Ulrich Middeldorf V I * . ! \ ¥ •V .. % T* ' \ \ • w V 'M ¥F HANOVER terrace Kegmls Taxk . wENTRE CF CUMBERLAND TERRACE. /idtjrenf 's / 2r<, TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF ALL NATIONS IN 1851. I^nraiing a Cnraiilrit itiite TO THE BRITISH METROPOLIS i AND ITS ENVIRONS. ILLUSTRATED BT UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED STEEL ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND DAGUERREOTYPES. mOf) anJj iSesscrfptibe llctter=jjveg^, Bx WILLIAM GASPET, Esq. VOL. I. JOHN TALLIS AND COMPANY, LONDON AND NEW YORK. CONTENTS. Abingdon Street Academy of Music, Royal Adelphi Terrace Admiralty Albany Albemarle Street Albion Hotel Aldersg^te Street Aldgate Apsley House Arlington Street Artillery Ground Arts, Society of Arundel Street Auction Mart Audley Street, South Austin Friars Bank of England Barbican . Bartholomew Fair Basing Lane Basinghall Street Beaufort Buildings Belgrave Square Berkeley Square Bethnal Green . Billinsgate . Bishopsgate Street Blackfriars Bridge Blackwall . Bridge Street, New Board of Trade Bond Street Bow Church Bow Street Bride Lane Bridewell Hospital Bridges ; — Blackfriars, 36 ring Cross, or Hungerfo Vauxhall, 14G ; Waterl Westminster 118. VOL. I. Page 147 157 82 86 108 163 188 210 208 289 181 193 312 85 64 276 186 276 269 211 231 234 253 69 195 184 306 243 307 36 297 33 109 189 250 64 41 34 Cha 89 , 62; Bread Street f. British Institution. Broad Street Brompton . Brook Street Bruton Street . Brydges Street . Buckingham Water Gate Buoklersbury Budge Bow Bunhill Fields Cemetery Burleigh Street . Burlington Arcade Burlington House Camden Town . Cambridge Terrace Cannon Street . Cannon Row Carlton House . Carlton Terrace . Castle Baynard , Cavendish Square Catherine Street CeoU Street Chancery Lane . Chancery, Court of Change Alley Chapel Royal Charing Cross . Bridge Hospital Charterhouse Square Cheapside . Chelsea Hospital . Chesterfield House Street Child and Co , Bank of Churches and Chapels — St. Al- bans, 2.50 ; Aldgate, 289 ; All Hallows, Bread Street, 231 ; Page 233 178 . 276 198 187 190 62 88 237 235 314 64 164 190 319 320 238 116 171 172 240 158 61 70 40 143 283 177 104 89 93 213 213 248 195 197 186 186 43 IV CONTENTS. Page All Halloas, Lombard Street, 280; All Hallows, Thames Street, 243 ; All Saints’, 159 ; St. Andrew’s, Undershaft, 287 ; St. Ann’s, Soho, 152 ; St. Bennet’s, Gracechurch, 280 ; St. Bride’s, 41 ; St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, 304 ; Chapel Royal, 177 ; Christchurch, Spitalfields, 306 ; St. Cle- ment’s, Eastcheap, 310; St. Clement’s Hanes, 53 ; St. Dunstan’s in the W est, 40 ; St. Hionis Back Church, 280 ; St. Ethelburga, 302 ; St. Geoi’ge’s, Hanover Square, 156; St. Giles’s, Cripplegate, 212 ; Hanover District Cha- pel, 158 ; St. Helen’s, 302 ; Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, 129 ; St. James, Clerkenwell, 222; St. James, Piccadilly, 191 ; St. John’s, Holloway, 219; St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, 145 ; St. Ka- therine Cree, 287 ; St. Leo- nard’s, Shoreditch, 308 ; St. Luke’s, Old Street, 309 ; St. Magnus, 298 : St. Margaret’s, Lothbury, 275 ; St. Marga- ret’s, Westminster, 135; St. Martin’s - in - the-Fields, 97 ; St. Martin Outwich, 302 ; St. Mary, Abchurch Lane, 309 ; St. Mary Axe, 288 ; St. Mary’s, Islington, 218 ; St. Marylebone, 320 ; St. Mary- le-Strand, 55 ; St. Michael’s, CornhiU, 284; St. Mildred, City, 234; St. Nicholas Church , City, 233 ; Old St. Pan eras, 317 ; New St. Pancras, 317 ; St. Paul’s Cathedral, 7 ; St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, 73 ; St. Peter’s, CornhiU, 285 ; St. Philip’s Chapel, Regent Street, 151 ; Savoy Chapel, 68 ; St. Stephen’s, Coleman Street, 253 ; St. Stephen’s, Walbrook,237 ; St. Swithin’s, 238 ; Temple Church, 44 ; Tennison’s Chapel, 155 ; Tri- nity Chapel, Conduit Street, 156; Westminster Abbey, 122. City Road . .313 Page Clare Market 79 Clement’s Inn .... 63 Cleveland Row 177 Clifford’s Inn 40 Cloisters 132 Cloth Fair 231 Coal Exchange .... 248 Cockspur Street .... 106 Cocoa Tree Club 164 Coleman Street .... 253 Colleges : — Heralds, 20 ; King’s, 56 ; Physicians’, 147 ; Whit- tington’s, 219. Common Pleas, Court of . 143 Compter 232 Conduit Street .... 155 Constitution Hill 194 Consumption Hospital, Brompton 198 Com Exchange .... 281 CornhiU 281 Correction (House of) Coldbath Fields 221 Courts of Law : — Chancery, 143 ; Common Pleas, 143 ; Exche- quer, 143 ; Insolvent Debt- ors’, 81 ; Queen’s Bench, 143. County Fire Office 152 Covent Garden .... 71 Covent Garden Market 72 Coventry Street . 149 New . 102 Cranbourne Street 99 Craven Street . 90 Cripplegate .... Crockford’s Club House . 212 165 Crosby Hall .... 302 Crutched Friars 293 Cumberland Market . 319 Curzon Street .... 106 Devonshire Square . 304 Doctors’ Commons 20 Dover House .... 109 Street .... 188 Dowgate HiU .... 236 Downing Street .... 109 Drury I.ane .... 77 Duke of Wellington, Statue of 194 East India House 288 Eastcheap ... 239 Egyptian HaU . 193 Essex Street 53 Exchequer, Court of . 143 Excise Office 276 Exeter Change, New 52 HaU 70 CONTENTS. Exeter Street . Euston Square . Earriugdou Marlset Street Fetter Lane Finsbury Circus Square Eisb Street Hill Eitzroy Square . Fleet Street . Garraway’s CoiFee House Garrick Club General Post Office George III-, Statue o Gerrard’s Hall Giltspur Street Golden Square Gore House Goswell Street . Gracecburcb Street Great George Street . Great Marlborough Street Great Queen Street Gresham Street. Grosvenor Place ___ Square Street Guildhall . Hackney . Hamilton Place . Hampstead Hano-ver Square Hay Hill Haymarket Henrietta Street, Hertford Street Highbury . Highgate Hoare and Co., Bank of Holies Street Holloway . Holywell Street Horse Guards Houndsditch House of Detention Hoxton Humane Society Hungerford Market Inner Temple Hall Gardens Insolvent Debtors’ Court Islington . Ivy Lane . Jerusalem Chamber . Coffee House lovent Garden Stra Jermyn Street . Kensington Gardens Palace Kentish Town . King’s College , Cross Kingsland . King Street, City St. James’s . W estminster King 'William Street, City . Knightsbridge . Langham Place . Leadenhall Market Street Leicester Square Leman Street Limehouse . Lime Street Little Britain Lloyd’s Lombard Street London, Extent of Wards of Stone . Tavern . Wall . and Westminster Ban Long Acre . Lord Mayor’s Show Lothbury . Lowndes Square Lowther Arcade Ludgate Hill Lyon’s Inn. . - ; Maiden Lane, Covent Garden Manchester Buildings Mansion House . Mark Lane . • • • Markets Billinsgate, 243 ; Co- vent Garden, 73; Farringdon, 31 ; Hungerford, 88 ; Leaden- hall, 287; Newgate, 24 ; New- port, 102. Marlborough House . May Fair . • • , Merchant Tailors’ School Middlesex Sessions House Middle Temple Gardens Millbank . Mincing Lane Minories Mint . Mivart’s Hotel 173 185 242 221 49 145 281 297 294 190 vi MonuT.ieiit Mooi’fields . . • • Mooi’gate Street National Gallery Nelson Pillar Newgate Market New Inn . Newport Market Street, Great New River Road . Norfolk Street . Northumberland House Street Old Bailey Old J ewry . Street . Oriental Club House . Oxford Terrace . Palace Yard Pall Mall . East . Panton Square . Parliament Street Park Lane . Paternoster Row Paul’s Cathedral, St. . School, St. Philpot Lane Physicians, College of Piccadilly . Pickett Street . Poets’ Corner . Pope’s Head Alley Poplar Portland Place . Portugal Street . Poixltry Printing House Square Privy Council Office . G.ardenr, Queen’s Bench, Court of Concert Rooms Queenhithe Queen. Street, City Rag Pair . Ratcliffe Highway Regent Street . Richmond Terrace . Roman Catholic Chapel, fields Royal Exchange Sackville Street . St. James’s Palace CONTENTS. Page . 298 . 278 . 311 . 9.5 . 96 . 26 . 24 . 53 . 102 102 . 216 . 316 . 65 . 92 . 91 . 25 . 253 . 309 . 137 320 . 137 . 168 . 147 . 191 . 116 . 182 . 23 7 . 19 . 281 . 147 . 179 . 53 . 129 . 282 . 297 . 160 . 79 . 253 . 37 . 109 . 115 . 143 . 157 . 242 . 235 . 293 . 295 . 149 . 116 Vloor- St. James’s Place ■ Square Street St. John’s Square . IVood St. Luke’s Hospital St. Martin’s Hall Lane le-Gran( St. Paul’s Cathedral School Salisbury Square Street . Saville House Row Savoy Chapel Street Scotland Yard Serjeants’ Inn Serpentine River Seven Dials Shadwell . Shoe Lane . Shoreditch . Smithfield . Soho Bazaar Square Somerset House Somers Town Southampton St Spitalfields . Spring Gardens Co Page , 167 160 163 223 320 309 66 97 203 7 19 42 70 101 154 68 67 107 41-43 201 99 296 39 307 224 103 103 57 319 ’nt Garden 71 306 106 107 217 262 1.53 173 Terrace Squares Belgrave, 195 ; Berk eley, 184; Charterhouse, 213 ; Devonshire, 304 ; Euston, 316, Finsbury, 312 ; Golden, IM, Grosvenor,187 ; Hanover, 157 ; Leicester, 99 ; Lowndes, 198 ; Panton, 191 ; Printing House, 37; St. James, 160 ; St.John s, 223 ; Salisbury, 42 ; Soho, 103; Trafalgar, 961. State Paper Office Stepney . • • ■ Stock Exchange Strand . ■ ' Sun Fire Insurance (Jthce . Surrey Street, Strand Sutherland House . . Tavistock Street,Covent Garden Temple Bar Thames Street . Tunnel . 121 296 •274 52 274 .55 177 64 44 51 240 295 CONTENTS. Tothill Fields Bridewell . Page 144 Tower HiU .... 293 Royal . 236 Trafalgar Square . 296 Treasury . 109 University College . 318 Club House . 148 Union Cliit House . 147 Uxbridge House . 154 VauxhaU Bridge . i4b Vernon Gallery . 96 Victoria Street, Westminster . 144 Walhrook .... . 236 Wapping .... . 296 Wards of London 265 Wartvick Lane . . 24 Waterloo Bridge 62 Waterloo Place . Watling Street . Wellington Street Western Exchange Westminster Abbey Br' ’ - Hall dge West Strand Whitechapel White’s Club House Whitefriars Whitehall . William IV., Statue of Wood Street Wych Street York Column Street, Covent Garden Vll Page 161 232 63 196 122 188 137 92 290 164 42 111 311 250 64 172 64 I t TALLIS’S IIXUSTEATED LONDON. I PKELIMINARY CHAPTER. London is upon the eve of a great national festival, surpassing m importance all former celebrations, more valuable from the impressions it will leave, and, in its nature, peculiarly adapted to display the appropriateness of selecting the British capital to he the emporium of the world’s industry. The popular idea of bringing into one common centre, and placing together in friendly com- j petition, the various creations of human ingenmty, the combined results proceeding from the action of mind upon matter, as exhibited in the manifold productions ^ of the nations of the globe, emanated from a Prince — the ; august consort of her IMajesty. In other times, and in ; other countries, rarely has royalty condescended to pro- I mote a popular movement, still less to originate a plan :| to develop the mental capacities and industrial resources j of the people at large. This Prince Albert has done ; he : has done more than this — he has rendered his elevated j position subservient to his wish of doing good; he has availed him self of his high rank to enforce attention to a project fraught with benefit to the Enghsh public, and B 2 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. giving advantageous prominence to ability^ mental and manual, irrespective of creed, colour, or country. And tMs design, so comprehensive in its bearings, has been cordially responded to hy aU classes of the community, who have freely given their co-operation, pecuniary and otherwise, to carry into effect the philanthropic views of the Prince. The Grand Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, of which London is to be the stage, in the spring of 1851, will indeed render the metropolis a point of attraction, to which thousands, from the Eu- ropean and remoter continents, of every faith, and of every shade of opinion, will resort, to witness the cen- trahzation of those labours which denote the intellectual advance of the world, and the ascendancy of science and letters, where barbarism and ignorance once prevailed. To the intelligent foreigners and others who, thus called together, visit the metropolis of England, the locality of the exhibition, no less than the exhibition itself, will sug- gest much for wonder — ^more for contemplation. London, a monster city, presenting to the sober eye of common sense more real marvels than all the fahled prodigies with which the poets loved to invest the cities of antiquity, in itself a world with a population exceeding that of many petty kingdoms, the most glorious temple of civilization, offers a theme too interesting to be cursorily passed over by the stranger. Its history, political and social, its I institutions, its edifices, venerable from time, or famous j from association, will excite his interest ; and to describe j the same in a consecutive form, and within moderate com- PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. O pass, is tlie object to which the present publication is devoted London, ever varying in its features, ever increasing in extent, affords to the historian a theme of which the novelty can never be wholly exhausted. That Stowe, !Maitland, Pennant, and other chroniclers have traced the rise and progress of this mighty city, constitutes no suffi- cient reason why it should not again and again be made the subject of historical research, and minute description. On the contrary, the interest of a topic recommended by the authorities just named, will be heightened by any additional elucidation of which it may be found suscep- tible. Pew readers will complain of satiety of detail, wben the annals of a capital, which may be called the queen of cities, are submitted to them in a form hitherto unattempted, and at a price calculated to insure universal circulation. The publishers are ambitious of rendering this work unquestionably the most profusely illustrated, the most comprehensive, and the cheapest History of London ever issued from the press. In its compilation and arrangement, the best, and fre- quently exclusive, sources of information will he resorted to, and a full, faithful, and interesting record given of the metropolitan city of the empire, from the remotest periods to the present time. The stirring events of which it has been the scene— the important charters which have added to its influence — the municipal bodies that have matured its strength, and augmented its wealth' — the religious, philanthropic, commercial, and learned institutions which 4 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. establish, its social pre-eminence over other capitals — the public buildings and works of art which represent its magnificence and taste^ and the worthies from whom it has received distinction — aU will be perpetuated in “Tallis’s Illustrated London.” And in order to impart more effectually a correct idea of the magni- tude, and the superb edifices of the British metropolis, the publishers have, at a great cost, engaged artists of eminence to furnish graphic representations of what- ever is most deserving of notice in London and its tributary neighbourhoods. The letter-press, thus aided and rendered more significant by the choicest labours of art, will impart to those unacquaiuted with, and residing at a distance from, London, more accurate notions of its grandeur and dimensions than has been supplied by any | previous publication. | In conclusion, the proprietors desire to impress ear- | nestly upon their friends and the public, that this edition of the History of London wiU, both as regards the getting ’ up and the price, merit universal patronage, and be , no unworthy contribution to the Grand Exhibition of the ; Industry of all Nations. ' CHAPTEE I. i ! I I Stress is frequently laid upon the impressive signification of a particular word; perhaps there is no word more comprehensive in its character, more interesting in its development, and more indicative of the progress of national power and national industry than the dissyllable, London. The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the pyramids are said to record the territorial greatness, and the pre- eminence in learning and art, for which, in ancient days, Egypt was renowned ; but what pyramid — were there no other means of communicating with posterity — would be a sufficiently expansive tablet whereon to perpetuate the wonders of London in 1850? London, and its suburbs, with which it is connected by outlets from every point of the compass, forms a city of stupendous magnitude, ex- ceeding in extent any other capital, and containing accor- ding to the most recent estimate of the registrar-general, upwards of 270,000 houses, and 2,172,386 souls; while the facts that in 1845, its customs receipts exceeded £11,000,000; and that in 1846, there entered into its port 32,607 vessels, forming a vast total of 5,049,594 tons, establish it as the first commercial city in the world. A trading centre to which all the products of industry, native or foreign are brought, where labour of every description finds its most remunerative and most per- manent market, the residence of the court, the seat of the legislature, the hall of justice, the shrine of art, and the home of letters, London necessarily abounds in attractive features which it will be our agreeable duty to delineate. Eeserving its by-gone history for subsequent researches, we shall perambulate its localities, and avail ourselves of every possible conveyance, aquatic, atmospheric, and equestrian, to travel not merely through the town, but to those places which, though beyond its civic limits, 6 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON j may be considered its dependencies. We sbaU make i gripping excursions^ go over the chief manufactories^ visit ' the docks with a tasting order, pay fees to vergers for liberty to enter St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, ascend the Monument, stroll through the exhibitions, lounge at the operas and theatres, dream of the white and red roses in the Tower, make a call on the Bank, and drop in (we hope) to the hospitalities of Guildhall and the Mansion House. Then the parks — from Victoria, in the far east, to St. James’s, famous for its palaces, and to Hyde Park, equally famous for its equipages j with Kensingion Gar- dens, where promenading and military orchestras consti- tute the enjoyment, and the Zoological, Horticultural, Vauxhall, and other gardens, or fine-weather resorts, will pleasantly beguile our summer leisure. As loyal subjects, we cannot do less than pay our respects to Windsor Castle, not overlooking, on our way thither, Chiswick, Kew, Bichmond, Hampton Court, and other picturesque situations through which the Thames, as yet unpolluted and innocent of offensive residuums, winds its silvery course. Returning to London, we shall progress in a contrary direction, and search for relaxation in that empo- rium of shrimps, tea-gardens, and bathing-machines Gravesend. We shall make some stoppages en route, especially at Greenwich, famous as the abode of royalty in other days, and as the birth-place of Queen Elizabeth; celebrated^ also^ for its bospital^ its park^ and that ictliyo- logical delicacy, which both fills the hotels and the guests — whitebait. Again, we must pause at Woolwich, a military depot and nursery, in which the genius of war seems to abide; inspect the arsenal and dockyard; and satisfy ourselves how efficiently the defences of England are maintained, and what ample provision is made against the aggressions of envious or ambitious neighbours. Re-entering the boat, we are soon transported to Graves- end, especially sacred to the recreations of the Londoners, who delight, amid its rural and artificial charms, to obtain for a season a respite from the wear and tear of money- ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 7 getting, and to give themselves up, unrestrainedly, to promenades on the pier, airings on the beach, climbing up the hills, descending into the valleys, and bathing in the streams of this most proximate of watering-places. We have said enough of our intentions : it now behoves us to render them practical, and to set out forthwith upon our contemplated survey, leisurely noting what is most worthy of observation. As a starting-point, let us begin with our national cathedral, St. PauFs, which, towering above the neighbouring spires, seems, with its majestic dome, the presiding genius of London ; and, by its sacred character, to impress on the beholders, before all things, the pious supplication embodied in the city motto — Domine dirige nos.’^ ST. Paul’s cathedral. The central site upon which this magnificent temple of religion is placed, has been, from time immemorial, appro- priated to devotional purposes. The chef-d’ceuvre of Sir Christopher Wren occupies the same spot upon which have arisen and disappeared several churches in the lapse of ages. A vague tradition prevails, that a temple of Diana once stood on this eminence; but Wren refutes this idea altogether, and believes that the first church erected on this spot was a Christian one, built in the time of the Komans; and, in confirmation of his impression, states, that while seeking for the foundations for his own design, he met with those of the original semicircular chancel of the old church. They were composed of Kentish rubble-stone, elaborately worked, and united with very hard mortar, in the Roman mode, much surpassing the superstructure. This (the first) church is believed to have been destroyed during the persecution in the reign of Dioclesian : by Constantine, the friend of the Chris- tians, another edifice was raised, and this met the same fate as its predecessor, at the hands of the Saxon infidels. Again, a church to St. Paul was raised in 603, by Sehert, li 1 i 8 TALLIs's ILLUSTRATED LONDON; a triTiiitary priuco, under tlie auspices of Etlielbert^ Icing of Kent, the first Christian king of the Saxon dynasty. Ethelbert endowed the cathedral by charter, with revenues for its maintenance, and, at the request of St. Augustine, nominated Melitus first bishop of London. Erkenwald, the son of King Offa, and fourth prelate, in succession, from Melitus, beautified and enriched the cathedral at his own cost. In 1086, when a great part of the city of London was consumed by fire, this church was burnt. j Bishop Mauritius undertook the restoration _ of the cathedral, upon a more magnificent and extensive scale than had been hitherto attempted, and to defray the expense thereof from his own revenues. Neither Mauri- tius nor his successor, De Belmeis, each of whom held the diocese for twenty years, lived to see the building com- pleted, such was the grandeur of the design. The first had the ruins of the Palatine Tower granted to him as materials for the building; and Henry I. gave to the : same prelate part of the ditch belonging to the Tower, | which, with the purchased made by himself, enabled him j to circumvallate the whole. Henry also exempted from i toll every vessel bringing stone for the church ; gave to | Mauritius all the great fish taken in his precincts, i except the tongues and finally secured to him and his ^ successor the tithes of all his venison in Essex. i In 1221 the steeple was completed. The subterranean : church of St. Eaith, anciently called Ecclesia Sancta Fidis \ in cryptis, was commenced in 1257. It was situated at the west end of Jesus Chapel, under the choh, and which was used as parish church for Paternoster-row, St. Paul s- i churchyard, part of Ivy -lane, W arwick-lane. Queen s Head- | court, and other places. Upon the suppression oi Jesus > Chapel, the parishioners of St. Eaith were, in 1551, per- mitted to remove into the under-ground chui’ch ; and it continued a parochial place of worship till the destruction of the cathedral by the great fire. The undercroft, as these kinds of edifices were named, contained several chantries and monuments. Henry Lacie, ll ST. Paul’s cathedral. ^ I earl of Lincoln, who died in 1312, formed what was called 1 the New Work, at the eastern end, in which were the ‘ chapels of onr Lady and St. Dunstan. In the latter of j i , these was the sepulchre of this nobleman. I The chapter-house, adjacent to the south transept, was ■ circular, and supported by four central pillars, of more elegant Gothic than the remainder of the pile. This projected into a most beautiful cloister, two stories in j ^ height. On the wahs of a cloister on the north side of [ h St.^Paul’s, called Lardon-church-haugh, was painted the ’ i Machabre, or Dance of Death. It pourtrayed a long tram T: of men, of aU classes, from the Pope to the humblest of j human beings, each figure with Death for his partner, the : pale phantom shaking his remembering-glass. Farther to the west, adjoining the south side, was the parish j church of St. Gregory. One of the towers above, orna- j menting the western front, was the bishop s prison, oi Lollards’ tower; and was, we are told by Pennant, the , scene of many a midnight murder. _ i The style of old St. Paul’s was a most beautiful Gothic, j Over the east end was a superb circular window ; and from I the central tower there radiated a lofty and elegant spire. The dimensions of this noble church, as given in 1309, ' were as follow; — the length, 629 feet; the breadth, 120; the height of the roof of the west part, from the floor, I 102 ; of the tower, 260 ; of the east part, 188 ; of the ! spire, made of woo^ covered with lead, 274. The entire area occupied by the ancient cathedral was three acres i and-a-half, one rood and-a-half, and six perches. i The nave was sustained by clustered pillars and circular , arches, in the style retained by the Normans, after the conquered Saxons ; the galleries and windows of the tran- > septs were also finished with rounded arches. The screens to the choir, and the chapel of the Virgin Mary, were | Gothic; the former was adorned with statues on each i side of the door, presented by Sir Paul Pindar. | , The ancient cathedi’al, like the present one, was re- i |i nowned as the hurying-place of the illustrious dead. | IL ^ i LO TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; Johu of Gaunt, and liis first wife, Blanclie, were liere entombed, a magnificent shrine arising over their ashes, which was destroyed by the barbarous fanatics of Crom- welFs time. The learned and liberal Dean Colet, who nobly consecrated his large fortune to the erection of St. Paul’s School, in honour of the infant Jesus, for the instruction of one hundred and fifty-five scholars; the magnanimous Sir Philip Sidney; the great Walsingham, who died so poor that his friends were compelled to steal his remains into their last home, lest they should be ar- rested by rapacious creditors; and many other worthies of Britain were enshrined and entombed here. The mo- nument of Dr. Donne, the wit, the poet, and divine, deserves especial mention. According to Pennant, the dean, not long before his death, attired himself in a shroud, placed his feet on an urn fixed on a board ex- actly of his own height, and, shutting his eyes like a departed person, was drawn, in that attitude, by a skilful painter. This sombre piece he kept in his room till the day of his death, the 31st of March, 1631 ; after which it served as a pattern for his tomb. Our sketch of old St. Paul’s must not be dismissed without referring to some of the most interesting remi- niscences of its history. The high altar glistened with jewels and gold, the pre- sents of the numerous worshippers. John, king of France, when almost a voluntary captive in England, upon first making homage to St. Erkenwald’s shrine, offered four basins of gold. On the day of the mii’aculous conversion of the tutelar saint, the charities were immense, first to the souls, when an indulgence of forty days’ pardon was given; and by order of Henry III., 1,500 tapers were placed in the church, and 15,000 poor people fed in the churchyard. The precincts of Old St. Paul’s acquired an unenviable notoriety as the resort of thieves and profligates of every description, by whom in the night murders and other crimes were often perpetrated. To remedy this evil. Sr. PAULAS CATIIEDRAIi. 11 Edward I. autliorized the dean and canons to wall round the whole, and to erect gates which, closing at nio-ht, shut out the disorderlies by whom its sanctity had formerly been profaned. On the north-west side ot this enclosure was the episcopal palace ; Froissart, m his Chronicles, states, that after the great tournament in Smithtield, upon the occasion of the marriage ot Iving Edward III., that sovereign and his consort remained here. To this palace the hapless prince, Edward V., was conducted, as he believed, to assume that crown which was wrested from him by the perfidy of his usurping uncle: here also, in 1591, Catherine of Arragon was brought to meet her first husband, Prince Arthur, and on the 14th of November she was united to him in the cathedi’al. They held their nuptial banquet at the palace, where they sojourned till the king and queen lisited them, and conveyed the royal couple by water from Baynard Castle to Westminster. Opposite to the palace were the deaiPs house, and the mansions ot the prebendaries and canons residentiary. The palace has long since disappeared; only in the page of history do the associations which rendered it famous remain. e residences of the chief dignitaries of the cathedral are stiU found on the same site, their venerable character, it may be, not enhanced by their close contiguity to the haunts of traffic and the monster establishments ot rival lineudrapers. ^ o, -n For some centuries the old church of St. Paul s was a common thoroughfai’e ; horses and other animals were taken through it ; and like the parks at a later period, it was a spot of assignations, and the lounging place ot idle men of the town. This public causeway tlmough the centre of the cathedral, which was unceremoniously used by porters, hucksters and others, who carried then mer- chandise through the temple of devotion, to save them- selves the trouble of making the circuit of the churchy ai-d, was called St. Paul’s Walk, and was an exemplification of all the foUies of Vanity Fair. 12 Tallis’s illustrated London; In front of the cathedral was the celebrated Paul’s Crossj situated a little to the east of the entrance to Canon-alley. Here the citizens were accustomed to con- gregate to appoint their magistrates and to discuss on public affairs. In subsequent times^ the cross was chiefly made available for proclamations and other proceedings, civic and clerical. A pulpit composed of wood and mounted upon steps of stone, and covered with lead, was attached to it, and in the forenoon on Sundays sermons were preached by eminent divines, which were called Paul’s Cross sermons. The court, the municipal authori- ties, and the chief citizens, resorted here. The royal portion of the company were protected from the weather by covered galleries, and a similar shelter was provided for the superior class of people, but the greater proportion of the congregation were exposed to the open air. When the weather was very inclement, the poorer part of the company retreated to the Shrouds, a covered place abutting upon the church wall. In 1483 the beautiful but frail Jane Shore did penance before St. Paul’s Cross, by com- | mand of the malevolent Gloucester. At the instigation of the same tyrant, Dr. Shaw and an Augustine friar | named Pinke declared from this pulpit, that the children of Edward IV. ivere illegitimate, and had no claim to the throne. Hollinshed and other old English chroniclers state that Pinke lost his voice in the middle of the ser- mon, and was compelled to come down, and that Shaw, afterwards struck with remorse and universally contemned, died of a broken heart. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, pious and eloquent ministers were appointed to promul- gate from this Cross the doctrines of the reformed reh- gion, and the invalidity of papal influence; the first sermon was delivered on April 9, 1559 ; and here that envious and revengeful queen tarnished in perpetuity her fame, by employing venal orators to traduce the memory of her once-beloved Essex, who fell the idctim of her jealousy and of her vanity. It would exceed our limits to dwell further upon the events of national impor- ST. Paul’s cathedral. 13 tance by wliicb this once famous structure was distin- : giiisbed. The cathedral was greatly damaged in 1561, when its ‘ j noble spire was entirely consumed ; some say, by light- ' ning, but others, with more probability, report that it jj was owing to the carelessness of a plumber employed in 1 1 repairing the spire, and who left a pan of coals burning I near some wood-work, during his absence at dinner, by |: which this noble ornament was burnt to ashes, and the i' church otherwise injured. The sacred edifice was re- stored, but it was no longer graced by a spire. In 1620 !! Inigo Jones received the commands of James I. to repair ii the church; nothing, however, was done till the year ![ 1633, when the first stone was laid by Archbishop Laud, ji and the fourth by Jones. This architect placed at the west end a portico of the Corinthian order, and to the i ends of the tAVO transepts he attached Gothic fronts, i A great fire which desolated London, in 1666, swept ' away in its ravages the ancient cathedral of St. Paul’s, I and* the erection of a new church was entrusted to Sir j Christopher Wren, the surveyor-general of his Ma- i jesty’s works. Two designs, on the second of which Sir '' Christopher set a high value, were rejected by arbiters i‘ of questionable taste, but the third, the plan of the ^ present magnificent temple was adopted. While Wren I was adjusting the dimensions of the dome, he ordered a lahourer to bring him a flat stone to be laid as a direction to the masons. The man brought by chance a fragment of a gravestone on which the Avord Resurgam was inscribed. This suggested to Sir Christopher the ' idea of the phoenix, which he placed on the south portico Avith that word cut beneath. The first stone of St. Pard’s cathedral Avas laid on June 21st, 1675; and the building was completed by him in 1710, in which year • the last stone of the lantern on the cupola Avas laid by Mr. Christopher Wren, the son of the architect; but the whole decorations AAmre not till 1723. Although the church occupied in its construction more than thirty-five years, 14 ST. Paul’s cathedral. ! it was coDQTnenced and finislied by one architect, and under one prelate, Henry Compton, Bishop of London. Its entire cost was one million two hundred thousand pounds, part of which was defrayed by a duty on coal. In digging the foundations Sir Christopher found many ivory and wooden pins, by which it is supposed the shrouds of the ancient Britons were fastened. Over these were the graves of the Saxons lined with chalk-stones, or consisting of stones hollowed out ; and lower down he found Roman urns and other relics. The foundation of the original church was on a layer of hard and close pot- earth. Wren, on advancing farther, only met with loose sand; at length he reached water and sand mixed with periwinkles and other sea-shells ; and by boring came at last to the beach, and under that the natural hard clay, proving that the sea had once flowed over the site now occupied by our national cathedral. The church being completed in the reign of Anne, the statue of that sovereign in white marble, the work of Francis Bird, was placed at the western entrance, facing Ludgate-hill. At the base of the statue are the figures of Britain, France, Ireland, and America, over all of which countries the English monarch long held a titular sway, j Mr. Strong was the principal mason employed, and he as well as Wren lived to witness the completion of this stately pile ; and Cibber, Gibbons, Bird, and others, were principally engaged on the decorations of the cathedral. ! Divine service was first celebrated in the new church in j 1696, the choir being opened on the 2nd of December j in that year, when that eminent prelate, Gilbert Burnet, i officiated, William III. and his court being present, the day being famous in the annals of history as one of pub- ; lie thanksgiving for the peace of Ryswick. The Morning Prayer Chapel on the north-west side of the cathedral, i was opened for divine service on the 1st of February, 1699. In 1718, at the advanced age of ninety. Wren was superseded in his office (which he had held for fifty years) by an obscure person named Benson, whose incapacity ST. PAULAS CATHEDRAL. 15 soon became so evident that bis appointment was ^“ost immediately followed by his dismissal. When Sir Chris- topher died in the plenitude of years and lame, Jiis remains were honourably interred in the cathedral. A Latin inscription (which we Anglicize) on a marble slab under the organ, near the choir, thus perpetuates the memory of the great architect : • “Underneath rests Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of this Church and this City ; who lived beyond ninety years ; not tor Him- self, but for the public good. “ Reader ! if you seek his monument — Look Around . The body of the great architect reposes below in the south aisle of the crypt on the spot said to be that over I' which the high altar of old St. Paul’s stood. The grave ' is covered with a flat stone sunk into the pavement, and j ! bearing tliis inscription : — j I “ Here lieth SiR CHRISTOPHER Wren, Knight, the Builder of this i . Cathedral Church of St. Paul, who died in the year of our Lord 1 IM, and of his age 91.” i; Adjacent are the tombs of his sister, daughter, and I daughter-in-law. . , i e ' , The cathedi-al is built of Portland stone, in the shape ot ; a cross. Over the space where the lines traverse each other is a superb dome, on the summit of which is a ;i beautiful lantern, encompassed by a balcony. ;; tern is surmounted by a ball and a cross. There are - ; three porticoes to the church ; one facing the j ' the two others in a north and south direction. The wes- tern portico is composed of twelve lofty Corinthian columns, ! above which are eight others of the composite order, sus- i '■ tainin"" a grand pediment, on which are sculptured the li leading events of the life of St. Paul. The grand portico ! i occupies an elevated base, reached by a flight of twenty- two steps of black marble. Over the whole are two : panile towers, the north one serving as the belfry, and the south one enclosing the clock. The portico at the noi- thern entrance consists of a dome, supported by si.v j Corinthian columns, with an ascent of twelve cncular 16 TALLISES ILLtrsTKATED LONDOIN ; steps of black marble. The pediment over the dome is adorned with the royal arms, regalia, and other ornaments, i The southern portico is similar, having for its entablature i a phoenix by Cibber. The circumstances which led Wren to adopt this insignium, we have already referred to. The interior of this edifice is constructed after the plan of the ancient cathedrals; that of a long cross, I having a nave, choir, transepts, and side aisles ; but in j place of the lofty tower, the dome rises in this building in elevated grandeur from the central intersection. The Ij piers and arches which dmde the nave from the side i aisles are ornamented with columns and pilasters of the ! I Corinthian and composite order, and are further adorned j j with shields, festoons, chaplets, and other ornaments, i The whole pavement of the church is of marble, composed I j of square slabs, alternately black and white. The altar is I paved with the same kind of marble, blended with por- phyry, ^ and is enriched with four fluted pilasters, painted I 1 and veined with gold. The organ gallery is sustained by eight Corinthian columns of black and white marble, elaborately worked, and an eagle of gilded brass, with open wings, standing on a pillar which is railed round forms the reading-&esk. The interior of the eastern end of the church presents much fine sculpture, particularly the cipher W. R., in the compartment of palm branches, and surmounted by the imperial crown, in memory of ; William III. The cathedral may be regarded as one of the pantheons of England, in which monuments comme- morative of the deeds of our noblest heroes and patriots are erected. Among them, those of Nelson and Pitt are the most conspicuous. Prominence is also given to the memorials of Lord Collingwood, Lord Heathfield, Sir Ralpn Abercrombie, Sir John Moore, Rodney, Lord Howe, Sir Thomas Picton, General Sir Thomas Dundas, Sir William Jones, Dr. Johnson, and others, who have won celebrity either by the sword or by the pen. The cathedral is open for divine service three times a day : at seven o’clock in the morning in summer, and ST. PAULAS CATHEDllAL. I ei^lit in winter; a quarter before ten in tbe forenoon; i and a quarter past three in the afternoon. At other 1 times the doors are elosed ; but admission may be always ' procured at the northern door, by the payment of a small fee; and for an additional donation visitors may ascend i to the Whispering-gallery, (whence are seen Sir James Thornhill’s beautiful paintings representative of the chief i events in the life of St. Paul), the gallery above the dome, I and see every part of this noble pile. Ihe morning- ! prayer chapel' on the north side, and the consistory on the south, occupy the respective extremities of the western transepts ; these are separated from the aisles by insulated ! columns and screens of ornamental carved work. The ! dome is an octagon, composed of eight massive piers, ' ' Avith their several apertures. I I The choir is similar in form and style to the body ot 1 1 the church, its east end terminated by the semi-circular il apsis, over which are three large AAdndows, and below i three smaller ones, richly ornamented. A screen of I Avrought iron, the elaborate work of M. Tijon, divides ^ it from the nave, and through this screen, entrance is , I aho gained to the side aisles. Over these gates, and I ! sustained by a double range of eight Corinthian columns : j of blue and white veined marble, is the organ-gaUery, ‘I profusely decorated with the oaken carvings of Gibbons. 'j The organ, an instrument not to be excelled for fine I j tone, was manufactured about 1694, by Bernard Schmydt, I for two thousand pounds. There is on each side of the ; 1 choir a ranee of fifteen staUs, with the episcopal throne or chair of state, near the altar, adorned Avith sculp- i tured flowers and fruits, and surmounted by a mitre ; it is I chiefly used when a new bishop of London is inaugurated, i Opposite to the prelate’s throne is the lord mayor’s ! seat, embellished Aidtli the civic insignia. Beneath the organ-loft is the stall of the dean, Avhich is canopied, and covered with ornamental carAongs. The cathedral is the scene of two great annual celebra- tions ; the first is a music meeting held in May, for the I V 18 Tallis’s illustrated London ; benefit of the orphans and widows of elergymen. In November, 1655, the Rev. G. Hall preached in the then chm’ch before the sons of such of the clergy as with their families had been brought to poverty by the par- j liamentary sequestrations then enforced against non-con- j formists. The contributions made on that occasion led to the delivery of a sermon yearly for the like bencAmlent objects, and the founders of the charity were incorporated in the reign of Charles II., and sanctioned to hold an estate not exceeding the yearly value of two thousand pounds, which was subsequently advanced to three thou- sand pounds. The anniversary solemnizations have been I held in the present cathedral since 1697, when a sermon and a grand performance of sacred music are given, and a large amount collected in aid of the funds of this ex- cellent charity. — The second meeting, which takes place in June, is that of the metropohtan charity children, Avho, j numbering from nine to ten thousand, meet beneath the ca- j pacious dome of St. Paul’s. A temporary scaffolding in the form of an ampin Jieatre is raised for their accommodation, and the eleemosynary scholars unite in the choral singing ‘ incidental to the service. The sittings in the area and j' along the nave of the churexi, nearly up to the western | entrance, are occupied by the patrons of the anniversary, ij the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, ^ and the public. Admission can only be procured to this interesting spectacle by tickets; but to ^ the rehearsal, which is held tivo days previous to the chief meeting, ■ entrance may be obtained on the payment of sixpence. j The dimensions of St. Paul’s Cathedral are as follow: — j From east to west, within the wall, 510 feet; north to i south, within the dooi-s of the porticos, 282; breadth of west entrance, 100 ; circuit, 2,292 ; height ivithin, from ^ centre of floor to the cross, 404 ; circumference of dome, 420 ; diameter of ball, 6 ; from ball to top of cross, 30 ; diameter of columns of portico, 4 ; height of ditto, 48 ; top of west pediment, under figure of St. Paul, 120; top of tower of west front, 287. ST. Paul’s cathedral. l-' To the Whispering-gallery, 280 steps conduct ; to the Golden-gallery, 534] and to the hall, 616 steps. The rvei-ht of the hall is 5,600 lbs.; that of the cross, 3 360 lbs. The great hell weighs 11,474 lbs. ] the clapper, 180 lbs. ] the diameter of the bell, 10 feet, on which the , hour of the clock strikes ] and the quarters strike on two 1 lesser bells below. The great bell was cast in the reign of Edward I., and was placed in the heli-tower facing the gate of Westminster -hall, to intimate the horn of day to the judges in the law courts. It was originally named the “ Edward of Westminster,” which it retained till the reformation, when its present name of “ Great Tom” was given to it. It was presented by William III. to the new cathedral of St. Paul’s, and removed from Westminster on the 1st of January, 1699.^ It has been twice recast since then, each time receiving additional metal. It is never tolled but upon the death of one of the royal family, or the decease of a bishop of London. The length of the minute-hand is 8 feet, its weight / 5 lbs. ] the hour-hand measures 5 feet 6 inches, and weighs 44 lbs. ] the length of the hour-figures is 2 feet 2| in.'hes, ' and the circumference of the dial 57 feet. The catho^ral and graveyard occupy an area of 2 acres, 16 perches, 23 yards, and 1 foot, and are encompassed by an iron balus- trade, composed of 2,500 palisadoes. The Chapter House, on the north side of the church- yard, is a plain brick building, where the convocation of the province of Canterbury assemble, when summoned by the royal writ. At the east end is St. Paul s School, a handsome modern building. Dr. John Colet, dean of St. Paul’s, and one of the authors of the well-known Eton Latin Grammar, founded this school in 1509, for the ; education of 155 boys, and the Mercers’ Company were appointed trustees of the charity. The school is richly endowed, and has exhibitions to the universities. The ancient school-house was taken down in 1822, and the present handsome structure erected in its place. It is fronted ivith stone, and consists of a centre and wings. i 20 Tallis’s illustrated London; doctors’ commons. South of St. Paul’s is Doctors’ Commons, situate in Knightrider-street, and extending to Thames-street. It consists chiefly of two squares, and is properly a college for students in the civil and ecclesiastical laws, and con- tains courts in which those laws are administered; and several offices within the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. The maritime and ecclesiastical courts held here are the Arches, which took its name — curia de arcubus — from having been once kept in Bow Church, Cheapside; the Admiralty; the Prerogative ; the Delegates ; and the Consistory. In all of these, the business is chiefly transacted in writing, according to the forms of the Roman civil law, by doctors and proctors —synonymous terms with barristers and attorneys. The Admiralty Court takes cognizance of all , causes relating to merchants and mariners. The Arches is the principal ecclesiastical court in the kingdom, and here all appeals within the province of the Archbishop of ' Canterbury are directed; and the judge of this court is ; called the Dean of Arches. The office of the Prerogative Court is open in winter, from nine till three; and in summer, till an hour later. All wills are deposited here, i and are registered from the year 1383. The charge for searching for wills is one shilling each, and stamped ! copies may he always had upon application. | COLLEGE OF HERALDS. j Immediately adjacent to these courts, on Bennet’s- j hi[l, 13 the College of Arms, commonly called the Heralds’ i Office. It is a brick edifice, having a front facing the street, with an arched gateway, conducting to a qua- j drangle. The corporation is very ancient, consisting of j three kings-at-arms, six heralds-at-arms, and four pm*- i suivants-at~arms. all nominated by the Earl Mai’shal of COLLEGE OE HERALDS. 21 England, and retaining their places by patrat, during good behaviour. Pennant says, that their office is to keep the records of the blood of all the families of the kingdom, and all matters belonging to the same, such as the bearing of coats of arms, &c. ; to attend his majesty j on great occasions; to make proclamations m certain cases ; to marshal public processions, &c. One herald and one pursuivant attend the college daily, in rotation, to | answer all questions relative to armorial bearings, &c., &c. The fee for a common search is five shillings, and for ; a general search, one guinea; the fees for a new coat of arms are from ten pounds upwards, according to the labom employed.’’ The mansion occupied by the heralds belonged to the Earl of Derby, and they were incor- porated in the reign of Richard III. During the great fire the house was consumed, and rebuilt chiefly at the cost of the officers of the college. The three kings-at- arms are severally styled Garter, Clarencieux, and Norroy. The original appointment of Garter was made by King Henry V. ; and the office of this king-at-arms is to attend ’ at the installation of the knights of the Garter, and to I perform all duties in regard to that order; to marshal the ; ceremonies at coronations, and the obsequies of princes ; and the peerage ; to take cognizance of the arms of the nobility, and to grant “supporters” to newly-created ! peers. Clarencieux, the second king, owes his name_ to Lionel, third son of King Edward HI., who, having ^ married the heiress of Ulster, in Ireland, became thereby possessed of the honour of Clare, and was created Duke of Clarence, and he was consequently entitled to have a herald. Edward IV., succeeding to the duchy on the death of his brother, made the herald thereof, the second king-at-arms, by the appellation of Clarencieux. Hiis officer is to marshal funeral solemnities of the nobility south of the Trent, to register families, and keep account of their several coats of arms. The office of Norroy king-at-arms, is similar to that of Clarencieux ; but his jm-isdiction extends over the north side of the Trent. I , I li i I i . (' r/ I I 22 TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LUNDOM ; I as his name implies. These mock kings/^ says John Thomas Smith, were formerly created and crowned by i : the king himself, but that ceremony is now performed I by the Duke of Norfolk, as hereditary Earl Marshal of ! I England, or his deputy.” I I 1 I LUDGATE-HILL — PATERNOSTER-ROW OLD BAILEY I ; FARRINGDON-STREET, ETC. j ; Leaving the west front of St. Pauks behind us, we I enter Ludgate-street, the continuation of Ludgate-hill, by I which latter name, the whole thoroughfare is more ' familiarly known. It is a broad street of splendid houses and shops, which, for elegance, are inferior to none in the metropolis. Lud-Gate was built during the contest of the barons with King John; in 1215 the former entered the eity, destroyed the dwellings of the hapless Jews, and with their houses repaired the city walls and built this gate, which stood in the middle of Ludgate-hill. When Sir Tliomas Wyatt had -with some loss led his troops through the Strand and Fleet-street, hoping that the Citizens would rally around his standard, he found this gate shut against liim, and strongly fortified ; despairingly he retreated down the hill, and throwing himself on a bench opposite the Belle Sauvage inn, bitterly repented ! the rash precipitation by which he had suffered himself to be guided. A herald called upon him to surrender, to which he acceded on condition that he should be delivered I into the hands of a gentleman, and his terms being agreed to, he yielded himself up, never again to be restored to liberty; and soon afterwards expiated his rebellion by a public death on Tower-hill. Mr. Pennant says that in his memory this building was a wretched prison for debtors. It was pulled down in 1760. Close to the spot where this gate stood is the parish church of St. Martin, Ludgate, upon the site of another, constructed in the year 1437, and rebuilt in 1684. The once ecclesiastical or rather monkish character of I PATERNOSTER ROW. 23 tte immodiate iieighbourliood, may bo inferred from the names borne by several streets and lanes diverging right and left from Ludgate-hill. Among them are Credo or Creed-lane, Ave-Maria-lane, Amen-corner, and Paternos- ter-row. Ave-Maria-lane, on the north side of Lndgate- street, leads to Paternoster -row, the great emporium of the book-trade. It is supposed by some to be indebted for its name to those persons who formerly were makers of paternosters, beads, rosaries, and other external em- blems of the Roman Catholic faith. Others believe the name of this and the adjoining streets to be derived from the Romish processions on Corpus Christi day, or Holy Thursday. The members of the procession assembled^ at that end of Paternoster-row contiguous to Cheapside, thence they marched in a westerly direction, and began to chant the Paternoster,” which they continued through the whole extent of the street, called in memory thereof, Paternoster-vo'w . On reaching the bottom of that street they entered into ^^Ave-Maria^^-lane, at the same time commencing to chant the salutation of the Virgin, ‘ Ave- Maria,” which they sang until reaching Ludgate-hill ; then crossing the way to “ Creed”-lane they opened with the chant of the “ Credo,” which was continued until reach- ing the spot now called “ Amen”-corner, where they sang the closing “ Amen.” Paternoster-row subsequently became celebrated as a mart for lacemcn, mercers, haber- dashers, barbers, sempstresses, and other trades, but has been, since 1724, the chief seat of the bookselling business, of which Little Britain was originally the principal depot. Several of the turnings in the “Row” deserve a brief notice. Ivy-lane was thus named from the ivy which clustered on the rvalls of the prebendal residences wdiich occupied this avenue. No. 3 in this lane -was once a tavern where Goldsmith, Johnson, and other celebrities of their day were wont to assemble. The Spectator says that the “ Humdrum Club” w^as a society composed of very honest gentlemen of pacific temperaments, who used to sit 24 TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; j together, smoke their pipes, and not utter a word till midnight. j Lovell’ s~court is erected upon the site of a mansion ! once the abode of the Dukes of Bretagne, and afterwards of the family of Richard Lovell. In the garden of his friend Alderman Bridgen, a locality now occupied by the premises of Messrs. Bivington, Richardson composed his popular novels of Pamela and Sir Charles Grandison. j Panyer-alley takes its name from a stone monument | erected therein, on which is inscribed the figure of a ' pannier, across which a naked boy is seated with a bunch of grapes held between his hand and foot. Below is a square tablet, on which this couplet appears ; — “ When you have sought the city round, ' Yet still this is the highest ground. I August the 27, 1688.” Newgate-marhet occupies an extensive square. It con- tains a large market-house with clock and bell-tui’ret in ■ the centre. It is chiefly devoted to butchers, poulterers, ' and salesmen. It has also entrances from Warwick-lane and Newgate-street. Warwick -lane, one of the chief communications from Paternoster-row to Newgate-street, is named from a house ; of the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, which once stood upon this spot. Cecily, a countess of Warwick, dwelt here in the reign of Henry VI. ; afterwards it became the property of Richard Neville, the famous king-making Eail . of Warwick. Stowe describes his coming to London at | the famous convention of 1458, “ with six hundred men • all dressed in red jackets embroidered with ragged staves, j before and behind, and was lodged in Warwick-lane ; in : whose house there were often six oxen eaten at a break- i fast, and every tavern was full of his meat ; for he that i had any acquaintance in that house, might have there so much of sodden and roast meat as he could prick and | carry upon a long dagger.” Upon the side of a house ! at the Newgate-street end, is let in a stone tablet of the famous and almost fabulous Earl of Warw ick, resembling !j THE OLD BAILEY, 25 ' a miniature of him in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, I in Guy’s-chff, near Warwick. It hears the date of 1668, j and the arms and the shield are, chequi, or, and azure, I a cheveron ermine, which were his arms, afterwards gold, I I by the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick. In this lane is I the building formerly occupied by the College of Physi- j cians, now removed to Pall Mall East. It was the work of Sir Christopher Wren, and on the summit of the dome is a gilt ball, which Garth wittily calls the gilded pill. The premises now belong to Messrs. Tylor, braziers, who have appropriated the lower part of them as a kind of supplementary meat market to Newgate-market. Arch- bishop Leighton died at the Bell inn, in Warwick- [ lane. ! Amen Corner is chiefly inhabited by the canons resi- dentiary of the cathedral. Thence an open square court called. Stationers’ Hall-court, where the book trade is exten- sively carried on, brings us back to Ludgate-hill. A notice of Stationers’ Hall will be found in the sum- mary which hereafter will be given of the city hails and companies. Scarcely have we emerged from Stationers’ Hall-court into Ludgate-hfll, before a neighbouring street, the Old \ Bailey, arrests us in our onward route, on which we pause to take a brief survey of a place, the most prominent I associations of which are those furnished by the annals I of crime. This street, extending from Ludgate-hiU to a point at which Giltspur-street, Newgate-street, and Skinner-street converge, took its name, according to i Maitland, from Bale-hill, an elevation upon which was ! built the bale or ba.ihft‘’s-house, where he held a court j for the trial of criminals. On the west side of the street ; stood Sydney-house, the toAvn mansion of the Sydneys, ‘ till they removed to Leicester-house, in Leicester-fields. ! Subsequently it became tlie residence of the notorious thief-catcher, Jonathan Wild. On the north side of this I, street is Green Arbour-court, a collection of squahd tene- ^ - - ^ — 26 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; ments. At No. 12 in tins humble locality, the accom- plished Oliver Goldsmith occupied for some time an apartment, in which he is said to have written the Vicar of Wakefield, and the poem of The Traveller. That I nrofound historian and antiquary, Camden, was born in ! the Old Bailey. { The principal building in the Old Bailey is Newgate, \ the great criminal prison of the city. It is indebted for its name to one of those gates through which, in olden times, entrance to the city was gained. Early in the thirteenth centmy the gaol of Newgate was used as a place of imprisonment, and persons of title were incar- cerated here long before the Tower was appropriated to their reception. It was rebuilt in 1412, by the executors of the famous Sir Richard Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London; and his statue, with that of the cat, the | fabulous and feline source of his prosperity, long re- I mained in a niche in the wall. The gate was destroyed j in the great fire of 1666; another one was soon erected j with a great arch, and a postern for passengers, and on j each side a half hexagon tower. In 1750 that frightful } distemper, the gaol-fever, broke out in the prison, and ^ Sir Samuel Pennant, the Lord hlayor, Alderman Lam- I bert, two judges, one of the undersheriffs of Middlesex, , several barristers, jurors, and other persons, were sacri- ficed to its virulence. Tliis fearful pestilence led to some attempt on the part of the municipal authorities to amend the internal economy of Newgate, in which the prisoners were separated as far as practicable, and a better system of ventilation introduced. Nevertheless, the gaol still remained in a disreputable condition, and in 1770 the corporation of London applied to and obtained from parlia- ment a grant of fifty thousand pounds, to enable them to construct an entirely new prison, of which the first stone was laid by Sir William Beckford, the Lord Mayor. Mr. George Dance was the architect under whose direc- tion it was commenced and finished. It was hardly com- | j pletedj when, in 1780, Lord George Gordon’s rioters j NEWGATE. 27 burst open tbe doors, rescued nearly three hundred prisoners, and destroyed the whole of the interior by fire ; I the massive stone walls alone remained standing, uninjured by the flames. The scene of destruction is ably described by an eye-witness, who says that felons confined even in the strongest dungeons were released; stones of two or three tons in weight, to which the doors of their cells were fastened, were raised. So great was the violence of the fire, that the large iron bars of the windows were eaten through, and the adjacent stones vitrified. Money was ' afterwards voted by the House of Commons to make the I necessary restorations, and in 1782 the existing prison ; was completed, the cost of its erection having exceeded ' the original estimate by forty thousand pounds. Newgate offers an uniform exterior looking west, consisting of two wings, and the governor’s house as a centre. Its front occupies nearly one entire side of the Old Bailey, and extends to Newgate-street, of which it forms a corner. A broad court-yard on the south divides the prison from the Sessions-house, where twelve sessions are held in the course of the year, for the trial of prisoners. By a recent act of parliament this court has been called the “Central Criminal Court,” and its jurisdiction con- siderably extended. The business of tbe session is trans- acted in three com’ts, severally named the Old Court, the New Com-t, and the Third Com't. In the first of these the cro^vn judges and the recorder of London preside; and here persons charged with the more serious crimes are tried. In the New Com't, offences of less magni- tude are adjudicated upon before the common-seijeaut; and the Third Com't, very recently established, is appro- I piiated to a similar object, and lightens the labours of the i session. The Lord hlayor and aldermen of Ijondon are j also, in right of their offices, judges of the Central Crimi- j nal Court. Adjoining the Sessions House is a building, 1 constructed for the accommodation of ■witnesses in atten- dance during the tnals. It is a colonnade of two rows of j Doric fluted pillars, sustaining a ceiling, and entered by 1 28 TALLISES ILLUSTKATED LONDON; three iron gates. Above are the offices of the clerk of the peace, and other legal fiinctionaries. dhe interior of the city prison demands some notice. It contains a neat chapel, to which, when condemned ser- mons were preached (that is, sermons preached on the Sunday preceding the execution of conducted felons, in the presence of the doomed men), the public were accus- tomed to resort in great numbers. Some years back, it was deemed expedient to exclude them from these melancholy services, and to allow the last hours of the condemned to be undisturbed by the curious gaze and unfeeling curiosity of a thoughtless multitude. The phi- lanthropic exertions of the benevolent Howard, of the exemplary Mrs. Fry, and others who have followed in the like career of mercy, have gone far to render this prison unequalled in the world for the excellence of its internal arrangements, not the least important of which is the attention paid to the physical comforts and moral exigencies of the prisoners. The gaol is divided into a male and female side, and the several wards present the cleanliness and order of a private dwelhng. The allow- ance of food to the inmates is liberal; they have paved court-yards, in which to walk; and every indulgence is shown to them compatible with their safe keeping ; the former exploits of prison-breakers having rendered the prevention ot escape one of the chief objects to be con- sidered in the construction of tliis building. The con- demned yard, in which convicts under sentence of death are kept in sohtary cells the greater part of the day, adjoins Newgate-street. It is long and narrow; and each ceU is nine feet long by six wide. Criminals are Minted in front of that iving of the prison called the Debtors’ Door, before which the scaffold is erected. Executions take place at eight in the morning; and the condemned, upon leaving their cells, after traversing some gloomy labyrinths, emerge into the kitchen of Newgate, whence they ascend, through a door opening on to the street, to the fatal drop. These melancholy spectacles are NEWGATE. 29 I DOW, Giving to tliG ainelioratioD of tlic critumal code, of ! rare occurrence ; none save those who have imbrued their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures undergoing 1 the last di-ead penalty of the law-making an expiation, with their lives, to outraged justice. Formerly condemned prisoners were conveyed in a cart from Newgate, along Holborn and Oxford-street to Tyburn, a site opposite the entrance to Hyde-park, where they suffered capital punishment. The remains of Oliver Crom- well are interred upon the spot where Tyburn-tuxnpike once stood. Robert Dow, a merchant-tailor, who died in 1612, bequeathed the yearly sum of £1 6s. 8c/., in perpe- tuity, to the sexton of St. Sepulchre’s, on condition that he should deliver two solemn admonitions to criminals sentenced to die j one to them in the prison of Newgate, i on the night before they suffered, and the other on the morning of their execution, as they passed the wall of ' St. Sepulchre’s chm’ch, on their way to Tyburn. In con- i ! formity with this strange bequest, at midnight preceding the fatal morning, the sexton, provided with a large bell, and followed by men with torches, entered the condemned j ceR, and after ringing his bell, aggravated, if possible, the i affiction of the doomed by an admonition, commencing i' with a couplet of doggrel rhyme, in which he reminded I them of their dreadful fate, and besought them to repent ; of their sins. On the following morning they were again aroused to a painful sense of their unhappy condition by another exhortation, delivered by the same official, as they passed by the gate of St. Sepulehre’s. The lugubi’ious l l address opened thus— AR good people, pray heartily r unto God for these poor sinners, who are now going to i their deaths, and for whom this great bell doth toR. You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears.” It concluded with the invocation— “ Lord have mercy upon you ! Christ have mercy on you !” This weR-meant, but, to the sufferers, agonizing formula, has long smce ' faRen into desuetude : probably the tolling of St. Sepul- chre’s bell, which, tiR recently, was heard when an execu- 30 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON tion was about to take place at Newgate, was a relic of this by-gone ceremonial. Death by the hand of justice is sufficiently awful; the thoughts of the dying should not be distracted by externals, which can serve no other pur- pose than to make them feel more acutely the appalling position to which they are reduced. Newgate executions are now almost a record of the past ; but the associations connected with them remain. The histories of many of those who have suffered here have become part and parcel of our household annals, and the heroes and the idctims of the hangman are more familiarly remembered than those who have figured upon a more extensive and a nobler stage. These closing scenes have been witnessed by the multitude, aild consequently are more indelibly implanted on their minds than the deaths of glory with which they are only acquainted through the medium of a royal gazette. Newgate has its demigods, its panegyrists, and its poets ; but more enlightened days are dawning upon us, and the time is fast approaching when crime shall be expiated in obscurity, and no longer be the theme of vulgar admira- tion and morbid sympathy. We return to Ludgate-hill, descending which we reach a point where Bridge-street and Farringdon-street inter- sect the road, which Fleet-street continues. Farringdon- street, a wide and noble avenue, on the right, conducting to Holborn, first claims attention. At its head stands a handsome obelisk, with four lamps, which is a memorial to the late Alderman Waithman, and a safeguard against carriages to the pedestrian. This street occupies the site of old Fleet-market, which was taken down in 18.28. The antecedent of Fleet-market was Fleet ditch, which had its entrance from the Thames, immediately below Bride- well, and extended to Holborn-bridge, at the foot of Holborn-hill. Into this creek flowed the little river Fleet, TurnmiU brook, and another stream, called Oldbomm, Avhence Holborn derives its name. It was traversed by four stone bridges, and extensive quays and warehouses were on the side. So useful was it, that it was scoui’ed FAllKINGDON MARKET. 31 and kept open at great cost; and, in 1606, nearly £28,000 i were expended upon tliat object. Eventually this canal , became a nuisance, was filled up, and a sewer constructed beneath to convey the water to the river. In 1733, the corporation of London, having determined to erect an official residence for the Lord Mayor, the spot called Stocks-market was selected, and the present Mansion- house erected upon that site. The market was removed, and the Fleet ditch, being walled over, was its new lo- cality. The remaining part of the Fleet ditch, from Bridge-street to the Thames, remained open for more than thirty years afterwards, and was finally covered in when the approaches to Blackfriars-bridge were com- i pleted, and Chatham- place arose in lieu of the “ muddy and genuine ditch,’^ which Pennant remembers. In a re- cess on the Avest side of Farringdon-street, between which and Shoe-lane it hes, is Furring don-market, the successor of Fleet-market; but its concealed situation detracts from its popularity, and the many untenanted shops in- dicate that as a speculation, it has been far from success- ful. In form it is a parallelogram, occupying about one acre and a half of ground ; three sides of it are appro- priated to buildings, shops, standings, &c. ; the fourth 1 side is open to the street, from which it is separated by I a lofty iron palisading. The central area is 232 feet in length, by 150 feet in breadth, and is principally devoted to dealers in vegetables and fruit, by whom, indeed, the staple business of the market is carried on. From Far- . ringdon-street and Shoe-lane there are several entrances ; the chief public accesses are, however, in Stonecutter-street, one side of which is formed by the south and open side of the market. Farringdon-market was opened in No- vember, 1829, and the entire expense of its construction j and of removing the old Fleet-market, amounted to about ; £ 212 , 000 . j On the east side of Farringdon-street a long line of ! dead Avail indicates all that remains of the Fleet Prison, j which Avas taken doAvn a very few years since. This j 32 Tallis’s illustrated London; ' remarkable prison was founded, it is said, in the reign ’ of Eichard I., for debtors, and was also a place of con- finement for those who had rendered themselves obnox- ious to that inquisitorial court, the Star Chamber, and for persons generally, who were convicted of contempt of court. It was under the government of a warder, and had a coroner of its own. Great cruelties were practised here by the chief gaoler and his myrmidons, by whom prisoners for debt were frequently loaded with irons and cast into noisome dungeons. To such a height had these abuses attained, that in 1729 a committee was appointed by the House of Commons to visit the gaol and report there- upon. The result of their enquiries showed that Huggins, the warder of the Meet, Bambridge, his deputy, and William Acton, turnkey, had been guilty of frightful bar- barity towards the unhappy persons who had been- com- mitted to their keeping. They were brought to trial, charged with the murder of five -unfortunate men who had been in their custody, and whom they had literally worried to death. Beyond being disquahfied for agaiu holding those offices which they had so dishonoured, these wretches escaped punishment — that condign punishment which they so abundantly merited. An unenviable celebrity attached to the Fleet Prison, as the scene of impromptu and profligate marriages. Of these, speaking from his own experience, the acute author of Some Account of Lon- don, says, “ In walking along the street in my youth, I have often been tempted by the question, ‘ Sir, tvill you be pleased to ivalk in and be married?’ Along this most lawless space was frequently hung up the sign of a male and female hand conjoined, with ‘Marriages performed within,’ written beneath. 'A dirty fellow in-rited you in. The parson was seen walking before his shop ; a squalid profligate figure, clad in a tattered plaid night-go-wn, with a fiery face, and ready to couple you for a dram of gin or roll of tobacco. Our great chancellor. Lord Hardwicke, put these demons to flight, and saved thousands from the I misery and disiyrace which would be entailed bv these ex- . t. f! V ^ ^ \ 1-V6' :l',rr- ', '*'i:~. ** •» . :'>• , ^V?, i ■ ■ ^ . .. . - ,<■• . -y.im jf, .. ••■V i - Jf . .V ^ % :ti 'i''- ■'' • . '•»!.■ V' f , ■ I >•. 'i" Alx'," '5 • ^ v'T,^; . • ;.-&-.ir. ‘ f.\ ?■' '*<■ -' ;•; ^ i’ , ; ^ V', - V ■ ■ »f i mA :-l: ■vi' '*■ •'■ ' ; ■'"^-- ' r f '' :», • L- 't- »>*'■ . . . “•y/ .« * >.• & ■ ■: , .' 1 ^’ .^' .^l »• :'^‘ ■ - -^' ;..■»■■ 4 '' J. . '-i-'- ■;..?*>• ■ t..' : V' ->Jir. • .jfry- ^ . *. -^v-Ai - :'-4, *.'*:•.» !■ • *. Jt- " 5 C ,. ,.f^f.v 1' . 1 VI -' * ,• 4 ' ' *. i • t *4 4 1 j NEW BRIDGE STREET. 33 I temporary tliouglitless unions.^' Malcolm writes^ “ To suet au extent were tte proceedings carried^ that twenty ! and thirty couples were joined in one day, at from ten to ] twenty shillings each ; ” and “ between the 19th October, ! 1704, and the 12th February, 1705, 2,954 marriages were i celebrated. To these neither licence nor certificate were : required; and they concealed, liy private marks, the names of those who chose to pay them for it.’^ These I scandalous excesses were brought to an end by the passing I of the Marriage Act, and hymeneal chains were no longer I forged in the Fleet Prison. When this building was I pulled down in 1846, its inmates were removed to |j the Queen^s Prison, better known as the King’s Bench. I Farringdon-street ends at a point where Holborn and jl Snowhill join; it is continued by Victoria-street, a new : street, forming the opening of a direct road to be made * from Holborn to Islington. j I Eeturning to Ludgate-hill, we proceed by New Bridge- jl street, which is now principally occupied by insurance j j offices, hotels, and a prison for the refractory ; although, I I before the gradual emigration of fashion from the east jj to the west, it formed part of a royal and aristocratic I neighbourhood. The Black Friars, or Dominicans, whose name is perpetuated in this part of the city, came to England early in the thirteenth century. Their priory, in 1250, stood upon the spot now known as Lincoln’s Inn, Avhence, in the reign of Edward I., they transferred I themselves to the shores of the Thames, and erected for themselves another monastic residence, upon the site I noAV covered by the buildings on the left ‘side of Bridge- street, There the Dominicans dwelt until the time of Henry YIII., by whom their priory was converted into a ! palace. Both in the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VIII. " parliaments ^yere held in the Black Friars’ Priory. On the latter occasion (April, 1524) Henry somewhat alarmed his subjects by levying the then novel imposition of au income-tax, of no less than four shillings in the pound. The sum which he sought to raise was £800,000; but, 34 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; tyrant as that sovereign was, the demand was as s^utly rListed by those upon whom it was made, and was equaUy unpalatable as was a similar infliction imposed in modern times, not under a despotic, but a constitutional - reignty; and eventually the tax was reduced to ten pei cent, to he paid by those possessing an annual revenue of £20, with a progressive increase of the rate upon a incomes above that average. On the the way stood another palace, which time and the tide of fashion have metamorphosed into Bridewell Hospita . The ancient palace of Bridewell was erected anterior to the accession of King John, and was P^^^fly constructed from the relics of an ancient castle, called the westeiu Arx Palatina of the city, which stood upon that small tributary of the Thames, the river Bleet. Although occa- sionally 'the abode of royalty. Bridewell appear to have been of any great note until that ambi- tious and luxurious prelate, Wolsey, " sion of the king to reside here, in 1522. His Majesty, who was endowed with a facility for raising money which must have been envied by his less exacting scientious successors, summoned to this palace all abbots and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, froin whom be obtained £100,000, an immense amount in those days. The Cistercians, who refused to recognise in Henry head of the church, paid for this contumacy, as the op- pressor would name it, or for liberty of Luld be designated by the oppressed, the exorbitant penalty of £33,000. With a portion of the money thus obtained from the representatives of the church Henry VIII. rebuilt the palace, in a most magnihcent manner, in the space of six weeks (as we are told), lor the reception of the Emperor Charles V., England in 1522. The Emperor, however, fixed upon the Black Friark Palace as his personal residence, while the new palace was appropriated to the accommodatio of his suite, a gallery of communication between the^ t dwellings being thrown across the Fleet, and a passage imiDEWELL. 35 cut tlirougli tlie city wall into the Emperor’s apartment. King Henry often made the Bridewell P^ilace his tem- porary abode ; and he was living here when the question of his divorce from Queen Katherine was first contem- plated. The trial, which resulted in procuring the accomplishment of the King’s wishes, by separating him from Katherine, and leaving him free to marry Anna Bolejm, was brought to a close in the opposite palace of Black Friars, where the actual speech of Katherine, in her defence, and which Shakspeare has done no more than paraphrase, was delivered by that injured piincess. After this event the King never lived in Bridewell j and the palace gradually fell into decay, and was granted by Edward VI, to Bishop Ridley, to be employed for charitable purposes. The grant provided that the building should be used as a workhouse for the poor and idle persons of the city of London ; and seven hundred marks of the Savoy rent, with the furniture of the hospital of the Savoy, were devoted to its maintenance, in conjunction with the hospital of St. Thomas, in the borough of Southwark. In after years, additional grants were made, to give greater effect to the benevolent views of its patrons, and Bridewell became, not only a place of punishment and reformation for disobedient apprentices and disorderly characters, but an asylum where deserted children were received and instructed in useful employments. In 1666, the great fire of London destroyed the original building : the hos- pital was rebuilt two years afterwards. Its affairs are controlled by the same committee that manage the Bedlam Hospital, to which it is united, as one of the five royal hospitals of the city. The building in Bridge-street is a house of correction for dissolute persons, idle apprentices, and vagrants : the governors have founded a new house of occupation in St. George’s Fields, Southwark, where the honest and industrious poor are liberally provided for, and instructed in occupations, by which they may hereafter earn their own livings. Bridge-street, is cdled after Blackfriars-bridge, the third 36 Tallis’s illustrated London ; metropolitan bridge erected over the river Thames. It was built after the plan of Mr. Robert Mylne^ and the cost of its construction was £152,840 3s. lOc^. The first stone was laid on October 30th, 1760; and the bridge was com- pleted towards the close of the year 1768. It is built i on nine elliptical arches, the central one being 100 feet in j width; in length, the bridge is 995 feet; in breadth, the carriage-way is 28 feet ; and the two foot-ways 7 feet each. This bridge was partially built, and for a long time sus- tained, ^from the proceeds of a toll, for which, on Sundays, a double charge was made. Every foot-passenger crossing the bridge paid a half- penny, and on Sundays a penny. The toll was purchased by government, and in 1785 the bridge was thrown open to the pubhc. During the ‘"^no-popery” disturbances incited by Lord George Gordon, the toll-gates at Black- friars. were burnt down, the rioters expecting that the produce of the tolls would yield them a rich booty. Some lives were sacrificed in consequence, and one unfortunate man who was shot, after running for some forty yards, shrieking with agony, fell dead. To commemorate his statesmanship, the municipal authorities originally in- tended^ to call the bridge Pitt’s Bridge, after William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the father of the great minister of George III.; and under the foundation-stone, with the coins, were placed two tin plates, bearing a Latin inscription, eulogistic of the first William Pitt, and stating that the bridge was named after him, “ that there might remain to posterity a monument of this city’s afiection to the man who by the strength of his genius, the steadiness of his mind, and a certain kind of happy contagion of his probity and spirit (under the divine favour and fortunate auspices of George II.), recovered, augmented, and se- cured the British empire in Asia, Africa, and America, and restored the ancient reputation of his country amongst the na,tions of Europe.” Locality, however, triumphed over civic gratitude, and the bridge took from tiie neigh- bourhood its present name of Blaclcfriars-bridge. New NEWBKlULiE STREET^ BLaCKFRIARS. 87 Bridge-street, the principal approacli to the bridge on the Middlesex side, was of course the olfspring of the bridge, to which it is linked by Chatham-place, a pile of elegant buildings, named after the statesman just mentioned, and wliich have more faithfully perpetuated his memory than the bridge. At the head of New Bridge-street is an obelisk in honour of that notorious politician, John Wilkes, imme- diately opposite to that of W aithman. On the east side of the street is the Royal Humane Society, which has for its object the recovery of persons apparently drowned. It was founded in 1774, since which period many thou- sand lives have been saved by its valuable intervention, and prizes awarded to nearly thirty thousand persons, w'ho have placed their own lives in peril to save others. As- cending towards the bridge several streets on the left-hand side of New Bridge-street conduct to a dim and dreary maze of courts, alleys, and lanes ; to many of them, how- ever, classic and literary reminiscences belong. Union- street is a wide opening leading directly to Apothecaries- hall, which will be noticed in its proper place. Closely adjacent is Playhouse-yard, the site of Blackfriars Theatre, which wns first erected on this spot in 1576, by James Burbage. Twenty years later it was remodelled, and Richard Burbage and Shakspere became its lessees. Shakspere occasionally acted on this stage, on which several of his plays were represented for the first time. In 1655 the theatre was pulled down, but the modern associations of Playhouse-yard are not less w'orthy of remem- brance than the ancient ones; for when winter sets in severely, a refuge is here thrown open for houseless wan- derers, who require no other certificate beyond that of want and distress to insure them a good straw bed, a com- fortable fire, and wherewithal to appease the immediate cravings of hunger. Within a stone^s throw is Printmg- house-square, of world-wide celebrity, a modern temple of fame, w'here “the leading joiunal of Europe” is printed. From this comparatively tranquil nook issues the diurnal I 38 TALLIS'S ILLirSTHATED LONDON ; broad sheet of The Times, possessing an - influence in political, commercial, and social matters to which none of its contemporaries can approach. Unequalled for its sources of information this paper has acquired fame by its early intelligence, and not unfrequently it has the advan- tage of government in this respect. To give an idea of the vast amount of business which is transacted in London, one need only look during the busy season in the adver- tising sheet of The Times. Mighty indeed is the power of the press — it has been the pioneer of civilization, and the promoter of taste ; and through its means the commerce of Britain has been extended to the remotest corners of the earth. Earl-street branches from New Bridge- street to Thames-street. The latter street, one of the most ancient, and formerly one of the principal in the city, we shall duly notice in the course of our wanderings. On the right-hand of New Bridge-street are several streets which lead to the Temple, but neither their importance nor our limits entitle them to further mention. CHAPTER II. FLEET-STKEET ST. BEIDERS CHUECH WHITEFKIARS-STREET fetter-lane DXJNSTAN^S CHURCH CHANCERY- — the temple TEMPLE-BAR, ETC. Modern Fleet-street, the chief link connecting London with Westminster, is one of the principal seats of retail traffic in the city. Here bankers and hotels abound; but Fleet-street is more especially celebrated for its literary associations, past and present. From tliis locality issue many daily and weekly newspapers of every shade of politics, representing the church establishment, dissent, the turf, the drama, the railway, and other interests. FLEET STREET. 39 ! Not only the street, hut the numerous courts, lanes, squares, and streets, of which it forms the arterial centre, ‘ contain vast printing establishments, of Avhich the chief is the Queen’s Printing-office, in New-street square, be- hind Fleet-street, and between Shoe and Fetter lanes. ' Fleet-street, it is almost superfluous to mention, derives I its name from the subterranean river Fleet, j i We will walk along the north side first, as that appears P to be the most antiquated portion of the street. Fabian ; and other old chroniclers represent this to be the principal I part of the Saxon city; and that in Ethelred’s reign, I London had more buildings from Ludgate towards West- minster, and scarcely any, where the heart of the city now 1 is placed. Tradition reports that the ambitious Earl I Godwin, the father of Harold, the last Saxon king of j England, occupied a palace on this site. Shoe-lane, a ! narrow, black-looking passage from Fleet-street to Hol- ! born, once exhibited a less repulsive aspect. All that ! densely populated labyrinth of buildings lying between Shoe-lane and Chancery-lane had no existence in the reign of Elizabeth. Then the estate was covered with ! gardens, with a few cottages scattered about, the two : above-mentioned lanes and Fetter-lane intersecting it. i In Shoe-lane, the only mansion of consequence, was the I town residence of the Bishop of Bangor, which was standing in the reign of Edward III. Bangor-couri, behind St. Andrew’s church, at the Holborn end of the j lane, indicates the situation of the episcopal palace. I ; After the restoration the prelates ceased to reside here ; ! the mansion was converted into a lodging-house, and i mean houses were erected upon the grounds. It was ; afterwards entirely puUed down, and a printing establish- ment now stands upon its site. In Gunpowder-alley, leading from Shoe-lane, Kichard I Lovelace, the poet, died in a state of penury, in 1658. i Between Shoe-lane and Fetter-lane, there are several | courts branching from Fleet-street. Of these the most ' celebrated are Bolt-court and Johnson’ s-court, in botli of ^ FLEET STREET. 41 thorouglifare stopped to prevent accident, and the Bishop of Chichester kept np the bar for many years. Eventually the lane was reopened and placed in a condition so as to render the passage of vehicles unattended with danger. On the east side of the lane is a handsome modern pile of buildings called Serjeants-inn. The ancient inn, upon the site of which the present one stands, was appropriated to serjeants and judges in the reign of Henry IV. It was then called Earringdon-inn, for which its present appella- tion was substituted in 1484. The exclusive right of seijeants to plead in the Common Pleas was taken away by an act of parliament, passed in 1845. The judges were formerly always selected from this brancn of the i profession, and whenever a barrister is raised to the bench, he is previously created a serjeant. Serjeant’s-inn communicates with Clifford’ s-inn. We shall have occasion to return to Chancery-lane. Lower Searle’ s-place is the last turning on the north side of Fleet-street : till 1 845 it was known as Shire-lane, and was so called because it divided the city from the shire or county of Middlesex. We have now reached Temple-bar, before passing through which, we must take a brief survey of the south side of Fleet-steet. I In Bride-lane, which communicates from Fleet-street to New Bridge-street, at the east end of the church-wall is a pump, covering the once famous St. Bride’s W ill, after which a parish, a church, a palace, and a house of correc- tion were named. A. few steps onward we reach the avenue, whence is seen one of Wren’s finest works — St. Bride’s church, dedicated to St. Bridget, or St. Bride, an Irish saint. The ancient church was consumed by the great fire of 1666, and in 1680 the present noble struc- ture was completed. The height of the spire was 234 feet, but being injured by lightning, it was deemed ex- pedient to reduce it by eight feet. In 1796, the church was thoroughly renovated and beautified by act of parlia- ment. Until 1824, the front view of this church was obstructed by the houses before it in Fleet-street. In o 42 Tallis’s illustrated London ; that year a fire breaking out^ cleared away these houses, and the city authorities purchasing the ground, the present advantageous opening was made. The poet Lovelace; Wynkin de Worde, the eminent printer of Fleet-street; Sir Richard Baker, author of the Chronicles ; Riehard- son, whose novel of Pamela caused in its day, a sensa- tion which it has rarely been the fate of modem fiction to create, and others of note are buried here. Milton lodged for some time in St. Bride’s church-yard. Salisbury -square and the places immediately adjacent, indicate the spot where once stood the palace of the bishops of Salisbury. It afterwards came into possession of the Earl of Dorset, and was successively called Dorset-house and Sackville-house. Deserted by its lordly owners, the mansion and its ap- purtenances were pulled down, and several streets formed upon the site. The new buildings being levelled by the great fire, a theatre was next erected by Sii’ Christopher Wren. In Dorset-gardens Theatre, Sir. Wm. Davenant’s company, described as the Duke of York’s servants, per- formed ; and this stage was one of the earliest scenes of Betterton’s triumphs. Before 1730 the theatre had dis- appeared, and “ the boards,” were succeeded by a timber- yard. We now approach Whitefriars, the principal streets in which are Whitefriars-street (formerly Water-lane) and Bouverie-street. This district, which comprises that col- lection of streets, lanes, and alleys, in the rear of Fleet- street, between the Temple and Bridewell, took its name from the church and priory of the Carmelites, or White Friars ; the former of which stood between the Green Dragon public-house and Water-lane. Sir Richard Grey founded the priory in 1241. Many distinguished persons were buried here. When Flenry VIII. broke up the | monasteries and convents, the prior3'' of White Friars j shared the common fate, and the neighbourhood became | one of the seats of fashion, retaining, however, the pri- \ j vileges of sanctuary. This led to great eGls. Thieves, i ■ murderers, and all offenders, except traitors, originally 1 ! enjoyed immunity from arrest in the precincts of White- FLEET STREET, 43 friars : but after the fifteenth century this privilege was extended to debtors only. Affording a refuge to the disorderly, the soubriquet of Alsatia was given to it, and all the respectable inhabitants abandoned it as a place of bad repute. Ram-alley, Mitre-court, and Lombard- street were those parts of Whitefriars called Aisatia. Towards the close of the reign of William III. an act of parliament was passed, abolishing all the traditional 1 privileges which Whitefriars had so long abused ; and, dso, abolishing the sanctuaries of the Savoy, in the Strand; Fnlwood’s Eents, Holborn ; Baldwins Gardens, Gray's-inn-lane ; the Minories and the Clinic, and the Mint, in Southwark. The Mint, however, no act oi par- liament has been able to purify ; the roadmaker and the builder are the only agents by which that place can be divested of its questionable associations. Returning to Fleet-street, we arrive at another Ler- jeanfs Inn, a small square, entered from the street through an iron gate. Here the serjeants-at-law dwelt until the inn was destroyed by the great fire. It was rebuilt in 1670, and about the commencement oi the pre- sent century, the existing court was erected. The site of its hall and chapel is now covered by the offices ot the Amicable Assurance Company. At No. 1, Fleet-street, adjoining Temple Bar, is the banking house of Child and Co., the oldest in London; it having been originated by Mr. Francis Child, a goldsmith, soon after the Restoration. The celebrated Devil Tavern. was contiguous, where rare “Ben Jonson” and his con- temporaries held their literary orgies; the sparkling wit ot the di-amatist attracting a host of customers to the house, and conferring upon it an enviable notoriety. In subse* quent years Pope, Garth, Addison, Dr. Johnson, Gold- smith, and others, contributed to swell the symposium ot wits assembling in this tavern, which dispppeared in 1/88, the present Child! s-place, a broad paved couit, over- looking Middle Temple-lane, being built upon the site. Within a few yards of this spot taverns abound: the 44 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; Cock, famous for its stout and snug suppers, wliich was in existence at the commencement of the reign of Charles II., and closed during the great plague of 1665, the host flying to the country to avoid the pestilence, and not returning till its virulence had abated Dick s Coffee House, a favourite resort of Sir Richard Steele; the Rainbow, and others of ancient date, and literary repu- tation. At No. 19 is the banking-house of Gosling and Co., the supposed founder of which was Major Pinckey, a goldsmith, dwelling, in 1673, according to the London Gazette, at the ‘'Three Squirrels,” over against St. Dunstan’s Church. The banking establishment of Messrs. Hoare and Co. is at No. 37, and is one of the most superb ediflces of the kind in London. An old London Gazette states that Mr. Richard Hoare was a banker at the “ Golden Bottle,” in Fleet-street, in 1693. Amongst the distinguished residents in this street we may name Wyiikyn de Worde, the celebrated printer and successor of Caxton, the poets, Michael Drayton and Cowley ; the fanatical leather-seller, Praise-God-bare-bones, and Bernard Lintot, and Edmund CurU, the eminent pub- lishers. The principal newspaper offices here are the Morning Advertiser, the John Bull, the Britannia, the Dispatch, the Railway Times, and the Sunday Times. THE TEMPLE. This name, now appropriated to one of the principal strongholds of the law, originated with a military and religious order, called the Knights Templars, who, devoting themselves to a holy life, established themselves in Eng- land in the year 1118, and had, for their first metro- politan residence, the site now occupied by Southampton- buildings, in Holborn. This edifice was called the Ola Temple; but, as their weight and influence increased, they quitted their early abode to become the inmates of a more splendid establishment, erected opposite New- street, now Chancery-lane, and distinguished by the ap- pellation of the New Temple. This was in the reign of 4-5 THE TEMPLE. Henry II. The rank and importance of this semi-eccle- siastieal body became such, that not only were parliaments and general councils lield witliin tlie New Templ^ u i became a general treasury depdt, or treasury, for t e property of persons of distinction, and also the keeping- place of the crown jewels. The Temple Church, the few round churches in England, was erected by the Knights Templars, in 1185, upon the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre,” at Jerusalem, and was conse- crated by Heraclius, the patriarch of that see, who had been sent upon a mission to England by the Pope, to invite Henry II. to fill the throne of Jerusalem. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, hut is now called bt. Mary's Church, from the circumstance of its being a second time dedicated in 1240, when the existing struc- tore is supposed to have been raised oy the Knig i s HospitaUers. It is in the Norman style of architecture, and is thus described by that profound antiquary, Mr. Brayley, This building is particularly interesting ; tor though there is such a remarkable dissimilarity between the circular vestibule and the rectangular body of the church, there is great reason to believe that they were built from one original design. All the exterior walls, which are five feet in thickness, are strengthened by pro- jecting buttresses. In the upright, the vestibule consists of two stories, the upper one being about half the diameter of the lower story, which measures 58 feet across the area. The lower part of the upper story is surrounded by a series of semicircular arches, intersecting each other, and forming a blank arcade, behind which, and over the circular aisle (if it may be so termed), there is a con- tinued passage. The staircase, leading to the latter, is on the north-west side; and about half-way up, in the substance of the wall, is a small dark cell, most probably intended as a place of confinement. Over the arcade are six semicircular headed windows. The clustered columns which support the roof, are each formed by four distinct 1 shafts, which are sm’rounded, ne.ar the middle, by a tri- .ew 56 TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; Church, and one of tlie fifty churclies ordered to be biult in the reign of Queen Anne^ -nras erected by Gibbs. The old churchy called St. Mary-'vnthout-Temple-bar, stood in a more southerly direction, and was, in 1549, pulled do-wn with other fabrics, by the Protector Somerset, to make way for his new palace ; an act of aggrandizement the consequences of which the parish felt for centuries, being unprovided with a church from the reign of Edward VI. to that of Queen Anne. The first stone of the present structure was laid in 1714; it was completed about 1718, and consecrated on the first day of 1721. Of its archi- tectural merits there are dilferent views; but the pre- vailing opinion is, that it is too much overladen by ornament to hold high rank as a work of art. The area westward of this church is said to have been the first hackney-coach stand in the metropolis. Prom Hungary coaches were introduced into England, about 1580, by the Earl of Arundel; but it was not tiU 1634 that coaches publicly plied for hire, when four hackney-coaches, with drivers in livery, occupied a stand at the May-pole. king’s college. On the south side of the church, and at the east end of Somerset House, is King’s College, an institution “ founded with the intent that instruction in the duties and doctrines of Christianity, as taught in the united churches of England and Ireland, shall be for ever com- bined with the instruction in the vaiious branches of science and literature.” Here youth receive the advan- I j tages of a university education for less than £20 a year. | A medical school and hospital are attached to the college. This edifice was commenced in September, 1829, and | opened in October 1831, when divine service was per- formed, and a sermon, appropriate to the occasion, de- livered by the Bishop of London. Its area contains | between 50,000 and 60,000 square feet. The building I extenrls from the Strand to the Thames, and its front, which faces the west, comprises three stories and five ! SOMEllSET HOUSE. 57 parts — tlie centre, two wings, and a pavilion at each end. The centre is embellished in the second story with half columns of the Corinthian order, and the pavilions with pilasters of the same order between the windows. It is entered through a semicircular archway from the Strand, over which are placed the symbolical figures of Holiness and Wisdom, between which the Royal arras appear, sur- mounting the motto, Sancte et Sapientet. The western, front of the college is 304 feet long, and harmonizes with ! . the corresponding buildings of Somerset House. King^s i I College was built after designs from Mr. (now Sir) Robert ■ Smii'ke. The centre of the first fioor is occupied by a spacious chapel, beneath which is a hall for the exami- nations and other public matters. There are various lecture-rooms, a library, and museums, in the institution. The residence of the Principal, and the apartments for the professors, are situate in that part of the structure adjoining the river. The building is of stone j Portland, Yorkshire, and Scotch granite being the materials used in its construction. I i SOMERSET HOUSE. I ! I I Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who was Protector in the reign of Edward VI., built the first Somerset House, about the year 1549 ; not only pulling down, as has before been noticed, the church of St. Mary-without- Temple-bar, but appropriating part of the conventual church of St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell, and the tower and cloisters on the north side of St. PauTs, with the charnel-houses and adjacent chapel, to supply ma- terials for the new structure. The town residences of the bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, and Llandaff, and the Strand Inn, an inn of Chancery, belonging to the Temple, were also pulled down to make room for the Protector’s palace, which he contemplated making more magnificent than any tliat had ever before been known in England. The bribe of a large sum of money alone prevented him from dismantling Westminster Abbey, to add to the I 58 Tallis’s illitstbated London; , grandeur of his residence. John of Padua, who was the first to introduce regular architecture into England, raised i the pile, his allowance being a grant of two shillings daily. When Somerset was executed for high treason, his mag- nificent dwelling was forfeited to the Crown, and Queen Elizabeth occasionally resided here. Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I., held her court here, whence it was called Denmark House, and here the body of James I. lay in state. The body of Oliver Cromwell also lay in state in the great hall; and, after the restoration, Henrietta Maria, the queen mother, took up her residence in the palace, in vfhich she made many internal improvements. _ Upon the death of General Monk, Duke of Albermarle, his body lay in state in Somerset House, in 1670. Catherine of Braganza, the Queen of Charles II., also resided in, and I on the death of the king removed entirely to, Somerset i House, where, after remaining for seven^years, she went i to Portugal. Upon her death, in 1705, the property reverted to the Crown, and was frequently appropriated ' to the use of ambassadors or other illustrious persons i visitin^- England. It belonged to several successive queens till the time of George III., when Buckingham House, anciently called the Queen’s House, was given to Queen Charlotte, and Somerset House was destined to be converted into offices for the transaction of the business of the country. The EuTopean Magcizins thus desciihes some of the most prominent features of old Somerset House: “At the extremity of the royal apartments, which might be termed semi-modern, two large folding- doors connected the architecture of Inigo Jones with the old structure ; these opened into a long gallery, on the first floor of the building, which occupied one side of the water garden; at the lower end oi which was another gallery, or suite of apartments, which made an angle, forming the original front towards the liver. The old part of the mansion had been long .shut up, and vras reputed to be haunted. M lien opened by the direction of Sir Mhlliam Chambers, the long gallery was SOMERSET HOUSE. 69 observed to be lined witli oak, in small panels ; tbe heights of their mouldings had been touched witli gold ; it had an oaken floor and stuccoed ceiling, from which stdl depended part of the chains, &c., to which had hung chandeliers. Against the sides some sconces still remained. Several circumstances indicated that this gallery had been used as a ball-room. In the suite of apartments which formed the other side of the angle, fronting the Thames, and which had been adorned in a style of splendour and magnificence creditable to the taste of the age of Edward VI., part of the ancient furniture remained, and, indeed, from the stability of its materials and construction, might have remained for centuries, had proper attention been paid to its preservation. The audience chamber had been hung with silk, which was in tatters, as w'ere the curtains, gilt leather covers, and painted screens. In this, and a much larger room, were various articles, which had been confusedly removed from other apartments ; some of the sconces, though reversed, were still against the hangings ; one of the brass gilt chandeliers stdl depended from the ceiling. Passing through those rooms, a pair of doors, with difficulty opened, gave access to an apartment on the first floor of a small pile, which formed a kind of tower at the end of the building, and the internal part of which was un- questionably the work of Inigo Jones. This had been used as a breakfast or dressing-room by Catherine, the Queen of Charles II., and had more the appearance of a small temple than a room. It was of an octagonal form, and the ceiling rose in a dome from a beautiful cornice. There appeared such an elegant simplicity in the archi- tecture, and such a truly attic grace in the ornaments, that Sir William Chambers exceedingly regretted the necessity there was for its dilapidation. The figures painted on the panels were in fresco; the ornaments under the surbase were in their heights touched with gold. The few articles of furniture that remained here w^ere in the antique style, and tliere were several pictures upon the 60 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON j ground. From this room a small door opened upon the staircase ; and on the ground floor was an apartment of an octagonal form, lined with entirely white marble; in the interior closets of which were a hot and cold bath.’^ In 1 / 75, pursuant to an act of parliament, the destruc- tion of the palace of Somerset House took place ; and in the same year the new building was commenced, the plan of Sir William Chambers being adopted. The Strand front is 135 feet wide and 61 feet deep, and has two wings, ! each 46 feet wide and 42 feet in depth, the whole being seven stories high. It is faced with Portland stone ; and consists of a rustic basement, sustaining a range of Corinthian columns, crowned in the centre with an attic story, and adorned at the extremities with a balustrade. The grand entrance, by three lofty arches, opens to an extensive and elegant vestibule, enriched with Doric columns. This front forms the northern side of a large quadrangular court, 210 feet wide, and 296 feet deep; on three sides of which are buildings, 54 feet deep, and six stories in height, in which are some of the chief government offices. Among them are those of the Navy Pay, the Inland Revenue, the Poor Law Commission, the Audit, and the Duchy of Cornwall. The south, or river front, of Somerset House has been greatly admired for its unique character, and may be regarded as one of the most superb of the many stately edifices and palaces which adorn the banks of the Thames. It is erected upon a ( parapetted terrace, 53 feet in width, and the length of the j entire structure is about 1,100 feet. A rustic basement, | erected upon an arcade comprising 32 arches, sustains ' the terrace. Projections, ornamented by rusticated Ionic columns, impart variety to this arcade ; and the terrace commands a view of the most interesting part of the river — taking in at one prospect Blackfriars, Waterloo, Hungerford, and Westminster Bridges. In the centre of the front court is a statue of George III., and at his j feet Old Father Thames, under the allegorical figure of a i river deity, is represented pom'ing from a cornucopia I THE STHANH. 61 wealth and abundance. This sculpture was executed oy Bacon, to commemorate the king’s recovery, m 1789. The Society of Antiquaries, and other learned bodies, hold their sittings in Somerset House ; ^ and here toe Royal Academy was originally established, in Sir Joshua Reynolds, who received the honour of knighthood on the occasion, being appointed the first President. _ it was founded for the encouragement of design, painting, sculpture, and the fine arts generally, and was conducted by a committee of eminent artists, styled Royal Academi- cians. For many years there were annual exhibitions of the works of modern artists held here, the admission to which defrayed the expenses of the establishment. Upon the erection of the National Gallery, in Trafalgar-square, the exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts, were re- moved from Somerset House to the new and more eligible building. ^ ^ Nearly opposite Somerset House is Drury Court, ior- merly Little Drury-lane, and once the only avenue from the Strand to the theatre. This black and dirty passage conducted to a road by the side of Craven House, and other princely mansions^ to St. Giles-in-the-Fields and the eountry. The road was lined by hedges, and partially overshadowed by trees. A little beyond this court is Catherine Street, which takes its name from Catherine of Braganza, the queen of Charles the Second. Here, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, a stream of water ran to the Thames, over which was a bridge, called Strand Bridge. Brydges Street, which is a continuation of Catherme- street, built about 1637, was named after George Brydges Lord Chandos. The Morning Herald (daily), the Naval and Military Gazette, the Era (weekly), and other jour- nalsj are publislied in Catherine-street^ the geneial cha- racter of which has not much progressed since Gay referred to it in his Trivia. After midnight Catherine and Brydges- streets convey the idea of Pandemonium unloosed, fiom the flaunting lamps, and the discordant revelry heaid to issue from the saloons of vice and inebriety, of which the} 62 Tallis’s illustrated London ; have long been the favourite localities. On the right hand side of Catherine-street is a small hut elegant arcade, terminating in Wellington-street, North, called New Exeter Change. In Brydges-street is the front entrance of Drury- lane theatre, an establishment of which notice will be taken under a classified hst of the dramatic and other places of entertainmet in London. Brydges-street extends to a point where Great Russell Street and Little Russell \ Street unite. The former conducts to Covent-garden | market and the Piazza; the latter, the whole of one side | of which is flanked by the colonnade of Drury-lane thea- I tre, runs into Drury-lane, and is continued by Duke- street, which stretches into Lincoln’ s-inn-flelds. Opposite the colonnade is Crown Court, principally known as the locality of the Scotch Church, of which that able divine. Dr. Cumming, has been for many years the minister. Returning to the Strand, and crossing to its south side, Wellington-street is reached. This street is a spacious and handsome avenue leading to that unequalled monu- ment of British architecture, WATERLOO BRIDGE, To make room for this structure, a considerable portion of the precincts of the Old Savoy Palace was removed. The first stone was laid in September, 1811, and the bridge was completed in 1817. The name originally destined for it was the Strand Bridge, but the decisive battle of Waterloo having been fought before its com- pletion, it was determined, in the name of the new bridge, to perpetuate the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and the triumph of British prowess ; accordingly it was called Waterloo Bridge. When the structure was finished, it was opened with appropriate ceremonies on the 18th of June, 1817 ; the Duke of Wellington, who, on that day two years previously, on the plains of Waterloo, dissolved the prestige of the emperor’s military infallibility, he Prince Regent, the Duke of York, and other high personages being pre- sent. The plan was laid by Mr. G. Dodd, and completed WATERLOO bridge. 63 . il under the superintendence of the late Mr. Bennie. The brido-e is supported on nine elliptical arches of 125 feet span and 35 feet in height. The piers are 20 feet thick, and each stands on a platform based on 320 piles ; Tuscan columns being supported by these piers. Trom shore to shore its measurement is 1,242 feet. The balustrades are of Aberdeen granite, all the other parts being composed of Cornwall granite. At each end of the bridge are toU- houses, built in the Doric style. _ Metal tmmstiles are attached to these containing an index-plate, which, by some internal machinery, gives the number of pedestrians that traverse the bridge. The toll for foot passengers was originaUy a penny, and for a long period there is too much reason to believe that the bridge tolled hui in- differently for the company by whom it was raised, but some years back the tolls were reduced one-half, and tlie London Terminus of the South-Western llaiiway having been extended to the Waterloo-road, these circumstances concurred to increase in a very important degree the traffic of the bridge, and to gladden the hearts of its shareholders by gleams of prosperity long withheld. The government granted a loan of £60,000 to the company to enable them to finish the grand opening of the M^aterloo- road, from the bridge to the Obelisk in St. George's- fields, and to form two minor roads — eastward to Black- fiiars' and westward to Westminster-road. Returning to the Strand by Wellington-street, we cross the road to its continuation, W ellington-street, North, opened in 1834, the aperture which it forms in the continuous line of road having been previously occupied by the office of the Courier, a defunct daily evening paper, and the old Lyceum Theatre, which was destroyed by fire in 1830, after a brief existance of fifteen years. On the left-hand side is the new Lyceum Theatre, immediately beyond which is Exeter-street, a street at present of little account, its east end branching into Catherine-street, and its west end having no outlet. Yet, once upon this dark, shabby, and unwholesome spot stood the town mansion of Lord 64 TALLIS'S ILLUSTKATED LONDON; BurleigLj the sagacious minister of Elizabeth ; who once, I while he was ill of the gout, honoured his house with her j presence. Dr. Johnson, when he first came to London, lodged in a garret in this street, at the house of a stay- maker, named Norris. This street was built in 1677 ; and in the following year Burleigh-street, a short street connecting it with the Strand, and which also indicates a portion of the site where the palace of Burleigh, and his successors, once opened its hospitable doors to the needy and afflicted. Ascending Wellington-street, North, j we reach that point at which York and Tavistock streets . form a junction. ji York-street. a short street, one end of which commu- |! nicates with Catherine-street, was named in honour of Ij the Duke of York, afterwards James II. It is a street of I j respectable character, its principal residents being hook- ' jj sellers and publishers. Tavistock-street,-sd\\ch. ]omsXork- i street, and extends to Southampton-street, derives its I name from one of the titles of the Bedford family, and ,, was,^ previously to the formation of Bond-street, the I j fashionable west-end street of business. Many eelebrated theatricals, among whom may be named Macklin and Eawcett, have resided here. In this street the Literary Gazette is pubhshed. Wellington-street, North, is con- tinued by Upper Wellington-street, once called Charles- street, in memory of Charles I., and by wliich it emerges into Great Russell- street to a point, immediately op- posite to which is Bow-street. The Athencmm, and other ^ literary journals are published here. ■ | ^ ^ Bow-street, both from its ancient and modem associa- ^ j: tions, is entitled to notice. It was built in 1637, and i j j according to Strype was so called “ as running in shape | j I of a bent bow,” a distinction to ivhich the late widening j j of the street has in a great and convenient degree re- ! j I moved its claim. The chief pohce office of the metropolis j is here established, having been founded in 1749; and j Fielding, the popular author of Tom Jones, was one of its ■ earliest chief magistrates. A few yards beyond the pohce- ! ^'■'NOOI, north western railway s-iation euston square 1 o NEW COVENTRY ST ; W.'l! the strand. 65 office is Coveot Ijl"' pett stSesman/Robert Harley, ‘h' M of Oxford^ to other men of science and learn ^ ^ s in '■rl** -'Ss-i-. fr- 1 coffee-houses, and p _ . „ ,, „ ijg §0611 perversion of language, is .i™’. Srv The ?o profane the spot once sacred to ^^^^jXfoffers to only real attraction which modern merely SfiHSrStesl °‘’Bow’!reS' extends into Lmg-Acre, a street which has »erwc«:tr:^;^|3S§ hranchinc^ into Drury-lane, its west end into bt. Mart lane. When Henry VIII. reigned, geg tensire meadow, called the Elms, '■ ~» of those toe^ shadowing the place. In the time of Ch • rrlnttpd out for building, when it was called tbe oeveu Acres a name which subsequently gave place to Long- Acre ’ Here the fearful pestilence whi^ J t 1665 originally broke out. Daniel Defoe writes, -that Se fi-^t nerfon who died of the plague was one who had Sken Ihs "Section from a parcel of silks, ^rch were opened in the house where he died. ^ lardMprs in Lone-acre are, tor then extern, auu Schit’ectural pretensions, inferior to no business estab- lishments in London, and will amply repay inspection. « tiZiTs Hall, a building of very recent erection and established for choral meetings and concerts geneially, o Se same scale a. Exeter Hall, is a structure the noble L 66 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; dimensions of whicli admirably qualify it for those monster demonstrations of vocal and instrumentaJ practice to which it is appropriated. Leaving Long-Acre^ and crossing Drury-lane, we enter Great Queen-street, which was erected in the reign oi Charles 1.., and was^ during the reigns of that monarch and his posterity, one of the most fashionable thorough- fares of the capital. Among the aristocratic residences were Conway House, belonging to the distinguished family of that name ; Paulet House, tue mansion of the Marquis of ¥/inchester; the superb edifice in which that literary and romantic peer. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, breathed his last; and the house of the Earl of Bristol, at whose festive board, attracted by the beauty of Lord BristoFs fascinating relatives (the Misses Brook), the merry monarch frequently condescended to be a guest. Here also lived Sir Godfrey Kneller, Dr. Rad- chffe, and Hoole, who translated "Tasso into Enghsh verse. The notorious Protestant Association met at Coach- makers' Hall, in this street, where the violent language employed, fomented the deplorable disturbances of 1780, in which Lord George Gordon figured, not very credi- tably, as the hero. The Freemasons’ Tavern is the chief structure in this street, to which it preserves an impor- tance which otherwise would have departed with its ^s- tinguished residents. Lord Petre laid the foundation stone on the 1st of May 1775, in the presence of the principal officers of the Order of Free-Masons. The Free- masons’ Hall is spacious and magnificent, and the ceiling is richly decorated with symbolical figures and hiero- giyphics of the order . J or public dinners and meetings this hall has long been a favourite place ; here the iin- passioned eloquence of the statesman, the brilliant decla- mation of the scholar, and the melodious tones of the singer, have often gratified, in their turn, crowded, and, not unfrequently, illustrious audiences. The anniversary dinners of the Literary Fund Society are held here, festive occassions, on which, at long intervals between,' the stkand. 67 the father and the eoBsort of the Queen-the late Da te of Kent, and Prince the eourae of Betracing ;e shall ha.e frequently to OTiT progress throuj^n maiiY localities of depart from the line of “tHhe southern „hich it forms the reel, we reach side, a few yards beyond Wettngton srte . ^ sSe'’of stood^^^^^^^ r Tha^r^i sSs (or "strfo" r ’ WniSinTMs ?£riL“ t SiTj?nn„S b|, the oSS pisst Earl of Savoy and Eic mo ’ ’ residence sions, had the ground ^ afterwards transferred i. the strand, grante^tohm. He^a^^rw^ laLd by Queen Eleanor, as a ^Se was^allotS ‘rrld»n,^rn!5^ 7 of'Sierl £ he remained till 1360 when battle of Poictiers. ^oaa ono was fixed upon for his the immense "Xl^nt hading^ I* 2 - r f t;eSt‘£i SSTad" He “tef^yohn “oi SnnrDufi 1'Sncite betog then owner of the palace, the Kentish STnder theUmand of Wat T^^^nl^ a°™ tte^^^L^'^in^cSftbl imbibed without TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; ceremony the rare produce of the grape. In one cellar, a fall of stones and rubbish enclosed thirty-two of them, who there perished of suffocation. Some barrels found by the mob were cast iuto the flames ; they were f ull of gunpowder, which, exploding, blew up the great hall, destroyed many houses, and reduced the Savoy Palace to dust. The ruins of the palace were permitted to re- main for one hundred and twenty years, and must have presented a remarkable spectacle of insulated decay, in a neighbourhood which was beginning to acquire celebrity as the favoured residence of many of the highest nobles in the land. In the reign of Henry VII. the ground was cleared, and the foundation of an hospital laid upon its site, which was completed by Henry VIII., in the fifteenth year of his reign. Thus the fortunes of the Savoy were diametrically opposite to those of St. Jameses Palace — the latter being converted from an hospital to a palace, while, in the case of the Savoy, an hospital sprang from the ruins of a palace. The hospital was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and consisted of a master, and four chaplains, who officiated alternately. They were to stand in their turns, by day and night, at the portal, and to proffer the hospitality of their establishment to any distressed persons whom they might see, bestowing upon them food and lodging for the night, with a letter of introduction to the next hospital, and sufficient money to carry them to their destination. A chapel was attached to the hospital, and when the original church of St. Mary-le-Church was destroyed by the impious Somerset, the inhabitants of that parish united themselves to those of the Savoy, and, using the chapel as their place of worship, it became known as St. Mary-le-Savoy. In this chapel the liturgy was first read. Eventually the bene- volent objects for which the hospital was founded were disregarded^ and it became a kind of sanctuary for dis- orderly characters, while its funds were grossly misappro- priated by a series of governors, with whom personal aggrandisement, rather than the rehef of distress, was the the steand. Tr, the reign of Queen Anne the actnating motive. In ^ ^ barracks hospital was suppresse , orison for deserters. The for soldiers, and afterwards p the church remains of the Savoy, wit Savoy), were, as of St. John the Baptist ^ St Marj^ f we have Strand approaches. The church r —r-a church. j-^i-n^ncr Savov-street, were covered BeauforMdingsMP^^ bv^the mansion and grounds in the time of Heniy Vli . y ;get[ford, or Russell, of the Duke of Bedford known as Re^o ^ , House. The est^e, in of the property of the Bar Beaufort, the edifice was last earl being created l^keot denominated Beaufor , ^ o^ its area. This smaller house was erec e , y ^ .^ybich another street was destroyed by me in , ^^esent Beaufort-buildiiigs «st of WeUington-steeet North and and Burleigh-street, |J_„^the grounds of Exeter original Ea^eter ’ It extended House the t®^ J Jon-street Hortli commences From the spot -^Bere W ei presented the appear- bo the corner of Exeter-s constituted a ance of a large g °°g ^f j, tbe sale of fancy articles public thoroughlare StaUs^t^^^^ diamond-shaped old- were arranged on each , ceiling, was m the fashioned clock ^zaar, w held for centre. On the floor h ^f beasts in many the bShmi^g of the present century, a London. At the u g • the next owner was Mr. Pidcock was the piopnetoi , 70 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; named Pohto ; and, finally, the menagerie came into the possession of Mr Cross. When it was determined to widen the Strand, and to construct Wellington-street orth one of the preliminary steps was the demolition of Exeter Change. Its late tenants, the wild beasts, were first removed to the mews at Charing-cross, and after- wards to the Surrey Zoological Gardens. That portion ot the Strand once occupied by Exeter Change is now distinguished by a range of beautiful houses of business ot considerable architectural pretensions. Exeter Hall which stands upon part of the site of the old Exchange IS a structure of more than ordinary magnitude, and is deservedly admired for the taste exhibited in its ex- ternal and internal arrangements. It was erected as a rendezvous where the various charitable and rehgious associations of the capital might assemble, and as the great meeting-place of the various religious bodies in the month of May, presents at that time a very animated spectacle. It was erected in 1830, by Mr. Deerino- the architect. Its Strand front simply consists of a doubly pillared portico, and two pilasters, surmounted by the Greek motto, Philadelphain. In the building are various apartments, _ used as ofiices and committee-rooms for ditterent societies, besides two halls, one capable of hold- ing 800 persons, and the other sufficiently extensive to accommodate 3,000. The latter is 136 feet Ion- by /6 wide, and 48 feet in height. The ceiling presents alternate sunken squares, and parallelograms, ornamented m their centres with raised rosettes. A platform, or dais IS prepared at the eastern end for the convenience of the speakers, who here attract numerous audiences. There are two galleries, and the hall is, moreover, fuimished with a superb organ. The Sacred Harmonic Societies hold their concerts here; and beneath this lofty saloon the tones of Jenny Lind have given additional significance and expression to the inspired compositions of Handel Nearly opposite to Exeter-haU are Cecil and Salisbury streets, two respectable double rows of private residences. COVBNT GAK.DBN. j-T, '-iTPr They are built upon tbe plot of extending to the House, tbe mansion of ground onee covered by y Burleigb. On Sir Kobert Cecil, t e ^ . gQuthampton-street,^'h.iGh, tbe other side of tbe -Racbel tbe estimable wife in its name, perpetuates L^dj Ra^cbeb ^ of Lord William extern side, Tavistock-street, of Southampton. On tb york-street ; and on abeady named, ^ g a, narrow avenue (with no tbe western side, is tending into Bedford-street thoroughfare for carria^ I Curiosities of Literature, This lane, we read in tne Yirgin, which once took its name from an im § intimately iden- gave a holy V ? .L convivial meetings. When tided with theatrica ^ , ^737 he lodged at a house, Voltaire vi^d England, m 1W7, n called the White f ’ ^^/“ng and supper, is situate. Cellar, a nocturnal elysiu femands of appetite is Vnere the g^nf“Sablf b^ rendered doubly agr I Lowever, attach to the sounds. Classical xe j ^nce the Cyder Cellar, scholars, Porson and Pm.. SjCptoB” treet conductB to the exteosite totact of COVENT GAKDEN Convent G:arde^^as garden, ing locahty, it h^ng torme y Westminster, attached to^.^^Convent of Upon the 'J;^^^^^|onierset, he was bestowed gon its ownership was transferred to attainted of high treason, valuable property, which John, Duke of Bedfor ’ , whose names and titles has desceuded to ^ Tavis- are “™™™”f'5„ JordW. In 1634, I’rancis, fourth tock-street, and Vedior y large square Earl of Bedford, prep ^i^gi; and engaged. Inigo Jones r3 rhlr^: “ on Ltth and east 72 Tallis’s illustsated London; sides, wMch even now are noble specimens of solid ma- sonry and architectural taste. The Piazzas were, when first constructed, continued along the south-eastern side, where the Hummums Hotel stands, but this portion of them vfas destroyed by fire a few years after their erection, and was not rebuilt. Towards the close of the reign of Charles I. the following appearance was presented by the gTeat square of Covent-garden : the north and east sides were occupied by the Piazzas, on the west was the church of St. Paul, and the wall of the garden of Bedford House formed tlie southern barrier. We will now par- ticularize some of the leading objects of attraction in the little parish of Covent-garden, the situation of which, in reference to that of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, is insular. Covent-garden Market. Some authorities state that this market dates so far back as 1634; but we prefer adopting the account of Mr. Peter Cunningham, who writes that it “ originated about 1656, in a few temporary sheds and stalls at the back of the garden wall of Bedford House.” In 1704, the mansion was taken down, and a line of street arose upon its site, in consequence of which the market people gradually hedged off the pavement to the centre of the square, which henceforth became a per- manent fruit, vegetable, and herb market. The present maAet, which contains three acres of gi’ound, was erected in 1830, by the then Duke of Bedford, at a cost of £42,000. ^ A fa 9 ade has been added to the north-west side, and is composed of four principal parts, each of which have like characteristics. The centre is formed bv an arch, on the entablature of two Tuscan columns; with a single-faced archivolt, supported by two piers, which sus- tain an elevated triangular pediment, the tympanum of which is adorned by the armorial bearings, and motto (Che Sara, saraj, of the Bedford family. On each side of this centre, which is large enough to aUow entrance to a lofty loaded waggon into tlie area, is a colonnade of the Tuscan order, projecting before the slopes. The columns are of granite, and of the Palladium Tuscan, v/ith an COVENT GAKDEN. ornamental balustrade, employed for the business of the market. At each of the extreme angles 'of the tow portions, is a raised quadrangular pavilion. Oyer the centre of the building is a conservatory for exotic and other plants for sale, which is called the Bedford Con- servatory, which is reached by a flight of steps at either end, and the pediment is an emblematic figure of I^^en y. The central arcade, running the whole length ot the market, from east to west, is entirely occupied with hand- some shops, where the finest fruit, and most beautiful flowers, attract the eye, and impregnate the atmosphere with their agreeable perfume. The amyal of vegetable produce, at Covent- garden, about three o clock of a sum- mer’s morning, is one of the sights of London. St. Paul’s Church, Covent-garden. This church was built in the year 1640, as a chapel of ease to th^ ot bt. Martin’s-in-the-Bields, at the cost of the Earl of Bedford. The architect was Inigo Jones, and Horace Walpole tells that the earl sent for Jones, and said that he required a chapel for the tenants living on his estate ; adding, that he mshed the edifice to be as plain, as convenient, and ^ httle expensive as possible : “ in fact,” observed his lor ship “I would not have it much better than a barn. To this the architect replied, “ Then, my lord, you shall have the handsomest barn in England.” The sim pmd for the construction of the ‘‘ barn ” was £4,500. In 1788, this church was thoroughly repaired, at an outlay more than doubhng its original cost— £11,000 being expended. The external waUs, which were formerly ot brick, were at that time strongly cased with Portland stone. In 1795, a fire, occasioned by the neglect ot -the plumbers employed to repair the lead on the roof, des- troyed the whole of the interior. It was soon afterwards restored by the parishioners ; Mr. Hardwick, the archi- tect, superintending its renovation. The front is a plain, but massive, portico of the Tuscan order; and the capa- cious roof is sustained by walls alone, without piimrs. When an election of members of Parliament, tor the Lity T 74 Tallis’s illustrated London ; of Westminster j takes place, tlie liustings are erected before this ckurch. We cannot quit this sacred precinct without recording the names of some of the once famous of the earth, whose ashes rest beneath this church, and in its churchyard. Here Eohert Carr, the Earl of Somerset, the favourite of Charles I., and the assassin of Sir Thomas Overbury, was interred. It is worthy of note that this illustrious mur- derer was the grandfather of that true patriot. Lord WiUiam Russell. Butler, the uncompromising foe of hypocrisy and cant, which with a master s hand he has portrayed in his matchless satire of Hudibras, sleeps in an obscure corner in this churchyard, where he was buned at the expense of his friend, Mr. Longueville, that gentle- man having vainly endeavoured to prevail on the professed friends and admirers of the poet, to contribute towards the cost of a tomb in Westminster Abbey. Alderman Barber afterwards caused a monument, in honour of Butler, to be raised in the Abbey; and another memorial, of more recent date, has been placed in St. Paul s Church- yard, to indicate the spot where the remains of the wit are laid. The last four lines of the inscription thus truthfrdly allude to the ungrateful desertion of the bard, by those to whom his pen had rendered such powerful service ; “ But oh ! let all be taught from Butler’s fate, Who hope to make their fortune from the great, That wit and pride are always dangerous ^things. And little faith is due to courts or kings.” Wycherly and Southerne, the dramatists; Sir Peter Lely, the court painter; Macklin, the comedian; Dr. Walcot (Peter Pindar); Dr. Arne, the musical composer; and others of renown, are also buried here. Covent- garden is famous for its hotels^ some of tiie prin- cipal of which are situated in the Piazzas, beneath the portico of which, towards the close of the seventeenth century, the London apprentices used to play at cricket. The scene is now changed, handsome places of entertain- COVENT GARDEN. 75 ment having long occupied the ground once devoted to Setic sports. Among these hotels may be named the Mtock,t\re Bedford, and the Piazza; between the two last-named there is a very commodious entrance to the theatre The Bedford is celebrated in hterary histwy as a fatouiite resort of Fielding, Churchill Hogarth, Gold- smith, and their contemporaries; and Fox, Burke, and Kichard Brinsley Sheridan have, by their reunions, conferred lasting distinction on the Piazza. At the south-eastern side of the square are two called the Old Hummums, and the New Hummums. Th former was originaUy a place celebrated for its baths, tTSe TL: S, inU/derijed &om the Arab.e -rd Hamman, wHch signifies a bath or bagnio. E Hotel, a fine old mansion, at the north-west of Cove gai-den was originally the abode of Admiral Russell, Earl of Orford, who, in 1692, achieved a great victory OTcr the French, off Cape la Hogue. Its next resident was Lord Archer, who dying, about 1770, the extinct In 1774, it was converted into an hotel by David Low, and is said to have been (we know not with what accuracv) the first family hotel established in the metropolis. It owes its present name to Mr. Evans, its late proprietor, formerly a singer of some reputation at Covent-garden Theatre. In addition to its hotel accommo- dations, it is familiarly known as a snug supper house, where some exceUent glee-singing, and other vocal enter- tainments, add zest to that last, but not least, interesting meal of the day. Where the garden wall of Bedford House once pro- iected, a range of business houses, of good elevation, caUed Tavisiock-row, extend to the corner of South- ampton-street. In our progress through the Strand we have already had occasion to speak of some of the prin- cipal streets in Covent-garden ; and of those to which we have not referred, we need do little more than mention them, for the purpose of showing in how very great a degree the names and titles of the Stuart royal family 76 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON } have been perpetuated, in the streets of this locality ; a peculiarity also traceable in the neighbourhood of Drr^- lane, and Lincoln’s Inn; and, almost more forcibly im- pressing, than -written history can do, the brilliant remi- niscences -which attach to these quondam court ends of the town. Henrietta-street, a continuation of Ta-nstock- row into Bedford-street, is a noble brick and mortar memorial of Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles I. James-street, a short street between the Piazzas and Long- Acre, bears the name of her son, James, Duke of York; and King-street, a row of handsome houses, shops, and hotels, was so styled in honour of King Charles I. At No. 35, in this street, is the Garrick Club, founded -within the last quarter of a century ; an agreeable place of resort for actors, dramatists, and gentlemen of literary and his- trionic tastes. It is embellished with a very large and admirable collection of theatrical portraits. In a black and dirty alley, called Rose-street, at the north-west corner of King-street, Samuel Butler lived for many years, and, it is supposed, that he breathed his last in this squalid court. Whatever literary associations may have once ennobled it, they belong to Kose-street no longer, which, with its miserable and disreputable purlieus, be- tween King-street and Long-acre, it is to be regretted are still allowed to cumber the ground. West of King-street is Bedford-street, a broad street of fine houses, extending to a point between Maiden-lane and Chandos-street, and thence into the Strand. Only the former part of this street is in the parish of St. Paul’s, Covent-garden, and was erected about 1637 ; the latter part, emerging into the Strand, was not called Bedford-street till 1766, it being previously known as Half-Moon-street. This por- tion of Bedford-street is in the parish of St. Martin s- in-the-Pields. Among the former distinguished residents in this street, may be mentioned the accomplished Earl of Chesterfield, Quin, the actor, and Bichard Brinsley Sheridan. New-street, a double row of good shops, ad- joins King-street, and reaches to St. Martin s-lane. DRtTRY liANE. 77 lane and Covent-g^ta there P ^ great an analogy to § the drama— and resorts of fashion, w , j^oPTided from the once having, in an equal degree, thev enioyed — that we .jSSjS isrs and modern characteristics oi nKtJEY LANE. Bmry-lane, properly so “SS-ouS! abounding in deSe a W brokers’ shops, and other bus ’• t^^^g Wych-street, but populous Strand; its ser^ t rs "Se’’s&p “ rbut^“srs strand, have been already mentioned, devote some time to wandering « Thro’ the roads Of Prury’s mazy courts and dark abodes. Drury House, which it has ^tTntlhe wlSe end of ^y®h-street, gav^ a Ptelds previous to the tn r: with Sir John ^ "’gon, Sir Robert Drury, D^ SoSfop7ued its hospitable doors to Dr. Donne and 78 Tallis’s illtxsteated London; His wife^ until Happier fortune smiled upon tHe reverend poet and wit. In tHe reis'n of James II. tHe old mansion came into tHe possession of Earl Craven^ tHe Hero of a romantic career^ and equally renowned in tHe annals ol love and war. He was tHe eldest son of Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor of London, in 1611. THe greater portion of His life He spent on tHe continent, wHere He served in tHe armies of Gustavus AdolpHus, and acHieved a brilliant reputation for courage. When Charles II. re- gained the crown of his ancestors, he ennobled this brave soldier by the titles of Viscount and Earl Craven. Lord Craven pulled down the dwelling of the Druries, erecting in lieu thereof a large brick pile, four stories in Height, which became celebrated as Craven House, and as the re- sidence of the blooming and fascinating Queen of Bo- hemia, daughter of James I.; but some authorities repre- sent that the royal beauty resided in an adjacent house, between which and Craven House there is supposed to have been a subterranean communication. It is generally believed that the Earl of Craven was privately married to this illustrious lady, whose amiability of temper and gen- tleness of manners, caused her to be universally beloved in England and Bohemia, in which latter country, her en- dearing qualities procured for her the enviable soubriquet of “ the Queen of Hearts.” Mr. J. T. Smith saj's, that by right of their descent from her the fa mil y of Hanover ascended the throne of this kingdom. When she died she bequeathed to Lord Craven her books, paintings, and documents. Her portrait is preserved at Hampton Court. His lordship was so indefatigable in preserving order at the frequent fires which in those days broke out in London, that it was said his very horse smelt the fire at a distance. With the Duke of Albemarle (General Monk), he remained in town while the dreadful pestilence raged, and at the hazard of their lives they rendered much benefit during that epoch of terror. Gardening, with military exercises divided his time ; his garden stretched a considerable distance in a parallel point with Druiy-lane, DRURY LANE. 79 protracted age of eighty-five, House was asssEsSsffl me grouuu, Queen of Hearts, ae- IteSrf “So a puUio-ioL. rescued however from •+ v>TT tVip sio-n of the “ Queen of Bohemia. in irgO^a fire which destroyed several dwellings rendered the 1790, a nre | remained in this state for some ter™ tW^r^ears, when every vestige of it was ’^e^oved^ S Sake way^or the Olympic herS Olympic Theatre, of which we shall speak further her ^^1n the reign of WiUiam III. Drury-lane ceased to be a SeS.lte.’^ On the leSerSside of uaSow streets and courts communicating Catherine and Brydges-streets ; and al»o Ldrte Bnsse^ Street ioinin»- Great Bussell-street, and Long-acre, pre viouslv described. The eastern side demands a fuller TeTaU aS" court and some other avenues adpcent to Craven-buildings conduct to a series of streets, which run- ning into Clare-market form the open-air mart which is chiefly appropriated to the sale of butcl rSind vegetable! This ill-favoured assemblage of gloomv and narrow sheds, once stood the mansion of the Earls and titles of which family are stdl retained m UoUis, Uen Si and other streets. The area was origmally called Clement’s-Inn-fields. At the eastern end of Claie- market is Portugal-street, extending to Lincoln s-iiin, an- 80 TALLIS’S ILLUSTKATED LONDON; other of the various streets in this vicinity, which owe their names to the Queen of Charles II. On the right- hand side is a burial ground belonging to the church of St. Clement Danes, in which the celebrated Joe Miller, whose very name is proverbially used to indicate a vener- ble joke, is buried. The large building overlooking the ground was formerly a workhouse attached to the Strand union, but is now an hospital belonging to King’s College. Nearly opposite to this hospital is the site rendered me- morable by Sir William Davenant’s playhouse, called the Duke’s Theatre, in honour of the Duke of York. This was the first theatre visited by Charles II. after his restoration;, the first where scenes were introduced and brought into regular use, and the first where women appeared as performers, female characters having been, anterior to the reign of Charles II., always sustained by youths in female clothing. Davenant’s company left the Duke’s theatre in 1671, to return to Salisbury-coui’t, and in 1694 it was re-opened by Betterton and Congreve. They held it for about ten .years, after which the theatre remained closed tiU 1714, when it was re-opened by Rich, but the mediocrity of his company yielded only “ a beg- garly account of empty boxes,” the superior performances at the Drury-lane Theatre withdrawing public patronage from the Duke’s Theatre.* In this dilemma. Rich, who was fertile in expedients, invented that pantomimic enter- tainment which has ever since been the Christmas fare at the London theatres, and under his auspices, Harlequin, Clown, Pantaloon, and all the dramatis persvnw of the pantomine first appeared upon an English stage Of Rich’s inimitable representation of Harlequin several excellent stories are told. This new theatrical invention answered the end of its projector, whom it literally made Rich, not only nominally, but in a pecuniary sense. In 1733 the manager and his corps removed to Covent-garden Theatre, * The Duke’s Theatre, although it has disappeared, deserves to be remembered for the many alterations in the dramatic fashions of which it was the stage. DRUEY LANE. 81 then newlv erected, and in 1737 the theatre in l^ortngal- sLet ceasal to be a temple of the drama. It was atter- wlrfs converted into a Staffordshire pottery warehouse, and was only pulled down about two years back. the sle side ot the way, a few ya^s l;gher “P ts the Insolvent Debtors’ Court, bmlt in 1824., alter the tie si^Tis of Sir Jolin Sohtig. , cci-jn,™. "Returning to the eastern side of Drury-lane, and passin^ sol obi- com-ts, we arrive at Duke-s^eei, a memento of the Duke of York, afterwards James II., opposite Little Russell-street, and the other extremity of which terrain^es rScoln’s Inn-fields. In this street is a Roman Ca- tholic chapel, once belonging to the which narrowly escaped destruction during whe Mo- Popery” riots of 1780; opposite to this chapel lodged BeSjamin FranUin when he first viarted beino- then employed as journe^an printer WyM-street, a street winding from Duke-street into Qi - strLt In Duke-street also lodged the unfortunate Na- thaniel Lee. The remaining streets on the east side are Queemsh-eet which has been noticed at length, and some oblivious obscurity of which we need not ^"Sug the former residents of hrated Nell Gwynn, the ancestress of the St. Albans family, ranks conspicuous. That agreeable gossip, ^ epys^ thus refers to her in his Diary of May 1st, 1667 . io Westminster, in the way, many m J“aids with garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler before them , and sL pretty Nelly stand at her lodging door in Drury-lane, in hm- smock sleeves and bodice, looking upon one ; she side the remaining portion of which we will describe in consecutive order. Between the Strand “d nver is situate a noble pile of building, the monument of fraternM affection and unity of purpose; from a Greek noun, signifying the brothers, and is called 82 Tallis’s illustkated London ; THE ADELPHI. Tlie proiectors and architects of this fine range of river- ward streets v/ere Robert and J ohn Adam, who were horn at Kirkaldy, and educated at Edinburgh, and WixO, pre- viously to that great undertaking, by which their names were rendered famous, had distinguished themselves as the architects of Lansdowne House, in Berkeley-square, and of Caen-wood House, in the vicinity of Hampstead. Before, however, describing the Adelphi, it will be proper to give the previous history of the spot upon \^ich it is built. Durham Place, or Palace, with its offices and grounds, extending from the Strand to the river, was erected about the middle of the thirteenth century, y Thomas de Hatfield, bishop of Durham; or rather, re- erected, for as early as the reign of Edward I. a mansion was raised on this site by Anthony de Beck, patriarch of Jerusalem, and bishop of Durham. The palace of De Hatfield was inhabited by himself and his successors, until the time of bishop Tonstal, who gave it to Henry V ill. in exchange for another residence, in lhames-street. Durham-place thus became a royal palace. On the occa- sion of the marriage of Henry with Anne of Cleves, a magnificent tournament, which lasted for six days, was held in the Tilt-yard, at Westminster: and after the sports of each day, the combatants rode to Durham House, where they gave grand banquets to the king and queen, the members of the court, and other personages ot distinc- tion The entertainment and gallantry of the challengers were acknowledged by Henry, who bestowed an annual grant of one hundred marks each, to them and their heirs in perpetuity, with a residence, payable out ot the revenue of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. In the reign of Edward VI. a mint was founded in Durham-place. by the ambitious Lord Thomas Sey- mour, and placed under the superintendence ot Sir William Sharrington. The Lord Admiral proposed to employ the money coined here in bribing the army, ana THE ADELPHI. OO in promoting his designs on the throne. His schemes failed, and the scaffold was the finis of his ambition. Sharrington only escaped a similar doom, by incidpatmg his employer, and was again engaged hy John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland, the ne.xt incumbent ot i)ur- ham-place. In this palace, in May, 1553, Northum- berland solemnized with princely spendour the nuptials of his son. Lord Guildford Dudley, with the amiable and accomplished Lady Jane Grey; those of Lord Herbert, heir to the Earl of Pembroke, with Catherine, youngest sister of Lady Jane ; and those of Lord Hastings, heir to the Earl of Huntingdon, with his youngest daughter. Lady Catherine Dudley. Prom Sion House, Lady Jane was brought by the Duke to claim the crown, which Edward YI. had been persuaded to leave her, to the exclusion of his sisters, to Durham-place, whence she went in royal procession to the Tower, to become queen, for a period hardly Some legal documents between July 6th and 17th, 1533, are issued in the name of Jane as queen. With her me, this innocent instrument of Northumberland’s aggrandise- ment, soon paid the penalty of her involuntary assumption of the regal dignity ; in the short space of eight months, having become a bride, a queen, and a victim to the sancminary revenge of the unforgiving Mary. The palace was® again granted in reversion by Queen Mary to the see of Durham, by which it was not long enjoyed, it being claimed by Elizabeth on her ascending the throne, as one of the royal palaces, and by that Queen it was given as a residence to Sir Walter Raleigh, who continued to dwell there till the death of his patroness. When Raleigh was cast into prison by James I., that monarch granted the palace to Toby Matthew, Bishop of Durham. In 1640 Philip, Earl of Pembroke purchased from the see Durham-place, pulled it down, and built houses on the’ ground. Upon the site of the stables, to the north of Durham-place was erected, in 1(08, an excliange, ex- clusively for the sale of millinery, none others but semps- 84 Tallis’s illustrated London, tresses aud milliners being allowed to occupy it. James I. and his consort were present at its opening, and the Queen named it “ the Burse of Britain,” a name for which the New Exchange was afterwards substituted. It was constructed after the style of the Royal Exchange, with cellars beneath, a walk above, and over that, rows of shops. This was a place of fashionable resort. In the time of William III., a sempstress attired in white, and wearing a white mask, was noticed daily to take her sta- tion at a stall. She was called the “ White Milliner,” I and great interest being excited by the mystery attached to her, she was patronised extensively by the fashionable world. Eventually she was discovered to be the Duchess of Tyrconnell, w'idow of Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy of Ireland under James II., who fell into such destitution after the death of her husband that, but for the resources of her needle, she must have starved. When the circum- stances became public, a provision was made for the White Milliner by her relatives. The New Exchange ivas taken down in 1737, and houses and shops erected looking on the Strand. In 1760 the brothers Robert and John Adam purchased from, the Earl of Pembroke Durham-yard, the ancient court-yard of Durham Palace, which, when bought by them, writes Mr. Peter Cunningham, “was occupied by a heap of small low-lying houses, coal-sheds, and hay-stalls, washed by the muddy deposits of the Thames. The change effected by the brothers was, indeed, extraordinary. They threw a series of arches over the whole declivity, allowed the wharfs to remain, and over these extensive vaultings erected a series of well-built streets, a noble terrace to- wards the river, and lofty rooms for the then recently es- tablished Society of Arts.” Adam Street, leading from the Strand to the Adelphi, preserves the surname of the bro- thers whose Christian names are retained in Robert, John, James, and Georye streets. At Osborn’s Hotel, in John- street, resided the King of the Sandwich Islands, when, in the reign of George IV., he paid a visit to England 3 a THE ADELPHl. 85 fatal one for ThJsLidy for tU Rnconraa^t f “eSXl ,vi* deep a society winch cannot Prpat^ Exhibition of All interest by Ae „ London during Nntions will necessarily concentrate i ^ 4.1,0 Upontv rrwe building is a and grandeur which res interior is at once com- and boldness of apartment is the modious and elegant. ^ ^ ^ handsome dome, great room, which is and 40 in and measures ^^ 7 Jeet^^ by m large paintings ftum the pencil of Janses Barry, fj',„'’;late' of improvement of the aoudi i d.illaa- n°£t“e Sment oftw^S P^^^llEln' : =;fisE!=SSf £:H Hs true station, as originally designed % first picture “ ”■ Ipo Loud, ’a Grecian from their lO'norance of cultivation , tim j „„i,,ia . ZverHome, or a Thanksgiving to Ceres the third the Victors at the Olympic Games , tSBsSsSiffS loud. 'fourth, and fifth are 16 feej f third and sixth, severally occupying oi, jo fppj- of the room at rire north and south ends, are eaeh « feet inleno-th. The room also contains portraits ot t nresidents of the society since its foundation Lords Folkestone and Romney, and other painting , toes and Lsts of men illustrious in the annals oUearning Srd scienl The plan of the huild.ng was lard by Mr. 86 Tallis’s illustkated London j William Sliipley. H.R.H. Prince Albert is tbe president. The principal objects of this society are the improvement of the Arts^ Commerce, and Manufactures of the kingdom, by offering and awarding premiums for useful inventions and discoveries. This distribution is made on the anni- versary, which is held in the month of June. Every person receiving a premium is required to deposit a model, and the society, consequently, possesses the most valuable collection of the kind in Europe. The public are admitted to see the paintings and models every day, with the ex- ception of Wednesday, between the hours of ten and two o’clock. AdelpM-ierrace, fronting the Thames, which bounds and crowns the architectural labours, of the brothers, pre- sents a row of stately mansions, among the noblest and pleasantest in London. The centre house. No. 5, was purchased by David Garrick, and here that great actor dwelt from 1772 to 1779, the year of his exit from the stage of life. The mansion vt'as most costly in its arrange- ments ; the pencil of Antonio Zucchi, an artist of emi- nence, decorated the ceiling of the front drawing-room and, in the same apartment, was a white marble chimney- piece, valued at £300. Dr. Johnson, gazing on the splendid domicile, which success had placed at the com- mand of his quondam pupil, uttered the prophetic ad- monition, “ Oh ! David, these are the things which make death dreadful !” The widow of Garrick, once the lovely opera dancer, Violette, survived her husband more than 40 years, dying in the same house, in 1822. The eldest of the brothers, Mr. Eobert Adam, died in 1792, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Lauderdale, and others holding the pall. Bur ham-street, a short dingy declivity, leads from the Strand to the vaults and stables under the Adelphi, the cavernous entry to which gives the idea of a modern de- scensus Averni. Villiers-street, running from the Strand in a parallel line with the east side of Hungerford Market, 87 THE ADELPHI. r>f Suffolk became its owner ; and, in the lei^n Y> > t » „ becaSran episcopal palace, ba.ing been pur- Sf keeTe" was born and lived tbe greater pait ot his existence., celebratino- bis sixtieth birth-day beneath men Lord Bacon fell from bis high estate York House was m’anted to the Duke of Buckingham, for whom it was rebult in a magnificent manner by Inigo ones. Buckingham falling by the hand of the mansion became the dwelling of his gay heir , and was aftenvards, with all its costly to the Earl of Northumberland. In 164J, Uomneu bestowed York House on General Fairfax, whose daughtci mSnin. the second Dnke of Buek.ngha.n, the estate Sorted” to its tree owner. He lived here for many years after the restoration, m luxurious fashion, but his extravagance causing him to run shmt of money, he dispoled of the entire estate of York House, which was nuuS Iwn, and a number of streets were erected upon its plot which were generally known as York-buildings, but afterwards were distinguished HipIv uames o-iviug a word or name of the title ot tlie last noble nropi’ietor, viz.: Geor^re-street, Villiers-^tvQQi, Duke- street ^o/alley, and Backinyham-^i^eet. The last house, orthe e{st side of Bnekingham-street, towards the nve was occupied bv Peter the Great, during his v^sit to this Tountry “Here,” says Mr. J. T. Smith, - alter rowing Sout on the Thames, between Deptford and Lonjlon, he used often to retire and spend his evenings with Loid Caermarthen, drinking hot brandy with FPP'^^’ ^ ^ ^ fierv beverao-e of which he was fond, and which seived to tgLt the r'aw viande, and the train oil, ot Ina ord.nary diet.” 88 Tallis’s illustrated London ; The York Stairs, or Buckingham Water-gate, at the end of Buckni|liam-street, the last relic of the gorgeous pile ot York House, will furnish some conception of the surpassing beauty of the whole fabric. It is considered one of the most perfect and elaborate relics of Inio-o I Jones. We approach York Stairs from a small inclosed I terrace, planted with lime trees, an agreeable promenade I tor the residents m the neighbourhood, who maintain the I gate and terrace in good order, from the proceeds of a rate ! levied on their houses for that object On the Thames trout IS a large archway, opening upon steps, that conduct to the water, with a window on either side. These, and our rusticated columns, sustain an entablature, sur- mounted by an arched pediment, and two couchaiit lions bearing shields. In the centre of the pediment, within a scroll, are the arms of the house of Villiers. On the north side are three arches, flanked by pilasters, uphold- ing an entablature, whereon are four balls. Over the key-stones of the arches are ornamental shields with anchors, that in the centre the arms of the Villiers family Manners. Upon the frieze, the motto Ftdn coticula crux is inscribed. Hunger ford-street, a short but wide avenue, leads into Hungerford Market, where, in the time of Charles II. stood the mansion of Sir Edward Hungerford, of Far- leigh, in Wiltshire. He took down his residence, and upon the ground erected a market and small tenements , Old Hungerford Market^ as seen by the present genera ; tion, was a deplorably dirty-looking piece of ground, I flanked by squalid houses, and little better than a monster i dust-heap, and a cemetery for the dead dogs and cats ot tiie neighbourhood. At length, the advantageous position of the site attracted the notice of some public- spirited individuals, and a company was formed for the prpose of building a new market, Mr. Charles Fowler being engaged as architect. The first stone of the fabric was laid on June 18th, 1831, and the market opened on Ju.y 2nd, 1833. The approach from the Strand exhibits. CHABING-CROSS BRIDGE. on the right and left, piazzas of handsome elevation a number of shops; those on the right side being chicliy occupied by butchers and poulterers, those ^he ei^ by dealers in vegetables, iruits, flowers, &c. Ihe prinupa covered portion of the market comprises a^ nave, and two aisles, the whole roofed in, the centre above the other parts, and sustained Jy o^n ^mche^. Beyond the central market-place are tw , approaches, to the suspension bridge, ^ ® ^ supplied with fishmongers shops. Ihe ornnnally in a broad court, below the level of the market, to ' which flfghts of stone steps formed the nection with the market are numerous ^ houses: and its southern boundary is formed by tha noble ornament to the river CHABlNG-CROSS BRIDGE. This structure, which is sometimes called Eungerford ^usnemion Brid.ie, is for foot-passengers only, and was Sd Tom tl.e pto, aud under the superintendence, oi that distinguished architect, Brunei. The first stone was laid in 1841, and, in the spring of 1845, this proprieta y bridge was opened, a half-penny toll being established a the Middlesex and Surrey sides. It consists of thiee arches • the span of the centre is 676 feet 6 inches, and that of each of the side arches 333 feet. The altitude o the roadway from high-water mark, at the abutment, is 22 feet 6 inches ; at the piers 28 feet, and m the centre 32 feet. The width of the platfo"m is 14 feet, and the height of the two red. brick or can.panile towers, wb c caiuy the chain, is 58 feet above the roadway. The.e towers, which are 22 feet square, are each four solid piers of brickwork in cement, 7 feet 6 inthe square, connected by inverted arches at the bottom, < 11 built on the natural bed of the nver, -‘'T - They are in the Italian style, and were designed by Ah. Buniiing, to correspond with the buildings belonging to the market. The platform is carried by tour chains, in two TAI^Is’s ILLUSTKATED LONDON J lines, witli single suspension rods on each side, 12 feet apart. The chains pass over rollers in the upper part of the towers, so as to equalize the strain, and are secured in tunnels, at tlie abutments, to two iron girders, 44 feet long' and o feet deep, solidly embedded in a mass of brick- work in cement, additionally strengthened and backed up with concrete. The suspension-rods carry two longitudinal beareij of fir, 9 by 9, running from end to end on each side of roadway, one above the other, and between these are placed the ends of cross-beams, which beams receive a flooring of three-inch deal. The cross-beams are double every 12 feet, that is, at the point where the suspension lod comes through (each of the two pieces is 11 by 3 and side by side); the intermediate beams, two in each space, are 11 by 5J. There is a third longitudinal bearer under the cross beams, down the centre, 10 by 6, and the whole IS trussed diagonally, from side to side, with iron. Ihe wood employed in the construction is Paynized, and between ten and eleven thousand tons of iron were consumed. The entire number of links in the chain IS 2 600, and their weight 715 tons. The length of the bridge is 1,440 feet. For the substance of the above notice of the proportions of this, the only suspension bridge in the metropolis, we are indebted to a very compre- hensive and able description of the fabric, by Mr George Godwin, junior. A descent of steps from the first cam- panile tower,_ on the Middlesex side, conducts to the steani-boat pier, whence boats continually running up and down the river, present a very animated scene in the spring and summer seasons. Craven-street, a genteel street, chiefly composed of private houses, leading from the Strand towards the Thames de- serves a passing remark as the locality in which several gifted individuals have lived. In 1777, the house No. 7 was occupied by Benjamin Franklin, upon his second visit to England ; and James Smith, the accomplished wit, and one of the authors of Rejxxted Addresses resided at No. 27. An epigram of his, in reference to the pecuharities of Cra- z 91 NORTHUMBEBLAND house. ■1 1 V.P reco'^nised as an old acqnain- “i' S the , His friend, Sir George Rose, I extemporaneous rejoinder . ., my .hcK. h»"7,8y4V“ditt“i ' The last street on the sou^®™ Sirra^cter to Craven- Northumbc.-land.street gcotland-yard. We now street, and j^eHts especially the notice of approach an edifice w p£ ^jiat noble the historian, ^ with their beautiful gardens, sLihed from the ^ay be considered as a shore of the Tl^ames— and wb records of solitary link connecting P „ stands upon the site, once occupied by the i P Thomas Cawarden. ^ Bv Hem’y VIII- it was g „ ^ Henry Howard, Earl 1 Subsequently, it was ofjames 1., built upon of Northampton, who, he named alter I the ground a spacious > fabric was erected ! himself. The greater PO^Tion Unoii the death by an architect named Berm ^ became of his lordship, Suffolk • and Algernon Percy, the property of the M Elizabeth, daughtar of Theophilus, Earl ot buffo 1 and has since into possession ot the piescu TT„„.g The house, been known f . OTScrtnally comprised three as constructed by Jansen, ^ooms were in the When Algernon Perce WEST STRAND. 93 extremely Barrorv ‘ I pore it I Martin’s parish, ireie I>“* g j, ; elegant range ,rS?r^rrlS-t“‘hXme centre, the first II of Lmldinos, ° ornamented by columns and second stories of story is raised above by balustrades In the centre of tbis if the uAer Martin’; Cburcb. Its altitude is ^ y . pronortion is main- in tbe fagade, but the forming a screen-front to tamed by this pait 9^.^^ sustained by arches, the arcade, the root ot „nnnndin 2 in florid orna- resting on pilastem .f„*l>tet the tSth 20, and the ment. The length ^ ket tn^^^ height 3o. assumed tlm character of a bazaar, indeed, it has l^te jy end is the entrance or fancy fan. ^ a loni^ apartment, with galleries, to the Adelaide Gallay, o devoted to running parallel wu > „ tributary streets ot various popular and King William -sired, West Strand PI dos street ; Duncannon-street, communicating wi h ^^ando^^ Xg a portion of a wide opposite Cliureh to Trafalgar- hne of .^and Adelaide-stveet, running from square and Pall Ma , cburcb, into Chan- Duncannon-street, by ^ yVilliam-street tlie dos-street. At the stone of which 1 Charing-Cross in 1831. The front ex- was laid by the Duke f ^ ^^.^treet. It is budt in tends about 180 teet tow ^ Decimus tbe Grecian style, aftx. i gnds a centre and two ®“‘“„ith'aht“ otn“r;^nlo»s towards Agar- Wings, with a ran j .forv. continued thro wings, with a range gj-^ry, continued through fte edifiS^ "tS -hh fT-ont' corresponds with the bnild- 94 Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; T,^^i ^ Strand. This institution, which contains 100 beds, unites the advantages of a dispensary witli those of a hospital. At the north-west corner of King William- street is another valuable foundation, the Royal West- minster Ophthalmic Infirmary. One side of Duncannon- street is occupied by the Golden Cross Inn, the front of which is ill the Strand. The present structure stands upon the site of an inn of con.siderable antiquity, and which, before the railway era, was a famous coaching house. We next arrive at Morleifs Hotel, a buildino- of some architectural pretensions, on the floor of which is a general post branch office. This hotel is at the corner of Trafalgar-square, and is the last house on the north side of the Strand, approaching the west. Our researches through the Strand having terminated, a bird’s-eve view of the interesting localities, into which we now emero-e must be reserved for another chapter. ^ CHAPTER IV. TR,AFALGAR SQUARE THE NATIONAL GALLERY ST. MAR- TIN S LANE ST. martin’s CHURCH LEICESTER SQUARE GHARING-CROSS— WHITEHALL, &C. occupied by Trafalgar-square, and the National Gallery, was formerly covered by a number of i buildings, called the King’s Mews, the word beino- fre- * quently spelt Meuse. Gay thus alludes to the featimes of the neighbourhood, in his time — i “ Where branching streets from Charing Cross divide • His treble voice resounds along the Meuse, And Whitehall echoes— clean your Honor’s’ shoes.” So early as the reign of Edward I. the king’s falcons were kept here. The royal stables at Bloomsbury beiiio* con- sumed by fire, in the time of Henry VIII., the mews was converted into stables for the royal steeds. In 1732, NATIONAL gallery. the original mews ^ tTL modious fabric raised upon down. As after standing for about a c tliaf the king’s mews should soon as it had been of the resi- he removed, a claim P should not dents in the vicini y, s^-one A promenade was This wish was conceded, ““ “ „,th two called Trafalgar-Sfuare, 'I'f -de is handsome ” „ the eastern, Pall Mall; on the St. Mar in s Gallery and on the south, the Nelson Si anTaarin,-eroL^^^^ f |ri834 and IBB, Ga//ery w Charles Wilkins, from the design oi i The front is irom me In the centre is a portico, five hundrea teet i Corinthian order, to which a with eight ^ g-^g conduct, the whole crowned flight oi steps a western wing is appro- by an ornamented d collection of painting, priatedto the late n I • ^ S f piieii magnificent pmtmes f 000 She nucleus of a national gallery was thus for £60,000, ana tne ^ ^ ,5^ ^l^g u^iic 111 May, '“JaT'*’ mf ‘ Jketion iSwards enlarged, by the ^ „f Sir Georae Beaumont, who i)resented the hberahty of Sir G » ^ nation, and other whole or ‘-^P'^MloTtnl his generous example, the private mdiM p-allery became sutficiently than ^^^^^,^^^’^ggnce tL construction of the new edifice foTtlieir reception, toS'"cInak^^^ Poussins.: llubens, Kenibrandt, 96 Tallis’s illustrated London, Gaitisborough, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, West, and Wilkie. The gallery is open to the public gratuitously evcu’y day, except Friday and Saturday, on which two days it is exclusively granted to artists for study. Mr. Vernon, a most liberal patron to art, who died very recently, pre- sented, in 1849, to the British public, a superb collection of paintings, by British artists, painted expressly for him. The Vernon Gallery, as this collection was called, was deposited in the National Gallery, but the rooms assigned to the new pictures being on the basement, and very in- differently lighted, general dissatisfaction was felt at the inadequate accommodation. Upon the death of Queen Adelaide, in 1849, it was determined to transfer the V'’ernon collection to the residence of her late majesty, Marlborough House, in Pall Mall, and it was accordingly removed from its subterranean depository to a more fitting temple of art, where its varied contents could be seen to advantage, and better appreciated than in the dim straggling light to which they had been previously consigned. The Nelson Pillar owes its existence to a patriotic ivish which his late majesty William IV. entertained, to com- memorate by a suitable monument the exploits of Eng- land’s greatest naval hero, one, who by his prowess, con- firmed to Britain that sovereignity of the ocean, which rival nations disputed, but which they vainly attempted to destroy or to share. “ Aut Ccesar, aut nullus,” was a principle with Nelson, and he did not deem death too great a sacrifice xvlien by such a sacrifice, victory was purchased. The Nelson Pillar, built after the design of Mr. Railton, is of the Corinthian order. Sculptured lions in a recumbent position are placed at the angles of the pedestal, on the sides of xvhich are pictorial repre- sentations of Nelson’s four chief triumphs, at St. Vincent, Copenhagen, the Nile, and Trafalgar, each tableau being eigiitcen feet square. Over the pedestal a fluted shaft partially crnamented with oak-foliage rises. The capita] IS copied from the column of Mars the Avenger, at Rome, i i ORSE GUARDS, 0 J • 9 - -■X * K .'LL. • « 1 OBSE: PAR^ o ST. martin’s church. on eacli side of which is a figure of Victory. Above is a circular pedestal wreathed with laurel, and the whole is crowned by a eolossal figure of Nelson, 17 feet in heigh . The base is 10 feet high and 104 feet wide, the pedestal 39 feet high, and 206 feet wide, and the total altitude ot the column is 193 feet. i i r xi. So much of St. Martin’ s-lane as extended from the Strand to Chandos-street, was taken down to facilitate the Strand improvements, and that portion of the lane is replaced by the north side of Trafalgar-square, formed by Morlev’s Hotel and other buildings, and St. Martin -place, a handsome range of houses. The Church of St. Martm s- in-the-Fields was built after the design of James Gibbs, a native of Aberdeen, who died in 1754. Upon the ground whieh it covers a church stood so early as the thirteenth century, for it is recorded that in 1222 a dispute arose between William, abbot of Westminster, and Eusta,ce, bishop of London, in consequence of the latter claiming jurisdiction over the church. Three centuries after, the original edifice being in a state of dilapidation, a small church was raised by Henry VIII. at his own expense, in consequence of the alleged poverty of the parishioneis, who at that period, when the Haymarket and W hitcombe- street were green lanes, could not have been numerous. The neighbourhood increasing, it became requisite to enlarge the church in 1607, and in 1721 the entire fabric was removed, and the present stately structiue, the first stone of which was laid by George I., rose in its place. It occupied five years in building, and cost £37,000. » This church is of stone, and in the west front, a flight of steps ascends to a portico of Corinthian columns, sustaining a pediment with the royal arms in bas-relief. The same order is continued round in pilasters, and in the inter- columniations are two series of windows encompassed with rustic. On each side of the doors are lofty Corinthian columns ; the roof is concealed by a handsome balustrade; the steeple, which is admired for its elegance, is 185 feet in heisrht ; and the tower contains a peal of twelve bells. The ° 0 jgS Tallis’s illustrated London ; interual decorations are very ricli; the ceiling is elliptical, and is divided into panels, adorned with fretwork. Slender Corinthian columns on high pedestals, rising in the front, sustain the galleries and roof, which rest upon them in an ornamental arch-work. The east end is enriched with ' fretwork and gilding, and over the altar is a large Venetian ' window with stained glass. Among those who have been buried in the church and its precincts, may be named Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, murdered on Primrose-hill, Hamp- ^ ftSin the time of Charles II.; the beautiM Nell Gwynne, who bequeathed to the ringers of St. Martin s- in-the-Fields a small sum yearly, a legacy which they still enioy; John Lacy, the dancing-master, soldier, actor, dramatist, and a favourite with Charles II. ; Farquhar ; Sir Winston Churchill, the father of the famous Duke of Marlborough ; Mrs. Centlivre, the author of The Wonder ; Roubiliac, the sculptor ; George Colman, the younger ; and John Banister. Within the last quarter of a century St. Martm s-lane has undergone so many changes at its several outlets, that from a narrow, crooked, and inconvenient defile, it has risen to the rank of a respectable second-rate street. Here Anne Killegrew, the lovely maid of honour at the court of Charles II., but stffl more ennobled by her genius for poetry and art^ was born. She died at the eaily age of twenty-four. At No. 103 dwelt for some time Sir James Thornhill, the father-in-law of Hogarth ; and in the same house Sir Joshua Reynolds subsequently resided. Old Slaughter’s ColFee-house was a famous nightly resort for artists, where Hogarth was a frequent visitor. It has been removed to make way for a County Court. Between 1739 and 1767 another association of artists assembled, under the presidency of Mr. Moser, in St. Peter’s-court, St. Martin’s-lane. They subsequently met at the Turk’s Head, in Greek-street, when they petitioned George III. to become the patron of a Royal Academy of Art. The king acceded to their wishes, and apartments were taken by the new society in Pall-mall, which they occupied till 1/ 71, LEICESTEB, SQUAEE. 99 a suite of room^0.dSo.e.etHo«^^^^ *thaf XX"S>'s bI Sladen^y Kas Anally Sef ta a loWelose to where .ts nucleus was northern extremity of St. Martin's-lane branches toto a numbg^of poo^^^trerts, “ Ae^irec r^^^^ ”denk nroderfted,^nd Krp"oreri E rte Tioor lodffinff-liouses, chiefly colonized by Irish. SJ the cLtro ofthis group, seven streets radiate, pmg to the neiehboui'hood the characteristic name of DiX’^i to which, with some slight ciuahScation, the de- scription of Gay is still very apphcable :— MVhere famed St. Giles’s ancient limits spread, An iurailed column rears its lofty head ; Here to sev’n streets sev n dials count the day, And from each other catch the circling lay . Here oft the peasant, with enquiring face. Bewildered, trudges on f ’ He dwells on every sign with stupid gaze, Enters the narrow alley s doubtful ““e ; Tries every winding court and street in vam, And doubles o’er his weary steps again. Opposite that point where Long-acre runs ^to St mSs lane is Cranbourn-street, a wide street with tocTot good elevation. It it of recent erection, its pre- deSsol having been Cranhoum-al ey one side of which ’ ■ niillpd down it was replaced by buildings of a more Tit AatS a carriage-way made, and the alley pro- elegant charac , business street runs f , Lt- « a place which, denuded of its ancient 'royaftud aristocratic associations, is oconpied with shops brdpH and lodging-houses. It is a locality especially Sed by signers, and Mr. J. T. Smith saysi- oWere it not tor the trees and statue m the middle, it might well be mistaken for the Grande Place of some con- 100 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; tinental city. On every side rise hotels -with foreign names, kept by foreign landlords, and marked Restaurant. Occasionally a label may be seen in tbe window with the inscription Table d’hote a cinq heures. The bnen-drapers, and other shop-keepers take especial care to inform all passengers that they can speak French or German, and the cigar-shops here or in the streets adjoining, add to that information that their owners can even speak Spanish and Portuguese.^^ Maitland, writing a century back, remarks of this vicinity, “ Many parts of it so greatly abound with French, that it is an easy matter for a stranger to imagine himself in France.'’"’ The enclosure in the square which has been permitted to fall into decay, presents none of the bright and vernal tints which enliven most of the other squares in Westminster, and the equestrian statue of George I. in its centre, looks more like the effigy of a chimney-sweep than that of a monarch. The by-gone records of the square are interesting. On its north side, whence Leicester-place emerges, stood Leicester House, the mansion of the Sidneys, Earls of Leicester, and the only house which covered the area of the present square in the middle of the seventeenth century. Here died in 1662, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, whose previous history has been given in the description of Drury-lane. When the brave Prince Eugene ■visited England in 1711, he had apartments there. In that century, Leicester House, writes Pennant, ‘'^was successively the pouting place of princes.” The Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., upon quarrelling with his father, retired with his family to this mansion ; and the example set by George II. was followed by his own son, Frederick, Prince of Wales (father of George III.), who not being able to agree -with his austere parent, made Leicester House his permanent residence. He died here in 1751, from the effects of a neglected cold. So little idea had his family of a fatal termination to his illness, that nearly up to the time of his death they were playing at cards in an ante-chamber. He coughed violently between nine and ten at night, and ex- LEICESTER SQUARE. 101 claiming that lie felt death at hand, the Princess rushed from the foot of the bed towards him, but before she could reach him he expired. Sir Nicholas Wraxall, in his Me- moirs of his own Times, states, his royal highness died in the arms of Desnoyers, a famous dancing-master, who at the critical moment of the fatal attack, was performing on the violin for the entertainment of the dying prince. In 1806 Leicester House was pulled down. To the west of its site is Saville House, originally the town mansion of the Saville family. George III., before his accession to the throne, dwelt here, and upon becoming King gave up his apartments to his brother, the Duke of York, who resided here till a new palace was erected for him in Pall Mall. Upon the Duke of York vacating Saville House, it became the abode of Sir George Saville, M.P. for Yorkshire. Sir George, in 1779, moved in the House of Commons the first reading of a bill giving toleration to Roman Catholic places of worship. This rendered him unpopular with the ^'No-Popery” mobs of 1780, and in that year the rioters attacked his house, and despoiling it of its valuable fur- niture, books, and paintings, made a vast bonfire of the whole. Afterwards Miss Linwood’s Exhibition of Needle- work, consisting of copies of the finest pictures of the Eng- hsh and foreign schools, was exhibited here for about forty years. The collection was recently sold, the principal pic- ture, however, having been bequeathed by Miss Linwood to her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Sir James Thornhill, Hogarth, and Sir Joshua Reynolds were residents of Leicester-square. The first-named died here in 1764; Hogarth, his son-in-law, occupied one of the two houses that now form the Sabloniere Hotel, and died in the same month, the same year, and the same square, and they were both buried in the same place — Chiswick. Reynolds died in 1792, at No. 47, Leicester-square. When the Polish patriot, Kosciusko visited England, he lived in the house in which Hogarth had closed his existence. The house adjoining had the distinguished surgeon, John Hunter, for 1 its inmate, and here he formed his anatomical museum. 102 Tallis’s illustrated London; On tlie west side of the square Sydney-alley, named after the noble family of Sydney^ a narrow avenue, leads into Princes-streetj crossing which Coventry-street, Piccadilly, and the west-end generally is gained, but intending to approach that fashionable quarter by a different route, we shall at present suspend our researches in that direc- tion. The chief opening on the west side of Leicester- square is New Coventry -street y consisting of several houses which are very ornate specimens of modern shop archi- tecture. To the right of Cranbourn-street is Great Newport- street, where Horne Tooke was born, leading to Newport- marlcet — a butcher and provision market, with no preten- sions to architectural taste. In this neighbourhood is Gerrard-street, running nearly parallel with the south side of Leicester-square. This street was, in the last and preceding centuries, one of fashionable repute; and several of th# fine old mansions which are still found here, give silent evidence of its former rank. It derives its name from Gerrard, Earl of Macclesfield, whose title is com- memorated in the adjacent street. Dry den lived here for many years, dying at his house in 1701. Edmund Burke was also a resident in this street, which abounds in asso- ciations, interesting indeed, but which our limits preclude us from noticing further. In close proximity to Gerrard- street are several streets communicating with Soho-square and Oxford-street. Of these the chief are Dean-street, Frith-street, and Greek-street , — streets which have long formed the favourite locality of artists. The church of St. Ann, Soho, completed in 1686, and dedicated to St. Ann, in compliment to the Princess Ann of Denmark, is in Dean- street. This edifice is remarkable for a circular tower sur- mounted with a large ball, containing a clock with four dials. At the back of this church is a tablet erected by Lord Oxford in 1758, on which is inscribed : “Near this place is interred Theodore King of Corsica, who died in this parish Dec. xi., mdcclvi. immediately after leaving the King’s Bench Prison, by the benefit of the Act of In- SOHO-SQUARE. solvency; in consequence of wMcli lie registered his king- dom of Corsica for the use of his creditors. “ The grave, great teacher, to a level brings. Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings. But Theodore, this moral learn’d. ere dead ; 1 Fate pour’d its lessons on his living head, ^ V Bestow’d a kingdom, and denied him bread, j It is rather curious that the name of Greek-street should be a perversion of Grig-street, and, nnhke most corruptions, a very excellent change for the dignity of the street. Soho -square, into which there are approaches from every point of the compass, is one of the earnest squares in the metropolis, and the West-end character which it once maintained is hardly yet departed from it, it being the resort, if not the residence, of a considerable proportion of the fashionable world. It was commenced in the reign of Charles IT., and the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth lived in the centre house, opposite the statue. The square was originally called, in honour of that ’lo pie- man, Moumouth-square, and subsequently it acquired the name of King-square. Pennant says, that upon the oeatli of the Duke of Monmouth, his admirers changed the name to Soho, being the word of the day at the neid oi Sedgmoor, but this account is refuted by a work printed in 1683, four years anterior to the battle of Sedgmoor, m which the London house of the Duke of Monmouth is stated to he in Soho ^’-square. Thus the origin of its present name is unexplained. Among the other distin- guished residents here, may be named the noble family ot Carlisle; Mary Cromwell, Countess of Fauconberg, third daughter of Oliver Cromwell; Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel, and Sir Joseph Banks. By the l£^t named gentleman, the Linnsean Society was founded, and its museum still remains in Soho-sqnare, to perpetuate the researches of Sir Joseph, its first president. Here is the Soho Bazaar, the first institution of the kind started in the metropolis, it having been opened in 1815. These premises, originally appropriated by the Storekeeper- 104 Tallis’s illustrated London ; general, are very extensive, and consist of several rooms fitted up witli mahogany counters; the walls are hung with red cloth, adorned with large mirrors at the ends, and the whole building is comfortably hghted, warm, and ventilated. About 200 respectable females preside at the various stalls, to sell fancy and other goods; and the variety of articles exhibited and the commodiousness of the bazaar render it one of the most fashionable morning lounges in town. In the centre of the enclosure of the square is a statue of James II., at the feet of which are allegorical figures representing the Thames, the Trent, the Severn, and the Humber. Having deviated from our western progress, in order to notice localities which he out of the regular line of road, and which it was more advisable at once to visit than to seek them subsequently by a circuitous approach, we now return to a spot abounding in interesting recollections. Not merely as a scene of historical incidents, but as a central landmark, whence the commercial, the fashionable, the political, and the artistical neighbourhoods of the capital radiate, more than a cursory notice must he be- stowed on CHARING-CROSS. At Charing-cross, wrote Dr. Johnson, flows the full tide of human existence. The village of Charing was a quiet and retired spot in the reign of Henry III., contain- ing a hermitage and a chapel, of which St. Catharine was the patron-saint. In this road-side hamlet there were not more than a dozen cottages or huts. The supplemental name of Cross, it owes to a wooden cross erected by Edward I., in memory of his beloved and lamented queen, Eleanor of Castile. Her remains were borne from Grant- ham, Lincolnshire, to Westminster Abbey, their final place of rest, and wherever the cavalcade paused, during its transit from Lincolnshire to London, there the tender- hearted monarch set up a cross, as a record of that devoted love which could now only be manifested by CHARING-CEOSS. 105 reverence for the memory of the departed qneen. A stone cross, designed by Cavalini, replaced the wooden one, and this monument of conjugal aflFection remained intact, and respected through the various TI/S hv -which England was desolated, until the advent of that ''reign of terror,^’ fanaticism, and intolerance, which pre- vailed under the auspices of Cromwell and his heads Before these ignorant pretenders to mfallibility, much that was beautiful in art, much that was beautiful in bXan nature, was prostrated j and it was not very pro- £ble that the men wbo did not hesitate to smite down and to murder, with relentless ferocity, their but benevolent sovereign, would hesitate about laying their ruthless hands upon the records sacred to kingly affection and the cross of Cavalini, and many other remarkable works of art, were demolisbed by these Vandals of the conventicle. In 1647, by order of the House of Commons, it was destroyed, and some of the stones were employed to nave the path before Whitehall This cross was of an octagonal fo?m, and, in an upper stage, ornamented with ei-ht figures. Thirty-one years afterwards, nearly upon the sam?spot, was placed the present equestrian statue of CharleT l cast in 1633 by Le Smur, for Lord Arundel Sfore the time fixed upon for its erection it was seized by the Parliament, who ordered it to be ^Id and broken to nieces It was purchased by one J ohn Bivet, a brazier, Iho, having a shrLd notion that royalty would one day be re established in England, buried the statue, according to slf StCifa, in L garden in Holborn, others aflarm that it was concealed in a vault under the chuici of St Paul’s Covent-garden. He manufactured from o d WsSe and fork handles, candlesticks, and othe, trZg household articles, trhich he ostensibly sold M being^constrncted from the hronse of tlie statue. His ingenuity was “I '“C ' i Puritans bought bis wares as memorials of the downfal of the king, and the Royalists, as records of their beloved sovereign. After the Restoration, the statue was brought 106 Tallis’s illustrated London ; forth from its hiding-place, uninjured, and restored to government; and, in 1678, it was placed on the pedestal, seventeen feet high, the work of Glrinlin Gibbons. Charles I. is represented in armour, with his own hair, uncovered, on horseback. The figures look towards White- hall, and are of the size of life. The arms of England, trophies, cupids, palm-branches, &c., ornament, and a rail and banister of iron-work, enclose. The pedestal is erected in the centre of a circle of stone, 30 feet in diameter ; its area being one step above that of the street, fenced with strong posts. As a place of punishment. Charing- cross was formerly conspicuous ; here, Titus Oates was placed in the pillory for perjury, as was Parsons, the inventor of that notable imposition, called the “ Cock Lane Ghost.” Hugh Peters, Harrison, and other regicides suffered the last dreadful penalty of the law, at Charing-cross, upon the site now occupied by the pedestal of the statue. Most barbarous was the punishment inflicted in those days for treason. Harrison, having been hanged, was cut down alive, and stripped ; his belly was then cut open, and his bowels taken out and burnt before his eyes. In the mad- ness of his agony, he rose up and gave the executioner a blow on the ear, and then fell down insensible. Between 1680 and 1730, Charing-cross was famous for the taverns by which it was encircled, and where men of wit and letters were frequent guests. Sir George Etherege, Prior, Savage, Thomson, and others, were among those who sought recreation in these places. It is said, that upon the spot now occupied by the banking-house of Drum- mond & Co., Oliver Cromwell, when he was Protector, had a house ; and JMilton must have been a neighbour, as his dwelling overlooked Spring Gardens. South-east of Charing-cross is Cockspur-street. The | British Coflee House, which still exists here, was a prin- | cipal rendezvous of the unhappy Jacobite noblemen and gentlemen who were executed for the parts which they acted in the rebellion of 1745. From Cockspur-street, Spring Gardens is reached; an elegant range of houses SCOTLAND-YAKD. 107 with an entrance from the east end of the Mall into ' St. James’s Park. In the reign of James I., certain gardens were planted here, containing several spnngs of excellent water^ and hence the name of this locality. In ' Spring Garden-terrace, every house still contains a well. There were, in the reign of Charles I., an ordinary and howling-green in Spring Gardens, and the kjng was a frequent •sdsitor to the latter. Spring Gardens continued to be a place of amusement during the reign of Charles II. ; Prince Rupert died at his house here in 1684. The road between Charing -cross and Westminster Ahbey consists of many public offices, noble residences, and elegant streets and terraces, there being several entrances, on the west side, into St. J ames s Park. This avenue, as far as Parliament-street, is remarkably broad, and forms the most eligible approach to the Houses of Parliament. This convenience must be duly appreciated, when it is remembered, that less than two centuries back the royal cavalcade, in its procession to Parliament, had no wider streets for its progress than King-street, and others of equally circumscribed dimensions. Descending from Charing-cross to IVhitehall, on the left hand side, a large archway leads into Scotland-yard, in which is the chief office of the Police Commissioners. It derives its name from the circumstance of a palace which once stood here being appropriated by King Edgar to Kenneth III., when he came to London to do homage to the English sovereign for his kingdom of Scotland. Subsequently, when the Scotch monarchs performed homage for Cum- j herland and other fiefs of the Crown, the palace was enlarged, and became a magnificent edifice. Its latest , occupant was Margaret, sister of Henry VIII., and widow of James V. of Scotland, who resided here for some time, after the death of her husband. Subsequently, it was incorporated in the royal palace of Whitehall, and appro- priated to the members of the household. No relics of il remain. TVhitehall -place, the next street on the same side of the way, is composed of two handsome rows of 108 Tallis’s illustrated London ; private dwelling-liouses, from the end of which, a fine view of the river is obtained. Nearly opposite, is the Admiralty Office, removed from Duke-street, Westminster. This structure, rebuilt in the reign of George II., by Ripley, is a handsome edifice of brick and stone. The front has two deep wings, and a very lofty portico supported by four massy stone pillars. Besides the haU and ofiices, there were raised seven large houses for the Lords Commissioners. The screen before the court was built by one of the brothers Adam. During the late war, telegraphs on the top of this building were frequently employed in receiving and communicating intelligence between it and the sea-ports ; but the Admiralty telegraph is now entirely superseded by the electric. The Admiralty nearly occupies the site of Wallingford House, budt in the reign of James I. by Viscount Wallingford, afterwards Earl of Bunbury. Many curious facts attach to Walling- ford House; we can only refer to a few. After the murder of the Duke of Buckingham, by Eelton, his remains were brought here, whence, at midnight, they were secretly conveyed to Westminster Abbey. From the roof of this house. Archbishop Usher witnessed his royal master, Charles I., taken to the scaffold— a sight which so horrified him that he swooned away. When. Charles II. ascended the throne of his fathers, Wallingford House reverted to the Buckingham family, the second duke of which was honoured with more brilhant obsequies, in W^estminster, than had been allotted to his unhappy predecessor. Adjoining the Admiralty is the Horse Guards, consisting of a centre and two wings, erected by Vardy, from a design by Kent. In the centre are arched passages into St. James’s Park, under the principal of which the sovereign formerly passed when he went in state to the House of Lords ; on each side are pavilions and stables for the use of the Horse Guards and other troops. The uniformity of the building is broken by a cupola erected on its summit, without injuring the harmony of its structure. The plainness of the wings DOWNING-STREET, 109 contrasts with the centre, and under the two pavilions front- in" the street, mounted sentinels are constantly on duty. The offices of the War Department are held here. Dover House, sometimes called Melbourne Home, adjacent to the Horse Guards, was built hy Payne, the architect, for Sir Matthew Featherstonehaugh. It was subsequently the residence of Lord Melbourne, the Duke of York, and Lord Dover. The Treasury Offices are contiguous. Ihe ancient remnant of a building, forming part of the suite, is supposed to be a relic of Wolsey’s mansion of York- place. The Park-front that reaches to the end of Downing-street, on which a low archway conducts to the Park, was built after the design of Kent, and consists of three stories in the Tuscan, Doric, and Ionic styles. The new building, called the Council OJfice, facing M hitehall, was erected in 1826, under the superintendence of Sir John Soane. In the Treasury Buildings, the Privy Council office, the Board of Trade, and other government offices are found. These edifices cover a site where once stood the ancient Cock Pit formed for the amusement of Henry VIII., a sport to which even the Maiden Queen did not refuse her auspices. Downing-street, in which the destinies of this great country are decided upon, is named after Sir George Downing, originally an employi of Crom- weU, and afterwards in the pay of Charles II. In this street is the official residence of the Prime Minister, or First Lord of the Treasury, that of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign and Colonial offices, &c. A history might be written of Downing-street alone j of the mighty enterprises of which it has been the cradle ; of the eminent ministers who have made it their home. Here, says Leigh Hunt, “ Sir Robert Walpole, with whom the official abode commenced, and who made it his private residence during the decline of his power, is described by his son Horace, as ‘ sitting in a strange unwonted fashion," without speaking, and his eyes fixed for an hour together, lost to the jovial good sense which had secured the Hanover succession. Here Lord North, having moie 110 TALLIs’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; resources of heart and of a loving family^ never lost his placidity or his wit, in spite of losing the American colonies. Here, Pitt had his heart broken by Napoleon; and Fox tasted of power for a short, dropsical time ; and Canning found that the aristocracy would use, but not obey him.” From Downing-street, King -street, a narrow, incom- modious thoroughfare, runs into Great George-street. But, little as there is in its present appearance to recommend it, little evidence as it gives of past dignity. King-street, at no very remote era, was one of the most important and time-honoured streets of Westminster. Through this street the greater part of our sovereigns, after the conquest, have proceeded to their coronations at Westminster; and many of them, at an after period, to their mausoleums in the Abbey. The street had gates at both extremities; that at the north being the work of Holbein, and its name generally was apphed to all that space between it and Charing- cross. The brilliant author of “ The Faiiy Queen” lived and died in this street ;— -his death was caused, writes Drummond of Hawthornden, by absolute want of bread; he refused twenty pieces sent him by the Earl of Essex, and gave this answer to the person who brought them — “ that he was sure he had no time to spend them.” Although Spencer was hteraUy allowed to perish of starvation, his obsequies were attended by the great and the noble, as if this hollow mockery of pomp for the dead, could atone for heartless neglect of the living. Here also resided the poets, Thomas Carew, and the Earl of Dorset, author of the weU-known song, “ To all you ladies now on land.” Through this street, Charles I. was led, on the first and last days of his tiial in Westminster Hall. As he passed through it after his condemnation, the inhabitants stood at their staUs and windows, many of them weeping, and, as they looked at their fallen sovereign, they offered up prayers to the Tiirone of Mercy for his safety and eternal welfare. Cromwell was living in King-street at the time of the WHITEHALL. Ill execution of his royal Tictim. Some years afterwards, as the Protector was passing in his carriage through King- street to Westminster, he was seriously alarmed by a tall man bursting out of a cobbler’s shop^ with a sword by Ms side, while the coach was hemmed in by a dense crowd. The man escaped from the guards. Cromwell, who fancied that the man had lain in wait to assassinate him, came no more by King-street, but a little time after sickened and died. The next occasion on which he passed through King-street, was to his tomb in W^estminster Abbeys where his body was not suffered to rest after royalty became again ascendant when Charles II., not content with punishing those who were alive to answer for their misdeeds wreaked an ignoble revenge on the dead. WHITEHALL. The Palace of Whitehall was originally, built by Sir Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, in the reign_ of Henry III., and was, at his death, bequeathed by him to the Convent of Black Priars, in Holborn. In 1248, that body disposed of it to Walter de Grey the Archbishop of York, and it was inhabited by the prelates of that see until’ the time of Wolsey, and was called York House. It was almost entirely reconstructed by the luxurious cardinal, who dwelt here for some years, in a style of splendour to which churchman had never yet aspired. “Here,^^ writes Mr. Jesse, “he accumulated his vast libraries and exquisite picture galleries. The walls of his apartments were covered with hangings of cloth-of-gold and tissue, and his tables with velvets, satins, and damasks of various hues. The great gallery is described as a scene j of unparalleled magnificence j and in two other apart- j ments, known as the Gilt and Council Chambers, two | I large tables were covered with plate of solid gold, many ! of them studded with pearls and precious stones. The j household of this haughty churchman consisted of 800 | j persons, many of whom were knights and noblemen, j j These numerous retainers were clad in the most magui- j 112 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; ficent liyeries ; even tlie master-cook of the cardinal was dressed in velvet and satin, and wore a chain of gold round his neck. Wolsey was the first clergyman in Eng- land who wore silk and gold, and this not only on his person, hut on the saddles and trappings of his horses. As a priest, he rode on a mule, the trappings of which were of crimson velvet and the stirrups of silver, gilt.” In December, 1529, when this proud ecclesiastic feU mto I disgrace with his royal master, he surrendered his palace j into the hands of Henry ; soon after which, the name of York House was prohibited, and that of Whitehall sub- < stituted in its stead. Whitehall was much enlarged by Henry VIII. He bought and enclosed the ground now called St. James’s Park, and formed a tennis court, cock-pit, and bowling-green, the site of which are now indicated by the Treasury offices. He also erected a ! ierv overlooking the tilt-yard on the spot, now partially covered by the Horse Guards and Dover House. These structures were joined to the old palace hy a noble gate- way and arch, designed by Holbein. The gate was re- moved a century back to facilitate the widening of the street. At this palace, in January, 1533, Henry was privately married to Anne Boleyn; and in January, 1548, that tyrant expired here, having, only a few days before, sent that accomplished gentleman and poet, the Earl of Surrey, to the scaffold. Queen Elizabeth kept the first I Christmas after her succession in Whitehall, which be- came one of her most favoured residences. Her successor, James I., also held his court here, and the pageantry for which, during the last reign, Whitehall had been cele- brated, continued to prevail. The present Banqueting House, which is the work of Inigo Jones, was erected by James I. It was originally contemplated to extend it 1150 feet along the bank of the Thames, and to the same distance in front of the present street of Whitehall. The extravagant habits of James I., and the civil war which | disturbed the reign of his successor, prevented the com- | pietion of this design. The Banqueting House was begun j WHITEHALL. 113 in 1619, and finished in about two years, at an outlay of £\7 000. It is a stone edifice of two stories, ornamented with columns and pilasters. The splendid room, in which James I. held his fetes— where Charles I. so often dined in state with his queen— where Cromwell gave an enter- tainment to a puritanical parliament — and where L-haries II. loved to exhibit himself in the dance — is now con- verted into a chapel, founded by George I., where service is performed morning and evening. On the accession ot Charles I., Whitehall presented scenes of unwonted taste and magnificence. Masques were frequently performed here, Jonson being the laureate, and Inigo Jo^^s the artist. Not only was Whitehall celebrated for the high character of its entertainments, but it became famous as a palace of hospitality, eighty-six tables, well s^^ipP^ed, beinff laid out daily- In an old work^ entitled^ Tne rre- sent state of London, and dated 1681, we find that “ the tinges servants being men of quality, by his majesty s special order, went to Westminster Hall in Term tim^ to invite gentlemen to eat of the king’ s viands ; and in Par- liament time, to invite the parliament s men thereto. The picture gallery in this palace was deservedly famous, for it included twenty-eight paintings by Titian, eleven by Corregio, sixteen by Julio Eomano, nine by Raphael, seven by Parmegiano, besides several of the chefs-d ceuvres of Reubens and Vandyke. But a more dismal history attaches to Whitehall, which is now chiefly associated with the commission of a national tragedy, reflecting dishonoui on the memory of its perpetrators, and which no expedient could justify, no after-repentance atone for. The Ban- queting House, so often the scene of gaiety and of domes- tic enjoyment, was the room whence Charles I. pas^d, through a passage broken in the wall, to the block. The scaffold was erected in the centre of the building, between the upper and lower window, in the open street before Whitehall. Cromwell afterwards became the occupant of the palace, where he died in 1658. Richard Cromwell was the next tenant, hut his residence was brief; and a Q 114 Tallis’s illustrated London ; few days after lie resigned the Protectorship, Whitehall was besieged by bailiffs and writ-servers, anxious to pounce upon the imprudent ex-Protector. In 1660, Charles II, went to Whitehall, and under his sanction all its former revelries were renewed. The old palace, in the time of the “ Merry Monarch,” was of an immense size and magnifi- cence. It stretched along the river, and in front along the present Parliament and M’hitehall-streets, as far as Scotland-yard, and on the other side of those streets, to the turning into Spring-gardens, beyond the Admiralty, looking into St. James’s-park. The king, his queen, his royal brother, Prince Kupert, the Duke of Monmouth, the great officers, and all the courtly train, had their lodgings within these walls; and all the royal family had their different offices, such as kitchens, cellars, pantries, spiceries, cider-house, bake-house, wash-yards, coal-yards, and slaughter-houses. The public stairs, or water entrance, to the palace, still remain on the spot where they existed in the time of W^olsey. Charles II. died in this palace, of apoplexy in February, 1685,_ after a very short indisposition, and not without suspicion of having been unfairly dealt by. Six days before his death, he was in his usual health. Evelyn, writing the day after this event, thus records what he had witnessed in the royal apartments of W^hitehall so soon before the closing scene of the king’s career. " I could never forget,” said he, “the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening), which this day se’enight I was witness of; the king sitting and toying with his favourites, Portsmouth, Cleveland, Mazarine, &c. ; a French boy singing love songs in that glorious gallery ; whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at bassett round a large table, a bank of at least £2,000 in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen, who were with me, held up their hands with astonishment. Six days after, all was in the dust !” In December, 1688, James II. and his queen left the royal dweUmg and the WHITEHALL. 115 kingdom for ever. In the following February, William III. and Queen Mary became occupants of the palace, abandoned by the Stuarts. But the glory of Whitehall was now upon the wane ; and between 1690 and 1700, two destructive fires occurred by which the greater por- tion of this superb fabric was destroyed, the Banqueting House, that still remains, some offices, and the lodgings of a few of the nobility, being all that was saved from the general wreck. Besides the royal apartments, 150 dwell- ings, tenanted by court officials and others, were con- sumed, and twenty other houses were blown up with gun- powder, to prevent the conflagration spreading. The Banqueting House, as previously mentioned, is now an episcopal chapel, where the garrison at the Horse Guards attend every Sunday. The ground upon which the greater portion of the ancient palace stood, is covered by the district including Scotland Yard,Whitehall-place, Privy Gardens, Kichmond- terrace, on the river side of the public street, and includes the mansions of the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Selkirk, and other members of the aristocracy. _ Privy Gardens consist of several elegant mansions behind the Banqueting House, divided from the main street by well- planted shrubberies, and commanding in their rear a free view of the panoramic scenery of the river. In Privy Gardens hved that honest, that brilliant, that lamented statesman, Sir Robert Peel, whose untimely death in the summer of 1850, was felt to be a national calamity j all classes, men of every shade of politics, in every rank of life, combining to offer tribute to the memory of “ The patriot statesman who, upn the shrine Of Principle, made sacrifice of Power.” A public funeral was volunteered on behalf of majesty to the remains of the departed senator, but the distinction thus proffered was declined by his family, it being the express wish of Sir Robert Peel, that for any services which he might have rendered the state, no such osten- 116 talus’s illustrated LONDON ; tatious acKnowiedgment should be made j and he also prohibited, his survivors from receiving, in their own person, any ennoblement or aggrandizement on that account. A public journalist, commenting on this cala- mity, observes, — Sir Robert Peel falls by a sudden casualty, before his strength has begun to fail or his mind to decline. Did not the thought suggest a murmur at the dispensations of Omnipotence, one might call it a waste of precious power, a mighty soul lost to the world by the merest trifle, — by the silly panic or momentary impatience of a brute. How much had such a man stiU to do! How many noble thoughts and splendid anticipa- tions to deliver 1 How many enlarged views carefully elaborated ; what treasures of observation, and acquisitions of political lore ; nay, what a mighty part he might still have played, had opportunity again invited, or necessity demanded his potent intervention ! But, in a moment, all this is beyond the grave.” At the commencement of Parliament-street is a most beautiful enclosed range of mansions looking in the direction of Privy Gardens, and stretching towards the river, with a handsome carriage drive in front, called Richmond-terrace. These houses occupy the site of part of Privy Gardens and Richmond House, which was for- merly the residence of the Duke of Richmond. When that Hindoo celebrity, the Nepanlese ambassador, visited England in 1850, he and his suite took up their resi- dence here. Advancing southward, we enter Parliament-street, a wide and handsome street of private dwelling-houses of good elevation, formed since the construction of West- minster bridge, and certainly constituting a more eligible thoroughfare to the Houses of Parliament than the narrow King-street, with which it lies parallel. Between Parliament-street and the river is Cannon-row, formerly called Channel-row, and considerably below the level of the adjoining streets. At a very remote period it is said to have borne tbe name of St. Stephen’s-alley, from its BRIDGE STREET. 117 being the residence of tbe Dean and Canons of St. Stephen’s collegiate chapel. Subsequently, many of the nobility had their mansions here. The palace of Ann Stanhope, the second Duchess of the Protector Somerset ; that of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, in the reign of Elizabeth; the house of Henry, second Earl of Liu coin, one of those who pronounced condemnation on Mary Queen of Scots ; and the town residences of the Earls of Dorset, the Earls of Cumberland, and the Earls of Man- chester, were in this locality. The site of Manchester House is now marked by Manchester-buildings, a double row of houses running out of Cannon-row towards the river, and appropriated to the accommodation of Members of Parliament during the session. Cannon-row is now occupied by parliamentary and other offices. We approach a spot, conspicuous as the stage on which some of the most memorable events in the history of the country have taken place, a description of which must be reserved for another chapter. CHAPTER V. BRIDGE-STREET — WESTMINSTER BRIDGE GREAT GEORGE- STREET — DUKE-STREET NEW PALACE-YARD — WESTMIN- STER HALL — WESTMINSTER ABBEY ST. MARGARET’s CHURCH — ABINGDON-STREBT TOTHILL-STREET MIL- BANK PENITENTIARY, ETC. The south end of Parliament-street is reached; but before we continue the line of road leading to Palace-yard, and to those enduring monuments of arcliitectural skill, which are clustered together in this precinct, the streets to the left and right of Parliament-street claim notice. That to the left is Bridge-street, consisting of I, i.. I r; l;i' 118 Tallis’s illustrated London ; well-proportioned shops and buildings^ hat chiefly impor- tant as the principal approach to WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. For more than two centuries, the friends of local improvement had thought a bridge over the Thames from Westminster to Lambeth would be desirable. Though often proposed, it was as often resisted with great de- termination. The City of London, in their petition, declared that such an erection would be fatal to the trade of the metropolis ; and the watermen showed that the various ferries, established at a great expense, would be rendered utterly useless. They in fact did not scruple to say, that a bridge would render the navigation of the river Thames dangerous if not impracticable. Notwith- standing all this opposition, an act was passed on the 31st of March, 1736, for making such a structure from the Woolstaple, in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, to the opposite shore in Lambeth. It authorized the raising, by means of a lottery, the sum necessary : £635,000 were to be raised from the public; and, the prizes in the lottery paid, it was expected that .£100,000 would remain applicable to the new erection. In 1737, another act w'as passed for continuing the lottery, and enlarging the sum that was to be raised to £700,000; and a silver cistern having been made by Henry Jernyngham, the goldsmith, the workmanship of which alone cost several thousand pounds, on his petition, a provi- sion was made in the bridge-building bill that that should become one of the prizes. The second lottery produced a much larger supply of money than the first. One Labelye, an ingenious Swiss, was the architect employed. For six centuries, that is, since the building of the first stone London Bridge, the inhabitants of the capital had seen no work of such magnitude undertaken. Labelye found the width of the river at Westminster was 1320 feet, exceeding, by 300 feet, the breadth of the Thames at London Bridge. He proposed to the bridge WESTMINSTER BRIDGE. 119 commissioners that the foundation of every pier should be i laid on a strong grating of timber, having previously ascertained the existence of a bed of gravel across the Thames. The grating was to be planked beneath. The grating of timber vpas, in fact, to be the bottom of a vessel such as the French term a “ caisson," so constructed that I the sides might be taken away when the pier should have been completed. The bed of the river was to be dug to a sufficient depth, and levelled to receive the “ caisson,’' and where the ground beneath should prove good, it was thought there would be no necessity for piles, which, however, were to be used if the foundation pit should not prove sufficiently firm for the purpose. The first stone was laid by the Earl of Pembroke in January, 1789. While in progress, Labelye was much annoyed by predi(^ tions hazarded that he would never be able to finish his task. In excavating the foundation for the second pier, an ancient copper medal was found, about the size of a halt- penny, having on one side the head of the Emperor Domitian, and on the other a female figure holding a pair of scales and the cornucopia. After conquering various difficulties the work was finally completed in November, 1750. A day of public rejoicing was appointed by the commissioners, and through some singular negligence, Sunday was named, and this having been discovered too late to correct the blunder, it was determined the celebration should take place after midnight on the Saturday night, and be hastily disposed of. Accordingly, on the 18th of November, shortly after 12 o’clock, there was a torch-light procession, opening with kettle-drums and trumpets, and accompanied by the firing of guns. This midnight arrangement was ordered to avoid desecrat- ing the Sabbath, but it is recorded, that all the next day the bridge was like a fair. The cost of the whole edifice, Labelye states, was £218,000, but Maitland makes it reach £389,500. The whole is composed of Portland stone, except the spandrils of the arches. In the con- struction of this bridge, double the quantity of stone was 120 Tallis’s illustrated London ; ' used to that in St. Paul’s cathedral. It is 1223 feet long and 44 feet broad; has 15 large semicircular arches, the centre one of which is 76 feet wide; the others decreasing in width 5 feet. Upon it were placed 28 semi-octangular towers, forming the recesses in the footway, and over which the lamps were placed. These alcoves were taken down a few years since, and the bridge, being in a dilapi- dated state, has recently been dismantled of its balustrades, and preparations are now in progress (1851) for removing it altogether, and erecting a new bridge, from Westminster to Lambeth. The present age might be called the era of bridges, for subsequent to the commencement of the present century six bridges have been built across the Thames; — I Waterloo, Vauxhall, Southwark, London, Hungerford, and Hammersmith ; in addition to which, before many years, a new Westminster bridge, and a bridge from Battersea- fields to Chelsea will arise. Thus the 19th century may he said to have nearly trebled the number of bridges which for hundreds of years previously had spanned the Thames. On the right-hand side of Parliament-street is Great George-street, a spacious double row of elegant mansions leading to Storey’s-gate, one of the entrances into St. James’s-park. This street, notwithstanding the migra- tions of rank to more westerly and more assuming erec- tions, for many years, was one of high fashionable repute ; and even now it is not entirely deserted by the aristocracy, a few of the oldest nobility being stiU content to pitch their town residences here. Duke-street, branching out of this street, and commanding a view of the Park, contained a house built by Judge Jefferies, which was purchased of his son by the government for the use of the Commission- ers of the Admiralty, while one of the wings was converted- into a chapel of ease to St. Margaret parish. The offices of the Admiralty, as previously stated, were removed to a more eligible situation ; the chapel remains, and the flight of steps which lead from it into the Park, Jefferies re- ceived permission to construct, by the particular favour of WESTMINSTEK ABBEY. 121 his sovereign, James II. At the north end of this street a new State Paper Office, of very elegant proportions, the chief frontage of which is in the Park, has been erected for the custody of the Public Kecords. Storey’ s-gate, dividing Great George -street from St. James' s-park, was formerly named Storehouse-gate, a store-house of the Ordnance having once stood on the spot. The ancient City of Westminster, with its time- honoured Abbey, its relics of the olden palace of the Saxon sovereigns, and its dim and narrow avenues, once inhabited by nobles, courtiers, and peers, may he re- garded as one of the most interesting portions of the capital. Here are the Sanctuary celebrated in history; the beauteous but decaying cloisters of the old Abbey; the Almonry, called in early times the Eleemosynary, where the monks gave alms to the poor, and where Caxton, under the patronage of that enlightened prelate, Bishop Islip, founded the first printing-press of England ; and lastly, Westminster HaU, the wails of which have witnessed some of the most solemn ceremonials which nation ever knew, remains to us uninjured, and apparently impregnable to the assaults of time. Westminster, origi- nally, was only a borough ; it afterwards became a city, by its estabhshment as a bishopric. Thomas Thirleby was the first and last who enjoyed that dignity, and on his translation to Norwich, in 1550, the see was suppressed; but Westminster has ever since ranked as a city, and the second in the empire. Its ecclesiastical authorities are now styled the Dean and Chapter of the Conventual Church of St. Peter’s Abbey of Westminster. West- minster, doubtless, is indebted for its importance, and for its high civic rank, to the magnificent Abbey which has for so many centuries formed its principal ornament. We now must briefly describe that noble pile, the initiative of which was erected at so remote a period that the monkish accounts of its origin are veiled in the mists of fable. R 122 TALLISES ILLUSTKATED LONDON J WESTMINSTER ABBEY. The ground covered by this gorgeous temple of doVO- tion waSj in early times, one of the most desolate-looking tracts in the neighbourhood of the capital; encompassed on three sides by water, overgrown with brambles, and appropriately called Thorney Island. A church was founded on it in 610 by Sebert, king of the East Saxons, on the ruins of the Temple of Apollo erected by the Romans, and cast down, according to tradition, by an earthquake, in the fifth century. The king dedicated his new church to St. Peter, and that saint, says the Romish legend, descended from heaven, with a host of angelic choristers, to consecrate it, instead of Mellitus, Bishop^ of London. The night was dark and stormy, and the saint missed his way, and instead of descending on Thorney Island, alighted at Lambeth, on the Surrey side of the river, a circumstance which greatly perplexed Peter. celestial choir, by whom he was accompanied, made good use of their wings, and took a flight over the Thames with the greatest ease, but the saint was compelled to look out for a ferry-boat. Edric, a fisherman, undertook to row him across without remuneration, and St. Peter at length landed upon Thorney Island. He directed Edric to wait for him until he returned, and to notice particularly what he should behold in the church. The fisherman obeyed, and to his amazement witnessed a most glorious illumination in the new church, and heard the sound of angelic voices breathing the divinest music. These hea- venly melodies were followed by a solemn voice pro- nouncing the prayers of the Christian ritual and the ceie- monial of the mass. It lasted for half-an-hour, when the lights were extinguished, and the stranger suddenly ap- pearing at Edric’s side, demanded to be taken back to Lambeth. During the passage across the Thames, St. Peter, himself a fisherman, revealed his sacred mission to the fisherman Edric, whom he charged on the morrow to < 7*0 to Mollitus, and inform tim tliat thG cliurcii required •WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 123 no furtlier consecration ; and that there would he toimd, as evidence of the supernatural visit, the chrism that had been employed iu the ceremony, and the dripping ot the mii-aculous wax candles with which the church had been illuminated. The saint directed Edric to fling out Ins nets and the latter was rewarded by a miraculous draught of salmon; and he promised to the fisherman and his suc- cessors, that they should never want plenty of salmon, provided they presented every tenth fish to his church. This legend was implicitly believed until the Eeformation, and a custom springing out of it, was observed until the year 1382. On the anniversary of the cohsecration ot the Abbey the fisherman had a right to sit at the same table with the prior, and he might demand of the cellarer, ale and bread; and the cellarer might take pf his fish as much as he could grasp of the tail with his four fingers only, holding his thumb erect. St. Peter s church was known by the name of the Westminster, which gave the name to the great city that, in process of time, was formed around it. It is worthy of remark, that its eastern con- temporary, St. Paul’s Church, which was founded about the same time by king Sebert, was called, in contradis- tinction, tbe Eastminster, a name which was soon alter discontinued. St. Peter’s Church, probably a wooden one, was burnt by tbe Danes, but restored in 958 by king Edgar, under tbe influence of St. Dunstan. The new edifice, which was also of wood, was taken down abou niuety years afterwards by Edward tbe Confessor, who rebuilt the structure with stone, in a most magnificent manner. The Abbey, which was commenced m 1049, and completed in 1066, was one of the earliest churches made in the cruciform shape, and was_ munificently endowed, and sumptuously adorned. The pious Confessor enriched the church with what must, even in those cre- dulous days, have appeared remarkable relics. Among them were,” writes Dort, “ part of tbe place and mMger where Christ were born ; some of the frankincense offered to him by the Eastern magi ; of tbe table of our Lord ; ot 124 TAliLIs’s ILLXTSTBATED LONDON ; the bread which He blessed; of the seat where He was presented in the Temple; of the wilderness where He fasted; of the jail where He was imprisoned; of His im- divided garment ; of the sponge, lance, and scourge, with which He was tortured; of the sepulchre, and cloth which bound His head.” Here were also to be found the veil and some of the milk of the Virgin; the blade-bone of St. Benedict; the finger of St. Alphage ; the head of St. Maxilla; and half the jaw-bone of St. Anastasius. Edward had intended to consecrate his^ new church on Innocent’s day, but on Christmas Eve being seized with a mortal complaint, his queen Editha presided at the cere- mony. He was buried in his own church. William the Conqueror bestowed on his tomb a rich pall, and Henry II. raised a splendid monument over his remains. From the Conquest to the present time every monarch of Eng- land has been crowned in Westminster Abbey. Here William the Conqueror returned thanks after his victory over the unfortunate Harold at Hastings ; and on the Christmas day following, the haughty Norman was crowned by the side of the tomb of the Confessor. In 1245 Henry III. began to take down the edifice which had been reared by the piety of the Confessor, in- tending to rebuild the abbey in a more magnificent style than the Saxon monarch had done, but he did not live to complete his design, which was slowly carried on hy suc- ceeding princes. In 1269 a considerable portion of the abbey, as it now appears, viz., the eastern part, with the choir to some distance beyond the transept, was opened for divine service. At the same time Henry translated the remains of Sebert to a tomb of touchstone beneath an arch made in the wall. He also caused a shrine to be made (by Cavahni) in honour of the Confessor, and placed in a chapel which bears his name. This memorial consists of three rows of arches, the lower pointed, the upper round, and on each side of the lower an elegant twisted pillar. When Henry III. died, the building of the abbey had proceeded no further than the fourth arch west of the WESTMINSTER ABBEY. middle tower, and the vaulted roof of this part was not completed tdl 1396. The work was continued by Edward 1. and finished in the fourteenth year of his reigu, but oifiv so far as the end of the choir. Westminster Abbey was' finaUy perfected in the reign of Henry VII., when he erected that elegant chapel which bears his name. That monarch determined to construct a magnificent mausoleum for his own family ; for which purpose he pulled down Henry the Third’s chapel, and an adjoining house called The White Rose Tavern,” and which, with other houses, was built against the abbey walls, a fashion prevalent to this day in cathedral towns on the continent. ^ Sir Re- ginald Bray was the architect, and the foundation-stone [ was laid by the ecclesiastic Islip in 1503. When the re- lioious houses were dissolved by Henry VIII., the monks of Westminster, led by their abbot, William Benson, gave up their monastery to the king, and Benson became the first dean. The insatiate protector, Somerset, meditated taking down Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s church adjacent, and to appropriate the materials to the construction of a palace for himself in the Strand. He did not dare to profane the abbey, but he laid sacrilegious hands on St. Margaret’s, on the demolition of which his workmen were actually engaged, when the parishioners assembled in great strength, drove away the labourers, and for some days kept a watch around the sacred edifice, to prevent a repetition of the attempt. Queen Mary restored the abbot and monks of W^ estminster to their ancient re- sidence and privileges, but they were all expelled by her successor, Elizabeth, and Fakenham, their superior, incar- cerated for life in W^isbeach castle. In 1560 the old mo- nastic pile was converted into a collegiate chuich, consist- ing of a dean and twelve secular canons, thirty petty canons, and other members, two schoolmasters, and forty kiug’s or queen’s scholars, twelve almsmen, and many officers and servants. But there seems to have been a school attached to the abbey from its earliest foundation, for Ingulphus, abbot of Crowland, was educated there in 126 Tallis’s illustrated London j ;i the reign of Edward the Confessor. The abbey was found to be in so dilapidated a state in 1629 that reparation, on ' an extensive scale, was deemed necessary, and Dr. Wil- liams, the dean (afterwards Archbishop of York), at his ' own expense renovated the building, increased the library, and augmented the number of scholars on the foundation. Considerable injury was inflicted on the abbey during the period of the Commonwealth. Its usual services were suspended, its revenues confiscated, its vessels of gold and silver carried away, and its walls defaced by the hands of the brutalised soldiery. In the following century a par- liamentary grant was voted for the reparation of W est- minster Abbey, a labour in which Sir Christopher Wren was engaged for twenty-five years, from 1698 to his death, in 1723. Under his superintendence the two great western , ' towers were completed ; and it was his intention to have also erected a lofty steeple. In the reign of George II. additional sums were granted by parliament for carrying on the works, which were thorouglily repaired at the na- tional expense. At the close of the last century a hand- some choir was erected, after a design of Mr. Keene, surveyor to the abbey. In 1803 a fire broke out in the square tower on the roof, owing to the negligence of some - 1 workmen who had been employed to repair the leads, and I had left their furnace unguarded while they went to din- ' ner. The flames greatly damaged the new ehoir, and threatened the destruction of the entire building. Crowds , of people assembled, eager to avert the ruin which im- pended over the venerable abbey, and brought water in : buckets from the Thames to extinguish the fire, but it was not arrested till the arrival of the engines, and it was four s hours before all the danger was past. The damage, which was considerable, was repamed by the dean and chapter, and soon afterwards parliamentary grants were f voted for the restoration of Henry the Seventh’s chapel, a • labour which was most admirably accompbshed. i Having given the history of Westminster Abbey, we I proceed to notice its dimensions, externally and internally, i i ■WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 127 and those costly chapels and monnments which are found beneath its roof. Its proportions are as follow -Length from east to west, exclusive of Henry the Seventh s cha- pel 416 feet; heighu of the west towers 225; length, ^tiiin the waUs, 383; breadth of the transept, 203; length of the nave, 166 ; breadth of nave, 39 ; height ot nave, 102; breadth of each aisle, 17 ; length of the choir, 156; breadth of the choir, 28; height of the roof, 92. The magnificent portico of the north cross of the ao bey has been styled “ The Beautiful,” or '' Solomon’s Gate. It was built by Richard II. Over it is a window ot mo- dem date, elaborately wrought. The Gothic arches and side aisles are supported by 48 pillars of grey marble, e^h composed of slender clusters covered with ornament. Un entering the west door, the whole body of the church is seen in one view; the pillars divide the nave from the side aisles, without obstructing the side openings ; nor is the sight terminated in the east but by the fine painted win- dows over Edward the Confessor’s chapel, and the piiiara end in that direction by a sweep enclosing this chapel m a kind of semi-circle. As far as the gates of the cnoir they are filleted with brass, but all beyond with stone. In conformity with the central range of pillars, there are others in the wall which, as they rise, spring into semi- arches, and meet in acute angles with their opposites, which, in the roof, are adorned with a variety of carvings. At the bottom of the walls, between the pillars, are shal- low niches, arched, in which the arms of the original benefactors are depicted; round these are their styles and titles. ,On the arches of the pillars are galleries ot double columns, 15 feet wide, covering the side aisles, and illumi- nated by a middle range of windows, over which is an upper range still larger; through these, and the four capital windows facing the north, east, south, and west, hght is diffused over the whole fabric. The choir is, com- paratively, a recent improvement, where divme service is performed every day at 10 in the morning, and three m the afternoon. Around the choir are 11 chapels, of which I 128 Tallis’s illustrated London ; the principal are those of Edward the Confessor^ Henry V and Henry VII. In the first-named of these the ashes of the Confessor are deposited, and it also contains the tombs of Henry III., of Edward I., and that of Eleanor his queen, of Edward III. and queen Philippa, and of Richard II. and his consort Ann of Bohemia. In the Confessor’s chapel is preserved the ancient Coronation Chair, which was brought from Scotland by Edward I., in 1297, after he had overcome John Baliol, king of Scotland, in several battles. The stone under the seat, of an oblong shape and a rough cast, is reported to have been J acob’s pillow on the night that he had the dream foretelling his future elevation. There can be no doubt, however, that the stone is of great antiquity. Some writers relate that king Fergus was crowned on it 330 years before Christ, but no positive data exist to prove that it was the coronation seat of the kings of Scotland before the reign of Kenneth II., who placed it in the palace of Scone about 840. Fordun, the Scottish chronicler, says that a Latin inscription to the following effect was anciently engraved on this stone : “ Except old saws do fail, And wizards’ wits be blind, The Scots in place must reign Where they this stone shall find.” This prophecy was realized when James I. succeeded to the English crown. The other Coronation Chair was made for Queen Mary II., and when a royal inauguration takes place one or both of these are covered with gold tissue, and placed before the altar in the choir. In the Confessor’s chapel the Long Iron Sword and the wooden part of the shield of that saintly monarch are here pre- served. The chapel of Henry V., built by his successor, Henry VII., in honour of the memory of the hero of Agincourt, is of beautiful Gothic workmanship, in open iron work, and is ornamented with various images. It is on the same floor with that of the Confessor, from which a stone screen, with an iron gate, divides it. Within is the tomb of Flenry V., which was previously erected by the: towelr a I LLI u CSGAT L WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 129 his queen Catherine, who placed the image of her departed lord, cut in heart of oak, and covered over with silver, on the monument ; the head was of solid silver, and this, with a sceptre and ball, were stolen in the time of Henry VIII. _ p , * 1 1 , Henry the Seventh's Chapel is situate east oi the A-bbey, and is built in the florid Gothic style ; on the exterior are fourteen octagonal towers, ornamented profusely with sculpture. It is so nearly joined to the Abbey as to appear part of the original building. The ascent to the inside of this chapel is by steps of black marble, under a stately portico conducting to the gates of the nave, on each hand, opening to the side aisles. The gates are of brass elaborately wrought in the manner of framework, the panels being ornamented with a rose and portcullis alternately. The lofty ceiling is of stone, into which a great variety of figures is inworked. ihe stalls are of broivn wainscot with Gothic canopies beautifully carved, as are the seats, with quaint devices ; the floor is of black and white marlile. The Brass Chapel and tomb of the founder are seen from the entrance ; within,^ are the chapels of the Dukes of Buckingham and Richmond. ■ The roof is supported on arches, between the nave and side aisles, which turn upon twelve stately pillars adorned I with figures, fruit, and foliage. This chapel contains, ! besides the tombs of its founder and his consort Elizabeth, 1 those of King Edward VI.; Queen Elizabeth, and her fair rival, Mary, Queen of Scots ; Janies I., and his con- ’ sort, Queen Ann of Denmark, with their first-born. Prince i Ilenrj^; Charles II.; Prince Rupert; William IlL and Queen Mary; Queen Anne and her consort, Prince George of Denmark ; George II. and his consor^ Queen Caroline; Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his Princess, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha— the parents of George 111.; Milliam, Duke of Cumberland, the ferocious conqueror of Culloden; the first George Vdliers, Duke of Buckiug- ham, and his gav and profligate successor; George Monk Duke of Albemarle, and his Duchess ; the beautiful and 130 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON j ill-fated Lady Arabella Stuart ; Aune Hyde, Duchess of York; Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon; and William Congreve, the dramatist. Congreve received remarkable posthumous honours ; not only was his body permitted to lie in this chapel, but the Duke of Bridgewater, the Earl ! of Godolphin, Lord Cobham, Lord Wilmington, the Hon. ; George Berkeley, and General Churchill, sustained his pall. The monument to his memory in Poets^ Corner was erected at the cost of the beautiful Duchess of Marl- borough. Here, also, was permitted to rest undisturbed, Cromwell’s favourite daughter, Mrs. Claypole ; and others, rendered illustrious either by rank or genius, repose in this costly sepulchre. But perhaps the most remarkable tomb here, is one bearing an inscription, in Latin, to this purport: “ Here rest the remains of Edward the Fifth, King of England, and Eichard, Duke of York; who, being imprisoned in the Tower, and there stifled with piUows, were privately and obscurely buried, by order of their treacherous uncle, Richard the Usurper. Their bones, ! long sought after and wished for, after remaining 190 years in the stairs, (those lately leading to the chapel in the White Tower,) were, on the 17th of July, 1674, by undoubted proofs, discovered, being buried deep in that place. Charles II., pitying their unhappy fate, ordered these unfortunate princes to be laid among the relics of their predecessors, in the years 1678, and in the 30th of his reign.” This memorial, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was erected by order of Charles. The walls of the chapel contain 130 large statues of patriarchs, saints, i martyrs, and confessors ; besides angels and other small figures. Five of the windovv^s were restored in 1815, and most of them display stained glass, each pane having a white rose. From the south aisle is an entry into the , I nave of the chapel, where the Knights of the Order of the j Bath are installed; their banners float above, and their j j armorial bearings are inscribed on their stalls. The ' ' dimensions of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel are : length | j from east to west, including the walls, 115 feet; breadth, | ■WESTMINSTES, ABBEY. 131 80 ; neight of the octagonal towers, 71 1 to the top of roof, 86 ; to the top of west turrets, 103 ; length of the nave, 104; breadth, 36; height 61; breadth ' of each aisle, 17. The Poets’ Corner, which forms tlie east entrance to the Abbey^ is so named from the i monuments erected there to the memory of celebrated ! Eno-lish poets. But not exclusively is this spot confined ! to the professors of the tunelul art ; for here are found memorials to John, Duke of Argyle, to Camden the quarv, to Dr. Isaac Barrow, to Thomas Parr, who reached i the patriarchal age of 153 years, and others who have j achieved fame. The dust of Shakspere does not rest j wdthin this consecrated fane, but an interesting monument perpetuates bis memory. The sculptor has delineated . admirably the attitude, air, figure, and dress of the “ poet I of all time,"’ in the effigy, which is one of the most i conspicuous objects in this place. Here are also memorials of Spencer, Chaucer, Ben Jonson, Butler, Milton, Dryden, Cowley, Gray, Prior, Thomson, Eowe, Gay, Goldsmith, Handel, Addison, Garrick, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Watts, Mason, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Camp- , hell, the accomplished author of “ The Pleasures of Hope, and others of inferior note. In the north aisle of the Abbey are monuments to the memory of Lord Mansfield, the celebrated Lord Chatham, Pitt and Fox, the great political rivals, who, distant in life, sleep side by side in ; death ; Castlereagh, Wilberforce, Grattan, George Can- | ning, Warren Hastings, John Philip Kemble, Sir Humpliry Davy, and Thomas Telford, the celebrated engineer. Westminster Abbey is also the mausoleum of William Croft, the admired composer. Dr. Charles Burney, author of “The History of Music,” and that brilliant musical ll 0 xiry Purcell ; his epitaph is a stiikmg one, “ Here lies Henry Purcell, Esquire, who left this life, and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can he exceeded.” The remains of Major Andre were brought from America, and buried in the west aisle, in 1831. Among the other distinguished characters who either are 133 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; buried or conunemorated by monuments in the Abbey may be named. Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Godfrey Kneller Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, Earl Godolphin, the minister of Queen Anne, Spencer Perceval, the premier, who was assassinated upon entering I the House of Commons, in 1812, Zachary Macaulay, I George Tierney, Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the gklant Howe, j Kemperfeldt, Wolfe, who, like Nelson, perished on the scene of his triumphs, and others, of whose undying fame, this venerable temple of devotion is the most appropriate and most ennobling sanctuary. The Cloisters, an ancient appendage to the Abbey, still remain entire, and are filled with monuments, among which may be traced those of several abbots who died 700 or 800 years ago, and of Gervase de Blois, natural son of king Stephen, who died in 1156. Here also, among others, are buried the great actors Betterton and Barry; the beautiful Mrs._ Cibber, Mrs. Bracegirdle, Mrs. Yates, and the laugh-inspiring comedian, Samuel Foote ; Lawes, the friend of Milton, and the composer of the music of Comus; Dr. William King, Archbishop of Dublin; and Sir Ed- munbury Godfrey, whose mysterious mui’der created, at the time, a sensation which extended through all classes of society. The Cloisters are quadrangular, with piazzas towards the coui't ; on one side is the entrance to the Chapter House, built in 1250 ; it is a Gothic portal, ex- quisitely carved in 1377. The Commons of Great Britain first held their parliament in this place, where they sat till 1547, when Edward VI. granted them the Chapel of St. Stephen. It is at present filled with ancient records, among which is the Domesday Book, now nearly 700 years old. Beneath is a very remarkable Crypt, — the walls of which are eighteen feet thick, and form a firm base to the superstructure. Contiguous to the Cloisters, in the south-west end of the Abbey, is the famous Jerusalem Chamber, once a part of the abboPs lodging, and interesting as being the apartment in which Henry IV. breathed his last. This monarch was offering up WESTMINSTER ABBEY. devotions, at the shrine of Edward the Confessor, when he was seized with a fit, and was to the abbot’s apartments. Being informed that it was the Jerusalem Chamber, he is reported to have observed that it had been prophesied that he should die 0% Jerusalem, which he had vainly supposed to mean the Holv Land. In this chamber the bodies of several illus- trious indiidduals have lain in state previous to their sepulture in the Abbey. Mr. Heneage ta^ng antiquary, who has made London a rich field ot reLreh, says vLy aptly, in reference to the C oisters - Those who would witness perhaps the most Deautiiu and impressive scene which London can afford _ shou wander on a moonlight night from Dean s-yard ^ solitarv Cloisters of Westminster Abbey. The sudden transition from the noise and bustle of the streets to the most solemn stillness ; the gloom of the vaulted root, the light playing on the beautiful tracery of the aiches, the mould^ering tombs of departed abbots anc monks wmcJi he around us; and, above all, the glorious Abbey, with its lofty towers and massy buttresses steeped in and mellowed by the moonlight ; present, altogether a scene of beauty and interest to which no language could do justice. “ And through the open arches I behold That pile oV which a thousand years have rolld , Calm on its lofty towers the moonlight alls, Gilding its pinnacled and buttressed walls ; Above me frowns the Cloister’s vaulted gloom, Beneath me rest the slumberers of the tomb ; Some o’er whose dust affection s tears still flow, And some who died a thousand years ago, Learning’s pale sons, and Pleasure s laughing crew Warrior whose fame through frighten d repons flew ; Who waved in Paynim lands their battle bmde, And spurned the Crescent in the red Cnisade ; Beauty, whose smile a pleading lover blessed, ISIaids of the melting eye and snowy breap; Churchmen who hurled, unawed by emthly things, Their dread anathemas on trenihling kings. What are they now, those meteors of their day, The bravo, the fair, the haughty, what are they ! TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; The Abbey of Westminster is supposed to have been the most ancient place of sanctuary in England, a charter of Edward the Confessor, conferring that privilege, being extant. Among the most distinguished individuals who availed themselves of this sanctuary, were Elizabeth, the widowed queen of Edward IV., and her infant son, the Duke of York, who fled to the abbey, dreading the sinis- ter purposes of the usurper, Eichard. The tyrant pro- posed, in a council meeting, to violate the sanctuary, in order to obtain possession of the young prince ; but this was firmly opposed by Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Eotherham, Archbishop of York : the former offered his mediation, and unhappily, by his influ- ence, persuaded the queen to place the Duke of Yorii in the hands of his uncle, never again to return to her alive. The Sanctuary, properly so called, occupied the site now covered by the Westminster Hospital and the Sessions House. An ancient church, of cruciform shape, attached to it, was taken down in 1750. In connection with the abbey is that famous foundation, Westminster School, to which we have before adverted. It is situated in Dean^s- yard, adjacent to the cloisters. One of its earliest prin- cipals was the distinguished antiquary, William Camden; and here Ben Jonson acquired his classical lore. This school is remarkable as having numbered among its scho- lars many of our greatest poets, the following having been educated there : — Cowley, Dryden, Nat Lee, Prior, Rowe, Dyer, Cowper, Churchill, and Southey. Sir Harry Vane, Locke, Sir Christopher Wren, the Duke of Newcastle, minister to George II., Bishop Newton, Warren Hastings, Cumberland, and George Colman, were also pupils in this school. This interesting locality, abounding in relics and buildings connected with the abbey, to be fully and mi- nutely described, would demand a greater space than is consistent with our limits ; and, indeed, nothing less than a personal survey would enable a stranger thoroughly to comprehend all its attractive associations. Nearly opposite to the chapel of Henry VII., standing ST. Margaret’s church. 135 beneath the shadow of the abbey, is the Church of St Margaret, Westminster, built originally by Edward the Confessor. Previously, the parish church had been in the abbey, to the great inconvenience of the monks In time^ of Edward I. this structure was rebuilt by the parishioners, with the exception of its chancel, which was added by the Abbot of W^istminster Sh Church was again re-erected by Edward IV. In 1803, the church was completely repaired It rated with a richly-ornamented pulpit and d.esk, and new organ; and the Speaker’s chair placed m front of the west gallery. It possesses considerable architectural merit; but its most attractive feature is the magnificent eastern window, which, as a superb f glass, is not surpassed by any in Europe. The painting Represents the whole narrative of the cruc*xion_ of Our Saifiour. Not the least interesting trait of the window is 1 its remarkable history : never before did window pass 1 unharmed through such a series of moving accidents. 1 It was made by order of the magistrates of ^ort, in Hol- land, with the design of presenting it to Henry Vll., as ; an appropriate adornmeiit for his olmpel. On one side , that king is represented on his knees, with bt. tireor^e, his patron saint, encased in armour, in a niche over him. ! On the other side, the queen is seen at her prayers; and I; above her, in a corresponding recess St Catherine. 1 ! completion of this work of art took five years at the I, espiktion of ,vhich time Henry VII. had ceased to live, r Upon reaching England, it fell into the hands of the ' Abbot of Waltham, by whom it was set up m his prnatc I' chapel at Copt Hall, where it remained till the dissolution of religious houses. It was preserved irom destrugion by the last Abbot of Waltham, who sent it to ^ cw HaU, a seat of the Butlers, earls of Oi-mond, in Wiltshire. In the ensuing century. New Hall and its costly contents including the window, were successively transfeiied to the Earl of Wiltshire, father of Anne Boleyn ; Thomas RaucliiTe, Earl of Sussex; Heora-e Vilhers George Villiers, Duke ot 136 Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; Buckingliam, and General Monk. To the last-named personage it belonged when the civil wars broke out; and apprehensive lest this magnificent relic should be sacrificed to the intemperate zeal which the puri- tans manifested against works of art^ he had it carefully taken to pieces and interred in the garden at New Hall. When the Restoration took place, it was replaced in its former position. The wdndow was again taken down some years subsequently, when the chapel at New Hall fell to decay, and was bought by Mr. Conyers for his chapel at Epping. The committee appointed to repair and beautify St. Margaret’s church, purchased it in 1758, from the son of this gentleman, for four hundred guineas ; and the window, after all its ^?arae-ful vicissitudes, found a permanent refuge in that peaceful asylum, of which it is now the most prominent ornament. The remains of many celebrated characters repose in the vaults of this church, or in the straggling churchyard adjoining, which is a much frequented thoroughfare. ! Caxton ; Skelton, the satirist, who by the boldness of his | yerse, excited the ire of Wolsey, from whose vengeance !| he was compelled to retreat to the Sanctuary where he i died ; the chivalric poet, Churchyard ; Lord Howard of I Effingham, famous for his naval achievements in the reign ' of Elizabeth; Sir Walter Raleigh; Harrington, the author of Oceana ; Catherine Woodcock, the second ndfe of Milton ; Thomas May, the translator of Lucan, and the historian of the Commonwealth; and Hr. Dorislaus, assistant to the High Court of Justice, by which Charles I. was tried, are buried here. The Royal Palace of Westminster was founded by the Confessor, and stood near the Thames, occupying" the area which is now filled up by the new Houses of Parlia- ment. Old records tell, that anterior to the erection of the Confessor’s palace, a royal dwelling stood upon the same spot in the reign of Canute, where that sovereign frequently held his court, and from one of the windows of this residence, Duke Edric, the Saxon traitor was cast, WESTMINSTER HALL. 137 by order of tbe royal Dane, into the Thames. This palace shared the common fate of many early structures, being destroyed by fire. The stairs by which the Con- fessor’s palace was reached from the river, or rather their successors, are still called Palace-stairs ; and the two Palace-yards also belonged to this extensive pile. The Old Palace-yard indicates the situation of the palace of the Confessor, and New Palace-yard, the site of the additional erections raised by the Norman sovereigns. The kings of England made the old Palace of Westminster one of their favourite residences, Henry Till, being the last monarch who dwelt here. In 1512, the greater part of i it was destroyed by fire. The only portions that remained i of it in modern times, were the large apartment used I before the conflagration of 1834, as the House of Lords, and afterwards, for a considerable time, as the House of Commons; the Painted Chamber, supposed to have been the chamber of the Confessor, and the one in which he breathed his last, and which, after the fire of 1834, was temporarily used as the Plouse of Lords ; and St. Stephen’s Chapel, originally built by King Stephen; rebuilt by Edward I., and on the suppression of the monasteries, converted into a House of Commons. WESTMINSTER HALL. Westminster Hall, probabably the most splendid, and I most interesting apartment in Europe, was constructed by William II., as a banqueting-hall to the adjacent Palace of Westminster. In 1099 it was finished; and in that year, Rufus held his court there. Tbe festivities of Christmas he frequently kept here in great state, and succeeding monarchs celebrated their coronation feasts in this spacious apartment. Henry III., on New Year’s Day, 1236, gave a feast in Westminster Hall, and other rooms, to 6,000 poor men, women, and children. In the reign of Richard II., tbe edifice having fallen into decay, was rebuilt in its present form in 1397 ; the expense of the alterations and improvements being defrayed by a tax II “ ^ I X38 Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED London j on all foreigners or refugees in tlie country. The present matchless roof of timber, consisting chiefly of chestnut wood, most curiously constructed, was added, and the ex- terior coated with thick walls of stone. This hall exceeds in its dimensions, any in Europe, unsupported by pillars ; it being, according to Pennant, 270 feet long by 74 broad; Mr. Barry, the architect of the new Houses of Parhament, however, represents the length to be 239 feet ; the width 68 feet, and the height 90 feet. The hall is profusely ornamented with the armorial bearings of those sovereigns who have contributed to its permanence and beauty. King Richard kept his Christmas in it, in a style of profuseness and splendour, without parallel. Twenty- eight oxen, 300 sheep, and many thousands of fowls, were daily consumed. The number of guests each day has been estimated at 10,000, and 2,000 cooks were employed. A very different scene was witnessed in this hall on the 30th of September, 1399, where the parliament assem bled to hear Richard II., who had so lately held high festival there, renounce his crown, and to offer their alle- giance to the usurping Henry of Lancaster, made by Ms arms and their acquiescence, king of England. Parlia- ment frequently sat in this hall. In 1397 Richard 11. built a temporary room for his parliament in the original hall, formed of wood, and covered with tiles.^ On aU sides it was open that the constituency might witness the sayings and doings of their representatives. To secure freedom of debate, an old historian tells us, Richard sm- rounded the house with 4,000 Cheshire archers, with hows bent, and arrows nocked,, ready to shoot. This surveillance of the legislative body, perhaps, suggested the extraordinary precautions which were taken doling the first French revolution to make the popular represen- tatives vote in conformity with the wish of the ruling dictators In 1484 Richard III. kept his Christmas m this ancient hall, with great magnificence, and eight months afterwards his conqueror and successor held his coronation banquet in the same place, wearing, during j WESTMINSTER HALL. 139 the feast, tlie same diadem whicli tad been taken from tbe bleeding corpse of Eicbard, on tbe eventful field ot Bosworth. Not only as a place for festivities and ban- quets, and, as tbe occasional parliament bouse, is West- minster Hall celebrated; as a ball of justice, as the scene of some of tbe most extraordinary trials witnessed in any age or in any country, it is replete with reminis- cences of tbe most stirring character. Courts of justice sat in this ball in early times, generally presided over by the monarcbs themselves, for which reason it vras cabed Curia Domini Regis; whence originated the Lour, ot Kind’s Bench. Here were tried and convicted ^ir Thomas More, for denying the hinges supremacy; the Protector, Somerset; Thomas Howard, Huke of Norfolk, the lover of Mary Queen of Scots ; the Earl of Essex, the ill-starred favourite of Queen Elisabeth; and Guido Pawkes, with his fellow-conspirators in the gunpowder Plot. One of the most memorable trials in this hall was that of the unfortunate Earl of Strafford, who fed a vie im to party hate, and whose life his royal master in vain endeavoured to save. Charles weakly yielded up his minister to the rabid foes by whom he was pursued, and eight years afterwards his own turn came. On the coro- nation of Charles I. some incidents occurred, perhaps trifling in themselves, but which were subsequently remembered, and supposed to bear an ominous relation to the disastrous fate which overtook that royal Charles was crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1626, and at the conclusion of the ceremony dined in the liaii. tie was robed in white satin^ but preceding kings aiiu^ always worn purple at their coronations, the superstitious inferred that he would have hereafter to place more con- fidence in his own integrity than upon regal influence During the coronation ceremony, the golden dove tell from the sceptre, which was considered to be an evil sign, and the infelicitous text chosen by bishop Senhouse loi the discourse— Be thou faithful unto death, and i will odve thee a crown of life,” was not unreasonably thought O 140 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; more suitable for a funeral sermon, than for tbe splendid ceremonial of wbich it was intended to be the moral com- mentary. In 1649, a ceremony of a more mournful character, in which Charles I. was also the chief actor, was witnessed in this venerable hall. On the 9th of January in that year, a mounted serjeant-at-arms galloped into the middle of this apartment, and announced to the wondering multi- tude, that the British commons had decreed that their sovereign should be tried before a judicial tribunal, for high crimes and misdemeanours. On the 21st, the unpre- cedented spectacle of a people assembled to judge and to pass condemnation upon tiieir king, (for to expect an impartial trial from the men who thirsted after his blood would have been futile,) commenced with great pomp. At the higher extremity of the hall, on benches covered with scarlet cloth, and rising in progression, the judges appointed to try the king, numbering about seventy, were seated. An elevated platform occupied the centre, whereon a state chair, with a cover of crimson velvet, as well as a desk, were placed for Colonel Bradshaw, the president. At a short distance, another chair, also covered with velvet, was placed for the royal prisoner. The space between the monarch and his judges, contained a large table, on which was laid a rich Turkey cai’pet, where the mace and sword of justice were deposited, and before which the two clerks of the tribunal were seated. As upon festal occasions, galleries for the convenience of spec- tators lined the sides of the hall ; and behind, and on the right and left hand of Charles, the soldiers and officers of the court were assembled. On the king’s right hand was Cook, the solicitor, representing the people of England. A substantial bar formed a partition in the middle of the hall, behind which were densely packed together, in some- what disrespectful fashion, the sovereign people, of whom the well-accommodated and comfortably- seated judges professed to be the representatives. In order to protect ■ these lawless judges, the leads and windows of Westrain- WESTMINSTER HALL. 141 ster Hall were occupied by the military, a circumstance wbicb seems to indicate that tbe parliamentary party were not yet quite assured of the success of their daring, their illegal, and their sanguinary enterprise. It would be superfluous to enter into the details of a trial so remark- able, and at the same time so well known, as that of Charles I. — to dwell upon the insolence which petty and upstart minds loved to inflict upon fallen greatness ; these circumstances, even the minutest details, have been handed doum to posterity with close historic fldelity ; and we prin- cipally refer to this great national event, on account of the stage where it was enacted — Westminster Hall. On the fourth day of the trial, sentence of death was pronounced by Bradshaw upon the king. Charles heard his doom with tranquillity. With inconceivable harshness, the un- happy sovereign was denied the privilege of addressing a few words to his judges after his condemnation. He was rudely and coarsely interrupted ; upon which, even his tranquil spirit was somewhat ruffled j and he uttered this remarkable exclamation — an exclamation fraught with an impressive moral to all future approvers of policy similar to that pursued by the regicides — “ I am not suffered to speak ! Expect what justice the people will have V’ The last scene of this revolutionary tragedy we have already touched upon. Eight years afterwards, the installation of Oliver Crom- well, as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of Great Britain and Ireland, took place in the same hall. The ceremonial was marked by much magnificence ; for al- though Cromwell had refused to accept the crown of England, yet, during his virtual reign, he had imbibed a taste for pomp and splendour somewhat at variance with the ascetism which marked his early career. Upon this occasion he discarded the modest suit of sable velvet with which, upon his initiation into power, he had been con- tent, and was attired in robes of purple velvet, lined with ermine, and earned the sceptre in his hand. A table was placed before him, covered with pink-coloured Genoa 142 talus’s illustrated LOKDON j velvet, fringed with gold, on which the bible, the sword, and other insignia of the Commonwealth were laid. In the galleries, the Protector’s own family, and many spec- tators assembled, to behold this new phase of his pros- perous ambition. What an impressive change was wit- nessed in this hall three years subsequently — a change illustrating, in no ordinary degree, the alternating nature of worldly greatness. In 1660, the head of Cromwell, so lately the possessor of more then kingly power, was affixed to a pole on the roof of that very room in which he had shone in all the plenitude of his human glory. And in sad companionship, the heads of Ireton and Bradshaw were also seen. Here, in 1716, the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater, and other Scotch lords, adherents of the Pretender, were tried and convicted. Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed on Tower-hill ; the confiscated estates of the former nobleman being added to the revenues of Green- wich Hospital. In 1746, Lord Balmerino and the Earls of Cromartie and Kilmarnock received sentence of death in Westminster Hall, for a like offence, participation iii the fortunes of Charles Edward, the Pretender ; and to- wards the close of the same year, Lord Lovat, an octogena- rian, was added to the list of those who suffered for their share in the rebellion of 1745. The coronation of George III. and his queen took place on the 22nd of September, 1761 ; and, the solemn cere- mony over, the monarch and his consort presided at a state banquet in Westminster Hall. Among the spec- tators who looked down from the galleries on this regal splendour, was (we are told, on the authority of Hume) the young Pretender. Notwithstanding his incognito, he was recognised by a gentleman, who expressed his astonishment at meeting him in such a place, and on such an occasion. “ It was curiosity that led me,” replied the descendant of the Stuarts ; “ but I assure you that the person who is the object of all this pomp and magnifi- cence is the man I envy the least.” ■WESTMINSTER HALL. The last trial of importance, in Westminster Hall, was that of Warren Hastings, the governor- general ot India, whose important services in that vast territory were requited, on his return to England, not by honours and by distinction, but by his being placed upon his trial tor imputed acts of oppression towards the native princes and population of Hindostan. This remarkable trial, promoted by the jealousy of angry competitors lor In- dian elevation, commenced in 1788, and terminated in 1797, when Hastings was acquitted of the charges pre- ferred against him ; but, by a strange anomaly of justice, condemned to pay the costs of this tedious inquiry. 1761 to 1820, only one coronation, that of George ill., was celebrated in Westminster Hall; and between the last- named date and 1838, three of these grand ceremonials have taken place there, those of George IV., William lY., and her present gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria. On the right-hand side of the haU are avenues leading to the four chief courts of justice, the courts of Chancery, Exchequer, Common Pleas, and the Queen s Benra, with three courts pertaining to the Chancery and the ^ueeii s Bench; the Vice Chancellor’s and the Bolls’ courts, and the Bail Coui’t. Of these, the most ancient is the Court of Chan- cery, in which, from the time of William the Conqueror to the middle of the sixteenth century, the functions_ ot Lord Chancellor were usually discharged by ecclesiastics, Thomas h Becket and Cardinal Wolsey being among those who have filled the high office. The Court of King s Bench, or Queen’s Bench, is also of very high antiquity, and, as we have previously mentioned, derives its name fiom its being the tribunal where the monarchs once sack of Col- lege-street, in Smith-square, is the churcli of St.John the commenced in 1721, and finished in 1/ . n the imrth and south sides of this edifice are superb por- ticoes sustained by massive stone pillars, as is also the roof of the church. At each of the four corners is a beau- tiful stone tower and pinnacle, forming somewhat pic- turesque landmarks from the river. The support- ing the elegant portico in the front are of the Doric order. West of this church is Millbank, so called from a inill which formerly stood here. The mansion of the Mor- daunts, earls of Peterborough, was at Millbank, and was the residence, so recently as the last century of a branch of the Grosvenor family. The principal budding which now occupies this large plot of ground is the Femtenhary , VOL. 1. ^ 146 Tallis’s illustrated London ; a prison for convicts and others, who are incarcerated here instead of being sent to the hulks, the object in view being their employment and reformation. It originated in the suggestion of Jeremy Bentham, and was erected at a cost of between £40,000 and £50,000. Solitude, labour, and religious instruction, are the chief points of discipline pre- served here. This edifice is raised on the angle formed by the river and the Vauxhall-b ridge-road. It is built of brick, is circumvallated, and with its pointed towers seems like a fortress. It extends over mift-e than twelve acres of ground. The entrance is very imposing, having the word “ Penitentiary” over the gateway, which leads to a spa- cious area. The rooms appropriated to the convicts are about 12 feet by 6, lofty and arched; the windows are internally glazed, protected by iron bars on the ex- terior. The apartments radiate towards the centre of a circle, which is divided by brick walls into court-yards for exercise. A chapel, a school, and an infirmary, are at- tached to the prison. Opposite to the Penitentary, and extending the whole length of the road between IMillbank- street and Vauxhall-bridge, is a dwarf river-wall. At the end of this agreeable promenade is the Vauxhall-bridge- road, about a mile in length, extending from the bridge, in a right-hand direction, to Pimlico, through wliich, and Grosvenor-place, a fine opening continues to Hyde-park- corner. Parallel with this thoroughfare a new line of road, raised upon arches, forms a continuation of the fashionable district of Belgravia, at the opeuing of which, looking towards the bridge, is a group of elegant man- sions, called Besborough-gardens. VAUXHALL BRIDGE. This bridge was opened in July, 1816. It is formed of nine arches, each spanning about 80 feet, made of cast- iron, and raised upon stone piers, 14 feet wide. The eleva- tion of the centre arch, above high-water mark, is 30 feet ; the bridge is 800 feet long, and 50 wide, exclusive of footways. It is varied by recesses and iron palisades. PALL-MALL EAST. l-i? Keturnlng to Cliaring-cross by way of Millbauk and Millbank-street, Abingdon-street is reached. Tlie chief modern featm’e in the street is the Royal Entrance to the House of Lords. In the enclosure, between St. Mar- garet’s church and Great George-street, is a statue of that eminent statesman, Mr. Canning, erected in May 1832 . CHAPTER VI. PALL-MALL EAST THE HATMAKKET- — EEGENT-STREET ST. James’ S-STREET — pall-mall — st. james’s- PALACE, ETC. We again take up our position at Charing-cross, whence we pursue, with little deviation, our way to the western regions of the capital. From Trafalgar-square a short street, called Pall-mall East, runs into the Haymarket and PaU-mall. Here the New College of Physicians forms part of a fine group of buildings with the Union club -house, the latter having a frontage in Cockspur-street. Sir Robert Smirke erected this structure, which is divided into two stories, and the windows are decorated with architraves and sub-cornices. The eastern front forms, with a cor- responding wing and receding portico, the chief front of the Union club-house, built in 1824, by the same archi- tect. Here the Society of Painters in Water Colours is established. It was founded in 1804, and the present gal- lery was opened in 1824. The public are admitted to this exMbition on payment of one shilling. On the right-hand side of PaU-mall East is a narrow thoroughfare called Whitcombe-stveet, extending as far as Prince s- street, be- tween Leicester-square and Coventiy-street. In the ob- scurity of M^hitcombe-street there is little to attract, far less than when it was appropriately called Hedge-lane, in 148 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; the days of Charles and was surrounded by pleasant fields^ and presented the appearance which some of the green lanes in Norwood or Hornsey now shew. Nearly opposite to the College of Physicians is Svffollc-street, at the corner of which is the United University club-house, with two fronts severally opening to Suffolk-street and Pall-mall East. It was built in 1823, and presents an exquisite union of the Grecian, Doric, and Ionic orders. In this street is the Society of British Artists, first opened in 1824, and where there is an annual exhibition of paint- ings similar to that at the Royal Academy. Pall-mall East joins Pall-mall, where the latter appears a continua- tion of Cockspur-street. At this point of junction, in the open space near the Haymarket, is the equestrian statue of George III., erected in 1837 by the late Sir Matthew Cotes Wyatt. On the north side of PaU-mall several important and fashionable streets are found, and before reviewing its his- torical associations we shall proceed through these streets in consecutive order. THE HAYMARKET. The Haymarket, which leads from the east corner of Pall-mall to Coventry-street, is a leading street which has some historical repute; combining in itself the elements of fashion and of trade. In the reigns of Charles I., and his successor, it was a rural lane, bounded by hedges ; and beyond, north, east, and west, was the open country. Subsequently, carts laden with hay and straw stood here, toll-free ; but, in 1692, the street was paved, and a toll of sixpence levied, by statute, upon the load of hay, and twopence for straw. A great improvement was accom- plished by the erection of the Italian Opera House, in the beginning of the eighteenth century. That of the Haymarket Theatre followed, and of numerous handsome shops and houses, which rendered it one of the gayest, and most traffic-crowded streets at that end of the town. During the last thirty yeai’s, it has derived additional im- regent-street. 149 portance from tlie splendeid edifices wbicli have adorned its site and, from its contiguity to that fine neighbour- hood which has arisen in place of the mean alleys, an obscure courts, which once lay so thickly together in this quarter. Notwitstanding its fashionable appearance and Station, it remained as a depot for hay and straw nntd a few years back, when the haymarket de facto was removed to a spacious area, called Cumberland Maike , near the New Road. This street is 1,000 feet long, and abounds in hotels and coffee-houses, which greatly preponderate over other businesses in the ^ocalit}. Ascendino- the Haymarket, Suffolk-place, a respemable tenue, conLcts Jo Suffolk-street. The next turning is James-street, in which stands an uncouth gloomy-lookm^ building, called the Tennis Court to " J the scene of pugilistic encounters, and of still moie demoralising sports. It was founded m Charles II., and is said to have been frequented bj that Jg and his brother James. Passing by several other streets which claim no particular notice, the head of the nTym Je is gained, vfhere Piccadilly, T chbourne, and cSry streets unite. The last street is named from Coventry House, the residence of the Lord Coventry, and where Henry Coventry, Secretaiy of Sh , died in 1686. It was built upon the site of a notoiious gaming-house, which, in 1668, was the only nouse stand- fng at the Haymarket end of Piccadilly. Both gaming- house and palace have disappeared before the en^lphi g tide of trade. Coventry-street is the connecting 1 between Leicester-square and Piccadilly. regent street. The buildings and shops in Regent-street, (thus in honour of the office filled by George Pnnce of Wales who, dm-ing the malady and until the death of his lojal father, acted as Prince Regent, and exercised sovereign power,) regarded from all its approaches, have a palatial appearance, agreeably contrasting with the homeliei 150 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; features of tlie streets in its vicinity. The opening from the centre of Pall-mall is effective in the highest degree, from the combination of agreeable objects, which please the eye, and are in accordance with severe taste. To the south of Regent- street, at its union with Waterloo-place, stands the York Column, on the extensive area of Carlton- terrace, from which eminence we look down on the sylvan promenades of St. James’s Park; and the scenic effect is heightened by the spires and turrets of those costly acces- sories in the back ground — Westminster Abbey and Hall, and the New Palace of the Legislature. Regent-street, viewed from its Coventry-street approach, has a very imposing air. Although the colonnade and its piRars, whence this part of the street was called the Quadi'ant, have disappeared, still, the extensive view of elaborately ornamented houses, excites an admiration which, perhaps no other street in Europe can elicit. Another principal point in which Regent-street may he advantageously seen, is at the union, formed north, east, west, and south, by the intersection of that street with Oxford-street, the spot thus environed being called Regent Circus. Here Regent-street, with its white fa 5 ades, exhibits its breadth and principal length. Here, at one glance, we witness the character and associations of the street, an excm’sion to which is inseparably connected with the idea of recre- ation. Before advancing further, it may be proper briefly to glance at the former neighbourhood of a street which has no superior in the world. That affluent and aristocratic district, which is now vertebrated by Regent-street, so recently as 1810, was encompassed by dirty, poor-looking streets, of which Swallow-street was one. A grand opening to the north having been decided upon, it was commenced opposite Carlton House, Pall-mall, the palace of the Prince of Wales, and thence carried forward, crossing Jermyn-street and Piccadilly; inclining to the north-west, it reached Mary-le-bone-street near the end of Glasshouse-street, and absorbing almost the whole of Swallow- street, traversed Oxford-street, and passed to the REGENT-STREET. ri°-ht of Cavendish-square, whence it was continued nearly midway between Harley-street and Portland-road to the New-road. The design of this new street originated with hir. John Nash, architect of the Board of Works. In early life he was a carpenter, and being employed at the Pavilion, Brighton, he attracted the favourable notice ot the Prince of Wales. He was subsequently consulted on most of the gigantic improvements made at the west-end. The Reo-ent’s Park we owe to him, which, though it is said to have been a park in the days of Queen Elizabeth, offered no vestige of its past honours, presenting little but a series of unattractive fields. i i j r From Pall-mall is entered Waterloo-place— the head ot Re'^ent-street, from which it is divided by Charles-street, runnino- right and left, and connecting St. James’s-square and the Haymarket. In that part of Charles-street branching towards the Haymarket, is seen the front portico of the Junior United Service Club-house, one side of which faces Regent-street; and nearly opposite, is a portion of the colonnade of the Opera-house, and the avenue in its rear, familiarly known as Fops’-alley. Ad- vancing up Regent-street, attention is dra^ to bt. Philip’s chapel on the left hand. It is built after the design of Sir William Chambers. Its pillars are ot the Roman Doric order; and the structure generally, is a copy of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, commonly called the Lanthorn of Demosthenes, at Athens. In the interior, the Corinthian order is adopted, and the altar is placed by the eastern front of the church, while the tower is over the west; thus reversing the course which, for centuries has been preferred. A few yards higher up on the other side of the way, a spacious fore-court leads to an elegant mansion receding several yards from the general line of street. Here Mr. Nash formerly resided; it is now called the Gallery of Illustration, and is appropriated to the exhibition of revolving dioramas. Higher up, Jermyn-street leads, from the left to St. James’ s-street, from the right to the Haymarket. It was formerly a 152 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; very important locality, and is still, in wliat is called the season, inhabited by persons of fashion and political note. It was named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, whose mansion and gardens, in the reign of Charles I., covered the ground on which Waterloo-place stands. . The Earl was known as the lover and putative husband of Henrietta hlaria, the relict of his unfortunate master. Sir Isaac Newton lived here in 1699, and about seventy years later, Thomas Gray the poet. The first Regent- circus, which, in contradistinction to that which Oxford- street intersects, may be named the southern circus, forms a splendid centre, into which Regent-street, Picca- dilly, and Tichborne-street radiate. Within its area are comprised the County Fire Office, some handsome shops, and several railway and steam-packet offices for transport- ing travellers and freight to every part of the known world; from the million-crowded streets of the modern Babylon, to the deserted and silent site of the ancient capital of Assyria ; from the trottoir of Regent-street to the plains of Egypt. The County Fire Office, originated by Mr. Barber Beaumont in 1807, is a noble and com- manding structure. The edifice was erected by Air. Robert Abraham, in 1819. The principal frontage has a Portland-stone rustic basement carried over the footway, above which are six Corinthian columns, and two angle pilasters, sustaining an enriched entablature, with a balustraded parapet surmounting it, in the centre of which is a colossal figure of Britannia, with a couchant lion. The proportions and enrichments of the columns and entablature are from the portico of the Pantheon at Rome. From this end of Regent-street, several streets diverge, some of which convey an idea of the ancient locality which the enterprise of Mr. Nash has not been able completely to remove. Of these. Air-street and Vine-street are smaller and less important thoroughfares, extending from Piccadilly across Regent-street into the street branching into Golden-square ; a fragment of the ancient Swallow-sb'eet remains on the left, and is partly BURLINGTON ARCADE. 153 i occupied as a mews. Vigo-street, is a genteel street, I composed of shops and private houses. It leads from ! the west side of Eegent-street, and passing to the rear i of Burlington-gardens^ runs into Old Bond-street. Here i we find Sackville-street, remarkable for being the longest i street in the metropolis, which has no turning branch- ii in°- out of it. It was built on the spot where Picca- II difig Hall formerly stood. When that hall was sold ! i and pulled down, its name was given to the important 1 street with which Sackville-street connects itself. Con- 1 tinning to walk up Vigo-street towards the west, the i Albany is reached, the chambers in which are occupied I chiefly by members of parliament, the bachelor-nobility I of England, and their connexions. Here a former Lord I Melbourne had his town mansion, which passed from him to the Duke of York ; and when his royal highness disposed of his interest in the premises, the Albany Chambers were erected upon the site, deriving their patronymic from the second title of their late royal proprietor. The chief entrance to the Albany is from j Piccadilly. At each end are porter’s lodges and the I thoroughfare is only on sufferance. Anterior to the mutations just mentioned, a person of some historical notoriety lived here. Pennant says, “ The house of that monster of treachery, that profligate minister, the Earl of Sunderland, who, by his destructive advice, premeditatedly \ brought ruin on his unsuspecting master, James II., stood i on or near the present Melbourne House, once the most , 1 magnificent in London, built by Sir William Chambers. ] i At the very time he sold him to the Prince of Oiaiige, he ' encouraged his majesty in every step which was certain of I involving him and his family in utter ruin. Passing by I the wall of Burlington-gardens, a few paces bring to Burlington Arcade, which has also an entrance from j 1 Piccadilly. This favourite place of resort was built from j ' designs by Samuel Ware, and has a triplicated entrance at each end. It is a long and commodious archway, with a glazed roof, and contains a double row ot handsome VOL. I X 154 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON J shops with dormitories over them. None, hut what may he called genteel businesses, are carried on here; jewellers, fancy stationers, hook and music-sellers, and vendors of toys, perfumery, and pictures, being the chief occupants. Here an agreeable promenade may be enjoyed w'hen the state of the weather precludes it in the uncovered streets. Ee- turning towards Eegent-street, Old BuTlington-stvcBt leads to the north, and into New Burlington-street. At the end stands Burlington School, founded by Lady Bui’lington for the maintenance, clothing, and education of eighty female children; a charity conceived in the most benevolent spirit, and carried out with consistent liberality. At the south end of this street, stands the mansion built by Leoni for the Duke of Queensbury, the munificent patron of Gay. It is a handsome stone edifice, and was raised here in order to gratify his grace with a view of Burlington- gardens. The prospect is still beautiful, as brick and mortar have not invaded the fair domain which its early owner was anxious to display, for the pleasure of a friend. The mansion is now known as Uxbridge House, haHng been purchased by the late earl when it was in a dilap- idated condition, and by him restored to more than its pristine grandeur. It is peculiarly interesting as the residence of the gallant Marquis of Anglesey, one of the most celebrated of the peninsular heroes. Eunning parallel with this street is Saville-row, the principal resi- dences in which belong to distinguished members of the faculty. Ee-entering Eegent-street, opposite Vigo-street, is Glasshouse- street, a place of great traffic; to the right of which, at the back of Eegent-street, is Marylebone- street, a street chiefly occupied by good shops, which, although greatly inferior to its parallel, is by no means of a mediocre character. From Marylebone-street a series of streets branch to Golden-square, which was built before the year 1700. In the fields upon which it was erected, was a lazaretto, during the plague of 1665, built by that warrior and philanthropist. Lord Craven, of whom we have already made honourable mention. Although in a I regent-street. 155 western locality, fasMon is by no means identified with this comparatively obscure square. A of modern times, however, resides Cardinal Wise jnan— the pontifical chief of the Roman Catholics_ m England. Among the last-named streets is Warwick- street containing the Bavarian ambassador s chapel,_ in which during the Opera season, some of the principal forSgnvocahsts assist in the celebration of the service^ We now return to Regent- street, the central portmn of which excels the other parts, and is occupied with the most costly shops. On the right-hand side, ChapeUourt Txt presents itself; so named, from the place of worship known as Archbishop Tennison’s Chapel. A simple, plain, but elegant, new frontage in Regent-street, has been sup- plied to this chapel, the venerable founder of which Lied L no fewer than six reigns, having been born ^he rmgn if Charles L, and dying m that of George I. Foubert s~ place is a paved passage conducting to King-street. It is called after a Major Foubert, who established a mihtary academy here in the reign of Charles II., winch was after- Trds converted into a House of Indujry. Nearly oppo- site Chapel-court, on the western side of the uay, lies New Burlington^street, leading from Regent-street to the end of Saville-row. It is a quiet genteel street chiefly composed of private houses. The next street is Conduit- street a first-rate business locality communicating wi New Bond-street. It is indebted for its name to a con- 1 IT which was established here before rival companies I we enabled to convey water to the interior of every ‘ dwelling. In this street, the eminent surgeon. Sir Astley ^ Pooner resided. Towards the Bond-street end Ttands Trinity Chapel, the history of which is somewhat curious It is said to have been originally built of wood T command of James IL, for the celebration of private Sass • and fixed on wheels, that it might accompan 5 | the roval devotee when he moved to some distance from Lon- don After that sovereign’s abdication, the chapel was en- larged by the rector of St. Martin’s parish, and fixed on a 156 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; spot adjacent to tliat wliicli it now fills. Arclibisliop Ten- nison completed, or rather re-erected it with a portion of the old materials, but supplied with good brick walls, on its present site. On the opposite side of the way is George- street, chiefly containing the residences of rank and opu- lence. Entering it from Conduit-street, the attention at this point is more particularly drawn to St. George’s Church, Hanover-square. This church may be regarded as the antipodes of Gretna-green. At the latter all is (or was) furtive, hurried, and unseemly; at St. George’s os- tentatious display, leisurely dignity, and careful arrange- ment, court the admiring gaze of all observers. It was built by John James, an architect of reputation, in 1724, when that part of the metropolis began to take something of its present shape. The church is of stone, the roof being covered with lead, and arched over each of the three aisles. The interior is sustained by eight pillars of the Corinthian order, raised upon pedestals. A baud in ornamental scroll-work extends from column to column, the intermediate spaces filled with sunken panels, on which are inscribed a brilliant array of lordly names, me- morials of those who have oflflciated as churchwardens. The church is pewed with oak, and paved with Purbeck stone. The marble altar is elevated three feet above the floor of the nave, and four pillars of fluted oak add materially to the effect of this part of the stately edifice. The west front of the church is deservedly admired, six Corinthian pillars sustaining the pediment and entabla- ture. From the graceful and well-proportioned steeple a clock-tower is carried to the roof. The portico is second only to that of St. Martin’s chui-ch. Proceeding up Regent-street, Argyll-place, a respectable avenue, runs into Great Marlborough-street. Blenheim- steps, which lead into it from Oxford-street, and other local names, remind us of the conqueror of Marshal Talland. This street, named after the victory of the day, was in high repute while the gallant Marlborough flou- rished and is still esteemed highly respectable. No edi- REGENT-STREET. T.J/ fices of public interest are found here, unless the police- office, and the Pantheon, which has its back-front in Great Marlborough-street, be excepted. Crossing to the western side of Eegent-street, and passing through Han- over-street, which is composed of private residences and shops Hanover -square is entered. In the garden enclosure is a statue of that great statesman, Mr. Pitt, looking towards George-street and Conduit-street. It is of bronze, is 10 feet in height, and stands on a pedestal of Scotch granite, the altitude of whieh is 16 feet. This statue is considered one of the finest works of Chantrey. Ihe square was erected soon after the death of Queen Anne, and received its title in honour of the house of Hanover. It has an aristocratic air, and its wide and handsome avenues much enhance its appearance. One of the ciiiei edifices in the square is that on the east side, at the cor- ner of Hanover-strect, known as the Queen’s Concert Rooms, its original appellation being the Hanover-square Rooms. Here Paganini astonished and delighted by the tones which he evoked from his matchless violin; and Strauss, the gifted composer, with his brilliant company, here celebrated his first triumphs in England. The periodi- cal concerts of the Royal Academy of Music take place in these rooms, which are considered the handsomest public suite in London, and are fitted up internally with the utmost taste and elegance. On the north of the square, at the corner of Tenterden-street, a structure of consider- able magnitude meets the eye; it is the Oriental Club- house, and is principally attended by military genUemen and others connected ivitli East India aftairs. Hearlj" opposite, in Tenterden-street, stands the Royal Academy of Music, a modern institution, expressly founded to cultivate native musical talent. It was established by charter in the reign of George IV., and great success has attended its movements, many of our most distinguished pro- fessionals having acquired their initiative in this academy. From the northern side of the square we return through Prince’ 8-street, similiar in character to Hanover-street, 358 TALLISES ILLUSTRATE© LONDON; into Regent-street. Midway between the first and second streets is Hayiover District Chapel, built after the designs of Mr. W. £. R. Cockerell. It is of that order of ancient temples denominated, in architectural phrase, prostyle, having columns only in the front, and belongs to the second order of sacred buildings described by Vitruvius. Some yards higher up, the second Regent Circus is gained intersected south and north by Regent-street, and east and west by Oxford-street. The disposition of this circus greatly adds to the appearance of Regent street, of which it forms a bold and handsome centre. Leaving the Oxford- street circus, and passing by some streets which branch across Regent-street, we reach Margaret-sireet, running right and left ; the left avenue terminates in Cavendish-square, which was planned in 1715 — the ground being laid out about 1718. It is a splendid area; and the mansions of several of the nobility are found there. In the garden is a statue of that Duke of Cumberland, whose inhumanity, at Culloden, entailed upon him the odious soubriquet of “the Butcher.’^ In this square resided the celebrated and witty Lady Mary Wortley Montague. From the Earldom of Mortimer, and the Barony of Harley and Wigmore, the names of Mortimer-street, Harley- street, and Wigmore- street were derived; and the whole of this aristocratic neighbourhood, in the names of its streets, bears reference to the genealogical ties, and family honours, of the house of Oxford. Harleij -street, a long and elegant street, extending from Cavendish- square to the Regent^s Park, and other parallel streets, were not in existence till many years subsequent to the construction of the square. The plot was once called Harley -fields, and, towards 1770, was a favourite re- sort of that religious enthusiast, Whitfield. Bentinck- street has acquired some reputation as the residence of the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ; and in Holles-street, Byron, the greatest of modern poets, was born, in 1788. James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, resided at Chandos House, where he lived regent-street. 159 with great magnificence, and was, not nnaptly, called t - princely Chandos.” The duke had prepared a splendid entertainment, to celebrate the christening of ins infant son and heir. This ceremonial was invested with more than usual grandeur, for the king and queen had con- descended to he god-parents of the noble ^ appointed evening, the royal family, and a brilliant array oFristinguished guests, assembled in the superb apart- Intfof Ae ducal palace, and the cUlcl was borne by his nui'se to the place of honour, whmh had been ap- pmnted for the ceremony of making him a member of frChristian church. A mournful reverse came over this scene of animated expectation. of lieht which illuminated the walls with all the radiance of dav, waJ too powerful for the infanTs feeble organs of sio-ht' He fell into convulsions ; the ceremony was ahruptlv closed; the visitors withdrew from the house of momning; and, before the hour of midnight, the beloved object, upon which all tjis extraordinaiy pomp had been lavished, was cold m death. ““ and his consort felt acutely then ifeP^^ble loss The heartbroken father soon afterwards rejoined his child, and the duchess secluded herself from society, but still resided tothe house which had been the scene of her ha^ies feelings, and of the premature withering of her mateinal *'To return to Kegent-street. Opposite Littk Porthnd- : F F I ■ E L B L ST. James’s square. 161 of notice, that York-street was the first street in London where pavement was laid down for pedestrians. In the garden of the square is a bronze statue of King William III., designed by Bacon. Its place was occupied by a stone conduit in the reign of Charles I., wdien, in all Pail- mall no houses were to be found, it being an open space from the village of Charing to the palace of St. James. This square is the oldest West-end square, and when Clerkenwell- close, the Barbican, Aldersgate-street, and the Strand, were the fashionable residences of the nobility, a few of the aristoeracy anticipated the general migration of rank to the west, and fixed their abodes in this square. In 1683 the Marquis of Dorchester and the earls of Essex, Kent and St. Albans, lived here. In 1698 the Count De Tallard, the Ereneh ambassador, occupied a house in this square, for which he paid the enormous rental of £600. There was a great accession of titled residents at the commencement of the eighteenth century, for, m 1708, the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Ormond, Lord Pembroke, Lord Radnor, and, a few years later, the Earl of Sunderland and Lord Ba- thurst had in it their town mansions. At one time of his j life, the eelebrated minister. Sir Robert Walpole, was an inhabitant, and on the other side of the square that mirror of politeness. Lord Chesterfield, dwelt. When the dif- ferences between George II. and his son, Frederick Prince of Wales, had attained so great a height that St. James’s Palace was too hot to hold the sovereign and the heir- apparent, the latter, compelled to depart from the royal residence, removed his household to Norfolk House, on | the east side of the square. That the enmity existing between father and son was not trivial, may be inferred from the fact, that the king prohibited the admission to j his presence of all individuals belonging to the party of the Prince of Wales. On the fourth of June his late ma-iesty George III. was born at Norfolk House. Sir Nicholas Wraxall says that the identical bed ‘Gs now at the Duke of Norfolk’s seat at Worksop, in the county of Y 162 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON J Nottingham. Except that the furniture is of green sHk the bed has nothing splendid about it, and would hardly be esteemed fit for a person of ordinary condition m the present times.- On the 14tli of March, in the emuing year Edward Augustus, Duke of York, w^ born at the "same nlace Adioining Norfolk House is the town palace 5 tbe Kstop S LonLn^ and the Bishop of Ch.cheste, has also a mansion iu the square. lu this square that truly great man, YVarren Hastings, and at No. 15, dwelt his envious and implacable enemy. Sir cis almost undoubtedly proved to be the author of TAe Ldters of Junms. The use of this house was granted by Lady FrLis, the widow of Sir Philip, to Queen Caroline in Au-ust, 1820, and from this temporary residence her mafesty went daily in state to the House of Peers, whilst %fmemorable Bill of Pains and Penalties was in progress. That nufortuuate S/hiftoly as the seat of tlm -^als of the Whig the squ.e Lord Amheret dwelt whilst commanderun-chief. In the mansion two doors farther on, towards King-street, Mrs. SoeWa celebrated leader of fashion, resided. His royal Ifio-liness the Prince Regent was at one of this lady s par- ties\owards the close of June, 1815, when dispatches an- nouncing the triumph which the English had gamed at Waterloo, arrived. The prince went out into the balcony, and communicated the glorious tidings to the cro^ as- sembled in front of the house, at the same time displaj - ^ ? tliP eaHes and trophies which had been captured the battle-field. King -street leads from the west side of the square into St. James’s -street. In this street is a r-ii LT^ssemblv room, called MLllis’s Rooms, built after Se dStn of Sbert Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars t Here that fat hionable and exclusive assembly, fov the magnificent balls where the combined nobility and I ST. jamek’s-strest. 163 ( beauty of England meet. Tliis elegant association is under j the complete control of its lady patronesses^ vouchers from j! whom are necessary to procure admission^ and from their i fiat there is no appeal. The Caledonian balls, and some I other fashionable reunions meet in these rooms. One of the most distinguished residents in this street was Louis Na- poleon, who, after many reverses of fortune, quitted Eng- land in 1848, to become the first president of the French Republic. ST. JAMESES STREET. At the end of Pall-mall, and facing St. James’s Palace, to which it is the chief approach from Piccadilly, is St. James’ s-street, which was called the “ Long -street,” in 1670. So far back as the days of Charles II., it was a popular street, and a fashionable lounging-place, a cha- raeter which it still retains. One of the most daring exploits of the notorious Colonel Blood was perpetrated in this street. The high-spirited Duke of Ormond had, while Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, caused to be executed some of the accomplices of Blood, who had been implicated in a plot for seizing on Dublin Castle. Blood, incensed at this act of the duke’s, openly avowed his intention to seize the person of that nobleman and hang him at Tyburn. One very dark night as his grace was returning from a civic festmty, and was turning the bottom of St. James’s-street, near which he then resided, the door of his vehicle was burst open, and Blood, with four bravoes, dragged out his intended victim, who was fastened to a horse behind one of the rutfiaus, who galloped on rapidly towards Tyburn, bent upon accomplishing the fell purpose above-mentioned. The Duke of Ormond had six footmen in attendance on him ; but in order to prevent them mounting his carriage and thereby inflicting a great additional weight upon tlie horses, the coach was spiked behind. Thus his domestics being on foot, were not sufficiently near their master at the time, to prevent his being dragged from his vehicle. It is reported that Blood proceeded in advance of the 104 TALLIS’S ILLFSTKATEW LONDON ; fellow who had the duke in custody, to arrange the rope on the gibbet. A close prisoner, the old nobleman was hurried up St. James’s-street, and had reached that spot covered by the present Devonshire House, when he, un- loosing one of his feet, struggled with his captor, and sue- ceeded in thrusting him from his seat. Both fell to the ground, and after a brief contest, the duke’s _ footmen arrived in time to rescue Mm, and his opponent discharged two pistols at his lordship, without effect, after which the villains rode off at full speed. Subsequently, at the earnest solicitation of Charles II., the Duke of OrmOTQ was induced to pardon Blood for this gross outrage. His reply, when spoken to by the King on this subject, was a noble one: “If your majesty,” said he, “forgive his attempt on the crown, how can I withhold my forgiveness of his attempt on my life.” When Queen Anne reigned St. James’s-street was in high repute for its chocolate houses, frequented by men of wit and rank. The Cocoa- tree Club, and White’s were the offspring of the Cocoa- tree Tavern and White’s Chocolate-house, in the last-named rei«-n. The Cocoa-tree was a favourite resort of George IV?, when Prince of Wales, and has only recently ceased ! to exist. Gibbon, the historian, died at No. 76, in 1794; I but so little did lie anticipate that event, that twenty ! hours before his death, speaking of t}ie_ probable duration i of his existence, he expressed an opinion that he had a ! crood life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. Lord I Byron, in the early part of his career, when Im had achieved a reputation by the publication of bis English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, resided at No. 8, m tins street. St. James’s-street is one great focus of the clubs ; which abound in that region of which this street, I all- mall, and Regent-street, are the chief tributaries, ilie leading club-houses are characterised by the massive elegance of their external and internal decorations; expense has not been spared to lavish upon them aU the attraction which a refined taste comd suggest ; and they in fact combine the splendour of a palace with t e ST. James’s street. 165 ' coziness of a home. To describe them severally as we pass through the streets in which they stands would perhaps detain us too long from the progressive history now pursuing, and the leading club-houses will tliere- I fore, in common with various other public edifices, be noticed in a distinct classification. The Thatched -house ^ Tavern, lately rebuilt, was so called in 1711, and from its ! ’ original appearance was probably one of the first houses ij raised so near to the palace. It is memorable as the ] place of meeting of some of the leading associations of I rank and talent in this country, among which may be named the Dilettanti society. At the Piccadilly end of St. James’s-street is a very large building, consisting of a lofty ground story, lighted up by five spacious Venetian windows, and the magnificent upper, or principal story, j with an equal number of French casement windows. I This w'as once known (and to many the experience was most painful) as Crockford’ s Club-house. Although it has ceased to be the chief emporium of the gaming-table, the I associations with which it is fraught are too remarkable to I be passed over very briefly. The following is a descrip- tion of the interior of this celebrated Pandemonium in !j the days when it was the resort of the most daring ij gamblers, and the wealthiest members of the aristo- !i cracy. “On entering from the street, a magnificent ! I vestibule and staircase break upon the view. To the right ' and left of the hall are the reading and dining rooms. The staircases are of sinuous form, sustained by four i; columns of the Doric order; above which are a series ' of examples in the Ionic order, forming a quadrangle I with apertures to the chief apartments. Above the ! pillars is a covered ceiling, perforated with numerous I panels of stained glass, from which springs a dome of ]i surpassing beauty: from the dome depends a lantern I I containing a magnificent chandelier. The state drawing- I room next attracts attention, — a most noble apartment, ,j decorated in the most florid style of the school of Louis ji XIV. The room presents a scries of panels, containing 106 Tallis’s illustrated London j subjects in tbe style of Watteau, alternated with splendid mirrors; a chandelier of exquisite workmanship hangs from the centre of the ceiling ; and three large tables, beautifully carved and gilded, and covered with rich blue and crimson velvet, are placed in different parts of the room. The upholstery and decorative adjuncts are imitative of the gorgeous taste in which George IV. delighted. Royalty can scarcely be conceived to vie with the style and consummate splendour of this magnificent chamber. The play-room is comparatively small, but handsomely furnished. In the centre of the apartment stands the all-attractive hazard-table. This bench of business is large and of oval-shape, well stuffed and covered with fine green cloth, marked with yellow lines, j denoting the different departments of speculation. Round , these compartments are double lines, similarly marked, for the odds or proportions between what is tech- nically known as the main and chance. In the centre, on each side, are indented positions for the c? ovjpievSy or \ persons engaged at the table in calling the main and j chance, regulating the stakes, and paying and receiving | money as the events decisive of gain and loss occur. Over the table is suspended a three-light lamp, con- veniently shaded, so as to throw its full luminous power on the cloth ; .and at the same time, to protect the eyes of the croupiers from the light’s too strong effect. At another part of the room is fixed a writing-table, or desk, where the Pluto of the place was wont to preside, or to mete out loans on draft or other security, and to answer all demands by successful players. Chairs of easy make, dice-boxes, bowls for bolding counters, representing sums from £1 to £200, and small hand-rakes used by players to draw their counters from any inconvenient distance on the table, may be said to complete the furnitm’e, and the machinery and implements of this great workshop. In , this splendid temple of iniquity, what flattering hopes j ha\'e been wrecked, succeeded by the blackest and most | irremediable despair. Here, indeed, have been witnessed ST James’s street. 167 the most harrowing tragedies of real life. Enin has assumed a palpable form, and the victims who have staked their happiness or misery on the turn of a card, have quitted this “hall of Eblis,” some to linger out a life of hopeless penury, others to seek a fancied oblivion of their anguish in a suicide’s grave. As a gambling-house, none can regret that its “ occupation ’s gone.” This monster hell was built in 1827 by the Messrs. Wyatt, for William Crockford — a man of very low origin, and of whose low habits, the vast fortune which he acquired was no corrective. He was originally known as the owner of a mean little fishmonger’s shop adjacent to Temple-bar on the Strand side. Some successful ventures on the turf, and other gambling speculations, enabled him to sink the shop, and to start in the more dazzling, hut less creditable career of a gaming-house keeper. By some, however, it was thought that there was an analogy between his original and his subsequent professions; — having in early life netted fish, and in his subsequent ' career hooked gudgeons. When Crockford died, the j club-house was gradually deserted, and has since been appropriated to other and more creditable purposes. St. James’s -place, on the western side of the street, has always been famous as the residence of individuals of celehiity. Addison had apartments in it before he married the Countess of Warwick; and that remarkable politician, John Wilkes, resided here in 1756. For many years, .No. 22, built by James Wyatt, R.A., on the site of a mansion belonging to the late Duke of St. Albans, has been the residence of Rogers, the author of the “ Pleasures of Memory.” Seldom has a poet’s residence presented so many of the costly accessories of wealth and luxury; — j seldom has a poet been so exempted from the proverbial indigence of the gentle craft, as the venerable Samuel Rogers, the only banker-poet on record. 168 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; PALL-MALL. Two centuries ago Pall-mall, now the region of club- housesj stately palaces, and aristocratic residences, pre- sented a very different appearance to that which it now exhibits. In 1660 the ground covered by Pall-mall, St. James’s-square, Piccadilly, and their adjacent neighbom’- hoods, was open field, the only street, then partly built, being St. James’s-street. The south side of Pall-mall was | bounded by the wall of St. James^s-park, and the chief edifices lying west of Cliaring-cross were a small church, the Conduit in St. James’s-fields, a gothic building in the same locality, and a house of public entertainment. The last-named is supposed to have been a tavern called the Old Pall-Mall, where that amusing gossip, Pepys, tells us he sometimes supped. In 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt, when j he attempted to make himself master of London, marched I ! his troops through the site of this street. A dreadful tra- gedy was perpetrated in Pall-mall in 1682, the murder of Lord Thomas Thynne, opposite to the present Opera Ar- cade, in those days a dark and dreary nook. Elizabeth, the heiress of Jocelyn Percy, the eleventh earl of Is'orth- umberland, had been married, or rather betrothed in early girlhood, to Henry Cavendish earl of Ogle, the eldest son of the Duke of Newcastle, who died in 1680, his widow I being still very young. Her grandmother, the Countess j ^ of Nortliumbei’land, soon afterwards contracted her to j I Lord Thomas Thynne, but on account of her tender years j I her marriage was postponed for a twelvemonth. Dui’ing | this interval Count Coningsmark, who subsequently be- ; came distinguished as the lover of the unfortunate Princess ; Sophia, of Zell, and who perished by the blow of an assassin, - was attracted by the charms of the youthful heiress, whom he resolved to make his own. To facilitate this object, he thought the reoioval of Thynne an indispensable prelimi- nary, and employed three foreign mercenaries. Captain Vratz, a German; Lieutenant Stern, a Swede; and Bo- rotzki, a Pole, to despatch his favoured rival. These bra- i PALt-MALL. 169 voes, mounted on horsebackj stationed themselves^ one dark winter’s evening, at the spot we have previously indi- cated, and upon Thynne’s carriage approaching, the mur- derers rode up to it, compelled the coachman to stop, and the Pole discharged the contents of a blunderbuss through the window at his lordship, whose body was perforated by five bullets. Coningsmark and his accomplices were tried for this murder at Hicks’s-hall, when the three agents were found gudty, but by a gross perversion of justice the count was acquitted. Thynne was assassinated on the 12th of February, 1682, and on the 10th of March follow- ing the instruments, but not the instigator of his death, sulFered the final sentence of the law on the spot where j their crime had been perpetrated. ! Pall-mall does not appear to have been completed as a ' street tiU 1690, a few years anterior to which Nell Gwyniie 1 built a house there on the south side, the freehold of i which was granted to her by her royal admirer. “ The j house in question,” writes Mr. Jesse, in 1847, “is No. 79, i Pall-mall, and is still the only freehold residence on the Park side of the street.” Here that favoured beauty died in 1091. In 1703 Defoe, writing of Pall-mall, thus de- scribes the peculiarities which it then presented : — “ I am lodged in the street called Pall-mall, the ordinary resi- I dence of all strangers, because of its vicinity to the queen’s I palace, the park, the parliament-house, the theatres, and I the chocolate and coffee-houses, where the best company I frequent. We rise by nine, and those that frequent great j men’s levees find entertainment at them till eleven, or, as I in Holland, go to tea-tables ; about twelve the beau monde assembles in several coffee or chocolate-houses ; the best of which are the Cocoa Tree, and White’s chocolate houses, St. James’s, the Smyrna, Mrs. Kocheford, and i the British coffee-houses; and all these so near one another, that in less tlian an hour you see the company of I them all. We are carried to these places in chairs (or sedans), which are here very cheap, a guinea a-week, or a shilling per hour ; and your chairmen sei’ve you for z 170 TALLIS’S ILLTJSTRATED LONDON; porters, to run on errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice.” Gay thus commemorates the attractions oi Pall-mall, early in the last century : “ Oh bear me to the paths of fair Pall-mall ; Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell . At distance rolls along the gilded coach, Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach ; No lets would bar thy ways, where_ chairs denied, The soft support of laziness and pride ; Shops breathe perfumes, thro’ sashes ribands glow, The mutual arms of ladies and the beau, Yet still ev’n here, where rains the passage hide, Oft’ the loose stone spirts up a muddy tide Beneath thy careless foot ; and from on high Where masons mount the ladder, fragments fly ; , Mortar and crumbled lime in showers descend, | And o’er thy head, destructive tiles impend. j i What a contrast between this description and the present ; I appearance of Pall-mall, now one of the most commodious, ; i agreeable, and cleanly thoroughfares in the west. A ce- | I lehrated tavern in Pall-mall, in the reign of Queen Anne, i was the Star and Garter, for more than fifty years the ! meeting-place of clubs composed of men of vnt, learmng, and rank. In this tavern, in 1765, a memorable duel was fought between the fifth Lord Byron, great uncle of the poet, and Mr. Chaworth. According to Horace Walpo e, a club of Nottinghamshire gentlemen had dined at the tavern, and a dispute arose between Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth, as to which of them had the most game on his manor. The company, not apprehensive of any serious results, separated at eight o’clock. Lord Byron I’etned into another chamber, to which, having summoned Mr. Chaworth, by the dim light of a tallow-candle, the ad- versaries fought with swords across the tabm. worth, who was a skilful swordsman, ran Lord Byron through the sleeve of his coat, and then received a wound fourteen inches deep in his body. He died on He fol ow- ing morning, having previously admitted that the duel was a fair one. Por the part which he had acted in this melancholy business Lord Byron was tried by his peers m ! CAELTON-HOUSE. 171 Westminster-liall, and convicted of manslaughter. HC;, however, claimed the privilege of the statute of Edward ^'I., and was discharged upon the payment of his fees. Between the neighbouring houses of Byron and Chaworth an ill-feeling long prevailed, but this was healed when the poet succeeded to the honours of his grand-uncle. Byron conceived a tender attachment for the heiress of the Cha- worths, to whom, under the name of “ Mary,^^ some of his most touching poetry was consecrated, j Before proceeding to speak further of the leading build- I ings which stand, or have stood in Pall-mall, it will be relevant, in point of chronology, to glance at some of the I [ distinguished residents who, early in the last century, had ;j their abodes in this locality. In 1710 Swift lodged in this ' street, and upon his return from exile Lord Bolingbroke occupied a house in it. Gibbon resided here for a short . time, and in 1735 Bobert Dodsley, the famous publisher, (who had previously been a footman, but afterwards as- pired to shine as a poet and a dramatist,) commenced busi- ness here. In his shop Pope, Young, Akenside, Gray, the Wartons, Plorace Walpole, Burke, and other literary ce- lebrities of that period were wont to assemble. Opposite to Waterloo-place stood, not many years ago, I Carlton-house. It originally was the property of the Earl Burlington, and in 1732 was occupied by the Countess Dowager of Burlington. There were then houses in front of it which were pulled down to make way for an arclutec- j tui-al screen designed by Holland. In the last-named year it was purchased by Frederick Prince of Wales, who made it his occasional residence. It subsequently was the abode of his grandson, George Prince of Wales, eldest son of George III. He continued to live in it when he was made Prince Begent, and after he had ascended the throne. Bv its last royal occupant it was at various periods the scene of hospitality, and frequently of convivial festivity when aU was unhappily “ More than hospitably good.” Here Sheridan, Fox, and many of the most eminent po- ] 72 TALLISES ILLtrSTBATED LONDON ; litical opponents of Mr. Pitt were frequently pests; pd here wits and poets of all parties, and of all classes, often assembled. Here Curran, the son of a peasant, Moore, of Telodious celebrity, and others of Hterary renown, were at “aXs periods entertained, and subseqpntly requited their host with eloquent panegyrics and bitter withering satire, as the course of events made him their P^t^on rendered his name a host to their pepies. At these mirthful meetings the best vocalists of the day often as- sisted • and the Prince himself did not disdain to smg or the eAtertainment of his friends, and t^t too in a s yle which would have won admiration, had not his station commanded it. When the formation of Eegent-street was the consideration of Parliament, pe argument in favour of the new thoroughfare was that a “ leadino- avenue ought to exist in front of the town resi knee of the sovereign. The work was ^ nnon and the new and magnificent road completed, but the palace which it was intended to ornament ^ razed to the ground. Its demolition took place m 1827. Upon a part^ of the site of Carlton House those elegant d^b-houses the Athenaeum and Senior United Service Sand, with a frontage to Pall-maU. Between bem i^ a wide road leading to the York mansions known as Carlton-terrace and Carlton-gardens erected upon the plot once Carlton House. The open space m front edifices consist of plantations arranged with -fluent these buildings a broad flight oi form a magm&ent avenue into St. James’s park, rUiese ' bv command of William IV. on his coroiiation-day. iiiese by commaiiu broue'ht from the island of steps are composed of gramte Prong Herne near Guernsey. On the summit ot the steps is ' nlaced one of the finest piUars in the metropolis^ the Cotan It was erected after the desyn of Mr Beliamta Wvatt, between 1880 and 1833, and is 124 fee in height being the same as that of Trajan's column at Rome* ft is surmounted by a bronse statue, 14 feet high, I' ST. James’s palace. 173 |i of Frederick, Duke of York, second son of George III. This colossal figure is from the chisel of Westmacott. I For a small fee the public may ascend to the gallery I encircling the top of the column, whence a fine panoramic view of the parks, and the western portion of London is i gained. Recently an unhappy individual committed self- destruction here, throwing himself from this gallery, in consequence of which the top has been roofed in to pre- vent the recurrence of similar catastrophes. No. 100, on the south side of Pall-mail was the residence of the late Mr. Angerstein, whose collection of paintings, as we have elsewhei’e mentioned, was purchased by the government, and thrown open to the public in 1824. In 1837 the National Gallery was transferred from Pall-mall to Trafalgar-square, and the house previously appropriated to it taken down, that handsome building the Reform Club, arising in its place. A few yards onward bring us to Marlborough House, a stately brick residence, which was erected in 1709, after the plan of Sir Christopher Wren, as a national tribute to that popular hero the Duke of Marlborough, at an expense of j 640,000. It has two wings adorned with rustic stone-work. The vestibule is en- riched with paintings of the battles of Blenheim and Hoch- stadt, in which are portraits of Marlborough, Prince Eu- gene, and Marshal Talland. After the decease of the Prin- cess Charlotteinl817, it was appropriated as the residence of Prince Leopold, subsequently King of the Belgians. When William IV. died, the use of Marlborough House was granted to his estimable relict, the Queen Dowager A delaide, who expu’ed in December, 1849. It then was pre- pared for the reception of tliat noble gift to the nation, the Vernon Gallery, and it is destined to become, some years hence, the residence of his roval highness the Prince of Wales. ST. James’s palace. At the west-end of Pall-mall on the south side, opposite to St. James’ s-street, is the front of St. James’s Palace, pre- I 174 TALLIS’S ILLUSTEATED LONDON ; senting tlie appearance of a lofty antiquated gate-house, leading to a paved quadrangular court with a piazza on the right, into which several of the apartments look, and where a military hand performs every morning between ten and eleven. The history of this ancient palace, long the prin- cipal town residence of our sovereigns is very curious j the mutations through which it has passed invest it with more adventure than it could be fancied attached to such an old-fashioned manorial building. On the spot where this royal mansion stands, some benevolent citizens, anterior to the Conquest, founded a hospital for the reception of fourteen leprous unmarried females, and subsequently eio-ht brethren were added to assist in the celebration of dmiie worship. In the reign of Henry HI. the hospital was rebuilt. Its custody was entrusted to Eton College, and in the time of Henry VIII. its revenue was valued at £100 annually. That covetous monarch admiring the situation of the hospital on account of its proximity to Whitehall palace, gave the living of Chattisham and other property in Suffolk in exchange for it, and settled pensions on the sisters whom he dislodged. The hospital was then pulled down, and Henry raised in its place the present palace, described by Stow as “ a pleasant manor,” and by Holinshed as “ a fair mansion and park.” Its erection was commenced in the same year that the king married Anne Bolevn, and on either of the chief entrances to the palace from' the street, are small arched doorways, each of them sculptured with the love-knot of the uxorious Henry and the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII. also enclosed the adjacent park, appropriating it as a royal appanage to the naiaces of Whitehall and St. James. Queen Mary, at whose remorseless bidding the fires of martyrdom in'Smithfield and other places were rekindled, finished her short and troubled reign in this palace. Grief accelerated her end, hut of the causes of her sorrow there are different statements. She felt deeply the loss of her father-in-law Charles V. of Spain, and the absence of her consort King Philip, tended still more to depress her. I ST. JAMESES PALACE. 175 According to Bisliop Godwin, tlie queen declared in her j latter hours that “she should die, though they were I yet strangers to the cause of her death ; but if they would I know it hereafter, they must dissect her, and they w'ould i ' find Calais at her heart.” Her meaning was that she had : I received her death-pang from the loss of that strong key I I to the continent, the last of the possessions retained by the |i English in France, although for several centuries after the 'i British sovereign kept the barren title of King of Prance, ij The queen died of dropsy, the symptoms of which her |i ignorant physicians mistook for those indicating that she was about to give a successor to the throne. By James I. the palace was presented to his accomplished son, Henry, j Prince of W ales. The prince held his court here, and so j popular was he that the attendance at his levees was more 1 numerous tlian at those of the monarch himself. Prince i Henry died in St. James’s Palace in November, 1612, at the early age of nineteen, and there v/ere dark rumoui's : afloat at the time that a slow and subtle poison had been I employed to terminate a career which dawned so brightly, ' and from which such goodly promise was anticipated, j' Charles II. and James II. were born in this palace, and I here their unfortunate sire was brought from Windsor on ;i Januai-y 19th, 1649, his apartment being hastily furnished by his servant, Mr. Kinnersley, of the wardrobe. The j intervening days between the last-named day and the 27th, I were spent in Westminster Hall, and at the house of Sir I Robert Cotton, contiguous to the tribunal. On the 27th he was taken back to St. James’s palace, whence on the 30th he was carried through the park to the place of exe- cution. During the reign of Charles 1 1, tliis edifice was granted as a state residence to his brother the Duke of York, who when he became King frequently held his court here. In this palace his first wife, Anne Hyde, died, and several of his children were born here, among them the prince, afterwards known as the Pretender, and Queen Anne and Queen IVlai'y II. Pennant writes that James II. ■ “sent to the Prince of Orange when he approached in ij 176 Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON; j! force Dear the capital a most necessitated invitation to , take his lodgings at that palace. The prince accepted it . , but at the same time hinted to the frightened prince that he must leave WhitehaU.” The Princess Mary, afterw^ds the second queen of that name, was married ^ere in^o- ^ vember, 1677, at eleven at night, to the Prince M Orange, Charles II. bestowing the bride, the Duke and Duress of ^ York and many of the nobility Pf f ^h * mony. William III., on being caUed to the English , throne, was a temporary resident of the I after his accession, was prepared W * Princess Anne and Prince George of ! band, to whom she was here united 1^.1683. ^pon tiie , accession of Queen Anne she made this her climf do - ciliatory palace, that of Whitehall having been destioyed , by fire in 1695. When the crown passed to the Brunswick dynasty, George I. and George II. constantly Jj^ed at St. James’s, where in 1737 Caroline, the queen of the last- mentioned monarch died. The palace was ^ohabfied bj the succeeding kings, but her present majesty s abode is Buckingham Palace. Still that ot St. James s is not shorn entirely of its ancient state ancl splendour, the l^^^es drawing-rooms continuing to be held in i . , . J 1809, the palace received serious injury from a ni couslmed the east of the ionee “■‘rt-J'f ^ the damage was estimated to fall very little short o .£100 000 Upon entering St. James’s, the first room reached is the guard-room, a gallery fitted up as an "P®]} ftate occasions the yeomen of the guard attend in costume. Beyond are the state apartments, looking upon the park. They comprehend a suite of three rooms, the innermost being the presence-chamber, and the o^ber two drawing-rooms. By George IV. they were ^ style of the most costly elegance in 1824. In the first ol th^ese drawing-rooms are fine paintings f Lisle, places memorable as the scenes of British ^alou , and a portrait of George II. ; the other is enriched with SUTHERLAND HOUSE. 177 two naval pieces^ illustrating the triumphs of Howe and Nelson, with a portrait of George III. In the presence- chamber is a splendid throne, over which extends a canopy of crimson velvet trimmed with broad gold lace, and em- broidered in gold with a star and crown. The piers of this room are fitted up with plate glass. The window- curtains are of crimson satin, trimmed with gold-coloured fringe ; and the cornices, mouldings, and other accessories to the apartment are richly gilt. Two fine pictures repre- senting the battles ofVittoria and Waterloo embellish this magnificent room. The queen’s closet, where the queen gives audience to her ministers, is behind the presence- chamber. On the west side of the court-yard is the Chapel Royal, said to have been the identical one attached to the hospital. The ceiling is partitioned into small painted squares. Divine service is here conducted in the same manner as at cathedrals. The establishment includes a dean, usually the Bishop of London, a lord almoner, a sub- dean, and forty-eight chaplains, who officiate alternately, before the royal family. There are also in connection with it, gentlemen of the chapel, choristers, organists, and other functionaries. Opposite to the gateway of St. James’s Palace is Cleve- land-row, so named from the town-house of the beautiful Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, who lived in the reign of Charles II. Cleveland House originally belonged to the Earls of Berkshire, from whom it was purchased by Charles, and presented to the fair Barbara. The house being a larger one than the Duchess required, she disposed of a part of it, which was converted into separate dwellings, keeping the remaining portion for herself. Cleveland House was taken down a few years since. Facing this site, and just within the verge of the Green Park, is a modern stately stone fabric, which within a period not much exceeding twenty years, has borne the several names of York House, Staft'ord House, and Sutherland House. It was com- menced in 1825 for the late Duke of York, who, hoM'- ever, did not live to inhabit it. Upon the death of that 2 A 178 Tallis’s illlsteated London ; Brince it was piirciased by tbe late of Staffed, SfinisMiii aspieBdidstyle after the designs of Mr Beniamin Wyatt. It is now the residence of the Duke of Seriand In shape it is quadrangular, and has four f frits encased with stone. The ground story is perfect froi being of the Corinthian order, rusticated, the upper part oeing oi An eleo-ant bulustrade conceals the third story, ana a kntem the centre of the roof diffuses light over the slaicSe, vthieh is approached by a teen feet broad. The state mmurehend a noble picture gallery, 130 ieet in iengtn. S Sief front is to the north, and presents a portico of eitw Corinthian colnmns, forming the entrmce. The S iiTwest project at each end, both ennehedwith six CmintMan columns, sustaining a pediment. No columns nn +bp east but over the pilasters there is an mtSlature of the Corinthian order. Opposite to the entrance of Sutherland House is a handsome modern mSon in which William IV. resided when Duke of “oTthe north side of Pall-mall, hetween St James’s- Un tiie iioi of the British Institution, street and square, is the ga ^ ^ ttt •„ -i oak qj. pstahlished under the auspices of George III. m i»Uo, on fte iLmmendation of Sir Thomas Barnard, in order to enconrage British artists, and to give opportunites of ShSg historical subjects to greater advantage than m Se room®s of the Eoyal Academy W ”'°t'‘’ n*it'ri”fonTmted into rstudio, furnished 'with pic- toes paintei by the most eelebrated^mastos, rLStrsht for tht SstFtut'on, was erected by Aldemml room Doug ,• celebrated Shakspere Gal- wf The bnilding is sculptured in front mth a group renVesenting Shakspere. with Painting and Poetry as his assoeSSs In the hall there is a fine statue of Achilles. The first gas lamps that irradiated London were erected in Pall-mall in 1807 . CHAPTEE VII. PICCADILLY — MAY-FAIBj ETC. Piccadilly is one of tlie longest, most populous, and most fashionable thoroughfares in the western quarter of the capital, extending from Coventry-street to Hyde Park Corner. Its boundaries may be thus defined : Coventry- street and Leicester- square on its east ; Jermyn-street, PaU-maU, and the Green Park, south ; Eegent-street and Oxford -street, north; Knightsbridge and Kensington, west. There is something anomalous in the character of this street, shops, hotels, and princely mansions being in close juxta-position ; plebeian and patrician houses associ- ating together in a more neighbourly union than the fan- tastic code of etiquette permits their several inhabitants to do. Highly prized as Piccadilly is for its aristocratic asso- ciations, yet, as in vicinities less recherche and more pre- suming, there is no bar or hindrance to the full tide of vehicular traffice; no '‘private road” exclusiveness that prohibits the revolving of an omnibus or a hackney cab in the same parallel with the carriage of a peer or an am- bassador. In all seasons Piccadilly is a pleasant lounging place, few streets in London exhibiting more animation. According to an ancient chart of London, printed in 1560, the existing line of Piccadilly, from the Haymarket to Hyde Park Corner, was a road running through an open coimtry, only distinguished as “The Waye to Read- inge,” Soon after 1640 it assumed the form of a street, but was not carried on beyond the point where SwaUow- street subsequently stood. By Charles II. it was extended towards Hyde Park, and the new street was named, in compUment to his consort, Portugal-street. The origin of the name Piccadilly is involved in doubt. By some it is said to derive its appellation from Peccadilla Hall, a place 180 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; for tlie sale of a kind of ruff called PickadiUes. Mr. Jesse, however says, that “ this article of dress was not m- troduced till nearly twenty years after Pwkaddla had be- come a familiar name. He adds — '^Pickadilla House, which stood nearly on the site of the present Panton- square, was a fashionable place of amusement apparently as far back as the reign of Elizabeth, and continued to be so nearly till the time of the Commonwealth. It had been the custom of all countries to confer an alluring name on places of amusement, and I cannot, therefore, but think that the Pickadilla House derived its name from the Spanish word peccadillo, literally meaning a vernal fault. It seems far more reasonable to suppose that the newly- invented ruff should have derived its name from being worn by the fair ladies and silken gallants who frequented Pickadilla House, than that a trifling article of dress should have given a name first to the suburban emponum in which it is asserted to have been sold, and afterwards to one of the principal streets in Europe.^^ The original buildings which formed Piccadilly did not ^ve much pro- mise of rendering it that fashionable locahty which it is acknowledged to be in the present age. That portion of it facin«y the Green Park was, in the last century, one ot the mo^t squalid and disreputable districts in London, abounding in low taverns, among the signs of which were “The Pillars of Hercules, “The Triumphant Car, “ The Punning Horse,” “ The White_ Horse,” and the “ Half Moon.” Such of these public-houses as were I adiacent to Hvde Park were much frequented by the soldiers on review days, when there were long wooden benches fixed in the streets in front of the houses for the convenience of some half-dozen barbers, who were on field-days engaged in powdering and other tonsorial oper- ations on behalf of those military _ aspirants who were ambitious to be distinguished by their toilettes. In describing Piccadilly as it at present appears, the mansions which embellish its line of road, the pleasant streets, and stately squares by which it is flanked, and PICCADILLY. 181 also for what their several sites have been memorable, the most eligible point to start from is Hyde Park Corner, j In so doing, however, we shall not at present notice Hyde Park, as the more appropriate description of that favoured resort will come under our general surveys of the metro- j pohtan parks. At the corner of Hyde Park, and fronting Piccadilly, stands Apsl&y House, the residence of that veteran warrior the Duke of Wellington, whose very name has become a household word,"’ and whose popularity is abundantly proved by the statues and memorials of him, seen in ail directions, and by the countless streets of which he has been made the unconscious sponsor. The mansion was originally built, after a design of the brothers Adam, in 1770, for Lord Chancellor Apsley, who subsequently was known as the second Earl Bathurst. It afterwards was the residence of the late Marquis Wellesley, and in 1828 became the property of the Duke of WeRington, when it was entirely remodeRed and much enlarged by Sir Geoffry WyatvRle. The chief front comprehends a centre and two wings. The portico is of the Corinthian order, supported by a rusticated arcade of three apertures com- municating with the entrance hall, and a rusticated ground-story forms the basement of the building. The west front comprises two wings. The centre slightly recedes and has four windows, with a handsome balcony. The portico is surmounted by a pediment of classic pro- portions. A bronzed palisade, between leaved pillars, (to correspond with the entrance gates of Hyde Park), en- closes the Piccadilly front. The ball-room and the pic- ture gaUery, extending the whole length of the mansion, are two of the most brilliant saloons in the metropolis. Nearly adjacent, and east of Apsley House, there stood in the last century an inn called the “ Pillars of Hercules,” j a favourite resort of travellers from the W est of England, and a popular eating-house with the military. Between this public-house and that range of princely dwellings called Hamilton-place, stood a group of shabby buRdings, I 182 Tallis’s illustrated London •, of whicli not a few were public-lioiises. To one of these, it is recorded by Dr. Johnson, Sir Eichard Steele con- ducted the unfortunate poet Savage, who acted as Steele’s amanuensis while he composed a pamphlet. The festal part of the entertainment was extremely poor, and before even that could he paid for, Savage had to go forth and hawk Sir Richard’s production for sale, for which with some trouble, he procured two guineas, and thus they were enabled to defray the cost of their very slender banquet. These hovels have long since disappeared, the handsome edifices forming Piccadilly Terrace covering their site. At No. 13 Lord Byron lived soon after his marriage, and it was while an occupant of this house that his separation from Lady Byron took place. He composed his poems of Parisina and the Siege of Corinth, during his residence here. Bassing hy Hamilton-place, Park-lane, a senes of splendid mansions looking upon Hyde Park, is reached. Its original name was Tyburn-lane, an appellation which its increased gentility has long since indignantly dis- carded. It extends from Piccadilly to Cumherland-place, the western termination of Oxford-street. At the south- west corner of the Piccadilly end of Park-lane is the mansion of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Glou- cester, of which the first proprietor was the Earl of Elgin. This nobleman, distinguished for his antiquarian taste, here first exhibited the marbles imported by him from the lands of classic memory, and which have long perpetuated his name. Notwithstanding Byron’s caustic satire, the Elgin marbles were justly appreciated by the British public and government, and in 1816 they were purchased by Parliament and transferred to the British Museum. The Marquis of Westminster’s Gallery forms the western wing ' of his spacious mansion in Park-lane. It was erected for the reception of the superb Grosvenor col- lection, the foundation of which was formed hy the pur- chase of Mr. Agar’s paintings for 30,000 guineas. It is esteemed one of the finest collections in the country. PICCADILLY. 183 Half Moon-street, on the north side of Piccadilly, is in- debted for its name to a pnhlic-house called the “ Half Moon,^’ which was situate at its corner. Madame D’Ar- hlay, the accomplished writer of “Evelina/' dwelt at No. 1, and that fascinating actress, Mrs. Pope, who performed on the boards of Drury-lane for the long period of forty years, died here. Clarges-street stands upon the site of Clarges House, the residence of Sir Thomas Clarges, the brother- in-law of George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, to whose singular matrimonial connection we have elsewhere alluded. In 1810, No. 80, Piccadilly was the object of a regular siege, the besiegers being the serjeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, and his assistants, and the defender of the fortress, Sir Francis Burdett. Great excitement prevailed in Piccadilly, where large multitudes assembled, I much incensed at the attempt being made to capture their i pg^YQ'uxite. Eventually the authority of the Speaicer s war- i rant prevailed, and Sir Francis was taken from his strong- hold in Piccadilly to the Tower of London, where he re- mained, till the close of the parliamentary session restored him to hberty. Stratton-street is a handsome avenue overlooking the gardens of Devonshire House, and is one of the streets named after Lord Berkeley of Stratton, to whose titles and estate of Hay Hill Farm, Berkeley-square, HiU-street, Hay-hill, and Farm-street, are also indebted for their names. At the corner of Stratton-street is the mansion occupied by the late Duchess of St. Albans, originally favourably known to the play-going public as Miss Mellon, an actress of sterling capabilities. She quitted the stage to be the consort of the hanker millionaire, Coutts ; and upon his death, the late Duke of St. Albans became her second husband. The mansion is now the residence of Miss Burdett Coutts (daughter of Sir Francis Burdett), to whom the Duchess bequeathed the bulk of her immense fortune — a fortune which several adventurers have in vain endeavoured to share by offering their hands to its discriminating and munificent possessor. Leaving Stratton-street we approach that gorgeous building, Devon- 1^4 TALLIS'’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; shire House, which occupies nearly the same plot on which Berkeley House stood, erected by Lord Berkeley of Strat- ton in 1670. Evelyn, who dined with Lord John Berkeley in 1672, thus speaks of the edifice — “It was in his new house, or rather palace, for I am assured it stood him in £30,000. The staircase is of cedar ; the furniture is princely. The forecourt is noble, so are the stables, and above all the gardens, which are incomparable, by reason of the inequality of the ground and a ^Tettj piscina. The holly hedges on the terrace, I advised the planting of.'’^ Berkeley House was at that time the last in the street towards Hyde Park Corner, and its gardens stretched over the ground on which Lansdowne House and Berkeley- square have since arisen. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, lived here for some time, with her consort. About the commencement of the eighteenth century Berkeley House was consumed by fire, and the present structure was erected after the designs of Kent, for William, the third Duke of Devonshire. The hospitality of Devonshire House has been long celebrated ; Fox, Burke, and Sheridan, offered the tributes of wit and elo- quence to their beautiful hostess, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and the present Duke keeps up in a liberal spirit its ancient character. Berkeley -street, the west side j of which is bounded by the garden-wall of the mansion just-named, conducts into Berkeley-square. At No. 9, in j this street, resided the famous poet, Alexander Pope, the neighbour of his friend and patron. Lord Burlington. Berkeley-square, the situation of which is rendered very agreeable by its being adjacent to the gardens of Devon- shire House, was formed in the early part of the last cen- tury. Its principal mansion is Lansdowne House, built by John Earl of Bute, the famous minister in 1765, and ! and subsequently sold by him to Lord Shelburn, after- wards the Marquis of Lansdowne. In Berkeley-square Lord Clive lived, and here the amusing letter-writer Ho- ; race Walpole died. The residence of Lord Brougham is | in this square. At the east end of it is Hay Hill, a short I MAY-FAIR. ,185 street memorable as the scene of a skirmish which took ^ place in 1554 between the Queen’s troops and the rebels, ' under Sir Thomas Wyatt, in which the latter was de- feated with severe loss; Wyatt, who was the son of the accomplished poet, was imprisoned in the Tower, and being convicted of high treason, was capitally punished. His head was affixed to a pole placed at the top of Hay Hill, his legs upon London Bridge, and other parts of his body similarly disposed of about the capital. Three of his con- federates were also gibbeted on Hay Hill, which was then, and for nearly two centuries afterwards, an open field re- mote from any habitation. We now approximate into tbe fashionable region of May Fair, which in the last century was a worthy con- temporary of Bartholomew Fair. Its site was originally called Brook Fields ; and when the ancient fair granted by Edward I. to St. James’s Hospital ceased with the dis- solution of monasteries, the fair was removed, and called May Fair from its being held on tbe first days of that month. The fair generally lasted fifteen days. Upon the ground now covered by May-fair Chapel, Hertford- street, Curzon-street, and Shepherd’ s-market, the princi- pal exhibitions of this once famous place were held. “ The fair,” writes Pennant '‘was attended with such disorders, riots, thefts, and even murders, that in 1700 it was pre- vented by the magistrates, hut revived again ; and I re- member the last celebrations. The place was covered with booths, temporary theatres, and every enticement to low pleasure.” In May 1708, that amusing essayist the “ Tatler,” indulges in the following jeremiad on the con- sequences of the suppression of the fair — “The dowiifal of IMay Fair has sunk the price of that noble creature, the elephant, as well as of many other curiosities of nature. A tiger will sell almost as cheap as an ox ; and I am cre- dibly informed a man may pui’cbase a calf with three legs for neatly the value of one with four. I hear likewise that there is great desolation among tbe ladies and gentle- men who were the ornaments of the town, and used to 2 B 186 TALLIS S ILLITSTEATED LONDON j shine in plumes and diadems, the heroes being most of them pressed, and the queens beating hemp.” May Fair, however, was not quite extinct, and its celebration con- tinued to be held, waxing “ Fine by degrees, and beautifully less,” till 1764, when its raree-show revels were brought to a close. Streets of elegant houses, the abodes of affluence and rank, have sprung up on the spot where once all the vagabonds in town held their annual saturnalia. In Cwr- zm-street lived G-eorge Lord Macartney, whose embassy I to China has conferred fame on his name ; in Hertford- stveet dwelt the fascinating Mrs. Jordan, and No. 4, in Chesterfield-street, was rendered distinguished as the abode of that renowned dandy, Beau Brummell. “ Frequently,” writes Mr. Jesse, George IV., when Prince of Wales, would pay him a morning visit in Chesterfield-street, to , watch the progress of his friend’s inimitable toilet; some- times sending his horses away, and remaining to so late an hour, that he was compelled to insist on Brummell s giving him a quiet dinner, which not uncommonly termi- nated in a midnight debauch.” This street is named after Chesterfield House, erected in the reign of G'eorge II. by that authority for etiquette and polished manners, the Earl of Chesterfield. The stone colonnades leading from the house to the wings are extremely beautiful, and the staircase which is of marble, formerly belonged to the superb mansion of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons. South Audley-street is entered from Curzon-street. In the chapel of this street the remains of the Lord Chesterfield above named, and John Wilkes are interred. Louis XVIII. and Charles X., when driven by popular commotions from France, both resided at the same house in this street at different pe- riods ; and in an adjacent house, commanding a view of Hyde Park, lived first the pet, and afterwards the victim of the French revolutionists, Egalite, Philippe due d’Or- leans, the father of the late Louis Philippe, king of the MAY- FAIR. 187 French. South Audley-street is one of the several fine approaches to Grosvenor -square, a square which notwith- standing its comparative antiquity, and the rapid increase of squares in these favourite localities, is still unsurpassed, hardly equalled in London. It was erected on the ground of Sir Richard Grosvenor, cup-bearer at the coronation of George II. During the civil wars the insurgents con- structed strong fortifications upon this area, and Mount- street is indebted for its name to a redoubt called Oliver’s Mount, which was among their military works. The : garden-entrance was planned by the landscape gardener, Kent, and the centre is ornamented with an equestrian statue of George I. by Van Nost. The houses in this square are truly magnificent, many of their fronts being of stone, and others of rubbed brick with quoins, facios, win- dows, and door-cases of stone ; and some are adorned with stone columns of the various architectural orders. True to its aristocratic predilections against change, Grosvenor- square was one of the last squares in London to be irra- diated with gas, adhering to oil lamps until it became a re- luctant convert to the new lights. From Grosvenor-square, Upper Grosvenor-street, and Upper Brook-street, parallel streets run to Hyde Park. In the former, William, duke of Cumberland, the ferocious conqueror of Culloden, expired in 1765. Upper Brook-street is one of the grandest streets in this afiluent district. The entrance to the Mar- quis of Westminster’s splendid mansion, which extends into Park-lane, is here. This street was the scene of a memorable calamity on the 6th of May, 1763, the parti- culars of which are given by that interesting chronicler, Horace Walpole. Writing to Marshal Conw^ay, lie says, — “ Lady Molesworth’s house in Upper Brook-street, was burnt to the ground between four and five this morning. She herself, two of her daughters, her brother, and six servants, perished. Two other young ladies jumped out of the two-pair of stairs and garret wdiidows ; one broke her thigh, the other (the eldest of all), broke hers too, and has had it cut off. The fifth daughter is much 1' 188 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; burnt ; tbe French governess leaped from the garret and was dashed to pieces ; Dr. Molesworth and his wife who were there on a visit, escaped, — the wife by jumping from two pair of stairs, and saving herself by a rail — he by hang- ing by his hands till a second ladder was brought, after a first had proved too short. Nobody knows how or where the fire began ; the catastrophe is shocking beyond what one ever heard, and poor Lady Molesworth, whose charac- ter and conduct were the most amiable in the world, is universally lamented.^^ 'When the intelligence of this sad occurrence reached the king, he sent^ to the surviving daughters of Lady Molesworth a very liberal present ; di- rected that a house should be at once prepared for them at his own cost, and increasing by £200 per annum the pen- sion which their mother had enjoyed, continued it to them. . Ee-entering Piccadilly, and pursuing an eastward course, we reach DovcT-stTBct and ^IbcmdTlB-stvBct , two wide and handsome streets containing hotels and private dwellings. Albemarle-street, and Graf ton-street, one of its tributaries, extending into Bond-street, cover tbe site once dignified by Clarendon House, built by tbe great Lord Clarendon in 1667, with the stones intended for the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It cost £50,000, and 300 men were employed upon the work. It was called Dunkirk House by his enemies, who charged him with | having erected it with the money arising from the sale of i Dunkirk, which had just before been given up to the i French for a large sum by his royal master. In 1683 , Clarendon House was purchased of tbe son of its founder | by the Duke of Albemarle for £25,000, but Ms necessi- | ties did not allow him to keep it long. He disposed of j tbe property, and the house was taken down, and Albe- j marie-street, Grafton- street, and other streets, arose upon the ground. ^“^The earliest date,” says Mr. J. T. Smith, “ now to be found on the site of Clarendon House is cut in stone, and let into the south wall of a public-house, the sign of the Duke of Albemarle, in Dover-street, thus BOND-STREET. 189 'This is Stafford Street, 1686.^’’ _ In Albemaile-street lived the late Mr. Murray, the publisher of Byron^s works, and the poetry of the noble bard has given an enduring re- putation to that street from which it first issued, to revive the declining taste for verse, and the intrinsic merit of which commanded the admiration of all classes. Byron was, indeed, a mighty poet ; his writings were read and appreciated quite irrespective of the rank of the author ; and to them, at least, the sarcasms of an untitled poet were not apphcable — “ But let a lord once own the happy lines, ^ How the wit brightens, how the sense refines.” The next street of consequence in Piccadilly is Bond- j street, the fashionable attractions of which have long 1 been proverbial, its habitues so far back as 1717, being 1 styled “ Bond-street loungers.^'* Bond-street was built in I 1686, and was named after Sir Thomas Bond, Baronet of Peckham, Surrey, Comptroller of the Household to Queen Henrietta Maria. He had also a house in Piccaailly, which was rented by the French ambassador in 1699. Sir i Thomas gave up honour and place, and went voluntarily I into exile with James II. In 1700 Old Bond-street was j built no farther than the west-end of Clifford- street. The present New Bond-street was at that time an open field, called Conduit-mead. Bond-street abounds in literary associations. Here Gibbon had a residence, while com- posing his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Sterne died at his lodgings in this street on the 18th of March, 1768. The narrative of his last moments, as given by the elder DTsraeli, is interesting. He says — “ I find the moment of his death described in a singular hook, the Life of a Footman.” The passage was as follows : — " About this time, Mr. Sterne, the celebrated author, was taken ill at the silk-bag shop in Old Bond-street. He was sometimes called Tristram Shandy, and sometimes Yorick, a very great favourite of the gentlemen. ' Johii,^ said my master, ' go and enquire how Mr. Sterne is to- 190 TALLISES ILLXJSTEATED LONDON ; day.’ I -went to Mr. Sterne’s lodgings — the mistress opened the door. I enquired how he did. She told me to go up to the nurse ; I went into the room, and he was just a-dying. I waited ten minutes ; but in five, he said, ‘ Now it is come ! ’ He put up his hand as if to stop a blow, and died in a minute.” Bond-street (Old and New), stretches from Piccadilly to Oxford-street, and is a con- tinuous line of costly shops and fine hotels. Of these the Clarendon and Long's are held in high repute by the fashionable world. In Old Bond-street is the Western Exchange, (to which there is also an entrance from Bur- lington Arcade,) a bazaar established in 1817 for the sale of fancy articles, and very tastefully arranged. The streets on the right-hand side of Bond-street, entering Piccadilly, have no particular feature ; they chiefly lead into Hanover- square, Burlington-street, and the neigh- bourhood of Regent-street. Those upon the left-hand claim more individual notice. Brut on-street, leading into Berkeley-street, is composed of handsome private re- sidences, in one of which Richard Brinsley Sheridan lived. Brook-street, similar in character to Upper Brook-street, forms a handsome approach from Bond-street to Gros- venor-square. In this street is that magniflcent house, Mivarfs Hotel, the attractive locale of which, in close proximity to the parks and the most eligible neighbour- hoods of the west ; together with the splendour of its appointments, its vast extent of accommodation, and withal its apt illustration of the cozy and comfortable, have ren- dered it a favourite temporary residence with the nobility and others of note. It is also frequented by foreigners of distinction ; the Grand Duke Alexander, heir-apparent to the Emperor of Russia, the late King of Holland, and other continental potentates, have on their visits to England occupied the state apartments. Leaving Bond-street, and resuming our walk through Piccadilly, after passing by Burlington Arcade already de- scribed, Burlington House is reached, of which the front is of stone. The circular colonnade is of the Doric order. BURLINGTON HOUSE. 191 and by tbis tbe wings are connected. Its beautiful front is concealed from tbe street by a heavy brick screen. Upon tbe spot wbicb it occupies, tbe poet Sir John Den- : bam built a bouse in tbe reign of Charles II. The present j structure was raised by tbe accomplished Eichard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, after his own design. Handel was domiciled for three years at Burbngton House, the hospitable doors of wbicb were ever open to men of genius. Gay thus commemorates this abode of rank and refined ■ taste : “ Yet Burlington’s fair palace still remains ; Beauty within, without proportion reigns, Beneath his eye declining art revives, The wall with animated pictures lives. There Handel strikes the strings, the melting strain Transports the soul, and thrills thro’ every vein. There oft I enter, (but with cleaner shoes) For Burlington’s beloved by every Muse.” Its noble grounds between the Arcade and the Albany extend to Burlington Gardens, a continuation of Vigo- street, their boundary wall being opposite Queensbury [ House, the residence of tbe Marquis of Anglesey. Bur- ! lington House afterwards became the property of the | j Devonshire family, and was sold to Lord George Caven- : dish by the present Duke of Devonshire. Proceeding on- ward, and crossing that portion of Piccadilly which Regent- ! street intersects, we come to a paved court called Panton- square, on the site of which stood Piccadilla Hall. The property was purchased by Colonel Panton, a notorious gambler, who having tbe good fortune to win in one night a sum sufficient to maintain him for life, adopted tbe wise resolution of abandoning the hazardous pursuit of play for ever. Close by tbis point Piccadilly is joined by Coventry-street. The southern side of this great thoroughfare must now be briefly touched upon. Returning toward Hyde Park Corner, on tbe south side ! of Piccadilly, the parish church of St. James, nearly oppo- ^ site Sackville-street, meets the eye. Externally it is com- 192 Tallis’s illusteated London ; posed of yellow brick- work ; the rustic quoins and facing being of Portland stone. It is 84 feet long, 68 wide, and 42 high ; the tower at the west end crowned by a spire reaching an altitude of 150 feet. The interior is parti- tioned into a nave by two rows of six Corinthian columns, ascending from square panelled piers, by which the gal- leries are sustained. The roof, a broad coved one, divided into sunken and enriched panels is partially broken by arches, which stretch towards the external walls. _ The east window is composed of two stories ; the lower similar in style to the church, the upper of the composite order. A beautiful carved font by Grinling Gibbons, faces the great entrance from the west end. It is hewn out of white marble, and is nearly five feet in height ; the cir- j cumference of the bowl being about six feet. The shaft , represents the tree of life, with the serpent coiled around it, and stooping down to offer the forbidden fruit to Eve, who with Adam stands beneath. On the upper part, in basso-relievo, are represented the baptism of our Saviour in Jordan ; the baptizing of the Treasurer of Candace by St. Philip the Deacon ; and the ark of Noah, with the dove bearing the olive-branch of peace in its beak. A beautiful cover, held by a flying angel, ornamented with rich fohage, and supported by a chain of brass, around which was a group of cherubims, was stolen before the beginning of this centurv, and it is said by Mr. Brayley to have been re- voltingly hung up as the sign ot a spirit shop hard by. * This church was built in 1684 by Sir Christopher Wren, as a chapel of ease to St. Martin’s Church, and it was con- secrated in 1685, in honour to the new king, by the name of St. James’s-in-the-Fields. The district was included in the overgrown parish of St. Martin’s-in-the -Fields, but in the first year of the reign of James II. the inhabitants petitioned Parliament that their district might be made a distinct parish, independent of the mother church. Their prayer was complied with, and from St. Martin s parish was severed that fashionable territory called the * The Eev. M. E. C. Walcott THE H 1 ON B I D c e: •lAMMERSMITl T -■ ■' .. A I } o ) a i , v }■ i V I I I j i I PEN ) T E N-T I A R Y , j ABLINGTON-STaEET. ■* ‘ parish of St. James, within the liberty of Westminster. Dr Tenison, Dr. Wake, Dr. Seeker, each of whom were subsequently raised to the see of Canterbury, and the learned Samuel Clarke, may be named among the emi- ; nent men who have filled the rectory of St. James. In ' the vaults and in the cemetery of this church are buried a host of persons once distinguished by their rank, their influence, and their talents, from the names of_ whom I we select the following : — Charles Cotton, the friend of Walton ; William Vandervelde, the Dutch marine painter ; Tom d’ijrfey the jester, and merry companion of Charles ; II., and author of Pills to Purge Melancholy ;” Dr. ! Arbuthnot, the literary colleague of Swift ; Akenside, the ■ poet ; James Dodsley, the publisher ; Gillray, the cele- ! brated caricaturist ; and George Henry Harlow, an artist | I of great promise. ! ' The Egyptian Hall, opposite to Burlington Arcade, was built in 1812. The design, which is Egyptian, is a copy of ; the Temple of Tentyra. The entablature of the centre | window is sustained by two colossal figures, beneath which j I large columns serve for their pedestals. This building is ! appropriated to occasional exhibitions, panoramas, &c. j j Perhaps the most interesting exhibition ever witnessed i I I was the exquisite model of the Pyramids and other . Egyptian monuments, as described by that enterprising | traveller Belzoni. i i ! ! Arlington-street, the houses on the west side of which look into the Green Park, has long been a favomite i residence with persons of the highest rank. In all the M bloom of youthful beauty, enhanced by her sparkling wit, ; the admired Lady Mary Wortley Montague lived here before her marriage. Sir E-obert W^alpole, the famous , j minister, died in this street, and here for many years ! resided his son Horace Walpole, a great portion of whose | I interesting letters are dated from this street. I ox was | I also a resident; and in 1828, after a lingering illness, the , I late Duke of York died at the house of the Duke of | j Rutland. ! •I 1 ^ ft I ^94 Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; ! >' i ;! I The remaining portion of Piccadilly on this side of ‘ the way to the entrance of the parks is singularly agree- i able, a light railing only dividing it from the Green Park. I i Some years since, to make a more ample footway, a por- ' tion of the last-named park was added to the street, but ! i good taste preserved the trees from destruction. Thus ' I that part of Piccadilly opposite the Terrace and Hamilton- | I place presents a shady walk, abounding in foliage in the I summer-time, and yielding to one of the most crowded | I thoroughfares in the capital, all the freshness and pleasant- i j ness of the country. ! CHAPTER VIII. CONSTITUTION HILL — GROSVENOR PLACE BELGRAVIA i CHELSEA KNIGHTSB RIDGE BROMPTON KENSINGTON I BAVSWATER, ETC. j I j Constitution Hill is a wide and handsome road on the south side of the Green Park, between which and the gar- den-wall of Buckingham Palace it extends to the western entrance of Piccadilly. The entrance to Constitution-hill is formed by a grand triumphal arch with gates, erected some years since by Mr. D. Burton. The arch is surmounted by a colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, I: the work of the late Mr. hi. C. Wyatt. Leaving Piccadilv" i and advancing westward we turn down Grosvenor-place a fashionable locality in the rear of the gardens of her majesty’s palace. Hence we advance into a splendid dis- tiict which has sprung up within the last thirty years, covering some unprofitable fields in Chelsea and Pimlico ! with a series of superb squares, crescents, terraces, and CHELSEA. 195 streets, collectively known under the name of Belgravia. JBelgrave-square, immediately at the back of Grosvenor- place is considered one of the finest squares in London, and is 684 feet long, and 617 broad. The_ front elevation is partly stuccoed and partly stone, and is adorned^ with Corinthian columns. This square_ and the region which it names were built by that enterprising and affluent peer the hlarquis of Westminster, and is styled after one of lus 1 titles his country seat, the county in widen it is situated, and other associations of his princely house being com- ! memorated in the appellations borne by the buildings of ! the surrounding neighbourhood. In a continuous line with Belgrave-square are Eaton and Chester Squares, to the last-named of which the Church of St. Michael’s forms a partial back-ground. Adjacent to Belgrave-square _ is Wilton-crescent, in which Lord John Bussell, the Premier of England, resided for some years. The Pantechnicon, I an immense bazaar of considerable architectural beauty, is between Halkin-street west and Motcombe-street,_ Bel- j grave-square. It was erected for the sale of carriages, j I works of art, and valuable property. The north side of Belgravia, or that portion of it lying between Knights- bridge and Chelsea, is exiremelj recherche ; the south side, jj between Belgrave-place, Pimlico, and Vauxhall bridge, running in a right angle from the Bridge=road towards the north bank of the river, though less distinguished, stiR abounds in handsome squares and spacious streets, resi- : deuces in which only opulence can command. Eccleston ji and Warwick-squares are recent erections upon a superb I scale. The houses here are built upon arches, their site i being the marsh of the Thames, drained, and artificially j elevated by the engineering labours of the Messrs. Cubitt. ! Besborough-gardens (which we have noticed) facing Vaiix- ! hall bridge, constitute the extreme southern limit of j Belgravia. j : Chelsea, originally called a village, might from the large 1] extent of buildings which now crowd its surface, be en- titled to claim rank as a metropolitan borough. It lies on I 196 Tallis’s illustrated London; j tlie north bank of the Thames, facing Battersea, and ' adjoins Pimlico, forming a junction with Brompton. This j populous district has already found an able local historian j but It being only one of the many limbs of London, we can I no more than glance at a few of its features. This locality i has been rendered famous by the celebrated naturahst and j P^^y®ician Sir Hans Sloane, whose names are pepetuated { in Sloane-square, the appearance of which is very plebeian I beside its gorgeous Belgravian neighbours ; Sham-street \ a spacious street opening from Knightsbridge; Hans-place . and other parts of Chelsea. Sir Hans Sloane bequeathed Ins Botanical Garden in Chelsea to the Company of Apo- j thecaries, upon condition that they should present an- I nuaily to the Loyal Society fifty new plants, till the I number should amount to 2,000. This condition was ^ punctually fulfilled. The students and others who are j I admitted to this garden, have a ticket presented to them, l| I bearing the motto Herbarum est subjecta nobis. This dis- ' ' I tinguished man is buried in the cemetery of Old Chelsea 'I j Church, his mausoleum being one of the most prominent i , objects in that suburb of the dead. The church, a pic- j turesque edifice, looks upon the river, being at the western ; extremity of Cheyne-walk, a row of antique mansions, in ' j front of which are trees, many of which have witnessed I their centenary. In Chelsea was that delightful place of j! amusement Ranelagh-gardens, once the favourite resort of I forgotten generations.” There, rank and beauty, wit and learning were wont to seek in music and the dance, in j groves glittering with light, and vocal with mirth, a tern- i : porary oblivion of thought. They have vanished— long since quitted life and all its concerns, and the very spot , erewhile the scene of their gay revels, and their most care- || less moments, has departed like a dream, a fairy fabric 1 1 crumbled into nothingness beneath the iron fingers of * Time. Kaneiagh started into existence about the middle j ! of last century, a few years subsequent to the opening of ; i Vauxhall Gardens, and became highly fashionable, its i i masquerades winning a celebrity which no later entertain- | KNIGHTSBRIDUE, 197 ments of that kind in England have ever gained. It declined towards the commencement of the present century, and little more than forty years back these gardens of gaiety closed their brilliant career ; and the spot where they once stood is now covered with the stern substantialities oj. brick and mortar, yielding enormous rents. Cremorne Gardens (of which hereafter) may be considered a kind of successor to Ranelagh. Chclsect Hospital, the famous refuge of superannuated and invalided soldiers, will be described in another portion of this work. The Royoi, Military Asylum, adjoining the King’s-road, was erected in 1801 by the Duke of York, second son of George III., for the education and maintenance of the children of soldiers of the regular army. Here 700 boys and 300 girls are lodged. It is encompassed by high walls, and has a handsome iron railing before the front. This structure forms three sides of a quadrangle, with an elegant stone balustrade. The appearance of the western front is much enhanced by a fine portico of the Doric order, and a well- proportioned pediment, on the frieze of which is inscribed the name of the institution. Keturning through Grosvenor-place, and continuing the road west of Hyde Park-corner we enter Knightsbrklge, a kind of avenue leading to that point whence the Fulham and Kensington roads branch off. The north side of Knightsbridge is partially flanked by the railing of Hyde Park, and on the south are several entrances leading to Belgravia and Chelsea. In the central part of Knights- bridge is one of the finest entrances to Hyde Pai’k — Albert Gate. The entire gate or entrance is divided into five parts. The central one is composed of an iron balus- trade, forming an abutment for a carriage-way on each side, and beyond are entrances for pedestrians. The structure is surmounted with six large gas-lamps. The gates are embellished with escutcheons of the royal arms, and on the summit of the stone wall which separates the > adjacent houses on both sides of the roadway, is the figure 1 of' a stag, removed, it is said, from the ranger’s house in 198 Tallis’s illijsteated London; Piccadilly. On each side are two immense houses^ which from their colossal proportions were at the time of their erection nicknamed Gog and Magog, The mansion nearer ; to Piccadilly has been rendered noted as the residence of I royalty-railway royalty at least— it being the town palace j of Hudson, the railway king, and once the scene of his levees, levees which were summoned to do homage and pay fealty to the universal sovereignty of gold. Nearly j opposite is Loiondes-square, the residences in which are deservedly admired for the richness and varied character of their architectural decoration. A few steps onward bring us to the head of Sloane-street, leading to Cadogan- place, and its beautiful enclosures and nursery grounds. In Hans’-piace lived for many years the admired poetess. Miss Landon, afterwards Mrs. Maclean, whose melan- choly fate involved as deep a romance as did any of her ■ own imaginative legends. Beyond Sloane-street run two j parallel roads, one leading to Brompton and Fulham, and the other to Kensington, Chiswick, and the places ■ beyond. Pursuing the left-hand road we enter into that pleasant and salubrious western suburb, Brompton, which for the purity and health-bestowing qualities of its air, has been by some assimilated to Montpelier. Elegant villas, groves, terraces, rows, and squares in this district, well populated, indicate the absence of poverty and the existence of wealth, or at least of competence. Alexander, Brompton, and Thurloe-squares, are of an attractive character ; and in the first-named of these, Guizot, the minister of the late King of the French, when driven from France by a popular in- | surrection resided, distinguishing himself in the paths of I literature during his sojourn in England ; in the tenancy j of the identical house he Avas succeeded by his political op- I ponent, Ledru Bollin, in his turn an exile. Here Jenny Lind occupied a villa during her engagement at Her Majesty’s Theatre. The Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, an edifice which confers honour on Brompton, ivas founded in 1841. The area selected is a I 1 KENSINGTON. 190 !j few yards out of the road to Fuiliam^ and a spacious garden 1 1 i has been planted for the accommodation of the inmates, ij The Elizabethan style is preferred for the mansion, which j is built of red brick, relieved by ornamental dressings and j I'arious architectural embellishments. The internal ar- rangements are nothing inferior to the outside appearance. We refer to the care which has been bestowed on the ; means of securing comfort to those whom sickness has I compelled to remain within its walls, and above all, the skill employed to increase their chances of being rescued from the withering embrace of a hopeless disease. Ven- tilation, diet, physical and mental recreation, have all been judiciously anticipated for the invalids who may become , inmates of this hospital. By an estimate made some years ! ^ since it was calculated that the annual number of victims to that insidious disease, consumption, did not fall short of 60,000. In 1848, Mademoiselle Lind generously volun- I teered her free services on behalf of this institution. On ' the 30th of June a concert in aid of its funds was given in the concert-room of the Italian Opera-house, where the ! attractive vocalization of the Swedish Nightingale realized the large amount of £1,766. This sum was appropriated | to the construction of an additional wing to the hospital, i containing many additional beds for patients, and forming I an enduring memento of the well-timed liberality and ; womanly feeling of Jenny Lind. Ketui’ning to that point where the two roads branch off i near Sloane-street, our course now lies by the right-hand ] one, the barrier of which is the wall of Hyde Park, con- j ducting to the little town of Kensington, the approach to which is lined by mansions and villas of great architectural ' elegance, looking upon the verdant plains and slopes of Hyde Park. In Kensington Gore, just at the entrance of the town is a stately building in the centre of well-planted grounds, known as Gore House. Here for many years resided that beautiful woman and accomplished authoress the late Lady Blessington, around whose hospitable hoard ^ would gather a symposium ol the most distinguished poets 200 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; . | and brilliant wits of the age. On quitting Gore House, ! she went to reside in Paris, in which she had not been | many weeks when sudden death closed her career. The I house has since been taken by that renowned culinary chef, Alexis Soyer, under whose auspices it is to be thrown i open to the public, combining all the conveniences and , comforts of an hotel, with the elegance and refinement ot a private residence. We now reach the clean and well- built suburb of Kensington, which derives its importance from the royal palace and noble gardens of which it is the locality. Kensington Palace was purchased by the Earl of Nottingham, son of the Lord Chancellor of that name, by King William III., who partially rebuilt and ; much enlarged it, under the direction of Nicholas Hawks- | moor, from designs by Sir Christopher Wren. This palace, i in consequence of its salubrious situation and contiguity | to town, was very convenient for the king, whose health required a fine air and relief from fatigue. The mansion, j when King William bought it, had only 26 acres of land attached to it ; 30 more were purchased by Queen Anne ; and Queen Caroline, the wife of George II., encroached on Hyde Park for 300 acres more, which now collectively form Kensington Gardens. The palace is a large irregular edifice of brick, built at various times. The state apart- ments are very noble, and comprehend a suite of twelve ; rooms. The first ascent is by the great staircase in which ' are painted balconies. The pictures in this palace are j numerous, including several by Holbein, Leonardo da j Vinci, and other eminent masters. Queen Mary, wife of ' William III., died here, and so deep was the affection die- i' rished for her memory by the king that bracelets com- i: posed of her hair were found upon one of his arms after his death. Here also died Prince George of Denmark, the j consort of Queen Anne, and their promising son, the j Duke of Gloucester. George I. resided much at the ! palace, which received some material alterations in his ! reign, but still more during that of his successor. To Queen Caroline this royal dwelling is indebted for its best KENSINGTON-GARDENS. 201 i ■ omaments, a fine gallery of paintings, and several busts, j produced in obedience to her commands by Rysbrack and 1 1 Roubilliac. Both Queen Caroline and George II. died in Kensington Palace, where his majesty had principally ' resided during his reign. This sovereign was the last British monarch domiciliated here, but a portion of it has always been appropriated as a residence for members of the royal family. Here her present majesty, when the Princess Victoria,* resided with her mother the Duchess of i Kent, during her early girlhood ; and the late Duke of , Sussex, who lived in the palace for many years, collected ; an extensive and curious library of immense value which ' after his death was disposed of by public auction. Ken- ! sington Gardens form a delightful adjunct to the palace, j They are about three miles in circumference, and were ; principally laid out in the reign of George II. by Brown, whose taste procured for him the title of capability Brown. For beauty of arrangement they are not excelled by any promenade in Europe. Latterly great improvement has been effected by under-draining, hereby rendering the whole dry throughout the year. The gravel walks, grass- plots, and various avenues have been recently completed, with the additional ornamental plantation. The gardens are open all day to the public, for whose accommodation rustic seats are provided, and a military band generally performs once a-day. There are several entrances to the gardens from Kensington, Hyde Park, and Bayswater. Kensington Gardens, as well as Hyde Park, are supplied ! with water from the Serpentine, a small stream rising at ^ Bayswater, and discharging itself into the Thames near ' Chelsea. It also divides Chelsea and the parish of St. ! George, Hanover-square. This small river furnishing the 1 least supply when most wanted, during the summer is now replenished by artificial means from the Thames. A handsome stone bridge at the eastern end of Kensington Gardens spans tbe stream. It was designed by the Messrs. Rennie, and is composed of five water and two land arches. Its upper surface is level, connecting the northern and "02 Tallis’s illustrated London; southern banks of tlie canal together by its roadway. The material employed in its construction is Yorkshire sand- stone. In hard winters, when the Serpentine is frozen I OTer, and its^ waters converted into a solid causeway for I pedestrians, its surface is covered with skaters, who are , frequently placed in imminent peril by the treacherous nature of the icy floor over which they glide. That excel- lent institution, the Eoyal Humane Society, has erected on the banks of this miniature river a house for the recep- tion and recovery of persons taken out of the water appa- rently drowned, and by the means which it directs to be employed many have been rescued from death and restored to their friends, living monuments of the admirable work- ings of this society. Adjacent to the gardens are many superb edifices, of which those forming Queen’s Road Palace Gardens, stretch- ing from Kensington to Bayswater, are especially worthy of note. Beyond Kensington, the road extends to Chis- wick, Hammersmith, Brentford, Kew, Richmond, and other picturesque localities. CHAPTER IX. ST. MARTINS-LE-GRAND THE POST-OEFICE GRESHAM- : STREET LITTLE BRITAIN ALDERSGATE-STREET THE CHARTERHOUSE BARBICAN ST. GILEs’s CHURCH, CRIP- PLEGATE GOSWELL-ROAD ISLINGTON HIGHBURY HOLLOWAY HIGHGATE, ETC. Having traversed that portion of the western end of the metropolis south of Oxford-street and the New-road we return to our original starting-place, St. Paul’s church, I whence we take a northern route. Tjeavins’ Cheapside j ! ST. MARTIN S-LE-GRAND. ^03 1 ; and Newgate-street to the right, we find ourself in the ^ wide street of St. Martin’ s-le-^and, on the site of whose ancient church and sanctuary the General Post Office is now seen. On this spot stood, in 700, a college established by Wythred, king of Kent, and rebuilt and chiefly en- 1 dowed in 1056 by Ingelric and Edward, two Saxon bro- thers of noble birth. William the Conqueror confirmed it in 1068, and made it independent of every other eccle- siastical jurisdiction, from the regal and even papal. It was governed by a dean, and had several secular canons. The privilege of sanctuary was attached to it from its beginning, and consequently it became the resort of the i abandoned, the murderer and the thief, once safe within I its precincts, enjoying immunity, and defying the secular ; power. In 1548 both church and college were surrendered ■ to Edward VI., and taken down, and a great tavern and houses were erected upon the ground. The dean of chap- ter of the collegiate church of St. Peter's, Westminster, possessed and stiU maintain jurisdiction over St. Martin's- le-Grand. This church, with those of Bow, Cripplegate, and Barking, retained the curfew-hell long after its ! general discontinuance. It was sounded to caution the citizens of those districts to keep within doors after night, and not to hazard their security by wandering through the streets, which were infested with ruffians eager for plunder. The principal building in St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and, indeed, one of the noblest structures in the metropolis, is the General Post Office. Xenophon attributes the inven- tion of posts to Cyrus, who made use of them on his Scy- thian expedition, about five hundred years before Christ ; and he describes the houses which were raised for the relays or the refreshment of the couriers as magnificently built. Each courier on arriving at the station delivered his dispatches to the postmaster, by whom they w^re immediately forwarded. It is supposed that posts were known during the time of the Roman republic, hut the first certain evidence we have of their use is in the reign 204 Tallis’s illustrated London; I of Augustus. Suetonius writes that posts were establishea ! along all the great roads of the empire. At a later period ; Charlemagne, the great monarch of France, seems to have ' j been the first to revive the use of posts, which were dis- continued at his death, and nothing further is reported of ' them till 1464, when that suspicious monarch, Louis XI., ' employed 230 couriers to deliver his commands at various ' stations, and to gain intelligence of everything that was passing in remote provinces. No regular post, however, appears to have been recognised till nearly two centuries subsequent to that period. In England posts seem to have been established so far back as the reign of Eichard ' III. The first postmaster in England was appointed in ' the year 1581, when Sir Thomas Eandolph, an able diplo- I naatist, who had been employed in no fewer than eighteen j distinct embassies, filled that office. Antecedent to this I period the foreign merchants settled in London had been ! permitted to select among themselves an individual to I whom the management of foreign mails was given, but in ■ 1568 a dispute arose between the Flemings and the Spa- ? niards, when each chose a postmaster of their own. The i inconvenience of this proceeding being felt. Queen Eliza- I beth, on the petition of the citizens, appointed a post- j master-general from one of her English subjects; but in I the reign of her successor the business of the foreign post ! was for some time under the direction of Matthew le j Quester, a foreigner. In 1635 a letter-office, which com- j municated with most of the principal mails, was opened i under the direction of Thomas Witherines, who was I removed for abuses in his office five years afterwards, j During the Commonwealth, Prideaux, attornev-general, became post-master, and established a weekly conveyance ^ of letters to aU parts of the country. The emoluments { soon became so evident that the common-council at- i tempted an opposition post-office, but the House of Com- ! mons declared that the patronage of postmaster was and ! ought to be in the sole power and disposal of Parliament, i The post-office which, in 1653, was larmed of Pm’hament THE POST-OFFICE. 205 for £10,000, received its first organization from Cromwell as a General Post-office three years afterwards, and Charles II. confirming the regulations of the Protector, settled the revenue arising from it on his York, the produce being, in 1663, £21,o00. In 1673 the amount was doubled, and continued to increase until the reic^n of William III., when it was considerably infiuen^d hv*the hostile or' tranquil condition of the country. Un the union of Scotland with England, in 1710, a generffi post-office was established by act of Parliament which included not only Great Britain and Ireland, but our West Indian and American colonies. Th^ extension ot the post-office increased the revenue to £111,461. In 1784 Mr. Palmer’s plan of sending the letters by the coaches, instead of the old custom of transmitting them bv post-boys on horseback, was adopted. Iroin tins moment the prosperity of the Post-office commenced, and the receipts which, after the progress of two centuries, in 1783, only produced £146,400 yearly, in 18^ yielded a net revenue nearly amounting to £1,700,000. Ihe Two- penny Post-office (now consolidated under the improved Lrangements of the General Post-office), originated for the transmission of letters from one part of the metropolis to another, was projected by Mr. Murray, an upholsterer of Paternoster-row, in 1683, and the plan was for some time pursued as a private speculation by Mr. William Dockwra, to whom Murray communicated it. At hrst tlie postage was only a penny, but afterwards was raised to twopence by the government, who, taking the business into their own hands, granted Dockwra an annuity. The greatest reformer in the arrangements of the Post- office was Mr. Rowland Hill, whose plan for an universal penny-postage throughout the kingdom came into opera- tion on the 10th of January, 1840. Under this admirable system a uniform rate of a penny is charg'ed upon eveiy letter not exceeding half-an- ounce, the scale of weight for letters advancing from a single rate for each of the fiis two half-ounces by an increase of twopence for an ounee. 206 Tallis’s illustrated London; or for any fraction of an ounce, up to sixteen ounces • the postage to be paid previously by the parties sending or double postage to be paid by the party receiving the letter .L enjoyed by members of Parhament and otliers, ot sending and receiving a certain number of letters tree, ceased on the above day: even her Majesty yielded a ready compliance to this rule. On the 6th of May in the same year, the use of postage-stamps was introduced tois convenience having been suggested by Mr. Charles Knight, and adopted by Mr. Rowland Hill. This great reduction in postage has had a beneficial tendency on society, and correspondence by letter has increased in an enormous ratio, and still progresses. The office of post- master-general IS invariably filled by one of the sov- erei^ s ministers, subordinate to whom are a secretary to the Post-office, a secretary to the postmaster-general and numerous other officials. ° ’ The Post-office is divided into the Inland, the Foreign and the London district offices. We must now speak of the building itself. Early in the last century the Post- office was in Cloak-lane, near Dowgate, thence it was ti’ansferred to Bishopsgate-street, and afterwards to a house in Lombard-street, which had been the residence of bir Kichard Viner, Lord Mayor of London in 1675. The builffing in Lombard-street having been found inadequate to the public requirements, the precinct of St. Martin’s- le-Lraud was chosen as an appropriate site for a new edifice, and an act of Parliament was obtained in 1815 granting the necessary powers for clearing the area for- merly occupied by the church and sanctuary. The struc ture^was commenced in 1818, under the superintendence ot Mr. (now Sir Robert) Smirke, but delayed for some time from a deficiency of funds, which Government made up and the present estabhshment was opened for business on ■the 23rd of September, 1829. It is a massive building’ cased with Portland stone, and is about 389 feet lono- 130 feet wide, and 64 feet high, standing in an enclosure of irregular figure. The front towards St. Martin^s-le- Grand | THE POST-OFFICE. 207 ' has three Ionic porticoes, one of four columns at either I end, and one of six, in the centre, a pediment surmounting it, 'The centre portico is the only one which covers an entrance, and through it, after ascending a flight of steps, the great haU in the centre of the edifice is entered, form- ing a noble thoroughfare from St. Martin^s-le-Grand to ‘ Foster-lane. It is 80 feet wide, 60 long, and 50 high, and 1 is divided like the nave of a cathedral by Ionic colonnades into a centre and two aisles. The different departments are so arranged as to communicate with this great hall. On the north side are the newspaper, foreign, inland, and ship-letter ofSces; on the south side are the receiver- general’s and accountants’ offices •, at the south-eastern end the London district department j and at the western, on each side of the chief entrance, are affixed the names of persons to whom letters have been addressed, and whose right directions are not known. A staircase at the eastern end leads to the Dead, Mis-sent, and Eeturned Letter Office, The business of granting a,nd paying money- orders is carried on in a distinct building, a large brick erection nearly facing the parent establishment. Under the great hall is a tunnel for the conveyance of letters q -00 department of the office to another, and a sub- terranean communication is established with the Electric Telegraph Office in Lothbury, The entire building is warmed by heated air. The machmery_ by which the multitudinous business of the Post-office is transacted it wiU be superfluous to describe, and in omitting to do so we impose no great stretch on the imagination of those I who are at all familiar with the resources of a great com- i I mercial country. Opposite to the General Post-office is the Queen s Hotel, '■ better known, perhaps, by its original name, the Hull and I! Mouth, in the time of stage-coaches, one of the first I I coaching establishments in the kingdom, and now one of ! most comfortable and convenient hotels in the city. The ;! term Bull and Mouth is a corruption of Boulogne Month, |j j| which became a popular sign after the capture of that ji 208 Tallis’s illustrated London ; ! famous harbour by Henry VIII. St. Ann’s-lane, to the j right of the Post Office, leads into the very arcanum of | mercantile industry, Gresham-street, formerly known as j Lad-lane and Cateaton-street. Buildings were removed, i and these two last-named streets being widened, elegant ranges of mercantile establishments sprung up, and the entire line of street from Foster-lane to Lothbury was named after that munificent patron of the city of London, the merchant-prince who founded the Eoyal Exchange, Sir Thomas Gresham. By his will he left £50 each yearly to three persons, who should deliver lectures on Law, Physic, and Rhetoric ; and like amounts to four lecturers I on Divinity, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music. These j discourses were first given at his residence in Old Broad- [ street, subsequently named Gresham College, but on that ; extensive pile being purchased by the Commissioners of I Excise in 1768, an apartment in the Royal Exchange was I used as a lecture-room, and an additional yearly allowance I of £50 granted to each lecturer. They are now delivered j. in a more appropriate place, a handsome theatre in j Gresham-street, with a richly-embellished entrance in j ; Basinghall-street, having been erected for the purpose, j I I These lectures are delivered in term-time, principally in i ! the morning. They are read in Latin at twelve at noon, I and again in Enghsh at one. The music lecture is in- j variably given in the evening, and delivered in the living, i i : not the dead language. In this street are the office and j j j extensive warehouses of those universal carriers, Messrs. |i Pickford and Co. I j Returning through St. Ann^s-lane we re-enter Aldersgate- ' \ I street, a continuation of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and which j j is remarkable as having been, in former ages, the favour- ite abiding-place of some of the most distinguished mem- bers of the British peerage. Bull and Mouth-street, on the western side of this street, occupies the spot once covered by the princely residence of Henry Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland ; and Westmorland-buildbigs stand on the site of the town-house of the Nevilles, Earls LITTLE BRITAIN. 209 of Westmorland. Nearly opposite remains a splendid specimen of the art of Inigo Jones, Shaftesbury House, with a front adorned by Ionic columns, heretofore the habitation of Anthony Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. This aristocratic building is now converted into two or three shops. The warehouses of Mr. Seddon, the upholsterer, which Pennant, referring to an ancestor of the present owner, describes to be “^'the greatest and most elegant repository of goods in the article of the cabinet manufac- tory in the world,” covers the spot once dignified by Lon- don House, the ancient palace of the bishop of London. According to Stow it was first known as Petre House, the lords Petre having lived there till 1639. In 1657 it be- longed to the Marquis of Dorchester, from which noble family it passed to the prelates of London, whose resi- dence anterior to the great fire was near the cathedral of St. Paul. Lauderdale House, the town-seat of the Duke of Lauderdale, stood on the east side of the northern end of this street. Adjacent to Bull and Mouth-street and the Money-order establishment of the Post-ofiice is the church of St. Botolph, south of which stood the ancient city-gate called Aldersgate. On the north side of this j church is the street called Little Britain, according to I some authorities, thus named on account of its having I been the residence of the dukes of Bretagne. Before the ; removal of the book-trade to Paternoster-row, Little i Britain was its principal seat, and in 1664 as many as ! 460 pamphlets were published in this street. Koger North I writes that “ Little Britain was a plentiful and perpetual ; emporium of learned authors, and men went thither as to I a market. This drew a mighty trade, the rather because the shops were spacious, and the learned gladly resorted to them, where they seldom failed to meet with agreeable conversation ] and the booksellers themselves were know- j ing and conversible men, with whom, for the sake of bookish knowledge, the greatest wits were pleased to con- j verse.” Here, at the beginning of the last century, resided a celebrated publisher, John Dunton, who is called by his I 2 E 210 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ) biograplier “the most eminent in his profession in the three kingdoms^ who well deserves the title of Metropoli- | tan Bookseller of England. He has not been known to print either a bad book, or on bad paper” At the west end a noble approach has been made to the eastern front of Christ’s Hospital, the entrance to which is through a spacious iron gate, flanked on either side with a dwarf wall and handsome railing. The western end of Little Britain thus enlarged is known by the sub-title of Uluecoat Build- ings, a handsome range of houses, in which is the principal bookselling and publishing establishment of Messrs. John Tallis and Co., the publishers of this work. _ Bluecoat- buildings, from its central and accessible position, is sin- gularly well adapted for business, it being approached from St. Martin’s-le-Grand and Aldersgate-street, by Bull and Mouth-street, Angel-street, and Little Britain; from Newgate-street by King Edward-street, formerly Butcher- hall-lane ; and from Smithfield by Duke-street, and being within five minutes’ walk of the General Post-ofidce. From the establishment we have just mentioned an arched pas- sage, on the left, conducts into King Edward-street, thus re-named in honour of the munificent and royal founder of Christ’s Hospital. Into this street Bull and M^outh and Angel-streets extend from Aldersgate. On its west side is the wall of the garden attached to the residence of | the chief-master of Christ’s Hospital, and on the east side j are several handsome houses appropriated to the under- j lXl3iSt/d*S \ Beturning into Aldersgate, and pursuing a northward : direction, a few doors beyond Little Britain, is the City of London Literary and Scientific Institution, to which, read- ing-rooms and an excellent library are attached, besides ^ which educational classes are held, to which the members are admitted free, and lectures on literature, science, his- tory, &c., are delivered. Milton resided in a house which stood upon the site of this institution. The author of Paradise Lost also lived in Jewin-street, nearly opposite. : Passing by the warehouse of Mr. Seddon, the Albion Hotel, j I BARBICAN. 211 ! an extensive pile of buildings is reached. It was built by I Alderman Harley^ and is in high repute for the superb civic banquets which it frequently furnishes. Beyond is I Long-lane, an approach to Smithfield. Opposite to this ’ ' last is the street called Barbican, which, continued by I Chiswell and other streets, runs into Finsbury-square. It is of great antiquity, for in very early times on this spot was a barbican, specula, or watch-tower, which stood a , I little without the wails to the east of Aldersgate. Here ; { the Romans kept cohorts of soldiers in continual service i to watch in the night, that if any sudden fire should hap- i pen they might be in readiness to extinguish it, as also to j give notice if any enemy were gathering or marching ! towards the city to surprise them. In short it was a I watch-tower by day, and at night they lighted some com- bustible matter on the top thereof, as a landmark for the weary traveller repairing to the city. By the Saxons the barbicans were called burgh-kenning, and were deemed so I important that the custody was always committed to some nobleman. The Barbican of Aldersgate was entrusted to the care of Robert Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, by Edward III., by the name of Basse Court, which descended, by the mar- riage of one of his daughters, to Sir John Willoughby, afterwards Lord Willoughby, of Parham. Here was an- ciently a manor-house of the king^s, called Basse Court, or Barbican, destroyed in 1251, but subsequently restored. In the reign of Queen Mary it belonged to Catherine, widow of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in her own * right Baroness Willoughby of Eresby, and afterwards the wife of Thomas Bertie, ancestor of the Duke of Ancaster. This lady, in her zeal against Popery, had dressed a dog i in a surpUce used by bishops, and in affront to the prelate I Gardiner, had named a dog after him. In consequence she and her husband were compelled to abandon them house at Barbican, and go abroad till Queen Mary had ceased to live. The mansion was of great size, and after- wards inhabited by her son, who was called Peregrine, I I because he happened to be born abroad during the eu- I 212 TALLIS'S ILLus'l’KATED LONDON ; forced flight of his parents. The Earls of Bridgewater liad also a house in the Barbican called after their title. The mansion was burnt down in 1675^ and Lord Brackly^ eldest son of the earl, and a younger brother, with their tutor, were destroyed by the fire. Bridgewcitev-sciuaTe, a gloomy and dismal-looking area, indicates the ancient locality of the ducal palace. Barbican is now converted into houses of business and shops. From the Barbican Redcross-street, an ancient street, points down towards Cripplegate. This gate received its name from the num- ber of cripples and beggars with which it was infested. At the south end of Bedcross-street stands the church of St. Giles, one of the best Gothic buildings in London, erected in 1546, on the site of the ancient church built by Alfune, the first master of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, in 1090, and burnt down in 1545. It_ is a light, airy, and well-proportioned structure, which will always be attrac- tive to the antiquary and the poet, on account of its being the last resting-place of Speed, the historian, Foxe, the martyrologist, and Milton, “ who in loftiness of thought surpassed.” This illustrious poet was buried under the clerk’s desk on the 12th November, 1674, from his house in Bunhill-fields. His father was also buried in this church in 1647. A tablet in memory of the father and his gifted son was placed in the church many years after- wards by Mr. Whitbread, the eminent brewer and mem- ber of Parliament. In Chiswell-street is one of the largest breweries in the world, that of the Messrs. Whitbread. The net-work of streets in this vicinity are too numerous to be categorically named within our limits ; we can only refer to a few^of the most interesting. In Whitecross-street is a prison for debtors, the first stone of which was laid by the late Mr. Alderman Wood in 1813, and when completed,^ ad the prisoners for debt previously incarcerated in New- gate and the Compter, were removed here. The freemen of the city have a separate wing assigned to them, with other peculiar advantages. Near Whitecross-street, so CHARTER-HOUSE. 213 recently as when Maitland wrote, stood a large brick building once distinguished as the Fortune theatre, erected in 1599, by that celebrated and benevolent actor Edward AUeyne, the founder of Dulwich College. Flayliouse-yard indicates its exact position. In the time of Charles I. it was one of the most popular of the six playhouses allowed in town, but when the civil wars broke out its perform- ances were suppressed. To the east of Whitecross is Milt on-street, better known under its old cognomen, Grub- street, and long famous as the asylum of poor and obscure authors. Nevertheless, some of the most illustrious writers have been content to take up their quarters here. Foxe, author of the Book of Martyrs, lived and died here ; and Speed, the historian, and Milton, were among its resi- dents ; to the last-named of whom it is indebted for its modern appellation. Re-entering Aldersgate-street, Cartlmsian-street, imme- diately beyond Long-lane, conducts into Charterhouse- square, one of the finest of the city squares. The square takes its name from the Charter House, which is situated on its north side. This foundation stands upon the site of an ancient monastery for Carthusian monks, called the Chartreuse. The origin of this religious house is ascribed to the plague which, in 1308, ravaged England and a part of the continent, the spot having been consecrated by the Bishop of London for a place of interment. Sir Walter de Manni, a distinguished commander in the French wars under Edward III., purchased this ground, upon which, in conjunction with Northburg, Bishop of London, he built and endowed a priory for a superior and twenty-four monks of the Carthusian order’, which was completed in 1370. The monastery was suppressed in 1538, in spite of the persevering resistance of the monks, many of whom sufiered death rather than sanction the spoliation. Seven of them were conveyed on hurdles through the city to the place of execution, some were gibbeted, and others sub- jected to the torture. Upon the dissolution of the Char- treuse the house and grounds passed into the possession of TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON Howard family. James I., on entering liis new ca- 214 pital on the 1st of May, 1604, visited the Lord Thomas Howard, who hospitably entertained his majesty and suite four days at the Charter House. Sewn years ^terwards Lord Howard, who had been created Earl of Suffolk, sold his estate for £13,000 to Mr. Thomas Sutton, citizen and girdler. Mr. Sutton, who was of a good family m Lin- TOlnshire, had eminently distingmshed himself by his military sagacity, and contributed to the failure of the Spanish Armada. He afterwards became merchant, and acquired a splendid fortune. He converted the Charter House into a most magnificent hospital, comprehending master, a preacher, a head-schoolmaster, a second master with forty-four boys, eighty decayed gentlemen who had been soldiers or merchants, besides physicians, surgeons, and other officers. He endowed the foundation with lands, of which the present value is several thousands ot pounds annually, and the income being thus greatly aug- mented additional efficiency is given to the benevolent views of the testator. The boys on the foundation receive a classical education, and some of ! p® day have gained their initiative in the Charter House. Twenty pounds per annum, for eight years, is aUowed to a certain number of students at the universities and there are several ecclesiastical preferments, the which is vested in the governors. The gate of the hi court opening into Charter House Square leads to a long gallery, with Elizabethan windows ; an arched way, ovei Ihicl7are the armorial bearings of Mr. Sutton, conducts to another court formed on the. east side by the hall a small portico before the door has the arms of Ja™us . At the sLth end is a very large projecting window, •*”'> ”Tta:”VSi:=-on« {Id leads mto sifaiiHS-ii S.Zt‘theZIth-Is;Z extremity of the fields was CLEEKENWELL-GREEN. 221 Baguigge Wellsj a highly fashionable watering-place in the last century^ and said to have once been the residence of Nell Gwynne. In 1767 two springs of mineral water, one chalybeate, the other cathartic, were discovered; these were opened to the public, and some beautiful gardens laid out for similar entertainments to those given at Vauxhall. Their site is now covered by the buildings of the Messrs, Cubitt. From Exmouth-street that broad area formed by Cold-Bath-Fields and Mount Pleasant is reached. Here a most prominent object stands — the House of Correction for the County of Middlesex — one of the largest prisons in Europe, a vast square building of brick and stone, encompassed by a high wall and but- tresses. The handsome gate, forming the principal en- trance, is of Portland stone, with appropriate devices. This prison, which was raised to carry out the suggestions of Mr. Howard, comprehends the principal or old gaol erected in 1794; the new vagrants’ wards finished in 1831, and the new female wards completed in 1832. It contains two chapels, seven schools, and thirty-six tread- mills. Here the silent system is in practice, and at night the prisoners sleep in difterent cells. The greatest num- ber of individuals ever confined here at one time was 1220. Fauntleroy the forger was incarcerated here. Continuing the line of St. John’s-street, Aylesbury - street is reached, thus named after the house and gardens of the Earls of Aylesbury, which previously belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. This extends to Clerkenwell-green, on the west side of which is the Ses- sions House for Middlesex. It was built in place of one that stood opposite the end of St. John’s-lane, and which | being erected by Sir Baptist Hicks in 1612, was called Hicks’s Hall. The existing edifice rose in 1778. The front is of stone with a rustic basement ; foiu’ Ionic pillars and two pilasters sustain an ai’cliitrave, frieze, and cornice, with a pediment above the pillar’s. Over the centre win- dow is a medallion of George III., and the other windows are surmounted by insignia of Justice; the tympanum 222 TALLIS’S ILLUSTSATED LONDON ; exhibits the arms of the county, and the roof is crowned by a dome. At the lower end of Clerkenwell- green, in Ray-street, is a pump in a recess, the only memorial of the famous fountain called Clerks, or Clerkenwell, so styled from the Parish Clerks of the city of London who met there annually for the representation of sacred dramas ■, and which were frequently attended by the nobility, as well as by the Lord Mayor and citizens. The usual place of performance of these scriptural dramas was a green at the bottom of a hill, on which stood the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, and near to the said spring. In 1391 the clerks exhibited here for three days successively before Ptichard II. and his court ; and in 1409 the subject of their sacred mystery was the creation of the world ; the time of which performance occupied exactly a week. From this spring the church and parish derive their name. The spring is situate four feet east of the location of the pump. The prior and brethren of the order of St. John of Jeru- salem and the Benedictine Nuns, held the water of this well in great estimation. On the north side of Clerken- well-green is the church of St. James, Clerkenwell. The ancient church was attached to the order of St. J olm of Jerusalem, and in the reign of Edward VI. it was blown up with gunpowder by order of the Protector Somerset, (who would fain have made Westminster Abbey his stone quarry,) and its materials appropriated towards the con- struction of his new palace in the Strand. The first stone of the present edifice was laid in 1 788, and the chm’ch was consecrated in 1792. On its south side are two wings ; within these are Doric entrances ■, over which are large arched endows. The tower is Tuscan, crowned by balustrades and vases. The lantern is octagon; and is surmounted by a sexagon obelisk, placed on balls with a vane. At the end of St. James's Walk, in the rear of this church, is the House of Detention, a prison in which olfeiiders whose transgressions are not very heinous, are confined during the interval between their committal and trial. ST, johnVsquare. 223 St. John’s-lane is tlie next deviation to be made from the main street. On a house at the corner of this street is a stone tablet bearing the inscription — “ Opposite this spot Hicks's Hall formerly stood.’' From this point all the distances on the North Road were once measured^ and some obsolete mile-stones still intimate that they are land-marks to a place without visible existence — Hicks's Hall. At the end of this lane is St. John^s-square, a locahty celebrated not only for its chivalric^ but its literary reminiscences. ^ It was in the early ages the site of the house or Hospital of St, John of Jerusalem^ the style of a celebrated order of knights. After Jerusalem had been taken from the Saracens, many pilgrims travelled to Pa- lestine to offer their devotions at the Holy Sepulchre. Among the visitants was one named Gerardus, who assumed a black robe, whereon was a white cross with eight spikes. He undertook the curatorsliip of an hos- pital previously established at Jerusalem for the use of pilgrims ; and he engaged also to protect them from injury or insult on their outward and homeward journey. ! This order of knighthood was founded by Godfrey of Bou- i logne, and to reward the bravery of Gerardus at the battle j of Ascalon, he granted large estates to the knights, so that they might be enabled to carry out the purposes of their institution, of which the kings of France were the sove- mgns. After the capture of Jerusalem they wandered from place to jilace in search of an asylum, and bavin <>• taken Rhodes settled there, and were called the Kuio-lits of Rhodes. Upon the loss of Rhodes they withdrew to Malta, by the name of which their order was then known. Jordan Briset and Mm’iel his wife, people of rank, founded the Hospital of St. John in 1100, having purchased of the prioress and nuns of Clerkenwell, ten acres of land. The hospital was consecrated by Heracliiis, the patriarch of St John of Jerusalem, and in the course of time became the chief seat in England of the Knights Hospitallers. In 1323 the revenues of the English knight templars were given to them, and to such distinction did they attain, that their TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; 224 prior held rank as the first baron, and lived in a style of corresponding magnificence. Luxury was them bane, and the prime cause of their downfal ; the insurgents of Kent and Essex under Wat Tyler, burnt tbeir house to the ground, and upon its ruins rose another structure to surpassing the old one in splendour. Covetous of the wealth of the knights, Henry VIII. suppressed the insti- tution in 1541. The first prior was Garnenus de JNea- poli; the last. Sir William Weston, to w^oin the royal spoliator granted an annual pension of £1,0W, O’lf ^ William died of a broken heart on Ascension Hay, 154U, the very day that the house was confiscated. St. John s- square is of an oblong form, and was entered by two gates, north and south; the latter caUed St. Johns Gate remains. It has a lofty Gothic arch, and is the principal relic of the gorgeous priory. By James I. the gateway was bestowed on Sir Roger Wilbraham, who made it his residence. Over this gate the Gentleman s Magazine first printed, more than a century back, by Cave, ihe other gate looking into Aylesbury-street, though lofty was considerably narrower than this, being _ without posterns, and was removed m 1760. Red Lion-street covers part of the gardens of the hospital. The printing and engraving establishment of Messrs. John Talhs and Co. is carried on in the extensive pre- mises 100, St. John-street, Smithfield-bars, and extendmg for a considerable distance into Charterhouse-lane. From Smithfield-bars, the northern boundary ot the citv liberty, we enter into the extensive area of that large cattle-market, Smithfield, called FFest Smith;^ld, to distin- tino-uish it from East Smithfield, near the Tower of Lon- don Few places abound in such high historical interest as Smithfield— few places have undergone so many meta- morphoses as this truly classic ground has witnessed. If we may credit some of the city chroniclers, Lie antiquity of Smithfield is coeval with that of Westminster Abbey, for Holinshed writes that in the time of Canute it was a Gneyard, and that it was granted by that sovereign to one E C Y P T I A N 4 « MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL THE FO^JNDLINC HOSP I * i ' 's. ■ . ' ■ ■ V-.. • , » i • '• /S'- ' ■ , '■'* '".i' . fc; ■■'• I '-■>. ^ :':r ■■■ ^ „'■■ 11 p^ . . ' '*\'^'V ■•'■ ■ ■'s yr »: ■■ ■»y 3 S ? I (■’' ' i' ''♦'^V'f' ' f''”' ■y ' ' . • ■. .; *■ i or ^ - ''A”,- ■ ’•julfv; ■ ■■-' ♦■' /'.tWiV i,- -' :V C. K, £ ‘ SMITHFIELD. 225 I of liis kniglits. It is remarkable that one of the earliest ' purposes to which Smithfield, or Smoothfield, was con- verted, was that to which in the course of centuries it has been again brought — a horse and cattle-market. Fitz- Stephen says, that in his time (the reign of Henry II.), an ; ! active trade in live stock, as well as in implements of hus- : bandry, was carried on. He observes — “ Without one of the gates is a smooth field, both in name and deed, where ! every Friday, unless it be a solemn bidden holiday, is a noble show of horses to be sold. Earls, barons, knights, ' and citizens, resort thither to see or to buy.^^ In the 12th century Smithfield was considered one of the chief lungs of London, and was resorted to, as the parks now are, by the citizens, in search of pure air and rural scenery. A number of elm-trees grew in that part of Smithfield which Cow-lane now covers, and hence this portion of the j enclosure was called the Elms, and here in the reign of Richard I., Whlliam Fitzosbert, familiarly known as Long- \ heard, a real patriot, and no pretender to that honoured i name, was put to death. “The country,” says Dr. i IMackay, “ was at that time sorely distressed by the taxa- ! tion unmercifully levied upon it for the expenses of the Crusaders, and for the ransom money of the King ; and ^ besides this grievance, of which the whole nation com- ! plained, the Saxon portion of it groaned under the ruth- j less tyranny of the Norman chiefs, by whom they were i treated as a conquered and degraded people. At this time Fitzosbert stood forth the asserter of the rights of - his countrymen. His influence over the people became , unbounded; he was the Massanielio of the day, with ' more real power, and more clear-sightedness, eloquence, i and energy, than that leader; or, if he might be com- ; pared to another, he was the Rienzi of the English Saxons, as eloquent as he, and cherishing similar aml)i- tious plans for the renovation of an oppressed people. The fame of his oratory was such, that whenever a Saxon was wronged, he came to Longbeard and found a zealous advocate, who, with a determination of character aiid with 226 Tallis’s illustrated London; ail eloquence that was irressistible, wrested justice from those who should have been its willing administrators^ hut were in those times its perverters or withholders. I The fame of his oratory was such, that whenever it was known he was to plead for a Saxon in any of the courts or before the Mayor of London, then a judge of no small power or authority, immense crowds congregated to hang upon his words, and applaud every sentence that fell from his lips, till the magistrates were offended at the i popular applause, and hated the man who was the sub- I ject of it.” The rulers of England witnessed with dis- j pleasure and jealousy the increasing influence of this ad- ' i vocate, whose career they ineffectually endeavoured to close j by assassination. In consequence of this Longbeard ‘^“'never | went abroad unless in armour, and carrying a huge battle- ^ I axe, followed by a hundred men, chiefly artizans, all well- ji armed to defend him from sudden attack. And this I I strange spectacle was constantly seen in London for I I months ; the lawyer with battle-axe and coat of mail, j with a little army at his heels, going to plead without a I fee for his poor countrymen ; overawing the judges upon j the bench, and snatching justice from those who would j ! otherwise have denied it.” Upon a new poll-tax being levied, a great assemblage met at Paul’s Cross, who after hearing Longbeard, resolved not to pay the tax. The authorities attempted to disperse the multitude; blood- shed and loss of life ensued, and the malcontents were '! victorious. They threatened to burn the city to the ! ground, a menace which they were only deterred from ’ carrying into effect by the persuasion of their chief. ^ They, however, proceeded to Lombard-street, where they ' fired the house of Pitzalwyn, the mayor of London. Longbeard was summoned to Westminster Hall, there to answer to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his parti- cipation in the riot, but intimidated by the number of his followers, no attempt was made to detain him, and the reverend judge dismissed him with a caution to avoid j gatherings of the people which were perilous to the SMITHFIELD. 227 ■ secul’ity of tlie realm. What violence could not accom- I plish, misrepresentation elFected. Crimes of the most ■ heinous description were attributed to him, and in conse- I quence his friends began to diminish. His old enemy, the i Lord IMayor, watched his opportunity, and suddenly set upon him in Cheapside, with a large party of soldiers and i citizens, when he was only attended by eight men. It was opposite the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. As his sole [ chance of escape he rushed into the sacred edifice with ; his companions, and barred the massive doors upon his j pursuers. The people were moved to pity •, his friends I attempted to stir them up in his behalf, and great crowds ! assembled in various parts of London, and especially in I Cheapside, in Smithfield, and at St. PauFs Cross. There j was no time to be lost ; the Archbishop gave his reluctant [ j consent to force the sanctuary, and the church of St. ! I hlaiT-le-Bow was set on fire immediately : Longbeard and { ! his unhappy companions fought their way through the flames with the courage of despair, but were captured in I the street, and conveyed to the Tower almost before the j people had time to know what had taken place. They i were brought to trial immediately, and sentenced to be i hanged and beheaded on the following morning at the ! Elms, Smithfield. The trial was not concluded till late I in the evening, and before day-light, Fitzosbert and his j companions had ceased to exist.* In the middle of the I thirteenth century the Elms was discontinued as a place of execution for criminals, its dismal uses being trans- ferred to Tyburn. It is curious that in the revolutions of time the locality of the gallows (at Newgate) should again I j be found in its ancient neighbourhood. In the spot now only vocal with the cries of impatient drovers, the bleating of sheep, the bellowing of oxen, and the squeaking of terrified pigs, gallant knights have I assembled to display their prowess in the gav tourna- I ments, and bright-eyed ladies from their glittering balco- nies have smiled applause upon the exploits of chivalry. * An Antiquarian Ranible in the Streets of London. 338 Tallis's illustrated London ; When Edward III. held the Kings of France and Scot- land prisoners, he frequently prepared touiTiament> for their amusement. One, which was held in 1374 in honour of the fair Alice Pierce, in Smithfield, was famous for the splendour of its details. This beautiful dame, who assumed the title of Lady of the Sun," appeared by the King's side in a triumphal car, most magnificently ar- rayed, and accompanied by many ladies of title, each of ! wliom led a knight on horseback by the bridle. The ca- valcade started from the Tower, and was attended by the pi incipal nobility to Smithfield, where the tournaments ; were held for seven consecutive days. In 1390 a still ' more memorable tournament was held in Smithfield, under the auspices of Kichard II. The tournament was - appointed to take place on the Sunday following Michael- t mas, and the king previously dispatched heralds to an- i nounce the grand festival to all the leading Em’opean courts. The invitation was accepted by several sovereigns, and on the day named, the champions, mounted on sixty steeds, departed from the Tower towards Smithfield; the knights attended by esquires, and led by ladies riding on palfreys, who with golden chains conducted them to the arena of the sports. The sovereign and his queen were present at the jousts, which lasted for several days. On | this occasion, Richard, at the palace of the Bishop of London, hospitably entertained persons of all ranks, and i each evening the gaieties closed with dancing. Ear dif- | ferent was the scene witnessed upon the same spot in the I reign of the same monarch ten years before. That in- solent and vindictive rebel, the Kentish blacksmith, here : assembled with his lawless bands, and endeavoured by in- i timid ation to extort from the young king concessions, ' widely difiering from the ostensible object of their gather- ! ing— the repeal of the poll-tax. William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London, indignant at the insulting atti- i tude assumed by Wat Tyler towards his sovereign, smote | tlie disloyal braggart with a dagger, which terminated his | fife, and the King, hardly fifteen years of age, inciting the | I i SMITHI'IELD. 229 insurgents to accept him as a chief in lieu of their defunct leader, they followed him to St. George’s Fields, where they were dispersed by a seasonable reinforcemei)t of armed citizens ; and an insurrectioii crushed, which if successful, would have been fraught with the most miser- able consequences to the state ; one of the avowed objects of the rebels being to fire and plunder the city of Lon- don. The Lord Mayor, Walworth, was knighted on the spot by Richard, and after him a populous suburb on the Surrey side of the bridges is named. In commemoration of this event the dagger was added to the armorial bear- ings of the city of London. But Smithfield is, perhaps, more celebrated as the scene of the fiery martyrdom of the victims of religious persecution, condemned by bigotry to expiate their fan- cied errors by a death of excrueiating pain. The first person who suffered death for religious opinions in Eng- land was M'illiam S autre, a Lollard, who was burnt alive in 1404, in Smithfield, by the authority of the King’s writ, de heretico comburendo. Hecatombs of victims were sent to the stake in succeeding years. To Henry VII. belongs the unenviable fame of having condemned to ' perish by fire in Smithfield, Joan Boughtoii, the first I female martyr in England, an aged woman who had seen more than eighty years. Latimer, Cranmer, llidley, and I a host of religious reformers here manifested that their I conHctions were too deeply implanted to be shaken by j the terrors of an ignominious and agonizing death. The I founders of our national faith joyfully went tlivough ; fire to prove the divine authority of that faith. It must, however, in justice be owned, that not only Romanists, : but sometimes Protestants, lighted the sacrificial pile of i intolerance. “ Here,” says Pennant, “ our martyr Lati- mer preached patience to Friar Forrest, agonizing under the torture of a slow fire, for denying the king’s supre- macy ; and to this place our martyr Cranmer compelled j the amiable Edward, by forcing his reluctant hand to the warrant, to send Joan Bocher, a silly woman, to the 230 TALLTS S ILLUSTKATED LONDON Stuke.-’^ “ Our gracious Queen Elizabeth could likewise burn people for religion. Two Dutchmen, anabaptists, sulfered in this place in 1575, and died, as Holinshed sagely remarks, ‘roring and crieing.'’ ” The last per- son who suffered at the stake in England was Bartholo- mew Leggatt, who was burnt in England for denying the Athanasian and Nicene creeds, pursuant to the sentence of John King, the protestant Bishop of London; and James T., whom the translators of the Bible, in their ful- some dedication, call “ a most tender and loving nursing father, did not hesitate to give full effect to the barba” rous decree. The space in the centre of the pens, and facing the gate of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where the martyrs were consumed by flame, was long clearly indi- cated, being near a large board on which were inscribed the market regulations ; the ground about the stake was paved with stones, circularly placed. The board has been removed to that part of the market near Smithfield Bars, and a lamp, with a large gas-light, substituted. Upon this spot, a frightful species of punishment not to be sur- passed by Asiatic tortures, was twice inflicted — viz. boil- ing to death; which horrible retribution was enforce against those convicted of poisoning. On the 5th of April, 1531, John Roose, a cook, was boiled to death in Smithfield, for administering poisoned pottage, or gruel, to seventeen persons at the Bishop of Rochester’s palace, from the effects of which two died, and the majority of the remainder never regained their health. In 1541, Margaret Davie, a young woman, suffered in the same place and manner for poisoning her mistress and other persons. It has already been stated that Fitzstephen described Smithfield to have been a market for the sale of five stock in the reign of Henry II. ; and in 1345 it was re- cognised as a cattle-market by the city authorities, who made regulations for its government. But it was not till the reign of William III. that a charter for holding a cattle-market in Smithfield was obtained by the city. | jl SMITHPIELD, 231 I i since Trliicli time Smithfield has not been diverted from its business objects by any pageants more splendid than those ’ffhich Bartholomew Fair can supply. The cattle- market is held on Monday and Friday, that on the former day being the most important. In Smithfield- market there were sold in the year 1848, 280,000 beasts; 1,291,770 sheep and lambs; 28,856 calves; and 27,350 pigs; reaching an average value of £6,594,977. On the afternoon of every Friday a horse-market is held here, but more noted for knackers than for high mettled racers : the number of horses exposed for sale in 1848 was 12,867. On the days not appropriated to cattle, there is likewise a hay and straw-market : there were 18,537 loads of hay, and 1,751 of straw sold in 1848. The last association that need be named in connection with Smithfield, is Bartholomew Fair. Stow says, that to the priory of St. Bartholomew (now the Hospital), “ King Henry II. granted the privilege of a fair to be kept yearly at Bartholemew tide, to wit, the eve, the day, and the morn, to which the clothiers of England and the drapers of London repaired and had their booths.’’’ The time of j the fair’s duration soon became extended, for Stow re- i lates that in his time three days were set apart for busi- ness, and the rest “ to see drolls, farces, rope-dancing, feats of activity, wonderful and monstrous creatures, wild beasts made tame, giants, &c.” The fair becoming a great nuisance, many efforts were made to suppress it, and these were so far successful that since 1840 the fair has only been a nominal one, composed of some half- dozen stalls ; and, stripped of its tinsel grandeur, its advent i and departure pass unnoticed. One instance of a particu- ' lar branch of business adhering to the same locality is connected with this fair. On the east side of Smithfield there is a narrow lane chiefly occupied by clothiers or woollen drapers, and which retains the name of Cloth Fair. On this spot was formerly the ancient church- yard of the priory, within which the clothiers had tlieir ' booths and standings. From this part of Smithfield | 232 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; 'Duke-Street extends to Bluecoat-buildings. Duke-street IS an elepnt corruption of Duck-lane, I famous nei^k- bourkood for old book-skops. ° Emerging- from Smitkfield on tke west side, we arrive at Giltspiir-street,^ tkus named according to Stow be- cause of the knights, who in quality of their honour, wore gilt spurs, and who, with others, rode that way to the tournament, and other feats of arms used in Smith- held. The Compter m this street was built according to a plan suggested by the philanthropic Howard. It is exclusively confined to the city of London, and is a pri- son for offenders previous to trial, and a house of cor- rection for such as have been convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, from one month to two years. It is also used for persons committed for assaults night-charges, disorderly persons, vagrants, and prisoners remanded for future examination. • Giltspur-street, in a continuous line, IS the Old Bailey, at the end of which, Ludgate-street, on t e east, conducts us back to our original point, St. raid s Cathedral ; haidng arrived at which we will now explore another of the many roads which radiate from this centre. CHAPTER XI. I i WATLING-STREET BREAD-STREET — GERARDOS HALL QUEEN f STRET— WALRROOK BUCKLERSBURY CANNON-STREET | CONDON STONE — EASTCHEAP — THAMES-STREET — BAY- j NARD CASTLE BILLINGSGATE COAL EXCHANGE, ETC. On the south-east corner of St. PauPs churchyard is the entrance to JVatling- street, remarkable for indicating the «te of the ancient Roman road crossing England from Dover to Cardigan. This famous road commenced at BKEAD-STREET. 233 Dover, whence it traversed Barham Downs, Canterbury, ! Harbledown, Broughton, Judde Hill, Stowe, Beacon Hill, Bapchild, and Sittingbourne, to the Roman station of Durolevin, the positive site of which is unknown. Thence it ascended Chatham Hill to Durocobrivum, or Rochester, where there was a ferry across the Medway ; thence by Cobham Park, and on to the Roman station of Noviomagus, believed to have been near Crayford, and j over Bexley Heath, Shooter’s Hill, and the borders of ! Blaekheath towards Lewisham, to Kent-street, Soutli- j wark. Thence was a ferry from Dowgate-wharf, and the road continued through Watling- street and Aldersgate- street to Ishngton ; and by St. Alban’s and Dunstable, through the country to Cardigan. A few yards below Watling-street is Little Carter-lane, beyond which is Ser- mon-lane, an odd perversion of Sheremoniers-lane, where the silver money was prepared, cut and rounded for the coiners of the Old Change. On the north of Watling- street is Old Change, a short street running into Cheap- side. The back of St. Paul’s School chiefly covers its west side, and opposite are the extensive business premises of Messrs. Leaf and Co., who hold rank among the largest warehousemen in this vast city. At the south- western eorner is the church of St. Nicholas, the parochial church of Old Fish-street, thus named from being a I locality for fishmongers, and the spot in which two of j their halls were situate. Proceeding along Watling- j street we come to that point where it is intersected by ! Bread-street, from which an extensive city ward takes its j name. In ancient times this was the bread-market, a ! statute of Edward I., passed in the year 1302 , prohibit- | ing the bakers from selling bread in their shops and i houses, and restricting the sale of that commodity to the market in this street. Buckingham House, the town mansion of the Earls of Wiltshire and Dukes of Buckingham, was in this street. PI ere there was also formerly a gaol belonging to the Sherifis, called the Bread-street Compter, the prisoners from which were 234 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; removed in 1555 to a new compter in Wood-streed. This measure was adopted on account of the cruel manner in which the keeper treated his captives. The poet Milton was horn in Bread-street, but the house of his nativity was destroyed in the great fire in 1666. The churches of j St. Mildred and All Hallows, built by Sir Christopher Wren, are in Bread-street, the northern wall of the latter being in Watting -street. The last-named church was erected in 1684, and consists of a plain body with a square tower, 86 feet high, divided into four stages near the top. The church that previously occupied this spot was consumed by the great fire, and is memorable as the sacred edifice in which Milton received the baptismal rite. Upon a stone in the external wall of the existing fabric in Watling- street, is the following inscription : — “ Three poets, in three distant ages horn, Greece, Italy, and England did adorn ; The first in loftiness of thought surpast, The next in majesty, in both the last ; The force of nature could no further go. To make a third, she joined the former two !” John Milton was born in Bread-street, on Friday, the 9th : December, 1698 ; and was baptized in the parish church ! of AU Hallows, Bread-street, on the 20th of December, j 1698.’^ Adjacent to Bread-street is Basing-lane, which Stow supposes to have been a corruption of Bakehouse, ■ from the circumstance of bakers living there in the reign * of Bichard II. The inn known by the name of Gerard’s Hall is a place of some celebrity. A tradition attaches to this place the scene of the adventures of that fabulous hero, Gerard the Giant. In Gerardos Hall there was kept for a long time a huge fir pole some thirty or forty feet in length, with this the redoubtable monster used to sally forth to battle, as also a ladder by which he some- times allowed the pigmy order of mankind to ascend to the top of his faulchion to take a bird’s-eye view of the metropolis. “ Gerard’s Hall,” says Stow, “ is a cor- ruption of Gisors’ Hall, once the property of Sir John i BUDGE-EOW. 235 Gisors, Lord Mayor of London in 1811; the giant’s faulchion nothing but an old May-pole ; and the ladder the same which was used to deck the said May-pole when ; erected on the green.’’ Remains of the ancient hall ' erected by Sir John Gisors^ may be still seen here bv descending a stair-case about twenty feet below the level ' of Basing-lane. Here are the original vaultings of the ! foundation supported by sixteen pillars : the apartment appears like an ancient crypt, and forms part of the cel- laring of the inn. The next street running into Watling-street is Bow- lane, which from the trade once carried on in it, was called Cor dwainer -street, afterwards was inhabited by hosiers, and took the name of Hosier-lane; and its present title it owes to its proximity to Bow Church. On its eastern side is the parish of St. Mary, Aldermary. Richard Chaucer, citizen and vintner, the father of our first English poet of renown, bestowed upon the old church, (destroyed in the fire of London), his tenement and tavern at the corner of Kerion-lane, now Maiden-lane. M^atliug-street is next intersected by Queen-street, the north end running into Cheapside, the south to South- wark Bridge. Formerly the upper part was called Sopar- lane, after Allen le Sopar, owner of the land in the reign of Edward II. Here the pepperers, or spice dealers, generally resided. The lower portion of the street was called Broad-lane, and was made soon after the fire in ' 1666 to afford a direct passage from Guildhall to the Thames, whence the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs were accus- tomed to embark on the 9th of November, to take the customary oaths at Whitehall. M’atling- street is con- tinued by Budge-row, so called from having been the re- ' sidence of dealers in budge, or lamb-skin furs. As great alterations are being made in this neighboiu’hood in order to widen the streets, and places rich in historic interest are being covered with new edifices, we must premise that some of the places we are now about to name will have materially changed their appearance, and that antiquity 236 Tallis’s illustrated London; j i must make way for “^“^city improvements/’ before tlie I close of 1851. Opposite the parish church of St. Antholin I in this street;, is a street named Tower Royal, on the site of I a tower built by Henry 1., and where^ Stowe relates, King j Stephen resided. Edward III. sojourned some time in it. Here the Princess Joan, widow of the Black Prince with- drew, when W at Tyler and his adherents were in strength, and had gained possession of the Tower; and here she was found by her son, the juvenile monarch, after he had quelled the excesses of the mob. In Tower Boyal, Richard II., in 1386, appropriated apartments to Leon III., King of Armenia, who had been expelled his king- dom by the Turks, and took refuge in England. Richard treated him with the utmost munificence, loaded him with gifts, and settled on the unfortunate prince a thousand pounds a year for life, w'hich he did not long live to enjoy, dying at Paris in 1393. In the reign of Richard III. Tower Royal was granted to one of his stanchest sup- porters, the Duke of Norfolk, who made it his residence. After the reign of Elizabeth, the once favoimed abode of kings, princesses, and nobles, dwindled into tenements and stables, which were swept away by the fire of London, after which the present buildings arose. Doivgate-hill, | now covered with warehouses, was the point at which j stood one of the Roman gates, through which w^as the 1 way for passengers who took boats at the trajectus or ferry, } into the continuation of the military way towards Dover. ! The Britons are supposed to have given it the name of j Dwr, or Dwy, water ; and the Saxons added the word i Gate, which signifies way. It became a famous whai’f, and wms called the port of Downgate. In the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. customs were ordered to be paid by ships resting there. Near Dowgate runs, con- cealed, into the Thames the ancient Wal-brook, or river of Wells, mentioned in a chart of William the Conqueror to the College of St. Martin’s-le Grand. It rises to the north of Moorfields and traversed through London W all, between Bishop-gate and Moor-gate, and ran through BUCKLERSBUIiY. 287 the city. For a considerable period it was entirely open^ and had over it several bridges which were maintained by the priors of several religious edifices and others. Be- tween two and three centuries ago it was vaulted over with brick, the top paved and formed into a street. This •street, which divides Budge-row and Cannon-streeet, ex- tends into Cheapside At the north end is the beautiful church of SL Stephen, which has been esteemed the master-piece of Sir Christopher Wren, and the admirable proportions of which have lately been brought out by a judicious and well-timed process of restoration. The fine painting of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, by Mr. West, is placed over the altar. The steeple rises square to a considerable height, and is then surrounded by a balus- trade within, from which a very light and graceful tower arises on two stages ; the first adorned with Corinthian, the second with Composite columns, covered with a dome. The roof within, over the central aisle, is arched and supported by columns and pilasters of the Corinthian order; there are three aisles and a cross aisle. The roof and the cupola are adorned with an entablature, and arches ornamented with shields, palm-branches, roses of fret- work, and panels of crocket-work. The walls are wains- coted ten feet high, having the Grocers’ Arms in a handsome compartment of palm-branches. At the north end of the ci'oss-aisle is a door-case elaborately adorned with various kind of fruits and leaves, and at the west end another equally magnificent. The appearance of the ! entire edifice, upon first entering, has a very imposing I effect, the eye being attracted by every part at once, the ! columns excepted, which are concealed by the carving on ^ the tops of the pew's. Nearly opposite to the church is Bucklersbury, called after a person named Buckle, wdio , had here a large stone manorial dwelling. Formerly it I was chiefly inhabited by grocers and druggists, the latter I being also herbalists, and their houses during the ra- i vages of the plague were generally free from its visita- j tions. To “ smell like Bucklersbury in simple time,” is a 238 Tallis’s illustrated London; plirase employed by Shakspere. The perfume of spices and other aromatic articles^ has been supposed by Monfet to have preserved this street from the fearful ravages of the pestilence. Bucklersbury is novr the seat of a parti- cular traffic, for which, from its quiet and secluded situa- tion, although in the very heart of the city, it is well j adapted. Here, in those brief intervals in the middle of the day, when the toils of business are for awhile sus- pended, the citizens, clerks, and others employed in the commercial hive retire to the numerous eating-houses, taverns, and coifee-houses, which constitute the staple trade of this locality. Dinner in Bucklersbury is a matter | of high importance, and it would be no uninteresting i index to the vast consumption of food in the city, if | the dining statistics of this street of bill of fares were I published. At one o’clock in the afternoon its res- j taurants are literally crowded with consumers, who re- quire no supernatural, or far-fetched zest to create an ' appetite. We return through Walbrook to Cannon-street, which | is a perversion of Canwick or Candlewick-street, in early times the residence of candlemakers. Here also weavers i of 'woollen cloth carried on their business ; having been invited from Flanders by Edward III. They held their j meetings in the church-yard of St. Lawrence, Poultney. j According to Stow, there were at that time in Cannon- street, “Weavers of drapery, tapery, and napery.” The church of St. Swithin is situated at the south-west corner i of St. S within’ s-lane, in Cannon-street. The present ' structure was built by Sir Christopher Wren. The singular memorial in connection with this edifice London Stone. This relic of antiquity is supposed to have been a Roman milliarium in the hne of the great road to Watling-street ; similar to that in the forum at Rome, where all the highways of the country met in a point, and from which they were measured. The rebel Jack Cade, j on his victorious progress through London, struck this | l stone with his sword, exclaiming, “ Now is Mortimer EAST CHEAP. 239 lord of this city, and here, sitting upon London Stone, I jj charge and command that of the city’s cost the priory 1 1 conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our ij reign, and now henceforward it shall be treason for any ji one that calls me other than Lord Mortimer.” Upon im- I portant occasions it was usual for the conduits to flow I with red wine at the expense of the city, and it is evident I I that, abolitionist as he was. Jack Cade had no desire to j put down this relic of costly conviviality. This stone has ■ been, and continues to be, preserved with great care. It jl is placed in the south wall of St. Swithin’s church, beiim cased with another stone cut hollow, so that the ancient one may be open to inspection without being exposed to ; injury. Originally it stood on the other side of the street, but in 1742 it was placed on the edge of the curb on the north side. In 1798, when St. Swithin’s Church j was repaired, it ivas condemned as a nuisance, and nar- I rowly escaped destruction; but this act of Vandalism j was prevented by Mr. Maiden, a printer in Sherborn- lane, at ivhose instance the parochial authorities inserted it in the church wall, where it is now seen. In 1598 the mansion of the Veres, Earls of Oxford, stood in Saint Swithin s-lane, and was called Oxford-place. Contiguous to the garden of this edifice were the houses of Empson and Dudley, the favourites_ of Henry VII., and whose oppressions and cruel exactions weighed heavily upon the people. When Henry VIII. ascended the throne, with an aff ected hatred of tyranny, which it is to be regretted his 1 1 sul^equent career did not confirm, he caused these men I to be tried for their rapacious and unjust actions durijig the reign of his predecessor. They were condemned to I be hanged, drawn, and quartered, a sentence which was j cairied into effect on Tower Hill. In Saint Swithin’s- I lane is New-court, of monetary celebrity, as containiim I ^e offices of that merchant and Israelitish millionaire, I Baron Rothschild. Cannon-street is continued by East- cheap, the only existing portion of which is now on the east side of King William-street. Though modern East- 240 TALLISES ILLUSTBATED LOXDOxV ; j cheap presents no feature more striking than that of a | wide well-appointed street of business, to ancient East- i cheap some very interesting histories belong ; and of its | olden gloiies, Shakspere has not disdained to be a chro- nicler. Eastcheap was not merely memorable for beino' the scene of the revels of our fifth Harry, when Prince of Wales, and of the facetious and unctuous knight. Sir John Falstaff ; it was also famous for the number of its eating- houses, as we learn by Lydgate’s song of the “Lon- i don Lickpenny,” written in the reign of Henry V. In making way for the approaches to the New Bridge, the Boar’s Head, in Eastcheap, which till then indicated the precise position of the celebrated tavern in which Prince Harry and his rollicking associates were wont to make merry, was removed with all the houses to the eastern end of the street. Under the sign of the Boar’s Head was inscribed, ^‘This is the oldest Tavern in London.” From Eastcheap there is a direct line of communication to Tower Hill, and the metropohtan suburbs lying in the far east, at which we must hereafter give a cursory glance. In a parallel line with WatHng-street, Cannon-street, and Eastcheap, is Thames-street, lying between these streets and the Thames ; and from its being so adjacent to the river, is in great repute for its whaiTs and ware- houses. It is a very long street, being about a mile in ^ extent, narrow at its western end, but gradually increas- ing in width as it approaches its eastern extremity. It was formerly a street of very great distinction, and retains, to this day, some of its early importance, a few of the pubhc buildings being situate in the locality. At the western end of this street on the shore of the Thames were for- merly two celebrated castles, — Mountfitchet and Castle Baynard, and the latter gives its name to the city ward in which it was placed. Castle Baynard was originally built by William Baynard, an adventurous soldier, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England. The Baynards incurring the displeasure of Henry I., their THAMES-STKEET. 24J, possessions were confiscated, and the castle given to the Earl of Clare, fi’om whom it passed into the family of ilobert, Baron Fitzwalter, a nobleman who, Matthew Paris says, signalised himself by leading the armed Barons who came to King John in the Temple, demanding those reforms which ivere afterwards embodied in that reluct- antly-granted concession — Magna Charta. In 1428 the ; castle was destroyed by fire, and ivas rebuilt by Hum- I phrey, Duke of Gloucester, into whose hands it had ! passfed. Upon the death and attainder of this prince it j was made a royal palace by Henry VI., and here the Earl of March was proclaimed King under the title of Edward : IV. His unhappy son, Edward V., was also proclaimed j here. Chiefly, however, as the residence of Richard I III., a prince who, notwithstanding the enormities im- j puted to him, has not been without his apologists, it is [ famed. Shakspere describes this castle as being the ! abode of Richard when the citizens of London came to offer him the crown, and which, after great apparent unwillingness to assume the heavy responsibilities of roy- alty, he consents to accept, in these words, addressed to his adherent Buckingham : “ Will you enforce me to a world of cares ? , Well, call them again, I am not made of stone. But penetrable to your kind entreaties, I Albeit against my conscience and my soul. ” Henry VII. beautified and renovated this castle, and fre- quently lodged here. A grant of it was subsequently made by the crown to the Earl of Pembroke, and here on the 19th of July, 1553, the council, under the guidance of that nobleman, determined to abandon the cause of Lady Jane Grey, and to proclaim Queen Mary, which was forthwith done in various parts of the city. The last residents here were the Earls of Shrewsbury, who lived in the castle till it was reduced to ashes in the conflagration of 1666. It is represented in an old picture of London as a square pile encoTiipassing a court, many towers arising i above it. In the centre of the south side a large gate- 242 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON J way led to tlie river by a bridge of two arches and stairs. Its site is now covered with wharfs and warehouses. The next place of interest in this street upon the Thames bank is Queenhithe, the original name of which was Edred^s-hithe^ which probably existed in the time of the Saxons. This was one of the places for large boats and even ships to discharge their lading, for there was a drawbridge in one part of London Bridge which was occasionally pulled up to admit the passage of large ves- sels. When this hithe fell into King Stephen's hands, he gave it to William de Ypres, by whom it was bestowed upon the convent of the Holy Trinity, near Aldgate. It reverted to the crown in the time of Henry III., when it acquired its present name, being called Bipa Reginse, the Queen^s Wharf. That king compelled the ships of the Cinque Ports to bring their corn here, and to no other place. Pennant suggests that the revenue thus derived was part of her Majesty’s pin money. In the same reign Richard, Earl of Cornwall, became possessor of Queenhithe, which in consideration of an annuity, he conveyed to the mayor and corporation of London. The wharf is now an extensive one, where corn, flour, malt, and other dry goods are landed. It gives its name to the ward in which it is located. Proceeding up Thames-street we reach Suffolk-lane, in * which is situate Merchant Tailor's School, founded in 1561 by the company on a piece of ground formerly called the Manor of the Rose, belonging to the Duke of Bucking- I ham. Here 300 boys receive a classical education ; the statutes of this institution providing that one hundi’ed boys shall be instructed at five shillings per quarter, fifty at half-a-crown a quarter, and the remainder gratuitously. Sir Thomas White, a member of the Merchant Tailors’ Company, and Lord Mayor in 1553, founded Saint John’s College, Oxford, the scholarships of which are regularly supplied from this school, besides 46 fellowships. Among those educated at this school, have been three archbishops (Juxon, Dawes, and Gilbert), eight bishops, several judges. BILLINGSGATE. 243 and a vast number of eminent literary men. Opposite to I this lane is Cold Harbour-lane, the original name of which was probably Coal Harbour, a landing-place or wharf for coals. A magnificent mansion stood upon this spot in the reign of Edward IL, which was afterwards given to the Earl of Shrewsbury by Edward VI. Nearly at the end of this lane is the Church of All-Hallows, Thames-street, built in 1683. It contains a fine specimen of wrought work, a beautiful screen made at Hamburgh, and presented hy the merchants exporting to the Hanse towns, who were the original occupants of the Siill or Steel Yard on this spot, long famous as one of the great repositories of the iron imported into this country. Near London Bridge are several steam packet wharfs, whence steam-boats are con- stantly running to all parts of the river at very moderate charges. Passing under the arch of the bridge which spans Thames-street, another steam packet wharf is reached, whence vessels start for Gravesend, Margate, New- castle, and other parts of the coast; also for the continent. We are now in that part of Thames-street called Upper Thames-street, a place which though small in extent, and inelegant in its approaches, contains some of our principal palaces of commerce ; little, however, can be said of the architectural beauties of the fish-market, which do not abound more than classical language in the existing Bil- hngsgate. But a new market-place is in the course of con- struction, which will be worthy of the improved taste of our age. To this market, which is the chief London depot for fish, some of our antiquarians have attributed an origin far from ignoble. They say it was called BeMs-^&ie, or the gate of Behnus, King of Britain, fellow adventurer of Brennus, King of the Gauls, at the sacking of Rome 360 years before the Christian era. In the thirteenth, four- teenth, and for a considerable part of the fifteenth centu- ries, Queenliithe was the only place at which fish was permitted to be landed, and the fish-market was held in a street, the name of ndiich still perpetuates that fact. Old Iish-street. In 1464 the monopoly enjoyed by Queen- I— ^ _ ■■ 244 TALLIS'S ILLUSTllATED LONDON ; Lithe was trenched upon by a statute extending to Bil- lingsgate, some of those privileges which had heretofore been exclusively enjoyed by the rival landing-place. In ] 699 it was made by William HI. a free port for fish, which might be sold there every day in the week except ! on Sunday. The value of the yearly consumption of fish | in London is calculated to exceed one million sterling, i Among the strange fish upon which our ancestors were | wont to regale, may be named the porpoise and the seal. THE NEW COAL EXCHANGE. J What a wonderful change a few centuries have wrought ' in the importance of the coal-trade. In 1238 a charter ^ was first granted by Henry III. to the town of Newcastle, authorising its inhabitants to dig for coals, but seventy years afterwards a royal proclamation was issued prohibit- ing the use of coal for fuel, because it was detrimental to ^ the sale of wood, which, previous to the discovery of the mineral wealth of Newcastle, had been used for that pur- pose. Now coal forms not only one of the necessaries of life, but is the generator of our best artificial light, an , indispensable agent for the development of steam-power, ^ and one of the country's most profitable sources of rev- ' enue. In 1845 the quantity of coal brought into the port ; of London was 3,403,320 tons. The old Coal Exchange ' was erected in 1805 in Lower Thames-street at the corner \ of St. Mary-at-Hill, opposite Billingsgate. Previously to 1807, this Exchange w'as the property of private indivi- duals, after which it passed to the Lord Mayor and Cor- poration of London. The New Coal Exchange, which covers the same site, was erected after the designs of Mr. | J. B. Bunniug, the architect, the contractor for the j building of the edifice being Mr. Trego. The total cost j of the structure was Ell, 487 6s. 8rf. In excavating the old Exchange for the erection of the new one, at the base thereof were discovered the remains of a Homan bath. The front of the Exchange in Thames-street and St. Mary-at-Hill, are severally 112 feet wide by 61 feet high. THE NEW COAL EXCHANGE, 245 A.t the angle of the building formed by these two streets I is a circular tower, divided into three stories, 109 feet j high to the top of a gilded ball, and 22 feet in diameter I at the loAvest part. The lowest story, containing tlie en- trance vestibule is in the E,omau-Doric style of architecture. The wall of the tower also serves as a centre to a flight of steps which conduct on either hand to a landing on the first story of the building, and thence a spiral staircase ascends up in the tower to the other stories. The first story is of the Ionic order, with an entablature, and is lighted by windows. The upper story, 15 feet in diameter, is ornamented by pilasters, entablature, and windows, and is covered with a conical roof surmounted with a gilded ball. The interior is singularly beautiful, It forms a circular area 60 feet in diameter, above which, at the height of 80 feet rises a dome, from the eye of which a lesser cupola ascends to the altitude of 74- feet. The I’oof is sustained by eight piers, the space between each of which is separated by stanchions into three com- partments, and the circumference of the hall is spanned by three galleries, from which entrance is gained into the offices of the buildings. In this fabric 300 tons of iron are used, each of the 32 ribs wtighing two tons. The frame-w'ork to the offices is of wood, and panelled with rough plate glass, so that they may receive light from the great dome. The dome itself is glazed with large pieces of roughened plate glass of great thickness, and the small upper domes contain glass of a yellow tint. The chief public offices surrounding the Rotunda are ajrpropri- ated to the coi'poration oflicers who have to collect the coal dues, the factors' board-room, the weighers' society, and to the merchants and factors. The flooring of the area, wdiich is sixty feet in diameter is composed of desiccated M'ood, and is arranged in the form of a gigantic mariner's compass — the needle pointing due north, to the left of the entrance. In the centre is the city shield, the anchor, and other devices, in brilliant colours. The prevailing- hues of the floor are dai'k, and light brown and white, I 246 Tallis’s illustrated London; tastefully arranged, and the whole consists of up- wards of 4,000 pieces. The woods employed are hlack ebony, black oak, common and red English oak, wainscot, white holly, mahogany, American elm, red and white walnut (French and English), and mulberry. The black oak is part of an old tree which was discovered and re- moved from the bed of the river Tyne. It is supposed to have grown upon the spot where it was found, and owing to its large dimensions, must have been 400 or 500 years old at the time it fell. The mulberry wood introduced in the blade of the dagger in the city shield also possesses some historical interest, being a portion of a tree planted by Peter the Great, when working as a shipwright in this country. The walls of the interior are embellished with coloured decorations, representing vases with fruit, ara- besque foliage, &c., and on the panels are painted figures symbolical of Wisdom, Fortitude, Vigilance, Temperance, Perseverance, Watchfulness, Justice, and Faith. New- castle, Sunderland, Walisend Colliery, the air-shaft at Walisend, Shields, the Percy Main pit, and other appro- priate illustrations of coal, and of the rich fields in which this profitable material of commerce, this veritable fire- side comfort is gathered, also grace the walls. The Coal Exchange was opened with great pomp and splendour on the 30th of October, 1849 : the ceremony was to have been performed by Queen Victoria, but her majesty being prevented from attending, the office was deputed to her illustrious consort. Prince Albert. His royal highness, accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal took water at Whitehall Stairs, and landed at the Custom Flouse Quay, the royal water pa- geant being one of the most splendid civic spectacles ever witnessed, and the day being regarded throughout town as a holiday, Plis royal highness, surrounded by all the great officers of state, the civic authorities, the Duke of Wellington, the late Sir Robert Peel, and a glittering galaxy of rank and beauty, opened the new exchange with ' an appropriate speech. The Exchange had been most I THE NEW COAL EXCHANGE. 247 I I gorgeously litted up in anticipation of a visit from the I Queen to the city. The throne occupied three divisions ; j under the gallery ; the exterior covering was of rich crimson ij drapery, with trimmings of gold lace; a vallance of the i I same material suspended from a cornice formed the canopy, j The dais was also of crimson velvet, finished with a golden fringe. The back interior of the centre compartment of ; the throne was of white fluted satin, with a fall of white i muslin, bearing the royal arms in the centre. The state : chairs had massive gold frames, and crimson velvet backs • j over that of the Prince of Wales was a silvery plume of j spun glass feathers. The royal retiring rooms were hung ( with alternate flutings of pink and white satin. The [ wmdows were ornamented with crimson, green, and gold . tapestry curtains, and the sofas and chairs were of gold, j seats and baclp corresponding with the curtains. ; This grand ceremonial terminated with a splendid ban- I quet. In describing the Coal Exchange we have been J more diffuse than is our wont, but the recent date of its : opening, _ and the magnificent pageant connected there- with reviving some of those brilliant associations of the olden time with which the city is identified, will iustify us for departing from the rule by which, during our peram- bulations, we are generally guided. ^ On the same side as the Coal Exchange are Harp-lam Water-lane, and some other respectable streets ascending' , into Tower-street. On the river side of Lower Thames^ street, adjoining Billingsgate, is the Custom House, a I description of which will be found in another part of this I I work. Lower Thames-street extends to Tower Hill and I also to the end of this chapter. ’ CHAPTER XII. I CHEAPSIDE — BOVTCHXTRCH — WOOD-STREET — MILK-STREET | I HONEY lane— KING-STREET— GUILDHALL— BASINGHALL- ' j STREET OLD JEWRY COLEMAN-STREET POULTRY, ETC. | I Again we must make St. Paul’s Churchyard our starting !' point, at the north-east corner of which a broad avenue i j conducts to that famous city thoroughfare and street of ' handsome shops, Cheapside. Cheapside is bounded on ^ the west by Paternoster-row, Newgate-street, and St. Paul’s ; on the east by Lombard-street and Cornhill ; on the north by St. Martin’s-le-Grand and Aldersgate-street; and on the south by Wat ling-street and Thames-street! ^ Though the progressive migration of fashionable society ■ westward has denuded Cheapside of that aristocratic re- pute which appertained to the ancient “ Chepe,” it still j abounds in chivalric and romantic reminiscences of the j olden times, when it was a place of tournaments and royal festivals, and gallant knights, on barbed steeds, careered ! over tlie selfsame ground now pressed, from dewy morn i to silent eve,” by cabs and omnibuses. A shadowy ves- tige of its past grandeur is annually recalled by the civic | procession on the ninth of November, the prime holiday j of the citizens. In the year 1246 this (now) great seat ! of commerce was an open field called Crown-field, from an j inn with tlie sign of a crown at the east end. It was sub- ' sequently called Chepe, a market, as originally the great street of splendid shops. Under the name of West Cheap it was anciently the leading thoroughfai’e of old London, and the^^scene, more than any other street, of the nu- merous letes and pageants in which our forefathers de- ! lighted. The Standard, the great Conduit of the city, the cross, founded by King Edward I. in memory of the Queen Eleanor, once stood here. The Standard was situate CHEAPSIUE. 24'J in Honey-lane, but tbe time of its original construction is unknown. Here penal sentences were frequently inflicted The Conduit w'as commenced between 1281 and 1284. Heretofore Walbrook, the Fleet, the river of Wells, and other small streams intersecting it, had supplied the city with water, but these being inadequate, a grant was ob- tained of sundry springs near St. Mary's Bourn, now ]\Iaryleboue, whence water was to be, through leaden pipes, impelled into the conduits or reservoirs. Of these the principal one was in Cheapside, the building of which occupied forty-eight years. It was rebuilt in 1479 by one I of the sherilFs, and remained in use till it was superseded j by the successful but ill-requited enterprise of Sir Hugh I Middelton for supplying water to the metropolis. It was destroyed in the fire of 1666. The Cross, which has been named, placed here by Edward I. in memory of I his queen, was erected in 1290. In the reign of Henry j yi. it was reconstructed, and elaborately ornamented with j images of the Virgin Mary and other objects of Eoman j Cathobc worship. Whenever a sovereign publicly visited I the city it was regilded and burnished. In 1643, by com- j maud of the Parliament, it was destroyed by Sir Robert j Harlow, a fierce and barbarous Puritan, who, accompanied by troops of horse and foot, razed to the ground the ob- noxious monument of the conjugal tenderness of one of I England's greatest warrior-kings. The scenes witnessed in Cheapside are identified with some of the most import- j ant events of British history ; the feuds of rival companies, I the forays of 'prentices, and the ferocious exploits of re- j bellious mobs. About 1328 conflicts frequently arose between gangs of armed banditti and persons whom they tried to rob in the open day ; an evil which was so se- I riously felt that the citizens, becoming special constables, formed a combination for mutual protection, aud captured several of ^ the felon ringleaders, who were summarilv executed in Cheapside without trial, their accomplice's retreadng to the Surrey side of the water. In Cheapside Wat Tyler's mob decapitated several persons, and upon 250 Tallis’s illustrated London ; I ! the same spot Lord Saye and Sele was assassinated by 'j Jack Cade. One of the most prominent and beautiful ^ objects in Gbeapside is the parish church of St. Mary-le- ' Bow, usually called Bow Church, a most elaborate per- I formance of Sir Christopher Wren. The church, thus : originally named, was erected in the reign of William I., and called New hlary Church; subsequently the addition ! of de arcubus, or le-bow, was made. The steeple was not * completed til 1512, when arches, hows, and lanterns were ! incorporated with it. In 1666, the church and steeple I were consumed by fire, and the present edifice was built in i 1673. In 1819, it having been ascertained that the steeple ! I was in a dangerous condition, it was taken down and re- - erected on the same model. We have already referi’ed to ' some of the interesting incidents connected with this ! sacred pile. The principal streets on the south side of : Cheapside communicating with Watling-street have been i alluded to. Of those on the north a brief notice is re- ' quisite. A most conspicuous landmark to Wood-street is ! a noble elm tree at the corner, which rears its leafy spires ; above the summit of its neighbouring houses, and in which, sometimes, the rare spectacle of a rook’s nest is seen. Wordsworth, in his poem of “ Poor Susan,” has * beautifully introduced this tree, as recalling to the harm- less maniac, visions of the pleasant woods and fields of her native place, which she may never more behold. The ' church of St. Alban, in this street, is one of the most ven- erable foundations in London. According to Stow, the first chnrch that stood here was in the reign of King Athel- i stan, the Saxon, who ascended the throne about 921. Old ' legends tell that his house was the east end thereof, with a door communicating with Adel-street, to which it gave ' the name, now degenerated into Addle-street. This street ' is principally occupied by Manchester and other ware- | housemen. Milk-street is famous as the birth-place of ; Sir Thomas More; nearly adjacent is Honey-lane, which, i with its market-place, occupied the site of two parish j churches destroyed by the fire of 1666. Lawrence- ' GUILDHALL. 251 lane, a tlioronghfare of business, takes its name from tlie saint, who is further perpetuated by a nolile church in Gresham-street. We now reach King-street, a spacious street which, intersecting Gresham-street, forms the prin- cipal approach to GUILDHALL, the judicial palace of the city potentate, and the seat of municipal government. The Guidhall, prior to 14-11, was j a small cottage in Aldermanbury. In the above year a j more appropriate structure was commenced, but in the j present front no part of the ancient building is preserved, ; except the central archway and its sustaining columns, j Among those who contributed towards its erection was i Sir Eichard Whittington, at whose cost it was paved with , Purbeck stone. Progressive additions were made to it until the commencement of the sixteenth century. Con- siderable injury was indicted on it by the great fire, which consumed its out-offices, but it was substantially restored at an outlay of £3,000. Early in the eighteenth century, in 1789, in 1790, and finally in 1837, repairs and additions were made to it. The front now consists of three divisions, separated by fluted piers terminating above the parapet, in pinnacles of three gradations, crowned with firebosses, and ornamented with a kind of escalloped battlement. The piers of the porch have oblong and pointed pannels, with an inverted arch battlement above, continued alon«- the parapet over the archway. The parapet of the roof is similarly decorated, and the central divisions sustain the armorial bearings of the city, supported by large dragons, with the motto Domine Dirige Nos inscribed in a compart- ment below. The dimensions of the great hall are, leno-th 150 feetj breadth, 50 feet; and altitude, 55 feet; and it will contain nearly 7,000 persons. It is used for city elections (parliamentary and municipal), and for civic fes- tivals and fetes, the taste for which, while other ancient customs have fallen into desuetude, have been handed down undiminished to the present generation of citizens. 252 TALLIS'S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; Both at the east and west end of the hall are magnificent windows. At each angle of the latter window are placed the gigantic figures of Gog and Magog, between which is a superb dial. These statues are 14 feet in height, and have, for nearly two centuries, kept their silent vigils in the hall. They are supposed to represent a Saxon and an ancient Briton. The walls are adorned with several tablets and monuments in honour of, among other distinguished personages, William Beckford, who was twice elected Lord Mayor, the Earl of Chatham, the Right Hon. William Pitt, and Lord Nelson. The following nine city courts are held in Guildhall : — the Court of Common Council, of Lord Mayor and Aldermen, of Hustings, of Orphans, of She- riffs, of tlie Wardmote, of the Halimote, and the Cham- berlainN Court for the binding of Apprentices and giving them their freedom. The most splendid entertainment ever given in Guildhall was on the 18th of J une, 1814, when the Prince Regent, and the allied sovereigns who came to England on the restoration of peace, paid a state visit to the city. The entire expense of the banquet and its brilliant accessaries was estimated at £25,000. Ad- joining the hall the chief apartment is the Common Council Chamber, the ceiling of which forms a cupola, with a lantern in its centre. Here the courts and meet- ings of the city parliament are held, the business of w'hich, however, unlike that of St. Stephen’s Chapel, is trans- acted in the day-time. In some of the chambers over the front of Guildhall is the city library, established in 1824 j by the corporation, who made a preliminary grant of j £500, and an annual allowance of £200 for books, of which there is now a most valuable collection, principally relating to the annals of the city. On the right-hand side of Guildhall are the new courts of Queen’s Bench and Common Pleas, held, wdth the Court of Exchequer, at Guildhall three several times during each term, and on j the next day but one after each term, from time imme- j morial. Ihe city receives 'ds. >jd. for each verdict given j in these courts, in payment for the use of the buildings THE POULTKY. 253 provided.* The new courts are substantial brick build- erected on the site of Guildhall Chapel, opposite to which is the Justice Hall, where an alderman sits daily to hear complaints for that portion of the city which is west of King street. In the avenue leading from Guildhall to Basinghall- ^reet, and opposite to the new courts, is the court for the Commissioners of Bankrupts. Basinghall-street is held in high reputation as a cloth-mart, and contains, besides, some of the city halls, the Lord Mayor’s Court, the Se- condaries’ Court, and other public buildings. Returning to Cheapside, the next street of importance to inspect is the Old Jeivry, so called after the great synagogue which stood upon the spot till the Jews were banished from England in 1291. Upon their expulsion the brothers of the Sack, or de penitentia, a monastic order, obtained pos- session of the Jewish temple, and by them, in 1305, it was assigned to Robert Fitzwalter, the great banner-bearer of the city. In 1439 it was occupied by Robert Large, Lord Mayor, who kept his mayoralty in the house, as did Sir Hugh Clapton in 1492. It subsecjuently was converted into a ta,vern called the Windmill. It is now a street of respectable houses of business, among which are several insurance offices, and extends to a point in Gresham-street where it is continued by Coleman-street. This street' which is of considerable extent, runs towards London-wall and Fore-street, in the direction of Finsbury-sQuare. On the west side, towards the southern extremity, is the church of St. Stephen,^ erected four years subsequently to rhe great fire, the root of which is unsupported by pillars. Over the entrance-gate is a fine representation cf the o-en- eral resurrection carved in stone. Returning throuo-h I the Old Jewry into Cheapside, we find ourselves at that j point where the last named thoroughfare is joined by The Poultry, which is thus named from the poulterers’ stalls that were once stationed here. In the Poultry was a court called Scalding-alley, where the fowls were scalded pre- ' * A. G. Lee. 254 Tallis’s illusteated London ; j j vious to their being exposed for sale. St. Mildred’.isday I gladly celebrate the compleMoc Ot the work quickly executed, but grand and perfect in 1 s par s. The relief of the indigent, tlie advancement ot science, the extension of commerce, were the ob’ects 2 N 1 374 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON contemplated by tbe founder of the Exchange. These objects are near to my heart. Their attainment will, I trust, be recorded among the peaceful triumphs of my reio'n ; and I shall rejoice if I am thus enabled, by the blessing of Divine Providence, to promote the ^^pros- perity and happiness of all classes of my subjects. At the conclusion of the ceremony the banqueting room was thrown open, where the Queen took her seat at the cross table, supported by Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, and the Duke of Cambridge. Medals of gold and silver, commemorative of the great event of the day, were dis- tributed among the visitors. Soon afterwards the royal party descended the staircase to the quadrangle of the Exchange. The Lord Mayor, the members of the cor- poration, and the chief ministers of state, encircled hei Majesty, who then said, *■' It is my royal will and pleasure that this building be hereafter called the Royal Ex- \ change.” “ As on the first royal visit to that spot,^^ says | Wilson, “ the trumpets sounded, and the will of her Ma- j jesty was duly proclaimed by the attendant heralds. The entire expense incurred in the erection of this noble work of art, and arena of commerce, was £400,000. At the eastern end of the Bank is BaTtholoinew-lane, extending from Threadneedle-street to that point where ' Lothbury and Throgmorton-street unite. At the south 1 end of this lane is the Sun Eire Insurance Office, a hand- j some modern structure, built upon the site of St. Bar- tholomew’s Church. Here also, opposite to the eastern entrance of the Bank, is Cape! Court, the principal open- ing to that famous mart of speculation, THE STOCK EXCHANGE, which is merely worthy of mention as the place where the stock of our great national debt is bought and sold. The brokers used to meet at Jonathan’s Coffee-house, in Change-alley, to transact their business j but this not affording adequate accommodation, they subscribed to- gether and erected the present building, which was opened LOTHBUllY. 275 in 1802. The jobbers and the brokers are the actors at this mart, and their mercantile phraseology is curiously symbolic, including such phrases as “bulP" “bear” and ‘lame duck;” the first of these indicates those Iho speculate for an advance ; the second are those who seek to cause a depreciation in the prices • and thp uneqaivocal defaulter. The natiU riebTl wSC traffic exceeds the enormous sum of £800,000,000. Be- sides this, railroad, mining, gas, insurance, and' other house in Barthoiomew-lane is the Avctinr, Mart which was opened in 1810, for the sale by auction of estates, and every description of valuable property The upper story, which is lUumined by large lantern contains several spacious auction galleries. ^ CHAPTER XIV. LOTHBURY— THSOGMORTON-STREET — BROAD-STREET — pv ClSE OEFICE-AUSTIN-ERIARS - LONDON-WALL >100^ fields roman catholic chapel, etc. At the north side of the Bank is a wide and handsome street of business called Lothbury, coverino- the sit n.”! occupied by the residence of Loth a Cat early Saxon or Danish times. The dmrch of SV ^ iMargaret in this street, is one of Sir Christonher Wr erections, and was built in 1690. Attached in ihi j edifice is a valuable preferment under tim natrm/^^^^^r s/ap. The emoluments exceed £400 annually and the duties involve the reading of prayers and the delivery of a 276 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; sermon every Tuesday througliout tlie year. Some yards beyond is tbe chief office of the London and Westminster Bank, an edifice the architectural combinations of which produce a very striking effect. . . -rx j From Lothbury containing Drapers Hall, leads into Broad-street, a street with which Thr^d- needle-street also communicates. This street, which is divided into Old and New Broad-street, _ is spacious and filled with houses of handsome elevation, including ^ev^al insurance offices, banking houses, a club house, and the isa?- cise Office. The business of this office was onginaUy tran- sacted on the west side of Ironmonger-lane, the ground occupied by Gresham College was sold to the crown, and the present structure was erected on the site of the college and ten alms-houses. The huiming is ot stone, four stories in height, and is separated by a large court-yard from another building of brick, nearly equal m proportions to the principal edifice. By a recent legis- lative enactment, the business of the Excise is compre- hended under the definition of the Inland Eevenue. At the west end of Broad-street an archway conducts to Austin Friars, a quiet neighbourhood in the centre of city hustle, once the magnificent residence of the order ot Saint Augustine, and still distinguished by the spacious remains of their beautiful church. This church was a portion of a priory raised in the 13th century by Hum- phrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex. Once it was ornamented with a spire, and the interior contained many handsome monuments, in memory, among others, ot the founder; Edmund, half-brother to Richard II., and the Duke of Buckingham, decapitated in 1521. With a cupi- dity of which a Vandal might have been ashamed, the Marquis of Winchester at the commencement ot the 17th century, removed the steeple and the choir of this splendid church, and sold its time-honoured monuments for £100. The edifice is now used as a Dutch cliurcU. On the left hand side of Broad-street, some distance fi-om the Excise Office, is a long street extending to moorpields roman catholic chapel. 277 Moorgate-street and Finsbury-pavement called London yyait. He^ in the time of Queen Elizabeth stood Old Beth- lem Hospital, ^ and Upon its removal a portion, of the ground which it occupied was converted into a cemetery for the relief of the metropolitan parishes, and subse- quently the resting-place of the dead Was appropriated to abodes for the hving. Previously to taking down Beth- lem Hospital, the greatest portion of the ancient Londoii Wall remaining visible Was to be seen here. Anciently it traversed eastward to Wormwood-street, Camomile-street, bboemaker-row. Poor Jewry-street and Towel' Hill to Postern In a south-western direction it ran from Cripplegate by Monkwell-street to Aldersgate-street, along Tower Ditch, on to the Old Bailey, to Little Bridge- street in the rear of Ludgate-hill, and continued to the Thames near Blackfriars Bridge, On the south side of Onpplegate church-yard may be witnessed the remains of * ^ XL ^ towers which used to ^ud the waUs at equal distances. At the eastern end of ±5read-street, opposite Liverpool-street, a respectable avenue branching from Bishopsgate-street, is Bloomfield- at the end of which is the Moorfields Roman Catholic Chapel Its front is tn-partite > in the centre is a deep recess ornamented by two Corinthian columns. The by a pediment, in the tympanun of wnich IS the cross sustained by two female figures The mterior presents great beauty of design, and is divided into a body and aisles with a semicircular tribune at the altar end. The ceiling is elliptically arched, terminating at each extremity in a semi-dome ; and it is covered with brilliant paintings. On the large panel in the centre appear the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the four itvangelists, encompassed by square and oblong panels containing scriptural subjects. The ceiling of the aisles is honzontal and painted in panels, the plain surfaces of which represent clouds. In the sanctuary is a grand arch, resting on piers. It is elliptical, and sustains two I"®'' 278 TALLIs’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; coupled, and two single Corinthian columns of Como marble, copied from the choragic monument of Lysi- crates. They support a highly enriched entablature, the frieze decorated with honeysuckles, and the cornice with Grecian tiles. Behind this superb screen is seen a magnificent fresco painting of the Crucifixion by Aglio. It presents a most graphic portraiture of that stupen- dous event ; the horror of the followers of our Lord at his ignominious doom j the cruel scorn of the execu- tioners of that dark deed; and the heartfelt sorrow of his female disciples, are represented with a master’s power. The elements also appear sentient of the fearful sacrifice which guilty and unbelieving Man is in tne act of perpetrating ; for over the hitherto fair and un- dimmed horizon, black and portentous clouds are seen gradually to gather, as if their mission were to cover the earth with darkness, that she might not witness the con- summation of so impious a tragedy. In this painting there indeed appears not only colouring, expression, finish, but that with which every work of excellence is stamped mind. The altar is of fine marble, and raised on three flights of steps of the same material. It is lighted from the roof. The first stone of the chapel was laid in 1817, and the building consecrated in 1820. Its cost was £26,000. We are now in Moorfields, originally a moor outside the walls of the city to the north, which Cunningham states was first drained in 1527 ; laid out into walks in 1606, and first built upon towards the close of the reign of Charles II. Finsbury -square, Finsbury -circus, and the City-road absorb a portion of Moorfields ; and that part of it lying between Finsbury and Shoreditch does not possess sufficient features of interest to call for any further note here. CHAPTEK XV. lombard-street — FENCHURCH- STREET — MARK-LANE — THE CORN EXCHANGE— CORNHILL— pope’s HEAD ALLEY- CHANGE ALLEY— GARRAWAy’s— ST. MICHAEl’s ALLEY— ST. Peter’s church, etc. South of the Eoyal Exchange are Cornhill and Lombard street, and extreme south is King William-street, three treets which are not surpassed in the city either for reel, which is the central one, was thus named from its being anciently the residence of merchants from Loml hardy, the great money-changers, and usm-ers of eariv times. They settled here in the 13th century, lendin- money often to the sovereigns of England, and ^remained in this street to the 16th century. Lombard-street Tthl retains its monetary character, containing the offices of ^ sjeral eminent bankers, and some of the chief insm-ance I offices m London. The husband of the ill-fated heroine Jane Shore is said to have carried on the business of a : silversmith in this street, in which, as before-mrtioned [ was the shop of Sir Thomas Gresham. Alexander Pope' Lie poet, was born in this street in 1688, where his fatW kept a hnen-draper s shop ; and Guy the bookseller who has left an enduring monument of his munificence in that resment Here. In a passage in this streeet stood the old f n residence of Sir R. Viner Lord Mayor in 1675. In 1829 the business of tW general post-office was transferred to the more appro pnate bmlding in St. Martins-le-grand, and the Lomh^" street establishment reduced to a branch post-office. At the angle of Lombard-street and Kino- William ss+wm- ctA'S'srMf nurcn ot St. J\Iary, M oolnoth, thus named from tlm ancient wool staple in this neighboui’hood. It was built 280 Tallis’s ILL asTRATED LONDON ; in 1716 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the pupil of Sir Chris- I topher Wren, and has been much admired for the ex- | treme beauty of design by which both the interior and ^ exterior are characterized. The Rev. John Newton, the friend and correspondent of Cowper, was rector of this parish. In this street we also find the church of All Hal- 1 lows, one of Wren’s edifices, and the parish church of St. j Edmund, the King. _ _ j Crossing Gracechurch-street, which intersects Liom- bard-street and Fendmrch-street, we enter the last-named street, which, running parallel with Leadenhall-street, stretches into Aldgate. Anciently a brook ran through | the ground which this street covers ; it was arched over ^ and carried into the Thames by the common sewer. At ^ the corner of Fenchurch-street and Gracechurch-street is the church of St. Bennet, Gracechurch-street. The ori- ; ginal fabric was burnt down in 1666 ; and the present edifice raised in 1685. Stow says that the parish church of St. Bennet was called Grass-church on account of the herb-market held close by. Holinshed writes that in this street was Denmark House, in which was lodged the first ambassador sent here from the Emperor of Cathaie, Moscovia, and Kusseland.” As we need not pursue the line of Fenchurch-street beyond its termination in Aid- gate, for the sake of perspicuity we will notice first the principal streets on the left hand side of the way, enteiing | from Gracechurch-street and return into the street just ^ named by the right. Lime-street, which gives its name to one of the city wards, and includes within its hunts Leadenhall-street, Stow supposes to have been a depot for i lime. At the south-west corner is the _ church ot St. Dionis, Back Church, so called from its situation, one of Wren’s churches. Its wall in Fenchurch-street is screened by a house and shop of much younger date fh^ii fhe church : the practice of blocking up every available space by the side of a church, and hiding its best proportions with shops, is of common occurrence in the city, and one which cannot be too severely reprehended. Billiter-street, j COllNHILL. :^»i cliiefly composed of warehouses, leading to Billiter-square and Leadenhall-street, was originally called Belzettar’s- lane, after the name of its founder. In the time of Henry VIII. it was inhabited by such a crew of impudent beg- gars that it was deemed necessary to close the thorough- fare. Eetmming through Fenchurch-street on the right hand side, London-street is reached, a short thoroughfare leading to the Blackwall Eailway. Mincing -lane, extend- ing to Tower-street, the great commercial mart of sugar- brokers and others, was originally called Minchun’s-Iane, from several tenements on its site belonging to the Min- , chuns or Nuns of St. Helenas, Bishopsgate. Several noble j mansions may be seen in this lane from the designs of I Wren, in whose time the merchants not only transacted j their business, but had their private residences in the I city. Here stands that extensive range of building the Commercial Sale Rooms. Mark-lane is a name familiar to j agi-icultural ears as the seat of the Corn Exchange, which was first opened in 1747. In 1827 apart of the edifice was rebuilt, and many alterations made, and the renovated strueture was thrown open in 1828. The Exchange is of the Dorie order, and two coffee-houses are connected with it. An interior quadrangle is surrounded by a colonnade. Here the brokers sit, and exhibit the sample of grains for sale. The corn-market is held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Philpot-lane occupies the spot once appro- ! priated to the mansion of Sir John Philpot, a citizen, who in the reign of Eichard II. fitted up a fleet at his own : eost to suppress the pirates who infested the English sea. Cornhill, one of the chief city wards, lies to the south of I the Eoyal Exchange, and between Threadneedle- street and Lombard-street. Upon this site in ancient times a corn- market was held. Cornhill appears to have been a wide street with a market-place aspect, the prison very in- trusively breaking the line on the left-hand side. The space in its front was the scene of Mayings, and other quaint gaieties. In 1283 Henry de Walleis built on Cornhill a prison for the incai’ceration of improper 2 o 282 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; persons, and tlie same was called the Tun-upon-Comliill, because it was in the shape of that vessel. In 1401 the tun was converted into a cistern for sweet water, conveyed by leaden pipes from Tyburn, and thenceforth called the Conduit-on-Cornliill. “ Then was the wall planked over, and a cage with a pair of stocks placed therein for the confinement and correction of immoral characters ; on the top of the cage was fixed a pillory for the punishment of fraudulent bakers, for millers stealing corn at the mills, for scolds, and other feminine offenders.'^ Of the origin of the Standard in Cornhill, so long the ideal point by which the suburban mile-stones measured then’ distances from the city, an ancient local historian gives the follow- ing account. — “In 1582, Peter Morris, a Dutchman, having contracted -with the city for the construction of an engine under London Bridge to force water into the eastern parts thereof, erected at the east end of Cornhill, in the middle of the high street, where four ways part, a water standard at the charge of the city, which standard had four spouts that ran plentifully with every tide four ways to Bishopsgate, Aldgate, the Bridge, and to Wal- brook, or Stocks Market. This being at tlie same time sup- posed to be the highest ground in the city.” Passing from the western extremity of Cornhill, the outlets on the left- hand side are not of sufficient interest to demand distinct notice. The first opening on the right-hand side is Pope’s Head-alley, which communicates with Lomhard-street. Here some ancient chronicles relate, that King John once owned a palace, and possibly the celebrated but igno- minious scene which passed between him and Pandulph, in which the diadem of England was prostrated before the representative of the Pope, was acted or planned here. It might be that from this event a building afterwards rose in honour of the Pope, called Pope^s Head, which was a place of considerable importance, and built of stone. It certainly had been inhabited, if not by royalty, at least by some very considerable personage, and adorned with the arms of England, such as they were seen before the garraway’s coffee-house. 283 time of Edward III,, with two angel-supporters ; they decorated the front of the house towards ComhilL A tavern and ship-broker's offices now cover the site. CHANGE ALLEY, An abbreviation of Exchange Alley, has two entrances from Cornhill, and extends to Lombard-street, Here is Garraway’s Coffee-house, which has long been celebrated for the sales of estates and other valuable property which take place beneath its roof. Prior to the erection of the Auction IMart, every public sale of importance in the city ■was effected here, and it still maintains the character which Maitland applies to it in his “ Survey," written in 1756 : — “ It is known all over the mercantile world on account of the business transacted there in money affairs.-’' It was also the grand market for selling stocks, lottery- tickets, &c., nearly two centuries back, a character which it maintained till the chief branch of this business was transferred to the Stock Exchange. D’Israeli in his Curiosities of Literature, gives an account of the f^und.er of this coffee-house. He says : — ‘‘ Thomas Gar- way, in Exchange-alley, tobacconist and coffee-man, was the first who sold and retailed tea, recommending it for the cure of all disorders. The following shop-bill is more curious than any historical account we have ; — ‘ Tea in England, hath been sold in the leaf for £6 and some- times for £10 the pound weight, and in respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it hath only been used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments, and pre- sents made thereof to princes and grandees till the year 1357. The said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf, and drink made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into the Eastern countries, and upon knowledge and experience of the said Garway’s continued care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making tea thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality have ever 284 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; sent to him for the said leaf^ and daily resort to his house in Exchange-alley aforesaid^ to drink the drink thereof; and to the end that all persons of eminence and quality^ gentlemen and others, who have occasion for tea in leaf may be supplied, these are to give notice, that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from sixteen to fifty shil- lings the pound/ ” The coffee-room of Garraway’s, in which sherry and sandwiches, and other savoury comesti- bles are discussed in business hours, is very primitive but very comfortable ; rough settles which have never known the effeminacy of a cushion, and ancient tables which are indebted for their polish to perhaps centuries of use, being its chief furniture. Birchin-lane connects CornhiU and Lombard-street, and is occupied by merchants, bankers, and assurance companies. St. Michael’s Alley next Birchin-lane conducts to St. Michael’s Church. The original church existed here so early as 1133. To this church was attached a pulpit-cross like that of St. PauFs, erected by Sir John Rudstone, Lord Mayor in 1528, who was buried in a vault beneath in 1531. Robert Eabian, alderman and sheriff, but far better known as an histo- rian, was interred here in 1511. The body of this church was burnt in 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. Its Gothic tower on the south side of Cornhill is justly admired. At each corner is an angulated tmu’et as high as the belfry, where the turrets become fluted, and the capital ornamented with sculptures of human faces ; from them they spire into very elegant pinnacles. At the corner of the church-yard stands Jamaica Coffee^ house, where in the last century the slave-trade traffic was briskly carried on. It is a rendezvous where West Indian merchants and others interested in the rum and sugar trades daily meet to transact business. As Change- alley was the first place in England in which tea was pub- licly sold, so St. Michael’s-alley is remarkable as the earliest locality in which that popular beverage, coffee was sold, and as the seat of the first coffee-house in England. DTsraeli writes : — " An English Tui’kish mer- ST. petee’s alley. 285 chant brouglit a Greek servant in 1G52, wlio knowing bow to roast and make it (coffee), opened a house to sell it publicly. I have also discovered his handbill, in which he sets forth, ' The virtue of the coffee-drink, first pub- liquely made and sold in England, by Pasqua Eosee, in St. MicbaeFs Alley, at the sign of his own liead.^ From St. MichaeFs-alley we pass southward through the George and Vulture Tavern to George-yard, leading to Lombard-street. Eastward smaller passages connect it ■with Lombard-street and Gracechurch-street. In Cow- per’s-court is the Jerusalem Coffee Home, the meeting-place of merchants in the East Indian, Chinese, and Austrian trades. The last avenue on the south side of Cornhill is St. Peter’s Alley, a place of considerable business. The most attractive object upon this spot is St. Peter’s Church, the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of bygone ages. There is, however, a tradition which is perpetuated by a tablet preserved in the church which sets forth that the first church founded in London was that of Sent Peter upon Cornhyl,” which it is further said was raised in the year 179 by Lucius, the first Christian king of this land. It adds, that it was made the cathedral of an archiepisco- pal see, and continued so for more than 410 years, when the diocese was removed from Cornhill to Derebernaum, which is now called Canterbury, and where “ vt re- meyneth to this dey.^^ Maitland states that the first account of St. Peter’s Ciiurch which he had found that could be regarded as authentic, set fortli that “ William Kingston, before the year 1228, gave to it liis tenemenc in Grass-street called Horse Mill.” The ancient church in 1411 was conveyed by Eichard Whittington, the famous citizen, and others, to the commonalty of Ijondon, in whom the right of advowsoii is vested. It was destroyed in the conflagration of 1666, and upon tlie ruins thereof the present handsome pile (by Wren) arose. Tliere is a monument in this church to the memory of seven * Curiosities of Literature. 286 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; children, the whole offspring of Jane and IVIary Wood- house, who were bui’nt to death at the house of their parents in Leadenhall-street in 1782. We have now reached the top of Cornhill, a point at which Bishopsgate and Gracechurch- streets meet, and Leadenhall-street to the east continues the grand tho~ roughfare from the Cornhill line. CHAPTEE XIV. LEADENHALL-STREET — LEADENHALL-MARKET EAST INDIA- HOUSE ALDGATE HOUNDSDITOH — -WHITECHAPEL MiNORiES — Goodman’s fields — tower-hill the TRINITY house THE MINT WAPPING THE THAMES TUNNEL SHADWELL STEPNEY LIMEHOUSE- — POPLAR BLACKWALL, ETC Leadenhall-street, into which we now enter, is of con- siderable antiquity, and extends from Cornhill to Aldgate. It derives its name from a large plain building or manor- house, the property, in 1309, of Sir Hugh Nevil, lord of the manor, and roofed with lead. In 1384 Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, became its possessor, and sixteen years I later it was transferred to Sir Eichard Whittington, by I whom it was presented to the mayor and commonalty of London. A few years afterwards Sir Simon Eyre, Lord Mayor of London, covered the greater part of the site with a public granary built with stone, and designed to be always filled with corn as a preservative against famine. This granary or market was square in form, and within the area Sir Simon also founded a chapel and left 3,000 marks to the Drapers’ Company, properly to endow it. His wishes were not carried out, but in 1466 a fraternity of THE EAST INDIA HOUSE. 287 sixty priests, wlio were alternately to perform divine service on every market-day, was founded. The building was used for other purposes besides those of a granary or market. Here the artillery and city arms were kept, and like the Tower, it was regarded as an important civic fortress. “ Here,^' Pennant quaintly remarks, “in 1546, while Henry VIII. lay putrefying in state, Heath, bishop of Winchester, his almoner, and other his ministers, dis- tributed great sums of money, during twelve days to the poor of the city for the salvation of his soul, but I greatly fear his majesty was past ransom !” Sir Simon Eyre died in 1459, and was interred in the church of St. Mary, Woolnoth. The present Leadenhall-market is one of the most extensive and varied in the city, having entrances from Gracechurch-street, Leadenhall-street, and Lime- street, and being appropriated to the sale of butcher^s meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, leather, hides, &c. On the north side of Leadenhall-street is the church of St. Catha- rine Cree, or Christ, a Gothic edifice 90 feet long, and 51 feet broad. Archbishop Laud incurred great odium by the superstitious manner in which he consecrated this church on January 16th, 1630-31, and this was one, among other causes of popular dissatisfaction, which brought this unfortunate prelate to the scaffold. In this church are monuments in memory of Sir Nicholas Thro*^- morton, chief butler of the kingdom in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and after whom Throgmorton- street is named and Hans Holbein, the famous artist, who died of the i plague in 1554 at the Duke of Norfolk's, in Christchurch Priory, near Aldgate. West of this church, and nearly opposite to Lime-street, is the church of St, Andrew, l/n- 1 dershaft, thus styled from a shaft or Maj^-poie formerly I erected here, higher than the steeple. On the east wiu- j doM-^ of stained glass are full length portraits of Edu-ard I VI., Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and Charles 11. John Stow, the famous chronicler, died in 1605 at the age of eighty, in great poverty, and is buried in this I church, where a monument is raised to his memmy. 288 Tallis’s illustrated London United to this parish church is a street and parish called St. Mary Axe, from the circumstance of its being situate near the Axe Inn^ and one of the principal Jewish quarters in the city. Leadenhall-street is chiefly celebrated as containing that handsome pile of building THE east INDIA HOUSE. A commercial association for trading with India was formed in 1599, numbering 101 persons, who subscribed upwards of £30,000 towards the undertaking. The first charter granted to the Company was dated on the 31st of December, 1600, its duration being limited to fifteen years. The capital of the adventurers was augmented to nearly £70,000; which was appropriated to the purchase and equipment of ships, and to bullion and goods, which were carried out to form the nucleus of the India trade. The first expedition of the East India Company sailed from Torbay on the 2nd of May, 1601, and from this and succeeding voyages immense profits were realised. The company’s charter was renewed in 1609 for an unlimited period, with the proviso that if its operation were found injurious to the public, the privileges granted to the com- pany should cease after three years’ notice. Three years subsequently this privileged body became a joint stock company. The vast territorial possessions which have by the chances of war or successful policy been acquired by the company in India form matter of history, and the mdi- tary genius of Lord Ciive and Warren Hastings, perhaps, effected more for the interests of the company than had ever previously been accomplished. For many years the company had an exclusive trade with China. The first order given by the East India Company for tea was in 1677-8, when their agents were directed to send one hun- dred' pounds’ weight only. The government of the com- pany’s Indian possessions is entrusted to a viceroy or governor-general, who resides in India. The home affau's of the company are managed by a court of twenty- four directors, elected by the proprietors of East India I VINTNERS' HALL, UppcrTfiam^s Sirut. V K I M N E R S' H L L 4 ALDGATE. 28b Stock of whom six go out anuualiy by rotation. The itast India House was originally built in 1726 on the site ' m, of Sir William Craven, Lord Mayor in 1610 1 1 llie old building was taken down, and the present edifice i raised m 1799 by Mr. Jupp, and afterwards extended from , designs by Messrs. Cockerell and Wilkins. The front consists of a portico of six fluted Ionic columns, sustaining- an ornamented frieze, and two wings surmounted by a , balustrade. The interior of this vast edifice contains 1 1 le gland court-room, adorned with fine paintings illus- I trative ol Indian scenery, the new sale-room, the library m which IS an unparalleled collection of oriental literature’ tlie general offices, and a museum open on Saturdays to the public between the hours of eleven and three. The I , CO lection of Indian idols, paintings, and curiosities here I assembled, render this one of the most attractive places I Tassn'^Pl translated II l^asso, Charles Lamb and Mr. James Mill, who wrote a ' Imha Hous^''^'^"^ employed as clerks in the f^e^tlenhall-street is continued by e High-street, Aldgate. Aldgate was thus called to Jhe'w .of its. origin. This was one and tee hist of the four principal city gates, and is referred to I by that early chronicler, Fitzstephen. The original gate , ^as removed in 1606, and one of very elaborate cmi! stiuction replaced it, stretching across the High-street till i/68 when it was taken down. Entering into Flio-h- s i;eet tlie road suddenly widens, the most prominent object being the church of St. Eotolph, whicli although ommonly called Church, is in Portsokeu Warf. Hie present fabric was built after the designs of Dance the architect ol the Mansion House. When the o-reat plague of 1665 spread devastation and death throuo-h tlm metropolis, the severity of the visitation was especially felt m the Aldgate quarter. Li Aldgate church-y.ard ‘after ! ?u-and ffit capable of holding 60 or 100 bodied had been Uo and filled, the churchwardens caused one to be formed 2 p 390 Tallis’s illustrated London ; ! so large, tliat they were blamed as making preparations to j bury the whole parish. It was about 40 feet in length, ! and 15 or 16 broad, and in some parts about 20 feet deep. ! Into this gulf they began to throw the dead on the 14th j of September, and by the 20th of that month they had | cast into it 1,114 dead bodies, when they were obliged to j fill it up as it was within six feet of the surface. On the j west side of Aldgate Church is Houndsditch,^ a long street running into Bishopsgate, and chiefly inhabited by tradesmen of the Jewish persuasion. Its olden reminis- cences are not of a very flattering character, it being, ; j according to Stow, a huge ditch in which the refuse of the I streets was thrown, and especially dead dogs, whence this I canine cemetery was called Houndsditch. Proceeding eastward of Aldgate, the High-street joins the street and suburbs of Whitechapel, on the south side of which a long range of butchers’ shops constitute what is called White- chapel Market. Nathan Meyer Bothchild, the head of the Rothchild family, is interred in the Jewish cemetery in Whitechapel Road. This road is the principal entrance to London from Essex. Opposite to Aldgate Church is the Minories, a street covering the site of a convent of Minoresses, founded in 1293 by Blanch, Queen of Navarre, the consort of Ed- mund, Earl of Lancaster. Upon the suppression of the : convent by Henry \II1. it was converted into a palatial residence, and passed successively into the possession of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and Henry Grey, Duke of , Suffolk, in the reign of Edward VI. On the attainder of this nobleman, the estate reverted to the crown. By Charles II. it was granted to Colonel William Legge, the ancestor of the Earls of Dartmouth. In 1672 he was buried with great pomp in the adjacent church of Trinity, Minories; and Pennant (writing in 1791) saj^s:— “His ; descendants of the Dartmouth family still continue to |, m.ake it the place of their interment.” The ancient abode, 'I first of religious recluses, and then of aristocratic families, 1 is now a bustling street of business, in which with its (iOODMAX’s FIELDS THEATRE. 291 ti-ibutanes, America-square, the Crescent, the Circus, and Uie surrounding neighbourhood, many opulent Jews reside. To the east of tlie Minories is a neighbourhood bearing the generic name of Goodman’s Fields, comprehendino- several extensive streets, similar in cliaracter to the Mino* nes.^ Comparatively unattractive as the locality of Good- man^s Fields now appears to all, except those whose business is confined within its circle, yet there are some memorable associations connected with its former historv. Stow relates that in these fields there was a farm belong- ing to the Minoresses, whence he was accustomed to fetch, when a boy, many a halfpenny worth of milk, never having less than three ale-pints for his money in the summer, and one ale-quart in the winter. He adds • “ One Trolop and afterwards Goodman, were the farmers mere, and had thirty or forty kine to the pail. Good- man’s son let out the ground first for grazing of horses and then for garden plots, and lived like a gentleman tliereby. In the course of time streets arose upon the fields, among the principal of which are IMausell-street Fresco t- street, Lemau-street, Great Alie-street, &c. Pres’. ccd-street was the first street in London distinguished bv the numbers upon the houses, a convenience which till the reign of Queen Anne was confined to the inns of court and chancery. The Goodman’s Fields Theatre, famous as the London stage upon which Garrick made his d^bdt w^as situate in Leman -street, and built in 1729 by ‘"Thomas Odell, a dramatic author, and tlie first licenser of the stao-e under the famous licensing act of Sir Robert Walpole. A sermon was preached against the theatre in the church of St Botolph, Aldgate, and Odell in consequence was induced to part with his property to Mr. Henry Gifihrd who nothing daunted by a sermon, opened a new house on the same spot on the 20th of October, 1732 Th- clamour, however increasing, Gifiard was induced 'to re'' move in 1735 to Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Here he remained two seiusons, after which he returned to his old Quartei-s and on the 19th of October, 1741, had the honour m 292 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON; introduce to an Aldgate audience David Garrick, who made his first appearance on the stage in Goodman^s Fields Theatre in the character of Richard The new dramatic star became the celebrity of the town, and so anxious was the desire to witness the new prodigy, that we are assured he drew an audience of nobility and gentry wliose carriages filled the whole space from Temple Bar to Whitechapel. It is, however, a great stretch upon our credulity to require us to believe that such an immense concourse of people could have been packed together at the same time in a theatre, even of larger dimensions than ever was found in eastern London. In 1746 the theatre, which had been rendered classic ground by the first appearance of Garrick, was taken down, and another one raised upon the same site, which in 1802 was destroyed by what appears to be the natural fate of playhouses — being burnt to the ground. In 1830 a handsome little theatre called the Gamck, was raised in the same locality, and this also was consumed by fire a few years back. In this neighbourhood some other theatres and their calamities claim a brief notice. The Royalty Theatre, in Wellclose- square, was founded by John Palmer, a celebrated actor, the manner of whose death, (falling dead on the stage after uttering in the part of the Stranger this line, “ There is another and a better world,’’) has probably more than anything else preserved his memory. It was opened in 1787, and burnt down in 1826. A more melancholy fate awaited its successor the Brunswick Theatre, a fate actually induced by the means adopted in its construction to guard against fire. It was i built by an architect named Whitwell in seven months, | and provided with an iron roof. The new theatre was j opened on February 25th, 1828. Thi-ee days afterwards, ! during the progress of a rehearsal the walls gave way, and the structure fell in, a catastrophe by which ten persons, (including Mr. David Maurice, an eminent printer, and * Peter Cunningham. TOWER HILL. 293 one ot the proprietors) were killed, and several danger- ously injured. I West of the Minories several streets conduct to Crutched I Friars, the site of an establishment belonging to the Crutched or Crossed Friars, or Fratres sancti Crucis, an I order founded about 1169 by Gerard, prior of St. Mary de I Morello at Bologna. They appeared in England in 1244, ; and were provided with a residence by two citizens who j joined their order. Their house was granted by Henry I VIII. to Sir Thomas Wyat the elder, a poet of consider- I able note. After being inhabited by several noble families, { the house was taken down, and the Navy Office erected in I this place ; the business of this office 'being removed to j Somerset House, the East India Company raised some noble warehouses on the spot. South of the Minories is Rosemary -lane, or Rag Fair, a noted depot for the sale of old clothes, from which the light of other days has long since faded._ “ Shocking bad hats,^’ and habiliments ; rnore fit for the investiture of scarecrows than the embel- lishment of the “ human form divine,” here constitute the staple business. “ The articles of commerce,” says Pen- nant, “by no means belye the name. There is no ex- pressing the poverty of the goods : nor yet their cheapness. A distinguished merchant, eng’aged with a purchaser, observing me to look on him with great attention, called out to me, as his customer was going off with his bargain, to observe that man — ‘For,’ says he, ‘I have actually clothed him for fourteen j)ence !’ Leaving the Minories we enter upon that remarkable spot Tower Hill, which in connexion with that great fortress to which it owes its name, has been the scene of some of the most stirring events in the history of this ' country. Among the remarkable characters who have here perished on the block, may be named Sir Thomas IHore; Cromwell, Earl of Essex; the accomplished Earl of Surrey ; the Lord Admiral Seymour, the lover of Queen Elizabeth before her accession to ilie throne ; the Protector Somerset, whose pride despoiled the finest 394' Tallis’s ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; London cliurches to make an appropriate residence for liis greatness ; Sir Thomas Wyatt ; the Earl of Stratford ; Archbishop Laud ; the Duke of Monmouth ; the Earl of Derwentwater, and otlier Scotch noblemen ivlio partici- pated in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Of one of these Simon Lord Lovat, decapitated on April 9th, 1747, Mr. Cunningham remarks : — “ He was not only the last person beheaded on Tower Hill, but the last person be- headed in this country.” The Tower of London in which these illustrious captives were confined, and which is the most remarkable fortress in this or perhaps any other country, will be noticed in our chapter of remarkable objects on the banks of the Thames. Tower Hill, over which more than a century has rolled since it was the stage of one of those sanguinary spectacles too common in the olden times, now presents a peaceable aspect enough, and is encompassed with the evidences of high civilization and increasing commerce. Its principal area, in the centre of which is a gawlen enclosure, is called Trinity- square, and is the most open and spacious square east of Temple Bar. The square takes its name from the Trinity House, an elegant structure, after the design of the late Samuel Wyatt, on the north side of Tower Hill, and facing the principal entrance to the Tower. The corpo- ration to whose use this building is applied, was founded in 1529 by Sir Thomas Spert, Navy Comptroller to Hemy VI II. The company comprehends a master, deputy-master, 31 elder brethren, and an unlimited number of younger brethren. They appoint pilots for the Thames, erect lighthouses and sea-marks, supervise ballastage in the river, and transact other business chiefly connected with I the Thames. Their surplus revenue (derived from ton- | nage, beaconage, &c.) they appropriate to the maintenance ' of decayed mariners, and the widows and orphans of sea- | men. The present master of the Trinity House (1851) is 1 the Duke of Wellington. i The Royal Mint on Tower Hill, where the monies of the realm are coined and issued, occupies the site of I . THE THAMES TUNNEL, 295 the old Victualling Office, and was principally built after tlie design of Sir Robert Smirke. The structure is in the Orecian style, composed of a long stone front, consisting- of three stories, surmounted by a handsome balustrade the wings are ornamented with pilasters, the centre with demi-columns, and a pediment on which are sculptured the armorial bearings of the United Kingdom. Over the porch IS a gallery of the Doric order. Admission to see the process of coming can only be procured by a card from the Master of the Mint, which is not transferable Until very recently the office of Master of the Mint was generally filled by a member of the government. Between the Tower and Blackwall, is a very densely populated district chiefly occupied by the marine popu- lation of London, and those employed in administering I to their wants. Here live ship-owners, ship-builders saifors, . rope-makers, and dealers in the various stores required for our navy; and docks, canals, tram-roads ship-buildmg yards, wharfs, and all the appliances of a large maritime commerce are found here. Nearest to the Tower are the districts of Wapping and Ratdiffe-hinhwmi' i' part of the parish of Wapping being covered by ; the London Docks. The most remarkable feature how- ever, in Wapping is ^ THE THAMES TUNNEL. The late Sir Isambard K. Brunei was the projector of that stupendous work the Thames Tunnel, a subterranean : communication beneath the bed of the Thames from I Wapping on the left side, to Rotherhithe on the rio-ht side^of the river. The undertaking was commenced^in 1825, and 420 feet of the passage had been excavated when an inundation from the river above poured into the , Tunnel. At the time of the accident 120 labourers were i engaged, all of whom effected their escape. The hole j was stopped up, and the work proceeded, but in the fol- lowing year, 1828, the river again broke through, and six I of the excavators were drowned. Further progress was I 296 Tallis’s illustrated London ; suspended till 1835, wten government making an advance of £247,000 to complete tke works, operations were re- sumed. Three more irruptions occurred, but persever- ance overcame every difficulty, and the Tunnel was thrown open to the public in 1843, the total outlay employed in its construction reaching £614,000. It is the property of the Thames Tunnel Company. The Tunnel consists of a square mass of brickwork, 37 feet by 22, containing in it two arched passages, each 16 feet 4 inches wide, with a path 3 feet in width for pedestrians. The length of the Tunnel is 1,200 feet ; it is brilhantly lighted up, and con- tains numerous shops for the sale of refreshments and tancy articles. It is descended and ascended at each end by large circular stairs of 100 steps each, and foot passen- gers using this subterranean thoroughfare, pay individu- ally a toll of one penny. Shadwell, Stepney, Limehouse, Poplar, and Blackwall, continuous townships on the left bank of the river are similar neighbourhoods to those we have just named, but they improve in character and appearance as their dis- tance from the city increases. Through their centre to the West India Docks in the Isle of Dogs, between Lime- house and Blackwall, runs a wide and handsome road known as the Commercial Road, a continuation of Church- lane, Whitechapel, and along whicli is a tram-road, whereby are conveyed the rich produce of the Indies. Ihe parish of Rt. PauVs, Shadwell, was formerly a part of that of Stepney, from which it was separated in 1670. Stepney was formerly an immense parish, the now distinct parishes of Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Poplar, and Limehouse, being Avithin its limits. It was originally a Saxon manor called Stibbenhedde, or Stebonheath. Stow relates that in 1299 Edward 1. held a parliament at the house of Henry de W^alleis in Stepney, at whicli that monarch confirmed the Charter of Liberties. I lie Bishops of London formerly had a palace here. Id Stepney Church are buried the remains of Sir Thomas I Spert, the founder of the Trinity House. The epitaphs BLACKWALL. 297 in Stepney are more remarkable and quaint than any in London, and are particularly noticed in that lively publi- cation of the last century, the Spectator. Limehouse is a yeij populous prish_ between Wapping and Poplar, and IS famous for its ship-building yards. It was separated from Stepney in 1730. The church, dedicated to St. Anne was one of the fifty new churches erected in the ^ign of Queen Anne after the designs of Nicholas Hawksmoor, the architect of St. Mary, Woolnoth. The interior was destroyed by fire in 1850, but has since been restored. Poplar was separated from Stepney and formed into a parish of itself in 1817, under the imme of All Saints, Poplar. The poplar trees with which this place once abounded, gave to it its name, and the numerous gardens which are still found here, impart to this bustling neighbourhood some of its former rural an- pearance. Adjoining is Blackwall, famous not only as a railway station, but as the point from which many conti- nental steamers depart. To epicures its hotels offer great attraction, and they have long been celebrated, in common mth those of Greenwich, for that piscine delicacy, white- bait The author of the Hand Book for London elabo- rately describes the process by which these icthyoloo-ical dainties are cooked : we need not follow his example, °but will merely advise our readers who are curious on that matter to eat the whitebait, and place perfect reliance on the cookery. The towmships or hamlets which we have thus briefly mentioned, present one feature in common as the great metropolitan seat of our maritime commerce • to describe them fully, and to enter into a special detail ot their several resources, would not unprofitably fill a volume However important they may be, we can only remember that they form but a fraction of the vast extent of pound represented by the metropolis, and while we could n^ be silent regarding them, we have said no more than sufficient to excite the curiosity of the stranger and to prompt a visit to these great naval storehouses of the country. CHAPTER XVII. rrSH-STEEET-HILL THE MONUMENT GBACECHURCH- STBEET BISHOPSGATE-STREET NORTON EOLGATE SPIT- ALPIELDS BETHNAL GREEN — SHOREDITCH HACKNEY KINGSLAND HOATON— OLD-STREET-ROAD, ETC. Another interesting portion of the city now demands notice, that line of street comprehending Fish-street-hill, Gracechurch- street, Bishopsgate-street, Norton Folgate, and Shoreditch, together with their tributary neighbom’- hood. Fish-street-hill, prior to the erection of New Lon- don Bridge, was a place of much greater importance than it is now, being the high road to Old London Bridge. It lies to the left, and many feet below the elevation of King William-street, the noble approach to the new bridge. Lower Thames-street is its southern extremity, and at the southernmost angle formed by the junction of these two streets is the church of St. Magnus. Standing at the foot of the old bridge it was called St. Magnus, London Bridge, and is situated in Bridge Ward within. The original church was consumed in the fire of 1666, and the present structure is from the creative genius of Wren. Over the communion table there is a memorial to Miles Coverdale, a rector of the church, and bishop of Exeter, a prelate under whose superintendence, in 1535, was pub- lished the first English printed edition of the Bible. As- cending Fish-street-hni, we reach that memorable edifice THE MONUMENT, to which Pope^s celebrated couplet is no longer appli- cable, t “ London’s column, pointing at the skies. Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies.” The Monument is a noble fluted column of the Doric order, i erected as a memento of the great fire of London. It was I designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The column, which THE MONUMENT. 299 stands in Monument-yard, facing Fisli-street-hill, is 202 feet high, that being the exact distance of the base from the spot in Pudding-lane where the fire commenced, and which by a remarkable coincidence terminated in Pye-corner near Smithfield. The pedestal is 40 feet high, and the plinth 28 feet square j the shaft of the column is 120 feet high ; it is hollow, and encloses a staircase of black marble consisting of 345 steps, by which a balcony within 32 feet of the top is reached. The column is surmounted with an urn 42 feet in altitude, from which flames are represented as issuing. The Monument was commenced in 1671 and finished in 1677, the outlay being £13 700. On three sides of the pedestal are Latin inscriptions,' and the fourth is occupied with a piece of sculpture allegori- cally representing the destruction and rebuilding of the city. In one compartment, the city appears in flames, the inhabitants with outstretched arms calling for succour the insignia of the city lying thrown down, and mutilated while a female wearing a civic crown and bearing a sword' indicates that the municipal authority was still upheld! The king, Charles II., occupies a prominent situation • He is represented in a Roman habit, and is tramplino" under his feet Envy, which seeks to renew the calamity by blowing flames from its mouth. Near the monarch are three female figm-es, emblematic of Liberty, Imao-ina- tion, and Architecture. Time is offering consolation to the sufferers, and Providence gives assurance of peace and content. Behind the king stands his brother the Duke of York, with a garland in one hand to crown the rising city and a sword in the other for her defence, and the two ngiu’es in the rear are Justice and Fortitude, the former with a coronet, the latter with a reined lion. In the ' upper part of the plinth the reconstruction of the city is represented by builders and labourers at work upon houses. The inscription on the north side relates the great calamity, observing that to the estates and for- tunes of the citizens it was merciless, but to their lives very favourable, that it might in all things resemble the 300 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; last conflagration of the world/^ Another inscription on the south side records the activity with which, under the auspices and direction of the King the city was rebuilt. Previously wood had been principally employed in the construction of houses ; this inscription is remarkable as directing the use of brick and stone in the future struc- tures. It relates that acts were passed directing that “ public works should be restored to greater beauty with public money, to be raised by an impost on coals ; that churches and the cathedral of St. Paul should be rebuilt from their foundations with all magnificence ; the bridges, gates, and prisons should be new made, the sewers cleansed, the streets made straight and regular j such as were steep levelled, and those too narrow to be made wider ; markets and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted that every house should be built with party walls, and all in front raised of equal height, and those walls all of square stone or brick ; and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years.^^ It finishes thus : — “ At three years’ time the world saw that finished which was supposed to be the business of an age.” On the third side of the pedestal the names of the chief magistrates of the city, during whose mayoralties the Monument was erected, are inscribed ; and round the base was an inscription attributing the destruction of the city to a “ popish faction,” in order to carry on the “ horrid plot for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English liberty, and the introducing of popery and slavery.” This insulting record was defaced during the reign of James II., in compliment to his partiality for the Romanist faith, and on the accession of "\¥illiam III. it was very deeply re-engraved. In the reign of William IV. it was finally obliterated (January 26th, 1831,) by order of the corporation. For the fee of sixpence visitors may ascend to the gallery, whence on a clear day a fine view of the metropolis and the country beyond, especially the Kent and Surrey hills, may be gained. Several per- sons have committed suicide by flinging themselves from BISHOPSGATE-STREET. 301 the gallery of the Monument to the pavement below. On June 25th, 1750, Mhlliam Green, a weaver, fell from the top of the Monument, but whether from accident or design was not satisfactorily ascertained. That the fol- lowing committed wilful self-destruction is beyond all doubt: on the 7th of July, 1788, Thomas Cradock, a baker, flung himself from the north side, and fell outside the railing; on the 18th of January, 1810, Lyon Levy, a diamond merchant, cast himself from the east side of the gallery, and fell against the pedestal; on the 11th of September, 1839, Margaret Moyes, a baker^s daughter, threw herself off"; on the 18th of October in the same year, Robert Hawes, an errand boy, aged 15, com- mitted a like fearful act of self-murder ; the last person who precipitated herself from the dizzy height was a servant girl named Jane Cooper, aged 17, who put an end to her existence in August, 1 842. To prevent a recur- rence of similar catastrophes the gallery is now enclosed in iron trellis-work, forming a kind of cage, and an effec- tual preventive to the indulgence of that suicidal mania which the gallery of the Monument, without such guard, had previously fostered. Gracechurch-street, a street of considerable traffic, forms a continuation of Fish-street-hill, and extends to the eastei’n point of Cornhill. Its name is borrowed from the adjacent church of St. Rennet, Grasschurch, thus called, as previously stated, on account of the Herb Market formerly occupying the spot. Time, and perhaps a respect for sacred names, softened Grasschurch into Gracechurch- street, which sometimes was styled Gracious-street. It is fuU of handsome shops, and excellent taverns. Grace- church-street is the station for omnibuses running from the city to the suburbs on the Surrey side of the Thames. Bishopsgate-street, which continues the line of road, is divided into Bishopsgate-street Within, from Cornhill to Camomile-street, and thus called from being within the city wails or rather juiisdiction ; and Bishopsgate-street 302 TALLIS’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON; Without, beyond tbe civic limit, and reaching to Norton Folgate. This street and ward derive their name from the old city gate which formerly divided the street. The foundation of the original gate is attributed to Erkenwald, elected Bishop of London in 675 ; and its reparation to a prelate who flourished in the reign of William I. Henry III. confirmed the Hanse merchants in the enjoyment of certain privileges, in consideration of which they were bound to keep the gate in good preservation, and in 1479 it was substantially rebuilt by them. The gate was adorned with statues of the bishops who were its origin- ators. In the last century, like several other of the city gates, it was considered to impede the thoroughfare, and was accordingly removed. Bishopsgate-street Within, contains three churches, those of St. Martin Outwich at the angle of Threadneedle-street ; St. Ethelburga, one of the smallest churches in the city ; and St. Helen. The last-named church, so called on account of its being dedi- cated to Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, is in the centre of an open piece of ground or square in the rear of the east side of Bishopsgate-street, called Great St. Helen’s. Originally here was a priory of black nuns founded previously to the reign of Henry III. St. Helen’ s- place, a range of handsome private residences, built at the commencement of the present century, occupies the an- cient site of the convent-hall. The church, which is a light Gothic structure with a tower, was built in 1669. In this church were buried Sir John Crosby, the founder | of Crosby Hall ; the great city benefactor. Sir Thomas Gresham ; Sir J ulius Adelmar Caesar, a Master of the Rolls; and other eminent persons. The epitaph of Sii’ Julius Caesar is cut on a black slab, in form of a piece of parch- ment, with a seal appendant, by which he gives his bond to Heaven to resign his life wiUingly whenever it should please God to call him. In cujus rei testimonium manum meam et sigillum apposui. Adjacent to Great St. Helen’s is Crosby Hall, a place of historic repute, the original of which was built by Sir John Crosbie, grocer and wool- CROSBY-HALL, 303 stapler, and sheriff in 1470, on ground held by him on lease from Alice Ashfield, the prioress of St. Helen’s. When Crosby House was first erected, it was considered the loftiest and most splendid private mansion in London and occupied the entire area of Crosby-square. It after- wards became the residence of the Duke of Gloucester and appears to have been the scene of those sanguinary I machinations which ended in the murder of his nephews j and the elevation of himself to the throne under the title of Richard III. Crosby-place is frequently referred to by Shakspere in his tragedy of Richard III. In one place he makes the following colloquy occur : Gloucester.— Axe you now going to dispatch this thino' P 1st Murd.~ANe a.m, my lord; and come to have the warrant, Inat we may be admitted where he is. Gloucester.— VfeW thought upon; I have it here about me. ■nru -L ■. . „ [_Gues the warrant.l When you have aone, repau’ to CrosLy-pIace. In 1542 Crosby House was granted by Henry VIII. to Antonio Bonvica, a rich Italian merchant. In the rei«-n of Elizabeth it was appropriated to the reception of foreign ambassadors. It afterwards passed into possession of Sir John Spencer, Lord Mayor of London in 1594, who kept his mayoralty here. Sir John Spencer was an ancestor of the noble family of Northampton, and their compound simname of Spencer-Compton proves that they have no wish to forget their civic origin. In the time of Charles II. it became a Presbyterian meeting-house, and after- wards some of the offices were taken down, and houses erected on their site. The hall falling into a dilapidated state, and the lease terminating soon after 1831, sub- scriptions were raised, and this interesting monument of early times was restored, and preserved from that des- truction which the mania for modernizing classic neio-h- bourhoods has entailed upon so many interesting edifices of ancestral fame. Crosby Hall is now used as a literary institution, and as a concert-room.— On the west side of Bishopsgate-street, nearer to Cornhill, is the London 304 TALLI8'’S ILLUSTRATED LONDON j Tavern, long celebrated for tbe public dinners and great city meetings which are held beneath its capacious roof. Bishopsgate-street-without is wider and longer than Bishopsgate-street-within, and hardly less replete with interesting reminiscences of the past. On the east side Devonshire-street leads into Devonshiresquare, where the Earls of Devonshire had a town house, at which the se- cond earl of that name died in 1628. It was originally built by Jasper Fisher, a clerk in Chancery, and there were attached to it pleasure-gardens and bowling-alleys. He was ruined by his extravagant habits, and the mansion acquired the name of FisheFs Folly. After this it fre- quently changed owners, belonging at one time to Edward, Earl of Oxford, Lord High Chanberlain, who is said to have presented Queen Elizabeth with the first pair of perfumed gloves ever brought into England. On one of her visits to the city that queen lodged in this house. It afterwards devolved to the Earls of Devonshire, who were its last occupants, and at the commencement of the last century the existing square was raised upon the site of the residence which had known so many distinguished owners. Nearly opposite is the church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate- without, which was raised in 1728 upon the spot occupied by a previous church. The living, which is in the patronage of the Bishop of London, is the most j valuable one in the city. Among its monuments is one | in memory of Sir Paul Pindar, a distinguished English j merchant in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. By the former sovereign he was sent as ambassador to the court of Turkey, and on his return from the Ottoman empire brought with him a diamond, the estimated value of which was £30,000. The king wished to pui’chase this gem ; Pindar, however, declined to part with it, but favoured his royal master sometimes with the loan thereof on fete days. The coveted jewel was bought of the mer- chant by Charles I. Pindar must have been the Roths- child of his day, for in 1639 he was worth the even now NOKTON FOLBATE. 305 colossi sum of £236,000. His transactions with the luck- less King Charles, under whom he farmed the Customs Jie was cast into prison for debt The King, it is said, owed him and the rest of the K Customs £300,000. He died 16o0, at the age of 84, and with his death the calami- befallen his house did not terminate. He his affairs in so perplexed a condition that William loomes, his executor, overwhelmed with disappointment put an end to his existence, and received the ignominious and unha lowed sepulture of a suicide. The house of Sir ^aul Pindar m the course of time was converted into an li mn, beanng the sign of the Sir Paul Pindar's Head. It i as been recently altered and improved, and the name I, ot Pindar is perpetuated by this antiquated and inter- ' hostelry. On the same side as St. Botolph's Church, and a considerable distance to the north of , it,^ Holywell-street, the site of the ancient monastery so called, one end of it running towards Shoreditch, and the ^ other towards the Curtam-road. To the west of this street j was the spring which gave its name to the whole liberty I as well as to the convent of Benedictine nuns established I by Bobert Fitzgeffan in the time of Richard I., and sub I ^quently rebuilt by Sir Thomas Lovell, in the reign of Henry VII., who was interred in a chapel here raised at Holywell Mount was made level about the year 177/, and is now covered by a chapel and several respectable sHeets The Curtain-road adjacent, contained a theatre, where Richard Tarleton, '' one of Queen Eli- zabeth s twelve players, with wages and livery,” per formed. Holywell Mount was commonly believed to have been formed out of the rubbish of the fire of Lon- don, but it IS on public record that this ground when a meadow was granted by the city of London for a public laystall or dunghill. In Worship-street, Curtain-road is the police-court for the district. The street of Bishops- I gate- without is connected by a short street called Norton i Folgate with Shoreditch. j 306 Tallises illustrated London; Before entering Slioreditcli it will be necessary to glance at a dismal squalid district, but the seat of manu- facturing industry, lying in the rear of the eastern side of Bishopsgate-street-without — we mean, Spitalfields. It is believed to have been the burial-place of Homan London, and it is curious that we are, after the lapse of centuries, returning to the wisdom of our remote ancestors by re- suming extramural interments. It owes its appellation to the fact that the fields were part of the estate of the priory and hospital of St. Mary Spital, founded in 1197 by Walter Brune, Sheriff of London, and Bosia his wife, for canons regular of the order of St. Augustine. In the church-yard of the priory, the situation of which Spital- square now indicates, there was a pulpit cross, at which a preacher was accustomed to utter a discourse, being a compendium of four others which had been delivered at St. Paul’s Cross on Good Friday, and on Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday ; after which he preached a sermon of his own composition. The cross was pulled j down during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. ' Stow says that the ancient name of Spitalfields was j Lolesworth. When Louis XIV. revoked the edict of i Nantes, the fiercely-pursued Huguenots or French Pro- testants came over in thousands to England, where they found a secure asylum from persecution, and were per- mitted the unrestricted exercise of their religious faith. A large body of them settled in Spitalfields, where they introduced the silk manufacture, which is now the staple business of this district and the contiguous neigh- bourhood. Christ Church, Spitalfields, one of Queen Anne’s fifty churches, was built by Nicholas Hawksmoor. A beautiful monument to the memory of Sir Robert Lad- brook, by Flaxman, adorns the interior. Spitalfields Market is one of the largest vegetable markets in Lon- don, and is held three times a week. The hamlet of Bethnal Green is adjacent to Spitalfields, and once apper- tained to Stepney, from which it was separated in 1743, ; and constituted a distinct parish of itself, under the name : SHOREDITCH 307 of St. Matthew, Bethnal _ Green. Like Spitalfields it is principally inhabited by silk-weavers, and though abound- ing in narrow streets and densely-populated alleys, is not utterly devoid of open spaces and green fields On Bethnal Oreen there stood till lately an antiquated mansion, called Bishop s HaU, where Bishop Bonner, the ferocious and mlhng instrument of Queen Mary^s cruelties, is said to have resided. The vicinity is still called Bonner’s Fields. JNew chimches are rapidly springing up in this locality, feltTere spiritual destitution which has so long been Returning to the line of street, from which we have debated to notice cursorily the seat of the metropolitan . populous and traffic- crowded thoroughfare of Shoreditch, a name the etymo- logy of which has been variously defined. A common impression prevails that Shoreditch is indebted for its name to the unfortunate but frail beauty, Jane Shore whoin some imaginative writers have represented of perishing of hunger m a ditch in its vicinity. Jane Shore appears to have been m noways connected with Shore- ditch and so far from her dying in the manner repre- sented, she survived her beauty, and attained a very advanced age, being alive in the time of Sir Thomas More. He says:-- Proper she was, and faire : nothing in hir bodie that you would have changed; but you would have wnshed hir somewhat higher. Thus saie they that knew hir in hir youth. Now she is old, leane, withered, and dried up; nothing left but rivelled skin and hard bone; and yet, being even such, who so well advise Her visage might gesse and devise, which parts how filled would make it a faire face.” A more matter-of-fact con- jecture supposes a sewer-ditch to have been promoted by the name of Shoreditch; and Strype, Pennant, and ether historians, be leve that it derives its name from Sir John de Sorditch, lord ot tlie manor, sent by Edward III. in 1343 on a mission to Pope Clement VI., to remonstrate with the pontift against his assumed right of presenting 308 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON } to English, benefices^ and filling them with foreigners. Sir John de Sorditch was interred in Hackney Church. When archery was a popular sport, the captain of the London archers was distinguished by the title of the Duke of Shoreditch, from the circumstance, that when Henry VIII. appointed a grand shooting-match at Wind- sor, Barlow, an inhabitant of Shoreditch, and a citizen, was the victor, and so pleased was the King with his skill, that he named him on the spot, Duke of Shoreditch. The parish church of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch, was erected by Dance, in 1740, upon the spot which the pre- vious church had covered. Here several eminent charac- ters, and some of the associates of Shakspere, were buried. Among them may be named, William Somers, jester to Henry VIII.; Eichard Tarlton, the merry-andrew who delighted the subjects of Queen Elizabeth; James Bur- badge, and Eichard Burbadge, his son, the friend and associate of Shakspere; Wilham Sly, Nicholas Wilkin- son, and Eichard Cowley, original actors, in the plays of Shakspere ; and the Countess of Eutland, daughter and only child of Sir Phihp Sydney. In Shoreditch is the station of the Eastern and North-Eastern Counties Eailway. From that point of Shoreditch where St. Leonard’s Church stands three roads diverge : — Hackney-road to the left; Oid-street-road to the right; and Kingsland- road, a continuation of the line of Shoreditch. Hackney- road, a long and wide thoroughfare, claiming no special notice, conducts to the village and parish of Hackney, a quiet rural place, abounding in schools and chapels of various denominations. In former times it was the fa- vourite residence of the Veres, the Brookes, and other aristocratic families. The historian Strype was a lecturer at Hackney for nearly forty years, where he died in 1737 ; and here Matthew Henry, the celebrated scriptural com- mentator, was a preacher. Kingsland, which is in the parish of Hackney, is a handsome road leading to the pleasant townships of Stoke Newington and Tottenham, and was. ST. Luke’s hospital. 309 I before tbe introduction of railways, tlie higb road to Cam- I bridge. Between Kingsland and Islington lies the popu- I lous suburb of Hoxton, formerly called by the not very euphonious name of Hogsden. It is in the parish of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch. In Hoxton-fieMs a duel was fought between Ben Jonson and Gabriel Spencer, the actor, which terminated fatally for the latter. In Charles- SQuare the Bev. John Newton, the principal correspondent of the poet Cowper, lived for many years. In Hoxton were formerly resident several of the nobility, but its glory has long since departed, and its attractions are insufficient to command further detail. Old-street-road extends from Shoreditch Church to Goswell-street, and says Mr. Cunningham, contains more almshouses than any other street in London.” That portion of it from St. Luke’s Hospital to the Charter-house is called Old-street, which it is obvious gives its name to the road. Stow writes that it was called Eald-street, because it was the old highway from Aldersgate-street for the north-east parts of England before Bishopsgate was built. OM- street-road was formerly part of a Roman road from Col- chester. Since tbe formation of the City and New Roads it has dwindled into a mere street. The church of St. Luke, Old Street, was one of the fifty new churches built m 1/32. St. Luke s Hospital, in this street, is an asylum for lunatics. It was first raised in 1751, for the reception of those patients who could not obtain admission into Old Bethlem Hospital. The present edifice was built in 1782, by Dance, and is of brick and stone. In tbe front is a broad space circumvallated, with a portico in the centre. The hospital contains accommodation for 300 individuals, and has a large revenue exceeding £8,000 annually. CHAPTER XVIII. KING WILLIAM-STREET PRINCES-STREET MOORGATE- J STREET FINSBURY THE ARTILLERY-GROUND BUN- 1 1 M HILL-FIELDS — THE CITY-ROAD THE NEW-ROAD HAM- STEAD — MARYLEBONE, ETC. That portion of the city in which the most recent alter- ations have been made will now command our attention, King William-street being the starting point whence we shall travel to the western part of the metropolis. King William- street is the principal approach to London Bridge, between which and the point where the Poultry and Corn- hill join, it forms a direct communication, stands upon the site of part of Lombard-street, and in its course cuts through Nicholas-lane, Clemen t^s-lane, Abchurch-lane, St. S within’ s-lane, and Crooked-lane, upon the original proportions of which it has much intruded. Eastcheap, the memorable scene of the frolics of Prince Hal and his obese friend Falstaff, was also curtailed to make way for the new approach. Hence King William-street proceeds, making an acute angle with Gracechurch-street, passing Cannon-street, and extending to the commencement of New London Bi’idge. It is a spacious and handsome street, constructed, though on a far smaller scale, some- what after the plan of Regent- street, the houses being elegant structures with imitation stone fronts. Entering this magnificent thoroughfare from Lombard- street, Ab- church-lane deserves brief notice. It contains the parish church of St. Mary, Abchurch, one of Sir Christopher Wren’s erections. In November, 1683, the Duke of Mon- I mouth. Lord Gray, and Lord Russell assembled at a house in this lane to debate or advance their insurrectionarv designs. Passing Nicholas-lane, Clement’ s-Iane is reached, in which stands the parish church of St. Clement’s, East- cheap. On the spot where a curve is formed by King William-street and Gracechurch-street, a statue of his FlNSBUliy. 311 late majesty William IV. appears on a pedestal, and railed round. It came from the studio of Mr. Nixon, and was placed in its present location in December, 1844. The height of the figure is 15 feet 3 inches, it is formed of two blocks of granite, and its weight is 20 tons. Accord- ing to Mr. Peter Cunningham this statue indicates the site of the Boar’s Head Tavern. ! In the Poultry, nearly opposite to the entrance of King j WiUiam-street, is Princes-street, on the east side of which the western walls of the Bank of England extend, while I on the other side are several great banking-houses, and ; the garden entrance to Grocers’ Hail. This street has recently been widened and beautified, and is continued, j after crossing Lothbury, by Moorgate-street, an entirely new city street, built upon the site occupied some few years since by the numerous little courts and streets between Coleman-street, London Wail, and Lothbury. Moorgate-street joins Finsbury -pavement, a wide street I leading to Finsbury-square, and from which on the right hand side an opening conducts in Finsbury-circus. The handsome streets and buildings in this vicinity cover a part of the immense area of Finsbury-fields, or Fensbury. They were in the days of Fitzsteplien a vast fen, which, when frozen over in the winter time, was resorted to by thousands of the citizens in like manner as the Serpen- tine now attracts, when it becomes a sheet of ice. Fins- bury-fields were long the scene of the evening recreations of the city apprentices, and their pastimes on this once immense village green are graphically described in the j, Fortunes of Nigel. Pennant calls these fields “the great ' ' ^ymn^sium of our capital, the resort of wrestlers, boxers, 1 1 I runners, and foot-ball players, and every manly rccre- '! ation. Hm'e the mountebanks set up their stages, and i I dispensed infallible medicines for every species of disease i to the gaping gulls who surrounded them. On the north | I part of these fields stood the Dogge-house, in which were 1 kept the hounds for the amusement of the Lord IMajmr. j Here resided the Common Hunt, an officer, the second iii 313 TALLISES ILLUSTRATED LONDON ; i rank among those who formed the Prcetorian establish- | ment.” In the time of Edward II. the ground was of so j little value that the whole was let at the rent of four , marks a year. It could only be passed over on causeways, j raised for the benefit of travellers. Such was the antece- 1 dent of the present affluent district and populous borough * j of Finsbury. Finsbury -square, a very handsome range of i houses with an extensive garden enclosure, was built in | 1789 over the last remains of the fields commemorated by Pennant, and Finsbury -circus was erected about twenty-five years later. In this Circus is the Low