 156
S. Chad, Haggerston, 156
Christ Church , Westmin st er ,
156
Christ Church, Clapham, 157
Christ Church, Piccadilly,
157
Christ Church, Highbury,
167
Christ Church, Newgate-
street, 157: Spital Ser-
mons, 157
Christ Church, Poplar, 157
Christ Church, Spitalfields,
157
S.Clement's, Eastcheap, 158
S. Clement's Danes, 158
S. Clement's, Islington, 159
S. Clement's, Barnsbury, 159
S. Dionis Backchurch, 159
S. Dunstan'8-in-the-East,
Tower-street, 159
S. Dunstan'a-in-the-West,
Fleet-street, 159
S. Dunstan's, Stepney, 16 i
S. Edmund's, (King and
Martyr), Lombard-8t.,161
S. Ethelburga's,Bishopsgale.
street, 161
S. Ethelreda's, Ely-pl., 161
S. George's, Kensington, 162
S. George's,Hanover-square,
162
S. George's in the East,
Ratcliff Highway, Raine's
Marriage Charity, 162
S. George's, Queen-sq., 162
S. George the Martyr,
Queen-sq., 163
S. George the Martyr,
Southwark,163
S. Giles's, Camberwell, 163
S. Giles's, Cripplegate, 163
S. Giles's-in-the-fields, 164
Churches — continued.
S. Gregory by S. Paul's, 165
S. Helen's, Bishopsgate, 165
S. Katharine's, Regent's-
park, 166
S. James's, Aldgate, 167
S. James's, Clerkenwell, 168
S. James's, Garlick Hithe,
168
S. James the Less, West-
minster, 168
S. Jamss's, Piccadilly, 169
S. James's, Shoreditch, 171
S.James's, Bermondsey,171
S. John's, Hackney, 171
S. John's, Bethnal Green,171
S.John's,Clerkenwell: Cock-
lane Ghost, 171
S. John the Evangelist,
Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-
square, 171
S. John the Evangelist,
Horselydown, 171
S. John the Evangelist,
Westminster, 171
S. John the Evangelist,
Waterloo-road, 172
S. John of Jerusalem, South
Hackney, 172
S. John's, Notting-hill, 172
S. John's, Oxford-square,
Paddington, 172
S. Jude's, Gray's-inn-road,
173
S. Lawrence Jewry, King-
street, Cheapside, 173
S. Leonard's, Eastcheap, 173
S. Leonard's, Shoreditch,
173
S. Luke's,Edgware-road,174
S. Luke's (Old), Chelsea, 174
S. Luke's (New), Chelsea,17o
S. Luke's, Old-street-road,
176
S. Magnus the Martyr,
London Bridge, 176
S. Margaret's, Lothbury, 176
S. Margaret Pattens, Fen-
church-street, 176
S. Margaret's,Westminster :
Overseer's Box and
Painted Window, 177 —
179
S. Mark's, Kennington Com-
mon, 179
S. Mark's, Old-street-road,
179
S. Mark's, Victoria Docks,
179
S. Martin's - in - the - Fields,
Strand, 179
S. Martin's, Gospel Oak
Fields, 180
S. Martin's, Ironmonger-
lane, 180
S. Martin Orgar, Eastcheap,
181
S. Martin's Outwich, Bi-
shopsgate-street, 181
Churches — continued,
S. Mary Abbots, Kensiog'*
ton, 181
S. Mary Abchurch, Ab-
church-lane, 182
S. Mary Aldermary, Bow-
lane, 182
S. Mary's, Battersea, 182
S. Mary-le-Bone, High-st,
183
S.Marylebone,New-road,193
S. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside,
183
S. Mary's, Islington, 184
S. Mary's, Lambeth, 185
S. Mary-at-Hill, Eastcheap,
185
S. Mary Magdalene, Ber-
mondsey, 186
S. Mary Magdalen, Mun-
ster-square, 186
S. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish-
street, 186
S. Mary Matfelon, White-
chapel, 186
S. Mary's, Newington-butts,
187
S. Mary's, Paddington, 187
S. Mary's, Rotherhithe, 187
S. Mary Somerset, Queen-
hithe, 187
S. Mary's, Stoke Newington,
187
S. Mary-le-Strand, 188
S. Mary's, Wyndham-pl., 188
S. Mary Woolnoth, Lom-
bard-street, 188
S. Matthew's, Bethnal-
green, 189
S. Matthew's, City-road, 189
S. Matthias's, Stoke New-
ington, 189
S. Matthew's, Brixton, 189
S. Michael and All Angels,
Finsbury, 190
S. Michael Bassishaw, Ba-
singhall-streefc, 190
S. Michael's, Pimlico, 190
S. Michael's, Cornhill, 190
S, Michael's, Crooked-lane,
191
S.MichaelPaternosterRoyal,-
Upper Thames-st., 191
S. Michael's, Queenhithe,! 92
S. Michael's, Wood-st., 192
S. Mildred's, Bread-st., 192
! S. Mildred's, Poultry, 192
S. Nicholas Cole Abbey,
Fish-street- hill, 192
S. Olave's, Hart-street, 192
S. Olave's, Jewry, 193
S. Olave's, Tooley-st., 193
S.Pancras-in-the-Fields,193
S. Pancras,Euston-road, 194
S.Paurs,St.John's-wood,195
S. i^aul's, Camden New
Town, 195
S.Paul's.Covent Garden,195
S. Paul's, Herne-hill, 196
848
INDEX.
Churches — continued.
S. Paul's, Lorrimore-square,
Walworth, 196
S. Paul's, for seamen, 196
S. Paul's, Shad well. 196
S. Paur8,Knightsbriclge, 197
S. Peter's, Belsize-park, 19/
S. Peter's, Cornhill, 197
S. Peter's, Pimlico, 197
S. Peter's, Saffron-hill, 197
S. Peter's, Bankside, 197
S. Peter-le-Poor, Old Broad-
street, 197
S. Peter's, Vauxhall, 197
S. Peter ad Vincula, Tower,
198
S. Peter's, Walworth-rd., 198
S. Peter's, Great Windmill-
street, 199
S. Saviour's, Clapham Com-
mon, 199
S. Saviour's, Hoxton, 199
S. Saviour's, Southvvark, 199
S. Sepulchre's, Skinner-st.
S. Simon's, Chelsea, 203
S.Stephen's,Coleman-8t. ,203
S. Stephen the Martyr,
Portland-town, 203
S. Stephen the Martyr,
Westminster, 203
S.Stephen's, Spitalfields, 204
S. Stephen's, Walbrook,204
S. Swithin's, London Stone,
205
Temple Church, 205
S. Thomas the Apostle, 207
S. Thomas,Charterhou8e,20S
S. Thomas's, Southwark, 208
Trinity, Albany-street, 208
Trinity, Brompton, 208
Trinity,Gray's Inn-road,208
Trinity, Haverstock-hill,208
Trinity, Holy, Minories, 208
Trinity, Paddington, 208
Trinity ,VauxhallBridge,208
S. Vedast's, Foster-lane, 209
Towers and Spires, 209
City Walls and Gates :
Aldgate, Aldersg-ate, Bi-
shopsgate, Cripplegate,
Ludgate, Newgate, 233
■ City and Liberties, 235
Crippleg-ate Bastion, 234
Gates, position of, 234, 235
London, derivation, 233,235
London destroyed by the
Great Fire, 236
Ludgate Statues, 235
Norman Wall, 234
Koman Wall, 233, 234, 235
Clerkenwell :
Bagnigge Wells, 237
Britton, the Musical Small-
coal Man, 236
Clerks' Well, 236, 237
Cobham-row and Cold Bath-
square, 238
Hicks's Hall, 237
Hockley-iu-the-Hole, 237
Clerkenwell — continued.
S. John's Gate, 236
Newcastle, Duke of, 236
Oldcastle, Sir John, 238
Pinks's History of Clerken-
well, 238
Priory Church, 236
Red Bull Theatre, 236
Watch andCloekmaking,238
Climate of London:
Change of Air, 239
Howard on, 238
Smoke, 239
Temperature, 238
Winds, effect of, 239
Clubs and Club-houses :
Alfred, 240
Almack's, 240
Alpine, 240
Apollo, 240
Army and Navy, 241
Arts, 241
Arthur's, 241
Athenaeum, 241
Athenaeum, Junior, 242
Beef-steak Club, 243
Beef-steak Society, 243
Blue-stocking Club, 243
Boodle's, 242
British and Forei^ Insti-
tute, 244
Brooks's, 242
Brothers' Club, 244
Carlton, 244
Carlton, Junior, 250
Cavendish, 244
City, 244
City, New, 244
Civil Service, 244
Civil, 245
Clifford-street, 245
Club Chambers, 245
Clubs, origin of, 239
Cocoa-tree, 245
Conservative, 246
County, 246
Coventry House, 246
Crockford's (Crockford's ca-
reer, note), 246
Dilettanti Society, 247
EastIndiaUnitedService,247
Eccentric, 248
Eccentrics, the, 248
Erechtheium, 248
Essex Head, 248
Farmers', 248
Fielding, 249
Four-in-hand, 249
Garrick, (Pictures), 249
Gresham, 250
Grillion's, 250
Guards, 250
Independents, 250
Ivy-lane, 250
King of Clubs, 250
Kit-Kat (Pictures), 250
Law Institution, 251
Literary Club, 251
Mermaid, 252
Clubs — continued.
Mulberries, 252
Museum, 252
National, 252
Naval, Royal, 252
Naval and Military, 253
Noviomagians, 253
October, 253
Oriental, 253
Oxford and Cambridge, 253
PaUMall.Club-houses in,254
Parthenon, 254
Phoenix, 254
Portland, 254
Princeof Wales's, 254
Reform, 254
Reform, Junior, 255
Robin Hood, 255
Rota, or Coffee Club, 255
Roxburghe, 255
Royal Society Club, 256
Royal Thames Yacht, 256
Scriblerus, 256
Smithfield, 256
Thatched House, 257
Tom's Coffee-house, 257
Travellers', 257
Treason, 258
Union, 258
United Service, 258
United Service, Junior, 258
University, 259
Universities Union, 259
Urban, 259
Volunteer Service, 259
Watier's, 259
Wednesday, 259, 260
Westminster, 260
Whist Club, 260
White's, 260
Whittington, 261
Windham, 261
Coffee-houses :
Baker's, 261
Baltic, 261
Bedford, 261
British, 262
Button's, (Lion's Head), 262
Chapter, 263
Child's, 264
Clifford-street, 264
Cocoa-tree, 264
Coffee first drank in London,
261
Coffee-shops, 273
Dick's, 264
Garraway's, 265
George's, 264
Gray's, junior, 265
Grecian, 264
S. James's, 265
Jamaica, 266
Jerusalem, 266
Jonathan's, 266
Langbourn, 266
Lloyd's, 266
London, 267
Man's, 267
Miles's, 267
INDEX.
849
Coffee-houses — continued.
Munday's, 267
Nando's, 267
New England, 267
Peele's, 267
Percy, 268
Piazza, 268
Eainbow, 268
Saltero's, at Chelsea, 268
Sam's, 268
Serle's, 270
Slaughter's, 270
Smyrna, 270
Somerset, 270
Squire's, 270
Tom's, 271
Tom King's, 271
Turk's Head, 271
Will's, 272
Will's, Serle-street, 273
Colleges :
S. Barnabas, 273
Church of England Train-
ing, 273
Church Missionary, 273
Chemistry, 273
Duhvich, 274
Gresham, 274
Heralds', 275
King's College and Schools,
276
S. Mark's, 277
New College, 277
Physicians, 277
Preceptors, 279
Queen's, 279
Sion, 279
Surgeons, 279
University, 280
Wesleyan Normal, 280
Colosseum :
Classic Kuins, 283
Conservatories and Swiss
Chalets, 282
Construction, 280
Cost of, 283
Hornor, planned by, 280
L.e Colisee, at Paris, 281
London by Night, 282
Panorama of London,
painted, 281
Parris, Mr., 281, 282
Sketches from S. Paul's, 281
Theatre and Cyclorama, 283
View described, 282
Columns :
Columns, principal dimen-
sions of, 285
Nelson ; bas reliefs, con-
struction, scaffolding, and
statue, 283, 284
Trafalgar-square, 285
York Column, Carlton-gar-
dens, 285
Common Council :
Churchill's satire, 287
Costume, 288
Court at Guildhall, 287
Numbers of, 286
Common Council — continued.
Origin of, 286
Wards, 286
Conduits:
Bayswater, 287
Canonbury, 287
Cheapside, 287
Conduit-mead, 287
Cornhill, 287
Dalston and Islington, 288
Fleet-street, 288
S. James's, 288
King's-mews, 289
Kensington, 288
Lamb's, 288
Stow's account of, 287
Tyburn, 288
Westminster Abbey, ?89
Westminster Palace, 289
Convents :
Colleges, Fraternities, Friar-
ies, Hospitals, Nunneries,
Priories, 289, 290
Revivals, 290
Sisters of Mercy, Bermond-
sey, 290
Takingofthe Veil, 290
Cornhill :
Birchin& Finch-lanes, 291
Birch, the cook and con-
fectioner, 291
Change-alley and Garra-
way's, 291
Church of S. Christopher-le-
Stocks, 290
Guy ,the stationer, 292
Lottery prize, 291
Koman remains, 291
Royal Exchange, 291
Standard and Tun, 290
Taverns, early, 291
CovENT Garden :
Butler, epitaphs on, 295
Clay's Papier Mdche, 296
Convent burial-ground and
garden, 292
Dryden cudgelled, 295
Evans's Hotel, 294
Garrick Club, 295
Hollar's view, 293
Hotels and Taverns, 293
King-st. and Rose-st., 295
Maiden-lane, Marvell, Tur-
ner, and Voltaire, 296
Market first held, 293
S. Paul's church, 292
Phosphorus first made, 295
Piazza, Inigo Jones's, 293
Residents of note, 293
Southampton -street, 295
Tavistock -row and Miss
Reay, 295
Crane-Court :
Circulating Libraries, 297
Leach, the printer of Wilkes'
North Briton, 296
Nursery for Newspapers, 297
Royal Society and Scottish
Hospital, 296
Crosby Hall :
Architecture of, 298
Crosby, Sir John, 297
Mayoralties kept here, 297
More, Sir Thomas, 297
Musical memories, 298
Presby terianMeeting-house,
298
Restoration in 1842, 298
Richard, Duke of Glouces-
ter, 297
Roof of the Hall, 298, 299
Shakspeare in S. Helen's,
297
Spencer, Sir John, 298
Statue of Sir J. Crosby, 299
Crutched Friars:
Crouched or Crossed, 299
Drapers' Almshouses, 2^9
Jewry-st., old Wall in, 300
Northumberland House, 299
Roman occupation, 299
Crypts :
S. Bartholomew's, 300
Bishopsgate Within, 300
Bow Church, 300
S. Ethelreda's, 301
Garraway's, 301
Gerard's Hall, 301
Guildhall, 301
" Guy Fawkes's Cellar," 301
Hostelry of the Priors of
Lewes, 302
S. John's, Clerkenwell, 302
Lambeth Palace, 302
Lamb's Chapel, 302
Leathersellers' Hall, 303
London Bridge, old, 300
S. Martin's-le- Grand, 303
S. Mary Aldermary, 303
Merchant Tailors' Hall, 303
S. Michael's, 303
S. Paul's, 303
S. Stephen's, Westminster
Palace, 304
Tower of London, 304
Curiosity Shops:
Carvings, China and Ena-
mels, Church Furniture,
Painted Glass, and Metal
Works, 294
Hanway -street and War-
dour-street, 304
Ireland's Shakspeare For-
geries, 305
Sam House and Fox, 305
Custom-House :
Construction of, 305
Daily report, 306
Exports and Imports, 306
Fifth Custom-house, 306
Great cost of, 305
Interior described, 305
Queen's Warehouse, 306
DAGUERREOTYPE •
First experiments in Eng-
land, 306
London Atmosphere, 306
3 I
850
INDEX.
Deaf and Dumb Asylum :
Ely- vhACE— continued.
'ExCHA^GT.s— continued.
Employment, 307
Ely, Bishop's House, Dover-
gister, 329 ; Lloyd's
First established, 307
street, 322
Subscription Rooms,
DIOKAMA AND COSMORAMA :
Gardens and Vine-yard, 322
328 ; Medal, commemo-
Baptist Chapel, 308
Hatton Garden, 322
rative, 329 ; North and
Cosmorama described, 308
John of Gaunt died, 321
South fronts, 327; No-
Diorama described, 307
Masque, Inns of Court, 322
table Persons,328 ; Por-
Dioramas, various, 308
ReUgious Mystery, 322
tico, Great West, 326 ;
Docks :
Serjeants' Feasts, 321
Political Hoaxes, 332 ;
Commercial, 809
Sir Christopher Hatton, 321
Queen Victoria opens
East India, 309
Strawberries grown, 321
the third Exchange,
Grand Surrey, 310
Exchanges :
326; Roman Remains
S. Katharine's, 310
Coal Exchange : Coal Supply
on the site, 326 ; Site,
London, 310, 311 : Queen's
of London, 329; Interior
331; Statue of Queen
Tobacco Warehouse and
described, 330; Rebuilt,
Victoria, 329 ; Statues,
Pipe, 311
329 ; Polychrome devices.
Royal, 326 ; System,
MiUwall, 311
330 ; Roman remains, 330
332 ; Times' Testimo-
Victoria, 311
Corn Exchanges, Mark-lane,
nial, 328; Vocabulary,
West India, 312
330
332
Doctors' Commons :
King's Exchange, 330
Stock Exchange, 331
Admiralty Court, 313
Old 'Change, 330
Exchange-Alley :
Court of Arches, 312
New Exchange, Strand, 331 ;
Alley in 1700, 333
Divorce Court, 313
Don Pantaleon Sa, 331 ;
Bubble Cards, 333
Origin of the Commons, 312
Monk, Duke of Albemarle,
South-Sea Bubbl^e, 333
Prerogative Court: Wills
and Anne Clarges, 331;
Excise Office :
and Marriages, 313
White Milliner, 331
Site of Gresham College, 333
Registries of the Court of
Exchange, Royal :
Removal of, 333
Probate: CelebratedWills,
First Exchange, 322, 323:
System of Excise, 334
Perusal and Copy of Wills,
Burse in Comhill, 323;
Exeter Hall :
314, 315
Gresham family, 322,
May Meetings, 334
Domesday-Book :
323 ; Gresham 's Shop in
Orchestra, 334
• Described, 314
Lombard-street, 322 ;
SacredHarmonicSociety,334
S. Giles's Domesday, 315
Great Fire destroys
Exeter House and Exeter
London, not in, 315
the first Exchange,324 ;
'Change :
Where kept, 315
Hollar's print, 1644,
Burleigh House, 335
Drury-Lane :
S24; Pawn, origin of.
Chapel, 335
Coal-yard and Nell Gvvynne,
323 ; Pictures and Sta-
The 'Change, 335
316
tues, 323 ; Queen Eliza-
"King of Exeter 'Change,"
Cock and Pye, 315
beth opened the first
335
Cockpit, 316
Exchange, 323.
Menagerie, Pidcock, Polito,
Craven House and Drury
Second Exchange:
and Cross, 335
House, 315
Burning of the Exchange,
New Exeter 'Change, 335
Sixteenth Century, 315
1838, 325 ; Charles IL
Theatres, 316
founds and opens the
Tj^ETTER-LANE :
J- Brothers Barebones, 335
second Exchange, 324 ;
■EARTHQUAKES IN
^ LONDON: 1692, 1750,
Chimes, 325 ; Cibber's
Brownrigg, Mrs., 336
sculpture, 324, 325 ; In-
Dryden and Hobbes, S36
1756, 1761, 1842 (hoax),
scription and Decora-
Malcolm, Sarah, the mur-
1863,-316,317
tions, 326; Insurance
deress, 336
Eastcheap :
calculations, 325 ; Inte-
Record Office, New, 336
Antiquity of, 317
rior — Jlerchant's Area,
White Horse Inn, 336
Boar's Head Tavern, 317,
327;Jerman'sExchange,
Field-Lane :
318
324;LordMayor'sCourt
Described by Dickens, 336
Saxon Market, 317
Office, 325 ; Salvage
Old Chick-lane and Thieves'
East India House :
Sale, 325; Statue of
lodging-house, 337
East India Company, 319
Gresham, 326
Field of Forty Foot-
First House, 318
Third Exchange :
steps :
Museum, 319
Ambulatories, 327 ; Ane-
Brothers' Duel, 337
Pictures and Statues, 318
mometer and Rain-
S. John Baptist's Day, 337
Rebuilt, 318
gauge, 328 ; Architec-
Legendary Story of the
Roman Remains, 319
tural objects, fine, 329 ;
Forty Footsteps, 337
Sale of Materials, 319
Baily, Francis, F.R.S.,
Porter, Misses, romance, 337
Tesselated Pavement, 319
333 ; Chart-room, 328 ;
Southey's account of, 337
EGVJfTiAN Hall:
Clock and Chimes, 326 ;
FlNSBURY :
Bullock's Museum, 320
Cost of Rebuilding, by
Antiquity of, 337
Exhibitions, from 1816 to
W.Tite, F.R.S., 329;
Bunhill Fields, 338
present time, 320, 321
East Front, 326; En-
Finsbury, by Aggas, 338
Ely-Place :
larged, 331, 333; Epi-
Lord Mayor, title of, 338
Bishops of Ely, 321
sodes, 332; Lloyd's Re-
Prebend of Finsbiury, 338
IKDEX.
851
Fire Brigade :
Curfew rung out, 341
Fire Engines, 343
Fire Police, 1668, Insurance,
Office, 342
Fire in Stephen's reign,
341
Fire Watch or Guard, 342
Metropolitan Fire Brigade,
343
Squirts or Syringes, 342
Steam Fire-Engines, 343
Telegraphic communication,
343
Wardmote's orders, 341
Fire of London :
Evelyn and Pepys describe,
338, 339
Hollar's View, before and
after, 340
Limits, 339
Loss estimated, 339
Origin of, 339
Pudding-lane, 338
Fires, Memorable, 340, 341
Fi^EET Prison :
Bambridge and Huggins,
344
Dance's Humours of the
Fleet, 345
Fleet Marriages, 346
Hooper, Bishop, 344
Howel, Lilbume, and
Prynne, 344
Notable Persons imprisoned
here, 346
Eiotsof 1780, 346
Kules and Day Rules, 346
Receiving Box, 345
Fi-EET River and Fleet
Ditch :
Bridges across, 347
Course of the Fleet, 347
Coal Vaults, 348
Ditch deepened, 347
Dunciad and City Shoicer,
347
Fleet Market, 348
Sewer, Great, 348
Ships in Fleet-river, 347
FliEET-STREET :
Alsatia, 349
Banking-houses, old, 351
Bolt-court, 350
Bolt-in-Tun, 350
Bride, Shoe, and Water
lanes, 349
Burning of the Pope, 352
Chatterton and Lovelace,
349
Chaucer and Cowley, 352
Child's banking-house, 351
Cobbett in Bolt-court, 353
Cock Tavern, 352
Coffee-houses and Taverns,
352
Cogers' Hall, 349
Crane-court, 296
Dentists, old, 351
Fleet-street — continued.
Devil Tavern, 352
Duchy of Corn wall office, 351
Fenning, Eliza, case of, 352
Gosling's banking - house,
361
Hardham's 37-Snuff, 349
Hare-court, 350
Hoare's banking-house, 351
Hone, W., publisher, 352
Johnson, Dr., in Bolt-court,
350
Mitre Tavern, 352
Posts, 349
Printing-offices, old, 351
Richardson's Printing-office,
349
Salisbury-court and Ser-
jeant's Inn, 350 ; Doke's
Theatre, 349
Salmon's Waxwork, 350
Shire-lane, 352
Shop Signs, noted, 348
Steam-printing,cradle of,351
Waithman, Alderman, 348,
349
Wine-office-court, 350
Fog of London :
Lines by Luttrel, 353
November Fog, 353
Fortifications :
Brill, Oliver's Mount, Par-
liamentary, Tyburn, and
Wardour-street, 354
Foundling Hospital:
Chapel and Choir, 353
Charter to Coram, 354
Children, 356
Guilford-street, 354
Hatton-garden, 354
Hogarth's Pictures, 355
Pictures, Exhbition of, 355
Statue of Coram, 356
Tenterden, Lord, 355
Fountains :
Bagnigge Wells, 356
Bank of England, 30
Billingsgate, 369
Brixton, 358
Free Drinking, 356
Guildhall, 359
Kensington, 356
Lincoln's-lnn, 356
Myddelton, 35S
Parks, 358
S. James's-square, 357
Soho, 356
Somerset House, 356
Temple, 356
Trafalgar-square, 357
Freemasons' Lodges :
Buildings by Freemasons,
360
Freemasons' Hall, 359
Masonic Hall, New, 360
Lodges, 360
Old Lodges, 359
Secrecy of, 360
Wren, Sir Christopher, 359
Friends' or Quakers' Meet-
ing-houses, 226
Starchamber prison, 344
Wardenship, or Serjeancy,
344
Frosts and Frost Fairs
ON THE Thames :
Blanket Fairs, 361—363
Charles II.'s reign, 361
Frostiana, 363
Great Frosts, 361 : — Years,
1281, 1410, 1434, 1506,
1515, 1564, 1608, 1609,
1683, 1688, 1709, 1715,
1739, 1768, 1789, 1811,
1813-14.
Fulwood's Rents:
Former state, 363
Gray's-Inn Walks, 364
Taverns, 363, 364
Ward, Ned,Punch-hou8e,364
riARDENS :
vJ Apollo, 368
Apothecaries' Company) 369
Baldwin's, 365
Bayswater, 367
Birds of London, 369
Botanic Gardens, 369
Botanic Society's, 3C9
Brompton-park, 361
Buckingham Palace, 367
Campden House, 368
Churchyards planted, 369
City Hall, 366
Clerkenwell, 367
Finsbury-circus, 366
Fitzstephen's time, 364
Flower-shows, 369
Gerarde's Herbal, 365
Gray's-Inn, 366
Holbom, 365
Horticultural Society's, 370
Inns of Court, 365
Kensington Palace, 367
Kew, Royal, 370
Lambeth, 368
Leicester House, 365
Lincoha, Earl of, 365
Market-gardening, 368
Milton's, 367
Montague House, 365
Napoleon's Willow, 370
Open places, 364
Pindar, Sir Paul, 366
Squares, 368
Temple, Inner and Middle,
366
Tradescant's, 368
VauxhaU, 368
Gas- LIGHTING :
Chinese, 371
Coal Gas, 372
Early Experiments, 371
Gas consumption, 373
Johnson, Dr., on, 371
Lights, various, 372
London Gas Company, 372
Murdoch and Winsor,37l
3x2
852
WDEX.
Gas-lighting — continued.
Pall Mall, 372
St. James's Park, 372
Theatres, 372
Westminster, 371
Gate-house, Westminster,
373:
Prisoners, distinguished, 373
Geology of London :
Eocene, 375
Fossils, 375
London Basin, 375
London Clay, 374
Lyell , Man tell,Mylne, Owen,
Prestwich, 373,374
Thanet sands, 375
S. George's Fields :
Bray ley '8 account, 376
Maitland's account, 376
Eoman roads, 375
Riots, Gordon & Wilkes, 377
S. Giles's :
Ballad-singing, 378
Dyott- street, 378
Gallows, 377
Health of, 379
Hogarth's Pictures, 377
Horse-shoes, luck of, 378
Hospital for Lepers, 376
Inns, large old, 376
Irish in, 378
Lodging-houses, 379
Maps of, 379
Monmouth-street, 378
Pound, 376
Rookery, 378, 379
Round-house, 377
Seven Dials, 377, 379
Smith, Albert, describes, 378
Tyburn cart, 379
Village, 370
Giltspurstreet :
Cock-lane Ghost, 380
Great Fire & Pie-corner, 380
Gog and Magog:
Corinaeus and Gog-magog,
380, 381
Costumes, 381
Gigantick History, 381
Hone's account, 381
Midsummer Pageants, 380
Restoration, 380
Goodman's Fields:
Abbey Farm, 381
Jews, 381
Roman Remains, 381
Rosemary-lane, 381
Greek Churches:
London Wall, 227
Russian Embassy, 227
Grey Friars:
Convent, 382
Chapel and Church, 382
Christ's Hospital, 382
Foundresses and means, 382
Friars Minors, 381
London Russet, 382
Monuments, 382
Procession, 382
Grey Friars — continued.
Sanctuary, 382
Whittington's Library, 382
Grub-street :
City Chapel, 384
Dunciad and Grub-st., 364
Foxe, the martyrologist, 383
Grub-street authors, 384
Grub-street Journal and
Society, 384
Hoole, Samuel, and Dr.
Johnson, 385
Milton-street, 383
Monk, General, 384
Pope and Grub-street, 384
Soapworks, Old City, 384
Speed, John, 383
Text-writers, 383
Welby, the Hermit, 284
Guildhall :
Aldermen's Court, 391
Chamberlain's Office, 391
Chapel, ancient, 390
Charles XL's visits, 389
Council Chamber, 391
Courts of Common Pleas and
King's Bench, 392
Court of Exchequer, 391
Crypt, 300
First, Second, and Third, 386
Gas-lighting, 389
Gog and Magog, 388
Great Fire, 387
Hustings' Court, 390
Interior, 387
Library, 393
Lord Mayor's Dinner, 389
Kitchen built, 386
Monuments, 388, 389
Pepys at dinner, 390
Porch and Statues, 387
Portraits and other Pictures,
392
Roof, New, 387
Sovereigns feasted, 389
Trials, memorable, 387
Whittington and Henry V.,
386
- Windows, painted, 388
HACKNEY-COACHES :
Bailey and Duncombe, 392
Cabs, 393
Daven ant's description, 393
Origin of Name, 393
Sight-seeing, 393
Stand, the first, 392
Halls of the City Com-
panies :
Barges, 395
Charters, 393
Companies' Arms, 424
Companies' Charities, 423
Companies'Trusteeships,423
Election Feasts and Gar-
lands, 394, 395
Funerals, 394
Gild-hallas of the Saxons,
Halls — continued.
Liveries, 394
Loving Cup, 395
Louvre, or lantern, 393
Offices, 393
Paintings, Tapestry, and
Painted Windows, 393
Plate, Corporation, 394
Salt, above and below, 394
Triumphs, or Pageants, 395
Halls of the Companies,
Twelve Great:
Clothworkers' : Banqueting-
room described, 409 ; Gifts
distributed, 410 ; James I.
a cloth worker,4 9 ; Pepys's
Cup, 409; Rebuilt 1860,
409 ; Staircase Hall, 409
Drapers': Cromwell's House,
398 ; Feasts, 399; Garden,
398, 399; Great Fire, 398;
Livery, 399; Lord Mayor's
day, 400 ; Portraits, 398,
399 ; Swithin's-lane Hall,
399
Fishmongers' : Charter,402 ;
Chandelier, Silver, 401 ;
Curiosities, 401 ; Dining-
hall, 400 ; Dogget, the
actor, Coat and Badge,
400 ; Fishmongers incor-
porated, 401 ; Great Fire,
401; Lord Mayors, 400;
S. Peter's Hospital, 401 ;
Pictures, 401 ; Presiden-
tial Chair, 401; Stock-
fishmongers, 401 ; Third
Hall, 400 ; Trust Estates
and Charities, 401 ; Wal-
worth, Sir W.,400 ; Wales,
Prince of, admitted, 402 ;
Wat Tyler slain, 400;
Wine Shades, Old, 401
Goldsmiths' : Architecture,
402 ; Assay, the, 401—4 ;
Banqueting-hall, 402 ;
Bowes, Sir Martin, 403 ;
Busts and Portraits, 402;
Hall-mark, 404 ; Interior
described, 402 ; Lord
Mayors, 403 ; Myddelton,
Sir Hugh, 402; Pageants,
403; Plate, 403; Third
Hall, 402
Grocers' : Bank of England,
397; Cutler, Sir John,
397; Garden, 397; Lord
Mayor's Feasts, 398 ; Pep-
perers, 397 ; Spoon cus-
tom, 398; Third Hall, 397
Haberdashers' : Charities,
407; Fire in 1864, 406;
Great Fire, 406 ; Hurrers,
407; Portraits, 406, 407
Ironmongers' : Almshouses,
408 ; Charities, 408 ; Fra-
ternity Feast, 408 ; In-
terior Fittings, 408 ; Os-
trich in Pageant, 408;
INDEX.
853
Halls — continued.
Pictures, 408 ; Statue of
Beckford, 408
Mercers' : Aeon, Sir Thomas,
■ Hospital, 396 ; Becket,
Gilbert, House of, 396;
Carvings, 396; Caxton,
the printer, 396 ; Chapel,
396; Election Cup, 396;
Golden Lectureship, 396;
Hicks and Hicks's Hall,
396 ; Pictures, 396
Merchant Tailors' : Ban-
queting-room screen and
music gallery, 405; Bull,
Dr. John, 405 ; Freemen,
Distinguished, 405, 406;
Hawkwood, Sir John,405 ;
James I., visit of, 405;
Henry VII., Master, 406 ;
Ogilby's Virgil, 406 ;
Pictures, 405 ; Political
Feasts, 405 ; Speed and
Stow, 406
Salters': Busts and Pic-
tures, 407 ; Four Halls,
407; Game Pie (1394),
407 ; Meeting-house, 407 ;
Plate and Loving Cups,
407 ; Printed Pageant,
407
Skinners': ClerkenwellPlays,
404 ; Election of Officers,
404 ; Judd, Sir Andrew,
404 ; Kings and Queens
members, 404 ; Lord
Mayors, 404 ; Precedence
question, 405 ; Skinners'
Guild, 404; Tunbridge
Schools, 404
Vintners': Picard, Mayor,
entertained four Kings,
409 ; Pictures, 408 ; Swans
on the Thames, 409; Three
Cranes, 409 ; Vintry, the,
409
Halls of the Minor City
Companies :
Apothecaries' : Portraits,
410 ; Fulminating Explo-
sion, 410
Armourers' and Braziers' :
Armour, Northcote's Pic-
ture, and Plate, 410
Bakers': Pictures, 410
Barber-Surgeons' : Barbers
and Surgeons, 411 ; Car-
toons, 411 ; Carved ca-
nopy, 410 ; Cup, Loving,
412; Holbein's Charter-
picture, 411 ; Plate, 411 ;
Portraits, 411 ; Theatre
by Inigo Jones, 410
Blacksmiths', 412
Brewers' : Almshouses,
Owen's ; Fine for selling
Old Ale; Pewter pots,
412
Bricklayers' : Bricklayers
Halls — continued.
and Carpenters embroiled,
412 ; Curious Customs,
412
Butchers', 412
Carpenters' : Court-rooms,
413; Crowns and Gar-
lands, 413 ; Frescoes dis-
covered in the Great Hall,
413 ; Pictures, 413; Plate
and curiosities, 414
Clockmakers' Company, 424
Coachmakers' Hall: Indus-
trial Exhibitions; Politi-
cal Meetings, 414
Cooks' Company, 423
Coopers' Hall: State Lot-
teries drawn, 414
Cordwainers' : Charities,
Portraits, and Plate, 414
Curriers' : Carvings and
Paintings ; Guild, 1363 ;
convivial customs, 414
Cutlers': Belle Sauvage-inn
bequest, 414 ; Company's
crest, 415
Dyers' : Swans on the
Thames, and Swan-up-
pings, 415
Embroiderers', 415
Founders' : Glass Cup, temp.
Henry VIIL, 415
Fruiterers' Company, 423
Girdlers' Hall : Election
Ceremonies with caps and
crowns, 415
Innholders' Hall, 415
Joiners' : Carvings, Pic-
tures, Cedar Parlour, 415
Leathersellers' : Enriched
ceiling, screen, and sculp-
tured pump, 416
Masons', 416
Needlemakers' Company,
424
Painter Stainers' Hall : Cha-
rities, 417; Fraternity of
Artists ; Camden Cup ;
Catton, Master, 416 ; Pic-
tures, 417
Parish Clerks' : Miracle
Plays; Diary of Henry
Machin; Bills of Mor-
tality, Portraits, and Pri-
vileges, 417
Pewterers' : Master's Por-
trait, Pewter Pots ; Foote
and Macklin, 418
Pinmakers' : Pinners' Com-
pany; Pinners' Hall Meet-
ing-house, 418
Plasterers' : Curious Silver
Bell and Cup, and Privi-
leges, 418
Plumbers', 418
Porters' : Tackle and Ticket
Porters, 418
Saddlers': Oldest civicGuild;
newfront; Saint Martin's-
Halls — continued.
le-Grand, Funeral Palls,
Sir Richard Blackmore,
Honnor's Home, 419
Scriveners' : Marching
Watch, the; Milton and
Scriveners' Company ;
Clayton, Sir Robert; Jack
Ellis, the last money scri-
vener, 420
Stationers' : Almanacks, the
420; Almanack-day, 421;
Burgaveny House, 420 ;
Carvings, by Gibbons,
421 ; Charities, 421 ; Copy-
right Act, 420 ; Lord
Mayor's Show, 421 ;
Moore's Almanack, 421 •-
Parkhurst's Bibles, 420 ;
Portraits, 421 ; Registers
of the Company, 420;
School-house, 421 ; Sta-
tioners' Barge, 421 ; Sut-
ton's Funeral, 422
Stocking-weavers' : Lee and
the Stocking-loom Pic-
ture, 422
Tallow-chandlers', 422
Watermen's : Fares regu-
lated, 422; Petition in
rhyme, 422; Taylor, the
Water-poet, 422
Wax-chandlers' : Charter,
illuminated, 423
Weavers': First Charter of
the City Guilds, 423
Halls, Miscellaneous :
Agricultural : Exhibitions,
Miscellaneous,425; Smith-
field Club Cattle Show,
424
Bake well, 425
Commercial, 425
Flaxman Hall and Sculp-
tures, 425
Floral, Covent Garden, 424
Hall of Commerce : Bas-
relief, by Watson, 426
Hicks's Hall: Sir Baptist
Hicks, 426 ; Hudibras,
426 ; Trials, 426
Hudson's Bay Company's,
426
S. James's : characteristic
decoration, 427; public
dinners, 427
S. Martin's, 427
Town Halls and Vestry
Halls, 427
Union Hall, Southwark,
427
Wesleyan Centenary Hall:
Wesley's Picture ; Thank-
offerings, 427
Westminster Guildhall, 427
Haymarket :
Baxter, Richard, 428
Cattle-market, 1664, 428
Coventry Act, 428
854
INDEX.
Haymarket — continued.
Hospitals— ccMi^mwerf.
Houses of Old London—
Hay sold here, temp. Eliza-
Lock, 438
continued.
beth, 428
London, 439
Long-lane, 484
Haymarket Theatre, 428
S. Luke's, 439
Marylebone, 448
Her Majesty's Theatre, 428
Marylebone and Padding-
Milborn's, 448
Panton, Col., 428
ton, 439
Newcastle, 448
Piccadilly Hall, 429
Middlesex, 439
Old City Workhouse, 448
Shaver's Hall, 428, 429
Ophthalmic, 440
Post-office, Lombard -St., 448
Tennis-court, 428
Orthopedic, 440
Queen-st., L.-L-Fields, 448
HOLBORN :
Presidents of the City Hos-
Schomberg, 449
Chatterton, lodging of, 430
pitals, choice of, 436
Shaftesbury, 449
Ely-place, 430
Queen Charlotte's, 440
Southwark, 450
Fearon, Messrs., 429
Koyal Free, 440
Spanish Ambassadors', 450
First paved, 429
Koyal Maternity, 440
Staple Inn, 450
Gerarde's Garden, 430
S. Thomas's, Southwark,435
Star Chamber, 450
Holborn Charity, 431
Small-pox and Vaccination,
S. Mary Axe, 450
Holborn Valley, raising.
440
Strand, 450
429
University College, 440
Tradescant's, 450
Holborn Theatre, 431
Westminster, 440
Warwick, 451
Inns of Court, 431
Hotels :
Weather-boarded, 451
Kidder, pastry-cook, 431
Agricultural, 442
Winchester-street, 451
Middle-row, 430
Charing Cross, 442
Old-bourne bridge, 429
City Terminus, 443
TNNS OF COURT AND
A CHANCERY:
Skinner-street, 429
Euston, 441
Southampton House, 430
Great Northern, 441
Admission to the Inns, 471
« Up the Heavy Hill," 429
Great Western, 441
Arms, 471
Warwick House, 431
Grosvenor, 442
Apprentices and Serjeants,
Whitehead, Paul, 431
Inns of Court, 442
460
Holland House, Ken-
Langham, 442
Ascension-day custom, 461
sington :
London Bridge, 442
Calls to the Bar, 471
Addison, death of, 431
Palace, 441
Costume of Inns of Court,460
Busts and Pictures, 432
Westminster Palace, 442
Expenses, 471
Celebrities of, 433
Houndsditch :
Hall dinner, 471
Cope, Sir Walter, 431
Dogsditch, 443
Inns of Court and Trade
Duel, fatal, 433
Foundry, 443
Guilds, 461
Fairfax, Sir T., 431
Jews' Quarter, 444
Star Chamber Court, 460
Gardens, 432
Rag Fair, 444
Students, temp. Hen, VI.,
Gilt-room, 432
Tench, the joiner, 443
461
Holland, Baron, 432
Houses of Old London:
Barnard's Inn, 471
Holland, first Earl of, 431
Aldersgate-street, 444
Clement's Inn :
Library, 432
Aldgate, 444
Falstaff and Shallow, 472
Park, 433
Ashburnham, 444
S. Clement's Well, 472
Thorpe, architect, 432
Bagnio, 444
Sun-dial, 472
Warwick, Earl of, 432
Bangor, 444
Clifford's Inn, 472
HOBSEFERRT :
Baumes, 445
Members, eminent, 472
Flight of James II. and his
Brick, stone, and wood, 445
Dinner custom, curious.
Queen, 433
Brook's Menagerie, 445
472
Westminster and Lambeth,
Bulk shops, 445
Gray's Inn :
Ferry between, 433
Burnet's, Bishop, 445
Armorial windows, 469
Horse Guards :
Campden House, 445
Bacon, Francis. 470
Clock, 434
Canonbury, 446
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 470
Mounted Guards, 434
Carlisle, 446
Bolting, 469
Origin of Horse Guards, 434
Caxton's, 446
Chapel, 469
Parade ground, 434
Coleheme, 448
Christmasings, Masques,
Tilt-yard, Whitehall, 434
Crosby Hall, 297
and Revels, 469
Vardy, Kent, and Vanbrugh,
Drury-lane, 446
Gardens, 366, 470
architects, 434
Dyott's, 446
Grey of Wilton and Port-
Hospitals :
Elizabethan, 447
poole, 469
S. Bartholomew's, 36
Fowler's, 447
Hall built, 469
Bethlehem, 56
Fulwood's Rents, 447
Libraries, 471
Charing Cross, 437
Grub-street, 447
Members, eminent, 470
Consumption, 436
Hale, 448
Montagu, Basil, 470
Dispensaries, 441
Holland, 431
Osborn and Tonson, book-
French Protestant, 436
Hoxton, 447
sellers, 470
S.George's, 437
Kensington, 447
Lincoln's Inn :
Guy's: statues and portrait
Kennington, 447
Books and MSS., 468
of, 437
Lindsey, Chelsea, 448
Chapel, 213
King's College, 438
Lindsey, L.-Inn-Fields, 448
Christmasings, masques.
Lesser, 438
Little Moorfields, 448
and revels, 465
INDEX.
855
Inns of Court and Chan-
cery — continued.
Curfew-bell, 469
Erskine, Lord, statue, 467
Fresco, by Watts, 467
Gardens, 365, 466
Gatehouse, 465
Hall, New, 466
Hall, Old, 465
Hall roof, 467
Hogarth's Paul before
Felix, 467
Kitchen and cellars, 467
Library, New, 466, 467
Members, eminent, 465
More, Sir Thomas, family
of, 465
New-square, 456
Oriel window, painted, 468
Origin, 464
Portraits, 468
Screen, armorial, 465
Screen,Hall, and costumed
figures, 467
Stone-buildings, 466
Sun-dials, 465
Thurloe State Papers, 465
Visits, royal, 466
Lyon's Inn :
Coke, Reader, 473
Weare and Thurtell, 473
New Inn and Sir Thomas
More, 473
Sun-dial, large, 473
Seijeants' Inn :
Armorial windows, 474
Hall, 475
Portraits, fine, 474
Serjeantcy, the, 474
History, of, 474
Staple Inn :
Hall and Portraits, 475
Jacobean architecture,475
Johnson, Dr., and Reed,
Isaac, 475
Strand, or Chester Inn, 475
Symond's Inn, 475
Thavie's Inn, 475
Temple, Inner, 461
Gardens, view from, 462
Hall Dinner, 462
Hall and Pictures, 462
Hatton, Sir C. 462
Johnson and Goldsmith,
461
Knights Hospitallers, 461
Lamb, Charles, 461
Masques and plays, 462
Pastimes and Revels, 460
PiUars at S. Paul's, 460
Library, 461
Members, eminent, 462
Parliament chamber, 462
Wat Tyler's Rebellion,
461
Temple, Middle :
Ashmole and Aubrey, 463
Calves' Heads, 463
Feasts, 463
Inns of Court and Chan-
cery — continued.
Fountain, 356, 464
Gatehouse, 462
Garden, 464
Hall, 462
Last Revel, 462
Library, New, 463
Members, eminent, 464
Pictures and Busts, 463
Prince of Wales enrolled,
464
Reader, 463
Sun-dials, 464
Turkish Tombstone, 464
Inns of Old London :
Angel, Islington, 451
Angel, S. Clement's, 451
Ape, London Wall, 451
Baptist's Head, 451
Bell, Carter-lane, 452
Bell, Warwick-lane, 452
Belle Sauvage, 443
Black Bear and White
Bear, 455
Blossoms, 451
Bolt-in-Tun, 452
Bull, Bishopsgate, 453
Clerkenwell, 453
Coach and Horses, 453
Cock, Tothill-street, 453
Cross Keys, 453
Elephant and Castle, 453
Four Swans, 454
George and Blue Boar, 454
George, Snow-hill, 454
Gerard's Hall, 454
Giles's, S. 454
Green Man, 454
Holborn Hill, 464
King's Arms, 454
Old Bell, 454
Oxford Arms, 454
Paul Pindar, 454
Piccadilly Inns, 454
Pied Bull, 455
Pindar of Wakefield, 455
Queen's Head, 455
Rose of Normandy, 455
Rose, Holborn Hill, 456
Saracen's Head, Snow-hill
and Friday-street, 456
Spread Eagle, 459
Swan with Two Necks, 459
Three Cups, 459
White Hart, Bi8hopsgate,459
White Hart, Covent Garden,
460
Half-way House, 454
Southwark Inns :
Bear at Bridgefoot, 458
Boar's Head, 458
Catherine Wheel, 458
Dog and Bear, 458
George, 457
King's Head, 458
Tabard, 456
White Hart, 457
White Lion, 458
Inns of Court and Chan-
ce R Y — continued.
White Hart, Welbeck-st.460
White Horse, Fetter- lane,
236, 460
Yorkshire Stingo, 460
Isle of Dogs :
Cubitt Town, 477
Dockyards, 476
Dogs, tradition of, 476
Iron Suspension Bridges
and Cables, 476
Name, 476
Peninsula originally, 475
Islington :
Angel Inn, 478
Canonbury, 477
Cattle Market, 479
Cloudesley, Richard de, 476
Dairies, 477
Daniel, George, 477
Elizabethan houses, 476
Highbury, 477
Hollo way, 479
Inns, 477
Iseldon, a British name, 476
Ivy Gardens, Hoxton, 479
New River, 477
Peabody Bequest, 479
Persons^ eminent, 477
Population, 479
Regent's Canal, 477
Sadler's Wells, 478
Smeaton's Observatory, 47
Spa Fields, 478
Taverns, old, 478
S
JAMES'S :
• Berry-street, Swift'sLodg-
ings, 481
Court of S. James's, 480
S. James's Fields, 480
S. James's-street : Bagnio,
Byron, Lord, 481, 482;
Betty's Fruit-shop, 482;
Civil Service Club, 481 ;
Club-houses, 482 ; Claren-
don House, 481; Elms-
ley's, 480 ; Gibbon, Pope,
and Waller, 480 ; Gillray,
caricaturist, 481; Hook,
Theodore, Cleveland-row,
482; Thatched House, 480;
Wirgman, Kantesian, 481;
Wren, SirChristopher, 481
S. James's-place : Eminent
residents, 482 ; Rogers's
Pictures, Sculptures, &c.,
483, Spencer House, 482
Jermyn-st. : eminent resi-
dents, 481 ; Howe, Mrs.;
Museum of Practical
Geology, 481
James- street, Westminster:
Arundel Marbles, 479
Glover and Gifford, 479
Pictures at Tart Hall, 480
Stationery Office, 480
Tart Hall, 479, 480
858
INDEX.
Jews' Synagogues ;
Kentish-town :
Lambeth Palace — contd.
Bevis Marks, 228
Camden-town, 4 96
Gardens and Grounds, 505
Duke's-place, 228
Cemetery, 82, 495
Gate-house, 502
New, Great S. Helen'?, 228
Chapel, 495
Guard-chamber, 503
New, U. Bryanston-st., 229
Fleet River, 496
Hall, Great, 504
West London, Margaret-
Gospel Oak, 496
Howley's repairs, 504
street, 229
Somers-town, 496
Letters, collection of, 505
Jews in London:
Sycamore planted by Nel-
Libraries, 503
Cemeteries, 483
son, 495
Lollards' Prison and Tower,
Clothes Exchange, 483
KiLBURN:
502
Corporation, 484
Goldsmith's Cottage, 496
Pictures, 503
Jewries, 483
Priory, 496
Royal Guests, 505
Jews' Free School, 484
Wells, 496
Stationers' Company and
Jews'-row, 484
Knightsbridge :
Archbishop's Bai^e, 505
Jewry destroyed, 483
Albert-gate, 491
Wat Tyler's Rebellion, 501
Massacre, 483
Belgravia, 492
Law Courts:
Old Jewry, 483
Brompton :
Arches, 312
Eeturn from exile, 483
Chinese Collection, 491
Central Criminal Court, 506
Saturday, Hebrew, 484
Fox and Bull Tavern, 492
Chancery, 507; Great Seal,
Saxon period, 483
Inns and Taverns, 491
508; and Bag, 507
Synagogues, 484
Jenny's Whim, 492
Clerkenwell Sessions' House,
Wealth of, 485
Lowndes-square, 492
237
S. John's Gate :
Tattersall's, New, 491
Doctors' Commons, 812
Architecture, 486
Westbourne Bridge, 490
Equity, 507
Cave, Garrick, and Johnson,
Brompton, Persons of note
Exchequer, 609 ;
485
residing at, 490
Seal, 509
Docwra, Grand Prior, 485
Sheriffs' Presentation, 508
Hollar's prints, 485
TAMBETH;
-LJ Antiquity, 496
Sheriffs' Roll, 508
Jerusalem Tavern, 486
Tallies, 509
S. John's Church, 486
Arundel Marbles, 499
Insolvent Debtors' Court,
Knights of S. John, 485
Asylum, 498
609
No Man's Land, 485
Bushell, Thomas, 499
Lord Mayor's Court, 510
Restored, 486
Canute's Trench, 497
Marshalsea and Palace
Carlisle House, 498
Court, 509
Chemical Works and Pot-
Old Bailey;
[/ JiNNlNGTON :
J^- Early history, 486
tery, 500
Press-yard, 507
Clowes's Printing Works,
Sheriff's Dinner, 506
Duchy of Cornwall Estate,
581
Trials, 507
487
Coade's Artificial Stone, 501
Palace of Justice, New, 510
Kennington Common, 487
Cuper's Gardens, 499
Rolls Court, 510
Licensed Victuallers' School,
Despard, Colonel, 499
Sheriffs' Court, 510
486
Fair, ancient, 497
Star Chamber, 450—510
Manor of Lambeth, 487
Gardens, Public, 498
Westminster Hall, old
Place of execution, 487
Hock Tide, 497
Courts in, 505
Kcyal Palace, 486, 487
S. John's Church, 498
Leadenhall-street :
Whitefield preacliing, 487
Lambeth Marsh, 499
Corporation Granary, 511
Kensington :
Lampreys and Salmon, 497
Crypt of S. Michael's, 511
Campden Hill andCampden
S. Mary's Church, 185, 497
Denison family, 511
House, 486
Maudsley's Works, 500
Hall for Arms, 611
Colby and Kensington
Moore's Almanack, 499
Market, 511
Houses, 447
New Cut and PedJar's Acre,
Motteux, Peter, 511
Gore House, 488
501
S. Mary Axe, 511
Horticultural Society, 489
Norfolk House, 499
Leicester-square :
International Exhibition
Pedlar and his Dog, 497
Aylesbury House, 512
and Building, 489
Plate Glass, 500
Burford's Panorama, 514
King's Arms Tavern, 488
Price's Candle Company, 500
Cranbourne-alley, 514
Mansions, 489
Roman Remains and Road,
Green-street : WooUett the
S. Mary's Church, 488
497
engraver, 514
Newton, Sir Isaac, 488
Shot Towers, 500
Hogarth, William, lived, 513
Palace Gardens, 488
Theatres, 498
Hotels and Foreigners, 515
South, Sir James, Observa-
Vauxhall Gardens, 498
Hunter, John, lived, 514
tory, 488
Waterworks, 499
Leicester-fields, 511
Soyer's Symposium, 489
Lambeth Palace ;
Lisle-street, 514
Wilberforce, William, 488
Books and MSS., 504
Leicester House, 511
Kent-street :
Chapel and Crypt, 501, 502
Leicester-place, 514
Bridge, ancient, 495
Cranmer's additions, 501
Lin wood. Miss, her Needle-
Broom-men and Mumpers.
Curiosities, 505
work, 512
495
Fig-trees, Cardinal Pole's,
S. Martin -street: Newton's
Cade and Wyat, 496
605
House, 514
INDEX.
857
Leicester-square— con<(Z.
Libraries— co?i^Mme(Z.
Lombard-street— contiraifetJ"
Orange-court : Opie and
Merchant-Tailors' School,
Birchin-lane, 531
Holcroft, 514
520
Booksellers, 531
Keynolds, Sir Joshua, lived,
Microscopical Society, 622
Burse proposed, 531
513
Mudie's Select, 527
Churches in, 532
Riots of 1780, 512
Museum of Practical Geo-
George-yard, 531
Savile House, 512
logy, 622
Goldsmiths, 532
Statue of George I., 513
New College, 277, 622
Gresham's shop, 531
Wyld's Earth Model, 513
Parliament Houses, 665, 666
Patent%eal Office, 522
Isabella, queen of Edward
Levels :
11., house of, 630
Various, 515
S. Paul's Cathedral, 111,523
Pope, Alexander, birth-
Highest ground and mid-
S. Paul's Schools, 623
place of, 631
dle ground, 516
Pharmaceutical Society, 523
Pope's merchants, 631
Libraries :
Royal Academy of Arts, 523
Post-office, General, 632
Agricultural Society, 516
Royal Academy of Music,
Roman remains, 531
Antiquaries' Society, 516
524
Shore, the goldsmith, 530
Archaeological Society, 616
Royal Institute of Archi-
London Institution;
Artillery Ground, 516
tects, 624
Established, 632
Asiatic Society, 516
Royal Institution, 524
Laboratory, Lecture-room,
Astronomical Society, 516^
Royal Library, S. James's
and Library, 533
Bank of England, 516
Palace, 624
London Wall— City :
Barber-Surgeons' Hall, 616
Royal Society, 624
Wall and Bethlem Hospital,
Beaumont Institution, 616
Royal Society of Literature,
634
Bible Society, 516
624
Long Acre :
Botanical Society, 517
Russell Institution, 624
Butler and Curll, in Rose-
British Museum, 584
Sion College, 279, 625
street, 635
Charter-house, 517
Soane's, Sir John, 525
Coachmakers, 535
Chelsea Hospital, 517
Societies, Literary and
Elms and Seven Acres, 534
Christ's Hospital, 517
Scientific, 525
EndeU-street, and S. Mar-
Church Missionary, 517
Society of Arts, 525
tin's Schools, 535
Circulating, 527
Statistical Society, 525
Mug-house Club, 535
City of London Institution,
Tenison's, Archbishop, 526
Nostrums, sale of, 636
517
Tower of London, 526
Prior's Chloe, 635
Civil Engineers' Institution,
United Service Institution,
Rose-street and Dryden
617
Whitehall, 526
cudgelled, 635
Clockraakers' Company, 517
University College, 526
Taylor, the Water-poet, 634
Club-houses, 517
Williams's Library, 526
Lord Mayor's State :
College of Physicians, 277
Zoological Society, 527
Banquets, Inauguration,637
College of Surgeons, 517
LiNcor-N's Inn Fields:
BuUen, Sir Geoffrey, 537
Corporation of London,
Duke-street: Silver Foun-
Custard at Feasts, 636
518
tain, magnificent, 528
Collar, 536
Cottonian, 518
Extent of, 527
Costume and Jewels, 536
Department of Practical
Inclosed, 528
Fool, 536
Art, 518
Law Courts, New, 529
Household, 537
Doctors' Commons, 313
Lindsey House, 527
Jewels, 536
Dulwich College, 274
Mumpers and Rufflers, 528
Lord Mayor's Day expenses.
Dutch Church, 519
Place of Execution and Pil-
637
East India Company, 620
lory, 527, 528
Mace and Sword, 536
EUesmere, 620
Russell, William Lord, 527
Pearl Sword, 637
Free Libraries, 527
Turnstile, Great and Little,
Plate, 537
Geographical Society, 520
528
Salary, 536
Heralds' CoUege, 275
Whetstone's Park, 528
Seals, 536
Horticultural Society, 521
Literary Fund :
Silver Cradle, 537
Hospitals, 621
Grants, 629
State Banquets, 536
Incorporated Law Society,
First Dinner, 629
Staff, 536
621
House, Adelphi Terrace, 1
Watermen, 637
Inns of Court and Chancery,
Instituted, 529
Whittington, 637
521
Odes, authors of, 629
LUDGATE, LUDGATE HiLL,
King's College, 521
Little Britain :
AND Street :
Lambeth Palace, 501
Booksellers, 529, 530
Barbican, or Watch Tower,
Linnaean Society, 621
Bretagne, Duke of, 629
639
Literary Fund, 521
Duke-street, 530
Belle Sauvage Inn, 539
London Institution, 522
Milton lodged, 530
Elizabeth, Queen, Statue of.
London Library, 522
Spectator published, 530
from the Gate, 538
Mathematical Society, 522
Lombard-street :
Foster, Sir Stephen, 538
Mechanics' Institute, 522
Abchurch-lane, 531
Lud-gate, 538
Medical and Chirurgical
Badge of the Lombards, 630
Newberry, bookseller, 539
Society, 522
Banking-houses, 532
S. Paul's and S. Martin's
Medical Society, 350, 520
Barclay's banking-house,532
Churches, 539
858
INDEX.
LUDGATE, LUDGATE HiLI,,
AND Street — continued.
Prison of Ludgate, 538
Prison Thoughts, 538
Railway viaduct, 539
Eundell and Bridge's sliop,
539
Wyat, Sir T., rebellion, 539
MAGDALEN HOSPITAL:
Benefactors, 540
Dodd, Dr., chaplain, 540
Household, 541
Magdalens, their dress and
work, 540
Mansion House :
Architecture, 540
Egyptian Hall, 541
Kitchen, 541
Venetian and Wilkes's Par-
lours, 541
Tables, 541
Mansions :
Apsley House, 541
Bed-room and private-
room, 543
Bullet-proof blinds, 541
China and Plate, 542
Pictures and Sculpture,
641, 642
Site, 543
Wellington Shield, 542
Argyll House :
Aberdeen Ministry, 643
Industrial School, 543
Bath House :
Pictures, Sculpture, 544
Bedford, Duke of, Pictures,
544
Bernal, Ralph, Esq., Works
of Art, Books, and Prints,
644
Bridgewater House :
Pictures, 545
Buckingham House, Pall
Mall : Ministers of War,
545
Burlington House :
Burlington, Lord, his ad-
ditions, 545
Cavendish Family, 546
Gay, on, 546
Hogarth's caricature, 546
Pope's Eulogy, 545
University of London, 54 7
Walpole, Horace, on, 546
Cambridge House :
Duke of Cambridge and
Lord Palmerston, 547
Naval and Military Club-
house, 547
Chesterfield House :
Lord Chesterfield and
French Cookery, 547
Portraits, Busts, and
Bronzes, 547
Clarence house, 547
Clarendon House, Picca-
dilly, 672
Mansions — continued.
De Grey, Earl :
Pictures, 548
Devonshire House :
Amateur performance,548
Berkeley House, 548
Bibliographical rarities,
648
IMro di Verita,, 54iS
Pictures, 548 *
Redecorated, 548
Dorchester House :
Pictures, 549
Dover House :
Lord Melbourne ; Duke of
York, 549
Dudley House :
Pictures, 549
Gloucester House :
Elgin Marbles, $49
Tapestry Carpet, 549
Grosvenor House :
Picture Gallery and
Screen, 649
Grosvenor Gallery of Pic-
tures and Sculpture, 550
Harcourt House, 550
Hertford House :
Pictures, china, &c., 550
Holdernesse House :
Pictures, Sculpture, 550
Hope House :
Antiques and Pictures,
Duchess-street Collection,
551
Lansdowne House :
Pictures and Sculpture,
551, 552
Lyndhurst Lord :
Pictures by Copley, 652
Manchester House, 552
Marlborough House :
Architect, Wren, 552
Duke and Duchess of
Marlborough, 552
Hall and Paintings, 553
Princess Charlotte and
Prince Leopold, 552
Prince and Princess of
Wales, 553
Re-embellished, 553
Stables, new, 553
Montague House, Blooms-
bury, 573, 574
Montague House, Whitehall,
553
Rebuilt, 554
Montague House, Portman-
square, 554
Montague House, South-
wark, 554
Norfolk House :
Pictures and Coronation
Plate, 554
Norman ton. Lord :
Pictures, 554
Northumberland House,
Northampton House,
and Suffolk House, 555
Mansions — continued.
Pictures and Carvings,
655
Overstone, Lord: Pictures,
655
Peel, Sir Robert : Pictures,
655
Rothschild, Baron, 656
Rutland House, 556
Sibthorp, Colonel:
Collection of Plate, Porce-
lain, Glass, &c., 656
Spencer House, 556
Stafford House— Built for
the Duke of York :
Pictures and Sculpture,
556, 557
Tomline, Mr. G. : Pictures,
557
Uxbridge House : The poet
Gay, 567
Markets :
Billingsgate, 55, 557
Borough, 559
Clare, 559
Colombia, 558
Com, Mark-lane, 329
Covent Garden, 559
Farringdon, 559
Hungerford, 559
Leadenhall, 560
Metropolitan Cattle, 560
Newgate Market, 560
Newport, 561
Oxford Market, 561
Smithfield, 561
Stocks Market, 661
MARK-I/ANE :
Blanch Appleton Manor-
house, 562
3Iaktin's (S.) Lane :
Notable Tenants, 562
Porridge Island, 562
Martin's (S.) Le Grand :
College and Sanctuary, 662,
563
Crypt, 303
Inns, Taverns, Trades, 568
Roman remains, 563
Marylebone :
Bowling-greens, 564
Extent and Manor, 563
Gardens, 564
Park and Regent's Park,563
Prize-fighting, 564
Tyburn-road, 564
May FAIR;
S. James's Fair, 564
Keith's Chapel, 565
Marriages, 565
Mews, Royal :
Charing, 565
Original Mews, 565
Queen's Mews, Pimlico, 565
Royal Mews, Pinner-st., 566
State Coach, 565, 5G6 '
MiNORIES :
Gunsmiths, 566
Haydon-square, 566
. INDEX.
859
MiNORiES — continued.
Museum, British — continueo^
Museums — continued.
Holy Trinity, 566
General Library, 584
Civil Engineers' Institu-
Nuns of S. Clare, 56G
Greville Library, 684
tion, 592
Mint, Royal :
Newspapers, 585
College of Physicians, 592
Curiosities, 567
Mammalia Saloon, 576
College of Surgeons, 592
LuUy, the Alchemist, 567
Manuscripts ;
Corporation, 593
Machinery, steam, 568
Ancient Rolls and Char-
Cox's Museum, 694
Mint, Tower, 566
ters, 587
Cumingian Museum, 695
Old and New Mints, 567, 568
Magna Charta, 587
Daniel, George, Canon-
Fix, 668
Pope's Bulls, 587
bury, 595
Koman Mint, 566
Donation MSS., 587
Entomological Society,
Mint, Southwark :
Medal Room, 583
595
Asylum for Debtors, 569
Mediaeval Collection, 583
Geology, Practical, 595
Marriages, illicit, 569
Mineral Collections, 678
Geological Society, 696
Minters, exodus of, 569
Montague Great Gate,
Geological (Bowerbank's),
Poets in the Mint, 569
573
696
Saxon and Norman Mints,
Montague House, 573
Guiana Collection, 696
669
North Gallery (Fossils),
Hospitals: Anatomical
Suffolk Manor, 568
576-578
Museums, 596
Monument, the :
Northern Zoological Gal-
Hudson's Bay Company'g,
Cibber's sculpture, 570
lery, 676
596
Described, 570
Origin of the Museum, 574
Hunter's (W.) Museum,
Legends, 571
Papyri, 588
697
Model, 570
Portraits in Eastern Zoo-
India Museum, 597
Pope's couplet, 571
logical Gallery, 576
King's College, 597
Koyal Society's observa-
Print-room :
Leverian Museum, 512
tions, 570
Drawings and Engrav-
Manufactures and Orna-
Suicides from, 671
ings, 588
mental Art, 698
MOORFIELDS :
Keepers of the Prints, 588
Meade's Dr., 598
Archery, 572
Portraits, 589
Missionary, 599
Bethlem Hospital, 572
Admission and Cata-
Naval Museum, 599
Bone Skates, 571
logues, 589
National Repository, 599
Calves' Head Club, 573
Eeading-room :
Pharmaceutical Society,
Canning, Elizabeth, 572
Construction and dimen-
699
Coleman-street, 572
sions, 585 ; admission
Private Collections, 60C
Common Hunt, 572
to, 587
Rackstrow's Museum, 599
Evelyn and Pepys, 672
Sculpture, by Westmacott,
Royal Society, 600
Lackington's, 573
675
Saltero, Don, 600
Moor-gate, 572
Sloane and Harleian Col-
SauU's Collection, 600
Museum, BritiSh :
lections, 574
Sloane Museum, 601
Antiquities Department, 578
Smirke, Sir R., 574
Soane Museum, 601
Assyrian Gallerie?, 581
Southern Zoological Gal-
Society of Arts, 603
Bibles and Psalters, 587
lery, 576
South Kensington Mu-
Botanical or Banksian De-
Statues of Shakspeare,
seum, 603
partment, 578
Banks, and Mrs. Damer,
Tradescant's, 604
British and Anglo-Eoman
575
Trinity House, 605
Kemains, 679
Stones, immense, 574
United Service Institu-
British and Mediaeval Eoom,
Syrian Gallery, 579
tion, 605
683
Temple Collection, 582
University College, 606
Bronze Room, 582
Townley Collection, 579
Waterloo Museum, 606
Central Saloon, 576
Vase-rooms : Hamilton and
Weeks's Museum, 606
Cost of Museum buildings,
Portland Vases, 582
Zoological Society's, 606
675
Zoological Collections, 575,
Music Halls :
Early Christian Collection,
676
Alhambra, 608
683
Museums :
Canterbury, 608
Eastern Zoological Gallery,
Adelaide Gallery, 589
Evans's, 608
676
Anatomical Museums, 689
Grecian, 609
Egyptian Gallery and
Antiquaries, Society of
Hanover-square, 609
Rooms, 581
(Pictures), 589
Highbury Barn, 608
Elgin Rooms, 579
Antiquities of London,590
James's, S., 608
Ethnographical Rooms, 583
Archaeological Association
Oxford, 608
Exhibition Rooms, plans of,
and Institute, 590
Philharmonic, 608
677
Architects' Institute, 590
Surrey Music Hall, 609
Gates and Railing, 575
Architectural, 691
Greco-Roman Rooms, 579
Armouries, 591
"W[EWINGTON BUTTS:
■*-^ Butts for Archery, 614
Hellenic Rooms, 680
Autographs, 591
Libraries :
Botanical Society, 591
Cnut's Trench, 615
Royal Library : Books
Brookes'd Museum, 591
Origin of, 614
with Autographs, 584
Bullock's Museum, 320
Walworth, Sir W., 614
860
INDEX.
Newington, Stoke :
Abney Park, 615
Bishop's Place, 615
King Henry's Walk, 615
Newington -green, 615
Notable Persons, 615
Rural village, 615
New River :
Chadwell and Amwell
Springs, 609
Myddelton, Sir Hugh, 609
James I. and Charles L, 619
Pipes, 610
Myddelton family, 611
New River Shares, 612
River course, 611
New River Head, 611
Sadler's Wells Theatre, 612
Statue of Sir Hugh Myddel-
ton, 612
New Road :
Euston, Marylebone, and
Pentonville Roads, 613
Formation, 613
Harley-house, 613
Opposition to, 612
Newgate -STREET :
Bas-relief, 614
Bath-street, 614
King Edward-street, 614
Pannyer-alley, 614
Warwick-lane, 614
Newspapers :
British Museum collection,
5S5
Dates of early Newspapers,
616,617
Illustrated London News, 618
Morning Chronicle, 616
Morning Herald, 616
Morning Post, 616
News of the Present Week,Q15
Times, 616: Printing ma-
chinery, 616, 617
Weekly newspapers, 617
OLD BAILEY:
Bales, the penman ; Camden
born, 619
Execution, first, 618
Executions, Memorable, 619
Green Arbour- court, 619
Hogarth born, 618, 619
Skinner-st. Execution, 619
Surgeons' Theatre, 618
Sydney House, 618
Old Jewry:
Clayton, Sir Robert, 619
Jews and Synagogue, 619
liOndon Institution, 620
Lord Mayor's Court, 620
Person, Prof. 620
Old- street :
Picthatch, 620
S. Leonard's, Shoreditch,620
Roman Road, 620
Vinegar Works, 620
Omnibus, The :
Barricade, 621
Omnibus, the — continued.
First established, 620
Greenwich stages, 620
Shillibeer, 620, 621
Oxford-street :
S. Anne's parish, 621
Camelford House, 623
Han way-street, 622
Marylebone old church, 621
Newman-street and Berners-
street, 623
New Oxford-street, 623
NoUekens's Recollections,
622, 623
Pantheon, 622, 639, 640
Pennant's Recollections, 621
Portland-place, notable resi-
dents, 622
Statue : Duke of Kent, 602
Stratford-place, 622
Tyburn -brook, 620
Tyburn and Oxford-road,621
Wardour-street, 622
pADDINGTON;:
-t Bishop's Estate, 624
Churches, 624
Craven Hill, 624
Dudley Grove and Welling-
ton Statue, 624
Forest of Middlesex, 623
Maida Hill, 624
Paddington Green, 624
Paddington, Past and Pre-
sent, 623
Population, 623
Public Houses, old, 625
Saxon name, 623
Tyburnia, 623, 624
Westbourne Green, 624
Painted Chamber :
Conferences and Courts, 625
Edward the Confessor, 625
Paintings and tapestry, 625
Palaces, Roval :
Buckingham Palace :
Arlington House, 626
Ball-room, 629
Buckingham House, 626
Blore, architect, 627
Cartoons of Raphael, 637
Chapel, 629
Costume Balls, 629
East Front, 627
George III. Library, 627
Green Drawing-room, 628
Grand Staircase, 628
Marble Arch, 627
Marble Hall and Sculp-
ture Gallery, 627
Mulberry Garden, 626
Nash, architect, 627
Paintings, 627
Pavilion in Garden, 629
Picture Gallery, 628
Pictures, collection of, 628
Pleasure Grounds, 629
Queen's House, 627
Royal Mews, 565
Palaces, Royal — continued.
Sculptures, 629
State Apartments, 628
Stothard, T., R.A., 628
Throne-room, 628
Carlton House :
Arras and Costumes, 635
Carl ton-house-terrace, 635
Carlton, Lord, 634
Conservatory, 635
Epigrams, 635
Furniture, 635
Gardens, by Kent, 634
Holland's alterations, 634
Interior described, 635
Kensington Gravel, 634
Marriages, royal, 635
Portico, 634
Regent's supper to 2000
guests, 635
Sheridan's hon mot, 635
Taken down, 635
Wales, Princess of, died,
634
Walpole, Horace, de-
scribes, 634
S. James's Palace :
Ambassadors' Court, 631
Board of Green cloth, 631
Chapel Royal, 140
Colour Court, 631
Court of S. James's, 631
Drawing-rooms and Le-
vees, 632
Friary, 630
Gate-tower and Great
Clock, 631
Gentlemen-at-Arms, 632
George IV. bom, 631
German Chapel, 630
Guard-chamber, 631
Hospital, ancient, 630
Manor-house, 630
Monk, General, 630
Norman Remains, 630
Pictures, collection of,632
Tapestry-room, 632
Throne-room and Queen's
Closet, 632
Verrio, the Painter, 630
William, Prince of Orange,
630
William IV. and the Great
Clock, 631
Yeomen of the Guard, 632
Kensington Palace :
Accession of Queen Vic-
toria, 633
Anne, Queen, and Prince
George, 633
Banqueting House, 493
Cube-room, 633
First Council of Queea
Victoria, 633
George II., death of, 633
Great Staircase, 633
Kent, Duke and Duchess
of, 633
King's Gallery, 633
INDEX.
861
Palaces, RoTAii — continued.
Library of the Duke of
Sussex, 634
Nottingham, Finch, Earl
of, 632
Paintings, 634
Palace Green, 634
Presence Chamber, 633
Queen's Gallery, 633
Queen Victoria born, 633
Sussex, Duke of, 633
William III, purchases the
Mansion, 632
Wren, Hawskraoor, and
Kent, architects, 632,
633
Pall-mam- ;
Angerstein and Vernon, 630
Banks's sculpture, 639
British Institution, 639
Charles II. and Paille-Maille,
636
Club-houses, 639
Coffee-houses and taverns,
637
De Foe and Gay describe, 638
Denison, W. J., M.P., 638
Dodsley, the bookseller, 638
Duel of Lord Byron and Mr,
Chaworth, 637
Fossils discovered, 639
Gas lighting, 371
Gillray, caricaturist, 636
Giaham, Dr., his Goddess of
Health, 638
James I. and Palle-Malle,
636
Living Skeleton, 637
Lodge's Portraits, 639
Mail robbed in, 638
Marlborough House, 552
Nell Gwynne, lived, 637
Paille-maille, game of, 635
PeU Mell Close, 636
Pall-mall East :
Calves' Head Club, 639
Hedge-lane, 639
♦' Eookery," the, 636
Koyal Academy, 635
Schomberg Hou8e,449,638
Sedans and Chairmen, 639
Shakspeare Gallery, 639
Sights and Amusements,
637
Sydenham, D,, 636
Thelwall, John, 639
Thynne, murder of, 637
" Tully's Head," 636
Vulliamys, royal clock-
makers, 636
War-office, Statue of Lord
Herbert, 639
Warwick House and Prin-
cess Charlotte, 639
Wyat, Sir Thomas, 636
Pantheon :
Bazaar, 41, 640
Fire, destructive, 640
Masquerade, 640
Pantheon — continued.
Rebuilt, 640
Theatre, 640
Winter Ranelagh, 639
Wyatt, James, architect, 639
Pancras, S. :
Agar Town, 640
Battle Bridge and Roman
inscription, 641
Brill of Somers Town, 640
Cantelows or Kentish Town,
640
Cemetery, 641
Church, ancient, 640
Churches, various, 641
Domesday, 640
Extent, 640
Gospel Oak Field, 641
Hampstead Wells and
Walk, 641
Houses and Population, 640
King's Cross, 641
Mineral Springs, 641
Railway Termini, 641
Paris Garden :
Cure's Almshouses, 642
Falcon Theatre, 642
Holland's Leaguer, 642
Origin of, 641
Parks :
Number, cost, income, 642
Albert— Finsbury Park, 642
Battersea Park :
Earth from the London
Docks, 642
Lake, 643
Lammas Lands, 642
Laying out, 643
Sub-Tropical Garden, 643
Chelsea Hospital Grounds :
Pensioners' allotments,
643
Green Park :
Constitution Hill, 643
Arch at Hyde-park Cor-
ner, 644
Lunatic attempts to assa-
sinate the Queen, 644
Mansions, Gardens, 643
Peace Commemoration,
643
Peel, Sir R., death of, 644
Hyde Park :
Cheesecakes and milk, 644
Coaches and gallants, 645
Commonwealth troops,
645
Conduits and Fountains,
646
Cromwell driving, 645
Crystal Palace, 647
Deer, races, and tolls, 644
Drives and flowers, 648
Duels fought in Hyde-
park, 649
Fairs and Fireworks, 645
Gates and Arches, 646
GreatExhibition 1851,646
Law of the Parks, 649
Parks — continued.
Let in Farms, 644
Manor of Hyde, 644
Memorial to the Prince
Consort, 647
Ring and Review, 645
Riot in 1866, 649
Rotten Row, 646
Royal Humane Society's
House, 648
Serpentine, the, 648
Statue of Achilles, 646
Vending victuals, 645
S. James's Park :
After-dinner Promenade,
653
Birdcage Walk, 652
Canal Decoy, and Duck
Island, 652
Charles I., Cromwell, and
Whitelock, 651
Charles II. additions, 651
Charles II, and Nell
Gwynne, 652, 653
Evelyn, Pepys, and
Waller, 651
Goldsmith in Park, 653
Horse Guards Parade,654
Mall and the game of
Paille Maille, 636, 661
Milk Fair, 654
Milton's garden-house,654
Nursery for Deer, 651
Ornithological Society's
House, 654
Peace Commemoration,
1814, 653
Privileges, Skating, Phy-
sic Garden, and Me-
nagerie, 652
Rosamond's Pond, 653
Soult's Mortar, 654
Wellington Barracks, 653
State Paper Office, 654
Kennington Park :
Flower-gardens, Lodge,
649
Poplar Recreation Grounds,
649
Primrose Hill Park :
Gymnasium, 650
Regent's Park :
Botanic Society's Garden,
369, 650
Colosseum, 280-283
S. Dunstan's Villa and
clock-figures, 650
Flower-gardens, 650
Marylebone Farm and
Fields, 650
Observatory, 650
Plan, 650
Sheet of Water, 650
Toxopholite Society, 650
Villas and Grounds, 651
Zoological Society's Gar-
den and Menagerie, 650
Southwark Park, 651
Victoria Park :
862
INDEX.
Pabks — continued.
Drinking Fountain, 655
Flower-beds, 655
Ornamental Lake, 655
Pleasures of the People,
655
Purchase of Ground, 655
Parliament Houses :
Admission of the Public, 666
Armada Tapestry, 656
Barry's design, 658
Central Clock-tower, 661
Central Hall :
Statues of Kings and
Queens, 662
Clock, the Great, 659
Clock Tower Dials, 658, 659
Cloisters and Crypt, 658
Commons' House, 665
Bar, the, 666
Commons' entrance, 661
Commons' Libraries,
Lobby, and Refresh-
ment Rooms, 666
Commons, by Wren, 658
Division Lobbies, 666
Painted Windows, 665
Speaker's Chair and Mace,
666
Cotton House, 658
East, or River Front, 659
Edward the Confessor, 656
Electric Telegraph-office,
662
Gates of the Old Palace,
658, 662
General View, 661
Gibson's Statue of Queen
Victoria, 663
Gold-leaf decoration, 659
Great Fire in 1834, 656
Ground-plan of the
Houses, 657
Law Courts, by Soane, 658
Lords, House of, 663
Bar, 663
Busts andInscriptions,663
Candelabra, large, 664
Decoration of Peers and
Commons' Corridor, 665
Frescoes and Painted
Windows, 663
Heraldic Ceiling, 663
Old House of Lords, 656
Peers' Libraries and Rob-
ing-room, 664
Peers' Lobby, 664
Peers' Robing-room, 661
Prince of Wales and
Prince Consort's Chairs,
6G4
Queen's Chair of State,664
Reporters' and Strangers'
Galleries, 663
Royal Throne, 664
Memorial to Sir Charles
Barry, 662
New Palace, 659
Norman Porch, 662
Parliament Houses — contd.
North Front, 659
Old Court of Requests, 656
Painted Chamber, 656
Paintings in St. Stephen's
Chapel, 658
Prince's Chamber, 656, 662
Queen's Robing-room, 662
River- Wall, 658
Rufus's Great Hall, 656
Sculpture, Victoria Tower,
661
South Front — Saxon
Kings and Queens, 660
Speaker's House, 666
Star-chamber, 656
Statues in S. Stephen's
Hall, 665
S. Stephen's Chapel, 656
S. Stephen's Cloisters, 665
S. Stephen's Hall, 662, 665
S. Stephen's Porch, 661, 665
S. Stephen's Staircase, 661
Ventilation of the two
Houses, 665
Victoria or Royal Gallery,
662
Victoria Tower, View from,
660
West Front — Statuettes,661
Westminster Palace first
named, 656
Paternoster-row :
Amen-corner, Ave Maria,
and Creed lanes, 667
Baldwin and Chambers, 667
Castle and Dolly's chop-
house, 668
Chapter Coffee-house, 263,
668
Cyclopcedias of Chambers
and Rees, 667
Hamilton and Co., 668
Longman's house, history of,
667 ; rebuilt, 667
Mercers and Lacemen, 667
Newgate Market groaning-
board, 668
Origin of name, 667
Panyer-alley, 668
Publishers, early, 667
Religious Tract Society's
Depot, 668
Rivington's, Bible and
Crown, 667
Robinson's aui Annual Re-
gister, 667
Tarlton's Ordinary, 668
Warwick and Ivy-lanes,614,
668
Woodfall and Junius's Let-
ters, 667
Pentonvilee:
Gerard's Herbal, 668
Huntington the Preacher,
668
Penton's ville, 668
Piccadilly :
Albany, 673
Piccadilly — continued.
Albemarle-street and Cla-
rendon House, 671
Apsley House, 541-543
Arlington and Bennet-
streets, 673
Beckford, William, lived,
670
Berkeley-street and Dover-
street, 671
Bolton, Clarges, and Half-
moon streets, 671
Bond-street, 672
Burdett, Sir Francis, 671
Burlington -gardens, 673
Cadogan, Earl ; collection of
Plate and Porcelain, 670
Clarendon Hotel, 672, 673
Clarendon House described;
pictures, 672
Cork-street, 673
Devonshire House Ticket,
by E. m: Ward, 671
Gloucester House, 549
Hamilton-place, 670
Hercules' Pillars, 670
Hope House, 551
Hyde Park corner Turnpike-
Gate, 673
S. James's Church altered,
674
S. James's Gallery of Art,
674
Nollekens at Scheemakers'?,
Vine-street, 674
Origin of Piccadilly, 669
Ormond, Great Duke of, 672
Park-lane and Duke of
Wellington, 670
Peter Pindar and Gifford,674
Peterborous^h, Earl of, 671
Piccadilly Hall,and Shaver's
Hall, 669
Pickering, publisher, 674:
Pope at school, 670
Portugal-street, 669
Queensbury, Duke of, 670
Ranger's Lodge, Green
Park, 670
Royal Institution, 672
Stratton-street, the Duchess
of S. Alban's, and Sliss
Burdett Coutts, 671
Swallow-street, 673
Tennis couits, 669
Van Nost's leaden Figures,
670
Uxbridge House, 673
Willoughby de Eresby,
Lord, 670
Windmill-street, 669
Winstanley and Sir S. Mor-
land, 670
Wright and Debrett, 674
Wyat's Rebellion, C69
Picture Galleries :
Dulwich Gallery, 678
National Gallery :
Corinthian portico, 674
INDEX.
863
PICTURE Galleries — contd.
Catalogue, 675
Origin of, 675
Schools, English, Flemish,
French, Italian, and
Spanish, 675
Sculpture in Hall, 674
Turner Pictures, three
styles, 675
Tear's expenses, 675
Sheepshanks Pictures, 677
National Portrait Exhibi-
tion, 678
National Portrait Gallery,
678
Picture Collections, private,
679
Koyal Academy :
Annual Dinner, 677
Diploma Pictures and
Sculptures, 676
Drawing Schools, Hall of
Casts, Library, 676
Exhibition proceeds, 677
Foundation Members, 676
Memorials and Pictures,
677
Origin of, 676
Somerset House, 676
Students admitted, 677
Vernon Collections, 677
PifcA-GUE, THE Great, 679 :
Cock Alehouse Token, 681
Defoe's Journal, 680
Grocer in "Wood-street, 681
Importation of, 680
Peps and Evelyn, accounts
by, 680
Piper and his Dog, 680
Plague of 1603, 681
" Plague Cross," 681
Ravages of, 680
Remedies, 680
PiMLICO :
Belgravia, 679
Chantrey, the sculptor, 679
Duchy of Cornwall oflace,
679
Ebury-street, 679
Pimlico ale, 678
Pimlico, Chelsea, and its
taverns, 679
Pimlico Garden, Bankside,
678
Pimlico Walk, Hoxton, 678
Police :
Central Police, City, 681
City Police, 683
Dowling, Vincent, 681
Force, Salaries, and Rate,
682
Horse Patrol, 683
Metropolitan Police Act, 681
Original Police, 681
Peel, Sir Robert, 682
Police Magistrates, 682
Robberies on Thames, 683
System, 682, 683
Thames Police, &c., 683
Population :
Census of 1801—1861, 684
City Chamberlain's Statis-
tics, 685
City, Night and Day, 684
Increase in the Suburbs, 685
Petty, Sir W., his prediction,
684
Reign of Elizabeth, and be-
fore the Fire, 683
Registrar-General's Report
in 1866, 684
Return in 1867, 684
Traffic of London, 685
Various estimates, 684
Port of London :
Billingsgate, 54
Custom House, 305
Day's Business, 686
Docks, 309—312
Easterlings, the, 685
Execution Dock, 686
Extent of Port, 686
Fitzstephen's account, 685
Geographical position, 685
Jews and Guilds, 686
Loss of Life in the Pool, 686
Tacitus's account, 685
Portugal-street :
College of Surgeons, 688
Duke's Theatre, 687
Grange, Carey-street, 688
Joe Miller's grave, 688
Stocks, last in Loudon, 688
Tennis-court, 687
Will's Coffee-house, 688
Post-office:
Chief Office, S. Martin's-le-
Grand, 688
Dead Letter Office, 690
Five locations, 688
Foreign Mails, 689
Foreign posts, old, 688
Freeling, Sir Francis, 690
Great Clock, 688
Hill, Rowland, 690
Letters, number of, 690
Mail-coaches and Railways,
689
Mechanical contrivance3,688
Money Order Office, 691
Penny and Twopenny post,
690, 691
Post Magazine^ 689
Postage envelope, by Mul-
ready, 690
Postage-rates, 689
Postage Stamps of all na-
tions, 690
Revenue, 690
Poultry :
Coneyhope-lane, 691
Dilly and Hood, publishers,
691
Dunton, the bookseller, 691
Lamb, Dr., the conjuror, 691
S. Mildred's Church, 691
Poultry Compter, 691
Taverns and Tokens, 691
Primrose Hill :
Chalk Farm, 692
Murder of Sir Edmund
Berry Godfrey, 692
Primrose-hill Park, 650
View from Primrose-hill,693
Prisons :
Borough Compter, 698
Bridewell, 62—65
Brixton House of Correction
— Treadmill, 693
City Prison, Holloway, 693
Clerkenwell Bridewell, 693
Clink, Bankside, 693
Cold-bath Fields Pri8on,693
Committals in one year,
692
Fleet Prison, 344-346
Giltspur-street Compter,695
Horsemonger-lane Gaol,695
Ludgate Prison, 538, 696
Marshalsea Prison, 696
Millbank Prison, 697
Newgate, 697
Cemetery, 699
Condemned Sermons, 698
Cool Tankard and Bartho-
lomew Fair, 699
Debtors' Door, 697
Hobhouse, Mr., and Lord
Byron, 699
Imprisonments, Memor-
able, 698
Interior reconstructed,699
Lord George Gordon, 698
Press-yard, 556
Riots of 1780, 697
Statues in exterior, 697
New Prison, Clerkenwell,
699
Pentonville Prison, 699
Poultry Compter, 628
Queen's Prison :
Cochrane, Lord, Haydon
and Hone, 701, 702
Combe (Dr. Syntax) and
Palmer, the actor, 702,
703
Imprisonment for Debt,
703
King's Bench, 700
King's Bench Gazette, 703
Original Prison, 700
Poet in prison, 701
Prince of Wales and
Justice Gascoigne, 700
Prison closed, 703
Queen's Bench, 700
Remarkable Persons con-
fined here, 701
Riots of 1780, 700
Rules of the Bench, 702
Sketches of St. George's
Fields, 701
Wat Tyler's attack, 700
Westbury, Lord Chan-
cellor, precis by, 703
Wilkes imprisoned, 700
Savoy Prison, 703
864
INDEX.
Prisons — continued.
Tothill Fields Bridewell:
Colonel Despard, 704
Tower, the, 704
Westminster Gatehouse, 373
Whitecross-street Prison,704
Wood-street Compter, 704
AUEENHITHE:
V* Broken Wharf, 705
Com?dthe, 705
Hill, Thomas, drysalter, 706
liOrd Mayors, 705
Sipa JRegince, 705
Saxon hithe, 705
S, Michael's church vane,705
Eailway Termini :
Blackwall, 705
Charing Cross, 706
Great Northern, 705
Great Western, 705
Hotels, 442, 443
London, Dover, and Chat-
ham, 706
Metropolitan, 706
North London, 706
North Western, 705; Archi-
tectural gateway, 705 ;
Great Hall and Sculp-
ture, 706
Paxton, Sir Joseph, his
girdle railway, 707
Pneumatic, 706
South Eastern, 706
South Western, 706
Underground, 706
TIANELAGH :
-*-*' Arne, Dr., musical com-
poser, 707
Buildings taken down, 708
Bloomfield'3 visit, 708
Capon, the scene-painter 707
Johnson, Dr., 707
Kanelagh House, 707, 708
Rotunda and ravilion, 707
Walpole's account, 707
Eecokds, Public :
Domesday Book, 710
Lambarde, Keeper of the
Rolls, 708
New Record Repository, 708
Statue of Queen Victoria,709
Palgrave, Sir F., on, 708
Photo-zincographic fac-si-
mile, 710
Record Office, 706 ; Curiosi-
ties, 710
Rolls Chapel, 709
Romilly, Lord, Master of the
Rolls, his bust, 701
Searches, 709
Victoria Tower, 710
Regent Street :
All Souls Church, 347
Argyll Rooms, 22
Chess Tournament, 711
Club Chambers, 245
Cosmorama, 308 |
Regent Street — contimicd.
County Fire Office, 710
Faubert's Riding Academy,
711
Foley House, 711
Gallery of Illustration, 308
Junior United Service Club,
254
Langham Hotel, 711
Macadamized Road, 710
Nash's Quadrant and Co-
lonnades, 710
Parthenon Club, 254
Polytechnic Institution, 711
Diving-bell, 711
S. Philip's Chapel. 215
Shop-fronts embellished, 710
Tenison's Chapel, 215
ROTHERHITHE :
Fire, great, 718
Henry IV. lodged at, 718
Leake and Benbow, 718
Lilly, dramatist, 718
St. Mary's Church, Neckin-
ger, 187
Origin of, 718
Prince Le Boo, 718
Redriffe, 718
Saxon origin, 718
Swift's Captain Gulliver, 718
Thames Tunnel, 718, 779
Royal Academy of Arts,719
Royal Exchange, 719
Royal Institution :
Banks, Cavendish, and Rum-
ford, 719
Brande's Chemical Re-
searches, 719
Davy's Discoveries, 719
Faraday's Researches, 719
Laboratory, 719
Library, 464
Voltaic Battery, great, 719
Workshop of the Royal So-
ciety, 719
Royal Society :
Arundel House, 720
Burlington House, 720
Charter-book, 720, 721
Conversazioni and Presi-
dents, 720
Cowley, Evelyn, & Petty, 720
Crane-courthouse, 296, 720
Invisible or Philosophical
Society, 719
Medals, 720
Museum, 600
Newton, Sir Isaac, relics of,
720, 721
Origin of, 719
Oxford meetings, 729
Philosophical Transactions,
720
Portraits, 720
Royal Charter, 720
Royal Society Club, 256
Wearing the Hat, 720
Wood-street and Gresham
College, 720
Roman London :
Aldgate, 713
Augusta, 711
Bevis Marks, 713
Billingsgate : hypocaust, 713
Bishopsgate, 713
Blackfriars, 713
Broad-street, 713
Fine Pavement, 714
Cannon-street, 714
Cheapside, 714
Crutched Friars, 714
Dowgate, 714
Foster-lane : altar, 714
Grey Friar?, 714
Houndsditch, 714
S. George's- in-the-East, 714
Islington, 715
King William and Prince's-
streets, 715
Leadenhall-street : magnifi-
cent pavement, 319
Lombard- street, 531, 715
Londinium, 711
Lyn-dun,orLlong-dinas, 711
London Stone, 533,534
Lothbury, 715
Lower Thames-street, 717
Ludgate : sepulchral monu-
ment, 539, 715
S. Martin's-lane, 716
S. Martin'8-le-Grand, 716
Moorfields, 715
Pavements, various, 716
S. Pancras, 641, 716
S. Paul's-churchyard, 716
Conyers and Wren, 716
Roman coins, 718
Roman houses, 712
Roman stratum, 712
Royal Exchange, 326, 716
Runic stone, 717
Shadwell, 716
Site of Roman London, 712
Smith, Mr. Roach, his Mu-
seum, 718
South wark, 716
Strand: Roman Bath, 716
Thames, River, 716
Threadneedle-strect, 717
Tower of London, 717
Tower-hill, 717
Upper Thames-street, 717
Wall, 233—236
Walbrook, 717
Whitechapel, 717
SAVOY, The :
Chapel Royal, 142
Churches : Dutch, French,
High German, and Lu-
theran, 722
John of Gaunt and Chaucer,
721
John, King of France, 721
Lancaster's palace, 721
Wat Tyler, burnt by, 722
French Protestant Churches
(7iote), 722
INDEX.
865
Schools, Public :
Charterhouse, 86
Christ's Hospital, 95
City of London, 722
Corp'>ration,CarpeMter, 722;
Tonbridge, 722 ; Dance
of Death, 723; Statue
of Carpenter, 723
Mercers', 723
Eminent Scholars, 723
Merchant Taylors, 723
Eminent Scholars, 723
Fellowships and Plays,723
S, Oiave's and S. John's :
Seal, Sites, History, 724
S. Paul's School :
Eminent Pauiines,724,725
S. Saviour's, 725
Westminster :
Chiswick House, at, 726
Census Alumnorum, 726
Dormitory, 726
Elizabeth, Queen, 725
Foundation, 725
Hall, 726
Masters and Scholars,
eminent, 726
Pancake custom, 276
S. Peter's College, 723
Plays, Latin, 726
Saxon remains, 726
Trial of the Pix (note), 726
Sewage or Drainage ;
Constructive details, 727
First Commissioners of
Sewers, 7'i7
Fleet Sewers, 348, 727
High and Middle Levels, 727
Intercepting Plan, 727
Main Drainage, new, 727
Sheriffs :
Costumes, 729
Drinking to Sheriffs, 729
Fund and Fines, 728, 729
Hebrew Sheriffs', 729
Hoare, Sheriff, his Journal,
729
Income and cost, 728
London and Middlesex, 728
Michaelmas-day, 729
Letter, Sheriff Phillips's, 297
Origin of the Office, 728
Presentation of, 728
Slingsby Bethel, 729
State, Shrievalty, 728
Shore DITCH :
Almshouses and Halls, 730
Barnwell, George, and Mill-
wood, 730
Churchyard's ballad, 730
College Youths, 730
Curtain Theatre and Boad,
730
Holywell-ln. and Mount, 730
Legend of Jane Shore, 729
S, Leonard's Church, 720 '
Lovel, Sir Thomas, 730
Nunnery, 730
Quiet Poor, 731
S HOREDiTCH — Continued.
Roman village, 729
Soersditch, ancient family,
729
Skinner-street and Snow-
hill :
Alderman Skinner, 731
Bunyan, John, 731
Cashman, the Sailor, 731
Churches, 152, 731
Cock-lane Ghost, 732
Holborn Valley, 731
Ladies' Charity-school, 731
Smithfield :
Bartholomew Fair, 32, 731
Elms, executions at, 732
Jack Straw, 732
Jousts and Tournaments, 7 32
Martyrs and Burnings, 732
Ordeal Combats, 732
Poisoners, 732
Public Walk, Race-course,
and Live Market, 731
Quintain, Sword, and Buck-
ler, 731
Richard II., Walworth, and
Wat Tyler, 731
Smithfield, East :
Cage, Stocks, &c., 732
Charles I. hunting, 732
Vineyard, 732
Society of Antiquaries :
Admission ceremony, 733
Folkes, Martin, first Presi-
dent, 733
Obligation Book, 733
Paintings, Memorials, and
Publications, 733
Wanley, Humphrey, 733
Society of Arts :
Art-Manufactures, 734
Awards, early, 733
Barry's Paintings, 733
Firht Exhibition, 733
First Meeting, 733
Goldsmith, Oliver, 733
Hope, Thomas, and Chan-
trey, the sculptor, 734
Library, 525
Museum, 603
Origin of, 733
Premiums and Bountie8,734
Presidents, 733
Swiney Bequest, 734
SoHO:
Berwick-street, 735
Carlisle House and street,
734
Comp ton-street, 735
Dean-street, 735
Gerard-street, 735
Greek and Church streets,
735
Lion Brewery, 734
Macclesfield- street, 735
Origin of Soho, 734
Somerset House, Old :
Chapel, by Inigo Jones, and
Capuchin Convent, 735
Somerset House — continued.
Chapel goods, 735
Cowley and Waller, 736
Gardens in 1720, 736
Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry,
murdered, 736
John of Padua, architect,
735
Masquerades, Court, 736
Protector Somerset, 735
Queen Henrietta Maria, 735
Royal Academy, 736
State funerals of Monk and
Cromwell, 736
Somerset House :
Architecture and Sculpture,
737
Bronze Group, by Bacon,
737
Chambers, Sir William, ar-
chitect of, 736
Government Offices, 737
Kinsr's College, 737
Nelson, Lord, anecdote of,
738
Quadrangle, offices in, 737
Sculptors and Architects,
738
Site and extent, 736
Strand front, 737
Terrace, 737
Thames front, Cowley's lines
on, 737
Watch-face story, 738
West Wing, 738
South-Sea House :
South-Sea Bubble, 738
South-Sea Company, 738
South-Sea Stock, 739
Swift and Pope, satires of,
739
Tom of Ten Thousand, 739
SOUTHWARK :
AUeyn, Edward, 741
AUeyn's Almshouses, 742
Artists in glass, 739
Bankside, its bear-gardens,
stews, and theatres, 741
Blackman-street, 742
Boiough, the, 740
Bridge House and Yard,
740
Burnt by William L, 739
Deadman's-place, 742
Elizabethan houses, 742
Etymologies, 97 in number,
739
Fair, 739
Falcon Tavern, 741
Ferry and Fortification, 739
Fort and Bulwarks, 740
Globe Theatre, site oi, 741
Horselydown, 740
Inns and Taverns, 456,740
Jack Cade and Wyat, 739,
740
Long South wark, 740
Manors, 740
S. Margaret's Hill, 740
3k
866
INDEX.
SouTHWARK — continued.
S, Mary Ov«rie and S. Sa-
viour's Church, 199 — 202,
740, 741
JVIints for Coinage, 740
Montague-clooe and House,
741
Picture of Horselydown, at
Hatfield House, 740
Koch ester House and Park,
742
Koman remains, 739
Rose-alley and Globe-alley,
741
Shakspeare bust^ sculptor of,
741
Shakspeare, Edmund, bu-
ried, 741
Southwaxk Arms, 742
Subway in Southwark, 742
Suffolk House and Bran-
donne's-place, 741
Tokens, Southwark, 742
Winchester Palace, 742
Southwark Fair;
Evelyn and Pepys, 743
Grant by Edward VL, 743
Proclaimed by the Lord
Mayor, 743
Sherifl" Hoare's account, 743
Sights and Shows, 743
Spitalfields :
Bethnal Green, 743, 744
Bolingbroke, Lord, 745
Christchurch, 157
Crispin-street Mathematical
Society, 745
Culpepper, the herbalist, 744
Edict of Nantes, 744
Fair in Spitalfields, 744
Lolesworth, a Roman ceme-
tery, 743
Pauperism of the weavers,
744
Priory and Hospital of St
Mary Spittle, 743
Pulpit Cross and Spittle
Sermons, 743
Silks and velvets, 744
Sisters of Charity, 745
Stone Coffins found, 743
Weavers' houses, 745
Weavers and Masters, 744
Spring Garden :
Berkeley House, 746
Bowling Green, Fountain,
and Ordinary, 745
Centlivre, Mrs., 746
Milton resided, 746
New Spring Gardens, 745,
746
Outer Spring Garden, and
Sir P. Warwick, 746
Rupert, Prince, death of, 746
Wigley's Rooms, 746
Squares :
Bedford, 747
Lords Loughborough and
Eldon. 747
Squares — continued.
Belgrave,Che8ter and Eaton,
737
Berkeley :
LansdowneHouse; Horace
Walpole died, 747
Bloomsbury :
Bedford House ; Lord
Mansfield's; Statue of
C. J. Fox, 747
Bridgewater, 747
Brunswick, Mecklenburgh,
and Torrington, 748
Cavendish :
Grand Duke of Chandos ;
Harcourt House; Bronze
Statues, 748
Charterhouse, 748
Covent Garden, 292, 296
Devonshire, 748
Euston, 748
Finsbury, 749
Fitzroy, 749
Golden, 749
Gordon :
First locomotive, 749
Gough :
Dr. Johnson's house, 749
Grosvenor, 749
Hanover :
Statue of Pitt, 750
Haydon, 749
S. James's:
Notable residents, 760
Leicester, 511 — 515
Lincoln's-inn-fields, 52 7-529
Lowndes, 750
Manchester, 751
Myddelton, 751
Portman :
Montague House, 751
Prince's (two), 751
Quadrates or Squares, 747
Queen, Bloomsbury, 751
Queen, Westminster, 761
Red Lion :
Cromwell's remains, 751
Russell :
Bedford House and statue,
752
Salisbury, 752
Soho:
Monmouth House; Mrs.
Comelys', Sir Joseph
Banks, Alderman Beck-
ford ; Statue and Foun-
tain, 752
Tavistock :
Francis Baily; weighing
the Earth, 753
Tavistock-place, 753
Trafalgar :
Nelson column; Statues
of George IV., Napier,
and Havelock; Green-
land Whale, 753
Vincent, 753
Wellclose, 763
Wobum, 754
State Coaches:
Catton, painter, 756
Chambers, Sir W., 764
Charles L's, 754
Cipriani, painter, 765
Coronation coach, 754
Cost of the Queen's Coach,
755
Dance, painter, 756
Hogarth's City Coach, 756
Lord Mayor's, cost of, 755 ;
painting, 755
Queen Anne's, 754
Queen Elizabeth's, 754
Speaker's, 756 ; carvings and
paintings, 756
State Harness, 754
Thornhill, Sir James,
painter, 754
Wilton, carver, 764
Statues :
See Lists with sites and
names of sculptors at pp. 757
—760. The following are the
more remarkable : —
Achilles, Hyde Park, 757
Charles I., Charing Cvoss:
Walpole's account; d'Ar-
chenliolz ; P. Cunning-
ham ; portions stolen ;
pedestal by Marshall,
artistic merit of, 757
Coram, Capt., by Calder
Marshall, 758
Franklin, Sir John, by
Noble :
Bas-reliefs; likeness, 768
George IV., by Chantrey,
758
Herbert, Lord, by Foley :
Bas-reliefs on pedestal,75 8
Havelock, Sir Henry, by
Behnes :
Inscriptions, 759
James II., by Gibbons:
Error respecting, 759
Myddelton, Sir Hugh, by
Thomas :
Costume of the period ;
drinking fountains,
759
Nelson, Lord, by Baily :
Bronze lions at base of
pedestal, by Landseer,
759
Richard Coeur de Lion, by
Marochetti, 759
Wellington, Duke of, by
M. C. and J. Wyatt:
Origin and cost ; raising.
760
Strand :
Ackermann, the printseller;
Fountain Tavern, and
Ries's Divan, 763
Adelphi, 1 :
Durham-place; Sir Walter
Raleigh; Coutts's Bank,
763
INDEX.
867
Strand — corttinued.
Adelphi Theatre, 769
Anderson's Scots Pills,
764
Arundel House :
Marbles, Statues, and pic-
ture galleries ; Old Parr;
Hollar's views, 764, 765
Arundel-street :
Gay's Trivia ,• Crown and
Anchor Tavern and
WhittingtonClub; Aca-
demy of Ancient Music,
765
Beaufort-buildings :
Carlisle, Bedford, Wor-
cester, and Beaufort
House,763; Hill.Aaron,
born ; Lillie, Perry, and
Rimmel, perfumers, 763
Ben Jonson ; Nelson, 761
Bos well court and its cele-
brities, 767
Buckingham-street :
Pepys and Peterthe Great;
Etty, the painter, 762
Butcher-row :
Count Beaumont ; Gun-
powder Plot ; Nat Lee ;
Alderman Pickett, 767
Canalettl's view, 760
Canary House, 768
Catherine-street :
New Exeter Change, and
Strand Music Hall, 768
Cecil- street :
Great Salisbury House,
763
Charing Cross Hospital, 436
Circulating Library,the first,
764
S. Clement's Danes, 760
S. Clement's Vestry Hall,
and Kent's picture, 767
Craven -street :
Dr. Franklin and James
Smith, 761
Crockford's Bulk-shop, 766
Deville, the phrenologist,
and NoUekens, 769
Doily's Warehouse and
Wimbledon House, 768
Drury- court :
Shrievalty Tenure custom,
and Clarges, the farrier,
608, 768
ElectricTime Signal Ball,769
Essex-street and Devereux-
court and Outer Temple ;
Exeter, Paget, Norfolk,
Leicester, and Essex
House, Water-gate ; Essex
Head Tavern, 766
Exeter Change, 335, 768
Exeter Hall, 334
Exeter-sireet :
Dr. Johnson ; his resi-
dences, 768
First paved, 760
Str AND — continued.
Foregate and Clement's-
lane:
Sir John Trevor, 767
Fountain-court :
Blake, the painter, 763
George's and Grecian Coffee-
houses, 264
Golden Cross Hotel, 769
Gothic Cross, by E. M.
Barry, A.R.A., 761
Hackney-coach Stand, first,
andS. Mary's Church, 768
Hermitage and Hospital at
Charing, 760
Holywell-street and " holy
spring;" old houses and
signs ; Lyon's Inn, 767
Hungerford, 761
King's College Gateway, 276
Lowther Arcade, 20
Maiden-lane :
Marvell, Swift, and Vol-
taire ; Turner, the
painter, born ; Cyder
Cellar and Porson, 769
Mawe and Tennant, minera-
logists, 764
Maypole in the Strand, 768
Mil ford-lane:
Ford and Windmill ;
Baker, the chronicler;
Woodfalls, printers, 766
New Court Chapel, 767
Norfolk-street :
Mountfort and Lord Mo-
hun ; Penn and Peter
the Great ; Ireland's
Shakspeare Forgeries ;
Parr and Warton, 76
Northumberland House, 554
One Bell Stables and Dor-
chester coach, 767
Open fields, north, 760
Palsgrave-place :
Hey cock's Ordinary, 76
Queen's Head public-house
and Old Parr, 769
Sahsbury-street:
Salisbury House; Hobbes,
Partridge, and Swift, 763
Savoy-steps ; Savoy-street,
142, 722
Ship-yard :
Ashmole and Faithorne;
Tokens, 766
Snow, the banker, lines by
Gay, 766
Somerset House, 735
Somerset-place, Savoy, and
Durham House, 760
Southampton-street :
Bedford House and bar-
gate, 769
Strand-lane, 764
Strand Tavern :
Deiiham's frolic, 767
Strand Theatre and Bar-
ker's Panorama, 764
Strand — continued,
Thames' bank Mansions, 760
Tonson, Millar, and Cadell,
booksellers, 764
Turk'sHeadCofree-house,764
View in 1543, 760
Wellington-street, N. :
Lyceum Theatre, 768
White Swan Tavern :
Dr. Kin-^'!>Art of Cookery;
Token, 768
Wych-street :
New Inn, 473
York Buildings :
Sea-water Baths, Water-
works, and Fire-engine,
762
York House and Sir Nicholas
Bacon and Lord Chancel-
lor Bacon, 761 ; pictures
and sculptures ; Villiers,
Duke of Buckingham ;
Water-gate, 761, 762
TATTERSALL'S :
Derby winners, 770
Established, 1766, 769
Horses and Hounds, 770
Horses sold, 770
Jockey Club, 770
New, 491
Prince of Wales, 770
Tattersall, Richard, 769
Telegraphs, Electric :
Admiralty Semaphores, 771
Call-wire, Houses of Parlia-
ment, 771
Central Office, Lothbury,770
Cook and Wheatstone's Pa-
tents, 770
Exchange News, 771
Greenwich Time, 771
Founders' Court, 770
" Nerves of London," 771
Special Telegraphy, 771
Terminus Wires, 771
Temple, Inner and Mid-
dle, 461 — 464
Temple Bar:
CeremonyonRoyalVisits,773
Gates, 773
Heads and Limbs of Traitors,
on, 772
Layer's Head, 772
Marriage, Royal, 773
Original Bar, 772
Statues — Charles I. and II.,
James I. and Queen, 772
Temple Bar, the City Gol-
gotha, 772
Wellington, Duke of, his
Funeral, 773
Wren's Bar, 772
Thames Embank.ment:
Bazalgette's plan, 773
Construction and detail8,774
Metropolitan Board ^ o!'
Works, 773
Piers and Landing 8teps,774
868
INDEX.
Thames Embankment — cont.
Thames Street — continued.
Theatres — continued.
Plans by AVnm, Trench, and
Petty Wales, 779
Dorset Gardens, Lady Da-
Martin, 773
Pudding-lane and the Great
ven ant's, 784
Roman and British, 773
Fire, 779
Duke's Theatre, 687, 784
Sections (three), 774
Thames street. Upper :
Effingham Theatre, 784
Sewer and Subways, 774
Athelstan's palace, 778
Fortune — Henslowe and
Temple Gardens and Black-
Boss, Whittington's, 778
Alleyn's, 784
friars Bridge, 774
Castle Baynard Wharf, 778
Garrick, Goodman's Fields,
Westminster Bridge and
City Flour Mill, 778
784
Vauxhall, 774
Coldharbour and Sir John
Gibbon's Court, 558
Thames Riveu :
Poultney, 778
Goodman's Fields, 784
Archbishops' barges, 775
Dowgate; Sir Francis
Grecian, City-road, 784
Admiralty and Trinity
Drake's mansion, 778
Haymarket Theatre :
House, 777
Harvey, Dr. William, 778
" Little Theatre ;" rebuilt
Angling- at Queenhithe,776
Merchant Taylors' School,
by Nash ; Beggar's
Barge of Richard II., 776
725
Opera, Fielding, Foote,
Bridges, 65—75
Old Signs, 779
and the Colmans ;
Companies' Barges, 775
Old Swan House; Richard
Webster and Buck-
Conservancy, 777
Thornton, the millionaire.
stone. 784. 785
Course and Name, 774
778
Holbom Amphitlieatre, 785
Docks, 309—312
Old Swan Stairs, 778
Holborn Theatre, 785
Pogget's Coat and Badge,
Old Wine Shades, 778
S. James's Theatre, 785
400,775
Puddle Dock, 777
Lyceum and English Opera-
Dolpliins and Whales, 777
Picard in the Vintry, 779
house, 785
Fishermen and Old Swan,
Queenhithe, 704
Marionette, 785
776
Rectory House, Martin's-
Marylebone, 785
Folly on the Thames, 775
lane, 779
Newington Butts, 785
Frosts and Frost Fairs, 360
Steelyard, 778
Nursery in Golding lane and
—363
Thames Tunnel ;
Hatton Garden, 786
Gower. the poet, 775
Brunei's plan, 779
Olympic Theatre :
Isle of Dogs, 475
Completion— Brunei
Astley, Elliston, and Ves-
Lampreys, immense catch
knighted, 780
trJs, 786
of, 776
Cost, Dimensions, and Me-
Opera Houses, Italian :
Landing-places, old, 775
dal, 780
Her Majesty's, 788
Like a Whale, 774
Cylinder and Shield, 779
Royal Italian, 789
•' Maria Wood " barge, 776
Early Attempts, 779
Theatres, London licensed.
Mayor as Bailitr, 777
Irruptions of the river, 779
789
More, Sir T., his barge, 775
Progress of, 779
Pantheon, 639
Nelson's Funeral, 776
Subscriptions and Loan,
Pavilion, 786
Old London Bridge, 774
780
Princess', Charles Kean,
Port of London, 685—687
Thames Tunnel fair, 780
786
Rowing, boat-racing, and
Theatres :
Queen's (Prince of Wales),
yachting, 775
Adelphi, 780
786
Salmon, great draughts of,
Astley's Amphitheatre :
Queen's, Long Acre, 787
777
Astley 's nineteen theatres.
Red Bull, Clerkenwell, 787
Salmon tithe, 776
780 ; Ducrow, 781
Royalty, 787
Sports and Pageants, 775
Bankside Theatres :
Sadler's Wells, 787
State Barges, 775
GLsbe licensed to Shak-
Salisbury Court, 787
State Funerals, 776
speare, 781 ; burnt and
Sans Souci (two), 787
Steam Navigation, 777
rebuilt; site, 781
Standard, 787
Swans kept, 776
Hope and Rose, 781
Strand Theatre, 788
Taylor, the Wator-poet, 775
Paris Garden Circus, 781
" The Theatre," 788
Thames jet, by Morice, 776
Rose and Globe alley s,781
Victoria (Coburg), 788
Thames watermen, 775
Swan, 781
Whitefriars, 788
Tide, 774
Blackfriars :
Threadneedle-street :
Water impure, and disin-
Burbage, Shakspeare, and
Crown Tavern, 789
fectants, 777
Alleyn, 781
Hall of Commerce, 789
Water Supply, 776
Britannia, and the Rose-
Merchant Taylors' Hall, 789
Waterworks,London Bridge,
mary Branch, 781
Moon, Alderman, 789
67
Brunswick and Royalty, 781
Name, 789
Whitebait, 57, 58
City of London, 782
Sidney, Sir W., 789
Wolsey's barge, 775
City, Milton-street, 782
South Sea House, 738
Thames-street, Lower :
Cockpit or Phoenix, 782
Tokens :
Billingsgate, 54
Covent Garden (three
British Museum, 790
Coal Exchange, 329
theatres), 782
Charles IL, reign, 790
Custom House, 305, 306
Curtain Theatre, Holywell,
Elizabethan, 789
Fish-street-hill and Monur
783
London Traders' and Trades .
ment, 779
Drury-lane (three theatres),
mens' Token, 790
Oalley-quay, 779
783
Tokenhouse-yard, 790
INDEX.
869
TOTTENHAM-COURT-ROAD :
Tower of London — con-
Treasury and other Go-
Adam and Eve, 790
tinued.
vernment Offices — con-
Capper's Farm, 790
" Little Ease" torture cham-
tinned.
Mansion of William de
ber, 798
India Office, Colonial Office,
Totenhall, 790
Locking up the Tower, 800
and Navy Office, New, 807
Old Court-house, 790
Martin Tower :
Treasury Offices :
Whitefield'8 Chapel, 790
Anne Boleyn's prison-
Harley, Earl of Oxford,
Tower Hill:
lodging, 797
assassinated, 807
Czar's Head, and Peter the
Moat or Ditch, 794
Tennis-court, 807
Great, 791
Ordnance Office and Store-
Treasury relics, 807
Execution, place of:
houses, 798
Treasury throne, 807
Notable Persons executed.
Place of execution. Tower-
Wellesley, Sir Arthur, and
791
green, 798
Lord Nelson, 807
Felton, the assassin, 791
Portcullis, genuine, 798
Whitehall front, 806
Postern-row, 791
Prisoners' Fees, 800
York House, 806
Raleigh, Lady, 791
Queen Elizabeth's Armoury,
Trinity House:
Scaffolds for executions, 790
799
Busts and Paintings, 808
Tower Liberties' perambu-
Raleigh's imprisonments :
Great Fire of 1666, 808
lation, 791
History of the World:
Human remains found, 809
Tower Dock, 791
still-house; execution of
Guild of Mariners, 808
Tower of London :
Raleigh, 796, 797
Lighthouses, Sea-marks, Pi-
Area within the Walls, 791
Receipts given for Prisoners,
lots, &c„ 808
Admission to view, 806
794
Master of Corporation, 808
Ante-room :
Record Tower, 797
Museum, 805
Curiosities, ancient gems.
Regalia or Crown Jewels :
State Banquet, annual, 808
&c., 803, 804
Baptismal Font, 806
Trinity Monday procession.
Armouries :
Jewel-house, New, 804
808
Hor,<e Armoury, 802
Prince of Wales's Crown,
Tyburn and " Tyburn
Queen Elizabeth's, 802
805
Tree," 809
Beauchamp or Cobhara
Queen Consort's Crown,
Elms, the, and first execu-
Tower, and its memorials.
805
tion, 808
795, 796
Queen's State Crown, 804
Executions, Memorable, at
Bloody Tower :
Queen's Diadem, 805
Tyburn, 810
The two Prince?, 798
Regalia, New, 804
Queen Henrietta Maria, 809
Broad Arrow Tower :
Salt-cellar, gold, 805
Sites of the gallows, 809
Lady Jane Grey, 797
Roman and Saxon fortresses,
Tyboum and Westbourn,
Chapel of S. John, 799
792
808
Chapel of S. Peter, 198
Salt Tower :
Tyburn Ticket, 809
Charles of Orleans :
Draper of Bristol, 797
Tyburn Turnpike, sketched
Oldest view of the Tower,
Saluting Battery and
by Capon, 810
800
"Tower Guns," 795
Constable of the Tower :
Scales, Lord, besieged, 792
TTNIVERSITY OF LON-
f DON:
Lieutenant, Deputy Lieu-
Sceptres, Swords, and Brace-
tenant, and Tower
lets, 805
Burlington Gardens and
Major, 800
Sovereigns, their additions.
Somerset House, 810
Coronation Plate, &c., 806
courts, and imprison-
Coronation processions, 793
ments, 792, 793
YAUXHALL GARDENS:
» Arne, Dr., musical com-
Council-chamber, and Ban-
State Prison Room :
queting-room, 799
Lady Jane Grey, 796
poser, 812
Courts of Justice held here,
Tower Palatine, 792
Artificial Ruins, 813
793
Towers, various, 794
Balloon Ascents, 814
Devereux Tower rebuilt,
Traditional Origin, 791
Battle of Waterloo Fete, 813
797
Traitors' Gate, 794
Bish, Gye, and Hughes, 813
Domestic apartments tajcen
View in 1563, 793
Cheesecakes and Syllabubs,
down, 793, 794
Waterloo Barracks, 798
812
Flint, Bowyer and Brick
White Tower, and its his-
Church and School, 815
Tower, 797
tory, 799
Copped or Copt Hall, 811
Fortifications repaired, 794
Yeoman Warders, 800
Conspirators' Vault, 811
Grand Storehouse for Arms,
Tower Royal:
Evelyn and Pepys, 811,812
794
Queen's Wardrobe, 806
Fielding, Sir John, 813
Great Fire in 1548,792
Roman Remains, 806
Finally closed, 814
Grey, Lady Jane, and Prin-
Treasury and other Go-
Fireworks, 814, 815
cess Elizabeth, 792
vernment Offices :
Fulke de Breaut^ and
Henry VUI. and his wives.
Admiralty, 2
Faukeshall, 811
792
Cockpit, the, 807
Gold Ticket, 812
Imprisonments, 800
Downing-street :
Goldsmith's Vauxhall, 813
Keep, or White Tower, 792
Notable residents, 807
Guy Fawkes' Tradition, 811
Lion Tower and Menagerie,
Foreign Office, New. 807
Hogarth's paintings, 812
794
Horse Guards, 434
La Sale Faukes, 811
870
INDEX.
Vauxhall Gardens — con-
tinued.
Morland, Sir Samuel, 811
Music composed for, 814
New Spring Gardens laid
out, 811
Orchestra, Gothic, 814
Plan of the Gardens, 814
liiflotto alfresco, 812
Roman fort and pottery, 812
Sale of Pictures by Hogarth
and Hayman, 814
Saqui on the Rope, 814
Singers, early, 812
Statues of Handel and
Milton, by Roubiliac, 812
Tom Brown and Wycherley,
812
Tyers's lease, 812
View in 1751, 813
Walpol^ and Fielding, 813
W ALB ROOK:
Bothaw, or Boat-haw,
815
Course of the stream, 815
" Old Barge," 815
Roman remains, 815
S. Stephen's Church, 204
Wapping :
Ames and Day, 816
Execution Dock, 815
Great Fires, 816
Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor,
detected, 816
Origin of Wapping, 816
Radcliffe, Sir Hugh Wil-
loughby, 816
Stag-hunt, 816
Taverns, old, 816
Watling-street :
British road and remains,
81«, 817
Course of, 817
. Etymons of the name, 817
London Stone, 533, 534
Roman Grand Way, 816
South-Eastem Railway Sta-
tion, 818
Stukeley and Wren, 817
Watling-street Thistle, 816
Wax-work Shows :
Collectionsi, various, 819
Salmon, Mrs., 350
Tussaud Collection:
Madame Tussaud, sketch
of, 819
Chamber of Horrors, 820
Georg-e IV.'s Coronation
Robes, 820
Hall of Kings, 819
Modelling in wax, cos-
tume, &o., 819
Napokon Relics, 820
Relics, Miscellaneous, 820
Royal and noble cele-
brities, 819
Westinin!.ter Abbey :
Show in 1754. 8J8
Wax- WORK Shows — contind.
Play of theDeadVolkP,818
Ragged Regiment, 818
NoUekens on, 819
Walpole describes, 818
Westminster :
Abingdon-street, 818
Almonry, 818
Artillery-place, 821
Barton and Cowley-streets,
822
Broadway, Christchurch,l56
Canon-row :
Notable residents; Lady
Wheler and Charles I.,
822
Charles-street :
Ignatius Sancho, 822
Dean's-yard :
Ashburnham House, 444
Westminster echolars,822
Domesday Book, 821
Duke-street :
Jeffreys, Lord, his man-
sion ; chapel; notable
residents, 822
Edgar's Charter, 820
Elizabethan, 821
Fitzstephen's, 821
Fludyer-street :
Axe-yard andPepys, 823
Gardener's-lane :
Hollar, the engraver, 823
Geological note, 821
Great George-street :
Storey's Gate ; Reform
Club ; Sir Matthew
Wood, 823
Heraldic Signs, 821
Horseferry, 433
James-street, 479, 823
King-street :
Cromwell's house ; nota-
ble residents ; Spenser
died, 823, 824
Manchester-buildings, 822
Millbank-street :
Peterborough House, 824
Penitentiary, 697
Origin of name, 820
Palice-yard, Old and New :
Clock-tower ; Conduit ;
Executions, Pillory,
Stocks, and Whippings ;
Starchamber buildings ;
Chaucer and Ben Jon-
son ; Gunpowder-plot;
Raleigli's execution ;
White Rose Tavern,824
Palmer's Village:
Maypole, 825
Park-street :
TownleyCollection ; Cock-
pit, 825
Petty France :
Milton's House, 825
Prince 's-street :
Broken Cross ; Stationery
Office, 825
Westminster — continued.
Queen-square, 751
Rochester-row, 825
S. Anne's-lane, 818
S. Margaret's Church, 821
Sanctuary, Broad and i
Little:
Churches ; National So-
ciety's Schools ; Seekers
of Sanctuary ; West-
minsterHo.-pital ; West-
minsters (Old) Memo-
rial, 825, 826
Thorney Island, 820, 821
Tot hill Fields :
Origin of Name ; Wagers
of Battle ; " Seven
Chimneys ;" S. Ed-
ward's Fair ; Bear-gar-
den ; Bridewell; Duels;
Scotch Prisoners, 826
Tothill-street :
Amory, Betterton, and
Southerne; Cock public-
house ; Orchard-street,
826
Tufton-street, 826
Victoria-street :
Commenced 1845, 826
Churches, 826, 827
Vine-street :
Vineyard and Bowling-
green; Colonel Blood,
827
Westminster Abbey :
Dean and Chapter, 827
Wood-street :
Carter, the antiquary ;
North-street ; Elliston,
comedian, 827
Woolstaple :
Long Staple and S.
Stephen's Hospital,821,
822
Westminster Hall :
Bill of Fare, George IV.'s
coronation, 831
Colours and Standards, 828
Coronation Feasts :
Edward I., Richard IL,
George IV., 830, 831
Cromwell inaugurated ;
head set up, 830
Fire in 1630, 829
Floods of the Thames, 828
Galilee, 828
Great Fire of 1834, 829
Great and Little Halls,
831
Hell, Purgatory, Paradise,
and Heaven, 830
Interior dimensions, 827
Kings held their courts, 828
King's Championship, 830
Norman remains, 827
Oak, British, Roof, 828
Parliaments assembled, 829
Richard II. heightened,
827
INDEX.
871
Westminster Hali, — contd.
Whitehali, — contintied.
Whitehall — continued.
Rioters of Evil May-day, 830
Elizabeth's recreations, 834
Vertue's plan, 835
Roof carvings, 827
Exchequer :
United Service Institution
Roof and Lantern, 827
Trialof thePyx, 836, 837
Museum, 836
Rufus'a Hall, 827
Execution of Charles L,834
Whitehall Gardens, 837
Shops in the Hall, 829
Extent, 833, 837
Whitehall, name, 833
S. Stephen's Porch and
Gardens and Dials :
Wolsey's Statue, 833
Statues, 662, 828
Gunter and Hall's, 836
Wyat's rebels, 834
Trials, Memorable, 829
Great Fire, 835
Windows, Painted and
William of Wykeham, 827
Gunpowder Plot, 834
Stained: St. Paul's; Guild-
Whitechapel :
Henry VIII. and Anne
hall; Oxford-street, 837
Claude Duval and Defoe;
Boleyn married, 833
Inns and galleried yards ;
Holbein's Gate, 833
yORK HOUSE, last of, 836
-1- York-place, 833
S. Mary's Church ; Mears's
JamesII., Statue of, 836
Bell-foundry ; Prison ;
JamesILat Whitehall, 835
Tokens, 831, 832
Jones, Inigo, Palace de-
7OOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S
^ GARDENS :
WhITEFRIARS :
signed by, 834
Carmelite Convent; Chap-
Jones, Inigo, and Stone,
Admission of Members,839
ter-house and Church ;
sculptor, 837
Animals, more remark-
Hanging- - sword - alley ;
Mary, Queen, coronatlon,834
able, 838
Lombard-street ; San-
Museum, Whitehall-yard:
Founders, 838
quhar, Lord; Selden in
Portland vase, 836
Menagerie in Regent's
Friary-house ; Theatre ;
Orchard of Whitehall, 834
Park, 838
832
Palace, Confessor's, rebuilt,
Museum opened, 838
Whitehali. :
833
Society instituted, 837
Banqueting-house rebuilt,
Palace-row :
Visitors, 839
834
Notable residents, 837
Zoological Club, 839
Bowling-alley, Cockpit, and
Pictures, 833
Zoological Gardens, Surrey :
Tennis-court, 833
Privy Garden, 836
Cross' Menagerie, 839
Canaletti's view, 835
Remains of ancient White-
Gardens laid out, 839
Chapel Royal, 835
hall, 836
Pictures and Models, and
Charles L, pictures, 834
Richmond and Pembroke
Fireworks, 839
Charles IL, additions by, 835
House, 835
Surrey Music Hall, 839
Cromwell at Wliitehall, 835
Scotland-yard :
St. Thomas's Hospital,
Ed ward VI. 's Parliament, 83 3
Metropolitan Police, 837
temporary, 839
THE END.
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