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>••>■■•■•.

LZ> J

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COVENT GARDEN

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COVENT GARDEN

ITS ROMANCE AND HISTORY ' ~

REGINALD JACOBS

•• Where holy (rlAra told their bMds,
And nans oonfeaa'd their eril deeds.
But. oh! sad chaorel Obi ihame to tell
Bow soon k imy to rioe It toll-
How t slaoe iu joiMse appellBtloo
ti Qrand SerasUo t« the uaUon. "

KSaUre. 1116.)

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL
HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LD.

Conuan, uis

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TO KT wirs

THIB WOBX 18 DBDIOAISD

AB A. BKALL IBIBUTB
or LOTS AND AVrXOTIOH

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,.=^1 by Google

PREFACE

In presenting a history of " Corent Garden
and its Immediate N"eighbourhood," I am
conscious of dealing with some subjects
which hare already engaged the attention of
various writers ; but the absorbing interest
of these subjects and their intimate con-
nection with Covent Garden must be my
excuse for haTing sketched them in brief
outline.

My object has been to present to the
public a purely historical and topographical
account of one of the most interesting spots
in the metropolis, written in a brief and
popular form, and therefore I have re-
frained from dealing at any length with
its special business aspects. I have simply

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xii CONTENTS 1

chiefs— The Essex Serpent— Samuel Taylor Coleridge —
Stevens's auction -rooms— New Street— Dr. Johnson at the
" Puie-appla "— Bedfordbury — Sir Francis Knyaaton and
the Museum Minerva- Garrick Street— Eose Street —
Butler— Cbandos Street and its balconies— Sally Salisbury
pp. 186-201

CHAPTEB XU

Long Acre — OrigiDal name — Abode of the coachmakers
—The Duke's Bagnio : a description —The alehouaes— Piior
and Chloe— The Water-poet— Co vent Garden quacks— Par-
tridge and BickerstaET — James Stteet ; celebrated residents
—St. Martin's Hall— Charles Dickens— The Sun public-
house and Ben Jonson pp. 202-217

CHAPTER XIII
Covent GaHeu Market as we know it to-day pp. 21S-243

CHAPTER XIV

Conclusion pp. ai3-252

Appendix pp. 253-26U

Index pp. SOl-sea

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Early VtBW op Covbrt Oakden . FrotUitjrUce

FlSEWOKK DiBFUT CT COVKST QaBOEK . 8

St. Paul's Chobch, Covknt Qabdeh, abodt

1780 16

Tbb West Fsost of St. Paul's CHrscH,
CovEHT Gasdkn, in 1766 . . . . 2i

Paul's Cuukcb, Covemt

B. The Fike at St.
Ga£de^, 1785 .

6. The Wehtmisbtek Hustings iw Fkost or

St. Paul's Chobch

7. LoBD Ascheb's Horss mo the Piazzas in 1796

8. The Piazzas, Covent Qabden, with EsTKAiicE

TO Old Cotent Gaeden Theatre .

9. The Covent Gasdem Piazza ik 1768 .

10. Covent Oabden Mabeet in 17&4 ,

11. Ahotheb Eaklv View of Covknt Oabden
la. The Bow Stbekt Policb Ofoce

13. A PEBsPEcrrvs View of Covint Qabden in

1751

14. Old Covent Oabden Theatre

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

No. nCDN ]

15. DstTBT Lahb Thutbi nr 1806 ....
le. Dbbtbitciion or Cotskt Oaxdkn Thzjltbs bt

Fm, I8S8

17. New Cotbtt Oaxdes Thxatbs

IS. COTXHT QjkBDKM UabIUT AS IT APFEA&ED IN
181&

W. Coyest Qabdin Uabkxt fboh Nosth-webt,

JLBODT 1836

so. Thx VoLDHTKoa' Ball, Flokal Hall .
11. Thi hua Ain> Flao Fumo-uova m Bods
SiBBR

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by Google

[COVENT GARDEN

ITS ROMANCE AND mSTORY "

REGINALD JACOBS

"Wli«re boir triors told Cbelr beads.
And ouiu oonTeaa'd tbelr evil deeds.
But. oh I ud chaage I Oh I sbaiua U

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL
HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LD.

COPTUeBX. 1U3

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TO MT WIFE
THIS WOBK 18 DBDI0A.T1D

AS A SHALL T&IBUTB
OV LOTS AND AFFIOTIOK

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,.=^1 by Google

PREFACE

In presenting a history of " Covent GJarden
and its Immediate Neighboxirhoodj" I am
conscious of dealing with some subjects
which have already engaged the attention of
various writers ; hut the absorbing interest
of these subjects and their intimate con-
nection with Covent (Jarden must be my
excuse for having sketched them in brief
outline.

i frained
^H its spec

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viii PREFACE

added a short account of the rarious fruits
and TBgetablea which axe regularly supplied
in such enormous quantities to Govent
Chhrden and make that market famous
throughout the dvilised world.

Beoihald Jacobs.

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CONTENTS

Early hiatory — Derivation of aame — The first owner-
Bedford House— Sir 'WilUam Cecil's lease— Letting out of
the property pp. 1-10

CHAPTER II

The improvementa— Inigo Jon ea— The BUndial— First
mEirketa held — The letting out of the market-pUce by the
Earl of Bedford— The Stocks Market in the City pp. 11-16

CHAPTER III

A reaidential neighbourhood— Emigration of the nobility
and gentry from the City— The Piazzas and the critics—
First instance of brick construction — The centre of art — Sir
Pet«r Lely, Sir Godfrey Kaeller, Sir James Thornhill,
Richard Wilson, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Rej^nolds, and other
celebrated roaidents of the Garden— Punch's Theatre— Sport
in the PiazstoB— The National Sporting Club pp. 17-37

CHAPTER IV

8t Paul's Church — Cost and date of constrnction— Inigo
Jones— Consecration ceremony— Dispute between the Earl
of Bedford and the Vicar of the parish of St. Martin's-in-

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CONTENTS

the-FieldB— CriticiwuB on the church— First destructive
fir&— Celebrated persona buried there— The churchyard —
The Actors' Church— Tom King's coffee-house- The hust-
ings : exciting scenes— The " Finish "—Statue of Cliarles L ■
at Charing Cross pp. 38-68 |

CHAPTER V

Russell Street and the coffee-bouses— Their Mstory and
importance— The first coffee-house in London— Wills's,
Buttons', Tom's, the Bedford, the Rose— John Dryden—
Pope — The assault on Dryden— Various descriptions of
Wills's-" The Tatler "—Richard Steele and Joseph Addison
— " The Guardian " and " The Spectator " . . pp. 69-78

CHAPTER VI

The celebrated lion's head at Buttons'— The life of a
man of letters in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuriea
— Ambrose Phillips and Pope— The Rose : its correct
situation— Pepys" description— Tom's, and its fashionable
clientele— Tom Davies and Boswelt— Dr. Samuel Johnson
— ChEirles Lamb — His appreciation of the neighbourhood —
The Hummmns— Dr. Johnson's famous ghost story— The
Bedford and its history- David Garrick— The Piazia Coffee-
house—Present-day Russell Street— Hooper's Pharmacy and
the credulous costennonger- The Harp . . pp. 73-98

CHAPTER VII I

Bow Street— Wellington Street- Sir Walter Scott-
Celebrated inhabitants— Tlie Cook Tavern and riot—
Wycherley : his marriage— Dr. John Radcliffe : his eccen-
tricities—The old and modern police-stations— The Metro-
politan Pohce Force— Charlotte Charke— Lawlessness in the
streets— Execution in Bow Street— Sir John Fielding, the
6rst stipendiary magistrate— Crown Court and the Scottish
Church— Broad Court— Sfackl in and Peg WofBngtan— The
Wrekip- Hart Street (now Floral Street) . pp. 93-ns

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^^^^mnt

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTER VIII
it Garden Theatre and the FlomI Hall . pp. 120-138

CHAPTER IX

Dniry Lane— Craven Houae — Olympic and Globe Thea-
tree— Madame Veatris — Lord Cmven and the Thirty Years'
War— Terrible condition of Drury Lane in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries— Celebrated inhabitants of former
days*— Nell Gwynn— Mrs, Bracegirdle— The Cockpit Thea-
tre — Pepya' notes on its destruction— Da venant and Better*
ton— First Drury Lane Theatre— Theatre in Portugal Row
— Burning of Dmry I^ne Theatre — Sheridan and the Houao
of Coromona— The present building— Its recent escape from
destruction — Celebrated players at Druiy Lane— Playgoing
in the time of Charles II.— Present-day scenes- Christmas
pantomime— Outbreak of the Great Plague— Vinegar Yard
and the Whistling Oyster— Old burial-ground in Russell
Court pp. 138-160

H CHAPTEB X

Catherine Street— Brydgea Street—York and TaviaUrck
Streetfl— Tavistock Row— The murder of Miss Ray-
Wimbledon House in the Strand— D'Oy ley's warehouse-
Gaiety Theatre— "The Morning Post "—Lyceum Theatre
and Exeter Change, Wellington Street— The Victoria Club—
" Household Words "—Southampton Street— Covent Garden
Hotel— Maiden Lane— Andrew Marvell- Voltaire — J. M. W.
Turner— The Cider Cellars— Professor Person— Rule's—
Henrietta Street and its fashionable inhabitants

pp. 181-185

^H Bedford and King Streets- Half Moon Street— Cele-
^^Vbrated reaidents— Clay's papier-mftch^ trays— Civil Service
^H! Stores— The Garrick Club— Thackeray, Dickens, and other
^V nembetB— Mahogany first used in King Street— The Indian

CHAPTER XI

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3EU CONTENTS

chiefs— The Ewez Serpest-Suiual Tvlor Oolericlgo—
Steveiu's aactioDTOoma — New Stnet— Dr. Jobnaon at tbs
" Pineapple '—Bedfordbury— Sir FnnciB KnTsaton and
the Hnsenm Hinena— Garriok Street— Bose Street—
Bntlei^Chaadoe Street and ite balconies- Bally SaliahoTy
pp.l8e-S01

GHAPTKB XII

Long Acre— Original name— Abode of the coachmakers
—The Dnke's Bagnio : a dewription— ^Hie alehoneeB— I^or
and Chios— The Water-poet— Corent Qarden quacks— Pu-
tridge and BlckentaiF— Jamee Street : celebrated residents
—St Uartin's Hall— Charles Dickens— The Sun pnblic-
house and Ben Jonson pp. SOS>sn

CHAPTER XIII

Cogent Garden Market as we know it to-day pp. S18-S4S

CHAPTER XIV

Concliuion pp. 343-S68

AppekdIS pp. SK3-S60

Index pp. S61-S69

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Early Vizw ok Co^iiri Oabdkn . Fronlispiece

FiKEWOBK Display in Covekt Gabden . 8

St. Padl'b Chcbch, Covknt Qabden, aboot

1780 16

Tub West Front op St. Paul's Chubch,

CovENT Qasdem, id 1766 .... 24
Thi Fike at St. Paul's Cuusou, Covent

Oabdbn, 1795 32

The Westuiksteb Hdbtincs im Fkost of

St. Padl'b Cucbch W

LoKD Abcheb'b HorsE asd the Piazzas in 1796 49
The Piazzas, Covekt Oakden, with Esteaxlb

TO Old CovenT Oaedeh Tbeatbe . &6

The Covent Garden Pllzza in 1768 . 6i

CoTSNT Oabdek BeLikset nr 1794 . . . ao

Akothes Eably View ot Covent Gabden . 96
The Bow Stbebt Police OypicE . . .112
A PraaPEcnvE View or Covent Oabden in

1751 138

Old Covkkt Oabdsn Thxatbb . lu

r.,q,-7^1hyGOOg\e

xhr LIST OF OLUSTRATIONS

u. DuTKT Lafi Tbutbk nr 1806 .... 160

16. DnTBDcnoir or Covert Gabddt THSi.TBE it

FiSB, 186S 176

17. Kxw CcumiT Oasdxk Thutbx . . . 19S

18. COTIMT OaSDHT UABJUT AB it IFFZABXD HI

181B SOB

18. COTXHT QlBDXH HaSKIT nOX yORTB-WEBT,

ABODT 1886 SS4

aa The VoLtnrFBKBB* Ball, Flokal Hiu. . . >40
SI. Thi Lud afd Fliq Fdbuc-hoou qi Boa

Stxui S66

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COVENT GARDEN

CHAPTER I

wly histoty— DerivBtton of name — First owner— Bedford
House— Sir W. Cecil 'a lease— Letting out of the

property.

Can these dry bones live ? " was the
question put to Ezekiel by the Spirit of
in a vision. And the prophet was
lidden to prophesy upon them, and the

bones came together, and the sinews and
the flesh came upon them, and the skin
covered them above."

A similar task is set before any one who
lesires to revive the dead past of any
locality ; to clothe with flesh and blood its
bony squares and streets, and to set them
moving once more with the hum of life, the
encounters of wits and statesmen, the busy
throng of poets and critics, the full-flushed

le of blood that animated the scholars, the

■bidd

2 COVENT GARDEN

traders, the intriguing courtiers, and the
many-headed mob, whose bones, now dry,
once hustled and pushed and throve and
elbowed their way to their own objecte in
the streets and squares that know them no
more.

To realise such a Tision completely would
require the inspired eye of the prophet.
To attempt it by means of the careful
study of old authorities is the object of this
book.

No one will deny that Coveut Garden is
one of the most interesting spots in the
metropolis. It was once part of the open
country between the City and the village
of Charing. The neighbouring Abbey of
Westminster acquired it, and its monks
used it as a garden and burial-ground.

It was subsequently granted by the
Crown to the EubscU family, who im-
proved the property to such an extent
that it rapidly became notable not only as
the haunt of fashion, but also as that of
vice.

The first official notice of Covent Garden
in any plan of London is in a map by
Aggas published in the reign of Elizabeth.

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COVENT GARDEN 8

It there appears as a small oblong space
enclosed by a brick wall, and bounded
on the south by a highway, the Strand
(then a small lane), and on the north by
fields and meadows extending as far as
the heights of Uampstead and Highgate.
Maitland says it dates back from 1222,
uid Mr. Hare ("Walks in London") says
it was originally known as Frfere Pye
Garden. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries its appellation was Convent Gar-
den, no doubt because of its use by the
monks of Westminster, Mr. Timms eays
that in 1632 it was called " coven " or
"common " garden. The latter appellation
is obviously one of those " translations "
such as Bottom underwent ; such as may
be seen in the signs of inns all over the
land, whereby the Bacchanals became the
Bag-o'-nails, and the Boulogne Mouth was
converted into the Bull and Mouth.

In a legal document of 9 Eliz. we
find " some messuages with garden thereto
..." called " the Convent Garden."
Also, after the death of Francis, Earl of
Bedford, it was found that he held " 1 acras
teire et pasture, cum partinentiis vocat.

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t COVENT GARDEN

the Convent Garden, jacentes in parocliia
S. Martini in campis juxta Cliaringe-Cross
in Com. Midd. ac vii acras terre et pasture
vocat. the Longe Acre ad jacentes prope
Convent Garden predicta." (A beautiful
specimen of Monk-lawyer Latin, the per-
petration of which by any fourth-form boy
to-day would arouse in his headmaster a
desire to correct his terminations.)

The earliest proof met with that Covent
Garden belonged to the Abbey Church of
Westminster is found in Malcolm's " Londi-
nium Redivivnm," 1803," where it is stated
that in 1539, when the possessions of the
Church were bebig confiscated, that Abbey
was compelled to accept lands belonging to
the disestablished Priory of Hurley in ex-
change for its manor of Hyde and several
others, including Covent Garden. The
latter, close to London, was obviously more
valuable than the former, but the monks,
being no longer top-dog, had to " take
it or leave it." Doubtless Henry VIII.
quoted the bandy proverb, " Exchange is no
robbery," and one doesn't argue with " the
master of thirty legions," whose premiss

• See AppeoduL.

COVENT GARDEN 5

"Le Eoy le Veult," and whose con-
clusion is the Block. That Covent Gar-
den was used by the monks as a burial-
ground appears likely from the fact that
a number of bones were unearthed on
this spot when the market was rebuilt
in 1829.

After the dissolution of the monasteries
the property of Covent Garden was given
to Protector Somerset, on whose attainder
and execution it reverted to the Crown,
In 1552 it was bestowed by Letters Patent
on John Russell, first Earl of Bedford,
together with seven acres of land, now
known as Long Acre. The Earl built his
town residence on his newly acquired
property on the site of the present South-
ampton Street. This edifice, constructed
mostly of wood, existed till 1704., when,
like other palatial mansions in the neigh-
bourhood, in the course of time it was swept
away. The gardens of Bedford House
stretched northwards, the wall forming the
Bouthern boundary of the future market.
The Bedford family had previously resided
in the Bishop of Carlisle's Inn, very near the
spot where their newly erected mansion rose.

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6 COVENT GARDEN

In 1570 part of the estate was let to Sir
WDliam Cecil, afterwards the great Lord
Burleigh. A copy of the lease appears in
" Archaeologia " (toI. xxx. p. 494) "of all
that his porcyon or parcell of grounde
lyenge in the east ende and being parcell of |
the enclosure or pasture commonly called
Covent Garden, scituate in Westm, which
porcyon the said Sir Willm Cecill doeth
and of late yeares hath occupied at the
sufferance of the said Earl and hath bene
and now ys dyvyeded from the rest of the
said enclosure called Covent Garden on
the west side of the said porcyon or p'cell ]
nowe demyaed with ceartaine stulpes and
rayles of wood and is fensed with a waU of
mudde or earth on the cast next unto the
comune higliwaye that leadeth from Stronde |
to St. Giles-in-the-Fields and on the west
ende towards the south is fensed with the
orchard wall of the said Sir Willm Cecill
and on the south ende with a certaine fense
wall of mudde or earth being therebye
devyoded from certaine gardens belonginge
to the Inne called the Whyte Harto * and
other tenements scituate in the High .

• 6m Appendix.

COVENT GARDEN 7

Streets of "Westm, commonly called the
Stronde," etc.

Sir "William Cecil's dwelling was situated
in the High Street at the south end of Drury
Lane on the site of the original parsonage of
St. Martin' 8- in-the-Fields. The house was
originally built by Sir Thomas Palmer in the
reign of Edward VI. (Stow). It is not clear
what use Cecil made of the portion of the
estate ; probably he made use of it for sta-
bling purposes. That some shanties had been
erected is certain, as Strype, in his descrip-
tion of the neighbourhood, writes : " The
ground on which tliis parish was built was
formerly fields with some thatched houses,
stables and suchlike, which lying in so good
a place, the owner of the said ground did
think good to make an Improvement thereof,
and procuring an act of Parliament for the
making of it into a Parish of itself, disunited
from St. Martin's-in-the-Piclds, did about
the yeares 1634-5, begin to pull down the
said old buildings, and clear away the
rubbish, and laid it out in several fair
streets, straight and uniform," etc.

The Cecils were evidently always keen
on purchasing the property of Covent

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8 COVENT GARDEN

Garden from the Bedford family. On
April 27, 1610, Edward, Earl of Bedford,
wrote to the Earl of Salisbury that " Ho
could not sell his inheritance of Covent
Gfarden, havtnsr bound himself under a
heavy penalty not to further impoverish
himself by the sale of his property '*
(Cal. State Papers, 1603-4, p. 604).

In 1627 only two persons were rated to
the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under
the head " Covent Garden."

Strype also mentions a lease from which
it appears that the Earl let out portions of
his property as follows :

" 1 find by a lease dated ilie 10th day of
March 1631, in the seventh year of the reign
of King Charles I., granted by Francis,
Earl of Bedford, to John Powell of Little
Thorocke, in the county of Essex, Clerk ;
and to Edward Palmer, of the parish of
St. Andrew's, Holborn, in the county of
Middlesex, Gent., son of Edward Palmer,
late citizen and Girdler of London, lately
deceased ; and John Borradaile of London,
he having let unto the former Edward
Palmer, the Father, all the piece or parcel
of ground of the said Earl's pasture called

COVENT GARDEN 9

Covent Gfarden and Long Acre ; one of
them lying on the south side of a parcel of
ground then laid forth for a new church-
yard, containeth in length, from a parcel of
ground then preserved for a Vestry House ;
on the east, 180 feet and 3 inches of Assize,
and in Breadth, from a parcel of ground then
laid forth for a street. Way or Passage of 50
foot hroad on the south side of the said piece
of ground laid forth for the said churchyard
on the North, 33 foot of assize, and all
other Conveniences for Building, to hold
for 34 years to come, from the date afore-
said at the yearly rent of seventeen pounds
and six pence, payable Quarterly, at or
in the Dining Hall of the said Earl's
commonly called Bedford House in tlie
Strond, of the parish of St. Martin's-in-
the-Fields."

Strype goes on to say that the above-
mentioned Palmer (the elder) "did, at his
own charge, erect nine several Messuages or
Tenements on the said ground."

It is curious that this lease does not appear
in any other account of the market. A

srusal of the same makes it clear that
Jans had already been made by the Earl

10 COVENT GARDEN

as to his future building operations ; the
lease bearing date 1631, and the church,
market square, and piazzas having been
constructed in 1633-8. The patent for the
market was not granted till 1671. Thus it
appears that from the time of the building
of the church and the general improve-
ments until the latter date, a great portion
of the estate was let.

CHAPTER II

The improTementa— Inigo Jones— Sundial— First marketa
held— Letting out of Marketplace by Earl o£ Bedford—
The Slocks Market in the City.

The first steps taken by the Earl of Bedford
were to demolish the old shanties, and to
clear the property of all such encumbrances.
He then called in to his assistance the cele-
brated architect Inigo Jones, under whose
instructions were built the Piazzas or
Portico Walk, which will he described in
another chapter, and also the fine mansions
uid Church of St. Paul.

In 1668 the whole area of the square was
gravelled and enclosed by rails, and in the
middle a column surmounted by a sundial
was erected.

Strype writes : " Within the rails is a
stone Pillar or Column raised on a pedestal
ascended by steps, on which is placed a
curious Bun- Dial, four square, having above

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COVENT GARDEN

it a mound gilt with gold, all neatly wrought
in Freestone."

With regard to this the foUomng entries
appear in the accounts of the Churchwardens
of the Parish :

Dec. 7, 1668.— Beceived from the Rt. Honl.
the Earle of Bedford, as a gratuity to-
wards erecting of ye column, £20 Os. Od.

Dec. 7, 1668.— Received from the Rt. Houl.
Sir Charles Cotterell, Master of the
Ceremonies, as a gift towards the said
column, £10 Os, Od.

Ap. 29, 1669.— Received from the Rt. Honl.
The Lord DenzLlI Holies, as a present
towards the erecting of the column,
£10 0«. Od.

Not. 27, 1668. — For drawing a modell of
the column to be presented to the
vestry, £0 10«. Od.

Dec. 2, 1668.— To Mr. Waiuwright for 4
Gnomons, £0 8s. 6d.

The column existed for a considerahle
period, and was a favourite spot where old
women congregated in order to sell milk,
porridge, broth, etc.

The following lines appeared in 1738:

COVENT GARDEN

" High in the midst of this most happy land
A well-bnilt marble pyramid does stand;
By which spectatorH know the time o' the day
From beams reflecting of the solar ray ;
Its basis with ascending steps is grac'd,
AroQud whose area cleanly matrons plac'd,
Vend their most wholesome food, by riatore good,
To cheer the spirits and enrich the blood."

One finds it difficult to imagine the
rough beef-and-heer Englishman of that
period haviiig his " spirits cheered " by
'* milk, porridge, and broth," but the bard,
perhaps, was related to Taylor the " Water-
poet."

On May 12, 1671, William, Earl of Bed-
ford, received a grant of the square from
Charles II. by Letters Patent. In 1679,
when it was rated to the poor for the first
time, there appear to have been twenty-
three salesmen, rated respectively at 2«.
and la. in the £ (Cunniugham).

Probably the earliest allusion to the
market is that foimd ia the churchwardens'
accounts — date, March 1666 — " paid to the
painter for painting the benches and seates
in the Markett Place, £1 10 0."

In 1666 a payment was also made " for

14 COVENT GARDEN I

trees planted in the Broad Place," meaning
the square in front of the Piazzas. In " The
Gentleman's Magazine " of August 20,
1853, appears a copy of the lease between
the Earl and certain parties to whom he
let the mai-ket. It is rather a quaint
document, and runs as follows ;

" This indenture made the six day of
July in the thirteenth yeare of the raigne
of Oe Soveraigne Lord Charles The Second,
by the grace of God etc., between the Rt
Honl William, Earle of Bedford, Lord
Russell, Baron Russell of Thornhaugh,
Knight of the most noble order of tho
Grarter, of the one part ; and Adam Pigott,
Citizen and cutler of London and Thomas
Bay of the parish of St. Clements Danes
in the county of Middlesex, tallow-chandler,
on the other part." The document con-
tinues: "The earl did for the considera-
tions therein mentioned, demise, grant and
to ffarme, lett unto the said Adam Pigott
and James Allen, all that markett in the
parish of St Paul, Covent Garden, etc., to
be held every day of the weeke except
Sunday and the ffeast day of the birth of
our Lord, for buying and selling of all

COVENT GARDEN

and all manner of fruits and fflowers, roots
and herbea whatsoever, and also liberty to
build and make cellars and shops all along
on the outside of the garden wall of Bedford
House garden, so as in such buildings noe
chimneys or tunnells be made or putte and
soe as such shops be made nniforme in
roofs and ffronts one with another and be
one ffoote lower than the now garden wall
and not above eight foot in Breadth from
the wall all alonge the said wall except
against the jetty or round of the said wall,
against which the said shoppes were to be
bt three foote of the most, according to a
modell or ground plott of the said buildings
to the said recited indenture affixed, to-
gether with all other liberties and all tolls,
customs, stallage, pittage, and all other
p'fitts, comodities, advantages and emolu-
ments whatsoever to the said markett in
any wise belongings or appertaining, arise-
ing or renewing. The said markett to be
kept ivithin the Rayles there and the
markett people to sit in order between the
said Eayles and the said garden wall from
one end to the other end thereof," etc. The
same was to date for twenty-one years at

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16 CO VENT GARDEN

the yearly rental " of fourscore pounds of
the lawful monies of England."

At this period the Stocks Market was
the most important market of the metro-
polis. It was situated on the site of the
present Mansion House, and was established
in 1282 by Henry Walis, Lord Mayor,
Stow says that tlie market was named after
a pair of stocks which stood here for tiic
punishment of offenders.

Strype writes : " Up farther north is the
Stocks Market. As to the present state
of which it is converted to a quite con-
trary use : for instead of Flesh and Fish
sold there before the Fire, are now sold
Fruits, Roots and Herbs ; for which it is
very considerable and much resorted unto,
being of note for liaving the choicest of
their kind of all sorts, surpassing all other
markets in London."

Stocks Market was removed in 1737 to
the site of the present Farriugdon Street,
where it became known as the Fleet Market,
doubtless owing to its close proximity to the
River Fleet. It still exists under the name
of Farringdon Market, but has been quite
eclipsed in importance by Covent Garden.

den. ^M

r.,q,-7^1hyGOOg\e

CHAPTEE III

I A residential neighbourhood— Emigration of nobilitf and
gentry from the city— The Piazzas and the critics —
First instance of brick construction — Artistic centre —
Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Jamea Thorn-
hill, Richard Wilson, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and other celebrated residents of the Garden — Punch's
Theatre— Sport in the Hazzas — National Sporting
aub.

In 1580 Elizabeth, startled at the great
increase of the metropolis, issued a pro-
clamation forbidding the erection of any
houses but those of the highest class within
three miles of the City ; and in 1617
James I. commanded all noblemen, knights,
and gentlemen who had mansions in the
country to depart thither, within twenty
days of his proclamation, with their wives
and families, and to spend the summer
Tacation there.

Charles I., about the time when the
Earl of Bedford commenced the improve-

2 17

COVENT GARDEN

ment of Covent Garden, the neighbourhood
having then first become a residential one,
forbade the entertainment of additional
inmates in houses already esisting. This
practice, according to Mr. Knight, " would
multiply the inhabitants to such an extent
that they could neither be governed nor
fed."

(Poor Mr. Knight I If he could only
" revisit the glimpses of the moon " and
see our seething metropolis to-day !)

The Earl, however, appears to have dis-
regarded the mandate, and continued his
building operations. How he appeased the
King is not known. Probably he was fined,
and submitted with good grace, as he
foresaw his operations would turn into a
profitable speculation.

In 1657 an Act was passed by the Pro-
tector, Cromwell, " that in regard of the
Great Charges that Francis, late Earl of
Bedford, hath been at in building a Church
in Covent Garden, in the County of Middle-
sex, and in the endowment of the same
Church and other Publick Charges in and
about the Parish of Covent Garden afore-
said, there be abated unto William, Earl

COVENT GARDEN

of Bedford, John Eussell and Edward
Eussell Esquires, Sons of the said Francis,
late Earl of Bedford, out of the Fines
which shall be payable unto them by force
of this Act, in Respect of the Building in
the said Parish of Covent Garden, the sum
of £7000, the same abatement to be made
imto them by the said Commissioners
proportionately accordingly as they shall
be severally chargeable by this Act "
(Strype).

The newly constructed buildings natur-
ally attracted the best people, -who even
before the Great Fire (1666) were leaving
the City to reside in the newer parts of the
West End.

Inigo Jones had been busy in the neigh-
bourhood, and on all sides fine mansions
had sprung up, and such streets as Drury
Lane, Great and Little Queen Street, and
Lincoln's Inn Fields became tenanted by
noblemen and gentry. These thoroughfares,
together with Bow Street, Russell Street,
King Street, and Henrietta Street, were in
the hey-day of their fashion, just as smart
and expensive localities as are Grosvenor
Square and Park Lane to-day.

COVENT GARDEN

The Piazzas are said to have been copied
from that at Livorno in Italy. 1
complete innoratiou, they became, on the
principle of " omne igaotum pro mirifico/'
one of the show places of the town. The
name itself, too, seems to have caught on
and become attractive, much in the same
way as the old woman expressed her admira-
tion of "that godly word Mesopotamia."
Mr. Hare, in his " Walks in London," says
that the name Piazza was frequently given
to foundlings, many of whom were left at
the door of the Bishop of Durham, who
resided there. It may be doubted whether
his Episcopal Holiness was much gratified
by these left-handed compliments thus
" laid at his door," having probably not so
much claim as Charles II. to be regarded
as " the Father of his people." At any rate,
the registers of the time abounded in such
names as Peter, Mary, or Paul Piazza.

It was the original intention of the archi-
tect that the whole square should he encom-
passed by this kind of arcade, but the
scheme was never carried out in its entirety.
In 1783 a book was published entitled " A
Critical Review of the Public Buildings and

COVENT GARDEN

Statues of London and Westminster," by
Ralph, who writes : " Covent Garden would
I have been, beyond dispute, one of the
' finest squares in the universe, if finished
on the plans that Inigo Jones first designed
for it ; but even this was neglected too ;
and if he deserves the praise of the de-
sign, we very justly incur the censure
for wanting spirit to put it into execu-
I tion. The Piazza is grand and noble, and
* the superstructure it supports light and
elegant."

The northern portion was called the Great
Piazza, and that on the east the Little
Piazza. The south-east part of the latter
was destroyed by 6re in March 1769.

Note that bricks were first commonly
used for building purposes in Inigo Jones's
time. Previously they had only been used
for the construction of chimneys, and
occasionally in palaces and monasteries.
The Piazzas were one of the first instances
of brick construction (" Archjeologia," i.).
Lilly's " Scriptuni " states that the Earl
of Arundel was the first who brought over
from Italy the new way of building with
bricks, "which tended to the safety of the

COVENT GARDEN

City and the preservation of the wood of
the Nation."

The portion west of James Street was
pulled down in 1880 and rebuilt by Messrs.
Cubbitt.

Most of the contemporary writers, such
as Congreve, Wycherley, Otway, Killigrew,
Fielding, and Shadwell made use of the
Piazzas as a scene of action in their novels
and plays ; e.g. Otway in " The Soldier's
Fortune," Wycherley in " The Country
Wife."

The present-day observer may find it
difficult to imagine to himself Covent
Garden as an artistic centre, and yet at
the beginning of the eighteenth century
it was, par excellence, the haunt of the
fashionable portrait-painter. The artistic
fraternity, after inhabiting the neighbour-
hood for a great many years, gradually
migrated westward to St. Martin's Lane
and Leicester Square, whither Sir Joshua
Reynolds and Hogarth afterwards removed
their studios.

Both Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey
Kneller occupied studios in Covent Garden,
and were visited by most of the beauties of

COVENT GARDEN

Hie court of Charles II. The former lived
in the angle of the Kaaza now occupied hy
the Tavistock Hotel. He was bom at
Soest, in Westphalia, in 1618. His father,
an army captain named Van der Pacs, was
bom at a perfumer's shop, at the sign of
the Lily, hence was known as Captain du
Lys, or Lely. He settled in London in 1611.
His hest-known works are now at Hampton
Court Palace. Included in the collection
are the portraits of Lady Bellasis, Frances
Stuart, Anne Hyde Duchess of York, the
Duchesses of Portsmouth and Cleveland,
and the Comtesse de Grammont, which are
justly reckoned amongst the art treasures
of the nation, Mr. Ernest Law writes : " It
must be confessed that he has succeeded in
giving that voluptuous expression of tender
languishment which is so much in harmony
with the characters of those beautiful and
charming creatures. . . , Their nightgowns
fastened with a single pin, and the sleepy
eye which spoke the melting soul, would
have sufficiently told us their history if
the memoir-writers had failed to supply it."
According to Pope, Kneller was one of
the vainest of men. Pope once flattered

24 COVENT GARDEN

him by saying, " Sir Godfrey, I believe, if
the Almighty had had your assistance, the
world would have been made more perfect."

" 'Fore God, sir," answered the artist,
laying his hand upon the poet's shoulder,
" I believe so."

Eneller also once remarked to the Bishop
of Rochester that the following were his
articles of religion ; " That God loved all
ingenious persons; that painting was the
most ingenious of all arts ; and that he
was the most ingenious of all painters."

Through which beautiful and ingenuous
syllogism the Iqvo of the Supreme Being is
seen to rise in a crescendo scale until it
forms a blinding halo on the crown of the
artist I

Pope, in his " Satires and Epistles," v.
382, writes:
" And great Nasean to Kneller's hand decreed

To fix him gracefnl on the bonoding steed."

This great picture of "William III. on
horseback is now in the Presence Chamber
at Windsor.

Several of Kncller's works are at Hamp-
ton Court, the more celebrated of which
are placed in the King's PreeenoB Chamber,

I
1

COVENT GARDEN

nd are known as the Hampton Court
Beauties, to distinguish them from Lely's.
he latter, having once been at Windsor,
fwe known as the Windsor Beauties.

Kneller's house was on the site of the
west end of the Floral Hall, and was de-
scribed in an advertisement in 1714 as
containing a front room 42 ft. by 19 ft.
and 12 ft. high, with a garden attached to
the mansion 160 ft. by 40 ft. The garden
adjoined that of the house in which lived
Dr. Radcliffe in Bow Street. The two were
intimate friends, and Kneller, who was
devoted to flowers, had a communicating
door made between the two houses. That
old gossip Horace Walpole is responsible
!or the tale that Kneller, annoyed by the
ducking of the flowers in his garden by
Btiie doctor's servants, sent word that he
jaust close up the door. Radcliffe replied
Ithat " he might do anything with it but
laint it " ; to which the artist answered
At " he could take anything from him
isut physic." Sir James Thornhill after-
wards occupied this house, where he opened
drawing-class. He was the first who
onceired the admirable idea of a B>oyal

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26 COVENT GARDEN

Academy, and proposed that a suitable
edifice be erected for the purpose near
the King's Mews, now Trafalgar Square.
Nothing appears to have come of the
scheme just then, and the question seems
to have fallen into abeyance.

We are indebted to Sir James for many
beautiful frescoes and decorations, the best
known of which are the Inner Dome of
St. Paul's Cathedral, and that in the Great
Hall of the Royal Naval College at Green-
wich. Several times recently some finely
executed ceilings have been discovered in
old houses in process of demolition in the
neighbourhood of Soho, which have been
attributed to bim. When he removed to
a house in St. Martin's Lane, on the site of
the present Duke of York's Theatre, he
painted in it a magnificent allegorical stair-
case (Macmichael's " History of Charing
Cross").

The other genius whose studio was in
the Piazza was Richard Wilson, the friend
of Garrick and Arne. Wilson was the un-
fortunate member of a celebrated trio of
painters, i.e. Hogarth, Gainsborough, and
himself.

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COVENT GARDEN 27

Poor Wilson apparently, like many of his
confreres, found great trouble in disposing
of his paintings. This state of affairs was
due to the competition which he had to
encounter at the hands of other artists,
amongst whom at this time was Barret,
who arrived in Ijondon in 1761, was re-
ceiyed with open arms by the fashionable
world (vide "Arnold's Magazine," 1832),
and was fortunate enough to obtain prices
for his works three or four times greater
than any ever demanded by Wilson. On
one occasion Lord Dalkeith paid Barret
1,500 guineas for three pictures. When
Wilson, an exceedingly proud man, ad-
vanced his own prices, the sole result was
that he did less business than ever. He
had quarrelled with Reynolds, and in
addition had the misfortune to offend both
Royalty and the Court.

A friend wished to bring Wilson's works
under the notice of the King, and com-
missioned him to paint a picture to be
submitted to His Majesty. The subject
WM a view of Sion House, and the picture
was submitted to Lord Bute as the most
suitable intermediary for the purpose.

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28 COVENT GARDEN

Bute, being partial to the Flemish School,
pronounced Wilson's work to be a daub,
and offered fifty guineas for it instead of
the price demanded, sixty. "Wilson in a
rage exclaimed, " If the King cannot afford
to pay so large a sum, I will take it by
instalments of £10 at a time." Wilson,
growing despondent, eventually drowned
his sorrows in drink, and retired, poor,
neglected, and sick at heart, to a village
in Denbighshire, where he ended his days.

It is as though, reversing the well-known
saying of Talleyrand, some one had said to
him, " Mais il faut vivre," and he had
replied, " Je n'en Tois pas la necessity."
Not uncommonly is it found that genius
and business capacity are not at home
together under the same hat.

Hogarth, who was a son-in-law of Sir
James Thornhill, and whom Calverley calls
"a photographer that flattereth not," also
frequented the Piazza studios. It was at
Cock's auction-rooms (afterwards occupied
by Robins, the prince of word painters) that
he exhibited, free to the public, his series of
engravings entitled " Marriage k la Mode.

Bobins's rooms were oTterwards taken

I
I

COVENT GARDEN

over by Mr, Harrison, the proprietor of
the " Tavistock Breakfast-rooms," in 1787.
This establishment was the ancestor of the
present Tavistock Hotel, which for many
years has enjoyed a great amount of popu-
larity amongst gentlemen o£ the old-
fashioned school, and who prefer the quiet
and unpretentious hotel life of their fathers
to the marble and tinselled palatial halls
which have recently sprung up over
London. In 1867 the old red-brick
frontf^e facing the market was stuccoed.
The history of the Tavistock llotel has been
written by Mr. C. E. Pascoe in 1887, in
celebration of its hundredth anniversary.

Zoffany, theatrical portrait painter, also
resided in this locality, where he painted
Foote in the character of Major Sturgeon.

One of the first residents of the Piazza was
Sir Edmund Verney, who took the hwt two
houses on the eastern side (on the site where
afterwards stood the Bedford Coffee-house)
from the Earl of Bedford at an annual
rental of £160. There were coach-houses
and stables in the back premises, and it
appears from the enumeration of fixtures
that, although the ordinary rooms had

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30 COVENT GARDEN

merely " casements," the principal apart-
ments were distinguished by " shuttynge
wyndowes," and that the door of almost
every room had its " st^ck lock."

A reservation was made of the Earl's
right to the " walk underneath the same
messuage, commonly called the Portico
Walk, as the same is now made and
perfected by the said Earl," but with
power for Sir E. Verney to expel youths
playing in the said walk to his offence or
disturbance. Parts of the house were
" waynscotted," a distinction deemed so
important that the use of the same was
specifically granted in the lease ; and all
the separate pieces of " waynscott " were
enumerated in the schedule of fixtures.
There being as yet no sewer in this new
district, Verney fortified himself with a
clause that, if he should be so annoyed by
that circumstance as not to be able to
continue there " with any conveyancy,"
he might resign his occupation on giving
the Earl six months' notice (" Verney
Papers," Camden Society M8S., dated
November 1, 163Ji).

Other residents in the Piazza were the

COVENT GARDEN

Marquis of Winchester in 1645 ; the Hon.
Lady Pye and Sir Cliarles Cotterell in
1690 ; the Countess of Peterhorough, Sir
Jolm Witt\ring, Lord Wilmot, Sir W.
Udal, and the Earl of Sussex in 1647 ;
Sir H. Vane in 1646; Sir J. Lucas, the
Hon. Lord Savage, and Sir Lyon Tallmarch
in 1653. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
also resided in the neighbourhood, and was
addressed here by Pope.

Mrs. Robinson, the actress, familiarly
known as " Perdita," and mistress of the
Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV.
(truly " lost " if she put her confidence in
such a Prince), lived for some time in the
Little Piazza, in a house situated between
the Bedford and the Hummums.

In the Little Piazza was Punch's Theatre, I
where, according to " The Spectator,"
Martin Powell's performances thinned the
congregations of St. Paul's Church. Here
was acted a mock opera called " Venus and
Adonis, or, The Triumph of Love," also
" King Bladud," " Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay," " Robin Hood and Little John,"
and the well-worn pantomime " Mother
Goose." Tho prices of admission to these

COVENT GARDEN

performances were, boxes 2s. Gd., pit
1«. 6d., and nobody was admitted in masks
or riding-cloaks with hoods.

"When the fashionable tenants began to
desert the neighbourhood, the fine houses
were taken over by ladies of doubtful
reputation, who turned them into gambling-
houses and vicious resorts. The most
notorious of these women were Mother
Thornton, and Mother Douglas, alias
" Coals " (let us hope, in this case too,
" not 80 black as she was painted"). These
two matrons occupied premises on the side
of the west end of the present Floral Hall.

At the close of the seventeenth century
the open Market Square was used after
business hours as a recreation ground by
the apprentices and the children of the
neighbourhood. We read in Gay's "Trivia":

"Where Covent Garden's famous temple stands,
That boasts the work of Jones' immortal bands,
Here oft my course I bend, wlien lo I from far
1 Bpy the fnries of the football war ;
The prentice quits his shop to join the crew,
Increasing crowds the flying game parsne," etc.

Mention also is made of cricket being
played here.

COVENT GARDEN

Kfeuni
■ttng'
"front
repai
At
king
Hvxistt

Piazzas do not appear to have bee
any too solidly. An old History <
London says that a good many repairs have ]
taken place owing to some errors in the
bundations, " which have occasioned de-
ngements in the perpendicular of the
■fronts ; hence they are under continual
repair."

At the west end of the Piazza, adjoining

Street, is a building which has .

isted since 1636. This building, probablj

one of the most interesting in the whole

of the vicinity, is the National Sporting

_ Club. Like other houses in Covent Garden,

■jt was originally the town residence, in

^Bum, of many persons of note. The first

^■enant was William Alexander, Earl of

Bptirling ; and he was followed consecutively

"by Thomas KilHgrew, DenzU Holies, and

Sir Henry Vane.

The house was afterwards occupied by
Sir Kenelm Digby, son of that unfortunate
Sir Everard Digby who had been concerned
in the abhorred Gunpowder Plot, and had
suffered the penalty of his crime by being 1
nged, drawn, and quartered in St. Paul's
faurchyard. Sir Kenelm, besides having

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COVENT GARDEN

been a foreign envoy ("vir bonus, peregr6
missus ad mentiendum reipublicEe causA "),
was an amateur chemist, and was cele-
brated for inventing a cure for sword
wounds. He must have been somewhat of
a Christian Scientist, for his prescription
was to anoint tho sword, not the wound.
The ingenuous novelty of this treatment
has drawn from Mr. Bettinson, of the
National Sporting Club, the humorous
prescription of " boxing-gloves bathed in
warm water, and plastered with gold-
beater's skin " as a cure for bruises
(History of the Club, by Fitzgerald).

After the death of Bigby the premises
became the residence of Admiral Russell,
Earl of Orford, who in 1692 defeated the
French under Admiral de Tourville at La
Hogue. He altered and renovated the
exterior of the building in such a manner
that many declared the nautical character
of the tenant was apparent in his altera-
tions, comparing the new exterior to the
hull of a ship. The blufE sailor himself
would probably have been content to admit
that he was making it " ship-shape."

Soon afterwards the house became the

COVENT GARDEN

scene of the first Cabinet Council ever held
in this country. " One of the methods em-
ployed by the Whig Junto for the purpose

I of instituting and maintaining through all
the ranks of the Whig party a discipline
nerer before known was the frequent hold-
ing of meetings of the members of the
House of Commons. Some of these meet-
ings were numerous, others select. The
large ones were held at the Bose, the

' smaller at Russell's in Covent Garden"
(Macaulay).

The next tenant was Thomas, Lord Archer
(d. 1768) ; and after him came James West,
the great collector of books, prints, drawings,
etc. When these were sold the auctioneer
took six weeks to dispose of them. West
waa President of the Royal Society, and
died in 1772. The premises were opened
in 1774 by David Low as a family hotel,
which is said to have been the first of its
kind in London. The next landlord caused
great amusement by advertising the hotel
" with stabling for one hundred noblemen
and horses." If all we read about the noble-
men of those times and their manners and
customs at table be correct, the horses would

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M COVENT GARDEN

certainly have more cause to complain of
their associates than the noblemen.

In the garden of tho house was a small
cottage inhabited by the Kemble family.
It was here that the gifted Fanny Kemble
was born. The present hall of the club
stands on the site. The hotel afterwards
became the famous Evans's Supper Rooms,
where Bohemian London nightly gathered,
and where the old chairman presided with
the hammer. There many a good old-
fashioned glee, such as " The Chough and
Crow," and many a cheery chorus, was
simg; there many a succulent kidney and
devilled bone, not unaccompanied by the
flouriest of baked potatoes, \vere consumed
in the good old days of long ago.

Where did those potatoes grow ? No
earthly soil produced them — so spotlessly
white, so crumbly, so creamy. If Alice
had cultivated a garden in Wonderland,
they might have come from it. But Evans
has gone, and has carried the secret of
those potatoes away into the Ewigkeit.

Can any one who has read Thackeray's
" The Newcomes " fail to picture to him-
self the scene (evidently taken from

COVENT GARDEN

£tuis'b) where the lean old wiry Colonel
ti^es his boy for an erening's innocent
amnaement, spoilt at the end by a ribald
song from Captain Costigan; and the
veteran's fierce exit with bristling mous-
tache and uplifted cane, "which," as the
nanator said, "seemed to fall on the
shoolders of every one of us"?

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CHAPTEB IV

St. Paul's Church— Cost and date of construction— I nigo
Jones— Cousecration ceremony— Diapute between the
Earl of Bedford and" the Vicar of the parish of St.
Martio'a-in-the-Fielda— Criticisms on the church— First
destructive fire— Celebrated persOM boried there —
The churcbyai-d — The Actors' Church— Tom King's
coffee-house — The hustings : exciting ecenea — The
" Finish "—Statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross.

The parish church of St. Paul is perhaps
the most intercstiiig spot in the vicinity
of Corent Garden. Built in 1638, it has
suffered many Ticissitudes, being on one
occasion almost totally destroyed by fire.
Fortunately it was completely restored, and
it still dominates the busy market of to-day,
as it has done since its erection.

It was Imilt by Inigo Jones, to the order
of Francis, Earl of Betlford. Pennant
ascribes it to the second Earl — a statement
which ia contradicted by Horace "Walpole,
who writes : " I conclude Earl Francis, who

died in 1641, was the biiilder, as the church
was not erected till after the Civil War
began." Mr. Peter Cunningham agrees
with Walpole, who was undoubtedly correct
in his statement.

An old Btory with reference toithis church,
believed to have originated with Walpole,
runs to the effect that the Earl did not wish
to incur too great an expense in its construc-
tion, and 80 told the architect that he " did
not wish for a building much bigger than
a bam"; to which Jones is reported to
have answered, " Then you shall have
the handsomest bam in England."

The cost of the edifice was £4,500. To
obtain the relative purchasing power of coin
in those days, compared with that in our
own, it is quite reasonable to multiply the
sums by ten. The cost therefore was con-
siderable. The bmlding was not consecrated
till 1638. The delay was caused by a
dispute between the Earl and Mr. Bray,
vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, as to
the right of presentation-

" Londinium Redivivum '* gives a full
aooount of the proceedings, which were
held before the King in Council at White-

COVENT GARDEN

hall on April 6, 1638, when a petition
addressed to His Majesty, and signed by
one hundred inhabitants of Covent Garden,
was read. The petition stated that the
parish church of St. Martin's had become
too small for the inhabitants of the newer
neighbourhood of Covent Garden, which
edifice was fit to be parochial, " whither
the new inhabitants, without trouble of
the other, might resort to their service
of God." I

The Earl gave it as hia opinion that, as 1
he had presented the ground and erected
the church at his own cost, and promised
£100 a year to the minister as an extra
remuneration, he ought to be the Patron,
and to nominate " a clerk " to the living.
The Vicar, holding that Covent Garden
and all its recently erected buildings were
in the parish of St. Martin's, and that tho
new church, when consecrated, could not
be made parochial without an express Act
of Parliament, insisted on the right of
nominating a curate himself, undertaking
to allow him 100 marks a year. The
decision was given in the Earl's favour,
the King ordering a special Act to bej

COVENT GARDEN

passed making the church parochial, and
giving to the Earl and his heirs full and
legal right to the presentation and patrou-
i^eof the said church.

In 1660 the first Act of Parliament
passed provided that the churoh and parish
of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, should hence-
forth be separated from that of St. Martin's-
in-the-Fields.

The following act was signed by the
£arl : " In the name of Grod, Amen.
Know all men present and to come that
I, Francis Bedford, for me and my heirs,
have offered up in memory of the Blessed
Apostle, St. Paul, all this plat or piece
of groimd, containing in length from the
East to the West 261 feet, in breadth
from the North part towards the South
145 feet and 3 inches ; together with three
ingrediences or passages unto the same
plat; one part whereof leading out of the
same plat, etc., being situated in the pre-
cinct called Convent Garden iu the pariah
of St. Martin 's-in-the-Fields, upon one part
whereof one structure in the form of a
church or chapel is erected and built at
ly charges, and the other is enclosed now

COVENT GARDEN

wil^ a brick wall, that the dead within
the precinct of Convent Garden, and with
one house, commonly called Bedford House,
may be therein buried, together with the
said structure in form of a church or
chapel, and the said plat or piece of
groimd may be consecrated and applied
for sacred prayers, the preaching of the
Holy Word, for the Sacraments and sacra-
mental use of the inhabitants in the pre-
cincts of Convent Garden and within my
house called Bedford House for ever. In
testimony whereof I have put my seal of
anus to these presents. Dated the 26th
day of the month of September, anno
domini 1638, and in the reign of our Lord
Charles, by the Grace of God," etc.

The consecration ceremony was at length
performed by Juxon, Bishop of London, the
same who attended Charles I. on the scaf-
fold. The building is in the Tuscan style
of architecture, probably made familiar to
Jones when pursuing his artistic studies
in Italy in his early days.

Mr. "W. J. Loftio writes that the portico
is a mere adjimct to the square, and no
integral jiart of the church. The same

COVENT GARDEN

authority states that the edifice was almost
entirely rehuilt in 1688, a few years after
its erection. The reason is not known.

The style of the finished building has
evoked criticisms of several kinds.

" The bam roof over the portico of the
church strikes my eyes with as little
dignity or beauty as it could do if it
covered nothing but a bam. In justice
to Inigo, one must own that the defect is
not in the architect, hut in the order ;
whoever saw a beautiful Tuscan building ?
"Would the Romans have chosen that order
for a temple ? " (Horace Walpole).

John Noorthouck, in his History of
London, writes : " This church has the
rare good fortune to be placed where it is
seen to advantage ; it stands on the west
side of a fine square, the area of which is
the greatest market for greens, fruits, and
flowers in the metropolis."

The architect himself must have had a
good opinion of his work, as he " desired
by his will, that on his monument in the
Church of St. Benet's, Paul's "W'harf, should
be placed views in relief of the portico
of St. Paul's Cathedral and the church

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44 COVENT GARDEN

(Loftie'B " Wren and

in Covent Grarden
Inigo Jones ").

In 1725 Lord Burlington, himseK an
amateur architect of no mean skill, restored
the portico at a cost of hetween three and
four hundred pounds; and in 1788 the
walls were encased in Portland stone, and
the rustic gates at the west end were
rehuilt in stone.

In 1795 the beautiful ceiling, the work
of E, Pierce, a pupil of the great master
Van Dyck, a portrait of Charles I. by Lely,
and the windows and roof were destroyed
by fire. Happily the walls and portico
escaped total destruction, and the whole
edifice was subsequently restored by
Hardwicke Senior. On its reconstruction,
the consecration ceremony was performed
by the Bishop of London, attended by
the Archdeacon of St. Paul's.

The church was originally insured for
£10,000 at the Westminster Fire OfBce,
but the policy had expired just a year,
and since it had not been renewed, the
loss fell on the parish, and drove up rem
at least twenty-five per cent. (Allen'
"London ").

I
I

COVENT GARDEN

The church boasted the first long-
ponclulum clock in Europe, which wiis
designed and made hy Kicluird Hai-ris,
of London, in 1641 (Timbs). In 1888
the west-end turret was removed, and a
high iron railing now replaces, on the
east side, the old wall and arches.

St. Paul'B Church, Covent Garden,
shelters the remains of many celebrated
personages ; in fact it is said that, with
the exception of "Westminster Abbey and
St. Paul's Cathedral, no other church in
London can boast of so many famous
people sleeping peacefully within its pre-
cincts. The list commences with the name
of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, who was
buried here probably on account of his
relationship with the Russell family, his
daughter having married William, after-
wards Duke of Bedford. To Butler, the
author of " Hudibras," whose friends could
not afford to bury him in Westminster
Abbey, a marble monument was placed in
1 786 on the inside south wall of the
church, with this inscription :

"This little monument was erected in
the year 1786, by some of the parishioners

COVENT GARDEN

of Covent Garden, in memory of the
celebrated Samuel Butler, who was buried
in this church, a.d. 1680.

" A few plaiQ meo, to pomp and state nnkoowD,
O'er a poor bard have raised this hamble atone ;
Whose want!) alone his geiiins conld anrpass —
Victim of zeal ] Tlie matchlens Hndibrae I
."What though fair freedom Btiffer'd in his page,

[ Reader, forgive the author for the age !
How few, alas ! disdain to cringe and cant
When 'tis the mode to play the sycophant.
Bnt oh 1 let all be tangbt from Bntler's fate,
Who hope to malce their fortnnes by the great,

__ That wit and pride are always dangerons things,
And little faith is dne to coorta and kings."

In 1721 a monument was erected to
Butler in Westminster Abbey by Alderman
Barber. Upon its epitaph Samuel Wesley
wrote the following stinging lines :

" While Bntler, needy wretch, was still alive,
No generous patron wonld a dinner give.
See him, when starved to death, and tnrned to

dnst,
Presented with a monnmental bast.
The poet's fate is here ia emblem shown ;
He asked for bread, and he received a Btone."

Sir Peter Lely the pointer, Wycherley I
the dramatist, Eastcourt the actor, Dr. 1

COVENT GARDEN

Ame the musician, Tom King (the original
Sir Peter Teazle, in "The School for
Scandal "), Sir Robert Strange the en-
graver (who resided in Henrietta Street,
to whose memory a tablet on the south
wall ia inscribed), Mrs. Davenport, Edward
Kynaston the actor of female parts,
Grinling Gibbons the sculptor, John God-
frey Kneller, brother of Sir Godfrey Kneller,
Mrs. Centlivre the witty dramatist, Thomas
Girton the father of water-colour painting,
John Walcott (" Peter Pindar," whose
grave is adjacent to that of Butler), and
Macklin the comedian (who died in 1797
at the advanced age of 107), make up a
goodly company of illustrious dead interred
here.

Macklin'a tablet reads as follows:

" 8ACRKD TO TBK MKMORY OF

CHARLES MACKLIN
Comedian.

THIS TABLET IS BRBOTKD

(With the aid of public patronage)

By bis afTectionate widov Eliz. Macklin.

Obitt ntli .Jo\j, 171)7, ffitatU 107.

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COVENT GARDEN

" Macktiu, the Father of the modem stage,
Reuowned alike for talent and for age,
Whose years a centary aud longer ran,
Who lived and died as may become a man ;
This lasting tribate to thy work receive,
'Tis all a gratefnl public now can give,
Their loadest plandits now no more can more.
Yet bear thy widow's atill small voice of love."

Another oentflnarian buried here is
Marmaduke Conway, a faithful servant
of James I., and a faTourite of Charles I.
on account of his skill in hawking. He
died in 1717, a^ed 108 years and a few
months.

There is also a rery old memorial stone
affixed to the north wall, dated 1648. It
reads in old characters :

" Here under lieth ye body of Mary
Ffenn, late wife of John Pfenn, who
departed this life ye 14th of September,
1648.

" Reader look heare, a Wonder
Amongst men, Thon tread'st npou
Ad odoriferoQB FfeDn.
A pions, virtDoos chaste
Religions wife, Expecting
Resurrection, Left this IJfe."

Here was diristened Lady Mary Wortley

COVENT GARDEN

Montagu in 1690 ; here, too, the great

artist Turner was baptized May 14, 1775.

I Both his parents are buried under the

I SiftTe. He himself was buried in St. Paul's

IGathedral.

There is a story told of a lady who was
llooking at Turner's picture of Corent
I.Garden, who remarked, "Well, Mr. Turner,
I see CoTent Garden as often as you do, but
truly I cannot see it as you do." To which
the great artist replied, " Don't you wish
you could, madam ? "

Clostennan, the artist and competitor of
Eneller, is also interred in this church. He
was commissioned to paint the family of
the great Duke of Marlborough. The
Duchess, however, wrangled with him so
much over the work that the Duke told
him that : " It has given me more trouble
to reconcile my wife and you than to fight
a battle " (Leigh Hunt's " The Town").

In 1791 Claude Duval, the notorious
highwayman, was executed at Tyburn, and
the body, after lying in state in a tavern
in St. Giles', was conveyed here, and buried
. with much pomp in the middle nave.
pThe funeral," says Mr. Timbs, " waa
4

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COVENT GARDEN

of human Qesh and humaa remains; the
narrow place of sepulclire of two centuries
of the inhabitants of this parish." A stone
on the south side records the fact that the
burial-ground was closed in 1853 ; two
years later permission was given for the lay-
ing flat of the head- and foot-stones of the
gmves and otherwise improving the ground.

St. Paul's has often been designated
" the Actoi-s' Church," and in this church
was solemnised the marriage of Lady
Susan Fox-Strangways (daughter of the
Earl of Ilchester, and only just of age)
with the handsome and accomplished actor
O'Brien, of Drory Lane Theatre, which,
when it became known, was a piece of news
that startled fashionable London in 1764.
Horace Walpole was sadly upset on hearing
about it, and wrote to the Earl of Hertford
that the bride's father. Lord Ilchester,
"was almost distracted; indeed, it is the
completion of disgrace — even a footman
were preferable ; the publicity of the hero's
profession perpetuates the mortification.
I could not have believed Lady Susan
would have stooped so loiv."

Perhaps the acute distress of these high-

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52 COVENT GARDEN

bom dilettanti may have had the edge
taken off it by the fact that O'Brien, after
his nuptials, settled down in the country,
and no longer thrust " the publicity of his
profession betwixt the wind and their
nobility." The letter, however, points out
very forcibly the status of the actor at that
period, and indicates a strong contrast with
the honour and titles conferred upon that
profession to-day.

It was in this church also that John
Rich, proprietor and lessee of Covent
Garden Theatre, was married to his third
wife, Mrs. Priscilla Stevens, a lady who
was formerly his housekeeper.

In the churchyard is also buried Betty
Careless, a lady of very doubtful (or should
not the adjective be " undoubted " ?) reputa-
tion, who flourished between 1720 and 1740.
She was thought of sufficient importance,
writes Besant, to receive a brief obituary
notice in " The Gentleman's Magazine " of
April 1752. " Was buried from the Poor-
house of St. Paul's, Covent Grarden, the
famed Betty Careless, who had helped the
gay gentlemen of this country to squander
je50,000,"

COVENT GARDEN 53

Alas, poor Betty ! From £50,000 to the
poor-house ! Sooner or later " the way of
the transgressor " is generally macle " hard "
for him.

The churchyard is also the reputed place
of burial of the original (whoever he
may have been) of Thackeray's Captain
Costigan. It is said that from a window of
Offley's in Henrietta Street, which over-
looked the churchyard, some of his foiiuer
boon companions were wont to pour
tumblers of punch over his grave. Possibly
in his then condition he would have pre-
ferred a drop of cold water to the burning
fiery liquid of his unregenerate days !

The hustings for the Westminster
elections wore placed in front of the
church till a comparatively recent date,
and many an exciting scene and encounter
were witnessed between members of the
rival factions.

Great excitement prevailed bei-e in 17S4,
when the Tories tried their utmost to
exclude the Whig leader, Charles James
Fox, from Westminster. Thanks to the
untiring energy of Georgina, Duchess of
Seronahirc, and her sister Lady Sun-

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COVENT GARDEN

cannon, wlio went round in their carriages
canvassing the voters, they gained so many
votes for Fox by their charm and beauty
that he soon obtained a large majority over
his opponent, Sir Cecil "Wrey. " The
Duchess of Devonshire is indefatigable in
her canvass for Fox ; she was in the most
blackguard houses in Long Acre by eight
o'clock this morning " (Letter from Dr.
Cornwallis, April 9, 1784).

At the close of the poll Fox had a clear
majority of 200 votes, in spite of the
counter-efforts of the Countess of Salisbury.

It was on this occasion that a witty
costemiongor respectfully approached the
Duchess, who was one of the leading
beauties of the day, and asked peimission
to light his pipe at her ladyship's eye.

After the result of the poll had been
announced, Fox was carried through the
streets, shoulder-high, to the doors of Carl-
ton House. Contemporary writers have
stated that so great was the interest taken
in the contest, and so keen was the party
feeling, that for three weeks the neighbour-
hood of the market was the scene of riot
and bloodshed.

COVENT GARDEN 55

In front of the church was " Tom King's
Coffee-house," a place of considerable re-
pute in those days. It was here that all
the town rakes used to congregate in the
small hours of the morning. The place was
nightly frequented by noblemen and beaux
dressed in their finest clothes and who
freely mixed with the heterogeneous com-
pany commonly met with in a market-place.
Tom King was the son of well-to-do parents
and was born at West Ashton in Yorkshire.
In 1713 he ran away from Eton, where he
was being educated, in apprehension that
his fellowship would be denied him (Ilor-
wood's "Alumni Etonenses ").

On Tom's death, the place was carried on
by his widow, Moll King, under whose
management it gained such an unsavoury
reputation that a contemporai'y poet dedi-
cated the following lines to it :

*' Where a wide area opene to the sight
A Bpacions Plain qnadrangnkrly right,
Whose large froDtiers with the PalliBodo'H boonJ
From Trivia'fi filth enshrines the hollow'd groand
In which Pomono keeps her frnitfol court
And yonthfol Flora with her Kympha resort."

At length the scandal became so great

COVENT GARDEN

that steps were taken to put an end to the
trouble. In a newspaper cutting of May
2i, 1739, we read: "Yesterday, Moll
King, mistress of Tom King's Coffee-house,
Covent Garden, was brought to the King's
Bench to receive judgment, when the Court
committed her to the King's Bench prison,
Southwark, till they took time to consider
of a punishment adequate to the offence."
On June 9th of the same year, she was
fined £200 and imprisoned for three months
and to find security for her good behaviour
for three years and to remain in prison
until the fine be paid. This was the
maximiun sentence for keeping a disorderly
house. Another taTem of note was the
" Finish," originally the " Queen's Head,"
kept by Mrs. Butler, which was on the
south side of the market. It eventually
became the resort of footpads and high-
waymen, besides being patronised by the
yoxmg bloods, who found it convenient to
wind up an evening's debauch at a place
which was not closed all night. J. P.Kemble,
in a merry (perhaps exalted) mood, once
visited the place and insisted on speaking
a few lines from his new part, Coriolanus.

COVENT GARDEN

The voluntfiry effusion was unpalatable to
the company, who " rose at him," with the
result that he made an exit O.P. more
hurried than dignified.

The following lines referring to the
" Finish " were written by Tom Moore in
k Tom Cribb's " Memorial to Congress " :

"Some place t^t's like the 'Finiub/ l&ds !
Where all your high pedeetriaa pads,
That have been ap and ont all uight
Rnaoicg their rigs among the rattleru,
At morning meet and, honour bright,
Agree to share the blant and taters."

The " Finish " was the last of the Covent
Garden night taverns, and was cleared away
in 1829.

It appears that the statue of Charles I.
which now stands at the top of Whitehall
was once concealed in the vaults of St. Paul's
Church, Covent Garden. When the King
was executed, Parliament gave orders for
the statue to be destroyed, and handed it
over to a brazier named Rivett with in-
structions to that effect. The latter con-
ceived the brilliant idea of storing it away
until better {i.e. more monarchical) times
should arrive. In order, however, to give

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58 COVENT GABDEN

foundatioii to the idea that he had Iwdceii
it up, he., made small bronzes and rases,
which he sold as xnanufactured out of the
material of the ori^al statue. These were
eagerly purohased by both Boyalist and
Boimdhead : the latter regarding them as
souvenirs of their triumphs, the former as
cherished mementoes of their dead monarch.
At the Restoration^ Birett was induced to
give up the statue ("History of Charing
Cross," by Uaomichael).

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CHAFTER V

Russell Street and the coffee-ho usee— Their histoiy and
importance — The first ooffee-liouae lo London— Wills 's,
Buttons', Tom's, the Bedford, the Rose— John Dryden—
Pope— The assault on Uryden— Varioua descriptions
of Wills's— "The Tatlcr"— Richard Steele and Joseph
Addison — "The Guardian" and " The Spectator-"

H.TJ88ELL Street was for some considei-able
period the chief thoroughfare in Covent
Garden. Before the improvements in the
neighbourhood it gave direct access to the
theatre in Drury Lane from the nest end of
the town. From the time of its construction
in 1634 down to the period of the latter
Georges its importance may he reckoned as
on a par with that of Pall Mall to-day.

The chief attraction of this street was
the presence there of the coffee-houses
which sprang into public favour about
1660. The advent of these houses supplied
a long-felt want. At that period nothing

COVENT GARDEN

like our present newspaper was in exist-
ence ; consequently the opening of the
coflfee-liQUses provided facilities for all
parties to meet and discuss the political
and social news of the day. Every man of
the better classes had his favourite haunt,
whither he adjourned for a few hours'
recreation from business. There, over a
cup of coffee, he joined in the general con-
versation, which in some establishments
reached quite a high standard of literary
debate. It cannot be denied tliat the coffee-
houses played a moat important r61e in the
morals of the period, substituting, as they
did, an innocuous drink in the place of the
alcoholic temptations of the general tavern.
In our own day the tea-shops have done
more for the cause of temperance than any
amount of preaching or cerulean decora-
tions. It is a well-established fact that
the tea-shop attracts many, who once
patronised the public-houses, to the quiet and
modest resort where any decent woman can
show her face, and where for a reasonable
sum light refreshment is provided, and a
game of chess or draughts can be enjoyed.
The first coffee-house was established in

I
I

COVENT GARDEN

London in 1652, and was situated in St.
Michael's Alley, Corahill.

A certain merchant, who travelled in the
East, returned from a journey, bringing
with him an Oriental servant, who used to
prepare a cup of coflfee for his master
every morning. Some time afterwards this
domestic conceived the idea of opening a
shop for the sale of this novelty. He
joined his foi-tunes with the coachman of
his late employer, and the two set up for
themselves at the address above mentioned.

The custom of cofFee-drinking spread
with remarkable swiftness. In 1660 a
duty of 4(/. was levied on every gallon of
coiTee made or sold. Coffee-houses sprang
up in every direction, and three years later
it was ordained that they should be licensed
at Quarter Sessions.

So popular did these establishment.s be-
come that the authorities suspected them of
providing facilities for the preaching of
treason. Charles II. even went so far as to
command the closing of these places of re-
sort ; but the decree was afterwards repealed.

The most important of the Covent Garden
bouses were "Wills's, Buttons', Tom's, the

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COVENT GARDEN

Bedford, and the Rose. The two former'
were the most celebrated.

Wills's was situated at the M'est corner
of Bow Street and Russell Street. It was
formerly a tavern, known as the Red
Cow, accoi-ding to Sir Walter Scott, ani
afterwards as the Rose. It is to bi
observed, however, that this latter ap.
pellation was common to such places oCi
entertainment.

The landlord, Mr. "William TJrwin, seeing
how popular coffee-drinking had become,
turned his place into a coffee-house. The
name was altered to " Wills's," and the place
eventually became the most important
centre of serious literary discussion. Dryden
was the great man of genius, who was in
fact the genius loci there. He becamej
the "cynosure of neighbouring " wits ; h©.
made the fortune of the house ; young and
old flocked by day and night to bask in the*
sunabino of his wit ; and great was the pride
of any one favoured with a pinch of snuif
from his venerated snuff-box.

Pope, when a lad, had conceived sucli a
feeling of respect for Dryden, that be
pestered his friends to take him to Wills'

COVENT GARDFA'

that he might gaze upon the great man. His
delight was great when his wish had at last
been gratified. He afterwards descrilied
him as a "plump man with a down look,
and not rery conversible."

Dryden was bom on August 9, 1631, in a
Northampton village which rejoiced in the
quaint name of Aldwinkle All Saints.
Sprung from well-connected parents, he
was educated at "Westminster School, and
afterwards at Cambridge, where he entered
Trinity College in 1660. He matriculated
a few months later, and at the end of that
year was elected to a "Westminster scholar-
ship. He was married December 1, 1663,
to Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter
of the Earl of Berkshire. His appearance
at Wills's may be said to have commenced
within a year of his marriage (Saintsbury's
*' Life of Dryden " ). Pepys writes that he
was stopped, as ho was going to fetch his
wife, at the great coffee-house in Covent
Garden, " and there found Dryden, the poet
I knew at Cambridge, and all the wits of
the Town."

The poet's place of honour at "Wills's was
by the fireside in winter, and during the

COVENT GARDEN

summer months a chair on the balcony'
overlooking the street. His plays were
produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,
and he resided in Gerrard Street, near
St. Martin's Lane, and also in Rose Street,
Long Acre.

It was in the latter street on Deceml
18, 1679, that Dryden was the yictim:
of a cowardly assault at the hands of a'
hand of masked hulliea, or Mohocks,
these desperadoes were then called. He wi
returning home, probably from "Wills's, when'
he was attacked and severely maltreated. A,-;
reward of £50 was offered for the discovei
of his assailants, and the money was lodged
at Temple Bar with the firm now known
Child's Bank. The reward produced no
effect, hilt popular belief ascribed the out-
rage to Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. It
appears that Dryden was on friendly terms
with Lord Mulgrave, formerly a great
friend of, but subsequently on bad tonns
with, Rochester. Shortly after the quarrel
a satire was circulated which contained
violent attacks on the Earl, the Duchesses
of Cleveland and Portsmouth, and even on
the King himself, Dryden's biographer.

COVENT GARDEN

Mr. Saintsbury, cannot understand why
suspicion .ever fell upon the poet on this
'unt. " Firstly," says Mr. Saintsbury,
Dryden had never at any time hired himself
out as a literary bravo to any private person ;
and secondly, it seems inconceivable that he
should attack the King, who was bis greatest
benefactor. Thirdly, the style of the offend-
ing manuscript was totally unlike that of
J)ryden."

p The following extract will give a vivid
illustration of the life at the famous coffee-
house : " From thence we adjourned to the
Wits' coffee-house . . . accordingly upstairs
we went and found much company, but
little talk ... we shuflBed through the
moving crowd of philosophical mutes to the
other end of the room, where three or four
wits of the upper class were rendcz-vous'd
at a table, and were disturbing the ashes of
the old poets by perverting their sense. . , .
.t another table were seated a parcel of
»ung raw beaux and wits, who were
conceited if they had but the honour to dip
a finger and thumb into Mr. Dryden's snuff-
box " ( " The London Spy ").

Macaulay, in his " History of England,"

66 COVENT GARDEN

writes : " Nowhere was the smoking mora
constant than at Wills's. That celehrated
house, situated between Covent Garden and
Bow Street, was sacred to polite letters.
There the talk was about poetical justice
and the unities of time and place. There
was a faction for Perrault and the Moderns,
a faction for Boileau and the Ancients. One
group debated whether ' Paradise Lost '
ought not to have been in rhyme. To
another an envious poetaster demonstrated
that ' Venice Preserved ' ought to have been
hooted from the stage. Under no roof waa
a greater variety of figures to be seen.
There were Earls in stars and garters,
clergymen in cassocks and bands, pert
Templars, sheepish lads from the TJniver-
sities, translators and index-makers in
ragged coats of frieze. The great press
was to get near the chair where John
Dryden sate. To bow to the Laureate
and to hear his opinion of Racine's last
tragedy, or of Bossu's treatise on Epic
Poetry, was thought a privilege. A
pinch from his snuff-box was an honour
sufficient to turn the head of a young
enthusiast."

COVENT GARDEN 67

Prior, in his " Town and Country Mouse,"
describes the scene as follows :

"Ab 1 remember,' said the sober monse,
* I've heard much tallc of the wits' coffee-honae.'
' Thither,' Bays Brindle, ' thoa shalt go and see
PrieBts sipping coffee, sparks aod poets tea ;
Here ragged frieze, there Qaality well drest,
These baffling the Grand-Seigneur, those the Test ;
And here shrewd gneeses made, and reasoos giveti
That hamati laws were never made in Heaven.
Bot above all, what shall oblige thy sight,
And fill tby eyeballs with a vast delight,
Is the Foetic-Jndge of sacred wit,
Who does i' th' darkness of Lis glory sit. . . ."

WLen publishing the prospectus of his
|iew paper, "The Tatler," Steele wrote:
■* All accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and
entertainment shall be under the article
Df White's Chocolate House ; poetry under
that of Wills's Coffee-House ; learning
under the title of Grecian; foreign and
Jomestic news you will have from the
James' Coffee-House."
Dryden died on May 1, 1710, and a
plendid funeral was appointed for him,
leveral peers volunteering to defray the
ntire cost themselves. The body was em-

COVENT GARDEN

balmed, and, after lying for some days at
the Royal College of Physicians, was buried
on May 13 in Westminster Abbey.

The lower portion of Wills's was used as
a shop, and in 1693 it was let to a woollen
draper, by name Philip Brent. In 1722 the
premises were occupied by a bookseller
named James Woodman, who called his
shop " The Camden's Head."

Buttons' came into existence on the
opposite side of the street. This cele-
brated house was named after its pro-
prietor, Mr. Buttons, who had at one time
been a retainer in the family of the Countess
of Warwick. She, on her marriage with
Addison, set Buttons up as the landlord of
the house, which soon afterwards became
the headquarters of the Whig literati.

At this period a notable change was
passing over the general literature of the
day. Men of wit, formerly, were engaged
principally in writing and publishing lam-
poons, satires, and panegyrics. This style
of literature, however much amusement
it might cause, can hardly be reckoned
as attaining to a high place in letters.
The shirt of Ness us, the taint of the

COVENT GARDEN 69

coarseness of Restoration literature, clung
to its poisoned skin. Not long before
Dryden's demise there rose above the
horizon the clear bright star of a very
different class of ■writings. The earliest of
these was " The Tatler," "which was followed
in due order by " The Spectator " and " The
Guardian." The latter publication eman-
ated from " Buttons'," which was consti-
tuted the receiving office for all contributions
intended for its pages.

" The Tatler " appeared in the spring of
1709, and was a long-cherished and deeply
considered venture of Steele. Unlike those
of its contemporary rivals, its columns were
not exclusively occupied with foreign and
political intelligence, although its editor
had ample opportunities for making use of
such information.

Macaulay writes that Steele " had been
appointed Gazetteer by Sunderland at the
request, it is said, of Addison, and thus had
access to foreign news earlier, and more
authentic than any in those times within
the reach of an ordinary news-writer."

The main object, however, of the paper
was to fill a void in the literary publications

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COVENT GARDEN

of the period. The idea was to bring out
a chatty periodical. Addison, being con-
sulted, at once fell in with the suggestion)
and hia contributions, the eariier as well
as the later, received the most favourable
notice.

The effect of Addison's assistance cannot
be described better than in Steele's own
words. "I fared," said he, "like a dis-
tressed prince who calls in a powerful
neighbour to his aid. I was outdone by
my auxiliary. "Wlien I had called him in,
I could not subsist without dependence on
him." " The paper," he says elsewhere,
" was advanced indeed. It was raised to a
greater thing than I intended it " (Macau-
lay's " Life of Addison ").

" The Tatler " was due to appear three
times a week — Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays, these being the days on which
the post left town for the country. Its
chief novelty lay in the articles for both
sexes. For the ladies there was fashionable
intelligence on dress, etc., and for the
gentlemen, gossip on the literary news at
"Wills's, criticisms on the latest theatrical
production, and, in short, " such light topics

COVENT GARDEN

as would pleaisantly while away the time
spent over coffee and tobacco " (Alex.
Charles Ewald, F.S.A.),

The paper lasted two years, having
changed, as Macaulay observes, from its
original purpose to a collection of essays
on books, morals, and manners. The last
issue appeared on January 11, 1711. "The
Spectator " made its first bow to the public
two months later, and was, from the very
first, a conspicuous success. The papers,
or collection of essays, contain such beau>
tiful and lifelike sketches of character, that
the work has all the interest of a modem
novel. It may be said to have owed much
of its popularity to the fact that it was the
first example of a powerful illustration of
the life and manners of England.

Richardson and Fielding had not yet
entered the literary arena, and Smollett
was not yet born. It may be conjectured
that the literary birth of all three owes
much to their intellectual progenitor,
Addison.

" The Spectator " came to an end at the
conclusion of 1712. "The Guardian " suc-
ceeded it, hut enjoyed only a brief existence.

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COVENT GARDEN

In 1714 a new series of " The Spectator "
appeared, in which are to be found, so
modern critics assert, some of the finest
essays in tiie English language.

The glory of Addison is to hare taught a
corrupt a^e that it is possible to be witty
and humorous without being coarse and
profligate; to turn the laugh to the side
of the honest man away from the side of
the knave and seducer ; in fact, to steal from
the devil, as Luther proposed to do, some of
his best tunes.

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CHAPTER VI

The celebrated lion'a head at ButtoBa'— The life of a man
of letters in the eeventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies— Ambroae Phillips and Pope — The Rose: ita
correct situation— Pepys' description— Tom's, and its
fashionable clientele— Tom Davies and Boawell — Dr.
Bamuel Johnson— Charles Lamb— His appreciation of
the neighbourhood— The Hnmmuma— Dr. Johnson's
famous ghost story — The Bedford and its history —
David Uan-ick- The Piazza Coffec-honse— Present-day
RnsBell Strevt— HoO]ier's Pharmacy and the creduloua
costermonger- The Harp.

Buttons', as before stated, was appointed
the receiving place for all contributions to
" Tlie Guardian," for which purpose a lion's
head was set up at the coffee-house, as a
sort of pillar-box. It was talten from the
antique Egyptian lion, and was designed by

^^ Hogarth.

^H It was inscribed as follows :

"Cervantnr magnia isti cervicibns n
Nod niei dolicta pascitur ille fera."

ignes

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COVENT GARDEN

About this inscription it may be observed
that, though both the lines are from
Martial, they are not consecutive, but come
from two separate epigrams, 23 and 61 in
Book I. These epigrams are both on the
same subject, and treat of the curious
practice of training a lion to allow a hare
to run in and out of its jaws unharmed.

There is further a misprint in each line
quoted. In line 1 Cervantur should be
Servantur, and in line 2 delicto should be
delecta. The intention of the couplet,
doubtless, is that " The Guardian " proposes
to be a guardian of the lowly and innocent,
and intends to strike only at the " necks ]
of the mighty."

This lion's head was afterwards removed
to the Shakespeare Tavern under the Piazza ;
in 1804. it was sold to Mr. Eichardson,
the proprietor of Richardson's Hotel, for ,
£17 10«., and eventually purchased by the j
Duke of Bedford.

In the eighteenth century the pecuniary I
benefits to be gained by a literary career |
were of the most slender description. Fees I
paid to authors were so small that thel
scanty wage scarce sufficed to keep

COVENT GARDEN

wolf from the door. It is small wonder
that many literary men degenerated into
spongers and habitues of the Debtors' Prison
in the Fleet. If by chance substantial
results followed upon some fleeting smile
of Fortune, it is not surprising that the
unlooked-for opportunity was immediately
abused by the usually penniless and starv-
ing scribe.

" All order was destroyed ; all business
was suspended. The most good-natured
host began to repent of his eagerness to
serve a man of genius in distress, when he
heard his guest roaring for fresh punch at
five o'clock in the morning " (Crocker's
edition of the " Life of Johnson ").

Some few were more successful. Both
Pope and Young were patronised hy in-
fluential people. On the other hand, four
of the most distinguished writers of the
time — viz. Johnson, Wycherley, Collins,
and Fielding — were all, at one period of
their career, arrested for debt. It is to
the everlasting credit of Steele that he was
prompted to encourage young authors by
affording them facilities to submit theirwork
to a competent and unbiassed authority.

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76 COVENT GARDEN

It was at Buttons' that Ambrose Phillips,
a wit and a favourite of Addison, hung up
a birch rod with which he threatened to
chaatise Pope for having written an un-
complimentary epigram about him. Mr.
Gibber wrote to Pope : " When you used
to pass your hours at Buttons', you were
even then remarkable for your satirical
itch of provocation ; scarce was there a
gentleman of any pretentions to wit whom
your unguarded temper had not fallen upon
in some biting epigram ; among whom you
once caught a pastoral Tartar, whose
resentment, that your punishment might
be proportioned to tlie smart of your poetry,
had stuck up a birchen rod in the room,
to be ready whenever you might come
within reach of it ; and at this rate you
writ and rallied and writ on till you
rhymed yourself quite out of the coffee-
house."

Macaulay described Phillips as " a good
Whig and a middling poet." He had the
honour of bringing into fashion a species
of composition which has been called after
his name, Namby Pamby.

Mr. Buttons died in 1731, and in " The

COVENT GARDEN

Daily Advertiser " o£ October 6 of that
year the following notice appeared: "On
Sunday morning died, after a three days'
illness, Mr. Buttons, who formerly kept
Buttons' Coffee-house in Russell Street,
Corent Garden, a very noted house for
wits, being the place where the Lion pro-
duced the famous Spectators and Tatlers
written by the late Mr. Secretary Addison,
and Sir Richard Steele, Knight, which
works will transmit their names with
honour to posterity."

With the death of Addison and the
retirement of Steele into the country
Buttons' gradually declined in favour, and
its frequenters migrated to the Bedford
and the Shakespeare. The house after-
wards became a private residence.

Another notorious house was the "Rose,"
of much earlier date than the houses already
described. The Rose adjoined Drury Lane
Theatre, about which appears the follo^ving
extract from Pepys : " It being twelve
o'clock or little more, to the King's Play-
house, where the doors were not yet open ;
but presently they did open, and we in,
and find many people already come in by

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COVENT GARDEN

private ways into the pit, it being the first
day of Sir Charies Sedley's new play 80
long expected, The Mulberry Garden, of
whom, being so reputed a wit, all the
world do expect great matters. I having
sat here awhile, and eat nothing to-day,
did slip out, getting a boy to keep my
place, and to the Rose Tavern, and there
got half a breast of mutton off of the spit,
and dined all alone."

That the B-ose had an unsavoury reputa-
tion appears from these verses :

" Not far from thence appears a pendent sigD,
Wbose basil declares the prodact of the viae ;
Whence to the traveller's Bight the fall-blovB :

Rose
ItB dazzling beaaties doth in gold discloae.
And painted faces flock in tally'd clothes."

In the time of Charles II. its landlord
was named Long. The Treason Club met
here at the time of the Revolution to
consult with Lord Colchester, Thomas
Wharton, and others, and it was decided
that the regiment under Lieut.-Colonel
Langdale should desert in a body, which
it did on a Sunday in November 1688.
It is probable that there were two houses

COVENT GARDEN 79

named " Rose," both flourishing at the
same time in this neighbourhood, as Mr.
Walford, in his " Old and New London,"
describes this tavern as situated in Rose
Street, off XfOng Acre. Mr. Peter Cunning-
ham does not agree with this theory.

Tom's was situated at No. 17, Russell
Street, and was pulled down in 1856. It
was named after its landlord, Mr. Thomas
"West, who committed suicide in 1722 by
throwing himself out of a second-floor win-
dow of this house. As in the case of Wills's,
only the upper portion of the premises
was used as the coffee-house, the ground
floor being occupied by Mr. T. Lewis, the
bookseller, and original publisher of Pope's
Essay on Criticism. The clientele of this
establishment was noted for its smartness,
and quite a feature of the house was the
frequent display of full-dress uniforms and
numerous decorations adorning the persons
of its illustrious patrons. Among its fre-
quenters were Dr. Johnson, Colman the
Elder, Smollett and Fielding, and Colley
Cibber. In 1764 a club of about 700
members was formed, the subscription
being fixed at one guinea. On the list

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COVENT GARDEN

of members appear the names of Ganick,
Samuel Foote, Earl Percy, Sir John
Fielding, Richard Clive (the great Lord
Clive), Sir Fletcher Norton, the Marquia
of Granby, the Duke of Northumberland,
and Dr. Oliver Goldsmith. The numb)
700 probably means the total numb)
of members on the rolls from firet to last
as the club premises were too small to
afford room for the presence of more than
a small number at one time. It is qui!
a notable fact that Tom's was the fii
club where noblemen associated on equi
terms with the professional classes.

The coffee-house business was closed in
1814, and the premises were taken over by
Mr. Till, the numismatist. Upon his death,
Mr. Webster succeeded bim in the businesaJ
but afterwards removed to Henrietta Street'

Mr. Timbs mentions that the club-room
snuff-box was quite a celebrated trophy,
being made of tortoise-shell, and having
on the lid, in relief, the portraits of
Charles I. and Queen Anne Maria, and
the Boscobel Oak, with Charles II. hiding
in its branches. Tom's was afterwards
known as the Caledonian.

iitflfl

COVENT GARDEN

rAt No. 8, Russell Street, lived Tom
mes, actor and bookseller, at whose
house Boswell received his first intro-
duction to the great theme of his discoxurae,
Dr. Johnson,

Charles Lamb and his sister lived in this
street in lodgings at No. 20, over a brazier's
shop. They were evidently charmed with
their surroundings, for Lamb wrote to
Miss Wordsworth in a letter dated Nov-
ember 21, 1817 : " We are in the individual
spot I like best in all this great city ; the
theatres with all their noises, Covent
Garden, dearer to me than any garden of
K^cinous, where we are morally sure of the
Hwrliest peas and asparagus. Bow St.
thieves are examined within a few yards
of us. Mary had not been here four and
twenty hours before sbe saw a thief. She
sits at the window working; and casually
throwing out her eyes, she sees a concourse
^ of people coming this way, with a constable
■to conduct the solemnity. These little
incidents agreeably diversify a female
life."

Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, died here
79 ; and John Evelyn, the diarist, and

COVENT GARDEN

Carr, Earl of Somerset, were both, at one
time of their lives, residents of Russell
Street. The latter lived hero in 1664
(Church).

Hummum's Hotel and Restaurant, situ-
ated in the south-woat corner of the street,
and overlooking the market, takes its name
from an Eastern Avord, " Hammam," mean-
ing a warm hath, and was the first example
of its kind in England. These places were
known as " Bagnios," and resembled a
modern Turkish bath. In the eighteenth
century the hagnios of the metropolis
degenerated into resorts of vice. As early
as 1701 the place was advertised as follows :

" The Hummunis in Covent Garden
having for several years past been neglected
and abused by those persons that had the
care and management of them, whereby
several persons of quality have been dis-
gusted, and have left off coming thither
to SMeat and bathe as formerly : This is to
give notice, that the said Hummums are
now in possession of others, who have
refitted the same and rectified all those
neglects and abuses that were formerly
done there, where persons may sweat and

COVENT GARDEN

■ bathe in the cleanliest, and be cupped

^M after the newest, manner- There is like-

H wise provided good lodging for any persons

^P 'who shall desire to lodge there all night,

where who pleases may see the same. The

price, as was always, for sweating and

bathing, is 5/6, for two in one room 8/- ;

but who lodges there all night 10/-."

The Hummums was the scene of Dr.

IJbhnson's best accredited ghost story,
related by him to Boswell as follows:
" A waiter at the Hummums where
Ford, a relation of Johnson's, died, had
been absent for some time, and returned
not knowing that Ford was dead. Going
down into the cellar, according to the
Btory, he met him. Going down again he
met him a second time. "When he came
up, he asked the people of the house what
Ford could be doing there. The waiter
took a fever, in which he lay for some time,

»When he recovered, he said he had a
message to deliver to some women from
Ford, but he was not to say what, or to
whom. He walked out, and was followed,
but somewhere near St. Paul's Church they
t lost him. He came back and said he had

COVENT GARDEN

Lof 1
telli
itsi
reas

delivered the message, and the women
exclaimed, ' Then we are all undone.' Dr.
Pellet, who was an incredulous man, en-
quired into the truth of this strange story,
and reported that the evidence was irre-
sistible."

The Bedford stood at the north-east
corner of the Piazza, on the site of the
west end of the Floral Hall yard. The
presiding genius here was Foote, who ruled
the company in much the same way as
Dryden did at WiIIs's, and Steele at
Buttons'.

The history of the Bedford was written
in 1751, reaching, twelve years later, its
second edition. The author of tliis history
went by the pseudonym of " Genius," and
the book was dedicated to " The Most
Impudent Man Alive." The volume is
nothing more than a skit on some of the
best-known frequenters of the house. Its
style exhibits the extreme coarseness at-
tendant on most of the literary productions
of the eighteenth century. The author
tells us that he was prompted " to transmit
its anecdotes to that period, when we may
reasonably suppose, thro' the natural

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COVENT GARDEN

Ticissitude of things, no vestige of it can
possibly remain."

The establishment appears to have been
frequented by very well-to-do folk. I
quote from its pages : " The situation of
this place necessarily makes it a con-
venient assembly for those who frequent
the theatres, as well as those who exert
their talents to please the public in dra-
matic performances, and for the same
reason it may be looked upon as the
centre of gravitation between the Court
and the City ; the noxious effluvia of
St. Bride's are here corrected by the
genuine Eau de Luce from Pall Mall;
and the predominance of ambergrise at
St. James' is qualified by the wholesome
tar of Thames Street. Nor does the con-
versation receive a leas hapjjy effect from
this junction; the price of stocks and the
lie of the day from the Alley are softened
by the ' bon-raot ' of Lady Dolabella, which
sets every fool at the Duchess of Trifle's
rout in a titter; of the- duel which this
morning was fought between Captain
Terrible and Lord Puncto, when both of
them were mortally wounded in the coat 1 "

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As the souls of some of these fops were
essentially bound up with their dandified
attire, this seems to be the most suitable
spot for them to receive chastisement.

David Garrick was a familiar figure at ,
this house. He was born at Hereford in.
1716, and was the third child of a lieu-
tenant of Dragoons of French origin whose
parents had escaped to England when the
Huguenots M"ere banished from France.
According to Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, the
family name was de la Garrigue, a con-
nection of the Rochefoucauld family.

David was from his early days gifted
with an extraordinary sense of wit and
repartee, and as a mere boy would amuse
an audience of friends with his mimicry
and sallies. He was afterwards sent to
Hochester to further his studies, and at
the age of twenty-two, together with his ■■
brother Peter, who had previously served .
in the Navy, determined to go into the
wine trade. The firm was to have branches
at London and Lichfield, and David was
appointed to look after the former. They
had premises in Durham Yard, situated in
that part of the Strand which was after-

COVENT GARDEN

wards named the Adelphi. Foote taunted
Garrick "as living in Durham Yard with
three quarts of vinegar in his cellar and
calling himself a wine merchant."

David was evidently not destined for a
immercial career — his heart was never
the business. His greatest friend was
Macklin, an actor in the Drury Lane
company. The two were almost insepar-
able, and spent most of their time in the
coffee-houses in the company of other
Bohemians. It is not surprising that the
wine business, so far as the London branch,
was concerned, was not a success. The
appearance of Margaret Wofflngton on the
stage seems to have finally decided him.
He immediately fell a victim to the Irish
girl, and abandoned business for the stage.

"The Connoisseur" of January 31, 1754,
describes the Bedford as being nightly
orowded with men of parts. " Almost every
le you meet is a polite scholar and a
it. Jokes and bon-mota are echoed from
box to box. Every branch of literature is
critically examined, and the merit of every
production of the press, or performance of
the th^tres, weighed and determined."

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88 COVENT GARDEN

A shilling rubber club was held here,
where a quarrel arose between Hogarth
and Churchill, which drew from Walpole
the remark that " never did two angry
men of their ability throw mud with less
dexterity." Mr. "Wheatley says that the
club was closed in 1867. Its effects, sold
at Christie's, realised £650.

Hogarth was also a member of a club
which held its meetings at the Bedford and
joined in a party for a jaunt in Kent,
something after the style of Mr. Pickwick.
Whilst at Rochester, Hogarth and Scott
(another member) played at hop-scotch in
the Colonnade under the Town Hall.

"When Covent Garden Theatre was burnt
down, the Bedford and Shakespeare Taverns
were saved from destruction by a wall
that had been recently erected by the
proprietors of the theatre, to guard them-
selves from fire in that direction.

The Piazza Coffee-house occupied part of
thesitewherenowstandsthe Tavistock Hotel.
The proprietor was Macklin, who presided
over the coffee-room, and who kept what
Fielding described as a " temple of luxury."

In his " Voyage to Lisbon " Fielding

COVENT GARDEN 8»

writes : " Unfortunately for the fishmongers
of London, the Dory resides only in the
Devonshire seas; for could any of this
company but convey one to the temple of
luxury under the Piazza, where Macklin,
the high-priest, daily serves up his rich
offerings, great would he the reward of
that fishmonger."

The Shakespeare Tavern adjoined the
Piazza Coffee-house.

The aspect of Russell Street to-day is
very different from that which it presented
in its palmy days. Many of its houses
on the north side have been removed to
afford room for the extension of the
market. The Hummums has been entirely
rebuilt. The site of Wills's (a very old
building) was, until recent years, occupied
as a ham-and-beef shop, where, contrary
to the custom of a restaurant, cooked meat
was sold to be eaten not on, but off the
premiseB. Mr. Callow, in his " Old London
Taverns," says " there are many such shops
in London, but few, probably, who do so
large a trade as this." The premises have
now become an emporium for the sale of
bananas and other fruits.

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00 COVENT GARDEN

A few old houses still lend to this street
something of its ancient aspect, though
further alterations and improvements are
frequently occurring. The most recent
change is seen in the new extension of the
Flower Market on the south side. Some-
thing in the nature of an old landmark
which has now disappeared is " Hooper's
Pharmacy," about which the following tale
is told. A certain salesman in the market,
devoted to practical joking and known to
back horses, was one day accosted by a
costermonger client, who tried very hard to
discover the source of the salesman's turf
information. The joker told him that the
manager at " Hooper's " was known to
make bets, and that, by going about it the
right way, the costermonger might possibly
get " in the know." He accordingly
called on the chemist, and, being asked
what he wanted, ordered the first thing that
came into his head, to wit, a seidlitz
powder. He swallowed the draught, and
proceeded to pump the manager. Gaining
nothing by his efforts on so barren a soil,
he became abusive and would not leave
the shop until assisted thereto by a police-

COVENT GARDEN

man. Whether he afterwards had it out
with his friend the salesman, history does
not repeat.

Until 1859 the west part of Kussell
Street from Bow Street to the market was
known as Great Russell Street, while the
portion running from Bow Street to Drury
Lane was called Little Russell Street,

In the latter street and close to Crown
Court was a tavern called the " Harp,"
a resort of long standing of famous actors.
Mr. Walford, in his " Old and New London,"
writes that a celebrated society or club
called the " City of Lushington " was held
here, the members of which were presided
over by a " Lord Mayor " and four " Alder-
men," each of them elected to their exalted
positions. Each member had his particular
seat, known as a "ward." The " Edmund
Kean corner " was strictly maintained as
the seat of honour. The proceedings appear
to have been conducted with the greatest
decorum and propriety, and not, as the
name might seem to suggest, with scenes
of drunkenness and levity. The side of
Little Russell Street on which this tavern
was situated has now entirely disappeared.

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COVENT GARDEN

Mention muBt also be made of the
" Albion," wbioh was situated in Little
BuBsell Street next door to Hooper's Fhv-
macj. This was a tavern of some consider-
able repute in the 'sixties, but must not
be confounded with an hotel of the same
name in Alders^^te Street, E.G., which was
one of the most celebrated hotels in the
City.

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HT^^^^^^^H

^HP CHAPTER VII ^^^1

H Bow Street and Wellington Street— Sir Walter Scott—

■ Celebrated inhabitants— The Cock Tavern and riot
H — Wycherley: his marriage -Dr. John Radcliffe : hia
^M eccentricitiea— The old and modern police-stations—
H The Metropolitan Police Force— Charlotte Clarke—

^M — Sir John Fielding, the firat stipendiary magistrate—

■ Crown Coort and the Scottish Church— Broad Court

■ -Macklin and Mrs. Woffington-The Wrekin-Hart

■ Street (now Floral Street).

H Bow Street was constructed in 1637, and
^m has been described by Strype as " running
H in the shape of a bent bow," from which
H shape it took its name . He also described
H it as being " open and large, with very
H good houses, well inhabited, and resorted
H unto by gentry for lodgings, as are most of
H the other streets in this parish." Bow Street
™ did not originally connect Long Acre with
the Strand ; in order to gain access to the
latter thoroughfare it was necessary to
K pass down Brydges Street, now renamed

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COVENT GARDEN

Catherine Street. The street that receivH
the name of Wellington Street in 1844 was
originally Charles Street, so named after
Charles I. Here Barton Booth, the actor
who sustained the r61e of the original Cato
in Addison's play of that name, died in
1733.

It is difQcult to believe that Bow Street
was once a fashionable locality ; yet Dryden,
in his epilogue of "King Arthur," wrote
the following words, which were spoken by
Mrs. Bracegirdle, " From fops and wits
and cits and Bow Street beaux," etc. Sir
W. Scott once remarked that a letter from
Bow Street in his day would have been
more alarming than otberwisc, which shows
that the then most important building in
the street was the police office. Reference
is made to this later. The narrow part of
the street between Long Acre and Floral
Street was once named Bow Court. At
the comer of Broad Court is a branch of
the London City & Midland Bank, over
which are the offices of Messrs. Garcia,
Jacobs & Co., fruit brokers. At No. 8
Bow Street a tobacconist's shop, kept by
a Mr. Harris, the boundaries of St. Paul's,

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COVENT GARDEN

Covent Garden, and St. Martin 's-in-the-
Fields adjoin, this house being situated
partially in both parishes.

Robert Harley, the great minister, after-
wards created Earl of Oxford, was born
here in 1661 ; and Fielding, the novelist,
occupied the house in this street on whose
site was subsequently erected the first Bow
Street police-station. Here he wrote *' Tom
Jones." On the east side was the Cock
Tavern, kept by a woman known as Oxford
Kate. It was here that a disgraceful riot
occurred, caused by the disorderly conduct
of Sir Charles Sedley, Bart., Lord Buck-
hurst, and Sir Thomas Ogle, who stripped
and exposed themselves in indecent pos-
tures to the passers-by. Their conduct so
incensed the crowd that a determined
attack M'as made upon the place. The
authors of the disturbance were tried
before Lord Chief Justice Foster of the
King's Bench. Pepys states that "His
Lordship and the rest of the Bench did
all of them roundly give him a most high
reproof; my Lord Chief Justice saying
that it was for him and such wicked
I wretoheB as he was, that God's anger and

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96 COVENT GARDEN

judgments hung over us — calling him
Sirrah ! many times. It seems that they
have bound him to his good behaviour,
(there being no law against him for it,)
for £5,000."

Another writer states he was fined £500,
and that Sedley, together with the other
culprits, employed Xilligrew and another
courtier to intercede with the King for a
mitigation of the sentence. Tradition, how-
ever, relates that, instead of exerting them-
selves on behalf of their friends, these latter
actually begged the amount for their own
use, and extorted it to the last halfpenny.

Sedley was the author of several plays,
and was also the father of the Countess
of Dorchester, mistress of James II.

Opposite the Cock lived Bicliai'd, Earl of
Dorset, and also Wycherley, the dramatist.
Charles II. visited the latter here, and, find-
ing him in ill-health, advised him to go
abroad, furnishing him with a sum of money
for that purpose. Wycherley followed the
King's advice. On his return his pere-
grinations led him to Tunbridge Wells,
where he met, fell in love with, and
married the young Countess of Drogheda.

COVENT GARDEN

He failed, however, to acquaint the King
of these steps, and his Majesty was seri-
1 ously offended thereat. Knowing that the
r Countess was the King's ward, Wycherley
probably feared that he would not be al-
lowed to marry her, and therefore kept the
■whole matter a secret. lie did not, how-
ever, reap much happiness from his bargain,
for his wife turned out to be a very jealous
iroman. She could not bear her husband
be out of her sight; and it is related
■ that when he went to his favourite haunt,
I the Cock, on the opposite side of the
I street, he was obliged to leave open the
f windows of the room in which he sat, that
[ she might see there were no women in his
company.

In the reigns of Anne and William III.
there lived in Bow Street, in a house which
stood on the site of the east end of the
Floral Hall, the eccentric, though eminent,
physician Dr. Radcliffe. His eccentricity
was accompanied by a bluffness of speech
which occasionally brought upon his head
the keen displeasure of both his Royal
, patienta. A few years before William's
ath the Doctor was summoned to attend
7

98 COVENT GARDEN

hia Majesty. The King pointed out
curious feature of his malady, viz. the^
abnormal swelling of the lower limbs,
while the rest of the body retained itS'
ordinary dimensions. The Doctor, having
made his examination, exclaimed with more
force than courtesy, "I would not have
your Majesty's two legs for your three;
kingdoms." William never forgave him
for this brusque speech, although he con-
tinued to make use of his prescription until
a year or so previous to his demise; hut
he could never again be persuaded to admit]
the Doctor to his presence.

His remark to Anne, then Princess of
Denmark, was equally unfortunate. He
treated her illness with great coolness, and
remarked that " she has only the vapours,
and is as well as any woman breathings
if she could only be persuaded to believi
it." When ho next appeared at Court heJ
was met by an officer of the Houseliold,
who informed him that the Princess ntt';
longer had any need of his services. Later
on, when her husband was ill, she over-
came her former indignation and sum-
moned him to her presence. He was al

COVENT GARDEN

sent for when she herself lay at death's
door. The Doctor disobeyed the summons,
pleading illness as an excuse. He was
disbelieved, and his callousness aroused
great indignation. In one of his letters
he writes : " I know the nature of attending
crowned heads in their last moments too
well to be fond of waiting on them without
being sent for by a proper authority."
And, again : " You have heard of pardons
being signed for physicians before a
Sovereign's demise ; however, ill as I was,
I would have gone to the Queen in a
horse-litter had either her Majesty, or
those in commission next to her, com-
manded me to do so."

He therefore appears to have had some
grounds for absenting himself, although
evidently he could never forget the insult
put upon him by the message that the
Princess no longer had any need of his

He afterwards removed to Great Queen
Street, and ultimately to No. 5, Blooms-
bury Square, where he died in 1714. He
left his books and a large sum of money
to the University of Oxford, and thus

100

COVENT GARDEN

founded the library there which bears his '
name (Clinch's " Bloomsbury and St.
GUes").

Among the celebrated residents of Bow I
Street were Edmund Waller, the poet, who '
lived in a house on the east side, where,
in 1654, he wrote the celebrated panegyric
on Cromwell ; William Longueville, friend
of Butler; Marcellus Laroone, who drew
Tempest's "Cries of London," and lived
on the west side from 1G80 to 1702;
Mohun, the actor, on the cast side from
1671 to 1676; and Grinling Gibbons, the j
wood-carver. The house of the latter fell I
down in 1710, luckily without injury to ]
the inmates, although a little girl, who I
was plajang in the neighbouring court, was |
buried in the debris, and killed. " Sir
Roger de Coverley " is located here in I
" Spectator," No. 410 ; and the Earl of
Dorset lived on the west side 1684-6.

Bow Street is to-day celebrated for its
Police Court., which is the third example of
its kind erected in this particular thorough-
fare. The first police court was the original
house of the Fieldings, situated on the
east side of the street on the site of the

COVENT GARDEN 101

premises now occupied by the Opera Hotel
and Messrs. Lyons' tea shop. Here Sir
John Fielding, the blind magistrate, dis-
pensed justice, in spite of his affliction, until
1790, when the house was destroyed during
the *' Gordon Eiots." It was rebuilt, and
served its purpose for some time, but a new
edifice was constructed on the opposite side
of the road in 1825, on the site of an old
tavern known as the Brown Bear. The
last case was tried here in 1881. This is
without doubt the old building referred to
by Dickens in "Oliver Twist." "Anti-
quarians," writes Mr. Sala, " of the type of
Whitelocke and Howell, of Strype and
Aubrey, and of Pepys and Stow.and above all
of old Peter Cunningham, will hereafter take
note of a naughty little boy named Patrick
McCarthy, who has stolen some logs. His
offence is petty ; and yet Master McCarthy
is the last prisoner who has been put at the
bar of the old Bow Street Police Court.
To-day we may remind our readers that the
old Bow Street offices are closed finally, and
henceforth the business will be transacted
in the new block of buildings on the
opposite side of the etreet. Indeed the

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102

COVENT GARDEN

conditions of the old police court had long
hecome a puhlic scandal. It had changed
little, if at all, since Dickens described it
in "Oliver Twist" and dwelt upon the
general air of greasinees and of dirt which
hung ahout it and which seemed more or
less to choke and to stifle the faculties and
perceptions of all who were engaged in its
business, from the Chief Magistrate himself
down to the door-keeper. It was, in truth,
an evil old place, and it is therefore
perhaps pleasant to know that it will soon
he swept away."

Wlien this building was finally closed for
police piu-poses in 1881 the court-room was
let for a short time to the well-known firm
of fruit-brokers, Messrs. Garcia, Jacobs
& Co., in which to conduct their sales.
It is related by one of the present members
of the firm that the buyers were so tickled
at the novelty of their surroundings that
they insisted upon holding a mock trial,
one of their number acting the part ofi
prisoner, and the remainder constituting
themselves counsel, solicitors, Jurymen, etc.
The auctioneer was naturally the judge
(with his natural tendency to " kuook

COVENT GARDEN

108

down " in abeyance for the time, it is to
be hoped), und it was not until after the
case had been heard and judgment pro-
nounced that the sale was allowed to
proceed.

The police station was on the site of the
original police court, on the east side of
the street, and when the old building was
pulled down, an article appeared in one
of the morning papers which described the
old place as follows :

" The old charge-room is now filled
with lumber ; the dock, in which the
prisoners stood, has now disappeared ; the
cells, as black as night, where each iron-
lined cell door is covered with rust, are not
yet demolished. Gaoler White, going over
them yesterday with a reporter, saw some
rusty keys hanging to an old gas-bracket.
He exclaimed, ' Ah 1 here are the old keys,'
and told how, in the good old times, when
Seven Dials was Seven Dials, and Dniry
Lane, Drury Lane, he had seen in the
passage adjoining those old cells as many as
a dozen men, on a Saturday night, waiting
for the doctor to stitch up the wounds
sustained in one of the many riots which

lioh ^H

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104

COVENT GARDEN

took place in that district, when he was a
young constable. 'Many a time,' said he,
* I and others have had to take the boots
from men who were kicking the doors, and
keeping the other prisoners awake.' "

The old Bow Street officers were fami-
liarly known as Robin Redbreasts, on
account of their wearing red waistcoats.
Another name by which they were known
was " Runners." As " Scarlet Runners " in
pursuit of criminals it may confidently be
asserted that tliey sometimes gave them
" beans " 1

Before the existence of the Metropolitan
Police Force, night watclnnen were em-
ployed to patrol the streets. The picture
that Shakespeare has drawn us of Dogberry
and Verges is sufficient to show us how
totally unfit for their onerous duties these
men were. They "w-ero known as the
" Watch " and " Charleys." The streets
of the town were exceedingly narrow and
ill-paved, and abounded, after dark, with
dangers to peaceable citizens. Cut-throats
and footpads were to be found everywhere,
and a man's life was of little value if he
chanced to fall into their hands. In seven-

COVENT GARDEN

105

teenth- and eighteen tli-century literature
frequent mention is matle of the "Mohocks,"
or bands of armed bullies, who were the
terror of the town. These ruffians were
kith and kin of our modem Hooligan, with
the exception (hat the Mohocks were chiefly
composed of swaggering, boasting indi-
viduals, known as "rakes" and "bloods."

Mr. Justin McCarthy thinks that the
name Mohock was taken from the Mohawk
tribe of Indians, which at one time inhabited
the site of New York City. The chief sport
of these bullies was the watch ; and the
modiis operandi was to commence by over-
turning a " box " with the watchman inside,
and afterwards belabouring him soundly
with the flat of their swords. Nor did
women escape more easily ; on the contrary,
they generally suffered more than the men.
In the time of Queen Anne the lawlessness
of the streets reached such a climax that
she issued a royal proclamation, promising
a reward to any one who would give
evidence leading to the arrest of any person
found guilty of robbery and outrage.

It must be remembered that London at
that period was very different in size from

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what it is to-day. The district whicsh
the suhject of this book, together with
Leicester, Soho, and Golden Squares, formed
the western houndary of the metropolis,
and such districts as are now reckoned
part of Central London were then separated
from the town by fields and open country.
It is therefore not surprising that such
state of violence existed in the streets.
The knowledge that no serious check was
brought to bear upon it seems to have
acted as an incentive to further outrt^ea
and deeds of violence. Bribery, moreover,
and corruption were rampant, and it was
only the poor wretched creatures who were
punished, in most instances for little trifling
misdemeanours, while My Lord, who had
run a man through the body in some
drunken frolic, was, by the aid of plenty
of coin, allowed to go free, and the matter J
bushed up. I

Mr. Knight relates how Charlotte Charke,
the eccentric daughter of CoUey Cibber,
who used to dress as a man, and in the
course of her chequered career acted as
waiter, somewhere about 1746, at a tavera
in Marylebonc, then a very thinly i)0pu-(

1
I

COVENT GARDEN

lOr

lated district standing by itself, used to
walk nightly from her place of employ-
ment to her residence in or near Long
Acre. She writes in her autobiography :
" I begged not to be obliged to lie in the
house, but constantly came to my time, and
stayed till about ten or eleven at night,
and I have often wondered I have escaped
without wounds or blows from the gentle-
men of the pad, who are numerous and
frequent in their evening patrols through
the fields ; and my march extended as far
as Long Acre, by which means I was
obliged to pass through the thickest of
them."

She evidently refers to the district of
St. Giles, which was always a dangerous
vicinity even in recent years, until the
notorious rookeries were swept away> and
the neighbourhood cleansed of its unruly
denizens.

An article in the " London Mercury " of
January 13, 1721, states that there were
twenty-two gaming houses in the parish of
St. Paul, Covent Garden.

A " Presentment " by the Grand Jury
of Middlesex, dated 1744, is directed against

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108 COVENT GARDEN

luxury, extravagance, and vice, and it names
persons as well as places :

" We, the Grand Jury, sworn to enquire
for Our Sovereign iLord, the King, and the
body of this county, have observed from
most of the presentments of returns de-
livered to us by the constables of this
coxinty, that they have been, as we appre-
hend and fear, very remiss in their duty,
by returning their several districts and
divisions to be quiet and in good order, or
to that effect.

" Whereas the contrary does most mani-
festly appear, in many instances as well
from the accounts or advertisements we
read in the daily papers, printed and
dispersed within this county, inviting and
seducing not only the inhabitants, but all
other persons, to several places kept apart
for the encouragement of luxury, extrava-
gance and idleness and, we fear, other
wicked and illegal purposes.

" And we do accordingly hereby present,
as places riotous, of great extravagance,
luxury and idleness and ill fame, the
several houses, places and persons following,
within this county, to wit ;

COVENT GARDEN

109

" 1, The Lady Momington and her
gamiog-house in or near Covent Garden
within this county.

' 2. The Lady Castle and her gaming-
house, etc.

'3. The proprietors of the avenues leading
to and from the leading playhouses in
Covent Garden and Drury Lane, in this
county, for not preventing wicked, loose
and disorderly persons from loitering in the
front of their several houses on play-nights ;
by which neglect and the riotous behaviour
of such disorderly persons, many of His
Majesty's good subjects are often in danger
of losing their lives or receiving some other
bodily harm and are frequently robbed of
their watches and money, to the great
discredit of civil government."

In this year the Irf)rd Mayor and Alder-
men presented an address to the King on
the confederation of rogues, robbers, and
murderers in streets, and their defiance of
authority. An Act was passed for the
improvement of the lighting in the streets
of the City.

Things went from bad to worse, and
Shenstone, writing in nik about the

110

COVENT GARDEN

dangers of the streets, says : " London
is really dangerous at this time ; the pick-
pockets, formerly content with mere filch-
ing, make no scniple to knock people down
with bludgeons in Fleet Street and the
Strand, and that at no later hour than eight
o'clock at night; but in the Piazzas in
Covcnt Garden they come in large bodies,
armed with couteaux, and attack whole
parties, so that the danger of coming out
of the playhouse is of some weight in the
opposite scale, when I am disposed to go to
them ofteuer than I ought."

In such a state of affairs it is not sur-
prising that no mercy was shown to a
criminal when caught. The chief punish-
ment of the day was hanging. Men were
hanged then with little regard to the
sanctity of human life, and this legal
butchery continued till a date very nearly
preceding the ascension of Queen Victoria
to the throne. The late Lord Brampton
(better known as Sir Henry Hawkins)
relates, in his " Reminiscences," how a
youth of seventeen was hanged at Bedford
in 1830 for the terrible crime of setting
fire to a h.iyrick 1 As they were not pai"-

COVENT GARDEN

111

ticular ■where they erected the g&,llow8,
executions were held in all parts ol the
town. Tyhurn was the chief place of
execution, but in 1687 a soldier named
"William Grant was hanged in the Market
for desertion, and in 1760 one Patrick
McCarthy was hanged at the foot of Bow
Street, Covent Garden. In George IV.'s
time over 200 offences, many of them of
the most trivial description, were punish-
able by death. For many years the humane
law student and reformer, Romilly, had
endeavoured to amend the criminal laws,
but he was continually opposed by Eldon
and the rest of the Tories, and it was not
until 1823 that Sir R. Peel successfully
took up the matter. By his instrumentality
the Metropolitan Police Act was passed.
This did away with the old Bow Street
patrol and the ancient parochial city
watch. In their place was substituted
one force, to be employed in both day and
night duty, the whole being placed under
the control of the Home Department. In
fact " Charley " gave way to " Bobby,"
now a recognised and honoured Institution,
whose resourcefulness and never-failing

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112

COVENT GARDEN

courtesy command the praise of his own
coimtrymen and foreigners alike.

The present buildings were erected in
1881 at a cost of £40,000. The architect
was Mr. John Taylor, of H.M. Office of
"Works and Public Buildings. Many
celebrated criminals have appeared here.

Martlet Court, which connects Bow Street
with Drury Lane, now separates the police
court from the new building at present
occupied by the London County and "West-
minster Bank and Messrs, Elders & Fyffes,
Ltd., the well-known banana merchants.
Here lived Shuter the actor in March
1766, when he advertised his benefit in the
" Public Advertiser " of March 8th of that
year.

" Bluahes each Bl^o^t in M&rtlet Court,
And Barbican, moth-eaten fort —
Aad Covent Garden kennels sport
A bright ensanguined drain,"

(" Rejected Addresses,")

Running parallel with Bow Street, be-
tween Broad Court and Russell Street, is
Crown Court. Here, until recently, was
situated the Scottish Church, long famous on

COVENT GARDEN

account of the preaching and prophesying
of the Rev. John Gumming, its minister from
1832 to 1879. The building was recently
pulled down and the services were trans-
ferred to Newton Hall, Fetter Lane. The
reverend doctor had the honour of preaching
before Queen Victoria at Balmoral in 1850
(Timbs). The church has now been rebuilt,
and its principal entrance is in Eussell
Street, facing the stage door of Drury
Lane Theatre.

Here was also the Crown Tavern, where
" Punch " was first projected.

In Broad Court, which connects Bow
Street with Drury Lane, is St. John Church.
Built in 1850, for 70 years it was known as
the Tavistock Proprietary Episcopal Chapel.
In 1833 it was made a chapel of ease to
the parish of St. Martin's. It became a
new Vicarage in 1855, when it was con-
secrated, and dedicated to St. John the
Evangelist. At the same time there was
taken from the parish of St. Martin's and
assigned to it a district, which has ever
since been a distinct parish for ecclesiastical
purposes. The building has been entirely
renovated. The interior is dark and some-

COVENT GARDEN

what gloomy. Among the ohjects
interest may be noted a fine old Jacobcanj
pulpit, which was originally in the church
at Peushurst, in Kent; also a stained-glass
window, presented by the Duke of Bedford,

Broad Court was the place where " Misai
Snevellicci's papa " (" Nicholas Nickleby
was to be found when in town, or
not at home, let him be asked for
the stage door" (Dickens's "London," by
Pemberton).

In 1742 Macklin, together with Garrick
and Mrs. Woffington, lived in a house,
built by Wilkes the actor, familiarly know'
as " Gentleman Wilkes." This house was
situated next door but one to the theatre.
The talented boarders took it in turn to keep
house, probably for the sake of economy ;
and it was here that Dr. Johnson heard
Garrick blame Mrs. Woffington for her
extravagance in having prepared tlie tea
" as red as blood.'' Spranger Barry, the_
actor, afterwards lived in this house
1749.

In 1762 an exhibition of sign-boai-ds was
held at Bonuell Thornton's rooms in a
house in the upper part of Bow Street

an^H

rd. ^^_
[isa^H

1
I

COVENT GARDEN

115

which was a skit on the newly introduced
exhibition by the Society of Arts, Manu-
factures, and Commerce. Hogarth was an
exhibitor, " that photographer who flattereth
not," as C. S. Calverley calls him. The
majority of the paintings were most gro-
tesque, and, for the most part, caricatures
on celebrities.

Opposite the theatre, or, to be more
precise, at the corner of Broad Court, was a
hostel, which, although quite unpretentious
in its exterior appearance, enjoyed for a
great number of years a certain amount of
fame and prosperity. Its proximity to the
"joyous neighbourhood " rendered it most
convenient to those who were unable to find
accommodation elsewhere, and, as it was pro-
perly looked after, it became well patronised.
The orginal landlord was named Powell, a
native of Shropshire, who named his house
the " Wrekin," after a bill situated near his
native place. The chief patrons were actors
and their friends, and it is said that only
wine was supplied to those who entered the
coffee-room ; hence it appears that the
company was very select. Two clubs were
located here — " The Rationals " and " The

116

COVENT GARDEN

House of Uncommons." We are told
that " the tavern slmred the fortunes and
misfortunes of the theatre ; each change
of management at the one house was
followed by one at the other " (Walford's
"London").

A club named the " Mulberries " also met
here in 1824. Its chief regulation was the
compulsory contriljution by each member of
a paper bearing upon Shakespeare. It was
frequented by Douglas Jerrold, William
Godwin, Laman Blanchard, Kenny Mea-
dows, Elton the actor, and Chatfield the
artist. Some time afterwards the name of
the club was changed to the " Shakespeare,"
and was joined by Charles Dickeus, Justice
Talfourd, Maclise, Macready, Frank Stone,
etc. (Timbs's " Curiosities of London ").

Another tavern of some renown was the
" Gtarrick's Head," which was situated
immediately opposite the Covent Garden
Theatre, on the site of the present police
court. It was here that the notorious
Judge and Jury Society met, presided over
by Nicholson, the editor of the "Town."
Its advertisement ran as follows on the
next page :

GAERICK'S HEAD,
BOW STREET.

Exactly opposite the Grand Entrtinoe to the

Royal Italian Opera.

Listen ! Ye noctumaJ WnDi]erers in pursuit of joyous
hours after the turmoilit of indu^itrioUB daylight I Come and
anp at THE GARBICK'S HEAD.

NICHOLSON

has come back, and so has

THE GRIDIRON!

The JinME and Joky iSociety at nine o'clock, after
which the Lord Chief Baron departs from .judicial dignity
to become the chairman of the lively board ! Give him a
look in ! Such Singing by Old and New FAVOtiRiraa !

A Chop or Kidney &C tbiB hour,

With Pretee like ft ball ot flour.

Or Sl«ak apoD bis Iiordiihip's pUn

Will renovate Che inward man:

A Sauaue, Tripe, or ToBSMd ChMse,

Stoat, Ale. or WAter, which foa please ;

And af Mi that upslairs repair

Toiee the

Tobf

hie chair,

AQlai

the li vely Song and Joke,
dI Ora^, and iutve a Smoke.

Mk. Nicholson bega to solicit attention to the fact that
the Front Colfee-room of the Establishment is a Public
Supper Koom for Ladies and Gentlemen. The moat
elegant Fbivate Dining and Supper Apakthbnts
up^taira, for large or amaU parties visiting the theatre.

The I/}rd Chief Baron NicholaoQ politely reminds his
Friends and Patrons of the great accommodation ofTered
in this splendid establistunetit. Excellent Bed Chambers
Is. 6d. Breakfast, with eggs, or a Bather of Bacon 1«. 3d.
Dinners and Nic-Nacks from 1 o'clock. A hot joint alwajs
ftt sii. The Lord Chief Baron preaiding, charge 1». 6d.

ilT

118

COVENT GARDEN

Hart Street, running along the north
aide of the theatre, connects Bow Street
with James Street and continues straight
through to Giarrick Street, It was built in
1637, and took its name either from the
White Hart Inn,* which is referred to in
the Cecil lease in the early chapters of this
book, or an inn situated in the immediate
vicinity. In the Savoy Church there is an
epitaph on an old vintner of the inn who
died in 1586 :

" Here lii'tb IlDinphrey Oosliiig, of Loudon, vintner,
Of the Whj't Hart of this parish a neghbor
Of virtnona behaviour, a very good archer
And of honefit mirtb, & very good company kwper,
So well inclyned to poore and ricb.
God Bend more Goslings to he sirli."

Joe Haines, the actor, died in this street
in 1708. In the " Gentleman's Magazine "
of Monday, May 5, 1800, the following
item of news appeared: "This morning
about seven, as a party of the Guards were
conveying to the Savoy two deserters whom
they had lirought from the country, in
passing down James Street, Covent Garden,
it was discovered that one of them, William

* See Appendix.

COVENT GARDEN

119

Jackson, had slipped from the handcuffs
and was attempting to escape by running
down Hart Street. Charles Bexton, one of
the Guards, immediately fired, and the
fugitive fell dead. The ball penetrated the
back part of the neck and came out at the
side of the mouth. The body, after lying a
considerable time in Hart Street, was con-
veyed to Covent Garden watch-house.* The
deceased was by birth an Irishman, twenty-
two years old, and had lately deserted from
the Cornish Fusiliers. A master baker in
that neighbourhood had very nearly received
the shot; as he, and others, were passing
close by the deserter at the moment and
heard no alarm until they saw the man
drop dead, who had not run six yards from
his guard."

Hart Street has been renamed Floral
Street, probably on account of its proximity
to the Floral Hall. Almost all its shops
are now occupied by fruit salesmen.

• Covent Garden watch-house m
Paul's Church,

situated close by Ht-

CHAPTBB VIII

Covent Garden Theatre and the Floral Hall

CoTENT Garden Thbatbb, or the Royal
Opera House as it is now often called,
was built by John Rich, the proprietor of
the Theatre Royal, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
on land leased from the Duke of Bedford
at £100 per annum ground rent. Thinking
that there was, even in those days, room
in London for another playhouse. Rich
issued a prospectus to the general public
inviting them to take shares in the new
venture to the extent of one-fiftieth part
apiece ; the price of each fiftieth to be
£300, payable in three instalments of
£100 each. This prospectus was issued
in December 1730, and was received with
so much enthusiasm that by the end of
the following month, January 1731, the

COVENT GARDEN 121

large amount of £6,000 was subscribed,
and the building operations commenced.

An unfortunate accident somewhat de-
layed the work, which was being rapidly
pushed forward. The press accounts of
what actually happened vary in their
descriptions of it. Either one of the
rafters broke loose from the tackle used
for lifting it to its position in the roof,
or else a portion of the roof itself collapsed.
Anyhow, the work was seriously delayed
by the occurrence, i^nasmuch as it was
found impossible to complete the building
by the end of that year, according to the
undertaking made to Rich. In conse-
quence he reopened his show at the
Lincoln's Inn Fields house for a short
period.

So nervous was Rich lest any further
hitch should occur to prejudice his under-
taking in any way that he is said to have
postponed the date of the opening night,
when it became due. A further con-
tributory cause of nervousness was, no
doubt, the animosity exhibited towards
his new venture by the proprietors of the
older theatre in Drury Lane. He may

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122

COVENT GARDEN

have thought it desirable, under the
circumstances, to leave not hin g to chance,
and to make sure that everything was in
thorough working order before raising the
curtain for the first time.

The scenery was painted by Lambert,
and the ceiling by Signor Amlconi, who
had also painted Lord Tankerville's stair-
case in his house in St. James's Square.
The theatre opened with a revival of
Congreve's " "Way of the World." The
house was calculated to hold £200, but,
for some reason or other, the takings on
the first night only amounted to £115,

The original theatre stood behind some
of the houses in Bow Street, and one
entrance was approached by a nari-ow
passage running between two of the houses
in this street; another was in Hart (now
Floral) Street. The grand entrance was
under the Piazza, in the north-east corner,
on the site of the Piazza entrance to the
Floral Hall. It was not until after the
theatre was destroyed by fire and rebuilt
that the principal entrance was in Bow
Street.

There can be no doubt that a place of

COVENT GARDEN 123

entertainment of considerable repute existed
in Bow Street for many years previous to
the erection of the Opera House. In 1690
Mr. Franks held a concert of vocal and
instrumental music at the Two Glolden
Balls at the upper end of Bow Street.
In February 1691 this entertainer had
removed next " Bedfordgate " in Charles
Street (now Wellington Street). In 1718
(at a period when lesser stars had to
compete with the combination of musical
talent, leading names, and an occasional
novelty of an Italian singer, usually
brought forward at Stationers' Hall, at York
Buildings, and other places of attraction),
we find a concert at the Golden Balls in
Hart Street at the upper end of Bow Street.
There was also one advertised for the enter-
tainment of the Prince Eugene in 1712.

Whether this place of public resort was
afterwards razed to the ground and the
site formed any part of that used for the
theatre is uncertain. Mr. Richardson of
the Piazza Coffee-house was in possession
of a ticket on which were the words, "For
the Musick at the Playhouse in Covent
Gftrden, Tuesday, March 6th, 1704 (J. T.

124

COVENT GARDEN

Smith's additional plates to the " Antiquities
of Westminster.")

This ticket might have either referred to
Punch's Theatre under the Little Piazza or
to the concert already descrihed, and even
to Drury Lane Theatre, although the latter
was generally descrihed as heing in Brydges
Street, Coveut Garden,

The first season at Covent Garden may he
considered satisfactory. One great advan-
tage which the new house enjoyed over its
neighbour, Drury Lane, lay in the position
of the royal box, which in the latter house
was so situated as to oblige the lords and
ladies in attendance to cross the stage to
gain access to it — a practice which was
naturally found objectionable in many
ways. The royal box at Covent Garden,
on the other hand, was easily approached —
which improvement was not only much
appreciated, but served not a little to
attract royal patronage.

In the second season the theatre was
taken for the performance of the oratorios
of Handel, who, a few years later, proposed
a scheme of Italian opera for Ix)ndon,
towards the floating of which the large

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COVENT GARDEN

125

■

amount of £50,000 was subscribed. Handel
was entrusted with the task of finding
the singers ; but it does not appear that
the speculation was successful, although
a few operas were performed.

In 1735 the celebrated " Sublime Society
of Beefsteaks " was formed in the theatre,
a coterie of the best-known men of the
period, founded by Rich. The latter was
a jovial, witty individual, into whose
room dropped many an eminent man to
enjoy a chat with him and his scene-
painter, Lambert, After a talk, pleasant
and entertaining, " de omnibus rebus et
quibusdam aliis," the visitor was induced
to remain and help to demolish a steak,
which the two worthies used to prepare
for their dinner on a stove in the room.
This juicy fare, accompanied by a bottle
of the best port procured " from the
tavern close by," and eaten in such jovial
company, proved a great attraction. The
fame thereof was soon noised abroad, and
others joined and founded that convivial
assembly which lasted for a period of
132 years.

The original list of members was limited

to twenty-four, amongst whom figure \
names of Rich, Ijambert, Hogarth, Eyan,
Robert Scott, and John ThornhiU. Mr.
Walter Arnold, who has written the his-
tory of the Society, denies the statement,
which has frequently appeared in print,
that the list of the twenty-four membere
was ever extended to admit George IV.,
when Prince of Wales. la fact he states
that, although his Royal Highness had
expressed his desire to join, be bad to
wait bis turn until a vacancy occurred.
Those who succeeded the original members
were the Earl of Sandwich, George Coleman,
Wilkea, John Beard the singer, the Earls
of Surrey and Effingham, John Kemble,
the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of
York.

The Society existed in its original locality
until the destruction of the theatre by fire
iji 1808, when it moved to temporary
quarters at the Bedford Coffee-house in
the Piazza, before moving to tlie Lyceum
Theatre. The latter move took place iu
the following year, the management of
Covent Garden refusing to allow the Club
to meet in the theatre as of old. The

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COVENT GARDEN

127

Society had its headquarters at the Lyceum
until 1830, when the house was burnt down.
It then met at the Lyceum Tavern close by
in the Strand. After shifting its quarters
to the Bedford again for a period of eight
years, it finally removed once more to the
Lyceum. At one time the members arrayed
themselves in a uniform consisting of ablue
coat and buff waistcoat with brass buttons
bearing a gridiron, and the motto, " Beef
and Liberty." The curious may consider
the other concomitants of Liberty as ex-
hibited in the cries (or mottoes) "Wilkes
and Liberty," " Imperium et Libertas,"
" Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity " ; and
may reflect that Liberty, at any rate, has
been offered in her time a varied choice of
bedfellows.

There have been other clubs of this name,
one of which, founded by Estcourt the actor,
included Peg "Woffington among its members.
Another one, in existence in 1733, displayed
keen hostility to Sir Robert Walpole.

To resume the history of the theatre ; the
competition to obtain the best talent became
very strong between Covent Garden and
Drury Lane. Garrick, who was creating

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128

COVENT GARDEN

an enormous sensation at Goofiman's Fields
Theatre, quite " drew the town," with dis-
astrous results to the box ofSces of the other
houses. Things reached a climax when
Fleetwood, the manager of Drury Lane,
secured the serviees of the new " star " at
the salary, then unheard-of, of six hundred
guineas. Rich retaliated by engaging nest
season the most talented and popular actress
of her time, Mrs. Gibber, who played Des-
demona to Quin's Othello. The next cele-
brated actress who trod the boards of
Covent Garden Theatre was Mrs. Clive.

In 1808 occurred the disastrous fire.
This calamity has been attributed to a
piece of smouldering wadding, fired from
a gun during the course of the play,
•* Pizarro," which was being acted on that
fateful evening. The fire, as far as can be
ascertained, began at about four o'clock in
the morning, and in the course of two
hours the place was gutted. A number
of firemen lost their lives by the fall of a
part of the roof. Of the eleven houses in
Bow Street fronting the theatre, seven
were burnt to the groimd, including a
tavern called the " Smugglers." The fire

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COVENT GARDEN

destroyed Handel's organ, which he be-
queathed to Rich, the wardrobe of dresses
and pi-operties, the wines of the Beef-
steak Club, and, what was more important,
the library of original MS. seores of operas.
So strong was the sympathy felt for Kemble
that a subscription list, most liberally sup-
ported, for funds to rebuild the theatre was
at once started. The Duke of Northumber-
land offered Kemble £10,000, which he
would only accept as a loan. The Duke,
however, when the foundation-stone of the
new theatre was laid, returned the bond,
with the message that he hoped it would go
to the bonfire which he presumed would
celebrate the joyful event.

The first stone of the new structure was
laid by the Prince of Wales, who had headed
the subscription list with £1,000, with full
Masonic honours on December 30, 1808,
and it is to be remarked that Kemble on
the previous evening was initiated into
the mysteries of ancient Freemasonry. The
architect was R. Smirke, jun., afterwards
Sir Richard Smirke, who also designed the
Mint, General Post Office, and the British
Sluseum.
9

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COVENT GARDEN

131

creased the trouble, he waa forced to
apologise before the riots came to an
end. The chief ringleader was a certain
Henry Clifford; and such was the excite-
ment caused by these disgraceful scenes
throughout the to^ra that people were seen
wearing the O.P. devices on their hats
and coats.

Covent Garden Theatre waa again de-
stroyed by fire on March 5, 1856, whilst
under the tenancy of J. H. Anderson, *'the
Wizard of the North." He had advertised
a " carnival benefit," which commenced on
the Monday afternoon, and continued till
midnight. The cast consisted of the united
staffs of Drury Lane, Strand, and Covent
Garden Theatres, and the festivities were
to be concluded on the following evening
by a bal masquS. The fire was discovered
while the latter waa in progress. It appears
that Gye, the then lessee (1819-78), was
much opposed to the idea of a ball, and
only gave his consent out of consideration
for the losses which Anderson had sustained
while the theatre was under his tenancy.
The fire was discovered at 4.55 a.m.,
March 5, in the carpenters' room, just as

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182

COVENT GARDEN

the National Anthem was heing played to |
conclude the entertainment. So fierce J
were the flames that tho roof fell
within an hour of the outbreak.

A report of the fire, describing it as a |
magnificent spectacle, says : " And now ]
the flames had burst through the roof,
and columns of fire dashed into the air,
illuminating the surrounding neighbour-
hood for a distance of three miles, and
showing the distant Surrey Hills standing
out in bold relief. The glare, visible
throughout the entire metropolis, roused i
the watches at every station throughout '
the fire brigade, and in a very few minutes
the lumbering noise of the engines was
heard at the end of Bow Street. Curiously
enough, the first engine on the spot was onfi
of those belonging to Messrs, Delafield &
Co., a partner of which house had ruined
himself in the conduct of the opera "
(" Annals of Covent GJarden Theatre," by
H. Saxe "Wyndham). Great crowds were
attracted to the scene next day, which
included the Queen and Prince Albert,
and many other members of the Royal
Family. Thus the neighbourhood of Bow J

—

■

COVENT GARDEN 188 H

street and the Opera temporarily became ^|

again

a fashionable promenade. The ^1

^K tlieatre was rebuilt, and opened as an ^1

^ Italian Opera House in 1868. H

The following is a list of some of ^M

the principal events connected with the ^M

^ theatre: ^

B 1740.

First appearance of Peg Woflington. _

1716.

First appearance of David Garrick. ^H

1759.

Last appearance of George Frederic ^M

Handel. H

H 1773.

First production of " She Stoops to V

■

Conquer." 1

■ 1786.

First appearance here of Mrs. H

■

Siddons. fl

1802.

John P. Kemble becomes manager. ^H

1805.

First appearance of Charles Matthews. ^M

^ 1808.

First fire and destruction of theatre. ^M

H 1809.

O.P. riots on reopening of theatre. ^M

H 1816.

First appearance here of Macready. ^M

■ 1817.

Retirement of J. P. Kemble. H

■ 1819.

Last appearance of Mrs. Siddons ^M

(died 1831). ^H

1837.

Macready manager. ^H

1856.

Theatre again burnt down. ^^^^H

■ 1S61.

Debut of Adclinu Patti. ^^^H

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134

COVENT GARDEN

1886. Augustus Harris manager. Eng^»-
ment of Brothers De Beszke and
Melba.

1896. Death of Sir Augustus Harris.

1897. Royal Opera Syndicate become lessees
of the theatre.

1907. D6but of Madame Tetrazzini.

The theatre was also let out for the
Anti-Com-Law meetings in 1848, and
here Daniel O'Connell addressed a crowded
and enthusiastic meeting on the night that
the verdict at the State trial in Dublin
was reversed by the writ of en-or from the
House of Lords.

Since the last time the theatre was
destroyed until the present day rumour
has continually stated that the theatre
is to be removed to another quarter.
One reason assigned for this is that the
Duke of Bedfoi-d requires the site for the
extension of the Floral Hall. However,
threatened men live long, and it would
indeed be a pity if the scene of so many
triumphs and of such historic interest
should be removed to another site.

The theatre looks its best when a gala

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COVENT GARDEN

185

performance is given on the occasion of
some foreign Royal personage visiting the
metropolis. On these occasions a guard
of honour of one of the Guards Regiments
is always posted in Bow Street with the
colours and band ; and a very interesting
spectacle is enjoyed by the crowds outside
the theatre by the arrival of the King and
Queen and their guests, whilst the interior
is graced with a magnificent display of
uniforms and orders of all descriptions,
which in conjunction with the beautiful
toilettes and jewels of the ladies present a
picture of unparalleled splendour.

Immediately adjoining the Opera House
is the Floral Hall. This elegant building was
intended for a central flower-market, and
has been minutely described by Mr. "Walford
in his " Old and New London " :

" The ground-plan of the building may be
described as resembling two sides of an
imequal triangle, the principal entrance
being by the side of the new opera house
in Bow Street, at the end of the longer
side of the figure, while the other opens
upon Covent Garden Market, on the side
of the Piazza. The public footway of the

186

COVENT GARDEN

Piazza is continued along the Covent
Gurden entrance, in the shape of a gallery
roofed with glass and iron. The main
arcades run in a direct line from the
entrances, and arc surmounted at the
point of junction by a lofty dome of 50 feet
span, which forms an imposing object in
the view. This dome, as well as the roofs,
are principally composed of wrought iron ;
the arches, columns, and piers are of cast
iron ; the fi'ontage, both in Bow Street and
the Piazza, is of Iron and glass, of which
the entire structure is chiefly composed,
brickwork forming but a very small part
of the composition. The utmost length of
the arcade, from the Bow Street entrance
to the west wall, is 227 feet ; and the length
of the shorter side, from Covent Garden
Market to the wall of the theatre, nearly
100 feet. The total height, from the ground
to the top of the arched dome, is rather
over 90 feet. Each of the main arcades is 75
feet wide, and has a side-aisle between the
main columns and the wall, 13 feet in width
and 30 feet in height. The entrances are
both elegant and simple, the doorways being
so deeply recessed as, in conjunction witti

COVENT GARDEN

187

the riclily designed iron arches which give
admission to the interior, to obviate the
flat appearance which generally char-
acterises buildings of glass and iron. The
interior is fully equal in lightness and
grace of design to the exterior. The
columns which support the roof are of cast
iron, with richly ornamented capitals, the
latter perfoi-ated, in order to ventilate the
basement beneath, with which the hollow
columns communicate. The ground having
been excavated beneath, the principal floor
forms a basement of the same area as the
building above it, and 16 feet in height, the
floor of the arcade being supported by cast-
iron columns. This building was, as its
name implies, designed for a flower-
market."

It was opened on March 7, 1860, with a
Volunteer ball, under the patronage of
Royalty, and for a time was employed for
promenade concerts. It was afterwards
made the principal market for those sales-
men who had previously been engaged in
the sale and distribution of foreign fruit
in the market and whose accommodation
I was insufiBcient to oope with the fast-in-

188

COVENT GABDEN

Greasing qualitieB of foreign and colonial
&uit.

It has been used for this purpose sinoe
that date, and it is here that the priuoipal
sales are held. The original idea of the
flower-market was carried out hy the erec-
tion of another Imposing structure in the
south-east part of the market.

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CHAPTER IX

I Dmry Lone— Ctav^n House — Olympic and Globe Tiieat4«(i
— Madame Veatria — William, Lord Craven, and the
Thirty Yeara' War— Terrible condition of Drury Lane
in the seventeenth and eigbteenthl centuries — Cele-
brated inhabitants of former days — Nell Qvrynn — Mrs.
Bracegirdle— The Cockpit Theatre — Pepys' notes on
its destruction — Davenant and Betterton — P'irst Drury
lAne Theatre— Theatre in Portugal Row^Buming of
Drury Lane Theatre— Sheridan and the Uouse ot
Commons- The present building — Its recent eacaiie
from destruction —Celebrated players at Drury Lane-
Playgoing in the time of Charles II. — Present-day
scenes^Christmait pantomime— Outbreak of the Great
Plague— Vinegar ^'ard and the Whistling Oyster- Old
buiial-ground in Rui«»U Court

Srow ascribes the name of this thorough-
fare to the fact that the residence of the
Drurie, or Drury, family was there situated.
Some authorities ai'e of opinion that this
house was built by Sir W. Drury in the
reign of Elizabeth ; while Mr. Charles
Gordon, in his " Old-time Kingsway and
[ Aldwych and Neighbourhood," states that

140

COVENT GARDEN

it was built generations before this date
by a Sir Eoger Dniry, who died in 1496.

In spite of the difference of opinion as
to the original builder, it is certain that
the house existed as a residence. It was
situated on the site of the old Olympic
Theatre, and was eventually knoiivn as
Craven House, pulled down in 1803. The
Olympic Theatre was built two years later
by Philip Astley, and like its neighbour,
the Globe, has now disappeared. It was
burnt down on March 29, 1849, but was
reconstructed and re-opened at the end of
that year. Cunningham states that the
original house was constructed from the
timbers of a French warship, the Ftlle de
Paris. The masts of the vessel formed
the flies, and, when the fire took place,
they were seen still erect long after the
roof had fallen in. The celebrated Madame
Vestris was responsible for much of the
success which this theatre enjoyed.

The most celebrated tenant of Craven
House was William, Lord Craven, who
showed conspicuous bravery at the battle
of Creutzuach in 1632, during the Thirtj
Years* War.

CO VENT GARDEN Ul

Lord Craven was reported to have been
secretly married to the widowed Queen of
Bohomia, daughter of James I. of England,
who had formerly married the Elector
Palatine. In his interest the Protestant
party in Germany had made a Kingdom
of Bohemia, in the vain hope that the
assistance of .Tames I. would enable them
to make head against the Catholic Emperor.
During the Thirty Tears' War Frederic
imfortunately lost everything, and on his
death his widow sought the protection of
Lord Craven, her husband's close friend,
who had fought in his cause, and helped
to bring up her children (Leigh Hunt).
Her Majesty resided at Craven House for
some years, and afterwards took up her
abode at Ijcicester House in the Strand,
afterwards known as Norfolk House, where
she died in 16G1.

Lord Craven was always a very active
man, renowned for his bustling energy.
Whenever a fire broke out in the metro-
polis, Lord Craven was sure to be one of
the first on the scene, mounted on horse-
back, and giving orders to the soldiers
who, in those days, were always summoned

142

COVENT GARDEN

to preserve order. It ia said that his
horse " smelt a fire as soon as it hap<
pened."

Drury Lane has been known aa Via d«]
Aldwych, and also at one period as Princes
Street. It was once inhabited by people
of a very good class, but gradually declined
into a den of iniquity, and until recent
years was considered to be a dangerous
locality, adjoining, as it did, the notorioua
rookery of St. Giles, At the close of the
seventeenth century it had become a sink
of iniquity, in which state it continued
for a considerable period. Its courts and
alleys were peopled by the lowest dregs of
humanity ; prostitution and its attendant
horrors were allowed to flourish unchecked,
until at length the scandal became so great
that the authorities were aroused to action,
and the neighbourhood ivas cleansed of its
frightful slums. Gay's lines give a vivid
description of this pestilential spot :

" Oh ! may thy virtues gnard thee throngh thd
roads
Of Drtiry's mazy conrts and dark abodes,
The Harlots' goilefnt patha, who nightly stanil
^Vhere Kalherise Strait descendn into the Btntod)

COVENT GARDEN 148

Stay, vagrant Mnse, their wiles and subtle arts,
To lure the strangers' nosnapecting bearts ;
So shall onr Yontb on bealthftd sinews tread,
And city cheeks grow warm with rural red.

'Tis she who nightly strowls with sanatering

jtace,
No Btnbborn stays her yielding shape embrace ;
Beneath the lamp ber tawdry ribbons glare.

High-draggled petticoats her travels show,
And hollow cheeks with artfal hinshes glow ;
With flatt'ring sonnds she soothes the cred'looa

ear,
My noble Captain ! Charmer I Love I My

Dear!
lu riding-hood, near Tavern-doors she plies,
Or muffled pinners bide her livid eyes."

Even before these lines were penned
Steele had described the state of affairs
" The Tatler." He wrote in the issue
of July 26, 1709 :

" There is near Corent Garden a street
known by the name of Drury, which, before
the days of Christianity, was purchased by
the Queen of Paphos, and is the only part
of Great Britain where the tenure of her
vassal^e is still in being. All that long
course of buildings is under particular

144

COVENT GARDEN

districts or ladyships, after the mannerj
of lordships in other parts, over whioh^
matrons of known abilities preside, andj
have, for the support of their age and in-
firmities, certain taxes paid out of the,
rewards of the amourous labours of th)
young. This seraglio of Great Britain i»^
disposed into convenient alleys and apart-
ments, and every house, from the cellar
to the garret, inhabited by nymphs of.
different orders, that persons of every
may be accommodated."

Drury Lane, however, was once res]
ably inhabited. As a proof of this
be cited, in the list of names of former
residents, those of Sir 'William Alexander,
Earl of Stirling, the Marquis of Argyll in
1G34, Oliver Cromwell in 1646, Lacy, the
comedian, 1666-81, the Earl of Anglesea,
1669-86. Here also lived that well-known
but frail beauty. Mistress Eleanor Gwynn,
who was born at the Coal Yard at the
Holborn end of Drury Lane. She aft«i
wards lived in Maypole Alley, since known
as Drury Court. It was here that our old
friend and gossip, Pepys, saw her looking
at the dance going on around the Strand

cellar

iis o£_^H

ipect-^^H

■Ml

COVENT GARDEN 145

maypole. He writes May 1, 1667: "To
Westminster, in the way meeting many
milkmaids with their garlands upon their
pails, dancing with a iiddler before them;
and saw pretty Nelly, standing at her

Iging door in Drury Lane, in her smock
'BleeTOB and bodice, looking upon one ;
she seemed a mighty pretty creature."
Nelly's history h so well known that it
would be superfluous to allude to it
here any further. Suffice it to say that,
in spite of her many failings, she proved
a good friend to the poor, and died much
r^retted.

In Drury Dane the abduction of Mrs.
Bracegirdle, the actress, was unsuccess-
Xully attempted by Lord Mohim.
, The Phoenix, or Cockpit, Theatre, which
Btood on the site of Cockpit Place, dated
back probably to the time of Shakespeare.
Whether the building was at one time
■used as a cockpit is a matter of conjec-
ture; hut it was not converted into a
playhouse till the reign of James I., when
it was raided and destroyed by a Puritan
mob on Shrove Tuesday, 1617. The per-
rmances were of a very low character,
10

146

COVENT GARDEN

and it was probably on this account that
it was attacked.

In the opinion of one writer the destruc-
tion was the woi-k of the London appren-
tices, who claimed a right to demolish
houses of ill-fame on Shrore Tuesdays.
On March 24, 1667, there was trouble in
London with the apprentices for wishing
to pull down bad and disorderly houses.
Pepys writes :

" Thence back to White Hall : where
great talk of the tumult at the other end
of the town, about Moore-fields, among
the prentices taking the liberty of these
holydays to pull down brothels. And,
Lord ! to see the apprehensions which
this did give to all people at Court, that
presently order was given for all the
soldiers, horse and foot, to be in arms ;
and forthwith alarmes were beat by di-um
and trumpet through Westminster, and all
to their colours and to horse, as if the
French were coming into the town. So
Creed, whom I met here, and I to Lin-
coln's Inn Fields, thinking to have gone
into the fields to have seen the prentices;
but here we found these fields

COVENT GARDEN

147

soldiers all in a body, and my Lord Craven
commanding of them, and riding up and
down to give orders like a madman. And
some young men we saw brought by
soldiers to "White Hall, and overheard
others that stood by to say that it was
only for pulling down the brothels ; but
none of the bystanders finding fault with
them, but rather of the soldiers for hin-
dering them."

The Cockpit was rebuilt, and existed for
some years until it was again attacked.
Davenant opened it again in 1656, together
with Betterton, until they removed to the
theatre in Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn
Fields. The old theatre gradually declined
in favour, and was finally vacated ; after
which Killigrew opened the first Drury
Lane Theatre in 1663. It is said that he
was joined in liis speculation by Mobuu,
Harte, Dryden, and others. The house
was known as the King's House, or
Theatre Boyal, and was burnt down in
1671-2. The next bxuldiug was designed
by Wren, and was opened on March 26,
1674. It is curious to think that at this
jriod only two theatres were considereti

148

COVENT GARDEN

necessary for the whole of Tx>n(lon, riz.
Drury Laae, and Davenant's in Portugal
Row.

The two companies at length joined
forces, and played together at the new
house in 1082. Wren's house was re-
fronted by the Brothers Adam in Garrick's
time.

The theatre was rebuilt in 1794, and
was described by Mrs. Siddons as the
"Wilderness," probably on account of its
size.

As so many theatres had been destroyed
by fire, Mr. Holland, the architect of the
new building, determined to take every
precaution. An iron curtain which resisted
the force of a sledge-hammer was con-
structed so as to let down in a moment
of danger, and separate the audience from
the stage, while a reservoir was formed
at the top of the house, filled with water
sufficient, as the epilogue spoken at the
opening of the theatre liy Miss Farren
gave assurance, to "drown the audience
in a minute."

On the first night the iron eiirtain was
let down and the stt^e filled with water,

COVENT GARDEN 149

on wliicb a man rowed round in a boat, the
miuiagers boasting of their resci'voirs —

" A firm reliance,
Whose streams set conflagration at defiance."

In spite of these precautious it was totally
destroyed by fire on the night of February
24, 1809, in the space of three hours.
Its flames lit up the Luterior of the
House of Commons, which was then sit-
ting. On the cause being made known,
a motion was made to adjourn ; but Sheri-
dan, who was the principal shareholder,
seeing that the House was occupied with
a serious debate, exclaimed that " what-
ever might be the extent of the present
calamity, he hoped it would not interfere
with the public business of the coimtry '*
(Moore's "Life of Sheridan").

The present building was opened in
1812, the prologue to the entertainment
being written by Byron. The portico was
erected during the leaseesbip of Elliston
(1819-26), and the colonnade in Russell
Street in 1831. The interior has been
greatly altered and enlarged, a portion of
the foyer being utilised for the purpose

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150

COVENT GARDEN

of extending tlie auditorium, thus pro-
viding more seating accommodation.

The house very narrowly escaped destruc-
tion in April 1908, but was fortunately
saved by the fireproof curtain, with which
every theatre is compulsorily equipped,
and which was happily more effective than
that constructed in 1794. The stage and
all the properties and scenery were totally
destroyed. The rebuilding was speedily
taken in hand, and the new stage is fitted
with every modem contrivance for the rapid
shifting of scenery, etc.

Among the remarkable events in the
history of Drury Lane Theatre was the
attempt to assassinate King George III. as
he was about to enter the royal box on May
15, 1800. The perpetrator of the outrage was
a maniac named Hatfield, who was confined
in the New Bethlem Hospital. The ball
only missed the King by eighteen inches,

Nell Gwynn made her first appearance
here in 1666 ; Booth, 1701 ; Garrick, 1743 ;
Mrs. Siddons, 1775 ; John P. Kemble, 1783 ;
Edmund Kcan, 1814. Macready took leave
of the stage here on February 26, 1861.

Mr. Leigh Hunt's description c

COVENT GARBEN

151

going in the reign of the " merrie monarch "
is typical of the customs and manners of
that period :

" We now therefore pass Drury House,
proceed up the lane "by my lord Craven's
garden, and turn into Russell Street
amongst a crowd of cavaliers in flowing
locks and ladies with curls a la Valli^re.
Some of them are in masks, but others
have not put theirs on. We shall see
them masking as the house grows full.
It is early in the afternoon. . . . There
press a crowd of gallants, who have already
got enough wine. Here, as fast as the
lumhering coaches of the day can do it,
dashes up to the door my lord Duke of
Buckingham, bringing with him Buck-
hurst and Sedley. Then comes a gi'cater,
though at that time a humbler man, to
wit, John Dryden, in a coat of plain
drugget, which by and by his fame con-
verted into black velvet. He is somewhat
short and stout, with a roimdish dimpled
face, and a sparkling eye ; and, if scandal
says true, by his side is ' Madam ' Keeves,
a beautiful actress, for so the ladies of the
stage were entitled at that time. Horses

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COVENT GARDEN

and coaches throng the place, with here
and there a sedan ; and hy the pulling off
of hats we find that the King and his
brother James have arrived. The former
nods to his people as if he anticipated
their mutual enjoyment of the play ; and
the latter affects a graciousness to match,
hut does not do it very well. As soon as
the King passes in, there is a squeeze and
a scuffle, and some hlood is drawn, and
more oaths uttered, from which we hasten
to escape. Another scuffle is silenced on
the King's entrance, which also makes the
gods quiet ; otherwise at no period were
they so loud. The house is not very large,
nor very well appointed. Most of the
ladies mask themselves in the pit and
boxes, and all parties prepare for a play
that shall render it proper for the re-
mainder to do 80. The King applauds a
new French tuno played by the musicians.
Gallants, uot very sober, are bowing on
all sides of us to ladies not very nice ; or
talking to the orange girls who are ranged
in front of thi^ pit with their backs to the
stage. We hear criticisms on the last new
piece, on the latest panegyric, libel, or new

COVENT GARDKN

]5S

mode. Our friend Pepys listens and looks
everywhere, tells all who is who, or asks
it, and his neighbours think him a most
agreeable fat little gentleman. The cur-
tain rises : enter Mistress Marshall, a
pretty woman, and speaks a prologue which
makes all the ladies hurry on their masks,
and convulses the house with laughter.
Mr. Pepys ' do own ' that he cannot help
laughing too, and calls the actress a
'merry jade'; but lord, he says, 'to see
the difference of the times and but two
years ago.' "

How different from this description by
Leigh Hunt is the scene presented by Old
Drury at the present day 1 The Drury
Lane pantomime is a household word, and
a treat anticipated by children for months
ahead.

The time to sec Old Drury at its best is
on Boxing night, when the vast auditorium
is filled to its utmost capacity and seats ai'c
at a premium. All day long crowds have
been waiting at the pit and gallery en-
trances ; some have been there since early
morning, but for such enthusiasts the cold
has no terror. The crowd is as good-

154

COVENT GARDEN

humoured as only a London crowd can be,
and, once inside in the warmth, its spirits
rise to the occasion. The appearance of Mr.
"Jimmy" Glover at the conductor's desk
is the signal for much cheering. Jimmy is
most popular, and has presided over the
orchestra for many years. He taps his
desk, and the annual overture, consisting of
all the popular songs of the year, commences.
Pit and gallery join in each well-known air,
and in the meantime the house gradually
fills, many celebrities being present. In a
few minutes the whole audience is upstand-
ing to the strains of the National Anthem.
The lights are lowered, and the panto-
mime, for which Old Drury is so famous,
begins its career. At a late hour the
audience files out into the cold and deserted
streets, paterfamilias doing his utmost to
get some sort of conveyance, while mamma
and the youngsters wait inside the hall
until they are called, the latter with heavy
hearts, reflecting that the great treat is
at last a fait accompli, and unfortunately
very conscious of the approaching end of the
holidays and the return to school.

In olden times there wiis some difficulty in

COVENT GARDEN

gaining access to the theatre. Walker, writ-
ing in "The Original" in 1836, says : "With-
in memory, the principal carriage approach
to Old Drury Ijane Theatre was through that
part of Drury Lane which is now a flagged
foot-passage, and called Drury Court, just
opposite the new church in the Strand."

It was in this neighbourhood that the
great Plague of London first broke out at
the latter end of Noyember IGG-i, when two
Frenchmen died of thi; distemper in Long
Acre, or rather at the upper end of Drury
Lane (Defoe's Journal of the Plague
Year). The large increase in the bills of
mortality in this parish during six calendar
months caused the public some alaim,
although the autlioritics endeavoured to
keep it as secret as possible. Defoe writes :
"Few dared to go through Drury Lane and
the other streets suspected, unless they had
extraordinary business that obliged them to
do it." Pepys noted on June 7, 1665 " ; " The
hottest day that I ever felt in my life.
This day, much against my will, I did
in Drury Lane see two or three houses
marked with a red cross on the doors, and

* See Appendix-

have mercy on us,' writ there ;
which was a sad sight to me, being the
first of the kind that to my remembrance I
ever saw."

Adjoining the theatre there existed, until
the recent improvement of the neighbour-
hood, a maze of courts and alleys giving
access one to the other, and inhabited by
a heterogeneous rabble who rendered the
vicinity dangerous to venture upon. In one
of these alleys was a house, which gave
admission to another court from tlic back,
and it was reckoned high sport by the
denizens to go in at the front door, throw a
brick at the policeman when he appeared,
and then run out at the back, and so make
their escape.

Vinegar Yard, which directly adjoined
the theatre, was orginally Vine Grarden
Yard, or Vineyard, and was built about 1621.
This court was from the time of its con-
struction little more than a place of bad
repute, being no more savoury tJian the
notorious Lewkner's Lane, a street wholly
inhabited by prostitutes.

In Vinegar Yard stood a small tavern,
or oyster and refreshment rooms, known

I
I

COVENT GARDEN

157

as "The Whistling Oyster," and, accor-
ding to Mr. Walford, a haunt of
Bohemians and artists. The sign of the
house was a humorous picture of a gigantic
oyster whistling a tune, with a twinkle in its
eye. The tale goes that about 1840 the pro-
prietor, when passing a tub filled with deli-
cate " natives," heard a curious (as the
French would say) " sifflement." On inves-
tigating the cause he found tliat one of the
oysters was actually whistling. Thereupon
the fortunate and accomplished performer
was removed from the tub full of its less
vocally gifted comi*ades, and placed by
itself in a post of honour. The news of this
tuneful crustacean (no longer one of the
mnti pieces) spreading, the place was
soon besieged by people anxious to view the
phenomenon. The consequence was that a
roaring (or whistling) trade was done, and the
hero of the occasion, like Nero, fiddled (or
fifed) whilst Rome burnt. That the oyster
did actually whistle is beyond question, the
cause being ascribed to the existence of a
minute hole in the shell, and the action of
breathing probably caused the noise which
gave it fame,

158

COVENT GARDEN

Vinegar Yard has now entirely dis-
appeared, with the exception of a very
small portion which has been converted
into a covered way, in which are situated
the pit and gallery entrances to the
theatre.

Russell Court, which was close by, was
a narrow little alley, at the bottom of
which was situated an old burial-ground,
surrounded by tumble-down, rickety hovels.
It has been stated that this ground was
the filthy cemetery described by Dickens
in "Bleak House" as '* Tom's-all-aloae."
Others have ascribed the spot in the novel
to the old and now covered burial-ground
in Drury Lane, recently converted into
a recreation ground for the children by
the Westminster Council.

" ' He was put there,' says Jo, pointing.
' Over yonder. Among them piles of
hones, and close to that there kitchen
winder. They put him wery nigh the
top. They was obliged to stamp on it to
get it in. I could unkiver it for you with
my broom, if the gate was open. That's
why they locks, I s'pose,' giving it a
shake. ' It's always locked. Look at

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COVENT GARDEN

159

that rat,' cries Jo, excited. ' Hi, look,
there he goes. Ho I Into the ground.'
' Is this place of abomination consecrated
ground ? ' 'I don't know nothink of
consequential ground,' says Jo, still
staring. ' Is it blessed? ' ' I'm blest if
I know,' says Jo, staring more tlian ever,
'but I should think it warn't. Blest?'
repeats Jo, something troubled in his
mind. ' It ain't done much good if it is.
Blest ? I should think it was t'othered,
myself. But I don't know nothink.' "

A story is told of a navry looking out
of a top window of one of the surrounding
hovels on a funeral taking place below.
When the clergyman arrived at that part
of the ser^'ice '* I heard a voice from
Heaven,' the navvy called out, " You're
a liar ; I'm nearer to Heaven than you
are, and I can't hear anything."

The site of this place is now directly
at the back of the Waldorf Theatre and
Hotel, and is paved over. Blocks of
workmen's dwellings surround the spot,
upon the wall of which a tablet has been
erected, thus inscribed ;

" A part of the forecourt, as well as the

160

COVENT GARDEN

site on which this irall ia erected, is a
portion of the old burial-ground of the
parish of St. Mary le Strand, and is rested
in the Kector of the said parish. The
north and south boundaries of the old
burial-ground are indicated by red stones
let into the foot pavement.

" F. Harcovrt Hillbsdon, M.A., Sector.
"W. O. Reader, Clerk.

r.,q,-7^1hyGOOg\e

Catlierine Btreet — Brydgee Street— York and Tavistock
Stroeta— Tavistock Row— Murdor of Miss Ray— Wim-
bledon House in the Strand ^D'Oyley's warehouse —
Oaiety Theatre — "Morning Poat " — Lycetun Theatre
and Exeter Change, Wellington Street— The Victoria
Club — " Household Words "—Voltaire — Covent Garden
Hotel— Maiden lAne— Andrew Marvel], Southampton
Street— J. M. W. Turner— The Cider Cellars -Professor
Poraon-Bule's- Henrietta Street and its faahionable
inhabitants.

Cathbeinb Steeet, which now connects
B.U3sell Street with Aldwych, was at one

LB the only direct route to the Strand
'from the neighbourhood of Corent Garden.
The upper part of this street, which
extended as far as York Street, was called
Brydges Street, whilst the lower portion,
which reached to the Strand, was named
Catherine Street. The former thorough-
fare was named after George Brydges,
Lord Chandos, and was built ahont 1637.

.ere were several taverns of note here,

11 101

162

COVENT GARDEN

viz. the Drury Tavern, the Sir John
FaletafF, the Elysium, and the Sheridan.
Knowles. A club named " The Owls
met at the last-named, of which Sheridi
Knowles was a patron and a frequenter.
Every panel of the room was inscribed
with the name of some dead or living
man of letters. Besant states that after
the Great Fire, the first post office, which
originally stood in Cloak Lane, Downgate
Hill, was removed to Brydges Street for
a time. In 1690 it was shifted to Lombard
Street, and afterwards to St. Martin's-le-
Grand. Catherine Street was at one time
celebrated for the number of its newspaper
offices; the "Court Gazette" and "Court
Journal," and " The Naval and Military
Gazette " were published here. This
street was also the birthplace of the first
of the halfpenny papers, "The Echo,"
in 1868.

York Street connects Wellington Street
with Drury Lane, and was named after
James, Duke of York, afterwards James II.
At one time this street only extended as
far as Catherine Street, both Hatton and
Strype describing it as " very short but

[an.^

COVENT GARDEN

163

well built and inhabited." It has been
already stated that human remains are
reported to have been unearthed here;
and the very extensive vaults of some
of the houses are said, according to
Wheatley, to cover part of the burial-
ground of the ancient convent whence
Covent Garden derived its name.

A tavern, known as the Fleece Inn,
was situated here, " very unfortunate,"
says Aubrey, for homicides ; three having
happened within its -walls in his time.
Another tavern in this street, named the
Turk's Head, enjoyed a more fortunate
reputation.

About 1760-70 a theatrical club met
here at a coffee-house named "Wright's."
It was frequented by Foote, Holland,
Porwell, and others. Former residents of
York Street were Dr. Donne's son in 16i0 ;
Mrs. Pritchard, the actress, when she
advertised her benefit at Drury Lane in
"The Public Advertiser" of March 13,
1756; De Quincy at No. 4, where he wrote
his " Confessions of an Opium Eater " ;
and EUiston, at No. 5, when lessee of
Drury Lane Theati-e. I n York Street

164 CO VENT GARDEN

were situated the auction-rooms of Mr.
Samuel Baker, the originator of the cele-
brated firm of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson
& Hodge, whose present premises face
the western frontage of Somerset House.

York Street leads into Tavistock Street,
which, like other parts of the neighbour-
hood, has completely changed in appear-
ance; the erection of' the flower-market
having swept away all the old houses
which originally stood on the site, includ-
ing Tavistock Row. This thoroughfare
was celebrated as being the residence
(No. 4) of the unfortunate Miss Ray, the
beautiful mistress of Lord Sandwich, who
was shot under the Piazza by a disappointed
suitor, the Rev. James Hackman, in April
1779.

Hackman was once a lieutenant in the
68th Regiment of Foot, and, while on recruit-
ing duty at Huntingdon, had been invited
to Hitch in brooke, the seat of Lord Sand-
wich, where he fell violently in love with
his future victim. After repeated attempts
to persuade her to become his wife, he
determined, in a fit of maddening jealousy,
to put an end to both their lives.

i
I

COVENT GARDEN

accordingly stationed himself under the
Piazza, and, as she left Covent Garden
Theatre, shot her first and himself after-
wards. His wounds, however, did not prove
fatal. He was tried for murder on April
17, and a few days later suffered the penalty
of his crime at Tyburn. Miss Ray was
once a milliner's apprentice at Clerkenwell.
Her house was afterwards occupied by
Macklin the elder, who died there in 1797-

" A Saodwich favonrite was Lis fair,

And ber he dearly loved ;
By whom six children had, we hear;

This Btory fatal proved.
A clergyman, wicked one 1

In Covent Garden shot her;
No time to cry npoo her God,

It's hoped He's not forgot her."

(Grnb Street ballad.)

At No. 5 died William Vandervelde the
younger in 1707, and in the same house
died Thomas Major, the engraver, in 1799.
The celebrated miniature-painter Zincke
lived at No. 13 ; and in a garret in the
same house lived Dr. "Wolcot (Peter Pindar),
where he wrote against George III. and
the Royal Academy.

Close by are Burleigh and Exeter

166

COVENT GARDEN

Streets, so named from being portions of
the sites of Burleigh and Exeter Houses.
In the latter street Dr. Johnson took up
his first abode in London at the house of
a stajmaker in 1737, where he lived on
4^d. a day.

Exeter House * was built on the site of
another house constructed in the reign of
Edward VI. by Sir Thomas Palmer, who
obtained the ground by composition. Here
once stood a parsonage belonging to the
Vicar of St. Martin 's-in-the-Fields. Sir
Thomas Palmer was attainted and executed
for high treason by Queen Mary, and the
property then reverted to the Crown.
Subsequently it was given by Queen Eliza-
beth to Sir William Cecil, Lord High
Treasurer and afterwards the great Lord
Burleigh, who completed the building with
four square turrets. It was first named
Cecil House, then Burleigh House, and
afterwards Exeter House. Its Strand
frontage extended as far west as South-
ampton Street. Its owner, Lord Burleigh,
died at Theobalds in 1398, and his body
lay in state here.

* See Appendix.

COVENT GARDEN

167

Here, too, lived Anthony Ashley Cooper,
afterwards the first Earl of Shaftesbury;
and on February 26, 1671, his grandson,
the author of the "Characteristics," was
born in this mansion. Evelyn mentions in
his Diary that he went to service on
Christmas Day to Exeter Chapel in the
Strand (the chapel belonging to Exeter
House). " When the service was ended,
and the Sacrament about to be administered,
the chapel was surrounded by soldiers, and
all the communicants and assembly sur-
prised and kept prisoners. As we went up
to receive the Sacrament, the miscreants
held their muskets against us, as if they
would have shot us at the altar, but yet
suffering us to finish the office of Com-
munion, as perhaps not having instructions
what to do in case they found us in that
action." The diarist was kept prisoner in
a room in Exeter House, and later in the
day several officers came from Whitehall
and examined him. " When I came before
them," he writes, " they took my name and
abode, examined mc, why, contrary to an
ordinance made, tlmt none should any longer
observe the superstitious time of the Na-

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168 COVENT GARDEN

tivity, I duwt offend. Finding no colour
to detain me," he adds, " they dismissed
me with every pity of ray ignorance."

At the south-west comer of Catherine
Street formerly stood "Wimbledon House,
built by Sir William Cecil, third son of
Thomas, Earl of Exeter, early in the seven-
teenth century. The former was created
Viscount Wimbledon by Charles I. The
mansion was burnt down in 1628, and ita
memory appears to have been quite
forgotten in the vicinity. Part of its site,
however, was afterwards used for the
erection of D'Oyley'a w.^r^house, which
in its day resembled the modern stores.
A full description of it appears in " The
Gentleman's Magazine." The original
founder, D'Oyley, was a French refugee,
who is reputed to have escaped to this
country on the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes, and who went into business with
some of his compatriots who had settled
in Spitalfields, and who were engaged in
the weaving trade, which industry was at
that time being fostered by the English
Government. D'Oyley appears to have
made a success at once, and eventually the

1
I
I

COVENT GARDEN 169

shop became the mart of taate, and his
goods were considered as the leading mode.
Steele, in " The Guardian," mentions his
Doiley suit, and Dryden speaks of Doiley
petticoats.

The old Gaiety Theatre and Restaurant
were the successors of the Strand Music-
hall, which occupied the site of a small
arcade built by R. Smirke for the Marquis
of Exeter, the owner of the property.
This arcade ran from Catherine Street to
"Wellington Street, but did not prove a
success like the Lowther Arcade, and was
taken down in 1863. The old Gaiety was
the home of burlesque, and opened with a
performance of " Robert the Devil." It was
pulled down in 1903, and a new Gaiety has
been erected farther eastwards on the same
side of the street. The old theatre was the
scene of many a triumph of old favourites,
who have, alas ! gone to that bourne whence
no traveller returns, such as Kate Vaughan,
J. L, Toole, Nellie Farren, Edward Terry,
and Katie Seymour.

The offices of " The Morning Post " were
also rebuilt, when Aldwych was created
for the Strand improvements. The first

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170 COVENT GARDEN

number of this paper appeared in 1772, just
thirteen years before " The Times."

The site of the Lyceum Theatre was
originally occupied "by old Exeter House,
and afterwards, according to Thornbury, by
a building erected by the Society of Artists
in 1765, "in anticipation of the royal estab-
lishment then in anticipation." Several
exhibitions were held here, hut the place
soon became bankrupt, and, after under-
going considerable alterations, the rear
portion was opened as a theatre, or place
for variety entertainments. In 1802
Madame Tussaud's exhibition of waxworks
was held there on her arrival in England
from France. Fourteen years later the
place was rebuilt, but was burnt down in
1830. It was rebuilt by Beazley somewhat
farther west. In 1834i it was reopened
with a performance of English opera, and
it was not till another ten years had passed
that a dramatic company performed there
under the management of Mrs. Keeley.
The Beefsteak Club met here after quitting
Covent Garden Tlieatre and the Bedford,
The theatre was for many years the home
of English drama under the direction of-

COVENT GARDEN 171

Sir Henry Irving. It has been rebuilt
since his time ; a new feature being the
annual Christmas pantomime, and a great
reduction in the price of seats ; " popular
prices " being the motto of the present
Lyceum.

Exeter Change was situated in the Strand,
on the west corner of Wellington Street,
and extended as far as Burleigh Street, and
was designed originally for commercial
purposes. It was built by Dr. Barbon, the
Bpeculator in houses in the reign of William
and Mary. It is supposed that some of the
materials of Exeter House were used in
the construction of Exeter Change, includ-
ing a pair of Corinthian columns. Exeter
Street was built about the same time. It
consisted of three spacious floors, and many
varied exhibitions were held here, among
which was a marvelloua bed, which was at
one time shown in the Adelphi. The
building also appears to have been used as
a mortuary, for in 1732 the body of Gay,
the poet, lay here in state before its inter-
ment in Westminster Abbey. A few years
later the body of Lord Baltimore rested
there before being removed to Epsom. It

172

COVENT GARDEN

was also at one time used as a storehouse
for the printed volumes of the Rolls and
Journals of the House of Lords. Some
time afterwards Pidcock's Exhibition of
Wild Beasts took up its abode in Exeter
Change. This made the place an object
of interest, especially to country-folk in
London, whose admiration and curiosity
were enhanced by the magnificent splendour
of a mock Beefeater, who performed the
duties of Commissionaire at the entrance.
The menagerie was successively managed
by three successive tenants, and it is said
that the roars of the lions, distinctly heard
in the Strand, frightened the horses very
much. In 1826 a celebrated elephant,
named Chunee, became unmanageable, and
a squad of soldiers was told off to execute
it. Exeter Change was taken down in
1828-9.

Opposite to the main entrance of the
Lyceum in "Wellington Street was a pic-
turesque building famous as the first
workshop of Charles Dickens, where
" Household Words " was started. The
building was graced by a large bay-
window, almost immediately beneath which

COVENT GARDEN 173

was the stage entrance to the old Gaiety
Theatre.

A little higher up the street on the same
side is the Victoria Club, chiefly resorted
to by frequenters of the turf and other
sportsmen.

Southampton Street has already been
mentioned as being part of the site of
Bedford House. This street was named
after Lady Rachel, daughter of Thomas
"Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and wife
of William, Lord Russell, the patriot. Here
lived Mrs. Oldfield, the actress ; and at
No. 27, David Garricl, previous to his
removing to the Adelphi. In 1775 Garrick
incurred the displeasure of the theatre-
going public by including in his cast at
Drury Lane a troup of French dancers.
As war had already broken out between
England and France, their appearance was
hailed with great disapproval. He was
unwise enough to allow them to appear on
the following evening, when a riot ensued,
and the mob, after destroying the scenery
at the theatre, adjourned to his house and
stoned the windows. The house is still
known as Garrick House, and after being

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174

COVEXT GARDEN

I as an hotd. has finallf been let oat as
Tlie rooBU arr lai^ and well
li^tad, although manr hare been made
unaller to meet the requiremaits of busi-
ness pronues. In this strert also was bam
Colley Cibber.

At the north end of Sonthampton Street
stands the Corent Garden Hotel, once
known as the Bedford Head Hotel, rebuilt
in 1870. Horace Walpole, in his letters to
Bfann, XoTember 20, 17-41, says: *'I
belieTe I told you that Vernon's birthday
passed off quietly, but it was not designed
to be pacific; for at twelve at night eight
gentlemen, dressed like sailors and masked,
went roimd Covent Garden with a drum,
beating up for a volunteer mob ; but it did
not take ; and they retired to a great
RUpper that was prepared for them at the
Bedford Head, and ordered by Paul White-
bead, the author of * Manners.' "

Admiral Vernon, to whom Walpole refets,
was at this period at the height of his popu-
larity, on account of his successful att«
upon Portobello in 1739, and the greaH
gallantry he bad shown on that occaaionj|
Hii determined and violent opposition, i

COVENT GARDEN

175

a member of Parliament, to the measures
of the Government assisted in making him
I the idol of the mob, which he continued to
I be for many years (Cunningham) .

Pope paid no compliment to this hotel
I'when he wrote :

I "When sharp with hunger, scorn yon to be fed,
Except on pea-chicks at the Bedford Head."

In 1711 Bohea tea, the cheapest of its
kind, was sold at the "Barber's Pole" in
Southampton Street at 26s. per lb. At No.
31 was the oldest chemist and druggist's
shop in London, which was subsequently
removed in 1863. The premises were the
shop and laboratory of Ambrose Geoifrey
Hanckwitz. Immediately after the dis-
covery of phosphorus by Brandt the al-
chemist, Hiinckwitz, under the directions
of the celebrated Robert Boyle, succeeded
in making an ounce of solid phosphorus.
Such was the value of the newly discovered
substance that it was sold for 60«. or G0«.
the ounce. Hanckwitz's laboratory became
a fashionable resort on certain occasions,
when he performed experiments for the
amusement of his friends (Timbs).

176

CO VENT GARDEN

Here lived Ambrose Godfrey, of Godfrey 1
& Cook. This g-entleman was the
Teator of a new process for extinguish-
ing fire by "explosion and suffocation."
The "machine" for this purpose was
kind of hollow wooden bomh filled with I
phosphorus and ignited by means of a fuse I
which in case of fire was to be lighted and I
thrown at the flames. The invention waa I
extensively reported in the " WhitehallJ
Evening Post" of 172-4. The "machines,*'
as the ))ombs were called, ifere manu^
factured by a joiner named Bi
Salisbury Street, Strand. The largest size
cost 258. t the second size 21«., and the
smallest 18s. Those used for chimney fires
were called "chimney shells" and were
sold at 10«. Gd. and 7s. 6rf.

Maiden Lane is a narrow street con-'
necting Southampton Street with Bedford
Street. In the parish books of St. Paul's,
Covent Garden, Maiden Lane is described^
as being " behind the Bull Inn."

In this street resided Andrew Marvell,||
the poet and patriot, when he was visited
by Lord Danby with a message from the
King offering him favours, which he refused

COVENT GARDEN 177

to accept. Marvell first "became acquainted
■with the Commonwealth through his ap-
pointment as tutor to the daughter of Lord
Fairfax. He was afterwards recommended
by Milton, who had become totally blind,
for the post of his Assistant Secretary for
Foreign Affairs. Marvell may be described
as the poet of Cromwell and the Protec-
torate. The story of the visit of Lord
Dandy to him, and the offer from the King
which the poet refused, first appeared in
Cook's Life of Marvell in 1726. Accord-
ing to this authority, when the poet had
been entertained one night by the King,
who had often been delighted in bis com-
pany, his Majesty the nest day sent Danby
to discover his lodging. Danby found Mar-
vell writing " up two pairs of stairs in a
little court in the Strand," and announced
that he came with a message from his
Majesty, which was to know what he could
do to serve him." Marvell answered " that
it was not in his Majesty's power to serve
him." Danby then definitely offered him a
place at Court, which was refused with the
retort " that he could not accept with
honour, for he must be either ungrateful

178

COVENT GARDEN

to the King in voting against him, or false
to his country in giving in to the measures
of the Court ; therefore, the only favour he
begged of his Majesty was that he would
esteem him as dutiful a subject as any he
had, and more in his proper interests in
refusing his offers than if he had embraced
them." Finding farther persuasion useless,
Danby then told him that the King had
ordered a thousand pounds for him, which
he hoped he would receive till he could
think what further he could ask of his
Majesty. This last offer was refused as
steadfastly as the first, although, us soon
as the Treasurer had departed, " he was
forced to send to a friend to bori-ow a
guinea."

Here lived Archbishop Bancroft, when
Dean both of York and St. Paul's in
1663.

At a hairdresser's shop named the "White
Peruke," Voltaire resided when he visited
this coimtry after his liberation from the
Bastille. He lived here for some years,
and obtained many subscriptions towards
his " Henriade," besides making the ac-
quaintance of his literary contemporaries,

COVENT GARDEN

Pope, Young, Congreve, and others. During
hifl stay in London Voltaire perfected him-
self in the language to such an extent that
he was able to read and write it like a
native. This knowledge once carried him
"safely through an uncomfortable situation.
While out walking he was ridiculed for a
Frenchman, but, getting into a doorway,
he 80 harangued his tormentors in English
in praise of British liberty, and the British
nation generally, that the mob hailed him
as a jolly good fellow, and carried him
shoulder-high to his lodging in Maiden
Lane.

Here also was born J. M. W. Turner, the
celebrated painter, who resided here till
1800, when he was elected Associate of
the Eoyal Academy. His father was a
hairdresser, and Turner, when a boy,
coloured prints for Mr. J. E. Smith, a
mezzotint engraver, who lived in the same
street. During the period of his stay in
Maiden Lane he exhibited fifty-nine pictures
at the Academy (Timhs).

The far-famed Cider Cellars were situated
in this street, the haunt of Professor Porson.
This establishment was a kind of old-

180

COVENT GARDEN

fashioned tavern, celebrated for devilled
kidneys and Welsh rarebits, which were
consumed to the accompaniment of a
rousing chorus. The place has been de-
scribed by Charles Lamb in " The Loudon
Magazine." Opposite resided Proctor, the
sculptor, in very reduced circiimatances,
Richard Porson (1759-180S) was bom near
North Walsham in Norfolk, where hia
father, Iluggin Porson, a worsted weaver,
was parish clerk. In his early days he
showed remarkable powers of memory,
which attracted the attention of the vicar
of the parish. Through his instrumentality
Porson was sent to be examined at Cam-
bridge, where he satisfied his examiners so
amply that his influential friends sent him
to pursue his studies at Et^n, where he
remained four years. He then entered
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1778, and
was admitted to a professorship in 1792.
He afterwards resided in London, and had
lodgings in the Temple. He died Sep-
tember 25, 1808, and was buried in the
chapel of Trinity College. Porson was an
exceedingly proud man, and declined most
invitations from the fashionable

3d most ^m
world, ^^1

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COVENT GARDEN

181

saying that " they only wanted to see me
out of curiosity, and, when that was satis-
fied, they would like to kick me down the
stairs." It was on this account that he
refused to dine at Holland House to meet
Fox, who had expressed a wish to make
the acquaintance of the famous Greek
scholar.

Many quaint stories are told of this
eccentric but homely genius, of which the
following is a good example. Person was
once travelling in a stage-cnach, when one
of the passengers, in the course of conver-
sation, quoted some Greek verses, which he
ascribed to Euripides as their writer.
Person gravely extracted a volume from
his coat-tail pocket and said, " This, Sir,
is a copy of Euripides; the verses are not
there to my knowledge, but perhaps you
can show them to me." The gentleman,
somewhat confused, corrected himself, and
said that he meant Sophocles. Applying
his hand to another pocket, Porson pro-
duced a Sophocles, with the same invitation.
"Well, well," said the perturbed strauger,
" perhaps after all it was ^schylus." But
upon seeing Porson in the act of drawing

182

COVENT GARDEN

forth a third volume, he jumped up in
extreme agitation, and called out to the
driver, " Coachman, stop the coach, and
let me out. This is either Porson or the
Devil 1 "

On the south side of the street was the
Maiden Lane Synagogue, situated on the
first floor of No. 21, to gain access to which
it was necessary to mount a flight of stairs.
At one time it boasted an important con-
gregation, most of the Jewish salesmen in
the market being members ; but, owing to
the migration of its supporters from the
district, it has recently amalgamated with
the new West End Synagogue, St. Alban'a
Place, in the Haymarket. The place is now-
used as a miniature theatre for rehearsals,
and is fitted up with every convenience for
the purpose. Next door is the stage
entrance to the Adelphi Tlieatre, and it
was here that poor William Terriss was
murdered some years ago by a lunatic who
was ordered to be detained in custody
during her late Majesty's pleasure. William
Terriss will be rememliered as being the
father of the charming Miss EUaline Terrisa,
the wife of Mr. Seymour Hicks.

COVENT GARDEN

18S

Opposite is " Rule's," an establishment
renowned for its oysters and other shell-fish.
Maiden h&ne is now entirely occupied by
theatrical agencies.

Henrietta Street, which runs parallel
with Maiden Lane, was built in 1637,
and named after Henrietta Maria, the wife
of Charles I. When first erected it was
a most fashionable street. Among the
nMnes of its early inhabitants I find those
of Strafford, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,
who resided in a house on the south side
in 16-10, Sir Lewis Dives in 1637, Samuel
Cooper the miniature-painter in 1&1.5,
Kitty Clive the actress, McArdell the
engraver, and Sir Eobert Strange at the
sign of the " Groldeu Head," of whom
the latter is buried in St. Paul's Church.

In 1774 Paul Whitehead, the poet, and
author of " Manners," died in this street.
Horace Walpole describes him as " an
infamous, but not despicable poet." Mr.
Peter Cunningham is more severe in his
criticism, and describes him as a most
profligate individual ; " the boon com-
panion of Sir Francis Dashwood, Churchill,
Wilkes, and others; being, like them, a

184

COVENT GARDEN

member of the Hell-fire Club, which held
its orgies at Medmenham Abbey in Buck-
inghamshire." The estimation in which
he was held even by his friends may be
judged by the lines in which Churchill
has " damned him to everlasting fame " :

" May I (cau worse disgrace on manhood fall ?)
Be born a Whitehead, and baptiaed a Panl"

At Bawthmell's coffee-house the Society
of Arts was established in 1754; and at
the Castle Tavern, also situated in this
street, Sheridan fought and disarmed
Mathews, his rival for the affections of
Miss Linley (Cunningham).

At No. 23 was " OfBcy's," a celebrated
eating-house celebrated for its chops. The
proprietor was origiaally at " Bellamy's,"
close by the House of CommonB, and
e^ddently enjoyed considerable prosperity.
"Offley's" chops were considerably larger
than Bellamy's, because we read that
honourable members thought nothing of
eating a dozen at one sitting at the latter
establishment. " Offley's " was much fre-
quented for supper, and in the great room
one evening each week was singing, where

COVENT GARDEN

185

Francis Carew sang Moore's melodies, then
in the height of their fame (Macmichaers
" Charing Cross "). A surgical instrument
maker from the Strand was an habitue.
This gentleman bought the iron o£f the
piles of old London Bridge, where it had
been for several hundred years soaking in
the Thames, and from it made some of
the finest surgical instruments ever known
(Timhs, "Walks and Talks about London").
The north side of Henrietta Street has
been entirely rebuilt, the London County
and "Westminster Bank occupying fine
premises there; while a little lower down
on the same side is St. Peter's Hospital for
the treatment of the bladder, kidney, and
venereal disorders; on the south side is
situated St. Paul's Rectory, and the re-
mainder of the houses are, almost without
exception, occupied by publishers.

Bedford and King Streets — Half Moon Street— Celebrated
residents — CUy'a papier-m4cL6 traya — Civil Service
Stores— The Oarrick Club— Thackeray and Dickendand
other m era bers— Mahogany wood in King Street — The
Indian chiefs- The Essex Serpent ~ Samuel Taylor
Coleridge— Mr. J. C. Stevens' ftuction-rooms— New
Street— Dr. Johnson at the " Pine-apple "—Bedford-
bury— Sir Francis Kynaston and the Museum Minerva
— Oarrick Street and Rose Street— Butler— Chaodoa
Street and its balconies— Sally Salisbury.

Bedford Street, as were several of its
neighbours after the Great Fire, was chiefly
inhabited by prosperous and well-to-do
merchants. Strype writes : " A handsome
broad street with very good houses, which,
since the Fire of London, are generally
taken up by eminent tradesmen, as mercers,
lacemen, drapers, and men of other trades,
as are King Street and Henrietta Street.
But the west side of this street is the best."
It lies between King Street and Maiden
Lane, and is connected with the Strand

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COVENT GARDEN 187

by Half Moon Street, so named after a
tavern of this name which stood there,
and is mentioned by Ned Ward in bis
" London Spy."

Here lived Remigius van Limput, the
painter, who purchased the portrait of
Charles I. on horseback by Van Dyck at
the sale of that unfortunate monarch's
effects; but at the Restoration he was
forced to give up his treasure. Whether
he was paid for it or not, is not known ;
but the picture is now at Windsor Castle.

In 1635 Chief Justice Richardson was
living in a house on the west side; Sir
Francis KjTiaston in 1637 ; and De
Grammont's Earl of Chesterfield in 1656.
Another resident was Thomas Sheridan ,
the father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
From this house was noticed the peculiar
habit of Dr. Johnson (related by Mr.
Whyte in his " Miscellanea Nova ") of
making, in his passage to and fro, a rule
of touching each of the posts which at
that period were placed at regular intervals
along the curb to prevent passing vehicles
from encroaching on the footpath. Quin,
the actor, lived here from 17i9 to 1752.

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COVENT GARDEN

In a house in the south-east corner of
this street lived Clay, who made a fortune
in 1760 hy applying the use of papier-
infi,ch6 to tea-trays. Clay was a pupil of
Baskerville of Binninghara. Many of his
trays were painted by some of the earliest
members of the Royal Academy, amongst
whom was "Wheatley. At the comer of
Bedford and Chandos Streets lived Hum
phrey Wanley, the antiquary, in 1718.
The house was known as the Riding-boodi
Shop. The opposite corner is now occupied
by the West-end branch of the Civil
Service Stores.

King Street was named after Charles I.,
and was built in 1637. At No. 35 the
Garrick Club was first established in 1834,
where it flourished for thirty years before
moving to its present home in Qarrick
Street. The building is now occupied by
the Capital and Counties Bank and Messrs.
Hicks, Arnold & Mozeley, solicitors. This
house was originally the home of William
Lewis, the comedian, and the premises
were afterwards occupied by an hotel known
as Pi-obatt's. King Street has always been
connected with Garrick, who resided in i1

8. >

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COVENT GARDEN

189

for some time at the house of a Mr. West,
a cabinet-maker.

The Club was founded by Mr. Frank
Mills in 1831, whose object is thus stated ;
" To found a Society in wliich actors and
men of education and refinement might
meet on equal terras " — a significant
statement, indicating the social position of
the actor of that period, who was only then
emerging from his previous condition of
" rogue and vagabond." The formation of
the Garrick stands at the parting of the
ways, where the old rough-and-ready
tavern life, into which the coffee-houses
had degenerated, was passing into a more
staid and correct meeting-place for social
intercourse. Thackeray joined the Club iu
1833, and may be regarded as the leading
light of the institution. Dickens joined
four years later, but after twice resigning
his membership, he finally quitted the Club
in 1865.

The opening of the Club was celebrated
by a sumptuous dinner in 1832, which was
presided over by the Duke of Sussex, its
official patron. In the list of famous
members figure the names of Macready,

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190 COVENT GARDEN ;

Charles Mathews, Planch^, the Duke of
Sussex, Lord Sydney, Robert "Walpole,
Charles Young, Fred Yates, jun., Theodore
Hook of immortal fame, the Marquis of
Anglesea, Earl of Belfast, Earl of Fife,
Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Clanri-
carde, the Rev. R. H. Barham (" Thomas
Ingoldsby "), and Charles Kemble. The
present building in Garrick Street waa
constructed by Mr. Marrable, and opened
in 1862 (see Garrick Street).

Of the Rev. R. H. Barham, who in hia
" Ingoldsby Legends " opened out a totally
fresh and unhackneyed style of humorous
verse, the following story is told. One
of his fellow-clerics, whose sense of
humour, if it ever existed, was overlwd
by a superincumbent mass of dulness and
piety, complained to his (and Barbara's)
Bishop that Barham had written a hook
of very profane verse. The Bishop asked
Barliam for an explanation. Barham sent
him his book. Whether the Bishop's sense
of humour overmastered his sense of
ligious propriety or not is unknown, but
it is certain that Barham never received
any episcopal reproof.

ent M

COVENT GARDEN

101

fThe Club possesses a fine collection of
portraits of theatrical celebrities of the
past, and was first started by Charles
Mathews the elder. Mathews was a good-
^^ natured individual, but, like most of his
^B kidney, entirely devoid of business methods,
^V and incapable of appreciating the value
of money. Although he commanded big
salaries, he was never in affluent circum-
stances. He betted and gambled ; was im-
posed upon by his friends and fleeced by
strangers. He had a penchant for pictures ;

I and the dealers, knowing their customer,
made him pay dearly for his hobby. In
later days, when in need of ready money,
he sold many of his more valuable speci-
mens, and had copies made of them, which
suited his purpose just as well. The
collection reached large dimensions, and
he was persuaded to exhibit it to the
public, for which purpose he rented a large
room in a house in Oxford Street. Alas I
his expectations of a ilnancial success were
sadly shattered. The exhibition resulted
in a net loss of £150. His friends advised
him to sell, but he could not be in-
^■duced to part with his cherished pictures.

192

COVENT GARDEN

A proposal that the collection should be
purchased by the Club somewhat modified
his unwillingness to resign hia hold upon
them, but the sum offered was so small thai
the negotiations were dropped.

The collection numbered in all 415 can-
vases ; not all these, however, were separal
portraits, there being many studies of the
same individual. The gems of the collection
are those of Badderley, Bannister, and Q&T-
rick. There are also portraits of Edmund
Kean, John Kemble, Charles Kemble,
Charles Mathews, Quin, Mrs. Woffington,
and many others. A selection of the best
examples came eventually into tJie pos-
session of Mr. R. Durraut, who presented
it to the Club in 1852, when it still occU'
pied its old premises.

There was also a large assortment
Garrick relics, amongst which is a chair
made out of the stage of old Drury Lane
Theatre. There is also his silver ticket of
admission to the Haymarket Theatre, hia
dress sword and shoe buckles, and the medal
worn by him when steward of the Stratford
Commemoration in 1769, and also two
chairs from Iiis villa at Hampton. There

COVENT GARDEN

193

is also the ivory pass which belonged to
Mrs. Garrick, entitling her to pass through
the gates of the Park. The history of this
celebrated Club has been fully written by
Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, from whose work
much of this information has been derived.
In King Street mahogany first came into
vogue. When Dr. Gibbons was building
his house in this street, his brother, a West
India merchant, sent over some of the
wood as ballast, thinking it might prove
of some use to his brother. This species of
wood was unknown at the time in this
country, and when the carpenters set to
work on it, they found it too hard for their
tools. The doctor, some time after, ordered
a box to be made from it. When this
had been accomplished with the aid of
specially made tools, the result was much
admired. A bureau was then made, and
the fine colour and polish were so pleasing
that the worthy doctor invited his friends
to come and inspect it. Amongst the
latter was the Duchess of Buckingham,
through whose patronage the wood came
into general use. Many o£ the front doors
of the King Street houses were long
13

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COVENT GARDEN

celebrated for being made of solid mahoi
{" History of Charing Cross " by
michael).

In this street resided the North American
Indian chiefs who visited England in the
reign of Queen Anne in order to obtain the
assistance they requested against the French
in Canada. They remained here for about
a fortnight, were lavishly entertained, and
taken to see the sights of the metropolis.

The "Tatler" says that they W'
" clotlied and entertained at the publi)
expense, while continuing in London, in a
handsome apartment." There is no doubt
that their landlord was an upholsterer in
Covent Garden. On April 18, 1710, the
visitors were conveyed in two of the royal,
carriages to St. James's by Sir Charh
Ciittcrell, Master of the Ceremonies,
introduced by the Earl of Shaftesbury, the
Lord Chamberlain. Their speech, which
was translated by a llajor Pidgeon, who
bud accompanied them from America, was
to the etfect that " they had, with one
consent, hung up the kettle and taken up
the hatchet, in token of their great queen
and her children, and had been, on th)

COVENT GARDEN

195

other side of the great water, a strong wall
of security to their great queen's children,
even to the loss of their beat men." They
added that " they had always considered
the French as men of falsehood, and re-
joiced in the prospect of the i-eduction of
Canada ; after which they should have free
hunting and a great trade with their great
queen's children ; and as a token of the
sincerity of the six nations, in the name of
all, they presented their great queen with
the belts of the wampum " (Leigh Hunt's
"The Town").

On the south side of King Street is a
public-house rejoicing in the curious name
of the " Essex Serpent," a name which is
ascribed by certain imters to a legendary
and formidable dragon supposed to haunt a
portion of Essex at the time when King
Street was built. In a house situated on
the site of the present Westminster Fire
Office lived Lenthal, Speaker of the House
of Commons in the time of the Common-
wealth. Here lived Quin, the actor, and
also Nicholas Eowe, editor of Shakespeare
and author of " Jane Shore." Another poet
lived in this street, viz. Samuel Taylor

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COVENT GARDEN

Coleridge, from 1799 to 1802, when earning
a precarious livelihood as an obscure \vTiter
on political subjects to " The Morning Post."
King Street was long renowned for its
numerous print-shops, but only one or two
remain to-day. A few doors westwards from
the National Sporting Club are the auction-
rooms of Mr. J. C. Stevens, where sales are
held weekly of all kinds of miscellaneous
property, and also bulbs and plants in their
pi-oper season. This firm was established
in 1776. The premises occupied by Mr.
Stevens were first tenanted by the celebrated
auctioneer, Mr. Paterson, who was the first
of his profession to offer books singly, in
lots. He was an exceedingly well read
man and was commonly supposed to have
read every iKwk in the English language
that he offered for sale. He eventually
became librarian to the Marquis of Lans-
downe. The premises were then taken by
Messrs. King, Collins & Chapman, who
also sold books and prints. Mr. J. T.
Smith's " Nollekens and his Times" men-
tions the fact that here Charles Dibden
commenced his " London Amusement,"
and here his popular song " Poor Jack "

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I

COVENT GARDEN

i9r

was so often encored (MacmichacrB

Charing Cross "). The auction-rooms of
Messrs. King & Locke, chiefly for books,
were also situated in this street.

In this street are also the spacious pre-
mises of Messrs. Verity & Co., the electrical
engineers. On the south side is also
Messrs. Barr & Sous, the seed experts and
nurserymen. Messrs. Geo. Monro, Ltd.,
are established in a handsome building
adjoining the National Sporting Club, and
also occupy the shop on the south-east
corner of the street.

King Street leads westwards into a very
narrow thoroughfare, named New Street,
which runs as far as St. Martin's Lane nearly
opposite the New Theatre. Even this
narrow little street was fashionably in-
habited in the reign of Charles II. The
Countess of Chesterfield, of whom the great
painter Van Dyck was enamoured, lived in
a house on the south side in 1660. Flaxman,
the sculptor, also lived here in 1771-2.

It was at a tavern named the " Pine-apple "
that Dr. Johnson used to dine when ho first
came to London. " I dined," said he, " very
well for eightpence,with very good company,

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198

COVENT GARDEN

at the Pine Apple ia New Street. Several
of them had travelled. They expected to
meet every day, but did not know one
another's names. It used to cost the others
a shilling, for they drank wine ; but I had a
cut of meat for sixpence, and bread for a
penny, and gave the waiter a penny ; so that
I was quite well served, aye ! better than
the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing."
Connecting New Street and Chaudos •
Street is Bedfordbury, a small, narrow street,
of late greatly improved by the addition of
the rear portion of the Coliseum ; for which
purpose a large num"ber of miserable houses
and courts were pulled down. Mr. Robert
Allbutt, in his " Rambles in Dickens' Land,"
says that this district was the dreadful
slum depicted by Dickens in "Bleak
House " as Tom's All-alone. Mr. Cunning-
ham, in his invaluable handbook, records
the fact that Sir Francis Kynaston, scholar
and poet, lived here about IGSS-'IO, " on
the east side of the street towards Berrie."
It was at the house of this gentleman in
the " Garden '' that an Academy, called the
Museum Minerva, was established in the
* See Appendix.

COVENT GARDEN

reign of Charles I. for the instruction and
education of the young members of the
nobility and gentry in the arts and foreign
languages, etc. Sir Francis was president
of the institution, and, on the outbreak of
the Plague, petitioned the King for per-
mission to remoTC to Chelsea College ; but,
on account of the opposition manifested by
the authorities of the latter establishment,
probably from a reasonable fear of contagion,
Sir Francis was compelled to seek other
quarters, in the same neighbourhood, how-
ever, as the College.

Garrick Street was constructed for the
purpose of providing a means of extra
access to the market from the west end, for
which purpose it was found necessary to cut
through a lai-ge number of houses and Rose
Street, and was named after the Garrick
Club, established here after its removal from
King Street. The former was a narrow street
which ran in a zigzag fashion from Long
Acre to the corner of New Street. The new
road was commenced in 1855 and completed
about 1861, and the cost of the undertaking
amounted to £34,000, towards which the
Duke of Bedford contributed £1,600.

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Rose Street * will be remembered as the
scene of the assault on the poet Dryden,
narrated in a previous chapter. Here also
died Butler, the author of " Hudibras,"
who is buried in St. Paul's Church. In
this street also lived Mr. Edmund Curll,
bookseller, and publisher of Pope's Literary
Correspondence.

In Bose Street, immediately behind the
premises of Messrs. Debenham, Storr &
Sons at the corner of G^arrick and King
Streets, is a public-house of some antiquity
named the " Lamb and Flag." These are
the armorial bearings of the Middle Temple,
but I am unable to account for any
connection with this part, unless, as Mr.
Macmichael suggests in his " History of
Charing Cross," some former servant of
the Templars set up tlie sign.

Chandos Street was named after William
Brydges, Lord Chandos, grandfather of the
"magnificent Duke." Here Duval, the
highwayman, was captured at a tavern
known as the " Hole in the Wall."

In this street was one of the first houses
that boasted a balcony, which, when first

* See Appendix.

COVENT GARDEN

201

erected, caused a great deal of curiosity.
Balconies were first introduced into London
in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden,
and pi-obably the one in Chandos Street
was amongst the first examples. In a
house of ill-fame in this street the Hon.
John Finch was stabbed by a certain lady
named Sally Salisbury, who was thus styled
on account of a fancied resemblance to
the Coimtess of that name. She died in
Newgate whilst undergoing her sentence
for this deed of violence. Besides leaving
behind her a portrait by Kneller, she is
described by Mr. Caulfield in his " Memoirs
of Remarkable Persons " as having " the
character of the most notorious woman
that ever infested the Hxmdreds of Old
Drury, or Covent Garden either."

CHAPTER: XII

Long Acre— Original name— Abode of the coach-maJcer* —
The Duke'a Bagnio : a description— The ale-houses —
Prior and Chloe — The Water-poet — Covent Garden
quacks— Partridge and BickerstaCT- Jamea Street : cell
brated residents — St Martin's Hall— Charles Dickt
The Sun public-house and Ben Jonaon.

At the time when the Convent Garden,
as it was then called, was surrounded by
a brick wall, the thoroughfare that is to-
day known as Long Acre was a straggling
footpath leading from St. Martin's Lane to
Drury Lane. At that period there were
no houses between Covent Garden and
the tiny hamlet of St. Giles-in-the-!Fields.
Ivong Acre is of great antiquity. The
earliest mention I have been able to trace
is in 1566, when it was mentioned by
Machyn in his Diary on December 6th
of that year : " The murder of one Richard
Eggylston in the Long Acurs, tho bak
syd of Charinge-Crosse."

COVENT GARDEN

208

It was also known as the Elms, on
account of some fine elm trees which stood
there and whose grateful shade was much
appreciated by the worthy citizens, who
much frequented it in the sxunmer months.
When the property was laid out, after
coming into the hands of the Bedford
family, it received its present name from
the fact that its reputed area was juet
one acre.

In 1656 Howell described it as a
"spacious fair street." From its earliest
days it has been the liome of the carriage-
builder, many of the best-known firms
having their premises here. Even before
the street was built a blacksmith's forge
was in existence at the Holboru end of
Drury Lane. Perhaps the earliest of the
coach-builders was one John Sanders, of
Long Acre, coachmaker, who was fined
the sum of £12 in 1695 for not serving
the office of overseer (St. Martin's Parish
Accounts).

Thomas Stothanl, the painter, was the
son of a coachmaker residing in this street.

Most of the streets leading out of Long
Acre are exceedingly narrow, and arc

HOi

COVENT GARDEN

tnown as courts. Banbury Court was
named after Banbury House, whicb stood
ou its Bite, and was inhabited by the Earl
of Peterborough in 1673. There was also
a Lumley Court, named after Lady Lumley,
■who resided there in 1660.

Salisbury Court, on the south side of the
street, adjoined a celebrated establishment
known as the Duke's Bagnio, or Sweating
House, of which a full description appears
in Malcolm's " Londinium Bedivivum,"
vol. iv. The manager was Sir W. Jen-
nings, who resided next door, and who, in
reward for his services to the throne, ob-
tained from the King a patent for the
making of all the public bagnios and baths
in the metropolis. The place appears to
have been very well conducted for a
number of years, but subsequently followed
the downward path of other similar places.
The bath was for the use of both sexes
on diiferent days. On the accession of the
Duke of York to the throne as James II.
the baths assxmied a regal title, having
been originally named after the Duke. In
1686 a handbill was published by the then
proprietor, Mr. Leonai-d Cundit, who ad-

COVENT GARDEN

205

vertised the bath under the title of the
King's Bagnio.

There was also a Spa, or well of medi-
cinal waters, described as " artificially
made, by mineral principles, conveyed into
the earth by appropriate vessels, there
springing up in a sufficient quantity to
supply all persons that shall have occasion
to drink them. The colour is clear and
transparent, the taste sweet and somewhat
styptic. The waters turn purple if mixed
with galls, and are reduced to transparency
by a few drops of spirit of vitriol : oyl of
tartar per deliquium will curdle and turn
them white, and spirit of vitriol will restore
them to their former pellucid colour."

The well was covered over with stone,
and ornamented with a statue " with much
carved work about it." The well was
close to the wall of the bath-house in the
yard, and was encompassed on that side
with tall paliaadoes, iii which there was a
door made for the person who drew the
water to pass to the well, and a window,
out of whicli the water was handed to
those who required it. Tliere was also a
waiting-room for the drinkers to sit in

206

COVENT GARDEN

and sip the mixture, which, according to
the nature of all such beverages, could not
have been of too pleasurable a nature;
and probably suggested, as Sam Weller
eaid of the waters at Bath, a taste of
flat-irou. i

In 1694 the bath was greatly altered
and improved in the system of heating,
which at the Hummums could not have
been properly regulated, the fires being
placed immediately under the hot-rooma,
while here they were situated farther off.
The price of admission for a single person
was 5$., but if two came together a re-
duction of 1«. each was made on the
charge.

Adjoining the Bagnio was a coffee-house
named the Duke's Bagnio Coffee-house,
at the side of which was the principal
entrance to the baths.

When George I. came to the tlirone, and
party feeling ran high between Whigs and
Tories, Long Acre became celebrated for
its mug-houses or ale-houses, where beer-
drinking clubs were held, and where
politics were "sung or said." Defoe, in
his "Journey through England," gives on

COVENT GARDEN

excellent description of these places, for
which Cheapside was also renowned, but
the chief centre appears to have been
Long Acre: —

" But the most diverting and amusing
of all is the Mug-house Club in Long
Acre; where every "Wednesday and Satur-
day a mixture of Gentlemen, Lawyers, and
Tradesmen meet in a great Room, and are
seldom under a hundred. They have a
grave old Gentleman, in his own grey hairs,
now within a few months of 90 years old,
who is their President, and sits in an arm'd
chair some steps higher than the rest of
the Company, to keep the whole Room
in order. A harp plays all the time at
the other end of the Room; and every
now and then one or other of the com-
pany rises and entertains the rest with a
song, and (by the by) some are good
masters. Here is nothing drank but ale,
and every gentleman hath his separate
Mug, which he chalks on the Table where
he sits, as it is brought in ; and every one
retires when he pleases, as from a Coffee-
house. The room is always so diverted
with Songs and drinking from one Table

208

COVENT GARDEN

to another to one another's Healths, that
there is no room for Politicks, or any-
thing that can sow'r conversation. One
must be there by seven to get room, and
after ten the Company are for the most
part gone. This is a Winter's Amusement,
that is agreeable enough to a Stranger for
once or tmce, and he is well diverted with
the diiferent Humours, when the Mugs
overflow. . . .

"On King George's Accession to the
Throne, the Tories had so much the better
of the Friends to the Protestant Succes-
sion, that they gaiaed the Mobs on all
Publick Days to their side. This induced
a Sett of Gentlemen to establish Mug-
houses in all the corners of this great
city, for well-affected Tradesmen to meet
and keep up the Spirit of Loyalty to the
Protestant Succession, and to be ready
upon all Tumults to join their Forces for
the Suppression of the Tory mobs. Many
an encounter they had, and many were
the riots, till at last the Parliament was
obliged by an Act to put an end to this
City strife, which had this good effect,
that upon pulling down of the Mug-houae

(

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209

I
I
I

in Salisbury Court, for which some boys
were hanged on this Act, the City has
not been troubled with them since."

In this street was a shoemaker'a shop
nith two windows ; in one were placed
pairs of boots and shoes, and in the other
a picture by Richard Wilson, the land-
icape painter; and it is more than prob-
able that many a picture that was then
picked up for a few pounds has since
realised as many hundreds.

In Long Acre resided "Chlo6," the
object of Prior's affection, whom he com-
pares in his verses to Venus and Diana.
Some say she was the wife of a cobbler,
others of a soldier. WhocTer she was, she
does not appear to have met with the ap-
probation of the poet's friends. Pope says :
" Everybody knows what a wretch she
was"; and, "Prior was not a right good
man. He used to bury himself for whole
days and nights together with a poor
mean creature, and often drank hard."

Pope's friend, Richardson, says that

Prior, after having spent the evening in

tlie company of Swift, Bolingbroke, Pope,

and Oxford, would go and smoke a pipe

210

COVENT GARDEN

and drink a bottle of ale with a common
soldier and his wife in Long Aore, before
going to bed (Leigh Hunt, "The Town").
One of the first taverns in this street
was situated in Phosnix Alley, and was
kept by John Taylor, a contemporary of
Shakespeare, who, though originally a
Thames waterman, aspired to the dignity
of a poet. At the death of Charles I. he
called his house " The Mourning Crown,"
but during the Commonwealth he adorned
his signboard with his own portrait, to-
gether with the following motto :

" There's many a bead stands for a sign ;
Then, gentle reader, why not mine ? "

Althougli Taylor regarded coaches as hid
natural enemy, he continued to residq
amongst them, and died in 1G63.

Mr. Timbs mentions that among th«j
nostrums sold in Long Acre were DrJ
Gardner's worm- destroying medicines, and
Burchell's anodyne necklaces, strongly
recommended for teeth-cutting by Dr.
Turner, the inventor, and by Dr. Chaml>er-
lain, who is said to hare possessed the
secret.

COVENT GARDEN

211

The neighbourhood of Covent Garden
was the happy hunting-ground for the
quacks and fortune-tellers. When the
Plague hroke out, many were the won-
derful concoctions sold, to a credulous and
panic-stricken populace under the title of
" Cure." Of the quacks who dealt in
these cures, perhaps the hest known was
Partridge, who was also an almanac maker.
This individual, who resided at different
dates in both Henrietta Street and James
Street, was the butt of the wits of the
period. He foretold the death of the King
of France, which prophecy was turned to
ridicule by Swift in the following manner.
Writing under the name of BickerstafiF,
Swift foretold the death of Partridge at a
certain date. When the appointed period
duly arrived, Swift insisted that Partridge
was, ip6o facto, dead. Partridge gravely
informed tlie public that he was, on the
contrary, very much alive. BickerstafF,
however, still insisted on the correctness
of his own view, to the amusement of the
whole town and to the acute distress of
the putative corpse. Partridge repeatedly
advertised the fact of hjs continued exjs-

K the puta
H advertise

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212 COVENT GARDEN

tence, but in the end was compelled tn
give up making almanacs, the prognostica-
tions of a dead man not being a marketable
commodity.

In his almanac for 1707 he writes :
"Whereas it has been industriously given
out by Bickerstaff and others, to prevent
the sale of this year's almanac, that John
Partridge is dead, this may inform all his
loving countrymen that, blessed bo God,
he is still living in health, and they are
knaves who reported otherwise."

Stukeley claimed to have discovered a
" tumulus " or burial place of ancient
Britons in Long Acre, but the evidence
is not at all trustworthy. A burial
ground belonging to the Quakers was at
one time situated near Salisbuiy Court,
but it passed out of their hands in 1757
and the site was used for building pur-
poses (" London Burial Grounds," by
Mrs. B. Holmes).

Before pursuing our investigations farther
along Long Acre we must not forget James
Street, which connects Long Acre with
the north side of the market proper. This
ntreet wa« built about 1637, and named after

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218

James, Duke of York, afterwards James II.,
as was also York Street. Here lived Sir
Henry Herbert, brother of Lord Herbert
of Cherbury, and of Sir Greorge Herbert,
once Master of the Eflvels. His bouse
was on tbe west side, almost at the corner
of Hart Street. No. 77 was the residence
of another of tbe artistic fraternity, to \vit,
Charles Grignon, tbe engraver, who died
in 1810.

In James Street resided a mysterious
lady, who arrived from Manstield in 171^
in a coach drawn by six horses. She died
in 1720, and was supposed to have been
a member of an old Catholic family who
had been in her early days consigned to
a convent, whence she had been liberated
by a relative. She was buried in the
neighbouring St. Paul's churchyard.

The dernier crl in modernism is the
Covent Garden Station of the Piccadilly
and Brompton Kailway, at the corner of
James Street and Ix>ng Awe.

On the north side of the latter thorough-
fare atill stand the huge premises lately
vacated by the celebrated firm of brewers,
Messrs. Watney, Coombe & Beid. This

214

COVENT GARDEN

extensive block of buildings is now being
rapidly converted into fruit wareliouses,

Earther along the street, on the same
bide, but at the corner of Endell Street,
stands a large building lately occupied by
Kestertona, the carriage builders. It has
now hecome tenanted by a large firm of
publishers and printers. Adjoining it ia
an edifice which once boasted a consider-
able reputation as a place of amusement.
It was originally known as St. Martin's
Hall, built in 18'i7 by William Cubitt. It
was opened three years later as a music-
hall, in which many concerts and oratorios
of a high class were given. Here Charles
Dickens gave his first series of sizteoa
readings in London, imder the management
of Arthur Smith, in 1858. The hall was
also utilised for political meetings. Like
other places of amusement, it suffered the
usual fate of being burnt down, which
calamity occurred in 1860, the fire origin-
ating next door, at Kestertons'. It was
rebuilt, and again opened as a concert-
hall, but did not long subserve this pur-
pose. After having been altered and re-
built, it was opened &s a theatre, under

COVENT GARDEN

215

the name of the Queen's, which title had
just heen discarded by the old theatre in
Windmill Street, Tottenham Court Road,
rechrietened the Prince of Wales's. Many
artists of distinction appeared here, such
as J. L. Toole, Phelps, and Mr. and Mrs.
Rousby.

The Queen's (new) Theatre was closed
in 1875, and the building was converted
into a "stores." It is now a seed ware-
house.

Opposite, at the comer of Bow Street,
stands the warehouse of Messrs. Merry-
weather, fire-engine makers. Farther down,
on the same side as the latter establish-
ment, are the large printing-offices of " The
GJentlewoman " and " John Bull."

In Long Acre was a tavern of some re-
nown called the Sun, and frequented by
Ben Jonson. Whether the present public-
house of this name in Broad Court is
the same is not certainly known. The
story goes that Ben Jonson one day went
to another of his city haunts for a drink
(poets have always been thirsty souls, from
Anacreon and Horace downwards), to wit,
the Half Moon in Aldersgate Street, but,

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COVENT GARDEN

finding it closed, he walked on as far as
the Sun in Long Acre, where ho indited
the following quatrain:

" Since the Half Mooq is so nDkind
To m&ke me go aboat,
Xhe Snu my mouey now shall have,
The Moon shall go withoot."

Endell Street was formerly divided, and
called Old and New Belton Streets.* Its
chief building is the Lying-in Hospital, the
oldest institution of its kind in London.
It formerly occupied premises in Brown-
low Street, since renamed Betterton Sti'eet.
This street was named after Sir John
Brownlow, whose house and gardens stood
on the spot. He resided here between 1676
and 1682, and it is thought that the Charity
occupied part of the original mansion after
it was Tacated. Michael Mohun, the actor,
died in Brownlow Street in 1684.

At the rear of No. 25, Endell Street,
are to be found the reputed remains of
an old bath, which was fed by a stream
of clear water, boasting certain medicinal
qualities, useful in cnring gout and rheu-

• See Appendii.

matiBm. It was known as Queen Anne'»
Bath, but whetlior it was erer patronised
by her Majesty is a matter of conjec-
ture; and since we know that "Queen
Anne is dead," she cannot be cross-
examined in verification (or the reverse)
of the rumour.

The shop is now occupied by a firm of
ironmongers, and the bath, or rather what
remains of it, is now a lumber-room.

The celebrated Lewkner's Lane, men-
tioned previously, is now named Macklin
Street. It was, from its eaidiest days, a
street of evil repute, and later it became
quite renon-ned for its vicious inhabitants.
Jonathan Wild, the thief -taker, ran a house
of ill-repute here. Mr. Cunningham as-
signs to it the same unsavoury reputation as
late as 1860.

CHAPTEE XIII

Covent Qorden u we know it to-day

Aftee this review of the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Coveut Garden there yet re-
mains for our inveetigation the market
proper. From the preceding chapters we
have seen how the market became estab-
lished by the regular gathering of a few
itinerant vendors of fruit and vegetables
from the surrounding villages. Its growth
in commercial importance has gradually
but surely increased, in spite of the com-
petition of other mai'kets which have been
established at different periods in various
parts of the metropolis. I have already
referred to Tarringdon Market, which at
one time was a serious rival to Covent
Garden and might even have eventually
eclipsed it in importance had it not been
for the erection of Waterloo Bridge, which
gave a long-desired access to the western

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COVENT GARDEN

210

market and which vras immediately taken
advantage of by the Surrey and Kentish
growers.

Hungerford Market was established in
1679 on the site of Hungerford House,
Charing Cross. The first market-building
was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the
architect of St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir
Edward Hungerford, a famous spendthrift,
after having exJiausted the family fortune,
thought to again enrich himself by the
formation of a market, and, after obtain-
ing the King's permission, erected stalls
and buildings on the site of the family
I residence, Hungerford House, which had
been destroyed by fire on April 25, 1669.
Like its neighbour, Covent Garden, the
market was devoted to the sale of fruit
L and vegetables, and offered a decided advan-
I tage to gi'owei's on account of its immediate
proximity to the river, thus abolishing the
porterage charges on goods which were
consigned to Covent Garden by way of the
Thames. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, the i-oads, not only in the country,
but even in London, were in such a neglected
condition as to be almost impassable to

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220

COVENT GARDEN

WBguQs bearing loads of a perishable
nature, such as fniits and vegetables, which
necessitated a quick journey to the markets.
The river, therefore, was a decidedly easier
mode of transport, besides which some of
the market-gardens were situated on the
river bank. The most important of these
were at Chelsea and were named the Neat-
Houses. Strype describes them as "a
parcel of Houses, most seated by the banks
of the River Thames and inhabited by
Gardiuers ; for which it is of note, for the
supplj'ing London and Westminster Markets
^vith asparagus, artichokes, cauliflowers,
musmelous, and the like useful things that
the Earth produceth, which, by reason of
their keeping the Ground so rich by dunging
it (and through the nearness to Loudon
they have the soil cheap), doth make their
craps very forward, to their great Profit
coming to such good Markets." There we:
also Neat-Houses at Limehouso in Strypo'
time.

Hungerford market was not a success,
and the fruit trade gradually deserted it,
and in 1815 there were only about half a
dozen butchers left in the market. It vt

in,

3ir M

COVENT GARDEN

221

irebuilt by Mr. Charles Fowler, the same
architect who rebuilt Covent Garden, in
1830, and was re-opened in 1833. Misfor-
tune again pursued it, and it fell into a
state of decay. The site is now occupied by
Charing Cross Railway Station.

Portman Market was established in 1830
in the parish of Marylebone, but is heai-d
of no more ; and Clare Market is but a
memory of the past. The present Borough,
Spitalfields, and Stratford Markets are
chiefly deroted to the sale of vegetables, and
a very large proportion of the fruit sold
there is drawn from Corent Garden or by
growers who dispose of their own produce
themselves.

The building of Covent Gai-den Market
as we see it to-day dates back from 1829-30.
The Act for the rebuilding was obtained
by the sixth Duke of Bedford in 1827,
who immediately had cleared away the
miscellaneous ramsliackle collection of stalls
and sheds, the upper parts of which were
inhabited by bakers, cooks, and retailers of
gin, " to the detriment of the fair trader,"
who petitioned the Duke to rid the market
of their apparently undesirable neighbours.

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COVENT GARDEN

The present buildings consist of a centi
avenue of shops and rows facing northj
south, east, and west, and intersected in the
middle by a thoroughfare at right angles.
The large spaces between the central avenue
and the north and south rows are known
as the "Apple" and "Long" Markets re-
spectively. The portion of the market
situated between the Floral Hall Yard
and Russell Street was erected about 1890,
when the remaining portion of the eastern
Piazza and the old Bedford Hotel were
pulled down. It was , known as the
" Synagogue," probably on account of the
number of salesmen of the Jewish per-
suasion who occupied stands there. A
costermonger once summoned a salesman
from this part of the market, and on being
asked in court where he purchased tlie
fruit in question, informed the judge, " In
tlie Synagogue." " What ? " said the judge.
" Do you seriously mean to tell me that
you purchased fruit in a place of worship ? "
It was then explained to his Lordship that
the plaintiff referred to that portion of the
market that was so nicknamed. The
" Jubilee " market is situated to the north

th.H

thflH

COVENT GARDEN

928

[ of Tavistock Street and extends as far west
as Southampton Street. It was so named
on account of its erection in the year of
Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

Corent Garden Market for many years
after the rebuilding had a very insanitary
reputation. It was christened " Mud Salad
Market " by " Punch " because of the heaps
of decayed vegetable matter which were al-
lowed to acciunulate within its precincts.
It was supplied with water obtained from
an artesian well situated under the middle
of the central avenue. The water was
pumped into cisterns placed under the roof
covering the " Row." To-day, however,
it is one of the best, if not the best kept
market in the world.

It has been said that a pond existed in
the middle of the square many years previ-
ous to the estate coming into the hands of
the Bedford family. Its waters, fe<l liy a
spring, gained access to the Thames by way
of Ivy Bridge Lane, where the Hotel Cecil
i8 now. I have not been able to authenticate
this fact, although quite recently, when the
present premises of Messrs. T. Rochford and
rGeo. Monro, Ltd., were in course of erection

224 CO\rENT GARDEN

in Tavistock Street, the construction of Uie
foundations was seriously hampered by an
inrush of water which necessitated pumps
being kept at work for a considerable time.
The presence of such a volimxe of water
was attributed by the builder, I believe, to
the improvements in Aldwych and Kings-
way, which must have diverted some under-
ground stream from its natural course.

The stone pavilions on the west side of
the market were for many years tenanted
by two dealers in herbs, only one of whom
remains in the market, in the south-west
comer. That in the north-west is now
occupied by Mr. J. B. Wright. The pa-
vilion in the south-east corner was a coffee-
house named the " Carpenter's Arms,"
afterwards " Way's." Carpenter was for-
merly a market porter, and enjoyed some
considerable renown on account of his
ability to carry on hi.s head fifteen half-
bushel baskets of cherries from the wharf
near that old-fashioned but now vanished
tavern, the Fox-under-the-Hill by the
Adelphi Arches. He could, in addition,
throw off from the stack on his head from
one to anv number of baskets and never

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COVENT GARDEN

225

miss. The grower who chanced to see his
fruit thus handled could not fail to be
impressed by such a feat ! According to
Macmichael, he afterwards became lessee of
the market,

" Way's " was the coffee-house mentioned
by Dickens in " The Uncommercial Travel-
ler," and was the scene of the meat pudding
episode. "There was an. early coffee to be
got about Covent Garden Market, and that
was more company — warm company, too,
which was better. Toast of a very sub-
stantial quality was likewise procurable :
though the touzled-headed man who made
it, in an inner chamber within the coffee-
room, hadn't got his coat on yet, and was
BO heavy with sleep that in every interval
of toast and coffee he went off anew behind
the partition into complicated cross-roads
of choke and snore, and lost his way
directly. Into one of these establishments
(amongst the earliest) near Bow Street,
there came one morning as I sat over my
houseless cup, pondering where to go next,
a man in a high and long snuff-coloured
coat, and shoes, and, to the best of my
belief, nothing else but a hat^ who took out

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COVENT GARDEN

of his hat a large cold meat pudding
meat pudding so large that it was a very^
tight fit and brought the lining out of the
hat with it. This mysterious man was
known hy his pudding, for on hia entering,
the man of sleep hrought him a pint of hot
tea, a small loaf, and a large knife and fork
and plate. Left to himself in his hox, he
stood the pudding on the bare table, and
instead of cutting it, stabbed it, overhand,
with the knife, like a mortal enemy ; then
took the knife out, wiped it on his sleeve,
tore the pudding asunder with his fingers and
eat it all up. The remembrance of this man
with the pudding remains with me as the
remembrance of the most spectral person mji
houselessness encountered. Twice only was
I in that establishment, and twice I saw
him stalk in (as I should say, just out of
bed, and presently going back to bed), take
out hia pudding, stab his pudding, wipe the
dagger, and eat his pudding all up. He
was a man whose figure promised cndaver-
ousness, but who had an excessively red
face, though shaped like a horse's. On the
second occasion of my seeing him, he said
huskily to the man of sleep, ' Am I red

COVENT GARDEN 227

to-night ? ' ' You are,' ho uncompromis-
ingly answered. ' My mother,' said the
spectre, ' was a red-faced woman that liked
drink, and I looked at her hard when she
laid in her coffin, and I took the com-
plexion.' Somehow the pudding seemed
an unwholesome pudding after that and
I put myself in his way no more."

The great novelist was a lover of tlie
market and its busy scenes. In his early
days, he says, "When I had nothing to do,
I used to go to Covent Garden and stare
at the pineapples."

" Covent Garden Market, when it was
market morning, was wonderful company.
The great wagons of cabbages, with growei-s,
men, and boys lying asleep under them and
with sharp dogs from market-garden neigh-
bourhoods looking after the whole, was as
good as a party. But one of the worst
night-sights I know of in London is to be
found in the children who prowl about this
place ; who sleep in the baskets, fight for
the offal, dart at any objects they think
they can lay their thieving hands on, dive
under the carts and -barrows, dodge the
constables, and are perf etually making a

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228

COVENT GARDEN

blunt pattering on the pavement of thi
Piazza with the rain of their naked feet;
A painful and imnatural result comes of
the comparison one is forced to institute
between the growth of corruption as dis-
played_ia the so much improved and cared-
for fruits oE the earth, and the growth of
corruption as displayed in these uncared-
for (except inasmuch as ever-hunted)|

" Way's " is now occupied by Messra^
H. T. "Wooderson & Sons. Two other
taverns were situated in the south row.
The Green Dragon was in the middle
and the "White Horse, the last to dis-
appear, was where Messrs. A. Israel & Sons
are now. An old public-house named
Salter's, which stood on the north-west
corner of Russell Street, has also vanished,
and there are no longer any taverns in
Covent Garden Market proper. The upper
parts of the present market shops were
once the places of residence of their respec-
tive tenants. There are some alive to-day
and who are connected with the market wh
were bom in these minute chambers. It is
not so very many years ago that the last

COVENT GARDEN

229

person to reside in the market died in one
of the rooms, which necessitated the lower-
ing of the coffin out of the window like
a safe, as it could not be bi-ought downstairs
on fM2count of the premises baring a spiral
staircase.

Boswell relates howj " one night, when
Beauclerk and Langton had supped at
a tavern in London, and sat up till about
three in the morning, it came into their
heads to go and knock up Johnson, and
see if they could prerail on him to join
thera in a ramble. They rapped violently
at the doors of his chambers in the Temple,
till at last he appeared in his shirt, with
his little black wig on the top of his head
instead of a night-cap, and a poker in his
hand, imagining, probably, that some
ruffians were coming to attack him. "Wlien
he discovered who they were, and was told
their errand, he smiled, and with great
good-humour agreed to their proposal.
'What, is it you, you dogs 1 I'll hare
a frisk with you.'

" He was soon dressed, and they sallied
forth together into Covont Garden, where
ihc greengrocers and fruiterers wore Ijc-

280

COVENT GARDEN

ginning to arrange their hampers, just
come in from the country. Johnson made
some attempts to help them, but the honest
gardeners stared so at his figure and
manner, and odd interference, that he soon
saw his services were not relished. They
then repaired to one of the neighbouring
taverns and made a bowl of that liquor
called ' Bishop/ which Johnson had always
liked " (Boswell's " Life of Johnson ").

The pavilion facing the west entrance
to the Floral Hall, and over which are the
offices of the superintendent of the market
and his staff, has for many years been
tenanted by the Isaacs family, celebrated
for the apparently inexhaustible supply of
nuts of every description. The father of
the present tenants was a humorous but
very dry old gentleman, and was celebrated
for his quaint sayings. He was sitting
one afternoon in his shop after the day's
business was over, smoking his church-
warden pipe, when he was accosted by a
smartly dressed gentleman who said that
he had been informed that Mr. Isaacs was
a great authority ou silkworms, and he
would be greatly obliged if Mr. Isaacs

COVENT GARDEN

281

would be kind enough to inform him the
beat thing to give them for food. The old
gentleman, thinking that he was being
" got at," considered for a moment or so,
then taking bis pipe from between his
teeth, said with great deliberation : " You
see that street over there?" (pointing to
James Street). " At the top of that street
and round the corner you'll find a butcher's
shop. Go inside and buy a pound of the
best quality rump steak. Come back to the
market and buy some new peas and new
potatoes. Take 'em home and cook 'em and
give 'em to the silkworms, and if the beggars
won't eat that, they deserve to starve I "

There was a neighbour of his who had
not the advantage of a Tery liberal educa-
tion and who on being asked his opinion
about the quality of a certain lot of lemons,
signified Ms disapproval by saying, " Do
you call those lemons ? Why, if they had
them in Liverpool, they'd throw 'em in the
Thames ! "' He meant to say that the
Liverpool dealers would consider the fruit
as very common quality.

Yes ! life in the market in the " good
old days " was different from the struggle

282

COVENT GARDEN

resulting from such keen competition of
the present time. There are many who
remember the days when the Centre Avenue
or Grand Row was the fashionable prome-
nade of an afternoon, filled with an ever-
lasting crowd of elegant loungers who
frittered away the time 'twist scandal and
flirtation, and the occasional interval for
the purchase of a such an expensive item
as a pineapple or a bundle of asparagus —
when the outlying yards were filled with
their splendid carriages and gorgeous fl,un-
keys, and when Tavistock Street was quite
as luxurious as the Regent Street of to-day.
Such items as pines, asparagus, grapes, etc.,
were considered great luxuries, and com-
monly sold at such prices which if ever
mentioned in the presence of a grower in-
variably draws from him the remark that
" the trade is going to the dogs ! " I know
a certain grower of grapes who remembers
the time when his father obtained 25e. and
30«. per lb. wholesale for his fruit 1

The Grand Row is of course still

existence, with its magnificent displays'

of fruits and flowers. Can better blooms

, be found than at Phil Ga'-cia's P

COVENT GARDEN 283

of the choicest fruits cannot
do better than pay a visit to the shops
of Mr. Lewis Solomons (now Solomons &
Chanter), wlio for many years have held
the Royal Warrant, and have supplied
fruit at some time or the other to almost
every crowned head in Europe and I should
think to everybody mentioned in Dehrett.

Higher up the Row is " Barney." If

he is not outside his shop he is certain to

be found in the Floral Hall buying fresh

stocks. His trade-mark is like Excelsior,

" On a banner with a strange device —

Barneyman." Other tenants of the Bow

arc Miss Webber, Messrs. T. J. Poupart,

Muxworthy, H. Rides, C. Kauffman,

Beckett, J. Willis, Thomas Bros., Raines,

and Gai-cia, Jacobs & Co. at the south-east

comer. Overhead is the miniature " Zoo "

known as the Bedford Conservatories,

where goldfish, snakes, and other amphibians

and birds are sold, and which is familiar

to every visitor to the market. It used

■ to be the favourite resort of the author

H wherein to regain his composure when

I as a little boy he had had the doubtful

H pleasure of interviewing a dentist I

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2S4

COVENT GARDEN

The premises of Messrs. Greorge Monit^ 1
Ltd., have already been described as being i
at both eastern comers of King Street and
in the " Apple " Market.

But there are many imi>ortant firms in
the market besides those already mentioned.
Mr. Edward Isaacs under the Hummums
Uotcl, Messrs. Isaacs Bros, in James Street,
where are also Mesbrs. Coupe & Son,
Messrs. Margetson & Co. Ltd., Champion
Bros., "W". Dennis & Sons, Ltd., Messrs.
Parsons & Co., who have also premises in
the "Apple" Market, and Mr. E. H.
Lewis.

Messrs. Hazel & Steadman, Ltd., occupy
the shop H'hich was recently occupied by
the hair-dressing saloon of the Tavistock
Hotel. The present genial wiclder of the
razor, Fred, has been employed at the Tavis-
tock for twenty-fiTC years, and many a
chin well known in sporting and Bohemian
circles has claimed his attention. The first
saloon used to be where the ground-floor
diuing-room is novr. One day Fred was
singeing the hair of a client when two
street arabs happened to look in at the
window, one of whom exclaimed, " Lumme,

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COVENT GARDEN

285

Bill, if there ain't a core 'ere a-looking for
'em with a light 1 "

In the north row arc the shops of Mr.
Rouse, Messrs. Vinden & Co., Messrs. L.
Simmonds, Medlook, J. Thwaites, etc. In
the east row are Messrs. John Lawrey,
D. Kauffman, N. Nathan, 8. Isaacs, Greorgc
"Wooderson, and Mack Bros, In the south
arc Messrs. George Coleman, T. Gibbs, T. Jay,
etc. That genial sportsman "Uncle Dick "
Foord has premises in the " Apple " Market,
also Messrs. Edward Jacobs & Sous (aud in
the Floral Hall), Pankhurst & Co. and D. D.
Pankhurst, H. G. Walker, H. CheiTy, and
"Walter Frost. The chief tenants of the Long
Market are Messrs. Staniforth & Whibley,
W. Davis, J. Nathan, Major & Carr, Mr.
Pickering, etc.

Messrs. Ridley & Houlding and A. Jacobs
& Sons are situated in Russell Street. Mr.
J. Emanuel occupies a shop at tlie corner
of Wellington Street and Russell Street.
Mr. James Bradman, Messrs. Fenn & Hex-
ton, Toole, B. Read &: Co., Ltd., Mr. Gerald
da Costa, have premises in Floml Street.

The west side of the market is favoured
with another humorist, Mike, who is sup-

286

COVENT GARDEN

posed to be the salesman who fooled the
costermonger about Hooper's Pharmacy as
already related. Mike once summoned a
customer for payment of his account who
successfully pleaded, with the aid of copious
tears, that he was unable to pay as he had
invested all his takings in ginger beer,
which, owing to the heat of the weather,
had all exploded in the night ! On another
occasion he paid a visit to a client who ,
was behind in his payment, and the only
satisfaction he was able to obtain wa
solo on a tin whistle appropriately entitl
"The Lost Chord."

The greatest character of all was withouF
doubt " Uncle Teddy." The quaiut sayings
of this dear old gentleman would fill
volume. His chief place of business
later years was in the Floral Hall. H(?
was for some time at open war with his
next-door neighbour, who had entered into
an unsuccessful speculation in onions, and
the weather having turned warm and
damp, the onions began to behave as this
particular vegetable does under such con-
ditions, to the great annoyimce of " Uncle
Teddy," One day a gentleman ocqw

who _
onl^

ras t^M
tiOflH

thoii^^
ngs

COVENT GARDEN

287

tance happened to atroll through the market,
and went up to him, saying, " Good morn*
ing, sir. How goes the enemy ? " " Filled
up with onions," came the instant reply.
(The gentleman only meant to ask the time.)
On another occasion he was leaving his
place of business in the Floral lEaU when
he overheard some of the porters swearing
(a not at all unusual occurrence). The old
gentleman immediately flew into a rage.
" I'll lock you up 1 I'll put an end to this
swearing," and beckoning an old servant
who stood by, told him to fetch a policeman
" to lock these men up for making use of
bad language." The old servant, who was
rather hard of hearing, did not hear what
was said, and putting his hand up to his
ear, said, " What did you say, governor ? "
Teddy, forgetting what he had said and
where he was for the moment, shouted at

the old man, " Qo on, you old fool, go

and get a policeman 1 " The laughter of the
crowd which had been attracted to the spot
suddenly reminded him what he had just
said. He never uttered another word, but,
tucking bis umbrella under his arm, he
crept away to lunch.

288

COVENT GARDEN

One morning he arrived at business ant
casually remarked, " It won't rain to-day
Some buyer who stood by said that he
thought it would. Immediately Teddy
offered to bet anybody that it would not
rain before midday, and then and there
accepted beta from dozens of porters and
buyers. About eleven o'clock the heave:
became overcast and the work of tht
market began to be seriously inconvenienced
by the porters every moment stopping
work to look at the weather. At last,
about ten minutes to twelve, a few drops of
rain fell amidst such cheers that nearly
brought the roof of the Floral Hall off, and
brought crowds of people in from Bow
Street and the market to see what
noise was about. That morning cost
old gentleman about fifty pounds.

I shall never forget the day when
French goods were late and he ran doi
to Waterloo Bridge to see if he could
hurry up any van he might happen to
meet. At last he foxmd one heavily laden
van crawling along, which after a deal
of tipping he managed to get quickly up
to the marketv On calling on his mi

low

th«H
>wn^H

CO\'ENT GARDEN

289

to unload, the carnuin quietly said, " This
ain't your load, governor ; it's for Garcia "
(the opposite firm of Garcia, Jacobs & Co.).

His brother Sam was just the reverse.
He was very quiet and retiring, and for
years enjoyed the reputation of being
known as " The Radish King," on account
of his being the largest receiver of radishes
in the TJaited Kingdom. Both the brothers
have now passed the bourne whence no
traveller returns. Peace be to their ashes !

The Floral Hall is connected with one
of the greatest practical jokes ever perpe-
trated in the market. A certain buyer,
whom we will name here as Mr. X., went
to a sale of miscellaneous property with a
friend who was connected with one of
the brokers in the Floral Hall . This
gentleman had occasion to purchase some
pictures for his new hoiise, and immediately
after a certain picture had been knocked
down to him, he was asked by a stranger
if he would accept a profit for it. Mr. X.,
who was of a very suspicious nature,
promptly advised his friend not to sell
it, saying that he thought the picture
was a valuable one and at the same time

240

COVENT GARBEN

claimed half-shares if it should turn out t
be of any particular worth. The gentlea
who was disgusted at his friend's grei
determined to play a practical joke
him. He thereupon promised him half-J
shares, and the next day took one or two
of his intimate friends into his confidence,
with the result that the picture was pre-
sumably offered to a certain firm of Bond
Street dealers who offered £1,500 and who
eventually increased their offer to £4,000.
The joke was so exceedingly well worked
up that it was believed by everybody.
Mr. X. purchased for his wife some valu-
able jewellery and furs, and in order to
celebrate the occasion invited a few choice
friends to a champagne luncheon at
"Gow's" in theStrand. After a sumptuous
repast, the party strolled in the direction
of the market, and when at length they
reached the Piazzas, a telegram was handed
to the gentleman, who, after perusing its
contents, pretended to faint. " What's the
matter ? " exclaimed Mr. X., suddenly
seized with the sense of impending dis-
aster. " Bead this," said one of his
friends, putting the tel^am into

COVENT GARDEN 241

hand, which was to the effect that the
picture was a forgery and that the cheque
was consequently stopped.

By this time the joke had become public
property, and the next morning there was
a great crowd in the Hall to witness the
arrival of the " victim," who was greeted
with loud cheers and a great amount of
chaff. During the morning a rough sketch
on a piece of paper was offered for sale
from a neighbouring rostrum as a
" Meissonier," which after a deal of good-
natured horse-play was knocked down to
a costermonger for 50,000 guineas. It was
some time before Mr. X. dared show his
face in the market again.

Several years ago a large stack of empty
baskets caught fire in one of the cellars
under the Hall and caused great excite-
ment in the neighbourhood, but without
doing any serious damage to the Hall.
In the midst of the confusion some of
the market officials attempted to play on
the flames by means of a hose of very
small proportions which they fixed to a
tap inside the Hall. Immediately the
"Wat-er was turned on, the official wlio

242

COVENT GABDEN

held the hose dropped it like a hot ooal,
as did everyhody who attempted to hold
it It vaa then diBOOTered that the pipe
whieh fed this particular tap passed
through the cellar whexe the fire was
raging, and consequently the water was
hoiling 1

Messrs. E. A. O'Kelly, Edward Jacobs
& Stms, W. Dennis & Sons, Ltd., J. B.
Thomas, Woolf & Jaoohs, and Oarcia, Jacobs
& Co. are the present tenants of the Floral
Hall.

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CHAPTER XIV

Ai.t varieties of fruit are to-day so plentiful
that it is somewhat difficult to say which
enjoys the greatest amount of popularity.
The orange for over two centuries has been
consumed in ever-increasing quantities.
Both Pepys and Ben Jonson made frequent
allusions to the orange-girls who retailed
the luscious fruit to the theatre-going
public, which proves that even in their
time the orange was an important market-
able commodity. It is said that Sir
"Walter Raleigh first imported the fruit
into England.

'Wh&t would Mistress Eleanor Gwynn
say if she were able to revisit the scenes
of her youth and behold the vast quantities
of the golden fruit which are annually
dealt with in London ! Some idea of the

244 COVENT GARDEN

magnitudo of this traffic may be gftlni
from the fact that the province of Valencia,
in Spain, alone annually exports a total of
about 4,000,000 cases to the United King-
dom, each case containing from 420 to 1,064
oranges, according to size. The seedless
Tariety of such exceptional size and beauty
is grown in that fruit-grower's paradise-
California. It is also being cultivated on
a smaller scale (at present) in Australia and
South Africa, and even in India.

Apples are eaten in exceptionally lar|
quantities in this country. The chit
source of production is America. The
dessert varieties ai"e grown in Califor
and Oregon, the Wenatchee Valley,
our own colonies of British Columbia
Nova Scotia. The cooking kinds coi
from Canada, New York State, Nova 8co1
and Maine and Virginia.

The crop of apples grown in Austmlia
and Tasmania is a very large one, and
one of the most important branches of
fruit trade, and has increased to a remai
able degree within the last few years. The
chief centres of apple production in the
Vuited Kingdom are Kent, Mlddli

rsn

COVENT GARDEN 245

Lincoln, '\Vorcc'Bter8hirc,and Somersetshire,
and also the north of Ireland. The best
fruit is grown in the two tirst-iuentioucd
counties ; the immediate vicinity ai-ound
Maidstone, known as the " Weald of
Kent," is well noted for its fine quality
fruit. The Kentish growers have, within
the last three years, endeavoured to adopt
a more uniform system of packing, con-
sistent with that in vogue in the large
apple-producing pai-ts of America. Their
endeavours, I am glad to say, have met
with a considerable amount of success,
although I must admit that this only
applies to the dessert varieties (so far as
the box packing is concerned). By this
means it has been possible to export to
such places as South American and South
African ports, important quantities of
British-grown apples, which have, in the
majority of cases, arrived in good condition.
The large " cookers " should be packed
in ban-els on the American plan, and
the sooner the trees bearing inferior kinds
of small fruit which are at present so
extensively cultivated in this country are
dug out of the ground, the better it will

246

COVENT GARDEN

be for the English grower. The chief
drawback he has had to contend with is
the amount of useless timber with which
his orchards are Uttered, and which, in a
great many instances, he is unable to
" grub out " through lack of capital. If the
Government, through the Board of Agri-
cultui'e, assisted farmers financially
impi-ove their holdings, the growers in
country would be able to compete on betl
terms with those in other states.

Strawberries arc grown in Hampshi
and Kent, and also amund Wisbech. The
strawberry season is generally of such short
duration that when the fruit is on the
market, every other variety has to " playi
second fiddle." It is then that the tradei
suffers from that annual epidemic familiarly
known to both grower and salesman as the
*' strawberry fever." The failure of the
crop of strawberries is a grievous dis-
appointment to the fruit-loving public.
Lemons come from Italy and Spain.
English cherries are grown principally in
Kent, as are also gooseberries, raspberries,
and plums. Some of the Midland counties,
^mndf ally Worcestershire and Gloucester?

gri-
toj

thi^B
tta^H

hire^^l

COVENT GARDEN

247

shire, grow important quantities of similar
fruit which supply principally the northern
and midland markets. Large quantities o£
pears, plums, greengages, and cherries come
from Trance and reach London by way of the
Thames by the Bennett Steamship Company,
whose vessels are discharged just below
London Bridge at Chamberlain's Whai*f.
There is also the direct service via Boulogne
and Folkestone (S.E. & C.R.), whose trains
are unloaded at Bricklayers' Arms and
Blackf riars Stations. Holland and Belgium
also export important consignments of both
fruit and vegetables. Indeed, Holland has
for centuries been much in advance of this
cwuntry in the cultivation of vegetables.
John Noorthouck, in his " History of
liOndon," mentions in his description of
the metropolis in the reign of Hcni-y VIII.
that " 80 little were vegetables cultivated,
or gai"dening understood as yet, that in
the year 1509 Queen Catherine could not
procure a salad, imtil Henry sent to the
Netherlands, and engaged a gardener to
come over to raise the proper articles
here."

The more expensive kinds of grapes,

248 COVENT GARDEN

melons, peaches, tomatoes, and cucumbers
are grown under glass. The knowledge and
skill which are essential to a successful
grower of any of these Tarieties is not
suddenly acquired, but is the result of
lifelong experience, and in the majority of
instances is handed down from father to
Bon. The diseases which affect every
product grown under glass are as numerous
and quite as deadly as those which attack
the human frame ,but, thanks to science, they
are gradually being overcome. The Lea
Valley, Esses, is the home of the glass-
houses, which extend from Enfield nearly
as far as Ware in Hertford. The most
important growers are the Rochfords and
the Hamiltons.

Guernsey also produces a vast quantity
of flowers, grapes, tomatoes, and potatoes,
also peas and beans. Worthing is a second
Lea Valley.

The finest dessert apples and pears are
grown in California. The largest exporters
arethe A. Block Fruit Company and the
Earl JPruit Company. The pears handled by
these firms are the grandest in the world,
and consist of the William, Doyenne du

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COVENT GARDEN

240

Comic Beurre Haa-dy, Glout Morceau,
"Winter Nelis, and the Easter Beiirre. Tlie
Producer's Fruit Company are also well
known as shippers of excellent quality
fruit.

The Flower Market is situated on the
west side of Wellington Street, and extends
as far back as the " Jubilee " Market,
partly over which has recently been erected
a new market for the sale of French flowers.
The shops in Tavistock and York Streets
are almost all occupied by flower salesmen.

No market would be complete without
the costermonger, and Covent Garden is no
exception to this rule. The word " costor-
monger " is an abbreviation of "costard-
monger," who was originally a vendor of
apples : hence his name. According to the
old dramatists, many of the clan were sons
of Erin and of none too sweet a temper.

" And then he'll rail like a rede costermonger
That Bchoolboj'8 have cozeued of his apiile
Ab load and seuBelees."

(Beaumost ahd Flbtcber.)

The fruit trade generally is under a sense
I of deep obligation to these gentry, aa

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2fiO

COVENT GARDEN

tliuDi trhc accumulations

witliout tlium the accumulations of an
overstocked market in times of glut could
never be disposed of.

Potatoes were sold in the streets as earlj
as the reign of James I., and " CheiTy Ripe **
was a favourite of the seventeenth century.

No account of the market would bo
complete without mention of those growcn
who dispose of their own produce themselveai
Foremost amongst them are Messrs. Lol>
joint of Brentford, "Walter Mann, A- WM
Smith of Peltbam, Messrs. J. & W. Edmond%
the Brothers Tile, Mr. Bartholomews, etc.

One of the most celebrated market gar-
deners to make use of Covent Garden w^aj
Edmund Burke. On September 10, 1771i
he wrote to Arthur Young : " My carrotj
last year were remarkably fine. I sold i
much as brought fourteen pounds and 1 1
convinced that if I had known CoTent'
Garden as I do now, I should have sold the
same weight for near thirty " (Burke's^
Letters). It seems to have been quite i
dif&cult to satisfy growers in those dajq
as now.

The time to see Covent Garden at
busiest is on a summer morning between f

ry. ■
bo

i^ea^H

c. Tl

rar-

rrotd^H
[anB

COVENT GARDEN

251

iuid six o'clock. The vans of the fruiterers
and greengi-occrs are arranged in the middle
of tlie streets surrounding the market, to
which the porters are busily engaged in
carrying the recently purchased goods. The
market itself is crowded by a heterogeneous
collection of humanity. Here and there
amongst the crowd of Imyers are to he seen
a couple of nuns in their sombre garments ;
whilst a few sweet-faced nurses in uniform,
with bunches of flowers under their arms
wherewith to refresh the wards in the great
hospitals, add a splash of colour to tlie
animated scene. At nine o'clock there is a
lull, when both buyers and salesmen adjourn
to breakfast at the Tavistock, the Hunmiums,
or the Bedford Head. The vans have by
now all disappeared, bearing their stocks to
shops as far north as Finchley, and "Woolwich
in the east, Kew and Richmond in the west,
and Croydon in the south.

At ten o'clock the auction sales commence
in the Floral Hall, and by this time the
crowd is augmented by buyers from all over
the coimtry. About midday the Hall
belches forth its vast quantities to the
waiting railway-vans and to the salesmen's

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252

COVENT GARDEN

shops in tlie market and neighbourhood . and
as the afternoon progresses, the market
gi-adually quietens down as it were to ;
well-eai'ued rest until the evening, wJieu the \
country cans and motor-lorries again, appear,
bringing their never-ending supplies for the ]
next day's market. Mr. W. S. Landoi J
tersely summed up the history of Covent j
Gkirdeu in the following lines :

"The convent becomes a playhouse
monks and nuns turn actors and actresses.
The garden, formal and quiet, where a salad
was cut for a lady abbess and flowers were i
gathered to adorn images, Ijecomcs a market, I
noisy and full of life, distributing thousands I
of packages of fruit and flowers to a vicious f
metropolis."

APPENDIX

The derivation of the name Covent Qardeu has
been frequently discussed, especially among the
old historians of London, It appears to be th»i
consensus of opinion that Covent Garden was
originally the garden belonging to the monastery
at Westminster ; yet Strype, in his re™ion of
Stow's "History of London," distinctly states:
" It hath probably the name Covent Garden
becanse it was the garden and fields to that
large monastery or convent where Exeter House
stood; these grounds belonging nuto it, being
all encompassed with a wall, and when this
ground upon the Dissolution of tlie Religious
Houses became the estate of his Grace's ances-
tors, then Bedford House was erected where it
now stands, or lately did, whereas before this
house was on the other side of the Strand, called
the Bishop of Carlisle's Inn."

Strype is at fault, because he confuses the
Exeter House of the Lord Burleigh with a noble
mansion of the same name which stood in the
Outer Temple. In Maitland's " London," vol. ii.
p, 1336, I find : " At the Dissolution of the Order
of the Knights Templars, the advow^on of this

chiirch [St. Clement Danes], together witb lam
and five messuages in the pariah, were conferred
upon the Prior and Canons Regular of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which lands and
messuages, I imagine, will appear to have been
that part of the Temple called the Onter. For
in the year 1324, the said Prior and Canons
having disposed of the same to Walter, Bishop
of Exeter, he erected thereon a [stately edifice,
or a City Mansion, for himself and his successors,
and denominated the same, Exeter Hoiise. This
Fabric, being some time after alienated, it came
to the noble families of Paget and Leicester,
and at last to that of Easex, and being since,
pnlled down, a beautiful street (the present
Essex Street) is erected on the site thereof by
the appellation of the last noble possessor."

No monastery ever occupied the site of Lord
Burleigh's house, but the Exeter House which
Strype refers to was erected in 1324 on lands
belonging to the Church.

ffciH Street. — Mr. Cunningham, in his "Hand-
book of London," states that this street was
named after an inn called the White Hart,
mentioned in the Cecil lease of September 1670
already referred to in this book ; but as the
"White Hart is described in the lease which
appears in " Archffiologia," voL xxx. p. 4&i, as
being situated in the Strand, it is by no means
clear that it is after this particular inn that

APPENDIX

253

iae street was named. There was also a Whit©
Hart at the north-east end of Drury Lane, at
the corner of High Street, St. Giles, which waa
of some antiquity. A pnbHc-house of this name
still exists, but has recently been quite rebuilt.

Covent Sarden did not escape the ravages of
the Great Plague, for Pepya noted on July 6,
1665 : " I could not see Lord Brouncker, nor
had much mind, one of the great houses within
two doors of him in Covent Garden being shnt
up, and Lord ! the namber of houses visited and
which this day I observed through the town,
quite round in my way by Long Lane and
London Wall."

Jamea Street.— A. public-house named the
Nagg'a Head stood here in the time of Strj'pe.
That part of the street between this place of
refreshment and Long Acre was not nearly so
well inhabited as the portion towards the
market.

Strype gives the inward boundaries of the
parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, as follows :
"I shall begin on the west side of the Duke of
Bedford's House next the Strand where it
crosseth into Maiden Lane and runneth on the
Backside of the houses into Halfmoon Street,

266 APPENDIX

taking in both aidea of this Lane: And from
the Halfmoon Street it also rtmneth on the
Backside of Shandoia Street, on the south side
nnto the Tallow-chandler's, which ia a little
beyond Round Court, where it crosaeth the
street, as also the houses betwixt Bedford Bury
and Bedford Court, and so into New Street,
which it crosseth, and runs down the Backside
of White Rose Street, next to James Street, and
falleth into Red Rose Street, where it crosaeth
the houses and falleth into Hart Street, on the
Backside of the buildings next Long Acre,
taking in part of James Street, by the Nagg's
Head Lin ; and so along the Backside of Hart
Street unto the corner of Bow Street; And
there it crosseth into Red Lion Court, taking
in all the houses except two or three next Bow
Street ; and so along the Backside of Bow Street
into Russel Street, two doors from the Rose
Tavern ; and thence crosseth the houses on the
east side of Brydges Street, and falls into the
West End of White Hart Yard, where it crosseth
into Exeter Street and runneth along nnto Bed-
ford back wall, taking In the south side as
aforesaid ; and at the Wall runs down the West
Side of Curie Court into the Strand, and so to
the Duke of Bedford's House where I began the
inward bounds."

Bow Street. — This street did not at one time
run into Long Acre. The only means of access
to it from the north was by way of Broad Court
or by Red Lion Court from Dmry Lane. This

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APPENDIX

court was situated on the east side between
Long Acre and Broad Court, and has now

I disappeared.

' "The growth of London has pushed the
market-gardener gradually into the country, and
now, instead of sending up his produce by his
own wagons, he trusts it to the railways and is
often thrown into a market fever by a late
delivery. To compensate him, however, for the
altered state of the times, lie often sells his crops
like a merchant upon 'Change, without the
trouble of bringing more than a few hand
samples in his pockets. He is nearly seventy
years of age but looks scarcely fifty, and can
remember the time when there were ten thou-
sand acres of ground within four miles of Charing
Cross imder cultivation for vegetables, besides
about three thousand acres planted with fruit to
supply the London consumption. He has lived
to see the Deptford and Bermondsey gardens
curtailed ; the Hoxton and Hackney gardens
covered with houses ; the Essex plantations
pushed farther off ; and the Brompton and
Kensington nurseries — the home of vegetables
for centuries — dug up and sown with International
Exhibition temples, and Italian gardens that
will never grow a pea or send a single oauU-
flower to market. He has lived to see Guernsey
and Jersey, Cornwall, the Soilly Islands, Holland,
Belgium, and Portugal, with many other more
IT

SS8

APPENDIX

dietaQt places, competing witli the remote ott^

ekirts of London bricks and mortar, and baa been
staggered by seeing the market sappUed with
choice early peas from such an unexpected
quarter as French Algeria" (" ComhiU Maga-
zine," 1866).

Ab will be seen from the above, London was
renowned for its gardens. This fact was re-
corded as early as the reign of Henry EL
1154-1189) by FitzStephen. The royal garden
at Westminster was noted for its magnificent
blooms in 1276. Stow noted that " Within the
compass of one age, Somerset House and the
buildings were called country-houses ; and
the open places about them were employed in
gardens for profit ; and also many parts within
the City and liberties were occupied by working
gardeners and were sufficient to furnish the
town with garden-ware ; for then but a few
herbs were used at the table as compared to
what are spent now."

Holbom (Oldboume) was celebrated for
gardens, especially those belonging
House:

DuKK OF Olod. : My Lord of Ely, when I was last
Hoi born
I saw good strawberriea in your garden there;
I do beseech you send for some of tbem.
B. OF Ely: Marry, find will, my lord, with >11
heart.

(" Richard UX," Act iii to. 4.)

APPENDIX

259

renowned for the fine frtiit grown there. The
accounts of the bailiif, when the garden supplied
Lincoln House, mention that apples, pears, large
nuts and cherries, sufGoient for the Earl of
Lincoln's use, and what was over yielded in one
year £136 modem currency (Timba). Clerken-
well also produced a fair quantity of vegetables,
and the site of Buckingham Palace (Goring
House) boasted a cherry-garden and also a
kitchen-garden. Waller described the wall in
St. James's Park as " all with a border of rich
fruit-trees crown'd."

In 1828 the site of Trinity Church, Brompton,
was a large market garden. In South Lambeth
was a celebrated garden which existed in 1749
and belonged to Tradesoant, the "King's Gar-
dener." Besides many varieties of flowers,
pappas, or Virginian potatoes, fox grapes from
Virginia, white and red Burlett grapes, currant
grapes, " Muscadells," " Frontinack or Musked
grapes, white and red," British Queen straw-
berries, and " Hjppomarathrum " or rhubarb of
the monks were cultivated here.

There were also other gardens, both in and
around the metropolis, where herbs and medicinal
roots were largely grown.

B«!tfMi Street. This street was at one time
named Hanover Street. A public-house stood

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960

APPENDIX

here which was adveKiBed rb "A HaucUome
Comer Public-honae, in New Belton Street,
St. Giles . . . jost empty, well aitaated and free
from the Bondage of any partioolar Brewei."
This advertisement appeared in " The Daily Cou-
rant " of December 27, 1796, to be let on lease,
and is noteworthy as being an exoeedingly
early example of the working of the tied-honae
system afifeoting licensed premineB (" Kotes and
Qneiies," 11, s. vii. Jannaiy 4, 1913).

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Aowlemy, Tlie Royal, 2((,

ITS, 188
Addison, Joseph. 08-70, 9*
Adelphi, The, 87, 171, 173,

224
— Theatre, The, 182
Albion, The, 92
Aldersgate Street, 92, 2IS
Aldwych. IRl. 160.224
Alexander, Sir Wm., 144
Allen, James, 14
Amieoiii, Sigaot, 122
Anderaon, J. H., 131
Angletiea. Barl of, 144

of. lUO

Anne Sfaria, Queen, 80
Anne, Princess ol Denmark, 98
Anne, Queen, 97, lOu
Apple Market,
Archer, Lord Thomad, 33
Argyll, Marquis of, 144
Armstrong, Dr. John, 81
Arno, Dr., 28, 47
Arnuld, Walter, I2ll
Artists, Sooiaty of, 170, 184
Arundel, Earl of, 21
Astley, Philip, 140

I Baddertoy, the aator. I

Bahimore, Lord, 171
I Banbury Court, 204

Bannister, the actor. 192

Barber, Alderman, 40

■' Barber'a Pole," The, ITS

Barbican. The, 1 12

Barbon, Dr., 171

Barhom, Rev. R. H., 100

'■ Barney," 233

Barr ft Sons, Messrs., 197

Barret, 27

Barry, Spranger, 114

BortholomeWB, Mr., 200

Bastille, The, 178

Beolcett, J., 233

Bedford, Duke ot (»m Rub-

sell), 74, 134, 199,221
Bedford CofTee-hoUBa, 29. 02,

77, 84-8. 120, 170, 222

— Conservaloriaa, 233

— Head, The, 174. 176, 251

— House. 5. 9, 16, 42, 173

— Street, 176. 18(1-8
Bedfordbury, 198
Bedfordgate. 123
Bellamy's Chop-house, 184
Bennett Steamship Co., 247
Bettorton ijtreet, 210

'■ Bleak House," 138, 108
Block Fruit Co., The A.. 248
Booth. Barton, 04, 150
Borough Market, 221
Boswell, Jamea, 83, 229
Bow Court, 94

— Street, 10. 62. 81, 91,
03-117, 122. 132. 13S-0.
216, 23H

Polioa Court, 100-1 12

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^^HIU^^H^^H

262 INDEX ^1

BracogirdlQ, Mra., tl4, 145 1

Clare Market, 221

CleveUnd, DucfaeM ol, 23, ft

BroBd Court. «*, 1 12-15. 215

CUve. Mw., 128. 185

•' Brown Bbm," The. 101

Coal Yard, The, 144

Brydgee Street, 03, 124. 161.

Cock Tavern, The. 95. 07

162

Cockpit, The, 145, 147

BuUTnn, The, 178

Coleman, George the act«

Burleigh House, 166

128

— Street, 185, 17L

— Mr. George. 233

Butler, Samuel. 45-8, 100.

— the Elder, 79

200

ButtoM- CoHee-hoiiBe, (il.

Congreve, 22, 122. 179

68-77

Cooper, Anthony Asliley, 10

Costa, O. da, 235

CottereU, Sir Chftrlee, 12, 31

194

'•Caleaoiua,"ThB, 80

Coupe & Son, Mesaia., 234

Cnpital ft Counties Bank,

Coveot. Garden Hotel, 1 73

The. 188

quacks. 210

Careless, Betly. 62

Station, 213

Carew. Fnmcia, 185

Theatre, 51. SS. IK

Carlisle. Biahop oC. 5

120-35, U16, 170

Carpenter's Arms. The. 224

Watch-house. 119

Csrr. Robert, 45, 32

Craven House, 140

CMtle Tavern. The. 184

Craven. Lord William. 140-

Catherine Street. 94, 142.

147

161. 168-9

Cromwell, Oliver, 18, 10

CecU Hotel, The, 223

144. 177

Cecil, Sir William, 8. 106. 168

Crown Court. 01, 112

Centlivre, Mrs., 47

— Towm. 113

Champion Bros.. 834
Chandos Street. 188. 108, SOO

10), 140, 175. 183-4

Charing Ctobb, 2. 8. 202, S21

Curll, Edmimd. 200

Charke, Charlotte, lOfl

Charles I., 8, 17, 42, 44. 49,

50.67.80. 108. 183. 187

Charles II., 13, U, 23, 01,

78, 80, 197

Danby, Lord. ITfl^-a

Charles Street. 04. 123

Chatfleld. the artist, 116

\ Dftvenant, 147

Davenpon. Mrs., 47

Cheliea College. I«9

Da vies, Tom. 81

Chcm-. H., 230

Davis, W.. 235

Cibl>er,Colluy.76.7fl,IOn. IT4

Me«™.. 200

— Mw„12B

Dflafield A Co . Me^n.-. 132

ClderCellwt, The. 170

Dennis, W.. A Son*. Ltd..

" City of Luahinglon." The.

234, 241 ,^

^^^^ ei

1 D« RMk^ TlM Brotlm, ^S

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^^^^hv^^

||^P INDEX 268 1

Dibden. CharlM. 196

EiBter Street, lOB, 171

DictcenB, Charlei. 101. 118,

Bzet«r. Thomaa. Earl of, 1S9

ISS. 172, 189. 2U. 226

Digby, Sir Evarard. 33

— Sir Kenelm. 33

Divn, Sir Lewii, 183

Dorset, Biohord. Earl of, 96,

"FaJ«taH.SirJolin,"The,102

100

Farren. Miss Nellie. 189

D'Oyley-B WarehouM, 168

Farringdon Market. 16, 218

Drogheda, Countess of, 90

Feiui A Bexton.

Drury. Sir Roger, 140

Fielding, Sir John. 80, 100

— Sir WiUiam, 13(1

— the novelist, 71, 75, 79. 98,

Dniry Court, 1*4, IBS

»6

— Lane, 7, 19, 59, 91, 103,

■* FiniBh." The, 56-7

109-13. 13ft-47, 165, 168.

Fire, The Great. 19. 102, 180

182, 202

Flajonan, the seulptor, 1 07

Theatre, 51, 04. 77, 87,

Fleece Inn, The. 163

121,124,127, 131, 173.192

Fleet Market and River. 10

— Tavem. 162

Floral Hall. 26. 32, 97. 122.

Drydm, John. 62-7, 9*. U7.

134, 135^8.222,230.237-

161, 169

41,251

Duke's Bagnio, The, 204

— Street, 94. 119, 122

Flower Market. The, BO, 249

Durham Yard. 86-7

Foord, Mr. " Dick," 235

Duval, Claude, 4B-60, 200

Foots. Samuel, 29, 80, 163

Fowler. Mr. Charles. 221

■

Fox, Charles James. G3. 181

■ B

224

P Earl Fruit Co.. The, 248

Front, W., 236

■ EaBtoourt, the actor. 46, 127

"Echo." The, 162

Edmonds. J. 4 W.. 250

Edward VI., King, 7, 166

Effingham, Earl of, 120

Gaiety Theatre, 109

Elders ft FyfTea. Ltd.. Messra.,

Garcia, Jacobs ft Co., 94.

113

102, 233, 239, 242

Elizabeth, Queen, 2, 3, 17.

— Philip, 232

106

Garrick, David, 26, 80, 86-

Elliston. 149, 103

7, 114, 127. 133. 160. 17S.

Elton, the ftclor. 116

192

"EiyBium." The, 182

OoTrickClub, 188-93

Endell Street, 214-10

— Bouae, 178

"Essex Serpent," The, 185

— Street, 118. 188, 199.200

Eug«ne, Prince. 123

OaiTick'ft Bead, The, 1 1 6

EvauB's Supper-rooms. 36
Evelyn. John, 81, 167

Gaj. the poet, 32. 142, 171

George m., 31, 111

Eieter Change, 171-2

George IV., 150, 166

_ —House, 166, 170, 171, and

Gecrgina, Duchess of Devon-

L Appendix

ahiie, 53

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264

INDEX

OfHTOrd Street. 64

Oibbotis, Grmling, 47, 100

Gibba, T.. 235

Oibeon. Richard and Anne,50

Girlon, Thomas, 47

r.lobe Theatre, Bankaide,

130. 140
Olover, Mr. Jaitiee, 11)4
Godfrey, Ambrose, 170
Golden Head, The, 183
— Square. 100
Goldsmith, Oliver, SO
Goodman's Fielda Theatre,

128
Gordon Biota, 101
Granby. Marquis of, 60
Grand Row, 223, 232
Grant, William, HI
Grecian Coffee-house, The, 07

The, 69, 71,
Gwj-Iin. NeU, 144, 160, 243

nacUman, Rev. Jnmea, 1 Q4'S
Haines, Joe, 118
Half Moon Street, 187
Hamiltons, The, 24B
Hampton Court Palaoe, 23-4
Haoekwiti, A. O., 175
Handel, George Frederio,

124-5, ISO. 133
Uardwiok, sen,, arolut«<it,

44
Harley, Robert, Ofi
Harp, The. iH
Harris, Mr.. 94
— Sir AllgtiHtuB, 1 34
Hart Srreet. 118-19.213
Haymarlcet Theatre, 102
Haiel ft Steadman, Ltd.,

M«MTS., 234
Heli-Fire Club. T)ie. 184
Honrietto Biwct, 19, 47. 53.

W. 1S3, 18.V0
Herbert, Sir George, 213

Herbert, Sir Hen^, 213
Hicks, Arnold* Hoaeley, 1 W*

— Mr. Seymour, 182
HogaHh. SS. 28, 73, 88. IXR,

Holbom, 203 and Appendix
Hole-in-tlie-W«U, The. 200 |
Holland House. 181 J

HoU«>, Dencil, 12, 3d I

Hook, Theodore, 190 I

Hooper's Phnrm»cy, 90, *2,"

2:16
" Houae of XJnnunmona."

Tlie, 116
•■Household WordB." 112
" Hummums." The, 31, 8i

69. 206, 234. 251
Htuigerford House, 219

— Market, 219
Hurley Priory. 4
Bjrde. Manor of, 4

llchester. Earl of. 51
Irving. Sir Henry. 171
Isaacs Bros., Messrs,, 2
— Mr. E., 234
Ivael & Sons. Me»re.,
1%-j- Bridge Lane, 223

Jaokson. William, ll!
Jacobs ft Sons, Messrs, EdJ

ward. 23S, S42
James 1.. 17,22,48, 141-0 ,
Jamea II., 06, 162, 204 I
James Street, IIS, 212, 2ljD

231. 234 ^

Jay. T., 235
Jennings, Sir W,, 204
Jerrotd, Douglas, 110
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, T

81, 83, 114, IGfl, is;, IIK

220

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Jubilee Maritet, The, 222,249
Judge and Jiiry Society, The,

116, 117
JuKon, Biahop of London, 42

Kauffmnn, Charles, 233

— Mr. D„ 236

Kuan, Edmund, 01, 150. 1B2
Keeley, Mrs., 1 70
Kemblo. Charles, IW, 192

— Fannv, 36

— John "p., 58, 126, 129, 130.
133, l&O. 192

" KwUrtons'."' 214

Killigrew. 22. 90

Kins ft La«ke, Mrasrs., 197

— Collins A. Chapman.
Messrs., 198

— Moll, 56-6

— Tom, 47, 66

King Street, 19, 33, 1S6, 188,

192. 107, 200. 234
King's Bagnio, The, 20S

— Coffee-house, Tom, S5

— Mewa, The, 26
Kings way. 224

Kneller, Sir Oodtrey, 22, 23-
4, 49

Lacy, the eomedian, 144
Laman, Blanchard, 110
Lamb and Flag, The, 200
Lamb. Charlei, 81, 180
I..ambert, scene- painl«r, 13

125-6
Langdale. Lieut. -ColonE^I. '
Laroone. Maroellua. 100
Lawrey, Mr. John. 23.'i
Lea VaUey. The, 248
Leiceatar House. 141
— Square. 22, 106
Lely, Sir Pet«r, 22, 44, 46

L«n\thal. the Speaker, 195
Lewis. B. H . 234

— T., 79

Lewkner'a Lane. 156. 217
Linooln's Inn Fields. 19. 120

121. 146. and Appendix
Linley, Misa. 184
Lion's Head, The, 73-4
L»bioint, Messrs., 260
London Bridge. 185

— City * Midland Bank, 94

— County ft Westminster
Bank. 112, 183

Long Acre, 4, 6. M. 78, 93-
4, 107, 1S5, 190, 202-16

— Market, The, 222. 23fi
Longueville. William, 100
Low, David. 35
Lowther Arcade, 169
Lyceum Tftvem, 127

— Theatre. 126. 127, 170.
173

Lying-in Hoapital. The. 2!0

MoArdell, the engraver. 183
McCarthy, Justin. 105
— Patrick, 101, 111

Macklin, Charles, 47, 87, 88

Macklin Street, 217
Maek Bros.. 234
M sclise, 1 1
Maoreacly,

133, IBO,

Maiden Lane, 176, 193, 186
Major & Carr, Messrs.. 23A
•lann. Mr. Walter. 2B0

- Sir Horace. 17+
Margctson A Co.. Ltd..

Messni., 234
Martlett Court. 112
MarveU, Andrew, 17S
Mathews, Cliarlen, 133, 184,

100-2
Maypole Alley, 144
Meadows. Kenny, llfl
Uadlock, Mr., 330

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INDEX

Menyweather, Messrs., 215
Mohookfl. The. 04, 105
Mohun, Lord, 146

— the actor, 100, 21(1
Monro, Ltd., Messrs. Geo.,

197, 223, 234
Moore, Tom, 67
"Morning Post," The, 169-

90
Mourning Crown, Tha, 210
Mug Houtie Club, The, 207
"MiilbflrrieB Club." The, UG
" Mulberry Gdrden." The. 78
Museum Minerva, Tlie. 198
Miivworthy, Mr. W., 233

N
Nnmby Pamby, 7*!
NaMian, Mr, J., 235

— Mr. N., 235

National Sporting Club, 33,

19G-7
NaM-houaes, 2)9
New Street, L07-9
" Nirholaa Xiokleby," 114
Norfolk House, 141
Northumberland, Duke of.

80. 129

" OfilfjV 53, 184-5

Ogle, Sir Thomu, 95

O'KeUy, E. A.. 242

Oldlield, Mrs., 173

■■ Oliver Twiat," 101-2

Olympic Thsatr«, 140

Opera Hot«l, The, 101

— House {tee Covent Garden

ThealM)
O.P. RioM. 130-1
Orford, Earl of, 34
Otway. 22
Oxford Kale, P5

PaU MaU, £9. 80

Palmer. Sir Thomiw, 7. 100

— E'iward, «

Panlthurst * Co., 235

— D. D.. 235

Parsons & Co., Ltd., UeMra,

234
Partridge, Bernard, 211
Patti, Mme. Adeliiia. 133
Peel, Sir Robert, 111
Pellet. Dr., 84
Pepj-H, Samuel. 63, 7T, M,

101, 144, 140, 153. IRA,

243
Percy, Earl, 80
"Perdita," 31
Peterborough. Earl of. KH
Phelps, Samuel, £15
Fhillips, AmbroM. 70
Piioenix Alley, 210

— Theatre, 145
Physicians, Royal College of,

08
Piazza Co Ree- house, The, 88,

123
Piainaa. The, 11, 14, SO-37.

74, RD, 110, 122. 124, ISS-fi,

104, 222
Piakering. Mr, H., 235
Pidoook's Exhibition, 1 72
Pierce, E., 44
Piggott, Adam. 14
'• Pfaie-apple." The, 197
Plague, The Qreat, 155. 199,

and Appendix
Pope. 23, 31, 62, 75. 76. 175.

179. 20B
Parson, Professor, 179

— Richard. 180
Portman Market. 221
Portsmoulh, Dnchest of, 23.

04
Portugal Rov, Theatre tn.

147. US
Poupai-t. Mr. T. J.. 233
Powell. Martin. 31
Princes Sii«et, 142
Prior. Matthew, 07. 209
PriMihard, Mra., 183
Probatl'a Hotel, 198
■Pimoli.- 113. 223
Ptinoh's Theatre, 31. It4

— Thd Hoi ' ' ~"

P>-e,T

1. Lady, !

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INDEX

Qupen Anne's Bath. 210
Queen Street. Little, 1

Oredf, 19. SO

Quwn's Head, Tlie, 6li
Quin. 128. \(tl, 102, 105
Quincey, Pe, IflS

Roddifl^. Dr. John. 28, 07
"Radish King," The, "30
Rnleigh, Sir V,'., 243
■'Rniionola." The, 115
R anrthmell 'e CoKee' hoiue .184
Ray. Mim. IG4
Read, Ltd., Messrs, B., 235
Red Cow, The, 62
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, S3, 37
Rich, John, 52, 120-1, 126,

128-0
Richardson, "1. 209
Riehordson's Hotel, 74
Ridea. H.. 233
Bobinn'a auction -rooms, 2P
Roohtord A Sons. T., 223
Roohfords. The, 248
Roger de Cox-erley, Sir, 100
Itomtlly, Sainui>l. Ill
Rose Street. 04, 79, 190.

200, and Appendix
Rose, The. 35, 02, 77-8
Bousby, Mr. and Mn., 210
Roiiml. J. 235
Howe. NicboIa«. 105
Ru«aeU, Edward, Earl o( Bed-
ford, 8

— Franois, Earl of Bedford,
5, A, Id, 3A

— John, Brsl Karl of Bedford,
6

— William, Earl ot Bedford,
13. 14, 18. 4fi, 173

Russell Court. 158

— 8«*er. 10, 50-92, 112,
149. 101.222,228

I. Pant'aWhart, 43

St. OlMUenta DanM, 14

St. Giles-in-the-Flelda, 0, 40.

107. 142. 202
St. Jamei's, SS

CoRee-house, 07

Square, 122

St. John's Church. 113
St. Martin's Hall. 214

Lane. 22. 20, 197, 202

St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, 4,

7, S, 9, 3II-5B, 05, IIS, 100
Si. Martin s-lo-Grand, 103
St. Mary-le-Strand, 100
St. Michael's Alley, 01
St. Paul's Cathedral, 20. 33.

43.4.% 178,219
Church, 14. 31. SR-.-.B,

8S, 94, 170. 183. 200. 313
St. Peter's Hospital. 18S
Salisbury. Count«M of, 64

— Earl of, fl

— SaUy, 201
Salisbury Court, 304, 21S

— Street, 176

Salter's Publio-hoiue. 529
Snneroft, Archbishop, 178
SandtHoh, Earl of, 120. 104
Sa%-oy, The. 118
Seott, Sir Walter. 02. 04
Sedley. Sir Charles. 7«. 05.

90, 161
Seven DiaU. 103
Se}-i)iour, Miss Katie, 1GB
ShalcMpeare Tavern, 74. 77,

88-9
Shakespeare. WlUiam. 130.

140, 210, and Appendix
Sheridan, R. B.. 140. 184.

■■ Sheridan Knowlta." The.

162
Shul«r. the actor. 1 13
Siddons, iln.. 133. 148. 150
3iminondi«. Mr. L., 235
Sion House, 27
Smirks. Sir Rirhard. ISO. 1*0
Smollett. 71. 79
" Smiigglew." The, 189

sohn, 211, mo

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268 INDEX ^1

233

Thackeray. W. M„ 80, 83. 18(

Thames Street. 85

Somerset House, 104 and

Thrnnaa Bros.. Memra.. 133

Appendix

— Mr. J. B,. 242

Sotlieby, Wilkinson A Hodgo.

Thomhill. John, 120

MeBSn,.. IM ^

— Sir James. 25-8

Southampton Slreet, 5. IfiO,

Thornton, Bonnell, 1 U

173, no, 223

ThwaitoB. Mr. J., 235

TUe Bros.. Messrs.. 260

71. 72. 77, 100

Till, Mr,. 80

Spitoinelda and Market. 108,

Timba, John. F.S.A.. 3, 4«

221

411.80. 116. 175. 185

Staniforth &VVIubley,MMiira.,

"Timee," The. 170

235

Slationere' HaH, 123

81«1b, Sir Richwd, 07, 09.

70-80

70, 75. 77, 143, 109

Toole, J. L., lOfl, 213

Stevens, J. C, 190

— Mr.. 235

— Mrs. PriBoUU, 62

Tralalgar Square. 20

Stooka Market, The, 10

Treasure Club. The, 7S

StothMd, Thomas. 203

Turks Head Tasem. 103

Strand, The, 3. 6, 7. B, 86,

Turner. J. M. W.. 49, 179

D3, 110. 127. 141. 155.

Tussaud's Eshibilion. Mme.

161. 168-9. lSS-6

170

— Theatre, The, 131

TwQ Golden Balls, The. 123

Stratford Market. 221

Tyburn, «9, 111. 103

SubUme Society of Beef-

■teaks. The. 125.1211, |70

-Sun." The. 215

Udftl. Sir WiUiam, 31

Sundial. The, 11

The. S20

Vrwin, Mr. William, 02

Tallmaroh. Sir Lyon. 31
THnlierviUs. Lord, 122

VanDyok. 44, 187, 107

■•Taller." The, fl7-70. 77.

Van Limput. Remigius. 187

143, 114

Tnvistonk Hotel, 23, 20, S8,

Vane. Sir H.. 31.33

234, 251

Vauehan. Miss Kat«. 109 i

— Row. 104

Verily. Ltd., Me«t«-, 197 ^

— Street, 104, 223, 224, 232,

Vemey. Sir Edmund. Sfl ^M

240

Vernon, Admiral. 174 ^H

Taylor, John, 13. US. 210

VealriB, Madame. 140 ^H

Teddy. Vneie. 238-8

Via de Aldwycb, 14S .^H

Temple Bar. fl4
Terna*. WiUiam, 182

\ictoria Club. 173 ^^M

Victoria. Queen, 110, 113 ^H

— m>a EUalinp. IS2

Vinegar Yard. \r,a. 158 ^^M

Terrj-. Edward, 10»

Voltaire, I78~» ^^^^H

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INDEX

Wsloolt. Jolui (Puler Pindar),

47. loa

VVnldort Tlioatro and Hotel,

Walis, Henry. Lord Msyor, I U
Wttlkor, Mr. H. G., 230 I

Waller, Edmund, 100
Walpole. Horaue, 25, -iH, 5i. |

174. 1S3
— Sir Robert, 127, 190
Waterloo Bridge. 218. 238
Watney, Coombe 4 ReiJ,

Messrs.. 213
" Way's " Coftee-hoiiBe, Z2-1-

5. 22 B
Webber. Miss. 233
Wellingioa Stre«t, 91, 123,

1(12. 189, 171-2.249
Wealey. Samuel, 40
West End Synagogue, 182

es, 35

Wm .

— ThoiDM, 70
Wcetminater Abbay, 2, 4, 4C,

40, 68, 171

— Fire Offioe, 44

— huBtingg, 53

— Pariehol, 6, I4S, 140

— Sohool, 63
Wharton, Thomas, 78
VVhoatley, Mr,, R.A., 188
■• Whistling OyHl«r." The.
While Hart Inn, The, 0, 1 1 8.

and Appendix
'■ White Horse," The, 228
'■ White Peruke," The. 178
Whitehall. 67, 140, 147, 107
WUleheod, Paul, 174. 183
White's Chooolate Uouie, 07

Wild, Jonathan, 217
Wilkes, the aolor, 114. I2U
William in., 24. 117
Willis, Mr. J,. 233
Wilson. Richard, 20, 28, 2ll'i
Wills's CofCee-tiouflu, 01 -7, 89
Wimbledon House. 1 08
WindmiU Street, 215
Windsor Csalle, 24-6, 187
Woffington, Pe6,87, 114. 127,

133, 192
Wooderaon &, Son*, Messra.

H. T., 228
— Mr. 0,. 231
Woodman, JaiiiM, 08
Wooir & Jaooba, Messrs., 242
"Wrekin," The. 115
Wren, Sir CtiriBtopfaer, 148,

210
Wrey. Sir Cecil. 54
Wright. Mr. J. B., 224
Wright's CofiM-hoiue. 103
Wriolhasley, Lady Baoliel,

Yatet, Fred., jun.. 190
York Buildings, 123

— Cathedral, 178

— Street, 161. 163, 213, HV
Y'ork.Duke of, 120
Young, Charies. 190

— the pool. 76. no

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