HISTORY ^ OF THE -^MONUMENT BY Charles Welch, F.S.A., Librarian to the Corporation of London. With Illustrations, and a Map of Old London. PRICE SIXPENCE. Published UNDER the Authority of the City Lands Committee of the Corporation OF THE City of London. LONDON. 1893. HISTORY OF THE MONUMENT. A A 2 Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren, from the Original by Knelt.er, nelonoing to the royal society, HISTORY OF THE IP N U M E N T WITH A BB.IEF ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON, WHICH IT COMMEMORATES. BY Charles Welch, F.S.A., Libraria?! to the Corporation of London. Prepared and Printed under the Direction of the City Lands Committee of the Corporation OF the City of London. • LONDON. 1893^ Trtnted hy ^LAT>ES, EAST &- BLADES, 2^, iAhchurch Lane, E.C, PREFACE. HE following pages, prepared at the request of the Committee for Letting the City's Lands, aim at presenting a pictorial and descriptive account of the Monument, and a record of its historical and literary associations. Where possible, original authorities have in all cases been consulted, and the text of the inscriptions has been verified from the Monument itself. A concise description of the Great Fire has been added, and it is hoped that the sources of information indicated in the list of authorities and bibliography will furnish the reader with an adequate supplement to this account Properly to write the history of the Great Fire would be a task far beyond the purpose of the present publication. 8 I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, the kind assistance afforded in various ways by the Trustees of the British Museum, through Mr. E. Maunde Thompson, (Principal Librarian) ; the Proprietors of the Graphic^ through Mr. Carmichael Thomas ; the Council of the Art Union of London ; Mr. John Bleaden ; my colleague, Mr. E. M. Borrajo; Dr. R. R. Sharpe, Records' Clerk at Guildhall ; Mr. T. W. Haddon, M.A., who aided in revising the translations of the inscriptions, and translated that written by Wren ; and Mr. F. Lange, who gave material help in the preparation of the bibliography. CONTENTS. — — PAGE. Title-page, Preface, etc. 1-12 Chap. I. Design and Construction - - - - 13 „ II. The Sculpture and Inscriptions on the Pedestal - - - - - - - 25 „ III. Historical Incidents and Literary Notices- 43 „ IV. A BRIEF Account of the Great Fire of London 57 „ V. Views, Bibliography, and Authorities - - 89 Index - - - 117 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren - - - Frontispiece, View of the Monument and the Roadway of Old London Bridge in the year 1807 - - - - - - 13 Medal of Sir Christopher Wren . . . _ 24 The Sculpture on the west side of the Pedestal - - - 25 Portrait of Caius Gabriel Cibber . . _ _ 27 The Staircase, from below _ . . . . - 42 The Balcony or "Cage" - 47 The Staircase, from above ^ 53 View of London before and after the Great Fire, with Wren's Plan for re-building the City - - - - 57 View of the Monument and Fish Street Hill about the year 1720 ------ ... 89 Medal struck to commemorate the Great Fire - - - 90 Fish Street Hill, as seen from the Monument- - - 120 View of the Monument, the Church of St. Magnus, and the Roadway of Old London Bridge in the Year 1809. From an Old Pn7it, preserved in the GuildJiall J^ihrary^ HISTORY OF THE MONUMENT OF LONDON. CHAPTER I. Design and Construction. HIS famous pillar, built to commemorate the Great Fire of London, stands in the small open square known as Monument Yard, on the east side of Fish Street Hill. The thoroughfare is described by Stow as the northern continuation of Bridge Street, " commonly called (of the Fishmarket) New Fish- streete," where, he says, " be fishmongers and fayre tauerns ; on Fishstreete hill and Grassestreete, men of diuers trades, grocers and habardashers." * Here, in ancient times, stood the famous market-place of which Eastcheap still denotes the situation, but which also probably extended from Billingsgate and the Bridge at one end to Leadenhall at the other. Fish Street Hill, being in the line of approach to old London Bridge, formed the principal, and until the building of the first Blackfriars * Survay of London, ed. 1598, p. 167. 14 Bridge in 1769 the only, highway between London and Southwark. Since the removal of London Bridge to the westward, the Monument, standing back from the main thoroughfare, has lost much of its former prominence. Very recently, however, it has given its name to the neighbouring station of the Metropolitan District Railway. Monument Yard occupies the site of the church and churchyard of St. Margaret, New Fish Street. The parish was united with that of St. Magnus after the Great Fire of London, and the church of St. Margaret, which Stow describes as ''a proper church but without monuments," was not re-built. In 1667 an Act of Parliament was passed (19 Charles II, chapter iii), " for re-building the City of London," the 29th section of which provides as follows: — *"And the better to preserve the memory of this dreadful Visitation, Be it further enacted, That a Columne or Pillar of Brase or Stone be erected on or as neere unto the place where the said Fire soe unhappily began as conveniently may be, in perpetuall Remembrance thereof, with such Inscription thereon, as hereafter by the Maior and Court of Aldermen in that behalfe be directed." For carrying out the purposes of this Act the Corporation were empowered by a subsequent section to levy a duty of twelve pence a ton upon all coals brought into the Port of London. The construction of the column was confided to the masterly hands of Sir Christopher Wren, who prepared several designs.t The selection and approval of his final design was made only after the careful consideration of several alternative plans which he had submitted. * In the folio edition of the Statutes, published by the Record Commission (1819, Vol. V, p. 609), this section is described as 18 & 19 Charles II, c. viii, sec. 27. t Many of Sir Christopher Wren's designs (and among them some relating to the Monument) are preserved in the Library of All Souls College, Oxford, of which College he was a Fellow. 15 Wren at first proposed a more characteristic pillar,* with sculptured flames of gilt bronze issuing from the loopholes of the shaft, and a phoenix on the summit rising from her ashes, also of gilt bronze. This, on further consideration, he found unsuit- able, and then designed a fluted column, surmounted by a statue of Charles II 1 5 feet high. The statue, however, proved to be too costly, and the present vase of flames was eventually adopted. The following letter of Sir Christopher Wren, printed by Elmes, in his biography of the great architect,! fully describes his views as to the most suitable ornament for the summit of the Monument : — " In pursuance of an order of the Committee for City Lands, I doe herewith offer the several designes which some monthes since I shewed his Majestie, for his approbation ; who was then pleased to thinke a large ball of metall gilt would be most agreeable, in regard it would give an ornament to the town, at a very great distance ; not that his Majestie disliked a statue ; and if any proposal of this sort be more acceptable to the city, I shall most readily represent the same to his Majestie. I cannot but comend a large statue, as carrying much dignitie with it ; and that which would be more vallueable in the eyes of forreiners and strangers. It hath been proposed to cast such a one in brasse, of twelve foot high, for ;^i,ooo. I hope (if it be allowed) wee may find those who will cast a figure for that money, of fifteen foot high, which will suit the greatnesse of the pillar, and is (as I take it) the largest at this day extant ; and this would undoubtedly bee the noblest finishing that can be found answerable to soe goodly a worke, in all men's judgments. A ball of copper, nine foot diameter, cast in severall pieces, * Wren's Designs, Vol. ii, No. 73, All Souls College, There is an engraving by Hulsbergh of this design. f 4to. London, 1823, pp. 287-8. i6 with the flames and gilt, may well be done, with the iron worke and fixing, for ^350 ; and this will be most acceptable of any thing inferior to a statue, by reason of the good appearance at distance, and because one may goe up into it, and upon occasion use it for fireworks. A phoenix was at first thought of, and is the ornament in the wooden modell of the pillar, which I caused to be made before it was begun ; but, upon second thoughtes, I rejected it, because it will be costly, not easily understood at that highth, and worse understood at a distance ; and lastly, dangerous by reason of the sayle the spread winges will carry in the winde. The balcony must be made of substantiall well forged worke there being noe need, at that distance, of filed worke ; and I suppose (for I cannot exactly guesse the weight), it may be well performed and fixed, according to a good designe, for four- score and ten poundes, including painting. All which is humbly submitted to your consideration. July 28, i67sy (Signed) Christopher Wren. The Monument, as ultimately carried out, is of the Doric order, and constructed of Portland stone. It consists of a pedestal about 21 feet square and 40 feet high, with a plinth of 28 feet square, and a fluted shaft 120 feet high and 15 feet in diameter. On the abacus is a balcony encompassing a moulded cylinder, which supports a flaming vase of gilt bronze, indicating its commemoration of the Great Fire. Defoe quaintly describes the Monument as " built in the form of a candle," the top making a " handsome gilt flame like that of a candle." * Its entire height is 202 feet, stated in the inscription on its north side to be equal to its distance eastward from the house where the fire broke out, at the King's baker's in Pudding Lane. * Timbs' Curiosities of London, 1868, p. 570. t — , p o CJ 1 o 1 tiona. ? o H 1 m .ts o c c rt o • - .S q o < < 'A jj o S o J ^ S o 0 o 1 5 P d I? 6 £ a; c d B i8 As will be seen from the preceding table of the relative heights of the chief ancient and modern columns, the Monument is loftier than the pillars of Trajan and Antoninus at Rome ; and it is not only the loftiest but also the finest isolated stone 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 the Port of London, is very interesting. In one respect it is finer than that from the height of St. Paul's Cathedral, since it includes a view of the Cathedral's dome. The work of construction occupied six years, namely, from 1671 to 1677,* much hindrance being caused by the difficulty of getting a sufficient quantity of Portland stone of the necessary dimensions. This occasioned a proclamation from the King, dated Whitehall, 4th May, 1669, forbidding any person to transport stone from the isle of Portland without leave from Dr. Christopher Wren, the Surveyor General.f The emblematical sculpture on the west side was executed by Caius Gabriel Cibber, the sculptor, and the four dragons at the base were the work of Edward Pierce, jun., a sculptor and architect who was frequently employed by Wren. J A model, scale one-eighth of an inch to a foot, of the scaffold- ing used in building the Monument, is preserved. It formerly belonged to Sir William Chambers, and was presented by Mr. Heathcote Russell, C.E., to the late Sir Isambard Brunei, who left it to his son, Mr. J. K. Brunei. The ladders were of the rude construction of Wren's time, two uprights with nailed * 167 1 ad 1677. Structuram columnse colossese speculatorise Londinensis, ex ordine Dorico, inchoavit et perfecit. Wren MS. , quoted by Elmes, p. 28611. f Large quantities of Portland stone were also wanted by Wren at this time for re-building St. Paul's Cathedral. 1 See an account of him, with portrait, in Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Works, Vol. iii, p. 261). He received ;^50 for each dragon. 19 treads or rounds on the face (Timbs' Curiosities of London, 1868, P- 579 n.). In a manuscript preserved in the Guildhall Library (MS. 184, fol. 41), which contains particulars of expenses incurred by the Corporation in re-erecting public buildings after the Fire of London, is the following account of sums expended in the construction of the Monument : — The Pillar on New fish street hill in memoriall of THE FIRE. Out of the Cole money. ti s. d. 1 67 1. Aprill 8. Paid Joshua Marshall Mason by Order dated 20**" March 1670 on Accom" for erecting the Pillar neer the place whefe the ffire began 300 00 00 July 7 [to] Octob" 24. [Five other like payments to him amounting to] - - - - - 1,300 00 00 Nov' II. Paid Nicholas Duncomb by Order dated 3"^ Novem'' 1671 for carrying away rubbish from the flfoundacon of the said Pillar 73 08 00 Decem'' 15 [to] fFeb"" 24, 1672. Paid Joshua Marshall [at ten different times] - - - 2,700 00 00 1673, June 28. Paid Gabriell Cibber Sculpter C" by Ord'' 26"" June 1673 for carving the Hieroglifick ffigures on the ffront of the publicke Collume on New ffish street hill - 100 00 00 July 9. Paid Mr. Marshall by Order dated 6*'' July 1673 500 00 00 OctoV 9. Paid Gabriell Cibber Sculpter Mason by Order dated 7*^ Octob' 1673 on Accom" for carveing the hierogliphick ffigures on the Colume - - 50 00 00 B 2 20 ti s. d. 25. Paid him more by Ord' dated 22 Octob' 1673 - - 100 00 00 31. Paid Tho : Woodhouse Carpenter by Ord' 16*^ Aprill 1673 35 00 00 Novem' 17. Paid Joshua Marshall Mason by Ord' 3"^ Octob' 1673 . - . . - i^ooo 00 00 Decem' 20. Paid Gabriell Gibber Sculpter Mason by Ord' 18*'' Decemb' 1673 - - - - 50 00 00 ffeb"" 10. Paid Joshua Marshall Mason by Ord' 18"' Decemb' 1673 1,000 00 00 1674. Aprill 13. Paid Gabriell Gibber more by Order dated 9''' Aprill 1674 - - - - 100 00 00 Aprill 28 [to] ^Septem'' 26. Paid Mr. Joshua Marshall more [at three different times] - 3,000 00 00 Octob' 14. Paid Gabriell Gibber more by Order dated 16^^ SeptemV 1674 - - - - 100 00 00 Decem" 23. Paid Joshua Marshall Mason by Ord"" 21^^ Octob'' 1674 ----- 500 00 00 23. Paid Gabriell Gibber more by Ord' 16''' Decem'' 1674 50 00 00 1675. Aug. 17. Paid Joshua Marshall Mason by Order 28'^ July 1675 - . . . ^00 00 00 21. Paid Tho : Hodgeskins Smith by Ord"" dated 29^^ July 1675 ----- 100 00 00 Sept. 9. Paid M*^ Gibber more by Ord"^ dated 28*^ July 1675 50 00 00 Dec. 2. Paid Tho : Western for French, Blacksmith by Order dated lo**" Novem" 1675 on Accom" for a Bell Gony [balcony] to bee sett up at the topp of the Pillar - - - 100 00 00 21 s. d. 23. Paid Anthony Tanner Bricklayer by Order dated 13th of Decern^ 1675 in full for worke at the Colume - - - - - - 6 1 8 00 1676. Aprill 13. Paid Robert Bird Copper- smith by Order dated 12^"^ of Aprill 1676 on Accom" for the Copper urne on the Pillar - 128 6 00 June 19. Paid W"" flfrench by Order dated 7th June 1676 for extraordinary charges about makeing and setting up the Belcony - - 4 00 00 30. Paid unto Joshua Marshall Mason by Order dated 10*'' Novem"" 1675 v^" on Accom" of the Pillar SCO GO GO 12,347 12 GO 1,102 19 09 13,450 II 09 The exact quantity of Portland stone contained in the column, as estimated by the architect, is as follows [Parentalia^ P- 323) Feet. The solidity of the whole fabrick, from the bottom of the lowest plinth to the black marble under the urn, the cylinder of the staircase only deducted, and the stone for the carving not allowed for, is - - - - 37,396 The black marble that covers the capital - - - 287 „ J, „ „ „ the lanthorn . - - 64 22 Feet. From this solidity deduct For 8 great niches - For 3 doors and passages For 3 sides reveyled For rough block 1,499 289 486 281 For rubble work 7>i85 There remains of solid Portland stone - - - - 28,196 Sir Christopher Wren, whose industry and versatility of genius are conspicuous in the design and construction of this work, was the son of a Wiltshire clergyman, and was born at East Knoyle in 1631. He was sent to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1646, took his degree in 1650, and was elected a fellow of All Souls in 1653. While at Oxford, Wren distinguished himself in geometry and applied mathematics. He became pro- fessor of astronomy at Gresham College in 1657, and in 1660 was elected Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He was also one of the twelve founders of the Royal Society, whose first meeting was held in a room at Gresham College on the 28th November, 1660. Wren became president of the Society in 1681, and his portrait, by Kneller (a copy of which is given in the frontispiece), is preserved in the rooms of the Society at Burlington House. He was knighted by Charles H in 1673. In all 9,740 27,656 The remainder is To this add, upon the account of the carvings in the front, the 4 great dragons and festoons 540 23 It is, however, as an architect that Wren is best known, and the Great Fire of London, by its destruction of the Cathedral and nearly all the City, gave Wren a scope for his talent such as probably no architect has ever had to the same extent. As a scientific engineer and practical architect. Wren was perhaps more remarkable than as an artistic designer. The construction of the wooden external dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the support of the stone lantern by an inner dome of brick- work, quite independent of the external or internal dome, are wonderful examples of Wren's constructive ingenuity. After the destruction of the City of London by the Great Fire, Wren prepared a scheme for laying out the whole city (as shown in the illustration at page 57) on a new plan, with a series of wide streets radiating from a central space. Difficulties arising from the various ownerships of the ground unfortunately pre- vented the accomplishment of this excellent scheme. Among Wren's city churches, the most notable are St. Michael's Cornhill, St. Bride's, St. Mary-le-Bow (remarkable for its graceful spire), and St. Stephen's Walbrook, which has a plain exterior but a very elaborate and graceful interior. In the design of his spires, Wren showed much taste, and great power of invention. He was also very judicious in his method of expending the little money at his command ; he did not fritter it away in an attempt to make the whole of a building remarkable, but devoted it chiefly to one part or feature, such as a spire, or a rich scheme of internal decoration. He was a member of Parliament for many years, representing Plumpton from 1665, Windsor from 1689, and Weymouth from 1700. He occupied the post of Surveyor of the Royal Works for fifty years, but 24 by a shameful cabal was dismissed from this office a few years before his death. He died in 1723, and is buried under the choir of St. Paul's. On a tablet, over the inner north doorway, is the well-known epitaph, penned by Robert Milne, the architect of the first Black- friars Bridge, ending with the words : — Si monumentum requiris circumspice. Medal struck by the Art Union of London. ViKw OK CiBiiEK'' Sculpture on the West Kuont oi- TiiE Monument. From an Old Print presmed in tlie Guildlmll Library. CHAPTER II. The Sculpture and Inscriptions on the Pedestal. N the west side of the pedestal, facing Fish Street Hill, is a basso-rilievo by Caius Gabriel Gibber, the sculptor, which represents the King affording protection to the desolate city, and freedom to its rebuilders and inhabitants. The design is allegorical, and displays a female figure representing the City of London, sitting on ruins in a languishing condition, her head hanging down, her hair dishevelled, and her left hand lying carelessly upon her sword. Behind is Time, with his wings and bald head, gradually raising her up. Another female figure by her side gently touches her with one hand, and, with a winged sceptre in the other, points upwards to two goddesses sitting in the clouds, one with a cornucopias, denoting Plenty, the other having a palm branch in her left hand, signifying Peace. At her feet is a bee-hive, denoting Industry, by which the greatest diflficulties can be surmounted. Underneath the figure of London, in the midst of the ruins, is a dragon supporting a shield bearing the arms of the City of London. Over her head are shown houses burning, and flames breaking out through the windows. Behind Time is a group of citizens raising their hands in encouragement. 26 Opposite these figures is a pavement of stone raised with three or four steps, on which stands King Charles II in a Roman costume, with a baton in his right hand, and a laurel wreath on his head, coming towards the City of London, and commanding three of his attendants to descend to her relief. The first represents Science, with a winged head and a circle of naked boys dancing on it, and in her hand a figure of Nature with her numerous breasts ready to give assistance to all. The second is Architecture holding in the right hand a plan, and in the left a square and compasses. The third figure is Liberty,* waving a cap in the air. Behind the King stands his brother, the Duke of York, holding in one hand a garland to crown the rising city, and in the other an uplifted sword for her defence. The two figures behind are Justice with a coronet, and Fortitude with a reined lion. Above these figures are represented houses in building, and labourers at work. Lastly, underneath the stone pavement on which the King stands, is a figure of Envy gnawing a heart and emitting pestiferous fumes from her envenomed mouth. The general effect of the design has not been considered successful, but some of its details are excellent. The scaffolding, ladders and hodmen are well presented, the dresses of the labourers being depicted with more fidelity than those of the monarch and his brother. Caius Gabriel Cibber or Cibert, who designed and executed the work above described, was born in Flensborg in Holstein, in 1630. He was the son of the King of Denmark's cabinet-maker, who, on discovering in the youth talent for modelling, sent him to Rome and supported him there in the prosecution of his studies. He afterwards became acquainted with John Stone, the sculptor, * For an explanation of this figure, see p. 85. 27 who gave him employment in England for some years. Event- ually he was appointed carver to the King's closet, a place of no great emolument, as he does not appear to have executed much work for his royal patron. Among Gibber's sculptured works were the statues of the kings placed around the old Royal Caius Gabriel Gibber, Sculptor. Exchange, and the fine figures of Melancholy and Raving Madness which were originally set up over the gate in Bethlehem Hospital at Moorfields in 1680. These two figures are now preserved in the Guildhall Museum ; they are said to be portraits of patients in the Hospital, one of whom had been a porter to Oliver Cromwell. Gibber's other work included statuary executed 28 for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, a large phoenix placed above the southern door of St. Paul's Cathedral, a large vase at Hampton Court, and the fountain formerly in Soho square. He died in London in 1700, and was the father of Colley Cibber, the actor and dramatist.* The three remaining sides of the pedestal are covered with Latin inscriptions. The inscription on the north side records the city's destruction, that on the south its restoration, and that on the east the years and mayoralties in which the erection of the Monument was commenced, continued, and finished. At a Court of Aldermen, held on the 4th October, 1677, Dr. Gale, master of St. Paul's School, afterwards Dean of York, was desired to consider of and devise a fitting inscription for the new pillar, and to consult with Sir Christopher Wren and Mr. Hooke thereon. t On the 22nd of the same month. Dr. Gale's inscription was presented to the Court, and having been approved by his Majesty, was ordered to be inscribed forthwith. t Three days later, the Court of Aldermen, " taking into their considera- tion the ingenious inscriptions prepared and presented unto this Court by Dr. Gale, for the new Pillar on ffish-street Hill, doth order that Mr. Chamberlain doe deliver unto Mr. Lane, Comptroller of the Chamber, ten guineys to be placed on account of the cole-duty, and hee to lay out the same in a handsome piece of plate to be presented to the said Dr. Gale as a loveing remembrance from this Court." § The following are the inscriptions, with a translation of each : — * Dictionary of National Biography, 1887, Vol. x, p. 352. t Repertory 82, f. 268b. X lb., f. 283b. § lb., f. 291 29 INSCRIPTION ON THE NORTH SIDE. ANNO CHRISTI CI3DCLXVI DIE IV NONAS SEPTEMBRIS HINC IN ORIENTEM PEDVM CCII INTERVALLO QV^ EST HVIVSCE COLVMN^ ALTITVDO ERVPIT DE MEDIA NOCTE INCENDIVM QVOD VENTO SPIRANTE HAVSIT ETIAM LONGINQVA ET PARTES PER OMNES POPVLABVNDVM FEREBATVR CVM IMPETV ET FRAGORE INCREDIBILI XXCIX TEMPLA PORTAS PR^TORIVM ^DES PVBLICAS PTOCHOTROPHIA SCHOLAS BIBLIOTHECAS INSVLARVM MAGNVM NVMERVM DOMVVM CCIDD OO 00 00 CC * VICOS CD ABSVMPSIT DE XXVI REGIONIBVS XV FVNDITVS DELEVIT ALIAS VIII LACERAS ET SEMIVSTAS RELIQVIT VRBIS CADAVER AD CDXXXVI IVGERA HINC AB ARCE PER TAMISIS RIPAM AD TEMPLARIORVM FANVM IDLING AB EVRO AQVILONALI PORTA SECVNDVM MVROS AD fosStE fletan^ capvt porrexit adversvs opes CIVIVM ET FORTVNAS INFESTVM ERGA VITAS INNOCVVM VT PER OMNIA REFERRET SVPREMAM ILLAM MVNDI EXVSTIONEM VELOX GLADES FVIT EXIGVVM TEMPVS EANDEM VIDIT CIVITATEM FLORENTISSIMAM ET NVLLAM TERTIO DIE CVM lAM PLANE EVICERAT HVMANA CONSILIA ET SVBSIDIA OMNIA CCELITVS VT PAR EST CREDERE IVSSVS STETIT FATALIS IGNIS ET QVAQVAVERSVM ELANGVIT t [SED FVROR PAPISTICVS, QVI TAM DIRA PATRAVIT NONDVM RESTING VITVR.]. * These curious figures are to be explained as follows : — CCI03 = io,ooo ; OO 00 00 is the sculptor's mistake for CID CID CI3, making 3,000 more; and CC = 200, making the total of 13,200. This total agrees with the official estimate of the number of houses destroyed, see p. 79. t These last words were added in 1681, see post, pp. 38-40. 30 Translation. In the year of Christ 1666, on the 2nd of September, at a distance eastward from this place of 202 feet, which is the height of this column, a fire broke out in the dead of night, which, the wind blowing, devoured even distant buildings, and rushed devastating through every quarter with astonishing swiftness and noise. It consumed 89 churches, gates, the Guildhall, public edifices, hos- pitals, schools, libraries, a great number of blocks (?) of buildings, 13,200 houses, 400 streets. Of the 26 wards, it utterly destroyed 15 and left 8 mutilated and half burnt. The ashes of the city, covering as many as 436 acres, extended on one side from the Tower along the bank of the Thames to the church of the Templars, on the other side from the north-east gate along the walls to the head of Fleet-ditch. Merciless to the wealth and estates of the citizens it was harmless to their lives,* so as throughout to remind us of the final destruction of the world by fire. The havoc was swift. A little space of time saw the same city most prosperous and no longer in being. On the third day, when it had now altogether vanquished all human counsel and resource, at the bidding, as we may well believe, of heaven, the fatal fire stayed its course and everywhere died out. t[But Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched]. * Burnett, in his " History of his own Times" (1833, Vol. i, p. 426), states as a remarkable fact that amidst all this destruction and public confusion, no person was known either to have been burnt or trodden to death in the streets. Maitland says, however, that six persons lost their lives in the Fire (History of London, Vol. i, p. 437). t These last words were added in 1681, see post^ pp. 38-40. 31 INSCRIPTION ON THE SOUTH SIDE. CAROLVS II C. MART. F. MAG. BRIT. FRAN. ET HIB. REX, FID. D. PRINCEPS CLEMENTISSIMVS MISERATVS LVCTVOSAM RERVM FACIEM PLVRIMA FVMANTIBVS I AM TVM RVINIS IN SOLATIVM CIVIVM ET VRBIS SV.E ORNAMENTVM PROVIDIT TRIBVTVM REMISIT PRECES ORDINIS ET POPVLI LONDINENSIS RETVLIT AD REGNI SENATVM QVI CONTINVO DECREVIT VTI PVBLICA OPERA PECVNIA PVBLICA EX VECTIGALI CARBONIS FOSSILIS ORIVNDA IN MELIOREM FORMAM RESTITVERENTVR VTIQVE ^DES SACR^ ET D PAVLI TEMPLVM A FVNDAMENTIS OMNI MAGNI- FICENTIA EXTRVERENTVR PONTES PORT^ CARCERES NOVI FIERENT EMVNDARENTVR ALVEI VICI AD REGVLAM RESPON- DERENT CLIVI COMPLANARENTVR APERIRENTVR ANGIPOR- TVS FORA ET MACELLA IN AREAS SEPOSITAS ELIMINAREN- TVR CENSVIT ETIAM VTI SINGVL.E DOMVS MVRIS INTER- GERINIS CONCLVDERENTVR VNIVERSiE IN FRONTEM PARI ALTITVDINE CONSVRGERENT OMNES QVE PARIETES SAXO QVADRATO AVT COCTO LATERE SOLIDARENTVR VTIQVE NEMINI LICERET VLTRA SEPTENNIVM ^DIFICANDO IMMO- RARI AD UJEC LITES DE TERMINIS ORITVRAS LEGE LATA PRyESCIDIT* ADIECIT QVOQVE SVPPLICATIONES ANNVAS ET AD .ETERNAM POSTERORVM MEMORIAM H. C. P. C. FESTINATVR VNDIQVE RESVRGIT LONDINVM MAIORI CELERITA- TE AN SPLENDORE INCERTVM VNVM TRIENNIVM ABSOLVIT QVOD S^CULI OPVS CREDEBATVR. * On the Monument this word appears as PPRi^sciDiT, obviously the sculptor's mistake. 32 Translation. Charles the Second, son of Charles the Martyr, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, a most gracious prince, commiserating the deplorable state of things, whilst the ruins were yet smoking, provided for the comfort ot his citizens, and the ornament of his city ; remitted their taxes, and referred the petitions of the magistrates and inhabitants of London to the Parliament ; who immediately passed an act, that public works should be restored to greater beauty, with public money, to be raised by an imposition on coals ; that churches, and the cathedral of St. Paul's, should be re-built from their foundations, with all magnificence ; that the bridges, gates, and prisons should be new made, the sewers cleansed, the streets made straight and regular, such as were steep levelled, and those too narrow made wider, markets and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted, that every house should be built with party-walls, and all raised of an equal height in front, and that all house walls should be strengthened with stone or brick ; and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years. Furthermore, he procured an Act to settle beforehand the suits which should arise respecting boundaries,* he also established an annual service of intercession, t and caused this column to be erected as a perpetual memorial to posterity. Haste is seen everywhere, London rises again, whether with greater speed or greater magnificence is doubtful, three short years complete that which was considered the work of an age. * See pp. 80-81. t See pp. 81-83. 33 INSCRIPTION ON THE EAST SIDE. INCEPTA RICHARDO FORD EQUITE : PR^TORE LOND: A.D. MDCLXXI PERDVCTA ALTIVS GEORGIO WATERMAN EQ : PV ROBERTO HANSON EQ : PV GVLIELMO HOOKER EQ: PV ROBERTO VINER EQ : PV JOSEPHO SHELDON EQ : PV PERFECTA THOMA DAVIES EQ : PR^ : VRB : ANNO DNI. MDCLXXVH Translation. [This Pillar was] begun, Sir Richard Ford, knt., being Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1671 ; carried higher in the Mayoralties of Sir George Waterman, knt.. Sir Robert Hanson, knt.. Sir WiUiam Hooker, knt.. Sir Robert Viner, knt., and Sir Joseph Sheldon, knt. ; and finished in the Mayoralty of Sir Thomas Davies, in the year of the Lord 1677. There appears to have been a sort of competition for the principal inscription. Dr. Adam Littleton, author of the well- known Latin dictionary, prepared an inscription which is preserved in Elmes's Life of Wren (pp. 294-7).* The following inscription * See post^ p. 41. C 34 was written by Sir Christopher Wren, but not accepted by the Committee : — * Qui celsam spectas molem, idem quoque infaustum & fatalem toti quondam civitati vides locum. Hie quippe, anno Christi MDCLXVI II Sept. altera post mediam noctem hora, ex casa humili, prima se extulit flamma, quae Austro flante, adeo brevi invaluit, ut non tantum tota fere intra muros urbs, sed et redificia quaecunque arcem et templariorum hospitium ; quaecun- que denique ripas fluminis et remotissima civitatis interjacent moenia, ferali absumpta fuerint incendio. Tridui spatio, C Tem- pla, plateae CCCC et plura quam XIV Domorum millia flammis absorpta fuere. Innumeri cives omnibus suis fortunis exuti, et sub divo agitare coacti, infinitae, et toto orbe congestae opes in cinerem et favillam redactae : ita ut de urbe omnium quotquot sol aspicit amplissima, et felicissima, prseter nomen et famam, et immensos ruinarum aggeres, vix quicquam superesset. Carolus secundus, Dei gratia, rex Magnae Britanniae, Franciae et Hiberniae, anno regni XVIII et plerique Angliae proceres consumpta in- cendio urbe pene universa, eademque triennio spatio in ampliorem modum instaurata, et non ut ante ligneis aut luteis, sed partim lateritiis, partim marmoreis aedificiis, et operibus, ita ornata, ut e suis ruinis pulcrior multo prodiisse videatur ; auctis praeterea ad immensam magnitudinem urbis pomoeriis ; ad aeternam utrius- que facti memoriam, hie ubi tantae cladis prima emicuit flamma Monumentum posuere. Discat praesens et futura aetas, nequa similis ingruat clades, tempestivis Numen placare votis : beneficium vero, regis, et procerum, quorum liberalitate, praeter ornatum, major etiam urbi accessit securitas, grata mente recognoscat, * Parentalia, pp. 332-4. 35 O quantum tibi debet AUGUSTA, Tot nascentia templa, tot renata, Tot spectacular- _ Martial. Translation of Sir C. Wren's Inscription. Thou who gazest at this lofty column seest also a place once unfortunate and fateful to the whole city. For here in the year of Christ, 1666, on the 2nd of September, in the second hour after midnight, from a lowly cottage first arose the flame, which, the south wind blowing, grew in a short space so strong, that not only almost the whole city within the walls, but all the edifices between the Tower and the Templars' Inn, all, in fine, between the river banks and the farthest parts of the City, were con- sumed by a disastrous conflagration. In the space of three days ICQ churches, 400 streets, and more than 14,000 houses were devoured. Countless citizens were despoiled of all their fortunes and compelled to live under the sky : boundless wealth, gathered from the whole earth, was reduced to ashes and embers ; so that of the richest and happiest city of all that the sun beholds scarce anything remained but name and fame and vast heaps of ruins. Charles II, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, in the i8th year of his reign, and the more part of the nobility of England, — after that almost the whole city had been consumed by fire, and the same had in three years been * The hen-decasyllables would seem to be adapted from Martial VI, 4, which runs : — Censor maxime principumque princeps, Cum tot iam tibi debeat triuniphos, Tot nascentia templa^ tot renata, Tot spectacula, tot deos, tot urbes : Plus debet tibi Roma quod pudica est. Wren's first line is not in the metre. C 2 36 restored in a more handsome manner, and not as before with wooden or clay, but partly with brick, partly with stone buildings and works had been so embellished as to seem to have come forth more beautiful from its ruins ; the boundaries moreover of the City having been enlarged to .a vast size — for the everlasting remembrance of both events ; here, where the first flame of that great disaster shone forth, have erected a Monument. Let the present generation and that to come — lest any like disaster come upon them — learn to appease the Deity with seasonable vows : let them also with gratitude acknowledge the favour of the King and the nobility by whose generosity the City has received not only embellishment but also greater security. O how great Augusta's debt to thee, So many churches rising, so many risen again, So many sights. The following entries in the City records occur three years after the completion of the Monument and its inscriptions. They clearly show that the Monument was originally erected simply to perpetuate the memory of the dreadful Fire of London, and that the idea of publicly ascribing the calamity to the intentional designs of the Papists was not formed until after the so-called discovery of the Popish plot, by Titus Gates, in 1678. At a Court of Common Council, held on the 12th November, 1680, it was ordered " that Mr. Comptroller, takeing to his assistance such persons as he shall think fitt, doe compose and draw up an inscription in Latin and English, to be affixed on the Monument on Fish-Street Hill, signifying that the City of London was burnt and consumed with fire by the treachery 37 and malic:€ of the papists in September in the year of Our Lord 1666."* The Comptroller was not so prompt in the execution of his duty as Dr. Gale, perhaps owing to the delicate nature of his task. On the 17th June, in the following year,t he presented, at a Court of Common Council, an inscription in Latin and English. The Latin is as follows : Sed furor papisticus qui tam dira patravit nondum restinguitur "w'ch he conceives might properly be added to the p'sent inscripc'on on the north side thereof, after these words: 'stetit fatalis ignis et quaquaversum elanguit.'" The English inscription follows in these words : — " ' This pillar was sett up in perpetuell remembrance of the most dreadful Burning of this Protestant City, begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the popish faction, in the beginning of September, in the year of Our Lord 1666, in order to the effecting of their horrid plot for the extirpating the protestant religion, and English liberties, and to introduce popery and slavery ; X ' which said inscripc'ons being read, this Court doth very well like and approve of them, and doth order that the same shall be forthwith affixed on the said Monument in the most convenient parts thereof att the direccon and appoint'"^ of the Rt. Hon^'^ the Lord Mayor and Court of Ald""^"- And it is likewise ordered that another inscripc'on in English now p'sented by Mr. Comp- troller and read in this Court and agreed on shall be likewise forthwith affixed on the front of the house where the said fire * Journal 49, f. 156b. t^b., f. 224. I This inscription was engraved around the plinth of the lower pedestal, beginning on the West Side. 38 began, at the like appointment of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aid'"''" w''*' said inscripc'on is in these words " : — Here by y Permission of Heaven Hell broke loose UPON THIS Protestant City from the malicious HEARTS OF BARBAROUS PaPISTS, BY Y HAND OF THEIR Agent Hubert, who confessed, and on y Ruines OF THIS Place declared the Fact, for which he was hanged, (vizt.) that here began that dred -FULL Fire, which is described and perpetuated on and by the neighbouring pillar. Erected Anno i68[i, i]n the Major altie of Patience Ward K''-* The two following resolutions were also passed by the Court of Aldermen : — "23rd day of June, 1681. The Right Hon'ble the Lord Mayor is desired by this Court to direct the setting up the Inscriptions lately agreed to in Common Counsell touching the fireing of this City by the Papists, A.D. 1666, upon the Pillar on Fish St. Hill, and the house where the Fire began, in such manner as his Lordship shall think convenient." t " 1 2th July, 1 68 1. It is now agreed by this Court that the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, who was desired by this Court to cause the additionall inscriptions lately agreed to in Common Counsell, to be set up on the Pillar of Fish Street Hill, doe in order thereunto cause the Inscription already made on the said Pillar, or such part thereof as his Lordship shall think con- venient, to be taken out and anew engraved, the better to make way for the said additional Inscription." t * From the original stone ; a few letters are wanting, owing to a fracture. See p. 41, note t- t Repertory 86, f. 151. J lb., f. 162. 39 It seems probable, from the above minutes, that the Protestant zeal of the Lord Mayor, Sir Patience Ward,* had much to do with setting up these additional inscriptions. At all events, Sir Patience is credited by Thomas Ward, in his " England's Reforma- tion," with being their author.t Speaking of Titus Oates and his " discoveries," he writes : — ■ He swore, — with flaming faggot sticks. In sixteen hundred sixty-six. They thorow London took their marches. And burn'd the City down with torches. * Sir Patience Ward was the son of Thomas Ward, of Tanshelf, in Pontefract, Yorkshire. He was apprenticed to Launcelot Tolson, merchant-taylor and merchant-adventurer, of St. Helens, on the loth June, 1646, and afterwards became free of the Merchant Taylors' Company, serving the office of Master in 167 1. His portrait is preserved in their Hall. In 1670 he was elected wSheriff of London and Middlesex, and became Lord Mayor ten years later. In his speech at his election he strongly affirmed his determination to uphold the Protestant religion. A copy of this speech and of the pageant entitled ' London's Glory,' devised by Thomas Jordan for his mayoralty inauguration, are preserved in the Guildhall Library. Soon after the accession of James II he withdrew from his native country, probably to Holland, as his wife was buried in 1685 at Amsterdam. He resided in Laurence Pountney Lane, occupying a portion of the ancient palace, variously known as ' Manor of the Rose 'and ' Poultney's Inn,' the mansion having formerly belonged to Sir John Poultney, who was four times Lord Mayor of London during the reign of Edward the Third. Sir Patience Ward was a Commissioner of the Customs, and was knighted the 29th October, 1675. 1688-9 he repre- sented the City of London in Parliament. He married on the 8th June, 1654, Elizabeth, daughter of William Hobson, of Hackney, but left no issue. He died the loth July, 1696, and was buried in St. Mary Abchurch. By his will, proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 7th August, 1696 [167 Bond], he bequeathed to the son of his nephew, Patience Ward, an estate adjoining Tanshelf, and 1,000 to purchase land in the neighbour- hood. For further particulars, consult Wilson's History of the parish of St. I^aurence Pountney, and Luttrell's Relation of State affairs. t England's Reformation, from the time of King Henry the Vlllth to the end of Oates's plot, 4to, Hambourgh, 1710. Canto iv, p. 100. (Brit. Mus. 840, l.i.) 40 Vet all invisible they were, Clad in their coats of Lapland aire. That sniffling Whig-major Patience Ward, To this damn'd lie had such regard, That he his godly masons sent, T'engrave it round the Monument. They did so ; but let such things pass, His men were fools, and he an ass. The Lord Mayor, however, only shared the general opinion of the time ; for on the loth January, 1680, the following vote was passed by the House of Commons : — That it is the opinion of this House that the City of London was burnt in the year one thousand six hundred sixty and six, by the papists ; designing thereby to introduce arbitrary power and popery into this Kingdom." * Soon after the accession of James H, the additional inscriptions were obliterated and removed. But the order was reversed on the accession of William HI, in accordance with the following minute : — Court of Common Council, i6th September, 1689. "It is unaniemously agreede and ordered by this Court that the two severall Inscripc'ons formerly sett up by order of this Court in the Mayoralty of S""- Patience Ward, on the Monument and the house where the dreadfull Fire began (which have been since taken down,) be again sett upp in their former places, and that Mr. Chamb'laine and Mr. Comptroller doe se the same done accordingly." t The objectionable additions were finally removed, under an order of the Court of Common Council dated the 6th December, " Journals of the House of Commons, Vol. ix, p. 703. f Journal 51, f. il. 41 1830.* At this time, probably, the stone was also removed from the house in Pudding Lane.| This wise decision, besides setting right historical facts, removes from the Monument the obloquy expressed in Pope's well-known lines [Moral Essays^ Ep. Ill, 11. 339-342) — Where London's column pointing at the skies. Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies. There dwelt a citizen of sober tame, A plain good man, and Balaam X was his name. Southey, in his Omniana (1812, Vol. i., pp. 49-50), writes: "At the end of Littleton's Dictionary [6th edit., 1735], is an inscription for the Monument, wherein this very learned scholar proposes a name for it, worthy for its length of a Sanscrit legend. It is a word which extends through seven degrees of longitude, being designed to commemorate the names of the seven Lord Mayors of London, under whose respective mayoralties the Monument was begun, continued, and completed — QUAM NON UNA ALIQUA AC SIMPLICI VOCE, UTI ISTAM QUONDAM DUILIANUM ; SED, UT VERO EAM NOMINE INDIGITES, VOCABULO CONSTRUCTILITER HEPTASTEGO FORDO-WATERMANNO-HANSONO-HOOKERO- VINERO-SHELDONO-DAVISIANAM APPELLITES OPPORTEBIT. Well might Adam Littleton call this an heptastic vocable^ rather than a word." * Minutes of the Court of Common Council, 1830, p. 167. Cf. Gent.'s Mag., 1831, pt. i, pp. 102-4, 311-15. f It is now preserved in the Guildhall Museum, having been presented in 1876 by Messrs* King & Son, by whom it was found buried in the garden of the house. \ Balaam was one of the principal salt fishmongers who kept shop on the east side of New Fish-street. He resided at the corner of Monument Yard, and his house is shown in the large view of the Monument (see p. 89), as a large mansion with open windows, having the name '* Balaam " inscribed over the door. The Staircase, from below. From the " Graphic ^'^ by kind permission. CHAPTER III. Historical Incidents and Literary Notices. HE illustration of Fish Street Hill and che Monument at page 89, from a scarce print of about the year 1720, preserved in the Guildhall Library, gives an interesting view of the old house-signs in the locality. The " Sun " tavern, Avhich is seen on the south-west corner of Monument Yard, was often visited by Samuel Pepys. Under the date of 8th November, 1661, he notes "To the Sun in New Fish Street, where Sir J. Winnes, Sir William Batten, and we all were to dine."* In the 17th century the host of this tavern issued a token on which his and his wife's initials appear as T. E. P. The sign of the fourth house in the opposite direction towards Eastcheap was the "Anchor and Cable." This was the shop of William Newman, as appears from his token issued after the Great Fire. There are three tokens extant of the "King's Head," kept by Thomas Blagrave, which is mentioned in " Newes from Bartholomew Fayre," as the "King's Head in New Fish streete, where roysterers do range." Tradesmen's tokens also exist for the following houses in New Fish Street : — the " Swan and * Diary 4th ed, 1854, Vol. i, p. 232. 44 Bridge," the "Harrow Inn," the "Mitre," the "Black Spread Eagle," and the "Grasshopper." An i8th century penny token, bearing the device of the Monument, with the arms of London on the reverse, is described in Conder's Arrangement of provincial tokens.* In accordance with Wren's original intention,! the column was at first used as a place for certain experiments of the Royal Society ; but the vibration caused by the ceaseless traffic proved too great to allow of the experiments being successfully carried on. Evelyn wished that the column had been placed where the fire ended, and " a plain lugubrious marble " where it began. He says, " I question not but I have the architect himself on my side, whose rare and extraordinary talent, and what he has performed of great and magnificent, this column, and what he is still about and is advancing under his direction, will speak and perpetuate his memory, as long as one stone remains upon another in this nation." J Roger North, in his life of his brother, Sir Dudley North, § thus describes an amusing adventure of Sir Dudley, in climbing to the summit of the Monument : "He took pleasure in surveying the Monument, and comparing it with mosque towers, and what, of that kind, he had seen abroad. We mounted up to the top, and, one after another, crept up the hollow iron frame that carries the copper head and flames above. We went out at a rising plate of iron that hinged, and there found convenient irons to hold by. We made use of them, and raised our bodies entirely * Ipswich, 1799, p. 72. t Wren describes the Monument as an observatory or " Columna speculatoria." See note, p. 18. I Evelyn, " Numismata," Ed. 1697, p. 162. § Ed. 1826, Vol. iii, p. 207. 45 above the flames, having only our legs, to the knees, within ; and there we stood till we were satisfied with the prospects from thence. I cannot describe how hard it was to persuade ourselves we stood safe ; so likely did our weight seem to throw down the whole fabric." The . following is taken from Read's Weekly Journal^ September 26th, 1730 : — " Last Thursday a nimble little drawer at the Baptist Head Tavern in the Old Baily ran up to the gallery on the top of the Monument and down again, for a considerable wager laid by some gentlemen frequenting the house. He had three minutes to do it in, but performed it in two minutes and a half and two seconds ; which is look'd upon as an extraordinary performance of the kind, and [what] not one in an hundred of the fraternity can do. We hear that as he was running down, he often cry'd, 'Coming, Coming, Sir ! ' " In the Daily Journal of i6th September, 1732, appears this account of a sailor's foolhardy adventure : — " Yesterday, about 5 o'clock in the evening, notwithstanding the wind was so high, a sailor flew from the top of the Monument to the Upper Three Tuns tavern in Gracechurch-street, which he did in less than half a minute : there was a numerous crowd of spectators to see him. He came down within 20 feet of the place where the rope was fixed, and then flung himself oflf ; and offered, if the gentlemen would make him a handsome collection, he would go up and fly down again. In the morning, when the rope was tied round the Monument, a waterman's boy paid for going up to the gallery, but in his return, finding the stairs crowded, he thought the quickest way down again was by the rope ; and he accordingly swung down upon it, as it hung loose, into the Monument Yard, without receiving any injury." 46 The Monument does not escape Ned Ward's satire, but forms the subject of a somewhat gross burlesque in his London Spy: — "'Now,' says my friend, 'I'll show you a towering edifice, erected thro' the wisdom and honesty of the city, as a very high memorandum of its being laid low, either by a judgement from heaven for the sins of the people, or by the treachery of the papists, according to the inscription of the Monument, who, I suppose, as ignorant of the matter as myself ; for that was neither built then, or I born : so I believe we are equally as able to tell the truth of the story, as a quack astrologer is by the assistance of the signs and planets, what was the name of Moses's great grand-father, or how many quarts of water went to the worlds drowning. You'll be mightily pleas'd with the loftiness of this slender column, for its very height was the first thing that ever occasioned wry necks in England, by the peoples staring at the top on't. What ! is it of no use, but only to gaze at ? Astrologers go often to the top on't . . . though the chief use of it is for the improvement of vintners' boys and drawers, who come every week to exercise their supporters, and learn the tavern-trip, by running up to the balcony and down again, which fixes them in a nimble step, and makes them rare light-heeled emissaries in a months practice. Do you observe the carving, which contains the king and his brothers pictures ? They were cut by an eminent artist, and are look'd upon by a great many impartial judges to be a couple of extraordinary good figures.' "* The following humorous account by Addison of his visit to the Monument with his friend the Tory fox-hunter is taken from ''The Freeholder," No. 47 t : — "After having here satiated our * The London Spy compleat, in eighteen parts, 4th edition, 1709, pp. 55-6. t Works, 181 1, Vol. vi, p. 217. The Balcony or " Cage." From the " Graphic,^'' by kind permission. 48 curiosity we repaired to the Monument, where my fellow traveller, being a well-breathed man, mounted the ascent with much speed and activity. I was forced to halt so often in this perpendicular march that, upon my joining him on the top of the pillar, I found he had counted all the steeples and towers which were discernible from this advantageous situation, and was endeavouring to compute the number of acres they stood upon. We Avere both of us very well pleased with this part of the prospect ; but I found he cast an evil eye upon several warehouses, and other buildings, that looked like barns, and seemed capable of receiving great multitudes of people. His heart misgave him that these were so many meeting-houses, but, upon communicating his suspicions to me, I soon made him easy in this particular. We then turned our eyes upon the river, which gave me an occasion to inspire him with some favourable thoughts of trade and merchandise, that had filled the Thames with such crowds of ships, and covered the shore with such swarms of people. "We descended very leisurely, my friend being careful to count the steps, which he registered in a blank leaf of his new almanac. Upon our coming to the bottom, observing an English inscription upon the basis, he read it over several times, and told me he could scarce believe his own eyes, for that he had often heard from an old attorney, who lived near him in the country, that it was the Presbyterians who burned down the city ; whereas, says he, this pillar positively affirms in so many words, that ' the burning of this ancient city was begun and carried on by the treachery and malice of the popish faction, in order to the carrying on their horrid plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English liberty, and introducing popery and slavery.' This account, which he looked upon to be more authentic, than if it had been in print, I found, made a very great impression upon him." 49 The following is from Kalm's Account of his Visit to England on his way to America, in 1748 * : — " To-day I went up inside the Monument^ as it is called, in London, and inspected the same. Many would shudder to look down from such a height, and wonder how so high and narrow a pillar of stone, which is hollow within, so that one can go up steps inside it to the top, has been able to stand for so many years steady and firm." In his "Observations sur Londres," (1777, p. 98), M. Lacombe thus notices the additional inscription of 1681 : — "La haine que le peuple Anglais porte aux catoliques Romains, qu'il appelle Papistes par derision, a fait attribuer I'incendie aux catoliques, comme I'inscription injurieuse la porte." M. Ferri de St. Constant in his interesting description of London,t follows Evelyn t in finding fault with the situation of the Monument : — " Rien n'est plus ridicule que la situation du monument, si ce n'est la raison qu'on donne du choix qu'on en a fait, c'est-a-dire, que I'incendie commen9a dans cet endroit." M. A. J. B. Defauconpret, the author of a work (published in 1819), entitled: " Une Annee a Londres," devotes a chapter to a description of the Monument, § in which he thus remarks upon the name of " The Monument." " Le nom de monument etant un nom generique, il parait assez singulier qu'on I'ait particuliere- ment adapte a une colonne. Mais si I'on se rappelle que I'orgueil romain designait souvent la capitale de I'empire par le nom de ' la ville,' on verra aisement que c'est par la meme emphase que la jactance anglaise a nomme une colonne d'une execution mediocre 4e monument' par excellence." * Translated by Joseph Lucas, from the Swedish. London, 1892. Svo., page 24. f Londres et les Anglais, par J. L. Ferri de St. Constant, 1804, Vol. i, p. 87. X See p. 36. § pp. 165-172. D 50 In Fontane's " Ein Sommer in London," 1854, p. 19, is a whimsical notice of the urn on the Monument, which, with a translation, here follows : — " Wir kommen von der Londonbriicke und haben zur Rechten das 'Monument,' das im Jahre 1677 zur Erinnerung an das grosse City-Feuer errichtet wurde. Ich habe nichts gegen diese Saule-wiewohl ich nicht recht fasse, was man mit ihrer Aufstel- lung und der steten Vergegenwartigung eines grossen Ungliicks bezweckte, muss aber feierlichst protestiren gegen die 42 Fuss hohe Flammenurne, womit eine konfuse Pietat und der barste Ungeschmack den Knauf jener Saule geschmiickt haben. Die vorgeblichen Flammenbuchsel dieser Urne sind alles Mogiiche, nur eben keine Flammen, und da es dieser goldenen Kuriositat gegeniiber, ahnlich wie beim Bleigiessen in der Neujahrsnacht, der Phantasie jedes Einzelnen iiberlassen bleiben muss, was sie aus diesen Ecken und Spitzen herauszulesen fiir gut befindet, so mache ich kein Hehl daraus, dass ich die Flammenurne fiir ein riesiges Kissen mit hundert goldnen Nadeln und in Folge davon die beriihmte Saule selbst fiir ein Wahrzeichen der ehrsamen Schneiderzunft gehalten habe, dessen historische Begriindung mir leider nicht gegen wartig sei." "Coming from London Bridge, we have the 'Monument' on our right, Avhich was erected in the year 1677 as a memento of the great City fire. I have nothing against this column, although I do not quite comprehend what end is served by its erection, and the continual memorial of a great disaster. I must, however, solemnly protest against the fire-urn, 42 feet high, with which a mistaken piety and the most utter want of taste has embellished the summit of this column. The supposed flame-bundle of this urn may be anything, always excepted flames, and since as 51 regards this golden curiosity, like the smelting of lead on New Year's night, it must be left to the imagination of each individual to make out of those corners and points what he considers best, I make no secret of the fact that I take this flame-urn for a monster cushion with a hundred golden needles in, and in consequence consider the celebrated column itself as a sign of the Worshipful Company of Taylors, whose historical foundation is unfortunately not known to me." Emile Bouchaud, in his " Un mois a Londres," * says : — Non loin de ce point, se dresse, sous le nom pompeux de Momiment^ la colonne commemorative du grand incendie de 1666. Cette colonne dorique, cannelee, la plus grande peut-etre qui soit au monde, a deux cents pieds de haut, quarante pieds de plus que la colonne Trajane ; mais a cote de cet elegant modele antique, le Monument n'est plus qu'une vulgaire pile de pierres ! " The author of ''Un mois en Angleterre," t speaking of the Monument, writes : — " II faut convenir que ce vase laissant echapper des flammes n'est pas un couronnement de bon gout, on dirait voir la un ornement provisoire, car on ne pent terminer une oeuvre pareille que par une statue de dimensions colossales proportionnelles. ' ' Conversation Sharp used to point out a house at the corner of Monument Yard where Goldsmith, when in destitute circum- stances in London, filled for a short time the situation of shopman to a chemist named Jacob.! On the 31st of December, 1857, Mr. John Hollingshead, *p. 108. t8°- Bruxelles, 1862, p. 50. I Wheatley's London Past and Present, 1891, Vol. ii, p. 559. D 2 52 the well-known writer, spent the whole night on the top of the Monument, and has given in his " Under Bow Bells " * an interesting and graphic account of his experience and of the changing appearance of London, as seen from that height, through the successive hours of evening, night, and morning. On the 15th June, 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 column, to give the idea of its being wreathed with flames, whilst two other series were placed on the edges of the gallery, to which the public were admitted during the evening. In one of the London daily journals of August 22nd, 1827, there appeared the following burlesque advertisement : — " Incredi- ble as it may appear, a person will attend at the Monument, and will, for the sum of ;^2,5oo, undertake to Jump clear off the said Monument, and in coming down will drink some beer and eat a cake, 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." t A curious circumstance connected with the Monument occasioned the publication, in 1847, of a booklet, entitled " History of the Life and Adventures of a Mouse, written by himself" The preface informs us that a mouse took up its abode at the Monument, and remained there for nearly two years. It became latterly so tame as to suffer itself to be handled, and to take food * i860, pp. 44-57. t History of the Monument of London. Printed for John Bleaden. Page 21. The Stairca« ^ From the " Graphic,''^ by kind permission. 54 from a person's hand, without showing fear or attempting to escape, and might be seen sitting by the fire or running about during the greater part of the day. The poor Httle creature met with a tragic end on the 8th November, 1847, a few days after its memoirs were written. Its death was occasioned by a piece of a burning cigar being accidentally thrown upon it. On the 1 8th November, 1852, by permission of the City Lands Committee, a party of four artillerymen of the Royal Artillery were stationed on the Monument for the purpose of passing signals to the Tower from St. PauFs Cathedral, on the occasion of the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. On the 25th June, 1750, William Green, a weaver, whilst reaching over the railing of the balcony to look at a live eagle kept there in a cage, accidentally lost his balance, and fell over against the top of the pedestal, thence into the street, and was killed. Six persons have committed suicide by throwing themselves from the Monument gallery : (i) John Cradock, a baker, 7th July, 1788 ; (2) Lyon Levi, a Jewish diamond merchant, i8th January, 1810 ; (3) a baker named Leander, in the same year ; (4) Margaret Moyes, daughter of a baker in Hemmings-row, nth September, 1839 ) is) Robert Donaldson Hawes, a boy aged 15, i8th October, 1839 J (^) J^i^e Cooper, a servant maid living at Hoxton, 19th August, 1842. After this last tragedy the building was tem- porarily closed, and the gallery was enclosed with an iron cage, as shown in the accompanying illustration. The column has, undergone frequent repairs and embellish- ments. In May, 1834, it was completely renovated, a scaffolding being erected from the gallery to the top of the urn, in order that it might be repaired and re-gilded. The construction of the scaffolding was very ingenious, and much courage and skill were displayed by the workmen in its erection. The last repairs to the Monument took place in 1888, when the ornamentation to the abacus was removed, having been originally fastened with iron bolts, a plan long since obsolete among architects. A swinging scaffolding was put up and the structure examined from top to bottom. The result showed the remarkable strength and soundness of the column ; the stone being of splendid quality. On this occasion accurate measurements of the entire column were taken, and careful drawings prepared under the direction of the late City Architect. The drawings include an elevation of the east side, with the entrance to the Monument, and give every detail of the decorations, on a scale of 8 feet to an inch. There are also a vertical section of the whole column with exact dimen- sions, and four transverse sections. The building is now in as good a condition as ever. The great majority of the visitors to the Monument are persons living in the country or abroad ; the number of admis- sions during the year 1891 reached the large total of 73,057. The following is a list of the later KEEPERS OF THE MONUMENT. Name. When Elected. Samuel Arnott 20th March, 1805. 1 8th March, 1825. 7th August, 1833. Charles Chapman John Bleaden Thomas Woodward 20th December, I865. 56 After Mr. Woodward's death on ist April, 1890, the office of Keeper of the Monument was abohshed. This office was in the appointment of the Court of Common Council, but the building has always been under the authority of the Committee for Letting the City Lands. A^SFECT ol ,l,c C ity qI" I^ONDON from StM aIUI; OX-KKS ^Tl^iViA^^^ b^f.^^ Pj^^ -;-=^ALWrvr^' -w- — >^ ^ i^^^^ „ni,..|>i.;iv n.i.v iv I'.v c r i o ^ v — ^ ^ REFERENCE to the VIEWS ' ^ ^ <" n " ' - - ■ ■ ^ - ■ ^ , ^ , . _ ^ I S Baiel 2. S.,-\»WinWardrop z< S. Edmunds 3 S Percrs )n Tliames ftrert J7 S Mldiidin ComhlU 4 S. Martins In I.ui^aic is Allhaltowes J S.-^iAewinHolbSne ;yi S. Peters inCombU 6 S Fulehcrs 30 S. Daus 7 S. NkhoUs 31 SMagnm 8 S Chriti Church ji S AndnTw Huban 9 S- .\iJfi[ullines 33 S.MiinlliU 10 S FoSer 34 S. BaoluhAldgac i[ S.John Zacharv- 3} S Dimliins E»il 11 S-MartinslnThimesflr. 36 j\llliiiIlo»es Badung 13 S. Mars-i-Aldermanbury 37 Pauls Whaift Li S. Thomas 38 V iirt-ajle Ij, Bow Churdl 35 J Cmd^ 16 S.LduralcC 4" Qjlfenliithe 17 S.-MarA-BotolpllLa. +1 SuUard Ig AUWliwestlieGr 4I Colllaitour 19 S Stephms Colinan Stx 43 Old Swan lo S.Maraaret 44 rdh mongos II 4. Marv^ ilnolh 21 S. LaiirenccFotjlmev ^3 S. Stephens in XValhroke i 4 S- ChriHojJjia- EXPLANATION to the PLaV Tiiediadowedpart is thai wliichelcapd C.chuichcs MMaikels A Senile of ifoo Fe( 43 Ml V U E S \1LLE drLONDRES Comrnt' il ctoil dcvaiil 6r apres LIncendie dc 1666. 3 ^'"^"I^Ijjjjjjjjjjjjjjv.aM^ PJJJJJJJJIIJJI ',J lAW I AVE C Lc PLAN pour la rebaii Projclle par ce grand Architect!: Je ChcvaKcr Chris top ule Wren, & apiouvc par le Roi & Parlemi.nt ; mais iiialhcurcuiement rejclte par Faction. '•''jptiblie par JEAN ROCQJJE, C horographe de Son Altcfic Rovalle le rnnce de Gallls 44oV»tJ-. or 4 J.MJgt.n^ll V,™ OP Lo„o„» .H,»B .p™ the G.p„ F,.. op ,«6, ™r» . s„o,™o ™p =xtp„ op ™p F,.p, ™o S,p C„.,spor„PP W„» s D.s,c» P„. K.:„,.o,»c x„. C, an Old Print preserved in the Guildhall Library. CHAPTER IV. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE GrEAT FiRE OF LoNDON. DESCRIPTION of the Monument would not be complete without an account of the dreadful conflagration which it was erected to commemorate. A contemporary and official record appeared in two issues of the London Gazette. The first is dated Sunday, 2nd September, i666,* the day of the outbreak of the conflagration. The second appeared six days later,t the regular issue of the paper having been interrupted by the great calamity. These important and interesting records merit a full reproduction. " The London Gazette^ Sunday^ September 2, 1666. About two a clock this morning a sudden and lamentable fire brake out in this city, beginning not far from Thames Street, near London Bridge, which continues still with great violence, and hath already burnt down to the ground many houses thereabouts ; which sad accident affected His Majesty with that tenderness, and compassion, that he was pleased to go himself in * London Gazette^ No. 84, " From Thursday, August 30, to Monday, Septemb. 3, 1666," p. 2. fib., No. 85, "From Monday, Septemb. 3, to Monday, Septemb. 10, 1666," pp. 1-2. ■5« person, with His Royal Highness,* to give order that all possible means should be used for quenching the fire, or stopping its further spreading. In which care, the Right Honourable the Earl of Craven was sent by His Majesty, to be more particularly assisting to the Lord Mayor and magistrates ; and several companies of his guards sent into the City, to be helpful by what ways they could in so great a calamity." " T/ie London Gazette^ September 8, 1666. The ordinary course of this paper having been interrupted by a sad and lamentable accident of fire lately hapned in the City of London : It hath been thought fit for satisfying the minds of so many of His Majesties good subjects who must needs be concerned for the issue of so great an accident to give this short, but true accompt of it. On the second instant at one of the clock in the morning there hapned to break out a sad deplorable fire in Pudding Lane, neer Ncav Fish Street, which falling out at that hour of the night, and in a quarter of the town so close built with wooden pitched houses, spread itself so far before day, and with such distraction to the inhabitants and neighbours, that care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it, by pulling down houses, as ought to have been ; so that this lamentable fire in a short time became too big to be mastred by any engines or working neer it. It fell out most unhappily too, that a violent easterly Avind fomented it, and kept it burning all that day, and the night following, spreading itself up to Gracechurch Street, and downwards- from Cannon Street to the water-side as far as the Three Cranes in the Vintrey. * The Duke of York, afterwards James II. 59 The people in all parts about it distracted by the vastness of it, and their particular care to carry away their goods, many attempts were made to prevent the spreading of it by pulling down houses, and making great intervals, but all in vain, the fire seising upon the timber and rubbish and so continuing itself, even through those spaces, and raging in a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, notwithstanding His Majesties own, and His Royal Highness's indefatigable and personal pains to apply all possible remedies to prevent it, calling upon and helping the people with their guards ; and a great number of nobility and gentry unweariedly assisting therein, for which they were requited with a thousand blessings from the poor distressed people. By the favour of God the wind slackned a little on Tuesday night and the flames meeting with Brick-buildings at the Temple, by little and little it was observed to lose its force on that side, so that on Wednesday morning we began to hope well, and His Royal Highness, never dispairing nor slackning his personal care, wrought so well that day, assisted in some parts by the Lords of the Councel before and behind it, that a stop was put to it at the Temple Church, neer Holborn Bridge, Pie Corner, Aldersgate, Cripplegate, neer the lower end of Coleman Street, at the end of Basinghall Street, by the Postern, at the upper end of Bishopsgate Street and Leadenhall Street, at the Standard in Cornhill, at the Church in Fanchurch Street, near Clothworkers' Hall in Mincing Lane, at the middle of Mark Lane, and at the Tower Dock.* On Thursday, by the blessing of God it was wholly beat down and extinguished. But so as that evening it unhappily burst out again afresh at the Temple, by the falling of some sparks (as is supposed) upon a pile of wooden buildings ; but His Royal * Compare the plan showing the extent of the Fire at page 57. 6o Highness, who watched there that whole night in person, by the great labours and diligence used, and especially by applying powder to blow up the houses about it, before day most happily mastered it. Divers strangers, Dutch and French, were, during the fire, apprehended upon suspicion that they contributed mischievously to it, who are all imprisoned, and informations prepared, to make a severe inquisition hereupon by my Lord Chief Justice Keeling, assisted by some of the Lords of the Privy Councel, and some principal members of the City, notwithstanding which suspicions, the manner of the burning all along in a train, and so blowen forwards in all its way by strong winds, makes us conclude the whole was the effect of an unhappy chance, or to speak better, the heavy hand of God upon us for our sins, showing us the terrour of His judgment in thus raising the fire, and immediately after His miraculous and never enough to be acknowledged mercy in putting a stop to it when we were in the last despair, and that all attempts for the quenching of it, however industriously pursued, seemed insufficient. His Majesty then sat hourly in councel, and ever since hath continued making rounds about the City in all parts of it where the danger and mischief w^as greatest, till this morning that he hath sent His Grace the Duke of Albemarle, whom he hath called for to assist him in this great occasion, to put his happy and successful hand to the finishing this memorable deliverance. About the Tower the seasonable orders giving for plucking down houses to secure the magazines of powder, was more especially successful, that part being up the wind, notwithstanding which it came almost to the very gates of it, so as by this early pro- vision, the several stores of war lodged in the Tower were entirely 6i saved : And we have further this infinite cause particularly to give God thanks, that the fire did not happen in any of those places where His Majesties naval stores are kept, so as tho it hath pleased God to visit us with His own hand. He hath not, by disfurnishing us with the means of carrying on the war, subjected us to our enemies. It must be observed, that this fire happened in a part of the town, where tho the commodities were not very rich, yet they were so bulky that they could not well be removed, so that the inhabitants of that part where it first began have sustained very great loss, but by the best enquiry we can make, the other parts of the town, where the commodities were of greater value, took the alarum so early, that they saved most of their goods of value, which possibly may have diminished the loss, tho some think, that if the whole industry of the in- habitants had been applyed to the stopping of the fire, and not to the saving of their particular goods, the success might have been much better, not only to the publick, but to many of them in their own particulars. Through this sad accident it is easie to be imagined how many persons were necessitated to remove themselves and goods into the open fields, where they were forced to continue some time, which could not but work compassion in the beholders, but His Majesties care was most signal in this occasion, who, besides his personal pains, was frequent in consulting all wayes for relieving those distressed persons, which produced so good effect, as well by His Majesties proclamations, and the orders issued to the neighbour justices of the peace to encourage the sending in provisions to the markets, which are publickly known, as by other directions, that when His Majesty, fearing 62 lest other orders might not yet have been sufficient, had com- manded the victualler of his navy to send bread into Moorefields for the relief of the poor, which for the more speedy supply he sent in bisket, out of the sea stores ; it was found that the markets had been already so well supplyed that the people, being unaccustomed to that kind of bread, declined it, and so it was returned in great part to His Majesties stores again, without any use made of it. And we cannot but observe to the confutation of all His Majesties enemies, who endeavour to perswade the world abroad of great parties and disaffection at home against His Majesties Government ; that a greater instance of the affections of this city could never be given then hath been now given in this sad and deplorable accident, when if at any time disorder might have been expected from the losses, distraction, and almost desperation of some persons in their private fortunes, thousands of people not having had habitations to cover them. And yet in all this time it hath been so far from any appearance of designs or attempts against His Majesties Government, that His Majesty and his royal brother, out of their care to stop and prevent the fire, frequently exposing their persons with very small attendants, in all parts of the town, sometimes even to be intermixed with those who laboured in the business yet nevertheless there hath not been observed so much as a murmuring word to fall from any, but on the contrary, even those persons whose losses rendred their conditions most desperate, and to be fit objects of others prayers, beholding these frequent instances of His Majesties care of his people, forgot their own misery, and filled the streets with their prayers for His Majesty, whose trouble they seemed to compassionate before their own." 63 The two following letters, both dated the 6th September, four days after the commencement of the Fire, give many in- teresting particulars, and have never before been published. The originals are preserved in the Guildhall Library. The first is from the celebrated Duke of Buckingham, the intimate friend and adviser of Charles II, and its style offers a complete contrast to the homely diction and somewhat remarkable spelling of the letter of Joseph Ames, dated from " Ye Golding Pellican." Gentlemen " Worthrop,* September 6, i666. A seruant of my owne is sent to mee from London to lett mee know, that in all proba[bi]lity before I cow Id receiue the letter the whole Citty of London within the walls would bee in Ashes. This messenger tolde mee that before hee came away, hee saw all Cheapside and pawls Church on fire. Theams street and all that part of the Towne had beene burnt before. Since that another man is come from London that assures mee Holborne is allso sett on fire and that abowt threescore french and Dutch are taken, that were firing of howses, besids this weeke the posts are stopt which must either proceed from the burning of the post office, or from some insurrection in those parts, it being almost impossible that a thing of this nature cowld bee effected withowt a farther designe I am going my selfe imediatly to his Maiesty as my duty obliges mee in the meane time I haue sent this to lett you know the state of owr affaires, and " in case you receiue noe letters from London at the time that you ought to receiue them by the poste on Saturday night next, that you imediatly summon all the militia under my command to bee * Probably Westhorp (? Suffolk) where, as Pepys tells us, the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham were staying in March, 1667. See Lord Braybrooke's note, Diary, 4th ed., Vol. iii, p. 78. 64 in Armes with all the speed imaginable and to keepe them together till further order from mee or from His Maiesty. if I finde upon my way to London or when I am there, reason to alter this order I shall despatch one imediatly to you abowt it. in the meane time I desire you to acquaint the Lords and Deputy Lieftenants of the East and north Ryding of Yorkshire with what orders I haue sent you, and I doe not doubt but they will follow your example. I am Gentlemen Your most affectionat friend and seruant Buckingham. since the writing of this letter a Gentleman is come from London that assures mee almost all the Strand is burnt, and that a greate many Anababtists haue beene taken setting howses on fire as well french and Dutch." " Whappiri 6 September 1666 : att y® golding pellican Sir. I cannot but Aquaint you of that sad Condishon y* Cetj of London now Lay in : ye fier quenched Last night you haue duties heard of that dredfull ffier that began in y® Cety on satterday night Last : in puddin Lan in A bakers howse: that puddin Lane is next to ffish stret towards billingat the said ffier burnt so violently wind blue hard att East north east ; that it haue Consumid all most y® whole Cety as thus y tower is ffree : but ffrom that whorf next it to y* bridg & y new bindings ther : & so all A Longest y^ thems : to y^ Temple is burnt vp : & so rownding : vpword part of fflett stret and at howborn bridg is stopid & gat ner to west smitchffild & so to Aldersgate and 2 or 3 howsis with out y® gate : & so it gott ner to Cripil gatt & to moregatt : & still rownding to part of broad stret : and Just att ye eind of bishop gate strett : ner Cornell : gratios strett & Ledinhall met : Ledinhall stand & so down About ^ fFanchurch strett & to ye hind of tower strett only barkin Church stand all with in this Line is burnt vp destroyed Laid on heaps : onles som stepels : & walls & Chimnies stand A most dreadfFull Lamontabl sight to behould : — Sir wind still att NE we Cannot downe our ship is yett in blak wall reach : — our fflett I heard att ye Victualin office to day is before portsmouth : y^ hollans fflett att Anker vpon y^ ffrench Cost : ner bullin : som Littel skurmig haue bing but wind was hye Littel or nothing was don : yett som others say that two of the hollants ships ar destroyed : — nor what we shall do with our beer as yett I know not : I Cannot in Larg y* Lord look in marcy vpon vs : with my Respects to your self I Remain Sir Joseph Ames. Endorsed :— ffor M' Tho : Pengelly Marchan' att y® worship" Snow Esq. Exon These." Another letter, written by an eye-witness John Rushworth, on the 8th of September, is preserved in Notes and Queries* as follows : — " S"", — My last by tuesday post gave you an accompt of London beeing Laid in ashes from gate to gate, even to the waters syde, except 4 or 5 parishes towards Algate and Bishoppsgate, and to satisfy my self of the certainty therof I went yesterday morneing at Five of the Clock from St. Dunstones Church in Fleet street (wheere the Fire had received a Check by the Blessing of God upon the Endeavo*"^ of my Lord Craven) to the Tower of London ; and as I went over heapes of rubbish and smoake, not one howse * 5th Series, Vol. v, p. 307. 66 standing nor church but all Burnt, and most of the Bells melted, the houses round about Tower hill I found standing except two or three, and Seething Layne adjoyneing to Tower street, all intire upp to Crutched Fryers, and soe to Algate, and Leadenhall street standing firme, onely some part of Leadenhall Burnt, and from thence to Saint Dunstones Church in Fleet street not a howse standing ; the street Leading to Bishoppsgate stands intire, except a litle at the upper end, and Broad street alsoe, except a litle at the upper end, which is all that is standing except the Dutch Church, which hath received litle damage, but the French Church is burnt to the ground, soe is Guildhall, Blackwell hall, and the ould Exchange of which there remaynes nothing standing but the Turrett where the Clock hanged, S'^ Thomas Gresham's picture, and halfe a pillar, Cheapsyde, Pater- noster rowe, and soe to Newgate, Criplegate, and Mooregate all Laid in Ashes ; The 5 parishes standing are these : part of Saint Austyns in Broad Street, Saint Ellens in Bishoppsgate Street, Saint Mary Ax in Leadenhall street. Creed Church and the Church in Crutched Fryers ; People are now beginning to bring in their goods into the Strand, and Holborne, and parts thereabouts, but those that Fledd out of the Citty w*4n the walles are to seeke their habitac'ons. I shall say nothing at p'sent at the multitude of observac'ons, which I have made whilst I was a spectator of this sade Callamity, onely to this Lett us not Lay the Fault upon the French or Dutch, or our owne people for throwing Fire Balles, etc., for by all I cann observe it was digitus dei ; and when Cheapsyde was on Fire, not tenn men stood by helping or calling for helpe, I have beene an eye witness and cann verify this and ICQ tymes more : The Lord Duke of Albemarle came to Towne last night, and I saw him this morneing ryde through the rubbish 67 in Fleetstreet, the Fleet is all at Portesmouth haveing suffered something by the late Storme, but will bee out againe w*^in 8 dayes. I am goeing 25 myles to my owne howse in Essex for a litle refreshment, haveing beene 5 nights w'thout putting of my cloathes, some merchants was yesterday at Greshams Colledge in Bishopps- gate street, which escaped the Fire, and are now goeing to take Councell what they shall doe. An Alderman of London named S' Richard Browne had a Chest w^^ about 10,000/. in it taken out of the Fire, for which he gave the men that ventured their lives 4/. But one Maior stepped upp with a hattfull of money, throwing it amongst the people to save Leadenhall, hee alone there under God gave a check to the Fire, the Duke of York hath wonn the hearts of the people w*^ his continuall and indefatigable paynes day & night in helpeing to quench the Fire, handing Bucketts of water with as much diligence as the poorest man that did assist, if the Lord Maior had donn as much, his Example might have gone Far towards saveing the Citty. I am Y'"' humble serv^ John Rush worth. September the 8th, 1666." Three letters giving a graphic description of the Fire, with many particulars not elsewhere mentioned, are printed by Malcolm in his " Londinium Redivivum " (Vol. iv, pp. 73-82). They were written by a gentleman of the Middle Temple (the first two being dated the 24th and 29th September, 1666), and are printed from originals then in the possession of Richard Gough. From these letters and other contemporary accounts, it appears that in the destruction caused by this terrible calamity, the general public opinion attributed its origin to the deliberate E 2 68 acts of papists and foreign emissaries. This belief was intensified by the trial at the Old Bailey of the unhappy Hubert, who was charged upon his own confession with setting fire to the baker's house where the fire originated. He persisted in his story to the last moment of his execution. The testimony of competent enquirers points to the conclusion that he was a man of weak intellect, and that his guilt existed only in his imagination. A committee* was appointed by the House of Commons on the 25th September, 1666, "to enquire into the causes of the late Fire;" and their report, issued on 22nd January, 1666-7, is entitled, " A true and faithful account of the several informations exhibited to the hon. Committee appointed by the Parliament to enquire into ■ the late dreadful Firing of the City of London. Together with other informations touching the insolency of Popish priests and Jesuits and the increase of Popery ; brought to the hon. Committee appointed by the Parliament for that purpose. Printed in the year 1667." The Report of the Committee is printed in Howell's State Trials, 1816, Vol. vi, coll. 807-866. The result of this exhaustive enquiry was to entirely disprove the popular belief. The following memorandum by Williamson, Secretary of State, is preserved ariiong the State Papers dated September, i666t: — "That after many careful examinations by Council and His Majesty's ministers, nothing has been found to argue the fire in London to have been caused by other than the hand of God, a great wind, and a very dry season." Some writers went to the length of affirming that the Fire was intentionally caused by the Government itself, to purge the * The Committee at first consisted of 45 persons, 23 were afterwards added, "and all the members that serve for the City." Sir Robert Brook was appointed chairman. fCal. of State Pap., Dom. ser. 1666-7, p. 175. 69 City from the plague, and re-construct it on a grander scale.* Another theory as to the cause of the Great Fire found ex- pression in a curious memorial which was formerly put up on a house at Pye Corner in Smithfield, where the progress of the Fire was finally stayed. It represents the figure of a boy, described by Pennant t as "wonderful fat indeed." Across his breast and folded arms was the following inscription : — " This boy is in memmory put up for the late Fire of London occasion'd by the sin of gluttony 1666." A print of this figure was published on the nth January, 1791, for J. T. Smith's Antiquities of London. A fine description of the Great Fire occupies nearly one- third of Dryden's magnificent poem "Annus Mirabilis, ]666."t The poem contains 304 stanzas, and after recounting the progress and varying successes of our naval war with Holland, under Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle, proceeds, in the 209th stanza, to describe how Swelled with our late successes on the foe, Which France and Holland wanted power to cross, We urge an unseen fate to lay us low. And feed their envious eyes with English loss. In a fine passage the poet likens the Fire to " some dire usurper," sent by Heaven " to scourge his country with a lawless sway," and continues : — Such was the rise of this prodigious fire, Which, in mean buildings first obscurely bred. From thence did soon to open streets aspire And straight to palaces and temples spread. * The City Remembrancer, 1769, Vol. ii., p. 66. f Some Account of London, 4th edition, 1805, p. 287. J The text of the " Globe " edition of Dryden's Works has been followed. 70 The diligence of trade, and noiseful gain, And luxury, more late, asleep were laid ; All was the Night's, and in her silent reign No sound the rest of Nature did invade. In this deep quiet, from what source unknown. Those seeds of fire their fatal birth disclose ; And first, few scatt'ring sparks about were blown. Big with the flames that to our ruin rose. Then, in some close-pent room it crept along. And, smould'ring as it went, in silence fed ; Till th' infant monster, with devouring strong, Walk'd boldly upright with exalted head. He next describes the progress made by the flames in the silent night, their rapid approach, fanned by the wind, to London Bridge, whence, — The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend, With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice, About the fire into a dance they bend, And sing their sabbath notes with feeble voice.* " The crackling noise of dreadful flames " awake the slumbering citizens : — Now streets grow thronged and busy as by day ; Some run for buckets to the hallowed quire ; Some cut the pipes, and some the engines play. And some, more bold, mount ladders to the fire. The fire then " wades the streets," and the flames reach across to the opposite houses : — At first they warm, then_ scorch, and then they take ; Now with long necks from side to side they feed ; At length, grown strong, their mother-fire forsake, And a new colony of flames succeed. * This statement is a poetic licence, since the fire did not reach the tower upon which the traitors' heads were placed, this being near the Southwark end of London bridge. 71 One mighty squadron " by powerful charms of gold and silver," is led " the Lombard bankers and the Change to waste." Another backward to the Tower would go, And slowly eats his way against the wind. At break of day the King appears upon the scene : — Himself directs what first is to be done, And orders all the succours which they bring; The helpful and the good about him run. And form an army worthy such a king.* The attempts to check the fire by blowing up houses prove unsuccessful, and the despair of the rich who cannot save their wealth is next depicted : — The rich grow suppliant, and the poor grow proud ; Those offer mighty gain, and these ask more.f Those who still have homes invite their friends to share them, until their own destruction draws near :— The most in fields, like herded beasts, lie down, To dews obnoxious, on the grassy floor ; And while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown, Sad parents watch the remnants of their store. Then follows the King's supplicatory prayer : — The Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword, * This is not flattery; and the Duke of York merited equal praise. "It is not indeede imaginable," says Evelyn, "how extraordinary the vigilance and activity of the King and the Duke was, even labouring in person, and being present to command, order, reward, or encourage workmen, by which he showed his affection to his people and gained theirs." (Life and Writings, 1819, Vol. i, p. 394-) f " Any money is given for help, 5I., lol., 20I., 30I., for a cart." Vincent, " God's terrible voice," 1667, p. 63. 72 And bade him swiftly drive the approaching fire, From where our naval magazines were stored. The flames, however, avenged themselves by preying upon St. Paul's and on " pious structures by our fathers reared." And now four days the Sun had seen our woes, Four nights the Moon beheld the incessant fire ; It seemed as if the stars more sickly rose. And farther from the feverish North retire. * * * At length th' Almighty cast a pitying eye, And mercy softly touched His melting breast ; He saw the town's one half in rubbish lie And eager flames give on to storm the rest. A hollow crystal pyramid He takes. In firmamental waters dipped above ; Of it a broad extinguisher he makes, And hoods the flames that to their quarry strove. The vanquished fires withdraw from every place, Or, full with feeding, sink into a sleep : Each household Genius shows again his face, And from the hearths the little Lares creep. After noticing the King's care for the relief of the suffering citizens — The father of the people opened wide His stores, and all the poor with plenty fed, — the poet concludes with a description of the restoration of the city to more than her former grandeur : — Already, labouring with a mighty fate. She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow, And seems to have renewed her charter's date, Which Heaven will to the death of time allow. 73 More great than human now and more august, New deified she from her fires does rise : Her widening streets on new foundations trust And, opening, into larger parts she flies. * * * Now, like a maiden queen, she will behold. From her high turrets, hourly suitors come ; The East with incense and the West with gold Will stand like suppliants to receive her doom. The silver Thames, her own domestic flood. Shall bear her vessels like a sweeping train, And often wind, as of his mistress proud, With longing eyes to meet her face again. Samuel Pepys was an eye- witness of the conflagration, almost from its outbreak. Mounting one of the high buildings in the Tower, about ten o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of September, he beheld all the houses at the north end of London Bridge on fire, " and an infinite great fire on this, and the other side the end of the bridge." Going down to his friend, the Lieutenant, the latter told him that the Fire begun this morning in the king's baker's house in Pudding Lane, and that it hath burnt down St. Magnus's Church, and most part of Fish street, already." Thence he traced its course to the Old Swan, and the Steel yard, and making his way to Whitehall, he was summoned to tell the King and Duke of York what he had seen. From the King he received orders "to go to my Lord Mayor from him, and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way. The Duke of York bid me tell him, that if he would have more soldiers, he shall ; and so did my Lord Arlington afterwards, as a great secret." His way lay by " Paul's," and down Watling Street, where he "at last met my 74 Lord Mayor in Canning Street, like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King's message,* he cried, hke a fainting woman, ' Lord ! what can I do ? I am spent : people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses ; but the fire over- takes us faster than we can do it.' That he needed no more soldiers ; and that, for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having been up all night." Pepys, continuing his walk on this awful Sunday, saw the churches all filling with goods by people who themselves should have been quietly there by this time." In the afternoon he met the King and Duke of York in their barge, and saw the " river full of lighters and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in the water." Towards night he watched the growth of the fire from a little ale-house on the Bankside. It appeared a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the flame of an ordinary fire." Later still, he " saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire . . . above a mile long." On Wednesday morning, being at Woolwich before day-break to place his gold in safety, he saw " the whole City almost on fire, as plain as if you were by it." Space will not * The Lord Mayor at this critical time was Sir Thomas Bludworth, a man of blameless reputation, but wanting in the energy and decision of character necessary to cope with such a calamity. He also lacked the support of the citizens, who were more anxious to save their own goods than to act in concert for the general safety. Towards the close of his year of office he vindicated himself in a letter to Williamson, afterwards Secretary of State (Cal. of State Papers, 1666-7, PP- 167-8; compare also Malcolm's Lond. Red. Vol. iv, p. 74). Sir Thomas was elected alderman of Dowgate Ward in 1658, and afterwards removed to Aldersgate. He was sheriff of London in 1662. He lived at Camden House, Maiden Lane, and was a member of the Vintners' Company. Besides contributing ^^loo towards rebuilding Vintners' Hall after the Great Fire, he left, as a token of his respect for the Company, two silver bowls with covers, which are still in their possession. His daughter Mary became the wife of the notorious Jeffreys, afterwards Lord Chancellor. 75 allow of further quotations from Pepys's graphic description, which, with Evelyn's almost equally interesting account, is well known.* In striking contrast with the feebleness of the lord mayor, were the energetic personal services rendered by the King and the Duke of York, in whose praise all writers agree. The chief causes of the rapid spread of the fire were the raging east wind which blew burning flakes in all directions, the haste of the inhabitants to save their goods, and their objections to blowing up such houses as were necessary to stop the progress of the flames. Besides this there was a scarcity of water, but had the supply been plentiful it is doubtful whether the feeble fire engines then in use would have availed to check the conflagration. In the Guildhall Museum can be seen the fire engine employed at Guildhall in 1687, twenty-one years after the fire, with two others belonging respectively to the ward of Aldgate (1672), and the parish of St. Dionis Backchurch. These " engines " are brass hand squirts, the largest being 3 feet long, with a diameter of 3 inches. The most valuable help which the citizens received was from the soldiers supplied by the Duke of York, who assisted in blowing up houses, by which means the progress of the fire was at length stopped. As will be seen from the bibliography in the following chapter, there is no lack of contemporary accounts of the Great Fire. Ford, in his Latin and English poem, " Conflagratio Londinensis," f thus describes its outbreak : — The liquid Pitch in flaming clouds doth rowle, (The draught of Heaven shrivell'd to a scrowle,) And clammy lightnings in strange Figure, falls, Like sparks, from beaten Links at Funeralls. * See List of Authorities, p. 114. f 2nd edit., 1667, pp. 8, 10. 76 The scared citizens, with trembling, gaze To watch the downfall of the hovering blaze : Till, where least fear'd, it lights ; and fatal showres Through Chimney-tops into their dwellings powres. Buckets, and Pumps they now for service press : The service hot, and dubious the success : They drain the Thames, and from the broken Lead Divert the streams which private dwellings fed, — Who dwelt together, now together burn ; And Houses mix'd, to mixed Ashes turn. — The Flames augmented by the Houses crowd, Its Hunger still encreasing with its Food. — Here ruinous cracks, there doleful shriekes do sound, And those that danger should unite, confound. All writers concur in representing the Fire of London to have begun in Pudding Lane, a narrow thoroughfare crowded with old timber buildings. The next place view'd was where the flame began, From empty'd Tripes called Pudding lane : And ne're (said she*) to greater honour rise, Thou source of London's Tragedies, f The houses here were mostly of timber, were very closely built, and, according to the custom then prevailing, had constant and fierce fires kept in the hearths every night. The insignificance of this spot, from whence originated so mighty a destruction, makes Rollet compare its effects to "the killing of the great giant Goliah by a pibble-stone flung from the sling and arm of little David ; or the slaying of a thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass ; or, the throwing down the walls of Jericho with the sound of rams-horns." * The poet's muse. f Ford, Londini quod Reliquum^ 1667, pp. lo-ii. X Burning of London, 1667, p. 99. 77 Another writer * speaking of Pudding lane says : — " This Httle pittyfull lane, crowded in behind Little Eastcheap on the west, St. Buttolph's lane on the east, and Thames street on the south of it, was the place where the fire originated, and that, forwarded by a bakers stack of wood in the house, and by all the neighbouring houses, which were as so many matches to kindle and carry it on to its havock ; thus the fire, meeting with the Star inn on Fish street hill on the back of it, and that inn full of hay and other combustibles, and with the houses opposite to it, and closed with it at the top, burned three ways at once, into Thames street, (the lodge of all combustibles, oyl, hemp, flax, pitch, tar, cordage, hops, wines, brandies, and other materials favourable to fire ; all heavy goods being warehoused there neer the waterside, and all the wharfs for coale, timber, wood, &c., being in a line consumed by it,) unto Fish street hill, till it met the other fire at the Bridge, to the interval of building, and to Butolph's lane into Mark lane in Tower street : and in all this savage progress met with no opposition from engines or other artifices ; because it was impossible, in such a strait, and in such a rage of fire, they should be serviceable. For, if all the engineers of mischief would have compacted the irremedyable burning of London, they could not have laid the scene of their fatal con- trivance more desperately, to a probable success, than there where it was, where narrow streets, old buildings all of timber, all con- tiguous each to other, all stuffed with aliment for the fire, all in the very heart of the trade and wealth of the city ; these all con- centring in this place, put a great share of the mischief upon the choice of the place." * Edward Waterhouse, in his * ' Short Narrative of the late dreadful F'ire in London," 1667, pp. 47-8, 78 The year in which the fire happened is said, by RoUe,* to have completely falsified the prophesying then in fashion. " The idolized year should have been 66, a year of jubilee, I had almost said a time of the restitution of all things." Waterhouse further exclaims against the mouthy as having been always distinguished for calamities : — " O day, O month, September ! not more inauspicious to many famous cities : such as Jerusalem, begirt the seventh, and entred the eighth of Septem- * ber ; such as Constantinople, which was wasted by fire anno 465 in the beginning of September ; such as Heidleberg, which was taken by the Imperialists about 1622. And now, to London, in this fire of September, 1666." t The particular hour (two o'clock on Sunday morning) was, Brookes observes, "very ominous, it being at a time when most citizens were but newly fallen into a dead sleep, being wearied out in their several employments several dayes before, but especially on Saturday (or the last day of the week), that being with very many the most busiest day in all the week : and of all mornings, most citizens did usually lye longest in bed Sabbath day mornings. " 'Twas at still midnight," says Wiseman's account, " when all was wrapt in a peaceful silence, and every eye shut up in quiet slumber, that this dreadfull fire brake forth, whose hidden flames at first obscurely crept within close limits ; but quickly scorning to be so confined, in a bright blaze brake openly upon us. And now the voice of fire in every street — with horrid emphasis — is echoed forth : these dreadfull screams disturb our midnight quiet, and * Burning of London, p. 90. f Short Narrative, p. 83. X London's Lamentations, 1670 (Application) pp. 32 3. 79 raise affrighted people from their beds, who scarce awake, all seems to be a dream,"* The commencement and progress of the Fire are concisely, though but in very homely lines, summed up in Tabor's Season- able Thoughts in Sad Times t : — " Upon September's second day, i'th' year Much talkt of Sixty-six, did there appear By two i' th' morning these consuming flames, Which did break out first in the street of Thames : And then blown on by a strong wind into The city, what e're art or strength could do Of men to stop, or slack its fury, by The Friday morning did in ruines lie The greatest part of that within the Wall, And much beside of that we Suburbs call : For it broke through Newgate, and went on To Holborn bridge, and had through Ludgate gone, Up Fleet street unto Temple bar before Its fury stopt, and did burn down no more." By the certificate of Jonas Moore and Ralph Gatrix, the surveyors appointed to examine the ruins, it appeared that the fire over-ran 373 acres of ground within the walls, and 63 acres 3 roods without the walls; 13,200 houses and 89 parish churches, besides chapels, were burnt ; only 1 1 parishes within the walls escaped destruction, and only 75 acres 3 roods within the walls re- mained unburnt. The damage caused by the Great Fire is estimated, in Strype's edition of Stow's Survey,t to have amounted to XiO)730j5oo. Pepys considers that the loss of annual rental in consequence of the destruction of houses was ;^6oo,ooo. * Description of the Fatall and Dreadfull Burning of London, quoted in Thomson's Chronicles of London Bridge, p. 442. f 1667, p. 21. | 1754, i, p. 280. 8o While the City lay in ruins several temporary conveniences were formed for the benefit of the public. Tabernacles were erected in various places for the conduct of divine worship. The gardens or walks of Gresham College were converted into an exchange for the merchants, and in its apartments also the public business of the City was transacted, instead of at the Guildhall ; the first meeting of the Court of Aldermen after the fire being held there on Thursday afternoon, the 6th of September.* The Royal Society, being thus excluded from Gresham College, was removed to Arundel House. Special places were also appointed as temporary markets for provisions. The Excise Office was provided for in Southampton Fields, near Bedford House ; the General Post Office was removed to Bridges street, Covent Garden ; the affairs of the Custom House were transacted in Mark lane ; the King's Wardrobe was removed from Puddle Wharf to York Buildings ; and the official business of Doctors' Commons was transacted in Exeter House, in the Strand. The temporary distress which the Fire had occasioned was ameliorated by the attention which the Government, the Corpora- tion, and all classes of the community showed for the relief and comfort of the citizens. Persons whose houses had been destroyed were allowed to build sheds on London Bridge, in the Artillery Ground, and other vacant places. Tents were erected for the poor in Finsbury Fields. t Moore-fields with piles of goods are fill'd, and there Their owners lie abroad in th' open air. J By the statute of 19 Charles 11 (i^^^j), chap. 2, any three or more of the judges were constituted a Court of Judicature to hear and determine all differences respecting buildings destroyed by the * Repertory 71, f. 168. f Repertory 71, ff. 169, 170b. I Tabor's Seasonable Thoughts, p. 25. ^ 8i Fire. Their orders were to be final and binding to the parties and their representatives for ever. The Court sat at Clifford's Inn, and its judgments, extending from 1667 to 1673, are contained in a series of nine books, entitled Fire Decrees, which were deposited and still remain in the Guildhall under the custody of the Town Clerk. In gratitude to the judges for their assiduous labours the Corporation of London caused their portraits, painted in full-length by Michael Wright, to be set up in the Guildhall. Wright re- ceived for each portrait £^0. Sir Peter Lely first received the commission, but refusing to wait on the Judges at their own cham- bers, Wright got the business." * The names of the judges were : — Sir Heneage Finch. Sir Orlando Bridgman. Sir Matthew Hale. Sir Richard Rainsford. Sir Edward Turner. Sir Thomas Tyrrell. Sir John Archer. Sir William Morton. Sir Robert Atkins. Sir Samuel Brown. Sir Edward Atkins. Sir John Vaughan. Sir Francis North. Sir Thomas Twisden. Sir Christopher Turner. Sir William Wylde. Sir Hugh Windham. Sir William Ellys. Sir Edward Thurland. Sir Timothy Lyttleton. Sir John Kelynge. Sir Wadham Windham. The anniversary of the great calamity was ordered to be observed as a day of civic humiliation by the statute 19 Charles II, chap. 3, sect. 28, which provided, ''That the said citizens and their successors for all the time to come, may retaine the memoriall of soe sadd a desolation, and reflect seriously upon their manifold iniquities, which are the unhappy causes of such judgements : Be it further enacted, That the second day of * Walpole's Anecdotes of Paintings, Works, 1798, Vol. iii, p. 309. F 82 September (unless the same happen to be Sunday, and if soe then the next day following) be yearely for ever hereafter ob- served as a day of Publique fasting and humiliation within the said citty and libertyes thereof, to implore the mercies of Almighty God upon the said citty, to make devout prayers and supplication unto him, to divert the like calamity for the time to come." The Lord Mayor and Corporation accordingly attended St. Paul's Cathedral each year in state. The Aldermen were sum- moned to meet in the Corporation vestry, in their scarlet gowns. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs went from the Mansion House in state to St. Paul's, where they met the Aldermen, and proceeded into the choir to hear divine service and a sermon preached by the Lord Mayor's Chaplain. Afterwards the Lord Mayor and Aldermen returned to the Mansion House.* A list of some of the sermons preached on these occasions will be found on pages 109-110. The special form of prayer appointed to be used appears in some Oxford prayer books, printed between 1681 and 1683. It was first issued for use *'by his Majesties special command," on October 10, 1666, and contained, like other special forms, a hymn, instead of the Venite, proper Psalms and lessons, etc., but was without any special mention of the Fire or of the City of London. In 1696 it was revised and re-issued under Archbishop Tenison's authority, with a different hymn, and other changes, and with a Collect added which prayed for the preservation of the City from fire. The service was re-printed in a separate form by the King's printers from time to time, even as lately as the year 1821 : and a Latin version of it is included in the Latin Prayer Book published * Ceremonial Book, 1864, p. 125 ; cf. Diary of the Mayoralty of Micajah Perry Lord Mayor 1738-9, 3rd September. (Guildhall Library, MS. 15.) 83 by Thomas Parsell, of which the last edition appeared in 1759. Its use was continued in St. Paul's Cathedral until the year 1859, when the observance of the day ceased, together with that of the State holydays abrogated by Parliament.* By his will dated 31 July, 1672, Thomas Rich bequeathed a messuage and premises in Lime Street, the proceeds to pay for preaching two sermons in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft, one on New Year's day, and the other on the third Tuesday in September, in thankfulness to God for the preservation of the said parish from the dreadful fire in i666.t Rolle, in his London's Resurrection, t a series of religious discourses to encourage the re-building of London, thinks " That the ruinous heap, or that chaos which we now call London, will be once again a goodly city," because : — First, There is no scripture denunciation to the contrary, as in the case of Nineveh and Babylon. Second, he sees the citizens "as busie as so many ants hastning to and from their several mole-hills," and not a few so intent, that although coals were three or four pounds a chaldron, and bricks and timber at an excessive rate, all would not beat them off from building. And Third, because "you might see by the respect which citizens paid, and yet do pay, to the dust and mines of London, how they hanker after it, not for what it is, but for what they hoped it shall be. They visit the ruins yearly, call every parish by its former name, observe its bounds, chuse officers upon the very place, chuse aldermen and their deputies for every ward that is unsupplyed, nominate church- wardens, constables, etc., as if it might be said of London, as was said of Lazarus, that he was not dead, but slept." * The Annotated Book of Common Prayer, edited by the Rev. J. H. Bhmt, 1884, pp. 704-5. f Reports of the Charity Commissioners, Vol. xxiii, p. 185. J 1668, pp. 2, 9, 10 & 19. F 2 84 He comforts his readers, by observing that, "though there be but 800 houses finished (and some think there be more), yet it is a good and great progress, all things considered : it being now March 12, 1667, and not much above one year and half since the Fire." The immediate danger over, preparations for re-building the City at once began. The King issued a proclamation on the 13th September for a general fast and humiliation, and for collections to be made in all churches and chapels for the benefit of the poor. He also prohibited the erection of " hasty and unskilful buildings," or the use of any other material than stone or brick for building, ordering a survey of the City to be made, and promising to " cause a plot or model to be made for the whole building through those ruined places." * In order to encourage workmen in the various branches of the building trade to use their best efforts to prosecute the re-building of the City with all speed, the Act of 1667 provided that " foreigners " or non-freemen should have the liberty to work in these trades for the space of seven years from 1667, and after- wards until the City should be finished. If they completed the term of seven years, they were to retain the same privilege for life. (19 Charles II, chap. 3, sec. 18) This regulation is supposed to be typified by the figure of Liberty in Cibber's sculpture described on page 26. This Act was the outcome of communications which had previously passed between the King and his Ministers, and the Courts of Aldermen and Common Council.t * For particulars as to the effect of this proclamation on the citizens, see Howell's State Trials, 18 16, col. 838 note, f See Journal 46, ff. 129b, I32b-I33b ; Repertory 72, ff. 2, 8, 21, 43 et seq., 8ib ; Calendar of State Papers, Dom. Series, 1666-7, p. 469, «5 A further proclamation from the King was issued from Whitehall on 26th September, ]668, ''touching the charitable collections for the relief of the poor, distressed by the late dismal fire in the City of London."* This was followed, in 1670, by an additional Act (22 Charles II, cap. 11), for re-building the City, its Cathedral and churches. Provision was made by both Acts for re-building St. Paul's Cathedral and the parish churches out of part of the proceeds of the duty of one shilling per chaldron on coals, which was to continue till 1677. The duty was increased in 1670 to three shillings per chaldron, and extended to 1687 ; on its expiry a further Act was passed fixing the amount at eighteen-pence per chaldron. One-fifth of the original duty was to be devoted to re- building the parish churches ; the number of these was first fixed at thirty-nine, but was afterwards increased to fifty-one, to be selected by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, t The correspondence on this subject, with the report of the pre- lates and the list of churches decided upon, is preserved in the Harleian MS. 4941, 66E. Amongst other improvements, the Act of 1667 endeavoured to correct the inequalities of ground in the old sites of lanes and build- ings about the waterside. Such had been the steepness of the Thames bank between Watling Street and the river, that the fire chiefly spread in that direction, because the water from the high streets rushed down in torrents so rapidly, that it was found impossible to catch it to quench the flames. For preventing inundations and for easiness of ascent," therefore, it was enacted, "That the street called Thames Street, and all the ground between the same street * For particulars concerning the collection and distribution of this money, see MSS. 271, 274, 296-298, Guildhall Library. t Clifford's Private Bill Legislation, 1887, Vol. 2, pp. 366-371. 86 and the river Thames, should be raised and made higher by three feet. New Fish Street was widened from St. Magnus church to the Conduit in Gracechurch Street." All the other principal streets were also widened, " that the great and many inconveniences which were found," says Rolle, " in and by the narrowness of Thames Street, and some others, might be amended." And the houses, he tells his readers, were carried up higher than before, in order to the gaining of more room ; " those latitudinarian streets requiring altitiidinarian houses," as he quaintly remarks. Both the survey of the ruins and the model or plan for re-building the City were placed by the King in the hands of Sir Christopher Wren. This plan, could it have been carried out, would, as stated in the " Parentalia," have made " the new city the most magnificent, as well as commodious for health and trade of any upon earth." One of the greatest improvements was the intended re-construction, not only of the spacious quay which had existed in the parish of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, in the days of Fitzstephen, but the continuation of a similar quay along the whole northern bank of the Thames, from the Tower to the Temple. Wren's plan was to have left the part of this terrace between Billingsgate and Dowgate of nearly double the width of the rest ; to have opened a large space between the Bridge foot and Crooked Lane, which would have widened the confined corners of Upper and Lower Thames Streets ; and to have terminated the area with a semi-circular piazza, ranging with Crooked Lane and Monument Yard, from which were to diverge principal streets to various parts of the metropolis. The illustration of this design, at page 57, will show how great would have been its advantages. Sir John Evelyn also 87 prepared a plan * which would have restored the city to a state of much greater grandeur and convenience. Both of these plans were, however, prevented from being carried out by the obstinate objections of the citizens to alter their properties, or allow their houses to be re-built otherwise than on the old foundations.! Many writers have recorded the so-called prophecies " of this terrible visitation. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1792,! a prophecy of the destruction of the City of London by fire is quoted from a book by Walter Gostelo printed in 1658, entitled, "The coming of God in mercy, in vengeance, beginning with fire, to convert and consume this sinful City of London." Mother Shipton had also predicted " That London in sixty-six should be in ashes," and the author of a letter, written in 1666 and printed in Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum,§ states : " Most of our last year's almanacks talked of fire in London, and one named the month, but it was expunged by L'Estrange (who licensed them) for fear of consequences." || However grievous a calamity to the inhabitants of that period, and lamentable as was the destruction which it occasioned to records, books, and works of art, the Great Fire was, in its after consequences, a great blessing to the City and its inhabitants. It stamped out the plague from which London had only been free for three years out of the previous seventy and more. Maitland, * See Maitland's History of London, 1756, i, 447. f An excellent and concise description of these two plans is given in Brayley's "London and Middlesex," Vol. i, pp. 436-441. X Vol. Ix, pt. 2, p. 897. § Vol. iv, p. 80. II Notices of other similar prophecies will be found in Gent.'s Mag., 1831, pt. 2, p. 6; Notes and Queries, 1st series, Vol. vii, pp. 79-80, 173-4; Vol. xi, p. 341 ; Vol. xii, p. 102. See also Brayley's " History of London and Middlesex," Vol. i, pp. 403-4. 88 writing in 1755, says there's no place in the kingdom, where the inhabitants enjoy a better state of health, or live to a greater age, than the citizens of London.'"*" Walford, in his "Insurance Cyclopaedia," mentions other advantages which were brought about by the fire : — " i. The actual adoption of Fire Insurance in England, commencing in the metropolis the very next year ; and 2. its more general diffusion through Europe. The Municipal Fire Casse of Hamburg was set on foot in 1667, and the lesson of London's Great Fire induced measures of fire protection in every principal city and town in Europe." t * History of London, 1755, Vol. i, pp 437-8. f Vol. iv, p. 40. View of the Monument, Monument Yard, and Fish Street Hill, about 1720 a.d. From an Old Print presened in the Gmldliall Library. CHAPTER V. \ Views, Bibliography, and Authorities. / ,/' NLY one medal is known to have been struck in com- memoration of the Great Fire of London. This ! unique medal is thus described in Medallic Illus- trations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II ; compiled by the late Edward Hawkins, F.R.S., F.S.A., and edited by Augustus W. Franks, F.R.S., F.S.A., and Herbert A. Grueber ; published by the Trustees of the British Museum," 1885 ; Vol i, pp. 525-6: — " Obverse. A shrine, enclosing a crucifix, beneath the name of Jehovah, in Hebrew, radiate ; at the sides, cornfield and vineyard ; before it, on an island, a shepherd feeding his flock, and a tranquil river. In the foreground, St. Paul shaking the viper from his hand. Leg. Mera Bonitas. (Pure goodness). Reverse. A city, one half in flames, the other under a storm of hail ; in front, disturbed river, leafless tree, and Death and a warrior contending on horseback. Above, the Eye of Provi- dence, comets, and storms of wind. Leg. Sic Pvnit. (So he punishes.) Ex. mdclxvi. This small medal must have been struck in remembrance of the Plague and the Fire, and of the mercy of Providence by 90 which these evils had been removed. On one side are seen the plague, the pestilence and war, by which God punishes ; on the other, the blessings of Peace and Plenty, and the removal of the venomous plague — all the effects of His pure loving-kindness." The accompanying view of this interesting medal is taken from electrotypes of the illustrations in the work above quoted, 'which have been kindly furnished by the Trustees of the British Museum, through the courtesy of E. Maunde Thompson, Esq., Principal Librarian. Original views of the Fire of London. There is a painting at Painter Stainers' Hall, on a large scale, showing the whole City, from the Thames, at the height of the Fire. It was painted and presented to the Company by Waggoner.* A poor engraving of this picture was executed by Peter Mazell, for Pennant's History of London (1790, p. 303). Gough mentions a painting by Thomas Wyck, not engraved, which Granger saw in Berkshire. He also mentions "the picture * See Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser., Vol. vi, p. 453. 91 of the most famous City of London as it appeared in the night in the height of its ruinous condition," engraved on page 16 of some book which he cannot further specify.* An original painting of the Fire, formerly belonging to Robert Gosden, Esq., was engraved by W. Birch, on ist December, 1792, for the Antiquarian Repertory. t It is described as "painted by Old [J.] Griffier at the time of the Fire, and is taken just west of Ludgate, showing the ruins of Ludgate prison, with St. Paul's and Bow Church in the background, the former having just caught alight." Wilkinson, in his " Londina Illustrata " (i 8 1 1 , vol. i , No. 3, sheet ll), gives an engraving from another original picture, in the possession of Mrs. Lawrence, which he thinks is a contemporary painting. It represents Lud-gate as just having caught fire, with St. Paul's and Bow Church in full flame in the distance. A view of London in flames is found on the deucs of clubs in an ancient pack of cards, illustrating the Popish plot, described in th^ Gentleman's Magazine of 1814.1 Beneath the view of London is printed: — London remember | ^^^^ The 2'^ of September) ^ Maps and Prints of the Fire of London. A view of London in flames. Engraved by Cornelius Visscher, 1666. Reprinted in Chambers's Book of Days, Vol. ii, p. 302. A true and exact prospect of the famous Citty of London from S. Marie Overs steeple in Southwarke in its flourishing condition before the Fire. Another prospect of the sayd Citty * British Topography, Vol. i, p. 705. f 1808. Vol. ii, p. 150. I Vol. 84, pt. i, p. 4. taken from the same place as it appeareth now after the sad calamitie and destruction by fire, in the yeare M.DC.LXVI. Designed [and engraved] by W. Hollar of Prage : Boh^", 1666. A map or ground plot of the Citty of London and the surburbes thereof, that is to say, all which is within the iurisdiction of the Lord Mayor or properlie calldt Londo by which is exactly demonstrated the present condition thereof since the last sad accident of fire. By W. Hollar. Sould by John Overton at the White horse, in Little Brittaine, next doore to little S. Bartholomewgate, 1666. A new and exact map of Great Britannic, with a map of London and Westminster, before the fire, and a prospect of the City of London as it appeared in the time of the flames. Engraved by W. Hollar. De brandt van London, op den 12, 13, 14, 15 en 16 September anno 1666. Platte grondt der Stadt London met de Aenwysinghe hoe die afgebrandt is. Tot Amsterdam gedruckt by Frederick de Wit inde Calverstraet by den Dam inde Witte Paskaert. Platte grondt der Verbrande Stadt London. Tot Amsterdam, by Marcus Willemsz Doornick, Boeckverkooper op den Vygendam, 1666. - Platte grondt der Stadt London met nieuw Model en hoe die afgebrandt is. Tot Amsterdam gedruckt by Frederick de Wit inde Calverstraet by den Dam inde Witte Paskaert. Delineation of the Citie London, shewing how far the said Citie is burnt down, and what places doe yet remain standing. [Same title in Dutch and French]. Tot Amsterdam, by Marcus Willemsz Doornick, Boekverkooper op den Vygendam, 1666. [A view of London in flames.] 93 A coloured plan of London showing the extent of the Fire, with a design for re-construction, and a small view of the City in flames. Letterpress the same as in the preceding. Platte grondt der Stadt London met nieuw Model en hoe die afgebrandt is. T'Amsterdam, by Frederick de Wit, Kaert- en Konst-Verkoper in de Kalverstraet, by den Dam, inde witte Pascaert. Londons fier began September the Second, 1666. To be sold by Tho : Parkhurst, Nath : Ranew, and Jonath : Robinson. A true pourtraict with a brief description of that deplorable Fire of London. Befallen the 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 Sept. 1666. [Title also in French and Dutch.] Platte grondt der Stadt London. Af belding van de Stadt London. Sic transit gloria mundi, London. [A large print of the Fire.] A small print showing the burning of Old St. Paul's, and a priest, with motto : " Now, London, remember 66." Another view of the burning of St. Paul's. " Etiam periere ruinae." W. Hollar, /^c. A°: 1666. A small view of London in flames, taken from the Bankside, ^Londons fier began September the second 1666. Etiam periere ruinae.' To be sold by Tho. Parkhurst, Nath. Ranew, and Jonatha Robinson. Part of London as it appeared during the dreadful Fire in the reign of Charles II, 1666. Wale deL^ Taylor sculp. Pub. by Alex. Hogg, 16, Paternoster-row [for Harrison's and Thorn- ton's Histories of London]. 94 A plan of London in Q. Elizabeth's jdays. The south prospect of London as it appear'd when it lay in ruins after that dreadfull fire in 1666. Printed for J. Bowles at No. 13 in Cornhill. An exact map representing the condition of the late famous and flourishing City of London as it lyeth in its ruins ; whearin you may see what churches, halls and places of note, with a multitude of houses y^ weare burnt and ruinate in four dayes time by that dreadfull & lamentable fire, which begun in Pudding lane the 2^ of September 1666. Licensed November 18, 1667, Roger L'estrange. Are to be sould by Robert Pricke, in Whitecrosse street, neare Cripplegate church. An exact surveigh of the streets, lanes, and churches comprehended within the mines of the city of London, first described in six plats, 10 Decemb., 1666, by the order and directions of the right hon. the lord mayor, aldermen, and common councell of the said city ; John Leake, John Jennings, Willm. Marr, Willm. Leybourn, Thomas Streete, Richard Shortgrave, Surveyors, and reduced into one intire plat, by John Leake, for the use of the Commissioners for the regulation of streets, lanes, &c. Dedicated by Geo. Vertue to the Society of Antiquaries, 1723. A plan of the City of London after the Great Fire in the year of our Lord, 1666, with the modell of the new city, according to the design and proposal of S' Christopher Wren, K*, &c. Copied from a very scarce print in the possession of the Earl of Pembroke, 1744, by T. Fourdrinier. Londinium redivivum : three plans presented by Mr. John Evelyn to the King a week after the fire, with a discourse. [These plans were engraved for the Society of Antiquaries, 1748.] 95 A plan for rebuilding the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, design'd by that great architect S*" Christopher Wren; and approv'd of by King and Parliament, but unhappily defeated by faction. By J. Gwynn. Publish'd October 3*^ 1749, and sold by the proprietors at Palladio's Head in Long Acre. Vues de la ville de Londres comme il etoit devant et apres I'incendie de 1666. Avec le Plan la rebatir, projette par ce grand architecte le Chevalier Christople Wren, et approuve par le Roi et Parlement ; mais malheureusement rejette par faction. Public par Jean Rocque, chorographe de son altesse royalle le Prince de Galles, 1758. (Reproduced at page 57.) A plan of the City and Liberties of London, shewing the extent of the dreadful conflagration in the year 1666. Engraved for Noorthouck's History of London, 1772. London after the Fire, Anno Domini 1666. Engraved by Neele. Published by J. Stockdale, Piccadilly, 1796. General plan of that part of the City of London which was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666, showing also the present state thereof. Constructed from authentic documents and recent surveys by Francis Whishaw. London, William Darton & Son, Holborn Hill. Views of the Monument. " The Monument of London, hight 202 feet, built in memory of y^ Fire of London," with a view of Monument Yard, the signs of the neighbouring houses, and many figures, carts, coaches, etc. Circ. 1720. (Reproduced at page 89.) Columna Londinensis, qua sol majorem non vidit : ex architectura D"' Christophori Wren Eq^- Aur. N. Hawksmoor del.^ 1723. H. Hulsbergh, sculp. With statue of Charles H. 96 View of the upper part of the Column and of Gibber's sculpture. Gentleman^ s Magazine^ December, 1749. View of the Monument erected in memory of the dreadfull fire in the year 1666. Published according to Act of Parliament, 1752. Canaleti, del.^ G. Bickham, sculp. Brit. Mus. Christie Coll. The Monument, Fish Street Hill. A similar view to that first described, with fewer figures and brief description on two scrolls at the top. Sutton Nicholls, sculp. ^ i754- The Stationers' almanack for the year MDCCLXIX. [With view of Cibber's sculpture on the west front of the Monument.] N. G. Goodnight, sculp. The Monument at London built by S'- Christopher Wren, anno 1677. W. Lowry, sculp. Printed for I. & J. Taylor, High Holborn, London, Feb. 10, 1791. View of Fish Street Hill, from Grace Church Street, representing the Monument and the church of St. Magnus, London Bridge. Painted by William Marlow, F.S.A., 1792, engraved by Thos. Morris, published by John Curtis, 4th November, 1795. View of the Monument and Fish Street Hill. Published Feb. 17, 1795, by John Curtis, Twickenham. William Marlow, del.^ Thomas Morris, sculp. Crowle's Pennant, Brit. Mus. The Monument. Pubhshed March 31st, 1798, by T. Malton. The Monument. Drawn and engraved by W. Poole, for Lambert's History of London. Published by T. Hughes, Stationers' Court, Nov., 1805. Fish Street Hill, looking north ; with the church of St. Magnus, and the Monument. GyfFord del., RofFe sculp., published by J. Stratford, 1807. 97 View on Fish Street Hill, including the Monument, St. Magnus's Church, etc., London. Engraved by J. Le Keux, from a drawing by J. R. Thompson, for the Beauties of England and Wales. Published by Vernor, Hood & Sharpe, Poultry, November ist, 1809. The Monument, a coloured view, showing Fish Street Hill and Old London Bridge. No. 40, of R. Ackermann's Repository of Arts. Published i April, 181 2, at loi. Strand, Le Monument. Baugean, Souvenirs de Londres en 1814 et 181 6. The Monument. Drawn and engraved by J. Greig for the "Walks through London." Published by W. Clarke, New Bond Street, January i, 181 7. A coloured view of the Monument. Ctrc. 1824. The Monument, London. T. H. Shepherd, del.^ C. Fenn, sculp. Monument. T. Dewint, del.^ Chas. Heath, sctilp. Published by Hurst, Robinson & Co., 1825. Inscriptions engraven on the base of the Monument descriptive of the burning and rebuilding of London with the celebrated inscription round the plinth of the column, erased by order of the Com. Council Sep. 26, 1831. Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, 1834. Sculpture in basso-rilievo, executed by Caius Gabriel Cibber, on the western front of the base of the Monument, in com- memoration of the Fire of London. Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, 1834. An original pencil sketch of Fish Street Hill, by W. Dayes, taken from the north side of the Monument and showing the pedestal only. Brit. Mus. Christie Collection. 98 Elevation of the great column of London, commonly call'd the Monument, in memory of the burning of the City, A.D. 1666. According to the first design of the architect S'- Chr. Wren, K*- representing a pillar in flames, H. Hulsbergh, sculp. [A similar inscription in Latin.] Printed for Sam. Harding, Dan. Browne and Wm. Bathoe. " The Monument of London in remembrance of the dreadfull Fire in 1666. Its height is 202 feet." (A similar description in French). Published according to Act of Parliament. Bowles, del. et sculp. A view of the Monument of London in remembrance of the dreadful fire in 1666. Its height is 202 feet. [Also in French.] London, printed for F. West, 83, Fleet Street. Le Monument erige en memoire du grand incendie de Londres. The Monument, W. H. Toms, sculp. The Monument, with a view of Monument Yard, within a border. The Monument, T. Hulett, sculp. View of the Monument. Dayes, del.^ Audinet, scidp. A representation of the carved work on the west side of the pedestal of the Monument of London. Sold by John Bowles opposite to Stocks Market and at Mercers' Hall in Cheapside. (Reproduced at page 25.) View of London Bridge, including the church of St. Magnus and the Monument. Jos^- Farington, R.A , del.^ J. C. Stadler,/^d:. Crowle's Pennant, Brit. Mus. A new draught and description of the Fire Engine. A large print, with views of the Exchange, Monument, etc. Crowle's Pennant, Brit. Mus. 99 In perpetuam memoriam celeberrimae urbis flammis prope desolatae A°: prodigioso 1666, columna haec, ex basi 27 ped. in altitu- dinem 202 ped : sublime caput elevat . . . W. Lodge, del.; W. Faithorne, excud. Crowle's Pennant, Brit. Mus. The same. Engraved by P. Tempest. Crowle's Pennant, Brit. Mus. Bibliography. — The Monument. The column called the Monument, described, erected to perpetuate the dreadful Fire of London in the year 1666 : of the rebuilding the City, under the inspection of that great architect Sir Christopher Wren, Knt. ; together with the building, dimen- sions, inscriptions, and all that is necessary to be known of this famous pillar. To which is added some account of the devastation of that Fire and the loss computed. [By Samuel Arnott, keeper.] pp. 22. I2''- London [1805]. History of the Monument of London from its completion by Sir Christopher Wren, until the present time ; with translations of the different historical Latin inscriptions ; narrative of the various remarkable occurrences ; and every other interesting notice relative to this matchless Doric column. To which is added an official memoir of the Fire of London, in remem- brance of which awful event the Monument was erected. Printed for John Bleaden, keeper of the Monument. pp.34. I2°- Zo;z^o;z [1833 ?] History of the Monument of London from its completion by the celebrated Sir Christopher Wren until the present time : with translations of the different historical Latin inscriptions. To lOO which is added an official memoir of the Fire of London : in remembrance of which awful event the Monument was erected. Printed for Thomas Woodward, keeper of the Monument. pp.24. 12° Zo7z<^o;/ [1865 ?]. Suicide of a young female [Miss Moyes] by throwing herself off the Monument [with a view.] Sept. 11, 1839. Birt, printer. The same. Printed by H. Paul. Suicide of a youth, about 15 or 16, by throwing himself from the Monument, i8th October, also the suicide of Miss Moyes, nth September. I2°- London^ 1839. Another horrible suicide from the Monument [with a view]. The Penny Paul Pry, Sept. 26, 1839. The authentic particulars of another most determined and frightful suicide of a youth, apparently about 15 or 16 years of age, by throwing himself from the Monument, at 5 o'clock of the evening of Friday, October the i8th, 1839, with every accurate account of this terrific circumstance [with a view.] Published by G. Gilbert, 2, Green-arbour Court, Old Bailey. pp. 7. I2°- London^ 1839. Coroner's inquest, held on the body of Robert Donaldson Hawes, who committed self-destruction by throwing himself off the Monument [on the i8th October, 1839]. Printed by H. Paul. Another appalling catastrophe at the Monument [with a view of a youth precipitating himself from the platform.] Published by E. Lloyd for J. Graves, printer. History of the life and adventures of a mouse, written by himself. pp. 14. I2''- London [1847]. lOI Bibliography. — Fire of London. By the King [Charles II]. A proclamation for a general fast [on account of the fire of London, dated] September 13. broadside^ London^ 1666. His Majestie's declaration to his city of London, upon occasion of the late calamity by the lamentable fire. f°- London^ 1666. Declaration of His Majesty to his city of London upon occasion of the late calamity by the lamentable fire. f°- 1666. Letter of King Charles II, concerning the relief of the public distress caused by the late Fire of London. 4°- sh. 1666. Order of the Lord Mayor [Weld] for re-building the City after the Fire. broadside. London^ 1666. Confirmation by the Privy Council of the Lord Mayor's order for re- building the City after the great fire, broadside. London^ 1667. A form of Common Prayer. To be used on Wednesday the Tenth day of October next, throughout the whole Kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales, being appointed by His Majesty a day of Fasting and Humiliation, in consideration of the late dreadful Fire which wasted the greater part of the City of London ... 4°- London^ 1666. London's destroyer detected, and destruction lamented ; or some serious ruminations and profitable reflections upon the late dreadful, dismal, and never-to-be-forgotten conflagration : wherein is briefly comprehended several things considerable, in order to London's present recovery and future prosperity. 4°- London^ 1666. London undone ; or, a Reflection upon the late disastrous Fire. [In verse]. f°' London^ 1666. 102 Londinenses lacrymae ; London's second tears mingled with her ashes. By John Crouch. 4°- London^ 1666. Vox Civitatis : or London's call to her natural and adopted children : exciting them to her speed}^ reedification. [In verse]. London^ 1666. Experimental proposal, how the king may have money to pay and maintain his fleets, with ease to the people. How London may be rebuilt, the proprietors satisfied, the money lent at six per cent, fitting it up ... By Sir John Ford. 4°- London^ 1666. A brief accompt of the maintenances arising by the tithes . . . and other profits, to the several ministers of the parish-churches demolished by the fire of London. f°- sh. London^ 1666. In tristissimum immanissimumque urbis Londinensis monas circiter Sept. — LXVI. incendium, carmen lugubre. f°- London^ 1666. Breve relacion del horroroso incendio que ha padecido la ciudad de Londres ... 4"" Sevilla, 1666. Loudens Puyn-hoop, oft Godts Handt over der selve in 't ver- branden der Stadt, den 12, 13, 14, 15 en 16 van Herfstmaent, 1666 ... 4°- 1666. A true and exact relation of the most dreadful and remarkable fires that have happened since the reign of King William the Con- queror, to this present year 1666, in the cities of London and Westminster and other parts of England. s. sh. f°- London^ 1666. Egentlig beskrifvelse om den forfaerdelige oc store ildebrand som hafver varit i fern gandske dage och moren odelagt den vit- ber(/>mte och rige Stad Londen i Engeland, som er uddragen af en skrifvelse, kommen fra Londen, til en god Venhvor ude optoegnis alle Straeder Gader och Kircker som ere lagde i aske. 2 leaves, 4°- 1666. 103 A relation^of the late dreadful Fire in London, as it was reported to the Committee in Parliament, By Samuel Rolles. S*'- London^ 1667. God's terrible voice to the City by plague and fire ... By Thomas Vincent. I2°- London^ 1667. [This excellent account of the fire was very popular in its day ; no less than thirteen editions of it were published within five years.] Informations concerning the Burning of the City of London with Observations on the Burning of it. S*'- London^ i66y. A short narrative of the late dreadful Fire in London. By Edward Waterhous. 8°* Loudon^ 1667. An essay on the late fire and ruins of London. By E. Settle. Oxon^ Lond.^ 1667. Observations both historical and moral upon the burning of London, September 1666. By Rege Sincera. 4°- London^ 1667. [Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. Vol. iii, pp. 295-307.] London's flames discovered, by informations taken before the Committee appointed to enquire after the burning of the city of London, and after the insolency of the Papists . . . 4°- London^ 1667. A true and faithful account of the several informations exhibited to the Committee appointed by Parliament to enquire into the late dreadful burning of the City of London. 4°- London^ 1667. [Reprinted in Lord Somers's tracts, 4th Collection. Vol. ii., pp. 1-23.] Counsel to the afflicted . . . Occasioned by the dreadful fire in the City of London ... 8°- 1667. De urbis Londini incendio elegia ; accedit etiam ad eandem urbem et ad Britanniam carmen heroicum. By William Smith. 4°- London^ 1667. 104 A poem on the burning of London. s. sh. f°- Yoi'k, 1667. Upon the Fire of London, and the Plague. A Latin poem in heroic verse. By Joshua Barnes. [ ' Several dramatique pieces.'] . 8°- London^ 1679. Seasonable thoughts in sad times: being some reflections on the warre, the pestilence, and the burning of London considered in the calamity, cause and cure. [In verse.] By John Tabor. 8°- London^ 1667. Conflagratio Londinensis poetice depicta. The conflagration of London ; poetically described both in Latin and English. [By Simon Ford, D.D.] ist and 2nd editions. 4° London^ 1667. Londini quod reliquum, or London's remains, in Latin and English. [By Dr. Ford.] 4*"- London^ 1667. A short and serious narrative of London's fatal fire, with its diurnal and nocturnal progression ... a poem ; as also London's lamentation to her regardless passengers. 4°- London^ 1667. Actio in Londini incendiarios. [By Dr. Ford.] 4°- London^ 1667. Annus mirabilis: the year of wonders, 1666. An historical poem . , . [By John Dryden.] 8°- London^ 1667. Upon the late lamentable fire in London. In an humble imitation of the most incomparable Mr. Cowley his Pindarick strain. By J. A., of Kings Colledge in Camb. Fellow. 4°- London^ 1667. 'AKUfiarov wvp, or the . . . burning of London ... [A poem by J. G. M. A.]. 4°- London^ 1667. Pyrotechnica Loyolana, Ignatian fire-works ; or the fiery Jesuits' temper and behaviour . . , exposed to publick view for the sake of London. 4°- London^ 1667. Jesuites fireworks : the burning of London. 8"- London^ 1667. to5 Rebukes for sin by God's burning anger ... By T[homas] D[oolittle] I2°- London^ 1667. The countries sense of London's sufferings in the late most lamentable fire; discovered in the opening and improving the lamentations of Jeremy ; and in the resolving of three ques- tions, not onely suitable to that sad dispensation, but con- siderable also in all grievous afflictions. By W.T. a well-wisher to the city, and to those that suffer with it. 8°- London^ 1667. England's warning: or England's sorrow for London's misery. [A description of the Great Fire and a list of the parishes burnt.] I2°- London^ 1667. n'Din'pii^: or, the burning of London in the year 1666 ; commemo- rated and improved in a CX discourses, meditations, and contem- plations, by Samuel Rolle. 4 parts in i vol. 8°- London^ 1667. London's resurrection, or the rebuilding of London encouraged, directed, and improved. In fifty discourses . . . By Samuel Rolle, minister of the gospel ... 8°- London^ 1668. Londini renascentis imago poetica, ad Serenissimum Britanniarum Monarcham Carolum II. [By Dr. Ford.] 4°- London^ 1668. London's resurrection poetically represented, and humbly presented . to his most sacred Majesty. [By Dr. Ford.] [Translated from the Latin.] 4°- London^ 1669. Conflagration of London poetically delineated and directed to the most noble and deserving citizen. Sir J[ohn] L[awrence], Knight and Baronet. 4° London^ Flagellum Dei ; or, a collection of the several fires, plagues, and pestilential diseases that have hapned in London especially . . . 4^- 1668. The re-building of the City of London. A poem. 4°- 1669. io6 An Act of 2 2 and 23 Car. ii. C. xv. S. ii. entitled ; An Act for the better settlement of the maintenance of the parsons, vicars and curates in the parishes of the City of London burnt by the late dreadful fire there. f°- Zo7z Pepys' account, 73-74 ; exer- tions of the King and the Duke of York, 75 chief causes of its rapid spread, 75 ; account by Ii8 Ford, 75-76 ; commencement in Pudding Lane, 16.76, 77 ; fatality of the year of its occurrence 78 ; the month, 78 ; the hour, 78 ; Wiseman's account, 78-79 ; Tabour's narrative, 79 ; statis- tics of its ravages, 79 ; estimated damage, 30, 35, 79 ; shelter and relief for the sufferers, 80, 85 ; special Court to determine disputes arising from, 32, 80-81 ; portraits of the Judges ordered by the Corporation, 81 ; list of the Judges, 81 : religious observance of its anni- versary, 81 ; state attendance at St. Paul's Cathedral, 82 ; special form of prayer, 82 ; anni- versary sermons, 83, 109-110; Rolle's reflections, 83 ; measures for re-building the City, 84-87 ; plans by Wren and Evelyn rejected, 86-87 > prophecies of the Fire, 87 ; the event a blessing to the City, 87 ; improved health after, 88 ; pro- motion of fire insurance, 88 ; commemorative medal, 89 ; original views, 90-91 ; maps and prints, 91-95 ; bibliography, 101-108. Fish Street, described by Stow, 13 ; its former im- portance, 13, 14 ; widened after Fire, 86. Fontane, T., satirical notice of the Urn, 50-51. Ford, Dr., poetical account of Fire, 75-76. Gale, Dr., author of inscriptions on Monument, 28 ; services recognized by the Court of Alder- men, 28. Gatrix, Ralph, surveyor, 79. Goldsmith, Oliver, resident in Monument Yard, 51. Gostelo, Walter, prophecy of the Fjre, 87. Grasshopper, a shop sign, 44. Green, William, falls from Monument, 54. Harrow Inn, 44. Hawes, Robert, suicide from Monument 54. Height of Monument, 16; comparison between, and chief columns of the world, 17. Hollingshead, John, night on Monument, 51-52. Hubert, confesses having originated the Fire, 38 ; probably of weak intellect, 68. Inscription on the house where the Fire began, 37-38 ; its removal, 41. Inscriptions on the Monument, composed by Dr Gale, 28 ; Latin inscription on the north side, 29 ; translation, 30 ; Latin inscription on the south side, 31 ; translation, 32 ; Latin inscription, with translation, on the east side, 33 ; Wren's unaccepted inscription, 34 ; translation, 35 ; history of the anti-Catholic inscriptions, 36-41 ; Dr. Littleton's singular inscription, 41 ; anti- Catholic inscription referred to by Addison, 48 ; and Lacombe, 49. Kalm, account of visit to Monument, 49. Keepers of the Monument, 55 ; office abolished, 56. King's Head, a shop sign, 43. Lacombe, remarks on the additional inscription, 49. Leander, suicide from Monument, 54. Lely, Sir Peter, commissioned to paint portraits of the judges, 81. Levi, Lyon, suicide from monument, 54. Littleton, Dr. Adam, inscription for Monument, 33, 41- London, as seen from Monument at night, 51-52 ; le-building of, after the Fire, 14, 32, 35-36, 84-87. Maitland, on loss of life in Fire, 30, note ; on the health of the City after the Fire, 88. Maps and prints of the Fire of London, 91-95. Medal commemorative of the Fire, 89-90. Milne, Robert, author of Wren's epitaph, 24. Mitre, a shop sign, 44. Monument, Act of Parliament for building, 14 ; cost provided by Coal Tax, 14, 32 ; designed by Wren, 14 ; his original proposal, 15 ; letter ac- companying his designs, 15-16 ; dimensions, 16 ; comparison with other columns, 17-18; staircase, 18 ; built of Portland stone, 18 ; construction, 18-22 ; sculptures by Cibber and Pierce, 18 ; model of scaffolding, 18 ; payments for the work, T2-2I ; solid contents of fabric, 21-22 ; sculpture described, 25-26 ; inscriptions with translations, 28-33 » Wren's unaccepted inscription, 34 ; trans- lation, 35-36 ; anti-Catholic additional inscrip- tion, 36-41 ; Dr. Littleton's inscription, 41 ; proposed use for scientific experiments, 44 ; Sir Dudley North's ascent, 44 ; feats of agility by a waiter, 45 ; a sailor's foolhardy descent, 45 ; imitated by a boy, 45 ; Ned Ward's satirical description, 46 ; Addison's description of his visit, 46, 48 ; Lacombe's remarks on the additional in- scription, 49 ; criticised by St. Constant, 49 ; by Defauconpret, 49 ; by Fontane, 50-51 ; by Bouchaud, 51 ; HoUingshead's experiences at night, 51-52 ; illuminated with portable gas, 52 ; a burlesque advertisement, 52 ; a mouse domiciled in, 52, 54 ; used at the Duke of Wellington's funeral, 54 ; suicides from, 54 ; cage erected, 54 ; repairs and embellishments, 54-55 ; present sound condition, 55 ; statistics of visitors, 55 ; list of keepers, 55 ; under the authority of City Lands Committee, 56 ; list of views, 95-99 ; biblio- graphy, 99-100. 119 Monument Yard, 14 ; Goldsmith's residence, 51. Moore, Jonas, surveyor, 79. Mouse in the Monument, its life and adventures, 52, 54- Moyes, Margaret, suicide from Monument, 54. North, Sir Dudley, ascent of Monument, 44. Oates, Titus, pretended"T6pish 'pIot736 ; satfrised by Ward, 39-40. Paintings, original, of the Fire, 90-91. Pedestal of Monument, sculptures and inscriptions on, 25-41. Pennant, quoted, 69. Pepys, Samuel, at the Sun tavern, 43 ; account of Fire, 73-74 ,* estimate of damage, 79, Pierce, Edward, sculptor, dragons carved by, 18. Pope, famous lines on Monument, 41. Predictions of the Great Fire, 87. Prints and maps of Fire, 91-95 ; of Monument, 95-99' Pudding Lane, outbreak of Fire in, 16, 58, 64, 76 ; locality described, 77. Pye Corner, Fire ended at, 69. Re-building of City after Fire, 14, 32, 35-36, 84-87. Rolle, Samuel, remarks on the year 1666, 78 ; re- flections on Fire, 83 ; on widening of New Fish Street, 86. Rushworth, John, letter describing Fire, 65-67. St. Constant, Ferri de, criticism of site of Monu- ment, 49. St. Margaret's church, New Fish Street, 14. Sculpture on pedestal described, 25-26, 84. Sermons commemorative of Great Fire, 82, 83 ; list of, 109, 110 Sharp, " Conversation," quoted, 51. Shipton, Mother, prophecy of Fire, 87. Steps in Monument, number of, 18. Suicides from Monument, list of, 54. Sun tavern, referred to by Pepys, 43. Swan and bridge, a shop sign, 43-44. Tabor, John, poetical description of Fire, 79. Urn, or vase of Monument, height of, 15 ; its form criticised, 50-51. Views-jof Eire,. 90-95. Visitors to Monument, number of 55. Walford, Cornelius, on the advantages resulting from the Great Fire, 88. Ward, Edward, satirical account of Monument, 46. Ward, Sir Patience, Lord Mayor of London, directs the placing of the anti-Catholic inscriptions on Monument,. 39 ; biographical notice, 39 ; satirised by Thomas Ward, 40. Ward, Thomas, poetical reference to Titus Oates and Sir Patience Ward, 39-40. Waterhous, Edward, on fatal month of September, 78. Wellington, Duke of, use of Monument at his funeral, 54. Williamson, Secretary of State, memorandum on Fire, 68. Wiseman, on the burning of London, 78-79. Woodward, Thomas, Keeper of the Monument, 55, 56. Wren, Sir Christopher, architect of Monument, 14 ; his first proposal, 15 ; letter on various designs for summit, 15-16 ; biographical account, 22-23 > his original intention to utilise Monument for scientific experiments, 44 ; entrusted with re- building of City, 86 ; plan of re-construction, 23, 86 ; its rejection, 87. Wright, Michael, commissioned to paint portraits of the judges, 81. York, James, Duke of, represented in Gibber's allegorical sculpture, 26 ; eulogised by Evelyn, 71 ; exertions and assistance during Fire, 58, 59, 60, 67, 73, 74, 75. Fish Street Hill as seen from the Monument. Frofn the " Graphic,^'' by kind permission. THE MONUMENT IS OPEfl TO THE PUBLIC DAILY FROM 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from March 31st to September 30th, AND FROM 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from October 1st to March 30th. ADMITTANCE, 3d. EACH PERSON Entrance in Momtment Yard. GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 3 3125 01410 1600