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LON DON
PAST AND PRESENT
LONDON
PAST AND PRESENT
ITS HISTORY, ASSOCIATIONS, AND
TRADITIONS
BY
HENRY B.'WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
BASED UPON
THE HANDBOOK OF LONDON
BY THE LATE
PETER CUNNINGHAM
IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. I
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1891
//b
IT./
PREFACE
MR. PETER CUNNINGHAM'S Handbook of London : Past and Present,
was first published in 1849 in two volumes post octavo, and a revised
edition appeared in the following year in a single volume. The
book at once took a high position in the literature of its subject on
account of the fulness of information and accuracy of detail which
distinguished it, and a new edition has long been called for. On the
death of the author in May 1869, at the comparatively early age of fifty-
three, his brother Colonel Francis Cunningham undertook the revision
of the book for a new edition, but although he was energetic in the
search for information, he put little of his extensive knowledge upon
paper. On Colonel Cunningham's death the correction of the book
and its completion to the present time was undertaken by the late Mr.
James Thorne, author of Rambles by Rivers and of the Handbook of the
Environs of London, who thoroughly revised the work and added
much fresh information and many illustrative quotations. On Mr.
Thome's lamented death his MS. was handed to me for revision
previous to publication.
I have been enabled to add considerably to the previous collections,
and I may mention as one instance the account of the various buildings
and localities in Southwark, in which department I have been greatly
assisted by the kindness of Mr. W. Rendle, the historian of Southwark,
whose knowledge of the history of that borough is most extensive.
Many of the articles also had to be rewritten on account of the great
changes that have occurred during the preparation of the work for the
press. It will be seen that the stores of information contained in the
Calendars of State Papers, and the remarkable report of Mr. Maxwell
Lyte on the manuscripts in St. Paul's Cathedral, have been utilised, as
well as other sources of information not generally known. I wish to
express in the strongest terms my appreciation of the value of the
vi PREFACE
labours of Mr. Thorne, but as considerable alterations and additions
have since been made, and I have seen the book through the press, I
must be held responsible for the accuracy of the work as it now
appears, and I trust that those who feel inclined to criticise its pages
will consider the many opportunities of falling into error to which a
compiler is liable who has to deal with the many thousands of facts
connected with the sequence of London history for some thousand
years. A reference to the index will show how many and various are
the allusions to the great men and women who have been associated
with the wonderful life of this great City. 1
The year 1850, when the Handbook was last issued, exactly divides
the nineteenth century in half, but equally it divides off a period of
little change from one almost of revolution. Although before 1850
great changes, such as the formation of Regent Street in 1813-1820 and
of New Oxford Street in 1847, had been carried out, yet large districts
of London still remained unaltered.
As property, however, grew in value it was found that the enhanced
value made it profitable to erect handsome buildings in place of poor
houses, and the City was gradually rebuilt. In time the same process
was carried out in the West End, and dwelling-houses were turned into
offices, while the suburbs in consequence increased in extent, owing
largely to the requirements of the shopkeeper, who left his house in
town to the undisputed claims of business.
But this rebuilding is not all that has to be considered. Institutions
have been altered and charities reorganised to an extent that is only
fully recognised by one who has worked on this subject. Every attempt
has been made to note all these changes, and to bring the information
up to the date of publication.
Mr. Cunningham in his Preface expressed his thanks to the many
gentlemen who had assisted him in the compilation of his work, and
among these are such distinguished names as the Right Hon. John
Wilson Croker ; Mr. Samuel Rogers, the poet ; Mr. Lockhart ; Earl
Stanhope ; Mr. Forster ; and Mr. T. Hudson Turner. I too wish to
express my cordial thanks to those who have assisted me; they are
numerous, for in all instances I have received cordial assistance from
the officers of institutions to whom I have applied, as well as others.
I wish, however, to mention a few. I am much indebted to Major-
General Sir Edmund Ducane, K.C.B., Survey or- General of Prisons ;
E. Maunde Thompson, Esq., F.S.A., Principal Librarian of the British
1 The compiler will be greatly obliged to any any corrections or references to further informa-
of his readers who will be so good as to send him tion.
PREFACE vii
Museum; Professor Flower, C.B., F.R.S., Director of the Natural
History Museum ; George Scharf, Esq., C.B., Keeper and Secretary of
the National Portrait Gallery ; M. S. S. Dipnall, Esq. ; A. J. Hipkins,
Esq., F.S.A. ; F. G. Hilton Price, Esq., F.S.A. ; John Biddulph Martin,
Esq. ; Sir Owen Roberts, F.S.A., Clerk of the Clothworkers' Company ;
Rev. W. H. Milman, Librarian of Sion College; J. B. Bailey, Esq.,
College of Surgeons ; John Inglis, Esq., Secretary of the Trinity House ;
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.; G. L. Gomme, Esq., F.S.A. ; Professor Hales,
F.S.A. ; Danby P. Fry, Esq. ; W. Rendle, Esq. (already mentioned) ;
Philip Norman, Esq., F.S.A., who communicated to me valuable inform-
ation respecting such old inscriptions on houses as may still exist ;
R. F. Sketchley, Esq., who placed at my disposal the collections of
years connected with the celebrated dead buried in the churches of
ancient London; J. E. Gardner, Esq., F.S.A., who gave me inform-
ation from his own extensive knowledge and references to his matchless
collection of London views.
In an especial manner I feel that my warmest thanks are due to
two gentlemen who have seen the proofs, and have with unwearied
pains helped me throughout the work with information and valuable
suggestions. I allude to Mr. Richard B. Prosser and Mr. Wyatt
Papworth, F.R.I.B.A. I suppose no man living has so extensive a
knowledge of the buildings of London and their architects as Mr.
Papworth. This unique knowledge has been with unstinted kindness
placed at my disposal. No words of mine can express adequately my
sense of the value of the assistance I have received in the prosecution
of this great work, but I wish, while thanking my friends, to make it
clearly understood that they are not responsible for any mistakes I may
have made. For these I take all the responsibility, but I trust, in spite
of some such, that in the future the present work will obtain the same
credit for accuracy that in its old form it has obtained in the past.
H. B. W.
ERRATA
VOL. I
Page 34, Quotation from M'Crie's Life of Knox should be transferred to p. 32.
Page 82, line 4 from bottom, for " 1643 " read "1461."
Page 209, line 7 from top, for " Edward " read " Edmund."
Page 237, line 25 from top, for " H " read " W."
Page 282, line 25 from top, for " Brinley " read " Brinsley."
Pa g e 35 8 line "3 from bottom, for "Mr. Hawkshaw, C.E." read "Sir John
Hawkshaw, F.R.S."
Page 425, line 23 from top, for "Townshead" read " Townshend."
Page 437, line 17 from top, for " Palace " read " Park."
VOL. II
Page 2, line 18 from top, for "Jupp in 1799" read "Japp in 1796."
Page 8, line 2 from top, for ' ' Jerricault " read "Gericault."
Page 12, line 19 from top, for " Pyrrne " read " Prynne."
Page 64, line 4 from top, for "Pinckey" read "Pinckney."
Page 221, line II from bottom, for "Jervin" read "Jewin."
Page 224, line 27 from top, for "Edward, sixth Earl of Holland," read " Robert,
second Earl of Holland and sixth Earl of Warwick."
Page 264, line 15 from top, for "sympanum" read "tympanum."
Page 351, line 1 8 from top, for "daughter" read "grand-daughter" and omit
" then."
Page 382, line 23 from top, omit " Dryden " and quotation.
Page 391, line 30 from top, transpose sentence and place "and another set" after
" Venus and Adonis."
Page 400, line 8 from bottom, for " dog in " read " dog of."
Page 448, line 7 from top, for " Mrs. Carnegie " read " Lady Carnegie."
Page 484, line 26 from top, for " Blayden " read " Blagden."
Page 520, line 22 from top, for "Gosham" read "Gresham."
VOL. Ill
Page 59, line 14 from bottom, /or " Usher " read " Ussher."
Page 134, line 14 from top, for "Lord Grey and Lord North" read "Lord Grey
and North."
Page 202, line 13 from bottom, for "Cave, Underbill" read "Cave Underbill."
Page 265, line 14 from bottom, for "so called from Charles Howard, Earl of
Carlisle, who built the house between 1786 and 1790," read "so called from
the Howards, Earls of Carlisle."
INTRODUCTION
THE history of London for many centuries is contained in the pages of
this book, but it will be found divided out under the headings of the
different buildings and localities and not in a connected sequence. It
may therefore be useful here to set down a few notes on the various
changes that have taken place in London, but as the space at our disposal
is small, these notes must necessarily be brief.
BRITISH LONDON
That London was a place of considerable importance in British
times was a belief firmly held by historians up to a comparatively
recent period. We find it imbedded in that great monument of John
Carpenter the Liber Albus, where we read that London (p. 427) was
" founded after the pattern and manner, and in remembrance of Great
Troy, and to the present day contains within itself the laws and ordi-
nances, dignities, liberties, and royal customs of ancient Great Troy."
Now scepticism has gone to the opposite extreme, and denies the very
existence of a British London.
The name, however, seems to show that there must have been
some early settlement here, for whatever the etymology may really be,
no one disputes that it is of Celtic origin.
Although Geoffrey of Monmouth's picture of a great British city of
Troynovant, founded by Brut, a descendant of yneas, must be dis-
missed as an absurdity, we need not dispute the existence of a British
settlement before the Roman Conquest. The place, although probably
small, must have been chosen for its commanding position on the
banks of a fine river.
The discovery in 1867 by General Pitt Rivers (then Colonel Lane
Fox) of what appeared to be the remains of pile-buildings near London
Wall and Southwark Street throws some light upon this subject. 1 The
piles averaged 6 to 8 inches square, others of a smaller size were
4 inches by 3 inches, and one or two were as much as a foot square.
They were found in the peat just above the virgin gravel, and with
1 Journ. Anthropol. Sac., vol. v. pp. Ixxi-lxxx.
INTRODUCTION
them were found the refuse of kitchen middens, broken pottery, etc., of
the Roman period. There is every reason to believe that the piles
were sunk by the Britons rather than by the Romans, and General
Pitt Rivers thinks it probable that they are the remains of the British
capital of Cassivellaunus situated in the marshes, and of necessity built
on piles. The fact that these piles were found on both sides of the
river points to the conclusion which we may arrive at by other means,
that there were two settlements, one on the north and the other on the
south bank of the Thames. If so, they would probably be within the
territories of distinct and possibly hostile tribes. There might have
been a ferry and even a bridge, as asserted by Dion Cassius. 1 A ferry,
and still more a bridge, whether a bridge of boats or a more permanent
structure, would necessarily involve a treaty or agreement between the
two tribes on the opposite banks. For although we are apt to speak
of the Britons as if they were all one people, because they all lived in
one island, it is well to remember that they were not one people in
fact, and that the several tribes formed separate states. If there were
any permanent means of communication across the Thames, between
the Cantii in the south and the Trinobantes on the north, it could
have been established and maintained only with their mutual consent.
It is necessary here to mention that the great authority of Dr. Guest is
strongly opposed to the notion of a British town having preceded the
Roman camp. He affirms that the valley of the Lea was the western
boundary of the Trinobantes, and that the district between the Lea and
the Brent was merely a march of the " Catuvellauni " a common
through which ran a wide trackway, but in which was neither town,
village, nor inhabited house. 2 The Catuvellaunian state was either
formed or much extended by Cassivellaunus.
It may appear somewhat rash to dispute so eminent an authority
and so careful an observer, but surely this is much too wide a generalisa-
tion from the facts at our disposal. There can be no doubt that the
Britons made considerable progress during the period between Julius
and Claudius, and it is possible that London as a British settlement
may have come into existence during that period. But it must also
be borne in mind that the ancient British coins which have been met
with show that there was a Greek influence at work among the Britons
long before they had any connection with the Romans ; most of those
coins having been modelled on Greek money of the age of Philip of
Macedon and Alexander the Great. This seems to prove that there
must have been considerable commercial intercourse between the
Britons and, through Gaul, the Greeks of Marseilles ; while some of
the coins are believed to be of even older date. In the voyage oi
discovery conducted by Pytheas of Marseilles, apparently in or about
the year 330 B.C., he visited Kent, and seems to have sailed along the
eastern coast of Britain as far as the Shetland Isles ; and though
London is not mentioned in any of the fragmentary notices which have
1 Hist. Rom., lib. Ix. c. 20. 2 Origines Celtica, etc., 1883, vol. ii. pp. 391, 405.
INTRODUCTION
been preserved of his voyage, these circumstances raise a reasonable
presumption that it may have been the centre of the commerce of that
early period, as it certainly was of later times. At all events it is
necessary that this Greek influence, existing at least as early as the
4th century before Christ, and possibly long before, should be duly
taken into account in estimating the condition of British civilisation
during the ages preceding the Roman conquest in the ist century
after Christ.
Moreover, all the tribes or nations settled in Britain had migrated
thither from the Continent ; separately, and at different times ; and
each must have brought with it that amount of civilisation which was
possessed by the parent tribe at the date of the migration. The
Celtic tribes, as shown by the evidence of language, belonged to the
Aryan stock ; and there is therefore no ground for supposing that the
British tribes (especially in the southern parts of the island) were not
sufficiently advanced to carry on a foreign commerce, even long before
the age of Pytheas. 1
ROMAN LONDON
When we come to deal with Roman London we find abundance of
facts, but also much difference of opinion as to the bearing of these
facts.
It is very important to remember that the Roman occupation of
Britain extended over a period equal to that which has elapsed since the
middle of Henry VIII. 's reign. During these centuries (A.D. 43-409)
there was ample time for growth, and the outlines of the City were
frequently enlarged. The earliest Roman London was probably a very
small place, little more in fact than a military fort for the purpose of
guarding the ferry or bridge over the Thames, and thus keeping up the
through communication of the north and south of Britain. Most
probably the embankments on the Kent and Essex shores, which have
so considerably changed the appearance of the lower reaches of the
river, were thrown up by Roman engineers, although this view has
been disputed.
The earliest settlement probably extended as far as Tower Hill on the
east, and there is reason to believe that it did not take in any ground to
the west of Leadenhall. The excavations at the latter place have thrown
great light upon the early history of the City. The foundation walls
of a basilica have been discovered, and from the time that was built
until the present day the ground has always been devoted to public
uses. How far north the first wall was placed it is difficult to guess. 2
One help towards a settlement of the question may be found in the
discovery of burial-places. As it was illegal in Roman times to bury
within the walls, we are forced to the conclusion that the places where
these sepulchral remains have been found were at one time extramural.
1 See Evans's Coins of Ike Ancient Britons, and Elton's Origins of English History.
2 Arclueologia, vol. xlviii. p. 226.
INTRODUCTION
Now no funeral relics have been found between Gracechurch Street
and the Tower. The northern boundary has been drawn just below
Lombard Street, and of this area the same may be said. The second
extension of the City westwards was probably to Walbrook, an increase
which the late Mr. Alfred Tylor set at 455 yards. 1
Even so central a position as that of the site of the Royal Exchange
was evidently at one time outside the walls. When Sir William Tite
was engaged on the foundations of the new building, he found that the
ground had been used as a gravel-pit, it then became a dirty pond, and
lastly was used as a receptacle for refuse. 2 At that time it was probably
just outside the walls.
Cemeteries once existed in Cheapside, on the site of St. Paul's
and close to Newgate, and at various other places known to have been
included in the later Roman London.
Neither Strabo nor Pliny the elder alludes to London, although
each of them wrote on Britain, and the name does not occur in
literature until it was used by Tacitus. Then it appears to have
become a place of considerable importance. Tacitus distinctly says
that London had not in A.D. 61 been dignified with the name of a
colony. 3 Aulus Plautius, the Roman general, sailed to Britain in
A.D. 43, and in the year 50 Caractacus was captured. It was not
until some years after that the Romans permanently settled themselves
in Britain. Tacitus speaks of Londinium as the chief residence of
merchants and the great mart of trade, and one cannot help wondering
how it had attained that position in so short a time if it had no
existence in pre-Roman times. Still, although the historian so describes
it, we know that it was not in his time the equal of Verulamium or
Camulodunum. Whatever may have been its rank at this time, we
have the satisfaction of finding an historical fact connected with it.
The Roman general, Paullinus Suetonius, marched rapidly from Wales
to put down an insurrection, but finding Londinium to be unfitted for
a basis of operations, he left it to the mercy of Boadicea. She destroyed
the merchant city and killed the inhabitants in large numbers.
When the British power was crushed, then Londinium asserted
itself with such success that we find it appearing in the Itinerary of
Antoninus, either as a starting-point or terminus, in nearly half the
routes described in the portion devoted to Britain.'
There can be no doubt that Southwark was also a Roman settle-
ment. Ptolemy (who lived in the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and
Antoninus Pius) places Londinium on the south side of the Thames.
This, of course, may be a blunder on his part, but it is more likely that
he referred to Southwark, which apparently had a distinct origin from
the Londinium of the north bank of the river.
In the latest Roman enclosure the line of the wall ran straight from
the Tower to Aldgate, where it bent round somewhat to Bishopsgate.
1 Tite's Catalogue of Antiquities found in the excavations at the New Royal Exchange, 1848, p. xli.
2 Ibid. 3 Anna!., lib. xiv. sect. 33.
INTRODUCTION
On the east it was bordered by the district subsequently called the
Minories and Houndsditch. The line from Bishopsgate ran eastward
to St. Giles's churchyard, where it turned to the south, as far as Falcon
Square ; again westerly by Aldersgate round the site of Christ's Hospital
towards Giltspur Street, then south by the Old Bailey to Ludgate, and
then down to the Thames, where Mr. E. Freshfield suggests that there
stood on the site of Baynard's Castle a Roman fortress. Mr. Roach
Smith pointed out that this enclosure gives dimensions far greater than
those of any other Roman town in Britain. 1 There can be no doubt
that within the walls there was much unoccupied space, for with the
one exception of the larger circuit made south of Ludgate in 1276,
for the benefit of the Black Friars, the line of the walls remained until
the Great Fire.
The Thames formed the natural barrier on the south, but the
Romans do not appear to have been content with this, for they built
a wall here in addition. Portions of this wall have been discovered at
various times.
It is very difficult even to guess when this third wall was erected,
but it is not improbable that it was early in the 2d century, and
this wall enclosed a cemetery near Newgate. Sir William Tite, in
describing the tessellated pavement found in 1854 on the site of the
Excise Office (Bishopsgate Street), expresses the opinion that the
finished character of the pavement points to a period of security
and wealth, and fixes on the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), to which
the silver coin found on the floor belongs, as the date of its foundation.
The cemetery near Newgate just alluded to, remains of which were
found by the late Mr. Alfred Tylor when rebuilding his extensive
premises in Newgate Street, must have been in use at a very early
period, for a coin of Claudius, struck A.D. 41, was found in a stone vase.
Among the sepulchral remains discovered were several ossuaria or
leaden vessels for the reception of the calcined bones of the dead.
Little attention had been paid to these objects until Mr. Roach Smith
a few years ago made them a special subject of inquiry. He referred
to the wealth of the British mines as one of the chief incentives to the
conquest of the country by the Romans, and he pointed out that the
large use of the costly metal, lead, " manufactured with such skill, and
so profusely as to supply not only the inhabitants of the towns but
those of villages and villas with one of the daily requisites of advanced
civilisation, proves the prosperity and even luxury of the province."
Mr. Alfred Tylor follows out the same idea in his paper, " New Points
in the History of Roman Britain," 2 where he asserts that the Roman
occupation was connected chiefly with the development of an ancient
mineral industry, to supply the wants of Imperial Rome, and not with
mere agricultural colonisation.
How was the interior of the City laid out in Roman times ? This
is a question almost impossible to answer. There were but few open-
1 Illustrations of Roman London, 1859, p. 6. 2 Archceologia, vol. xlviii. p. 221.
INTRODUCTION
ings in the wall, and the roads probably crossed the City at right angles,
as we know was the usual Roman plan. Some of the oldest thorough-
fares now existing do not appear to run on the same line as Roman
Roads, which are buried 20 feet below the present surface. Sir
William Tite gave reasons for believing that Bishopsgate Street was
not a Roman thoroughfare, 1 and in the late excavations in Leadenhall,
the basilica, to which allusion has already been made, was found
apparently crossing the present thoroughfare of Gracechurch Street.
The name of Watling Street is probably of Saxon origin. Many have
been the attempts, most of them very absurd, to join on the little
street in the City with the main Roman Road. There is no doubt that
the early if not the original name was Atheling Street. 2
Nearly fifteen centuries have passed since the Romans left this
island, and still their presence haunts us. In all parts of the City the
remains of their houses have been found, and much more still exists
hidden beneath our feet, but the most interesting relic that still remains
to us is London Stone. This has been supposed to be a Roman
milliary stone, but it is probably something more than this, and the
memory of its meaning, although now lost, probably remained for many
years. When Jack Cade in 1450 struck London stone with his sword
and said, in reference to himself, " Now is Mortimer lord of this city ! "
he did something which those who followed him understood to have
a meaning. Mr. G. Laurence Gomme supposes London Stone, like
other great stones, to have marked the place where the open air assembly
gathered to legislate for the government of the City.
At the beginning of the 5th century the Roman legions left Britain,
and we are told in the Saxon Chronicle that never since A.D. 409
"have the Romans ruled in Britain" the Chronicles setting down
the Roman sway at 470 winters and dating from Julius Caesar's inva-
sion. We are told that in the year 418 "the Romans collected all the
treasures that were in Britain, and hid some of them in the earth, that
no man might afterwards find them, and conveyed some with them
into Gaul."
SAXON LONDON
For a time there is perfect darkness as to the state of London, and
we are left entirely to conjecture as to its history.
For a time probably the City remained much as it was before. The
traders, whether they were Romans or Romanised Britons, were not
likely to leave their businesses, and the trade of the country would
continue as heretofore. But when the Saxons came all this would be
changed. Many of the cities of Britain were destroyed. London,
however, does not appear to have been so treated, and one naturally
asks why ?
Dr. Guest held the opinion that for a while the City lay desolate and
1 Arch&ologia, vol. xxxvi. p. 203. of St. Paul's Hist. MSS. Comtn., Ninth Report
2 Report on the MSS. of the Dean and Chapter Appendix, p. 4.
INTRODUCTION
uninhabited, 1 but may not the original inhabitants have continued for a
time to carry on such trade as was possible, until the newcomers gradu-
ally overcame their repugnance to walled cities and joined with them ?
About 449 or 450 the invaders first settled in Britain, and in 457
Hengist and ^Esc fought against the Britons at Crayford, driving them
out of Kent. The vanquished fled to London in great terror, and
apparently found a shelter there.
The names of the two counties in which London is situated will
probably be found to throw some light upon this question. Middlesex
and Surrey are two peculiar names, and they point to the fact that these
two counties were peopled from the river and not from the neighbour-
ing districts. The late Mr. J. R. Green affirmed that the Middlesaxons
were an offshoot of the East Saxons, 2 but if so, why did not they keep
that name ? They were surely not of enough importance to need a new
name when they had one already ! The truth would seem to be this.
The East Saxons stopped at the Lea and the West Saxons at the Brent,
leaving the district round London undisturbed. Possibly a distinct horde
of Saxons coming up the Thames found the place unoccupied and settled
there, obtaining the name of Middlesaxons. They were not of enough
importance to form a kingdom of themselves, and therefore in course
of time, although governed by their own Aldermen, they came under the
sway of the East Saxons and of the Mercians.
The history of Surrey, or the South Ridge, appears to have been very
similar. The name proves that it must have been peopled from the
river, and that the newcomers extended as far as the hills in the
south. If it had been peopled from Sussex or Kent, it is clearly
improbable that they would style these hills the South Ridge. This
district, like Middlesex on the opposite bank of the Thames, was an
independent settlement, having its own Aldermen ; although in the
course of time it came successively under the sway of Kent and Sussex,
and was finally subdued by Wessex.
These Saxons most probably shunned the City and settled on
various spots around it. Along the banks of the Thames are several
small havens whose names remain to us, such as Rotherhithe, Lamb-
hithe (Lambeth), Chelchith (Chelsea), and these seem to tell of this
early settlement.
Bede (Bk. ii. chap, iii.) describes London as being in 604 the
metropolis of the East Saxons and an emporium of many peoples who
came to it by sea and land. Although Saxon London existed for six
centuries, there is comparatively little to relate of it. That invaluable
monument the Saxon Chronicle tells us little of London between the
5th and the pth centuries.
The Danes estimated London at its true value, and the Saxons
were constantly employed in driving them from its walls. In 851,
however, the Danes plundered the City, and made themselves masters
of it. They put Beorhtwulf, King of the Mercians, to flight, and then
1 Arch. Journ., vol. xix. p. 219. 2 The Making of England, 1881, p. in, note.
INTRODUCTION
went south over the Thames into Surrey. There they were met by
^Ethelwulf and the army of the West Saxons, who gained a victory
over them at Ockley. In succeeding years success veered from side
to side, and the trade of the City must have been greatly injured by
these constant sieges. In 886 Alfred overcame the Danes, restored
London to its inhabitants, and rebuilt its walls. These persistent
besiegers saw the value of Southwark as a basis of operations against
London, and in the next century Snorre, the Icelander, tells us that
they fortified that place with ditch and ramparts, which the English
assailed in vain. Some years after this the Danes dug a great ditch
by Southwark, and then dragged their ships through to the west side of
the bridge, by which means they were able to keep the inhabitants of
London from either going in or out of the town. Still, the Londoners
stood firm, and after obstinate fighting on both sides, both by land
and by water, the Danes were forced to raise the siege.
Although we see in all this how important a place London was,
and how great its influence on the history of other parts of the country,
we are left singularly in the dark as to its topography.
As several of the Saxon kings lived in the City, we must conclude
that they possessed a palace of some kind, and such a palace is sup-
posed to have existed in the near neighbourhood of St. Paul's ; but we
have no particulars of its appearance. We know little of the streets of
Saxon London, and nothing of its buildings. Westminster grew into
some importance in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who erected
there a palace for himself, and a monastic church the foundation of
our glorious Abbey.
In this king's time foreigners settled here in large numbers, and
prepared the way for the Conqueror, so Norman London may almost
be said to have commenced in the reign of the Confessor.
LONDON FROM NORMAN TIMES TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
After the battle of Hastings the defeated chiefs retired upon
London, and William followed them at once. The Saxon party
attacked the Normans at Southwark, and although they were repulsed,
William thought it imprudent to lay siege to the City at that time, and
he therefore retired. The best men of London then repaired to Berk-
hampstead, and swore fealty to the Conqueror. The Chronicler
remarks that they submitted when the greatest harm had been done,
and adds, " It was very imprudent that it was not done earlier."
The Norman at once acknowledged London as the capital, and it
suddenly grew into a fine city. The Tower rose on the east to
intimidate the inhabitants, and Westminster Hall came into being in
the extreme west. The Norman walls, which we now know by the
few remains left to us, appear to have followed the line of the Roman
walls.
A wonderful improvement in the appearance of the cities of the
INTRODUCTION xvii
country almost immediately followed the advent of the civilising
Norman. Within a few years the whole area of London must have
been changed, and handsome buildings arose as if by magic in all parts
of the City.
The White Tower, the famous keep of the Tower of London, was
commenced by Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, about the year 1078.
In 1083 the old Cathedral of St. Paul's was commenced on the site of
the church which Ethelbert is said to have founded in A.D. 610. But
four years afterwards the Chronicler tells us, " The holy monastery of St.
Paul, the Episcopal See of London, was burnt and many other monas-
teries, and the greatest and fairest part of the whole City."
In 1154 Stephen died, and with this year ends the last entry of
the Saxon chronicle. The Norman era then closed, and the Saxons
looked forward with hope to the reign of the first of the Plantagenets,
who was to form the nation into one. The Chronicler says, "All folk
loved him, for he did good justice and made peace."
Churches were spread about Saxon London, but we know little
of their architectural character. When the large monasteries were
founded in the City and its neighbourhood, a great change was made,
so that London was raised from a mean congregation of houses to the
rank of a city having features of considerable architectural merit. The
College of St. Martin's-le-Grand within Aldersgate had been founded in
the year 1056, and its rights were confirmed by the Conqueror in the
second year of his reign. He gave the Dean and secular priests more
land, and added to their privileges. In 1082 a convent of monks
dedicated to St. Saviour was founded at Bermondsey by Alwin Child,
a wealthy citizen. In noo two religious houses were established at
Clerkenwell, viz, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem,
and the Priory of St. Mary for nuns of the Benedictine Order.
Matilda or Maud, the wife of Henry I., established the priory of
Holy Trinity, called Christ Church, which was situated to the north of
Aldgate, in 1108; and about nio a hospital for lepers at St. Giles's-
in- the- Fields. The priory of St. Bartholomew was founded a few
years earlier, and the Benedictine nunnery of St. John the Baptist at
Halliwell near Shoreditch soon afterwards. The Knights Templars
made their first resting-place in Holborn in 1 1 1 8, and did not remove
to Fleet Street until nearly seventy years afterwards.
Although some of these noble buildings were inside the walls, more
were outside, and this shows how extensive the outskirts of the City
had become in Norman times. As the monks as a rule chose quiet
neighbourhoods, so the friars who came here in the i3th century
chose the most bustling places to live in, and considering that London
within the walls must have been tolerably built upon, it is difficult to
understand how the friars found room to erect their extensive dwellings.
The Black, Preaching, or Dominican Friars settled in Holborn in
what was afterwards Lincoln's Inn in 1221, and removed to the Ward
of Castle Baynard in 1276, when the City Wall was rebuilt to enlarge
VOL. i b
INTRODUCTION
their boundaries. The district where the friary was built still retains
its name. In 1224 John Iwyn, or Ewin, made over to the Grey Friars
or Franciscans land now occupied by the Blue Coat School. In 1241
the White Friars, or Carmelites, settled in a liberty south of Fleet Street,
which still retains their name. In 1253 the Austin Friars, or Friars
Eremites, founded a house in Broad Street Ward ; and the last of these
friaries to be established was that of the Crutched Friars in 1298. By
calculating the extent of the buildings erected by these religious houses,
we arrive at the remarkable result that two-thirds of the entire area of
London were occupied by convents and hospitals.
These districts are still marked out for us by the old names, and
the same is the case with the places inhabited by the Jews. Stow
says that the Jews were brought from Rouen by William the Conqueror,
and settled in the place which is now called Old Jewry. They had a
very troubled life here until Edward I. banished them from the
kingdom, and when they returned to England after many centuries of
expatriation, they found this place full of thriving Christians. They
had to seek houses in other places, and most of them settled in the
neighbourhood of Aldgate. Jewin Street was built on the site of a
burying-place of the Jews outside Aldersgate.
It is always pleasant to associate with particular places in London
the names of the great, and we are able to claim the poet Chaucer as
a thorough Londoner, born by the Walbrook, and dying in less than a
year after he had obtained a lease of a tenement in the garden of St.
Mary's Chapel, Westminster, for fifty-three years. He was Clerk of
the Works at Westminster, the Tower of London, etc., and he is thus
connected with much of the topography of London. In March 1390
he was on the Thames Bank Repair Commission, and in May he was
employed in setting up scaffolds in Smithfield for Richard II. and his
Queen (Anne of Bohemia) to see the jousts at that place. In September
of this same year Chaucer was so unfortunate as to be robbed of nearly
20 of the King's money, his horse, and other movables half at
Westminster and half near the " fowl oke " at Hatcham in Surrey by
certain notorious thieves, as was fully confessed by the mouth of one of
them in gaol at Westminster. We obtain a vivid realisation of the
dangers of the streets and roads in the i4th century from the accounts
of these highway robberies ; and it is very interesting to picture to
ourselves the poet travelling to different parts of the country, with
money in his purse to pay the workmen employed at those places
where he was Clerk of the Works, and to remember the constant peril
he was in.
The books of the City, which have been made such good use of
by Mr. Riley, contain a most interesting account of the procession on
foot by the Mayor and citizens to Westminster, to return thanks for
the victory at Agincourt (1415). Great was the excitement and
anxiety felt for the safety of the King and his army in France.
Lamentable reports arrived which filled the community with sadness.
INTRODUCTION
Their affections were centred in the parts beyond the sea, from whence
all particulars were shrouded in mystery. Ardently athirst for news,
the people were beside themselves with joy when the truth arrived to
refresh the longing ears of all the City, "That our illustrious King, the
Lord giving His aid therein, had by such grace gained the victory over
his enemies and adversaries, who had united to oppose his march
through the midst of his territory of France towards Calais." Joyous
news succeeding apprehensions of adversity filled the rulers of the City
with gratitude, and they went like pilgrims on foot to pour out their
thanksgivings at the altar of Westminster Abbey. When the enthusiasm
was somewhat passed, the Mayor and Aldermen were anxious that the
reasons of their action should not be hidden by an unnecessary silence,
and that " such journey on foot may not come to pass for a pre-
cedent, when others succeed to the office of the Mayoralty of the said
City, in manifest derogation of the laudable customs of the said City
hitherto followed." At that time the walk from the City to West-
minster would be through much miry ground. As most of the traffic
was carried along the " silent highway," the roads were much neglected.
In this same year, 1415, a case of precedence is related. Henry
V. sent the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, his
brothers the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, and others, to consult
with the Mayor. Diligent counsel was held as to the order in which
they ought to sit, and the Lords agreed together that the Mayor, in con-
sideration of the reverence and honour due to our most excellent Lord
the King, of whom he is the representative in the City, should have
his place when sitting, in the middle, and that the said Lords of
Canterbury and Winchester should be seated on his right hand, and
John, Humphrey, and Edward on the left.
Some years after a less satisfactory arrangement was made. About
midsummer the Serjeants of the Coif gave a feast, to which Sir Matthew
Philip, the Mayor of London, was invited. At dinner-time he came
with his officers according to his degree, but on finding that the Earl
of Worcester by some blunder was set before him, he went home again
without meat and drink. When the officers of the feast found out
their mistake, they tried to remedy it by sending the Mayor a present
of "meat, bread, wine and many divers subtleties." But when the
messengers arrived they found quite as sumptuous a banquet actually
laid upon the table, and the person who was to make the presentation
felt ashamed of the task imposed upon him. He acquitted himself,
however, gracefully, and was dismissed with thanks, "and a great
reward withall."
If in those days the honours were great, we shall find that the
responsibilities were great also. Henry V. would not allow the Alder-
men to be absent from their duty, and he sent a mandate to the Lord
Mayor charging him to see that all Aldermen resided within the City.
All these incidents have to do with topography, because they show us
the importance of London within the City walls. Although there
xx INTRODUCTION
were some suburbs, they were but sparsely inhabited, and the heart of
England found its place in the City.
We have been so long used to the freedom of an open City that
it is not easy for us to realise the inconveniences attendant on
residence within a fortified town. When the curfew was tolled, the
gates were closed, and any one found about the streets was liable to be
brought up for examination and punishment if he could not give a
satisfactory account of himself. In the Provisions for the Safe-keeping
of the City (10 Edward I.) 1282, we read:
" All the gates of the City are to be open by day ; and at each gate
there are to be two Serjeants to open the same, skilful men, and fluent
of speech, who are to keep a good watch upon persons coming in and
going out, that so no evil may befall the City. At every Parish Church
curfew is to be rung at the same hour as at St. Martin's-le-Grand ; so
that they begin together and end together, and then all the gates are
to be shut, as well as all taverns for wine or for ale ; and no one is
then to go about the streets or ways. Six persons are to watch in each
ward by night, of the most competent men of the ward thereto ; and
the two Serjeants who guard the gates by day are to lie at night either
within the gates or near thereto.
"The Serjeants of Billingsgate and Queenhithe are to see that all
boats are moored on the City side at night, and are to have the names
of all boats ; and no one is to cross the Thames at night, and each
serjeant must have his own boat with four men, to guard the water by
night, on either side of the bridge.
" The Serjeants at the gates are to receive fourpence per day, and
the boatmen at night one penny each." No one was to be so daring
as to walk in the streets after curfew had rung, but every one was to
be ready to come when summoned to the watch, armed and arrayed as
he ought to be. 1
In Edward II. 's reign all the gates were to be closed at
sunset, but the wickets were to be kept open until curfew. Then the
wickets were opened at prime (6 A.M.) and the great gates at sunrise.
Outside the walls was the Houndsditch, where refuse was thrown,
and the City foss obtained that name as well in the west as in the east,
where the name still exists.
In considering the history of the various gates, we may commence
with Aldgate, which, to judge by the name, was of considerable antiquity.
The earliest historical event connected with the gate itself occurred
during the wars of the Barons against King John. In the year 1215
the Barons having received intelligence secretly that they might enter
London with ease through Aldgate, which was then in a very ruinous
condition, removed their camp from Bedford to Ware, and shortly after
marched into the City in the night-time. Having succeeded in their
object, they thought it a pity that so important a gate should remain
longer in a defenceless condition, and therefore they spoiled the
1 Regulations, 25 Edw. I.
INTRODUCTION
religious houses and robbed the monastery coffers, in order to have
means wherewith to rebuild it. Much of the material was obtained
from the destroyed houses of the Jews, but the stone for the bul-
warks was obtained from Caen, and the small bricks or tiles from
Flanders. This is supposed to have been the same gate that is
described by Stow, and was taken down in 1606. It had originally
two pairs of gates, but there was only one pair in Stow's time, although
the hooks of the other pair still remained.
In 1374 (48 Edward III.) the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty
of the City of London leased the dwelling-house above the gate of
Aldgate to the poet Chaucer for life, and from the original document
it appears that he was not allowed to underlet any part of the house to
others. The authorities bound themselves not to use the gate as a gaol
during Chaucer's life. The Chamberlain had power to enter at all
times to see that the place was properly maintained. In times of
danger the house might be entered for the purpose of defence.
In spite of this provision there must have been considerable danger
from this use of the City gates as dwelling-houses. In 1381, during
Wat Tyler's insurrection, when the men of Essex and Kent met at
Mile End, they found no difficulty in pouring into the City through
Aldgate. An attempt was made to obviate this evil in 1386, when it
was enacted that the gates should no longer be let as dwelling-houses.
During the century that had elapsed since Wat Tyler's easy entrance
into the City, greater attention appears to have been paid to the pro-
tection of the gates, and when Thomas Nevill, son of Lord Thomas
Fauconbergh, made his attack upon London in 1471, he experienced a
very spirited resistance. He first attempted to land from his ships in
the City, but the Thames side from Baynard's Castle to the Tower was
so well fortified that he had to seek a quieter and less prepared position.
He then set upon the several gates in succession but was re-
pulsed at all. On May 1 1 he made a desperate attack upon Aldgate,
followed by 500 men. He won the bulwarks, and some of his followers
entered into the City ; but the portcullis being let down, they were cut
off from their own party and were slain by the enemy. The portcullis
was then drawn up and the besieged issued forth against the rebels, who
were made to fly.
Bishopsgate obtained its name from the famous Erkenwald, Bishop
of London (who died in 685). The Hanse merchants were charged
with the safe-keeping and repair of the gate, and were free of the toll
levied on others. The Bishop of London had the privilege of receiving
one stick from every cart laden with wood which entered the gate, and
in return he was bound to supply the hinges.
Moorgate was a postern in the wall made in the year 1415 to lead
out into the moor of London. This place was a constant trouble to
the City. It was first drained in 1527, laid out in walks in 1606, and
first built upon late in the reign of Charles II.
Our earliest notice of Cripplegate dates from 1010, in which
INTRODUCTION
year the body of King Edmund the Martyr was carried into London
through this entrance. It, like Moorgate, was only a postern at first.
A barbican or watch tower was built to the north of the gate, as
an outwork for observation and defence, and the little village with
its Fore Street, which grew up outside the walls, was sheltered
behind it. The care of this important position was naturally
given to trustworthy persons, and there is an interesting little story
connected with it. Edward III. appointed Robert Ufford, Earl of
Suffolk, keeper of the barbican, and from him it descended in course of
time to Catherine, daughter of William Lord Willoughby de Eresby,
who married firstly Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and secondly
Richard Bertie. Bertie and his wife the Duchess were Protestants, and
in Queen Mary's reign their lives were in such great danger that they
had to fly from the country. Between four and five o'clock in the
morning of January i, 1554-1555, the Duchess began her adven-
turous journey in a thick fog. She had to escape with the greatest
secrecy, for no confidence could be placed in the bulk of her
dependents, but in spite of all precautions her departure was discovered.
After she had descended as noiselessly as possible, and passed into the
street, she was alarmed by the appearance of a person issuing from the
house, bearing a torch in his hand, and evidently bent upon discover-
ing the cause of the unusual bustle at this early hour. The Duchess
was standing up under a gateway, and the light of the torch might at
any moment be thrown upon her so as to reveal her hiding-place to
the man. She therefore left her baggage and provisions and fled, but
her pursuer was close at hand when she suddenly turned into Garter
House, which was close by. The man, seeing no one, retraced his
steps ; on his return he discovered the baggage, and while he was
examining the contents the Duchess again issued forth. She dared not
pass into the City through Cripplegate but walked on to Moorgate.
Thence she proceeded safely to Billingsgate, and there found her
husband. Soon after she had got out of the country she gave birth to
a son at Wesel. He was named Peregrine, from the circumstance of
his being born in a foreign land and during the wanderings of his
parents. This child grew up to be one of Queen Elizabeth's greatest
generals, popularly known as the " brave Lord Willoughby." l
Aldersgate was one of the old gates leading to an important
northern thoroughfare.
Newgate is said to have borne originally the name of Chamberlain's
Gate. It alone of the gates has remained associated with a prison.
Ludgate was of great antiquity. The name it bore is not easily ex-
plained, as King Lud was not an historical character. Outside these gates
grew up the suburbs, and in course of time bars were erected to define
the extent of the liberties. The next great boundary of London to be
noticed is the Thames. It was the great means of communication
between places in London, and was covered with boats. London
1 The ballad of the " Brave Lord Willoughby" is in Percy's Religues, zd S., Bk. ii.
INTRODUCTION
Bridge was for many years made hideous with the heads of beheaded
men. Jack Cade set up there the heads of those he executed and
soon afterwards his own found rest in the same place. The heads
were sent up from all parts of the country, and at one time so many
were stuck up upon the bridge that men spoke of the "harvest of
heads." On Lord Mayor's day 1425, when there existed a feud
between the Duke of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of
Winchester, a battle on the bridge was imminent. The Duke charged
the Mayor and Aldermen to keep good watch in the City, and the gates
of the bridge were carefully secured. On the morrow the Bishop's
men drew the chains at the Southwark end, and knights and esquires
issued out of Winchester House in battle array ; when the news was
spread abroad all the shops in the City were closed in haste, and
people came down to the gates of the bridge. Then the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the Prince of Portugal treated between the opposing
potentates Gloucester and Winchester, and eight times they rode " by-
twyne the duke and byschoppe that day." At last peace was restored,
every man went to his home and no harm was done to the City.
The various quays at this time were thoroughly guarded, and boat-
men were governed by many stringent rules.
We must also bear in mind that there were in many parts of London
bridges across the watercourses, which are now covered over and have
become nothing more than sewers.
It was not until after the Restoration that the whole aspect of the
town was changed. When the cavaliers returned with the exiled King,
they did not care to return to their family mansions, and in consequence
the City was almost entirely given up to the merchants. Then came the
Fire of London, which led to a great change in the appearance of the
place.
The years 1665 and 1666 were two of the most eventful in the
history of London. In the summer of the former year the plague
broke out, and so terribly did the numbers of those struck down
increase, that soon the streets were deserted and few houses were to be
seen without the red cross and the words, " Lord have mercy upon us,"
marked upon them. The plague was scarcely stayed before the whole
City was in flames.
On Sunday, September 2, 1666, the fire broke out in the morning
at a house in Pudding Lane. Samuel Pepys, then living in the Navy
Office at Crutched Friars, was called up at three o'clock to see the
fire, but not thinking much of it he went to bed again. When, how-
ever, he got up for the day he found that about 300 houses had been
burnt in those few hours. A violent east wind fomented the flames,
which raged with fury during the whole of Monday and great part of
Tuesday. On Tuesday night the wind fell somewhat and on Wednes-
day the fire slackened. On Thursday it was extinguished, but on the
evening of that day the flames again burst forth at the Temple. Some
houses were at once blown up by gunpowder, and thus the fire was
INTRODUCTION
finally mastered. On the Sunday Pepys had gone to Whitehall to tell
the King and Duke of York. He returned to the City with instruc-
tions for the Lord Mayor from the King to pull down houses in every
direction to arrest the course of the fire. The Lord Mayor (Sir
Thomas Bludworth) seems to have been but a poor creature, for when
he heard the King's message, he cried, like a fainting woman, " Lord !
what can I do ? I am spent ; people will not obey me. I have been
pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can
do it."
The King and the Duke of York showed themselves better men at
this time. They were very active, and did their utmost to encourage
those around them to help in stopping the fire. Lady Carteret told
Pepys a curious little fact, which was that abundance of pieces of
burnt paper were driven by the wind as far as Cranborne in Windsor
Park, and among others she took up one, or had one brought her to
see, which was a little bit of paper that had been printed, whereon
there remained no more nor less than these words, "Time is it is
done." !
The Fire consumed about five-sixths of the whole City, and outside
the walls a space was cleared about equal to the sixth part left unburnt
within. The total clearance was equal to an oblong square of a mile
and a half in length, and half a mile in breadth.
The monument which was raised to commemorate this great
calamity had an inscription placed upon it, with some particulars taken
from the reports of the surveyors. "The ruins of the City were 436
acres (viz. 373 acres within the walls and 63 without them, but within
the liberties) ; of the six and twenty wards it utterly destroyed fifteen,
and left eight others shattered and half-burnt ; it consumed eighty-nine
churches, four of the City gates, Guildhall, many public structures,
hospitals, schools, libraries, a great number of stately edifices, 13,200
dwelling-houses, and 460 streets."
The inscription, which caused Pope to write
Where London's column, pointing at the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies,
was set up in 1681, during the period of terror caused by the false
swearing of Titus Gates and his gang. This inscription, which was
finally erased in 1831, stated that the fire was "begun and carryed
on by ye treachery and malice of ye Popish faction ... in order
to ye carrying on their horrid plott for extirpating the Protestant
Religion and old English liberty, and the introducing Popery and
Slavery."
The distress of those who were made houseless by the fire was
great. The river swarmed with vessels filled with persons carrying
away such of their goods as they were able to save. Westminster Hall
was filled with the citizens' goods and merchandise. Treasure was
1 Diary, February 3, 1666-1667.
INTRODUCTION
buried in the suburbs, as at Bethnal Green and many other places.
Some of the people fled to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, but
Moorfields was the chief resort of the houseless Londoner. Soon
paved streets and two-storey houses were seen in that swampy place.
We are apt to look upon Charles II. 's reign as a very dark period
of our history, and with justice ; but the heroism of the sufferers in
this national calamity shines out brightly, and we cannot too highly
praise the fortitude which was exhibited by high and low. The mer-
chants complied with the demands of their foreign correspondents as if
no disaster had happened, and not one failure was heard of. Henry
Oldenburg, writing to the Hon. Robert Boyle, on September 10, says,
"The citizens, instead of complaining, discoursed almost of nothing but
of a survey for rebuilding the City with bricks and large streets."
Gresham College in Bishopsgate Street was converted into an
Exchange and Guildhall, and the Royal Society which met there
removed to Arundel House. The affairs of the Excise Office were
transacted in Southampton Fields, near Bedford House. The Post
Office was removed to Brydges Street, Covent Garden ; Doctors'
Commons to Exeter House, Strand; and the King's Wardrobe from
Puddle Wharf to York Buildings.
Within a few days of the fire three several plans were presented to
the King for the rebuilding of the City one by Christopher Wren,
another by John Evelyn, and a third by Robert Hooke. Evelyn, in a
letter to Sir Samuel Tuke, wrote, " Dr. Wren got the start of me, but
both of us did coincide so frequently that his Majesty was not
displeased."
Wren proposed to build main thoroughfares north and south, east
and west ; to insulate all the churches in conspicuous positions, to
form the most public places into huge piazzas, to unite the halls of the
chief companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall, and to
make a fine quay on the bank of the river from Blackfriars to the
Tower. His streets were to be of three magnitudes 90 feet, 60 feet
and 30 feet wide respectively. The whole area of the City was to be
levelled, and blind alleys, inferior buildings, graveyards, and noxious
trades were to be excluded.
The Exchange was to stand free, and to be as it were the centre of
the town. St. Paul's was to stand like the narrow end of a wedge
formed by the two straight streets from Ludgate to Aldgate and Tower
Hill respectively, and many streets were to radiate from London
Bridge.
There is some evidence to suppose that a beginning was made of
this plan, for Pepys notes in his Diary, " The great streets in the City
are marked out with piles drove into the ground, and if ever it be built
in that form with so fair streets it will be a noble sight."
It is usual to condemn the citizens, and to regret the non-adoption
of Wren's plan, but something may be urged on the other side. In
the first place, Wren only planned out the area within the walls, and
xxvi INTRODUCTION
made no provision for growth. Then it was not considered that more
bridges might be required, and the quays from Blackfriars to the Tower
would have afforded but little facility for the growth of that commerce
which has made London the port of the world. It is, therefore, open
to question whether a city laid out on this uniform plan, with little
provision for any but the rich, would have grown, without some modi-
fication, into the London of to-day.
Evelyn's plan differed from that of Wren chiefly in proposing a
street from the church of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East to the Cathedral,
and in having no quay or terrace along the river. He wished, how-
ever, to employ the rubbish he obtained by levelling the streets for
filling up the shore of the Thames to low water-mark, so as to keep the
basin always full.
On September 19 Robert Hooke exhibited his model for re-
building London before the Council of the Royal Society, and it is
said that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen preferred it to Wren's plan.
All the chief streets were designed to run in an exact straight line, and
all the cross streets to turn out of these at right angles. All the
churches, public buildings, market-places, and the like, were to be
arranged in proper and convenient places.
In spite of the multitude of counsellors, the jealousies of the
citizens prevented any systematic design from being carried out, and in
consequence the old lines were in almost all cases retained.
A very excellent proposal was made by Colonel Birch in Parliament
for the purpose of carrying out a uniform plan for rebuilding. It was
that the whole ground of London should be sold and placed in trust,
and that the trustees should sell again with preference to the former
owners. Unfortunately this simple proposal was not adopted.
Although measures were taken for rebuilding, London remained in
ruins for many months, and as late as April 23, 1668, Pepys describes
himself as wearily walking round the walls in order to escape the
dangers within.
Although the chief responsibility of rebuilding the whole City
devolved upon Wren, that great man recognised the advantage of
obtaining the skilled assistance of Hooke, and for several years the two
worked together. Hooke's model drew the attention of the Corporation
to him, and obtained for him the position of City Surveyor. He laid
out the ground of the several proprietors in the rebuilding, and had no
rest early or late from persons soliciting him to set out their ground for
them at once. No doubt there were many heartburnings at this time,
but on the whole every one seems to have been fairly well satisfied.
It is said that the Commissioners, who were appointed by Parliament to
settle all differences arising out of the rebuildings, gave such satisfaction
that their portraits were painted at the expense of the citizens for ^"60
apiece.
Although as antiquaries we may regret the interesting relics of past
ages which were swept out of existence by the ruthless flames, we
INTRODUCTION
cannot but rejoice as Londoners at the sanitary improvement caused
by the clearing away of alleys and courts reeking with pestilence. In
illustration of this, it is only necessary to point to the fact that before
the fire the plague constantly visited the City, and since that time it
has not been heard of therein.
Hundreds of fine old mansions were destroyed, and many public
buildings. Of the 98 parish churches within the walls 85 were burnt
down, and 13 left standing 35 of the destroyed churches were not
rebuilt, and their parishes were joined to others. The greatest loss of
all, however, was that of the noble Cathedral of St. Paul's, a building
indissolubly connected with our old literature. The beautiful spire,
rising 208 feet above the tower, had been destroyed long before, but
the splendid building itself, with its good but incongruous portico by
Inigo Jones, the handsome tomb of Sir Guy Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, called and universally supposed to be the tomb of the good
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the innumerable chapels, and the
world -renowned Paul's Cross all perished completely and left the
world the poorer.
Although much was destroyed, much was also saved, and we have
still some relics of the elder time around us. There are the Tower,
Great St. Bartholomew's, and the Temple Church among the chief of
those historical buildings which were rescued from the flames. The
church of St. Olave's, Hart Street, very narrowly escaped, and Pepys
relates his fears for the Navy Office and the adjoining church.
London was fortunate in possessing such an architect as Wren, who
was equal to the occasion which so unexpectedly presented itself. He
stamped his genius upon the new London which arose from the ashes
of the old. Not only are his churches, from the cathedral downwards,
beautiful in design as buildings, but they all bear their part in the
general effect. Each one helps to enhance the picturesque design
which the architect produced. Unfortunately in these latter days we
have done all in our power to destroy this design, and in some instances
we have needlessly destroyed some of these elegant churches.
When the City was in ruins the citizens feared that business might
leave its old haunts and move westward, but when the City was rebuilt
these fears were proved to be groundless, and business went on as
before in its old grooves.
The growth until the end of the last century was almost entirely
along the course of the Thames. The citizens lived eastward in Essex,
and fashionable persons westward near the court.
Westminster and London had a distinct origin, but gradually they
were joined, and at last they became practically one.
First the Bishops built their palaces on the Strand of the river,
then the road upon which the stables abutted came to rank as a street,
and houses were built on the opposite side. The village of Charing
grew into importance as a meeting place between Westminster and
London and the newly settled district of St. James's.
INTRODUCTION
The first general emigration westward of the laity was made in
the reign of James I. Lord Herbert of Cherbury and many others
went to Great Queen Street, which was built about 1629, and called
after Henrietta Maria. In the latter part of Charles I.'s reign and
during the Commonwealth Covent Garden became the fashionable
quarter. At the Restoration St. James's started into favour, and has
retained its position ever since.
Grosvenor Square came into existence early in the i8th
century, and Belgravia dates from the end of George IV.'s reign.
The first emigration of the London merchants westward was about the
middle of the last century; and only those who had already secured
large fortunes and possessed reputations beyond the shadow of a doubt
ventured as far as Hatton Garden.
The importance of the noble river, which first called London into
being and has ever been the main cause of its prosperity, was never
more neatly explained than in that speech of a London alderman
quoted by Stow. A courtier told the worthy alderman that Queen Mary
in her displeasure against London had appointed to remove with the
Parliament and term to Oxford. He answered, "Does she mean to
divert the Thames from London or no?" The gentleman said "No";
and the alderman cried, " Then by God's grace we shall do well enough
at London, whatsoever become of the term and Parliament ! "
The Thames continued to be a main highway long after the fire,
and within living memory it was common for persons to row for pleasure
from London Bridge to Battersea or farther. The watermen were a
privileged class, notorious for the bad language with which they saluted
all they met. Johnson's reply to one of these watermen is the only
recorded instance of a successful retort on such an occasion. Most of
the respectable people gave up the contest in despair.
State prisoners to the Tower were taken by water, and that way
went the Seven Bishops in the reign of James II. The body of Nelson
was brought in state from Greenwich to Whitehall.
A very different scene was exhibited when the river was frozen over.
This often occurred when in hard winters the blocks of ice were kept
by the small arches of London Bridge from travelling farther. The
Thames since new London Bridge was built has not been liable to this
occurrence.
In spite of all the growth that took place, it was nearly a century
after the fire before a second bridge was built. Westminster Bridge
was opened in 1750, Blackfriars (intended to be called Pitt Bridge,
after the great Earl of Chatham) in 1768, Vauxhall in 1816, Waterloo
(originally called Strand Bridge) in 1817, Southwark in 1819. Then
came a period of rebuilding, commencing with New London Bridge in
1831.
Westminster and Lambeth long remained at the western end of the
town, for although there was much beyond, that was in the country.
Dr. Heberden recommended South Lambeth as a health resort on
INTRODUCTION
account of its being situated on the banks of a tidal river, with the
south-west wind blowing from the country, and the north-east softened
by blowing over the town.
Vauxhall Gardens existed for nearly two centuries, and when we
read Pepys and Evelyn, Addison and Fielding, we cannot help feeling
that in the i7th and i8th centuries our countrymen lived a much more
out-of-door Continental sort of life than we do now. A forgotten poet
of the last century likens Vauxhall Gardens to Eden, and Fielding in
his Amelia expresses himself unable to describe the extreme elegance
and beauty of the place.
Ranelagh came into being about 1733, and soon afterwards we hear
Johnson exclaiming, " When first I entered Ranelagh, it gave me an
expansion and gay sensation in my mind, such as I never experienced
anywhere else ! "
Either in the time of James I. or in the next reign, a portion of the
St. James's Fields were laid out for the convenience of the players of
the newly introduced game of Pall Mall. Games did not flourish
during the years of the Commonwealth, and at the Restoration the
courtiers found the Pall Mall less secluded than they left it. In con-
sequence of the road being partly built upon, Charles II. set aside a
portion of St. James's Park for the purposes of his favourite game.
The street at first was given the name of the Queen Catharine, but this
name was never popular, and the usual designation was the "Old Pall
Mail" St. James's Park was originally in the country, but when Pall
Mall was built and fashionable people began to frequent it, it became,
from its vicinity to the palace of Whitehall and St. James's House, a
part of the town. One corner of the park had been occupied by a
favourite place of entertainment called Spring Garden, but after the
Restoration building was commenced there. As early as 1661 the
inhabitants of Charing Cross, who enjoyed a fine view of the trees in
the park, petitioned the King that no further houses might be erected
in the Spring Gardens. The ground built upon was called " Inner
Spring Gardens " and " Outer Spring Gardens," and many illustrious
persons came to live in the new quarter. Maitland, writing some 150
years ago, in speaking of London, says, "This ancient city has en-
gulphed one city (Westminster), one borough (Southwark), and forty-
three villages." Were he living now he would have been able to make
large additions to his list.
In the year 1222 the parish of St. Margaret constituted the whole
of Westminster, but a very few years afterwards a large portion was
abstracted to form the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which for four
or five centuries included nearly all the west of London. The parish
of St. Paul, Covent Garden, was carved out of St. Martin's in 1645 >
that of St. Anne, Soho, in 1678; and that of St. James in 1685 ; but
it was not until 1725, when the parish of St. George, Hanover Square,
was constituted, that the extreme west was taken away from the parish
of St. Martin. These dates show very clearly the slow but steady
INTRODUCTION
growth westward. It must not be forgotten that there was also a con-
siderable growth eastward. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in
October 1685, and the consequent migration into this country of a large
number of industrious French Protestants, caused a considerable growth
in the east end of London. It was then that the silk manufactories at
Spitalfields were established.
William III. cared little for London, the smoke of which gave him
asthma, and when a great part of Whitehall was burnt in 1691, he pur-
chased Nottingham House and made it into Kensington Palace. For
convenience of communication with London, the King caused a broad
road to be made through Hyde Park, which was lighted by lanterns at
night. Kensington was then an insignificant village, but the arrival of
the Court soon caused it to grow into importance.
In the 1 8th century London had grown into a City of very con-
siderable proportions, but it had not become positively unwieldy in
size, and it would seem to have been esteemed an exceedingly agree-
able place to live in. It certainly produced some of the most devoted
Londoners. Dr. Johnson, although he came to London after his first
youth was past, and although he always retained a fond affection for
his birthplace, Lichfield, thought that London was the only place in the
world where a man could really live. He was constantly moving, and
he therefore had a considerable experience of various parts of the town.
At first he went to Exeter Street, Strand, then he migrated to Green-
wich. He brought his wife to Woodstock Street, near Hanover Square,
then he moved to Castle Street, Cavendish Square, after that he was
in the Strand, in Boswell Court, in the Strand again, in Bow Street, in
Holborn, in Fetter Lane, and in Holborn again. In Gough Square he
compiled the great Dictionary, but when that work was finished, and
supplies no longer came in from the publishers, Johnson was forced to
seek a cheaper lodging in Staple Inn. He then crossed Holborn to
Gray's Inn. Afterwards he went to Inner Temple Lane, to Johnson's
Court, and in Bolt Court, close by his beloved Fleet Street, he died.
A still more representative Londoner was Hogarth. He did not
change his quarters so often as Johnson, but he has left us a series of
the most marvellous pictures of the London life of his time and this
life in all its phases is mirrored in his pictures and engravings. He
shows us tavern life, and theatrical life, also the hospitals, the prisons,
and streets. It is a very unlovely picture, but the cruelty and crime
that is painted so true to life must have caused many to labour for a
reformation of manners, a reformation that was brought about in the
end, and in the attainment of that end the labours of Hogarth must
not be forgotten. It is perhaps necessary to mention that this artist's
topography is not always to be trusted, as it was often sacrificed to
pictorial effect.
In conclusion, it is necessary to speak of the great northern and
southern growth of London.
In 1756, and for some years subsequently, the land behind
INTRODUCTION
Montague House (now the British Museum) was occupied as a farm,
and when in that year a proposal was made to plan out a new road,
the tenant and the Duke of Bedford strongly opposed it. In 1 7 7 2 all
beyond Portland Chapel, in Great Portland Street, was country, and in
illustration of this it may be mentioned that the mother of John Thomas
Smith (author of a Book for a Rainy Day), being recommended to rise
early and take milk at the cowhouse, used to cross the New Road and
walk to a place called Williams's Farm, near the Jews' Harp House
Tavern and Tea Gardens, on the borders of Marylebone (now Regent's)
Park. Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square had its full view of
Hampstead and Highgate from the back, and Queen's Square was
built open to the north in order that the inhabitants might obtain the
same view. The north-east end of Upper Montague Street is the site
of the celebrated "Brothers Steps" or "Field of Forty Footsteps,"
which took this name from a legendary story that two brothers were in
love with one lady, who would not declare a preference for either, but
coolly sat on a bank to witness the termination of a duel that proved
fatal to both. It is said that the bank upon which the lady sat, and
the footmarks of the brothers when pacing the ground, never produced
grass again. Southey went to see the steps and counted seventy-six,
and Joseph Moser saw them in 1806, just before they were built over.
Bedford Square was planned in the last years of the i8th century, and
Russell Square in 1804.
To show how rural the northern portion of this district was, it may
be mentioned that the gardens of the houses in Upper Gower Street
were famous for the fine celery grown there. Camden Town was
begun in 1791, and the High Street consisted of a terrace of houses
looking over Marylebone Park. The houses on the west side when
they were built were only allowed to be low in height, so that the
opposite houses might not lose their view. It is only of late years
that upper storeys have been added to them. Now the northern
growth has gone on so rapidly that the hills of Hampstead and of High-
gate have been reached. After the Great Exhibition of 1851, another
extensive district was added to London that of South Kensington.
With the opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham in 1854 a great
increase in the southern portion of the town commenced. While
houses were in this way being added to houses, the river as the centre
and very life of London was forgotten. As a consequence, the place
was ugly and wanting in homogeneity there was no point where one
could take a visitor and say that is London. With the creation of
the noble embankments this is changed, and we can now be proud
of our City. London has marched on, swallowing up all that it has
overtaken. Sometimes villages have been brought into the circuit, and
sometimes open fields without a history have been built upon. It is
significant of the ever onward growth of London, which swallows up
villages and country fields alike, that there are something like twenty-
five High Streets in London. This unparalleled increase in the size
INTRODUCTION
of London has necessitated the present movement for the formation of
parks and the retention of open spaces. In the lyth and i8th
centuries a walk would take the Londoner outside the circle of houses,
but now the pilgrim must undertake a railway journey to do the same
thing. Hence the due reservation of open spaces, and the planting
of trees in the roads and avenues has become a positive necessity
for the health of the Community. The tide of change just alluded to,
which has so completely altered the appearance of London, is not likely
to cease its flow. Much has already been done in the rebuilding of
business premises and mansions, and in the erection of residential flats,
and doubtless we shall see in the future a great work done in the im-
provement of buildings in the East End. The School Board has dotted
its buildings all over London, and the late Metropolitan Board of Works
greatly improved the appearance of London by the construction of the
Thames Embankments and the planning of new streets, and made the
place more healthy by means of improved drainage. But much more
has still to be done, and the London County Council has an important
public work before it. The Londoner will, as an archaeologist, regret
the many interesting relics of the past which have been swept away,
but as a patriot he will rejoice at what has already been done for the
improvement of the sanitary condition and the architectural appearance
of the greatest city in the world.
LONDON:
PAST AND PRESENT.
Abbey Road, ST. JOHN'S WOOD. John Gibson Lockhart, the
editor of the Quarterly Review (1826-1853), and biographer of Scott,
lived at No. 44 a house in a garden during the last years of his
London life. He died at Abbotsford, December 1854.
Abbey Street, BERMONDSEY. The eastern extension of Long
Lane, east of Bermondsey Street, marks the site of Bermondsey Abbey.
[See Bermondsey.] North of Abbey Street is the church of St. Mary
Magdalene, from which the abbey buildings and precinct extended
southwards. The principal gateway of the Abbey, with its postern, was
still standing "at the north-west corner of King John's Court" in 1806
(it was drawn for Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata in 1805), but was
shortly afterwards removed for the formation of Abbey Street. The
east gateway in Grange Walk, south-east of Abbey Street, was demolished
about 1760.
1808. The Bermondseans for a love of alteration have this year contrived a
new road of no perceptible use or convenience through the very heart of the existing
walls of the abbey. J. Carter, Gentleman's Magazine, 1808.
Abchurch Lane, connecting LOMBARD STREET with CANNON
STREET, was so named from the parish of St. Mary Abchurch, or
Upchurch, as Stow says he had seen it written. Mr. John Moore,
"author of the celebrated worm-powder" (d. 1737), lived in this lane.
Oh learned friend of Abchurch Lane,
Who sett'st our entrails free !
Vain is thy art, thy powder vain,
Since worms shall eat e'en thee. POPE.
In the open square called Abchurch Yard, at the junction of
Sherborne Lane, is the church of St. Mary Abchurch, designed by Sir
Christopher Wren in 1686. [See St. Mary Abchurch.]
Here, in the house of Thomas Shepherd, " a merchant upon
Change," in the reign of Charles II., William Lord Russell, Algernon
VOL I. B
ABCHURCH LANE
Sidney, the Duke of Monmouth, and others opposed to the party of the
Duke of York, were accustomed to meet. The Mother Wells, whose
cakes or "pasties" are celebrated in Webster's Northward Ho (1607)
and Haughton's Englishman for my Money (1616, acted 1598), had her
establishment in this lane. Burn describes a token of John Lucas at
the White Bear "in Abchurch Lane, 1665, his half-peny." The
White Bear was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Five and twenty
years later Abchurch Lane could boast of a still more celebrated tavern
and eating-house. [See Pontacks.]
Abercorn Place, Sx JOHN'S WOOD. Charles R. Leslie, R.A.,
died at No. 2, on May 5, 1859. He removed here from Pine Apple
Place in 1847.
Abergavenny, or Burgaveny House, at the north end of
Ave Maria Lane, was the residence of Henry Nevill, sixth Earl of
Abergavenny (d. 1587).
At the north end of Ave Mary Lane, is one great house, builded of stone and
timber, of old time pertaining to John, Duke of Britaine, Earl of Richmond, as appeareth
by the records of Edward II. Since that it is called PembrooK's Inn, near unto
Ludgate ; as belonging to the Earls of Pembrook, in the times of Richard II. the
1 8th year; and of Henry VI. the I4th year. It is now called Burgaveny House,
and belongeth to Henry, late Lord of Burgaveny. Stow, Survey of London, p.
127.
In December 1558 Sir Nicholas Bacon writes to Matthew Parker
to come to him "at Burgeny House in Paternoster Row," and the
future archbishop in reply inquires at what time he may wait on his
"worship at Burgeny or at Newmarket." 1 The house was afterwards
purchased by the Company of Stationers, who made it their Hall. It
was destroyed in the fire of 1666, and the present hall erected on the
site. [See Stationers' Hall]
Abingdon Street, WESTMINSTER, runs north and south parallel
to the Thames from Old Palace Yard to Millbank Street. It is said to
commemorate the name of Mary Abingdon, or Habington, sister to
the Lord Monteagle, the lady to whom is ascribed the famous letter
which occasioned the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. 2 But this is
very unlikely, as Abingdon Street was only formed under the provisions
of the Act 23 Geo. II., 1750, the previous thoroughfare, called Dirty
Lane, being " a narrow lane, pestered with coaches, narrow and incon-
venient." 3 Thomas Telford, engineer of the Menai Bridge, lived and
died (December 25, 1834) at No. 24 in this street. Richard Bentley,
the great critic, and in 1787 Isaac Hawkins Browne, lived here. The
gallant Sir John Malcolm lived at No. 1 2, David Roberts, R. A., at No.
8. In Abingdon Buildings, a turning between Nos. 16 and 17 at the
Old Palace Yard end of Abingdon Street, Richard Cumberland lived
shortly after his marriage in 1759.*
1 Parker's Letters, pp. 49,52. 4 Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, 1806,
- Smith's Westminster, p. 41. p. 156.
3 Walcott's Westminster, p. 24.
ADD/SON ROAD
Abney Park Cemetery, STOKE NEWINGTON (3! miles from the
General Post Office) consisting of 30 acres, was opened by the Lord
Mayor, May 20, 1840. Here is a statue of Dr. Isaac Watts, by Baily,
R.A., erected to commemorate the residence for 36 years of Watts
at Abney Park, the seat of his friend Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor
in 1700. The site of the house is included in the cemetery. Among
those buried here may be mentioned William Hone, George Offor,
the collector of Bunyan's works, and Sir Charles Reed, M.P. (1819-
1881), late Chairman of the London School Board.
Academy of Arts (Royal). [See Royal Academy.]
Academy of Music (Royal). [See Royal Academy of Music.]
Achilles (STATUE OF so called). [See Hyde Park.]
Adam Street. [See Adelphi.]
Adam and Eve, at the corner of the Hampstead and Euston
Roads, is supposed to stand on the site of the Old Manor House of
Tottenhall, and in July 1796 the General Court Baron of the Lord of
the Manor was held at this tavern. The Adam and Eve was at one
time famous for its cream cakes and for its menagerie, and the gardens
were a favourite resort of pleasure-seekers until the end of the last
century, when the character of the visitors deteriorated. Lunardi the
aeronaut came down into these gardens in May 1783, after having
ascended from the Artillery ground. The rural condition of the
neighbourhood in Hogarth's day is seen from his picture of "The
March to Finchley."
George Barnwell
Determined to be quite the crack, O !
Would lounge at the Adam and Eve
And call for his gin and tobacco.
Rejected Addresses.
Eden Street was built on the gardens of the old tavern.
Adam and Eve Court, OXFORD STREET, a turning on the
north side, west of Wells Street, and nearly opposite the Pantheon.
In a card designed by Hogarth for James Figg, he is described as
" Master of ye noble science of defence " dwelling " on ye right hand
in Oxford Road near Adam and Eve Court."
Addison Road, KENSINGTON, runs from the Kensington Road,
west of Holland House, to the Uxbridge Road, opposite Royal
Crescent, named after Joseph Addison, who lived at Holland House
after his marriage with the Countess of Warwick.
My Lord Holland has always some of these Highland sheep at Kensington, in
his beautiful park and farm, which he disfigured and half spoiled during the building
madness of his colleague Robinson's matchless prosperity of 1824 and 1825. When
in the former of these years I saw Addison Road come and cut his beautiful farm
across, and when I saw Cato Cottage and Homer Villa start up on the side of that
road, I said My Lord (and I am very sorry for it) will pay pretty dearly for his taste
for the classics. Cobbett's Northern Tour, p. 88.
ADDLE HILL
Addle Hill, between UPPER THAMES STREET and GREAT CARTER
LANE (the lower part cut by Queen Victoria Street); on a token
of the i yth century, Adlin Hill. About this time it appears to
have been in favour with printers. The Shoemakers' Holiday was
printed in 1600 by "Valentine Sims, dwelling at the foot of Adling
Hill, near Barnard's Castle, at the sign of the White Swan." Sims
was living there three years earlier, and another printer, Simon Stafford,
was "dwelling on Adling Hill" in 1600.
Addle Street, between WOOD STREET and ALDERMANBURY.
Then is Adle Street, the reason of which name I know not. Stow, p. in.
Very probable it is that this church [St. Alban's, Wood Street] is at least of as
ancient a standing as King Adelstane the Saxon ; who, as the tradition says, had his
house at the east end of this church. This King's house having a door also in Adel
Street, gave name as 'tis thought unto the said Adel Street, which in all evidences to
this day is written King Adel Street. Antony Munday (Stow, ed. 163.3).
The Saxon word Ael or Adel is simply noble. No. 1 8 is Brewers'
Hall. Next No. 23 was Plasterers' Hall.
Adelaide Place, the broad space between KING WILLIAM
STREET and the north foot of LONDON BRIDGE. So named after
Adelaide, Queen of William IV., in whose reign the approaches to
London Bridge were completed. Fishmongers' Hall occupies the west
side of Adelaide Place.
Adelaide Street, KING WILLIAM STREET, WEST STRAND. Like
Adelaide Place, was so called after Queen Adelaide, the improvements
in this part of the Strand having been carried out in the reign of
William IV.
The Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science (now Messrs. Gatti's) was
built by Jacob Perkins the engineer, and opened in 1832 for the
exhibition of models of inventions, works of art, and specimens of novel
manufacture. Here was exhibited Perkins's steam gun, and in a canal
70 feet long, containing 6000 gallons of water, models of steamboats,
etc.
Adelphi (The). A large pile of building (" the bold Adelphi " of
the Heroic Epistle) with dwellings and warehouses, erected in the early
part of the reign of George III., on the site of Durham House, and
called the Adelphi, from the brothers Adam, the projectors and architects.
Robert and James Adam were architects of repute natives of Scotland,
patronised by the Earl of Bute, for whom they built Lansdowne House,
in Berkeley Square, and by Lord Mansfield, for whom they built Caen
Wood House, near Hampstead. When in July 1768 the Adelphi
Buildings were commenced, the Court and City were in direct opposi-
tion, and the citizens were glad in any little way in their power to show
their hostility to the Court. The brothers Adam were patronised by
the King, and having in their Adelphi Buildings encroached, it was
thought, too far upon the Thames, and thus interfered with the rights
of the Lord Mayor as conservator of the river, the citizens applied to
THE ADELPHI 5
Parliament for protection, but lost their cause through the influence
of the Crown, as Walpole asserts. 1 The feeling was greatly aggravated
by the brothers coming from the wrong side of the Tweed.
Four Scotchmen, by the name of Adams,
Who keep their coaches and their madams,
Quoth John, in sulky mood, to Thomas,
Have stole the very river from us !
O Scotland, long has it been said,
Thy teeth are sharp for English bread ;
What seize our bread and water too
And use us worse than jailors do :
'Tis true, 'tis hard ; 'tis hard, 'tis true.
Ye friends of George, and friends of James,
Envy us not our river Thames ;
The Princess, fond of raw-boned faces,
May give you all our posts and places ;
Take all to gratify your pride,
But dip your oatmeal in the Clyde.
Foundling Hospital for Wit, ed. 1784, vol. iv. p. 189.
In order to make the necessary encroachments on the river, a
special Act of Parliament was obtained (2 Geo. III. c. 34, 1771).
Durham yard was occupied by a number of small low-lying houses,
coal-sheds, and lay-stalls, washed by the muddy deposits of the Thames.
The property then was in the possession of the Duke of St. Alban's,
from whom the Adams leased it for ninety-nine years, from Lady-day
1768, at a yearly rent of ^1200. The leases expired in 1867, when
the whole property came into the possession of Messrs. Drummond,
who obtained the estate from the trustees of the Duke of St. Alban's.
The change effected by the brothers was extraordinary : they threw a
series of arches over the whole declivity allowed the wharves to remain
connected the river with the Strand by a spacious archway, and over
these extensive vaultings erected a series of well-built streets, a noble
terrace towards the river, and a house with a convenient suite of
rooms for the then recently established Society of Arts. But the
architecture was not without its critics :
What are the Adelphi Buildings ? Warehouses, laced down the seams, like a
soldier's frill in a regimental old coat. Walpole to Mason, July 29, 1773. -
Adam Street leads from the Strand to the Adelphi and its Terrace,
and the names of the brothers, John, Robert, James, and William,
are preserved in adjoining streets.
When the scheme was first set on foot, Mr. Coutts, of the Strand,
being anxious to preserve the fine prospect over the Kent and Surrey
hills, which the back windows of his banking house then afforded,
purchased a share of the Durham Gardens property, and arranged with
the Messrs. Adam that the streets should be so laid out as to preserve
their vista, and Robert Street was accordingly so planned as to form a
frame for the wealthy banker's landscape. The piece of land between
William Street and John Street was at that time occupied by his strong
1 Walpole, Memoirs of George in., vol. iv. p. 175.
THE ADELPHI
rooms, connected underground with the office, and built up only to the
level of the Strand. When it became necessary to enlarge his premises
he procured a special Act of Parliament for throwing an arch over
William Street. It was recognised as a good omen that, on the day of
opening these improvements, Nelson sent to Mr. Coutts for security
the diamond aigrette which had been presented to him by the Sultan.
Eminent Inhabitants. David Garrick, in the centre house, No. 5
(now No. 4), of the terrace, from 1772, when he removed here from
Southampton Street, till his death in 1779. The ceiling of the front
drawing-room was painted by Antonio Zucchi, A.R.A., an artist intro-
duced by the Messrs. Adam to decorate their buildings. A chimney-
piece of white marble in the same room is said to have cost ^300.
But the back rooms were dark and gloomy, and only the front
drawing-room could be called a fine room Note to Garrick
Correspondence. Garrick died in the back room of the first floor ; and
his widow in the same house and room in 1822. It is now the
office of the Literary Fund. Topham Beauclerk (Johnson's friend).
He [Johnson] and I walked away together ; we stopped a little while by the
rails of the Adelphi, looking on the Thames, and I said to him with some emotion,
that I was now thinking of two friends we had lost, who once lived in the buildings
behind us: Beauclerk and Garrick. "Ay, Sir," said he tenderly, "and two such
friends as cannot be supplied." Boswell, by Croker, p. 687.
The Earl of Beaconsfield was said to have been born in the Adelphi
on December 31, 1803. During his last illness Lord Barrington one
day asked him where he was born. " I was born in the Adelphi," he
replied, " and I may say in a library. My father was not rich when
he married. He took a suite of apartments in the Adelphi, and he
possessed a large collection of books, all the rooms were covered with
them, including that in which I was born." Times, April 20, 1881.
This, however, appears to be a mistake. Isaac D'Israeli lived in
James Street until his marriage, and then moved to King's Road,
Bedford Row. [See James Street] The notice of Mr. Disraeli's
marriage stood as follows: "loth January 1802 Isaac D'Israeli Esq
of the Adelphi to Miss Basevi of Billiter Square."
When the Adelphi was building, Becket, the bookseller in the
Strand, was anxious to remove his shop to the corner house of Adam
Street leading to the Adelphi ; and Garrick was an applicant by letter
to the " dear Adelphi," for this east " corner blessing," as he calls
it, for his friend. "Garrick to Adam," Hone's Every Day Book, vol. i.
p. 327. The application was successful, Becket obtaining the house,
No. 73, north-east corner of Adam Street. It was burnt down (June
28, 1822) and rebuilt on the same plan as before.
Adelphi Hotel, August 8, 1787. Intelligence extraordinary. This day (August
the seventh) the celebrated E. G. arrived with a numerous retinue (one servant).
We hear that he has brought over from Lausanne the remainder of his History for
immediate publication. Gibbon to Lord Sheffield.
In Osborne's Hotel, in John Street, the King ot the Sandwich
Islands (Rhio-Rhio, son and successor of Tamehameha, who placed his
A DELPHI THEATRE
kingdom under the protection of England) resided while on a visit to
this country in the reign of George IV. The King died there, Sep-
tember 14, 1824 ; his Queen the week before. The son and biographer
of Crabbe the poet mentions that, in 1813, his father and mother had
occupied the same apartments. Isaac D'Israeli stayed at this hotel on
his return from his wedding tour, and before settling in King's Road.
Dr. Thomas Munro, the early patron of Turner, and other young
artists. Rowlandson died here April 22, 1827. Mr. Thomas Hill,
the supposed original of Paul Pry, died at No. 2 James Street. The
architectural effect of the Adelphi Terrace has been greatly altered
by the formation of the Thames Embankment in front of it. In the
Adelphi arches a battery of guns was quietly stowed away, ready for
use if required, on the memorable tenth of April 1 848.
The arches under the Adelphi were open for many years, and
formed subterranean streets leading to the wharves on the Thames.
About thirty years ago these dark arches had a bad name, on account
of the desperate characters who congregated there and hid themselves
in the innermost recesses, but now they are mostly enclosed and form
extensive cellarage for wine merchants.
Adelphi Chapel, JAMES STREET, was built by a congregation of
Particular Baptists about 1777, but the meeting-house was afterwards
sold to the Calvinistic Baptists. It was occupied by an Independent
congregation until its incorporation into the buildings occupied by
Coutts's banking house, when the congregation removed to the
Hackney Road and gave the old name to their new chapel. The
windows show the use to which the house was originally put, and it
is still called the chapel by Messrs. Coutts.
Adelphi Theatre, over against Adam Street, Adelphi, in the
STRAND, originally called THE SANS PAREIL, was built by Mr. John
Scott, a colour maker, and first opened November 27, 1806. The enter-
tainments consisted of a mechanical and optical exhibition, with
songs, recitations, and imitations ; and the talents of Miss Scott, the
daughter of the proprietor, gave a profitable turn to the undertaking.
When Tom and Jerry, by Pierce Egan, appeared for the first time
(November 26, 1821), Wrench. as "Tom" and Reeve as "Jerry," the
little Adelphi, as it was then called, became a favourite with the
public. In July 1825 Daniel Terry and Frederick Henry Yates
became the joint lessees and managers. Terry was backed by Sir
Walter Scott and his friend Ballantyne the printer, but Scott in the
sequel had to pay for both Ballantyne and himself to the amount of
^1750. Terry retired in 1828, and Yates was joined by Charles
Mathews (the elder), and gave here his series of inimitable " At
Homes." Mr. Benjamin Webster succeeded Mr. Yates as manager ;
purchased the property ; rebuilt the house on a somewhat larger scale
(1858, Mr. Thomas H. Wyatt, architect), and both as actor and
manager long maintained the high character of the establishment.
ADELPH1 THEATRE
Or in the Adelphi sitting, half in rapture, half in tears,
Saw the glorious melodrama conjure up the shades of years.
Bon Gaultier's Ballads.
The Strand front was widened and entirely altered in 1887-1888.
Adjutant General's Office, WAR OFFICE, PALL MALL. [See
Horse Guards.]
Admiralty (The), at WHITEHALL, occupies the site of Wallingford
House, whither, in the reign of William III., the business of the Admiralty
was removed from Duke Street, Westminster. The front, towards the street,
of brick and stone, a centre with a tetrastyle Ionic portico and projecting
wings, was built in the reign of George I. (1722-1726). The estimated
cost was .22,400, the architect Thomas Ripley, the designer of Hough-
ton Hall in Norfolk, the " Ripley with a rule " commemorated by
Pope :
See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall,
While Jones's and Boyle's united labours fall.
The Dunciad, B. iii.
"The Admiralty," says Horace Walpole, the son of the owner of
Houghton Hall, " is a most ugly edifice, and deservedly veiled by Mr.
[Robert] Adam's handsome screen," 1 built about 1760. In the room
to the left (as you enter from the Hall) the body of Lord Nelson lay in
state. There is a characteristic portrait of Lord Nelson, painted at
Palermo, in 1799, for Sir William Hamilton, by Leonardo Guzzardi ;
he wears the diamond plume given to him by the Sultan.
The Admiralty Board consists of a First Lord, who is now usually a
member of the Cabinet, is responsible for the conduct of the department,
answers for it in Parliament, and, if a member of the House of Commons,
moves the estimates for it, four Naval Lords, a Civil Lord, and a
Parliamentary and permanent Secretary. The superior permanent
officers are a Comptroller of the Navy, Director of Victualling, Director
of Works, Director of Transports, Hydrographer, Accountant General,
and Medical Director General. The office of Lord High Admiral, since
the Revolution of 1688, has, with three exceptions, been held in com-
mission. The exceptions are, Prince George of Denmark, the husband of
Queen Anne, 1702-1708 ; Thomas, Earl of Pembroke, for a short time
in 1709; and the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV., in
1827-1828. Among the First Lords Commissioners we may find the
names of Anson, Hawke, Howe, Keppel, and St. Vincent.
Adjoining to, and communicating with the Admiralty, is a spacious
house for the residence of the First Lord, designed about 1796 by
Mr. S. P. Cockerell, architect. The salary of the First Lord is 4500
a year, and he has the entire patronage of the Navy. The civil depart-
ment of the Admiralty has been removed from Somerset House to
Spring Gardens.
1 Of the Admiralty, as built by Ripley, there as it appeared in the days of Nelson and Jervis,
is a view by Wale, in London and its Environs there is a good view in the Microcosm of Lon-
Describtd, 6 vols. 8vo, 1761 ; of the Board-room don.
57: AGNES LE CLAIR
Admiralty (The Court of) was held formerly in Southwark (on
St. Margaret's Hill, in part of the old church of St. Margaret), and
was removed circ. 1675 to Doctors' Commons. 1 It is now included in
the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Divisions of the High Court of
Justice. The Admiralty Court Registry is kept at Somerset House.
Adult Orphan Institution, ST. ANDREW'S PLACE, REGENT'S
PARK. Instituted 1818, for the education and maintenance of un-
provided orphan daughters of clergymen of the Established Church,
and of military and naval officers, whom it receives at an age when
they would be discharged from other institutions, and trains for
governesses. No girl is admitted under 14 or above 17, and none
remain after 19. It was originally proposed to make the institution a
memorial of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, but this idea was soon
dropped. The asylum was opened in Mornington Place (Nos. 32 and
33), and removed in 1824 to the Regent's Park; the house there
being built on a plan gratuitously furnished by John Nash, the architect,
and on ground granted to the institution by the Government. In
1879 the scheme was enlarged to admit orphan daughters of civil
servants of the first class, and at the same time the title was changed
to the Princess Helena College for Young Ladies. The college was
removed in 1882 from the Regent's Park to Ealing.
African House, LEADENHALL STREET, was the office of the
Royal African Company, a trading company established by Act 23
Geo. II., c. 31 (1754). In 1821 the Charter of Incorporation was
recalled by Parliament i and 2 Geo. IV. c. 28, and the possessions of
the Company on the west coast of Africa were by the same Act an-
nexed to and made dependencies upon the colony of Sierra Leone.
An African Company was formed in London as early as 1588.
Agar Town, a poor district near St. Pancras Workhouse, almost
entirely covered by the warehouses of the Midland Railway Company,
to whom the fee-simple was transferred by the Ecclesiastical Com-
missioners. The locality was named after William Agar, a lawyer,
popularly called Counsellor Agar, on whose property a large number
of small houses were built about the year 1841. The poverty and
wretchedness exhibited here caused Dickens to style it in 1851 a
Suburban Connemara. Tom Sayers the pugilist lived in Agar Town
for many years.
Agnes (St.), ALDERSGATE. Among the manuscripts of the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's is a "Grant by Herbert de Sancto
Albano to Garin, son of Garner le Turner, of a piece of ground before
the Church of St. Agnes, 'de Aldredes gate.'" Report by H. C.
Maxwell Lyte (Ninth Report, Historical MSS. Comm., Appendix, p. 2).
Agnes Le Clair (St.) A celebrated well near Old Street Road.
It was situated at the Old Street end of Paul Street, the northern ex-
1 Hatton's New View of London, 2 vols. 8vo, 1708, vol. ii. p. 639.
io ST. AGNES LE CLAIR
tension of Wilson Street, Finsbury Square. On June 15, 1381, after
Sir William Walworth had slain Wat Tyler in " Smethefelde," he pursued
the rebels to "the spring that is called Whitewellbeche" which Mr.
Riley thinks must be the same that was called Dame Annis the clear ; J
but this is certainly a mistake. Whitewellbeche was a close or meadow,
belonging to the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, at the opposite end of
Old Street, where is now Wilderness Row, or Clerkenwell Road. 2
Somewhat north from Holywell is one other well, curved square with stone, and
is called Dame Annis the clear, and not far from it, but somewhat west, is also one
other clear water called Perillous pond [Peerless Pool], because divers youths by
swimming therein have been drowned. Stow, p. 7.
Gent. But, sir, here is stones set upright ; what is the meaning of them ?
Citizen. Marry where they stand, runs . . . from a spring called Dame Annis
de Cleare, called by the name of a rich London widow, called Annis Clare, who,
matching herself with a riotous courtier, in the time of Edward I., who vainely
consumed all her wealth, and leaving her much in povertie, there she drowned
herself, being then but a shallow ditch or running water. The Pleasant Walks of
Moore Fields, a Dialogue between a Country Gentleman and a Citizen, 1607.
When we got into Moorfields . . . away he had me through Long Alley,
and cross Hog Lane and Holloway [Holywell] Lane into the middle of the great
fields which, since that, has been called the Farthing-Pie-House-Fields. There we
would have sat down, but it was full of water ; so we went on, crossed the road at
Anniseed Cleer, and went into the field where now the great hospital [Haberdashers'
Almshouses] stands. De Foe's Colonel Jack, p. 45.
As recently as the early years of the present century the district
south of Old Street the Tabernacle Walk and Paul Street was known
as St. Agnes-Ze-Clair Fields ; but the fields have long been built over.
The northern end of Tabernacle Walk is still called St. Agnes Terrace,
but St. Agnes Crescent and St. Agnes Street have disappeared or
received other names.
Agricultural Hall, ISLINGTON, entrances Liverpool Road and
Islington Green, was erected 1861-1862, Mr. Fred. Peck, architect,
for the Christmas Cattle Shows of the Smithfield Club. The building
covers an area of nearly three acres, and cost about ^40,000. The
hall was opened on June 24, 1862, with a Dog Show, and the first
Cattle Show took place on December 6 of the same year. The Great
Hall is 384 feet long and 217 wide, has galleries 34 feet wide, borne
on iron columns, and is covered with an arched roof of iron and glass.
There are besides subsidiary exhibition courts, refreshment rooms, etc.
The principal front in the Liverpool Road is of brick, but is little more
than a great entrance flanked by towers. The Christmas Cattle Show,
for which it is well adapted, is still the main purpose of the building ;
but in summer and autumn great horse and other shows are held in it,
and at other times it is let for circus and other performances and
exhibitions for walking, running, and wrestling matches; and on
Sundays it has been used as a place of worship. A large number of
special exhibitions, such as Building, Sanitary, Furniture, and Dairy
Exhibitions have been held in successive years.
1 Riley, Memorials, p. 451. 2 Cotton. MSS. Claud, E. vi. 19.
ST. ALBAN'S STREET
Air Street, PICCADILLY (crosses Regent Quadrant to Brewer
Street), was in existence in 1659,* and was then the most westerly
street in London. In 1671 Colonel Panton applied for licence to
" build and finish certain houses in the continuation of a street, named
Windmill Street, from the upper end of the Haymarket to the highway
leading from Soho Square to Ayre Street and Paddington." 2 When
Lauder in 1750 published his disgraceful "Essay" on Milton, he
wrote from "the corner house, the bottom of Ayre Street, Piccadilly."
Thomas Phillips, R.A. (d. 1845), was living at No. 20 in 1796.
Alban's (St.), between BROOK STREET, Holborn, and BALDWIN'S
GARDENS, Gray's Inn Road, a church noteworthy architecturally, and
from the notoriety acquired by the extreme ritualistic ceremonial,
vestments, processions, decorations, and practices of its services. It
was erected 1860-1863 on tne S ^ Q f a training school for young pick-
pockets, known as the " Thieves Kitchen," in the midst of a wretched
district, and was for many years the scene of the devoted labours
of the vicar, the late Rev. Alex. Heriot Mackonochie. Mr. William
Butterfield was the architect; the cost, .35,000, was defrayed by Mr.
J. G. Hubbard, M.P., now Lord Addington. The building is of
brick, Gothic ; spacious, unusually lofty, and well lighted, the dimen-
sions being 120 feet long, 50 wide, and 90 high. There is no east
window, the whole east end being covered with quaint paintings by
L'Estrange and Preedy, and elaborate symbolical decorations in ala-
baster and coloured marbles.
Alban's (St.), WOOD STREET. A church in Cripplegate Ward ; a
piece of well-proportioned quasi-Gothic, built in the years 1684-1685 by
Sir Christopher Wren. There is a curious old hour-glass attached to
the pulpit. The church described by Stow was taken down in 1632,
and the new one built in its stead (by Inigo Jones, it is thought) was
burnt in the Great Fire. It serves as well for St. Olave's, Silver Street.
The living is a rectory in the gift alternately of Eton College and the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, valued at 530. Sir John Cheke
(d. 1557), who taught "Cambridge and King Edward Greek," was
buried in the old church.
Alban's (St.) Street, PALL MALL, a small street removed, in
1815, to make way for Waterloo Place and Regent Street, so called
after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban, from whom Jermyn Street also
derives its name. Its name is preserved in St. Alban's Place, a paved
passage running from Charles Street to Jermyn Street, parallel to the
Haymarket. St. Evremond, after being driven from France, writes, on
his second visit to England, "November 23, 1678 . . . Je suis loge
dans St. Alban's Street au loin."
December 28, 1710. I came home to my new lodging, in St. Alban Street,
where I pay the same rent (eight shillings a week) for an apartment, two pair of
1 Rate -books of St. Martin's - in - the - 2 Elmes, Life of Sir Christopher Wren, 410
Fields. ed. p. 305.
12 ST. ALBAN'S TAVERN
stairs; but I have the use of the parlour to receive persons of quality. Swift,
Journal to Stella.
4 Alban's (St.) Tavern, ST. ALB AN 's STREET, PALL MALL, in the last
century celebrated for political and fashionable dinners and meetings.
May 3, 1749. This menace [of the Ministry] gave occasion to a meeting and
union between the Prince's party and the Jacobites. . . . They met at the St.
Alban's Tavern, near Pall Mall, last Monday morning, one hundred and twelve
Lords and Commoners. The Duke of Beaufort opened the Assembly. Walpole to
Sir Horace Mann (Letters, vol. ii. p. 153).
September 9, 1 771. I must tell you of a set of young men of fashion who, dining
lately at the St. Alban's Tavern, thought the noise of the coaches troublesome. They
ordered the street to be littered with straw, as is done for women that lie in. The
bill from the Haymarket amounted to fifty shillings apiece. Walpole to Mann
(Letters, vol. v. p. 334).
Brookes' and St. Alban's boasts not, but instead
Stares the Red Ram, and swings the Rodney's head.
Crabbe's Newspaper, 1785.
And see Peter Pindar's Ode of Condolence.
Albany (The), north side of PICCADILLY, a suite of chambers or
dwelling-houses for single gentlemen, established 1804, and let by the
proprietors to any person who does not carry on a trade or profession
in the chambers. The mansion in the centre was designed by Sir
William Chambers, architect, and sold in 1770, by Stephen Fox, second
Lord Holland, to the first Viscount Melbourne, who exchanged it with
Frederick Duke of York and Albany for Melbourne House, Whitehall.
Lord Holland has sold Piccadilly House to Lord Melbourne, and it is to be
called Melbourne House. Rigby to Lord Ossory, December 6, 1 770. The site of the
house built by Chambers was previously occupied by Sunderland House [which see].
When the house was converted into chambers, the gardens behind were
also built over with additional suites of rooms. Eminent Inhabitants.
M. G. (Monk} Lewis, in No. i K ; Lewis mentions in his will that
these chambers cost him ^600. George Canning, in No. 5 A, 1807
and following years. Lord Althorp, afterwards Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in Set No. 2 A. He parted with them in 1814 to Lord
Byron, who here wrote his Lara.
Albany, March 28, 1814. This night got into my new apartments, rented
of Lord Althorp, on a lease of seven years. Spacious, and rooms for my books and
sabres. In the house, too, another advantage. By ton's Journal.
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (Lord Lytton) afterwards occupied the
same chambers, and wrote some of his best works in them. Lord
Althorp again occupied chambers here, 1820-1830. Lord (then Mr.)
Macaulay, Set No. i E., second floor.
I have taken a very comfortable suite of chambers in the Albany ; and I hope
to lead, during some years, a sort of life peculiarly suited to my taste, a college life
at the west end of London. I have an entrance hall, two sitting-rooms, a bedroom,
a kitchen, cellars, and two rooms for servants, all for 90 guineas a year ; and
this in a situation which no younger son of a duke need be ashamed to be put on his
card. -Macaulay to Mr. Ellis, July 12, 1841.
Macaulay lived here close upon 15 years, removing to Holly
Lodge, Kensington, in May 1856. Here he wrote the first volumes
of his History of England. Lord Carlisle, describing a breakfast at
ALBEMARLE HOUSE 13
Macaulay's rooms (February 12,1 849), at which he met " Van de Weyer,
Hallam, Charles Austin, Panizzi, Colonel Mure and Dicky Milnes "
(Lord Houghton), says : " His rooms at the top of the Albany are very
liveable and studious looking." Trevelyan's Life, vol. ii. p. 194.
His chambers, every corner of which was literary, were comfortably, though not
very brightly furnished. The ornaments were few but choice half a dozen fine
Italian engravings from his favourite great masters ; a handsome French clock, pro-
vided with a singularly melodious set of chimes, the gift of his friend and publisher,
Mr. Thomas Longman ; and the well-known bronze statuettes of Voltaire and Rousseau
(neither of them heroes of his own), which had been presented to him by Lady Holland
as a remembrance of her husband." Trevelyan, Life of Lord Macaulay, vol. ii. p. 97.
Sir William Gell, No. 2 I in 1810. Lord Valentia, No. 5 H in
1810. Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, No. 4. A, 1838. Commodore
Sir Charles Napier, 1843. Lord Glenelg (better known as Charles
Grant) No. 4 H, 1845, till his death in 1866.
Albany Street, east side of the REGENT'S PARK. Here are
barracks for a regiment of Life Guards. At the corner, in the Euston
Road, opposite Portland Road, is Trinity Church. A little way up on
the west side was the back entrance to the Colosseum, which is now
built over with houses. Benj. Phelps Gibbon, the engraver of several
of Landseer's best known works, died here, July 28, 1851. No. 37
was the residence and museum of Francis Trevelyan Buckland, the well
known writer on natural history, Inspector of Fisheries, and Promoter
of Fish-culture, who died here December 19, 1880.
The public-house, Queen's Head and Artichoke, was, at the end
of the last century, an old tavern in a meadow, entered from the New
Road by a turnstile. The sign was a weather-beaten portrait of Queen
Elizabeth ; and the tradition was that the house had been kept originally
by one of Her Majesty's gardeners.
Albemarle Buildings, the original name of the houses first built
in the streets laid out on the site of Albemarle House. The name
was derived from Christopher, second Duke of Albemarle, who, as
noticed under Albemarle Street, bought the Earl of Clarendon's mansion,
and afterwards sold the house and gardens to building speculators.
Albemarle Buildings occurs for the first time in the rate-books of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1685. There were then seven
inhabitants, the last on the list being " Will Longland, at the Ducking
Pond." Stafford Street was built in 1693, and Ducking Pond Row
(now Grafton Street) in 1723.
Albemarle House, CLERKENWELL. Newcastle House was for a
time so called, after Elizabeth, Duchess of Albemarle (afterwards of
Montague), who died here on August 28, 1 734. [Set Newcastle House.]
Albemarle House, PICCADILLY. [See Clarendon House.]
Lost, out of a coach, betwixt Hyde Park Corner and Albemarle House (hereto-
fore called Clarendon House), a small Box or Cabinet, wherein were three Bonds,
some acquittances, and other writings. Whoever brings the said Box and Writings
to the Porter of Albemarle House, shall have five pounds certainly paid. London
Gazette, December 30 to January 3, 1675-1676.
i 4 ALBEMARLE STREET
Albemarle Street, CLERKENWELL. Named after Albemarle
House. Samuel Ware, the architect, lived in this street, as did James
Carr, the architect of St. James's Church, Clerkenwell, built 1788-1792.
Albemarle Street, PICCADILLY, begun (circ. 1684) by Sir Thomas
Bond, Bart., on the site of Clarendon House.
Which said House and Gardens being sold by the Duke of Albemarle
[Christopher, the second Duke], was by the undertakers laid out into streets, who,
not being in a condition to finish so great a work, made mortgages and so entangled
the title, that it is not to this day finished, and God knows when it will. So that it
lieth like the ruins of Troy, some having only the foundations begun, others carried
up to the roofs, and others covered, but none of the inside work done. Yet those
houses that are finished, which are towards Piccadilly, meet with tenants. R. .,
in Strype, 1720, B. vi. p. 78.
In the New View of London , 1708, it is described as "a street
of excellent new building, inhabited by persons of quality, between the
fields and Portugal Street (Piccadilly), right against the north-west end
of St. James's Street."
Eminent Inhabitants. Sir William Wyndham ; his house was burnt
in March 1712, and he and his family escaped without clothes. He
had given ^7000 for the house, and many valuable pictures were
destroyed. Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., in (1717) the
house of the Earl of Grantham, the Princess's Chamberlain. The
next year the prince bought " that pouting place for our princes," as
Pennant calls it, Leicester House. Dr. Berkeley, the celebrated Bishop
of Cloyne, in 1724-1726.
I lodge at Mr. Fox's, an Apothecary in Albemarle Street, near St. James's.
Berkeley's Literary Relics, p. 99.
Dr. Richard Mead (d. 1754) here kept (1720) his celebrated col-
lection of drawings by Italian masters, purchased by George III., and
now in the Royal Library, Windsor. The Marquis of Hartington, on
his marriage, April i, 1748, to the only daughter of the Earl of
Burlington, " hired the large house in Albemarle Street that the Earl
Poulet lived in." Due de Nivernois, 1763.
January 12, 1763. I went with Maty to visit the Duke in Albemarle Street.
. . . (19th) The Duke received me very civilly, but (perhaps through Maty's fault)
treated me more as a man of letters than as a man of fashion. Gibbon *?> Journal.
This last touch reminds one of Congreve, Voltaire, and Walpole.
Earl Waldegrave, K.G., died here, April 8, 1763, the day of Lord
Bute's resignation (Walpole, vol. iv. p. 62). Lord Bute was living here
in 1764. In the House of Commons, March 7, 1764, Mr. Calvert, an
opposition member, exclaimed, " Where is Athens ? What is become
of Lacedaemon?" on which Sir John Glynn entertained the house by
answering that "they had gone to Albemarle Street." 1 Whilst Bute
lived here there was in the street a noted opposition Club that gave
the Ministry much annoyance. It was founded in 1763, at a tavern
kept by a man named Wildman, and named the Coterie.
1 Mrs. Harris to lur Son. Letters of the first Earl of Malmcsbury, vol. i. p. 104.
ALBEMARLE STREET 15
The new Club, at the house that was the late Lord Waldegrave's in Albemarle
Street, makes the Ministry very uneasy. Walpole to Lord Hervey, January 1764.
To this Croker appends the note The opposition Club was in Albemarle
Street ; the Ministerial at the Cocoa Tree ; and the papers of the day had several
political letters addressed to and from these clubs." Walpole, Letters, vol. iv.
P- 173-
Zoffany lived here in 1780. Here Walpole came to see his picture
of the Tribune of Florence, and a " delightful piece of Wilkes looking
no, squinting at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil acknow-
ledging Miss Sin in Milton." Letters, vol. vii. p. 270. .Glover, author
of Leonidas, died here in 1785. Robert Adam, the architect, died here
in 1792 ; and his brother James in 1794, at No. 13. C. J. Fox (the
minister), on the left hand, a little way up as you go from St. James's
Street; here he was living when Rogers first knew him. Louis XVIII.,
expelled from France in 1814, remained for some days at Grillion's
Hotel before his return to Paris, April 1814. Here the Prince Regent,
the Duke of York, and various distinguished persons waited upon him,
and he invested the Prince with the Order of the Saint Esprit. The
King held a formal levee here, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme a
drawing-room; Grattan was a spectator, and Madame d'Arblay was
introduced.
Grillion's Club was founded in 1805. The members dined
together every Wednesday during the parliamentary session.
Sir James Mackintosh, on his return from India, 1811, at No. 26.
Byron dated from Dorant's Hotel in this street in January 1807
and February 1808, at the time of ,the publication of the Hours of
Idleness.
The Royal Institution and several excellent hotels (the Clarendon,
the most famous of them, was closed a few years ago) are in this
street. No. 50 is Mr. Murray's, the publisher, the son of the friend
and publisher of Lord Byron, and the originator of the Quarterly
Review. Here is Hogarth's picture from the Beggars' Opera (in the
original frame) ; and the following portraits of authors : Byron,
Scott, Southey, Crabbe, Campbell, Hallam, and Mrs. Somerville,
all by T. Phillips, R.A. ; Moore, by Sir T. Lawrence; Gifford, by
Hoppner; Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker, after Lawrence; Lockhart,
and John Murray (i), by Pickersgill; Washington Irving, by Wilkie.
The dining-room is hung with portraits, by Jackson, R.A., of Parry,
Franklin, Denham, Clapperton, Richardson, Barrow; Sir A. Burnes,
by Maclise, and other celebrated voyagers and travellers. From 1812
to 1824, when clubs were less numerous, and none established expressly
devoted to literature, Mr. Murray's literary friends were in the habit of
repairing, in the afternoon, to his drawing-room. Here Byron and
Scott were first made known to each other by him, and afterwards
used to meet here. Hence the allusion to "Murray's four o'clock
visitors " in Byron's letters.
Mr. Murray removed here in 1812 from Fleet Street. The office,
warehouse, and place of business is at No.
1 6 ALBERT BRIDGE
Albert Bridge (The) crosses the Thames from the Chelsea
Embankment (Cheyne Walk) to the west end of Battersea Park. It
is the longest suspension bridge on the Thames, being 790 feet long
and 40 feet wide, and has a central span of 453 feet, and two side
spans of 1 5 2 feet each. The towers which carry the suspension chains
rise to a height of 130 feet above the high- water level. Auxiliary
chains and vertical rods give rigidity to the structure. The bridge was
designed by Mr. R. M. Ordish, and opened in September 1873. It
was purchased in 1879 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, and
opened to the public toll free.
Albert Embankment, the southern embankment of the Thames,
extends from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall, about 4300 feet. In
general character it is similar to the northern embankment, is faced
like it with granite, but has a concrete instead of a brick basis, is
unbroken by recesses for landing-places, and altogether somewhat less
ornamental in appearance, though an equally noble piece of work. It
cost ;i, 020,000. The long range of buildings forming St. Thomas's
Hospital borders the Westminster end, parallel with the Houses of
Parliament on the opposite side of the river. [See Thames Embank-
ment.]
Albert Gate, HYDE PARK, situated on ground purchased by
government from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster and others,
was made, 1844-1846, at a cost of .20,844 : 10 : 9, and so called
after H.R.H. Prince Albert. The iron gates were fixed August 9,
1845, an d the stags (from the Ranger's Lodge in the Green Park) set
up about the same time. The lofty house (on the east side of the
gate) was bought by Mr. Hudson, the then popular Railway King, of
Mr. Thomas Cubitt, for ^15,000. It is now the residence of the
French Ambassador.
Albert Hall, the Royal, KENSINGTON, stands between the
conservatory at the north end of the Horticultural Society's Garden and
the Kensington Road, on the site of the Gore House of the Countess
of Blessington and Count D'Orsay. It is designed for great musical
performances, exhibitions of art and science, and important assemblies,
as at the opening of the International Exhibition, 1871, and the
Installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master of the Freemasons,
April 28, 1874. The design originated in a suggestion of the Prince
Consort, but was carried out by a private company in commemoration
of his services to the arts. The building is a vast amphitheatre
an ellipse in plan, 200 feet by 160 covered with a hemispherical
dome 1 40 feet high. The walls are of a deep red brick, with dressings
and decorations of terra cotta, and a frieze of monochrome inlay re-
presenting the peaceful triumphs of Art and Science, designed by the
Academicians H. W. Pickersgill, Armitage, Marks, and Poynter.
Between the double walls are the staircases and corridors. The
auditorium comprises the arena, for 1000 persons, with stalls ranged
ALBERT MEMORIAL 17
in ascending steps for 1366 persons; three tiers of boxes for 1000
persons; a balcony for 1800; and a gallery (the primary purpose of
which was to serve as a picture gallery), which will accommodate 2000
more. The orchestra affords room for a band of 200 and a choir of
1000 performers. The organ, by Willis, one of the largest in existence,
is 60 feet wide, 70 feet high, has nearly 9000 pipes, and two steam-
engines for working the bellows. Beneath the dome an immense
velarium of calico (three quarters of a ton in weight) is suspended
for tempering the light, and lessening reverberation. Her Majesty laid
the foundation stone May 20, 1868, and formally opened the building
March 29, 1871. The entire cost was about ^200,000. The building
was designed by Capt. Fowke, who, dying, was succeeded as architect
by Major-General H. Y. D. Scott, C.B. The iron roof, a masterpiece
of construction, was designed by the late Mr. R. M. Ordish.
Albert Memorial, KENSINGTON. The NATIONAL MEMORIAL
MONUMENT to the PRINCE CONSORT stands a little west of the site of
the Great Exhibition building of 1851, and opposite the Royal Albert
Hall. It originated in a public meeting held at the Mansion House,
January 14, 1862. The monument consists of a colossal statue of the
Prince enshrined within a sumptuous Gothic tabernacle. The cost, over
;i 20,000 was defrayed by public contributions, supplemented by a
Parliamentary grant of ^50,000, the Queen, as is understood, supplying
the sum required to carry out the architect's intention in the completest
manner. The design, selected in a limited competition, was that of
Mr. G. G. Scott, R.A., who was knighted on its completion. "The
idea" of the Memorial, as described by the architect, is that of "a
colossal statue of the Prince placed beneath a vast and magnificent
shrine or tabernacle, and surrounded by works of sculpture illustrating
those arts and sciences which he fostered, and the great undertakings
which he originated."
I have, in the first place, elevated the monument upon a lofty and wide-spreading
pyramid of steps. From the upper platform rises a podium, or continuous pedestal,
surrounded by sculptures in alto-rilievo, representing historical groups or series of
the most eminent artists of all ages of the world ; the four sides being devoted severally
to Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Poetry, and Music. The figures are about six
feet high, and are treated somewhat after the manner of Delaroche's Hemicycle des
Beaux Arts. This forms, as it were, the foundation of the Monument, and upon it
is placed the shrine or tabernacle already mentioned. This is supported at each of
its angles by groups of pillars of polished granite, bearing the four main arches of
the shrine. Each side is terminated by a gable, the tympanum of which contains a
large picture in mosaic, and its mouldings are decorated with carving, and inlaid
with mosaic-work, enamel, and polished gem-like stones : thus carrying out the
characteristics of a shrine. The intersecting roofs are covered with scales of metal
richly enamelled and gilded, and their crestings are of gilt beaten metal in rich leaf-
work. The whole structure is crowned by a lofty spire of rich tabernacle-work in
partially gilt and enamelled metal, terminated in a cross, which reaches to a height
of I So feet above the surrounding ground. Beneath this vast canopy and raised
upon a lofty pedestal is the statue of the Prince. Sir G. Gilbert Scott.
At the outer angles of the pyramid of steps are groups of figures in
VOL. i c
1 8 ALBERT MEMORIAL
marble, representing allegorically the quarters of the globe Europe, by
P. Macdowell, R.A.; Asia, by/ H. Foley, R.A.; Africa, by W. Theed;
and America, by John Bell. On the upper pedestals, which form the
angles of the podium, are marble groups of Agriculture, by W. Colder
Marshall, R.A. ; Manufactures, by H, Weekes, R.A. ; Commerce, by
T. Thorneycroft ; and Engineering, by_/ Law/or. On the podium or
stylobate, which forms the base of the great canopy, is a series of 178
life-sized figures in high relief, being portraits of the most eminent
poets, painters, sculptors, architects and musicians ; the poets and
musicians on the south front and the painters on the east front
executed by H. H. Armstead ; the architects on the north front and
sculptors on the west front by J. B. Philip. From the angles of the
podium rise the groups of clustered columns of the richest polished
red and gray granites, which support the lofty canopy, beneath which
is the colossal gilded statue of the Prince, by Foley, seated and raised
on a lofty pedestal " the central feature around which all other works
of art group themselves." The great groups of pillars bear on their
outer faces, on pedestals of polished granite and gilt bronze, statues in
bronze representing Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, and Geometry ;
and in niches immediately over the capitals, bronze statues representing
Rhetoric, Medicine, Philosophy, and Physiology both ranges executed
by Armstead and Philip. The tympana, spandrels, and vaulting of
the canopy are filled with mosaics designed by Clayton and Bell, and
executed by Salviati. The Heche, or spire, which surmounts the
stonework, is wholly of metal, and is supported by two enormous box
girders of wrought iron, carried diagonally from corner to corner of the
structure. The fleche, like the body of the monument, is richly decorated.
In niches are figures of the four greater Christian virtues Faith,
Hope, Charity, and Humility ; at the angles are statues of the moral
virtues Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, and Temperance ; above are
angels, and surmounting all a tall and richly decorated cross. The
monument was completed in 1872, with the exception of the statue of
the Prince, which, owing to the illness of the sculptor, was only placed
on its pedestal in 1876.
Albion Mills, SOUTHWARK, were situated on the banks of the
river at the south-east end of Blackfriars Bridge. They were established
for the purpose of grinding flour on a large scale by means of Watt's
steam-engines. The scheme was started by Boulton in 1783, and a
sufficient number of shareholders having been got together application
was made for a charter of incorporation in 1784, but in consequence
of the violent opposition of the millers and meal-men this was refused,
and the Albion Mill Company was constituted on the ordinary principles
of partnership. 1 The building was designed by Mr. Samuel Wyatt, the
architect, and John Rennie (then a young man) designed and fitted up
the flour-grinding and dressing machinery. In 1 786 the mill was ready to
1 Smiles's Lives of Boulton and Watt, p. 354.
ALBION TAVERN 19
start. The engines, which combined all Watt's improvements, were the
most complete and powerful which had up to that time been produced
from the Soho manufactory.
They consisted of two double-acting engines, of the power of 50 horses each,
with a pressure of steam of five pounds to the superficial inch the two engines,
when acting together, working with the power of 150 horses. They drove twenty
pair of millstones, each 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, twelve of which were usually
worked together, each pair grinding 10 bushels of wheat per hour, by day and night
if necessary. The two engines working together were capable of grinding, dressing,
etc. complete, 150 bushels an hour by far the greatest performance achieved by
any mill at that time, and probably not since surpassed, if equalled. But the
engine power was also applied to a diversity of other purposes, then altogether novel
such as hoisting and lowering the corn and flour, loading and unloading the
barges, and in the processes of fanning, sifting, and dressing so that the Albion
Mills came to be regarded as amongst the greatest mechanical wonders of the day.
Smiles's Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii. p. 137. 1
The mill was made a public show of, and was constantly crowded
by curious visitors, much to Watt's annoyance. The millers and their
men looked on with feelings of extreme dislike, but on March 3, 1791,
the whole building was destroyed by fire, the work apparently ot
incendiaries. There are several views of this extensive fire, and one is
entitled The Bakers' glory on the conflagration of Albion Mill.
The Albion Mills are burnt down. I asked where they were ; supposing they
were powder mills in the country, that had blown up. I had literally never seen or
heard of the spacious lofty building at the end of Blackfriars Bridge. At first it
was supposed maliciously burnt, and it is certain the mob stood and enjoyed the
conflagration as of a monopoly. The building had cost ^"100,000, and the
loss in corn and flour is calculated at ; 140,000. I do not answer for the
truth of the sums ; but it is certain that the Palace Yard and part of St. James's
Park were covered with half-burnt grain. Walpole to the Misses Berry, Letters,
1877, vol. ix. p. 295.
According to Mr. Smiles the loss sustained by the Company was
about ;i 0,000, of which amount Boulton and Watt lost the greater
part, the former holding ^6000 and the latter ^3000 interest in the
undertaking. 2
Albion Street, HYDE PARK. At No. 14 lived Tyrone Power,
the Irish comedian.
A hundred years ago Albion Street (where comic Power dwelt, Milesia's
darling son) was a desert. The Square of Connaught was without its penul-
timate, and, strictly speaking naught. The Eclgware Road was then a road 'tis
true ; with tinkling waggons passing now and then, and fragrant walls of snowy
hawthorn blossoms. The ploughman whistled over Nutford Place ; down the green
solitudes of Sovereign Street the merry milkmaid led the lowing kine. Thackeray's
Catherine (1839), chap. viii.
Albion Tavern, No. 153 ALDERSGATE STREET, one of the
largest establishments of the kind in London, and famed for its good
dinners, both public and private, and also its good wines. The tavern
acquired much of its celebrity under Mr. John Kay, who was succeeded
1 On p. 138 of this volume is a woodcut of the mills.
- Smiles's Lives of Boulton and Watt, p. 359.
20 ALBION TAVERN
in 1842 by Mr. (afterwards Alderman Sir) John Staples and Mr. Thos.
Staples. In 1864 it was transferred to the London Taverns Company,
by whom it is still held. The farewell dinners given by the East India
Company to their Governors of India were generally given at the Albion ;
several of the City Companies give their dinners here ; and here (after
dinner) the annual trade sales of the principal London publishers take
place.
Aldermanbury. A street in CRIPPLEGATE WARD, the continua-
tion of Milk Street, Cheapside, north of Gresham Street to London
Wall.
How Aldermanbury Street took that name, many fables have been bruited, all
which I overpass as not worthy the counting ; but to be short, I say this street took
the name of Alderman's burie (which is to say a court), there kept in their bery or
court, but now called the Guildhall. ... I myself have seen the ruins of the old
court hall in Aldermanbury Street, which of late hath been employed as a carpenters'
yard. Slow, p. 109.
Expens and chargis in the clensyng of certeyn olde ruinouse houses and
grounde lying in Aldenmanbury, sumtyme the Place of Saincte Aethelbert Kyng . . .
and in the erection, settyng uppe and makyng of fyve newe Tenementes . . . which
began in London, Tuysday the xxix day of Auguste the xxiii yere of the reigne of
Kyng Henry grace the viiith. Report on MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul's, by Maxwell Lyte. 1
In 6 Richard II. (1383) one William Berham was accused of slandering John
Northamptone, Mayor of London, and John Boseham, to " Sir Robert Tresilian,
Chief Justiciar of our Lord the King, at his house in Aldermannebury," and the case
being tried before " the country [jury] of the venue of Aldermannebury," he was found
guilty and sentenced to be exposed on the Pillory for one hour on six consecutive
days, " with one large whetstone hung from his neck, in token of the lie told by him
against the said Mayor, and another smaller whetstone in token of the lie told by
him against the said John Boseham. 2
In 1680 when the House of Commons compelled Jeffreys to resign the Recorder-
ship of London, he was also called to account for the " great sums of money
disbursed in fitting up his dwelling-house in Aldermanbury, which he held of the
city." 3
Aldermanbury Conduit stood opposite to the south side of St.
Mary's Church. It was erected under the will of Sir W. Eastfield, but
was destroyed in the great fire. It was rebuilt, and removed early in
the 1 8th century.
Aldermanbury Postern, a continuation northward of ALDER-
MANBURY to Fore Street, marks the path through the postern in
London wall. The postern in the City wall, from which the street
took its name, seems to have been originally called " The Little
Postern," but in its later years was commonly known as Aldermanbury
Postern.
Aldermary Churchyard, CITY. [See Mary (St.) Aldermary.]
Aldersgate, a gate in the City wall, near the church of St. Botolph,
and south end of the present Castle and Falcon Inn ; the exact site is
1 Historical MSS. Comm., Ninth Report, Ap- 2 Riley, Memorials, p. 476.
pendix, p. 44. * Life of Judge Jeffreys, p. 79.
ALDERSGATE 21
marked by No. 62 on the east side of the street. As early as 1289 a
house called Redehalle [Redhall], belonging to Henry le Galeys, is
described as being "without Aldredesgate." 1 In 1460 it occurs as
Aldresgate. In 1375, in the mayoralty of William Waleworthe, the
Corporation granted to Ralph Strode, Common Counter [Common
Sergeant], for the good service rendered by him to the City, " all the
dwelling-house, together with the garden, and all other its appurtenances,
situate over the Gate of Aldrichesgate ; to have and to hold the same
so long as he shall remain in the said office of Counter." 2 It is
written Aldrichegate in the City Record of 27 Henry III. 3 (1243), and
in the London Chronicle of Edward IV. 's time, printed by Sir Harris
Nicolas (p. 99).
Aldresgate, or Aldersgate, so called not of Aldrich or of Elders, that is to say,
ancient men, builders thereof; not of Eldarne trees, growing there more abundantly
than in other places, as some have fabled ; but for the very antiquity of the gate
itself, as being one of the first four gates of the city, and serving for the northern
parts, as Aldegate for the east ; which two gates being both old gates, are, for
difference' sake, called, the one Ealdegate, and the other Aldersgate. Stow, p. 14.
The gate described by Stow was taken down in 1617, and rebuilt the
same year from a design by Gerard Christmas, the architect, as Vertue
thought, of old Northumberland House. On the outer front was a
figure in high relief of James I. on horseback, with the prophets
Jeremiah and Samuel in niches on each side : on the inner or City
front an effigy of the King in his chair of state. King James, on
his way to take possession of his new dominions, entered London by
the old gate : the new gate referred to this circumstance, with suitable
quotations from Jeremiah and Samuel placed beneath the figures of
the two prophets. 4 The heads of several of the regicides were set on
this gate.
October 20, 1660. This afternoon, going through London, and calling at Crowe's,
the upholsterer's, in St. Bartholomew's, I saw the limbs of some of our new traytors
set upon Aldersgate, which was a sad sight to see ; and a bloody week this and the
last have been, there being ten hanged, drawn, and quartered. " Pepys's Diary.
The gate suffered by the Great Fire, but was soon after repaired and
"beautified." The whole fabric was sold, April 22, 1761, for ^91,
and immediately taken down. John Daye, the printer of Queen
Elizabeth's time, dwelt " over Aldersgate," much in the same manner
as Cave subsequently did at St. John's. One of the earliest English
almanacs, "A Prognostication for the yere of our Lord, 1550," "was
imprynted at London by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate." He
also printed there The Scholemaster of Roger Ascham in 1570, and
Tyndal's Works, 1572. Daye carried his works outside the gates,
building " much upon the City wall, towards the parish church of St.
Anne." Seymour, Survey, p. 38. In March 1567, Foxe, the martyr-
ologist, was living "at Mr. Daye's, over Aldersgate." John Daye was
the printer of his great work. Life, pp. 132-134. Faithorne, the en-
1 Riley, Memorials, p. n. 3 Liber Albns, p. 94.
- Riley, p. 388. 4 j er . xv ;;. 2S t s am x ;;_ T-
22 ALDERSGATE
graver, " being made prisoner at Basing House, was brought to London
and confined in Aldersgate, where he resorted to his profession, and
among other heads did a small one of the first Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, in the manner of Mellan." Walpole, Catalogue oj
Engravers, p. 49. In the last year of its existence the rooms over the
gate were appropriated as " the dwelling of the Common Crier of the
City, for the time being." Among the State Papers there is mention
of a cage, or prison, situated near the gate. Calendar of State Papers,
Domestic, 1639-1640, p. 496.
Aldersgate Bars, GOSWELL STREET, at the northern end ot
Aldersgate Street, formed the City boundary in that direction. In
Stow's time "a pair of posts" marked the spot. The name long
continued in use, but is now obsolete. The site of the old bar is
marked by two granite obelisks with drinking-fountains attached.
Aldersgate (Ward Of), one of the twenty-six wards of London,
and so called from the old City gate of the same name, which stood
across the high road, near the church of St. Botolph. [See the pre-
ceding article]. This ward is divided into two distinct portions
Aldersgate Within, and Aldersgate Without. Thus, St. Martin's-le-
Grand lies within the gate, and Aldersgate Street without the gate.
General Boundaries. Aldersgate Bars, Goswell Street; the General
Post Office. Stow enumerates six churches in this ward St. John
Zachary ; St. Mary Staining ; St. Olave, in Silver Street ; St. Leonard,
in Foster Lane; St. Anne within Aldersgate; St. Botolph without
Aldersgate. The first four were destroyed in the Great Fire, and not
rebuilt : the last two remain. Little Britain and Goldsmiths' Hall are
in this ward. The ward-mace has a crown which unscrews to form a
loving cup. [See all these names.]
Aldersgate Street, the continuation northward of St. Martin's-le-
Grand, extends from Aldersgate to the Barbican, south of Aldersgate
Bars. The main entrance to the City from the north, and in early
times famed for mansions and inns. A street " very spacious and long,
and although the buildings are old and not uniform, yet many of them
are very good and well-inhabited ; and of the principal of them two
are. very large," wrote Seymour in 1736 (Survey of London, p. 771);
but, he adds, "the politeness of the town is far removed from hence."
Eighty years earlier it was said :
This street resembleth an Italian street more than any other in London, by
reason of the spaciousness and uniformity of buildings, and straightness thereof, with
the convenient distance of the houses ; on both sides whereof there are divers fair
ones, as Peter House, the palace now and mansion of the most noble [Henry Pierre-
pont] Marquess of Dorchester. Then is there the Earl of Thanet's house [Thanet
House], with the Moon and Sun tavern[s], very fair structures. Then is there from
about the middle of Aldersgate Street, a handsome new street [Jewin Street] butted
out, and fairly built by the Company of Goldsmiths, which reacheth athwart as far
as Redcross Street. Howell's Londinopolis, 1657, p. 342.
Redehall, a house "without Aldredesgate," is mentioned in 1289
ALDERSGATE STREET 23
as belonging to Henry de Galeys ; and in the Patent Rolls of Edward
IV. a place is entered as Queen Jane's Wardrobe. 1
On the east side (distinguished by a series of eight Ionic pilasters,
with festoons of flowers pendent from the volutes) stood Thanet House,
one of Inigo Jones's fine old mansions, the London residence of the
Tuftons, Earls of Thanet. From the Tufton family it passed into the
family of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (d. 1682-1683) :
hence Shaftesbury Place and Shaftesbury House, as Walpole calls it in
his account of Inigo Jones. Locke, on his return from the continent,
May 1679, resided for some time in the house of Lord Shaftesbury,
who was then at the head of the Ministry. Lord King, Life of John
Locke, p. 86; Fox-Bourne, Life of Locke, vol. i. p. 411. Thanet House
continued to be Locke's home, when in London, as long as Shaftesbury
lived. On one occasion at least during Shaftesbury's occupancy of
Thanet House the Duke of Monmouth was concealed in it. In
1708 it was once more in the possession of the Thanet family; in
1720 it was a handsome inn; in 1734 a tavern; in 1750, and till
1771, the London Lying-in Hospital; then as a General Dispensary, 2
the first established in London, removed in 1850 to Bartholomew
Close. The lower part of the building was then divided, and let as
shops ; part serving for the meetings of the Metropolitan Scientific
Association, and Shaftesbury Upper Hall used as a girl's school.
Shaftesbury House was pulled down in 1882, and Shaftesbury Hall and
several shops have been built on the site.
A little higher up, on the same side, where Lauderdale Buildings
stand (Nos. 58 and 59), stood Lauderdale House, the London residence
of John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (d. 1682), one of the celebrated
Cabal in the reign of Charles II. On the same side, still higher up,
and two doors from Barbican, stood the Bell Inn, " of a pretty good
resort for waggons with meal." From this inn, on July 14, 1618,
John Taylor, the Water Poet, set out on his penniless pilgrimage to
Scotland. 3
At last I took my latest leave, thus late,
At the Bell Inn, that's extra Aldersgate.
Taylor's Works, 1630, p. 122.
On the west side, a little beyond the church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate,
is Trinity Court, so called from a brotherhood of the Holy Trinity,
licensed by Henry VI., suppressed by Edward VI., and first founded
in 1377, as a fraternity of St. Fabian and Sebastian. The Hall was
standing in 17 go. 4 Higher up, on the same side, Westmoreland
Buildings preserves a memory of the London residence of the Nevilles,
Earls of Westmoreland, taken down about 1760, after having been long
divided and let out in tenements. At the back of Rutland House Sir
1 Riley, Memorials of London, xi. cock ; the Bell ; the Three Horse Shoes ; the
2 Hatton, p. 633 ; Strype's Stow, B. iii. p. Cock.
121 ; Ralph's Crit. Rev. Pennant.
3 Taylor, in his Carrier's Cosmographie (410, 4 There is a view of the old Hall in Brayley's
1637), mentions four inns in this street : the Pea- Londiniana, 4 vols. izmo, 1829.
24 ALDERSGATE STREET
William Davenant was, in 1656, permitted to get up an opera for
recitations with music and scenery; the first dramatic entertainment
licensed since the establishment of the Commonwealth. Still higher
up is the Albion Tavern, famed for its good wines and its good dinners ;
while nearly opposite Shaftesbury House, stood Petre House, the town-
house until 1639 of the Lord Petre. Richard Lovelace, the poet, was,
in 1648, confined in Lord Petre's house in Aldersgate by order of the
House of Commons; and it continued to be used as a prison by Cromwell
and his colleagues. 1 In 1657 it was the residence of Henry Pierrepont,
Marquis of Dorchester. After his death it was bought by the See of
London, when the Great Fire had destroyed the Episcopal residence
in St. Paul's Churchyard. Bishop Henchman died in London House,
Aldersgate Street (as Petre House was then called), in 1675. Here
Compton, Bishop of London, lived; and hither the Princess Anne
(afterwards Queen) fled from Whitehall at the Revolution. In 1720
Bishop Robinson was residing in it. Shortly after the nonjuror,
Thomas Rawlinson (" Tom Folio "), removed his great library to London
House, where he died in 1725. In 1747 it was in the possession of
Mr. Jacob Hive. 2 Bishop Sherlock, in 1749, obtained parliamentary
power to dispose of London House for the benefit of the See. It was
some years later purchased by Mr. Seddon, "an eminent upholsterer,"
and was destroyed by fire, July 14, 1768, but rebuilt, and the
upholstery business was continued here till a few years back. In
1814 was made here, at an expense of ^500, the cradle for Joanna
Southcott's " Prince of Peace," with the inscription, " The free-
offering of Faith to the Promised Seed," and great crowds flocked to
see it. The baby-linen with its laces, etc., cost ^500 more. Lon-
don House was taken down and shops built on the site in 1871.
Eminent Inhabitants, not already mentioned. Countess of Pembroke,
"Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;" she died here in 1621.
Thomas Flatman, poet, painter, and lawyer, was born in Aldersgate
Street in 1633. Walpole's Anecdotes, p. 300. Robert Greene (d. 1592),
though not an inhabitant, was a familiar visitant at a " well-willer's
house of mine" in Aldersgate Street. 3 Bryan Walton, Bishop of
Chester, editor of the Polyglot Bible, died here in 1661. John Milton.
He made no long stay in St. Bride's Church Yard ; necessity of having a place
to dispose his books in, and other goods fit for the furnishing of a good handsome
house, hastening him to take one : and accordingly a pretty garden-house he took in
Aldersgate Street, at the end of an entry ; and therefore the fitter for his turn, by the
reason of the privacy, besides that there are few streets in London more free from
noise than that. Philips's Life of Milton, I2mo, 1694, p. xx.
His own words are : As soon as I was able I hired a spacious house in the
City for myself and my books, where I again with rapture renewed my literary
pursuits, and where I calmly awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted to the
wise conduct of Providence, and to the courage of the people. Second Defence of
the People of England.
1 Dugdale's Troubles, p. 568. 2 Wilkinson's Londina, Illustrata.
3 Robert Greene's Repentance.
ALDERSGATE STREET 25
Milton's house was at the lower end of Lamb Alley (now Maiden-
head Court), by No. 30, on the east side of Aldersgate Street, the
court next to Shaftesbury Place southwards.
Samuel Simmons, printer and publisher, "next door to the Golden
Lion in Aldersgate Street," was the purchaser, April 27, 1667, of the
copyright of Paradise Lost, but it is only the second edition, 1674,
which professed to be printed by S. Simmons. Thomas Brown Tom
Brown the facetious died here in 1704. James Petiver, the botanist
(d. 171 8), was an apothecary in Aldersgate Street. He was one of the
earliest and ablest English collectors of specimens of natural history.
Sir Hans Sloane offered ^"5000 for his collection. "At his house,
against Little Britain in Aldersgate Street," lived John Pine the en-
graver, and received subscriptions (1738) for his exquisite edition of
Horace. In Aldersgate Street, "against Jewin Street," lived Sutton
Nicholls, the publisher, to whose industry we are indebted for so many
engravings and valuable memorials of old London buildings now no more.
In Trinity Chapel, Aldersgate Street, the last Nonjuring congrega-
tion in London met under John Lindsay, the translator of Mason de
Ministerio Anglicano'. He died in I768. 1
It was in a house in this street that John Wesley received that
" assurance of salvation " which was the great turning point in his
career, and to which the world owes the origin of Methodism. He
writes in his Journal under Wednesday, May 24, 1738:
In the evening I went, very unwillingly, to a Society in Aldersgate Street
where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a
quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the
heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed ; I felt I did trust
in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had
taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I
began to pray with all my might for all those who had in an especial manner
despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all what I now
first felt in my heart.
It was to "the house called the Mouth, near Aldersgate in London,
which was then the usual meeting-place of Quakers," that the body of
"Free-born John " Lilburne was conveyed on his death, August 29,
i657- 2 This house, the well-known Bull and Mouth Inn, really situated
in St. Martin's-le-grand, was destroyed in the Great Fire ; and the inn of
the same title became the Queen's Hotel, which has been cleared away
for the enlargement of the General Post Office. The inns of Aldersgate
were especially travellers' houses, and looked after by the watch accord-
ingly. Fynes Morison, on his return from his ten years' wanderings,
1595, arriving in London on Sunday "at four of the clock in the
morning . . . this early hour being unfit to trouble my friends "
I went to the Cock (an inn of Aldersgate Street), and there, apparelled as I
was, laid me down upon a bed, when it happened that the constable and watchmen
(either being more busy in their office than need was, or having extraordinary charge
to search upon some foreign intelligence, and seeing me apparelled like an Italian),
took me for a Jesuit or priest. Morison's Itinerary.
1 Lathbury, History of Nonjurors, p. 402. 2 Wood, Athen. Oxon (1692), vol. ii. p. 102.
26 ALDERSGATE STREET
A century and a half later the Cock was described as " a good
inn, resorted to by waggons that bring meal and other goods." 1
The George Inn, formerly the White Hart, is "very large and con-
venient for the reception of coaches, waggons, and travellers. It hath
galleries that lead to the chambers, as customary in many great inns.
There is in Thanet House, which adjoins to this inn, a Lace Chamber of
very good resort for buyers and sellers." 2 The Bell Inn, whence Taylor
the Water Poet set out on his travels, was still "of good resort;" it stood
near Lauderdale House. There were besides the Half-Moon, "the
place of resort of the most noted wits of the i6th century." Lambert.
The Sun, " large and of a good trade," and many more. The Aldersgate
inns were the usual starting -place for the Northern Counties, 3 as it
seems to have been for Ireland some years later. Thus Swift, describing
the visit to London (1721) of an Irish acquaintance, says: "He was
just getting on horseback for Chester : he has as much curiosity as a
cow. He lodged with his horse in Aldersgate Street." y<wra/ to
Stella. Gay and Pope write to Swift (October 22, 1727), "To our great
joy you have told us your deafness left you at the inn in Aldersgate
Street ; no doubt your ears knew there was nothing worth hearing in
England."
In 1879 a row of old houses, some with projecting upper storeys
on the west side of Aldersgate Street, was pulled down to make way
for a pile of larger and more substantial buildings. One of these, No.
134, attracted much notice from its being absurdly called " Shakespeare's
London House." It was not unpicturesque in its dilapidated condi-
tion, and was probably of i7th century date, but in no other respect
remarkable. The name, Shakespeare's London House, was first given
to it within memory by an imaginative newsvendor who then occupied
it; as a sort of advertisement. One of the most noticeable of the new
buildings is the Manchester Hotel, a large structure of considerable
architectural pretension at the corner of Long Lane, opposite to which
is the Aldersgate Station of the Metropolitan Railway.
Aldewych. [See Wych Street.]
Aldgate, a gate in the City wall towards the east, and, according
to most authorities, called Aldgate from its antiquity or age, but in the
earliest records the spelling is Alegate (1325-1344), or Algate (1381),
which is suggestive of another derivation. The gateway, a stately
structure, stood in the midst of the High Street, south of Aldgate
Church. Duke's Place and Poor Jury Lane now called Duke Street
and Jewry Street being immediately inside the gate and wall. In
1215 the barons who were at war with King John entered the city
with ease at Aldgate, which was then in a ruinous condition. Shortly
afterwards they rebuilt the gate.
In 1374 a lease was granted for the term of his life to Geoffrey
1 Seymour, Survey of London, 1736, p. 772. - Ibid.
3 De Laune, Anglicc Metropolis, 1690.
ALDGATE 27
Chaucer of " the whole of the dwelling-house above the gate of Algate
with the rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath the same gate,
on the south side of that gate, and the appurtenances thereof," he
undertaking that he "will competently and sufficiently maintain and
repair " them under penalty of being " ousted " on the neglect to do so.
On the other hand he is not to let any portion of the said gate or
dwelling, and " in time of defence of the city " the mayor and authorities
are, when, and as often as it shall be necessary, to be free " to enter the
said house and rooms, and to order and dispose of the same, in such
times, and in such manner as shall then seem to us to be most ex-
pedient." l Great evils resulted from the occupation of the city gates
as residences, and in 1386 the city enacted "that no grant shall from
henceforth in any way be made unto any person, of the gates, or of the
dwelling-houses above the gates, etc.
On her accession in 1553, Queen Mary entered London by this
gate; the princess Elizabeth, escorted by 2000 horse, was in waiting to
receive her, and the greeting of the sisters was in appearance warm
and affectionate.
This is one and the first of the four principal gates, and also one of the seven
double gates mentioned by Fitzstephen. It hath had two pair of gates, though now
but one ; the hooks remaineth yet. Also there hath been two portcloses : the one
of them remaineth, the other wanteth ; but the place of letting down is manifest.
Stoiu, p. 12.
The gate described by Stow was taken down in 1606, and a new one
erected in its stead, the ornaments of which are dwelt upon at great
length by Stow's continuators. Two Roman soldiers stood on the
outer battlements, with stone balls in their hands, ready to defend
the gate : beneath, in a square, was a statue of James I., and at
his feet the royal supporters. On the city side stood a large figure
of Fortune, and somewhat lower, so as to grace each side of the
gate, gilded figures of Peace and Charity, copied from the reverses of
two Roman coins, discovered whilst digging the new foundations
for the gate. The whole structure was two years in erecting. The
inscription, from the amusing assumption of the Corporation, is worth
preserving :
Senatus Populus Que Londinensis
Fecit 1609
Humfrey Weld, Maior,
Many things that seem foul in the doing, do please, done. . . . You see gilders
will not work but inclosed. . . . How long did the canvas hang before Aldgate ? Were
the people suffered to see the City's Love and Charity, while they were rude stone,
before they were painted and burnished ? Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman, Act. i.
Sc. I.
The "City's Love and Charity "were standing in 1760^2 the other
statues had been long removed. The apartments over the gate were
in the early part of the i8th century appropriated to one of the Lord
1 Riley, Memorials, p. 377. 2 London audits Environs, 1761
28 ALDGATE
Mayor's carvers, but afterwards used as a charity school. The gate
was taken down in 1761 ; the materials sold for ^177 : los. 1
Here in the i4th century was a garden, marking probably the site
of an earlier hermitage.
19 Edward III. (1325). The garden at the south side of Aldgate, called The
Hermitage, which Roger atte Wattre, the serjeant, held, was granted to Peter de
Stanndone, blader [corn dealer], for the whole term of his life, at a yearly payment
of ten shillings.
Aldgate (Ward of). One of the twenty-six wards of London,
and so called from Aldgate, the gate in the City wall towards the east.
General Boundaries. Bevis Marks and Duke's Place ; Crutched Friars ;
the Minories ; St. Mary Axe and Lime Street. Before the Reforma-
tion the main feature in the ward was the Priory of the Holy Trinity,
called Christ's Church ; founded by Matilda, Queen of Henry I. [See
Duke's Place.] There are three parish churches : i. St. Catherine
Cree, or Christ Church ; 2. St. Andrew Undershaft ; 3. St. Catherine
Coleman. And in Stow's time, there were three halls of companies :
i. The Bricklayers' Hall; 2. The Fletchers' Hall; 3. The Iron-
mongers' Hall. The East India House was in this ward. [See all
these names.]
Aldgate High Street. The main street from Leadenhall Street
to Jewin Street, the site of the ancient City gate, is known as Aldgate ;
the street eastward to Mansell Street and Petticoat Lane (now Middlesex
Street), where Whitechapel High Street commences, is called Aldgate
High Street. At the north-west corner of Aldgate High Street is St.
Botolph's Church. The Three Nuns' Inn, and the Pye Tavern, over
against the end of Houndsditch, are mentioned by De Foe in his
History of the Plague. The Three Nuns continued to be a busy
coaching inn till coaches were superseded by railways. It has lately
been rebuilt on a large scale. The Bull was another large coaching inn.
In Aldgate was the Saracen's Head the site marked by Saracen's Head
yard. A token was issued from " The Pye without Aldgate " as early
as 1648. Burn, p. 14. The Pye was one of the old inns "in which
plays were occasionally acted. In 1661 was published The Presby-
terian Lash, or Noctroffe's Maid Whipped; a tragi-comedy as it was
lately acted in the great room at the Pye Tavern at Aldgate." When
Foxe, the martyrologist, returned to London in 1559, the Duke of
Norfolk received him at his "Manor House, Christ Church, Aldgate."
The south-side of Aldgate High Street is lined with butchers' shops,
and known as Aldgate Market.
Aldgate Pump, at the junction Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch
Street in ALDGATE.
1 Dodsley, 1761, vol. i. p. 151 ; Hitghson, vol. Rothley Castle, an eye-trap which he erected on
iii. p. 181. Sir Walter Blackett of Wallington, the crags of that name, near Wallington. Notes
Northumberland, obtained some of the orna- and Queries, ist S. vol. iv. p. 131.
mental stones and used them in decorating
ALFRED PLACE 29
The principal street of this ward [Aldgate Ward] beginneth at Aldgate, stretch-
ing west to sometime a fair well, where now a pump is placed. Stow, p. 52.
The bailiff of Romford, in Essex, was executed in 1549, on a gibbet
near " to the well within Aldgate." "I heard the words of the prisoner,"
says Stow, " for he was executed upon the pavement of my door where
I then kept house." l
"A draft (draught) on Aldgate Pump," a mercantile phrase for a bad note.
Fielding's Works ("Essay on the Character of Men"), vol. viii. p. 172.
The water from Aldgate pump long enjoyed great local celebrity ; but
being found by chemical analysis to be impure, the pump was closed
by authority in 1876. A drinking fountain has since been erected on
the site. Close to the pump, and beneath the pavement of the street
and the house separating Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street, was
the chapel or crypt (engraved in Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, and in
Gentleman's Magazine, 1789, vol. i. pp. 293, 495) of the church of St.
Michael, Aldgate, built by Norman, Prior of St. Katherine of the
Holy Trinity, about fno. The crypt was about 48 feet by 16, the
walls of hard chalk, the pillars of stone, with good early English vaulting.
In 1870 the house above it was removed to widen the thoroughfare,
when, the vaulting being considered insecure, it was removed, and
the crypt filled in and destroyed.
Alfred Club, was held at No. 23 ALBEMARLE STREET. Estab-
lished 1808; limited to 600 members. In December 1811 Byron
mentions that it had 354 candidates for six vacancies. Works, vol. ii.
p. 99. It was formerly known by its cockney appellation of Half -read.
I was a member of the Alfred. It was pleasant ; a little too sober and literary,
and bored with Sotheby and Sir Francis D'lvernois ; but one met Peel, and Ward,
and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known people ; and it was, upon the
whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or parliament, or in
an empty season. Byron's Journal, 1816, Works, vol. iii. p. 233.
The Rev. William Beloe devoted several pages of his Sexagenarian
to a notice of some of the chief members of the Club, viz., Sir James
Mackintosh, George Ellis, William Gifford, John Reeves, and Sir
William Drummond. He styled the Club the "Symposium," and
the members " Symposiasts."
It never recovered from the blow dealt it by the establishment of
the Athenaeum, and its separate existence ended about 1855, when it
was absorbed into the Oriental Club.
Alfred Place, BEDFORD SQUARE, ending in North and South
Crescents. The ground is the property of the Corporation of London.
The Place and Crescents were laid out 1790-1814 by George Dance,
jun., then Clerk of the Works to the Corporation. Sheridan Knowles
lived at No. 29 in 1838. His father, James Knowles, author of the
English Dictionary, died there in 1842. Thomas Campbell, the poet,
was in lodgings in Alfred Place in 1837.
1 Stow, p. 55.
30 ALFRICHBURY
Alfrichbury.
Agreement between Master Roger de Horsete, Precentor of St. Paul's, and
the master and brethren of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, respecting certain land
called " Alfrichburi," which the former claimed as belonging to the prebend of
Portepol, A.D. 1240. Report by H. C. Maxwell Lyte (Appendix to Ninth Report,
Historical MSS. Comm. p. 25.
Alhambra Theatre, on the east side ot LEICESTER SQUARE,
oriental in character, with a central dome and lofty minarets at
the angles, was erected as the Panopticon of Science and Art, in rivalry
with the Polytechnic Institution. It was designed 1851-1853 by
Messrs. Finden and T. Hayter Lewis, architects, at a cost of about
; 1 00,000. It was sold May 1857, and converted into a circus, music
hall, etc., under the name Alhambra, and acquired notoriety by its ballet
performances. It is now licensed as a theatre ; but rests its attractive-
ness on music, ballets, comediettes, and refreshments. The building
was destroyed by fire in September 1883, and was at once rebuilt by
Messrs. Perry and Reed, architects.
Alice's Coffee House, WESTMINSTER HALL.
May 5, 1808. Alice's Coffee House. Excise Officer came to me to know if it
was considered that this house was like Bellamy's, and did not require any license as
a general victualler's. I answered, Yes ; it was so to be considered, as only for
Lords, Commons, and Barristers. To this the Excise Officer replied he was quite
satisfied. Lord Colchester's Diary, vol. ii. p. 148.
All Hallows. This name, which is attached to eight parishes in
the city of London, is of great antiquity, and most if not all of these
small parishes appear to have been divided off from a large mother
parish of the east of London, extending outside the walls as far as
Stepney. The Rev. W. J. Loftie, in a valuable article on the Church
in Old London, writes :
First we have the great mother parish, probably All Hallows, but sparsely
settled, and all the property of the bishop, who commences to disintegrate it by
giving a portion to Barking Abbey. Next we see it broken up into smaller portions,
two of which become the manor or aldermanry of a city magnate. Church Quarterly
Review, July 1884.
Then these parishes became separated by the formation of others
dedicated to favourite saints of the time.
AUhallows Barking, a church at the east end of Great Tower
Street, in the ward of that name, dedicated to Allhallows and St. Mary,
said to be "the most complete mediaeval church remaining in London."
The distinguishing title of Barking was appended thereto by the
Abbess and Convent of Barking, in Essex, to whom the vicarage
originally belonged. Richard I. added a chapel to the building, and
Edward I. a statute of " Our Lady of Barking " to the treasures of
the church. Richard III. rebuilt the chapel, and founded a college ot
priests, suppressed and pulled down in the zd of Edward VI. It is 180
feet long, 67 wide, and 35 high; the tower (rebuilt 1659) rises about
80 feet from the ground. The whole building had a narrow escape at
ALLHALLOWS BARKING 31
the Great Fire, for, as Pepys records, the dial and porch were burnt, and
the fire there quenched. This church, from its near neighbourhood to
the Tower, was a ready receptacle for the remains of those who fell on
the scaffold on Tower Hill. The headless bodies of Henry Howard,
Earl of Surrey (the poet), Bishop Fisher, and Archbishop Laud were
buried here, but have been long since removed. The body of Fisher
was carried on the halberds of the attendants and buried in the church-
yard. Laud's body was removed after the Restoration to the chapel of
St. John's College, Oxford. John Kettlewell the nonjuror was buried
here, April 1695. The brasses (some six or seven in number) are
among the best in London. The finest is a Flemish brass to Andrew
Evyngar and wife (circ. 1535, and well engraved in Waller's Brasses),
but the most interesting is one injured and inaccurately relaid, re-
presenting William Thynne, Esq., and wife. We owe the first edition
of the entire works of Chaucer to the industry of this William Thynne,
who in 1532 (when the fine old folio was published) was " chefe clerk
of the kechyn" to King Henry VIII. The cover to the font is of
carved wood, and much in the manner of Grinling Gibbons. Three
cherub-shaped angels are represented supporting with upheld hands a
festoon of flowers surmounted by a dove. The wreaths about the altar
are evidently by the same hand. The organ, by Harris, 1677, was
enlarged by Gerard Smith in 1720, again by England in 1813, and
lastly by Bunting in 1878. The interior of the church was restored,
the west gallery removed, and the walls decorated under Messrs. Francis,
architects, in 1870, and painted glass inserted in some of the windows.
William Penn, the Quaker, was baptized in this church on October 23,
1644.
On May 23, 1667, George Jeffreys (the judge) was married here
to his first wife, Sarah Masham. 1 This marriage is not mentioned
in Maskell's History of Allhallows Barking, 1864, but the marriage of
John Quincy Adams (afterwards sixth President of the United States)
to Louisa Catherine Johnson, on July 26, 1797, is there noted. The
living is a vicarage, valued at ,2000 a year, in the gift of the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury.
Over against the wall of Barking churchyard, a sad and lamentable accident
befel by gunpowder, in this manner. One of the houses in this place was a ship-
chandler's, who upon January 4, 1649, about 7 of the clock at night, being busy
in his shop about barrelling up of gunpowder, it took fire and in the twinkling
of an eye blew up not only that, but all the houses thereabouts to the number (towards
the street and in back alleys) of 50 or 60. The number of persons destroyed by this
Blow could never be known, for the next house but one was the Rose Tavern, a
House never (at that time of night) but full of company ; and that day the parish
dinner was at that house. And in three or four days after, digging, they continually
found heads, arms, legs, and half bodies miserably torn and scorched, besides many
whole bodies, not so much as their clothes singed. Mr. Leybome, in Stryfe, B. ii.
p. 36, and see Maskell's History of Allhallows Barking.
Dr. George Hickes, whose Thesaurus is so well known, was vicar
1 Life of Jeffreys, p. 24.
32 ALLHALLOWS
of this church between 1681 and 1686. Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop
of Winchester, was born in this parish, 1555.
Allhallows, BREAD STREET, a church in Bread Street Ward, at
the corner of Bread Street and Watling Street, erected from designs
by Sir C. Wren, 1680-1684, for ,3348:7 : 2. It was 72 feet long,
35 wide, and 30 high, and had a tower 86 feet high. The style was
semi-classic. Inside was some good carving. Among the rectors have
been William Lyndwood, Bishop of St. David's, and keeper of the
Privy Purse to Henry V. (d. 1446); Thomas Langton, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and benefactor of Pembroke, Clare, and Queen's Colleges,
Oxford (d. 1500); Robert Home, Dean of Durham and Bishop of
Winchester (d. 1580); and Edward Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester.
Lawrence Saunders, collated to the living by Archbishop Cranmer in
1553, was arrested by order of Bonner, and, after lying in prison for
fifteen months, burned for heresy, February 8, 1555. His successor in
the rectory was Bonner's chaplain, William Chedsey, who was, however,
ejected on the accession of Elizabeth. There is a tablet to Saunders
in the vestry. Sir Arthur Haselrigg was married at this church, June
26, 1634.
In Harl. MS., No. 6191 (f. 22), is a warrant (dated October 27, 1552),
to pay " Mr. Knox, Preacher in the north," the sum of 40, and also a
letter (dated February 2, 1552-1553) to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
" in favour of Mr. Knox, to be presented to the vicaridge or parsonage of
Allhallowes in Bread Street, in his disposition by the preferment of
Thomas Sampson to the Deanery of Chichester." The old church, in
which Milton was baptized, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but ' the
register preserves the entry of the poet's baptism.
The xxth daye of December, 1608, was baptized John the sonne of John Milton,
scrivener.
On the external wall of the church, about 6 feet from the ground,
was a tablet, with the following inscription, which is now fixed on Bow
church :
Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn ;
The first in loftiness of thought surpasst,
The next in majesty in both the last,
The force of Nature could no further go :
To make a third she joined the former two.
John Milton
was born in Bread Street on Friday, the gth day of December, 1 608, and was
baptized in the parish church of All Hallows, Bread Street, on Tuesday, the aoth
day of December 1608.
The great non-conformist divine, John Howe, was buried here in
I705-
Stow gives a list of some of the monuments in the old church.
More to be noted of this church, which had a fair spired steeple of stone. In
the year 1559, the 5th of September, about mid-day fell a great tempest of lightning,
with a terrible clap of thunder, which struck the said spire about 9 or 10 feet
beneath the top ; out of the which place fell a stone that slew a dog and overthrew
ALLHALLOWS THE GREAT 33
a man that was playing with the dog. The same spire being but little damnified
thereby, was shortly after taken down, for sparing the changes of reparation. Stow's
Survey, 1603.
Wren's church has disappeared as entirely as its predecessor. In
1876 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners decided to demolish Allhallows
Church, sell the site, and appropriate a portion of the proceeds to the
erection of a new Allhallows Church beyond the city, but within the
limits of the Metropolis ; the rectory of Allhallows, Bread Street, being
joined to the united rectory of St. Mary-le-Bow, St. Pancras, Soper
Lane, Allhallows, Honey Lane, and St. John the Evangelist.
Accordingly, the ceremony of " deconsecration," as it was called,
was performed in Allhallows Church on Thursday, October 19, 1876,
by Bishop Piers Claughton, who preached a sermon from Luke ix. 59.
The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs attended the service in state. In
the course of the service a man stood up and exclaimed, " I protest
against this service as a farce ;" but he was at once removed from the
church by the police. The remains of the dead were removed from
their graves, and reinterred in Ilford Cemetery. The materials were
sold and the church demolished in the autumn of 1877 ; and on
March 20, 1878, the site, which, the auctioneer said, contained " a ground
area of 3270 superficial feet," was sold at the Auction Mart for
,32,254. 4000 of this has been appropriated for the augmenta-
tion of the endowment of the proposed church of Allhallows, East
India Docks. A massive block of warehouses has been built on the
site, and a tablet placed on the corner house with the inscription " John
Milton, born in Bread Street, 1608; baptized in the church of
Allhallows which stood on this spot."
Allhallows the Great, a church in UPPER THAMES STREET,
immediately east of the South-Eastern Railway Station. Stow calls it
ALLHALLOWS THE MORE (for a difference from Allhallows the Less, in
the same street). The church was erected in 1683, from a design by
Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of ^5641. It is 87 feet long, 60 feet
broad, and 33 feet high, and is of the Tuscan order. The tower,
of five stages, which stood on the north side of the church, was
said to owe its peculiar character to the builder, who improved on
Wren's design; it was taken down in 1876, in order to widen Upper
Thames Street. A new tower and vestry were built on the south side
of the church, the interior was entirely renewed, and the church was
reopened, October 18, 1877. The old church, destroyed in the Great
Fire, was also known as " Allhallows-in-the-Ropery," from the ropes
made and sold near thereunto at Hay Wharf, and in the High Street.
The interior is remarkable for a carved oak screen, extending across
the whole width of the church ; manufactured, it is said, at Hamburg,
and presented to the church by the Hanse merchants in memory of the
former connection which existed between them and this country. No
mention of the date of presentation appears in the parish books. [See
Steelyard.] Pepys speaks of Allhallows the Great as one of the first
VOL. I D
34 ALLHALLOWS THE GREAT
churches that set up the King's Arms before the Restoration, while
Monk and Montagu were as yet undecided. Edward Strong, Bishop
of Chichester, 1477, who erected Chichester Cross, was rector. So
also were George Day, Bishop of Chichester, 1543; Thomas White,
Bishop of Peterborough, 1685; William Cave (d. 1713), the learned
author of the Lives of the Fathers, and William Vincent (d. 1815), the
famed master of Westminster School. Theodore Jacobsen (d. 1772),
to whom is attributed the plan of the Foundling Hospital, is buried in
this church. The Jacobsens, at the time of the Great Fire, possessed
considerable property in the neighbourhood of the Steelyard. The church
serves as well for Allhallows the Less, and the right of presentation to
the rectory of both parishes belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
About the beginning of April, 1553, Knox returned to London. In February
preceding Archbishop Cranmer had been desired by the Council to present him to the
vacant living of Allhallows, in that city, which Knox declined. M'Crie, Life of
John Knox.
Allhallows the Less, or, ALLHALLOWS ON THE CELLARS, in UPPER
THAMES STREET ; a church in Dowgate Ward, destroyed in the Great
Fire, and not rebuilt. It was called " the Less " to distinguish it from
the foregoing, which was close beside it ; and " on the Cellars," from
the vaults or arches on which it stood.
The steeple and choir of this church standeth on an arched gate, being the
entry to a great house called Coldharbrough. Stow, p. 88.
The churchyard is on the south side of Thames Street. The church
of the parish is Allhallows the Great, above mentioned.
All hallows, HONEY LANE, a small parish church in the ward of
Cheap, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt, but united to St.
Mary-le-Bow. It stood at the east end of the site of Honey Lane
Market, "near the place where the Standard in Cheapside stood."
De Laune, ed. 1690, p. 28.
I find that John Norman, draper, Mayor 1453, was buried there. . . . This
John Norman was the first Mayor that was rowed to Westminster by water, for
before that they rode on horseback. Stow, pp. 102, 192.
Thomas Garret, the Martyr (1540), was curate of this church.
Foxe, vol. v. p. 427. In 1528, when Garret escaped from Oxford, Dr.
John London, Warden of New College, wrote to Archbishop Wareham,
" The Commissary being in extreme pensiveness, knew no other remedy
but this extraordinary, and caused a figure to be made by one expert
in astronomy ; and his judgment doth continually persist upon this,
that he fled in tawny coat south-eastward, and is in the middle of
London, and will shortly to the sea-side. He was curate to the parson
of Honey Lane. It is likely he is privily cloaked there." The " parson
of Honey Lane" was Dr. Norman, who had himself been in trouble
for heresy. 1
Allhallows, LOMBARD STREET, or ALLHALLOWS GRASS CHURCH,
* I''roude, vol. i. p. 63.
ALLHALLOWS STAINING 35
a church situated in Ball Alley, with the entrance from Lombard
Street, in Langbourne Ward. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of
1666, and rebuilt by Sir C. Wren, in a plain and unpretending style, in
1694. It cost ^8058 ; and is 64^ feet long, 52^ wide, and 36 high,
with a square tower 105 feet high to the top of the balustrade. Restored
1870 at a great cost. Reopened January 1871. It is united with St.
Benet's, Gracechurch Street, and St. Leonard's, Eastcheap, sometimes
known as Forechurch, as distinguished from St. Dionis, which is styled
Backchurch. The right of presentation belongs to the Dean and Chapter
of Canterbury. Alexander Barclay, author of The Ship of Fools (d.
August 24, 1552), rector of Allhallows, Lombard Street. Here is a
monument to Dr. Edward Tyson (d. 1708), the Carus of Garth's
Dispensary. On Good Friday about sixty of the younger boys of Christ's
Hospital attend at this church, and after the service receive each a
new penny and a small packet of almonds and raisins, the bequest of
Peter Symonds in the 1 6th century ; from the same fund the rector
receives a guinea for preaching the sermon.
Allhallows in the Wall, a church in London Wall, Broad Street
Ward, designed by George Dance junior, in 1765, and so called "of
standing close to the wall of the city." 1 The old church escaped the
Fire, but in 1764 had become so dangerously dilapidated that an Act of
Parliament was obtained for its removal, and the present mean building
erected at a cost of ^2941. It was consecrated September 8, 1767.
In the chancel is a tablet to the Rev. William Beloe, the translator of
Herodotus, and twenty years rector of this parish (d. 1817). The Rev.
Robert Nares, so well known by his Glossary, was his successor in the
living (d. 1829). Over the communion table is a copy, by Sir Nathaniel
Dance Holland, of P. da Cortona's picture of Ananias restoring Paul
to Sight, a present from the painter. The living is valued at ^1700;
the right of nomination is in the Lord Chancellor. The register
records the marriage, December 26, 1588, of Sir Francis Knowlles
[Knollys] Knt, and Mrs. Lettice Barratt.
Allhallows Staining 1 , in LANGBOURNE WARD, or ALLHALLOWS IN
MARK LANE.
Commonly called Stane Church (as may be supposed) for a difference from other
churches of that name in this city, which of old time were built of timber, and since
were built of stone. Stow, p. 77.
The old church escaped the Fire, but fell down, all but the tower,
in 1761. The living was, in 1870, united to the rectory of St. Olave,
Hart Street, and the church pulled down with the exception of the
tower. The site was purchased by the Clothworkers' Company, the
back of whose hall looks on to the churchyard, and whose lessees
erected a large block of offices on the site of the church. Part of the
churchyard has been laid out as a garden, and is to be kept unbuilt
upon "for ever." From the endowments and proceeds of the site three
1 Stow, p. 66.
36 ALL HALLOWS STAINING
new churches have been built and endowed within six miles of St. Paul's
Cathedral, one of these is Allhallows Bromley, by Bow, and the second
St. Anthony, Stepney. The Scottish patriot, Sir William Wallace, was
lodged as a prisoner, on his first arrival in London, in the house of
William de Leyre, a citizen in the parish of All Saints, Fenchurch
Street, i.e. Allhallows Staining, at the end of Fenchurch Street 1 Queen
Elizabeth, it is said, attended service here on her release from the
Tower in 1554, and dined off pork and peas afterwards, at the King's
Head, in Fenchurch Street. [But see Fenchurch Street.] Allhallows
Staining was one of the four London churches in which King James
II.'s Second Declaration of Indulgence was read. The rector was
Timothy Hall, "a wretch," as Macaulay calls him, made Bishop of
Oxford by the King for his zeal and forwardness on this occasion. The
churchwardens' Accounts exhibit a payment to the bell-ringers for
ringing the bells for joy on King James's return from Feversham, and
a further payment two days after for ringing a joyful peal on the arrival
of the Prince of Orange. When the church was pulled down the
monuments were removed to St. Olave's, where they were re-erected.
All Saints, the churches dedicated to Allhallows are frequently
referred to in old documents under the form of All Saints.
All Saints, MARGARET STREET, one of the most beautiful of
modern London churches, was built in 1850-1859 (W. Butterfield,
architect), the first stone being laid by Dr. Pusey on All Saints' Day,
November i, 1850. The spire is a very striking object, and rises to
the height of 227 feet. The frescoes in the chancel were painted by
W. Dyce, R.A., and the painted windows were by Gerente of Paris.
The Church occupies the site of Margaret Street Chapel, which may be
considered as the cradle of the High Church movement in London.
Its cost is said to have been about ^70,000.
All Souls' Church, LANGHAM PLACE, was built from the designs
of John Nash, at the contract price of ,15,994, but alterations etc.
amounted to ;i 7 1 9 : i os. The foundation-stone was laid November 1 8,
1822. Consecrated November 25, 1824. A circular portico nearly
surrounds the circular tower, which is surmounted by a pointed spire,
which has been commonly likened to a candle extinguisher. The altar
picture is Christ crowned with Thorns, by R. Westall, R.A.
Alleyn's Alms Houses. There are three sets of alms-houses in
London built and endowed by Edward Alleyn (d. 1626), the cele-
brated actor, and founder of God's Gift College at Dulwich :
i. in Lamb Alley, Bishopsgate Street, removed there from Petty
France in 1730; 2. in Bath Street (formerly Pest House Lane),
City Road (between Nos. 30 and 31); 3. in Soap Yard, Deadman's
Place, now called Park Street, Borough Market. The first brick of
the alms-houses in Bath Street was laid by Alleyn himself on
1 Compare Stow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 209.
ALMACK'S 37
July 13, 1620; and on April 29, 1621, he records his having
placed three men and seven women in the ten houses. They
were rebuilt in 1707, and again rebuilt in 1874, from the design
of Mr. T . J. Hill, architect to the Gift Estate Commission. The
alms-houses have been enlarged to provide accommodation for twenty-
two persons.
Allington House, HIGH HOLBORN. A house known as Warwick
House. \See Warwick House].
In 1665 it was ordered that the Right Hon. Charles Earl of Warwick, in
consideration of the sum of twenty pounds to be by him paid to the Treasurer of
Gray's Inn, shall have, for a term of forty years, a piece of ground belonging to
Gray's Inn, and lying in a brick wall erected by Mrs. Allington, deceased, on the
north side of her then dwelling-house in High Holborn, then called Allington
House, and now Warwick House, containing seven roods . . . north towards Gray's
Inn Field's. Douthwaite's Gray's Inn, p. 105.
Almack's, a suite of Assembly Rooms in King Street, St. James's,
designed by Robert Mylne in 1765. So called after Almack, a native
of Scotland (d. 1781), the original proprietor; and later "Willis's
Rooms," after a subsequent proprietor. The great room (100 feet by
40 feet) was finished in December 1767.
April 5, 1764. Almack is going to build most magnificent rooms behind his
house, one much larger than at Carlisle House. Mrs. Harris to her son (Earl of
Malmesbury), Malms. Corr., vol. i. p. 107.
The balls at Almack's were managed by a Committee of Ladies
of high rank, and the only mode of admission was by vouchers or
personal introduction.
The new Assembly Room at Almack's was opened the night before last, and
they say is very magnificent, but it was empty ; half the town is ill with colds, and
many were afraid to go, as the house is scarcely built yet. Almack advertised that
it was built with hot bricks and boiling water : think what a rage there must be for
public places, if this notice, instead of terrifying, could draw everybody thither.
They tell me the ceilings were dripping with wet ; but can you believe me when 1
assure you the Duke of Cumberland [the hero of Culloden] was there ? nay, had a
levee in the morning, and went to the Opera before the Assembly. Horace Walpole
to the Earl of Hertford, February 14, 1765.
There is now opened at Almack's, in three very elegant new-built rooms, a ten
guinea subscription, for which you have a ball and supper once a week for twelve
weeks. You may imagine by the sum the company is chosen ; though, refined as it
is, it will be scarce able to put old Soho [Mrs. Corneleys's] out of countenance.
Gilly Williams to George Selivyn, February 22, 1765.
Our female Almack's flourishes beyond description. If you had such a thing
at Paris you would fill half a quire of flourished paper with the description of it.
Almack's Scotch face, in a bag-wig, waiting at supper, would divert you, as would
his lady, in a sack, making tea and curtseying to the duchesses. Gilly Williams to
George Selwyn, March, 1765.
The female club I told you of is removed from their quarters, Lady Pembroke
objecting to a tavern ; it meets, therefore, for the present, at certain rooms of
Almack's, who for another year is to provide a private house. . . . The first fourteen
who imagined and planned it settled its rules and constitutions. These were formed
upon the model of one of the clubs at Almack's. There are seventy-five chosen (the
whole number is to be two hundred). The ladies nominate and choose the gentlemen,
and vice versa ; so that no lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentleman ! The
Duchess of Bedford was at first blackballed, but is since admitted. Duchess of
38 ALMACK'S
Grafton and of Marlborough are also chosen. Lady Hertford wrote to beg
admittance and has obtained it ; also Lady Holderness, Lady Rochford, are
blackballed ; as is Lord March, Mr. Boothby, and one or two more who think
themselves pretty gentlemen du premier ordre, but is plain the ladies are not of
their opinion. Lady Molineux has accepted, but the Duchess of Beaufort has
declined, as her health never permits her to sup abroad. When any of the ladies
dine with the society they are to send word before, but supper comes of course, and
is to be served always at eleven. Play will be deep and constant probably. Mrs.
Boscawen to Mrs. Delaney, vol. iv. p. 362.
All oa that magic List depends ;
Fame, fortune, fashion, lovers, friends :
'Tis that which gratifies or vexes
All ranks, all ages, and both sexes.
If once to Almack's you belong,
Like monarchs you can do no wrong ;
But banished thence on Wednesday night,
By Jove you can do nothing right. Luttrell's Julia, Letter i.
The mixed club died out, and was succeeded by a series of balls in
the season, which became famous. They were managed by a Com-
mittee of Ladies of high rank, and were confined almost exclusively to
the aristocracy. At length the barrier began to be broken through by
plebeian invasions, the prestige was lost, and in 1863 Almack's ceased
to exist. With a brief interval, during which they were used for club-
house purposes, the rooms have since been let for dinners, concerts,
balls, and public meetings.
Almack's Club was founded in 1764 by Almack in Pall Mall, on
the site of the house occupied by the Marlborough Club. The gaming
was of the most extravagant kind. The play, wrote Walpole, was " for
rouleaus of ^"50 each, and generally there is said to have been
; 1 0,000 in specie on the table." Lord Lauderdale informed Mr.
Croker (Boswell's Johnson, p. 501) that "Mr. Fox told him that the
deepest play he had ever known was between 1772 and the American
War. Lord Lauderdale instanced 5000 being staked on a single
card at Faro, and he talked of 7000 lost and won in a night."
Fox was one of the deepest players and sufferers.
At Almack's of pigeons I'm told there are flocks ;
But it's thought the completest is one Mr. Fox,
If he touches a card, if he rattles the box,
Away fly the guineas of this Mr. Fox.
Jesse's Sehoyn, vol. iii. p. 159.
Lord Holland is said to have paid above 20,000 for his two sons.
The brothers, the eldest under twenty-five, lost ,32,000 in two nights.
They borrowed largely of Jew money-lenders ; and Charles Fox called
the outer room, where these accommodating persons waited till he rose
from play, the Jerusalem Chamber.
It soon became notorious for deep play. " There have been deep
doings at Almack's," wrote Horace Walpole to Lady Ossory, January
5, 1772; and he tells his friend in Florence
The gaming at AlmacKs, which has taken the pas of White's, is worthy the
decline of our empire, or commonwealth, which you please. The young men of the
THE ALMONRY 39
age lose five, ten, fifteen thousand pounds in an evening there. Lord Stavordale,
not one and twenty, lost 11,000 there last Tuesday, but recovered it by one great
hand at hazard : he swore a great oath. Now if I had been playing deep, I
might have won millions. Walpole to Mann, February 2, 1770 {Letters, vol. v.
p. 226).
July 12, 1773. I was in London yesterday, where there is scarce a soul but
Maccaroni's lolling out of the windows at Almack's like carpets to be dusted.
Walpole to Lord Nuneham (Letters, vol. v. p. 486).
Reynolds was anxious to join the Club ; and Gibbon, the historian,
was elected a member June 5, 1776, and dates several of his letters
from it.
Town grows empty, and this house, where I have passed very agreeable hours,
is the only place which still invites the flower of the English youth. The style of
living, though somewhat expensive, is exceedingly pleasant ; and, notwithstanding
the rage of play, I have found more entertainment and even rational society here
than in any other club to which I belong. Gibbon to Holroyd, AlmacKs, June
24, 1776.
In a later letter (1771) to the same friend, Gibbon says, "Charles
Fox is now at my elbow, declaiming on the impossibility of keeping
America." And again, June 12, 1778, "Their chief conversation
at Almack's is about tents, drill-serjeants, sub-divisions, firings, etc.;
and I am revered as a veteran."
In 1778 Brooks, a wine merchant and money-lender, took
Almack's and removed the Club to St. James's Street. [See Brooks's
Club.] The old house still continued to be occupied as a club, and
was known as Goosetrees.
Almonry (The), or, THE ELEEMOSYNARY; corruptly called, in
Stow's time and in our own, THE AMBRY, a low rookery of houses off
Tothill Street, Westminster, where the alms of the adjoining Abbey
were wont to be distributed. The first printing-press ever seen in
England was set up by William Caxton, citizen and mercer (d. 1491),
while residing in this Almonry, under the patronage of Esteney, Abbot
of Westminster. Douce possessed what would now be called a hand-
bill, or advertisement, of great interest ; it is now in the Library of
Brasenose College, Oxford.
If it plese ony man, spirituel or temporel, to bye ony pyes of two or thre
comemoracio's of Salisbure use, enprynted after the forme of this preset lettre,
whiche ben wel and truly correct, late hym come to Westmonester, in to the
Almonesryre, at the reed pale, and he shal haue them good chepe. Supplico
stet cedula.
The house in which he is said to have lived, called " The Reed [Red]
Pale," 1 and long an object of attraction, is described by Bagford as
a brick building with the sign of the King's Head, 2 but this house
was of a much later date than Chaucer's time. It stood on the north
side of the Almonry, with its back to the back of those on the south
side of Tothill Street, 3 and fell down from sheer neglect, in November
1 Douce s Catalogue of Books, p. 305. 3 Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1846, p.
2 Knight's Caxton, p. 147. There is also a 362.
view of it by George Cooke, 1827.
40 THE ALMONRY
1845. The place was divided into two parts, called respectively the
Great Almonry and the Little Almonry.
For about twenty years before he died (except his imprisonment) he [James
Harrington, author of Oceana] lived in the Little Ambry (a faire house on the left
hand), which lookes into the Dean's Yard in Westminster. In the upper story he
had a pretty gallery, which looked into the yard (over . . . court) where he com-
monly dined, and meditated, and tooke his tobacco. Aubrey's Lives, vol. iii. p. 375.
Almonry Office. The office of the Hereditary Grand Almoner,
and the High Almoner, from the time of Richard I., has usually been
held in the Royal Palace, but in 1820 it was moved to an old house
in Middle Scotland Yard. It is now at 36 Spring Gardens.
The distribution of alms on the Thursday before Easter, or Maundy
Thursday, takes place in Whitehall Chapel; but the distribution at
Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, is made at the office.
Alpha Cottages, on the west side of the REGENT'S PARK. Here
the Rev. Henry F. Gary, the translator of Dante and friend of Lamb,
took up his first abode in London.
It is situated very pleasantly about half a mile to the left of the Edgware Road,
as you come into London, near Upper Baker Street. It is very retired, and looks
to the fields. If. F. Cary, May 3, 1810.
He left in 1813 for Kensington Gravel Pits.
Alpha Road, Lisson Grove, ST. JOHN'S WOOD. At No. 21,
during the height of his London popularity, lived the Hungarian patriot,
Louis Kossuth. Ugo Foscolo, the Italian poet and patriot, had a villa
on the banks of the canal, which he called Digamma Cottage, he
having written an article in the Quarterly Review on that subject.
Alphage (St.), ALDERMANBURY, by LONDON WALL. A church
in Cripplegate Ward, built 1774-1777, by Sir William Staines, on the site
of the chapel of the old Hospital or Priory of St. Mary the Virgin, " for
the sustentation of one hundred blind men," founded by William Elsing,
mercer, and of which Spital the founder was the first prior. The
original church of St. Alphage, which was in existence in the year 1068,
was situated on the north side of London Wall. In the reign of Henry
VIII. it had become ruinous, and the parishioners petitioned to be
allowed to rebuild it. This was not granted, but the King let them
have the chapel of St. Mary Elsing for ^100. The old church was
pulled down and some of the materials sold ; the rest were used in
repairing the chapel, and making it into, the parish church. In 1774
the church, which escaped the Fire, was in danger of falling, and it was
agreed that a new building should be erected. Against the north wall
of the church is a monument to Sir Rowland Hayward, Lord Mayor
of London in 1570 and 1590 (d. 1593); he is represented kneeling,
with his first wife and eight children on his right, and his second wife
and her eight children on his left. The living, a rectory, valued at
^1350, is in the gift of the Bishop of London. The brick wall which
formerly shut in the churchyard from the street was removed in 1872,
and a light iron railing substituted, the churchyard being at the same
ALSATIA 41
time laid out very prettily as a flower-garden. These alterations
exposed to view a portion of the old city wall, which is now very
properly kept clear.
The name of Alphage has undergone many variations of form ; and
it appears as St. Taphyns in Norden's Map of London, 1593.
Alsatia, a cant name given before 1623 to the precinct of White-
friars, then and long after a notorious place of refuge and retirement
for persons wishing to avoid bailiffs and creditors. The earliest use of
the name is contained in a quarto tract by Thomas Powel, printed in
1623, and called "Wheresoever you see mee, Trust unto Yourselfe : or,
The Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing." The second in point of
time is in Otway's play of The Soldier's Fortune (410, 1681), and the
third in Shadwell's celebrated Squire of Alsatia (410, 1688), Sir Walter
Scott's authority for some of his admirable scenes in the Fortunes
of Nigel
This place [Whitefriars] was formerly, since its building in houses, inhabited
by gentry ; but some of the inhabitants taking upon them to protect persons from
arrests, upon a pretended privilege belonging to the place, the gentry left it, and it
became a sanctuary unto the inhabitants, which they kept up by force against law
and justice ; so that it was sufficiently crowded with such disabled and loose kind of
lodgers. But, however, upon a great concern of debt, the sheriff with the posse
comitatus forced his way in, to make a search ; and yet to little purpose ; for the
time of the sheriff's coming not being concealed, and they having notice thereof,
took flight either to the Mint in Southwark, another such place, or some other private
place, until the hurly-burly was over, and then they returned. But of late the
Parliament taking this great abuse into its consideration, they made an Act [8 and 9
Will. III., c. 27, 1697] to put down all such pretended privileged places upon
penalties ; yet not so well observed as it ought to be. Strype, B. iii. p. 278.
[See Whitefriars.]
The particular portions of Whitefriars forming Alsatia were Ram-
Alley, Mitre Court, and a lane called in the cant language of the place
by the name of Lombard Street. Shadwell has described the class of
inhabitants in the dramatis persona before his play :
Cheatly. A rascal, who by reason of debts dares not stir out of Whitefryers,
but there inveigles young heirs in tail, and helps them to goods and money upon
great disadvantages ; is bound for them, and shares with them till he undoes them.
A lewd, impudent, debauched fellow, very expert in the cant about the town.
Sham-well. Cousin to the Belfonds ; an heir who, being ruined by Cheatly, is
made a decoy-duck for others ; not daring to stir out of Alsatia, where he lives ; is
bound to Cheatly for heirs, and lives upon 'em, a dissolute, debauched life.
Capt. Hackum. A block-headed bully of Alsatia ; a cowardly, impudent,
blustering fellow, formerly a serjeant in Flanders, run from his colours, retreated into
Whitefryers for a very small debt, where, by the Alsatians, he is dubbed a Captain ;
marries one that lets lodgings, sells cherry-brandy, and is a bawd.
Scapeall. A hypocritical, repeating, praying, psalm-singing, precise fellow,
pretending to great piety, a godly knave, who joins with Cheatly, and supplies young
heirs with goods and money. Squire of Alsatia, 4to, 1688.
No. 50 of Tempest's Cries of London (drawn and published in
James II.'s reign) is called "The Squire of Alsatia," and represents
a young gallant of the town with cane, sword, hat, feather, and
Chedreux wig.
42 ALSATIA
Courtine. 'Tis a fine equipage I am like to be reduced to ; I shall be ere
long as greasy as an Alsatian bully ; this flopping hat, pinned up on one side, with a
sandy weather-beaten peruke, dirty linen, and to complete the figure, a long scandal-
ous iron sword jarring at my heels. Otway, The Soldier's Fortune, 4to, 1681.
The original of Scott's Duke Hildebrod may be found in ShadwelFs
Woman Captain (410, 1680). Steele in The Tatler of September 10,
1709 (No. 66), speaks of Alsatia as "now in ruins." It is not unlikely
that the Landgraviate of Alsace (German Elzass, Latin Alsatia), long
a borderland and a cause of contention, often the seat of war, and
familiarly known to our Low Country soldiers, suggested the cant name
of Alsatia to the precinct of Whitefriars. This privileged spot stood
much in the same position to the Temple and Westminster as Alsace
did to France and the central powers of Europe. In the Temple,
students were studying to observe the law; and in Alsatia adjoining,
debtors to avoid and violate it ; the Alsatians were troublesome neigh-
bours to the Templars, and the Templars as troublesome neighbours to
the Alsatians.
The Templars shall not dare
T' attempt a rescue.
Cartwright's Ordinary, 8vo, 1651.
The privilege of sanctuary was abolished in 1697.
Alsop's Buildings (afterwards called ALSOP TERRACE), NEW
ROAD. The first row of large houses on the north side, west of
Regent's Park, now absorbed in MARYLEBONE ROAD. At No. 30
lived for thirty years (1818-1848) John Martin, the painter of Belshazzar's
Feast and other fine works. The studio at the back was built by him.
Amelia Place, BROMPTON (now incorporated with FULHAM
ROAD), a small pleasant row of houses looking on a nursery garden,
now Pelham Crescent. At No. 7 the Right Hon. John Philpot
Curran died, October 14, 1817. He had resided there for twelve
months. " His forenoon was generally passed in a solitary ramble
through the neighbouring fields and gardens (which have now dis-
appeared), and "in the evening he enjoyed the conversation of a few
friends." 1 Banim, the Irish novelist, on first coming to London, 1822,
had lodgings in the house in which his illustrious countryman had died.
Amen Corner, AVE MARIA LANE, PATERNOSTER Row.
At the end of Pater-Noster Row is Ave-Mary Lane, so called upon the like
occasion of text-writers and bead-makers then dwelling there ; and at the end of that
lane is likewise Creede Lane, lately so called, but sometimes Spurrier Row, of
spurriers dwelling there ; and Amen Lane is added thereunto betwixt the south end
of Warwick Lane and the north end of Ave-Mary Lane. Stow, p. 127.
At No. 4 Amen Corner is the entrance to AMEN COURT, where are
the dwellings of the Canons residentiary of St. Paul's.
I have taken possession of my preferment. The house is in Amen Corner, an
awkward name on a card, and an awkward annunciation to the coachman on leaving
a fashionable mansion. Sydney Smith to the Countess of Morley, Bristol, 1831.
1 Dillon Croker's Walk to Fulhain, p. 77 ; Regan, Life of Curran, p. 271.
ST. ANDREW'S, HOLBORN 43
Ampthill Square, a turning out of the Hampstead Road, named
after Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire, a seat of the Duke of Bedford.
The south-west corner of the enclosure is crossed by a deep cutting of
the London and North-Western Railway. Henry West Betty, better
known as the "Infant Roscius" (b. September 13, 1791), died at his
house in the square in September 1874.
Ampton Street, GRAY'S INN ROAD (east side) to Frederick Place.
Here, in the autumn of 1830, when Thomas Carlyle brought his wife
for the first time to London and during his vain search for a publisher
for the newly-finished Sartor Resartus they spent "an interesting,
cheery, and in spite of poor arrangements, really pleasant winter. We
lodged in Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Lane, clean and decent pair of
rooms, and quiet decent people." Visitors "in plenty: John Mill
one of the most frequent. . . . Jeffrey, Lord Advocate, often came on
an afternoon." They stayed about three months. " I wrote Johnson
here just before going." Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 163.
Amwell Street, by the New River Head, PENTONVILLE, so called
from the village of Amwell, in Hertfordshire, where the New River has
its rise. One of the registration sub-districts of the parish of Clerken-
well is named Amwell.
Anchor Lane, on the south side of UPPER THAMES STREET,
opposite Addle Hill the site now marked by Anchor Wharf.
On July 30, 1557, Henry Machyn, the Diarist, interrupts his daily list of
funerals, and records how he "and mony mo did eat half a bushel of owsturs in
Anckur Lane at Master Smyth and Master Gytton's cellar, upon hogsheads and
candlelight, and onions and red ale, and claret ale, and muscadel and malmsey ale,
fre cope, at 8 in the morning. p. 143.
A curious little peep into London life three centuries ago !
In the Calendar of State Papers (Domestic, 1661-1662, p. 87),
reference is made to a conventicle in this lane, " where two pulpits are
set up for prophesying."
Andrew's (St.), HOLBORN, a parish church on Holborn Hill
(now Holborn Viaduct), between Shoe Lane and St. Andrew Street,
in the ward of Farringdon Without, designed by Sir C. Wren in 1676,
on the site of the old church, which escaped the Fire, but was so decayed
that it had to be taken down, except the tower. The tower, which
still shows two or three of the Gothic arches, was refaced with Portland
stone in 1704. The church is spacious, and admirably fitted for
seeing and hearing. It is 105 feet long, 63 feet wide, and 43 high.
It cost ^9000. The interior of the church much resembles that of St.
James's, Westminster. The organ was the larger portion of the rejected
organ of the Temple Church, made by Harris, in competition with Father
Schmydt; but it gave place, in 1872, to a new and more powerful
instrument, constructed by Messrs. Hill. The coloured glass in the
east window was executed by Joshua Price in 1718, and for the period
of its erection is very good. The church was thoroughly repaired in
44 -ST. ANDREWS, HOLBORN
1851, and a good deal altered internally in 1872, when the churchyard
was altered to adapt it to the level of the new Holborn Viaduct. The
painted glass in the west window is new. In 2 Edw. III. the parish
is styled " St. Andrew in Purtepul, without the Bar, in the suburb of
London." l Hacket, afterwards bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and
the author of the Life of Lord Keeper Williams, was several years
rector of this church. One Sunday, while he was reading the Common
Prayer in St. Andrew, a soldier of the Earl of Essex came and
clapped a pistol to his breast and commanded him to read no further.
Not at all terrified, Hacket said he would do what became a divine,
and he might do what became a soldier. He was permitted to proceed.
Another eminent rector was Edward Stillingfleet, afterwards bishop
of Worcester. While Stillingfleet was rector of St. Andrew, the young
Richard Bentley resided with him as tutor to his son. A rector
eminent in a different way was Dr. Sacheverel, whose "Trial" is
matter of English history. Sacheverel, who received the living of St.
Andrew as a reward for the trial he had gone through, is buried in the
chancel of the church, under an inscribed stone (d. 1724).
In the south aisle is a tablet to Emery, the actor (d. 1822).
William Whiston, the Nonconformist preacher, was a constant attend-
ant at this church, but left the church and parish on Sacheverel
refusing to allow him to take the communion. The parish registers
record the baptism and burial of two of our most unfortunate Sons
of Song: under January 18, 1696-1697, the baptism of Richard
Savage; and under August 28, 1770, the burial of Thomas Chat-
terton. Savage was born in Fox Court, Brooke Street, and Chat-
terton died in Brooke Street. Savage died in Bristol, and Chatterton
was born in Bristol. Chatterton is entered in the register as " William
Chatterton, interred in the graveyard of Shoe Lane Workhouse." There
are other interesting entries in the register: the burial, in 1561, of
Robert Coke of Mileham, in Norfolk, the father of Sir Edward Coke :
in the old church was a monument to his memory; the marriage (1598)
of Edward Coke, "the Queen's Attorney-General," and "my Lady
Elizabeth Hatton;" the marriage (1638) of Colonel Hutchinson and
Lucy Apsley (Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs are well known) ; the burial
(1643) of Nathaniel Tomkins, executed for his share in Waller's plot;
the burial (1690) of Theodore Haak, one of the founders of the Royal
Society; the burial (1720) of John Hughes, author of The Siege of
Damascus; the baptism of Henry Addington, Speaker and Prime
Minister, June 30, 1757 ; the burial (1802) of Joseph Strutt, author of
Sports and Pastimes ; the marriage (on Sunday, May i, 1808), of
William Hazlitt and Sarah Stoddart : Charles Lamb was best man, and
Mary Lamb bridesmaid, and Lamb was near being turned out of the
church for laughing. One remarkable entry runs thus :
Baptized July 31, 1817, Benjamin, said to be about twelve years old, son of
1 Historical MSS. Coinin., Appendix to Ninth Report, p. 3.
ST. ANDREW'S UNDERSHAFT 45
Isaac and Maria D'Israeli, King's Road, Gentleman. A clergyman named
Thimbleby performed the ceremony.
Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, was buried
here, but his body was afterwards removed to Tichfield. Cooper,
Athen. Cant. Webster the dramatist is said by Gildon to have
been clerk of this parish.
The living is a rectory of the value of ^900, in the gift of the
Duke of Buccleuch.
Andrew's (St.) Hubberd, or ST. ANDREW IN EASTCHEAP, a
church which stood between St. Botolph's Lane and Love Lane, in
Billingsgate Ward, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt.
Weigh House Yard afterwards occupied the site. The parish church is
St. Mary-at-Hill, to which parish St. Andrew's Hubberd is now united.
Andrew's (St.) Undershaft, a church erected 1520-1532, one
of the latest in the perpendicular period of Gothic architecture, at
the corner of St. Mary Axe, Leadenhall Street, in Aldgate Ward,
and called Undershaft " because that of old time every year (on
May-day in the morning), it was used that an high or long shaft or
May-pole was set up there before the south door of the said church." l
As the shaft overtopped the steeple the church in St. Mary Axe
received the additional name of St. Andrew's Undershaft, to distinguish
it from other churches in London dedicated to the same saint. This
shaft is said by Stow to be alluded to in a " Chance of Dice," a poem
attributed by him to Chaucer, but now unknown.
The last year of the shaft overlooking the old church was on " Evil
May-day," 1517, when a serious fray took place, amid the gaieties of
the occasion, between the apprentices and the settled foreigners of the
parish. This was good reason for not hoisting it again ; and for two
and thirty years the shaft remained unraised. Another fate yet awaited
it : a certain curate, whom Stow calls Sir Stephen, preached against it
at Paul's Cross and accused the inhabitants of the parish it was in of
setting up for themselves an idol, inasmuch as they had named their
church with the addition of "under the shaft." "I heard his sermon
at Paul's Cross," says Stow, " and I saw the effect that followed." The
effect was that the inhabitants first sawed into pieces and then burnt
the old May-pole of their parish.
The church is considered by some to be the first church erected
in London with a special view to the Reformed worship. It consists
of a nave and two side aisles. The roof is ribbed and almost flat.
The large east window contained full length portraits of Edward VI.,
Queen Elizabeth, James I., Charles L, and Charles II., all very much
faded. The exterior was in 1866 cleared from the cement with which
it had been covered, and partially restored by Mr. Thomas C. Clerke,
but a more thorough restoration was effected in 1875-1876, when the
interior was entirely remodelled. The glass spoken of above was
1 Sttnv, p. 54.
46 ST. ANDREWS UNDERSHAFT
removed to the west window, the east window filled with new glass,
and a new and larger chancel, with reredos and sanctuary, designed
by Mr. A. Blomfield, A.R.A., added.
Terra- cotta monument to John Stow, author of the invaluable
Survey which bears his name, erected at the expense of his widow,
and once painted to resemble life. The honest old citizen and
chronicler is represented sitting with a book on a table before him, and
a pen in his hand. The figure is cramped, but the head has an air
and character which marks it out for a likeness. There was once a
railing before it. John Stow was born in the parish of St. Michael's,
Cornhill, about the year 1525. "In 1549," says Strype, "I find him
dwelling by the Well within Aldgate, where now a pump standeth,
between Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street." He was by trade
a tailor, and the arms of his Company, the Merchant Tailors, figure
on his tomb. He died in the parish of St. Andrew's Undershaft,
April 5, 1605, old, poor, and neglected. His remains were disturbed
in the year 1732, and it is said removed. 1 Monument to Sir Hugh
Hammersley (d. 1636). Sir Hugh is represented kneeling underneath
a canopy : behind him kneels his wife. All this is common enough :
not so the two full-length cavalier figures on each side, which are
conceived with an ease and an elegance not then common in English
sculpture. The artist's name is said to have been Thomas Madden :
he is not mentioned by Walpole. Peter Motteux, the translator of
Don Quixote, lies buried in this church, but without a monument.
He kept a large East India warehouse in Leadenhall Street, and died
(1718) in a house of ill-fame in Butcher Row in the Strand. The
living is a rectory in the gift of the Bishop of London, value ^2000.
Hans Holbein the painter resided in this parish, and died here in
1543 (not in 1554 as usually stated). His name occurs in a Subsidy
Roll for the city of London, dated October 24, 1541. "Aldgate
Warde, Parisshe of Saint Andrewe Undershafte Straunger: Hans
Holbene in fee xxx.li. . . . iij.li." Quoted by Mr. A. W. Franks
(Discovery of the Will of Hans Holbein), Archaologia, vol. xxxix., p. 1 7.
Holbein was at this time in receipt of ^30 annually as painter to the
king ; the tax is so large because he is a foreigner (straunger). The
will of "Johannis, alias Hans Holbein, nuper parochie sancti Andree
Undershafte," dated October 7, 1543, was proved by his executor,
"Mr. John of Anwarpe," on November 29 following. Archaologia,
vol. xxxix. Stow had been "told that Hans Holbein the great and
inimitable painter " was buried in the neighbouring church (eastward)
of St. Catherine Cree, but that when the Earl of Arundel would
have set up a monument to his memory he could not learn where his
corpse lay. Holbein died, as is believed, of the plague, and at such
times little heed was given as to the exact place of sepulture.
Wornum's Holbein, p. 365.
Andrew's (St.) by the Wardrobe, a church on the east side of
1 Malt land, ed. 1739, p. 368.
THE ANGEL INN 47
ST. ANDREW'S HILL (formerly Puddledock Hill), in Castle Baynard
Ward, so called from its contiguity to the office of the King's Great
Wardrobe, and to distinguish it from the other churches in London
dedicated to the same saint. It was previously called St. Andrew's
juxta-Baynard's Castle, from its vicinity to the mansion so named,
and received its present appellation after the removal of the King's
Wardrobe to the house built by Sir John Beauchamp (d. 1359), and
thenceforth known as Wardrobe Court. [See Wardrobe.] The old
church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present edifice, one
of Sir C. Wren's design, was erected 1691-1692 at a cost of ^7060,
and served for the newly united parishes of St. Andrew's-in-the Wardrobe
and St Anne's, Blackfriars. The interior, 75 feet long, 59 wide, and
38 high, is light and elegant. A monument by the elder Bacon to
the Rev. William Romaine (d. 1 795) is not devoid of beauty. The bust
is very good. The living is a rectory valued at ^250; the right of
presentation belongs alternately to the Mercers' Company (for St
Andrew's), and to the parishioners of St. Anne's for the parish of
Anne's.
Among the State Papers is a letter from Lord Keeper Coventry to
Bishop Laud, in which he states that he has considered the title made
by the Earl of Leicester to the patronage of this church : " It comes
through John, Duke of Northumberland, who was attainted in Queen
Mary's time, whereupon the title fell to the Crown." 1
Angel Alley, now called ANGEL PASSAGE, a court on the east side
of Upper Thames Street, opposite Duckfoot Lane. In the Guildhall
collection is a rare Tavern Token, with an angel in the field, and the
inscription "Obadiah Surridge in Angell Ally, in Thames Street, 1668.
His halfe peny." Burn, p. 17. The name was of old very much
in favour with Londoners for these narrow passages. Dodsley records
twenty-three Angel Alleys and thirty Angel Courts in 1761. There
are still about thirty Angel Alleys, Courts, Rows, Streets, Terraces, etc.
Angel Inn (The), ISLINGTON (so called), though really situated
in the parish of Clerkenwell, has a history of at least two centuries and
a half. Among those who compounded for buildings erected in
London contrary to proclamation (1638?) was William Ryplingham,
" for a new building in the Angel's Inn in Islington." 2 In the year
1699 the inn was owned by one Bagnall.
The Angel Inn formerly was noted as being a halting-place for travellers
approaching London from the north ; who, if they arrived after nightfall, generally
waited here till the morrow for fear of the thieves who infested the road beyond leading
to the Metropolis, and who robbed with impunity, and sometimes murdered those
who had the temerity to proceed on their journey. Persons having to cross the
fields to Clerkenwell usually went in a body for mutual protection ; and it was
customary at the Angel to ring a bell to summon the party together before starting.
Pink's History of Clerkenwell, 1 88 1, p. 549.
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1628- '* Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1638.
1629, p. 503. J 639, p- 262.
THE ANGEL INN
The interior or courtyard of the old inn is shown in Hogarth's
engraving of the Stage Coach.
A lease of the premises for 70 years was sold by auction on
January 26, 1819, and shortly afterwards the inn was rebuilt. It has
been much modernised lately.
Angel Inn, ST. CLEMENT'S DANES, STRAND, on the north side of
the church, was one of the most interesting of the old galleried inns of
London. A letter, dated February 6, 1503, was directed to "Sir Richard
Plumpton, Knight, being lodged at the Angell behind St. Clement
Kirk, without the Temple Barr, at London." 1 The inn was then
standing in the fields. When Hooper, the martyr-Bishop of Gloucester,
was condemned in January 1555 he was taken to the Angel Inn before
being sent to Gloucester, where he was burnt.
Before the period of railways as many as seven or eight mail-
coaches started every night from this inn. In 1853 it was closed, and
the freehold sold for ^6800. On the inn and its large courtyard were
built St. Clement's Chambers, now styled Dane's Inn. There is an
engraving of the inn in Diprose's St. Clement Danes, 1868, p. 195.
Ann (St.) and St. Agnes within Aldersgate, formerly ST.
ANN IN THE WILLOWS, a church on the north side of St. Ann's Lane,
St. Martin's-le-Grand, now Gresham Street, and in the ward of Alders-
gate. Destroyed by the Great Fire, it was rebuilt by Sir C. Wren in
1 68 1, when the neighbouring parish of St. John Zachary was united
to it.
St. Anne in the Willows, so called, I know not upon what occasion, but some
say of willows growing thereabouts ; but now there is no such void place for willows
to grow, more than the churchyard, wherein do grow some high ash trees. Stow,
p. 115.
This church was burnt down [1666], and rebuilt of rubbed brick : and stands
in the churchyard, planted before the church with lime trees that flourish there.
So that, as it was formerly called St. Anne in the Willows, it may now be named
St. Anne in the Limes. Strype, B. iii. p. 101.
The interior is 53 feet square and 35 feet high. Four Corinthian
columns form an inner square and support an ornamented ceiling
higher than the outer sides, which have sunk panels of fretwork within
circles, giving a pleasing effect. The living is a rectory, the right
of presentation belongs to the Bishop of London, alternately with the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.
Anne's (St.), BLACKFRIARS, a parish church which stood south of
Ireland Yard, St. Andrew's Hill, in the precinct of the Blackfriars and
ward of Farringdon Within ; destroyed in the Great Fire, and not
rebuilt. The church of St Andrew by the Wardrobe serves for St.
Anne's.
There is a parish of St. Anne, within the precinct of the Blackfriars, which
1 Plumpton Correspondent.
ST. ANNE'S 49
was pulled down with the Friars Church by Sir Thomas Cawarden, Master of the
Revels ; but in the reign of Queen Mary, he being forced to find a church to the
inhabitants, allowed them a lodging chamber above a stair, which since that time, to
wit in the year 1597, fell down, and was again by collection therefore made, new-
built and enlarged in the same year, and was dedicated on December u. Stow,
p. 128.
The parish register records the burial of Isaac Oliver, the miniature
painter (1617), who lived in this parish. His son erected a monument
to his memory, with his bust in marble. It perished in the Great Fire.
Peter Oliver was buried with his father. Other burials recorded are
Nat Field, the poet and player (1632-1633); Dick Robinson, the
player (1647) ; William Faithorne, the engraver (1691). The follow-
ing interesting entries relate to Vandyck, who lived and died in this
parish, leaving a sum of money in his will to its poor :
Jasper Lanfranch, a Dutchman, from Sir Anthony Vandike's, buried February
14, 1638.
Martin Ashent, Sir Anthony Vandike's man, buried March 12, 1638.
Justinian, daughter to Sir Anthony Vandike and his lady, baptized December
9, 1641.
The child was therefore baptized the day her illustrious father died
(1641). John Bill, king's printer (1630), by will directed his body to
be buried here, and left the large sum of ^300 for the expense of his
funeral. He also left money for the poor of the parish. 1 A portion
of the old burying-ground is still to be seen in Church Entry, Ireland
Yard.
In this parish lived Sir Samuel Luke, the original of Hudibras ; the
register records his marriage in 1624, and the baptism of several of his
children.
Anne's (St.), LIMEHOUSE, one of Queen Anne's fifty churches,
designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren.
It was erected 1712-1724 at a cost of ^38,000, and was consecrated
September 12, 1729. The interior was seriously injured by fire on
the morning of Good Friday, March 29, 1850 : but was very carefully
restored.
Anne's (St.), SOHO, a parish in Westminster, taken out of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, 3oth of Charles II. (1678). The church (in
Wardour Street and Dean Street) was erected on a piece of ground
called Kemp's Field, 2 and was consecrated by Bishop Compton, March
21, 1686. It has more than once since been repaired. The interior
was remodelled and improved in 1866 (Mr. A. W. Blomfield, A.R.A.,
architect). The architect is not known. The present turret was
erected in 1806 by S. P. Cockerell. The church was dedicated to St.
Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, in honour of the Princess Anne,
daughter of the reigning sovereign.
Vpon the twentie-first of the same March, 1685-1686, was the new parish church
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1629-1631, p. 242.
8 Vestry Minute, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
VOL. I R
50 ST. ANNE'S
St. Anne's, Soho, consecrated by the Lord Bishop of London, Henry Compton, a
most pious prelate and an admirable governor. This parish is taken (as was St.
James's) out of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, by Act of Parliament, and the patronage
thereof settled in the Bishop of London and his successors. The consecration (as
was the buildinge) of it was the more hastened, for that, by the Act of Parliament, it
was to be a parish from the Lady Day next after the consecration ; and had it not
been consecrat that day, it must have lost the benefit! of a year, for there was noe
other Sunday before our Lady Day. Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, p. 223.
I imagine your Countess of Dorchester [Sedley"s daughter] will speedily move
hitherward, for the house is furnishing very fine in St. James's Square, and a seat
taking for her in the new consecrated St. Anne's Church. Letter of April 6,
1686 (Ellis's Letters, 2d S., vol. iv. p. 91).
In the churchyard is a tablet to the memory of Theodore, King of
Corsica, who died at a tailor's in Chapel Street, in this parish (December
n, 1756), soon after his liberation by the Act of Insolvency from
the King's Bench Prison.
As soon as Theodore was at liberty he took a chair and went to the Portuguese
minister, but did not find him at home : not having sixpence to pay, he prevailed
on the chairmen to carry him to a tailor he knew in Soho, whom he prevailed
upon to harbour him, but he fell sick the next day, and died in three more.
Walpole to Mann, January 17, 1757.
He was buried at the expense of an oilman in Compton Street, of the
name of Wright, but Horace Walpole paid for the tablet (which has a
crown " exactly copied " from one of Theodore's coins) and wrote the
inscription :
The grave, great teacher, to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings
But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead ;
Fate pour'd its lessons on his living head,
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread.
You will laugh to hear that when I sent my inscription to the vestry for the
approbation of the minister and churchwardens, they demurred and took some days
to consider whether they should suffer him to be called King of Corsica. Happily
they have acknowledged his title. Walpole to Mann, February 29, 1757.
In the church are buried Lord Camelford, killed (1804) in a duel
with Captain Best ; David Williams (d. 1 8 1 6), founder of the Literary
Fund. In the churchyard are buried Brook Taylor, LL.D. (d.
December 29, 1731), discoverer of Taylor's Theorem and author of
the Principles of Linear Perspective; Sir Hildebrand Jacob (1790);
William Hazlitt (d. 1830), a headstone over whose grave has a pompous
inscription very unlike the style of the writer the inscription celebrates.
In the church are monuments to Sir John Macpherson, " the gentle
giant," who for some months acted as Governor-General of India ; and
William Hamilton, R.A., a feeble though not ungraceful painter. The
register records the baptism (1736) of John Home, known now as
John Home Tooke. " Many parts of this parish," says Maitland,
(1739), "so greatly abound with French, that it is an easy matter for
a stranger to imagine himself in France." This is true of the parish
a century and a half after : it is still a kind of Petty France. The
emigrants from all the Revolutions have congregated hereabouts. [See
Greek Street.]
ST. ANTHO LIN'S 51
Anne's (St.), Lane, GREAT PETER STREET, WESTMINSTER.
Henry Purcell, the musician, lived in this lane, and here Herrick, the
poet, when ejected from his living of Dean Prior, resided as " Robert
Herrick, Esquire."
Antholin's (St.), or, ST. ANTLING'S, in BUDGE Row (a corruption
of ST. ANTHONY'S), a church which stood at the south-west corner of
Sise Lane, Watling Street (Cordwainer Street Ward). It was destroyed
in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Cartwright from the designs of Sir
C. Wren in 1682-1683, at an expense of about ^5700. The
interior was ingeniously fitted to an irregular site and covered with an
oval-shaped dome, supported on eight Roman Corinthian columns.
The church was taken down in September 1874 to make way for the
new Queen Victoria Street, and the site is marked by a memorial with
a painting of the church. Strong efforts were made, but unsuccess-
fully, to have the much-admired tower with its solid octagonal stone
spire preserved as a memorial. For the solace of Wren's admirers
it may be well to note that the spire removed in 1874 was not the
.original. That was injured by lightning many years before ; taken
down, and replaced by a new and somewhat lower spire. The
injured spire was taken away to ornament the garden of one of the
parish authorities at Forest Hill. The parish has been joined to the
united rectory of St. Mary Aldermary with St. Thomas Apostle
and St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook. The proceeds of the sale
of the church were ^44,990, a portion of which sum went for the
erection of the church of St. Antholin, Nunhead.
A morning prayer and lecture, the bells for which began to ring
at five in the morning, was established at St. Antholin's, in Budge Row,
"after Geneva fashion," in September, 1559.* Lilly, the astrologer,
attended these lectures when a young man, and Sir Walter Scott makes
Mike Lambourne, in Kenilworth, refer to them. Nor have they been
overlooked by our early dramatists : Randolph, Davenant, and Mayne
make frequent allusions in their plays to the Puritanical fervour of the
parish. The tongue of Middleton's Roaring Girl was " heard further
in a still morning than St. Antling's bell." Among the State Papers
are orders for disposing of certain money given towards the mainten-
ance of six morning lectures in the church, dated March 17, 1629,
and endorsed by Laud, then Bishop of London. It appears that the
parish allowed ^70 per annum towards the lecture, the chamber of
London 40 per annum, and by this instrument monies were vested
in trustees to pay each of the lecturers an additional ^30 per annum. 2
In the heart of the city, near London Stone, in a house which
used to be inhabited by the Lord Mayor or one of the Sheriffs, and
was situate so near to the church of St. Antholin's that there was a
way out of it into a gallery of the church, the Commissioners from the
Church of Scotland to King Charles were lodged in 1640. Here
1 Machyn's Diary, p. 212.
- Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1628-1629, p. 495.
52 ST. ANTHOLIWS
preached the Chaplains of the Commission, with Alexander Henderson
at their head ; and curiosity, faction, and humour brought so great a
conflux and resort, that from the first appearance of day in the morning
on every Sunday, to the shutting in of the light, the church was never
empty. 1
Under colour of preaching the Gospel, in sundry parts of the realm, they set up a
Morning Lecture at St. Antholine's Church in London ; where (as probationers for
that purpose) they first made tryal of their abilities, which place was the grand
nursery, whence most of the Seditious Preachers were after sent abroad throughout
all England to poyson the people with their anti-monarchical principles. Dugdale's
Troubles in England, fol. 1681, p. 37.
Going to St. Antlin's and Morning Lectures is out of fashion. An Exclamation
from Tunbridge and Epsom against the New-found Wells at Islington, single half-
sheet, 1684.
Bansswright. Tis all the fault she has : she will outpray
A preacher at St. Antlin's. Mayne, The City Match, fol. 1639.
And these two disciples of St. Tantlin
That rise to long exercise before day.
Davenant's News from Plymouth, Act i. Sc. i.
I do hope
We shall grow famous ; have all sorts repaire
As duly to us as the barren wives
Of ancient citizens do at St. Antholin's.
Cart wright's Ordinary, 1651.
I'll be a new man from the top to the toe, or I'll want of my will. Instead of
tennis-court my morning exercise shall be at St. Antlin's. Heywood's If you know
not Me, p. 72.
Dean Colet, founder of St. Paul's School, was born in this parish in
1466. His father, Sir Henry Colet, had been Lord Mayor of London.
Anthony (St.), (Hospital or Free School of), stood opposite
Finch Lane, in Threadneedle Street, where the French Church afterwards
stood. It was some time a cell, says Stow, to St. Anthony's of
Venice, afterwards a hospital " for a master, two priests, one
schoolmaster, and twelve poor men." Dr. Nicholas Heath, some
time Bishop of Rochester, afterwards of Worcester, and lastly Arch-
bishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England, Sir Thomas More
and Archbishop Whitgift, and, as is believed, Dean Colet, were educated
at this school, which, in Stow's remembrance, presented the best
scholars for prizes of all the schools of London. Whitgift when here
(circ. 1546), boarded with his aunt in St. Paul's Churchyard, her
husband being a verger of the Cathedral. The Hospital was suppressed
in the reign of Edward VI., "the School in some sort remaining," says
Stow, " but sore decayed."
The Hospital possessed a curious privilege. The city laws were, in
the Middle Ages, exceedingly strict in respect of food and sanitary
matters. Unwholesome meat was destroyed; swine "found in the
streets or in the fosses or in the suburbs " were to be killed. But
pigs were often seized which were unfit for the shambles, and those
it came to be custom to hand over to the proctor of St. Anthony's
1 Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, vol. i. p. 331.
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES 53
Hospital, who fastened a bell to the neck of each and sent them into
the streets to get their own living, an order being issued that swine
bearing the bell of St. Anthony should be free to roam where they
pleased. When they were fat enough they were killed and sold for the
benefit of the Hospital. Appended to the City " Ordnance respecting
Swine " in the Liber Albus is the entry :
The renter of St. Antony's sworn : that he will not avow any swine going
about within the City, nor will hang bells about their necks, but only about those
which shall have been given to them in pure alms. 1
These swine found favour with the benevolent, and soon learnt to know their
benefactors, whom they would "follow about with a continual whining." Whence
came the old saying, "You follow and whine like a Tantony Pig," or, more shortly,
and in a different sense, with reference to their privileges, " Like a Tantony Pig."
Antiquaries (Society of), in the west wing of BURLINGTON
HOUSE. This Society traces back its origin to the College of Anti-
quaries founded by Archbishop Parker in 1572, which "met one day
in the week at Darby House, where the Herald's office was kept," and
which numbered Camden, Cotton, and Stow among its members. 2
The Society proposed to apply to Queen Elizabeth for a Charter of
Incorporation as an " Academy for the Study of Antiquity and History,"
but the intention was probably not carried out ; at any rate no such
Charter was granted. However, the Society continued to prosper till
the accession of James I., shortly after which, hearing that the King
" mistrusted " the Society, or had taken some " mislike " to its historical
speculations, they passed a resolution that they " declined all matters of
state," which, rather sharpening than averting the royal jealousy, they
were forbidden to meet, "and so," says Strype, "this brave Society
sunk." But though the College was dissolved, the members continued
to meet as usual, probably at each others' houses, and Ashmole has an
entry in his Diary of July 2, 1659, as " the Antiquaries Feast." In
1707 a vigorous effort was made to restore the Society to a more efficient
working condition by Wanley, Bagford, and a Mr. Talman. An agree-
ment was made to meet every Friday evening at six, " upon pain of
forfeiture of sixpence." Their first meeting was at the Bear Tavern, in
the Strand (December 5, 1707) ; their second, on the i2th of the same
month, when it was " Agreed that the business of the Society shall be
limited to the object of Antiquities, and more particularly to such
things as illustrate or relate to the History of Great Britain prior to the
reign of James I." From the Bear, in the Strand, they moved (January 9,
1 707-1 708) to the Young Devil Tavern, when Peter Le Neve and others
were elected members. Of these meetings Wanley has left some
rough minutes among the Harleian MSS. (7055). In 1709 their
meeting-place was the Fountain Tavern, outside Temple Bar. Eight
years later (1739) the Society met "every Thursday evening about
seven o'clock," at the Mitre in Fleet Street, where they remained till
1 Liber Albus, p. 509; Stow; Maitland. of Mr. Winter Jones, 1875, Proc. of the Soc. of
1 Reliq, Spelmanniana, p. 69; Archtzologia, Ant., vol. vi. p. 356, where will be found an
vol. 5., Int. ; Strype, B. i. p. 161 ; Pres. Address excellent resume of the Society's history.
54 SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES
1753, when they met at a house of their own in Chancery Lane. The
members were then limited to one hundred ; and the terms were, one
guinea entrance, and twelve shillings annually. 1 George II. granted
them a Charter of Incorporation, November 2, 1751, as the "Society
of Antiquaries of London," and in it declared himself their " Founder
and Patron." In 1777 George III. gave them apartments for their
use in the newly built Somerset House, of which they obtained formal
possession in February 1781, and which they continued to occupy till
1875, when they removed to the rooms built for their use in the west
wing of Burlington House.
The Society consists of a president (the present holder of that
office being John Evans, D.C.L., F.R.S.), four vice-presidents, a treasurer,
a director, and a secretary, who, with thirteen other members, form the
Council, and about 600 Fellows. The Fellows are elected by ballot
on the recommendation of at least three Fellows. The letters F.S.A.
are generally appended to their names : letters which no other Society is
entitled to use. Their Transactions, called the Archczologia, commence
in 1770, and contain a vast amount of valuable historical and archaeo-
logical information. The days of meeting are every Thursday at half-
past eight, from November to June, Anniversary Meeting, April 23.
The Society possesses an excellent Library of over 20,000 volumes,
and a small but valuable Museum. Among the many objects of interest
should be observed :
Household Book of Jocky of Norfolk. A large and interesting collection of Early
Proclamations, interspersed with Early Ballads, many unique. T. Porter's Map of
London (temp. Charles I.), once thought to be unique. A folding Picture on Panel
of the Preaching at Old St. Paul's in 1616. Early Portraits of Edward IV. and
Richard III., engraved for the Third Series of Ellis's Letters. Margaret Plantagenet,
Duchess of Burgundy. Three-quarter Portrait of Mary I., with the monogram of
Lucas de Heere, and the date 1544. Portrait of William Powlett, first Marquis of
Winchester, d. 1571 (curious). Portrait of Sir Antonio More by John Schorel, a
Dutch painter (More was the scholar of Schorel). Portrait of General Fleetwood,
cupbearer to James I. and Charles I. Portraits of Antiquaries : Burton, the
Leicestershire antiquary ; Peter le Neve ; Humphrey Wanley ; Baker, of St. John's
College ; William Stukeley ; George Vertue (by Thomas Gibson) ; Ralph Thoresby ;
Earl Stanhope (by Mr. Partridge), for nearly thirty years president of the Society ;
Edward, Earl of Oxford, presented by Vertue. A Bohemian Astronomical Clock
of gilt brass, made by Jacob Zech in 1525, for Sigismund, King of Poland, and
bought at the sale of the effects of James Ferguson, the astronomer. Spur of Brass
gilt, found on Towton Field, the scene of the conflict between Edward IV. and the
Lancastrian Forces. Upon the shanks the following posy is engraved : " en total
afltcut tout molt coer." A very extensive collection of casts of seals, dating from the
last century, and largely augmented by the late Mr. Albert Way. A most extensive
series of rubbings of English Monumental Brasses, with large augmentations made
by the late Director, Mr. A. W. Franks, and presented by him to the Society. In
consequence of these additions, it is perhaps the most complete collection extant.
Apollo (The). {See Devil Tavern.]
Apollo Court, FLEET STREET (over against Child's Banking
House, and leading into Bell Yard). So called from the Apollo Club,
1 MaMand, ed. 1739, p. 647.
APOTHECARIES' HALL 55
held at the Devil Tavern, in Fleet Street, immediately opposite this
court ; but the name is now merged in that of Bell Yard.
Apollo Gardens, Lambeth, were situated near the Asylum in
Westminster Road. They were fitted up in imitation of Vauxhall,
and opened about 1788 by Mr. Claggett, proprietor of the Pantheon in
Oxford Street. The gardens being unsuccessful, lasted for a few seasons
only, and when they were closed the old orchestra was removed to
Sydney Gardens, Bath.
Apothecaries' Hall, WATER LANE, BLACKFRIARS, a brick and
stone building, erected in 1670 as the Dispensary and Hall of the
Incorporated Company of Apothecaries.
Nigh where Fleet Ditch descends in sable streams,
To wash his sooty Naiads in the Thames,
There stands a structure on a rising hill,
Where tyros take their freedom out to kill.
GARTH, The Dispensary,
The grocers and the apothecaries were originally one Company ;
but this union did not exist above eleven years, King James I., at the
suit of Gideon Delaune (d. 1659), his own apothecary, granting (De-
cember 6, 1617) a separate Charter of Incorporation to the Master,
Wardens, and Society of the Art and Mistery of Apothecaries. In the
Charter is expressed the desire of the apothecaries to be dissociated from
the grocers, and to form an independent body, on the ground " that
the ignorance and rashness of presumptuous empirics, and ignorant and
unexpert men may be restrained, whereupon many discommodities,
inconveniences, and perils do daily arise to the rude and incredulous
people." The city authorities seem not to have approved this arrange-
ment, for among the papers calendered by Mrs. Everett Green, under
date 1617, is a letter from King James to the Mayor, stating that he
understands they refuse to enrol this Charter, and ordering their immediate
conformity. 1 The arms of the Company " Azure, Apollo in his glory,
holding in his left hand a bow, in his right an arrow, all or, bestriding
Python the serpent, argent" were probably of the King's suggestion.
In the hall is a small good portrait of James I., and a contemporary
statue of Delaune. In 1687 commenced a controversy between the
College of Physicians and the Company of Apothecaries ; the latter
Taught the art
By Doctors' bills to play the Doctors' part
had by this time ventured out of their assigned walk of life, and to
compounding added the art of prescribing. This was thought by the
physicians to be an unfair invasion of their province ; and, incensed at
the intrusion of the druggists, the College of Physicians advertised
(July, 1687) that their fellows, candidates, and licentiates would give
advice gratis to the poor, and that the College had established a
1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I., 1611-1618, p. 507.
56 APOTHECARIES' HALL
Dispensary of its own for the sale of medicines at their intrinsic values.
All the wits and poets were against the apothecaries.
The Apothecary tribe is wholly blind.
From files a random recipe they take,
And many deaths from one prescription make :
Garth, generous as his Muse prescribes and gives ;
The shopman sells, and by destruction lives. DRYDEN.
The heats and bickerings of this controversy were the occasion of
Garth's poem of The Dispensary. This made matters worse ; and the
physicians, backed by their Charter, brought a penal action against one
Rose, an apothecary, for attending a butcher. The fact of attendance
was proved in court, but yet the jury hesitated about finding a verdict
for the plaintiff; "whereat the Court wondering, the Lord Chief Justice
asked them 'Whether they did not believe the evidence?' to which
the foreman replied, 'The defendant had done only what other
apothecaries did.' Whereupon, My Lord set the jury right, and then
they brought in a verdict for the plaintiff." The House of Lords, in
1703, reversed this decision; and since then it has been the law of
the land that apothecaries may advise as well as administer. In 1722
Sir Hans Sloane gave to the Company his Botanic Garden at Chelsea.
[See Botanic Garden.] By the Act 5 Geo. III., c. 194 (1815), all
apothecaries and their assistants must be examined and certified by
the Court of Assistants of the Company of Apothecaries before they
can act as an apothecary or dispense medicines. In the Hall is a
well-supported retail shop, for the sale of unadulterated medicines.
This was carried on by members in the name of the Society, but
for their own personal profit ; the trade having, however, ended in loss,
the private partnership was dissolved from December 31, 1880, and
the Society (as an experiment) carried on the trade at its own risk.
The Apothecaries' Act of 1815 made the Society one of the three
great medical licensing bodies for England and Wales, and the number
of the present licentiates is between 8000 and 9000.
Appletree Yard, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, on the east side of York
Street, derives its name from the apple orchards for which St James's
Fields were famous as late as the reign of Charles I. [See Pall Mall]
By Hatton, 1 1708, and in Strype's Map, 1720, it is called Ainger
Street. Dodsley, 1761, has both Ainger Street and Appletree Yard.
August 30, 1688. To the Park [St. James's], and there walk an hour or two;
and in the King's garden, and saw the Queen and ladies walk ; and I did steal some
apples off the trees. Pepys.
Apsley House, HYDE PARK CORNER, PICCADILLY, the London
residence of the Duke of Wellington. The original house was built
by Henry Bathurst, Baron Apsley, Earl Bathurst, and Lord High
Chancellor (d. 1794), the son of Pope's friend, to whom the site,
previously occupied by the Park Lodge, was granted by George III.,
1 New View of London, p. i.
APSLEY HOUSE 57
under letters patent of May 3, 1784. The house, originally of red
brick, is said to have been designed by the Chancellor himself, who
found, when the first floor was built, that he had overlooked the necessity
of a staircase to reach the second ! In 1808 it came into the posses-
sion of the Marquis Wellesley, eldest brother of its future owner, who
resided here in great state while Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The
Court Guide shows that it was still in his occupation in January 1815;
but next year it is entered for the first time as the Duke's, who, how-
ever, did not actually purchase it till about 1820. The house was
found to be very inconvenient, and in 1828 the Duke, availing himself
of the circumstances of his having an official residence in Downing
Street, handed it over for enlargement and ornamentation to Messrs.
Benjamin and Philip Wyatt, who added a west wing and portico, and
faced the front with Bath stone. The iron Bramah blinds bullet
proof it is said put up by the Duke during the ferment of the
Reform Bill, when his windows were broken by a London mob, were
taken down in 1856 by the second Duke. The Crown's interest
in the house was sold to the Duke by indenture of June 15, 1830, for
the sum of ^9530 ; the Crown reserving a right to forbid the erection
of any other house or houses on the site. The alterations made in
1853 were designed by P. Hardwick, R.A.
The room in which the Waterloo banquet was held every anni-
versary of the battle during the Duke's life, is the great west gallery (90
feet long), on the drawing-room floor, with its seven windows looking
into Hyde Park. The Duke occupied a chair fronting the large central
fireplace. The Duke's room his study and sanctum is preserved
intact, as when he used it.
Works of Art. George IV., full length, in a Highland costume, by Sir David
Wilkie. William IV., full length, by Wilkie. Sarah, the first Lady Lyndhurst, by
Wilkie. This picture was penetrated by a stone in the Reform Riot, but the injury
has been skilfully repaired. Emperor Alexander, full length. Kings of Prussia, France,
and the Netherlands, full lengths. Marshal Soult, over the entrance door of the
drawing-room. Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon in the foreground (Sir William Allan).
The Duke bought this picture at the Exhibition; he is said to have called it, "Good,
very good, not too much smoke." Many portraits of Napoleon, one by David,
extremely good. Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of the Battle of
Waterloo, painted in 1822 for the Duke, who watched its progress with great
interest. Burnet's Greenwich Pensioners celebrating the anniversary of the Battle
of Trafalgar, bought of Burnet by the Duke. Portraits of veterans in both pictures.
A colossal marble statue of Napoleon, by Canova, with a figure of Victory on a
globe in his hand. This statue was presented to the Duke by the Prince Regent
(George IV.) in 1817. Canova got a Hebe out of the block from beneath the right
hand of the Napoleon. Bust of Princess Pauline, by Canova, a present from
Canova to the Duke. Christ on the Mount of Olives (Correggio), the most cele-
brated picture of Correggio in this country ; on panel, and captured in Spain, in the
carriage of Joseph Buonaparte, in the flight from Vittoria ; restored by the captor to
Ferdinand VII. ; but with others, under the like circumstances, again presented to the
Duke by that sovereign. Here the light proceeds from the Saviour ; there is a
copy or duplicate in the National Gallery. An Annunciation, after M. Angelo, of
which the original drawing is in the Uffizj at Florence. The Adoration of the
Shepherds, by Sogliani. The Water - seller, by Velasquez. Two fine portraits by
5 8 A PS LEY HOUSE
Velasquez (his own portrait, and the portrait of Pope Innocent X. ) A fine Spag-
noletti. A charming little sea-piece, by Claude. Card Players, by Caravaggio. A
large and good Jan Steen, dated 1667 ; and three smaller but excellent works. A
Peasant's Wedding, dated 1655 (Teniers). Boors Drinking (A. Ostade). The
celebrated Terburg, the signing the Peace of Westphalia (from the Talleyrand Col-
lection). Singularly enough, this picture hung in the room in which the allied
sovereigns signed the Treaty of Paris in 1814. A fine Philip Wouvermans (The
Return from the Chase). View of Veght, by Vanderheyden. Landseer's Van
Amberg with his Lions, painted for the Duke ; but not one of Sir Edwin's most
successful works. Highland Whisky Still (Landseer). The' Melton Hunt, by Sir
F. Grant, P.R.A. Several services of Sevres, Prussian and Saxon services, pre-
sented by Louis XVIII., the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Austria ; a Silver
Plateau presented by the Regent of Portugal ; and the magnificent Silver Shield,
designed by Thomas Stothard, R.A., and presented to the Duke by the Merchants
and Bankers of London.
Aquarium (The Royal), WESTMINSTER, opened January 1876,
is a building of great extent, occupying the whole of the north side
of Tothill Street, and being nearly 600 feet long and 160 wide. The
exterior is of red brick and stone, and sufficiently conspicuous, it
not very beautiful. The architect was Mr. A. Bedborough. The
interior is lined with tanks, and has an orchestra, concert hall, theatre,
and restaurant. It was projected as a summer lounge and winter garden,
as well as aquarium, and a place for high-class music and refined
entertainments ; but its chief attractions have been firing women from
cannon, dancing Zulus, swimming ladies, and like elegant and " stimu-
lating " exhibitions. The theatre is now called the IMPERIAL, and
employed chiefly for afternoon performances.
Arabella Row, Pimlico (now incorporated with LOWER GROS-
VENOR PLACE) led from Grosvenor Place to Buckingham Palace Road,
Here, in the house next the public-house, lived Lord Chancellor Erskine
after his removal from Lincoln's Inn Fields. The house, small and
shabby-looking, had a brass door-plate with " Lord Erskine " engraven
on it.
Arch Row, an old name for the west side of Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Retain all sorts of witnesses,
That ply i' the Temples under trees,
Or walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts
About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts ;
Or wait for customers between
The pillar rows in Lincoln's Inn. Hudibras, pt. iii. c. 3.
The archway leads to Duke Street, now Sardinia Street, the first
building in which, on the left hand, is a Roman Catholic Chapel,
formerly the Sardinian Ambassador's Chapel.
Archer Street, WINDMILL STREET, PICCADILLY.
King Charles I. invited Poelemberg to London, where he lived in Archer Street,
next door to Geldorp, and generally painted the figures in Steenwyck's perspectives.
Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 101.
Poelemberg was in London about 1637. He painted several
pictures for the King, who, however, "could not prevail on Poelemberg
ARGYLL PLACE 59
to fix here." Probably the growing discord between King and
Commons scared the painter. George Geldorp was a poor painter
5ut a favourite at Court. He kept many assistants, and appears to
have had a considerable establishment for producing pictures. He
also acted as agent or broker for his artistic countrymen, and, according
to Vertue and Walpole, "his house was found convenient for the
intrigues of people of fashion."
Arches (Court of). [See Doctors' Commons.]
Architects (Royal Institute of British). [See Institute of
British Architects.]
Architectural Museum, No. 1 8 TUFTON STREET, WESTMINSTER,
was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Beresford
Hope, Sir Gilbert Scott, and other devoted admirers of Gothic
architecture. The Museum comprises a very extensive series of casts
from British cathedrals and other mediaeval edifices, Venetian and
other Italian buildings, collected by Mr. Ruskin, and many miscellaneous
casts and models. There are some classical and more renaissance
specimens, but the bulk of the collection is mediaeval. Originally
exhibited in lofts in a mews in Canon Row, Westminster, it removed
for space to a gallery at the South Kensington Museum ; it was trans-
ferred in 1869 to the present building, which had been erected for its
reception. The Museum is open free daily.
Argyll House, No. 7 ARGYLL STREET, REGENT STREET, was a
plain building " with a small area and wall before it." Originally the
residence of the ducal family of Argyll. Elizabeth Gunning, the
celebrated beauty, Duchess of Hamilton and afterwards the wife of
John, fifth Duke of Argyll, died in " Great Argyle Street " on December
20, 1790. It was purchased shortly after the death of the fifth Duke
of Argyll by the Earl of Aberdeen (" the travelled Thane, Athenian
Aberdeen"). On his death in 1860 the freehold was sold, the house
taken down, and a large building erected on the site, part of which was
appropriated as a bazaar, the rest for exhibition rooms and wine cellars.
The bazaar was unsuccessful, and the building has since undergone
many changes. The main portion is now occupied by Hengler's Circus,
which was rebuilt in 1884-1885.
Argyll Place, at the south end of ARGYLL STREET, between
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET and REGENT STREET. James North-
cote, the painter, removed to No. 8 from Argyll Street ; here he held
his remarkable conversations with Hazlitt, and here he died (July 13,
1831). Here Sir Walter Scott sat to him on May 9 and n, 1828,
at the request of Sir William Knighton. Scott records in his Diary :
Another long sitting to the old wizard Northcote. He really resembles an animated
mummy . . . low in stature and bent with years fourscore at least. But the eye
is quick and the countenance noble. A pleasant companion, familiar with recollec-
tions of vSir Joshua, Samuel Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, etc. Lockhart's Life oj
Scot I, chap. Ixxvi.
60 ARGYLL ROOMS
Argyll Rooms formerly stood on the east side of Regent Street
and at the corner of Little Argyll Street They were built by John Nash
in 1818, and burnt down in 1830. Fashionable balls and masquerades
were held here, and the Philharmonic Society gave its concerts in the
building from 1813 to 1830. Spohr appeared at these concerts in
1820, Weber in 1826, and Mendelssohn in 1829. M. Chabert, the
"fire king," exhibited his remarkable performances here in 1829.
The Argyll Rooms (now the Trocadero) in Windmill Street obtained
a very unsavoury reputation, and have no history worthy of relation.
Argyll Street, OXFORD STREET, east of REGENT STREET, derives
its name from Argyll House. The good Lord Lyttelton lived in this
Street.
West, Mallet, and I were all routed in one day : if you would know why out
of resentment to our friend in Argyll Street. Thomson, the Poet, to James Pater son,
April 1748.
When Mrs. Thrale gave up her house at Streatham, on October
1782, she took a house in Argyll Street, and when Boswell visited
London in the March following, he found Johnson domesticated in her
London house as he had been at Streatham. The estrangement was
of later date. James Northcote lived at No. 39 "a house small
but commodious" (in the earlier R.A. Catalogues it is given as 39
Argyll Buildings) from April 1790 till 1822 ; here he painted his chief
pictures, and wrote his Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir William John
Newton, the miniature painter (died 1869), lived at No. 8. Madame
de Stae'l, on her visit to England in 1813, lodged at No. 30, and on the
drawing-room floor received a number of visitors at what might be
called her levies. In this street was born, January 7, 1743, Sir Joseph
Banks, the eminent naturalist and President of the Royal Society.
Arlington House (formerly Goring House) in ST. JAMES'S PARK,
was distinguished by a large and handsome cupola, and stood north
and south, 1 on the site of what is now Buckingham Palace. 2 It was
so called from being the town -house of Henry Bennet, Earl of
Arlington, Secretary of State to Charles II. The site of the Mulberry
Garden adjoining his house was granted to Lord Arlington by Charles
II. for a residence, 1672, at a rent of 20 shillings a year, for 99 years.
In September 1674 the house was burnt down, while the Earl and
Countess were at Bath ; a new house was at once built and named
Arlington House.
His Majesty has been pleased to give my Lord Arlington the ground at the
farther end of the Park, where the Deer-harbour is, which is walled in as you go
towards Hyde Park ; in lieu of which His Majesty takes his house and garden into
the Park for his use. The Lord Arlington has already sold the ground for ^20,000,
whereon will be built a stately square. The Loyal Protestant and True Domestick
Intelligencer, No. 127, March n, 1682. Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 70.
1 Morden and Lea's large Map of London, 7. Nicholls.
Harris delin. et sculp., 1700. There is a rare 2 Walpole's Anecdotes, by Dallaway, vol. iii.
contemporary engraving of the house by Sutton p. 71.
ARLINGTON STREET 61
At the upper end of the Park [St. James's] westward is Arlington House ; so
called from the Earl of Arlington, owner thereof. At whose death it fell to his
daughter, the Duchess of Grafton, and the young Duke her son. It is a most neat
Box, and sweetly seated amongst Gardens, besides the Prospect of the Park and the
adjoining fields. At present the Duke of Devonshire resideth here, as tenant to the
Duchess of Grafton. R.B. (circ. 1698), in Strype, B. vi. p. 47.
The Earl of Arlington dying (1685) without male issue, the house
descended to his daughter, Lady Isabella Bennet, "the sweet child"
of Evelyn's Diary, married to Henry Fitzroy, first Duke of Grafton.
She let it to the first Duke of Devonshire, and subsequently sold it for
^13,000 (1702) to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; who, after
obtaining an additional grant from Queen Anne (given verbally),
rebuilt it in 1703 in a magnificent manner. [See Goring House;
Buckingham House and Palace.]
As an instance of the mind's unquietness under the most pleasing enjoyments,
I am oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house I pulled down than pleased
with a salon which I built in its stead, though a thousand times better in all manner
of respects. Works of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 264.
There was a maze in the gardens, similar to that which now
exists at Hampton Court. It was celebrated by Charles Dryden in
a poem called " Horti Arlingtoniani," inserted in his father's Second
Miscellany.
Arlington Square and Street, NEW NORTH ROAD, was laid
out about 1850 in the field on the north of the Regent's Canal, which
from the reign of Henry VII. till 1791 formed a part of the exercise
ground of the Archers' Division of the Artillery Company. 1 Here, in
what is now the garden of No. 24 Arlington Street, was one of the
Company's stone rovers, or distance marks for forward shooting, as
distinguished from shooting at a butt or target This rover was called
the John, and was inscribed F.G., 1679 : others were called Robin
Hood and Scarlet. The John rover was removed when the ground
was enclosed. 2
Arlington Street, MORNINGTON CRESCENT, CAMDEN TOWN,
was so called after or in allusion to Isabella Bennet, only daughter
and heir of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and wife of Henry
Fitzroy, first Duke of Grafton, natural son of Charles II. by the
Duchess of Cleveland. Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, died, July
25, 1814, in this street, then a pleasant row of little houses, looking
on extensive nursery-grounds and fields ; since built on, or included in
the Regent's Park.
Whitehall, June 6, 1673. ^5388 : 17 : 6 to be payde by William Prettiman for
purchase of a lease of lands in Kentish Towne, helde of the Dean and Chapter of
St. Paul's, to be enjoyed by the Earle of Arlington ; and after his death by the
Earle of Euston and his heires. Corr. of Sir Joseph Williamson, vol. i. p. 22 ; Cam.
Soc. 1874.
Arlington Street, PICCADILLY, west of and parallel with St.
James's Street. Built i689, 3 on ground granted by Charles II. to
1 Highmore, History of Artillery Company. 2 Tomline, Yselfton, p. 153.
3 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
62 ARLINGTON STREET
Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, by deed dated February 6, 1681.
Lord Arlington sold the property the same year to a Mr. Pym, who
for many years inhabited one of the largest houses in this street, and
in whose family the ground still remains.
Sir Dudley North, the famous merchant (d. 1691), had a passion for watching
buildings in progress. His brother Roger says : " Wherever there was a parcel of
building going on he went to survey it ; and particularly the high buildings in
Arlington Street, which were scarce covered in before all the windows were wry-
mouthed, fascias turned SS., and divers stacks of chimnies sunk right down,
drawing roof and floors with them ; and the point was to find out from whence all
this decay proceeded. Lives of the Norths, vol. iii. p. 210.
Eminent Inhabitants. Duchess of Cleveland (1691-1696), after
the death of Charles II., and when her means were too small to
allow of her living any longer in Cleveland House. Duchess of
Buckingham (1692-1694), the widow of Villiers, second Duke of
Buckingham, and daughter of Fairfax, the Parliamentary general. She
was neglected by the Duke, and was called in derision, during the
Duke's lifetime, the " Duchess Dowager." Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu, before her marriage, in the house of her father, the Marquis
of Dorchester, afterwards Duke of Kingston.
In Arlington Street, next door to the Marquis of Dorchester, is a large house to
be let, with a garden and a door into the Park. Advertisement in No. 207 of The
Tatler, August 5, 1710.
William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1715), in a house on the west
or Green Park side. Sir Robert Walpole became a resident here in
1716, and lived next door to Pulteney.
We're often taught it doth behove us
To think those greater who're above us ;
Another instance of my glory,
Who live above you twice two story ;
And from my garret can look down
On the whole street of Arlington.
FIELDING, Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole, 1730.
His son Horace was born here in 1717. When Sir Robert went out
of office in 1742, he bought a smaller house, No. 5, on the east or
" non -ministerial side," in which he died (1745-1746), and the lease
of which he left to Horace, who lived in it till his removal, in 1779,
to Berkeley Square.
June 30, 1742. He (Sir Robert Walpole) goes into a small house of his own in
Arlington Street, opposite to where we formerly lived. Horace Walpole to Sir H.
Mann {Letters, vol. i. p. 181).
January 6, 1743. Next, as to Arlington Street : Sir Robert is in a middling kind
of house, which has long been his, and was let ; he has taken a small one next to it
for me, and they are laid together. Walpole to Mann (Letters, vol. i. p. 223).
September 30, 1750. I was sitting in my own dining-room on Sunday night,
the clock had not struck eleven, when I heard a loud cry of "Stop thief!" a
highwayman had attacked a post-chaise in Piccadilly, within fifty yards of this house :
the fellow was pursued, rode over the watchman, almost killed him and escaped.
Walpole to Mann (Letters, vol. ii. p. 227).
ARLINGTON STREET 63
December I, 1768. Nothing can be more dignified than this position. From
my earliest memory Arlington Street has been the ministerial street. The Duke
of Grafton is actually coming into the house of Mr. Pelham, which my Lord Pre-
sident is quitting, and which occupies too the ground on which my father lived ; and
Lord Weymouth has just taken the Duke of Dorset's : yet you and I, I doubt, shall
always be on the wrong side of the way. Walpole to George Montagu {Letters,
vol. v. p. 136).
October 21, 1779. You perceive by the date that I have removed into my
new house [Berkeley Square]. It is seeming to take a new lease of life. I was
born in Arlington Street, lived there about fourteen years, returned thither, and passed
thirty-seven more. Walpole to Mason (Letters, vol. vii. p. 262).
Walpole's house, after passing through many hands, became the
property of Edward Ellice, Esq., M.P., and then till his death of the Right
Hon. Sir R. J. Phillimore. A Society of Arts tablet has been placed
on the front of the house. No. 1 8 is the residence of Sir John Fender,
M.P., and contains a fine collection of modern pictures, including,
among others, Landseer's Highland Shepherd in a Storm and Dead
Stag ; Venice, Mercury and Argus, and Wreckers, by Turner ; Gipseys'
Toilette and La Gloria, by Philip ; Napoleon crossing the Alps, by
Delaroche ; Francesca and Paolo, by Ary Scheffer, and others by
Stanfield, Nasmyth, Creswick, Linnell, Faed, and Millais.
Lord Carteret lived at the last house in the street on the Green
Park side. Lord Carteret to Swift, Arlington Street, June 20, 1724.
He built the present house about 1734. Henry Pelham, at No. 17,
on the site where Sir R. Walpole had lived, the house built by William
Kent, now the Earl of Yarborough's. Walpole speaks of " the great
room " as " remarkable for magnificence."
August 7, 1732. Lady Carteret writes me word that she has bought the ground
her house stood on in Arlington Street, and that my Lord designs to build there.
Mrs. Delany, Correspondence, vol. i. p. 369.
Hough, the good old Bishop of Worcester, is dead. I have been looking at the
" fathers in God," that have been flocking over the way this morning to Mr. Pelham,
who is just come to his new house. This is absolutely the ministerial street : Carteret
has a house here too ; and Lord Bath seems to have lost his chance by quitting this
street. Walpole to Mann, Arlington Street, May 12, 1743.
Among the works of art at Lord Yarborough's are Bust of
Laurence Sterne, by Nollekens ; marble group of Neptune and Tritons,
by Bernini, purchased of the executors of Sir Joshua Reynolds for ^500;
Frost Scene, by Cuyp, a first-rate specimen ; two fine pictures (The
Wreck and The Vintage) by J. M. W. Turner, R.A.
No. 19 is the Earl of Zetland's. No. 20, the town-house of the
Marquises of Salisbury, was lately rebuilt by the present Marquis.
David Mallet was living here 1746-1747. Charles James Fox, for
a short time, at No. 14. At No. 14 lived and died General Fitzpatrick.
Dyce's Table Talk of Samuel Rogers, p. 105. Lord Melville, First
Lord of the Admiralty, the friend of Pitt, lived at No. 6.
Lord Nelsoa
In the winter of 1800-1801 [January 13, 1801] I was breakfasting with Lord and
64 ARLINGTON STREET
Lady Nelson, at their lodgings in Arlington Street, and a cheerful conversation was
passing on indifferent subjects, when Lord Nelson spoke of something which had
been done or said by "dear Lady Hamilton," upon which Lady Nelson rose from
her chair, and exclaimed with much vehemence, " I am sick of hearing of dear Lady
Hamilton, and am resolved that you shall give up either her or me." Lord Nelson
with perfect calmness said, " Take care, Fanny, what you say ; I love you sincerely ;
but I cannot forget my obligations to Lady Hamilton, or speak of her otherwise than
with affection and admiration. " Without one soothing word or gesture, but muttering
something about her mind being made up, Lady Nelson left the room, and shortly
after drove from the house. They never lived together afterwards. Mr. Haslewood
(Lord Nelson's executor) to Sir Harris Nicolas (Despatches, vol. vii. p. 392).
The Duke of York, who died (1827) in the house of the Duke of
Rutland (No. 16) in this street. The house was afterwards occupied
by the Viscount Dudley. No. 2 1 was the residence of Lord Sefton,
renowned for his dinners, dressed by Ude. It was afterwards long
occupied by M. Van der Weyer, the distinguished Belgian minister and
accomplished scholar. No. 22 was long the residence of the Marquis
Camden. It was afterwards the residence of the Duke of Beaufort,
who had the house decorated in fresco work by Mr. E. Latilla, 1839-1 840,
the drawing-room by Mr. Owen Jones. It was purchased by the Duke
of Hamilton in December 1852 for ^60,000. Hamilton house, as it
was then called, covers nearly half an acre, and has a frontage to the
Green Park corresponding to that in Arlington Street. It was sold by
auction in December 1867, and is now occupied by Sir Ivor Bertie
Guest, Bart.
Armourers' and Brasiers' Hall, 81 COLEMAN STREET, CITY,
the corner of London Wall, was erected 1840 from the designs of Mr.
J. H. Good jun., architect, on the site of the old Hall of the Armourers;
a Company incorporated by Henry VI., in 1453, by the name and de-
signation of " The Brothers and Sisters of the Fraternity or Guild of St.
George of the Mistery of the Armourers of the City of London." The
Company, however, is believed to have been founded before the beginning
of the 1 4th century, for records are in existence showing that at that
time (1307-1327) the Company had vested in it the right of search of
armour and weapons. About the year 1515 the craft of Blacksmiths
was incorporated with the Company of Armourers. The Company ot
Brasiers, which is believed to have been originally incorporated by
Edward IV. about 1479, was joined with the Armourers in 1708. In
the Hall is Northcote's well-known picture of The Entry into London
of Richard II. and Bolingbroke. The old plate of the Armourers is
hardly to be surpassed by that of any of the great Companies of
London. Observe a maser inscribed " Edward Frere gave the Maser,"
etc. (1579); silver gilt cup inscribed " Pra fir John Richmond;" six
pounced wine cups, the gift, in 1633, of Gawen Helme; 72 very large
table spoons; the Dixon Cup of 1598, and the Mexfield Cup of 1608.
In the Horse Armoury at the Tower is a noble suit of armour, richly gilt,
made and presented, it is said, by the Company to Charles I. when
Prince of Wales. The records of the Company are silent on the subject.
ARTILLERY GROUND 65
Army and Navy Club, PALL MALL, corner of George Street, St.
James's Square. Built 1848-1851, from the designs of Messrs. Parnell
and Smith, and opened to the members in February 1851. The
facade is closely modelled on that of Sansovino's Palazzo Cornaro
on the Grand Canal at Venice. The club consists of 2550 members.
Entrance fee ^40 ; annual subscription, by old members, 7 guineas,
but members elected after June 1878 pay 10 guineas.
Art Union of London, Office, No. 112 STRAND. Established
1836, and incorporated by 9 & 10 Viet. c. 48, "to aid in extending
the Love of the Arts of Design within the United Kingdom, and to
give encouragement to Artists beyond that afforded by the patronage
of individuals." Each subscription of a guinea entitles the subscriber
to an engraving and one chance for prizes varying from ^10 to ^200.
The subscription is annual, and the prizes are drawn every April,
previous to the opening of the London Exhibitions, from whence the
works of art are required to be selected.
Arthur's Club House, 69 and 70 ST. JAMES'S STREET, derives
its name from a Mr. Arthur, the proprietor of White's Chocolate House
in the same street. Arthur died in June 1761, in St. James's Place;
and in the following October Mr. Mackreth, who had been, it is said,
billiard marker and was now head waiter, married Arthur's only child,
and Arthur's Chocolate House, as it was then called, became the property
of this Mr. Mackreth, who purchased the Cobham and East Horsley
estates, was knighted, and acquired considerable notoriety in Surrey as
Sir Robert Mackreth.
Everything goes on as it did luxury increases all public places are full, and
Arthur's is the resort of old and young ; courtiers and anti-courtiers ; nay, even of
ministers ; and at this time ! Lady Hervey's Letters, June 15, 1756.
The present building was designed by Mr. Thomas Hopper, 1825-
1827. [See Almack's, White's. ]
Arthur's Show, an exhibition of Archery held at Mile End Green
by a toxophilite Society of London citizens, who styled themselves, or
were styled, " The famous order of Knights of Prince Arthur," according
to an account of the Society published in 1583 by Richard Robinson;
but who, according to a tract by Richard Mulcaster, master of St. Paul's
school, published in 1581, were called "The Friendly and Frank
Fellowship of Prince Arthur's Knights in and about the City of
London." The associates, fifty-eight in number, assumed the arms
and the names of the Knights of the Round Table. It was one of
Justice Shallow's boasts that he had been of the fellowship : " I re-
member at Mile End Green (when I lay at Clement's Inn) I was Sir
Dagonet in Arthur's Show." Henry VIII. visited and patronised the
show, and gave an allowance or charter to the fraternity. 1
Artillery Ground, Bishopsgate. [See next article.]
1 Wares, vol. i. p. 136; Douce, Illustrations, vol. i. p. 461.
VOL. I F
66 ARTILLERY GROUND
Artillery Ground, between the west side of FINSBURY SQUARE
and BUNHILL Row, and extending northward from behind the houses
in Chiswell Street and Bunhill Fields Burial Ground; the exercising
ground of the Honourable Artillery Company of the City of London.
The Honourable Artillery Company is sometimes confounded with
the old City Train Bands, but was, from its origin, a distinct and
additional company, formed as " A Nursery for Soldiers " for the
defence of the city. 1 A charter was granted to the Fraternity of
Artillery, in great and small ordnance, by Henry VIII., 2 but sur-
rendered for a new charter with larger powers in 1585, during the fear
of the Spanish invasion. The City troops mustered in great strength
at the camp at Tilbury, when the captains were selected from the
Artillery Company and called Captains of the Artillery Garden. But,
the danger past, the assemblies and exercises were neglected, the
Company fell into decay, and the Artillery Garden was reserved for
the practice grounds of the Tower.
April 20, 1669. In the afternoon we walked to the old Artillery Ground, near
the Spitalfields, where I never was before, but now by Captain Deane's invitation did
go to see his new gun tryed, this being the place where the officers of the Ordnance
do try all their great guns. Pepys.
About 1 6 10 Philip Hudson, a lieutenant of the Company, set
himself energetically to bring about its revival. 'A considerable
number of wealthy citizens, as well as many country gentlemen,
joined the Company and undertook to bear the necessary expenses ;
the King, James I., gave them his patronage, and Prince Charles
entered the ranks. It is from the year 1610 that the Honourable
Artillery Company itself dates its present existence.
July 3, 1612. Order in Council that the citizens of London be permitted to
exercise arms in the Artillery Garden, or other convenient place, provided their
number be not more than 250. Calendar of State Papers, James I., 1611-1613, p. 137.
January I, 1616. Grant to Sir Richard Morrison of the Lieutenancy of the
Ordnance and keeping of the storehouses near Aldgate, and the Artillery Garden,
for life. Cal. James L, 1611-1613, p. 342.
Henry VIII. gave to the Fraternity of Artillery, for their exercise
ground, a field belonging to the dissolved priory and hospital of St.
Mary Spital, beyond Bishopsgate, known as the Teazle Close, and this
was the original Artillery Garden so often mentioned : the site is now
marked by Artillery Lane and Artillery Street, Bishopsgate Street With-
out. According to Petowe, the poet of the Company, writing shortly
after its revival
The Teazle ground ... by indenture bearing date,
January's third day in Henry's time,
Th' Eighth of that name ; the convent did conjoin
Unto the Guild of all Artillery,
Cross-bows, hand guns, and of archery,
For full three hundred years, excepting three.
Then is there a large close called Tasel Close, for that there were tasels planted
1 Strype's Stmv, B. v. p. 457. 2 n,;^ B. ii. p. 96.
ARTILLERY GROUND 67
for the use of cloth-workers, since letten to the crossbow-makers, wherein they used
to shoot for games at the popingay : now the same being enclosed with a brick wall,
serveth to be an Artillery Yard or Garden, whereunto the gunners of the Tower do
weekly repair, namely every Thursday ; and there, levelling certain brass pieces of
great artillery against a butt of earth made for that purpose, they discharge them for
their exercise. Present use is made thereof, by divers worthy citizens, gentlemen
and captains, using martial discipline, and where they meet (well near weekly) to
their great commendation in so worthy an exercise. Strype's Stow, B. ii. p. 96.
When the Civil War broke out, the citizens of London took up
arms against the King ; and on all occasions, more especially at the
battle of Newbury, the London regiments, Train Bands and Artillery,
behaved with admirable conduct and courage.
The London trained-bands and auxiliary regiments (of whose inexperience of
danger or any kind of service beyond the easy practice of their postures in the
Artillery Garden men had till then too cheap in estimation) behaved themselves to
wonder, and were in truth the preservation of that army that day. For they stood
as a bulwark and rampire to defend the rest ; and when their wings of horse were
scattered and dispersed, kept their ground so steadily, that though Prince Rupert
himself led up the choice horse to charge them, and endured their storm of small
shot, he could make no impression upon their stand of pikes, but was forced to
wheel about ; of so sovereign benefit and use is that readiness, order, and dexterity,
in the use of their arms, which hath been so much neglected. Clarendon, Hist, of
the Rebellion, ed. 1826, vol. iv. p. 236.
London hath twelve thousand Trained-Band Citizens, perpetually in readiness,
excellently armed ; which when Count Gondomar saw in a muster one day, in St.
James's Fields, and the king asking him what he thought of his citizens of London ;
he answered, that he never saw a company of stouter men and better arms in all his
lifetime ; but he had a sting in the tail of his discourse ; for he told the king, that
although his Majesty was well pleased with that sight at present, he feared that
those men handling their arms so well might do him one day a mischief; which
proved true, for, in the unlucky wars with the Long Parliament, the London
firelocks did him most mischief. HowelPs Londinopolis, fol. 1657, p. 398.
Cromwell knew their value, and gave the command of them to
Major-General Skippon, under whom and for some years subsequently
the strength of the corps was 18,000 Foot and 600 Horse, thus
divided : 6 regiments of Trained Bands ; 6 Regiments of Auxiliaries ;
i regiment of Horse. This strong force was disbanded at the Res-
toration ; but the Company still continued to perform their evolutions,
though on a less extensive scale, the King and the Duke of York
becoming members and dining in public with the new Company.
Since the Restoration they have led a peaceable life, and, except in
1780, when their promptness preserved the Bank of England, have
only been called out on state occasions, such as the public thanks-
giving for the victories of the Duke of Marlborough, when (August 23,
1705) Queen Anne went to St. Paul's, and the Westminster Militia
lined the streets from St. James's to Temple Bar, and the City Trained
Bands from Temple Bar to St. Paul's. The Trained Bands have long
merged in the Royal London Militia, but the Artillery Company remained
a distinct body, though the Artillery Ground serves as headquarters and
exercising ground of both. During the first half of the present century
the strength of the Company fell gradually off. In 1708 they were
68 ARTILLERY GROUND
about 700; in 1720 about 600; and in 1844 about 250. Prince
Albert became their Colonel, and an attempt was made to restrengthen
the force. The volunteer movement came in aid of the effort. The
Company has been to a great extent reorganised, and is now in a
flourishing condition. The present colonel is H.R.H. The Prince of
Wales. The Royal London Militia has also been reorganised and is
prosperous.
Having outgrown the capacity of the original Artillery Gardens, the
members moved in 1641 from Bishopsgate to Finsbury, where they
now are. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood strongly objected
to this removal. In their petition, May 19, 1641, they state that
The military gentlemen of London are making suit to have their fields for their
military garden, and intend to build a high brick wall about it, to the great incon-
venience of those who dwell in the neighbourhood of the Archer, who go out this
way to recreate themselves ; to the danger of riders whose horses will be frightened
by the guns ; of travellers who will have no opportunity of escaping thieves, or
sextons conveying the plague-stricken to the pest house, besides the disturbance of
the sick and damage to house property. They accordingly pray that the military
may be restrained from building the wall and the rights of petitioners be preserved.
Fourth Report of Historical MSS. Comm., pp. 64, 71.
The ground is described as " the third great field from Moorgate, next
the six windmills. [See Windmill Street.] It is a large piece of
ground, containing about ten acres, enclosed with a high brick wall. . . .
And, moreover, for their better ease and conveniency, they erected a
strong and well-furnished Armoury in the said ground, in which were
arms of several sorts, and of such extraordinary beauty, fashion, and
goodness for service, as were hardly to be matched elsewhere." *
Within Strype's memory (1670-1720) they were occasionally in
the habit of resorting to their old locality.
Well, I say, thrive, thrive, brave Artillery Yard,
that hast not spar'd
Powder or paper to bring up the youth
Of London in the military truth,
as all may swear that look
But on thy practice and the posture-book.
Benjonson, Utiderwoods Ixii.
A new armoury, barracks, and drill-room, castellated in style and of
much architectural pretension, was erected on the City Road side of
the ground in 1857-1862, from the designs of Mr. Jennings, the old
armoury being at the same time remodelled. The buildings are
probably the largest and showiest possessed by any volunteer corps.
The buildings facing the City Road are the headquarters of the Royal
London Militia.
Besides their walled exercise ground in Bunhill Fields, the Artillery
Company had prescriptive right of marching way through Finsbury
Fields to Islington Common [see Finsbury Fields], and of keeping
open certain fields for the exercise of the "Archers' Division" of the
1 Strype's Stow, B. iii. p. 70 ; B. v. p. 457.
ARTILLERY WALK 69
Company. As late as 1786 and 1792 the Company enforced its
right by marching to Finsbury Fields and thence to Islington Common
to view their marks and rovers, their pioneers by their orders removing
all obstructions and breaking down and levelling fences, etc., where
there had been encroachments. 1
The musters and marchings of the City Trained Bands are
admirably ridiculed by Fletcher, in The Knight of the Burning
Pestle; and the manner in which the Company were in the habit
of issuing out their orders, by Steele, in No. 41 of TJie Tatler. From
Ben Jonson (Every Man in his Humour, ist. ed. Act. iii. Sc. 2) to
Foote (Mayor of Garraf) and Sheridan (The Critic) our dramatists
found a ready resource for their art in the deeds and prowess of
Train-band officers and men : but the volunteer feeling has turned
their shafts from citizen soldiers. John Gilpin, as all will remember,
was a Train-band Captain.
A Train-band Captain eke was he
Of famous London town.
Lunardi, September 15, 1784, made his first balloon voyage from
these grounds. There is a view of the ascent in the European
Magazine for 1784.
Artillery Hall, HORSELYDOWN. In 1636 Captain Grove and
others took a piece of ground called Martial Yard, and sought a
licence for the purpose of building an armoury. In 1665 a lease
of the ground was given for the purpose of forming a burial ground,
but the ground where the artillery house stood was reserved for
musters and military exercise. In 1680 and subsequent years the
Artillery Hall was used as a polling place at the elections for Southwark.
In 1725 the hall was converted into a workhouse for the parish. 2
Artillery Place, CITY ROAD, on the east side of the Artillery
Ground. Here died, June 9, 1825, Dr. Abraham Rees, to whom we
owe the Cyclopaedia which bears his name. He was buried in Bunhill
Fields Burial Ground.
Artillery Place (Artillery Row), WESTMINSTER.
Upon the spot now occupied by Artillery Place the men of Westminster used to
practise at "the butts," which were provided by the parish in obedience to an
ordinance of Queen Elizabeth. In the beginning of the last century it is described
as a large enclosure "made use of by those who delight in military exercises."
Walcott's Memorials of Westminster, 1851, p. 324.
Colonel Berkstead to view the artillery ground in Tothill Fields, and see what
part of the prisoners of Worcester may be kept there, and what change will be
necessary for fitting it. September 9, 1657, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic,
1651, p. 417.
Artillery Walk, now BUNHILL Row, leading to BUNHILL FIELDS.
In this walk, the west side of the present Bunhill Row, " opposite the
1 Highmore, History of the Artillery Company, pp. 398, 410.
" Corner's Horselydcmuti, pp. 22, 23.
70 ARTILLERY WALK
Artillery Wall," Milton finished his Paradise Lost, and here, November
8, 1674, he died.
He stay'd not long (in Jewin Street) after his new marriage, ere he removed
(1663) to a house in the Artillery Walk, leading to Bunhill Fields. And this was
his last stage in this world, but it was of many years' continuance, more perhaps
than he had had in any other place besides. Philips's Life of Milton , ed. 1694.
Milton's was a small house, with a garden back and front long
since swept away. Milton's widow occupied the house six or seven
years longer, when she removed to Nantwich, where she died about
September 1727, having survived the poet more than half a century.
Arts (Royal Academy of). [See Royal Academy.]
Arts (Society of), JOHN STREET, ADELPHI, owes its origin to
the persevering exertions of Mr. William Shipley, a drawing master of
Northampton, and brother of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph,
and to the public spirit of its first President, Jacob, Lord Viscount Folke-
stone. It was established at a meeting held at Rawthmell's coffee-
house, in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, March 22, 1754, and its
full designation given " The Society for the Encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures, and Commerce."
In a word, the Society is so numerous, the contributions so considerable, the
plan so judiciously laid, and executed with such discretion and spirit as to promise
much more effectual and extensive advantage to the public than ever accrued from
all the boasted academies of Christendom. Smollett's History of England.
It was proposed, among other things, that rewards should be given
for the discovery of cobalt and the cultivation of madder in Great
Britain ; and that the Society " should bestow premiums on a certain
number of boys or girls under the age of sixteen, who shall produce
the best pieces of drawing, and show themselves most capable when
properly examined." One of the first prizes of this Society (^15) was
adjudged to Richard Cosway, then a boy under twelve years of age, and
afterwards eminent in painting. Premiums were subsequently given
to John Bacon, Joseph Nollekens, William Woollett, George Romney,
John Flaxman, J. M. W. Turner, Edwin Landseer, Mulready, Millais,
and many other artists who afterwards became famous. The first
meetings were held over a circulating library in Crane Court, Fleet
Street, from whence the Society removed to Craig's Court, Charing
Cross, and from Craig's Court to the Strand, opposite the New
Exchange (now Coutts's Bank). In 1759 apartments in a house
opposite Beaufort Buildings were taken for the use of the Society.
The Society last removed in 1774, to its present house, built for the
Society by the brothers Adam, and of which the first stone was laid
March 28, 1772. The Society was incorporated by Royal Charter
in 1847. Six pictures in the Great Room, by James Barry, R.A.,
painted between the years 1777 and 1783. The subjects are (be-
ginning on your left as you enter) :
I. Orpheus. Represents a savage people living in a wild and desert country,
while Orpheus is explaining to them the advantages of culture. 2. A Grecian
SOCIETY OF ARTS 71
Harvest Home, or Thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus, shows the agricultural stage
of civilisation (the best of the series). 3. Crowning the Victors at Olympia. 4.
Commerce : or, the Triumph of the Thames. In this picture Dr. Burney, the musical
composer, is seen floating down the Thames among Tritons and Sea-nymphs, in his
tie-wig and queue. 5. The Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts. This
picture contains a portrait of Dr. Johnson, for which the Doctor sat. 6. Elysium :
or, the state of Final Retribution.
The Society in 1774 proposed to certain members of the newly
instituted Royal Academy to paint the interior of the Great Room,
the painters to be reimbursed by the public exhibition of their works
when finished. The academicians, apparently led by Reynolds, de-
clined the proposal, and Barry, as a member, signed the refusal with
the rest; but afterwards (in 1777) he applied for permission to execute
the whole work without asking remuneration for his own labour, and
at a time when he had but sixteen shillings in his pocket. The
Society, however, gave him in the course of the work several dona-
tions, and a gold medal. The Society afterwards indulged him with
two exhibitions of his paintings, in 1783 and 1784, which brought
him ^503 : 123., the Society paying the cost of the exhibitions, which
amounted to ;i 74. He died poor and half mad in 1806, at the age of
sixty-five, and was buried in St. Paul's. His body lay in state in the Great
Room of the Society on the night of March 7, previous to the burial in
St. Paul's. The members of the Society raised ^1000 and purchased
an annuity of ^120 for Barry, but unfortunately only a month before
his death. In the Council Room are full-length portraits of Jacob,
Lord Folkestone, the first President, by Gainsborough, and of Lord
Romney, second President, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a characteristic
portrait of Barry. The portraits of the two presidents were originally
placed at each end of the meeting room, between Barry's pictures,
but their places subsequently were filled by a portrait of the late Prince
Consort (who held the office of President from 1843 until his death
in 1861), painted by Horsley, over the dais, and by a picture of the
Queen and the Royal Children by Cope, at the opposite end of the
room. Visitors are admitted to see these pictures between the hours
of ten and four.
The great room of the Society was for several years the place where many persons
chose to try or to display their oratorical abilities. Dr. Goldsmith, I remember,
made an attempt at a speech, but was obliged to sit down in confusion. I once
heard Dr. Johnson speak there, upon a subject relative to Mechanics, with a pro-
priety, perspicuity, and energy which excited general admiration. Kippis, Bio.
Brit., vol. iv. p. 266.
The Society took a leading part in organising the Great Exhibitions
of 1851 and 1862 ; and has been active in promoting commercial and
technical education by means of examinations. Out of the technological
examinations has grown the wide-spreading action of the City and
Guilds of London Technical Institute. A large number of the chief
questions of the day, such as the amendment of the Patent Laws ;
the cheapening of letter, book, and parcel postage ; the improvement of
72 SOCIETY OF ARTS
musical education, etc., have been dealt with by the Society in the
form of discussion and by addresses to the Government. Several con-
ferences have also been held on sanitary matters and on water supply.
The ordinary meetings are held on Wednesday evenings at 8 P.M.,
from November to May, when papers are read and discussed on
subjects relating to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. There are
also connected with the Society three sections : i. Indian; 2. Foreign
and Colonial ; 3. Applied Art ; these hold meetings for the reading
and discussion of papers on their respective subjects on other days
of the week. Courses of lectures on popular subjects connected with
Arts and Manufactures are delivered on Monday evenings, and are
styled Cantor Lectures, by reason that they owe their origin to a
bequest of the late Dr. Cantor. The Albert Medal, founded in honour
of the Prince Consort, is awarded annually to some eminent man who
has distinguished himself by promoting arts, manufactures, or com-
merce. The first award was to Sir Rowland Hill in 1864, and the
list of recipients forms a noble roll of great men. The award in the
Jubilee year 1887 was to the Queen, who was graciously pleased
to accept the Medal
Arts' Club (The) 17 HANOVER SQUARE, was founded in 1863,
" for the purpose of facilitating the social intercourse of those connected
with or interested in Art, Literature, or Science." The number of
members, exclusive of Honorary Members, is fixed at 450. The
entrance fee is 15 guineas, and the annual subscription 6 guineas.
Members are elected by the Committee. The ceilings of one of the
rooms are decorated with paintings by Angelica Kauffmann.
Arundel Buildings, STRAND. Langbaine records that Charles
Hoole (d. 1666), translator of Terence, and writer of many excellent
school books in the time of Cromwell and Charles II., "taught school
in Arundel Buildings, not far from the [New] Royal Exchange ; " and
John Evelyn enters in his Diary, under November 16, 1686 : " I went
with part of my family to pass the melancholy winter at my son's house
in Arundel Buildings." Later the name was changed to Arundel
Street.
Arundel House, in the STRAND. The old Inn, or town-house,
of the Bishops of Bath, from whose possession, in the reign of Edward
VI., it passed " without recompence " into the hands of Lord Thomas
Seymour (Admiral), brother of the Protector Somerset. Seymour was
subsequently beheaded, and his house in the Strand was bought by
Henry Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, for the sum of 4 1 : 6 : 8, with
several other messuages, tenements, and lands adjoining. 1 This Henry
Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, dying in 1579, was succeeded by his
grandson, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, son of the Duke of Norfolk,
beheaded for his share in the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots ; and
this Philip, attainted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and dying
1 Stryfe, B. iv. p. 105.
ARUNDEL HOUSE 73
abroad in 1595, his house was in 1603 granted to Charles, Earl of
Nottingham, but four years later was transferred to Thomas Howard,
the son of Philip, who was restored to the Earldom of Arundel by
James I.
December 23, 1607. Grant to the Earl of Arundel and Robert Cannefield, in
fee simple, of Arundel House, St. Clement Danes, without Temple Bar, lately-
conveyed to the King by the Earl of Nottingham. Calendar of State Papers,
Domestic, James I., 1603-1610, p. 390.
In his time Arundel House became the repositoiy of that noble
collection of works of art, of which the very ruins are ornaments now
to several principal cabinets. The collection contained, when entire,
37 statues, 128 busts, and 250 inscribed marbles, exclusive of
sarcophagi, altars, gems, fragments, and what he had paid for, but
could never obtain permission to remove from Rome. A view of the
Statue Gallery forms the background to Vansomer's portrait of the
earl, and a view of the Picture Gallery to Vansomer's portrait of his
countess. Wenceslaus Hollar, " my very good friend," as Evelyn calls
him, was brought to England by the Earl of Arundel in 1636, given
an apartment in Arundel House, of which he engraved several views.
His well-known View of London he drew from the roof. Vanderborcht,
the portrait painter, came over at the same time, and was similarly
lodged : Evelyn sat to him, "at Arundel House, for his picture in oil,"
in 1641. During the Protectorate Arundel House appears to have
been used for the reception of strangers of distinction. Thomas, Earl
of Arundel, died 1646 ; and at the Restoration, in 1660, his house and
marbles were restored to his grandson, who, at the instigation of
Evelyn, gave the library to the Royal Society, and the inscribed
marbles, still known as the Arundelian Collection, to the University of
Oxford.
September 19, 1667. To London with Mr. Hen. Howard of Norfolk, of whom
I obtained ye gift of his Arundelian marbles, those celebrated and famous inscriptions,
Greek and Latine, gathered with so much cost and Industrie from Greece, by his
illustrious grandfather, the magnificent Earl of Arundel, my noble friend whilst he
liv'd. When I saw these precious monuments miserably neglected and scatter'd up
and down about the garden, and other parts of Arundel House, and how exceedingly
the corrosive air of London impaired them, I procur'd him to bestow them on the
University of Oxford. This he was pleas'd to grant me, and now gave me the key
of the gallery, with leave to mark all those stones, urns, altars, etc., and whatever I
found had inscriptions on them that were not statues. Evelyn.
The donor of the marbles died in 1677. He seems to have
contemplated rebuilding Arundel House, but did not do so, and it was
taken down by his successor, and the present Arundel Street, Surrey
Street, Howard Street, and Norfolk Street erected on the site.
Private Acts, 22 & 23 Charles II. (1671), c. 19. An Act for building Arundel
House and the tenements thereunto belonging.
I. William and Mary (1689), an Act for building into tenements the remaining
part of Arundel Ground as now enclosed.
The few marbles that remained were removed to Tart Hall and
74 ARUNDEL HOUSE
Cuper's Gardens (which see). From Hollar's views of the house it
would appear to have been little more than a series of detached
buildings, erected at different periods, and joined together without
any particular display of taste or skill. Sully, when ambassador in
England in the reign of James I., was lodged in Arundel House. He
speaks in his Memoirs of its numerous apartments upon one floor.
The first meetings of the Royal Society were held in this house.
July 1 6, 1668. I by water with my Lord Brouncker to Arundell House, to the
Royall Society, and there saw the experiment of a dog's being tied through the back,
about the spinal artery, and thereby made void of all motion ; and the artery being
loosened again, the dog recovers. Pepys, Diary.
Among Wren's designs at All Souls' College, Oxford, is a general
plan for a house for the Dukes of Norfolk on the site of Arundel
House.
Arundel Street, leading from the north side of COVENTRY STREET
to PANTON SQUARE. So called from the Lords Arundel of Wardour ;
rated to the poor, for the first time, in the books of the parish of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1673; and then and there
described as "next Coll. Panton's tenements." [See Wardour Street.]
In the New View of London, 1708, and in Strype's Map, 1720, it
is called Panton's Yard. In Dodsley, 1761, neither Arundel Street
nor Panton's Yard is set down.
Arundel Street, STRAND, was built in 1678, on the site of
Arundel House. Gay has photographed this street for us, as it
appeared in 1716 :
Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose buildings to the slimy shore extends ;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame,
The street alone retains the empty name :
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas warm'd
And Raphael's fair design, with judgment, charm'd,
Now hangs the bellman's song, and pasted here
The coloured prints of Overton appear.
Where statues breath'd, the work of Phidias' hands,
A wooden pump, or lonely watch-house stands.
Gay's Trivia, B. ii.
Eminent Inhabitants. John Playford, the musician (d. i693). a
Simon Harcourt, in 1688, afterwards Lord Chancellor (d. 1727).
Thomas Rymer, whose Fxdera is our best historical monument, died at
his house in this street, in 1713, and was buried in the neighbouring
church of St. Clement Danes. John Anstis, Garter King-at-Arms,
1715-1716. In 1732 Eustace Budgell, the friend of Addison. 2 Mrs.
Porter, the celebrated actress, "over against the Blue Ball."
Ashburnham House, LITTLE DEAN'S YARD, and CLOISTERS,
WESTMINSTER ABBEY, now a prebendal house, was threatened (1881)
with destruction. It was designed by Inigo Jones on Chapter land,
1 Advertisement at end of Trapp's Tragedy of * Budgell's Liberty and Property, p. 122, and
Saul. App. p. 5.
ASKE'S HOSPITAL 75
for the Ashburnham family, to which belonged Jack Ashburnham,
whose name is now inseparably connected with the misfortunes of
Charles I. In the London Gazette of January 25-28, 1728-1729,
Ashburnham House is advertised "to be sold." In 1730 the lease
was purchased by the Crown of John, Earl Ashburnham. Here the
Cotton Library of MSS. was deposited, and here a fire broke out
October 23, 1731, and of the 948 volumes of which the library
consisted, 114 were quite lost or entirely spoiled, and 98 much
damaged. The house was then in the occupation of the celebrated
Dr. Bentley, the King's Librarian, who is reported to have left at the
first cry of fire, carrying the Alexandrian MS. under his arm. In the
western portion of the house (all that remains of the original building,
for much of it was pulled down, August 1739, to build two prebendal
houses for Dr. Welles and Dr. Barker) l is a drawing-room of exquisite
proportions, which had once a dome in the centre ; the dining-room,
once the state bedroom, with a graceful alcove ; and a staircase, one
of the most interesting of Inigo Jones's internal works. 2 The house
was the residence of the Rev. H. H. Milman (afterwards Dean of St.
Paul's) while he was one of the prebendaries of Westminster, and still
later of Mr. Turle the organist.
Ashburnham House, DOVER STREET. [See Dover Street.]
Ashley Place, VICTORIA STREET. Captain Hans Busk, "an
early advocate of the Volunteer Movement," died at No. 21 in 1882.
General Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., for many years President of
the Royal Society, died at No. 13, on June 26, 1883, aged ninety-five.
Ashley's Punch-House, FLEET STREET, a famous punch-house,
the "third door from Fleet Bridge," established in or before 1735 by
James Ashley, who claimed the merit of being the first person to retail
punch in small quantities. There is a scarce print of him.
The first curiosity led me to, was Ashley's Punch-House, where the whole
company seemed deeply attentive to the old waiter, who usually serves his customers
with politics and punch. . . . Only sail up forty men of war to their very gates [of
Paris], and where would they be then ? Goldsmith, Public Rejoicings for Victory.
Asiatic Society (Royal), 22 ALBEMARLE STREET, was founded
1823, and received a Royal Charter in 1824. The Society possesses
an extensive and valuable library of Oriental manuscripts and printed
books ; issues a journal in which have appeared many learned
and important papers, and has assisted in publishing editions
of various Oriental texts. The Society has affiliated branches in
Bombay, Madras, and other Eastern cities. The Society usually meets
on the first and third Saturdays in every month, from November to
June inclusive. Admission fee, 5 guineas ; annual subscription, 2
guineas.
Aske's Hospital, HOXTON. Erected by the Haberdashers'
Company in 1692, pursuant to the will of Robert Aske, Esq., who in
1688 left ^20,000 to that Company, for building and endowing an
1 Daily Gazetteer, August 9, 1739. 2 H. Walpole, MS. note in Pennant.
76 ASKE'S HOSPITAL
Hospital for the relief of twenty poor members of the Haberdashers'
Company, and land in remainder, for the education of twenty boys,
sons of decayed freemen of the Company, in all about ^32,000.
But the funds of the charity having greatly increased, a new scheme
was drawn up by the Endowed Schools Commissioners, and adopted
by the Court of the Haberdashers' Company. The Hospital for decayed
freemen has been closed, and the pensioners receive out-door annuities ;
four ^50, two ^70, and fourteen ^75 a year each. A new school
was built (1875-1876) on the site of the old building at Hoxton, with
accommodation for 300 boys and 300 girls, day scholars, and open to
all; and a second and superior school, a handsome Elizabethan
building, on an elevated site at Hatcham, between New Cross,
Deptford, and Nunhead. Exhibitions have also been provided, amount-
ing to ;i2oo a year, of sums not exceeding ,40 a year each,
chiefly for the sons and daughters of freemen, tenable at Hatcham
or any other approved school. The new schools are from the designs
of the late Mr. W. Snooke, architect to the Company. The original
edifice was designed by Dr. Robert Hooke, the mathematician. The
drawing by the architect hangs in the Court Room of the Company.
Asparagus Garden, UPPER GROUND STREET, SOUTHWARK, near
the old Barge House. In the i6th and i7th centuries this district
chiefly consisted of garden ground and pasturage.
Astley's Amphitheatre, WESTMINSTER BRIDGE ROAD. The
first amphitheatre on this spot was a mere temporary erection of deal
boards, set up, in 1774, by Philip Astley, a light-horseman in the i5th
or General Eliott's Regiment. It stood on what was then an open piece
of ground in St. George's Fields, through which the New Cut ran, and
to which a halfpenny hatch led. The price of admission to the space
without the railing of the ride was sixpence, and Astley himself, said to
have been the handsomest man in England, was the chief performer,
assisted by a drum, two fifes, and a clown of the name of Porter. At
first it was an open area. In 1780 it was converted into a covered
amphitheatre, and divided into pit, boxes, and gallery. In 1786 it
was newly fitted up, and called "The Royal Grove," and in 1792
"The Royal Saloon, or Astley's Amphitheatre." The entertainment,
at first, was only a day exhibition of horsemanship. Transparent fire-
works, slack-rope vaulting, Egyptian pyramids, tricks on chairs, tumbling,
etc., were subsequently added, the ride enlarged, and the house opened
in the evening.
London, at this time of year (September), is as nauseous a drug as any in an
apothecary's shop. I could find nothing at all to do, and so went to Astley's, which
indeed was much beyond my expectation. I do not wonder any longer that Darius
was chosen king by the instructions he gave to his horse ; nor that Caligula made
his Consul. Astley can make his dance minuets and hornpipes. But I shall not
have even Astley now ; Her Majesty the Queen of France, who has as much taste
as Caligula, has sent for the whole of the dramatis persona to Paris. Horace
Walpole to Lord Stafford, September 12, 1783.
ATHENJSUM CLUB 77
In 1794 (August 17) the amphitheatre and nineteen adjoining houses
were destroyed by fire. In 1803 (September 2) it was again burnt
down, the mother of Mrs. Astley jun. perishing in the flames.
Base Buonaparte, fill'd with deadly ire,
Sets, one by one, our playhouses on fire.
Some years ago he pounced with deadly glee on
The Opera House, then burned down the Pantheon ;
Thy hatch, O Halfpenny ! pass'd in a trice,
Boil'd some black pitch, and burnt down Astley's twice.
Rejected Addresses.
This was said or sung in 1812 ; and in 1841 (June 8) it was a
third time burnt down, Mr. Ducrow, who had been one of Astley's
riders and became manager, dying insane soon after, from the losses
he sustained. Old Astley, who was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme in
1742, died in Paris, October 20, 1814. He is said to have built
nineteen different theatres. Tom Dibdin tells how, in his young
days, Philip Astley paid him 14 guineas for three Burlettas and a
Pantomime, and insisted on putting his own name to them, as he had
"bought the thingumbobs." Dibdin's Autobiography.
In 1862. Astley's was converted into the Theatre Royal, West-
minster, by Mr. Dion Boucicault, and is now both theatre and amphi-
theatre.
Astronomical Society (Royal), BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY.
Instituted 1820," for the Encouragement and Promotion of Astronomy ;"
and incorporated by Royal Charter, dated March 7, ist of Will. IV.
Entrance-money, 2 : 23. ; annual subscription, 2 : 23. Annual
general meeting, second Friday in February. Medal awarded every
year. Apartments were in the first instance granted to the Society at
Somerset House, but on the erection of new wings to Burlington House
for the use of the learned Societies, apartments were provided for the
Royal Astronomical Society in the west wing. The Society has a
good mathematical library, and a few astronomical instruments.
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. [See Deaf and Dumb Asylum.]
Atheling Street, is an old form of the name of Watling Street,
and is so given by Leland. Among the manuscripts of the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul's is a document of 25 Edw. III., in which
mention is made of a tenement in Athelyng Street. Historical MSS.
Comm., Appendix to Ninth Report, p. 5. There does not appear to
be any actual authority for connecting this street with the old Roman
road.
Athenaeum Club, PALL MALL, instituted in 1824 by the Right
Hon. John Wilson Croker, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir F. Chantrey, Mr.
Jekyll, Sir Humphry Davy, etc., " for the association of individuals
known for their literary or scientific attainments, artists of eminence in any
class of the Fine Arts, noblemen and gentlemen distinguished as liberal
patrons of Science, Literature, or the Arts." The members are chosen by
78 ATHENAEUM CLUB
ballot, except that the committee have the power of electing yearly, from
the list of candidates for admission, a limited number of persons " who
shall have attained to distinguished eminence in Science, Literature, or
the Arts, or for Public Services," the number so elected not to exceed nine
in each year. The number of ordinary members is fixed at 1 200; entrance
fee, 30 guineas ; yearly subscription, 8 guineas. One black ball in ten
excludes. The present Club-house (Decimus Burton, architect) was
built in 1829, and opened February 8, 1830. Pending its erection
the members occupied the house at the south-west corner of Regent
Street. The first meetings were held in the rooms of the Royal
Institution, and Faraday acted for a short time as honorary secretary.
"The original prospectus and early list of members have his name
attached to them." Life, vol. i. p. 380.
The only Club I belong to is the Athenaeum, which consists of twelve hundred
members, amongst whom are to be reckoned a large proportion of the most eminent
persons in the land, in every line civil, military, and ecclesiastical, peers spiritual
and temporal (ninety-five noblemen and twelve bishops), commoners, men of the
learned professions, those connected with Science, the Arts, and Commerce in all its
principal branches, as well as the distinguished who do not belong to any particular
class. Many of these are to be met with every day, living with the same freedom as
in their own houses. For 6 guineas a year every member has the command of an
excellent library, with maps, of the daily papers, English and foreign, the principal
periodicals, and every material for writing, with attendance for whatever is wanted.
The building is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exactness and comfort as
a private dwelling. Every member is a master without any of the trouble of a master.
He can come when he pleases, and stay away as long as he pleases, without anything
going wrong. He has the command of regular servants without having to pay or to
manage them. He can have whatever meal or refreshment he wants, at all hours,
and served up with the cleanliness and comfort of his own house. He orders just
what he pleases, having no interest to think of but his own. In short, it is impossible
to suppose a greater degree of liberty in living. Walker's Original.
The library is the best Club Library, and contains one of the choicest
collections of books of reference in London. The number of volumes
is between 50,000 and 60,000.
There is a JUNIOR ATHENAEUM CLUB, which, though of much more
recent date, is also a large and flourishing body. For their club-house
they were fortunate in securing HOPE HOUSE, the fine mansion erected
in 1848-1849 by H. T. Hope, Esq., of Deepdene, in Piccadilly, at
the corner of Down Street.
Athenian Club, Strand, a social club which in the early years of
the 1 9th century met for dinners and conversation at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern in the Strand. It has long been extinct.
December 31, 1804. I dined at the Athenian Club at the Crown and Anchor :
a society of gentlemen, men of great fortune, M. P.'s, rich City merchants, philosophers,
and men of literature, John Kemble is a member. Sir Charles Bell's Letters, p. 32.
Auction Mart, BARTHOLOMEW LANE, opposite the eastern front
of the Bank of England, was designed by John Walters, architect, 1808-
1810, for the sale of estates, annuities, shares in public institutions,
NORTH AUDLEY STREET 79
pictures, books, and other property, by public auction. The building
and site was bought in 1864 by the Alliance Bank, who sold it to the
Estate Company. It was pulled down in 1865, and rebuilt for offices
from the design of Edward A. Gruning, architect. The Alliance Bank
occupies the ground floor and basement. A new AUCTION MART,
Italian Renaissance in style, was built in TOKENHOUSE YARD, Loth-
bury, from the designs of Mr. S. Clarke, and is now the chief mart in the
city for the sale of estates and houses by auction.
There was an Auction-house standing near the Royal Exchange in
the reign of James II. Several printed catalogues exist of sales that
took place there in that reign. Dr. Seaman's sale, in the year 1676,
was the first book-auction, and Samuel Paterson the earliest auctioneer
who sold books singly in lots the first bidding for which was sixpence.
Audit Office, SOMERSET HOUSE, now Exchequer and Audit
Department (Office for Auditing the Public Accounts), existed as an
office under the name of the Office of the Auditors of the Imprests (or
sums imprested, i.e. advanced to and charged against public officers),
temp. Henry VIII. The Audit Commission was established in 1785,
and the salaries, formerly paid by fees upon the passing of accounts,
are now paid out of moneys voted by Parliament, fees of every kind
being abolished. Almost all the Home and all the Colonial expenditure
of the country is examined at this office. Edward Harley and Arthur
Maynwaring were the two auditors of the imprests in the reign of Anne.
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, obtained many curious public papers
from his brother Edward. If he had emptied the office, the nation
had been a gainer, for the papers the brother appropriated were
bought by Government for the British Museum, and much of what
he left all, indeed, but what Sir William Musgrave, a commissioner,
gathered and presented to the British Museum destroyed by order of
another Government.
Audley Square forms a part of South Audley Street. Here
Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister 1809-1812, was born in November
1762. The Duke of York had a house in the square at the time of
his death (1827). He died at the Duke of Rutland's house in Arling-
ton Street.
Audley Street (North), runs from OXFORD STREET to the west
side of GROSVENOR SQUARE. It was so called after Hugh Audley, of
the Inner Temple, Esq., who died "infinitely rich" on November 15,
1662. The title of a pamphlet, published at the time, records his
history " The Way to be Rich, according to the practice of the Great
Audley, who b'egan with ^200 in the year 1605, and died worth
.400,000, this instant November, 1662." His land, described in an
old Survey (circ. 1710), among King George III.'s maps in the British
Museum, as "Mr. Audley's land," lay between "Great Brook Field,"
and "Shoulder of Mutton Field." He left a large portion of his
property to Thomas Davies, a bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, and
8o NORTH AUDLEY STREET
one of his executors, afterwards Sir Thomas Davies, and Lord Mayor
of London in 1677. On the east side is S. Mark's Church, built 1825-
1828, from the designs of J. P. Gandy-Deering, at a cost of about
,5550. In it lies Sir Hudson Lowe, Governor of St. Helena (d.
1844), whose name is inseparably connected with the great Napoleon.
In a house on the east side, a few doors from the chapel, and since
divided into two, the Countess of Suffolk (mistress of George II.) is
said to have lived. The house was designed by the Earl of Burlington,
and built at the King's expense. Maria Edgeworth, on her later visits
to London, resided with her sister, Mrs. Wilson, at No. i North
Audley Street. At No. 26 the Misses Berry. The ground floor has
given place to a pianoforte warehouse ; but the private door opens
upon the original house staircase, and the drawing-rooms are tenanted
by a glover.
Audley Street (South), GROSVENOR SQUARE, extends from the west
side of Grosvenor Square southwards to Curzon Street. Built in 1730.
Eminent Inhabitants. Lord Bute lived at No. 73 during his greatest
unpopularity, and died there March 10, 1792; in the Wilkes riots,
March 1769, the mob made a furious attack on his house. In 1758
Home, the author of Douglas, was in lodgings in this street, "to be
near Lord Bute." Holcroft, the dramatist, about 1761, worked for
some time with his father in a cobbler's stall in this street. General
Paoli, till he had a house of his own. Boswell, when in London, con-
stantly resided at General Paoli's, where he was " entertained with the
kindest attention," and when Boswell was ill in bed at Paoli's house,
Johnson brought Reynolds to sit with him. BoswelFs Johnson, by
Croker, p. 505, etc. Sir William Jones (opposite Audley Square), his
widow died here in 1829. In 1814 Charles X. of France, in No. 72.
Louis XVIII. lived at one time in this street. No 77 was Alderman
Sir Matthew Wood's. Here Queen Caroline took up her abode on her
arrival from Italy in June 1820, and used at first to appear on the
balcony and bow to the mob assembled in the street. The Alderman
and his family removed to Fladong's Hotel. In No. 1 4 Sir Richard
Westmacott, the sculptor, executed all his principal works, and there
died, September i, 1856. At No. 8, Archbishop Markham (d. 1807). At
No. 15 Baron Bunsen was living in 1841. Curzon House, No. 8,
was till 1876 the residence of Earl Howe. In the vaults and cemetery
of Grosvenor Chapel, on the east side of the street, are interred
Ambrose Philips, the poet, ridiculed by Pope (d. 1749); Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu (d. 1762); David Mallet, the poet (d. 1765);
William Whitehead, poet (d. 1785); John Wilkes (d. 1797), to whom
there is a tablet with this inscription from his own pen, "The
remains of John Wilkes, a Friend to Liberty." Lord Chancellor
Northington was married in this chapel, 1743, by (the future) Bishop
Newton. On June 22, 1749, David Garrick was married to Eva
Maria Violette in the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Portuguese
Embassy in South Audley Street
ST. AUGUSTINE'S IN THE WALL Si
Augmentation Office, DEAN'S YARD, WESTMINSTER, was esta-
blished in 1704, for the purpose of augmenting the value of poor
livings by means of Queen Anne's Bounty. The Queen Anne's
Bounty Office still exists, but it is not now known by this name.
Augmentations Court was established in 1535 by Act of 27
Henry VIII., for managing the revenues and possessions of all the
religious houses under ^200 a year which had been given to the King,
and for determining suits relating to them. The full title was " Court
of the Augmentations of the Revenues of the King's Crown."
January 31, 1536-1537. Warrant (with the King's sign manual) to the Treasurer
of the Augmentations to pay 662 : o : I to Anthony Dennye, keeper of the King's
manor beside Westminster, and Paymaster of the buildings there, for the erection of
a house for the officers of the Augmentation, within the old Palace of Westminster.
Appendix to Eighth Report of Historical MSS. Comm., pt. 2, p. 2ia.
The Court was abolished by Mary in 1553, and restored by
Elizabeth in 1558. This building at Westminster, which projected out
nto the roadway, was pulled down in 1793.
Augustine's (St.) Church, at the corner of WATLING STREET and
OLD CHANGE, and immediately behind No. 35 St. Paul's Churchyard, in
the ward of Farringdon Within, was designed in 1682 by Sir Christopher
Wren, and opened for public service September 23, 1683. The old
church, anciently denominated Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam, from
its vicinity to the south-east of St. Paul's Churchyard," 1 was destroyed in
the Great Fire, and the parish of St. Faith-under-St. Paul's united at the
same time to the newly erected St. Augustine's. The steeple, 132 feet 6
inches high, was not finished till 1695, ar >d was much repaired about
1850. The interior of the church, of the Ionic order, is 51 feet long,
45 wide, and 30 high. It was restored in 1829 at a cost of about
^2400. The presentation to the conjoined rectory is in the gift of
the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The Rev. R. H. Barham (Thomas
Ingoldsby) died in 1845, rector of the united parishes. In April 1532
a memorable scene took place in the old church. James Rainham,
a barrister of the Middle Temple, who had been persuaded by Sir
Thomas More and the rack to recant, had no peace of mind until
he declared his repentance.
And immediately the next Sunday after he came to St. Augustine's, and made
a public confession and abjuration of his recent weakness. Foxe, Acts and Monu-
ments, vol. iv. p. 702.
Augustine's (St.) in the Wall, in LIME STREET WARD, a parish
church so called, says Stow, "for that it stood adjoining to the wall of
the City." Also known as St. Augustine's Papey. It was originally
a rectory in the patronage of the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity ;
but in the beginning of the i5th century it was united to the Parish
of All Hallows in the Wall. About the year 1430 the church was
conveyed by the Rector of the united parish to the Brethren of the
Papey. Upon the suppression of the Fraternity in the reign of
1 Maitland, p. 376.
VOL. I G
82 AUSTIN FRIARS
Edward VI. the church was pulled down, and a stable and hayloft
built in its place. The churchyard was reserved as a garden.
Austin Friars, OLD BROAD STREET, BROAD STREET WARD, the
house of the Augustine Friars, founded by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of
Hereford and Essex, in the year 1253. Henry VIII., at the Dissolution,
bestowed the house and grounds on William Paulet, first Marquis of
Winchester, who transformed his new acquisition into a town residence
for himself, called, while it continued in his family, by the name of
Paulet House and Winchester House (hence Winchester Street ad-
joining). The church, reserved by the King, was granted by his son
"to the Dutch nation in London, to be their preaching place," the
" Dutch nation " being the refugees who fled out of the Netherlands,
France, "and other parts beyond seas, from Papist persecutors."
Edward VI. records the circumstance in his Diary :
June 29, 1550. It was appointed that the Germans should have the Austin
Friars for their church, to have their service in, for avoiding of all sects of Ana-
Baptists, and such like.
The grant was confirmed by several successive sovereigns, and is
enjoyed by the Dutch to this day. Originally the church was cruci-
form, had choir, chapels, and " a most fine spired steeple, small, high,
and straight" Stow, who tells us this, adds, " I have not seen the
like." But the church was then in a bad state, the steeple especially.
The Mayor and Corporation "drew up a large letter," August 4, 1600,
to the Marquis of Winchester, "in the most pathetic words and moving
arguments, exciting him to go in hand with the work " of repairing the
steeple, the fall of which, they say, "must needs bring with it not only
a great deformity to the whole City, it being for architecture one of the
beautifullest and rarest spectacles thereof; but also a fearful eminent
danger to all the inhabitants next adjoining." But instead of repairing,
the Marquis pulled down the spire and demolished the choir and
transepts, leaving only to the Dutch congregation the nave of the old
church. This, which Sir Gilbert Scott affirms is " a perfect model of
what is most practically useful in the nave of a church," continued to
be so used till November 1862, when all but the outer walls and the
columns dividing the nave and aisles was destroyed in an accidental
fire. The church was carefully and thoroughly restored (1863-1865),
at a cost of ;i 2,000, under the direction of Messrs. Edward I'Anson
and William Lightly, architects, and is now in a more satisfactory con-
dition than it has been since its threatened demolition in 1600.
For nearly three centuries the Austin Friars was a favourite burial
place for the greatest nobles and the wealthiest citizens. Strype
(Survey, B. ii. p. 115) names many distinguished personages; but a
longer enumeration is preserved in Harl. MS., 6003, and in No. 544
of the same collection. John Vere, Earl of Oxford, beheaded 1643,
and others who suffered on Tower Hill, and "many of the barons
slain at Barnet Field, 1471," were buried there. A volume containing
the marriage, baptismal, and burial registers from 1571 to 1874, edited
AUSTIN FRIARS 83
by W. J. C. Moens, was privately printed and issued to subscribers in
1885. The church contains some very good decorated windows,
restorations, or rather careful copies, of the originals. The interior
is 150 feet long, divided into nine bays. The extreme width is 79
feet 7 inches, the nave being 34 feet 1 1 inches between centres of the
shafts, and each side 22 feet 4 inches. The inner walls are of hard
chalk, the exterior of Kentish rag. The fittings are of course arranged
in accordance with the practice of the Dutch Church.
On the west end over the skreen is a fair library, inscribed thus : " Ecclesise
Londino-Belgicae Bibliotheca, extructa sumptibus Marise Dubois, 1659." In this
library are divers valuable MSS., and Letters of Calvin, Peter Martyr, and others,
foreign Reformers. Strype, B. ii. p. 116.
Happily this collection of books was saved from the Fire, and
shortly after was presented by the congregation to the City, and
deposited in the Guildhall Library.
Lord Winchester died in 1571, and was succeeded by his son,
who sold "the monuments of noblemen, buried there, for ^100;
made fair stabling for horses, in place thereof, and sold the lead from
the roofs and laid it anew with tile." 1 In 1602 the necessities of the
fourth Marquis of Winchester were such, that he was compelled to
part with his house and property in Austin Friars to John Swinnerton,
a merchant, afterwards Lord Mayor. Sir Philip Sidney's friend, Fulke
Greville, then an inhabitant of Austin Friars, communicates his alarm
about the purchase to the Countess of Shrewsbury, another tenant of
the Marquis of Winchester, in that quarter :
Since my return from Plymouth, I understand my Lord Marquis hath offered his
house for sale, and there is one Swinnerton, a merchant, that hath engaged himself
to deal for it. The price, as I hear, is ^5000, his offer ^4500 ; so as the one's
need, and the other's desire, I doubt will easily reconcile this difference of price
between them. In the mean season I thought it my duty to give your ladyship
notice, because both your house and my lady of Warwick's are included in this
bargain ; and we, your poor neighbours, would think our dwellings desolate without
you, and conceive your ladyship would not willingly become a tenant to such a
fellow. Letter, September 23, 1602 (Lodge's Illus., 8vo ed., vol. ii. p. 580.
In 1612 a petition was presented to the Lord Treasurer from the
" Dutch Church in London, called the Austin Friars, or Jesus Temple,"
begging " that the tenure of the land which they have bought of the
Marquis of Winchester for a churchyard may be changed into free
soccage, it being now held in capite." 2 Lady Anne Clifford (Ann Pem-
broke, Dorset, and Montgomery) was married to the Earl of Dorset in her
mother's chambers in Austin Friars House, February 25, i6o8-i6o9. 3
Erasmus, during one of his visits to London (1513), lodged in Austin
r riars, and took his meals in the Convent. Malt liquor did not agree
dth him, and he complains of the difficulty of procuring good wine. 4
Sir Thomas Wentworth (Lord Strafford) writes to Lord Darcy from
Austin Friars, January 9, 1621 : Dr. Mead gave up his house in
1 Stow, p. 67. 3 Birch's Prince Henry, p. 140.
2 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1611-
1618, p. 133. 4 Johnson's Life of Erasmus, vol. i. p. 42.
AUSTIN FRIARS
Crutched Friars in 1711, and removed to Austin Friars. Here (1735)
Richard Gough, the antiquary, was born; and here, at No. 18, lived
James Smith, one of the authors of the Rejected Addresses. A second
James Smith coming to the place after he had been many years a
resident, produced so much confusion to both, that the last comer
waited on the author and suggested, to prevent future inconvenience,
that one or other had better leave, hinting at the same time, that he
should like to stay. " No," said the wit, " I am James the First ; you
are James the Second ; you must abdicate." One of the last of the
remaining old houses in Austin Friars was demolished in the spring of
1888. [See Drapers' Hall and Gardens.]
Austin's (St.) House, SOUTHWARK. This was the Abbot's Inn
of St. Augustine of Canterbury, which stood between the Bridge
House and the Church of St. Olave. It was at one time held from
the Earls of Warren and Surrey, as appears by a deed of 1281. The
house afterwards came into the possession of the St. Leger family.
It was sold in 1566 by Richard Grenville to George Fletcher, by the
description "of a capital messuage or mansion house called St.
Austin's, alias St. Leger's House, between the Bridge House, a
wood wharf, the tenement called the Draper's rent, the river Thames
on the north, and a lane leading to the same and the Bridge House."
A wharf was built on the site and named Sellinger. Rendle's Old
Southwark, 1878, p. 267.
Ave Maria Lane, between LUDGATE HILL and PATERNOSTER Row.
Ave-Mary Lane, so called of text-writers and bead-makers, then dwelling there.
Stow, p. 126.
" Ave-maria aly " is mentioned in the curious early poem of Cocke
Lorelles Bote y printed by Wynkyn de Worde, circ. 1506. In Queen
Anne's time "The Black Boy Coffee-house," in this lane, was the
chief place for the sale of books by auction.
Avenue (The).
September n, 1651. Whitehall, Council of State to Major-General Skippon.
We hear that the guards upon the Avenue, under colour of examining and searching
suspicious persons, very much molest and trouble all passengers, as well those who
are going out of town as those who are coming in, and that they demand money to
let people go, which is a most intolerable abuse. Give order that this practice be
forborne, and that all things be in the condition they were in before the late invasion
by the Scotch army. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1651, p. 425.
Avenue Road, ST. JOHN'S WOOD. The Right Hon. Sir Robert
Lush, Lord Justice (1807-1881), died at No. 6.
Axe Lane.
Some dozen years later [about 1769] Goldsmith startled a brilliant circle at
Bennet Langton's with an anecdote of " When I lived among the beggars in Axe
Lane," just as Napoleon, 50 years later, appalled the party of crowned heads at
Dresden with his story of " When I was a lieutenant in the regiment of La Fere."-
Forster's Life of Oliver GoldsmiUi.
The Axe Lane of the story was perhaps Axe Yard, on the left
hand in Grub Street, and may have referred to the period when he
AYLESBURY STREET 85
belonged to the fraternity named after the street so many of them
inhabited.
Axe Yard, KING STREET, WESTMINSTER, where Fludyer Street
was afterwards built (about 1767), and so called from "a great
messuage or brew-house " on the west side of King Street, " commonly
called the Axe." This place is referred to in a document of the 23d
of Henry VIIL, 1531. Sir William Davenant, the poet, according to
Aubrey, had cause to remember " the black handsome wench that lay
in Axe Yard, Westminster." Pepys opens his Diary (January i, 1660)
by stating : " I lived in Axe Yard, having my wife and servant Jane,
and no other in family than us three." They appear to have let out
the main part of the house, and lived themselves in the garret.
August IO, 1660. By the way, I cannot forget that my Lord Claypoole did the
other day make enquiry of Mrs. Hunt, concerning my house in Axe Yard, and did
set her on work to get it of me for him, which methinks is a very great change.
Pepys.
Samuel Hartlib dated a letter to J. Winthrop from here, September
3, 1661.
In 1663 Bishop Sprat writes to Wren : Now then, my dearest friend, you may
recollect we went lately from Axe Yard to walk in St. James's Park, and, though
we met not the accomplished person [Cowley] whose company we sought, yet he
was enough present to our thoughts to bring us to discourse of that in which he so
much deals, the wit of conversation. Wren's Parentalia, p. 256.
July 20, 1665. Lord! to see how the;plague spreads! It being now all over
King's Streete, at the Axe, and next door to it, and in other places. Pepys.
Act, Anno, 6 and 7 Will. III. (1695) c. 20. To enable William Wanley, an
infant under 21 years, to new build several messuages or tenements in Axe Yard,
King Street, Westminster, and to enable his Guardian to make one or more leases
for effecting the same.
Aylesbury Street, CLERKENWELL, leads from St. John Street to
Clerkenwell Green, and covers the site of the house and gardens of
the Bruces, Earls of Aylesbury, to whom the old Hospital of St. John
of Jerusalem descended from the Cecil family, and with whom it
continued till 1706. Earl Robert, Deputy Earl Marshal, dates many
of his letters in 1671 from Aylesbury House, Clerkenwell.
On the south side of Aylesbury Street, and " at the corner house
of that passage [Jerusalem Passage] leading by the Old Jerusalem
Tavern, under the gateway of the Priory in St. John's Square,"
Thomas Britton, the musical small - coalman, held his celebrated
music meetings for a period of six and thirty years (1678-1714);
he played on the viol-da-gamba with the skill of an artist, and the
leading musicians of the day assembled at his meetings. Handel
and Pepusch played the organ there ; Bannister the violin. Dubourg
joined the party immediately on his arrival. Woolaston, the painter,
played on the violin or flute, and painted the portrait of the concert
giver, which was engraved in mezzotint. John Hughes, the poet,
Henry Symonds, Needier of the Excise, Abiell Wichello, Shuttleworth,
and Sir Roger L' Estrange, are mentioned by Hawkins among the
86 AYLESBURY STREET
performers, and the Duchess of Queensbury as a regular attendant.
Britton was also a collector of prints, drawings, books, especially works
on astrology and alchemy, music, and old musical instruments, and
the sale of his collections after his decease attracted much notice.
On the ground floor was a repository for small coal, and over that was the
concert room, which was very long and narrow, and had a ceiling so low that a tall
man could but just stand upright in it. It has long since been pulled down and
rebuilt. At this time [1776] it is an ale house known by the sign of the Bull's
Head. Hawkins's History of Music, vol. v. p. 74-
Various were the opinions concerning him : some thought his musical assembly
only a cover for seditious meetings; others for magical purposes. He was taken for
an atheist, a presbyterian, a Jesuit. But Woolaston, the painter, and the father of a
gentleman from whom I received this account, and who were both members of the
music-club, assured him that Britton was a plain, simple, honest man, who only
meaned to amuse himself. His subscription was but ten shillings a year : Britton
found the instruments, and they had coffee at a penny a dish. Sir Hans Sloane
bought many of his books and MSS. (now in the Museum) when they were sold by
auction at Tom's Coffee-house, near Ludgate. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, ed.
Wornun, vol. ii. p. 236.
Tho' doomed to small coal yet to arts allied,
Rich without wealth and famous without pride ;
Music's best patron, judge of books and men,
Beloved and honoured by Apollo's train,
In Greece or Rome sure never did appear
So bright a genius in so dark a sphere ! PRIOR.
Ayliffe Street. [See Goodman's Fields Theatre.]
Babmaes Mews, JERMYN STREET, named after Baptist May,
Keeper of the Privy Purse to Charles II., but the origin of the name
seems to have been forgotten, if we may judge from the spelling
adopted. The name is spelt correctly in Elmes's Topographical
Dictionary of London, 1831.
Bacon House stood in FOSTER LANE, CHEAPSIDE, and was so
called after Lord Keeper Bacon, the father of the Chancellor. It
seems to have been inhabited jointly by the Bacon family and by
Recorder Fleetwood, the constant correspondent of the great Lord
Burghley. It had previously been called Shelley House. Sir Thomas
Shelley was owner of it, temp. Henry IV.
July 21, 1578. My Lord Keeper, My Ladie, and all the howse are come to
London this night. 1
There is a charity in Bassishaw Ward called Lady Bacon's Charity,
the income of which, derived from houses in the ward, is distributed
by trustees, who, in pursuance of the lady's will, have an annual feast,
with a magnificent piece of bacon invariably as a standard dish.
Bag of Nails (properly THE BACCHANALS), a public-house at the
corner of Arabella Row (changed to Lower Grosvenor Place in
1879) and Buckingham Palace Road. According to the Tavern Anec-
1 " Fleetwood to Burghley," Wright, vol. ii. p. 89.
BAGNIGGE WELLS 87
dotes (1825), the original sign, on the front of the house, was a Satyr of
the woods with a group of Bacchanals.
Bagnigge House, a mansion adjoining the Wells on the south,
had over the chimney-piece of one of the principal rooms the royal
arms, the garter, and other heraldic bearings, and " between them the
bust of a woman in Roman dress, let deep into a circular cavity of the
wall. . . . It is said to represent Mrs. Eleanor Gwin, who sometimes
made this place her summer residence." 1 There was a tradition that
she came here in order to take the bath in the adjacent Cold Bath
Fields, where half a century later " a nude statue " was shown by the
proprietor of the bath as a portrait of the frail beauty. The bust, as
already mentioned, was transferred to the Long Room of Bagnigge
Wells. A square stone placed " over an old Gothic portal," taken down
in 1757, bore the inscription: "This is Bagnigge House neare the
Finder a Wakefielde, 1680." When what remained of Bagnigge House
and Wells was demolished, about 1862, this stone was inserted in the
front of a small house, one of a row erected on the site.
Bagnigge Wells, BAGNIGGE WELLS ROAD, now KING'S CROSS
ROAD, a place of public entertainment opened in consequence of the
discovery of the medicinal properties of two wells, " the water of one
of which purges, the other is a chalybeat" This place of entertainment
appears to have been opened earlier than is generally stated, for Dr.
Rimbault pointed out (Notes and Queries, ist S., vol. ii. p. 228)
that Bickham's curious work, The Musical Entertainer (circ. 1738),
contains an engraving of Tom Hippersley mounted in the " singing
rostrum" regaling the company with a song. As early as 1760, when
Dr. John Bevis published " An Experimental Inquiry concerning the
contents, qualities, and medicinal virtues of the two Mineral Waters
lately discovered at Bagnigge Wells, near London," the wells " were
got into great repute," and "elegant accommodation provided" for
visitors. Bagnigge Wells was then literally in the country, the valley
between Coppice Row and Battle Bridge being known as Bagnigge
Wash or Bagnigge Vale.
These wells are a little way out of London, in the high road from Coppice Row,
or Sir John Oldcastle's, which, about a quarter of a mile farther, at Battle Bridge
turnpike, comes into the great new road from Paddington to Islington, affording an
easy access to the springs for coaches from all parts : and the footpath from Totten-
ham Court Road, by Southampton Row, Red Lion Street, and the Foundling
Hospital, running close by the wells is no less convenient for such as prefer walking
exercise. ... A tradition goes that the place of old was called Blessed Mary's Well,
but that the name of the Holy Virgin having in some measure fallen into disesteem
after the Reformation, the title was altered to Black Mary's Well, as it now stands
upon Mr. Rocque's Map, and then to Black Mary's Hole [as it commonly stands on
later maps], though there is a very different account of these later appellations.
Bevis, pp. 1-4. [See Black Mary's Well.]
No satisfactory derivation has been given of the origin of the
name Bagnigge. One of the most likely is from the A. S. bag,
1 Bevis, p. 2.
88 BAGNIGGE WELLS
badge, a badger (as in Bagenthorpe, Badgeworth), and ig, tgge, an
island ; although this does not account for the n. The place was a
swamp the Fleet here forming Bagnigge Wash the land abounding
in springs, and a somewhat raised spot in its midst may well have
been noted as a resort of badgers.
The Wells are noticed as a place of public entertainment by William
Woty in his Shrubs of Parnassus, 1760. A good coloured print, after
George Morland, shows them a little later in all their glory ; and there
is a large mezzotint print of the " Long Room, Bagnigge Wells," by J.
R. Smith, from a drawing by T. Sanders, dated 1772, which shows
that the wells were then frequented by people of fashion. It represents
the assembly room, with the master of the ceremonies in a tall wig and
sword, cocked-hat in hand, receiving the visitors. Tea is being carried
round by a page, who has in one hand a tray with a very small tea-pot
and proportionally small cups, and in the other a steaming kettle. At
one end of this long room was "a fine-toned organ," at the other the bust
spoken of below. But the quality of the visitors quickly deteriorated.
Says Madame Fussock, warm from Spitalfields,
Bon Ton's the space 'twixt Saturday and Monday,
And riding in a one-horse chair o" Sunday !
Tis drinking tea, on summer afternoons,
At Bagnigge Wells, with china and gilt spoons !
COLMAN, Prologue to BonTon, 1775.
So Cits to Bagnigge Wells repair,
To swallow dust and call it air.
In 1808 it is described as having " something romantic and pleasant in
the situation. But it is liable to inundations from the river of Fleet,
on which it is situated. Here is a commodious room, which contains
a good organ for the amusement of the company, usually played on
during the summer season by a respectable performer." l When Lysons
wrote, about 1810, it was "a noted place of entertainment, much re-
sorted to by the lower sort of tradesmen." Somewhat later the favourite
resort appears to have been the gardens, which were laid in irregular
walks, and " decorated with leaden statues, alcoves, and fountains," and
had as their chief ornaments a " circular Corinthian Temple," in the
centre of which was a double pump, one piston supplying the cathartic
water, the other the chalybeate; and a hexagonal castellated grotto
covered with shells, whilst along the back ran the Fleet river. 2
We remember the Wells nearly sixty years since, with its gardens and round fish
ponds, with a fountain of Cupid bestriding a swan spouting water, a rustic cottage,
and a grotto to contain twenty persons, and elder bushes, willows, huge docks, and
other river -side greenery, with bowers or boxes for tea-drinkers, and two large
pastoral figures a man with a scythe and a woman with a hay-rake and bird's nest. 3
In its last years the company declined below even "the lower sort
of tradesmen." Thus in a popular London street ballad of some fifty
years back we read of the costermonger hero and his doxy that
1 Hughson's London, vol. vi. p. 364. 2 Cromwell, History of Clerkemvell, 1828.
3 John Timbs, in Leisure Hour.
THE DUKE'S BAGNIO 89
Every evening he was seen
In a jacket and shorts of velveteen ;
And to Bagnigge Wells then in a bran
New gown she went with the dogs'-meat man.
She had biscuits and ale with the dogs'-meat man ;
She walked up and down with the dogs'-meat man ;
And the people all said that around did stan',
He was quite a dandy dogs'-meat man.
By 1842 the Wells was "almost a ruin," 1 and shortly after the
place was closed, and house and gardens dismantled. The "pastoral
figures" were a few years back in the possession of Dr. Lonsdale of
Carlisle. The long room was converted into a brewer's store-room ;
and for many years a signboard over the tap gave notice that " Here
was the famous Bagnigge Wells." But these vestiges have disappeared.
The brewhouse was transformed into an engineer's workshop, but that
disappeared, and the wells themselves are filled up and lost The very
name of the road has, by a foolish freak of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, been changed from Bagnigge Wells Road to King's Cross Road,
thus destroying, with all that was distinctive in the name, the last
local memorial of the Old Wells.
Bagnio (The Duke's) LONG ACRE, later known as THE QuEEN's, 2
stood on the south side of Long Acre, between Conduit Court and
Leg Alley. It was built in 1682, and rebuilt and enlarged in i694. 3
Lord Mohun left this Bagnio in a hackney coach to fight his famous
duel in Hyde Park with the Duke of Hamilton. It afterwards became
a house of ill-fame, and gave its name as a generic to similar places.
This Bagnio is erected near the west end of Long Acre, in that spot of ground which
hath been called by the name of Salisbury Stables. At the front of it, next the street,
is a large commodious house, wherein dwells that honourable person, Sir William
Jennings . . . who, having obtained His Majesty's Patent for the making of all public
Bagnios and Baths, either for sweating, bathing, washing, etc., is the only under-
taker of this new building. In this house there are several rooms set apart for the
accommodation of such as shall come to the Bagnio ; and to the further side of it
the structure of the Bagnio is adjoined, so that the first room we enter to go into the
Bagnio is a large hall where the porter stands to receive the money. Hence we pass
through an entry into another room, where hangs a pair of scales to weigh such as,
out of curiosity, would know how much they lose in weight while they are in the
Bagnio. . . . The Bagnio itself is a stately edifice, of an oval figure, in length 45
feet, and in breadth 35. 'Tis covered at the top with a high and large cupola, in
which there are several round glasses fixt to let in light, which are much larger and
no fewer in number than those at the Royal Bagnio [in Bath Street]. . . . On
the east side of the Bagnio there 'is a coffee-house fronting the street, with this
inscription on the sign, "The Duke's Bagnio Coffee House." . . . The same re-
ception and entertainment do also women find, only with this difference, viz., on
Women's Days there are all imaginable conveniences of privacy, and not a man to be
seen, but all the servants are of the female sex. A Description of the Duke's Bagnio,
by Sam. Haworth, M.D., I2mo, 1683.
1 Lewis, History of Islington, p. 36.
2 Hatton, p. 797. 5953, pt. i. p. 115. Of the Bagnio, with its cupola-
3 Strype, B. vi. p. 74 ; London Gazette, No. roof, there is a view on the metal tickets of ad-
3019. There is a view of it, done in 1694, among mission for women, well known to the curious in
Bagford's Prints in the Museum. Hurl. MS., such matters.
90 THE ROYAL BAGNIO
The charges in 1708 were, " 55. some, and 2s. 6d. other rooms." l The floor of
the bath still remains, but boarded over, at No. 3 Endell Street.
Bagnio (The Royal), BATH STREET, NEWGATE STREET.
Was built and first opened in December 1679 ; built by Turkish Merchants.
Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 244.
A neat contrived building after the Turkish mode, seated in a large handsome
yard, and at the upper end of Pincock Lane, which is indifferent well built and
inhabited. This Bagnio is much resorted unto for sweating, being found very good
for aches, etc., and approved of by our physicians. Strype, B. iii. p. 195.
Royal Bagnio, situate on the north side of Newgate Street, is a very spacious
and commodious place for sweating, hot-bathing, and cupping ; they tell me it is the
only true Bagnio after the Turkish model, and hath 1 8 degrees of heat. It was first
opened Anno 1679. . . . Here is one very spacious room with a cupola roof, besides
others lesser ; the walls are neatly set with Dutch tile. The charge of the house for
sweating, rubbing, shaving, cupping, and bathing, is 4 shillings each person. There
are nine servants who attend. The days for ladies are Wednesdays and Saturdays,
and for gentlemen Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays ; and to show the
healthfulness of sweating thus, here is one servant who has been near 28 years,
and another 16, though 4 days a- week constantly attending in the heat. Hatton's
New View of London, 8vo, 1708, p. 797.
The Bath, with its cupola roof, its marble steps, and Dutch tiled walls,
was used as a Cold Bath, and called the OLD ROYAL BATHS, until
1876, when it was pulled down to make way for a lofty range of offices.
Bagnio Court, NEWGATE STREET, was so called from the Bagnio
described in the preceding article. In 1843 the name was changed
to Bath Street; and in 1869 all the houses on the east side of the
street were swept away to make room for the new Post Office.
Bail (Le). {See Old Bailey.]
Bainbridge Street, NEW OXFORD STREET, once notorious in the
annals of crime, was built prior to 1672, and derives its name from
an eminent inhabitant of St. Giles's in the reign of Charles II.
It leads from Dyott Street westward into New Oxford Street, and is
chiefly occupied by the buildings of Meux's brewery. Before the
brewery was built the street led into Tottenham Court Road.
Baker Street, PORTMAN SQUARE to YORK PLACE, MARYLEBONE
ROAD, named after Sir Edward Baker of Ramston, a friend of Mr.
Portman. Eminent Inhabitants. Lord Camelford (who fell in the
duel with Best), at No. 64, in the year 1800.
May 22, 1799. Called on Mr. Pitt, who was gone out. Went to Monsieur.
Visit to Monsieur, Baker Street, No. I. Windham, Diary, p. 409.
The Right Hon. Henry Grattan, the distinguished orator, died May
14, 1820, in No. 27 Upper Baker Street. Mrs. Siddons, on the east
side, at the top of Upper Baker Street, looking into the Regent's Park ;
here she died June 8, 1831.
In 1817 Mrs. Siddons took the lease of a house pleasantly situated, with an
adjoining garden and small green, at the top of Upper Baker Street, on the right
side towards the Regent's Park. Here she built an additional room for her
modelling. Campbell's Life of Mrs. Siddons, p. 360.
August 29, 1817. But, adieu ! I must dress to dine what I call out of town
the top house in Baker Street. H. L. Piozzi, Letter to Sir James Fellowes.
1 Hatton, p. 797.
BAKERS' HALL 91
Pitt lived at the north end of Baker Street, No. 14 York Place.
Ladies, are you aware that the Great Pitt lived in Baker Street ? What would
not your grandmothers have given to be asked to Lady Hester's parties in that now
decayed mansion? Thackeray's Vanity Fair, p. 421.
Sir Alexander Boswell, the poet, and eldest son of Johnson's
biographer, lodged for some time at No. 65. No. 69 was the residence
of John Braham the great tenor. Here, at the "Bazaar in Baker
Street" (No. 58), was the Wax Work Exhibition and Chamber of
Horrors, well and widely known as Madame Tussaud's. Madame
Tussaud died in this house, April, 15, 1850, aged ninety. The ex-
hibition has been removed to a new building in Marylebone Road. The
Smithfield Club held their Annual Cattle Show at the back of the Bazaar
from 1839 to 1861, when they removed to the Agricultural Hall, Isling-
ton. By Adam Street is Portman Chapel, erected about 1779-1782.
Edward Bulwer (afterwards Lord Lytton) was born at No. 31 in 1803,
on the east side.
Bakers' Hall, No. 16 HARP LANE, GREAT TOWER STREET, a
neat plain building erected on the site of one destroyed by fire in,
January 1715; the last words spoken by Robert Nelson, the author of
Fasts and Festivals, were an allusion to the flames which were visible
from his dying bed at Kensington. The hall was repaired and the
interior restored about 1825, under the superintendence of James Elmes,
architect, author of the Life of Sir Christopher Wren. The Banqueting
Hall is large, has a good oak screen, with Corinthian columns, pilas-
ters, and entablature, and contains several portraits of benefactors and
eminent members of the Company.
In this Hart Lane is the Bakers' Hall, sometime the dwelling-house of John
Chichley, Chamberlain of London, who was son to William Chichley, Alderman of
London ; brother to William Chichley, Archdeacon of Canterbury ; nephew to Robert
Chichley, Mayor of London ; and to Henry Chichley, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Stow, p. 51.
The bakers of London were of old divided into " White Bakers " and
" Brown (or tourte) Bakers," x no maker of white bread being allowed
to make tourte, and by the regulations of the City the loaves brought
into the city by the bakers of Stratford-le-Bow were required to be
heavier in weight than the loaves of the same price supplied by the
London bakers. Every baker was to "have his own seal, as well for
brown bread as for white bread," wherewith to stamp his loaves, and
each alderman was required to "view the seals of the bakers in his
ward." The penalties for " default," either in quality or weight, " in the
bread of a baker of the City" were very severe." 2 The City bakers were
to hold four principal "hallmotes" in the year, on days fixed, to regulate
the assay of bread and for other trade matters, when all who did not
attend, or " reasonably excuse or essoin themselves," were to be amerced
in a penalty of 2 1 pence. 3 The bakers remained a guild by prescription
till 1486, when Henry VII. gave them a Charter of Incorporation.
1 Strype, B. v. p. 338. 2 Liber Attus, p. 231. 3 Hid,, p. 311.
92 BAKE WELL HALL
Bakewell Hall, BLAKEWELL, or BLACKWELL HALL, a "spacious
building on the east side of Guildhall, or on the west side of Basmg-
hall Street." 1 Here was held a weekly market for woollen cloths,
established by the Mayor and Corporation (2oth of Rich. II.) in a
house belonging, in 1293, to John de Banquelle, Alderman of Dowgate
ward. The building originally belonged to the Cliffords and the Basings,
but subsequently to Thomas Bakewell, who was living in it in the 36th
of Edw. III., and from whom Stow makes the Hall or Market derive
its name. Bakewell Hall was rebuilt in the year 1588, destroyed in the
Great Fire of 1666, re-erected in 1672, and ultimately taken down to
make way for the present Bankruptcy Court in 1820. The profits
or fees paid on pitchings were given by the City to Christ's Hos-
pital, and in 1708 were reckoned at ^noo. 2 Bacon speaks of "the
stand of cloth in Blackwell Hall" as "keeping up the State." 3
Bakewell Hall was by the Corporation converted to a warehouse or market-place
for all sorts of woollen cloth, and other woollen manufactures brought from all parts
of the kingdom, and by an Act of Common Council, held August 8, 1516, this was
to be the only market for such woollen manufactures, and none to be sold in London
but at this place. . . . Cloths pay one penny each pitching, and a halfpenny per
week resting ; and to avoid trouble every factor has a rest, or one certain number
for which he pays. Hatton, p. 599.
William Tooke of Purley (b. 1719, d. 1802); Horne Tooke's friend,
made his fortune as a "Blackwell Hall factor."
Baldwin's Gardens, on the east side of GRAY'S INN LANE (now
Gray's Inn Road), is said to have derived its name from Richard
Baldwin, one of the royal gardeners, who built some houses here in
1589. It became a place of sanctuary, abolished by Act of Parliament
in 1697. It was used as a refuge by Henry Purcell, the musician
(d. 1695); Tom Brown (d. 1704) dated some verses "from Mrs.
Stewart's, at the Hole in the Wall in Baldwin's Gardens." In the
Guildhall Collection of Tradesmen's Tokens is one of Nicholas Smith,
"the Wheatsheaf in Baldwyn's Gardens, 1666." There is still a Hole
in the Wall in Baldwin's Gardens, but no Wheatsheaf.
But I suppose you spoke figuratively, and by robbing of orchards you understood
Baldwin's Garden, and by lampooning the Court you meant Three Crane Court ;
and you might have enlarged with Bond's Stables and the Pall Mall. Andrew
Marvell, The Rehearsal Transprosed, pt. 2, 1674.
A single sheet, entitled "The English and French Prophets mad,
or bewitcht at their Assemblies in Baldwin's Gardens," was published
by J. Applebee, 1707. Dr. Rimbault describes a letter of Anthony
Wood's, addressed " For John Aubrey, Esq., to be left at Mr. Caley's
house in Baldwin's Gardens, near Gray's Inn Lane, London." Notes
and Queries, ist S., vol. i. p. 410.
Baldwin's Gardens acquired an evil reputation, but its character has
greatly improved of late years. Here was the notorious "Thieves Kit-
chen," pulled down to make way for St. Alban's Church. [See that
heading.]
1 Hatton's New View of London, 1708, p. 599.
2 Of the last hall there are views in Price's Guildhall, 1886. 3 Letters, 410, p. 183.
BANCROFT'S ALMSHOUSES 93
Ball's Pond, ISLINGTON, so called from the Ducking Pond of a
person of the name of Ball, who kept a tavern here in the reign of
Charles II. This man issued a token with this inscription, "John
Ball, at the Boarded House, neare Newington Green, his penny."
Islington ponds were, in the iyth century, a noted resort for citizens
intent on their favourite sport of duck hunting.
What . . . because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but
the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington Ponds !
A fine jest i' faith ! Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, Act i. sc. I.
But Husband gray now comes to stall,
For Prentice notch'd he strait does call :
Where's Dame, quoth he, quoth son of shop,
She's gone her cake in milk to sop :
Ho, ho ! to Islington ; enough !
Fetch Job my son and our dog Ruffe !
For there in Pond, through mire and muck,
We'll cry hay Duck, there Ruffe, hay Duck.
DAVENANT, The Long Vacation in London,
(Works, 1673, p. 289).
The church of St. Paul was erected from the designs of Sir Charles
Barry, R.A., 1826-1827, at a cost of ^10,947: one of his earliest
Gothic works. On the north side of the Ball's Pond Road, and occupy-
ing contiguous sites, are the Cutlers' Almshouses; the Metropolitan
Benefit Society's Asylum ; and the Bookbinders' Provident Institution.
Balmes House, HOXTON, an old moated house built originally in
1540, but rebuilt in the next century by Sir George Whitmore, Lord
Mayor of London, 1631. "Here on November 25, 1641, Sir William
Acton, Lord Mayor, with the Aldermen, Recorder, etc., awaited the
arrival of Charles I. on his return from Scotland, when he was received
right royally, a roadway being cut through Sir George's estate to
Moorgate." 1 Sir George Whitmore died at this house, which, some
years afterwards, was purchased by Richard de Beauvoir (whose name
survives in De Beauvoir Town). Balmes was at one time esteemed a
mansion of note, but it was subsequently occupied as a lunatic asylum,
and was pulled down a few years ago.
Baltic Coffee House, THREADNEEDLE STREET, the rendezvous of
merchants and brokers connected with the Russian trade. In the
upper part of the Baltic is the auction sale-room for tallow, oils, etc.
Baltimore House. [See Russell Square.]
Banbury Court, on the south side of LONG ACRE, leading to
Hart Street, Covent Garden. " At the corner house of Banbury Court
in Long Acre," lived Simon Gribelin the engraver. 2
Bancroft's Almshouses, MILE END ROAD (for 24 poor old men
of the Drapers' Company, afterwards increased to 28), and SCHOOL
(for 100 boys), erected 1729-1735, pursuant to the will of Francis
1 Analytical Index to the Remetnbrancia, 1878, p. 296 (note).
2 Advertisement in London Gazette of May 27-29, 1712.
94 BANCROFT'S ALMSHOUSES
Bancroft (grandson of Archbishop Bancroft), who, March 18, 1727,
left freehold estates of the value of ,28,000 and upwards to the Com-
pany of Drapers, for their erection and endowment. Each pensioner
had lodging, coals, and ^20 per annum. The buildings in the Mile
End Road have been pulled down, and the charity is now applied
entirely for educational purposes. A school for 100 boarders and
200 or more day scholars is being built at Woodford, Essex (1888).
Bancroft was an officer of the Lord Mayor's Court, and is said to
have acquired his fortune by harsh acts of justice in his capacity
as a City officer by unnecessary informations and arbitrary sum-
monses. So unpopular was he that the mob hustled the bearers
of his coffin, and the church bells rang out a merry peal at his
funeral. His tomb, erected and endowed in his lifetime, is in the
church of St. Helen, Bishopsgate. On certain occasions the Wardens,
Court of Assistants, and other Members of the Drapers' Company, pay
an official visit to the vault and raise the lid of the coffin which, by
Bancroft's directions, is fitted with hinges so as to open like a trunk
in order to view the corpse, which was embalmed shortly after death,
but is in a hideous stage of decay. 1 There is an engraving of the tomb
by J. T. Smith.
Bangor House, SHOE LANE, was situated in Bangor Court (now
swept away) on the west side of Shoe Lane, at the back of St. Andrew's
Church.
In this Shoe Lane was a messuage called Bangor House, belonging formerly, as it
seems, to the Bishops of that See ; which messuage, with the waste ground about it,
Sir John Barksted, Knight, did, in the year 1647, purchase of the trustees for the
sale of Bishops' lands, for the purpose of erecting messuages and tenements there-
upon. Strype, B. iii. p. 247.
June 20, 1657. A proviso for Sir John Barkstead . . . who did in the year of
our Lord God, 1647, purchase from the trustees for sale of Bishops' lands the
reversion of one messuage, with the appurtenances, situate in Shoe Lane, called Bangor
House, to enable him on paying "one year's value, at an improved value and full
rent, to the Lord Protector, to erect and new build such messuages, tenements, and
houses thereupon as he may think fit ; the said place being at present both dangerous
and noisome to the passengers and inhabitants near adjoining." 2 In 4 William and
Mary (1692) was passed "An Act to enable Humphry, Lord Bishop of Bangor, to
make a lease of Bangor House, with the appurtenances in the parish of St. Andrew,
Holborn, for a competent term of years, in order to the new building, and improving
the rent thereof, for the benefit of his successors. "
In 1826 an Act was passed enabling the Bishop of Bangor to sell
the house, etc., to the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, the proceeds to
accumulate for the purchase of a London house for the See. The last
Bishop of Bangor who resided in Bangor House was Bishop Dolben
(d. 1633). Bentley's well-known printing offices occupied the site for
many years ; and were succeeded by a gloomy-looking house which
stood at the corner of St. Andrew Street, a short new street from
Holborn Circus.
1 Inspection of April 27, 1881. a Commons Journals, Burton, vol. ii. p. 295.
BANK OF ENGLAND 95
Bank of England "The principal Bank of Deposit and Circulation,
not in this country only, but in Europe," is an isolated building bounded
by Threadneedle Street on the south, Lothbury on the north, Princes
Street on the west, and Bartholomew Lane on the east, and covers an area
of nearly four acres. The public entrances are in Threadneedle Street,
Lothbury, Bartholomew Lane, and Princes Street. The Bank was founded
in 1694, its principal projector being Mr. William Paterson, an enterpris-
ing Scotch gentleman, who submitted his scheme for a National Bank
to the Government in 1691. Nothing was done in the matter for nearly
three years, when funds being necessary to carry on the war in which the
country was then engaged, Charles Montague, then one of the Lords
of the Treasury, and the leading financial authority in the Ministry,
took up Paterson's scheme, and with the assistance of Michael Godfrey,
one of the wealthiest and most influential merchants in the City, soon
brought it into a practical shape. A Bill was brought by Montague
before the House of Commons, by which subscribers to a loan of
;i, 200,000 to the Government were to be paid interest at the rate of
eight per cent, and to be incorporated by the denomination of the
Governor and Company of the Bank of England the name it is still
known by. The project was received with avidity in the City. The
entire amount required was subscribed within ten days ; the Bill passed
quickly through both Houses of Parliament and received the royal assent,
and on July 27, 1694, the Great Seal was affixed to the Charter of Incor
poration. The entire sum which the Company was to lend to the Govern-
ment was paid into the Exchequer before the first instalment was due.
The Bank commenced business in Grocers' Hall, which it rented
for the purpose [See Grocers' Hall], and there it continued till June 5,
1734, when it removed into premises of its own, part of the present
edifice. The first Governor was Sir John Houblon, whose house and
garden occupied the site of the present Bank, and the first Deputy-
Governor was Michael Godfrey, author of " A short Account of the
intended Bank of England. The number of persons employed was
at first only fifty-four ; there are now above nine hundred. During the
great recoinage in 1696 a crisis occurred, and the Directors were
compelled to suspend the payment of their notes. This, however, they
got over, and, in order to prevent the like occurrence, the capital was
increased from ^1,200,000 to ^2,201,171. Further increase of
capital was made from time to time, the last being in 1816, when the
total was raised to ^14,553,000, at which it now stands. The Charter
was renewed in 1695 until 1711 ; and subsequently at intervals, usually
from 20 to 30 years apart. The great events in the history of the
Bank were the run on the "Black Friday" of 1746, when so great
was the pressure for cash payments for the notes that the Directors are
said to have averted suspension by the device of gaining time by paying
each note separately in shillings and sixpences; and one still more
serious which occurred in 1797, when cash payments were suspended.
On Saturday, February 26, 1797, a Gazette Extraordinary was published,
96 BANK OF ENGLAND
announcing the landing of some troops in Wales from a French frigate.
The alarm on the subject of invasion was deep and universal, and the
Bank, though possessing property, after all claims upon her had been
deducted, to the amount of ^15,513,690, had only ^1,27 2,000 of
cash and bullion in her coffers. There was every prospect of a violent
run, and on the next day (Sunday) an Order of Council was issued,
prohibiting the Directors from paying notes in cash until the sense of
Parliament had been taken on the subject. The Parliament concurred
with the Privy Council, and the Restriction Act, prohibiting the Bank
from paying cash except for sums under twenty shillings, was passed at
this time. Payments in specie were not fully resumed till 1821. Bank
of England notes are now a legal tender in England, except at the Bank
and its branches. The tendency of all recent legislation, in connection
particularly with the renewals of the Bank Charter, has been to place the
convertibility of the Bank of England note into gold on a perfectly
secure basis ; and this as regards all but those extraordinary circum-
stances against which provision can hardly be made, has probably been
accomplished. In the panics of 1 847 and 1 85 7 it was deemed necessary
by the Government to authorise the Directors to issue notes in excess
of their Parliamentary powers, but this was mainly with a view to the
restoration of credit and confidence in a great monetary crisis ; the
stability of the Bank was in neither instance in peril.
The Bank building on the present site was designed by Mr. George
Sampson, architect, and opened in June 1734. On January i,
1735, the statue of William III. was set up. East and west wings,
including the Bank parlour, a room 60 feet 6 inches x 30 feet x 22
feet high, were added by Sir Robert Taylor between the years 1766
and 1786. Sir John Soane, R.A., subsequently receiving the appoint-
ment of architect to the Bank, and the business of the Governor and
Company increasing, much of Sampson's first building, and of the
wings erected by Sir R. Taylor, were either altered or taken down, and
the (one-storied) Bank as we now see it completed in 1827 by the
same architect, who designed in 1795 the Rotunda, 57 feet diameter.
The breastwork behind the balustrade was added in 1848 by Mr.
C. R. Cockerell, R.A., who also effected many alterations and improve-
ments in the interior, as the New Dividend Warrant Office, 1835,
pulled down for the large Drawing Office, 1849, being 138 feet 6
inches x 42 feet 7 inches x 35 feet 6 inches, and 44 feet to the lantern.
The plan has the merit of being well adapted for the purposes and
business of the Bank. The corner towards Lothbury, a free adaptation
of the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, is much admired, especially by
architects ; as is also the Lothbury Court. The arch leading into the
Bullion Yard is, as Mr. Fergusson points out, imitated from that of
Constantine at Rome. The area, planted with trees and shrubs, and
ornamented with a fountain, was formerly the churchyard of St. Chris-
topher-le-Stocks.
The government of the Bank is vested in a Governor, Deputy-
BANK OF ENGLAND 97
Governor, and twenty-four Directors, four of whom go out every year.
The qualification for Governor is ^4000 stock, Deputy-Governor
^3000, and Director ^2000. The Court-room, in which the Directors
meet every Thursday at half-past eleven, is called the Sank Parlour.
In the lobby of the parlour is a portrait of Abraham Newland, who
rose from a baker's counter to be chief clerk of the Bank of England,
and to die enormously rich. The number of clerks employed is over
900, and the salaries range from ^50 to ^1500 a year. An excellent
library is provided for their use, and a medical officer looks after their
health.
The ^Bullion Office is situated on the east side of the Bank, along
Bartholomew Lane, in the basement story, and formed part of the
original structure. It was afterwards enlarged by Sir Robert Taylor,
and eventually altered to its present form by Sir John Soane. The
office consists of a public chamber for the transaction of business, a
vault for public deposits, and a vault for the private stock of the Bank.
The duties are discharged by a principal, a deputy-principal, clerk,
assistant clerk, and porters. The public are admitted to a counter,
separated from the rest of the apartments, but are not allowed to enter
the bullion vaults except in company of a Director. The amount of
bullion in the possession of the Bank of England constitutes, along
with their securities, the assets which they place against their liabili-
ties, on account of circulation and deposits ; and the difference (which
is never allowed to fall below ,3, 000,000) between the several
amounts is called the " Rest," or guarantee fund, to provide for the
contingency of possible losses. Gold is almost exclusively obtained by
the Bank in the " bar " form ; although no form of the deposit would
be refused. A bar of gold is a small brick, weighing 1 6 Ibs. ; and
worth about ^800.
In the Bullion Office there is a remarkable piece of mechanism for
checking the weights of bars as received from the Mint and other quar-
ters. It was invented in 1877 by Mr. James Murdoch Napier, of Glas-
gow, and is the only one of the kind ever made. Though presenting
the appearance of a somewhat ponderous pair of scales, its construction
is so delicate that when loaded with a weight of 14 Ibs. it nevertheless
indicates the weight of a postage stamp.
By the Bank Act of 1 844 all persons are entitled to demand from
the Bank notes in exchange for gold bullion of standard fineness at the
rate of ^3 : 17 : 9 per ounce, the gold to be melted and assayed, it
necessary, at the expense of the party tendering it.
The automatic balance invented by Mr. Cotton, a former Governor
of the Bank, with glass weights, weighs at the rate of thirty -three
sovereigns a minute. The machine presents the appearance of a square
brass box, inside which, secure from currents of air, is the strikingly
ingenious machinery which, on receiving the sovereigns, separates
those which are of full weight from those which are light, and
pushes them into their respective heavy and light receptacles. On
VOL. i H
98 BANK OF ENGLAND
the top of the box is a small cylindrical hopper, which will hold
about forty sovereigns, and from which the sovereigns pass one
by one on to an exquisitely poised scale- plate. Two bolts are
placed at right angles to each other, and on each side of the scale
there is a part cut away so as to admit of the bolts striking so far
into the area of the scale as to remove anything that would nearly
fill it. These bolts are made to strike at different elevations, the
lower striking a little before the upper one. If the sovereign be full
weight, the scale, which turns to the tenth of a grain, remains down, and
then the lower bolt, which strikes a little before the upper, knocks it
off into the full weight box. If the sovereign be light, it rises up,
and the first bolt strikes under it, and misses it, and the higher bolt
then strikes and knocks it off into the light box. Ten of these machines
are in operation, weighing and sorting between sixty and seventy
thousand pieces daily.
The value of bank-notes in circulation, December 29, 1887, was
; 2 4, 1 3 8, 1 60. All notes issued are cancelled when paid in, even if
returned to the Bank on the same day, or carried straight from the
issue counter to the receiver's desk. On an average above 30,000
notes are thus cancelled daily. The cancelled notes are, however,
preserved for a certain time, and a lady visitor is sometimes per-
mitted to hold in her hand a million of money. According to an
official memorandum :
The stock of paid notes for 5 years is about 68,000,000 in number, and they
fill 13,000 boxes, which, if placed side by side, would reach 2^ miles ; if the notes
were placed in a pile, they would reach to a height of 5 miles ; or, if joined end to
end, would form a ribbon 11,000 miles long : their superficial extent is rather less
than that of Hyde Park : their original value was over .2,200,000,000 ; and their
weight over 80 tons.
Previous to 1759 the Bank did not issue any notes for less than
20 ) 10 notes were then first issued. ^5 notes were first issued
in 1794, and i and 2 notes (since discontinued) in 1797. The
first forgery of a Bank-note occurred in 1758, when the person who
forged it was convicted and executed. The total loss to the Bank from
Fauntleroy's forgeries amounted to ^360,000.
The whole of the printing for the Bank is done within the walls of
the establishment, where also the postal orders and the notes for the
Indian Government banks are produced. Although the operation of
printing Bank of England notes is surrounded in the popular imagina-
tion with a certain amount of mystery, there is really very little to dis-
tinguish it from the ordinary well-known printing processes. Down to
the year 1855 or thereabouts the notes were printed from copper plates,
and a curious collection of old bank notes of various dates from 1699
downwards is exhibited in the printing department. Since the year
above named they have been printed from a raised surface like ordinary
type, the consecutive number being impressed whilst the note, or rather
pair of notes, for they are printed in twos, is passing through the
machine. The presses, which were designed by Mr. M'Pherson, one
BANK OF ENGLAND 99
of the officials of the Bank, are admirably adapted for their purpose,
and are characterised by great ingenuity. A counting apparatus is
attached to each machine, and as an additional precaution each pair
of notes as printed is delivered under the eye of an experienced officer,
whose duty it is to see that the machine is working properly.
By the Bank Act of 1844 the issue of notes on securities is not
permitted to exceed 14,000,000. The bullion in the Bank in the
ten years 1876-1887 ranged from ^17,883,000 in February 1882,
to ^32,190,000 in April 1879. The annual average in 1886 was
^"21,018,000.
The Bank acts as the agent of the Government in all the business
transactions connected with the National Debt, receives and registers
transfers of stock, and pays dividends quarterly on the several kinds of
stock. The stock or annuities upon which the public dividends are
payable amounts to about ,1 74,000,000 ; the yearly dividends payable
thereupon to about ,25,000,000; and the yearly payment to the
Governor and Company of the Bank for the charges of management,
to ; 1 3 6, ooo. The Bank is also the State Banker. The balances
of money belonging to the State are deposited in the Bank; the
receivers-general make their payments on account into the Bank,
and the Bank makes payments to the order of the Government in
the same way as a private banker for a customer. The Bank further
acts as agent to the Government in facilitating the supply of gold
and silver coins to the public, which it does chiefly through the
London and Provincial bankers.
The Bank of England also acts as an ordinary banking-house,
and carries on every class of banking business for private customers.
It receives deposits and pays cheques, receives, pays, and discounts
bills of exchange, takes charge of Exchequer bills, receives dividends
and the like. All the London bankers who are members of the
Clearing House have accounts at the Bank of England. [See Bankers'
Clearing House.]
To view the interior of the Bank, it is necessary to obtain a
special order from the Governor or Deputy-Governor; but strangers
may walk through the public rooms any week-day (except holi-
days), between the hours of 9 and 3. Enter by the vestibule,
Bartholomew Lane, go through the Rotunda, etc., and pass out
by the doorway opposite the portico of the Royal Exchange, notic-
ing as you cross the Paved Court, before leaving, the very pretty
Garden Court (on the right of the Private Drawing Office), already
mentioned as having been the old burial-ground of St. Christopher-le-
Stocks.
Bank of England, WESTERN BRANCH. This bank occupies the
building in Burlington Gardens known as UXBRIDGE HOUSE. On the
death of the Marquis of Anglesey in 1854 the Directors of the Bank
of England bought the house and opened here a western branch. A
loo BANKERS' CLEARING HOUSE
portico was added to the doorway, and some buildings erected at the
back, on the west side of Savile Row.
Bankers' Clearing House, POST OFFICE COURT, LOMBARD
STREET, an office founded for facilitating the daily settlement of
accounts between the several banking firms. The cheques, bills of
exchange, and drafts on other bankers, paid during the day into any
bank, being a member of the Clearing House, are sent from each
banking house to the Clearing House every afternoon. These are
there distributed to the accounts of the several bankers, to whom
they are endorsed, balances are struck, the claims are set off or
transferred from one account to another, the differences or balance
of the several banks as between each other are ascertained, and paid
by transfer-tickets, that is, by cheques on the Bank of England, where
every banker who is a member of the Clearing House has an account.
Transactions to the amount of millions daily are thus adjusted and
settled by the simple transfer of the respective balances to the Bank
of England, without the employment of either coin, notes, or bills.
The magnitude of the dealings and the working of the Clearing House
will be seen from the following brief statistics, compiled by the Hon.
Secretary, Sir John Lubbock :
The total amount of bills, cheques, etc. paid at the Clearing House during the
year ended December 31, 1886, was 5,901, 925,000. The payment on Stock
Exchange account days form a sum of 1,198,557,000. The payments on
Consols account days, for the same period, have amounted to 263,473,000.
The amounts passing through on the 4ths of the month for 1886 have
amounted to 215,519,000. The total amount of bills, cheques, etc. paid in 1867-
1868, the first year in which statistics were collected, was .3,257,411,000. The
largest amount paid in any year was 6,357,059,000, in 1881.
Bankruptcy (Court of), LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. The business
of the court is managed by a chief judge, a senior and three junior
registrars. By the Bankruptcy Act 1883, Section 93, the London
Bankruptcy Court was united and consolidated with and made to
form part of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and the jurisdiction
of the London Bankruptcy Court was transferred to the High Court
of Justice, and by virtue of an order (dated January i, 1884) made under
Section 94 of the said Act, was assigned to the Queen's Bench division
of the said court. The administrative functions are performed by the
Board of Trade.
Bankside (The), SOUTHWARK, comprehends that portion of ground
on the river-bank between " Bank-end " by Barclay's brewery, and
" Bank-end " by the Castle or Falcon, near Blackfriars Bridge. These
appear in the Token-books of about 1600 respectively as the "hether
end of the Bank " east and " Bancke-ende " west. Bankside was of
old the chief seat of vice and dissipation in London, and contained the
Stews, Bear Gardens, and Playhouses. [See Bear Garden, Globe,
Hope, Rose, Stews, Swan.]
THE BANKSIDE
In the caustic poem called Cocke Lorelles Bate, printed by Wynkyn
de Worde about 1506, this part of Southwark is distinguished as Stews
Bank, but as early as 1363 the Stewes-banke here opposite the
mansion of John de Mowbray was presented as a defective embank-
ment. Even to our own time a lane exactly opposite, leading to the
Thames, was known as Stews Lane. Near at hand was a plot of
ground called the single-woman's churchyard, unconsecrated, for the
burial of the inhabitants of these Stews; this plot was known until
very lately as the Cross Bones. From the Clink prison and liberty
which adjoined the Bishop of Winchester's house, extending westward,
was a series of places of entertainment, dissipation, and profligacy. 1
Bear gardens and bull-baiting grounds and houses were first used
occasionally, and afterwards wholly as theatres. Bears were baited
here from a very early period, and fencing matches and the like were
of not uncommon occurrence.
February 8, 1603. Turner and Dun, two famous fencers, played their prizes
this day at the Bankside, but Turner at last run Dun soe in the brayne at the eye,
that he fell down presently stone dead : a goodly sport in a Christian state to see
one man kill another. 2
Kemp the actor, who lived on the Bankside, complained bitterly
of the ballads made against him, and once he thought he had found
the ballad-maker :
I found him about the Bankside sitting at a play. I desired to speak with him,
had him to a Taverne, charg'd a pipe with tobacco, and there laid this terrible
accusation to his charge. He swels presently like one of the foure windes, the
violence of his breath blew the tobacco out of the pipe, and the heate of his wrath
drunk dry two bowlefuls of Rhenish wine. At length, having power to speake
"Name my accuser," saith he, "or I defye thee, Kemp, at the quart staffe." 3
The playhouses and bear gardens were nearly all put down in the
time of the Commonwealth, one or two surviving to the time of
Charles II. or a little later, until the sports were removed to Hockley
in the Hole (which see).
Afterwards the Bankside was chiefly occupied by gardens, river-
side public -houses, and breweries, by founders, glassmakers, and
largely by dyers. Henslowe, owner of the Rose, and interested in
nearly all the other houses south of the river except the Globe, was
a dyer, money-lender, and owner of houses. He lived as did many
of the writers and actors of the time on the Bankside, most of
them on the part known as the Stewes Bank, which, notwithstanding
the name, was inhabited by many of the most respectable sort. Mr.
Halliwell Phillipps believes that Shakespeare himself lived near the
Bear Garden in 1596.*
Beaumont and Fletcher both resided close to the Globe.
1 See Ben Jonson's Execration of Vulcan and Daunce jrom London and Norwich, London,
Masque of Augurs, and Shirley's Prologue to the 1600.
Doubtful Heir.
2 Manningham's Diary, p. 130. 4 Outlines of the Life oj Shakespeare, yth ed.,
* Kemp's Nine Dates Wonder, performed in a 1887, vol. i. p. 130.
102 THE BANKS1DE
There was a wonderful consimility of pliansy between him [Beaumont] and Mr.
Jo Fletcher. They lived together on the Bankside not far from the playhouse, both
batchelors together . . . they wore the same cloathes and cloke etc. between them. 1
In St. Saviour's Token books, quoted by Mr. Rendle, Fletcher is set
down as living in Addison's Rents, near the Bear Garden.
Lawrence Fletcher the player, Edmund Shakespeare, William's
younger brother, and Edward Alleyn, Henslowe's partner and successor,
and the founder of Dulwich College, all lived at Bankside. Philip
Massinger was also an inhabitant, and, dying at his house in Bank-
side, was buried at St. Mary Overy. In 1757, when Goldsmith "rose
from the apothecary's drudge to be a physician in a humble way," he
practised in Bankside.
Banqueting House. [See Whitehall.]
Banqueting House (Lord Mayor's). [See Stratford Place.]
Barber-Surgeons' Hall, MONKWELL STREET, CITY. The semi-
circular termination rests on the basement of a tower of old London
Wall. Of the old hall, rebuilt 1678, only the carved doorway and
court-room remain (the latter was rebuilt, 1752, under the superin-
tendence of the Earl of Burlington), the rest having been taken down,
and the court-room restored and redecorated in 1863-1864, under the
direction of Mr. C. J. Shoppee, architect. The old dining-hall was
partly incorporated in the pile of warehouses built 1864, on the site.
The entrance is by a rich and projecting shell canopy, characteristic of
the age of Charles II. The Theatre, 1636-1637, called by Walpole,
"one of the best of Inigo's works," was pulled down in 1783.
The Theatre is commodiously fitted with four degrees of cedar seats, one above
another, in elliptical form, adorned with the figures of the seven Liberal Sciences,
the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and a bust of King Charles I. The roof is an ellip-
tical cupola. Hatton, p. 597.
Letters do you term them ? They may be Letters Patent well enough for their
tediousness ; for no Lecture at Surgeons' Hall upon an Anatomic may compare with
them in longitude. Nash's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, 4to.
In the court-room is one of the most remarkable of Holbein's
works in this country Henry VIII. giving the Charter to the
Company, 1541. It is painted on vertical oak panels; is about 6
feet by 10 feet 3 inches, and contains nineteen figures the size of life,
the King, however, being much above the rest in stature. Respecting
the merits of the picture and Holbein's share in its production there
has been much difference of opinion. The notion that it was entirely
from the pencil of Holbein is now generally given up. Van Mander,
the earliest writer on Holbein, in a passage quoted by Woltmann, 2 says
that some even then asserted that Holbein did not finish the picture,
but that it was completed by another painter ; and with this Woltmann
entirely agrees. He holds that Holbein did little more than paint in
1 Aubrey's Letters, and see the extract from 2 Holbein und seine Zeit, and Fortnightly
Shadwell's Bury Fair, in Dyce's Beaumont and Review, September 1866.
Fletcher, vol. i. p. xxvi.
BARBER-SURGEONS' HALL 103
the outline and the heads from the life of some members of the Com-
pany, and this, as he acutely points out, agrees with historical data.
The Act of Parliament which conferred corporate rights on the Com-
pany was not passed till the 32d year of Henry VIII. (1541);
the picture which represents the gift of the Charter was not likely to
be ordered till some time after, and Holbein, as painter to the King,
a man overwhelmed with work, died in 1543, and the progress of so
large a picture, containing so many portraits, it may be assumed, could
only be slow. Mr. Wornum thinks that " there can be no question of
the genuineness of the picture in its foundations," but he is " disposed
to believe that Holbein never did finish it;" whilst from the great
inferiority of the second series of heads on the left of the King, in
which there is no trace of Holbein's hand, he considers that "these
must have been added later."
It is not to be supposed that the King sat to Holbein for this portrait ; it is the
stock portrait of trie time j the King is not looking at the master, Vycary, to whom
he is handing the Charter, but straight before him. The composition is a mere
portrait piece, got up for the sake of the portraits. . . . The principle of the com-
position is somewhat Egyptian, for the King is made about twice the size of the other
figures, though they are in front of him. Wornum, Life and Works of Hans Hol-
bein, p. 349. Of Holbein's public works in England I find an account of only four.
The first is that capital picture in Barber-Surgeons' Hall of Henry VIII. giving
the Charter to the Company of Surgeons. The character of His Majesty's bluff
haughtiness is well represented, and all the heads are finely executed. The picture
itself has been retouched, but is well known by Baron's print. The physician in
the middle, on the King's left hand, is Dr. Butts, immortalised by Shakespeare.
Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting in England, vol. i. p. 136.
Walpole described the picture from Baron's print, in which the
figures are reversed. Dr. Butts is on the King's right hand in the
picture. The other two figures on the right of the King are his
physicians, Chambers and Alsop. Among the members of the Com-
pany represented are Sir John Ailiffe, E. Harman, J. Montfort, R.
Sympson, J. Pen, Alcoke, Fereis, Pamon, and Tylly. Pepys had some
thoughts of buying the picture :
August 29, 1668. Harris (the actor) and I to Chyrurgeons' Hall, where they
are building it new very fine ; and there to see their Theatre, which stood all the
Fire, and (which was our business) their great picture of Holbein's, thinking to have
bought it, by the help of Mr. Pierce (a surgeon), for a little money : I did think to
give 200 for it, it being said to be worth ^1000, but it is so spoiled that I have no
mind to it, and is not a pleasant, though a good picture. Pepys.
From his reference to the picture being "so spoiled he had no
mind to it," it appears probable that it had been damaged by removal
at the Great Fire, as he had seen it a few years earlier and made no
comment on its spoiled condition.
February 27, 1662-1663. To Chyrurgeons' Hall . . . where we had a fine
dinner and good learned company, many Doctors of Physique, and we used with
extraordinary great respect. Among other observables, we drunk the King's health
out of a gilt cup given by King Henry VIII. to this Company, with bells hanging at
it, which every man is to ring by shaking after he hath drunk up the whole cup.
There is also a very excellent piece of the King, done by Holbein, stands up in the Hall,
with the officers of the Company kneeling to him to receive their Charter. Pepys.
104 BARBER-SURGEONS' HALL
The barbers of London and the surgeons of London were formerly
distinct companies, and were first united when Holbein's picture was
painted, in the 32d of Henry VIII. This union of corporate
interests was dissolved in 1745, but barbers continued for many years
to let blood; though it would be difficult now, even in a remote
country town, to find the two misteries united in any other shape
than a barber's pole. Among the plate belonging to the Barber-
Surgeons, in addition to the cup mentioned by Pepys, is a silver-gilt
cup and cover "of ye value of ^150," presented to the Company in
1676 by Charles II., on the humble petition of John Knight, Esq.,
Serjeant-Chirurgeon, and James Pearse, Esq., Chirurgeon in ordinary
to His Majesty's household, and Master in 1676 to the Company
of Barber-Surgeons. The shape is curious. The trunk of the royal
oak forms the handle, and the body of the tree, from which hang gilt
acorns, the cup itself. The cover is the royal crown. The large
silver bowl on the sideboard was the gift of Queen Anne.
Barbican, that portion of the main line of street leading from
Smithfield to Finsbury Square, which lies between Aldersgate Street
and Red Cross Street and Golden Lane. The name was derived
from a watch-tower or barbican of the ancient City wall which stood
there, forming an outwork, such as may still be seen at York.
Barbican, a good broad street, well inhabited by tradesmen, especially salesmen,
for apparel both new and old ; and fronting Red Cross Street is the Watchhouse,
where formerly stood a watchtower, called burgh-kenning, i.e. Barbican. R. B. t in
Strype, B. iii. p. 93.
Here Dryden has laid the scene of his Mac Flecknoe :
A watch-tower once ; but now, so fate ordains,
Of all the pile an empty name remains ;
From its old ruins brothel-houses rise,
Scenes of lewd loves and of polluted joys.
The place is referred to by Massinger ( Works, vol. iv. p. 34) and
by Carew (Verses to A. T., see Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i.
p. 17). Nor is it overlooked by the Messrs. Smith, in their excellent
imitation of Sir Walter Scott :
And lo ! where Catherine Street extends,
A fiery tail its lustre lends
To every window-pane ;
Blushes each spout in Martlet Court,
And Barbican, moth-eaten fort, etc.
Rejected Addresses.
The mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, passed to the
Bertie family by the marriage of his widow, Catherine, with Richard
Bertie, the ancestor of the Dukes ot Ancaster. The Duchess, in her
own right Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was noted for her zeal for
the reformed doctrines, and in the reign of Edward VI. had incurred
the enmity of Bishop Gardiner, who, shortly after the accession ot
Mary, sent for Bertie, and questioning him about his religion, inquired
" whether the Lady, his wife, was now as ready to set up mass as she
BARBICAN 105
had been to pull it down, when in her progress she caused a dog in
a rochet to be carried and called by his (Gardiner's) name." Bertie
obtained the Queen's license to travel, and withdrew to the Continent.
The Duchess remained behind, but finding she was closely watched
and in danger, she determined, though on the eve of her confinement,
to make an effort to join him. Accordingly, " very early in the morning
of the first day of January next ensuing (1545) . . . she departed her
house called the Barbican, betwixt 4 and 5 of the clocke, with her com-
pany and baggage." But as she was leaving, one Atkinson, a herald,
keeper of the house, came out with a torch. " Being amazed" she left
her baggage, " the necessaries for her younger daughter, and a milk-pot
with milk " at the gate-house, and went onwards ; but perceiving she was
followed by the herald, she bade her servants to hasten onwards to Lyon
Key, where she proposed to embark, and taking with her only two
servants and her child, her steps still dogged by the herald, " she stept
in at Garter House hard by." 1 She afterwards escaped disguised to
Leigh, in Essex, there took ship, and happily joined her husband in
Flanders. The child born shortly afterwards was named Peregrine,
in reference to the place and circumstances of his birth, and the
name was long continued in the family. Barbican House was after-
wards, and as long as it existed, known as Willoughby House.
Garter House stood on the north side of Barbican, " next
adjoining " to Barbican or Willoughby House.
[It was] sometime builded by Sir Thomas Writhe, or Wriothesley, Kt. , alias Garter,
principal king of arms; second son of Sir John Writhe, Kt., alias Garter; and
was uncle to the first Thomas, Earl of Southampton, Knight of the Garter, and
Chancellor of England. He built this house, and in the top thereof a chapel, which
he dedicated by the name of S. Trinitatis in Alto. Strype, B. iii. p. 89.
The site of Garter House was marked by Garter Court, a little west
of Golden Lane, a wretched place which the Corporation swept
away under the powers of the Artizans' Dwellings Improvement
Act of 1875. Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Henry
VIII.'s Lord Chancellor, was born here. In the i6th and early part
of the 1 7th century the house of the Spanish Ambassador was in the
Barbican. Here resided the celebrated Count Gondomar. Arch-
bishop Abbot wrote to James I. just after the death of Robert Cecil,
when James was his own Secretary of State :
August 3, 1612. Zuniga has removed to the house of the Lieger Ambassador,
Alonso de Velasquez, in the Barbican, that he may more freely transact his secret
business. Velasquez has been more free with his masses, having a bell rung, and
holding several in the day. Cal. State Pap., James I., 1611-1618, p. 140.
August 10, 1612. Particulars of the seizure and examination of Blackman, the
Jesuit, who came at night out of the Spanish Ambassador's house in the Barbican,
and who was confessor of the English College at Rome and Valladolid. . . . The
private intercourse between Zuniga and the French Lieger was because public inter-
course was forbidden. Ibid., p. 142.
In July 1618, Sir George Bowles, the Lord Mayor, describes to
1 Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. 1597, p. 1885 ; Holittsked, p. 1142.
io6 BARBICAN
the Council the circumstances of a tumult at " the Spanish Ambassador's
House in the Barbican," in consequence of one of his gentlemen having
ridden over a child. The mob broke the windows and smashed in
the door, and would have done further damage had not the Lord
Chief-Justice and Lord Mayor arrived. The King ordered the Lord
Mayor to ask Gondomar's pardon. Several lads were punished with
six months' imprisonment and a fine of ^500 each. Sauchez, Secretary
to the Embassy, begged off the offenders ; and James issued a pro-
clamation warning the apprentices not to take the law into their own
hands. See Index to Remembrancia, 1878, pp. 452, 453. About 1622
the office of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was removed here
from Philips's Lane. North of the Barbican was Bridgwater House, the
magnificent seat of the Earl of Bridgwater. 1 The house was destroyed
by fire in April 1687, when unhappily the Earl's two eldest sons, Charles,
Viscount Brackley (b. 1675), and Thomas Egerton (b. 1679) were,
with their tutor, burned in their beds. The site of the house and
gardens is marked by Bridgwater Square and Bridgwater Gardens.
Eminent Inhabitants. Sir Henry Spelman, the antiquary, who died
at the house of his son-in-law, Sir Ralph Whitfield, in 1641. He was
buried in Westminster Abbey on October 24, 1641. John Milton.
It was at length concluded that she (Milton's wife) should remain at a friend's
house till suoh time as he was settled in his new house at Barbican, and all things
for his reception in order Philips's Life of Milton, I2mo, 1694, p. 27.
Milton's father-in-law (Richard Powell) died here January 1646-
1647. Papers relating to Milton, Camden Society, p. 50. The
house, No. 1 7, on the north side of the street, was that which tradition
assigned to him. "John Milton, scrivener," the father of the poet,
died at his house in the Barbican, 1647, and was buried in Cripple-
gate Church.
Taylor the Water Poet says of Barbican :
There's as good beer and ale as ever twanged,
And in that street kind No-body is hanged.
TAYLOR, Penniless Pilgrimage.
" No-body " was the sign of John Trundle, one of the best known
of the Elizabethan booksellers and printers. He dealt chiefly in
ballads. Ben Jonson makes Edward Knowell say he will "troll
ballads for Master John Trundle yonder." 5 But he also published
Green's Westward for Smelts, one at least of Jonson's plays, and
other popular pieces. Trundle accompanied Taylor on his " Penni-
less Pilgrimage" as far as the Saracen's Head, Wheatstone, and on
the way "freely spent his chink" on his penniless comrade
"The Barbican -Cheat detected, or Injustice Arraigned; being a
brief and sober disquisition of the procedure of the Ana-Baptists'
late-erected judication in Barbican, London, the 28th of the month
1 July 4, 1673. Licence to the Duke of Bridg- 8 Every Man in. his Humour, Act. i.
water to build, or rebuild, his house in Barbican. Sc. 2.
Williamson Corr. t vol. i. p. 89.
BARGE YARD 107
called August, 1674. . . . By Thomas Rudyard." Printed in the
year 1674.
Barbican Chapel, on the south side, at the corner of Jacob's Well
Passage, was for a long series of years a Dissenting meeting-house
of high standing. Pope's "modest Foster" was ordained pastor in
1724, and continued there twenty years, as appears by his epitaph in
Bunhill Fields. 1 The building was transformed into a warehouse
about 1866.
Barclay and Perkins's Brewery, PARK STREET, SOUTHWARK,
was founded by Messrs. Child and Halsey. Mr. E. Halsey, on retiring
from business, sold it to Mr. Thrale, the father of Henry Thrale, the
friend of Dr. Johnson. On Henry Thrale's death it was resold by
Johnson and his brother executor in behalf of Mrs. Thrale, for
,135,000.
On Mr. Thrale's death I kept the counting-house from 9 o'clock every morning till
5 o'clock every evening, till June, when God Almighty sent us a knot of rich quakers,
who bought the whole, and saved me and my daughters from brewing ourselves into
another bankruptcy. Mrs, Piozzi, vol. i. p. 47.
Johnson had a clearer perception than the lady of the value of the
property :
Lord Lucan tells a very good story, which, if not precisely exact, is certainly
characteristical ; that when the sale of Thrale's brewery was going forward, Johnson
appeared bustling about, with an inkhorn and pen in his button-hole, like an
exciseman, and on being asked what he considered to be really the value of the
property which was to be disposed of, answered, " We are not here to sell a parcel of
boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."
Croker's Boswell, p. 682.
The purchaser was David Barclay, the head of the great banking
firm in Lombard Street, who put in his nephew, Mr. Robert Barclay,
and Mr. Perkins, who had for many years been Mr. Thrale's manager.
While on his tour to the Hebrides, in 1773, Johnson mentioned that
Thrale "paid ,20,000 a year to the revenue, and that he had four
vats, each of which held 1600 barrels, above a thousand hogsheads."
The brewery of Thrale's period was destroyed by fire, May 22, 1822.
The present buildings extend over 13 acres, and the machinery
includes two steam-engines. The store -cellars contain 150 vats,
varying in their contents from 3500 barrels, considerably more
than twice the capacity of the great tun of Heidelberg, down to 500.
About 1 80 horses are employed in conveying beer to different parts of
Loridon. The quantity brewed averages 130,000 quarters, and the
amount paid to the revenue annually by the firm exceeds ^i8o,ooo. 2
Barge Yard, BUCKLERSBURY, and on the south side of QUEEN
VICTORIA STREET, the formation of which has somewhat curtailed its
area. Barge Yard was so named after a house known by the sign of
the Old Barge; "and it hath been," says Stow, who tells us this, "a
1 Gentleman's Magazine, June 1754, p. 289. of historical interest, is related in Sir T. Martin's
2 General Haynau's misadventure at Barclay's Life of the Prince Consort, vol. ii. p. 324.
brewery, September 4, 1850, which has become
io8 BARGE YARD
common speech that, when Walbrooke did lie open, barges were rowed
out of the Thames, or towed up so far, and therefore the place hath
ever since been called the Old Barge."
Barking Alley, GREAT TOWER STREET, a passage by the side oi
the church of Allhallows, Barking, and hence now commonly known
as Barking Churchyard. The end of this alley, in high -treason
days, was a favourite spot for erecting stages for sightseers. At the
execution of Lord Lovat, a scaffold of many storeys fell as the prisoner
was coming out of the tower, and some twenty persons were killed.
Barn Elms, " a knot of lofty elms " l on the margin of Rosamond's
Pond, St. James's Park. Katherine Philips, the " Matchless Orinda,"
has a copy of verses on " carving of her name " upon one of them.
Otway, in the Soldier's fortune, 1681, has a reference to "Barn Elms
by Rosamond's Pond."
Barnabas (St.), CHURCH STREET, PIMLICO, a church erected in
1846-1849 from the designs of Mr. Cundy, on ground presented by
the Marquis of Westminster, which had been previously occupied by
a squalid building called the Orange Theatre. The church, which
acquired notoriety for ritualistic observances, was consecrated on St.
Barnabas's Day, 1850. Attached to it are a college, or a house for
several clergymen, and ample schoolrooms.
Barnard's Inn, on the south side of HOLBORN, opposite Furnival's
Inn, an Inn of Chancery appertaining to Gray's Inn. It forms a
narrow passage and small quadrangle of about a dozen houses, having
the entrance between Nos. 22 and 23 Holborn. The Hall is a little
red brick structure, the smallest of all the Inns of Court halls, being
only 36 feet by 22, but has an oak roof and heraldic glass in the
windows. The portraits Lord Bacon, Lord Burghley, Chief-Justice
Holt, and one or two more which adorned the walls, have been pre-
sented to the National Portrait Gallery.
Barnard's Inne, called also formerly Mackworth's Inne, was in the time of King
Henry the Sixth a messuage belonging to Dr. John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln,
and being in the occupation of one Barnard, at the time of the conversion thereof
into an Inne of Chauncery, it beareth Barnard's name still to this day. The arms
of this house are those of Mackworth, viz. party per pale, indented ermine and*sables,
a cheveron, gules, fretted or. Sir George Buc, ed. Howes, 1631, p. 1075 ; and see
Inquis. Post Mortem, vol. iv. p. 261.
In October 1737 Hayley took an airy set of chambers in Barnard's
Inn, "a cheap, pleasant, and useful residence in town for literary
purposes." 2 At No. 2 lived Peter Woulfe, the alchemist, and gave
breakfast parties at four o'clock in the morning. Barnard's Inn has
long ceased to have more than a nominal connection with Gray's Inn,
the houses being let out as chambers, and not occupied by students of the
law. Recently (1888) the whole has been advertised for sale. William
Coke, Justice Common Pleas (d. 1563), Richard Harper, Justice Common
1 Ned Ward's London Sty, ed. 1753, p. 164. 2 Life, vol. i. p. 355.
BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE 109
Pleas (d. 1577), Sir Thomas Walmesley, Justice Common Pleas
(d. 1612), Edmund Reeve, Justice Common Pleas (d. 1647), Sir
Francis Bacon, Justice K. B. (d. 1657), were originally members of this
Inn.
Barnsbury, a manor of Islington, named Bernersbury, and by
corruption Barnsbury, from the ancient family of Bernieres or Berners,
who held the estate from the reign of the Conqueror till 1422, when, on
the death of Richard Berners, it passed to Margery his daughter and
heir, who married for her second husband John Bourchier, created
Lord Berners. The manor comprises about 240 acres, and the descent
is in gavelkind. It is now a district of commonplace dwellings, arranged
in a so-called park, crescents, groves, and squares. The Barnsbury of
the present day is popularly understood to lie between the Liverpool
Road to Hemingford Road on the east and west, and to extend from
Richmond Road northwards to Offord Road and the Barnsbury
Station of the North London Railway. Beyond that is Lower
Holloway.
Thomas Waghorn, Lieutenant R.N., projector of the Overland
Route to India, died at 2 Golden Terrace, now 18 Barnsbury Road, in
1850.
Barrow Hill, adjoining Primrose Hill, and now occupied by the
reservoir of the West Middlesex Waterworks. The name survives in
Barrow Hill Road. The hill was also known as Greenberry Hill, and
it is a curious coincidence that the three unfortunate men who were
executed for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, whose body
was found here, were named Robert Green, Lawrence Hill, and Henry
Berry. Narcissus Luttrell refers to this in his Diary under date
October 1678 :
It is remarkable that the place where Sir Edmund Berry's corps was found is in
old leases called Green Berry Hill, being the names of the three persons condemned
for that murder. Diary, 1857, vol. i. p. 8.
Bartholomew Close, an irregular open space, or square, occupy-
ing part of the enclosed grounds or close of the ancient Priory of St.
Bartholomew, "closed in with walls and gates and locked every night," l
whence the name. It is entered from West Smithfield by an Early
English archway, the ancient entrance to the Priory Close, from Little
Britain, nearly opposite the gates of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, from
Long Lane, through Cloth Fair, and by two or three narrow passages
from Aldersgate Street. De Foe shows his familiarity with the locality
by making Moll Flanders, after she has taken the bundle from the
maid waiting for the Barnet coach, "turn into Charterhouse Lane,
through Charterhouse Yard into Long Lane, then into Bartholomew
Close, so into Little Britain, and through the Bluecoat Hospital into
Newgate Street." Strype (1720) describes Bartholomew Close as "a
spacious court, inhabited," and he adds that "on the east part thereof
1 Stow, p. 141.
i io BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE
is a late-built [1708] court, with fair brick buildings, called Queen's
Court. At the upper end thereof, east, is a curious picture of the late
Queen Anne in full proportions." This court is now called Queen
Square, but the buildings can hardly be thought fair, and the " curious
picture " has disappeared. In Bartholomew Close lived Dr. Caius,
the famous physician, and founder of Caius or Key's College, Cam-
bridge. 1 Here, "as a place of retirement and abscondence," in a
friend's house, till the Act of Oblivion came out, i.e. from May to
August, 1660, lived John Milton. 2 Here Hubert Le Sceur, the
sculptor, lived; and here he modelled his statue of Charles I., at
Charing Cross. Here died, in 1623, Dr. Francis Anthony, inventor of
the Aurum Potabile. And here, in Palmer's printing office, setting the
types for the third edition of Wollaston's Religion of Nature, 1725,
Benjamin Franklin worked as a common journeyman printer. Franklin
himself says the second edition, but as he did not arrive in England until
December 1724, and the second edition was published during the
lifetime of the author, that is before October 29, 1724, it must have
been the third edition upon which Franklin was employed. -See Mr.
Edward Solly's article in The Bibliographer, vol. iii., 1883, pp. 3, 4.
He lodged at this time in Little Britain, next door to a bookseller of
the name of Wilcox. " I continued," he says, " at Palmer's nearly a
year."
But they must take up with Settle and such as they can get ; Bartholomew Fair
writers, and Bartholomew Close printers. Dryden, Vindication of the Duke of
Guise.
There are still printers in Bartholomew Close, though fewer than
formerly. In Little Bartholomew Close was Bartholomew Chapel, a
portion of St. Bartholomew's Priory, for long a noted Dissenters'
meeting-house. Attached were schools, founded in 1717, for educating
and clothing 60 boys and 40 girls, the children of Protestant Dissenters
of all denominations. Both chapel and schools were destroyed by fire
in May 1830, and not rebuilt. At No. 25 is the Royal General
Dispensary, the oldest institution of the kind in the Kingdom, it having
been founded in 1770. It still flourishes, and a new building was
erected for its use in 1879-1880 from the designs of Mr. W. W. Lee.
It affords medical aid freely to all applicants, but makes a small fixed
charge for medicine (twopence for every supply) a system which is
found to work well.
Bartholomew Fair, a once famous fair, held every year in Smith-
field, and so called because it was kept at Bartholomew Tide, and held
within the precinct of the Priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield.
The duration of the Fair was limited by Henry II. to three days
(the Eve of St. Bartholomew, the day, and the morrow), and the
privilege of holding it assigned by the same sovereign to the Prior of
St. Bartholomew. This was for several centuries the great Cloth Fair
1 MS. Records of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He paid four pounds a year for his house.
2 E. Philips, Godwin, p. 378.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR in
of England. Clothiers repaired to it from the most distant parts, and
had booths and standings erected for their use within the precinct of the
Priory, on the site of what is now called Cloth Fair. The gates of the
precinct were closed at night for the protection of property, and a Court
of Pie Poudre erected within its verge for the necessary enforcement of
the laws of the Fair, of debts and legal obligations. In this court,
according to Blackstone, "the most expeditious court of justice known
to the law of England," l offences were tried the same day, and the
parties punished, in the stocks or at the whipping-post, directly after
condemnation.
At the dissolution of religious houses the privilege of the Fair was
in part transferred to the Mayor and Corporation, and in part to Richard
Rich, Lord Rich (d. 1560), ancestor of the Earls of Warwick and
Holland. It ceased, however, to be a "Cloth Fair" of any great
importance in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The drapers of London
found another and more extensive market for their woollens ; and the
clothiers, in the increase of communication between distant places, a
wider field for the sale of their manufactures. It subsequently became
a Fair of a very diversified character. Monsters, motions, i.e. puppet-
shows, drolls, and rarities, were the new commodities to be seen. The
three days were extended to fourteen, the Fair commencing on August
2 2 instead of September 2 ; and Bartholomew Fair was converted into
a kind of London Carnival for persons of every condition and degree
in life. The serious-minded Evelyn records his having seen "the
celebrated follies," as he calls them, of the place; and in 1740
Frederick, Prince of Wales, visited the Fair in a sort of semi-state, and
wearing his blue ribbon, star, and garter, Manager Rich " introducing
his royal guest to all the entertainments of the place." The rarities in
the way of Natural History attracted Sir Hans Sloane, who, to give an
enduring remembrance to what he had seen, employed a draughtsman
to draw and colour the rarer portions of the exhibition ; and to the
last Wombwell's and Atkins's Menageries were, next to Richardson's
show, the chief attractions of the Fair. The fourteen days were found
too long, for the excesses committed were very great ; and in the year
1708 the period of the Fair was limited to its old duration of three
days. 2 Considerable restrictions were imposed on the keepers of shows
and stalls in 1845 ; the Fair rapidly dwindled to a shabby collection of
toy and gingerbread stalls and fruit barrows; and in 1855 it was sup-
pressed as a nuisance.
The Fair was opened by the Lord Mayor, and the proclamation for
the purpose read before the entrance to the Cloth Fair. On these
occasions it was the custom for the Lord Mayor to call upon the
keeper of Newgate, and partake of " a cool tankard of wine, nutmeg, and
sugar." This custom, which ceased in the second mayoralty of Sir
Matthew Wood (1817), occasioned the death of Sir John Shorter,
Lord Mayor in 1688, whose daughter was the first wife of Sir Robert
1 Commentaries, B. iii. c. 4, 3. 2 Strype, B. iii. p. 240.
U2 BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
Walpole. In holding the tankard, he let the lid flap down with so
much force that his horse started, and he was thrown to the ground with
great violence. He died the next day.
It is worthy of observation that every year upon St. Bartholomew's Day, when
the Fair is held, it is usual for the Mayor (attended by the twelve principal Aldermen)
to walk in a neighbouring field, dressed in his scarlet gown. . . . When the Mayor
goes out of the precincts of the City, a sceptre [mace], a sword, and a cap are borne
before him, and he is followed by the principal Aldermen in scarlet gowns, with gold
chains, himself and they on horseback. Upon his arrival at a place appointed for
that purpose, where a tent is pitched, the mob begin to wrestle before him, two at a
time ; the conquerors receive rewards from the magistrates. After this is over, a
parcel of live rabbits are turned loose among the crowd, who are pursued by a num-
ber of boys, who endeavour to catch them with all the noise they can make. While
we were at the Show, one of our company, Tobias Salander, Doctor of Physic, had
his pocket picked of his purse, with nine crowns du soleil, which, without doubt,
was cleverly taken from him by the Englishman who always kept very close to
him that the Doctor did not in the least perceive it. Hentzner's Travels, A.D.
1598.
On Saturday last [August 22, 1724], in the afternoon, the Lord Mayor came with
great state and solemnity to Smithfield, and proclaimed Bartholomew Fair. His
worship's coach stopped at the Lodge door of Newgate, where Mr. Reuse, the
deputy-turnkey, appeared, in the absence of Mr. Pitt, the keeper (who is indisposed),
and treated his Lordship, the Sheriffs and Alderman, with a lemonade, after a very
handsome and pleasing manner ; which custom is observed to all the Mayors at the
proclaiming of Bartholomew Fair. Applebee's Journal, August 29, 1724.
The old amusements were wrestling and shooting, motions, puppets,
operas, tight-rope dancing, and the exhibition of dwarfs, monsters, and
wild beasts. Quack doctors, corn-cutters, and tooth-drawers, attended ;
and there were gamesters of many kinds and cut-purses plenty. Among
Bagford's collections in the British Museum, 1 is a Bartholomew Fair
Bill of the time of Queen Anne ; the exhibition at Heatly's Booth of
" a little opera called the ' Old Creation of the World newly revived,
with the addition of the Glorious Battle obtained over the French and
Spaniards by His Grace the Duke of Marlborough ! ' ' Between the
acts, jigs, sarabands, and antics were performed, and the whole enter-
tainment concluded with " The Merry Humours of Sir John Spendall,
and Punchinello ; with several other things not yet exposed." Heatly
is supposed to have had no better scenery than the pasteboard properties
of our early theatres.
The chaos, too, he had descried
And seen quite through, or else he lied ;
Not that of Past-board which men show
For groats at Fair of Bartholomew. Hudibras, c. i.
Another attraction was the ox roasted whole, a yearly custom, referred
to by Osborn in his Works. 2 Roasted pigs were among the chief
allurements, and many booths were devoted to their sale. In Ben
Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, a treasury of information respecting the
Fair of his day, roasted pig plays a prominent part, and as Gifford
remarks in his Notes, " our old authors abound in allusions to this
circumstance." Nor were other attractions wanting.
1 Harl. MS., 5931. Ed. 1710, p. 8.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR 113
Littlewit. Win, you see 'tis in fashion to go to the Fair, Win ; we must to the
Fair, too, you and I, Win. . . .
Mrs. Lit. I would I might : but my mother will never consent to such a profane
motion, she will call it.
% Lit. I have a device, a dainty device. . . . Win, long to eat of a pig, sweet
Win, in the Fair, do you see, in the heart of the Fair, not at Pye Corner. Your
mother will do anything, Win, to satisfy your longing. . . .
[In the Fair, Enter KNOCKEM and Vf HIT from Ursula's booth.]
Knock. Gentlemen, the weather's hot : whither walk you ? have a care of your
fine velvet caps, the Fair is dusty. Take a sweet delicate booth, with boughs, here
in the way and cool yourselves in the shade, you and your friends. The best pig and
bottle-ale in the Fair, sir. Old Ursula is cook, there you may read [Points to the
sign, a Pig's Head, with a large writing under it]. The pig's head speaks it.
Whit. A delicate show pig, little mistress, with sweet sauce and crackling. . . .
Lit. [Gazing at the inscription]. This is fine verily. Here be the best pigs, and
she does roast them as well as ever she did. The pig's head says. Ben Jonson,
Bart. Fair, Act i. Sc. i; Act iii. Sc. I.
Now London's Mayor, on saddle new,
Rides to the Fair of Bartlemew ;
He twirls his chain and looketh big,
As if to fright the head of pig,
That gaping lies on every stall. DAVENANT.
the motions that I, Lanthorn Leatherhead, have given light tojn my time ! Jeru-
salem was a stately thing, and so was Nineveh, and the City of Norwich, and Sodom
and Gomorrah, with the Rising of the 'Prentices, and the pulling down the bawdy-
houses there upon Shrove Tuesday ; but the Gunpowder Plot, there was a getpenny !
I have presented that to an eighteen or twentypence audience nine times in an afternoon.
Your home-born projects prove ever the best, they are so easy and familiar ; they put
too much learning in their things now o'days. Ben Jonson, Bart. Fair, Act v. Sc. I.
Waspe. I have been at the Eagle and the Black Wolf, and the Bull with the five
legs, and the dogs that dance the Morrice, and the Hare of the Tabor. Ben Jonson,
Bart. Fair, Act. v. Sc. 3.
1 was at Bartholomew Fair. Coming out, I met a man that would have taken
off my hat; but I secured it, and was going to draw my sword, crying out, " Begar!"
"Damned Rogue!" "Morbleu!" etc., when on a sudden I had a hundred people
about me crying, " Here, Monsieur, see Jephthah's Rash Vow." " Here, Monsieur,
see the tall Dutchwoman." " See the Tiger ! " says another. " See the Horse and
no horse, whose tail stands where his head should do." "See the German Artist,
Monsieur." "See the Siege of Namur, Monsieur." "A Journey to London," Dr.
King's Works, vol. i. p. 204.
The Tiger in Bartholomew Fair, that yesterday gave such satisfaction to persons
of all Qualities by pulling the feathers so nicely from live fowls, will, at the request
of several persons, do the same this day; price 6d. each. The Postman, Tuesday,
September 9, 1701.
Each person having a booth, paid so much per foot during the first three days.
The Earl of Warwick and Holland is concerned in the toll gathered the first three days
in the Fair, being a penny for every burthen of goods brought in or carried out ; and to
that end there are persons that stand at all the entrances into the Fair ; and they are
of late years grown so nimble, that these Blades will extort a penny if one hath but a
little bundle under one's arms, and nothing related to the fair. Strype, B. iii. p. 285.
Trash. Mar my market, thou too proud pedlar ! do thy worst, I defy thee, I,
and thy stable of hobby-horses. I pay for my ground as well as thou dost. Ben
Jonson, Bart. Fair, Act ii. Sc. I.
Leatherhead. Sir, it stands me in six and twenty shillings, besides three shillings
for my ground. 1 Ben Jonson, Bart. Fair, Act iii. Sc. I.
1 Lord Kensington, to whom the tolls descended, 1830. For "Lady Holland's Mob," see Every
sold his right to the Corporation of London in Day Book, vol. i. p. 1229.
VOL. I I
ii 4 BARTHOLOMEW FAIR
August 30, 1667. I to Bartholomew Fayre to walk up and down ; and there
among other things find my Lady Castlemaine at a puppet-play (Patient Grizill), and
the street full of people expecting her coming out. I confess I did wonder at her
courage to come abroad, thinking the people would abuse her. But they, silly
people, do not know the work she makes, and therefore suffered her with great
respect to take coach, and she away without any trouble at all. 1 Pepys.
My sister and Lady Inchiquin are just come from Bartholomew Fair- and stored
us all with fairings. Lady Rachael Russell to her husband, August 24, 1680.
Sly Merry Andrew, the last Southwark Fair,
(At Barthol'mew he did not much appear ;
So peevish was the edict of the Mayor). PRIOR, Merry Andrew.
A place very notorious, especially at Fair-time, was the Cloisters, " a
passage," says Strype, " from King Street into Smithfield, through a fair
cloister, well paved with freestone. On both sides of which are rows
of shops, most taken up by semstresses and milliners." 2 During the
Fair these were used as raffling shops and places of worse resort.
It was now a merry time of the year, and Bartholomew Fair was begun. I had
never made any walks that way, nor was the Fair of much advantage to me ; but I
took a turn this year into the Cloisters, and there I fell into one of the raffling shops.
De Foe's Moll Flanders, written in the year 1683.
The Observator of August 21, 1703, writes : The Cloisters, what strange medley
of lewdness has that place not long since afforded ! Lords and ladies, aldermen and
their wives, squires and fiddlers, citizens and rope-dancers, mistresses and maids,
masters and apprentices ! This is not an ark like Noah's, which received the clean
and the unclean ; only the unclean beasts enter this ark, and such as have the devil's
livery on their backs.
Thy magistrates who should reform the Town,
Punish the poor men's faults but hide their own,
Suppress the Player's Booths in Smithfield Fair,
But leave the Cloisters, for their wives are there,
Where all the scenes of lewdness do appear. DE FOE,
Reformation of Manners, written about 1 700.
Gradually the Cloisters were suffered to go to ruin, and the last
vestiges were demolished about 1850.
The public theatres were invariably closed at Bartholomew Fair
time ; drolls, like Estcourt and Penkethman, finding Bartholomew Fair
a more profitable arena for their talents than the boards of Dorset-
garden or of old Drury Lane. Mrs. Pritchard (the great predecessor
of Mrs. Siddons) first attracted attention at Bartholomew Fair, by her
manner of singing
Sweet, if you love me, smiling turn.
Here, for Mrs. Mynn 3 and her daughter Mrs. Leigh, Elkanah Settle,
the rival for years of Dryden, was reduced at last to string speeches and
contrive machinery; and here, in the droll of "St. George for England,"
he made his last appearance, hissing in a green leather dragon of his
own invention.
1 August 30, 1667, was the day on which the 3 Among Bagford's Collection of Bills in the
Great Seal was taken from Lord Clarendon, more British Museum is one of Mrs. Mynn's Company
by the means of this very countess than perhaps of actors acting at " Ben Jonson's Booth "ffarl.
of any other person. MS., 5931.
a Strype's Stow, 1720, vol. i. p. 284.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT 115
Poor Elkanah, all other changes past,
For bread in Smithfield dragons hiss'd at last,
Spit streams of Fire to make the butchers gape,
And found his manners suited to his shape.
POPE, Epistle to Mr. Young.
It was long supposed that Fielding the novelist acted at the Fair,
and Professor Morley gives considerable prominence to this view in his
work ; but Mr. Frederick Latreille proved conclusively that the Fielding
who frequented the Fairs was Timothy Fielding, an obscure actor of
Drury Lane, who died in Bloomsbury, August 19, 1738. In 1739
the booth which had been advertised as Fielding and Hallam's was
under the management of Hallam alone. 1
Smithfield is another sort of place now to what it was in the times of honest Ben,
who, were he to rise out of his grave, would hardly believe it to be the same numeri-
cal spot of ground where Justice Overdo made so busy a figure ; where the crop-eared
Parson demolished a ginger-bread stall ; where Nightingale, of harmonious memory,
sung ballads ; and fat Ursula sold Pig and Bottled Ale. Tom Brown.
The best and most trustworthy account of the Fair in the last days
of its glory, nearly sixty years ago, is that of Hone in his Every Day
Book, under September 2-5, 1825 (vol. i. pp. 1168-1202.) The history
of the Fair is told at length in Mr. Morley's Bartholomew Fair.
Bartholomew (St.) The Great, a church in West Smithfield, in
the ward of Farringdon Without, consisting of the choir and transepts
of the church of the Priory of St. Bartholomew, founded in the reign
of Henry I. by Rahere, "a pleasant-witted gentleman, and therefore
in his time called the King's Minstrel," and completed in ii23. 2 This,
though but the eastern portion of the original, is one of the most
interesting of the old London churches. There is much good work
of Norman architecture about it, and its entrance gate from Smith-
field is an excellent specimen of the Early English period with the
toothed ornament in its mouldings. Parts, however, are of the Per-
pendicular period, and the rebus of Prior Bolton, who died in 1532
(a bolt through a tun\ fixes the date when the alterations were made.
The roof is of timber, divided into compartments by a tie-beam and
king-post. The choir is Norman, the clerestory Early English. The
tower was built in 1628. The church, which had fallen into a sad
state of disrepair, was restored under the direction of Professor T.
Hayter Lewis and Mr. William Slater, 1863-1866. The old work
was, as far as possible, left untouched. A further most important resto-
ration was commenced in 1885 and has not yet (1888) been com-
pleted. The apse has been restored from a design of Mr. Aston
Webb, architect. On the north side of the altar is the canopied
tomb, with effigy, of Rahere, the first prior of his foundation. It is
of a much later date than his decease, and is a good specimen of
the Perpendicular period of Gothic architecture. It was coloured ori-
ginally, and repainted at the late restoration. Opposite the founder's
1 Notes and Queries, 5th S., vol. iii. pp. 502, 503. 2 Stmv, p. 140.
n6 ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT
tomb is the spacious monument to Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor
and Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (d. 1589), who was
buried in the church. The other monuments are of little importance,
unless we except the bust (near Mildmay's monument) of James
Rivers (d. 1641), probably the work of Hubert Le Sceur, who lived in
Bartholomew Close, hard by, and is believed to have been buried
here. There is one to Lockyer Davis, the bookseller (d. 1791).
The parish register records the baptism (November 28, 1697) of
William Hogarth, the painter, and of his two sisters, Mary (b. No-
vember 1699), and Anne (b. November 1701). Sir John Hay ward
the historian, died June 26, 1627, at his house in "Great Saint
Bartholomew's, near Smithfield," and was buried in the church. To
the poor of the parish he bequeathed ^lo. 1 From a very early
period it has been the custom on Good Friday, after a sermon by the
rector, to drop twenty-one sixpences in the churchyard near the pre-
sumed grave of the donor. The sixpences are picked up by as many
women, previously selected, widows having preference. At the
martyrdom of Anne Askew, 1546, "upon the bench under St. Bar-
tholomew's Church, sat Wriothesley, Chancellor of England [who had
already presided over her being put upon the rack, and, according to
Foxe, assisted in the process with his own hands], the old Duke of
Norfolk, the old Earl of Bedford, the Lord Mayor, with divers others." 2
Along with Anne Askew were burned Nicholas Belenian, a priest of
Shropshire; John Adams, a tailor; a gentleman of the Court and
household of King Henry VIII.
Bartholomew (St.) The Less, or, ST. BARTHOLOMEW IN THE
HOSPITAL, a church in the ward of Farringdon Without, serving as a
parish church to the tenants dwelling within the precinct of St. Bar-
tholomew's Hospital. The church escaped the Fire, though there is
little that is old about it now. The interior was destroyed and
reconstructed by George Dance, R.A., in 1789, and again nearly
rebuilt in 1823, on Mr. Dance's plan, by Thomas Hardwick. It
was again restored in 1865. The tower is old. The right of present-
ation belongs to the Governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The
following monuments belonging to the old church have found a
sanctuary within the new : William Markeby (gentleman), and his
wife Alicia (d. 1439) ; two small brasses on the floor near the entrance
of the church. John Shirley, the traveller (d. October 21, 1456),
was buried in the church, and a brass put down to his memory.
Robert Balthrope, " Sergeant of the Surgeons " to Queen Elizabeth
(d. 1591); a small kneeling figure in a niche. Lady Bodley (wife of
Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, who
died in this parish) ; tablet with a Latin inscription. The parish
register records the baptism of Inigo Jones, the architect : " Enego
1 Cam. Sac., vol. vii. p. xlv. 2 Foxe, vol. v. p. 530.
ST. BARTHOLOMEWS HOSPITAL 117
Jones the sonne of Enego Jones was christened the xixth day of July,
X S73-" There are two other entries regarding his brothers and sisters,
in which Inigo figures as Enygo, Enygoe, and Inygoe ; and Jones as
Johnes and Johans. Inigo's father .was a cloth worker, residing in or
near Cloth Fair. Mr. J. Payne Collier found in the register an entry,
"September 26, 1592, Thomas Watson, gent., was buried," and
rightly conjectured that it jeferred to a poet who was no unworthy
contemporary of Spenser and Shakespeare. Joshua Sylvester, the
friend of Ben Jonson, lived for a time in this parish, and the names
of three of his children appear in the registers. John Lyly, the
euphuist, was also a resident. Three of his children were baptized,
and he was buried in the church, November 30, 1606. Sir Ralph
Winwood, Ambassador and Secretary of State, who died October
27, 1617, was buried here. James Heath, author of the Chronicle
which bears his name, was buried (1664) in the church near the
screen door. 1
Bartholomew (St.) By the Exchange, a church in Broad Street
Ward, rebuilt in 1438, destroyed in the Great Fire, and again rebuilt
from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. Miles Coverdale, Bishop
of Exeter, the earliest English translator of the Bible, was buried in
this church, and when it was taken down to erect the Royal Ex-
change, his remains were removed to the church of St Magnus,
London Bridge, of which he was rector, 1563-1566. The materials
of the old church were sold by auction, January 4, 1841, for ^483 : 153.,
the south wall and a chapel being reserved to be built into the Sun
Fire Office, as also were some of the carved masonry, the old pulpit,
the organ, and other woodwork, which were preserved in a copy of the
old tower and church erected, 1849-1850, by Professor C. R. Cockerel!,
R.A., in Moor Lane, Cripplegate. John Ellis, Dr. Johnson's "Jack
Ellis" (d. 1791), was buried in the church. Sylvanus Morgan, author
of Sphere of Gentry (d. 1693).
Bartholomew's (St.) Church, GRAY'S INN ROAD, on the east
side of the road, between Nos. 224 and 226, nearly opposite Guildford
Street. It was originally built for the eccentric preacher, William
Huntington, in 1811, at a cost of ^9000, and here he preached until
his death in 1813. Several Dissenting preachers successively occupied
the pulpit, and subsequently it became a Church of England Chapel,
the Rev. Thomas Mortimer officiating until 1849. It was consecrated
by the Bishop of London, February 13, 1860, and dedicated to St.
Bartholomew.
Bartholomew's (St.) Hospital, the earliest institution of the
kind in London, was founded A.D. ii23 2 by Rahere, who also
founded the Priory of St. Bartholomew. The Hospital had an inde-
1 Aubrey, vol. iii. p. 387. error of transcription which occurs in a isth
2 The date 1102, which is given as that of the century MS. of a life of Rahere written in the
foundation in two modern inscriptions upon the i2th century.
Hospital walls, is erroneous, and originated in an
n8 ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL
pendent constitution and a separate estate, but was for some purposes
under the control of the Priory. It had a master, eight brethren, and
four sisters, and its community was subject to the rule of St. Austin.
From the beginning it was a Hospital for the Sick, and not a mere
almshouse, and this is distinctly expressed in a grant of privileges to it
by Edward III., which there states the uses of the Hospital : " Ad
omnes pauperes infirmos ad idem hospitale confluentes quousque de
infirmitatibus suis convaluerint, ac mulieres praegnantes quousque de
puerperio surrexerint, necnon ad omnes pueros de eisdem mulieribus
genitos, usque septennium, si dicta:! mulieres intra hospitale prsedictum
decesserint." [See St. Bartholomew the Great] The relations of
the Hospital and Priory were revised by Richard de Ely, Bishop of
London, in 1197; by Eustace de Fauconberg, Bishop of London,
on July i, 1224; and by Simon of Sudbury, Bishop of London, on
May i, 1373, and the two foundations were finally separated on the
dissolution of the Priory in 1537. In 1544, at the petition of Sir
Richard Gresham, Lord Mayor, and father of Sir Thomas Gresham,
Henry VIII. refounded it by Royal Charter, and in 1547 granted it
a new charter, which gave back to the foundation the greater portion
of its former revenues "for the continual relief and help of an
hundred sore and diseased," being "moved thereto with great pity
for and towards the relief and succour and help of the poor, aged,
sick, low, and impotent people . . . lying and going about begging
in the common streets of the City of London and the suburbs of
the same," and "infected with divers great and horrible sicknesses
and diseases." The earliest medical book due to St. Bartholomew's
Hospital was written by John Mirfeld, one of the canons of the Priory
in the latter half of the i4th century. It is called Breviarium
Bartholomei, and is a general treatise on medicine, based in part on
observations made in the Hospital. The immediate superintendence
of the Hospital was committed at first to Thomas Vicary, Serjeant-
Surgeon to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and
author of The Englishman's Treasure, the first work on anatomy
published in the English language. Harvey, the discoverer of the
circulation of the blood, was Physician to the Hospital for 34
years (1609-1643). The principles as to the kind of cases which
ought to be admitted, and the length of time which cases should
remain under treatment in the wards, are stated in some rules which
he drew up at the request of the Governors, and are followed to this
day.
The date of the actual commencement of a Medical School is
unknown; but in 1662 students were in the habit of attending the
medical and surgical practice; and in 1667 their studies were assisted
by the formation of a Library " for the use of the Governors and young
University scholars." A building for a Museum of Anatomical and
Chirurgical Preparations was provided in 1724, and placed under the
charge of John Freke, then Assistant-Surgeon to the Hospital ; and in
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL 119
1734 leave was granted for any of the surgeons or assistant-surgeons
"to read Lectures in Anatomy in the dissecting-room of the Hospital."
The first surgeon who availed himself of this permission was Mr.
Edward Nourse, whose anatomical lectures, delivered for many years
in or near the Hospital, were followed in 1765 and for many years
after by Courses of Lectures on Surgery from his former pupil and
prosector, Perceval Pott, who held the office of Surgeon to the Hospital,
and numbered among his pupils John Hunter. About the same time
Dr. William Pitcairn, and subsequently Dr. David Pitcairn, successively
Physicians to the Hospital, delivered lectures, probably occasional
ones, on Medicine. Further addkions to the course of instruction
were made by Mr. Abernethy, who was elected Assistant-Surgeon in
1787, and by whom, with the assistance of Drs. William and David
Pitcairn, the principal lectures of the present day were established.
Abernethy lectured on Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery in a theatre
erected for him by the Governors in 1791, and his high reputation
attracted so great a body of students that it was found necessary in
1822 to erect a new and larger Anatomical Theatre.
The progress of science and the extension of medical education in
the last 40 years have led to the institution of additional lectureships on
subjects auxiliary to Medicine, and on new and important applications
of it; and further facilities have been afforded for instruction. In
1835 an d 1854 the Anatomical Museum was considerably enlarged, a
new Medical Theatre was built, and Museums of Materia Medica and
Botany were founded ; and, at the same time, the Library was removed
to a more convenient building, and enriched by liberal contributions.
A more capacious Museum and new Library were erected in 1878-
1879. In 1834 the Medical Officers and Lecturers commenced the
practice of offering Prizes and Honorary Distinctions for superior
knowledge displayed at the annual examinations of their classes; in
1845 f ur scholarships were founded, and others have since been
added. In 1866 a new Laboratory for the study of Practical
Chemistry was provided for the Chemical Class, and in 1870 a second
extensive Laboratory was built, with a room specially constructed for
the teaching of Mechanical and Natural Philosophy. In 1843 the
Governors founded a Collegiate Establishment, to afford the pupils
the moral advantages, together with the comfort and convenience, of a
residence within the walls of the Hospital, and to supply them with
ready guidance and assistance in their studies. It has since been
enlarged to nearly twice its original extent. The chief officer of the
College is called the Warden. The Prince of Wales is the President
of the Hospital, and the treasurer is the chief executive officer after the
president. All the aldermen are governors ex qfficio, with ten members
of the Court of Common Council, and the other governors are elected
benefactors. On the "Annual View Day" the governing body, with
the President at their head, go over and inspect the entire establish-
ment, and in the evening dine in the great hall of the Hospital.
120 ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL
The great quadrangle (200 feet x 160 feet) was designed by James
Gibbs, the architect of the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the first
stone laid June 9, 1730, and completed 1770. The gate towards
Smithfield was built in 1702, the laboratory in 1793 by George Dance,
R.A., and the New Surgery in 1842. The School of Medicine, rebuilt
in 1878-1879, is a substantial structure of granite and Portland stone,
designed by E. I'Anson. It presents a handsome classic facade to
Giltspur Street, a museum, library, class-rooms, and offices. This Hos-
pital gives relief to all poor persons suffering from accident or disease,
either as in-patients or out-patients. Cases of all kinds are received into
the Hospital, including diseases of the eyes, distortions of the limbs, and
all other infirmities which can be relieved by medicine or surgery. Acci-
dents or cases of urgent disease are admitted without any letter of re-
commendation or other formality at all hours of the day or night to the
Surgery, where there is a person in constant attendance, and the aid
of the Resident Medical Officers can be instantly obtained. Ordinary
cases are admitted any week day between 9 and 10 o'clock. The
Hospital contains 676 beds, and relief is afforded to 150,000 patients
annually, of whom about 7000 are in-patients, 18,000 out-patients,
and 130,000 casual patients, medical and surgical. There are four
physicians and four assistant physicians, five surgeons and five assist-
ant surgeons, two accoucheurs, two ophthalmic surgeons, one aural
surgeon, four dentists, two chloroformists, and an electrician, with a
large staff of clinical clerks and dressers under them. There are 29
sisters and about 130 nurses.
One of the greatest individual benefactors to the Hospital was .the
celebrated Dr. Radcliffe, who left the yearly sum of ^500 for ever
towards mending the diet of the Hospital, and the further sum of
;ioo for ever for the purchase of linen. Original portrait of Henry
VIII. in the Committee Room, painted in 1544; Portrait of Dr.
Radcliffe, by Kneller ; good Portrait of Perceval Pott, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds ; fine Portrait of Abernethy, by Sir T. Lawrence ; Portraits
of Sir James Paget and Mr. Luther Holden, the eminent surgeons, by
Sir J. E. Millais, R.A. At the foot of the staircase leading to the
Great Hall is a good portrait of Edward Colston. In the Great Hall
upstairs, over the mantelpiece, is a painting of St. Bartholomew. The
Good Samaritan and the Pool of Bethesda, on the grand staircase, were
painted gratuitously by Hogarth, for which he was made a governor ;
the subjects are surrounded with scrollwork, painted at Hogarth's ex-
pense by his pupils.
A complete Convalescent Hospital, which will accommodate 75
patients, has been constructed at Swanley in Kent. It was formally
opened by H.R.H. the President, on July 13, 1885, and is called after
its founder, Mr. Kettlewell.
Bartholomew Lane, CITY, extends from Throgmorton Street to
Lothbury. It was so called from the church of St. Bartholomew,
BARTON STREET
behind the Exchange; taken down in 1841, when Sir William Tite's
New Royal Exchange was built. The west side is entirely occupied by
the Bank of England ; the east side by the Sun Fire Office, the Alliance
Fire and Life Office, Capel Court, Bartholomew House, and a vast block
of offices which covers the site of the once well-known Auction Mart.
Capel Court forms one of the entrances to the Stock Exchange. William
Sharp, the great line engraver, when his apprenticeship was over, com-
menced business in this street as a "bright engraver," or engraver
of door plates, dog-collars, and the ornamental parts of firearms.
A rarity, much prized among collectors, is a plate " Sharp, Engraver,
No. 9 Bartholomew Lane, Royal Exchange, London."
Bartlett's Buildings, HOLBORN CIRCUS, named after Thomas
Bartlett, whose property the^ ground was. Mentioned in the burial
register of St. Andrew's, Holborn (the parish in which it lies), as
early as November 1615, and is there called Bartlett's Court.
A very handsome spacious place, graced with good buildings of brick, with
gardens behind the houses ; and is a place very well inhabited by gentry and persons
of good repute. Strype, B. iii. p. 282.
May 13, 1714. At the meeting of the Royal Society, where was Sir Isaac
Newton, the President ; I met there also with several of my old friends, Dr. Sloane,
Dr. Halley, etc., but' I left all to go with Mr. Chamberlayn to Bartlett's Buildings,
to the other Society, viz. that for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which is to be
preferred to all other learning. Thoresby's Diary, vol. ii. p. 210.
In July following this society removed to No. 6 Searle's Court,
Lincoln's Inn. In Bartlett's Passage, which leads from Bartlett's
Buildings into Fetter Lane, Charles Lamb was at school before he
went to Christ's Hospital, and there Mary Lamb received the whole
of her education. The school was kept by "Mr. William Bird, an
eminent writer and teacher of mathematics."
I was a scholar of that " eminent writer. " . . . The school-room stands (1825)
where it did, looking into a discoloured dingy garden. ... By "mathematics,"
reader, must be understood "cyphering." It was in fact a humble day-school, at
which reading and writing were taught to us boys in the morning, and the same
slender erudition was communicated to the girls, our sisters, etc., in the evening.
Charles Lamb's Captain Starkey.
Mason Chamberlin, R.A., portrait painter, died here in 1787.
Mackeril's Quaker Coffee-house, frequently mentioned at the begin-
ning of the last century. Notes and Queries, ist S., vol. i. p. 115.
. At No. 3 Bartlett's Passage lived John Guy, author of the most
popular Spelling Book of the 1 8th century.
Barton Street, COWLEY STREET, WESTMINSTER, so called after
Barton Booth, of Cowley, in Middlesex, the original "Cato" in
Addison's play. There is a stone in the wall of the house at the
corner of this street and Great College Street with this inscription :
" Barton Street, 1722." Much of Booth's property lay in Westminster ;
and in the adjoining Abbey is a monument to his memory, erected at
the expense of his wife, the mistress of the great Duke of Marlborough,
122 BASING LANE
the "Santlow, fam'd for dance," commemorated by Gay among the
friends of Pope. Booth is buried at Cowley.
Basing Lane, BREAD STREET, CITY, was swept away in the
formation of Cannon Street. It occupied the space between Bread
Street and Cannon Street In it stood Gerard's Hall [which see].
Basinghall or Bassishaw Ward, one of the twenty-six wards of
London, described by Stow as "a small thing, consisting of one street,
called Bassings Hall Street, of Bassings Hall, the most principal house,
whereof the ward taketh name." 1 The same authority adds, " of the
Bassings therefore, builders of this house and owners of the ground
near adjoining, that ward taketh the name, as Coleman Street Ward,
of Coleman, and Farringdon Ward, of William and Nicholas Farring-
don, men that were principal owners of Aose places." Stow is very
decided on this point, but there can be no doubt that he is wrong.
In the records of the first Edwards, where Thomas de Basinge and
Robert de Basinge figure among the first men in the City, the name
of the ward is invariably written Bassieshawe. It is tolerably clear,
therefore, that the process of corruption has been inverted, and that
the confusion arose from the accident of the Basinges family fixing
their hall in the ward of the Bassies or Bassets. Mr. Riley has
pointed out a record of A.D. 1390, wherein John Prentys and John
Markingtone are sentenced to be hanged for burglary in the parish of
St. Michael, Bassieshawe, in the ward of Bassingshawe. Thus early
had the distinction been created. The church, the only one in the
ward, is dedicated to St. Michael, and is called St. Michael Bassishaw
[which see]. Sir Dudley North was alderman of this ward.
Basinghall Street [see Basinghall Ward] leads from Gresham
Street to London Wall. At the corner next Gresham Street is
Gresham College. In the street were the following Halls of Com-
panies: Masons' Hall (now let); Coopers' Hall, pulled down December
1865 and offices built on the site, 1867-1868; and Girdlers' Hall, rebuilt
1681-1682. Weavers' Hall, No. 22, was pulled down in 1856, and a
block of offices, bearing the same name, built on the site. During the
past few years several of the great blocks of offices and warehouses, which
have become so marked a feature of City architecture, have been
erected in this street, notably Gresham Buildings, which contain a
hundred distinct offices, Basing Chambers, etc. The east side and
entrance of the new Guildhall Library abuts on the street. Here also
is the ward church, St. Michael's Bassishaw, the churchyard of which
was levelled and opened into the street, January 1866.
In Basinghall Street was the mansion of Sir Dudley North :
At length he (Sir Dudley North) found a good convenient house in Basinghall
Street, with a coach-gate into the yard, next to that which Sir Jeremy Sambrook
used; and there he settled. He had the opportunity of a good housekeeper, that
1 Stow, p. 107.
BATH HOUSE 123
had been his mother's woman; though some thought her too fine for a single man as
he was, and might give scandal, and occasion his habitation being called ^winghall
Street. North's Lives of the Norths, ed. 1826, vol. iii. p. 101.
Lord Macaulay in his famous Third Chapter says that " Sir Dudley
North expended ^"4000, a sum which would then have been important
to a duke, on the rich furniture of his reception rooms in Basinghall
Street," and quotes Roger North as his authority. But North ex-
pressly states that this money was laid out after " he parted with his
house in Basinghall Street, and took that great one behind Goldsmiths'
Hall, built by Sir John Bludworth."
At No. 36, then an old-fashioned good house, with a front court
and garden, resided Mr. Robert Smith, an eminent solicitor, father of
the authors of the Rejected Addresses, both of whom were born in this
house, James Smith, February 10, 1775; Horace Smith, December
31, 1779. J. C. Lettsom, the physician and philanthropist, lived for
many years in Sambrook Court, Basinghall Street so called, no doubt,
after the Sir Jeremy Sambrook mentioned by Roger North.
Basket-Makers' Company, the 526. of the City Companies, is
a Company by prescription and by vote of the Court of Aldermen,
September 22, 1569, but has no Charter. A livery was granted the
Company in 1825. It has no Hall.
Bassishaw (Ward Of.) [See Basinghall Ward.]
Bateman's Buildings, on the south side of SOHO SQUARE,
between Frith Street and Greek Street, occupy the site of the mansion
of James, Duke of Monmouth. After the execution of the duke in
1685, Monmouth House became the property of Lord Bateman, and
was taken down in I773- 1 At No. 10 in Bateman's Buildings lived
Raphael Smith, the excellent mezzotint engraver after Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
1777. The next morning I was punctual to appointment, and posted to Soho
Square, where, at the left-hand corner of Bateman's Buildings, I knocked at the
door of a fine-looking house, and was ushered into the Library. Seated in cap and
gown at breakfast, I there for the first time saw [Colman the Elder] the manager of
the Haymarket Theatre, who received me with all the frank good nature of his
character. O'Keefe, vol. i. p. 364.
Bateman Street is the name which was given to Queen Street, Greek
Street, at the back of Bateman's Buildings, in 1884.
Bath House, PICCADILLY, No. 82, corner of Bolton Street, the
London residence of Alexander Baring, first Lord Ashburton (d. 1848),
by whom the house was built in 1821, on the site of the old Bath
House, the residence of the Pulteneys. William Pulteney, the first
Earl of Bath, gave his title to the earlier mansion ; but the house was
in no way remarkable. It is perhaps best remembered by the epigram
" Written on the Earl of Bath's Door in Piccadilly : "
1 There is a view of it by J. T. Smith.
124 BATH HOUSE
Here dead to fame lives Patriot Will,
His grave a lordly seat;
His title proves his epitaph,
His robes his winding sheet.
Sir C. Hanbttry Williams, vol. i. p. 177.
Bath House contains a noble collection of works of art, selected
with good taste and at a great expense. The pictures of the Dutch
and Flemish Schools comprise the main part of the collection.
THORWALDSEN'S Mercury as the Slayer of Argus. LEONARDO DA VINCI (?)
The Infant Christ asleep in the arms of the Virgin : an Angel lifting the
quilt from the bed. LUINI. Virgin and Child. CORREGGIO (?) St. Peter, St.
Margaret, St. Mary Magdalene, and Anthony of Padua. GIORGIONE. A Girl,
with a very beautiful profile, lays one hand on the shoulder of her lover. TITIAN.
The Daughter of Herodias with the head of St. John. PAUL VERONESE. Christ
on the Mount of Olives (a cabinet picture). ANNIBALE CARACCI. The Infant
Christ asleep, and three Angels. DOMENICHINO. Moses before the Burning Bush.
GUERCINO. St. Sebastian mourned by two Angels (a cabinet picture). MURILLO.
St. Thomas of Villa Nueva, as a child, distributes alms among four Beggar boys.
The Madonna surrounded by Angels. The Virgin and Child on clouds surrounded
by three Angels. Christ looking up to Heaven. VELAZQUEZ. A Stag Hunt.
RUBENS. The Wolf Hunt, a celebrated picture painted in 1612. "The fire of a
fine dappled gray horse which carries Rubens himself is expressed with incomparable
animation. Next him, on a brown horse, is his first wife, Caroline Brant, with a
falcon on her hand." Waagen. Rape of the Sabines. Reconciliation of the
Romans and Sabines. ' ' Few pictures of Rubens, even of his most finished works,
give a higher idea of his genius." Sir Joshua Reynolds. VANDYCK. The Virgin
Mary, with the Child upon her lap, and Joseph seated in a landscape looking at the
dance of eight Angels. Count Nassau in armour (three-quarter size). One of the
Children of Charles I. with flowers (bust). Charles I. (full length). Henrietta
Maria (full length). REMBRANDT. Portrait of Himself at an advanced age.
Portrait of a middle-aged Man. Lieven von Coppenol (the celebrated writing-
master) with a sheet of paper in his hand (very fine). Two Portraits (Man and
Wife). G. Dow. A Hermit praying before a Crucifix. "Of all Dow's pictures
of this kind, this is carried the furthest in laborious execution. "Waagen, TER-
BURG. A Girl in a yellow jacket, with a lute. G. METZU. A Girl in a scarlet
jacket. NETSCHER. Boy leaning on the sill of a window, blowing bubbles. A.
VANDERWERFF. St. Margaret treading on the vanquished Dragon. JAN STEEN.
An Alehouse, a composition of thirteen figures. Playing at Skittles. DE
HOOGHE. A Street in Utrecht, a Woman and Child walking in the sunshine
(very fine). TENIERS. The Seven Works of Mercy. The picture so celebrated
by the name of La Manchot. Portrait of Himself (whole length, in a black Spanish
costume). Courtyard of a Village Alehouse. A Landscape, with Cows and
Sheep. A. OSTADE. (Several fine.) I. OSTADE. Village Alehouse. PAUL
POTTER. Cows, etc., marked with his name and the date 1652. Oxen butting
each other in play; the Church Steeple of Haarlem at a distance. A. VANDEVELDE.
The Hay Harvest. Three Cows, etc. BERGHEM. An admirable work. KAREL
DU JARDIN. A Watermill. PHILIP WOUVERMANS. CUYP. WYNANTS. RUYS-
DAEL. HOBBEMA. W. VANDEVELDE. "La petite Flotte." BACKHUYSEN.
VAN DER HEYDEN. Market-place of Henskirk, near Haarlem. VAN HUYSUM.
Flower Pieces. HOLBEIN. A Head. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. Head of Ariadne.
Bath House, HOLBORN. [See Brook House.]
Bath Inn or Place, WITHOUT TEMPLE BAR. The town-house
of the Bishops of Bath and Wells stood on the site of Arundel Street
It was taken from Bishop Barlow by the Lord High Admiral Seymour,
BATSON'S 125
and called Seymour Place. It afterwards came into the possession of
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel.
1522. Sir John Mundy, Mayor. Then came the King of Denmark, with his
Queene, and lay in the Bishop of Bath's place, without Temple Bar. And there
was the Roodes lost. London Chronicle, Cam. Sac. p. 8. "The Roodes" means
the Island of Rhodes.
October 21, 1557. Died my Lady the Countess of Arundel at Bathe Place in St.
Clement's Parish without Temple Bar. She was buried in great state. Machyn's
Diary, p. 155.
Bath Street, NEWGATE STREET. [See Bagnio Court and Pincock
Lane.]
Bath Street, ST. LUKE'S, on the north side of Old Street, leading
to the City Road, originally called Pest House Lane, after the City
Pest House, which stood here from 1665 until 1737. The name Bath
Street was given to it from its nearness to the public bath, called first
"Perilous Pond" and then "Peerless Pool." Edward Alleyn, the
philanthropic actor, chose this place for one of his foundations of
almshouses. On July 13, 1620, he laid the first brick of the building,
and in the following year placed three men and seven women as the
first inmates of the ten newly-built houses. The almshouses were
rebuilt in 1707, and again in 1874 were rebuilt and enlarged by T.
J. Hill, architect, so as to accommodate twenty-two persons, or twelve
additional to the original foundation.
Here also were the Girdlers' Almshouses and the Hospital for
distressed descendants of French Protestant Refugees, till the former
were removed to Peckham and the latter to Victoria Park.
Bath Street, Great, COLD BATH FIELDS. Here died, March
29, 1772, at No. 26, the house of one Shearsmith, a peruke maker,
Emanuel Swedenborg, founder of the " Church of the New Jerusalem,"
or, as they are usually called, Swedenborgians. In 1784 Henry Bone,
R.A., the enamel painter, was living in Great Bath Street. On May 28,
1741, Thomas Topham, "the second Samson," a man of herculean
strength, not as yet surpassed, if equalled, performed, in honour of
Admiral Vernon's birthday, the feat of lifting three hogsheads of water,
weighing 1836 Ibs., as shown in a contemporary print of which there is
a copy in the British Museum. Topham, who united the strength of
twelve men, kept the' Apple Tree public-house in Cold Bath Fields, and
afterwards the Duke's Head, Islington. He died August 10, 1749.
Bathesteres Lane, a place with this name situated in the parish
of All Hallows " del warf " or "ad fenum," is mentioned in deeds of the
reigns of Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III., belonging to the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. See Maxwell Lyte's Report, Historical
MSS. Comm.) Appendix to Ninth Report, pp. i, 28.
Batson's. A City coffee-house " against the Royal Exchange in
Cornhill," 1 much "frequented by men of intelligence 2 for conversa-
tion," a house of call for physicians, and a favourite resort of Sir Richard
Blackmore.
1 London Gazette for 1693, No. 2939. 2 Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 406.
126 BATS ON' S
And therefore far the greatest part of that poem [Prince Arthtir] was written in
coffee-houses, and in passing up and down the streets, because I had little leisure
elsewhere to apply to it. Blackmore, Pref. to King Arthur, fol. 1697, p. 5.
In the first number of The Connoisseur (January 31, 1754) physicians are spoken
of as " the dispensers of life and death, who flock together, like birds of prey, watch-
ing for carcases, at Batson's. I never enter this place but it serves as a memento
mori to me. What a formal assemblage of sable suits and tremendous perukes. . . .
Batson's has been reckoned the seat of solemn stupidity : yet is it not totally devoid
of taste and common sense.
A haughty bard to fame by volumes rais'd,
At Dick's and Batson's, and through Smithfield prais'd,
Cries out aloud etc.
E. Smith's Poem to the Memory of John Philips.
In 1795, after a dinner with Dr. Pitcairn, Speaker Abbot records in his Diary
that "Dr. Mead used to go into the City to Batson's Coffee-House, and meet all
the apothecaries, hear them, and prescribe." " Physicians in those days never
visited the wards of hospitals, nor ever saw the greater number of their patients.
The business was transacted by consultations, held at the physician's house with the
apothecaries, who related the patients' cases. Dr. Friend and Dr. Radcliffe were both
of them members of the House of Commons." Lord Colchester's Diary, vol. i. p. 26.
Sir William Blizard, the eminent surgeon, regularly attended
Batson's for consultations, and is said to have been the last medical
man in London who did so. 1
At the age of eighty, on St. Luke's day, 1 7 7 1, Sir W. Browne came to
Batson's in his laced coat and his fringed white gloves to show himself
to Mr. Crosby, then Lord Mayor. A gentleman present observing he
looked very well, he replied, " I have neither wife nor debts."
Battersea, a parish and manor on the Surrey side of the Thames,
once known for its asparagus fields, Red House, and pigeon shooting,
now visited for its park and noted for its factories. The name has
undergone several changes. In the Conqueror's Survey it is called
Patricsey. In the same Survey, Petersham, which belonged to St.
Peter's Abbey, Chertsey, is spelt Patricesham. As the c in both these
was sibilant, the pronunciation could not have been very different from
what it is now. It is, however, a curious anomaly that the / in
Patricsey should have changed into b, while that in Patricesham has
continued unchanged. The manor was then held by the Abbey of St.
Peter, Westminster, having been transferred to it with other lands belong-
ing to King Harold. In the deed of grant, quoted by Dugdale, the name
is given as Batericheseye. Subsequently it occurs as Patrichesea (temp.
Stephen), Batrichsey, Battersea. Walsingham mentions it three times
in his Diary, all in one month, and each time spells it differently,
Batersaye, Batersie, Battersey. The early etymologies are not worth
referring to, Lysons says :
Of the original signification of the word there can be little doubt. " Patricesy,"
in the Saxon, is Peter's water or river ; and as the same record which calls it
"Patricesy" mentions that it was given to St. Peter, it might then first assume
that appellation ; but this I own to be conjecture.
1 Cooke's Memoir of Sir William Klizard.
BATTERSEA 127
Taylor admits the derivation, though he renders it St. Peter's
Island, 1 and this is probably correct, as this neighbourhood was marshy,
and the settlement, bounded on one side by a brook from Wandsworth,
may easily have been nearly if not quite surrounded by water. The
manor was retained by the Abbey of Westminster until the dissolution
of religious houses, when it passed to the Crown. In the year 1627 it
was granted in reversion to Sir Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison,
(d. 1630), and remained in the possession of the St. John family till
1763, when it was sold to the Spencers, Earls Spencer, who still retain
it. The St. Johns settled at Battersea, and lived in a large house east
of the church. When Bolingbroke went to France in 1735 he lent
this house to his (and Pope's) friend, Hugh, Earl of Marchmont ; and
writing to him on August 2, he says : " I was glad to see a letter from
you, my dear Lord, dated from Battersea ; .and if I had imagined that
habitation would have suited you, it should have been offered sooner."
On his return to England in 1742, Bolingbroke settled at Battersea,
and there, "pedantic and fretful" (as Lord Chatham notes 2 ) he spent his
last days. Among the interesting circumstances connected with this
house it may be mentioned that the 500 copies of the Patriot King, about
the printing of which Bolingbroke and Pope made so much mystery, were
eventually carried to Battersea and burnt on the lawn. The greater
part of Bolingbroke House was demolished in 1778, only the wing
being left which contained the circular room, wainscoted with cedar,
popularly known as Pope's study. Only the memory of the house is now
preserved in the names of Bolingbroke Road and Bolingbroke Terrace.
Lawrence Booth, Bishop of Durham in 1460, purchased of the
trustees of Thomas, Lord Stanley, an estate at Battersea, which, on his
elevation to the Archbishopric of York, he presented to that see, and
built on it a mansion as an occasional residence for himself and his
successors when called to visit London. The last archbishop who
occupied York House was Archbishop Holgate, who was deprived and
imprisoned by Queen Mary for being a married man. Strype relates
that the officers sent to search his house at Battersea "rifled it of ^300
in gold coin, 1600 ounces of plate, a mitre of fine gold, with two
pendants set round about the sides and middle with very fine pointed
diamonds, sapphires, and balists. . . . The Archbishop's seal in silver,
and his signet in antique set in gold," with many other valuables. 3
Under the Protectorate York House was leased to Sir Allen Apsley
and his brother-in-law, Colonel Hutchinson. Henry Elsynge (1598),
clerk of the House of Commons, and Richard Burke (1758) were born
at Battersea. It was restored to the see on the return of Charles II.,
but did not again become an episcopal residence. The house, which
was pulled down about i 800, stood close to the Thames, and this memory,
if not the site, is marked by the names of York Terrace and York Road.
Battersea Church (dedicated to St. Mary) was rebuilt in brick
1 Lysons, Environs, vol. i. p. 19 ; Taylor, Words 2 Communication to Lord Shelburne in Bow! es's
and Places, p. 280. Pope. 3 Strype, Life of Cranmer.
128 BATTERSEA
in 1776. When the old building was pulled down care was taken
.to preserve the monuments and the stained glass, which were re-
erected in the new one, and reopened November 17, 1777. It was
altered in 1823, and repaired and somewhat improved in 1878. The
noticeable feature of the exterior is the tower. Against the north wall
is a monument, with busts to Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison,
and his wife (d. 1630); and on the same wall a monument with
medallions, by Roubiliac, to Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke,
and his second wife, the niece of Madame de Maintenon. The
inscription is well known : " Here lies Henry St. John, in the reign
of Queen Anne, Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and Viscount
Bolingbroke : in the days of King George I., and King George II.,
something more and better." A window contains heraldic emblazon-
ings of the St. John family. The poet Cowley retired to Battersea
before going to Barn Elms, and finally to Chertsey. Against the south
wall is a monument to Sir Edward Wynter (d. 1685-1686), with bas-
relief, representing the performance of the two extraordinary feats
commemorated in the concluding lines of the inscription :
Alone, unarm'd, a tyger he oppress'd,
And crush'd to death the monster of a beast ;
Twice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew,
Singly on foot ; some wounded, some he slew,
.Dispers'd the rest. What more could Samson do?
Bishop Patrick (Chichester and Ely) was vicar from 1657 to 1675.
There is a tablet to Thomas Astle, keeper of the Records of the Tower
of London, who died 1803, in his sixty-eighth year. The vestry of
the church has a low window overlooking the river. The parish register,
commenced in 1559, records the baptism and burial of Lord Boling-
broke : "Henry, son of Henry St. John, Esq., baptized October 10,
1678," and "Henry St. John, late Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, buried
December 18, 1751;" the interment in the churchyard (1760) of
Arthur Collins, author of The Peerage which bears his name ; and
(1799) of William Curtis, author of Flora Londinensis. It also records
that on Sunday, August 18, 1782, -William Blake was married to
Catherine Sophia Boucher. She was unable at that time to write, and
a x does duty for her signature. Her name is given in the register
as Catherine Butcher. Her parents, William and Mary Boucher, dwelt
in Battersea, and she herself was born in the parish and baptized in
this church. This church, with St. George's Chapel of Ease, a plain
brick building in the Wandsworth Road, sufficed for the parish till
1847, since when at least half a dozen new churches, all Gothic, and
all laying claim to architectural taste, have been erected : Christ
Church (1847-1849), in the Decorated style, designed by Mr. C. Lee;
St. John's (1862-1863), Early English, Mr. E. C. Robins, architect;
St. Saviour's (1872), Early French Gothic; St. Mark's," Battersea Rise;
St. Philip's, Queen's Road; and St. Peter's, Plough Lane. By the
Thames is the St. John's Training College of the National Society, an
BATTERSEA 129
important establishment, founded about 1840 for training young men
for masters in the Society's schools. Here also is the Southlands
Wesleyan Training College for female teachers.
Battersea Marsh and Battersea Fields, fields and marsh no
longer, were of old famous haunts of the London botanist and butterfly
collector. Here, by the little pier on Thames's side, was the RED HOUSE,
with its pleasure grounds, a noted place of entertainment, and until the
formation of Battersea Park a great resort for pigeon shooting. It was
in Battersea Fields that the Duke of Wellington fought a duel with
Lord Winchelsea, March 21, 1829. Battersea Rise, the slope between
Battersea Fields and Clapham Common, now much encroached upon
by the builder, had formerly many good residences. William Wilber-
force was living here in 1793; and here was the residence of Mr.
Thornton, whose garden and the view from it were in his early days
Macaulay's " especial delight."
A factory for works in enamel was established at Battersea about
the middle of the last century, and many excellent pieces were
wrought there. It lasted however only 30 or 40 years, and Battersea
enamels are now rare and greatly prized by collectors. Some good
specimens are in the South Kensington Museum. Now Battersea
abounds in factories, but of a very different and less elegant description,
though some are interesting in their way. Among them are Price's Bel-
mont Candle Works, which employ nearly 1000 hands ; Field's Ozokerite
Refinery and Candle Works ; Plumbago Crucible Factory, the largest
extant ; Silicated Carbon Filter Factory ; Delft and Fire-brick Works ;
Condy's Fluid and Chemical Works ; Acetic Acid, Vitriol and Varnish
Works ; the Locomotive Works of the South Eastern, and London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway Companies, and other large engineering
establishments and iron foundries ; and to assist in supplying healthy
and comfortable homes for the great army of working men here, is the
Shafiesbury Park Estate, of 40 acres, laid out with ample open spaces
and providing several hundred dwellings, constructed on approved
sanitary principles.
Battersea is united to Chelsea by three bridges. Battersea Bridge,
or "the old bridge," was of wood, and had seventeen narrow arches. It
was built in 1771-1772 under the direction of Mr. Holland, at the ex-
pense of fifteen proprietors, who subscribed ; 1 5 oo each. The proprietors'
rights were purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the bridge
made toll-free in 1878. Ini88i it was closed as unsafe, and a new bridge
is now in course of building on the east of the old structure. It is of iron,
with five spans, the centre 173 feet wide; width of roadway 40 feet;
estimated cost ^2 31,000. Lower down the river, immediately west
of Battersea Park, is Albert Suspension Bridge. [Described under that
title.] Chelsea Suspension Bridge, at the east end of Battersea Pier, was
built, 1854-1858, by Mr. T. Page, C.E., the designer of Westminster
Bridge. Directly east of this is a handsome iron bridge of four segmental
arches, erected in 1860 to carry the west-end branch of the Brighton and
VOL. i K
130 BATTERSEA
South-Coast Railway across the Thames ; and adjoining this is the
bridge which carries the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The
West London Railway crosses the Thames some distance west of
Battersea Bridge. Battersea is well supplied with railway stations, and
has two steam-boat piers.
Battersea Park, east of Battersea, has an area of 199 acres.
An Act empowering the formation of a park on the land known as
Battersea Fields was passed in 1846, and an Act to alter and extend
the powers of the commissioners in 1851. The construction of the
park proved to be costly and tedious. Much of the land was submerged
at every tide, and most of it was marshy. An embankment had to be
carried along the Thames, the land thoroughly drained, and, as most
of it was below the river, it was deemed expedient to raise the level of
the surface by laying upon it about 1,000,000 cubic feet of earth, obtained
in excavating the Victoria Docks, below Blackwall, and brought up
here in barges. The land so prepared was ready for laying out and
planting in 1856, and the park was formally opened, March 28, 1858.
The total cost was nearly .313,000. The park was laid out with much
taste and increases in beauty yearly. Its special feature is the Subtropical
Garden, of about 4 acres, which is the finest thing of the kind open to
the public. As mentioned under BATTERSEA, bridges cross the Thames
directly east and west of the park, and there are railway stations and a
steam-boat pier close at hand, so that Battersea Park is readily accessible
from any part of London, and it is well worth visiting.
Battle Bridge, ST. PANCRAS, at the junction of Gray's Inn Road
with the Pentonville and Euston Roads. It is now known as KING'S
CROSS, from a statue of George IV., erected in 1836 by Stephen
Geary, a most execrable performance, cleverly burlesqued by Cruik-
shank, and not unfairly represented by Pugin in his amusing
Contrasts. The statue was taken down in 1845, deposited in a
mason's yard, and broken up. The name Battle Bridge was com-
monly derived from a battle said to have been fought here between
Alfred and the Danes. Stukeley, on the other hand, fancied he had
found in Battle Bridge the site of the battle fought by the Britons,
under Boadicea, against the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus. A
fragment of stone bearing portions of a Roman inscription, in which
occur the letters Leg. XX., was found here in July I842. 1
The spring after the conflagration at London, all the ruines were overgrown with
an herbe or two ; but especially one with a yellow flower : and on the south side of
St. Paul's Church it grew as thick as could be ; nay, on the very top of the tower.
The herbalists call it Ericolevis Neafolitana, small bank cresses of Naples ; which
plant Tho. Willis [the famous physician] told me he knew before but in one place
about the towne ; and that was at Battle Bridge, by the Pindar of Wakefield, and
that in no great quantity. Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, p. 38.
As late as 1791 Battle Bridge is described as "a small village on
the new road from Islington to Tottenham Court." 2 Battle Bridge,
1 Gentleman's Magazine, August 1842, p. 144. 2 Kearsley's Strangers Guide.
BAYNARD'S CASTLE 131
or King's Cross, is now a very busy place. Here is the terminus of
the Great Northern Railway, erected 1852 by Mr. Lewis Cubitt, on the
grounds of the Small-Pox Hospital; 1 and only divided from it by St.
Pancras Road is the magnificent terminus of the Midland Railway,
designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.
Battle Bridge, by Mill Lane, Tooley Street, SOUTHWARK.
So called of Battaile Abbey, for that it standeth on the ground, and over a watere
course (flowing out of the Thames), pertaining to that Abbey. Stow, p. 155.
The Abbot of Battle had here his inn or town-house, with its
gardens and maze. Here by the Thames, opposite the east end of the
Custom House, are Battle Bridge Stairs.
Batty's Hippodrome, KENSINGTON, was situated immediately
opposite the broad walk of Kensington Gardens, and was opened as a
place of entertainment at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851,
when London was filled with visitors. The site was subsequently
occupied by a riding school until it was required for building purposes.
Bayham Street, CAMDEN TOWNS, runs from Crowndale Road to
Camden Road, parallel to and east of High Street. So named from
Bayham Abbey, Sussex, the seat of the Marquis Camden, ground
landlord of the property. In 1821, when Charles Dickens was brought
from Chatham to London, his father took a house in this street.
Dickens in after life used to speak of his musings "in the little dark
back-garret in Bayham Street." 2
Mr. Holl the engraver, father of Mr. Francis Holl and Mr. William
Holl, engravers, and Mr. Henry Holl the actor, lived in this street, as did
Mr. Henry Selous the painter.
Bayley Street, BEDFORD SQUARE, leading from Tottenham Court
Road to the Square. It was formerly Bedford Street, but the name
was changed in 1878. [See Bedford Street]
Baynard's Castle stood on the banks of the Thames, at the
western boundary of London, and was so called of Ralph Baynard, or
Bainardus, the Norman associate of William the Conqueror. It was
forfeited by William Baynard, Baron of Dunmow, in 1 1 1 1, and was
granted by Henry I. to Robert Fitzgerard, son of Gilbert, Earl of Clare.
In 1213 Robert Fitzwalter, who had succeeded to the castle and
honour, taking part with the Barons, was banished the realm by John,
and his castle dismantled. A year or two later he was recalled and
pardoned, had his estates restored, and was declared of right chief
bannerer or castellan of the City of London. The site of the castle
was included in the precincts of the Blackfriars. The better-known
Baynard Castle, built in 1428 by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was
built on land on the banks of the Thames, below Thames Street. The
relative positions of the two Castles Baynard are shown in a plan of
the ward of Castle Baynard in Mr. Loftie's London (Historic Towns).
1 Originally built in 1793-1794. 2 Forster, Life of Dickens, vol. i. pp. 15, 19.
132 BAYNARD'S CASTLE
On the Duke of Gloucester's attainder it reverted to the Crown, in
whose possession it continued to the reign of Elizabeth, when it was
leased to the Earl of Pembroke. In 1457 Richard, Duke of York,
was lodging in Baynard's Castle " as in his own house." On the death
of Edward IV., the great council of nobles and prelates for the settle-
ment of the government, and for arranging the coronation of Edward V.,
met from day to day at Baynard's Castle ; and in the court there, after
the murder of Hastings, Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, offered the
crown to the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Shakespeare
has depicted it in a scene of inimitable excellence ; but in his descrip-
tion he has closely followed Sir Thomas More's Life of Edward V.,
where the citizens are conducted to "the courtyard of Baynard's
Castle," Catesby "enters from the castle;" Richard "appears in a
gallery above between two bishops;" and Buckingham "plays the
orator" so effectually that the whole assembly in the courtyard say
Amen when he winds up with
Thus I salute you with this royal title
Long live King Richard, England's worthy King.
From its occupation by the Duke of York, Baynard's Castle had come
to be called York House ; but the old name was restored by Henry
VII., about 1487, when he entirely re-edified the castle, but made it less
like a fortress and more like a palace than before. He and his queen
lodged or refreshed here on occasion of visits of ceremony to the City.
In 1503 the King of Castile was lodged at Baynard's Castle. In 1515,
when the great case of Dr. Standish was pending, "all the Lords
spiritual and temporal, with many of the House of Commons, and all
the judges and the King's council, were called before the King [Henry
VIII.] to Baynard's Castle," where the proceedings commenced by
Wolsey kneeling down before the King and stating the case of the
clergy. 1 It was here that, on July 19, 1553, "the council, partly
moved with the right of the Lady Mary's cause, partly considering that
the most of the realm were wholly bent on her side, changing their
mind from Lady Jane, lately proclaimed Queen, assembled themselves,
where they communed with the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of
Shrewsbury; and Sir John Mason, clerk of the council, sent for the
Lord Mayor, and then riding into Cheap, to the Cross, where Garter
King-at-Arms, trumpets being sounded, proclaimed the Lady Mary,
daughter of King Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine, Queen of
England, etc." 2 Queen Elizabeth granted Baynard's Castle on lease
to the Earl of Pembroke; and here the brothers, to whom the first
folio of Shakespeare was dedicated, William, Earl of Pembroke, in
1617, and Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, in 1641,
were respectively installed Chancellors of the University of Oxford ;
and here the latter's second countess, the still more celebrated " Anne
Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery," took up her abode while her
husband, as Lord Chamberlain, resided at the Cockpit at Whitehall.
1 Durnet, vol. i. p. 13 ; Greyfriar's Chronicle. a Slow, p. 26.
BAYSWATER 133
She describes it in her Memoirs as " a house full of riches and more
secured by my lying there."
April 25, 1559. The Queen in the afternoon went to Bainard's Castle, the Earl
of Pembroke's place, and supped with him, and after supper she took a boat and
was tossed up and down upon the river Thames, hundreds of boats and barges rowing
about her, and thousands of people thronging at the water-side to look upon her
Majesty, rejoicing to see her, and sights upon the Thames. Strype, History of
the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, p. 1 88.
Sir Philip Sidney writes to Hatton, "from Bainard's Castle,"
November 13, isSi. 1 Here, on June 19, 1660, King Charles II.
went to supper :
June 19, 1660. My Lord [i.e. Lord Sandwich] went at night with the King to
Baynard's Castle to supper. Pepys.
In a letter of December 18, 1648, Evelyn mentions that the Parliament
had garrisoned Baynard's Castle with divers other considerable places
in the body and rivage of the City. Baynard's Castle was destroyed
in the Great Fire. " Only a round tower, part of Baynard's Castle, yet
stands, and, with other additional buildings, is converted into a dwell-
ing-house." 2 A memory of its existence is preserved in the name it
has given to the ward of Castle Baynard, and in the sign of Castle
Baynard given to a new tavern, noticeable for its elaborate terra-cotta
decoration, at the corner of St. Andrew's Hill, in Queen Victoria Street.
Bayswater, a large district of handsome houses, west of Oxford
Street, and within the parish of Paddington, formed into crescents,
terraces, squares, and streets since 1839. The best houses front Hyde
Park and Kensington Gardens, the largest and showiest cluster about
Lancaster Gate. The eastern portion of the district is now best known
perhaps as Tyburnia, but this last is a colloquial term, and somewhat
indefinite in its limitations. [See Tyburnia.]
Bayswater was so called from Bainardus, the Norman associate of
William the Conqueror, who has given his name to Baynard's Castle,
and the ward of Castle Baynard. Bainardus was a tenant of the Abbot
of Westminster, and in a Parliamentary grant of the year 1653 of the
Abbey or Chapter Lands, " the common field at Paddington " is de-
scribed as " near to a place commonly called Baynard's Water." In
1720 the lands of the Dean and Chapter in the same common field are
stated (in a terrier of the Chapter) to be in the occupation of Alexander
Bond, of Bear's Watering, in the parish of Paddington. 3 To this we
may add that in the Vestry Minute Book of the Parish of St. Martin's
for the year 1654, is the entry, "From the place or water commonly
called by the name of Baynard's Watering." Canon Taylor's conjec-
ture that Bayswater derives its name from the circumstance that " where
this stream [the Westbourne] crossed the Great Western Road it spread
out into a shallow bay-water where cattle might drink by the way-
side," 4 finds no support in local character, documents, or tradition.
1 Wright, vol. ii. p. 163. 2 Strype's Stow (1720), B. i. p. 62.
3 E. S. [Edward Smirke, F.S.A.], in Notes and Queries, ist S., vol. i. p. 162.
4 Words and Places, p. 278.
I 3 4 BAYS WATER
Bayswater was famous of old for its springs, reservoirs, and conduits,
supplying the greater part of the City of London with water. Part of
the great main pipe of lead which conveyed water from this place to
the City conduits was discovered during the repavement of the Strand
in June 1765 ; and as late as 1795 the houses in Bond Street standing
upon the City lands were supplied from Bayswater. 1 Two of the origi-
nal springs on Craven Hill were covered in as late as 1849. I* 1 tne
early years of the present century there was a popular Tea -Garden and
place of entertainment at Bayswater, the house and gardens having
previously acquired notoriety as the place where- the famous quack
doctor and author, Sir John Hill, wrote his books, British Herbal,
History of the Materia Medica, General Natural History, and Vegetable
System, in twenty-six folio volumes, received his patients, and grew
the simples with which he treated them. Besides the churches and
chapels which have been erected here, two rather remarkable places of
worship have been recently opened in Moscow Road and Peters-
burg Place : one is a Greek Church, very richly fitted internally, and
now the chief church of the wealthy Greek community settled in Lon-
don; the other the New West End Synagogue, a structure of some
external display and much internal splendour, designed by Messrs.
Nathan and Pearson, and consecrated March 29, 1879. The Hebrew
name of the new synagogue, it was said in the consecration sermon, is
" The Western Wall," and it is so called from the sole relic of the great
Temple in Jerusalem, now " the Wailing Place " of the Jews in the
Holy City. At Bayswater House (which stood by itself in the road
somewhere between Lancaster Gate and Orme Square) lived Fauntle-
roy, the banker and forger. Fronting Hyde Park, and formed in 1764,
is a spacious burial-ground belonging to the parish of St. George,
Hanover Square. Eminent Persons interred. Lawrence Sterne (d.
1768), on the west side, about the middle of the ground, and against
the wall ; there is a head-stone to his memory, raised by certain free-
masons.
The graveyard lay far from houses ; no watch was kept after dark ; all shunned
the ill-famed neighbourhood. Sterne's grave was marked down by the body-snatchers,
the corpse dug up and sold to the Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge. A student
present at the dissection recognised under the scalpel the face. Leslie's Reynolds,
vol. i. p. 293.
Sir Thomas Picton, who fell at Waterloo, this body was removed to
the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the family vault. Mrs. Radcliffe,
author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (d. 1823); Sir John Parnell,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ireland (1744-1801), and his son, Henry
Brooke Parnell, first Lord Congleton (1776-1842) ; Paul Sandby, R.A.,
(1725-1809); Horace Hone, minature painter (d. 1825), in the vaults
of the chapel. J. T. Smith, the engraver of so many curious London
views (d. 1833), keeper of the prints in the British Museum, and author
of Nollekens and his Times, and the gossiping Streets of London, and
1 Of the " Conduit near Bayswater " there is a view by J. T. Smith.
THE BEAR AT THE BRIDGE FOOT 135
Book for a Rainy Day. Sterne's tomb is in a very neglected condition,
as indeed are all the monuments. In the ante-chapel is the tablet to
Mrs. Molony with its singular inscription. As this is usually misquoted
it may be well to give the main portion of it here :
Sacred to the memory of Mrs Jane Molony who lies interred in a vault underneath
this chapel, daughter of Anthony Shee of Castle Bar in the County of Mayo, Esq
who was married to Miss Burke of Curry in the said County and Cousin to the Rt
Hon Edmond Burke commonly called the Sublime, whose bust is here surmounted
or subjoined. 1 The said Jane was cousin to the late Countess of Buckinghamshire,
and was married to three successive husbands. . . . The said Mrs Molony other-
wise Shee died in London in January 1839 aged 74. She was hot, passionate and
tender, and a highly accomplished lady, and a superb drawer in Water Colours, which
was much admired in the Exhibition room in Somerset House some years past.
"Though lost for ever, still a friend is dear. The heart yet pays a tributary tear."
This monument was erected by her deeply afflicted husband, the said Edmond Molony
in memory of her great virtue and talents. Beloved and deeply regretted by all who
knew her. For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.
The chapel is closed and semi-ruinous, and the whole place looks
desolate. It has been proposed to convert it into a public garden ; but
seeing how near are Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, it may be
doubted if for recreation it is required, or on sanitary grounds it is
advisable. For several years before it was closed for interments
upwards of 1000 persons were buried in it annually, and it was with
great difficulty that room for a new grave could be found. The vaults
beneath the chapel contained, in 1850, as many as 1120 coffins.
Bayswater Hill. At No. 8 died in 1883 Sir Charles Hall, ex-
Vice-Chancellor. Here was the house which local tradition assigned
as the habitation of Peter the Great when in London.
Beaconsfield Club, PALL MALL, was established in 1878, and
named in honour of the then Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl
of Beaconsfield. Members were expected to give a general support to
the Conservative party. The club-house provided a limited number
of furnished bedrooms for the convenience of country members. Not
proving successful, it closed in 1887. The house is now occupied by
the Unionist Club.
Beak Street, REGENT STREET, so called from "Thomas Beake,
carpenter," to whom the property was demised in 1685. [See Pulteney
Street.] Thomas Beake, clerk of the council, was the second of the
name, and presumably son of the carpenter.
Late on Wednesday night last the corpse of Tho. Beake, Esq. , one of the Clerks
of the Council, was carried from his house in Beak Street by Golden Square, and
interred in St. James's Church. The Daily Journal, March 23, 1733.
Silver Street, Golden Square, was renamed Beak Street in 1883.
Bear (The) at the Bridge Foot, a celebrated tavern at the
Southwark end of old London Bridge, on the west side of High Street.
It was pulled down in December 1761, when the houses on the bridge
1 There is no bust.
136 THE BEAR AT THE BRIDGE FOOT
were removed and the bridge widened. One of the earliest references
to it is in the printed accounts of Sir John Howard, under 1463-1464. l
Later allusions are frequent. 2
More news ? Ay by yon Bear at Bridge Foot, in even shalt thou. The Furitaine :
or, the Widow of Watling Street, written by W. S. , 1 607.
Kickshaw. Madam, you gave your nephew for my pupil,
I read but in a tavern ; if you'll honour us,
The Bear at the Bridge Foot shall entertain you.
SHIRLEY, The Lady of Pleasure, 410, 1637.
All back-doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be shut up, only the
Bear at the Bridge Foot is exempted by reason of the passage to Greenwich.
Garrard to Lord Strajford, January 9, 1633.
From Greenwich toward the Bear at Bridge Foot,
He was wafted with wind that had water to't,
But I think they brought the Devil to boot,
Which nobody can deny,
Rump Songs, ed. 1662, p. 309.
The Earl of Buccleugh being newly returned out of the Low Countries, where he
had been long a colonel, Sir Jacob Astley and he coming that day post from Rochester,
lighted at the Bear at Bridge Foot, when they drank a glass of sack with a toast ;
putting instantly to water, being not many boats' lengths from the shore, my Lord
Buccleugh cried out, " I am deadly sick, row back ; Lord have mercy upon me !"
without more words spoken, died that night. Garrard to Lord Strafford, December
6, 1633-
February 24, 1666-67. Going through Bridge [London Bridge] by water, my
waterman told me how the mistress of the Beare Tavern, at the Bridge Foot, did
lately fling herself into the Thames, and drown herself. Pepys.
April 3, 1667. I hear how the King is not so well pleased of this marriage
between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stuart, as is talked ; and that he by a wile
did fetch her to the Bear at the Bridge Foot, where a coach was ready, and they are
stole away into Kent [Cobham] without the King's leave. Pepys.
Major Pack 3 repeats one piece of [coarse] gallantry, among many
others, that Mr. Wycherly related, in which he took part, in " a house
at the Bridge Foot, where persons of better condition used to resort "
to drink canary and toast their mistresses. When Bulstrode Whitelocke
returned from the Swedish Embassy in 1654, he made a halt at the
Bear before proceeding to see the Protector at Whitehall or his own
wife at Chelsea. Sir John Suckling dates his Letter from the Wine-
drinkers to the Water-drinkers from this tavern.
Bear Binder Lane, CITY, was at the Lombard Street end of St.
Swithin's Lane, east of the Mansion House. The name first appears
in the City records under the date 1358. This was the spot at which
the plague of 1665 first made its appearance within the City walls.
To the great affliction of the City, one died within the walls, in the parish of St.
1 Mr. Riley printed the lease of a tavern, 2 Gifford makes a great mistake about it. "This
D. 1319, which he believed to be identical tavern," he says, " is frequently mentioned by our
with this famous house. It is described as in the old dramatists. The bridge meant was in Shirley's
parish of St. Olave, "which tavern the same time called the Strand Bridge." Shirley's Works,
Thomas [Drinkwater] has recently built at the vol. iv. p. 72.
head of London Bridge." Memorials of London, 3 Miscellanies, 8vo, 1719, p. 185.
p. 132.
BEAR GARDEN 137
Mary Wool Church, that is to say, in Bear Binder Lane, near Stock's Market. It
was, however, upon inquiry found that the Frenchman who lived in Bear Binder
Lane was one who, having lived in Long Acre, near the infected houses, had
removed for fear of the distemper, not knowing that he was already infected. This
was in the beginning of May. De Foe, History of the Plague.
Bear Garden, BANKSIDE, SOUTHWARK, a royal garden or amphi-
theatre for the exhibition of bear and bull baitings ; a favourite amuse-
ment with the people of England till late in the reign of William III.
There was a garden here from a very early date, and Mr. Rendle
mentions that in 1586 "Morgan Pope agrees to pay unto ye parish for
the bear garden and for the ground adjoining to the same where the
dogs are 6s. 8d. at Christmas next ; and so on after 6s. 8d. by the year
for tithes." Harrison's England, pt 2, ed. Furnivall (New Shakspere
Society). The Tudors and Stuarts enjoyed the sport, and generally
introduced a new ambassador to the Bear Garden as soon as the first
audience was over. Froude relates that Elizabeth invited the Spanish
Ambassador to the Bear Garden when " Europe was ringing with the
first intelligence of Drake's exploits in the Pacific," in the hope that she
might be able, during the intervals of the engrossing sport, to wheedle
out of him the secret of what Philip II. really thought on the subject. 1
One of the bears of this time, Shakerton, has found enduring celebrity
in Shakespeare ; and the last Master of importance was Edward Alleyn,
the actor, and founder of Dulwich College. It appears from an epigram
of Crowley, the printer, that Sunday, in the reign of. Henry VIII., was
the favourite day of exhibition, 2 and from a letter of Henslowe to
Alleyn, that this custom, " which was the cheffest meanes and benyfite
to the place," continued till the reign of James I. 3 Stow does not
mention the Bear Garden in the first edition of his Survey (1598), but
in the second edition (1603) he says the baiting of bulls and bears is
much frequented, " namely in Bear Gardens, on the Bank's side, wherein
be prepared scaffolds for beholders to stand upon." Further on he
says " there be two Bear Gardens, the Old and New Places."
In 1583 one of the amphitheatres fell down, during a Sunday per-
formance, killing some of the audience. As Stow says, "a friendly
warning to such as more delight in the cruelties of beastes than in the
works of mercy, which ought to be the Sabbath day's exercise." Annales.
There is still another place built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the
baiting of bulls and bears. They are fastened behind, and then worried by great
English bull-dogs ; but not without great risque to the dogs, from the horns of the
one and the teeth of the other ; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the
spot. Fresh ones are immediately supplied in the place of those that are wounded
or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear,
which is performed by five or six men, standing circularly with whips, which they
exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his
chain. He defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come
within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips
out of their hands and breaking them. At these spectacles and everywhere else, the
1 History of England, vol. xi. p. 389. 2 Strype, B. iv, p. 6.
3 Collier's Life of Alleyn, p. 75.
138 BEAR GARDEN
English are constantly smoking tobacco. ... In these theatres fruits, such as apples,
pears, and nuts, according to their season, are carried about to be sold, as well as
ale and wine. Hentzner's Travels, A.D. 1590.
The White Bull at the Beare-garden, who tosseth up dogges like tennis balles
and catching them againe upon his horns, makes them gaiter their legges with their
owne guts. A New Booke of Mistakes, 1637, quoted in Huth's Prefaces, Dedications,
and Epistles, p. 358.
February, 1655. Colonel Pride, now Sir Thomas Pride, by reason of some
difference between him and the Keeper Godfrey of the Beares in the Bear Garden in
Southwark, as a Justice of Peace, then caused all the beares to be fast tyed up by
the noses, and then valiantly brought some files of musketeers, drew up, and gave
fyre ; and kil'd six or more beares in the Place (only leaving one white innocent
cubb), and also cockes of the game. It is said all the mastives are to be shipt for
Jamaica. Townsend's Annals, MS., p. 285 ; Prattenton's Coll., Soc. of Antiq.
The Hope on the Bank's side in Southwarke, commonly called the Beare Garden,
a play house for Stage Playes on Mundayes, Wedensdayes, Fridayes, and Saterdayes ;
and for the Baiting of the Beares on Tuesdayes and Thursdayes, the stage being
made to take up and downe when they please. It was built in the year 1610, and
now pulled downe to make tennementes by Thomas Walker, a petticoate maker in
Cannon Streete, on Tuesday the 25 day of March, 1656. Seven of Mr. Godfries
beares, by the command of Thomas Pride, then hie Sheriefe of Surry, were then
shot to death on Saterday the 9 day of February 1655 by a company of Souldiers.
Notes on London Churches and Buildings, A.D. 1631-1658; Harrison's England,
vol. ii. (New Shakspere Society).
Pepys went often to the Bear Garden, and sometimes took his
wife there; and even the sage and serious Evelyn went with some
friends and stayed to the end, though he got " most heartily weary of
the rude and dirty pastime."
August 14, 1666. After dinner with my wife and Mercer to the Beare-garden;
where I have not been I think of many years, and saw some good sport of the bulls
tossing of the dogs: one into the very boxes. But it is a very rude and nasty
pleasure. We had a great many hectors in the same box with us, and one very
fine went into the pit and played his dog for a wager, which was strange sport for a
gentleman. Pepys,
May 27, 1667. Abroad, and stopped at Bear Garden Stairs, there to see a
prize fought. But the house so full there was no getting in there, so forced to
go through an ale-house into the pit, where the bears are baited ; and upon a stool
did see them fight, which they did very furiously, a butcher and a waterman. The
former had the better all along, till, by and by, the latter dropped his sword out of
his hand, and the butcher, whether not seeing his sword dropped I know not, but
did give him a cut over the wrist, so as he was disabled to fight any longer. But
Lord ! to see how in a minute the whole stage was full of watermen to revenge the
foul play, and the butchers to defend their fellow, though most blamed him; and
there they all fell to it, to knocking down and cutting many on each side. It was
pleasant to see, but that I stood in the pit, and feared that in the tumult I might
get some hurt. At last the battle broke up, and so I away. Pepys. See also
September 9, 1667, and April 12, 1669.
June 1 6, 1670. I went with some friends to the Bear Garden, where was
cock-fighting, dog-fighting, beare and bull baiting, it being a famous day for all these
butcherly sports, or rather barbarous cruelties. The bulls did exceedingly well, but
the Irish woolfe-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a stately creature indeed,
who beat a cruel mastif. One of the bulls tossed a dog full into a lady's lap, as she
sate in one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena. Two poor dogs
were killed : and so all ended with the ape on horseback, and I most heartily weary
of the rude and dirty pastime, which I had not seen I think in twenty years before.
Evelyn, Diary.
BEAUCHAMP'S INN 139
Bold Britons, at a brave Bear-garden Fray,
Are rouz'd : and, clatt'ring Sticks, cry Play, Play, Play.
Mean time, your filthy Foreigner will stare,
And mutter to himself, Ha ! gens barbare !
And, Gad, 'tis well he mutters; well for him;
Our Butchers else would tear him limb from limb.
DRYDEN, Epilogue to Aurengzebe, 1670.
Among the Additional MSS. in the British Museum 1 is a warrant
of Lord Arlington's, dated March 28, 1676, for the payment of ;io
"to James Davies, Esq., master of His Majesty's Bears, Bulls, and
Dogs, for making ready the roomes at the Bear Garden and Bayteing
the Beares before the Spanish Ambassadors, the 7 January last, 1675."
From the Works Accounts of the Crown for 1628-1629 there appears
to have been a " Bear Stake Gallery " at Whitehall in the reign of Charles
I. In William III.'s reign this species of amusement was removed to
Hockley-in-the-Hole, "as more convenient for the butchers and such
like," then the chief patrons of this once royal amusement. [See Paris
Garden ; Hockley-in-the-Hole.]
Mr. Rendle says that there were at least four Bear Gardens two
amphitheatres shown on the Agas Map (called respectively the Bull
Baiting and the Bear Baiting}, another at the north end of the
Bear Garden Lane so called, leading from Maid Lane to the river, and
one the Hope used also as a play-house, at the south end of the
same lane.
Bear Lane, now BEER LANE, leading from Great Tower Street
to Lower Thames Street, opposite the Custom House.
At the east end of Tower Street, on the south side, have ye Beare Lane, wherein
are many fair houses, and runneth down to Thames Street. Stcnv, p. 51.
By the river, opposite the end of Bear Lane, was BEAR QUAY
(divided later into Great Bear Quay and Little Bear Quay), appro-
priated chiefly to the landing and shipment of corn.
Bear Key is between Wiggins Key and the Custom House Key. Here is a
very great market for wheat and other sorts of grain, brought hither from the
neighbouring counties; the market-days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Hatton, New View of London (1708), vol. ii. p. 784.
Bear Street, LEICESTER SQUARE, so called from the Bear and
Ragged Staff, the armorial ensign of the noble families of Neville and
Dudley. There is still a Bear and Staff public-house in this street.
In the Vestry Minutes of St Martin's-in-the-Fields, 1677, it is called
"Little Leicester Street, alias Bear Street." In Strype's Map, 1720,
it appears as Bear Lane.
Roland Lefevre, "Lefevre of Venice," portrait painter (1608-1677),
died in this street.
Bear and Harrow, behind ST. CLEMENT'S. [See Butcher Row.]
Beauchamp's Inn, ST. MARTIN ORGAR LANE, Cannon Street,
"a fair and large house, so called as pertaining unto them of that
1 No. 5750.
140 BEAUFORT BUILDINGS
family. Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury (1397-1414), com-
monly for his time was lodged there. 1 It was destroyed in the Great Fire.
Beaufort Buildings, STRAND, opposite Exeter Street.
Then on the south side of the Strand, near adjoining to the Savoy, but more
westwardly, is Beaufort Buildings ; which formerly was a very large house, with a
garden towards the river Thames, with waste ground and yards behind it eastward,
called Worcester House, as belonging to the Earl of Worcester, and descending to
Henry, Duke of Beaufort; his Grace finding it crazy, and by its antiquity grown
very ruinous, and although large yet not after the modern way of building, thought
it better to let out the ground to undertakers, than to build a new house thereon, the
steepness of the descent to the Thames rendering it not proper for great courts, nor
easy for coaches, if the house were built at such a distance from the street as would
have been proper: and having at the same time bought Buckingham [afterwards
Beaufort] House at Chelsea, in an air he thought much healthier, and near enough
to the town for business. However his Grace caused a lesser house to be there
built for himself to dispatch business in, at the end of a large street leading to it, and
having the conveniency of a prospect over the Thames. . . . This house of the
Duke, with some others, was lately burnt down by the carelessness of a servant in
one of the adjacent houses. Strype, B. iv. p. 119.
On Saturday, in the evening, about five o'clock, a violent fire broke out in
Beaufort Buildings, in the Strand, in the house of John Knight, Esq., Treasurer of
the Custom House, which in less than two hours burnt that house down to the
ground, and also consumed the Duke of Beaufort's house and another. The Postman
of the year, 1695, No. 80.
Again, on the morning of March 19, 1875, tne re-edified Beaufort
House, then partly in the occupation of Mr. Rimmel, perfumer, as a
manufactory, was totally destroyed by fire, together with some of the
adjoining houses. It was soon after rebuilt, and is now Rimmel's
factory. In a house on the site of Beaufort Buildings, Aaron Hill,
dramatist, was born in 1685. George Arbuthnot, the son of the great
wit, and Pope's executor, died at his office in these buildings. Henry
Fielding lived here, with his sister, it is said. 2
It seems that "some parochial taxes" for his house in Beaufort Buildings had
long been demanded by the collector. " At last Harry went off to Johnson and
obtained by a process of literary mortgage the needful sum. He was returning with
it, when he met an old college chum whom he had not seen for many years. He
asked his chum to dinner with him at a neighbouring tavern, and learning that he
was in difficulties, emptied the contents of his pocket into his. On returning home
he was informed that the collector had been twice for the money. ' Friendship has
called for the money and had //, ' said Fielding, ' lei the collector call again. ' " Thackeray,
English Humourists, Fielding.
At the corner of Beaufort Buildings in the Strand (the east corner,
now No. 96) lived Charles Lillie, the perfumer known to every reader
of The Tatter and Spectator. Rudolph Ackermann (d. 1834), the well-
known print-seller and publisher, went to No. 96, and about 1796 he
removed to No. 101. In 1827 he returned to 96, which had been
rebuilt for him by John B. Papworth, architect. The weekly evening
gatherings in his great room of artists, literary men, and persons of
artistic tastes, and the exhibition of new prints, pictures, etc., did
1 Stow, p. 84. - Gentleman's Magazine, 1786, p. 659.
BEAUFORT HOUSE 141
much in their day to promote a taste for art and extend artistic
culture. Richard Brothers, "the Prophet" (then a half- pay naval
officer), lived at No. 5 Beaufort Buildings, Strand, September 9,
1790, the year of his "first call," when he sent a letter to the
Admiralty, refusing to take the oath required to enable him to draw
his pay.
Beaufort House, CHELSEA, stood at the north end of Beaufort
Row, and, with the grounds, extended 100 yards west towards the river.
It was originally the mansion of the great Sir Thomas More. Edward
VI. granted it to William Pawlet, Marquis of Winchester. From the
Pawlets the house passed by purchase to the Dacre family ; from the
Dacres by bequest to the great Lord Burghley ; from Lord Burghley
to his son, Sir Robert Cecil, who sold it to Henry Fiennes, Earl of
Lincoln, from whom it passed by marriage to Sir Arthur Gorges. In
1619 Sir Arthur conveyed it to Lionel Cranfield (Lord Treasurer
Middlesex). In 1625 Lord Cranfield sold it to King Charles I., and
in 1627 the King bestowed it upon his own and his father's favourite,
the Duke of Buckingham. It was at this time called Chelsea House.
Under Cromwell the house was inhabited by Whitelocke, the memorialist,
but at the Restoration was recovered by the second Duke of Bucking-
ham, who sold it, in 1664, to John Godden, Esq. Digby, Earl of
Bristol, was its next illustrious inhabitant, whose widow sold it
(January 1682) to Henry, Marquis of Worcester, afterwards Duke or
Beaufort, when it was known as Beaufort House. When for sale in
1682, Evelyn suggested that it should be purchased by subscription,
and a school for Military Exercises established in it, but his proposal
found no support. The Beauforts sold it, in 1738, to Sir Hans Sloane,
and in 1740 the house was taken down. Inigo Jones's gateway, built
for the Lord Treasurer Middlesex, was given by Sir Hans Sloane to
the Earl of Burlington, who removed it to his garden at Chiswick,
where it is still to be seen.
January 15, 1678-1679. I went with my Lady Sunderland to Chelsey, and
dined with the Countesse of Bristol in the greate house, formerly the Duke of
Buckingham's, a spacious and excellent place for the extent of ground and situation
in good aire. The house is large, but ill contrived, though my Lord of Bristol, who
purchased it after he sold Wimbledon to my Lord Treasurer, expended much money
on it. There were divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of Bassano very
excellent. ... Of Vandyke, my Lord of Bristol's picture, with the Earl of Bedford's
at length, at the same table. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange-
trees, of which she was pleased to bestow some upon me. Evelyn.
September 3, 1683. I went to see what had been done by the Duke of Beaufort
on his late purchased house at Chelsey, which I once had the selling of for the
Countesse of Bristol ; he had made greate alterations, but might have built a better
house with the materials and cost he had been at.- Evelyn.
The Clock-house at the north end of Millman Row, long famous
for the sale of fruit, flowers, distilled waters, and gingerbread, was
originally the lodge to the gate of the stable -yard of Beaufort
House. 1
1 There is a view of the house by Kip (fol.i/o?). The front faced the river.
142 BEAUMONT STREET
Beaumont Street, MARYLEBONE, leading from Weymouth Street
to High Street. When Walter Savage Landor was rusticated from
Trinity College, Oxford, 1795, he took rooms at " 38 Beaumont Street,
Portland Place."
Bedford Avenue, COVENT GARDEN, a turning out of Bow Street
on the south side of Covent Garden Theatre, leading to the Piazza.
The entrances to the pit and galleries of the old Covent Garden
Theatre were in Bedford Avenue. It was situated where the Floral
Hall was afterwards built.
Bedford Chapel, BLOOMSBURY STREET, a proprietary chapel,
which originally stood in Charlotte Street, before the alterations caused
by the creation of New Oxford Street, when the name of this por-
tion of Charlotte Street was changed to Bloomsbury Street. In 1846
this chapel was remodelled. It was occupied for a time by the Rev.
J. M. Bellew, and is now occupied by the Rev. Stopford Brooke,
who has seceded from the Church of England.
Bedford Coffee -House, a celebrated coffee-house, "under the
Piazza in Covent Garden," frequented by Garrick, Quin, Foote,
Macklin, Murphy, Churchill, Collins the poet, Fielding, Pope, Sheridan,
Horace Walpole, and others. 1 It stood in the north-east corner, near
the entrance to Covent Garden Theatre, and has long ceased to exist.
This coffee-house is every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one
you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon-mots are echoed from box to
box ; every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every produc-
tion of the press, or performance of the theatres, weighed and determined. The
Connoisseur, No. I, January 31, 1754.
Tiger Roach (who used to bully at the Bedford Coffee-House because his name
was Roach) is set up by Wilkes's friends to burlesque Luttrel and his pretentions.
Murphy to D. Garrick, April 10, 1769 (Garrick Corr., vol. i. p. 339.) Garrick had
letters addressed to him here in 1744.
In 1763 was published Memoirs of the Bedford Coffee-House. By
Genius, dedicated to the Most Impudent Man Alive.
August 15, 1776. The Hon. , son to Lord [Mr. Darner, son of Lord
Malton] shot himself about 3 in the morning at the Bedford Arms in Covent
Garden: "after having," says Horace Walpole, "supped therewith four common
women. " 2
The Rev. Mr. Hackman spent the hours prior to murdering Miss
Reay, as she was leaving Covent Garden Theatre, April 17, 1779, in
the Bedford Coffee-House, and "behaved with great calmness, and
drank a glass of capillaire, etc." 8
I went to the Bedford Coffee-House in the evening, where I met my friends,
from thence proceeded to the play. Smollet, Roderick Random, c. 40.
The "Bedford," the " Garden," the " Town," the " Ton," the " Houses," emphati-
cally pronounced by a well-dressed man, mark the speaker to be a gentleman of
gallantry and pleasure, and probably a wit and a critic. Captain Grose, Essays, p. 87.
A gentleman still living informs me that being once with Hogarth at the Bedford
1 Garrick Corr., vol. i. p. n. pole, vol. vi. p. 369.
2 Gentleman's Magazine, 1776, p. 383 ; Wai- 3 Walpole to Ossory, vol. vii. p. 191.
BEDFORD HOUSE 143
Coffee-House, he observed him to draw something with a pencil on his nail. Inquir-
ing what had been his employment, he was shown the countenance (a whimsical one)
of a person who was then at a small distance. Nichols, Anecdotes of Hogarth, 3d.
ed., 1785, p. 15.
Dr. J. T. Desaguliers, the distinguished natural philosopher, died
"in his lodgings at the Bedford Coffee-House," February 29, 1774, in
extreme poverty.
Here poor neglected Desaguliers fell !
He who taught two gracious kings to view
All Boyle ennobled and all Bacon knew,
Died in a cell, without a friend to save,
Without a guinea, and without a grave. CAWTHORN.
Bedford Head, " a noted tavern for eating, drinking, and gaming,
in Southampton Street, Covent Garden." 1 It existed* as early as 1716,
when it is referred to in an advertisement as " The Duke of Bedford's
Head Tavern in Southampton Street, Covent Garden." 2 In 1760-
1770 it was kept by Wildman, the brother-in-law of Home Tooke, and
at one time an intimate friend of John Wilkes. His commission to
purchase "a little Welsh horse," for which Wilkes never paid, figures in
the letter from "Junius to the Rev. Mr. Home" of July 24, 1771.
In his defence Wilkes says, " I had long known Mr. Wildman and for
several years belonged to a club which met once a week at the Bedford
Head. 3
I believe I told you that Vernon's birthday passed quietly, but it was not designed
to be pacific ; for at twelve at night, eight gentlemen dressed like sailors, and masked,
went round Covent Garden with a drum beating up for a volunteer mob ; but it did
not take ; and they retired to a great supper that was prepared for them at the
Bedford Head, and ordered by Whitehead, the author of Manners. Walpole to
Mann, November 23, 1741-
Let me extol a cat on oysters fed ;
I'll have a party at the Bedford Head.
POPE, zd Sat. of Horace, B. ii.
When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed,
Except on pea-chicks at the Bedford Head ?
POPE, Sober Advice.
Bedford House, BLOOMSBURY, the town-house of the Dukes of
Bedford, erected in the reign of Charles II., for Thomas Wriothesley,
Earl of Southampton, the Lord Treasurer, whose only daughter and
heir married William Lord Russell, the patriot. The house was built
on the site of the old manor house of the Blemunds, who gave their
name to Bloomsbury. The first Earl of Southampton, Lord Chancellor
Wriothesley, who obtained the manor in the reign of Henry VIII., died
at this house, July 30, 1550. Architects ascribe the new house to
Inigo Jones, who died eight years before the Restoration. It may
therefore possibly have been by his pupil Webb. The house
occupied the whole north side of the present Bloomsbury Square,
and the grounds extended northward so as to take in the southern
1 Edmund Curll (1736), note on Pope's Sober 2 London Gazette, June 23-26, 1716.
Advice. 3 Letters ofj-univs, vol. i. p. 367.
144 BEDFORD HOUSE
portion of Russell Square. These grounds were famed for the
view they commanded "of the country, and particularly of High-
gate and Hampstead." Walpole, in his Essay on " Modern Gar-
dening," speaks of the early date at which "the light and graceful
acacia " must have been introduced, as " witness those ancient stems
in the court of Bedford House in Bloomsbury Square." l The house
was sold by auction, May 7, 1800, and there is an absurd story that
a casual dropper-in bought the whole of the furniture and pictures,
including ThornhilFs copies of the cartoons (now in the Royal
Academy), for the sum of ^6000. This is proved to be a mistake by
the following quotation from the Annual Register :
May 7, 1800. The Duke of Bedford having disposed of the materials of Bedford
House for $ or ^6000, a sale of the furniture, pictures, etc., by Mr. Christie,
commenced this day, when the most crowded assemblage were gratified with a last
view of this design of Inigo Jones, for the Earl of Southampton. . . . The late
Duke fitted up the gallery (which was the only room of consequence in the house)
and placed in it Sir James Thornhill's copies of the cartoons, which that artist was
three years about ; which he bought at the sale of that eminent artist's collection for
^200. St. John preaching in the Wilderness, by Raphael, fetched 95 guineas.
A beautiful painting, by Gainsborough, of an Italian villa, 90 guineas. The Archduke
Leopold's gallery, by Teniers, 210 guineas. Four paintings of a battle, by Cassanovi,
which cost his grace ^1000, were sold for 60 guineas. A most beautiful landscape
by Cuyp, for 200 guineas. Two beautiful bronze figures, Venus de Medicis
and Antinous, 20 guineas ; and Venus couchant, from the antique, 20 guineas.
Another of the pictures was the duel between Lord Mahon and the Duke of Hamilton.
The week after, were sold the double rows of lime-trees in the garden, valued one at
90 the other at 80 ; which are now all taken down, and the site of a new square,
of nearly the dimensions of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and to be called Russell Square,
has been laid out. The famous statue of Apollo, which was in the hall at Bedford
House, has been removed to Woburn Abbey, and is to be placed on an eminence in
the square between the abbey and the tennis-court and riding house. It originally
cost a thousand guineas.
The house was immediately pulled down. 2 [See Southampton House. ]
I have a perfect recollection of its venerable grandeur, as I surveyed it in the
distance, shaded with the thick foliage of magnificent lime-trees. The fine verdant
lawn extended a considerable distance between these, and was guarded by a deep
ravine to the north, from the intrusive footsteps of the daring. Whilst in perfect
safety were grazing various breeds of foreign and other sheep, which from their
singular appearance excited the gaze and admiration of the curious. Dobie, History
of Bloomsbury, 1834, p. 176.
The wall before Bedford House, a wall of singular beauty and elegance which
extended on the north side of Bloomsbury Square from east to west, and the gates of
which were decorated with those lovely monsters, sphinxes, very finely carved in
stone. Between this wall and the mansion was a spacious courtyard, far better
harmonising with the rank of such a dwelling than the underground area and paltry
railing of the fashionable residence of the present day. The house itself was a long,
low, white edifice, kept, in the old Duke's time, in the nicest state of good order,
and admirably in unison with the snow-white livery of the family. It had noble
1 Works, ed. 1786, vol. iv. p. 294. Bloomsbury Square. For another characteristic
2 There are several engraved views of Bedford view of Bedford House see No. 144 of Gillray's
House. The best is in Wilkinson; there is a Caricatures, Pity the Sorrows of a Poor Old
good painting of it by Scott (it was at Farrar's, Man. There is also a view of it in Dodsley,
September 1850), the point of view from Lord vol. i. p. 330.
Mansfield's house in the north-east corner of
BEDFORD ROW 145
apartments and a spacious garden, which opened to the fields ; and the uninterrupted
freedom of air, between this situation and the distant hills, gave it the advantages of
an excellent town-house and a suburban villa. L. M. Hawkins, Memoirs, Anecdotes,
Facts and Opinions, 1824, vol. i. p. 52.
Bedford House, STRAND, the town-house of the Earls of Bedford
stood on the north side of the Strand, on the site of the present
Southampton Street, and was taken down in 1704. The garden wall
formed the south side of the open square or Piazza. Strype describes
it as "a large but old-built house, having a great yard before it for
the reception of coaches : with a spacious garden, having a terrace walk
adjoining to the brick wall next the garden." 1 Before the Russell
family built their town-house in the Strand, they occupied the Bishop
of Carlisle's Inn, over against their newly-erected mansion, afterwards
built upon and called "Carlisle Rents." Stow speaks of it in 1598 as
" Russell or Bedford House." This must have been the Bedford House
in which the Earl of Rutland resided in 1622-1623, and from which
Lord Bacon dates several of his letters in those years. On May 18,
1614, Lady Harrington writes to Carr, Earl of Somerset, from Bedford
House. In 1704 the Russells removed to Bedford House, Bloomsbury.
Bedford Place, RUSSELL SQUARE, two rows of private houses,
running north and south, and connecting Bloomsbury Square with
Russell Square; built between 1801 and 1805 on the site of Bedford
House, Bloomsbury. Bedford Place is singular among London Streets
in having a statue at each extremity : in Russell Square, Francis, Duke
of Bedford ; in Bloomsbury Square, Charles James Fox. In No. 30,
at the house of Mr. Henry Fry, died, in 1811, Richard Cumberland,
author of The West Indian. John Thelwall lived at No. 40 Bedford
Place, where he taught elocution. 2 Sir Richard Beth ell, afterwards
Lord Chancellor and Lord Westbury, lived in Upper Bedford Place
in 1826. Dr. Max Schlesinger, English correspondent of the Cologne
Gazette, and writer on London, died at No. 25 in 1881.
Bedford Row, HOLBORN, at the north end of Brownlow Street, so
called from being built on land belonging to Sir William Harpur's
charity, at Bedford. Sir William Harpur was Lord Mayor in 1561,
and died in 1573; his name is preserved in Harpur Street, Red
Lion Square.
Bedford Row, very pleasantly seated, as having a prospect into Lincoln's Inn
Garden and the Fields ; with a handsome close before the Row of buildings, inclosed in
with palisado pales, and a row of trees ; with a broad coachway to the houses, which are
large and good ; with freestone pavements and palisado pales before the houses,
inclosing in little garden plots, adorned with handsome flower-pots and flowers
therein. Strype, ed. 1720, B. iii. p. 254.
Ralph, in his Critical Review of London Buildings, describes this row
"as one of the most noble streets that London has to boast of." This
was in 1734, when the buildings were new, and the row itself lay open
to the fields; but Dodsley, as late as 1761, describes it as "a very
handsome, straight, and well-built street, inhabited by persons of
1 Strype, B. vi. p. 93 ; Maltland, ed. 1739, p. 741. * Britten's Autobiography, vol i. p. 185.
VOL. I L
146 BEDFORD ROW
distinction." In 1773, when the lease fell in, the annual income
amounted to ^Sooo. 1
April i, 1716. Friday night Mr. Mickelwaite was set upon by nine footpads,
who fired at his postilion, without bidding him stand, just at the end of Bedford Row,
in the road which goes there from Pancras Church to Gray's Inn Lane. His servants
and he fired at them again, and the pads did the same, till all the fire was spent,
and then he rode through them towards the town, to call for help, it being dark,
which they seeing they could not prevent, ran away. 2 The night after this curious
combat a lady was shot by a footpad within a few yards of this spot. [See Gray's
Inn Walks.]
Eminent Inhabitants. Sir John Holt, Chief Justice, K.B., died
(1710) in his house in Bedford Row, then called "Bedford Walk," and
it must have been here that Radcliffe, as Arbuthnot writes to Swift,
"preserved my Lord Chief-Justice Holt's wife, whom he attended out
of spite to her husband, who desired her dead." Bishop Warburton
dwelt here while he was Reader at Lincoln's Inn : all his London letters
to Hurd are dated here up to 1757, when he moved to Grosvenor
Square. Ralph Allen used to live with him when in town, and Fielding
was then a frequent visitor. The Rev. Richard Cecil was preacher at St.
John's Chapel. John Abernethy, the great surgeon, at No. 14. At
her house in Bedford Row died, in 1731, in the eighty-second year of
her age, Mrs. Elizabeth Cromwell, daughter of the Protector Richard.
Henry Addington, afterwards Prime Minister and Viscount Sidmouth,
was born here in 1757. James Mingay, K.C., "of the iron hand,"
1792-1796, at No. 25. In the same house, 1807, Sir W. Garrow. One
of the most amusing of Thackeray's minor stories is The Bedford
Row Conspiracy.
Bedford Square. This square is mentioned and highly praised
in the 1783 edition of Ralph's Critical Review of the Public Buildings
etc., in London. For the origin of the name see Bedford House,
Bloomsbury. Lord Loughborough lived at No. 6, 1787-1796. In
the same house Lord Chancellor Eldon resided from 1804 to 1815,
and here occurred the memorable interview between his lordship and
the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV. The Prince came alone
to the Chancellor's house, and upon the servant opening the door
observed, that as the Chancellor had the gout, he knew he must be
at home, and therefore desired that he might be shown up to the room
where the Chancellor was. The servant said his master was too ill to
be seen, and that he had also positive orders to show in no one. The
Prince then asked to be shown the staircase, which he immediately
ascended, and pointed first to one door, then to another, asking, " Is
that your master's room?" The servant answered "No," until he
came to the right one, upon which he opened the door, seated himself
by the Chancellor's bed-side, and asked him to appoint his friend
Jekyll, the great wit, to the vacant office of Master in Chancery. The
Chancellor refused there could not be a more unfit appointment.
The Prince perceiving the humour of the Chancellor, and that he was
1 Kearsley, p. 12. - Lady Cowper's Diary, p. 100.
BEDFORD STREET 147
firm in his determination not to appoint him, threw himself back in
the chair and exclaimed, " How I do pity Lady Eldon ! " " Good God ! "
said the Chancellor, " what is the matter ? " " Oh, nothing," answered
the Prince, " except that she will never see you again, for here I remain
until you promise to make Jekyll a Master in Chancery." Jekyll of
course obtained the appointment. In March 1815 there was a corn
riot in London, and Lord Eldon's house was broken into by the mob.
Fortunately the back premises communicated with the British Museum
gardens, in which Lady Eldon took refuge, while a corporal and four
soldiers were sent over from the Museum guard. The corporal, a
Scotchman, showed himself a great strategist, and made such a display
as to deceive the mob into thinking there was a considerable military
force. When the intruders were got back into the street the Chancellor
seized one of them by the collar and said, " If you don't mind what you
are about you will be hanged." "Perhaps so, old chap," was the
reply, "but I think it looks now as if you would be hanged first!"
Lord Eldon did not forget the corporal whose coolness and address
saved his house, but he was killed a few weeks afterwards at Waterloo,
before anything could be done for him. 1 The Chancellor particularly
prided himself on the care which he took of the wards of his court,
and the public therefore were greatly amused when, in November
1817, his own eldest daughter made her escape from the house in
Bedford Square and married Mr. George S. Repton, architect. No. 5,
Sir John Littledale (Justice K.B.), died here 1842. Sir George Thomas
Smart, musical composer and conductor (1776-1867), died at his house,
No. 12, in this square. No. 25, Basil Montague, the editor of Bacon's
Works, and his son-in-law, B. W. Procter (Barry Cornwall). Adelaide
Procter was born in this house in 1825. No. 29, Lord Chief-Justice
Best (Lord Wynford). No. 32, Sir James Allan Park (Justice Common
Pleas). No. 33, Sir James Pattison (Q.B.) No. 43, Chief-Justice Sir
Nicholas Tindal (C.P.)
Bedford Street, BEDFORD SQUARE. The name was changed to
Bayley Street in 1878. Sir Marc Isambard Brunei was living here
when, in 1801, he perfected his remarkable invention of the block-
making machinery.
Bedford Street, in the STRAND.
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, etc.,
as is King Street and Henrietta Street. But the west side of this street is the best.
Stiype, B. vi. p. 93.
The street described by Strype lay between King Street, Covent
Garden, and Maiden Lane, that portion of the present street between
Maiden Lane and the Strand being distinguished as Half Moon Street,
from the Half Moon Tavern mentioned by Ned Ward in his London
Spy, p. 193. This part of the street was called Bedford Street by the
1 Lord Eldon was not remarkable for his hospi- this occasion, a wit remarked that he had at last
tality, and when all his windows were broken on begun to keep open house.
148 BEDFORD STREET
Westminster Paving Commissioners, for the first time, in 1766. In
the wall of one of the houses on the west side, now part of the Civil
Service Stores, was a stone inscribed "This is Bedford Street." The
upper part of the street (all that was Bedford Street originally) is in
the parish of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and was built circ. 1637 ; the
lower part of the street (Half Moon Street) is still in the parish of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields. Wildman's Coffee-House, a noted place in the
last century, was in this street. [See Wildman's.] Eminent Inhabitants
East Side. Remigius Van Limput, the painter, who bought, at the
sale of the King's effects, Van Dyck's large picture of Charles I. on
Horseback, but was obliged to surrender it at the Restoration. It is
now at Windsor. He was living here in 1645, a d for many years
after. John Hoskin, the celebrated limner (d. 1665). In his will
he is described as living in Bedford Street. Quin, the actor, in a
house rated at ^42, from 1749 to 1752. In 1738 he was lodging
"at the Sun, a Druggist's, in Bedford Street," as appears from the
advertisement of his Benefit. John Edwin, the comedian, died (1790)
in the right-hand corner house entering Bedford Court. His friends
and fellow actors assembled in the front room upstairs, and formed a
torch-light procession to the grave in St. Paul's, Covent Garden.
West Side. Chief Justice Richardson (d. 1635), of whom so many
pleasant stories are told, in the house now No. 15. The exterior is
modern, but part of the interior is old, and of Richardson's time. Sir
Francis Kynaston, on the west side, in 1637. De Grammont's, Earl
of Chesterfield, in 1656. Kynaston, the actor, in his old age, in the
house of his son, an opulent mercer in the street. Thomas Sheridan,
father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Mr. Sheridan, one time, lived in Bedford Street, opposite Henrietta Street,
which ranges with the south side of Covent Garden, so that the prospect lies open
the whole way, free of interruption. We were standing together at the drawing-
room window, expecting Johnson, who was to dine there. Mr. Sheridan asked me,
Could I see the length of the Garden ? " No, Sir." [Mr. Whyte was short-sighted.]
"Take out your opera-glass, Johnson is coming; you may know him by his gait."
I perceived him at a good distance, working along with a peculiar solemnity of
deportment, and an awkward sort of measured step. At that time the broad flagging
at each side the streets was not universally adopted, and stone posts were in fashion,
to prevent the annoyance of carriages. Upon every post, as he passed along, I
could observe, he deliberately laid his hand ; but missing one of them, when he had
got at some distance he seemed suddenly to recollect himself, and immediately
returning back, carefully performed the accustomed ceremony, and resumed his
former course, not omitting one till he gained the crossing. This Mr. Sheridan
assured me, however odd it might appear, was his constant practice ; but why or
wherefore he could not inform me. Whyte, Miscellanea Nova, p. 49.
The first lodgings which Benjamin West, the future President of
the Royal Academy, occupied in his professional capacity were in
Bedford Street. " In this house," as he told Gait, " the first picture
which he painted in England was executed." a
1 Gait, Life of West, pt. 2, p. 6.
BEEF STEAK CLUB 149
Bedfordbury, between St. Martin's Church and Bedford Street,
COVENT GARDEN. Built circ. I637, 1 and once decently inhabited,
then a nest of low alleys and streets, but now almost entirely swept away
under the provisions of the Artizans' Dwellings Act, by the Metropolitan
Board of Works. The mission -house, chapel, and schools, erected
1 86 1, were designed by Mr. A. W. Blomfield, architect. Sir Francis
Kynaston, the poet, was living in Covent Garden in 1636, "on the
east side the street towards Berrie." He came here in 1634, and
established under letters patent from the Crown his Museum Minervce,
or " Academy for teaching, chiefly navigation, riding, fortification,
architecture, painting, and other useful accomplishments." It was a
spacious building erected in 1594, having one front in what is now
Bedfordbury, the other in Bedford Street. 2 "Kynaston's Alley,"
in Bedfordbury, still exists.
Bedlam. [See BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL.]
Beech Street, formerly BEECH LANE, BARBICAN.
Peradventure so called of Nicholas de la Beech, lieutenant of the Tower of
London, put out of that office in the I3th of Edward III. This lane stretcheth
from the Red Cross Street to White Cross Street, replenished not with beech trees,
but with beautiful houses of stone, brick, and timber. Amongst the which was of
old time a great house pertaining to the Abbot of Ramsey : it is now called Drewry
House of Sir Drewe Drewrie, a worshipful owner thereof. Stow, p. 113.
The secret meetings at which the unhappy rising of the Earl of
Essex was arranged were held in Drury House. Later Prince Rupert
lived in Drury House, and J. T. Smith has engraved a view of all that
remained in 1796 of the house he is said to have occupied. The
Drapers' Almshouses, erected about 1540, were pulled down 1862,
and new ones erected at Tottenham.
Beef Steak Club (The), a club established in the reign of
Queen Anne, and described by Ned Ward in his Secret History of
Clubs, 8vo, 1709. The president wore a gold gridiron.
The Beef-Steak and October Clubs are neither of them averse to eating and
drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles. The
Spectator, No. 9, March 10, 1710-1711.
He [Estcourt, the actor, d. 1712] was made Providore of the Beef-Steak Club;
and for a mark of distinction, wore their badge, which was a small gridiron of gold,
hung about his neck with a green silk ribband. This Club was composed of the
chief wits and great men of the nation. Chetwood's History of the Stage, I2mo,
1749, P- 141-
He that of honour, wit and mirth partakes,
May be a fit companion o'er Beaf-steaks ;
His name may be to future times enroll'd
In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron's fram'd of gold.
Dr. King's Art of Cookery.
Humbly inscribed to the Beef-Steak Club, 1 709.
Your friends at the Beef- Steak inquired after you last Saturday with the greatest
1 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 1636 ; Dr. Rimbault in Notes and Queries, ist S.,
- The Constitution r-f the Museum Minerva, vol. iii. p. 317.
ISO BEEF STEAK CLUB
zeal, and it gave me no small pleasure that I was the person of whom the inquiry
was made. Churchill to Wilkes.
The Beef-Steak Club, with their jolly president, John Beard [the singer], is
surely one of the most respectable assemblies of jovial and agreeable companions in
this metropolis. Tom Davies, Dram. Misc., vol. iii. p. 167.
Peg Woffington was a member. There was a political club called
" The Rump Steak, or Liberty Club," which met for the first time and
dined January 15, 1734, at the King's Arms, Pall Mall; the Dukes of
Bedford, Bolton, Queensbury, and Montrose; the Marquis of Tweeddale ;
Earls Chesterfield, Marchmont, and Stair ; and Viscount Cobham were
present. Its members were in eager opposition to Sir Robert Walpole.
Marchmont Papers > vol. ii. p. 19.
The Beef Steak Club as now constituted is a social club, meeting
at 24 King William Street, Strand, over Toole's Theatre. Members
pay an entrance fee of 10 guineas, and an annual subscription of 4
guineas.
Beef Steak Society, a society of noblemen and gentlemen, twenty-
four in number, founded by John Rich, the patentee of Covent Garden
Theatre, and George Lambert, the scene painter, in 1735 a time when
the favourite wager of the Garden was " a rump and dozen." x Many
of the eminent men of the day connected with literature, fashion, and
the drama were pleased to assemble in Rich's room to have a chat
with him and his fellow-labourer and friend, George Lambert. Here
from time to time they partook, at two o'clock, of the hot steak dressed
by Rich himself, accompanied by a " bottle of port from the tavern
hard by ; " and these gatherings formed the nucleus out of which grew
the Beef Steak Society.
First Rich, who this feast of the gridiron planned,
And formed with a touch of his harlequin's wand,
Out of mighty rude matter, this brotherly band,
The jolly old Steakers of England.
Among the original members were John Rich, George Lambert, and
William Lambert. Among the successors to the chairs of the first
twenty-four members were Theophilus Gibber, Paul Whitehead, John
Wilkes, Sir Harry Inglefield, the Duke of Norfolk, George Colman,
Charles Morris, the life and soul of the Society, George IV. (when
Prince of Wales), who, after having expressed a desire to become a
member, was obliged to wait his turn until a vacancy occurred, and the
Duke of York. The Duke of Sussex was not elected till between
23 and 25 years after his royal brothers. Other members
were John Kemble, William Linley, the brother-in-law of Sheridan,
Baron Bolland, Lord Brougham, Sir Matthew Wood, Lord Broughton,
Sir Francis Burdett, Duke of Leinster, Earl of Dalhousie, Robert
Listen, Sir Charles Locock, and many other distinguished men. The
room the Society dined in, a little Escurial in itself, was most appropri-
ately fitted up : the doors, wainscoting, and roof of good old English
1 Cooke's Macklin, p. 223-
BEEF STEAK SOCIETY 151
oak, ornamented with gridirons as thick as Henry VII.'s Chapel with
the portcullis of the founder. The Society's badge was a gridiron,
which was engraved upon the rings, the glass, and the forks and spoons.
At the end of the dining-room was an enormous grating in the form of
a gridiron, through which the fire was seen and the steaks handed from
the kitchen. Over this were the appropriate lines :
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.
Saturday was from time immemorial the day of dining, and of late years
the season commenced in November and ended in June.
On Saturn's day this altar burns
With festive preparation,
Where twice twelve Brothers rule by turns
To pour a fit libation.
The active officers of the Society were the President of the day, whose
office, as stated in the above lines, was filled by each member in turn ;
the Vice -President, the oldest member of the Society present; the
Bishop, who sang the grace and the anthem ; the Recorder, whose duty
it was to rebuke everybody for offences real or imaginary ; and the
Boots, who was the last elected of the members, and the fag of the
brotherhood. It was his duty to arrive first, decant the wine, and also
fetch it from the cellar. Both members and guests delighted in worry-
ing poor Boots, and often summoned him to decant a fresh bottle of
port at the moment when a hot plate and a fresh steak were placed
before him. The Duke of Sussex filled the office for a year, and his
Royal Highness was not spared by his colleagues nor allowed to shirk
his duties. A newly-elected member was brought into the room blind-
folded, accompanied by the Bishop, who was ready to receive the oath
of allegiance, which was as follows : " You shall attend duly, vote im-
partially, and conform to our laws and orders obediently. You shall
support our dignity, promote our welfare, and at all times behave as a
worthy member in this Sublime Society. So Beef and Liberty be
your reward." The Society during the term of its existence changed
its place of meeting several times. For 70 years Covent Garden
Theatre was its home, but on the destruction of that building in 1808,
it moved to the Bedford Coffee-House, where it remained till the old
Lyceum was ready for it in 1809. Here it remained till the house was
burnt in 1830, when it returned to the Bedford Coffee-House, and
remained there till 1838, in which year a suite of rooms was ready
to receive it in the new Lyceum, which formed its last home. The
Society was closed in 1867 with only eighteen members on the list.
Two years subsequently its effects, which consisted of portraits, silver,
furniture, and other property, were sold by Messrs. Christie for
^659 : 10 : 3.
Mr. Lambert was for many years principal scene-painter to the Theatre at Covent
Garden. Being a person of great respectability in character and profession, he was
often visited while at work in the Theatre by persons of the first consideration, both
152 BEEF STEAK SOCIETY
in rank and talents. As it frequently happened that he was too much hurried to leave
his engagements for his regular dinner, he contented himself with a beef-steak broiled
upon the fire in the painting-room. In this hasty meal he was sometimes joined by
his visitors, who were pleased to participate in the humble repast of the artist. The
savour of the dish and the conviviality of the accidental meeting inspired the party
with a resolution to establish a club, which was accordingly done under the title of
The Beef-Steak Club ; and the party assembled in the painting-room. The members
were afterwards accommodated with a room in the playhouse, where the meetings
were held for many years. Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting, p. 20.
Our only hopes are in the Clergy, and in the Beef-Steak Club. The former still
preserve, and probably will preserve, the rectitude of their appetites, and will do
justice to Beef, whenever they find it. The latter, who are composed of the most
ingenious artists in the Kingdom, meet every Saturday in a noble room at the top of
the Covent Garden Theatre, and never suffer any dish except Beef- Steaks to appear.
The Connoisseur, No. 19, June 6, 1754.
Belgrave Mansions, PIMLICO, at the south end of Grosvenor
Gardens, built in 1868 from the designs of Mr. T. Cundy. This, the
most southern of the series of costly buildings erected within the last
few years on the Grosvenor estate, is a large block of mansions,
French Renaissance in style, of red brick, with Portland stone piers,
cornices, and dressings. The mansions have a frontage of nearly 300
feet ; the ground-floor shops ; above are five floors (or flats) of dwell-
ings, the roof-line being broken by massive mansard pavilions.
The name Belgrave is obtained from a village in Leicestershire,
where the Duke of Westminster has considerable property.
Belgrave Place (Lower), PIMLICO, now incorporated with BUCK-
INGHAM PALACE ROAD.
Belgrave Place (Lower and Upper) proves the avidity of building speculations,
which could thus challenge the prejudices against the opposite marshes. But I was
assured by a resident of twenty years, that he and his family had enjoyed uninter-
rupted health in Upper Belgrave Place, and that such was the general experience.
Sir Richard Philips, 1817.
George Grote, the historian of Greece, lived for several years at 3
Eccleston Street, a house afterwards numbered 3 Belgrave Place. The
large house at the corner of Eccleston Street was the residence of the
sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey, R.A. It was originally two houses, Nos.
29 and 30 Lower Belgrave Place, but Chantrey threw the two houses into
one and named them anew as No. i Eccleston Street. Here he lived
from 1814 to his death in 1841, and in the studios at the back all his
best works his bust of Sir Walter Scott, his Sleeping Children, and his
statue of Watt were produced. Here is a good small gallery with a
lanthorn, by Sir John Soane, who was always best when his space was
limited. Chantrey died in the drawing-room of this house, sitting in
his easy-chair. In No. 27 lived, from 1824 to his death in 1842,
Allan Cunningham, the poet, author of the Lives of British Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects, and foreman to Sir Francis Chantrey. Chant-
rey's house is now No. 102, and named Chantrey House ; Cunning-
ham's is No. 98. At No. 96 lived Mr. Henry Weekes, R.A., who
worked in Chantrey's old studio, No. 2 Eccleston Street.
Belgrave Road. Sir Denis Le Marchant died at No. 21 in 1874.
THE BELL 153
Belgrave Square, built in 1825, on part of the old Five Fields.
The whole square was designed by George Basevi ; the detached villas
by Philip Hard wick, R. A., and others. Eminent Inhabitants. General
Lord Hill, the hero of Almarez, in the villa in the south-west corner,
which was built in 1826 for Mr. T. R. Kemp of Kemp Town by H. E.
Kendall. Lieu tenant -General Sir George Murray, Quarter- Master -
General to the British army during the Peninsular War, died (1846)
in No. 5, on the north side. Catherine Stephens, Countess Dowager
of Essex, died at No. 9 in 1882, the house in which she was married.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the distinguished geologist, died at No.
16, October 22, 1871. No. 13 is the residence of Earl Beauchamp ;
1 8 is the Austrian Embassy; 19, Earl of Feversham ; 32, Earl
of Clanwilliam; 33, Earl of Stradbroke; 36, Dowager Marchioness
Conyngham; 37, Earl of Sefton; 39, Lord Digby; 40, Earl
Fortescue; 42, Earl of Ilchester; 43, Earl of Bradford; 45, Duchess
of Montrose ; 46, Marquis of Headfort ; 48, Viscount Combermere ;
49, Duke of Richmond and Gordon.
Belgravia, the fashionable region of somewhat indefinite limits,
which has Belgrave Square for its centre, and may be understood
broadly to extend westward from Buckingham Palace Gardens to
Lowndes Square, and southwards from Knightsbridge to Chester
Square.
The name Belgravia was at first merely a convenient term to express the fashion-
able squares and streets around Belgrave Square. We remember a letter so
addressed by John Britton, writing to the ( creator of the district, Mr. Thomas Cubitt,
which had been forwarded by the Post Office to Hungary, and came back to Britton
after many days. Builder, November 15, 1873, p. 897.
Bell (The), WESTMINSTER, a great tavern and stableyard on the
north side of King Street, Westminster, cleared away when Great
George Street was formed. It was a tavern at a very early date. In
Sir John Howard's Journal of Expenses, in 1465 and 1466, are several
such entries as, " My Master spent for his cotes at the Belle at
Westmenstre, iijs., viijd." Pepys used to dine, and Lord Sandwich to
put up, at the Bell. Sir W. Waller, in his Vindication (p. 104),
describes a dinner at the Bell, of which there is also an account
in Denzil Holles's Memoirs, p. 153. In Queen Anne's time the
October Club used to meet here.
July I, 1660. Met with Purser Washington, with whom and a lady, a friend of
his, I dined at the Bell Tavern in King Street ; but the rogue had no more manners
than to invite me, and to let me pay my club. Pepys.
November if, 1660. (Lord's Day.) After dinner to Westminster. In our way
we called at the Bell to see the seven Flanders mares that my Lord (Sandwich) has
bought lately. Then I went to my Lord's, and having spoke with him, I went to the
Abbey, where the first time that ever I heard the organs in a cathedral. Pepys.
Bell (The), in ALDERSGATE STREET. [See Aldersgate Street.]
Bell (The), in CARTER LANE. [See Carter Lane.]
154 GREAT BELL ALLEY
Bell (The), in WARWICK LANE. [See Warwick Lane.]
Bell and Crown, HOLBORN. [See Holborn.]
Bell Alley (Great), east side of COLEMAN STREET ; now a short
passage into Moorgate Street, but before the formation of that broad
thoroughfare a long narrow passage running into Little Bell Alley, and
by it into London Wall. That portion of Great Bell Alley east of
Moorgate Street is now named Telegraph Street. Robert Bloomfield,
the poet, at the age of fifteen, lived with his brother George (to learn
shoe-making) at "Mr. Simon's, No. 7 Pitcher's Court, Bell Alley, Coleman
Street ; " they next removed to Blue Hart Court, Bell Alley ; and after
his marriage, still hankering after the familiar neighbourhood, he took
ready-furnished lodgings on the first floor of No. 14, working as a
ladies' shoemaker in the garret, with half-a-dozen companions, and
whilst thus employed composed his first and best poem, the " Farmer's
Boy." He probably was afterwards able to descend to the ground
floor, as Mr. Upcott used to show the poet's shop-card, neatly engraved,
and inscribed, "Bloomfield, Ladies' Shoe-maker, No 14, Great Bell
Yard, Coleman Street. The best real Spanish Leather at reasonable
prices."
Bell Savage, or Belle Sauvage, LUDGATE HILL, an Inn "without"
Ludgate, at which dramas were played, before a regular theatre was
established in this country. 1 The origin of the name has amused our
antiquaries. "The Spectator alone," says Pennant, "gives the real
derivation " :
As for the Bell Savage, which is the sign of a savage man standing by a Bell, I
was formerly very much puzzled upon the conceit of it, till I accidentally fell into
the reading of an old Romance translated out of the French, which gives an account
of a very beautiful woman who was found in a wilderness, and is called in the French,
la Belle Sauvage, and is everywhere translated by our countrymen the Bell Savage.
Spectator, No. 82.
The Spectator was probably joking, though Pennant and others
accepted the statement in all seriousness. Douce thought that the
sign was really that of the Queen of Sheba, who, in the metrical romance
of Alexander, written by Alexander Davie at the beginning of the
1 4th century, is spoken of as Sibely savage, and this, says Mr.
Douce, is " a perversion of si belle sauvage" The Queen of Sheba was
as well adapted for the purpose of a sign as the wise men of the East,
and in fact we know that there was a tavern in Gracechurch Street
called "The Saba." 2 Mr. Akerman gives a representation of what he
supposes to be the tavern token of the house issued by the landlord
between the years 1648 and 1672, which, he says, exhibits the figure
of an Indian woman holding an arrow and a bow, 3 and Mr. Burn, in
correcting the mistake, after pointing out that the token is that of
1 Collier's Annals, vol. i. p. 338 ; vol. iii. p. 265. wisdom, and fair virtue, Than this pure soul shall
2 Tarlton's Jests, pp. 15, 21. Our old writers be." Shakespeare, Henry I' I II.
invariably call the Queen of Sheba the Queen 3 Akerman's Tradesmen's 'lokcns, p. 131 (No.
of Saba. "Saba was never More covetous of 1233.
BELL SAVAGE 155
Henry Young, distiller, and that the armed " Indian woman " is really
" the sinister supporter of the Distillers' Company's arms and no belle
sauvage at all," gives what is probably the true explanation of the
puzzle. The inn was originally and properly the Bell, but as early as
the middle of the 1 5th century it was known as " Savage's Inn,"
and the conjunction of the two designations might easily issue in the
title that has proved so perplexing.
A deed enrolled on the Close Roll of 1453 certifies a fact that places the point
in dispute beyond a doubt. By that deed, dated at London, February 5, 31
Henry VI., John Frensh, eldest son of John Frensh, late citizen and goldsmith of
London, confirmed to Joan Frensh, widow, his mother, "totum ten sive hospicium
cum suis pertin vocat Savagesynne, alias vocat le Belle on the Hope ; all that tene-
ment or inn with its appurtenances, called Savage's inn, otherwise called the Bell
on the Hoop, in the parish of St. Bridget in Fleet Street, London," etc. . . . The
sign in the olden day was the Bell ; " on the hoop " implied the ivy-bush, fashioned, as
was the custom, as a garland. The association of Savage's inn with the sign of the
Bell certainly gave an impulse to the perversion or new name of La Belle Sauvage:
when that occurred is another question. Burn's London Traders and Tavern
Tokens, p. 175.
This, it will be seen, differs from Pegge's suggestion that the sign
was derived from an early hostess, Isabella Savage, whose name as
tenant a friend of his had seen on an old lease of the house ; but Mr.
Burn gives the actual terms of the lease whilst Pegge spoke only at
second-hand. The inn was known at a very early date as the Bell
Savage. Lambarde, writing before 1576 of "the treble oblation, first
to the Confessor, then to Sainct Runwald, and lastly to the gracious
Roode," observes that without it " the poor pilgrims could not assure
themselves of any good, gained by all their labour, no more than such
as go to Paris Garden, the Bell Savage, or Theatre, to behold bear-
baiting, interludes, or fence play, can account of any pleasant spectacle,
unless they first pay one pennie at the gate, another at the entrie of
the scaffolde, and the third for a quiet standing." 1 The house,
together with his own messuage, the sign of the Rose, was left to the
Cutlers' Company in 1568, pursuant to the will of John Craythorne
[see Cutlers' Hall], and two exhibitions at Oxford and one at Cam-
bridge, with certain gifts to the poor of St. Bride's, are still provided
out of the bequest. At the Bell Savage, in Queen Mary's reign, Sir
Thomas Wyat was stopped in his ill-planned rebellion.
Wyat, with his men, marched still forward all along to Temple Barre, and so
through Fleet Streete till he came to Bell Savage, an Inn nigh unto Ludgate. Some
of Wyat's men, some say it was Wyat himself, came even to Ludgate and knocked,
calling to come in, saying there was Wyat, whom the Queene had graunted to have
their requests, but the Lord William Howard stood at the gate and said, " Avaunt,
Traitor ; thou shalt not come in here. " Wyat awhile stay'd and rested him awhile
upon a stall over against the Bell Savage Gate, and at the last seeing he could not
get into the city, and being deceived of the ayde he hoped for, returned back againe
in array towards Charing Crosse. Stow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 621.
Here, in Queen Elizabeth's time, was a school of defence, and
1 Lambarde, Perambulation of Kent, p. 210 of the reprint, 1826.
156 BELL SAVAGE
here Bankes exhibited the feats of his horse Marocco. 1 Grinling
Gibbons lived in this yard
He [Grinling Gibbons] afterwards lived in Bell Savage Court on Ludgate Hill,
where he carved a pot of flowers, which shook surprisingly with the motion of the
coaches that passed by. Walpole's Anecdotes, ed. Dallaway, vol. iii. p. I58. 2
At " the first door on the left hand under Bell Savage Inn Gate-
way, Ludgate Hill," lived Richard Rock, M.L., 3 the quack doctor
("Dumplin Dick") "first upon the list of glory," whom Goldsmith so
carefully describes as " this great man, short of stature, fat, and waddles
as he walks. He always wears a white three-tailed wig, nicely combed,
and frizzed upon each cheek. Sometimes he carries a cane; but a
hat never." 4 Allusions to the great Dr. Richard Rock will also occur
to the reader of Horace Walpole. In its later years the Bell Savage
was a great coaching inn ; but the formation of the railways destroyed
its trade ; it fell into neglect and dilapidation, and was eventually
(1873) demolished to make way for the immense brick building pro-
vided for the printing and publishing establishment of Messrs. Cassell,
Fetter, and Galpin.
Bell Yard, COLEMAN STREET. [See Bell Alley.] Dodsley (1761)
enumerates 19 Bell Yards in London; Elmes (1831) gives 14 Bell
Yards, 1 7 Bell Courts, and 7 Bell Alleys. The Post Office Directory
for the present and past years gives only 4 Bell Yards, but it only
notices places of commercial rank.
Bell Yard, TEMPLE BAR. Pope has several letters addressed to
his friend, William Fortescue, "his counsel learned in the law," . . .
"at his house at the upper end of Bell Yard, near unto Lincoln's
Inn."
It is not five days ago that they [Fortescue's family] were in London, at that
filthy old place Bell Yard, which you know I want them and you to quit. Pope
to Fortescue, March 26, 1736 (Works, ed. Roscoe, vol. ix. p. 407).
There are in all 68 letters addressed to Fortescue by Pope.
Fortescue was the intimate friend of Gay as well as of Pope. He was
Master of the Rolls, 1741-1759. Hogarth engraved a tobacco paper
for " John Harrison, Bell Yard, Temple Bar," who kept a small snuff
shop there. The site of an ancient capital messuage, belonging at the
dissolution of Monasteries, 32 and 34 Henry VIII., to the Hospitallers
or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, is described in various deeds and
records shortly after that time as that messuage and tenement called
1 Tarlton's Jests, by Halliwell, p. n. In 1595 2 In an assessment of the parish of St. Bride's,
was published " Maroccus Extaticus ; or, Bankes' s Fleet Street, dated March 20, 1677, under Bel
Bay Horse in a Trance. A Discourse set down Savage Inn Yard the name of Grinling Gibbons
in a merry Dialogue between Bankes and his Beast, is scored out. This shows that he had been an
Anatomising some abuses and bad trickes of this inhabitant of the Inn Yard, and had left that year.
Age. Written and intituled to mine Host of the 3 Public Advertiser, January 7, 1761.
Belsavage and all his honest Guests : by John 4 Letters from u Citizen of the World, Letter
Dando, the wier-drawer of Hadley, and Harrie 68.
Runt, head Ostler of Bosomes Inne."
ST. BE NET FINK 157
the Bell, in the parish of St. Dunstan in Fleet Street, lately belonging
to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, situate between a tenement
called the Lamb on the east and a house called the Dolphin on the
west, the open fields and pasture called Fickett's Field on the north,
and the King's highway on the south. [See Fickett's Field.] The west
side of Bell Yard is now occupied by the railing of the Law Courts,
and the east side is almost entirely rebuilt.
Bellamy's, WESTMINSTER. A coffee-house attached to the old
House of Commons, which was very famous in its day for chops and
steaks and port-wine.
Belton Street, LONG ACRE, now ENDELL STREET. The southern
portion, from Castle Street to Short's Gardens, was called Old Belton
Street, the northern portion, from Short's Gardens to St. Giles's, New
Belton Street. At No. 8 Old Belton Street (now No. 7 Endell Street),
William Hunt, the water-colour painter, was born, March 28, 1790.
Hunt's father was a tin-plate worker and japanner. At No. 3 are
vestiges of the Duke's Bagnio. [See Bagnio, The.]
Belvedere Place, ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS. Henry Constantine
Jennings, known as "Dog" Jennings, collector of works of art (1731-
1819), died in this place, which was within the rules of the King's
Bench Prison.
Belvedere Road, LAMBETH, the modern name for the narrow
road which runs parallel to the Thames, from Waterloo Bridge to
Westminster Bridge Road. It was previously called Pedlar's Acre
and Narrow Wall. [See Pedlar's Acre.] In 1508 it was an osier-bed,
let at 2s. 6d. per annum. Its present name is probably given to it
from Belvedere House and Gardens, a once famous place of entertain-
ment.
Benet (St.) Fink, a church in Broad Street Ward, "commonly
called Finke, of Robert Finke the founder." [See Finch Lane.] The
church described by Stow was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the
church erected (1679) by Sir C. Wren to supply its place was taken down
(1842-1844) to make way for the new Royal Exchange, and the im-
provements which its erection rendered necessary. The church stood
immediately east of the present Royal Exchange. It was an elegant
little elliptic edifice, with a cupola borne on six composite columns ;
"a free imitation of the twin churches by the Piazza, del Popolo,
Rome. 1 All that remained of the church (for the tower was taken
down before the body of the building) was sold by auction on
January 15, 1846. The sepulchral tablets were removed at the same
time to the church of St. Peter-le-Poor, to which parish St. Benet
Fink was united. The parish registers record the marriage of
Richard Baxter, the celebrated Nonconformist, to Margaret Charlton
1 Elmes, Wren and his Times, p. 421, and in his Life of Wren, 410 ed., p. 326.
158 ST. BENET GRASSCHURCH
(September 10, 1662); and the baptism of "John, the son of John
Speed, merchant tailor (March" 29, 1608).
Benet (St.) Grasschurch. This church stood at the corner of
Gracechurch Street and Fenchurch Street, in the ward of Bridge Ward
Within, and was " called Grasschurch of the Herb Market there kept." l
The old church, described by Stow and his continuators, was destroyed
in the Great Fire. The church erected in its place by Sir C. Wren in
1685 was taken down in 1867-1868 in order to widen the thoroughfare.
Externally it was a plain building, having a square tower at the north-
west angle, surmounted with an octagonal cupola, from which rose an
obelisk-shaped spire. A large clock-dial projected from the tower half
across the street. The interior of the church was 60 feet by 30, with
a groined ceiling. The last service was performed and the church for-
mally " deconsecrated," February 8, 1867. The parish of St. Leonard's
Eastcheap had been united after the Great Fire with St. Benet Grass-
church, and on the destruction of the latter church the two parishes were
united with All Hallows, Lombard Street The sale of the site and mate-
rials of the old church furnished funds for the erection and endowment
of a new St. Benet's in Mile End Road, in the parish of Stepney. The
removal of the remains of the dead from St. Benet's prior to taking
down the church cost .2104 : 6 : 8. The site sold for .23,894 : 45.
An interesting collection of Roman glass was exhumed in digging up
the foundations. Among the articles were two-handed narrow-necked
vessels of elegant form, basins, etc. The register records the following
burials: April 14, 1559, "Robert Burges, a comon player." The
yard of the Cross Keys Inn in Gracechurch Street was one of our
early theatres. August 12, 1679, "Magdalen, wife of Alexander
Pope." This was the mother of Mrs. Rackett, so often mentioned
in her brother's Life.
The Rev. James Townley, author of High Life below Stairs, who
held the living, died in 1778, and a tablet was erected to his memory
in the church.
Benet's, or Bennet's Hill, UPPER THAMES STREET, so called
after the Church of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, runs from the south side
of St. Paul's Churchyard to Queen Victoria Street and Upper Thames
Street. In it are the Church of St. Benet and the College of Arms.
At the bottom of Benet's Hill is Paul's Wharf.
Benet (St.), PAUL'S WHARF, or, ST. BENET HUDE or HYTHE, a
church in Castle Baynard Ward, over against Paul's Wharf, destroyed
in the Great Fire, and rebuilt as it now stands by Sir Christopher Wren
in 1683. The interior is small and unimportant, the exterior of brick
with boldly carved stone festoons over the round arched windows. This
church was one of the nineteen City churches condemned by the Commis-
sioners in 1877, but it has not yet been decided to destroy it. It is now
used as a Welsh church, but it has no parochial status. The tower, with
1 Stow, p. 80.
ST. BENET SHEREHOG OR SYTH 159
its cupola and short spire, is 1 1 8 feet high to the finial. The interior is
nearly square, being 54 feet long and 50 wide by 36 feet high. Elmes.
The burial register records the following interments : Inigo Jones, the
architect (June 26, 1652); Sir William Le Neve (Clarencieux), the friend
of Ashmole; John Philipott (d. November 25, 1645), (Somerset Herald),
whose labours have added largely to the value of Camden's Remaines ;
and William Oldys (d. 1761), (Norroy), the literary antiquary. Inigo
Jones left ^100 for the "erecting of a monument in memorie of mee,
to be made of white marbele, and sett up in the church aforesaid,"
another pioo for the expenses of his funeral, and ^10 to the poor of
the parish. The monument stood against the right wall at some
distance from his grave, and was destroyed in the Great Fire. Le
Neve and Philipott lie no one knows where ; and Oldys sleeps towards
the upper end of the north aisle, 1 without a stone to mark the place of
his interment. William Wyrley, Rouge Croix Herald (d. February
1617-1618). Augustine Vincent, Windsor Herald (d. January n,
1625-1626). Sampson Lennard, Bluemantle Herald (died at Zutphen,
buried August 17, 1633). Edward Norgate, Windsor Herald (d. 1650).
Gregory King, Lancaster Herald (d. 1712). John Warburton, Somerset
Herald (d. 1759), whose cook lighted the kitchen fire with his valuable
old plays. John Charles Brooke, Somerset Herald (d. 1794). Sir
Ralph Bigland, Garter (d. 1838). Sir William Woods, Garter (d.
1842), buried in Hampstead Church. Sir William Cheyne, Chief
Justice K.B. (d. 1442). Sir Robert Wyseman, Dean of the Arches
(d. August 17, 1684). Sir Thomas Ridley, Civilian (d. January 22,
1628-1629). Sir William Wynne, Dean of the Arches (d. 1815). Sir
Christopher Robinson, Judge of the Admiralty (d. 1833). Richard
Caldwell or Chaldwell, M.D., President of the College of Physicians
(d. 1585). Francis Bernard, M.D., Physician to James II., Book
Collector (d. 1697). Mrs. Manley, author of the New Atlantis.
With him [Alderman Barber] she resided until the time of her death, which
happened on July u, 1724, at his house on Lambeth Hill. She was buried in the
middle aisle of the Church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, where a marble gravestone
was erected to her memory. Biographia Dramatica, 1812, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 489.
Ashmole, the antiquary, was married (1638) to his first wife in this
church. The living was held (1706-1709) by Samuel Clarke, author
of The Attributes of the Deity.
Benet (St.) Sherehog or Syth, WARD OF CHEAP, a church
destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. The church of the parish
is St. Stephens, Walbrook.
This small parish church of St. Sith hath also an addition of Benet Shorne (or Shrog
or Shorehog) for by all these names have I read it, but the most ancient is Shorne ;
wherefore it seemeth to take that name from one Benedict Shorne, sometime a citizen
and stockfish-monger of London, a new builder, repairer, or benefactor thereof, in
the reign of Edward II. ; so that Shorne is but corruptly Shrog, and more corruptly
Shorehog. Stow, p. 98.
1 Grose, p. 139. .
i6o 57: RENET SHEREHOG OR SYTH
Mr. Riley found the name spelt Shorhog in A.D. 1287 and 1320.
Benedict Shorne could have had no concern in it, nor does the church,
except in Stow's dreams, ever appear to have been called Shorne.
The old burying-ground of the parish still remains in Pancras Lane,
Queen Street, Cheapside, the furthest on the left-hand side before
Bucklersbury is entered. Edward Hall, the chronicler, "gentleman of
Gray's Inn, Common-Serjeant of this City, and then Under-Sheriff of
the same," was buried in the church of St. Benet Sherehog ; as were,
in 1652, John Greaves, mathematician and antiquary, and in 1664,
Mrs. Katherine Philips, " the matchless Orinda." She also wrote an
epitaph on an infant who was buried there. 1 St. Osyth, Queen and
Martyr, was patron of the church till displaced by Benedict. Size Lane,
Bucklersbury, is a corruption of " St. Osyth's Lane."
Mr. Ferrar (father of Nicholas Ferrar) repaired and decently seated
at his own expense the church and chancel, and as there was no morn-
ing preacher, he brought from the country Mr. Francis White, after-
wards Bishop successively of Carlisle, Norwich, and Ely. Peckard in
Mayor's Ferrar, p. 66 (n). Mr. Ferrar lived in St. Sythe's [Size] Lane.
William Sautre, the parish priest of St. Osithe's, in London, and formerly of St.
Margaret's, at Lynn, in Norfolk, was the first victim under the new statute, and the
first martyr for the Reformation in England. Southey, Book of the Church.
Foxe calls him " Sir William Chartres, otherwise Sautre." The decree
of Henry IV. ordering the burning is dated Westminster, February 26,
1400. The ceremony of his degradation is described by Foxe, vol.
iii. p. 228.
Bennet Street, ST. JAMES'S, runs from the west side of St. James's
Street to Arlington Street. It was begun i689, 2 and so called after
Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, one of the Cabal in the reign of
Charles II. [See Arlington Street.]
Eminent Inhabitants. No. 4, Lord Byron, 1813-1814. No. 14,
John Zoffany, R.A., 1796. Leonidas Glover at No. 9.
Bentinck Street, MANCHESTER SQUARE, leads from Welbeck
Street to Hinde Street. It was named after William Bentinck, second
Duke of Portland (d. 1762). The Portland property in this neigh-
bourhood was acquired by his marriage, July n, 1734, to the Lady
Margaret Cavendish Harley, only daughter and heir of Edward, Earl
of Oxford, and the heiress of the Harley family. The duke's eldest
daughter by Henrietta Cavendish Holies married Thomas Thynne, the
third Viscount Weymouth and first Marquis of Bath : hence Weymouth
Street, Portland Place. In the house No. 7 in this street Gibbon the
historian lived for ten years. On December n, 1772, Gibbon wrote to
Holroyd from his lodgings in Pall Mall that he had " as good as taken
Lady Rous's lease in Bentinck Street;" on August 18, 1783, he
reports to the same tried friend that " on Thursday morning the bulk
of the library moves from Bentinck Street," and on the 22d that the
1 Works (fol. 1667), p. 134. - Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
BERGHENE i6i
transportation is achieved, and that " Bentinck Street is reduced to a
light, ignorant habitation, which I shall inhabit till about the first of
September." His residence thus extended over more than ten years,
and those the most busy and important of his life. He was member
successively for Liskeard and for Lymington, and held the office of Lord
Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, whose "perpetual virtual adjourn-
ment, and unbroken sitting," Burke so happily ridicules. Here he wrote
and published the first half of his Decline and Fall. Vol. i. was published
in February 1776, and vols. ii. and iii. in February 1781. His Vindication
of some Passages in the i^th and \bth Chapters was also written in this
house. He was an early riser, and describes himself as being employed
in " destroying an army of barbarians " at half-past seven in the morning,
when Lord Eliot came to offer him his pocket borough of Liskeard.
In his Autobiography he describes No. 7 Bentinck Street as " a small
house between a street and a stable-yard," and his mode of living in it
as "the economy of a solitary bachelor, who might afford some occa-
sional dinners." The house still stands, and is easily distinguished by
the old-fashioned doorway in its centre.
For my own part, my late journey has only confirmed me in the opinion that
number seven in Bentinck Street is the best house in the world. Letter to Lord
Sheffield, January 17, 1783.
The chosen part of my library is now arrived, and arranged in a room full as
good as that in Bentinck Street, with this difference indeed, that instead of looking
on a stone court, twelve feet square, I command from three windows of plate glass
an unbounded prospect of many a league of vineyard, of fields, of wood, of lake, and
of mountains. Letter to Lady Sheffield, Lausanne, October 22, 1784.
Francis Bartolozzi the engraver was living in Bentinck Street in
1781. Charles Dickens lived in this street with his father when acting
as a newspaper reporter.
In his father's house, which was at Hampstead, though the first portion of the
Mornington Street school time, then in the house west of Seymour Street mentioned
by Mr. Dawson, and afterwards, on the elder Dickens going into the gallery as reporter
for the Morning Herald, in Bentinck Street, Manchester Square, Charles had con-
tinued to live ; and influenced doubtless by the example before him, he took sudden
determination to qualify himself thoroughly for what his father was lately become, a
newspaper parliamentary reporter. Forster's Life of Dickens, B. i. chap. 3.
Bentinck Street, SOHO, a turning out of Berwick Street. Here
was the studio of Sherwin the engraver, to whom J. T. Smith was
apprenticed.
Berghene, a district in Southwark, which was afterwards known as
Little Burgundy.
It represents approximately, for it is impossible now to define the exact boundaries,
some considerable space, east and west, between Tooley Street and Battle Bridge,
otherwise Mill Lane, and north and south the ground now occupied by all but the
river-side parts of Cotton's, the Depot, and Key's Wharfs, together with part of
Tooley Street and much ground which the railway now covers. Tooley Street with
or without the Berghene, was known as Short Southwark. Rendle's Old Southwark
and its People, 1878, p. 271.
In the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Olave's, 1582, the
VOL. i M
1 62 BERGHENE
place is described as " the Borgyney," and in a grant (36 Henry VIII.) to
Robert Curson of divers tenements, late belonging to the priory of St.
Mary Overy, refers to " Petty Burgen " in the parish of St. Olave in
the Borough of Southwark. There is an article on the Berghene" by
Mr. George Corner in Notes and Queries, 2d S., vol. ii. p. 86.
Berkeley House, PICCADILLY, stood where Devonshire House
now stands, on the site of a farm called "Hay Hill Farm," a name
still preserved in the surrounding streets. It was designed about the year
1665 by Hugh May (the brother of Bap. May), for John, Lord Berkeley
of Stratton (d. 1678), the hero of Stratton fight, one of the minor battles
of the Civil War under Charles I. The gardens were very extensive,
including Berkeley Square and the grounds now attached to Lansdowne
House, as well as those belonging to Devonshire House.
May 22, 1666. Waited on my Lord Chancellor at his new palace, and Lord
Berkeley's built next to it. Evelyn.
September 25, 1672. I din'd at Lord John Berkeley's, newly arrived out of
Ireland, where he had been Deputy : it was in his new house, or rather palace, for I am
assured it stood him in neere .30,000. It is very well built, and has many noble
roomes, but they are not very convenient, consisting but of one Corps de Logis : they
are all roomes of state, without clossets. The staire-case is of cedar ; the furniture is
princely ; the kitchen and stables are ill-placed, and the corridore worse, having no
report to the wings they joyne to. For the rest, the fore-court is noble ; so are the
stables ; and above all, the gardens, which are incomparable by reason of the
inequalitie of the ground, and a pretty piscina. The holly hedges on the terrace I
advised the planting of. The porticos are in imitation of a house described by
Palladio, but it happens to be the worst in his booke ; though my good friend, Mr.
Hugh May, his Lordship's architect, effected it. Evelyn.
In his Life of Mrs. Godolphin, Evelyn describes Berkeley House as
" one of the most magnificent pallaces of the Towne."
June 12, 1684. I went to advise and give directions about the building two
streetes in Berkeley Gardens, reserving the house and as much of the garden as .the
breadth of the house. In the meanetime, I could not but deplore that sweete place
(by far the most noble gardens, courts, and accommodations, stately porticoes, etc.,
anywhere about towne) should be so much straightened and turned into tenements.
But that magnificent pile and gardens contiguous to it, built by the late Lord
Chancellor Clarendon, being all demolished, and designed for piazzas and buildings,
was some excuse for my Lady Berkeley's resolution of letting out her ground also for
so excessive a price as was offered, advancing neere 1000 per ann. in mere ground-
rents ; to such a mad intemperance was the age come of building about a citty by
far too disproportionate already to the nation ; I having, in my time, scene it almost
as large again as it was within my memory. Evelyn.
When the Princess Anne, afterwards Queen Anne, was driven from
the Cockpit at Whitehall by her sister, who could not prevail on her to
part with the Duchess of Marlborough 1 (then only Lady M.), she took
up her abode in Berkeley House, where she remained till her sister's
death, when St. James's Palace was settled upon her by King William III.
" And now," writes the Duchess of Marlborough, " it being publicly known that
the quarrel was made up, nothing was to be seen but crowds of people of all sorts,
1 Evelyn, 410 ed., vol. ii. p. 45 ; Rate-books of St. Martin's, 1694 ; Conduct of the Duchess of
Marlborough, ed. 1762, p. 43.
BERKELEY SQUARE 163
flocking to Berkeley House, to pay their respects to the Prince and Princess : a
sudden alteration which, I remember, occasioned the half-witted Lord Caernarvon to
say one night to the Princess, as he stood close by her in the Circle, ' I hope your
Highness will remember that I came to wait upon you, when none of this company
did': which caused a great deal of mirth." Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough,
ed. 1742, p. 60.
Berkeley House was bought x by the first Duke of Devonshire, who
had so great a hand in the Revolution of 1688. The duke died here
in 1707. The house (the staircase of which was painted by Laguerre)
was destroyed by fire, October 16, I733, 2 and rebuilt as now seen
(the new portico and marble staircase excepted) from designs by
William Kent, for William Cavendish, third Duke of Devonshire.
John Vander Vaart (d. 1721) painted a violin against a door of this
house, that is said by Walpole to have deceived everybody. The violin
escaped the fire, and is now at Chatsworth.
Berkeley House, SPRING GARDENS, built by Frederick Augustus,
Earl of Berkeley, in 1772, on the site of the building now occupied by
the Metropolitan Board of Works. The house was purchased by
Government in 1862 and pulled down. The Hon. Grantley T. Berkeley
devotes a chapter of his Life and Recollections, 1865, to his recollections
of this house and of the distinguished persons who visited it during his
father's lifetime (vol. i. pp. 78-95).
Berkeley Square, so called from Berkeley House [which see].
On the south side Lansdowne House, designed in 1765 by Robert
Adam, for the Earl of Bute (the minister), and then sold to the Earl
Shelburne, afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne, for ^20,000.
No. 44 was designed by William Kent for Lady Isabella Finch ;
Walpole commends the staircase in the highest terms, and the saloon
is still one of the loftiest in London. In 1774 the great Lord
dive put an end to himself in No. 45 with a razor; some say with
a penknife. No. 1 1 was the house to which Horace Walpole removed
from Arlington Street (October 14, 1779), and in which (1797) he
died ; and here his niece, the Countess of Waldegrave, was living in
the year 1800.
According to Mr. Beloe the last anecdote which he heard Horace
Walpole relate was the following :
In the time of Sir Robert Walpole it was the established etiquette that the Prime
Minister returned no visits ; but on his leaving office Sir Robert took the earliest
opportunity of visiting his friends ; and one morning he happened to pass for this
purpose through Berkeley Square, the whole of which had actually been built whilst
he was Minister, and he had never before seen it. This incident alone prevailed
upon his son Horace to take the first opportunity which offered of purchasing a house
here. Beloe's Sexagenarian, vol. i. p. 291.
Beloe, it will be observed, says that the whole of Berkeley Square
" had been actually built whilst he [Walpole] was minister." This is
1 Rate-books of St. Martin's, 1697.
- The Daily Journal of October 17, 1733) gives a long account of the fire.
1 64 BERKELEY SQUARE
of course incorrect. The ground was laid out and the buildings
commenced, 1698, in the reign of Anne, but the progress was slow, and
perhaps fitful, and the houses were only completed during Walpole's
ministry. But even this is sufficient to refute an anecdote related by
the painter Haydon, that Coke of Holkham (Earl of Leicester) told
him that he remembered when "where Berkeley Square now stands
was a capital place for snipe." 1 Coke of Holkham, though of a good
age when he told the story, was not born till 1752, ten years after the
termination of Walpole's ministry.
October ii, 1779. I am removing into a new house in London that I bought
last winter. It is in Berkeley Square, whither for the future you must direct. It is
a charming situation and a better house than I wanted, in short, I would not change
my two pretty mansions for any in England. Walpok to Mann.
October 14, 1779- I came to town this morning to take possession of Berkeley
Square, and am as well pleased with my new habitation as I can be with anything at
present. Lady Shelburne's being queen of the palace over against me, has improved
the view since I bought the house. Walpole to Lady Ossory.
I have told you before of the savage state we are fallen into : it is now come to
such perfection that one can neither stir out of one's house safely, nor stay in it with
safety. I was sitting here very quietly under my calamity on Saturday night when,
at half an hour after ten, I heard a loud knock at the door. I concluded that Mr.
Conway or Lady Aylesbury had called after the Opera to see how I did ; nobody
came up ; a louder knock. I rang to know who it was ; but before the servants
could come to me, the three windows of this room and the next were broken about
my ears by a volley of stones, and so were those of the hall and the library below,
as a hint to me how glad I must be of my Lord Rodney's victory six or eight months
ago. In short he had dined at the London Tavern, with a committee of the Common
Council ; for the Mayor and Aldermen had refused to banquet him. Thence he had
paraded through the whole town to his own house at this end, with a rabble at his
heels breaking windows for not being illuminated, for which no soul was prepared,
as no soul thought on him ; but thus our conquerors triumph. My servants went
out, and begged these Romans to give them time to light up candles, but to no
purpose ; and were near having their brains dashed out. Walpole to Mann, November
26, 1782.
The mother of a gentleman who died not many years since recollected this
veteran [Colley Gibber] perfectly, standing at the parlour window of his house in
Berkeley Square (at the corner of Bruton Street) drumming with his ringers on the
frame. Fitzgerald's Garrick, vol. i. p. 104, note.
Gibber died at this house. The second Earl of Chatham lived at
No. 6. At this house his brother, William Pitt, then Prime Minister,
received a deputation from the City of London, who brought him his
letters of freedom and attended him to a banquet given in his honour
at the Hall of the Grocers' Company. No. 28 was the residence of
Lord Brougham whilst Chancellor. He took it of Earl Grey (its
previous occupant), and when he left it in 1834, as Bromley, Lord
Grey's agent, told Haydon, " never was house left in such a filthy con-
dition." 2 At No. 38 (now Lord Londesborough's), in the year 1804,
the Earl of Jersey was married to Lady Sophia Fane, eldest daughter
of John, tenth Earl of Westmorland a celebrated beauty and for fifty
years leader of fashion in London. The house in 1804 belonged to
1 Life of Haydon, by his son, vol. ii. p. 360.
a Ibid., vol. ii. p. 418.
BERKELEY STREET 165
her father, but became hers the next year as the heiress of the Childs
of Osterley. She died in 1867. The Earl of Powis lives at No. 45 ;
the Marquis of Bath at No. 48 ; Field-Marshal Lord Strathnairn at
No. 52. Lord Clyde (the Indian general) lived at No. 10, and men-
tions it in his will, dated July n, 1863. In No. 21 lived and died
(1825) Lady Anne Barnard, authoress of the beautiful song of "Auld
Robin Gray." It was for many years afterwards the residence of the
Earl of Crawford, and then that of the late Lord Brougham and Vaux.
No. 5 on the east side is Messrs. Gunters', the first confectioners in
London. No. 25 is Thomas's Hotel. This was the London residence
of Charles James Fox in 1802-1803. At No. 28 lived Sidney Smirke,
R.A., the architect of the Carlton Club House and the Reading Room
of the British Museum. In the centre of the square was an equestrian
statue' of George III., in a Roman habit, "in the character of
Marcus Aurelius." It was executed by Beaupre* under the direction
of Wilton for the Princess Amelia, who placed it in 1766 where it
stood until a few years ago.
I congratulate you on your removal to Berkeley Square. May you enjoy the
comforts of your new situation as long as the Phidian -work which is placed in the
centre of that square continues to be its chief ornament. Mason to Horace Walpole
(Walpole's Letters^ vol. vii. p. 263, note).
The centre of the Square was planted with shrubs and plane trees
about the end of the last century.
Berkeley Street, BERKELEY SQUARE, leading from Berkeley Square
to Piccadilly, so named, like Berkeley Square, from being built on the
grounds of Berkeley House. It was built by Lady Berkeley in 1684,
under the directions of John Evelyn. In 1737 Pope purchased a
thirty-one-years' lease of No. 9 Berkeley Street, and presented it to
Martha Blount, to the great disgust of the sons of his half-sister, Mrs.
Rackett. Mr. Carruthers found at Mapledurham a letter from George
Arbuthnot, Pope's executor, detailing the circumstances. Martha
Blount, in her will, dated December 13, 1762, calls herself "of Berkeley
jRow, Spinster." She died in this house in the following July. Richard
Cosway, R.A., the miniature painter, lived at No. 4 Berkeley Street in
1770 and following years. "It was in this house," says J. T. Smith,
" that the Prince of Wales and his Royal brothers first noticed and
employed Cosway." Shackelton the portrait painter had previously
lived in the same house. Mr. Chaworth was carried to a house in this
street after his duel with Lord Byron, the great-uncle of the poet, at
the Star and Garter Tavern in Pall Mall, on January 24, 1765. At
No. 9 lived Mrs. Howard, the mistress of Louis Napoleon (Napoleon
III.) It was at the Piccadilly corner of this street that Rogers the
poet was knocked down by a brougham. Though over eighty at the
time, he recovered the blow and lived for several years after.
Berkeley Street, CLERKENWELL (leading from St. John's Lane
by St. John's Gate to Red Lion Street), was so called from a mansion
1 66 BERKELEY STREET
of the Lords Berkeley which stood here in Charles I.'s time, and
probably much earlier. 1 In 1788, when the Church of St. James,
Clerkenwell, was being rebuilt, the body of Lady Elizabeth Berkeley
(d. 1585) was disclosed. It was quite perfect, in the dress of the
period, with brown gloves on the hands.
Berkeley Street, PORTMAN SQUARE (UPPER and LOWER). Lower
Berkeley Street leads from Manchester Square to Portman Square,
Upper Berkeley Street from Portman Square to the Edgeware Road.
At No. 24 Upper Berkeley Street lived (1819, etc.) Lord Erskine, the
famous advocate and Chancellor. Admiral Sir Charles Napier was
living in Upper Berkeley Street in 1854 when suddenly appointed,
amid much popular excitement, to command the fleet in the Baltic.
Berkshire House, ST. JAMES'S, the town-house of the Howards,
Earls of Berkshire, built circ. 1630, and purchased and presented by
Charles II. to Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, and Duchess
of Cleveland. In 1664-1665 it was fitted up by the Surveyor of the
Works for the reception of the French Ambassador. Lord Clarendon
lived in it for a short time after the Great Fire ; Lord Craven in 1667 ;
the Earl of Castlemaine in 1668; and the Countess of Castlemaine
(alone) in 1669. Its subsequent fate will be found under Cleveland
House, a name it received when it became the residence of the Duchess
of Cleveland.
November 19, 1666. To Barkeshire House, where my Lord Chancellor [Claren-
don] hath been ever since the Fire. Pepys.
November 20, 1666. By coach to Barkeshire House, and there did get a very
great meeting ; the Duke of York being there, and much business done ; though not
in proportion to the greatness of the business ; and my Lord Chancellor sleeping and
snoring the greater part of the time. Pepys.
May 8, 1668. He [Lord Crewe] tells me that there are great disputes like to be
at Court, between the factions of the two women, my Lady Castlemaine and Mrs.
Stewart, who is now well again, the King having made several public visits to her,
and like to come to Court ; the other [Lady Castlemaine] is to go to Berkshire
House, which is taken for her, and they say a Privy Seal is passed for ^5000 for
it. Pepys.
Bermondsey, SURREY, a river-side parish in the hundred of
Brixton, adjoining St. Olave's, St. John's, St. Thomas's, St. George's,
and other parishes. The " land-side " is traversed by the London and
Greenwich, the London, Brighton and South Coast, and the South
Eastern Railways. The name is believed to be a slight modernisation
of the Beormund's ey, or island, the district being insulated by water-
courses running down to the Thames. In the Domesday Survey it is
written Bermundeseye. It was then held by King William. Before
him Earl Harold held it. The district was one famous for its mill-
streams and market-gardens ; one broad canal-like stream is left, but
the rest are mostly covered over and converted into sewers, and
the gardens have disappeared. Tanneries and leather works are
the leading industry. Bermondsey has been for more than 200
1 Brayley, Londiniana, p. 148.
BERMONDSE Y 1 67
years the centre of the leather trade. The tanners of Bermondsey
received a Charter of Incorporation from Queen Anne (1703) by the
name of the " Masters, Wardens, and Commonalty of the Art or Mistery
of Tanners, of the parish of St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey." x The
Neckinger Mill is the largest leather factory in England ; there are
many extensive fellmongers' skin -dressing yards; a great leather
market and a skin market Hat-making employs a large number of
hands, the hat factory of Messrs. Christy being, it is said, the largest
in the world. Woolstaplers' yards, parchment, glue, and size factories,
ropeyards, chemical engineers' yards, iron foundries, emery works, and
a great variety of other works. Pin and needle making were once
carried on here, but are now extinct. In the parish church is a tablet
to "James Hardwidge, needle-maker to Her Majesty, Queen Charlotte,"
who, with his wife and daughter, "moulded in Nature's fairest form," was
interred there. By the river are extensive wharfs, granaries, shipwrights,
mast and block-making yards, and sailmakers' lofts. Altogether it is a
busy and populous but not particularly fragrant place. Lying low and
being much intersected by watercourses it was damp, foggy, and
reputed unhealthy. In common with the other low-lying districts it
suffered greatly from the plague in 1603, 1625, and 1665; from the
cholera in 1848-1849 and 1853, as well as from other epidemic
diseases. But of late years the drainage has been amended and other
sanitary improvements made with great benefit to the general health.
The parish church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, erected in 1680,
on the site of the old church, was a plain unpretending building till
1830, when it was remodelled in the Gothic of that year. The church
of St. James, brick, with stone dressings, with an Ionic portico, and,
rising above it a tall square steeple, was designed by James Savage,
architect, between the years 1827 and 1829, at a cost of ^21,412.
St. Paul's Church, in Long Lane, was designed by Mr. S. S. Teulon,
and was consecrated in 1848. One or two other churches have
since been built to meet the requirements of the greatly increased
population, now little short of 100,000 in number. There are
also a Roman Catholic church and convent, and many chapels.
Aylwin Child, citizen of London, founded, A.D. 1082, a monastery
at Bermondsey for monks of the Cluniac order. Catherine, Queen of
Henry V., died in it in 1437 ; an d Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV.,
was condemned by order of council in 1480 to forfeit all her lands
and goods, and be confined in Bermondsey Abbey, where she died
in 1492. The abbey possessed a famous cross, which was much
visited.
I pray yow voysyt the Rood of Northedor and Seynt Savyour at Barmonsey,
amonge whyll ye abyd in London, and lat my sustyr Margery goo with yow to pray
to them that sche may have a good hosbond or sche com horn ayen. -John Paston
the youngest to Margaret Paston, 1465 (Fenn's Paston Letters, iv. 224, Gairdner's ed.
vol. ii. p. 233).
1 Lysons, vol. i. p. 47.
1 68 BERMONDSEY
At the commencement of Bermondsey Street, which led to the
Abbey (where it joins Tooley Street), was situated Bermondsey Cross,
which is marked in the valuable map of Southwark (circ. 1542) given
in Mr. Rendle's Old Southwark as " Barmese" Cross." The site of the
monastery and the manor itself were granted at the Dissolution to Sir
Robert Southwell (Master of the Rolls), and sold by him the same
year to Sir Thomas Pope, who built a mansion called Bermondsey
House. In 1094 William Rufus gave the manor to the monastery on
the site of the old conventual church, afterwards inhabited by Thomas
Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex, who died here in 1583. The gate of the
monastery, and a large arch and postern on one side, were standing
till 1807, when they were pulled down for the formation of a new road.
The site is indicated by Abbey Road, the Grange, and Long Walk,
but no traces of the Abbey buildings remain. The only memorial left
of this once famous monastery is a silver dish of the i4th century,
with figures in the centre, used as the alms-dish in the parish church.
A plan of the abbey and views of the gateway, etc., are engraved in
Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata, which is particularly rich in old
Bermondsey illustrations. There are a large number of sketches and
drawings of the Abbey of Bermondsey by Mr. Buckler, with illustrative
text, at the British Museum. Add. MSS., 24,432 ; 24,433. ^ n
Grange Road was established, with six scholars, in 1792, the Asylum
for the Deaf and Dumb, the first institution of the kind in this country.
The founders were the Rev. H. Henry Cox Mason, curate (and
afterwards rector) of Bermondsey, and the Rev. John Townsend. The
asylum was removed, 1807-1809, to the spacious building erected for
it in the Old Kent Road. In Grange Walk, John Scott (Scott of
Amwell) the Quaker poet, was born in 1730.
Bermondsey Spa.
About 1770 a chalybeate spring was discovered by the owner of
the ground, Mr. Thomas Keyse, a self-taught artist, whose pictures of
butchers' and fishmongers' shops, joints of beef, vegetables, and the
like, found many admirers, and who had been awarded a premium
of 30 guineas by the Society of Arts for a method of fixing crayon
drawings. In order to make known the virtues of the spring he
opened the grounds as a place of entertainment under the name of
the Bermondsey Spa, exhibiting as an additional attraction a collection
of his own paintings. The place becoming popular, he, in 1780,
obtained a music licence and converted it into a " minor Vauxhall."
There were music and fireworks, and, as the culminating effect, a
representation of the Siege of Gibraltar, designed and arranged by
Mr. Keyse, which, with the apparatus, occupied an area of four acres,
the height of the rock being about 50 feet and its length 200 feet.
Keyse died in 1800, and the gardens were closed about 1805, and
built over, but the site is marked by the Spa Road. Jacob's Island,
familiar to the readers of Oliver Twist, has a separate notice. {See
Jacob's Island.]
BERNERS STREET 169
Bermudas (The), a nest or rookery of obscure alleys and avenues
running between the bottom of St. Martin's Lane, Bedford Street, and
Chandos Street, now cleared away. [See Bedfordbury and Porridge
Island.]
Town pirates here at land,
Have their Bermudas, and their Streights i' the Strand.
BEN JONSON, Ep. to the Earl of Dorset.
Justice Overdo. Look into any angle of the town, the Streights or the Bermudas,
where the quarrelling lesson is read, and how do they entertain the time, but with
bottle-ale and tobacco ? Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair.
On Wednesday at the Bermudas Court, Sir Edwin Sandys fell foul of the Earl
of Warwick. The Lord Cavendish seconded Sandys and the Earl told the Lord,
"By his favour he believed he lied." Hereupon, it is said, they rode out yesterday,
and, as it is thought, gone beyond sea to fight. Leigh to Rev. Joseph Mede, July 18,
1623.
At a subsequent period this cluster of avenues exchanged the old name of Ber-
mudas for that of the Caribbee Islands, which the learned possessors of the district
corrupted, by a happy allusion to the arts cultivated there, into the Cribbee Islands,
their present appellation. Gifford's Ben Jonson, 1816, vol. iv. p. 430.
Bernard Street, RUSSELL SQUARE, is built on the Foundling
Hospital estate, and was so called from Sir Thomas Bernard, Treasurer
of the Hospital (1795-1806), who increased the funds of that institution
by arranging for building streets on its property. Joe Munden, the
actor, lived and died (February 6, 1832) at No. 2 in this street, on the
south side, near Russell Square house next gateway. The Rev.
George Croly lived at No. 14 ; Dr. Roget at No. 39.
Berners Street, OXFORD STREET, derives its name from William
Berners, Esq., of Woolverstone Hall, Suffolk (d. 1783), who leased the
ground to the various tenants in 1763. Three years before it was
merely a passage way to the Middlesex Hospital ; and in September
1760 the committee "ordered that the causeway be repaired from
Wardour Street and continued up to the hospital. It was at one time a
favourite abode of artists. Sir William Chambers, R.A., built himself
a house, No. 53 in this street, and was living in it in 1773 ; it is now
occupied by the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society ; Frank Stone,
the painter, had his studio in the first floor of this house. Fuseli was
at No. 13 in 1804, and remained there till 1806, when he was ap-
pointed Keeper to the Royal Academy. In the following year Sir
Robert Smirke, the architect, lived in the same house. Opie resided at
No. 8 from 1792 till his death, April 9 1807. In his last illness he was
attended in this house by Pitcairn and Baillie, physicians, and Cline
and Carlisle, surgeons. Henry Bone, R.A., the most eminent English
painter in enamel, lived at No. 15 from the beginning of the century
till his death in 1834. J. Lonsdale, the portrait painter, lived at
No. 8. Here Thomas Campbell records (April 1813) :
I dined yesterday with Captain Morris, the old bard, who sang his own songs in
his 8 1st year with the greatest glee, and obliged me to sing some Scotch songs and
the "Exile of Erin." . . . The party was at Lonsdale's the painters. Poor old
Morris was cut a little. I was as sober as a judge. Life, vol. ii. p. 227.
1 70 BERNERS STREET
At No. 1 9 lived that accomplished and kindly physician, Dr. Robert
Gooch. William Shield, the composer, at No. 31. Whilst he was
living there (June 16, 1800) the house was broken into and 200
worth of plate carried off. He died here January 25, 1829, aged eighty.
James Bartleman (1769-1821), bass singer, lived and died at No. 45.
Richard Wroughton, the actor, was living at No. 29 in March 1816.
Mrs. Macaulay Kate Macgraham, as Walpole calls her lived in
Berners Street.
The other day I paid her a visit at her house in Berners Street, Oxford Row, on
a particular occasion by her desire. That house, a new one she had bought and
furnished handsomely. She had, the air of a princess out-Comelyed the Comely-
sians, and had the frank Bath air on her countenance. It seems she keeps two
servants in laced liveries, treats cleverly and elegantly, and, in short, author or fine
lady, surpasses all her sex. T. Hollis to Rev. T. Lindsay (Mitford in Walpole and
Mason, vol. i. p. 427).
No. 6 was the Banking House of Marsh, Stracey, Fauntleroy, and
Graham. The loss to the Bank of England by Henry Fauntleroy's
forgeries amounted to the sum of ^360,000. No. 7 was Fauntleroy's
private house. The two are now the Berners Hotel. No. 54 was
(November 26, 1810) the scene of the famous Berners Street hoax
a trick of Theodore Hook's when a young man (described at
length in the Quarterly Review, No. 143, p. 62). The lady on
whom the hoax was played was Mrs. Tottingham, and the trick itself
(since frequently imitated) consisted in sending out 200 orders to
different tradespeople to deliver goods, both bulky and small, at the
same house, to the same person, and at the same hour. Thomas Hard-
wick, architect, died at No. 55 in 1829. David Roberts, R.A., was
walking down the west side of this street when he was struck with
apoplexy. He clung to the railings for support, and was removed to
the Middlesex Hospital at the north end of the street
Berwardeslane, BISHOPSGATE.
It was presented, upon oath of twelve reputable men of the Ward of Bisshopesgate,
at the Wardmote holden before John Lyttle, Alderman of the same ward, on the
Sunday next after the Feast of St. Nicholas the Bishop [December 6, 1373], that
after great rains the waters coming down from the fields of the Lord Bishop of Lon-
don into Berwardeslane, and from the street without Bisshopesgate, used, and of right
ought, to have their course through an arched passage beneath a certain tenement
belonging to Nicholas de Altone, which Thomas de Lenesham, skynnere there held,
opposite to Berwardeslane aforesaid, towards the town of London, which water-
course was then choked up. Riley's Memorials of London, 1868, p. 374.
The name had been changed to Hog Lane in Stow's time.
Berwick Street, SOHO, leads from Oxford Street by Walker's Court
to Pulteney Street. In 1708 it was "a kind of a Row, the fronts of
the houses resting on columns, make a small piazza." * John Hall, the
engraver, was living at No. 83 in this street when he engraved, in 1791,
Sir Joshua's portrait of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and he died there
in 1797. George Anne Bellamy, the famous actress, lived in this street
for a time when she was in pecuniary distress.
1 Hatton, p. 7.
BETHLEHEM ROYAL HOSPITAL 171
Sheridan came twice or thrice during the engraving of his portrait [says Abraham
Raimbach the engraver, Hall's pupil at this time], and my memory dwells with
pleasure to this hour on the recollection of his having said a few kindly and en-
couraging words to me when a boy, drawing at the time in the study. I was, how-
ever, most struck with what seemed to me, in such a man, an undue and unbecoming
anxiety about his good looks in the portrait to be executed. The efflorescence in his
face had been indicated by Sir Joshua in the picture, not, it may be presumed, a ban
gre on the part of Sheridan, and it was strongly evident that he deprecated its trans-
fer to the print. I need scarcely observe that Hall set his mind at ease on this
point. Raimbach's Memoirs, p. 9.
In this street is St. Luke's Church, built from the designs of Mr.
Edward Blore in 1838-1839 at a cost of about ^14,000.
Bethlehem Churchyard, ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE, on the
north side of Liverpool Street. This ground was converted into gardens
belonging to the houses in Broad Street Buildings, but in 1863 was
sold to make way for the Broad Street Station of the London and
North- Western and North London Railways.
In the year 1569, Sir Thomas Roe, merchant-taylor, mayor, caused to be in-
closed with a wall of brick about one acre of ground, being part of the hospital of
Bethlehem. This he did for burial and ease of such parishes in London as wanted
ground convenient within other parishes. The lady his wife was there buried, by
whose persuasion he enclosed it. Stow, p. 62.
Eminent Persons interred in. Robert Greene, the dramatic writer
and contemporary of Shakespeare, died September 3, 1592, and on the
following day was " buried in the new churchyard near Bedlam " : the
charges were 6s. 4d. John Lilburne (d. 1657), of whom it was said
by Lord Clarendon, that John would quarrel with Lilburne, and Lil-
burne quarrel with John, rather than have no quarrel at all. John
Reeve, the colleague of Muggleton, who died in July J.658, 1 and after-
wards Muggleton himself. Muggleton died on March 14, 1697-1698.
Upon the l6th day of March his corps was removed to Lorsimus Hall [? Loriners
Hall, London Wall], and on the 17 day was from thence attended on, with two
hundred forty-eight friends accompanying him, to Bethlehem Church Yard, where he
was buried by his fellow- witness, which was according to his own appointment.
Preface to Muggleton's Acts of the Witnesses, p. 7.
Bethlehem Royal Hospital (vulg. BEDLAM), LAMBETH ROAD,
ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS, a hospital for insane people, founded in Bishops-
gate Without, and for a different purpose, in 1246, by Simon Fitz-Mary,
one of the Sheriffs of London. " He founded it to have been 'a priory
of canons with brethren and sisters." 2 The site of the original hospital
was that known long after its removal as Old Bethlemen, subsequently
as Liverpool Street. The greater part of it is now occupied by the
stations of the North London and Great Eastern Railways. On the
petition of Sir John Gresham, Lord Mayor, Henry VIII. gave the
building of the dissolved priory, in 1547, to the City of London, in
order that it might be converted into a hospital for lunatics. In 1557
the management was given to the governors of Bridewell Hospital.
[See BRIDEWELL.]
1 Muggleton's Acts of the Witnesses, p. 3o. - Stow, p. 62.
172 BETHLEHEM ROYAL HOSPITAL
Then had ye [at Charing Cross] one house, wherein sometime were distraught and
lunatic people, of what antiquity founded or by whom I have not read, neither of the
suppression ; but it was said that sometime a king of England, not liking such a kind
of people to remain so near his palace, caused them to be removed farther off, to
Bethlem without Bishop-gate of London, and to that hospital the said house by
Charing Cross doth yet remain. Stow, p. 167.
By the beginning of the i7th century Bethlehem Hospital had
become one of the London sights, and it so continued till the last
quarter of the i8th century. In Webster's Westward Ho! (410,
1607), some of the characters, to pass the time while their horses are
being saddled at " the Dolphin, Without Bishopsgate," resolve to " cross
over " the road " to Bedlam, to see what Greeks are within," and a
highly comic scene ensues. One of the party happening to turn his
back the rest persuade the keeper that their friend is a lunatic, that his
" pericranium is perished."
Greenshield. Look you, Sir, here's a crown to provide his supper. He's a
gentleman of a very good house : you shall be paid well if you convert [i.e. cure]
him. To-morrow morning bedding and a gown shall be sent in, and wood and coal.
Keeper. Nay, Sir, he must ha' no fires.
Greens. Let his straw be fresh and sweet, we beseech you, Sir.
Westward Ho ! Act iv. sc. 3.
Ben Jonson in his Silent Woman makes it a part of Lady Haughty's
instructions to her friend for taming a husband to make him attend her
to the sights of London. " And go with us to Bedlam, to the China
houses, and to the Exchange." J The same combination occurs in the
Alchemist, which comedy supplies another local touch :
It may be,
For some good penance you may have it yet ;
A hundred pounds to the box at Bethlem. Alchemist, Act iv. Sc. 3.
The Deputy Feodary of Somersetshire reported to Cecil, November
10, 1609, that he had found a lunatic in an under room chained and
ironed on a straw bed " After the fashion of Bedlam.'' 1 2
There seem to have been many complaints of the management.
In May 1619 Dr. Hilkiah Crooke petitioned the King, James I., to
"urge the Commissioners to be diligent in the prosecution of the
commission, and to provide separate government for the hospital which
had not thriven this hundred years." 3 A little later (1632) we learn for
the first time what was the accommodation provided for the patients.
Besides parlour, kitchen and larders below stairs, there were " twenty-
one rooms wherein the poor distracted people lie, and above the
stairs eight rooms more for servants and the poor to lie in, and a long
waste room now being contrived and in work, to make eight more
rooms for poor people to lodge where they lacked room before." With
some additions recently made there does not seem to have been
provision made for more than sixty patients. The Great Fire did not
reach Bethlehem Hospital, but shortly afterwards, when building was
going on all around and many alterations were being made in the
1 Silent Woman, Act iv. sc. 2. 2 Cal. State Papers, 1623-25, p. 342.
3 Cal. Staff Pap., James /., 1619-1623, p. 50.
BETHLEHEM ROYAL HOSPITAL 173
streets, it was decided rather than attempt to repair the buildings,
which had become very dilapidated and quite inadequate to their purpose,
to erect a larger hospital in Moorfields somewhat farther from the heart
of the city. Simon Fitz-Mary's Hospital was accordingly taken down,
as soon as the new building was ready for the reception of the patients.
An inscription over the entrance stated that it was commenced in April
1675 an d finished in July 1676, an instance of rapid building for those
times. Robert Hooke was the architect, " the cost was nigh 1. 7,000."
In this as in other cases quick building did not imply sound building.
When it was pulled down in 1814 it was discovered that the founda-
tions were very bad, " it having been built on a part of the Town-ditch,
and on a soil very unfit for the erection of so large a building."
According to its historian, 1 whose knowledge of Paris must have been
very vague, " the design was taken from the Chateau de Tuilleries at
Versailles, Louis XIV., it is said, was so much offended that his
palace should be made a model for a hospital, that in revenge he
ordered a plan of St. James's to be taken for offices of a very inferior
nature." Had this story had any foundation it would certainly have
been alluded to by M. Misson, who, as a French refugee, bore no love
to Louis XIV. He contents himself with saying (1697) that it is
" well situated, and has in front several spacious and agreeable walks,"
slily adding, ''all the mad folks of London are not in this hospital" 2
Evelyn expressed the general admiration of the new building. Like
its predecessor it was open as an exhibition to the public, and became
a common promenade like the middle aisle of old St. Paul's, or the
gravel walks of Gray's Inn. At one time the hospital "derived a
revenue of at least ^400 a year from the indiscriminate admission of
visitants." In 1770 it appeared at last to have dawned on the
authorities that the practice " tended to disturb the tranquillity of the
patients." 3 The practice was continued for a few years longer
Johnson with the faithful Boswell visited it, as we shall see, in 1775
when it was put an end to and no one was afterwards admitted without
a particular introduction.
April 21, 1657. Waited on my Lord Hatton, with whom I dined ; at my return
I stept into Bedlam, where I saw several poor miserable creatures in chains ; one of
them was mad with making verses. Evelyn,
Rule V. That no person do give the lunatics strong drink, wine, tobacco, or
spirits : Nor be permitted to sell any such thing in the hospital.
Rule VI. That such of the lunatics as are fit be permitted to walk in the yard
till dinner time and then be locked up in their cells ; and that no lunatic that lies
naked, or is in a course of physic, be seen by anybody without order of the physician.
Rides drawn up in 1677 (Strype's Stow).
April 1 8, 1678. I went to see new Bedlam Hospital, magnificently built and
most sweetly placed in Morefields, since the dreadful fire in London. Evelyn.
Ned Ward, in The London Spy, 1699, describes in his coarse way
visits to Bedlam, and the behaviour of the inmates. So also, some ten
1 Historical Account of the Origin, Progress, 2 Travels in England, 1719.
and Present Stale of Bethlehem Hospital, 410, 8 Historical Account, p. n.
1783-
174 BETHLEHEM ROYAL HOSPITAL
years later, does Steele in The Tatler. Jordan composed a song "in
commendation of the founders of New Bethlehem," in which he alluded
to the large number of applicants for admission :
Could they their building run
From thence to Islington,
'Twould never hold 'em.
Fairholt's Lord Mayor's Pageant 's, p. 87.
On Tuesday last I took three lads, who are under my guardianship, a rambling,
in a hackney-coach, to show them the Town ; as the Lions, the Tombs, Bedlam, and
the other places, which are entertainments to raw minds, because they strike forcibly
on the fancy. Tatler, No. 30, June 18, 1709.
If we consult the collegiates of Moorfields, we shall find that most of them are
beholden to their pride for their introduction into that magnificent palace. I had the
curiosity to enquire into the particular circumstances of these whimsical freeholders,
and learned from their own mouths the condition and character of each of them. . . .
There were at that time five duchesses, three earls, two heathen gods, an emperor, a
prophet. ... A leather seller of Taunton whispered me in the ear that he was the
Duke of Monmouth, but begged me not to betray him. At a little distance from
him sat a tailor's wife, who asked me as I went by if I had seen the sword-bearer ?
Upon which I presumed to ask her who she was? and was answered, "My Lady
Mayoress." Tatler, No. 127, January 28, 1710.
To gratify the curiosity of a country friend I accompanied him a few weeks ago
to Bedlam. It was in the Easter week, when, to my great surprise, I found a
hundred people at least, who, having paid their twopence apiece, were suffered,
unattended, to run rioting up and down the wards, making sport and diversion of
the miserable inhabitants, etc. The World, No. 23, June 7, 1753.
On Monday, May 8 [1775] we went together and visited the mansions of Bedlam.
I had been informed that he [Johnson] had once been there before with Mr.
Wedderbume (now Lord Loughborough), Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Foote ; and I had
heard Foote give a very entertaining account of Johnson's happening to have his
attention arrested by a man who was very furious, and who, while beating his straw,
supposed it was William, Duke of Cumberland, whom he was punishing for his
cruelties in Scotland in 1746. Boswell, by Croker, p. 445.*
In those days when Bedlam was open to the cruel curiosity of holiday ramblers
I have been a visitor there. Though a boy, I was not altogether insensible to the
misery of the poor captives, nor destitute of feeling for them. But the madness of
some of them had such a humorous air, and displayed itself in so many whimsical
freaks, that it was impossible not to be entertained at the same time that I was
angry with myself for being so. Cowper to Rev. John Newton, July 19, 1784;
Southey's Cowper, vol. v. p. 63.
The first hospital could accommodate only 50 or 60 patients,
and the second 150, the number there in Strype's time. By the end
of the 1 8th century the hospital had become quite inadequate to the
increased requirements. The City offered to grant a lease of some
adjoining ground for its enlargement, but a committee, appointed to
consider what steps should be taken reported, April 1799, that the
whole building was "drear} 7 , low, and melancholy," and the interior
ill contrived, and further that it was in a very dilapidated condition.
Eventually it was determined to remove the hospital to a more open
situation, and the Bridge House Committee agreed to exchange a
site of nearly 12 acres in St. George's Fields, Lambeth, for the 2
1 See also Plate 8 of The Rake's Progress, visiting the deplorable scenes referred to in the
('735)1 which represents a scene in Bedlam with above extracts,
maniacal grandear, but exhibits two fine ladies
175
acres on which the hospital stood. An Act of Parliament was passed
in 1810 sanctioning the exchange and removal. The Government
granted a sum of ^72,819 towards the necessary expenses, on condi-
tion that a wing of the new building should be appropriated to criminal
lunatics ; the City Corporation added ^5000 ; the City Companies
and other public bodies contributed liberally; ^5700 was raised by
public subscription. The first stone of the new building, designed by
James Lewis (who was appointed surveyor of Bridewall and Bethlehem
Hospitals, June 13, 1793), was laid April 18, 1812, and it was com-
pleted in iSis, 1 at a cost of ^122,572. The new building provided
accommodation for 198 patients, provision being made for future exten-
sion. Portions were added under P. Hardwick, Lewis's successor, and
more extensive additions were made during the 25 years, 1843-1868,
when Sidney Smirke was the architect. The building consists of a centre,
with advanced wings; the principal front, which is about 580 feet
long, has an Ionic portico and a lofty cupola. Provision is made for
450 patients, and the most approved curative and sanitary appliances
have been introduced in all departments. The treatment is most
humane and considerate. Where cure cannot be effected, everything
is done to ameliorate the condition of the patients and to provide them
with healthy occupation and recreation. The average number of
inmates is about 400. " Patients can only be visited by special order,
subject to the approbation of the medical officers."
Celebrated Persons confined in. Oliver Cromwell's tall porter.
The renowned Porter of Oliver Cromwell had not more volumes around his cell
in the College of Bedlam, than Orlando in his present apartment. Toiler, No. 51.
Nat Lee, the dramatic poet. He was here for four years ; the Duke
of York, afterwards James II., paying for the cost of his confinement.
I remember poor Nat Lee, who was then upon the verge of madness, yet made
a sober and a witty answer to a bad poet who told him " It was an easie thing to
write like a madman." " No," said he, " it is very difficult to write like a madman,
but it is a very easy matter to write like a fool. " Dryden to Dennis (Malone, vol.
" P- 35)-
Richard Stafford, whose curious history Mr. Cunningham discovered
in the Letter Book of the Lord Steward's Office. He was sent to
Bethlehem Hospital by an order of the Board of Green Cloth,
November 4, 1691 ; his particular offence being that
he had been very troublesome to their Ma ts Court at Kensington, and had
dispersed many Scandalous Pamphlets and libells filled w* 1 * Enthusiasm and
Sedition.
A second order was sent, November n, directing that on account
of the
many persons who do frequently resort to him, by whose means he may proceed
in his former evill practices, and be encouraged to write and publish more of his
treasonable Books and Papers ... he may not be permitted to have either papers,
1 As I went over Westminster Bridge last surely no building would be so wanted for
week, I saw we were building a new madhouse, Englishmen. Mrs. Piozzi to Dr. \Vhalley,
twice as big as old Bethlehem Hospital ; and August 13, 1815.
176 BETHLEHEM ROYAL HOSPITAL
pen, or ink ; unlesse upon some especiall occasion of writeing either to his Father,
or some other near Friend, the said Letter being also perused either by yourselves
or by some trusty person whom you can much confide in, and that some person may
be by to see that he doth not write more than is thus allowed him.
Again, on April 1 1 of the following year, the Board having
received Information that a great concourse of people do daily resort to Richard
Stafford, to whom he doth preach and scandalously reflect on y 6 government and by
whose means pen, ink, and paper being conveyed to him, he doth still continue to
write Pamphletts and Libells more full of Treason and Sedition, then those for
which we sent him to yo r hospitall, some of y e said persons do gett y 6 said Libells
printed, and he doth disperse them through y e Window of his Roome into y e Streete,
desire that he may be more closely confined where he may not have that con-
veniency to disperse his Libells, and that no person be suffered to speak to him but
in y e presence of a keeper, nor any suspected person suffered to come to him.
Hannah Snell (d. 1792). She was an out-pensioner of Chelsea
Hospital, on account of the wounds she received at the siege of
Pondicherry. 1 Peg Nicholson, for attempting to stab George III.
When Mayors by dozens at the tale affrighted,
Got drunk, addressed, got laughed at, and got knighted.
ROLLIAD.
She died here, May 17, 1828, after a confinement of 42 years.
Hadfield, for attempting to shoot the same king in Drury Lane
Theatre. Oxford, for firing at the Queen in St. James's Park.
M'Naghten, for shooting Mr. Edward Drummond at Charing Cross.
He mistook Mr. Drummond, the private secretary of Sir Robert Peel,
for Sir Robert Peel himself. Jonathan Martin, who set fire to York
Minster in 1829, died here in 1838.
At first the funds of the hospital proving insufficient for the
number of lunatics requiring admission, the Governors, in order to
relieve the establishment, admitted out-door patients or pensioners,
who bore upon their arms the license of the hospital.
Till the breaking out of the Civil Wars, Tom o' Bedlam did travel about the
country ; they had been poor distracted men, but had been put into Bedlam, where,
recovering some soberness, they were licentiated to go a-begging, i.e. they had on
their left arm an armilla of tinn, about four inches long ; they could not get it off ;
they wore about their necks a great horn of an ox in a string or bawdry, which when
they came to an house for alms, they did wind, and they did put the drink given
them into this horn, whereto they did put a stopple. Since the wars I do not
remember to have seen any one of them. Aubrey, Nat. Hist, of Wiltshire, p. 93.
" Poor Tom, thy horn is dry ! " is Edgar's exclamation (in Lear) in his
assumed character of a Tom o' Bedlam. If, as Aubrey supposes, these
out-door Tom o' Bedlams ceased to exist after the Civil War, " sham
Toms " traded on the public charity many years later. The following
advertisement was issued by the Governors of the hospital in June
1675:
Whereas several vagrant persons do wander about the City of London and
Countries, pretending themselves to be lunaticks, under cure in the Hospital of
Bethlem commonly called Bedlam, with brass plates about their arms, and inscriptions
thereon. These are to give notice that there is no such liberty given to any patients
1 Lysons, vol. ii. p. 62.
BETHNAL GREEN 177
kept in the said Hospital for their cure, neither is any such plate as a distinction or
mark put upon any lunatick during their time being there, or when discharged
thence. And that the same is a false pretence to colour their wandering and beg-
ging, and to deceive the people to the dishonour of the Government of that Hospital.
London Gazette, No. 1000.
Hatton, describing Bethlehem in 1708, says, "When these people
are cured of their malady, there are no tickets given them, as I have
seen on the wrists of some, who I am assured are all shams."
Bishop Warburton, writing to Hurd, 1 says, "I begin to think with
Bolingbroke, this earth may be the Bedlam of the universe."
I remember in the late public entry of the Preston gentlemen from their northern
expedition, the late Earl of Derwentwater, when he found they were past by the
Exchange, asked where they were to go to. And when they answered him they
were to go to the Tower, he returned, " I think they ought to carry us to Bedlam
rather than to the Tower." Applebee'sybwrwa/, November 24, 1722.
In the vestibule of the Hospital, until their removal to the South
Kensington Museum a few years back, stood the two statues of
Madness and Melancholy from the outer gates of Bethlehem in Moor-
fields, cut by Caius Gabriel Gibber, the father of Colley.
Where o'er the gates, by his fam'd father's hand,
Great Gibber's brazen brainless brothers stand.
POPE, The Dunciad.
Brazen they are not, but formed of Portland stone, painted over.
They were restored in 1814 by the younger Bacon. One is said to
represent Oliver Cromwell's porter, then in Bedlam.
Bethnal Green, a poor and populous district in the east end of
London, was a hamlet of Stepney till 1743, when it was separated and
made a parish. It is of considerable extent, reaching from Spitalfields
and Shoreditch to Victoria Park and Hackney, Mile End, and White-
chapel. With broad roads passing through and across it, it is a region
of small and mean houses, the older ones having wide windows in the
upper storeys to give light to the weavers' looms. In 1871 the popula-
tion numbered over 120,000, and it has since much increased. Only
a few years ago Bethnal Green was correctly described as chiefly
inhabited by weavers of silk, connected with the great French settle-
ment in Spitalfields ; but weavers are now far from being the majority,
and their numbers are decreasing. Bethnal Green is one of the
chief quarters of the costermongers of London ; day and casual labourers
are also numerous. In 1769 Bethnal Green was the scene of serious
disturbances, arising from what we should now call a strike and
rattening. The weavers of Spitalfields and Bethnal Green refused
the wages offered by their employers, held meetings, formed a committee,
and levied a tax on the looms still at work for the support of the
unemployed. Where payment was refused, a number of the unem-
ployed were called together, who cut the looms so as to render them
useless, whence those on strike came to be known as cutters. On
September 30 a meeting of cutters was held at the Dolphin public-
1 Warburton's Letters, p. 299, November 2, 1759.
VOL. I N
1 7 8 BENTHAL GREEN
house in Bethnal Green. Two justices, with peace officers, and
a guard from the Tower, entered the house and proceeded to arrest
the leaders. The weavers resisted, and in the struggle which
ensued a soldier and two of the weavers were killed. Four were
captured, the others escaped by the roof. Two of these were tried at
the Old Bailey, capitally convicted, and sentenced by the Recorder to
be hanged "at the usual place." The warrant for their execution,
however, directed that they should be hanged at "the most convenient
place near Bethnal Green Church." To this the sheriffs demurred,
and applied for advice to Serjeant Glynde, who stated that he knew
of no authority for altering the sentence of a court of justice, and
recommended a memorial to the Secretary of State. This was sent,
and a respite was granted while the point was considered. Other
memorials followed, and a further respite. The case was referred to
the consideration of the twelve judges, who ruled that " the time and
place of execution was no part of the sentence," and the still reluctant
sheriffs received a peremptory order to obey the terms of the warrant.
The men were accordingly hanged at Bethnal Green in the presence
of an immense crowd, who were so excited that the sheriffs deemed it
prudent to " order the unhappy sufferers to be turned off before the
usual time allowed on such occasions." 1
In 1839 there were only two churches in the whole district, but
twelve churches have been erected since that time. The parish church,
St. Matthew's, was designed by George Dance, senr., 1 740. It is a large,
oblong, red brick and Portland stone building, with a square tower and
low spire at the west end. The church was greatly injured by fire in
December 1859, but was restored to its original appearance and reopened
in December 1861. St. John's, Cambridge Road, opposite the east end
of Bethnal Green Road, is a solid semi-classical edifice, erected 1824-
1825, and noteworthy as the work of Sir John Soane, R.A., the
architect of the Bank of England. This was the first church consecrated
by Bishop Blomfield, who subsequently made great efforts to supply
the neighbourhood with sufficient church accommodation. The twelve
newer churches are all Gothic, mostly of brick, some by good architects.
The public buildings are very few. In Church Row, facing St. Mat-
thew's Church, are the vestry hall and parish offices, the former of red
brick and stone of rather elaborate design. The Bethnal Green
Museum, on the north of St. John's Church, and Cohimbia Market,
built by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts at the Shoreditch extremity of
the parish, are noticed under those headings. The Green, between
SL John's Church and the Museum, has been enclosed and laid out as
a public garden, and appears to be much appreciated.
June 26, 1663. By coach to Bednall-green to Sir W. Rider's to dinner. A fine
merry walk with the ladies alone after dinner in the garden : the greatest quantity of
strawberries I ever saw, and good. This very house was built by the Blind Beggar
of Bednall-green, so much talked of and sang in ballads ; but they say it was only
some of the outhouses of it. Pepys.
1 Hughson's London, vol. i. p. 588 ; Journals of the time.
BETHNAL GREEN MUSEUM 179
My father, shee said, is soone to be scene,
The seely blind beggar of Bednall-greene,
That daylye sits begging for charitie,
He is the good father of pretty Bessee.
His markes and his tokens are knowen very well ;
He alwayes is led with a dogg and a bell.
A seely olde man, God knoweth, is hee,
Yet hee is the father of pretty Bessee.
PERCY'S Reliqttes, vol. ii., The Beggar's Daughter of Bednall Green. 1
The story of the Blind Beggar seems to have gained much credit in the village,
where it decorates not only the sign-posts of the publicans, but the staff of the parish
beadle. Lysons, vol. ii. p. 18.
The house at Bethnal Green was inhabited in 1663 by Sir William
Rider ; was built in the previous century for John Kirby. It was dis-
tinguished as "Kirby's Castle," and associated in rhyme, as Stow
records, with other memorable follies of the time in brick and mortar :
Kirkebyes Castell and Fishers Follie,
Spinilas pleasure and Megses glorie.
It was known in Strype's time as the " Blind Beggar's House," 2 but
Strype knew nothing of the ballad, for he adds, "perhaps Kirby
beggared himself by it." For many years it was a private lunatic
asylum. Bishop's Hall, about a quarter of a mile to the east of
Bethnal Green (taken down about the middle of the present century),
is said to have been the palace of Bishop Bonner. Hence Conner's
Fields adjoining. There is a view of the house, dated 1794, in the
Guildhall Collection. In 1649 tne versatile Sir Balthazar Gerbier
opened an Academy at Bethnal Green, in which he professed to teach,
in addition to the more common branches of education, " astronomy,
navigation, architecture, perspective, drawing, limning, engraving, forti-
fication, fireworks, military discipline, the art of well speaking and civil
conversation, history, constitutions and maxims of state, and particular
dispositions of nations, riding the great horse, scenes, exercises, and
magnificent shows." For teaching all these arts he charged 6 a month,
of which ^3 was for riding the great horse. 3 Robert Ainsworth, author
of the Latin dictionary which bears his name, kept an Academy at
Bethnal Green. William Caslon, the celebrated type-founder, died at
his residence there, January 23, 1766.
Bethnal Green Museum, CAMBRIDGE ROAD, BETHNAL GREEN,
a branch of the SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, opened in 1872. When
it was decided, in 1865, to erect permanent buildings for the South
Kensington Museum, the Education Department offered the temporary
iron structure (known as the Brompton Boilers), to the authorities of
any London district who might be disposed to establish a district
museum. The only response was from the east end, where a com-
1 The beggar in the ballad is said to have with him a beggar's attire to preserve his life.
been the son of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Their only child, a daughter, was the "pretty
Leicester, in the reign of Henry III. Wounded Bessee" of the ballad in Percy.
at Evesham righting by his father's side, he was
v p 48
found among the dead by a baron's daughter,
who sold her jewels to marry him, and assumed 3 Lysons, vol. ii. p. i.
i8o BETHNAL GREEN MUSEUM
mittee was formed, and the chairman, Sir Antonio Brady, was able to
inform the Lord President of the Council, March 1866, that they were
in a position to purchase the fee-simple of a site of 4! acres singularly
adapted for the object in view, and to offer it to the Government " for
the purpose of erecting thereon a museum for the east end of London."
The offer was accepted, and after some legal difficulties had been
overcome, the building, a much more substantial one than was at first
proposed, was erected from the designs of Major-General Scott, C.B.,
and opened in state by the Prince of Wales, on behalf of the Queen,
June 24, 1872. The walls are of red brick, with a broad frieze, and
the " boiler " roofs ; internally there are basement and ground floors
with galleries carried round the four sides. In front of the building is
Minton's great St. George fountain, in majolica, which formed a conspic-
uous feature at the Exhibition of 1862. The Food Collection and the
Collection of Animal Products from South Kensington were deposited
in the new museum, and they have remained there ever since ; but
the distinctive feature of the Museum is the succession of collections
lent for exhibitions by public bodies or private individuals. At the
opening was exhibited the magnificent collection of paintings and
works of decorative art belonging to Sir Richard Wallace, which re-
mained there till Hertford House was completed. [See Manchester
Square.] Among the collections which have followed this have been
the Indian Collection of the Prince of Wales ; the paintings from the
Dulwich Galleries ; and General Pitt Rivers's ethnological collection ;
Mr. J. Evans's remarkable series of stone implements; Mr. A. W.
Franks's choice selection of pottery and porcelain; Mr. Doubleday's
entomological collection ; and several others more or less complete in
character. The National Portrait Gallery is now temporarily located
there.
The Museum is open free on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday,
from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. ; on Thursday and Friday from 10 A.M.
to 4, 5, or 6 P.M., according to the season ; and by payment of sixpence
on Wednesday from 10 A.M. to 4, 5, or 6 P.M.
Betterton Street, DRURY LANE (formerly Brownlow Street).
The name was changed in 1877. [See Brownlow Street]
Betty's Cofiee-House, STRAND. So late as 1828 (February 15),
Miss Mitford addresses her father, " Dr. Mitford, Old Betty's Coffee-
House, behind the New Church, Strand."
Bevis Marks, in the parish of Allhallows, London Wall, extends
from DUKE STREET, ALDGATE, to ST. MARY AXE.
Then next is one great house, large of rooms, fair courts and garden plots, some
time pertaining to the Bassets, since that to the Abbots of Bury, in Suffolk, and
therefore called Burie's Markes, corruptly Bevis Markes, and since the dissolution of
the abbey of Bury, to Thomas Heneage the father, and to Sir Thomas his son.
Stow, p. 55.
On part of the site of this great house stands the Spanish and
BILLINGSGA TE 1 8 1
Portuguese Jews' Synagogue, founded 1679, t ne oldest in use in England.
The remembrance of the abbots survives in Bury Street on the south
side of Bevis Marks, and Bury Court, St. Mary Axe ; as does that of
their successors in Heneage Lane, the next turning to Bury Street.
The entry of the birth of Benjamin D'Israeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, is
in the register of the old Synagogue.
Dickens places the office of Sampson Brass, "Old Curiosity Shop,"
in Bevis Marks.
Bible Society (British and Foreign), 146 QUEEN VICTORIA
STREET, founded 1804, with "the sole object of encouraging the
wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures." This it does by aiding
missionaries and other qualified persons to translate the Scriptures
into languages or dialects in which no such version already exists, or to
revise and improve existing versions; by printing versions of the
Scriptures in many tongues; by circulating copies of such editions
as widely as possible by grants to missionary and other religious
societies ; by the operations of auxiliary societies or by its own agents ;
and by a widely extended system of colportage. The Society has
printed the Bible either as a whole or in separate Testaments or
Books in about 285 languages and dialects, and circulates above
4,000,000 copies yearly. The number of copies distributed by
the Society since its foundation is over 116,000,000. The annual
income of the Society is about ^110,000; a similar sum is received
as part payment for the Scriptures circulated. At the Bible House
a large and stately building, erected in 1866-1868 from the designs
of the late Edward I'Anson, architect may be seen a collection quite
unrivalled in extent of Bibles, Testaments, or portions of the Bible of
varied dates and in many languages.
Billingsgate, a river, gate, wharf, and fish -market, on the
Thames, a little below London Bridge, the great fish-market of
London. In very early times Queenhithe and Billingsgate were the
chief City wharfs for the mooring of fishing vessels and landing their
cargoes. The fish were sold in and about Thames Street, special
stations being assigned to the several kinds of fish. Queenhithe was
at first the more important wharf, but Billingsgate appears to have
gradually overtaken it and eventually to have left it hopelessly in the
rear, the troublesome passage of London Bridge leading ship-masters
to prefer the below bridge wharf. Corn, malt, and salt, as well as fish,
were landed and sold at both wharfs, and very strict regulations were
laid down by the City authorities as to the tolls to be levied on the
several articles, and the conditions under which they were to be sold. 1
As early as 1282 a message was sent from the King, Edward L, to
the Serjeants of Billingsgate and Queenhithe, commanding them " to
see that all boats are moored on the City side at night, and to have
the names of all boats ; " and in 1297 the order was repeated, but
1 Liber Albus, p. 603, etc.
1 82 BILLINGSGATE
this time it was the warden of the dock \J>ortus~\ at Billingsgate and
the warden of Queenhithe who were " to see that this order is strictly
observed." In a letter of Edward II., 1312, regarding the safe
keeping of the City, Billingsgate is enumerated among the quays facing
the Thames, which shall " be well and strictly bretached " [embattled,
or defended by wooden turrets], and the lanes on either side be " well
and stoutly chained." In 1370, when "the Mayor, Aldermen, and
commonalty were given to understand that certain galleys, with a
multitude of armed men therein, were lying off the Foreland of Tenet,"
[Thanet], it was ordered that "every night watch shall be kept
between the Tower of London and Billingsgate with 40 men-at-arms,
and 60 archers ; " which watch the men of the trades underwritten
" agreed to keep in succession each night, in form as follows : On
Tuesday, the Drapers and the Tailors ; on Wednesday, the Mercers
and the Apothecaries ; on Thursday, the Fishmongers and the
Butchers ; on Friday, the Pewterers and the Vintners ; on Saturday,
the Goldsmiths and the Saddlers ; on Sunday, the Ironmongers, the
Armourers, and the Cutlers ; on Monday, the Tawers [Curriers], the
Spurriers, the Bowyers, and the Girdlers." x Billingsgate was declared,
i Eliz., c. ii. (1559), "an open space for the landing and bringing
in of any fish, corn, salt stores, victuals, and fruit (grocery wares
excepted), and to be a place of carrying forth of the same, or the like,
and for no other merchandises." By 10 and n William III., c. 24,
it was made, on and after May 10, 1699, "a free and open market
for all sorts of fish."
How this gate took that name, or of what antiquity the same is, I must leave
uncertain, as not having read any ancient record thereof, more than that Geffrey
Monmouth writeth, that Belin, a king of the Britons, about four hundred years
before Christ's Nativity, built this gate and named it Belin's gate, after his own
calling ; and that when he was dead, his body being burnt, the ashes in a vessel of
brass were set upon a high pinnacle of stone over the same gate. It seemeth to me
not to be so ancient, but rather to have taken that name of some later owner of the
place, happily named Beling or Biling, as Somer's key, Smart's key, Frost wharf,
and others thereby, took their names of their owners. Stow, p. 17.
Billingsgate is at this present (1598) a large water-gate, port, or harborough, for
ships and boats commonly arriving there with fish both fresh and salt, shell-fishes,
salt, oranges, onions, and other fruits and roots, wheat, rye, and grain of divers sorts
for the service of the city and the parts of this realm adjoining. This gate is now
more frequented than of old time, when the Queene's-hithe [Queenhithe] was used,
and the drawbridge of timber at London Bridge was then to be raised or drawn up
for passage of ships with tops thither. Stow, p. 78.
Until 1850 Billingsgate, according to the description of the City
architect, " consisted only of shed buildings. . . . The open space on
the north of the well-remembered Billingsgate Dock was dotted with
low booths and sheds, with a range of wooden houses with a piazza
in front on the west, which served the salesmen and fishmongers as
shelter, and for the purposes of carrying on their trade." 5 In that
year the market was rebuilt from the designs of Mr. J. B. Bunning, the
1 Riley, Memorials, p. 345. 2 Report of Mr. Horace Jones, 1874.
BILLINGSGATE 183
City architect. If less picturesque, in neatness of appearance it was
a great improvement on its predecessor, but it was soon found to be
insufficient for the increased trade, and in 1872 the Corporation
obtained an Act to rebuild and enlarge the market. By the plans of
the late Sir Horace Jones, the then City architect, the neighbouring
Billingsgate Stairs and Wharf and Darkhouse Lane were included, and
,the area of the market was nearly doubled. The works were com-
menced in 1874, and the new market was opened by the Lord
Mayor on July 20, 1877. The building is of Portland stone on a
granite plinth, Italian in character, and comprises, in the Thames
Street and river fronts, a pedimented centre and continuous arcade,
flanked at each extremity by a pavilion tavern. The general market,
on a level with Thames Street, has an area of about 30,000 feet, and
is covered with louvre glass roofs 43 feet high at the ridge. A gallery
30 feet wide is appropriated to the sale of dried fish. Beneath the
whole is a well-lighted and airy basement 24 feet high, which serves
for the shell-fish market. The market is said to be well adapted to
its purpose, but already complaints are made of insufficient space, and
the approaches greatly need widening and improving. The opening of
the railways has altogether changed the character of the wholesale
fish trade. By far the larger part of the fish, some 100,000 tons
annually, is brought to Billingsgate by land, the Great Eastern Railway
having the lion's share of the traffic. But all the fish that arrives by
railway is not sold at Billingsgate, though disposed of by Billingsgate
salesmen. The salesman is informed by telegram of the quantity
and kind of fish consigned to him ; he ascertains the state of the
market, and if the supply is redundant telegraphs to the persons sending
the fish not to send any more. Billingsgate Market opens at 5 o'clock
every morning throughout the year, but it is not a place that it would
be prudent for a stranger to visit then.
The coarse language of the place has long been notorious. " One
may term this the Esculine Gate of London," says old Fuller. " Here
one may hear linguas jurgatrices ; " x and he places "Billingsgate
language " among his proverbs.
At this rate there is not a scold at Billingsgate but may defend herself by the
pattern of King James and Archbishop Whitgift. Andrew Marvell, The Rehearsal
Transprosed, 1672.
The style of Billingsgate would not make a very agreeable figure at St. James's.
E. Smith, On John Philips, the poet.
Hard by a sty, beneath a roof of thatch,
Dwelt obloquy, who in her early days
Baskets of fish at Billingsgate did watch,
Cod, whiting, oyster, mackrel, sprat or plaice :
There learned she speech from tongues that never cease.
POPE, Imitation of Spenser.
Addison, some three years before (Freeholder, April, 30, 1716),
had spoken of the delicacy of certain modern critics who are offended
with Homer's " Billingsgate Warriors"
1 Fuller's Worthies (London) ed. 1662, p. 197.
1 84 BILLINGSGA TE
Our march we with a song begin ;
Our hearts were light, our breeches thin.
We meet with nothing of adventure
Till Billingsgate's Dark House we enter ;
Where we diverted were, while baiting,
With ribaldry, not worth relating
(Quite suited to the dirty place). HOGARTH'S Trip.
In Recollections of Samuel Rogers (p. 86), he relates that Dr.
Lawrence told him that on one occasion he " dined with Burke and
others at the Tun [Three Tuns] in Billingsgate : at dinner-time Burke
was missed, and was found at a fishmonger's learning the history of
pickled salmon."
The "Three Tuns Tavern," looking on the river, famous for a
capital dinner at two shillings, including three kinds of fish, joints,
steaks, and bread and cheese.
My Boy, I will bring thee to the bawds and the roysters.
At Billingsgate feasting with claret wine and oysters.
BEN JONSON, The Devil is an Ass.
This brings to my mind another ancient custom that hath been omitted of late
years. It seems that in former times the porters that plyd at Billingsgate used
civilly to entreat and desire every man that passed that way to salute a Post that
stood there in a vacant place. If he refused to do this, they forthwith laid hold of
him and by main force bumped him against the Post ; but if he quietly submitted
to kiss the same, and paid down sixpence, they gave him a name, and chose some
one of the gang for his godfather. I believe this was done in memory of some old
image that formerly stood there, perhaps of Belus or Belin. Bagford in 1715,
(Letter printed in Leland's Collectanea).
Billingsgate Ward, one of the twenty-six wards of London, and so
called from a quay or water-gate on the Thames. [See Billingsgate.]
Boundaries. North, Little Eastcheap and tenements adjoining ; south,
the Thames; east, Smart's Quay, now Custom -House Stairs; west,
Monument Yard and Pudding Lane. Stow enumerates five churches
St. Botolph (destroyed in the Fire and not rebuilt) ; St. Mary-at-Hill ;
St. Margaret Pattens ; St. Andrew Hubbert (destroyed in the Fire and
not rebuilt) ; St. George in Botolph Lane. William Beckford, father
of the author of Vathek, was alderman of this ward.
Billiter Lane (now BILLITER STREET) ALDGATE, runs from
Leadenhall Street to Fenchurch Street, opposite Mark Lane.
Then is Belzettar's Lane, so called of the first owner and builder thereof, now
corruptly called Billitar Lane. Stow, p. 53.
But Professor W. W. Skeat says (Introductory Lecture on Anglo-Saxon],
"Billiter Lane is Bell-zeter's Lane, the lane where the bellfounders
lived." And this is the more probable from the frequency with which
City thoroughfares were named after the trades carried on in them,
e.g., Ironmonger's Lane, Bucklersbury, Leather Lane, Soper's Lane,
Milk Street, Bread Street, but we do not know of any record of
bellfounders in Billiter Lane.
Billiter Lane, a place consisting formerly of poor and ordinary houses, where it
seems needy and beggarly people used to inhabit, whence the proverb used in ancient
BIRCHIN LANE 185
times, A Bawdy Beggar of Billiter Lane, which Sir Thomas Moore somewhere used
in his book which he wrote against Tyndal. Strype, B. ii. p. 54.
Billiter Lane is of very ordinary account, the buildings being very old timber
houses, which much want pulling down and new building, and the inhabitants being
as inconsiderable, as small brokers, chandlers, and such like. And 'tis great pity
that a place so well seated should be so mean. Strype, B. ii. p. 54.
Billiter Street is very different now. It has many good houses, and
during the past half dozen years large and lofty piles of offices have
been erected, and a handsome avenue opened to Lime Street.
Billiter Square, on the west side of BILLITER STREET.
But the chief ornament of this place [Billiter Street] is Billiter Square on the
west side, which is a very handsome, open, and airy place, graced with good new
brick buildings, very well inhabited. Strype, B. ii. p. 82.
In a large paved court, close by Billiter Square,
Stands a mansion old but in thorough repair.
Ingoldsby Legends ("The Bagman's Dog").
It continued to be well inhabited down to the early years of the
present century, when, one by one, the dwelling-houses were converted
into offices. Voltaire, when in England, asked a correspondent, John
Brinsden, wine merchant, Durham Yard, to send him tidings of Lady
Bolingbroke's health, and " direct the letter by the penny post at Mr.
Cavalier, Bellitery Square, by the Royal Exchange." x Nathan Basevi,
grandfather of the Earl of Beaconsfield, lived in Billiter Square.
January 10, 1802. Isaac D'Israeli, Esq., of the Adelphi, to Miss Basevi of
Billiter Square.
Mr. Wm. Manning, M.P., a Director of the Bank of England, and
the father of Cardinal Manning, lived here when he married the niece
of Lord Carrington. Billiter Square has shared in the improvements
noticed under Billiter Street. An avenue of costly offices has been
opened westward to Lime Street Square, and among other new build-
ings is the spacious structure erected for the East and West India
Docks Company, which extends from the east side of the Square into
Billiter Street ; a Gothic building with a tall angle turret.
Bingley House, CAVENDISH SQUARE. [See Harcourt House.]
Birchin Lane, from CORNHILL, opposite the east end of the
Royal Exchange, to LOMBARD STREET.
Then have ye Birchover Lane, so called of Birchover, the first builder and
owner thereof, now corruptly called Birchin Lane. . . . This lane and the high
street near adjoining hath been inhabited for the most part with wealthy drapers.
Sio-w, p. 75.
As is frequently the case, Stow appears to be wrong in his etymology.
The earliest known mention of the place is in a Record of 1301,
where it is called Bereheneres Lane on Cornhill. In 19 Edward III.
(1345), one "Byndo of Florence, a Lombard, was taken at the suit of
John de Croydone, servant of John atte Bell, vintner, with the mainour
of six silver cups, and half of a broken cup, stolen in Bercherners Lane
1 Notes and Queries, 4th S., vol. i. p. 293.
1 86 BIRCHIN LANE
in the ward of Langebourne in London. . . . The jury say, upon their
oath, that the said Byndo is guilty of the felony aforesaid. Therefore
he is to be hanged " * The original name was, no doubt, Birchener's
and not Birchover's Lane. In a document of the i5th century 2 it is
written Berchers Lane. Ascham 3 speaks of "a common proverb of
Birching Lane." To send a person to Birching Lane has an obvious
meaning ; and to " return by Weeping Cross " was a joke of kindred
origin.
Birchin Lane is a place of considerable trade, especially for men's apparel, the
greatest part of the shopkeepers being salesmen. R.B., in Strype, B. ii. p. 150.
It was a great mart for ready-made clothes as early as the end of the
1 6th century.
My good friend, M. Davies [Sir John Davys] said of his epigrams, that they
were made like doublets in Birchin Lane, for every one whom they will serve. Sir
John Harrington, Metamorphosis of A j ax, 1596.
No sooner in London will we be,
But the bakers for you, the brewers for me.
Birchin Lane will suit us,
The costermongers fruit us.
Heywood, Edw. IV., Pt. i. 4to. 1600.*
And passing through Birchin Lane amidst a camp-royal of hose and doublets, I
took excellent occasion to slip into a captain's suit, a valiant buff doublet stuffed
with points and a pair of velvet slops scored thick with lace. Middleton, Black
Book, 4to, 1604.
Mr. Flowerdale. Thou sayest thou hast twenty pound ; go into Birchin Lane ;
put thyself into clothes ; thou shalt ride with me to Croydon Fair. The London
Prodigall, by William Shakespeare ( ! ) 4to, 1605.
And you, master Amoretto . . . it's fine, when that puppet -player Fortune
must put such a Birchin Lane post in so good a suit such an ass in so good fortune.
The Return from Parnassus, 410, 1606.
Did man, think you, come wrangling into the world about no better matters,
than all his lifetime to make privy searches in Birchin Lane for whalebone doublets ?
Dekker, GulPs Hornbook, 4to, 1609.
His discourse makes not his behaviour, but he buys it at Court, as countrymen
buy their clothes in Birchen Lane. Overbury, 1614.
At the Marine Coffee-House in Birchin Lane, is water-gruel to be sold every
morning, from 6 till 1 1 of the clock. 'Tis not yet thoroughly known ; but there
comes such company as drinks usually 4 or 5 gallons in a morning. Advertisement,
July 26, 1695.
But Nicholas Ferrar I may compare to one of those Birchin Lane tailors that go
but into their shops, they will without delay find you a fitting suit of apparel. Life
of Nicholas Ferrar, ed. Mayor, p. 93.
Major John Graunt, citizen of London (b. 1620, d. 1674), who wrote
Natural and Political Observations on the Bills of Mortality, lived in
this lane. His Epistle Dedicatory is dated " At the Swan and Key in
Birchen Lane, January 25, 1661-1662." [See Tom's Coffee-House.]
1 Riley, Memorials, p. 221. we may walk through Birchin Lane and be non-
2 Harl MSS., 6016. suited." And again (ibid., Act i. Sc. i), "With
3 Scholemaster. all my heart, good Corporal ; but it had not been
* He repeats the joke, such as it is, in the amiss if we had gone to Birchin Lane first, to
Royal King and the Loyal Subject (Act. iii. Sc. have suited us."
3), "Though we have the law of our sides, yet
BIRD STREET 187
The two years which followed [1800-1802] were passed [by Zachary Macaulay
and his infant son, the future historian] in a house in Birchin Lane, where the Sierra
Leone Company had its office. Mr. Z. Macaulay was secretary to this Company.
Trevelyan's Life of Lord Macaulay.
Bird Cage Walk, ST. JAMES'S PARK, a name given to the south
side of the Park, between Buckingham Gate and Storey's Gate, from
the aviary established there in the reign of James I., and the decoy
made there in the reign of Charles II. The supposition that it was so
called from " The Bocage," a name given to it by St. Evremont, who
was keeper of the ducks in the Park, is a mere piece of idle ingenuity.
A grant to Katharine, Queen of Charles II., made in 1671 (23 Car.
II.), recites letters patent of the i3th of his reign (1661), whereby he
granted, inter alia, " the keeping of an house and yards in our Parke
at St. James's, built for the keeping of pheasants, gunny [guinea] hens,
partridges, and other fowle within our said park ; " and also recites that the
Queen Consort had by her trustees purchased the same, " and upon
the said premises, or some part thereof, as also upon a parcel of
ground taken out of St. James Old Highway, containing in length, on
the north, 102 feet, and in breadth, on the east, 42 feet, in the whole
3600 feet, had caused several houses to be erected, and had laid out con-
siderable sums," and thereupon grants the said "house, yards, gardens,
and curtilages in our said Parke of St. James, and all that parcell of
grounds taken out of St. James's Old Highway," to trustees for the Queen.
In our way thither [to the Horse Guards] was nothing worth our observation,
unless 'twas the Bird Cage inhabited by wild fowl ; the ducks begging charity, and
the blackguard boys robbing their own bellies to relieve them. Amusements of
London, by Tom Brown, I2mo, 1700, p. 68.
The elm trees in Bird Cage Walk were planted by Reach, the Fulham
nurseryman, who died in I783. 1 Here are the Wellington Barracks
(1834). The chapel was remodelled by Geo. Street, R.A., in 1877.
The Hon. Mrs. Caroline Norton lived here ; her house was what was
called No. 2 Princes Court, Storey's Gate.
April 1832. Called upon Mrs. Norton ; found her preparing to go to Hayter's,
who is painting a picture of her, and offered to walk with her. Had accordingly a
very brisk, agreeable walk across the two parks, and took her in the highest bloom
of beauty to Hayter, who said he wished that somebody would always put her
through this process before she sat to him. T. Moore's Diary.
Sir George Hayter's house was No. 65 Connaught Terrace, Hyde Park.
The carriage-way, long exclusively confined to the Royal Family and
the hereditary Grand Falconer, was opened to the public in 1828.
Bird Street, OXFORD STREET. This street was built before 1750,
and extended on both sides of Oxford Street, from Brook Street on
the south to Henrietta Street on the north, the southern portion being
known as Bird Street, Grosvenor Square, the northern as Bird Street,
Manchester Square. Some time after 1831 the name of the southern
portion was changed to Thomas Street. Thomas Banks, the sculptor,
and his wife lived here before they went to Italy in 1772.
1 Faulkner's FuUuim, p. 316.
1 88 BIRKBECK LITERARY INSTITUTION
Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, SOUTHAMPTON
BUILDINGS, was founded in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institution,
with George Birkbeck, M.D. as President; being the parent of a large
number of similar institutions in the chief towns of the country. Offices
were temporarily hired in Furnival's Inn, and the use of the chapel in
Monkwell Street was obtained for meetings. The foundation stone
of the building in Southampton Buildings was laid by Dr. Birkbeck on
December 2, 1824; and, on July 8, 1825, the lecture theatre was
opened with some ceremony. The name of the Institution was
changed to The Birkbeck in honour of its late President in 1867, and
it has now been removed to Bream's Buildings, close by Fetter Lane, a
new building having been erected there for its accommodation.
Bishopsgate, one of the City gates, so called after Erkenwald,
Bishop of London (d. 685), son of Offa, King of Mercia, by whom it
was erected. The maintenance of the gate was considered to devolve
upon the Bishop of London, though the chief burden came, in course
of time, to be laid upon the Hanse merchants. Thus from the Liber
Albus we learn that "In the tenth year of King Edward (1282),
Henry le Waleys being Mayor of London, by reason lately of the
ruinous state of a certain gate of the City aforesaid, that is called
Bisshoppesgate, there existed a prolonged dispute between the said
mayor and the citizens aforesaid and the merchants of the Hanse of
Almaine," dwelling in the city, as to the repair of the gate, which the
said merchants were bound to execute " in return for certain liberties "
which they enjoyed on that condition. An appeal being made to the
King, he ordered his treasurer and the Barons of the Exchequer to
call the parties before them and hear and decide the question at issue.
This was done, and the merchants being held to be liable, they agreed
" for the sake of peace," and in return for additional immunities
granted to them, to pay at once " towards the repair of the aforesaid
Gate, 240 marks sterling of ready money . . . and that they and their
successors, merchants of the Hanse aforesaid, would, so often as it
should be necessary, at all times repair the said Gate, and for the
defence of such Gate, so often as it should be necessary to set ward
upon the same, at all times sustain one -third part of the defence
aforesaid, at their own costs, and with their own men, in the upper
parts of such Gate, the said mayor and citizens sustaining their two-
third parts for such safe keeping in the part below." l Eighteen years
later (28 Edw. L, 1300) it was ruled that the Bishop of London
" is bound to make the hinges of Bysoppesgate ; seeing that from
every cart laden with wood he has one stick as it enters the said gate." 2
The liability, however, was limited to the hinges, for there is another
entry, 33 Edw. I. (1305), wherein it is "awarded and agreed that
Almaines belonging to the Hanse of the Merchants of Almaine shall
be free from paying two shillings on going in or out of the Gate
of Bisshopesgate with their goods, seeing that they are charged with
1 Liber Albus, p. 417. a Riley, Memorials, p. 43.
BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN 189
the safe keeping and repair of the Gate aforesaid." l In 1 3 1 8 the
gateway, together "with a certain tourelle on the eastern side, and a
garden lying between the gate and this bastion," were granted to John
le Long the Easterling, for his life, on the condition that he should
" maintain the said gate and tourelle at his own proper charges." In
1324 he was permitted to resign the grant and the charge. The gate
was rebuilt by the Hanse Merchants in 1471, and lasted till 1731,
when, being greatly out of repair, it was taken down, and a much less
ornamental gate erected in its place at the cost of the City. In 1760
an Act was passed, empowering the City authorities to remove the
gates and effect other improvements, and under its provisions Bishops-
gate was finally removed a few years later. The site is marked by two
tablets on the houses at the corners of Camomile and Wormwood
Streets respectively (Nos. i and 64 Bishopsgate Street Without), in-
scribed with mitre and these words " Adjoining to this spot Bishopsgate
formerly stood." The gate was repaired in 1648. Notes on London
Churches and Buildings, A.D. 1631-1658 (Harrison's England, vol. ii.,
New Shakspere Society).
Bishopsgate Street Within, between Cornhill and Camomile
Street, and so called from being within the walls, as Bishopsgate Street
Without was so called from being without the walls.
The southern half of this street, including the church of St. Martin
Outwich, was destroyed by fire November 7, 1765. The flames
commenced at a peruke maker's, and nothing but the wind shifting
suddenly saved Crosby Hall and the church of St. Helen's. The four
corners of Cornhill, Bishopsgate Street, Leadenhall Street, and Grace-
church Street, were on fire at the same time. There is a plan of the
houses destroyed in the Gentleman: 's Magazine for 1765.
It may be convenient, in order to indicate the position of the more
noteworthy sites and buildings (many of which have separate notices)
to take the two sides of the street separately. West side. Three
doors from Cornhill (No. 123), the London Tavern, famous for its
turtle, dinners, wines, charity meetings, and auctions. It was taken
down in 1876, and the site is now occupied by the large and costly
fabric erected for the Royal Bank of Scotland. A few doors further is
the house (No. 119) in which, in 1780, George Crabbe lodged with
Vickery the hairdresser. The house is still a hairdresser's and peruke
maker's, Ross and Sons, perhaps the most noted of the kind in the
City. It was from here that Crabbe wrote his celebrated letter to
Edmund Burke. Two doors beyond, at the angle formed with
Threadneedle Street, stood the Church of St. Martin Outwich, taken
down in 1875 for street improvements, and on the site of which stands
the Capital and Counties Bank. At the opposite corner of Thread-
needle Street is the former South Sea House. Next to this, Nos.
110-113, i s tne splendid building, with columns of the Roman-Corin-
thian order with relievos over the doorway and windows, and statues on
1 Riley, Memorials, p. 57.
igo BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN
the summit, erected in 1866 from the designs of Mr. J. Gibson, architect,
for the National Provincial Bank, the handsomest building of its kind in
the City. To make way for it was demolished the old Flower Pot, a
well-known starting-place for short stages and omnibuses. Passing the
Baltic and other Chambers, some of them noteworthy for their size and
architecture, we come to (103) the entrance to Gresham House, which
extends through to Old Broad Street, and marks the site of the
sumptuous residence of Sir Thomas Gresham, who gave the Royal
Exchange to his fellow -citizens, entertained Queen Elizabeth, and,
dying suddenly at his house here, was buried in St. Helen's Church on
the opposite side of the way. Next to the rather handsome building
(No. 95), Gothic of the year 1861, known as Crosby House, are
Palmerston Buildings, a huge pile which also stretches back to Old Broad
Street, and contains nearly 200 separate offices. Here stood the Bull
Inn, "a famous place for the performance of the pre-Shakesperian plays."
When Antony Bacon left Gray's Inn in 1594 and came to live in
Bishdpsgate Street, his mother was in much distress, fearing "the
neighbourhood of the Bull fan." x
The Blacke Bull in Bishopsgate Street, who is still looking towards Shoreditch to
see if he can spy the carriers coming from Cambridge. A New Booke of Mistakes,
1637 (quoted in Huth's Prefaces, Dedications, and Epistles, p. 358).
No. 86 was the famous Green Dragon Inn, and at Nos. 83 and 84 is a
very smart new building, calling itself the "Old Four Swans," and
usurping the place of the picturesque coach-yard inn that bore the
sign of the Four Swans. Another large block of offices, Ethelburga
House, containing over i oo offices, is so named from standing opposite
the church of St. Ethelburga.
The East Side of the street has been entirely renewed at the Corn-
hill end within the last few years by sweeping away the plain old shops
and substituting lofty blocks of offices. The quaint red brick office
of Messrs. Baring Brothers, designed by R. Norman Shaw, R.A., and
the Wesleyan Centenary Hall are the chief buildings here. Farther
on are Crosby Hall, the fine old church of St. Helen's, Great St.
Helen's, and St. Helen's Place, the Church of St. Ethelburga, 2 and
(No. 54) the Marine Society's House, all of which are noticed under
their respective headings. Bishopsgate Street fortunately escaped with
little injury from the Great Fire, and in the London Gazette of September
8, 1666, the first published after the Fire, is the announcement that
" The General Letter Office is now held in Bishopsgate Street, at Sir
Samuel Bernardiston's house, the same that Master Sheriff Hanson
sometime kept his Sheriffalty in."
Bishopsgate Street Without. [See preceding article.] Com-
mencing with the west side at Wormwood Street, we come directly to
the Church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, and Alderman's Walk ; Liver-
1 Spedding, vol. i. p. 34. Bishopsgate Street Within. The old houses in
2 The engraving of the church of St. Ethel- the engraving are quaint and striking in the
burga in West and Tom's Churches of London extreme.
(410. 1736), contains a most interesting view of
BLACK BOY ALLEY 191
pool Street and White Hart Court, so called from the White Hart Inn,
of which there is an interesting view by J. T. Smith. No. 169, the
house of Sir Paul Pindar (d. 1650), an eminent English merchant,
distinguished for his love of architecture and the magnificent sums he
gave towards the restoration of old St. Paul's Cathedral. The house,
or part of it, is a public-house called " Sir Paul Pindar's Head " ; some of
the ceilings were in plaster of the Cinque Cento period, but the best
part of the house was the front towards the street, which still exists. The
building was demolished in 187 1, and rebuilt or " restored " in the follow-
ing years. There is a monument to Sir Paul in the parish church of
St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. The Venetian Embassy at Sir Paul Pindar's
house, 1617-1618. Quarterly Review, vol. cii. p. 408. Sun Street,
an important thoroughfare, was stopped up by the Great Eastern Railway
Company a few years ago. Lamb Alley, in it Alleyn the actor's (now
called Underwood's) Almshouses (rebuilt 1731; restored 1867). East
side, commencing at Camomile Street. Houndsditch ; Devonshire House
and the Friends' Meeting House, the great central place of assembly of
the Society of Friends ; Devonshire Street, and Devonshire Square.
I, Lodowick Muggleton, was bom in Bishopsgate Street [Without], near the
Earl of Devonshire's House, at the corner house called Walnut Tree Yard. My
father's name was John Muggleton, he was a smith by trade, that is a farrier or
horse doctor, he was in great respect with the Postmaster in King James's time.
.... When I was grown to 15 or 16 years of age, I was put apprentice to one
John Quick, a tailor ; he made livery gowns, and all sorts of gowns for men ; he
made gowns for several Aldermen and Liverymen of their Company in London, and
he lived in this Walnut Tree Yard. Acts of the Witnesses, chap. iii. 5, p. 6.
The Catherine Wheel Inn, of old a great coaching house, Artillery
Lane. [See Artillery Ground.]
Bishopsgate Ward, one of the twenty-six wards of London, so named
from the old City gate which stood within its liberties. It is divided
into two "parts," Bishopsgate Within and Bishopsgate Without, with a
Deputy for each ; and embraces the whole of Bishopsgate Street
Within, Bishopsgate Street Without, and the several streets and
lanes on either side. Remarkable Places some of which, however, no
longer exist. Church of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate Without ; St. Helen,
Bishopsgate Within ; St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate Within ; Hospital of
St. Mary of Bethlehem [see Bethlehem Hospital] ; Old Artillery
Yard ; Priory of St. Mary Spittle [see Spitalfields] ; Crosby Place ;
Gresham College; Sir Paul Pindar's House, in Bishopsgate Street
Without.
Bishop's Walk, LAMBETH, a walk on the Surrey side of the
Thames, leading to the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury at
Lambeth, now nearly absorbed in the Albert Embankment.
Black Boy Alley, BLACKMAN STREET, SOUTHWARK, commemorates
the site of the Black Boy Tavern.
But meddle not with any fray
I charge you keep out of harmes way ;
192 BLACK BOY ALLEY
For Jove, and all his household a'ter
Him, yesterday went across the water,
To th' signe of the Black Boy in Southwarke ;
To th' ord'nary to find his mouth worke,
Where he intends to fuddle 's nose
This fortnight yet under the rose.
Homer a-la-mode, 1665.
There are two other Black Boy Alleys near, one in the High Street
and the other in Bermondsey Street.
Black Dog Alley, COLLEGE STREET, WESTMINSTER, the third
turning on the left from Abingdon Street, occupies the site of the
garden of William Benson, last Abbot and first Dean of Westminster.
Black Horse Alley, FLEET STREET, the first passage on the right
from Ludgate Circus.
July 13, 1618. Petition of Thomas Powell, Cutler, and other inhabitants of
Black Horse Alley, Fleet Street, to the Council, that Chris. Allanson, who is
erecting there certain houses of timber on new foundations, contrary to Proclamation,
and to the great prejudice of the petitioners, may be compelled to pull them down,
according to previous orders from the Lord Mayor, and the Attorney -General.
Cal. Jac. I, vol. ii. p. 532. On July 25 Sir George Bowles, the Lord Mayor,
reported that he had examined these buildings and found that they were on former
sites, and being "larger and more airy would greatly improve the Alley, which is
very close and crowded."
Black Mary's Well, or Black Mary's Hole, near Cold Bath
Fields, the conduit or well so called in Rocque's Plan of London, 1737,
and in the large print of The North Prospect of London, 1728, Dr.
Bevis, in the passage cited under BAGNIGGE WELLS, sought to identify
it with those wells, suggesting that the title was a corruption of
Blessed Mary's Well. But other writers of the time assert that it was
situated a little farther south, and on the opposite (or east) side of the
Bagnigge Wells Road, "by the footway from Bagnigge to Islington."
The name, they say, was given to it from a black' woman, Mary
Woolaston, who, about 1680, lived in a rude circular stone hut by the
well and rented the water, which she supplied to applicants, her best
customers being the soldiery encamped in the adjacent fields. But
this derivation, though so seemingly particular, is not without its
difficulties. In Vertue's Plan of the City and Suburbs of London as
fortified by order of Parliament in 1642-1643, we find "a battery and
breastwork on y e hill E. of Blackmary's Hole." It is of course
possible that, as Vertue's "Plan" was not engraved till 1738, the
names may be those then in use, and that Black Mary's Hole may
have been so named subsequent to the building of this fort. The well
was enclosed about 1697^ and grew into repute as a chalybeate and
a specific for sore eyes. In 1761 " a few straggling houses near the
Cold Bath Fields, on the road to Hampstead," bore this name. 2 In
1 8 1 8 a row of small houses was built on the ground ; the well was
covered over, and its site soon forgotten. But in 1826 the "spacious
receptacle of the mineral spring " was accidentally laid open in the front
1 Tomlins's Islington, p. 171. 2 Dodsley, vol. i. p. 324.
BLACKFRIARS 193
garden of No. 3 Spring Place. These front gardens were shortly after
swept away to form the roadway of a narrow street, named Spring
Street. This was opposite to the north end of the wall of Cold Bath
Fields Prison in Farringdon Road, lately cleared away. All trace of
the well, and even the local memory of it, is gone. The whole of this
neighbourhood at one time abounded in holy wells and reputed medicinal
springs [see Bagnigge Wells, Chad's (St.) Well, Clerkenwell, Coldbath
Fields, Spa Fields]. In the British Museum is preserved "the earliest
example of a flint implement found in the Drift," and described in the
original Sloane Catalogue as "A British weapon found with an elephant's
tooth opposite to Black Mary's Well, near Gray's Inn Lane."
Black Raven Court. In Dodsley's London, 1761, six courts of
this name are enumerated ; but it is the " Black Raven Court, in Grub
Street," which is mentioned in the programme of an " Exercise of Arms
of the Artillery Company, to be performed on Wednesday, June 29,
1709, under the command of Sir Joseph Woolfe, Knight and Alderman,
General," printed at length in No 41 of The Tatler. On which occasion,
the force commanded by Lieutenant-General Charles Hopson, present
Sheriff, having been beaten out of Red Lyon Market and Kings Head
Court, and compelled to retreat up Chiswell Street, is hard pressed by
the force under Alderman and General Sir Joseph Woolfe, whose vic-
torious career is checked though only for the moment " by a party of
men as lay in Black Raven Court."
Blackfriars, a church, precinct, and sanctuary with four gates,
lying between Ludgate Hill and the Thames and extending westward
from Castle Baynard (St. Andrew's Hill) to the Fleet river. It was so
called from the house of Black, Preaching, or Dominican Friars, founded
by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, A.D. 1221. Their first London
settlement was in Holborn near Lincoln's Inn, where they remained
for a period of 55 years. In 1276 they removed to the particular
locality near Ludgate which still bears their name, when Gregory
Rokesley, Mayor, set apart a piece of ground in the ward of Castle
Baynard for their use. Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury,
contributed largely to the building of their church, and Edward I. by a
Charter granted to the Friars in 1311 confirmed to them the gift of
the Archbishop of " two lanes adjoining to his place of Castle Baynard
and the Tower of Mountfichet . . . that so they shall not in future be
disturbed or molested on the ground of purpresture made as to the
lanes aforesaid." J He and Queen Eleanor also contributed liberally
to the endowment of the house. Edward I. allowed the Friars to pull
down the City wall and take in all the land to the west as far as the
Fleet river. Moreover the King intimated to the Mayor and citizens
his desire that the new wall should be built at the expense of the
City. There is little that is interesting in the history of the monastery
till near the period of its dissolution. The chief exception was the
1 Liber Albus, p. 113.
VOL. I O
194 BLACKFRIARS
assemblage of ecclesiastics in the great hall of the monastery, January
17, 1382, when there were present 10 bishops, 6 doctors of laws, 30
doctors of theology and 4 bachelors of laws, summoned by William
Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury, to examine and condemn the
24 articles drawn from the writings and teaching of Wyclif. Whilst
the assembly were sitting a great earthquake shook the city, whence
the meeting was long after known as "the Earthquake Council." 1 A
parliament was assembled here in the reign of Henry VI. Here
Charles V. of Spain was lodged when on a visit to Henry VIII. Here
Henry called a parliament, known in history as the Black Parliament,
because it began among the Black Friars in the City, and terminated
among the Black Monks in Westminster. Here the subject of Henry's
divorce from Katherine of Aragon was publicly tried before Cardinal Cam-
peggio ; and here began the parliament in which Wolsey was condemned.
The house and precinct were surrendered to the King on November
12, 1538 ; and Edward VI. in the first year of his reign sold the hall
and the site of the prior's lodgings to Sir Francis Bryan, and in the
third year of his reign granted to Sir Thomas Cawarden (Master of the
Revels) " the whole house, site or circuit, compass and precinct, of the
late Friars Preachers, within the City of London;" the yearly value
being reckoned at ^iQ. 2 The church was given to the parishioners
of St. Anne's to serve as a parish church. [See St. Anne's, Blackfriars.]
It has already been noticed that Sir Thomas Cawarden had a grant from the
Crown of the church and precinct of the dissolved monastery of the Black or Dominican
Friars in London. We have found two documents of considerable local interest
relative to that foundation among his papers, a Survey taken in the reign of Edward
VI. by the King's Surveyor, of the site and soil of the church of the Blackfriars and
its appendages, and another of the tenements held by Sir Thomas Cawarden within
its precinct. By the first we find that the church was a very noble structure, and
must have had a most imposing effect, standing as it did on the steep northern bank
of the Thames. It appears from the above document that it had two aisles, a chancel
and "a chapel to the same," no doubt a retro-choir or Lady chapel. It was in
breadth from the churchyard on the north to the cloister on the south 66 feet ; in
length from east to west 220 feet ; dimensions rather superior to those of that vener-
able pile, St. Saviours, Southwark. The cloister on the south side was comprised
in a square, each side of which measured no feet. The chapter house lay west of
the cloister, and was 44 feet long by 22 broad. The cemetery on the north of the
church was 90 feet in breadth by 200 in length. The Loseley Manuscript 's, edited by
A. J. Kempe, 1835, pp. 175-176, note.
The privileges of sanctuary still remained ; nor was it easy to dispossess
the inhabitants of their little independence. The Mayor, on behalf of
the citizens, had sought to obtain its abolition shortly after the dissolu-
tion of the Monastery, but the King sent him word that he was as well
able to maintain the liberties of the precinct as ever the Friars were.
Another attempt was made in the reign of Mary with as little success.
We have complete evidence that there was no theatre in Blackfriars
before 1596 [see Blackfriars theatre], and yet we know that plays were
acted in the precinct long before that year. Stephen Gosson, in his
1 Lechler's Widif, Lorimer's trans., vol. ii. p. 233. - Strype, B. iii. p. 177.
BLACKFRIARS 195
Plays confuted in five actions, published about 1580, expressly mentions
the comedies at the Blackfriars, and Lyly's Sapho and Phao, which was
acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1584 "by her majesties children and
the Boyes of Paules " was also performed in the Blackfriars, possibly
in the house of one of the noble inhabitants. The opposition to the
players arose among the Puritan inhabitants of the precinct, who,
somewhat inconsistently with their religious opinions, as the actors
and dramatists were never tired of telling them, followed the trade
of feather -making, and yet were not without their excuses for so
doing :
Mrs. Flffwerdew. Indeed it sometimes pricks my conscience,
I come to sell 'em pins and looking-glasses.
Bird. I have their custom too for all their feathers :
Tis fit that we, which are sincere professors,
Should gain by infidels. Randolph's Muses' Looking-glass, 4to, I638. 1
What say you to your feather-makers in the Friars that are of your faction of
faith ? Are not they with their perukes, and their puffs, their fans, and their huffs, as
much pages of Pride, and waiters upon Vanity ? Ben Jonson, Bart. Fair, Act v. Sc. 3.
An upstart apocryphal captain
Whom not a Puritan in the Friars will trust
So much as for a feather ! Ben Jonson, Alchemist, Act L Sc. I.
Burbage. Why do you conceal your feather, Sir ?
Sly. Why, do you think I'll have jests broken upon me in the play, to be laughed
at ? This play hath beaten all the gallants out of the feathers : Blackfriars hath
almost spoilt Blackfriars for feathers. Webster, Induction to the Malcontent.
Both Ben Jonson and Webster have many other references to the
Puritans of Blackfriars and their wares. Pilgrim Street seems to have
been the headquarters of the feather merchants.
But Puritans and players were not the only noteworthy personages
who carried out their distinctive professions in Blackfriars at this period.
The glass factory was famous at one time. It was likened to Hell
by Dekker. The name remains in Glasshouse yard.
Like the glasse-house furnace in Blackefriers, the bone-fires that are kept there
never goe out. Thomas Dekker, A Knighfs Conjuring (Percy Soc., vol. vii. p. 21).
Is it because the Brethren's fires
Maintain a glass-house at Blackfriars ?
Bishop Corbet, Upon Fairford Windows, Works, p. 237.
Ben Jonson dated the dedication to his Volpone " from my house
in the Black Friars this nth day of February 1607," and here he
laid the scene of the Alchemist. In 1613 Shakespeare bought here a
house from Henry Walker for ; 140.
The house was situated on the west side of St. Andrew's Hill, formerly otherwise
termed Puddle Hill or Puddle Dock Hill, and it was either partially on or very near
the locality now and for more than two centuries known as Ireland Yard. 2 Halliwell
Phillipps, Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 7th ed., vol. i. p. 240.
1 Rabbi Busy, in Bartholomew Fair, is a haberdasher, who occupied the house at the time
reminded and taunted with the feather-makers of Shakespeare's purchase in 1613. Outlines,
in the Friars. vol. ii. p. 346.
- Probably so named after the William Ireland,
196 BLACKFRIARS
Allowed the said Accomptante for Money by him yssued and paid for Workes and
Reparacons donne and performed within the tyme of this Accompt at the Blackfryers
in making a new Causey Way and a new paire of Staires for the King's Majesty to
land to goe to S r Anthoney Vandike's house there] to see his Paintings, in the
months of June and July 1635. 1 Audit Office Records, xx. li. ii.
Sir A. Vandyck lived at his house in the Blackfriars from his settle-
ment in England in 1632 till his death in it in 1641. The rent of his
house, "at a moderate value," was estimated, in 1638, at ^20, and
the tithe paid i : 6 : 8. 2 His daughter Justina was born here De-
cember i, 1641, and baptized in St Anne's, Blackfriars, December 9,
1641, the day of her father's death. Before Vandyck, however, Black-
friars was the recognised abode of painters.
I'll go bespeak me straight a gilt caroch,
For her and you to take the air in : yes,
Into Hyde-Park, and thence into Blackfriars,
Visit the painters, where you may see pictures,
And note the properest limbs, and how to make them.
Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, Act i. Sc. 3-
Cornelius Jansen (d. 1665), lived in the Blackfriars for several
years. Isaac Oliver, the miniature painter, was a still earlier resident.
He died here in 1617, and was buried in St. Anne's, Blackfriars. Lady
Ayres, wishing to have a copy of Lord Herbert of Cherbury's picture
to wear in her bosom, "gave it to Mr. Isaac Oliver the painter in
Blackfriars, and desired him to draw it in little after his manner."
Painters on glass, or glass-stainers, were among the artists settled here,
but Bishop Corbet seems to class them with the Puritans.
Collectors as well as artists dwelt within the precinct.
October 23, 1654. This day I saw one of the rarest collections of achates [agates],
onyxes, and intaglios that I had ever seen either at home or abroad, collected by a
conceited old hat-maker in Black Friers, especially one achat vase, heretofore the great
Earl of Leicester's. Evelyn.
There were several good houses in the Friary ; the chief was called
" Hunsdon House," after Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon, Queen
Elizabeth's cousin and Lord Chamberlain. Here, in an upper chamber,
on Sunday, October 26, 1623, while the house was in the occupation
of Comte de Tillier, the French ambassador, a sermon was preached by
Father Drury, to, it is said, about three hundred people, a congregation
too numerous for the strength of the room ; for about the middle of the
sermon the floor gave way, and ninety-four persons besides the preacher
perished. This sad occurrence is familiarly known as "The Fatal
Vespers." The Protestants considered the accident as a judgment on
the Catholics, and the Catholics attributed it to a plot of the Protestants.
Forty-seven bodies were buried by the French ambassador in the
courtyard and garden of Hunsdon House. 3 Lord Cobham entertained
1 From the same account the causeway would Scotland Yard,
seem to have been 10 feet wide, and that to form 2 MS. Lambeth, 272.
it piles were driven into the bed of the Thames, 8 Nichol's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,
and stones taken from the Crown stores in vol. iii. p. 449.
BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE 197
Queen Elizabeth in his house at Blackfriars, June 26, 1600, on occasion
of the marriage of Lord Herbert, when he presented Her Majesty with
a masque of eight ladies, and the Queen herself danced, 'and afterwards
stayed the night there. 1 The Earl and Countess of Somerset were
living in the Blackfriars when Overbury was murdered. 2
The Countess, when under arrest, October 1615, during the inquiry
into the murder, selected the Lord Aubigny's house in the Blackfriars
as her residence. She remained there, under Sir William Smith's
charge, till removed to the Tower in the following April. Lord
Herbert of Cherbury : his house was, about 1619, attacked at night
by robbers, who called out to him, " Barest thou come down Welsh-
man." 3
Eminent Persons buried in the Blackfriars Monastery. Hubert de
Burgh, Earl of Kent, the founder (d. 1242). He was originally buried
at the Holborn House, but his body was removed here when the
monastery changed its locality. Sir Thomas Brandon, K.G. (d. 1509) ;
Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester (beheaded 1470), one of Caxton's great
encouragers, and Margaret his wife, daughter of the King of Scotland ;
the heart of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I., with that of their son
Alphonso ; John of Eltham, Duke of Cornwall, brother of Edward III ;
the father and mother of Queen Katherine Parr.
The precinct no longer exists, but is now a part of the ward of Farring-
don Within. The latest attempt to assert its privileges was made 1735,
when in the July of that year the Court of Common Council brought
an action in the Court of King's Bench against Daniel Watson for
opening a shop and vending shoes in the Blackfriars without being free
of the City. The defendant pleaded the privileges of the precinct, but
the Court gave it in favour of the City. [See King's printing house ;
Times Newspaper Office (see Printing-house Square); Apothecaries'
Hall ; St. Anne's, Blackfriars ; Playhouse Yard ; Ireland Yard.]
Blackfriars Bridge. The original Blackfriars Bridge was the
design of Robert Mylne, a native of Edinburgh, and originally called
Pitt Bridge. [See Chatham Place.] The Act empowering its con-
struction was passed in 1756; the first pile was driven June 7, 1760,
and the first stone laid October 31, 1760. A question seriously
discussed at the time was " whether a bridge from Blackfriars to
Southwark would be a public benefit." On Wednesday, November 19,
1768, it was made passable as a bridle-way; and it was finally and
generally opened on Sunday, November 19, 1769. The entire cost
was about ,300,000, of which little more than half was expended on
constructing the bridge. There was a toll of one halfpenny for every
foot-passenger, and one penny on Sundays, but this led to riots, in one
of which, June 7, 1780, the mob broke into the toll houses, carried off
the money, and then set them on fire. Government ultimately bought the
toll, and on June 22, 1785, the bridge was made free. Mylne had
1 Howes, ed. 1631, p. 1035. 2 Amos's Overbury, p. 41. 3 Life, p. 72.
198 BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE
adopted the elliptical arch, Gwyn, his competitor, the semicircular one :
the press took up the matter, and Dr. Johnson (the friend of Gwyn)
wrote three several letters in the Gazetteer in opposition to Mylne.
Blackfriars Bridge consisted of nine elliptical arches, the piers of which
were adorned with Ionic columns, and was 955 feet in length from
wharf to wharf. Sixty years had scarcely passed before the bridge
showed signs of insecurity, mainly due to the increased scour caused by
the removal of Old London Bridge. In 1833 a thorough examination of
it was made by Messrs. Walker and Burges, who reported that it needed
immediate and extensive repairs, which they were directed to carry out.
The foundations were strengthened, the cutwaters recased, the roadway
lowered, and a solid parapet substituted for the open balustrade. These
works cost close upon ^100,000. It was admitted that the pictur-
esque beauty of the bridge was destroyed, but it was said that it had
been rendered more convenient and would now last for centuries. An
idle prophecy : these works were completed at the end of 1 840,
and as early as 1860 the demolition of the bridge was declared to
be urgent. It was taken down and a temporary wooden bridge
substituted. The designs of Mr. J. Cubitt, C.E., being adopted, the
foundation stone of the new Blackfriars Bridge was laid by the Lord
Mayor on July 20, 1865; and it was opened by the Queen in state
on November 6, 1869. It consists of five iron arches, the shore
arches being 155 feet in span, the next 175 feet each, and the centre
arch 185 feet. A cast-iron balustrade surmounts the arches. In front
of each pier is a short shaft, 7 feet in diameter, of polished granite with
Portland stone capitals : these were intended to carry bronze groups, and
some such crowning ornaments seem essential to the completion of
the design, but have not as yet been supplied. The bridge is 75
feet wide between the parapets. The effect of the bridge is much
injured by the proximity of the ugly lattice-girder bridges carrying the
London, Chatham and Dover Railway across the Thames, which
shut out the view of St. Paul's, so striking from the original Blackfriars
Bridge.
Blackfriars Road. An Act was passed 1769 to make a road
from the south end of Blackfriars Bridge to the turnpike road across
St. George's Fields, and near to the house called the Dog and
Duck. It was known as Great Surrey Street until about 1829. It
is about two-thirds of a mile in length. West Side. Rotunda, built
for the Leverian Museum ; afterwards converted into the Surrey insti-
tution [which' see\. Christ Church, Surrey, built about 1740; the site
of the church is a part of Old Paris Garden. Great Charlotte Street.
Stamford Street. Peabody Square the great square of model tene-
ments erected by the Trustees of the Peabody Fund on the site of
the Magdalen Hospital. Surrey Theatre. East Side. Goods Depot
of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Starting place for the
South London tramcars. Southwark Street Surrey Chapel, an
octagonal building at the corner of Charlotte Street, built by the
BLACKFRIARS THEATRE 199
eccentric but excellent Rowland Hill, and opened June 8, 1783. The
congregation removed in 1876 to a new building, called Christ Church,
Westminster Road; but Surrey Chapel was continued as a place of
worship till March 23, 1881, when it was finally closed. The Rev.
Rowland Hill died at his house in the Blackfriars Road, April n,
1833, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, and was buried in a vault
"underneath the pulpit" in which he had preached for nearly fifty
years. Here his corpse remained for nearly another half century, until
on the closing of the chapel it was removed, April 14, 1881, and rein-
terred " under the Lincoln Tower " of Christ Church, Westminster Road.
Over the door at the opposite corner of Charlotte Street, is the
figure of a dog with his head in a pot. The Dog's Head in the Pot is
mentioned as an old London sign in a curious old tract printed by
Wynkyn de Worde, called " Cocke Lorelles Bote." Obelisk at the south
end of the road, erected in 1771 in honour of Brass Crosby, Lord
Mayor, who was imprisoned in the Tower by the House of Commons
for committing a messenger of the House into custody.
Blackfriars Theatre was founded by James Burbage in 1596-
1597, and not in 1576 as is usually stated on the authority of Mr. Payne
Collier. Sir William More of Loseley conveyed to Burbage a large
portion of a house in the precinct of the Blackfriars, formerly belonging
to Sir Thomas Cawarden, Master of the Revels, and this Burbage
converted into a theatre. The deed of feoffment from Sir William
More of Loseley, county Surrey, to James Burbage, dated February 4,
1596, was discovered by Mr.^Halliwell Phillipps at the Lord Chamberlain's
office, and is printed in his Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, 7th ed.
vol. i. p. 299. The deed specifies very fully what the property really
was, for instance :
Seaven greate upper romes as they are nowe devided, beinge all uppon one flower,
and sometyme beinge one greate and entire rome, with the roufe over the same covered
with lead. Also all that greate payre of wyndinge stayres, with the stayre-case
thereunto belongeinge which leadeth upp unto the same seaven greate upper romes
out of the greate yarde there, which doth lye nexte unto the Pype-office.
The information contained in this deed is corroborated by "a
Petition to the Privy Council from the inhabitants of the Blackfriars,
November 1596, against the theatre which was then about to be
established by Burbage," in which it is directly stated
that there hath not at any tyme heretofore been used any comon play house within
the same precinct ; but that now all players being banished by the Lord Mayor
from playing within the Cittie by reason of the great inconveniences and ill rule
that followeth them, they now thincke to plant themselves in liberties. 1
From the Petition of Cuthbert Burbage and Winifrid, widow of his
brother Richard Burbage (dated 1635), we learn that the Burbages
leased the theatre to Henry Evans for the performances of the Children
of the Chapel, and that the King's servants acted there after the
departure of the children.
1 Petition printed in Halliwell Phillipps's Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, yth ed. vol. i. p. 304.
BLACKFRIARS THEATRE
Now for the Blackfriers that is our inheritance ; our father purchased it at extreame
rates, and made it into a playhouse with great charge and treble ; which after was
leased out to one Evans that first sett upp the boyes commonly called the Queenes
Majesties Children of the Chappell. In processe of time, the boyes growing up to
bee men, which were Underwood, Field, Ostler, and were taken to strengthen the
King's service ; and the more to strengthen the service, the boyes dayly wearing out,
it was considered that the house would be as fitt for ourselves, and soe purchased the
lease remaining from Evans with our money, and placed men players, which were
Hemings, Condall, Shakespeare, etc. Halliwell Phillipps's Outlines of the Life of
Shakespeare, 7th ed., vol. i. p. 317.
In the year 1619 the Lord Mayor and the Council of London took
upon themselves to order "the discontinuance of the playhouse at
Blackfriars, on petition of the inhabitants representing the inconvenience
and blocking up of the thoroughfares occasioned by the great resort of
people." x The order is printed in Halliwell Phillipps's Outlines of the
Life of Shakespeare, yth ed., vol. i. p. 311. In spite, however, of the
order, the players were able to keep the theatre open on the plea that
it was a private house. In 1629 a mixed French company of men
and women played there, and "were hissed, hooted, and pippin-pelted
from the stage." It is to them that Prynne refers in his Histriomastix
(1633) when he writes of "some French women, or monsters rather
[who] attempted to act a French play ... an impudent, shameful,
unwomanly and graceless attempt." Garrard writes to the Lord-Deputy
Wentworth, January 9, 1634 :
Here hath been an order of the Lords of the Council hung up in table near Paul's
and the Blackfriars to command all that resort to the Playhouse there to send away
their coaches, and to disperse abroad in Paul's Churchyard, Carter's Lane, the
Conduit in Fleet Street, and other places, and not to return to fetch their company,
but they must trot afoot to find their coaches ; 'twas kept very strictly for two or
three weeks, but now I think it is disordered again. Stafford's Letters, vol. i. p. 175.
Here is a cloak cost fifty pounds, wife,
Which I can sell for thirty, when I have seen
All London in't, and London has seen me.
To-day I go to the Blackfriars Playhouse,
Sit in the view, salute all my acquaintance ;
Rise up between the acts ; let fall my clock ;
Publish a handsome man, and a rich suit.
Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass.
March 23, 1637. Upon a little abatement of the plague, even in the first week
of Lent, the players set up their bills, and began to play in the Blackfryars and
other houses. But my Lord of Canterbury quickly reduced them to a better order ;
for at the next meeting of Council his Grace complained of it to the King, declared
the solemnity of Lent, the unfitness of that liberty to be given, both in respect to
the time and the sickness, which was not extinguished in the City, concluding that
if His Majesty did not command him to the contrary he would lay them by the heels
if they played again. My Lord Chamberlain [Pembroke and Montgomery] stood up
and said that my Lord's Grace and he served one God and one King ; that he hoped
his Grace would not meddle in his place no more than he did in his ; that players
were under his command. My Lord's Grace replied that what he had spoken in no
way touched upon his place, etc., still concluding as he had done before, which he
did with some solemnity reiterate once or twice. So the King put an end to the
1 Col. State Papers, 1619-1623, p. 7.
BLACK MAN STREET
business by commanding my Lord Chamberlain that they shall play no more.
Garrard to Wentworth (Strafford Letters, vol. ii. p. 56).
Troublous times were at hand and the players felt them. By an
Ordinance of the Lords and Commons of September 2, 1642, "public
stage-plays " were suppressed, and the players' vocation was for a time
at an end.
Queen-Hythe, Paul's Wharf, and the Fryers also,
Where now the Players have little to do,
Let him pass without any tokens of woe
Which nobody can deny.
Ballad on Admiral Dean's Funeral, June, 1653.
Two years later, August 5, 1655, the Blackfriars Theatre was pulled
down and tenements built in the room. 1 Part of the ground on which
it stood is still called Playhouse Yard. There was a void piece of
ground before the Theatre "to turne coaches in." 2
Blacklands, Chelsea. The former name of a district which still sur-
vives in the name of a house. When Henry Holland, architect, in 1777
was about to lay out the new portion of Chelsea to be called Hans
Town, he took a lease from Lord Cadogan of 100 acres of Blacklands.
The site extended from the west of Lowndes Square to Marlborough
Road, and from Knightsbridge Road to the Five Fields. The buildings
then erected included Sloane Street, Sloane Square, Cadogan Place,
and Hans Place. Blacklands House, in Blacklands Terrace, on the
north side of Marlborough Road, is supposed to have been the residence
of Charles Cheyne, afterwards Lord Cheyne, and Viscount Newhaven,
about 1655, before he purchased Chelsea Place. The house, according
to Bowack, was occupied as a French boarding school in 1705. It
has been enlarged and is now a lunatic asylum.
Blackman Street, SOUTHWARK, extends southward from Borough
High Street to Stones End. Blackman Street is mentiond by name
in a Terrier of St. Thomas's Hospital, 1536-1537, and in the Charter
of 4 Edward VI. (1550), by which he granted the Great Liberty Manor
of Southwark to the Corporation of London. 3
Farewel to the Bankside,
Farewel to Blackman's Street,
Where with my bouncing lasses
I oftentimes did meet.
The Merry Man's Resolution, Roxburgh Ballads, p. 319.
Under the Long Parliament there was constructed " a large fort with
four bulwarks near the end of Blackman Street." The Southwark
Police Court is in Blackman Street ; the Queen's Bench Prison was at
its south-western extremity ; St. George's church is at its north-east end.
1 Notes on London Churches and Buildings, 2 Collier's New Facts, p. 28.
A.D. 1631-1658. Harrison's England, vol. ii. 3 Brayley's Surrey, vol. v. p. 329 ; Norton, p.
(New Shakspere Society). 386.
202 BLACKSMITHS' HALL
Blacksmiths' Hall, was in LAMBETH HILL, DOCTORS' COMMONS.
The business of the Company (the fortieth on the list) is conducted at
Guildhall. The Company was in existence as early as 1325; was
united with the Spurriers Company and incorporated by Act of 13
Eliz., 1571 ; and reincorporated in 1639. The motto of the Company
is significant " By Hammer and Hand all Arts do stand."
Blackwall.
To Poplar adjoineth Blackwall, a notable harbour for ships, so called, because it
is a -wall of the Thames, and distinguished by the additional term Black, from the
black shrubs which grew on it, as on Blackheath, which is opposite to it on the other
side of the river [or perhaps from the bleakness of the place and situation]. Dr.
Woodward and Strype, in Strype's Appendix, vol. ii. p. 102.
The place taketh name of the blackness or darkness of the water bankes, or wall,
at that place. Norden's Speculum Britannia (Middlesex).
From an'early date Blackwall was a great place for ships, ship-
building, and docks. It is often mentioned in Sir Walter Raleigh's
Letters to Cecil, and is spelt indifferently Blakwale, Blakewale, and
Bralkwale. Thus on May 3, 1596, he writes, "From Blakewale,
reddy to go down agayne this tyde ; " in the body of the letter he spells
it Bralkewale. He was then toiling to organise the expedition against
Cadiz, and on the following day he writes from Northfleet, "if this
strong wind last I will steale to Blakewale to speak with you and to
kiss your hands."
January 17, 1661. So after a cupp of burnt wine at the taverne there [Woolwich]
we took barge and went to Blackwall, and viewed the dock and the new West Dock,
which is newly made there, and a brave new merchantman which is to be launched
shortly, and they say to be called the Royal Oake. Pepys.
September 22, 1665. At Blackwall. Here is observable what Johnson tells us,
that in digging the late Docke, they did, 12 feet under ground, find perfect trees over-
covered with earth. Nut-trees, with the branches and the very nuts upon them ;
some of whose nuts he showed us. Their shells black with age ; and their kernell,
upon opening, decayed, but their shell perfectly hard as ever. And a yew-tree, upon
which the very ivy was taken up whole about it, which, upon cutting with an addes
[adze], we found it to be rather harder than the living tree usually is. The armes,
they say, were taken up at first whole about the body, which is very strange.
Pepys.
Here is a well-known wet dock, called Blackwall Dock, belonging to Sir Henry
Johnson, very convenient for building and receiving of ships. Strype's Stow, 1720,
B. iv. p. 42.
In the last century Perry's ship-building yard, which afterwards
passed into the hands of Sir Robert Wigram, and later of Wigram and
Green, was, as long as ships were built of wood, the most important
ship-building yard on the Thames, the larger proportion of the East-
India Company's magnificent fleet and many men-of-war being built
there. In process of time there was a division, and the firms of Money,
Wigram and Green had distinct yards each, launching ships of the
largest size, and building them of iron as well as wood. The yard of
Money, Wigram and Co. was sold in 1872 to the Midland Railway
Company to form a great depot, comprising a shipping basin, wharfs
and warehouses. At Blackwall (but not wholly within its boundaries)
BLANCH APPLETON 203
are the East and West India Docks, and Millwall Dock ; the river-side
depots of the Midland, Great Northern and Great Eastern Railways, and
large iron-works and engineering and other establishments. Brunswick
Steam Wharf is at the terminus of the Blackwall Railway, and in com-
munication with the Great Eastern and North London lines. The view
of the Reach of the river from the Wharf is very fine. Here was Love-
grove's Tavern (the Brunswick), famous for its fish and especially its
white-bait dinners ; l but the tavern was closed some few years ago, and
converted into an Emigrant Depot for (assisted) steerage passengers
to New Zealand. The emigrants are lodged and fed here till the sail-
ing of their ship from the adjacent East India Dock. On an average
nearly a thousand a month are provided for in the depot. Beyond the
East India Docks are the Trinity Wharf and Stores.
Blackwall Railway, FENCHURCH STREET to Brunswick Wharf.
Five miles 1 7 chains in length ; built upon arches, and worked originally
by two pairs of stationary engines one at the Minories station, and one
at Blackwall. The original rope was of hemp, but as this was frequently
breaking, a wire rope was introduced about two years after the line
had been opened. The rope extended along the whole length of
the railway, guided by grooved pulleys, and coiled alternately at each
extremity on drums. The expense of working the engines and ropes
was about fourteenpence per train per mile. The carriages (attached
to the ropes by " grips ") travelled alternately along either line, and the
signals for starting and the general working of the line were given by
the electric telegraph. But this was found an expensive process. The
stationary engines were therefore discontinued early in 1849, an d the
usual railway engines introduced in their stead. The portion of the
line from Fenchurch Street to the Minories, a distance of only 450
yards, cost ^25 0,000.
Blackwell Hall. [See Bakewell Hall.]
Bladder Street, NEWGATE STREET. [See Blowbladder Street.]
Blanch Appleton, in ALDGATE WARD, was on the east side of
Mark Lane near Fenchurch Street. Strype, 2 1720, describes it as "a
large open square place, with a passage to it for carts, which is called
Blanch Appleton Court, having pretty good timber houses, which are
indifferently well inhabited. It hath a turning passage on the south
side by an alley which encompasseth some of the houses." The name
was derived from the manor of Blanch Appleton, which belonged in the
reign of Richard II. to Sir Thomas Roos of Hamelake. 3 It is enume-
rated (gth of Henry V.) in "The Partition of the Inheritance of
Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex," under the head of
"London Blaunchappulton." 4 Hall, in his Chronicle (ed. 1548),
1 The Artichoke Tavern, where white-bait was 2 B. ii. p. 82.
first eaten 'tis 60 years since is still a, noted 3 Stow, p. 56.
white-bait house. 4 Charters of Diichy of Lancaster, p. 175.
204 BLANCH APPLETON
writes it Blanchechapelton. In Strype's Map, 1720, it is given as
Blanch Chaplin Court ; the further corruption was into Blind Chapel
Court, by which it appears to have been commonly known. 1 The
Common Council of London ordered, October 12, 1464, that "basket
makers, gold wire-drawers, and other foreigners \i.e. persons not having
the freedom of the City] using mysteries within the City, shall not
henceforth hold shops within the liberty of the City, but only at Blanch
Appulton, so as they might have sufficient dwelling there."
Blandford Court, PALL MALL. So called from the second tide
of the Marlborough family. No trace of it now remains.
Now to the serious business of life. Up a court (Blandford Court), in Pall Mall
(exactly at the back of Marlborough House), with iron gate in the front, and containing
two houses, at No. 2 did lately live Lewisham, my tailor. He is moved somewhere
in the neighbourhood, devil knows where. Pray find him out. Charles Lamb to
E. Moxon.
Some then of the famous snuff-coloured suits of Elia were made in
what is now a portion of the Court Yard of Marlborough House.
Blandford Place, REGENT'S PARK (by Dorset Square). S. T.
Coleridge writes from here, March i, 1821.
Blandford Square, REGENT'S PARK (west of Dorset Square).
G. H. Lewes and George Eliot lived at No 16. Here the latter wrote
Romola and Felix Holt. Sir George Hayter, the painter, who died in
the Marylebone Road in 1871, lived in this square for a time.
Blandford Street, PORTMAN SQUARE, runs from Baker Street to
Manchester Square. Michael Faraday in 1804 was engaged as an
errand boy by Mr. Riebau, bookseller, at No. 2 in this street, and
after a year's trial was taken, October 1805, as an apprentice without
premium for seven years, to learn the trade of bookbinder and stationer.
The shop is still (1888) that of a " bookseller and binder."
Bleeding Heart Yard, familiar to the readers of Little Dorrit, is
on the south side of CHARLES STREET, HATTON GARDEN. One of the
fngoldsby Legends, entitled " The House- Warming, a Legend of Bleeding-
Heart Yard," relates how Lady Hatton, the wife of Sir Christopher
Hatton, was carried away by the devil, with whom she was in league,
and how her heart was found bleeding in the neighbourhood of Hatton
House.
The last piece of advice which I'd have you regard
Is don't go of a night into Bleeding Heart Yard,
It's a dark, little, dirty, black, ill-looking square,
With queer people about, and unless you take care,
You may find when your pocket's clean'd out and left bare,
That the iron one is not the only pump there !
Blenheim Street, OXFORD STREET, runs out of Great Marlborough
Street, and was so called in compliment to the great Duke of Marl-
borough, who was alive when it was built. Henry Cavendish, the
1 Hatton, 1708, so writes it in his list of streets.
BLOOMSBURY 205
greatest of our early chemists and one of the founders of modern
chemistry, lived here. His house was afterwards tenanted by Joshua
Brookes, the distinguished anatomist, who here formed a museum second
only to John Hunter's. The name was changed by the Metropolitan
Board of Works to Ramilies Street in 1886.
Blind Chapel Court, MARK LANE, a corruption of Blanch Appkton
Court (which see).
Blind, School for the Indigent, ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS, instituted
1799, "for the moral, mental, and industrial training of poor blind
children of both sexes over ten years of age," a Gothic building erected
1834-1838 from the designs of J. Newman, architect. A branch has
recently been established at Wandsworth Common for children under
ten. The children are admitted by election. There is room for 150
inmates at Southwark and 50 at the junior school. They may be seen
at work between ten and twelve in the forenoon, and two and five in
the afternoon on every day except Saturdays and Sundays.
Blomfield Street, MOORFIELDS, runs from the north side of
London Wall to Liverpool Street, and was so named after Lord
Blomfield. West Side. Finsbury Chambers; No. 5, office of the
German Consulate ; Finsbury Circus, at the south corner of which is
Finsbury Chapel, where for a long series of years the Rev. Alexander
Fletcher, a very popular preacher, was minister ; at the opposite corner
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church : the Metropolitan District Railway
passes in a tunnel midway between the two. Beyond are large Roman
Catholic schools. East Side. Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital ;
No. 14, London Missionary Society.
Bloody Bridge, CHELSEA, the bridge in the King's Road (directly
east of Sloane Square) which spans the stream running from the
Serpentine to the Thames, at one time known as the Ranelagh River.
August 30, 1742. Mr. Smith, master of a victualling house at Chelsea, was
robbed and murdered in the King's Road, by Bloody Bridge. Gentleman's Magazine,
August, 1742, p. 443.
August 12, 1748. Four gentlemen coming from Chelsea, along the King's Road,
in a coach, were attacked near Bloody Bridge by two highwaymen ; but they all
getting out of the coach, and drawing their swords, the highwaymen made off without
their booty. Fielding's Jacobite's Journal, August 20, 1748.
This bridge is still so named in Lambert's Map of 1806 and Smith's
of 1811.
Bloomfield Road, MAIDA HILL. Captain Mayne Reid died at
No. 12 in 1883.
Bloomsbury, a district so called which lies between the north side
of New Oxford Street and High Holborn and the south of Euston
Road. The name is a corruption of Blemundsbury, the manor of the
De Blemontes, Blemunds or Blemmots. Blemund's Dyche, which was
afterwards called Bloomsbury Great Ditch, and Southampton Sewer
divided the two manors of St. Giles and Bloomsbury. The manor
206 BLOOMSBURY
house of the Blemunds stood on the site of the present Bedford Place,
and is described in the St Giles's Hospital Grant as "the capital
messuage of William Blemund." In a document belonging to the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's (November 20, 1379) a footway of the
width of 6 feet of the assize called Poulesfete, through the field called
Blemundesbury, beginning at the western end of Holburn," is granted
to William de Dighton. 1 The manor passed through several hands
before it came into the possession of Thomas Lord Wriothesley, who
was created Earl of Southampton three days before the coronation of
Edward VI. There is an absurd statement, taken from Stow's Survey,
that the name of Bloomsbury was originally Lomsbery. This could only
have occurred by a misprint, in which the B was inadvertently dropped.
Bloomsbury Market, established in 1662, and at first called
Southampton Market.
Bloomsbury Market is a long place with two Market houses, the one for flesh, the
other for fish, but of small account, by reason the Market is of so little use and so ill
served with provisions ; insomuch that the inhabitants are served elsewhere. Strype,
B. iv. p. 84.
It never was well served, and was swept away about 1847, when New
Oxford Street was formed, but Market Street still remains. Robert
White, the engraver, lived in Bloomsbury Market as early as 1683, and
died there suddenly in 1704.
Bloomsbury Place, BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, extends from the north-
east corner of the square to Upper King Street (now Southampton
Row), Holborn. In No. 4 died (1802) Thomas Cadell, the eminent
publisher in the Strand. He was the apprentice and successor of
Andrew Millar, and the publisher of the first edition, and of many
consecutive editions, of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. At No. 6, in 1796, lived Vicary Gibbs, K.C., afterwards
Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
Bloomsbury Square was first formed by Thomas Wriothesley,
Earl of Southampton, the son of Shakespeare's patron, and the father of
Lady Rachel Russell. In a letter to her husband, October 2, 1681,
Lady Rachel Russell calls it " our square." It is said that the Duke of
York (James II.) wished that the execution of Lord Russell should
take place in Bloomsbury Square. 2
February 9, 1665. Dined at my Lord Treasurer's, 'the Earle of Southampton, in
Blomesbury, where he was building a noble Square or Piazza, a little towne ; his
owne house stands too low, some noble roomes, a pretty cedar chapell, a naked garden
to the North, but good aire. Evelyn.
In the London Gazette of September 8, 1666, the first issued after
the Great Fire, is the following notification :
The Grant Office for the Excise is now kept in Southampton Fields, near the
house of the Right Honourable the Lord High Treasurer of England [Lord South -
1 Maxwell Lyte's Report, Historical AfSS. Comnt., Appendix to Ninth Report, p. 36.
2 Miss Berry, p. 49.
BLOOM SB UR Y SQ UA RE 207
ampton], and is every day open at the usual hours for receiving and performing all
things relating to that affair."
A month later we read :
Such as have settled in new habitations since the late Fire, and desire for the
convenience of their correspondence to publish the present place of their abode, or to
give notice of goods lost or found, may repair to the corner house in Bloomsbury,
or on the east side of the great Square, before the house of the Right Honourable
the Lord Treasurer, where there is care taken for the receipt and publication of such
advertisements. London Gazette, October 15, 1666.
The north side of the square was wholly occupied by Southampton
House [see Bedford House], demolished in 1804. The south side
was called Vernon Street (Vernon Place still remains) ; the east side
Seymour Row; and the west Allington or Arlington Row. 1 It was
frequently called Southampton Square, and the adjoining fields South-
ampton Fields. As late as 1760 the centre of the square was surrounded
by wooden posts and rails, and in front of Bedford House were large
and clumsy stone obelisks surmounted by oil lamps.
Lost, from my Lady Baltinglasses house in the great square of Bloomsbury, the
first of this instant December [1674], a great old Indian spaniel or mongrel, as big
as a mastiff. ... If any, can bring news thereof, they shall have twenty shillings
for their pains. London Gazette, No. 946.
The Earl of Northampton died at his house in this square in 1727.
Pope alludes to this once fashionable quarter of the town.
In Palace Yard, at nine, you'll find me there ;
At ten, for certain, Sir, in Bloomsbury Square.
zd Epistle of 2d Book of Horace.
Eminent Inhabitants. Sir Charles Sedley, wit and poet, died here,
August 20, 1701. The Earl of Chesterfield of De Grammont's
Memoirs, in 1681. He died herein 1713. Lord Arlington, writing
to Lord Chesterfield, October 20, 1681, says, "I wish you would give
me commission to lett your house in Southampton Square and hier you
another near Whitehall ; that I might with less trouble to you, enjoy the
honour and satisfaction of a frequent conversation with you. 2 Richard
Baxter, the Nonconformist divine. His wife died here on June 14,
1 68 1, in what he calls "this most pleasant and convenient house."
Sir Hans Sloane, in 1696, "at the corner of Southampton Street next
Bloomsbury Square," for in this way Ray, the naturalist, writes to him
in that year. Another correspondent, writing to him in 1704, directs
his letter to Sloane, at his house at the corner of Southampton Square,
Bloomsbury. Dr. Radcliffe. He removed here from Bow Street at least
as early as July 1704, and at his death in 1714 was succeeded in the
house by his old friend and protege, Dr. Mead. It was in this house
that Dr. Radcliffe entertained Prince Eugene with a dinner of " barons
of beef, juggets of mutton, and legs of pork for the first course," washed
down with ale seven years in the cask.
1 Hatton, p. 69; Strype, B. iv. p. 84. 2 Chesterfield Letters, p. 216.
208 BLOOMSBURY SQUARE
Dr. Radcliffe could never be brought to pay bills without much following and
importunity ; nor then, if there appeared any chance of [wearying them out. A
paviour, after long and fruitless attempts, caught him just getting out of his chariot
at his own door in Bloomsbury Square, and set upon him. "Why, you rascal !"
said the Doctor, "do you pretend to be paid for such a piece of work? Why, you
have spoiled my pavement, and then covered it over with earth, to hide your bad
work." "Doctor!" said the paviour, mine is not the only bad work the earth
hides." " You dog, you ! " said the doctor, " are you a Wit ? You must be poor ;
come in" and paid him. Dr. Mead in Richardsoniana, p. 317.
Sir Richard Steele took a house here in 1 7 1 2. On July 1 5 he writes
to his wife, " You cannot conceive how pleased I am that I shall have
the prettiest house to receive the prettiest woman, who is the darling
of RICHARD STEELE. He describes it as the " fifth door." His last
letter dated from it is June 24, 1714. According to Thackeray this
was the house in which the dinner party was given when the bailiffs
were dressed as footmen, and waited on the guests. "Tis true, that
Bloomsbury Square's a noble place." Swift's Horace, B. i. Ep. v.
(John Dennis's Invitation to Richard Steele). Charles Yorke was
residing here when, on Wednesday, January 17, 1770, in spite of his
declared resolution, and against his own judgment, the King in a
manner compelled him to accept the Great Seal. He was in weak
health and his nerves gave way utterly from agitation and excitement.
He died here on Saturday the 2oth. His brother says, " The patent of
peerage [as Baron Morden] had passed all the forms, except the Great
Seal, and when my poor brother was asked if the Seal should be put to
it, he waved it and said 'he hoped it was no longer in his custody.'"
The great Lord Mansfield (at the north end of the east side of the
square) ; his house and library were destroyed by fire in the riots of
the year 1780. The few books that escaped are now at Caen Wood
House, Hampstead (Lord Mansfield's seat), and still exhibit traces of
the fiery ordeal they went through. 1 Lord and Lady Mansfield made
their escape in disguise by a back door a few minutes before the flames
blazed out, and the rioters took possession of the premises. Three
houses, Nos. 28 and 29 Bloomsbury Square, and No. 9 Bloomsbury
Place, were built upon the site.
O'er Murray's loss the Muses wept,
They felt the rude alarm,
Yet bless'd the Guardian care that kept
His sacred head from harm. COWPER.
Lord Mansfield told Single-speech Hamilton that " what he most
regretted to have lost by the burning of his house was a speech that
he had made on the question ' How far the privilege of Parliament
extended ' : that it contained all the eloquence and all the law he was
master of; that it was fairly written out; and that he had no other
copy." 5 Chief-Justice Willes died here in 1761. Another eminent
Lord Chief- Justice of England, the "bold and strong-minded Ellen-
1 A story has been preserved of a chimney- hoops. Dclanty, vol. v. p. 533.
sweep having been seen dancing behind the 2 Prior's Life of M alone, p. 346.
burning books in one of Lady Mansfield's
BLOWBLADDER STREET 209
borough," lived, 1803 etc., at No. 30. An apartment in his house
went by the name of "Paley's Room," being reserved for the Arch-
deacon when he paid a visit to London. 1 Dr. Akenside for several
years. Isaac D'Israeli, at No. 6, on the west side, the first house
from Hart Street; here he compiled his Curiosities of Literature.
The house was designed by Isaac Ware (d. 1766), the editor of a trans-
lation of Palladia s work on architecture. Edward Lodge (Lodge's
Portraits) died at his house in Bloomsbury Square in 1839. Sir
Anthony Panizzi, on retiring from his post as Principal Librarian of
the British Museum in 1866, took the house No. 31 in this Square,
"a very unfashionable quarter, though very respectable," as he wrote;
and here he died, April 8, 1879. Creswick the actor lived here for
several years.
The Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home died at No. 47 in 1862.
Charles King and John Gray were executed in the Square for com-
plicity in the Gordon Riots, 1780.
The bronze statue of Charles James Fox on the north side of the
square, facing Bedford Place, is by Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A., and
is greatly admired by the historian of the parish, who explains that
"the head is inclined forward expressive of attention, firmness, and
complacency ; whilst dignified severity is depicted on the countenance." 2
Bloomsbury Street extends from Great Russell Street to Broad
Street, crossing New Oxford Street, and so named in 1845 ; originally
two streets, Charlotte Street and Plumtree Street. Here, next to each
other, on the west side, are Bedford Chapel; Bloomsbury Baptist
Chapel ; the French Protestant Episcopal Church, first established in
the Savoy ; and the French Protestant School. In 1885 several houses
to the south of the French chapel, including those at the then corner
of Broad Street, which had been designed 1844-1845 by Sir James
Pennethorne at the previous improvements, were pulled down to make
room for Shaftesbury Avenue [which see]. No. 36, the Swedenborg
Society ; on the ground floor is their publishing office.
Blossoms Inn, LAWRENCE LANE, CHEAPSIDE. [See Lawrence
Lane.]
Blowbladder Street, now the east end of NEWGATE STREET.
Stow calls it " Bladder Street, of selling bladders there." It extended
from Butcher Hall Lane, Newgate Street, to the Conduit, Cheapside.
[See Butcher Hall Lane ; St. Nicholas Shambles.]
Blowbladder Street had its name from the butchers, who used to kill and dress
their sheep there, and who, it seems, had a custom to blow up their meat with pipes
to make it look thicker and fatter than it was, and were punished there for it by the
Lord Mayor. De Foe, Plague Year, ed. Brayley, p. 342.
But a more obvious derivation is from the practice of the vendors
of bladders inflating them to their utmost dimensions and then suspend-
1 Lord Campbell's Life of Lord Ellenborough. 2 Dobie's Blosmsfairy, p. 178.
VOL. I P
BLOWBLADDER STREET
ing them on poles or cords to dry, and at the same time to notify their
wares to purchasers. Long strings of such inflated bladders of all
sizes might be seen a few years ago in bye-streets about Newgate
Market and Smithfield, and quite lately in the neighbourhood of the
Central Meat Market. In 1720 the butchers and bladder-sellers had
left Blowbladder Street.
Blowbladder Street is taken up by milliners, sempstresses, and such as sell a sort
of copper lace, called St. Martin's lace, for which it is of note. Strype, B. iii. p. 121.
Theodore Hook introduces Blowbladder Street into one of the
happiest of his jingles about Queen Caroline :
And who were the company, hey ma'am, ho ma'am ?
Who were the company, ho ?
We happened to drop in, with gemmen from Wapping,
And ladies from Blow Bladder Row,
Ladies from Blow Bladder Row, row.
But Samuel Foote had been before him. The Alderman's wife,
Lady Pentweazel, in that amusing comedy Taste (8vo, 1752), lived
here, and says to her husband, " Let us have none of your Blow
Bladder breeding. Remember, you are at the Court end of the town."
Blue Anchor (The) must have been one of the most popular of
the London signs. In Dodsley's London (1761) are entered thirteen
Blue Anchor Alleys ; three Blue Anchor Courts ; one Blue Anchor
Road ; and six Blue Anchor Yards. Seventy years later Elmes l
enumerates six Blue Anchor Alleys ; four Blue Anchor Courts ; two
Blue Anchor Lanes ; one Blue Anchor Road and three Blue Anchor
Yards, in all, seven less. The Postal Guide and the Post Office
Directory mention only three in all, but they mention only the more
substantial places. The Blue Anchor was the sign of Henry Herringman
(d. 1703), the publisher, temp. Charles II.
Blue Anchor Road, BERMONDSEY, was named from a tavern
sign, and the name was changed to Southwark Park Road in 1878.
Colonel Chester, the celebrated genealogist and antiquary, lived here
for several years until his death, on May 26, 1882.
Blue Boar Inn, on the south side of HIGH HOLBORN. It is
mentioned in the burial register of St. Andrew's, Holborn (in which
parish it stood), as early as 1616. Richard Duke of York, father
of Edward IV., had for one of his badges of cognisance, " a blewe
Bore, with his tuskes, and his cleis, and his membres of gold." It
was also the badge of the Veres, Earls of Oxford. [See Cannon
Street.]
"The reason," says he [Cromwell to Lord Broghill], "why we would once have
closed with the king was this : We found that the Scots and the Presbyterians
began to be more powerful than we ; and if they made up matters with the king, we
should be left in the lurch : therefore we thought it best to prevent them, by
1 Top. Diet, of London, 1831.
BL UE CO A T SCHOOL 2 1 1
offering first to come in, upon any reasonable conditions. But while we were
busied in these thoughts, there came a letter from one of our spies, who was of the
king's bedchamber, which acquainted us, that on that day our final doom was
decreed ; that he could not possibly tell what it was, but we might find it out, if we
could intercept a letter, sent from the king to the queen, wherein he declared what
he would do. The letter, he said, was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle, and the
bearer of it would come with the saddle upon his head, about ten of the clock that
night, to the Blue Boar Inn in Holborn ; for there he was to take horse and go to
Dover with it. This messenger knew nothing of the letter in the saddle, but some
persons at Dover did. We were at Windsor, when we received this letter ; and
immediately upon the receipt of it, Ireton and I resolved to take one trusty fellow
with us, and with troopers' habits to go to the Inn in Holborn ; which accordingly
we did, and set our man at the gate of the Inn, where the wicket only was open to
let people in and out. Our man was to give us notice, when any one came with
a saddle, whilst we in the disguise of common troopers called for cans of beer, and
continued drinking till about ten o'clock : the centinel at the gate then gave notice
that the man with the saddle was come in. Upon this we immediately arose, and,
as the man was leading out his horse saddled, came up to him with drawn swords
and told him that we were to search all that went in and out there ; but as he
looked like an honest man, we would only search his saddle and so dismiss him.
Upon that we ungirt the saddle and carried it into the stall, where we had been
drinking, and left the horseman with our centinel : then ripping up one of the
skirts of the saddle, we there found the letter of which we had been informed : and
having got it into our own hands, we delivered the saddle again to the man, telling
him, he was an honest man and bid him go about his business. The man, not
knowing what had been done, went away to Dover. As soon as we had the letter
we opened it ; in which we found the king had acquainted the queen, that he was
now courted by both the factions, the Scotch Presbyterians and the Army ; and
which bid fairest for him should haxe him ; but he thought he should close with
the Scots, sooner than the other. Upon this," added Cromwell, "we took horse,
and went to Windsor ; and finding we were not likely to have any tolerable terms
from the king, we immediately from that time forward resolved his ruin." Memoirs
of Roger, Earl of Orrery, by Rev. Mr. Thomas Morrice, his Lordship's Chaplain,
(Earl of Orrery's State Letters}, fol. 1742, p. I5. 1
Zek. Homespun. So here we be, at last, in London, at the what be your
sign, young man ?
Waiter. The Blue Boar, Sir ; one of the oldest houses in Holborn.
Zek. Oldest ! why as you so say, young man, it do seem in a tumble-downish
kind of a condition, indeed ! Colman's Heir at Law, Act i. Sc. 2.
It stood, however, till 1864, when it was pulled down to make
way for the Inns of Court Hotel.
There was, as early as 1690, another noted coach and posting inn
with the sign of the Blue Boar, on the north side of Aldgate. It
remained till railway times a great house for Essex coaches. The
site (No. 31) is now a tobacco manufactury.
Blue Boar's Head Inn. [See King Street, Westminster.]
Bluecoat School. [See Christ's Hospital.]
Blue Coat School, WESTMINSTER, at the east end of James
Street. The school (for boys) was instituted in 1688, and in 1714 a
school for girls was added.
1 On the subject of this intercepted letter of the king's, see Richardsoniana, 8vo, 1776, p. 132.
BLUE GATE FIELDS
Blue Gate Fields, RATCLIFF HIGHWAY (but now Blue Gate
Fields, is called RATCLIFF STREET, and Ratcliff Highway, ST. GEORGE'S
STREET), the first turning east of St George's Church. It is the
favourite haunt of degraded Lascars, Malays, and Chinamen, who may,
in some of the dens, be seen smoking opium in the fashion common
in Eastern Asia, and described by Dickens.
Blue Maid Alley, ST. MARGARET'S HILL, SOUTHWARK. Here
Timothy Fielding, the actor of Drury Lane Theatre who has been
confused with Henry Fielding, the great author, set up his booth at
Southwark Fair in 1728.
At FIELDING and REYNOLDS'S Great Theatrical Booth, at the lower end of Blue
Maid Alley, on the Green in Southwark, during the time of the Fair, will be
performed The Beggar's Opera by the Company of Comedians from the Haymarket.
All the songs and dances set to music, as performed at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn
Fields. N.B. There is a commodious passage for the Quality, and coaches through
the Half Moon Inn, and care will be taken that there shall be lights, and people to
conduct them to their places.
Blue Posts Tavern, No. 13 CORK STREET. [See Cork Street.]
Blue Posts Tavern, No. 59 HAYMARKET, a house that continued
for two centuries in favour for dinners.
Beauregard. Run like a rogue as you are, and try to find Sir Jolly, and desire
him to meet me at the Blue Posts in the Haymarket, about twelve ; we'll dine
together.
Sir Jolly Jumble. The maw begins to empty ; get you before and bespeak dinner
at the Blue Posts. Otway, The Soldier's Fortune , 4to, 1681.
October 4, 1686. I entertained the Bishops of Oxon and St. David's, Mr.Ashton,
Mr. Brookes, my son, Mr. Callis, etc., at the Blue Posts in the Haymarket.
Bishop Cartwright's Diary.
The close of the last week, one Mr. Moon and one Mr. Hurst quarrelled at the
Blue Posts in the Haymarket ; and as they came out at the door they drew their
swords, and the latter was run through and immediately died. It appears that
he began the fray and drew first, pressing the other gentleman to fight. The Post
Boy, ending July 23, I69S- 1
Blue Posts Tavern, SPRING GARDENS, a great resort of the
Jacobites during the reign of William III. It was here that Charnock
and his fellow-conspirators met for breakfast, February 22, 1696, before
starting for Turnham Green in order to assassinate the King, and whilst
at their meal received intelligence which convinced them that their
plot was discovered. When, on the death of James II. and public
recognition of his son as King of England by Louis XIV. a royal
messenger was sent from Kensington to order M. Poussin, the French
Ambassador, to leave the country without delay, he was found to be
supping at the Blue Posts in Spring Gardens, along with three of the
most prominent Jacobite members of the House of Commons.
"This supper party," says Macaulay, "was during some weeks the
chief topic of conversation." 2
1 See also Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, 2 History of England, vol. vii. p. 296 ; vol.
vol. ii. p. 153, and Comparison between tlic Two viii. p. 294.
Stages, i2mo, 1702, p. 68.
BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH 213
Board of Control, or BOARD OF THE COMMISSIONERS FOR THE
AFFAIRS OF INDIA; established by Act of Parliament in 1784, it
lasted till the transfer of the Government of India to the Crown in
1858, when the Board merged in the Indian Department of the
Government. The Office was the building with an Ionic portico on
the east side of Canon Row, Westminster ; of which William Pilking-
ton was the architect about 1816 (it is often attributed to W. Atkinson).
It was originally designed for the Transport Office, but was found too
small for the business of the department. It is now the Office of the
Civil Service Commission.
Board of Green Cloth, BUCKINGHAM PALACE, the office of the
Lord Steward of Her Majesty's Household, and so called from the
table at which the Lord Steward and his officers usually sit The
Board took cognisance of "all matters of Government and justice
within the King's Court Royal." Its jurisdiction extended over what
is called " The Verge of Court," or twelve miles round the residence
of the Sovereign, wherever the residence may be, and was even
extended to "progresses," though not to "huntings." This limit was
first defined by 13 Rich. II., stat. i. c. 3. All offences were tried
within what was called "The Session of Verges," and all committals
were made to the Marshalsea, of which "The Court of Verge" was a
branch. [See Verge, Court of The.] To the Board belonged the
sole right of arresting within the limits and jurisdiction of the Palace.
The Countess of Dorset, wishing to arrest a person of the name of
Kirk, who had sought shelter within the precinct of the palace at
Whitehall, applied to the Board for permission to arrest him, which
permission was granted May 2, 1684. In 1630 Maurice Evans was
imprisoned for serving a subpoena in the King's House upon John
Darson. In 1631 Peter Price was committed to the Marshalsea for
serving a subpoena upon George Ravenscroft in the Council Chamber ;
and in 1632 John Perkins, a constable, was imprisoned for serving
the Lord Chief-Justice's warrant upon John Beard in St. James's
Park. 1 Offences committed within the jurisdiction of the Board were
punished with a severity peculiar to the Court that tried them. Baker
describes one very graphically :
On June 10, 1541, Sir Edmund Knevet of Norfolk, Knight, was arraigned
before the officers of the Green Cloth, for striking one Master Cleer of Norfolk,
within the Tennis Court of the King's House ; being found guilty he had judgment
to lose his right hand, and to forfeit all his lands and goods ; whereupon there was
called to do execution, first the Serjeant Surgeon, with his Instruments pertaining
to his office, then the Serjeant of the Wood Yard, with a mallet and a block to lay
the hand upon, then the King's Master Cook with a knife to cut off the hand, then
the Serjeant of the Larder to set the knife right on the joint, then the Serjeant
Ferrier with searing irons to sear the veins, then the Serjeant of the Poultry with a
Cock, which Cock should have his head smitten off upon the same block and with
the same knife ; then the Yeoman of the Chandry with Sear cloaths, then the
Yeoman of the Scullery, with a pan of fire to heat the Irons, a chafer of water to
1 Warrant Book in the Lord-Steward's Office, Anno 1677, fol. 381.
214 BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH
cool the ends of the Irons, and two forms for all officers to set their stuff on, then
the Serjeant of the Cellar with Wine, Ale, and Beer ; then the Serjeant of the Ewry
with Bason, Ewre, and Towels : all things being thus prepared, Sir William Picker-
ing, Knight Marshal, was commanded to bring in his prisoner Sir Edmund Knevet,
to whom the Chief-Justice declared his offence, which the said Knevet confessed,
and humbly submitted himself to the King's mercy ; only he desired, that the King
would spare his right hand and take his left, because (said he) if my right hand be
spared, I may live to do the King good service : of whose submission and reason of
his suit, when the King was informed, he granted him to lose neither of his hands,
and pardoned him also of his lands and goods. Baker's Chronicle, ed. 1674,
p. 288.
A few years later (March 2, 1551) King Edward VI. notices in his
Diary the committal "to ward" of "the Lord of Bergavenny" for
striking the Earl of Oxford " in the Chamber of Presence." William,
Earl of Devonshire (the patriot earl, and afterwards the first duke),
was fined in the sum of ^30,000 for caning Colonel Colepepper and
pulling his nose in the Vane Chamber at Whitehall. "It is to be
noted," says Sir John Bramston, " that this Colepepper had struck the
Earl some months since, in the same or in the next room, and was
tried for it at the Verge, and was sentenced to lose his hand, and was
at the great instance of the Earl pardoned." 1 The notorious Palace
Court, long an oppressive tribunal for the adjudication of matters
within the jurisdiction of this Board, was abolished in 1849. The
name of " blackguard " is said to have its origin in the office of the
Board of Green Cloth ; the meanest drudges in royal residences, who
carried coals, being called the "Blackguard." 2 The term was after-
wards applied to vicious, idle, and masterless boys and rogues; and
was so used, as appears by the books in the Board of Green Cloth, as
early as 1683, if not before. The following order, copied from the
original Warrant Book of the Board, will show the nature of the duties
of the Lord Steward at certain times :
BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH, June 12, 1681.
Order was this day given, that the Maides of Honour should have Cherry Tarts
instead of Gooseberry Tarts, it being observed that Cherrys are at threepence
per pound.
It appears from the same books that Henry, Duke of Kent, when Lord
Steward of the Household in part of the reign of George II., had ^100
allowed him, and sixteen dishes daily at each meal, with wine and beer.
The dishes have since been done away with ; and the income of the
Lord Steward is now a settled salary. The Poets Laureate used to
receive their annual tierce of canary from this office. Gibber was the
last who took the tierce ; and since his time the Lord Steward has
paid to the Poets Laureate an annual allowance in lieu of wine.
Board Of Works. [See Metropolitan Board of Works ; Woods
and Forests ; and Works, Office of.]
1 Autobiography of 'Sir John Bramston, p. 275. 2 Gifford's Sen /orison, vol. ii. p. 169.
BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN 215
Boar's Head, SOUTHWARK, one of the famous borough taverns,
stood on the east side of the High Street, but the site is now covered
by the approaches to London Bridge. The inn belonged to Sir John
Falstolf, who lived in Southwark. Among the Paston Letters is one
dated August 1479 fr m Henry Wyndesore, one of Falstolf 's house-
hold, to John Paston, asking him to remind Sir John of his promise
respecting the setting up of Wyndesore at the Boar's Head. The
house became the property of Magdalen College, Oxford, " the gift of
William Waynflete, late Bishop of Winchester, to the president and
scholars, which he and others had of the gift of John Fastolfe, Knight,
which he obtained for long services and course of justice." Ashburn-
ham MS., British Museum. The inn was at one time leased to the
father of John Timbs the antiquary, who let it out in tenements.
Boar's Head Tavern, EASTCHEAP, a celebrated tavern, com-
memorated by Shakespeare, destroyed in the Great Fire, rebuilt
immediately after, and finally demolished (to allow of the new London
Bridge approaches) in 1831. It stood in Great Eastcheap, between
Small Alley and St. Michael's Lane, four taverns filling up the interven-
ing space The Chicken, near St. Michael's Alley ; The Boar's
Head; The Plough; and The Three Kings. The back part of
the house looked upon the burying-ground of St. Michael's, Crooked
Lane. The statue of William IV. nearly marks the site. Stow tells
us, in a sidenote to his Survey (p. 82), that in the time of Henry IV.
" there was no tavern then in Eastcheap." Shakespeare alone refers to
this tavern. 1 It first appears as a tavern in a lease dated 1537, of
" all that tavern called the Bore's Hedde, cum cellariis sollariis et aliis
suis pertinentiis in Estchepe," etc It was kept by Thomas Wright in
1588. Index to Remembrancia, p. 355 (note). It was probably the
best tavern in the street ; it must have been of considerable size, as plays
were acted in it. John Rhodoway, " Vintner at the Bore's Head," was
buried, in 1623, in the adjoining church of St. Michael. 2 The tavern
was rebuilt of brick after the Great Fire, with its door in the centre, a
window above, and then a boar's head cut in the stone, with the
initials of the landlord (I. T.), and the date (near the snout) of 1668.
This stone is now in the City Museum, Guildhall. Hutton, writing in
1785, says that "on each side of the doorway is a vine branch, carved
in wood, rising more than three feet from the ground, loaded with
leaves and clusters ; and on the top of each a little Falstaff, eight inches
high, in the dress of his day." 3 The Boar's Head was subsequently
1 The Boar's Head is not named by Shakespeare P. Hen. Where sups he? doth the old boar
in the text of either the first or second part of feed in the old frank 1
Henry IV. The scene headings (Henry IV. parti. Bard. At the old place, my lord ; in Eastcheap.
Act ii. Sc. 4, and elsewhere) "Eastcheap. A 2 In his will (in Doctors' Commons), he calls
Room in the Boar's Head Tavern, "does not occur himself "Citizen and Vintner," but does not
in the early editions ; but a passage in the second mention " The Boar's Head."
part of Henry JV., Act. ii. Sc. 2, where Prince 3 Hutton's Journey from Birmingham to
Henry inquires after FalstafF, supports the tradi- London, 1785.
tion :
2i6 BOAR'S HEAD TA VERN
divided into two and ceased to be a tavern. At the time of its demo-
lition the house was occupied by a gunsmith.
There was with me at that time [June 1588] out of the school [Merchant Taylors'],
George Wrighte, son of Thomas Wrighte, of London, Vintner, that dwelt at the
Boar's Head in Eastcheap, who sithence having good inheritance, descended to him,
is now clerk of the King's Stable, and a knight, and a very discreet and honest
gentleman. Liber Familiaris of Sir James Whitelocke (Cam. Sot:.), p. 12.
March 31, 1602. Letter from the Lords of the Council to the Lord Mayor,
granting permission to the Servants of the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Worcester
to play at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. Remembrancia, p. 54.
I mentioned a club in London at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap, the very tavern
where Falstaff and his joyous companions met ; the members of which all assume
Shakespeare's characters. One is Falstaff, another Prince Henry, another Bardolph,
and so on. Johnson : " Don't be of it, Sir. Now that you have a name you must
be careful to avoid many things not bad in themselves, but which will lessen your
character." Boswell, by Croker, p. 348.
Among the many convivial parties which have assembled in this old
tavern, one deserves particular mention :
He [William Pitt] was the wittiest man I ever knew, and what was quite peculiar
to himself, had at all times his wit under entire control. Others appeared struck by
the unwonted association of brilliant images ; but every possible combination of
images seemed always present to his mind, and he could at once produce whatever
he desired. I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memoiy of Shake-
speare at the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. Many professed wits were present, but
Pitt was the most amusing of the party, and the readiest and most apt in the general
allusions. Wilberforce [1780], Life, vol. i. p. 18.
Goldsmith wrote A Reverie in this tavern (Essay No. 4) ; and
Washington Irving an entertaining paper in The Sketch Book. The
former, forgetting the Fire, fancied himself (Boswell, we have seen, did
the same) in the very tavern that Falstaff frequented ; and the latter, in
his enthusiasm, has converted a sacramental cup, preserved at that time
in the vestry of St. Michael's, into Dame Quickly's parcel-gilt goblet.
Bolt Court, on the north side of FLEET STREET, over against
The Bolt-in-Tun, from which circumstance it perhaps derives its name.
Bolt Court, very good and open, with a freestone pavement ; hath good houses,
well-inhabited. Strype, B. iii. p. 277, ed. 1720.
Eminent Inhabitants. Dr. Johnson, in No. 8, on the right-hand side
as you ascend from Fleet Street, from 1776 till his death in 1784.
He died in the back room of the first floor. Johnson's house, for
which he paid ^40 a year to Allen, the printer, was afterwards in-
habited by Mr. Bensley, Allen's successor in his printing business in
Bolt Court. A fire (November 1807) nearly destroyed Johnson's
rooms. A second fire (June 26, 1819) destroyed them entirely. Mr.
Bensley rebuilt the house as a printing office, but it was sold in 1858,
with three adjoining houses, to the Stationers' Company, whose
excellent Middle-Class School (opened 1861) now occupies the site.
Long before Dr. Johnson went to live in Bolt Court his blind friend
Miss Williams had lodgings there, and Boswell describes him in 1763
BOL TON S TREE T 217
as drinking tea with her every night before he went home to the
Temple, however late it was, and that she always sat up for him. 1
Miss Williams became an inmate of his house in Bolt Court, along
with his other pensioners, who however could not agree among them-
selves, and hardly with their forbearing benefactor. "We have
tolerable concord at home," he writes to Mrs. Thrale, November 14,
1778, "but no love. Williams hates everybody. Lovet hates Des-
moulines, and does not love Williams. Desmoulines hates them both.
Poll loves none of them." And a year later (October 16, 1779) he
writes, " Discord and discontent reign in my humble habitation as in
the palaces of monarchs." 2
Behind it was a garden, 3 which he took delight in watering ; a room on the
ground floor was assigned to Mrs. Williams, and the whole of the two pair of stairs
floor was made a repository for his books, one of the rooms thereon being his study.
Sir John Hawkins, p. 530.
He [Johnson] particularly piqued himself upon his nice observance of ceremonious
punctilios towards ladies. A remarkable instance of this was his never suffering any
lady to walk from his house to her carriage through Bolt Court, unattended by
himself to hand her into it ; and if any obstacle prevented it from driving off, there
he would stand by the door of it, and gather a mob around him ; indeed they would
begin to gather the moment he appeared handing the lady down the steps into Fleet
Street. Sometimes he exhibited himself at the distance of eight or ten doors from
Bolt Court to get at the carriage, to the no small diversion of the populace. Miss
Reynolds.
But there was refined courtesy as well as " ceremonious punctilios "
in his behaviour to his fair visitors. When Mrs. Siddons called upon
him in Bolt Court and Frank Barber could not immediately provide
her with a chair, he said, " You see, Madam, wherever you go there are
no seats to be got." Among his visitors at Bolt Court was John
Howard, who (April 1 784) brought him the enlarged edition of his work
on Prisons.
James Ferguson, the astronomer, at No. 4, where he died in November,
1776. William Cobbett, at No. n : here he published his Register.
Bolt-in-Tun, FLEET STREET, a noted inn and coach office, No.
64, on the south side. The inn is gone ; the coach office has become
a railway office, and only the name is left of Bolt-in-Tun Yard. The
Bolt-in-Tun was the rebus of the Bolton family. The White Friars had
a grant of the "Hospitium vocatum Le Bolt en ton" in I443- 4
Bolton Street, PICCADILLY, the second turning west of Devon-
shire House; at the top is Bolton Row. It was built circ. i6gg, 5 and
described in 1708 as "the most westerly Street in London, between
1 Croker's Boswell, p. 143. Bosiuell, and in Johnson's letters. On one
2 There is a view of the house and of Johnson's occasion he writes to Mrs. Thrale (August 14,
sitting-room in vol. vii. of Croker's Boswell, ed. 1784), "I have three bunches of grapes on the
ofi835. An engraving in vol. 1 vii. of the European vine in my garden."
Magazine (1810) shows the house as it was before 4 Rot. Pat. 21 Hen. VI.; and Coll. Top. et
injury by fire or alteration. Gen. v. 383.
3 There are several references to the garden in 5 Rate-books of St. Martin's.
218 BOLTON STREET
the road to Knightsbridge, south, and the Fields, north." x Eminent
Inhabitant. The celebrated Earl of Peterborough, from 1710 to I724. 2
I lie at my Lord Peterborough's, in Bolton Street, where any commands of your's
will reach me. Pope, Works, ed. Roscoe, vol. vii. p. 126.
The extraordinary Choice Collection [of Mr. Streeton late Serjeant Painter]
consisting of models, figures, etc. . . . will be sold by Auction on the 5th Inst. at 3
in the afternoon, at his late dwelling-house Next Bolton Street in Hide Park
Road. Advertisement in Spectator of October 2, 1711 (No. 185).
About 1715 Pope writes to Martha and Theresa Blount as the
"Young Ladies in Bolton Street." George Grenville the minister
(d. 1770) lived here for several years before his death. Jonathan
Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, died here in 1778. Madame D'Arblay
removed here, October 8, 1818, shortly after her husband's death.
Rogers took Sir Walter Scott to visit her here, and the latter found she
had not lost the power of saying pleasant things. " She told me she
had wished to see two persons myself, of course, being one, the other
George Canning. This was really a compliment to be pleased with." 3
Lord Melbourne lived here, and here gave his noted " little dinners."
The young Pretender in his asserted visit to London in 1760 is said
to have lodged in Bolton Street. Waiter's Club was held in Bolton
Street. Watier was cook to the Prince of Wales, under whose auspices
the club was started. The dinners were unequalled in London. Mrs.
Delaney was living in Bolton Row in 1753 ; and Mrs. Vesey gave her
fashionable and literary evening parties (conversations) at her house in
Bolton Row till her removal to Clarges Street in 1780.
Bond Street (OLD), PICCADILLY, built i686, 4 and so called after
Sir Thomas Bond, of Peckham, in the county of Surrey, Bart,
Comptroller of the Household to the Queen -Mother (Henrietta
Maria). The Street occupies part of the site of Clarendon House.
The east side was the last built, previously to which the west side was
known as Albemarle Buildings. Hatton (1708) calls it "a fine new
street mostly inhabited by the nobility and gentry."
Clarendon House, built by Mr. Pratt ; since quite demolished by Sir Thomas
Bond, etc., who purchased it to builde a streete of tenements to his undoing.
Evelyn, Note to his copy of a letter to Lord Cornbury. [See Clarendon House.]
Eminent Inhabitants. The first Duke of St. Albans (d. 1726), the
son of Nell Gwynne and Charles II.
To be let or sold ... A House in Old Bond Street, Piccadilly, of four Rooms
on a Floor with Closets, good Cellar, and all other conveniences. Being the House
in which the late Duke of St. Alban's lived. Inquire at the said House. London
Gazette, June 27 ; July I, 1727.
Lavinia Fenton, original Polly in the Beggar's Opera. She came
here in September 1730, taking the house "in which the Lady
* Hatton, 8vo, 1708, p. 815. 3 Diary in Lockhart's Life of Scott, chap. 72.
" Rate-books of St. Martin's. * Rate-books of St. Martin's.
BOND STREET 219
Elizabeth Wentworth lived." 1 The Countess of Macclesfield, the
supposed mother of Richard Savage. She died here, October n,
1753, surviving Savage and the publication of Johnson's life of him.
Edmund Gibbon, 1758. "In Bond Street with my books." Laurence
Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy, died March 18, 1768, "at the
silk-bag shop" (No. 41, now a tailor's), on the west side.
About this time Mr. Sterne, the celebrated author, was taken ill at the silk bag
shop in Old Bond Street. ... I went to Mr. Sterne's lodging ; the mistress
opened the door ; I inquired how he did. She told me to go up to the nurse ; I
went into the room, and he was just a-dying. I waited ten minutes ; but in five he
said " Now it is come !" He put up his hand as if to stop a blow, and died in a
minute. Travels of John Macdonald (a footman).
Richard West writes to Gray from Bond Street, 1740. Archibald
Bower, the ex-Jesuit, author of Lives of the Popes, died here, September
3, 1766. James Boswell, the biographer of Johnson, gave (October
1 6, 1769) a dinner to Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith, and Garrick, at
his lodgings in this street, Goldsmith appearing in the " bloom-coloured
coat " made for him by John Filby, at the Harrow in Water Lane. 2
James Northcote, R.A., at No. 2 in 1781. Sir Thomas Lawrence, at
No. 24, before his election into the Royal Academy, 1791, and at No.
29, when elected; he finally left the street on August 24, 1794.
Ozias Humphrey, the miniature painter (d. 1810), at No. 13 in 1796.
In the first edition of Amelia, published 1752, Fielding describes
Booth as walking by the side of the wounded Colonel Bath from
Grosvenor Gate to Bond Street, " where then lived the most eminent
surgeon in the kingdom, perhaps in the world." In subsequent
editions this was modified to "where then lived a very eminent
surgeon."
Bond Street (NEW), the extension northward of Old Bond Street
to Oxford Street, built circ. 1721, in which year it is rated for the first
time in the books of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields.
What's not destroyed by Time's devouring hand ?
Where's Troy, and where's the Maypole in the Strand?
Pease, cabbages and turnips once grew where
Now stands New Bond Street, and a newer Square ;
Such piles of building now rise up and down,
London itself seems going out of town.
Bramston's Art of Politicks, Dodsley's Coll., 1751, vol. i. p. 266.
Eminent Inhabitants. Swift spent his last three weeks in London
at his cousin Lancelot's house " in New Bond Street, over against the
Crown and Cushion." Here he came (August 31, 1727), after
hurriedly quitting Pope's house at Twickenham, to brood over the
news of Stella's sufferings. 3 Johnson wrote from Lichfield, October
10, 1767, to " Benet Langton, Esq. at Mr. Bothwell's Perfumer, in
New Bond Street." 4 Mrs. and Miss Gunning at No. 147 in 1792.
1 Grubb Street Journal, for September i, 1730. 3 Scott's Swift, vol. xvii. p. 143.
2 Frith's picture of this scene was sold for 4 Croker's Bos-well, p. 188.
.4567 : zos. at Christie's on April 24, 1875.
220 BOND STREET
Lord Nelson at No. 141, in 1797, after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent,
and the expedition against Teneriffe, where he lost his arm.
He had scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his
return to England. Lady Nelson, at his earnest request, attended the dressing of
his arm, till she had acquired sufficient resolution and skill to dress it herself. One
night, during this state of suffering, after a day of constant pain, Nelson retired early
to bed, in hope of enjoying some respite by means of laudanum. He was at that
time lodging in Bond Street, and the family was soon disturbed by a mob knocking
loudly and violently at the door. The news of Duncan's victory had been made
public, and the house was not illuminated. But when the mob was told that Admiral
Nelson lay there in bed, badly wounded, the foremost of them made answer, "You
shall hear no more from us to-night. " Southey's Nelson, p. 1 30.
Lady Hamilton at 150 in 1813. Sir Thomas Picton at No. 146
in 1797-1800. He fell in the Battle of Waterloo. Lord Camelford,
the celebrated bruiser and duellist (shot in a duel with Mr. Best, March
7, 1804, d. loth), at No. 148, in 1803 and 1804.
Over the fireplace in the drawing-room of Lord Camelford's lodgings in Bond
Street were ornaments strongly expressive of the pugnacity of the peer. A long
thick bludgeon lay horizontally supported by two brass hooks. Above this was
placed parallel one of lesser dimensions, until a pyramid of weapons gradually arose,
tapering to a horsewhip. Note by the Messrs. Smith in The Rejected Addresses.
At the time of the duel Lord Camelford and Best had a bet of ^200
depending as to which was the better shot ! The cause of the duel
was a worthless but pretty woman of the name of Symons. "The
Rooms " of Jackson, " professor of pugilism," Byron's " old friend and
corporeal pastor and master."
All men unpractised in exchanging knocks
Must go to Jackson ere they dare to box.
BYRON, Hints From Horace.
Cruikshank drew the rooms for Pierce Egan's Tom and Jerry. From
that sufficient authority we learn that " His room is not common to the
public eye. ... No person can be admitted without an introduction."
Further we learn that " In one corner of the room a picture is to be
seen, framed and glazed, representing a person lying dead, killed by an
assassin, who is escaping with a dagger in his hand. Underneath is
the inscription, From the Rt. Hon. W. Windham, M.P., to Mr.
Jackson. New Bond Street has now become celebrated for exhibition
rooms of a very different class of art. On the west side is the magni-
ficent Grosvenor Gallery, erected for Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart., at a cost
of about ; 1 2 0,000, and opened in May 1877, and almost directly
opposite to it the Dor Gallery, where for several years there has
been a continuous exhibition of the works of that popular and prolific
artist, the late Gustave Dore, whilst in other parts are several other art
galleries, and rooms let for temporary exhibitions.
Long's Hotel (No. 16) was rebuilt and enlarged in 1888.
I saw Byron for the last time in 1815. He dined or lunched with me at Long's
in Bond Street. I never saw him so full of gaiety and good-humour, to which the
BONNER'S FIELDS 221
presence of Mr. Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also
present. Sir Walter Scott (Moore's Life of Byron, p. 280).
Steven's Hotel was at No. 1 8 ; it is now a jeweller's.
During the first months of our acquaintance we [Byron and Moore] frequently
dined together alone ; and as we had no club in common to resort to the Alfred
being the only one to which he at that period belonged, and I being then a
member of none but Watier's our dinners used to be at the St. Alban's, or at his
old haunt, Stevens's. Moore, Life of Byron, p. 150.
Clarendon Hotel (No. 169), was in its day perhaps the best hotel in
London, but differences as to the renewal of the lease led to its being
closed a few years ago, and the site is now occupied by a row of hand-
some shops and a picture gallery.
Canning in his early days practised speaking at a Debating Society
in Bond Street at the corner of Clifford Street.
Bond Street including both Old Bond Street and New has long
stood as the representative of fashionable habits as well as the resort
of the fashionable lounger. Bond Street loungers are mentioned in the
Weekly Journal of June i, 1717 :
Lord Daberly. But why don't you stand up ? The boy rolls about like a porpus
in a storm.
Dick Dowlas. That's the fashion, father ; that's modern ease. A young fellow is
nothing now, without the Bond Street roll, a toothpick between his teeth, and his
knuckles cramm'd into his coat-pocket. Then away you go, lounging lazily along !
Colman's Heir at Law, vol. iii. p. 2 (1797).
And now our Brothers Bond Street enter,
Dear Street, of London's charms the center,
Dear Street ! where at a certain hour
Man's follies bud forth into flower !
Where the gay minor sighs for fashion ;
Where majors live that minors cash on ;
Where each who wills may suit his wish
Here choose a Guido there his fish.
LORD LYTTON, Siamese Twins, 1831, p. 160.
Bonner's Fields, BETHNAL GREEN, were a wide open space lying
east of Bethnal Green and stretching away to Old Ford. The name
was traditionally derived from Bishop Bonner's residence at Bishop's
Hall, in its later days better known as Bonner's Hall, of old an
occasional seat of the Bishops of London (the owners of the manor),
but decayed and let out in tenements at the end of last century and
long since pulled down. The popular belief was that when Bonner
dwelt at Bishop's Hall these fields were his favourite place for burning
heretics. Whether he ever lived here is not certain. The last
episcopal act known to have been issued from Bishop's Hall was by
Bishop Braybroke, 150 years before Bonner held the see. 1 The
eastern end of Bonner's Fields was absorbed in Victoria Park. The
City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, erected 1851 from
the designs of F. W. Ordish, occupies another portion. The Chapel
1 Lysons, vol. ii. p. 17.
222 BONNER'S FIELDS
was erected in 1858, E. B. Lamb architect, and new wings in 1863 and
1870 by W. Beck, architect. The rest is covered with streets, one of
which is named Bonner's Road.
Boodle's Club House, No. 28 ST. JAMES'S STREET, early famed
for gaiety, play, and good dinners. It was popularly named the
" Savoir vivre."
And they, true members of the Scavoir vivre,
Will tell the wondrous things that love receives.
Lampoon addressed to Duke of Queensbury.
(Jesse's Selwin, vol. iv. p. 375.)
May 12, 1770. A new assembly or meeting is set up at Boodle's, called Lloyd's
Coffee-room ; Miss Lloyd, whom you have seen with Lady Pembroke, being the sole
inventor. They meet every morning, either to play cards, chat, or do whatever else
they please. An ordinary is provided for as many as choose to dine, and a supper,
to be constantly on the table by eleven at night : after supper they play loo. ... I
think there are twenty-six subscribers, others are to be chosen by ballot : my in-
telligence is that the Duchess of Bedford and Lord March have been black-balled ;
this I cannot account for. Mrs. Harris to her Son (Earl of Malmesbury), Malmes-
bury Diary and Corr., vol. i. p. 203.
So, when some John his dull invention racks
To rival Boodle's dinners or Almack's.
Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, 4to, 1773.
The Club House was erected about 1765 by John Crunden, from
designs by Adam, architect. In the years 1821-1824 the reading-room
was added and large improvements made from the designs of John B.
Papworth, architect.
Gibbon, the historian, dates several of his letters in 1772 and 1774
from this Club, and Wilberforce was also a member. No. 464 of
Gillray's Caricatures is "A Standing Dish at Boodle's," representing
Sir Frank Standish sitting at one of the Club windows.
Booksellers Row. A name given to Holywell Street, Strand, by
some of the inhabitants without the slightest authority. [See Holywell
Street.]
Boolyes Lane, WAPPING.
A great blow by gun-powder houses in a place called Boolyes Lane neere the
Armitage in Wapping on Tuesday the 3 day of July 1657. In which were 250
barrell of gunpowder consumed. Notes on London Churches and Buildings, A.D.
1631-1658, Harrison's England, vol. ii. (New Shakspere Society).
Borough (The), a short name for the Borough of Southwark, or
the twenty-sixth ward of London, called Bridge Ward Without. It is
also a name commonly given to part of the High Street, Southwark.
Borough Compter. [See Compter (The), Southwark.]
Borough Market, SOUTHWARK, a considerable market for fruit
and vegetables. It lies immediately south of St. Saviour's church.
The first market of which we have notice was held in the 1 4th century
and before, outside the church of the Hospital of St. Thomas in Trivet
BOS WELL COURT 223
Lane, and at its gates. In Visscher's London, 1616, is a view of
Southwark with, in the centre of the High Street, a picture of tables
placed up and down with sellers and buyers, in fact the Borough
Market as it was then. In 1755 this market was abolished, and an
Act was passed, Geo. II. c. 23, "to enable the churchwardens and
others of St. Saviour in the Borough of Southwark to hold a mar-
ket within the said parish, not interfering with the High Street in the
said Borough " ; and on " a piece of ground close at hand called the
Triangle, abutting on the Turnstile, on Fowle Lane, Rochester Yard
and Dirty Lane," etc. The market was rebuilt in 1851 under
H. Rose, architect, and largely added to or rebuilt 1863-1864 under
E. Habershon, architect, consequent on alterations for the Charing
Cross Railway.
Borough Road, SOUTHWARK, extends from the Queen's Bench
prison, Stone's End, to the Obelisk, Blackfriars Road. Joseph Lan-
caster opened his first school for neglected children in Kent Street in
1798, his second in Newington Causeway, and his third in Borough
Road, where is now the central establishment of the British and
Foreign Schools Society, comprising a Normal College for training
young men as teachers and a large Model School for children.
Bosoms Inn. [See Lawrence Lane.]
Boss or Boss Court Alley, UPPER THAMES STREET, between
St. Peter's Hill and Lambeth Hill.
Bosse Alley, so called of a bosse [or reservoir] of water, like unto that of
Billingsgate, there placed by the executors of Richard Whittington. Stow, p. 135.
This Boss Alley is shown in Aggas's Map. There was a Boss Alley in
Lower Thames Street, opposite Billingsgate, and another by Shad
Thames, Horselydown, as well as a Boss Court and a Boss Street.
A water tower is shown in several of the old maps on the spot or near
Boss Alley, Thames Street.
Boswell Court, CAREY STREET, cleared away for the New Law
Courts, so called from the house of a Mr. Ralph Bosvile or Boswell,
from whence (1589) Gilbert Talbot writes a letter of London gossip
to his father, the celebrated Earl of Shrewsbury of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth. In the Calendar of State Papers of the year 1606, three
letters from the Speaker, Sir Edward Philips, to the Earl of Salisbury,
are dated from Boswell House; and in August 1610, Ralph Ewens
writes from Bosvile House to the same statesman.
September 5, 1611. Mr. Ewins, Esquier, from Boswell-howsse. Burial Register
of St. Clemenfs Danes.
The yard or court was built upon and inhabited as early as 1614.
Eminent Inhabitants. Lady Raleigh (widow of Sir Walter) 1623-1625.
The Lord Chief- Justice, and Sir Edward Lyttleton, the Solicitor-
General, in 1 635.! Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe.
1 Rate-books of St. Clement's Danes.
224 BOS WELL COURT
In his absence, I, on the i6th, took a house in Boswell Court, near Temple Bar,
for two years, immediately moving all my goods thereto. Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs,
P- IS9-
Francis Hargreave (d. 1821) lived at No. 9 from 1789 to 1813,
when his library was purchased by the nation for ^8000. It was
more remarkable for its extent and quality than its condition, the
greater number of the volumes having been purchased at book-stalls,
where he was a keen hunter. When the ill-advised measure of selling
off the duplicate copies in the Museum was resolved upon by the
Trustees, the Hargreave copies were generally the victims. They are
easily recognised by the neat autograph of the former owner. Walter
Savage Landor, at "R. Bevan's, Esq., No. 10 Boswell Court, Carey
Street," April 1801. Dr. Johnson had lodgings here for a short time
in his early London days after leaving Castle Street, 1738, and before
removing to the Strand in I74I. 1 The Black Horse in Boswell Court
was for many years one of the most noted of the London " harmonic
meetings," so popular among " fast " men before the days of Alhambras
and music halls. The popular belief that Johnson's Court and Boswell
Court were so called after Dr. Johnson and James Boswell is only a
natural error. New Boswell Court was entered by a flight of steps
from Old Boswell Court.
Botanic Garden, CHELSEA, by the Thames, near Chelsea Church,
formerly called " The Physic Garden " : a garden appertaining to the
Company of Apothecaries of London. It was the first garden of the
kind, but there is an undated petition from the College of Physicians
to James I. in which it is stated that " Some of the nobility of the
kingdom have proffered large contributions towards establishing a
garden for trees, plants, fruits, etc., and they therefore pray that the
King will further the undertaking, and permit them to make choice of
a fitting site for the said garden." 2 The Company of Apothecaries
obtained a lease of the ground at Chelsea in 1673, with a view to the
formation of a garden for the cultivation of medical and other plants
which might assist the student of medicine and botany. In 1676 they
"agreed to purchase the plants growing in Mrs. Gape's garden in
Westminster;" 3 but the ground was not enclosed till 1686. Sir Hans
Sloane, when he purchased the manor of Chelsea in 1721, granted the
freehold to the Company of Apothecaries, upon condition that they
should present annually to the Royal Society 50 new plants, till the
number should amount to 2000. In 1732 a greenhouse and several
new hothouses were added to the garden, and in 1733 a statue of Sir
Hans Sloane, by Michael Rysbrack. Two cedars (which grew to be
two of the finest in the neighbourhood of London) were planted in
1683, being then about 3 feet high. In 1750 they measured upwards
of ii feet in girth, and in 1793 at 3 feet from the ground upwards of
12, afterwards increased to 15 feet. They formed a most picturesque
group from the river, till the larger of the two was blown down during
1 Croker's Boswell, p. 30. 2 Cal. Jac. i, vol. iv. p. 517. 3 London, p. 1063.
ST. BOTOLPH WITHOUT ALDERSGATE 225
a storm in the autumn of 1853. Philip Miller, author of the Gardeners'
Dictionary, was during a period of nearly fifty years the Company's
gardener in these grounds. In 1736 the garden was visited by the
great Linnaeus, then in his twenty-fifth year. Miller at first thought him
conceited and ignorant, particularly of botany, but after three visits
completely altered his mind, and furnished Linnaeus with all the plants
he required. Miller resigned in 1770, at the age of eighty, and, dying
the next year, was buried in the churchyard of St Luke's, Chelsea.
August 7, 1685. I went to see Mr. Watts, keeper of the Apothecaries' Garden
of Simples at Chelsea, where there is a collection of innumerable rarities of that sort
particularly, besides many rare annuals, the tree bearing Jesuit's bark, which had
done such wonders in quartan agues. What was very ingenious was the subterranean
heat, conveyed by a stove under the conservatory, all vaulted with brick, so as
he has the doors and windows open in the hardest frosts, secluding only the snow.
Evelyn.
May 17, 1689, Friday. Being my usual fast-day, I was for above three hours at
the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea ; where I was not disturbed by any company. . . .
May 20. I stayed all day at home, till, towards evening, I went to the Apothecaries'
Garden. Henry, Earl of Clarendon, Diary, p. 276.
This was after he had refused to take the oaths to William and
Mary.
Admission to the Garden at Chelsea is by an order, "which can be obtained on
application to the Beadle at Apothecaries' Hall.
Botanic Gardens, INNER CIRCLE, REGENT'S PARK, about 18 acres
in extent, are tastefully laid out and maintained at the expense of the
Royal Botanic Society of London a Society founded and incorporated
in 1839 for the promotion of botany in all its branches. The ground,
which occupies the site of what is called Willan's Farm in old maps,
is held on lease from the Crown, and was laid out ornamentally and
for scientific purposes by Robert Marnock. Before its conversion into
a Botanic Garden in 1840 it had been for some years occupied as
a nursery garden, many of the ornamental trees and plants belonging
to which were retained. The conservatory (designed by Decimus Burton)
is filled with rare and beautiful plants. Exhibitions are held annually,
in the months of May, June, and July, when a very large number of
gold, silver, and bronze medals are distributed.
" Botany Bay," a popular name once applied to Somers Town.
Somers Town, in consequence of being the favourite residence of the French
refugees, was nicknamed Botany Bay. Palmer's St. Pancras, 1870, p. 59.
Botolph (St.) Without Aldersgate, a church in the ward of
Aldersgate, at the corner of Little Britain. Only a portion of the old
church was burnt in the Great Fire of 1666, but becoming decayed
was taken down and the present building erected on the site, 1754-
1757. It has since been several times "repaired and beautified,"
as in 1833 and 1851. The right of presentation belongs to the Dean
and Chapter of Westminster. Three churches dedicated to this saint
stood near the gates of London St. Botolph, Aldersgate ; St. Botolph,
Aldgate ; St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. Observe. Tomb (with brass) to
VOL. I Q
226 ST. BOTOLPH WITHOUT ALDERSGATE
Dame Anne Packington (d. 1563). Monument to Elizabeth, wife of
Sir Thomas Richardson (d. 1639). Tablet to Richard Chiswell,
bookseller (d. 1711). Monument to Dr. Francis Bernard, the Horo-
scope of Garth's Dispensary (d. 1698). Tablet to Daniel Wray, F.R.S.,
F.S.A. (d. 1782). Monument to Elizabeth Smith, with cameo bust
by Roubiliac. Robert Cawood (d. 1466). Sir William Cavendish,
husband of Elizabeth, Countess ("the Bess") of Hardwick (d. 1557).
Alexander Gill, D.D., master of St. Paul's School (1597-1642), Rev.
Edward Chilmead (1610-1653), and Thomas Rawlinson (d. 1725)
were among the celebrities buried here.
The case of Edward Topsail and others v. Ferrars, tried 15 Jac.
(Hobart's Reports, ed. 1678, p. 175), refers to the custom of the parish
that a passenger dying there should pay fees there, though buried
elsewhere. " Edward Topsail, clerk, Parson of Saint Botolphs Without
Aldersgate, and the churchwardens of the same, libelled in the Court
Christian against Sir John Ferrers, knight, and alledged that there was
a custome within the city of London, and especially within that Parish,
that if any person die within that Parish, being man or woman, and be
carried out of the same parish, and buried elsewhere, that there ought
to be paid to the Parson of this Parish, if he be buried elsewhere, in
the Chancel so much, and to the Churchwardens so much." Sir John
Ferrers had buried his wife (who died in this parish) in the chancel of
another church. A prohibition of the demand made by the parish was
granted on the ground that the custom was against reason.
Milton's " pretty garden-house " in Aldersgate Street was in this
parish. Richard Baxter, the famous Nonconformist divine, was resident
in it at the time of his marriage.
April 29, 1662. Richard Baxter, of St. Botolph's, Aldersgate, London, Clerk,
aged about forty years, batchelor ; and Margaret Charleton of Christ Church
[Newgate Street], London, about twenty-eight years, spinster ; and at his own
disposal, to marry at Christ Church aforesaid. Alledged by Francis Tyton, of St.
Dunstan's in the West. Marriage Licence in Vicar GeneraFs Office.
The churchyard has been converted into a garden.
Botolph (St.) by Aldgate, a church in the ward of Portsbken,
at the corner of Houndsditch and Aldgate, High Street, built on the
site and in place of the old church described by Stow, as lately built at
the charges of the Priors of the Holy Trinity "as appeareth," he
adds, "by the arms of the house engraven on the stonework." The
church escaped the Fire, and was ruinous when taken down. The
present edifice was designed, 1725 or 1741-1744, by George Dance,
(d. 1768). It cost ^5536 : 2 : 5. It was repaired and beautified, 1875.
Observe. Monument with recumbent figure, in the vestibule, to
Thomas, Lord Darcy, of the North (beheaded 1537), and Sir Nicholas
Carew, of Beddington (beheaded 1538). There is a good deal of
sculptural merit in the extended figure. Monument with effigy in marble
to Robert Dow, citizen and merchant tailor (d. 1612). Mr. Robert
Dow gave a sum of money to the parish of St. Sepulchre's, to remunc-
ST. BOTOLPH WITHOUT BISHOPSGATE 227
rate the clerk for ringing a bell at midnight under the wall of Newgate,
and calling the poor prisoners condemned to death to prayer and
supplication. [See St. Sepulchre's.] William Symington, the first to
apply steam power to navigation, died in poverty, March 22, 1831, and
was buried in the churchyard. 1 White Kennet, editor of The Complete
History of 'England ', and subsequently Dean and Bishop of Peterborough,
obtained the living in 1 700.
Botolph (St.) Billingsgate, WARD OF BILLINGSGATE, a church
destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. " A proper church," says
Stow, " and hath had many fair monuments therein ; now defaced and
gone, by bad and greedy men of spoil." The old burying-ground of
the parish, now built on, lay between Botolph Lane and Love Lane.
The church of the parish is St. George's Botolph Lane.
Botolph (St.) Without Bishopsgate, a church in the ward of
Bishopsgate, opposite Houndsditch, said to have been built from the
designs of James Gold, but a print of the church published in 1802
has the name of "G. Dance, 1727, architect," this was probably
Giles Dance, father of the first George Dance. The first stone was
laid April 10, 1725, and the building completed in 1728. The living
is in the gift of the Bishop of London, and is the richest in the
City and Liberties of London. Observe. Monument on the north
wall to Sir Paul Pindar (d. 1650), an eminent English merchant of
the time of Charles L, described as "Ambassador to the Turkish
Emperor," whose house in Bishopsgate Street Without was converted
into an inn. Brass plate in wall of chancel to Sir William Blizard,
President of the Royal College of Surgeons, "an old resident of
Bishopsgate," who died 1835, aged ninety-two. The registers of the
church record the baptism of Edward Alleyn, the player, and founder of
Dulwich College (b. 1566), whose father kept the Pye inn; the burial
in 1600 of an infant son of Ben Jonson ; and the baptism of John Keats,
October 31, 1795; the marriage, in 1609, of Archibald Campbell,
seventh Earl of Argyll (the great marquis of the Scottish Covenant),
to Ann Cornwallis, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis ; and of John
Lowen, the Shakesperian actor, to Joane Hall, widow, by special license
an expensive luxury rare, with players. Also the burials of the
following persons: September 13, 1570, Edward Allein, "poete
to the Queene ; " February 17, 1623, Stephen Gosson, rector of this
church, and author of The School of Abuse, containing a Pleasant Invective
against Poets, Pipers, Platers, Jesters, and such like Caterpillars of a
Commonwealth, 4to, 1579 ; June 21, 1628, William, Earl of Devonshire
(from whom Devonshire Square adjoining derives its name) ; and 1691,
John Riley, the painter. The churchyard of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate,
has been very prettily laid out as a garden, and is now a favourite
resort for the young folk of the neighbourhood. The infant school in
the churchyard has old figures in costume of a boy and girl.
1 Life, by J. and W. H. Rankine, 1862.
228 BOTOLPH LANE
Botolph Lane, BILLINGSGATE, so called from the church of St.
Botolph, Billingsgate. The last of the Fitz-Alans, Earls of Arundel,
(d. 1579), had a house in this lane. 1 The original London Bridge
is said to have abutted on Botolph's Wharf. The church of St. George
and St. Botolph is in this lane.
Bouverie Street, FLEET STREET, and WHITEFRIARS. At No. 3
Hazlitt was living on the first floor in 1829. Life, vol. ii. p. 233. On
the west side is the large printing establishment of Messrs. Bradbury
and Agnew, and the printing office of Punch, and on the east side
the printing offices of the Daily News.
Bow. [See Stratford-le-Bow.]
Bow Church and Bow Bells. [See St. Mary-le-Bow.]
Bow Churchyard, CHEAPSIDE, on the west side of St. Mary-le-
Bow Church, with a passage into Bow Lane. Here John Bacon, R.A.,
the sculptor, served his apprenticeship to one Crispe, "an eminent
maker of porcelain." On the west side of Bow churchyard is the
extensive warehouse, a handsome new building, of Messrs. Copestake,
Moore, and Co., whose great business was made by the late Mr. George
Moore, so widely known as a philanthropist.
Bow Lane, CHEAPSIDE, extends from the church of St. Mary-le-
Bow, whence its name, to Cannon Street, crossing the new Queen
Victoria Street. The church of St. Mary, Aldermary, is at its lower
end. Originally it was called Cordwainer Street, " of the cordwainers,
or shoemakers, dwelling there," "whereof the whole ward taketh
name." Afterwards "the upper part of this street towards Cheape
was called Hosier Lane, of hosiers dwelling there in place of shoe-
makers ; but now those hosiers being worn out by men of other trades
(as the hosiers had worn out the shoemakers), the same is called Bow
Lane of Bow Church." 2
In 1532 James Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, having been persuaded
by Sir Thomas More to recant, " was never quiet in mind and conscience until the
time he had uttered his fall to all his acquaintance, and asked God and all the world
forgiveness, before the Congregation, in those da^s in a -warehouse in Bow Lane"
Foxe, vol. iv. p. 702.
Eminent Inhabitants. Tom Coryat, the traveller (d. i6i7). 3 Par-
sons, the comedian (d. 1795), was the son of a builder in Bow Lane.
Bow Street, COVENT GARDEN, built 1637, and so called "as
running in shape of a bent bow." Strype, who tells us this, adds, that
"the street is open and large, with very good houses, well inhabited,
and resorted unto by gentry for lodgings, as are most of the other
streets in this parish." 4 This was in 1720; and it ceased to be well
inhabited about five years afterwards. The Theatre (see Covent Garden
1 Strype, B. ii. p. 171. * Birch's Prince Henry, p. 216.
* Stow, p. 94. * Strypt, B. vi. p. 93.
BOW STREET 229
Theatre) was built in 1732, and the Bow Street Police Office,
celebrated in the annals of crime, established in 1749. Eminent
Inhabitants. Edmund Waller, the poet, on the east side of the street,
from 1654 to 1656 ; here then he was living when he wrote, in 1654,
his famous panegyric upon Cromwell. Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford,
was born in this street, October 5, 1661. William Longueville, the
friend of Butler, on the east side. The witty Earl of Dorset, in a
house on the west side, in the years 1684 and 1685. Major Mohun,
the famous actor, in a house on the east side, from 1671 to 1676
inclusive. Dr. John Radcliffe, on the west side, from 1687 to 1714 :
the house was taken down in 1732 to erect Covent Garden Theatre.
Grinling Gibbons, in a house on the east side (about the middle of
the street), from 1678 to 1721, the period of his death. The house
was distinguished by the sign of " The King's Arms." l
On Thursday the house of Mr. Gibbons, the famous carver, in Bow Street,
Covent Garden, fell down ; but by a special Providence none of the family were
killed ; but 'tis said a young girl, which was playing in the court [King's Court ?]
being missing, is supposed to be buried in the rubbish. Postman of January 24,
1701-1702.
Grinlin Gibbins gen. and wife . . . . . . i
Mr. Gibbons more for a fine refusing to take upon him the
office of an assessor ....... 5
5 Children Eliz. , Mary, Jane, Katherine, and Ann
Appr. Robert Bing [King in another place]
( Mary Guff 1
Servts. -{,,' J-
\ Mary /
Lodger Madam Titus ....... I
Her servant .........
Poll Tax Bks. of St. Paul's, Cov. Gar., anno 1692.
Marcellus Laroone (" Captain Laroon "), who drew the Cries of London,
known as " Tempest's Cries," in a house on the west side, three doors
up, from midsummer 1680 to his death in 1702. William Wycherley,
the dramatist, in lodgings (widow Hilton's, on the west side), three
doors beyond Radcliffe, and over against the Cock. King Charles II.
paid him a visit here, when ill of a fever ; and here, when seventy-five
and too unwell to attend the church, and only anxious to burden the
estate descending to his nephew, he was married in his own lodgings
to a woman with child. He died eleven days after his marriage (in
1715); but his widow had no child to succeed to the property
Edmund Curll, "next door to Will's Coffee-house." 2 Robert Wilks,
the actor, "Gentleman Wilks" (d. 1732), at No. 6, the sixth house on
the west side walking to Long Acre. Wilks built the house, next door
but one to the Theatre, 3 and in it, in 1742, Macklin, Mrs. Woffington,
and David Garrick lodged. 4 They took it by turns to keep house,
and it was here that Johnson heard Garrick blame the Woffington's
extravagance in having the tea " as red as blood." Spranger Barry, the
actor, in 1749, in the corner house on the west side, formerly Will's
1 Black's Ashmole MSS. col. 209. 3 T. Dibdin's Autobiography, vol. ii. p. 18.
2 Advertisement of Ashmole's " Berkshire," in
Daily Post Boy, February 7, 1729-1730. * Fitzgerald's Garrick, vol. i. p. 132.
2 3 o BOW STREET
Coffee-house. Dr. Johnson, for a short time. Henry Fielding, the
novelist, and acting magistrate for Westminster, in a house (destroyed
in the Gordon riots of 1780, it being then in the occupation of Sir
John Fielding), on the site of the late Police Office (No. 4). It was
Fielding (d. 1754), and his half-brother, Sir John Fielding (d. 1780),
who made Bow Street Police Office and Bow Street officers famous in
our annals. Here the former wrote his Tom Jones.
A predecessor of mine used to boast that he made one thousand pounds a year in
his office ; but how he did this (if, indeed, he did it) is to me a secret. His clerk,
now mine, told me I had more business than he had ever known there ; I am sure
I had as much as any man could do. Fielding, Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon.
He [Rigby] and Peter Bathurst t'other night carried a servant of the latter's, who
had attempted to shoot him, before Fielding ; who to all his other vocations has,
by the Grace of Mr. Lyttelton, added that of Middlesex Justice. He sent them
word that he was at supper with a blind man, three Irishmen, and a whore, on some
cold mutton and a bone of ham, both in one dish, and the cursedest Dirty cloth.
He never stirred nor asked them to sit. Rigby who had seen him so often come to
beg a guinea of Sir C. Williams, and Bathurst at whose father's he had lived for
victuals, understood that dignity as little, and pulled themselves chairs, on which
he civilised. Horace Walpole to H. W. Montague, May 18, 1749.
On Thursday night they pulled down Fielding's house and burnt his goods in the
street. . . . Leaving Fielding's ruins they went to Newgate to demand their com-
panions who had been seized demolishing the chapel. -Johnson to Mrs. Tkrale, June
9, 1780.
George M. Woodward, caricaturist, died in 1809 at the Brown Bear
public house, and was "buried by the humane landlord."
Till the passing of Sir Robert Peel's Police Act, the Bow Street
police officers Bow Street Runners, or Red-breasts (from their red
waistcoats), as they were commonly called by the populace were
chiefly charged with the detection and apprehension of criminals.
At home our Bow Street gemmen keep the laws,
says Lord Byron in Beppo ; but now they are an extinct genus.
I have actually come to Bow Street in the morning, and while I have been
leaning on the desk, had three or four people come in and say, " I was robbed
by two highwaymen in such a place ; " "I was robbed by a single highwayman in
such a place." People travel now safely by means of the horse patrol. That Sir
Richard Ford planned. Where are the highway robberies now? Townsend, the
Bow Street Officer (Evidence before the House of Commons, June 1816).
To the list of celebrated personages living in lodgings in this street
may be added the name of Sir Roger de Coverley. 1 Remarkable
Places. Will's Coffee-house ; No. i, on the west side. [See Will's
Coffee-house.] The Cock Tavern, about the middle of the street, on
the east side.
Their lodgings [Wycherley and his first wife the Countess of Drogheda] were in
Bow Street over against the Cock, whither if he at any time were with his friends,
he was obliged to leave the windows open, that the lady might see there was no
woman in the company, or she would be immediately in a downright raving
condition. Dennis's Letters, p. 224.
1 Spectator, No. 410.
BOWL YARD 231
Here Wycherley has laid two of the best scenes in The Plain Dealer
(4to, 1677). Here Sedley, Buckhurst, and Ogle exposed themselves
in very indecent postures to the populace ; Sedley stripping himself
naked, and preaching blasphemy from the balcony. Here Sir John
Coventry supped for the last time with a whole nose, being waylaid, by
order of Charles II., on his way home from the Cock to his brother's
in Suffolk Street, and his nose cut to the bone. 1 The house was kept,
when Sedley exposed himself, by a woman called " Oxford Kate." 2
Jacob Tonson's printing office.
The Bow Street Police Court, the wretched den in which the
chief magisterial business of the Metropolis was for so many years
carried on, was on the east side of the street, but a very large space
was cleared on the opposite side and a new court erected, more con-
venient for the officials and the public and more suitable to the
important character of the functions performed there. The new
Police Courts and Station possess the advantage of being in great
part detached, having frontages also to Broad Court and Cross Court.
They cover nearly half an acre.
The courts are placed on the northern portion of the ground, with
the necessary rooms for the attorneys, etc. The magistrates' rooms are
on the first floor, where is placed the second court intended for extra-
dition and special cases. The police station occupies the southern
end, and has series of rooms for all concerned, including living and
sleeping accommodation for 100 policemen. The whole is of fire-proof
construction, and was admirably arranged by Mr. John Taylor, archi-
tect, of H.M. Office of Works and Public Buildings. The building
was completed in 1881 at a total cost of about ^40,000.
Remarkable Circumstances. "At the large rooms at the upper end
of Bow Street, nearly opposite the Play House passage," Bonnell
Thornton, in the name of " The Society of Sign Painters," opened on
the same day as the exhibition of the Royal Academy an exhibition of
sign-paintings, a piece of inoffensive drollery in which Hogarth did not
disdain to lend the aid of his pencil. The Catalogue, in imitation of
that of the Royal Academy, was in 410, price is. The painters
treated the affair seriously and the burlesque was not repeated.
At the Garrick's Head, facing the Theatre, the disreputable Renton
Nicholson, editor of The Town, held for some years his meetings of
"Judge and Jury," when he styled himself " Lord Chief Baron."
Bowl Yard, ST. GILES'S-IN-THE-FIELDS, a narrow court on the
south side of High Street, St. Giles's, over against Dyot Street, St. Giles's,
cleared away when Endell Street was formed out of Old Belton Street.
At this hospital [St. Giles's] the prisoners conveyed from the City of London
towards Teyborne, there to be executed for treasons, felonies, or other trespasses,
were presented with a great bowl of ale, thereof to drink at their pleasure, as to be
their last refreshing in this life. Stow, p. 164.
1 See Marvell's Letters, and article " Haymarket." 2 Pepys, July i, 1663 ; Stuuhuell, vol. i. p. 45.
232 BOWL YARD
The morning that he [Raleigh] went to execution, there was a cup of excellent
sack brought him, and being asked how he liked it, " As the fellow," said he, " that,
drinking of St. Giles's bowl as he went to Tyburn, said, That were good drink if a
man might tarry by it." -John Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, October 31, 1618.
Parton, in his History of the parish, mentions a " Bowl " public house.
Bowling Alley, now Bowling Street, leading from DEAN'S YARD
to TUFTON STREET, WESTMINSTER. Colonel Blood, who stole the
Crown from the Tower in the reign of Charles II., died (August 24,
1680) in a house at the south-west corner of this alley, and was buried
in the adjoining churchyard of the New Chapel, Tothill Fields. But
so numerous had been his tricks that after the funeral many people
began to suspect that the real Colonel Blood had never died at all.
The cofrin was taken up, and opened before the coroner and jury, and
the corpse was identified by the extraordinary size of one of the
thumbs. The house, of course, is no longer the same ; but drawings
of it exist. In the Overseer's Books of St. Margaret's parish for 1565
the " Myll next to Bowling Alley " is rated. There are other Bowling
Alleys, and a Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell and another in
Southwark.
Bowyers' Hall. The bowyers or bowmakers were an ancient
guild ; and in the days when the long-bow was a powerful military
weapon, and its use was inculcated as a duty on all citizens, theirs
was an important craft, but they were not incorporated till the i8th
year of James I. (May 28, j.620), 1 long after the bow had fallen into
disuse as a weapon of offence. When Stow wrote the Bowyers' Hall
was by the corner of Monkwell Street. 2 Before the Great Fire it is
usually said to have been in Noble Street, 3 but Strype gives a different
account : " Their Hall anciently was in Hart Street, in the ward of
Cripplegate Within : and before the Great Fire, upon St. Peter's Hill,
in the ward of Castle Bainard. Since the Fire they use to meet at
some public house to confer about their affairs." 4 They are still with-
out a hall ; but have a livery.
Bowyer's Row, LUDGATE STREET.
' Ordinance by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's concerning some houses lately
erected in Ludgatstrete, commonly called " Bowiarresrowe " by the executors of the
wills of John de Tenersham, Nicholas Housebonde, and John de Claktone, late
Minor Canons of St. Paul's, A.D. 1359. Historical MSS. Comm., Ninth Report,
Appendix, p. 49.
Boyle Street, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, was so called from the
Boyles, Earls of Burlington. [See Burlington House.] In this street
was built the Burlington Charity Schoolhouse about the year 1720.
The school was originally founded in 1699 for the maintaining,
clothing, and educating sixty girls belonging to or residing in the
parish of St. James's. The Schoolhouse was enlarged a few years
ago for the purpose of accommodating a middle class girls' school.
1 Strype's Stow, App. 2, p. 6. 3 Maitland, p. 602.
2 Stow, p. 112. * Strype, B. v. p. 217.
BREAD STREET 233
Bozier's Court, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, a foot passage leading
into Oxford Street, formed by a narrow block of nouses erected
between it and the opening of the road into Oxford Street.
Braziers' Hall. {See Armourers' and Braziers' Hall.]
Bread Street (Ward of), one of the twenty-six wards of London,
taking its name from Bread Street, the chief street within the ward.
Friday Street and part of Watling Street are within this ward, as are
the Church of St. Mildred the Virgin, in Bread Street, and Cord-
wainers' Hall, in Distaff Lane. The Compter in Bread Street was,
in 1555, moved to Wood Street. The Church of St. John the
Evangelist, in Friday Street, described by Stow, was destroyed in the
Great Fire and not rebuilt. The Church of Allhallows, Bread Street,
was pulled down in 1878, and the Tavern, which occupied the site of
Gerard's Hall, Basing Lane, in 1852.
Bread Street, CHEAPSIDE, the third turning on the south side
from St. Paul's churchyard. It crosses Cannon Street and terminates
in Queen Victoria Street. The cooks of Bread Street are particularly
referred to in ordinances of the 1 4th century.
So called of bread in old time there sold ; for it appeareth by records, that in
the year 1302, which was the 3Oth of Edward I., the bakers of London were bound
to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the market ; and that they should
have four hall -motes in the year, at four several terms, to determine of enormities
belonging to the said Company. Stow, p. 129.
Bread Street is now wholly inhabited by rich merchants ; and divers fair inns be
there, 1 for good receipt of carriers and other travellers to the city. It appears in
the will of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wylshire, dated March 22, 1498, and 14 Hen.
VII., that he lived in a house in Bread Street in London, which belonged to the
family of Stafford, Duke of Bucks afterwards ; he bequeathing all the stuff in that
house to the Lord of Buckingham, for he died without issue. Strype, B. iii. p. 199.
Milton was born in this street (December 9, 1608), and baptized in
the adjoining church of Allhallows (pulled down in 1878), where the
register of his baptism is still preserved. Aubrey, a contemporary,
tells us that "The only inducement of several foreigners to visit
England was to see the Protector Oliver and Mr. John Milton,
and they would see the house and chamber where he was born." z
The poet's father was a scrivener in this street, living at the sign of
"The Spread Eagle," the armorial ensign of his family. The first
turning on the left hand, as you enter from Cheapside, was called
" Black Spread Eagle Court," and not unlikely from the family ensign.
Aubrey says the father "had also in that street another house, the
Rose, and other houses in other places." A bust of Milton has
been set up in the wall with this inscription : " Born in Bread
Street 1608, baptized in Church of All Hallows, which stood here
ante 1878." It stood on the east side, at the corner of Watling
1 Taylor, the Water Poet, enumerates three : 2 A fire broke out in Bread Street on November
The Star, The Three Cups, and The George. 12, 1623, when the poet was in his fourteenth
The Star is mentioned in "A Chronicle of London year. Laud, in his Diary, calls it "a most
of the i$th Century," ed. Nicolas, p. 126. None grievous fire. Alderman Cocking's house with
of them exist now. others burnt down."
234 BREAD STREET COMPTER
Street. The Church of St. Mildred, Bread Street, is on the east
side, a little lower down. [See Mermaid Tavern.]
Bread Street Compter.
Now on the west side of Bread Street, amongst divers fair and large houses for
merchants, and fair inns for passengers, had ye one prison-house pertaining to the
Sheriffs of London, called the Compter in Bread Street; but in the year 1555 the
prisoners were removed from thence to one other new Compter in Wood Street,
provided by the City's purchase, and built for that purpose. Stow, p. 131.
Item. the xxvij day of September [1555] was the Counter in Bred strete removyd
into Wood strete". Grey friars Chronicle, p. 96.
By statute of the 1st Henry V. [1413, but entered in the Liber A lints at a later
date] it was ordained that " the Compters from henceforth shall not be to ferm let
[let to farm] by any Sheriff, or by any other person in their name, unto the porters
of such Compters, or unto any other officer of the Sheriffs ; but that the Sheriffs
shall be bound to bear the charge of the rent, candles, and other such costs as the
porters of the Compters have borne in time past, by reason of their ferm.
Item. that prisoners who are staying in the Compters shall pay nothing for their
customary fees unto the porters, or unto the Sheriffs, for one night by reason of their
so staying in the said Compter, save only for a bed, one penny the first night. And
if such person shall wish in preference to stay in the Compter rather than go to
Neugate or to Ludgate, whether for debt, trespass, or any other cause, felony and
treason excepted, in such case it shall be fully lawful for the said Sheriffs to leave
such prisoners in the Compter for their comfort, they paying to the use of the said
Sheriffs four pence, six pence, eight pence, or twelve pence per week, each person,
towards the rent of the said house, without more ; and this by assessment of the
clerks of the Compter, who shall take into consideration their arrest and also their
estate." The prisoner might "have his own bed there, if," as is very considerately
added, "he have one," otherwise the porter may find him a bed, "taking each
night one penny for the same, as the manner is in all lodging-houses." And " neither
porter, nor any other officer of the Compter shall sell unto the prisoners bread, ale,
charcoal, firewood, or any other provisions whatsoever, under pain of imprisonment
and of paying a fine, at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen, except [and the
exception is worth noting] by measure and at a reasonable price." Liber Albus,
p. 447.
The Borough Compter was farmed until it was burned in the fire of
1676.
Bread Street Hill, the southern extension of Bread Street, from
Queen Victoria Street to Upper Thames Street. The burial-ground
on the west side is that of St. Nicholas Olave, a church in the ward
of Queenhithe, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. Dr. Dee's
Letter to King James, 1603, was "printed by E. Short, dwelling on
Brede Streete Hill, neere to the end of old Fish Streete, at the signe
of the Starre."
Breakneck Steps (or Stairs), a former narrow court with a
steep ascent from Fleet Street to the Old Bailey, opposite the Session
House. Lord Macaulay, in his Memoir of Goldsmith, says that soon
after settling in London " Goldsmith took a garret in a miserable
court, to which he had to climb from the brink of Fleet Ditch by a
dizzy ladder of flagstones. The court and the ascent have long dis-
appeared ; but old Londoners well remember both." When Macaulay
wrote "the court and the ascent " were both in existence, though some-
BREWER STREET 235
what ameliorated in character, but in recent changes both have disap-
peared. In Goldsmith's time, when the court was only lighted with
oil, if lighted at all, it must on dark nights have well merited its name.
There was another court named Breakneck Steps, on St. Andrew's
Hill, but it presented a much less dangerous appearance.
Brecknock Road, HOLLOWAY, formerly Maiden Lane, named
after the second title of the Marquis Camden. The Brecknock Arms
formerly had tea gardens attached to it. On July i, 1843, a fatal duel
was fought in a field at the back of the Brecknock between Colonel
Fawcett and Lieutenant Munro, when the former was so severely
wounded that he died two days afterwards.
Bretask (The), by the Tower ; (Fr. bretlche, a bartizan fortified
place), seems to have been a magazine for warlike stores, built by
Edward III. in the immediate neighbourhood of the Tower of London,
in anticipation of the Continental wars.
13 Edward III. (1339). Be it remembered that in the house called La
Bretaske, near the Tower of London, there are 7 springalds [instruments for
casting stones, arrows, etc.] and 380 quarels [arrows with square heads], for
the same, feathered with latone \laten, a hard brass], and with heads ; and
500 quarels, feathered, of wood, with heads, and 29 cords, called strenges. Also
8 bowes of ash for the same springalds. Also, at Alegate, namely, beyond the
gate thereof, one springald with two strenges, and one faussecord for the same.
Also 40 quarels, feathered with latone and headed with iron. Also, in the chamber
of the Guildhall, there are six instruments of latone, usually called gonnes, and five
roleres to the same. Also pellets of lead for the same instruments, which weigh
four hundred-weight and a half. Also 32 pounds of powder for the said instru-
ments. 1 Riley's Memorials, p. 204.
In the same year is another entry for expenses incurred in " driving
piles in the water of Thames and making a certain house called the
Bretask near the Tower of London." In the Liber Albus (B. iv.) is
an entry of a " Composition between the Citizens of London and
Richard de Basyngstoke, as to a certain Lane, called Bretask" no
doubt so called from its leading to the "house called La Bretaske,
near the Tower of London."
Brewer Street, GOLDEN SQUARE, leads from Great Windmill
Street to Warwick Street. Built circ. 1679. Esquire Sherwood, from
whom " Sherwood Street " adjoining derives its name, was living here
in 1680; and in 1683 Mons. Foubert, from whom Foubert Place
derives its name. In 1765 David Hume desires a letter to be sent
to him at "Miss Elliot's, Brewer Street, Golden Square." He was
also there in 1767. The Chevalier D'Eon dates his advertisement
entreating the People of England " not to renew any policies on his
sex," "Brewer Street, Golden Square, November n, 1775." The
validity of one of these policies was tried before Lord Mansfield,
1 The last part of this entry is of so much gonnes, et qninque roleres ad eadera. Item,
importance that it is worth while to give the peletae de plumbo pro eisdem Instrumentis, quae
original Latin words : "Item", in Camera Gild- pouderant iiii c librae et dimidium. Item, xxxii
aulae sunt sex Instrumenta de latone, vocitata librae de pulvere pro dictis Instrumentis."
236 BREWER STREET
July i, 1777. Nancy Parsons and the Duke of Grafton had "a quiet
house " in this street. 1 George Dawe, R.A., the portrait painter, was
born here, February 8, 1781. Before Nelson embarked for the last
time he went to Peddieson's, the undertaker, in Brewer Street, where
he kept his Aboukir coffin, and gave instructions respecting it. 2
Brewer Street, PIMLICO, derives its name from the Stag
Brewery, formerly belonging to Messrs. Elliot and Co. Sir Henry
Elliot, K.C.B., Lord Dalhousie's Foreign Secretary, and Editor of the
Muhammedan Historians of India, was of this family, and was born
at Pimlico Lodge in 1808. Within the enclosure was the London
residence of Richard Heber, his books being visible from the outside,
piled in heaps from floors to ceilings.
Brewers' Hall, 18 ADDLE STREET, WOOD STREET, CHEAPSIDE,
the Hall of the Brewers, the fourteenth on the list of the City
Companies. The Guild was of very early foundation, and its records
are among the most ancient and most interesting, for the illustrations
they afford of the habits and customs of the citizens of London, of
any of the City Companies. Originally kept in Norman French,
it was, by a formal resolution passed in the reign of Henry V., decided
that henceforth should "be noted down in our mother tongue the
needful things which concern us." The Company was incorporated
i6th of Henry VI. (1438), and confirmed igth of Edward IV., by
the name of St. Mary and St. Thomas the Martyr, and again by
Elizabeth (1562 and 1579) and by Charles I. (1639); and James II.
gave a new charter in 1685. The hall was destroyed in the Great
Fire and rebuilt shortly after. It is spacious, and stands in a large
courtyard, to which there is a handsome entrance in Addle Street.
The hall was repaired in 1828, under W. F. Pocock, architect. The
court-room was wainscoted in 1670. The houses in front were
rebuilt about 1875.
Brick Court, DEAN'S YARD, WESTMINSTER. John Gadbury,
" student in Physic and Astrology," pupil and successor of William
Lilly, and a well-known almanac -maker, lived here for some years.
He quarrelled with his master and called him an impostor. He died
in 1704, and was buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster.
Brick Court, MIDDLE TEMPLE, leading from Middle Temple
Lane to New Court and Essex Street:. so called from its being one
of the earliest erected brick buildings in the Temple ; erected in the
eleventh year of Elizabeth's reign, at the expense of Thomas Daniel,
Treasurer. 3 Spenser, the poet, speaks of those " bricky towers " where
"whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide." Eminent Inhabitants.
Oliver Goldsmith, in "No. 2, up two pair of stairs," for so Mr.
Filby, his tailor, describes him. His rooms were on the right hand
1 Grenville Corr., vol. iv. p. 276. ' Despatches, vol. vii. p. 35, note.
8 Herbert's Inns of Court and Chancery, 1804, p. 344.
BRICKLAYERS' ARMS 237
on ascending the staircase, and here he died, April 4, 1774. Speak-
ing of rooks, he says :
I have often amused myself with observing their plan of policy from my window
in the Temple, that looks upon a grove, where they have made a colony in the
midst of the City. At the commencement of Spring the rookery, which, during
the continuance of Winter, seemed to have been deserted, or only guarded by five
or six, like old soldiers in a garrison, now begins to be once more frequented ; and
in a short time all the bustle and hurry of business is fairly commenced. Goldsmith's
Animated Nature, vol. v. p. 231.
I was in his chambers in Brick Court the other day. The bedroom is a closet
without any light in it. It quite pains one to think of the kind old fellow dying off
there. There is some good carved work in the rooms ; and one can fancy him
with General Oglethorpe and Topham Beauclerc, and the fellow coming with the
screw of tea and sugar. What a fine picture Leslie would make of it ! Thackeray
to Forster, Life of Goldsmith, vol. ii. p. 423, note.
Thackeray himself had chambers at No. 2 in 1855.
I have been' many a time in the chambers in the Temple which were his, and
passed up the staircase, which Johnson, and Burke, and Reynolds trod to see their
friend, their poet, their kind Goldsmith the stair on which the poor women sat
weeping bitterly when they heard that the greatest and most generous of all men
was dead within the black oak door. Thackeray's English Humotirists : Sterne
and Goldsmith.
Sir William Blackstone below Goldsmith, on the first floor. He
had sung "The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse," and was busy with
his legal studies before Goldsmith took the floor above him. H.
Mackworth Praed died in this house in 1839. There was a dial in this
Court with the motto, "Time and Tide tarry for no Man." The
motto was once, as Ned Ward assures us, "Begone about your
Business," the burden of an indecent ballad printed by Ward in his
London Spy. Edward Capell (1713-1781), the editor of Shakespeare,
died in this Court. The whole north side (No. 4) has been entirely
rebuilt, but the sun-dial has been replaced.
Brick Lane, now CENTRAL STREET, ST. LUKE'S, runs from the
north side of Old Street, opposite Golden Lane, to the City Road.
Here was the site of one of the Long Parliament's fortifications, " a
redoubt with two flanks."
Brick Lane, SPITALFIELDS, runs from Osborne Street, White-
chapel, to the Bethnal Green Road. It is nearly three-quarters of
a mile long; Hatton (1708) calls it "the longest lane in London."
It consists mostly of small shops, but about half-way up, between
Brown's Lane and Spicer Street and stretching far back on both sides
of the way, is the great brewery of Messrs. Truman, Hanbury, and
Buxton.
Brick Street, MAY FAIR, was built before that part of Piccadilly
which runs parallel with it was planned.
Bricklayers' Arms, OLD KENT ROAD, a famous tavern and
coach-office at the corner of Bermondsey New Road and the Old Kent
Road, probably of considerable antiquity as a wayside inn. Its im-
ortance has, however, much diminished since the introduction of
238 BRICKLAYERS' ARMS
railways ; but it has given its name to the great terminal goods station
of the South Eastern Railway on the same side of the Old Kent Road.
The inn has been recently rebuilt, and in the necessary excavations
some interesting objects in pottery, glass, etc., were discovered.
Bricklayers' Hall, LEADENHALL STREET. The bricklayers were
an ancient fraternity, but were not incorporated till the zoth of
Elizabeth (1568), when they were united with the tilers under the
name of the Worshipful Company of Tilers and Bricklayers. The
Hall, in a court, No. 52, on the south side of Leadenhall Street, was
known as Bricklayers' Hall ; it was long ago disused by the Company,
and was for many years employed as a Jewish synagogue. It was
then leased to the City of London College, and called SUSSEX HALL.
Sussex House, consisting of offices, is now numbered 52.
Bride's (St.), or, ST. BRIDGET'S, a church on the south side of
FLEET STREET, in the ward of Farringdon Without
Then is the parish church of St. Bridges or Bride, of old time a small thing,
which now remaineth to be the choir, but since increased with a large body and
side-aisles towards the west, at the charges of William Venor, esquire, Warden of
the Fleet, about the year 1480. Slow, p. 147.
This church was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present
building, one of Sir C. Wren's architectural glories, was erected in
its stead, and was ready for service in 1680; further embellished in
1699; and the tower and spire added in 1701-1703, when the whole
church was completed at the cost of ; 11,430. The spire, as left
by Wren, was 234 feet in height, but on June 18, 1764, it was struck
with lightning, and otherwise so seriously injured that it was judged
advisable to reduce it 8 feet. The interior is much admired
less airy perhaps than St. James's, Piccadilly, but extremely elegant.
The church was repaired in 1875. Its length is in feet, breadth 57
feet, height 41 feet. The great east window of painted glass (a copy
from Rubens's Descent from the Cross) was the work of Mr. Muss.
The right of presentation belongs to the Dean and Chapter of West-
minster. So completely was the noble building shut in by houses that
from the street the body of it was altogether invisible, and the spire
could only be seen by going to Blackfriars Bridge. On November 1 4,
1824, a fire occurred in Fleet Street and opened a vista, which the
public spirit of the citizens, especially of Sheriff Blades of Highgate
Hill, who provided a large proportion of the amount required, decided
should not be closed again, and under the direction of Mr. J. B.
Papworth, architect, the present St. Bride's Avenue was formed. The
improvement was very great, but it did not give pleasure to all. Flax-
man, our great sculptor, speaking at this time to H. Crabb Robinson,
said, " It is an ugly thing and better hid." His objection extended to
every steeple attached to a Grecian building except that of Bow Church.
Alex. Legh was presented to the rectory in 1471 by the abbot and
convent of Westminster. 1
1 Cooper's Atk. Cant., vol. i. p. 510.
ST. BRIDE'S 239
In the old church were buried Wynkin de Worde, the celebrated
printer, who in his will directed that he should be buried there
"before the high altar of St. Katharine"; and bequeathed ^36 "to
buy landes with the same and with the profittes thereof to kepe an
obite for his soule for ever." Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst, and
Earl of Dorset, the poet (d. 1608); bowels only. Sir Richard Baker,
author of the Chronicle which bears his name (d. 1644-1645, in the
Fleet Prison). Richard Lovelace, the poet (d. 1658, in a mean
lodging in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe Lane). Mary Frith (Moll Cutpurse,
a most notorious woman), buried August 10, 1659. Denham, the
poet, was married here: "1634, June 25, John Denham, gent, and
Anne Cotton, by licence from Sir Edmund Scott's office." This was
Denham's first wife ; his second wife was Margaret Brooke, whom he
married in Westminster Abbey.
In the new church were buried Ogilby, the translator of Homer,
(d. 1676). Flatman, the poet and painter; he died in 1688, and was
buried " near to the rails of the Communion Table." Francis Sand-
ford, author of the Genealogical History (1677) which bears his name.
He died, as did Baker, in the Fleet Prison (1693). The widow of Sir
William Davenant, the poet ; and her son, Dr. Charles Davenant, the
political writer (d. 1714). Richardson, author of Clarissa ffarlowe,
and a printer in Salisbury Square (d. 1 7 6 1 ) ; his grave (half hid by
pew No. 8, on the south side) is marked by a flat stone, about the
middle of the centre aisle. Here also are interred two of his sons and
both his wives. Elizabeth Thomas, Curll's " Corinna," the lady so
intimately connected with the publication of Pope's private correspond-
ence. She was buried February 5, 1730-1731, in the "Fleet Market
Ground," 1 and interred at the expense of Margaret, Lady Delawar.
Robert Lloyd, the friend of Charles Churchill. He died in the Fleet
in 1764. St. Bride's burial-ground was closed in September 1849.
One of the relics of the Fire of 1666 is the doorway into Mr. Holden's
vault, erected April, anno 1657, on your right entering from St.
Bride's Passage. 2 There are tablets to James Molins, the famous
surgeon (d. 1686), and William Charles Wells, M.D., F.R.S., the
celebrated author of the Essay on Dew (d. 1817). In the porch
under the tower is one with this inscription : " To the memory of
Robert Waithman, Alderman of this Ward, and in five Parliaments one
of the representatives of this great metropolis, the friend of liberty in
evil times, and of parliamentary reform in its adverse days." He died
1833, aged sixty-nine. The font, a basin of white marble on an orna-
mented shaft of black marble, was also preserved from the old church.
It was presented in 1615.
1 A burial-ground, west of Fleet Ditch, given the parish obtained a revocation of this restriction,
in 1610 by the Dorset family, on condition that on payment of a small quit-rent. Malcolm, Land.
the parish should not bury on the south side of Rev., vol. i. p. 368.
the church, adjoining Dorset Street. The ground
was consecrated August 2, 1710. After the Fire 2 J- T - Smith has engraved a view of it, dated
of 1666, in which Dorset House was destroyed, I 795-
240 ST. BRIDE'S AVENUE
Bride's (St.) Avenue, the approach to St. Bride's church from
Fleet Street, constructed 1825. The ground necessary for this improve-
ment was partly obtained by public subscription. [See the preceding
article.] The Punch publishing office is at the west corner of the Avenue.
Bride's (St.) Churchyard, FLEET STREET. Here was one of
Milton's many London residences.
Soon after his return, and visits paid to his Father and other Friends, he took
him a Lodging in St. Bride's Churchyard, at the House of one Russel, a Taylor,
where he first undertook the Education and Instruction of his Sister's two Sons, the
younger whereof had been wholly committed to his charge and care. Philips's Life
of Milton, I2mo, 1694, p. xvi.
He made no long stay in his lodging in St. Bride's Churchyard ; necessity of
having a place to dispose his books in, and other goods fit for the furnishing of a
good handsome house, hastening him to take one ; and accordingly a pretty Garden-
House he took in Aldersgate Street, at the end of an Entry, and therefore the fitter
for his turn, by the reason of the privacy, besides that there are few streets in London
more free from noise than that. Ibid. p. xx.
Bride Lane, ST. BRIDE'S.
Bride Lane cometh out of Fleet Street by St. Bridget's Churchyard, which, with
a turning passage by Bridewell and the Ditch Side, falleth down to Woodmongers'
Wharfs, by the Thames. This lane is of note for the many hatters there inhabiting.
Strype, B. iii. p. 279.
Here, at No. 1 5 on the east side, is Cogers' Hall. [See that title.]
The first meetings of the Madrigal Society (established in 1741)
were held at a public house in this lane called The Twelve Bells.
Bride (St.) Street runs northward from Ludgate Circus, Farringdon
Street, to Shoe Lane, and forms, with the new St. Andrew's Street, the
principal southern approach to the Holborn Viaduct, in connection
with which both were constructed.
Bridewell, a well so called between Fleet Street and the Thames,
dedicated to St. Bride, and lending its name to a palace, a parish, a
parish church, and a house of correction.
Bridewell, a house in Bride Lane so called "a stately and
beautiful house," 1 built by Henry VIII., in the year 1522, for the
reception of Charles V. of Spain and suite. Charles himself was
lodged in the Blackfriars, but his nobles in this new-built Bridewell,
" a gallery being made out of the house over the water [the Fleet], and
through the wall of the City into the Emperor's lodgings at the Black-
friars." ! The whole Third Act of Shakespeare's Henry VIII. is laid
in " The Palace at Bridewell." This is historically true, for " in the
year 1528," says Stow, "Cardinal Campeius was brought to the King's
presence, being then at Bridewell, whither he had called all his nobility,
judges, and councillors ; and there, November 8, in his great chamber,
he made unto them an oration touching his marriage with Queen
Katheren, as ye may read in Edward Hall." 1 The subsequent history
of Henry's house is related in the next article.
1 Stow, p. 147.
BRIDEWELL 241
At Brydewell (his place) that season hee laye,
And theare was also goode Grysilidis ;
Thoughe in his presence shee came nyght nor daye,
Shee must theare attende, his pleasure so is. 1
Wolsey had a house allowed to him in the Bridewell.
Wolsey found the means to be made one of the King's council, and to grow in
good estimation with the King, to whom the King gave a house at Bridewell in Fleet
Street, some time Sir Richard Empson's. Cavendish's Wolsey, p. 79, etc.
Bridewell, a manor or house, so called presented to the City of
London by King Edward VI., after an appeal through Mr. Secretary
Cecil, and a sermon by Bishop Ridley, who begged it of the King as a
Workhouse for the Poor, and a House of Correction " for the strumpet
and idle person, for the rioter that consumeth all, and for the vagabond
that will abide in no place."
GOOD MR. CECIL I must be a suitor to you in our Master Christ's cause. I
beseech you be good unto him. The matter is he hath lyen too long abroad, as you do
know, without lodging, in the streets of London, both hungry, naked, and cold. . . .
Sir, there is a wide large house of the King's Majesty's called Bridewell, that would
wonderful well serve to lodge Christ in, if he might find such good friends in the
court as would procure in his cause. . . . There is a rumour that one goeth about
to buy that house of the King's Majesty and to pull it down. If there be any such
thing, for God's sake speak you in our master's cause. . . . Yours in Christ,
NIC. LONDON.
Froude, vol. v. p. 396 ; Lansdowne MSS. 3.
The gift was made on April 10, 1553, and confirmed by charter on the
26th of the following June, only ten days before the death of the King..
Subsequent events occasioned a delay ; Queen Mary, however, con-
firmed her brother's gift, and in February 1555 the Mayor and
Aldermen entered Bridewell and took possession.
Thus,
Fortune can tosse the world ; a Prince's Court
Is thus a prison now. Dekker, The Honest Whore, pt. ii. 1630.
But the gift was found before long to be a serious inconvenience.
Idle and abandoned people from the outskirts of London and parts
adjacent, under colour of seeking an asylum in the new institu-
tion, settled in London in great numbers, to the great annoyance
of the graver residents. The citizens became alarmed, and Acts of
Common Council were issued against the resort of masterless men
"upon pretence to be relieved by the almes of Christ Church and
Bridewell." In 1579 "it was the intention of the City to employ the
place for the stowage of corn and other such public uses." On
January 21, 1612, the Lords of the Council wrote to the Lord Mayor,
saying that " special order should be taken that the granaries at the
Bridge House and Bridewell should be ready for the stowage of corn,"
and in 1624 order was given for the delivery of 2000 quarters of
1 William Forrest's History of Grisild the Queen Katharine of Arragon). RoxburgheClub,
Second (a narrative in verse of the divorce of 1875, p. 82.
VOL. I R
242 BRIDEWELL
wheat from the storehouses at Bridge House, Bridewell, and elsewhere
for victualling the navy. 1
Milton's friend, Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker, gives in his Auto-
biography many particulars of Old Bridewell. He was taken there,
1 66 1, from the Bull and Mouth [which see]. "The hall," he says,
" was one of the largest I was ever in. ... The room in length was
threescore feet, and had breadth proportionable to it. In it on the
front side were very large bay windows, in which stood a large table.
It had other very large tables in it with benches round, and at that
time the floor was covered with rushes, against some solemn festival
which I heard it was bespoken for." The house was destroyed in
the Great Fire, " together with the whole precinct thereunto belonging,
whence arose about two-thirds of its revenue ; however, by the charit-
able benefactions of the citizens, it was soon after rebuilt [1668] in a
much more magnificent and convenient manner than formerly; and
wherein at present (1739) are maintained and brought up in divers
arts and mysteries a considerable number of apprentices; besides
a great number of poor indigent vagrants and strumpets, that are kept
at work." 2 At that time, on an average of seven years, the number
of "vagrants and strumpets" annually committed to Bridewell was
421 (but in one year, 1732, it had been as high as 673) ; apprentices
maintained 93. The annual charge in 1729 was ^1891 : 7 : 6. The
hospital was united to Bethlehem, and both establishments placed
under the same managing body. [See Bethlehem Hospital.] The
prisoners were vagrants, harlots, and idle and disobedient apprentices,
'sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. Their chief employment
seems to have been in beating hemp and picking oakum.
Foible. O that ever I was born, O that I was ever married a bride, aye I shall
be a Bridewell bride. . . . O Madam, my Lady's gone for a constable ; I shall
be had to a Justice, and sent to Bridewell to beat hemp. Congreve, 7'he Wav oj
the World, 410, 1700.
When men have here [at Bridewell] done their work, they are sure of their
wages a whip. London and Ike Country Compared, by G. Lupton, 1632.
The flogging at Bridewell, for offences committed without the
prison, is described by Ward in his London Spy. Both men and
women were whipped on their naked backs, before the Court of
Governors. The president sat with his hammer in his hand, and the
culprit was taken from the post when the hammer fell. The calls
to knock, when women were flogged, were loud and incessant "O
good Sir Robert, knock ! Pray, good Sir Robert, knock ; " which
became at length a common cry of reproach among the lower orders,
to denote that a woman had been whipped as a harlot in Bridewell.
If there must be strumpets, let Bridewell be the scene. Collier's Reply to Congreve,
This labour past, by Bridewell all descend,
As morning prayers and flagellations end.
Pope, The Dunciad.
1 Analytical Index to Rcmembrancia, pp. 264, 383, 390. 2 Maitland, p. 661.
BRIDEWELL 243
"There are no whores," says Sir Humphrey Scattergood, in
Shadwell's play of The Woman Captain, " but such as are poor and
beat hemp, and whipt by rogues in blue coats." 1 Nor has Hogarth
overlooked, in his Harlofs Progress, the peculiar features of the place.
The fourth plate of that moral story told by figures is a scene in
Bridewell Men and women are beating hemp under the eye of a
savage taskmaster, and a lad too idle to work is seen standing on
tiptoe, to reach the stocks, in which his hands are fixed, while over
his head is written, " Better to work than stand thus ! " Madam
Creswell, the celebrated bawd of King Charles II. 's reign, died a
prisoner in Bridewell. She desired by will to have a sermon preached
at her funeral, for which the preacher was to have ;io; but upon
this express condition, that he was to say nothing but what was well
of her. After a sermon on the general subject of mortality, the
preacher concluded with saying, " By the will of the deceased, it is
expected that I should mention her, and say nothing but what was
WELL of her. All that I shall say of her therefore is this : She was
born well, she lived well, and she died well ; for she was born with
the name of Creswell, she lived in Clerkenwell, and she died in
Bridewell." 2 There is a portrait of her among Tempest's Cries; and
the allusions to her in our Charles II.'s dramatists are of constant
occurrence.
Of late years Bridewell was a " house of correction for persons of
either sex sentenced by the City Magistrates to imprisonment for
terms not exceeding three months. The cells were constructed for
seventy male and thirty female prisoners. Attached to Bridewell, but
removed many years since to the grounds of Bethlehem Hospital,
was a "House of Occupation," in which 200 indigent boys and
girls were taught useful callings by "Arts-Masters." Bridewell Prison
occupied two sides of a large quadrangle, the other sides of which
were formed by the hall, a spacious and handsome court-room ; the
chapel, modern and mean ; the very comfortable-looking offices, and
the residences of the president and other officials. On the erection
of the City Prison at Holloway, 1863, the materials of the Bridewell
Prison were sold by auction and cleared away by the following year.
The chapel was demolished in 1871. The large area occupied by
these buildings has been laid out in streets and covered with offices.
[See Bridewell Place.] But the hall, court-room, and governor's house
have been retained, as well as the gateway, now No. 14 New Bridge
Street, with the head of Edward VI. over it, which formed the principal
entrance. Over the chimney in the court-room a large picture attributed
to Hans Holbein, representing Edward VI. delivering the Royal Charter
of Endowment to the Mayor.
Holbein has placed his own head in one corner of the picture. Vertue has
engraved it. This picture, it is believed, was not completed by Holbein, both he
and the King dying immediately after the donation. Horace Walpole.
1 Shadwell, vol. iii. p. 355. 2 Grangtr, ed. 1775, vol. iv. p. 219.
244 BRIDEWELL
As the Charter was only given in 1552, and Holbein is'now known
to have died towards the end of 1543, he could not have painted it.
Mr. Wornum suggests that Guillim Stretes, King Edward's painter,
"was probably the painter of the Bridewell picture . . . but the
picture originally was not as it is now." 1 It has, in fact, been
extensively repainted, and has suffered much in the process ; it is,
however, still interesting for the costumes. There are besides a fine
full-length of Charles II., by Sir Peter Lely; full-length of Sir W.
Turner, Lord Mayor in Charles II. 's reign, by Mrs. Beale ; and
full-lengths of George III. and his Queen, after Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Atterbury, when a young man, was minister and preacher of Bridewell.
In the cemetery attached to the Hospital Robert Levett, an old and
faithful friend of Dr. Johnson's, and an inmate of his house, was
buried in 1782. Thomas Coxeter (1689-1747), author, buried.
Bridewell Dock, an inlet of the Thames, between Whitefriars
ind Bridewell, closed in constructing Blackfriars Bridge.
A dock there is, that called is Avernus,
Of some Bridewell, and may in time concern us
All, that are readers. Ben Jonson, On the Famous Voyage.
fust. Where will you meet i' the morning ?
Sir Cos. At some tavern near the waterside that's private.
fust. The Greyhound, the Greyhound in Blackfriars, an excellent rendezvous.
Lin. Content, the Greyhound by eight.
Just. And then you may whip forth, and take boat at Bridewell Dock, most privately.
Westward Ho, Act ii. Sc. 3 (1607, 4to).
An old dull sot who tolled the clock
For many years at Bridewell Dock.
Hudibras, pt. iii. c. 3.
Bridewell Place, NEW BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS, a new
street formed on the site of Bridewell Prison. Here is the London
City Mission House.
Bridge Foot. [See Bear at the Bridge Foot.]
In the yeere one thousand five hundred and sixtie and foure, William Rider,
being an apprentise with Master Thomas Burder, at the Bridgefoot, over against
St. Magnus Church, chanced to see a paire of knit wosted stockings, in the lodging
of an Italian merchant, that came from Mantua, borrowed those stockings and caused
other stockings to be made by them, and these were the first wosted stockings made
in England. Slow, by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 869.
Bridge House, SOUTHWARK, a public granary on the Surrey side
of London Bridge. Stores were kept here from 1350 for the repair
and maintenance of London Bridge, and in it a lodging was provided
for a "sheuteman." The place was successively a store for corn,
a brewery and bakery, and at one time was used for coals also.
What a vast magazine of corn is there always in the Bridge House, against a
dearth ! What a number of persons look to the reparations thereof, are handsomely
maintained thereby, and some of them persons of good quality ! Howell, Londino-
folis, fol. 1657, p. 402.
1 Womum's Holbein, p. 339.
BRIDGE WARD WITHOUT 245
It is now entirely occupied by modern wharves. In 1861 the largest
of London fires since 1666 destroyed several of them. There were
here stairs for landing.
Strangways and four score rovers taken and landed at Bridgehouse, August 14,
1559. Machin's Diary.
Bridge Street (New), BLACKFRIARS, built (1765) when Fleet
Ditch was arched over, is largely made up of Insurance Offices.
Here, on the west side, No. 14, is the entrance to Bridewell (which see) ;
on the east side are the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Station
(opened 1864), and the Blackfriars Bridge Station of the Metropolitan
District Railway. Horace Twiss, author of the Life of Eldon, died
here in 1849.
Bridge Street, WESTMINSTER, built when (old) Westminster
Bridge was built (1739-1750), on the site of the Long Woodstaple.
The south side was removed in 1866-1867 in order to lay open Palace
Yard and the front of Westminster Hall. George III. suggested the
improvement more than half a century earlier.
Queen's Palace, June 8, 1804. His Majesty fully authorises his most excellent
Lord Eldon to give his consent to the House of Lords proceeding with the Bills,
and in particular approves of the one for laying open Westminster Abbey to Palace
Yard. . . . The King will with great pleasure, when it is proposed, agree to the
purchasing and pulling down the west [south] side of Bridge Street and the houses
fronting Westminster Hall ; as it will be opening to the traveller that ancient pile
which is the seat of administration of the best laws and the most uprightly administered.
Twiss, Life of Eldon, vol. i. p. 454.
Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the New Palace of Westminster,
son of W. E. Barry, stationer, was born in one of the houses removed
to open that building to public view.
Bridge Ward Within, one of the twenty-six wards of London,
" so called of London Bridge, which bridge is a principal part of that
ward." 1 Boundaries. North, Gracechurch Street, as far as Fenchurch
Street and Lombard Street ; south, the Thames ; east, Monument Yard
and the east wall of St. Magnus Church ; west, Old Swan Stairs and
Arthur Street West. Stow enumerates four churches in this ward :
St. Magnus, London Bridge ; St. Margaret, on Fish Street Hill
(destroyed in the Fire and not rebuilt : the monument stands where
it" stood) ; St. Leonard's, Eastcheap (destroyed in the Fire and not
rebuilt); St. Benet Gracechurch, taken down in 1867. Fishmongers'
Hall is in this ward. [See all these names.]
Bridge Ward Without, another name for the borough of South-
wark, one of the twenty-six wards of London, and so called from lying
without, or beyond, the bounds of the City proper. Southwark was long
an independent borough, a sanctuary for malefactors of every description,
and was first annexed judicially to the City in the reign of Edward III.
In 1550, in consideration of the payment of a sum of money into the
Augmentation Office, Edward VI. resigned his right as lord of the
1 Stow, p. 79.
246 BRIDGE WARD WITHOUT
manor, only reserving to himself two messuages, one called Suffolk
Place, the other The Antelope. In the same year Sir John Aylophe,
Knt, was appointed the first Alderman of Bridge Ward Without by
the Mayor and Aldermen.
The Charter of Edward VI. granted the Borough of Southwark to the City,
and shortly after an Act of Common Council was passed ; by this it was made a ward
of the City and named Bridge Ward Without. The Mayor and Aldermen appointed
the first Alderman for the new ward, the ward also directing that the inhabitants
of the ward should for the future elect the Alderman as was done in other wards.
This was never carried into effect. Municipal Corporations, Second Report, 1837,
p. 22.
Bridge Ward Without is nominally governed by an Alderman, whose office is a
sinecure, and therefore given always to the senior Alderman, who, on the death of
his predecessor, vacates his former ward, and takes that of Bridge Ward Without as
a matter of course. Elmes.
Not as a matter of course. It is offered to the senior Alderman, and if
declined by him to the next senior, and so on until one accepts it.
It was thus in 1871, when taken by the late Sir R. W. Garden, who
was seventh on the list.
Bridgewater House, ST. JAMES'S, fronts the Green Park, and
was built, 1847-1850, from the designs of [Sir] Charles Barry, R.A.,
for Francis, Earl of Ellesmere, great nephew and principal heir of
Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater. The duke, dying in 1803,
left his pictures, valued at ^150,000, to his nephew, the first Duke
of Sutherland (then Marquis of Stafford), with remainder to the
marquis's second son, Lord Francis Egerton, afterwards Earl of
Ellesmere. Whilst the collection was in the possession of the Duke
of Sutherland it was known as the Stafford Gallery, and was described
under that title in the well-known work of Mr. W. Y. Ottley, 4 vols.,
with engravings of all the pictures.
We have conjectured that the Duke's early association with [Robert] Wood might
possibly have generated the taste for old pictures, which ultimately displayed itself in"
the formation of the Bridgewater Collection. Dining one day with his nephew, Lord
Gower, afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the Duke saw and admired a picture which
the latter had picked up a bargain for some 10 at a broker's in the morning.
"You must take me," he said, "to that d d fellow to-morrow." Lord Elles-
mere in Quarterly Review, March 1844.
The collection contains 47 of the finest of the Orleans pictures (marked
O. C. in the subjoined list); and consists of 127 Italian, Spanish, and
French pictures; 158 Flemish, Dutch, and German pictures; and 33
English and German pictures some 3 1 7 in all. This is independent
of 150 original drawings by the three Caracci, and 80 by Giulio
Romano, bought in 1836 by the Earl of Ellesmere from the Law-
rence Collection.
WORKS OF THE BEST MASTERS.
4. RAPHAEL. La Vierge au Palmier. In a circle, 3 feet 9 inches in diameter
one of two Madonnas, painted at Florence in 1506 for his friend Taddeo
Taddei, O. C. La plus Belle des Vierges, O. C. La Madonna del
Passeggio, O. C. (considered by Passavant to be by Francisco Penni).
La Vierge au Diademe (from Sir Joshua Reynolds's collection).
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 247
I. S. DEL PIOMBO. The Entombment.
I. LUINI. Female Head, O. C.
1. GIULIO ROMANO. Juno with the Infant Hercules, O. C.
4. TITIAN. Diana and Actaeon, O. C. (very fine). Diana and Calisto, O. C.
(very fine). The Four Ages of Life, O. C. Venus rising" from the Sea,
O. C.
2. PAUL VERONESE. The Judgment of Solomon. Venus bewailing the Death
of Adonis, O. C.
3. TINTORETTO. Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, O. C. The Presentation
in the Temple (small sketch). The Entombment, O. C.
I. CARAVAGGIO. Pharaoh and the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea, a very
characteristic work.
1. RIBERA (Lo SPAGNOLETTO). Christ teaching in the Temple, O. C.
3. VELAZQUEZ. Head of Himself. Philip IV. of Spain (small full-length).
Full-length Portrait of the natural son of the Duke d'Olivarez (life size).
2. SALVATOR ROSA. Les Augures (very fine).
4. CASPAR POUSSIN. Landscapes.
8. N. POUSSIN. Seven called the Seven Sacraments, O. C. These were
bought by the Regent, Philip, Duke of Orleans, for 120,000 livres ; the
Duke of Bridgewater gave 700 each for them at the Orleans sale.
Moses striking the Rock (very fine), O. C.
7. AN. CARACCI. St. Gregory at Prayer. Vision of St. Francis, O. C. Danae,
O. C. St. John the Baptist, O. C. Same subject, O. C. Christ on the
Cross, O. C. Diana and Calisto, O. C.
6. L. CARACCI. Descent from the Cross, O. C. Dream of St. Catherine. St.
Francis. A. Pieta. 2 Copies after Correggio.
5. DOMENICHINO. Christ bearing the Cross, O. C. Calisto, O. C. Ecstasy
of St. Francis, O. C. Female Saint. Landscape, O. C.
2. GUIDO. Infant Christ sleeping on the Cross, O. C. Assumption of the
Virgin (altar-piece).
2. GUERCINO. David and Abigail, O. C. Saints adoring the Trinity (study).
2. PANNINI. Interior of St. Peter's, Rome. Interior of a Picture Gallery.
5. BERGHEM.
6. RUYSDAEL. Landscapes, woods, and waterfalls.
4. CLAUDE. Morning (a little picture). Morning, with the story of Apuleius.
Evening, Moses before the Burning Bush. Morning (composition picture).
5. REMBRANDT. Samuel and Eli. Portrait of Himself. Portrait of a Burgo-
master. Portrait of a Lady. Head of a Man.
3. RUBENS. St. Theresa (sketch of the large picture in the Museum at
Antwerp). Mercury bearing Hebe to Olympus. Lady with a fan in her
hand (half-length).
1. VAN DYCK. The Virgin and Child.
2. BACKHUYSEN. View near Amsterdam. View of the Texel.
6. CUYP. Five Landscapes. Landing of Prince Maurice at Dort (very fine).
7. VANDERVELDE. Rising of the Gale (very fine). Entrance to the Brill. A
Calm. Two Naval Battles. A Fresh Breeze. View of the Texel.
8. TENIERS. Dutch Kermis or Village Fair (76 figures). Village Wedding.
Winter Scene in Flanders. The Traveller. Ninepins. Alchymist in
his Study. Two Interiors.
2. JAN STEEN. The Schoolmaster (very fine). The Fishmonger.
6. A. OSTADE. Interior of a Cottage. Lawyer in his Study. Village Alehouse.
Dutch Peasant drinking a Health. Tric-Trac. Dutch Courtship.
3. G. Dow. Interior, with his own Portrait (very fine). Portrait of Himself.
A Woman selling Herrings.
I. TF.RBURG. Young Girl in white satin drapery.
I. N. MAES. A Girl at work (very fine).
3. HOBBEMA.
3. METZU. The Halt. Lady with Spaniel. Woman selling Herrings.
248 BRIDGEWATER HOUSE
4. PHILIP WOUVERMANS. Three Landscapes, with figures ; the fourth, a very
fine picture. Cavalry attacking Infantry.
i. PETER WOUVERMANS.
I. PAUL POTTER. Oxen in a Meadow (small).
i. (Unknown.) The Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, bought at the sale at
Stowe, in 1848, for 355 guineas. It belonged to Sir W. Davenant the
poet, Betterton the actor, and Mrs. Barry the actress.
i. DOBSON. Head of Cleveland the Poet.
i. REYNOLDS. Lord and Lady Clive with Child and Hindoo Nurse, colour
very fine.
1. GAINSBOROUGH. Landscape, Cows in a Meadow.
2. RICHARD WILSON, R.A. Replica of the Niobe in the National Gallery, and
a small landscape.
I. G. S. NEWTON, R.A. Young Lady hiding her face in grief.
i. J. M. W. TURNER, R. A. Gale at Sea (nearly as fine as the fine Vandervelde
in this collection, Rising of the Gale), as a companion to (or in competition
with) which it was painted.
I. F. STONE. Scene from Philip Van Artevelde.
i. PAUL DELAROCHE. Charles I. in the Guard-room, insulted by the soldiers
of the Parliament.
Of the sculpture the most noteworthy is Foley's charming group of
Ino with the Infant Bacchus.
The house stands on the site of what was once Berkshire House,
then Cleveland House, and afterwards Bridgewater House. In the
supplemental volume to Roscoe's edition of Pope's Works (p. 114)
there is a letter addressed " To Mr. Pope, to be left with Mr. Jervasse,
at Bridgewater House, in Cleveland Court, St. James's." Cleveland
House was bought by the first Duke of Bridgewater in 1730, after
which it was called sometimes Bridgewater and sometimes Cleveland
House. [See Berkshire House and Cleveland House.]
Bridgewater Square, BARBICAN (north side).
A new, pleasant, though very small square on the east side of Aldersgate Street.
Hatton, 1708, p. ii.
Bridgewater Square, a very handsome open place, with very good buildings, well
inhabited. The middle is neatly enclosed with palisado pales and set round with
trees, which renders the place very delightful ; and where the square is, stood the
house of the Earl of Bridgewater. Strype, B. iii. p. 93.
The Earl of Bridgewater's house fronted Barbican ; the grounds ex-
tended northwards, and are marked by BRIDGEWATER GARDENS (now
Fann Street), north of Bridgewater Square. Both Square and Gardens
have been partially cleared away in the course of recent improvements.
Brill (The), SOMERS TOWN. Stukeley, 1 the antiquary, imagined
that he had discovered, in a place called The Brill^ extending north-
ward from the New Road (now the Euston Road) to (old) St Pancras
Church, the distinct traces of a Roman camp, 500 paces long and 400
wide, "the praetorium, still very plain," being "over against the church,"
and the Fleet river flowing through its midst. The camp, the ardent
antiquary had no difficulty in persuading himself, was that in which
Julius Caesar lodged his army of 40,000 men, and "made the two
British kings friends Casvelhan and his nephew Mandubrace." And
1 ftinerariunt, vol. ii. p. i.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY 249
not only was he able to assign the place where were Caesar's quarters,
but those of his generals, M. Crassus, Cominus, etc. His description
is accompanied by a plan in which all the arrangements of the camp
as well as the surface of the country are fully set forth. Stukeley was
greatly enamoured of his discovery, and says, " Whenever I take a walk
thither, I enjoy a visionary scene of the whole Camp of Caesar as
described in the plate before us ; a scene just as if beheld, and Caesar
present." There can be no doubt that the whole was a "vision."
No subsequent antiquary confirmed the discovery, though it must be
confessed that as late as 1827 Mr. Joseph Fussell, an excellent artist
in his way, sketched what he supposed to be the prsetorium. 1 Lysons
thought it " not improbable that the moated areas near the church were
the sites of the vicarage and rectory house ; which in a Survey of the
parish of Pancras, bearing date 1251, are described as two area, onQprope
ecclesiam, the other ad aquilonem ecclesice." 2 Others have supposed that
the lines Stukeley saw were traces of the entrenchments thrown up by
the Londoners beyond the Duke of Bedford's house during the Long
Parliament ; but neither that nor the " battery and breastwork on the
hill east of Black Mary's Hole," as laid down on the Plan of the Parlia-
mentary Fortifications, agrees with Stukeley's very precise description.
However it may be, all traces of entrenchments have long since been
cleared away. When Stukeley wrote (October 1768) "three or four
sorry houses commemorated the name of the Brill." But a few years
later (about 1768) Somers Town began to be built and the Brill
proper (the fields by the New Road) was quickly covered with houses ;
its name was " commemorated " in Brill Place, Brill Terrace, Brill Row,
and Brill Crescent, and until quite recently the district was popularly
known as The Brill. It was a region of small shops and mean houses,
and on Saturday nights, at the eastern end, there was usually a sort of
costermonger's market with cheap jacks, itinerant auctioneers, vendors
of second-hand wares, and the like. But the formation of the great
terminus and viaduct of the Midland Railway and the clearance for
the road and works west of it have swept away that end of the Brill
and altered its character.
Britain's Burse. [See New Exchange.]
The first edition of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moore of Venice,
was published at The Eagle and Child in Brittans Bursse, 1662.
Britannia Theatre, HIGH STREET, HOXTON, built, 1858, on the
site of the Britannia Tea Gardens. A favourite east-end house, excel-
lently built for sight and hearing.
British and Foreign Bible Society. [See Bible Society.]
British and Foreign Sailors' Society (including the " Port of
London Society," and " Bethel Union Society "), for promoting the
educational, moral, and religious improvement of seamen. Office,
Sailors' Institute, Mercers Street, Shadwell.
1 It is engraved in Hone's Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 1119. 2 Environs, vol. ii. p. 613.
250 BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY
British and Foreign School Society. A large educational
institution ; its central extensive buildings are at the corner of the
Borough Road, Southwark, and of Lancaster Street, so named after its
founder, Joseph Lancaster. The principles of teaching, long known as
the Lancasterian system, were Christian and unsectarian. "As a Quaker,"
he said, "I cannot teach your creeds, but I pledge myself not to
teach my own." About 1798 he began, as a youth, teaching poor
children in a room of his father's in Kent Street. He then, with the aid
of Friends, among whom were Mrs. Fry, the Stranges, and the Sterrys,
went to Newington Causeway, and finally to the Borough Road. At
length George III. and many other distinguished people, among
whom was Sydney Smith, gave him substantial help. Fitted by his
zeal to begin and to found such a great work, he yet lacked the judg-
ment to manage a great system, as he did also the management of
money matters ; so, although personally respected, the schools passed
out of his hands. Mr. Lancaster was unhappily killed by a waggon in
New York in 1858, being then sixty years of age. In the year 1859
these British Schools, as they were now called, had been the means of
training some sixteen hundred teachers, and of affording instruction to
about a million and a half of children. The success of the teachers
was most remarkable in imbuing their scholars with the power and
love of self-education.
The extent of the work has now become enormous, and can be best
known through the perusal of the more recent reports of the Society.
British Coffee House, COCKSPUR STREET, existed as early as
1722, and was kept in 1759 by the sister of Bishop Douglas (ot
Salisbury), so well known for his works against Lauder and Bower, who
is described by Lord Brougham 1 as "a person of excellent manners
and abilities." Her successor, a Mrs. Anderson, is said in Mackenzie's
Life of Home to have been " a woman of uncommon talents and the
most agreeable conversation." Robertson, the historian, dates a letter
from here, April 20, 1759. The house was then, and indeed long
after, much frequented by Scotchmen.
The Argyll [Archibald, third Duke of Argyll] carried all the Scotch against the
turnpike : they were willing to be carried, for the Duke of Bedford, in case it should
have come into the Lords, had writ to the sixteen Peers to solicit their votes ; but
with so little deference, that he enclosed all the letters under one cover, directed to
the British Coffee House ! Horace Walpole to Mann, February 25, 1750.
It was rebuilt in 1770. The design, by Robert Adam, was con-
sidered of high merit and a good architectural facade.
Lord Campbell belonged to a club of Scotchmen called The Beeswing,
who met here.
It consisted of about ten men, who met once a month at the British Coffee
House to dine and drink port wine. Spankie, Dr. Haslam, author of several
treatises on insanity, Andrew Grant, a merchant of great literary acquirements, and
George Gordon, known about town as "the man of wit," were members, and the
1 Reign of George III., Men of Letters.
BRITISH MUSEUM 251
conversation was as good as I ever joined in ; but the drinking was tremendous.
Life of John Lord Campbell, vol. i. p. 411.
The building was pulled down in 1886, and shops have been built
on the site.
British Institution, 52 PALL MALL (for promoting the Fine Arts
in the United Kingdom; founded June 4, 1805, opened January 18,
1806), was built by Alderman Boydell, to contain the pictures com-
posing his celebrated Shakespeare Gallery. The building and its con-
tents being subsequently disposed of by lottery (January 28, 1805), the
gallery and many of the capital works of art, forming the principal
prize, were won by Mr. Tassie of Leicester Square, who, selling his new
acquisition by auction in the following May, the lease of the gallery
was bought for the sum of ^4500 by several noblemen and gentlemen,
patrons of the Fine Arts and the British Institution established in
consequence. Two exhibitions were held in the course of every year
one of living artists in the winter, and one of old masters in the
summer. On the foundation of the Institution Valentine Green, the
celebrated mezzotint engraver, accepted the office of keeper, which he
held till his death in 1813.
During the years 1808-1842 premiums varying in amount from
^40 to j,2 1 o were given to exhibitors whose paintings were considered
by the Directors to merit that distinction, ^6080 being in all thus
bestowed; ^9699 expended in the purchase of pictures, and ^462 in
the purchase of busts. 1 The Institution continued till the end of 1866,
when it was dissolved, its functions during the last twenty years having
been limited to the holding of its two annual exhibitions. The ex-
nibition of works of the old masters is now carried on by the Royal
Academy in its winter exhibition. The gallery in Pall Mall was sold
by auction April 6, 1867, and pulled down in 1868. A new building
was erected on the site, and is occupied by the Marlborough Club.
British Museum, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBURY. The
British Museum originated in an offer to Parliament, found in the will
of Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753), of the whole of his collection for
^20,000 ^30,000 less than it was said to have cost him. The offer
was accepted, and an Act passed in 1753, entitled "An Act for the
purchase of the Museum or Collection of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., and
of the Harleian Collection of MSS., and for providing one general re-
pository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said
Collection, and of the Cottonian Library, and of the additions thereto."
In pursuance of this Act the sum of ^300,000 was raised by a
Lottery; ,20,000 paid for the Sloane Museum, ^10,000 to the
Duchess of Portland, heiress of the second Earl of Oxford, for the
Harleian Collection of MSS., and ^"10,250 to the Earl of Halifax for
Montague House (which see) in Bloomsbury a mansion at that time
sufficient for all the resources of the Museum. ^12,873 was expended
upon repairs to the house. The Cotton Library, mentioned in the
1 Thomas Smith, Recollections of the British Institution.
252 BRITISH MUSEUM
Act, famous for its historical manuscripts, was presented to the nation
in 1700, and narrowly escaped complete destruction in the fire at Ash-
burnham House in 1731. The Harleian Collection comprised about
6000 volumes of manuscripts collected by Robert Harley, Earl of Ox-
ford. The collections in Montague House were opened to the public
January 15, 1759, for three hours a day. A visit to the Museum was,
however, a formidable undertaking. Previous application had, in the
first place, to be made in writing ; " which writing shall contain the
applicants' names, condition, and places of abode, also the day and
hour at which they desire to be admitted." " If the applications are
approved by the principal librarian, the applicants, on applying at the
porter's lodge at the time named, will receive printed tickets enabling
them to see the collections," but "no more than ten tickets are to be
delivered out for each hour of admittance, which tickets when brought
by the respective persons therein named are to be shown to the porter ;
who is thereupon to direct them to a proper room appointed for their
reception till their hour of seeing the Museum be come, at which time
they are to deliver their tickets to the proper officer of the- first
department : and that five of the persons producing such tickets be
attended by the under librarian, and the other five by the assistant
in each department. . . . That the spectators may view the Museum
in a regular order, they are first to be conducted through the apartment
of manuscripts and medals; then the department of natural and
artificial productions ; and afterwards the department of printed books,
by the particular officer of each department." During the hour "each
company" is to "keep together in that room in which the officer
who attends them shall then be," and at the end of the hour they
must "remove out of the apartment, to make room for fresh com-
panies." By this means sixty persons at most could visit the Museum
in a day a curious contrast to the present time, when on a public
holiday it has been visited by from 30,000 to 40,000 persons. These
stringent regulations continued in force for nearly half a century. In
1808 the rule was that on the first four days of the week "120
persons may be admitted to view the Museum in eight companies
of fifteen each," but whether tickets were required is not stated in the
Official Guide the first issued. In 1810 the Museum was opened
on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from ten to four, and " any person
of decent appearance who may apply between the hours of ten and two "
was to be admitted without a ticket. It is now opened free every
day under the conditions stated at the end. Large acquisitions of
antiquities in 1801 and 1805 led to the establishment of a separate
department of antiquities, and a new edifice of thirteen rooms built
in the garden was opened in 1807. The Elgin Marbles obtained
in 1816 were exhibited in a wooden shed. The acquisition of George
III.'s library in 1821 made further additions necessary, and Sir Robert
Smirke designed the large room called the King's Library, which
formed part of a general plan for rebuilding the whole Museum.
BRITISH MUSEUM 253
This plan was proceeded with in sections, and it was not till 1845 tnat
Montague House was finally demolished. The new portico was
finished in April 19, 1847, but the building was not completed till
some years later. The British Museum is a large quadrangular edifice
previous to the erection of the Houses of Parliament the largest
secular building in London. The principal front, facing Great Russell
Street, has a grand central recessed octastyle Ionic portico, with pro-
jecting columned wings, the facade thus forming a colonnade of forty-
four lofty Ionic columns. The pediment is filled with sculpture. As
a whole the exterior is the noblest example of a great classic building
in London, but, as has been but too commonly the case with such
buildings, the interior is but indifferently adapted for the purposes
for which it was designed. Alterations and additions made from
time to time have lessened somewhat its original incapacity, and the
recent removal of the geological and botanical collections to South
Kensington has afforded increased space for the display of the
remaining collections. The original building comprised four ranges
of apartments, enclosing a large open quadrangle, and flanked east
and west by official residences. The unaccommodating character of
the building showed itself as the collections increased, and additional
room had to be provided by erecting the Elgin Saloon and the
Assyrian and other galleries on the west of the main edifice, and
extensions for the library, etc., in other directions, to the injury,
doubtless, of the rectangular symmetry of the original plan, but greatly
facilitating the general arrangements. But the greatest innovation
was the conversion of the central quadrangle into a Reading Room,
and covering it with a dome which serves to indicate the site of
the British Museum in a general view of London from any of the
surrounding heights.
The government of the Museum is vested in 49 trustees 24
by virtue of their offices ; i by the appointment of the Queen ; 9
representing the Sloane, Cotton, Harley, Townley, Elgin, and Payne
Knight families; and 15 chosen by the other 34. The chief
officer is the Principal Librarian, under whom each department has
its respective head or keeper. The collections of the British
Museum have been largely the result of a succession of munificent
Gifts and Bequests, of which the following are among the more
important : Sir John Cotton, the Cotton MSS. and Charters formed
by his grandfather, Sir Robert Cotton, and presented to the country
in 1700. Major Arthur Edwards bequeathed (1738) his collection
of books, and the interest of ^7000 to the trustees of the Cotton
Library. George II. gave the Royal Library of the Kings of England, 1
consisting of about 10,500 volumes. George III. the great Thomason
1 With the gift of the Royal Library the royal Copyright Act, 8 Anne. Bentley (as Royal
privilege of receiving gratuitously a copy of every Librarian) complained that the Act was evaded,
book printed in the British dominions passed to By the new Copyright Act of 1842 pre-eminence
the British Museum. The privilege was granted was given to the Museum,
to the Crown, 14 Charles II., and renewed by the
254 BRITISH MUSEUM
Collection of about 30,000 civil war pamphlets and various Egyptian
antiquities. David Garrick, collection of old plays. Dr. Thomas Birch,
books and MSS. Dr. Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter, Irish MSS.
Sir William Hamilton, Greek and Roman antiquities. The Royal
Society, their Museum of Curiosities, etc. Thomas Tyrwhitt, books.
Rev. C. M. Cracherode, books, prints, etc., to the value of ,40,000.
Sir William Musgrave, books, MSS., prints. Captain James Cook,
his collection formed in the South Sea Islands. R. Payne Knight,
books, bronzes, and drawings. Sir Joseph Banks, books, including
16,000 volumes on natural history, ethnographical collections, and
botanical specimens. George IV., library formed by George III.
Right Hon. Thomas Grenville (1846), library, consisting of 20,240
volumes, acquired at a cost of about ,54,000. Peregrine Townley,
Esq., ancient bronzes and pottery. The Earl of Aberdeen, cuneiform
inscriptions, bas-reliefs, Greek sculptures. Dorothea Lady Banks,
the collections formed by Miss Banks, of books, mediaeval and
modern coins and medals, and trade tokens. J. F. Hull, Chinese
printed books and Oriental MSS. Sir Gore Ouseley, the Persepolitan
Marbles. East India Company, 1829-1860, zoological collections.
Francis Henry Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, bequest, 1829, of his
collection of MSS., and endowment for the maintenance and aug-
mentation of the collection. John Doubleday, 2433 casts of medi-
aeval seals. Edward, thirteenth Earl of Derby, 1836-1850, zoological
collection. Governors of the Welsh School and the Cymmrodorion
Society, two large collections of Welsh MSS. Rev. Richard T.
Lowe, complete collection of fishes and shells of Madeira, and general
collection of shells. Major William Yule's collection of Persian,
Arabic, and Hindustani MSS. William Smith, 1853, collection
of caricatures and sketches by Gillray and others. Right Hon.
Sir William Temple, 1856, extensive collection of bronzes, vases,
marbles, and antiquities. Lady Raffles, bequest of the Javanese collec-
tions formed by Sir Stamford Raffles. Entomological Society, 1863,
the Kirby Collection of insects. Linnaean Society, the Banksian Col-
lection of insects. Trustees of Henry Christy (1864-1887), great
collection of prehistoric antiquities, etc. A. W. Franks, M.A., C.B.,
F.R.S. (1855-1887), Egyptian, Greek, Roman, British, Anglo-Saxon,
and mediaeval antiquities, medals, coins, a large collection of Chinese and
Japanese pottery and porcelain, Italian majolica, Palissy and Sgraffito
ware, etc. etc. D. E. Colnaghi, collection of terra-cottas from Cyprus.
Felix Slade, bequest of large collection of MSS., prints, glass, and
works of ornamental art. Sir C. W. Dilke, collection of Pope's
Letters, editions of his works and books illustrative of his life and
writings, and of the Junius Controversy, formed by his grandfather,
Charles Dilke, editor of the Athetiaum. Bank of England (1877),
collection of coins and medals of all classes. John Henderson,
bequest (1878) of pottery, glass, metal-work, Oriental arms, and water-
colour drawings by Turner, Girtin, Cox, etc. Secretary of State for
BRITISH MUSEUM 255
India (1879), zoological specimens, nearly 10,000 in number; ancient
Indian sculptures ; and copies of paintings from the Ajunta Caves
all from the Indian Museum. The Rev. William Greenwell, F.R.S.
(1879-1883), collection of antiquities excavated by the donor in 234
British barrows, and collection of flint instruments from Norfolk.
William Burges, A.R.A., bequeathed a selection from his antiquities
(chiefly European and Oriental armour) and illuminated manuscripts.
In 1886-1887 trie Earl of Chichester presented a large collection
of papers connected with the Pelham family, including the official,
political, private, and domestic correspondence ; and papers of Thomas,
Duke of Newcastle, First Lord of the Treasury, 1754-1762; and
correspondence and papers of the first and second Earls of Chichester.
William White bequeathed a sum of 65,411, expended in building
an east wing, called the White Wing.
Additional Purchases of vases, bronzes, etc. Besides the purchases
already recorded the following should be noticed: 1772, Sir William
Hamilton's collection, 8400. 1805, Townley Marbles, ,28,200;
bronzes, coins, and gems, 8200. 1814-1815, Elgin Marbles, ,35,000.
1815-1816, Phigalian Marbles, 19,000 ; 1818, Dr. Burney's MSS.,
13,500; Lansdowne MSS., 4925; Arundel MSS., 3559 : 3 s -
1845, the marbles recovered by Sir Charles Fellows from the buried
cities of Lycia. 1851-1860, the Assyrian sculptures and antiquities,
the result of the researches and excavations of Sir A. H. Layard. 1855,
mediaeval antiquities from the Bernal sale. 1856, Mr. W. MaskelPs
collection of carved ivories. 1856-1857, the sculptures from
Budrum, chiefly the remains of the mausoleum at Halikarnassos,
recovered by Sir C. T. Newton. 1861, marbles from excavations
at Cyrene. 1864, sculpture, purchased from the Farnese Palace at
Rome. 1863-1875, architectural remains and sculpture recovered by
Mr. J. T. Wood from the temple of Diana at Ephesus. 1865, large
purchases of objects of ornamental art at the sale of the Pourtales
Collection. 1866, the Blacas Collection of Greek, Roman, and
Etruscan antiquities. 1867, Mr. E. Hawkins's collection of political
prints. 1872-1873, the collections of Alessandro Castellani, chiefly
antique jewellery and ornamental art. 1872, Greek and Roman coins
from the collection of Mr. E. Wigan, 10,000. 1877, the fine
collection of prints and drawings, maps, plans, and views of London,
formed by the late Mr. F. Grace.
By the transference of the Natural History Collections to the
buildings at South Kensington, room was obtained for the crowded
collections of the Departments of Antiquities, and these collections
were at once rearranged. The opening of the White Wing has caused
considerable further alteration, and the removal of the Print Depart-
ment to this wing has left the space occupied by the old Print Room
on the north-west staircase available for the enlargement of accom-
modation for the Greek and Roman Antiquities. The galleries are
still (1888) in course of rearrangement, and it is therefore useless to
256 BRITISH MUSEUM
refer specifically to the contents of rooms which may at any time be
changed. A general idea therefore of the contents of the various
departments only is given here, and further information as to the
exact position of the different rooms must be sought for in the
Official Guide, which is frequently reprinted.
The General Arrangement of the Museum collections is, broadly,
as follows: Ground Floor. Passing under the portico into the
Entrance Hall in front is the Reading Room ; on the right are the
Printed Book and Manuscript Departments ; on the left the Depart-
ments of Antiquities. On this side, along the front of the building,
are the Roman Gallery and the Grseco- Roman Saloons. Parallel with
these are the Archaic Greek Room and the Assyrian Transept,
from which are entrances to the Assyrian and the Egyptian Rooms.
These last occupy the whole of the western range of the original
building, and form a noble suite 300 feet long and 40 feet wide,
corresponding in dimensions to the King's Library, which extends the
whole length of the building. West of and parallel with the Egyptian
Saloons are the Ephesus Room, the Elgin Room, the Hellenic Room,
the Mausoleum Room, and the Assyrian Galleries. The northern range
of rooms is appropriated to the Library and is not open to the public.
The Upper Floor is reached by the principal staircase (on the left
of the entrance), along which are ranged various Indian sculptures from
the great Buddhist tope at Amaravati. The staircase leads directly
into the Prehistoric Saloon. Along this south side of the building are
the Terra -Cotta Room, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo -Roman Rooms,
Mediaeval Room, and Asiatic Saloon. The eastern half of this floor is
devoted to the Ethnographical Rooms; the western to the Vase
Rooms and Bronze Rooms. The north portion of the upper
floor is occupied by the northern galleries, and north of these are
the Assyrian Room and the Egyptian Rooms.
THE EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES
The Egyptian antiquities the finest collection in Europe "con-
stitute on the whole the most widely extended series in the range of
antiquity, ascending to at least 2000 years before the Christian era,
and closing with the Mohammedan invasion of Egypt, A.D. 640."
The larger objects are arranged as far as practicable in chronological
order in the suite of galleries on the ground floor, and the smaller
objects in rooms on the upper floor. On the ground floor is the famous
Rosetta Stone a tablet of black basalt, having cut in it three inscrip-
tions of like purport, two of them Egyptian, in hieroglyphic and enchorial
characters, the third in Greek, a circumstance which furnished Dr.
Young with the key to the interpretation of the Egyptian characters.
The tablet was captured from the French in a vessel which was con-
veying it from Egypt to the Louvre. The inscription is "A decree
of the priesthood at Memphis in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes about
the year B.C. 196." Sarcophagus of King Nectanebo I. (B.C. 378-360),
BRITISH MUSEUM 257
with inside and out elaborate incised representations of various divinities;
also two obelisks erected by that monarch before the Temple of Tholh
at Cairo. Sarcophagus of the Queen of Amasis II. (B.C. 538-527).
Statue of Menephthah II. on his throne, with a ram's head on his knees.
Colossal fist, in red granite ; from one of the statues which stood
before the Temple of Phtah at Memphis. Colossal granite heads from
the Memnonium at Thebes. Between the columns at the entrance
to the Northern Gallery a granite statue of Rameses II. on one side,
on the other a wooden statue of Sethos I.
Statues in black granite of King Horus. Two seated statues in
black granite of King Amenophis III., from Thebes. Two colossal
heads of the same king, found near the statue of the vocal Memnon.
Two lions, couchant, in red granite, in the most perfect style of
Egyptian art, from Nubia. Colossal ram's head, from an avenue of
ram-headed sphinxes at Karnak. Colossal head of King Thothmes
III., discovered by Belzoni at Karnak in 1818. Statues of the
cat-headed goddess Sechet. In the central recess of the east side
of the northern gallery is fixed the Abydos Tablet, discovered by Mr.
Bankes in a chamber of the Temple at Abydos, which has been "of
great value in determining the names and successions of the kings of
various dynasties." Notice here the curious contemporary paintings of
scenes of ancient Egyptian court and domestic life. In the vestibule
are arranged smaller objects of great interest to the Egyptian student.
On the staircase Egyptian papyri, documents of various kinds, with
inscription written in hieroglyphics, in the hieratic or court hand, and
in demotic or enchorial, the Egyptian cursive hand used for ordinary
everyday purposes.
In the Egyptian Rooms on the upper floor are arranged smaller
objects of great variety, interest, and value, "acquired mainly by
purchase from the collections of M. Anastasi, Mr. Salt, Mr. Sams,
and Mr. Lane, and by donations from H.R.H. the Prince of Wales,
the Duke of Northumberland, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and other
travellers in Egypt." They are classified under Objects relating to
the religion of the Egyptians ; those relating to their civil and domestic
life, death and burial ; and include representations of deities and sacred
animals ; statuettes and small figures in gold, silver, bronze, porcelain,
etc. ; votive offerings, amulets, household furniture, articles of dress and
the toilette ; personal ornaments, bronze mirrors, vases of Oriental
alabaster, serpentine, bronze, porcelain, terra-cotta, etc.; agricultural
implements, armour, weapons, and implements of war ; artistic and
writing implements, baskets, bronze tools, musical instruments, games
(draughtboard, draughtmen, etc.), children's playthings, etc. ; animal
mummies, human mummies, sepulchral ornaments, sepulchral tablets
of painted wood, models of mummies, boats, etc., from the tombs, etc.,
many of the greatest curiosity, and exhibiting the various modes of
embalming practised by the Egyptians, and the various degrees of care
and splendour expended on the bodies of different ranks. Worthy of
VOL. i s
258 BRITISH MUSEUM
special observation are models of Egyptian boats, Egyptian wig, model
of a house, etc. ; stand with cooked waterfowl, coffin and body of
Menkara (Mycerinus), builder of the third pyramid. The fine mummy
of Hornetatef, high priest of Amen, coffins in the centre of the room,
and mummies of sacred animals in the wall cases.
ASSYRIAN COLLECTIONS
The Assyrian Collections comprise the sculptures excavated on the
site of the ancient Nineveh by Mr. (now Sir A. H.) Layard in 1847-
1850 ; those excavated on and near the same region by Mr. Hormuzd
Rassam and Mr. W. K. Loftus, 1853-1855 ; the collections excavated
or obtained by Mr. George Smith in 1873-1876; and those excavated
by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam in 1878-1880. The collections are arranged
in apartments on the west of the Egyptian Galleries, extending north
and south for over 300 feet, with a transept and a basement room,
and an Assyrian room on the upper floor.
In the Kouyunjik Gallery are the bas-reliefs obtained by Mr.
Layard in 1849-1850 from the palace of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik,
afterwards occupied by his grandson, Assur-banipal, who reigned
towards the end of the 7th century B.C. The earlier slabs are of
alabaster, the later of a harder limestone. All have been more or less
injured by fire, and "many of the slabs reached this country in 300 or
400 pieces." They have been most skilfully pieced together, but, very
properly, without any attempt at restoration. Those on the west side
are of the beginning of the 7th century B.C., and illustrate the wars of
Sennacherib, representing his campaigns, sieges of fortified cities,
triumphs, processions of captives (Jews occupying a prominent place),
tribute bearers, preparations for a banquet, etc. Later slabs represent
battles, receptions of ambassadors, torture of captives, etc. On other
slabs are depicted cities, buildings in course of erection and completed,
the method of conveying the colossal human -headed bull, procession
of captives with spoil, etc. In the centre of the room is an obelisk
of white calcareous stone, discovered at Kouyunjik by Mr. Rassam.
Small bas-reliefs on the sides represent the exploits of Assur-nazir-pal,
who reigned two centuries before Sennacherib. In the table cases are
iron and bronze bracelets, fetters, and swords, terra-cotta tablets with
cuneiform inscriptions ; various antiquities excavated by Mr. George
Smith ; seals, engraved stones, and cylinders of hard stone, one with
the name of Nebuchadnezzar, B.C. 600, and one (of about B.C. 120)
inscribed " I am Darius the great king," in Persian, Median, and
Assyrian.
In the Nimroud Central Saloon commence the series ot sculptures
procured by Mr. Layard in 1847 and 1850 from the great mound at
Nimroud. The bas-reliefs represent warlike scenes, sieges, the evacua-
tion of a captured city, the impaling of captives, the monarch in his
chariot, and various quadrupeds, executed with remarkable spirit and
fidelity. Between the two central pilasters is an obelisk of black marble,
BRITISH MUSEUM 259
found near the centre of the great mound, which Dr. Birch describes
as
One of the most important historical monuments which have been recovered from
Assyria. ... It is decorated with five tiers of bas-reliefs, each continued round the
sides ; and the unsculptured surface is covered with cuneiform inscriptions, which
record the annals of Shalmaneser II. for thirty-one years, commencing about B.C.
860. The bas-reliefs illustrate the presentation of offerings to the king by his
numerous tributaries, and the inscriptions record the names of the donors, amongst
whom are Jehu, "of the house of Omri," the Israelitish king, and Hazael, the
contemporary king of Syria."
Here are also the head of a human-headed bull more colossal in scale
than any yet brought to Europe ; and two other bulls, similar in char-
acter, but smaller. Statues of the god Nebo excavated by Mr. Rassam,
of about B.C. 780, and many other interesting objects. By the entrance
to the Kouyunjik Gallery is a colossal lion covered with inscriptions.
With a companion figure it guarded the doorway of a temple, and,
as will be noticed, has five legs, a device to make it appear perfect,
whether looked at in front or at the side.
In the Nimroud Gallery is the series of slabs discovered by Sir A.
H. Layard. These are among the largest and most perfect we possess,
and should be examined for their multiplicity of detailed representation
and beauty of execution. Their range of subjects is wider than in
those just noticed, and an attentive consideration of them recalls
Assyrian life with singular vividness to the spectator. The smaller
antiquities domestic, commercial, military and religious in the table
cases in the centre of the room confirm and strengthen the impression
produced by the bas-reliefs.
The Phoenician room (containing a cast of the Moabite stone) leads
to the Assyrian Basement Room, where are the sculptures excavated from
the ruins of two palaces at Kouyunjik by Mr. Rassam and Mr. Loftus.
They are of the time of Assur-banipal, or Sardanapalus, the grandson of
Sennacherib, and belong to the latest period of Assyrian art, but are
bolder, freer, and more realistic in design and of even greater delicacy
of execution than the earlier examples. Note especially the remarkable
representation of a lion-hunt on slabs 33-53, and the companion 63-74,
the Return from the Chase, where the various animals are represented
in life and vivid action, in the agony of death, and carried home as
trophies, with an accuracy of imitation, vigour, and feeling, worthy of
the greatest sculptors.
The Assyrian Transept contains the remainder of the monuments
of Assur-nazir-pal, monuments from the Palace of Sargon, and a magni-
ficent pair of colossal human-headed bulls found at Khorsabad by Sir
H. C. Rawlinson in 1849.
The bronze coverings of the gates found by Mr. Rassam at Balawat
in 1879 are m the Assyrian Room on the upper floor. The very
beautiful representations of the leading warlike incidents in the life of
Shalmaneser II., by whom they were erected B.C. 825, deserve special
attention.
260 BRITISH MUSEUM
GREEK AND ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
Lycian Remains. The sculptures and architectural remains were
brought by Sir Charles Fellows from the ancient cities of Lycia in
1842-1846. Observe. On the west side the Tomb of Paiafa, a
Lycian satrap, with pointed roof, reliefs of combats, hunting scenes,
etc., and inscriptions in Lycian characters. On the eastern side the
roof of a similar tomb, with reliefs and inscriptions. The restored
model is the Nereid Tomb, discovered by Sir C. Fellows at
Xanthus, and assigned by him to the middle of the 6th century
B.C., but which is now believed to be at least a century and a
half later. Round the room are friezes from this tomb representing'
combats between Asiatic and Greek warriors, sieges, assault and
capture of a town, submission of the vanquished, etc. There are also
fragments of statues and groups, columns, capitals, etc.
The Room of Archaic Sculpture, next to the Assyrian Transept,
contains many objects of the highest interest in the early history ot
Greek sculpture. Here are the reliefs from the Harpy Tomb which
stood on the Acropolis of Xanthus, dating not later than B.c 500.
The subjects comprise deities, harpies, warriors, and worshippers of both
sexes presenting votive offerings. (For the differing interpretations see
the Official Guide.) Ten seated statues, a lion and a sphinx, brought
by Sir C. T. Newton in 1858 from the Sacred Way leading up to the
Temple of Apollo at Branchidae. They range in date probably from
B.C. 580 to B.C. 520, and are, says Sir Charles T. Newton, "among the
earliest and most important extant specimens of Greek sculpture in
marble." One of the seated figures (No. 7) represents, as the inscrip-
tion states, Chares, ruler of Teichioussa, and is said to be " the
oldest known portrait statue in Greek art." On the back of the lion
is inscribed a dedication to Apollo. An archaic relief from the Acro-
polis, metopes, early monumental sculptures, architectural marbles and
inscriptions from Xanthus, Branchidae, Sicily, Rhodes, etc., are among
the objects of interest in this room.
In the Greek Ante-Room, between the Archaic Room and the
Ephesus Room, are a seated statue of Demeter and various fragments
of sculpture brought from the temenos of the Infernal Deities at
Knidos.
The Ephesus Room contains the sculptures and architectural
members which were found, during the years 1869-1874, by Mr. J. T.
Wood, architect, in the course of excavations on the site of the Temple
of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the world.
The Elgin Marbles are the sculptures from the Parthenon at
Athens, and so called from the Earl of Elgin, Ambassador-Extra-
ordinary to the Porte, who, in 1801, obtained two firmans for their
removal to England. The collection was purchased from the Earl of
Elgin by the Government for ^135,000 in 1816. The Parthenon,
or Temple of Athene, was erected by the architect Iktinos, B.C 45 i-
BRITISH MUSEUM 261
438 ; the sculpture with which it was ornamented was executed
under the direction of Pheidias. These sculptures are the grandest
examples extant of Greek sculpture when in its highest stage. Their
relative positions will be readily understood from Mr. R. C. Lucas's
model of the Parthenon as it appeared after the Venetian bombard-
ment in 1687, in a corner of the Elgin Room.
The Marbles are of four kinds : (i) marbles in the East Pediment ;
(2) marbles in the West Pediment ; (3) the metopes or groups which
occupied the square intervals between the raised tablets or triglyphs of
the frieze ; (4) the frieze. The processions of horsemen and chariots
are the finest examples of Greek bassi-rilievi which have come down
to us.
We possess in England the most precious examples of Grecian art. The horses
of the frieze in the Elgin Collection appear to live and move, to roll their eyes, to
gallop, prance, and curvet. The veins of their faces and legs seem distended with
circulation ; in them are distinguished the hardness and decision of bony forms, from
the elasticity of tendon and the softness of flesh. The beholder is charmed with the
deer-like lightness and elegance of their make ; and although the relief is not above
an inch from the background, and they are so much smaller than nature, we can
scarcely suffer reason to persuade us they are not alive. Flaxman.
Here are also casts of sculptures procured by Lord Elgin from the
Temple of Theseus at Athens ; sculptures, marble slabs and casts from
a frieze of the Temple of Wingless Victory at Athens ; one of the Cane-
phorae, and portions of another, with various architectural fragments from
the Erectheum ; a colossal seated statue of Dionysos which originally
surmounted the Choragic monument of Lysicrates, and various other
specimens of Athenian art. In the smaller room at the north end of
the Elgin Gallery is a noble colossal statue of a lion which originally
surmounted a Doric tomb on a promontory a little to the east of
Knidos. It was discovered by Sir Charles T. Newton in 1858.
The Hellenic Room contains " marbles which have been brought at
different times from various parts of Greece and its colonies." The
most important being the Phigalian Marbles, a series of twenty-three
bas-reliefs, so called, found, in 1812, in the ruins of the Temple ot
Apollo Epicurius, built B.C. 430 by Iktinos, the architect of the Parthe-
non, near the ancient city of Phigalia in Arcadia. The slabs i to 1 1
represent in high relief the Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithag. 12
to 23, the Battle of the Greeks and Amazons. Beneath these are
architectural fragments from the same temple. Two statues (2 and 3),
representing an athlete winding a diadem around his head, are believed
to be imitations of the famous Diadumenos of Polykleitos.
The Mausoleum Room contains the remains of the mausoleum ot
Halikarnassos, erected about B.C. 352 by Artemisia, as a memorial of her
husband Mausolus, Prince of Caria, and discovered in 1857 by Sir C.
T. Newton, late Keeper of Antiquities in the British Museum. Pythios
was the architect, and Skopas, Leochares, Bryaxis, and Timotheos, four
of the most eminent artists of the period, were the sculptors. The
structure, which was of Parian marble and richly decorated, was
BRITISH MUSEUM
reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. The remains com-
prise portions of the colossal horses from the chariot group on the
apex of the pyramid. The statue of Mausolus, and another of the
"goddess who acted as charioteer to Mausolus, or Artemisia herself
when deified," from the same group. Several portions of other statues,
more or less mutilated ; friezes representing the combats of Greeks and
Amazons, and Greeks and Centaurs, a chariot race, etc. ; and numerous
architectural fragments. Various marbles discovered by Mr. Pullan in
the Temple of Athene Polias at Prienb ; a colossal foot, female head,
inscriptions and architectural fragments.
The Roman and Graeco-Roman antiquities, including the Townley
and Payne Knight Collections, are arranged in the front (south)
galleries to the left of the Entrance Hall. The Roman Gallery contains,
under the windows, Roman antiquities found in England, altars, carved
slabs, sarcophagi, inscriptions, leaden coffins, architectural ornaments,
specimens of tessellated pavements, pigs of lead, etc. In the centre of
the gallery is an equestrian statue of Caracalla, and on the northern
wall a series of Roman portraits arranged in chronological order.
Portions of statues, rilievi, and two or three carved sarcophagi are also
in this room.
The Grace-Roman Rooms contain the collection of statues, busts
and bas-reliefs found in Italy, but mostly executed by Greek artists,
or imitations of Greek works, and some of which may be " original
Hellenic works transported by the Romans to Italy." Statue of Apollo
from the Farnese Palace. Satyr playing with the infant Bacchus, from
the same palace. Hekatb or Diana Triformis. Statue of Ceres with
the attributes of Isis. Statue of Venus. Diana. Dancing satyr.
Apollo Cytharcedus. Bacchus from Cyrene. A youthful Somnus,
from the Farnese Palace. Colossal bust of Jupiter. Busts of Minerva.
Near the Egyptian Gallery is the great vase (krater) with reliefs repre-
senting satyrs making wine.
Here are some of the most celebrated of the statues of this class
the Townley Venus found in the baths of Claudius at Ostia in 1776
(the tip of the nose, the right hand, and the left arm are restorations).
Athlete hurling, probably a copy of the bronze Diskobolos of Myron.
Busts of the Giustiniani Apollo ; the Apollo Musegetes ; Dione, and
another.
Acteon transformed by Diana into a stag. Tablet of the apotheosis
of Homer. Group representing the worship of the Persian Sun-god,
Mithras. Female bust (No. 12), the lower part of which is enclosed
in a flower, supposed by Mr. Townley to be Clyde, metamorphosed into
a sunflower, but really the portrait of a Roman lady of the Augustan
age, bought at Naples from the Lorrenzano Palace in 1772. This was
Mr. Townley's favourite marble, and is well known by copies, reduc-
tions, and casts. Colossal head of Hercules, closely resembling that
of the Farnese Hercules. Two smaller heads of the same hero.
Statues of Bacchus, Paniscus, Venus, Mercury, from the Farnese
BRITISH MUSEUM 263
Palace ; Thalia, as the Muse of Comedy ; two satyrs, two goat-legged
Pans, terminal Pan, boy extracting a thorn from his foot, group of
two boys quarrelling over the game of astragali ; torso called the
Richmond Venus.
The Grceco-Roman Basement Room contains, besides miscellaneous
objects in marble, the collection of tessellated pavements and mosaics
found at Carthage in 1856-1858, and at Halikarnassos, 1856.
The Vase Rooms are in the west wing of the upper floor. The
collection of painted fictile vases found in tombs in Italy, Greece, the
Archipelago, and other parts of the Mediterranean, is perhaps the finest
and most extensive in Europe. It comprises the vases collected by Sir
William Hamilton, Payne Knight, Townley, Durand, Burgon, Temple,
and those purchased from the Canino, Salzman, ( Bilioti, Pourtales,
Blacas, and Castellan! Collections. Here are a choice series of the
older Etruscan vases, as they are still generally called, though for
the most part the productions of Greek workmen. They include
cruciform and other archaic types, ornamented with geometrical
patterns and figures of men and animals ; others from lalysos in
Rhodes with the cuttle-fish decoration seen on the objects discovered
by Schliemann at Mycenae ; vases of the transition period, with figures
drawn in red or white on a black ground in the finer examples the
subjects chiefly being designed with great vigour and skill ; Panathenaic
amphorae, prizes, as the inscriptions on them testify, given to victors in
the famous games. Then there are vases unrivalled for shape and
beauty of drawing, the designs painted in red on a black ground, or in
colours on a white or cream ground. And, as in the First Vase Room,
the art of the Greek potter may be traced from earliest tentative
stages till it reached the nearest attainable perfection, so in the Second
Vase Room you may follow it in its first brilliant divergences, and
then along the ever- quickening decline till lost in inanity. In the
room are also arranged several series of small objects in lead, ivory,
bone, and terra-cotta, for the most part Greek or Graeco-Roman.
The vases in these rooms more particularly worthy of note are
distinguished by blue labels, and are described in the special guides to
the Vase Rooms.
The First and Second Bronze Rooms contain the Greek, Etruscan, and
Roman bronzes of the Payne Knight, Townley, Hamilton, and Sloane
Collections, to which have been added the bronzes bequeathed by Sir
William Temple and Mr. Slade, those purchased from the Blacas,
Pulzky, Castellani, and Pourtales Collections, and others acquired by
gift or purchase. The arrangement is as far as possible chronological,
and the collection, extremely valuable in itself, is thus made more
valuable to the student. It will be enough to point to a few objects
as illustrating its character. Observe. The head on the circular table
in the centre of the second room, broken from a statue, probably of
Aphrodite, of which the hand is in Case 44. It is of heroic size, the
largest of its class known, of the finest period of Greek art, and was
264 BRITISH MUSEUM
purchased from the Castellani Collection for ^8000. Archaic bronzes
in Cases 1-4, particularly a nude Venus in the attitude of that of Medi-
cis, and the earliest known of the type ; Marsyas, from Pistoia ; and
draped figure from near Prato. Statuettes in central Cases of Venus
stooping, Apollo, Mercury, Bacchus, Hercules, Meleager, etc. Choice
archaic, Greek and Etruscan bronzes in Case B ; and some exquisite
later ones in Case E. Etruscan mirrors, the incised mythological
designs often curious and interesting, in Cases A, C, D and F.
The Greek and Roman Saloon contains the later examples of vases
of the red figure style, which belong to a period covering the latter part
of the 4th and the early part of the 3d century B.C.
In an adjoining room, visitors to which have to sign their names
in a book, is the Collection of Gold Ornaments and Gems formed
by uniting the Payne Knight, Townley, Cracherode, Hamilton,
Strozzi, Blacas, and Castellani cabinets. It contains very beautiful
specimens of the jewellery and gems of ancient Egypt, Greece,
Etruria, and Rome ; and mediaeval and more recent jewellery,
arranged as far as practicable in chronological and geographical order ;
statuettes, busts and vases in silver. In one case is an interesting
collection of finger-rings. The collection of gems, intaglios, and
cameos, cover a wide range of time and country, and is of exceeding
value. On Case R in this room stands the famous Portland vase of
dark-blue glass with figures in a delicate relief in opaque white glass,
representing on one side the meeting of Thetis and Peleus on Mount
Pelion, on the other the betrothal of Thetis and Peleus in the
presence of Poseidon and Eros, and on the bottom the bust of Paris.
It is a two-handled vase, pf inches high ; was found in a marble
sarcophagus in the Monte del Grano, near Rome ; was purchased
from the Barberini Palace by Sir William Hamilton, and sold by him
to the Duchess of Portland, at whose sale in 1786 it was bought in
by the family for ,1026. In 1810 it was deposited in the British
Museum by the Duke of Portland, and has remained there ever since.
On February 7, 1845, it was smashed to pieces by a madman named
Lloyd. On putting the pieces together the bottom of the vase, with
bust of Paris, was kept apart On Case T is an alabaster jar, inscribed
" Xerxes the Great King," in Persian, Median, Assyrian, and Egyptian
characters. It was found at Halikarnassos.
BRITISH AND MEDIAEVAL ANTIQUITIES
Anglo-Saxon Room contains Anglo-Saxon antiquities, a small
collection of Teutonic remains from the Continent, and a series of
Irish relics of the same period. These consist of glass vessels,
cinerary urns, swords and long knives, and miscellaneous antiquities.
Anglo-Roman Room. The antiquities in 'this room illustrate the
Roman occupation of Britain (A.D. 43-410), and consist of sepulchral
pottery, glass, metalwork, sculpture, painted stucco, pavements, personal
ornaments, pottery found in England on the site of kilns, pigs of lead, etc.
BRITISH MUSEUM 265
The Prehistoric Saloon is situated at the head of the principal stair-
case. It is intended to contain the collections of prehistoric remains,
but at present (1888) the only portion arranged is the Greenwell
Collection presented in 1879 by tne R v - William Greenwell, F.R.S.
The objects were excavated by him during twenty years of explorations
in ancient British barrows (as recorded in his work on British Barrows,
1877). Out of this saloon runs, to the east (opposite the staircase)
The Mediozval Room containing a fine collection of arms and
armour chiefly derived from a bequest made in 1881 by Mr. William
Burges, A.R.A.; specimens of Oriental metalwork from the i3th century
downwards, inlaid with silver or gold, chiefly bequeathed by Mr. John
Henderson, F.S.A., 1878; a curious collection of astrolabes, sundials,
and old clocks and watches ; a very fine series of LimogeS enamels ;
carvings in ivory and other materials ; objects used in games, such as
a set of chessmen of about the middle of the i2th century, made
of walrus tusk ; draughtmen and inlaid backgammon boards. In
1888 the bequest of Mr. Octavius Morgan's remarkably complete col-
lection of clocks, watches, and dials was added. On the walls are
hung portraits, the remainder of a large collection formerly in the
Museum, of which the greater part was transferred to the National
Portrait Gallery and a small number to the National Gallery.
POTTERY AND GLASS
The Asiatic Saloon contains illustrations of various eastern mytho-
logies. One half of the room is occupied by Oriental porcelain and
pottery. These ceramic collections from Japan and China have been
chiefly presented by Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B., F.R.S. They are of
great historical importance as well as of distinguished beauty.
Out of the Asiatic Gallery the visitor turns to the right into the
English Ceramic Ante-Room, which gives access to the new galleries in
the White Building. This ante-room contains a collection of Early
English pottery, ranging in date from Norman times to about 1500 ; a
collection of slipware and other glazed wares of the i6th and two
following centuries ; Staffordshire pottery ; pavement tiles dating from
the 1 3th to the i6th century; Fulham stoneware by Dwight; and a
matchless collection of English porcelain, including specimens of Bow,
Chelsea, Derby- Chelsea, Derby, Plymouth, Bristol, Lowestoft, Wor-
cester, Liverpool, Nantgarw, etc.
The Glass and Ceramic Gallery (in the White Building) contains
the rest of the English Collection and the pottery of various foreign
countries, and the collection of glass of all ages and countries.
The English collection of pottery consists of Staffordshire wares,
Wedgwood, Bristol Delft and the Delft -wares of Lambeth. The
collection of Wedgwood ware is very fine, and includes a large number
of medallion portraits.
In the cases on the north side of the gallery are specimens of Dutch
and German Delft, German pottery and stoneware, Italian pottery,
266 BRITISH MUSEUM
Italian majolica, Spanish pottery, Rhodian and Damascus ware ;
Persian pottery and French pottery at the end of the room. In the
cases on the south side of the gallery is arranged chronologically the
matchless collection of glass, largely consisting of Mr. Felix Slade's
munificent bequest. Some of the choicest specimens of antique glass
were bequeathed by Sir William Temple in 1856.
ETHNOGRAPHY
The Ethnographical Gallery runs along the east wing of the
building and leads to the north-east staircase. It contains the
ethnographical collections from various parts of the world, excepting
those from China and Japan, which are placed in the Asiatic Saloon,
but it includes, from want of other space, the antiquities from America.
Mr. Henry Christy's ethnographical collections, bequeathed to the
Museum in 1865 (which for several years remained in Mr. Christy's
residence in Victoria Street, Westminster), are incorporated with other
collections and the whole rearranged in a systematic manner. The
series of arms and armour is chiefly derived from the bequests of Mr.
John Henderson, F.S.A., and Mr. William Surges, A.R.A., and the
gift of a part of the Meyrick Collection by General Meyrick.
COINS AND MEDALS
This great collection has grown, by a series of purchases, bequests,
and donations, to be the largest in Europe, and now forms a separate
department, kept in rooms adjoining the Gem and Ornament Room.
The collection originated in the acquisition of the cabinets of Sir Robert
Cotton and Sir Hans Sloane. In 1802 was purchased the Anglo-Saxon
coins of Mr. S. Tyssen. The Townley Collection in 1805 and 1814;
in 1814 Mr. Edward Roberts's English coins; and in 1811 the Greek
coins of Colonel de Bosset. The rich collection of Mr. Payne Knight
was obtained by bequest in 1824 ; and in 1833 the Greek and Roman
coins collected by Mr. H. P. Borrell of Smyrna were purchased. In
1836 was received Mr. Marsden's valuable bequest of Oriental coins;
in 1856 Sir William Temple's Greek and Roman coins ; in 1861 Count
De Salis's gift of Roman coins; in 1864 Mr. Edward Wigan's costly
present of Imperial Roman gold coins, and in 1866 Mr. Woodhouse's
bequest of his Greek cabinet. The Blacas cabinet of upwards of 4000
coins, chiefly Roman gold, was purchased in 1866 ; and in 1872 a selec-
tion of the finest specimens in the Wigan Collection was purchased for
^10,000. Finally, in 1877, "a very important addition was made to
the collection by the donation of the cabinet of coins and medals
belonging to the Bank of England, including the Cuff and Haggard
medals." The collection numbers nearly 300,000 pieces, arranged and
catalogued under five classes, Greek, Roman, English, Mediaeval and
Modern, and Oriental, and is of the highest value to all students.
The department is not open to the general public, but the student may
obtain admission to the Coin and Medal Room on special application
BRITISH MUSEUM 267
to the Keeper. Cases containing an historical series of coins and
medals were formerly exhibited in the King's Library, and a large
collection is now (1888) exhibited in the Northern Galleries.
PRINTS AND DRAWINGS
This department is on the upper floor, in the White Building, and
has an entrance out of the Asiatic Saloon. It contains the priceless
collection of original drawings, etchings, and engravings by the great
masters of all the schools. The department was formed from the
collections of Sloane, Cracherode, and Payne Knight ; the Sheepshanks
Collection of Dutch and Flemish etchings purchased in 1836 ; Raphael
Morghen's works, purchased in 1843;' Girtin's drawings, presented by Mr.
Chambers Hall between 1850-1855, besides the celebrated drawing of
the Entombment by Raphael, also presented by him. Mr. Edward
Hawkins's political caricatures, purchased in 1867; the choice collec-
tion bequeathed by Mr. Felix Slade in 1868, and the water-colours by
Mtiller, David Cox, and Turner, bequeathed in 1878 by Mr. John
Henderson. Among the original drawings are specimens by Fra
Angelico, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Man-
tegna, and most of the great masters of Italy. By Claude Lorraine there
are 272 drawings a part of the Payne Knight bequest. Of the German
School there are excellent specimens by Michael Wohlgemuth, Schon-
gauer, Albert Diirer, Holbein and the later masters. The schools of
the Netherlands are well represented, the Rembrandt and Rubens
drawings being particularly fine, and there are many by the older
French and Spanish painters. The etchings and engravings are
arranged under their several schools. The impressions are generally
excellent (always the best procurable), many are proofs, and some
unique. Of the works of Marc Antonio and his followers the
series is nearly complete. So is that of Durer, Hollar, etc. So is
that of William Faithorne. So is the collections of portraits after Sir
Joshua Reynolds. The collection of mezzotints arranged in chrono-
logical order is fine, and in connection with this should be mentioned
the works of the late Samuel Cousins, R.A. The collection of Rem-
brandt's etchings has few if any rivals. The Department contains one
of the finest and most complete series of Hogarth engravings, in their
various states. Our early line engravers, Woollett, Strange, Sharp, and
their successors, down to Doo and his contemporaries, the last pro-
fessors of the almost lost art, are remarkably well represented. Engrav-
ings of old London buildings and topography seemed for long to
centre about the Crowle Pennant (comprised in fourteen volumes of the
largest folio at a cost of over ^7000), but recent additions, and especi-
ally the purchase of nearly 6000 specimens from Mr. Grace's very
remarkable collection, have gone far to render the British Museum
what it ought to be the richest repository of London views. Men-
tion must also be made of the marvellous collection of Japanese
drawings, over 4000 in number. The department is also specially
268 BRITISH MUSEUM
rich in its collection of foreign and English portraits and of historical
prints.
At the end of the Glass and Ceramic Gallery is a door leading
into the Print and Drawing Gallery, which is set aside as the special
exhibition-room of the Department of Prints and Drawings. Some of
the collections are occasionally exhibited in other parts of the building,
as in the King's Library, and in 1888 a selection of prints intended
to illustrate the growth and development of the art of engraving in its
main branches from its first maturity about 1480 A.D. to about 1840-
1850 were shown in the second Northern Gallery.
Mr. Louis Fagan, assistant-keeper of the Department, has published
an account of the treasures of the Print Room under the title of
" Handbook to the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British
Museum, London" (Bell and Sons) 1876.
LIBRARY
The Library of the British Museum comprises the departments
of Printed Books and of Manuscripts. The growth of the Library
has been shadowed in the sketch of the growth of the Museum.
At the opening of the Museum the printed books consisted of about
50,000 volumes; the subsequent increase has been from bequests,
donations and purchases, and from the Museum being entitled under
the Copyright Act to a copy of every work published in the United
Kingdom. The rapidity with which the Library has increased of late
years is amazing. " The Library has been twice counted," wrote Mr.
Winter Jones, the late Principal Librarian, "the first time on July 25,
1838, when the number of printed volumes was found to be 235,000 ;
and again on December 15, 1849, at which period they had increased
to 435,000." In 1888 Mr. G. Bullen, the present Keeper of the
Printed Books, stated in the Official Guide that "the Library of
Printed Books consists of about 1,500,000 volumes." The number of
volumes and pamphlets added to the Library in 1887 was 25,958 :
"of which 3736 were presented, 10,609 received in pursuance of the
laws of English Copyright, 1545 received under the International
Copyright Treaties, and 10,068 acquired by purchase." 1 To these are to
be added 55,835 parts of volumes and separate numbers of periodicals,
and about 2137 sets of newspapers. These vast collections are stored
in the east and north ranges of the Museum and the presses which
surround the Reading Room. To these rooms the public are not
indiscriminately admitted, but a selection of the rarest and most
interesting books and manuscripts is exhibited in the King's and
Grenville Libraries, and students on application to the Principal
Librarian may obtain admission to the Reading Room and the free
use of the Library.
The Grenville Library, on the right (east) of the Entrance Hall, is
so called as containing the library of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville,
1 British Museum, Report for 1888.
BRITISH MUSEUM 269
of upwards of 20,000 choice volumes, all in handsome bindings, which
cost its owner over 54,000, and which he bequeathed to the Museum
in 1846.
The King's Library, a splendid room, 300 feet long, contains the
magnificent library formed by George III., and transferred to the
nation by George IV. in 1823. In these two rooms are exhibited in
table-cases the choice books already referred to. Cases i and 2 in the
Grenville Library contain Block-Books the now excessively rare books
printed from wooden blocks, on one side of the leaf, in use before the
invention of printing with movable metal types, and continued for some
time afterwards. Observe particularly, in Case i, the Biblia Pauperum,
with illustrations coloured by hand, probably the earliest edition. Three
other editions, one dated 1475, allow of comparison with it. Books of
the Canticles and of the Apocalypse. In Case 2, Speculum Humancz
Salvationis ; German Almanac, of about 1474; and impression from a
block of about 1460, representing the Seven Ages of Man, with the
Wheel of Fortune in the centre. Case 3 (King's Library) contains the
choicest examples of the earliest productions of the printing press in
Germany; the so-called Mazarin Bible, the earliest complete printed
book known, supposed to have been printed at Mentz by Gutenberg and
Fust about 1455 ; Latin Bible, printed on vellum at Mentz by Fust and
Schceffer in 1462 the first Bible with a date ; the first and second edi-
tions of the Psalter, on vellum, by the same printers, 1457 and 1459.
A Bill of Indulgence of Pope Nicholas V., dated 1455 ; Cicero, Officium
libri tres ; on vellum, by Fust and Schceffer, 1465, "the first edition of
the first Latin classic printed, and one of the two books in which Greek
type was first used." Cases 4 and 5 continue the series of early German
printed books. Cases 6 and 7 specimens of the earliest books printed
in Italy and France. The works of Lactantius, printed in the
monastery of Subiaco near Rome in 1465 the first book printed in
Italy with a date ; Livy, by the same printers, about 1469, the only
known copy on vellum bought by Mr. Grenville for ^903 ; the first
edition of Dante's Divina Commedia, printed at Foligno by Johann
Numeister, 1472 ; Gasparinus Barzizius, Liber Epistolarum, printed
at the Sorbonne, Paris, 1470 the first book printed in France. In
Case 8 are some of the earliest books printed in England. No. 3, Le
Fevre's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book printed in
English, was printed by Caxton abroad (probably at Bruges, where he
learned printing) about 1474; " The dictes or Sayengis of the Philoso-
phires, emprynted by me William Caxton at Westmestre the yere of our
lorde MCCCCLXXVII " the first book printed in England. Other
Caxtons should also be noticed, among them the Speculum Vita
Christi, of St. Bonaventure, 1488, one of the only two books known to
have been printed by Caxton on vellum. Trevisa's translation of
Glanville, De proprietatibus Rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde
about 1495 the first book printed on paper of English manufacture,
made at John Tate's mill, Hertford. No. 18, the finest copy known
270 BRITISH MUSEUM
of the famous Book of St. Alban's, or Bokys of Haukyng and Huntyng,
and also of Cootarmuris [heraldry], attributed to one Dame Juliana
Barnes or Berners, and printed in St. Alban's Abbey in 1486. Case 9
contains ''specimens of fine and sumptuous printing" by Aldus and
others, all noteworthy and some unique. Case 10 is also devoted to
sumptuously printed books, mostly on vellum, and some remarkable
for the illuminations which adorn them. Case 1 1 contains early
specimens of illustrations on wood and copper plate; the 1539 edition
of Holbein's Bible cuts ; Albert Durer's Epitome cuts ; the only
perfect copy known of the procession at the obsequies of Sir Philip
Sidney, drawn and invented by T. L[ant]. Gent. . . . and engraven
in copper by D. T. de Bry, in the city of London, 1587. Case 12
contains books with the autographs of Luther, Calvin, Melancthon,
Michael Angelo, Bacon, Milton, Newton, and other memorable persons.
In Case 13 are typographical and literary curiosities, such as the first
edition of Henry VIII. 's Assertio septem Sacramentorum, printed by
Pynson in 1521, for which Leo X. conferred on the author the title of
Defender of the Faith ; and the first edition of Robinson Crusoe, April
1719. Case 14 contains specimens of Japanese block engraving in
colours. Cases 1 5 to 1 8 contain a fine collection of historical specimens
of bookbinding in old stamped leather, embroidery and gold tooling.
In Case 2 2 are shown specimens of early printed music. Specimens of
interesting maps are shown on the obverse side of Case 21, on the
reverse side of 22 and in Cases 23 to 28. Cases are also used in this
gallery for temporary exhibition of prints, MSS., and documents of
special interest.
Manuscript Saloon. The department of manuscripts "contains
upwards of 50,000 volumes, of which more than 8500 are written in
Oriental languages; 50,000 charters and rolls; nearly 10,000 detached
seals and casts of seals ; and upwards of i oo ancient Greek, Coptic,
and Latin papyri." 1 On the right and left (south and north) sides of
this room are the Harleian and Lansdowne and old Royal collections ;
the Cottonian Library in front, on the east side. In frames and cases
are exhibited autographs of famous persons and the more valuable and
interesting manuscripts. The autographs exhibited are most various,
curious and interesting. There are copy-books as well as letters of kings
and queens and other notabilities ; the memorandum-book found in the
pocket of the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth after Sedgmoor; the
original copy of Tasso's Torismondo, Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens,
Sterne's Sentimental Journey, Walter Scott's Kenilworth, the original
draft of " paper-saving," Pope's Homer, much of it written on the backs
of letters ; and a leaf of the last chapter of Macaulay's History. Then
there are letters of Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, Wolsey, Cranmer, Knox,
Raleigh, Bacon, Sidney - Hampden, Clarendon, Isaac Newton, Sir
Christopher Wren, Michael Angelo, Diirer, Rembrandt, Rubens, Galileo,
Moliere, Voltaire, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Addison, Pitt, Burke, Fox,
1 Mr. E. M. Thompson, Keeper of the MSS. (now Principal Librarian),'in Official Guide.
BRITISH MUSEUM 271
Johnson, Byron ; the letter left by Nelson on his desk, written the
night before Trafalgar, Nelson's draft of the Battle of Aboukir, Welling-
ton's list of the British cavalry at Waterloo ; document by Edmund
Spenser, the original agreement for the sale of Paradise Lost, signed
by John Milton. For Shakespeare's signature, formerly exhibited, a
photograph has been substituted, the original having shown symptoms
of fading. Some of the manuscripts in the table-cases are of extreme
beauty and value. In the upright Case G is a volume of the famous
Codex Alexandrinus, presented to Charles I. by Cyril, patriarch of
Constantinople. It is in four volumes, and written in uncial letters, on
very thin vellum of the 5th century. Case H, Vulgate Bible revised
by Alcuin, Abbot of Tours, for Charlemagne, of about 796-800,
ornamented with large initial letters and miniatures. On the wall
at the north-east corner are Coptic and Greek papyri of the 8th
and pth centuries. The two table -cases contain a very valuable
series of royal, ecclesiastic, monastic and baronial seals, mostly
attached to the original documents. On table N is a complete set
of the Great Seals of England, from Edward the Confessor to Queen
Victoria.
Out of the Manuscript Saloon, immediately opposite to the entrance
from the Grenville Library, is the new Newspaper Room and the
Newspaper Reading Room.
On the right-hand side of the Manuscript Room, entering from the
Grenville Room, and opposite the King's Library, is the entrance to the
Manuscript Reading Room and other rooms of the department.
The Reading Room was built in accordance with a suggestion
submitted to the Trustees in 1852 by Mr. (afterwards Sir Anthony)
Panizzi, for converting the vacant central quadrangle into a circular
reading room, and utilising the surrounding space for library purposes.
The building was commenced in May 1854, under the superintendence
of Mr. Sydney Smirke, R.A., the Museum architect; and opened to readers
May 1 8, 1857. The entire structure is 258 feet long and 154 feet wide.
The Reading Room is circular and covered by a dome 140 feet in
diameter and 106 feet high being 2 feet less in diameter than the
dome of the Pantheon, i foot greater than that of St. Peter's, and
exceeding by 2 8 feet that of St. Paul's ; but unlike the others it is
constructed of iron ribs borne on iron piers, with brick between. The
lighting is by twenty round-arched windows 2 7 feet high, 1 2 feet wide,
and 35 feet from the ground, and by a central skylight or eye of the
dome, 40 feet in diameter. The colouring is of a light blue, the ribs
and panels being picked out with gold, and the effect large, cheerful
and luminous. Under the windows the walls present unbroken lines
of books in three tiers. The tables for the readers converge towards the
centre, where is the place of the superintendent, with tables for ticket-
takers, shelves for the catalogues, etc. The tables afford ample
accommodation for 360 readers. The lower tier of shelves round
the room contain a reference library of 20,000 volumes, to which every
272 BRITISH MUSEUM
reader has unrestricted access. For each book or MS. from the gene-
ral library the reader has to write a ticket, on which he has to set down
from the Catalogue the title and edition of the book he requires, with its
press mark ; and the letter and number of the seat he occupies. This
ticket he gives in at the central table, and the book is then brought
to him by an attendant. The presses in the galleries round the room
contain 50,000 volumes. The outer shelves which encompass the
Reading Room afford space for more than 1,000,000 volumes. The
Catalogue of the Library placed in the table presses in the centre of
the Reading Room almost forms a library in itself. It was originally
compiled entirely in manuscript, but it is now growing into a printed
Catalogue. In 1880, chiefly through the initiative of Mr. Bond, then
Principal Librarian, arrangements were made for printing the titles ot
all accessions. In the following year a commencement was made with
the printing of portions of the Catalogue which were particularly crowded.
The work of printing is now going on very rapidly.
The edifice, by common admission the finest Reading Room in
existence, was completed for ^150,000. During the winter months,
since October 1880, the electric light has been successfully used there
until 8 o'clock.
The number of visitors to the general collections was 504,893 in
1886, and 501,256 in 1887. The number of visits of students to the
Reading Room in 1887 was 182,778. An excellent Guide to the
exhibition galleries may be purchased in the Museum, price 6d., and
special Guides to the principal rooms and collections.
The following is a complete list of the Principal Librarians from
the foundation of the Museum: Gowin Knight, M.D., 1756-1772.
Matthew Maty, M.D., 1772-1776. Charles Morton, M.D., 1776-1799.
Joseph Planta, 1799-1827. Sir Henry Ellis, 1827-1856. Sir Anthony
Panizzi, 1856-1868. John Winter Jones, 1868-1878. Edward
Augustus Bond, C.B., 1878-1888. Edward Maunde Thompson,
1888.
DAYS AND HOURS OF ADMISSION. The Exhibition Galleries are
open to the Public FREE, as under :
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY, AND SATURDAY. The whole of the
galleries. TUESDAY AND THURSDAY. The whole of the galleries except
British and mediaeval antiquities and ethnography, and rooms in White
Wing. The hours of admission are from 10 A.M. till 4 P.M. in
January, February, November, December. 10 A.M. till 5 P.M. in
March, September, October. 10 A.M. till 6 P.M. in April, May, June,
July, August. 10 A.M. till 7 P.M. on Monday and Saturday only, from
the middle of July to the end of August. 10 A.M. till 8 P.M. on
Monday and Saturday only, from May i to the middle of July.
The Museum is closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day ; but
is open on the Bank Holidays.
Students are admitted to the several departments under regulations
to be obtained from the Principal Librarian.
BRITISH MUSEUM 273
British Museum. NATURAL HISTORY BRANCH, CROMWELL
ROAD. At a special general meeting of the Trustees, held on January
21, 1860, a resolution moved by the First Lord of the Treasury was
carried " That it is expedient that the Natural History Collection be
removed from the British Museum, inasmuch as such an arrangement
would be attended with considerably less expense than would be
incurred by providing a sufficient additional space in immediate con-
tiguity to the present building of the British Museum." In this same
year a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed, with
instructions to inquire how far and in what way it might be desirable
to find increased space for the Museum Collections, and the report of
the Committee was adverse to the decision of the Trustees. The
Trustees then referred the final determination of the question to the
Government, and in November 1861 they received intimation from the
Lords of the Treasury that the Government was prepared to take steps
for removing a portion of the National Collection to South Kensington.
A Bill was brought in by the Government early in the session of 1862
to enable the Trustees to effect the removal, but this was rejected by
Parliament. In the Session of 1 863 the Government, however, succeeded
in obtaining a vote for the purchase of the requisite number of acres of
the ground occupied by the Exhibition of 1862. In the competition
of designs for a Natural History Museum, Captain Francis Fowke,
R.E., obtained the first prize, and he was engaged in the necessary
alterations of his plan in respect to internal arrangements when his
death occurred in September 1865. Early in 1866 Mr. Alfred
Waterhouse, R.A., was invited to finish Captain Fowke's plan, but being
unable to do this he was commissioned in February 1868 to form a
fresh design, embodying the requirements of the officers of the Natural
History Departments of the Museum. Mr. Waterhouse submitted his
plan and model, which were formally accepted by the Trustees in April
1868, but it was not until February 1871 that the working plans
received the final approval of the Trustees.
The work of erection was commenced in 1873, and in June
1880 the completed building was handed over to the Trustees. The
whole surface of the ground occupied by the Exhibition building of
1862 was excavated, and for economical reasons it was not thought
desirable to refill the space, therefore the Museum is placed on a site
considerably lower than the street. The building is set back 100 feet
from the Cromwell Road, and is approached by two inclined planes,
curved on plan and supported by arches, forming carriage ways.
Between the two are broad flights of Craigleith stone steps, for the use
of those approaching the building on foot. The extreme length of the
front is 675 feet and the height of the towers is 192 feet. The return
fronts, east and west beyond the end pavilions, have not yet been
erected. The towers on the north of the building have each a central
smoke-shaft from the heating apparatus, the boilers of which are placed
in the basement, immediately between the towers, while the space
VOL. i T
274 BRITISH MUSEUM
surrounding the smoke-shafts is used for drawing off the vitiated air
from the various galleries. The whole ground on which the Museum
stands, including the gardens which surround it on the south, east, and
west sides, is 12 acres and 635 yards.
The handsome building, which forms a striking feature of the
neighbourhood, is remarkable for the unusually extensive use of terra-
cotta for the external facades and interior wall surfaces.
The Natural History Branch consists of four departments, viz. the
Zoological, Geological, Mineralogical, and Botanical. The contents of
the three latter departments were arranged in the course of the year
1880, and the portion of the Museum occupied by these departments
was opened to the public on April 18, 1881. The Zoological Depart-
ment was not removed until later, and the last gallery opened was
that devoted to British Zoology in May 1886. This Department
occupies the whole of the western wing of the building; the Geo-
logical Department has assigned to it the ground floor of the east
wing ; the first floor of the east wing is devoted to the Mineralogical
Department, and the upper floor to the Department of Botany. The
upper floors of the wings consist only of single galleries, extending
along the whole front of the building, the galleries which run backwards
on the ground floor containing only a single storey. On entering the
building we find ourselves in the Great Central Hall (170 feet long by
97 feet wide, and 72 feet high) containing the Index or Typical
Museum. Here are specimens illustrating general laws or points of
interest in natural history which do not come appropriately within the
systematic collections of the departmental series; such as variation
under the influence of domestication, illustrated by the different breeds
of pigeons, intermediate forms occurring in nature, albinism, etc. The
bays or alcoves round the hall are devoted to the introductory or element-
ary Morphological Collection, designed to teach the most important
points in the structure of the principal types of animal and plant life.
In the centre of the hall is the skeleton of the cachalot or sperm
whale (Physeter macrocephalus\ prepared from an animal cast ashore
near Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, in July 1863. The
skeleton is that of a full-grown animal, and measures 50 feet i inch
in length.
At the north end of the Central Hall, at the back of the staircase, is
the Gallery of British Zoology, containing a collection of animals of all
classes, which are, or have been in recent times, found in the British
Isles, either as permanent residents or as regular migrants or occasional
visitors.
On the first landing of the great staircase is placed the seated marble
statue of Charles Darwin, by Mr. J. E. Boehm, R.A, which was executed
as a part of the " Darwin Memorial " raised by public subscription.
On the landing of an upper flight is placed Chantrey's marble statue of
Sir Joseph Banks, which for many years stood in the Entrance Hall of
the Museum in Great Russell Street.
BRITISH MUSEUM 275
The long gallery extending the entire length of the front of the
west wing is devoted to the exhibited collection of birds. Parallel
with the Bird Gallery, to the north side, and approached by several
passages, is a long narrow gallery containing the collection of corals,
and of sponges and allied forms. Stretching north from the Coral
Gallery are a series of galleries devoted to fish, insects, reptiles,
star-fish and shells. The Fish Gallery is nearest to the Central Hall,
and contains stuffed examples and skeletons of all the most remarkable
members 'of the class; the wall cases on the east side of the room
contain the fishes with completely osseous skeletons, and those on the
west side specimens of another division of fishes, the majority of which
have a cartilaginous skeleton.
Next comes the Insect Gallery, devoted to the group of articulata
or invertebrated animals with jointed limbs, as insects, spiders,
myriapods, and Crustacea.
The Reptile Gallery contains stuffed specimens and skeletons of
reptiles, including crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tortoises. A small
gallery is called the Star-fish Gallery from being specially devoted to the
star-fishes and their allies, the echinodermata.
The last gallery to the west is devoted to the mollusca, the exhibition
of which is mainly restricted to their shells.
The Gallery of Cetacea is in the basement, and is approached by a
staircase, leading from the last (or westermost) of the passages which
connect the Bird Gallery with the Coral Gallery.
The first floor of the west wing contains the gallery of stuffed
mammals, and the second floor the Osteological Gallery, devoted to the
skeletons and skulls of mammals. The ground floor of the east wing
is devoted to palaeontology. The large front gallery contains the
remains of extinct mammals, and in the pavilion at the east end are
specimens of edentata, marsupialia and birds. The long gallery north of
the mammalian saloon contains a fine assemblage of reptilian remains.
A series of galleries lead northwards from the gallery of fossil reptiles.
The one next to the Central Hall is devoted to the collection of fossil
fishes. The next contains the cephalopods, a group of animals
abounding in extinct forms, of which the belemnites and ammonites
are the best known. The third gallery contains the remaining molluscs,
echinoderms, annelids and Crustacea ; the fourth the corals, sponges,
protozoa and fossil plants. The fifth gallery is set apart for the recep-
tion of certain special collections of historical interest, such as the
original collection formed by William Smith, the so-called " father of
geology," the Searles Wood Collection of crag mollusca, the Edwards
Collection of eocene mollusca, the Davidson Collection of brachiopoda,
the types of Sowerby's mineral conchology, and the collection of Sir
Hans Sloane. The large gallery on the first floor of the east wing contains
the extensive collection of minerals, and in the pavilion at the east end
is the collection of meteorites.
The second floor of the east wing is entirely devoted to the
276 BRITISH MUSEUM
Department of Botany. The collections of this department consist of
two portions, the one set apart for the use of persons engaged in the
scientific study of plants ; the other open to the public and consisting
of specimens suitable for exhibition. The portion devoted to the use
of the scientific student consists mainly of the great herbarium which
was founded by Sir Joseph Banks, and has been greatly increased
subsequently by the addition of many large collections.
The Natural History Museum is open to the public, free, every day
of the week (except Sundays) during the following hours : January
and February from 10 A.M. till 4 P.M. March, September, October,
November and December from 10 A.M. till 5 P.M. April to August
from 10 A.M. till 6 P.M. From May i to July 16 the Museum is
kept open till 8 P.M. on Mondays and Saturdays. From July 18
to August 29 till 7 P.M. on Mondays and Saturdays. The number of
visitors to the Museum in 1886 was 382,742, and in 1887 358,178.
Brixton, SURREY, a hundred, and suburban district. The hundred
extends from the Thames on the north to the hundred of Wallington
on the south, and from the hundred of Kingston on the west to the
county of Kent on the east. In the Domesday Survey it is written
Brixistan. The district stretches for two miles along the Brighton
Road from Kennington to Streatham, and is almost entirely built over.
Ecclesiastically it is in the parish of Lambeth, but is now divided into
several district parishes. St. Matthew's Church, Brixton Road, was
the first erected in Brixton, built 1822-1824 fr m the designs of
Mr. C. Porden, at a cost of over ;i 5,000. It is a spacious Grecian
Doric structure, with, at the east end, a square projecting tower of two
storeys, surmounted with " an octagonal temple, designed from that of
Cyrrhestes at Athens." The other churches are Christ Church, a
picturesque Lombardic brick building, designed by Mr. J. W. Wild,
1841 (and really in Streatham); Holy Trinity, Tulse Hill, Decorated;
St. John's, Angel Town, Decorated, by Benj. Ferrey, 1853 ; St
Jude's, Dulwich Road, Decorated ; and St. Catherine's, Gresham Park.
In Shepherd's Lane are the City of London Corporation Almshouses,
and adjoining them their Freemen's Orphan School. Trinity Asylum,
Acre Lane, was erected and endowed in 1822 by Mr. Thomas Bailey,
of St. Paul's Churchyard, for twelve aged females. On Brixton Hill
is a prison for male convicts, formerly well known as the Brixton
Treadmill, opened 1820. Mr. Grosvenor Bedford had a villa residence
in Brixton Causeway, and in it Southey commenced in August, 1793,
\\\$Joan of Arc. 1
When I talked to you last at Brixton Causeway, you desired me not to let any-
body know the secrets of my office. I replied with dissatisfaction that I would have
no secrets in my office. ff. Walpole to Grosvenor Bedford, February 27, 1771 ;
Letters, vol. v. p. 285.
Broad Court, Bow STREET, leading to Drury Lane. Here was
the Wrekin Tavern, a great resort of actors in the last century.
1 Poems, one vol. ed., p. i.
BROAD STREET 277
O'Keefe records that "in 1777 Quick, Lewis, and Wroughton had
each a house in Broad Court." At the Drury Lane end is St. John's
Church. Formerly Douglas Jerrold lived with his father in lodgings
in this Court, when he was apprenticed to a printer in 1816. [See
Bow Street]
Broad Sanctuary, WESTMINSTER. [See Sanctuary.]
Broad Street, CARNABY MARKET. William Blake, the artist, was
born November 28, 1757, at No. 28, where his father was a prosperous
hosier of some twenty years' standing. No. 2 8 was a corner house at
the narrower part of the street, much altered by time, but a large and
substantial old edifice. In 1784 Blake took No. 27, and set up
business as an engraver and printseller. The exhibition of his
Canterbury Pilgrims and other works (May 1809) was held on the
first floor of No. 28. 1 Fuseli lived at No. i in 1781-1782. John
Varley in No. 1 5 ; and here Mulready, William Hunt, David Cox, and
Copley Fielding were his constant visitors. Bartalozzi was living in this
street when Sherwin was his apprentice. The numbers have all been
altered within the last few years.
Broad Street (Ward of), one of the twenty-six wards of London,
taking its name from Broad Street, the principal street within the ward.
General Boundaries. North, London Wall; south, Threadneedle Street;
east, Bishopsgate Street; west, Princes Street and Tokenhouse Yard.
Churches in this Ward. i. Allhallows-in-the-Wall. 2. St Peter-le-Poor.
3. St. Martin Outwich (taken down in 1876). 4. St. Bennet Fink
(taken down t;o erect the New Royal Exchange). 5. St. Bartholomew,
by the Exchange (taken down in 1840). 6. St. Christopher's (taken
down to erect the Bank of England). 7. Dutch Church. 8. French
Church (removed to St Martin's -le- Grand). Remarkable Places. i.
Austin Friars. 2. Carpenters' HalL 3. Merchant Tailors' Hall.
4. Drapers' Hall. 5. Royal Exchange (partly in this ward). 6.
Excise Office (partly in this ward, taken down in 1853).
Broad Street (NEW), formerly Petty France, the northern extension
of Old Broad Street, with a turning at right angles into Blomfield
Street. It was built circ. 1737, a date which was to be seen till lately on
a corner house in Broad Street Buildings. When the young Astley
Cooper came to London (1784) to study surgery he was placed in the
house of Mr. Cline, No. 3 New Broad Street, one of the most dis-
tinguished surgeons of the time. Seven years later he became assistant
lecturer to Mr. Cline at St Thomas's Hospital, shortly succeeded him
as professor, and in 1798 in the occupancy of his house. Mr. Cooper
(he did not become Sir Astley Cooper till 1820) continued to reside at
No. 3 till 1815, when he removed to Spring Gardens: his annual
receipts during his last years in New Broad Street averaged 2 1,000. In
No. 4 Broad Street Buildings, at the end of New Broad Street, Dr. John
Aikin, a laborious and useful writer, and brother of Mrs. Barbauld,
1 See Gilchrist's Life of Blake, vol. i.
278 BROAD STREET
established himself as a physician in 1792. He removed in 1798 to
Stoke Newington, where he died in 1822. The scene of the character-
istic picture by Francis Wheatley, well known by Heath's engraving, 1 of
the riots of 1780, is laid in this street : the figure in attendance on the
wounded man is a portrait of Sir William Blizard, the eminent surgeon.
Broad Street (Old), AUSTIN FRIARS, running from Threadneedle
Street to London Wall. Gilbert Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was living
here in Elizabeth's reign, Lords Weston and Dover in that of King
Charles I. On March 31, 1623, Secretary Conway writes to the Lord
Chamberlain requesting him to "provide lodgings for a nobleman
coming from Spain," and suggests that he should " think of the house
in Broad Street" 2 The first and last Lord Cottington, one of the
most respectable statesmen of the time of James I. and Charles I.,
took a lease in 1636 of a house in this street, which had been previously
occupied by the Lord Treasurer Weston, when he was Chancellor of
the Exchequer.
Sir William Cockayne, Lord Mayor in 1619, had a house in this
street, which was destroyed by fire November 12, 1623. Here he
entertained James I. on June 22, 1616, when he received the honour
of knighthood, which was conferred with the city sword.
Here was a Glass House where Venice Glasses were made and Venetians
employed in the work ; and Mr. James Howel [author of the Familiar Letters which
bear his name] was Steward to this House. When he left this place, scarce able to
bear the continual heat of it, he thus wittily expressed himself, that had he continued
still Steward he should in a short time have melted away to nothing among those
hot Venetians. This place afterwards became Pinners' Hall. Strype, B. ii. p. 112.
Howell writes from Middleburg in Zealand, June 6, 1619, to
" Captain Francis Bacon at the Glasse-house in Broad Street."
The bearer hereof, is Sigr. Antonio Motti, who was master of a cristal-glass
furnace here for a long time ; and as I have it by good intelligence, he is one of the
ablest, and most knowing men for the guidance of a glass-work in Christendom :
therefore, according to my instructions, I send him over, and hope to have done Sir
Robert good service thereby. Howell's Familiar Letters, ed. 1705, p. 17.
February 12, 1659-1660. Monk drew up his forces in Finsbury, dined with the
Lord Mayor, had conference with him and the Court of Aldermen, retired to the
Bull Head in Cheapside, and quartered at the Glass-House in Broad Street ;
multitudes of people followed him, congratulating his coming into the City, making
loud shouts and bonfires and ringing the bells. Whitelocke.
From whence he [Monk] went very late to quarter for the present at the Glass-
house in Broad Street ; which having accommodation only for his own person, his
principal attendants, and some officers that were always near him, were forced to sit
up all night, and watch with his guards. Skinner's Life of Monk ; p. 251.
Monk removed in the following week to Drapers' Hall. The Glass-
house, or what remained of it, was destroyed in the Great Fire. In a
London Directory for 1677, in the list of merchants, appears the name
of "Alexand. Pope, Broad Street," the poet's father. Benjamin
Hoadly, M.D., author of The Suspicious Husband, was born in Broad
Street in 1706. The Church of St. Peter-le-Poor [which see] is on the
1 The painting was burnt in afire at Heath's Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting, p. 269.
house, Lisle Street, being too large to be removed. - Cal. State Pap., 1619-1623, p. 543.
BROKEN CROSS 279
west side ; opposite to it is the City of London Club, occupying the
site of the first South Sea House. The Excise Office (occupying the
site of Gresham College) stood near the centre of the street on the east
side till removed in 1853. Its site is now occupied by Palmerston
Buildings, a vast pile of offices (about 200 in all) extending through to
Bishopsgate Street. Close to these is Gresham House, an equally large
and costly structure, containing over 260 offices. Besides these there
are in the street Winchester House, Pinners' Hall, and other large
piles, all of recent erection and of considerable architectural character.
Here are besides the National Bank, and the offices of several insurance,
railway, and other companies.
Broadway, WESTMINSTER, between Tothill Street and York Street.
Broadway, by Great Tothill Street, Westminster. Here was kept formerly an
Hay Market, but is now discontinued ; and near this place are the White Horse and
Black Horse Inns, for the entertainment of man and horse ; there being none in the
parish of St. Margaret at Westminster, for stage-coaches, waggons, or carriers.
W. Stow's Remarks, 1722, p. 12.
A license for the hay market was granted by James I. and renewed
by Charles II. Neither of the inns mentioned above exists now.
Dick Turpin, the highwayman, is said to have lodged in a court off the
Broadway, and set out thence upon his various expeditions on his
famous black mare Bess; "from which," says Mr. Walcott, "one of
those taverns took its name ;" l but this is clearly a mistake. Turpin
was but a boy in 1722 his birth is usually assigned to 1711 when
the Black Horse was already an inn of note. Sir John Hill, physician
and empiric, resided in the Broadway.
Broderers' Hall, 36 GUTTER LANE, CHEAPSIDE. The Company
of Broderers (Embroiderers) was incorporated, 3 Eliz., October 1561,
by the name of " The Keepers or Wardens and Company of the Art
or Mistery of the Broders of the City of London." Their hall, a
small building on the west side of Gutter Lane, has been long given
up, and the site occupied by a Manchester warehouse.
Broken Cross, or the Cross at the north door of St. Paul's, was
erected by the Earl of Gloucester, temp. Henry III., and removed in
1390.
Be it remembered, that the stations about the High Cross of Chepe, in London,
were let by John Phelipot, Mayor, and John Ussher, Chamberlain, on the 5th day of
September in the 3rd year of Richard II. (1379) to divers persons under-written. . . .
Also the different stations about Le Brokenecros were on the same day let to divers
persons. . . . Riley's Memorials of London, p. 435.
Broken Cross, WESTMINSTER. The southern end of Princes
Street was formerly known as Broken Cross. Mr. Burn describes a
tavern token inscribed "At the Broken Cross, in Westminster, 1659 ;" 2
and here about the middle of the last century was " the most ancient
house in Westminster, which was then inhabited by a baker." 3
I Westminster, p. 289. 2 Catalogue of Beaufoy Collection, p. 50.
3 Walcott's Westminster, p. 73.
28o BROKEN WHARF
Broken Wharf, No. 42, on the south side of Upper Thames
Street, nearly opposite Old Fish Street Hill, and "so called," says
Stow, "of being broken and fallen down into the Thames." 1 Here
was the town mansion of the Bigods and Mowbrays, Earls and Dukes
of Norfolk. About 1583 Sir Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charter
House, purchased this mansion and here built up his gigantic fortune.
On July 28, 1591, William Hacket, a noted fanatic, was hanged as a
traitor near " one Walker's house by Broken Wharf." He was charged
with defacing the royal arms and also a portrait of the Queen. Here,
in 1594, Bevis Bulmer, who had been previously employed to work
the silver and lead mines in different parts of England and Wales,
erected his engine for supplying Cheapside and Fleet Street with water
from the Thames, after the manner of our modern water-works. His
water-house was built of brick the engine worked by horses, and
the water conveyed by pipes of lead. 2
Brompton, a hamlet of Kensington, lying between that parish,
Chelsea and Knightsbridge ; but of late years so encroached upon by
SOUTH KENSINGTON, which has swallowed up the whole of what used
to be OLD BROMPTON, and much of the remainder of the hamlet,
that Brompton seems in danger of disappearing altogether, and of
being remembered only by Brompton Road, Square, Crescent, Church,
Oratory, and Consumption Hospital. The Registrar-General, however,
adheres to Brompton as an existent locality, and credits it with some
43,000 inhabitants.
Brompton Church (Holy Trinity), at the west end of the Brompton
Road (architect, Mr. T. L. Donaldson), 1826-1829. Near to it is the
Roman Catholic Oratory of St. Philip Neri,' a large structure, designed
by Mr. J. J. Scoles, and opened March 22, 1851. It is now (1888)
in course of rebuilding on a much enlarged scale. Adjoining this is
the South Kensington Museum, known in its early years by the irreverent
as The Brompton Boilers. [See South Kensington Museum.]
Brompton was long a favourite residence of artists, actors and
singers. Michael Novosielski (d. 1795), *he architect of the old Opera
House in the Haymarket, lived for many years in Brompton Grange,
near the Grove, a house he built for his own occupation ; and in which
afterwards Braham the singer lived for several years ; the Grange
was taken down in 1843. Michael's Grove and Place owe their
names to Michael Novosielski, who erected them (1785, etc.) as a
building speculation, on a swamp known as the Flounder Field.
Louis Schiavonetti, the engraver, resided for many years and died
in 1810 at No. 12 Michael's Place. At No. 17 died in 1818 Miss
Pope, the once popular actress and original Mrs. Candour, aged
seventy-five. Mrs. Davenport, the incomparable old woman of the
stage, died at No. 22, May 25, 1830, aged eighty-four. George Croly,
1 Stow, p. 135, so called as early as 20 Edw. 2 Act 22, Car. II., c. n ; Stow, by Howes, ed.
II. See Historical MSS. Cotnnt., Ninth Report, 1631, p. 769 ; and Strype, B. iii. p. 218.
Appendix to p. 17.
B ROMP TON CEMETERY 281
D.D., author ofSatatfa'd, lived at No. 18. Mrs. Billington, the singer, at
No. 1 5. Frederic Yates, the actor and manager of the Adelphi, at No. 2 1.
Charles Incledon, greatest of English ballad singers (d. 1826), lived at
No. 13 Brompton Crescent. The Hermitage (removed in 1844 to
make way for Grove Place) was, during her stay in this country, the
residence of Madame Catalini. Grove House was (1823) the residence
of William Wilberforce ; and afterwards for some years of a very
different personage, William Jerdan, the editor of The Literary
Gazette. It was taken down in 1846. John Philpot Curran died
October 14, 1817, at No. 7 Amelia Place. James William Gilbart,
banker, died in Brompton Crescent in 1863. Mrs. Bray, the authoress,
died at 40 Brompton Crescent, 1883. Count Rumford, Rev. W.
Beloe, the translator of Herodotus, and Sir Richard Phillips, the
bookseller, in 45 Brompton Row. John Reeve, the comic actor,
died (1838) at No. 46 Brompton Row, and was buried in Brompton
churchyard. George Colman the younger died October 26, 1826, at
No. 2 2 Brompton Square. Shirley Brooks afterwards lived in the same
house. William Farren, incomparable in his generation as the repre-
sentative of old men, lived many years, and died (1861) at No. 23
Brompton Square. Liston, the original Paul Pry, at No. 40. At No.
31 Henry Luttrell, the famous wit and diner out. Kenney, the
dramatist, author of Sweethearts and Wives, died at Brompton of disease
of the heart, July 25, 1849, on the morning of the day on which a
performance was given for his benefit at Drury Lane Theatre, the
crowded audience not being aware of his decease. Mr. J. R. Planche
lived for twenty years (1822-1842) at No. 20 Brompton Crescent. At
No. 22 Mr. C. J. Richardson, architect and author of some valuable
works on English Domestic Architecture. M. Guizot, when driven from
France by the Revolution of 1848, hired a house, No. 20 Pelham
Crescent, afterwards occupied by M. Ledru Rollin. 1 William Words worth
was married at Brompton, October 4, 1802, to Mary Hutchinson.
Brompton lies low, but is warm, and formerly people in consump-
tion were ordered here. Something of the old prestige still attaches to
it, and received a sort of authoritative sanction when it was selected
(1841) as the site of the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the
Chest, but better known as the Brompton Consumption Hospital [which
see]. Also in the Fulham Road is the Cancer Hospital, Brompton
[which see\
Brompton Cemetery (officially styled the West London and
Westminster Cemetery) was opened in 1840. It lies between the
Fulham Road and North End. A considerable number of celebrated
men have been buried here. Among these may be mentioned J. L.
Ricardo, M.P. (d. 1862), J. R. M'Culloch (d. 1864), political
economists. Sir Roderick Murchison, the geologist (d. 1871). Frank
Buckland (d. 1880). Dr. B. Golding, founder of Charing Cross Hospital
1 For many of the names here given we are Walk to Fulham will be found a much fuller
indebted to Mr. T. Crofton Croker, in whose catalogue.
282 BROMPTON CEMETERY
(d. 1863). Captain Francis Fowke (d. 1865). Sir Henry Cole,
founder of the South Kensington Museum (d. 1882). Sir James P.
Kay Shuttleworth (1804-1877). Herman Merivale, C.B. (d. 1874).
Professor Chenery, editor of The Times (d. 1884). Lady Morgan (d.
1859). There is a tablet to her husband, Sir T. C. Morgan, M.D.
(d. 1843), in the cloister. Several distinguished judges have been
buried here, as Mr. Justice Willes (d. 1872). John Lord Romilly,
Master of the Rolls (d. 1874). Lord Justice Mellish (d. 1877).
The first Lord Chelmsford (d. 1878), and his son Lord Justice
Thesiger (d. 1880), and Mr. Baron Martin (d. 1883). Sir William
Palliser (1830-1882). General Sir. W. F. Williams of Kars (d. 1883).
Of antiquaries may be mentioned J. Crofton Croker (d. 1854). T. j.
Pettigrew (d. 1865). F. W. Fairholt (d. 1866). Rev. Mackenzie Walcott
(d. 1880). W. J. Thorns, founder of Notes and Queries (d. 1885),
and W. S. W. Vaux, the Orientalist and Numismatist (d. 1885).
Among artists Charles Allston Collins (d. 1873), Francis Nicholson, one
of the founders of the English School of Painters in Water Colours
(d. 1844, aged ninety-one), Matthew Noble, sculptor (d. 1876), and T. L.
Donaldson, architect (d. 1885) were buried here. As Brompton has
long been a favourite place of residence for members of the dramatic
profession, it is not surprising to find the names of several popular
actors in this cemetery. T. P. Cooke (of Black Eyed Susan celebrity),
Keeley (d. 1869), Benjamin Webster (d. 1882), Henry James Byron
(d. 1884), and Adelaide Neilson (d. 1880), may be specially mentioned.
Albert Smith (d. 1860), Tom Taylor (d. 1880), and Brinley Richards,
the musical composer (d. 1885), were also buried here. There is a
pompous inscription on the tomb of John Jackson the pugilist (d. 1845).
Brompton Park, long famous as the Brompton Park Nursery,
was situated where Prince Albert Road (now Queen's Gate) was after-
wards built.
April 24, 1694. I carried Mr. Waller to see Brompton Park, where he was in
admiration at the store of rare plants and the method he found in that noble nursery,
and how well it was cultivated. Evelyn,
In this parish [Kensington] is that spot of ground called Brompton Park, so
much famed all over the kingdom for a Nursery of Plants, and fine Greens of all sorts,
which supply most of the nobility and gentlemen in England. This Nursery was
raised by Mr. London and Mr. Wise, and now 'tis brought to its greatest perfection,
and kept in extraordinary order, in which a great number of men are constantly
employed. The stock seems almost incredible, for if we believe some who affirm
that the several plants in it were valued at but a id. piece, they would amount to
above .40,000. Bowack, Antiquities of Middlesex, fol. 1705, p. 21.
Brook Field, east of Hyde Park, was so called from the brook or
burn Tyburn, a streamlet of distinction 200 years ago.
His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to grant a Market for live Cattle to be
held in Brookfield near Hyde Park Corner on Tuesday and Thursday in every week.
[See May Fair. ] The first Market Day will be held on the first Thursday in October
next, and afterwards to continue weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays the Tuesday
market in the morning for cattle, and the afternoon for horses. London Gazette of
September 1688, No. 2384.
BROOK'S WHARF 283
Brook Street, Grosvenor Square (UPPER and Lowim), derived
their names from Brook Field (the subject of the preceding article), on
which they were built ; the field having in its later years been divided
into Great and Little Brook Field. Upper Brook Street extends from
Park Street to Grosvenor Square ; Lower Brook Street (at first called
Little Brook Street and now simply Brook Street) extends from
Grosvenor Square to Hanover Square. Eminent Inhabitants. Handel,
No. 25 (formerly 57).
Handel lived in the house now Mr. Partington's, No. 57, on the south side of
Brook Street, four doors from Bond Street, and two from the gateway. Smith's
Antiquarian Ramble, vol. i. p. 23.
Mrs. Delany lived here many years when Mrs. Pendarves and Swift's
correspondent. 1 Gerard Vandergucht, the engraver, in the house No.
20. Benjamin Vandergucht, portrait painter, his son, was born here.
Thomas Barker, celebrated for his picture of the Woodman, in the
same house. The great room at the back of No. 20 (built by the elder
Vandergucht) was subsequently let to the Society of Painters in Water
Colours, and here the first exhibition of the society was opened, April
22, 1805. Sir Jeffry Wyatville (then Mr. J. Wyatt) at No. 50. General
Lord Lake died in Lower Brook Street, July 18, 1808. Sir William
Fordyce, M.D. (1724-1792). Welbore Ellis, Lord Mendip (1714-1802)
died in Brook Street. Sir Charles Bell died at No. 30 in 1832. At
No. 25 Rev. Sidney Smith in 1835. No. 34 Sir Thomas Trowbridge'
in 1809, etc. In 1820 Sir Henry Holland, the eminent physician,
removed from Mount Street to No. 25 (now No. 72) Lower Brook
Street, and continued its occupant till his death in October 1873. ^
was originally Edmund Burke's town house. Holland's next door
neighbour in later years (No. 74) being Sir William Gull, with Sir
William Jenner close at hand (No. 63). Warren Hastings was at
Wake's Hotel in May 1810. Lord George Gordon (1750-1793) was
born in Upper Brook Street. William Gerard Hamilton (Single-Speech
Hamilton) died ( 1 7 9 6) at No. 2 7 Upper Brook Street. Hon. Mrs. Darner,
the sculptor, in No. 18 Upper Brook Street, where she died in 1828.
Sir Lucas Pepys and Countess of Rothes at No. 3. Claridge's Hotel
(formerly Mivart's), now one of the first in London, is at Nos. 49-55
Brook Street. George Grenville's house was in Upper Brook Street.
Brook Street, ST. JAMES'S WESTMINSTER. Henry Hart Milman
(1791-1868), Dean of St. Paul's, was born in this street.
Brook's Wharf, UPPER THAMES STREET, west of Queenhithe.
High Timber Street connects it with Broken Wharf.
At this time of the year [Lent] the pudding house at Brookes Wharf is watched
by the Hollanders' eeles-ships, lest the inhabitants, contrary to the law, should spill
the blood of Innocents. Westward for Smelts, 1603 ; Percy Society, vol. Ixxvii.
1 Autob. and Corresp., vol. i. p. 333, etc,
284 BROOKE HOUSE
Brooke House, HACKNEY, a mansion which formerly stood on
the south side of the road to Clapton, and was named after Fulke
Greville, Lord Brooke.
I went to Hackney to see my Lady Brooke's garden, which was one of the
neatest and most celebrated in England ; the house well furnish'd, but a despicable
building." Evelyn's Diary, May 8, 1654.
This was the manor-house of the manor of King's Hold, and was
sometimes known as King's Hold. At one time it belonged to the
Knights Templars and afterwards to the Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem. At the dissolution the estate was granted to Henry, Earl
of Northumberland, who died in the house and was buried in the
parish church. It afterwards reverted to the Crown, and was granted
by Edward VI. in 1547 to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.
Subsequently it was purchased by Sir Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon,
who left his mark upon the house. Between his occupancy and that
of Lord Brooke the estate was in the possession of Sir Rowland
Hayward. The description of the house by J. N. Brewer (London and
Middlesex, 1816, vol. iv. p. 270, "Beauties of England and Wales")
does not agree with Evelyn's expression "a despicable building."
"This house has experienced considerable alterations, but large
portions of the ancient edifice have been preserved. These consist
principally of a quadrangle, with internal galleries, those on the north
and south sides being 174 feet in length. On the ceiling of the north
gallery are the arms of Lord Hunsdon, with those of his lady, and the
. crests of both families frequently repeated. The arms of Lord Hunsdon,
are likewise remaining on the ceiling of a room connected with this
gallery. It is therefore probable that the greater part of the house was
rebuilt by this nobleman during the short period for which he held the
manor, a term of no longer duration than from 1578 to 1583."
Brooke House, HOLBORN, stood on the site of the present Brooke
Street, and was the London residence of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke,
" servant to Queen Elizabeth, counsellor to King James, and friend to
Sir Philip Sydney." It was originally called Bath House, from William
Bourchier, Earl of Bath (d. 1623), by whom it had been, says Stow,
(p. 145), "of late for the most part new built" Lord Brooke, in his
will, describes it as " Bath House, now Brooke House, lately new built."
Lord Brooke was assassinated by his own servant in this house,
September i, 1628. In 1630 "the Lord Brooke's House in Holborn"
was fitted up at the expense of the Crown for the reception of the
French ambassador. 1 Here in 1635 Sir Arthur Haselrigge's daughter
was christened." 2 Here sat the "Brooke House Committee," appointed
by the House of Commons in 1668 to examine the expenditure of the
money granted to Charles II. for carrying on a war against the Dutch.
From Mercurius Politicus we learn that on June 15, 1658, the
French ambassadors were "very honourably conducted to Brooke
1 Works' Accounts, 1629-1630, in Audit Office. 2 Malcolm's London, 410, p. 207.
BROOKE STREET 285
House, Holborn, the place appointed to lodge them, where they were
entertained at the charge of His Highness."
And that year 1622 I made a diall for my Lord Brook in Holbourn, for the
which I had .8 : los. N. Stone's Diary ( Walpole, vol. ii. p. 59).
The Brooke House business, as well as the burning his fleet, struck as deep as
anything could into his [Charles II.] heart. He resolved to revenge the one, and to
free himself from the apprehensions of the other returning upon him. Burnet, History
of his Own Time, p. 185.
July 3, 1668. To the Commissioners of Accounts at Brooke House, the first
time I was ever there, and found Sir W. Turner in the chair ; and present Lord
Halifax, Thomas Gregory, Dunster, and Osborne. I long with them, and see them
hot on this matter ; but I did give them proper and safe answers. Pepys.
Brooke Street, HOLBORN, derives its name from Brooke House.
Philip Yorke, the great Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, was articled
(without a fee it is said) to an attorney named Salkeld in this street.
Mr. Salkeld was fortunate in his clerks, for among them, about this
time, were Jocelyn, subsequently Lord Chancellor of Ireland, founder
of the Roden family ; Strange, afterwards Sir John Strange, and Master
of the Rolls; and Parker, who became Lord Chief Baron. On August
24, 1770, at the age of seventeen years and nine months, Chatterton
put an end to his life by swallowing arsenic in water, in the house of
a Mr. Frederick Angell, in this street His room when broken open
was found covered with scraps of paper. He was interred in the burial-
ground of Shoe Lane Workhouse.
As to the house in which Chatterton lodged very different state-
ments have been published. The received version was that it was
No. 4, on the east side of the street, where now stands the Prudential
Assurance Office. Mr. Dix, in his untrustworthy Life of Chatterton,
says it was No. 17, and this is the number given in the forged Report
of the Inquest with which he furnished the late Mr. J. M. Gooch; 1 while
the Rev. C. V. Le Grice, who " visited Brooke Street for the purpose of
endeavouring to verify the house," in 1796, only twenty-six years after
Chatterton's death, says " the house was on the left-hand (west) side of
Brooke Street, as you go from Holborn, and I always understood it
was No. I2," 2 and with this statement Mr. Gooch, who "visited Brooke
Street for the same purpose in 1806," coincides. 3 The question was
however solved by Mr. Moy Thomas, who found, on examining the
Poor Rates Books of the Upper Liberty of St. Andrew's parish, in
which nearly the whole of Brooke Street is situated, that in June 1771,
ten months after Chatterton's death, Frederick Angell rented the house
numbered 39,* and that is beyond doubt the house in which
Chatterton lodged. It was the second house from Holborn (the first
beyond the City bounds) on the west side. It was pulled down a year
or two ago, but had been previously so much altered as to have retained
little, if anything, of the house of Chatterton's time.
The vast building at the opposite corner, with its principal front in
1 Notes and Queries t ist S., vol. vii. p. 138. 3 Ibid.
2 Ibid., 2d. S., vol. iii. p. 362. 4 Atkenefum, December 5, 1857.
286 BROOKE STREET
Holborn, and extending 200 feet down Brooke Street, was completed
in 1879 for the Prudential Assurance Company: architect, Mr. Alfred
Waterhouse, R.A. It is Domestic Gothic, of red brick and terra-cotta,
and is a very superior design. Nearly 400 clerks are employed in the
office, a large proportion of them being the daughters of professional
men. At the bottom of Brooke Street is the St. Alban's Clergy House.
East of this is BROOKE MARKET, now a very low neighbourhood.
Joseph Munden, the comedian (d. 1832), was born, 1758, "in Brooke
Market, Holborn," where his father kept a poulterer's shop.
Brooks's Club, ST. JAMES'S STREET : the Whig Club-house, No.
60 on the west side, but founded in Pall Mall in 1764, on the site of
what was afterwards the British Institution, by twenty-seven noblemen
and gentlemen, including the Duke of Roxburgh, the Duke of Portland,
the Duke of Richmond, the Duke of Grafton, the Earl of Strathmore,
and Mr. Crewe, afterwards Lord Crewe. It was originally a gaming
Club, and was farmed at first by Almack, but afterwards by Brooks, a
wine merchant and money lender, 1 described by Richard Tickell(i 7 80) as
Liberal Brooks, whose speculative skill
Is hasty credit, and a distant bill ;
Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade,
Exults to trust and blushes to be paid.
The present house was built at Brooks's expense (from the designs of
Henry Holland, architect), and opened in October 1778. Some of
the original rules will show the nature of the Club.
2 1 . No gaming in the eating-room, except tossing up for reckonings, on penalty
of paying the whole bill of the members present.
22. Dinner shall be served up exactly at half-past four o'clock, and the bill shall
be brought up at seven.
26. Almack shall sell no wines in bottles that the Club approves of, out of the
house.
30. Any member of this society that shall become a candidate for any other Club
(old White's excepted) shall be ipso facto excluded, and his name struck out of the
book.
40. That every person playing at the new quinze table do keep fifty guineas
before him.
41. That every person playing at the twenty guinea table do not keep less than
twenty guineas before him.
Against the name of Mr. Thynne, in the books of the Club, is an
indignant dash through, and the following curious note in a contemporary
hand: "Mr. Thynne having won only 12,000 guineas during the last
two months, retired in disgust, March 21, 1772."
Lord Lauderdale informed me that Mr. Fox told him that the deepest play he
had ever known was about this period, between the year 1772 and the beginning of
the American War. Lord Lauderdale instanced .5000 being staked on a single
card at faro, and he talked of .70,000 lost and won in a night. Croker, note to
Boswell, p. 501.
1 Selwyn's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 167.
BROOKS' 'S CLUB 287
Members were originally elected between the hours of eleven and
one at night, and one black ball excluded. The present period of
election is from three to five in the afternoon. The old betting-book
of the Club (which is preserved) is a great curiosity. The principal
bettors were Fox, Selwyn, and Sheridan. Eminent Members. C. J.
Fox, Pitt, Burke, Selwyn, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Horace Walpole,
David Hume, Gibbon, Sheridan. 1 The last survivor of the original
members was the first Lord Crewe, who died in 1829, having been
sixty-five years a member of the Club.
The old Club [old White's] flourishes very much, and the young one [Young
White's] has been better attended than of late years, but the deep play is removed to
Almack's [Brooks's], where you will certainly follow it. R. Rigby to George Selwyn,
March 12, 1765.
We are all beggars at Brooks's, and he threatens to leave the house, as it yields
him no profit. -James Hare to George Selwyn, May 18, 1779.
Soon as to Brooks's thence thy footsteps bend,
What gratulations thy approach attend !
See Gibbon rap his box ; auspicious sign,
That classic compliment and wit combine.
See Beauclerk's cheek a tinge of red surprise,
And friendship give what cruel health denies.
R. Tickell, From the Hon. C. J. Fox to the Hon. John
Townshend, 1780.
The first time I was at Brooks's, scarcely knowing any one, I joined from mere
shyness in play at the faro tables, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend who
knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called
to me "What, Wilberforce, is that you?" Selwyn quite resented the interference ;
and turning to him, said, in his most expressive tone, ' ' O Sir, don't interrupt Mr.
Wilberforce ; he could not be better employed." Wilberforce, Life, vol. i. p. 16.
Would you imagine that Sir Joshua Reynolds is extremely anxious to be a
member of Almack's? [Brooks's.] You see what noble ambition will make a man
attempt. That den is not yet opened, consequently I have not been there ; so, for
the present, I am clear upon that score. Tofham Beauclerk to the Earl of
Charlemont, November 20, 1773.
Sheridan was black-balled at Brooks's three times by George Selwyn, because his
father had been upon the stage, and he only got in at last through a ruse of George
IV. (then Prince of Wales), who detained his adversary in conversation in the hall
whilst the ballot was going on. Quar. Rev., vol. ex. p. 483.
When Lord (then plain John) Campbell was elected a member,
February 21, 1822, he wrote to his father,: "To belong to it is a
feather in my cap. Indeed since we lost our estates in the county of
Angus, I am inclined to think that my election at Brooks's is the
greatest distinction our house has met with. The Club consists of the
first men for rank and talent in England." 2
Lord Palmerston was not elected a member until 1830. There
were never many Radicals in the Club, but O'Connell was a member.
1 Pitt, proposed by C. J. Fox, February 28, and elected 1777. Garrick, proposed by Beauclerk
1781, and elected. Sheridan, proposed by Fox and elected 1777. . H. Walpole, proposed by
and rejected ; again proposed (November 2, 1780) Lord G. Cavendish and elected in 1779. Burke,
by Col. Fitzpatrick and elected. Reynolds, pro- proposed by the Duke of Devonshire and elected
posed by Col. Burgoyne and elected in 1764. March 19, 1783. Wilberforce, proposed and
David Hume, proposed by Mr. Crawfurd and elected April 9, 1783.
elected 1766. Gibbon, proposed by Mr. St. John 2 Life, vol. i. p. 409.
288 BROOKS' S CLUB
The Club is restricted to 575 members. Entrance money, n
guineas ; annual subscription, 1 5 guineas ; two black balls will exclude.
Brooks retired from the Club soon after it was built, and died poor
about 1782. The Club (like White's) is still managed on the farming
principle.
Brothers Steps. [See Field of Forty Footsteps.]
Broughton's New Amphitheatre, a boxing theatre "in the
Oxford Road, at the back of the late Mr. Figg's." It was situated
near Adam and Eve Court, opposite Poland Street, built in 1742-
1743 by John Broughton, successor to James Figg [see Figg's], for
eighteen years the Champion of the Ring. He was beaten at last on
his own stage by one Slack, a butcher. He died in Walcot Place,
Lambeth, in 1789, in his eighty-fifth year.
Brownlow Street, DRURY LANE, took its name from Sir John
Brownlow, a parishioner of St. Giles in the reign of Charles II., whose
house and gardens stood where Brownlow Street now stands, parallel
to and south of Short's Gardens. A .dispute arose between the
parishes of St. Giles and St. Martin as to which included Sir John
Brownlow's house ; it was decided in favour of the former. The name
was changed to Betterton Street in 1877. Major Michael Mohun, the
celebrated actor of the time of Charles II., died in this street in 1684,
as appears by the following entry in the burial register of St. Giles's-in-
the-Fields :
October n, 1684. Mr. Michael Mohun, Brownlow Street.
Another inhabitant was George Vertue, the engraver. At the end of
Vertue's edition of Simon's Medals, Coins, etc., 410, 1753, is a list of the
various prints "engraved, already printed, and published by George
Vertue, engraver in Brownlow Street, Drury Lane."
John Banister the younger, violinist and composer, died here in
1735-
Brunswick Square. Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) was
living at a house in this square in 1816, and another famous resident
was John Leech, the great artist of Punch.
When living in Great Ormond Street, Macaulay would pace up and
down the square with his sisters for a couple of hours at a time.
Brunswick Theatre, WELL STREET, WELLCLOSE SQUARE, stood
on the site of the old Royalty Theatre, was built in seven months (T.
S. Whitwell, architect), opened February 25, 1828, and fell in during
a rehearsal three days after (February 28), when ten persons were
killed and several seriously injured. The site is now occupied by the
Sailors' Home, founded in 1830, opened in 1835, and enlarged in
1865.
Bruton Street, BERKELEY SQUARE, was so called after Sir John
Berkeley of Bruton, created Lord Berkeley of Stratton, from whom
BRYDGES STREET 289
Berkeley Square derives its name. In this street lived the great Duke
of Argyll and Greenwich (d. 1743).
Yes, sir ! on great Argyll I often wait,
At charming Sud brook or in Bruton Street.
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Poems, January 1741.
Here too died, January 10, 1775, tnat noble old soldier, General
Stringer Lawrence, the subverter of the French power in India, and
instructor of Clive in the art of war. Dr. Robert James (James's
Powder) died here in 1776. George Canning lived at No. 24 in 1809.
William Owen, R.A., the eminent portrait painter, lived at No. 33
as long as he painted ; he died at Chelsea, February 11,1825. Sir John
Macdonald, for twenty-two years Adjutant-General of the Army, died
here March 28, 1850. No. 37, still in the same trade, was (1789, etc.)
the " patent lamp warehouse " of Ami Argand, from whom the Argand
burner is named. No. 16 was the town residence of Earl Granville,
and afterwards of the Earl of Carnarvon; No. 15 is now the residence
of Lord Hobhouse ; 1 7 of Lord Stratheden and Campbell ; 24 of
Earl of Longford, and 32 of Lord Clinton. Mrs. Jameson lived in
this street from 1851 to 1854.
Bryanston Square, a long narrow square at the northern end of
Cumberland Street, so called from Bryanstone, near Blandford, Dorset,
the seat of Lord Portman, the ground landlord. Here in 1828 died
Admiral Sir Richard Strachan, and here, in 1855, died Henry Colburn,
the well-known publisher. Joseph Hume lived for many years in No.
6, and died there, February 20, 1855. No. i on the west side is the
Turkish Embassy. St. Mary, Bryanston Square, was the living of the
Rev. Thomas Frognal Dibdin, the bibliographer. Miss Landon (L.E.L.)
was married in this church, June 7, 1838. Lord Lytton gave her
away.
Bryanston Street, BRYANSTON SQUARE, runs parallel with
Oxford Street, from Cumberland Street to Portman Street. Lord
Erskine lived at No. 22 in 1815, etc.
Brydges Street, COVENT GARDEN, between Great Russell Street
and Catherine Street ; it now forms the northern half of CATHERINE
STREET. It was built circ. I637, 1 and so called after George Brydges,
Lord Chandos (d. 1654), the grandfather of the magnificent duke of
that name. Strype describes it as a " place well built and inhabited,
and of great resort for the theatre there." Its character early deterio-
rated. In the coarse lines which Dryden made the beautiful Mrs.
Bracegirdle repeat as the epilogue to King Arthur, Brydges Street is
shown to be a place of disreputable resort ; and the epilogue to " Sir
Courtly Nice," 1685, declared that "our Brydges Street is grown a
Strumpet Fair." Half a century later there was little improvement, as
we learn from Fielding, who knew Covent Garden as well as any one.
Both in Jonathan Wild and Tom Jones, Brydges Street figures and
1 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
VOL. I U
290 BRYDGES STREET
figures unfavourably. In more modern times the old Drury Tavern,
the Sheridan Knowles public-house, the Sir John Falstaff, H.'s, and
the Elysium, show a dramatic and a festive neighbourhood. Drury
Lane Theatre is at its north-eastern corner. [See Catherine Street;
Drury Lane Theatre ; Rose Tavern.]
Buckbine Hill, in Gary's Map, 1837, BUGDEN HILL, the rising
ground towards the north-west corner of Hyde Park.
Buckingham Court, on the north side of the Admiralty, leading
into SPRING GARDENS, was so named after Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
who lived in Wallingford House. Mrs. Centlivre, the authoress of
The Busy Body, and the " Slip-shod Sibyl " of the Dunciad, died in this
court (1723). Pope, in an Account of the Condition of E. Curll, calls
her "the cook's wife in Buckingham Court." Her husband was
"yeoman of the mouth" to George I., and resided here between 1712
and 1 7 24.* Duncan Campbell, the hero of Defoe's famous work, lived
in "Buckingham Court over against Old Man's Coffee House at Charing
Cross." He is reported to have amassed a large fortune from practising
upon the credulity of the public. Mr. James Crossley, in Notes and
Queries, ist S., vol. iii. p. 249. Many of the houses in this court
(long a nest of vice and dirt) were bought by the Admiralty, and pulled
down early in the present century.
Whereas information hath been given to this Board that there is a great and
numerous concourse of Papists and other persons disaffected to the Government, that
resort to the Coffee House of one Bromefield, in Buckingham Court, near Wallingford
House, and to other houses there : And whereas 'there is a Door lately opened out
of that Court into the lower part of the Spring Garden that leads into the St. James's
Park, where the said Papists and disaffected persons meet and consult, w ch may be
of dangerous consequence : These are, therefore, to pray and require you to cause
the said Door to be forthwith bricked or otherwise so closed up as you shall judge
most fit for the security of their ^Majesties' Palace of Whitehall, and the said Park
and the avenues of the same. And for so doing this shall be your warrant, given at
their Majesties' Board of Green Cloth at Hampton Court the gth day of September,
in the first year of their Majesties' reign, 1689.
DEVONSHIRE.
To Sir Christopher Wren, Knt., NEWPORT. 2
Surveyor of their Majesties' Works.
Buckingham Gate, ST. JAMES'S PARK, called in the Works
Accounts of the Crown, 1678-1679, "Goreing Gate in St. James's Park,"
and in Kip's old view the Gate to Chelsea. It is hardly necessary to
add that it took its name from Buckingham House, hard by.
I entered very young on public life, very innocent, very ignorant, and very ingenuous.
I lived many happy years at West Ham, in an uninterrupted and successful discharge
of my duty. A disappointment in the living of that parish obliged me to exert myself,
and I engaged for a chapel near Buckingham Gate. Great success attended the under-
taking ; it pleased and it elated me. Dr. Dod<fs Account of Himself.
The chapel is still standing in Palace Street (formerly Charlotte Street).
1 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 2 Letter Book in Lord Steward's Office.
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE 291
It was subsequently held by the notorious Dr. Dillon, who was sus-
pended by the Bishop of London in 1840.
Buckingham House, a spacious mansion, on the east side of
College Hill, for some time the city residence of the second and last
Duke of Buckingham of the Villiers family. Part of the court-yard still
exists, and the site of the house is particularly marked in Strype's Map
of the wards of Queenhithe and Vintry.
Almost over against the said church [St. Michael's, College Hill] is Buckingham
House, so called as being bought by the late Duke of Buckingham, and where he
sometime resided upon a particular humour. It is a very large and graceful building,
late the seat of Sir John Lethulier, an eminent merchant, sometime sheriff and
alderman of London, deceased. R, B., in Strype, B. iii. p. 13.
From damning whatever we don't understand,
From purchasing at Dowgate and selling in the Strand,
Calling streets by our name when we have sold the land,
Libera nos, Domine.
The Litany of the Duke of B , 1679.
Shaftesbury and Buckingham joined in becoming Citizens. The Earl had a great
house in Aldersgate Street ; the Duke had one at Sion Hill, for the more security of
their trade, and convenience of driving it among the Londoners. So that in raillery
they were called Alderman Shaftesbury and Alderman Buckingham. Roger North,
Reflections, p. 683.
Buckingham House, PALL MALL, a stone -fronted house, built
1790-1794 from the designs of Sir John Soane for George Grenville,
Earl Temple, and first Marquis of Buckingham, who let it to Alexander,
Duke of Gordon, husband of the celebrated political Duchess, the
rival of Georgiana, shortly afterwards Duchess of Devonshire. The
house remained in the possession of the Dukes of Buckingham until
the sale of the property in 1848. It was used for the purposes of
the Carlton Club while the Club was being rebuilt, and is now a part of
the War Office. The house has no very special architectural character,
but it possesses a curious staircase.
Buckingham House, in ST. JAMES'S PARK, built in 1705 after
the designs of Captain Wynne, a native of Bergen-op-Zoom, for John
Sheffield, Marquis of Normanby and Duke of Buckinghamshire, the
poet and patron of Dryden. The house was built on Crown land, for
the surrender of a lease of which, to expire in 1771, the Duke gave
;i 3,000. [For its earlier history see Mulberry Garden.]
It [Buckingham House] was formerly called Arlington House, and being
purchased by his Grace, the present Duke, he rebuilt it from the ground in the year
1703. Hatton, p. 623.
Buckingham House is one of the great beauties of London, both by reason of its
situation and its building. It is situated at the west end of St. James's Park, fronting
the Mall and the great walk ; and behind it is a fine garden, a noble terrace (from
whence, as well as from the apartments, you have a most delicious prospect), and a
little park with a pretty canal. The Court-yard which fronts the Park is spacious ;
the offices are on each side divided from the Palace by two arching galleries, and in
the middle of the court is a round basin of water, lined with freestone, with the
figures of Neptune and the Tritons in a water-work. The staircase is large and
nobly painted ; and in the Hall before you ascend the stairs is a very fine statue of
Cain slaying of Abel in marble. The apartments are indeed very noble, the furniture
292 BUCKINGHAM HOUSE
rich, and many very good pictures. 1 The top of the Palace is flat, on which one
hath a full view of London and Westminster, and the adjacent country : and the four
figures of Mercury, Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, front the Park, and those of the
Four Seasons the gardens. His Grace hath also put inscriptions on the four parts of
his palace. On the front towards the Park, which is as delicious a situation as can
be imagined, the inscription is Sic siti latantur Lares (The Household Gods
delight in such a situation) ; and fronting the garden, Rus in Urbe? The Country
within a City), which may be properly said, for from that garden you see nothing but
an open country, and an uninterrupted view, without seeing any part of the city,
because the Palace interrupts that prospect from the Garden. [J. Macky] Journey
through England, 8vo, 1722, vol. i. p. 194.
The Duke's own account of it is as follows :
The avenues to this House are along St. James's Park, through rows of goodly
elms on one hand, and gay flourishing limes on the other ; that for coaches, this for
walking ; with the Mall lying between them. This reaches to my iron palisade that
encompasses a square court, which has in the midst a great bason with statues and
water-works ; and from its entrance rises all the way imperceptibly, 'till we mount to
a Terrace in the front of a large Hall, paved with square white stones mixed with a
dark -coloured marble ; the walls of it covered with a set of pictures done in the
school of Raphael. Out of this on the right hand we go into a parlour 33 feet by
39 feet, with a niche 15 feet broad for a Bufette, paved with white marble, and placed
within an arch, with Pilasters of divers colours, the upper part of which as high as
the ceiling is painted by Ricci. . . . Under the windows of this closet [of books]
and greenhouse is a little wilderness full of blackbirds and nightingales. The trees,
though planted by myself, require lopping already, to prevent their hindering the view
of that fine canal in the Park. A Letter to the D\uke~\ of Sh\rewsbury\, (D. of
Buckingham's Works, 8vo, I729). 3
The Duke died in 1721, having bequeathed his house to the Duchess,
"upon this express condition only, that she does not marry again."
In 1723 the Prince and Princess of Wales (afterwards George II. and
Queen Caroline) were in treaty with the widow for the purchase of the
house. The Duchess, a natural daughter of James II. by Catherine
Sedley, names the purchase-money she requires, in a letter to Mrs.
Howard :
If their Royal Highnesses will have everything stand as it does, furniture and
pictures, I will have three thousand pounds per annum ; both run hazard of being
spoiled, and the last, to be sure, will be all to be new bought whenever my son is of
age. The quantity the rooms take cannot be well furnished under ten thousand
pounds ; but if their Highnesses will permit the pictures all to be removed, and buy
the furniture as it will be valued by different people, the house shall go at two
thousand pounds. ... If the prince or princess prefer much the buying outright,
under sixty thousand pounds it will not be parted with as it now stands, and all His
Majesty's revenue cannot purchase a place so fit for them nor for a less sum.
Duchess of Buckingham to Airs. Howard, August I, 1723 (Suffolk Papers, vol. i. p.
The sum was either thought too much or the Duchess changed her
mind for nothing was done.
On the martyrdom of her grandfather [Charles I.] she [the Dss. of B.] received
him [Lord Hervey] in the Great Drawing-room of Buckingham House, seated in a
chair of state, in deep mourning, attended by her women in like weeds, in memory
of the royal martyr. Walpole's Reminiscences.
1 See a Catalogue of the Pictures in Harl. 3 There are three small views of Buckingham
MS., 6344. House and Gardens worked into the text of this
2 Tatler, No. 18. edition of the Duke's Works.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE 293
The Duchess left the house to John, Lord Hervey (Pope's Lord Hervey),
for his life ; but he tells us he did not care 'to take possession. It
was bought by George III. of Sir Charles Sheffield (the Duke's
natural son) in 1762 for ^"28,000, and was called by the mob Holy-
rood House. 1 It was settled on Queen Charlotte in lieu of Somerset
House by an Act passed in 1775 (15 Geo. III^ c. 33). Here, in
"the Queen's House," as it was then commonly called, Johnson
had his famous interview with George III. The principal portion
of the King's Library (which was afterwards presented to the nation
by George IV.) occupied three large rooms, two oblong and one
octagon. Here all that king's children were born, George IV. alone
excepted.
At Pimlico an ancient structure stands
Where Sheffield erst, but Brunswick now commands.
Rolliad {Probationary Odes).
Buckingham House stood till 1825, when it was added to by George
IV., and the present unsightly palace (the subject of the next article)
arose in its stead. More than half the house, all the north-west wing,
and other buildings on the north part, occupied the site of the famous
Mulberry Garden ; and that part of the courtyard in front of the house,
containing two rods and nine perches, was taken by the Duke of
Buckingham from St. James's Park, with, it was said, the consent of
Queen Anne.
Buckingham Palace, the palace of Her Majesty in St. James's
Park, built in the reign of King George IV., on the site of Buckingham
House, from the designs of John Nash, and completed in the reign of
William IV., but never inhabited by that sovereign, who is said to
have expressed his great dislike to the general appearance and dis-
comfort of the whole structure.
Yet I must say, notwithstanding the expense which has been incurred in building
the Palace, that no Sovereign in Europe, I may even add, perhaps, no private
gentleman, is so ill lodged as the King of this country. Duke of Wellington to House
of Lords, July 16, 1828.
When the grant was given by Parliament it was intended only to repair
and enlarge old Buckingham House ; and therefore the old site, height,
and dimensions were retained, probably from knowing that Parliament
would not have granted the funds for an entirely new Palace. On Her
Majesty's accession several alterations were effected a dome in the
centre was removed, and new buildings added to the south. The altera-
tions were made by Mr. Edward Blore, and Her Majesty entered into her
new Palace on July 13, 1837. Greater changes have since been made
by the removal of the Marble Arch (1850) and the erection, at a cost
of ^150,000, of an east front, under the superintendence of Mr. Blore,
by which the whole building was converted into a quadrangle. The
chapel on the south side, originally a conservatory, was consecrated by
1 Walpole to George Montagu, June 8, 1762.
294 BUCKINGHAM PALACE
the Archbishop of Canterbury, March 25, 1843. The Grand Staircase
is of white marble and decorated by L. Gruner. The Library is
generally used as a waiting-room for deputations, which, as soon as the
Queen is ready to receive them, pass across the Sculpture Gallery into
the Hall, and thence ascend by the Grand Staircase through an ante-
room and the Green Drawing-room to the Throne Room. The Green
Drawing-room, which opens upon the portico of Nash's building, is 50
feet in length and 32 in height, and hung with green satin, striped and
relieved with gilding. The door and shutter -panels are filled with
mirrors. The magnificent Ballroom on the south side was completed
in 1856, from Pennethorne's designs, and decorated by L. Gruner.
When state balls are given, visitors having the entree alight at the
temporary garden entrance, and the general company enter by the
Grand Hall. Visitors are conducted through the Green Drawing-room
to the Picture Gallery and the Grand Saloon. On these occasions
refreshments are served in the Garter Room and Green Drawing-room,
and supper laid in the principal Dining-room. The State concerts
are given in the Grand Saloon. The Throne Room is 64 feet in
length. Here is placed the Royal Throne or Chair of State. The
ceiling of the room is coved, richly emblazoned with arms, and gilded
in the boldest Italian style of the i5th century. Beneath is a white
marble frieze (the Wars of the Roses), designed by Stothard and
executed by E. H. Baily, R.A. The pictures in Buckingham Palace
were principally collected by George IV. The Dutch and Flemish
pictures, of which the collection chiefly consists, are hung together.
They are almost without exception first-rate works. The portraits are
in the State Rooms adjoining.
ALBERT DURER (i). An Altar Piece in three parts.
MABUSE (i). St. Matthew called from the receipt of Custom.
REMBRANDT (7). Noli me Tangere. Adoration of the Magi. The Shipbuilder
and his wife (very fine, cost George IV. when Prince of Wales, 5000 guineas).
Burgomaster Pancras and his Wife. Three portraits.
RUBENS (7). Pythagoras the fruit and animals by SNYDERS, 8 feet 8 inches
high by 1 2 feet 6 inches wide. A Landscape. The Assumption of the Virgin.
St. George and the- Dragon in Charles I.'s Collection. Pan and Syrinx.
The Falconer. Family of Olden Bameveldt.
VANDYCK (6). Marriage of St. Catherine. Christ healing the Lame Man.
Study of Three Horses. Portrait of a Man in black. Queen Henrietta
Maria presenting Charles I. with a crown of laurel. Virgin and Child.
MYTENS (i). Charles I. and his Queen, full length figures in a small picture.
JANSEN (i). Charles I. walking in Greenwich Park with his Queen and two
children.
CUYP (9). HOBBEMA (2). RUYSDAEL (i). A. VANDERVELDE (7), of great
excellence. YOUNGER VANDERVELDE (4). PAUL POTTER (4). BACKHUYSEN
(i). BERGHEM (8). BOTH (i). G. Douw (8). KAREL DU JARDIN (5). DE
HOOGHE (2).
N. MAES (i). A Young Woman, with her finger on her lip and in a listening
attitude, stealing down a dark winding staircase (very fine).
METZU (6). One his own portrait.
F. MlERIS (4). A. OSTADE (9). I. OSTADE (2). SCHALKEN (3). JAN
STEEN (6). YOUNGER TENIERS (14). TERBURG (2). VANDERHEYDEN (2).
BUCKINGHAM STREET 295
VANDERMEULEN (13). A. VANDERNEER (i). VANDERWERFF (3). WOUVERMANS
(10). WEENIX (i). WYNANTS (i). WATTEAU (4).
There are also a few good works by French painters, as CLAUDE LORRAINE,
CASPAR POUSSIN, WATTEAU, GREUZE (3) and GRANES.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS (3). Death of Dido. Cymon and Iphigenia. His
own portrait, in spectacles.
ZOFFANY (2). Interior of the Florentine Gallery. Royal Academy in 1773.
SIR P. LELY (i). Anne Hyde, Duchess of York.
SIR D. WILKIE (3). The Penny Wedding. Blind Man's Buff. Duke of Sussex
in Highland dress.
SIR W. ALLAN.- The Orphan. Anne Scott near the vacant chair of her father,
Sir Walter Scott.
Mode of admission order from the Lord Chamberlain, granted only when the
Court is absent.
The Mews, concealed from the palace by a lofty mound, contains a
spacious riding-school ; a room expressly for keeping state harness ;
stables for the state horses ; and houses for forty carriages. Here, too,
is kept the magnificent state coach, designed by Sir W. Chambers,
architect, in 1762; and painted by Cipriani with a series of emblematical
subjects, the entire cost being ^766 1 : 16 : 5. The stud of horses and
the carriage may be inspected by an order from the Master of the Horse.
The entrance is in Buckingham Palace Road. The garden, by Jenkins,
is about 40 acres, of which nearly 5 acres are occupied by a lake.
The garden has been laid out and planted to secure privacy as far as
possible. In the garden is the Queen's summer-house, on the pavilion,
containing the frescoes (eight in number) from Milton's Cotnus,
executed in 1844-1845 by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Dyce, Stanfield,
Uwins, Leslie, and Ross. The ornaments and borders are by Gruner.
Buckingham Place Road, the modern title of the road from
Buckingham Palace to Pimlico. Commencing from the east, it absorbs
what were Stafford Row, Queen's Row, King's Row, and Lower and
Upper Belgrave Place, with two or three subsidiary rows and terraces.
Edward B. Stephens, A.R.A., sculptor, died here in 1882.
Buckingham Street, FITZROY SQUARE. It lies north-west of the
square, between Bolsover Street and Upper Cleveland Street. John
Flaxman, the sculptor, took up his residence at No. 6 in 1794, the
year in which he returned from pursuing his studies at Rome, 1 and
continued to reside in the same house till his death, December 7, 1826.
Here Allan Cunningham visited him in 1825.
He received me with his hat in his hand, and conducted me into his little studio
among models and sketches. There was but one chair, and a small barrel which
held coals, with a board laid over it. On the former he seated me, and occupied the
latter himself, after having removed a favourite black cat who seemed to consider the
act ungracious. Our talk was all concerning poetry and poets. A. Cunningham's
" Life of Flaxman, "^Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, etc., vol. iii. p. 356.
Dr. Wollaston, F.R.S., lived at No. 14. In 1812-1813 C R.
Leslie, R.A., then commencing his career as a painter, was lodging at
No. 8 Buckingham Place, Fitzroy Square; his friend Allston, the
American, had lodgings in the same house.
1 Hayley's Life, vol. ii. p. 100.
296 BUCKINGHAM STREET
Buckingham Street, STRAND, built I675, 1 and so called after
George Villiers, the second and last Duke of Buckingham of the
Villiers family. [See George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street,
Of Alley, York House, and York Water -Gate.] Eminent Inhabi-
tants. Samuel Pepys, author of the Diary ; he came here in 1684.
His house (since rebuilt and numbered 1 4) was the last on the west side,
and looked on the Thames. 2 His friend, William Hewer, lived here
before him. Peter the Great, " in a large house at the bottom of York
Buildings," on the east side over against Pepys. 3 The witty Earl of
Dorset, in 1681. Robert Harley, Esq., in 1706 (afterwards Earl of
Oxford). Dr. Welwood, known by his Memoirs, died here in 1727.
When David Hume and Jean Jacques Rousseau arrived in England in
1765, they were received with great hospitality by Hume's friend,
John Stewart, at his house in this street, and they afterwards removed
into lodgings a few doors off. In one or other of these houses
Rousseau laid the scene of all the imaginary insults heaped upon him
by his brother philosopher ; the crowning injury being inflicted at their
parting in Buckingham Street, which Rousseau describes with such
comic vehemence. Whilst here Rousseau was the object of much
curiosity.
They are lodged together in Buckingham Street, Strand, where many go from
civility to see him. Card-well Papers, vol. ii. p. 63.
John Henderson, the actor, died in a house in this street in 1785.
William Etty, R.A., occupied No. 14, from 1826 to within a few
months of his death in 1849. His chambers and painting room were
at first on the ground floor, but afterwards at the top of the house.
Here he invited Stothard to breakfast with him "at 9 o'clock, when
there is a good light to see my Venetian studies of colour, which are all
hung round the room where I breakfast" Stanfield succeeded him in
the lower rooms.
Should my reader's boat ever stop at York Water-Gate [the Thames embankment,
or the garden by the Water-Gate may be substituted now] let me request him to look
up at the three upper balconied windows of that mass of building at the south-west
corner of Buckingham Street. Those, and the two adjoining Westminster, give
light to chambers occupied by that truly epic historical painter, and most excellent
man, Etty, the Royal Academician, who has fitted up the balconied room with
engravings after pictures of the three great masters, Raphael, Nicholas Poussin, and
Rubens. The other two windows illuminate his painting room, in which his mind
and colours resplendently shine, even in the face of one of the grandest scenes in
Nature, our River Thames and City edifices, with a most luxuriant and extensive face of
a distant country, the beauties of which he most liberally delights in showing to his
friends from the leads of his apartments. . . . The rooms immediately below Mr.
Etty's are occupied by Mr. Lloyd, a gentleman whose general knowledge in the
graphic art, I and many more look up to with the profoundest respect. The
chambers beneath Mr. Lloyd's are inhabited by Mr. Stanfield, the landscape painter.
J. T. Smith's Book for a Rainy Day, 3d. ed. p. 292.
1 Rate-books of St. Martin's. Buckingham Street from the river, by W. James,
8 Strype, B. vi. p. 76. circ. 1756. The houses of Pepys and Peter the
* At Hampton Court is a very good view of Great are seen to great advantage.
BUCKLERSBURY 297
No. 2 2 was the house of Power, the publisher of the Irish Melodies,
to whom Moore wrote so many letters.
" Strata " Smith, " the father of modern geology," lived in this street,
and his young nephew, John Phillips (afterwards the Oxford professor),
was with him.
Smollett's man, Strap, was for several years before his death keeper
of the lodge of Buckingham Terrace, Strand, near Inigo Jones's water-
gate. Smith's Nollekens, vol. L p. 293.
Bucklersbury, or, as Stow writes it, " Buckles bury," and " so
called," he says, "of a manor and tenements pertaining to one Buckle
who there dwelt and kept his courts," 1 but in this, as in many of
his derivations, he is in error. As Mr. Riley has shown, " the original
name of this locality was Bokerelesburi^ it being so called from the
once opulent family of the Bokerels or Bukerels, who dwelt there in the
i3th century." 2 Andrew Buckerel was mayor from 1231 to 1236.
Bucklersbury led /rom the east end of Cheapside to Charlotte Row,
the west side of the Mansion House, but has of late been cut in
half and greatly diminished in extent by the formation of Queen
Victoria Street. Stow says " this whole street, on both the sides
throughout, is possessed of grocers and apothecaries," and the
passages cited below show that long after his time druggists pre-
dominated here. Later it was noted for its taverns, and in recent
years for its eating-houses, but most in their turn have migrated from it,
The last of the "wholesale druggists" of Bucklersbury (Messrs. Horner),
and one of the oldest houses in the trade, only withdrew in 1878, when
the old buildings were sold by auction and cleared away, the site (2 5 80
of square feet) having been let on an eighty years' lease at a ground rent
of ;i2oo per annum. The street seems to be now most "possessed"
of solicitors and wine merchants. [See Barge Yard.]
It is marvellous that such perfumes should make so sweete savours, if the divell
were in them. If one divell be in so little porcion of incense, what a number of
divells be there in all the apothecaries shoppes that are in Bucklersbury and elsewhere.
Becon's Works, 1563. [Here is a reference to assafcetida or Devil's dung.]
Bucklersbury, a street very well built, and inhabited by tradesmen, especially
Drugsters and Furriers. R. B., in Strype, B. iii. p. 50; B. ii. p. 200.
Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no such thing in me.
Fahtaff. What made me love thee ? let that persuade thee, there's something
extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a
many of these lisping hawthorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel and
smell like Bucklersbury in simple-time : I cannot ; but I love thee, none but thee,
and thou deserves! it. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii. Sc. 3.
Mrs. Tenterhook. Go into Bucklersbury, and fetch me two ounces of preserved
melounes (melons) ; look there be no tobacco taken in the shop when he weighs it.
Westward Ho, 4to, 1607.
Mistress Wafer. Run into Bucklersbury, for two ounces of Drageon water, some
spermacaety and treakle. Westward Ho, 410, 1607.
Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair, describing a countryman gazing at the
painted signs and lower wonders in London, and naming the things that there was
1 Stow, p. 97. 2 Riley, memorials, p. xviii.
298 B UCKLERSB UR Y
"no getting him away from," says, "I thought he would have run mad o' the
black boy in Bucklersbury, that takes the scurvy, roguy tobacca there. Bart. Fair,
Act i. Sc. I.
If without these vile arts, it will not sell,
Send it to Bucklersbury, there 'twill well.
[i.e. to pack up groceries.]
Ben Jonson, To my Bookseller, Epigrams, vol. iii.
I know most of the plants of my country, and of those about me, yet methinks I
do not know so many as when I did but know a hundred and had scarcely ever
simpled further that Cheapside. Sir Thomas Browne, " Religio Medici" {Works,
vol. ii. p. 104).
Sir Thomas More was living in this street when he was raised to the
Bench, and here his daughter (Margaret Roper) was born.
Before which time he had placed himself and his wife in Bucklersbury in London,
where he had by her one son and three daughters in virtue and learning brought
up from their youth. Life of Sir Thomas More, by G. H., 1662, p. 7.
John Sadler and Richard Quiney, connections of Shakespeare, were grocers and
druggists at the Red Lion, Bucklersbury. Middlesex Arch. Soc. Trans., vol. iii. p. 578.
Bucknall Street, ST. GILES'S. Church Lane, Broad Street, was
so renamed in 1878.
Budge Row, the east end of WATLING STREET, City.
So called of the Budge fur, and of Skinners dwelling there. Stow, p. 94.
Ay marry, Win, now you look finely indeed. Win, this cap does convince !
You'd not have worn it, Win, nor have had it velvet, but a rough country beaver,
with a copper-band, like the coney-skin woman of Budge Row. Ben Jonson,
Bart. Fair, Act i. Sc. I.
O foolishness of men ! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the Stoic fur. Milton's Comus.
Bull Inn, ALDGATE, No. 25 on the north side. This was of old
a great coach, waggon, and posting inn, with a long yard and galleries
round it, a great resort of travellers from Essex and the eastern counties
generally. The coach office is now a general railway office, and the
yard is divided into warehouses and tenements.
Bull Inn, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN, No. 93 on the west side,
nearly opposite St. Helen's Place, a very old coach and carriers' office,
and posting house and hostelry for travellers from the eastern counties.
Old Hobson, the Cambridge University carrier, it will be remembered,
hailed from here.
'Twas such a shifter, that if truth were known,
Death was half-glad when he had got him down ;
For he had any time, this ten-years full,
Dodged with him betwixt Cambridge and the Bull.
Milton, On the University Carrier.
This memorable man [Hobson the Carrier] stands drawn in fresco at an Inn
(which he used) in Bishopgate, with an hundred pound bag under his arm, with this
inscription on the said bag
The fruitful mother of an Hundred more. *
The Spectator, No. 509.
1 Dr. King in his third letter to Lister mentions remain still [1709] at the Bull Inn;" but in 1785
that "the effigies of that worthy person [Hobson] Thomas Warton speaks of it as "lately to be seen."
BULL AND GATE INN 299
The yard of this inn, commonly called the Bull, in Bishopsgate
Street, supplied a stage to our early actors before James Burbadge and
his fellows obtained a patent from Queen Elizabeth for erecting a per-
manent building for theatrical entertainments. Tarlton often played
here. 1 Anthony Bacon (the brother of Francis) lived in Bishopsgate
Street, not far from the Bull Inn, to the great concern of his mother,
who not only dreaded that the plays and interludes acted at the Bull
might corrupt his servants, but on her own son's account objected to
the parish, as being without a godly clergyman.-
Thursday, April 26, 1649. This night at the Bull in Bishopsgate there has
an alarming mutiny broken out in a troop of Whalley's regiment there. Whalley's
men are not allotted for Ireland : but they refuse to quit London as they are ordered :
they want this and that first : they seize their colours from the Cornet who is lodged
at the Bull there. The General and the Lieutenant -General have to hasten thither ;
quell them ; pack them forth on their march ; seizing fifteen of them first to be tried
by Court-Martial. Tried by instant Court-Martial, five of them are found guilty,
doomed to die, but pardoned ; and one of them, Trooper Lockyer, is doomed and not
pardoned. Trooper Lockyer is shot in St. Paul's Churchyard on the morrow.
Carlyle's Cromwell, vol. ii. p. 157.
The Inn was pulled down in 1866 to make way for the huge pile
of offices called Palmerston Buildings.
Bull Inn, SHOREDITCH. Newton wrote his self-accusatory letter
to Locke a letter which, as he afterwards explained, " when I wrote
to you, I had not slept an hour a night for a fortnight together, and
for a fortnight together not a wink." " At the Bull Inn, Shoreditch,
London, September 16, 1693."
Bull Inn, on TOWER HILL. Otway, the poet, is said to have died
here. 2 [See Tower Hill.]
Bull Inn Court, STRAND. [See Maiden Lane.]
Bull (The Red). [See Red Bull Theatre.]
Bull and Gate Inn, HOLBORN.
In Holborn we have still the sign of the Bull and Gate, which exhibits but an
odd combination of images. It was originally (as I learn from the title-page of an
old play) the Bullogne Gate, i.e. one of the Gates of Boulogne, designed, perhaps,
as a compliment to Henry VIII., who took that place in 1544. The Boulogne
Mouth, now the Bull and Mouth, had probably the same origin, i.e. the mouth of
the Harbour of Boulogne. Geo. Steevens, Shakespeare.
The Boulogne gate was not one of the gates of Boulogne, but of Calais ; and is
frequently mentioned as such by Hall and Holinshed. Ritson.
The gates of a fortress are always called after the places to which
the roads passing through them lead. In this case there can be little
room for doubt. In the Device for the Fortification of Calais, 1532,
p. 128, we have : " Item, that the bulwerke before Bolen Gate may
be made so that the same may respond and beate the flankes," etc.
Whether the Bull and Gate is a corruption of Boulogne Gate is, how-
ever, a very different and much more doubtful matter.
1 Collier's Annals, vol. iii. p. 291 ; and Tarlton' s Jests, by Halliwell, pp. 13, 14.
2 Ath. Oxonienses, ed. 1721, vol. ii. p. 782.
300 BULL AND GATE INN
Jones at last yielded to the advice of Partridge, and retreated to the Bull and
Gate in Holborn, that being the inn where he had first alighted, and where he
retired to enjoy that kind of repose which usually attends persons in his circum-
stances. Tom Jones, B. xiii. c. 2.
Gazetteer, April 18, 1769. Advertisement for sale. At the Bull and Gate Inn,
Holborn, a chesnut Gelding, a Tun of Whisky, and a well-made, good-tempered
Black Boy. P. Hoare's Life of Granville Sharp, 410, p. 6.
The Bull and Gate, Holborn, has passed away, but there still exists
a Bull and Gate, Kentish Town (the starting-place of the Kentish
Town omnibuses), a showy tavern, erected in 1878 on the site of a
country inn of the same sign of very old standing.
Bull and Mouth, ST. MARTIN'S-LE-GRAND, afterwards the Queen's
Hotel, and very foolishly so-called. [See Bull and Gate.]
The Bull and Mouth Inn is large and well built, and of a good resort by those
that bring Bone Lace, where the shopkeepers and others come to buy it. And in
this part of St. Martin's is a noted meeting-house of the Quakers, called the Bull
and Mouth, and where they met long before the Fire. Strvpe, B. iii. p. 121.
Ellwood relates in his Autobiography that a Quaker's meeting held
at the Bull and Mouth, October 26, 1662, was interrupted by a party
of the Trainbands, and the Friends committed to Bridewell.
This, till the railways rose up, was a great London coach-office to
all parts of England and Scotland. It was a family and commercial
hotel, but is now (1888) cleared away for the new buildings of the
General Post Office. There was also a Bull and Mouth Inn in Blooms-
bury, of which there is a token in the Beaufoy Collection.
Bull Head Tavern, CHARING CROSS, where Drummond's Bank
now stands.
During the writing and publishing of this book \Joannis Philippi Angli Responsio,
etc.], he [Milton] lodged at one Thomson's, next door to the Bullhead Tavern at
Charing Cross, opening into the Spring Garden. Philips's Life of Milton, I2mo,
*694> P- 33-
Bull Head Tavern, CHEAPSIDE.
1555. My dear friend, Thomas Ridley, of the Bull Head in Cheap, who has
been to me the most faithful friend that I had in my trouble, is departed also.
Bishop Ridley to Grindal, from his Prison at Oxford.
When he [Wilkins, Bishop of Chester] came to London, they [the Royal Society]
met at y e Bull-head taverne in Cheapside e.g. 1658, 1659, and after, till it grew
too big for a clubbe, and so they came to Gresham College parlour. Aubrey,
vol. iii. p. 583.
We barred all discourse of divinity, of state affairs, and of news, other than what
concerned our business of philosophy. These meetings we removed soon after to
the Bull Head in Cheapside. Wallis's Defence of the Royal Society, 1678, p. 8.
February 12, 1660. The General [Monk] having done his business at Guildhall,
took leave of the citizens, who expressed a very particular satisfaction and confidence
in him. And from thence he went to the Bull Head Tavern in Cheapside, where
he ordered the quarters of his forces and the settling the guards that night for the
security of the city. Skinner's Life of Monk, p. 251.
No. 3 Bread Street, the third house on the right from Cheapside, is
now the Bull Head Inn, no doubt the direct successor of the Bull
Head, Cheapside.
BUNHILL 301
Bull's Head, CLARE MARKET. Here Dr. Radcliffe was often to
be found, and here was held the Artists' Club, of which Hogarth was a
member. There is a letter of Steele's to his wife from here, August
24, 1710.
Radcliffe was persuaded by Betterton the actor to join with him in a " venture " to
the Indies. Betterton contributed ,2000 and Radcliffe ^5000, but unhappily the
ship fell into the hands of the French. "A loss that broke Mr. Betterton 's back;
but though very considerable did not much affect the Doctor ; for when the news of
this disaster was brought him to the Bull Head Tavern in Clare Market, where he
was drinking with several persons of the first rank, who condoled with him on the
occasion, he, with a smiling countenance, and without baulking his glass, desired
them to go forward with the healths that were then in vogue, saying he had no more
to do but go up 250 pair of stairs to make himself whole again." Biog, Brit. His
usual fee, therefore, must have been twenty guineas. The Bull's Head up to the
last ..year of his life continued to be his favourite resort, and it was here that he
received the news of the death of the second Duke of Beaufort, " the only person
whom he took pleasure in conversing with, and announced to the company that he
now felt it was time to set his own house in order."
Bullock's Museum. [See Egyptian Hall.]
Bulstrake Alley.
John James, a Whitechapel weaver, ministered to a small con-
gregation of Sabbatarian Baptis 
