UC-NRLF $C 237 HE >^^mm THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID THE CITY AT SL'NKISE. TEXTILE LONDON Its T^cords and ^Associations \\\ J. WELLS THATCHER M WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS liV W. LUKER, JuNR. ARMS OF THK DliAPKRS COMPANY. LONDON The Drapers' Record, Limited, 20, St. PaiiLs Churchyard, H.C. All Illustratiijiis Copyright. \ Ti/'r INTRODUCTION. The citizen of to-day \vh(^ hurries aloni;- the broad pavement of Ludgate Hill can scarcely believe that the spot o\er which he passes was once covered by oak trees and the tani;ied umlergrowth of a primeval forest ; or that the wild boar foraged for acorns thereabouts, and, as he munched, surveyed with porcine indifference that majestic stream at the hill-foot — bridge- less, silent, and unpeopled, which y swayed the dipping boughs of the ^ forest trees as it sped along. The mind awakens with regret from a reverie so sooth- ine, from a scene so peaceful, and turns with an effort to contemplate the great city at whose western portal this book will make its beginning. CHURLllYAKD Ol' CHKIST CIILKCH, NEWGATi; STUEET St. Paul's Cathedral CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER H, St. Paul's Churchvard 19 CHAPTER HI. Cannon Street, Doctors' Co.nlmons, Godliman .Stkekt, Carter Lane, Sermon Lane, Knichtrider Street . . . . viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE Paternoster Row, Warwick Lane. Newgate Street, St. Martix's- ee-Grand, Bull and Mouth Street . . . .51 CHAPTER V. CuEArsinE ......... 69 CHAPTER \T. South of Cheat : Watling Sireet, Buiige Row, Old Change, Friday Street, Bread Street, Bow Lane . . .89 CHAPTER VH. North of Cheap : Wood Street, Foster Lank, Gutter Lane, Milk Street, Lawrence Lane . . . . .109 CHAPTER VHI. Gresham Street . . . . . .133 CHAPTER IX. Basinguall Street, Aldermanuuky, Love Lane, Aiidle Street, MoNKWKLL Street, Silver Street, Nohle Street . .149 CHAini'R X. Aldersgate Street, Jiavin Street. Crii'It.egate, Fore Street, ALlton Street, London Wall . . . . .171 General Index . . . . . . .192 ARMS OF THE FKAMEUukk kn II i>^ COMPANY. LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED. Ancient Stone Crosses. A'/wwc/-. (t.ond. 1875.) Annals of St. Paul's Cathedral. Miluuiii. (Lond. 1 868.) Antiquities of England and Wales. Grose. (1784-7-) Chronicles of London Bridge. (Lond. iS::;.) Chronicles of the Mayors and Sherifi's of London. (Lond. 1863.) Citizens and their Rulers. Orridffi'. Crace Collection of Prints, The, British Museum. Directory of London. Kriif. (Lond. 1800.) Encyclopzedia of Antiquities. Frishrrmkc. (Lond. 1S25.) General Description of all Trades, &c., A. (Lond. 1 747-) General Loudon Guide. (Lond. 1794.) Handbook of London. Cunningham. Historical and Critical Dissertation on the Art of Selling Bargains, A. (Lond. 1728.) Hollar''s Long Antwerp View of London (.Map). (Lond. 1647.) Index of Dates. j5o//;/',y Series. (Lond. 1857.) Londiniana. Bra\lc\\ (Lond. 1826) London, Some Account of. Pennant. (Lond. iX,;.) London. Knight. (Lond. 1841-44.) London Directory. (Lond. i7')4.) London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, Transactions of London Traders' Tokens. Beaufov. (Lond. 1855.) London, History of. Maithinit. (Lond. i73fJ.); Memoirs of John Evelyn. William Brav, Editor. Old and New I^ondon. Thornhnrv. i Old St. Paul's, Chapters in the History of. TI'. Sparrrne ,'^imtson. (Lond. 1881.) Pictorial Handbook of London. Bnhns Series. (Lond. 1854.) Plan of the City of London and Westminster, A (Map). (1720.) Popular Antiquities. Brand. (Lond. 1813.) Post Office London Directory. (Lond. 1830.) Society for Photographing Relics of Old London (qO photographs). (Lond. 1875.) Sports and Pastmies of the People of England. Strutt. (Lond. 1830.) Survey of London. St'nv. (1612, and reprint.) Tokens of the Seventeenth Century. Boync. (Lond. 1858.) b ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SURREY SIDE OF THE THAMES. ILLUSTRATIONS. Addle Street, Brewers' Hall (Gateway) . Aldermanbury, Bradbury, Greatore.x & Co., Ltd., Messrs., Warehouse of Courtauld & Co., Messrs. S., Ware house of Fountain Court " George " Yard, The St. Mary's Church . Three Nun Court Aldersgate Street, looking towards the Post Office . " Castle and Falcon " Hotel, The Maidenhead Court . " Manchester " Hotel, The St. Botolph's Church St. Botolph's Churchyard . Apple-woman in Cheapside Arms of the Brodercrs' Company Clothworkers' Company . Drapers' Company . Fan Makers' Company Framework Knitters' Company Glovers' Company ... Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers Company .... 164 ' Arms of the Haberdashers' Company . 133 Loriners' Company .... 89 I :;9 Merchant Taylors' Company . . 87 Shipwrights' Company • • ■ 33 161 Spectacle Makers' Company . . 149 156 163 Barbers' Hall (interior) Monk well Street . 168 160 Basinghall Street, Girdlers' Hall . . 154 162 Entrance to Guildhall Museum. . 151 Gresham College . . . .150 174 Masons' Avenue . . . . 155 171 St. Michael's Church. . . . 152 175 Weavers' Hall, The . . . . 153 177 Window, An Old . . . -154 173 Wool Exchange, The . . . 148 172 Wool Exchange (interior) . . . 158 77 Bennett's Clock, Cheapside ... 84 126 Bow Churchyard, Cheapside ... 83 69 Bow Lanp, Cheapside .... 101 iii Fountain in .... . xii 51 St. Mary Aldermary Church . 106 ix Well Court 104 146 Williamson's Hotel .... 103 Biadbury, Greatorex & Co., Ltd., Messrs., 204 Warehnu'^e of . . . .159 ILLUSTRATIONS. Bread Street, looking North . Memorial Medallion to Milioii . Star Court . . . . . Brewers' Hall (Gateway), Addle Street Broderers' Company, Arms of . Broderers' Hall, Site of, Gutter Lane Budge Row ...... Memorial of St. Anthnliii's Ch uxh . " Bull and Mouth " sign .... Cannon Allc}', Paternoster Row- Cannon Street, looking West . Looking West (North side) Carter Lane ...... Looking West ..... Castle Baynard Ward Schools, Figures over " Castle and Falcon " Hotel, Aldersgate Street " Castle ■' Inn Yard, Wood vStreet City of London, The, at Sunrise Cheapside (the Western end) . A view in . Apple-woman, The .... Bennett's Clock .... Bow Churchyard .... Looking East ..... Mercers' Hall Old shop, corner of Friday Street Saddlers' Hall, luitrancc . .Simpson's. ..... " The smallest Bible in the world " . Sweeting's ..... Toy-seller, A . Christ's Hospital, Entrance to . From Newgate Street Churches — Christ Church, Newgate Street, Churchyard of ... . St. Alban the Martyr, Woud Street . St. Alphage Burial (jmund, London Wall St. Anne, St. Agnes and St. John Zachary, Gresham Street St. Botolph's Church, Aldersgate Street 97 q8 9Q 164 126 126 02 105 66 S^ 24 43 42 44 171 137 ii 68 75 77 ■^^4 83 88 7Q 70 72 85 7<> 60 61 118 187 134 Churches — St. Botolph's Churchyard, Aldersgate Street St. Giles' Church, Ciipplcgatc . St. Giles' Churchyard, Cripplegate, Bastion of Old London Wall . St. Lawrence Jewry Church, Gresham Street St. Mary, Aldermary, Bow Lane St. Mary's Church, Aldermanbury . St. Mary Magdalene, Knightrider Street St. Michael's Church, Basinghall Street ...... St. Michael's Church, W'ood Street . Sr. Paul's, Old, bases of ancient shafts St. Paul's Cathedral, The Chancel . Dr. Johnson's Statue From Ludgate Hill FromtheSurrey side of the Thames Monument to Crimean Officers Nelson's Monument Sir Christopher Wren's Monument Sir Joshua Reynolds' Statue . The Font ..... The Nave, looking East The South Portico The West Front .... Tomb of (reneral Gordon St. Paul's Churchyard (/vVc under ''S") St. Peter's Churchyard, AVood Street Clothworkers' Company, Arms of . Cook, Son & Co., Messrs., Warehouse of . Courtauld & Co., Messrs. S., Ware- house of ..... . Crimean Officers, Monument to Cripplegate, North end of Wood Street . St. (iiles' Church .... The Ouest lliiusc .... Curriers' Conipan\, Hall of (interior), London Wail .... Danish Tombstone, A Dean's Court, Doctors' Commons 172 170 17Q 142 106 ito 47 114 6 7 10 X 4 9 15 1 1 '7 13 16 1 1 1 69 18 101 4 122 170 '85 lS,| 12 37 ILLUSTRATIONS. Dent, Allcroft & Co., Messrs., Ware- house of . . . . ■ • 1 17 Distaff Lane 34 Doctors' Commons, Dean's Court . . 37 Wardrobe Place . . . . 38 Dove Court, Old Jewry .... 80 Drapers' Company, Arms of . . iii Duke's Head Passage, Ivy Lane . . xvi Falcon Square, with corner of Monkwell Street 166 Fan Makers' Company, Arms of the . 5 1 Floral Device, St. Paul's Churchyard . 28 Font, The, St. Paul's Cathedral . . 17 Fore Street, the Fore Street Warehouse Co., Ltd 180 Looking towards Cripplegate . . 182 1^ iMi N lAI.N IN \.i>\\ I.AM.. PAGE 123 • 124 125 IIQ • 156 iq i.K 82 81 Q5 Foster Lane, from Cheapside . From rear of General Post Office Priests' Court .... Foster, Porter & Co., Ltd., Messrs., Ware- house of .... Fountain Court, Aldermanbury Fountain, The, St. Paul's Churchyard Framework Knitters' Company, Arms of Frederick's Place, Old Jewry . Freeman's Court, Honey Lane Market Friday Street General Post Office, St. Martin's-leGrand 65 " George " Yard, The, Aldermanbury . 163 Girdlers' Hall, The, Basinghall Street . 154 Glovers' Company, Arms of the . . 146 Godliman Street, St. Paul's Churchyard . 39 From St. Paul's Churchyard . . 41 Goldsmiths' Hall, The .... 108 Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers' Company-, Arms of the ..... 204 Gordon, General, Tomb of . . . 3 Green Dragon Court .... 36 Gresham College, Basinghall Street . . 150 Gresham Street, "Castle" Inn Yard . 137 Corner of Aldermanbury . . . 140 Haberdashers' Hall, Entrance . . 13b St. Anne, St. Agnes and St. John Zachary Church . . . .134 -St. Lawrence Jewry Church . . 142 Tapling& Co., Ltd., .Messrs., Premises of . . . . . . .130 W'a.xchandicrs' Hall, The . . . 135 Guildhall, The, Entrance to . .132 Guildhall Fountain, The, Gresham Street 144 Guildhall Museum, Basinghall Street iMiliauce . . . . . iji Guildhall ^■ard, Entrance to . . . 145 Gutter Lane, Site of the Broderers' Hall . 126 Haberdashers' Company, Arms of . . 133 Haberdashers' Hall, Entrance . . .136 Honey Lane Market, Freeman's Court . 81 •Milk Street .... 130 Ilowcll & Co., Ltd., Messrs., Premises of. 31 I r,T.r ST RATIONS. PAGi-: i Ideal Conception of the Site of Ludgate Hill V Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row ... 54 Duke's Head Passage . . . xvi Jewin Street . . . . . . 1 78 Johnson, Statue of Dr. Samuel ... 10 King Edwartl Street. . . . . fo Knightrider Street ..... 48 St. Mary .Magdalene Church . . 47 Lawrence Lane . . . . . 78 London at Sunrise, Birdseye \'ie\v of the City about St. Paul's ... ii London Wall, Bastion of, in St. C/iles' Churchyard . . . . . i~<) London Wall (Street), Curriers' Company, Hall of (interior) . . . . i8q Looking towards Moorgale Street . 100 St. Alphage Burial (rround, with portion of Old Londcn Wall . . 187 Wood Street end of . . . .188 Loriners' Company, Arms of . . . 8g Love Lane, Aldermanbury . . 206 Ludgate Hill, looking toward St. Paul's . 5 From St. Paul's .... 20 Ancient Site of, ideal drawing . . v Maidenhead Court, AIder?gatc .Street " Manchester " Hotel, The. .\ldersgate Street Masons' Avenue, Basinghall Street . Mercers' Hall, Cheapside . Merchant Taylors' Company, .Arms of Milk Street, Honey Lane Market Robin Hood Court . A Wmtry Day .... Milton, Memorial Tablet to Milton Street (formerly Grub Street) Mitre Court, Wood Street Monkwell Street, Barbers' Hall (interior) A Wintry Dav .... Morley, Messrs. J. & R., Warehouse of ' / / 155 7Q ■^7 130 129 . 128 • 9S 184 I '3 1 68 "'7. 11 ; Nelson's Monument . Newgate Street Churchyartl of Christ Church Entrance to Christ's Hospital Queen's Head Passage Tlie (Jreat Hall, Christ's Hospital Old Change Looking North .... Old Jewry, Dove Court . Frederick's Place Parish Clerks' Hall, The, Silver Street Paternoster Row, looking toward Cheap side ..... Cannon Alley .... Ivy Lane ..... Paul's Alley .... Pigeons, Feeding the, St. Paul's Church yard ..... Philip Lane . . ' . Porters' Rest, St. Paul's Churchyard Priests' Court, Foster Lane Queen's Head Passage, Newgate Street Quest House, The, Cripplegate Red Lion Court, Watling .Street Reynolds, Statue nf Sir Joshua Robin Hood Court, Milk Street Roman Bath Street . Rothschild & Co., Messrs., their GoU Works in Wood Street . Rylands & vSons, Ltd., Messrs., Ware house of .... Saddlers' Hall, Entrance, Cheapside. St. Martin's-le-Grand, The General Post Office Sign of the " Bull and Mouth " . Telegraph Department, G.P.O. St. Paul's Churchyard, Messrs. Cook, .Son -, 1, L-' & Co.'s Warehouse East side .... Xlll PAGE 9 .= 7 vii 60 63 61 93 94 80 82 163 52 S8 54 S3 20 192 ^7 ^3 185 90 1 1 120 02 120 65 66 50 18 21 I L LUSTRATION S. St. Paul's Churchyard, Feeding the Pigeons Floral Device, The . Godliman Street, from St. Paul's Godliman Street, looking toward St. Paul's .... Messrs. J. Howell & Co.'s Premises Messrs. Pawsons and Leafs, Ltd. Warehouse of Old Porters' Rest North side North side (the barrier) The Fountain . Sermon Lane . Statue of Schoolboy . Statue of Schoolgirl . Shipwrights' Company, Arms of Silber & Fleming, Ltd., Messrs., Ware house of .... Silver Street, looking towards Wood Street The Parish Clerks' Hall . Simpson's, Cheapside South Portico, St. Paul's Cathedral . Spectacle Makers' Company, Arms of the .... " Spideries," The, Wood Street .Star Court, Bread Street . Sweeting's, Cheapside 29 28 41 39 31 26 27 25 30 19 45 44 44 33 121 165 163 85 16 149 112 99 73 Tapling & Co., Ltd., Messrs., Premises of 139 Telegraph Department, G.P.O., St. Mar- tin's-Ie-Grand .... 50 Three Nun Court, Aldcrmanbury . . 162 Toy-seller in Cheapside . Wardrobe Place, Doctors' Commons Warwick Lane Mural Tablet to Guy, P^iil of Warwick .... Watling Street, from St. Paul's Church yard ..... Looking West .... Red Lion Court Wax Chandlers' Hall, Gresham Street Weavers' Hall, Basinghall Street Well Court, Bow Lane Wood Street, from Cheapside . " Castle " Inn Yard . Dent, Allcroft >& Co., Messrs.,' Ware house of ... . Foster, Porter & Co., Ltd., Messrs. Warehouse of . . . Mitre Court .... Morley, Messrs. J. & R., Warehouse of Rothschild & Co., Messrs., Gold Work Silber & Fleming, Ltd., Messrs. Warehouse of . . . Site of the Great Fire, 1882 St. Alban the Martyr Church . St. Michael's Church . St. Peter's Churchyard The " Spideries " . Wool Exchange, The (exterior), Basing hall Street .... Interior ..... Wren, Monument to Sir Cliristo|)lKr 76 38 56 55 89 9t QO 135 153 104 loq 137 117 U9 113 115 116 121 120 iiS 114 1 1 1 1 12 .48 158 15 Krrata. — Pagr 57, line 7, fur " nor" read " or " ; page 127, line i. fui " Jury ' read "Jewry ' ; page 160, line 28, for " intresi " read " interest." duke's ueav passage, ivy lane. ST I'yMU.'.s CATIlKUKAl,.— THE WKST KkuNT. '^ ■^\!i^m JsR THE TOM I) OK GENERAL GORDON. CHAPTER I . ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL. TllHRIi were, of old time, two \\a)s of apprtjaeh to the City of London from Westminster; one was Ijy the river of Thames, the other through the \illa*^'e of Charini;', alons^' the .Strand, o\er the Fleet Bridge, through Lud-Cate, until a great ehurehxartl wall barred further progress ; so the horseman turned to the right through Creed Lane, Carter Lane, and u}) Old Change into Cheapside; or through Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row, and thenee tt) the (iuildhall of the City Lathers, or to the grim Tower in the east l)e\"ond. As the Norman tra\eller eame from Westminster he saw the great ehureh whose majestie spire rose towards the skies, and whose ehurch\ard eoxered a goodly spaee — far greater than that w hieh exists to-da)'. The ehureh he saw was one of the most beautiful in Christendom. It rivetted his gaze as he walked up the gentle slope ; it impressed his imagination as he went his way. Happy the choice of him who planned so great a site at the entrance of so great a city ! TEXTILE L O N D O N . It is fitting that our walk through the textile quarter of the ancient City of London should begin at St. Paul's, and that a few pages, all too brief, should be devoted to a record of some of the facts of its history. To attempt to write even a rcs/iiiu' of them would be unwise, seeing that every street over which the reader will be invited to travel contains the making of many books. In the early maps of London the tall steeple of (Jld St. Paul's rises proudly upwards from the gabled roofs which nestle at its base. It must have been a land-mark for many miles around, es- pecially as the London atmosphere of those days was clear, except- ing when the quarrel- some members of some rival City guilds dis- turbed the air. The steeple was of wood, covered with lead, and is said to have been 520 feet high, whilst the length of the nave was 700 feet. If this height be correct, the old church would have l)een 155 feet higher than the present one. In the days of (Jueen Elizabeth this great stee])le was fired either by lightning, or by a workman, and burnt down to the roof. St. Paul's was spireless from that time, and the Cit) lost its noblest ornament. The ])rints of the periotl show the (hurch without the s])ire. One ])rint in the Crace collection at lliL- Pritish .Museum, which shows the bin"ning of Lutlgate in the (ireat P'ire of London (.\.ij. 1666), includes also St. Paul's MONUMENT TO Ol-'FICEKS WHO FELL IN ITIE CRIMEA. TEXT ILK I.ONnON. in flames in the distance, with the stunip of its steeple shining in the awful light. In the year 1533, says the old chronicler, Oueen Mary came to St. Paul's. She stayed against St. I'aul's School whilst one Peter, a Dutch- man, stood upon the weathercock of the steeple, holding a streamer in his hands five yards long ; this he waved to and fro. Sometimes he stood on one foot and shook the other ; then he would kneel on his knees. Peter had the sum of ;^ 16. I3s.4d. out of the City purse for his pains. A century earlier (1440) St. Paul's witnessed the fear- ful punishment meted out to those accused of witch- craft. K 1 ea n o r Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, \\alked through e v e r y street, bearing a waxen taper which w e i g h e d t w o pounds, until she came to St. Paul's, where she offered it 'y^)'^p^vvj\^?^\ ST. Paul's, from ludijate hill. i /' TEXTILE LONDON'. al llic hi,L;h altar. Her head was eoxered with a handkerehief ; her feet were l)are ; long' serolls con- taining" a narrative nf her crime were pinned tu her white dress ; and oh, mockery of mockeries ! she was attended b}' the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Lixery Companies of the Cit)" of London. Within a few years of this tragedy, John Carpenter, town clerk, caused to be painted the celebrated "Dance of Death" U})on panels in the cloisters of Old St. Paul's. This painting showed all sorts and conditions of men, from the Pope to the beggar, each one with Death as a jjartner, who was shaking the hour-glass and treading a measure. Amongst the tond)S in the old church, were some bearing names fanuliar to esery school-boy: — John of Gaunt A\as buried there (a.d. 1399), so was Ethelred, is-ing of lingland (a.d. 1017), and " Sebba " (Sebert), King of the liast Saxons, converted by St. lirkenwald, whose shrine was there. Put some of these far away dates have to do with a still older church than Old St. Paul's — a chui"ch w hich was burnt down in the time of William the -^^.^ Norman ; and hei"e it lua)- at once be said, on the authorit\' of the \'eneral)le Pede, that Mellitus, a disci|)le of St. Augustine, con- \ ei"ted so mamol the Past Saxons, whose cai)ital was Pimdon, that King lithelbcrt foundeil St. Paid's (.\.D. 608). It was the first Saxon church in the City. It was a wooden buildiuL:" ; was burnt ■illlJi^ KKM.M.NS OK FOU Nl lATlON Or OLD ST. PAULS. '-, -d-- ST. PAULS CATIIEDUAI.. — IHK CHA.NXF.l,. TEXT ILK LOXDON. down (a. I). 961), rebuilt as^ain of wocxl, was as^ain burnt (a.d. 1086 or 1088) and carried tlie wootlen city to destruction with it. Then arose the magnificent church begun by Maurice, Bishop of LontU)n. This church suffered from tire (\.i). 1135). ' '^'^^ building of it was hiiished 224 years after it hatl been begun. Once more hre attacked it and destroyed the steeple (.v.n. 1444); it was rebuilt, and yet again burned down (.\.i). 1561). to the following be omitted : — In Poulteney, four draper, was a great edifice ; he built a in. In the year of Henry VI I., was Catharine of Arra- the King of Spain. thegreat conduit in Gascoigne wine, with music for the the people. At this Lollard's Tower in heretics, and there A brief reference events must not 1337, Sir John times Mayor, benefactor to the "fair chapel" there- 1501, Arthur, son there married to <''on, daughter of Then it was that Cheapside ran w ith and was furnished entertainment of time there was a the church for citizen was hanged. Nearly seventy years later the first lottery of which we hax'c record, was drawn before the great west door. There were 10,000 lots at ten shillings each lot. The drawings lasted from Januar\- 1 1 to May 6, and the profits went to I'cpair the ha\"ens of Iingland. It must be admitted that this form of ecclesiastical speculation was for (|uite as noble a purpose as are those which gi\e rise to the j)i"etty Ijazaars which we manage so well as aids to our churches and chajjcls now-a-days. 10 TEXTILE LOXDOX, The mention of this great west door must again carry us back to the picturesque and significant custom of the Fitzwalter family, Lords of Baxnard's Castle, and Castellans and Banner Bearers of the City of London. The Fitzwalter received the banner of St. Paul at the hands of the Lord ALavor, Sheriffs and Aldermen, at the great west door. The banner bore a heraldic image of St. Paul with a sword in his hand. The Baron, fully armed, with armed men about him, got oft" his horse and .saluted the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen, likewise armed. "Sir Mayor," said he, " I am come to do my service which I owe this city." The Mayor then made answer: "We allow you here as our Banner Bearer of this city in fee ; this banner of the city to carry and govern to your power, to the profit and honour of our city." Afterwards the common signal of the City was sounded, and the Commonalty followed the Banner Bearer as far as Aldgate. If the Castellan should leave the City, he entrusted the care of the banner to the Aldermen. A large painting in the possession of the Corporation of London gi\es the \"isitor a graphic conception of this splendid mediixval ceremony. During the time of the Commonwealth (v.n. 1649 — 1660) (Jld St. Paul's suffered every kintl of degradation. Its famous nave was a common thoroughfare fi)r porters, carriers, gallants, the hand- somely vicious and the plainl}' mischie\"ous. The rotund diMxinan tianulled his bi-ow n ales ; the cheating l),d. iJ'iiM.No l-,A5l. TKXTl L • ON DON. foundations of tlie larj^'^e warehouse of Messrs. Cook, Son eV ("onipany, which faces the south door of the cathedral. I)\ the courtesy of the meiubers of tlie hrni a ch'awiui;' of this anti(|uil\' is liere ])resented tos^etlier w itii the translation of the inscription. A cast of the stone is preserxed in Mr. Fred Cook's office; the orio-inal is in the C.uildhall Museum. The expkuiator}' statement under the cast is to tlie following" effect : " Found in the excavation of this warehouse in .Xuj^ust, 1852, at a eleplh of 20 feet below the surface. 1 he inscription reads to the effect that 'Ki\.\ caused this stone to be laitl o\er, oi- in nieiuoiA' of Tiki.' A skeleton ^vas found by the stone. The date of the reHc is aljout A.D. 1000. It is the only Runic monument known to ha\e been at an\' time discovered in London." When the visitor has gazed enougli upon the magnificence of the cathedral, both without and within, and has read over the epitaphs of many of its illustrious dead, let him bestow a sj)ecial care uj)on that of the great builder to whom the City of London and the nation owe so much. This e})ita})h, freel\' trans- lated, runs as follows : " Beneath is laid this church's and cit\'s builder, Christopher Wren, who li\ed aljout ninety years, not for himself, l)ut for the ])ul)lic good. Reader, if you seek his monument, look around ! " Never did genius ser\e ])rince and people better than this architect ; never was ser\ant so poorly paid — so needlessly harassed by fussy .MUNTMICN 1 111 slK CIlklMnrilKK WKE.N. i6 TEXTILE LONDON. Jacks-in-office, who all knew better than he how to build and how to make beautiful. Poor man ! their vagaries provoked him to tears many a time, because his beautiful creation was to be marred by their meddlesome fingers. If perchance a genius should glance over these lines, let him remember that the reward of genius when allied to probity is a small wage during life, the glorious mens coiiscia recti, and a marble sarcophagus which he cannot enjoy ! Sir Christopher died A.D. 1723. Some of the beautiful wood carving of Grinling Gibbon will be iound in the choir of the cathedral ; it is worthy of repetition that the " beneficent and curious " John Evelyn brought Gibbon into fame. He first found him working away, he tells us, in a solitary thatched cottage at Saye's Court, and was struck by the quality of the work which the wood sculptor pro- duced. The kindly diarist intro- duced Gibbon to the easy-going Charles the Second, who after- wards employed the sculptor in his palaces. But when (jibl^on took his piece of carving to the (^ueen in her beil-chamber, a " French ])edling woman " there began to make game of it. This pcdlcitsc used to bring "peticoates and f.mns and baubles out of I'r.uice to the ladys." The great artist had onl)- his labour for his pains, together with that sense 1 IIK snli J 11 nik I K T KX Til. ]■; l.( ) N DOX 17 of ])o\\er witliiii which dnes not, li()\\e\'er, satisf\' the panto's of Inin^x-r. Only a few ehi\s f)ct(ii"c " Mi". Sur\c\'oi- I)i-. ( 'hn>t()])hrr \\'i\n " and Pepys were dining' with I'!\el\ n, who w i"ite> : " I cdri'ied them to see the piece of carxin;^, wliieli I had reconnnended to the Kino;." Froni this it may be inferred that I'^ehnhad inueh to ih) witli ^ettinu; ( '.ihf)on's art bestowed upon the w"ood-wi>ik of our cathedrah W'itli much rekictance we must quit tliis nuj^ht} tem|)le. it has borne man\ misfortunes Hke to those of the ,i;avat a])oloL;ist whose name it bears; but now the lantl hath peace. 'Idle footfall of the ])asser u|) Paul's Walk is re\-erent t(vday ; the stipends of its resiclentiaries are ami)le ; its lil)i-.u"v is noble; and the whole is bulwai-ked, if not hemmed in, b\' those l)Us\' hixes where the merchant kibour> tor the ^old that ])erisheth. Tin; c-..\riii;iiKAi. vosi. sr. I'Alil.S ( III'KC in AUIi. — IIIK I Ol-NIAIN. C H A P T I-: R II. ST. IWUL'S CHURCHYARD. BISHOP MAIRICI' bou-ht up all tlic miserable little sheds which sun-oiiiuled the ancient Saxon Church, in order that his foundation mii^hl stand in the midst of a nol)le ])lain. l!roadl\ speaking;', this plain on the hill top was Ijouiuled l)\- Creed Lane and A\ e Maria Lane on the west, ( )UI (dians^e on the east, Carter Lane on the south, and Paternoster Row on the north. There were six gates in tlie wall of the ancient churcln ard. The first was the great west gate \\hich facet! what is now Ludgate Hill, the second opened into Paternoster Row, the next ga\e entrance from Cannon Allex', the fourth was the little gate to ('heap, the filth was called .St. Austin's Cate, and letl into W'atlmg Street, and the last was the entrance from Paul's Chain. As the great work grew to com|)letion statel) builtlings arose w ithin the boundarx wall. There was the ]:|)iscopal Palace, of which the meniorx is preserxed in London-House \ard. Thei'e was a cemetei")', 20 TEXTILE LONDON. and a cliapcl w ithin it ; the noble cloisters w ere there \\ ith the celebrated painting- " The Dance of Death," with the quaint \erses, as Englished by Daniel Lydgate,the01d Monk of Bury St. Edmunds — the object-lesson of the period on the vanities of life. Nearer to the narrow entrance to Cheapside was Paul's Cross, not far from where the modern fountain softly plashes and the pigeons stoop to drink. Be\ond this was St. Paul's School ; a noble Chapter House rose opposite Paul's Chain, whilst the Church of St. Gregory stood near the rejuxenated statue of ijood ( )ueen .Anne. Harkiup' back to the east end, we ma)- be reminded that near the Cross the citizens held theii- folkmotes, and displa)ed all the amenities of the modern \estry meeting, whilst at the west end, opposite the great doors, they gathered in nobler spirit under their banner Ijeai'er Fit/waiter. It will l)e well to rc\ert for a moment to the action of the wise liishop w ho made his churchyard so ann)le, as it will ser\e to introduce a reference to the xast ])roperty which was owned b\ the Cathedral. The whole of what is now the luist lind of London belonged to St. Paul's when Domesd.iy liook was compiled. And, as man\' churches nuist be mentioned in the com-se of this \ olume, it w ill not be out of jilace to state, once for all, that l)efore the time of the Reformation ecclesiastical pro- perty — churches and colleges — occupied one-third t)f the area within the m E ^ ^bSB^ If.- r^Y ^" ^- LUDGATK II II |-kO.\I ST TAU .'s. T I-; X l' 1 L H LONDON. itlc the walls was notliiiv' hut baMiliiii 21 I )!■( )()kS and city walls, (^ut^ bi'ow sinj;' cattle. The briefest notes must suffice for the chief anti(|uities of the old churchxard. The exents which took ]ilace within tlie shadow ol Paul's Cross would constitute a history of itself. The ])ur\e\or of unredeemed pledges must ever be grateful for one of them ; it was the action of the Bishop of London who, in the days of Edward 111. (.v.n. 1327 — 99), established the art or mystery of pawnbroking. Preachers at Paul's Cross were appointed to declare the sale of unredeemed pledges, unless the money from the pledger was forthcoming w ithin fourteen days after the year had expired. The s})ectacle of a rexereiid ])riest selling a citv apprentice's sect)ntl shii't oxer the extraxagant x'oungster's head must have been heartrending ! (Jf quite another character x\-as the solemn gathering of the Hier- archy at the same spot (a.d. 1521). There was Thoiuas Wolsey, Archbishop of Canterburx', supported l.)X' most of the rexerend jjishops of the realm ; a motlex' ciowxl of our ignorant foretathers were gaping at the figure which appeared before them under the canopx" of Paul'^ Cross to denounce the xile heresies of the flute- playing monk of German)'. 1-ishei", Bishop of Rochester, xxas the preacher, and Luther the free- thinker — the sacri- legious xxriter of mmMBM::^-- ] m~:;^ ST. rACI.'s CUUKCIlY.\Rn. — KAST SIDE. 22 TEXTILE LONDON. church-tloor defiances — was the text. So ^\■ell did the i.^Tjod Bishop preach, and so well tlid his simple hearers understand, that soon a sacrifice was demanded, and, as the portly form of Martin Luther was not for the moment to be had, they burnt his books instead, and probably spat into the tlames thereof as a mark of dislike; "which ended [the sermon], my Lord Cardinal went home to dinner with all the other prelates." The Cross was pulled down by the image-breaking Long Parliament (a.d. 1643). It was the most solemn place in the nation. There the great preachers preached, and there the citizens gathered together. Beyond the Cross, in the direction of W'atling Street, stood the school founded by good Dean Colet for poor men's children (.v.d. 1505). The pious old cleric and kindly schoolmaster lo\ed his scholars almost w ith the affection of a parent. We may well believe that he was equally loved in return. His boys used to dispute for prizes regularly under a tree at Smithfiekl, and were known faiuiliarly as the "pigeons of Paul's." The good Dean li\etl at Stepney, and one of his friends was the great Sir Thomas More, who, w riting to him one day, obser\es : — " If the discom- modities of the City offend nou, )et ma\- the countr\- about xour parish of Stepnev afford nou the like delight." The large l)lock of i)uildings which now bound the eastern end of St. Paul's, stands on part of the site of this \eneral)le school, and in the midst is an unpretentious memorial stone, which l)eai's the following record: — "On this site, a.d. 1512 to A.D. 1884, stood .St. i'aul's School, founded by Dr. lohn Colet, Dean of .St. Paul's," The readei" funiliar with the Cit\ of to-da\' will remember the gloomy stone pla\ground of the school, where the boxs ran gail\- u\) and down while the i)assei'-l)y gazed ])ensi\el\ thi-ongh the railings for a moment, and thought, ina\ha|), of hi^ own schoollx))- days. The dean, who was a mercer's son, entrusted the management of this gi'eat school tcj the Mercers' Compan)- at his decease. V^'iVor y..nr_ •^> CANNON SlKKr.l', I.OOKINU WHS'l. TEXTII.E LONDON. 25 At a much earlier tlate than tlie foundation of tliis school, there was a waste piece of grouiul l)et\\"een St. Austin's date and West (dieap, which was let to be built upon, and the rents accruing' were applied to the maintenance of London Ihid^e — at that |)eriod the only bridge over the River Thames. CominQ- to times more recent, we are told that a Blue Coat bo)- made a "handsome speech " to William of Orange on liis public entry into the city (a.d. 1697), whilst the lUueCoat School boys were rany'ed in front of St. Paul's School ; and a few years later (a.d. 1702) (jueen Anne was " speeched " by a workhouse boy at one end of St. Paul's Church- yard and by a Blue Coat boy at the other. The good (Jueen was very fond of attending the Cathe- dral, and on one historic occasion (May I, 1707) Her Majesty came in State to celebrate the union between P.ngland ;md Scotland. As the \isitor jxisses on towraxN Walling .Sti-eet, and lea\ es the site of the old school behind him, he will notice the statel) pile of buddings of which the house of Messrs. Cook, Son vS: Co. is the centre. The whole of the large warehouses to the right and left ha\e Ijeen raised during this "eneration, and took the place of rickett\ tenements in whicli our fore- fathers rubbed along, li\ ing o\ er their shops, and — after ha\ ing made iheir fortunes — duly died, it may not begenerall) known that the indLisliaous SI'. i'.\ri,s nuKCiiv.vKi) — mikiii sihe. 26 TEXTILE L O N D ( .) X . Mr. Grace carefully preserved a picture of Messrs. Cook's new warehouse which appeared in the public prints of the time, and which now is in the invaluable Grace collection of prints at the British Museum. Before these buildings were raised, and when the western end of Gannon Street was not, there flourished an unpretentious lane at this spot ; it was known as Maidenhead Lane, whilst the continuation of it bore a title w hich the diligent searcher may find in the old maps, but it would hardly be permissible in the new. Still o-oinsj- westward round the vard, the eye will be caught bv the last addition to the business architecture of this part of the modern Gity. It stands at the corner of (iodliman Street, and marks the modern union of architectural taste w ith the utilitarian principles of textile merchants. It serves to permit the remark that everywhere in the quarter over which the reader will traxel, this rapid change is taking place. The old, square business box with all its history, all its dust, all its dim glimmer, and its low - pitched ceiling's, is were too full of holes for the use of little trolleys, and when the ])()rter was more trul\- a carrier of merchandise than he is to-dav. Porters l)earini;- burdens were not allowed to walk inside the posts at the sides of the streets between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.; the penalty for the breach of this rule was fourpence. At that period there were no foot- walks^or ^''^ivements, but the ]}lace for the walker was indicated by the posts. At the same time not more than one horse was permitted to a dray or cart. St. Paul's Church- yard was a terrible ])lace at night a little mo]-e than a luunlred >'ears a*''o. There were ew lights, the roads were shocking, and iLOKAi. i)i:vici:.-M. i\[ I.'-, ( inKriivAK].. I'obbers were zealous. They e\en essased to rob (jueen Caroline in St. Paul's Churchvard, on her wa_\- home in hei- coach from a pi-i\'ate City dinner; but Aldei"inaii .Sir ('lilbeil lle.ithcole ha|)pening to come along in his chariot at the time, they set to work to fleece him, and the (Jueen managed to slip past without being noticeel ! There are one or two things more to which attention ma\- l)e drawn before (putting so interesting a spot. One is connected with William Shakespeare, whose " Ti-oilus and Cressida " was first printed at the "Spread Eagle," long a celebrated trading sign in St. Paul's Church- yard. Another is a reference to the brave show which the stage coaches T E X T I [. E L O N D O N . 2g made (a.d. 1830) when llicy turned out nf the " Ci-own," the "Goose and (ji'idiron," and " Tohit's I^i'.^'-" A thiixl is to tlireet the itinerant's attention first to the ehdjorate llower l)ordei' wliieh the Cathe(.h"al j^Mrtlener huihls up with so nuicli pride and skill — a border whieh as recently as the \'ear 1892 bore the le;^'end of the Archon l^ponxnious, "Alderman Hx'ans, Lord Maxor," w ith it^ eentnd escutcheon and dai;'i^'er, surmounted b\- the cap ot' maintenance, all suij;!^esti\-ely worked in the herl) which to-da\' is and to-morrow is not. ( )nce more, contemidate — rexerenth' contemplate — that e.\ca\ated laun, the moulded base of a beautiful column, which once rose towards the ancient roof of old St. Paul's — a colunui w hich felt, perhaps, the flaking heat of the scavenging i^-3 f 5 j4#s_»^^_jsr ^ KEEDI.VG THE PI<;F,ON.i ON IIIE SIIE 01- PAUL b CROSS. 30 TEXTILE LOXDON. fire (a. I), 1666) ; and then, after l-)racin_L;' the pensive sjiirit with an eftort, utter the coniprehensixe toast of the Textile Traders ( f the xicinag'e : — " Here's to all our friends round St. Paul's." sr. I'AULS CllUKllIVAKD. — MJKIII sIIiE. M ?.'.s ;, f:'^-H; 1s# ST. I'Ari. S CHrkCIIYARl). — MKSSkS. J. IIOWEM. A.NU CO. S M;\V I'KEMISF.b. ■■■"'N,..'.^-'- ARMS 01- THE Slliru KIGll lb COMPANY. CHAPTER III. Cannon Street — Doctors' Commons — Godliman Street — Carter Lane — Sermon Lane — Knightridei Street. CANNON STREIiT is of modern origin ; the lane whieh was in existence there before has l)een alreacK' mentioned. The only building of historical note at the western end of it. is the Hall of the Cordwainers' Company. The ancient Hall stood on the north side of Great Distaff Lane (.\.u. 1410), and Distaff Lane is still preserved to us very close to its original site, d he first stone of the present Hall was laid A.D. 1788. Tlie Cordwainers' Com|)an\- regulated the ti-atle in leather and superintended the making of shoes. In coiu'se of time those engaged m the different jjranches of the leather trade formed guilds of their own. This splitting up of the guilds was {practised bv most of the traders in the City during the Middle .Vges. The guilds of the Cit)' haxe been fulK described b)' other writers, and their story is of the greatest interest both to the maker of histories and to the general reader. Li this volume they can only receive a passing word. The general objects of the City guilds were protective, social, religious, and benevolent. They protected the interests of their par- ticular trade ; they formulated laws for their apprentices ; the}' held their 34 TEXTILE LONDON Hall dinners as now, and bestowed their freedom ujjon distinguished persons — kings, statesmen, ambassadors, and soldiers — and they provided for their decayed brethren and for their widows. The guilds of the City of London \\ere amongst the earliest trade societies A\hich \vatched over their poorer members. In the days when they fulfilled the functions intended b\' their founders they set an example of trade charitableness and trade exclusiveness which has never been excelled. Revertini."' to the Hall of the Cord- wainers, which prompted this digression, we read that Fleetewoode, a celebrated Recorder of London, writing to Lord Burleigh (a.u. 1577), says : — " Upon Tuesday \\e had little or no business saving that the Cordwainers of London having budded a fair new Hall, made a royal feast for their friends, which they called their house-warming." Man\- years afterwards (a.d. 1708) " Dr. John Part- ridge," a maker of alnumacs, was greatly teased by .Swift in the Tatlcr, wherein the wit declared that the astrologer was dead, in spite of all his protestations to msiAri- i,ANF.. the contrar\. I'liis was done in riLlicule of his prognostications. "These are to certif\-," so runs the satire, "that the company of Upholders will proceed to bin") him from Cordwainers' Hall." Near to the Cordwainers' Hall, and on each side of Cannon Street, are great wholesale warehouses for the sale of general tlra[)er\" goods ; others for the supply (jf woollen cloth alone ; others again loi" bonnets cuul hats, and foi- (lowers and feathers ; whilst some sell lace and emijroideries. TEXTILE LONDON. 35 This (,li\ision of textile warehouses into what are known in the trade as •'general" and "special" is not peculiar to Cannon Street, l:)ut is common all over the textile portion of the Cit}'. .So rapitl has been the rise of these lars^e warehouses that it has distanced all belief. A few years a^-o (a. I). 1854) there were less than a thousand wholesale textile warehousemen in the whole of London. N(n\" there are almost as man)- gathered to^ethei" in a few short Cit\' streets. The actual hijures are not uninter- estint^\ There were then 65 aj^'cnts rejircscntin^" British and foreign textile manufacturers, 18 halicrdashers, 21 hosiers, 52 lacemen, 55 linen warehousemen, 29 ribbon houses, 55 shawl wai'ehousemen, 1 10 ware- houses for the sale of silks and \'el\'ets, 33 for silk alone, and 108 for the sale of woollens. Some of these probably were not wholesale traders, because man)- retail shopkeepers called themseh'es warehousemen. About sixty years earlier (a. d. 1 794) there were no more than 260 firms engaged in the textile trade in the A\hole of the district which this work covers. Of these, 84 were warehousemen , 34 were haber- dashers, and 38 were linen drapers. The streets in which thev d\\elt were the iollowing — and the reader will remem- ber that the figures embrace textile traders of all kinds, including lilackwell Ilall ^-^ CANNON STREET (LOOKING WEST). 36 TEXTILE LONDON. factors (cloth agents), skinners, slop sellers, and weavers : — Cheapside 39, Friday Street 25, Wood Street 23, Ludgate Hill 22, W^atling Street 19, Milk Street 17, Aldermanbury 11, Basinghall Street 10, Bread Street 9, and Bow Lane and St. Paul's Churchyard 8 each. Leaving statistics, we return to Cannon Street for the purpose of reminding the reader that that portion of Cannon Street extend- ing east\\ard from Cannon Street Station, was of old time called Candlewick Street, and all citizens know that the civic ward of Candlewick still exists. In Candlewick Street lived the Flemish weavers whom Fdward in. brought o\er. They held their meetings in the Churchyard of .St. Laurence Pountney, whilst the Brabant wea\ers held theirs in the Churchyard of .St. Mary Somerset not far awa)'. There were wea\-ers of dra|)er\', taper\- (tapestry), and na})er\- (linen); when these weaxcrs decayed, thcii" places were filletl I)_v rich di'apcrs who were sellers of woollen cloth. The original draper only dealt in cloth; the modern draper deals in c\er\ thing. Close b\- the ancient London Stone, now set in the church wall of .St, .Swithin's, there dwelt (a.d. 1189) the famous llenry I' itzalw)n, of Lcjndonslone, dra])er, noble b\ birth, and him the citizens would ha\e to rule o\er them as .Maxor for foui--and-t\\ent)- \ears. Of such a forerunnei- the diligent trader of to-tla\- ma\' well be proud. -VoVyrr ilV (;kkI'.n' dkacon court. TEXTILE LONDON. 37 Around the callini^' of tlic clr;ii)ci- of old there clusters a wealth of literature made u]) of hi^tofie facts of deepest interest. Alas, that we are to touch them w ith so lii;"ht a hand ! The cloth yard measure was a faxourite instruiuent of correction in schools in the Middle Ages, just as was the eel-skin amongst the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The cloth )ard shaft used with such deatll)' effect by our sturtl)' archers, is known as a term to the casual reader of histor)-. Shakes[)eare was familiar with the clothes-stall, which he probably saw in Cheapside or elsewhei'c in the ('it\. It was called the frippery. An old ])rint shows the tailor sitting on a stall w ith his long bench before him. Abo\e his head are lines of cord upon which he fixed the clothes as he made them. This picture makes Prospero's exclamation at once understood : " Come, hang them on this line." As for the weavers they appeared to be a merry lot. Shakespeare makes one of his characters to say : " I would I were a wcaxer, I could sing all manner of songs"; and Ben Jonson puts these words into the mouth of another : " He o-ot his cold with sitting up late, a n d s i n g i n g catches wit h clothworkers. " Aljout theniiddle of the 1 6th cen- tur\', the export of woollen cloth of all kinds to / ^-e^rf doctors' co.mmons. 3? TEXTILE LONDON Antwerp was valued at nearl\' one and a (|uarter millions sterling;, in exchano'e for whieh foreign merchandise was received. More than a century later {a.d. 1689) the Commons sent to the Lords a bill for encouraging woollen manufacture, whereupon the Company of Silk \\'ea\ers, attended by a great multitutle of their craft, presented a petition against it, because, the\' said, the encouragement of woollens ^\■ould spoil their trade. DOC r O R S' C M M N S. A (juaint couit, known as Dean's Court, is the natural entrance to the district which bears the general name of Doctors' Commons — a n a m e indicative of a college of ancient origin. At one tnue the courts of the Doctors of Ci\ il Law were dis- persed all o\ei" the City. P)Ut the mem- bers pined for more constantcommunion, until finall\the\ lived together in a small house in l'atern(>>ter Row. In Maitland's time (a. I). 1739) this house was called the (jueen's Head . Tavern. After the WARDROIIE ri.ACF.. TEXTILE [. O N n O N . 39 learned ones had met for some Nears in the house in Taternoster Ivow, Dr. John Harvey, Dean of Arehes, prov ided a colleg'e for them, w here they dined together in common, and the Colle-e obtainetl llie name of Doctors' Commons — preserxed to this daw Theii ine Hl)rai"\' was constantly ackled to In' ei)i^copal donations, for e\ery l:)ishop at the time of Ids consecration ga\e from £20 to ^"50 for the |)urchase of new books. Here \\"as held the Court of Arches. This Court had jurisdiction oxer thirteen parishes of the City, which owed allegi- ance to the Arcbishop of Canterbury, and over which the Bishop of London had no authorit}'. rhese [parishes were known as " Pecidiars." d"he Judge of the Court of xA.rches was called the Dean, whilst the title "Arches'Avas taken from the arches upon which the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow was built, because in that cr)pt the Court was originally held. The Prerogative Court was also to be found in Doctors' Commons, and was the prerogative of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It dealt with wills. There is a GODI.niAN STREEi'. 40 T P: X T I L E L O N D O N . picture extant of the Preroy,'ative Will Office as it appeared in Knightrider Street, a.d. 1831. There was another Court in Doctors' Commons — the Admiralty Court. The Lord High Admiral Avas director, and had cognizance of all crimes committed on rivers and seas. Criminal cases \\ere dealt with at the ( )ld Bailev when "the Marshal carrieth the silver oar before the judge." \'et another Court \\as called the College of Advocates. It was still in existence .\.u. 1854. Dean's Court, Doctors' Commons, yet retains much of the old world look, and the visitor will notice there the substantial residence of the Dean of St. Paul's. Just beyond it a modern building w ill be seen ; it is the school of the s\\eet singers of the cathedral where, often, the passers-by may hear their young \oices chanting the old music of the church. The handsome corner-stone of their edifice bears the names of famous ecclesiastics of this age, and amonii'st them will be found that of the cultured i)reacher. Canon Liddon. G O D L I M .\ N STREET savours of old romance. Here it was that a fine tenement existed, which tradition declares was the home of the fair Rosamund — the Rosamund of Henry II. (a.d. 1154-1189). An old chronicler states that (jueen i'deanor was \ery l)adl\' treated at London Bridge when on her way t(j W'estminstei" in hei" barge, " because she had caused a gentle damsel to be put to death, the most lieauteous that was known." The (Jueen was ]jarticularl\' w icketl to this fail" one, who was stripped and beaten upon her bare arms by a wicked old hag ; loathsome toads were put upon her soft white skin ; she was slowly roasted between two fires in a closed chamber, the ( )ueen standing near at hand the while and enjoying the damsel's anguish until she died. Rosamund \\as then buried in a filthy ditch with the toads for eompan\'. lUil retribution was al h.uid ; the plot was tlixulged. 'I"he King wept and cursed by TEXTILE LONDON. 41 turns cind, in t1ic end, poor Rosamund was rcburiod in the religious Iiousc of (Icxlstowe, and there did the King' " ai)point thirteen cha])lains to sing- for the soul of the said Rosanunul, so long as the world shall last." Such was the kind of stor)- which circulated amongst our people in the good old days. Paul's Chain, which is the name b)' which Cjodliman Street was long known, is suggestix'e of one of the ancient means of defence and offence. Great chains were drawn across the streets at ni^ht or in time of tumult, and ser\'ed to break the furious onslaught of either horse or foot. John Kvelyn refers to them in his fascinating- Diary. In the course of his thrilling description of the Great Fire, he writes: "The vast iron chains of the City streets were many of them melted and reduced to cinders by the vehement heat " (a.d. 1666). ZiCi<-- nonl.lMAN STREF-T, FROM ST. PAULS Clll'KCllYARD. 42 TEXTILE LONDON. The Kinc's Qreat Wardrobe was in Carter Lane. It was the centre of the fashionable London of those days. It was close enough to the massive Tower of \\'illiam the Norman. The frow ning Castle of Baynard was near, and the homes of the great clustered, courtier-like, around the royal spot. The King's Wardrobe was built by Sir John Beauchamp, son of the Earl of \\'arwick. Here li\ed Richard III. Near to the palace was Beaumont's Inn, which became famous as Huntingdon House in the days of Henry VHI. (a.d. 1509-1530). As time passed on Carter Lane became shorn of its greatness and dimin- ished in its width. I'ut it w as still famous, for there was the 'T^ittle Carter Lane Meet- ing " (Presbyterian), \\hich A\as typical of the spread of those religious societiesw hicli became know n as Dissenters. Maitland says that there were 28 Presbytei-ian meeting- houses in the whole of London. This painstaking but |)on(ler(jus wi-ilcr com- puted that the Presl)yterians gsjr^ery^ LAkll.K l.A.M,. 'I'FXTII.F. r, ON' DON' 43 collected (a.d. 1739) ;i^2,ooo pel" aniuiin, tlic Iiulej)eiulents ^'1,800, aiul the Baptists aliout ;!{"700. These coni- inunities not onl)' ]iaicl their portion of tile rates lexied 1)\" tlie Itslabiished Church, but proxided tor their ministers in London, and for their poor conj^re- j^'ations in tlie countrw SERMON LANE. Sermon Lane has been Sermon Lane time out of mind. To-da_\' it presents a prospect restricted and peculiar. There is a Ijuilding of some interest in it — the Castle Ba\ nard Parish Schools. The \irtuous little boy and the demure little girl stantl bra\'ely out upon the narrow bracket which supports them and, )ear in )"ear out, bear without complaint the e\er falling smuts which obscure their patient faces. The history of the Charity Schools of the City — of which this one is a t\'pe — must not quite be passed by. There were 78 of them, the)' could accommodate 3,458 l:)oys and 1,901 g'irls. Theywei"e Ijuilt b\- bene\olent persons for the children of the working classes. ALutiand estimated their cost at nearly ;^, 16,000 \-early, or 68 shillings per head per child. This kiiul of school arose in a peculiar — but very English — way. .Some of the citizens of Lond(^n were sorry for the ignorance of the Welsh people. They collected mone)' with part of which they bought and disjjatched Iiibles, C.AKTER lANE. 44 TEXTILE LONDON. FIGU T The io!iolc Dufv of Man and The Practice of Piety ; and w ith the remain- ing' l)alance thcv founded charity schools in Wales. Reports came duly to London — there were 1,362 children at school as well as adults. A committee of clergymen and ministers A\as appointed in London to direct the work. ( )ne of the committee, a Dissenter named Thos. Gouge, gave up his time and his estates in support of education, " traxelling \earl_\- in the wane of life in that mountainous countr)." The example of this great and good educationalist filled other London citizens with enthusiasm ; they began to look nearer home. ThcN" were frightened, too, by the zeal of "a crafty Jesuit," who built a free school in what were then the suburbs of London. Then Archbi.shop Tenison set up one in opposition. Arthur Shallot, a Dissenter, followed with one in Zoar .Street, .Southwark, tor the'supi)ort of the Protestant interest. .Such \Ji44^-- was the origin of the Charity Schools of l^f-.Z^^^^'J'.Tr':'- London— the first general attempt to teach the O CASILE bAYNARD O 1 children of the people. It will be apparent that the object of the promoters was not educational, in the broad sense which is contemplated 1)\ the LAlucation Act .\.l). 1870, but rathei' had its rise in those sti'onij" relitjious leeling^ which ulten |)r()m|)t connnunilies to stri\e less for the whole ti'uth than for that particular aspect of it which thev severally affect. ^ " FIGURE OVEK EXTRA.NCE TO CASTLE H.WNARD WARD SCHOOLS. K NI r, II TK 1 I) V. K ST K I'. !• T. This was a handsome and wide street in eai"l\ I'.ngh\li limes. It was throusjh this stivct that the knit-hts rotle fi"om Tower l\o\aI. 'I heir '''reat horses clanked ami siioiled beneath the annour tluA wore. TKXTILK LONDON. 4: What a l:)rave show the\' must Ikuc made ! ITow hi'ii^htK' slionc nian\- a lustrous eye, how rosy red flushed man\ a tail" lady's eheek, as her loxer or her K)rd passed 1)\' in i^cdhint show. She saw, |)erlia])s, a tress — her tress — \\()\en in the |)himes of his hehuet.or the lirii;;hl ril)hon fUitterin^^ whicli her liand had tied on for him. \\' hich way went these p^a\- w arriors ut okl ? Perhaps throU!_;'h Creed Lane, Ludgate, and thence to Sniithheld, where they jousted be- fore the Kin<>" antl all his brilliant train. Or they clattered past with some Royal message — swift mes- sengers to do their lord's behest. The street they chose was that (.)ne which, almost more than an\- other in London, bears in il> name — Knight Rider Street — all the fervour of ancient chivalrx', all the harsh savour of ruthless deeds, all the proud beatings of knightly hearts or the painful rexeries of arrested ambition. It was at Tower Ro_\al that Sir Richard W'hittington lived, and at College Hill he was l^urietl. Three times \\as he buried. The citizens felt that they could not l)ur\- him The tomb of this enough ^^: SEK.MON LA.NIi. 46 TEXTILE LONDON. great Londoner was riflctl in due course — it was a custom of the age. l\jor old Stow himself, whose anger was kindled against the defacers of monuments and usur])ers of other people's graves, had to suffer the same indignity ; his coffin being ousted from the receptacle which a lo\-ing and admiring wife had chosen for it, and that of another laid in its place. Close by Tower Royal was the church of St. Thomas )-e Apostle, of which a modern street ]jreser\-es the memory. This was "a proper church," and here was l)Ui-ied .Sir William Littlesbery, Salter, Merchant of the Staple and Mayor (a.d. 1487). Iidward III. called this worthy gentlemen " I lorne," because he was famous as a l)lower thereof. Sir \\'illiam gave his house in Bread Street, called the " George/' to the Salters' Companw Amongst the manv fine houses which abounded in Knightrider Street and its vicinity was one called \'pres Inn, the house of a wealthy Fleming. Near this was Ormond Place, belonging to the Harls of Ormond, \\hilst furthei" west stood the famous mansion of the Stanleys — a mansion now dtxotcd to the mvsteries of (iarter King-at Arms, and to the heraldic \\()rship of Ijiixls, beasts, and fishes. Here the learned Camden was Clarencieux King-at-Arms, erstwhile a scholar at Christ's Hospital and Paul's School. The celeljrated 1 )i-. Linacre, physician to llcniN \'I I !., liad a residence here. This he ga\e to the College of Physicians, whose letters patent he obtained from the King, cUid it was hei-e that the college existed for some years aflei-wards. Stow, adverting t(j the traders ol the place, remarks w ith some humour, " that the wet fish- mongers remoxed into the street, Ijut the brewers for the moi"e |)art remain near the friendK' waters of Thames" (a.d. 1525). The wet fishmongers gave its name to ( )ld bi-^li .Siivet, a street whidi ha> been imjirovetl ofi' the face of the Cit\ b\ the noble but frigul (jueen X'ictoria Stivel ol modern times. Maitland says that the old fishmarket was standing in his time (.\.i). 1739), but was reduced to two lishmongers. Of the signs TEXTILE LONDON. 47 presence! in the Guildhall Museum there is one which came from Kni_i;iit- rider Street. It is a rough sculpture ofa hell w ith the date a.d. 1668. 'I'he onl\' remains of age in Knighti"idcr Street now are tlu- (liurches of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, united with St. Nicholas ()la\e, and th.it of St. Mary Magdalene. St. Nicholas -tood partl\ in OKI Fish .Street, and after the (ireat bv Sir Christopher ;^5,o42 (.\.r). 1677). Marv Magdalene records as earl\- as church was also for jfA,2gi (a. I), of St. (^iregory b\' united w ith it after old church was a Sugar, citizen and but recently that dismantled, black- oured. It was burnt and was allowed monument to the hundred years. Its other way when he hurr}"ing trader, did not look u]) I -'ire, was rebuilt Wren, at a cost of The Church of St. was mcntionetl in A.I). 1181. 'jhis rebuilt l)\- Wren 1685). The parish St. Paul's was the Tire. In the monument to John fishmongci". It was this church stood ened and dishon- a few \ears a^^c), to rem.u'n a sad mutations of seven [)riest looked the [)assed it, w hil>t the Ijcing too bus\', THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY M.U;D.\LE.\E, KMCnrRIDER STREET. at it at all. The fate of the forlorn Church of .St. Mary Magdalene is suggestixe of the modern mode of dissociation of the place of business from the home. When the citizens lixed oxer their shops, the\' took a pride in their parish church ; its mr)numents were familiar to them, and their wealth was freely spent in adding t(j its beaut)". All that is altered now. KMiari Kim-u m ukki. ST, MAKTIN'S-I.K-OKAM),— TKI.ldUArH DErARIMKNT liUIl.niNc;, ARMS 01' THE IAN MAKKRs' COMTANY. CHAPTER IV. Patcrnubter Row — Warwick Lane — Newgate Street — St. Martin's le-Grand — Bull aiul Mouth Street. PATERNOSTIiR RO\\Mias seen man}- cliant^LS in its time. It is now tlif i"cj)ositor\- of |)rintcd books of all sorts. Sciences, arts, s)'stems of religion, all in tlieir colossal classifications ma)' i)e found here, but he who runs may hardly pause to read. Cases of books go forth dail_\- from the packing rooms of Paternoster Row for the teaching of chiUli-en o( all colours in almost e\er\' land, whilst for those of older growth there ai"e scattered fai' and w ide e\er\- kind of ])rinted woi'k to gi\'e food to the sage, delight to the \\ear\, and condort to the sad. The Paternoster maker of oUl time was he w ho matle njsaries, or strings of beads l)\' means of w hich the de\out worshipper coukl keep a record of the number of prayers uttered b)' him when at his dexotions. " The Paternoster makers are gone out of Paternoster Row," .says Stow (.v.D. 1530), "and are now called Stationers of St. Paul's (_lun-ch)ard." As Paternoster Row got its name from the turners of beads for rosaries A\ho worked there, so Creed Lane and A\e Maria Lane were suggesti\-e of the religious te.xt sellers of the old time who dwelt in the places which still bear the names of the eoods the\' sold. TEXTILE LONDON'. Before the Great Fire of London the booksellers were niosth' in St. Paul's Churchyard; then thev moved to Little Britain, and lastl\- they settled in Pater- noster Row, where they thrive mightily to-da)-. Wdiil^t the booksellers were flourishing in Little Britain, the drapers were noted traders in "The Row," as it i^ now familiarly called, and a poem of the i^eriod (a.d. 1683) thus refers to them : — " The Mercers and Silk men also That live in Paternoster Row Their hate against poor Conscience shew, And when I Came to that place, they ail did set On me 'cause I their gain did let ; And will boUi swear and lie to get One penny ! " " Robin Conscience," who wrote the abo\e. was a stern moralist. It is to be hoped that he maligned the textile ticiders of his age. /Vbout forty years after these lines appeared, another historian states that the traders of this street were mostly " tire-woiucn foi' ladies' oi'iiamcnts (a.d. 1720). The incidents of historical \aluc in which this l)us\' street abounds cannot be rcferreil to at length. We ma\- speak of one or two. There was discovered here a Roman tesselated |)a\ement of good design and great extent. Of another character is the record of the chi-oiiick'i- who notes that 6,000 persons attended the funeral of Thomas Sutton, the foimder of Chai'ler House. The pi'occssion took six hours to pas.s iVom Dr. Law's lujuse in Paternoster Roa to Christ C hurch in Newgate 1' \ I l.K\i 1^1 KK KuW EXTIT.E I OXDON, 53 Street. It will not be amiss to (|uote the ancient clo_(^j^''ercl of the poor brother^ of the (Charter llousi'. The obserxant readei" will not fail to mark the (|niek chanj^e from philosopliic rellection to heaitv a])]ii"eeialion, which will l)e ai)|)arent after com|)ari^on of the third line with the fourth ; — " Tlien blessed be the meintiry Of good old Thomas vSutton, Who gave us lodging, learning ; And he gave us beef and mutton ! " The orii^'inal author of the I'enn\- Post is said to ha\e li\ed in Paternoster Row. The scheme of a Penn\ Post was |)rojected (Maitland says) Ijy Daxitl Mui"ra\-, an upholdei" (undertaker), a.d. 16S3. Murray communicatetl his ideas to William P)ock\\ ra, who made much jii'oht by them. In due lime the ("loxernnient o* the da\' claimed the monopoKof the postal s\stem, and allowed Dockwra a pension o( ^200 a )ear. The passages and courts which open out into this street from St. Paul's Churchxaixl and Newgate Stivet are nearl_\- all ot them old and interesting. The names they bear are coincident with an age when Iingland was neither free nor sober. 1 hese passages are still notorious for the cjuaintness of their inns, l)ut these are fast giving way before the polished marble, the carved oak, and the silvered mirror, which are the settings, now-a- I'AULb .\LLKY, lATERNOJIl i< ROW. 1' E X T I L E L N D O K . days, in which the jiai'tial smiles of Boniface are wreathed. Queen's Head Passage probabi)- |)rescr\"es the memory of the famous inn where gownsmen of Doctors' Commons first gathered themsehes together. As for Dolly's Chop House, with all its aroma of \\-it and impecuniosit)', it was standing in 1856, antl a picture of it, as it then appeared, is the British in IVY I.ANE, I'ATICKNOSIEK KOW. ]jreserved Museum. The inns which abound in the narrow courts and alleys leading into Pater- noster Row are now" the rendez\'ous of the booksellers' porters and of those who direct them in their daily work. Mere are to l)e heard fi"cud< and free expressions on the methods of this or that author, and, if he l)e li\ang. his personal peculiai"ities are not unlikeh" to be eliscussed. In the^e inns, too, the \arious persons engaged in the neighbouring textile warehouses take their occa- sional ivfreshment and settle their affairs, as well as those of the nation, with an ease begotten of a read}' w it and a lacile touijue. '1' K X "I" 1 1 . K I . o X n n N , An inlci"c>tin!^- but iiain'ow th(ii"()Uu;h- farc is Warwick I.aiic. It I'ctaiiis in its name the saxoiir nl' ilic i-^rcat tainily whose mansion was here, and wliose friendshi]) was so desired h\- the ro\-al houses of Planta^enet and I,aneaster. At the Ne\\i;ate Sti"eet end of this lane a rough sculpture of (iuv, Harl of Wai"- wick, will l)e seen ; it is let into the \\all of a niodeiai warehouse. This (iu_\- it was who troubled the second Edward, and di'o\e him from ])illai- to post on account of his fi\-ours to Piers (iaveston. When I:arl Rieharel kept house in the place the feasting was regal ; six oxen were eaten at a breakfast by his knights and retainers, and e\'er\' taxern was full of his meat. The gorgeousness of those of the Karl's household was as magnificent as their appetites. Here are a few items fi-om the household book of the Earl of Lancaster which will ser\e to em])hasize the s])lendoui- of these little-less-than-kings : — 163 cloths. 2 scarlet for the I^arl foi- Christmas ; I russet for the bishop ; 70 blue cloths for the knights, and 28 for the esquires; total cost, ^^460 15s. Poi- summer wear, the following items are gi\'en amongst others : — loS cloths, including 65 of saffron and 4 of ray for carpets for the hall ; cost, ^345 13s. 8d. There were als(_) 100 pieces of green silk for the knights, and i63 \'ards of russet cloth and 24 coats for poor men. " Xorthei'u laisset," sa\'s the old narrator. "I ha^'e seen sold for 4d. and yd., and was good cloth of mixed colour." It will be permissible to cjuote from .Maitland, lor the sake of comparison. This waiter li\ed some centuries lalei" than he w ho tells us of the clothin''' MF.MnUIAI. TO r,V\, E.\RI, OF WARWICK. <-- i> - -h ■ k i '4 i \r—~ A »•' I Tf k^ 56 TEXTILE LONDON. of the HaiTs followers. Maitlantl states that the dress of the tradinsj' classes of liis time (.\.i). 1739) was e\tra\-a,iL;"ant. The periwig's were made of tlie best fla.xen and ,L;'rcy luimaii liair, imported from abroad. The wealth\- traders lo\ed to loll in coaches and pompous equipages. " Persons of cjualit\\\ore linen of the tinest texture, and this they changed three times a day. Pett\- clerks, journey- men mercers, drapers, drawers (at tax'erns) changed their linen once a da\', and this linen was \alued at 4s., 5s., and 6s. the ell. The women outdid the luen in the i"ich- ness oi their silks, cambrics, and laces of exorbitant price, whilst the serxant maids dressed in so handsome a manner as not to be dis- tinguished fi'oiu persons of (|ualit\'. Frop.i this we ma\- learn thai the serxant maids have e\'er been consistent, nor can we blame them for pm"suing ;i fmcx so delight- ful to their sex. ,ane. the I'cadei' is reminded that WARWICK i.am;. ComiiV'' back aijain to \\'ai-\\ ick I the C,"ollege of Plnsicians was i-emo\ ed to .\men Cornel' fi'om Knight- rider .Sti'eet when 1 )i-. I larxex' g'a\'e the whole college to the .Societw 'I'his college had a fme hbr.u'v founded l)\ the Mar([uis of L)oi"chester. TKXTILH LONDON. 57 The examiner in medicine used to be liie ISi^hopof London. I'ailianient enacted (circa .\.i). 1512) that no i)erson couhl hecoinLa i)h\sician unless he was examined .ukI aehnitted 1)\- the Ihsho]). If he juMctised witliout such examination he was Haliie to a hue of ^,5 a month. The ilert^y and the hiwyers manai;"ed e\er\ thini;' in the oKI time. It is easy to supply the reason — the ordinary laxnian, whether l)aron, tradesman, or churl, could rarel}' read nor write, .\fter the (ireat Tiiv the Colle^'e of Physicians was re-erected by Sir Christopher \\'i"en, and Hourished until the stream of (|ualit\' and learnin;.;' flowed westward, when the collei^e became a brass foundr)- and its glory departed. The onl\- place of interest remaining is the Cutlers' Hall, a foundation which dates back to the time of lidward III. This hall was anciently in Horsebridge Street, not far from where the Wall l)rook used to NEWCATF. SIREET. H ]• E X T I L E L O N D O X . flow. The Cutlers were at one time of three sorts — bladers, or forgers of blades ; hafters, or makers of handles ; and sheathmakers for swords, daggers and kni\es. NEWGATE STREET. Two dissimilar buildings dominate New- gate Street the first is Newgate C.VNNON Al.I.IiV, r.\ I KKNDSlIvK KDW. Prison, and the second is Christ's Hospital or the Blue Coat School. The grim prison is outside the scope of thih book, but we must look through the strong railings which bound the playground of Christ's Hospital. Here are the buys skilfully twirling on roller skates, playing at leap-frog, and com- porting themselves generally with that disregard for consecjuences which marks the habit of the axerage bov — when he is not ill. What classic ground it ih o\er which these youngsters are so gaily skinuning ! What a long way back goes its \arietl ^tor_\- ! In the 13th centurx John liwm, citizen and mercer, l)uilt a house on the s])ot iorthe (Jre\- I'l'iars, or I'riars' Minora. Ihc li\es ot these triar^ were so exemplar}- at first that the citizens became grc.ill} dexoted to them. }i\\\n became a la\- bi'othei'. Other rich citizens began tt) l)uild stately additions to their edifice. Kings, (jueens, and nobles joined in the work as years rolled on. Richard W'hiuington —the famous " I )ick " — ga\e them a beauliUil libi'arx, and llie ehurth of the I'riai's' .Minors became one of the most notable in Iviigl.md. When I b iir\' \'l 1 1. sup|)ressed the monasteries, he lurnetl the church into a stcjre-house for the prizes TEXTILE LONDON'. ?9 wliiih were taken from llie iM-encli. A few xcars afterwards (a.d. 1547) Kin^' llarr\ made an ai^reement with the cili/ens of London, 1)\- wliieh he L;a\ e them the L;reat possessions of the (',vc\ Ia-iai'>' ("hui'eh. toi^ether with tlie Hospital ol St. ll.irtholomew , the |)ai-islies of .St. Xieholas and St. Kwin, and a portion of tlie parish of St. Sepnlehre. Tlie whole was called C hrist Chinxh, founded by Iicnr_\-. The charter was confirmed 1)\' lulwanl \'l., whose cfligy is ()\ er the porch, as the obser\'cr ma)' see for himself. The Grey Friars' House was turned into an orphanage foi- about four hundred poor children (.V.I). 1552). At first the little ones wore a lixery ol russet- cotton, but afterwards it was chang'cd to blue. The i^'reatness of the ancient church of these friars will be apparent w hen it is stated, on the authority of .St(n\-, that its monuments included those of four queens, one duke, four duchesses, three earls, two countesses, eleven barons, four baronesses, three lord mavors, thirty-si.\ kni;aroncss rit/cwarren, " sometime Uueen of Man"; Roger Mortimer, 1-arl of March; and KiNi; r.iiwARr) strp.f.t. a host of oiher distinguished 6o T E X T I L E LONDON. John, Duke of Bourbon and Anjou. A little more than a hundred years after the repa- nitory act of King' Henry there arose a wealthy citizen and Lord Mayor, whose munificence was largely jcstowed upon Christ's Hospital. The name of this gentleman was Sir Robert Clayton, of whom John livelyn writes : — " Dined at my Lord Mayor's, being desired ])y the Countess of Sunderland to carry her thither on a solemn day that she might see the pomp and ceremon)- of this prince of citi- zens, there nexer ha\ing ' "V/ \ T_. ENTR.VNCE TO CIIKIST's IIOSl'ITAl. 1 1, T il , M»y r— - been any who lor the stateliness of his palace, prodigious feasting and magnificence exceeded him " (a.d. 1679). Sir Robeit added a free school for poor (hild 1X11, whom he trained for sea service. He added the fine south fidnt lo the hospital (a.d. 1675), and Sii- Christopher Wren was engaged to do uuk h of IJie plamiing of the new parts after the Creat Lire. The foundation stone of the no])le hall, which the passing \isitor sees to-day from Newgate Street, was laid In the Duke of \'ork (a.d. 1825). TKXril.K LONDON. hi The histoi')' nt this ^-rcat school has been loKl a;^aiii and ai^ain, ami cannot be hL-iv attempted. It will l>e sullieient to(|note the ]ileasaiUi"\ ot the schohirs — a |)leasantr\' which lai"i;el)' concerns theii' appetites — a matter of the first importance to scliool l)0}'s : — " Sunday All Saints, Monday All Souls, Tuesday all trenchers, Wednesday all bowls, Thursday tou,t;h Jack, Friday no better, Saturda\- pea soup with In'cad and butter." With this ma)' be C()U])Ied the ivmarks of Colei'idj^e on one of the masters of his da\- — the Re\'. James Boyer — who was a s^reat flogsj^er. Hearing- of the rex'erend gentleman's death, the pc")et wrote: " It was lucky that the cherid)ims who took him to hea\en were nothing;' but faces and wings, or he would infallibl_\- ha\e fiogged them by the way." Christ's ho.spitai,, i rom newgate .street. 62 T E X T I L E L O N D O X . Newgate Street itself has borne other and less euphcjnious names. It once had the disad\anta<'e of bein^r called St. Nicholas Flesh-shambles. It was tile gicat slaughtering place of the old cit)'. IJlow-bladder Street was another of its names. King lidward Street, which leads out of it towards Smithiield, was called by unsaxoury but truthful titles at different periods of its Fowle Lane, Chicken and Butcher Hall Lane, the slaughter houses shops in Ne^^■gate way to the underground inclined shoot. Down ^^"ere pitched by main with bruised bodies, tolerable thirst, until erers could find it out of their miser\ . courts leading into southern side, Panyer most interesting. At was the celel)rated the ])annier or basket, inscription which al- (|uote fi'om memory : — existence. These were Lane, Stinking Lane, In quite recent times were underneath the Street. From the road- shambles was an this the poor animals force and there lay broken limbs and in- their barbarian slaught- convenient to put them ( )f the streets and Newgate Street on its Alley is one of the (Mie end of this alley naked bo\' bestritlin<>; RdiMAN liATH STRKF.T. [J^- under which is the most every citizen can " W'lien you have sou^'it the City round Yet still this is the highest tjround." These ])annier boys were bakers' bo\s, it has been said, and the alley was a famous place where the)' waited w ith iheir baskets. Hen Jonson alludes lo the " stiidsing ti-ipe " of l'an\er Allew and the whole district was for n),nn \ears full of the sickl\' smell of slauij'htered llesh. ■!•!■; XT] l.K l.OX DON', 6.^ The north ^idc of Ncwj^'atc Street contains the o|)eninL; into the am iiiit Christ rhureh Passage, on the rii^ht ^ide of which i^ one ot Wren's most beantiful chnrches, l)uilt ( a.d. 1687), with its fine >\>]vc added (a.d. 1704). The cost of Wren's ( lii-i^t Church was ;^,i 1,788. It is now ahiiost hidden l)v shops and warehouses, .\fter passing; lN.in!..i' lulwanl .Street the incjuirer will notice Roman Bath Street, which is moslK' used b}' the ofhcials and customers of the new Post Office in .St. Mai"tin's-le-( ".I'and. The name of this street ob\iousl\- refers to a tlisco\ery of l\oman remains, amongst which a bath of our cleanly con(|uerors was fountl. As i-ecently as .\.u. 1851 there was a Pull Mead Court m Newgate Street ; it is now- destroyed. Over the entrance to this court was a stone sculpture show ing in low relief the figures of William PAans, the gigantic porter of Charles L, and of Geoffrey Hudson, his ce!el)rated and pamj)ered dwarf. Before concluding this brict survey of Newgate Street the reader may be reminded that the " ^Plgpie and Stump " was a celebrated inn in 1830, from whence the gay coach turned out to the " toot-toot-toot " of the echoing horn. S T . M A K T I N ' S - L E - G R AND. This street, which is now wholly gi\en up to the (ieneral I'ost (Jffice, was original 1_\ called St. Martin's Lane. "A fair and large coHll^c ot a dean and secular canon "was founded here (a.d. 1056). Twelve years later this magnificent foundation received a charter from William the Concpieror. The college was called St. Martin's-le-Crand, as befitted its greatness. It |)ossessed great pi-i\ileges of sanctuar}', as is |)ro\ed Ijy the stoiA, related ^^K.-^"- by Stow, to the effect that a soldier who was (queen's head tassage, xewgate street. 64 TEXTILE LONDON. Ijciiii;' taken bv an officer from Newgate to Guildhall was rescued by five companions who rushed out of Pan_\er Alley and carried him into sanctuary at the west door of St. Martin's. The sherift's of London tocjk him out of the church by force the ne.xt day. There was a long argument l)etween the Church and the City. The Church won ; the soldier returned to sanctury. Sanctuary was claimed b\' the traders of the City on occasions of tumult. They carried their goods into the churches or deposited them before shrines and beneath the crosses which were erected in the streets. So powerful an influence was the shadow of the Cross in those days that the traders" goods were safe. Fi\e hundred years after the foundation of this stately college the church was pulled down, and a large wine tavern built at the east end thereof. Many fine houses were built in the precincts, and these were tenanted by foreigners. W'hen the workmen were excavating for the new Post Office they came upon somewhat extensive remains of the ancient College of St. Martin. Water colour drawings of the parts exposed are preserved in the British Museum. The present Post Office, with its severe Ionic pillars, was opened A.n. 1829. The G.P.O. was first established in Cloak Lane, then it was transferred to Bishopsgate Street, and afterwards (a.I). 1793) to Lombard Street. P)Ut a Penny Post Office was carried on in St. Christopher's Court, Threadneedle Street, in Maitland's time (.\.i). 1739)- The branch ofhces of the Penny I'ost were six, and one ot them was called St. Paul's < )rrKi', in (jueen's Head .\IUy, Paternoster Row. Letters were can"ietl foi' id., p.U'celh of 1 lb. weight id.; lelter.s delivered ten miles out from the centre cost 2d., of which the sender paid one jienn) and the recei\ei- paid the other. Tlie following Ceneral Post Otficc rates for letters of I oz. are not unintei'esting. The\' were charged at the period ju^t mentioned (\.i). 1739): — Lighty miles b-om Lontlon, is.; above eighty, is. 4(1. ; to lidinburgh, 2s. ; to " Lublin in lieland," 2s. ; TEXTILE LONDON. 65 France to London, 3s. 4d. ; London to r.cnn,in\', 4s. ; to Spain, 6s. ; to " New Vovk in Xortli .\inerica," 4s. lint a letter known as a " Sin_L;'le " could be sent to an\- of the al)o\e ])laees :it about one-fourth of the charge of the ounce letter. At this time there were thirt\' receiving houses in London antl si.\t\-nine lettei" carriei's. Some further figures will l)e found iu the Post Office London Directory of .\.i). 1830. 'I'he)' may be IIIE GE.NLKAl. 1'0>I OFl-KK, ST. .\1.\KT1N S-I.K-GK.V.Nli. compared w ith those gi\en abo\e, and are as follows : — L'or fifteen miles the postage was 4d. ; for fifty, 6d. ; for one hundred and twent)' miles, 9d. ; to Edinburgh, is. id.; to Lublin, is. 3d.; to Cardiff, lod. ; to Manchester, i id.; to France, is. 2d.; to Germany, is. 8d.; and to North America, 2s. 2d. There was a twopenn)' po.^t, too, tor the London district ; this embraced the tow n of Cro\don in the south-east. Before making a brief reference to mail coaches of sixty years ago, the reader 66 T E X T I L E L X D O N . may be advised of the grim significance of the phrase, " I'll make him eat his own words ! " In the Norman days — the days of the founding of St Martin's-le-Grand — the unlucky messenger who dehvered an oftensi\e missi\e from one knight to another \\as made to chew up and swallow the whole epistle at the dagger's point. The picturescjue period of the General Post Office was about the year a.d. 1837. Twenty-seven spick and span mail coaches left London every night. They clattered forth from e\er)- inn \ard, and drew up in order in the great space surrounding the then new (leneral Post Office. The passengers were seated ; the horses snorted and pawed the ground with scintillatingfeet; the shrill horns ^ answered one another in the *^^^^'' -i. evening air, and away, away, ^^iL. "^^'■^^^■{f-- north, east, west, and south they ,^^^^ - JV^ ^Ped, and "the world went very ■'^ Vbs^CT' **^ '^ well then." \l \ e t e r w a s ^ J^:-^''^T!^!f^ J W reached in 27 \ hours; lloK- w^^^M^^^S^^ \\^:\A in o Glasgow took * --1.^^' 42 hours; and Hdinburgh 425. sign 01 hie "mii .\m> moiih." W hen the mail coaches were first established the officials made a terrible outcrw They detested new-fangled notions — those revolutionary tendencies of the age in which thev lived — but the mail coaches came in .spite of them, and George Stephenson caiuc soon after ! There were (jther things of interest in .St. Martin's-le-Cirand besides the G.P.O., but they have all gone now — all made way for the great ixpuljlic of letters. 'I'here was the celebrated "Oueen's Head" Hotel, with its quaint device over the doorwa\-, a de\ ice which exery City boy reatl and knew by heart. The device is now in the (iuildhall Museum of the City of London, along with many signs of greater age and greater TEXTILE L O X D (1 N . 67 hist(M")'. Some of tlicsc ha\'c been eopied for this work 1)\- ])ermissi()n of the authoi"ilieN. lUit thi-^ particiihii- legend iiuisl he (|Uote(l here: — " Milo the Cretonian An ox slew with his fist And ate it all up at one meal. Ye gods ! what a glorious twist ! " Who does not remember the Q'iorantic mouth of the <''iant,\\ith its two rows of powerful teeth, and the patient beast cahiily standing- within them, not so much as whisking his tail or blinking his eye at the awful fate impending? On the west side of St. Martin's-le-Grand is the new Telegraph Department of the (^Mieral Post Office, and this is skirted by Angel Street. The "Angel" Inn was here in 1830, and sent a stage coach up and down the land. Hast of Angel Street was Bull and Mouth Street, now no more. The very latest extension of the Post Office is being raised on its site and on that of the old "(jueen's " Hotel. There is a slab in the Ouildhall Museum bearing the inscription, " Stewkeley's Street, 1668." This was belie\ed to be another name of the ancient Bull and Mouth Street. In the mail c(\ach da)s Bull and Mouth .Street was the possessor of one of the busiest inns in London, the "Bull and Abjuth" Inn. The term " Bull and Mouth " is said to be a corruption of Bcuilogne Mouth or Plarboiu-, which IIenr\-\TII. took A.I). 1554. The inn was named in honoin" of the e\ent, but the same P^nglish prejudice which makes the sailor call the " Bellerophon " the " Billy Ruffian " prexailcd w ith the cockney, who gave the Gallic term the benefit of a free translation. Two fables conjoined were the result, for the rh_\-mester fitted the fable of .Milo into the fictitious "Bull and Mouth." From this inn (.\.i). 1830) there I'egularl) went forth the mail coach for Hdinburgh and Aberdeen, another foi- ( ilasgow, a third for Leeds, a fourth for Ludlow and W^orcester, and finalK a luiubering stage coach sallied forth, and, like the slow train, its modern imitation, stopped at every station. IIIK WF.Slr.KN EMI Ol- rlir.AI'^lDK. ARMS OF TIIF. Cl.o rilWORKKRS COMPANV. C H A P T R R \'. CHEAPSIDE. CHIiAPSIDn is pr()l)al)ly the most famous street in the British Empire. It is hoiiml u|) with the liistory of England. It is the High Street of the greatest city in the world. It has witnessed more ro)al shows, more martial processions, more civic pageants and more promiscuous incidents than any other street in the British Isles. It was the original nucleus of that nation of shopkeepers whose country's flag symbolises great freedom and a greater banking account. That part of Cheapside with which this work will deal extends onl\- from Peel's Statue to the Church of St. Mar)-le-P)Ow, and used to be known as West Cheap, but liberty will be taken to refer to the Mercers' Compan)', whose Hall is a little further east. The best wa)-, perhaps, to arrange the story will be, first, to refer to some of the celebrated edifices of the thoroughfare, next to a few of the great e\ents which have happened in it, and lastly to the traders who ha\e thrived here for so manv centuries. The visitor who enters Cheapside either from east or west is sure to see the beautiful Church of St. Mary-Ie-Bow, commonly called Bow- Church. It was built b)\\'ren and, next to St. PcUil'^, was his favourite edifice. It was erected .v.d. 1673 — 80, and cost _;^i5,46o. It is an 70 TEXTILE EOXnON. adaptation from Sir Christcjpher's classical authority — the Temple of Peace at Rome. The church is no\\' united w ith that of St. Pancras, Soper's Lane ; All Hallows, Honey Lane ALu-ket ; All Hallow s, Bread Street ; and St. John PA'angelist, Friday Street. Wren thought it was the site of an ancient Roman Christian church. It certainly is one of the oldest foundations in Britain. This church was the chief of thirteen " Peculiars " or churches in the City of London o\er which the Archbishop of Canterbury had authority, and not the Bishop of London. In the time of William the Conqueror it was the first church in the city built upon arches of stone. Matilda, wife of Henry I., built another church at .Stratford Bridge after the same plan. Hence it was that the church at Stratford is called Stratford-le-Bow (or Arch), and St. Mary's in Cheapside is called " Bow " for the same reason. The ecclesiastical Court of Arches took its name from the crypt of Bow Church, as has been said in an earlier chapter. The founda- tion on which the beautiful belfry of I)OW Church stands is the pavement of a Roman road, which Wren thought to be the norlhen limit of the City of London as walled b\- Theodosius. .Stow gi\es a deepK interest- ing chi'nnide of events connected with tlie older chuixh of .St. Mar\- le- Bow. A tem])est of wind blew off the roof (a.I). 1090), <1M> liril.niNC, Al I'UK COKNKR (U IKIKAV SIKKKI'. TEXTILE LONDON. 71 and four of the Lifters stuck into the ;i(K- ("ross, \oted tlown bv LtMig I 'arliaiuent.ilefaced and utterKclemolished b\- the hands of a tumultuous multitude ENTt that the sentences of the law were carried out. Teri'ihle sentences nianv t)f them were, for heads were lopped off, \ear in and \ear out. Lord Save was beheaded b)' Jack Cade, and Wat T) ler performed a like ser\ ice on SWEETING S, CIIE.M'SIDE. several auain>t whom he had a '>"rievance. This Standard was further utilised as a conduit for street water, which was brought underground from Tvburn. At the Standard, too, the cheek of the liar was branded with the terrible letters " F.A." which signified " false "accuser." At Christmas time this Standard and other conduits were decked with i\y, 74 T K X T I L E L O N D O x\ . and at a later date either this or another conduit in the same street bore this pious hut ])ensi\e coujilet : — "Life is a drop, a speckle, a span, A bubble — yet how proud is man." Another ancient foundation was the Church of St. Michael ad Bladum or St. Michael le Ouerne (corn), because of a corn market held there. This church was situated between Paternoster Row and Newtrate Street, and probably stood t)n the site of the present Peel Statue. One of its rectors was buried in the choir (a.d. 1461), but its earliest record is a.d. 1 181. The church was re-built a.d. 1430, i)ut is now united witli .St. Vedast's, Poster Lane. Leland, the anticjuarian, was buried in the older church. There John Bankes, a munificent mercer, also rested ; part of his epitaph ran thus : — " Bankes here is laid asleep, this place did breed him ; A precedent to all that shall succeed him." At the eastern end of this old church was an ancient cross, probably of older date than the great cross in the middle (jf West Clieap. This cross was pulletl down a.d. 1390, and a \\ater conduit set up in its place. This was called the Little ('onduit in West Cheap by Paul's Gate. This Paul's Gate was the entrance to St. Paul's Churchyard from Cheapside ; the way was so narrow that pageants often had to go dow n the Old PLxchange, or down Pateimoster Ro\\- to get to Ludgate, and thence to W^estminster. It was at the oKI cross b\' Paul's, just alluded to, that the burgesses of the City beheaded Walter Stajjleton, Bishop of Exeter and Treasurer to lulward II. (.\.d. 1326). Turning now to the Lixery Companies of Chea])side, there is the Hall of the .Saddlers' Com|)an\' and tli.il of the Mercers'. That of the Saddlers' in West Cheaj), although much less inlluential than the Meicers', is of very remote origin. It is assumetl that the guild of .SacUllers existed in .Vnglo-.Saxon times. This guild leceixed its lirst Charter ^§. 1682. The Mercei"s' is one of the |-ichest of the ('it\' (lUihN, and connnands a pi-iiu\l\' annual income. Amongst its benefactoi's were \'iscount Camixlen (a silk mercer's son) and his lady; .Sir Thomas C.resham, .Sir Richaid Wliitlington, and Dean Colet. •St. Taul's .Sehool, founded l)\- the good dean ami left in liiist to the Company, has been mentioned in another |>age. The .Mercers' Company invited the members of the I\()\al .Societ\- to use C.resham L^ollege foi- their meetings until the)' could find a college for themseh'cs. TEXTH.K L()NM)C)N. / / "'f Their h:ill shcltcix'tl one of main' famous apprentices. I his one was Thomas (lu)', who was a bookseller's apprentice in Mercei's' Hall Porch (a.d. 1660). duy matle a lar^'e fortune 1)\' ])rintin!^' Hibles for Oxford Uni\"ersit\, 1 le obtained his t\j)es fi-om Holland, lie also dealt in seamen's ticket-^, which ihev s^'ot instead of paw Idiese the sill) fellows sold at a hea\\' discount for cash. He further accumulated South .Sea Stock to an enormous extent ; this also lie ^oUl to adxantagc. It appears as if his earl)' dealing's l)lessed all subsequent transactions, e\"en though the\- might ha\"e been more keen than kind. ^^,,,,,P^ IJefore he died he built Guy's Hospital at a cost of ;^i9,ooo, and gave it an endowment of _;/, 220,000. Another louilding in Chea]) has become famous through the scrupulous record of .Stow". It was the balcony built in the street opposite I>ow' Church b)- the order of Hdward HI., from which he and his Uueen and courtiers might see the brilliant tournaments w hich went on l)elow. The original gallery was of woolI. In the upper |)art of it sat the (Jueen, and with her all the great ladies of the land who had come to see the sights of Cheapside. For three clays the tournament went on, and the stone i)a\e- ment was deeply coxered with sand so that the horses might not slip as the)' galloped u]) and clown the lists. P)Ut the scaffolding in which the (jueen and her ladies sat fell down, causing shame to the ladies and many bruises to the knights below . The Oueen afterwards went down on her knees to the King, begging that the poor carpenters might not -the smallest kiui.e in the woki.i,.- 78 TEXTILE LONDON. be punished. Ilcr pra\ei" was granted and, sa)S the s^ood old chronicler, she " thereb)' purchased i^n'eat love of the people." This " shed," as it was called, became a stone balcony, and A\as afterwards let to three mercers for a small annual rent ; but still, as occasion required, it was used b\- Kin<^'s and (Jueens to \ iew the slights of Cheapside. In Bow Churchxaixl was a Q'rammar school established by command of Henry \'I. (a.d. of Henry \'1I1. the to traders for four to Bow Churchyard houses called ('.old- houses were looki nij 1509 — 1530. The them was ('-opreous, them were rich and was also famous for the " King's Head," than that famous stone the pageants were seen. H en r\' \' H I . , d i sgu i sec 1 (iuard, his halberd tier, his face full of the night. It was St. The marching w.itch and pati"ol the ("ity. '1 I.AWKKNCF, LANK. 1461), but in the reign school house was let shillings a year. Close was a famous row of smiths' Row ; these their best between .\.i). wood carving upon the traders within powerful. Cheapside its inns. There was which was none other balcony from which To this inn came as a Yeoman of the slopetl oxer his shoul- the keen enjcniuent of John's H\e, a.d. 1510. was about to set out There were 2,000 old soldiei's, 240 constables ; 700 cressets, in which {]w was cai"i"ietl, casting ;n-ound a fitful, weii'd light. The MaN'or's olficers were there in suits ol part\ -colouixxl woi'sted. The whole scene was woiuleiTul. \o bright lights streamed from the windows of great shops — onK the occasional gleam of a nuxlest candle. No ]iublic hunps stood at intervals to lighten the waN'. lUit the watcher --:!3>1.- -j;*-^;*^ p ■iSSaSt; - 1^' — '» rs: ^ MERGERS IIALI, ClIEArslIiE. troni the attic window could sec in the distance the burning' cressets bobbing- up and down witli the motion of their l)earers, could hear the tramp, tramp, tramp of the wdtch and the metallic rattle of their armour, and as they came nearer, their merr\' faces and bi'illiant accoutrements now shone briij,htl\- out or i'atled into diiuness as the lii^hts l)urnt hit^h or low. Another inn of renown was the "Mitre" which flourished a.d. 1558 and onwards. .Some old \erses run as follows : — "There hatli been j^reat sale and utterance ol wine Besides beere and ale and Ipocras tine." After mentioning se\eral inn> w here drinking abounded, the lines are continued : — " Tlie Mitre in Cheap and then the Bull Head, And many like places to make noses red." So ThXTILE LONDON. The "Merniaid taxcrn was, perhaps, the most famous in Shakespeare's day. It was extensive, too ; its premises ^\■ere partl\- in Bread Street, parti)- in Friday Street, and the remainder in Cheap. Sir Waiter Ralei^li formed a Club in this j^lace. Amongst the members were Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Cotton, Care^\', Donne, Selden and others. The "Half Moon" was another celebrated inn; its site was, probably, next to that of the present Saddlers" Hall. Not a few of the notable exents of Cheapside luay be told. As an indication of the rollicking spirit of the time, it is recorded that 130 citizens of repute, dressed up as mummers, j)assed through Cheap one Sunday night (.\.u. 1377). They were going to Lambeth, where the son of the Black Prince lay. They desired to show their loyalty and affection, and that was how they did it. Lambeth was quite a journey at that tiiue, and the rixer was the only wa)'. On a certain tki)' in the )ear 151 7, a carpenter named \\'ill)'amson was bu)'ing two stock- doses in Cheap. As he was paying for them a Frenciiman took theiu out of his hand, saying they were no meat for a carj)enter ; whereu|)()n much trouble ensued. Amongst the street \endors in the age of (Jucen Flizabeth (a.o. 1558 — 1587), the " herbe women" of Cheap were notable. The}' walked up and down w ith their baskets of sim])les on theii" heads, and regularl)' sold the ground i\y for coughs and other ailments. They called the herb by several names, such as alehoof, tunhotjf, catshoof, ha)inaids, and gill-b)-the- gr(nm(l. I'he City has al\\a\>. been well supplied '■■ ^v^Tl. I"1\K COl'Rl', 01.11 Jl.WKY. TEXTILE LONDON. 8i with w.itcM-. Nor were the citizens above using a mechanical invention. .\ forcier was used to con\ey lliames water into Cheap in 1594. This forcier was a kind of winehnill pump, one of \\liich was situated near Castle Ba\nard on the Thames. The strou"- current at London Bridue was also used for forcing- water into the conduits for the people's use. In 1628, Alexander Cell, B.D., (.lelixered himself with more freedom than jutlgment, to the effect that ("hai-les I. was fitter to stand in a Cheapside shoj) with an apron before him and say, " What lack ve ? " than to govern a kinsrdom. The Bachelor of Di\init}- lost his ears accordingly. Perhaps he rejoiced, though earless, if he lixed to hear Dend\', Sergeant-at-Arms, proclaim the trial of the King in Cheap. In spite of all the disturbances to which the City was then sul)ject, time was found to hang Nat Butler in Cheap for killing a young man, his bedfellow, in Milk .Street (.\.d. 1657). A few years later a greater personage was hanged in that same spot. Alderman Cornish was the \'ictinL He was .Sherift" (a.d. 1680), and was hung, drawn and (juai'tered for having busied hiiuselt in connection with the celebrated "Popish plot." Harking back a \ear or two, the ancient [)rints tell us of the erection of a stateh' ti"ium])hal arch erected opposite Wood Street for the entry of Charles II., nearly on the spot where the proclamation against his father was made. 'Phis structure, called the " Temple of Concord," was of magnificent desci"i[)tion. Looking backward from the present day one is conscious of a cynical sort of humour which grows from a contem|:)lation of these two so opposite freeman's court, HONKY I-AN'F. MARKKI'. 82 TEXTILE LONDON. e\'ents. Pnit the memory of man is short. He tosses up his cap for the King to-day, and for the Commune to-morrow ! Quite as characteristic was the sport in which denizens of Cheap indulged. It was at the breaking up of the " Rump" Parliament. Bonfires blazed in Cheapside, rump steaks hissed and spluttered before them — a kind of political joke which was far more sustaining than most of the jokes which the exigencies of party demand. Pepys, the diarist, remarks of the occasion : " In many bonfires, and all the bells as we went home Old Cheap \\as at May-time, and ' " No man," so ordinance "to ^o night or day with arrows in girdle, scal)barded, or p o w d c r a n d be in the usual sight." At an fildr^ play in Cheap -" ~~" 'ST" dian in its aspect. A RELIC or THE I'AST — I-KF.DERICK's I'L \Cli. piaCLlSeCl WllU Staves and bucklers at their masters' door, but tlie maidens, as befitted their gentler maimcis, danced before lheii- masters ami mistresses after exening prayers, and competed lor the ]ii-i/e — a garlantl — which hung across the street exposed lo the pubh'c \ icw . It iiuisl not be thought, howe\er, that the Cheapside appmUit c had it all his own \\.i\. llis masters seemed to feel that nouIIi should bran-axed in the plainest garb — scarlet and fine linen being reservetl lor those citi/.en> who had grc)\\n old, ugl), and rich, Cheapside were and Bow Bell in all the churches were ringing." \'ery merr\', too, not always wise, runs an old ci\ ic into the street bv bow bent and nor sword un- with hand -gun match except it May game or earlier date the was more Arca- The apprentices TEXTILE LONDON. 83 The Lord Mayor and Council enacted, tlierefore (a.d. 1582). that the apprentice shouKl wear onl) what his master ga\e him : a woollen cap, with no silk about it ; no ruffles, cufTs nor loose collar ; doublets only of can\as, fustian, sackcloth, English leather, or woollen cloth, " w ithout being enriched with an\' manner of gold, siher or silk." Stockings to be white, blue or russet, u'arters or ijirdle not to be " uarnished. ' To wear no other weapon but a knife ; " nor a ring, jewel of gold nor siKei', nor silk in an\- ])art of his apparel." For the hrst offence his master punished him at his discretion ; foi' the second he was whippeil in the hall of his Companw Ijjft^r He might not go to dancing, fencing nor musica' - "^ schools, nor keep a chest of clothes an\\\here but at his master's house. The great trouble with these ci\ic legislators was that they had marriageal)le daughters and good looking appren- tices. But the forces of nature are more than a match for the sapiency of man. Coming to a time nearer to our ow n, we learn that AX'iliiam, Prince of Orange, and hisconsort, saw- Lord ALiyor Pilkington's show in Cheapside, when Earl Monmouth led the Royal Regiment of Horse Volunteers, consisting" of 4»« <~. -m^- 1 :^^' w f— - m m- t _ ^-.- .» \i^. Hiil' » BOW flllKCHYAKIi, ( IIKArslDK. H TEXTILE LONDON. the ijrincipal citizens in gorgeous ai'ray (a.d. 1689). Another interesting procession was that of Sir (lilbert Ileathcote, w ho was the last Lord Ma) or who rode down Cheapside to \\'estminster on liorseljack on Lord Mayor's day (a.d. 171 i). Tliis was tlie Alderman wlio had the honour of being robbetl in St. Paul's Church)ard in |»reference to Queen Caroline. Since Sir Gilbert's time, the Lord ^Layors have used a beautifully painted coach, which has been the delight of millions of sight-seers, old and xoung. In A.D. 1727, Ling George, with a brilliant train, witnessed the Lord Ma)or's from " the con\'." Some tics of the ban- followed at com ])rehen- were i ,075 wine dr.uds' 316 dozens, dozen was and 167 dozen l:r.NNF.IT.S C:I.OCK, ciie.ai sidk. procession u s u a 1 b a 1 - of the statis- cpiet which ("luildhall are sive. There co\"ers. The amounted to of -which 20 "champaigne" was claret. If a dinner of like s|)lendour were given ]))• the Corporation to-da)', the consumption of these two wines would be probably reversed. Cham- pagne was not so fashionable when George IL was King. The total cost of this rosal bancpiet was j^4.,88g. The concluding ])art of this brief sur\-e\' of Cheap will lightK' touch U])on the ^lurd\' merchants and traders. The original ti'adei's of Cheap kept stalls or sheds. These stalL ran along the south side of the street, and the place was what would now be called a mai-ket place, and would possess a shifting, unsiibstaiUial aspect. Later on the sheds became fi.xed, but they were still open rt)oms without partition window or .shutters, TEXTILE I, OX DON. 85 and llic rciil of ihcni xaricd tVoiu 12 -to 30 -a \car. As tor ihr Ikuiscs, ill the tla_\s of Kini;- 'Slci)hcii (a.d. 1135), 11k'\' w crc of one sloiA' ami covered with thatch, but the fires were st) fre(|ueiit ami so lurioiis that tiles bewail to a])|)eai" on the I'oofs iiisteail. 'I'he iioi'th, or \\ (-od Street sitle of C hea|), was an o|)eii held as late as a.d. 1327, whilst shops without ,L;lass windows were doin^ business next 1)()W ( hurch in the tla\s of , Oueen Anne (a.d. 1710). ihe coiaier of i'ridax .Street has alwa}'s been famous. John of Chichester was Maxoi'in 1369; he was the inakei" of the Kini^'s I'l'ix \- .Seal. I lis shop was at the corner ol bia'dax' Street. In his year :the celebrated William Walwoilh was .Sheriff. Chichester was, doubtless, a goldsmith autl a die sinker, and his sjenius SIMPSONS, CHEAl'SIDK. 86 TEXTILE LONDON. still- ho\"ers around the old spot, for the shop at the corner of Friday Street hut rcccnth" ke]jt by a jeweller and die sinker, is one of the few venerable buildiny,'s remaining;' in Cheapside. The sii;n of the "Swan," ^vhich is h^t into the wall above the shop, is one of the original signs of Cheapside, and is of deep interest on that account. This particular sign is the white swan, ducally collared — the badge of the liarls of Essex. The white swan was a device borne also by Edward III. on his shield at a tournament. From about a.d. 1413 to .\.i). 1550, West Cheaj) was famous for its mercers and haberdashers. The mercers' shops wei'e "fair and large" as far as Bow Lane ; but the goldsmiths were the most powerful, because the most wealtlu". The\' were the bankers and ijeneral money lenders of the age. Hy-and-by the mercers and haberdashers left Cheapside, antl had their shops on London Bridge, 'ihe oft quoted poem of " London Lackpenny" gives a lively picture of some of the traders of Cheap in the days of IIenr\- \'. : — " Then to Chepe I gan me dravvne Where mutch people I saw for to stande ; One ofred me velvet, sylke and lawne, Another, he taketh me by the hand — ' Here is Parys thred the fynest in the lande ': I never was used to such thinge in dede. And wantyng money I niyght not spede." One of the very successful traders of Cheap was Baptist Hicks. lie was the son of a silk mercer at the sign of the " White Bear." He grew to be \er\' rich, and was knighted. He still kept on his shop, but this offended some of the other Aldermen, who generall\" dropped shop when they became ennobled. Sir Baptist was created Viscount Campden .\.i). 1628. He was a great benefactor to his countr\', and a good man. He built Camptlen I louse, Kensington, where (Juecn Anne alterwards lived. The house became a boarding school for young kulies in the early part of this centur)'. Soon aJ'ter the lime that .Sir Ikiptist was TEXTir.E Loxnox, makiii!^' his foi'tunc, traders were pennilled to issue small coins as tokens, l)Ut their eireuhition was [)rohibitecl a.d. 1672. One of these is inscribed as under : — Obverse. — "At ye Mermade twixt Milk Stre Wood Str." Reverse. — " Haberdasher small wares in Clicpside." It has been said that the s^oldsniiths were i^reat traders here. 'J'he\' were fax'oured by Charles I. The Kinj; tleterinined to clear C'hea])side of all but the ""oldsniiths, so that the approach to St. Paul's from the east might be nobler. Those wht) refused to ol)e)- the Rt))'al notice to quit were committed to the Fleet prison — an interesting exercise of the Di\'ine right. After the Great Fire the goldsmiths remo\-ed from ("heap to Lombard Street, and the principles of trading became more developed, the ancient goldsmith gave place to the modern banker. But in 1677 James Hoare, goldsmith, still traded at the sign of the "Ciolden Bottle " in Cheap. Me was the ancestor of Messrs. Iloares, the banker^of Ideet Street. The final word of this chai)tei" may properly deal with the rents of the ward of Cheap al)out a.d. 1739. There were 362 houses in the whole ward, their total yearl)- rental amounted 10^17,268, or an a\erage of about ^^47 15s. od. for each house. The enquirer to-da)- would ha\e to pay more than ^^o for a little box ten feet square on the fourth or fifth rtoor of a Cheapside tenement. Still, the intelligent student of history would rather pay live in Cheapside to- picturesque times awake and Justice the high rent and da\-, than in th(3se when Pestilence was slumbered. ARMS or THE MERCHANT T.WLOKS COMPANY. TVTj^t^er jwnr.^ CHEArslDi; — LOOKING EAST. ai;ms oi- nil-: i.okinkk'^ comi'anv. C H A P J" E R \' I SOUTH OF CHEAP. Walliiitf Slrcel — BuJs<-' Rnw — Old Cliansit; — Fridav Street — Bread Street — Bow Lane. Tin- ])rescnt W'atlin-' Street preserves tlie niemor)- of that stately Roman way which began at the port of Dover, passed through London, touched St. Albans, then took a north-westerly direction through the Midlands until it reached Chester ; ne.Kt, describing a right angle, made for York ; and, lastl)-, went straight for Caledonia, bisected the Picts' Wall and that of Antoninus far beyond where it ended its great course at the Firth of Forth. But our W'atling Street only begins at .St. Paul's and ends in Budge Row. The street was WATLI.NG STKEhT, FROM S r. PAUI.'s CHURCHYARD. 90 TKXTl f.K I. OX DON'. always a l)us\' one, and its narrowness lias pro\'oked a poet to verse. Thus ( i.i)' : — " Wlio would of W'atling Street the danger share, When the great pavement of Cheapside is near?" In the ihiys of Stow (a.d. 1575) the drapers of Lombard Street and Cornhill were settled in " W'athelinij' Street" and Candlewiek vStreet. An a})prentice of one of them became a famous man. Me \\'as Sir William L'ra\en, trade in ^\'atllnsJ: became Lord He was indus- and far sighted. became Lord great soldier, House, Drury saitl to have married to the Bohemia, historic monu- Street none are (jf London des- < )f this con- L\el) n w rites : WilS (JI ci nei\ [,|7j) LION KilKl, WATLING SIUKEI. top of a burning oven, and the light seen above forty miles round for man)- nights, (lod grant mine e\es ma\- ne\cr again Ijchold who now sawaboxe 10,000 houses all in one flame. .Ml Ideet Street, the ( )ld liailey, Ludgate Ilill, Warwick Lane, Newgate, Paul's Chain, and Watling Street now llaming and most of it I'cduced to ashes. The stones of I'aul\ Hew like -'ranadoes, and meltiii''" lead i"an down the who I earn eel hrs S 1 1- e e t . He Mayor A.]). 1610. trious, frugal. His eldest son Craven, was a built Craven Lane, and was been i)ri\atel)" titidar (jueen of , Of the visible mentsofW'atling left : the I "ire troyed them all. tlagration John —"All the sky aspect like the ■rr':xTi l LOX HON. 91 streets ill streams. It was pivtt)' to see how liard the women did work in tlie ehannels sweeping" of water: but then liow they would scoid for drink, and be as chaink as de\ lis ! If the visitor walks up W'atling Street to-day to the eastward he w ill notiee the well-kept Chureh of St. Auqustin (or St. Austin's) at the corner of Old Change. With this is united the parish of St. Faith referred to elsewhere. The church was mentioned in records as early as A.D. I 190, and used to be called St. Austine's-at-the-Gate, because it was \'er\' near to the ancient south- east gate called St. Austin's Gate, which opened into Paul's Church}ard. This church was probably designed to serve as a contrast to the dome of St. Paul's when seen from W'atling Street. A little further along, but on the opposite side, \vill be seen a small garden of evergreens which ser\e to gi\e countenance to a few simple monuments, all that remain to mark the ancient church of St. John the Evangelist. This was one of thirteen 'T'eculiars" of the see of Canterbur}'. Aftei- the Fire the parish was united to that of All Hallows, liread .Street. Three rectors hatl served .St. fohn's Church before .\.i). 1354, but " anti(|uities be W.Vn.INc; SIKF.KI, LOOKING WESl'. 02 TEXTILE LONDON. there none " as Stow so often says in liis sLirxey. Still further east is Red Lion Court, a place of little interest now, except to that Railway Company whose great receiving house has part of its site. This place is the site of a famous inn of old time, and bore a huge red lion carved in wood at its gate. I lere, as Stow, observant, walked up and dow n, he saw man)' large shops for the sale of broadcloth and other draperies. Before (juitting \\"atling Street the reader may be reminded that, narrow as it was, it had to do duty for the modern Cannon Street. The way out of .St. Paul's Churchyard to London Bridge was through Watling Street, Budge Row, and so into Canwicke Street and on to the Bridge. It has been conjectured that the site of the present Watling Street and Cannon Street together formed part of the ancient Watling Street, whilst the venerable stone now let into the wall of .St. .Swithin's Church might have been a portion of one of the Roman military obelisks upon which was cut the distance between one British Roman town and anolhci-. iUU little need be saitl of Budge l^ow. \ct that little is of interest. Budge l\o\\ wa^ famous for it^ skinners; whilst the term " Budge " was ap]ilie(l to lamb skins with the wnol dressed outwaixls. I>en lonson speaks of the rabbit skins of Puidge Row. .Stow sa)S that the skinners had moxed into lUidge Row and W'albrook ; and a eoi're- spondent of 1 laekhix t, Ilenr) Lane, bemoans the |)ossible deca_\ in the BUDGE ROW. wearmg o f fur It was "a great pit) ' he says, "but (that) the wearing TEXT ILK LONDON. 93 of furs should l)c renewed, especiall}- in Couils and anions; magistrates, not onl}- for the restoring" of an old worshipful art and ('ompaii) , Ijut also because they are for our climate wholesome, delicate, g'ra\e, and comely, expressing dignity, comfort, age, and long continuance ; and better with small cost to be preserx'ed than those new silks, shags, and rags wherein a great part of the wealth of this land is now hastilv consumed " (a. D. 1567). OLD CHANGE. This street is a very old one. In the sixth year of Henry III. (a.d. 1222) it was enacted that coins might only be exchanged for " plate or other niass of silver " at the King's Plxchanges, cither at London or Canterbury. The London Exchange stood in , Old Change, either where Cannon Street now intersects it or a little further south. From this building the new minting irons were issued and the old ones recei\ed. The coining of money was very general and gave rise to constant abuse, in which Kint>' and nobles merrily defrauded the commonwealth. The street also bore the title ■, 'uKi., 01, 1) CHAN'OR. c)4 TEXTILE LONDON. of Slicrc Mons^vr's Lane, citlicr as an aijpcllation indicatixe of the trade of coining or as a sly suggestion of the shearings which the unfortunate coins had so often to suffer. 'J"he street in question grew to be called Old Change to distinguish it from the newer Exchange, which gradually culminated in the masrnifi- cent structure at Cornhill, raised by the wisdom and wealth of Sir Thomas Gresham and royally inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth. It was aboye the courts of this new Exchange that the dealers of smallwares assembled and sold purses and gloyes: — " Of cost and fashion rare. Such cut-woiks, partlets, suits of lawn Bon,g;races and such ware."' Amongst these traders xxould be tound the " Miscellan)- madam," who A\"as a female trader in trinkets and ornaments of xarious kintls. On one of the older houses in Old Change there used to be a sign known as the "Three Morrice Dancers." A draw ing of it is in the l'>riti-.h Muse inn. The Morrice (huue was an am iciU dance i)ecu]iai- to llie countr\(listricts in England and in some parts ol .Scdil.ind. I'arK in the ])resent ceiiturx (\.i). 1830) ( )K1 Change was ])us\ when its stage coaches turned ouL ( )nc left ihe New Inn and aiiotlici" went from Parker's warehouse. No. 17. lUit I'arker's warehouse is gone. I'ew of the present textile traders in Condon ai"e ajjle to trace their businesses for 01. 1) CIIAMil;. TEXTILE LON'DON. q; iiukIi more tluin a i^ciiciMlion. The trade ;^i"e\\" i;i"cat with the ()|)eiiin;<; of raih\-a_\'s, and most of the houses of maL^'nittule bej^'an in mode-^t smaUness under the i^uidance and 1)\' the stremiotis exeiTions of the orii^'inal founder. " Amonu;^t the oldest names of the textile merchants, liowexer, if not the oldest, is that of Leaf. The name will he found in the Lontlon I)irector\' of a century ago: the hearer of it was the harhinger of the fortune which \'ears of successful trading lirought to all his tlesceiKlants. The house was alwa_\-s noted foi" its silk, though all of it did not come from Hnglish looms. I-)lack silk was made in London of the annual \alue of ^,300,000 (\.n. 1 7 13), and more than a huiulred years later fifty thousand persons were de})endent tipon the silk manufacture in vSpitalfields, whilst the numbei' of looms in use was stated to be between 14,000 and 17,000 (a.d. 1 831). At that period these work- men were the great bird-catchei"s of London, and their delight was to hear the caged songbirds try to drown the weavers' \oices as they merrily sang over their beautiful work. FRID.W STREET. On the authority of Stow, Lh'iday Street was so called because the fishmongers dwelt there and ser\-ed fish to the faithful on I'ridays. Until quite recently this street [)Ossessed a church dedicated to l-KIl).\Y STREET. 96 T E X T I L E L O N D O N . St. Matthew. It was serxed by a rector as early as a.d. 1322. A new church was Ijuilt on its site after the tire, and the architect was, as usual, Sir Christopher Wren. The cost of the ne\\- church was ;^2,30i, aud the date of its erection .\.i). 1685. The memory of the church is preserved in a new block of warehouses known as St. Matthew's Build- ings, and in Church Passage which bounds them on one side. At the entrance to this passage the \isitor w ill find an inscription to the effect that the parish of -St. Matthew is now united with that of .St. John P^vangelist, Friday .Street, and .St. Peter's, Cheap. The inquirer may find a picture of St. ^Matthew's Church dated .v.d. 1812 in the Crace collection of prints ah'eady referred to. One of the monuments in the old Church of .St. Matthew" x\as of great interest to all who love plentiful fresh w ater : — "As man liveth, so he dyeth : As tree falleth, £0 it lycth. Anne Middleton, thy life well past Doth argue restful bliss at last." .\.d. 1596. This lad\ was, doubtless, a connection of .Sir IIuL'h Mieldleton, Kt., who projected the New Ri\er, and who after doing e\erything to float the scheme and spending his estate therein, died |)oor and was burietl in .St. Matthew's Church (\ D. 1631). A million brass ^\ater taps pour forth to his glor\' now, and he looks benignantly towards the "Angel" at Islington from the pedestal upon which jjosterit}" has jjlaced him — another instance of the too-late honours an intelligent people bestows upf)n the unresponsi\'e dead. At the east end of PridaN' .Street stood the celebrated "Nag's Mead" Ta\erii in the \ear 1586. The old shoi)with the device of the .S\\an is on its site to-daw It was a\erred that Matthew Parker, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, was consecrated in this inn. A wordy war followed the statement inUil all the churches in Christendom were set a-trembbng. The Archbishop was consecrated in Landjcth Chapel, T E X T I T. E L O N D O N . gy and in tluc time assisted in the translation of the Bishops' Bible. The warehouse of Messrs. J. i*v C. Bowl eovers the site of the "()ld Saraeen's Head. " When the foundations of the warehouse were dug in 1884, a piece of roughl\--laid tesselated pavement was disco\-ered. It is commonl)' reported that Sir Christopher Wren lodged in a house at this spot during the .St. Paul's (a.I). \\ e tl n e s d a y in Friday Street these gather- of the highest place under the Mr. William the result of tablishment of of turned out its coaches onl\ They issued of the " Bell," Head " and the The Horse Yard is and there is an also. But the England. building of new 1675). The Club was heltl in 1695. At ings conferences moment took presidency of Paterson, and them was the es- the great Bank Frida)' Street cheery stage si.xty years ago. - from the yards the " Saracen's "White Horse" name of White still preserved, inn of that name glory of Friday Street is its ancient history: it has no modern. All its monuments are swept a^\•ay, as is now the case with so many streets in the City. It is now merely a respectable thoroughfare, full of substantial warehouses, upon whose window-sills the moss has not )'et had time to (a.I). 1830) BREAD STRF.EI', LOOKING .NORTH. grow. 98 TEXTILE LONDON. Those who might be ignorant of every City street but Cheapside were ignorant, indeed, if they have ne\er heard of Bread Street. Here was born John Milton, the great epic poet of the English speaking Aorld. In the arbour of his father's garden in Bread Street he thought out some of his beautiful thoughts, and here, whilst still a little child, he read book after book, and sowed the seeds of the earlv l)lindness which was to visit and unfortunately to the remainder of his sign of his father's "Spread Eagle," and birth there was a.d. well to state that were not generally about one hundred but were distin- of devices. This curious effect in a well seen in the early Every trader hung the custom is now entirely to tavern ton li\cd in several amongst them Aldersgate Street, P>arbican, Bartholomew Close. Jcwin Street and other |)laces. He was ])uried in St. (iilcs' venerable Church, Cripplegate, and there the devout ma)- \isit his tomb. John Milton loved the old Cit\' well, and thus he declares it : — " Too l)lest abode ! No loveliness we see In all the earUi but it abounds in thee." vr,r. MEMOKIAI. TO MIITON, HRK.MJ STUEET. staywith him during eventful life. The house \\- as the the year of the poet's 1608. It may be as houses in London numbered until and thirty years ago, guishcd by all kinds produced a \ery large street, and is prints of Cheapside. out his sign, but confined almost keepers. lohn Mil- streets in the Citv — Bread Street obtained its name, according to .Stow, from the fact T E X T I L E L O N D O N . 99 that the Bread Market was aneientK' held there. The l)akers were not then permitted to sell their loa\es an)\\iiei"e hut in the (»|)en market. The punishment for short weit^ht was terrible. The baker was stripped, tied to a hurdle, the offendini^' loaf hun^ about his neck He was then tlrawn b)' a horse through the dirtiest streets amidst the jeers of the people, who threw filth at him b)- mouth and b}- hand with indift'erent ferocit\ . ()ur forefathers seem tcj ha\e had no sense of pro- portion in their punishments! There was a comptei" or prison in Dread Street in the earl_\- da\s, l)ut in 1555 it was removed to Wood Street The keej)er of this Hread Street i)rison held it on lease. He ill-treated the prisoners and laughed at the sheriffs, whereupon Stow sententiously says, " Note, that gaolers bu)in^ their offices will deal hardl}" with |)itiful prisoners ! " The Lord Mayor was imprisoned in this compter. He was .Sir Thomas Cooke, draper, K.B., W^arden of the Drapers' Company (a.u. 1439). He was agent for jack Cade — bv no means the insignificant I'uftian depicted b)- the historians, ('otike married the daughter of Philip Malpas, di"ai)er and .Sheriff. Cooke was shamefully treated by Edward I\'. The Uuke of Buckingham desired to make the most of this when pleading the cause of Richard, Duke of C.loucester. Addressing the citizens, the Duke ferxently cries: "What, Cooke, your own worshipful neigh- bour. Alderman and Mayor of this too TEXTILE LONDON. noble city!" Then follows an harangue in the approved political style wherewith the orator leads the burgesses at his will. Sir Thomas Cooke and Sheriff Malpas were the ancestors of the Marquis of Salisbury, and of Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam), \\hose offspring gave rise to a regiment of dukes, earls and barons. The wife of the first Marquis of Salisbury was descended from Sir R. Rowe, a mercer and Mayor. Whether the family of Cecil should be proud of textile traders or the textile traders of them would be hard to sa)'. Perhaps the pride should be mutual, b^or the textile trade is a great trade and worthy to beget a great family. Amongst the ancient edifices in Bread Street were Salters' Hall, All Hallows Church, and the Church of St. Miklred. The Salters' Hall was Ijurnt down in 1539. The Church of All Hallows was A\iped out of the map a few years ago, but the Church of St. Mildred remains. The old Church of All Hallows was known as All Hallows-in-the- Ropery, because the ropemakers lived about it. The lixing was in the gift of Edward le Despcnser (.v.n. 1361). The new church was built by Wren at a cost of /^3,348 (.a.d. 1684). In 1843 '^ writer in Knight's London states that the newspapers of the day record the fixing t)f a tablet to Milton's memory in the exteiior wall of All Hallows Chmxh. The tablet was removed to the wall of St. Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheap- side, when All Hallows was pulled down. If the reader will turn to the chapter on Chcapside he \\\\\ find the inscrii)tic)n tluly ipioted. The entire site of All Hallow ^ Church, Bread Street, is now a block of modern warehouses, known as Milton P)uildings. In the western angle 1)\' these will be found a medallion bust of Milton and the following- reference: " Born in Bread Street 1608, Ba})tisetl in Church of .\ll Hallows which stood here. Ante 1878." The Church of St. Mildred still stands. It is united with that oi St. Margaret Moses. It is referred to as early as a.d. 1333. The TEXTILE LONDON. lOI present church was Iniilt In Wren in 1683 at a cost of ^'3, 705. The tomb of the i^^rcat benefactor, Sir John C'hadworlh, mercer, .\hi\or, was in the old church. Part of his epitajih ran : — " Here lieth a man tliat faith and works did even, Like liery chariots, mount him up to iieaven." Basing L^ane used to run out of Hreatl Street on its eastward side. In this lane \\cis the celebrated (icrrard's Ilall Inn as receiitl}- as 1852. It was fabled that a giant who gave name to the place used to li\e there, and the large fir pole of nearly forty feet in length was anciently shown U) the credulous as the veritable staff of the giant. The house originally belonged to the family of Gisors, one of whom was Ma)or (a.d. 1245). The name of Ciisors was corrupted into Gerrard, and so remained until recent times. The cost of inns was \er\- little. The for a man was a few pence, and for man and horse not more than si.Kpence. This \vas in 1660. But the landlord made his profit out of the consumption of licpiors. Long before this period a wi'iter observed, "The onl\ inconxeni- ences of London are the excessive drinking of some foolish people .* and the frequent fires." The price of a "genteel " ordinar\- in the days of Charles I. was 2s. UOW l.ANE, ClIEAI'SIDE. lo(,lgi ng at these lods^ins. I02 TEXTILE LONDON. This was a grand banquet, at \\hich the gallants, arrayed in purple and fine linen, had a difficulty in keeping their lace out of the dinner plate. A few years later, w hen the Commonwealth was enforcing \irtue by Act of Parliament, woe betide those who drank on the Lord's Day. Here is an instance of the kind of fine imposed : — " Received of the \'intner of the Catt in Queen Street for permitting of tippling on the Lord's Day, ;£i los." The X'intners' Company had their revenge when the Teutonic habit of drinking was again in the ascendant, for at one of their banquets, about the beginning of the present century, a very funny set of verses appeared. Here is a specimen : — " Port let me absorp Said Alderman Thorp. This claret's quite sour Said Alderman Flower. Port against claret Said Alderman Garrett." From the old derrartl's Hall, which prompted this digression, the stage coach nuubled fortli, and the passengers turned to have a last look at the figure of the giant wliich adorned the front elevation of this ancient hostelry, and wliich ma\- be seen to-da\' in the Museinn of the Cor})oiation of London. P,0\V LANE. Thi^ narrow lane has borne more than one title, and has "played many parts." The hosiers who soKl their wares in Ilosiei- Lane, near Smithficld, rcmo\ed to Pjow Lane, and their occupancx" ga\e it the name of Hosier Lane. These traders literally stepped into the shoes of another trading class — that of the cordwaincrs or shoemakers. It \\as fitting that those who made stockings should walk in the footsteps of those who made shoes. \\'hen the hosiers came to Bow Lane it was TEXTILE LONDON. called Cordwainer Street, and that name is still |)reserved in the Ward of Cordwainer. When the shoemakers left Cordwainer Street the\- went to St. Martin's- le-drand, whilst the curriers who had worked in Cordwainer Street also fountl fresh (|uarters in London Wall. It appears that Cordwainer Street or Hosier Lane bei^an to be known as Bow Lane in the time of Stow, who, speaking' of Hosier Lane, remarks, " Bow Lane as they now called it." The reader need hardly be told that Bow Lane obtained its present title from the church of St. Marv-le-Bow, on one side of which it runs. 103 i'ti WILLIAMSONS imiF.L, BOW LANK. At the part of Pjow Lane \\hich is crossed by the modern Cannon Street the obser\er will be struck l:)y the beautiful towei- of .St. Mary Aldermary Church. It was called Aldermary, or LklermaiA", because it was the oldest chui-ch in the City of London tledicated to the F)lessed \'iry'in. Records of this church are found dating as far back as A.D. 1288. The present edifice was raised by Wren .\.i). 171 1 at a cost of j^S,4S'], and was built after the model of the chmrh w hich stood on the site before the (ireat I^re. It was fortunate in its benefactors, of whom Sir Henry Keble, Lord Ma\()i', was chief. He benefited it at large cost, and before he died allowed himself the i)i-i\ilege of willing much mone\' that the church might be finished. An epitaph of this I04 T E X T 1 1. E T. O N D O N . worth) knii^ht and grocer occupied more than sixt)- lines. The poetry is poor, but the facts contained therein are valuable. It was over the desecrated tomb of this good citizen that Stow lamented. The bones of the good knight Keble were ''unkindly cast out," his monuments pulled down, the bodies of t\\'o other knights were laid in place of the disjccfn meinbra, w ith tlicir monuments in place of those of the rightful owner " till," as Stow eludes, " another their place and them ! " The was rebuilt by of a Mr. Henry persons of note the old church, them one who of Richard (a. I). 1348). Stow this Richard was Geoffrey Chau- English poetry. statements ha\ e and against this reall)- docs not All students ai"e sorrowful 1\- con- give money for then — away with present church the munificence Rogers. Se\'eral were l)uried m and amongst bore the name Chaucer, \intner supposed that the parent of ccr,''the father of Many learned been w ritten for supposition. It greatly matter, thankful that WKl.I, rouRl, linw I.\NK. Geoffrey's father had the wit to lieget such a son ; whether the lather were knight or ])ublican is of little matter — to the worUl. Tui-n we again to the epitaj)hs — one is pathetic. It soi"i"o\\ full)' tleclares the earl)' death of a chai-ming damsel, a Lord Mayor's daughter: "There lies at \'our feet inclininij' to dust . . . Wit and Beaul\-, her celebrated ornaments. /Etat suce 23." TEXTILE LONn(~)N. 10? Backwards and forwai'ds, j)ast tlic old chuRh, a hcllinan used to marcli (a.d. 1555). All over Cordwaiiicr Ward he trudi^cd. lie warned the citizens to be caivfid with their tiix's and lii^hts, to help the poor, and to pra)- for the dead. ( )ne Christopher Draper, Aldei-nian of the wai'd, started this custom, which soon became imitated in other ]»ai'ts of the ancient City. And so we lea\"e Bow" Lane w ith the kindl)- monitions of this meJi;e\'al ghost rinyiny' softl)' in (jur ears. .MF.MOKIAl, 111- ^^. ANIlini IN S ClirKClI, iJUDGK KOW 1* til < ^ ■• ■*■ " C'lllMU'Il OF ST. MAUV yM.IiF.KMAKY, HOW I.ANR. C 1 1 A P r E R V I I . .^li^'*'- NORTH 01- CHEAP. Wood Street — Foster Lane — Gutter Lane — Milk Street ami Lawrence Lane. A FEW narrow streets enter Cheap.-^ide on the north. Of these \\'()()(,1 Street is, for us, the first in interest as it is the first in importance. A beautiful plane tree marks its l)e<t church built in the Cit\- after the sacking of London I))- the Danes. Inigo lones either rebuilt or repaired the old EXTir. E LONDON, M St. Alban's before its destruetion in the Great Fire, ami Sir Christopher Wren says that the St. Alban's Church, which he built, is built "as the same was before the fire." l^he present St. vMban's was finished a.d. 1685 at a cost of ^'3,165. There was a tenement in the parish of " St. Alban le Wode Street," called " Le Horsscho," valued at 4s. the year, and was the property of the priests of St. Thomas's Chapel upon the bridge (London Bridge). In the days of Stow, St. Alban's was full of monuments, from which the following quaint epitaph is selected : — " Hie jacet Tom Shorthose Sine Tombe, sine sheets, sine riches ; Qui vi.xit sine gowne, Sine cloake, sine siiirt, sine breeches." It is evident from this that the commodities for which Wood Street is at present famed were too conspicuously absent in the case of poor Tom. Sir John Cheke, schoolmaster t3 Edward \T., was buried here, as were also many other worthies. St. Olave's, Silver Street, is now united with St. Alban's, but all that remains of St. Olave's is a little church- yard garden to keep its memory green. Another ancient site on the east side of Wood Street is that of the Compter or prison house, which was under the control of the sheriffs. It was prepared for prisoners (a.d. 1555), and to it the prisoners who lay in the Bread Street Compter were removed. Wood Street Compter had a chapel as late as a.d. 1739, but the prisoners were remo\ed to Giltspur Street in a.d. 1791. In Portfolio No. XXI. of the Crace MITRE COURT, WOOD STREET. 114 TEXTILE L (3 X D O X . collection a picture of the old Compter nia\' l)e found, Tlie site of Wood Street Compter is now 'occupied by Messrs. Norton eV' Boyes, whose wine \'aults are known to the initiated as the "spideries," "because of spiders crawling there," as old Stow might say! Turning now from ancient buildings to incidents of old time, we may remind the reader that the Royal Society had its beginnings in Wood Street (a.d. 1645). Here the learned ones did by agreement meet weekly on a certain day. Sometimes in Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Wood Street, where he kept operators grinding lenses for telescopes and microscopes. At other times the company met at a convenient place in Cheapside (a tavern mayhap, only they are too modest to say so). By-and-by the learned men met at Gresham College, until finally they were chartered as the Royal Society, with Sir Robert Moray as first president. Their " Philosophical Transactions were begun in a.d. 1664, and ciparlments were allotted to them in Somerset House a.d. 1780. It was not far from St. All)an's Chuirh, in Wood Street, that the Blague of 1665 broke out with such terrible conse- (|UL-nces. It was the second district o( Bomlon so afiected. Hciv a wholesale gi'ocer shut liiniscif up with his fanu'K', sc\en persons in alL His doors were fi ijr ST. MICHAEL .S, WOOD STREET. ¥; m.- TEXTILE LONDON. Ii: barred and wiiulow ^ like- wise. He victLiallctl his place as if for a siej^e, nor ^\•oukl he allow an}- per- son to pass in or out on pain of death. To disinfect the air he had occasional explosions of gunpowder. Day after da\-, he ke])t watch from an upjjcr window cUid saw the grass grow in the street. The onl\- sountls which broke the awful stillness were the rumble of the dead-cart, or the moans of his dying neighbours, and the cries of those who were hourly bereft. Ikit l)\-and-by his wonderful patience and firmness were rewarded, for the hackney coaches began to rattle down the streets, and at length he \'entured to take down his barricades, when he and his family descended in safety like old Noah after the Deluge. Of the old ta\erns of Wood Street, that of the "Mitre" seems to have been greatly celebrated, and is referred to by the gossipy diarist, Samuel Pepys. Mitre Court, which runs beside the ancient vaults of Messrs. Norton &: Boyes, is all that now reminds one of the stories of this old :f^% :\tF.SSRS. I. AM) R. MORLF.YS, Woni) s I REF.T. lib TEXTILE LONDON, inn. It is quite possible that Pepys was a connoisseur of the Wood Street cakes ; they were wonderfully well made, and much sought after (a.u. 1663) until, in a later age, the Bath bun and the Banbury cake came upon the scene in their stead. Other well known inns there were, plying their cheery trade even within the memory of our fathers. The " Cross Keys" was one ; it stood opposite to the churchyard of St. Peter's, Cheap. It was pulled down in .\.i). 1865, when some fragments of Samian ware and a few Roman coins were found. Its name was borrowed from the symbol of St. Peter, whose bust and crossed keys may be seen in a medallion on the iron railings which make the boundary of the old churchyard. The " Cross Keys " is now a railway parcels ofhce, which is fitting, seeing that from the old inn there turned out the Gloucester mail coach, all spick and span, ^vithin living memory. The slower stage coaches issued from the " Bell '" and the " Castle,"' all in Wood Street. In Wood Street, if anywhere, one would look for old names of those who built up the textile industry. Yet there were but few textile trades established there a century ago. Here is a summary : — of hat manufacturers there were 2, linen drapers 2, ribbon manufacturers 7, ware- housemen 6, weavers 6, or a total of 23. 71iis was .v.iJ. 1794. But — happy omen for the future of the thoroughfare — No. 1 was the warthouse of a ribbon \\ea\er. J' To-day there are nearly 170 MESSRS. ROTHSCIIILU'S G3I,I) WORKS, WOOD STRliliT, TEXTir.E LONDON. "7 textile firms and manuiacturcrs' agents in Wood Street, representing mills, manufactories, and warehouses, with a gross capital of some millions of pounds sterling, and fintling em[)loN-ment for many thousands of persons of all grades. Hut this tremendous increase in the second in(,lustr\- in the Avorld began when the " toot- toot " of the coach ga\'e way before the scream of the loctj- motive. Free trade blessed the increase, a cheaper postage fostered it, a more general education of the people nourished it, and better laws strengthened it. And now let us walk down W^ood Street as we find it to-day, noting anything which strikes us as we push our way along its narrow flags. There is the dark entrance to Mitre Court on the right, — 'tis a busy pas- sage. A little further down, on the same side, is the great A WELL-KNOWN WAREHOUSE IN WOOD SIREET. hosiery house of the Morleys, a firm which gave a philanthropist and a statesman to the country in the person of the late Mr. Samuel Morley, one of whose sons has become Her Majesty's Postmaster-General. Pausing for a moment at the corner of Huggin Lane, we are tempted to remind the reatler of a few out-of-the-wa)' facts about hose ami handker- chiefs which the \ icinity seems so naturally to suggest. There was that ii8 TEXTILE LONDON. pair of worsted stockings, for instance, which an observant apprentice borrowed. They were made in Mantua. The young craftsman set to work to make a copy of them, and succeeded so well tliat the Earl of Pembroke was glad to recei\e them. Let us hope they kept his legs ^\•arm when he went to the wars. This pair of stockings was the first known to have been made in England. One fears that that apprentice died unknown, but he deserved a better fate. Eong afterwards silk stockings were made in England. The first pair was presented to Queen Eliza- beth, who refusetl to wear anv other sort afterwards. Her Majest)' was not averse to admirinsj her ro\al ankles, nor oi ha\"in''' them admired. The Queen's preference for silk hose.\\as at once imitated by all who could afford to buNtheni, ami silk stockings became fashionable. Ei .\.i). 1547. two pail's of hose are (juoteil at 1 is. 4d. or 5s. 8d. a pair; it would be clear, therefore, that stockings were not for the poor. .\ hundred \ears later the en(|uiring b'hii E,velvn writes (.\.i). 1661) : " I went to see the wonderful engine for weaxing silk stockings, said to ha\e l)een the inxention of an Qxford scholar, 40 years since." Turning from hose to handkerchiels, we arc told b\' the leai"ncd that such things were not used b\' the (ireeks, but the Roman senators used them in latii" time. rhe\ wore long rloih^ wound about the neck, which were hand}' for waxing applause in ST. Al.llAN IHE MAklYK, WOOD SiRKKl. TF.XTII.K LONDON. 119 the i)ul)lic shows ; afterwards, l)\- ar. easy transition, the\ i^rew to be used ad ciiiitiigeiidinit ct cxp/iciid/ini. Amongst the An^lo-Saxc^ns, liand- kerehiefs were known as swat eloths. In tlie Middle As^es they ^\•erc carried in the hand during summer because of the "swat." I'ashion on hot davs has not greatly changed. Othello's handkerchief \\as said to be needleworked and spotted with strawberries; that of (jueen Elizabeth was of party-coloured silk or of white cambric, edged with gold lace. The gold lace ^^■as regal enough, \'et how raspish to the ro\al nose! But the interrupteil walk must be continuetl. Immediately after crossing (iresham Street, a quiet looking gatewa)- will Ije noticed. It is too quiet to be obser\'ed unless attention is called to it. This is the entrance to a smelting works ; not a place for the melting of mere iron, but for the melting and refining of silver and gold ore. No name is on the door-posts, but the place is owned by the Rothschilds. It was built A.I). 1 81 3, and a full descrip- tion of it will be found in an oUl number of Dickens' Household Words, under the title "A Treasure in \\'ood Street." Here the\- jire- pare their ingots of precious metal, which the)' send, we may assume, to the ends of the earth, purchasing peace in one land or pro\'iding the sinews of war for another. It is so incongruous, this gold meltery in simple Wood Street, so weird, one m''*^ A FAMOUS CORNER IN WOOD STREET. 120 TEXTILE LONDON. is fascinated by the bluey flames which plav arouinl lliis precious root of all e\'il. Close to Messrs. Dent, Allcroft & Co.'s glove warehouse is Oat Lane ; it leads to the old churchyard of St. Mary Staining. A\^hat a horrible place it is noA\adays, this ill-used, ill-kept, ill-smelling, fungus bearing abomination I A miserable mural statement declares that the churchyard was repaired and new gates fixed a.d. 1766. Ah, well that's a long time ago. It is now the nocturnal habitation of disaffected City cats.* Hastily passing Oat Lane, the visitor is impressed by the noble elevation of Messrs. Munt, Brown cK: Co.'s, premises, whilst on the other side, and in the near distance, a great block of buildings of florid design cover the site of the great Wood Street fire of Decembers, 1882, when property of stupendous value was destroyed, and where 168 firemen were on duty. The architectural details of the prin- cipal doorways of Foster, Porter & Co., Ltd., of Rylands & Sons, Ltd., and of Silber tK: Fleming, Ltd., are worth a moment's pause, as is that of Messrs. \'yse. Sons cv Co., on the opposite side of the way. A little further on is the site of the ancient postern of Cripplcgatc, at about the spot where the street called London Wall crosses Wood .Stieet. A few words as to the suggested >>>• origin (jf Wood .Street nUlSt wood strekt, the snx m- -ihk creat i-irf. oi- iSSz. * This churchyard has been improved since ihe above wus writle.i. TEXTILE LOND(:)N 121 suffice. Stow inclined to the opinion that Wood Street was so called l)ecause all its houses were built t)f tinihei', in s]iitc of the wi^c decree of Richard 1. to the effect that all houses should he huilt of stone. ( )n the other hand, Wood .Street was the home of the beiiexolent Mr. Sheriff ^\'ood, after whom the street ma\' ha\e been (ailed ; but the i"eader is welcome to choose between these two sUL;];estions, oi' to inxent others if it should so please him. like moht oi the Lit) chui'ches, can r()ST]:R L.VNE. Foster Lane is shorn of much of its ancient u;'re.itness, but its histor\- remains. Two historic sites are co\ereil to this da\\\ith line erections; the first is that of St. X'edast's Church, the other is the Hall of the (ioldsmiths' Companw St. X'edast's, be traced back many huntlreds ol years, for it is recorded that a clergyman was preferred to this church .\.i). 1308. Stow speaks of a "fair new church" called .St. Tauster's, from whence the lane took its name. St. X'edast's is called St. X'edast alias Foster, as may be seen on the escutcheons which are h.xetl to many of the properties within the parish. The church was not Cjuite destroyed by the Fire, but the walls were left in a totterin*'' condition. Sir Chris- topher Wren built the interior, and finished the remarkable steeple .\.i). 1697. The cost of rebuilding is ^ Cuilla '5^- Q WOOll blKEKr. — MEbSKS. MI.llEK ,\.N1) llK.MlNcj'h COK.M.K 122 T E X TILE L O i\ DON, set down at ;^i,853. Bv the side of St. X'edast's is Priest's Court, where an interestinsj^ bit of the old church precincts remains and forms part of the parish schoolroom. There \\as another old church, that of St. Leonard, on the opposite side of Foster Lane. It was built as a chapel-of-ease for the inhabitants of the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand (a.d. 1236). The site is now covered b\- the ])ropert\- of the General Post Office. After the Fire the ruuM'I.F.OAlK, .NOKTlt K.Sl) Ol- WOOD SI KF.Kl . ])arish of St. Leonard's was united with that of Christ Church, Newi^ate Street. I he tiillowinj;' inscri])tion was in the old church : — " .Ml 3'at will j;ud works wuicli, Piey lor jem yat help tliys Churcli, Gevying Almys for cheritc, Patei-noster and Ave." The worshiptiil Company of (ioldsmiths existed as far back as TEXTILE LONDON. 123 A.I). 1180, antl received its charter of incorporation a.d. 1357. Its wealth sprai\s4' partly front the important ret^ulatixe functions it had to perform in the assayins^' ot the precious metals, aiul more j/articuIarK' from the lexies made upon all forei^^n workers in L;oJd residing in England, who had to pay for their |)ri\ileges. \or were the fees payable b\' its Pjritish member^ inconsiderable. Its Ilall mark is the standard of excellence in manufactured articles to this da)', as everyone knows, and e\'ery year a specimen of the metal, out of which the coin of the realm is to be struck, is Ijrought to the CJoldsmiths' Hall, and examined by a jury appointed Ijy the (jueen's Rememl)rancer. Its ancient hall was l)uilt a.d. 1323, and reljuilt .x.n. 1407. After the I'ire a temporar\- home was found in drub Street (Milton .Street). Tlu' present noble structure was built by Philip Ilardwicke, R.A., and opened .\.n. 1835. The famous Henry Fitz Alw\n, the first MaNor of London, was one of its members, and in later times Sir Hugh Myddleton was another. When the City of London was occu])ied by the Puritan troops, General Fairfax secured the treasuries of the Cjoldsmiths', the Weavers', and Haberdashers' Halls. From the Wea\'ers' Hall alone he carried away ^'20,oco (a.d. 1648). Foster Lane has the distinction of honourable mention in the works of the writers upon trade tokens of the 17th centur\ A tOSTER l.ANE, FROM CHEAI'SIDE. 124 TEXTILE LONDON. halfpenny issued by the proprietress of an eating; house bears the following legend : Obverse. — "Ellen Billing at ye dark." Reverse. — "Entry. Ordinary in I'oster Lane; her Halfe- penny.'' Harly in the present century there was a shop adjoining St. Wxlast's, and upon its fascia was written " Dealer in British lace." GUTTER LANE. It seems a pit\' that the ancient name of this tlioroughfare has been dragged through tlie mire. It appears to ha\e been originally called (aithiii"im's Lane, and (aithurun was a Danish name of eminence in the days of good King Alfred. The lane was anciently inhabited by gokl- iK'aters. Coldsmith .Siivet, w inch bisects it, also commemorates the precious industrx whicli ccntivt! itself about Coldsnuths' Ilall. In (.utter Lane was made the " I iastei"ling mone\' " of fine siber, "and was commouK called sil\ er of ( .utluii-mrs Lane." Afterwards the goldsmiths of this lane and of the old li.xchangc (Old Change) remo\cd to the iOsir.R I.ANK, IKOM KF.\U <>V ( :KN KK.\T, I'OST OFI'ICE. TEXTILE LOXDON. 12: soutli sitlc of West C'lic|)e, probabl}' to that fiiic block of wooden houses known as ("loldsiniths' Row. The lirotlerers' C'onipany liatl a liall in ('.utter Lane, Tlie site is now occupied b\ the warehouse ol Messi's. Morley iS: (iray, whose handsome doorway coniniemorates a " nnsterx' " now fallen into decay. The I^roderei's were inco])orated in the louilh \ear of ( )ueen I{li/abeth. The name of the iJroilei'ei-s' Compan)- sus^-^ests mention of the fat t that the AnL;'lo-Sa.\on women of ([uahty were faiuous for their needlework, in which the\' delighted to work the exploits ol their loixis, who weix- fighting far a\\a\' in causes bc^th good and batl. Iiarlx' Iinglish needle- work was much sought after abroad. Carey Lane is just bexond the ]-)roderers' Ilall, "so called of one Kery," sax's the faithful old Stow. MILK ST K I-: K T . As Bread Street received its name from the fact that it was once the Bread Market, so Milk Street received its title from the fact that milk was pur\'e_\'ed there. \n .Milk Street of old time were man)' hue houses of the nobilitx' and the rich merchants who li\ed within the old ("ity walls, (".regory Rokesby, chief assa\- master of the King's ALnts and Mayor, lived in Milk Street in a house l)elonging to the prior)' (jf Lewes. The house was the cit)' mansion of the prior. L'or this house he paid twent)' shillings a year, "such were the rents of these PRIESTS COURT, 1-OSTER LANK. 126 TEXTILE LONDON. times" (a.d. 1275). Here, too, dwelt Sir Thomas More, who lixed a.d. 1482 — 1535. He it was who advised his children to take " virtue and learning for their meat, and play for their sauce." He \\as Speaker of the House of Commons, ambassador to France with W'olsey, afterwards Chancellor, and finally ARMS OF THE KKODEKERs' roMPANv. a prisoncr of thc Towcr, where he was beheaded. Tuller made a learned pun on the residence of Sir Thomas, who is described by him as "the brightest star that e\er shone in that Tin lactca'' Milk .Street once possessed two small churches — one called All 1 lallows was at the east end of Honey Lane Market ; the other stood at tlie west, and was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. The Church (if .Ml Hallows is mentioned as early as a.d. 1327. In this church was buried John Norman, Mayor, draper (a.d. 1453) ; he first went in procession to Westminster. TheChurcli fs of .St. Mar\' Magdalene is traced as far back as a.d. 1162. One of its old monuments adjured the beholder to " ])ray fi)r the soul of Henry Cantlow, merchant of the staple at Callays " (.\.D. 1495). This llcniy Cantlow would l)rol)ablv be the son of one of those liuLdish menhaiits whom luhvard HI. sjtlletl there when he made Calais the stajile for wool, leather, tin and lead. After the I"ii-e of London the pai-ish ol All Mallows was united with that of St. Mary-le-b.ow, wlidsl Si. Mary Magdalene was joined to the SITE OE TllK liROUERERs' IIAEE, CUTTER LANE. TEXTir, E LONDON. 127 ])arish of St. Lawrence Jury. Whereby, as Maitland so often observes, " the profits of these jiarishes be nuich increased." Another interesting;' part of Milk Street was Honey Lane Market, " calleel not of sweetness thereof." It was a j^reat provision market in the old tkays, and a few thriving shops yet remain to preserve its memory. A brief note on the cost of provisions in old Honey Lane Market may not l)e amiss. Here the merchant's wife could l)u\agreen gcjose forSd., a chicken for 4d., a coney (rabbit) for 5d.. fat green plovers 4tl., teals 3d. This was .\.i). 1575. Prior to that a snipe cost id., a woodcock 3d., ami butter was sold by liijuid measure ; but there were no potatoes and no tobacco. Sir Walter Raleigh was not then born. In the days of King- John a little money went a long way it seems. A labouring man earned 6d. a week, and was not used to luxuries. Still fuilhei" back towards the Conquest, and we find that provender for 20 horses for one night cost 4d., and bread sufficient for 100 soldiers tor one night is. This was in the days cjf the first Henry (.\.i). 1 100 — 1 135). If we skip 400 years, we find that butter "out of Gloucester" could be obtained in the market at 3d. a lb., whilst the carriage of 104 lbs. weight from P)ristol to Lontlon was 4s. 6d. ; a cjuart of Malmsey wine cost 8d., and a " pecke of ()\sters " 4d. (.\.n. 1594). As recently as .\.i). 1720, Honey Lane Market was a large market square and gave ]3lenty of employment to the " rakers," as the scavengers of the City used to be called. In the first cjuarter of the present century was built the new City of London .School, and it occupied the greater part of Honey Lane Market (a.d. 1835). ^^ ^^'^^ a stately building, and figured in the prints of the daw The school has now been removed to the Thames Embankment, and it^ old site is covered by a block of bricks and masonry now known as Milk .Street Buildinus. Smith's jjrammar school was also founded in Milk Street A.I). 1693, and the building was standing a.d. 1854. Milk Street is now an interesting thoroughfare only to the man 128 TEXTILE LONDON. of business. Linen and other manufacturers, or their representatives, hurr\- hither and thither l)et\\een its din^)- walls. They would smile at beinj.^ told that 17 textile traders in all inhabited the street 100 years ago ; but it was so. There was i glover, i laceman, 2 linen drapers, 1 mercer, 1 ribbon manufacturer, and 1 1 warehousemen. The mention of linen manufacture serxes to remind the reader of its great anticjuit)'. The manufacture tlourished in India and the liast when the British Isles were forest land, inhabited b\ savages and wild Ijcasts. But fine linen was made in Kngiand .\.]). 1253, and a company was formed in London to encourage its production .\.i). 1386. Another was started in Normandy .\.i). 1422, whilst a third was promoted in Ireland A.I). 1430. It is on record that Frederick I. [Barbarossa], Emperor of Germanw wore a serge shii't when he boiegetl Mihm in the twelfth century. It ma\- therefore be assumed that linen was hardl)' obtainable in I'An"o])e, or that the skin of the emperor was not sus- ceptible to the Italian sun. Tuining from men's shii'ts to t.ible' cloths, it is refreshing to read that the .\nglo- '•^• m- .MII.K MKEliT.— A Wi.MliV llAV. TEXTILE LONDON. 129 Saxon dineil from a clean cloth. A father achiscs his son always to co\'er his table with a clean cloth as a means of succeeding in life, but, by the same token, he would have his pillow case stuffed \\ith straw so that he might sleep bolstered up. The Anglo-Saxons hated to lie prostrate I It seems, however, that our sturely forefathers who loved the clean table-linen had not the privilege of seeing it glazed as we have it to-day. No, no. It was reserved for a woman, and that the illustrious Queen Elizabeth, to make clear-starching a necessity in these realms. It happened in this wise. The Queen's coach- man had a wife, she was Hollaiidaisc, and from her country she brought the knowledti'e of how^ to clear-starch the enormous ruffs which chafed the necks of the nobles and burghers of the Hlizabethan age. But we must get back to Milk Street, only to notice the quaint Robin Hood Court which leads into Russia Row, or to catch sight of the device of the Maiden's Head wdiich is inserted in the outer walls of some of the properties — (this device is the sign of possession by the Mercers' Company) — and then we will bid the street farew-ell. LAWRENCE LANE. Lawrence Lane has the rare distinction of being without a church, and has to be contented with the shadow of that of St. Lawrence in the Jewry, from which it takes its name. There was a famous inn in this lane. Its yard still flourishes under the title of Blossoms Inn Yard, and is now a goods depot for the railways. In Stow's time the inn was doing a thriving business, and was corruptly called Bosom's Inn. It had for sign the picture of St. Lawrence ROBIN JIOOU COUUr, MILK SlKIilil'. I30 TEXTILE LONDON. the Deacon, surrounded by a border of flowers — blossoms. These flowers have gone, but their fragrance remains. In the heyday of mail coaches, Blossoms Inn was a busy place, for from hence regularly issued the Brighton mail coach (a.d. 1830). Ben Jonson, who knew and frequented every London tavern, immortalised the old inn in a masque which was presented at Court a.d. 1616. Here arc a few of his lines : — " But now comes in Tom 0' Bosom's Inn, And he presenteth misrule. My son, Hercules, ran out o' Distaff Lane, But an active man and a porter. With orange on head and his gingerbread, Clem Waspe of Honey Lane 'tis." So does literature preserve the names of humble wights whom she uses " in the way of business." ^Ttt-*^ :i§^ HONEY I.ANE MARKET, MILK bTKEET. ENIKANCE 10 TIIL OUlLDUAi.L, CUV ul- LONDo.N. ARMS OF THE IIAKERDASHERs' COMPANY. CHAPTER VIII GRESHAM STREET has had greater attention at the hands of historians than almost any other street in the City of London, Cheapside alone excepted. This is not to be wondered at when one reflects that the civic history of London was made within its famous Guildhall. Vet the street has only borne its present honourable name since a.d. 1845. Before that time its zig-zag way was cut up into trifles. The part near the General Post Office was known as St. Anne's Lane ; Lad or Ladle Lane was its title a little further east ; and this same part bore various disguises in time past, such as Lig Lane, Ingene Lane, Engain Lane, and Mayden Lane. That section opposite the Guildhall was known as Catte Street, Catteten Street — the last refined into Cateaton Street within the present century. The history of the ecclesiastical and cixil foundations of Gresham Street would fill the whole of this volume, whilst no tome is great enough to tell the story of the citizens' Guildhall and of the grave Fathers who for centuries have ruled there. How hopeless the task, then, to compress into a few- pages what would take the writer a lifetime to write or the reader years to digest 1 But the best must be attempted, and here it is. 134 Aldersgate «5^*Kg- TEXTILE LONDON. At the Street end of Gresham Street stands the modest Church of St. Anne and It is said that sisters, Annie and St. Agnes. two Agnes, were its founders. In former times it was called St. Anne of the Willows, because of the quantity of willows about it. In this church was buried Peter Heywood, who apprehended Guy Fawkes "with his dark lanthorn." The church is traced back to a.d. 1322. The Church of St. John Zachary stood at the corner of Noble Street, where now a rustling poplar tree and some ancient tombs mark its site. St. Jolm Zachary's was united with the parish of St. Anne after tlie I'ire. Three saints to one church! Happy church, happy vicar, happy parish ! In the oUl Cliurch of St. John Zachary lay the body of that good Alderman, John Sutton, who was killed on London Bridge when he fought Jack Cade and his host (a.u. 1450). The term Aurifabcy (goldsmith) constantl}' occurs in the inscriptions which were in tills old church, ll nuisl have received man)- benefactions from the rich g(;]d.smiths whose hall was hard by. •lUE CHURCH ok sr. an.ne, st. agnks, and st. jou.n zachary, GRESHAM STREET. TEXTILE LONDON. 135 Up the street towards Lothbury is the coninianclini;- Chureli of St. Lawrenee Je\\r\', rebuilt by Wren at a cost of ^Ti 1,870 (a.d. 1677). ( )n the to}j (jf its spire the golden gridiron crecd^:s in the wind, and ser\es to remind the pious of the story of St. Lawrence who was Ijroiied ali\'e ])y Valerian on a slow fire. St. Lawrence Church was called " in the Jewry," because of the Jews who settled thereabout. The Jews were banished a.d. 1290. It is said that 15,060 persons had to leave these realms. The King" took care of their money and forgot to restore it. The old church dates back to a.d. 1295, if not earlier. It was rich in tombs ; that of Godfrey Bollen (Boleyn) was amongst them. lie was a mercer, Mayor, and great-grandfather of the mother of Queen Llizabeth. The ashes of Sir Richard Gresham rested there also ; he was father to the Gresham whose distinguished name the street now bears. There were laudatory verses of Oueen lilizabeth too, but the Queen's praise was writ in marble in many a City church ; her subjects could not praise her enough. An epitaph of later date, and a pathetic one, was that on little William Bird, aged four : — " Our charming Bird to Paradise has flown, Yet are we not of comfort quite bereft."— (a.d. 1698.) One more word may be g-iven to the Church of St. Lawrence ; it is to remind the reader that the worshippers wathin its walls were privileged ,xi:ilii> Tlin WAXCHANDI-ERS IIAI.I., GKESHAM STliF.ET. 136 TEXTILE LONDON. to hear the eloquence of Dr. Tillotson, Dean of St. Paul's, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Let the visitor turn down King Street now, and imagine that, instead of the outlandish elevation which obscures the old Guildhall, he sees a noble college rising, built by the piety of worthy citizens, and added to as the years roll by. It is " the Chapel or College of our Lady Mary Magdalen, by the Guild- called London about A.D. 1299. this foundation Guildhall Chapel, figure in works tury. Next to large and fair of its greatest Richard Whit- Lord Mayor in ren delight. It Edward, Duke of a lending library the borrower, loaded with the manuscript Grace was so enchanted w ith the contents of the City library, that he forgot to return them. Nor did tlie intelligence of the City pine for the loss, seeing that few of tlie City Fathers could read or write, and set little value on the priceless collection of MSS. which their library contained. In the time of Stow, Sir Richard W'liittington's library was a storehouse for cloths. DOORWAY IIAIiERDASlIEUs' IIAI.I., CRF.SHAM STRKF.T. and of All Saints hall," otherwise College, founded In course of time became known as and prints of it of the last cen- the college was a library, and one benefactors was tington — that whom all child- is said that Somerset, made of it — himself Porters were three "carries" of tomes. His TEXTILE LONDON, 1 37 Aiul now a parai^raph, all too brief, must be de\otetl to ('.iiildhall itself, with this prefatory remark on the earliest uses of ^uiUlhalls in g'eneral : — such |)laces were first established as markets where i^ootl^ mii^ht be exposed for sale, and consequently where luerchanls would assemble to discuss their business, and, b)' inference, to talk o\ er tlic affairs of the parish or district in which the}' li\ed. l'hili|) Augustus, King of France, made two great houses (a.d. 1183) called llalas, into which all the merchants might see that their goods were con\e\ed and '&' line 01. 1) CASl I.E INN VAKU (\l ts.iR.',. I'RKIOKD A.Mi cu). kept clean and dry in time of rain. At night such |)laces serxed to protect the merchandise from thiexes. In the 13th centurx' cloth was regularly exposed for sale in these halls. When the weather was tine merchandise xx'as usually laid out in the open market. Coxered shops xxere the introduction of a later age, and exen thex had no fronts, whilst glazed shops did not exist until cjuite recent times. The ("luildhall of the City of Lontlon was begun .x.n. 1400, sax'S Stow, and instead of a little old cottage in Aldermanbur)' Street, a fair 138 TEXTILE LONDON. and goodly house was made near unto St. Lawrence Church in the Jewry. Thomas Knowles, grocer, Mayor, began it with the hearty support of his brethren. Richard Whittington was a great benefactor to the noble work, and his arms were painted on every window of the great hall. Sir John Shaw, grocer. Mayor, was the first who kept his feast there (a.d. 1501). Before this time the civic feast was kept in the halls of the Grocers' and the Taylors' Companies. In the raising of the first Guildhall all the City took honourable pride. The City Com- panies, as well as prn'ate indi\'iduals, \"ied with each other in the donations they gave towards making their City Hall worthy and beautiful. One donor bequeathed a goodly sum for tapestry, Init Stow regretfully observes on this : " How this gift was performed I have not heard, for executors of our time, having no conscience, prove more testaments than thev perform." Under the hall-keeper's apartments in Guikihall was the prison of Little Ease. Its cells had low ceilings, and the prisoners had to sit on the floor. The City apprentices were the }"oung gentlemen who most frccjULiited this prison, and mighty uncomfortable they found it. For the brilliant history of the Guildhall, the reader must seek in other and greater Ijooks, but we ma)- remind him, in passing, of the brave show A\hich the Duke of Marlborough's trophies made when they were hung there on high. There were fort\-si.\ colours and nineteen standards set up, all taken by (Jueen Anne's general at Ramillies antl elsewhere (a.d. 1 706). Maitland relates a fact of difterent interest concerning the spacious vault under the great hall. Thi^ \ault, he says, was known as the Welsh Hall, and here the coimtrymen of gallant little Wales sold cottons, plains, bags, and flannels of their own manufacture (.\.i). 1739). AW the world knows the fine Library w hich the City boasts to-ckiN', for it is open to all, and presents such a wealth of books as nnist make the imi)alpable shade of the great Whittington shinunei" with glu)stly happiness. But TEXTILE I.ON no N. 139 all the \\()i-kl kno\\'s not of the Museum in the \^ault below. It is full of relics of intense interest, but there is no cataloi^iie to designate them, and but little lii;ht in which to sec them. It is a dishonour for so great a city to ha\e so poor a home for its anticjuities.* Of the halls of City Companies, Gresham Street pcssesscs two — the Haberdashers' and Wax Chandlers'. The Company of Haberdashers CORNER Ol- GRRSHAM STREEl' ANH WOOn ^TREEI' (MESSRS. lAIM.I.M: AND rO , I.IMnED). was incorporated in the reign of Henry \T. (.\.ij. 1448), and was called the brotherhood of St. Catherine. They were called hurrers, cai)pers or hat merchants. An old rh)nie runs : — "The Haberdashers that sell hats Hit Robin's conscience many pats, And, like a company of cats. They scratched me ! " * The electric lis^ht is now installed in iho Museum. 140 TEXTILE LONDON. The term haberdasher, says the dictionary writer, is derived from " hcrdash," a name formerly used in England for certain kinds of neck dress. More anciently still they were called " milainers," a name derived through their importation of goods from Milan (?). Amongst the London cries which have been preserved to us, were the following which were chanted ])\- the itinerant members of the guild of St. Catherine: — ■• I'ine felt hats! a mat for a bed! elles or yerdes ! bandstrings or liandkercher buttons ! I ha\ e screenes at your desire to keep your buty from the fire ! " The Company of Haber- dashers fell foul of the Corporation in the troub- lous year .\.i). 1646, whereupon the Lord Mayor and Common Council petitioned Parlia- ment " that the Company at Haberdashers' Hall may be presently dis- solved." The Wax Chandlers' Company was in exist- ence long before .\.D. 1371. Wax candles arc not on exerybody's tal)le to-da_\', more's the pit\\ l)ut the old Company still flourishes underits appro- priate legend, "Truth is '/cOi;''-' r^ the Light." in'A.n. 1736, C.RESIIAM STREET, CORNER 01' Al.UF.R.M AMIIKY, ffi.4 FOtVNES BR(lMir€iS(;C! 1 »■ / '.» -jiHi, ^ ^' r r t %4— ^ te %^^ 4 "^df* y&ijc!- 'f- I m. I III'UCll ciF ST. I.AWKENl.Ii JKWKY, GKESIIAM SIKKET. TR XTII.K [.nxnOX. 143 when the ])iil)lic himp^ of the City were few ami fai" between, and then only of sphitterini;' oil, the citizens were encouras^eti to hany lanterns and candles outsitle theii" houses. Those who did this service to tlieir City were exempt from the tax lexied in su|)j)oi-t of the dull and uncertain lamps of oil. When ^as came in oil went out, and, as recently as .V.I). 1870, a little old man mi^■ht ha\e been seen trotting' aloni^' Milk Street and its vicinitx , dressed in knee l)reeches, and carryini;' his lam[)- li!.4hter to exorcise darkness. Hut now the operator i)resses a luitton antl sets the electric lii^ht into action everywhere. \'eril}', " Truth i> the Li-ht ! " o Now let the reader walk up Cresham Street, from the west, beginnint;" at the corner t)f Coldsmiths' Hall, and sundr\ things shall Ijc pointed out to him, and gossipy information accoixled as he goes. There is that solid-looking warehouse on the left next to I laberdashei's' Hall. It is the house ot Thomas J'apling tS: Co., famous for carpets, curtains, taiJestries and all down-trodden things. I low lon« '-suffering' a servant is a carpet! As for curtains, they were once onl)' for sacred temples; woven by the deft fingers of liastern peoples, the\' hung before the doors of their sanctuaries. Later it became a matter of wonder when curtains were suspended round the throne of Charlemagne, whilst the Anglo-Saxons had them worked with the noted actions of theii" ancestors. But to put carpets on the floor of old time was unheard of. Were not straw and rushes good enough for kings and princes to walk upon ? The Bishop of Toledo covered his floor w ith tapestry, and his equals sneered at him for an effeminate! (.a.d. 1255). iJut carpets at the bedside occur abroad a.d. 1301. Kdward IV. was fastidious enough to have a mat at his bedside, but rushes were good enough for his courtiers. Turkey carpets were spread before the altar, however, in the reign of that King ; and carpets of English workmanshij), with arms weft in the centre, were known in the i6th century; and there was a 144 TEXTILE LONDON tapestry manufactory at Mortlakc in the time of James I. (a.d. 1603), l)Ut this was destroyed in the Ci\il War. Beyond Tapling's is the house of Pickford. the carrier. The old inn \ai"d, where the goods vans are for ever loading and unloading, bears w itness to a more ancient time, when railways were unknown and when the merry post boy kissed the pretty chamber- maid behind those old and battered pillars. Just before .\.D. 1854. when railwavs were in tlieir infanc)', Pick- ford emploved 234 clerks, 538 porters, 396horses,82\ans, 57 waggons and 25 drays. These are interesting- figures, and mark the rapid growth of trade within this century. Pickford was one of the most famous car- riers in London. His conxeyances started for Man- chester from the 'u5ii%-i- ]'"- Till-. (IIII.DIIALL 1-OUNTAliN. TEXTILE LONnONT. MS " S\\an-\\ ith-two-Necks," Greshani Street ; from " Blossom's Inn, " Lawrence Lane; and from the "Saracen's Heatl," Snow Hill, a.d. 1794. The " Swan-with-two-Necks," in Grcsham Street, now a railway collecting' depot, managed by Chaplin tK: Co., was one of the busiest inns in London in 1830. ALiil coaches turned out from its capacious made their Manchester, II ol}head, Norwich and \W- may note the " Swan- Necks," that were the Mr. Palmer, and that the vice of the two- Necks " a pardonable The ro\al t h e r i \' e r two nicks in distinguish the swans longed to the F.NTKANrF. TO criLDHALI. YARD. CorpOratlon; swan with two nicks " was easil)- corrupted into " Swan-with-two-Necks," and the humble sculptor has carved the bird with the e.xtra neck and bill accordingly. Just past King Street and the " C.uildhall Ta\ern " is Hlackwell Hall Court, commemorative of IMackwell Hall (which will lie referred to yard, and journeys to li .\ e t e 1" , Liverpool, I [) s w i c h . in passing with - two - mail coaches invention of A.D. 1784, curious de- "Swan-with- is owing to mist a k e . s w a n s i n Thames had their bills, to them from which be- Mayor and but the term '''3i;Wfr Y-r 146 TEXTILE LONDON. later), and, lastly, the imposing building known as Gresham College, which closes our brief survey of Gresham Street. The final \\ord must be a tribute to the Gresham family. Sir John Gresham, uncle of the great Sir Thomas, was famous for the revival of the marchinsj watch during his mayoralty. vSir Thomas was admitted to the Mercers" Company .\.D. 1543. He married a sister of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper. Queen Elizabeth valued Sir Thomas so highly, that she told him she " would keep one ear shut for his enemies that should be ever open to him." He raised the standard of the coinage of the realm, built the Royal Exchange, which his royal mistress opened with every addition of pomp and splendour, founded many noble charities, and died one of the wealthiest, one of the greatest, and one of the worthiest citizens of this or any other country. Sir Thomas's principal residence was in Lombard Street ; there, too, was his shop, with its famous sign of the grasshopper over the door. illE \KMS OV MIK (;l.OVl'.KS TOMl'ANY. '^\MMVe.r. i-. I in; wool. KxciiANCE, i;asinc,iiam. sikkict. ARMS OK THE SPFXTACLF, MAKERS' COMPANY. CHAPTER IX. Basinghall Street— Aldcrmanbury — Love Lane — Addle Street — Moiikwell Street — Silver Street— Noble Street. BASINCxHALL STREET is notable for its many halls, and for thc Church of St. Michael's, Bassishaw. The street owes its name to the ancient family of Basing — a name which, as to its proper spelling, has suffered the usual \icissitudes. Solomon Bassintr and Iluuh Bassing were Sheriffs of London, a.d. 1216. Their house, Bassing Hall, Bassinge's Haugh, Bassishaw or Basing Hall — whichever the reader pleases — was a very solid building of Caen stone, and Stow noticed the arms of the Basings sculptured or painted all o\'er it. The Church of St. Michael and All Angels was given b)' the Bishop of London to the Prior of Smithfield before a.d. 1246 ; so that, like most other City churches, it may claim long descent. In the old church was a rhyming epitaph on " Sir John Ailife," a celebrated chirurgcon. He ^vas so well known, that " King Henry VI IL called him to Court, Who loved him dearly well." Edward, the boy King, bade him rise up a knight. He lived in Blackwell Hall, and was Sheriff and Alderman. Another tomb in the church 150 TEXTILE LONDON, contained the ashes of Sir John Gresham. Sir Christopher Wren built the present church at a cost of ^2,822 (a.d. 1679). As one goes towards London Wall, the site of the first of the City halls in this Basinghall Street is that of the \\'eavers. This fraternity was one of the most ancient of the London Guilds, and goes back to A.D. 1 100. These weavers had the making ;ind the " correction " of woollen cloth. The_\- were on no account to mix Spanish wool with English, such a mixture would assuredly be burnt. Where the old hall stood is now a place of offices, and the Company's arms o\'er the doorway ser\e as a memorial of ancient greatness. The Hall of the Company of Coopers is on the opposite side of the street. It was built A.D. 1868 on the site of the old hall. The Coopers were the ancient i.2;auo;ers of casks. The fraternity was in existence a.d. 1396. The stress of centuries has affected its mottt), and one is thereby irresistibly reminded of the \^icar of Bra}! Hie C()mpan)'s motto in Catholic days was " Laude Moria Virgo ^ It is no\\ " Lo\'e as Brethren " — a beautiful hortation, but \"er)' safe! '^^- GRESIIAM COLLEGE, HASINGIIALL STREET. JA- TEXTILE LONDON. 151 The (".irdlers" Hall, which is a little further down the street, was built A.D. 1 68 1. The Ciirdlers were incor- porated as a brotherhood of St. Lawrence a.d. 1327, and must have existed lonLi" l)efore that date. One handbook states that they made girdles — articles of costume now fallen into disuse. But there is little doubt that they made griddles or grids. Three gridirons figure in the Company's arms ; in the days of Oueen Elizabeth the Pinners and the Wire-workers ^\•ere incorporated with them. When the trade guilds amalgamated, like trades joined ^vith like, and it seems highly improbable that the girdles worn a few- centuries ago had anything to do with the mystery of the Girdlers. All north country people will know that a girdle-cake is made on a girdle-iron — griddle-iron. There was yet another hall. It was known as the Mason's Hall, "but of what antiquity that Company is I have not read," says Stow. Its name is preserved in Mason's Avenue. It is probable that Stow knew nothing of the mystery of Freemasonry. Yet the mystery of Free- masonry, as practised to-day, doubtless had its beginnings in the pro- ceedings of this fraternity of the Ancient Masons' Hall. It should be remembered too, that, saving" the churches and the houses of some ureat nobles, all other buildings were of \\ood. English masons — workers in stone — -were few and far between in the Middle Ages, so that the masons i^r C.UILnilALI. MUSEUM. r.ASI.NGHALI, STREET ENTRANCE. 1^2 TEXTILE LONDON. of London were many of them foreigners who had built Ijeautiful churches on the Continent, and had been imported with their Caen stone to practice their magnificent art for the City of London. When they developed the social side of their fraternity, they probably revived those beautiful mysteries to which all good Masonsareattached, and which are said to have had their origin with the builders of the colossal cities of Nineveh and Babylon. The mcjdern Wool *'■ ^■"^"^^^'-'^ church, hasin-ghall strei;t. Exchange, just opposite the entrance to the " Chamber of London, " is an instance of persistent respect for tradition. W^ool and cloth, cloth and wool, have e\er distinguished Basinghall Street. Hubert, yVrchbishoj) of Canterbury, did kindly by the weavers and Weavers' ILdl, in causing King Richard to ordain that the woollen cloths in every part of his realm should be two yards witle within the lists. It is an easy transition from woollen cloth to Blackwell llall. Stow took this place to be the mansion of the I>a^ings, already noticed. In Pdackwell Hall dwelt dukes, earls, ami other great nobles, one after the other, until the Basin^'s came. Hut a Thomas li.ikewell dwelt in the TEXTILE IJONDON. 153 liousc in the rcij^n of lulwanl III. Aftcrw arils the C'()i-])()i-ati()n hoiii^lU the place for ^50, anel Blackwell Hall I)ecaine a weekK inarket-])lacc lor the sale of woollen cloths of all widths. in the cla\s of " R. W'hittin^ton, Ma)-or, " no foreigner might sell woollen cloth anywhere hut in Blackwell Hall. In the time of Stow a fine new cloth hall was built at a cost of ^2, 500 — a large sum in his claw It was finished A.u. 1588. The front entrance of the new kUackwell Hall was ne.\t the (iuiklhall Chapel (a. D. 1751), and there was a Blackwell Hall tactc)r registered in the Lontlon l)irector\', .\.i). 1794. It is fitting, therefore, that the Wool Exchange of the |)resent l)usy days should stand upon such classic soil, seeing that it is close to the site of Weavers' Hall and the Hall of Blackwell. As an additional reason for its proper pi-ide, it may make the boast that the Lord Chancellor sits upon the woolsack in the House of Lords as a lasting acknowledgment that wool was the English staple. A L D E R M A N B U R Y. This street rejoices in an honourable title, and is said to have originally contained the Aldermen's hurt.:: or burv wherein their Court was holden. The word " Ijury " is a variation of burgh, burg, borough, and sifrnified a house, habitation, or castle. That the termination is retained in the names of many English places needs hardly to be stated. Some doubt has been ..,«*»■•■ n-. ;^^ TIIK WK.WllRS IIAI.I., IIASIN-GIIAI.L STREET. '54 TEXTILE LONDON . S!^ ^ uJJJ ( ^ UASl.NGHALL STREET. — AN OLD WINDOW. thrown upon the value of Stow's statement as to the origin of the name of this street, but he says : " I myself have seen the ruins of the old Court Hall in Aldermanbury Street, \\hich of late hath been employed as a carpenter's yard." Stow was so careful a searcher after facts, and so patient in that pursuit, that it would require the stronp^est evidence to the contrary to shake his testimony as to this instance in particular and others which he adduces in s^eneral. At the Gresham .Street end of Aldermanijur\- is Fountain Court, which may have taken its name from "the fair well with two buckets'" which used to serve the tlwellers hard Ijy in the okl days. In the midst of the street (Aldermanbur)) was a conduit l)uilt by William Eastfield, .Ma\-or. To it was conveyed sweet water fi-om Txbui-n ( a.d. 1429). The ("liurch of St. .Mar\-, Aldermanbur\ , which stands at the bes^inning of Love Lane, is mentioned in records as early as Henry HI. (a.d. 1219 — 1272). One of it^ old memoi'iaN was to Ralph Woodcock, grocer and Alderman, who departed this life a.d. 1586. The gentlem.m had foiii- w ix'cs; and had issue bv the fir^t, fi\e sons '-Xsi:-k->>?''««i«>J-iC--i\«l--i'.ii' firm, obtained its name probably from the nunnery which originally stood close by. Maitland calls Aldermanbury a pleasant street, and remarks, in {massing, that the conduits within it, as well as others in Cheapside and elsewhere, were pulled dow n w lien New Ri\er water and Thames water were supplied to the citi;^ens. The stones of these conduits were used in the repair of the gate on London BridQ-e (a. I). 1730). The textile mer- chants in Aldermanbury num- bered eleven only in a.d. 1794. Of these, one manufactured crape, another made hats, and nine were known as warehousemen. Nor was the street without its coach 60 years ago, for one regularly left the "Axe," to cleave its wa)- along nuidd)- turnpikes and over fearful heaths. In closing this brief summar\- of the historx- of Aldermanbury, reference ma}" be made to the solid qualit\- of the great cross-beams which sup- ])()rted the suj)ersli-uctui-e of the 'ii44r. FOUNTAIN CntKT, Al.IiKRM ANlll'RY. Cit)' houses built since the (ireat Tire, (juite recent!}' one of these houses was destroyed to make wa}- tor the brand new wareliouse of Bradbury, Greatorex tv: Co., Limited, in i\ldermanl)ur\'. Here the writei' noticed a might}' tree of oak retaining its ancient shape, but with it> bark jicclcd off it, and s(|uai"ed here ant! tliere to preser\"e the semblance of a sti'aight line ; such was the stout support of the houses of our great-great-grandfathers. In another house in Cheapside, TEXTILE LONDON. '59 too, where Pill the baker sold fourpenny j^iasses of jelly but }esler(,la\-, an architect called the writer's notice to a stout " knee " of oak which man had borrowed from Nature to under-prop the L;abled roof. ADDLE STREET. Stow was in some doubt as to the origin of the word " Addle," but the ingenious may easily find a close connection between it and the names Noble and W^atling applied to two other streets near at hand. Addle is the corrupted form of add — noble; and Watling [(\V)atheling, Adding] was spelled by one old writer, W'atheling (Atheling). Small antl impretending as is the present Addle Street, it possesed fine houses of old tmie, and two City Halls. One was that of the Pinners", the other was the Brewers' Hall. The Pinners' Hall had gone into decay in Stow's time, and the Company itself was incorporated with that of the Girdlers (.\.u. 1568). The Plaisterers' Company succeeded to the Pinners' Hall. This guild was incorporated a.d. 1501. Its chief duty was to test the work done by pargettors, "commonly called plaisterers." Sir Christo- pher Wren rebuilt their hall in Addle Street after the Fire, but it was again burnt down about *' ten years ago. .H^- THE \V.\REHOU.SE OF MESSRS. BRADBURV, GREATOREX AND CO., LIMITED, ALDERMANBURY. i6o TEXTILE LONDON. B.>-^ •^'/IjKerr^, The Hall of the Worshipful Com- pany of Brewers is guarded by a strik- ing old gateway. The Qui Id existed by prescription long before a.d. 1445. At first it supervised the trade in the City only, but as time went on its area was enlarged, more than once, by succeeding monarchs. The duties now per- formed by the officers of Excise were undertaken by the Brewers' Company, but for the benefit ~^ of their members, not for the State. iceting held in Addle Street. I meeting, and its members THIC CHURCH Ol' SI'. M.\KY, Al.hliltM AMIUKV. In .\.l). 1793 liici'e w.i^ a rcligit)us 11 It was known a> the Brewers' Ilal were of the body called Anabaptists. At the period just quoted, there were thirt\-three meeting places of this communit\' in London. Nothing more of intrest may be stated of Addle Street, excepting that Little Wood Street began at its western end. There is no Little \\'ood Street now ; the street is simpl) Wood Street, and it is not little. TEXTILE LONDON. i6i Silver Street is \ery unpretentious ; it leads to Taleon Square, close I)y. If the reader will leave Addle Street, and step across Wood Street, he will hnd himself in Siher Street. "I think of silversmiths duelling there," saith our ancient and kindly guide, 'ihere was a little church in Silver .Street, dedicated to St. Olave, but the Fire consumed it, and its parish was united with that of St. Alhan, Wood .Street. Maitland cannot trace the ("hurch of .St. 01a\e further back than .\.i). 1593. A daughter of Ilenr)-, Lord W'intlsor, was buried here a.d. 1600. There, too, was set up a long string of memorial \erses to a good pliNsician described as "My fatherly good friend, John Banester." These lines run much more freely than most mural poetr\', and there is a sympath)- about them which arrests attention : — " Poore ma) med souldiers, sore sick-hearted men, Tliat under Miseries' iiard Crouch did how, Were freely cured, meihinkes they cry, Lord, when, W'iiere shall we find our good Ph) sician now ? " The site of St. Olave's Church is still preser\ed in the i\)- covered gravestones and modest greenery of a small scjuare patch. If the passenger should stay to look through the iron railings he would be startled b\ reading the following inscrip- tion upon a flat gravestone : — " The family gravi of Mr. John Bull." ^k^ MESSRS. S. CnCKTAULD AND CO. s WAREIIOI'SK, Al liKKM AMMIK V X i62 TEXTILE LONDON. In Silver Street, at the corner of Monkwell Street, was anciently a great house belonging to the Neville family, and known as Neville's inn. In the time of vStow tlic house was the property of the Lord Windsor, and was a fine Ijuiidinij- of stone and timber. Those readers who mav not be familiar with the old application of the term "inn," w ill })ermit the explanation that the inns of the great nobles were their town residences, and generalK had a square court-yard, with ponderous gates, stout bolts, and massive chains. Ref(MV leaxing SiKer Street one word must be devoted to the Parish Clerks, a fraternity which was incorporated a.d. 1232. Their Hall was originally in Rishopsgate Street. It was taken away from them and given to a Cambrid<'eshire knitjht. The Parish Clerks appealed to Queen Mary, and they Ijcing likely to obtain redress, the gentle knight "pulled do\\n the hall, sokl the timber, stone and lead, and thereupon the suit was ended." This is \cr\' (juaint, but it was robbery with \ iolence, ne\ertheless. The present Hall of the Parish Clerks is in .'-^il\cr .Sti-eet, and their crest is an arm erect holding an o|)cn music l:)ook. monk\vI':ll street. Opposite the churclnard of St. Olave is the entrance to Monkwell Street. It is a small street, Ixit its histor\- is long and inleivsting. .At the northern cu(\ was .1 wril, and close l)\- TUKF.I-: Nl'N COURT, AI.DKKMAMll' UV. TEXTILE LONDON. il Wci^ the reticat of a saintly abbot or hcniiit. It A\as kiujwn as St. James' in the wall by Cripplesgate. .Around this hol\' ])ersonai;'e tlid conurt^y^it"^ niaiu" nionk^. The com- mon people easiK' connected monks and well together, and so the street was named Monkwell Street. It has endured man\' mutilations on the old maps ; it was softened into Mugle Street, and leUL^thened into Mugwell Street, until at last it has got back to its original t\pe. Famous wells have U' i \' e n 163 ^' THE OLD <;E0I«;E yard, ALDEK.MANUL'RV. •23^-. n a m e s to other l)laces and streets, as Clerkenwell, Holywell Street, and Well Street ; the last named being close to Monkwell Street, and tcd-cing its name probabl}" from the ancient spring. Monkwell Street was rich in Cit\' halls and almshouses. The worshipful Companx" of Barbers now ha\"e their home within it. " The nnstery of Barbers of the Cit\- of London using the mysterN' or facultx of Surgery," shaved the Royal chin, let blood from the Royal arm, and extracted the Royal tooth, and performed the like ■■* serxices for all and sundry of His THE I'ARISIl CLERKS HAIA., SILVER STREET. i64 T E X T I L E L O X DON*. Highness's subjects ; but in the days of Henry VIII. it was enacted that these freemen who performed barbery and shavery should do no surgery beyontl the drawing of teeth, and that the surgeons should do no hair-cutting nor tooth-drawing. Both branches of the profession have lo\ally obeyed the King unto this da\'. The Barber- Surgeons' Company was incorporated a.d. 1461. 'J'hc old hall was designed by Inigo Jones, and some parts ot his work still remain. This architect also built the Anatomical Theatre for the use of the fraternity A.I). 1636. The hall was repaired by the Karl of Burlington; the theatre escaped the Fire of London, ami \vas taken down a.d. 1783. This Compau)' is rich in old i)latc, pictures and furniture. The cele- brated picture of Henry VTII. granting the new chartei' to the guild hangs in the Court Room. It was painted by Holbein. The librar\- of the Barber-Surgeons was a fine one ; indeed, the literary, artistic and anti(|uarian treasures of the City Companies are |)riceless, anel are full}' described in the works de\ oted to these powerful brotherhoods. Salter's Court, in Monkwell .Street, ])reserves the memory of .Sir Amljrose Nicholas, Salter, Mayor (a.d. 1575), who established alms- houses in Monkwell Sti'cet. These were standing .\.d. 1854, re-edified after the Fire, ami a sketch of them ma\- be seen in the Crace collection. .\nollier Court in Monkwell .Street, W indsor Court, perpetuates the ]uemor\' of the Windsor fanuK'. In y^p^ ta^- (;AMv\VAY OI- HRKWKRS iiai.i., audi.f. strket. TEXTII. : I. ON DON. 16; the year 1670, Mi". Donlittlc's nicctiiiL;- house in " Mui^well Slivet " ^\'as forcibly taken b\- tiie citizens after the Imiv, in order that the ser\"ice of the Church of I'.ni^iand nii^iit be c.ii"ried on tliei"ein whilst the new churclies were a-builcbn^'. At this time the nieetini^ houses general 1\ were suppressed b\ an armed loi'ce. At the south cud of Nh)nk\\ell Sti'eet, in the (hi\-^ of Stow, stood the Howx'ers' Hah. Tiie I'ompany is an ancient one, and existed b\- prescription long before the time of the charter grcUited b\ )ames I. (a.d. 1621). The King \\a^ anxious to restore the art of sliooting with the long bow, which had kdlen into deca}-, and the motto of the Compau)-, " Crec)', Poitiers, Agincourl," is an appropriate reminder of the victories won b}- the sturdy soldiers of lulward III., \\h() had some pieces of artillery to help them, by-thc Iwe — the first e\'er used in an\- great European battle. K O 1; L i: S T REE T . From Monkwell Street to Noble Street is but a step, which the reader will be asked to take if he be not already tired of these brief notes of old City wa\s. Noble Street was the residence of Sir James Pemberton, Kt., Lord Ma}or, who made a |)i-incely feast at his house on the day that James was proclaimed King. James had forbidden the resort of people, on pretence of the scarcity of pro- visions and other inconxenience ; but Pemberton feasted nearl)- fort\- SILVF.R SI'KKET, I.OOKIM; lOUAKDS WOllH SJKKEl. i66 TEXTILE LONUOX. earls and Ijarons in Noljle Street, which, if disobedient, was characteristic of the Hnghsh worship of roast beef. At the north- east end of this street stood the mansion of Lord Bacon, \'iscount St. Albans (a.d. i6oo). This mansion passed into tlie hanels of the Scrixeners' Companv, and was sold by them to the Compan\- of Coach and Harness Makers. This fraternity is much Noun^er than many of the other City guilds, for the sufticient reason that pri\ate I'ALCON sriUAUlC, .SIIOWIM; COKNKR 01 MON-K\Vi;l,l, STKKET ON TIIF. I.Eir. coaches were not in geiiei^al use two centuries ago. 'I he Com|)an\- was incorporated a.d. 1677, when the ga\ Charles II. set the fashion to the world. The Coachmakers' Compan\- possesses a fine reference librai-y, and has been foremost in encouraging technical education in the craft which it represents. It w ill be of interest to remind the reader that as recently as .\.i). 1664 .Sorbicre ti-a\elled fi'om l)o\er to London in a wagon drawn by si.\ horses in a line. The roads were sloughs, the pace T RX TI LK l.OXnO N. 167 \\-as one that killed, but 1)\- its tedium, uot 1)\- its swiftness. 'I"he traxellei" louiul haekne\' eoaches w hen he reaehed London. Mere a;_;a]n the road^ were shockini;", the pace unnientionahle, and the jolting; unen- tlui'ahle. Sorbiere would ha\e found about 400 of these hackney coaches in existence in London then if he had wished for an iinentory of them, and he would little place a few miles to the east cif the Cit\- walls, was a great resort of the citizens, who hired horses in such num- bers to yo there, that at length all hi reel horses began to l)e called hacks or hack- neys. Somewhat nearer our time, w hen Maitland wrote, he stated that there were 5,108 coach, saddle, and draft horses in London (.\.i). 1722), and he sa_\"s, in pass- ing, that the hackney coach fare from St. Paul's Church to Westminster Hall was IS. 6d., Init the roads were feaiiul. ha\e been told that the \illage of IIackne\', a W^ .MONKU Kl.l, STRKKI'. — A W'INllJV PAY. 1 68 TF. XTir.F. r.oxnnx It is difhcult for a citizen of to-day to really understand how London and its approaches were neglected a century and a half ago. No light, no police, no good drainage, quagmires instead of roads, and robbers on e\'er)' hand. The reasons for this chaos are not hard to find. There was no public opinion ; the masses of the people were uneducated — even the great Duke of Marlborough himself A\as illiterate. Corruption reigned in high jjlaces ; the taxes were iniquitous ; the South Sea Compan\' became insohent and ruined thousands of families. The sound of war was in the air, and sedition was rampant in the land. I'ruth and honour and morality seem to hax'e been dri\en away from England. It was the dark night before the coming of the dawn ! <5r INIKKIOR IT rill'. HARl'.KKs' HAM, MONKWr.l 1. MRKKT. ST. GILES tllURCIl, CKIl'l'LIiCAl K. i3i fwt'-'— ** D ■- ^ ■m- UIK CASlLE AND l-Al.CON HOl'EL, AI.DEKSi;ATi; SlRlilil'. C H x^ P T E R X . Aldersgate Stiucl— Jtuin Street — Cripplegate — Fore Street — Milton Street— and London Wall. A LDERSGATE stood opposite to the western end of what is no'vv ealled dreshani Street. The moment a passent^'er of old time passed through it on his \\a\' to the \illage of Islington, he was w ithout the Cit}' walls. The western wall would be on his right hanel skirting Noble Street, and the w hole of Aldersgate Street would be extra-mural. If the passenger were John Stow himself, he would tell }ou how aristocratic a street it was. The houses of the great nobles of the Elizabethan age towered up on either side, w ith am])le gardens to grace them, l)Ut all clustered just w ithout the \encrablegate,S() that their dwellers might be read}' to quickly retii'e through it into the walled city in case of danger. A few moments must l)e spent at the old gate, for it is the only one through which the reader of this Ixjok will be in\'ited to pass. Aldersgate was one of the most ancient of the four principal gates of walled London. It had, moreover, a well within it of great depth. 172 ^aM 'sL%-'/^. .^^^. TEXTILE LONDON. Several authentic prints of this and other City gates and posterns may be seen in the Print Room of the P)ritish Museum, and in the Guildhall Library. Alders- gate was pulled down a.d. 1760. The materials of it were sold for ^'91. Several other gates were treated in the same \\a\", and the stones of one of them were placed in the Thames at London Bridge on the advice of John Smeaton, who reljuilt Lddystone lighthouse. This was done to preserve the shak)- foundations of the old structure. ilVV, The Church of St. Hotolph, si. iiuiui,i'ii\ c lURciivAKis Ai.i.KRSG.ME sTKiiET. ucxt to Llttlc Britaiu, lias a long histoi"}'. Maitland ti'acetl its records as far back as .\.i). 1319. The Fire of London stopped near this church, which thus escaped destruction. Bearing in mind the former gi-andeui" of Aldersgate Street, the reader would expect to fmd .St. Botolph's i-ich in monumental histories ; nor would he be di^ap])ointed. Maillanil cpiotes three folio pages of them. Here is a specimen : — " Calme was tliy Death, well ordered was thy Life, A careful! Mother and a loving Wife. Ask any how these Virtues in thee grew ? Thou wast a Spenccy and a MdnUit^iic." — C\.r). 1612.') The residence of the Lord Montague was in Little Britain, which street skirth the Church ui .St. Bottjlph. The mansion of the Didvc of liretagne was in the same street, hence its name. Near at hand was the house of TEXTILE LONDON. 17? the Earl of Pctcrljoroui^h. IIa\'ing iiKiUioiictl Little IJritain in i)assing, we ma)- part from it with the remark that it was the home of the book- sellers 200 )-ears as^-o, and (irub Street was ne)t far off; hut of this latter street moi^e anon. The ehurehxard of St. ISotolph is now a i)leasant publie 'garden, where at tlinner time all sorts and eonditions of men, women, and bo)s take midday rest, or gaze euriouslv upon the time worn sun-dial in the mitlsl. The latest addition to the Post-OHiee now borders on this green retreat, and shuts out fi"om it much of the sunshine w'hieh so rareK' falls upon its struggling herbage. Just be)'ond Little Britain is Trinit\" C'oui't, w hieh is the onl\- relie — antl that a name — of the Lrotherhood of the Ilol\ Trinitw This fraternit}' ownetl the Faleon-in- the-Hoop brewer)', hence the name of Laleon Scpiare, and that of the modern "Castle and Laleon" Hotel. If the \isitor will take the other jilaces (_)f interest as he walks eastward, chronological order must suffer, I)ut he will gain. That solid house on the left hand opposite Falcon Square is the Cit\' home of the \'oung Men's Cdiristian Association. Li 1854 this place held the City of London Literar)- and Scientific Listi- tution, and tra- dition says that the building stands on the site of the house wherein John Milton dwelt. A little further on is a place called Westmoreland ST. nOTOLPH's CHURCH, ,\1.I'ER.SG..\TE STREKT. ' '. ■' •— 174 TEXTILE LONDON'. Buildings, the site of the mansion of the Harl of W'estniorekuul. Close by was the "Inn" of the Bishop of London. An old note runs: "Idiomas Shakespeare, Messenger of the (jueen, to the Lord Bishop of Durham, lyeing in Aldersgate Street, and ther to him delivered lettres " (a.u. 1577). Opposite to Lord Westmoreland's house was the mansion of the Larl of Shaftesbury. This site contained a lying-in hospital and a general dispensary A.D. 1843. As for textile trade in Alder.sgate Street, in 1794 there was none. I he street jK)ssessetl one glover, one linen draper, one mercer, one warehouseman, and one weaver. But to-day ALmchester A\enue rises up — a modern ad- dition to Aiders- gate Street, as is the"Manchester" I lotel bcN'ond it ; both places ser\"e to remind the reader of the \ast and rai)id grow th of the great cit\' of ^Lu^chester. sometimes called Cottono])()l i s. Its emissai"ies swarm oxer tex- tile London da\- 1)N' cLiN', and their choice of a ■tfcTrv-^ ALUKKSGAIE .STREET, LOOKING TOWAKDS THK I'O.ST OIFILM. TKXTIt.I-: I,0 N DON 17: tcniporar\- home is Aldersgate Street. They sleep at nii^iU amidst the shades of the departed great, nor is their sleep disturbed tliereb)-. Aldersgate Street can boast of some celebrated taxerns ; the name of one is preser\ed in Half Moon Court. The 'TIalf Moon" was famous in the days of Charles I. The " Mourning Bush" was another. When the innkeeper heartl that Charles I. was beheatled, he was so griex'etl that he painted his busli l)Iack. The " I-)Ush " was a common sign, and the adage, " Good wine needs no Inish," may Ije understood to mean that he who sells gootl wine needs no "Bush" sign to call attention to his whereabouts. Traders' tokens were mA uncommon in .Mdersgate Street about the middle of the 17th 'century one : — Obverse Mere is the Ic'cnd of Michaell Stancliffe, Hosier, 16G7" (i). Reveise: "In Aldersgate vStreet " (a Castle). A note as to the popidation ol the south-western half of the Cit\' about this period ma}' not be iminteresting. The wards ol Aldersgate, Bassishaw, Bread Street, Castle Baynard, and that of Cripplegate Within nimd)ei"ed 20,931 souls (.\.i). 1631). It will be remembered that all the traders lixed o\-er their own shops, and there were no submbs. There were villages, now swal- lowed up b)' modern London, but between these villages and MAIDF.NHE.'M) COURT, ALDERSCATIS STREET.- 176 TEXTILE LONDON. the City walls \\ere robbers as well as a great gulf — the gulf of impassable roads. Reverting to Alder.sgate Street, this final paragraph will state that the Cattle Show used to be held in the street, whilst in the famous Coach Year (a. d. 1830), the stages turned out of the " Castle and Falcon," Jolly's Warehouse, the " Red Lion," and the " Three Cups." JEW IN STREET. If the reader should w ish to see the Church of St. Giles', Cripple- gate, he may leave Aldersgate Street and pass along Je\\i)i Street. This street obtained its name from the fact that in the 12th century the bui-ial place of the Jews was l)()unded b_\- it. This was the onl)- burial place foi- lews in Ep.glantl, until by constant petition to the King this people obtained permission to Inw)' their dead in the cities or towns of Knglaml wherein the\- might be settled. There was a cockpit in Jewin Street, which had become a meeting-house (a.d. 1670). It was kept l^y "one Crimes," but the citizens t(~>ok it from him in order that the ser\ice of the Church of lingland might be held therein, whilst their own churches were l)eing rebuilt after the Fire. Hut the Jewin .Street Meeting-l louse rose triumphant out of its troubles, and was flourishing when Maitland wrote (a.d. 1739). C RIPPLE (} ATE. The postern of Cri])plegate was not one of the j)i"inci])al Cit\' gates. The n.ame " postern " aiuieiilK' signified a back gate, or a small pri\ate exit. The j)osterns in the ( il\ wall were \ ei"y useful to the citizens, but ditl not take the same rank as the givat gates w hich sj)anned the |>i-inciiial highways to and froiu Fondon, [ohn F\'dgate, monk ol r>ur\', st.ited that this postern got its name because of the ciipples who clustered about it When the bod\ (A Fdmund, King of Fast .Vni^lia, was TEXTILE LONDON. 177 l)rou_!^'ht to London from l-)ur\- St. Rdniuncls, it was taken into the City through the postern gate, and so etiicacious \\a^ the presence of tlie dead saint, tliat lame men were made wliole and leaped for joy. Cripj^legate was used as a prison, as indeetl were most of the interiors of the City /, ^'** t * Tel SrKK \t\ ., Mi^rj^- <-=:^-' Tin; .\I..\NCHEbTEK HOTEL, .M IlEKSG.-VlE STKEEl. gates at some time or other. According to the old maps, the site of Cripplegate was exactly opposite Little Wood Street. The tow n ditch or fosse was just beyond it, and skirted the City walls, but this ^\•as in very early days ; beyond the walls was a wide moor which will be noticed when we arrive at the street called London Wall. The following quaint TEXTILE LONDON trader's token is extant, and is interesting, too, because of its connection w ith Cripplegate : — obverse: " At the yearne shopp " (a Bell). Reverse : " At the postern gate." Close by Cripplegate, but without the walls, stands the famous Church of St. Giles. It was founded by Alfune, first Prior of St. Bartholomew's Monastery (a.d. 1090). The church was burnt down a.d. 1545, but a record of its principal monuments remains. A remembrance of Thomas Piusbie is (juaint and rh}thmical : — " r^our full Loads of the best char- coales He would have bought each yeere, iVnd Forty Dozen of Wheaten Bread, For poor Householders here." — (.\.D. 1575.) An ale Ijrewer, Richard Langley, has his merits and his benefactions set out in sprightl)- measure : — " .\nd when he dyed he gave his Mite, All that did him befall For e\er once a year to Cloath, St. Giles his Poore withal), All Saints he 'pointed for the Day, Gowns, Twenty, ready-made, With Twenty Shirts, and Twenty Smocks, As they may best be had." Mere, too, was buried " the learnctl John Fo.xe, w riler of the acts ant! monu- ments of the English ChiuTh, jr.wiN STREET. ' S^V i ^I'ld skilful Robcrt TEXT 11. K LOXnON. 179 Glover, alias Sommcrsct Herald, 1588." John Speed, tailor and anti(|uai-ian, was l)uried in St. (liles', and received an eles^ant Latin eulogy. He faithfidly served three nionarchs — Elizabeth, James, and Charles. He died A.u. 1629, or t\\ent)-fi\e years after John Stow. It is worthy of remark that John Speed and John Stow were jjoth tailors, and Fabyan, the ehronieler, who died earlier than eitlier, was a mercer and Sheriff". Another inserij)tion was to the memory of Kdmund Harrison, em- broiderer to three King's — James I., Charles I., and Charles H. " Left the troubles of this world 19th of January, 1666." The tomb of John Milton ma\- be seen in St. Ciles' Church to-da\" ; he died .\.i). 1674. Moiv than fift\- years before the great poet's death, his admired master, ( )li\-er Cromwell, was married in St. ( iiles'. The curfew bell used to rinq,' niQhtl\- from the steeple of this church, and from that at .St. ALu'\-le-Bow, West Cheap. " The shiv'ring wretches at the curfew sound Dejected sank into their sordid beds, And through the mournful gloom of ancient times Mused sad, or dreamed of better." The bells of St. Giles' still regularly ring \\ ith familiar tunes of h)-mns and ballads, and the statel) notes fall soothingh upon the ears of the THE TiASl ION OF Oil) LONDON W.VI.L, ST. CTILF.S CIirRrilYARD, CRIITI.EG.^TF.. i8o TEXTILE LONDON. busy passer-b)', as they ha\e upon the writer's many a time. The citizens take great care of St. Giles' Church now. Its churchyard is trim anil possesses the most interesting relic of old London — a bastion of old London wall. It is in good preservation, and likely to last for centuries to come. There is a modern drinking fountain in the avenue which bisects the churchyard ; it is a modest successor to that boss of clear water which Lord Mayor " Dick " \\diittington had set up in the churchyard wall. In the ancient churchyard there was a pool of water 30 deep that a person was drowned therein. ^^'Mm FORE STREET (THE FORE STREET WAREHOUSE COMTANV, I.TD, FORE STREET. Fore Street derived its name from the fact of its running before the gate or postern of Cripplegate, as may be inferred from the following remark by Stow : " W^ithout Cripplegate, Fore Street runneth athwart before the gate." between Fore Street and Lond(Mi \\'all was the City ditch, which in earl)- da)S would present much the same appearance as the fosse which runs rountl the outmost walls of the Tower of Lomlon to-day, supposing that the sluices were lifted, and Thames water allowed to llow o\-er the deep wiile trench. The water which llowed all round the walls of the old '^^ij\\v;r Y FORK STRKIiT, LOOKING TOWARUS ST. C.II.Es', CRIPPLEGATE. TEXTILE LONDON. 183 City came from the river of Wells, the \\';illl)r()()k, and fi-oin a stream whieh arose near Holywell. The waters o( the fosse em|)tictl them- selves into the Thames at what is now Blackfriai-s Ihadge, on the south-west, and on the north-east the water ran round the eii-eum- vallation of the Tower of London. On the north side of I-ore Street was the moor which was a marshy or fenny ground. Moor Lane and Finsbur)' {Fe//shuiy) preserve to us the memory of the place and its early condition. Li the days of Edward IL, Finsbury and Moorfields were let for four marks a year. There the citizens used to hunt water- fowl, and in the ^\■inter, says Fitzstephen, " A\hen the \ast lake w hich waters the wells of the City towards the north is hard frozen, the youth disport themselves on the ice. They place certain bones — the leg bone — of some animal under the soles of their feet by t)ing them round their ancles." This writer's description of Norman London is li\ely and truthful to a degree. Describing the district which was bounded by London Wall he says : " On the north are corn-fields, j)astui"es, and delightful meadows, intermixed with jjleasant streams, in which stands many a mill whose clack is so grateful to the ear." His description of a horse-race of the period is entrancing ; sometimes two jocke)'s con- tended, and sometimes three. " The horses, on their |)arts, are not without enudation ; they tremble, are impatient, and continuall\- in motion, and at last the signal once gi\en, they strike, de\ our the course, hurrying along with unremitting velocit}'. The jocke)'s ins])ired with the thoughts of applause and hopes of victory, clap spurs to the willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries." The best description of a modern Derby is not so eloquent. Fitzstephen was a monk of Canterbury, and the probable date of his description o( London was a.d. i 147. If any reader should have the opportunity of consulting the pictorial ALip of Ralph Aggas, he will see for himself four windmills going merrily just outside the northern wall. Cows are 184 TEXTILE LONDON. browsing in the meadows about the site of the present Moorgate Street station. The washerwomen are spreading their clothes upon the green grass near 1)\-, whilst a little further oft", sa\' on the site of W'orship Street, sturd)' }"eomen will be seen twanging their good yew bows. But we must dwell no longer un that far-off time, nor upon Fore .Street which prompted the digression. Two lines must be given, however, to the descrijjtion of a trader's token, and then the reader will be asked to step into Grub Street : — "TTT*" Obverse : " Sarah Willcocks in For Street " (7 stars). Reverse :" Milener, Her halfe penny, 1C68 " (S.W.). The words in brackets above, as elsewhere, indicate the device or initials which were generally in the centre of the token. MILTON STREET. Milton Street used to be called Grub Street. The change is a happy one. It is a posthumous act of justice to associate so great a name with the homes of those poor writers — some able, some unable, but all w retched — who lixed scjualidl)- in Grub Street. The place is defined by MILTON sIKEEl (l ORMERLY ORUli STKEEl). TK XTir.K r.n\Mn-)X. iX; Dr. lohnsdii as follows: — "("iru!) Street, the name of a street in Lontlon nuieh inhabited b\- writers of small histories, dietionaries, and temporary poems : w henee an\' mean produetion is calleil '(irnl) Street.' " Mr. Hoole told Johnson that he was born in Moorfields, and had been partly educated in (".rub Street. "Sir," said the Doctor, " )()u have been rei^ularly educated ! " Swift ul not without a final word as to the history of the ancient street. As the scope of this work will onlv cover the Cripplegate end of the street of London Wall, it will be fitting to refer first to the Church of St. Alphage. It is an old founda- tion, and when IIenr\- \'III. suppressed iIk monasteries the church was demolished. Maitland states that in his da)- the church then standing- was the south aisle of St. Mar\- kdsing Spital, a religious foundation in Aldermanburw The Church of St. Alphage was the first in London dedicated to a saint of that name. Its record of monuments is not e.\tensi\e, l)Ut one of a worthy Alderman state> that he had had t\\\) virtuous wixes when here below, and by them many happy children. Another is the farewell brief of a man of law : — 'A\^orld adieu, friends adieu, life adieu " (a.d. 1684). The reader w ill perceive that there is a marked reserx'ation of legal opinion in the laconic exclamations of which the brief is composed. Just beyond the old churchyard of St. Alphage, but on the other side of the way and close to Wood Street, is the Hall of the Curriers' Company, a handsome modern building of fiorid design. The origin of the Company was prior to a.d. 1363. The Tinplate Workers' Company has its headcjuarter-. in the premises of the Curriers I lall. This fraternity was of later birth ; it was incorporated under Charles II. .\.D. 1670. London wall itself was a monument of the later Rt)man period, and all that now i-cmains of it abo\-e grouml is the bit i>reser\ed in the churclnard of St. .\li)h;ige and the bastion in St. C.iles' churchyard. This bastion is supposed to be of the time of AKVetl. The fountlations of London wall in the \icinity ha\e been examined. The soil upon which the fabric rests is a loam\ cla\ , upon which a layer of angular Hints was deposited, U])()n these was set a course of angular uncut Kentish i"ag stone, then two courses of Roman tiles, after which the other courses of llint and rag stone were repeated in t)rder. 'I he width \\ T p: X T I L E L o .v n O X . 187 of the wall at its foundation was 9^ feet. When some alterations were beinij;' made to tlie front of Messrs. Stapley tK: Smith's warehouse in London Wall a feA\- years ago, the workmen came upon the old wall \\hich there runs parallel with the pavement. They found the cement so hard and the stones of the wall so immoxeable, that the foreman of works was almost beside himself at the unforeseen expenditure of time, ' I ! 1 1 ) , i i i : I ! j I ■ r-» ic. .VLril.vcii nuRiAi. gkoumi, with imkmo.n m mi) uj.NhO.N' wai.t,. to say nothing of the destruction of cold chisels, which the remowal of the ancient masoniA' caused him. Wlien the Long Parliament of A.I). 1644 ^\■as struggling against the King, it was ordered that London wall should be repaired, and cannon mounted in the embi'asures. When the terrible Plague of a.d. 1665 raged so furiousl\ that 130,000 persons \\ere estimated to ha\e died of it, Defoe relates an incident. i88 TEXTILE LONDON. which, if it were not for the horror of the situation of the actor therein A\oukl be ridiculous. It seems that a wandering j)i|)er used to amuse the people bv playing on his pipes, and 1)\" his simple talk ; the people in return would feast him. One night he had fared at their hands not ^\■isely but too well. So he fell asleep on the to]) of a stall in the street towards \\'hen the house near at the bell which approaching they brought and laid it sleepmg vag- he was dead, John Hay- ton, arrived, the two bodies instruments purpose, and u p o n the nor did the wake at this length the at the place deatl were to Cripplegate. people of a hand heard heralded the dead cart, out a body beside the rcUit, thinking too. \Vhen ward, the sex- he took up w" i t h the used for the threw them ghastly heap ; sodden piper u s a g e . A t cart stopped where the be shot out ; leail out from I.O.NDON WALL (WOOD SlREEl' E.NLl). "the fellow a\\cd -le-Bow, Cheapside, 30, 6q, 100, 103, 1 2b, 17Q Magdalene, Knightrider Street, 47 Milk Street, T26 Staining, Oat Lane, no Churchyard of, 1 20 Somerset, Churchyard of, \6 St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, Knightrider Street, 47 St. Nicholas, Olave, Knightrider Street, 47 St. Olave, Silver Street, n3, ibi St. Pancras, Sopers' Lane, 70 St. Petei, Cheap, 96, 109, no, nb St. Paul's Cathedral (Old), 3, 22, 27, 167 the building finished, q burnt down, 9 the Cloisters, 6 degradation of, 10 the height of, 4 the nave, 4 punishment of the Duchess of Gloucester, 5 Queen Mary at, 5 steeple fired, 4 tall steeple, 4 St. Paul's Cathedral (Modern), cost of, 12 St. Sepulchre, Newgate Street, 59 St. Swithin, Cannon Street, 36, 92 St. Thomas' Chapel upon the Bridge, n;, 155 St. Thomas ye Apostle, 46 St. Vedast, Foster Lane, 74, 121, 124 City Ditch, the, 177, 180, 183 Guilds, splitting up of, 33 their object, 33 City of London Literary and Scientific Institu- tion, 173 City of London School, 127 City Walls, 171, 176 Civil Law, Doctors of, 38 Clayton, Sir Robert, a magnificent Lord Mayor, bo Clerkenwell, Ib3 Cloak Lane, b4 Clothes Stall, the ancient, 37 Clothyard, the, 37 Coach and Harness Makers, Company of, 166 Coining, abuses of, 93 Coleridge, bi Colet, Dean, 22, 76 College of Advocates, 40 the Civil Law Doctors, 39 Physicians, 46, 56, 57 College Hill, 45 Commonwealth, the, 10, 102 Compter, Bread Street, the, qq, n3 Wood Street, the, n3 Conduit in Cheapside, 9 Cooke, Sir Thomas, K.B., 99 Cook, Son & Co., Messrs., Warehouse of, 2^, 26 Coopers' Company, 150 Cordwainers' Company, Hall of, 33 their " Housewarming," 34 Cordwainers, the, 102 Cordwainer Street, 103 Cornhill, 94 Cornish, Alderman, hung, drawn and quartered, 81 Corporation of London, 10 Correction, Instruments of, 3' io6 INDEX. Cotton, Sir Robert B., 80 Coiirtauld, Samuel & Co., Messrs., 155 Court of Arches, 39 Grace Collection of Prints, 4, 06, 113, 164 Mr., Print Collector, 26 Craven, Sir William, 90 Creed Lane, 3, 19, 45 origin of the term, 51 Cripplegate, 176 a Pris South Sea Stock, 77 Spain, King of, 9 " Special " warehouses, 35 Speed, John, antiquarian, 179 " Spread Eagle " a celebrated sign, 28 sign of Milton's father, 98 " Spur " Money, 1 1 Stage Coaches, 28 in Aldersgate Street, 176 " Standard," Cheapside, the, 73 Stanley's, the mansion of, 46 Stapley & Smith, Messrs., their excavations, 187 Stationers of St. Paul's Churchyard, 51 Stepney, 22 Stewkeley's Street, 67 Stinking Lane, 62 Stockings, the first pair of, 118 Stone, the London, 36 Stow, John, antiquarian and historian, 46, 51, 63, 70, 76, 77, 90, 92, 95, 98, 99, 104, III, 114, 121, 125, 136, 737, 140, 152, 153, 154, 150, 165, 172, 179 Stratfiird Bridge Church, 70 INDEX. 205 Sugar, John, his monument, 47 Sutton, John, Alderman, and Jack Cade, 134 Thomas, founder of Charterhouse, 52 Swift, Dean, his satire on Dr. Partridge, 34, 185 " Swan," the sign of, 86 " Swan-wilh-two-Necks, Gresham Street, 145 meaning of, 145 Tai'ling, Thomas & Co., Ltd., Messrs., ware- house of, 143 Tailcr, the, 34 Temple of Peace, the, 70 Tenison, Archbishop, 44 Textile Traders in Aldersgate Street, 174 St. Paul's Churchyard, 27 Wood Street, 1 16 statistics of, 128, 156 toast of the, 30 cause of the increase of, 117 warehousemen, rapid increase of. 35 warehouses, their rise, 04 Thames, the. 3, 25, 145, 172, 180 Embankment, the, 127 Theodosius, 70 "Three Cups," the, Aldersgate Street, 176 Three Nun Court, 1 5 5 Tillotson, Dr., 136 Tinplate Workers" Company, 1S6 Tire Women of Paternoster Row, 52 Toledo. Bishop of, 143 Tournaments in Cheapside. 77 Tower of London, the, 3, 42 Royal, 45 Traders lived over their shops, 175 their signs, qS tokens, 87, 123, 175, 178, 184 Trading classes, dress of, 56 Travelling, the difficulty of, 166 Trinity Court, 173 Triumphal Arch for Charles II., 81 Tyburn, 73 sweet water from, i ;4 Tyler, Wat, 73 Union betwee.n England and Scotland, 2; Verulam, Lord, 100 Vintner's verses, 102 Vyse, Sons & Co., Messrs., 120 Wallbrook, the, 57, 92, 183 Wales, founding of Charity Schools in, 44 Walls of the City, 186 Walworth, William, 85 Wardrobe, the King's, 42 Warehouses, "general" and "special," 3; Warehousemen, te.xtile, rapid increase of, 3; statistics concerning, 35 in Wood Street, 116 Warwick, the Earl of, 42 his mighty feasting, 55 Lane. 55, 00 the mural tablet in, ;c Water for the City, 8 i forcier, the, 81 from Tyburn, 154 Watheling Street, qo Watling Street, 19, 22, 25, 27, 36, 89, 91, Wax Chandlers' Hall, the, 130 Company, 140 Weavers, the, 37 Flemish, the. 36 of Spitalfields, 95 their craft, 158 Hall, the, 123, 150, 153 Wednesday Club, the, 97 Well Street, 163 Wells, river of, 183 some famous, 163 Welsh Hall, the, 138 people, ignorance of, 43 West Cheap, 25, 69, 125 Westminster to the old City, 3 40. 7^, 74 Westmoreland, Earl of. 174 " White Horse," the, Friday Street, 97 Whittington, Sir Richard, 58, 76, 136, 138 burial of, 4; his tomb rifled, 46 Wholesale Warehouses in Cannon Street, 34 204 INDEX. William the Conqueror, 6, 65, 70 Prince of Orange. 25, S; Williams, Sir J., and the King's jewels, 155 Willyamson and the stockdoves, 80 Windsor Court, 164 Lord, 161, 162 Wire Workers' Company, the, i 5 1 Wool Exchange, the, 152, 153 and Basinghall Street, 152 Woollen Cloth, export of, 37 sale of, 153 manufacture, encouragement, and dis- couragement of, 3'S Wolsey, Thomas, Archbishop nf Canlerburv, 21 Wood, Mr., Sheriff, no, 121 Wood Street, 36, 71, 01, lOo cakes of, 116 fire of (1.SR2), 120 Wood Street, origin of the name, 120 and the Royal Society, 114 the plane tree in, loq Woodcock, Ralph, his large family, 154 Wordsworth and Wood Street, loq Worship Street, 184 Wren, Sir Christopher, 12, 47, 57, 60, 63, 6q, 96, 97, 100, loi, 103. 112, 113, 121, 150, 155) 159 Wren, Sir Christopher, death of, 16 the epitaph of, 1 5 York, city of, 89 Duke of, and Christ Church, i>o Young, Launcelot, master glacier to Majesty, 1 1 1 Young Men's Christian Association, 173 Ypres, Inn, 46 Her ARMS OK THK GOI.P .AND SILVEK WVRE DKAWEKS COMr'ANV. I,0\F. I.ANE, ALDEKMANBLKV. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Textile London. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Abbott, Arthtr J,, 44, St. Paul's Cluuvliyaicl, K.C. Adams, Hakry, 20, Nicholas Street, Manchester. Adams, Herbkrt J., 60, Cannon Street, E.C. Adams, William S., 20, Xich(ilas Street, Man- chester. Alldkr, J. T., Riishey Green, Catford. Amiki., Francis, Ehns Bank, Wliallcv Road, Mancliester. Amsdex, F., 9, Falcon Street, E.C. Armstrong, T., and Co., Market Pkice, Christ- chnrch, New Zealand, Arnison, George N., 5, Tavistock Pkice, Snn- deriand. Artiitk, James C, 39, Westbonrne Grove, W. AssER, Walter j. T., jo, St. Panl's Chnrchvard, E.C. Atkinson, J. F. H., 30, .Vortli Joim Street, Liverpook Baddelev, W. C, Helston, Cornwalk Bagley, J. W., 15, High Pavement, Nottingham. Balding, G., 72, St. Panl's Chnrchvarck E.C. Bannister, T. P., 35, Baker Street, I'ortman Stinarc, W. Barker, John, j.p , 83, Kensington High Street, w. Barlow and Jones, Ltd,, 2. Porthnid Stieet, Manchester. Barnes, Arthur, ;i,}, Old Change, E.C. Barnes, Arthur Ale.xr,, The Red House, Upton Lane, Forest Gate, Essex. Barnes, Harold A., b.a., Cronipton F'old, Breightmet, Bolton. Barratt, Samuel, a.r.c.s., 55, Wood Street, E.C. Bayer, Charles, 31, London Wall, E.C. Bayley, J. and 'l\. Cousin Lane, Dowgate Hill, E.C. Beck, S. W., Saxondale, Tiverton, Devon. Benn Bros., 13, Standishgate, WigaiK BENTLi-;v, .\lerei), iS, Watling Street, E.C. Bentley, XL J. A., ly, Xicholl Sqnaie, IvC. Bergmann, J., 7, Bow Lane, E.C. Bettson, Bernhard, 20, Bread Street, EC. Beynon, R., 5, Mansion Honse Street, Xewbnrv, Berks. Blackali.ek, Martin E., Mi, P.nckinghani Palace Road, S,W. Blake, F., 35, King Street, W.C. Blundei.l, J. HiGHr, Caterham. Body, C. .\., C), Cannon Street, E C. D D !I0 LIST OF S U B S C R I B E R S. BoLDKKo, Will.: AM, 70, Lisson Grove, \.\V. 1 Ci.akkk, J. A., Christchurch, Xew Zeahincl. BoiCH, CoATii. aiul Co., 7, Breud Street, E.C. , Clarke and Kendle, 27, Queen Street, Cardiff. BoucH, John, 7, Bread Street, E.C. BouLTOX,J.jEKFERiEs,AlbionHouse,Cirencester. Breeze, John L., 70, Lisson Grove, X.W. Brice, S., 64, Bread Street. E.C. Bridge\v.\tek, F. M., 20, St. Paul's Cluuchyard, E.C. Briggs, Geo., and Co., 2, Little Love Lane, E.C. Bright, John H. \i., ioa. Great Portland Street, W. Brook, E. D., 40, Wood Street, E.C. Browx, Robert A , 107, Hatton Garden, E.C. Browne, George Bl'ckston, m.k., 80, Wimpole Street, W. Bryan, W. Johnson, 40, Outrani Road, Addis- eomhe, S.E. BfCKiNGiiAM, J. H., 93, Wood Street, E.C. Bl'kman, '1". C, "/<■), Kiii.nlitiider Stieet, l^.C. Burt, Robert, and Co., 27, St. Paul's Church- yard, E.C. BiRTON, P. H. (Caldecott, Burton, and Co.), Bav Street, Toronto, Canada. BfKTON, W. K,, I), St. Paul's Chnivhvard. E.C. Bf'rr, IL, l•',ller-^li^•, GnniR'rsburv. Cai.linciIorii, W. H., liuviK- Ildusc, Mount I'-lihr.iiiu. Tiuibiidi^e Wells. Cai.i.ingiiam. 1'"r\nk H. (" Sinipsdn's "i, 76, Clieapside, E.C. Ca.\ii'I',i;i,i., J. W., 27, Witjiuore Street, W. Cami'IN, Lacv, and Co., 3, Mill(]n P)iuldin.L;s, Watlin}^ Street, E.C. Cashii.i,, J. 'I"., Derweiit lions,-, 35, Downs Cl.^tworthy, Chas. H., 46, Derwent Grove, East Dnlwich. Clegg, John G., Clacton-on-Sea. CoE, Henkv, and Co., 12, Old Chaiij.;e, EC. Cole, AfG., and Sons, ii, Ne\vf,'ate Street, E.C. Collins, Phii.ii' George, 6, Bedford Row, W.C. Collins, F. L. H., and Sons, 76, Cheapside, E.C. CoLTMAN, W. and R., 28, Chinch Ciate, Leicester. CoMERFORn, M. C, 25, Lavender Gardens, Lavender Hill. S.W. Cook, Frederick L., m.t , 22, St. Paul's Churclivard, E.C. Cook, Wvndham F., 22, St. Paul's Churclivard, E.C. Cooke, Samtkl, 12, Fridav Street, E C. Cooper, Fkedk., Birdlnrst, .\uckland Road, Norwood, S.E. Copestake, Lindsay, Crampton, and Co., 5, Bow Chnrchvard, E.C. CORHY, |. K.. }(), St. Paul's Churchyard, E.C. Coster, |oiin,4, K in j^ Street, E.C. CofLTM AKi), Walphk C,.,2, Kiiii^'s Road, Sloaiic Si]uare, S.W. C().\ and lu)W.\Kl)S, 16, Old Cavendish Street, \\'- Crisp, I-"., I p.. White House, New Southi;ate. Cross, Ricii.vrd. i.\, W'ond Stieet, E.C. CRrri-; and Lawki-nci', 14, Kiui.;htridei Sliei't, i-;.c. Ci'i.LiM(ii;i-. R., 11), Xichiill Si,|nare, ICC. Road, Claplim, X.l-:. j Clapiiam, John A., Hn\iU- Nook, Gilshead, Darhv, A. G., 1 24, Wo.hI Street, E.C. Binj.;iev, Vnrks, | Davi-v.J. IIiNcsroN, 33, IIi,i;h Street, Exeter. 1,1 ST OK sr use !>; I II K i^s. !II Davis, A. j,, 31, I'.uiltrv. K.C. Davis. |., ii.Chiisl Chuicli I'diaec, CliLlleii- Ikuii. Fknwick, I'liii.ii', 1, Albert Villas, Muutaguc Rnatl, Hounslow. FiNDi.AV, loiiN D., Kallvirk, X.Ii. Dkan, a. \V., -'9, Kini; Sticcl, Ciivcnl riarilcii, KisiiKk, .)., 7, Hnlhoni Circus, ML". W.C. DiciiiiNHAM and Fk'ICKHODV, 2-j. Wii^inorc Street, \V. DiCNSHAM, EinvAKi), Olden Lodge, Piiiley, Sunev. DoUBLKDAV, W. H , (iddlnn.in Street, 10. C DfMMICTT, RODI'.KT, iS I , Slinreditcli , E. DrxKEKLKV, Jamks MrsKt;i'r, 4, (iiittei- r>ane, E.C. DuNKiNSON, W. j., "Glen Wynne," Chapter Road, Willesden Green. Di'KANi', J.C, " En.gadine," Ashbumhani I'.uk, Hastings. DvMOCK, Rev. lonN, .M.A., Kenmay, Aberdeen- shire. Dvsox, .\. K., .1.1'., Lee House, Sale, Cheshire. Edkidgk, Romcur, 64, .Vldennanbin\-, I'^.C. l<2i)\v.vKi)S, E. T., 36, St. Paul's Ciiurehyard, \\.Q. Elliott, A. E., 30, South ()th Street, Philadel- phia, U.S.A. I Foi-icv, Fkkdk., 151, Kin,gsle\- Road, Princes Paik, Liverpool. FosrKK, PoRTKK, and Co., Ltd., 47, Wood Street, E.C. FowN'Ks Bros, and Co., 71, Gresham Street, l^.C. Fk.wklix, W., and Sons, liailex' Lane, Co\enti\-. Fl'KNICSS, |., 14, Chnrch Street, I Iar|inrhe\', Manchester. Gakd, Madame, et Cii:, 112, Fore Street, E.C. Gayi.kr, W., Portland House, High Street, ^Lu■vlebone, W. Gkak, Thomas N., 70, Lisson Gro\e, X.W. Gibson, H. G. (S. and J. Watts and Co.). jo, Cheapside, E.C. Gill, S., ()1, Lisson Grove, X.W. Glavk, Nolan, 80, New Oxford Street, \\'.C. GoDDAKi), Piiii.ii'. 216, O.xford Street, W. ; GoODALL, F. H., h, Guildhall Chambers, ' Basinghall Street, E.C. Goodwin, C , Gamish Corner, High Uarnet. Ellis, Charlks Walton, Albanv Mills, ^,o,,^,^.,,,.._ Fkedkkick, 55, Buckingham Pal.ice Huddersfield. Ensou, Geokgic Frederick, 6, Newgate Street, EC Evans, David, and Sons, y. Cannon Street, E.C. Evans, D. H., O.xford Street, W. Road, S.W. GoiELKK, George, 81, Shoreditch, E. Graham, William, 24, Coleman Street, \i.Q. Grant, George, Bishoji's Hill, Walton-on- Thames. EwEX, V. W. (John Xoble, Ltd.), 11, Piccadillv, (-,^,,-,,^.^ Stephex Thos.. 6, Albion Buildin.gs, Manchester. F.\ri)i:i., Piiii.i.irsand Soxs, 40, Newgate Street, EC Fal'LKXEU, T. H., V. tiresham Street, E.C. .\lders,gate Street, E.C. Gkibbli-;, Gicorge J., 22, St. Paul's Cinnchyard, E.C. (iKiEFix, W. H., and Co., Post l^ox 202, Pieter- marit/.burg, Xalal, Soutli .Africa. LIST op^ sr Bsc R nU':Ks. Hakuis, CiHOHciK HiCNKV, (Irovc House, 70, Inston. CnAKi.KS, 67, Kiikgatc. Bradford. Yiiiks. Irving, Llovd, and Co.. 6, Cripplcgatc I^iiildiiiiis, E.C. Lissoii Grove, X.W. Harrison", Gkorge (Crisp and Co., Lid.), Seven Sisters Road, X. Hakvkv, J. MoK<;.\N, Boluin Lodge, East Barnet, Herts. Hayes. C. F., 14, Friday Street, E.C. Havm.vx. C. G., 53, l-5read Street, E.C. Herts, A. C. (Herts, Son, and Co., Ltd.). Wood ' j ^,^^.,^^ Kichaki., 17, Carter Lane, E.C. Street, E.C. Hesse, Miss, The Lodge, Hasleniere, Surrey. Hewitt, E. R., 182, Blaekfriars Road, S.E. Hkvmaxn and Ai.I':xani>i:k. Xottnigliam. HiGGiNS, G. Randei.i,, Rye Lane. IVekliani. S.E. Hill, Sidney, .t.r.. Langford House, Langford, East Somerset. HiNTOX, A., GratTIiani, Petworth. Sussex. Hitchcock, Williams, and Co., St. Paul's Cliuichvaid, E.C. HiTCiiiNos. T. \V. '!'.. Sydney, Xew South Wales. Ilmiiixs. Oliver, and Bennett, 64, Friday Street, E.C. Hogg and Miichi:ll, 38, Portland Street, Man- chester. IIoi'L Bros.. Warwick Stpiare, E.C. HoRNCAsiLi;, Waliik' R., Taynioulh House, Aiiihurst Road. X.IC. HoRNi;. Xewmax, iSo, Portobello Road. Xorth Kensington, W. IIowAKP. G. C. \(>. .\MK-y i^oad. SI. John's Kaix, P. 1). M., 47, Fridav Street, E.C Wood, X.W. HoWK, J. W. (Liberty and Co.|, jS, Warwick Street, W. Jacoh, E. S., Wardrobe Chambers, Doctors' Coninions, E.C. Jacques, Riciiai;ii, 7, Holborn Circus, E.C. |i:xxiXGS, Wm., 22, St. Paul's Churchyard, E.C. Jerrari), T. W.. 124. Wood Street, E.C. Johnson, A., 124, London Wall, E.C. JoHNSTONic, E., Dunedin House, Basuighall Avenue, EC. Jones Bros., HoUowav Road. X. Jones, Henry (Copestake, Lindsay, CraniptoiL and Co.), Piiidential Buildings, Ports. mouth. Jones and Hu;c;ins, Lttl., Rye Lane, Peckham, S.E. Jones, Peik!; R., Sloane Stjuare, S.W. Jones, Sidney H., Sloane Square, S.W. Jones, T.. 6, Xewport Road, Middlesbrough. Jones, W. P., Holloway Road, X. Jowers, C, 77, Oneen \'ictoria Street, E.C. JowE'n. WlLLr\^^ 61, Gresham Street, E.C. K.w, Rom;i;r, -'Si, Rochdale Road, Ikuy, Lancashire. KavI'., .\li-'RI';d, (>, King Street, Hudtlerstield. IhnvELL, Edg.xr II.,;,,St. P.iursChnrchy.ucl.E.C. Kean, Willlxm Charlics, 64, St. Peter's Ro.ul, Howi'.l.L, Hl.NRV, iSo, Old Street. ICC. Hudson. H. M.. \t), .\l(U'rmanbur\-, ICC. IngoLDUV, W., _>5j, Peckham I\'\e, SIC. Handsworth, Birmingham. Keicling, Wili;s, and Co.,2,Cjresham Street, E.C. Kend.vl, Samii.l B., Deansgate, Manchester. . Kr.Rsii\w, J\Mi;s, Charterhouse Square, E.C. LIST O !•■ S r.sc K' I li !•: iv's. KiLsnv, I''., "SalciiKi," Mcllnuiiiic Slicel, Ade- laide, Australia. KiMi'ioN, A II., JO, Caiiiuiii Street, IvC. KlN(;\vii.i„ J. X., K), XielidU Scjiiare, l^.C. i\iK'Kii.\M, GiiOKGH \V. C, Hatllev Hall, New IJ.uiict, Herts. Laki:, a. !•"., ]|, Leatleiili.iil Street, E.C. L.wi), Ki)\v.\KU, J3, Lawienee Lane, K.C. L.\KKIXG, Cii.\i^Li';s, i--.s..\..\., X'oiwieh. L.wv, Fk.wk, 30, Kiii.nhtrider Street, E.G. L.wv, T., Heston Lodt;e, Islewotth. L.WTOX, C. E., 52, Coleman Street, E.C. L.WTOX, Mrs., Collintjhoiirne, Xorhitmi. Lei-;, CIlo. H v., and Co., Basnetl Street, Liverpool. Lek, HiiXRY \V., 479, Hackney Road, N.E. Lewis, S.amuel, and Co., 11, Holborn Bars, E.C. LucKHUi«T, D. J., I, Elm Grove, Crieklewood, N.W. LuiCEK, \V., jun.. The Grove, Staiiford-le-Hope, Esse.x. .\1.\CKINT0SH, Alex., Colb-Earn, Auehterarder, N.B. MacRae, D. G., 3, Whitehall Court, S.W. MacRae, G. C, Ferndene, IJriniswiek K'oad, Xorbiton, S.W. MacRae, .Mrs., York House, Riclunoud. .\L\iiGETso\, JOHX, 17, Cheapside, E.C. ^Iarshale, Hekhekt C, Vere Street, W. Marshall, Thos. E., 25, Gresham Street, E.C. M.vrox, Leoxari) J., m.\., Grosvenor Lodge, Wimbledon. Matthews, F. Masox, 2, Oat Lane, E.C. ALvvER, L., Unity Buildings, Dearborn Street, Chicago, 111., U.S.A. McIxTVRE, J. P., 3, Xew Basingliall .Street, E.C. McIxTYRE. L. W., 3, Xew Basingliali Street, E.C. McLeoi), J. Morrison, 2, Hilldrop Road, Camden Ri)ad, N. Medwav, James, 22, Hendon Lane, Fnieiilev, N\ Meli!ourne, G., Trinity House, 71, Boar Lane, Leeds. Meverhelm, .Mad.mie J., 1, Rue de Cerisoles, Paris. MiLiiL-RX, T. E., 39, St. l',uirsCiunehy,n-d, E.C. Miles, Hexrv, 25A, CInnvh Street, Liverjiool. Mii.r.s, W., II, Oakley Street, S.W. MiLWARD, Hv., and Soxs, Ltd., Washforcl Mills Redditch. MrrciiELL, Bros., Swan Street, Breehni, X.B. Mitciii:ll, Roderick, 10, Bread Street, E.C. I Mitchell, S., 32, Cheapside, E.C. MoKELAXJ), J. L., 132, Lordship Road, Stoke Xewington, N. Morgan, W., and Co., 44, Hanover Street, Edinburgh. MoRLicv, J. and R., Fletcher Gate, Nottingham. MoRLEv, S. HoEE, M'., i8, Wood street, E.C. MoTTERSHEAi), JoHX W., 54, Cauoou Street, Manchester. MuiR, Michael, Market Place, Selkirk, N.B. MuLLER, H., 60, Queen Victoria Street, E.C. MuRRANE and Co., 59, Friday Street, E.C. Newell, F. G., Manchester Hotel, Aldersgate Street, E.C. NEwrrr, T. E,, 84, Siioredilcii, E. XlCHOLSOX, DAXIEL,St. Paul's Churchv.ud, E.C. Nicholsox, J. O.. J.l>., I'pton, near Maccleslield. NiELi), W., 29, Bath Street, Bristol. NoRTHAM, W., 77, Queen Victoria Street, E.C. -'14 LIST OF SU use IM I! ]•: RS. Oati.ev, \V., 28, Alclcnnaiibiii-v, K C. OcLKE, Hexkv, 70, Lisson Grove, X.W. OciG, R. A. (Copland and Lye), SanchiflKill Street, Glass,'o\v. Ol.DiNG, B. S., 46, Xew.^ate Street, E.C. Ol.lviCK, F. S., 2J. \\'\'^mitvu Street, \V. Ol.lviCR, Wai.TI'.K, 21), Noble Street, K.C. Ol.i\i':K,\\'ll.l.l.\\t, Albion Honse, Jedbnr,t;h, X.B. OiA'i';v, Edwin" A., 2J,St. Paul's Churelnard, E.G. Page, Miss, Geirafd House, 42, Herbert Road, Wimbledon. Palmer, A., 39, St. Paul's Clunehyard, E.G. Paktingtox and NoKRiN'GTOX, 72, Wood Street, E.G. Pascoe, Wii,i,iam Hi'.xm", 5S4, Gluncli Street, Richmond, \'ietoria, Australia. I'Arrictwox, D. L., 55A, Knijj;htrider Street, E.G. P.vrnsox, Fkedk., 8, Gray's Imi Si|uaie, W.G. Pawsoxs and Leaks, Ltd , y, St. Paul's Gliureh- vard, E.G. (Two Copies.) PayxI'., W'm. Si'icxcek, 11, Alilermanbnrv, li.G. Peacock, Thomas Fkici)K.,k.s.a., l'"eriile.i,Sidenii. Peake, J. W., 247, Regent Street, W. PiCGEEK, F. C, 57, Wood Street, E.G. Pexgeelev, F. \\'., ;4, iMiday Street, E.G. PeXTOXV, H., 22. ILunsell Street, E.G. Pheasaxi', Wii,i,iam, 31, Gresliam Stieel, E.G. Pheei's, TiioM.vs, 22, Aldermanbury, E.G. I'liii.Eii's, MoKEEV, 19, Redcross Street, E.G. Pii.GKiM, Walter J. J., 97, Wood Street, ICC. Prreiii'.i;, \V. X., 49, Cross Street, Manehestei . Pl.\tt, Thomas IL, GUI Gli.uige P.nildnigs, Old Gliange, E.G. PoxilXG, Hkxrv, Jagerslontein, Orange l*"ree State, S Africa. Pope, Georgic F"kei)erick, jl.\., Fall River Massachusetts, U.S.A. Porter, H. (i., ,ind Co., 15, St. Paul's Chinch- yard, E.G. PoiMER, El). R., 47, Wood Stieet, E.G. Priest, A., 29, He\is ^Lu■ks, E.G. PcRVis, Gii.iucrt, 5, Bow Cluuclnard, E.G. RAiiiiii-rs, G. ]. Willi rkicK, .i.i' , 8, Palace Gate, W. Rackstk.\w, M FL, Gpiu-r Street, Islington, X. Ramagic, J., Dunedin, Gonyers Road, Streat- ham, S.W. Raxh"!', H., 19, Victoria Street, Derby. Rees, Rowlaxi), 24, Watling Street, E.G. Rex.\ls, Alderman Sir Joseph, Bart., 108, Fore Street, E.G. Rexi', General, (jlenlhorue, The Downs, Wimbledon. RisDox, TRisiR.NM, 72, St. Paul's Ghnrclnartl, E.G. RouERis. loiix, 72, St. I'anl's Ghurchyarcl, h-.C. RoHER'rs, joiix R., Sal w. IV House, Woocltord, F^ssex. RonilR'l's, 'I". R, 31, Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, X.W. RohI';ri's, T, R., Ltd., I'pper Street, Islington. X. Roiaa-; I s, W'm. I!\\ks, The Manor llou^e, Ham]it(in-on-'l"hauies. RoHixs, GAI)l)^■, and Co., 73, Wood Street, ICC. RoHIXSOX, |i)IIX I'lvlKK, 21(1, Oxford Street, W. RoHixsox, Peter, 216, Oxford Street, W. I^osr:, M \i iTirw, and Soxs, 347, Mare Street, Hackney, X.E. RfSHLV, I'k'AXK, 4, St. Mark's Square, Ivegent's Park, X.W. Russell, J., 27, Milk Street, E.G. LIST () F sr 15 SC R I 11 F, R S. RussKLi., R. P., 13, Watlins Street, E.G. Ryi.axds and Sons, Ltd., 55, Wood Street, E.G. Rylkv, RfV. Edwaki), S.uvatt Rectory, Rick- inanswortli. Sai;!"., FkisDKI^K'K, 60, tirav's Iiiii Road, W'.C. SatxdI'.us, C. J., 17, Rendezvous Street, Follce- stoiie. Savagk, E |. K , 7S, Broadway, Stratford, E. Scarth, T., 5, Bow Ghurchvard, E.G. Skcrktax,\V. B.,4, Love Lane, Wood Street, E.G. Sharman, Arr.usTrs, 16, Knightrider Street, E.G. Sharman", Miss S., JO, West Square, S.E. Shhdki., F. Gi., 6, Abchiuch ^'ard, E.G. Smi'iii'iU), GiEOHgeW. J5, Monkwell Street, E.G. Sherriff, R. B., Ghilconihe Lod.ge, Wiuchester. Shields, Gajit. | , i.i'., (ilenrosa, Xew Milus, \.B. SilKiMl'rox, \\'., Ronpell I'. irk, Tulse IIill.S W. SiMi'sux, A. B., Torrliill, I\ \hiid_L;e, S. Devon. SiMi'SOX, [oHX, 2-], Hi.t;li Street, Guildford. SiMi'Sox, W., and Soxs, 21, Up]ierlicad Row, Leeds. Skicffixgtox, W. F., J4, Sliefliekl Terrace, Kensinjjton, W. Slater and Go, i.\, Ciodlinian Street, FIG. SMrrii.Gjia)., and Soxs, 10, Watlin,;; Stre^-t, E.G. Smiih, Hi;xm-, uS, Lontlon Wall, M.C S.Mrrii, Miss, Teuiiile Farm, Great Marlow. S\nrn, T., North House, Gloucester Place, Briiihtdn. Sxici.GROVE, 1<>HX, Villa St. l-^lnio, Torqnax. SxowDEx, Fi^ici)i:incK, .'Mier.t^laslyn, 1^3, Anilinrst Park, Stamford Hill, X. Soi.I.EV, SvDXEY R, Kelvedon, Solihull. Si'EXCE, JoHX H., 76, St. Paul's Ghurchvard, E.G. Spexce, RoiiERT 6, Wardrobe Place, F2.G. Spexcei.ev, Hexky, -'4, Old Ghan.ye, E.G. Spexcer, Giias. T., Harrow-on-the-Hill. Spexcer, Rethex (Rylauds and Sous, Ltd.), .\Linchester. Spiers, Joseph (The Late), Tottenli.uii P.iik, White Hart Lane, Tottenham. SpRE.uiiu'RY, T., 124, Gheapside, ICG. SiTRK, Wll.l.lA.M, 3, Ghina Lane, Manchester. Stead, Johx D., 46, Friday Street, E.G. Stokes and Hudsox, Stockhrook Mills, Monk Street, Derby. Stkapss, Gi., jun.. Hotel de rF2uroiie, Heiclelbcrg, (iermanv. Street, W. (Liberty and Go.), Re.i^ent Street, W. Swithinp.axk, G. E., i.l.d., St. Gatheriiie's, Honor Oak Park, S.E. Sy.moxs, W. J., 2S, Heathland K'dad, Slamtord Hill, N. T.\M.OK', Joiix, 70, Lisson Grove, X.W. Taylor, Richakd, Bow P.rid,L;e Works, Leicester. Taylor, W. L., 14, GauiKin Street, F2.G. Temple, A. L , 6, Gannon Street, ICG. Texxant, |. .\., Kildoiin, Spring; Gruw, Isle- worth. Tei;ry, FC, 2-j, Wi.t;moie Street, W. TlLXlcHi-.R, J. Wi:i.l.s, Selborne G(iltaL;c, Sander- stead Hill, Surrey. Thatcher, T. G., 53, Bread Street, FCG. Thomas, Johx, iS, Wood Street, ¥..(2. Thomi'SOX, J. W., 22, Basnett Street, Lixerpool. Thomsox, Dr. \\'., Fimlisli Ghih, .\l.u;iei-s. Thorp, Is.\\c, and Soxs, 25, Ghurch Street, Manchester. TicE, Thos., 3c;, Park Hill, Glapham, S.W. Tidswell, F:. and H., 3, Wood Street, E.G. TiEEi:x, (}. [., 5, Bow Ghurchvard, E.G. TiLi.iE, Alex., ly, .\ddle Street, FCG. ToovKV, H. .\., :;, St. P.uil's Ghiirchv.ir