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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:55:48 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:55:48 -0700 |
| commit | 4d4a2395df326960359e3eb80876106decdf30db (patch) | |
| tree | 214d94c53e973d2842dc3cbba9c76f14cd0d4a33 /31412-h | |
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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Old and New London + Volume I + +Author: Walter Thornbury + +Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31412] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD AND NEW LONDON *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Hutton, Jane Hyland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<h1><span class="smcap">Old and New London</span></h1> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f01.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE THAMES EMBANKMENT<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f02.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE ROYAL EXCHANGE & BANK OF ENGLAND<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f03.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ALDERMAN BOYDELL<br />From the Portrait in the Guildhall Collection<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f04.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MIDLAND RAILWAY STATION—S<sup>T</sup> PANCRAS<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f05.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A CITY APPRENTICE—16<sup>TH</sup> CENTURY<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f06.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A BANQUET AT THE GUILDHALL<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f07.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE HOLBORN VIADUCT<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f08.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LONDON WATCHMAN (CHARLIE) 18<sup>TH</sup> CENTURY<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f09.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. PAUL'S FROM LUDGATE CIRCUS<br /><br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f10.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A WATERMAN IN DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE</span> +</div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2><br /><br /><br /><br />OLD AND NEW</h2> + +<h1>LONDON<br /></h1> + +<h3><i>A NARRATIVE OF</i></h3> +<h3><span class="smcap">Its History, Its People, and Its Places</span><br /></h3> + +<p class="center">Illustrated with Numerous Engravings<br /></p> + +<p class="center">FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES.<br /><br /><br /></p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/f11.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Vol. I.</span></h3> + +<p class="center">CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN:<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK</i><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<h3><a href="#Introduction">INTRODUCTION</a></h3> +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h3> +<p class="center">ROMAN LONDON</p> + +<p>Buried London—Our Early Relations—The Founder of London—A Distinguished Visitor at Romney Marsh—Cæsar re-visits the "Town on +the Lake"—The Borders of Old London—Cæsar fails to make much out of the Britons—King <i>Brown</i>—The Derivation of the Name of +London—The Queen of the Iceni—London Stone and London Roads—London's Earlier and Newer Walls—The Site of St. Paul's—Fabulous +Claims to Idolatrous Renown—Existing Relics of Roman London—Treasures from the Bed of the Thames—What we Tread +underfoot in London—A vast Field of Story</p> + + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></h3> + +<p class="center">TEMPLE BAR</p> + +<p>Temple Bar—The Golgotha of English Traitors—When Temple Bar was made of Wood—Historical Pageants at Temple Bar—The Associations +of Temple Bar—Mischievous Processions through Temple Bar—The First Grim Trophy—Rye-House Plot Conspirators<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET:—GENERAL INTRODUCTION</p> + +<p>Frays in Fleet Street—Chaucer and the Friar—The Duchess of Gloucester doing Penance for Witchcraft—Riots between Law Students and +Citizens—'Prentice Riots—Oates in the Pillory—Entertainments in Fleet Street—Shop Signs—Burning the Boot—Trial of Hardy—Queen +Caroline's Funeral</p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></h3> +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson in Ambuscade at Temple Bar—The First Child—Dryden and Black Will—Rupert's Jewels—Telson's Bank—The Apollo Club at +the "Devil"—"Old Sir Simon the King"—"Mull Sack"—Dr. Johnson's Supper to Mrs. Lennox—Will Waterproof at the "Cock"—The +Duel at "Dick's Coffee House"—Lintot's Shop—Pope and Warburton—Lamb and the <i>Albion</i>—The Palace of Cardinal Wolsey—Mrs. +Salmon's Waxwork—Isaak Walton—Praed's Bank—Murray and Byron—St. Dunstan's—Fleet Street Printers—Hoare's Bank and +the "Golden Bottle"—The Real and Spurious "Mitre"—Hone's Trial—Cobbett's Shop—"Peele's Coffee House"<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></h3> +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>The "Green Dragon"—Tompion and Pinchbeck—The <i>Record</i>—St. Bride's and its Memories—<i>Punch</i> and his Contributors—The <i>Dispatch</i>—The +<i>Daily Telegraph</i>—The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith—The <i>Morning Advertiser</i>—The <i>Standard</i>—The <i>London Magazine</i>—A +Strange Story—Alderman Waithman—Brutus Billy—Hardham and his "37"<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—SHIRE LANE AND BELL YARD)</p> + +<p>The Kit-Kat Club—The Toast for the Year—Little Lady Mary—Drunken John Sly—Garth's Patients—Club Removed to Barn Elms—Steele +at the "Trumpet"—Rogues' Lane—Murder—Beggars' Haunts—Thieves' Dens—Coiners—Theodore Hook in Hemp's Sponging-house—Pope +in Bell Yard—Minor Celebrities—Apollo Court<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—CHANCERY LANE)</p> + +<p>The Asylum for Jewish Converts—The Rolls Chapel—Ancient Monuments—A Speaker Expelled for Bribery—"Remember Cæsar"—Trampling +on a Master of the Rolls—Sir William Grant's Oddities—Sir John Leach—Funeral of Lord Gifford—Mrs. Clark and the Duke of York—Wolsey +in his Pomp—Strafford—"Honest Isaak"—The Lord Keeper—Lady Fanshawe—Jack Randal—Serjeants' Inn—An Evening +with Hazlitt at the "Southampton"—Charles Lamb—Sheridan—The Sponging Houses—The Law Institute—A Tragical Story<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>Clifford's Inn—Dyer's Chambers—The Settlement after the Great Fire—Peter Wilkins and his Flying Wives—Fetter Lane—Waller's Plot and +its Victims—Praise-God Barebone and his Doings—Charles Lamb at School—Hobbes the Philosopher—A Strange Marriage—Mrs. +Brownrigge—Paul Whitehead—The Moravians—The Record Office and its Treasures—Rival Poets +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES—CRANE COURT, JOHNSON'S COURT, BOLT COURT</p> + +<p>Removal of the Royal Society from Gresham College—Opposition to Newton—Objections to Removal—The First Catalogue—Swift's Jeer at +the Society—Franklin's Lightning Conductor and King George III.—Sir Hans Sloane insulted—The Scottish Society—Wilkes's Printer—The +Delphin Classics—Johnson's Court—Johnson's Opinion on Pope and Dryden—His Removal to Bolt Court—The <i>John Bull</i>—Hook +and Terry—Prosecutions for Libel—Hook's Impudence<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson in Bolt Court—His Motley Household—His Life there—Still existing—The Gallant "Lumber Troop"—Reform Bill Riots—Sir +Claudius Hunter—Cobbett in Bolt Court—The Bird Boy—The Private Soldier—In the House—Dr. Johnson in Gough Square—Busy at +the Dictionary—Goldsmith in Wine Office Court—Selling "The Vicar of Wakefield"—Goldsmith's Troubles—Wine Office Court—The +Old "Cheshire Cheese"<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></h3> +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES—SHOE LANE</p> + +<p>The First Lucifers—Perkins' Steam Gun—A Link between Shakespeare and Shoe Lane—Florio and his Labours—"Cogers' Hall"—Famous +"Cogers"—A Saturday Night's Debate—Gunpowder Alley—Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier Poet—"To Althea, from Prison"—Lilly +the Astrologer and his Knaveries—A Search for Treasure with Davy Ramsay—Hogarth in Harp Alley—The "Society of Sign Painters"—Hudson, +the Song Writer—"Jack Robinson"—The Bishop's Residence—Bangor House—A Strange Story of Unstamped Newspapers—Chatterton's +Death—Curious Legend of his Burial—A well-timed Joke<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES—SOUTH</p> + +<p>Worthy Mr. Fisher—Lamb's Wednesday Evenings—Persons one would wish to have seen—Ram Alley—Serjeants' Inn—The <i>Daily News</i>—"Memory" +Woodfall—A Mug-House Riot—Richardson's Printing Office—Fielding and Richardson—Johnson's Estimate of Richardson—Hogarth +and Richardson's Guest—An Egotist Rebuked—The King's "Housewife"—Caleb Colton: his Life, Works, and Sentiments<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE.—GENERAL INTRODUCTION</p> + +<p>Origin of the Order of Templars—First Home of the Order—Removal to the Banks of the Thames—Rules of the Order—The Templars at the +Crusades, and their Deeds of Valour—Decay and Corruption of the Order—Charges brought against the Knights—Abolition of the Order<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND PRECINCT</p> + +<p>The Temple Church—Its Restorations—Discoveries of Antiquities—The Penitential Cell—Discipline in the Temple—The Tombs of the +Templars in the "Round"—William and Gilbert Marshall—Stone Coffins in the Churchyard—Masters of the Temple—The "Judicious" +Hooker—Edmund Gibbon, the Historian—The Organ in the Temple Church—The Rival Builders—"Straw Bail"—History of the +Precinct—Chaucer and the Friar—His Mention of the Temple—The Serjeants—Erection of New Buildings—The "Roses"—Sumptuary +Edicts—The Flying Horse<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>The Middle Temple Hall: its Roof, Busts, and Portraits—Manningham's Diary—Fox Hunts in Hall—The Grand Revels—Spenser—Sir J. +Davis—A Present to a King—Masques and Royal Visitors at the Temple—Fires in the Temple—The Last Great Revel in the Hall—Temple +Anecdotes—The Gordon Riots—John Scott and his Pretty Wife—Colman "Keeping Terms"—Blackstone's "Farewell"—Burke—Sheridan—A +Pair of Epigrams—Hare Court—The Barber's Shop—Johnson and the Literary Club—Charles Lamb—Goldsmith: his Life, +Troubles, and Extravagances—"Hack Work" for Booksellers—<i>The Deserted Village</i>—<i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>—Goldsmith's Death and +Burial<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>Fountain Court and the Temple Fountain—Ruth Pinch—L.E.L.'s Poem—Fig-tree Court—The Inner Temple Library—Paper Buildings—The +Temple Gate—Guildford North and Jeffreys—Cowper, the Poet: his Melancholy and Attempted Suicide—A Tragedy in Tanfield +Court—Lord Mansfield—"Mr. Murray" and his Client—Lamb's Pictures of the Temple—The Sun-dials—Porson and his Eccentricities—Rules> +of the Temple—Coke and his Labours—Temple Riots—Scuffles with the Alsatians—Temple Dinners—"Calling" to the Bar—The +Temple Gardens—The Chrysanthemums—Sir Matthew Hale's Tree—Revenues of the Temple—Temple Celebrities<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">WHITEFRIARS</p> + +<p>The Present Whitefriars—The Carmelite Convent—Dr. Butts—The Sanctuary—Lord Sanquhar murders the Fencing-Master—His Trial—Bacon +and Yelverton—His Execution—Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel"—Shadwell's <i>Squire of Alsatia</i>—A Riot in Whitefriars—Elizabethan +Edicts against the Ruffians of Alsatia—Bridewell—A Roman Fortification—A Saxon Palace—Wolsey's Residence—Queen +Katherine's Trial—Her Behaviour in Court—Persecution of the first Congregationalists—Granaries and Coal Stores destroyed by the +Great Fire—The Flogging in Bridewell—Sermon on Madame Creswell—Hogarth and the "Harlot's Progress"—Pennant's Account of +Bridewell—Bridewell in 1843—Its Latter Days—Pictures in the Court Room—Bridewell Dock—The Gas Works—Theatres in Whitefriars—Pepys' +Visits to the Theatre—Dryden and the Dorset Gardens Theatre—Davenant—Kynaston—Dorset House—The Poet-Earl<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span><br /></p> +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">BLACKFRIARS</p> + +<p>Three Norman Fortresses on the Thames' Bank—The Black Parliament—The Trial of Katherine of Arragon—Shakespeare a Blackfriars +Manager—The Blackfriars Puritans—The Jesuit Sermon at Hunsdon House—Fatal Accident—Extraordinary Escapes—Queen Elizabeth +at Lord Herbert's Marriage—Old Blackfriars Bridge—Johnson and Mylne—Laying of the Stone—The Inscription—A Toll Riot—Failure +of the Bridge—The New Bridge—Bridge Street—Sir Richard Phillips and his Works—Painters in Blackfriars—The King's Printing +Office—Printing House Square—The <i>Times</i> and its History—Walter's Enterprise—War with the <i>Dispatch</i>—The gigantic Swindling +Scheme exposed by the <i>Times</i>—Apothecaries' Hall—Quarrel with the College of Physicians<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">LUDGATE HILL</p> + +<p>An Ugly Bridge and "Ye Belle Savage"—A Radical Publisher—The Principal Gate of London—From a Fortress to a Prison—"Remember the +Poor Prisoners"—Relics of Early Times—St. Martin's, Ludgate—The London Coffee House—Celebrated Goldsmiths on Ludgate Hill—Mrs. +Rundell's Cookery Book—Stationers' Hall—Old Burgavenny House and its History—Early Days of the Stationers' Company—The +Almanacks—An Awkward Misprint—The Hall and its Decorations—The St. Cecilia Festivals—Dryden's "St. Cecilia's Day" and +"Alexander's Feast"—Handel's Setting of them—A Modest Poet—Funeral Feasts and Political Banquets—The Company's Plate—Their +Charities—The Pictures at Stationers' Hall—The Company's Arms—Famous Masters<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S</p> + +<p>London's Chief Sanctuary of Religion—The Site of St. Paul's—The Earliest authenticated Church there—The Shrine of Erkenwald—St. Paul's +Burnt and Rebuilt—It becomes the Scene of a Strange Incident—Important Political Meeting within its Walls—The Great Charter +published there—St. Paul's and Papal Power in England—Turmoils around the Grand Cathedral—Relics and Chantry Chapels in St. +Paul's—Royal Visits to St. Paul's—Richard, Duke of York, and Henry VI.—A Fruitless Reconciliation—Jane Shore's Penance—A +Tragedy of the Lollards' Tower—A Royal Marriage—Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey at St. Paul's—"Peter of Westminster"—A +Bonfire of Bibles—The Cathedral Clergy Fined—A Miraculous Rood—St. Paul's under Edward VI. and Bishop Ridley—A Protestant +Tumult at Paul's Cross—Strange Ceremonials—Queen Elizabeth's Munificence—The Burning of the Spire—Desecration of the Nave—Elizabeth +and Dean Nowell—Thanksgiving for the Armada—The "Children of Paul's"—Government Lotteries—Executions in the +Churchyard—Inigo Jones's Restorations and the Puritan Parliament—The Great Fire of 1666—Burning of Old St. Paul's, and Destruction +of its Monuments—Evelyn's Description of the Fire—Sir Christopher Wren called in<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>The Rebuilding of St. Paul's—Ill Treatment of its Architect—Cost of the Present Fabric—Royal Visitors—The First Grave in St. Paul's—Monuments +in St. Paul's—Nelson's Funeral—Military Heroes in St. Paul's—The Duke of Wellington's Funeral—Other Great Men in +St. Paul's—Proposal for the Completion and Decoration of the Building—Dimensions of St. Paul's—Plan of Construction—The Dome, +Ball, and Cross—Mr. Horner and his Observatory—Two Narrow Escapes—Sir James Thornhill—Peregrine Falcons on St. Paul's—Nooks +and Corners of the Cathedral—The Library, Model Room, and Clock—The Great Bell—A Lucky Error—Curious Story of a +Monomaniac—The Poets and the Cathedral—The Festivals of the Charity Schools and of the Sons of the Clergy<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD</p> + +<p>St Paul's Churchyard and Literature—Queen Anne's Statue—Execution of a Jesuit in St. Paul's Churchyard—Miracle of the "Face in the +Straw"—Wilkinson's Story—Newbery the Bookseller—Paul's Chain—"Cocker"—Chapter House of St. Paul's—St. Paul's Coffee House—Child's +Coffee House and the Clergy—Garrick's Club at the "Queen's Arms," and the Company there—"Sir Benjamin" Figgins—Johnson +the Bookseller—Hunter and his Guests—Fuseli—Bonnycastle—Kinnaird—Musical Associations of the Churchyard—Jeremiah +Clark and his Works—Handel at Meares' Shop—Young the Violin Maker—The "Castle" Concerts—An Old Advertisement—Wren at +the "Goose and Gridiron"—St. Paul's School—Famous Paulines—Pepys visiting his Old School—Milton at St. Paul's<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">PATERNOSTER ROW</p> + +<p>Its Successions of Traders—The House of Longman—Goldsmith at Fault—Tarleton, Actor, Host, and Wit—Ordinaries around St. Paul's: +their Rules and Customs—The "Castle"—"Dolly's"—The "Chapter" and its Frequenters—Chatterton and Goldsmith—Dr. Buchan +and his Prescriptions—Dr. Gower—Dr. Fordyce—The "Wittinagemot" at the "Chapter"—The "Printing Conger"—Mrs. Turner, the +Poisoner—The Church of St. Michael "ad Bladum"—The Boy in Panier Alley<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">BAYNARD'S CASTLE AND DOCTORS' COMMONS</p> + +<p>Baron Fitzwalter and King John—The Duties of the Chief Bannerer of London—An Old-fashioned Punishment for Treason—Shakesperian +Allusions to Baynard's "Castle"—Doctors' Commons and its Five Courts—The Court of Probate Act, 1857—The Court of Arches—The +Will Office—Business of the Court—Prerogative Court—Faculty Office—Lord Stowell, the Admiralty Judge—Stories of him—His +Marriage—Sir Herbert Jenner Fust—The Court "Rising"—Doctor Lushington—Marriage Licences—Old Weller and the "Touters"—Doctors' +Commons at the Present Day<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">HERALDS' COLLEGE</p> + +<p>Early Homes of the Heralds—The Constitution of the Heralds' College—Garter King at Arms—Clarencieux and Norroy—The Pursuivants—Duties +and Privileges of Heralds—Good, Bad, and Jovial Heralds—A Notable Norroy King at Arms—The Tragic End of Two Famous +Heralds—The College of Arms' Library<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span><br /></p> +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE—INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL</p> + +<p>Ancient Reminiscences of Cheapside—Stormy Days therein—The Westchepe Market—Something about the Pillory—The Cheapside Conduits—The +Goldsmiths' Monopoly—Cheapside Market—Gossip anent Cheapside by Mr. Pepys—A Saxon Rienzi—Anti-Free-Trade Riots in +Cheapside—Arrest of the Rioters—A Royal Pardon—Jane Shore<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE SHOWS AND PAGEANTS</p> + +<p>A Tournament in Cheapside—The Queen in Danger—The Street in Holiday Attire—The Earliest Civic Show on Record—The Water Processions—A +Lord Mayor's Show in Queen Elizabeth's Reign—Gossip about Lord Mayors' Shows—Splendid Pageants—Royal Visitors at +Lord Mayors' Shows—A Grand Banquet in Guildhall—George III. and the Lord Mayor's Show—The Lord Mayor's State Coach—The +Men in Armour—Sir Claudius Hunter and Elliston—Stow and the Midsummer Watch<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE—CENTRAL</p> + +<p>Grim Chronicles of Cheapside—Cheapside Cross—Puritanical Intolerance—The Old London Conduits—Mediæval Water-carriers—The Church +of St. Mary-le-Bow—"Murder will out"—The "Sound of Bow Bells"—Sir Christopher Wren's Bow Church—Remains of the Old +Church—The Seldam—Interesting Houses in Cheapside and their Memories—Goldsmiths' Row—The "Nag's Head" and the Self-consecrated +Bishops—Keats' House—Saddlers' Hall—A Prince Disguised—Blackmore, the Poet—Alderman Boydell, the Printseller—His +Edition of Shakespeare—"Puck"—The Lottery—Death and Burial<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES—SOUTH</p> + +<p>The King's Exchange—Friday Street and the Poet Chaucer—The Wednesday Club in Friday Street—William Paterson, Founder of The Bank +of England—How Easy it is to Redeem the National Debt—St. Matthew's and St. Margaret Moses—Bread Street and the Bakers' +Shops—St. Austin's, Watling Street—Fraternity of St. Austin's—St. Mildred's, Bread Street—The Mitre Tavern—A Priestly Duel—Milton's +Birthplace—The "Mermaid"—Sir Walter Raleigh and the Mermaid Club—Thomas Coryatt, the Traveller—Bow Lane—Queen +Street—Soper's Lane—A Mercer Knight—St. Bennet Sherehog—Epitaphs in the Church of St. Thomas Apostle—A Charitable +Merchant<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES—NORTH</p> + +<p>Goldsmiths' Hall—Its Early Days—Tailors and Goldsmiths at Loggerheads—The Goldsmiths' Company's Charters and Records—Their Great +Annual Feast—They receive Queen Margaret of Anjou in State—A Curious Trial of Skill—Civic and State Duties—The Goldsmiths +break up the Image of their Patron Saint—The Goldsmiths' Company's Assays—The Ancient Goldsmiths' Feasts—The Goldsmiths at +Work—Goldsmiths' Hall at the Present Day—The Portraits—St. Leonard's Church—St. Vedast—Discovery of a Stone Coffin—Coachmakers' +Hall<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH:—WOOD STREET</p> + +<p>Wood Street—Pleasant Memories—St. Peter's in Chepe—St. Michael's and St. Mary Staining—St. Alban's, Wood Street—Some Quaint +Epitaphs—Wood Street Compter and the Hapless Prisoners therein—Wood Street Painful, Wood Street Cheerful—Thomas Ripley—The +Anabaptist Rising—A Remarkable Wine Cooper—St. John Zachary and St. Anne-in-the-Willows—Haberdashers' Hall—Something +about the Mercers<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>Milk Street—Sir Thomas More—The City of London School—St. Mary Magdalen—Honey Lane—All Hallows' Church—Lawrence Lane and +St. Lawrence Church—Ironmonger Lane and Mercers' Hall—The Mercers' Company—Early Life Assurance Companies—The Mercers' +Company in Trouble—Mercers' Chapel—St. Thomas Acon—The Mercers' School—Restoration of the Carvings in Mercers' Hall—The +Glories of the Mercers' Company—Ironmonger Lane<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">GUILDHALL</p> + +<p>The Original Guildhall—A fearful Civic Spectacle—The Value of Land increased by the Great Fire—Guildhall as it was and is—The Statues +over the South Porch—Dance's Disfigurements—The Renovation in 1864—The Crypt—Gog and Magog—Shopkeepers in Guildhall—The +Cenotaphs in Guildhall—The Court of Aldermen—The City Courts—The Chamberlain's Office—Pictures in the Guildhall—Sir +Robert Porter—The Common Council Room—Pictures and Statues—Guildhall Chapel—The New Library and Museum—Some Rare +Books—Historical Events in Guildhall—Chaucer in Trouble—Buckingham at Guildhall—Anne Askew's Trial and Death—Surrey—Throckmorton—Garnet—A +Grand Banquet<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON</p> + +<p>The First Mayor of London—Portrait of him—Presentation to the King—An Outspoken Mayor—Sir N. Farindon—Sir William Walworth—Origin +of the prefix "Lord"—Sir Richard Whittington and his Liberality—Institutions founded by him—Sir Simon Eyre and his +Table—A Musical Lord Mayor—Henry VIII. and Gresham—Loyalty of the Lord Mayor and Citizens to Queen Mary—Osborne's +Leap into the Thames—Sir W. Craven—Brass Crosby—His Committal to the Tower—A Victory for the Citizens<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span><br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<p>John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage—The <i>North Briton</i>—Duel with Martin—His Expulsion—Personal Appearance—Anecdotes of +Wilkes—A Reason for making a Speech—Wilkes and the King—The Lord Mayor at the Gordon Riots—"Soap-suds" <i>versus</i> "Bar"—Sir +William Curtis and his Kilt—A Gambling Lord Mayor—Sir William Staines, Bricklayer and Lord Mayor—"Patty-pan" Birch—Sir +Matthew Wood—Waithman—Sir Peter Laurie and the "Dregs of the People"—Recent Lord Mayors<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE POULTRY</p> + +<p>The Early Home of the London Poulterers—Its Mysterious Desertion—Noteworthy Sites in the Poultry—The Birthplace of Tom Hood, +Senior—A Pretty Quarrel at the Rose Tavern—A Costly Sign-board—The Three Cranes—The Home of the Dillys—Johnsoniana—St. +Mildred's Church, Poultry—Quaint Epitaphs—The Poultry Compter—Attack on Dr. Lamb, the Conjurer—Dekker, the Dramatist—Ned +Ward's Description of the Compter—Granville Sharp and the Slave Trade—Important Decision in favour of the Slave—Boyse—Dunton<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">OLD JEWRY</p> + +<p>The Old Jewry—Early Settlements of Jews in London and Oxford—Bad Times for the Israelites—Jews' Alms—A King in Debt—Rachel +weeping for her Children—Jewish Converts—Wholesale Expulsion of the Chosen People from England—The Rich House of a Rich +Citizen—The London Institution, formerly in the Old Jewry—Porsoniana—Nonconformists in the Old Jewry—Samuel Chandler, +Richard Price, and James Foster—The Grocers Company—Their Sufferings under the Commonwealth—Almost Bankrupt—Again +they Flourish—The Grocers' Hall Garden—Fairfax and the Grocers—A Rich and Generous Grocer—A Warlike Grocer—Walbrook—Bucklersbury<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE MANSION HOUSE</p> + +<p>The Palace of the Lord Mayor—The Old Stocks' Market—A Notable Statue of Charles II.—The Mansion House described—The +Egyptian Hall—Works of Art in the Mansion House—The Election of the Lord Mayor—Lord Mayor's Day—The Duties of a Lord +Mayor—Days of the Year on which the Lord Mayor holds High State—The Patronage of the Lord Mayor—His Powers—The +Lieutenancy of the City of London—The Conservancy of the Thames and Medway—The Lord Mayor's Advisers—The Mansion +House Household and Expenditure—Theodore Hook—Lord Mayor Scropps—The Lord Mayor's Insignia—The State Barge—The +Maria Wood<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">SAXON LONDON</p> + +<p>A Glance at Saxon London—The Three Component Parts of Saxon London—The First Saxon Bridge over the Thames—Edward the Confessor +at Westminster—City Residences of the Saxon Kings—Political Position of London in Early Times—The first recorded Great Fire of +London—The Early Commercial Dignity of London—The Kings of Norway and Denmark besiege London in vain—A great <i>Gemot</i> held +in London—Edmund Ironside elected King by the Londoners—Canute besieges them, and is driven off—The Seamen of London—Its +Citizens as Electors of Kings<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE BANK OF ENGLAND</p> + +<p>The Jews and the Lombards—The Goldsmiths the first London Bankers—William Paterson, Founder of the Bank of England—Difficult +Parturition of the Bank Bill—Whig Principles of the Bank of England—The Great Company described by Addison—A Crisis at the Bank—Effects +of a Silver Re-coinage—Paterson quits the Bank of England—The Ministry resolves that it shall be enlarged—The Credit of +the Bank shaken—The Whigs to the Rescue—Effects of the Sacheverell Riots—The South Sea Company—The Cost of a New Charter—Forged +Bank Notes—The Foundation of the "Three per Cent. Consols"—Anecdotes relating to the Bank of England and Bank Notes—Description +of the Building—Statue of William III.—Bank Clearing House—Dividend Day at the Bank<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE STOCK EXCHANGE</p> + +<p>The Kingdom of Change Alley—A William III. Reuter—Stock Exchange Tricks—Bulls and Bears—Thomas Guy, the Hospital Founder—Sir +John Barnard, the "Great Commoner"—Sampson Gideon, the famous Jew Broker—Alexander Fordyce—A cruel Quaker Criticism—Stockbrokers +and Longevity—The Stock Exchange in 1795—The Money Articles in the London Papers—The Case of Benjamin Walsh, +M.P.—The De Berenger Conspiracy—Lord Cochrane unjustly accused—"Ticket Pocketing"—System of Business at the Stock +Exchange—"Popgun John"—Nathan Rothschild—Secrecy of his Operations—Rothschild outdone by Stratagem—Grotesque Sketch of +Rothschild—Abraham Goldsmid—Vicissitudes of the Stock Exchange—The Spanish Panic of 1835—The Railway Mania—Ricardo's +Golden Rules—A Clerical Intruder in Capel Court—Amusements of Stockbrokers—Laws of the Stock Exchange—The Pigeon Express—The +"Alley Man"—Purchase of Stock—Eminent Members of the Stock Exchange<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLII">CHAPTER XLII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE ROYAL EXCHANGE</p> + +<p>The Greshams—Important Negotiations—Building of the Old Exchange—Queen Elizabeth visits it—Its Milliners' Shops—A Resort for Idlers—Access +of Nuisances—The various Walks in the Exchange—Shakespeare's Visits to it—Precautions against Fire—Lady Gresham and +the Council—The "Eye of London"—Contemporary Allusions—The Royal Exchange during the Plague and the Great Fire—Wren's +Design for a New Royal Exchange—The Plan which was ultimately accepted—Addison and Steele upon the Exchange—The Shops of +the Second Exchange<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span><br /></p> +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIII">CHAPTER XLIII</a></h3> + +<p>The Second Exchange on Fire—Chimes Extraordinary—Incidents of the Fire—Sale of Salvage—Designs for the New Building—Details of the +Present Exchange—The Ambulatory, or Merchants' Walk—Royal Exchange Assurance Company—"Lloyd's"—Origin of "Lloyd's"—Marine +Assurance—Benevolent Contributions of "Lloyd's"—A "Good" and "Bad" Book<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIV">CHAPTER XLIV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BANK:—LOTHBURY</p> + +<p>Lothbury—Its Former Inhabitants—St. Margaret's Church—Tokenhouse Yard—Origin of the Name—Farthings and Tokens—Silver Halfpence +and Pennies—Queen Anne's Farthings—Sir William Petty—Defoe's Account of the Plague in Tokenhouse Yard<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLV">CHAPTER XLV</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THROGMORTON STREET.—THE DRAPERS' COMPANY</p> + +<p>Halls of the Drapers' Company—Throgmorton Street and its many Fair Houses—Drapers and Wool Merchants—The Drapers in Olden Times—Milborne's +Charity—Dress and Livery—Election Dinner of the Drapers' Company—A Draper's Funeral—Ordinances and Pensions—Fifty-three +Draper Mayors—Pageants and Processions of the Drapers—Charters—Details of the present Drapers' Hall—Arms of the +Drapers' Company<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVI">CHAPTER XLVI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">BARTHOLOMEW LANE AND LOMBARD STREET</p> + +<p>George Robins—His Sale of the Lease of the Olympic—St. Bartholomew's Church—The Lombards and Lombard Street—William de la Pole—Gresham—The +Post Office, Lombard Street—Alexander Pope's Father in Plough Court—Lombard Street Tributaries—St. Mary +Woolnoth—St. Clement's—Dr. Benjamin Stone—Discovery of Roman Remains—St. Mary Abchurch<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVII">CHAPTER XLVII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THREADNEEDLE STREET</p> + +<p>The Centre of Roman London—St. Benet Fink—The Monks of St. Anthony—The Merchant Taylors—Stow, Antiquary and Tailor—A +Magnificent Roll—The Good Deeds of the Merchant Taylors—The Old and the Modern Merchant Taylors' Hall—"Concordia parvæ +res crescunt"—Henry VII. enrolled as a Member of the Taylors' Company—A Cavalcade of Archers—The Hall of Commerce in +Threadneedle Street—A Painful Reminiscence—The Baltic Coffee-house—St. Anthony's School—The North and South American Coffee-house—The +South Sea House—History of the South Sea Bubble—Bubble Companies of the Period—Singular Infatuation of the Public—Bursting +of the Bubble—Parliamentary Inquiry into the Company's Affairs—Punishment of the Chief Delinquents—Restoration of Public +Credit—The Poets during the Excitement—Charles Lamb's Reverie<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLVIII">CHAPTER XLVIII</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CANNON STREET</p> + +<p>London Stone and Jack Cade—Southwark Bridge—Old City Churches—The Salters' Company's Hall, and the Salters' Company's History—Oxford +House—Salters' Banquets—Salters' Hall Chapel—A Mysterious Murder in Cannon Street—St. Martin Orgar—King William's +Statue—Cannon Street Station<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_XLIX">CHAPTER XLIX</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CANNON STREET TRIBUTARIES AND EASTCHEAP</p> + +<p>Budge Row—Cordwainers' Hall—St. Swithin's Church—Founders' Hall—The Oldest Street in London—Tower Royal and the Wat Tyler Mob—The +Queen's Wardrobe—St. Antholin's Church—"St. Antlin's Bell"—The London Fire Brigade—Captain Shaw's Statistics—St. +Mary Aldermary—A Quaint Epitaph—Crooked Lane—An Early "Gun Accident"—St. Michael's and Sir William Walworth's Epitaph—Gerard's +Hall and its History—The Early Closing Movement—St. Mary Woolchurch—Roman Remains in Nicholas Lane—St. +Stephen's, Walbrook—Eastcheap and the Cooks' Shops—The "Boar's Head"—Prince Hal and his Companions—A Giant Plum-pudding—Goldsmith +at the "Boar's Head"—The Weigh-house Chapel and its Famous Preachers—Reynolds, Clayton, Binney<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_L">CHAPTER L</a></h3> + +<p class="center">THE MONUMENT AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD</p> + +<p>The Monument—How shall it be fashioned?—Commemorative Inscriptions—The Monument's Place in History—Suicides and the Monument—The +Great Fire of London—On the Top of the Monument by Night—The Source of the Fire—A Terrible Description—Miles Coverdale—St. +Magnus, London Bridge<br /></p> + +<h3><a href="#CHAPTER_LI">CHAPTER LI</a></h3> + +<p class="center">CHAUCER'S LONDON</p> + +<p>London Citizens in the Reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.—The Knight—The Young Bachelor—The Yeoman—The Prioress—The Monk +who goes a Hunting—The Merchant—The Poor Clerk—The Franklin—The Shipman—The Poor Parson<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p> +<br /> +<a href="#randolph">Introduction of Randolph to Ben Jonson (Frontispiece)</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#temple">The Old Wooden Temple Bar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#burning">Burning the Pope in Effigy at Temple Bar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#well">Bridewell in 1666</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#modern">Part of Modern London, showing the Ancient Wall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#roman">Plan of Roman London</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#ancient">Ancient Roman Pavement</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#london">Part of Old London Wall, near Falcon Square</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#proclamation">Proclamation of Charles II. at Temple Bar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#penance">Penance of the Duchess of Gloucester</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#room">The Room over Temple Bar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#titus">Titus Oates in the Pillory</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#oates">Dr. Titus Oates</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bar">Temple Bar and the "Devil Tavern"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#johnsons">Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson's Time</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mull">Mull Sack and Lady Fairfax</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Mrs.">Mrs. Salmon's Waxwork, Fleet Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#St.">St. Dunstan's Clock</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#evening">An Evening with Dr. Johnson at the "Mitre"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#houses">Old Houses (still standing) in Fleet Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#brides">St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, after the Fire, 1824</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#waithmans">Waithman's Shop</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#alderman">Alderman Waithman, from an Authentic Portrait</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#group">Group at Hardham's Tobacco Shop</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#montagu">Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Kit-Kats</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bishop">Bishop Butler </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#wolsey">Wolsey in Chancery Lane</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#izaak">Izaak Walton's House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#serjeants">Old Serjeants' Inn</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#hazlitt">Hazlitt</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cliffords">Clifford's Inn</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#execution">Execution of Tomkins and Challoner</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#roasting">Roasting the Rumps in Fleet Street (from an old Print)</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#interior">Interior of the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#house">House said to have been occupied by Dryden in Fetter Lane</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#meeting">A Meeting of the Royal Society in Crane Court</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#royal">The Royal Society's House in Crane Court</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#theodore">Theodore E. Hook</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bolt">Dr. Johnson's House in Bolt Court</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#tea">A Tea Party at Dr. Johnson's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#gough">Gough Square</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#wine">Wine Office Court and the "Cheshire Cheese"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cogers">Cogers' Hall </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#lovelace">Lovelace in Prison</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bangor">Bangor House, 1818</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#dunstans">Old St. Dunstan's Church</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#dorset">The Dorset Gardens Theatre, Whitefriars</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#attack">Attack on a Whig Mug-house</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#fleet">Fleet Street, the Temple, &c., 1563</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#street">Fleet Street, the Temple, &c., 1720</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span><br /> +<a href="#knight">A Knight Templar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#church">Interior of the Temple Church</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#tombs">Tombs of Knights Templars</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#temp">The Temple in 1671</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#hall">The Old Hall of the Inner Temple</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#antiquities">Antiquities of the Temple</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#oliver">Oliver Goldsmith</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#tomb">Goldsmith's Tomb in 1860</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#fountain">The Temple Fountain, from an Old Print</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#scuffle">A Scuffle between Templars and Alsatians</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#sun">Sun-dial in the Temple</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#stairs">The Temple Stairs</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#murder">The Murder of Turner</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#rebuilt">Bridewell, as Rebuilt after the Fire, from an Old Print</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#beating">Beating Hemp in Bridewell, after Hogarth</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#dukes">Interior of the Duke's Theatre</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#baynards">Baynard's Castle, from a View published in 1790</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#falling">Falling-in of the Chapel at Blackfriars</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#richard">Richard Burbage, from an Original Portrait</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#laying">Laying the Foundation-stone of Blackfriars Bridge</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#printing">Printing House Square and the "Times" Office</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#blackfriars">Blackfriars Old Bridge during its Construction, 1775</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#college">The College of Physicians, Warwick Lane</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#outer">Outer Court of La Belle Sauvage in 1828</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#belle">The Inner Court of the Belle Sauvage</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mutilated">The Mutilated Statues from Lud Gate, 1798</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#lud">Old Lud Gate, from a Print published about 1750</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#ruins">Ruins of the Barbican on Ludgate Hill</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#stationers">Interior of Stationers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#pauls">Old St. Paul's, from a View by Hollar</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#east">Old St. Paul's—the Interior, looking East</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#faith">The Church of St. Faith, the Crypt of Old St. Paul's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#fall">St. Paul's after the Fall of the Spire</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#chapter">The Chapter House of Old St. Paul's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bourne">Dr. Bourne preaching at Paul's Cross</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#rebuilding">The Rebuilding of St. Paul's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#choir">The Choir of St. Paul's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#scaffolding">The Scaffolding and Observatory on St. Paul's in 1848</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#saint">St. Paul's and the Neighbourhood in 1540</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#library">The Library of St. Paul's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#face">The "Face in the Straw," 1613</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#father">Execution of Father Garnet</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#school">Old St. Paul's School</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#tarleton">Richard Tarleton, the Actor</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#dollys">Dolly's Coffee House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#figure">The Figure in Panier Alley</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#michael">The Church of St. Michael ad Bladum</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#prerogative">The Prerogative Office, Doctors' Commons</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#neighbourhood">St. Paul's and Neighbourhood, from Aggas' Plan, 1563</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#heralds">Heralds' College (from an Old Print)</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#last">The Last Heraldic Court (from an Old Picture)</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span><br /> +<a href="#sword">Sword, Dagger, and Ring of King James of Scotland </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#linacres">Linacre's House </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#view">Ancient View of Cheapside</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#beginning">Beginning of the Riot in Cheapside</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cheapside">Cheapside Cross, as it appeared in 1547</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mayors">The Lord Mayor's Procession, from Hogarth</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#marriage">The Marriage Procession of Anne Boleyn</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#figures">Figures of Gog and Magog set up in Guildhall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#royal">The Royal Banquet in Guildhall in 1761</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#coach">The Lord Mayor's Coach</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#demolition">The Demolition of Cheapside Cross</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#map">Old Map of the Ward of Cheap—about 1750</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#seal">The Seal of Bow Church </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bow">Bow Church, Cheapside, from a View taken about 1750</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cheap">No. 73, Cheapside, from an Old View</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#door">The Door of Saddlers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#miltons">Milton's House and Milton's Burial-place</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#hall">Interior of Goldsmiths' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#trial">Trial of the Pix</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#exterior">Exterior of Goldsmiths' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#altar">Altar of Diana </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#wood">Wood Street Compter, from a View published in 1793</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#tree">The Tree at the Corner of Wood Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#pulpit">Pulpit Hour-glass</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#michaels">Interior of St. Michael's, Wood Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#haberdashers">Interior of Haberdashers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#swan">The "Swan with Two Necks," Lad Lane</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#city">City of London School</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mercers">Mercers' Chapel, as Rebuilt after the Fire</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#crypt">The Crypt of Guildhall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#court">The Court of Aldermen, Guildhall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#front">Old Front of Guildhall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#guildhall">The New Library, Guildhall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#whittington">Sir Richard Whittington</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#almshouses">Whittington's Almshouses, College Hill</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#osbornes">Osborne's Leap</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#lady">A Lord Mayor and his Lady</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#wilkes">Wilkes on his Trial</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#birchs">Birch's Shop, Cornhill</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#stocks">The Stocks' Market, Site of the Mansion House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#john">John Wilkes</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#poultry">The Poultry Compter</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#porson">Richard Porson</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#claytons">Sir R. Clayton's House, Garden Front</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#grocers">Exterior of Grocers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#grocershall">Interior of Grocers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mansion">The Mansion House Kitchen</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span><br /> +<a href="#mansionhouse">The Mansion House in 1750</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#egyptian">Interior of the Egyptian Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#maria">The "Maria Wood"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#broad">Broad Street and Cornhill Wards </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#water">Lord Mayor's Water Procession</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#bank">The Old Bank, looking from the Mansion House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#patch">Old Patch</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#parlour">The Bank Parlour, Exterior View</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#dividend">Dividend Day at the Bank</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#benet">The Church of St. Benet Fink </a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#england">Court of the Bank of England</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#jonathans">"Jonathan's," from an Old Sketch</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#capel">Capel Court</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#clearing">The Clearing House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#present">The Present Stock Exchange</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#change">On Change (from an Old Print, about 1800)</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#inner1">Inner Court of the First Royal Exchange</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#thomas">Sir Thomas Gresham</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#wrens">Wren's Plan for Rebuilding London</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#theexchange">Plan of the Exchange in 1837</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#first">The First Royal Exchange</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#second">The Second Royal Exchange, Cornhill</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#the">The Present Royal Exchange</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#blackwell">Blackwell Hall in 1812</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#lloyds">Interior of Lloyd's</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#subscription">The Subscription Room at "Lloyd's"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#drapers">Interior of Drapers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#garden">Drapers' Hall Garden</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cromwells">Cromwell's House, from Aggas's Map</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#popes">Pope's House, Plough Court, Lombard Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#mary">St. Mary Woolnoth</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#merchant">Interior of Merchant Taylors' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#ground">Ground Plan of the Church of St. Martin Outwich</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#march">March of the Archers</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#south">The Old South Sea House</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#stone">London Stone</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#fourth">The Fourth Salters' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#cordwainers">Cordwainers' Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#antholins">St. Antholin's Church, Watling Street</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#gerards">The Crypt of Gerard's Hall</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#sign">Old Sign of the "Boar's Head"</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#stephens">Exterior of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1700</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#weigh">The Weigh-house Chapel</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#miles">Miles Coverdale</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#original">Wren's Original Design for the Summit of the Monument</a><br /> +<br /> +<a href="#monument">The Monument and the Church of St. Magnus, 1800</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/p001.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="Introduction" id="Introduction">LONDON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS.</a></h2> + + +<p>Writing the history of a vast city like London is like writing +a history of the ocean—the area is so vast, its inhabitants are +so multifarious, the treasures that lie in its depths so countless. +What aspect of the great chameleon city should one select? +for, as Boswell, with more than his usual sense, once remarked, +"London is to the politician merely a seat of government, +to the grazier a cattle market, to the merchant a huge +exchange, to the dramatic enthusiast a congeries of theatres, +to the man of pleasure an assemblage of taverns." If we follow +one path alone, we must neglect other roads equally important; +let us, then, consider the metropolis as a whole, for, as +Johnson's friend well says, "the intellectual man is struck +with London as comprehending the whole of human life in +all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible." +In histories, in biographies, in scientific records, and in +chronicles of the past, however humble, let us gather materials +for a record of the great and the wise, the base and the +noble, the odd and the witty, who have inhabited London and +left their names upon its walls. Wherever the glimmer of the +cross of St. Paul's can be seen we shall wander from street +to alley, from alley to street, noting almost every event of +interest that has taken place there since London was a city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>Had it been our lot to write of London before +the Great Fire, we should have only had to visit +65,000 houses. If in Dr. Johnson's time, we +might have done like energetic Dr. Birch, and have +perambulated the twenty-mile circuit of London in +six hours' hard walking; but who now could put a +girdle round the metropolis in less than double +that time? The houses now grow by streets at a +time, and the nearly four million inhabitants would +take a lifetime to study. Addison probably knew +something of London when he called it "an +aggregate of various nations, distinguished from +each other by their respective customs, manners, +and interests—the St. James's courtiers from the +Cheapside citizens, the Temple lawyers from the +Smithfield drovers;" but what would the <i>Spectator</i> +say now to the 168,701 domestic servants, the +23,517 tailors, the 18,321 carpenters, the 29,780 +dressmakers, the 7,002 seamen, the 4,861 publicans, +the 6,716 blacksmiths, &c., to which the +population returns of thirty years ago depose, whom +he would have to observe and visit before he could +say he knew all the ways, oddities, humours—the +joys and sorrows, in fact—of this great centre of +civilisation?</p> + +<p>The houses of old London are incrusted as +thick with anecdotes, legends, and traditions as an +old ship is with barnacles. Strange stories about +strange men grow like moss in every crevice +of the bricks. Let us, then, roll together like a +great snowball the mass of information that time +and our predecessors have accumulated, and +reduce it to some shape and form. Old London +is passing away even as we dip our pen in the +ink, and we would fain erect quickly our itinerant +photographic machine, and secure some views of it +before it passes. Roman London, Saxon London, +Norman London, Elizabethan London, Stuart +London, Queen Anne's London, we shall in turn +rifle to fill our museum, on whose shelves the +Roman lamp and the vessel full of tears will stand +side by side with Vanessas' fan; the sword-knot of +Rochester by the note-book of Goldsmith. The +history of London is an epitome of the history of +England. Few great men indeed that England +has produced but have some associations that +connect them with London. To be able to recall +these associations in a London walk is a pleasure +perpetually renewing, and to all intents inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, at once, without longer halting at +the gate, seize the pilgrim staff and start upon our +voyage of discovery, through a dreamland that will be +now Goldsmith's, now Gower's, now Shakespeare's, +now Pope's, London. In Cannon Street, by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +old central milestone of London, grave Romans +will meet us and talk of Cæsar and his legions. In +Fleet Street we shall come upon Chaucer beating +the malapert Franciscan friar; at Temple Bar, stare +upwards at the ghastly Jacobite heads. In Smithfield +we shall meet Froissart's knights riding to the +tournament; in the Strand see the misguided Earl +of Essex defending his house against Queen Elizabeth's +troops, who are turning towards him the +cannon on the roof of St. Clement's church.</p> + +<p>But let us first, rather than glance at scattered +pictures in a gallery which is so full of them, +measure out, as it were, our future walks, briefly +glancing at the special doors where we shall +billet our readers. The brief summary will +serve to broadly epitomise the subject, and will +prove the ceaseless variety of interest which it +involves.</p> + +<p>We have selected Temple Bar, that old gateway, +as a point of departure, because it is the centre, as +near as can be, of historical London, and is in +itself full of interest. We begin with it as a rude +wooden building, which, after the Great Fire, Wren +turned into the present arch of stone, with a room +above, where Messrs. Childs, the bankers, store +their books and archives. The trunk of one of the +Rye House conspirators, in Charles II.'s time, first +adorned the Bar; and after that, one after the other, +many rash Jacobite heads, in 1715 and 1745, arrived +at the same bad eminence. In many a royal procession +and many a City riot, this gate has figured +as a halting-place and a point of defence. The last +rebel's head blew down in 1772; and the last spike +was not removed till the beginning of the present +century. In the Popish Plot days of Charles II. +vast processions used to come to Temple Bar to +illuminate the supposed statue of Queen Elizabeth, +in the south-east niche (though it probably really +represents Anne of Denmark); and at great bonfires +at the Temple gate the frenzied people burned +effigies of the Pope, while thousands of squibs +were discharged, with shouts that frightened the +Popish Portuguese Queen, at that time living at +Somerset House, forsaken by her dissolute scapegrace +of a husband.</p> + +<p>Turning our faces now towards the old black dome +that rises like a half-eclipsed planet over Ludgate +Hill, we first pass along Fleet Street, a locality full +to overflowing with ancient memorials, and in its +modern aspect not less interesting. This street has +been from time immemorial the high road for royal +processions. Richard II. has passed along here to +St. Paul's, his parti-coloured robes jingling with +golden bells; and Queen Elizabeth, be-ruffled and +be-fardingaled, has glanced at those gable-ends east<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +of St. Dunstan's, as she rode in her cumbrous +plumed coach to thank God at St. Paul's for the +scattering and shattering of the Armada. Here +Cromwell, a king in all but name and twice a king +by nature, received the keys of the City, as he rode +to Guildhall to preside at the banquet of the obsequious +Mayor. William of Orange and Queen Anne +both clattered over these stones to return thanks +for victories over the French; and old George III. +honoured the street when, with his handsome but +worthless son, he came to thank God for his partial +restoration from that darker region than the valley +of the shadow of death, insanity. We recall many +odd and pleasant figures in this street; first the old +printers who succeeded Caxton, who published for +Shakespeare or who timidly speculated in Milton's +epic, that great product of a sorry age; next, the +old bankers, who, at Child's and Hoare's, laid the +foundations of permanent wealth, and from simple +City goldsmiths were gradually transformed to great +capitalists. Izaak Walton, honest shopkeeper and +patient angler, eyes us from his latticed window +near Chancery Lane; and close by we see the +child Cowley reading the "Fairy Queen" in a +window-seat, and already feeling in himself the +inspiration of his later years. The lesser celebrities +of later times call to us as we pass. Garrick's friend +Hardham, of the snuff-shop; and that busy, vain +demagogue, Alderman Waithman, whom Cobbett +abused because he was not zealous enough for +poor hunted Queen Caroline. Then there is +the shop where barometers were first sold, the +great watchmakers, Tompion and Pinchbeck, to +chronicle, and the two churches to notice. St. +Dunstan's is interesting for its early preachers, the +good Romaine and the pious Baxter; and St. Bride's +has anecdotes and legends of its own, and a peal +of bells which have in their time excited as much +admiration as those giant hammermen at the old +St. Dunstan's clock, which are now in Regent's +Park. The newspaper offices, too, furnish many +curious illustrations of the progress of that great +organ of modern civilisation, the press. At the +"Devil" we meet Ben Jonson and his club; and at +John Murray's old shop we stop to see Byron lunging +with his stick at favourite volumes on the shelves, +to the bookseller's great but concealed annoyance. +Nor do we forget to sketch Dr. Johnson at +Temple Bar, bantered by his fellow Jacobite, Goldsmith, +about the warning heads upon the gate; at +Child's bank pausing to observe the dinnerless +authors returning downcast at the rejection of +brilliant but fruitless proposals; or stopping with +Boswell, one hand upon a street post, to shake the +night air with his Cyclopean laughter. Varied as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +colours in a kaleidoscope are the figures that will +meet us in these perambulations; mutable as an +opal are the feelings they arouse. To the man of +facts they furnish facts; to the man of imagination, +quick-changing fancies; to the man of science, +curious memoranda; to the historian, bright-worded +details, that vivify old pictures now often dim +in tone; to the man of the world, traits of manners; +to the general thinker, aspects of feelings and of +passions which expand the knowledge of human +nature; for all these many-coloured stones are +joined by the one golden string of London's +history.</p> + +<p>But if Fleet Street itself is rich in associations, +its side streets, north and south, are yet richer. +Here anecdote and story are clustered in even closer +compass. In these side binns lies hid the choicest +wine, for when Fleet Street had, long since, become +two vast rows of shops, authors, wits, poets, and +memorable persons of all kinds, still inhabited +the "closes" and alleys that branch from the main +thoroughfare. Nobles and lawyers long dwelt round +St. Dunstan's and St. Bride's. Scholars, poets, +and literati of all kind, long sought refuge from the +grind and busy roar of commerce in the quiet inns +and "closes," north and south. In what was Shire +Lane we come upon the great Kit-Kat Club, +where Addison, Garth, Steele, and Congreve disported; +and we look in on that very evening when +the Duke of Kingston, with fatherly pride, brought +his little daughter, afterwards Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, and, setting her on the table, proposed +her as a toast. Following the lane down till it +becomes a nest of coiners, thieves, and bullies, we +pass on to Bell Yard, to call on Pope's lawyer +friend, Fortescue; and in Chancery Lane we are +deep among the lawyers again. Ghosts of Jarndyces +<i>v.</i> Jarndyces, from the Middle Ages downwards, +haunt this thoroughfare, where Wolsey once +lived in his pride and state. Izaak Walton dwelt in +this lane once upon a time; and that mischievous +adviser of Charles I., Earl Strafford, was born +here. Hazlitt resided in Southampton Buildings +when he fell in love with the tailor's daughter and +wrote that most stultifying confession of his vanity +and weakness, "The New Pygmalion." Fetter Lane +brings us fresh stores of subjects, all essentially +connected with the place, deriving an interest from +and imparting a new interest to it. Praise-God-Barebones, +Dryden, Otway, Baxter, and Mrs. Brownrigg +form truly a strange bouquet. By mutual +contrast the incongruous group serves, however, to +illustrate various epochs of London life, and the +background serves to explain the actions and the +social position of each and all these motley beings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>In Crane Court, the early home of the Royal +Society, Newton is the central personage, and we +tarry to sketch the progress of science and to +smile at the crudity of its early experiments and +theories. In Bolt Court we pause to see a great man +die. Here especially Dr. Johnson's figure ever +stands like a statue, and we shall find his black +servant at the door and his dependents wrangling in +the front parlour. Burke and Boswell are on their +way to call, and Reynolds is taking coach in the +adjoining street. Nor is even Shoe Lane without its +associations, for at the north-east end the corpse of +poor, dishonoured Chatterton lies still under some +neglected rubbish heap; and close by the brilliant +Cavalier poet, Lovelace, pined and perished, almost +in beggary.</p> + +<p>The southern side of Fleet Street is somewhat +less noticeable. Still, in Salisbury Square the +worthy old printer Richardson, amid the din of a +noisy office, wrote his great and pathetic novels; +while in Mitre Buildings Charles Lamb held those +delightful conversations, so full of quaint and +kindly thoughts, which were shared in by Hazlitt +and all the odd people Lamb has immortalised in his +"Elia"—bibulous Burney, George Dyer, Holcroft, +Coleridge, Hone, Godwin, and Leigh Hunt.</p> + +<p>Whitefriars and Blackfriars are our next places +of pilgrimage, and they open up quite new lines of +reading and of thought. Though the Great Fire +swept them bare, no district of London has preserved +its old lines so closely; and, walking in Whitefriars, +we can still stare through the gate that once barred +off the brawling Copper Captains of Charles II.'s +Alsatia from the contemptuous Templars of King's +Bench Walk. Whitefriars was at first a Carmelite +convent, founded, before Blackfriars, on land given +by Edward I.; the chapter-house was given by Henry +VII. to his physician, Dr. Butts (a man mentioned +by Shakespeare), and in the reign of Edward VI. the +church was demolished. Whitefriars then, though +still partially inhabited by great people, soon +sank into a sanctuary for runaway bankrupts, +cheats, and gamblers. The hall of the monastery +was turned into a theatre, where many of Dryden's +plays first appeared. The players favoured this +quarter, where, in the reign of James I., two +henchmen of Lord Sanquire, a revengeful young +Scottish nobleman, shot at his own door a poor +fencing-master, who had accidentally put out their +master's eye several years before in a contest of +skill. The two men were hung opposite the Whitefriars +gate in Fleet Street. This disreputable and +lawless nest of river-side alleys was called Alsatia, +from its resemblance to the seat of the war then +raging on the frontiers of France, in the dominions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +of King James's son-in-law, the Prince Palatine. +Its roystering bullies and shifty money-lenders are +admirably sketched by Shadwell in his <i>Squire of +Alsatia</i>, an excellent comedy freely used by Sir +Walter Scott in his "Fortunes of Nigel," who has +laid several of his strongest scenes in this once +scampish region. That great scholar Selden lived +in Whitefriars with the Countess Dowager of +Kent, whom he was supposed to have married; +and, singularly enough, the best edition of his +works was printed in Dogwell Court, Whitefriars, +by those eminent printers, Bowyer & Son. At +the back of Whitefriars we come upon Bridewell, +the site of a palace of the Norman kings. +Cardinal Wolsey afterwards owned the house, +which Henry VIII. reclaimed in his rough and not +very scrupulous manner. It was the old palace to +which Henry summoned all the priors and abbots +of England, and where he first announced his +intention of divorcing Katherine of Arragon. After +this it fell into decay. The good Ridley, the +martyr, begged it of Edward VI. for a workhouse +and a school. Hogarth painted the female prisoners +here beating hemp under the lash of a +cruel turnkey; and Pennant has left a curious +sketch of the herd of girls whom he saw run like +hounds to be fed when a gaoler entered.</p> + +<p>If Whitefriars was inhabited by actors, Blackfriars +was equally favoured by players and by +painters. The old convent, removed from Holborn, +was often used for Parliaments. Charles V. +lodged here when he came over to win Henry +against Francis; and Burbage, the great player of +"Richard the Third," built a theatre in Blackfriars, +because the Precinct was out of the jurisdiction +of the City, then ill-disposed to the players. +Shakespeare had a house here, which he left to +his favourite daughter, the deed of conveyance of +which sold, in 1841, for £165 15s. He must have +thought of his well-known neighbourhood when he +wrote the scenes of Henry VIII., where Katherine +was divorced and Wolsey fell, for both events were +decided in Blackfriars Parliaments. Oliver, the great +miniature painter, and Jansen, a favourite portrait +painter of James I., lived in Blackfriars, where we +shall call upon them; and Vandyke spent nine +happy years here by the river side. The most +remarkable event connected with Blackfriars is the +falling in of the floor of a Roman Catholic private +chapel in 1623, by which fifty-nine persons +perished, including the priest, to the exultation of +the Puritans, who pronounced the event a visitation +of Heaven on Popish superstition. Pamphlets of +the time, well rummaged by us, describe the scene +with curious exactness, and mention the singular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +escapes of several persons on the "Fatal Vespers," +as they were afterwards called.</p> + +<p>Leaving the racket of Alsatia and its wild +doings behind us, we come next to that great +monastery of lawyers, the Temple—like Whitefriars +and Blackfriars, also the site of a bygone convent. +The warlike Templars came here in their white +cloaks and red crosses from their first establishment +in Southampton Buildings, and they held it during +all the Crusades, in which they fought so valorously +against the Paynim, till they grew proud and corrupt, +and were suspected of worshipping idols and +ridiculing Christianity. Their work done, they +perished, and the Knights of St. John took possession +of their halls, church, and cloisters. The incoming +lawyers became tenants of the Crown, and +the parade-ground of the Templars and the river-side +terrace and gardens were tenanted by more peaceful +occupants. The manners and customs of the lawyers +of various ages, their quaint revels, fox-huntings in +hall, and dances round the coal fire, deserve +special notice; and swarms of anecdotes and odd +sayings and doings buzz round us as we write +of the various denizens of the Temple—Dr. Johnson, +Goldsmith, Lamb, Coke, Plowden, Jefferies, +Cowper, Butler, Parsons, Sheridan, and Tom +Moore; and we linger at the pretty little fountain +and think of those who have celebrated its +praise. Every binn of this cellar of lawyers has its +story, and a volume might well be written in recording +the toils and struggles, successes and failures, of +the illustrious owners of Temple chambers.</p> + +<p>Thence we pass to Ludgate, where that old +London inn, the "Belle Sauvage," calls up associations +of the early days of theatres, especially of Banks +and his wonderful performing horse, that walked up +one of the towers of Old St. Paul's. Hone's old +shop reminds us of the delightful books he published, +aided by Lamb and Leigh Hunt. The old entrance +of the City, Ludgate, has quite a history of its own. +It was a debtors' prison, rebuilt in the time of +King John from the remains of demolished Jewish +houses, and was enlarged by the widow of Stephen +Forster, Lord Mayor in the reign of Henry VI., +who, tradition says, had been himself a prisoner in +Ludgate, till released by a rich widow, who saw his +handsome face through the grate and married him. +St. Martin's church, Ludgate, is one of Wren's +churches, and is chiefly remarkable for its stolid +conceit in always getting in the way of the west +front of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>The great Cathedral has been the scene of events +that illustrate almost every age of English history. +This is the third St. Paul's. The first, falsely supposed +to have been built on the site of a Roman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +temple of Diana, was burnt down in the last year +of William the Conqueror. Innumerable events +connected with the history of the City happened +here, from the killing a bishop at the north door, in +the reign of Edward II., to the public exposure of +Richard II.'s body after his murder; while at the +Cross in the churchyard the authorities of the City, +and even our kings, often attended the public sermons, +and in the same place the citizens once held their +Folkmotes, riotous enough on many an occasion. +Great men's tombs abounded in Old St. Paul's—John +of Gaunt, Lord Bacon's father, Sir Philip Sydney, +Donne, the poet, and Vandyke being very prominent +among them. Fired by lightning in Elizabeth's +reign, when the Cathedral had become a resort of +newsmongers and a thoroughfare for porters and +carriers, it was partly rebuilt in Charles I.'s reign by +Inigo Jones. The repairs were stopped by the civil +wars, when the Puritans seized the funds, pulled +down the scaffolding, and turned the church into +a cavalry barracks. The Great Fire swept all clear +for Wren, who now found a fine field for his genius; +but vexatious difficulties embarrassed him at the +very outset. His first great plan was rejected, and +the Duke of York (afterwards James II.) is said to +have insisted on side recesses, that might serve as +chantry chapels when the church became Roman +Catholic. Wren was accused of delays and chidden +for the faults of petty workmen, and, as the Duchess +of Marlborough laughingly remarked, was dragged up +and down in a basket two or three times a week for +a paltry £200 a year. The narrow escape of Sir James +Thornhill from falling from a scaffold while painting +the dome is a tradition of St. Paul's, matched by +the terrible adventure of Mr. Gwyn, who when +measuring the dome slid down the convex surface +till his foot was stayed by a small projecting lump +of lead. This leads us naturally on to the curious +monomaniac who believed himself the slave of a +demon who lived in the bell of the Cathedral, and +whose case is singularly deserving of analysis. We +shall give a short sketch of the heroes whose tombs +have been admitted into St. Paul's, and having come +to those of the great demi-gods of the old wars, +Nelson and Wellington, pass to anecdotes about +the clock and bells, and arrive at the singular story +of the soldier whose life was saved by his proving +that he had heard St. Paul's clock strike thirteen. +Queen Anne's statue in the churchyard, too, has +given rise to epigrams worthy of preservation, and +the progress of the restoration will be carefully +detailed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="temple" id="temple"></a> +<img src="images/p006.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE OLD WOODEN TEMPLE BAR<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Cheapside, famous from the Saxon days, next +invites our wandering feet. The north side remained +an open field as late as Edward III.'s reign,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +and tournaments were held there. The knights, +whose deeds Froissart has immortalised, broke +spears there, in the presence of the Queen and her +ladies, who smiled on their champions from a +wooden tower erected across the street. Afterwards +a stone shed was raised for the same sights, and +there Henry VIII., disguised as a yeoman, with +a halbert on his shoulder, came on one occasion to +see the great City procession of the night watch +by torchlight on St. John's Eve. Wren afterwards, +when he rebuilt Bow Church, provided a balcony in +the tower for the Royal Family to witness similar +pageants. Old Bow Church, we must not forget to +record, was seized in the reign of Richard I. by +Longbeard, the desperate ringleader of a Saxon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +rising, who was besieged there, and eventually +burned out and put to death. The great Cross of +Cheapside recalls many interesting associations, for +it was one of the nine Eleanor crosses. Regilt +for many coronations, it was eventually pulled +down by the Puritans during the civil wars. Then +there was the Standard, near Bow Church, where +Wat Tyler and Jack Cade beheaded several objectionable +nobles and citizens; and the great +Conduit at the east end—each with its memorable +history. But the great feature of Cheapside is, +after all, Guildhall. This is the hall that Whittington +paved and where Walworth once ruled. +In Guildhall Lady Jane Grey and her husband +were tried; here the Jesuit Garnet was arraigned +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>for his share in the Gunpowder Plot; here it was +Charles I. appealed to the Common Council to +arrest Hampden and the other patriots who had +fled from his eager claws into the friendly City; +and here, in the spot still sacred to liberty, the +Lords and Parliament declared for the Prince of +Orange. To pass this spot without some salient +anecdotes of the various Lord Mayors would be a +disgrace; and the banquets themselves, from that +of Whittington, when he threw Henry V.'s bonds +for £60,000 into a spice bonfire, to those in the +present reign, deserve some notice and comment. +The curiosities of Guildhall in themselves are +not to be lightly passed over, for they record many +vicissitudes of the great City; and Gog and Magog +are personages of importance only secondary to +that of Lord Mayor, and not in any way to be disregarded. +The Mansion House, built in 1789, +leads us to much chat about "gold chains, +warm furs, broad banners and broad faces;" for a +folio might be well filled with curious anecdotes of +the Lord Mayors of various ages—from Sir John +Norman, who first went in procession to Westminster +by water, to Sir John Shorter (James II.), +who was killed by a fall from his horse as he stopped +at Newgate, according to custom, to take a tankard +of wine, nutmeg, and sugar. There is a word to +say of many a celebrity in the long roll of Mayors—more +especially of Beckford, who is said to have +startled George III. by a violent patriotic remonstrance, +and of the notorious John Wilkes, that +ugly demagogue, who led the City in many an +attack on the King and his unwise Ministers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="burning" id="burning"></a> +<img src="images/p007.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BURNING THE POPE IN EFFIGY AT TEMPLE BAR<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The tributaries of Cheapside also abound in +interest, and mark various stages in the history of +the great City. Bread Street was the bread market +of the time of Edward I., and is especially +honoured for being the birthplace of Milton; and +in Milk Street (the old milk market) Sir Thomas +More was born. Gutter Lane reminds us of its +first Danish owner; and many other turnings have +their memorable legends and traditions.</p> + +<p>The Halls of the City Companies, the great hospitals, +and Gothic schools, will each by turn detain +us; and we shall not forget to call at the Bank, +the South-Sea House, and other great proofs of +past commercial folly and present wealth. The +Bank, projected by a Scotch theorist in 1691 +(William III.), after many migrations, settled down +in Threadneedle Street in 1734. It has a history +of its own, and we shall see during the +Gordon Riots the old pewter inkstands melted +down for bullets, and, prodigy of prodigies! Wilkes +himself rushing out to seize the cowardly ringleaders!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>By many old houses of good pedigree and by +several City churches worthy a visit, we come at +last to the Monument, which Wren erected and +which Cibber decorated. This pillar, which Pope +compared to "a tall bully," once bore an inscription +that greatly offended the Court. It attributed +the Great Fire of London, which began close by +there, to the Popish faction; but the words were +erased in 1831. Littleton, who compiled the Dictionary, +once wrote a Latin inscription for the +Monument, which contained the names of seven +Lord Mayors in one word:—</p> + +<p> +"Fordo-Watermanno-Harrisono-Hookero-Vinero-Sheldono-Davisonam."<br /> +</p> + +<p>But the learned production was, singularly enough, +never used. The word, which Littleton called "an +heptastic vocable," comprehended the names of +the seven Lord Mayors in whose mayoralties the +Monument was begun, continued, and completed.</p> + +<p>On London Bridge we might linger for many +chapters. The first bridge thrown over the Thames +was a wooden one, erected by the nuns of St. +Mary's Monastery, a convent of sisters endowed +by the daughter of a rich Thames ferryman. The +bridge figures as a fortified place in the early Danish +invasions, and the Norwegian Prince Olaf nearly +dragged it to pieces in trying to dispossess the +Danes, who held it in 1008. It was swept away +in a flood, and its successor was burnt. In the +reign of Henry II., Pious Peter, a chaplain of St. +Mary Colechurch, in the Poultry, built a stone +bridge a little further west, and the king helped +him with the proceeds of a tax on wool, which +gave rise to the old saying that "London Bridge +was built upon woolpacks." Peter's bridge was a +curious structure, with nineteen pointed arches +and a drawbridge. There was a fortified gatehouse +at each end, and a gothic chapel towards +the centre, dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, +the spurious martyr of Canterbury. In Queen +Elizabeth's reign there were shops on either side, +with flat roofs, arbours, and gardens, and at the south +end rose a great four-storey wooden house, brought +from Holland, which was covered with carving +and gilding. In the Middle Ages, London Bridge +was the scene of affrays of all kinds. Soon after it +was built, the houses upon it caught fire at both +ends, and 3,000 persons perished, wedged in +among the flames. Henry III. was driven back +here by the rebellious De Montfort, Earl of +Leicester. Wat Tyler entered the City by London +Bridge; and, later, Richard II. was received here +with gorgeous ceremonies. It was the scene of +one of Henry V.'s greatest triumphs, and also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +of his stately funeral procession. Jack Cade +seized London Bridge, and as he passed slashed +in two the ropes of the drawbridge, though soon +after his head was stuck on the gatehouse. From +this bridge the rebel Wyatt was driven by the +guns of the Tower; and in Elizabeth's reign water-works +were erected on the bridge. There was a +great conflagration on the bridge in 1632, and +eventually the Great Fire almost destroyed it. In +the Middle Ages countless rebels' heads were stuck +on the gate-houses of London Bridge. Brave +Wallace's was placed there; and so were the heads +of Henry VIII.'s victims—Fisher, Bishop of +Rochester and Sir Thomas More, the latter trophy +being carried off by the stratagem of his brave +daughter. Garnet, the Gunpowder-Plot Jesuit, +also contributed to the ghastly triumphs of justice. +Several celebrated painters, including Hogarth, +lived at one time or another on the bridge; and +Swift and Pope used to frequent the shop of a +witty bookseller, who lived under the northern +gate. One or two celebrated suicides have taken +place at London Bridge, and among these we may +mention that of Sir William Temple's son, who was +Secretary of War, and Eustace Budgell, a broken-down +author, who left behind him as an apology +the following sophism:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"What Cato did and Addison approved of cannot be +wrong."</p></div> + +<p>Pleasanter is it to remember the anecdote of +the brave apprentice, who leaped into the Thames +from the window of a house on the bridge to +save his master's infant daughter, whom a careless +nurse had dropped into the river. When +the girl grew up, many noble suitors came, but +the generous father was obdurate. "No," said +the honest citizen; "Osborne saved her, and +Osborne shall have her." And so he had; and +Osborne's great grandson throve and became the +first Duke of Leeds. The frequent loss of lives +in shooting the arches of the old bridge, where +the fall was at times five feet, led at last to a cry +for a new bridge, and one was commenced in 1824. +Rennie designed it, and in 1831 William IV. and +Queen Adelaide opened it. One hundred and +twenty thousand tons of stone went to its formation. +The old bridge was not entirely removed +till 1832, when the bones of the builder, Pious +Peter of Colechurch, were found in the crypt +of the central chapel, where tradition had declared +they lay. The iron of the piles of the +old bridge was bought by a cutler in the Strand, +and produced steel of the highest quality. Part +of the old stone was purchased by Alderman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +Harmer, to build his house, Ingress Abbey, near +Greenhithe.</p> + +<p>Southwark, a Roman station and cemetery, is +by no means without a history. It was burned by +William the Conqueror, and had been the scene of +battle against the Danes. It possessed palaces, +monasteries, a mint, and fortifications. The +Bishops of Winchester and Rochester once lived +here in splendour; and the locality boasted its +four Elizabethan theatres. The Globe was Shakespeare's +summer theatre, and here it was that his +greatest triumphs were attained. What was acted +there is best told by making Shakespeare's share +in the management distinctly understood; nor +can we leave Southwark without visiting the +"Tabard Inn," from whence Chaucer's nine-and-twenty +jovial pilgrims set out for Canterbury.</p> + +<p>The Tower rises next before our eyes; and as +we pass under its battlements the grimmest and +most tragic scenes of English history seem again +rising before us. Whether Cæsar first built a +tower here or William the Conqueror, may never be +decided; but one thing is certain, that more tears +have been shed within these walls than anywhere +else in London. Every stone has its story. Here +Wallace, in chains, thought of Scotland; here +Queen Anne Boleyn placed her white hands round +her slender neck, and said the headsman would +have little trouble. Here Catharine Howard, Sir +Thomas More, Cranmer, Northumberland, Lady +Jane Grey, Wyatt, and the Earl of Essex all perished. +Here, Clarence was drowned in a butt of wine and +the two boy princes were murdered. Many victims +of kings, many kingly victims, have here perished. +Many patriots have here sighed for liberty. The +poisoning of Overbury is a mystery of the Tower, +the perusal of which never wearies though the dark +secret be unsolvable; and we can never cease to +sympathise with that brave woman, the Countess of +Nithsdale, who risked her life to save her husband's. +From Laud and Strafford we turn to Eliot and +Hutchinson—for Cavaliers and Puritans were both +by turns prisoners in the Tower. From Lord William +Russell and Algernon Sydney we come down in +the chronicle of suffering to the Jacobites of 1715 +and 1745; from them to Wilkes, Lord George +Gordon, Burdett, and, last of all the Tower prisoners, +to the infamous Thistlewood.</p> + +<p>Leaving the crimson scaffold on Tower Hill, we +return as sightseers to glance over the armoury +and to catch the sparkle of the Royal jewels. Here +is the identical crown that that daring villain Blood +stole and the heart-shaped ruby that the Black +Prince once wore; here we see the swords, sceptres, +and diadems of many of our monarchs. In the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +armoury are suits on which many lances have splintered +and swords struck; the imperishable steel +clothes of many a dead king are here, unchanged +since the owners doffed them. This suit was the +Earl of Leicester's—the "Kenilworth" earl, for see +his cognizance of the bear and ragged staff on the +horse's chanfron. This richly-gilt suit was worn by +James I.'s ill-starred son, Prince Henry, whom +many thought was poisoned by Buckingham; and +this quaint mask, with ram's horns and spectacles, +belonged to Will Somers, Henry VIII.'s jester.</p> + +<p>From the Tower we break away into the far +east, among the old clothes shops, the bird markets, +the costermongers, and the weavers of Whitechapel +and Spitalfields. We are far from jewels +here and Court splendour, and we come to plain +working people and their homely ways. Spitalfields +was the site of a priory of Augustine canons, +however, and has ancient traditions of its own. +The weavers, of French origin, are an interesting +race—we shall have to sketch their sayings and +doings; and we shall search Whitechapel diligently +for old houses and odd people. The district may +not furnish so many interesting scenes and anecdotes +as the West End, but it is well worthy of +study from many modern points of view.</p> + +<p>Smithfield and Holborn are regions fertile in +associations. Smithfield, that broad plain, the +scene of so many martyrdoms, tournaments, and +executions, forms an interesting subject for a +diversified chapter. In this market-place the +ruffians of Henry VIII.'s time met to fight out their +quarrels with sword and buckler. Here the brave +Wallace was executed like a common robber; and +here "the gentle Mortimer" was led to a shameful +death. The spot was the scene of great jousts in +Edward III.'s chivalrous reign, when, after the battle +of Poictiers, the Kings of France and Scotland +came seven days running to see spears shivered +and "the Lady of the Sun" bestow the prizes of +valour. In this same field Walworth slew the +rebel Wat Tyler, who had treated Richard II. with +insolence, and by this prompt blow dispersed the +insurgents, who had grown so dangerously strong. +In Henry VIII.'s reign poisoners were boiled to +death in Smithfield; and in cruel Mary's reign the +Protestant martyrs were burned in the same place. +"Of the two hundred and seventy-seven persons +burnt for heresy in Mary's reign," says a modern +antiquary, "the greater number perished in Smithfield;" +and ashes and charred bodies have been dug +up opposite to the gateway of Bartholomew's +Church and at the west end of Long Lane. After +the Great Fire the houseless citizens were sheltered +here in tents. Over against the corner where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +Great Fire abated is Cock Lane, the scene of the +rapping ghost, in which Dr. Johnson believed and +concerning which Goldsmith wrote a catchpenny +pamphlet.</p> + +<p>Holborn and its tributaries come next, and are +by no means deficient in legends and matter +of general interest. "The original name of the +street was the Hollow Bourne," says a modern +etymologist, "not the Old Bourne;" it was not +paved till the reign of Henry V. The ride up +"the Heavy Hill" from Newgate to Tyburn has +been sketched by Hogarth and sung by Swift. In +Ely Place once lived the Bishop of Ely; and in +Hatton Garden resided Queen Elizabeth's favourite, +the dancing chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton. +In Furnival's Inn Dickens wrote "Pickwick." In +Barnard's Inn died the last of the alchemists. In +Staple's Inn Dr. Johnson wrote "Rasselas," to pay +the expenses of his mother's funeral. In Brooke +Street, where Chatterton poisoned himself, lived +Lord Brooke, a poet and statesman, who was a +patron of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare, and who +was assassinated by a servant whose name he had +omitted in his will. Milton lived for some time in +a house in Holborn that opened at the back on +Lincoln's Inn Fields. Fox Court leads us to the +curious inquiry whether Savage, the poet, was a +conscious or an unconscious impostor; and at the +Blue Boar Inn Cromwell and Ireton discovered by +stratagem the treacherous letter of King Charles +to his queen, that rendered Cromwell for ever the +King's enemy. These are only a few of the +countless associations of Holborn.</p> + +<p>Newgate is a gloomy but an interesting subject +for us. Many wild faces have stared through its +bars since, in King John's time, it became a City +prison. We shall look in on Sarah Malcolm, Mrs. +Brownrigg, Jack Sheppard, Governor Wall, and +other interesting criminals; we shall stand at Wren's +elbow when he designs the new prison, and follow +the Gordon Rioters when they storm in over the +burning walls.</p> + +<p>The Strand stands next to Fleet Street as a +central point of old memories. It is not merely full, +it positively teems. For centuries it was a fashionable +street, and noblemen inhabited the south side +especially, for the sake of the river. In Essex +Street, on a part of the Temple, Queen Elizabeth's +rash favourite (the Earl of Essex) was besieged, +after his hopeless foray into the City. In Arundel +Street lived the Earls of Arundel; in Buckingham +Street Charles I.'s greedy favourite began a palace. +There were royal palaces, too, in the Strand, for +at the Savoy lived John of Gaunt; and Somerset +House was built by the Protector Somerset with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +the stones of the churches he had pulled down. +Henrietta Maria (Charles I.'s Queen) and poor +neglected Catherine of Braganza dwelt at Somerset +House; and it was here that Sir Edmondbury +Godfrey, the zealous Protestant magistrate, was +supposed to have been murdered. There is, too, +the history of Lord Burleigh's house (in Cecil +Street) to record; and Northumberland House still +stands to recall to us its many noble inmates. On +the other side of the Strand we have to note +Butcher Row (now pulled down), where the Gunpowder +Plot conspirators met; Exeter House, where +Lord Burleigh's wily son lived; and, finally, Exeter +'Change, where the poet Gay lay in state. Nor +shall we forget Cross's menagerie and the elephant +Chunee; nor omit mention of many of the eccentric +old shopkeepers who once inhabited the 'Change. +At Charing Cross we shall stop to see the old Cromwellians +die bravely, and to stare at the pillory, +where in their time many incomparable scoundrels +ignominiously stood. The Nelson Column and the +surrounding statues have stories of their own; and +St. Martin's Lane is specially interesting as the +haunt of half the painters of the early Georgian era. +There are anecdotes of Hogarth and his friends to +be picked up here in abundance, and the locality +generally deserves exploration, from the quaintness +and cleverness of its former inhabitants.</p> + +<p>In Covent Garden we break fresh ground. We +found St. Martin's Lane full of artists, Guildhall +full of aldermen, the Strand full of noblemen—the +old monastic garden will prove to be crowded with +actors. We shall trace the market from the first +few sheds under the wall of Bedford House to the +present grand temple of Flora and Pomona. We +shall see Evans's a new mansion, inhabited by Ben +Jonson's friend and patron, Sir Kenelm Digby, +alternately tenanted by Sir Harry Vane, Denzil +Holles (one of the five refractory members whom +Charles I. went to the House of Commons so +imprudently to seize), and Admiral Russell, who +defeated the French at La Hogue. The ghost +of Parson Ford, in which Johnson believed, awaits +us at the doorway of the Hummums. There are +several duels to witness in the Piazza; Dryden +to call upon as he sits, the arbiter of wits, by the +fireside at Will's Coffee House; Addison is to be +found at Button's; at the "Bedford" we shall meet +Garrick and Quin, and stop a moment at Tom +King's, close to St. Paul's portico, to watch +Hogarth's revellers fight with swords and shovels, +that frosty morning that the painter sketched the +prim old maid going to early service. We shall +look in at the Tavistock to see Sir Peter Lely +and Sir Godfrey Kneller at work at portraits of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +beauties of the Carolean and Jacobean Courts; +remembering that in the same rooms Sir James +Thornhill afterwards painted, and poor Richard +Wilson produced those fine landscapes which so few +had the taste to buy. The old hustings deserve a +word, and we shall have to record the lamentable +murder of Miss Ray by her lover, at the north-east +angle of the square. The neighbourhood of Covent +Garden, too, is rife with stories of great actors and +painters, and nearly every house furnishes its quota +of anecdote.</p> + +<p>The history of Drury Lane and Covent Garden +theatres supplies us with endless anecdotes of actors, +and with humorous and pathetic narratives that embrace +the whole region both of tragedy and comedy. +Quin's jokes, Garrick's weaknesses, the celebrated +O.P. riots, contrast with the miserable end of some +popular favourites and the caprices of genius. The +oddities of Munden, the humour of Liston, only +serve to render the gloom of Kean's downfall +more terrible, and to show the wreck and ruin of +many unhappy men, equally wilful though less +gifted. There is a perennial charm about theatrical +stories, and the history of these theatres must +be illustrated by many a sketch of the loves and +rivalries of actors, their fantastic tricks, their practical +jokes, their gay progress to success or ruin. +Changes of popular taste are marked by the +change of character in the pieces that have been +performed in various ages; and the history of the +two theatres will include various illustrative sketches +of dramatic writers, as well as actors. There was +a vast interval in literature between the tragedies +of Addison and Murphey and the comedies of +Holcroft, O'Keefe, and Morton; the descent to +modern melodrama and burlesque must be traced +through various gradations, and the reasons shown +for the many modifications both classes of entertainments +have undergone.</p> + +<p>Westminster, from the night St. Peter came over +from Lambeth in the fisherman's boat, and chose +a site for the Abbey in the midst of Thorney Island, +to the present day, has been a spot where the +pilgrim to historic shrines loves to linger. Need +we remind our readers that Edward the Confessor +built the Abbey, or that William the Conqueror +was crowned here, the ceremony ending in tumult +and blood? How vast the store of facts from +which we have to cull! We see the Jews being +beaten nearly to death for daring to attend the +coronation of Richard I.; we observe Edward I. +watching the sacred stone of Scotland being placed +beneath his coronation chair; we behold for the +first time, at Richard II.'s coronation, the champion +riding into the Hall, to challenge all who refuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +allegiance; we see, at the funeral of Anne of Bohemia, +Richard beating the Earl of Arundel for +wishing to leave before the service is over. We hear +the <i>Te Deum</i> that is sung for the victory of Agincourt, +and watch Henry VI. selecting a site for a +resting-place; we hear for the last time, at the +coronation of Henry VIII., the sanction of the +Pope bestowed upon an English monarch; we pity +poor Queen Caroline attempting to enter the Abbey +to see her worthless husband crowned; and we view +the last coronation, and draw auguries of a purer if +not a happier age. The old Hall, too; could we +neglect that ancient chamber, where Charles I. was +sentenced to death, and where Cromwell was +throned in almost regal splendour? We must see +it in all its special moments; when the seven +bishops were acquitted, and the shout of joy shook +London as with an earthquake; and when the rebel +lords were tried. We must hear Lord Byron tried +for his duel with Mr. Chaworth, and mad Lord +Ferrers condemned for shooting his steward. We +shall get a side-view of the shameless Duchess of +Kingston, and hear Burke and Sheridan grow +eloquent over the misdeeds of Warren Hastings.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="well" id="well"></a> +<img src="images/p012.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BRIDEWELL IN 1666<br /></span> +</div> + + +<p>The parks now draw us westward, and we wander<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +through them: in St. James's seeing Charles II. feeding +his ducks or playing "pall-mall;" in Hyde Park +observing the fashions and extravagancies of many +generations. Romeo Coates will whisk past us in +his fantastic chariot, and the beaus and oddities of +many generations will pace past us in review. +There will be celebrated duels to describe, and +various strange follies to deride. We shall see +Cromwell thrown from his coach, and shall witness +the foot-races that Pepys describes. Dryden's +gallants and masked ladies will receive some mention; +and we shall tell of bygone encampments +and of many events now almost forgotten.</p> + +<p>Kensington will recall many anecdotes of William +of Orange, his beloved Queen, stupid Prince George +of Denmark, and George II., who all died at the +palace, the old seat of the Finches. We are sure +to find good company in the gardens. Still as +when Tickell sang, every walk</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Seems from afar a moving tulip bed,<br /> +Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow,<br /> +And chintz, the rival of the showery bow."<br /> +</div> + +<p>There is Newton's house at South Kensington +to visit, and Wilkie's and Mrs. Inchbald's; and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +above all, there is Holland House, the scene of the +delightful Whig coteries of Tom Moore's time. +Here Addison lived to regret his marriage with +a lady of rank, and here he died. At Kensington +Charles James Fox spent his youth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="modern" id="modern"></a> +<img src="images/p013.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PART OF MODERN LONDON, SHOWING THE ANCIENT WALL<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>And now Chelsea brings us pleasant recollections +of Sir Thomas More, Swift, Sir Robert +Walpole, and Atterbury. "Chelsith," Sir Thomas +More used to call it when Holbein was lodging +in his house and King Henry, who afterwards +beheaded his old friend, used to come to dinner, +and after dinner walk round the fair garden with +his arm round his host's neck. More was fond of +walking on the flat roof of his gatehouse, which +commanded a pleasant prospect of the Thames +and the fields beyond. Let us hope the tradition is +not true that he used to bind heretics to a tree in +his garden. In 1717 Chelsea only contained 350 +houses, and these in 1725 had grown to 1,350. +There is Cheyne Walk, so called from the Lords +Cheyne, owners of the manor; and we must not +forget Don Saltero and his famous coffee-house, +the oddities of which Steele pleasantly sketched in +the Tatler. The Don was famous for his skill in +brewing punch and for his excellent playing on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +fiddle. Saltero was a barber, who drew teeth, drew +customers, wrote verses, and collected curiosities.</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Some relics of the Sheban queen<br /> +And fragments of the famed Bob Crusoe."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Swift lodged at Chelsea, over against the Jacobite +Bishop Atterbury, who so nearly lost his head. In +one of his delightful letters to Stella Swift describes +"the Old Original Chelsea Bun House," and the +r-r-r-r-rare Chelsea buns. He used to leave his +best gown and perriwig at Mrs. Vanhomrig's, in +Suffolk Street, then walk up Pall Mall, through +the park, out at Buckingham House, and on to +Chelsea, a little beyond the church (5,748 steps), +he says, in less than an hour, which was leisurely +walking even for the contemplative and observant +dean. Smollet laid a scene of his "Humphrey +Clinker" in Chelsea, where he lived for some time.</p> + +<p>The Princess Elizabeth, when a girl, lived at +Chelsea, with that dangerous man, with whom she +is said to have fallen in love, the Lord Admiral +Seymour, afterwards beheaded. He was the +second husband of Katherine Parr, one of the +many wives of Elizabeth's father. Cremorne was, +in Walpole's days, the villa of Lord Cremorne, an +Irish nobleman; and near here, at a river-side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +cottage died, in miserly and cynical obscurity, the +greatest of our modern landscape painters, Turner. +Then there is Chelsea Hospital to visit. This +hospital was built by Wren; Charles II., it is +said at Nell Gwynn's suggestion, originated the +good work, which was finished by William and +Mary. Dr. Arbuthnot, that good man so beloved +by the Pope set, was physician here, and the Rev. +Philip Francis, who translated Horace, was +chaplain. Nor can we leave Chelsea without +remembering Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection +of antiquities, sold for £20,000, formed the first +nucleus of the British Museum, and who resided +at Chelsea; nor shall we forget the Chelsea china +manufactory, one of the earliest porcelain manufactories +in England, patronized by George II., +who brought over German artificers from Brunswick +and Saxony. In the reign of Louis XV. +the French manufacturers began to regard it with +jealousy and petitioned their king for special +privileges. Ranelagh, too, that old pleasure-garden +which Dr. Johnson declared was "the finest thing +he had ever seen," deserves a word; Horace +Walpole was constantly there, though at first, he +owns, he preferred Vauxhall; and Lord Chesterfield +was so fond of it that he used to say he +should order all his letters to be directed there.</p> + +<p>The West End squares are pleasant spots for +our purpose, and at many doors we shall have +to make a call. In Landsdowne House (in +Berkeley Square) it is supposed by many that +Lord Shelburne, Colonel Barre, and Dunning +wrote "Junius"; certain it is that the Marquis of +Landsdowne, in 1809, acknowledged the possession +of the secret, but died the following week, +before he could disclose it. Here, in 1774, that +persecuted philosopher, Dr. Priestley, the librarian +to Lord Shelburne, discovered oxygen. In this +square Horace Walpole (that delightful letter-writer) +died and Lord Clive destroyed himself. +Then there is Grosvenor Square, where that fat, +easy-going Minister, Lord North, lived, where Wilkes +the notorious resided, and where the Cato-Street +conspirators planned to kill all the Cabinet +Ministers, who had been invited to dinner by the +Earl of Harrowby. In Hanover Square we visit +Lord Rodney, &c. In St. James's Square we recall +William III. coming to the Earl of Romney's to +see fireworks let off and, later, the Prince Regent, +from a balcony, displaying to the people the Eagles +captured at Waterloo. Queen Caroline resided +here during her trial, and many of Charles II.'s +frail beauties also resided in the same spot. In +Cavendish Square we stop to describe the splendid +projects of that great Duke of Chandos whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +Pope ridiculed. Nor are the lesser squares by any +means devoid of interest.</p> + +<p>In Pall Mall the laziest gleaner of London traditions +might find a harvest. On the site of Carlton +House—the Prince Regent's palace—were, in the +reign of Henry VI., monastic buildings, in which +(reign of Henry VIII.) Erasmus afterwards resided. +They were pulled down at the Reformation. Nell +Gwynn lived here, and so did Sir William Temple, +Swift's early patron, the pious Boyle, and that poor +puff-ball of vanity and pretence—Bubb Doddington. +Here we have to record the unhappy duel at the +"Star and Garter" tavern between Lord Byron and +Mr. Chaworth, and the murder of Mr. Thynne by +his rival, Count Köningsmark. There is Boydell's +Shakespeare Gallery to notice, and Dodsley's shop, +which Burke, Johnson, and Garrick so often visited. +There is also the origin of the Royal Academy, at +a house opposite Market Lane, to chronicle, many +club-houses to visit, and curious memorabilia of all +kinds to be sifted, selected, contrasted, mounted, +and placed in sequence for view.</p> + +<p>Then comes Marylebone, formerly a suburb, +famous only for its hunting park (now Regent's +Park), its gardens, and its bowling-greens. In +Queen Elizabeth's time the Russian ambassadors +were sent to hunt in Marylebone Park; Cromwell +sold it—deer, timber, and all—for £13,000. +The Marylebone Bowling Greens, which preceded +the gardens, were at first the resort of noblemen +and gentlemen, but eventually highwaymen began +to frequent them. The Duke of Buckingham +(whom Lady Mary Wortley Montagu glances at in +the line,</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away")</div> + +<p>used, at an annual dinner to the frequenters of the +gardens, to give the agreeable toast,—"May as +many of us as remain unhanged next spring meet +here again." Eventually burlettas were produced—one +written by Chatterton; and Dr. Arne +conducted Handel's music. Marylebone, in the +time of Hogarth, was a favourite place for prize +fights and back-sword combats, the great champion +being Figg, that bullet-headed man with the bald, +plaistered head, whom Hogarth has represented +mounting grim sentry in his "Southwark Fair." +The great building at Marylebone began between +1718 and 1729. In 1739 there were only 577 +houses in the parish; in 1851 there were 16,669. +In many of the nooks and corners of Marylebone +we shall find curious facts and stories +worth the unravelling.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="roman" id="roman"></a> +<img src="images/p015.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PLAN OF ROMAN LONDON<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The eastern squares, in Bloomsbury and St. +Pancras, are regions not by any means to be lightly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +passed by. Bloomsbury Square was built by the Earl +of Southampton, about the time of the Restoration, +and was thought one of the wonders of England. +Baxter lived here when he was tormented by Judge +Jefferies; Sir Hans Sloane was one of its inhabitants; +so was that great physician, Dr. Radcliffe. +The burning of Mansfield House by Lord George +Gordon's rioters has to be minutely described. In +Russell Square we visit the houses of Sir Thomas +Lawrence and of Judge Talfourd, and search for +that celebrated spot in London legend, "The Field +of the Forty Footsteps," where two brothers, it is +said, killed each other in a duel for a lady, who sat +by watching the fight. Then there is Red Lion +Square, where tradition says some faithful adherents, +at the Restoration, buried the body of Cromwell, to +prevent its desecration at Tyburn; and we have to +cull some stories of a good old inhabitant, Jonas +Hanway, the great promoter of many of the London +charities, the first man who habitually used +an umbrella and Dr. Johnson's spirited opponent on +the important question of tea. Soho Square, too, +has many a tradition, for the Duke of Monmouth +lived there in great splendour; and in Hogarth's time +Mrs. Cornelys made the square celebrated by her +masquerades, which in time became disreputable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +Sir Cloudesley Shovel, Sir Joseph Banks, and Burnet, +the historian, were all inhabitants of this locality.</p> + +<p>Islington brings us back to days when Henry VIII. +came there to hawk the partridge and the heron, +and when the London citizens wandered out across +the northern fields to drink milk and eat cheesecakes. +The old houses abound in legends of Sir +Walter Raleigh, Topham, the strong man, George +Morland, the artist, and Henderson, the actor. At +Canonbury, the old tower of the country house of +the Prior of St. Bartholomew recalls to us Goldsmith, +who used to come there to hide from his +creditors, go to bed early, and write steadily.</p> + +<p>At Highgate and Hampstead we shall scour the +northern uplands of London by no means in vain, +as we shall find Belsize House, in Charles II.'s +time, openly besieged by robbers and, long afterwards, +highwaymen swarming in the same locality. +The chalybeate wells of Hampstead lead us on to +the Heath, where wolves were to be found in the +twelfth century and highwaymen as late as 1803. +Good company awaits us at pleasant Hampstead—Lord +Erskine, Lord Chatham, Keats, Akenside, +Leigh Hunt, and Sir Fowell Buxton; Booth, +Wilkes, and Colley Cibber; Mrs. Barbauld, honest +Dick Steele, and Joanna Baillie. As for Highgate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +for ages a mere hamlet, a forest, it once boasted +a bishop's palace, and there we gather, with free +hand, memories of Sacheverell, Rowe, Dr. Watts, +Hogarth, Coleridge, and Lord Mansfield; Ireton, +Marvell, and Dick Whittington, the worthy demi-god +of London apprentices to the end of time.</p> + +<p>Lambeth, where Harold was crowned, can hold its +own in interest with any part of London—for it once +possessed two ecclesiastical palaces and many places +of amusement. Lambeth Palace itself is a spot of +extreme interest. Here Wat Tyler's men dragged +off Archbishop Sudbury to execution; here, when +Laud was seized, the Parliamentary soldiers turned +the palace into a prison for Royalists and demolished +the great hall. Outside the walls of the +church James II.'s Queen cowered in the December +rain with her child, till a coach could be brought from +the neighbouring inn to convey her to Gravesend to +take ship for France. The Gordon rioters attacked +the palace in 1780, but were driven off by a detachment +of Guards. The Lollards' Tower has to be +visited, and the sayings and doings of a long line of +prelates to be reviewed. Vauxhall brings us back to +the days when Walpole went with Lady Caroline +Petersham and helped to stew chickens in a china +dish over a lamp; or we go further back and accompany +Addison and the worthy Sir Roger de Coverley, +and join them over a glass of Burton ale and a slice +of hung beef.</p> + +<p>Astley's Amphitheatre recalls to us many amusing +stories of that old soldier, Ducrow, and of his friends +and rivals, which join on very naturally to those +other theatrical traditions to which Drury Lane and +Covent Garden have already led us.</p> + +<p>So we mean to roam from flower to flower, over +as varied a garden as the imagination can well +conceive. There have been brave workers before +us in the field, and we shall build upon good foundations. +We hope to be catholic in our selections; we +shall prune away only the superfluous; we shall +condense anecdotes only where we think we can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +make them pithier and racier. We will neglect no +fact that is interesting, and blend together all that +old Time can give us bearing upon London. Street +by street we shall delve and rake for illustrative story, +despising no book, however humble, no pamphlet, +however obscure, if it only throws some light on the +celebrities of London, its topographical history, its +manners and customs. Such is a brief summary of +our plan.</p> + +<p>St. Paul's rises before us with its great black +dome and stately row of sable columns; the Tower, +with its central citadel, flanked by the spear-like +masts of the river shipping; the great world of +roofs spreads below us as we launch upon our +venturous voyage of discovery. From Boadicea +leading on her scythed chariots at Battle Bridge to +Queen Victoria in the Thanksgiving procession of +yesterday is a long period over which to range. We +have whole generations of Londoners to defile +before us—painted Britons, hooded Saxons, mailed +Crusaders, Chaucer's men in hoods, friars, citizens, +warriors, Shakespeare's friends, Johnson's companions, +Goldsmith's jovial "Bohemians," Hogarth's +fellow-painters, soldiers, lawyers, statesmen, merchants. +Nevertheless, at our spells they will +gather from the four winds, and at our command +march off to their old billets in their old houses, +where we may best cross-examine them and collect +their impressions of the life of their times.</p> + +<p>The subject is as entertaining as any dream +Imagination ever evoked and as varied as human +nature. Its classification is a certain bond of +union, and will act as an excellent cement for the +multiform stones with which we shall rear our building. +Lists of names, dry pedigrees, rows of dates, +we leave to the herald and the topographer; but we +shall pass by little that can throw light on the +history of London in any generation, and we shall +dwell more especially on the events of the later +centuries, because they are more akin to us and +are bound to us by closer sympathies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class="center">ROMAN LONDON</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Buried London—Our Early Relations—The Founder of London—A distinguished Visitor at Romney Marsh—Cæsar re-visits the "Town on the +Lake"—The Borders of Old London—Cæsar fails to make much out of the Britons—King <i>Brown</i>—The Derivation of the name of London—The +Queen of the Iceni—London Stone and London Roads—London's Earlier and Newer Walls—The Site of St. Paul's—Fabulous Claims +to Idolatrous Renown—Existing Relics of Roman London—Treasures from the Bed of the Thames—What we Tread underfoot in London—A +vast Field of Story.</p></div> + + +<p>Eighteen feet below the level of Cheapside lies +hidden Roman London, and deeper even than that +is buried the earlier London of those savage +charioteers who, long ages ago, bravely confronted +the legions of Rome. In nearly all parts of the +City there have been discovered tesselated pavements, +Roman tombs, lamps, vases, sandals, keys, +ornaments, weapons, coins, and statues of the +ancient Roman gods. So the present has grown +up upon the ashes of the past.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Trees that are to live long grow slowly. Slow +and stately as an oak London grew and grew, till +now nearly four million souls represent its leaves. +Our London is very old. Centuries before Christ +there probably came the first few half-naked fishermen +and hunters, who reared, with flint axes and +such rude tools, some miserable huts on the rising +ground that, forming the north bank of the Thames, +slopes to the river some sixty miles from where it +joins the sea. According to some, the river spread +out like a vast lake between the Surrey and the +Essex hills in those times when the half-savage first +settlers found the low slopes of the future London +places of health and defence amid a vast and +dismal region of fen, swamp, and forest. The +heroism and the cruelties, the hopes and fears of +those poor barbarians, darkness never to be removed +has hidden from us for ever. In later days +monkish historians, whom Milton afterwards followed, +ignored these poor early relations of ours +and invented, as a more fitting ancestor of Englishmen, +Brute, a fugitive nephew of Æneas of Troy. +But, stroll on where we will, the pertinacious savage, +with his limbs stained blue and his flint axe red +with blood, is a ghost not easily to be exorcised from +the banks of the Thames, and in some Welsh veins +his blood no doubt flows at this very day. The +founder of London had no historian to record his +hopes—a place where big salmon were to be +found, and plenty of wild boars were to be met +with, was probably his highest ambition. How he +bartered with Phœnicians or Gauls for amber or +iron no Druid has recorded. How he slew the +foraging Belgæ, or was slain by them and dispossessed, +no bard has sung. Whether he was +generous and heroic as the New Zealander, or apelike +and thievish as the Bushman, no ethnologist +has yet proved. The very ashes of the founder of +London have long since turned to earth, air, and +water.</p> + +<p>No doubt the few huts that formed early London +were fought for over and over again, as wolves +wrangle round a carcass. On Cornhill there probably +dwelt petty kings who warred with the kings +of Ludgate; and in Southwark there lurked or burrowed +other chiefs who, perhaps by intrigue or +force, struggled for centuries to get a foothold in +Thames Street. But of such infusoria History +(glorying only in offenders, criminals, and robbers +on the largest scale) justly pays no heed. This alone +we know, that the early rulers of London before +the Christian era passed away like the wild beasts +they fought and slew, and their very names have +perished. One line of an old blind Greek poet +might have immortalised them among the motley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +nations that crowded into Troy or swarmed under +its walls; but, alas for them, that line was never +written! No, Founder of London! thy name was +written on fluid ooze of the marsh, and the first +tide that washed over it from the Nore obliterated +it for ever. Yet, perhaps even now thou sleepest +as quietly fathoms deep in soft mud, in some still +nook of Barking Creek, as if all the world was +ringing with thy glory.</p> + +<p>But descending quick to the lower but safer and +firmer ground of fact, let us cautiously drive our +first pile into the shaky morass of early London +history.</p> + +<p>A learned modern antiquary, Thomas Lewin, +Esq., has proved, as nearly as such things can be +proved, that Julius Cæsar and 8,000 men, who +had sailed from Boulogne, landed near Romney +Marsh about half-past five o'clock on Sunday +the 27th of August, 55 years before the birth of our +Saviour. Centuries before that very remarkable +August day on which the brave standard-bearer +of Cæsar's Tenth Legion sprang from his gilt +galley into the sea and, eagle in hand, advanced +against the javelins of the painted Britons who +lined the shore, there is now no doubt London was +already existing as a British town of some importance, +and known to the fishermen and merchants +of the Gauls and Belgians. Strabo, a Greek geographer +who flourished in the reign of Augustus, +speaks of British merchants as bringing to the +Seine and the Rhine shiploads of corn, cattle, iron, +hides, slaves, and dogs, and taking back brass, +ivory, amber ornaments, and vessels of glass. +By these merchants the desirability of such a depôt +as London, with its great and always navigable river, +could not have been long overlooked.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="ancient" id="ancient"></a> +<img src="images/p018.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ANCIENT ROMAN PAVEMENT FOUND IN THREADNEEDLE STREET, 1841<br /></span> +</div> + + +<p>In Cæsar's second and longer invasion in the +next year (54 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>), when his 28 many-oared +triremes and 560 transports, &c., in all 800, poured +on the same Kentish coast 21,000 legionaries and +2,000 cavalry, there is little doubt that his strong +foot left its imprint near that cluster of stockaded +huts (more resembling a New Zealand pah than +a modern English town) perhaps already called +London—Llyn-don, the "town on the lake." +After a battle at Challock Wood, Cæsar and his +men crossed the Thames, as is supposed, at Coway +Stakes, an ancient ford a little above Walton +and below Weybridge. Cassivellaunus, King of +Hertfordshire and Middlesex, had just slain in +war Immanuent, King of Essex, and had driven out +his son Mandubert. The Trinobantes, Mandubert's +subjects, joined the Roman spearmen against +the 4,000 scythed chariots of Cassivellaunus and +the Catyeuchlani. Straight as the flight of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +arrow was Cæsar's march upon the capital of +Cassivellaunus, a city the barbaric name of which he +either forgot or disregarded, but which he merely +says was "protected by woods and marshes." This +place north of the Thames has usually been thought +to be Verulamium (St. Alban's); but it was far +more likely London, as the Cassi, whose capital +Verulamium was, were among the traitorous tribes +who joined Cæsar against their oppressor Cassivellaunus. +Moreover, Cæsar's brief description of +the spot perfectly applies to Roman London, for +ages protected on the north by a vast forest, full of +deer and wild boars, and which, even as late as the +reign of Henry II., covered a great region, and has +now shrunk into the not very wild districts of St. +John's Wood and Caen Wood. On the north the +town found a natural moat in the broad fens of +Moorfields, Finsbury, and Houndsditch, while on +the south ran the Fleet and the Old Bourne. Indeed, +according to that credulous old enthusiast Stukeley, +Cæsar, marching from Staines to London, encamped +on the site of Old St. Pancras Church, round which +edifice Stukeley found evident traces of a great +Prætorian camp. However, whether Cassivellaunus, +the King of Middlesex and Hertfordshire, had his +capital at London or St. Alban's, this much at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +least is certain, that the legionaries carried their +eagles swiftly over his stockades of earth and fallen +trees, drove off the blue-stained warriors, and swept +off the half-wild cattle stored up by the Britons. +Shortly after, Cæsar returned to Gaul, having heard +while in Britain of the death of his favourite +daughter Julia, the wife of Pompey, his great rival. +His camp at Richborough or Sandwich was +far distant, the dreaded equinoctial gales were at +hand, and Gaul, he knew, might at any moment +of his absence start into a flame. His inglorious +campaign had lasted just four months and a half—his +first had been far shorter. As Cæsar himself +wrote to Cicero, our rude island was defended by +stupendous rocks, there was not a scrap of the +gold that had been reported, and the only prospect +of booty was in slaves, from whom there could +be expected neither "skill in letters nor in music." +In sober truth, all Cæsar had won from the people +of Kent and Hertfordshire had been blows and +buffets, for there were <i>men</i> in Britain even then. +The prowess of the British charioteers became a +standing joke in Rome against the soldiers of +Cæsar. Horace and Tibullus both speak of the +Briton as unconquered. The steel bow the strong +Roman hand had for a moment bent, quickly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +relapsed to its old shape the moment Cæsar, mounting +his tall galley, turned his eyes towards Gaul.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="london" id="london"></a> +<img src="images/p019.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PART OF OLD LONDON WALL, NEAR FALCON SQUARE<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The Mandubert who sought Cæsar's help is by +some thought to be the son of the semi-fabulous +King Lud (King <i>Brown</i>), the mythical founder +of London, and, according to Milton, who, as we +have said, follows the old historians, a descendant +of Brute of Troy. The successor of the warlike +Cassivellaunus had his capital at St. Alban's; his +son Cunobelin (Shakespeare's Cymbeline)—a name +which seems to glow with perpetual sunshine as +we write it—had a palace at Colchester; and +the son of Cunobelin was the famed Caradoc, or +Caractacus, that hero of the Silures, who struggled +bravely for nine long years against the generals of +Rome.</p> + +<p>Celtic etymologists differ, as etymologists usually +do, about the derivation of the name of London. +Lon, or Long, meant, they say, either a lake, a wood, +a populous place, a plain, or a ship-town. This last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +conjecture is, however, now the most generally received, +as it at once gives the modern pronunciation, +to which Llyn-don would never have assimilated. +The first British town was indeed a simple Celtic hill +fortress, formed first on Tower Hill, and afterwards +continued to Cornhill and Ludgate. It was moated +on the south by the river, which it controlled; +by fens on the north; and on the east by the +marshy low ground of Wapping. It was a high, dry, +and fortified point of communication between the +river and the inland country of Essex and Hertfordshire, +a safe sixty miles from the sea, and +central as a depôt and meeting-place for the tribes +of Kent and Middlesex.</p> + +<p>Hitherto the London about which we have been +conjecturing has been a mere cloud city. The +first mention of real London is by Tacitus, who, +writing in the reign of Nero (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 62, more than +a century after the landing of Cæsar), in that style +of his so full of vigour and so sharp in outline,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +that it seems fit rather to be engraved on steel +than written on perishable paper, says that Londinium, +though not, indeed, dignified with the name +of colony, was a place highly celebrated for the +number of its merchants and the confluence of +traffic. In the year 62 London was probably still +without walls, and its inhabitants were not Roman +citizens, like those of Verulamium (St. Alban's). +When the Britons, roused by the wrongs of the fierce +Boadicea (Queen of the Iceni, the people of +Norfolk and Suffolk), bore down on London, her +back still "bleeding from the Roman rods," she slew +in London and Verulamium alone 70,000 citizens +and allies of Rome; impaling many beautiful and +well-born women, amid revelling sacrifices, in the +grove of Andate, the British Goddess of Victory. +It is supposed that after this reckless slaughter the +tigress and her savage followers burned the cluster +of wooden houses that then formed London to the +ground. Certain it is, that when deep sections were +made for a sewer in Lombard Street in 1786, the +lowest stratum consisted of tesselated Roman pavements, +their coloured dice laying scattered like flower +leaves, and above that of a thick layer of wood +ashes, as of the <i>débris</i> of charred wooden buildings. +This ruin the Romans avenged by the slaughter of +80,000 Britons in a butchering fight, generally believed +to have taken place at King's Cross (otherwise +Battle Bridge), after which the fugitive Boadicea, +in rage and despair, took poison and perished.</p> + +<p>London probably soon sprang, phœnix-like, from +the fire, though history leaves it in darkness to +enjoy a lull of 200 years. In the early part of the +second century Ptolemy, the geographer, speaks of +it as a city of the Kentish people; but Mr. Craik +very ingeniously conjectures that the Greek writer +took his information from Phœnician works descriptive +of Britain, written before even the invasion +of Cæsar. Theodosius, a general of the Emperor +Valentinian, who saved London from gathered +hordes of Scots, Picts, Franks, and Saxons, is supposed +to have repaired the walls of London, which +had been first built by the Emperor Constantine +early in the fourth century. In the reign of +Theodosius, London, now called Augusta, became +one of the chief, if not the chief, of the seventy +Roman cities in Britain. In the famous "Itinerary" +of Antoninus (about the end of the third century) +London stands as the goal or starting-point of +seven out of the fifteen great central Roman roads +in England. Camden considers the London Stone, +now enshrined in the south wall of St. Swithin's +Church, Cannon Street, to have been the central +milestone of Roman England, from which all the +chief roads radiated, and by which the distances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +were reckoned. Wren supposed that Watling +Street, of which Cannon Street is a part, was the +High Street of Roman London. Another street ran +west along Holborn from Cheapside, and from +Cheapside probably north. A northern road ran +by Aldgate, and probably Bishopsgate. The road +from Dover came either over a bridge near the site +of the present London Bridge, or higher up at +Dowgate, from Stoney Street on the Surrey side.</p> + +<p>Early Roman London was scarcely larger than +Hyde Park. Mr. Roach Smith, the best of all +authorities on the subject, gives its length from the +Tower to Ludgate, east and west, at about a mile; +and north and south, that is from London Wall to +the Thames, at about half a mile. The earliest +Roman city was even smaller, for Roman sepulchres +have been found in Bow Lane, Moorgate Street, +Bishopsgate Within, which must at that time have +been beyond the walls. The Roman cemeteries of +Smithfield, St. Paul's, Whitechapel, the Minories, +and Spitalfields, are of later dates, and are in all +cases beyond the old line of circumvallation, +according to the sound Roman custom fixed by law. +The earlier London Mr. Roach Smith describes +as an irregular space, the five main gates corresponding +with Bridgegate, Ludgate, Bishopsgate, Aldersgate, +and Aldgate. The north wall followed for +some part the course of Cornhill and Leadenhall +Street; the eastern Billiter Street and Mark Lane; +the southern Thames Street; and the western the +east side of Walbrook. Of the larger Roman wall, +there were within the memory of man huge, shapeless +masses, with trees growing upon them, opposite +what is now Finsbury Circus. In 1852 a piece of +Roman wall on Tower Hill was rescued from the +improvers, and built into some stables and outhouses; +but not before a careful sketch had been +effected by the late Mr. Fairholt, one of the best of +our antiquarian draughtsmen. The later Roman +London was in general outline the same in shape +and size as the London of the Saxons and Normans. +The newer walls Pennant calculates at +3 miles 165 feet in circumference, they were 22 feet +high, and guarded with forty lofty towers. At the +end of the last century large portions of the old +Roman wall were traceable in many places, but +time has devoured almost the last morsels of that +great <i>pièce de résistance</i>. In 1763 Mr. Gough made +a drawing of a square Roman tower (one of three) +then standing in Houndsditch. It was built in +alternate layers of massive square stones and red +tiles. The old loophole for the sentinel had been +enlarged into a square latticed window. In 1857, +while digging foundations for houses on the north-east +side of Aldermanbury Postern, the workmen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +came on a portion of the Roman wall strengthened +by blind arches. All that now substantially remains +of the old fortification is a bastion in St. Giles's +Church, Cripplegate; a fragment in St. Martin's +Court, off Ludgate Hill; another portion exists in the +Old Bailey, concealed behind houses; and a fourth, +near George Street, Tower Hill. Portions of the +wall have, however, been also broached in Falcon +Square (one of which we have engraved), Bush +Lane, Scott's Yard, and Cornhill, and others built +in cellars and warehouses from opposite the Tower +and Cripplegate.</p> + +<p>The line of the Roman walls ran from the +Tower straight to Aldgate; there making an +angle, it continued to Bishopsgate. From there +it turned eastward to St. Giles's Churchyard, where +it veered south to Falcon Square. At this point it +continued west to Aldersgate, running under Christ's +Hospital, and onward to Giltspur Street. There +forming an angle, it proceeded directly to Ludgate +towards the Thames, passing to the south of St. +Andrew's Church. The wall then crossed Addle +Street, and took a course along Upper and +Lower Thames Street towards the Tower. In +Thames Street the wall has been found built on +oaken piles; on these was laid a stratum of chalk +and stones, and over this a course of large, hewn +sandstones, cemented with quicklime, sand, and +pounded tile. The body of the wall was constructed +of ragstone, flint, and lime, bonded at +intervals with courses of plain and curve-edged tiles.</p> + +<p>That Roman London grew slowly there is +abundant proof. In building the new Exchange, +the workmen came on a gravel-pit full of oyster-shells, +cattle bones, old sandals, and shattered +pottery. No coin found there being later than +Severus indicates that this ground was bare waste +outside the original city until at least the latter +part of the third century. How far Roman +London eventually spread its advancing waves +of houses may be seen from the fact that Roman +wall-paintings, indicating villas of men of wealth +and position, have been found on both sides of +High Street, Southwark, almost up to St. George's +Church; while one of the outlying Roman +cemeteries bordered the Kent Road.</p> + +<p>From the horns of cattle having been dug up in +St. Paul's Churchyard, the monks, ever eager to +discover traces of that Paganism with which they +amalgamated Christianity, conjectured that a temple +of Diana once stood on the site of St. Paul's. A +stone altar, with a rude figure of the amazon +goddess sculptured upon it, was indeed discovered +in making the foundations for Goldsmiths' Hall, +Cheapside; but this was a mere votive or private<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +altar, and proves nothing; and the ox bones, if +any, found at St. Paul's, were merely refuse thrown +into a rubbish-heap outside the old walls. As +to the Temple of Apollo, supposed to have been +replaced by Westminster Abbey, that is merely an +invention of rival monks to glorify Thorney Island, +and to render its antiquity equal to the fabulous +claims of St. Paul's. Nor is there any positive +proof that shrines to British gods ever stood on +either place, though that they may have done so is +not at all improbable.</p> + +<p>The existing relics of Roman London are far +more valuable and more numerous than is generally +supposed. Innumerable tesselated pavements, +masterpieces of artistic industry and taste, have +been found in the City. A few of these should be +noted. In 1854 part of the pavement of a room, +twenty-eight feet square, was discovered, when the +Excise Office was pulled down, between Bishopsgate +Street and Broad Street. The central subject +was supposed to be the Rape of Europa. A few +years before another pavement was met with near +the same spot. In 1841 two pavements were dug +up under the French Protestant Church in Threadneedle +Street. The best of these we have engraved. +In 1792 a circular pavement was found +in the same locality; and there has also been +dug up in the same street a curious female head, +the size of life, formed of coloured stones and +glass. In 1805 a beautiful Roman pavement was +disinterred on the south-west angle of the Bank of +England, near the gate opening into Lothbury, +and is now in the British Museum. In 1803 a fine +specimen of pavement was found in front of the +East-India House, Leadenhall Street, the central +design being Bacchus reclining on a panther. In +this pavement twenty distinct tints had been successfully +used. Other pavements have been cut +through in Crosby Square, Bartholemew Lane, +Fenchurch Street, and College Street. The soil, +according to Mr. Roach Smith, seems to have +risen over them at the rate of nearly a foot a +century.</p> + +<p>The statuary found in London should also not +be forgotten. One of the most remarkable pieces +was a colossal bronze head of the Emperor +Hadrian, dredged up from the Thames a little +below London Bridge. It is now in the British +Museum. A colossal bronze hand, thirteen +inches long, was also found in Thames Street, +near the Tower. In 1857, near London Bridge, +the dredgers found a beautiful bronze Apollino, a +Mercury of exquisite design, a priest of Cybele, +and a figure supposed to be Jupiter. The Apollino +and Mercury are masterpieces of ideal beauty and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +grace. In 1842 a <i>chef d'œuvre</i> was dug out near +the old Roman wall in Queen Street, Cheapside. +It was the bronze stooping figure of an archer. It +has silver eyes; and the perfect expression and +anatomy display the highest art.</p> + +<p>In 1825 a graceful little silver figure of the child +Harpocrates, the God of Silence, looped with a gold +chain, was found in the Thames, and is now in the +British Museum. In 1839 a pair of gold armlets +were dug up in Queen Street, Cheapside. In a +kiln in St. Paul's Churchyard, in 1677, there were +found lamps, bottles, urns, and dishes. Among +other relics of Roman London drifted down by time +we may instance articles of red glazed pottery, tiles, +glass cups, window glass, bath scrapers, gold hairpins, +enamelled clasps, sandals, writing tablets, +bronze spoons, forks, distaffs, bells, dice, and millstones. +As for coins, which the Romans seem to +have hid in every conceivable nook, Mr. Roach +Smith says that within twenty years upwards of +2,000 were, to his own knowledge, found in +London, chiefly in the bed of the Thames. Only +one Greek coin, as far as we know, has ever been +met with in London excavations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Romans left deep footprints wherever they +trod. Many of our London streets still follow the +lines they first laid down. The river bank still +heaves beneath the ruins of their palaces. London +Stone, as we have already shown, still stands to +mark the starting-point of the great roads that they +designed. In a lane out of the Strand there still +exists a bath where their sinewy youth laved their +limbs, dusty from the chariot races at the Campus +Martius at Finsbury. The pavements trodden by +the feet of Hadrian and Constantine still lie buried +under the restless wheels that roll over our City +streets. The ramparts the legionaries guarded +have not yet quite crumbled to dust, though the +rude people they conquered have themselves long +since grown into conquerors. Roman London now +exists only in fragments, invisible save to the +prying antiquary. As the seed is to be found +hanging to the root of the ripe wheat, so some +filaments of the first germ of London, of the British +hut and the Roman villa, still exist hidden under +the foundations of the busy city that now teems +with thousands of inhabitants. We tread under +foot daily the pride of our old oppressors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="center">TEMPLE BAR</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Temple Bar—The Golgotha of English Traitors—When Temple Bar was made of Wood—Historical Pageants at Temple Bar—The Associations of +Temple Bar—Mischievous Processions through Temple Bar—The First grim Trophy—Rye-House Plot Conspirators.</p></div> + + +<p>Temple Bar was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, +in 1670-72, soon after the Great Fire had swept away +eighty-nine London churches, four out of the seven +City gates, 460 streets, and 13,200 houses, and had +destroyed fifteen of the twenty-six wards, and laid +waste 436 acres of buildings, from the Tower eastward +to the Inner Temple westward.</p> + +<p>The old black gateway, once the dreaded Golgotha +of English traitors, separates, it should be +remembered, the Strand from Fleet Street, the city +from the shire, and the Freedom of the City of +London from the Liberty of the City of Westminster. +As Hatton (1708—Queen Anne) says,—"This gate +opens not immediately into the City itself, but into +the Liberty or Freedom thereof." We need hardly +say that nothing can be more erroneous than the +ordinary London supposition that Temple Bar ever +formed part of the City fortifications. Mr. Gilbert +à Beckett, laughing at this tradition, once said in +<i>Punch</i>: "Temple Bar has always seemed to me +a weak point in the fortifications of London. Bless +you, the besieging army would never stay to bombard +it—they would dash through the barber's."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Great Fire never reached nearer Temple +Bar than the Inner Temple, on the south side of +Fleet Street, and St. Dunstan's Church, on the +north.</p> + +<p>The Bar is of Portland stone, which London +smoke alternately blackens and calcines; and each +façade has four Corinthian pilasters, an entablature, +and an arched pediment. On the west (Strand) +side, in two niches, stand, as eternal sentries, +Charles I. and Charles II., in Roman costume. +Charles I. has long ago lost his bâton, as he once +deliberately lost his head. Over the keystone of +the central arch there used to be the royal arms. On +the east side are James I. and Elizabeth (by many +able writers supposed to be Anne of Denmark, +James I.'s queen). She is pointing her white +finger at Child's; while he, looking down on the +passing cabs, seems to say, "I am nearly tired of +standing; suppose we go to Whitehall, and sit +down a bit?"</p> + +<p>The slab over the eastern side of the arch bears +the following inscription, now all but smoothed +down by time:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Erected in the year 1670, Sir Samuel Starling, Mayor; +continued in the year 1671, Sir Richard Ford, Lord Mayor; +and finished in the year, 1672, Sir George Waterman, Lord +Mayor."</p></div> + +<p>All these persons were friends of Pepys.</p> + +<p>The upper part of the Bar is flanked by scrolls, +but the fruit and flowers once sculptured on the +pediment, and the supporters of the royal arms +over the posterns, have crumbled away. In the +centre of each façade is a semicircular-headed, +ecclesiastical-looking window, that casts a dim +horny light into a room above the gate, held of the +City, at an annual rent of some £50, by Messrs. +Childs, the bankers, as a sort of muniment-room +for their old account-books. There is here preserved, +among other costlier treasures of Mammon, +the private account-book of Charles II. The +original Child was a friend of Pepys, and is mentioned +by him as quarrelling with the Duke of +York on Admiralty matters. The Child who +succeeded him was a friend of Pope, and all but +led him into the South-Sea Bubble speculation.</p> + +<p>Those affected, mean statues, with the crinkly +drapery, were the work of a vain, half-crazed +sculptor named John Bushnell, who died mad in +1701. Bushnell, who had visited Rome and +Venice, executed Cowley's monument in Westminster +Abbey, and the statues of Charles I., +Charles II., and Gresham, in the Old Exchange.</p> + +<p>There is no extant historical account of Temple +Bar in which the following passage from Strype +(George I.) is not to be found embedded like a +fossil; it is, in fact, nearly all we London topographers +know of the early history of the Bar:—"Anciently," +says Strype, "there were only posts, +rails, and a chain, such as are now in Holborn, +Smithfield, and Whitechapel bars. Afterwards there +was a house of timber erected across the street, +with a narrow gateway and an entry on the south +side of it under the house." This structure is to +be seen in the bird's-eye view of London, 1601 +(Elizabeth), and in Hollar's seven-sheet map of +London (Charles II.)</p> + +<p>The date of the erection of the "wooden house" +is not to be ascertained; but there is the house +plain enough in a view of London to which Maitland +affixes the date about 1560 (the second year +of Elizabeth), so we may perhaps safely put it +down as early as Edward VI. or Henry VIII. +Indeed, if a certain scrap of history is correct—<i>i.e.</i>, +that bluff King Hal once threatened, if a certain +Bill did not pass the Commons a little quicker, to +fix the heads of several refractory M.P.s on +the top of Temple Bar—we must suppose the +old City toll-gate to be as old as the early Tudors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>After Simon de Montfort's death, at the battle +of Evesham, 1265, Prince Edward, afterwards +Edward I., punished the rebellious Londoners, +who had befriended Montfort, by taking away all +their street chains and bars, and locking them up +in the Tower.</p> + +<p>The earliest known documentary and historical +notice of Temple Bar is in 1327, the first year of +Edward III.; and in the thirty-fourth year of the +same reign we find, at an inquisition before the +mayor, twelve witnesses deposing that the commonalty +of the City had, time out of mind, had +free ingress and egress from the City to Thames +and from Thames to the City, through the great +gate of the Templars situate within Temple Bar. +This referred to some dispute about the right of +way through the Temple, built in the reign of +Henry I. In 1384 Richard II. granted a licence +for paving Strand Street from Temple Bar to the +Savoy, and collecting tolls to cover such charges.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="proclamation" id="proclamation"></a> +<img src="images/p024.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES II. AT TEMPLE BAR<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The historical pageants that have taken place at +Temple Bar deserve a notice, however short. On +the 5th of November, 1422, the corpse of that +brave and chivalrous king, the hero of Agincourt, +Henry V., was borne to its rest at Westminster +Abbey by the chief citizens and nobles, and every +doorway from Southwark to Temple Bar had its +mournful torch-bearer. In 1502-3 the hearse of +Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII., halted at +Temple Bar, on its way from the Tower to Westminster, +and at the Bar the Abbots of Westminster +and Bermondsey blessed the corpse, and the Earl +of Derby and a large company of nobles joined +the sable funeral throng. After sorrow came joy, +and after joy sorrow—<i>Ita vita</i>. In the next reign +poor Anne Boleyn, radiant with happiness and +triumph, came through the Bar (May 31, 1534), on +her way to the Tower, to be welcomed by the +clamorous citizens, the day before her ill-starred +coronation. Temple Bar on that occasion was +new painted and repaired, and near it stood singing +men and children—the Fleet Street conduit all +the time running claret. The old gate figures +more conspicuously the day before the coronation +of that wondrous child, Edward VI. Two hogsheads +of wine were then ladled out to the thirsty +mob, and the gate at Temple Bar was painted with +battlements and buttresses, richly hung with cloth +of Arras, and all in a flutter with "fourteen +standard flags." There were eight French trumpeters +blowing their best, besides "a pair of +regals," with children singing to the same. In +September, 1553, when Edward's cold-hearted +half-sister, Mary Tudor, came through the City, +according to ancient English custom, the day +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>before her coronation, she did not ride on horseback, +as Edward had done, but sat in a chariot +covered with cloth of tissue and drawn by six +horses draped with the same. Minstrels piped +and trumpeted at Ludgate, and Temple Bar was +newly painted and hung.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="penance" id="penance"></a> +<img src="images/p025.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PENANCE OF THE DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Old Temple Bar, the background to many +historical scenes, figures in the rash rebellion of +Sir Thomas Wyatt. When he had fought his way +down Piccadilly to the Strand, Temple Bar was +thrown open to him, or forced open by him; +but when he had been repulsed at Ludgate he +was hemmed in by cavalry at Temple Bar, where +he surrendered. This foolish revolt led to the +death of innocent Lady Jane Grey, and brought +sixty brave gentlemen to the scaffold and the +gallows.</p> + +<p>On Elizabeth's procession from the Tower before +her coronation, January, 1559, Gogmagog the +Albion, and Corineus the Briton, the two Guildhall +giants, stood on the Bar; and on the south side +there were chorister lads, one of whom, richly +attired as a page, bade the queen farewell in the +name of the whole City. In 1588, the glorious year +that the Armada was defeated, Elizabeth passed +through the Bar on her way to return thanks to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +God solemnly at St. Paul's. The City waits stood +in triumph on the roof of the gate. The Lord +Mayor and Aldermen, in scarlet gowns, welcomed +the queen and delivered up the City sword, then +on her return they took horse and rode before her. +The City Companies lined the north side of the +street, the lawyers and gentlemen of the Inns +of Court the south. Among the latter stood a +person afterwards not altogether unknown, one +Francis Bacon, who displayed his wit by saying +to a friend, "Mark the courtiers! Those who +bow first to the citizens are in debt; those who +bow first to us are at law!"</p> + +<p>In 1601, when the Earl of Essex made his insane +attempt to rouse the City to rebellion, Temple Bar, +we are told, was thrown open to him; but Ludgate +being closed against him on his retreat from Cheapside, +he came back by boat to Essex House, where +he surrendered after a short and useless resistance.</p> + +<p>King James made his first public entry into his +royal City of London, with his consort and son +Henry, upon the 15th of March, 1603-4. The +king was mounted upon a white genet, ambling +through the crowded streets under a canopy held +by eight gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, as representatives +of the Barons of the Cinque Ports,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +and passed under six arches of triumph, to take +his leave at the Temple of Janus, erected for the +occasion at Temple Bar. This edifice was fifty-seven +feet high, proportioned in every respect like +a temple.</p> + +<p>In June, 1649 (the year of the execution of +Charles), Cromwell and the Parliament dined at +Guildhall in state, and the mayor, says Whitelocke, +delivered up the sword to the Speaker, at Temple +Bar, as he had before done to King Charles.</p> + +<p>Philips, Milton's nephew, who wrote the continuation +of Baker's Chronicle, describes the ceremony +at Temple Bar on the proclamation of +Charles II. The old oak gates being shut, the +king-at-arms, with tabard on and trumpet before +him, knocked and gravely demanded entrance. +The Lord Mayor appointed some one to ask +who knocked. The king-at-arms replied, that if +they would open the wicket, and let the Lord +Mayor come thither, he would to him deliver +his message. The Lord Mayor then appeared, +tremendous in crimson velvet gown, and on horseback, +of all things in the world, the trumpets +sounding as the gallant knight pricked forth to +demand of the herald, who he was and what was +his message. The bold herald, with his hat on, +answered, regardless of Lindley Murray, who +was yet unknown, "We are the herald-at-arms +appointed and commanded by the Lords and +Commons assembled in Parliament, and demand +an entrance into the famous City of London, to +proclaim Charles II. King of England, Scotland, +France, and Ireland, and we expect your speedy +answer to our demand." An alderman then replied, +"The message is accepted," and the gates +were thrown open.</p> + +<p>When William III. came to see the City and +the Lord Mayor's Show in 1689, the City militia, +holding lighted flambeaux, lined Fleet Street as +far as Temple Bar.</p> + +<p>The shadow of every monarch and popular hero +since Charles II.'s time has rested for at least a +passing moment at the old gateway. Queen Anne +passed here to return thanks at St. Paul's for the +victory of Blenheim. Here Marlborough's coach +ominously broke down in 1714, when he returned +in triumph from his voluntary exile.</p> + +<p>George III. passed through Temple Bar, young +and happy, the year after his coronation, and again +when, old and almost broken-hearted, he returned +thanks for his partial recovery from insanity; and +in our time that graceless son of his, the Prince +Regent, came through the Bar in 1814, to thank +God at St. Paul's for the downfall of Bonaparte.</p> + +<p>On the 9th November, 1837, the accession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +Queen Victoria, Alderman Kelly, picturesque in +scarlet gown, Spanish hat, and black feathers, presented +the City sword to the Queen at Temple +Bar; Alderman Cowan was ready with the same +weapon in 1844, when the Queen opened the new +Royal Exchange; but in 1851, when her Majesty +once more visited the City, the old ceremony was +(wrongly, we think) dispensed with.</p> + +<p>At the funeral of Lord Nelson, the honoured +corpse, followed by downcast old sailors, was met +at the Bar by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation; +and the Great Duke's funeral car, and the long +train of representative soldiers, rested at the Bar, +which was hung with black velvet.</p> + +<p>A few earlier associations connected with the +present Bar deserve a moment or two's recollection. +On February 12th, when General Monk—"Honest +George," as his old Cromwellian soldiers used to +call him—entered London, dislodged the "Rump" +Parliament, and prepared for the Restoration +of Charles II., bonfires were lit, the City bells +rung, and London broke into a sudden flame of +joy. Pepys, walking homeward about ten o'clock, +says:—"The common joy was everywhere to +be seen. The number of bonfires—there being +fourteen between St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, +and at Strand Bridge, east of Catherine Street, I +could at one time tell thirty-one fires."</p> + +<p>On November 17, 1679, the year after the sham +Popish Plot concocted by those matchless scoundrels, +Titus Oates, an expelled naval chaplain, and +Bedloe, a swindler and thief, Temple Bar was +made the spot for a great mob pilgrimage, on the +anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth. +The ceremonial is supposed to have been organised +by that restless plotter against a Popish succession, +Lord Shaftesbury, and the gentlemen of the Green +Ribbon Club, whose tavern, the "King's Head," was +at the corner of Chancery Lane, opposite the Inner +Temple gate. To scare and vex the Papists, the +church bells began to clash out as early as three +o'clock on the morning of that dangerous day. At +dusk the procession of several thousand half-crazed +torch-bearers started from Moorgate, along Bishopsgate +Street, and down Houndsditch and Aldgate +(passing Shaftesbury's house imagine the roar of the +monster mob, the wave of torches, and the fiery +fountains of squibs at that point!), then through +Leadenhall Street and Cornhill, by the Royal +Exchange, along Cheapside and on to Temple Bar, +where the bonfire awaited the puppets. In a +torrent of fire the noisy Protestants passed through +the exulting City, making the Papists cower and +shudder in their garrets and cellars, and before the +flaming deluge opened a storm of shouting people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +This procession consisted of fifteen groups of +priests, Jesuits, and friars, two following a man on a +horse, holding up before him a dummy, dressed to +represent Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, a Protestant +justice and wood merchant, supposed to have been +murdered by Roman Catholics at Somerset House. +It was attended by a body-guard of 150 swordbearers +and a man roaring a political cry of the time +through a brazen speaking-trumpet. The great +bonfire was built up mountain high opposite the +Inner Temple gate. Some zealous Protestants, +by pre-arrangement, had crowned the prim and +meagre statue of Elizabeth (still on the east side +of the Bar) with a wreath of gilt laurel, and placed +under her hand (that now points to Child's Bank) +a golden glistening shield, with the motto, "The +Protestant Religion and Magna Charta," inscribed +upon it. Several lighted torches were stuck before +her niche. Lastly, amidst a fiery shower of squibs +from every door and window, the Pope and his +companions were toppled into the huge bonfire, with +shouts that reached almost to Charing Cross.</p> + +<p>These mischievous processions were continued +till the reign of George I. There was to have been +a magnificent one on November 17, 1711, when +the Whigs were dreading the contemplated peace +with the French and the return of Marlborough. +But the Tories, declaring that the Kit-Kat Club was +urging the mob to destroy the house of Harley, the +Minister, and to tear him to pieces, seized on the wax +figures in Drury Lane, and forbade the ceremony.</p> + +<p>As early as two years after the Restoration, Sir +Balthazar Gerbier, a restless architectural quack +and adventurer of those days, wrote a pamphlet +proposing a sumptuous gate at Temple Bar, and the +levelling of the Fleet Valley. After the Great Fire +Charles II. himself hurried the erection of the Bar, +and promised money to carry out the work. During +the Great Fire, Temple Bar was one of the stations +for constables, 100 firemen, and 30 soldiers.</p> + +<p>The Rye-House Plot brought the first trophy to +the Golgotha of the Bar, in 1684, twelve years after +its erection. Sir Thomas Armstrong was deep in the +scheme. If the discreditable witnesses examined +against Lord William Russell are to be believed, +a plot had been concocted by a few desperate +men to assassinate "the Blackbird and the Goldfinch"—as +the conspirators called the King and +the Duke of York—as they were in their coach on +their way from Newmarket to London. This plan +seems to have been the suggestion of Rumbold, +a maltster, who lived in a lonely moated farmhouse, +called Rye House, about eighteen miles from +London, near the river Ware, close to a by-road +that leads from Bishop Stortford to Hoddesdon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +Charles II. had a violent hatred to Armstrong, +who had been his Gentleman of the Horse, and was +supposed to have incited his illegitimate son, the +Duke of Monmouth, to rebellion. Sir Thomas was +hanged at Tyburn. After the body had hung half an +hour, the hangman cut it down, stripped it, lopped +off the head, threw the heart into a fire, and divided +the body into four parts. The fore-quarter (after +being boiled in pitch at Newgate) was set on +Temple Bar, the head was placed on Westminster +Hall, and the rest of the body was sent to Stafford, +which town Sir Thomas represented in Parliament.</p> + +<p>Eleven years after, the heads of two more traitors—this +time conspirators against William III.—joined +the relic of Armstrong. Sir John Friend +was a rich brewer at Aldgate. Parkyns was an old +Warwickshire county gentleman. The plotters +had several plans. One was to attack Kensington +Palace at night, scale the outer wall, and storm or +fire the building; another was to kill William on a +Sunday, as he drove from Kensington to the chapel +at St. James's Palace. The murderers agreed to +assemble near where Apsley House now stands. +Just as the royal coach passed from Hyde Park +across to the Green Park, thirty conspirators agreed +to fall on the twenty-five guards, and butcher the +king before he could leap out of his carriage. +These two Jacobite gentlemen died bravely, proclaiming +their entire loyalty to King James and +the "Prince of Wales."</p> + +<p>The unfortunate gentlemen who took a moody +pleasure in drinking "the squeezing of the rotten +Orange" had long passed on their doleful journey +from Newgate to Tyburn before the ghastly procession +of the brave and unlucky men of the rising +in 1715 began its mournful march.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>Sir Bernard Burke mentions a tradition that +the head of the young Earl of Derwentwater was +exposed on Temple Bar in 1716, and that his wife +drove in a cart under the arch while a man hired +for the purpose threw down to her the beloved +head from the parapet above. But the story is +entirely untrue, and is only a version of the way +in which the head of Sir Thomas More was removed +by his son-in-law and daughter from London +Bridge, where that cruel tyrant Henry VIII. had +placed it. Some years ago, when the Earl of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +Derwentwater's coffin was found in the family vault, +the head was lying safe with the body. In 1716 +there was, however, a traitor's head spiked on the +Bar—that of Colonel John Oxburgh, the victim of +mistaken fidelity to a bad cause. He was a brave +Lancashire gentleman, who had surrendered with +his forces at Preston. He displayed signal courage +and resignation in prison, forgetting himself to +comfort others.</p> + +<p>The next victim was Mr. Christopher Layer, a +young Norfolk man and a Jacobite barrister, +living in Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. +He plunged deeply into the Atterbury Plot of +1722, and, with Lords North and Grey, enlisted +men, hired officers, and, taking advantage of the +universal misery caused by the bursting of the +South Sea Bubble, planned a general rising against +George I. The scheme was, with four distinct bodies +of Jacobites, to seize the Tower and the Bank, to +arrest the king and the prince, and capture or kill +Lord Cadogan, one of the Ministers. At the trial it +was proved that Layer had been over to Rome, and +had seen the Pretender, who, by proxy, had stood +godfather to his child. Troops were to be sent from +France; barricades were to be thrown up all over +London. The Jacobites had calculated that the +Government had only 14,000 men to meet them—3,000 +of these would be wanted to guard London, +3,000 for Scotland, and 2,000 for the garrisons. The +original design had been to take advantage of the +king's departure for Hanover, and, in the words of +one of the conspirators, the Jacobites were fully +convinced that "they should walk King George +out before Lady-day." Layer was hanged at Tyburn, +and his head fixed upon Temple Bar.</p> + +<p>Years after, one stormy night in 1753, the rebel's +skull blew down, and was picked up by a non-juring +attorney, named Pierce, who preserved it as +a relic of the Jacobite martyr. It is said that Dr. +Richard Rawlinson, an eminent antiquary, obtained +what he thought was Layer's head, and desired in +his will that it should be placed in his right hand +when he was buried. Another version of the story +is, that a spurious skull was foisted upon Rawlinson, +who died happy in the possession of the doubtful +treasure. Rawlinson was bantered by Addison for +his pedantry, in one of the <i>Tatlers</i>, and was praised +by Dr. Johnson for his learning.</p> + +<p>The 1745 rebellion brought the heads of fresh +victims to the Bar, and this was the last triumph +of barbarous justice. Colonel Francis Townley's +was the sixth head; Fletcher's (his fellow-officer), +the seventh and last. The Earls of Kilmarnock and +Cromarty, Lord Balmerino, and thirty-seven other +rebels (thirty-six of them having been captured in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +Carlisle) were tried the same session. Townley +was a man of about fifty-four years of age, nephew +of Mr. Townley of Townley Hall, in Lancashire +(the "Townley Marbles" family), who had been +tried and acquitted in 1715, though many of his +men were found guilty and executed. The nephew +had gone over to France in 1727, and obtained +a commission from the French king, whom he +served for fifteen years, being at the siege of +Philipsburg, and close to the Duke of Berwick +when that general's head was shot off. About +1740, Townley stole over to England to see his +friends and to plot against the Hanover family; and +as soon as the rebels came into England, he met +them between Lancaster and Preston, and came +with them to Manchester. At the trial Roger +M'Donald, an officer's servant, deposed to seeing +Townley on the retreat from Derby, and between +Lancaster and Preston riding at the head of the +Manchester regiment on a bay horse. He had a +white cockade in his hat and wore a plaid sash.</p> + +<p>George Fletcher, who was tried at the same +time as Townley, was a rash young chapman, who +managed his widowed mother's provision shop +"at Salford, just over the bridge in Manchester." +His mother had begged him on her knees to keep +out of the rebellion, even offering him a thousand +pounds for his own pocket, if he would stay at +home. He bought a captain's commission of +Murray, the Pretender's secretary, for fifty pounds; +wore the smart white cockade and a Highland +plaid sash lined with white silk; and headed the +very first captain's guard mounted for the Pretender +at Carlisle. A Manchester man deposed +to seeing at the Exchange a sergeant, with a drum, +beating up for volunteers for the Manchester +regiment.</p> + +<p>Fletcher, Townley, and seven other unfortunate +Jacobites were hanged on Kennington Common. +Before the carts drove away, the men flung their +prayer-books, written speeches, and gold-laced hats +gaily to the crowd. Mr. James (Jemmy) Dawson, +the hero of Shenstone's touching ballad, was one +of the nine. As soon as they were dead the hangman +cut down the bodies, disembowelled, beheaded, and +quartered them, throwing the hearts into the fire. +A monster—a fighting-man of the day, named +Buckhorse—is said to have actually eaten a piece +of Townley's flesh, to show his loyalty. Before the +ghastly scene was over, the heart of one unhappy +spectator had already broken. The lady to whom +James Dawson was engaged to be married followed +the rebels to the common, and even came near +enough to see, with pallid face, the fire kindling, +the axe, the coffins, and all the other dreadful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +preparations. She bore up bravely, until she heard +her lover was no more. Then she drew her head +back into the coach, and crying out, "My dear, I +follow thee—I follow thee! Lord God, receive our +souls, I pray Thee!" fell on the neck of a companion +and expired. Mr. Dawson had behaved gallantly in +prison, saying, "He did not care if they put a ton +weight of iron upon him, it would not daunt him."</p> + +<p>A curious old print of 1746, full of vulgar triumph, +reproduces a "Temple Bar, the City Golgotha," representing +the Bar with three heads on the top of it, +spiked on long iron rods. The devil looks down +in ribald triumph from above, and waves a rebel +banner, on which, besides three coffins and a crown, +is the motto, "A crown or a grave." Underneath +are written these patriotic but doggrel lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Observe the banner which would all enslave,<br /> +Which misled traytors did so proudly wave:<br /> +The devil seems the project to surprise;<br /> +A fiend confused from off the trophy flies.<br /> +<br /> +While trembling rebels at the fabric gaze,<br /> +And dread their fate with horror and amaze,<br /> +Let Britain's sons the emblematic view,<br /> +And plainly see what is rebellion's due."</div> + +<p>The heads of Fletcher and Townley were put +on the Bar August 12, 1746. On August 15th +Horace Walpole, writing to a friend, says he had +just been roaming in the City, and "passed under +the new heads on Temple Bar, where people make +a trade of letting spy-glasses at a halfpenny a look." +According to Mr. J.T. Smith, an old man living in +1825 remembered the last heads on Temple Bar +being visible through a telescope across the space +between the Bar and Leicester Fields.</p> + +<p>Between two and three A.M., on the morning of +January 20, 1766, a mysterious man was arrested +by the watch as he was discharging, by the dim +light, musket bullets at the two heads then remaining +upon Temple Bar. On being questioned +by the puzzled magistrate, he affected a +disorder in his senses, and craftily declared that the +patriotic reason for his eccentric conduct was his +strong attachment to the present Government, and +that he thought it not sufficient that a traitor +should merely suffer death; that this provoked +his indignation, and it had been his constant +practice for three nights past to amuse himself in +the same manner. "And it is much to be feared," +says the past record of the event, "that the man is +a near relation to one of the unhappy sufferers." +Upon searching this very suspicious marksman, +about fifty musket bullets were found on him, +wrapped up in a paper on which was written the +motto, "Eripuit ille vitam."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>After this, history leaves the heads of the unhappy +Jacobites—those lips that love had kissed, those +cheeks children had patted—to moulder on in the +sun and in the rain, till the last day of March, 1772, +when one of them (Townley or Fletcher) fell. The +last stormy gust of March threw it down, and a +short time after a strong wind blew down the other; +and against the sky no more relics remained of +a barbarous and unchristian revenge. In April, +1773, Boswell, whom we all despise and all like, +dined at courtly Mr. Beauclerk's with Dr. Johnson, +Lord Charlemont (Hogarth's friend), Sir Joshua +Reynolds, and other members of the literary +club, in Gerrard Street, Soho, it being the awful +evening when Boswell was to be balloted for. +The conversation turned on the new and commendable +practice of erecting monuments to great +men in St. Paul's. The Doctor observed: "I remember +once being with Goldsmith in Westminster +Abbey. Whilst we stood at Poet's Corner, I said +to him,—</p> + +<p> +"Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis."—<span class="smcap">Ovid.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>When we got to Temple Bar he stopped me, and +pointing to the heads upon it, slily whispered,—</p> + +<p> +"Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur <i>istis</i>."<br /> +</p> + +<p>This anecdote, so full of clever, arch wit, is sufficient +to endear the old gateway to all lovers of Johnson +and of Goldsmith.</p> + +<p>According to Mr. Timbs, in his "London and +Westminster," Mrs. Black, the wife of the editor of +the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, when asked if she remembered +any heads on Temple Bar, used to reply, in +her brusque, hearty way, "<i>Boys, I recollect the scene +well!</i> I have seen on that Temple Bar, about +which you ask, two human heads—real heads—traitors' +heads—spiked on iron poles. There were +two; I saw one fall (March 31, 1772). Women +shrieked as it fell; men, as I have heard, shrieked. +One woman near me fainted. Yes, boys, I recollect +seeing human heads upon Temple Bar."</p> + +<p>The cruel-looking spikes were removed early in +the present century. The panelled oak gates have +often been renewed, though certainly shutting them +too often never wore them out.</p> + +<p>As early as 1790 Alderman Pickett (who built +the St. Clement's arch), with other subversive reformers, +tried to pull down Temple Bar. It was +pronounced unworthy of form, of no antiquity, an +ambuscade for pickpockets, and a record of only +the dark and crimson pages of history.</p> + +<p>A writer in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, in 1813 +chronicling the clearance away of some hovels +encroaching upon the building, says: "It will not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +be surprising if certain amateurs, busy in improving +the architectural concerns of the City, should at +length request of their brethren to allow the Bar or +grand gate of entrance into the City of London to +stand, after they have so repeatedly sought to +obtain its destruction." In 1852 a proposal for its +repair and restoration was defeated in the Common +Council; and twelve months later, a number of +bankers, merchants, and traders set their hands to +a petition for its removal altogether, as serving no +practical purpose, as it impeded ventilation and +retarded improvements. Since then Mr. Heywood +has proposed to make a circus at Temple Bar, +leaving the archway in the centre; and Mr. W. +Burges, the architect, suggested a new arch in +keeping with the new Law Courts opposite.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="room" id="room"></a> +<img src="images/p030.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE ROOM OVER TEMPLE BAR<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>It is a singular fact that the "Parentalia," a +chronicle of Wren's works written by Wren's clever +son, contains hardly anything about Temple Bar. +According to Mr. Noble, the Wren manuscripts in +the British Museum, Wren's ledger in the Bodleian, +and the Record Office documents, are equally +silent; but from a folio at the Guildhall, entitled +"Expenses of Public Buildings after the Great +Fire," it would appear that the Bar cost altogether +£1,397 10s.; Bushnell, the sculptor, receiving out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +of this sum £480 for his four stone monarchs. +The mason was John Marshall, who carved the +pedestal of the statue of Charles I. at Charing +Cross and worked on the Monument in Fish Street +Hill. In 1636 Inigo Jones had designed a new +arch, the plan of which still exists. Wren, it is +said, took his design of the Bar from an old temple +at Rome.</p> + +<p>The old Bar is now a mere piece of useless and +disused armour. Once a protection, then an ornament, +it has now become an obstruction—the too-narrow +neck of a large decanter—a bone in the +throat of Fleet Street. Yet still we have a lingering +fondness for the old barrier that we have seen +draped in black for a dead hero and glittering with +gold in honour of a young bride. We have shared +the sunshine that brightened it and the gloom that +has darkened it, and we feel for it a species of +friendship, in which it mutely shares. To us there +seems to be a dignity in its dirt and pathos in the +mud that bespatters its patient old face, as, like a +sturdy fortress, it holds out against all its enemies, +and Charles I. and II., and Elizabeth and James I. +keep a bright look-out day and night for all attacks. +Nevertheless, it must go in time, we fear. Poor old +Temple Bar, we shall miss you when you are gone!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="titus" id="titus"></a> +<img src="images/p031.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />TITUS OATES IN THE PILLORY<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Amongst these we must not forget Joseph Sullivan, who +was executed at Tyburn for high treason, for enlisting men +in the service of the Pretender. In the collection of broadsides +belonging to the Society of Antiquaries there is one +of great interest, entitled "Perkins against Perkin, a dialogue +between Sir William Perkins and Major Sulliviane, the two +loggerheads upon Temple Bar, concerning the present juncture +of affaires." Date uncertain.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET—GENERAL INTRODUCTION</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Frays in Fleet Street—Chaucer and the Friar—The Duchess of Gloucester doing Penance for Witchcraft—Riots between Law Students and Citizens—'Prentice +Riots—Oates in the Pillory—Entertainments in Fleet Street—Shop Signs—Burning the Boot—Trial of Hardy—Queen Caroline's Funeral.</p></div> + + +<p>Alas, for the changes of time! The Fleet, that +little, quick-flowing stream, once so bright and +clear, is now a sewer! but its name remains immortalised +by the street called after it.</p> + +<p>Although, according to a modern antiquary, a +Roman amphitheatre once stood on the site of the +Fleet Prison, and Roman citizens were certainly +interred outside Ludgate, we know but little whether +Roman buildings ever stood on the west side of +the City gates. Stow, however, describes a stone +pavement supported on piles being found, in 1595, +near the Fleet Street end of Chancery Lane; so +that we may presume the soil of the neighbourhood +was originally marshy. The first British +settlers there must probably have been restless +spirits, impatient of the high rents and insufficient +room inside the City walls and willing, for economy, +to risk the forays of any Saxon pirates who chose +to steal up the river on a dusky night and sack +the outlying cabins of London.</p> + +<p>There were certainly rough doings in Fleet +Street in the Middle Ages, for the City chronicles +tell us of much blood spilt there and of many +deeds of violence. In 1228 (Henry III.) we find, +for instance, one Henry de Buke slaying a man +named Le Ireis, le Tylor, of Fleet Bridge, then +fleeing to the church of St. Mary, Southwark, and +there claiming sanctuary. In 1311 (Edward II.) +five of the king's not very respectable or law-fearing +household were arrested in Fleet Street for a +burglary; and though the weak king demanded +them (they were perhaps servants of his Gascon +favourite, Piers Gaveston, whom the barons afterwards +killed), the City refused to give them up, +and they probably had short shrive. In the same +reign, when the Strand was full of bushes and +thickets, Fleet Street could hardly have been much +better. Still, the shops in Fleet Street were, no +doubt, even in Edward II.'s reign, of importance, +for we find, in 1321, a Fleet Street bootmaker +supplying the luxurious king with "six pairs of +boots, with tassels of silk and drops of silver-gilt, +the price of each pair being 5s." In Richard II.'s +reign it is especially mentioned that Wat Tyler's +fierce Kentish men sacked the Savoy church, +part of the Temple, and destroyed two forges +which had been originally erected on each side of +St. Dunstan's church by the Knight Templars. The +Priory of St. John of Jerusalem had paid a rent of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +15s. for these forges, which same rent was given for +more than a century after their destruction.</p> + +<p>The poet Chaucer is said to have beaten +a saucy Franciscan friar in Fleet Street, and to +have been fined 2s. for the offence by the Honourable +Society of the Inner Temple; so Speight had +heard from one who had seen the entry in the +records of the Inner Temple.</p> + +<p>In King Henry IV.'s reign another crime disturbed +Fleet Street. A Fleet Street goldsmith was +murdered by ruffians in the Strand, and his body +thrown under the Temple Stairs.</p> + +<p>In 1440 (Henry VI.) a strange procession startled +London citizens. Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of +Gloucester, did penance through Fleet Street for +witchcraft practised against the king. She and +certain priests and necromancers had, it was said, +melted a wax figure of young King Henry before a +slow fire, praying that as that figure melted his life +might melt also. Of the duchess's confederates, the +Witch of Ely, was burned at Smithfield, a canon of +Westminster died in the Tower, and a third culprit +was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. The +duchess was brought from Westminster, and landed +at the Temple Stairs, from whence, with a tall wax +taper in her hand, she walked bareheaded to St. +Paul's, where she offered at the high altar. Another +day she did penance at Christ Church, Aldgate; a +third day at St. Michael's, Cornhill, the Lord Mayor, +sheriffs, and most of the Corporation following. +She was then banished to the Isle of Man, and +her ghost they say still haunts Peel Castle.</p> + +<p>And now, in the long panorama of years, there +rises in Fleet Street a clash of swords and a clatter +of bucklers. In 1441 (Henry VI.) the general +effervescence of the times spread beyond Ludgate, +and there was a great affray in Fleet Street between +the hot-blooded youths of the Inns of Court and +the citizens, which lasted two days; the chief +man in the riot was one of Clifford's Inn, named +Harbottle; and this irrepressible Harbottle and +his fellows only the appearance of the mayor and +sheriffs could quiet. In 1458 (in the same reign) +there was a more serious riot of the same kind; +the students were then driven back by archers from +the Conduit near Shoe Lane to their several inns, +and some slain, including "the Queen's attornie," +who certainly ought to have known better and kept +closer to his parchments. Even the king's meek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +nature was roused at this, he committed the +principal governors of Furnival's, Clifford's, and +Barnard's inns, to the castle of Hertford, and sent +for several aldermen to Windsor Castle, where he +either rated or imprisoned them, or both.</p> + +<p>Fleet Street often figures in the chronicles of +Elizabeth's reign. On one visit it is particularly +said that she often graciously stopped her coach +to speak to the poor; and a green branch of rosemary +given to her by a poor woman near Fleet +Bridge was seen, not without marvellous wonder of +such as knew the presenter, when her Majesty +reached Westminster. In the same reign we are +told that the young Earl of Oxford, after attending +his father's funeral in Essex, rode through Fleet +Street to Westminster, attended by seven score +horsemen, all in black. Such was the splendid +and proud profusion of Elizabeth's nobles.</p> + +<p>James's reign was a stormy one for Fleet Street. +Many a time the ready 'prentices snatched their +clubs (as we read in "The Fortunes of Nigel"), and, +vaulting over their counters, joined in the fray that +surged past their shops. In 1621 particularly, three +'prentices having abused Gondomar, the Spanish +ambassador, as he passed their master's door in +Fenchurch Street, the king ordered the riotous +youths to be whipped from Aldgate to Temple +Bar. In Fleet Street, however, the apprentices +rose in force, and shouting "Rescue!" quickly +released the lads and beat the marshalmen. If +there had been any resistance, another thousand +sturdy 'prentices would soon have carried on the +war.</p> + +<p>Nor did Charles's reign bring any quiet to Fleet +Street, for then the Templars began to lug out +their swords. On the 12th of January, 1627, the +Templars, having chosen a Mr. Palmer as their +Lord of Misrule, went out late at night into Fleet +Street to collect his rents. At every door the +jovial collectors winded the Temple horn, and if at +the second blast the door was not courteously +opened, my lord cried majestically, "Give fire, +gunner," and a sturdy smith burst the pannels open +with a huge sledge-hammer. The horrified Lord +Mayor being appealed to soon arrived, attended by +the watch of the ward and men armed with halberts. +At eleven o'clock on the Sunday night the two +monarchs came into collision in Hare Alley (now +Hare Court). The Lord of Misrule bade my Lord +Mayor come to him, but Palmer, omitting to take +off his hat, the halberts flew sharply round him, his +subjects were soundly beaten, and he was dragged +off to the Compter. There, with soiled finery, the +new year's king was kept two days in durance, the +attorney-general at last fetching the fallen monarch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +away in his own coach. At a court masque soon +afterwards the king made the two rival potentates +join hands; but the King of Misrule had, nevertheless, +to refund all the five shillings' he had exacted, +and repair all the Fleet Street doors his too handy +gunner had destroyed. The very next year the +quarrelsome street broke again into a rage, and +four persons lost their lives. Of the rioters, two +were executed within the week. One of these was +John Stanford, of the duke's chamber, and the other +Captain Nicholas Ashurst. The quarrel was about +politics, and the courtiers seem to have been the +offenders.</p> + +<p>In Charles II.'s time the pillory was sometimes +set up at the Temple gate; and here the wretch +Titus Oates stood, amidst showers of unsavoury +eggs and the curses of those who had learnt to see +the horror of his crimes. Well said Judge Withers +to this man, "I never pronounce criminal sentence +but with some compassion; but you are such a +villain and hardened sinner, that I can find no +sentiment of compassion for you." The pillory +had no fixed place, for in 1670 we find a Scotchman +suffering at the Chancery Lane end for telling +a victualler that his house would be fired by the +Papists; and the next year a man stood upon the +pillory at the end of Shoe Lane for insulting Lord +Ambassador Coventry as he was starting for +Sweden.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Queen Anne those pests of the +London streets, the "Mohocks," seem to have infested +Fleet Street. These drunken desperadoes—the +predecessors of the roysterers who, in the times +of the Regency, "boxed the Charlies," broke +windows, and stole knockers—used to find a cruel +pleasure in surrounding a quiet homeward-bound +citizen and pricking him with their swords. +Addison makes worthy Sir Roger de Coverley as +much afraid of these night-birds as Swift himself; +and the old baronet congratulates himself on +escaping from the clutches of "the emperor and +his black men," who had followed him half-way +down Fleet Street. He, however, boasts that he +threw them out at the end of Norfolk Street, where +he doubled the corner, and scuttled safely into his +quiet lodgings.</p> + +<p>From Elizabethan times downwards, Fleet Street +was a favourite haunt of showmen. Concerning +these popular exhibitions Mr. Noble has, with +great industry, collected the following curious +enumeration:—</p> + +<p>"Ben Jonson," says our trusty authority, "in +<i>Every Man in his Humour</i>, speaks of 'a new +motion of the city of Nineveh, with Jonas and the +whale, at Fleet Bridge.' In 1611 'the Fleet Street +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>mandrakes' were to be seen for a penny; and +years later the giants of St. Dunstan's clock caused +the street to be blocked up, and people to lose +their time, their temper, and their money. During +Queen Anne's reign, however, the wonders of +Fleet Street were at their height. In 1702 a +model of Amsterdam, thirty feet long by twenty +feet wide, which had taken twelve years in making, +was exhibited in Bell Yard; a child, fourteen years +old, without thighs or legs, and eighteen inches +high, was to be seen 'at the "Eagle and Child," a +grocer's shop, near Shoe Lane;' a great Lincolnshire +ox, nineteen hands high, four yards long, as +lately shown at Cambridge, was on view 'at the +"White Horse," where the great elephant was seen;' +and 'between the "Queen's Head" and "Crooked +Billet," near Fleet Bridge,' were exhibited daily +'two strange, wonderful, and remarkable monstrous +creatures—an old she-dromedary, seven feet high +and ten feet long, lately arrived from Tartary, and +her young one; being the greatest rarity and novelty +that ever was seen in the three kingdomes before.' +In 1710, at the 'Duke of Marlborough's Head,' +in Fleet Street (by Shoe Lane), was exhibited the +'moving picture' mentioned in the <i>Tatler</i>; and +here, in 1711, 'the great posture-master of Europe,' +eclipsing the deceased Clarke and Higgins, greatly +startled sight-seeing London. 'He extends his +body into all deformed shapes; makes his hip and +shoulder-bones meet together; lays his head upon +the ground, and turns his body round twice or +thrice, without stirring his face from the spot; +stands upon one leg, and extends the other in a +perpendicular line half a yard above his head; and +extends his body from a table with his head a foot +below his heels, having nothing to balance his +body but his feet; with several other postures too +tedious to mention.'</p> + +<p>"And here, in 1718, De Hightrehight, the fire-eater, +ate burning coals, swallowed flaming brimstone, +and sucked a red-hot poker, five times a day!</p> + +<p>"What will my billiard-loving friends say to the +St. Dunstan's Inquest of the year 1720? 'Item, +we present Thomas Bruce, for suffering a gaming-table +(called a billiard-table, where people commonly +frequent and game) to be kept in his house.' +A score of years later, at the end of Wine Office +Court, was exhibited an automaton clock, with +three figures or statues, which at the word of command +poured out red or white wine, represented a +grocer shutting up his shop and a blackamoor +who struck upon a bell the number of times asked. +Giants and dwarfs were special features in Fleet +Street. At the 'Rummer,' in Three Kings' Court, +was to be seen an Essex woman, named Gordon, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>not nineteen years old, though seven feet high, +who died in 1737. At the 'Blew Boar and Green +Tree' was on view an Italian giantess, above seven +feet, weighing 425 lbs., who had been seen by ten +reigning sovereigns. In 1768 died, in Shire Lane, +Edward Bamford, another giant, seven feet four +inches in height, who was buried in St. Dunstan's, +though £200 was offered for his body for dissection. +At the 'Globe,' in 1717, was shown +Matthew Buckinger, a German dwarf, born in 1674, +without hands, legs, feet, or thighs, twenty-nine +inches high; yet can write, thread a needle, shuffle +a pack of cards, play skittles, &c. A facsimile of +his writing is among the Harleian MSS. And +in 1712 appeared the Black Prince and his wife, +each three feet high; and a Turkey horse, two feet +odd high and twelve years old, in a box. Modern +times have seen giants and dwarfs, but have they +really equalled these? In 1822 the exhibition of +a mermaid here was put a stop to by the Lord +Chamberlain."</p> + +<p>In old times Fleet Street was rendered picturesque, +not only by its many gable-ended houses adorned +with quaint carvings and plaster stamped in patterns, +but also by the countless signs, gay with +gilding and painted with strange devices, which +hung above the shop-fronts. Heraldry exhausted +all its stores to furnish emblems for different trades. +Lions blue and red, falcons, and dragons of all +colours, alternated with heads of John the Baptist, +flying pigs, and hogs in armour. On a windy day +these huge masses of painted timber creaked and +waved overhead, to the terror of nervous pedestrians, +nor were accidents by any means rare. On the +2nd of December, 1718 (George I.), a signboard +opposite Bride Lane, Fleet Street, having loosened +the brickwork by its weight and movement, suddenly +gave way, fell, and brought the house down +with it, killing four persons, one of whom was +the queen's jeweller. It was not, however, till 1761 +(George III.) that these dangerous signboards were +ordered to be placed flat against the walls of the +houses.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Johnson said, "Come and let us +take a walk down Fleet Street," he proposed a no +very easy task. The streets in his early days, +in London, had no side-pavements, and were +roughly paved, with detestable gutters running +down the centre. From these gutters the jumbling +coaches of those days liberally scattered the mud on +the unoffending pedestrians who happened to be +crossing at the time. The sedan-chairs, too, were +awkward impediments, and choleric people were +disposed to fight for the wall. In 1766, when +Lord Eldon came to London as a schoolboy, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +put up at that humble hostelry the "White Horse," +in Fetter Lane, he describes coming home from +Drury Lane with his brother in a sedan. Turning +out of Fleet Street into Fetter Lane, some rough +fellows pushed against the chair at the corner and +upset it, in their eagerness to pass first. Dr. +Johnson's curious nervous habit of touching every +street-post he passed was cured in 1766, by the +laying down of side-pavements. On that occasion +it is said two English paviours in Fleet Street bet +that they would pave more in a day than four +Scotchmen could. By three o'clock the Englishmen +had got so much ahead that they went into a +public-house for refreshment, and, afterwards returning +to their work, won the wager.</p> + +<p>In the Wilkes' riot of 1763, the mob burnt a +large jack-boot in the centre of Fleet Street, in +ridicule of Lord Bute; but a more serious affray +took place in this street in 1769, when the noisy +Wilkites closed the Bar, to stop a procession +of 600 loyal citizens <i>en route</i> to St. James's to +present an address denouncing all attempts to +spread sedition and uproot the constitution. The +carriages were pelted with stones, and the City +marshal, who tried to open the gates, was bedaubed +with mud. Mr. Boehm and other loyalists took +shelter in "Nando's Coffee House." About 150 of +the frightened citizens, passing up Chancery Lane, +got to the palace by a devious way, a hearse with +two white horses and two black following them to +St. James's Palace. Even there the Riot Act had to +be read and the Guards sent for. When Mr. Boehm +fled into "Nando's," in his alarm, he sent home his +carriage containing the address. The mob searched +the vehicle, but could not find the paper, upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +which Mr. Boehm hastened to the Court, and +arrived just in time with the important document.</p> + +<p>The treason trials of 1794 brought more noise +and trouble to Fleet Street. Hardy, the secretary +to the London Corresponding Society, was a shoemaker +at No. 161; and during the trial of this +approver of the French Revolution, Mr. John Scott +(afterwards Lord Eldon) was in great danger from +a Fleet Street crowd. "The mob," he says, +"kept thickening round me till I came to Fleet +Street, one of the worst parts that I had to pass +through, and the cries began to be rather threatening. +'Down with him!' 'Now is the time, lads; +do for him!' and various others, horrible enough; +but I stood up, and spoke as loud as I could: +'You may do for me, if you like; but, remember, +there will be another Attorney-General before eight +o'clock to-morrow morning, and the king will not +allow the trials to be stopped.' Upon this one +man shouted out, 'Say you so? you are right to +tell us. Let us give him three cheers, my lads!' +So they actually cheered me, and I got safe to +my own door."</p> + +<p>There was great consternation in Fleet Street in +November, 1820, when Queen Caroline, attended by +700 persons on horseback, passed publicly through +it to return thanks at St. Paul's. Many alarmed +people barricaded their doors and windows. Still +greater was the alarm in August, 1821, when the +queen's funeral procession went by, after the deplorable +fight with the Horse Guards at Cumberland +Gate, when two of the rioters were killed.</p> + +<p>With this rapid sketch of a few of the events in +the history of Fleet Street, we begin our patient +peregrination from house to house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dr. Johnson in Ambuscade at Temple Bar—The First Child—Dryden and Black Will—Rupert's Jewels—Telson's Bank—The Apollo Club at +the "Devil"—"Old Sir Simon the King"—"Mull Sack"—Dr. Johnson's Supper to Mrs. Lennox—Will Waterproof at the "Cock"—The +Duel at "Dick's Coffee House"—Lintot's Shop—Pope and Warburton—Lamb and the <i>Albion</i>—The Palace of Cardinal Wolsey—Mrs. +Salmon's Waxwork—Isaak Walton—Praed's Bank—Murray and Byron—St. Dunstan's—Fleet Street Printers—Hoare's Bank and the +"Golden Bottle"—The Real and Spurious "Mitre"—Hone's Trial—Cobbett's Shop—"Peele's Coffee House."</p></div> + + +<p>There is a delightful passage in an almost unknown +essay by Dr. Johnson that connects him +indissolubly with the neighbourhood of Temple +Bar. The essay, written in 1756 for the <i>Universal +Visitor</i>, is entitled "A Project for the Employment +of Authors," and is full of humour, which, +indeed, those who knew him best considered the +chief feature of Johnson's genius. We rather pride +ourselves on the discovery of this pleasant bit of +autobiography:—"It is my practice," says Johnson, +"when I am in want of amusement, to place myself +for an hour at Temple Bar, or any other narrow +pass much frequented, and examine one by one +the looks of the passengers, and I have commonly +found that between the hours of eleven and four +every sixth man is an author. They are seldom +to be seen very early in the morning or late in the +evening, but about dinner-time they are all in +motion, and have one uniform eagerness in their +faces, which gives little opportunity of discerning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +their hopes or fears, their pleasures or their pains. +But in the afternoon, when they have all dined, or +composed themselves to pass the day without a +dinner, their passions have full play, and I can +perceive one man wondering at the stupidity of the +public, by which his new book has been totally +neglected; another cursing the French, who fright +away literary curiosity by their threat of an invasion; +another swearing at his bookseller, who will advance +no money without copy; another perusing +as he walks his publisher's bill; another murmuring +at an unanswerable criticism; another +determining to write no more to a generation of +barbarians; and another wishing to try once again +whether he cannot awaken the drowsy world to a +sense of his merit." This extract seems to us to +form an admirable companion picture to that in +which we have already shown Goldsmith bantering +his brother Jacobite, Johnson, as they looked up +together at the grim heads on Temple Bar.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="oates" id="oates"></a> +<img src="images/p036.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DR. TITUS OATES<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>That quiet grave house (No. 1), that seems to +demurely huddle close to Temple Bar, as if for +protection, is the oldest banking-house in London +except one. For two centuries gold has been +shovelled about in those dark rooms, and reams +of bank-notes have been shuffled over by practised +thumbs. Private banks originated in the +stormy days before the Civil War, when wealthy +citizens, afraid of what might happen, entrusted +their money to their goldsmiths to take care of till +the troubles had blown over. In the reign of +Charles I., Francis Child, an industrious apprentice +of the old school, married the daughter of his +master, William Wheeler, a goldsmith, who lived +one door west of Temple Bar, and in due time +succeeded to his estate and business. In the first +London Directory (1677), among the fifty-eight +goldsmiths, thirty-eight of whom lived in Lombard +Street, "Blanchard & Child," at the "Marygold," +Fleet Street, figure conspicuously as "keeping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +running cashes." The original Marygold (sometimes +mistaken for a rising sun), with the motto, +"Ainsi mon ame," gilt upon a green ground, +elegantly designed in the French manner, is still to +be seen in the front office, and a marigold in full +bloom still blossoms on the bank cheques. In the +year 1678 it was at Mr. Blanchard's, the goldsmith's, +next door to Temple Bar, that Dryden the +poet, bruised and angry, deposited £50 as a reward +for any one who would discover the bullies +of Lord Rochester who had beaten him in Rose +Alley for some scurrilous verses really written by +the Earl of Dorset. The advertisement promises, if +the discoverer be himself one of the actors, he shall +still have the £50, without letting his name be +known or receiving the least trouble by any prosecution. +Black Will's cudgel was, after all, a clumsy +way of making a repartee. Late in Charles II.'s +reign Alderman Backwell entered the wealthy firm; +but he was ruined by the iniquitous and arbitrary +closing of the Exchequer in 1672, when the needy +and unprincipled king pocketed at one swoop more +than a million and a half of money, which he soon +squandered on his shameless mistresses and unworthy +favourites. In that quaint room over Temple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +Bar the firm still preserve the dusty books of the +unfortunate alderman, who fled to Holland. There, +on the sallow leaves over which the poor alderman +once groaned, you can read the items of our sale of +Dunkirk to the French, the dishonourable surrender +of which drove the nation almost to madness, and +hastened the downfall of Lord Clarendon, who was +supposed to have built a magnificent house (on the +site of Albemarle Street, Piccadilly) with some of +the very money. Charles II. himself banked here, +and drew his thousands with all the careless nonchalance +of his nature. Nell Gwynne, Pepys, of +the "Diary," and Prince Rupert also had accounts +at Child's, and some of these ledgers are still +hoarded over Temple Bar in that Venetian-looking +room, approached by strange prison-like passages, +for which chamber Messrs. Child pay something +less than £50 a year.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bar" id="bar"></a> +<img src="images/p037.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />TEMPLE BAR AND THE "DEVIL TAVERN"<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>When Prince Rupert died at his house in the +Barbican, the valuable jewels of the old cavalry +soldier, valued at £20,000, were disposed of in a +lottery, managed by Mr. Francis Child, the goldsmith; +the king himself, who took a half-business-like, +half-boyish interest in the matter, counting the +tickets among all the lords and ladies at Whitehall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>In North's "Life of Lord Keeper Guildford," the +courtier and lawyer of the reign of Charles II., +there is an anecdote that pleasantly connects Child's +bank with the fees of the great lawyers who in that +evil reign ruled in Chancery Lane:—</p> + +<p>"The Lord Keeper Guildford's business increased," +says his biographer, "even while he was +solicitor, to be so much as to have overwhelmed +one less dexterous; but when he was made Attorney-General, +though his gains by his office were great, +they were much greater by his practice, for that +flowed in upon him like an orage, enough to +overset one that had not an extraordinary readiness +in business. His skull-caps, which he wore +when he had leisure to observe his constitution, +as I touched before, were now destined to lie in +a drawer, to receive the money that came in by +fees. One had the gold, another the crowns and +half-crowns, and another the smaller money. When +these vessels were full, they were committed to his +friend (the Hon. Roger North), who was constantly +near him, to tell out the cash and put it into the +bags according to the contents; and so they went +to his treasurers, Blanchard & Child, goldsmiths, +Temple Bar."</p> + +<p>Year by year the second Sir Francis Child grew +in honour. He was alderman, sheriff, Lord Mayor, +President of Christ's Hospital, and M.P. for the +City, and finally, dying in 1713, full of years, was +buried under a grand black marble tomb in Fulham +churchyard, and his account closed for ever. The +family went on living in the sunshine. Sir Robert, +the son of the Sir Francis, was also alderman of his +ward; and, on his death, his brother, Sir Francis, +succeeded to all his father's dignities, became an +East Indian director, and in 1725 received the +special thanks of the citizens for promoting a +special act for regulating City elections. Another +member of this family (Sir Josiah Child) deserves +special mention as one of the earliest writers +on political economy and a man much in advance +of his time. He saw through the old +fallacy about the balance of trade, and explained +clearly the true causes of the commercial +prosperity of the Dutch. He also condemned the +practice of each parish paying for its own poor, an +evil which all Poor-law reformers have endeavoured +to alter. Sir Josiah was at the head of the +East India Company, already feeling its way towards +the gold and diamonds of India. His +brother was Governor of Bombay, and by the +marriage of his numerous daughters the rich +merchant became allied to half the peers and peeresses +of England. The grandson of Alderman +Backwell married a daughter of the second Sir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +Francis Child, and his daughter married William +Praed, the Truro banker, who early in the present +century opened a bank at 189, Fleet Street. So, +like three strands of a gold chain, the three banking +families were welded together. In 1689 Child's +bank seems to have for a moment tottered, but +was saved by the timely loan of £1,400 proffered +by that overbearing woman the Duchess of Marlborough. +Hogarth is said to have made an oil +sketch of the scene, which was sold at Hodgson's +sale-room in 1834, and has since disappeared.</p> + +<p>In Pennant's time (1793) the original goldsmith's +shop seems to have still existed in Fleet Street, in +connection with this bank. The principal of the +firm was the celebrated Countess of Jersey, a former +earl having assumed the name of Child on the +countess inheriting the estates of her maternal +grandfather, Robert Child, Esq., of Osterly Park, +Middlesex. A small full-length portrait of this +great beauty of George IV.'s court, painted by +Lawrence in his elegant but meretricious manner, +hangs in the first-floor room of the old bank. The +last Child died early in this century. A descendant +of Addison is a member of the present firm. In +Chapter 1., Book I., of his "Tale of Two Cities," +Dickens has sketched Child's bank with quite an +Hogarthian force and colour. He has playfully +exaggerated the smallness, darkness, and ugliness +of the building, of which he describes the partners +as so proud; but there is all his usual delightful +humour, occasionally passing into caricature:—</p> + +<p>"Thus it had come to pass that Telson's was the +triumphant perfection of inconvenience. After bursting open +a door of idiotic obstinacy with a weak rattle in its throat, +you fell into Telson's down two steps, and came to your +senses in a miserable little shop with two little counters, +where the oldest of men made your cheque shake as if the +wind rustled it, while they examined the signature by the +dingiest of windows, which were always under a shower-bath +of mud from Fleet Street, and which were made the +dingier by their own iron bars and the heavy shadow of +Temple Bar. If your business necessitated your seeing 'the +House,' you were put into a species of Condemned Hold at +the back, where you meditated on a mis-spent life, until the +House came with its hands in its pockets, and you could +hardly blink at it in the dismal twilight."</p> + +<p>In 1788 (George III.) the firm purchased the +renowned "Devil Tavern," next door eastward, and +upon the site erected the retiring row of houses up +a dim court, now called Child's Place, finally absorbing +the old place of revelry and hushing the +unseemly clatter of pewter pots and the clamorous +shouts of "Score a pint of sherry in the Apollo" +for ever.</p> + +<p>The noisy "Devil Tavern" (No. 2, Fleet Street) +had stood next the quiet goldsmith's shop ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +since the time of James I. Shakespeare himself +must, day after day, have looked up at the old +sign of St. Dunstan tweaking the Devil by the nose, +that flaunted in the wind near the Bar. Perhaps +the sign was originally a compliment to the goldsmith's +men who frequented it, for St. Dunstan was, +like St. Eloy, a patron saint of goldsmiths, and himself +worked at the forge as an amateur artificer of +church plate. It may, however, have only been a +mark of respect to the saint, whose church stood +hard by, to the east of Chancery Lane. At the +"Devil" the Apollo Club, almost the first institution +of the kind in London, held its merry meetings, +presided over by that grim yet jovial despot, Ben +Jonson. The bust of Apollo, skilfully modelled +from the head of the Apollo Belvidere, that once +kept watch over the door, and heard in its time +millions of witty things and scores of fond recollections +of Shakespeare by those who personally knew +and loved him, is still preserved at Child's bank. +They also show there among their heirlooms "The +Welcome," probably written by immortal Ben himself, +which is full of a jovial inspiration that speaks +well for the canary at the "Devil." It used to stand +over the chimney-piece, written in gilt letters on a +black board, and some of the wittiest and wisest +men of the reigns of James and Charles must have +read it over their cups. The verses run,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Welcome all who lead or follow<br /> +To the oracle of Apollo," &c.</div> + +<p>Beneath these verses some enthusiastic disciple of +the author has added the brief epitaph inscribed +by an admirer on the crabbed old poet's tombstone +in Westminster Abbey,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"O, rare Ben Jonson."</div> + +<p>The rules of the club (said to have been originally +cut on a slab of black marble) were placed above the +fire-place. They were devised by Ben Jonson, in +imitation of the rules of the Roman entertainments, +collected by the learned Lipsius; and, as Leigh +Hunt says, they display the author's usual style of +elaborate and compiled learning, not without a +taste of that dictatorial self-sufficiency that made +him so many enemies. They were translated by +Alexander Brome, a poetical attorney of the day, +who was one of Ben Jonson's twelve adopted poetical +sons. We have room only for the first few, to +show the poetical character of the club:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Let none but guests or clubbers hither come;<br /> +Let dunces, fools, and sordid men keep home;<br /> +Let learned, civil, merry men b' invited,<br /> +And modest, too; nor be choice liquor slighted.<br /> +Let nothing in the treat offend the guest:<br /> +More for delight than cost prepare the feast."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></div> + +<p>The later rules forbid the discussion of serious and +sacred subjects. No itinerant fiddlers (who then, +as now, frequented taverns) were to be allowed to +obtrude themselves. The feasts were to be celebrated +with laughing, leaping, dancing, jests, and +songs, and the jests were to be "without reflection." +No man (and this smacks of Ben's arrogance) was +to recite "insipid" poems, and no person was to be +pressed to write verse. There were to be in this +little Elysium of an evening no vain disputes, and +no lovers were to mope about unsocially in corners. +No fighting or brawling was to be tolerated, and no +glasses or windows broken, or was tapestry to be +torn down in wantonness. The rooms were to be +kept warm; and, above all, any one who betrayed +what the club chose to do or say was to be, <i>nolens +volens</i>, banished. Over the clock in the kitchen +some wit had inscribed in neat Latin the merry +motto, "If the wine of last night hurts you, drink +more to-day, and it will cure you"—a happy version +of the dangerous axiom of "Take a hair of the dog +that bit you."</p> + +<p>At these club feasts the old poet with "the +mountain belly and the rocky face," as he has +painted himself, presided, ready to enter the ring +against all comers. By degrees the stern man with +the worn features, darkened by prison cell and hardened +by battle-fields, had mellowed into a Falstaff. +Long struggles with poverty had made Ben arrogant, +for he had worked as a bricklayer in early life and +had served in Flanders as a common soldier; he +had killed a rival actor in a duel, and had been in +danger of having his nose slit in the pillory for a +libel against King James's Scotch courtiers. Intellectually, +too, Ben had reason to claim a sort of +sovereignty over the minor poets. His <i>Every +Man in his Humour</i> had been a great success; +Shakespeare had helped him forward, and been +his bosom friend. Parts of his <i>Sejanus</i>, such as the +speech of Envy, beginning,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Light, I salute thee, but with wounded nerves,<br /> +Wishing thy golden splendour pitchy darkness,"</div> + +<p>are as sublime as his songs, such as</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Drink to me only with thine eyes,"</div> + +<p>are graceful, serious, and lyrical. The great compass +of his power and the command he had of the +lyre no one could deny; his learning Donne and +Camden could vouch for. He had written the most +beautiful of court masques; his Bobadil some men +preferred to Falstaff. Alas! no Pepys or Boswell +has noted the talk of those evenings.</p> + +<p>A few glimpses of the meetings we have, and +but a few. One night at the "Devil" a country<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +gentleman was boastful of his property. It was +all he had to boast about among the poets; +Ben, chafed out of all decency and patience, at +last roared, "What signify to us your dirt and +your clods? Where you have an acre of land I +have ten acres of wit!" "Have you so, good Mr. +Wise-acre," retorted Master Shallow. "Why, now, +Ben," cried out a laughing friend, "you seem to +be quite stung." "I' faith, I never was so pricked +by a hobnail before," growled Ben, with a surly +smile.</p> + +<p>Another story records the first visit to the +"Devil" of Randolph, a clever poet and dramatist, +who became a clergyman, and died young. The +young poet, who had squandered all his money +away in London pleasures, on a certain night, +before he returned to Cambridge, resolved to go +and see Ben and his associates at the "Devil," +cost what it might. But there were two great +obstacles—he was poor, and he was not invited. +Nevertheless, drawn magnetically by the voices of +the illustrious men in the Apollo, Randolph at last +peeped in at the door among the waiters. Ben's +quick eye soon detected the eager, pale face and +the scholar's threadbare habit. "John Bo-peep," he +shouted, "come in!" a summons Randolph gladly +obeyed. The club-men instantly began rhyming on +the meanness of the intruder's dress, and told him +if he could not at once make a verse he must call +for a quart of sack. There being four of his tormentors, +Randolph, ready enough at such work, +replied as quick as lightning:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"I, John Bo-peep, and you four sheep,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With each one his good fleece;</span><br /> +If that you are willing to give me your shilling,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Tis fifteen pence apiece."</span></div> + +<p>"By the Lord!" roared the giant president, "I +believe this is my son Randolph!" and on his +owning himself, the young poet was kindly entertained, +spent a glorious evening, was soaked in +sack, "sealed of the tribe of Ben," and became one +of the old poet's twelve adopted sons.</p> + +<p>Shakerley Marmion, a contemporary dramatist of +the day, has left a glowing Rubenesque picture +of the Apollo evenings, evidently coloured from +life. Careless, one of his characters, tells his +friends he is full of oracles, for he has just come +from Apollo. "From Apollo?" says his wondering +friend. Then Careless replies, with an inspired +fervour worthy of a Cavalier poet who +fought bravely for King Charles:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 9em;">"From the heaven</span><br /> +Of my delight, where the boon Delphic god<br /> +Drinks sack and keep his bacchanalia,<br /> +And has his incense and his altars smoking,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>And speaks in sparkling prophecies; thence I come,<br /> +My brains perfumed with the rich Indian vapour,<br /> +And heightened with conceits....<br /> +And from a mighty continent of pleasure<br /> +Sails thy brave Careless."</div> + +<p>Simon Wadloe, the host of the "Devil," who +died in 1627, seems to have been a witty butt of a +man, much such another as honest Jack Falstaff; a +merry boon companion, not only witty himself, but +the occasion of wit in others, quick at repartee, +fond of proverbial sayings, curious in his wines. A +good old song, set to a fine old tune, was written +about him, and called "Old Sir Simon the King." +This was the favourite old-fashioned ditty in which +Fielding's rough and jovial Squire Western afterwards +delighted.</p> + +<p>Old Simon's successor, John Wadloe (probably +his son), made a great figure at the Restoration +procession by heading a band of young men all +dressed in white. After the Great Fire John +rebuilt the "Sun Tavern," behind the Royal +Exchange, and was loyal, wealthy, and foolish +enough to lend King Charles certain considerable +sums, duly recorded in Exchequer documents, +but not so duly paid.</p> + +<p>In the troublous times of the Commonwealth +the "Devil" was the favourite haunt of John Cottington, +generally known as "Mull Sack," from his +favourite beverage of spiced sherry negus. This +impudent rascal, a sweep who had turned highwayman, +with the most perfect impartiality rifled +the pockets alternately of Cavaliers and Roundheads. +Gold is of no religion; and your true +cut-purse is of the broadest and most sceptical +Church. He emptied the pockets of Lord Protector +Cromwell one day, and another he stripped +Charles II., then a Bohemian exile at Cologne, of +plate valued at £1,500. One of his most impudent +exploits was stealing a watch from Lady +Fairfax, that brave woman who had the courage +to denounce, from the gallery at Westminster Hall, +the persons whom she considered were about to +become the murderers of Charles I. "This lady" +(and a portly handsome woman she was, to judge +by the old portraits), says a pamphlet-writer of the +day, "used to go to a lecture on a week-day to +Ludgate Church, where one Mr. Jacomb preached, +being much followed by the Puritans. Mull Sack, +observing this, and that she constantly wore her +watch hanging by a chain from her waist, against +the next time she came there dressed himself like +an officer in the army; and having his comrades +attending him like troopers, one of them takes off +the pin of a coach-wheel that was going upwards +through the gate, by which means it falling off, the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>passage was obstructed, so that the lady could not +alight at the church door, but was forced to leave +her coach without. Mull Sack, taking advantage +of this, readily presented himself to her ladyship, +and having the impudence to take her from her +gentleman usher who attended her alighting, led +her by the arm into the church; and by the way, +with a pair of keen sharp scissors for the purpose, +cut the chain in two, and got the watch clear away, +she not missing it till the sermon was done, when +she was going to see the time of the day."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="randolph" id="randolph"></a> +<img src="images/p040.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTRODUCTION OF RANDOLPH TO BEN JONSON AT THE "DEVIL" TAVERN<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The portrait of Mull Sack has the following +verses beneath:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"I walk the Strand and Westminster, and scorn<br /> +To march i' the City, though I bear the horn.<br /> +My feather and my yellow band accord,<br /> +To prove me courtier; my boot, spur, and sword,<br /> +My smoking-pipe, scarf, garter, rose on shoe,<br /> +Show my brave mind t' affect what gallants do.<br /> +I sing, dance, drink, and merrily pass the day,<br /> +And, like a chimney, sweep all care away."</div> + +<p>In Charles II.'s time the "Devil" became frequented +by lawyers and physicians. The talk now +was about drugs and latitats, jalap and the law of +escheats. Yet, still good company frequented it, +for Steele describes Bickerstaff's sister Jenny's +wedding entertainment there in October, 1709; +and in 1710 (Queen Anne) Swift writes one of +those charming letters to Stella to tell her that he +had dined on October 12th at the "Devil," with +Addison and Dr. Garth, when the good-natured +doctor, whom every one loved, stood treat, and +there must have been talk worth hearing. In the +Apollo chamber the intolerable court odes of Colley +Cibber, the poet laureate, used to be solemnly +rehearsed with fitting music; and Pope, in "The +Dunciad," says, scornfully:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Back to the 'Devil' the loud echoes roll,<br /> +And 'Coll' each butcher roars in Hockly Hole."</div> + +<p>But Colley had talent and he had brass, and it +took many such lines to put him down. A good +epigram on these public recitations runs thus:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When laureates make odes, do you ask of what sort?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Do you ask if they're good or are evil?</span><br /> +You may judge: from the 'Devil' they come to the Court,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And go from the Court to the 'Devil.'"</span></div> + +<p>Dr. Kenrick afterwards gave lectures on Shakespeare +at the Apollo. This Kenrick, originally a rule-maker, +and the malicious assailant of Johnson and +Garrick, was the Croker of his day. He originated +the <i>London Review</i>, and when he assailed Johnson's +"Shakespeare," Johnson laughingly replied, "That +he was not going to be bound by Kenrick's rules."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1746 the Royal Society held its annual dinner +in the old consecrated room, and in the year 1752 +concerts of vocal and instrumental music were +given in the same place. It was an upstairs +chamber, probably detached from the tavern, and +lay up a "close," or court, like some of the old +Edinburgh taverns.</p> + +<p>The last ray of light that fell on the "Devil" +was on a memorable spring evening in 1751. Dr. +Johnson (aged forty-two), then busy all day with +his six amanuenses in a garret in Gough Square +compiling his Dictionary, at night enjoyed his +elephantine mirth at a club in Ivy Lane, Paternoster +Row. One night at the club, Johnson proposed +to celebrate the appearance of Mrs. Lennox's +first novel, "The Life of Harriet Stuart," by a +supper at the "Devil Tavern." Mrs. Lennox was a +lady for whom Johnson—ranking her afterwards +above Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Hannah More, or even his +favourite, Miss Burney—had the greatest esteem. +Sir John Hawkins, that somewhat malign rival of +Boswell, describes the night in a manner, for him, +unusually genial. "Johnson," says Hawkins (and +his words are too pleasant to condense), "proposed +to us the celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lennox's +first literary child, as he called her book, by a whole +night spent in festivity. Upon his mentioning it to +me, I told him I had never sat up a night in my +life; but he continuing to press me, and saying +that I should find great delight in it, I, as did all +the rest of the company, consented." (The club +consisted of Hawkins, an attorney; Dr. Salter, +father of a master of the Charter House; Dr. +Hawkesworth, a popular author of the day; Mr. +Ryland, a merchant; Mr. John Payne, a bookseller; +Mr. Samuel Dyer, a young man training for a Dissenting +minister; Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scotch +physician; Dr. Barker and Dr. Bathurst, young +physicians.) "The place appointed was the 'Devil +Tavern;' and there, about the hour of eight, Mrs. +Lennox and her husband (a tide-waiter in the +Customs), a lady of her acquaintance, with the club +and friends, to the number of twenty, assembled. +The supper was elegant; Johnson had directed +that a magnificent hot apple-pie should make a +part of it, and this he would have stuck with +bay leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox was an +authoress and had written verses; and, further, he +had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, +but not till he had invoked the Muses by some +ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her +brows. The night passed, as must be imagined, in +pleasant conversation and harmless mirth, intermingled +at different, periods with the refreshment +of coffee and tea. About five a.m., Johnson's face +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>shone with meridian splendour, though his drink +had been only lemonade; but the far greater part +of the company had deserted the colours of +Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake +of a second refreshment of coffee, which was +scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. +This phenomenon began to put us in mind of +our reckoning; but the waiters were all so overcome +with sleep that it was two hours before a bill +could be had, and it was not till near eight that +the creaking of the street-door gave the signal of +our departure." How one longs to dredge up +some notes of such a night's conversation from the +cruel river of oblivion! The Apollo Court, on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +opposite side of Fleet Street, still preserves the +memory of the great club-room at the "Devil."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="johnsons" id="johnsons"></a> +<img src="images/p042.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />TEMPLE BAR IN DR. JOHNSON'S TIME<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In 1764, on an Act passing for the removal of +the dangerous projecting signs, the weather-beaten +picture of the saint, with the Devil gibbering over +his shoulder, was nailed up flat to the front of the +old gable-ended house. In 1775, Collins, a public +lecturer and mimic, gave a satirical lecture at the +"Devil" on modern oratory. In 1776 some young +lawyers founded there a Pandemonium Club; +and after that there is no further record of the +"Devil" till it was pulled down and annexed by +the neighbouring bankers. In Steele's time there +was a "Devil Tavern" at Charing Cross, and a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>rival "Devil Tavern" near St. Dunstan's; but these +competitors made no mark.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mull" id="mull"></a> +<img src="images/p043.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MULL SACK AND LADY FAIRFAX<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The "Cock Tavern" (201), opposite the Temple, +has been immortalised by Tennyson as thoroughly +as the "Devil" was by Ben Jonson. The playful +verses inspired by a pint of generous port have +made</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"The violet of a legend blow<br /> +Among the chops and steaks"</div> + +<p>for ever, though old Will Waterproof has long since +descended for the last time the well-known cellar-stairs. +The poem which has embalmed his name +was, we believe, written when Mr. Tennyson had +chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At that time +the room was lined with wainscoting, and the silver +tankards of special customers hung in glittering +rows in the bar. This tavern was shut up at the +time of the Plague, and the advertisement announcing +such closing is still extant. Pepys, in +his "Diary," mentions bringing pretty Mrs. Knipp, +an actress, of whom his wife was very jealous, +here; and the gay couple "drank, eat a lobster, +and sang, and mighty merry till almost midnight." +On his way home to Seething Lane, the amorous +Navy Office clerk with difficulty avoided two thieves +with clubs, who met him at the entrance into +the ruins of the Great Fire near St. Dunstan's. +These dangerous meetings with Mrs. Knipp went +on till one night Mrs. Pepys came to his bedside +and threatened to pinch him with the red-hot +tongs. The waiters at the "Cock" are fond of +showing visitors one of the old tokens of the house +in the time of Charles II. The old carved chimney-piece +is of the age of James I.; and there is a +doubtful tradition that the gilt bird that struts with +such self-serene importance over the portal was the +work of that great carver, Grinling Gibbons.</p> + +<p>"Dick's Coffee House" (No. 8, south) was kept +in George II.'s time by a Mrs. Yarrow and her +daughter, who were much admired by the young +Templars who patronised the place. The Rev. +James Miller, reviving an old French comedietta +by Rousseau, called "The Coffee House," and introducing +malicious allusions to the landlady and +her fair daughter, so exasperated the young barristers +that frequented "Dick's," that they went in a +body and hissed the piece from the boards. The +author then wrote an apology, and published the +play; but unluckily the artist who illustrated it +took the bar at "Dick's" as the background of his +sketch. The Templars went madder than ever at +this, and the Rev. Miller, who translated Voltaire's +"Mahomet" for Garrick, never came up to the +surface again. It was at "Dick's" that Cowper +the poet showed the first symptoms of derangement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +When his mind was off its balance he read a letter +in a newspaper at "Dick's," which he believed had +been written to drive him to suicide. He went +away and tried to hang himself; the garter breaking, +he then resolved to drown himself; but, being +hindered by some occurrence, repented for the +moment. He was soon after sent to a madhouse +in Huntingdon.</p> + +<p>In 1681 a quarrel arose between two hot-headed +gallants in "Dick's" about the size of two dishes +they had both seen at the "St. John's Head" in +Chancery Lane. The matter eventually was +roughly ended at the "Three Cranes" in the +Vintry—a tavern mentioned by Ben Jonson—by +one of them, Rowland St. John, running his companion, +John Stiles, of Lincoln's Inn, through the +body. The St. Dunstan's Club, founded in 1796, +holds its dinner at "Dick's."</p> + +<p>The "Rainbow Tavern" (No. 15, south) was +the second coffee-house started in London. Four +years before the Restoration, Mr. Farr, a barber, +began the trade here, trusting probably to the +young Temple barristers for support. The vintners +grew jealous, and the neighbours, disliking the +smell of the roasting coffee, indicted Farr as a +nuisance. But he persevered, and the Arabian +drink became popular. A satirist had soon to +write regretfully,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"And now, alas! the drink has credit got,<br /> +And he's no gentleman that drinks it not."</div> + +<p>About 1780, according to Mr. Timbs, the "Rainbow" +was kept by Alexander Moncrieff, grandfather +of the dramatist who wrote <i>Tom and Jerry</i>.</p> + +<p>Bernard Lintot, the bookseller, who published +Pope's "Homer," lived in a shop between the two +Temple gates (No. 16). In an inimitable letter +to the Earl of Burlington, Pope has described +how Lintot (Tonson's rival) overtook him once +in Windsor Forest, as he was riding down to +Oxford. When they were resting under a tree in +the forest, Lintot, with a keen eye to business, +pulled out "a mighty pretty 'Horace,'" and said +to Pope, "What if you amused yourself in turning +an ode till we mount again?" The poet smiled, +but said nothing. Presently they remounted, and +as they rode on Lintot stopped short, and broke +out, after a long silence: "Well, sir, how far have +we got?" "Seven miles," replied Pope, naïvely. +He told Pope that by giving the hungry critics a +dinner of a piece of beef and a pudding, he could +make them see beauties in any author he chose. +After all, Pope did well with Lintot, for he gained +£5,320 by his "Homer." Dr. Young, the poet, +once unfortunately sent to Lintot a letter meant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +for Tonson, and the first words that Lintot +read were: "That Bernard Lintot is so great a +scoundrel." In the same shop, which was then +occupied by Jacob Robinson, the publisher, Pope +first met Warburton. An interesting account of +this meeting is given by Sir John Hawkins, which +it may not be out of place to quote here. "The +friendship of Pope and Warburton," he says, +"had its commencement in that bookseller's shop +which is situate on the west side of the gateway +leading down the Inner Temple Lane. Warburton +had some dealings with Jacob Robinson, the +publisher, to whom the shop belonged, and may be +supposed to have been drawn there on business; +Pope might have made a call of the like +kind. However that may be, there they met, +and entering into conversation, which was not +soon ended, conceived a mutual liking, and, as we +may suppose, plighted their faith to each other. +The fruit of this interview, and the subsequent +communications of the parties, was the publication, +in November, 1739, of a pamphlet with +this title, 'A Vindication of Mr. Pope's "Essay +on Man," by the Author of "The Divine Legation +of Moses." Printed for J. Robinson.'" At the +Middle Temple Gate, Benjamin Motte, successor +to Ben Tooke, published Swift's "Gulliver's +Travels," for which he had grudgingly given +only £200.</p> + +<p>The third door from Chancery Lane (No. 197, north +side), Mr. Timbs points out, was in Charles II.'s +time a tombstone-cutter's; and here, in 1684, Howel, +whose "Letters" give us many curious pictures of +his time, saw a huge monument to four of the Oxenham +family, at the death of each of whom a white +bird appeared fluttering about their bed. These +miraculous occurrences had taken place at a town +near Exeter, and the witnesses names duly appeared +below the epitaph. No. 197 was afterwards +Rackstrow's museum of natural curiosities and anatomical +figures; and the proprietor put Sir Isaac +Newton's head over the door for a sign. Among +other prodigies was the skeleton of a whale more +than seventy feet long. Donovan, a naturalist, +succeeded Rackstrow (who died in 1772) with his +London museum. Then, by a harlequin change, +No. 197 became the office of the <i>Albion</i> newspaper. +Charles Lamb was turned over to this journal from +the <i>Morning Post</i>. The editor, John Fenwick, the +"Bigot" of Lamb's "Essay," was a needy, sanguine +man, who had purchased the paper of a person +named Lovell, who had stood in the pillory for a +libel against the Prince of Wales. For a long time +Fenwick contrived to pay the Stamp Office dues by +money borrowed from compliant friends. "We,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +says Lamb, in his delightful way, "attached our +small talents to the forlorn fortunes of our friend. +Our occupation was now to write treason." Lamb +hinted at possible abdications. Blocks, axes, and +Whitehall tribunals were covered with flowers of so +cunning a periphrasis—as, Mr. Bayes says, never +naming the <i>thing</i> directly—that the keen eye of an +Attorney-General was insufficient to detect the +lurking snake among them.</p> + +<p>At the south-west corner of Chancery Lane +(No. 193) once stood an old house said to have +been the residence of that unfortunate reformer, +Sir John Oldcastle, Baron Cobham, who was burnt +in St. Giles's Fields in 1417 (Henry V.). In +Charles II.'s reign the celebrated Whig Green +Ribbon Club used to meet here, and from the +balcony flourish their periwigs, discharge squibs, +and wave torches, when a great Protestant procession +passed by, to burn the effigy of the Pope at +the Temple Gate. The house, five stories high and +covered with carvings, was pulled down for City +improvements in 1799.</p> + +<p>Upon the site of No. 192 (east corner of Chancery +Lane) the father of Cowley, that fantastic poet of +Charles II.'s time, it is said carried on the trade of +a grocer. In 1740 a later grocer there sold the +finest caper tea for 24s. per lb., his fine green for +18s. per lb., hyson at 16s. per lb., and bohea at +7s. per lb.</p> + +<p>No house in Fleet Street has a more curious +pedigree than that gilt and painted shop opposite +Chancery Lane (No. 17, south side), falsely called +"the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey." +It was originally the office of the Duchy of Cornwall, +in the reign of James I. It is just possible +that it was the house originally built by Sir Amyas +Paulet, at Wolsey's command, in resentment for Sir +Amyas having set Wolsey, when a mere parish +priest, in the stocks for a brawl. Wolsey, at the time +of the ignominious punishment, was schoolmaster to +the children of the Marquis of Dorset. Paulet +was confined to this house for five or six years, to +appease the proud cardinal, who lived in Chancery +Lane. Sir Amyas rebuilt his prison, covering the +front with badges of the cardinal. It was afterwards +"Nando's," a famous coffee-house, where +Thurlow picked up his first great brief. One night +Thurlow, arguing here keenly about the celebrated +Douglas case, was heard by some lawyers with +delight, and the next day, to his astonishment, +was appointed junior counsel. This cause won +him a silk gown, and so his fortune was made +by that one lucky night at "Nando's." No. 17 +was afterwards the place where Mrs. Salmon (the +Madame Tussaud of early times) exhibited her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +waxwork kings and queens. There was a figure +on crutches at the door; and Old Mother Shipton, +the witch, kicked the astonished visitor as he left. +Mrs. Salmon died in 1812. The exhibition was +then sold for £500, and removed to Water Lane. +When Mrs. Salmon first removed from St. Martin's-le-Grand +to near St. Dunstan's Church, she announced, +with true professional dignity, that the +new locality "was more convenient for the quality's +coaches to stand unmolested." Her "Royal Court +of England" included 150 figures. When the +exhibition removed to Water Lane, some thieves +one night got in, stripped the effigies of their +finery, and broke half of them, throwing them into +a heap that almost touched the ceiling.</p> + +<p>Tonson, Dryden's publisher, commenced business +at the "Judge's Head," near the Inner Temple +gate, so that when at the Kit-Kat Club he was not +far from his own shop. One day Dryden, in a rage, +drew the greedy bookseller with terrible force:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"With leering looks, bull-faced, and speckled fair,<br /> +With two left legs and Judas-coloured hair,<br /> +And frowzy pores that taint the ambient air."</div> + +<p>The poet promised a fuller portrait if the "dog" +tormented him further.</p> + +<p>Opposite Mrs. Salmon's, two doors west of old +Chancery Lane, till 1799, when the lawyer's lane +was widened, stood an old, picturesque, gabled +house, which was once the milliner's shop kept, +in 1624, by that good old soul, Isaak Walton. He +was on the Vestry Board of St. Dunstan's, and +was constable and overseer for the precinct next +Temple Bar; and on pleasant summer evenings +he used to stroll out to the Tottenham fields, rod +in hand, to enjoy the gentle sport which he so +much loved. He afterwards (1632) lived seven +doors up Chancery Lane, west side, and there +married the sister of that good Christian, Bishop +Ken, who wrote the "Evening Hymn," one of +the most simply beautiful religious poems ever +written. It is pleasant in busy Fleet Street to +think of the good old citizen on his guileless +way to the river Lea, conning his verses on the +delights of angling.</p> + +<p>Praed's Bank (No. 189, north side) was founded +early in the century by Mr. William Praed, a +banker of Truro. The house had been originally +the shop of Mrs. Salmon, till she moved to opposite +Chancery Lane, and her wax kings and frail queens +were replaced by piles of strong boxes and chests +of gold. The house was rebuilt in 1802, from +the designs of Sir John Soane, whose curious +museum still exists in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Praed, +that delightful poet of society, was of the banker's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +family, and in him the poetry of refined wealth +found a fitting exponent. Fleet Street, indeed, is +rich in associations connected with bankers and +booksellers; for at No. 19 (south side) we come to +Messrs. Gosling's. This bank was founded in 1650 +by Henry Pinckney, a goldsmith, at the sign of +the "Three Squirrels"—a sign still to be seen in +the iron-work over the centre window. The original +sign of solid silver, about two feet in height, made +to lock and unlock, was discovered in the house in +1858. It had probably been taken down on the +general removal of out-door signs and forgotten. +In a secret service-money account of the time +of Charles II., there is an entry of a sum of +£646 8s. 6d. for several parcels of gold and silver +lace bought of William Gosling and partners by +the fair Duchess of Cleveland, for the wedding +clothes of the Lady Sussex and Lichfield.</p> + +<p>No. 32 (south side), still a bookseller's, was +originally kept for forty years by William Sandby, +one of the partners of Snow's bank in the Strand. +He sold the business and goodwill in 1762 for +£400, to a lieutenant of the Royal Navy, named +John M'Murray, who, dropping the Mac, became +the well-known Tory publisher. Murray tried +in vain to induce Falconer, the author of "The +Shipwreck," to join him as a partner. The first +Murray died in 1793. In 1812 John Murray, the +son of the founder, removed to 50, Albemarle +Street. In the <i>Athenæum</i> of 1843 a writer describes +how Byron used to stroll in here fresh from +his fencing-lessons at Angelo's or his sparring-bouts +with Jackson. He was wont to make cruel +lunges with his stick at what he called "the spruce +books" on Murray's shelves, generally striking +the doomed volume, and by no means improving +the bindings. "I was sometimes, as you will +guess," Murray used to say with a laugh, "glad to +get rid of him." Here, in 1807, was published +"Mrs. Rundell's Domestic Cookery;" in 1809, the +<i>Quarterly Review</i>; and, in 1811, Byron's "Childe +Harold."</p> + +<p>The original Columbarian Society, long since +extinct, was born at offices in Fleet Street, near +St. Dunstan's. This society was replaced by the +Pholoperisteron, dear to all pigeon-fanciers, which +held its meetings at "Freemasons' Tavern," and +eventually amalgamated with its rival, the National +Columbarian, the fruitful union producing the +National Peristeronic Society, now a flourishing institution, +meeting periodically at "Evans's," and +holding a great fluttering and most pleasant annual +show at the Crystal Palace. It is on these occasions +that clouds of carrier-pigeons are let off, to +decide the speed with which the swiftest and best-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>trained bird can reach a certain spot (a flight, of +course, previously known to the bird), generally in +Belgium.</p> + +<p>The first St. Dunstan's Church—"in the West," +as it is now called, to distinguish it from one near +Tower Street—was built prior to 1237. The present +building was erected in 1831. The older church +stood thirty feet forward, blocking the carriage-way, +and shops with projecting signs were built against +the east and west walls. The churchyard was a +favourite locality for booksellers. One of the most +interesting stories connected with the old building +relates to Felton, the fanatical assassin of the Duke +of Buckingham, the favourite of Charles I. The +murderer's mother and sisters lodged at a haberdasher's +in Fleet Street, and were attending service +in St. Dunstan's Church when the news arrived +from Portsmouth; they swooned away when they +heard the name of the assassin. Many of the +clergy of St. Dunstan's have been eminent men. +Tyndale, the translator of the New Testament, did +duty here. The poet Donne was another of the +St. Dunstan's worthies; and Sherlock and Romaine +both lectured at this church. The rectory house, sold +in 1693, was No. 183. The clock of old St. Dunstan's +was one of the great London sights in the last century. +The giants that struck the hours had been +set up in 1671, and were made by Thomas Harrys, +of Water Lane, for £35 and the old clock. Lord +Hertford purchased them, in 1830, for £210, and +set them up at his villa in Regent's Park. When +a child he was often taken to see them; and he +then used to say that some day he would buy "those +giants." Hatton, writing in 1708, says that these +figures were more admired on Sundays by the +populace than the most eloquent preacher in the +pulpit within; and Cowper, in his "Table Talk," +cleverly compares dull poets to the St. Dunstan's +giants:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When labour and when dulness, club in hand,<br /> +Like the two figures at St. Dunstan stand,<br /> +Beating alternately, in measured time,<br /> +The clock-work tintinnabulum of rhyme."</div> + +<p>The most interesting relic of modern St. Dunstan's +is that unobtrusive figure of Queen Elizabeth at +the east end. This figure from the old church +came from Ludgate when the City gates were +destroyed in 1786. It was bought for £16 10s. +when the old church came to the ground, and was +re-erected over the vestry entrance. The companion +statues of King Lud and his two sons +were deposited in the parish bone-house. On +one occasion when Baxter was preaching in +the old church of St. Dunstan's, there arose a +panic among the audience from two alarms of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +the building falling. Every face turned pale; but +the preacher, full of faith, sat calmly down in the +pulpit till the panic subsided, then, resuming his +sermon, said reprovingly, "We are in the service of +God, to prepare ourselves that we may be fearless +at the great noise of the dissolving world when the +heavens shall pass away and the elements melt +with fervent heat."</p> + +<p>Mr. Noble, in his record of this parish, has +remarked on the extraordinary longevity attained +by the incumbents of St. Dunstan's. Dr. White +held the living for forty-nine years; Dr. Grant, for +fifty-nine; the Rev. Joseph Williamson (Wilkes's +chaplain) for forty-one years; while the Rev. +William Romaine continued lecturer for forty-six +years. The solution of the problem probably is +that a good and secure income is the best promoter +of longevity. Several members of the great banking +family of Hoare are buried in St. Dunstan's; +but by far the most remarkable monument in the +church bears the following inscription:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Hobson Judkins, Esq.</span>, late of Clifford's Inn, the +Honest Solicitor, who departed this life June 30, 1812. +This tablet was erected by his clients, as a token of gratitude +and respect for his honest, faithful, and friendly conduct to +them throughout life. Go, reader, and imitate Hobson +Judkins."</p></div> + +<p>Among the burials at St. Dunstan's noted in +the registers, the following are the most remarkable:—1559-60, +Doctor Oglethorpe, the Bishop +of Carlisle, who crowned Queen Elizabeth; 1664, +Dame Bridgett Browne, wife of Sir Richard +Browne, major-general of the City forces, who +offered £1,000 reward for the capture of Oliver +Cromwell; 1732, Christopher Pinchbeck, the inventor +of the metal named after him and a +maker of musical clocks. The Plague seems to +have made great havoc in St. Dunstan's, for in +1665, out of 856 burials, 568 in only three months +are marked "P.," for Plague. The present church, +built in 1830-3, was designed by John Shaw, who +died on the twelfth day after the completion of the +outer shell, leaving his son to finish his work. The +church is of a flimsy Gothic, the true revival having +hardly then commenced. The eight bells are from +the old church. The two heads over the chief +entrance are portraits of Tyndale and Dr. Donne; +and the painted window is the gift of the Hoare +family.</p> + +<p>According to Aubrey, Drayton, the great topographical +poet, lived at "the bay-window house +next the east end of St. Dunstan's Church." Now +it is a clearly proved fact that the Great Fire +stopped just three doors east of St. Dunstan's, +as did also, Mr. Timbs says, another remarkable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +fire in 1730; so it is not impossible that the author +of "The Polyolbion," that good epic poem, once +lived at the present No. 180, though the next +house eastward is certainly older than its neighbour. +We have given a drawing of the house.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="Mrs." id="Mrs."></a> +<img src="images/p048.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MRS. SALMON'S WAXWORK, FLEET STREET—"PALACE OF HENRY VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY"<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>That shameless rogue, Edmund Curll, lived at +the "Dial and Bible," against St. Dunstan's Church. +When this clever rascal was put in the pillory at +Charing Cross, he persuaded the mob he was in +for a political offence, and so secured the pity of +the crowd. The author of "John Buncle" describes +Curll as a tall, thin, awkward man, with +goggle eyes, splay feet, and knock-knees. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +translators lay three in a bed at the "Pewter +Platter Inn" at Holborn. He published the most +disgraceful books and forged letters. Curll, in his +revengeful spite, accused Pope of pouring an emetic +into his half-pint of canary when he and Curll and +Lintot met by appointment at the "Swan Tavern," +Fleet Street. By St. Dunstan's, at the "Homer's +Head," also lived the publisher of the first correct +edition of "The Dunciad."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="St." id="St."></a> +<img src="images/p049.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. DUNSTAN'S CLOCK<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Among the booksellers who crowded round old +St. Dunstan's were Thomas Marsh, of the "Prince's +Arms," who printed Stow's "Chronicles;" and +William Griffith, of the "Falcon," in St. Dunstan's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>Churchyard, who, in the year 1565, issued, without +the authors' consent, <i>Gorboduc</i>, written by Thomas +Norton and Lord Buckhurst, the first real English +tragedy and the first play written in English blank +verse. John Smethwicke, a still more honoured +name, "under the diall" of St. Dunstan's Church, +published "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet." +Richard Marriot, another St. Dunstan's bookseller, +published Quarle's "Emblems," Dr. Donne's +"Sermons," that delightful, simple-hearted book, +Isaak Walton's "Complete Angler," and Butler's +"Hudibras," that wonderful mass of puns and +quibbles, pressed close as potted meat. Matthias +Walker, a St. Dunstan's bookseller, was one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +the three timid publishers who ventured on a +certain poem, called "The Paradise Lost," giving +John Milton, the blind poet, the enormous sum of +£5 down, £5 on the sale of 1,300 copies of the +first, second, and third impressions, in all the +munificent recompense of £20; the agreement +was given to the British Museum in 1852, by Samuel +Rogers, the banker poet.</p> + +<p>Nor in this list of Fleet Street printers must we +forget to insert Richard Pynson, from Normandy, +who had worked at Caxton's press, and was a +contemporary of De Worde. According to Mr. +Noble (to whose work we are so deeply indebted), +Pynson printed in Fleet Street, at his office, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +"George" (first in the Strand, and afterwards beside +St. Dunstan's Church), no less than 215 works. The +first of these, completed in the year 1483, was probably +the first book printed in Fleet Street, afterwards +a gathering-place for the ink-stained craft. A +copy of this book, "Dives and Pauper," was sold a +few years since for no less than £49. In 1497 the +same busy Frenchman published an edition of +"Terence," the first Latin classic printed in England. +In 1508 he became printer to King Henry VII., +and after this produced editions of Fabyan's and +Froissart's "Chronicles." He seems to have had +a bitter feud with a rival printer, named Robert +Rudman, who pirated his trade-mark. In one of +his books he thus quaintly falls foul of the enemy: +"But truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest +out of a thousand men.... Truly I wonder +now at last that he hath confessed it in his own +typography, unless it chanced that even as the +devil made a cobbler a mariner, he made him a +printer. Formerly this scoundrel did prefer himself +a bookseller, as well skilled as if he had +started forth from Utopia. He knows well that +he is free who pretendeth to books, although it be +nothing more."</p> + +<p>To this brief chronicle of early Fleet Street +printers let us add Richard Bancks, who, in 1600, +at his office, "the sign of the White Hart," printed +that exquisite fairy poem, Shakespeare's "Midsummer +Night's Dream." How one envies the +"reader" of that office, the compositors—nay, even +the sable imp who pulled the proof, and snatched +a passage or two about Mustard and Pease Blossom +in a surreptitious glance! Another great Fleet +Street printer was Richard Grafton, the printer, as +Mr. Noble says, of the first correct folio English +translation of the Bible, by permission of Henry VIII. +When in Paris, Grafton had to fly with his books +from the Inquisition. After his patron Cromwell's +execution, in 1540, Grafton was sent to the Fleet +for printing Bibles, but in the happier times of +Edward VI. he became king's printer at the Grey +Friars (now Christ's Hospital). His former fellow-worker +in Paris, Edward Whitchurch, set up his +press at De Worde's old house, the "Sun," near +the Fleet Street conduit. He published the "Paraphrase +of Erasmus," a copy of which, Mr. Noble +says, existed, with its desk-chains, in the vestry of +St. Benet's, Gracechurch Street. Whitchurch married +the widow of Archbishop Cranmer.</p> + +<p>The "Hercules Pillars" (now No. 27, Fleet +Street, south) was a celebrated tavern as early as +the reign of James I., and in the now nameless +alley by its side several houses of entertainment +nestled themselves. The tavern is interesting to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +chiefly because it was a favourite resort of Pepys, +who frequently mentions it in his quaint and +graphic way.</p> + +<p>No. 37 (Hoare's Bank), south, is well known by +the golden bottle that still hangs, exciting curiosity, +over the fanlight of the entrance. Popular legend +has it that this gilt case contains the original leather +bottle carried by the founder when he came up to +London, with the usual half-crown in his pocket, +to seek his fortune. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, however, +in his family history, destroys this romance. +The bottle is merely a sign adopted by James +Hoare, the founder of the bank, from his father +having been a citizen and cooper of the city of +London. James Hoare was a goldsmith who kept +"running cash" at the "Golden Bottle" in Cheapside +in 1677. The bank was removed to Fleet +Street between 1687 and 1692. The original +bank, described by Mr. Timbs as "a low-browed +building with a narrow entrance," was pulled down +about forty years since. In the records of the +debts of Lord Clarendon is the item, "To Mr. +Hoare, for plate, £27 10s. 3d."; and, by the secret +service expenses of James II., "Charles Duncombe +and James Hoare, Esqrs.," appear to have executed +for a time the office of master-workers at the +Mint. A Sir Richard Hoare was Lord Mayor in +1713; and another of the same family, sheriff in +1740-41 and Lord Mayor in 1745, distinguished himself +by his preparations to defend London against +the Pretender. In an autobiographical record still +extant of the shrievalty of the first of these gentlemen, +the writer says:—"After being regaled with +sack and walnuts, I returned to my own house in +Fleet Street, in my private capacity, to my great +consolation and comfort." This Richard Hoare, +with Beau Nash, Lady Hastings, &c., founded, in +1716, the Bath General Hospital, to which charity +the firm still continue treasurers; and to this same +philanthropic gentleman, Robert Nelson, who +wrote the well-known book on "Fasts and Festivals," +gave £100 in trust as the first legacy to +the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. +Mr. Noble quotes a curious broadside still extant +in which the second Sir Richard Hoare, who died +in 1754, denies a false and malicious report that he +had attempted to cause a run on the Bank of +England, and to occasion a disturbance in the +City, by sending persons to the Bank with ten +notes of £10 each. What a state of commercial +wealth, to be shaken by the sudden demand of a +mere £100!</p> + +<p>Next to Hoare's once stood the "Mitre Tavern," +where some of the most interesting of the meetings +between Dr. Johnson and Boswell took place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +The old tavern was pulled down, in 1829, by the +Messrs. Hoare, to extend their banking-house. The +original "Mitre" was of Shakespeare's time. In +some MS. poems by Richard Jackson, a contemporary +of the great poet, are some verses beginning, +"From the rich Lavinian shore," inscribed +as "Shakespeare's rime, which he made at ye +'Mitre,' in Fleet Street." The balcony was set on +flames during the Great Fire, and had to be pulled +down. Here, in June, 1763, Boswell came by +solemn appointment to meet Johnson, so long the +god of his idolatry. They had first met at the +shop of Davis, the actor and bookseller, and +afterwards near an eating-house in Butcher Row. +Boswell describes his feelings with delightful sincerity +and self-complacency. "We had," he says, +"a good supper and port wine, of which Johnson +then sometimes drank a bottle. The orthodox High +Church sound of the Mitre, the figure and manner +of the celebrated Samuel Johnson, the extraordinary +power of his conversation, and the pride +arising from finding myself admitted as his companion, +produced a variety of sensations and a +pleasing elevation of mind beyond what I had ever +before experienced." That memorable evening +Johnson ridiculed Colley Cibber's birthday odes +and Paul Whitehead's "grand nonsense," and ran +down Gray, who had declined his acquaintance. +He talked of other poets, and praised poor Goldsmith +as a worthy man and excellent author. Boswell +fairly won the great man by his frank avowals and +his adroit flattery. "Give me your hand," at last +cried the great man to the small man: "I have +taken a liking to you." They then finished a +bottle of port each, and parted between one and +two in the morning. As they shook hands, on +their way to No. 1, Inner Temple Lane, where +Johnson then lived, Johnson said, "Sir, I am glad +we have met. I hope we shall pass many evenings, +and mornings too, together." A few weeks after +the Doctor and his young disciple met again at the +"Mitre," and Goldsmith was present. The poet +was full of love for Dr. Johnson, and speaking of +some scapegrace, said tenderly, "He is now become +miserable, and that insures the protection of +Johnson." At another "Mitre" meeting, on a +Scotch gentleman present praising Scotch scenery, +Johnson uttered his bitter gibe, "Sir, let me tell +you that the noblest prospect which a Scotchman +ever sees is the high road that leads him to +England." In the same month Johnson and Boswell +met again at the "Mitre." The latter confessed +his nerves were much shaken by the old +port and the late tavern hours; and Johnson +laughed at people who had accepted a pension<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +from the house of Hanover abusing him as a +Jacobite. It was at the "Mitre" that Johnson +urged Boswell to publish his "Travels in Corsica;" +and at the "Mitre" he said finely of London, "Sir, +the happiness of London is not to be conceived +but by those who have been in it. I will venture +to say there is more learning and science within the +circumference of ten miles from where we sit than +in all the rest of the kingdom." It was here the +famous "Tour to the Hebrides" was planned and +laid out. Another time we find Goldsmith and +Boswell going arm-in-arm to Bolt Court, to prevail +on Johnson to go and sup at the "Mitre;" but he +was indisposed. Goldsmith, since "the big man" +could not go, would not venture at the "Mitre" +with Boswell alone. At Boswell's last "Mitre" +evening with Johnson, May, 1778, Johnson would +not leave Mrs. Williams, the blind old lady who +lived with him, till he had promised to send her +over some little dainty from the tavern. This was +very kindly and worthy of the man who had the +coat but not the heart of a bear. From 1728 +to 1753 the Society of Antiquaries met at the +"Mitre," and discussed subjects then wrongly considered +frivolous. The Royal Society had also +conclaves at the same celebrated tavern; and here, +in 1733, Thomas Topham, the strongest man of +his day, in the presence of eight persons, rolled up +with his iron fingers a large pewter dish. In 1788 +the "Mitre" ceased to be a tavern, and became, +first Macklin's Poet's Gallery, and then an auction-room. +The present spurious "Mitre Tavern," in +Mitre Court, was originally known as "Joe's Coffee-House."</p> + +<p>It was at No. 56 (south side) that Lamb's friend, +William Hone, the publisher of the delightful +"Table Book" and "Every-day Book," commenced +business about 1812. In 1815 he was brought +before the Wardmote Inquest of St. Dunstan's for +placarding his shop on Sundays, and for carrying +on a retail trade as bookseller and stationer, not +being a freeman. The Government had no doubt +suggested the persecution of so troublesome an +opponent, whose defence of himself is said to have +all but killed Lord Ellenborough, the judge who +tried him for publishing blasphemous parodies. In +1815 Hone took great interest in the case of +Eliza Fenning, a poor innocent servant girl, who +was hung for a supposed attempt to poison her +master, a law stationer in Chancery Lane. It was +afterwards believed that a nephew of Mr. Turner +really put the poison in the dough of some dumplings, +in revenge at being kept short of money.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cyrus Jay, a shrewd observer, was present at +Hone's trial, and has described it with vividness:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Hone defended himself firmly and well, but he +had no spark of eloquence about him. For years +afterwards I was often with him, and he was made +a great deal of in society. He became very religious, +and died a member of Mr. Clayton's Independent +chapel, worshipping at the Weigh House. +The last important incident of Lord Ellenborough's +political life was the part he took as presiding +judge in Hone's trials for the publication of certain +blasphemous parodies. At this time he was suffering +from the most intense exhaustion, and his +constitution was sinking under the fatigues of a +long and sedulous discharge of his important +duties. This did not deter him from taking his +seat upon the bench on this occasion. When he +entered the court, previous to the trial, Hone +shouted out, 'I am glad to see you, Lord Ellenborough. +I know what you are come here for; +I know what you want.' 'I am come to do +justice,' replied his lordship. 'My wish is to see +justice done.' 'Is it not rather, my lord,' retorted +Hone, 'to send a poor devil of a bookseller to rot +in a dungeon?' In the course of the proceedings +Lord Ellenborough more than once interfered. +Hone, it must be acknowledged, with less vehemence +than might have been expected, requested +him to forbear. The next time his lordship made +an observation, in answer to something the defendant +urged in the course of his speech, Hone +exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, 'I do not speak +to you, my lord; you are not my judge; these,' +pointing to the jury, 'these are my judges, and it +is to them that I address myself.' Hone avenged +himself on what he called the Chief Justice's partiality; +he wounded him where he could not defend +himself. Arguing that Athanasius was not the +author of the creed that bears his name, he cited, +by way of authority, passages from the writings of +Gibbon and Warburton to establish his position. +Fixing his eyes on Lord Ellenborough, he then +said, 'And, further, your lordship's father, the late +worthy Bishop of Carlisle, has taken a similar view +of the same creed.' Lord Ellenborough could not +endure this allusion to his father's heterodoxy. In +a broken voice he exclaimed, 'For the sake of +decency, forbear!' The <i>request</i> was immediately +complied with. The jury acquitted Hone, a result +which is said to have killed the Chief Justice; +but this is probably not true. That he suffered +in consequence of the trial is certain. After he +entered his private room, when the trial was over, +his strength had so far deserted him that his son +was obliged to put his hat on for him. But he +quickly recovered his spirits; and on his way +home, in passing through Charing Cross, he pulled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +the check-string, and said, 'It just occurs to me +that they sell here the best herrings in London; +buy six.' Indeed Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop +of Calcutta, who accompanied him in his carriage, +said that so far from his nerves being shaken +by the hootings of the mob, Lord Ellenborough +only observed that their saliva was worse than +their bite....</p> + +<p>"When Hone was tried before him for blasphemy, +Lord Tenterden treated him with great forbearance; +but Hone, not content with the indulgence, +took to vilifying the judge. 'Even in a +Turkish court I should not have met with the treatment +I have experienced here,' he exclaimed. +'Certainly,' replied Lord Tenterden; 'the bowstring +would have been round your neck an +hour ago.'"</p> + +<p>That sturdy political writer, William Cobbett, +lived at No. 183 (north), and there published his +<i>Political Register</i>. In 1819 he wrote from America, +declaring that if Sir Robert Peel's Bank Bill passed, +he would give Castlereagh leave to lay him on a +gridiron and broil him alive, while Sidmouth stirred +the coals, and Canning stood by and laughed at +his groans. In 1827 he announced in his +<i>Register</i> that he would place a gridiron on the +front of his shop whenever Peel's Bill was repealed. +The "Small Note Bill" was repealed, when there +was a reduction of the interest of the National +Debt. The gridiron so often threatened never +actually went up, but it was to be seen a few years +ago nailed on the gable end of a candle manufacturer's +at Kensington. The two houses next to +Cobbett's (184 and 185) are the oldest houses +standing in Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>"Peele's Coffee-House" (Nos. 177 and 178, north +side) once boasted a portrait of Dr. Johnson, said +to be by Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the keystone of +the mantelpiece. This coffee-house is of antiquity, +but is chiefly memorable for its useful files of newspapers +and for its having been the central committee-room +of the Society for Repealing the Paper +Duty. The struggle began in 1858, and eventually +triumphed, thanks to the president, the Right Hon. +Milner Gibson, and the chairman, the late Mr. +John Cassell. The house within the last few years +has been entirely rebuilt. In former times "Peele's +Coffee-House" was quite a house of call and post-office +for money-lenders and bill-discounters; +though crowds of barristers and solicitors also +frequented it, in order to consult the useful files of +London and country newspapers hoarded there +for now more than a century. Mr. Jay has left us an +amusing sketch of one of the former frequenters +of "Peele's"—the late Sir William Owen Barlow,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +a bencher of the Middle Temple. This methodical +old gentleman had never travelled in a stage-coach +or railway-carriage in his life, and had not for years +read a book. He came in for dinner at the same +hour every day, except in Term-time, and was very +angry if any loud talkers disturbed him at his +evening paper. He once requested the instant +discharge of a waiter at "Peele's," because the +civil but ungrammatical man had said, "There are +a leg of mutton, and there is chops."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The "Green Dragon"—Tompion and Pinchbeck—The <i>Record</i>—St. Bride's and its Memories—<i>Punch</i> and his Contributors—The <i>Dispatch</i>—The +<i>Daily Telegraph</i>—The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith—The <i>Morning Advertiser</i>—The <i>Standard</i>—The <i>London Magazine</i>—A +Strange Story—Alderman Waithman—Brutus Billy—Hardham and his "37."</p></div> + + +<p>The original "Green Dragon" (No. 56, south) was +destroyed by the Great Fire, and the new building +set six feet backward. During the Popish Plot +several anti-papal clubs met here; and from the +windows Roger North stood to see the shouting, +torch-waving procession pass along, to burn the +Pope's effigy at Temple Bar. In the "Discussion +Forum" many Lord Chancellors of the future have +tried their eloquence. It was celebrated some years +ago from an allusion to it made by Napoleon III.</p> + +<p>At No. 67 (corner of Whitefriars Street) once +lived that famous watchmaker of Queen Anne's +reign, Thomas Tompion, who is said, in 1700, to +have begun a clock for St. Paul's Cathedral which +was to go one hundred years without winding +up. He died in 1713. His apprentice, George +Graham, invented, as Mr. Noble tells us, the horizontal +escapement, in 1724. He was succeeded +by Mudge and Dutton, who, in 1768, made Dr. +Johnson his first watch. The old shop was (1850) +one of the last in Fleet Street to be modernised.</p> + +<p>Between Bolt and Johnson's courts (152-166, +north)—say near "Anderton's Hotel"—there +lived, in the reign of George II., at the sign of +the "Astronomer's Musical Clock," Christopher +Pinchbeck, an ingenious musical-clockmaker, +who invented the "cheap and useful imitation of +gold," which still bears his name. (Watt's, in his +"Dictionary of Chemistry," says "pinchbeck" is +an alloy of copper and zinc, usually containing +about nine parts copper to one part zinc. Brandt +says it is an alloy containing more copper than +exists in brass, and consequently made by fusing +various proportions of copper with brass.) Pinchbeck +often exhibited his musical automata in +a booth at Bartholomew Fair, and, in conjunction +with Fawkes the Conjuror, at Southwark Fair. +He made, according to Mr. Wood, an exquisite +musical clock, worth about £500, for Louis XIV.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +and a fine organ for the Great Mogul, valued at £300. +He died in 1732. He removed to Fleet Street +(between Bolt and Johnson's courts, north side) +from Clerkenwell in 1721. His clocks played tunes +and imitated the notes of birds. In 1765 he set +up, at the Queen's House, a clock with four faces, +showing the age of the moon, the day of the week +and month, the time of sun rising, &c.</p> + +<p>No. 161 (north) was the shop of Thomas Hardy, +that agitating bootmaker, secretary to the London +Corresponding Society, who was implicated in the +John Horne Tooke trials of 1794; and next door, +years after (No. 162), Richard Carlisle, a "freethinker," +opened a lecturing, conversation, and +discussion establishment, preached the "only true +gospel," hung effigies of bishops outside his shop, and +was eventually quieted by nine years' imprisonment, +a punishment by no means undeserved. No. 76 +(south) was once the entrance to the printing-office +of Samuel Richardson, the author of "Clarissa," +who afterwards lived in Salisbury Square, and +there held levees of his admirers, to whom he +read his works with an innocent vanity which +occasionally met with disagreeable rebuffs.</p> + +<p>"Anderton's Hotel" (No. 164, north side) occupies +the site of a house given, as Mr. Noble says, +in 1405, to the Goldsmiths' Company, under the +singular title of "The Horn in the Hoop," probably +at that time a tavern. In the register of +St. Dunstan's is an entry (1597), "Ralph slaine +at the Horne, buryed," but no further record +exists of this hot-headed roysterer. In the reign +of King James I. the "Horn" is described as +"between the 'Red Lion,' over against Serjeants' +Inn, and Three-legged Alley."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="evening" id="evening"></a> +<img src="images/p054.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />AN EVENING WITH DR. JOHNSON AT THE "MITRE"<br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="houses" id="houses"></a> +<img src="images/p055.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD HOUSES (STILL STANDING) IN FLEET STREET, NEAR ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The <i>Record</i> (No. 169, north side) started in 1828 +as an organ of the extreme Evangelical party. The +first promoters were the late Mr. James Evans, +a brother of Sir Andrew Agnew, and Mr. Andrew +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>Hamilton, of West Ham Common (the first secretary +of the Alliance Insurance Company). Among +their supporters were Henry Law, Dean of Gloucester, +and Francis Close, afterwards Dean of +Carlisle. Amongst its earliest writers was the +celebrated Dr. John Henry Newman, of Oxford. +The paper was all but dying when a new "whip" +was made for money, and the Rev. Henry Blunt, +of Chelsea, became for a short time its editor. +The <i>Record</i> at last began to flourish and to +assume a bolder and a more independent tone. +Dean Milman's neology, the peculiarities of the +Irvingites, and the dangerous Oxford tracts, were +alternately denounced. In due course the <i>Record</i> +began to appear three times a week, and became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +celebrated for its uncompromising religious tone +and, as Mr. James Grant truly says, for the +earliness and accuracy of its politico-ecclesiastical +information.</p> + +<p>The old church of St. Bride (Bridget) was of +great antiquity. As early as 1235 we find a turbulent +foreigner, named Henry de Battle, after slaying +one Thomas de Hall on the king's highway, flying +for sanctuary to St. Bride's, where he was guarded +by the aldermen and sheriffs, and examined in the +church by the Constable of the Tower. The murderer, +after confessing his crime, abjured the realm. +In 1413 a priest of St. Bride's was hung for an +intrigue in which he had been detected. William +Venor, a warden of the Fleet Prison, added<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +a body and side-aisles in 1480 (Edward IV.) At +the Reformation there were orchards between +the parsonage gardens and the Thames. In 1637, +a document in the Record Office, quoted by +Mr. Noble, mentions that Mr. Palmer, vicar of +St. Bride's, at the service at seven a.m., sometimes +omitted the prayer for the bishop, and, being generally +lax as to forms, often read service without +surplice, gown, or even his cloak. This worthy man, +whose living was sequestered in 1642, is recorded, +in order to save money for the poor, to have lived in +a bed-chamber in St. Bride's steeple. He founded +an almshouse in Westminster, upon which Fuller +remarks, in his quaint way, "It giveth the best light +when one carrieth his lantern before him." The +brother of Pepys was buried here in 1664 under +his mother's pew. The old church was swallowed +up by the Great Fire, and the present building +erected in 1680, at a cost of £11,430 5s. 11d. +The tower and spire were considered masterpieces +of Wren. The spire, originally 234 feet high, was +struck by lightning in 1754, and it is now only 226 +feet high. It was again struck in 1803. The +illuminated dial (the second erected in London) was +set up permanently in 1827. The Spital sermons, +now preached in Christ Church, Newgate Street, +were preached in St. Bride's from the Restoration +till 1797. They were originally all preached +in the yard of the hospital of St. Mary Spital, +Bishopsgate. Mr. Noble, has ransacked the +records relating to St. Bride's with the patience of +old Stow. St. Bride's, he says, was renowned for +its tithe-rate contests; but after many lawsuits +and great expense, a final settlement of the question +was come to in the years 1705-6. An Act was +passed in 1706, by which Thomas Townley, who +had rented the tithes for twenty-one years, was to +be paid £1,200 within two years, by quarterly payments +and £400 a year afterwards. In 1869 the +inappropriate rectory of St. Bridget and the tithes +thereof, except the advowson, the parsonage house, +and Easter-dues offerings, were sold by auction for +£2,700. It may be here worthy to note, says +Mr. Noble, that in 1705 the number of rateable +houses in the parish of St. Bride was 1,016, and +the rental £18,374; in 1868 the rental was +£205,407 gross, or £168,996 rateable.</p> + +<p>Mr. Noble also records pleasantly the musical +feats accomplished on the bells of St. Bride's. In +1710 ten bells were cast for this church by Abraham +Rudhall, of Gloucester, and on the 11th of +January, 1717, it is recorded that the first complete +peal of 5,040 grandsire caters ever rung was +effected by the "London scholars." In 1718 two +treble bells were added; and on the 9th of January,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +1724, the first peal ever completed in this kingdom +upon twelve bells was rung by the college youths; +and in 1726 the first peal of Bob Maximus, one +of the ringers being Mr. Francis (afterwards Admiral) +Geary. It was reported by the ancient ringers, +says our trustworthy authority, that every one who +rang in the last-mentioned peal left the church in +his own carriage. Such was the dignity of the "campanularian" +art in those days. When St. Bride's +bells were first put up, Fleet Street used to be +thronged with carriages full of gentry, who had come +far and near to hear the pleasant music float aloft. +During the terrible Gordon Riots, in 1780, Brasbridge, +the silversmith, who wrote an autobiography, +says he went up to the top of St. Bride's steeple to +see the awful spectacle of the conflagration of the +Fleet Prison, but the flakes of fire, even at that +great height, fell so thickly as to render the situation +untenable.</p> + +<p>Many great people lie in and around St. Bride's; +and Mr. Noble gives several curious extracts from +the registers. Among the names we find Wynkyn +de Worde, the second printer in London; Baker, +the chronicler; Lovelace, the Cavalier poet, who +died of want in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe Lane; +Ogilby, the translator of Homer; the Countess of +Orrery (1710); Elizabeth Thomas, a lady immortalised +by Pope; and John Hardham, the Fleet Street +tobacconist. The entrance to the vault of Mr. +Holden (a friend of Pepys), on the north side of +the church, is a relic of the older building. Inside +St. Bride's are monuments to Richardson, the +novelist; Nichols, the historian of Leicestershire; +and Alderman Waithman. Among the clergy of +St. Bride's Mr. Noble notes John Cardmaker, who +was burnt at Smithfield for heresy, in 1555; Fuller, +the Church historian and author of the "Worthies," +who was lecturer here; Dr. Isaac Madox, originally +an apprentice to a pastrycook, and who died Bishop +of Winchester in 1759; and Dr. John Thomas, vicar, +who died in 1793. There were two John Thomases +among the City clergy of that time. They were both +chaplains to the king, both good preachers, both +squinted, and both died bishops!</p> + +<p>The present approach to St. Bride's, designed by +J.P. Papworth, in 1824, cost £10,000, and was +urged forward by Mr. Blades, a Tory tradesman of +Ludgate Hill, and a great opponent of Alderman +Waithman. A fire that had destroyed some +ricketty old houses gave the requisite opportunity +for letting air and light round poor, smothered-up +St. Bride's.</p> + +<p>The office of <i>Punch</i> (No. 85, south side) is said +to occupy the site of the small school, in the house +of a tailor, in which Milton once earned a precarious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +living. Here, ever since 1841, the pleasant jester of +Fleet Street has scared folly by the jangle of his bells +and the blows of his staff. The best and most +authentic account of the origin of <i>Punch</i> is to be +found in the following communication to <i>Notes and +Queries</i>, September 30, 1870. Mr. W.H. Wills, who +was one of the earliest contributors to <i>Punch</i>, says:—</p> + +<p>"The idea of converting <i>Punch</i> from a strolling +to a literary laughing philosopher belongs to Mr. +Henry Mayhew, former editor (with his schoolfellow +Mr. Gilbert à Beckett) of <i>Figaro in London</i>. +The first three numbers, issued in July and August, +1841, were composed almost entirely by that +gentleman, Mr. Mark Lemon, Mr. Henry Plunkett +('Fusbos'), Mr. Stirling Coyne, and the writer of +these lines. Messrs. Mayhew and Lemon put the +numbers together, but did not formally dub themselves +editors until the appearance of their 'Shilling's +Worth of Nonsense.' The cartoons, then 'Punch's +Pencillings,' and the smaller cuts, were drawn by +Mr. A.S. Henning, Mr. Newman, and Mr. Alfred +Forester ('Crowquill'); later, by Mr. Hablot Browne +and Mr. Kenny Meadows. The designs were engraved +by Mr. Ebenezer Landells, who occupied also +the important position of 'capitalist.' Mr. Gilbert +à Beckett's first contribution to <i>Punch</i>, 'The Above-bridge +Navy,' appeared in No. 4, with Mr. John +Leech's earliest cartoon, 'Foreign Affairs.' It was +not till Mr. Leech's strong objection to treat +political subjects was overcome, that, long after, he +began to illustrate <i>Punch's</i> pages regularly. This +he did, with the brilliant results that made his +name famous, down to his untimely death. The +letterpress description of 'Foreign Affairs' was +written by Mr. Percival Leigh, who—also after +an interval—steadily contributed. Mr. Douglas +Jerrold began to wield <i>Punch's</i> baton in No. 9. +His 'Peel Regularly Called in' was the first of +those withering political satires, signed with a 'J' +in the corner of each page opposite to the cartoon, +that conferred on <i>Punch</i> a wholesome influence in +politics. Mr. Albert Smith made his <i>début</i> in this +wise:—At the birth of <i>Punch</i> had just died a +periodical called (I think) the <i>Cosmorama</i>. When +moribund, Mr. Henry Mayhew was called in to +resuscitate it. This periodical bequeathed a comic +census-paper filled up, in the character of a showman, +so cleverly that the author was eagerly sought +at the starting of <i>Punch</i>. He proved to be a +medical student hailing from Chertsey, and signing +the initials A.S.—'only,' remarked Jerrold, two-thirds +of the truth, perhaps.' This pleasant supposition +was, however, reversed at the very first +introduction. On that occasion Mr. Albert +Smith left the 'copy' of the opening of 'The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>Physiology of the London Medical Student. +The writers already named, with a few volunteers +selected from the editor's box, filled the first +volume, and belonged to the ante-'B. & E.' era of +<i>Punch's</i> history. The proprietary had hitherto +consisted of Messrs. Henry Mayhew, Lemon, +Coyne, and Landells. The printer and publisher +also held shares, and were treasurers. Although +the popularity of <i>Punch</i> exceeded all expectation, +the first volume ended in difficulties. From these +storm-tossed seas <i>Punch</i> was rescued and brought +into smooth water by Messrs. Bradbury & Evans, +who acquired the copyright and organised the staff. +Then it was that Mr. Mark Lemon was appointed +sole editor, a new office having been created for +Mr. Henry Mayhew—that of Suggestor-in-Chief; +Mr. Mayhew's contributions, and his felicity in inventing +pictorial and in 'putting' verbal witticisms, +having already set a deep mark upon <i>Punch's</i> success. +The second volume started merrily. Mr. John +Oxenford contributed his first <i>jeu d'esprit</i> in its final +number on 'Herr Döbler and the Candle-Counter.' +Mr. Thackeray commenced his connection in the +beginning of the third volume with 'Miss Tickletoby's +Lectures on English History,' illustrated by +himself. A few weeks later a handsome young +student returned from Germany. He was heartily +welcomed by his brother, Mr. Henry Mayhew, and +then by the rest of the fraternity. Mr. Horace +Mayhew's diploma joke consisted, I believe, of +'Questions addressées au Grand Concours aux +Elèves d'Anglais du Collége St. Badaud, dans le +Département de la Haute Cockaigne' (vol. iii., +p. 89). Mr. Richard Doyle, Mr. Tenniel, Mr. +Shirley Brooks, Mr. Tom Taylor, and the younger +celebrities who now keep <i>Mr. Punch</i> in vigorous +and jovial vitality, joined his establishment after +some of the birth-mates had been drafted off to +graver literary and other tasks."</p> + +<p>Mr. Mark Lemon remained editor of <i>Punch</i> from +1841 till 1870, when he died. Mr. Gilbert à Beckett +died at Boulogne in 1856. This most accomplished +and gifted writer succeeded in the more varied kinds +of composition, turning with extraordinary rapidity +from a <i>Times</i> leader to a <i>Punch</i> epigram.</p> + +<p>A pamphlet attributed to Mr. Blanchard conveys, +after all, the most minute account of the origin of +<i>Punch</i>. A favourite story of the literary gossipers +who have made <i>Mr. Punch</i> their subject from time +to time, says the writer, is that he was born in a +tavern parlour. The idea usually presented to the +public is, that a little society of great men used to +meet together in a private room in a tavern close +to Drury Lane Theatre—the "Crown Tavern," in +Vinegar Yard. The truth is this:—</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> +<p>In the year 1841 there was a printing-office in a +court running out of Fleet Street—No. 3, Crane +Court—wherein was carried on the business of +Mr. William Last. It was here that <i>Punch</i> first saw +the light. The house, by the way, enjoys besides +a distinction of a different kind—that of being +the birthplace of "Parr's Life Pills;" for Mr. +Herbert Ingram, who had not at that time launched +the <i>Illustrated London News</i>, nor become a member +of Parliament, was then introducing that since +celebrated medicine to the public, and for that +purpose had rented some rooms on the premises +of his friend Mr. Last.</p> + +<p>The circumstance which led to <i>Punch's</i> birth was +simple enough. In June, 1841, Mr. Last called +upon Mr. Alfred Mayhew, then in the office of his +father, Mr. Joshua Mayhew, the well-known solicitor, +of Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mr. Mayhew +was Mr. Last's legal adviser, and Mr. Last +was well acquainted with several of his sons. +Upon the occasion in question Mr. Last made +some inquiries of Mr. Alfred Mayhew concerning +his brother Henry, and his occupation at the time. +Mr. Henry Mayhew had, even at his then early +age, a reputation for the high abilities which he +afterwards developed, had already experience in +various departments of literature, and had exercised +his projective and inventive faculties in +various ways. If his friends had heard nothing of +him for a few months, they usually found that he +had a new design in hand, which was, however, in +many cases, of a more original than practical character. +Mr. Henry Mayhew, as it appeared from his +brother Alfred's reply, was not at that time engaged +in any new effort of his creative genius, and would +be open to a proposal for active service.</p> + +<p>Having obtained Mr. Henry Mayhew's address, +which was in Clement's Inn, Mr. Last called upon +that gentleman on the following morning, and +opened to him a proposal for a comic and satirical +journal. Henry Mayhew readily entertained the +idea; and the next question was, "Can you get up +a staff?" Henry Mayhew mentioned his friend +Mark Lemon as a good commencement; and the +pair proceeded to call upon that gentleman, who was +living, not far off, in Newcastle Street, Strand. The +almost immediate result was the starting of <i>Punch</i>.</p> + +<p>At a meeting at the "Edinburgh Castle" Mr. +Mark Lemon drew up the original prospectus. It +was at first intended to call the new publication +"The Funny Dog," or "Funny Dog, with Comic +Tales," and from the first the subsidiary title of the +"London Charivari" was agreed upon. At a subsequent +meeting at the printing-office, some one +made some allusion to the "Punch," and some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +joke about the "Lemon" in it. Henry Mayhew, +with his usual electric quickness, at once flew at +the idea, and cried out, "A good thought; we'll +call it <i>Punch</i>." It was then remembered that, years +before, Douglas Jerrold had edited a <i>Penny Punch</i> +for Mr. Duncombe, of Middle Row, Holborn, but +this was thought no objection, and the new name +was carried by acclamation. It was agreed that +there should be four proprietors—Messrs. Last, +Landells, Lemon, and Mayhew. Last was to +supply the printing, Landells the engraving, and +Lemon and Mayhew were to be co-editors. George +Hodder, with his usual good-nature, at once secured +Mr. Percival Leigh as a contributor, and Leigh +brought in his friend Mr. John Leech, and Leech +brought in Albert Smith. Mr. Henning designed +the cover. When Last had sunk £600, he sold it +to Bradbury & Evans, on receiving the amount +of his then outstanding liabilities. At the transfer, +Henning and Newman both retired, Mr. Coyne +and Mr. Grattan seldom contributed, and Messrs. +Mayhew and Landells also seceded.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hine, the artist, remained with <i>Punch</i> for many +years; and among other artistic contributors who +"came and went," to use Mr. Blanchard's own words, +we must mention Birket Foster, Alfred Crowquill, +Lee, Hamerton, John Gilbert, William Harvey, and +Kenny Meadows, the last of whom illustrated one +of Jerrold's earliest series, "Punch's Letters to +His Son." <i>Punch's Almanac</i> for 1841 was concocted +for the greater part by Dr. Maginn, who +was then in the Fleet Prison, where Thackeray has +drawn him, in the character of Captain Shandon, +writing the famous prospectus for the <i>Pall Mall +Gazette</i>. The earliest hits of <i>Punch</i> were Douglas +Jerrold's articles signed "J." and Gilbert à Beckett's +"Adventures of Mr. Briefless." In October, 1841, +Mr. W.H. Wills, afterwards working editor of <i>Household +Words</i> and <i>All the Year Round</i>, commenced +"Punch's Guide to the Watering-Places." In +January, 1842, Albert Smith commenced his lively +"Physiology of London Evening Parties," which +were illustrated by Newman; and he wrote the +"Physiology of the London Idler," which Leech +illustrated. In the third volume, Jerrold commenced +"Punch's Letters to His Son;" and in +the fourth volume, his "Story of a Feather;" +Albert Smith's "Side-Scenes of Society" carried +on the social dissections of the comic physiologist, +and à Beckett began his "Heathen Mythology," +and created the character of "Jenkins," the supposed +fashionable correspondent of the <i>Morning +Post</i>. <i>Punch</i> had begun his career by ridiculing +Lord Melbourne; he now attacked Brougham, for +his temporary subservience to Wellington; and Sir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +James Graham came also in for a share of the rod; +and the <i>Morning Herald</i> and <i>Standard</i> were christened +"Mrs. Gamp" and "Mrs. Harris," as old-fogyish +opponents of Peel and the Free-Traders. +À Beckett's "Comic Blackstone" proved a great +hit, from its daring originality; and incessant jokes +were squibbed off on Lord John Russell, Prince +Albert (for his military tailoring), Mr. Silk Buckingham +and Lord William Lennox, Mr. Samuel Carter +Hall and Mr. Harrison Ainsworth. Tennyson +once, and once only, wrote for <i>Punch</i>, a reply to +Lord Lytton (then Mr. Bulwer), who had coarsely +attacked him in his "New Timon," where he had +spoken flippantly of</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A quaint farrago of absurd conceits,<br /> +Out-babying Wordsworth and out-glittering Keats."</div> + +<p>The epigram ended with these bitter and contemptuous +lines,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A Timon you? Nay, nay, for shame!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It looks too arrogant a jest—</span><br /> +That fierce old man—to take his name,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You bandbox! Off, and let him rest."</span></div> + +<p>Albert Smith left <i>Punch</i> many years before his +death. In 1845, on his return from the East, Mr. +Thackeray began his "Jeames's Diary," and became +a regular contributor. Gilbert à Beckett was now +beginning his "Comic History of England" and +Douglas Jerrold his inimitable "Caudle Lectures." +Thomas Hood occasionally contributed, but his +immortal "Song of the Shirt" was his <i>chef-d'œuvre</i>. +Coventry Patmore contributed once to <i>Punch</i>; +his verses denounced General Pellisier and his +cruelty at the caves of Dahra. Laman Blanchard +occasionally wrote; his best poem was one on the +marriage and temporary retirement of charming +Mrs. Nisbett. In 1846 Thackeray's "Snobs of +England" was highly successful. Richard Doyle's +"Manners and Customs of ye English" brought +<i>Punch</i> much increase. The present cover of +<i>Punch</i> is by Doyle, who, being a zealous Roman +Catholic, eventually left <i>Punch</i> when it began to +ridicule the Pope and condemn Papal aggression. +<i>Punch</i> in his time has had his raps, but not many +and not hard ones. Poor Angus B. Reach (whose +mind went early in life), with Albert Smith and +Shirley Brooks, ridiculed <i>Punch</i> in the <i>Man in the +Moon</i>, and in 1847 the Poet Bunn—"Hot, cross +Bunn"—provoked at incessant attacks on his +operatic verses, hired a man of letters to write +"A Word with <i>Punch</i>" and a few smart personalities +soon silenced the jester. "Towards 1848," +says Mr. Blanchard, "Douglas Jerrold, then writing +plays and editing a magazine, began to write less +for <i>Punch</i>." In 1857 he died. Among the later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +additions to the staff were Mr. Tom Taylor and +Mr. Shirley Brooks.</p> + +<p>The <i>Dispatch</i> (No. 139, north) was established +by Mr. Bell, in 1801. Moving from Bride Lane +to Newcastle Street, and thence to Wine Office +Court, it settled down in the present locality in +1824. Mr. Bell was an energetic man, and the +paper succeeded in obtaining a good position; +but he was not a man of large capital, and other +persons had shares in the property. In consequence +of difficulties between the proprietors there +were at one time three <i>Dispatches</i> in the field—Bell's, +Kent's, and Duckett's; but the two last-mentioned +were short-lived, and Mr. Bell maintained +his position. Bell's was a sporting paper, with many +columns devoted to pugilism, and a woodcut exhibiting +two boxers ready for an encounter. But +the editor (says a story more or less authentic), +Mr. Samuel Smith, who had obtained his post by +cleverly reporting a fight near Canterbury, one +day received a severe thrashing from a famous +member of the ring. This changed the editor's +opinions as to the propriety of boxing—at any-rate +pugilism was repudiated by the <i>Dispatch</i> +about 1829; and boxing, from the <i>Dispatch</i> point of +view, was henceforward treated as a degrading and +brutal amusement, unworthy of our civilisation.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harmer (afterwards Alderman), a solicitor in +extensive practice in Old Bailey cases, became +connected with the paper about the time when the +Fleet Street office was established, and contributed +capital, which soon bore fruit. The success was +so great, that for many years the <i>Dispatch</i> as a +property was inferior only to the <i>Times</i>. It became +famous for its letters on political subjects. +The original "Publicola" was Mr. Williams, a +violent and coarse but very vigorous and popular +writer. He wrote weekly for about sixteen or +seventeen years, and after his death the signature +was assumed by Mr. Fox, the famous orator and +member for Oldham. Other writers also borrowed +the well-known signature. Eliza Cooke wrote in the +<i>Dispatch</i> in 1836, at first signing her poems "E." +and "E.C."; but in the course of the following year +her name appeared in full. She contributed a poem +weekly for several years, relinquishing her connection +with the paper in 1850. Afterwards, in +1869, when the property changed hands, she wrote +two or three poems. Under the signature "Caustic," +Mr. Serle, the dramatic author and editor, contributed +a weekly letter for about twenty-seven +years; and from 1856 till 1869 was editor-in chief. +In 1841-42 the <i>Dispatch</i> had a hard-fought duel +with the <i>Times</i>. "Publicola" wrote a series of +letters, which had the effect of preventing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +election of Mr. Walter for Southwark. The <i>Times</i> +retaliated when the time came for Alderman +Harmer to succeed to the lord mayoralty. Day after +day the <i>Times</i> returned to the attack, denouncing +the <i>Dispatch</i> as an infidel paper; and Alderman +Harmer, rejected by the City, resigned in consequence +his aldermanic gown. In 1857 the <i>Dispatch</i> +commenced the publication of its famous "Atlas," +giving away a good map weekly for about five years. +The price was reduced from fivepence to twopence, +at the beginning of 1869, and to a penny in 1870.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="brides" id="brides"></a> +<img src="images/p060.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, AFTER THE FIRE, 1824</span> +</div> + +<p>The <i>Daily Telegraph</i> office is No. 136 (north). +Mr. Ingram, of the <i>Illustrated London News</i>, +originated a paper called the <i>Telegraph</i>, which lasted +only seven or eight weeks. The present <i>Daily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +Telegraph</i> was started on June 29, 1855, by +the late Colonel Sleigh. It was a single sheet, +and the price twopence. Colonel Sleigh failing to +make it a success, Mr. Levy, the present chief +proprietor of the paper, took the copyright as part +security for money owed him by Colonel Sleigh. +In Mr. Levy's hands the paper, reduced to a penny, +became a great success. "It was," says Mr. Grant, +in his "History of the Newspaper Press," "the +first of the penny papers, while a single sheet, and +as such was regarded as a newspaper marvel; but +when it came out—which it did soon after the +<i>Standard</i>—as a double sheet the size of the <i>Times</i>, +published at fourpence, for a penny, it created quite +a sensation. Here was a penny paper, containing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +not only the same amount of telegraphic and +general information as the other high-priced +papers—their price being then fourpence—but +also evidently written, in its leading article department, +with an ability which could only be +surpassed by that of the leading articles of the +<i>Times</i> itself. This was indeed a new era in the +morning journalism of the metropolis." When Mr. +Levy bought the <i>Telegraph</i>, the sum which he +received for advertisements in the first number was +exactly 7s. 6d. The daily receipts for advertisements +are now said to exceed £500. Mr. Grant +says that the remission of the tax on paper +brought £12,000 a year extra to the <i>Telegraph</i>. +Ten pages for a penny is no uncommon thing with +the <i>Telegraph</i> during the Parliamentary session. +The returns of sales given by the <i>Telegraph</i> for the +half-year ending 1870 show an average daily sale +of 190,885; and though this was war time, a +competent authority estimates the average daily +sale at 175,000 copies. One of the printing-machines +recently set up by the proprietors of +the <i>Telegraph</i> throws off upwards of 200 copies +per minute, or 12,000 an hour.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="waithmans" id="waithmans"></a> +<img src="images/p061.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WAITHMAN'S SHOP</span> +</div> + +<p>The "Globe Tavern" (No. 134, north), though now +only a memory, abounds with traditions of Goldsmith +and his motley friends. The house, in 1649, was +leased to one Henry Hottersall for forty-one years, +at the yearly rent of £75, ten gallons of Canary +sack, and £400 fine. Mr. John Forster gives a +delightful sketch of Goldsmith's Wednesday evening +club at the "Globe," in 1767. When not at +Johnson's great club, Oliver beguiled his cares at a +shilling rubber club at the "Devil Tavern," or at a +humble gathering in the parlour of the "Bedford," +Covent Garden. A hanger-on of the theatres, who +frequented the "Globe," has left notes which Mr. +Forster has admirably used, and which we now +abridge without further apology. Grim old Macklin +belonged to the club it is certain; and +among the less obscure members was King, the +comedian, the celebrated impersonator of Lord +Ogleby. Hugh Kelly, another member, was a +clever young Irishman, who had chambers near +Goldsmith in the Temple. He had been a stay-maker's +apprentice, who, turning law writer, and +soon landing as a hack for the magazines, set +up as a satirist for the stage, and eventually,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +through Garrick's patronage, succeeded in sentimental +comedy. It was of him Johnson said, +"Sir, I never desire to converse with a man who +has written more than he has read." Poor Kelly +afterwards went to the Bar, and died of disappointment +and over-work. A third member was Captain +Thompson, a friend of Garrick's, who wrote some +good sea songs and edited "Andrew Marvell;" but +foremost among all the boon companions was +a needy Irish doctor named Glover, who had +appeared on the stage, and who was said to have +restored to life a man who had been hung; this +Glover, who was famous for his songs and imitations, +once had the impudence, like Theodore +Hook, to introduce Goldsmith, during a summer +ramble in Hampstead, to a party where he was +an entire stranger, and to pass himself off as a +friend of the host. "Our Dr. Glover," says +Goldsmith, "had a constant levee of his distressed +countrymen, whose wants, as far as he was able, he +always relieved." Gordon, the fattest man in the +club, was renowned for his jovial song of "Nottingham +Ale;" and on special occasions Goldsmith +himself would sing his favourite nonsense about the +little old woman who was tossed seventeen times +higher than the moon. A fat pork-butcher at the +"Globe" used to offend Goldsmith by constantly +shouting out, "Come, Noll, here's my service to +you, old boy." After the success of <i>The Good-natured +Man</i>, this coarse familiarity was more than +Goldsmith's vanity could bear, so one special night +he addressed the butcher with grave reproof. The +stolid man, taking no notice, replied briskly, +"Thankee, Mister Noll." "Well, where is the +advantage of your reproof?" asked Glover. "In +truth," said Goldsmith, good-naturedly, "I give it +up; I ought to have known before that there is no +putting a pig in the right way." Sometimes rather +cruel tricks were played on the credulous poet. +One evening Goldsmith came in clamorous for his +supper, and ordered chops. Directly the supper +came in, the wags, by pre-agreement, began to sniff +and swear. Some pushed the plate away; others +declared the rascal who had dared set such chops +before a gentleman should be made to swallow them +himself. The waiter was savagely rung up, and +forced to eat the supper, to which he consented +with well-feigned reluctance, the poet calmly ordering +a fresh supper and a dram for the poor waiter, "who +otherwise might get sick from so nauseating a +meal." Poor Goldy! kindly even at his most foolish +moments. A sadder story still connects Goldsmith +with the "Globe." Ned Purdon, a worn-out +booksellers' hack and a <i>protégé</i> of Goldsmith's, +dropped down dead in Smithfield. Goldsmith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +wrote his epitaph as he came from his chambers in +the Temple to the "Globe." The lines are:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed,<br /> + Who long was a booksellers' hack;<br /> +He led such a miserable life in this world,<br /> + I don't think he'll wish to come back." +</div> + +<p>Goldsmith sat next Glover that night at the club, +and Glover heard the poet repeat, <i>sotto voce</i>, with a +mournful intonation, the words,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"I don't think he'll wish to come back." +</div> + +<p>Oliver was musing over his own life, and Mr. Forster +says touchingly, "It is not without a certain pathos +to me, indeed, that he should have so repeated it."</p> + +<p>Among other frequenters of the "Globe" were +Boswell's friend Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, +who always thought it prudent never to return home +till daybreak; and William Woodfall, the celebrated +Parliamentary reporter. In later times Brasbridge, +the sporting silversmith of Fleet Street, was a frequenter +of the club. He tells us that among +his associates was a surgeon, who, living on the +Surrey side of the Thames, had to take a boat +every night (Blackfriar's Bridge not being then +built). This nightly navigation cost him three +or four shillings a time, yet, when the bridge came, +he grumbled at having to pay a penny toll. +Among other frequenters of the "Globe," Mr. +Timbs enumerates "Archibald Hamilton, whose +mind was 'fit for a lord chancellor;' Dunstall, the +comedian; Carnan, the bookseller, who defeated +the Stationers' Company in the almanack trial; +and, later still, the eccentric Hugh Evelyn, who set +up a claim upon the great Surrey estate of Sir +Frederic Evelyn."</p> + +<p>The <i>Standard</i> (No. 129, north), "the largest daily +paper," was originally an evening paper alone. In +1826 a deputation of the leading men opposed to +Catholic Emancipation waited on Mr. Charles +Baldwin, proprietor of the <i>St. James's Chronicle</i>, and +begged him to start an anti-Catholic evening paper, +but Mr. Baldwin refused unless a preliminary sum +of £15,000 was lodged at the banker's. A year later +this sum was deposited, and in 1827 the <i>Evening +Standard</i>, edited by Dr. Giffard, ex-editor of the +<i>St. James's Chronicle</i>, appeared. Mr. Alaric Watts, +the poet, was succeeded as sub-editor of the +<i>Standard</i> by the celebrated Dr. Maginn. The +daily circulation soon rose from 700 or 800 copies +to 3,000 and over. The profits Mr. Grant calculates +at £7,000 to £8,000 a year. On the +bankruptcy of Mr. Charles Baldwin, Mr. James +Johnson bought the <i>Morning Herald</i> and +<i>Standard</i>, plant and all, for £16,500. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +proprietor reduced the <i>Standard</i> from fourpence +to twopence, and made it a morning as well as an +evening paper. In 1858 he reduced it to a penny +only. The result was a great success. The +annual income of the <i>Standard</i> is now, Mr. Grant +says, "much exceeding yearly the annual incomes of +most of the ducal dignities of the land." The legend +of the Duke of Newcastle presenting Dr. Giffard, +in 1827, with £1,200 for a violent article against +Roman Catholic claims, has been denied by Dr. +Giffard's son in the <i>Times</i>. The Duke of Wellington +once wrote to Dr. Giffard to dictate the line the +<i>Standard</i> and <i>Morning Herald</i> were to adopt on +a certain question during the agitation on the +Maynooth Bill; and Dr. Giffard withdrew his opposition +to please Sir Robert Peel—a concession which +injured the <i>Standard</i>. Yet in the following year, +when Sir Robert Peel brought in his Bill for the +abolition of the corn laws, he did not even pay Dr. +Giffard the compliment of apprising him of his +intention. Such is official gratitude when a tool is +done with.</p> + +<p>Near Shoe Lane lived one of Caxton's disciples. +Wynkyn de Worde, who is supposed to have +been one of Caxton's assistants or workmen, was a +native of Lorraine. He carried on a prosperous +career, says Dibdin, from 1502 to 1534, at the sign +of the "Sun," in the parish of St. Bride's, Fleet Street. +In upwards of four hundred works published by +this industrious man he displayed unprecedented +skill, elegance, and care, and his Gothic type was +considered a pattern for his successors. The books +that came from his press were chiefly grammars, +romances, legends of the saints, and fugitive poems; +he never ventured on an English New Testament, +nor was any drama published bearing his name. +His great patroness, Margaret, the mother of +Henry VII., seems to have had little taste to guide +De Worde in his selection, for he never reprinted +the works of Chaucer or of Gower; nor did his +humble patron, Robert Thorney, the mercer, lead +him in a better direction. De Worde filled his black-letter +books with rude engravings, which he used +so indiscriminately that the same cut often served +for books of a totally opposite character. By some +writers De Worde is considered to be the first +introducer of Roman letters into this country; +but the honour of that mode of printing is now +generally claimed by Pynson, a contemporary. +Among other works published by De Worde were +"The Ship of Fools," that great satire that was +so long popular in England; Mandeville's lying +"Travels;" "La Morte d'Arthur" (from which +Tennyson has derived so much inspiration); "The +Golden Legend;" and those curious treatises on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +"Hunting, Hawking, and Fishing," partly written +by Johanna Berners, a prioress of St. Alban's. In +De Worde's "Collection of Christmas Carols" we +find the words of that fine old song, still sung +annually at Queen's College, Oxford,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"The boar's head in hand bring I,<br /> +With garlands gay and rosemary." +</div> + +<p>De Worde also published some writings of Erasmus. +The old printer was buried in the parish church of +St. Bride's, before the high altar of St. Katherine; +and he left land to the parish so that masses should +be said for his soul. To his servants, not forgetting +his bookbinder, Nowel, in Shoe Lane, he bequeathed +books. De Worde lived near the Conduit, +a little west of Shoe Lane. This conduit, which was +begun in the year 1439 by Sir William Estfielde, +a former Lord Mayor, and finished in 1471, +was, according to Stow's account, a stone tower, +with images of St. Christopher on the top and +angels, who, on sweet-sounding bells, hourly chimed +a hymn with hammers, thus anticipating the +wonders of St. Dunstan's. These London conduits +were great resorts for the apprentices, whom their +masters sent with big leather and metal jugs to +bring home the daily supply of water. Here these +noisy, quarrelsome young rascals stayed to gossip, +idle, and fight. At the coronation of Anne Boleyn +this conduit was newly painted, all the arms +and angels refreshed, and "the music melodiously +sounding." Upon the conduit was raised a +tower with four turrets, and in every turret stood +one of the cardinal virtues, promising never to +leave the queen, while, to the delight and wonder +of thirsty citizens, the taps ran with claret and +red wine. Fleet Street, according to Mr. Noble, +was supplied with water in the Middle Ages from +the conduit at Marylebone and the holy wells +of St. Clement's and St. Bridget's. The tradition +is that the latter well was drained dry for the supply +of the coronation banquet of George IV. As early +as 1358 the inhabitants of Fleet Street complained +of aqueduct pipes bursting and flooding their +cellars, upon which they were allowed the privilege +of erecting a pent-house over an aqueduct opposite +the tavern of John Walworth, and near the +house of the Bishop of Salisbury. In 1478 a Fleet +Street wax-chandler, having been detected tapping +the conduit pipes for his own use, was sentenced +to ride through the City with a vessel shaped like +a conduit on his felonious head, and the City crier +walking before him to proclaim his offence.</p> + +<p>The "Castle Tavern," mentioned as early as +1432, stood at the south-west corner of Shoe +Lane. Here the Clockmakers' Company held their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +meetings before the Great Fire, and in 1708 the +"Castle" possessed the largest sign in London. +Early in the last century, says Mr. Noble, its proprietor +was Alderman Sir John Task, a wine merchant, +who died in 1735 (George II.), worth, it was +understood, a quarter of a million of money.</p> + +<p>The <i>Morning Advertiser</i> (No. 127, north) was +established in 1794, by the Society of Licensed +Victuallers, on the mutual benefit society principle. +Every member is bound to take in the paper and +is entitled to a share in its profits. Members unsuccessful +in business become pensioners on the +funds of the institution. The paper, which took +the place of the <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, and was the +suggestion of Mr. Grant, a master printer, was an +immediate success. Down to 1850 the <i>Morning +Advertiser</i> circulated chiefly in public-houses and +coffee-houses at the rate of nearly 5,000 copies a +day. But in 1850, the circulation beginning to +decline, the committee resolved to enlarge the +paper to the size of the <i>Times</i>, and Mr. James Grant +was appointed editor. The profits now increased, +and the paper found its way to the clubs. The +late Lord Brougham and Sir David Brewster contributed +to the <i>Advertiser</i>; and the letters signed +"An Englishman" excited much interest. This +paper has always been Liberal. Mr. Grant remained +the editor for twenty years.</p> + +<p>No. 91 (south side) was till lately the office of +that old-established paper, <i>Bell's Weekly Messenger</i>. +Mr. Bell, the spirited publisher who founded this +paper, is delightfully sketched by Leigh Hunt in +his autobiography.</p> + +<p>"About the period of my writing the above +essays," he says, in his easy manner, "circumstances +introduced me to the acquaintance of Mr. Bell, the +proprietor of the <i>Weekly Messenger</i>. In his house, +in the Strand, I used to hear of politics and +dramatic criticisms, and of the persons who wrote +them. Mr. Bell had been well known as a bookseller +and a speculator in elegant typography. It +is to him the public are indebted for the small +editions of the poets that preceded Cooke's. +Bell was, upon the whole, a remarkable person. +He was a plain man, with a red face and a nose +exaggerated by intemperance; and yet there was +something not unpleasing in his countenance, +especially when he spoke. He had sparkling +black eyes, a good-natured smile, gentlemanly +manners, and one of the most agreeable voices I +ever heard. He had no acquirements—perhaps +not even grammar; but his taste in putting forth +a publication and getting the best artists to adorn +it was new in those times, and may be admired in +any. Unfortunately for Mr. Bell, the Prince of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>Wales, to whom he was bookseller, once did him +the honour to partake of an entertainment or +refreshment (I forget which—most probably the +latter) at his house. He afterwards became a +bankrupt. After his bankruptcy he set up a newspaper, +which became profitable to everybody but +himself."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>No. 93, Fleet Street (south side) is endeared to +us by its connection with Charles Lamb. At that +number, in 1823, that great humorist, the king +of all London clerks that ever were or will be, +published his "Elia," a collection of essays immortal +as the language, full of quaint and tender +thoughts and gleaming with cross-lights of humour +as shot silk does with interchanging colours. In +1821, when the first editor was shot in a duel, the +<i>London Magazine</i> fell into the hands of Messrs. +Taylor & Hessey, of No. 93; but they published +the excellent periodical and gave their "magazine +dinners" at their publishing house in Waterloo +Place.</p> + +<p>Mr. John Scott, a man of great promise, the +editor of the <i>London</i> for the first publishers—Messrs. +Baldwin, Cradock, & Joy—met with a +very tragic death in 1821. The duel in which he +fell arose from a quarrel between the men on the +<i>London</i> and the clever but bitter and unscrupulous +writers in <i>Blackwood</i>, started in 1817. Lockhart, +who had cruelly maligned Leigh Hunt and his set +(the "Cockney School," as the Scotch Tories chose +to call them), was sharply attacked in the <i>London</i>. +Fiery and vindictive Lockhart flew at once up to +town, and angrily demanded from Mr. Scott, the +editor, an explanation, an apology, or a meeting. +Mr. Scott declined giving an apology unless Mr. +Lockhart would first deny that he was editor of +<i>Blackwood</i>. Lockhart refused to give this denial, +and retorted by expressing a mean opinion of +Mr. Scott's courage. Lockhart and Scott both +printed contradictory versions of the quarrel, which +worked up till at last Mr. Christie, a friend of +Lockhart's, challenged Scott; and they met at +Chalk Farm by moonlight on February 16th, at nine +o'clock at night, attended by their seconds and +surgeons, in the old business-like, bloodthirsty way. +The first time Mr. Christie did not fire at Mr. Scott, +a fact of which Mr. Patmore, the author, Scott's +second, with most blamable indiscretion, did not +inform his principal. At the second fire Christie's +ball struck Scott just above the right hip, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +fell. He lingered till the 27th. It was said at the +time that Hazlitt, perhaps unintentionally, had +driven Scott to fight by indirect taunts. "I don't +pretend," Hazlitt is reported to have said, "to hold +the principles of honour which you hold. I would +neither give nor accept a challenge. You hold the +opinions of the world; with you it is different. +As for me, it would be nothing. I do not think +as you and the world think," and so on. Poor +Scott, not yet forty, had married the pretty daughter +of Colnaghi, the printseller in Pall Mall, and left +two children.</p> + +<p>For the five years it lasted, perhaps no magazine—not +even the mighty <i>Maga</i> itself—ever drew +talent towards it with such magnetic attraction. +In Mr. Barry Cornwall's delightful memoir of his +old friend Lamb, written when the writer was in +his seventy-third year, he has summarised the +writers on the <i>London</i>, and shown how deep and +varied was the intellect brought to bear on its +production. First of all he mentions poor Scott, +a shrewd, critical, rather hasty man, who wrote +essays on Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Godwin, +Byron, Keats, Shelley, Leigh Hunt, and Hazlitt, +his wonderful contemporaries, in a fruitful age. +Hazlitt, glowing and capricious, produced the +twelve essays of his "Table Talk," many dramatic +articles, and papers on Beckford's Fonthill, the +Angerstein pictures, and the Elgin marbles—pages +wealthy with thought. Lamb contributed in three +years all the matchless essays of "Elia." Mr. +Thomas Carlyle, then only a promising young +Scotch philosopher, wrote several articles on the +"Life and Writings of Schiller." Mr. de Quincey, +that subtle thinker and bitter Tory, contributed +his wonderful "Confessions of an Opium-Eater." +That learned and amiable man, the Rev. H.F. +Cary, the translator of Dante, wrote several interesting +notices of early French poets. Allan +Cunningham, the vigorous Scottish bard, sent the +romantic "Tales of Lyddal Cross" and a series of +papers styled "Traditional Literature." Mr. John +Poole—recently deceased, 1872—(the author of +<i>Paul Pry</i> and that humorous novel, "Little Pedlington," +which is supposed to have furnished +Mr. Charles Dickens with some suggestions for +"Pickwick") wrote burlesque imitations of contemporaneous +dramatic writers—Morton, Dibdin, +Reynolds, Moncrieff, &c. Mr. J.H. Reynolds +wrote, under the name of Henry Herbert, notices +of contemporaneous events, such as a scene at +the Cockpit, the trial of Thurtell (a very powerful +article), &c. That delightful punster and humorist, +with pen or pencil, Tom Hood, sent to the <i>London</i> +his first poems of any ambition or length—"Lycus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +the Centaur," and "The Two Peacocks of Bedfont." +Keats, "that sleepless soul that perished +in its pride," and Montgomery, both contributed +poems. Sir John Bowring, the accomplished +linguist, wrote on Spanish poetry. Mr. Henry +Southern, the editor of that excellent work the +<i>Retrospective Review</i>, contributed "The Conversations +of Lord Byron." Mr. Walter Savage Landor, +that very original and eccentric thinker, published in +the extraordinary magazine one of his admirable +"Imaginary Conversations." Mr. Julius (afterwards +Archdeacon) Hare reviewed the robust works of +Landor. Mr. Elton contributed graceful translations +from Catullus, Propertius, &c. Even among the +lesser contributors there were very eminent writers, +not forgetting Barry Cornwall, Hartley Coleridge, +John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant poet; and +Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. Nor must we +omit that strange contrast to these pure-hearted +and wise men, "Janus Weathercock" (Wainwright), +the polished villain who murdered his young niece +and most probably several other friends and relations, +for the money insured upon their lives. +This gay and evil being, by no means a dull writer +upon art and the drama, was much liked by Lamb +and the Russell Street set. The news of his cold-blooded +crimes (transpiring in 1837) seem to have +struck a deep horror among all the scoundrel's +fashionable associates. Although when arrested in +France it was discovered that Wainwright habitually +carried strychnine about with him, he was only +tried for forgery, and for that offence transported +for life.</p> + +<p>A fine old citizen of the last century, Joseph +Brasbridge, who published his memoirs, kept a +silversmith's shop at No. 98, several doors from +Alderman Waithman's. At one time Brasbridge +confesses he divided his time between the tavern +club, the card party, the hunt, and the fight, and +left his shop to be looked after by others, whilst +he decided on the respective merits of Humphries +and Mendoza, Cribb and Big Ben. Among +Brasbridge's early customers were the Duke of +Marlborough, the Duke of Argyle, and other men +of rank, and he glories in having once paid an +elaborate compliment to Lady Hamilton. The +most curious story in Brasbridge's "Fruits of +Experience" is the following, various versions of +which have been paraphrased by modern writers. +A surgeon in Gough Square had purchased for dissection +the body of a man who had been hanged +at Tyburn. The servant girl, wishing to look at +the corpse, stole upstairs in the doctor's absence, +and, to her horror, found the body sitting up on the +board, wondering where it was. The girl almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +threw herself down the stairs in her fright. The +surgeon, on learning of the resuscitation of his +subject, humanely concealed the man in the house +till he could fit him out for America. The fellow +proved as clever and industrious as he was grateful, +and having amassed a fortune, he eventually left +it all to his benefactor. The sequel is still more +curious. The surgeon dying some years after, his +heirs were advertised for. A shoemaker at Islington +eventually established a claim and inherited +the money. Mean in prosperity, the <i>ci-devant</i> +shoemaker then refused to pay the lawyer's bill, +and, moreover, called him a rogue. The enraged +lawyer replied, "I have put you into possession of +this property by my exertions, now I will spend +£100 out of my own pocket to take it away again, +for you are not deserving of it." The lawyer +accordingly advertised again for the surgeon's +nearest of kin; Mr. Willcocks, a bookseller in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +the Strand, then came forward, and deposed that his +wife and her mother, he remembered, used to visit +the surgeon in Gough Square. On inquiry Mrs. +Willcocks was proved the next of kin, and the base +shoemaker returned to his last. The lucky Mr. +Willcocks was the good-natured bookseller who +lent Johnson and Garrick, when they first came up +to London to seek their fortunes, £5 on their joint +note.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="alderman" id="alderman"></a> +<img src="images/p066.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ALDERMAN WAITHMAN, FROM AN AUTHENTIC PORTRAIT</span> +</div> + +<p>Nos. 103 (now the <i>Sunday Times</i> office) and 104 +were the shop of that bustling politician Alderman +Waithman; and to his memory was erected the +obelisk on the site of his first shop, formerly the +north-west end of Fleet Market. Waithman, +according to Mr. Timbs, had a genius for the stage, +and especially shone as Macbeth. He was uncle to +John Reeve, the comic actor. Cobbett, who hated +Waithman, has left a portrait of the alderman, +written in his usual racy English. "Among these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +persons," he says, talking of the Princess Caroline +agitation, in 1813, "there was a common councilman +named Robert Waithman, a man who for +many years had taken a conspicuous part in the +politics of the City; a man not destitute of the +powers of utterance, and a man of sound principles +also. But a man so enveloped, so completely +swallowed up by self-conceit, who, though +perfectly illiterate, though unable to give to three +consecutive sentences a grammatical construction, +seemed to look upon himself as the first orator, the +first writer, and the first statesman of the whole +world. He had long been the cock of the Democratic +party in the City; he was a great speech-maker; +could make very free with facts, and when +it suited his purpose could resort to as foul play as +most men." According to Cobbett, who grows +more than usually virulent on the occasion, Waithman, +vexed that Alderman Wood had been the +first to propose an address of condolence to the +Princess at the Common Council, opposed it, +and was defeated. As Cobbett says, "He then +checked himself, endeavoured to recover his +ground, floundered about got some applause by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +talking about rotten boroughs and parliamentary +reform. But all in vain. Then rose cries of +'No, no! the address—the address!' which appear +to have stung him to the quick. His face, which +was none of the whitest, assumed a ten times +darker die. His look was furious, while he uttered +the words, 'I am sorry that my well-weighed +opinions are in opposition to the general sentiment +so hastily adopted; but I hope the Livery will +consider the necessity of preserving its character +for purity and wisdom.'" On the appointed day +the Princess was presented with the address, to +the delight of the more zealous Radicals. The +procession of more than one hundred carriages +came back past Carlton House on their return +from Kensington, the people groaning and hissing +to torment the Regent.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="group" id="group"></a> +<img src="images/p067.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />GROUP AT HARDHAM'S TOBACCO SHOP</span> +</div> + +<p>Brasbridge, the Tory silversmith of Fleet Street, +writes very contemptuously in his autobiography +of Waithman. Sneering at his boast of reading, +he says: "I own my curiosity was a little excited +to know when and where he began his studies. +It could not be in his shop in Fleet Market, for +there he was too busily employed in attending to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +the fishwomen and other ladies connected with +the business of the market. Nor could it be at +the corner of Fleet Street, where he was always +no less assiduously engaged in ticketing his super-super +calicoes at two and two pence, and cutting +them off for two and twenty pence." According to +Brasbridge, Waithman made his first speech in 1792, +in Founder's Hall, Lothbury, "called by some at +that time the cauldron of sedition." Waithman +was Lord Mayor in 1823-24, and was returned to +Parliament five times for the City. The portrait of +Waithman on page 66, and the view of his shop, +page 61, are taken from pictures in Mr. Gardiner's +magnificent collection.</p> + +<p>A short biography of this civic orator will not be +uninteresting:—Robert Waithman was born of +humble parentage, at Wrexham, in North Wales. +Becoming an orphan when only four months old, he +was placed at the school of a Mr. Moore by his +uncle, on whose death, about 1778, he obtained a +situation at Reading, whence he proceeded to +London, and entered into the service of a respectable +linendraper, with whom he continued till he +became of age. He then entered into business at +the south end of Fleet Market, whence, some years +afterwards, he removed to the corner of New Bridge +Street. He appears to have commenced his political +career about 1792, at the oratorical displays +made in admiration and imitation of the proceedings +of the French revolutionists, at Founder's +Hall, in Lothbury. In 1794 he brought forward a +series of resolutions, at a common hall, animadverting +upon the war with revolutionised France, +and enforcing the necessity of a reform in Parliament. +In 1796 he was first elected a member of +the Common Council for the Ward of Farringdon +Without, and became a very frequent speaker in +that public body. It was supposed that Mr. Fox +intended to have rewarded his political exertions +by the place of Receiver-General of the Land Tax. +In 1818, after having been defeated on several previous +occasions, he was elected as one of the representatives +in Parliament of the City of London, +defeating the old member, Sir William Curtis.</p> + +<p>Very shortly after, on the 4th of August, he was +elected Alderman of his ward, on the death of +Sir Charles Price, Bart. On the 25th of January, +1819, he made his maiden speech in Parliament, +on the presentation of a petition praying for a +revision of the criminal code, the existing state of +which he severely censured. At the ensuing +election of 1820 the friends of Sir William Curtis +turned the tables upon him, Waithman being defeated. +In this year, however, he attained the +honour of the shrievalty; and in October, 1823, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +was chosen Lord Mayor. In 1826 he stood another +contest for the City, with better success. In 1830, +1831, and 1832 he obtained his re-election with +difficulty; but in 1831 he suffered a severe disappointment +in losing the chamberlainship, in the +competition for which Sir James Shaw obtained a +large majority of votes.</p> + +<p>We subjoin the remarks made on his death by +the editor of the <i>Times</i> newspaper:—"The magistracy +of London has been deprived of one of its +most respectable members, and the City of one of +its most upright representatives. Everybody knows +that Mr. Alderman Waithman has filled a large +space in City politics; and most people who were +acquainted with him will be ready to admit that, +had his early education been better directed, or his +early circumstances more favourable to his ambition, +he might have become an important man in +a wider and higher sphere. His natural parts, his +political integrity, his consistency of conduct, and +the energy and perseverance with which he performed +his duties, placed him far above the common +run of persons whose reputation is gained by +their oratorical displays at meetings of the Common +Council. In looking back at City proceedings for +the last thirty-five or forty years, we find him always +rising above his rivals as the steady and consistent +advocate of the rights of his countrymen and the +liberties and privileges of his fellow-citizens."</p> + +<p>There is a curious story told of the Fleet Street +crossing, opposite Waithman's corner. It was +swept for years by an old black man named Charles +M'Ghee, whose father had died in Jamaica at the +age of 108. According to Mr. Noble, when he laid +down his broom he sold his professional right for +£1,000 (£100?). Retiring into private life much +respected, he was always to be seen on Sundays at +Rowland Hill's chapel. When in his seventy-third +year his portrait was taken and hung in the +parlour of the "Twelve Bells," Bride Lane. To +Miss Waithman, who used to send him out soup +and bread, he is, untruly, said to have left £7,000.</p> + +<p>Mr. Diprose, in his "History of St. Clement," tells +us more of this black sweeper. "Brutus Billy," or +"Tim-buc-too," as he was generally called, lived in +a passage leading from Stanhope Street into Drury +Lane. He was a short, thick-set man, with his +white-grey hair carefully brushed up into a toupee, +the fashion of his youth. He was found in his +shop, as he called his crossing, in all weathers, +and was invariably civil. At night, after he had shut +up shop (swept mud over his crossing), he carried +round a basket of nuts and fruit to places of public +entertainment, so that in time he laid by a considerable +amount of money. Brutus Billy was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +brimful of story and anecdote. He died in Chapel +Court in 1854, in his eighty-seventh year. This +worthy man was perhaps the model for Billy +Waters, the negro beggar in <i>Tom and Jerry</i>, who +is so indignant at the beggars' supper on seeing +"a turkey without sassenges."</p> + +<p>In Garrick's time John Hardham, the well-known +tobacconist, opened a shop at No. 106. +There, at the sign of the "Red Lion," Hardham's +Highlander kept steady guard at a doorway +through which half the celebrities of the day made +their exits and entrances. His celebrated "No. 37" +snuff was said, like the French millefleur, to be +composed of a great number of ingredients, and +Garrick in his kind way helped it into fashion by +mentioning it favourably on the stage. Hardham, +a native of Chichester, began life as a servant, +wrote a comedy, acted, and at last became +Garrick's "numberer," having a general's quick +<i>coup d'œil</i> at gauging an audience, and so checking +the money-takers. Garrick once became his security +for a hundred pounds, but eventually Hardham +grew rich, and died in 1772, bequeathing £22,289 +to Chichester, 10 guineas to Garrick, and merely +setting apart £10 for his funeral, only vain fools, +as he said, spending more. We can fancy the +great actors of that day seated on Hardham's +tobacco-chests discussing the drollery of Foote or +the vivacity of Clive.</p> + +<p>"It has long been a source of inquiry," says a +writer in the <i>City Press</i>, "whence the origin of the +cognomen, 'No. 37,' to the celebrated snuff compounded +still under the name of John Hardham, +in Fleet Street. There is a tradition that Lord +Townsend, on being applied to by Hardham, whom +he patronised, to name the snuff, suggested the +cabalistic number of 37, it being the exact number +of a majority obtained in some proceedings in the +Irish Parliament during the time he was Lord Lieutenant +there, and which was considered a triumph +for his Government. The dates, however, do not +serve this theory, as Lord Townsend was not viceroy +till the years 1767-72, when the snuff must have +been well established in public fame and Hardham +in the last years of his life. It has already been +printed elsewhere that, on the famed snuff coming +out in the first instance, David Garrick, hearing of +it, called in Fleet Street, as he was wont frequently +to do, and offered to bring it under the public notice +in the most effectual manner, by introducing an +incident in a new comedy then about to be produced +by him, where he would, in his part in the +play, offer another character a pinch of snuff, who +would extol its excellence, whereupon Garrick +arranged to continue the conversation by naming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +the snuff as the renowned '37 of John Hardham.' +But the enigma, even now, is not solved; so we +will, for what it may be worth, venture our own +explanation. It is well known that in most of the +celebrated snuffs before the public a great variety +of qualities and descriptions of tobacco, and of +various ages, are introduced. Hardham, like the +rest, never told his secret how the snuff was made, +but left it as a heritage to his successors. It is very +probable, therefore, that the mystic figures, 37, we +have quoted represented the number of qualities, +growths, and description of the 'fragrant weed' +introduced by him into his snuff, and may be regarded +as a sort of appellative rebus, or conceit, +founded thereon."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>But Hardham occupied himself in other ways +than in the making of snuff and of money—for the +Chichester youth had now grown wealthy—and +in extending his circle of acquaintances amongst +dramatists and players; he was abundantly distinguished +for Christian charity, for, in the language +of a contemporary writer, we find that "his deeds in +that respect were extensive," and his bounty "was +conveyed to many of the objects of it in the most +delicate manner." From the same authority we find +that Hardham once failed in business (we presume, +as a lapidary) more creditably than he could have +made a fortune by it. This spirit of integrity, +which remained a remarkable feature in his character +throughout life, induced him to be often +resorted to by his wealthy patrons as trustee for +the payment of their bounties to deserving objects; +in many cases the patrons died before the recipients +of their relief. With Hardham, however, +this made no difference; the annuities once +granted, although stopped by the decease of the +donors, were paid ever after by Hardham so long +as he lived; and his delicacy of feeling induced +him even to persuade the recipients into the belief +that they were still derived from the same source.</p> + +<p>No. 102 (south) was opened as a shop, in 1719, +by one Lockyer, who called it "Mount Pleasant." +It then became a "saloop-house," where the poor +purchased a beverage made out of sassafras chips. +The proprietor, who began life, as Mr. Noble +says, with half-a-crown, died in March, 1739, worth +£1,000. Thomas Read was a later tenant. Charles +Lamb mentions "saloop" in one of his essays, and +says, "Palates otherwise not uninstructed in dietetical +elegancies sup it up with avidity." Chimney-sweeps, +beloved by Lamb, approved it, and eventually +stalls were set up in the streets, as at present +to reach even humbler customers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> An intelligent compositor (Mr. J.P.S. Bicknell), who +has been a noter of curious passages in his time, informs me +that Bell was the first printer who confined the small letter +"s" to its present shape, and rejected altogether the older +form "s." [Transcriber's Note: "s." refers to the long s of Early English]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The real fact is, the famous snuff was merely called from +the number of the drawer that held it.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—SHOE LANE AND BELL YARD)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Kit-Kat Club—The Toast for the Year—Little Lady Mary—Drunken John Sly—Garth's Patients—Club removed to Barn Elms—Steele at the +"Trumpet"—Rogues' Lane—Murder—Beggars' Haunts—Thieves' Dens—Coiners—Theodore Hook in Hemp's Sponging-house—Pope in +Bell Yard—Minor Celebrities—Apollo Court.</p></div> + + +<p>Opposite Child's Bank, and almost within sound +of the jingle of its gold, once stood Shire Lane, +afterwards known as Lower Serle's Place. It latterly +became a dingy, disreputable defile, where lawyers' +clerks and the hangers-on of the law-courts were +often allured and sometimes robbed; yet it had +been in its day a place of great repute. In this lane +the Kit-Kat, the great club of Queen Anne's reign, +held its sittings, at the "Cat and Fiddle," the shop of +a pastrycook named Christopher Kat. The house, +according to local antiquaries, afterwards became the +"Trumpet," a tavern mentioned by Steele in the +<i>Tatler</i>, and latterly known as the "Duke of York." +The Kit-Kats were originally Whig patriots, who, at +the end of King William's reign, met in this out-of-the-way +place to devise measures to secure the +Protestant succession and keep out the pestilent +Stuarts. Latterly they assembled for simple enjoyment; +and there have been grave disputes as to +whether the club took its name from the punning +sign, the "Cat and Kit," or from the favourite pies +which Christopher Kat had christened; and as this +question will probably last the antiquaries another +two centuries, we leave it alone. According to some +verses by Arbuthnot, the chosen friend of Pope and +Swift, the question was mooted even in his time, as +if the very founders of the club had forgotten. +Some think that the club really began with a weekly +dinner given by Jacob Tonson, the great bookseller +of Gray's Inn Lane, to his chief authors and +patrons. This Tonson, one of the patriarchs of +English booksellers, who published Dryden's +"Virgil," purchased a share of Milton's works, and +first made Shakespeare's works cheap enough to be +accessible to the many, was secretary to the club +from the commencement. An average of thirty-nine +poets, wits, noblemen, and gentlemen formed +the staple of the association. The noblemen were +perhaps rather too numerous for that republican +equality that should prevail in the best intellectual +society; yet above all the dukes shine out Steele +and Addison, the two great luminaries of the club. +Among the Kit-Kat dukes was the great Marlborough; +among the earls the poetic Dorset, the +patron of Dryden and Prior; among the lords the +wise Halifax; among the baronets bluff Sir Robert +Walpole. Of the poets and wits there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +Congreve, the most courtly of dramatists; Garth, +the poetical physician—"well-natured Garth," as +Pope somewhat awkwardly calls him; and Vanbrugh, +the writer of admirable comedies. Dryden could +hardly have seriously belonged to a Whig club; +Pope was inadmissible as a Catholic, and Prior as +a renegade. Latterly objectionable men pushed in, +worst of all, Lord Mohun, a disreputable debauchee +and duellist, afterwards run through by the Duke +of Hamilton in Hyde Park, the duke himself +perishing in the encounter. When Mohun, in a +drunken pet, broke a gilded emblem off a club +chair, respectable old Tonson predicted the downfall +of the society, and said with a sigh, "The man +who would do that would cut a man's throat." Sir +Godfrey Kneller, the great Court painter of the +reigns of William and Anne, was a member; and +he painted for his friend Tonson the portraits of +forty-two gentlemen of the Kit-Kat, including +Dryden, who died a year after it started. The +forty-two portraits, painted three-quarter size (hence +called Kit-Kat), to suit the walls of Tonson's villa +at Barn Elms, still exist, and are treasured by Mr. +R.W. Baker, a representative of the Tonson family, +at Hertingfordbury, in Hertfordshire. Among the +lesser men of this distinguished club we must +include Pope's friends, the "knowing Walsh" and +"Granville the polite."</p> + +<p>As at the "Devil," "the tribe of Ben" must +have often discussed the downfall of Lord Bacon, +the poisoning of Overbury, the war in the Palatinate, +and the murder of Buckingham; so in +Shire Lane, opposite, the talk must have run on +Marlborough's victories, Jacobite plots, and the +South-Sea Bubble; Addison must have discussed +Swift, and Steele condemned the littleness of Pope. +It was the custom of this aristocratic club every year +to elect some reigning beauty as a toast. To the +queen of the year the gallant members wrote +epigrammatic verses, which were etched with a +diamond on the club glasses. The most celebrated +of these toasts were the four daughters of +the Duke of Marlborough—Lady Godolphin, Lady +Sunderland (generally known as "the Little +Whig"), Lady Bridgewater, and Lady Monthermer. +Swift's friend, Mrs. Long, was another; and so +was a niece of Sir Isaac Newton. The verses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +seem flat and dead now, like flowers found between +the leaves of an old book; but in their +time no doubt they had their special bloom and +fragrance. The most tolerable are those written +by Lord Halifax on "the Little Whig":—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"All nature's charms in Sunderland appear,<br /> +Bright as her eyes and as her reason clear;<br /> +Yet still their force, to man not safely known,<br /> +Seems undiscovered to herself alone." +</div> + +<p>Yet how poor after all is this laboured compliment +in comparison to a sentence of Steele's on +some lady of rank whose virtues he honoured,—"that +even to have known her was in itself a +liberal education."</p> + +<p>But few stories connected with the Kit-Kat +meetings are to be dug out of books, though no +doubt many snatches of the best conversation +are embalmed in the <i>Spectator</i> and the <i>Tatler</i>. +Yet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whom Pope +first admired and then reviled, tells one pleasant +incident of her childhood that connects her with +the great club.</p> + +<p>One evening when toasts were being chosen, +her father, Evelyn Pierpoint, Duke of Kingston, +took it into his head to nominate Lady Mary, then +a child only eight years of age. She was prettier, +he vowed, than any beauty on the list. "You +shall see her," cried the duke, and instantly sent a +chaise for her. Presently she came ushered in, +dressed in her best, and was elected by acclamation. +The Whig gentlemen drank the little lady's +health up-standing and, feasting her with sweetmeats +and passing her round with kisses, at once +inscribed her name with a diamond on a drinking-glass. +"Pleasure," she says, "was too poor a +word to express my sensations. They amounted +to ecstasy. Never again throughout my whole life +did I pass so happy an evening."</p> + +<p>It used to be said that it took so much wine to +raise Addison to his best mood, that Steele generally +got drunk before that golden hour arrived. +Steele, that warm-hearted careless fellow in whom +Thackeray so delighted, certainly shone at the Kit-Kat; +and an anecdote still extant shows him to +us with all his amiable weaknesses. On the night +of that great Whig festival—the celebration of King +William's anniversary—Steele and Addison brought +Dr. Hoadley, the Bishop of Bangor, with them, and +solemnly drank "the immortal memory." Presently +John Sly, an eccentric hatter and enthusiastic +politician, crawled into the room on his +knees, in the old Cavalier fashion, and drank the +Orange toast in a tankard of foaming October. No +one laughed at the tipsy hatter; but Steele, kindly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +even when in liquor, kept whispering to the +rather shocked prelate, "Do laugh; it is humanity +to laugh." The bishop soon put on his hat and +withdrew, and Steele by and by subsided under the +table. Picked up and crammed into a sedan-chair, +he insisted, late as it was, in going to the Bishop of +Bangor's to apologise. Eventually he was coaxed +home and got upstairs, but then, in a gush of +politeness, he insisted on seeing the chairmen out; +after which he retired with self-complacency to +bed. The next morning, in spite of headache the +most racking, Steele sent the tolerant bishop the +following exquisite couplet, which covered a multitude +of such sins:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits,<br /> +All faults he pardons, though he none commits." +</div> + +<p>One night when amiable Garth lingered over the +Kit-Kat wine, though patients were pining for him, +Steele reproved the epicurean doctor. "Nay, +nay, Dick," said Garth, pulling out a list of fifteen, +"it's no great matter after all, for nine of them +have such bad constitutions that not all the physicians +in the world could save them; and the +other six have such good constitutions that all the +physicians in the world could not kill them."</p> + +<p>Three o'clock in the morning seems to have +been no uncommon hour for the Kit-Kat to break +up, and a Tory lampooner says that at this club +the youth of Anne's reign learned</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"To sleep away the days and drink away the nights." +</div> + +<p>The club latterly held its meetings at Tonson's +villa at Barn Elms (previously the residence of +Cowley), or at the "Upper Flask" tavern, on +Hampstead Heath. The club died out before +1727 (George II.); for Vanbrugh, writing to +Tonson, says,—"Both Lord Carlisle and Cobham +expressed a great desire of having one meeting +next winter, not as a club, but as old friends +that have been of a club—and the best club that +ever met." In 1709 we find the Kit-Kat subscribing +400 guineas for the encouragement of +good comedies. Altogether such a body of men +must have had great influence on the literature of +the age, for, in spite of the bitterness of party, there +was some generous <i>esprit de corps</i> then, and the +Whig wits and poets were a power, and were +backed by rank and wealth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="montagu" id="montagu"></a> +<img src="images/p072.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU AND THE KIT-KATS</span> +</div> + +<p>Whether the "Trumpet" (formerly half-way up +on the left-hand side ascending from Temple Bar) +was the citadel of the Kit-Kats or not, Steele introduces +it as the scene of two of the best of his +<i>Tatler</i> papers. It was there, in October, 1709, that +he received his deputation of Staffordshire county +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>gentlemen, delightful old fogies, standing much on +form and precedence. There he prepares tea for +Sir Harry Quickset, Bart.; Sir Giles Wheelbarrow; +Thomas Rentfree, Esq., J.P.; Andrew Windmill, +Esq., the steward, with boots and whip; and Mr. +Nicholas Doubt, of the Inner Temple, Sir Harry's +mischievous young nephew. After much dispute +about precedence, the sturdy old fellows are taken +by Steele to "Dick's" Coffee-house for a morning +draught; and safely, after some danger, effect the +passage of Fleet Street, Steele rallying them at the +Temple Gate. In Sir Harry we fancy we see a +faint sketch of the more dignified Sir Roger de +Coverley, which Addison afterwards so exquisitely +elaborated.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bishop" id="bishop"></a> +<img src="images/p073.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BISHOP BUTLER</span> +</div> + +<p>At the "Trumpet" Steele also introduces us to a +delightful club of old citizens that met every evening +precisely at six. The humours of the fifteen +Trumpeters are painted with the breadth and vigour +of Hogarth's best manner. With a delightful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +humour Steele sketches Sir Geoffrey Notch, the +president, who had spent all his money on horses, +dogs, and gamecocks, and who looked on all +thriving persons as pitiful upstarts. Then comes +Major Matchlock, who thought nothing of any +battle since Marston Moor, and who usually began +his story of Naseby at three-quarters past six. +Dick Reptile was a silent man, with a nephew +whom he often reproved. The wit of the club, +an old Temple bencher, never left the room till +he had quoted ten distiches from "Hudibras" and +told long stories of a certain extinct man about +town named Jack Ogle. Old Reptile was extremely +attentive to all that was said, though he had heard +the same stories every night for twenty years, and +upon all occasions winked oracularly to his +nephew to particularly mind what passed. About +ten the innocent twaddle closed by a man coming +in with a lantern to light home old Bickerstaff. +They were simple and happy times that Steele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +describes with such kindly humour; and the +London of his days must have been full of such +quiet, homely haunts.</p> + +<p>Mr. R. Wells, of Colne Park, Halstead, kindly +informs us that as late as the year 1765 there +was a club that still kept up the name of Kit-Kat. +The members in 1765 included, among others, +Lord Sandwich (Jemmy Twitcher, as he was generally +called), Mr. Beard, Lord Weymouth, Lord +Bolingbroke, the Duke of Queensbury, Lord +Caresford, Mr. Cadogan, the Marquis of Caracciollo, +Mr. Seymour, and Sir George Armytage. One +of the most active managers of the club was +Richard Phelps (who, we believe, afterwards was +secretary to Pitt). Among letters and receipts +preserved by Mr. Wells, is one from Thomas +Pingo, jeweller, of the "Golden Head," on the +"Paved Stones," Gray's Inn Lane, for gold medals, +probably to be worn by the members.</p> + +<p>Even in the reign of James I. Shire Lane was +christened Rogues' Lane, and, in spite of all the +dukes and lords of the Kit-Kat, it never grew very +respectable. In 1724 that incomparable young +rascal, Jack Sheppard, used to frequent the +"Bible" public-house—a printers' house of call—at +No. 13. There was a trap in one of the rooms +by which Jack could drop into a subterraneous +passage leading to Bell Yard. Tyburn gibbet +cured Jack of this trick. In 1738 the lane went +on even worse, for there Thomas Carr (a low +attorney, of Elm Court) and Elizabeth Adams +robbed and murdered a gentleman named Quarrington +at the "Angel and Crown" Tavern, and the +miscreants were hung at Tyburn. Hogarth painted +a portrait of the woman. One night, many years +ago, a man was robbed, thrown downstairs, and +killed, in one of the dens in Shire Lane. There +was snow on the ground, and about two o'clock, +when the watchmen grew drowsy and were a long +while between their rounds, the frightened murderers +carried the stiffened body up the lane and +placed it bolt upright, near a dim oil lamp, at a +neighbour's door. There the watchmen found it; +but there was no clue to guide them, for nearly +every house in the lane was infamous. Years after, +two ruffianly fellows who were confined in the +King's Bench were heard accusing each other of +the murder in Shire Lane, and justice pounced +upon her prey.</p> + +<p>One thieves' house, known as the "Retreat," +led, Mr. Diprose says, by a back way into +Crown Court; and other dens had a passage into +No. 242, Strand. Nos. 9, 10, and 11 were known +as Cadgers' Hall, and were much frequented by +beggars, and bushels of bread, thrown aside by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +the professional mendicants, were found there by +the police.</p> + +<p>The "Sun" Tavern, afterwards the "Temple Bar +Stores," had been a great resort for the Tom and +Jerry frolics of the Regency; and the "Anti-Gallican" +Tavern was a haunt of low sporting men, being +kept by Harry Lee, father of the first and original +"tiger," invented and made fashionable by the +notorious Lord Barrymore. During the Chartist +times violent meetings were held at a club in +Shire Lane. A good story is told of one of these. +A detective in disguise attended an illegal meeting, +leaving his comrades ready below. All at once a +frantic hatter rose, denounced the detective as a +spy, and proposed off-hand to pitch him out of +window. Permitted by the more peaceable to +depart, the policeman scuttled downstairs as fast +as he could, and, not being recognised in his disguise, +was instantly knocked down by his friends' +prompt truncheons.</p> + +<p>In Ship Yard, close to Shire Lane, once stood a +block of disreputable, tumble-down houses, used by +coiners, and known as the "Smashing Lumber." +Every room had a secret trap, and from the workshop +above a shaft reached the cellars to hurry away +by means of a basket and pulley all the apparatus +at the first alarm. The first man made his fortune, +but the new police soon ransacked the den and +broke up the business.</p> + +<p>In August, 1823, Theodore Hook, the witty and +the heartless, was brought to a sponging-house +kept by a sheriff's officer named Hemp, at the +upper end of Shire Lane, being under arrest for a +Crown debt of £12,000, due to the Crown for +defalcations during his careless consulship at the +Mauritius. He was editor of <i>John Bull</i> at the +time, and continued while in this horrid den to +write his "Sayings and Doings," and to pour forth +for royal pay his usual scurrilous lampoons at all +who supported poor, persecuted Queen Caroline. +Dr. Maginn, who had just come over from Cork +to practise Toryism, was his constant visitor, and +Hemp's barred door no doubt often shook at their +reckless laughter. Hook at length left Shire Lane +for the Rules of the Bench (Temple Place) in +April, 1824. Previously to his arrest he had +been living in retirement at lodgings, in Somer's +Town, with a poor girl whom he had seduced. +Here he renewed the mad scenes of his thoughtless +youth with Terry, Matthews, and wonderful +old Tom Hill; and here he resumed (but not at +these revels) his former acquaintanceship with +that mischievous obstructive, Wilson Croker. After +he left Shire Lane and the Rules of the Bench he +went to Putney.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>In spite of all bad proclivities, Shire Lane had +its fits of respectability. In 1603 there was living +there Sir Arthur Atie, Knt., in early life secretary +to the great Earl of Leicester, and afterwards +attendant on his step-son, the luckless Earl of Essex. +Elias Ashmole, the great antiquary and student in +alchemy and astrology, also honoured this lane, +but he gathered in the Temple those great collections +of books and coins, some of which perished +by fire, and some of which he afterwards gave to +the University of Oxford, where they were placed +in a building called, in memory of the illustrious +collector, the Ashmolean Museum.</p> + +<p>To Mr. Noble's research we are indebted for the +knowledge that in 1767 Mr. Hoole, the translator of +Tasso, was living in Shire Lane, and from thence +wrote to Dr. Percy, who was collecting his "Ancient +Ballads," to ask him Dr. Wharton's address. Hoole +was at that time writing a dramatic piece called +Cyrus, for Covent Garden Theatre. He seems to +have been an amiable man but a feeble poet, was +an esteemed friend of Dr. Johnson, and had a +situation in the East India House.</p> + +<p>Another illustrious tenant of Shire Lane was +James Perry, the proprietor of the <i>Morning +Chronicle</i>, who died, as it was reported, worth +£130,000. That lively memoir-writer, Taylor, of +the Sun, who wrote "Monsieur Tonson," describes +Perry as living in the narrow part of Shire Lane, +opposite a passage which led to the stairs from +Boswell Court. He lodged with Mr. Lunan, a +bookbinder, who had married his sister, who +subsequently became the wife of that great Greek +scholar, thirsty Dr. Porson. Perry had begun life +as the editor of the <i>Gazeteer</i>, but being dismissed +by a Tory proprietor, and on the +<i>Morning Chronicle</i> being abandoned by Woodfall, +some friends of Perry's bought the derelict +for £210, and he and Gray, a friend of Barett, +became the joint-proprietors of the concern. Their +printer, Mr. Lambert, lived in Shire Lane, and +here the partners, too, lived for three or four years, +when they removed to the corner-house of Lancaster +Court, Strand.</p> + +<p>Bell Yard can boast of but few associations; yet +Pope often visited the dingy passage, because there +for some years resided his old friend Fortescue, +then a barrister, but afterwards a judge and Master +of the Rolls. To Fortescue Pope dedicated his +"Imitation of the First Satire of Horace," published +in 1733. It contains what the late Mr. +Rogers, the banker and poet, used to consider the +best line Pope ever wrote, and it is certainly +almost perfect,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Bare the mean heart that lurks behind a star."</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<p>In that delightful collection of Pope's "Table +Talk," called "Spence's Anecdotes," we find that +a chance remark of Lord Bolingbroke, on taking +up a "Horace" in Pope's sick-room, led to those +fine "Imitations of Horace" which we now possess. +The "First Satire" consists of an imaginary conversation +between Pope and Fortescue, who advises +him to write no more dangerous invectives against +vice or folly. It was Fortescue who assisted Pope +in writing the humorous law-report of "Stradling +<i>versus</i> Stiles," in "Scriblerus." The intricate case +is this, and is worthy of Anstey himself: Sir John +Swale, of Swale's Hall, in Swale Dale, by the river +Swale, knight, made his last will and testament, +in which, among other bequests, was this: "Out +of the kind love and respect that I bear my much-honoured +and good friend, Mr. Matthew Stradling, +gent., I do bequeath unto the said Matthew Stradling, +gent., all my black and white horses." Now +the testator had six black horses, six white, and +six pied horses. The debate, therefore, was whether +the said Matthew Stradling should have the said +pied horses, by virtue of the said bequest. The +case, after much debate, is suddenly terminated +by a motion in arrest of judgment that the pied +horses were mares, and thereupon an inspection was +prayed. This, it must be confessed, is admirable +fooling. If the Scriblerus Club had carried out +their plan of bantering the follies of the followers +of every branch of knowledge, Fortescue would no +doubt have selected the law as his special butt. +"This friend of Pope," says Mr. Carruthers, "was +consulted by the poet about all his affairs, as +well as those of Martha Blount, and, as may be +gathered, he gave him advice without a fee. The +intercourse between the poet and his 'learned +counsel' was cordial and sincere; and of the letters +that passed between them sixty-eight have been +published, ranging from 1714 to the last year of +Pope's life. They are short, unaffected letters—more +truly <i>letters</i> than any others in the series." +Fortescue was promoted to the bench of the +Exchequer in 1735, from thence to the Common +Pleas in 1738, and in 1741 was made Master of +the Rolls. Pope's letters are often addressed to +"his counsel learned in the law, at his house at the +upper end of Bell Yard, near unto Lincoln's Inn." +In March, 1736, he writes of "that filthy old place, +Bell Yard, which I want them and you to quit."</p> + +<p>Apollo Court, next Bell Yard, has little about it +worthy of notice beyond the fact that it derived +its name from the great club-room at the "Devil" +Tavern, that once stood on the opposite side of +Fleet Street, and the jovialities of which we have +already chronicled.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—CHANCERY LANE)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Asylum for Jewish Converts—The Rolls Chapel—Ancient Monuments—A Speaker Expelled for Bribery—"Remember Cæsar"—Trampling +on a Master of the Rolls—Sir William Grant's Oddities—Sir John Leach—Funeral of Lord Gifford—Mrs. Clark and the Duke of York—Wolsey +in his Pomp—Strafford—"Honest Isaak"—The Lord Keeper—Lady Fanshawe—Jack Randal—Serjeants' Inn—An Evening with +Hazlitt at the "Southampton"—Charles Lamb—Sheridan—The Sponging Houses—The Law Institute—A Tragical Story.</p></div> + + +<p>Chancery, or Chancellor's, Lane, as it was first +called, must have been a mere quagmire, or cart-track, +in the reign of Edward I., for Strype tells +us that at that period it had become so impassable +to knight, monk, and citizen, that John Breton, +Custos of London, had it barred up, to "hinder +any harm;" and the Bishop of Chichester, whose +house was there (now Chichester Rents), kept up +the bar ten years; at the end of that time, on +an inquisition of the annoyances of London, the +bishop was proscribed at an inquest for setting up +two staples and a bar, "whereby men with carts +and other carriages could not pass." The bishop +pleaded John Breton's order, and the sheriff was +then commanded to remove the annoyance, and +the hooded men with their carts once more cracked +their whips and whistled to their horses up and +down the long disused lane.</p> + +<p>Half-way up on the east side of Chancery Lane +a dull archway, through which can be caught +glimpses of the door of an old chapel, leads to the +Rolls Court. On the site of that chapel, in the +year 1233, history tells us that Henry III. erected +a Carthusian house of maintenance for converted +Jews, who there lived under a Christian governor. +At a time when Norman barons were not unaccustomed +to pull out a Jew's teeth, or to fry +him on gridirons till he paid handsomely for his +release, conversion, which secured safety from such +rough practices, may not have been unfrequent. +However, the converts decreasing when Edward I., +after hanging 280 Jews for clipping coin, banished +the rest from the realm, half the property of the +Jews who were hung stern Edward gave to the +preachers who tried to convert the obstinate and +stiff-necked generation, and half to the Domus +Conversorum, in Chancellor's Lane. In 1278 we +find the converts calling themselves, in a letter +sent to the king by John the Convert, "Pauperes +Cœlicolæ Christi." In the reign of Richard II. +a certain converted Jew received twopence a day +for life; and in the reign of Henry IV. we find +the daughter of a rabbi paid by the keepers of +the house of converts a penny a day for life, by +special patent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>Edward III., in 1377, broke up the Jewish +almshouse in Chancellor's Lane, and annexed the +house and chapel to the newly-created office of +Custos Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Rolls. Some +of the stones the old gaberdines have rubbed +against are no doubt incorporated in the present +chapel, which, however, has been so often altered, +that, like the Highlandman's gun, it is "new stock +and new barrel." The first Master of the Rolls, +in 1377, was William Burstal; but till Thomas +Cromwell, in 1534, the Masters of the Rolls were +generally priests, and often king's chaplains.</p> + +<p>The Rolls Chapel was built, says Pennant, by +Inigo Jones, in 1617, at a cost of £2,000. Dr. Donne, +the poet, preached the consecration sermon. One +of the monuments belonging to the earlier chapel +is that of Dr. John Yonge, Master of the Rolls in +the reign of Henry VIII. Vertue and Walpole +attribute the tomb to Torregiano, Michael Angelo's +contemporary and the sculptor of the tomb of +Henry VII. at Westminster. The master is represented +by the artist (who starved himself to death +at Seville) in effigy on an altar-tomb, in a red gown +and deep square cap; his hands are crossed, his +face wears an expression of calm resignation and +profound devotion. In a recess at the back is a +head of Christ, and an angel's head appears on either +side in high relief. Another monument of interest +in this quiet, legal chapel is that of Sir Edward +Bruce, created by James I. Baron of Kinloss. He +was one of the crafty ambassadors sent by wily +James to openly congratulate Elizabeth on the +failure of the revolt of Essex, but secretly to commence +a correspondence with Cecil. The place of +Master of the Rolls was Brace's reward for this useful +service. The ex-master lies with his head resting on +his hand, in the "toothache" attitude ridiculed by +the old dramatists. His hair is short, his beard +long, and he wears a long furred robe. Before him +kneels a man in armour, possibly his son, Lord +Kinloss, who, three years after his father's death, +perished in a most savage duel with Sir Edward +Sackville, ancestor to the Earls of Elgin and +Aylesbury. Another fine monument is that of Sir +Richard Allington, of Horseheath, Cambridgeshire,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +brother-in law of Sir William Cordall, a former +Master of the Rolls, who died in 1561. Clad in +armour, Sir Richard kneels,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"As for past sins he would atone,<br /> +By saying endless prayers in stone." +</div> + +<p>His wife faces him, and beneath on a tablet kneel +their three daughters. Sir Richard's charitable +widow lived after his death in Holborn, in a house +long known as Allington Place. Many of the past +masters sleep within these walls, and amongst them +Sir John Trevor, who died in 1717 (George I.), +and Sir John Strange; but the latter has not had +inscribed over his bones, as Pennant remarks, the +old punning epitaph,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Here lies an honest lawyer—that is <i>Strange</i>!" +</div> + +<p>The above-mentioned Sir John Trevor, while +Speaker of the House of Commons, being denounced +for bribery, was compelled himself to preside over +the subsequent debate—an unparalleled disgrace. +The indictment ran:—</p> + +<p>"That Sir John Trevor, Speaker of the House, +receiving a gratuity of 1,000 guineas from the City +of London, after the passing of the Orphans' Bill, +is guilty of high crime and misdemeanour." Trevor +was himself, as Speaker, compelled to put this resolution +from the chair. The "Ayes" were not met +by a single "No," and the culprit was required to +officially announce that, in the unanimous opinion +of the House over which he presided, he stood +convicted of a high crime. "His expulsion from +the House," says Mr. Jeaffreson, in his "Book +about Lawyers," "followed in due course. One +is inclined to think that in these days no English +gentleman could outlive such humiliation for four-and-twenty +hours. Sir John Trevor not only +survived the humiliation, but remained a personage +of importance in London society. Convicted of +bribery, he was not called upon to refund the +bribe; and expelled from the House of Commons, +he was not driven from his judicial office. He +continued to be the Master of the Rolls till his +death, which took place on May 20, 1717, in his +official mansion in Chancery Lane. His retention +of office is easily accounted for. Having acted +as a vile negotiator between the two great political +parties, they were equally afraid of him. Neither +the Whigs nor the Tories dared to demand his +expulsion from office, fearing that in revenge he +would make revelations alike disgraceful to all +parties concerned."</p> + +<p>The arms of Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Harbottle +Grimstone gleam in the chapel windows. Swift's +detestation, Bishop Burnet, the historian and friend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +of William of Orange, was preacher here for nine +years, and here delivered his celebrated sermon, +"Save me from the lion's mouth: thou hast heard +me from the horns of the unicorn." Burnet was +appointed by Sir Harbottle, who was Master of +the Rolls; and in his "Own Times" he has inserted +a warm eulogy of Sir Harbottle as a worthy and +pious man. Atterbury, the Jacobite Bishop of +Rochester, was also preacher here; nor can we +forget that amiable man and great theologian, +Bishop Butler, the author of the "Analogy of +Religion." Butler, the son of a Dissenting tradesman +at Wantage, was for a long time lost in a +small country living, a loss to the Church which +Archbishop Blackburne lamented to Queen Caroline. +"Why, I thought he had been dead!" exclaimed +the queen. "No, madam," replied the archbishop; +"he is only buried." In 1718 Butler was +appointed preacher at the Rolls by Sir Joseph. +Jekyll. This excellent man afterwards became +Bishop of Bristol, and died Bishop of Durham.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="wolsey" id="wolsey"></a> +<img src="images/p078.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WOLSEY IN CHANCERY LANE</span> +</div> + +<p>A few anecdotes about past dignitaries at the +Rolls. Of Sir Julius Cæsar, Master of the Rolls in +the reign of Charles I., Lord Clarendon, in his +"History of the Rebellion," tells a story too good +to be passed by. This Sir Julius, having by right +of office the power of appointing the six clerks, +designed one of the profitable posts for his son, +Robert Cæsar. One of the clerks dying before +Sir Julius could appoint his son, the imperious +treasurer, Sir Richard Weston, promised his place +to a dependant of his, who gave him for it £6,000 +down. The vexation of old Sir Julius at this arbitrary +step so moved his friends, that King Charles +was induced to promise Robert Cæsar the next +post in the clerks' office that should fall vacant, +and the Lord Treasurer was bound by this promise. +One day the Earl of Tullibardine, passionately +pressing the treasurer about his business, was +told by Sir Richard that he had quite forgotten +the matter, but begged for a memorandum, that +he might remind the king that very afternoon. +The earl then wrote on a small bit of paper the +words, "Remember Cæsar!" and Sir Richard, +without reading it, placed it carefully in a little +pocket, where he said he kept all the memorials +first to be transacted. Many days passed, and +the ambitious treasurer forgot all about Cæsar. +At length one night, changing his clothes, his +servant brought him the notes and papers from +his pocket, which he looked over according to his +custom. Among these he found the little billet +with merely the words "Remember Cæsar!" and +on the sight of this the arrogant yet timid courtier +was utterly confounded. Turning pale, he sent +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>for his bosom friends, showed them the paper, and +held a solemn deliberation over it. It was decided +that it must have been dropped into his hand by +some secret friend, as he was on his way to the +priory lodgings. Every one agreed that some conspiracy +was planned against his life by his many +and mighty enemies, and that Cæsar's fate might +soon be his unless great precautions were taken. +The friends therefore +persuaded him +to be at once indisposed, +and not venture +forth in that +neighbourhood, nor +to admit to an audience +any but persons +of undoubted +affection. At night +the gates were shut +and barred early, +and the porter +solemnly enjoined +not to open them +to any one, or to +venture on even a +moment's sleep. +Some servants were +sent to watch with +him, and the friends +sat up all night to +await the event. +"Such houses," says +Clarendon, who did +not like the treasurer, +"are always +in the morning +haunted by early +suitors;" but it was +very late before any +one could now get +admittance into the +house, the porter +having tasted some +of the arrears of sleep which he owed to himself +for his night watching, which he accounted +for to his acquaintance by whispering to them +"that his lord should have been killed that night, +which had kept all the house from going to bed." +Shortly afterwards, however, the Earl of Tullibardine +asking the treasurer whether he had remembered +Cæsar, the treasurer quickly recollected +the ground of his perturbation, could not forbear +imparting it to his friends, and so the whole jest +came to be discovered.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="izaak" id="izaak"></a> +<img src="images/p079.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />IZAAK WALTON'S HOUSE</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1614, £6 12s. 6d. was claimed by Sir Julius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +Cæsar for paving the part of Chancery Lane over +against the Rolls Gate.</p> + +<p>Sir Joseph Jekyll, the Master of the Rolls in +the reign of George I., was an ancestor of that +witty Jekyll, the friend and adviser of George IV. +Sir Joseph was very active in introducing a Bill +for increasing the duty on gin, in consequence of +which he became so odious to the mob that they +one day hustled and +trampled on him in +a riot in Lincoln's +Inn Fields. Hogarth, +who painted +his "Gin Lane" to +express his alarm +and disgust at the +growing intemperance +of the London +poor, has in one of +his extraordinary +pictures represented +a low fellow writing +J.J. under a gibbet.</p> + +<p>Sir William Grant, +who succeeded Lord +Alvanley, was the +last Master but one +that resided in the +Rolls. He had +practised at the +Canadian bar, and +on returning to England +attracted the +attention of Lord +Thurlow, then chancellor. +He was an +admirable speaker +in the House, and +even Fox is said to +have girded himself +tighter for an +encounter with such +an adversary. "He +used," says Mr. Cyrus Jay, in his amusing book, +"The Law," "to sit from five o'clock till one, and +seldom spoke during that time. He dined before +going into court, his allowance being a bottle of +Madeira at dinner and a bottle of port after. He +dined alone, and the unfortunate servant was +expected to anticipate his master's wishes by +intuition. Sir William never spoke if he could +help it. On one occasion when the favourite dish +of a leg of pork was on the table, the servant saw +by Sir William's face that something was wrong, +but he could not tell what. Suddenly a thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +flashed upon him—the Madeira was not on the +table. He at once placed the decanter before +Sir William, who immediately flung it into the +grate, exclaiming, "Mustard, you fool!""</p> + +<p>Sir John Leach, another Master of the Rolls, +was the son of a tradesman at Bedford, afterwards +a merchant's clerk and an embryo architect. +Mr. Canning appointed him Master of the Rolls, +an office previously, it has been said, offered to +Mr. Brougham. Leach was fond, says Mr. Jay, of +saying sharp, bitter things in a bland and courtly +voice. "No submission could ameliorate his +temper, no opposition lend asperity to his voice." +In court two large fan shades were always placed +in a way to shade him from the light, and to +render Sir John entirely invisible. "After the +counsel who was addressing the court had finished, +and resumed his seat, there would be an awful +pause for a minute or two, when at length out of +the darkness which surrounded the chair of justice +would come a voice, distinct, awful, solemn, but +with the solemnity of suppressed anger—'the bill +is dismissed with costs.'" No explanations, no long +series of arguments were advanced to support the +conclusion. The decision was given with the air of +a man who knew he was right, and that only +folly or villainy could doubt the propriety of his +judgments. Sir John was the Prince Regent's +great adviser during Queen Caroline's trial, and +assisted in getting up the evidence. "How often," +says Mr. Jay, "have I seen him, when walking +through the Green Park between four and five +o'clock in the afternoon, knock at the private door +of Carlton Palace. I have seen him go in four or +five days following."</p> + +<p>Gifford was another eminent Master of the Rolls, +though he did not hold the office long. He first +attracted attention when a lawyer's clerk by his +clever observations on a case in which he was +consulted by his employers, in the presence of an +important client. The high opinion which Lord +Ellenborough formed of his talents induced Lord +Liverpool to appoint him Solicitor-General. While +in the House he had frequently to encounter Sir +Samuel Romilly. Mr. Cyrus Jay has an interesting +anecdote about the funeral of Lord Gifford, who +was buried in the Rolls Chapel. "I was," he says, +"in the little gallery when the procession came +into the chapel, and Lord Eldon and Lord Chief +Justice Abbott were placed in a pew by themselves. +I could observe everything that took place +in the pew, it being a small chapel, and noted that +Lord Eldon was very shaky, and during the most +solemn part of the service saw him touch the Chief +Justice. I have no doubt he asked for his snuff-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>box, for the snuff-box was produced, and he took +a large pinch of snuff. The Chief Justice was +a very great snuff-taker, but he only took it up one +nostril. I kept my eye on the pinch of snuff, and +saw that Lord Eldon, the moment he had taken it +from the box, threw it away. I was sorry at the time, +and was astonished at the deception practised by so +great a man, with the grave yawning before him."</p> + +<p>When Sir Thomas Plumer was Master of the +Rolls, and gave a succession of dinners to the Bar, +Romilly, alluding to Lord Eldon's stinginess, said, +"Verily he is working off the arrears of the Lord +Chancellor."</p> + +<p>At the back of the Rolls Chapel, in Bowling-Pin +Alley, Bream's Buildings (No. 28, Chancery +Lane), there once lived, according to party calumny, +a journeyman labourer, named Thompson, whose +clever and pretty daughter, the wife of Clark, a +bricklayer, became the mischievous mistress of the +good-natured but weak Duke of York. After +making great scandal about the sale of commissions +obtained by her influence, the shrewd woman wrote +some memoirs, 10,000 copies of which, Mr. Timbs +records, were, the year after, burnt at a printer's in +Salisbury Square, upon condition of her debts +being paid, and an annuity of £400 granted her.</p> + +<p>Wilberforce's unscrupulous party statement, that +Mrs. Clark was a low, vulgar, and extravagant +woman, was entirely untrue. Mrs. Clark, however +imprudent and devoid of virtue, was no more +the daughter of a journeyman bricklayer than she +was the daughter of Pope Pius. She was really, +as Mr. Cyrus Redding, who knew most of the +political secrets of his day, has proved, the unfortunate +granddaughter of that unfortunate man, +Theodore, King of Corsica, and daughter of even +a more unhappy man, Colonel Frederick, a brave, +well-read gentleman, who, under the pressure of a +temporary monetary difficulty, occasioned by the +dishonourable conduct of a friend, blew out his +brains in the churchyard of St. Margaret's, Westminster. +In 1798 a poem, written, we believe, +by Mrs., then Miss Clark, called "Ianthe," was +published by subscription at Hookham's, in New +Bond Street, for the benefit of Colonel Frederick's +daughter and children, and dedicated to the Prince +of Wales. The girl married an Excise officer, much +older than herself, and became the mistress of the +Duke of York, to whom probably she had applied +for assistance, or subscriptions to her poem. The +fact is, the duke's vices were turned, as vices +frequently are, into scourges for his own back. He +was a jovial, good-natured, affable, selfish man, an +incessant and reckless gambler, quite devoid of +all conscience about debts, and, indeed, of moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +principle in general. When he got tired of Mrs. +Clark, he meanly and heartlessly left her, with a +promised annuity which he never paid, and with +debts mutually incurred at their house in Gloucester +Place, which he shamefully allowed to fall +upon her. In despair and revengeful rage the +discarded mistress sought the eager enemies whom +the duke's careless neglect had sown round him, +and the scandal broke forth. The Prince of Wales, +who was as fond of his brother as he could be of +any one, was greatly vexed at the exposure, and +sent Lord Moira to buy up the correspondence +from the Radical bookseller, Sir Richard Phillips, +who had advanced money upon it, and was glorying +in the escapade.</p> + +<p>Mr. Timbs informs us that Sir Richard Phillips, +used to narrate the strange and mysterious story +of the real secret cause of the Duke of York scandal. +The exposure originated in the resentment +of one M'Callum against Sir Thomas Picton, +who, as Governor of Trinidad, had, among other +arbitrary acts, imprisoned M'Callum in an underground +dungeon. On getting to England he +sought justice; but, finding himself baffled, he first +published his travels in Trinidad, to expose Picton; +then ferreted out charges against the War Office, +and at last, through Colonel Wardle, brought forward +the notorious great-coat contract. This being +negatived by a Ministerial majority, he then traced +Mrs. Clark, and arranged the whole of the exposure +for Wardle and others. To effect this in the teeth +of power, though destitute of resources, he wrought +night and day for months. He lodged in a garret +in Hungerford Market, and often did not taste +food for twenty-four hours. He lived to see the +Duke of York dismissed from office, had time to +publish a short narrative, then died of exhaustion +and want.</p> + +<p>An eye-witness of Mrs. Clark's behaviour at the +bar of the House of Commons pronounced her +replies as full of sharpness against the more +insolent of her adversaries, but her bearing is described +as being "full of grace." Mr. Redding, +who had read twenty or thirty of this lady's letters, +tells us that they showed a good education in +the writer.</p> + +<p>A writer who was present during her examination +before the House of Commons, has pleasantly +described the singular scene. "I was," he says, "in +the House of Commons when Mary Anne Clark +first made her appearance at the bar, dressed in +her light-blue pelisse, light muff and tippet. She +was a pretty woman, rather of a slender make. It +was debated whether she should have a chair; this +occasioned a hubbub, and she was asked who the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +person with her deeply veiled was. She replied +that she was her friend. The lady was instantly +ordered to withdraw, then a chair was ordered for +Mrs. Clark, and she seemed to pluck up courage, +for when she was asked about the particulars of +an annuity promised to be settled on her by +the Duke of York, she said, pointing with her +hand, 'You may ask Mr. William Adam there, +as he knows all about it.' She was asked if she +was quite certain that General Clavering ever was +at any of her parties; she replied, 'So certain, that +I always told him he need not use any ceremony, +but come in his boots.' It will be remembered +that General C. was sent to Newgate for prevarication +on that account, <i>not having recollected in time</i> +this circumstance.</p> + +<p>"Perceval fought the battle manfully. The +Duke of York could not be justified for some of +his acts—for instance, giving a footboy of Mrs. +Clark's a commission in the army, and allowing +an improper influence to be exerted over him in his +thoughtless moments; but that the trial originated +in pique and party spirit, there can be no doubt; +and, as he justly merited, Colonel Wardle, the +prosecutor in the case, sunk into utter oblivion, +whilst the Duke of York, the soldier's friend and +the beloved of the army, was, after a short period +(having been superseded by Sir David Dundas), +replaced as commander-in-chief, and died deeply +regretted and fully meriting the colossal statue +erected to him, with his hand pointing to the +Horse Guards."</p> + +<p>Cardinal Wolsey lived, at some period of his +extraordinary career, in a house in Chancery Lane, +at the Holborn end, and on the east side, opposite +the Six Clerks' Office. We do not know what rank +the proud favourite held at this time, whether he +was almoner to the king, privy councillor, Canon +of Windsor, Bishop of Lincoln, Archbishop of York, +or Cardinal of the Cecilia. We like to think that +down that dingy legal lane he rode on his way to +Westminster Hall, with all that magnificence described +by his faithful gentleman usher, Cavendish. +He would come out of his chamber, we read, about +eight o'clock in his cardinal's robes of scarlet taffeta +and crimson satin, with a black velvet tippet edged +with sable round his neck, holding in his hand an +orange filled with a sponge containing aromatic +vinegar, in case the crowd of suitors should in +commode him. Before him was borne the broad +seal of England, and the scarlet cardinal's hat. A +sergeant-at-arms preceded him bearing a great mace +of silver, and two gentlemen carrying silver plates. +At the hall-door he mounted his mule, trapped +with crimson and having a saddle covered with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +crimson velvet, while the gentlemen ushers, bareheaded, +cried,—"On, masters, before, and make +room for my lord cardinal." When Wolsey was +mounted he was preceded by his two cross-bearers +and his two pillow-bearers, all upon horses trapped +in scarlet; and four footmen with pole-axes guarded +the cardinal till he came to Westminster. And +every Sunday, when he repaired to the king's court +at Greenwich, he landed at the Three Cranes, in +the Vintrey, and took water again at Billingsgate. +"He had," says Cavendish, "a long season, ruling +all things in the realm appertaining to the king, by +his wisdom, and all other matters of foreign regions +with whom the king had any occasion to meddle, +and then he fell like Lucifer, never to rise again. +Here," says Cavendish, "is the end and fall of +pride; for I assure you he was in his time the +proudest man alive, having more regard to the +honour of his person than to his spiritual functions, +wherein he should have expressed more meekness +and humility."</p> + +<p>One of the greatest names connected with Chancery +Lane is that of the unfortunate Wentworth, +Earl of Strafford, who, after leading his master, +Charles I., on the path to the scaffold, was the first +to lay his head upon the block. Wentworth, the +son of a Yorkshire gentleman, was born in 1593 +in Chancery Lane, at the house of Mr. Atkinson, +his maternal grandfather, a bencher of Lincoln's +Inn. At first an enemy of Buckingham, the king's +favourite, and opposed to the Court, he was won over +by a peerage and the counsels of his friend Lord +Treasurer Weston. He soon became a headlong +and unscrupulous advocate of arbitrary power, and, +as Lord Deputy of Ireland, did his best to raise an +army for the king and to earn his Court name of +"Thorough." Impeached for high treason, and +accused by Sir Henry Vane of a design to subdue +England by force, he was forsaken by the weak +king and condemned to the block. "Put not +your trust in princes," he said, when he heard of +the king's consent to the execution of so faithful a +servant, "nor in any child of man, for in them is +no salvation." He died on Tower Hill, with calm +and undaunted courage, expressing his devotion to +the Church of England, his loyalty to the king, +and his earnest desire for the peace and welfare of +the kingdom.</p> + +<p>Of this steadfast and dangerous man Clarendon +has left one of those Titianesque portraits in which +he excelled. "He was a man," says the historian, +"of great parts and extraordinary endowment of +nature, and of great observation and a piercing +judgment both into things and persons; but his +too good skill in persons made him judge the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +worse of things, and so that upon the matter he +wholly relied upon himself; and discerning many +defects in most men, he too much neglected what +they said or did. Of all his passions his pride +was most predominant, which a moderate exercise +of ill fortune might have corrected and reformed; +and which was by the hand of Heaven strangely +punished by bringing his destruction on him by +two things that he most despised—the people and +Sir Harry Vane. In a word, the epitaph which +Plutarch records that Sylla wrote for himself may +not be unfitly applied to him—'that no man did +ever pass him either in doing good to his friends +or in doing harm to his enemies.'"</p> + +<p>Izaak Walton, that amiable old angler, lived for +some years (1627 to 1644) of his happy and contented +life in a house (No. 120) on the west side of +Chancery Lane (Fleet Street end). This was many +years before he published his "Complete Angler," +which did not, indeed, appear till the year before +the Restoration. Yet we imagine that at this time +the honest citizen often sallied forth to the Lea +banks with his friends, the Roes, on those fine +cool May mornings upon which he expatiates so +pleasantly. A quiet man and a lover of peace was +old Izaak; and we may be sure no jingle of money +ever hurried him back from the green fields where +the lark, singing as she ascended higher and higher +into the air, and nearer to the heavens, excelled, as +he says, in her simple piety "all those little nimble +musicians of the air (her fellows) who warble forth +their various ditties with which Nature has furnished +them, to the shame of art." Refreshed and +exhilarated by the pure country air, we can fancy +Walton returning homeward to his Chancery Lane +shop, humming to himself that fine old song of +Marlowe's which the milkmaid sung to him as he sat +under the honeysuckle-hedge out of the shower,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Come live with me and be my love,<br /> +And we will all the pleasures prove<br /> +That valleys, groves, or hills, or field,<br /> +Or woods, or steepy mountain, yield." +</div> + +<p>How Byron had the heart to call a man who +loved such simple pleasures, and was so guileless +and pure-hearted as Walton, "a cruel old coxcomb," +and to wish that in his gullet he had a hook, and +"a strong trout to pull it," we never could understand; +but Byron was no angler, and we suppose +he thought Walton's advice about sewing up frogs' +mouths, &c., somewhat hard-hearted.</p> + +<p>North, in his life of that faithful courtier of +Charles II., Lord Keeper Guildford, mentions that +his lordship "settled himself in the great brick +house in Serjeants' Inn, near Chancery Lane, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +was formerly the Lord Chief Justice Hyde's, and +that he held it till he had the Great Seal, and some +time after. When his lordship lived in this house, +before his lady began to want her health, he was +in the height of all the felicity his nature was +capable of. He had a seat in St. Dunstan's Church +appropriated to him, and constantly kept the +church in the mornings, and so his house was to +his mind; and having, with leave, a door into +Serjeants' Inn garden, he passed daily with ease +to his chambers, dedicated to business and study. +His friends he enjoyed at home, and politic ones +often found him out at his chambers." He rebuilt +Serjeants' Inn Hall, which had become poor and +ruinous, and improved all the dwellings in Chancery +Lane from Jackanapes Alley down to Fleet Street. +He also drained the street for the first time, and +had a rate levied on the unwilling inhabitants, after +which his at first reluctant neighbours thanked +him warmly. This same Lord Keeper, a time-server +and friend of arbitrary power, according to Burnet, +seems to have been a learned and studious man, +for he encouraged the sale of barometers and +wrote a philosophical essay on music. It was this +timid courtier that unscrupulous Jeffreys vexed by +spreading a report that he had been seen riding +on a rhinoceros, then one of the great sights of +London. Jeffreys was at the time hoping to supersede +the Lord Keeper in office, and was anxious to +cover him with ridicule.</p> + +<p>Besides the Cæsars, Cecils, Throckmortons, +Lincolns, Sir John Franklin, and Edward Reeve, +who, according to Mr. Noble, all resided in Chancery +Lane, when it was a fashionable legal quarter, +we must not forget that on the site of No. 115 +lived Sir Richard Fanshawe, the ambassador sent +by Charles II. to arrange his marriage with the +Portuguese princess. This accomplished man, +who translated Guarini's "Pastor Fido," and the +"Lusiad" of Camoens, died at Madrid in 1666. His +brave yet gentle wife, who wrote some interesting +memoirs, gives a graphic account of herself and +her husband taking leave of his royal master, +Charles I., at Hampton Court. At parting, the +king saluted her, and she prayed God to preserve +his majesty with long life and happy years. The +king stroked her on the cheek, and said, "Child, +if God pleaseth, it shall be so; but both you and I +must submit to God's will, for you know whose +hands I am in." Then turning to Sir Richard, +Charles said, "Be sure, Dick, to tell my son all +that I have said, and deliver these letters to my +wife. Pray God bless her; and I hope I shall do +well." Then, embracing Sir Richard, the king +added, "Thou hast ever been an honest man, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +I hope God will bless thee, and make thee a +happy servant to my son, whom I have charged in +my letter to continue his love and trust to you; +and I do promise you, if I am ever restored to +my dignity, I will bountifully reward you both for +your services and sufferings." "Thus," says the +noble Royalist lady, enthusiastically, "did we part +from that glorious sun that within a few months +after was extinguished, to the grief of all Christians +who are not forsaken of their God."</p> + +<p>No. 45 (east side) is the "Hole in the Wall" +Tavern, kept early in the century by Jack Randal, +<i>alias</i> "Nonpareil," a fighting man, whom Tom Moore +visited, says Mr. Noble, to get materials for his +"Tom Cribb's Memorial to Congress," "Randal's +Diary," and other satirical poems. Hazlitt, when +living in Southampton Buildings, describes going +to this haunt of the fancy the night before the +great fight between Neate, the Bristol butcher, +and Hickman, the gas-man, to find out where the +encounter was to take place, although Randal had +once rather too forcibly expelled him for some +trifling complaint about a chop. Hazlitt went +down to the fight with Thurtell, the betting man, +who afterwards murdered Mr. Weare, a gambler +and bill-discounter of Lyon's Inn. In Byron's +early days taverns like Randal's were frequented by +all the men about town, who considered that to +wear bird's-eye handkerchiefs and heavy-caped box +coats was the height of manliness and fashion.</p> + +<p>Chichester Rents, a sorry place now, preserves +a memory of the site of the town-house of the +Bishops of Chichester. It was originally built in a +garden belonging to one John Herberton, granted +the bishops by Henry III., who excepted it out of +the charter of the Jew converts' house, now the +Rolls Chapel.</p> + +<p>Serjeants' Inn, originally designed for serjeants +alone, is now open to all students, though it still +more especially affects the Freres Serjens, or Fratres +Servientes, who derived their name originally from +being the lower grade or servitors of the Knights +Templars. Serjeants still address each other as +"brother," and indeed, as far as Cain and Abel go, +the brotherhood of lawyers cannot be disputed. +The old formula at Westminster, when a new +serjeant approached the judges, was, "I think I +see a brother."</p> + +<p>One of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims was a +"serjeant of law." This inn dates back as early +as the reign of Henry IV., when it was held +under a lease from the Bishop of Ely. In 1442 a +William Antrobus, citizen and taylor of London, +held it at the rent of ten marks a year. In the hall +windows are emblazoned the arms of Lord Keeper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +Guildford (1684). The inn was rebuilt, all but +the old dining-hall, by Sir Robert Smirke, in the +years 1837-38.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="serjeants" id="serjeants"></a> +<img src="images/p084.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD SERJEANTS' INN</span> +</div> + +<p>The humours of Southampton Buildings, Chancery +Lane, have been admirably described by +Hazlitt, and are well condensed by a contemporaneous +writer, of whose labours we gratefully +avail ourselves.</p> + +<p>"In 1820 a ray of light strikes the Buildings, +for one of the least popular, but by no means the +least remarkable, of the Charles Lamb set came to +lodge at No. 9, half-way down on the right-hand side +as you come from Holborn. There for four years +lived, taught, wrote, and suffered that admirable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +essayist, fine-art and theatrical critic, thoughtful +metaphysician, and miserable man, William Hazlitt. +He lodged at the house of Mr. Walker, a tailor, +who was blessed with two fair daughters, with +one of whom (Sarah) Hazlitt, then a married man, +fell madly in love. He declared she was like the +Madonna (she seems really to have been a cold, +calculating flirt, rather afraid of her wild lover). +To his 'Liber Amoris,' a most stultifying series of +dialogues between himself and the lodging-house +keeper's daughter, the author appended a drawing +of an antique gem (Lucretia), which he declared to +be the very image of the obdurate tailor's daughter. +This untoward but remarkably gifted man, whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +Lamb admired, if he did not love, and whom +Leigh Hunt regarded as a spirit highly endowed, +usually spent his evenings at the 'Southampton;' +as we take it, that coffee-house on the +left hand, next the Patent Office, as you enter the +Buildings from Chancery Lane. It is an unpretending +public-house now, with the quiet, bald-looking +coffee-room altered, but still one likes to +wander past the place and think that Hazlitt, his +hand still warm with the grip of Lamb's, has +entered it often. In an essay on 'Coffee-House +Politicians,' in the second volume of his 'Table +Talk,' Hazlitt has sketched the coterie at the +'Southampton,' in a manner not unworthy of Steele. +The picture wants Sir Richard's mellow, Jan Steen +colour, but it possesses much of Wilkie's dainty +touch and keen appreciation of character. Let us call +up, he says, the old customers at the 'Southampton' +from the dead, and take a glass with them. First +of all comes Mr. George Kirkpatrick, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +admired by William, the sleek, neat waiter (who +had a music-master to teach him the flageolet two +hours every morning before the maids were up), +for his temper in managing an argument. Mr. +Kirkpatrick was one of those bland, simpering, +self-complacent men, who, unshakable from the +high tower of their own self-satisfaction, look +down upon your arguments from their magnificent +elevation. 'I will explain,' was his condescending +phrase. If you corrected the intolerable magnifico, +he corrected your correction; if you hinted at an +obvious blunder, he was always aware what your +mistaken objection would be. He and his clique +would spend a whole evening on a wager as to +whether the first edition of Dr. Johnson's 'Dictionary' +was quarto or folio. The confident assertions, +the cautious ventures, the length of time +demanded to ascertain the fact, the precise +terms of the forfeit, the provisoes for getting out +of paying it at last, led to a long and inextricable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +discussion. Kirkpatrick's vanity, however, one +night led him into a terrible pitfall. He recklessly +ventured money on the fact that <i>The Mourning +Bride</i> was written by Shakespeare; headlong he +fell, and ruefully he partook of the bowl of punch +for which he had to pay. As a rule his nightly +outlay seldom exceeded sevenpence. Four hours' +good conversation for sevenpence made the 'Southampton' +the cheapest of London clubs.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="hazlitt" id="hazlitt"></a> +<img src="images/p085.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />HAZLITT</span> +</div> + +<p>"Kirkpatrick's brother Roger was the Mercutio +to his Shallow. Roger was a rare fellow, 'of the +driest humour and the nicest tact, of infinite sleights +and evasions, of a picked phraseology, and the +very soul of mimicry.' He had the mind of a +harlequin; his wit was acrobatic, and threw somersaults. +He took in a character at a glance, and +threw a pun at you as dexterously as a fly-fisher +casts his fly over a trout's nose. 'How finely,' +says Hazlitt, in his best and heartiest mood; 'how +finely, how truly, how gaily he took off the company +at the "Southampton!" Poor and faint are my +sketches compared to his! It was like looking +into a camera-obscura—you saw faces shining and +speaking. The smoke curled, the lights dazzled, +the oak wainscoting took a higher polish. There +was old S., tall and gaunt, with his couplet from +Pope and case at Nisi Prius; Mudford, eyeing the +ventilator and lying perdu for a moral; and H. and +A. taking another friendly finishing glass. These +and many more windfalls of character he gave us +in thought, word, and action. I remember his +once describing three different persons together to +myself and Martin Burney [a bibulous nephew of +Madame d'Arblay's and a great friend of Charles +Lamb's], namely, the manager of a country theatre, +a tragic and a comic performer, till we were ready +to tumble on the floor with laughing at the oddity +of their humours, and at Roger's extraordinary +powers of ventriloquism, bodily and mental; and +Burney said (such was the vividness of the scene) +that when he awoke the next morning he wondered +what three amusing characters he had been in +company with the evening before.' He was fond +also of imitating old Mudford, of the <i>Courier</i>, a fat, +pert, dull man, who had left the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> +in 1814, just as Hazlitt joined it, and was renowned +for having written a reply to 'Cœlebs.' He would +enter a room, fold up his great-coat, take out a +little pocket volume, lay it down to think, rubbing +all the time the fleshy calf of his leg with dull +gravity and intense and stolid self-complacency, +and start out of his reveries when addressed with +the same inimitable vapid exclamation of 'Eh!' +Dr. Whittle, a large, plain-faced Moravian preacher, +who had turned physician, was another of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +chosen impersonations. Roger represented the +honest, vain, empty man purchasing an ounce of +tea by stratagem to astonish a favoured guest; he +portrayed him on the summit of a narrow, winding, +and very steep staircase, contemplating in airy +security the imaginary approach of duns. This +worthy doctor on one occasion, when watching +Sarratt, the great chess-player, turned suddenly to +Hazlitt, and said, 'I think I could dance. I'm +sure I could; aye, I could dance like Vestris.' +Such were the odd people Roger caricatured on +the memorable night he pulled off his coat to eat +beefsteaks on equal terms with Martin Burney.</p> + +<p>"Then there was C., who, from his slender neck, +shrillness of voice, and his ever-ready quibble and +laugh at himself, was for some time taken for a +lawyer, with which folk the Buildings were then, +as now, much infested. But on careful inquiry +he turned out to be a patent-medicine seller, who +at leisure moments had studied Blackstone and +the statutes at large from mere sympathy with the +neighbourhood. E. came next, a rich tradesman, +Tory in grain, and an everlasting babbler on the +strong side of politics; querulous, dictatorial, and +with a peevish whine in his voice like a beaten +schoolboy. He was a stout advocate for the Bourbons +and the National Debt, and was duly disliked +by Hazlitt, we may feel assured. The Bourbons +he affirmed to be the choice of the French people, +the Debt necessary to the salvation of these kingdoms. +To a little inoffensive man, 'of a saturnine +aspect but simple conceptions,' Hazlitt once heard +him say grandly, 'I will tell you, sir. I will make +my proposition so clear that you will be convinced +of the truth of my observation in a moment. Consider, +sir, the number of trades that would be +thrown out of employ if the Debt were done away +with. What would become of the porcelain manufacture +without it?' He would then show the +company a flower, the production of his own +garden, calling it a unique and curious exotic, and +hold forth on his carnations, his country-house, and +his old English hospitality, though he never invited +a friend to come down to a Sunday's dinner. +Mean and ostentatious, insolent and servile, he +did not know whether to treat those he conversed +with as if they were his porters or his customers. +The 'prentice boy was not yet ground out of him, +and his imagination hovered between his grand +new country mansion and the workhouse. Opposed +to him and every one else was K., a Radical reformer +and tedious logician, who wanted to make +short work of the taxes and National Debt, reconstruct +the Government from first principles, and +shatter the Holy Alliance at a blow. He was for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +crushing out the future prospects of society as with +a machine, and for starting where the French +Revolution had begun five-and-twenty years before. +He was a born disturber, and never agreed to +more than half a proposition at a time. Being +very stingy, he generally brought a bunch of +radishes with him for economy, and would give a +penny to a band of musicians at the door, observing +that he liked their performance better than all the +opera-squalling. His objections to the National +Debt arose from motives of personal economy; +and he objected to Mr. Canning's pension because +it took a farthing a year out of his own pocket.</p> + +<p>"Another great sachem at the 'Southampton' +was Mr. George Mouncey, of the firm of Mouncey +& Gray, solicitors, Staple's Inn. 'He was,' says +Hazlitt, 'the oldest frequenter of the place and +the latest sitter-up; well-informed, unobtrusive, and +that sturdy old English character, a lover of truth +and justice. Mouncey never approved of anything +unfair or illiberal, and, though good-natured and +gentleman-like, never let an absurd or unjust proposition +pass him without expressing dissent.' He +was much liked by Hazlitt, for they had mutual +friends, and Mouncey had been intimate with most +of the wits and men about town for twenty years +before. 'He had in his time known Tobin, +Wordsworth, Porson, Wilson, Paley, and Erskine. +He would speak of Paley's pleasantry and unassuming +manners, and describe Porson's deep +potations and long quotations at the "Cider +Cellars."' Warming with his theme, Hazlitt goes +on in his essay to etch one memorable evening +at the 'Southampton.' A few only were left, 'like +stars at break of day,' the discourse and the ale +were growing sweeter; but Mouncey, Hazlitt, and a +man named Wells, alone remained. The conversation +turned on the frail beauties of Charles II.'s +Court, and from thence passed to Count Grammont, +their gallant, gay, and not over-scrupulous +historian. Each one cited his favourite passage +in turn; from Jacob Hall, the rope-dancer, they +progressed by pleasant stages of talk to pale Miss +Churchill and her fortunate fall from her horse. +Wells then spoke of 'Apuleius and his Golden +Ass,' 'Cupid and Psyche,' and the romance of +'Heliodorus, Theogenes, and Chariclea,' which, as +he affirmed, opened with a pastoral landscape +equal to one of Claude's. 'The night waned,' says +the delightful essayist, 'but our glasses brightened, +enriched with the pearls of Grecian story. Our +cup-bearer slept in a corner of the room, like +another Endymion, in the pale rays of a half-extinguished +lamp, and, starting up at a fresh +summons for a further supply, he swore it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +too late, and was inexorable to entreaty. Mouncey +sat with his hat on and a hectic flush in his face +while any hope remained, but as soon as we rose +to go, he dashed out of the room as quick as +lightning, determined not to be the last. I said +some time after to the waiter that "Mr. Mouncey +was no flincher." "Oh, sir!" says he, "you should +have known him formerly. Now he is quite another +man: he seldom stays later than one or two; then +he used to help sing catches, and all sorts."</p> + +<p>"It was at the 'Southampton' that George Cruikshank, +Hazlitt, and Hone used to often meet, to +discuss subjects for Hone's squibs on the Queen's +trial (1820). Cruikshank would sometimes dip his +finger in ale and sketch a suggestion on the table.</p> + +<p>"While living in that state of half-assumed +love frenzy at No. 9, Southampton Buildings, Hazlitt +produced some of his best work. His noble +lectures on the age of Elizabeth had just been +delivered, and he was writing for the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i>, the <i>New Monthly</i>, and the London <i>Magazine</i>, +in conjunction with Charles Lamb, Reynolds, +Barry Cornwall, De Quincey, and Wainwright +('Janus Weathercock') the poisoner. In 1821 he +published his volume of 'Dramatic Criticisms,' +and his subtle 'Table Talk;' in 1823, his foolish +'Liber Amoris;' and in 1824, his fine 'Sketches of +the Principal English Picture Galleries.'</p> + +<p>"Hazlitt, who was born in 1778 and died in +1830, was the son of a Unitarian minister of Irish +descent. Hazlitt was at first intended for an artist, +but, coming to London, soon drifted into literature. +He became a parliamentary reporter to the <i>Morning +Chronicle</i> in 1813, and in that wearing occupation +injured his naturally weak digestion. In 1814 he +succeeded Mudford as theatrical critic on Perry's +paper. In 1815 he joined the <i>Champion</i>, and in +1818 wrote for the <i>Yellow Dwarf</i>. Hazlitt's habits +at No. 9 were enough to have killed a rhinoceros. +He sat up half the night, and rose about one or +two. He then remained drinking the strongest +black tea, nibbling a roll, and reading (no appetite, +of course) till about five p.m. At supper at the +'Southampton,' his jaded stomach then rousing, +he ate a heavy meal of steak or game, frequently +drinking during his long and suicidal vigils three +or four quarts of water. Wine and spirits he latterly +never touched. Morbidly self-conscious, touchy, +morose, he believed that his aspect and manner +were strange and disagreeable to his friends, and +that every one was perpetually insulting him. He +had a magnificent forehead, regular features, pale +as marble, and a profusion of curly black hair, but +his eyes were shy and suspicious. His manner +when not at his ease Mr. P.G. Patmore describes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +as worthy of Apemantus himself. He would enter +a room as if he had been brought in in custody. +He shuffled sidelong to the nearest chair, sat down +on the extreme corner of it, dropped his hat on +the floor, buried his chin in his stock, vented his +usual pet phrase on such occasions, 'It's a fine +day,' and resigned himself moodily to social misery. +If the talk did not suit him, he bore it a certain +time, silent, self-absorbed, as a man condemned to +death, then suddenly, with a brusque 'Well, good +morning,' shuffled to the door and blundered his +way out, audibly cursing himself for his folly in +voluntarily making himself the laughing-stock of an +idiot's critical servants. It must have been hard to +bear with such a man, whatever might be his talent; +and yet his dying words were, 'I've led a happy life.'"</p> + +<p>That delightful humorist, Lamb, lived in Southampton +Buildings, in 1800, coming from Pentonville, +and moving to Mitre Court Buildings, Fleet +Street. Here, then, must have taken place some of +those enjoyable evenings which have been so +pleasantly sketched by Hazlitt, one of the most +favoured of Lamb's guests:—</p> + +<p>"At Lamb's we used to have lively skirmishes, +at the Thursday evening parties. I doubt whether +the small-coal man's musical parties could exceed +them. Oh, for the pen of John Buncle to consecrate +a <i>petit souvenir</i> to their memory! There +was Lamb himself, the most delightful, the most +provoking, the most witty, and the most sensible of +men. He always made the best pun and the best +remark in the course of the evening. His serious +conversation, like his serious writing, is the best. +No one ever stammered out such fine, piquant, +deep, eloquent things, in half-a-dozen sentences, as +he does. His jests scald like tears, and he probes +a question with a play upon words. What a keen-laughing, +hair-brained vein of home-felt truth! +What choice venom! How often did we cut into +the haunch of letters! how we skimmed the cream +of criticism! How we picked out the marrow of +authors! Need I go over the names? They were +but the old, everlasting set—Milton and Shakespeare, +Pope and Dryden, Steele and Addison, +Swift and Gay, Fielding, Smollet, Sterne, Richardson, +Hogarth's prints, Claude's landscapes, the +Cartoons at Hampton Court, and all those things +that, having once been, must ever be. The Scotch +novels had not then been heard of, so we said +nothing about them. In general we were hard +upon the moderns. The author of the <i>Rambler</i> +was only tolerated in Boswell's life of him; and it +was as much as anyone could do to edge in a word +for Junius. Lamb could not bear 'Gil Blas;' this +was a fault. I remember the greatest triumph I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +ever had was in persuading him, after some years' +difficulty, that Fielding was better than Smollett. +On one occasion he was for making out a list of +persons famous in history that one would wish to +see again, at the head of whom were Pontius Pilate, +Sir Thomas Browne, and Dr. Faustus; but we +black-balled most of his list. But with what a +gusto he would describe his favourite authors, +Donne or Sir Philip Sidney, and call their most +crabbed passages <i>delicious</i>. He tried them on his +palate, as epicures taste olives, and his observations +had a smack in them like a roughness on the +tongue. With what discrimination he hinted a +defect in what he admired most, as in saying the +display of the sumptuous banquet in 'Paradise +Regained' was not in true keeping, as the simplest +fare was all that was necessary to tempt the extremity +of hunger, and stating that Adam and Eve, +in 'Paradise Lost,' were too much like married +people. He has furnished many a text for Coleridge +to preach upon. There was no fuss or cant +about him; nor were his sweets or sours ever +diluted with one particle of affectation."</p> + +<p>Towards the unhappy close of Sheridan's life, +when weighed down by illness and debt (he had +just lost the election at Stafford, and felt clouds +and darkness gathering closer round him), he was +thrown for several days (about 1814) into a sponging-house +in Tooke's Court, Cursitor Street, Chancery +Lane. Tom Moore describes meeting him shortly +before with Lord Byron, at the table of Rogers, +and some days after Sheridan burst into tears on +hearing that Byron had said that he (Sheridan) +had written the best comedy, the best operetta, the +best farce, the best address, and delivered the best +oration ever produced in England. Sheridan's books +and pictures had been sold; and from his sordid +prison he wrote a piteous letter to his kind but +severely business-like friend, Whitbread, the brewer. +"I have done everything," he says, "to obtain my +release, but in vain; and, Whitbread, putting all +false professions of friendship and feeling out of +the question, you have no right to keep me here, +for it is in truth your act; if you had not forcibly +withheld from me the £12,000, in consequence of +a letter from a miserable swindler, whose claim you +in particular know to be a lie, I should at least have +been out of the reach of this miserable insult; for +that, and that only, lost me my seat in Parliament."</p> + +<p>Even in the depths of this den, however, Sheridan +still remained sanguine; and when Whitbread +came to release him, he found him confidently +calculating on the representation of Westminster, +then about to become vacant by the unjust disgrace +of Lord Cochrane. On his return home to his wife,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +fortified perhaps by wine, Sheridan burst into a long +and passionate fit of weeping, at the profanation, +as he termed it, which his person had suffered.</p> + +<p>In Lord Eldon's youth, when he was simply +plain John Scott, of the Northern Circuit, he lived +with the pretty little wife with whom he had +run away, in very frugal and humble lodgings in +Cursitor Street, just opposite No. 2, the chained +and barred door of Sloman's sponging-house (now +the Imperial Club). Here, in after life he used to +boast, although his struggles had really been very +few, that he used to run out into Clare Market for +sixpennyworth of sprats.</p> + +<p>Mr. Disraeli, in "Henrietta Temple," an early +novel written in the Theodore Hook manner, has +sketched Sloman's with a remarkable <i>verve</i> and +intimate knowledge of the place:—</p> + +<p>"In pursuance of this suggestion, Captain +Armine was ushered into the best drawing-room +with barred windows and treated in the most aristocratic +manner. It was evidently the chamber +reserved only for unfortunate gentlemen of the +utmost distinction; it was simply furnished with +a mirror, a loo-table, and a very hard sofa. The +walls were hung with old-fashioned caricatures by +Bunbury; the fire-irons were of polished brass; +over the mantelpiece was the portrait of the master +of the house, which was evidently a speaking likeness, +and in which Captain Armine fancied he +traced no slight resemblance to his friend Mr. +Levison; and there were also some sources of +literary amusement in the room, in the shape of a +Hebrew Bible and the Racing Calendar.</p> + +<p>"After walking up and down the room for an +hour, meditating over the past—for it seemed hopeless +to trouble himself any further with the future—Ferdinand +began to feel very faint, for it may +be recollected that he had not even breakfasted. +So, pulling the bell-rope with such force that it fell +to the ground, a funny little waiter immediately +appeared, awed by the sovereign ring, and having +indeed received private intelligence from the bailiff +that the gentleman in the drawing-room was a +regular nob.</p> + +<p>"And here, perhaps, I should remind the reader +that of all the great distinctions in life none, +perhaps, is more important than that which divides +mankind into the two great sections of <i>nobs</i> and +<i>snobs</i>. It might seem at the first glance that if +there were a place in the world which should level +all distinctions, it would be a debtors' prison; but +this would be quite an error. Almost at the very +moment that Captain Armine arrived at his sorrowful +hotel, a poor devil of a tradesman, who had +been arrested for fifty pounds and torn from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +wife and family, had been forced to retire to the +same asylum. He was introduced into what is +styled the coffee-room, being a long, low, unfurnished, +sanded chamber, with a table and benches; +and being very anxious to communicate with some +friend, in order, if possible, to effect his release, +and prevent himself from being a bankrupt, he had +continued meekly to ring at intervals for the last +half-hour, in order that he might write and forward +his letter. The waiter heard the coffee-room bell +ring, but never dreamed of noticing it; though the +moment the signal of the private room sounded, +and sounded with so much emphasis, he rushed upstairs +three steps at a time, and instantly appeared +before our hero; and all this difference was occasioned +by the simple circumstance that Captain +Armine was a <i>nob</i>, and the poor tradesman a <i>snob</i>.</p> + +<p>"'I am hungry,' said Ferdinand. 'Can I get +anything to eat at this place?'</p> + +<p>"'What would you like, sir? Anything you +choose, sir—mutton chop, rump steak, weal cutlet? +Do you a fowl in a quarter of an hour—roast or +boiled, sir?'</p> + +<p>"'I have not breakfasted yet; bring me some +breakfast.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, sir,' said the waiter. 'Tea, sir? coffee, +eggs, toast, buttered toast, sir? Like any meat, +sir? ham, sir? tongue, sir? Like a devil, sir?'</p> + +<p>"'Anything—everything; only be quick.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, sir,' responded the waiter. 'Beg pardon, +sir. No offence, I hope; but custom to +pay here, sir. Shall be happy to accommodate +you, sir. Know what a gentleman is.'</p> + +<p>"'Thank you, I will not trouble you,' said Ferdinand. +'Get me that note changed.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, sir,' replied the little waiter, bowing very +low, as he disappeared.</p> + +<p>"'Gentleman in best drawing-room wants breakfast. +Gentleman in best drawing-room wants +change for a ten-pound note. Breakfast immediately +for gentleman in best drawing-room. Tea, +coffee, toast, ham, tongue, and a devil. A regular +nob!'"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cliffords" id="cliffords"></a> +<img src="images/p090.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CLIFFORD'S INN</span> +</div> + +<p>Sloman's has been sketched both by Mr. +Disraeli and Mr. Thackeray. In "Vanity Fair" +we find it described as the temporary abode of the +impecunious Colonel Crawley, and Moss describes +his uncomfortable past and present guests in a +manner worthy of Fielding himself. There is the +"Honourable Capting Famish, of the Fiftieth +Dragoons, whose 'mar' had just taken him out +after a fortnight, jest to punish him, who punished +the champagne, and had a party every night of +regular tip-top swells down from the clubs at the +West End; and Capting Ragg and the Honourable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +Deuceace, who lived, when at home, in the Temple. +There's a doctor of divinity upstairs, and five +gents in the coffee-room who know a good glass +of wine when they see it. There is a tably d'hote +at half-past five in the front parlour, and cards and +music afterwards." Moss's house of durance the +great novelist describes as splendid with dirty +huge old gilt cornices, dingy yellow satin hangings, +while the barred-up windows contrasted with "vast +and oddly-gilt picture-frames surrounding pieces +sporting and sacred, all of which works were by the +greatest masters, and fetched the greatest prices, +too, in the bill transactions, in the course of which +they were sold and bought over and over again. +A quick-eyed Jew boy locks and unlocks the door<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +for visitors, and a dark-eyed maid in curling-papers +brings in the tea."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="execution" id="execution"></a> +<img src="images/p091.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />EXECUTION OF TOMKINS AND CHALLONER</span> +</div> + +<p>The Law Institute, that Grecian temple that +has wedged itself into the south-west end of +Chancery Lane, was built in the stormy year of +1830. On the Lord Mayor's day that year there +was a riot; the Reform Bill was still pending, and +it was feared might not pass, for the Lords were +foaming at the mouth. The Iron Duke was detested +as an opposer of all change, good or bad; +the new police were distasteful to the people; +above all, there was no Lord Mayor's show, and +no man in brass armour to look at. The rioters +assembled outside No. 62, Fleet Street, were there +harangued by some dirty-faced demagogue, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>then marched westward. At Temple Bar the +zealous new "Peelers" slammed the old muddy +gates, to stop the threatening mob; but the City +Marshal, red in the face at this breach of City +privilege, re-opened them, and the mob roared +approval from a thousand distorted mouths. The +more pugnacious reformers now broke the scaffolding +at the Law Institute into dangerous cudgels, +and some 300 of the unwashed patriots dashed +through the Bar towards Somerset House, full of +vague notions of riot, and perhaps (delicious +thought!) plunder. But at St. Mary's, Commissioner +Mayne and his men in the blue tail-coats received +the roughs in battle array, and at the first charge +the coward mob broke and fled.</p> + +<p>In 1815, No. 68, Chancery Lane, not far +from the north-east corner, was the scene of an +event which terminated in the legal murder of a +young and innocent girl. It was here, at Olibar +Turner's, a law stationer's, that Eliza Fenning +lived, whom we have already mentioned when we +entered Hone's shop, in Fleet Street. This poor girl, +on the eve of a happy marriage, was hanged at +Newgate, on the 26th of July, 1815, for attempting +to poison her master and mistress. The trial took +place at the Old Bailey on April 11th of the same +year, and Mr. Gurney conducted the prosecution +before that rough, violent, unfeeling man, Sir John +Sylvester (<i>alias</i> Black Jack), Recorder of London, +who, it is said, used to call the calendar "a bill +of fare." The arsenic for rats, kept in a drawer +by Mr. Turner, had been mixed with the dough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +of some yeast dumplings, of which all the family, +including the poor servant, freely partook. There +was no evidence of malice, no suspicion of any +ill-will, except that Mrs. Turner had once scolded +the girl for being free with one of the clerks. It +was, moreover, remembered that the girl had particularly +pressed her mistress to let her make some +yeast dumplings on the day in question. The +defence was shamefully conducted. No one pressed +the fact of the girl having left the dough in the +kitchen for some time untended; nor was weight +laid on the fact of Eliza Fenning's own danger and +sufferings. All the poor, half-paralysed, Irish girl +could say was, "I am truly innocent of the whole +charge—indeed I am. I liked my place. I was +very comfortable." And there was pathos in those +simple, stammering words, more than in half the +self-conscious diffuseness of tragic poetry. In her +white bridal dress (the cap she had joyfully worked +for herself) she went to her cruel death, still repeating +the words, "I am innocent." The funeral, +at St. George the Martyr, was attended by 10,000 +people. Curran used to declaim eloquently on her +unhappy fate, and Mr. Charles Phillips wrote a +glowing rhapsody on this victim of legal dulness. +But such mistakes not even Justice herself can +correct. A city mourned over her early grave; +but the life was taken, and there was no redress. +Gadsden, the clerk, whom she had warned not to +eat any dumpling, as it was heavy (this was thought +suspicious), afterwards became a wealthy solicitor +in Bedford Row.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES—<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Clifford's Inn—Dyer's Chambers—The Settlement after the Great Fire—Peter Wilkins and his Flying Wives—Fetter Lane—Waller's Plot and +its Victims—Praise-God Barebone and his Doings—Charles Lamb at School—Hobbes the Philosopher—A Strange Marriage—Mrs. +Brownrigge—Paul Whitehead—The Moravians—The Record Office and its Treasures—Rival Poets.</p></div> + + +<p>Clifford's Inn, originally a town house of the +Lords Clifford, ancestors of the Earls of Cumberland, +given to them by Edward II., was first let to +the students of law in the eighteenth year of King +Edward III., at a time when might was too often +right, and hard knocks decided legal questions +oftener than deed or statute. Harrison the regicide +was in youth clerk to an attorney in Clifford's +Inn, but when the Civil War broke out he rode +off and joined the Puritan troopers.</p> + +<p>Clifford's Inn is the oldest Inn in Chancery. +There was formerly, we learn from Mr. Jay, an +office there, out of which were issued writs, called +"Bills of Middlesex," the appointment of which +office was in the gift of the senior judge of the +Queen's Bench. "But what made this Inn once +noted was that all the six attorneys of the Marshalsea +Court (better known as the Palace Court) +had their chambers there, as also had the satellites, +who paid so much per year for using their names +and looking at the nature of their practice. I +should say that more misery emanated from this +small spot than from any one of the most populous +counties in England. The causes in this court<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +were obliged to be tried in the city of Westminster, +near the Palace, and it was a melancholy sight +(except to lawyers) to observe in the court the +crowd of every description of persons suing one +another. The most remarkable man in the court +was the extremely fat prothonotary, Mr. Hewlett, +who sat under the judge or the judge's deputy, +with a wig on his head like a thrush's nest, and +with only one book before him, which was one +of the volumes of 'Burns' Justice.' I knew a +respectable gentleman (Mr. G. Dyer) who resided +here in chambers (where he died) over a firm of +Marshalsea attorneys. This gentleman, who wrote +a history of Cambridge University and a biography +of Robinson of Cambridge, had been a +Bluecoat boy, went as a Grecian to Cambridge, +and, after the University, visited almost every +celebrated library in Europe. It often struck me +what a mighty difference there was between what +was going on in the one set of chambers and the +other underneath. At Mr. Dyer's I have seen Sir +Walter Scott, Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, Talfourd, +and many other celebrated literati, 'all benefiting +by hearing, which was but of little advantage to +the owner.' In the lawyers' chambers below were +people wrangling, swearing, and shouting, and some, +too, even fighting, the only relief to which was the +eternal stamping of cognovits, bound in a book as +large as a family Bible." The Lord Chief Justice +of the Common Pleas and Lord Chelmsford both +at one time practised in the County Court, purchased +their situations for large sums, and afterwards +sold them. "It was not a bad nursery for +a young barrister, as he had an opportunity of +addressing a jury. There were only four counsel +who had a right to practise in this court, and if +you took a first-rate advocate in there specially, +you were obliged to give briefs to two of the +privileged four. On the tombstone of one of the +compensated Marshalsea attorneys is cut the bitterly +ironical epitaph, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for +they shall be called the children of God.""</p> + +<p>Coke, that great luminary of English jurisprudence, +resided at Clifford's Inn for a year, and then +entered himself at the Inner Temple. Coke, it +will be remembered, conducted the prosecution of +both Essex and Raleigh; in both cases he was +grossly unfeeling to fallen great men.</p> + +<p>The George Dyer mentioned by Mr. Jay was +not the author of "The Fleece," but that eccentric +and amiable old scholar sketched by Charles Lamb +in "The Essays of Elia." Dyer was a poet and an +antiquary, and edited nearly all the 140 volumes +of the Delphin Classics for Valpy. Alternately +writer, Baptist minister, and reporter, he even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>tually +settled down in the monastic solitude of +Clifford's Inn to compose verses, annotate Greek +plays, and write for the magazines. How the +worthy, simple-hearted bookworm once walked +straight from Lamb's parlour in Colebrooke Row +into the New River, and was then fished out and +restored with brandy-and-water, Lamb was never +tired of telling. At the latter part of his life poor +old Dyer became totally blind. He died in 1841.</p> + +<p>The hall of Clifford's Inn is memorable as being +the place where Sir Matthew Hale and seventeen +other wise and patient judges sat, after the Great +Fire of 1666, to adjudicate upon the claims of the +landlords and tenants of burned houses, and prevent +future lawsuits. The difficulty of discovering +the old boundaries, under the mountains of ashes, +must have been great; and forty thick folio volumes +of decisions, now preserved in the British Museum, +tell of many a legal headache in Clifford's Inn.</p> + +<p>A very singular custom, and probably of great +antiquity, prevails after the dinners at Clifford's +Inn. The society is divided into two sections—the +Principal and Aules, and the Junior or "Kentish +Men." When the meal is over, the chairman of +the Kentish Men, standing up at the Junior table, +bows gravely to the Principal, takes from the hand +of a servitor standing by four small rolls of bread, +silently dashes them three times on the table, and +then pushes them down to the further end of the +board, from whence they are removed. Perfect +silence is preserved during this mystic ceremony, +which some antiquary who sees deeper into millstones +than his brethren thinks typifies offerings to +Ceres, who first taught mankind the use of laws +and originated those peculiar ornaments of civilisation, +their expounders, the lawyers.</p> + +<p>In the hall is preserved an old oak folding case, +containing the forty-seven rules of the institution, +now almost defaced, and probably of the reign of +Henry VIII. The hall casement contains armorial +glass with the bearings of Baptist Hicks, Viscount +Camden, &c.</p> + +<p>Robert Pultock, the almost unknown author of +that graceful story, "Peter Wilkins," from whose +flying women Southey drew his poetical notion of +the Glendoveer, or flying spirit, in his wild poem +of "The Curse of Kehama," lived in this Inn, +paced on its terrace, and mused in its garden. +"'Peter Wilkins' is to my mind," says Coleridge +(in his "Table Talk"), "a work of uncommon +beauty, and yet Stothard's illustrations have <i>added</i> +beauties to it. If it were not for a certain tendency +to affectation, scarcely any praise could be +too high for Stothard's designs. They give me +great pleasure. I believe that 'Robinson Crusoe'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +and 'Peter Wilkins' could only have been written +by islanders. No continentalist could have conceived +either tale. Davis's story is an imitation +of 'Peter Wilkins,' but there are many beautiful +things in it, especially his finding his wife crouching +by the fireside, she having, in his absence, plucked +out all her feathers, to be like him! It would +require a very peculiar genius to add another +tale, <i>ejusdem generis</i>, to 'Peter Wilkins' and +'Robinson Crusoe.' I once projected such a +thing, but the difficulty of a pre-occupied ground +stopped me. Perhaps La Motte Fouqué might +effect something; but I should fear that neither he +nor any other German could entirely understand +what may be called the '<i>desert island</i>' feeling. I +would try the marvellous line of 'Peter Wilkins,' +if I attempted it, rather than the <i>real</i> fiction of +'Robinson Crusoe.'"</p> + +<p>The name of the author of "Peter Wilkins" was +discovered only a few years ago. In the year 1835 +Mr. Nicol, the printer, sold by auction a number +of books and manuscripts in his possession, which +had formerly belonged to the well-known publisher, +Dodsley; and in arranging them for sale, the original +agreement for the sale of the manuscript of +"Peter Wilkins," by the author, "Robert Pultock, +of Clifford's Inn," to Dodsley, was discovered. +From this document it appears that Mr. Pultock +received twenty pounds, twelve copies of the work, +and "the cuts of the first impression"—<i>i.e.</i>, a set +of proof impressions of the fanciful engravings +that professed to illustrate the first edition of the +work—as the price of the entire copyright. This +curious document had been sold afterwards to +John Wilkes, Esq., M.P.</p> + +<p>Inns of Chancery, like Clifford's Inn, were +originally law schools, to prepare students for the +larger Inns of Court.</p> + +<p>Fetter Lane did not derive its name from the +manufacture of Newgate fetters. Stow, who died +early in the reign of James I., calls it "Fewtor +Lane," from the Norman-French word "fewtor" +(idle person, loafer), perhaps analogous to the even +less complimentary modern French word "foutre" +(blackguard). Mr. Jesse, however, derives the word +"fetter" from the Norman "defaytor" (defaulter), +as if the lane had once been a sanctuary for +skulking debtors. In either case the derivation is +somewhat ignoble, but the inhabitants have long +since lived it down. Stow says it was once a +mere byway leading to gardens (<i>quantum mutatus!</i>) +If men of the Bobadil and Pistol character ever +did look over the garden-gates and puff their +Trinidado in the faces of respectable passers-by, +the lane at least regained its character later, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +poets and philosophers condescended to live in it, +and persons of considerable consequence rustled +their silks and trailed their velvet along its narrow +roadway.</p> + +<p>During the Middle Ages Fetter Lane slumbered, +but it woke up on the breaking out of the Civil War, +and in 1643 became unpleasantly celebrated as the +spot where Waller's plot disastrously terminated.</p> + +<p>In the second year of the war between King +and Parliament, the Royal successes at Bath, Bristol, +and Cornwall, as well as the partial victory at +Edgehill, had roused the moderate party and +chilled many lukewarm adherents of the Puritans. +The distrust of Pym and his friends soon broke +out into a reactionary plot, or, more probably, two +plots, in one or both of which Waller, the poet, was +dangerously mixed up. The chief conspirators +were Tomkins and Challoner, the former Waller's +brother-in-law, a gentleman living in Holborn, near +the end of Fetter Lane, and a secretary to the +Commissioners of the Royal Revenues; the latter +an eminent citizen, well known on 'Change. Many +noblemen and Cavalier officers and gentlemen had +also a whispering knowledge of the ticklish affair. +The projects of these men, or of some of the more +desperate, at least, were—(1) to secure the king's +children; (2) to seize Mr. Pym, Colonel Hampden, +and other members of Parliament specially hostile +to the king; (3) to arrest the Puritan Lord Mayor, +and all the sour-faced committee of the City Militia; +(4) to capture the outworks, forts, magazines, and +gates of the Tower and City, and to admit 3,000 +Cavaliers sent from Oxford by a pre-arranged +plan; (5) to resist all payments imposed by Parliament +for support of the armies of the Earl of Essex. +Unfortunately, just as the white ribbons were preparing +to tie round the arms of the conspirators, +to mark them on the night of action, a treacherous +servant of Mr. Tomkins, of Holborn, overheard +Waller's plans from behind a convenient arras, and +disclosed them to the angry Parliament. In a +cellar at Tomkins's the soldiers who rummaged it +found a commission sent from the king by Lady +Aubigny, whose husband had been recently killed +at Edgehill.</p> + +<p>Tomkins and Challoner were hung at the Holborn +end of Fetter Lane. On the ladder, Tomkins +said:—"Gentlemen, I humbly acknowledge, in the +sight of Almighty God (to whom, and to angels, +and to this great assembly of people, I am now a +spectacle), that my sins have deserved of Him this +untimely and shameful death; and, touching the +business for which I suffer, I acknowledge that +affection to a brother-in-law, and affection and +gratitude to the king, whose bread I have eaten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +now about twenty-two years (I have been servant +to him when he was prince, and ever since: it +will be twenty-three years in August next)—I +confess these two motives drew me into this +foolish business. I have often since declared to +good friends that I was glad it was discovered, +because it might have occasioned very ill consequences; +and truly I have repented having any +hand in it."</p> + +<p>Challoner was equally fatal against Waller, and +said, when at the same giddy altitude as Tomkins, +"Gentlemen, this is the happiest day that +ever I had. I shall now, gentlemen, declare a little +more of the occasion of this, as I am desired by +Mr. Peters [the famous Puritan divine, Hugh +Peters] to give him and the world satisfaction in it. +It came from Mr. Waller, under this notion, that if +we could make a moderate party here in London, +and stand betwixt and in the gap to unite the king +and the Parliament, it would be a very acceptable +work, for now the three kingdoms lay a-bleeding; +and unless that were done, there was no hopes to +unite them," &c.</p> + +<p>Waller had a very narrow escape, but he extricated +himself with the most subtle skill, perhaps +secretly aided by his kinsman, Cromwell. He +talked of his "carnal eye," of his repentance, of +the danger of letting the army try a member of +the House. As Lord Clarendon says: "With incredible +dissimulation he acted such a remorse of +conscience, that his trial was put off, out of Christian +compassion, till he could recover his understanding." +In the meantime, he bribed the Puritan +preachers, and listened with humble deference to +their prayers for his repentance. He bent abjectly +before the House; and eventually, with a year's +imprisonment and a fine of £10,000, obtained +leave to retire to France. Having spent all his +money in Paris, Waller at last obtained permission +from Cromwell to return to England. "There +cannot," says Clarendon, "be a greater evidence of +the inestimable value of his (Waller's) parts, than +that he lived after this in the good esteem and +affection of many, the pity of most, and the reproach +and scorn of few or none." The body of +the unlucky Tomkins was buried in the churchyard +of St. Andrew's, Holborn.</p> + +<p>According to Peter Cunningham, that shining +light of the Puritan party in the early days of Cromwell, +"Praise-God Barebone," was a leather-seller +in Fetter Lane, having a house, either at the same +time or later, called the "Lock and Key," near +Crane Court, at which place his son, a great +speculator and builder, afterwards resided. Barebone +(probably Barbon, of a French Huguenot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +family) was one of those gloomy religionists who +looked on surplices, plum-porridge, theatres, dances, +Christmas pudding, and homicide as equally detestable, +and did his best to shut out all sunshine +from that long, rainy, stormy day that is called life. +He was at the head of that fanatical, tender-conscienced +Parliament of 1653 that Cromwell +convened from among the elect in London, after +untoward Sir Harry Vane had been expelled from +Westminster at the muzzles of Pride's muskets. Of +Barebone, also, and his crochetty, impracticable +fellows, Cromwell had soon enough; and, in despair +of all aid but from his own brain and hand, he +then took the title of Lord Protector, and became +the most inflexible and wisest monarch we have +ever had, or indeed ever hope to have. Barebone +is first heard of in local history as preaching in +1641, together with Mr. Greene, a felt-maker, at a +conventicle in Fetter Lane, a place always renowned +for its heterodoxy. The thoughtless Cavaliers, who +did not like long sermons, and thought all religion +but their own hypocrisy, delighted in gaunt Barebone's +appropriate name, and made fun of him in +those ribald ballads in which they consigned red-nosed +Noll, the brewer, to the reddest and hottest +portion of the unknown world. At the Restoration, +when all Fleet Street was ablaze with bonfires to +roast the Rumps, the street boys, always on the +strongest side, broke poor Barebone's windows, +though he had been constable and common-councilman, +and was a wealthy leather-seller to +boot. But he was not looked upon as of the +regicide or extreme dangerous party, and a year +afterwards attended a vestry-meeting unmolested. +After the Great Fire he came to the Clifford's Inn +Appeal Court about his Fleet Street house, which +had been burnt over the heads of his tenants, and +eventually he rebuilt it.</p> + +<p>In Irving's "History of Dissenters" there is a +curious account, from an old pamphlet entitled +"New Preachers," "of Barebone, Greene the +felt-maker, Spencer the horse-rubber, Quartermaine +the brewer's clerk, and some few others, who are +mighty sticklers in this new kind of talking trade, +which many ignorant coxcombs call preaching; +whereunto is added the last tumult in Fleet Street, +raised by the disorderly preachment, pratings, and +prattlings of Mr. Barebone the leather-seller, and +Mr. Greene the felt-maker, on Sunday last, the +19th December."</p> + +<p>The tumult alluded to is thus described: "A +brief touch in memory of the fiery zeal of Mr. +Barebone, a reverend unlearned leather-seller, +who with Mr. Greene the felt-maker were both +taken preaching or prating in a conventicle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +amongst a hundred persons, on Sunday, the 19th +of December last, 1641."</p> + +<p>One of the pleasantest memories of Fetter +Lane is that which connects it with the school-days +of that delightful essay-writer, Charles Lamb. +He himself, in one of Hone's chatty books, has +described the school, and Bird, its master, in his +own charming way.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="roasting" id="roasting"></a> +<img src="images/p096.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ROASTING THE RUMPS IN FLEET STREET (FROM AN OLD PRINT)</span> +</div> + +<p>Both Lamb and his sister, says Mr. Fitzgerald, +in his Memoir of Lamb, went to a school where +Starkey had been usher about a year before they +came to it—a room that looked into "a discoloured, +dingy garden, in the passage leading from Fetter +Lane into Bartlett's Buildings. This was close to +Holborn. Queen Street, where Lamb lived when +a boy, was in Holborn." Bird is described as an +"eminent writer" who taught mathematics, which +was no more than "cyphering." "Heaven knows +what languages were taught there. I am sure that +neither my sister nor myself brought any out of it +but a little of our native English. It was, in fact, +a humble day-school." Bird and Cook, he says, +were the masters. Bird had "that peculiar mild +tone—especially when he was inflicting punishment—which +is so much more terrible to children +than the angriest looks and gestures. Whippings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +were not frequent; but when they took place, the +correction was performed in a private room adjoining, +whence we could only hear the plaints, but +saw nothing. This heightened the decorum and +solemnity." He then describes the ferule—"that +almost obsolete weapon now." "To make him look +more formidable—if a pedagogue had need of these +heightenings—Bird wore one of those flowered +Indian gowns formerly in use with schoolmasters, +the strange figures upon which we used to interpret +into hieroglyphics of pain and suffering." This +is in Lamb's most delightful vein. So, too, with +other incidents of the school, especially "our little +leaden inkstands, not separately subsisting, but +sunk into the desks; and the agonising benches +on which we were all cramped together, and yet +encouraged to attain a free hand, unattainable in +this position." Lamb recollected even his first +copy—"Art improves nature," and could look back +with "pardonable pride to his carrying off the +first premium for spelling. Long after, certainly +thirty years, the school was still going on, only there +was a Latin inscription over the entrance in the +lane, unknown in our humbler days." In the +evening was a short attendance of girls, to which +Miss Lamb went, and she recollected the theatricals,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +and even <i>Cato</i> being performed by the young +gentlemen. "She describes the cast of the characters +with relish. 'Martha,' by the handsome Edgar +Hickman, who afterwards went to Africa."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="interior" id="interior"></a> +<img src="images/p097.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF THE MORAVIAN CHAPEL IN FETTER LANE</span> +</div> + +<p>The Starkey mentioned by Lamb was a poor, +crippled dwarf, generally known at Newcastle in +his old age as "Captain Starkey," the butt of the +street-boys and the pensioner of benevolent citizens. +In 1818, when he had been an inmate of +the Freemen's Hospital, Newcastle, for twenty-six +years, the poor old ex-usher of the Fetter Lane +school wrote "The Memoirs of his Life," a humble +little pamphlet of only fourteen pages, upon which +Hone good-naturedly wrote an article which educed +Lamb's pleasant postscript. Starkey, it appears, +had been usher, not in Lamb's own time, but in +that of Mary Lamb's, who came after her brother +had left. She describes Starkey running away on +one occasion, being brought back by his father, +and sitting the remainder of the day with his head +buried in his hands, even the most mischievous +boys respecting his utter desolation.</p> + +<p>That clever but mischievous advocate of divine +right and absolute power, Hobbes of Malmesbury,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +was lodging in Fetter Lane when he published his +"Leviathan." He was not there, however, in +1660, at the Restoration, since we are told that on +that <i>glorious</i> occasion he was standing at the door +of Salisbury House, the mansion of his kind and +generous patron, the Earl of Devonshire; and that +the king, formerly Hobbes's pupil in mathematics, +nodded to his old tutor. A short duodecimo sketch +of Hobbes may not be uninteresting. This sceptical +philosopher, hardened into dogmatic selfishness +by exile, was the son of a Wiltshire clergyman, +and he first saw the light the year of the Armada, +his mother being prematurely confined during the +first panic of the Spanish invasion. Hobbes, with +that same want of self-respect and love of independence +that actuated Gay and Thomson, remained +his whole life a tolerated pensioner of his +former pupil, the Earl of Devonshire; bearing, no +doubt, in his time many rebuffs; for pride will be +proud, and rich men require wisdom, when in their +pay, to remember its place. Hobbes in his time +was a friend of, and, it is said, a translator for, Lord +Bacon; and Ben Jonson, that ripe scholar, revised +his sound translation of "Thucydides." He sat at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +the feet of Galileo and by the side of Gassendi and +Descartes. While in Fetter Lane he associated +with Harvey, Selden, and Cowley. He talked and +wrangled with the wise men of half Europe. He +had sat at Richelieu's table and been loaded with +honours by Cosmo de Medici. The laurels Hobbes +won in the schools he lost on Parnassus. His translation +of Homer is tasteless and contemptible. In +mathematics, too, he was dismounted by Wallis and +others. Personally he had weaknesses. He was +afraid of apparitions, he dreaded assassination, and +had a fear that Burnet and the bishops would burn +him as a heretic. His philosophy, though useful, +as Mr. Mill says, in expanding free thought and +exciting inquiry, was based on selfishness. Nothing +can be falser and more detestable than the maxims +of this sage of the Restoration and of reaction. +He holds the natural condition of man to be a +state of war—a war of all men against all men; +might making right, and the conqueror trampling +down all the rest. The civil laws, he declares, are +the only standards of good or evil. The sovereign, +he asserts, possesses absolute power, and is not +bound by any compact with the people (who pay him +as their head servant). Nothing he does can be +wrong. The sovereign has the right of interpreting +Scripture; and he thinks that Christians are bound +to obey the laws of an infidel king, even in matters +of religion. He sneers at the belief in a future +state, and hints at materialism. These monstrous +doctrines, which even Charles II. would not fully +sanction, were naturally battered and bombarded by +Harrington, Dr. Henry More, and others. Hobbes +was also vehemently attacked by that disagreeable +Dr. Fell, the subject of the well-known epigram,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"I do not like thee, Dr. Fell;<br /> +The reason why I cannot tell;<br /> +But this I know, and know full well,<br /> +I do not like thee, Dr. Fell," +</div> + +<p>who rudely called Hobbes "<i>irritabile illud et +vanissimum Malmsburiense animal</i>." The philosopher +of Fetter Lane, who was short-sighted +enough to deride the early efforts of the Royal +Society, though they were founded on the strict +inductive Baconian theory, seems to have been a +vain man, loving paradox rather than truth, and +desirous of founding, at all risks, a new school of +philosophy. The Civil War had warped him; +solitary thinking had turned him into a cynical +dogmatiser. He was timid as Erasmus; and once +confessed that if he was cast into a deep pit, and +the devil should put down his hot cloven foot, he +would take hold of it to draw himself out. This +was not the metal that such men as Luther and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +Latimer were made of; but it served for the Aristotle +of Rochester and Buckingham. A wit of the +day proposed as Hobbes's epitaph the simple +words, "The philosopher's stone."</p> + +<p>Hobbes's professed rule of health was to dedicate +the morning to his exercise and the afternoon to +his studies. At his first rising, therefore, he walked +out and climbed any hill within his reach; or, if +the weather was not dry, he fatigued himself within +doors by some exercise or other, in order to perspire, +recommending that practice upon this opinion, +that an old man had more moisture than heat, +and therefore by such motion heat was to be +acquired and moisture expelled. After this he +took a comfortable breakfast, then went round the +lodgings to wait upon the earl, the countess, the +children, and any considerable strangers, paying +some short addresses to all of them. He kept +these rounds till about twelve o'clock, when he +had a little dinner provided for him, which he ate +always by himself, without ceremony. Soon after +dinner he retired to his study, and had his candle, +with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco, laid by him; +then, shutting his door, he fell to smoking, thinking, +and writing for several hours.</p> + +<p>At a small coal-shed (just one of those black bins +still to be seen at the south-west end) in Fetter +Lane, Dr. Johnson's friend, Levett, the poor apothecary, +met a woman of bad character, who duped +him into marriage. The whole story, Dr. Johnson +used to say, was as marvellous as any page of "The +Arabian Nights." Lord Macaulay, in his highly-coloured +and somewhat exaggerated way, calls +Levett "an old quack doctor, who bled and dosed +coal-heavers and hackney-coachmen, and received +for fees crusts of bread, bits of bacon, glasses of +gin, and a little copper." Levett, however, was +neither a quack nor a doctor, but an honest man +and an apothecary, and the list of his patients is +entirely hypothetical. This simple-hearted, benevolent +man was persuaded by the proprietress of +the coal-shed that she had been defrauded of her +birthright by her kinsman, a man of fortune. Levett, +then nearly sixty, married her; and four months +after, a writ was issued against him for debts contracted +by his wife, and he had to lie close to +avoid the gaol. Not long afterwards his amiable +wife ran away from him, and, being taken up for +picking pockets, was tried at the Old Bailey, +where she defended herself, and was acquitted. +Dr. Johnson then, touched by Levett's misfortunes +and goodness, took him to his own home at Bolt +Court.</p> + +<p>It was in a house on the east side of this lane, +looking into Fleur-de-Lys Court, that (in 1767)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +Elizabeth Brownrigge, midwife to the St. Dunstan's +workhouse and wife of a house-painter, cruelly ill-used +her two female apprentices. Mary Jones, one +of these unfortunate children, after being often +beaten, ran back to the Foundling, from whence +she had been taken. On the remaining one, Mary +Mitchell, the wrath of the avaricious hag now fell +with redoubled severity. The poor creature was +perpetually being stripped and beaten, was frequently +chained up at night nearly naked, was +scratched, and her tongue cut with scissors. It +was the constant practice of Mrs. Brownrigge to +fasten the girl's hands to a rope slung from a beam +in the kitchen, after which this old wretch beat +her four or five times in the same day with a broom +or a whip. The moanings and groans of the dying +child, whose wounds were mortifying from neglect, +aroused the pity of a baker opposite, who sent the +overseers of the parish to see the child, who was +found hid in a buffet cupboard. She was taken +to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and soon died. +Brownrigge was at once arrested; but Mrs. Brownrigge +and her son, disguising themselves in Rag +Fair, fled to Wandsworth, and there took lodgings +in a chandler's shop, where they were arrested. +The woman was tried at the Old Bailey sessions, +and found guilty of murder. Mr. Silas Told, an +excellent Methodist preacher, who attended her in +the condemned cell, has left a curious, simple-hearted +account of her behaviour and of what he +considered her repentance. She <i>talked</i> a great deal +of religion, and stood much on the goodness of her +past life. The mob raged terribly as she passed +through the streets on her way to Tyburn. +The women especially screamed, "Tear off her +hat; let us see her face! The devil will fetch +her!" and threw stones and mud, pitiless in their +hatred. After execution her corpse was thrust into +a hackney-coach and driven to Surgeons' Hall for +dissection; the skeleton is still preserved in a +London collection. The cruel hag's husband and +son were sentenced to six months' imprisonment. +A curious old drawing is still extant, representing +Mrs. Brownrigge in the condemned cell. She +wears a large, broad-brimmed gipsy hat, tied under +her chin, and a cape; and her long, hard face wears +a horrible smirk of resigned hypocrisy. Canning, +in one of his bitter banters on Southey's republican +odes, writes,—</p> + + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 12em;">"For this act</span><br /> +Did Brownrigge swing. Harsh laws! But time shall come<br /> +When France shall reign, and laws be all repealed."</div> + +<p>In Castle Street (an offshoot of Fetter Lane), in +1709-10 (Queen Anne), at the house of his father, +a master tailor, was born a very small poet, Paul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +Whitehead. This poor satirist and worthless man +became a Jacobite barrister and protégé of Bubb +Doddington and the Prince of Wales and his Leicester +Fields Court. For libelling Whig noblemen, +in his poem called "Manners," Dodsley, Whitehead's +publisher, was summoned by the Ministers, +who wished to intimidate Pope, before the House of +Lords. He appears to have been an atheist, and was +a member of the infamous Hell-Fire Club, that held +its obscene and blasphemous orgies at Medmenham +Abbey, in Buckinghamshire, the seat of Sir Francis +Dashwood, where every member assumed the +name of an Apostle. Later in life Whitehead was +bought off by the Ministry, and then settled down +at a villa on Twickenham Common, where Hogarth +used to visit him. If Whitehead is ever remembered, +it will be only for that splash of vitriol that +Churchill threw in his face, when he wrote of the +turncoat,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"May I—can worse disgrace on manhood fall?—<br /> +Be born a Whitehead and baptised a Paul."</div> + +<p>It was this Whitehead, with Carey, the surgeon +of the Prince of Wales, who got up a mock procession, +in ridicule of the Freemasons' annual cavalcade +from Brooke Street to Haberdashers' Hall. +The ribald procession consisted of shoe-blacks and +chimney-sweeps, in carts drawn by asses, followed +by a mourning-coach with six horses, each of a different +colour. The City authorities very properly +refused to let them pass through Temple Bar, but +they waited there and saluted the Masons. Hogarth +published a print of "The Scald Miserables," which +is coarse, and even dull. The Prince of Wales, with +more good sense than usual, dismissed Carey for +this offensive buffoonery. Whitehead bequeathed +his heart to Earl Despenser, who buried it in his +mausoleum with absurd ceremonial.</p> + +<p>At Pemberton Row, formerly Three-Leg Alley, +Fetter Lane, lived that very indifferent poet but +admirable miniature-painter of Charles II.'s time, +Flatman. He was a briefless barrister of the +Inner Temple, and resided with his father till the +period of his death. Anthony Wood tells us that +having written a scurrilous ballad against marriage, +beginning,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Like a dog with a bottle tied close to his tail,<br /> +Like a Tory in a bog, or a thief in a jail,"</div> + +<p>his comrades serenaded him with the song on his +wedding-night. Rochester wrote some vigorous +lines on Flatman, which are not unworthy even of +Dryden himself,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><p> +"Not that slow drudge, in swift Pindaric strains,<br /> +Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains,<br /> +And drives a jaded Muse, whipt with loose reins."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>We find Dr. Johnson quoting these lines with +approval, in a conversation in which he suggested +that Pope had partly borrowed his "Dying +Christian" from Flatman.</p> + +<p>"The chapel of the United Brethren, or Moravians, +32, Fetter Lane," says Smith, in his "Streets of +London," "was the meeting-house of the celebrated +Thomas Bradbury. During the riots which occurred +on the trial of Dr. Sacheveral, this chapel was assaulted +by the mob and dismantled, the preacher +himself escaping with some difficulty. The other +meeting-houses that suffered on this occasion were +those of Daniel Burgess, in New Court, Carey +Street; Mr. Earl's, in Hanover Street, Long Acre; +Mr. Taylor's, Leather Lane; Mr. Wright's, Great +Carter Lane; and Mr. Hamilton's, in St. John's +Square, Clerkenwell. With the benches and pulpits +of several of these, the mob, after conducting Dr. +Sacheveral in triumph to his lodgings in the +Temple, made a bonfire in the midst of Lincoln's +Inn Fields, around which they danced with shouts +of 'High Church and Sacheveral,' swearing, if they +found Daniel Burgess, that they would roast him in +his own pulpit in the midst of the pile."</p> + +<p>This Moravian chapel was one of the original +eight conventicles where Divine worship was permitted. +Baxter preached here in 1672, and Wesley +and Whitefield also struck great blows at the devil +in this pulpit, where Zinzendorf's followers afterwards +prayed and sang their fervent hymns.</p> + +<p>Count Zinzendorf, the poet, theologian, pastor, +missionary, and statesman, who first gave the +Moravian body a vital organisation, and who +preached in Fetter Lane to the most tolerant class +of all Protestants, was born in Dresden in 1700. +His ancestors, originally from Austria, had been +Crusaders and Counts of Zinzendorf. One of +the Zinzendorfs had been among the earliest converts +to Lutheranism, and became a voluntary exile +for the faith. The count's father was one of the +Pietists, a sect protected by the first king of +Prussia, the father of Frederick the Great. The +founder of the Pietists laid special stress on the +doctrine of conversion by a sudden transformation +of the heart and will. It was a young Moravian +missionary to Georgia who first induced Wesley to +embrace the vital doctrine of justification by faith. +For a long time there was a close kinsmanship +maintained between Whitefield, the Wesleys, and +the Moravians; but eventually Wesley pronounced +Zinzendorf as verging on Antinomianism, while +Zinzendorf objected to Wesley's doctrine of sinless +perfection. In 1722 Zinzendorf gave an asylum to +two families of persecuted Moravian brothers, and +built houses for them on a spot he called Hernhut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +("watched of the Lord"), a marshy tract in Saxony, +near the main road to Zittau. These simple and +pious men were Taborites, a section of the old +Hussites, who had renounced obedience to the +Pope and embraced the Vaudois doctrines. This +was the first formation of the Moravian sect.</p> + +<p>"On January 24th, 1672-73," says Baxter, "I +began a Tuesday lecture at Mr. Turner's church, in +New Street, near Fetter Lane, with great convenience +and God's encouraging blessing; but I never took +a penny for it from any one." The chapel in which +Baxter officiated in Fetter Lane is that between +Nevil's Court and New Street, once occupied by +the Moravians. It appears to have existed, though +perhaps in a different form, before the Great Fire of +London. Turner, who was the first minister, was +a very active man during the plague. He was +ejected from Sunbury, in Middlesex, and continued +to preach in Fetter Lane till towards the end of +the reign of Charles II., when he removed to +Leather Lane. Baxter carried on the Tuesday +morning lecture till the 24th of August, 1682. The +Church which then met in it was under the care of +Mr. Lobb, whose predecessor had been Thankful +Owen, president of St. John's College, Oxford. +Ejected by the commissioners in 1660, he became +a preacher in Fetter Lane. "He was," says +Calamy, "a man of genteel learning and an +excellent temper, admir'd for an uncommon fluency +and easiness and sweetness in all his composures. +After he was ejected he retired to London, where +he preached privately and was much respected. +He dy'd at his house in Hatton Garden, April 1, +1681. He was preparing for the press, and had +almost finished, a book entituled 'Imago Imaginis,' +the design of which was to show that Rome Papal +was an image of Rome Pagan."</p> + +<p>At No. 96, Fetter Lane is an Independent Chapel, +whose first minister was Dr. Thomas Goodwin, 1660-1681—troublous +times for Dissenters. Goodwin +had been a pastor in Holland and a favourite of +Cromwell. The Protector made him one of his commissioners +for selecting preachers, and he was also +President of Magdalen College, Oxford. When +Cromwell became sick unto death, Goodwin boldly +prophesied his recovery, and when the great man +died, in spite of him, he is said to have exclaimed, +"Thou hast deceived us, and we are deceived;" +which is no doubt a Cavalier calumny. On the +Restoration, the Oxford men showed Goodwin the +door, and he retired to the seclusion of Fetter Lane. +He seems to have been a good scholar and an +eminent Calvinist divine, and he left on Puritan +shelves five ponderous folio volumes of his works. +The present chapel, says Mr. Noble, dates from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +1732, and the pastor is the Rev. John Spurgeon, +the father of the eloquent Baptist preacher, the +Rev. C.H. Spurgeon.</p> + +<p>The disgraceful disorder of the national records +had long been a subject of regret among English +antiquaries. There was no certainty of finding +any required document among such a mass of +ill-stored, dusty, unclassified bundles and rolls—many +of them never opened since the day King +John sullenly signed Magna Charta. We are a +great conservative people, and abuses take a long +time ripening before they seem to us fit for removal, +so it happened that this evil went on +several centuries before it roused the attention of +Parliament, and then it was talked over and over, +till in 1850 something was at last done. It was +resolved to build a special storehouse for national +records, where the various collections might be +united under one roof, and there be arranged and +classified by learned men. The first stone of a +magnificent Gothic building was therefore laid +by Lord Romilly on 24th May, 1851, and slowly +and surely, in the Anglo-Saxon manner, the walls +grew till, in the summer of 1866, all the new +Search Offices were formally opened, to the great +convenience of all students of records. The architect, +Sir James Pennethorne, has produced a stately +building, useful for its purpose, but not very remarkable +for picturesque light and shade, and tame, +as all imitations of bygone ages, adapted for bygone +uses, must ever be. The number of records stored +within this building can only be reckoned by +"<i>hundreds of millions</i>." These are Sir Thomas +Duffus Hardy's own words. There, in cramped +bundles and rolls, dusty as papyri, lie charters and +official notices that once made mailed knights +tremble and proud priests shake in their sandals. +Now—the magic gone, the words powerless—they +lie in their several binns in strange companionship. +Many years will elapse before all these records of +State and Government documents can be classified; +but the small staff is industrious, Sir Thomas +Hardy is working, and in time the Augean stable +of crabbed writings will be cleansed and ranged in +order. The useful and accurate calendars of +Everett Green, John Bruce, &c., are books of +reference invaluable to historical students; and +the old chronicles published by order of Lord +Romilly, so long Master of the Rolls and Keeper +of the Records, are most useful mines for the +Froudes and Freemans of the future. In time it +is hoped that all the episcopal records of England +will be gathered together in this great treasure-house, +and that many of our English noblemen +will imitate the patriotic generosity of Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +Shaftesbury, in contributing their family papers to +the same Gaza in Fetter Lane. Under the concentrated +gaze of learned eyes, family papers (valueless +and almost unintelligible to their original possessors), +often reveal very curious and important facts. +Mere lumber in the manor-house, fit only for the +butterman, sometimes turns to leaves of gold +when submitted to such microscopic analysis. +It was such a gift that led to the discovery of the +Locke papers among the records of the nobleman +above mentioned. The pleasant rooms of the +Record Office are open to all applicants; nor is +any reference or troublesome preliminary form +required from those wishing to consult Court +rolls or State papers over twenty years old. +Among other priceless treasures the Record Office +contains the original, uninjured, Domesday Book, +compiled by order of William, the conqueror of +England. It is written in a beautiful clerkly hand +in close fine character, and is in a perfect state of +preservation. It is in two volumes, the covers of +which are cut with due economy from the same +skin of parchment. Bound in massive board +covers, and kept with religious care under glass +cases, the precious volumes seem indeed likely to +last to the very break of doom. It is curious to +remark that London only occupies some three or +four pages. There is also preserved the original +Papal Bull sent to Henry VIII., with a golden +seal attached to it, the work of Benvenuto Cellini. +The same collection contains the celebrated Treaty +of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the initial portrait +of Francis I. being beautifully illuminated and +the vellum volume adorned by an exquisite gold +seal, in the finest relievo, also by Benvenuto Cellini. +The figures in this seal are so perfect in their finish, +that even the knee-cap of one of the nymphs is +shaped with the strictest anatomical accuracy. The +visitor should also see the interesting Inventory +Books relating to the foundation of Henry VII.'s +chapel.</p> + +<p>The national records were formerly bundled up +any how in the Rolls Chapel, the White Tower, +the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, Carlton +Ride in St. James's Park, the State Paper Office, +and the Prerogative Will Office. No one knew +where anything was. They were unnoticed—mere +dusty lumber, in fact—useless to men or printers' +devils. Hot-headed Hugh Peters, during the +Commonwealth, had, in his hatred of royalty, +proposed to make one great heap of them and +burn them up in Smithfield. In that way he hoped +to clear the ground of many mischievous traditions. +This desperate act of Communism that tough-headed +old lawyer, Prynne, opposed tooth and nail.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +In 1656 he wrote a pamphlet, which he called +"A Short Demurrer against Cromwell's Project +of Recalling the Jews from their Banishment," and +in this work he very nobly epitomizes the value of +these treasures; indeed, there could not be found +a more lucid syllabus of the contents of the present +Record Office than Prynne has there set forth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="house" id="house"></a> +<img src="images/p102.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />HOUSE SAID TO HAVE BEEN OCCUPIED BY DRYDEN IN FETTER LANE</span> +</div> + +<p>Dryden and Otway were contemporaries, and +lived, it is said, for some time opposite to each other +in Fetter Lane. One morning the latter happened +to call upon his brother bard about breakfast-time, +but was told by the servant that his master +was gone to breakfast with the Earl of Pembroke. +"Very well," said Otway, "tell your master that I +will call to-morrow morning." Accordingly he +called about the same hour. "Well, is your master +at home now?" "No, sir; he is just gone to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +breakfast with the Duke of Buckingham." "The +d—— he is," said Otway, and, actuated either by +envy, pride, or disappointment, in a kind of involuntary +manner, he took up a piece of chalk which +lay on a table which stood upon the landing-place, +near Dryden's chamber, and wrote over the door,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit." +</div> + +<p>The next morning, at breakfast, Dryden recognised +the handwriting, and told the servant to go to +Otway and desire his company to breakfast with +him. In the meantime, to Otway's line of</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Here lives Dryden, <i>a poet and a wit</i>," +</div> + +<p>he added,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"This was written by Otway, <i>opposite</i>." +</div> + +<p>When Otway arrived he saw that his line was +linked with a rhyme, and being a man of rather +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>petulant disposition, he took it in dudgeon, and, +turning upon his heel, told Dryden "that he was +welcome to keep his wit and his breakfast to +himself."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="meeting" id="meeting"></a> +<img src="images/p103.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A MEETING OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY IN CRANE COURT</span> +</div> + +<p>A curious old book, a <i>vade mecum</i> for malt worms +<i>temp.</i> George I., thus immortalises the patriotism +of a tavern-keeper in Fetter Lane:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Though there are some who, with invidious look,<br /> +Have styl'd this bird more like a Russian duck<br /> +Than what he stands depicted for on sign,<br /> +He proves he well has croaked for prey within,<br /> +From massy tankards, formed of silver plate,<br /> +That walk throughout this noted house in state,<br /> +Ever since <i>Englesfield</i>, in <i>Anna's</i> reign,<br /> +To compliment each fortunate campaign,<br /> +Made one be hammered out for ev'ry town was ta'en."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET (TRIBUTARIES—CRANE COURT, JOHNSON'S COURT, BOLT COURT)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Removal of the Royal Society from Gresham College—Opposition to Newton—Objections to Removal—The First Catalogue—Swift's jeer at the +Society—Franklin's Lightning Conductor and King George III.—Sir Hans Sloane insulted—The Scottish Society—Wilkes's Printer—The +Delphin Classics—Johnson's Court—Johnson's Opinion on Pope and Dryden—His Removal to Bolt Court—The <i>John Bull</i>—Hook +and Terry—Prosecutions for Libel—Hook's Impudence.</p></div> + + +<p>In the old times, when newspapers could not +legally be published without a stamp, "various ingenious +devices," says a writer in the <i>Bookseller</i> +(1867), "were employed to deceive and mislead the +officers employed by the Government. Many of +the unstamped papers were printed in Crane Court, +Fleet Street; and there, on their several days of +publication, the officers of the Somerset House solicitor +would watch, ready to seize them immediately +they came from the press. But the printers were +quite equal to the emergency. They would make up +sham parcels of waste-paper, and send them out +with an ostentatious show of secrecy. The officers—simple +fellows enough, though they were called +'Government spies,' 'Somerset House myrmidons,' +and other opprobrious names, in the unstamped +papers—duly took possession of the parcels, after a +decent show of resistance by their bearers, while +the real newspapers intended for sale to the public +were sent flying by thousands down a shoot in +Fleur-de-Lys Court, and thence distributed in the +course of the next hour or two all over the +town."</p> + +<p>The Royal Society came to Crane Court from +Gresham College in 1710, and removed in 1782 to +Somerset House. This society, according to Dr. +Wallis, one of the earliest members, originated in +London in 1645, when Dr. Wilkins and certain +philosophical friends met weekly to discuss scientific +questions. They afterwards met at Oxford, and in +Gresham College, till that place was turned into a +Puritan barracks. After the Restoration, in 1662, +the king, wishing to turn men's minds to philosophy—or, +indeed, anywhere away from politics—incor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>porated +the members in what Boyle has called +"the Invisible College," and gave it the name of +the Royal Society. In 1710, the Mercers' Company +growing tired of their visitors, the society +moved to a house rebuilt by Wren in 1670, and purchased +by the society for £1,450. It had been the +residence, before the Great Fire, of Dr. Nicholas +Barebone (son of Praise-God Barebone), a great +building speculator, who had much property in the +Strand, and who was the first promoter of the +Phœnix Fire Office. It seems to have been +thought at the time that Newton was somewhat +despotic in his announcement of the removal, and +the members in council grumbled at the new house, +and complained of it as small, inconvenient, and +dilapidated. Nevertheless, Sir Isaac, unaccustomed +to opposition, overruled all these objections, +and the society flourished in this Fleet Street +"close" seventy-two years. Before the society +came to Crane Court, Pepys and Wren had been +presidents; while at Crane Court the presidents +were—Newton (1703-1727), Sir Thomas Hoare, +Matthew Folkes, Esq. (whose portrait Hogarth +painted), the Earl of Macclesfield, the Earl of +Morton, James Burrow, Esq., James West, Esq., +Sir John Pringle, and Sir Joseph Banks. The +earliest records of this useful society are filled with +accounts of experiments on the Baconian inductive +principle, many of which now appear to us +puerile, but which were valuable in the childhood of +science. Among the labours of the society while in +Fleet Street, we may enumerate its efforts to promote +inoculation, 1714-1722; electrical experiments on +fourteen miles of wires near Shooter's Hill, 1745;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +ventilation, <i>apropos</i> of gaol fever, 1750; discussions +on Cavendish's improved thermometers, 1757; +a medal to Dollond for experiments on the laws of +light, 1758; observations on the transit of Venus, +in 1761; superintendence of the Observatory at +Greenwich, 1765; observations of the transit of +Venus in the Pacific, 1769 (Lieutenant Cook commenced +the expedition); the promotion of an +Arctic expedition, 1773; the <i>Racehorse</i> meteorological +observations, 1773; experiments on lightning +conductors by Franklin, Cavendish, &c., 1772. +The removal of the society was, as we have said, +at first strongly objected to, and in a pamphlet +published at the time, the new purchase is thus +described: "The approach to it, I confess, is very +fair and handsome, through a long court; but, then, +they have no other property in this than in the +street before it, and in a heavy rain a man may +hardly escape being thoroughly wet before he can +pass through it. The front of the house towards +the garden is nearly half as long again as that +towards Crane Court. Upon the ground floor there +is a little hall, and a direct passage from the stairs +into the garden, and on each side of it a little +room. The stairs are easy, which carry you up to +the next floor. Here there is a room fronting the +court, directly over the hall; and towards the garden +is the meeting-room, and at the end another, also +fronting the garden. There are three rooms upon +the next floor. These are all that are as yet provided +for the reception of the society, except you +will have the garrets, a platform of lead over them, +and the usual cellars, &c., below, of which they +have more and better at Gresham College."</p> + +<p>When the society got settled, by Newton's order +the porter was clothed in a suitable gown and provided +with a staff surmounted by the arms of the +society in silver, and on the meeting nights a lamp +was hung out over the entrance to the court from +Fleet Street. The repository was built at the rear +of the house, and thither the society's museum +was removed. The first catalogue, compiled by +Dr. Green, contains the following, among many +other marvellous notices:—</p> + +<p>"The quills of a porcupine, which on certain +occasions the creature can shoot at the pursuing +enemy and erect at pleasure.</p> + +<p>"The flying squirrel, which for a good nut-tree +will pass a river on the bark of a tree, erecting +his tail for a sail.</p> + +<p>"The leg-bone of an elephant, brought out of +Syria for the thigh-bone of a giant. In winter, +when it begins to rain, elephants are mad, and so +continue from April to September, chained to some +tree, and then become tame again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tortoises, when turned on their backs, will +sometimes fetch deep sighs and shed abundance +of tears.</p> + +<p>"A humming-bird and nest, said to weigh but +twelve grains; his feathers are set in gold, and +sell at a great rate.</p> + +<p>"A bone, said to be taken out of a mermaid's +head.</p> + +<p>"The largest whale—liker an island than an +animal.</p> + +<p>"The white shark, which sometimes swallows +men whole.</p> + +<p>"A siphalter, said with its sucker to fasten on a +ship and stop it under sail.</p> + +<p>"A stag-beetle, whose horns, worn in a ring, are +good against the cramp.</p> + +<p>"A mountain cabbage—one reported 300 feet +high."</p> + +<p>The author of "Hudibras," who died in 1680, +attacked the Royal Society for experiments that +seemed to him futile and frivolous, in a severe +and bitter poem, entitled, "The Elephant in the +Moon," the elephant proving to be a mouse +inside a philosopher's telescope. The poem +expresses the current opinion of the society, +on which King Charles II. is once said to have +played a joke.</p> + +<p>In 1726-27 Swift, too, had his bitter jeer at the +society. In Laputa, he thus describes the experimental +philosophers:—</p> + +<p>"The first man I saw," he says, "was of a meagre +aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and +beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. +His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same +colour. He had been eight years upon a project +for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which +were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and +let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers. +He told me he did not doubt that, in eight +years more, he should be able to supply the +governor's gardens with sunshine at a reasonable +rate; but he complained that his stock was low, +and entreated me 'to give him something as an +encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this +had been a very dear season for cucumbers.' I +made him a small present, for my lord had furnished +me with money on purpose, because he +knew their practice of begging from all who go to +see them. I saw another at work to calcine ice into +gunpowder, who likewise showed me a treatise he +had written concerning the 'Malleability of Fire,' +which he intended to publish.</p> + +<p>"There was a most ingenious architect, who had +contrived a new method of building houses, by +beginning at the roof and working downward to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +the foundation; which he justified to me by the +like practice of those two prudent insects, the bee +and the spider. I went into another room, +where the walls and ceilings were all hung round +with cobwebs, except a narrow passage for the +architect to go in and out. At my entrance, he +called aloud to me 'not to disturb his webs.' +He lamented 'the fatal mistake the world had +been so long in, of using silk-worms, while we had +such plenty of domestic insects who infinitely +excelled the former, because they understood how +to weave as well as spin.' And he proposed, +farther, 'that, by employing spiders, the charge +of dying silks would be wholly saved;' whereof +I was fully convinced when he showed me a vast +number of flies, most beautifully coloured, wherewith +he fed his spiders, assuring us, 'that the webs +would take a tincture from them;' and, as he had +them of all hues, he hoped to fit everybody's +fancy, as soon as he could find proper food for the +flies, of certain gums, oils, and other glutinous +matter, to give a strength and consistence to the +threads."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grosley, who, in 1770, at Lausanne, published +a book on London, has drawn a curious picture +of the society at that date. "The Royal Society," +he says, "combines within itself the purposes of +the Parisian Academy of Sciences and that of +Inscriptions; it cultivates, in fact, not only the +higher branches of science, but literature also. +Every one, whatever his position, and whether +English or foreign, who has made observations +which appear to the society worthy of its attention, +is allowed to submit them to it either by word of +mouth or in writing. I once saw a joiner, in his +working clothes, announce to the society a means +he had discovered of explaining the causes of tides. +He spoke a long time, evidently not knowing +what he was talking about; but he was listened +to with the greatest attention, thanked for his +confidence in the value of the society's opinion, +requested to put his ideas into writing, and conducted +to the door by one of the principal +members.</p> + +<p>"The place in which the society holds its +meetings is neither large nor handsome. It is a +long, low, narrow room, only furnished with a +table (covered with green cloth), some morocco +chairs, and some wooden benches, which rise +above each other along the room. The table, +placed in front of the fire-place at the bottom of +the room, is occupied by the president (who sits +with his back to the fire) and the secretaries. +On this table is placed a large silver-gilt mace, +similar to the one in use in the House of Commons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +and which, as is the case with the latter, is laid at +the foot of the table when the society is in committee. +The president is preceded on his entrance +and departure by the beadle of the society, bearing +this mace. He has beside him, on his table, a +little wooden mallet for the purpose of imposing +silence when occasion arises, but this is very +seldom the case. With the exception of the +secretaries and the president, everyone takes his +place hap-hazard, at the same time taking great +pains to avoid causing any confusion or noise. The +society may be said to consist, as a body corporate, +of a committee of about twenty persons, chosen +from those of its associates who have the fuller +opportunities of devoting themselves to their +favourite studies. The president and the secretaries +are <i>ex-officio</i> members of the committee, +which is renewed every year—an arrangement +which is so much the more necessary that, in 1765, +the society numbered 400 British members, of +whom more than forty were peers of the realm, five +of the latter being most assiduous members of the +committee.</p> + +<p>"The foreign honorary members, who number +about 150, comprise within their number all the +most famous learned men of Europe, and amongst +them we find the names of D'Alembert, Bernouilli, +Bonnet, Buffon, Euler, Jussieu, Linné, Voltaire, +&c.; together with those, in simple alphabetical +order, of the Dukes of Braganza, &c., and the +chief Ministers of many European sovereigns."</p> + +<p>During the dispute about lightning conductors +(after St. Bride's Church was struck in 1764), in +the year 1772, George III. (says Mr. Weld, in +his "History of the Royal Society") is stated to +have taken the side of Wilson—not on scientific +grounds, but from political motives; he even had +blunt conductors fixed on his palace, and actually +endeavoured to make the Royal Society rescind +their resolution in favour of pointed conductors. +The king, it is declared, had an interview with +Sir John Pringle, during which his Majesty earnestly +entreated him to use his influence in supporting +Mr. Wilson. The reply of the president +was highly honourable to himself and the society +whom he represented. It was to the effect that +duty as well as inclination would always induce +him to execute his Majesty's wishes to the utmost +of his power; "But, sire," said he, "I cannot +reverse the laws and operations of Nature." It +is stated that when Sir John regretted his inability +to alter the laws of Nature, the king replied, +"Perhaps, Sir John, you had better resign." It +was shortly after this occurrence that a friend of +Dr. Franklin's wrote this epigram:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"While you, great George, for knowledge hunt,<br /> +And sharp conductors change for blunt,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The nation's out of joint;</span><br /> +Franklin a wiser course pursues,<br /> +And all your thunder useless views,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By keeping to the point."</span></div> + +<p>A strange scene in the Royal Society in 1710 +(Queen Anne) deserves record. It ended in the +expulsion from the council of that irascible Dr. +Woodward who once fought a duel with Dr. Mead +inside the gate of Gresham College. "The sense," +says Mr. Ward, in his "Memoirs," "entertained +by the society of Sir Hans Sloane's services and +virtues was evinced by the manner in which they +resented an insult offered him by Dr. Woodward, +who, as the reader is aware, was expelled the +council. Sir Hans was reading a paper of his own +composition, when Woodward made some grossly +insulting remarks. Dr. Sloane complained, and +moreover stated that Dr. Woodward had often +affronted him by making grimaces at him; upon +which Dr. Arbuthnot rose and begged to be 'informed +what distortion of a man's face constituted +a grimace.' Sir Isaac Newton was in the chair +when the question of expulsion was agitated, and +when it was pleaded in Woodward's favour that +'he was a good natural philosopher,' Sir Isaac +remarked that in order to belong to that society a +man ought to be a good moral philosopher as well +as a natural one."</p> + +<p>The Scottish Society held its meetings in Crane +Court. "Elizabeth," says Mr. Timbs, "kept down +the number of Scotsmen in London to the astonishingly +small one of fifty-eight; but with James I. +came such a host of traders and craftsmen, many of +whom failing to obtain employment, gave rise, as +early as 1613, to the institution of the 'Scottish +Box,' a sort of friendly society's treasury, when +there were no banks to take charge of money. In +1638 the company, then only twenty, met in +Lamb's Conduit Street. In this year upwards of +300 poor Scotsmen, swept off by the great plague +of 1665-66, were buried at the expense of the +'box,' while numbers more were nourished during +their sickness, without subjecting the parishes in +which they resided to the smallest expense.</p> + +<p>"In the year 1665 the 'box' was exalted into the +character of a corporation by a royal charter, the +expenses attendant on which were disbursed by +gentlemen who, when they met at the 'Cross Keys,' +in Covent Garden, found their receipts to be +£116 8s. 5d. The character of the times is seen +in one of their regulations, which imposed a fine +of 2s. 6d. for every oath used in the course of +their quarterly business.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Presents now flocked in. One of the corporation +gave a silver cup; another, an ivory mallet +or hammer for the chairman; and among the contributors +we find Gilbert Burnet, afterwards bishop, +giving £1 half-yearly. In no very Scotsman-like +spirit the governors distributed each quarter-day +all that had been collected during the preceding +interval. But in 1775 a permanent fund was +established. The hospital now distributes about +£2,200 a year, chiefly in £10 pensions to old +people; and the princely bequest of £76,495 by +Mr. W. Kinloch, who had realised a fortune in +India, allows of £1,800 being given in pensions +of £4 to disabled soldiers and sailors.</p> + +<p>"All this is highly honourable to those connected, +by birth or otherwise, with Scotland. The monthly +meetings of the society are preceded by divine +service in the chapel, which is in the rear of the +house in Crane Court. Twice a year is held a +festival, at which large sums are collected. On +St. Andrew's Day, 1863, Viscount Palmerston presided, +with the brilliant result of the addition of +£1,200 to the hospital fund."</p> + +<p>Appended to the account of the society already +quoted we find the following remarkable "note by +an Englishman":—</p> + +<p>"It is not one of the least curious particulars in +the history of the Scottish Hospital that it substantiates +by documentary evidence the fact that +Scotsmen who have gone to England occasionally +find their way back to their own country. It +appears from the books of the corporation that +in the year ending 30th November, 1850, the +sum of £30 16s. 6d. was spent in passages from +London to Leith; and there is actually a corresponding +society in Edinburgh to receive the +<i>revenants</i> and pass them on to their respective +districts."</p> + +<p>In Crane Court, says Mr. Timbs, lived Dryden +Leach, the printer, who, in 1763, was arrested on +a general warrant upon suspicion of having printed +Wilkes's <i>North Briton</i>, No 45. Leach was taken +out of his bed in the night, his papers were seized, +and even his journeymen and servants were apprehended, +the only foundation for the arrest being a +hearsay that Wilkes had been seen going into +Leach's house. Wilkes had been sent to the Tower +for the No. 45. After much litigation, he obtained a +verdict of £4,000, and Leach £300, damages from +three of the king's messengers, who had executed +the illegal warrant. Kearsley, the bookseller, of +Fleet Street (whom we recollect by his tax-tables), +had been taken up for publishing No. 45, when also +at Kearsley's were seized the letters of Wilkes, +which seemed to fix upon him the writing of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +obscene and blasphemous "Essay on Woman," and +of which he was convicted in the Court of King's +Bench and expelled the House of Commons. The +author of this "indecent patchwork" was not +Wilkes (says Walpole), but Thomas Potter, the +wild son of the learned Archbishop of Canterbury, +who had tried to fix the authorship on the learned +and arrogant Warburton—a piece of matchless +impudence worthy of Wilkes himself.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="royal" id="royal"></a> +<img src="images/p108.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S HOUSE IN CRANE COURT</span> +</div> + +<p>Red Lion Court (No. 169), though an unlikely +spot, has been, of all the side binns of Fleet Street, +one of the most specially favoured by Minerva. +Here Valpy published that interminable series of +Latin and Greek authors, which he called the +"Delphin Classics," which Lamb's eccentric friend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +George Dyer, of Clifford's Inn, laboriously edited, +and which opened the eyes of the subscribers very +wide indeed as to the singular richness of ancient +literature. At the press of an eminent printer in +this court, that useful and perennial serial the +<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> (started in 1731) was partly +printed from 1779 to 1781, and entirely printed +from 1792 to 1820.</p> + +<p>Johnson's Court, Fleet Street (a narrow court on +the north side of Fleet Street, the fourth from +Fetter Lane, eastward), was not named from Dr. +Johnson, although inhabited by him.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="theodore" id="theodore"></a> +<img src="images/p109.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<br /></div> + +<p>Dr. Johnson was living at Johnson's Court in +1765, after he left No. 1, Inner Temple Lane, and +before he removed to Bolt Court. At Johnson's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +Court he made the acquaintance of Murphey, and +he worked at his edition of "Shakespeare." He saw +much of Reynolds and Burke. On the accession +of George III. a pension of £300 a year had +been bestowed on him, and from that time he +became comparatively an affluent man. In 1763, +Boswell had become acquainted with Dr. Johnson, +and from that period his wonderful conversations +are recorded. The indefatigable biographer describes, +in 1763, being taken by Mr. Levett to see +Dr. Johnson's library, which was contained in his +garret over his Temple chambers, where the son of +the well-known Lintot used to have his warehouse. +The floor was strewn with manuscript leaves; and +there was an apparatus for chemical experiments, of +which Johnson was all his life very fond. Johnson +often hid himself in this garret for study, but never +told his servant, as the Doctor would never allow +him to say he was not at home when he was.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He"(Johnson), says Hawkins, "removed from +the Temple into a house in Johnson's Court, +Fleet Street, and invited thither his friend Mrs. +Williams. An upper room, which had the advantage +of a good light and free air, he fitted up for +a study and furnished with books, chosen with so +little regard to editions or their external appearances +as showed they were intended for use, and that he +disdained the ostentation of learning."</p> + +<p>"I returned to London," says Boswell, "in +February, 1766, and found Dr. Johnson in a good +house in Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, in which +he had accommodated Mrs. Williams with an +apartment on the ground-floor, while Mr. Levett +occupied his post in the garret. His faithful Francis +was still attending upon him. He received me +with much kindness. The fragments of our first +conversation, which I have preserved, are these:—I +told him that Voltaire, in a conversation with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +me, had distinguished Pope and Dryden, thus: +'Pope drives a handsome chariot, with a couple +of neat, trim nags; Dryden, a coach and six stately +horses.' Johnson: 'Why, sir, the truth is, they +both drive coaches and six, but Dryden's horses +are either galloping or stumbling; Pope's go at +a steady, even trot.' He said of Goldsmith's +'Traveller,' which had been published in my +absence, 'There's not been so fine a poem since +Pope's time.' Dr. Johnson at the same time +favoured me by marking the lines which he furnished +to Goldsmith's 'Deserted Village,' which +are only the last four:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">'That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay,<br /> +As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away;<br /> +While self-dependent power can time defy,<br /> +As rocks resist the billows and the sky.'</div> + + +<p>At night I supped with him at the 'Mitre' tavern, +that we might renew our social intimacy at the +original place of meeting. But there was now considerable +difference in his way of living. Having +had an illness, in which he was advised to leave off +wine, he had, from that period, continued to abstain +from it, and drank only water or lemonade."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Beauclerk and I," says Boswell, in another +place, "called on him in the morning. As we +walked up Johnson's Court, I said, 'I have a +veneration for this court,' and was glad to find +that Beauclerk had the same reverential enthusiasm." +The Doctor's removal Boswell thus duly +chronicles:—"Having arrived," he says, "in +London late on Friday, the 15th of March, 1776, +I hastened next morning to wait on Dr. Johnson, +at his house, but found he was removed from +Johnson's Court, No. 7, to Bolt Court, No. 8, +still keeping to his favourite Fleet Street. My +reflection at the time, upon this change, as marked +in my journal, is as follows: 'I felt a foolish +regret that he had left a court which bore his +name; but it was not foolish to be affected with +some tenderness of regard for a place in which +I had seen him a great deal, from whence I had +often issued a better and a happier man than when +I went in; and which had often appeared to my +imagination, while I trod its pavement in the +solemn darkness of the night, to be sacred to +wisdom and piety.'"</p> + +<p>Johnson was living at Johnson's Court when he +was introduced to George III., an interview in +which he conducted himself, considering he was +an ingrained Jacobite, with great dignity, self-respect, +and good sense.</p> + +<p>That clever, but most shameless and scurrilous, +paper, <i>John Bull</i>, was started in Johnson's Court,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +at the close of 1820. Its specific and real object +was to slander unfortunate Queen Caroline and to +torment, stigmatise, and blacken "the Brandenburg +House party," as her honest sympathisers +were called. Theodore Hook was chosen editor, +because he knew society, was quick, witty, satirical, +and thoroughly unscrupulous. For his "splendid +abuse"—as his biographer, the unreverend Mr. +Barham, calls it—he received the full pay of a +greedy hireling. Tom Moore and the Whigs +now met with a terrible adversary. Hook did not +hew or stab, like Churchill and the old rough +lampooners of earlier days, but he filled crackers +with wild fire, or laughingly stuck the enemies +of George IV. over with pins. Hook had only +a year before returned from the Treasuryship +of the Mauritius, charged with a defalcation of +£15,000—the result of the grossest and most +culpable neglect. Hungry for money, as he +had ever been, he was eager to show his zeal +for the master who had hired his pen. Hook +and Daniel Terry, the comedian, joined to start +the new satirical paper; but Miller, a publisher in +the Burlington Arcade, was naturally afraid of +libel, and refused to have anything to do with the +new venture. With Miller, as Hook said in his +clever, punning way, all argument in favour of it +proved Newgate-ory. Hook at first wanted to +start a magazine upon the model of <i>Blackwood</i>, +but the final decision was for a weekly newspaper, +to be called <i>John Bull</i>, a title already discussed for +a previous scheme by Hook and Elliston. The +first number appeared on Saturday, December 16, +1820, in the publishing office, No. 11, Johnson's +Court. The modest projectors only printed seven +hundred and fifty copies of the first number, but the +sale proved considerable. By the sixth week the +sale had reached ten thousand weekly. The first +five numbers were reprinted, and the first two +actually stereotyped.</p> + +<p>Hook's favourite axiom—worthy of such a +satirist—was "that there was always a concealed +wound in every family, and the point was to strike +exactly at the source of pain." Hook's clerical +elder brother, Dr. James Hook, the author of +"Pen Owen" and other novels, and afterwards +Dean of Worcester, assisted him; but Terry was +too busy in what Sir Walter Scott, his great friend +and sleeping partner, used to call "<i>Terry</i>fying the +novelists by not very brilliant adaptations of their +works." Dr. Maginn, summoned from Cork to +edit a newspaper for Hook (who had bought up +two dying newspapers for the small expenditure of +three hundred guineas), wrote only one article for +the <i>Bull</i>. Mr. Haynes Bayley contributed some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +his graceful verses, and Ingoldsby (Barham) some +of his rather ribald fun. The anonymous editor of +<i>John Bull</i> became for a time as much talked about +as Junius in earlier times. By many witty +James Smith was suspected, but his fun had not +malignity enough for the Tory purposes of those +bitter days. Latterly Hook let Alderman Wood +alone, and set all his staff on Hume, the great +economist, and the Hon. Henry Grey Bennett.</p> + +<p>Several prosecutions followed, says Mr. Barham, +that for libel on the Queen among the rest; but the +grand attempt on the part of the Whigs to crush the +paper was not made till the 6th of May, 1821. A +short and insignificant paragraph, containing some +observations upon the Hon. Henry Grey Bennett, +a brother of Lord Tankerville's, was selected for +attack, as involving a breach of privilege; in consequence +of which the printer, Mr. H.F. Cooper, +the editor, and Mr. Shackell were ordered to +attend at the bar of the House of Commons. A +long debate ensued, during which Ministers made +as fair a stand as the nature of the case would admit +in behalf of their guerrilla allies, but which terminated +at length in the committal of Cooper to +Newgate, where he was detained from the 11th of +May till the 11th of July, when Parliament was +prorogued.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the most strenuous exertions were +made to detect the real delinquents—for, of course, +honourable gentlemen were not to be imposed +upon by the unfortunate "men of straw" who +had fallen into their clutches, and who, by the +way, suffered for an offence of which their judges +and accusers openly proclaimed them to be not +only innocent, but incapable. The terror of imprisonment +and the various arts of cross-examination +proving insufficient to elicit the truth, recourse +was had to a simpler and more conciliatory mode +of treatment—bribery. The storm had failed to +force off the editorial cloak—the golden beams +were brought to bear upon it. We have it for +certain that an offer was made to a member of +the establishment to stay all impending proceedings, +and, further, to pay down a sum of £500 +on the names of the actual writers being given +up. It was rejected with disdain, while such +were the precautions taken that it was impossible +to fix Hook, though suspicion began to be +awakened, with any share in the concern. In +order, also, to cross the scent already hit off, +and announced by sundry deep-mouthed pursuers, +the following "Reply"—framed upon the principle, +we presume, that in literature, as in love, +everything is fair—was thrown out in an early +number:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>—</p> + +<p class="center">"MR. THEODORE HOOK.</p> + +<p>"The conceit of some people is amazing, and it +has not been unfrequently remarked that conceit +is in abundance where talent is most scarce. Our +readers will see that we have received a letter from +Mr. Hook, disowning and disavowing all connection +with this paper. Partly out of good nature, +and partly from an anxiety to show the gentleman +how little desirous we are to be associated with +him, we have made a declaration which will +doubtless be quite satisfactory to his morbid +sensibility and affected squeamishness. We are +free to confess that two things surprise us in this +business; the first, that anything which we have +thought worth giving to the public should have +been mistaken for Mr. Hook's; and, secondly +that <i>such a person</i> as Mr. Hook should think +himself disgraced by a connection with <i>John +Bull</i>."</p> + +<p>For sheer impudence this, perhaps, may be +admitted to "defy competition"; but in point of +tact and delicacy of finish it falls infinitely short of +a subsequent notice, a perfect gem of its class, +added by way of clenching the denial:—</p> + +<p>"We have received Mr. Theodore Hook's +second letter. We are ready to confess that we +may have appeared to treat him too unceremoniously, +but we will put it to his own feelings +whether the terms of his denial were not, in some +degree, calculated to produce a little asperity on +our part. We shall never be ashamed, however, to +do justice, and we readily declare that we meant +no kind of imputation on Mr. Hook's personal +character."</p> + +<p>The ruse answered for awhile, and the paper +went on with unabated audacity.</p> + +<p>The death of the Queen, in the summer of 1821, +produced a decided alteration in the tone and +temper of the paper. In point of fact its occupation +was now gone. The main, if not the sole, +object of its establishment had been brought about +by other and unforeseen events. The combination +it had laboured so energetically to thwart was now +dissolved by a higher and resistless agency. Still, +it is not to be supposed that a machine which +brought in a profit of something above £4,000 +per annum, half of which fell to the share of Hook, +was to be lightly thrown up, simply because its +original purpose was attained. The dissolution of +the "League" did not exist then as a precedent. +The Queen was no longer to be feared; but there +were Whigs and Radicals enough to be held in +check, and, above all, there was a handsome +income to be realised.</p> + +<p>"Latterly Hook's desultory nature made him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +wander from the <i>Bull</i>, which might have furnished +the thoughtless and heartless man of pleasure with +an income for life. The paper naturally lost sap and +vigour, at once declined in sale, and sank into +a mere respectable club-house and party organ." +"Mr. Hook," says Barham, "received to the day +of his death a fixed salary, but the proprietorship +had long since passed into other hands."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Dr. Johnson in Bolt Court—His motley Household—His Life there—Still existing—The gallant "Lumber Troop"—Reform Bill Riots—Sir +Claudius Hunter—Cobbett in Bolt Court—The Bird Boy—The Private Soldier—In the House—Dr. Johnson in Gough Square—Busy at the +Dictionary—Goldsmith in Wine Office Court—Selling "The Vicar of Wakefield"—Goldsmith's Troubles—Wine Office Court—The Old +"Cheshire Cheese."</p></div> + + +<p>Of all the nooks of London associated with the +memory of that good giant of literature, Dr. Johnson, +not one is more sacred to those who love +that great and wise man than Bolt Court. To this +monastic court Johnson came in 1776, and remained +till that December day in 1784, when a +procession of all the learned and worthy men who +honoured him followed his body to its grave in the +Abbey, near the feet of Shakespeare and by the +side of Garrick. The great scholar, whose ways +and sayings, whose rough hide and tender heart, +are so familiar to us—thanks to that faithful parasite +who secured an immortality by getting up behind +his triumphal chariot—came to Bolt Court from +Johnson's Court, whither he had flitted from +Inner Temple Lane, where he was living when the +young Scotch barrister who was afterwards his +biographer first knew him. His strange household +of fretful and disappointed almspeople seems as well +known as our own. At the head of these pensioners +was the daughter of a Welsh doctor, (a blind +old lady named Williams), who had written some +trivial poems; Mrs. Desmoulins, an old Staffordshire +lady, her daughter, and a Miss Carmichael. +The relationships of these fretful and quarrelsome +old maids Dr. Johnson has himself sketched, in a +letter to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale:—"Williams +hates everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins, and +does not love Williams; Desmoulins hates them +both; Poll (Miss Carmichael) loves none of them." +This Levett was a poor eccentric apothecary, whom +Johnson supported, and who seems to have been +a charitable man.</p> + +<p>The annoyance of such a menagerie of angular +oddities must have driven Johnson more than ever +to his clubs, where he could wrestle with the best +intellects of the day, and generally retire victorious. +He had done nearly all his best work +by this time, and was sinking into the sere and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +yellow leaf, not, like Macbeth, with the loss of +honour, but with love, obedience, troops of friends, +and golden opinions from all sorts of people. His +Titanic labour, the Dictionary, he had achieved +chiefly in Gough Square; his "Rasselas"—that +grave and wise Oriental story—he had written in a +few days, in Staple's Inn, to defray the expenses of +his mother's funeral. In Bolt Court he, however, +produced his "Lives of the Poets," a noble compendium +of criticism, defaced only by the bitter +Tory depreciation of Milton, and injured by the +insertion of many worthless and the omission of +several good poets.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to think of some of the events +that happened while Johnson lived in Bolt Court. +Here he exerted himself with all the ardour of his +nature to soothe the last moments of that wretched +man, Dr. Dodd, who was hanged for forgery. From +Bolt Court he made those frequent excursions to +the Thrales, at Streatham, where the rich brewer +and his brilliant wife gloried in the great London +lion they had captured. To Bolt Court came Johnson's +friends Reynolds and Gibbon, and Garrick, +and Percy, and Langton; but poor Goldsmith had +died before Johnson left Johnson's Court. To +Bolt Court he stalked home the night of his +memorable quarrel with Dr. Percy, no doubt regretting +the violence and boisterous rudeness +with which he had attacked an amiable and gifted +man. From Bolt Court he walked to service at +St. Clement's Church on the day he rejoiced in +comparing the animation of Fleet Street with the +desolation of the Hebrides. It was from Bolt +Court Boswell drove Johnson to dine with General +Paoli, a drive memorable for the fact that on +that occasion Johnson uttered his first and only +recorded pun.</p> + +<p>Johnson was at Bolt Court when the Gordon Riots +broke out, and he describes them to Mrs. Thrale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +Boswell gives a pleasant sketch of a party at Bolt +Court, when Mrs. Hall (a sister of Wesley) was +there, and Mr. Allen, a printer; Johnson produced +his silver salvers, and it was "a great +day." It was on this occasion that the conversation +fell on apparitions, and Johnson, always +superstitious to the last degree, told the story of +hearing his mother's voice call him one day at +Oxford (probably at a time when his brain was overworked). +On this great occasion also, Johnson, +talked at by Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Williams at the +same moment, gaily quoted the line from the +<i>Beggars' Opera</i>,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"But two at a time there's no mortal can bear," +</div> + +<p>and Boswell playfully compared the great man +to Captain Macheath. Imagine Mrs. Williams, old +and peevish; Mrs. Hall, lean, lank, and preachy; +Johnson, rolling in his chair like Polyphemus at a +debate; Boswell, stooping forward on the perpetual +listen; Mr. Levett, sour and silent; Frank, +the black servant, proud of the silver salvers—and +you have the group as in a picture.</p> + +<p>In Bolt Court we find Johnson now returning +from pleasant dinners with Wilkes and Garrick, +Malone and Dr. Burney; now sitting alone over +his Greek Testament, or praying with his black +servant, Frank. We like to picture him on that +Good Friday morning (1783), when he and Boswell, +returning from service at St. Clement's, rested on +the stone seat at the garden-door in Bolt Court, +talking about gardens and country hospitality.</p> + +<p>Then, finally, we come to almost the last scene +of all, when the sick man addressed to his kind +physician, Brocklesby, that pathetic passage of +Shakespeare's,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased;<br /> +Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;<br /> +Raze out the written troubles of the brain;<br /> +And with some sweet oblivious antidote<br /> +Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff<br /> +Which weighs upon the heart?"</div> + +<p>Round Johnson's dying bed gathered many wise +and good men. To Burke he said, "I must be +in a wretched state indeed, when your company +would not be a delight to me." To another friend +he remarked solemnly, but in his old grand manner, +"Sir, you cannot conceive with what acceleration +I advance towards death." Nor did his old vehemence +and humour by any means forsake him, for +he described a man who sat up to watch him +"as an idiot, sir; awkward as a turnspit when first +put into the wheel, and sleepy as a dormouse." +His remaining hours were spent in fervent prayer. +The last words he uttered were those of bene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>diction +upon the daughter of a friend who came to +ask his blessing.</p> + +<p>Some years before Dr. Johnson's death, when +the poet Rogers was a young clerk of literary proclivities +at his father's bank, he one day stole surreptitiously +to Bolt Court, to daringly show some of +his fledgeling poems to the great Polyphemus of +literature. He and young Maltby, an ancestor of +the late Bishop of Durham, crept blushingly through +the quiet court, and on arriving at the sacred door +on the west side, ascended the steps and knocked +at the door; but the awful echo of that knocker +struck terror to the young <i>débutants'</i> hearts, and +before Frank Barber, the Doctor's old negro footman, +could appear, the two lads, like street-boys +who had perpetrated a mischievous runaway knock, +took to their heels and darted back into noisy +Fleet Street. Mr. Jesse, who has collected so +many excellent anecdotes, some even original, in +his three large volumes on "London's Celebrated +Characters and Places," says that the elder Mr. +Disraeli, singularly enough, used in society to relate +an almost similar adventure as a youth. Eager +for literary glory, but urged towards the counter +by his sober-minded relations, he enclosed some +of his best verses to the celebrated Dr. Johnson, +and modestly solicited from the terrible critic an +opinion of their value. Having waited some time +in vain for a reply, the ambitious Jewish youth +at last (December 13, 1784) resolved to face the +lion in his den, and rapping tremblingly (as his predecessor, +Rogers), heard with dismay the knocker +echo on the metal. We may imagine the feelings +of the young votary at the shrine of learning, +when the servant (probably Frank Barber), who +slowly opened the door, informed him that Dr. +Johnson had breathed his last only a few short +hours before.</p> + +<p>Mr. Timbs reminds us of another story of Dr. +Johnson, which will not be out of place here. It +is an excellent illustration of the keen sagacity and +forethought of that great man's mind. One evening +Dr. Johnson, looking from his dim Bolt Court +window, saw the slovenly lamp-lighter of those +days ascending a ladder (just as Hogarth has +drawn him in the "Rake's Progress"), and fill the +little receptacle in the globular lamp with detestable +whale-oil. Just as he got down the ladder the dull +light wavered out. Skipping up the ladder again, +the son of Prometheus lifted the cover, thrust the +torch he carried into the heated vapour rising +from the wick, and instantly the ready flame +sprang restored to life. "Ah," said the old seer, +"one of these days the streets of London will be +lighted by smoke."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bolt" id="bolt"></a> +<img src="images/p114.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DR. JOHNSON'S HOUSE IN BOLT COURT</span> +</div> + +<p>Johnson's house (No. 8), according to Mr. Noble, +was not destroyed by fire in 1819, as Mr. Timbs +and other writers assert. The house destroyed was +Bensley the printer's (next door to No. 8), the +successor of Johnson's friend, Allen, who in 1772 +published Manning's Saxon, Gothic, and Latin +Dictionary, and died in 1780. In Bensley's destructive +fire all the plates and stock of Dallaway's +"History of Sussex" were consumed. Johnson's +house, says Mr. Noble, was in 1858 purchased by +the Stationers' Company, and fitted up as a cheap +school (six shillings a quarter). In 1861 Mr. Foss, +Master of the Company, initiated a fund, and since +then a university scholarship has been founded—<i>sic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>itur ad astra</i>. The back room, first floor, in which +the great man died, had been pulled down by Mr. +Bensley, to make way for a staircase. Bensley +was one of the first introducers of the German +invention of steam-printing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="tea" id="tea"></a> +<img src="images/p115.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A TEA PARTY AT DR. JOHNSON'S</span> +</div> + +<p>At "Dr. Johnson's" tavern, established forty years +ago (now the Albert Club), the well-known society +of the "Lumber Troop" once drained their porter +and held their solemn smokings. This gallant +force of supposititious fighting men "came out" with +great force during the Reform Riots of 1830. These +useless disturbances originated in a fussy, foolish +warning letter, written by John Key, the Lord Mayor +elect (he was generally known in the City as Don +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>Key after this), to the Duke of Wellington, then as +terribly unpopular with the English Reformers as +he had been with the French after the battle of +Waterloo, urging him (the duke) if he came with +King William and Queen Adelaide to dine with +the new Lord Mayor, (his worshipful self), to +come "strongly and sufficiently guarded." This +imprudent step greatly offended the people, who +were also just then much vexed with the severities +of Peel's obnoxious new police. The result was +that the new king and queen (for the not over-beloved +George IV. had only died in June of +that year) thought it better to decline coming +to the City festivities altogether. Great, then, +was even the Tory indignation, and the fattest +alderman trotted about, eager to discuss the +grievance, the waste of half-cooked turtle, and +the general folly and enormity of the Lord Mayor +elect's conduct. Sir Claudius Hunter, who had +shared in the Lord Mayor's fears, generously +marched to his aid. In a published statement that +he made, he enumerated the force available for +the defence of the (in his mind) endangered +City in the following way:—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Ward Constables</td><td align='right'>400</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Fellowship, Ticket, and Tackle Porters</td><td align='right'>250</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Firemen</td><td align='right'>150</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Corn Porters</td><td align='right'>100</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Extra men hired</td><td align='right'>130</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>City Police or own men</td><td align='right'>54</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Tradesmen with emblems in the procession</td><td align='right'>300</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Some gentlemen called the Lumber Troopers</td><td align='right'>150</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Artillery Company</td><td align='right'>150</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The East India Volunteers</td><td align='right'>600</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Total of all comers</td><td align='right'>2,284</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>In the same statement Sir Claudius says:—"The +Lumber Troop are a respectable smoking +club, well known to every candidate for a seat in +Parliament for London, and most famed for the +quantity of tobacco they consume and the porter +they drink, which, I believe (from my own observation, +made nineteen years ago, when I was a candidate +for that office), is the only liquor allowed. +They were to have had no pay, and I am sure they +would have done their best."</p> + +<p>Along the line of procession, to oppose this +civic force, the right worshipful but foolish man +reckoned there would be some 150,000 persons. +With all these aldermanic fears, and all these +irritating precautions, a riot naturally took place. +On Monday, November 8th, that glib, unsatisfactory +man, Orator Hunt, the great demagogue of the +day, addressed a Reform meeting at the Rotunda, +in Blackfriars Road. At half-past eleven, when +the Radical gentleman, famous for his white hat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +(the lode-star of faction), retired, a man suddenly +waved a tricolour flag (it was the year, remember, +of the Revolution in Paris), with the word "Reform" +painted upon it, and a preconcerted cry +was raised by the more violent of, "Now for +the West End!" About one thousand men then +rushed over Blackfriars bridge, shouting, "Reform!" +"Down with the police!" "No Peel!" "No Wellington!" +Hurrying along the Strand, the mob +first proceeded to Earl Bathurst's, in Downing +Street. A foolish gentleman of the house, hearing +the cries, came out on the balcony, armed +with a brace of pistols, and declared he would +fire on the first man who attempted to enter the +place. Another gentleman at this moment came +out, and very sensibly took the pistols from his +friend, on which the mob retired. The rioters +were then making for the House of Commons, +but were stopped by a strong line of police, just +arrived in time from Scotland Yard. One hundred +and forty more men soon joined the constables, +and a general fight ensued, in which many heads +were quickly broken, and the Reform flag was captured. +Three of the rioters were arrested, and +taken to the watch-house in the Almonry in Westminster. +A troop of Royal Horse Guards (blue) +remained during the night ready in the court of the +Horse Guards, and bands of policemen paraded +the streets.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday the riots continued. About half-past +five p.m., 300 or 400 persons, chiefly boys, +came along the Strand, shouting, "No Peel!" +"Down with the raw lobsters!" (the new police); +"This way, my lads; we'll give it them!" At +the back of the menageries at Charing Cross the +police rushed upon them, and after a skirmish put +them to flight. At seven o'clock the vast crowd +by Temple Bar compelled every coachman and +passenger in a coach, as a passport, to pull off +his hat and shout "Huzza!" Stones were thrown, +and attempts were made to close the gates of the +Bar. The City marshals, however, compelled them +to be re-opened, and opposed the passage of the +mob to the Strand, but the pass was soon forced. +The rioters in Pickett Place pelted the police with +stones and pieces of wood, broken from the +scaffolding of the Law Institute, then building in +Chancery Lane. Another mob of about 500 +persons ran up Piccadilly to Apsley House +and hissed and hooted the stubborn, unprogressive +old Duke, Mr. Peel, and the police; the constables, +however, soon dispersed them. The same +evening dangerous mobs collected in Bethnal +Green, Spitalfields, and Whitechapel, one party +of them displaying tricoloured flags. They broke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +a lamp and a window or two, but did little else. +Alas for poor Sir Claudius and his profound computations! +His 2,284 fighting loyal men dwindled +down to 600, including even those strange hybrids, +the firemen-watermen; and as for the gallant Lumber +Troop, they were nowhere visible to the naked eye.</p> + +<p>To Bolt Court that scourge of King George III., +William Cobbett, came from Fleet Street to sell his +Indian corn, for which no one cared, and to print +and publish his twopenny <i>Political Register</i>, for +which the London Radicals of that day hungered. +Nearly opposite the office of "this good hater," +says Mr. Timbs, Wright (late Kearsley) kept +shop, and published a searching criticism on +Cobbett's excellent English Grammar as soon +as it appeared. We only wonder that Cobbett +did not reply to him as Johnson did to a friend +after he knocked Osborne (the grubbing bookseller +of Gray's Inn Gate) down with a blow—"Sir, he +was impertinent, and I beat him."</p> + +<p>A short biographical sketch of Cobbett will not +be inappropriate here. This sturdy Englishman, +born in the year 1762, was the son of an honest +and industrious yeoman, who kept an inn called +the "Jolly Farmer," at Farnham, in Surrey. "My +first occupation," says Cobbett, "was driving the +small birds from the turnip seed and the rooks +from the peas. When I first trudged a-field with +my wooden bottle and my satchel over my +shoulder, I was hardly able to climb the gates +and stiles." In 1783 the restless lad (a plant +grown too high for the pot) ran away to London, +and turned lawyer's clerk. At the end of nine +months he enlisted, and sailed for Nova Scotia. +Before long he became sergeant-major, over the +heads of thirty other non-commissioned officers. +Frugal and diligent, the young soldier soon educated +himself. Discharged at his own request in 1791, +he married a respectable girl, to whom he had +before entrusted £150 hard-earned savings. Obtaining +a trial against four officers of his late regiment +for embezzlement of stores, for some strange reason +Cobbett fled to France on the eve of the trial, +but finding the king of that country dethroned, he +started at once for America. At Philadelphia +he boldly began as a high Tory bookseller, and +denounced Democracy in his virulent "Porcupine +Papers." Finally, overwhelmed with actions for +libel, Cobbett in 1800 returned to England. +Failing with a daily paper and a bookseller's shop, +Cobbett then started his <i>Weekly Register</i>, which +for thirty years continued to express the changes +of his honest but impulsive and vindictive mind. +Gradually—it is said, owing to some slight shown +him by Pitt (more probably from real conviction)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>—Cobbett grew Radical and progressive, and in 1809 +was fined £500 for libels on the Irish Government. +In 1817 he was fined £1,000 and imprisoned two +years for violent remarks about some Ely militiamen +who had been flogged under a guard of fixed +bayonets. This punishment he never forgave. He +followed up his <i>Register</i> by his <i>Twopenny Trash</i>, +of which he eventually sold 100,000 a number. +The Six Acts being passed—as he boasted, to gag +him—he fled, in 1817, again to America. The +persecuted man returned to England in 1819, +bringing with him, much to the amusement of +the Tory lampooners, the bones of that foul man, +Tom Paine, the infidel, whom (in 1796) this changeful +politician had branded as "base, malignant, +treacherous, unnatural, and blasphemous." During +the Queen Caroline trial Cobbett worked heart and +soul for that questionable martyr. He went out +to Shooter's Hill to welcome her to London, and +boasted of having waved a laurel bough above +her head.</p> + +<p>In 1825 he wrote a scurrilous "History of the +Reformation" (by many still attributed to a priest), +in which he declared Luther, Calvin, and Beza +to be the greatest ruffians that ever disgraced the +world. In his old age, too late to be either brilliant +or useful, Cobbett got into Parliament, +being returned in 1832 (thanks to the Reform Bill) +member for Oldham. He died at his house +near Farnham, in 1835. Cobbett was an egotist, +it must be allowed, and a violent-tempered, vindictive +man; but his honesty, his love of truth and +liberty, few who are not blinded by party opinion +can doubt. His writings are remarkable for vigorous +and racy Saxon, as full of vituperation as Rabelais's, +and as terse and simple as Swift's.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grant, in his pleasant book, "Random +Recollections of the House of Commons," written +<i>circa</i> 1834, gives us an elaborate full-length +portrait of old Cobbett. He was, he says, not less +than six feet high, and broad and athletic in +proportion. His hair was silver-white, his complexion +ruddy as a farmer's. Till his small eyes +sparkled with laughter, he looked a mere dull-pated +clodpole. His dress was a light, loose, grey +tail-coat, a white waistcoat, and sandy kerseymere +breeches, and he usually walked about the House +with both his hands plunged into his breeches +pockets. He had an eccentric, half-malicious way +of sometimes suddenly shifting his seat, and on +one important night, big with the fate of Peel's +Administration, deliberately anchored down in the +very centre of the disgusted Tories and at the very +back of Sir Robert's bench, to the infinite annoyance +of the somewhat supercilious party.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>We next penetrate into Gough Square, in search +of the great lexicographer.</p> + +<p>As far as can be ascertained from Boswell, +Dr. Johnson resided at Gough Square from +1748 to 1758, an eventful period of his life, and one +of struggle, pain, and difficulty. In this gloomy +side square near Fleet Street, he achieved many +results and abandoned many hopes. Here he +nursed his hypochondria—the nightmare of his life—and +sought the only true relief in hard work. +Here he toiled over books, drudging for Cave +and Dodsley. Here he commenced both the +<i>Rambler</i> and the <i>Idler</i>, and formed his acquaintance +with Bennet Langton. Here his wife +died, and left him more than ever a prey to his +natural melancholy; and here he toiled on his +great work, the Dictionary, in which he and six +amanuenses effected what it took all the French +Academicians to perform for their language.</p> + +<p>A short epitome of what this great man accomplished +while in Gough Square will clearly recall +to our readers his way of life while in that locality. +In 1749, Johnson formed a quiet club in Ivy +Lane, wrote that fine paraphrase of Juvenal, +"The Vanity of Human Wishes," and brought +out, with dubious success, under Garrick's auspices, +his tragedy of <i>Irene</i>. In 1750, he commenced +the <i>Rambler</i>. In 1752, the year his wife died, +he laboured on at the Dictionary. In 1753, +he became acquainted with Bennet Langton. +In 1754 he wrote the life of his early patron, +Cave, who died that year. In 1755, the great +Dictionary, begun in 1747, was at last published, +and Johnson wrote that scathing letter to the +Earl of Chesterfield, who, too late, thrust upon +him the patronage the poor scholar had once +sought in vain. In 1756, the still struggling man +was arrested for a paltry debt of £5 18<i>s.</i>, from +which Richardson the worthy relieved him. In +1758, when he began the <i>Idler</i>, Johnson is described +as "being in as easy and pleasant a state +of existence as constitutional unhappiness ever +permitted him to enjoy."</p> + +<p>While the Dictionary was going forward, "Johnson," +says Boswell, "lived part of the time in Holborn, +part in Gough Square (Fleet Street); and +he had an upper room fitted up like a counting-house +for the purpose, in which he gave to the +copyists their several tasks. The words, partly +taken from other dictionaries and partly supplied +by himself, having been first written down with +space left between them, he delivered in writing +their etymologies, definitions, and various significations. +The authorities were copied from the +books themselves, in which he had marked the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +passages with a black-lead pencil, the traces of +which could be easily effaced. I have seen several +of them in which that trouble had not been taken, +so that they were just as when used by the copyists. +It is remarkable that he was so attentive to +the choice of the passages in which words were +authorised, that one may read page after page of +his Dictionary with improvement and pleasure; +and it should not pass unobserved, that he has +quoted no author whose writings had a tendency to +hurt sound religion and morality."</p> + +<p>To this account Bishop Percy adds a note of +great value for its lucid exactitude. "Boswell's +account of the manner in which Johnson compiled +his Dictionary," he says, "is confused and erroneous. +He began his task (as he himself expressly +described to me) by devoting his first care to +a diligent perusal of all such English writers as +were most correct in their language, and under +every sentence which he meant to quote he drew +a line, and noted in the margin the first letter of +the word under which it was to occur. He then +delivered these books to his clerks, who transcribed +each sentence on a separate slip of paper and +arranged the same under the word referred to. By +these means he collected the several words, and +their different significations, and when the whole +arrangement was alphabetically formed, he gave +the definitions of their meanings, and collected +their etymologies from Skinner, and other writers +on the subject." To these accounts, Hawkins +adds his usual carping, pompous testimony. "Dr. +Johnson," he says, "who, before this time, together +with his wife, had lived in obscurity, lodging +at different houses in the courts and alleys in +and about the Strand and Fleet Street, had, for +the purpose of carrying on this arduous work, and +being near the printers employed in it, taken a +handsome house in Gough Square, and fitted up +a room in it with books and other accommodations +for amanuenses, who, to the number of five or six, +he kept constantly under his eye. An interleaved +copy of "Bailey's Dictionary," in folio, he +made the repository of the several articles, and +these he collected by incessantly reading the best +authors in our language, in the practice whereof +his method was to score with a black-lead pencil +the words by him selected. The books he used +for this purpose were what he had in his own +collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, +and all such as he could borrow; which latter, if +ever they came back to those that lent them, were +so defaced as to be scarce worth owning, and +yet some of his friends were glad to receive and +entertain them as curiosities."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Burney," says Boswell, "during a visit to +the capital, had an interview with Johnson in +Gough Square, where he dined and drank tea with +him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of +Mrs. Williams. After dinner Mr. Johnson proposed +to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, +which being accepted, he found there about five or +six Greek folios, a poor writing-desk, and a chair +and a half. Johnson, giving to his guest the entire +seat, balanced himself on one with only three legs +and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. +Williams's history, and showed him some notes +on Shakespeare already printed, to prove that he +was in earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening +the first volume at the <i>Merchant of Venice</i> he +observed to him that he seemed to be more severe +on Warburton than on Theobald. 'Oh, poor +Tib!' said Johnson, 'he was nearly knocked +down to my hands; Warburton stands between +me and him.' 'But, sir,' said Mr. Burney, 'You'll +have Warburton on your bones, won't you? +'No, sir;' he'll not come out; he'll only growl +in his den.' 'But do you think, sir, Warburton +is a superior critic to Theobald?' 'Oh, sir, he'll +make two-and-fifty Theobalds cut into slices! The +worst of Warburton is that he has a rage for saying +something when there's nothing to be said.' Mr. +Burney then asked him whether he had seen the +letter Warburton had written in answer to a +pamphlet addressed 'to the most impudent man +alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney +told him it was supposed to be written by Mallet. +A controversy now raged between the friends of +Pope and Bolingbroke, and Warburton and Mallet +were the leaders of the several parties. Mr. Burney +asked him then if he had seen Warburton's book +against Bolingbroke's philosophy!'No, sir; I +have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore +am not interested about its refutation.'"</p> + +<p>Goldsmith appears to have resided at No. 6, +Wine Office Court from 1760 to 1762, during +which period he earned a precarious livelihood by +writing for the booksellers.</p> + +<p>They still point out Johnson and Goldsmith's +favourite seats in the north-east corner of the +window of that cozy though utterly unpretentious +tavern, the "Cheshire Cheese," in this court.</p> + +<p>It was while living in Wine Office Court that +Goldsmith is supposed to have partly written that +delightful novel "The Vicar of Wakefield," which +he had begun at Canonbury Tower. We like to +think that, seated at the "Cheese," he perhaps +espied and listened to the worthy but credulous +vicar and his gosling son attending to the profound +theories of the learned and philosophic but shifty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +Mr. Jenkinson. We think now by the window, +with a cross light upon his coarse Irish features, +and his round prominent brow, we see the watchful +poet sit eyeing his prey, secretly enjoying the +grandiloquence of the swindler and the admiration +of the honest country parson.</p> + +<p>"One day," says Mrs. Piozzi, "Johnson was +called abruptly from our house at Southwark, +after dinner, and, returning in about three hours, +said he had been with an enraged author, whose +landlady pressed him within doors while the bailiffs +beset him without; that he was drinking himself +drunk with Madeira to drown care, and +fretting over a novel which, when finished, was to +be his whole fortune; but he could not get it done +for distraction, nor dared he stir out of doors to +offer it for sale. Mr. Johnson, therefore," she +continues, "sent away the bottle and went to the +bookseller, recommending the performance, and +devising some immediate relief; which, when he +brought back to the writer, the latter called the +woman of the house directly to partake of punch +and pass their time in merriment. It was not," she +concludes, "till ten years after, I dare say, that +something in Dr. Goldsmith's behaviour struck me +with an idea that he was the very man; and then +Johnson confessed that he was so."</p> + +<p>"A more scrupulous and patient writer," says +the admirable biographer of the poet, Mr. John +Forster, "corrects some inaccuracies of the lively +little lady, and professes to give the anecdote +authentically from Johnson's own exact narration. +'I received one morning,' Boswell represents +Johnson to have said, 'a message from poor +Goldsmith, that he was in great distress, and, as +it was not in his power to come to me, begging +that I would come to him as soon as possible. I +sent him a guinea, and promised to come to him +directly. I accordingly went as soon as I was +dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested +him for his rent, at which he was in a violent +passion. I perceived that he had already changed +my guinea, and had got a bottle of Madeira and a +glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, +desired he would be calm, and began to talk to +him of the means by which he might be extricated. +He then told me that he had a novel ready for +the press, which he produced to me. I looked into +it and saw its merits, told the landlady I should +soon return, and, having gone to a bookseller, sold +it for £60. I brought Goldsmith the money, and +he discharged his rent, not without rating his landlady +in a high tone for having used him so ill.'"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="gough" id="gough"></a> +<img src="images/p120.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />GOUGH SQUARE</span> +</div> + +<p>The arrest is plainly connected with Newbery's +reluctance to make further advances, and of all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +Mrs. Fleming's accounts found among Goldsmith's +papers, the only one unsettled is that for the +summer months preceding the arrest. The manuscript +of the novel seems by both statements (in +which the discrepancies are not so great but that +Johnson himself may be held accountable for them) +to have been produced reluctantly, as a last resource; +and it is possible, as Mrs. Piozzi intimates, +that it was still regarded as unfinished. But if +strong adverse reasons had not existed, Johnson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +would surely have carried it to the elder Newbery. +He did not do this. He went with it to Francis +Newbery, the nephew; does not seem to have +given a very brilliant account of the "merit" he +had perceived in it—four years after its author's +death he told Reynolds that he did not think it +would have had much success—and rather with +regard to Goldsmith's immediate want than to any +confident sense of the value of the copy, asked and +obtained the £60. "And, sir," he said afterwards,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +"a sufficient price, too, when it was sold, for then +the fame of Goldsmith had not been elevated, as +it afterwards was, by his 'Traveller,' and the bookseller +had faint hopes of profit by his bargain. +After 'The Traveller,' to be sure, it was accidentally +worth more money."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="wine" id="wine"></a> +<img src="images/p121.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WINE OFFICE COURT AND THE "CHESHIRE CHEESE"</span> +</div> + +<p>On the poem, meanwhile, the elder Newbery +<i>had</i> consented to speculate, and this circumstance +may have made it hopeless to appeal to him with a +second work of fancy. For, on that very day of +the arrest, "The Traveller" lay completed in the +poet's desk. The dream of eight years, the solace +and sustainment of his exile and poverty, verged at +last to fulfilment or extinction, and the hopes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +fears which centred in it doubtless mingled on +that miserable day with the fumes of the Madeira. +In the excitement of putting it to press, which +followed immediately after, the nameless novel +recedes altogether from the view, but will reappear +in due time. Johnson approved the verses more +than the novel; read the proof-sheets for his friend; +substituted here and there, in more emphatic +testimony of general approval, a line of his own; +prepared a brief but hearty notice for the <i>Critical +Review</i>, which was to appear simultaneously with +the poem, and, as the day of publication drew +near, bade Goldsmith be of good heart.</p> + +<p>Oliver Goldsmith came first to London in 1756,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +a raw Irish student, aged twenty-eight. He was +just fresh from Italy and Switzerland. He had +heard Voltaire talk, had won a degree at Louvaine +or Padua, had been "bear leader" to the stingy +nephew of a rich pawnbroker, and had played the +flute at the door of Flemish peasants for a draught +of beer and a crust of bread. No city of golden +pavement did London prove to those worn and +dusty feet. Almost a beggar had Oliver been, +then an apothecary's journeyman and quack doctor, +next a reader of proofs for Richardson, the novelist +and printer; after that a tormented and jaded usher +at a Peckham school; last, and worst of all, a hack +writer of articles for Griffith's <i>Monthly Review</i>, +then being opposed by Smollett in a rival publication. +In Green Arbour Court Goldsmith spent +the roughest part of the toilsome years before +he became known to the world. There he formed +an acquaintance with Johnson and his set, and +wrote essays for Smollett's <i>British Magazine</i>.</p> + +<p>Wine Office Court is supposed to have derived +its name from an office where licenses to sell +wine were formerly issued. "In this court," says +Mr. Noble, "once flourished a fig tree, planted a +century ago by the Vicar of St. Bride's, who +resided, with an absence of pride suitable, if +not common, to Christianity, at No. 12. It was a +slip from another exile of a tree, formerly flourishing, +in a sooty kind of grandeur, at the sign of +the 'Fig Tree,' in Fleet Street. This tree was +struck by lightning in 1820, but slips from the +growing stump were planted in 1822, in various +parts of England."</p> + +<p>The old-fashioned and changeless character of +the "Cheese," in whose low-roofed and sanded +rooms Goldsmith and Johnson have so often hung +up their cocked hats and sat down facing each +other to a snug dinner, not unattended with punch, +has been capitally sketched by a modern essayist, +who possesses a thorough knowledge of the physiology +of London. In an admirable paper entitled +"Brain Street," Mr. George Augustus Sala thus +describes Wine Office Court and the "Cheshire +Cheese":—</p> + +<p>"The vast establishments," says Mr. Sala, "of +Messrs. Pewter & Antimony, typefounders (Alderman +Antimony was Lord Mayor in the year '46); +of Messrs. Quoin, Case, & Chappell, printers to +the Board of Blue Cloth; of Messrs. Cutedge +& Treecalf, bookbinders; with the smaller industries +of Scawper & Tinttool, wood-engravers; +and Treacle, Gluepot, & Lampblack, printing-roller +makers, are packed together in the upper +part of the court as closely as herrings in a +cask. The 'Cheese' is at the Brain Street end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +It is a little lop-sided, wedged-up house, that +always reminds you, structurally, of a high-shouldered +man with his hands in his pockets. +It is full of holes and corners and cupboards and +sharp turnings; and in ascending the stairs to the +tiny smoking-room you must tread cautiously, if +you would not wish to be tripped up by plates +and dishes, momentarily deposited there by furious +waiters. The waiters at the 'Cheese' are always +furious. Old customers abound in the comfortable +old tavern, in whose sanded-floored eating-rooms +a new face is a rarity; and the guests and the +waiters are the oldest of familiars. Yet the waiter +seldom fails to bite your nose off as a preliminary +measure when you proceed to pay him. How +should it be otherwise when on that waiter's soul +there lies heavy a perpetual sense of injury caused +by the savoury odour of steaks, and 'muts' to +follow; of cheese-bubbling in tiny tins—the +'specialty' of the house; of floury potatoes and +fragrant green peas; of cool salads, and cooler +tankards of bitter beer; of extra-creaming stout +and 'goes' of Cork and 'rack,' by which is meant +gin; and, in the winter-time, of Irish stew and +rump-steak pudding, glorious and grateful to every +sense? To be compelled to run to and fro with +these succulent viands from noon to late at night, +without being able to spare time to consume them +in comfort—where do waiters dine, and when, and +how?—to be continually taking other people's +money only for the purpose of handing it to other +people—are not these grievances sufficient to cross-grain +the temper of the mildest-mannered waiter? +Somebody is always in a passion at the 'Cheese:' +either a customer, because there is not fat enough +on his 'point'-steak, or because there is too much +bone in his mutton-chop; or else the waiter is +wrath with the cook; or the landlord with the +waiter, or the barmaid with all. Yes, there is a +barmaid at the 'Cheese,' mewed up in a box not +much bigger than a birdcage, surrounded by groves +of lemons, 'ones' of cheese, punch-bowls, and +cruets of mushroom-catsup. I should not care to +dispute with her, lest she should quoit me over the +head with a punch-ladle, having a William-the-Third +guinea soldered in the bowl.</p> + +<p>"Let it be noted in candour that Law finds its way +to the 'Cheese' as well as Literature; but the Law +is, as a rule, of the non-combatant and, consequently, +harmless order. Literary men who have +been called to the bar, but do not practise; briefless +young barristers, who do not object to mingling +with newspaper men; with a sprinkling of retired +solicitors (amazing dogs these for old port-wine; +the landlord has some of the same bin which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +served as Hippocrene to Judge Blackstone when +he wrote his 'Commentaries')—these make up +the legal element of the 'Cheese.' Sharp attorneys +in practice are not popular there. There is a +legend that a process-server once came in at a +back door to serve a writ; but being detected +by a waiter, was skilfully edged by that wary +retainer into Wine Bottle Court, right past the +person on whom he was desirous to inflict the +'Victoria, by the grace, &c.' Once in the court, +he was set upon by a mob of inky-faced boys +just released from the works of Messrs. Ball, +Roller, & Scraper, machine printers, and by the +skin of his teeth only escaped being converted +into 'pie.'"</p> + +<p>Mr. William Sawyer has also written a very +admirable sketch of the "Cheese" and its old-fashioned, +conservative ways, which we cannot +resist quoting:—</p> + +<p>"We are a close, conservative, inflexible body—we, +the regular frequenters of the 'Cheddar,'" +says Mr. Sawyer. "No new-fangled notions, +new usages, new customs, or new customers for +us. We have our history, our traditions, and our +observances, all sacred and inviolable. Look +around! There is nothing new, gaudy, flippant, or +effeminately luxurious here. A small room with +heavily-timbered windows. A low planked ceiling. +A huge, projecting fire-place, with a great copper +boiler always on the simmer, the sight of which +might have roused even old John Willett, of the +'Maypole,' to admiration. High, stiff-backed, +inflexible 'settles,' hard and grainy in texture, +box off the guests, half-a-dozen each to a table.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +Sawdust covers the floor, giving forth that peculiar +faint odour which the French avoid by the use of +the vine sawdust with its pleasant aroma. The +only ornament in which we indulge is a solitary +picture over the mantelpiece, a full-length of a now +departed waiter, whom in the long past we caused +to be painted, by subscription of the whole room, to +commemorate his virtues and our esteem. He is +depicted in the scene of his triumphs—in the act +of giving change to a customer. We sit bolt upright +round our tables, waiting, but not impatient. +A time-honoured solemnity is about to be observed, +and we, the old stagers, is it for us to +precipitate it? There are men in this room who +have dined here every day for a quarter of a century—aye, +the whisper goes that one man did it even on +his wedding-day! In all that time the more staid +and well-regulated among us have observed a +steady regularity of feeding. Five days in the +week we have our 'Rotherham steak'—that mystery +of mysteries—or our 'chop and chop to follow,' +with the indispensable wedge of Cheddar—unless +it is preferred stewed or toasted—and on Saturday +decorous variety is afforded in a plate of the world-renowned +'Cheddar' pudding. It is of this latter +luxury that we are now assembled to partake, and +that with all fitting ceremony and observance. As +we sit, like pensioners in hall, the silence is broken +only by a strange sound, as of a hardly human +voice, muttering cabalistic words, 'Ullo mul lum +de loodle wumble jum!' it cries, and we know +that chops and potatoes are being ordered for +some benighted outsider, ignorant of the fact that +it is pudding-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES—SHOE LANE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The First Lucifers—Perkins' Steam Gun—A Link between Shakespeare and Shoe Lane—Florio and his Labours—"Cogers' Hall"—Famous +"Cogers"—A Saturday Night's Debate—Gunpowder Alley—Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier Poet—"To Althea, from Prison"—Lilly the +Astrologer, and his Knaveries—A Search for Treasure with Davy Ramsay—Hogarth in Harp Alley—The "Society of Sign Painters"—Hudson, +the Song Writer—"Jack Robinson"—The Bishop's Residence—Bangor House—A Strange Story of Unstamped Newspapers—Chatterton's +Death—Curious Legend of his Burial—A well-timed Joke.</p></div> + + +<p>At the east corner of Peterborough Court (says +Mr. Timbs) was one of the earliest shops for the +instantaneous light apparatus, "Hertner's Eupyrion" +(phosphorus and oxymuriate matches, to +be dipped in sulphuric acid and asbestos), the +costly predecessor of the lucifer match. Nearly +opposite were the works of Jacob Perkins, the +engineer of the steam gun exhibited at the +Adelaide Gallery, Strand, and which the Duke of +Wellington truly foretold would never be advantageously +employed in battle.</p> + +<p>One golden thread of association links Shakespeare +to Shoe Lane. Slight and frail is the thread, +yet it has a double strand. In this narrow side-aisle +of Fleet Street, in 1624, lived John Florio, +the compiler of our first Italian dictionary. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +it is more than probable that our great poet +knew this industrious Italian, as we shall presently +show. Florio was a Waldensian teacher, no doubt +driven to England by religious persecution. He +taught French and Italian with success at Oxford, +and finally was appointed tutor to that generous-minded, +hopeful, and unfortunate Prince Henry, +son of James I. Florio's "Worlde of Wordes" (a +most copious and exact dictionary in Italian and +English) was printed in 1598, and published by +Arnold Hatfield for Edward Church, and "sold at +his shop over against the north door of Paul's +Church." It is dedicated to "The Right Honourable +Patrons of Virtue, Patterns of Honour, Roger +Earle of Rutland, Henrie Earle of Southampton, +and Lucie Countess of Bedford." In the dedication, +worthy of the fantastic author of "Euphues" +himself, the author says:—"My hope springs +out of three stems—your Honours' naturall benignitie; +your able emploiment of such servitours; +and the towardly like-lie-hood of this springall to +do you honest service. The first, to vouchsafe +all; the second, to accept this; the third, to applie +it selfe to the first and second. Of the first, your +birth, your place, and your custome; of the +second, your studies, your conceits, and your +exercise; of the thirde, my endeavours, my proceedings, +and my project giues assurance. Your +birth, highly noble, more than gentle; your place, +above others, as in degree, so in height of bountie, +and other vertues; your custome, never wearie of +well doing; your studies much in all, most in +Italian excellence; your conceits, by understanding +others to worke above them in your owne; your +exercise, to reade what the world's best writers +have written, and to speake as they write. My +endeavour, to apprehend the best, if not all; my +proceedings, to impart my best, first to your +Honours, then to all that emploie me; my proiect +in this volume to comprehend the best and all, +in truth, I acknowledge an entyre debt, not only +of my best knowledge, but of all, yea, of more +than I know or can, to your bounteous lordship, +most noble, most vertuous, and most Honorable +Earle of Southampton, in whose paie and patronage +I haue liued some yeeres; to whom I owe and +vowe the yeeres I haue to live.... Good parts +imparted are not empaired; your springs are +first to serue yourself, yet may yeelde your neighbours +sweete water; your taper is to light you +first, and yet it may light your neighbour's candle.... +Accepting, therefore, of the childe, I +hope your Honors' wish as well to the Father, +who to your Honors' all deuoted wisheth meede +of your merits, renowne of your vertues, and health<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +of your persons, humblie with gracious leave +kissing your thrice-honored hands, protesteth to +continue euer your Honors' most humble and +bounden in true seruice, <span class="smcap">John Florio</span>."</p> + +<p>And now to connect Florio with Shakespeare. +The industrious Savoyard, besides his dictionary—of +great use at a time when the tour to Italy was +a necessary completion of a rich gallant's education—translated +the essays of that delightful +old Gascon egotist, Montaigne. Now in a copy +of Florio's "Montaigne" there was found some +years ago one of the very few genuine Shakespeare +signatures. Moreover, as Florio speaks of the +Earl of Southampton as his steady patron, we may +fairly presume that the great poet, who must have +been constantly at Southampton's house, often +met there the old Italian master. May not the +bard in those conversations have perhaps gathered +some hints for the details of <i>Cymbeline</i>, <i>Romeo +and Juliet</i>, <i>Othello</i>, or <i>The Two Gentlemen of +Verona</i>, and had his attention turned by the old +scholar to fresh chapters of Italian story?</p> + +<p>No chronicle of Shoe Lane would be complete +without some mention of the "Cogers' Discussion +Hall," formerly at No. 10. This useful debating +society—a great resort for local politicians—was +founded by Mr. Daniel Mason as long ago as 1755, +and among its most eminent members it glories in +the names of John Wilkes, Judge Keogh, Daniel +O'Connell, and the eloquent Curran. The word +"Coger" does not imply codger, or a drinker +of cogs, but comes from <i>cogite</i>, to cogitate. The +Grand, Vice-Grand, and secretary were elected on +the night of every 14th of June by show of hands. +The room was open to strangers, but the members +had the right to speak first. The society was +Republican in the best sense, for side by side with +master tradesmen, shopmen, and mechanics, reporters +and young barristers gravely sipped their +grog, and abstractedly emitted wreathing columns +of tobacco-smoke from their pipes. Mr. J. Parkinson +has sketched the little parliament very +pleasantly in the columns of a contemporary.</p> + +<p>"A long low room," says the writer, "like the +saloon of a large steamer. Wainscoat dimmed and +ornaments tarnished by tobacco-smoke and the +lingering dews of steaming compounds. A room +with large niches at each end, like shrines for full-grown +saints, one niche containing 'My Grand' in +a framework of shabby gold, the other 'My Grand's +Deputy' in a bordering more substantial. More +than one hundred listeners are wating patiently for +My Grand's utterances this Saturday night, and are +whiling away the time philosophically with bibulous +and nicotian refreshment. The narrow tables of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +the long room are filled with students and performers, +and quite a little crowd is congregated +at the door and in a room adjacent until places +can be found for them in the presence-chamber. +'Established 1755' is inscribed on the ornamental +signboard above us, and 'Instituted 1756' on +another signboard near. Dingy portraits of departed +Grands and Deputies decorate the walls. +Punctually at nine My Grand opens the proceedings +amid profound silence. The deputy buries +himself in his newspaper, and maintains as profound +a calm as the Speaker 'in another place.' +The most perfect order is preserved. The Speaker +or deputy, who seems to know all about it, rolls +silently in his chair: he is a fat dark man, with a +small and rather sleepy eye, such as I have seen +come to the surface and wink lazily at the fashionable +people clustered round a certain tank in the +Zoological Gardens. He re-folds his newspaper +from time to time until deep in the advertisements. +The waiters silently remove empty tumblers and +tankards, and replace them full. But My Grand +commands profound attention from the room, +and a neighbour, who afterwards proved a perfect +Boanerges in debate, whispered to us concerning +his vast attainments and high literary +position.</p> + +<p>"This chieftain of the Thoughtful Men is, we +learn, the leading contributor to a newspaper of +large circulation, and, under his signature of +'Locksley Hall,' rouses the sons of toil to a sense +of the dignity and rights of labour, and exposes the +profligacy and corruption of the rich to the extent +of a column and a quarter every week. A shrewd, +hard-headed man of business, with a perfect knowledge +of what he had to do, and with a humorous +twinkle of the eye, My Grand went steadily through +his work, and gave the Thoughtful Men his epitome +of the week's intelligence. It seemed clear +that the Cogers had either not read the newspapers, +or liked to be told what they already knew. +They listened with every token of interest to facts +which had been published for days, and it seemed +difficult to understand how a debate could be carried +on when the text admitted so little dispute. +But we sadly underrated the capacity of the orators +near us. The sound of My Grand's last sentence +had not died out when a fresh-coloured, rather +aristocratic-looking elderly man, whose white hair +was carefully combed and smoothed, and whose +appearance and manner suggested a very different +arena to the one he waged battle in now, claimed +the attention of the Thoughtful ones. Addressing +'Mee Grand' in the rich and unctuous tones which +a Scotchman and Englishman might try for in vain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +this orator proceeded, with every profession of +respect, to contradict most of the chief's statements, +to ridicule his logic, and to compliment him with +much irony on his overwhelming goodness to the +society 'to which I have the honour to belong. +Full of that hard <i>northern</i> logic' (much emphasis +on 'northern,' which was warmly accepted as a hit +by the room)—'that hard northern logic which +demonstrates everything to its own satisfaction; +abounding in that talent which makes you, sir, a +leader in politics, a guide in theology, and generally +an instructor of the people; yet even you, sir, are +perhaps, if I may say so, somewhat deficient in the +lighter graces of pathos and humour. Your +speech, sir, has commanded the attention of the +room. Its close accuracy of style, its exactitude +of expression, its consistent argument, and its +generally transcendant ability will exercise, I doubt +not, an influence which will extend far beyond this +chamber, filled as this chamber is by gentlemen of +intellect and education, men of the time, who both +think and feel, and who make their feelings and +their thoughts felt by others. Still, sir,' and the +orator smiles the smile of ineffable superiority, +'grateful as the members of the society you have +so kindly alluded to ought to be for your countenance +and patronage, it needed not' (turning to +the Thoughtful Men generally, with a sarcastic +smile)—'it needed not even Mee Grand's encomiums +to endear this society to its people, and to +strengthen their belief in its efficacy in time of +trouble, its power to help, to relieve, and to +assuage. No, Mee Grand, an authoritee whose +dictum even you will accept without dispute—mee +Lord Macaulee—that great historian whose undying +pages record those struggles and trials of +constitutionalism in which the Cogers have borne +no mean part—me Lord Macaulee mentions, with +a respect and reverence not exceeded by Mee +Grand's utterances of to-night' (more smiles of +mock humility to the room) 'that great association +which claims me as an unworthy son. We could, +therefore, have dispensed with the recognition +given us by Mee Grand; we could afford to wait +our time until the nations of the earth are fused by +one common wish for each other's benefit, when +the principles of Cogerism are spread over the +civilised world, when justice reigns supreme, and +loving-kindness takes the place of jealousy and +hate.' We looked round the room while these +fervid words were being triumphantly rolled forth, +and were struck with the calm impassiveness of the +listeners. There seemed to be no partisanship +either for the speaker or the Grand. Once, when +the former was more than usually emphatic in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +denunciations, a tall pale man, with a Shakespeare +forehead, rose suddenly, with a determined air, as +if about to fiercely interrupt; but it turned out he +only wanted to catch the waiter's eye, and this +done, he pointed silently to his empty glass, and +remarked, in a hoarse whisper, 'Without sugar, as +before.'"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cogers" id="cogers"></a> +<img src="images/p126.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />COGERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>Gunpowder Alley, a side-twig of Shoe Lane, leads +us to the death-bed of an unhappy poet, poor +Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier, who, dying here +two years before the "blessed" Restoration, in a +very mean lodging, was buried at the west end of +St. Bride's Church. The son of a knight, and +brought up at Oxford, Anthony Wood describes +the gallant and hopeful lad at sixteen, when presented +at the Court of Charles I., as "the most +amiable and beautiful youth that eye ever beheld. +A person, also, of innate modesty, virtue, and +courtly deportment, which made him then, but +specially after, when he retired to the great city, +much admired and adored by the female sex." +Presenting a daring petition from Kent in favour +of the king, the Cavalier poet was thrown into +prison by the Long Parliament, and was released<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +only to waste his fortune in Royalist plots. He +served in the French army, raised a regiment for +Louis XIII., and was left for dead at Dunkirk. +On his return to England, he found Lucy Sacheverell—his +"Lucretia," the lady of his love—married, +his death having been reported. All went +ill. He was again imprisoned, grew penniless, +had to borrow, and fell into a consumption from +despair for love and loyalty. "Having consumed +all his estate," says Anthony Wood, "he grew very +melancholy, which at length brought him into a +consumption; became very poor in body and purse, +was the object of charity, went in ragged clothes +(whereas when he was in his glory he wore cloth of +gold and silver), and mostly lodged in obscure and +dirty places, more befitting the worst of beggars +than poorest of servants." There is a doubt, however, +as to whether Lovelace died in such abject +poverty, poor, dependent, and unhappy as he might +have been. Lovelace's verse is often strained, +affected, and wanting in judgment; but at times +he mounts a bright-winged Pegasus, and with plume +and feather flying, tosses his hand up, gay and +chivalrous as Rupert's bravest. His verses to Lucy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>Sacheverell, on leaving her for the French camp, are +worthy of Montrose himself. The last two lines—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"I could not love thee, dear, so much,<br /> +Lov'd I not honour more"—</div> + +<p>contain the thirty-nine articles of a soldier's faith. +And what Wildrake could have sung in the Gate +House or the Compter more gaily of liberty than +Lovelace, when he wrote,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Stone walls do not a prison make,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor iron bars a cage;</span><br /> +Minds innocent and quiet take<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That for a hermitage.</span><br /> +If I have freedom in my love,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in my soul am free,</span><br /> +Angels alone, that soar above,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enjoy such liberty"?</span></div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="lovelace" id="lovelace"></a> +<img src="images/p127.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LOVELACE IN PRISON</span> +</div> + +<p>Whenever we read the verse that begins,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When love, with unconfinèd wings,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hovers within my gates,</span><br /> +And my divine Althea brings,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whisper at my grates,"</span></div> + +<p>the scene rises before us—we see a fair pale face, +with its aureole of golden hair gleaming between the +rusty bars of the prison door, and the worn visage +of the wounded Cavalier turning towards it as the +flower turns to the sun. And surely Master Wildrake +himself, with his glass of sack half-way to his mouth, +never put it down to sing a finer Royalist stave +than Lovelace's "To Althea, from Prison,"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When, linnet-like, confined, I<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With shriller note shall sing</span><br /> +The mercy, sweetness, majesty,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And glories of my king;</span><br /> +When I shall voice aloud how good<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He is, how great should be,</span><br /> +Th' enlarged winds that curl the flood<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Know no such liberty."</span></div> + +<p>In the Cromwell times there resided in Gunpowder +Alley, probably to the scorn of poor dying +Lovelace, that remarkable cheat and early medium, +Lilly the astrologer, the Sidrophel of "Hudibras." +This rascal, who supplied the King and Parliament +alternately with equally veracious predictions, was +in youth apprenticed to a mantua-maker in the +Strand, and on his master's death married his +widow. Lilly studied astrology under one Evans, +an ex-clergyman, who told fortunes in Gunpowder +Alley. Besotted by the perusal of Cornelius +Agrippa and other such trash, Lilly, found fools +plenty, and the stars, though potent in their spheres, +unable to contradict his lies. This artful cheat was +consulted as to the most propitious day and hour +for Charles's escape from Carisbrook, and was even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +sent for by the Puritan generals to encourage their +men before Colchester. Lilly was a spy of the Parliament, +yet at the Restoration professed to disclose +the fact that Cornet Joyce had beheaded Charles. +Whenever his predictions or his divining-rod failed, +he always attributed his failures, as the modern +spiritualists, the successors of the old wizards, still +conveniently do, to want of faith in the spectators. +By means of his own shrewdness, rather than by +stellar influence, Lilly obtained many useful friends, +among whom we may specially particularise the King +of Sweden, Lenthal the Puritan Speaker, Bulstrode +Whitelocke (Cromwell's Minister), and the learned +but credulous Elias Ashmole. Lilly's Almanac, +the predecessor of Moore's and Zadkiel's, was carried +on by him for six-and-thirty years. He claimed +to be a special <i>protégé</i> of an angel called Salmonæus, +and to have a more than bowing acquaintance +with Salmael and Malchidael, the guardian +angels of England. Among his works are his autobiography, +and his "Observations on the Life and +Death of Charles, late King of England." The +rest of his effusions are pretentious, mystical, +muddle-headed rubbish, half nonsense half knavery, +as "The White King's Prophecy," "Supernatural +Light," "The Starry Messenger," and "Annus +Tenebrosus, or the Black Year." The rogue's starry +mantle descended on his adopted son, a tailor, +whom he named Merlin, junior. The credulity of +the atheistical times of Charles II. is only equalled +by that of our own day.</p> + +<p>Lilly himself, in his amusing, half-knavish autobiography, +has described his first introduction to +the Welsh astrologer of Gunpowder Alley:—</p> + +<p>"It happened," he says, "on one Sunday, 1632, +as myself and a justice of peace's clerk were, before +service, discoursing of many things, he chanced to +say that such a person was a great scholar—nay, so +learned that he could make an almanac, which to +me then was strange; one speech begot another, +till, at last, he said he could bring me acquainted +with one Evans, in Gunpowder Alley, who had +formerly lived in Staffordshire, that was an excellent +wise man, and studied the black art. The +same week after we went to see Mr. Evans. When +we came to his house, he, having been drunk the +night before, was upon his bed, if it be lawful to +call that a bed whereon he then lay. He roused +up himself, and after some compliments he was +content to instruct me in astrology. I attended +his best opportunities for seven or eight weeks, in +which time I could set a figure perfectly. Books +he had not any, except Haly, 'De Judiciis Astrorum,' +and Orriganus's 'Ephemerides;' so that as +often as I entered his house I thought I was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +the wilderness. Now, something of the man. He +was by birth a Welshman, a master of arts, and in +sacred orders. He had formerly had a cure of +souls in Staffordshire, but now was come to try his +fortunes at London, being in a manner enforced to +fly, for some offences very scandalous committed +by him in those parts where he had lately lived; +for he gave judgment upon things lost, the only +shame of astrology. He was the most saturnine +person my eye ever beheld, either before I practised +or since; of a middle stature, broad forehead, +beetle-browed, thick shoulders, flat-nosed, +full lips, down-looked, black, curling, stiff hair, +splay-footed. To give him his right, he had the +most piercing judgment naturally upon a figure of +theft, and many other questions, that I ever met +withal; yet for money he would willingly give +contrary judgments; was much addicted to debauchery, +and then very abusive and quarrelsome; +seldom without a black eye or one mischief or +other. This is the same Evans who made so many +antimonial cups, upon the sale whereof he chiefly +subsisted. He understood Latin very well, the +Greek tongue not all; he had some arts above and +beyond astrology, for he was well versed in the +nature of spirits, and had many times used the +circular way of invocating, as in the time of our +familiarity he told me."</p> + +<p>One of Lilly's most impudent attempts to avail +himself of demoniacal assistance was when he +dug for treasure (like Scott's Dousterswivel) with +David Ramsay (Scott again), one stormy night, in +the cloisters at Westminster.</p> + +<p>"Davy Ramsay," says the arch rogue, "his +majesty's clockmaker, had been informed that +there was a great quantity of treasure buried in the +cloisters of Westminster Abbey; he acquaints Dean +Williams therewith, who was also then Bishop of +Lincoln; the dean gave him liberty to search after +it, with this proviso, that if any was discovered his +church should have a share of it. Davy Ramsay +finds out one John Scott,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> who pretended the use +of the Mosaical rods, to assist him therein. I was +desired to join with him, unto which I consented. +One winter's night Davy Ramsay,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> with several +gentlemen, myself, and Scott, entered the cloisters; +upon the west side of the cloisters the rods turned +one over another, an argument that the treasure +was there. The labourers digged at least six feet +deep, and then we met with a coffin, but in regard +it was not heavy, we did not open, which we after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>wards +much repented. From the cloisters we +went into the abbey church, where upon a sudden +(there being no wind when we began) so fierce, so +high, so blustering and loud a wind did rise, that +we verily believed the west-end of the church +would have fallen upon us; our rods would not +move at all; the candles and torches, all but one, +were extinguished, or burned very dimly. John +Scott, my partner, was amazed, looked pale, knew +not what to think or do, until I gave directions +and command to dismiss the demons, which when +done all was quiet again, and each man returned +unto his lodging late, about twelve o'clock at night. +I could never since be induced to join with any +in such-like actions.</p> + +<p>"The true miscarriage of the business was by +reason of so many people being present at the +operation, for there was about thirty—some laughing, +others deriding us; so that if we had not +dismissed the demons, I believe most part of the +abbey church had been blown down. Secrecy and +intelligent operators, with a strong confidence and +knowledge of what they are doing, are best for this +work."</p> + +<p>In the last century, when every shop had its +sign and London streets were so many out-of-door +picture-galleries, a Dutchman named Vandertrout +opened a manufactory of these pictorial +advertisements in Harp Alley, Shoe Lane, a dirty +passage now laid open to the sun and air on the +east side of the new transverse street running from +Ludgate Hill to Holborn. In ridicule of the +spurious black, treacly old masters then profusely +offered for sale by the picture-dealers of the day, +Hogarth and Bonnell Thornton opened an exhibition +of shop-signs. In Nicholls and Stevens' +"Life of Hogarth" there is a full and racy account +of this sarcastic exhibition:—"At the entrance of +the large passage-room was written, 'N.B. That the +merit of the <i>modern masters</i> may be fairly examined +into, it has been thought proper to place some +admired works of the most eminent <i>old masters</i> in +this room, and along the passage through the yard.' +Among these are 'A Barge' in still life, by Vandertrout. +He cannot be properly called an English +artist; but not being sufficiently encouraged in his +own country, he left Holland with William the +Third, and was the first artist who settled in Harp +Alley. An original half-length of Camden, the +great historian and antiquary, in his herald's coat; +by Vandertrout. As this artist was originally +colour-grinder to Hans Holbein, it is conjectured +there are some of that great master's touches in +this piece. 'Nobody, <i>alias</i> Somebody,' a character. +(The figure of an officer, all head, arms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +legs, and thighs. This piece has a very odd effect, +being so drolly executed that you do not miss the +body.) 'Somebody, <i>alias</i> Nobody,' a caricature, its +companion; both these by Hagarty. (A rosy figure, +with a little head and a huge body, whose belly +sways over almost quite down to his shoe-buckles. +By the staff in his hand, it appears to be intended +to represent a constable. It might else have been +intended for an eminent justice of peace.) 'A +Perspective View of Billingsgate, or Lectures on +Elocution;' and 'The True Robin Hood Society, +a Conversation or Lectures on Elocution,' its companion; +these two by Barnsley. (These two strike +at a famous lecturer on elocution and the reverend +projector of a rhetorical academy, are admirably +conceived and executed, and—the latter more especially—almost +worthy the hand of Hogarth. They +are full of a variety of droll figures, and seem, indeed, +to be the work of a great master struggling to +suppress his superiority of genius, and endeavouring +to paint <i>down</i> to the common style and manner of +sign-painting.)</p> + +<p>"At the entrance to the <i>grand room</i>:—'The +Society of Sign Painters take this opportunity +of refuting a most malicious suggestion that their +exhibition is designed as a ridicule on the exhibitions +of the Society for the Encouragement of +Arts, &c., and of the artists. They intend theirs +only as an appendix or (in the style of painters) a +companion to the other. There is nothing in their +collection which will be understood by any candid +person as a reflection on anybody, or any body of +men. They are not in the least prompted by any +mean jealousy to depreciate the merit of their +brother artists. Animated by the same public +spirit, their sole view is to convince foreigners, as +well as their own blinded countrymen, that however +inferior this nation may be unjustly deemed +in other branches of the polite arts, the palm for +sign-painting must be ceded to <i>us</i>, the Dutch themselves +not excepted.' Projected in 1762 by Mr. +Bonnel Thornton, of festive memory; but I am informed +that he contributed no otherwise towards +this display than by a few touches of chalk. Among +the heads of distinguished personages, finding +those of the King of Prussia and the Empress of +Hungary, he changed the cast of their eyes, so as +to make them leer significantly at each other. +Note.—These (which in the catalogue are called an +original portrait of the present Emperor of Prussia +and ditto of the Empress Queen of Hungary, its +antagonist) were two old signs of the "Saracen's +Head" and Queen Anne. Under the first was +written 'The Zarr,' and under the other 'The +Empress Quean.' They were lolling their tongues<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +out at each other; and over their heads ran a +wooden label, inscribed, 'The present state of +Europe.'</p> + +<p>"In 1762 was published, in quarto, undated, +'A Catalogue of the Original Paintings, Busts, and +Carved Figures, &c. &c., now Exhibiting by the +Society of Sign-painters, at the Large Room, the +upper end of Bow Street, Covent Garden, nearly +opposite the Playhouse.'"</p> + +<p>At 98, Shoe Lane lived, now some fifty years ago, +a tobacconist named Hudson, a great humorist, a +fellow of infinite fancy, and the writer of half the +comic songs that once amused festive London. +Hudson afterwards, we believe, kept the "Kean's +Head" tavern, in Russell Court, Drury Lane, and +about 1830 had a shop of some kind or other in +Museum Street, Bloomsbury. Hudson was one of +those professional song-writers and vocalists who +used to be engaged to sing at such supper-rooms +and theatrical houses as Offley's, in Henrietta Street +(north-west end), Covent Garden; the "Coal Hole," +in the Strand; and the "Cider Cellars," Maiden +Lane. Sitting among the company, Hudson used +to get up at the call of the chairman and "chant" +one of his lively and really witty songs. The platform +belongs to "Evans's" and a later period. +Hudson was at his best long after Captain Morris's +day, and at the time when Moore's melodies were +popular. Many of the melodies Hudson parodied +very happily, and with considerable tact and taste. +Many of Hudson's songs, such as "Jack Robinson" +(infinitely funnier than most of Dibdin's), became +coined into catch-words and street sayings of the +day. "Before you could say Jack Robinson" is +a phrase, still current, derived from this highly +droll song. The verse in which Jack Robinson's +"engaged" apologises for her infidelity is as good +as anything that James Smith ever wrote. To the +returned sailor,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Says the lady, says she, 'I've changed my state.'<br /> +'Why, you don't mean,' says Jack, 'that you've got a mate?<br /> +You know you promised me.' Says she, 'I couldn't wait,<br /> +For no tidings could I gain of you, Jack Robinson.<br /> +And somebody one day came to me and said<br /> +That somebody else had somewhere read,<br /> +In some newspaper, that you was somewhere dead.'—<br /> +'I've not been dead at all,' says Jack Robinson."</div> + +<p>Another song, "The Spider and the Fly," is still +often sung; and "Going to Coronation" is by +no means forgotten in Yorkshire. "There was a +Man in the West Countrie" figures in most current +collections of songs. Hudson particularly excelled +in stage-Irishman songs, which were then popular; +and some of these, particularly one that ends with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +the refrain, "My brogue and my blarney and +bothering ways," have real humour in them. Many +of these Irish songs were written for and sung by +the late Mr. Fitzwilliam, the comedian, as others of +Hudson's songs were by Mr. Rayner. Collectors of +comic ditties will not readily forget "Walker, the +Twopenny Postman," or "The Dogs'-meat Man"—rough +caricatures of low life, unstained by the +vulgarity of many of the modern music-hall ditties. +In the motto to one of his collections of poems, +Hudson borrows from Churchill an excuse for the +rough, humorous effusions that he scattered broadcast +over the town,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When the mad fit comes on, I seize the pen,<br /> +Rough as they run, the rapid thoughts set down;<br /> +Rough as they run, discharge them on the town.<br /> +Hence rude, unfinished brats, before their time,<br /> +Are born into this idle world of rhyme;<br /> +And the poor slattern muse is brought to bed,<br /> +With all her imperfections on her head."</div> + +<p>We subjoin a very good specimen of Hudson's +songs, from his once very popular "Coronation of +William and Adelaide" (1830), which, we think, +will be allowed to fully justify our praise of the +author:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"And when we got to town, quite tired,<br /> +The bells all rung, the guns they fired,<br /> +The people looking all bemired,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">In one conglomeration.</span><br /> +Soldiers red, policemen blue,<br /> +Horse-guards, foot-guards, and blackguards too,<br /> +Beef-eaters, dukes, and Lord knows who,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">To see the coronation.</span><br /> +<br /> +While Dolly bridled up, so proud,<br /> +At us the people laughed aloud;<br /> +Dobbin stood in thickest crowd,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Wi' quiet resignation.</span><br /> +To move again he warn't inclined;<br /> +'Here's a chap!' says one behind,<br /> +'He's brought an old horse, lame and blind,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">To see the coronation.'</span><br /> +<br /> +Dolly cried, 'Oh! dear, oh! dear,<br /> +I wish I never had come here,<br /> +To suffer every jibe and jeer,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">In such a situation.'</span><br /> +While so busy, she and I<br /> +To get a little ease did try,<br /> +By goles! the king and queen went by,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">And all the coronation.</span><br /> +<br /> +I struggled hard, and Dolly cried;<br /> +And tho' to help myself I tried,<br /> +We both were carried with the tide,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Against our inclination.</span><br /> +'The reign's begun!' folks cried; ''tis true;'<br /> +'Sure,' said Dolly, 'I think so too;<br /> +The rain's begun, for I'm wet thro',<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">All through the coronation.'</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span><br /> +We bade good-bye to Lunnun town;<br /> +The king and queen they gain'd a crown;<br /> +Dolly spoilt her bran-new gown,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">To her mortification.</span><br /> +I'll drink our king and queen wi' glee,<br /> +In home-brewed ale, and so will she;<br /> +But Doll and I ne'er want to see<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Another coronation."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Our English bishops, who had not the same +taste as the Cistercians in selecting pleasant places +for their habitations, seem during the Middle Ages +to have much affected the neighbourhood of Fleet +Street. Ely Place still marks the residence of one +rich prelate. In Chichester Rents we have already +met with the humble successors of the netmaker +of Galilee. In a siding on the north-west side of +Shoe Lane the Bishops of Bangor lived, with their +spluttering and choleric Welsh retinue, as early as +1378. Recent improvements have laid open the +miserable "close" called Bangor Court, that once +glowed with the reflections of scarlet hoods and +jewelled copes; and a schoolhouse of bastard +Tudor architecture, with sham turrets and flimsy +mullioned windows, now occupies the site of the +proud Christian prelate's palace. Bishop Dolben, +who died in 1633 (Charles I.), was the last Welsh +bishop who deigned to reside in a neighbourhood +from which wealth and fashion was fast ebbing. +Brayley says that a part of the old episcopal garden, +where the ecclesiastical subjects of centuries had +been discussed by shaven men and frocked +scholars, still existed in 1759 (George II.); and, +indeed, as Mr. Jesse records, even as late as 1828 +(George IV.) a portion of the old mansion, once +redolent with the stupefying incense of the semi-pagan +Church, still lingered. Bangor House, according +to Mr. J.T. Smith, is mentioned in the patent +rolls as early as Edward III. The lawyers' barbarous +dog-Latin of the old-deed describe, "unum messuag, +unum placeam terræ, ac unam gardniam, cum aliis +edificis," in Shoe Lane, London. In 1647 (Charles I.) +Sir John Birkstead purchased of the Parliamentary +trustees the bishop's lands, that had probably +been confiscated, to build streets upon the site. +But Sir John went on paving the old place, +and never built at all. Cromwell's Act of 1657, +to check the increase of London, entailed a special +exemption in his favour. At the Restoration, the +land returned to its Welsh bishop; but it had +degenerated—the palace was divided into several +residences, and mean buildings sprang up like fungi +around it. A drawing of Malcolm's, early in the +century, shows us its two Tudor windows. Latterly +it became divided into wretched rooms, and two +as three hundred poor people, chiefly Irish, herded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +in them. The house was entirely pulled down in +the autumn of 1828.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bangor" id="bangor"></a> +<img src="images/p131.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BANGOR HOUSE, 1818</span> +</div> + +<p>Mr. Grant, that veteran of the press, tells a +capital story, in his "History of the Newspaper +Press," of one of the early vendors of unstamped +newspapers in Shoe Lane:—</p> + +<p>"<i>Cleaves Police Gazette</i>," says Mr. Grant, "consisted +chiefly of reports of police cases. It certainly +was a newspaper to all intents and purposes, +and was ultimately so declared to be in a +court of law by a jury. But in the meantime, +while the action was pending, the police had instructions +to arrest Mr. John Cleave, the proprietor, +and seize all the copies of the paper as they came +out of his office in Shoe Lane. He contrived for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +a time to elude their vigilance; and in order to +prevent the seizure of his paper, he resorted to an +expedient which was equally ingenious and laughable. +Close by his little shop in Shoe Lane there +was an undertaker, whose business, as might be +inferred from the neighbourhood, as well as from +his personal appearance and the homeliness of his +shop, was exclusively among the lower and poorer +classes of the community. With him Mr. Cleave +made an arrangement to construct several coffins +of the plainest and cheapest kind, for purposes +which were fully explained. The 'undertaker,' +whose ultra-republican principles were in perfect +unison with those of Mr. Cleave, not only heartily +undertook the work, but did so on terms so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +moderate that he would not ask for nor accept any +profit. He, indeed, could imagine no higher nor +holier duty than that of assisting in the dissemination +of a paper which boldly and energetically +preached the extinction of the aristocracy and +the perfect equality in social position, and in +property too, of all classes of the community. +Accordingly the coffins, with a rudeness in make +and material which were in perfect keeping with +the purpose to which they were to be applied, were +got ready; and Mr. Cleave, in the dead of night, +got them filled with thousands of his <i>Gazettes</i>. It +had been arranged beforehand that particular +houses in various parts of the town should be in +readiness to receive them with blinds down, as if +some relative had been dead, and was about to be +borne away to the house appointed for all living. +The deal coffin was opened, and the contents were +taken out, tied up in a parcel so as to conceal +from the prying curiosity of any chance person that +they were <i>Cleave's Police Gazettes</i>, and then sent off +to the railway stations most convenient for their +transmission to the provinces. The coffins after +this were returned in the middle of next night to +the 'undertaker's' in Shoe Lane, there to be in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +readiness to render a similar service to Mr. Cleave +and the cause of red Republicanism when the next +<i>Gazette</i> appeared."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="dunstans" id="dunstans"></a> +<img src="images/p133.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH</span> +</div> + +<p>"In this way Mr. Cleave contrived for some time +to elude the vigilance of the police and to sell +about 50,000 copies weekly of each impression of +his paper. But the expedient, ingenious and eminently +successful as it was for a time, failed at last. +The people in Shoe Lane and the neighbourhood +began to be surprised and alarmed at the number +of funerals, as they believed them to be, which the +departure of so many coffins from the 'undertaker's' +necessarily implied. The very natural conclusion +to which they came was, that this supposed sudden +and extensive number of deaths could only be accounted +for on the assumption that some fatal +epidemic had visited the neighbourhood, and +there made itself a local habitation. The parochial +authorities, responding to the prevailing alarm, +questioned the 'undertaker' friend and fellow-labourer +of Mr. Cleave as to the causes of his sudden +and extensive accession of business in the coffin-making +way; and the result of the close questions +put to him was the discovery of the whole affair. +It need hardly be added that an immediate and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +complete collapse took place in Mr. Cleave's business, +so far as his <i>Police Gazette</i> was concerned. +Not another number of the publication ever made +its appearance, while the coffin-trade of the 'undertaker' +all at once returned to its normal proportions."</p> + +<p>This stratagem of Cleave's was rivalled a few +years ago by M. Herzen's clever plan of sending +great numbers of his treasonable and forbidden +paper, the <i>Kolokol</i>, to Russia, soldered up in sardine-boxes. +No Government, in fact, can ever baffle +determined and ingenious smugglers.</p> + +<p>One especially sad association attaches to Shoe +Lane, and that is the burial in the workhouse +graveyard (the site of the late Farringdon Market) of +that unhappy child of genius, Chatterton the poet. +In August, 1770, the poor lad, who had come from +Bristol full of hope and ambition to make his fortune +in London by his pen, broken-hearted and maddened +by disappointment, destroyed himself in his +mean garret-lodging in Brooke Street, Holborn, by +swallowing arsenic. Mr. John Dix, his very unscrupulous +biographer, has noted down a curious +legend about the possible removal of the poet's +corpse from London to Bristol, which, doubtful as +it is, is at least interesting as a possibility:—</p> + +<p>"I found," says Mr. Dix, "that Mrs. Stockwell, +of Peter Street, wife of Mr. Stockwell, a basket-maker, +was the person who had communicated to +Sir R. Wilmot her grounds for believing Chatterton +to have been so interred; and on my requesting +her to repeat to me what she knew of that affair, +she commenced by informing me that at ten years +of age she was a scholar of Mrs. Chatterton, his +mother, where she was taught plain work, and remained +with her until she was near twenty years of +age; that she slept with her, and found her kind +and motherly, insomuch that there were many +things which in moments of affliction Mrs. C. communicated +to her, that she would not have wished +to have been generally known; and among others, +she often repeated how happy she was that her +unfortunate son lay buried in Redcliff, through the +kind attention of a friend or relation in London, +who, after the body had been cased in a parish +shell, had it properly secured and sent to her by +the waggon; that when it arrived it was opened, +and the corpse found to be black and half putrid +(having been burst with the motion of the carriage, +or from some other cause), so that it became +necessary to inter it speedily; and that it was early +interred by Phillips, the sexton, who was of her +family. That the effect of the loss of her son was +a nervous disorder, which never quitted her, and +she was often seen weeping at the bitter remembrance +of her misfortune. She described the poet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +as having been sharp-tempered, but that it was soon +over; and she often said he had cost her many +uneasy hours, from the apprehension she entertained +of his going mad, as he was accustomed to remain +fixed for above an hour at a time quite motionless, +and then he would snatch up a pen and write +incessantly; but he was always, she added, affectionate....</p> + +<p>"In addition to this, Mrs. Stockwell told the +writer that the grave was on the right-hand side +of the lime-tree, middle paved walk, in Redcliff +Churchyard, about twenty feet from the father's +grave, which is, she says, in the paved walk, and +where now Mrs. Chatterton and Mrs. Newton, her +daughter, also lie. Also, that Mrs. Chatterton +gave a person leave to bury his child over her +son's coffin, and was much vexed to find that he +afterwards put the stone over it, which, when +Chatterton was buried, had been taken up for the +purpose of digging the grave, and set against the +church-wall; that afterwards, when Mr. Hutchinson's +or Mr. Taylor's wife died, they buried her +also in the same grave, and put this stone over +with a new inscription. (Query, did he erase the +first, or turn the stone?—as this might lead to a discovery +of the spot.)....</p> + +<p>"Being referred to Mrs. Jane Phillips, of Rolls +Alley, Rolls Lane, Great Gardens, Temple Parish +(who is sister to that Richard Phillips who was sexton +at Redcliff Church in the year 1772), she informed +me that his widow and a daughter were living in +Cathay; the widow is sexton, a Mr. Perrin, of +Colston's Parade, acting for her. She remembers +Chatterton having been at his father's school, and +that he always called Richard Phillips, her brother, +'uncle,' and was much liked by him. He liked him +for his spirit, and there can be no doubt he would +have risked the privately burying him on that account. +When she heard he was gone to London +she was sorry to hear it, for all loved him, and +thought he could get no good there.</p> + +<p>"Soon after his death her brother, R. Phillips, +told her that poor Chatterton had killed himself; +on which she said she would go to Madame Chatterton's, +to know the rights of it; but that he forbade +her, and said, if she did so he should be sorry he +had told her. She, however, did go, and asking if it +was true that he was dead, Mrs. Chatterton began +to weep bitterly, saying, 'My son indeed is dead!' +and when she asked her where he was buried, +she replied, 'Ask me nothing; he is dead and +buried.'"</p> + +<p>Poppin's Court (No. 109) marks the site of the +ancient hostel (hotel) of the Abbots of Cirencester—though +what they did there, when they ought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +have been on their knees in their own far-away +Gloucestershire abbey, history does not choose to +record. The sign of their inn was the "Poppingaye" +(popinjay, parrot), and in 1602 (last year of +Elizabeth) the alley was called Poppingay Alley. +That excellent man Van Mildert (then a poor +curate, living in Ely Place, afterwards Bishop of +Durham—a prelate remarkable for this above all +his many other Christian virtues, that he was not +proud) was once driven into this alley with a young +barrister friend by a noisy illumination-night crowd. +The street boys began firing a volley of squibs at +the young curate, who found all hope of escape +barred, and dreaded the pickpockets, who take rapid +advantage of such temporary embarrassments; but +his good-natured exclamation, "Ah! here you are, +popping away in Poppin's Court!" so pleased the +crowd that they at once laughingly opened a passage +for him. "Sic me servavit, Apollo," he used +afterwards to add when telling the story.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> "This Scott lived in Pudding Lane, and had some time +been a page (or such-like) to the Lord Norris."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "Davy Ramsay brought a half-quartern sack to put the +treasure in."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<p class="center">FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES SOUTH</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Worthy Mr. Fisher—Lamb's Wednesday Evenings—Persons one would wish to have seen—Ram Alley—Serjeants' Inn—The <i>Daily News</i>—"Memory" +Woodfall—A Mug-House Riot—Richardson's Printing Office—Fielding and Richardson—Johnson's Estimate of Richardson—Hogarth +and Richardson's Guest—An Egotist Rebuked—The King's "Housewife"—Caleb Colton: his Life, Works, and Sentiments.</p></div> + + +<p>Falcon Court, Fleet Street, took its name from +an inn which bore the sign of the "Falcon." This +passage formerly belonged to a gentleman named +Fisher, who, out of gratitude to the Cordwainers' +Company, bequeathed it to them by will. His +gratitude is commonly said to have arisen from the +number of good dinners that the Company had +given him. However this may be, the Cordwainers +are the present owners of the estate, and are under +the obligation of having a sermon preached annually +at the neighbouring church of St. Dunstan, on +the 10th of July, when certain sums are given to +the poor. Formerly it was the custom to drink sack +in the church to the pious memory of Mr. Fisher, +but this appears to have been discontinued for a +considerable period. This Fisher was a jolly fellow, +if all the tales are true which are related of him, +as, besides the sack drinking, he stipulated that +the Cordwainers should give a grand feast on the +same day yearly to all their tenants. What a quaint +picture might be made of the churchwardens in +the old church drinking to the memory of Mr. +Fisher! Wynkyn de Worde, the father of printing +in England, lived in Fleet Street, at his messuage +or inn known by the sign of the Falcon. Whether +it was the inn that stood on the site of Falcon +Court is not known with certainty, but most probably +it was.</p> + +<p>Charles Lamb came to 16, Mitre Court Buildings +in 1800, after leaving Southampton Buildings, +and remained in that quiet harbour out of Fleet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +Street till 1809, when he removed to Inner Temple +Lane.</p> + +<p>It was whilst Lamb was residing in Mitre Court +Buildings that those Wednesday evenings of his +were in their glory. In two of Mr. Hazlitt's papers +are graphic pictures of these delightful Wednesdays +and the Wednesday men, and admirable notes of +several choice conversations. There is a curious +sketch in one of a little tilt between Coleridge and +Holcroft, which must not be omitted. "Coleridge +was riding the high German horse, and demonstrating +the 'Categories of the Transcendental +Philosophy' to the author of <i>The Road to Ruin</i>, +who insisted on his knowledge of German and +German metaphysics, having read the 'Critique +of Pure Reason' in the original. 'My dear Mr. +Holcroft,' said Coleridge, in a tone of infinitely +provoking conciliation, 'you really put me in mind +of a sweet pretty German girl of about fifteen, in +the Hartz Forest, in Germany, and who one day, +as I was reading "The Limits of the Knowable +and the Unknowable," the profoundest of all his +works, with great attention, came behind my chair, +and leaning over, said, "What! you read Kant? +Why, I, that am a German born, don't understand +him!"' This was too much to bear, and +Holcroft, starting up, called out, in no measured +tone, 'Mr. Coleridge, you are the most eloquent +man I ever met with, and the most troublesome +with your eloquence.' Phillips held the cribbage-peg, +that was to mark him game, suspended in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +hand, and the whist-table was silent for a moment. +I saw Holcroft downstairs, and on coming to the +landing-place in Mitre Court he stopped me to +observe that he thought Mr. Coleridge a very +clever man, with a great command of language, +but that he feared he did not always affix very +proper ideas to the words he used. After he was +gone we had our laugh out, and went on with the +argument on 'The Nature of Reason, the Imagination, +and the Will.' ... It would make a +supplement to the 'Biographia Literaria,' in a +volume and a half, octavo."</p> + +<p>It was at one of these Wednesdays that Lamb +started his famous question as to persons "one +would wish to have seen." It was a suggestive +topic, and proved a fruitful one. Mr. Hazlitt, who +was there, has left an account behind him of the +kind of talk which arose out of this hint, so lightly +thrown out by the author of "Elia," and it is +worth giving in his own words:—</p> + +<p>"On the question being started, Ayrton said, +'I suppose the two first persons you would choose +to see would be the two greatest names in English +literature, Sir Isaac Newton and Locke?' In this +Ayrton, as usual, reckoned without his host. +Everyone burst out a laughing at the expression of +Lamb's face, in which impatience was restrained +by courtesy. 'Y—yes, the greatest names,' he +stammered out hastily; 'but they were not persons—not +persons.' 'Not persons?' said Ayrton, +looking wise and foolish at the same time, afraid his +triumph might be premature. 'That is,' rejoined +Lamb, 'not characters, you know. By Mr. Locke +and Sir Isaac Newton you mean the "Essay on +the Human Understanding" and "Principia," +which we have to this day. Beyond their contents, +there is nothing personally interesting in the men. +But what we want to see anyone <i>bodily</i> for is +when there is something peculiar, striking in the +individuals, more than we can learn from their +writings and yet are curious to know. I dare say +Locke and Newton were very like Kneller's portraits +of them; but who could paint Shakespeare?' +'Ay,' retorted Ayrton, 'there it is. Then I suppose +you would prefer seeing him and Milton +instead?' 'No,' said Lamb, 'neither; I have seen +so much of Shakespeare on the stage.' ... 'I +shall guess no more,' said Ayrton. 'Who is it, then, +you would like to see "in his habit as he lived," +if you had your choice of the whole range of +English literature?' Lamb then named Sir +Thomas Brown and Fulke Greville, the friend of +Sir Philip Sydney, as the two worthies whom he +should feel the greatest pleasure to encounter on +the floor of his apartment in their night-gowns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +and slippers, and to exchange friendly greeting with +them. At this Ayrton laughed outright, and conceived +Lamb was jesting with him; but as no one +followed his example he thought there might be +something in it, and waited for an explanation in +a state of whimsical suspense....</p> + +<p>"When Lamb had given his explanation, some +one inquired of him if he could not see from the +window the Temple walk in which Chaucer used +to take his exercise, and on his name being put +to the vote I was pleased to find there was a +general sensation in his favour in all but Ayrton, +who said something about the ruggedness of the +metre, and even objected to the quaintness of the +orthography....</p> + +<p>"Captain Burney muttered something about +Columbus, and Martin Burney hinted at the +Wandering Jew; but the last was set aside as +spurious, and the first made over to the New +World.</p> + +<p>"'I should like,' said Mr. Reynolds, 'to have +seen Pope talking with Patty Blount, and I <i>have</i> +seen Goldsmith.' Everyone turned round to look +at Mr. Reynolds, as if by so doing they too could +get a sight of Goldsmith....</p> + +<p>"Erasmus Phillips, who was deep in a game of +piquet at the other end of the room, whispered to +Martin Burney to ask if Junius would not be a +fit person to invoke from the dead. 'Yes,' said +Lamb, 'provided he would agree to lay aside his +mask.'</p> + +<p>"We were now at a stand for a short time, when +Fielding was mentioned as a candidate. Only one, +however, seconded the proposition. 'Richardson?' +'By all means; but only to look at him +through the glass-door of his back-shop, hard at +work upon one of his novels (the most extraordinary +contrast that ever was presented between an +author and his works), but not to let him come +behind his counter, lest he should want you to turn +customer; nor to go upstairs with him, lest he +should offer to read the first manuscript of "Sir +Charles Grandison," which was originally written in +twenty-eight volumes octavo; or get out the letters +of his female correspondents to prove that "Joseph +Andrews" was low.'</p> + +<p>"There was but one statesman in the whole of +English history that any one expressed the least +desire to see—Oliver Cromwell, with his fine, frank, +rough, pimply face and wily policy—and one +enthusiast, John Bunyan, the immortal author of +'The Pilgrim's Progress.'....</p> + +<p>"Of all persons near our own time, Garrick's +name was received with the greatest enthusiasm. +He presently superseded both Hogarth and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +Handel, who had been talked of, but then it was +on condition that he should sit in tragedy and +comedy, in the play and the farce,—Lear and +Wildair, and Abel Drugger....</p> + +<p>"Lamb inquired if there was any one that was +hanged that I would choose to mention, and I +answered, 'Eugene Aram.'"</p> + +<p>The present Hare Place was the once disreputable +Ram Alley, the scene of a comedy of +that name, written by Lodowick Barry and dramatised +in the reign of James I.; the plot Killigrew +afterwards used in his vulgar <i>Parson's Wedding</i>. +Barry, an Irishman, of whom nothing much is +known, makes one of his roystering characters say,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"And rough Ram Alley stinks with cooks' shops vile;<br /> +Yet, stay, there's many a worthy lawyer's chamber<br /> +'Buts upon Ram Alley."</div> + +<p>As a precinct of Whitefriars, Ram Alley enjoyed +the mischievous privilege of sanctuary for +murderers, thieves, and debtors—indeed, any class +of rascals except traitors—till the fifteenth century. +After this it sheltered only debtors. Barry +speaks of its cooks, salesmen, and laundresses; +and Shadwell classes it (Charles II.) with Pye +Corner, as the resort of "rascally stuff." Lord +Clarendon, in his autobiography, describes the +Great Fire as burning on the Thames side as far as +the "new buildings of the Inner Temple next to +Whitefriars," striking next on some of the buildings +which joined to Ram Alley, and sweeping +all those into Fleet Street. In the reign of +George I. Ram Alley was full of public-houses, +and was a place of no reputation, having passages +into the Temple and Serjeants' Inn. "A kind of +privileged place for debtors," adds Hatton, "before +the late Act of Parliament (9 & 10 William III. +c. 17, s. 15) for taking them away." This useful +Act swept out all the London sanctuaries, those +vicious relics of monastic rights, including Mitre +Court, Salisbury Court (Fleet Street), the Savoy, +Fulwood Rents (Holborn), Baldwin's Gardens +(Gray's Inn Lane), the Minories, Deadman's Place, +Montague Close (Southwark), the Clink, and the +Mint in the same locality. The Savoy and the +Mint, however, remained disreputable a generation +or two later.</p> + +<p>Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, now deserted by the +faithless Serjeants, is supposed to have been +given to the Dean and Chapter of York in 1409 +(Henry IV.) It then consisted of shops, &c. In +1627 (Charles I.) the inn began its legal career +by being leased for forty years to nine judges and +fifteen serjeants. In this hall, in 1629, the judges +in full bench struck a sturdy blow at feudal privi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>leges +by agreeing that peers might be attached +upon process for contempt out of Chancery. In +1723 (George I.) the inn was highly aristocratic, +its inmates being the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord +Chief Baron, justices, and Serjeants. In 1730, +however, the fickle serjeants removed to Chancery +Lane, and Adam, the architect of the Adelphi, +designed the present nineteen houses and the +present street frontage. On the site of the hall +arose the Amicable Assurance Society, which in +1865 transferred its business to the Economic, and +the house is now the Norwich Union Office. The +inn is a parish in itself, making its own assessment, +and contributing to the City rates. Its pavement, +which had been part of the stone-work of Old +St. Paul's, was not replaced till 1860. The conservative +old inn retained its old oil lamps long +after the introduction of gas.</p> + +<p>The arms of Serjeants' Inn, worked into the +iron gate opening on Fleet Street, are a dove and a +serpent, the serpent twisted into a kind of true +lover's knot. The lawyers of Serjeants' Inn, no +doubt, unite the wisdom of the serpent with the +guilelessness of the dove. Singularly enough Dr. +Dodd, the popular preacher, who was hanged, bore +arms nearly similar.</p> + +<p>Half way down Bouverie Street, in the centre of +old Whitefriars, is the office of the <i>Daily News</i>. +The first number of this popular and influential +paper appeared on January 21, 1846. The publishers, +and part proprietors, were Messrs. Bradbury +& Evans, the printers; the editor was Charles +Dickens; the manager was Dickens's father, Mr. +John Dickens; the second, or assistant, editor, +Douglas Jerrold; and among the other "leader" +writers were Albany Fonblanque and John Forster, +both of the <i>Examiner</i>. "Father Prout" (Mahoney) +acted as Roman correspondent. The musical critic +was the late Mr. George Hogarth, Dickens's father-in-law; +and the new journal had an "Irish Famine +Commissioner" in the person of Mr. R.H. Horne, +the poet. Miss Martineau wrote leading articles in +the new paper for several years, and Mr. M'Cullagh +Torrens was also a recognised contributor. The +staff of Parliamentary reporters was said to be the +best in London, several having been taken, at an +advanced salary, off the <i>Times</i>.</p> + +<p>"The speculative proprietorship," says Mr. +Grant, in his "History of the Newspaper Press," +"was divided into one hundred shares, some of +which were held by Sir William Jackson, M.P., +Sir Joshua Watkins, and the late Sir Joseph Paxton. +Mr. Charles Dickens, as editor, received a salary +of £2,000 a year."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="dorset" id="dorset"></a> +<img src="images/p138.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE DORSET GARDENS THEATRE, WHITEFRIARS</span> +</div> + +<p>The early numbers of the paper contained +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>instalments of Dickens's "Pictures from Italy;" +yet the new venture did not succeed. Charles +Dickens and Douglas Jerrold took the night-work +on alternate days; but Dickens, who never made +politics a special study, very soon retired from +the editorship altogether, and Jerrold was chief +editor for a little while till he left to set up his +<i>Weekly Newspaper</i>. Mr. Forster also had the +editorship for a short period, and the paper then +fell into the hands of the late Mr. Dilke, of the +<i>Athenæum</i>, who excited some curiosity by extensively +advertising these words: "See the <i>Daily News</i> of +June 1st." The <i>Daily News</i> of June 1, 1846 +(which began No. 1 again), was a paper of four +pages, issued at 2½<i>d.</i>, which, deducting the stamp, +at that time affixed to every copy of every news<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>paper, +was in effect three halfpence. One of the +features of the new plan was that the sheet +should vary in size, according to the requirements +of the day—with an eye, nevertheless, at all +times to selection and condensation. It was a +bold attempt, carried out with great intelligence +and spirit; but it was soon found necessary to put +on another halfpenny, and in a year or two the +<i>Daily News</i> was obliged to return to the usual +price of "dailies" at that time—fivepence. The +chief editors of the paper, besides those already +mentioned, have been Mr. Eyre Evans Crowe, +Mr. Frederick Knight Hunt, Mr. Weir, and Mr. +Thomas Walker, who retired in January, 1870, on +receiving the editorship of the <i>London Gazette</i>. The +journal came down to a penny in June, 1868.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="attack" id="attack"></a> +<img src="images/p139.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ATTACK ON A WHIG MUG HOUSE</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p> +<p>The <i>Daily News</i>, at the beginning, inspired +the <i>Times</i> with some dread of rivalry; and it is +noteworthy that, for several years afterwards, the +great journal was very unfriendly in its criticisms +on Dickens's books.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that, over sanguine of success, +the <i>Daily News</i> proprietors began by sinking too +much money in the foundations. In 1846, the +<i>Times'</i> reporters received on an average only five +guineas a week, while the <i>Daily News</i> gave seven; +but the pay was soon of necessity reduced. Mr. +Grant computes the losses of the <i>Daily News</i> for +the first ten years at not much less than £200,000. +The talent and enterprise of this paper, during the +recent (1870) German invasion of France, and the +excellence of their correspondents in either camp, +is said to have trebled its circulation, which +Mr. Grant computes at a daily issue of 90,000. +As an organ of the highest and most enlightened +form of Liberalism and progress, the <i>Daily News</i> +now stands pre-eminent.</p> + +<p>Many actors, poets, and authors dwelt in Salisbury +Court in Charles II.'s time, and the great Betterton, +Underhill, and Sandford affected this neighbourhood, +to be near the theatres. Lady Davenant +here presided over the Dorset Gardens Company; +Shadwell, "round as a butt and liquored every +chink," nightly reeled home to the same precinct, +unsteadily following the guidance of a will-o'-the-wisp +link-boy; and in the square lived and died Sir +John King, the Duke of York's solicitor-general.</p> + +<p>If Salisbury Square boasts of Richardson, the +respectable citizen and admirable novelist, it must +also plead guilty to having been the residence of that +not very reputable personage, Mr. John Eyre, who, +although worth, as it was said, some £20,000, was +transported on November 1, 1771 (George III.) +for systematic pilfering of paper from the alderman's +chamber, in the justice room, Guildhall. +This man, led away by the thirst for money, had +an uncle who made two wills, one leaving Eyre +all his money, except a legacy of £500 to a +clergyman; another leaving the bulk to the clergyman, +and £500 only to his nephew. Eyre, not +knowing of the second will, destroyed the first, in +order to cancel the vexatious bequest. When the +real will was produced his disappointment and +selfish remorse must have produced an expression +of repressed rage worthy of Hogarth's pencil.</p> + +<p>In Salisbury Square Mr. Clarke's disagreeable +confessions about the Duke of York were publicly +burned, on the very spot (says Mr. Noble) where +the zealous radical demagogue, Waithman, subsequently +addressed the people from a temporary +platform, not being able to obtain the use of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +St. Bride's Vestry. Nor must we forget to chronicle +No. 53 as the house of Tatum, a silversmith, to +whom, in 1812, that eminent man John Faraday +acted as humble friend and assistant. How often +does young genius act the herdsman, as Apollo did +when he tended the kine of Admetus!</p> + +<p>The Woodfalls, too, in their time, lent celebrity +to Salisbury Square. The first Woodfall who +became eminent was Henry Woodfall, at the +"Elzevir's Head" at Temple Bar. He commenced +business under the auspices of Pope. His son +Henry, who rose to be a Common Councilman +and Master of the Stationers' Company, +bought of Theophilus Cibber, in 1736-37, one-third +of a tenth share of the London <i>Daily +Post</i>, an organ which gradually grew into the +<i>Public Advertiser</i>, that daring paper in which the +celebrated letters of Junius first appeared. Those +letters, scathing and full of Greek fire, brought +down Lords and Commons, King's Bench and Old +Bailey, on Woodfall, and he was fined and imprisoned. +Whether Burke, Barré, Chatham, Horne +Tooke, or Sir Philip Francis wrote them, will now +probably never be known. The stern writer in the +iron mask went down into the grave shrouded in +his own mystery, and that grave no inquisitive eyes +will ever find. "I am the sole depository of my +secret," he wrote, "and it shall perish with me." +The Junius Woodfall died in 1805. William Woodfall, +the younger brother, was born in 1745, and +educated at St. Paul's School. He was editor and +printer of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, and in 1790 had +his office in Dorset Street, Salisbury Square (Noble). +"Memory" Woodfall, as William was generally +called, acquired fame by his extraordinary power of +reporting from memory the speeches he heard in the +House of Commons. His practice during a debate +(says his friend Mr. Taylor, of the <i>Sun</i>) was to +close his eyes and lean with both hands upon his +stick. He was so well acquainted with the tone +and manner of the several speakers that he seldom +changed his attitude but to catch the name of a +new member. His memory was as accurate as +it was capacious, and, what was almost miraculous, +he could retain full recollection of any particular +debate for a full fortnight, and after many long +nights of speaking. Woodfall used to say he could +put a speech away on a corner shelf of his +mind for future reference. This is an instance of +power of memory scarcely equalled by Fuller, who, +it is said, could repeat the names of all the shops +down the Strand (at a time every shop had a sign) +in regular and correct sequence; and it even surpasses +"Memory" Thompson, who used to boast he +could remember every shop from Ludgate Hill<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +to the end of Piccadilly. Yet, with all his sensitively +retentive memory, Woodfall did not care for slight +interruptions during his writing. Dr. Johnson +used to write abridged reports of debates for the +<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> from memory, but, then, +reports at that time were short and trivial. Woodfall +was also a most excellent dramatic critic—slow +to censure, yet never sparing just rebuke. +At the theatre his extreme attention gave his countenance +a look of gloom and severity. Mr. J. +Taylor, of the <i>Sun</i>, describes Kemble as watching +Woodfall in one of those serious moods, and saying +to a friend, "How applicable to that man is +the passage in <i>Hamlet</i>,—'thoughts black, hands +apt.'"</p> + +<p>Finding himself hampered on the <i>Morning +Chronicle</i>, Woodfall started a new daily paper, +with the title of the <i>Diary</i>, but eventually he was +overpowered by his competitors and their large +staff of reporters. His eldest son, who displayed +great abilities, went mad. Mr. Woodfall's hospitable +parties at his house at Kentish Town are +sketched for us by Mr. J. Taylor. On one particular +occasion he mentions meeting Mr. Tickel, +Richardson (a partner in "The Rolliad"), John +Kemble, Perry (of the <i>Chronicle</i>), Dr. Glover (a +humorist of the day), and John Coust. Kemble +and Perry fell out over their wine, and Perry was +rude to the stately tragedian. Kemble, eyeing +him with the scorn of Coriolanus, exclaimed, in the +words of Zanga,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"A lion preys not upon carcases." +</div> + +<p>Perry very naturally effervesced at this, and war +would have been instantly proclaimed between the +belligerents had not Coust and Richardson +promptly interposed. The warlike powers were +carefully sent home in separate vehicles.</p> + +<p>Mr. Woodfall had a high sense of the importance +of a Parliamentary reporter's duties, and once, +during a heavy week, when his eldest son came +to town to assist him, he said, "And Charles Fox +to have a debate on a Saturday! What! does he +think that reporters are made of iron?" Woodfall +used to tell a characteristic story of Dr. Dodd. +When that miserable man was in Newgate waiting +sentence of death he sent earnestly for +the editor of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>. Woodfall, a +kind and unselfish man, instantly hurried off, expecting +that Dodd wished his serious advice. In +the midst of Woodfall's condolement he was stopped +by the Doctor, who said he had wished to see him +on quite a different subject. Knowing Woodfall's +judgment in dramatic matters, he was anxious to +have his opinion on a comedy which he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +written, and to request his interest with a manager +to bring it on the stage. Woodfall was the more +surprised and shocked as on entering Newgate he +had been informed by Ackerman, the keeper of +Newgate, that the order for Dr. Dodd's execution +had just arrived.</p> + +<p>Before parting with the Woodfall family, we may +mention that it is quite certain that Henry Sampson +Woodfall did not know who the author of +"Junius" was. Long after the letters appeared +he used to say,—"I hope and trust Junius is not +dead, as I think he would have left me a legacy; +for though I derived much honour from his +preference, I suffered much by the freedom of his +pen."</p> + +<p>The grandson of William, Henry Dick Woodfall, +died in Nice, April 13, 1869, aged sixty-nine, +carrying to the grave (says Mr. Noble) the last +chance of discovering one of the best kept secrets +ever known.</p> + +<p>The Whig "mug-house" of Salisbury Court deserves +notice. The death of Queen Anne (1714) +roused the hopes of the Jacobites. The rebellion +of 1715 proved how bitterly they felt the peaceful +accession of the Elector of Hanover. The northern +revolt convinced them of their strength, but its failure +taught them no lesson. They attributed its want +of success to the rashness of the leaders and the +absence of unanimity in their followers, to the outbreak +not being simultaneous; to every cause, +indeed, but the right one. It was about this time +that the Whig gentlemen of London, to unite their +party and to organise places of gathering, established +"mug-houses" in various parts of the City. +At these places, "free-and-easy" clubs were held, +where Whig citizens could take their mug of ale, +drink loyal toasts, sing loyal songs, and arrange +party processions. These assemblies, not always +very just or forbearing, soon led to violent retaliations +on the part of the Tories, attacks were +made on several of the mug-houses, and dangerous +riots naturally ensued. From the papers of +the time we learn that the Tories wore white roses, +or rue, thyme, and rosemary in their hats, flourished +oak branches and green ribbons, and shouted +"High Church;" "Ormond for ever;" "No +King George;" "Down with the Presbyterians;" +"Down with the mug-houses." The Whigs, on +the other side, roared "King George for ever," +displayed orange cockades, with the motto,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"With heart and hand<br /> +By George we'll stand,"</div> + +<p>and did their best on royal birthdays and other +thanksgivings, by illuminations and blazing bonfires<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +outside the mug-house doors, to irritate their adversaries +and drive them to acts of illegal violence. +The chief Whig mug-houses were in Long Acre, +Cheapside, St. John's Lane (Clerkenwell), Tower +Street, and Salisbury Court.</p> + +<p>Mackey, a traveller, who wrote "A Journey +through England" about this time, describes the +mug-houses very lucidly:—</p> + +<p>"The most amusing and diverting of all," he +says, "is the 'Mug-House Club,' in Long Acre, +where every Wednesday and Saturday a mixture of +gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen meet in a great +room, and are seldom under a hundred. They +have a grave old gentleman in his own grey hairs, +now within a few months of ninety years old, who +is their president, and sits in an armed-chair some +steps higher than the rest of the company, to keep +the whole room in order. A harp always plays all +the time at the lower end of the room, and every +now and then one or other of the company rises +and entertains the rest with a song; and, by-the-by, +some are good masters. Here is nothing drank +but ale; and every gentleman hath his separate +mug, which he chalks on the table where he sits +as it is brought in, and everyone retires when he +pleases, as in a coffee-house. The room is always so +diverted with songs, and drinking from one table +to another to one another's healths, that there is no +room for politics, or anything that can sour conversation. +One must be up by seven to get room, +and after ten the company are, for the most part, +gone. This is a winter's amusement that is agreeable +enough to a stranger for once or twice, and +he is well diverted with the different humours when +the mugs overflow."</p> + +<p>An attack on a Whig mug-house, the "Roebuck," +in Cheapside, June, 1716, was followed by a still +more stormy assault on the Salisbury Court mug-house +in July of the same year. The riot began on +a Friday, but the Whigs kept a resolute face, and the +mob dwindled away. On the Monday they renewed +the attack, declaring that the Whigs were drinking +"Down with the Church," and reviling the memory +of Queen Anne; and they swore they would level +the house and make a bonfire of the timber in the +middle of Fleet Street. But the wily Whigs, barricading +the door, slipped out a messenger at a back +door, and sent to a mug-house in Tavistock Street, +Covent Garden, for reinforcements. Presently a +band of Whig bludgeon-men arrived, and the Whigs +of Salisbury Court then snatched up pokers, tongs, +pitchforks, and legs of stools, and sallied out on +the Tory mob, who soon fled before them. For +two days the Tory mob seethed, fretted, and +swore revenge. But the report of a squadron of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +horse being drawn up at Whitehall ready to ride +down on the City kept them gloomily quiet. On +the third day a Jacobite, named Vaughan, formerly +a Bridewell boy, led them on to revenge; and on +Tuesday they stormed the place in earnest. "The +best of the Tory mob," says a Whig paper of the +day, "were High Church scaramouches, chimney-sweeps, +hackney coachmen, foot-boys, tinkers, shoe-blacks, +street idlers, ballad singers, and strumpets." +The contemporaneous account will most vividly +describe the scene.</p> + +<p>The <i>Weekly Journal</i> (a Whig paper) of July 28, +1716, says: "The Papists and Jacobites, in pursuance +of their rebellious designs, assembled a +mob on Friday night last, and threatened to attack +Mr. Read's mug-house in Salisbury Court, in Fleet +Street; but, seeing the loyal gentlemen that were +there were resolved to defend themselves, the +cowardly Papists and Jacobites desisted for that +time. But on Monday night the villains meeting +together again in a most rebellious manner, they +began first to attack Mr. Goslin's house, at the sign +of the 'Blew Boar's Head,' near Water Lane, in +Fleet Street, breaking the windows thereof, for no +other reason but because he is well-affected to his +Majesty King George and the present Government. +Afterwards they went to the above-said mug-house +in Salisbury Court; but the cowardly Jacks not +being able to accomplish their hellish designs that +night, they assembled next day in great numbers +from all parts of the town, breaking the windows +with brick-bats, broke open the cellar, got into the +lower rooms, which they robb'd, and pull'd down +the sign, which was carried in triumph before the +mob by one Thomas Bean, servant to Mr. +Carnegie and Mr. Cassey, two rebels under sentence +of death, and for which he is committed to +Newgate, as well as several others, particularly one +Hook, a joyner, in Blackfriars, who is charged with +acting a part in gutting the mug-house. Some of +the rioters were desperately wounded, and one +Vaughan, a seditious weaver, formerly an apprentice +in Bridewell, and since employed there, who +was a notorious ringleader of mobs, was kill'd at +the aforesaid mug-house. Many notorious Papists +were seen to abet and assist in this villanous +rabble, as were others, who call themselves Churchmen, +and are like to meet with a suitable reward in +due time for their assaulting gentlemen who meet +at these mug-houses only to drink prosperity to the +Church of England as by law established, the +King's health, the Prince of Wales's, and the rest of +the Royal Family, and those of his faithful and +loyal Ministers. But it is farther to be observed +that women of mean, scandalous lives, do frequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +point, hiss, and cry out 'Whigs' upon his Majesty's +good and loyal subjects, by which, raising a mob, +they are often insulted by them. But 'tis hoped +the magistrates will take such methods which may +prevent the like insults for the future.</p> + +<p>"Thursday last the coroner's inquest sat on the +body of the person killed in Salisbury Court, +who were for bringing in their verdict, wilful +murder against Mr. Read, the man of the mug-house; +but some of the jury stick out, and will +not agree with that verdict; so that the matter is +deferr'd till Monday next."</p> + +<p>"On Tuesday last," says the same paper +(August 4, 1716), "a petition, signed by some of +the inhabitants of Salisbury Court, was deliver'd +to the Court of Aldermen, setting forth some late +riots occasioned by the meeting of some persons +at the mug-house there. The petition was referr'd +to, and a hearing appointed the same day before +the Lord Mayor. The witnesses on the side of +the petition were a butcher woman, a barber's +'prentice, and two or three other inferior people. +These swore, in substance—that the day the man +was killed there, they saw a great many people +gathered together about the mug-house, throwing +stones and dirt, &c.; that about twelve o'clock +they saw Mr. Read come out with a gun, and shoot +a man who was before the mob at some distance, +and had no stick in his hand. Those who were +call'd in Mr. Read's behalf depos'd that a very +great mob attacked the house, crying, 'High +Church and Ormond; No Hanover; No King +George;' that then the constable read the Proclamation, +charging them to disperse, but they +still continued to cry, 'Down with the mug-house;' +that two soldiers then issued out of the house, and +drove the mob into Fleet Street; but by throwing +sticks and stones, they drove these two back to +the house, and the person shot returned at the +head of the mob with a stick in his hand flourishing, +and crying, 'No Hanover; No King George;' +and 'Down with the mug-house.' That then Mr. +Read desired them to disperse, or he would shoot +amongst them, and the deceased making at him, +he shot him and retired indoors; that then the +mob forced into the house, rifled all below stairs, +took the money out of the till, let the beer about +the cellar, and what goods they could not carry +away, they brought into the streets and broke to +pieces; that they would have forced their way +up stairs and murdered all in the house, but that +a person who lodged in the house made a barricade +at the stair-head, where he defended himself above +half an hour against all the mob, wounded some +of them, and compelled them to give over the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +assault. There were several very credible witnesses +to these circumstances, and many more were ready +to have confirmed it, but the Lord Mayor thought +sufficient had been said, and the following gentlemen, +who are men of undoubted reputation and +worth, offering to be bail for Mr. Read, namely, +Mr. Johnson, a justice of the peace, and Colonels +Coote and Westall, they were accepted, and accordingly +entered into a recognisance."</p> + +<p>Five of the rioters were eventually hung at Tyburn +Turnpike, in the presence of a vast crowd. According +to Mr. J.T. Smith, in his "Streets of London," +a Whig mug-house existed as early as 1694. It has +been said the slang word "mug" owes its derivation +to Lord Shaftesbury's "ugly mug," which the beer +cups were moulded to resemble.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Flying Post</i> of June 30, 1716, we find a +doggerel old mug-house ballad, which is so characteristic +of the violence of the times that it is +worth preserving:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Since the Tories could not fight,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And their master took his flight,</span><br /> +They labour to keep up their faction;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With a bough and a stick,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And a stone and a brick,</span><br /> +They equip their roaring crew for action.<br /> +<br /> +"Thus in battle array<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At the close of the day,</span><br /> +After wisely debating their deep plot,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon windows and stall,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They courageously fall,</span><br /> +And boast a great victory they have got.<br /> +<br /> +"But, alas! silly boys,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For all the mighty noise,</span><br /> +Of their 'High Church and Ormond for ever,'<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A brave Whig with one hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At George's command,</span><br /> +Can make their mightiest hero to quiver."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Richardson's printing office was at the north-west +corner of Salisbury Square, communicating +with the court, No. 76, Fleet Street. Here the +thoughtful old citizen wrote "Pamela," and here, +in 1756, Oliver Goldsmith acted as his "reader." +Richardson seems to have been an amiable and +benevolent man, kind to his compositors and servants +and beloved by children. All the anecdotes +relating to his private life are pleasant. He used +to encourage early rising among his workmen by +hiding half crowns among the disordered type, so +that the earliest comer might find his virtue rewarded; +and he would frequently bring up fruit +from the country to give to those of his servants +who had been zealous and good-tempered.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="fleet" id="fleet"></a> +<img src="images/p144.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />FLEET STREET, THE TEMPLE, ETC., FROM A PLAN PUBLISHED BY RALPH AGGAS, 1563.</span> +</div> + +<p>Samuel Richardson, the author of "Pamela" and +"Clarissa," was the son of a Derbyshire joiner. He +was born in 1689, and died in 1761. Apprenticed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +to a London printer, he rose by steady industry +and prudence to be the manager of a large +business, printer of the Journals of the House of +Commons, Master of the Stationers' Company, and +part-printer to the king. In 1741, at the age of +fifty-two, publishers urging the thriving citizen to +write them a book of moral letters, Richardson +produced "Pamela," a novel which ran through +five editions the first year, and became the rage of +the town. Ladies carried the precious volumes to +Ranelagh, and held them up in smiling triumph +to each other. Pope praised the novel as more +useful than twenty volumes of sermons, and Dr. +Sherlock gravely recommended it from the pulpit. +In 1749 Richardson wrote "Clarissa Harlowe," his +most perfect work, and in 1753 his somewhat tedious +"Sir Charles Grandison" (7 vols.). In "Pamela" +he drew a servant, whom her master attempts to +seduce and eventually marries, but in "Clarissa" +the heroine, after harrowing misfortunes, dies unrewarded. +Richardson had always a moral end in +view. He hated vice and honoured virtue, but +he is too often prolix and wearisome. He +wished to write novels that should wean the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +from the foolish romances of his day. In "Pamela" +he rewarded struggling virtue; in "Clarissa" he +painted the cruel selfishness of vice; in "Sir +Charles" he tried to represent the perfect Christian +gentleman. Coleridge said that to read Fielding +after Richardson was like emerging from a sick +room, heated by stoves into an open lawn on a +breezy May morning. Richardson, indeed, wrote +more for women than men. Fielding was coarser, +but more manly; he had humour, but no moral +purpose at all. The natural result was that Fielding +and his set looked on Richardson as a grave, dull, +respectable old prig; Richardson on Fielding as a +low rake, who wrote like a man who had been an +ostler born in a stable, or a runner in a sponging-house. +"The virtues of Fielding's heroes," the +vain old printer used to say to his feminine clique, +"are the vices of a truly good man."</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson, who had been befriended by +Richardson, was never tired of depreciating Fielding +and crying up the author of "Pamela." "Sir," he +used to thunder out, "there is as much difference +between the two as between a man who knows +how a watch is made and a man who can merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +tell the hour on the dial-plate." He called Fielding +a "barren rascal." "Sir, there is more knowledge +of the heart in one letter of Richardson's +than in all 'Tom Jones.'" Some one present here +mildly suggested that Richardson was very tedious. +"Why, sir," replied Johnson, "if you were to +read Richardson for the story, your impatience +would be so great that you would hang yourself. +But you must read him for the sentiment, and +consider the story as only giving occasion to the +sentiment." After all, it must be considered that, +old-fashioned as Richardson's novels have now +become, the old printer dissected the human heart +with profound knowledge and exquisite care, and +that in the back shop in Salisbury Court, amid the +jar of printing-presses, the quiet old citizen drew +his ideal beings with far subtler lines and touches +than any previous novelist had done.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="street" id="street"></a> +<img src="images/p145.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />FLEET STREET, THE TEMPLE, ETC., FROM A MAP OF LONDON, PUBLISHED 1720.</span> +</div> + +<p>On one occasion at least Hogarth and Johnson +met at Richardson's house.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hogarth," says Nichols, "came one day +to see Richardson, soon after the execution of +Dr. Cameron, for having taken arms for the +house of Stuart in 1745-46; and, being a warm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +partisan of George II., he observed to Richardson +that certainly there must have been some +very unfavourable circumstances lately discovered +in this particular case which had induced the +king to approve of an execution for rebellion so +long after the time it was committed, as this had the +appearance of putting a man to death in cold blood, +and was very unlike his majesty's usual clemency. +While he was talking he perceived a person standing +at a window in the room shaking his head +and rolling himself about in a ridiculous manner. +He concluded he was an idiot, whom his relations +had put under the care of Mr. Richardson as a very +good man. To his great surprise, however, this +figure stalked forward to where he and Mr. +Richardson were sitting, and all at once took up +the argument, and burst out into an invective +against George II., as one who, upon all +occasions, was unrelenting and barbarous; mentioning +many instances, particularly that, where +an officer of high rank had been acquitted by +a court martial, George II. had, with his own +hand, struck his name off the list. In short, +he displayed such a power of eloquence that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +Hogarth looked at him in astonishment, and +actually imagined that this idiot had been at the +moment inspired. Neither Johnson nor Hogarth +were made known to each other at this interview."</p> + +<p>Boswell tells a good story of a rebuke that +Richardson's amiable but inordinate egotism +on one occasion received, much to Johnson's +secret delight, which is certainly worth quoting +before we dismiss the old printer altogether. +"One day," says Boswell, "at his country house +at Northend, where a large company was assembled +at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned +from Paris, wishing to please Richardson, +mentioned to him a flattering circumstance, that he +had seen his 'Clarissa' lying on the king's brother's +table. Richardson observing that part of the company +were engaged in talking to each other, affected +then not to attend to it; but by and bye, when, +there was a general silence, and he thought that +the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself +to the gentleman: 'I think, sir, you were +saying somewhat about'—pausing in a high flutter +of expectation. The gentleman provoked at his +inordinate vanity resolved not to indulge it, and +with an exquisitely sly air of indifference answered, +'A mere trifle, sir; not worth repeating.' The +mortification of Richardson was visible, and he +did not speak ten words more the whole day. +Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy +it much."</p> + +<p>At one corner of Salisbury Square (says Mr. +Timbs) are the premises of Peacock, Bampton, +& Mansfield, the famous pocket-book makers, +whose "Polite Repository" for 1778 is "the +patriarch of all pocket-books." Its picturesque +engravings have never been surpassed, and their +morocco and russia bindings scarcely equalled. +In our time Queen Adelaide and her several maids +of honour used the "Repository." George IV. +was provided by the firm with a ten-guinea housewife +(an antique-looking pocket-book, with gold-mounted +scissors, tweezers, &c.); and Mr. Mansfield +relates that on one occasion the king took +his housewife from his pocket and handed it +round the table to his guests, and next day the +firm received orders for twenty-five, "just like the +king's."</p> + +<p>In St. Bride's Passage, westward (says Mr. +Timbs), was a large dining-house, where, some forty +years ago, Colton, the author, used to dine, and +publicly boast that he wrote the whole of his +"Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words," upon +a small rickety deal table, with one pen. Another +frequenter of this place was one Webb, who seems +to have been so well up in the topics of the day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +that he was a sort of walking newspaper, who was +much with the King and Queen of the Sandwich +Islands when they visited England in 1825.</p> + +<p>This Caleb Colton, mentioned by Mr. Timbs, +was that most degraded being, a disreputable +clergyman, with all the vices but little of the +genius of Churchill, and had been, in his flourishing +time, vicar of Kew and Petersham. He was educated +at Eton, and eventually became Fellow of +King's College, Cambridge. He wrote "A Plain +and Authentic Narrative of the Stamford Ghost," +"Remarks on the Tendencies of 'Don Juan,'" a +poem on Napoleon, and a satire entitled "Hypocrisy." +His best known work, however, was +"Lacon; or, Many Things in Few Words," published +in 1820. These aphorisms want the terse +brevity of Rochefoucauld, and are in many +instances vapid and trivial. A passion for gaming at +last swallowed up Colton's other vices, and becoming +involved, he cut the Gordian knot of debt in +1828 by absconding; his living was then seized +and given to another. He fled to America, and +from there returned to that syren city, Paris, +where he is said in two years to have won no +less than £25,000. The miserable man died by +his own hand at Fontainebleau, in 1832. In the +"Lacon" is the subjoined passage, that seems +almost prophetic of the miserable author's miserable +fate:—</p> + +<p>"The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, +is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to +every loss, and by the act of suicide renounces +earth to forfeit heaven.".... "Anguish of +mind has driven thousands to suicide, anguish of +body none. This proves that the health of the +mind is of far more consequence to our happiness +than the health of the body, although both are +deserving of much more attention than either of +them receive."</p> + +<p>And here is a fine sentiment, worthy of Dr. +Dodd himself:—</p> + +<p>"There is but one pursuit in life which it is +in the power of all to follow and of all to attain. +It is subject to no disappointments, since he that +perseveres makes every difficulty an advancement +and every contest a victory—and this the pursuit +of virtue. Sincerely to aspire after virtue is to gain +her, and zealously to labour after her wages is to +receive them. Those that seek her early will find +her before it is late; her reward also is with her, +and she will come quickly. For the breast of a +good man is a little heaven commencing on earth, +where the Deity sits enthroned with unrivalled +influence, every subjugated passion, 'like the wind +and storm, fulfilling his word.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE.—GENERAL INTRODUCTION</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Origin of the Order of Templars—First Home of the Order—Removal to the Banks of the Thames—Rules of the Order—The Templars at the +Crusades, and their Deeds of Valour—Decay and Corruption of the Order—Charges brought against the Knights—Abolition of the Order.</p></div> + + +<p>The Order of Knights Templars, established by +Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, in 1118, to protect +Christian pilgrims on their road to Jerusalem, first +found a home in England in 1128 (Henry I.), +when Hugh de Payens, the first Master of the +Order, visited our shores to obtain succours and +subsidies against the Infidel.</p> + +<p>The proud, and at first zealous, brotherhood originally +settled on the south side of Holborn, without +the Bars. Indeed, about a century and a half +ago, part of a round chapel, built of Caen stone, was +found under the foundation of some old houses at +the Holborn end of Southampton Buildings. In +time, however, the Order amassed riches, and, growing +ambitious, purchased a large space of ground +extending from Fleet Street to the river, and from +Whitefriars to Essex House in the Strand. The new +Temple was a vast monastery, fitted for the residence +of the prior, his chaplain, serving brethren +and knights; and it boasted a council-chamber, a +refectory, a barrack, a church, a range of cloisters, +and a river terrace for religious meditation, military +exercise, and the training of chargers. In 1185 +Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who had come +to England with the Masters of the Temple and the +Hospital to procure help from Henry II. against +the victorious Saladin, consecrated the beautiful +river-side church, which the proud Order had dedicated +to the Virgin Lady Mary. The late Master +of the Temple had only recently died in a dungeon +at Damascus, and the new Master of the Hospital, +after the great defeat of the Christians at Jacob's +Ford, on the Jordan, had swam the river covered with +wounds, and escaped to the Castle of Beaufort.</p> + +<p>The singular rules of the "Order of the Poor +Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ and of the Temple +of Solomon," were revised by the first Abbot of +Clairvaux, St. Bernard himself. Extremely austere +and earnest, they were divided into seventy-two +heads, and enjoined severe and constant devotional +exercises, self-mortification, fasting, prayer, and +regular attendance at matins, vespers, and all the +services of the Church. Dining in one common +refectory, the Templars were to make known wants +that could not be expressed by signs, in a gentle, +soft, and private way. Two and two were in +general to live together, so that one might watch +the other. After departing from the supper hall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +to bed it was not permitted them to speak again +in public, except upon urgent necessity, and then +only in an undertone. All scurrility, jests, and +idle words were to be avoided; and after any +foolish saying, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer +was enjoined. All professed knights were to wear +white garments, both in summer and winter, as +emblems of chastity. The esquires and retainers +were required to wear black or, in provinces where +that coloured cloth could not be procured, brown. +No gold or silver was to be used in bridles, breastplates, +or spears, and if ever that furniture was given +them in charity, it was to be discoloured to prevent +an appearance of superiority or arrogance. No +brother was to receive or despatch letters without +the leave of the master or procurator, who might +read them if he chose. No gift was to be accepted +by a Templar till permission was first obtained +from the Master. No knight should talk to any +brother of his previous frolics and irregularities in +the world. No brother, in pursuit of worldly delight, +was to hawk, to shoot in the woods with long or +crossbow, to halloo to dogs, or to spur a horse after +game. There might be married brothers, but they +were to leave part of their goods to the chapter, +and not to wear the white habit. Widows were not +to dwell in the preceptories. When travelling, +Templars were to lodge only with men of the best +repute, and to keep a light burning all night "lest +the dark enemy, from whom God preserve us, should +find some opportunity." Unrepentant brothers were +to be cast out. Last of all, every Templar was to +shun "feminine kisses," whether from widow, virgin, +mother, sister, aunt, or any other woman.</p> + +<p>During six of the seven Crusades (1096-1272), +during which the Christians of Europe endeavoured, +with tremendous yet fitful energy, to wrest the +birthplace of Christianity from the equally fanatic +Moslems, the Knights Templars fought bravely +among the foremost. Whether by the side of +Godfrey of Bouillon, Louis VII., Philip V., Richard +Cœur de Lion, Louis IX., or Prince Edward, the +stern, sunburnt men in the white mantles were ever +foremost in the shock of spears. Under many a +clump of palm trees, in many a scorched desert +track, by many a hill fortress, smitten with sabre +or pierced with arrow, the holy brotherhood dug the +graves of their slain companions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<p>A few of the deeds, which must have been so +often talked of upon the Temple terrace and in the +Temple cloister, must be narrated, to show that, +however mistaken was the ideal of the Crusaders, +these monkish warriors fought their best to turn it +into a reality. In 1146 the whole brotherhood +joined the second Crusade, and protected the rear +of the Christian army in its toilsome march through +Asia Minor. In 1151, the Order saved Jerusalem, +and drove back the Infidels with terrible slaughter. +Two years later the Master of the Temple was slain, +with many of the white mantles, in fiercely essaying +to storm the walls of Ascalon. Three years after +this 300 Templars were slain in a Moslem ambuscade, +near Tiberias, and 87 were taken prisoners. +We next find the Templars repelling the redoubtable +Saladin from Gaza; and in a great battle near +Ascalon, in 1177, the Master of the Temple and +ten knights broke through the Mameluke Guards, +and all but captured Saladin in his tent. The +Templars certainly had their share of Infidel blows, +for, in 1178, the whole Order was nearly slain in a +battle with Saladin; and in another fierce conflict, +only the Grand Master and two knights escaped; +while again at Tiberias, in 1187, they received a cruel +repulse, and were all but totally destroyed.</p> + +<p>In 1187, when Saladin took Jerusalem, he next +besieged the great Templar stronghold of Tyre; +and soon after a body of the knights, sent from +London, attacked Saladin's camp in vain, and the +Grand Master and nearly half of the Order perished. +In the subsequent siege of Acre the Crusaders lost +nearly 100,000 men in nine pitched battles. In +1191, however, Acre was taken, and the Kings of +France and England, and the Masters of the +Temple and the Hospital, gave the throne of the +Latin kingdom to Guy de Lusignan. When Richard +Cœur de Lion had cruelly put to death 2,000 +Moslem prisoners, we find the Templars interposing +to prevent Richard and the English fighting +against the Austrian allies; and soon after the +Templars bought Cyprus of Richard for 300,000 +livres of gold. In the advance to Jerusalem the +Templars led the van of Richard's army. When the +attack on Jerusalem was suspended, the Templars +followed Richard to Ascalon, and soon afterwards +gave Cyprus to Guy de Lusignan, on condition of +his surrendering the Latin crown. When Richard +abandoned the Crusade, after his treaty with +Saladin, it was the Templars who gave him a galley +and the disguise of a Templar's white robe to +secure his safe passage to an Adriatic port. Upon +Richard's departure they erected many fortresses in +Palestine, especially one on Mount Carmel, which +they named Pilgrim's Castle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p> + +<p>The fourth Crusade was looked on unfavourably +by the brotherhood, who now wished to remain at +peace with the Infidel, but they nevertheless soon +warmed to the fighting, and we find a band of the +white mantles defeated and slain at Jaffa. With a +second division of Crusaders the Templars quarrelled, +and were then deserted by them. Soon after +the Templars and Hospitallers, now grown corrupt +and rich, quarrelled about lands and fortresses; but +they were still favoured by the Pope, and helped to +maintain the Latin throne. In 1209 they were +strong enough to resist the interdict of Pope Innocent; +and in the Crusade of 1217 they invaded +Egypt, and took Damietta by assault, but, at the +same time, to the indignation of England, wrote +home urgently for more money. An attack on +Cairo proving disastrous, they concluded a truce +with the Sultan in 1221. In the Crusade of the +Emperor Frederick the Templars refused to join +an excommunicated man. In 1240, the Templars +wrested Jerusalem from the Sultan of Damascus, +but, in 1243, were ousted by the Sultan of Egypt +and the Sultan of Damascus, and were almost exterminated +in a two days' battle; and, in 1250, they +were again defeated at Mansourah. When King +Louis was taken prisoner, the Infidels demanded +the surrender of all the Templar fortresses in +Palestine, but eventually accepted Damietta alone +and a ransom, which Louis exacted from the +Templars. In 1257 the Moguls and Tartars took +Jerusalem, and almost annihilated the Order, whose +instant submission they required. In 1268 Pope +Urban excommunicated the Marshal of the Order, +but the Templars nevertheless held by their comrade, +and Bendocdar, the Mameluke, took all the +castles belonging to the Templars in Armenia, and +also stormed Antioch, which had been a Christian +city 170 years.</p> + +<p>After Prince Edward's Crusade the Templars were +close pressed. In 1291, Aschraf Khalil besieged +the two Orders and 12,000 Christians in Acre for +six terrible weeks. The town was stormed, and +all the Christian prisoners, who flew to the Infidel +camp, were ruthlessly beheaded. A few of the +Templars flew to the Convent of the Temple, and +there perished; the Grand Master had already +fallen; a handful of the knights only escaping to +Cyprus.</p> + +<p>The persecution of the now corrupt and useless +Order commenced sixteen years afterwards. In +1306, both in London and Paris, terrible murmurs +arose at their infidelity and their vices. At the +Church of St. Martin's, Ludgate, where the English +Templars were accused, the following charges were +brought against them:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>1. That at their first reception into the Order, +they were admonished by those who had received +them within the bosom of the fraternity to deny +Christ, the crucifixion, the blessed Virgin, and all +the saints. 5. That the receivers instructed those +that were received that Christ was not the true +God. 7. That they said Christ had not suffered for +the redemption of mankind, nor been crucified but +for His own sins. 9. That they made those they +received into the Order spit upon the cross. +10. That they caused the cross itself to be trampled +under foot. 11. That the brethren themselves did +sometimes trample on the same cross. 14. That +they worshipped a cat, which was placed in the midst +of the congregation. 16. That they did not believe +the sacrament of the altar, nor the other sacraments +of the Church. 24. That they believed that +the Grand Master of the Order could absolve them +from their sins. 25. That the visitor could do so. +26. That the preceptors, of whom many were +laymen, could do it. 36. That the receptions of +the brethren were made clandestinely. 37. That +none were present but the brothers of the said +Order. 38. That for this reason there has for a +long time been a vehement suspicion against them. +46. That the brothers themselves had idols in +every province, viz., heads, some of which had +three faces, and some one, and some a man's skull. +47. That they adored that idol, or those idols, +especially in their great chapters and assemblies. +48. That they worshipped them. 49. As their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +God. 50. As their saviour. 51. That some of +them did so. 52. That the greater part did. 53. +They said those heads could save them. 54. That +they could produce riches. 55. That they had +given to the Order all its wealth. 56. That they +caused the earth to bring forth seed. 57. That +they made the trees to flourish. 58. That they +bound or touched the heads of the said idols with +cords, wherewith they bound themselves about +their shirts, or next their skins. 59. That at their +reception, the aforesaid little cords, or others of +the same length, were delivered to each of the +brothers. 61. That it was enjoined them to gird +themselves with the said little cords, as before +mentioned, and continually to wear them. 62. +That the brethren of the Order were generally +received in that manner. 63. That they did these +things out of devotion. 64. That they did them +everywhere. 65. That the greater part did. 66. +That those who refused the things above mentioned +at their reception, or to observe them afterwards, +were killed or cast into prison.</p> + +<p>The Order was proud and arrogant, and had +many enemies. The Order was rich, and spoil +would reward its persecutors. The charges against +the knights were eagerly believed; many of the +Templars were burned at the stake in Paris, and +many more in various parts of France. In England +their punishment seems to have been less +severe. The Order was formally abolished by +Pope Clement V., in the year 1312.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND PRECINCT</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Temple Church—Its Restorations—Discoveries of Antiquities—The Penitential Cell—Discipline in the Temple—The Tombs of the Templars +in the "Round"—William and Gilbert Marshall—Stone Coffins in the Churchyard—Masters of the Temple—The "Judicious" Hooker—Edmund +Gibbon, the Historian—The Organ in the Temple Church—The Rival Builders—"Straw Bail"—History of the Precinct—Chaucer +and the Friar—His Mention of the Temple—The Serjeants—Erection of New Buildings—The "Roses"—Sumptuary Edicts—The Flying +Horse.</p></div> + + +<p>The round church of the Temple is the finest of +the four round churches still existing in England. +The Templars did not, however, always build round +towers, resembling the Temple at Jerusalem, though +such was generally their practice. The restoration +of this beautiful relic was one of the first symptoms +of the modern Gothic revival.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Charles II. the body of the +church was filled with formal pews, which concealed +the bases of the columns, while the walls +were encumbered, to the height of eight feet +from the ground, with oak wainscoting, which was +carried entirely round the church, so as to hide the +elegant marble piscina, the interesting almeries over +the high altar, and the <i>sacrarium</i> on the eastern +side of the edifice. The elegant Gothic arches +connecting the round with the square church were +choked up with an oak screen and glass windows +and doors, and with an organ gallery adorned with +Corinthian columns, pilasters, and Grecian orna<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>ments, +which divided the building into two parts, +altogether altered its original character and appearance, +and sadly marring its architectural beauty. +The eastern end of the church was at the same +time disfigured by an enormous altar-piece in the +<i>classic style</i>, decorated with Corinthian columns and +Grecian cornices and entablatures, and with enrichments +of cherubims and wreaths of fruit, flowers, +and leaves, heavy and cumbrous, +and quite at variance +with the Gothic character of +the building. A large pulpit +and carved sounding-board +were erected in the middle of +the dome, and the walls and +whinns were encrusted and +disfigured with hideous mural +monuments and pagan trophies +of forgotten wealth and +vanity.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="knight" id="knight"></a> +<img src="images/p150.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A KNIGHT TEMPLAR</span> +</div> + +<p>The following account of +the earliest repairs of the +Temple Church is given in +"The New View of London": +"Having narrowly escaped +the flames in 1666, it was +in 1682 beautified, and the +curious wainscot screen set +up. The south-west part +was, in the year 1695, new +built with stone. In the year +1706 the church was wholly +new whitewashed, gilt, and +painted within, and the pillars +of the round tower wainscoted +with a new battlement and +buttresses on the south side, +and other parts of the outside +were well repaired. Also +the figures of the Knights +Templars were cleaned and +painted, and the iron-work +enclosing them new painted +and gilt with gold. The east +end of the church was repaired and beautified in +1707." In 1737 the exterior of the north side +and east end were again repaired.</p> + +<p>The first step towards the real restoration of +the Temple Church was made in 1825. It had +been generally repaired in 1811, but in 1825 Sir +Robert Smirke restored the whole south side externally +and the lower part of the circular portion +of the round church. The stone seat was renewed, +the arcade was restored, the heads which had +been defaced or removed were supplied. The wain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>scoting +of the columns was taken away, the monuments +affixed to some of the columns were removed, +and the position of others altered. There still remained, +however, monuments in the round church +materially affecting the relative proportions of the two +circles; the clustered columns still retained their +incrustations of paint, plaster, and whitewash; the +three archway entrances into the oblong church remained +in their former state, +detaching the two portions +from each other, and entirely +destroying the perspective +which those arches afforded.</p> + +<p>When the genuine restoration +was commenced in 1845, +the removal of the <i>beautifications +and adornments</i> which +had so long disfigured the +Temple Church, was regarded +as an act of vandalism. Seats +were substituted for pews, +and a smaller pulpit and reading-desk +supplied more appropriate +to the character of +the building. The pavement +was lowered to its original +level; and thus the bases of +the columns became once +more visible. The altar screen +and railing were taken down. +The organ was removed, and +thus all the arches from the +round church to the body +of the oblong church were +thrown open. By this alteration +the character of the +church was shown in its original +beauty.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1840, the +two Societies of the Inner and +Middle Temple had the paint +and whitewash scraped off the +marble columns and ceiling. +The removal of the modern +oak wainscoting led to the discovery of a very +beautiful double marble piscina near the east end +of the south side of the building, together with +an adjoining elegantly-shaped recess, and also a +picturesque Gothic niche on the north side of the +church.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="church" id="church"></a> +<img src="images/p151.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH</span> +</div> + +<p>On taking up the modern floor, remains of +the original tesselated pavement were discovered. +When the whitewash and plaster were removed from +the ceiling it was found in a dangerous condition. +There were also found there remains of ancient +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>decorative paintings and rich ornaments worked in +gold and silver; but they were too fragmentary to +give an idea of the general pattern. Under these +circumstances it was resolved to redecorate the +ceiling in a style corresponding with the ancient +decorative paintings observable in many Gothic +churches in Italy and France.</p> + +<p>As the plaster and whitewash were removed it +was found that the columns were of the most beautiful +Purbeck marble. The six elegant clustered +columns in the round tower had been concealed +with a thick coating of Roman cement, which had +altogether concealed the graceful form of the +mouldings and carved foliage of their capitals. +Barbarous slabs of Portland stone had been cased +round their bases and entirely altered their character. +All this modern patchwork was thrown away; but +the venerable marble proved so mutilated that new +columns were found necessary to support the fabric. +These are exact imitations of the old ones. The +six elegant clustered columns already alluded to, +however, needed but slight repair. Almost all the +other marble-work required renewal, and a special +messenger was despatched to Purbeck to open the +ancient quarries.</p> + +<p>Above the western doorway was discovered +a beautiful Norman window, composed of Caen +stone. The porch before the western door of the +Temple Church, which formerly communicated +with an ancient cloister leading to the hall of the +Knights Templars, had been filled up with rubbish +to a height of nearly two feet above the level of the +ancient pavement, so that all the bases of the +magnificent Norman doorway were entirely hidden +from view.</p> + +<p>Previous to the recent restoration the round +tower was surmounted by a wooden, flat, whitewashed +ceiling, altogether different from the ancient +roof. This ceiling and the timber roof above it +have been entirely removed, and replaced by the +present elegant and substantial roof, which is composed +of oak, protected externally by sheet copper, +and has been painted by Mr. Willement in accordance +with an existing example of decorative painting +in an ancient church in Sicily. Many buildings +were also removed to give a clearer view of the +fine old church.</p> + +<p>"Among the many interesting objects," says +Mr. Addison, "to be seen in the ancient church of +the Knights Templars is a <i>penitential cell</i>, a dreary +place of solitary confinement formed within the +thick wall of the building, only four feet six inches +long and two feet six inches wide, so narrow and +small that a grown person cannot lie down within +it. In this narrow prison the disobedient brethren<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +of the ancient Templars were temporarily confined +in chains and fetters, 'in order that their souls +might be saved from the eternal prison of hell.' +The hinges and catch of a door, firmly attached to +the doorway of this dreary chamber, still remain, +and at the bottom of the staircase is a stone recess +or cupboard, where bread and water were placed +for the prisoner. In this cell Brother Walter le +Bacheler, Knight, and Grand Preceptor of Ireland, is +said to have been starved to death for disobedience +to his superior, the Master of the Temple. His +body was removed at daybreak and buried by +Brother John de Stoke and Brother Radulph de +Barton in the middle of the court between the +church and the hall."</p> + +<p>The Temple discipline in the early times was very +severe: disobedient brethren were scourged by the +Master himself in the Temple Church, and frequently +whipped publicly on Fridays in the church. +Adam de Valaincourt, a deserter, was sentenced to +eat meat with the dogs for a whole year, to fast +four days in the week, and every Monday to +present himself naked at the high altar to be +publicly scourged by the officiating priest.</p> + +<p>At the time of the restoration of the church +stained glass windows were added, and the panels +of the circular vaulting were emblazoned with the +lamb and horse—the devices of the Inner and +Middle Temple—and the Beauseant, or black and +white banner of the Templars.</p> + +<p>The mail-clad effigies on the pavement of the +"Round" of the Temple Church are not monuments +of Knights Templars, but of "Associates of +the Temple," persons only partially admitted to the +privileges of the powerful Order. During the last +repairs there were found two Norman stone coffins +and four ornamented leaden coffins in small vaults +beneath these effigies, but not in their original +positions. Stow, in 1598, speaks of eight images +of armed knights in the round walk. The effigies +have been restored by Mr. Richardson, the sculptor. +The most interesting of these represents Geoffrey +de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, a bold baron, who +fought against King Stephen, sacked Cambridge, +and plundered Ramsey Abbey. He was excommunicated, +and while besieging Burwell Castle was +struck by an arrow from a crossbow just as he had +taken off his helmet to get air. The Templars, +not daring to bury him, soldered him up in lead, +and hung him on a crooked tree in their river-side +orchard. The corpse being at last absolved, +the Templars buried it before the west door of their +church. He is to be known by a long, pointed +shield charged with rays on a diamonded field. +The next figure, of Purbeck marble in low relief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +is supposed to be the most ancient of all. The +shield is kite-shaped, the armour composed of +rude rings—name unknown. Vestiges of gilding +were discovered upon this monument. The two +effigies on the north-east of the "Round" are +also anonymous. They are the tallest of all the +stone brethren: one of them is straight-legged; the +crossed legs of his comrade denote a Crusading +vow. The feet of the first rests on two grotesque +human heads, probably Infidels; the second +wears a mouth guard like a respirator. Between +the two figures is the copestone lid of an ancient +sarcophagus, probably that of a Master or Visitor-General +of the Templars, as it has the head of the +cross which decorates it adorned with a lion's head, +and the foot rests on the head of a lamb, the joint +emblems of the Order of the Templars. During +the excavations in the "Round," a magnificent +Purbeck marble sarcophagus, the lid decorated +with a foliated cross, was dug up and re-interred.</p> + +<p>On the south side of the "Round," between two +columns, his feet resting upon a lion, reposes a +great historical personage, William Marshall, the +Protector of England during the minority of +King Henry III., a warrior and a statesman +whose name is sullied by no crimes. The features +are handsome, and the whole body is wrapped in +chain mail. A Crusader in early life, the earl +became one of Richard Cœur de Lion's vicegerents +during his absence in Palestine. He +fought in Normandy for King John, helped in the +capture of Prince Arthur and his sister, urged the +usurper to sign Magna Charta, and secured the +throne for Prince Henry. Finally, he defeated the +French invaders, routed the French at sea, and +died, in the fulness of years, a warrior whose +deeds had been notable, a statesman whose motives +could seldom be impugned. Shakespeare, with +ever a keen eye for great men, makes the earl the +interceder for Prince Arthur. He was a great +benefactor of the brethren of the Chivalry of the +Temple.</p> + +<p>By the side of the earl reposes his warlike son +William Marshall the younger, cut in freestone. He +was one of the chief leaders of the Barons against +John, and in Henry's reign he overthrew Prince +Llewellyn, and slew 8,000 wild Welsh. He fought +with credit in Brittany and Ireland, and eventually +married Eleanor, the king's sister. He gave an +estate to the Templars. The effigy is clad in a +shirt of ring mail, above which is a loose garment, +girded at the waist. The shield on the left arm +bears a lion rampant.</p> + +<p>Near the western doorway reclines the mailed +effigy of Gilbert Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, third<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> +son of the Protector. He is in the act of drawing +a sword, and his left foot rests on a winged dragon. +This earl, at the murder of a brother in Ireland, +succeeded to the title, and married Margaret, a +daughter of the King of Scotland. He was just +starting for the Crusades, when he was killed by a +fall from his horse, in a tournament held at Ware, +(1241). Like the other Marshalls, he was a benefactor +of the Temple, and, like all the four sons of +the Protector, died without issue, in the reign of +Henry III., the family becoming extinct with +him. Matthew Paris declared that the race had +been cursed by the Bishop of Fernes, from whom +the Protector had stolen lands. The bishop, +says the chronicler, with great awe came with King +Henry to the Temple Church, and, standing at the +earl's tomb, promised the dead man absolution if +the lands were returned. No restitution was made, +so the curse fell on the doomed race. All these +Pembrokes wear chain hoods and have animals +recumbent at their feet.</p> + +<p>The name of a beautiful recumbent mailed figure +next Gilbert Marshall is unknown, and near him, +on the south side of the "Round," rests the ever-praying +effigy of Robert, Lord de Ros. This +lord was no Templar, for he has no beard, +and wears flowing hair, contrary to the rules +of the Order. His shield bears three water +buckets. The figure is cut out of yellow Roach +Abbey stone. The armour is linked. This knight +was fined £800 by Richard Cœur de Lion for +allowing a French prisoner of consequence to +escape from his custody. He married a daughter +of a King of Scotland, was Sheriff of Cumberland, +helped to extort Magna Charta from King John, +and gave much public property to the Templars.</p> + +<p>During the repairs of the round tower several +sarcophagi of Purbeck marble were discovered. +On the coffins being removed while the tower +was being propped, the bodies all crumbled to +dust. The sarcophagi were all re-interred in the +centre of the "Round."</p> + +<p>During the repairs of 1850 the workmen discovered +and stole an ancient seal of the Order; it +had the name of Berengarius, and on one side was +represented the Holy Sepulchre. "The churchyard +abounds," Mr. Addison says, "with ancient stone +coffins." According to Burton, an antiquary of +Elizabeth's time, there then existed in the Temple +Church a monument to a Visitor-General of the +Order. Among other distinguished persons buried +in the Temple Church, for so many ages a place of +special sanctity, was William Plantagenet, fifth son +of Henry III., who died when a youth. Henry III. +himself, had at one time resolved to be buried "with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +the brethren of the Chivalry of the Temple, expecting +and hoping that, through our Lord and +Saviour, it will greatly contribute to the salvation +of our soul." Queen Eleanor also provided for her +interment in the Temple, but it was otherwise +decreed.</p> + +<p>In the triforium of the Temple Church have been +packed away, like lumber, the greater part of the +clumsy monuments that once disfigured the walls +and columns below. In this strange museum lord +chancellors, councillors of state, learned benchers, +barons of the exchequer, masters of the rolls, treasurers, +readers, prothonotaries, poets, and authors +jostle each other in dusty confusion. At the entrance, +under a canopy, is the recumbent figure of +the great lawyer of Elizabeth's time, Edmund +Plowden. This grave and wise man, being a +staunch Romanist, was slighted by the Protestant +Queen. It is said that he was so studious in his +youth that at one period he never went out of the +Temple precincts for three whole years. He was +Treasurer of the Middle Temple the year the hall +was built.</p> + +<p>Selden (that great writer on international law, +whose "Mare clausum" was a reply to the "Mare +liberum" of Grotius) is buried to the left of the +altar, the spot being marked by a monument of white +marble. "His grave," says Aubrey, "was about +ten feet deepe or better, walled up a good way with +bricks, of which also the bottome was paved, but +the sides at the bottome for about two foot high were +of black polished marble, wherein his coffin (covered +with black bayes) lyeth, and upon that wall of +marble was presently lett downe a huge black +marble stone of great thicknesse, with this inscription—'Hic +jacet corpus Johannis Seldeni, qui +obijt 30 die Novembris, 1654.' Over this was +turned an arch of brick (for the house would not +lose their ground), and upon that was throwne the +earth," &c.</p> + +<p>There is a monument in the triforium to Edmund +Gibbon, a herald and an ancestor of the historian. +The great writer alluding to this monument +says—"My family arms are the same which were +borne by the Gibbons of Kent, in an age when the +College of Heralds religiously guarded the distinctions +of blood and name—a lion rampant gardant +between three schollop shells argent, on a field +azure. I should not, however, have been tempted +to blazon my coat of arms were it not connected +with a whimsical anecdote. About the reign of +James I., the three harmless schollop shells were +changed by Edmund Gibbon, Esq., into three +ogresses, or female cannibals, with a design of +stigmatising three ladies, his kinswomen, who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +provoked him by an unjust lawsuit. But this +singular mode of revenge, for which he obtained +the sanction of Sir William Seager, King-at-Arms, +soon expired with its author; and on his own +monument in the Temple Church the monsters +vanish, and the three schollop shells resume their +proper and hereditary place."</p> + +<p>At the latter end of Charles II.'s reign the organ in +the Temple Church became the subject of a singular +contest, which was decided by a most remarkable +judge. The benchers had determined to have the +best organ in London; the competitors for the building +were Smith and Harris. Father Smith, a German, +was renowned for his care in choosing wood without +knot or flaw, and for throwing aside every metal +or wooden pipe that was not perfect and sound. +His stops were also allowed by all to be singularly +equal and sweet in tone. The two competitors +were each to erect an organ in the Temple Church, +and the best one was to be retained. The competition +was carried on with such violence that +some of the partisans almost ruined themselves by +the money they expended. The night preceding +the trial the too zealous friends of Harris cut the +bellows of Smith's organ, and rendered it for the +time useless. Drs. Blow and Purcell were employed +to show the powers of Smith's instrument, and +the French organist of Queen Catherine performed +on Harris's. The contest continued, with varying +success, for nearly a twelvemonth. At length +Harris challenged his redoubtable rival to make +certain additional reed stops, <i>vox humana</i>, <i>cremona</i>, +double bassoon and other stops, within a given +time. The controversy was at last terminated by +Lord Chief Justice Jefferies—the cruel and debauched +Jefferies, who was himself an accomplished +musician—deciding in favour of Father +Smith. Part of Harris's rejected organ was erected +at St. Andrew's, Holborn, part at Christ Church +Cathedral, Dublin. Father Smith, in consequence +of his success at the Temple, was employed to +build an organ for St. Paul's, but Sir Christopher +Wren would never allow the case to be made large +enough to receive all the stops. "The sound and +general mechanism of modern instruments," says +Mr. Burge, "are certainly superior to those of Father +Smith's, but for sweetness of tone I have never +met in any part of Europe with pipes that have +equalled his."</p> + +<p>In the reign of James I. there was a great dispute +between the Custos of the Temple and the two +Societies. This sinecure office, the gift of the +Crown, was a rectory without tithes, and the Custos +was dependent upon voluntary contributions. The +benchers, irritated at Dr. Micklethwaite's arrogant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +pretensions, shut the doctor out from their dinners. +In the reign of Charles I., the doctor complained to +the king that he received no tithes, was refused +precedence as Master of the Temple, was allowed +no share in the deliberations, was not paid for his +supernumerary sermons, and was denied ecclesiastical +jurisdiction. The doctor thereupon locked +up the church and took away the keys; but Noy, +the Attorney-General, snubbed him, and called +him "<i>elatus et superbus</i>;" and he got nothing, +after all, but hard words, for his petition.</p> + +<p>The learned and judicious Hooker, author of +"The Ecclesiastical Polity," was for six years Master +of the Temple—"a place," says Izaak Walton, +"which he accepted rather than desired." Travers, +a disciple of Cartwright the Nonconformist, was the +lecturer; so Hooker, it was said, preached Canterbury +in the forenoon, and Travers Geneva in the +afternoon. The benchers were divided, and Travers +being at last silenced by the archbishop, Hooker +resigned, and in his quiet parsonage of Boscombe +renewed the contest in print, in his "Ecclesiastical +Polity."</p> + +<p>When Bishop Sherlock was Master of the Temple, +the sees of Canterbury and London were vacant +about the same time (1748); this occasioned an +epigram upon Sherlock,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"At the Temple one day, Sherlock taking a boat,<br /> +The waterman asked him, 'Which way will you float?'<br /> +'Which way?' says the Doctor; 'why, fool, with the stream!'<br /> +To St. Paul's or to Lambeth was all one to him."</div> + +<p>The tide in favour of Sherlock was running to +St. Paul's. He was made Bishop of London.</p> + +<p>During the repairs of 1827 the ancient freestone +chapel of St. Anne, which stood on the south side +of the "Round," was ruthlessly removed. We had +less reverence for antiquity then. The upper storey +communicated with the Temple Church by a staircase +opening on the west end of the south aisle of +the choir; the lower joined the "Round" by a doorway +under one of the arches of the circular arcade. +The chapel anciently opened upon the cloisters, +and formed a private way from the convent to the +church. Here the Papal legate and the highest +bishops frequently held conferences; and on Sunday +mornings the Master of the Temple held chapters, +enjoined penances, made up quarrels, and pronounced +absolution. The chapel of St. Anne was +in the old time much resorted to by barren women, +who there prayed for children.</p> + +<p>In Charles II.'s time, according to "Hudibras," +"straw bail" and low rascals of that sort lingered +about the Round, waiting for hire. Butler says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Retain all sorts of witnesses<br /> +That ply i' the Temple, under trees,<br /> +Or walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts,<br /> +About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts;<br /> +Or wait for customers between<br /> +The pillar rows in Lincoln's Inn."</div> + +<p>In James I.'s time the Round, as we find in Ben +Jonson, was a place for appointments; and in 1681 +Otway describes bullies of Alsatia, with flapping +hats pinned up on one side, sandy, weather-beaten +periwigs, and clumsy iron swords clattering at their +heels, as conspicuous personages among the Knights +of the Posts and the other peripatetic philosophers +of the Temple walks.</p> + +<p>We must now turn to the history of the whole +precinct. When the proud Order was abolished +by the Pope, Edward II. granted the Temple to +Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, who, however, +soon surrendered it to the king's cousin, the +Earl of Lancaster, who let it, at their special +request, to the students and professors of the common +laws; the colony then gradually becoming an +organised and collegiate body, Edward I. having +authorised laymen for the first time to read and +plead causes.</p> + +<p>Hugh le Despenser for a time held the Temple, +and on his execution Edward III. appointed the +Mayor of London its guardian. The mayor closing +the watergate caused much vexation to the lawyers +rowing by boat to Westminster, and the king had +to interfere. In 1333 the king farmed out the +Temple rents at £25 a year. In the meantime, +the Knights Hospitallers, affecting to be offended +at the desecration of holy ground—the Bishop +of Ely's lodgings, a chapel dedicated to à Becket, +and the door to the Temple Hall—claimed +the forfeited spot. The king granted their request, +the annual revenue of the Temple then +being £73 6s. 11d., equal to about £1,000 of our +present money. In 1340, in consideration of £100 +towards an expedition to France, the warlike king +made over the residue of the Temple to the +Hospitallers, who instantly endowed the church +with lands and one thousand fagots a year from +Lillerton Wood to keep up the church fires.</p> + +<p>In this reign Chaucer, who is supposed to have +been a student of the Middle Temple, and who +is said to have once beaten an insolent Franciscan +friar in Fleet Street, gives a eulogistic sketch of a +Temple manciple, or purveyor of provisions, in the +prologue to his wonderful "Canterbury Tales."</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A gentil manciple was there of the Temple<br /> +Of whom achatours mighten take ensample,<br /> +For to ben wise in bying of vitàille;<br /> +For, whether that he paid or toke by taille,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>Algate he waited so in his achate<br /> +That he was aye before in good estate.<br /> +Now is not that of God a full fayre grace<br /> +That swiche a lewèd mannès wit shall face<br /> +The wisdom of an hepe of lerned men?<br /> +<br /> +"Of maisters had he more than thries ten,<br /> +<i>That were of law expert and curious</i>;<br /> +Of which there was a dosein in that hous<br /> +Worthy to ben stewardes of rent and land<br /> +Of any lord that is in Engleland:<br /> +To maken him live by his propre good,<br /> +In honour detteles; but if he were wood,<br /> +Or live as scarsly as him list desire,<br /> +And able for to helpen all a shire,<br /> +In any cos that mighte fallen or happe:<br /> +And yet this manciple sett 'hir aller cappe.'"</div> + +<p>In the Middle Temple Chaucer is supposed to +have formed the acquaintanceship of his graver +contemporary, "the moral Gower."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="tombs" id="tombs"></a> +<img src="images/p156.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> TOMBS OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS</span> +</div> + +<p>Many of the old retainers of the Templars became +servants of the new lawyers, who had ousted their +masters. The attendants at table were still called +paniers, as they had formerly been. The dining +in pairs, the expulsion from hall for misconduct, +and the locking out of chambers were old customs +also kept up. The judges of Common Pleas retained +the title of knight, and the Fratres Servientes +of the Templars arose again in the character of +learned serjeants-at-law, the coif of the modern +serjeant being the linen coif of the old Freres +Serjens of the Temple. The coif was never, as +some suppose, intended to hide the tonsure of +priests practising law contrary to ecclesiastical prohibition. +The old ceremony of creating serjeants-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>at-law exactly resembles that once used for receiving +Fratres Servientes into the fraternity of +the Temple.</p> + +<p>In Wat Tyler's rebellion the wild men of Kent +poured down on the dens of the Temple lawyers, +pulled down their houses, carried off the books, +deeds, and rolls of remembrance, and burnt them +in Fleet Street, to spite the Knights Hospitallers. +Walsingham, the chronicler, indeed, says that the +rebels—who, by the by, claimed only their rights—had +resolved to decapitate all the lawyers of +London, to put an end to all the laws that had +oppressed them, and to clear the ground for better +times. In the reign of Henry VI. the overgrown +society of the Temple divided into two halls, or +rather the original two halls of the knights and +Fratres Servientes separated into two societies. +Brooke, the Elizabethan antiquary, says: "To this +day, in memory of the old custom, the benchers or +ancients of the one society dine once every year in +the hall of the other society."</p> + +<p>Sir John Fortescue, Chief Justice of the King's +Bench in the reign of Henry VI., computed the +annual expenses of each law student at more than +£28—("£450 of our present money"—Addison). +The students were all gentlemen by birth, and at +each Inn of Court there was an academy, where +singing, music, and dancing were taught. On +festival days, after the offices of the Church, the +students employed themselves in the study of +history and in reading the Scriptures. Any student +expelled one society was refused admission to any +of the other societies. A manuscript (<i>temp.</i> +Henry VIII.) in the Cotton Library dwells much +on the readings, mootings, boltings, and other +practices of the Temple students, and analyses +the various classes of benchers, readers, cupboardmen, +inner barristers, outer barristers, and students. +The writer also mentions the fact that in term +times the students met to talk law and confer on +business in the church, which was, he says, as +noisy as St. Paul's. When the plague broke out +the students went home to the country.</p> + +<p>The Society of the Inner Temple was very active +(says Mr. Foss) during the reign of Henry VIII. +in the erection of new buildings. Several houses +for chambers were constructed near the library, +and were called Pakington's Rents, from the name +of the treasurer who superintended them. Henry +Bradshaw, treasurer in the twenty-sixth year, gave +his name to another set then built, which it kept +until Chief Baron Tanfield resided there in the +reign of James I., since which it has been called +Tanfield Court. Other improvements were made +about the same period, one of these being the construction +of a new ceiling to the hall and the erection +of a wall between the garden and the Thames.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> + +<p>The attention paid by the governors of the house +both to the morals and dress of its members is +evidenced by the imposition, in the thirteenth year +of the reign of Henry VIII., of a fine of 6s. 8d. +on any one who should exercise the plays of +"shove-grote" or "slyp-grote," and by the mandate +afterwards issued in the thirty-eighth year of the +same reign, that students should reform themselves +in their cut, or disguised apparel, and should not +have long beards.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="temp" id="temp"></a> +<img src="images/p157.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE TEMPLE IN 1671. (FROM AN OLD BIRD'S-EYE VIEW IN THE INNER TEMPLE.)</span> +</div> + +<p>It is in the Temple Gardens that Shakespeare—relying, +probably, on some old tradition which +does not exist in print—has laid one of the scenes +of his <i>King Henry VI.</i>—that, namely, in which the +partisans of the rival houses of York and Lancaster +first assume their distinctive badges of the +white and red roses:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Suffolk.</i> Within the Temple Hall we were too loud;<br /> +The garden here is more convenient. +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +"<i>Plantagenet.</i> Let him that is a true-born gentleman,<br /> +And stands upon the honour of his birth,<br /> +If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,<br /> +From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.<br /> +<br /> +"<i>Somerset.</i> Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>But dare maintain the party of the truth,<br /> +Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +"<i>Plantagenet.</i> Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?<br /> +<br /> +"<i>Somerset.</i> Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +"<i>Warwick.</i> This brawl to-day,<br /> +Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,<br /> +Shall send, between the red rose and the white,<br /> +A thousand souls to death and deadly night."<br /> +<br /></div> +<p><span style="margin-left: 6em;"><i>King Henry VI.</i>, Part I., Act ii., sc. 4.</span></p> + +<p>The books of the Middle Temple do not commence +till the reign of King Henry VII., the first +treasurer named in them being John Brooke, in the +sixteenth year of Henry VII. (1500-1). Readers +were not appointed till the following year, the +earliest being John Vavasour—probably son of the +judge, and not, as Dugdale calls him, the judge +himself, who had then been on the bench for twelve +years. Members of the house might be excused +from living in commons on account of their wives +being in town, or for other special reasons (Foss).</p> + +<p>In the last year of Philip and Mary (1558) +eight gentlemen of the Temple were expelled the +society and committed to the Fleet for wilful disobedience +to the Bench, but on their humble +submission they were readmitted. A year before +this a severe Act of Parliament was passed, prohibiting +Templars wearing beards of more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +three weeks' growth, upon pain of a forty-shilling +fine, and double for every week after monition. +The young lawyers were evidently getting too +foppish. They were required to cease wearing +Spanish cloaks, swords, bucklers, rapiers, gowns, +hats, or daggers at their girdles. Only knights +and benchers were to display doublets or hose of +any light colour, except scarlet and crimson, or +to affect velvet caps, scarf-wings to their gowns, +white jerkins, buskins, velvet shoes, double shirt-cuffs, +or feathers or ribbons in their caps. More +over, no attorney was to be admitted into either +house. These monastic rules were intended to +preserve the gravity of the profession, and must +have pleased the Poloniuses and galled the Mercutios +of those troublous days.</p> + +<p>In Elizabeth's days Master Gerard Leigh, a +pedantic scholar of the College of Heralds, persuaded +the misguided Inner Temple to abandon +the old Templar arms—a plain red cross on a +shield argent, with a lamb bearing the banner of +the sinless profession, surmounted by a red cross. +The heraldic euphuist substituted for this a flying +Pegasus striking out the fountain of Hippocrene +with its hoofs, with the appended motto of "Volat +ad astera virtus," a recondite allusion to men, like +Chaucer and Gower, who, it is said, had turned +from lawyers to poets.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Middle Temple Hall: its Roof, Busts, and Portraits—Manningham's Diary—Fox Hunts in Hall—The Grand Revels—Spenser—Sir J. Davis—A +Present to a King—Masques and Royal Visitors at the Temple—Fires in the Temple—The Last Great Revel in the Hall—Temple +Anecdotes—The Gordon Riots—John Scott and his Pretty Wife—Colman "Keeping Terms"—Blackstone's "Farewell"—Burke—Sheridan—A +Pair of Epigrams—Hare Court—The Barber's Shop—Johnson and the Literary Club—Charles Lamb—Goldsmith: his Life, Troubles, +and Extravagances—"Hack Work" for Booksellers—<i>The Deserted Village</i>—<i>She Stoops to Conquer</i>—Goldsmith's Death and Burial.</p></div> + + +<p>In the glorious reign of Elizabeth the old Middle +Temple Hall was converted into chambers, and a +new hall built. The present roof (says Mr. Peter +Cunningham) is the best piece of Elizabethan +architecture in London. The screen, in the +Renaissance style, was long supposed to be an +exact copy of the Strand front of Old Somerset +House; but this is a vulgar error; nor could it have +been made of timber from the Spanish Armada, for +the simple reason that it was set up thirteen years +before the Armada was organised. The busts of +"doubting" Lord Eldon and his brother, Lord +Stowell, the great Admiralty judge, are by Behnes. +The portraits are chiefly second-rate copies. The +exterior was cased with stone, in "wretched taste,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> +in 1757. The diary of an Elizabethan barrister, +named Manningham, preserved in the Harleian +Miscellanies, has preserved the interesting fact that +in this hall in February, 1602—probably, says +Mr. Collier, six months after its first appearance +at the Globe—Shakespeare's <i>Twelfth Night</i> was +acted.</p> + +<p>"Feb. 2, 1601 (2).—At our feast," says Manningham, +"we had a play called <i>Twelve Night, or What +you Will</i>, much like the <i>Comedy of Errors</i> or +<i>Menechmi in Plautus</i>, but most like and neere to +that in Italian called <i>Inganni</i>. A good practice in +it is to make the steward believe his lady widdowe +was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter, as +from his lady, in generall terms telling him what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gestures, +inscribing his apparaile, &c., and then, when he +came to practise, making him believe they tooke +him to be mad."</p> + +<p>The Temple revels in the olden time were indeed +gorgeous outbursts of mirth and hospitality. One of +the most splendid of these took place in the fourth +year of Elizabeth's reign, when the queen's favourite, +Lord Robert Dudley (afterwards the great Earl of +Leicester) was elected Palaphilos, constable or +marshal of the inn, to preside over the Christmas +festivities. He had lord chancellor and judges, +eighty guards, officers of the household, and other +distinguished persons to attend him; and another +of the queen's subsequent favourites, Christopher +Hatton—a handsome youth, remarkable for his +skill in dancing—was appointed master of the +games. The daily banquets of the Constable were +announced by the discharge of a double cannon, +and drums and fifes summoned the mock court +to the common hall, while sackbuts, cornets, and +recorders heralded the arrival of every course. At +the first remove a herald at the high table cried,—"The +mighty Palaphilos, Prince of Sophie, High +Constable, Marshal of the Knights Templars, +Patron of the Honourable Order of Pegasus!—a +largesse! a largesse!" upon which the Prince of +Sophie tossed the man a gold chain worth a +thousand talents. The supper ended, the king-at-arms +entered, and, doing homage, announced +twenty-four special gentlemen, whom Pallas had +ordered him to present to Palaphilos as knights-elect +of the Order of Pegasus. The twenty-four +gentlemen at once appeared, in long white vestures, +with scarves of Pallas's colours, and the king-at-arms, +bowing to each, explained to them the laws +of the new order.</p> + +<p>For every feast the steward provided five fat +hams, with spices and cakes, and the chief butler +seven dozen gilt and silver spoons, twelve damask +table-cloths, and twenty candlesticks. The Constable +wore gilt armour and a plumed helmet, +and bore a poleaxe in his hands. On St. +Thomas's Eve a parliament was held, when the +two youngest brothers, bearing torches, preceded +the procession of benchers, the officers' names +were called, and the whole society passed round +the hearth singing a carol. On Christmas Eve the +minstrels, sounding, preceded the dishes, and, +dinner done, sang a song at the high table; after +dinner the oldest master of the revels and other +gentlemen singing songs.</p> + +<p>On Christmas Day the feast grew still more +feudal and splendid. At the great meal at noon +the minstrels and a long train of servitors bore in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +the blanched boar's head, with a golden lemon in +its jaws, the trumpeters being preceded by two +gentlemen in gowns, bearing four torches of white +wax. On St. Stephen's Day the younger Templars +waited at table upon the benchers. At the first +course the Constable entered, to the sound of +horns, preceded by sixteen swaggering trumpeters, +while the halberdiers bore "the tower" on their +shoulders and marched gravely three times round +the fire.</p> + +<p>On St. John's Day the Constable was up at seven, +and personally called and reprimanded any tardy +officers, who were sometimes committed to the +Tower for disorder. If any officer absented himself +at meals, any one sitting in his place was +compelled to pay his fee and assume his office. +Any offender, if he escaped into the oratory, could +claim sanctuary, and was pardoned if he returned +into the hall humbly and as a servitor, carrying a +roll on the point of a knife. No one was allowed +to sing after the cheese was served.</p> + +<p>On Childermas Day, New Year's Day, and +Twelfth Night the same costly feasts were continued, +only that on Thursday there was roast +beef and venison pasty for dinner, and mutton and +roast hens were served for supper. The final banquet +closing all was preceded by a dance, revel, +play, or mask, the gentlemen of every Inn of Court +and Chancery being invited, and the hall furnished +with side scaffolds for the ladies, who were feasted in +the library. The Lord Chancellor and the ancients +feasted in the hall, the Templars serving. The +feast over, the Constable, in his gilt armour, ambled +into the hall on a caparisoned mule, and arranged +the sequence of sports.</p> + +<p>The Constable then, with three reverences, knelt +before the King of the Revels, and, delivering up his +naked sword, prayed to be taken into the royal +service. Next entered Hatton, the Master of the +Game, clad in green velvet, his rangers arrayed +in green satin. Blowing "a blast of venery" three +times on their horns, and holding green-coloured +bows and arrows in their hands, the rangers paced +three times round the central fire, then knelt to the +King of the Revels, and desired admission into the +royal service. Next ensued a strange and barbarous +ceremony. A huntsman entered with a +live fox and cat and nine or ten couple of hounds, +and, to the blast of horns and wild shouting, the +poor creatures were torn to shreds, for the amusement +of the applauding Templars. At supper the +Constable entered to the sound of drums, borne +upon a scaffold by four men, and as he was carried +three times round the hearth every one shouted, +"A lord! a lord!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> + +<p>He then descended, called together his mock +court, by such fantastic names as—</p> + +<p> +Sir Francis Flatterer, of Fowlershurst, in the county<br /> +of Buckingham;<br /> +<br /> +Sir Randal Rakabite, of Rascal Hall, in the county<br /> +of Rakebell;<br /> +<br /> +Sir Morgan Mumchance, of Much Monkery, in the<br /> +county of Mad Mopery;<br /> +</p> + +<p>and the banquet then began, every man having a +gilt pot full of wine, and each one paying sixpence +for his repast. That night, when the lights were +put out, the noisy, laughing train passed out of the +portal, and the long revels were ended.</p> + +<p>"Sir Edward Coke," says Lord Campbell, writing +of this period, "first evinced his forensic powers +when deputed by the students to make a representation +to the benchers of the Inner Temple +respecting the bad quality of their <i>commons</i> in the +hall. After laboriously studying the facts and the +law of the case, he clearly proved that the cook had +broken his engagement, and was liable to be dismissed. +This, according to the phraseology of the +day, was called 'the cook's case,' and he was said +to have argued it with so much quickness of penetration +and solidity of judgment, that he gave entire +satisfaction to the students, and was much admired +by the Bench."</p> + +<p>In his exquisite "Prothalamion" Spenser alludes +to the Temple as if he had sketched it from the +river, after a visit to his great patron, the Earl of +Essex,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 10em;">"Those bricky towers,</span><br /> +The which on Thames' broad, aged back doe ride,<br /> +Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers,<br /> +There whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide,<br /> +Till they decayed through pride."</div> + +<p>Sir John Davis, the author of "Nosce Teipsum," +that fine mystic poem on the immortality of the +soul, and of that strange philosophical rhapsody on +dancing, was expelled the Temple in Elizabeth's +reign, for thrashing his friend, another roysterer +of the day, Mr. Richard Martin, in the Middle +Temple Hall; but afterwards, on proper submission, +he was readmitted. Davis afterwards reformed, and +became the wise Attorney-General of Ireland. His +biographer says, that the preface to his "Irish +Reports" vies with Coke for solidity and Blackstone +for elegance. Martin (whose monument is +now hoarded up in the Triforium) also became a +learned lawyer and a friend of Selden's, and was +the person to whom Ben Jonson dedicated his +bitter play, <i>The Poetaster</i>. In the dedication the +poet says, "For whose innocence as for the author's +you were once a noble and kindly undertaker: +signed, your true lover, <span class="smcap">Ben Jonson</span>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the accession of James I. some of his hungry +Scotch courtiers attempted to obtain from the king +a grant of the fee-simple of the Temple; upon +which the two indignant societies made "humble +suit" to the king, and obtained a grant of the +property to themselves. The grant was signed in +1609, the benchers paying £10 annually to the +king for the Inner Temple, and £10 for the +Middle. In gratitude for this concession, the two +loyal societies presented his majesty with a stately +gold cup, weighing 200½ ounces, which James +"most graciously" accepted. On one side was +engraved a temple, on the other a flaming altar, +with the words <i>nil nisi vobis</i>; on the pyramidical +cover stood a Roman soldier leaning on his shield. +This cup the bibulous monarch ever afterwards +esteemed as one of his rarest and richest jewels. +In 1623 James issued another of those absurd and +trumpery sumptuary edicts, recommending the +ancient way of wearing caps, and requesting the +Templars to lay aside their unseemly boots and +spurs, the badges of "roarers, rakes, and bullies."</p> + +<p>The Temple feasts continued to be as lavish +and magnificent as in the days of Queen Mary, +when no reader was allowed to contribute less than +fifteen bucks to the hall dinner, and many during +their readings gave fourscore or a hundred.</p> + +<p>On the marriage (1613) of the Lady Elizabeth, +daughter of King James I., with Prince Frederick, +the unfortunate Elector-Palatine, the Temple and +Gray's Inn men gave a masque, of which Sir Francis +Bacon was the chief contriver. The masque came +to Whitehall by water from Winchester Place, +in Southwark; three peals of ordnance greeting +them as they embarked with torches and lamps, +as they passed the Temple Garden, and as they +landed. This short trip cost £300. The king, +after all, was so tired, and the hall so crowded, +that the masque was adjourned till the Saturday +following, when all went well. The next night the +king gave a supper to the forty masquers; Prince +Charles and his courtiers, who had lost a wager +to the king at running at the ring, paying for the +banquet £30 a man. The masquers, who dined +with forty of the chief nobles, kissed his majesty's +hand. Shortly after this twenty Templars fought +at barriers, in honour of Prince Charles, the +benchers contributing thirty shillings each to the +expenses; the barristers of seven years' standing, +fifteen shillings; and the other gentlemen in commons, +ten shillings.</p> + +<p>One of the grandest masques ever given by the +Templars was one which cost £21,000, and was presented, +in 1633, to Charles I. and his French queen. +Bulstrode Whitelocke, then in his youth, gives a vivid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> +picture of this pageant, which was meant to refute +Prynne's angry "Histro-Mastix." Noy and Selden +were members of the committee, and many grave +heads met together to discuss the dances, dresses, +and music. The music was written by Milton's +friend, Lawes, the libretto by Shirley. The procession +set out from Ely House, in Holborn, on +Candlemas Day, in the evening. The four chariots +that bore the sixteen masquers were preceded by +twenty footmen in silver-laced scarlet liveries, who +carried torches and cleared the way. After these +rode 100 gentlemen from the Inns of Court, +mounted and richly clad, every gentleman having +two lackeys with torches and a page to carry +his cloak. Then followed the other masquers—beggars +on horseback and boys dressed as birds. +The colours of the first chariot were crimson and +silver, the four horses being plumed and trapped +in parti-coloured tissue. The Middle Temple rode +next, in blue and silver; and the Inner Temple and +Lincoln's Inn followed in equal bravery, 100 of +the suits being reckoned to have cost £10,000. +The masque was most perfectly performed in the +Banqueting House at Whitehall, the Queen dancing +with several of the masquers, and declaring them +to be as good dancers as ever she saw.</p> + +<p>The year after the Restoration Sir Heneage Finch, +afterwards Earl of Nottingham, kept his "reader's +feast" in the great hall of the Inner Temple. +At that time of universal vice, luxury, and extravagance, +the banquet lasted from the 4th to the 17th +of August. It was, in fact, open house to all +London. The first day came the nobles and privy +councillors; the second, the Lord Mayor and aldermen; +the third, the whole College of Physicians in +their mortuary caps and gowns; the fourth, the +doctors and advocates of civil law; on the fifth day, +the archbishops, bishops, and obsequious clergy; +and on the fifteenth, as a last grand explosion, the +King, the Duke of York, the Duke of Buckingham, +and half the peers. An entrance was made from +the river through the wall of the Temple Garden, +the King being received on landing by the Reader +and the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; +the path from the garden to the wall was lined +with the Reader's servants, clad in scarlet cloaks +and white doublets; while above them stood the +benchers, barristers, and students, music playing +all the while, and twenty violins welcoming Charles +into the hall with unanimous scrape and quaver. +Dinner was served by fifty young students in their +gowns, no meaner servants appearing. In the +November following the Duke of York, the Duke +of Buckingham, and the Earl of Dorset were +admitted members of the Society of the Inner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +Temple. Six years after, Prince Rupert, then a +grizzly old cavalry soldier, and addicted to experiments +in chemistry and engraving in his house in +the Barbican, received the same honour.</p> + +<p>The great fire of 1666, says Mr. Jeaffreson, in +his "Law and Lawyers," was stayed in its westward +course at the Temple; but it was not suppressed +until the flames had consumed many sets of chambers, +had devoured the title-deeds of a vast number +of valuable estates, and had almost licked the +windows of the Temple Church. Clarendon has +recorded that on the occasion of this stupendous +calamity, which occurred when a large proportion +of the Templars were out of town, the lawyers +in residence declined to break open the chambers +and rescue the property of absent members of their +society, through fear of prosecution for burglary. +Another great fire, some years later (January, +1678-79), destroyed the old cloisters and part of the +old hall of the Inner Temple, and the greater part +of the residential buildings of the "Old Temple." +Breaking out at midnight, and lasting till noon of +next day, it devoured, in the Middle Temple, the +whole of Pump Court (in which locality it originated), +Elm-tree Court, Vine Court, and part of +Brick Court; in the Inner Temple the cloisters, +the greater part of Hare Court, and part of the hall. +The night was bitterly cold, and the Templars, +aroused from their beds to preserve life and property, +could not get an adequate supply of water +from the Thames, which the unusual severity of +the season had frozen. In this difficulty they +actually brought barrels of ale from the Temple +butteries, and fed the engines with the malt liquor. +Of course this supply of fluid was soon exhausted, +so the fire spreading eastward, the lawyers fought +it by blowing up the buildings that were in immediate +danger. Gunpowder was more effectual than +beer; but the explosions were sadly destructive +to human life. Amongst the buildings thus demolished +was the library of the Inner Temple. +Naturally, but with no apparent good reason, the +sufferers by the fire attributed it to treachery on +the part of persons unknown, just as the citizens +attributed the fire of 1666 to the Papists. It is more +probable that the calamity was caused by some +such accident as that which occasioned the fire +which, during John Campbell's attorney-generalship, +destroyed a large amount of valuable property, +and had its origin in the clumsiness of a barrister +who upset upon his fire a vessel full of spirit. +Of this fire Lord Campbell observes:—"When +I was Attorney-General, my chambers in Paper +Buildings, Temple, were burnt to the ground in +the night-time, and all my books and manuscripts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> +with some valuable official papers, were consumed. +Above all, I had to lament a collection of letters +written to me by my dear father, from the time +of my going to college till his death in 1824. All +lamented this calamity except the claimant of a +peerage, some of whose documents (suspected to +be forged) he hoped were destroyed; but fortunately +they had been removed into safe custody a +few days before, and the claim was dropped." +The fire here alluded to broke out in the chambers +of one Thornbury, in Pump Court.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="hall" id="hall"></a> +<img src="images/p162.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE OLD HALL OF THE INNER TEMPLE</span> +</div> + +<p>"I remember," says North in his "Life of Lord +Keeper Guildford," "that after the fire of the +Temple it was considered whether the old cloister +walks should be rebuilt or rather improved into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> +chambers, which latter had been for the benefit of +the Middle Temple; but, in regard that it could +not be done without the consent of the Inner +Houses, the masters of the Middle Houses waited +upon the then Mr. Attorney Finch to desire the +concurrence of his society upon a proposition of +some benefit to be thrown in on his side. But +Mr. Attorney would by no means give way to it, +and reproved the Middle Templars very bitterly +and eloquently upon the subject of students walking +in evenings there, and putting 'cases,' which, he +said, 'was done in his time, mean and low as the +buildings were then. However, it comes,' he said, +'that such a benefit to students is now made little +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>account of.' And thereupon the cloisters, by the +order and disposition of Sir Christopher Wren, +were built as they now stand."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="antiquities" id="antiquities"></a> +<img src="images/p163.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="center">Door from the Middle Temple. Wig-Shop in the Middle Temple. Door from the Inner Temple.<br /> +Screen of the Middle Temple Hall.<br /> +Fireplace in the Inner Temple. Buttery of the Inner Temple.</div> + +<p>The last revel in any of the Inns of Court +was held in the Inner Temple, February, 1733 +(George II.), in honour of Mr. Talbot, a bencher +of that house, accepting the Great Seal. The ceremony +is described by an eye-witness in "Wynne's +Eunomus." The Lord Chancellor arrived at two +o'clock, preceded by Mr. Wollaston, Master of the +Revels, and followed by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of +Bangor, Master of the Temple, and the judges and +serjeants formerly of the Inner Temple. There +was an elegant dinner provided for them and the +chancellor's officers, but the barristers and students +had only the usual meal of grand days, except that +each man was furnished with a flask of claret +besides the usual allowance of port and sack. +Fourteen students waited on the Bench table: +among them was Mr. Talbot, the Lord Chancellor's +eldest son, and by their means any special dish +was easily obtainable from the upper table. A +large gallery was built over the screen for the +ladies; and music, placed in the little gallery at the +upper end of the hall, played all dinner-time. As +soon as dinner was over, the play of <i>Love for Love</i> +and the farce of <i>The Devil to Pay</i> were acted, the +actors coming from the Haymarket in chaises, +all ready-dressed. It was said they refused all +gratuity, being satisfied with the honour of performing +before such an audience. After the play, +the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Temple, +the judges and benchers retired into their parliament +chamber, and in about half an hour afterwards +came into the hall again, and a large ring +was formed round the fire-place (but no fire nor +embers were in it). Then the Master of the Revels, +who went first, took the Lord Chancellor by the +right hand, and he with his left took Mr. J[ustice] +Page, who, joined to the other judges, serjeants, +and benchers present, danced, or rather walked, +round about the coal fire, according to the old +ceremony, three times, during which they were aided +in the figure of the dance by Mr. George Cooke, +the prothonotary, then upwards of sixty; and all +the time of the dance the <i>ancient song</i>, accompanied +with music, was sung by one Tony Aston (an actor), +dressed in a bar gown, whose father had been formerly +Master of the Plea Office in the King's Bench. +When this was over, the ladies came down from +the gallery, went into the parliament chamber, and +stayed about a quarter of an hour, while the hall +was putting in order. Then they went into the hall +and danced a few minutes. Country dances began +about ten, and at twelve a very fine collation was +provided for the whole company, from which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> +returned to dancing. The Prince of Wales honoured +the performance with his company part of the time. +He came into the music gallery wing about the +middle of the play, and went away as soon as the +farce of walking round the coal fire was over.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peter Cunningham, <i>apropos</i> of these revels, +mentions that when the floor of the Middle Temple +Hall was taken up in 1764 there were found nearly +one hundred pair of very small dice, yellowed by +time, which had dropped through the chinks above. +The same writer caps this fact by one of his usually +apposite quotations. Wycherly, in his <i>Plain Dealer</i> +(1676—Charles II.), makes Freeman, one of his +characters, say:—"Methinks 'tis like one of the +Halls in Christmas time, whither from all parts fools +bring their money to try the dice (nor the worst +judges), whether it shall be their own or no."</p> + +<p>The Inner Temple Hall (the refectory of the +ancient knights) was almost entirely rebuilt in +1816. The roof was overloaded with timber, the +west wall was cracking, and the wooden cupola +of the bell let in the rain. The pointed arches +and rude sculpture at the entrance doors showed +great antiquity, but the northern wall had been +rebuilt in 1680. The incongruous Doric screen +was surmounted by lions' heads, cones, and +other anomalous devices, and in 1741 low, classic +windows had been inserted in the south front. Of +the old hall, where the Templars frequently held +their chapters, and at different times entertained +King John, King Henry III., and several of the +legates, several portions still remain. A very +ancient groined Gothic arch forms the roof of the +present buttery, and in the apartment beyond +there is a fine groined and vaulted ceiling. In the +cellars below are old walls of vast thickness, part +of an ancient window, a curious fire-place, and +some pointed arches, all now choked with modern +brick partitions and dusty staircases. These +vaults formerly communicated by a cloister with +the chapel of St. Anne, on the south side of the +church. In the reign of James I. some brick +chambers, three storeys high, were erected over +the cloister, but were burnt down in 1678. In +1681 the cloister chambers were again rebuilt.</p> + +<p>During the formation of the present new entrance +to the Temple by the church at the bottom of +Inner Temple Lane, when some old houses were +removed, the masons came on a strong ancient wall +of chalk and ragstone, supposed to have been the +ancient northern boundary of the convent.</p> + +<p>Let us cull a few Temple anecdotes from various +ages:—</p> + +<p>In November, 1819, Erskine, in the House of +Lords, speaking upon Lord Lansdowne's motion for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> +an inquiry into the state of the country, condemned +the conduct of the yeomanry at the "Manchester +massacre." "By an ordinary display of spirit and +resolution," observed the brilliant egotist to his +brother peers (who were so impressed by his complacent +volubility and good-humoured self-esteem, +that they were for the moment ready to take him +at his own valuation), "insurrection may be repressed +without violating the law or the constitution. +In the riots of 1780, when the mob were +preparing to attack the house of Lord Mansfield, I +offered to defend it with a small military force; +but this offer was unluckily rejected. Afterwards, +being in the Temple when the rioters were preparing +to force the gate and had fired several +times, I went to the gate, opened it, and showed +them a field-piece, which I was prepared to discharge +in case the attack was persisted in. They +were daunted, fell back, and dispersed."</p> + +<p>Judge Burrough (says Mr. Jeaffreson, in his +"Law and Lawyers") used to relate that when the +Gordon Rioters besieged the Temple he and a +strong body of barristers, headed by a sergeant +of the Guards, were stationed in Inner Temple +Lane, and that, having complete confidence in the +strength of their massive gate, they spoke bravely +of their desire to be fighting on the other side. At +length the gate was forced. The lawyers fell into +confusion and were about to beat a retreat, when +the sergeant, a man of infinite humour, cried out in +a magnificent voice, "Take care no gentleman +fires from behind." The words struck awe into the +assailants and caused the barristers to laugh. The +mob, who had expected neither laughter nor armed +resistance, took to flight, telling all whom they met +that the bloody-minded lawyers were armed to the +teeth and enjoying themselves. The Temple was +saved. When these Gordon Rioters filled London +with alarm, no member of the junior bar was more +prosperous and popular than handsome Jack Scott, +and as he walked from his house in Carey Street +to the Temple, with his wife on his arm, he returned +the greetings of the barristers, who, besides liking +him for a good fellow, thought it prudent to be on +good terms with a man sure to achieve eminence. +Dilatory in his early as well as his later years, +Scott left his house that morning half an hour late. +Already it was known to the mob that the Templars +were assembling in their college, and a cry of "The +Temple! kill the lawyers!" had been raised in +Whitefriars and Essex Street. Before they reached +the Middle Temple gate Mr. and Mrs. Scott were +assaulted more than once. The man who won +Bessie Surtees from a host of rivals and carried her +away against the will of her parents and the wishes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +of his own father, was able to protect her from +serious violence. But before the beautiful creature +was safe within the Temple her dress was torn, and +when at length she stood in the centre of a crowd +of excited and admiring barristers, her head was +bare and her ringlets fell loose upon her shoulders. +"The scoundrels have got your hat, Bessie," whispered +John Scott; "but never mind—they have left +you your hair."</p> + +<p>In Lord Eldon's "Anecdote Book" there is +another gate story amongst the notes on the +Gordon Riots. "We youngsters," says the aged +lawyer, "at the Temple determined that we would +not remain inactive during such times; so we introduced +ourselves into a troop to assist the military. +We armed ourselves as well as we could, and next +morning we drew up in the court ready to follow +out a troop of soldiers who were on guard. When, +however, the soldiers had passed through the gate it +was suddenly shut in our faces, and the officer in +command shouted from the other side, 'Gentlemen, +I am much obliged to you for your intended +assistance; but I do not choose to allow my soldiers +to be shot, so I have ordered you to be locked +in.'" And away he galloped.</p> + +<p>The elder Colman decided on making the +younger one a barrister; and after visits to Scotland +and Switzerland, the son returned to Soho +Square, and found that his father had taken for +him chambers in the Temple, and entered him as a +student at Lincoln's Inn, where he afterwards kept +a few terms by eating oysters. Upon this Mr. +Peake notes:—"The students of Lincoln's Inn +keep term by dining, or pretending to dine, in the +hall during the term time. Those who feed there +are accommodated with wooden trenchers instead +of plates, and previously to the dinner oysters are +served up by way of prologue to the play. Eating +the oysters, or going into the hall without eating +them, if you please, and then departing to dine +elsewhere, is quite sufficient for term-keeping." +The chambers in King's Bench Walk were furnished +with a tent-bedstead, two tables, half-a-dozen +chairs, and a carpet as much too scanty for the +boards as Sheridan's "rivulet of rhyme" for its +"meadow of margin." To these the elder Colman +added £10 worth of law books which had been +given to him in his own Lincoln's Inn days by +Lord Bath; then enjoining the son to work hard, +the father left town upon a party of pleasure.</p> + +<p>Colman had sent his son to Switzerland to get +him away from a certain Miss Catherine Morris, an +actress of the Haymarket company. This answered +for a time, but no sooner had the father left the +son in the Temple than he set off with Miss Morris<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +to Gretna Green, and was there married, in 1784; +and four years after, the father's sanction having +been duly obtained, they were publicly married at +Chelsea Church.</p> + +<p>In the same staircase with Colman, in the +Temple, lived the witty Jekyll, who, seeing in +Colman's chambers a round cage with a squirrel in +it, looked for a minute or two at the little animal, +which was performing the same operation as a man +in the treadmill, and then quietly said, "Ah, poor +devil! he is going the Home Circuit;" the locality +where it was uttered—the Temple—favouring this +technical joke.</p> + +<p>On the morning young Colman began his studies +(December 20, 1784) he was interrupted by the +intelligence that the funeral procession of the great +Dr. Johnson was on its way from his late residence, +Bolt Court, through Fleet Street, to Westminster +Abbey. Colman at once threw down his pen, +and ran forth to see the procession, but was disappointed +to find it much less splendid and imposing +than the sepulchral pomp of Garrick five years +before.</p> + +<p>Dr. Dibdin thus describes the Garden walks of +the last century:—"Towards evening it was the +fashion for the leading counsel to promenade +during the summer months in the Temple Gardens. +Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes +and silk stockings, at this time constituted the usual +evening dress. Lord Erskine, though a great deal +shorter than his brethren, somehow always seemed +to take the lead, both in place and in discourse, +and shouts of laughter would frequently follow his +dicta."</p> + +<p>Ugly Dunning, afterwards the famous Lord Ashburton, +entered the Middle Temple in 1752, and +was called four years later, in 1756. Lord Chancellor +Thurlow used to describe him wittily as "the +knave of clubs."</p> + +<p>Home Tooke, Dunning, and Kenyon were accustomed +to dine together, during the vacation, at a +little eating-house in the neighbourhood of Chancery +Lane for the sum of sevenpence-halfpenny +each. "As to Dunning and myself," said Tooke, +"we were generous, for we gave the girl who +waited upon us a penny a piece; but Kenyon, who +always knew the value of money, sometimes rewarded +her with a halfpenny, and sometimes with a +promise."</p> + +<p>Blackstone, before dedicating his powers finally +to the study of the law in which he afterwards +became so famous, wrote in Temple chambers his +"Farewell to the Muse:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Lulled by the lapse of gliding floods,<br /> +Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>How blest my days, my thoughts how free,<br /> +In sweet society with thee!<br /> +Then all was joyous, all was young,<br /> +And years unheeded roll'd along;<br /> +But now the pleasing dream is o'er—<br /> +These scenes must charm me now no more.<br /> +Lost to the field, and torn from you,<br /> +Farewell!—a long, a last adieu!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +Then welcome business, welcome strife,<br /> +Welcome the cares, the thorns of life,<br /> +The visage wan, the purblind sight,<br /> +The toil by day, the lamp by night,<br /> +The tedious forms, the solemn prate,<br /> +The pert dispute, the dull debate,<br /> +The drowsy bench, the babbling hall,—<br /> +For thee, fair Justice, welcome all!"</div> + +<p>That great orator, Edmund Burke, was entered +at the Middle Temple in 1747, when the heads of +the Scotch rebels of 1745 were still fresh on the +spikes of Temple Bar, and he afterwards came to +keep his terms in 1750. In 1756 he occupied a +two-pair chamber at the "Pope's Head," the shop +of Jacob Robinson, the Twickenham poet's publisher, +just within the Inner Temple gateway. +Burke took a dislike, however, perhaps fortunately +for posterity, to the calf-skin books, and was never +called to the bar.</p> + +<p>Richard Brinsley Sheridan, an Irishman even +more brilliant, but unfortunately far less prudent, +than Burke, entered his name in the Middle Temple +books a few days before his elopement with Miss +Linley.</p> + +<p>"A wit," says Archdeacon Nares, in his pleasant +book, "Heraldic Anomalies," "once chalked the +following lines on the Temple gate:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"As by the Templars' hold you go,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The horse and lamb display'd</span><br /> +In emblematic figures show<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The merits of their trade.</span><br /> +<br /> +"The clients may infer from thence<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How just is their profession;</span><br /> +The lamb sets forth their innocence,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The horse their expedition.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Oh, happy Britons! happy isle!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let foreign nations say,</span><br /> +Where you get justice without guile<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And law without delay."</span></div> + +<p>A rival wag replied to these lively lines by the +following severer ones:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Deluded men, these holds forego,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor trust such cunning elves;</span><br /> +These artful emblems tend to show<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their <i>clients</i>—not <i>themselves</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +"'Tis all a trick; these are all shams<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By which they mean to cheat you:</span><br /> +But have a care—for <i>you're</i> the <i>lambs</i>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And they the <i>wolves</i> that eat you.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span><br /> +"Nor let the thought of 'no delay'<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To these their courts misguide you;</span><br /> +'Tis you're the showy <i>horse</i>, and <i>they</i><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The <i>jockeys</i> that will ride you."</span></div> + +<p>Hare Court is said to derive its name from +Sir Nicholas Hare, who was Privy Councillor +to Henry VIII. the despotic, and Master of the +Rolls to Queen Mary the cruel. Heaven only +knows what stern decisions and anti-heretical indictments +have not been drawn up in that quaint +enclosure. The immortal pump, which stands as +a special feature of the court, has been mentioned +by the poet Garth in his "Dispensary:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"And dare the college insolently aim,<br /> +To equal our fraternity in fame?<br /> +Then let crabs' eyes with pearl for virtue try,<br /> +Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie;<br /> +So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams,<br /> +And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams."</div> + +<p>In Essex Court one solitary barber remains: +his shop is the last wigwam of a departing tribe. +Dick Danby's, in the cloisters, used to be famous. +In his "Lives of the Chief Justices," Lord Campbell +has some pleasant gossip about Dick Danby, +the Temple barber. In our group of antiquities +of the Temple on page 163 will be found an +engraving of the existing barber's shop.</p> + +<p>"One of the most intimate friends," he says, "I +have ever had in the world was Dick Danby, who +kept a hairdresser's shop under the cloisters in the +Inner Temple. I first made his acquaintance from +his assisting me, when a student at law, to engage +a set of chambers. He afterwards cut my hair, +made my bar wigs, and aided me at all times with +his valuable advice. He was on the same good +terms with most of my forensic contemporaries. +Thus he became master of all the news of the profession, +and he could tell who were getting on, and +who were without a brief—who succeeded by their +talents, and who hugged the attorneys—who were +desirous of becoming puisne judges, and who meant +to try their fortunes in Parliament—which of the +chiefs was in a failing state of health, and who was +next to be promoted to the collar of S.S. Poor +fellow! he died suddenly, and his death threw a +universal gloom over Westminster Hall, unrelieved +by the thought that the survivors who mourned him +might pick up some of his business—a consolation +which wonderfully softens the grief felt for a +favourite Nisi Prius leader."</p> + +<p>In spite of all the great lawyers who have been +nurtured in the Temple, it has derived its chief +fame from the residence within its precincts of +three civilians—Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and +Charles Lamb.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson came to the Temple (No. 1, Inner +Temple Lane) from Gray's Inn in 1760, and left +it for Johnson's Court (Fleet Street) about 1765. +When he first came to the Temple he was loitering +over his edition of "Shakespeare." In 1762 a +pension of £300 a year for the first time made +him independent of the booksellers. In 1763 +Boswell made his acquaintance and visited Ursa +Major in his den.</p> + +<p>"It must be confessed," says Boswell, "that +his apartments, furniture, and morning dress were +sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of clothes +looked very rusty; he had on a little old shrivelled, +unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; +his shirt neck and the knees of his breeches were +loose, his black worsted stockings ill drawn up, +and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of +slippers."</p> + +<p>At this time Johnson generally went abroad at +four in the afternoon, and seldom came home till +two in the morning. He owned it was a bad habit. +He generally had a levee of morning visitors, +chiefly men of letters—Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, +Murphy, Langton, Stevens, Beauclerk, &c.—and +sometimes learned ladies. "When Madame de +Boufflers (the mistress of the Prince of Conti) was +first in England," said Beauclerk, "she was desirous +to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to +his chambers in the Temple, where she was entertained +with his conversation for some time. When +our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got +into Inner Temple Lane, when all at once I heard +a voice like thunder. This was occasioned by +Johnson, who, it seems, upon a little reflection, +had taken it into his head that he ought to have +done the honours of his literary residence to a +foreign lady of quality, and, eager to show himself +a man of gallantry, was hurrying down the staircase +in violent agitation. He overtook us before we +reached the Temple Gate, and, brushing in between +me and Madame de Boufflers, seized her hand +and conducted her to her coach. His dress was a +rusty-brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes by +way of slippers, &c. A considerable crowd of +people gathered round, and were not a little struck +by his singular appearance."</p> + +<p>It was in the year 1763, while Johnson was +living in the Temple, that the Literary Club was +founded; and it was in the following year that +this wise and good man was seized with one of +those fits of hypochondria that occasionally weighed +upon that great intellect. Boswell had chambers, +not far from the god of his idolatry, at what were +once called "Farrar's Buildings," at the bottom of +Inner Temple Lane.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="oliver" id="oliver"></a> +<img src="images/p168.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLIVER GOLDSMITH</span> +</div> + +<p>Charles Lamb came to 4, Inner Temple Lane, in +1809. Writing to Coleridge, the delightful humorist +says:—"I have been turned out of my chambers in +the Temple by a landlord who wanted them for himself; +but I have got others at No. 4, Inner Temple +Lane, far more commodious and roomy. I have +two rooms on the third floor, and five rooms above, +with an inner staircase to myself, and all new +painted, &c., for £30 a year. The rooms are +delicious, and the best look backwards into Hare +Court, where there is a pump always going; just +now it is dry. Hare Court's trees come in at the +window, so that it's like living in a garden." In +1810 he says:—"The household gods are slow to +come; but here I mean to live and die." From +this place (since pulled down and rebuilt) he writes +to Manning, who is in China:—"Come, and bring +any of your friends the mandarins with you. My<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +best room commands a court, in which there are +trees and a pump, the water of which is excellent, +cold—with brandy; and not very insipid without." +He sends Manning some of his little books, to +give him "some idea of European literature." It +is in this letter that he speaks of Braham and his +singing, and jokes "on titles of honour," exemplifying +the eleven gradations, by which Mr. C. +Lamb rose in succession to be Baron, Marquis, +Duke, Emperor Lamb, and finally Pope Innocent; +and other lively matters fit to solace an English +mathematician self-banished to China. The same +year Mary Lamb describes her brother taking +to water like a hungry otter—abstaining from all +spirituous liquors, but with the most indifferent +result, as he became full of cramps and rheumatism, +and so cold internally that fire could not warm +him. It is but just to Lamb to mention that this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +ascetic period was brief. This same year Lamb +wrote his fine essays on Hogarth and the tragedies +of Shakespeare. He was already getting weary +of the dull routine of official work at the India +House.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="tomb" id="tomb"></a> +<img src="images/p169.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />GOLDSMITH'S TOMB IN 1860</span> +</div> + +<p>Goldsmith came to the Temple, early in 1764, +from Wine Office Court. It was a hard year with +him, though he published "The Traveller," and +opened fruitless negotiations with Dodsley and +Tonson. "He took," says Mr. Forster, "rooms on +the then library-staircase of the Temple. They +were a humble set of chambers enough (one Jeffs, +the butler of the society, shared them with him), +and on Johnson's prying and peering about in +them, after his short-sighted fashion flattening his +face against every object he looked at, Goldsmith's +uneasy sense of their deficiencies broke +out. 'I shall soon be in better chambers, sir, +than these,' he said. 'Nay, sir,' answered Johnson, +'never mind that—<i>nil te quæsiveris extra</i>.'" He +soon hurried off to the quiet of Islington, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +some say, to secretly write the erudite history of +"Goody Two-Shoes" for Newbery. In 1765 +various publications, or perhaps the money for +"The Vicar," enabled the author to move to larger +chambers in Garden Court, close to his first set, +and one of the most agreeable localities in the +Temple. He now carried out his threat to Johnson—started +a man-servant, and ran into debt with +his usual gay and thoughtless vanity to Mr. Filby, +the tailor, of Water Lane, for coats of divers +colours. Goldsmith began to feel his importance, +and determined to show it. In 1766 "The +Vicar of Wakefield" (price five shillings, sewed) +secured his fame, but he still remained in difficulties. +In 1767 he wrote The <i>Good-Natured +Man</i>, knocked off an English Grammar for five +guineas, and was only saved from extreme want +by Davies employing him to write a "History of +Rome" for 250 guineas. In 1767 Parson Scott +(Lord Sandwich's chaplain), busily going about to +negotiate for writers, describes himself as applying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> +to Goldsmith; among others, to induce him to write +in favour of the Administration. "I found him," +he said, "in a miserable set of chambers in the +Temple. I told him my authority; I told him +that I was empowered to pay most liberally for +his exertions; and—would you believe it!—he was +so absurd as to say, 'I can earn as much as will +supply my wants without writing for any party; +the assistance you offer is therefore unnecessary +to me.' And so I left him," added the Rev. Dr. +Scott, indignantly, "in his garret."</p> + +<p>On the partial success of <i>The Good-Natured +Man</i> (January, 1768), Goldsmith, having cleared +£500, broke out like a successful gambler. He +purchased a set of chambers (No. 2, up two +pairs of stairs, in Brick Court) for £400, squandered +the remaining £100, ran in debt to his +tailor, and borrowed of Mr. Bolt, a man on the +same floor. He purchased Wilton carpets, blue +merino curtains, chimney-glasses, book-cases, and +card-tables, and, by the aid of Filby, enrobed him +in a suit of Tyrian bloom, satin grain, with darker +blue silk breeches, price £8 2s. 7d., and he even +ventured at a more costly suit, lined with silk +and ornamented with gilt buttons. Below him +lived that learned lawyer, Mr. Blackstone, then +poring over the fourth volume of his precious +"Commentaries," and the noise and dancing overhead +nearly drove him mad, as it also did a Mr. +Children, who succeeded him. What these noises +arose from, Mr. Forster relates in his delightful +biography of the poet. An Irish merchant named +Seguin "remembered dinners at which Johnson, +Percy, Bickerstaff, Kelly, 'and a variety of +authors of minor note,' were guests. They talked +of supper-parties with younger people, as well in +the London chambers as in suburban lodgings; +preceded by blind-man's buff, forfeits, or games of +cards; and where Goldsmith, festively entertaining +them all, would make frugal supper for himself off +boiled milk. They related how he would sing all +kinds of Irish songs; with what special enjoyment +he gave the Scotch ballad of 'Johnny Armstrong' +(his old nurse's favourite); how cheerfully he would +put the front of his wig behind, or contribute in +any other way to the general amusement; and to +what accompaniment of uncontrolled laughter he +once 'danced a minuet with Mrs. Seguin.'"</p> + +<p>In 1768 appeared "The Deserted Village." It +was about this time that one of Goldy's Grub Street +acquaintances called upon him, whilst he was +conversing with Topham Beauclerk, and General +Oglethorpe, and the fellow, telling Goldsmith that +he was sorry he could not pay the two guineas he +owed him, offered him a quarter of a pound of tea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +and half a pound of sugar as an acknowledgment. +"1769. Goldsmith fell in love with Mary Horneck +known as the 'Jessamy Bride.' Unfortunately he +obtained an advance of £500 for his 'Natural +History,' and wholly expended it when only six +chapters were written." In 1771 he published +his "History of England." It was in this year that +Reynolds, coming one day to Brick Court, perhaps +about the portrait of Goldsmith he had painted +the year before, found the mercurial poet kicking a +bundle, which contained a masquerade dress, about +the room, in disgust at his folly in wasting money in +so foolish a way. In 1772, Mr. Forster mentions a +very characteristic story of Goldsmith's warmth of +heart. He one day found a poor Irish student +(afterwards Dr. M'Veagh M'Donnell, a well-known +physician) sitting and moping in despair on a +bench in the Temple Gardens. Goldsmith soon +talked and laughed him into hope and spirits, +then taking him off to his chambers, employed him +to translate some chapters of Buffon. In 1773 +<i>She Stoops to Conquer</i> made a great hit; but Noll +was still writing at hack-work, and was deeper +in debt than ever. In 1774, when Goldsmith was +still grinding on at his hopeless drudge-work, as far +from the goal of fortune as ever, and even resolving +to abandon London life, with all its temptations, +Mr. Forster relates that Johnson, dining with the +poet, Reynolds, and some one else, silently reproved +the extravagance of so expensive a dinner by sending +away the whole second course untouched.</p> + +<p>In March, 1774, Goldsmith returned from Edgware +to the Temple chambers, which he was trying +to sell, suffering from a low nervous fever, partly +the result of vexation at his pecuniary embarrassments. +Mr. Hawes, an apothecary in the Strand +(and one of the first founders of the Humane +Society), was called in; but Goldsmith insisted on +taking James's fever-powders, a valuable medicine, +but dangerous under the circumstances. This was +Friday, the 25th. He told the doctor then his mind +was not at ease, and he died on Monday, April 4th, +in his forty-fifth year. His debts amounted to +over £2,000. "Was ever poet so trusted before?" +writes Johnson to Boswell. The staircase of Brick +Court was filled with poor outcasts, to whom Goldsmith +had been kind and charitable. His coffin was +opened by Miss Horneck, that a lock might be cut +from his hair. Burke and Reynolds superintended +the funeral, Reynolds' nephew (Palmer, afterwards +Dean of Cashel) being chief mourner. Hugh +Kelly, who had so often lampooned the poet, was +present. At five o'clock on Saturday, the 9th of +April, Goldsmith was buried in the Temple churchyard. +In 1837, a slab of white marble, to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> +kindly poet's memory, was placed in the Temple +Church, and afterwards transferred to a recess of +the vestry chamber. Of the poet, Mr. Forster +says, "no memorial indicates the grave to the +pilgrim or the stranger, nor is it possible any longer +to identify the spot which received all that was +mortal of the delightful writer." The present site +is entirely conjectural; but it appears from the +following note, communicated to us by T.C. Noble, +the well-known City antiquary, that the real site +was remembered as late as 1830. Mr. Noble +says:—</p> + +<p>"In 1842, after some consideration, the benchers +of the Temple deciding that no more burials should +take place in the churchyard, resolved to pave it +over. For about fifteen years the burial-place of Dr. +Goldsmith continued in obscurity; for while some +would have it that the interment took place to +the east of the choir, others clung to an opinion, +handed down by Mr. Broome, the gardener, who +stated that when he commenced his duties, about +1830, a Mr. Collett, sexton, a very old man, and a +penurious one, too, employed him to prune an +elder-tree which, he stated, he venerated, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +it marked the site of Goldsmith's grave. The +stone which has been placed in the yard, 'to mark +the spot' where the poet was buried, is not the +site of this tree. The tomb was erected in 1860, +but the exact position of the grave has never been +discovered." The engraving on page 169 shows +the spot as it appeared in the autumn of that year. +The old houses at the back were pulled down +soon after.</p> + +<p>Mr. Forster, alluding to Goldsmith's love for the +rooks, the former denizens of the Temple Gardens, +says: "He saw the rookery (in the winter deserted, or +guarded only by some five or six, 'like old soldiers +in a garrison') resume its activity and bustle in the +spring; and he moralised, like a great reformer, +on the legal constitution established, the social +laws enforced, and the particular castigations endured +for the good of the community, by those +black-dressed and black-eyed chatterers. 'I have +often amused myself,' Goldsmith remarks, 'with +observing their plans 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.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<p class="center">THE TEMPLE (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Fountain Court and the Temple Fountain—Ruth Pinch—L.E.L.'s Poem—Fig-tree Court—The Inner Temple Library—Paper Buildings—The +Temple Gate—Guildford North and Jeffreys—Cowper, the Poet: his Melancholy and Attempted Suicide—A Tragedy in Tanfield Court—Lord +Mansfield—"Mr. Murray" and his Client—Lamb's Pictures of the Temple—The Sun-dials—Porson and his Eccentricities—Rules of +the Temple—Coke and his Labours—Temple Riots—Scuffles with the Alsatians—Temple Dinners—"Calling" to the Bar—The Temple +Gardens—The Chrysanthemums—Sir Matthew Hale's Tree—Revenues of the Temple—Temple Celebrities.</p></div> + + +<p>Lives there a man with soul so dead as to write +about the Temple without mentioning the little +fountain in Fountain Court?—that pet and plaything +of the Temple, that, like a little fairy, sings to +beguile the cares of men oppressed with legal +duties. It used to look like a wagoner's silver +whip—now a modern writer cruelly calls it "a pert +squirt." In Queen Anne's time Hatton describes +it as forcing its stream "to a vast and almost +incredible altitude"—it is now only ten feet high, +no higher than a giant lord chancellor. Then it +was fenced with palisades—now it is caged in iron; +then it stood in a square—now it is in a round. But +it still sparkles and glitters, and sprinkles and playfully +splashes the jaunty sparrows that come to +wash off the London dust in its variegated spray. +It is quite careless now, however, of notice, for has +it not been immortalised by the pen of Dickens, +who has made it the centre of one of his most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> +charming love scenes? It was in Fountain Court, +our readers will like to remember, that Ruth Pinch—gentle, +loving Ruth—met her lover, by the merest +accident of course.</p> + +<p>"There was," says Mr. Dickens, "a little plot +between them that Tom should always come out +of the Temple by one way, and that was past the +fountain. Coming through Fountain Court, he +was just to glance down the steps leading into +Garden Court, and to look once all round him; +and if Ruth had come to meet him, there he +would see her—not sauntering, you understand (on +account of the clerks), but coming briskly up, with +the best little laugh upon her face that ever +played in opposition to the fountain and beat it all +to nothing. For, fifty to one, Tom had been +looking for her in the wrong direction, and had +quite given her up, while she had been tripping +towards him from the first, jingling that little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> +reticule of hers (with all the keys in it) to attract +his wondering observation.</p> + +<p>"Whether there was life enough left in the +slow vegetation of Fountain Court for the smoky +shrubs to have any consciousness of the brightest +and purest-hearted little woman in the world, is +a question for gardeners and those who are learned +in the loves of plants. But that it was a good +thing for that same paved yard to have such a +delicate little figure flitting through it, that it +passed like a smile from the grimy old houses and +the worn flagstones, and left them duller, darker, +sterner than before, there is no sort of doubt. The +Temple fountain might have leaped up twenty +feet to greet the spring of hopeful maidenhood +that in her person stole on, sparkling, through the +dry and dusty channels of the law; the chirping +sparrows, bred in Temple chinks and crannies, +might have held their peace to listen to imaginary +skylarks as so fresh a little creature passed; the +dingy boughs, unused to droop, otherwise than in +their puny growth, might have bent down in a +kindred gracefulness to shed their benedictions on +her graceful head; old love-letters, shut up in iron +boxes in the neighbouring offices, and made of no +account among the heaps of family papers into +which they had strayed, and of which in their +degeneracy they formed a part, might have stirred +and fluttered with a moment's recollection of their +ancient tenderness, as she went lightly by. Anything +might have happened that did not happen, +and never will, for the love of Ruth....</p> + +<p>"Merrily the tiny fountain played, and merrily +the dimples sparkled on its sunny face. John +Westlock hurried after her. Softly the whispering +water broke and fell, and roguishly the dimples +twinkled as he stole upon her footsteps.</p> + +<p>"Oh, foolish, panting, timid little heart! why did +she feign to be unconscious of his coming?...</p> + +<p>"Merrily the fountain leaped and danced, and +merrily the smiling dimples twinkled and expanded +more and more, until they broke into a laugh +against the basin's rim and vanished."</p> + +<p>"L.E.L." (Miss Landon) has left a graceful +poem on this much-petted fountain, which begins,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind,<br /> +Like a melody, bringing sweet fancies to mind—<br /> +Some to grieve, some to gladden; around them they cast<br /> +The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past.<br /> +Away in the distance is heard the vast sound<br /> +From the streets of the city that compass it round,<br /> +Like the echo of fountains or ocean's deep call;<br /> +Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all."</div> + +<p>Fig-tree Court derived its name from obvious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> +sources. Next to the plane, that has the strange +power of sloughing off its sooty bark, the fig seems +the tree that best endures London's corrupted atmosphere. +Thomas Fairchild, a Hoxton gardener, +who wrote in 1722 (quoted by Mr. Peter Cunningham), +alludes to figs ripening well in the Rolls +Gardens, Chancery Lane, and to the tree thriving in +close places about Bridewell. Who can say that +some Templar pilgrim did not bring from the +banks of "Abana or Pharpar, rivers of Damascus," +the first leafy inhabitant of inky and dusty Fig-tree +Court? Lord Thurlow was living here in +1758, the year he was called to the bar, and when, +it was said, he had not money enough even to hire +a horse to attend the circuit.</p> + +<p>The Inner Temple Library stands on the terrace +facing the river. The Parliament Chambers and +Hall, in the Tudor style, were the work of Sidney +Smirke, R.A., in 1835. The library, designed by +Mr. Abrahams, is 96 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 63 +feet high; it has a hammer-beam roof. One of the +stained glass windows is blazoned with the arms of +the Templars. Below the library are chambers. +The cost of the whole was about £13,000. The +north window is thought to too much resemble +the great window at Westminster.</p> + +<p>Paper Buildings, a name more suitable for the +offices of some City companies, were first built +in the reign of James I., by a Mr. Edward Hayward +and others; and the learned Dugdale describes +them as eighty-eight feet long, twenty feet +broad, and four storeys high. This Hayward was +Selden's chamber-fellow, and to him Selden dedicated +his "Titles of Honour." Selden, according +to Aubrey, had chambers in these pleasant river-side +buildings, looking towards the gardens, and in +the uppermost storey he had a little gallery, to pace +in and meditate. The Great Fire swept away +Selden's chambers, and their successors were destroyed +by the fire which broke out in Mr. Maule's +chambers. Coming home at night from a dinner-party, +that gentleman, it is said, put the lighted +candle under his bed by mistake. The stately new +buildings were designed by Mr. Sidney Smirke, +A.R.A., in 1848. The red brick and stone harmonise +pleasantly, and the overhanging oriels and +angle turrets (Continental Tudor) are by no means +ineffective.</p> + +<p>The entrance to the Middle Temple from Fleet +Street is a gatehouse of red brick pointed with +stone, and is the work of Wren. It was erected +in 1684, after the Great Fire, and is in the style of +Inigo Jones—"not inelegant," says Ralph. It probably +occupies the site of the gatehouse erected +by order of Wolsey, at the expense of his prisoner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> +Sir Amyas Paulet. The frightened man covered +the front with the cardinal's hat and arms, hoping +to appease Wolsey's anger by gratifying his pride. +The Inner Temple gateway was built in the fifth +year of James I.</p> + +<p>Elm Court was built in the sixth year of Charles I. +Up one pair of stairs that successful courtier, +Guildford North, whom Jeffreys so tormented by +the rumour that he had been seen riding on a +rhinoceros, then exhibiting in London, commenced +the practice that soon won him such high honours.</p> + +<p>In 1752 the poet Cowper, on leaving a solicitor's +office, had chambers in the Middle Temple, and +in that solitude the horror of his future malady +began to darken over him. He gave up the +classics, which had been his previous delight, and +read George Herbert's poems all day long. In +1759, after his father's death, he purchased another +set of rooms for £250, in an airy situation in the +Inner Temple. He belonged, at this time, to the +"Nonsense Club," of which Bonnell Thornton, +Colman junior, and Lloyd were members. Thurlow +also was his friend. In 1763 his despondency +deepened into insanity. An approaching appointment +to the clerkship of the Journals of the House +of Lords overwhelmed him with nervous fears. +Dreading to appear in public, he resolved to destroy +himself. He purchased laudanum, then threw it +away. He packed up his portmanteau to go to +France and enter a monastery. He went down to +the Custom House Quay, to throw himself into the +river. He tried to stab himself. At last the poor +fellow actually hung himself, and was only saved by +an accident. The following is his own relation:—</p> + +<p>"Not one hesitating thought now remained, but +I fell greedily to the execution of my purpose. My +garter was made of a broad piece of scarlet binding, +with a sliding buckle, being sewn together at +the ends. By the help of the buckle I formed a +noose, and fixed it about my neck, straining it so +tight that I hardly left a passage for my breath, or +for the blood to circulate. The tongue of the +buckle held it fast. At each corner of the bed +was placed a wreath of carved work fastened by +an iron pin, which passed up through the midst +of it; the other part of the garter, which made a +loop, I slipped over one of them, and hung by it +some seconds, drawing up my feet under me, that +they might not touch the floor; but the iron bent, +and the carved work slipped off, and the garter +with it. I then fastened it to the frame of the +tester, winding it round and tying it in a strong +knot. The frame broke short, and let me down +again.</p> + +<p>"The third effort was more likely to succeed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> +I set the door open, which reached to within a +foot of the ceiling. By the help of a chair I could +command the top of it, and the loop being large +enough to admit a large angle of the door, was +easily fixed, so as not to slip off again. I pushed +away the chair with my feet; and hung at my whole +length. While I hung there I distinctly heard a +voice say three times, 'Tis over!' Though I am +sure of the fact, and was so at the time, yet it +did not at all alarm me or affect my resolution. I +hung so long that I lost all sense, all consciousness +of existence.</p> + +<p>"When I came to myself again I thought I +was in hell; the sound of my own dreadful groans +was all that I heard, and a feeling like that produced +by a flash of lightning just beginning to +seize upon me, passed over my whole body. In +a few seconds I found myself fallen on my face to +the floor. In about half a minute I recovered my +feet, and reeling and struggling, stumbled into bed +again.</p> + +<p>"By the blessed providence of God, the garter +which had held me till the bitterness of temporal +death was past broke just before eternal death had +taken place upon me. The stagnation of the blood +under one eye in a broad crimson spot, and a red +circle round my neck, showed plainly that I had +been on the brink of eternity. The latter, indeed, +might have been occasioned by the pressure of the +garter, but the former was certainly the effect of +strangulation, for it was not attended with the +sensation of a bruise, as it must have been had I +in my fall received one in so tender a part; and I +rather think the circle round my neck was owing +to the same cause, for the part was not excoriated, +nor at all in pain.</p> + +<p>"Soon after I got into bed I was surprised to +hear a voice in the dining-room, where the laundress +was lighting a fire. She had found the door unbolted, +notwithstanding my design to fasten it, and +must have passed the bed-chamber door while I +was hanging on it, and yet never perceived me. +She heard me fall, and presently came to ask me if +I was well, adding, she feared I had been in a fit.</p> + +<p>"I sent her to a friend, to whom I related the +whole affair, and dispatched him to my kinsman +at the coffee-house. As soon as the latter arrived +I pointed to the broken garter which lay in the +middle of the room, and apprised him also of the +attempt I had been making. His words were, +'My dear Mr. Cowper, you terrify me! To be +sure you cannot hold the office at this rate. Where +is the deputation?' I gave him the key of the +drawer where it was deposited, and his business +requiring his immediate attendance, he took it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +away with him; and thus ended all my connection +with the Parliament office."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="fountain" id="fountain"></a> +<img src="images/p174.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE TEMPLE FOUNTAIN, FROM AN OLD PRINT</span> +</div> + +<p>In February, 1732, Tanfield Court, a quiet, dull +nook on the east side of the Temple, to the south +of that sombre Grecian temple where the Master +resides, was the scene of a very horrible crime. +Sarah Malcolm, a laundress, aged twenty-two, +employed by a young barrister named Kerrol in +the same court, gaining access to the rooms of +an old lady named Duncomb, whom she knew +to have money, strangled her and an old servant, +and cut the throat of a young girl, whose bed she +had probably shared. Some of her blood-stained +linen, and a silver tankard of Mrs. Duncomb's, +stained with blood, were found by Mr. Kerrol +concealed in his chambers. Fifty-three pounds +of the money were discovered at Newgate hidden +in the prisoner's hair. She confessed to a share in +the robbery, but laid the murder to two lads with +whom she was acquainted. She was, however, +found guilty, and hung opposite Mitre Court, Fleet +Street. The crowd was so great that one woman +crossed from near Serjeants' Inn to the other side +of the way on the shoulders of the mob. Sarah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> +Malcolm went to execution neatly dressed in a crape +gown, held up her head in the cart with an air, +and seemed to be painted. A copy of her confession +was sold for twenty guineas. Two days +before her execution she dressed in scarlet, and +sat to Hogarth for a sketch, which Horace Walpole +bought for £5. The portrait represents a cruel, +thin-lipped woman, not uncomely, sitting at a table. +The Duke of Roxburghe purchased a perfect impression +of this print, Mr. Timbs says, for £8 5s. +Its original price was sixpence. After her execution +the corpse was taken to an undertaker's on Snow +Hill, and there exhibited for money. Among the +rest, a gentleman in deep mourning—perhaps +her late master, Mr. Kerrol—stooped and kissed +it, and gave the attendant half-a-crown. She was, +by special favour (for superiority even in wickedness +has its admirers), buried in St. Sepulchre's +Churchyard, from which criminals had been excluded +for a century and a half. The corpse of +the murderess was disinterred, and her skeleton, +in a glass case, is still to be seen at the Botanic +Garden, Cambridge.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="scuffle" id="scuffle"></a> +<img src="images/p175.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />A SCUFFLE BETWEEN TEMPLARS AND ALSATIANS</span> +</div> + +<p>Not many recorded crimes have taken place in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>the Temple, for youth, however poor, is hopeful. It +takes time to make a man despair, and when he despairs, +the devil is soon at his elbow. Nevertheless, +greed and madness have upset some Templars' +brains. In October, 1573, a crazed, fanatical man +of the Middle Temple, named Peter Burchet, +mistaking John Hawkins (afterwards the naval +hero) for Sir Christopher Hatton, flew at him in +the Strand, and dangerously wounded him with a +dagger. The queen was so furious that at first she +wanted Burchet tried by camp law; but, being +found to hold heretical opinions, he was committed +to the Lollards' Tower (south front of St. Paul's), +and afterwards sent to the Tower. Growing still +madder there, Burchet slew one of his keepers with +a billet from his fire, and was then condemned to +death and hung in the Strand, close by where he +had stabbed Hawkins, his right hand being first +stricken off and nailed to the gibbet.</p> + +<p>In 1685 John Ayloff, a barrister of the Inner +Temple, was hung for high treason opposite the +Temple Gate.</p> + +<p>In 1738 Thomas Carr, an attorney, of Elm +Court, and Elizabeth Adams, his accomplice, were +executed for robbing a Mr. Quarrington in Shire +Lane (see page 74); and in 1752 Henry Justice, +of the Middle Temple, in spite of his well-omened +name, was cruelly sentenced to death for stealing +books from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, +but eventually he was only transported for life.</p> + +<p>The celebrated Earl of Mansfield, when Mr. +Murray, had chambers at No. 5, King's Bench +Walk, <i>apropos</i> of which Pope wrote—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"To Number Five direct your doves,<br /> +There spread round Murray all your blooming loves."<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">(Pope "to Venus," from "Horace.")</span></div> + +<p>A second compliment by Pope to this great man +occasioned a famous parody:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Graced as thou art by all the power of words,<br /> +So known, so honoured at the House of Lords"<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">(Pope, of Lord Mansfield);</span></div> + +<p>which was thus cleverly parodied by Colley Cibber:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 6em;">"Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks,<br /> +And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks."</div> + +<p>One of Mansfield's biographers tells us that "once +he was surprised by a gentleman of Lincoln's Inn +(who took the liberty of entering his room in the +Temple without the ceremonious introduction of a +servant), in the act of practising the graces of a +speaker at a glass, while Pope sat by in the character +of a friendly preceptor." Of the friendship +of Pope and Murray, Warburton has said: "Mr. +Pope had all the warmth of affection for this great +lawyer; and, indeed, no man ever more deserved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +to have a poet for his friend, in the obtaining of +which, as neither vanity, party, nor fear had a share, +so he supported his title to it by all the offices of a +generous and true friendship."</p> + +<p>"A good story," says Mr. Jeaffreson, "is told +of certain visits paid to William Murray's chambers +at No. 5, King's Bench Walk, Temple, in the year +1738. Born in 1705, Murray was still a young +man when, in 1738, he made his brilliant speech +on behalf of Colonel Sloper, against whom Colley +Cibber's rascally son had brought an action for +immorality with his wife, the lovely actress, who +on the stage was the rival of Mrs. Clive, and in +private life was remarkable for immorality and +fascinating manners. Amongst the many clients +who were drawn to Murray by that speech, Sarah, +Duchess of Marlborough, was neither the least +powerful nor the least distinguished. Her grace +began by sending the rising advocate a general +retainer, with a fee of a thousand guineas, of which +sum he accepted only the two-hundredth part, +explaining to the astonished duchess that 'the professional +fee, with a general retainer, could not be +less nor more than five guineas.' If Murray had +accepted the whole sum he would not have been +overpaid for his trouble, for her grace persecuted +him with calls at most unseasonable hours. On +one occasion, returning to his chambers after +'drinking champagne with the wits,' he found +the duchess's carriage and attendants on King's +Bench Walk. A numerous crowd of footmen and +link-bearers surrounded the coach, and when the +barrister entered his chambers he encountered the +mistress of that army of lackeys. 'Young man,' +exclaimed the grand lady, eyeing the future Lord +Mansfield with a look of displeasure, 'if you mean +to rise in the world, you must not sup out.' On a +subsequent night Sarah of Marlborough called without +appointment at the chambers, and waited till +past midnight in the hope that she would see the +lawyer ere she went to bed. But Murray, being at +an unusually late supper-party, did not return till +her grace had departed in an overpowering rage. +'I could not make out, sir, who she was,' said +Murray's clerk, describing her grace's appearance +and manner, 'for she would not tell me her name; +<i>but she swore so dreadfully that I am sure she must +be a lady of quality</i>.'"</p> + +<p>Charles Lamb, who was born in Crown Office +Row, in his exquisite way has sketched the benchers +of the Temple whom he had seen pacing the +terrace in his youth. Jekyll, with the roguish eye, +and Thomas Coventry, of the elephantine step, the +scarecrow of inferiors, the browbeater of equals, +who made a solitude of children wherever he came,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> +who took snuff by palmfuls, diving for it under +the mighty flap of his old-fashioned red waistcoat. +In the gentle Samuel Salt we discover a portrait of +the employer of Lamb's father. Salt was a shy +indolent, absent man, who never dressed for a dinner +party but he forgot his sword. The day of Miss +Blandy's execution he went to dine with a relative +of the murderess, first carefully schooled by his clerk +to avoid the disagreeable subject. However, during +the pause for dinner, Salt went to the window, +looked out, pulled down his ruffles, and observed, +"It's a gloomy day; Miss Blandy must be hanged +by this time, I suppose." Salt never laughed. He +was a well-known toast with the ladies, having a fine +figure and person. Coventry, on the other hand, was +a man worth four or five hundred thousand, and +lived in a gloomy house, like a strong box, opposite +the pump in Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street. Fond +of money as he was, he gave away £30,000 at once +to a charity for the blind, and kept a hospitable +house. Salt was indolent and careless of money, +and but for Lovel, his clerk, would have been +universally robbed. This Lovel was a clever little +fellow, with a face like Garrick, who could mould +heads in clay, turn cribbage-boards, take a hand +at a quadrille or bowls, and brew punch with any +man of his degree in Europe. With Coventry and +Salt, Peter Pierson often perambulated the terrace, +with hands folded behind him. Contemporary with +these was Daines Barrington, a burly, square man. +Lamb also mentions Burton, "a jolly negation," +who drew up the bills of fare for the parliament +chamber, where the benchers dined; thin, fragile +Wharry, who used to spitefully pinch his cat's +ears when anything offended him; and Jackson, +the musician, to whom the cook once applied for +instructions how to write down "edge-bone of beef" +in a bill of commons. Then there was Blustering +Mingay, who had a grappling-hook in substitute for +a hand he had lost, which Lamb, when a child, +used to take for an emblem of power; and Baron +Mascres, who retained the costume of the reign of +George II.</p> + +<p>In his "Essays," Lamb says:—"I was born +and passed the first seven years of my life in the +Temple. Its church, its halls, its gardens, its fountain, +its river I had almost said—for in those young +years what was the king of rivers to me but a stream +that watered our pleasant places?—these are of +my oldest recollections. I repeat, to this day, no +verses to myself more frequently or with kindlier +emotion than those of Spenser where he speaks of +this spot. Indeed, it is the most elegant spot in +the metropolis. What a transition for a countryman +visiting London for the first time—the passing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> +from the crowded Strand or Fleet Street, by unexpected +avenues, into its magnificent, ample squares, +its classic green recesses! What a cheerful, liberal +look hath that portion of it which, from three sides, +overlooks the greater garden, that goodly pile</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +'Of buildings strong, albeit of paper hight,' +</div> + +<p>confronting with massy contrast, the lighter, older, +more fantastically shrouded one named of Harcourt, +with the cheerful Crown Office Row (place +of my kindly engendure), right opposite the stately +stream, which washes the garden foot with her yet +scarcely trade—polluted waters, and seems but just +weaned from Twickenham Naïades! A man would +give something to have been born in such places. +What a collegiate aspect has that fine Elizabethan +hall, where the fountain plays, which I have made +to rise and fall, how many times! to the astonishment +of the young urchins, my contemporaries, +who, not being able to guess at its recondite +machinery, were almost tempted to hail the wondrous +work as magic...."</p> + +<p>"So may the winged horse, your ancient badge +and cognisance, still flourish! So may future +Hookers and Seldens illustrate your church and +chambers! So may the sparrows, in default of +more melodious quiristers, imprisoned hop about +your walks! So may the fresh-coloured and +cleanly nursery-maid, who by leave airs her playful +charge in your stately gardens, drop her prettiest +blushing curtsey as ye pass, reductive of juvenescent +emotion! So may the younkers of this generation +eye you, pacing your stately terrace, with the same +superstitious veneration with which the child Elia +gazed on the old worthies that solemnised the +parade before ye!"</p> + +<p>Charles Lamb, in his "Essay" on the old +benchers, speaks of many changes he had witnessed +in the Temple—<i>i.e.</i>, the Gothicising the +entrance to the Inner Temple Hall and the +Library front, to assimilate them to the hall, +which they did not resemble; to the removal of +the winged horse over the Temple Hall, and the +frescoes of the Virtues which once Italianised it. +He praises, too, the antique air of the "now almost +effaced sun-dials," with their moral inscriptions, +seeming almost coeval with the time which they +measured, and taking their revelations immediately +from heaven, holding correspondence with +the fountain of light. Of these dials there still +remain—one in Temple Lane, with the motto, +"Pereunt et imputantur;" one in Essex Court, +"Vestigia nulla retrorsum;" and one in Brick Court +on which Goldsmith must often have gazed—the +motto, "Time and tide tarry for no man." In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> +Pump Court and Garden Court are two dials +without mottoes; and in each Temple garden is a +pillar dial—"the natural garden god of Christian +gardens." On an old brick house at the east end +of Inner Temple Terrace, removed in 1828, was a +dial with the odd inscription, "Begone about your +business," words with which an old bencher is said +to have once dismissed a troublesome lad who had +come from the dial-maker's for a motto, and who +mistook his meaning. The one we have engraved +at page 180 is in Pump Court. The date and the +initials are renewed every time it is fresh painted.</p> + +<p>There are many old Temple anecdotes relating +to that learned disciple of Bacchus, Porson. Many +a time (says Mr. Timbs), at early morn, did Porson +stagger from his old haunt, the "Cider Cellars" in +Maiden Lane, where he scarcely ever failed to +pass some hours, after spending the evening elsewhere. +It is related of him, upon better authority +than most of the stories told to his discredit, that +one night, or rather morning, Gurney (the Baron), +who had chambers in Essex Court under Porson's, +was awakened by a tremendous thump in the +chamber above. Porson had just come home dead +drunk, and had fallen on the floor. Having extinguished +the candle in the fall, he presently +staggered downstairs to re-light it, and Gurney +heard him dodging and poking with the candle +at the staircase lamp for about five minutes, and all +the time very lustily cursing the nature of things.</p> + +<p>We read also of Porson's shutting himself up in +these chambers for three or four days together, +admitting no visitor. One morning his friend +Rogers went to call, having ascertained from the +barber's hard by that Porson was at home, but had +not been seen by any one for two days. Rogers +proceeded to his chambers, and knocked at the +door more than once; he would not open it, and +Rogers came downstairs, but as he was crossing +the court Porson opened the window and stopped +him. He was then busy about the Grenville +"Homer," for which he collated the Harleian MS. +of the "Odyssey," and received for his labour but +£50 and a large-paper copy. His chambers must +have presented a strange scene, for he used books +most cruelly, whether they were his own or belonged +to others. He said that he possessed more <i>bad</i> +copies of <i>good</i> books than any private gentleman in +England.</p> + +<p>Rogers, when a Templar, occasionally had some +visitors who absorbed more of his time than was +always agreeable; an instance of which he thus +relates: "When I lived in the Temple, Mackintosh +and Richard Sharp used to come to my chambers +and stay there for hours, talking metaphysics. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> +day they were so intent on their 'first cause,' 'spirit,' +and 'matter,' that they were unconscious of my +having left them, paid a visit, and returned. I +was a little angry at this; and to show my indifference +about them, I sat down and wrote letters, +without taking any notice of them. I never met +a man with a fuller mind than Mackintosh—such +readiness on all subjects, such a talker."</p> + +<p>Before any person can be admitted a member of +the Temple, he must furnish a statement in writing, +describing his age, residence, and condition in life, +and adding a certificate of his respectability and fitness, +signed by himself and a bencher of the society, +or two barristers. The <i>Middle</i> Temple requires the +signatures of two barristers of that Inn and of a +bencher, but in each of the three other Inns the +signatures of barristers of any of the four Inns +will suffice. No person is admitted without the +approbation of a bencher, or of the benchers in +council assembled.</p> + +<p>The <i>Middle Temple</i> includes the universities of +Durham and London. At the <i>Inner Temple</i> the +candidate for admission who has taken the degree +of B.A., or passed an examination at the Universities +of Oxford, Cambridge, or London, is required +to pass an examination by a barrister, appointed +by the Bench for that purpose, in the Greek and +Latin languages, and history or literature in general. +No person in priest's or deacon's orders can be +called to the bar. In the <i>Inner Temple</i>, an attorney +must have ceased to be on the rolls, and an articled +clerk to be in articles for <i>three years</i>, before he can +be called to the bar.</p> + +<p>Legal students worked hard in the old times; +Coke's career is an example. In 1572 he rose +every morning at five o'clock, lighting his own +fire; and then read Bracton, Littleton, and the +ponderous folio abridgments of the law till the +court met, at eight o'clock. He then took +boat for Westminster, and heard cases argued till +twelve o'clock, when the pleas ceased for dinner. +After a meal in the Inner Temple Hall, he attended +"readings" or lectures in the afternoon, and +then resumed his private studies till supper-time +at five. Next came the moots, after which he +slammed his chamber-door, and set to work with +his commonplace book to index all the law he had +amassed during the day. At nine, the steady +student went to bed, securing three good hours of +sleep before midnight. It is said Coke never saw +a play or read a play in his life—and that was +Shakespeare's time! In the reign of James I. the +Temple was often called "my Lord Coke's shop." +He had become a great lawyer then, and lived to +become Lord Chief Justice. Pity 'tis that we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> +to remember that he reviled Essex and insulted +Raleigh. King James once said of Coke in misfortune +that he was like a cat, he always fell on his +feet.</p> + +<p>History does not record many riots in the +Temple, full of wild life as that quiet precinct +has been. In different reigns, however, two outbreaks +occurred. In both cases the Templars, +though rather hot and prompt, seem to have been +right. At the dinner of John Prideaux, reader of +the Inner Temple, in 1553, the students took +offence at Sir John Lyon, the Lord Mayor, coming +in state, with his sword up, and the sword was +dragged down as he passed through the cloisters. +The same sort of affray took place again in 1669, +when Lord Mayor Peake came to Sir Christopher +Goodfellow's feast, and the Lord Mayor had to be +hidden in a bencher's chambers till, as Pepys relates, +the fiery young sparks were decoyed away to +dinner. The case was tried before Charles II., and +Heneage Finch pleaded for the Temple, claiming +immemorial exemption from City jurisdiction. The +case was never decided. From that day to this +(says Mr. Noble) a settlement appears never to +have been made; hence it is that the Temples +claim to be "extra parochial," closing nightly all +their gates as the clock strikes ten, and keeping +extra watch and ward when the parochial authorities +"beat the bounds" upon Ascension Day. Many +struggles have taken place to make the property +rateable, and even of late the question has once +more arisen; and it is hardly to be wondered at, +for it would be a nice bit of business to assess the +Templars upon the £32,866 which they have +returned as the annual rental of their estates.</p> + +<p>A third riot was with those ceaseless enemies +of the Templars, the Alsatians, or lawless inhabitants +of disreputable Whitefriars. In July, 1691, weary +of their riotous and thievish neighbours, the +benchers of the Inner Temple bricked up the gate +(still existing in King's Bench Walk) leading into +the high street of Whitefriars; but the Alsatians, +swarming out, pulled down as fast as the bricklayers +built up. The Templars hurried together, swords +flew out, the Alsatians plied pokers and shovels, +and many heads were broken. Ultimately, two men +were killed, several wounded, and many hurried off +to prison. Eventually, the ringleader of the Alsatians, +Captain Francis White—a "copper captain," +no doubt—was convicted of murder, in April, 1693. +This riot eventually did good, for it led to the +abolition of London sanctuaries, those dens of +bullies, low gamblers, thieves, and courtesans.</p> + +<p>As the Middle Temple has grown gradually +poorer and more neglected, many curious customs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> +of the old banquets have died out. The loving cup, +once fragrant with sweetened sack, is now used to +hold the almost superfluous toothpicks. Oysters +are no longer brought in, in term, every Friday +before dinner; nor when one bencher dines does +he, on leaving the hall, invite the senior bar man +to come and take wine with him in the parliament +chamber (the accommodation-room of Oxford colleges). +Yet the rich and epicurean Inner Temple +still cherishes many worthy customs, affects <i>recherché</i> +French dishes, and is curious in <i>entremets</i>; while +the Middle Temple growls over its geological +salad, that some hungry wit has compared to +"eating a gravel walk, and meeting an occasional +weed." A writer in <i>Blackwood</i>, quoting the old +proverb, "The Inner Temple for the rich, the +Middle for the poor," says few great men have +come from the Middle Temple. How can acumen +be derived from the scrag-end of a neck of mutton, +or inspiration from griskins? At a late dinner, says +Mr. Timbs (1865), there were present only three +benchers, seven barristers, and six students.</p> + +<p>An Inner Temple banquet is a very grand +thing. At five, or half-past five, the barristers and +students in their gowns follow the benchers in +procession to the dais; the steward strikes the +table solemnly a mystic three times, grace is said +by the treasurer, or senior bencher present, and the +men of law fall to. In former times it was the +custom to blow a horn in every court to announce +the meal, but how long this ancient Templar practice +has been discontinued we do not know. The +benchers observe somewhat more style at their +table than the other members do at theirs. The +general repast is a tureen of soup, a joint of meat, +a tart, and cheese, to each mess, consisting of four +persons, and each mess is allowed a bottle of port +wine. Dinner is served daily to the members of +the Inn during term time; the masters of the Bench +dining on the state, or dais, and the barristers +and students at long tables extending down the +hall. On grand days the judges are present, who +dine in succession with each of the four Inns of +Court. To the parliament chamber, adjoining the +hall, the benchers repair after dinner. The loving +cups used on certain grand occasions are huge +silver goblets, which are passed down the table, +filled with a delicious composition, immemorially +termed "sack," consisting of sweetened and exquisitely-flavoured +white wine. The butler attends +the progress of the cup, to replenish it; and each +student is by rule restricted to a <i>sip</i>; yet it is recorded +that once, though the number present fell +short of seventy, thirty-six quarts of the liquid were +sipped away. At the Inner Temple, on May 29th,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> +a gold cup of sack is handed to each member, who +drinks to the happy restoration of Charles II.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="sun" id="sun"></a> +<img src="images/p180.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />SUN-DIAL IN THE TEMPLE</span> +</div> + +<p>The writer in <i>Blackwood</i> before referred to alludes +to the strict silence enjoined at the Inner Temple +dinners, the only intercourse between the several +members of the mess being the usual social scowl +vouchsafed by your true-born Englishman to persons +who have not the honour of his acquaintance. +You may, indeed, on an emergency, ask your neighbour +for the salt; but then it is also perfectly +understood that he is not obliged to notice your +request.</p> + +<p>The old term of "calling to the bar" seems to +have originated in the custom of summoning +students, that had attained a certain standing, to +the bar that separated the benchers' dais from +the hall, to take part in certain probationary moot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>ings +or discussions on points of law. The mere +student sat farthest from the bar.</p> + +<p>When these mootings were discontinued deponent +sayeth not. In Coke's time (1543), that +great lawyer, after supper at five o'clock, used to +join the moots, when questions of law were proposed +and discussed, when fine on the garden +terrace, in rainy weather in the Temple cloisters. +The dinner alone now remains; dining is now the +only legal study of Temple students.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Middle Temple</i> a three years' standing and +twelve commons kept suffices to entitle a gentleman +to be called to the bar, provided he is above +twenty-three years of age. No person can be +called to the bar at any of the Inns of Court before +he is twenty-one years of age; and a standing of +five years is understood to be required of every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> +member before being called. The members of the +several universities, &c., may, however, be called +after three years' standing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="stairs" id="stairs"></a> +<img src="images/p181.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE TEMPLE STAIRS</span> +</div> + +<p>The Inner Temple Garden (three acres in extent) +has probably been a garden from the time the +white-mantled Templars first came from Holborn +and settled by the river-side. This little paradise of +nurserymaids and London children is entered from +the terrace by an iron gate (date, 1730); and the +winged horse that surmounts the portal has looked +down on many a distinguished visitor. In the +centre of the grass is such a sun-dial as Charles +Lamb loved, with the date, 1770. A little to the +east of this stands an old sycamore, which, fifteen +years since, was railed in as the august mummy +of that umbrageous tree under whose shade, as +tradition says, Johnson and Goldsmith used to sit +and converse. According to an engraving of 1671 +there were formerly three trees; so that Shakespeare +himself may have sat under them and meditated +on the Wars of the Roses. The print shows +a brick terrace faced with stone, with a flight of +steps at the north. The old river wall of 1670 +stood fifty or sixty yards farther north than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +present; and when Paper Buildings were erected, +part of this wall was dug up. The view given on +this page, and taken from an old view in the +Temple, shows a portion of the old wall, with the +doorway opening upon the Temple Stairs.</p> + +<p>The Temple Garden, half a century since, was +famous for its white and red roses (the Old Provence, +Cabbage, and the Maiden's Blush—Timbs); and +the lime-trees were delightful in the time of bloom. +There were only two steamboats on the river then; +but the steamers and factory smoke soon spoiled +everything but the hardy chrysanthemums. However, +since the Smoke Consuming Act has been enforced, +the roses, stocks, and hawthorns have again +taken heart, and blossom with grateful luxuriance. +In 1864 Mr. Broome, the zealous gardener of the +Inner Temple, exhibited at the Central Horticultural +Society twenty-four trusses of roses grown +under his care. In the flower-beds next the main +walk he managed to secure four successive crops +of flowers—the pompones were especially gaudy and +beautiful; but his chief triumph were the chrysanthemums +of the northern border. The trees, however, +seem delicate, and suffering from the cold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> +winds, dwindle as they approach the river. The +planes, limes, and wych elms stand best. The +Temple rooks—the wise birds Goldsmith delighted +to watch—were originally brought by Sir William +Northcote from Woodcote Green, Epsom, but they +left in disgust, many years since. Mr. Timbs says +that 200 families enjoy these gardens throughout the +year, and about 10,000 of the outer world, chiefly +children, who are always in search of the lost Eden, +come hers annually. The flowers and trees are +rarely injured, thanks to the much-abused London +public.</p> + +<p>In the secluded Middle Temple Garden is an +old catalpa tree, supposed to have been planted by +that grave and just judge, Sir Matthew Hale. On +the lawn is a large table sun-dial, elaborately gilt +and embellished. From the library oriel the +Thames and its bridges, Somerset House and the +Houses of Parliament, form a grand <i>coup d'œil</i>.</p> + +<p>The revenue of the Middle Temple alone is +said to be £13,000 a year. With the savings +we are, of course, entirely ignorant. The students' +dinners are half paid for by themselves, the +library is kept up on very little fodder, and altogether +the system of auditing the Inns of Court +accounts is as incomprehensible as the Sybilline +oracles; but there can be no doubt it is all right, +and very well managed.</p> + +<p>In the seventeenth century (says Mr. Noble) a +benevolent member of the Middle Temple conveyed +to the benchers in fee several houses in the +City, out of the rents of which to pay a stated +salary to each of two referees, who were to meet +on two days weekly, in term, from two to five, in +the hall or other convenient place, and without fee +on either side, to settle as best they could all disputes +submitted to them. From that time the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> +referees have been appointed, but there is no record +of a single case being tried by them. The two +gentlemen, finding their office a sinecure, have +devoted their salaries to making periodical additions +to the library. May we be allowed to ask, +was this benevolent object ever made known to +the public generally? We cannot but think, if it had +been, that the two respected arbitrators would not +have had to complain of the office as a sinecure.</p> + +<p>He who can enumerate the wise and great men +who have been educated in the Temple can count +off the stars on his finger and measure the sands of +the sea-shore by teacupsful. To cull a few, we +may mention that the Inner Temple boasts among +its eminent members—Audley, Chancellor to +Henry VIII.; Nicholas Hare, of Hare Court celebrity; +the great lawyer, Littleton (1481), and +Coke, his commentator; Sir Christopher Hatton, +the dancing Chancellor; Lord Buckhurst; Selden; +Judge Jeffries; Beaumont, the poet; William +Browne, the author of "Britannia's Pastorals" (so +much praised by the Lamb and Hazlitt school); +Cowper, the poet; and Sir William Follett.</p> + +<p>From the Middle Temple have also sprung +swarms of great lawyers. We may mention +specially Plowden, the jurist, Sir Walter Raleigh, +Sir Thomas Overbury (who was poisoned in the +Tower), John Ford (one of the latest of the great +dramatists), Sir Edward Bramston (chamber-fellow +to Mr. Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon), Bulstrode +Whitelocke (one of Cromwell's Ministers), Lord-Keeper +Guildford (Charles II.), Lord Chancellor +Somers, Wycherley and Congreve (the dramatists), +Shadwell and Southern (comedy writers), Sir William +Blackstone, Edmund Burke, Sheridan, Dunning +(Lord Ashburton), Lord Chancellor Eldon, Lord +Stowell, as a few among a multitude.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<p class="center">WHITEFRIARS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Present Whitefriars—The Carmelite Convent—Dr. Butts—The Sanctuary—Lord Sanquhar Murders the Fencing-Master—His Trial—Bacon +and Yelverton—His Execution—Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel"—Shadwell's <i>Squire of Alsatia</i>—A Riot in Whitefriars—Elizabethan +Edicts against two Ruffians of Alsatia—Bridewell—A Roman Fortification—A Saxon Palace—Wolsey's Residence—Queen Catherine's Trial—Her +Behaviour in Court—Persecution of the First Congregationalists—Granaries and Coal Stores destroyed by the Great Fire—The Flogging +in Bridewell—Sermon on Madame Creswell—Hogarth and the "Harlot's Progress"—Pennant's Account of Bridewell—Bridewell in 1843—Its +Latter Days—Pictures in the Court Room—Bridewell Dock—The Gas Works—Theatres in Whitefriars—Pepys' Visits to the Theatre—Dryden +and the Dorset Gardens Theatre—Davenant—Kynaston—Dorset House—The Poet-Earl.</p></div> + + +<p>So rich is London in legend and tradition, that +even some of the spots that now appear the +blankest, baldest, and most uninteresting, are +really vaults of entombed anecdote and treasure-houses +of old story.</p> + +<p>Whitefriars—that dull, narrow, uninviting lane +sloping from Fleet Street to the river, with gas +works at its foot and mean shops on either side—was +once the centre of a district full of noblemen's +mansions; but Time's harlequin wand by-and-by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> +turned it into a debtors' sanctuary and thieves' +paradise, and for half a century its bullies and +swindlers waged a ceaseless war with their proud +and rackety neighbours of the Temple. The dingy +lane, now only awakened by the quick wheel of the +swift newspaper cart or the ponderous tires of the +sullen coal-wagon, was in olden times for ever +ringing with clash of swords, the cries of quarrelsome +gamblers, and the drunken songs of noisy +Bobadils.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Edward I., a certain Sir Robert +Gray, moved by qualms of conscience or honest +impulse, founded on the bank of the Thames, east +of the well-guarded Temple, a Carmelite convent, +with broad gardens, where the white friars might +stroll, and with shady nooks where they might con +their missals. Bouverie Street and Ram Alley +were then part of their domain, and there they +watched the river and prayed for their patrons' +souls. In 1350 Courtenay, Earl of Devon, rebuilt +the Whitefriars Church, and in 1420 a Bishop of +Hereford added a steeple. In time, greedy +hands were laid roughly on cope and chalice, and +Henry VIII., seizing on the friars' domains, gave +his physician—that Doctor Butts mentioned by +Shakespeare—the chapter-house for a residence. +Edward VI.—who, with all his promise, was as ready +for such pillage as his tyrannical father—pulled +down the church, and built noblemen's houses in +its stead. The refectory of the convent, being preserved, +afterwards became the Whitefriars Theatre. +The mischievous right of sanctuary was preserved +to the district, and confirmed by James I., in whose +reign the slum became jocosely known as Alsatia—from +Alsace, that unhappy frontier then, and later, +contended for by French and Germans—just as +Chandos Street and that shy neighbourhood at the +north-west side of the Strand used to be called +the Caribbee Islands, from its countless straits and +intricate thieves' passages. The outskirts of the +Carmelite monastery had no doubt become disreputable +at an early time, for even in Edward III.'s +reign the holy friars had complained of the gross +temptations of Lombard Street (an alley near +Bouverie Street). Sirens and Dulcineas of all descriptions +were ever apt to gather round monasteries. +Whitefriars, however, even as late as Cromwell's +reign, preserved a certain respectability; for here, +with his supposed wife, the Dowager Countess of +Kent, Selden lived and studied.</p> + +<p>In the reign of James I. a strange murder was +committed in Whitefriars. The cause of the crime +was highly singular. In 1607 young Lord Sanquhar, +a Scotch nobleman, who with others of his countrymen +had followed his king to England, had an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> +eye put out by a fencing-master of Whitefriars. The +young lord—a man of a very ancient, proud, and +noble Scotch family, as renowned for courage as +for wit—had striven to put some affront on the +fencing-master at Lord Norris's house, in Oxfordshire, +wishing to render him contemptible before +his patrons and assistants—a common bravado +of the rash Tybalts and hot-headed Mercutios of +those fiery days of the duello, when even to crack +a nut too loud was enough to make your tavern +neighbour draw his sword. John Turner, the +master, jealous of his professional honour, challenged +the tyro with dagger and rapier, and, determined +to chastise his ungenerous assailant, parried +all his most skilful passadoes and staccatoes, and in +his turn pressed Sanquhar with his foil so hotly and +boldly that he unfortunately thrust out one of his +eyes. The young baron, ashamed of his own rashness, +and not convinced that Turner's thrust was only +a slip and an accident, bore with patience several +days of extreme danger. As for Turner, he displayed +natural regret, and was exonerated by +everybody. Some time after, Lord Sanquhar being +in the court of Henry IV. of France, that chivalrous +and gallant king, always courteous to strangers, +seeing the patch of green taffeta, unfortunately, +merely to make conversation, asked the young +Scotchman how he lost his eye. Sanquhar, not +willing to lose the credit of a wound, answered +cannily, "It was done, your majesty, with a sword." +The king replied, thoughtlessly, "Doth the man +live?" and no more was said. This remark, +however, awoke the viper of revenge in the young +man's soul. He brooded over those words, and +never ceased to dwell on the hope of some requital +on his old opponent. Two years he remained in +France, hoping that his wound might be cured, +and at last, in despair of such a result, set sail for +England, still brooding over revenge against the +author of his cruel and, as it now appeared, irreparable +misfortune. The King of Denmark, +James's toss-pot father-in-law, was on a visit here +at the time, and the court was very gay. The first +news that Lord Sanquhar heard was, that the +accursed Turner was down at Greenwich Palace, +fencing there in public matches before the two +kings. To these entertainments the young Scotchman +went, and there, from some corner of a gallery, +the man with a patch over his eye no doubt scowled +and bit his lip at the fencing-master, as he strutted +beneath, proud of his skill and flushed with +triumph. The moment the prizes were given, +Sanquhar hurried below, and sought Turner up +and down, through court and corridor, resolved +to stab him on the spot, though even drawing a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> +sword in the precincts of the palace was an offence +punishable with the loss of a hand. Turner, however, +at that time escaped, for Sanquhar never +came across him in the throng, though he beat +it as a dog beats a covert. The next day, therefore, +still on his trail, Lord Sanquhar went after +him to London, seeking for him up and down +the Strand, and in all the chief Fleet Street and +Cheapside taverns. The Scot could not have +come to a more dangerous place than London. +Some, with malicious pity, would tell him that +Turner had vaunted of his skilful thrust, and the +way he had punished a man who tried to publicly +shame him. Others would thoughtlessly lament +the spoiling of a good swordsman and a brave +soldier. The mere sight of the turnings to Whitefriars +would rouse the evil spirit nestling in Sanquhar's +heart. Eagerly he sought for Turner, till +he found he was gone down to Norris's house, in +Oxfordshire—the very place where the fatal wound +had been inflicted. Being thus for the time foiled, +Sanquhar returned to Scotland, and for the present +delayed his revenge. On his next visit to London +Sanquhar, cruel and steadfast as a bloodhound, +again sought for Turner. Yet the difficulty was to +surprise the man, for Sanquhar was well known in +all the taverns and fencing-schools of Whitefriars, +and yet did not remember Turner sufficiently +well to be sure of him. He therefore hired two +Scotchmen, who undertook his assassination; but, +in spite of this, Turner somehow or other was hard +to get at, and escaped his two pursuers and the +relentless man whose money had bought them. +Business then took Sanquhar again to France, but +on his return the brooding revenge, now grown +to a monomania, once more burst into a flame.</p> + +<p>At last he hired Carlisle and Gray, two Scotchmen, +who were to take a lodging in Whitefriars, +to discover the best way for Sanquhar himself to +strike a sure blow at the unconscious fencing-master. +These men, after some reconnoitring, +assured their employer that he could not himself get +at Turner, but that they would undertake to do so, +to which Sanquhar assented. But Gray's heart +failed him after this, and he slipped away, and +Turner went again out of town, to fence at some +country mansion. Upon this Carlisle, a resolute +villain, came to his employer and told him with +grim set face that, as Gray had deceived him and +there was "trust in no knave of them all," he would +e'en have nobody but himself, and would assuredly +kill Turner on his return, though it were with the +loss of his own life. Irving, a Border lad, and page +to Lord Sanquhar, ultimately joined Carlisle in the +assassination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the 11th of May, 1612, about seven o'clock +in the evening, the two murderers came to a tavern +in Whitefriars, which Turner usually frequented as +he returned from his fencing-school. Turner, +sitting at the door with one of his friends, seeing +the men, saluted them, and asked them to drink. +Carlisle turned to cock the pistol he had prepared, +then wheeled round, and drawing the pistol from +under his coat, discharged it full at the unfortunate +fencing-master, and shot him near the left breast. +Turner had only time to cry, "Lord have mercy +upon me—I am killed," and fell from the ale-bench, +dead. Carlisle and Irving at once fled—Carlisle +to the town, Irving towards the river; but the +latter, mistaking a court where wood was sold for +the turning into an alley, was instantly run down +and taken. Carlisle was caught in Scotland, Gray +as he was shipping at a seaport for Sweden; and +Sanquhar himself, hearing one hundred pounds +were offered for his head, threw himself on the +king's mercy by surrendering himself as an object +of pity to the Archbishop of Canterbury. But no +intercession could avail. It was necessary for +James to show that he would not spare Scottish +more than English malefactors.</p> + +<p>Sanquhar was tried in Westminster Hall on the +27th of June, before Mr. Justice Yelverton. Sir +Francis Bacon, the Solicitor-General, did what he +could to save the revengeful Scot, but it was impossible +to keep him from the gallows. Robert +Creighton, Lord Sanquhar, therefore, confessed +himself guilty, but pleaded extenuating circumstances. +He had, he said, always believed that +Turner boasted he had put out his eye of set +purpose, though at the taking up the foils he +(Sanquhar) had specially protested that he played +as a scholar, and not as one able to contend with a +master in the profession. The mode of playing +among scholars was always to spare the face.</p> + +<p>"After this loss of my eye," continued the +quasi-repentant murderer, "and with the great +hazard of the loss of life, I must confess that I ever +kept a grudge of my soul against Turner, but had +no purpose to take so high a revenge; yet in the +course of my revenge I considered not my wrongs +upon terms of Christianity—for then I should have +sought for other satisfaction—but, being trained +up in the courts of princes and in arms, I stood +upon the terms of honour, and thence befell this +act of dishonour, whereby I have offended—first, +God; second, my prince; third, my native country; +fourth, this country; fifth, the party murdered; +sixth, his wife; seventh, posterity; eighth, Carlisle, +now to be executed; and lastly, ninth, my own soul, +and I am now to die for my offence. But, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> +lords," he added, "besides my own offence, which +in its nature needs no aggravation, divers scandalous +reports are given out which blemish my reputation, +which is more dear to me than my life: first, that I +made show of reconciliation with Turner, the +which, I protest, is utterly untrue, for what I have +formerly said I do again assure your good lordships, +that ever after my hurt received I kept a grudge in +my soul against him, and never made the least +pretence of reconciliation with him. Yet this, my +lords, I will say, that if he would have confessed +and sworn he did it not of purpose, and withal +would have foresworn arms, I would have pardoned +him; for, my lords, I considered that it must be +done either of set purpose or ignorantly. If the +first, I had no occasion to pardon him; if the last, +that is no excuse in a master, and therefore for +revenge of such a wrong I thought him unworthy to +bear arms."</p> + +<p>Lord Sanquhar then proceeded to deny the +aspersion that he was an ill-natured fellow, ever +revengeful, and delighting in blood. He confessed, +however, that he was never willing to put +up with a wrong, nor to pardon where he had a +power to retaliate. He had never been guilty of +blood till now, though he had occasion to draw his +sword, both in the field and on sudden violences, +where he had both given and received hurts. He +allowed that, upon commission from the king to +suppress wrongs done him in his own country, he +had put divers of the Johnsons to death, but for +that he hoped he had need neither to ask God nor +man for forgiveness. He denied, on his salvation, +that by the help of his countrymen he had attempted +to break prison and escape. The condemned +prisoner finally begged the lords to let the +following circumstances move them to pity and the +king to mercy:—First, the indignity received from +so mean a man; second, that it was done willingly, +for he had been informed that Turner had bragged +of it after it was done; third, the perpetual loss of +his eye; fourth, the want of law to give satisfaction +in such a case; fifth, the continued blemish he had +received thereby.</p> + +<p>The Solicitor-General (Bacon), in his speech, took +the opportunity of fulsomely bepraising the king +after his manner. He represented the sputtering, +drunken, corrupt James as almost divine, in his +energy and sagacity. He had stretched forth his +long arms (for kings, he said, had long arms), and +taken Gray as he shipped for Sweden, Carlisle +ere he was yet warm in his house in Scotland. He +had prosecuted the offenders "with the breath and +blasts of his mouth;" "so that," said this gross +time-server, "I may conclude that his majesty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> +hath showed himself God's true lieutenant, and +that he is no respecter of persons, but English, +Scots, noblemen, fencers (which is but an ignoble +trade), are all to him alike in respect of justice. +Nay, I may say further, that his majesty hath had +in this matter a kind of prophetical spirit, for at +what time Carlisle and Gray, and you, my lord, +yourself, were fled no man knew whither, to the +four winds, the king ever spoke in confident and +undertaking manner, that wheresoever the offenders +were in Europe, he would produce them to +justice."</p> + +<p>Mr. Justice Yelverton, though Bacon had altogether +taken the wind out of his sails, summed up +in the same vein, to prove that James was a +Solomon and a prophet, and would show no +favouritism to Scotchmen. He held out no hope +of a reprieve. "The base and barbarous murder," +he said, with ample legal verbiage, "was exceeding +strange;—done upon the sudden! done in an +instant! done with a pistol! done with your own +pistol! under the colour of kindness. As Cain +talked with his brother Abel, he rose up and slew +him. Your executioners of the murder left the +poor miserable man no time to defend himself, +scarce any time to breathe out those last words, +'Lord, have mercy upon me!' The ground of the +malice that you bore him grew not out of any +offence that he ever willingly gave you, but out of +the pride and haughtiness of your own self; for +that in the false conceit of your own skill you +would needs importune him to that action, the +sequel whereof did most unhappily breed your +blemish—the loss of your eye." The manner of +his death would be, no doubt, as he (the prisoner) +would think, unbefitting to a man of his honour +and blood (a baron of 300 years' antiquity), but +was fit enough for such an offender. Lord Sanquhar +was then sentenced to be hung till he was +dead. The populace, from whom he expected +"scorn and disgrace," were full of pity for a man +to be cut off, like Shakespeare's Claudio, in his +prime, and showed great compassion.</p> + +<p>On the 29th of June (St. Peter's Day) Lord +Sanquhar was hung before Westminster Hall. On +the ladder he confessed the enormity of his sins, +but said that till his trial, blinded by the devil, he +could not see he had done anything unfitting a +man of his rank and quality, who had been trained +up in the wars, and had lived the life of a soldier, +standing more on points of honour than religion. +He then professed that he died a Roman Catholic, +and begged all Roman Catholics present to pray +for him. He had long, he said, for worldly +reasons, neglected the public profession of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> +faith, and he thought God was angry with him. +His religion was a good religion—a saving religion—and +if he had been constant to it he was verily +persuaded he should never have fallen into that +misery. He then prayed for the king, queen, their +issue, the State of England and Scotland, and the +lords of the Council and Church, after which the +wearied executioner threw him from the ladder, +suffering him to hang a long time to display the +king's justice. The compassion and sympathy of +the people present had abated directly they found +he was a Roman Catholic. The same morning, very +early, Carlisle and Irving were hung on two gibbets +in Fleet Street, over against the great gate of the +Whitefriars. The page's gibbet was six feet higher +than the serving-man's, it being the custom at that +time in Scotland that, when a gentleman was hung +at the same time with one of meaner quality, the +gentleman had the honour of the higher gibbet, +feeling much aggrieved if he had not.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="murder" id="murder"></a> +<img src="images/p186.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MURDER OF TURNER</span> +</div> + +<p>The riotous little kingdom of Whitefriars, with +all its frowzy and questionable population, has been +admirably drawn by Scott in his fine novel of "The +Fortunes of Nigel," recently so pleasantly recalled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> +to our remembrance by Mr. Andrew Halliday's +dexterous dramatic adaptation. Sir Walter chooses +a den of Alsatia as a sanctuary for young Nigel, +after his duel with Dalgarno. At one stroke of +Scott's pen, the foggy, crowded streets eastward of +the Temple rise before us, and are thronged with +shaggy, uncombed ruffians, with greasy shoulder-belts, +discoloured scarves, enormous moustaches, +and torn hats. With what a Teniers' pencil the +great novelist sketches the dingy precincts, with its +blackguardly population:—"The wailing of children," +says the author of "Nigel," "the scolding +of their mothers, the miserable exhibition of ragged +linen hung from the windows to dry, spoke the +wants and distresses of the wretched inhabitants; +while the sounds of complaint were mocked and +overwhelmed by the riotous shouts, oaths, profane +songs, and boisterous laughter that issued from the +ale-houses and taverns, which, as the signs indicated, +were equal in number to all the other houses; and +that the full character of the place might be evident, +several faded, tinselled, and painted females looked +boldly at the strangers from their open lattices, or +more modestly seemed busied with the cracked +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>flower-pots, filled with mignonette and rosemary, +which were disposed in front of the windows, to the +great risk of the passengers." It is to a dilapidated +tavern in the same foul neighbourhood that the +gay Templar, it will be remembered, takes Nigel to +be sworn in a brother of Whitefriars by drunken +and knavish Duke Hildebrod, whom he finds +surrounded by his councillors—a bullying Low +Country soldier, a broken attorney, and a hedge +parson; and it is here also, at the house of old +Miser Trapbois, the young Scot so narrowly escapes +death at the hands of the poor old wretch's cowardly +assassins.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="rebuilt" id="rebuilt"></a> +<img src="images/p187.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BRIDEWELL, AS REBUILT AFTER THE FIRE, FROM AN OLD PRINT</span> +</div> + +<p>The scoundrels and cheats of Whitefriars are +admirably etched by Dryden's rival, Shadwell. +That unjustly-treated writer (for he was by no +means a fool) has called one of his comedies, in +the Ben Jonson manner, <i>The Squire of Alsatia</i>. It +paints the manners of the place at the latter end +of Charles II.'s reign, when the dregs of an age +that was indeed full of dregs were vatted in that +disreputable sanctuary east of the Temple. The +"copper captains," the degraded clergymen who +married anybody, without inquiry, for five shillings, +the broken lawyers, skulking bankrupts, sullen homicides, +thievish money-lenders, and gaudy courtesans, +Dryden's burly rival has painted with a brush full +of colour, and with a brightness, clearness, and +sharpness which are photographic in their force +and truth. In his dedication, which is inscribed +to that great patron of poets, the poetical Earl of +Dorset, Shadwell dwells on the great success of the +piece, the plot of which he had cleverly "adapted" +from the <i>Adelphi</i> of Terence. In the prologue, +which was spoken by Mountfort, the actor, whom +the infamous Lord Mohun stabbed in Norfolk Street, +the dramatist ridicules his tormenter Dryden, for his +noise and bombast, and with some vigour writes—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"With what prodigious scarcity of wit<br /> +Did the new authors starve the hungry pit!<br /> +Infected by the French, you must have rhyme,<br /> +Which long to please the ladies' ears did chime.<br /> +Soon after this came ranting fustian in,<br /> +And none but plays upon the fret were seen,<br /> +Such daring bombast stuff which fops would praise,<br /> +Tore our best actors' lungs, cut short their days.<br /> +Some in small time did this distemper kill;<br /> +And had the savage authors gone on still,<br /> +Fustian had been a new disease i' the bill."</div> + +<p>The moral of Shadwell's piece is the danger of +severity in parents. An elder son, being bred up +under restraint, turns a rakehell in Whitefriars, +whilst the younger, who has had his own way, becomes +"an ingenious, well-accomplished gentleman, +a man of honour in King's Bench Walk, and of +excellent disposition and temper," in spite of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> +good deal more gallantry than our stricter age +would pardon. The worst of it is that the worthy +son is always being mistaken for the scamp, while +the miserable Tony Lumpkin passes for a time as +the pink of propriety. Eventually, he falls into the +hands of some Alsatian tricksters. The first of these, +Cheatley, is a rascal who, "by reason of debts, does +not stir out of Whitefriars, but there inveigles young +men of fortune, and helps them to goods and money +upon great disadvantage, is bound for them, and +shares with them till he undoes them." Shadwell +tickets him, in his <i>dramatis personæ</i>, as "a lewd, +impudent, debauched fellow." According to his own +account, the cheat lies perdu, because his unnatural +father is looking for him, to send him home into +the country. Number two, Shamwell, is a young +man of fortune, who, ruined by Cheatley, has turned +decoy-duck, and lives on a share of the spoil. His +ostensible reason for concealment is that an alderman's +young wife had run away with him. The +third rascal, Scrapeall, is a low, hypocritical money-lender, +who is secretly in partnership with Cheatley. +The fourth rascal is Captain Hackman, a bullying +coward, whose wife keeps lodgings, sells cherry +brandy, and is of more than doubtful virtue. He +had formerly been a sergeant in Flanders, but ran +from his colours, dubbed himself captain, and +sought refuge in the Friars from a paltry debt. +This blustering scamp stands much upon his +honour, and is alternately drawing his enormous +sword and being tweaked by the nose. A lion in +the estimation of fools, he boasts over his cups that +he has whipped five men through the lungs. He +talks a detestable cant language, calling guineas +"megs," and half-guineas "smelts." Money, with +him is "the ready," "the rhino," "the darby;" +a good hat is "a rum nab;" to be well off is to +be "rhinocerical." This consummate scoundrel +teaches young country Tony Lumpkins to break +windows, scour the streets, to thrash the constables, +to doctor the dice, and get into all depths of low +mischief. Finally, when old Sir William Belfond, +the severe old country gentleman, comes to confront +his son, during his disgraceful revels at the +"George" tavern, in Dogwell Court, Bouverie +Street, the four scamps raise a shout of "An arrest! +an arrest! A bailiff! a bailiff!" The drawers +join in the tumult; the Friars, in a moment, is in +an uproar; and eventually the old gentleman is +chased by all the scum of Alsatia, shouting at the +top of their voices, "Stop! stop! A bailiff! a +bailiff!" He has a narrow escape of being pulled +to pieces, and emerges in Fleet Street, hot, bespattered, +and bruised. It was no joke then to +threaten the privileges of Whitefriars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span></p> + +<p>Presently a horn is blown, there is a cry +from Water Lane to Hanging-sword Alley, from +Ashen-tree Court to Temple Gardens, of "Tipstaff! +An arrest! an arrest!" and in a moment +they are "up in the Friars," with a cry of "Fall +on." The skulking debtors scuttle into their +burrows, the bullies fling down cup and can, lug +out their rusty blades, and rush into the <i>mêlée</i>. +From every den and crib red-faced, bloated women +hurry with fire-forks, spits, cudgels, pokers, and +shovels. They're "up in the Friars," with a vengeance. +Pouring into the Temple before the +Templars can gather, they are about to drag old +Sir William under the pump, when the worthy son +comes to the rescue, and the Templars, with drawn +swords, drive back the rabble, and make the porters +shut the gates leading into Alsatia. Cheatley, +Shamwell, and Hackman, taken prisoners, are then +well drubbed and pumped on by the Templars, +and the gallant captain loses half his whiskers. +"The terror of his face," he moans, "is gone." +"Indeed," says Cheatley, "your magnanimous phiz +is somewhat disfigured by it, captain." Cheatley +threatened endless actions. Hackman swears his +honour is very tender, and that this one affront will +cost him at least five murders. As for Shamwell, he +is inconsolable. "What reparation are actions?" +he moans, as he shakes his wet hair and rubs his +bruised back. "I am a gentleman, and can never +show my face amongst my kindred more." When +at last they have got free, they all console themselves +with cherry brandy from Hackman's shop, +after which the "copper captain" observes, somewhat +in Falstaff's manner, "A fish has a cursed life +on't. I shall have that aversion to water after this, +that I shall scarce ever be cleanly enough to wash +my face again."</p> + +<p>Later in the play there is still another rising in +Alsatia, but this time the musketeers come in force, +in spite of all privileges, and the scuffle is greater +than ever. Some debtors run up and down without +coats, others with still more conspicuous deficiencies. +Some cry, "Oars! oars! sculler; five +pound for a boat; ten pound for a boat; twenty +pound for a boat;" many leap from balconies, and +make for the water, to escape to the Savoy or the +Mint, also sanctuaries of that day. The play ends +with a dignified protest, which doubtless proved +thoroughly effective with the audience, against the +privileges of places that harboured such knots of +scoundrels. "Was ever," Shadwell says, "such impudence +suffered in a Government? Ireland conquered; +Wales subdued; Scotland united. But +there are some few spots of ground in London, just +in the face of the Government, unconquered yet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> +that hold in rebellion still. Methinks 'tis strange +that places so near the king's palace should be no +part of his dominions. 'Tis a shame in the society +of law to countenance such practices. Should +any place be shut against the king's writ or posse +comitatus?"</p> + +<p>Be sure the pugnacious young Templars present +all rose at that, and great was the thundering of +red-heeled shoes. King William probably agreed +with Shadwell, for at the latter end of his reign the +privilege of sanctuary was taken from Whitefriars, +and the dogs were at last let in on the rats for +whom they had been so long waiting. Two other +places of refuge—the Mint and the Savoy—however, +escaped a good deal longer; and there the +Hackmans and Cheatleys of the day still hid their +ugly faces after daylight had been let into Whitefriars +and the wild days of Alsatia had ceased for +ever.</p> + +<p>In earlier times there had been evidently special +endeavours to preserve order in Whitefriars, for +in the State Paper Office there exist the following +rules for the inhabitants of the sanctuary in the +reign of Elizabeth:—</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Theise gates shalbe orderly shutt and +opened at convenient times, and porters appointed +for the same. Also, a scavenger to keep the precincte +clean.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Tipling houses shalbe bound for good +order.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Searches to be made by the constables, +with the assistance of the inhabitants, at the commandmente +of the justices.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Rogues and vagabondes and other disturbers +of the public peace shall be corrected and +punished by the authoretie of the justices.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> A bailife to be appointed for leavienge +of such duties and profittes which apperteine unto +her Ma<sup>tie</sup>; as also for returne of proces for execution +of justice.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Incontinent persons to be presented unto +the Ordenary, to be tried, and punished.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> The poore within the precincte shalbe +provyded for by the inhabitantes of the same.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> In tyme of plague, good order shalbe +taken for the restrainte of the same.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item.</i> Lanterne and light to be mainteined +duringe winter time."</p> + +<p>All traces of its former condition have long +since disappeared from Whitefriars, and it is difficult +indeed to believe that the dull, uninteresting +region that now lies between Fleet Street and the +Thames was once the riotous Alsatia of Scott and +Shadwell.</p> + +<p>And now we come to Bridewell, first a palace, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> +a prison. The old palace of Bridewell (Bridget's +Well) was rebuilt upon the site of the old Tower +of Montfiquet (a soldier of the Conqueror's) by +Henry VIII., for the reception of Charles V. +of France in 1522. There had been a Roman +fortification in the same place, and a palace both +of the Saxon and Norman kings. Henry I. partly +rebuilt the palace; and in 1847 a vault with Norman +billet moulding was discovered in excavating the +site of a public-house in Bride Lane. It remained +neglected till Cardinal Wolsey (<i>circa</i> 1512) came +in pomp to live here. Here, in 1525, when +Henry's affection for Anne Boleyn was growing, +he made her father (Thomas Boleyn, Treasurer of +the King's House) Viscount Rochforde. A letter +of Wolsey's, June 6, 1513, to the Lord Admiral, is +dated from "my poor house at Bridewell;" and +from 1515 to 1521 no less than £21,924 was paid +in repairs. Another letter from Wolsey, at Bridewell, +mentions that the house of the Lord Prior of +St. John's Hospital, at Bridewell, had been granted +by the king for a record office. The palace must +have been detestable enough to the monks, for it +was to his palace of Bridewell that Henry VIII. +summoned the abbots and other heads of religious +societies, and succeeded in squeezing out of them +£100,000, the contumacious Cistercians alone +yielding up £33,000.</p> + +<p>It was at the palace at Bridewell (in 1528) that +King Henry VIII. first disclosed the scruples that, +after his acquaintance with Anne Boleyn, troubled +his sensitive conscience as to his marriage with +Katherine of Arragon. "A few days later," says +Lingard, condensing the old chronicles, "the king +undertook to silence the murmurs of the people, +and summoned to his residence in the Bridewell +the members of the Council, the lords of his Court, +and the mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens. +Before them he enumerated the several injuries +which he had received from the emperor, and the +motives which induced him to seek the alliance of +France. Then, taking to himself credit for delicacy +of conscience, he described the scruples which +had long tormented his mind on account of his +marriage with his deceased brother's widow. These +he had at first endeavoured to suppress, but they +had been revived and confirmed by the alarming +declaration of the Bishop of Tarbes in the presence +of his Council. To tranquillise his mind he had +recourse to the only legitimate remedy: he had +consulted the Pontiff, who had appointed two delegates +to hear the case, and by their judgment he +was determined to abide. He would therefore warn +his subjects to be cautious how they ventured to +arraign his conduct. The proudest among them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> +should learn that he was their sovereign, and +should answer with their heads for the presumption +of their tongues." Yet, notwithstanding he made +all this parade of conscious superiority, Henry was +prudent enough not by any means to refuse the aid +of precaution. A rigorous search was made for +arms, and all strangers, with the exception only of +ten merchants from each nation, were ordered to +leave the capital.</p> + +<p>At the trial for divorce the poor queen behaved +with much womanly dignity. "The judges," says +Hall, the chronicler, and after him Stow, "commanded +the crier to proclaim silence while their commission +was read, both to the court and the people +assembled. That done, the scribes commanded the +crier to call the king by the name of 'King Henry of +England, come into court,' &c. With that the king +answered, and said, 'Here.' Then he called the +queen, by the name of 'Katherine, Queen of England, +come into court,' &c., who made no answer, +but rose incontinent out of her chair, and because +she could not come to the king directly, for the distance +secured between them, she went about, and +came to the king, kneeling down at his feet in the +sight of all the court and people, to whom she said +in effect these words, as followeth: 'Sir,' quoth +she, 'I desire you to do me justice and right, and +take some pity upon me, for I am a poor woman +and a stranger, born out of your dominion, having +here so indifferent counsel, and less assurance of +friendship. Alas! sir, in what have I offended +you? or what occasion of displeasure have I +showed you, intending thus to put me from you +after this sort? I take God to judge, I have been +to you a true and humble wife, ever conformable +to your will and pleasure; that never contrarised +or gainsaid anything thereof; and being always +contented with all things wherein you had any +delight or dalliance, whether little or much, without +grudge or countenance of discontent or displeasure. +I loved for your sake all them you loved, whether +I had cause or no cause, whether they were my +friends or my enemies. I have been your wife +these twenty years or more, and you have had by +me divers children; and when ye had me at the +first, I take God to be judge that I was a very +maid; and whether it be true or not, I put it to +your conscience. If there be any just cause that +you can allege against me, either of dishonesty or +matter lawful, to put me from you, I am content +to depart, to my shame and rebuke; and if there be +none, then I pray you to let me have justice at your +hands. The king, your father, was, in his time, of +such excellent wit, that he was accounted among all +men for wisdom to be a second Solomon; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> +King of Spain, my father, Ferdinand, was reckoned +one of the wisest princes that reigned in Spain many +years before. It is not, therefore, to be doubted +but that they had gathered as wise counsellors unto +them of every realm as to their wisdom they thought +meet; and as to me seemeth, there were in those +days as wise and well-learned in both realms as +now at this day, who thought the marriage between +you and me good and lawful. Therefore it is a +wonder to me to hear what new inventions are +now invented against me, that never intended but +honesty, and now to cause me to stand to the +order and judgment of this court. Ye should, as +seemeth me, do me much wrong, for ye may condemn +me for lack of answer, having no counsel but +such as ye have assigned me; ye must consider +that they cannot but be indifferent on my part, +where they be your own subjects, and such as ye +have taken and chosen out of your council, whereunto +they be privy, and dare not disclose your will +and intent. Therefore, I humbly desire you, in the +way of charity, to spare me until I may know what +counsel and advice my friends in Spain will advertise +me to take; and if you will not, then your +pleasure be fulfilled.' With that she rose up, +making a low curtsey to the king, and departed +from thence, people supposing that she would have +resorted again to her former place, but she took +her way straight out of the court, leaning upon the +arm of one of her servants, who was her receiver-general, +called Master Griffith. The king, being +advertised that she was ready to go out of the +house where the court was kept, commanded the +crier to call her again by these words, 'Katherine, +Queen of England,' &c. With that, quoth Master +Griffith, 'Madam, ye be called again.' 'Oh! oh!' +quoth she, 'it maketh no matter; it is no indifferent +(impartial) court for me, therefore I will not tarry: +go on your ways.' And thus she departed without +any further answer at that time, or any other, and +never would appear after in any court."</p> + +<p>Bridewell was endowed with the revenues of the +Savoy. In 1555 the City companies were taxed +for fitting it up; and the next year Machyn records +that a thief was hung in one of the courts, and, +later on, a riotous attempt was made to rescue +prisoners.</p> + +<p>In 1863 Mr. Lemon discovered in the State +Paper Office some interesting documents relative to +the imprisonment in Bridewell, in 1567 (Elizabeth), +of many members of the first Congregational Church. +Bishop Grindal, writing to Bullinger, in 1568 describes +this schism, and estimates its adherents at +about 200, but more women than men. Grindal +says they held meetings and administered the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> +sacrament in private houses, fields, and even in +ships, and ordained ministers, elders, and deacons, +after their own manner. The Lord Mayor, in +pity, urged them to recant, but they remained firm. +Several of these sufferers for conscience' sake died +in prison, including Richard Fitz, their minister, +and Thomas Rowland, a deacon. In the year 1597, +within two months, 5,468 prisoners, including many +Spaniards, were sent to Bridewell.</p> + +<p>The Bridewell soon proved costly and inconvenient +to the citizens, by attracting idle, abandoned, +and "masterless" people. In 1608 (James I.) +the City erected at Bridewell twelve large granaries +and two coal-stores; and in 1620 the old chapel +was enlarged. In the Great Fire (six years after +the Restoration) the buildings were nearly all destroyed, +and the old castellated river-side mansion +of Elizabeth's time was rebuilt in two quadrangles, +the chief of which fronted the Fleet river (now a +sewer under the centre of Bridge Street). We have +already given on page 12 a view of Bridewell as it +appeared previous to the Great Fire; and the +general bird's-eye view given on page 187 in the +present number shows its appearance after it was +rebuilt. Within the present century, Mr. Timbs says, +the committee-rooms, chapel, and prisons were rebuilt, +and the whole formed a large quadrangle, with +an entrance from Bridge Street, the keystone of the +arch being sculptured with the head of Edward VI. +Bridewell stone bridge over the Fleet was painted +by Hayman, Hogarth's friend, and engraved by +Grignon, as the frontispiece to the third volume +of "The Dunciad." In the burial-ground at Bridewell, +now the coal-yard of the City Gas Company, +was buried, in 1752, Dr. Johnson's friend and <i>protégé</i>, +poor blameless Levett. The last interment took +place here, Mr. Noble says, in 1844, and the trees +and tombstones were then carted away. The +gateway into Bridge Street is still standing, and +such portions of the building as still remain are +used for the house and offices of the treasury of +the Bridewell Hospital property, which includes +Bedlam.</p> + +<p>The flogging at Bridewell is described by Ward, +in his "London Spy." Both men and women, it +appears, 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 <i>knock</i> when women were flogged were loud +and incessant. "Oh, 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 +in Bridewell. Madame Creswell, the celebrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> +procuress of King Charles II.'s reign, died a prisoner +in Bridewell. She desired by <i>will</i> to have a +sermon preached at her funeral, for which the +preacher was to have £10, but upon this express +condition, that he was to say nothing but what was +well of her. A preacher was with some difficulty +found who undertook the task. He, after a sermon +preached on the general subject of mortality, concluded +with saying, "By the will of the deceased, +it is expected that I should mention her, and say +nothing but what was <i>well</i> of her. All that I shall +say of her, therefore, is this: She was born <i>well</i>, +she lived <i>well</i>, and she died <i>well</i>; for she was born +with the name of Cres<i>well</i>, she lived in Clerken<i>well</i>, +and she died in Bride<i>well</i>." (Cunningham.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="beating" id="beating"></a> +<img src="images/p192.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BEATING HEMP IN BRIDEWELL, AFTER HOGARTH</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1708 (Queen Anne) Hatton describes Bridewell +"as a house of correction for idle, vagrant, +loose, and disorderly persons, and 'night walkers,' +who are there set to hard labour, but receive clothes +and diet." It was also a hospital for indigent persons. +Twenty art-masters (decayed traders) were also +lodged, and received about 140 apprentices. The +boys, after learning tailoring, weaving, flax-dressing, +&c., received the freedom of the City, and donations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> +of £10 each. Many of these boys, says Hatton, +"arrived from nothing to be governors." They +wore a blue dress and white hats, and attended +fires, with an engine belonging to the hospital. +The lads at last became so turbulent, that in 1785 +their special costume was abandoned. "Job's +Pound" was the old cant name for Bridewell, and +it is so called in "Hudibras."</p> + +<p>The scene of the fourth plate of Hogarth's +"Harlot's Progress," finished in 1733 (George II.), +is laid in Bridewell. There, in a long, dilapidated, +tiled shed, a row of female prisoners are beating +hemp on wooden blocks, while a truculent-looking +warder, with an apron on, is raising his rattan to +strike a poor girl not without some remains of her +youthful beauty, who seems hardly able to lift the +heavy mallet, while the wretches around leeringly +deride her fine apron, laced hood, and figured gown. +There are two degraded men among the female +hemp-beaters—one an old card-sharper in laced coat +and foppish wig; another who stands with his hands +in a pillory, on which is inscribed the admonitory +legend, "Better to work than stand thus." A cocked +hat and a dilapidated hoop hang on the wall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="dukes" id="dukes"></a> +<img src="images/p193.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF THE DUKE'S THEATRE, FROM SETTLE'S +"EMPRESS OF MOROCCO"</span> +</div> + +<p>That excellent man, Howard, visiting Bridewell +in 1783, gives it a bad name, in his book on +"Prisons." He describes the rooms as offensive, +and the prisoners only receiving a penny loaf a +day each. The steward received eightpence a day +for each prisoner, and a hemp-dresser, paid a salary +of £20, had the profit of the culprits' labour. For +bedding the prisoners had fresh straw given them +once a month. It was the only London prison +where either straw or bedding was allowed. No +out-door exercise was permitted. In the year 1782 +there had been confined in Bridewell 659 prisoners.</p> + +<p>In 1790, Pennant describes Bridewell as still +having arches and octagonal towers of the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +palace remaining, and a magnificent flight of ancient +stairs leading to the court of justice. In the next +room, where the whipping-stocks were, tradition +says sentence of divorce was pronounced against +Katherine of Arragon.</p> + +<p>"The first time," says Pennant, "I visited the +place, there was not a single male prisoner, but +about twenty females. They were confined on a +ground floor, and employed on the beating of +hemp. When the door was opened by the keeper, +they ran towards it like so many hounds in kennel, +and presented a most moving sight. About twenty +young creatures, the eldest not exceeding sixteen, +many of them with angelic faces divested of every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> +angelic expression, featured with impudence, impenitency, +and profligacy, and clothed in the +silken tatters of squalid finery. A magisterial—a +national—opprobrium! What a disadvantageous +contrast to the <i>Spinhaus</i>, in Amsterdam, where the +confined sit under the eye of a matron, spinning +or sewing, in plain and neat dresses provided by +the public! No traces of their former lives appear +in their countenances; a thorough reformation +seems to have been effected, equally to the emolument +and the honour of the republic. This is also +the place of confinement for disobedient and idle +apprentices. They are kept separate, in airy cells, +and have an allotted task to be performed in a +certain time. They, the men and women, are +employed in beating hemp, picking oakum, and +packing of goods, and are said to earn their maintenance."</p> + +<p>A writer in "Knight's London" (1843) gives a +very bad account of Bridewell. "Bridewell, another +place of confinement in the City of London, is +under the jurisdiction of the governors of Bridewell +and Bethlehem Hospitals, but it is supported +out of the funds of the hospital. The entrance is +in Bridge Street, Blackfriars. The prisoners confined +here are persons summarily convicted by +the Lord Mayor and aldermen, and are, for the +most part, petty pilferers, misdemeanants, vagrants, +and refractory apprentices, sentenced to solitary +confinement; which term need not terrify the said +refractory offenders, for the persons condemned to +solitude," says the writer, "can with ease keep up +a conversation with each other from morning to +night. The total number of persons confined here +in 1842 was 1,324, of whom 233 were under seventeen, +and 466 were known or reputed thieves. In +1818 no employment was furnished to the prisoners. +The men sauntered about from hour to hour in +those chambers where the worn blocks still stood +and exhibited the marks of the toil of those who +are represented in Hogarth's prints.</p> + +<p>"The treadmill has been now introduced, and +more than five-sixths of the prisoners are sentenced +to hard labour, the 'mill' being employed +in grinding corn for Bridewell, Bethlehem, and the +House of Occupation. The 'Seventh Report of +the Inspectors of Prisons on the City Bridewell' is +as follows:—'The establishment answers no one +object of imprisonment except that of safe custody. +It does not correct, deter, nor reform; but we are +convinced that the association to which all but the +City apprentices are subjected proves highly injurious, +counteracts any efforts that can be made +for the moral and religious improvement of the +prisoners, corrupts the less criminal, and confirms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> +the degradation of the more hardened offenders. +The cells in the old part of the prison are greatly +superior to those in the adjoining building, which +is of comparatively recent erection, but the whole +of the arrangements are exceedingly defective. It +is quite lamentable to see such an injudicious and +unprofitable expenditure as that which was incurred +in the erection of this part of the prison.'"</p> + +<p>Latterly Bridewell was used as a receptacle for +vagrants, and as a temporary lodging for paupers +on their way to their respective parishes. The +prisoners sentenced to hard labour were put on a +treadmill which ground corn. The other prisoners +picked junk. The women cleaned the prison, +picked junk, and mended the linen. In 1829 +there was built adjoining Bedlam a House of Occupation +for young prisoners. It was decided that +from the revenue of the Bridewell hospital (£12,000) +reformatory schools were to be built. The annual +number of contumacious apprentices sent to Bridewell +rarely exceeded twenty-five, and when Mr. +Timbs visited the prison in 1863 he says he found +only one lad out of the three thousand apprentices +of the great City. In 1868 (says Mr. Noble) the +governors refused to receive a convicted apprentice, +for the very excellent reason that there was +no cell to receive him.</p> + +<p>The old court-room of Bridewell (84 by 29) +was a handsome wainscoted room, adorned with a +great picture, erroneously attributed to Holbein +and representing Edward VI. granting the Royal +Charter of Endowment to the Mayor, which now +hangs over the western gallery of the hall of Christ's +Hospital. It was engraved by Vertue in 1750, +and represents an event which happened ten years +after the death of the supposed artist. Beneath +this was a cartoon of the Good Samaritan, by +Dadd, the young artist of promise who went mad +and murdered his father, and who is now confined +for life in Broadmoor. The picture is now at +Bedlam. There was a fine full-length of swarthy +Charles II., by Lely, and full-lengths of George III. +and Queen Charlotte, after Reynolds. There were +also murky portraits of past presidents, including +an equestrian portrait of Sir William Withers (1708). +Tables of benefactions also adorned the walls. In +this hall the governors of Bridewell dined annually, +each steward contributing £15 towards the expenses, +the dinner being dressed in a large kitchen, +below, only used for that purpose. The hall and +kitchen were taken down in 1862.</p> + +<p>In the entrance corridor from Bridge Street (says +Mr. Timbs) are the old chapel gates, of fine iron-work, +originally presented by the equestrian Sir +William Withers, and on the staircase is a bust of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> +the venerable Chamberlain Clarke, who died in his +ninety-third year.</p> + +<p>The Bridewell prison (whose inmates were sent +to Holloway) was pulled down (except the hall, +treasurer's house, and offices) in 1863.</p> + +<p>Bridewell Dock (now Tudor and William Streets +and Chatham Place) was long noted for its taverns, +and was a favourite landing-place for the Thames +watermen. (Noble.)</p> + +<p>The gas-works of Whitefriars are of great size. +In 1807 Mr. Winsor, a German, first lit a part of +London (Pall Mall) with gas, and in 1809 he applied +for a charter. Yet, even as late as 1813, says +Mr. Noble, the inquest-men of St. Dunstan's, full +of the vulgar prejudice of the day, prosecuted +William Sturt, of 183, Fleet Street, for continuing +for three months past "the making of gaslight, and +making and causing to be made divers large fires +of coal and other things," by reason whereof and +"divers noisome and offensive stinks and smells +and vapours he causes the houses and dwellings +near to be unhealthy, for which said nuisance one +William Knight, the occupier, was indicted at +the sessions." The early users of coffee at the +"Rainbow," as we have seen in a previous chapter, +underwent the same persecution. Yet Knight went +on boldly committing his harmless misdemeanour, +and even so far, in the next year (1814), as to start +a company and build gas-works on the river's +bank at Whitefriars. Gas spoke for itself, and +its brilliancy could not be gainsaid. Times have +changed. There are now thirteen London companies, +producing a rental of a million and a half, +using in their manufacture 882,770 tons of coal, +and employing a capital of more than five and a +half millions. Luckily for the beauty of the +Embankment, these gas-works at Whitefriars, with +their vast black reservoirs and all their smoke and +fire, are about to be removed to Barking, seven +miles from London.</p> + +<p>The first theatre in Whitefriars seems to have +been one built in the hall of the old Whitefriars +Monastery. Mr. Collier gives the duration of this +theatre as from 1586 to 1613. A memorandum +from the manuscript-book of Sir Henry Herbert, +Master of the Revels to King Charles I., notes that +"I committed Cromes, a broker in Long Lane, +the 16th of February, 1634, to the Marshalsey, for +lending a Church robe, with the name of Jesus +upon it, to the players in Salisbury Court, to +represent a flamen, a priest of the heathens. +Upon his petition of submission and acknowledgment +of his fault, I released him the 17th February, +1634." From entries of the Wardmote Inquests of +St. Dunstan's, quoted by Mr. Noble, it appears that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> +the Whitefriars Theatre (erected originally in the +precincts of the monastery, to be out of the jurisdiction +of the mayor) seems to have become disreputable +in 1609, and ruinous in 1619, when it is +mentioned that "the rain hath made its way in, and +if it be not repaired it must soon be plucked down, +or it will fall." The Salisbury Court Theatre, that +took its place, was erected about 1629, and the +Earl of Dorset somewhat illegally let it for a term +of sixty-one years and £950 down, Dorset House +being afterwards sold for £4,000. The theatre +was destroyed by the Puritan soldiers in 1649, +and not rebuilt till the Restoration.</p> + +<p>At the outbreak of pleasure and vice, after the +Restoration, the actors, long starved and crestfallen, +brushed up their plumes and burnished their tinsel. +Killigrew, that clever buffoon of the Court, opened +a new theatre in Drury Lane in 1663, with a play of +Beaumont and Fletcher's; and Davenant (supposed +to be Shakespeare's illegitimate son) opened the +little theatre, long disused, in Salisbury Court, the +rebuilding of which was commenced in 1660, on +the site of the granary of Salisbury House. In time +Davenant migrated to the old Tennis Court, in +Portugal Street, on the south side of Lincoln's Inn +Fields, and when the Great Fire came it erased the +Granary Theatre. In 1671, on Davenant's death, +the company (nominally managed by his widow) +returned to the new theatre in Salisbury Court, +designed by Wren, and decorated, it is said, by +Grinling Gibbons. It opened with Dryden's <i>Sir +Martin Marall</i>, which had already had a run, +having been first played in 1668. On Killigrew's +death, the King's and Duke's Servants united, and +removed to Drury Lane in 1682; so that the +Dorset Gardens Theatre only flourished for eleven +years in all. It was subsequently let to wrestlers, +fencers, and other brawny and wiry performers. +The engraving on page 193, taken from Settle's +"Empress of Morocco" (1678), represents the +stage of the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Wren's +new theatre in Dorset Gardens, an engraving of +which is given on page 138, fronted the river, and +had public stairs for the convenience of those +who came by water. There was also an open +place before the theatre for the coaches of the +"quality." In 1698 it was used for the drawing +of a penny lottery, but in 1703, when it threatened +to re-open, Queen Anne finally closed it. It was +standing in 1720 (George I.), when Strype drew +up the continuation of Stow, but it was shortly +after turned into a timber-yard. The New River +Company next had their offices there, and in +1814 water was ousted by fire, and the City +Gas Works were established in this quarter, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> +a dismal front to the bright and pleasant Embankment.</p> + +<p>Pepys, the indefatigable, was a frequent visitor +to the Whitefriars Theatre. A few of his quaint +remarks will not be uninteresting:—</p> + +<p>"1660.—By water to Salsbury Court Playhouse, +where, not liking to sit, we went out again, and +by coach to the theatre, &c.—To the playhouse, +and there saw <i>The Changeling</i>, the first time it +hath been acted these twenty years, and it takes +exceedingly. Besides, I see the gallants do begin +to be tyred with the vanity and pride of the theatre +actors, who are indeed grown very proud and +rich.</p> + +<p>"1661.—To White-fryars, and saw <i>The Bondman</i> +acted; an excellent play, and well done; but above +all that I ever saw, Betterton do the Bondman the +best.</p> + +<p>"1661.—After dinner I went to the theatre, where +I found so few people (which is strange, and the +reason I do not know) that I went out again, and +so to Salisbury Court, where the house as full as +could be; and it seems it was a new play, <i>The +Queen's Maske</i>, wherein there are some good +humours; among others, a good jeer to the old +story of the siege of Troy, making it to be a common +country tale. But above all it was strange to see +so little a boy as that was to act Cupid, which is +one of the greatest parts in it.</p> + +<p>"Creed and I to Salisbury Court, and there saw +<i>Love's Quarrell</i> acted the first time, but I do not +like the design or words..... To Salsbury +Court Playhouse, where was acted the first time +a simple play, and ill acted, only it was my fortune +to sit by a most pretty and most ingenuous lady, +which pleased me much."</p> + +<p>Dryden, in his prologues, makes frequent mention +of the Dorset Gardens Theatre, more especially +in the address on the opening of the new Drury +Lane, March, 1674. The Whitefriars house, under +Davenant, had been the first to introduce regular +scenery, and it prided itself on stage pomp and +show. The year before, in Shadwell's opera of +<i>The Tempest, or the Enchanted Island</i>, the machinery +was very costly, and one scene, in which the spirits +flew away with the wicked duke's table and viands +just as the company was sitting down, had excited +the town to enthusiasm. <i>Psyche</i>, another opera by +Shadwell, perhaps adapted from Molière's Court +spectacle, had succeeded the <i>Tempest</i>. St. André +and his French dancers were probably engaged +in Shadwell's piece. The king, whose taste and +good sense the poet praises, had recommended +simplicity of dress and frugality of ornament. This +Dryden took care to well remember. He says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"You who each day can theatres behold,<br /> +Like Nero's palace, shining all in gold,<br /> +Our mean, ungilded stage will scorn, we fear,<br /> +And for the homely room disdain the cheer."</div> + +<p>Then he brings in the dictum of the king:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Yet if some pride with want may be allowed,<br /> +We in our plainness may be justly proud:<br /> +Our royal master willed it should be so;<br /> +Whate'er he's pleased to own can need no show.<br /> +That sacred name gives ornament and grace,<br /> +And, like his stamp, makes basest metal pass.<br /> +'Twere folly now a stately pile to raise,<br /> +To build a playhouse, while you throw down plays.<br /> +While scenes, machines, and empty operas reign,<br /> +And for the pencil you the pen disdain:<br /> +While troops of famished Frenchmen hither drive,<br /> +And laugh at those upon whose alms they live,<br /> +Old English authors vanish, and give place<br /> +To these new conquerors of the Norman race."</div> + +<p>And when, in 1671, the burnt-out Drury Lane company +had removed to the Portugal Street Theatre, +Dryden had said, in the same strain,—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"So we expect the lovers, braves, and wits;<br /> +The gaudy house with scenes will serve for cits."</div> + +<p>In another epilogue Dryden alludes sarcastically +to the death of Mr. Scroop, a young rake of fortune, +who had just been run through by Sir Thomas +Armstrong, a sworn friend of the Duke of Monmouth, +in a quarrel at the Dorset Gardens Theatre, +and died soon after. This fatal affray took place +during the representation of Davenant's adaptation +of <i>Macbeth</i>.</p> + +<p>From Dryden's various prologues and epilogues +we cull many sharply-outlined and bright-coloured +pictures of the wild and riotous audiences +of those evil days. We see again the "hot Burgundians" +in the upper boxes wooing the masked +beauties, crying "<i>bon</i>" to the French dancers and +beating cadence to the music that had stirred even +the stately Court of Versailles. Again we see the +scornful critics, bunched with glistening ribbons, +shaking back their cascades of blonde hair, lolling +contemptuously on the foremost benches, and "looking +big through their curls." There from "Fop's +Corner" rises the tipsy laugh, the prattle, and the +chatter, as the dukes and lords, the wits and courtiers, +practise what Dryden calls "the diving bow," +or "the toss and the new French wallow"—the +diving bow being especially admired, because it—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"With a shog casts all the hair before,<br /> +Till he, with full decorum, brings it back,<br /> +And rises with a water-spaniel's shake."</div> + +<p>Nor does the poet fail to recall the affrays in the +upper boxes, when some quarrelsome rake was often +pinned to the wainscoat by the sword of his insulted +rival. Below, at the door, the Flemish horses and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> +the heavy gilded coach, lighted by flambeaux, are +waiting for the noisy gallant, and will take back +only his corpse.</p> + +<p>Of Dryden's coldly licentious comedies and +ranting bombastic tragedies a few only seem to +have been produced at the Dorset Gardens Theatre. +Among these we may mention <i>Limberham</i>, <i>Œdipus</i>, +<i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, and <i>The Spanish Friar</i>. +<i>Limberham</i> was acted at the Duke's Theatre, in +Dorset Gardens; because, being a satire upon a +Court vice, it was deemed peculiarly calculated for +that playhouse. The concourse of the citizens +thither is alluded to in the prologue to <i>Marriage +à la Mode</i>. Ravenscroft, also, in his epilogue to +the play of <i>Citizen Turned Gentleman</i>, which was +acted at the same theatre, takes occasion to disown +the patronage of the more dissolute courtiers, in all +probability because they formed the minor part of +his audience. The citizens were his great patrons.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Postman</i>, December 8, 1679, there is the +following notice, quoted by Smith:—"At the +request of several persons of quality, on Saturday +next, being the 9th instant, at the theatre in Dorset +Gardens, the famous Kentish men, Wm. and Rich. +Joy, design to show to the town before they leave +it the same tryals of strength, both of them, that +Wm. had the honour of showing before his majesty +and their royal highnesses, with several other persons +of quality, for which he received a considerable +gratuity. The lifting a weight of two thousand two +hundred and forty pounds. His holding an extraordinary +large cart-horse; and breaking a rope +which will bear three thousand five hundred weight. +Beginning exactly at two, and ending at four. The +boxes, 4s.; the pit, 2s. 6d.; first gallery, 2s.; upper +gallery, 1s. Whereas several scandalous persons +have given out that they can do as much as any of +the brothers, we do offer to such persons £100 +reward, if he can perform the said matters of +strength as they do, provided the pretender will +forfeit £20 if he doth not. The day it is performed +will be affixed a signal-flag on the theatre. +No money to be returned after once paid."</p> + +<p>In 1681 Dr. Davenant seems, by rather unfair +tactics, to have bought off and pensioned both +Hart and Kynaston from the King's Company, +and so to have greatly weakened his rivals. Of +these two actors some short notice may not be +uninteresting. Hart had been a Cavalier captain +during the Civil Wars, and was a pupil of Robinson, +the actor, who was shot down at the taking of +Basing House. Hart was a tragedian who excelled +in parts that required a certain heroic and chivalrous +dignity. As a youth, before the Restoration, when +boys played female parts, Hart was successful as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> +the Duchess, in Shirley's <i>Cardinal</i>. In Charles's +time he played Othello, by the king's command, +and rivalled Betterton's Hamlet at the other house. +He created the part of Alexander, was excellent +as Brutus, and terribly and vigorously wicked as +Ben Jonson's Cataline. Rymer, says Dr. Doran, +styled Hart and Mohun the Æsopus and Roscius +of their time. As Amintor and Melanthus, in <i>The +Maid's Tragedy</i>, they were incomparable. Pepys +is loud too in his praises of Hart. His salary, +was, however, at the most, £3 a week, though he +realised £1,000 yearly after he became a shareholder +of the theatre. Hart died in 1683, within a +year of his being bought off.</p> + +<p>Kynaston, in his way, was also a celebrity. As +a handsome boy he had been renowned for playing +heroines, and he afterwards acquired celebrity by +his dignified impersonation of kings and tyrants. +Betterton, the greatest of all the Charles II. +actors, also played occasionally at Dorset Gardens. +Pope knew him; Dryden was his friend; Kneller +painted him. He was probably the greatest +Hamlet that ever appeared; and Cibber sums up +all eulogy of him when he says, "I never heard a +line in tragedy come from Betterton wherein my +judgment, my ear, and my imagination were not +fully satisfied, which since his time I cannot equally +say of any one actor whatsoever." The enchantment +of his voice was such, adds the same excellent +dramatic critic, that the multitude no more cared +for sense in the words he spoke, "than our musical +connoiseurs think it essential in the celebrated airs +of an Italian opera."</p> + +<p>Even when Whitefriars was at its grandest, and +plumes moved about its narrow river-side streets, +Dorset House was its central and most stately +mansion. It was originally a mansion with gardens, +belonging to a Bishop of Winchester; but about +the year 1217 (Henry III.) a lease was granted +by William, Abbot of Westminster, to Richard, +Bishop of Sarum, at the yearly rent of twenty +shillings, the Abbot retaining the advowson of +St. Bride's Church, and promising to impart to the +said bishop any needful ecclesiastical advice. It +afterwards fell into the hands of the Sackvilles, +held at first by a long lease from the see, but +was eventually alienated by the good Bishop Jewel. +A grant in 1611 (James I.) confirmed the manor of +Salisbury Court to Richard, Earl of Dorset.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="baynards" id="baynards"></a> +<img src="images/p198.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BAYNARD'S CASTLE, FROM A VIEW PUBLISHED IN 1790</span> +</div> + +<p>The Earl of Dorset, to whom Bishop Jewel +alienated the Whitefriars House, was the father of +the poet, Thomas Sackville, Lord High Treasurer +to Queen Elizabeth. The bishop received in +exchange for the famous old house a piece +of land near Cricklade, in Wiltshire. The poet +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>earl was that wise old statesman who began "The +Mirror for Magistrates," an allegorical poem of +gloomy power, in which the poet intended to +make all the great statesmen of England since the +Conquest pass one by one to tell their troublous +stories. He, however, only lived to write one +legend—that of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. +One of his finest and most Holbeinesque +passages relates to old age:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"And next in order sad, Old Age we found;<br /> +His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind;<br /> +With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,<br /> +As on the place where Nature him assigned<br /> +To rest, when that the sisters had untwined<br /> +His vital thread, and ended with their knife<br /> +The fleeting course of fast declining life.<br /> +Crooked-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>Went on three feet, and sometimes crept on four,<br /> +With old lame bones, that rattled by his side;<br /> +His scalp all pil'd, and he with eld forelore,<br /> +His wither'd fist still knocking at death's door;<br /> +Fumbling and drivelling, as he draws his breath;<br /> +For brief, the shape and messenger of death."</div> + +<p>At the Restoration, the Marquis of Newcastle,—the +author of a magnificent book on horsemanship—and +his pedantic wife, whom Scott has +sketched so well in "Peveril of the Peak," inhabited +a part of Dorset House; but whether Great +Dorset House or Little Dorset House, topographers +do not record. "Great Dorset House," says +Mr. Peter Cunningham, quoting Lady Anne +Clifford's "Memoirs," "was the jointure house of +Cicely Baker, Dowager Countess of Dorset, who +died in it in 1615 (James I.)."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="falling" id="falling"></a> +<img src="images/p199.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />FALLING IN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<p class="center">BLACKFRIARS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Three Norman Fortresses on the Thames' Bank—The Black Parliament—The Trial of Katherine of Arragon—Shakespeare a Blackfriars Manager—The +Blackfriars Puritans—The Jesuit Sermon at Hunsdon House—Fatal Accident—Extraordinary Escapes—Queen Elizabeth at Lord +Herbert's Marriage—Old Blackfriars Bridge—Johnson and Mylne—Laying of the Stone—The Inscription—A Toll Riot—Failure of the +Bridge—The New Bridge—Bridge Street—Sir Richard Phillips and his Works—Painters in Blackfriars—The King's Printing Office—Printing +House Square—The <i>Times</i> and its History—Walter's Enterprise—War with the <i>Dispatch</i>—- The gigantic Swindling Scheme exposed +by the <i>Times</i>—Apothecaries' Hall—Quarrel with the College of Physicians.</p></div> + + +<p>On the river-side, between St. Paul's and Whitefriars, +there stood, in the Middle Ages, three Norman +fortresses. Castle Baynard and the old tower of +Mountfiquet were two of them. Baynard Castle, +granted to the Earls of Clare and afterwards +rebuilt by Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, was +the palace in which the Duke of Buckingham +offered the crown to his wily confederate, Richard +the Crookback. In Queen Elizabeth's time it +was granted to the Earls of Pembroke, who lived +there in splendour till the Great Fire melted +their gold, calcined their jewels, and drove them +into the fashionable flood that was already moving +westward. Mountfiquet Castle was pulled down in +1276, when Hubert de Berg, Earl of Kent, transplanted +a colony of Black Dominican friars from +Holborn, near Lincoln's Inn, to the river-side, +south of Ludgate Hill. Yet so conservative is +even Time in England, that a recent correspondent +of <i>Notes and Queries</i> points out a piece of mediæval +walling and the fragment of a buttress, still standing, +at the foot of the <i>Times</i> Office, in Printing House +Square, which seem to have formed part of the +stronghold of the Mountfiquets. This interesting +relic is on the left hand of Queen Victoria Street, +going up from the bridge, just where there was +formerly a picturesque but dangerous descent by a +flight of break-neck stone steps. At the right-hand +side of the same street stands an old rubble chalk +wall, even older. It is just past the new house of +the Bible Society, and seems to have formed part +of the old City wall, which at first ended at Baynard +Castle. The rampart advanced to Mountfiquet, +and, lastly, to please and protect the Dominicans, +was pushed forward outside Ludgate to the Fleet, +which served as a moat, the Old Bailey being an +advanced work.</p> + +<p>King Edward I. and Queen Eleanor heaped many +gifts on these sable friars. Charles V. of France was +lodged at their monastery when he visited England, +but his nobles resided in Henry's newly-built +palace of Bridewell, a gallery being thrown over +the Fleet and driven through the City wall, to serve +as a communication between the two mansions. +Henry held the "Black Parliament" in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> +monastery, and here Cardinal Campeggio presided +at the trial which ended with the tyrant's divorce +from the ill-used Katherine of Arragon. In the +same house the Parliament also sat that condemned +Wolsey, and sent him to beg "a little earth for +charity" of the monks of Leicester. The rapacious +king laid his rough hand on the treasures of +the house in 1538, and Edward VI. sold the hall +and prior's lodgings to Sir Francis Bryan, a courtier, +afterwards granting Sir Francis Cawarden, Master +of the Revels, the whole house and precincts of the +Preacher Friars, the yearly value being then valued +at nineteen pounds. The holy brothers were dispersed +to beg or thieve, and the church was pulled +down, but the mischievous right of sanctuary continued.</p> + +<p>And now we come to the event which connects +the old monastic ground with the name of the great +genius of England. James Burbage (afterwards +Shakespeare's friend and fellow actor), and other +servants of the Earl of Leicester, tormented out of +the City by the angry edicts of over-scrupulous Lord +Mayors, took shelter in the Precinct, and there, in +1578, erected a playhouse (Playhouse Yard). Every +attempt was in vain made to crush the intruders. +About the year 1586, according to the best authorities, +the young Shakespeare came to London and +joined the company at the Blackfriars Theatre. +Only three years later we find the new arrival—and +this is one of the unsolvable mysteries of +Shakespeare's life—one of sixteen sharers in the +prosperous though persecuted theatre. It is true +that Mr. Halliwell has lately discovered that he +was not exactly a proprietor, but only an actor, +receiving a share of the profits of the house, +exclusive of the galleries (the boxes and dress +circle of those days), but this is, after all, only a +lessening of the difficulty; and it is almost as +remarkable that a young, unknown Warwickshire +poet should receive such profits as it is that he +should have held a sixteenth of the whole property. +Without the generous patronage of such patrons +as the Earl of Southampton or Lord Brooke, how +could the young actor have thriven? He was only +twenty-six, and may have written "Venus and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> +Adonis" or "Lucrece;" yet the first of these poems +was not published till 1593. He may already, it +is true, have adapted one or two tolerably successful +historical plays, and, as Mr. Collier thinks, might +have written <i>The Comedy of Errors</i>, <i>Love's Labour's +Lost</i>, or <i>The Two Gentlemen of Verona</i>. One thing +is certain, that in 1587 five companies of players, +including the Blackfriars Company, performed at +Stratford, and in his native town Mr. Collier thinks +Shakespeare first proved himself useful to his new +comrades.</p> + +<p>In 1589 the Lord Mayor closed two theatres +for ridiculing the Puritans. Burbage and his +friends, alarmed at this, petitioned the Privy +Council, and pleaded that they had never introduced +into their plays matters of state or religion. +The Blackfriars company, in 1593, began to build +a summer theatre, the Globe, in Southwark; and +Mr. Collier, remembering that this was the very +year "Venus and Adonis" was published, attributes +some great gift of the Earl of Southampton to Shakespeare +to have immediately followed this poem, +which was dedicated to him. By 1594 the poet had +written <i>King Richard II.</i> and <i>King Richard III.</i>, +and Burbage's son Richard had made himself famous +as the first representative of the crook-backed king. +In 1596 we find Shakespeare and his partners (only +eight now) petitioning the Privy Council to allow +them to repair and enlarge their theatre, which the +Puritans of Blackfriars wanted to close. The +Council allowed the repairs, but forbade the +enlargement. At this time Shakespeare was living +near the Bear Garden, Southwark, to be close to +the Globe. He was now evidently a thriving, +"warm" man, for in 1597 he purchased for £60 +New Place, one of the best houses in Stratford. +In 1613 we find Shakespeare purchasing a plot +of ground not far from Blackfriars Theatre, and +abutting on a street leading down to Puddle +Wharf, "right against the king's majesty's wardrobe;" +but he had retired to Stratford, and given +up London and the stage before this. The deed +of this sale was sold in 1841 for £162 5s.</p> + +<p>In 1608 the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London +made a final attempt to crush the Blackfriars +players, but failing to prove to the Lord Chancellor +that the City had ever exercised any authority +within the precinct and liberty of Blackfriars, their +cause fell to the ground. The Corporation then +opened a negotiation for purchase with Burbage, +Shakespeare, and the other (now nine) shareholders. +The players asked about £7,000, Shakespeare's four +shares being valued at £1,433 6s. 8d., including +the wardrobe and properties, estimated at £500. +The poet's income at this time Mr. Collier esti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span>mates +at £400 a year. The Blackfriars Theatre +was pulled down in Cromwell's time (1655), and +houses built in its room.</p> + +<p>Randolph, the dramatist, a pupil of Ben Jonson's, +ridicules, in <i>The Muses' Looking-Glass</i>, that strange +"morality" play of his, the Puritan feather-sellers +of Blackfriars, whom Ben Jonson also taunts; +Randolph's pretty Puritan, Mrs. Flowerdew, says +of the ungodly of Blackfriars:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Indeed, it sometimes pricks my conscience,<br /> +I come to sell 'em pins and looking-glasses."</div> + +<p>To which her friend, Mr. Bird, replies, with the sly +sanctity of Tartuffe:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"I have this custom, too, for my feathers;<br /> +'Tis fit that we, which are sincere professors,<br /> +Should gain by infidels."</div> + +<p>Ben Jonson, that smiter of all such hypocrites, +wrote <i>Volpone</i> at his house in Blackfriars, where he +laid the scene of <i>The Alchymist</i>. The Friars were +fashionable, however, in spite of the players, for +Vandyke lived in the precinct for nine years (he +died in 1641); and the wicked Earl and Countess +of Somerset resided in the same locality when they +poisoned their former favourite, Sir Thomas Overbury. +As late as 1735, Mr. Peter Cunningham says, +there was an attempt to assert precinct privileges, +but years before sheriffs had arrested in the Friars.</p> + +<p>In 1623 Blackfriars was the scene of a most +fatal and extraordinary accident. It occurred in +the chief house of the Friary, then a district +declining fast in respectability. Hunsdon House +derived its name from Queen Elizabeth's favourite +cousin, the Lord Chamberlain, Henry Carey, +Baron Hunsdon, and was at the time occupied by +Count de Tillier, the French ambassador. About +three o'clock on Sunday, October 26th, a large +Roman Catholic congregation of about three hundred +persons, worshipping to a certain degree in +stealth, not without fear from the Puritan feather-makers +of the theatrical neighbourhood, had assembled +in a long garret on the third and uppermost +storey. Master Drury, a Jesuit prelate of celebrity, +had drawn together this crowd of timid people. +The garret, looking over the gateway, was approached +by a passage having a door opening into +the street, and also by a corridor from the ambassador's +withdrawing-room. The garret was about +seventeen feet wide and forty feet long, with a +vestry for a priest partitioned off at one end. In +the middle of the garret, and near the wall, stood +a raised table and chair for the preacher. The +gentry sat on chairs and stools facing the pulpit, the +rest stood behind, crowding as far as the head of +the stairs. At the appointed hour Master Drury,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> +the priest, came from the inner room in white robe +and scarlet stole, an attendant carrying a book +and an hour-glass, by which to measure his +sermon. He knelt down at the chair for about an +Ave Maria, but uttered no audible prayer. He +then took the Jesuits' Testament, and read for the +text the Gospel for the day, which was, according +to the Gregorian Calendar, the twenty-first Sunday +after Pentecost—"Therefore is the kingdom of +heaven like unto a man being a king that would +make an account of his servants. And when he +began to make account there was one presented +unto him that owed him ten thousand talents." +Having read the text, the Jesuit preacher sat down, +and putting on his head a red quilt cap, with a white +linen one beneath it, commenced his sermon. He +had spoken for about half an hour when the +calamity happened. The great weight of the crowd +in the old room suddenly snapped the main +summer beam of the floor, which instantly crashed +in and fell into the room below. The main beams +there also snapped and broke through to the +ambassador's drawing-room over the gatehouse, a +distance of twenty-two feet. Only a part, however, +of the gallery floor, immediately over Father Rudgate's +chamber, a small room used for secret mass, +gave way. The rest of the floor, being less crowded, +stood firm, and the people on it, having no other +means of escape, drew their knives and cut a way +through a plaster wall into a neighbouring room.</p> + +<p>A contemporary pamphleteer, who visited the +ruins and wrote fresh from the first outburst of +sympathy, says: "What ear without tingling can +bear the doleful and confused cries of such a troop +of men, women, and children, all falling suddenly +in the same pit, and apprehending with one horror +the same ruin? What eye can behold without +inundation of tears such a spectacle of men overwhelmed +with breaches of mighty timber, buried in +rubbish and smothered with dust? What heart +without evaporating in sighs can ponder the burden +of deepest sorrows and lamentations of parents, +children, husbands, wives, kinsmen, friends, for +their dearest pledges and chiefest comforts? This +world all bereft and swept away with one blast of +the same dismal tempest."</p> + +<p>The news of the accident fast echoing through +London, Serjeant Finch, the Recorder, and the +Lord Mayor and aldermen at once provided for the +safety of the ambassador's family, who were naturally +shaking in their shoes, and shutting up the +gates to keep off the curious and thievish crowd, set +guards at all the Blackfriars passages. Workmen +were employed to remove the <i>débris</i> and rescue the +sufferers who were still alive. The pamphleteer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> +again rousing himself to the occasion, and turning +on his tears, says:—"At the opening hereof what a +chaos! what fearful objects! what lamentable representations! +Here some buried, some dismembered, +some only parts of men; here some wounded and +weltering in their own and others' blood; others +putting forth their fainting hands and crying +out for help. Here some gasping and panting +for breath; others stifled for want of air. So the +most of them being thus covered with dust, their +death was a kind of burial." All that night and +part of the next day the workmen spent in removing +the bodies, and the inquest was then held. It was +found that the main beams were only ten inches +square, and had two mortise-holes, where the +girders were inserted, facing each other, so that +only three inches of solid timber were left. The +main beam of the lower room, about thirteen inches +square, without mortise-holes, broke obliquely near +the end. No wall gave way, and the roof and +ceiling of the garret remained entire. Father +Drury perished, as did also Father Rudgate, who +was in his own apartment, underneath. Lady +Webb, of Southwark, Lady Blackstone's daughter, +from Scroope's Court, Mr. Fowell, a Warwickshire +gentleman, and many tradesmen, servants, and +artisans—ninety-five in all—perished. Some of +the escapes seemed almost miraculous. Mistress +Lucie Penruddock fell between Lady Webb and +a servant, who were both killed, yet was saved by +her chair falling over her head. Lady Webb's +daughter was found alive near her dead mother, +and a girl named Elizabeth Sanders was also saved +by the dead who fell and covered her. A Protestant +scholar, though one of the very undermost, escaped +by the timbers arching over him and some of them +slanting against the wall. He tore a way out +through the laths of the ceiling by main strength, +then crept between two joists to a hole where he +saw light, and was drawn through a door by one +of the ambassador's family. He at once returned +to rescue others. There was a girl of ten who +cried to him, "Oh, my mother!—oh, my sister!—they +are down under the timber." He told her to +be patient, and by God's grace they would be +quickly got forth. The child replied, "This will +be a great scandal to our religion." One of the +men that fell said to a fellow-sufferer, "Oh, what +advantage our adversaries will take at this!" The +other replied, "If it be God's will this should befall +us, what can we say to it?" One gentleman was +saved by keeping near the stairs, while his friend, +who had pushed near the pulpit, perished.</p> + +<p>Many of those who were saved died in a few +hours after their extrication. The bodies of Lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> +Webb, Mistress Udall, and Lady Blackstone's +daughter, were carried to Ely House, Holborn, and +there buried in the back courtyard. In the fore +courtyard, by the French ambassador's house, a +huge grave, eighteen feet long and twelve feet +broad, was dug, and forty-four corpses piled within +it. In another pit, twelve feet long and eight feet +broad, in the ambassador's garden, they buried +fifteen more. Others were interred in St. Andrew's, +St. Bride's, and Blackfriars churches. The list of +the killed and wounded is curious, from its topographical +allusions. Amongst other entries, we find +"John Halifax, a water-bearer" (in the old times +of street conduits the water-bearer was an important +person); "a son of Mr. Flood, the scrivener, in +Holborn; a man of Sir Ives Pemberton; Thomas +Brisket, his wife, son, and maid, in Montague +Close; Richard Fitzgarret, of Gray's Inn, gentleman; +Davie, an Irishman, in Angell Alley, Gray's +Inn, gentleman; Sarah Watson, daughter of Master +Watson, chirurgeon; Master Grimes, near the +'Horse Shoe' tavern, in Drury Lane; John Bevan, +at the 'Seven Stars', in Drury Lane; Francis Man, +Thieving Lane, Westminster," &c. As might have +been expected, the fanatics of both parties had +much to say about this terrible accident. The +Catholics declared that the Protestants, knowing +this to be a chief place of meeting for men of their +faith, had secretly drawn out the pins, or sawn +the supporting timbers partly asunder. The Protestants, +on the other hand, lustily declared that +the planks would not bear such a weight of Romish +sin, and that God was displeased with their pulpits +and altars, their doctrine and sacrifice. One +zealot remembered that, at the return of Prince +Charles from the madcap expedition to Spain, a +Catholic had lamented, or was said to have lamented, +the street bonfires, as there would be never a fagot +left to burn the heretics. "If it had been a Protestant +chapel," the Puritans cried, "the Jesuits +would have called the calamity an omen of the +speedy downfall of heresy." A Catholic writer +replied "with a word of comfort," and pronounced +the accident to be a presage of good fortune to +Catholics and of the overthrow of error and heresy. +This zealous, but not well-informed, writer compared +Father Drury's death with that of Zuinglius, who +fell in battle, and with that of Calvin, "who, being +in despair, and calling upon the devil, gave up +his wicked soul, swearing, cursing, and blaspheming." +So intolerance, we see, is neither +specially Protestant nor Catholic, but of every +party. "The Fatal Vespers," as that terrible day +at Blackfriars was afterwards called, were long +remembered with a shudder by Catholic England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span></p> + +<p>In a curious old pamphlet entitled "Something +Written by Occasion of that Fatall and Memorable +Accident in the Blacke-friers, on Sonday, being the +26th October, 1623, <i>stilo antiquo</i>, and the 5th +November, <i>stilo novo</i>, or <i>Romano</i>" the author relates +a singular escape of one of the listeners. +"When all things were ready," he says, "and the +prayer finished, the Jesuite tooke for his text the +gospell of the day, being (as I take it) the 22nd +Sunday after Trinity, and extracted out of the 18th +of Matthew, beginning at the 21st verse, to the end. +The story concerns forgiveness of sinnes, and describeth +the wicked cruelty of the unjust steward, +whom his maister remitted, though he owed him +10,000 talents, but he would not forgive his fellow +a 100 pence, whereupon he was called to a new +reckoning, and cast into prison, and then the particular +words are, which he insisted upon, the 34th +verse: 'So his master was wroth, and delivered +him to the jaylor, till he should pay all that was +due to him.' For the generall, he urged many +good doctrines and cases; for the particular, he +modelled out that fantasie of purgatory, which he +followed with a full crie of pennance, satisfaction, +paying of money, and such like.</p> + +<p>"While this exercise was in hand, a gentleman +brought up his friend to see the place, and bee +partaker of the sermon, who all the time he was +going up stairs cried out, 'Whither doe I goe? I +protest my heart trembles;' and when he came +into the roome, the priest being very loud, he whispered +his friend in the eare that he was afraid, for, +as he supposed, the room did shake under him; +at which his friend, between smiling and anger, left +him, and went close to the wall behind the preacher's +chaire. The gentleman durst not stirre from the +staires, and came not full two yards in the roome, +when on a sudden there was a kinde of murmuring +amongst the people, and some were heard to say, +'The roome shakes;' which words being taken up +one of another, the whole company rose up with a +strong suddainnesse, and some of the women +screeched. I cannot compare it better than to +many passengers in a boat in a tempest, who are +commanded to sit still and let the waterman alone +with managing the oares, but some unruly people +rising overthrowes them all. So was this company +served; for the people thus affrighted started up +with extraordinary quicknesse, and at an instant +the maine summer beame broke in sunder, being +mortised in the wall some five foot from the same; +and so the whole roofe or floore fell at once, with +all the people that stood thronging on it, and +with the violent impetuosity drove downe the +nether roome quite to the ground, so that they fell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> +twenty-four foot high, and were most of them buried +and bruised betweene the rubbish and the timber; +and though some were questionlesse smothered, +yet for the most part they were hurt and bled, and +being taken forth the next day, and laid all along +in the gallery, presented to the lookers-on a wofull +spectacle of fourscore and seventeen dead persons, +besides eight or nine which perished since, unable +to recover themselves."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="richard" id="richard"></a> +<img src="images/p204.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />RICHARD BURBAGE, FROM THE ORIGINAL PORTRAIT IN DULWICH COLLEG</span> +</div> + +<p>"They that kept themselves close to the walls, +or remained by the windows, or held by the rafters, +or settled themselves by the stayres, or were driven +away by fear and suspition, sauved themselves +without further hurt; but such as seemed more +devoute, and thronged neere the preacher, perished +in a moment with himselfe and other priests and +Jesuites; and this was the summe of that unhappy +disaster."</p> + +<p>In earlier days Blackfriars had been a locality +much inhabited by fashionable people, especially +about the time of Queen Elizabeth. Pennant +quotes from the <i>Sydney Papers</i> a curious account<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> +of a grand festivity at the house of Lord Herbert, +which the Queen honoured by her attendance. +The account is worth inserting, if only for the sake +of a characteristic bit of temper which the Queen +exhibited on the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Lord Herbert, son of William, fourth Earl of +Worcester," says Pennant, "had a house in Blackfriars, +which Queen Elizabeth, in 1600, honoured +with her presence, on occasion of his nuptials +with the daughter and heiress of John, Lord +Russell, son of Francis, Earl of Bedford. The +queen was met at the waterside by the bride, +and carried to her house in a <i>lectica</i> by six +knights. Her majesty dined there, and supped +in the same neighbourhood with Lord Cobham, +where there was 'a memorable maske of eight +ladies, and a strange dawnce new invented. Their +attire is this: each hath a skirt of cloth of silver, +a mantell of coruscian taffete, cast under the +arme, and their haire loose about their shoulders, +curiously knotted and interlaced. Mrs. Fitton +leade. These eight ladys maskers choose eight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> +ladies more to dawnce the measures. Mrs. Fitton +went to the queen and woed her dawnce. Her +majesty (the love of Essex rankling in her heart) +asked what she was? "<i>Affection</i>," she said. +"<i>Affection!</i>" said the queen; "<i>affection</i> is false"; +yet her majestie rose up and dawnced. At this +time the queen was sixty. Surely, as Mr. Walpole +observed, it was at that period as natural for her +as to be in love! I must not forget that in her +passage from the bride's to Lord Cobham's she +went through the house of Dr. Puddin, and was +presented by the doctor with a fan."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="laying" id="laying"></a> +<img src="images/p205.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE, 1760, FROM A CONTEMPORARY PRINT</span> +</div> + +<p>Old Blackfriars Bridge, pulled down a few years +since, was begun in 1760, and first opened on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> +Sunday, November 19, 1769. It was built from +the design of Robert Mylne, a clever young +Scotch engineer, whose family had been master +masons to the kings of Scotland for five hundred +years. Mylne had just returned from a professional +tour in Italy, where he had followed in +the footsteps of Vitruvius, and gained the first +prize at the Academy of St. Luke. He arrived +in London friendless and unknown, and at once +entered into competition with twenty other architects +for the new bridge. Among these rivals +was Smeaton, the great engineer (a <i>protégé</i> of Lord +Bute's), and Dr. Johnson's friend, Gwynn, well +known for his admirable work on London improve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>ments. +The committee were, however, just enough +to be unanimous in favouring the young unknown +Scotchman, and he carried off the prize. Directly +it was known that Mylne's arches were to be +elliptical, every one unacquainted with the subject +began to write in favour of the semi-circular arch. +Among the champions Dr. Johnson was, if not the +most ignorant, the most rash. He wrote three +letters to the printer of the <i>Gazetteer</i>, praising +Gwynn's plans and denouncing the Scotch conqueror. +Gwynn had "coached" the learned Doctor +in a very unsatisfactory way. In his early days the +giant of Bolt Court had been accustomed to get +up subjects rapidly, but the science of architecture +was not so easily digested. The Doctor contended +"that the first excellence of a bridge built for +commerce over a large river is strength." So far +so good; but he then went on to try and show +that the pointed arch is necessarily weak, and here +he himself broke down. He allowed that there +was an elliptical bridge at Florence, but he said +carts were not allowed to go over it, which proved +its fragility. He also condemned a proposed cast-iron +parapet, in imitation of one at Rome, as too +poor and trifling for a great design. He allowed +that a certain arch of Perault's was elliptical, but +then he contended that it had to be held together +by iron clamps. He allowed that Mr. Mylne had +gained the prize at Rome, but the competitors, the +arrogant despot of London clubs asserted, were +only boys; and, moreover, architecture had sunk +so low at Rome, that even the Pantheon had been +deformed by petty decorations. In his third letter +the Doctor grew more scientific, and even more +confused. He was very angry with Mr. Mylne's +friends for asserting that though a semi-ellipse +might be weaker than a semicircle, it had quite +strength enough to support a bridge. "I again +venture to declare," he wrote—"I again venture to +declare, in defiance of all this contemptuous superiority" +(how arrogant men hate other people's +arrogance!), "that a straight line will bear no weight. +Not even the science of Vasari will make that form +strong which the laws of nature have condemned +to weakness. By the position that a straight line +will bear nothing is meant that it receives no +strength from straightness; for that many bodies +laid in straight lines will support weight by the +cohesion of their parts, every one has found who +has seen dishes on a shelf, or a thief upon the +gallows. It is not denied that stones may be so +crushed together by enormous pressure on each +side, that a heavy mass may be safely laid +upon them; but the strength must be derived +merely from the lateral resistance, and the line so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> +loaded will be itself part of the load. The semi-elliptical +arch has one recommendation yet unexamined. +We are told that it is difficult of +execution."</p> + +<p>In the face of this noisy newspaper thunder, +Mylne went on, and produced one of the most +beautiful bridges in England for £152,640 3s. 10d., +actually £163 less than the original estimate—an +admirable example for all architects, present and to +come. The bridge, which had eight arches, and was +995 yards from wharf to wharf, was erected in ten +years and three quarters. Mylne received £500 +a year and ten per cent. on the expenditure. His +claims, however, were disputed, and not allowed +by the grateful City till 1776. The bridge-tolls +were bought by Government in 1785, and the +passage then became free. It was afterwards +lowered, and the open parapet, condemned by +Johnson, removed. It was supposed that Mylne's +mode of centreing was a secret, but in contempt +of all quackery he deposited exact models of his +system in the British Museum. He was afterwards +made surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and in 1811 +was interred near the tomb of Wren. He was a +despot amongst his workmen, and ruled them with +a rod of iron. However, the foundations of this +bridge were never safely built, and latterly the +piers began visibly to subside. The semi-circular +arches would have been far stronger.</p> + +<p>The foundation-stone of Blackfriars Bridge was +laid by Sir Thomas Chitty, Lord Mayor, on the +31st of October, 1760. Horace Walpole, always +Whiggish, describing the event, says:—"The Lord +Mayor laid the first stone of the new bridge yesterday. +There is an inscription on it in honour of +Mr. Pitt, which has a very Roman air, though very +unclassically expressed. They talk of the contagion +of his public spirit; I believe they had not got +rid of their panic about mad dogs." Several gold, +silver, and copper coins of the reign of George II. +(just dead) were placed under the stone, with a +silver medal presented to Mr. Mylne by the +Academy of St. Luke's, and upon two plates of tin—Bonnel +Thornton said they should have been +lead—was engraved a very shaky Latin inscription, +thus rendered into English:—</p> + +<div class="center">On the last day of October, in the year 1760,<br /> +And in the beginning of the most auspicious reign of<br /> +<span class="smcap">George</span> the Third,<br /> +Sir <span class="smcap">Thomas Chitty</span>, Knight, Lord Mayor,<br /> +laid the first stone of this Bridge,<br /> +undertaken by the Common Council of London<br /> +(amidst the rage of an extensive war)<br /> +for the public accommodation<br /> +and ornament of the City;<br /> +<span class="smcap">Robert Mylne</span> being the architect.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>And that there might remain to posterity<br /> +a monument of this city's affection to the man<br /> +who, by the strength of his genius,<br /> +the steadiness of his mind,<br /> +and a certain kind of happy contagion of his<br /> +Probity and Spirit<br /> +(under the Divine favour<br /> +and fortunate auspices of <span class="smcap">George</span> the Second)<br /> +recovered, augmented, and secured<br /> +the British Empire<br /> +in Asia, Africa, and America,<br /> +and restored the ancient reputation<br /> +and influence of his country<br /> +amongst the nations of Europe;<br /> +the citizens of London have unanimously voted this<br /> +Bridge to be inscribed with the name of<br /> +<span class="smcap">William Pitt</span>.</div> + +<p>On this pretentious and unlucky inscription, that +reckless wit, Bonnel Thornton, instantly wrote a +squib, under the obvious pseudonym of the "Rev. +Busby Birch." In these critical and political +remarks (which he entitled "City Latin") the gay +scoffer professed in his preface to prove "almost +every word and every letter to be erroneous and +contrary to the practice of both ancients and +moderns in this kind of writing," and appended a +plan or pattern for a new inscription. The clever +little lampoon soon ran to three editions. The +ordinary of Newgate, my lord's chaplain, or the +masters of Merchant Taylors', Paul's, or Charterhouse +schools, who produced the wonderful pontine +inscription, must have winced under the blows +of this jester's bladderful of peas. Thornton +laughed most at the awkward phrase implying that +Mr. Pitt had caught the happy contagion of his own +probity and spirit. He said that "Gulielmi Pitt" +should have been "Gulielmi Fossæ." Lastly, he +proposed, for a more curt and suitable inscription, +the simple words—</p> + +<p class="center"> +"<span class="smcap">Guil. Fossæ</span>,<br /> +Patri Patriæ D.D.D. (<i>i.e.</i>, Datur, Dicatur, Dedicatur)."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Party feeling, as usual at those times, was rife. +Mylne was a friend of Paterson, the City solicitor, +an apt scribbler and a friend of Lord Bute, who no +doubt favoured his young countryman. For, being +a Scotchman, Johnson no doubt took pleasure in +opposing him, and for the same reason Churchill, +in his bitter poem on the Cock Lane ghost, after +ridiculing Johnson's credulity, goes out of his way +to sneer at Mylne:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"What of that bridge which, void of sense,<br /> +But well supplied with impudence,<br /> +Englishmen, knowing not the Guild,<br /> +Thought they might have the claim to build;<br /> +Till Paterson, as white as milk,<br /> +As smooth as oil, as soft as silk,<br /> +In solemn manner had decreed<br /> +That, on the other side the Tweed,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>Art, born and bred and fully grown,<br /> +Was with one Mylne, a man unknown?<br /> +But grace, preferment, and renown<br /> +Deserving, just arrived in town;<br /> +One Mylne, an artist, perfect quite,<br /> +Both in his own and country's right,<br /> +As fit to make a bridge as he,<br /> +With glorious Patavinity,<br /> +To build inscriptions, worthy found<br /> +To lie for ever underground."</div> + +<p>In 1766 it was opened for foot passengers, the +completed portion being connected with the shore +by a temporary wooden structure; two years later +it was made passable for horses, and in 1769 it was +fully opened. An unpopular toll of one halfpenny +on week-days for every person, and of one penny +on Sundays, was exacted. The result of this was +that while the Gordon Riots were raging, in 1780, +the too zealous Protestants, forgetting for a time +the poor tormented Papists, attacked and burned +down the toll-gates, stole the money, and destroyed +all the account-books. Several rascals' lives were +lost, and one rioter, being struck with a bullet, ran +howling for thirty or forty yards, and then dropped +down dead. Nevertheless, the iniquitous toll +continued until 1785, when it was redeemed by +Government.</p> + +<p>The bridge, according to the order of Common +Council, was first named Pitt Bridge, and the +adjacent streets (in honour of the great earl) +Chatham Place, William Street, and Earl Street. +But the first name of the bridge soon dropped off, +and the monastic locality asserted its prior right. +This is the more remarkable (as Mr. Timbs judiciously +observes), because with another Thames +bridge the reverse change took place. Waterloo +Bridge was first called Strand Bridge, but it was +soon dedicated by the people to the memory of +the most famous of British victories.</p> + +<p>The £152,640 that the bridge cost does not +include the £5,830 spent in altering and filling up +the Fleet Ditch, or the £2,167 the cost of the temporary +wooden bridge. The piers, of bad Portland +stone, were decorated by some columns of unequal +sizes, and the line of parapet was low and curved. +The approaches to the bridge were also designed +by Mylne, who built himself a house at the corner +of Little Bridge Street. The walls of the rooms +were adorned with classical medallions, and on the +exterior was the date (1780), with Mylne's crest, +and the initials "R.M." Dr. Johnson became a +friend of Mylne's, and dined with him at this +residence at least on one occasion. The house +afterwards became the "York Hotel," and, according +to Mr. Timbs, was taken down in 1863.</p> + +<p>The Bridge repairs (between 1833 and 1840), by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> +Walker and Burgess, engineers, at an expense of +£74,000, produced a loss to the contractors; and +the removal of the cornice and balustrade spoiled +the bridge, from whence old Richard Wilson, the +landscape-painter, used to come and admire the +grand view of St. Paul's. The bridge seemed to be +as unlucky as if it had incurred Dr. Johnson's curse. +In 1843 the Chamberlain reported to the Common +Council that the sum of £100,960 had been +already expended in repairing Mylne's faulty work, +besides the £800 spent in procuring a local Act +(4 William IV.). According to a subsequent report, +£10,200 had been spent in six years in repairing +one arch alone. From 1851 to 1859 the expenditure +had been at the rate of £600 a year. Boswell, +indeed, with all his zealous partiality for the Scotch +architect, had allowed that the best Portland stone +belonged to Government quarries, and from this +Parliamentary interest had debarred Mylne.</p> + +<p>The tardy Common Council was at last forced, +in common decency, to build a new bridge. The +architect began by building a temporary structure +of great strength. It consisted of two storeys—the +lower for carriages, the upper for pedestrians—and +stretching 990 feet from wharf to wharf. The +lower piles were driven ten feet into the bed of the +river, and braced with horizontal and diagonal +bracings. The demolition began with vigour in +1864. In four months only, the navigators' brawny +arms had removed twenty thousand tons of earth, +stone, and rubble above the turning of the arches, +and the pulling down those enemies of Dr. Johnson +commenced by the removal of the keystone of the +second arch on the Surrey side. The masonry of +the arches proved to be rather thinner than it +appeared to be, and was stuffed with river ballast, +mixed with bones and small old-fashioned pipes. +The bridge had taken nearly ten years to build; it +was entirely demolished in less than a year, and +rebuilt in two. In some cases the work of removal +and re-construction went on harmoniously and +simultaneously side by side. Ingenious steam +cranes travelled upon rails laid on the upper +scaffold beams, and lifted the blocks of stone with +playful ease and speed. In December, 1864, the +men worked in the evenings, by the aid of naphtha +lamps.</p> + +<p>According to a report printed in the <i>Times</i>, +Blackfriars Bridge had suffered from the removal of +London Bridge, which served as a mill-dam, to +restrain the speed and scour of the river.</p> + +<p>Twelve designs had been sent in at the competition, +and, singularly enough, among the competitors +was a Mr. Mylne, grandson of Johnson's foe. The +design of Mr. Page was first selected, as the hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>somest +and cheapest. It consisted of only three +arches. Ultimately Mr. Joseph Cubitt won the +prize. Cubitt's bridge has five arches, the centre +one eighty-nine feet span; the style, Venetian +Gothic; the cost, £265,000. The piers are grey, +the columns red, granite; the bases and capitals are +of carved Portland stone; the bases, balustrades, +and roads of somewhat over-ornamented iron.</p> + +<p>The <i>Quarterly Review</i>, of April, 1872, contains +the following bitter criticisms of the new double +bridge:—"With Blackfriars Bridge," says the writer, +"we find the public thoroughly well pleased, though +the design is really a wonder of depravity. Polished +granite columns of amazing thickness, with carved +capitals of stupendous weight, all made to give +shop-room for an apple-woman, or a convenient +platform for a suicide. The parapet is a fiddle-faddle +of pretty cast-iron arcading, out of scale +with the columns, incongruous with the capitals, +and quite unsuited for a work that should be simply +grand in its usefulness; and at each corner of the +bridge is a huge block of masonry, <i>àpropos</i> of +nothing, a well-known evidence of desperate imbecility."</p> + +<p>Bridge Street is too new for many traditions. Its +chief hero is that active-minded and somewhat +shallow speculator, Sir Richard Phillips, the bookseller +and projector. An interesting memoir by +Mr. Timbs, his intimate friend, furnishes us with +many curious facts, and shows how the publisher +of Bridge Street impinged on many of the most +illustrious of his contemporaries, and how in a way +he pushed forward the good work which afterwards +owed so much to Mr. Charles Knight. Phillips, born +in London in 1767, was educated in Soho Square, +and afterwards at Chiswick, where he remembered +often seeing Hogarth's widow and Dr. Griffith, of +the <i>Monthly Review</i> (Goldsmith's tyrant), attending +church. He was brought up to be a brewer, but +in 1788 settled as a schoolmaster, first at Chester +and afterwards at Leicester. At Leicester he opened +a bookseller's shop, started a newspaper (the +<i>Leicester Herald</i>), and established a philosophical +society. Obnoxious as a Radical, he was at last +entrapped for selling Tom Paine's "Rights of +Man," and was sent to gaol for eighteen months, +where he was visited by Lord Moira, the Duke of +Norfolk, and other advanced men of the day. His +house being burned down, he removed to London, +and projected a Sunday newspaper, but eventually +Mr. Bell stole the idea and started the +<i>Messenger</i>. In 1795 this restless and energetic +man commenced the <i>Monthly Magazine</i>. Before +this he had already been a hosier, a tutor, and a +speculator in canals. The politico-literary magazine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> +was advertised by circulars sent to eminent men +of the opposition in commercial parcels, to save +the enormous postage of those unregenerate days. +Dr. Aiken, the literary editor, afterwards started a +rival magazine, called the <i>Athenæum</i>. The <i>Gentleman's +Magazine</i> never rose to a circulation above +10,000, which soon sank to 3,000. Phillips's magazine +sold about 3,750. With all these multifarious +pursuits, Phillips was an antiquary—purchasing +Wolsey's skull for a shilling, a portion of his stone +coffin, that had been turned into a horse-trough +at the "White Horse" inn, Leicester; and Rufus's +stirrup, from a descendant of the charcoal-burner +who drove the body of the slain king to Winchester.</p> + +<p>As a pushing publisher Phillips soon distinguished +himself, for the Liberals came to him, and he had +quite enough sense to discover if a book was good. +He produced many capital volumes of Ana, on the +French system, and memoirs of Foote, Monk, Lewes, +Wilkes, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He published +Holcroft's "Travels," Godwin's best novels, +and Miss Owenson's (Lady Morgan's) first work, +"The Novice of St. Dominick." In 1807, when he +removed to New Bridge Street, he served the office +of sheriff; was knighted on presenting an address, +and effected many reforms in the prisons and lock-up +houses. In his useful "Letter to the Livery of +London" he computes the number of writs then +annually issued at 24,000; the sheriffs' expenses at +£2,000. He also did his best to repress the +cruelties of the mob to poor wretches in the pillory. +He was a steady friend of Alderman Waithman, +and was with him in the carriage at the funeral of +Queen Caroline, in 1821, when a bullet from a +soldier's carbine passed through the carriage window +near Hyde Park. In 1809 Phillips had some +reverses, and breaking up his publishing-office in +Bridge Street, devoted himself to the profitable +reform of school-books, publishing them under the +names of Goldsmith, Mavor, and Blair.</p> + +<p>This active-minded man was the first to assert +that Dr. Wilmot wrote "Junius," and to start the +celebrated scandal about George III. and the +young Quakeress, Hannah Lightfoot, daughter of a +linendraper, at the corner of Market Street, St. +James's. She afterwards, it is said, married a grocer, +named Axford, on Ludgate Hill, was then carried +off by the prince, and bore him three sons, who +in time became generals. The story is perhaps +traceable to Dr. Wilmot, whose daughter married +the Duke of Cumberland. Phillips found time to +attack the Newtonian theory of gravitation, to +advocate a memorial to Shakespeare, to compile a +book containing a million of facts, to write on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> +Divine philosophy, and to suggest (as he asserted) to +Mr. Brougham, in 1825, the first idea of the Society +for Useful Knowledge. Almost ruined by the +failures during the panic in 1826, he retired to +Brighton, and there pushed forward his books and +his interrogative system of education. Sir Richard's +greatest mistakes, he used to say, had been the +rejection of Byron's early poems, of "Waverley," +of Bloomfield's "Farmer's Boy," and O'Meara's +"Napoleon in Exile." He always stoutly maintained +his claim to the suggestion of the "Percy +Anecdotes." Phillips died in 1840. Superficial +as he was, and commercial as were his literary +aims, we nevertheless cannot refuse him the praise +awarded in his epitaph:—"He advocated civil +liberty, general benevolence, ascendancy of justice, +and the improvement of the human race."</p> + +<p>The old monastic ground of the Black Friars +seems to have been beloved by painters, for, as we +have seen, Vandyke lived luxuriously here, and was +frequently visited by Charles I. and his Court. +Cornelius Jansen, the great portrait-painter of +James's Court, arranged his black draperies and +ground his fine carnations in the same locality; +and at the same time Isaac Oliver, the exquisite +Court miniature-painter, dwelt in the same place. +It was to him Lady Ayres, to the rage of her +jealous husband, came for a portrait of Lord +Herbert of Cherbury, an imprudence that very +nearly led to the assassination of the poet-lord, who +believed himself so specially favoured of Heaven.</p> + +<p>The king's printing-office for proclamations, &c., +used to be in Printing-house Square, but was removed +in 1770; and we must not forget that where +a Norman fortress once rose to oppress the weak, +to guard the spoils of robbers, and to protect the +oppressor, the <i>Times</i> printing-office now stands, to +diffuse its ceaseless floods of knowledge, to spread +its resistless ægis over the poor and the oppressed, +and ever to use its vast power to extend liberty +and crush injustice, whatever shape the Proteus +assumes, whether it sits upon a throne or lurks in +a swindler's office.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="printing" id="printing"></a> +<img src="images/p210.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE AND THE "TIMES" OFFICE</span> +</div> + +<p>This great paper was started in the year 1785, +by Mr. John Walter, under the name of the <i>Daily Universal Register</i>. It was first called the <i>Times</i>, +January 1, 1788, when the following prospectus +appeared:—</p> + +<p>"The <i>Universal Register</i> has been a name as +injurious to the logographic newspaper as Tristram +was to Mr. Shandy's son; but old Shandy forgot +he might have rectified by confirmation the mistake +of the parson at baptism, and with the touch +of a bishop changed Tristram into Trismegistus. +The <i>Universal Register</i>, from the day of its first +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>appearance to the day of its confirmation, had, +like Tristram, suffered from innumerable casualties, +both laughable and serious, arising from its name, +which in its introduction was immediately curtailed +of its fair proportions by all who called for it, the +word 'Universal' being universally omitted, and +the word 'Register' only retained. 'Boy, bring +me the <i>Register</i>.' The waiter answers, 'Sir, we +have no library; but you may see it in the "New +Exchange" coffee-house.' 'Then I will see it there,' +answers the disappointed politician; and he goes +to the 'New Exchange' coffee-house, and calls for +the <i>Register</i>, upon which the waiter tells him he +cannot have it, as he is not a subscriber, or presents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> +him with the <i>Court and City Register</i>, the <i>Old +Annual Register</i>, or the <i>New Annual Register</i>, or, +if the house be within the purlieus of Covent +Garden or the hundreds of Drury, slips into the +politician's hand <i>Harris's Register of Ladies</i>.</p> + +<p>"For these and other reasons the printer of the +<i>Universal Register</i> has added to its original name +that of the <i>Times</i>, which, being a monosyllable, +bids defiance to the corruptions and mutilations of +the language.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="blackfriars" id="blackfriars"></a> +<img src="images/p211.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BLACKFRIARS OLD BRIDGE DURING ITS CONSTRUCTION, SHOWING THE TEMPORARY FOOT BRIDGE, FROM A PRINT OF 1775</span> +</div> + +<p>"The <i>Times!</i> what a monstrous name! Granted—for +the Times is a many-headed monster, that +speaks with a hundred tongues, and displays a +thousand characters; and in the course of its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span>transitions in life, assumes innumerable shapes and +humours.</p> + +<p>"The critical reader will observe, we personify +our new name; but as we give it no distinction of +sex, and though it will be active in its vocation, +yet we apply to it the neuter gender.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Times</i>, being formed of and possessing +qualities of opposite and heterogeneous natures, +cannot be classed either in the animal or vegetable +genus, but, like the polypus, is doubtful; and in +the discussion, description, and illustration, will +employ the pens of the most celebrated <i>literati</i>.</p> + +<p>"The heads of the <i>Times</i>, as has already been +said, are many; these will, however, not always +appear at the same time, but casually, as public or +private affairs may call them forth.</p> + +<p>"The principal or leading heads are—the literary, +political, commercial, philosophical, critical, theatrical, +fashionable, humorous, witty, &c., each of +which is supplied with a competent share of +intellect for the pursuit of their several functions, +an endowment which is not in all cases to be found, +even in the heads of the State, the heads of the +Church, the heads of the law, the heads of the +navy, the heads of the army, and, though last not +least, the great heads of the universities.</p> + +<p>"The political head of the <i>Times</i>—like that of +Janus, the Roman deity—is double-faced. With +one countenance it will smile continually on the +friends of Old England, and with the other will +frown incessantly on her enemies.</p> + +<p>"The alteration we have made in our paper is +not without precedents. The <i>World</i> has parted +with half its <i>caput mortuum</i> and a moiety of its +brains; the <i>Herald</i> has cutoff one half of its head and +has lost its original humour; the <i>Post</i>, it is true, +retains its whole head and its old features; and as +to the other public prints, they appear as having +neither heads nor tails.</p> + +<p>"On the Parliamentary head, every communication +that ability and industry can produce may be +expected. To this great national object the <i>Times</i> +will be most sedulously attentive, most accurately +correct, and strictly impartial in its reports."</p> + +<p>Both the <i>Times</i> and its predecessor were printed +"logographically," Mr. Walter having obtained a +patent for his peculiar system. The plan consisted +in abridging the compositors' labour by casting +all the more frequently recurring words in metal. +It was, in fact, a system of partial stereotyping. +The English language, said the sanguine inventor, +contained above 90,000 words. This number +Walter had reduced to about 5,000. The projector +was assailed by the wits, who declared that +his orders to the typefounders ran,—"Send me a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> +hundredweight, in separate pounds, of <i>heat</i>, <i>cold</i>, +<i>wet</i>, <i>dry</i>, <i>murder</i>, <i>fire</i>, <i>dreadful robbery</i>, <i>atrocious +outrage</i>, <i>fearful calamity</i>, and <i>alarming explosion</i>." +But nothing could daunt or stop Walter. One +eccentricity of the <i>Daily Register</i> was that on red-letter +days the title was printed in red ink, and +the character of the day stated under the date-line. +For instance, on Friday, August 11, 1786, there +is a red heading, and underneath the words—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Princess of Brunswick born.</span><br /> +Holiday at the Bank, Excise offices, and the Exchequer."</div> + +<p>The first number of the <i>Times</i> is not so large as +the <i>Morning Herald</i> or <i>Morning Chronicle</i> of the +same date, but larger than the <i>London Chronicle</i>, +and of the same size as the <i>Public Advertiser</i>. +(Knight Hunt.)</p> + +<p>The first Walter lived in rough times, and suffered +from the political storms that then prevailed. He +was several times imprisoned for articles against +great people, and it has been asserted that he +stood in the pillory in 1790 for a libel against the +Duke of York. This is not, however, true; but it +is a fact that he was sentenced to such a punishment, +and remained sixteen months in Newgate, +till released at the intercession of the Prince of +Wales. The first Walter died in 1812. The second +Mr. Walter, who came to the helm in 1803, was +the real founder of the future greatness of the +<i>Times</i>; and he, too, had his rubs. In 1804 he +offended the Government by denouncing the foolish +Catamaran expedition. For this the Government +meanly deprived his family of the printing for the +Customs, and also withdrew their advertisements. +During the war of 1805 the Government stopped +all the foreign papers sent to the <i>Times</i>. Walter, +stopped by no obstacle, at once contrived other +means to secure early news, and had the triumph of +announcing the capitulation of Flushing forty-eight +hours before the intelligence had arrived through +any other channel.</p> + +<p>There were no reviews of books in the <i>Times</i> +till long after it was started, but it paid great attention +to the drama from its commencement. There +were no leading articles for several years, yet in +the very first year the <i>Times</i> displays threefold as +many advertisements as its contemporaries. For +many years Mr. Walter, with his usual sagacity +and energy, endeavoured to mature some plan for +printing the <i>Times</i> by steam. As early as 1804 a +compositor named Martyn had invented a machine +for the purpose of superseding the hand-press, +which took hours struggling over the three or four +thousand copies of the <i>Times</i>. The pressmen +threatened destruction to the new machine, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> +had to be smuggled piecemeal into the premises, +while Martyn sheltered himself under various disguises +to escape the vengeance of the workmen. +On the eve of success, however, Walter's father lost +courage, stopped the supplies, and the project was +for the time abandoned. In 1814 Walter, however, +returned to the charge. Kœnig and Barnes put +their machinery in premises adjoining the <i>Times</i> +office, to avoid the violence of the pressmen. At +one time the two inventors are said to have abandoned +their machinery in despair, but a clerical +friend of Walter examined the difficulty and removed +it. The night came at last when the great experiment +was to be made. The unconscious pressmen +were kept waiting in the next office for news from +the Continent. At six o'clock in the morning Mr. +Walter entered the press-room, with a wet paper in +his hand, and astonished the men by telling them +that the <i>Times</i> had just been printed by steam. If +they attempted violence, he said, there was a force +ready to suppress it; but if they were peaceable their +wages should be continued until employment was +found for them. He could now print 1,100 sheets +an hour. By-and-by Kœnig's machine proved too +complicated, and Messrs. Applegarth and Cowper +invented a cylindrical one, that printed 8,000 an +hour. Then came Hoe's process, which is now +said to print at the rate of from 18,000 to 22,000 +copies an hour (Grant). The various improvements +in steam-printing have altogether cost the <i>Times</i>, +according to general report, not less than £80,000.</p> + +<p>About 1813 Dr. Stoddart, the brother-in-law +of Hazlitt (afterwards Sir John Stoddart, a judge +in Malta), edited the <i>Times</i> with ability, till his +almost insane hatred of Bonaparte, "the Corsican +fiend," as he called him, led to his secession in +1815 or 1816. Stoddart was the "Doctor Slop" +whom Tom Moore derided in his gay little Whig +lampoons. The next editor was Thomas Barnes, +a better scholar and a far abler man. He had +been a contemporary of Lamb at Christ's Hospital, +and a rival of Blomfield, afterwards Bishop of +London. While a student in the Temple he +wrote the <i>Times</i> a series of political letters in the +manner of "Junius," and was at once placed as a +reporter in the gallery of the House. Under his +editorship Walter secured some of his ablest contributors, +including that Captain Stirling, "The Thunderer," +whom Carlyle has sketched so happily. +Stirling was an Irishman, who had fought with the +Royal troops at Vinegar Hill, then joined the line, +and afterwards turned gentleman farmer in the Isle +of Bute. He began writing for the <i>Times</i> about +1815, and, it is said, eventually received £2,000 a +year as a writer of dashing and effective leaders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> +Lord Brougham also, it is said, wrote occasional +articles. Tom Moore was even offered £100 a +month if he would contribute, and Southey declined +an offer of £2,000 a year for editing the <i>Times</i>. +Macaulay in his day wrote many brilliant squibs in +the <i>Times</i>; amongst them one containing the line:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Ye diners out, from whom we guard our spoons," +</div> + +<p>and another on the subject of Wat Banks's candidateship +for Cambridge. Barnes died in 1841. +Horace Twiss, the biographer of Lord Eldon and +nephew of Mrs. Siddons, also helped the <i>Times</i> +forward by his admirable Parliamentary summaries, +the first the <i>Times</i> had attempted. This able man +died suddenly in 1848, while speaking at a meeting +of the Rock Assurance Society at Radley's Hotel, +Bridge Street.</p> + +<p>One of the longest wars the <i>Times</i> ever carried +on was that against Alderman Harmer. It was +Harmer's turn, in due order of rotation, to become +Lord Mayor. A strong feeling had arisen against +Harmer because, as the avowed proprietor of +the <i>Weekly Dispatch</i>, he inserted certain letters +of the late Mr. Williams ("Publicola"), which +were said to have had the effect of preventing +Mr. Walter's return for Southwark (see page 59). +The <i>Times</i> upon this wrote twelve powerful leaders +against Harmer, which at once decided the question. +This was a great assertion of power, and +raised the <i>Times</i> in the estimation of all England. +For these twelve articles, originally intended for +letters, the writer (says Mr. Grant) received £200. +But in 1841 the extraordinary social influence of +this giant paper was even still more shown. Mr. +O'Reilly, their Paris correspondent, obtained a clue +to a vast scheme of fraud concocting in Paris by a +gang of fourteen accomplished swindlers, who had +already netted £10,700 of the million for which +they had planned. At the risk of assassination, +O'Reilly exposed the scheme in the <i>Times</i>, dating +the <i>exposé</i> Brussels, in order to throw the swindlers +on the wrong scent.</p> + +<p>At a public meeting of merchants, bankers, and +others held in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, +October 1, 1841, the Lord Mayor (Thomas Johnson) +in the chair, it was unanimously resolved to thank +the proprietors of the <i>Times</i> for the services they had +rendered in having exposed the most remarkable +and extensively fraudulent conspiracy (the famous +"Bogle" swindle) ever brought to light in the mercantile +world, and to record in some substantial +manner the sense of obligation conferred by the +proprietors of the <i>Times</i> on the commercial world.</p> + +<p>The proprietors of the <i>Times</i> declining to receive +the £2,625 subscribed by the London merchants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> +to recompense them for doing their duty, it was +resolved, in 1842, to set apart the funds for the +endowment of two scholarships, one at Christ's +Hospital, and one at the City of London School. +In both schools a commemorative tablet was put +up, as well as one at the Royal Exchange and the +<i>Times</i> printing-office.</p> + +<p>At various periods the <i>Times</i> has had to endure +violent attacks in the House of Commons, and +many strenuous efforts to restrain its vast powers. +In 1819 John Payne Collier, one of their Parliamentary +reporters, and better known as one of the +greatest of Shakesperian critics, was committed +into the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for a +report in which he had attacked Canning. The +<i>Times</i>, however, had some powerful friends in the +House; and in 1821 we find Mr. Hume complaining +that the Government advertisements were systematically +withheld from the <i>Times</i>. In 1831 +Sir R.H. Inglis complained that the <i>Times</i> had +been guilty of a breach of privilege, in asserting +that there were borough nominees and lackeys in +the House. Sir Charles Wetherell, that titled, incomparable +old Tory, joined in the attack, which +Burdett chivalrously cantered forward to repel. Sir +Henry Hardinge wanted the paper prosecuted, but +Lord John Russell, Orator Hunt, and O'Connell, +however, moved the previous question, and the +great debate on the Reform Bill then proceeded. +The same year the House of Lords flew at the +great paper. The Earl of Limerick had been called +"an absentee, and a thing with human pretensions." +The Marquis of Londonderry joined in the attack. +The next day Mr. Lawson, printer of the <i>Times</i>, +was examined and worried by the House; and +Lord Wynford moved that Mr. Lawson, as printer +of a scandalous libel, should be fined £100, and +committed to Newgate till the fine be paid. The +next day Mr. Lawson handed in an apology, but +Lord Brougham generously rose and denied the +power of the House to imprison and fine without a +trial by jury. The Tory lords spoke angrily; the +Earl of Limerick called the press a tyrant that +ruled all things, and crushed everything under its +feet; and the Marquis of Londonderry complained +of the coarse and virulent libels against Queen +Adelaide, for her supposed opposition to Reform.</p> + +<p>In 1833 O'Connell attributed dishonest motives +to the London reporter who had suppressed his +speeches, and the reporters in the <i>Times</i> expressed +their resolution not to report any more of his +speeches unless he retracted. O'Connell then +moved in the House that the printer of the <i>Times</i> be +summoned to the bar for printing their resolution, +but his motion was rejected. In 1838 Mr. Lawson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> +was fined £200 for accusing Sir John Conroy, +treasurer of the household of the Duchess of Kent, +of peculation. In 1840 an angry member brought +a breach of privilege motion against the <i>Times</i>, and +advised every one who was attacked in that paper +to horsewhip the editor.</p> + +<p>In January, 1829, the <i>Times</i> came out with a +double sheet, consisting of eight pages, or forty-eight +columns. In 1830 it paid £70,000 advertisement +duty. In 1800 its sale had been below +that of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, <i>Post</i>, <i>Herald</i>, and +<i>Advertiser</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Times</i>, according to Mr. Grant, in one day +of 1870, received no less than £1,500 for advertisements. +On June 22, 1862, it produced a +paper containing no less than twenty-four pages, or +144 columns. In 1854 the <i>Times</i> had a circulation +of 51,000 copies; in 1860, 60,000. For special +numbers its sale is enormous. The biography of +Prince Albert sold 90,000 copies; the marriage of +the Prince of Wales, 110,000 copies. The income +of the <i>Times</i> from advertisements alone has been +calculated at £260,000. A writer in a Philadelphia +paper of 1867 estimates the paper consumed weekly +by the <i>Times</i> at seventy tons; the ink at two tons. +There are employed in the office ten stereotypers, +sixteen firemen and engineers, ninety machine-men, +six men who prepare the paper for printing, and +seven to transfer the papers to the news-agents. +The new Walter press prints 22,000 to 24,000 impressions +an hour, or 12,000 perfect sheets printed +on both sides. It prints from a roll of paper three-quarters +of a mile long, and cuts the sheets and piles +them without help. It is a self-feeder, and requires +only a man and two boys to guide its operations. +A copy of the <i>Times</i> has been known to contain +4,000 advertisements; and for every daily copy +it is computed that the compositors mass together +not less than 2,500,000 separate types.</p> + +<p>The number of persons engaged in daily working +for the <i>Times</i> is put at nearly 350.</p> + +<p>In the annals of this paper we must not forget +the energy that, in 1834, established a system of +home expresses, that enabled them to give the +earliest intelligence before any other paper; and at +an expense of £200 brought a report of Lord +Durham's speech at Glasgow to London at the +then unprecedented rate of fifteen miles an hour; +nor should we forget their noble disinterestedness +during the railway mania of 1845, when, although +they were receiving more than £3,000 a week for +railway advertisements, they warned the country +unceasingly of the misery and ruin that must inevitably +follow. The <i>Times</i> proprietors are known +to pay the highest sums for articles, and to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> +uniformly generous in pensioning men who have +spent their lives in its service.</p> + +<p>The late Mr. Walter, even when M.P. for Berkshire +and Nottingham, never forgot Printing-house +Square when the debate, however late, had closed. +One afternoon, says Mr. Grant, he came to the office +and found the compositors gone to dinner. Just at +that moment a parcel, marked "immediate and important," +arrived. It was news of vast importance. +He at once slipped off his coat, and set up the +news with his own hands; a pressman was at his +post, and by the time the men returned a second +edition was actually printed and published. But +his foresight and energy was most conspicuously +shown in 1845, when the jealousy of the French +Government had thrown obstacles in the way of the +<i>Times'</i> couriers, who brought their Indian despatches +from Marseilles. What were seas and deserts to +Walter? He at once took counsel with Lieutenant +Waghorn, who had opened up the overland route +to India, and proposed to try a new route by +Trieste. The result was that Waghorn reached +London two days before the regular mail—the +usual mail aided by the French Government. The +<i>Morning Herald</i> was at first forty-eight hours before +the <i>Times</i>, but after that the <i>Times</i> got a fortnight +ahead; and although the Trieste route was abandoned, +the <i>Times</i>, eventually, was left alone as a +troublesome and invincible adversary.</p> + +<p>Apothecaries' Hall, the grave stone and brick +building, in Water Lane, Blackfriars, was erected in +1670 (Charles II.), as the dispensary and hall of +the Company of Apothecaries, incorporated by a +charter of James I., at the suit of Gideon Delaune, +the king's own apothecary. Drugs in the Middle +Ages were sold by grocers and pepperers, or by +the doctors themselves, who, early in James's reign, +formed one company with the apothecaries; but +the ill-assorted union lasted only eleven years, for +the apothecaries were then fast becoming doctors +themselves.</p> + +<p>Garth, in his "Dispensary," describes, in the +Hogarthian manner, the topographical position of +Apothecaries' Hall:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Nigh where Fleet Ditch descends in sable streams,<br /> +To wash the sooty Naiads in the Thames,<br /> +There stands a structure on a rising hill,<br /> +Where tyros take their freedom out to kill."</div> + +<p>Gradually the apothecaries, refusing to be merely +"the doctors' tools," began to encroach more and +more on the doctors' province, and to prescribe for +and even cure the poor. In 1687 (James II.) open +war broke out. First Dryden, then Pope, fought on +the side of the doctors against the humbler men, +whom they were taught to consider as mere greedy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> +mechanics and empirics. Dryden first let fly his +mighty shaft:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"The apothecary tribe is wholly blind;<br /> +From files a random recipe they take,<br /> +And many deaths from one prescription make.<br /> +Garth, generous as his muse, prescribes and gives;<br /> +The shopman sells, and by destruction lives."</div> + +<p>Pope followed with a smaller but keener arrow:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art<br /> +By doctors' bills to play the doctor's part,<br /> +Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,<br /> +Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools."</div> + +<p>The origin of the memorable affray between the +College of Physicians and the Company of Apothecaries +is admirably told by Mr. Jeaffreson, in his +"Book of Doctors." The younger physicians, +impatient at beholding the increasing prosperity +and influence of the apothecaries, and the older +ones indignant at seeing a class of men they had +despised creeping into their quarters, and craftily +laying hold of a portion of their monopoly, concocted +a scheme to reinstate themselves in public +favour. Without a doubt, many of the physicians +who countenanced this scheme gave it their support +from purely charitable motives; but it cannot be +questioned that, as a body, the dispensarians were +only actuated in their humanitarian exertions by a +desire to lower the apothecaries and raise themselves +in the eyes of the world. In 1687 the +physicians, at a college meeting, voted "that all +members of the college, whether fellows, candidates, +or licentiates, should give their advice gratis +to all their sick neighbouring poor, when desired, +within the city of London, or seven miles round." +The poor folk carried their prescriptions to the +apothecaries, to learn that the trade charge for +dispensing them was beyond their means. The +physicians asserted that the demands of the drug-vendors +were extortionate, and were not reduced +to meet the finances of the applicants, to the end +that the undertakings of benevolence might prove +abortive. This was, of course, absurd. The +apothecaries knew their own interests better than +to oppose a system which at least rendered drug-consuming +fashionable with the lower orders. +Perhaps they regarded the poor as their peculiar +property as a field of practice, and felt insulted at +having the same humble people for whom they +had pompously prescribed, and put up boluses at +twopence apiece, now entering their shops with +papers dictating what the twopenny bolus was to be +composed of. But the charge preferred against +them was groundless. Indeed, a numerous body +of the apothecaries expressly offered to sell medicines +"to the poor within their respective parishes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> +at such rates as the committee of physicians should +think reasonable."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="college" id="college"></a> +<img src="images/p216.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, WARWICK LANE</span> +</div> + +<p>But this would not suit the game of the physicians. +"A proposal was started by a committee +of the college that the college should furnish the +medicines of the poor, and perfect alone that +charity which the apothecaries refused to concur +in; and, after divers methods ineffectually tried, +and much time wasted in endeavouring to bring +the apothecaries to terms of reason in relation to +the poor, an instrument was subscribed by divers +charitably-disposed members of the college, now +in numbers about fifty, wherein they obliged themselves +to pay ten pounds apiece towards the pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>paring +and delivering medicines at their intrinsic +value."</p> + +<p>Such was the version of the affair given by +the college apologists. The plan was acted upon, +and a dispensary was eventually established (some +nine years after the vote of 1687) at the College +of Physicians, Warwick Lane, where medicines +were vended to the poor at cost price. This +measure of the college was impolitic and unjustifiable. +It was unjust to that important division of +the trade who were ready to vend the medicines at +rates to be paid by the college authorities, for it +took altogether out of their hands the small amount +of profit which they, as <i>dealers</i>, could have realised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> +on those terms. It was also an eminently unwise +course. The College sank to the level of the +Apothecaries' Hall, becoming an emporium for the +sale of medicines. It was all very well to say that +no profit was made on such sale, the censorious +world would not believe it. The apothecaries and +their friends denied that such was the fact, and +vowed that the benevolent dispensarians were bent +only on underselling and ruining them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="outer" id="outer"></a> +<img src="images/p217.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OUTER COURT OF LA BELLE SAUVAGE IN 1828, FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN MR. GARDNER'S COLLECTION</span> +</div> + +<p>Again, the movement introduced dissensions +within the walls of the college. Many of the first +physicians, with the conservatism of success, did +not care to offend the apothecaries, who were +continually calling them in and paying them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> +fees. They therefore joined in the cry against +the dispensary. The profession was split up +into two parties—Dispensarians and Anti-Dispensarians. +The apothecaries combined, and agreed +not to recommend the Dispensarians. The Anti-Dispensarians +repaid this ill service by refusing to +meet Dispensarians in consultation. Sir Thomas +Millington, the President of the College, Hans +Sloane, John Woodward, Sir Edmund King, and +Sir Samuel Garth, were amongst the latter. Of +these the last named was the man who rendered +the most efficient service to his party. For a time +Garth's great poem, "The Dispensary," covered +the apothecaries and Anti-Dispensarians with ridi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span>cule. +It rapidly passed through numerous editions. +To say that of all the books, pamphlets, and broadsheets +thrown out by the combatants on both +sides, it is by far the one of the greatest merit, +would be scant justice, when it might almost be +said that it is the only one of them that can now +be read by a gentleman without a sense of annoyance +and disgust. There is no point of view from +which the medical profession appears in a more +humiliating and contemptible light than that which +the literature of this memorable squabble presents +to the student. Charges of ignorance, dishonesty, +and extortion were preferred on both sides. And +the Dispensarian physicians did not hesitate to +taunt their brethren of the opposite camp with +playing corruptly into the hands of the apothecaries—prescribing +enormous and unnecessary quantities +of medicine, so that the drug-vendors might make +heavy bills, and, as a consequence, recommend in +all directions such complacent superiors to be +called in. Garth's, unfair and violent though it is, +nowhere offends against decency. As a work of art +it cannot be ranked high, and is now deservedly +forgotten, although it has many good lines and +some felicitous satire. Garth lived to see the +apothecaries gradually emancipate themselves from +the ignominious regulations to which they consented +when their vocation was first separated from +the grocery trade. Four years after his death they +obtained legal acknowledgment of their right to +dispense and sell medicines without the prescription +of a physician; and six years later the law +again decided in their favour with regard to the +physicians' right of examining and condemning +their drugs. In 1721, Mr. Rose, an apothecary, +on being prosecuted by the college for prescribing +as well as compounding medicines, carried the +matter into the House of Lords, and obtained a +favourable decision; and from 1727, in which year +Mr. Goodwin, an apothecary, obtained in a court +of law a considerable sum for an illegal seizure of +his wares (by Drs. Arbuthnot, Bale, and Levit), the +physicians may be said to have discontinued to +exercise their privileges of inspection.</p> + +<p>In his elaborate poem Garth cruelly caricatures +the apothecaries of his day:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Long has he been of that amphibious fry,<br /> +Bold to prescribe, and busy to apply;<br /> +His shop the gazing vulgar's eyes employs,<br /> +With foreign trinkets and domestic toys.<br /> +Here mummies lay, most reverently stale,<br /> +And there the tortoise hung her coat of mail;<br /> +Not far from some huge shark's devouring head<br /> +The flying-fish their finny pinions spread.<br /> +Aloft in rows large poppy-heads were strung,<br /> +And near, a scaly alligator hung.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span>In this place drugs in musty heaps decay'd,<br /> +In that dried bladders and false teeth were laid.<br /> +<br /> +"An inner room receives the num'rous shoals<br /> +Of such as pay to be reputed fools;<br /> +Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie,<br /> +And planetary schemes amuse the eye.<br /> +The sage in velvet chair here lolls at ease,<br /> +To promise future health for present fees;<br /> +Then, as from tripod, solemn shams reveals,<br /> +And what the stars know nothing of foretells.<br /> +Our manufactures now they merely sell,<br /> +And their true value treacherously tell;<br /> +Nay, they discover, too, their spite is such,<br /> +That health, than crowns more valued, cost not much;<br /> +Whilst we must steer our conduct by these rules,<br /> +To cheat as tradesmen, or to starve as fools."</div> + +<p>Before finally leaving Blackfriars, let us gather +up a few reminiscences of the King's and Queen's +printers who here first worked their inky presses.</p> + +<p>Queen Anne, by patent in 1713, constituted +Benjamin Tooke, of Fleet Street, and John Barber +(afterwards Alderman Barber), Queen's printers for +thirty years. This Barber, a high Tory and suspected +Jacobite, was Swift's printer and warm friend. +A remarkable story is told of Barber's dexterity in +his profession. Being threatened with a prosecution +by the House of Lords, for an offensive paragraph +in a pamphlet which he had printed, and being +warned of his danger by Lord Bolingbroke, he +called in all the copies from the publishers, cancelled +the leaf which contained the obnoxious +passage, and returned them to the booksellers with +a new paragraph supplied by Lord Bolingbroke; so +that when the pamphlet was produced before the +House, and the passage referred to, it was found +unexceptionable. He added greatly to his wealth +by the South Sea Scheme, which he had prudence +enough to secure in time, and purchased an estate +at East Sheen with part of his gain. In principles +he was a Jacobite; and in his travels to Italy, +whither he went for the recovery of his health, he +was introduced to the Pretender, which exposed +him to some danger on his return to England; +for, immediately on his arrival, he was taken into +custody by a King's messenger, but was released +without punishment. After his success in the South +Sea Scheme, he was elected Alderman of Castle +Baynard Ward, 1722; sheriff, 1730; and, in 1732-3, +Lord Mayor of London.</p> + +<p>John Baskett subsequently purchased both shares +of the patent, but his printing-offices in Blackfriars +(now Printing House Square) were soon afterwards +destroyed by fire. In 1739 George II. granted a +fresh patent to Baskett for sixty years, with the +privilege of supplying Parliament with stationery. +Half this lease Baskett sold to Charles Eyre, who +eventually appointed William Strahan his printer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> +Strahan soon after brought in Mr. Eyre, and in +1770 erected extensive premises in Printer Street, +New Street Square, between Gough Square and +Fetter Lane, near the present offices of Mr. Spottiswoode, +one of whose family married Mr. Strahan's +daughter. Strahan died a year after his old friend, +Dr. Johnson, at his house in New Street, leaving +£1,000 to the Stationers' Company, which his +son Andrew augmented with £2,000 more. This +son died in 1831, aged eighty-three.</p> + +<p>William Strahan, the son of a Scotch Customhouse +officer, had come up to London a poor +printers' boy, and worked his way to wealth and +social distinction. He was associated with Cadell +in the purchase of copyrights, on the death of +Cadell's partner and former master, Andrew Millar, +who died <i>circa</i> 1768. The names of Strahan and +Cadell appeared on the title-pages of the great works +of Gibbon, Robertson, Adam Smith, and Blackstone. +In 1776 Hume wrote to Strahan, "There +will be no books of reputation now to be printed +in London, but through your hands and Mr. +Cadell's." Gibbon's history was a vast success. +The first edition of 1,000 went off in a few days. +This produced £490, of which Gibbon received +£326 13s. 4d. The great history was finished in +1788, by the publication of the fourth quarto +volume. It appeared on the author's fifty-first +birthday, and the double festival was celebrated +by a dinner at Mr. Cadell's, when complimentary +verses from that wretched poet, Hayley, made the +great man with the button-hole mouth blush or +feign to blush. That was a proud day for Gibbon, +and a proud day for Messrs. Cadell and Strahan.</p> + +<p>The first Strahan, Johnson's friend, was M.P. +for Malmesbury and Wootton Bassett (1775-84), +and his taking to a carriage was the subject of a +recorded conversation between Boswell and Johnson, +who gloried in his friend's success. It was +Strahan who, with Johnston and Dodsley, purchased, +in 1759, for £100, the first edition of +Johnson's "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," that +sententious story, which Johnson wrote in a week, +to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral.</p> + +<p>Boswell has recorded several conversations between +Dr. Johnson and Strahan. Strahan, at the +doctor's return from the Hebrides, asked him, with +a firm tone of voice, what he thought of his country. +"That it is a very vile country, to be sure, sir," +returned for answer Dr. Johnson. "Well, sir," replied +the other, somewhat mortified, "God made +it." "Certainly he did," answered Dr. Johnson +again; "but we must always remember that he +made it for Scotchmen, and—comparisons are +odious, Mr. Strahan—but God made hell."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span></p> + +<p>Boswell has also a pretty anecdote relating to +one of the doctor's visits to Strahan's printing-office, +which shows the "Great Bear" in a very +amiable light, and the scene altogether is not unworthy +of the artist's pencil.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Strahan," says Boswell, "had taken a poor +boy from the country as an apprentice, upon Johnson's +recommendation. Johnson having inquired +after him, said, 'Mr. Strahan, let me have five guineas +on account, and I'll give this boy one. Nay, if a +man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, +it is a sad work. Call him down.' I followed him +into the courtyard, behind Mr. Strahan's house, +and there I had a proof of what I heard him +profess—that he talked alike to all. 'Some people +will tell you that they let themselves down to the +capacity of their hearers. I never do that. I speak +uniformly in as intelligible a manner as I can.' +'Well, my boy, how do you go on?' 'Pretty well, +sir; but they are afraid I'm not strong enough for +some parts of the business.' Johnson: 'Why, I +shall be sorry for it; for when you consider with +how little mental power and corporal labour a +printer can get a guinea a week, it is a very desirable +occupation for you. Do you hear? Take +all the pains you can; and if this does not do, +we must think of some other way of life for you. +There's a guinea.' Here was one of the many +instances of his active benevolence. At the same +time the slow and sonorous solemnity with which, +while he bent himself down, he addressed a little +thick, short-legged boy, contrasted with the boy's +awkwardness and awe, could not but excite some +ludicrous emotions."</p> + +<p>In Ireland Yard, on the west side of St. Andrew's +Hill, and in the parish of St. Anne, Blackfriars, +stood the house which Shakespeare bought, in the +year 1612, and which he bequeathed by will to his +daughter, Susanna Hall. In the deed of conveyance +to the poet, the house is described as "abutting +upon a street leading down to Puddle Wharf, and +now or late in the tenure or occupation of one +William Ireland" (hence, we suppose, Ireland Yard), +"part of which said tenement is erected over a +great gate leading to a capital messuage, which +some time was in the tenure of William Blackwell, +Esq., deceased, and since that in the tenure or +occupation of the Right Honourable Henry, now +Earl of Northumberland." The original deed of +conveyance is shown in the City of London +Library, at Guildhall, under a handsome glass case.</p> + +<p>The street leading down to Puddle Wharf is +called St. Andrew's Hill, from the Church of St. +Andrew's-in-the-Wardrobe. The proper name (says +Cunningham) is Puddle Dock Hill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<p class="center">LUDGATE HILL</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>An Ugly Bridge and "Ye Belle Savage"—A Radical Publisher—The Principal Gate of London—From a Fortress to a Prison—"Remember the +Poor Prisoners"—Relics of Early Times—St. Martin's, Ludgate—The London Coffee House—Celebrated Goldsmiths on Ludgate Hill—Mrs. +Rundell's Cookery Book—Stationers' Hall—Old Burgavenny House and its History—Early Days of the Stationers' Company—The +Almanacks—An Awkward Misprint—The Hall and its Decorations—The St. Cecilia Festivals—Dryden's "St. Cecilia's Day" and +"Alexander's Feast"—Handel's Setting of them—A Modest Poet—Funeral Feasts and Political Banquets—The Company's Plate—Their +Charities—The Pictures at Stationers' Hall—The Company's Arms—Famous Masters.</p></div> + + +<p>Of all the eyesores of modern London, surely +the most hideous is the Ludgate Hill Viaduct—that +enormous flat iron that lies across the chest of +Ludgate Hill like a bar of metal on the breast of +a wretch in a torture-chamber. Let us hope that +a time will come when all designs for City improvements +will be compelled to endure the scrutiny and +win the approval of a committee of taste. The +useful and the beautiful must not for ever be +divorced. The railway bridge lies flat across the +street, only eighteen feet above the roadway, and is +a miracle of clumsy and stubborn ugliness, entirely +spoiling the approach to one of the finest buildings +in London. The five girders of wrought iron cross +the street, here only forty-two feet wide, and the +span is sixty feet, in order to allow of future +enlargement of the street. Absurd lattice-work, +decorative brackets, bronze armorial medallions, +and gas lanterns and standards, form a combination +that only the unsettled and imitative art of the +ruthless nineteenth century could have put together. +Think of what the Egyptians in the times of the +Pharaohs did with granite! and observe what we +Englishmen of the present day do with iron. +Observe this vulgar daubing of brown paint and +barbaric gilding, and think of what the Moors did +with colour in the courts of the Alhambra! A +viaduct was necessary, we allow, but such a viaduct +even the architect of the National Gallery would +have shuddered at. The difficulties, we however +allow, were great. The London, Chatham, and +Dover, eager for dividends, was bent on wedding +the Metropolitan Railway near Smithfield; but how +could the hands of the affianced couple be joined? +If there was no viaduct, there must be a tunnel. +Now, the bank of the river being a very short distance +from Smithfield, a very steep and dangerous +gradient would have been required to effect the +junction. Moreover, had the line been carried +under Ludgate Hill, there must have been a slight +detour to ease the ascent, the cost of which detour +would have been enormous. The tunnel proposed +would have involved the destruction of a few trifles—such, +for instance, as Apothecaries' Hall, the +churchyard adjoining, the <i>Times</i> printing office<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span>—besides doing injury to the foundations of St. +Martin's Church, the Old Bailey Sessions House, +and Newgate. Moreover, no station would have +been possible between the Thames and Smithfield. +The puzzled inhabitants, therefore, ended in despair +by giving evidence in favour of the viaduct. The +stolid hammermen went to work, and the iron +nightmare was set up in all its Babylonian +hideousness.</p> + +<p>The enormous sum of upwards of £10,000 was +awarded as the Metropolitan Board's quota for +removing the hoarding, for widening the pavement +a few feet under the railway bridge over Ludgate +Hill, and for rounding off the corner.</p> + +<p>An incredible quantity of ink has been shed +about the origin of the sign of the "Belle Sauvage" +inn, and even now the controversy is scarcely settled. +Mr. Riley records that in 1380 (Richard II.) a +certain William Lawton was sentenced to an uncomfortable +hour in the pillory for trying to obtain, +by means of a forged letter, twenty shillings from +William Savage, Fleet Street, in the parish of St. +Bridget. This at least shows that Savage was +the name of a citizen of the locality. In 1453 +(Henry VI.) a clause roll quoted by Mr. Lysons +notices the bequest of John French to his mother, +Joan French, widow, of "Savage's Inn," otherwise +called the "Bell in the Hoop," in the parish of +St. Bride's. Stow (Elizabeth) mentions a Mrs. +Savage as having given the inn to the Cutlers' Company, +which, however, the books of that company +disprove. This, anyhow, is certain, that in 1568 +(Elizabeth) a John Craythorne gave the reversion +of the "Belle Sauvage" to the Cutlers' Company, +on condition that two exhibitions to the university +and certain sums to poor prisoners be paid by them +out of the estate. A portrait of Craythorne's wife +still hangs in Cutler's Hall. In 1584 the inn was +described as "Ye Belle Savage." In 1648 and +1672 the landlords' tokens exhibited (says Mr. +Noble) an Indian woman holding a bow and +arrow. The sign in Queen Anne's time was a +savage man standing by a bell. The question, +therefore, is, whether the name of the inn was +originally derived from Isabel (Bel) Savage, the land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span>lady, or the sign of the bell and savage; or whether +it was, as the <i>Spectator</i> cleverly suggests, from La +Belle Sauvage, "the beautiful savage," which is a +derivation very generally received. There is an old +French romance formerly popular in this country, +the heroine of which was known as La Belle +Sauvage; and it is possible that Mrs. Isabel Savage, +the ancient landlady, might have become in time +confused with the heroine of the old romance.</p> + +<p>In the ante-Shakespearean days our early actors +performed in inn-yards, the courtyard representing +the pit, the upper and lower galleries the boxes +and gallery of the modern theatre. The "Belle +Sauvage," says Mr. Collier, was a favourite place +for these performances. There was also a school of +defence, or fencing school, here in Queen Elizabeth's +time; so many a hot Tybalt and fiery +Mercutio have here crossed rapiers, and many a silk +button has been reft from gay doublets by the +quick passadoes of the young swordsmen who ruffled +it in the Strand. This quondam inn was also the +place where Banks, the showman (so often mentioned +by Nash and others in Elizabethan pamphlets +and lampoons), exhibited his wonderful trained +horse "Marocco," the animal which once ascended +the tower of St. Paul's, and who on another occasion, +at his master's bidding, delighted the mob by +selecting Tarleton, the low comedian, as the greatest +fool present. Banks eventually took his horse, which +was shod with silver, to Rome, and the priests, +frightened at the circus tricks, burnt both "Marocco" +and his master for witchcraft. At No. 11 in this +yard—now such a little world of industry, although +it no longer rings with the stage-coach horn—lived +in his obscurer days that great carver in wood, +Grinling Gibbons, whose genius Evelyn first brought +under the notice of Charles II. Horace Walpole +says that, as a sort of advertisement, Gibbons carved +an exquisite pot of flowers in wood, which stood +on his window-sill, and shook surprisingly with the +motion of the coaches that passed beneath. No +man (says Walpole) before Gibbons had "ever given +to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, or +linked together the various productions of the +elements with a free disorder natural to each +species." His <i>chef d'œuvre</i> of skill was an imitation +point-lace cravat, which he carved at Chatsworth for +the Duke of Devonshire. Petworth is also garlanded +with Gibbons' fruit, flowers, and dead game.</p> + +<p>Belle Sauvage Yard no longer re-echoes with the +guard's rejoicing horn, and the old coaching interest +is now only represented by a railway parcel +office huddled up in the left-hand corner. The old +galleries are gone over which pretty chambermaids +leant and waved their dusters in farewell greeting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> +to the handsome guards or smart coachmen. Industries +of a very different character have now +turned the old yard into a busy hive. It is not for +us to dilate upon the firm whose operations are +carried on here, but it may interest the reader to +know that the very sheet he is now perusing was +printed on the site of the old coaching inn, and +published very near the old tap-room of La Belle +Sauvage; for where coach-wheels once rolled and +clattered, only printing-press wheels now revolve.</p> + +<p>The old inn-yard is now very much altered in +plan from what it was in former days. Originally it +consisted of two courts. Into the outer one of these +the present archway from Ludgate Hill led. It at +one period certainly had contained private houses, +in one of which Grinling Gibbons had lived. The +inn stood round an inner court, entered by a +second archway which stood about half-way up the +present yard. Over the archway facing the outer +court was the sign of "The Bell," and all round +the interior ran those covered galleries, so prominent +a feature in old London inns.</p> + +<p>Near the "Belle Sauvage" resided that proud +cobbler mentioned by Steele, who has recorded his +eccentricities. This man had bought a wooden +figure of a beau of the period, who stood before him +in a bending position, and humbly presented him +with his awl, wax, bristles, or whatever else his +tyrannical master chose to place in his hand.</p> + +<p>To No. 45 (south side), Ludgate Hill, that +strange, independent man, Lamb's friend, William +Hone, the Radical publisher, came from Ship Court, +Old Bailey, where he had published those blasphemous +"Parodies," for which he was three times +tried and acquitted, to the vexation of Lord Ellenborough. +Here, having sown his seditious wild oats +and broken free from the lawyers, Hone continued +his occasional clever political satires, sometimes +suggested by bitter Hazlitt and illustrated by +George Cruikshank's inexhaustible fancy. Here +Hone devised those delightful miscellanies, the +"Every-Day Book" and "Year Book," into which +Lamb and many young poets threw all their humour +and power. The books were commercially not +very successful, but they have delighted generations, +and will delight generations to come. Mr. Timbs, +who saw much of Hone, describes him as sitting +in a second-floor back room, surrounded by rare +books and black-letter volumes. His conversion +from materialism to Christianity was apparently +sudden, though the process of change had no +doubt long been maturing. The story of his conversion +is thus related by Mr. Timbs:—"Hone +was once called to a house, in a certain street in +a part of the world of London entirely unknown +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span>to him. As he walked he reflected on the entirely +unknown region. He arrived at the house, and was +shown into a room to wait. All at once, on looking +round, to his astonishment and almost horror, +every object he saw seemed familiar to him. He +said to himself, 'What is this? I was never here +before, and yet I have seen all this before, and as a +proof I have I now remember a very peculiar knot +behind the shutters.' He opened the shutters, and +found the very knot. 'Now, then,' he thought, +'here is something I cannot explain on any principle—there +must be some power beyond matter.'" +The argument that so happily convinced Hone does +not seem to us in itself as very convincing. Hone's +recognition of the room was but some confused +memory of an analogous place. Knots are not +uncommon in deal shutters, and the discovery of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> +the knot in the particular place was a mere coincidence. +But, considering that Hone was a self-educated +man, and, like many sceptics, was +incredulous only with regard to Christianity, and +even believed he once saw an apparition in Ludgate +Hill, who can be surprised?</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="belle" id="belle"></a> +<img src="images/p222.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE INNER COURT OF THE BELLE SAUVAGE. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN MR. CRACE'S COLLECTION</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mutilated" id="mutilated"></a> +<img src="images/p223.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> THE MUTILATED STATUES FROM LUD GATE, 1798</span> +</div> + +<p>At No. 7, opposite Hone's, "The Percy Anecdotes," +that well-chosen and fortunate selection of +every sort of story, were first published.</p> + +<p>Lud Gate, which Stow in his "Survey" designates +the sixth and principal gate of London, taken +down in 1760 at the solicitation of the chief +inhabitants of Farringdon Without and Farringdon +Within, stood between the present London +Tavern and the church of St. Martin. According +to old Geoffry of Monmouth's fabulous history of +England, this entrance to London was first built<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> +by King Lud, a British monarch, sixty-six years +before Christ. Our later antiquaries, ruthless +as to legends, however romantic, consider its +original name to have been the Flood or Fleet +Gate, which is far more feasible. Lud Gate was +either repaired or rebuilt in the year 1215, when +the armed barons, under Robert Fitzwalter, repulsed +at Northampton, were welcomed to London, +and there awaited King John's concession of the +Magna Charta. While in the metropolis these +greedy and fanatical barons spent their time in +spoiling the houses of the rich Jews, and used +the stones in strengthening the walls and gates of +the City. That this tradition is true was proved +in 1586, when (as Stow says) all the gate was +rebuilt. Embedded among other stones was found +one on which was engraved, in Hebrew characters, +the words "This is the ward of Rabbi Moses, the +son of the honourable Rabbi Isaac." This stone +was probably the sign of one of the Jewish houses +pulled down by Fitzwalter, Magnaville, and the +Earl of Gloucester, perhaps for the express purpose +of obtaining ready materials for strengthening the +bulwarks of London. In 1260 (Henry III.) Lud +Gate was repaired, and beautified with images of +King Lud and other monarchs. In the reign of +Edward VI. the citizens, zealous against everything +that approached idolatry, smote off the heads of +Lud and his family; but Queen Mary, partial to +all images, afterwards replaced the heads on the +old bodies.</p> + +<p>In 1554 King Lud and his sons looked down +on a street seething with angry men, and saw blood +shed upon the hill leading to St. Paul's. Sir Thomas +Wyat, a Kentish gentleman, urged by the Earl of +Devon, and led on by the almost universal dread of +Queen Mary's marriage with the bigoted Philip of +Spain, assembled 1,500 armed men at Rochester +Castle, and, aided by 500 Londoners, who deserted +to him, raised the standard of insurrection. Five +vessels of the fleet joined him, and with seven pieces +of artillery, captured from the Duke of Norfolk, he +marched upon London. Soon followed by 15,000 +men, eager to save the Princess Elizabeth, Wyat +marched through Dartford to Greenwich and +Deptford. With a force now dwindled to 7,000 +men, Wyat attacked London Bridge. Driven from +there by the Tower guns, he marched to Kingston, +crossed the river, resolving to beat back the +Queen's troops at Brentford, and attempt to enter +the City by Lud Gate, which some of the Protestant +citizens had offered to throw open to him. The +Queen, with true Tudor courage, refused to leave +St. James's, and in a council of war it was agreed +to throw a strong force into Lud Gate, and, per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span>mitting +Wyat's advance up Fleet Street, to enclose +him like a wild boar in the toils. At nine on a +February morning, 1554, Wyat reached Hyde Park +Corner, was cannonaded at Hay Hill, and further +on towards Charing Cross he and some three or +four hundred men were cut off from his other +followers. Rushing on with a standard through +Piccadilly, Wyat reached Lud Gate. There (says +Stow) he knocked, calling out, "I am Wyat; the +Queen has granted all my petitions."</p> + +<p>But the only reply from the strongly-guarded +gate was the rough, stern voice of Lord William +Howard—"Avaunt, traitor; thou shalt have no +entrance here."</p> + +<p>No friends appearing, and the Royal troops +closing upon him, Wyat said, "I have kept my +promise," and retiring, silent and desponding, sat +down to rest on a stall opposite the gate of the +"Belle Sauvage." Roused by the shouts and +sounds of fighting, he fought his way back, with +forty of his staunchest followers, to Temple Bar, +which was held by a squadron of horse. There +the Norroy King-of-Arms exhorted him to spare +blood and yield himself a prisoner. Wyat then surrendered +himself to Sir Maurice Berkeley, who just +then happened to ride by, ignorant of the affray, +and, seated behind Sir Maurice, he was taken to +St. James's. On April 11th Wyat perished on the +scaffold at Tower Hill. This rash rebellion also +led to the immediate execution of the innocent +and unhappy Lady Jane Grey and her husband, +Guilford Dudley, endangered the life of the Princess +Elizabeth, and hastened the Queen's marriage with +Philip, which took place at Winchester, July 25th +of the same year.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Elizabeth (1586), the old gate, +being "sore decayed," was pulled down, and was +newly built, with images of Lud and others on the +east side, and a "picture of the lion-hearted +queen" on the west, the cost of the whole being +over £1,500.</p> + +<p>Lud Gate became a free debtors' prison the first +year of Richard II., and was enlarged in 1463 +(Edward IV.) by that "well-disposed, blessed, and +devout woman," the widow of Stephen Forster, +fishmonger, Mayor of London in 1454. Of this +benefactress of Lud Gate, Maitland (1739) has the +following legend. Forster himself, according to +this story, in his younger days had once been +a pining prisoner in Lud Gate. Being one day at +the begging grate, a rich widow asked how much +would release him. He said, "Twenty pounds." +She paid it, and took him into her service, where, +by his indefatigable application to business, he so +gained her affections that she married him, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> +earned so great riches by commerce that she concurred +with him to make his former prison more +commodious, and to endow a new chapel, where, +on a wall, there was this inscription on a brass +plate:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Devout souls that pass this way,<br /> +For Stephen Forster, late Lord Mayor, heartily pray,<br /> +And Dame Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate,<br /> +That of pity this house made for Londoners in Lud Gate;<br /> +So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay,<br /> +As their keepers shall all answer at dreadful doomsday."</div> + +<p>This legend of Lud Gate is also the foundation of +Rowley's comedy of <i>A Woman Never Vext; or, The +Widow of Cornhill</i>, which has in our times been +revived, with alterations, by Mr. Planché. In the first +scene of the fifth act occurs the following passage:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"<i>Mrs. S. Forster.</i> But why remove the prisoners from Ludgate?<br /> +<br /> +"<i>Stephen Forster.</i> To take the prison down and build it new,<br /> +With leads to walk on, chambers large and fair;<br /> +For when myself lay there the noxious air<br /> +Choked up my spirits. None but captives, wife,<br /> +Can know what captives feel."</div> + +<p>Stow, however, seems to deny this story, and +suggests that it arose from some mistake. The +stone with the inscription was preserved by Stow +when the gate was rebuilt, together with Forster's +arms, "three broad arrow-heads," and was fixed +over the entry to the prison. The enlargement of +the prison on the south-east side formed a quadrant +thirty-eight feet long and twenty-nine feet wide. +There were prisoners' rooms above it, with a leaden +roof, where the debtors could walk, and both lodging +and water were free of charge.</p> + +<p>Strype says the prisoners in Ludgate were chiefly +merchants and tradesmen, who had been driven to +want by losses at sea. When King Philip came +to London after his marriage with Mary in 1554 +thirty prisoners in Lud Gate, who were in gaol for +£10,000, compounded for at £2,000, presented +the king a well-penned Latin speech, written by +"the curious pen" of Roger Ascham, praying the +king to redress their miseries, and by his royal +generosity to free them, inasmuch as the place was +not <i>sceleratorum carcer, sed miserorum custodia</i> (not +a dungeon for the wicked, but a place of detention +for the wretched).</p> + +<p>Marmaduke Johnson, a poor debtor in Lud Gate +the year before the Restoration, wrote a curious +account of the prison, which Strype printed. The +officials in "King Lud's House" seem to have +been—1, a reader of Divine service; 2, the +upper steward, called the master of the box; 3, +the under steward; 4, seven assistants—that is, +one for every day of the week; 5, a running<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> +assistant; 6, two churchwardens; 7, a scavenger; +8, a chamberlain; 9, a runner; 10, the cryers at +the grate, six in number, who by turns kept up the +ceaseless cry to the passers-by of "Remember the +poor prisoners!" The officers' charge (says Johnson) +for taking a debtor to Ludgate was sometimes +three, four, or five shillings, though their just due is +but twopence; for entering name and address, +fourteen pence to the turnkey; a lodging is one +penny, twopence, or threepence; for sheets to the +chamberlain, eighteenpence; to chamber-fellows a +garnish of four shillings (for non-payment of this +his clothes were taken away, or "mobbed," as it was +called, till he did pay); and the next day a due of +sixteen pence to one of the stewards, which was +called table money. At his discharge the several fees +were as follows:—Two shillings the master's fee; +fourteen pence for the turning of the key; twelve +pence for every action that lay against him. For +leave to go out with a keeper upon security (as +formerly in the Queen's Bench) the prisoners paid +for the first time four shillings and tenpence, +and two shillings every day afterwards. The exorbitant +prison fees of three shillings a day swallowed +up all the prison bequests, and the miserable debtors +had to rely on better means from the Lord Mayor's +table, the light bread seized by the clerk of the +markets, and presents of under-sized and illegal +fish from the water-bailiffs.</p> + +<p>A curious handbill of the year 1664, preserved by +Mr. Collier, and containing the petition of 180 poor +Ludgate prisoners, seems to have been a circular +taken round by the alms-seekers of the prison, +who perambulated the streets with baskets at their +backs and a sealed money-box in their hands. +"We most humbly beseech you," says the handbill, +"even for God's cause, to relieve us with your +charitable benevolence, and to put into this bearer's +box—the same being sealed with the house seal, +as it is figured upon this petition."</p> + +<p>A quarto tract, entitled "Prison Thoughts," by +Thomas Browning, citizen and cook of London, a +prisoner in Lud Gate, "where poor citizens are confined +and starve amidst copies of their freedom," +was published in that prison, by the author, in +1682. It is written both in prose and verse, and +probably gave origin to Dr. Dodd's more elaborate +work on the same subject. The following is a +specimen of the poetry:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"ON PATIENCE.<br /> +<br /> +"Patience is the poor man's walk,<br /> +Patience is the dumb man's talk,<br /> +Patience is the lame man's thighs,<br /> +Patience is the blind man's eyes,<br /> +Patience is the poor man's ditty,<br /> +Patience is the exil'd man's city,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span>Patience is the sick man's bed of down,<br /> +Patience is the wise man's crown,<br /> +Patience is the live man's story,<br /> +Patience is the dead man's glory.<br /> +<br /> +"When your troubles do controul,<br /> +In Patience then possess your soul."</div> + +<p>In the <i>Spectator</i> (Queen Anne) a writer says: +"Passing under Lud Gate the other day, I heard a +voice bawling for charity which I thought I had +heard somewhere before. Coming near to the +grate, the prisoner called me by my name, and +desired I would throw something into the box."</p> + +<p>The prison at Lud Gate was gutted by the Great Fire of 1666, and in +1760, the year of George III.'s accession, the gate, impeding traffic, +was taken down, and the materials sold for £148. The prisoners +were removed to the London Workhouse, in Bishopsgate Street, a part +whereof was fitted up for that purpose, and Lud Gate prisoners continued +to be received there until the year 1794, when they were removed to the +prison of Lud Gate, adjoining the compter in Giltspur Street.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="lud" id="lud"></a> +<img src="images/p226.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD LUD GATE, FROM A PRINT PUBLISHED ABOUT 1750</span> +</div> + +<p>When old Lud Gate was pulled down, Lud and his worthy sons were given by +the City to Sir Francis Gosling, who intended to set them up at the east +end of St. Dunstan's. Nevertheless the royal effigies, of very rude +workmanship, were sent to end their days in the parish bone-house; a +better fate, however, awaited them, for the late Marquis of Hertford +eventually purchased them, and they are now, with St. Dunstan's clock, +in Hertford Villa, Regent's Park. The statue of Elizabeth was placed in +a niche in the outer wall of old St. Dunstan's Church, and it still +adorns the new church, as we have before mentioned in our chapter on Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>In 1792 an interesting discovery was made in +St. Martin's Court, Ludgate Hill. Workmen came +upon the remains of a small barbican, or watch-tower, +part of the old City wall of 1276; and in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> +line with the Old Bailey they found another outwork. +A fragment of it in a court is now built up. A fire +which took place on the premises of Messrs. Kay, +Ludgate Hill, May 1, 1792, disclosed these interesting +ruins, probably left by the builders after the fire of +1666 as a foundation for new buildings. The tower +projected four feet from the wall into the City ditch, +and measured twenty-two feet from top to bottom. +The stones were of different sizes, the largest and +the corner rudely squared. They had been bound +together with cement of hot lime, so that wedges +had to be used to split the blocks asunder. Small +square holes in the sides of the tower seemed to have been used either +to receive floor timbers, or as peep-holes for the sentries. The +adjacent part of the City wall was about eight feet thick, and of rude +workmanship, consisting of irregular-sized stones, chalk, and flint. The +only bricks seen in this part of the wall were on the south side, +bounding Stone-cutters' Alley. On the east half of Chatham Place, +Blackfriars Bridge, stood the tower built by order of Edward I., at the +end of a continuation of the City wall, running from Lud Gate behind the +houses in Fleet Ditch to the Thames. A rare +plan of London, by Hollar (says Mr. J.T. Smith), +marks this tower. Roman monuments have been +so frequently dug up near St. Martin's Church, that +there is no doubt that a Roman extra-mural cemetery +once existed here; in the same locality, in +1800, a sepulchral monument was dug up, dedicated +to Claudina Mertina, by her husband, a +Roman soldier. A fragment of a statue of Hercules +and a female head were also found, and were preserved +at the "London" Coffee House.</p> + +<p>Ludgate Hill and Street is probably the greatest +thoroughfare in London. Through Ludgate Hill +and Street there have passed in twelve hours 8,752 +vehicles, 13,025 horses, and 105,352 persons.</p> + +<p>St. Martin's, Ludgate, though one of Wren's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> +churches, is not a romantic building; yet it has +its legends. Robert of Gloucester, a rhyming +chronicler, describes it as built by Cadwallo, a +British prince, in the seventh century:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A chirch of Sent Martyn livying he let rere,<br /> +In whyche yet man should Goddy's seruys do,<br /> +And singe for his soule, and al Christine also."</div> + +<p>The church seems to have been rebuilt in 1437 +(Henry VI.). From the parish books, which commence +in 1410, we find the old church to have had +several chapels, and to have been well furnished +with plate, paintings, and vestments, and to have +had two projecting porches on the south side, +next Ludgate Hill. The right of presentation to +St. Martin's belonged to the Abbot of Westminster, +but Queen Mary granted it to the Bishop of London. +The following curious epitaph in St. Martin's, found +also elsewhere, has been beautifully paraphrased +by the Quaker poet, Bernard Barton:—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth goes to</td><td rowspan="4"><span class="bracket3">}</span></td><td> </td><td rowspan="4"><span class="bracket3">{</span></td><td align='left'>As mold to mold,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth treads on</td><td align='left' rowspan="2">Earth,</td><td align='left'>Glittering in gold,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth as to</td><td align='left'>Return nere should,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth shall to</td><td> </td><td align='left'>Goe ere he would.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth upon</td><td rowspan="4"><span class="bracket3">}</span></td><td> </td><td rowspan="4"><span class="bracket3">{</span></td><td align='left'>Consider may,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth goes to</td><td align='left' rowspan="2">Earth,</td><td align='left'>Naked away,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth though on</td><td align='left'>Be stout and gay,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Earth shall from</td><td> </td><td align='left'>Passe poore away.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>Strype says of St. Martin's—"It is very comely, +and ascended up by stone steps, well finished +within; and hath a most curious spire steeple, of +excellent workmanship, pleasant to behold." The +new church stands farther back than the old. +The little black spire that adorns the tower rises +from a small bulb of a cupola, round which runs +a light gallery. Between the street and the body +of the church Wren, always ingenious, contrived +an ambulatory the whole depth of the tower, to +deaden the sound of passing traffic. The church +is a cube, the length 57 feet, the breadth 66 feet; +the spire, 168 feet high, is dwarfed by St. Paul's. +The church cost in erection £5,378 18s. 8d.</p> + +<p>The composite pillars, organ balcony, and oaken +altar-piece are tasteless and pagan. The font was +the gift of Thomas Morley, in 1673, and is encircled +by a favourite old Greek palindrome, that +is, a puzzle sentence that reads equally well backwards +or forwards—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Tripson anomeema me monan opsin."<br /> +(Cleanse thy sins, not merely thy outward self.)</div> + +<p>This inscription, according to Mr. G. Godwin +("Churches of London"), is also found on the font +in the basilica of St. Sophia, Constantinople. In the +vestry-room, approached by a flight of stairs at the +north-east angle of the church, there is a carved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +seat (date 1690) and several chests, covered with +curious indented ornaments.</p> + +<p>On this church, and other satellites of St. Paul's, +a poet has written—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"So, like a bishop upon dainties fed,<br /> +St. Paul's lifts up his sacerdotal head;<br /> +While his lean curates, slim and lank to view,<br /> +Around him point their steeples to the blue."</div> + +<p>Coleridge used to compare a Mr. H——, who +was always putting himself forward to interpret Fox's +sentiments, to the steeple of St. Martin's, which +is constantly getting in the way when you wish to +see the dome of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>One great man, at least, has been connected +with this church, where the Knights Templars were +put to trial, and that was good old Purchas, the +editor and enlarger of "Hakluyt's Voyages." He +was rector of this parish. Hakluyt was a prebendary +of Westminster, who, with a passion for +geographical research, though he himself never +ventured farther than Paris, had devoted his life, +encouraged by Drake and Raleigh, in collecting +from old libraries and the lips of venturous +merchants and sea-captains travels in various +countries. The manuscript remains were bought +by Purchas, who, with a veneration worthy of that +heroic and chivalrous age, wove them into his +"Pilgrims" (five vols., folio), which are a treasury +of travel, exploit, and curious adventures. It has +been said that Purchas ruined himself by this publication, +and that he died in prison. This is not, +however, true. He seems to have impoverished +himself chiefly by taking upon himself the care and +cost of his brother and brother-in-law's children. +He appears to have been a single-minded man, with +a thorough devotion to geographic study. Charles I. +promised him a deanery, but Purchas did not live +to enjoy it.</p> + +<p>There is an architectural tradition that Wren purposely +designed the spire of St. Martin's, Ludgate, +small and slender, to give a greater dignity to the +dome of St. Paul's.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="ruins" id="ruins"></a> +<img src="images/p228.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />RUINS OF THE BARBICAN ON LUDGATE HILL</span> +</div> + +<p>The London Coffee House, 24 to 26, Ludgate +Hill, a place of celebrity in its day, was first opened +in May, 1731. The proprietor, James Ashley, in +his advertisement announcing the opening, professes +cheap prices, especially for punch. The usual +price of a quart of arrack was then eight shillings, +and six shillings for a quart of rum made into +punch. This new punch house, Dorchester beer, +and Welsh ale warehouse, on the contrary, professed +to charge six shillings for a quart of arrack made +into punch; while a quart of rum or brandy made +into punch was to be four shillings, and half a +quartern fourpence halfpenny, and gentlemen were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> +to have punch as quickly made as a gill of wine +could be drawn. After Roney and Ellis, the house, +according to Mr. Timbs, was taken by Messrs. +Leech and Dallimore. Mr. Leech was the father +of one of the most admirable caricaturists of +modern times. Then came Mr. Lovegrove, from +the "Horn," Doctors' Commons. In 1856 Mr. +Robert Clarke took possession, and was the last +tenant, the house being closed in 1867, and purchased +by the Corporation for £38,000. Several +lodges of Freemasons and sundry clubs were wont +to assemble here periodically—among them "The +Sons of Industry," to which many of the influential +tradesmen of the wards of Farringdon have been +long attached. Here, too, in the large hall, the +juries from the Central Criminal Court were lodged +during the night when important cases lasted more +than one day. During the Exeter Hall May +meetings the London Coffee House was frequently +resorted to as a favourite place of meeting. It was +also noted for its publishers' sales of stocks and +copyrights. It was within the rules of the Fleet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> +Prison. At the bar of the London Coffee House +was sold Rowley's British Cephalic Snuff. A +singular incident occurred here many years since. +Mr. Brayley, the topographer, was present at a +party, when Mr. Broadhurst, the famous tenor, by +singing a high note caused a wine-glass on the +table to break, the bowl being separated from the +stem.</p> + +<p>At No. 32 (north side) for many years Messrs. +Rundell and Bridge, the celebrated goldsmiths and +diamond merchants, carried on their business. Here +Flaxman's <i>chef d'œuvre</i>, the Shield of Achilles, in +silver gilt, was executed; also the crown worn by +that august monarch, George IV. at his coronation, +for the loan of the jewels of which £7,000 +was charged, and among the elaborate luxuries a +gigantic silver wine-cooler (now at Windsor), that +took two years in chasing. Two men could be +seated inside that great cup, and on grand occasions +it has been filled with wine and served round to +the guests. Two golden salmon, leaning against +each other, was the sign of this old shop, now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +removed. Mrs. Rundell met a great want of +her day by writing her well-known book, "The +Art of Cookery," published in 1806, and which +has gone through countless editions. Up to 1833 +she had received no remuneration for it, but she +ultimately obtained 2,000 guineas. People had +no idea of cooking in those days; and she laments +in her preface the scarcity of good melted butter, +good toast and water, and good coffee. Her directions +were sensible and clear; and she studied +economical cooking, which great cooks like Ude +and Francatelli despised. It is not every one who +can afford to prepare for a good dish by stewing +down half-a-dozen hams.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="stationers" id="stationers"></a> +<img src="images/p229.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF STATIONERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The hall of the Stationers' Company hides itself +with the modesty of an author in Stationers' Hall +Court, Ludgate Hill, close abutting on Paternoster +Row, a congenial neighbourhood. This hall of +the master, and keeper, and wardens, and commonalty +of the mystery or art of the Stationers of +the City of London stands on the site of Burgavenny +House, which the Stationers modified and +re-erected in the third and fourth years of Philip +and Mary—the dangerous period when the company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> +was first incorporated. The old house had been, +in the reign of Edward III., the palace of John, +Duke of Bretagne and Earl of Richmond. It was +afterwards occupied by the Earls of Pembroke. In +Elizabeth's reign it belonged to Lord Abergavenny, +whose daughter married Sir Thomas Vane. In +1611 (James I.) the Stationers' Company purchased +it and took complete possession. The house was +swept away in the Great Fire of 1666, when +the Stationers—the greatest sufferers on that +occasion—lost property to the amount of +£200,000.</p> + +<p>The fraternity of the Stationers of London (says +Mr. John Gough Nichols, F.S.A., who has written +a most valuable and interesting historical notice of +the Worshipful Company) is first mentioned in the +fourth year of Henry IV., when their bye-laws were +approved by the City authorities, and they are +then described as "writers (transcribers), lymners of +books and dyverse things for the Church and other +uses." In early times all special books were protected +by special letters patent, so that the early +registers of Stationers' Hall chiefly comprise books +of entertainment, sermons, pamphlets, and ballads.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mary originally incorporated the society in order +to put a stop to heretical writings, and gave the +Company power to search in any shop, house, +chamber, or building of printer, binder, or seller, +for books published contrary to statutes, acts, and +proclamations. King James, in the first year of his +reign, by letters-patent, granted the Stationers' Company +the exclusive privilege of printing Almanacs, +Primers, Psalters, the A B C, the "Little Catechism," +and Nowell's Catechism.</p> + +<p>The Stationers' Company, for two important +centuries in English history (says Mr. Cunningham), +had pretty well the monopoly of learning. Printers +were obliged to serve their time to a member of +the Company; and almost every publication, from +a Bible to a ballad, was required to be "entered at +Stationers' Hall." The service is now unnecessary, +but Parliament still requires, under the recent +Copyright Act, that the proprietor of every published +work should register his claim in the books +of the Stationers' Company, and pay a fee of five +shillings. The number of the freemen of the +Company is between 1,000 and 1,100, and of the +livery, or leading persons, about 450. The capital +of the Company amounts to upwards of £40,000, +divided into shares, varying in value from £40 to +£400 each. The great treasure of the Stationers' +Company is its series of registers of works entered +for publication. This valuable collection of entries +commences in 1557, and, though often consulted +and quoted, was never properly understood till Mr. +J. Payne Collier published two carefully-edited +volumes of extracts from its earlier pages.</p> + +<p>The celebrated Bible of the year 1632, with the +important word "not" omitted in the seventh +commandment—"Thou shalt <i>not</i> commit adultery"—was +printed by the Stationers' Company. +Archbishop Laud made a Star-Chamber matter +of the omission, and a heavy fine was laid upon +the Company for their neglect. And in another +later edition, in Psalm xiv. the text ran, "The fool +hath said in his heart, There is a God." For the +omission of the important word "no" the printer +was fined £3,000. Several other errors have +occurred, but the wonder is that they have not been +more frequent.</p> + +<p>The only publications which the Company continues +to issue are a Latin gradus and almanacks, +of which it had at one time the entire monopoly. +Almanack-day at Stationers' Hall (every 22nd of +November, at three o'clock) is a sight worth seeing, +from the bustle of the porters anxious to get off +with early supplies. The Stationers' Company's +almanacks are now by no means the best of the day. +Mr. Charles Knight, who worked so strenuously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> +and so successfully for the spread of popular +education, first struck a blow at the absurd +monopoly of almanack printing. So much behind +the age is this privileged Company, that it actually +still continues to publish Moore's quack almanack, +with the nonsensical old astrological tables, describing +the moon's influence on various parts of +the human body. One year it is said they had +the courage to leave out this farrago, with the +hieroglyphics originally stolen by Lilly from monkish +manuscripts, and from Lilly stolen by Moore. The +result was that most of the copies were returned on +their hands. They have not since dared to oppose +the stolid force of vulgar ignorance. They still +publish Wing's sheet almanack, though Wing was +an impostor and fortune-teller, who died eight +years after the Restoration. All this is very unworthy +of a privileged company, with an invested +capital of £40,000, and does not much help +forward the enlightenment of the poorer classes. +This Company is entitled, for the supposed security +of the copyright, to two copies of every work, +however costly, published in the United Kingdom, +a mischievous tax, which restrains the publication +of many valuable but expensive works.</p> + +<p>The first Stationers' Hall was in Milk Street. +In 1553 they removed to St. Peter's College, near +St. Paul's Deanery, where the chantry priests of +St. Paul's had previously resided. The present +hall closely resembles the hall at Bridewell, having +a row of oval windows above the lower range, +which were fitted up by Mr. Mylne in 1800, when +the chamber was cased with Portland stone and the +lower windows lengthened.</p> + +<p>The great window at the upper end of the hall +was erected in 1801, at the expense of Mr. Alderman +Cadell. It includes some older glass blazoned +with the arms and crest of the company, the two +emblematic figures of Religion and Learning being +designed by Smirke. Like most ancient halls, it +has a raised dais, or haut place, which is occupied +by the Court table at the two great dinners in +August and November. On the wall, above the +wainscoting that has glowed red with the reflection +of many a bumper of generous wine, are hung in +decorous state the pavises or shields of arms of +members of the court, which in civic processions +are usually borne by a body of pensioners, the +number of whom, when the Lord Mayor is a member +of the Company, corresponds with the years of that +august dignitary's age. In the old water-show these +escutcheons decorated the sides of the Company's +barge when they accompanied the Lord Mayor to +Westminster, and called at the landing of Lambeth +Palace to pay their respects to the representative of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> +their former ecclesiastical censors. On this occasion +the Archbishop usually sent out the thirsty +Stationers a hamper of wine, while the rowers of +the barge had bread and cheese and ale to their +hearts' content. It is still the custom (says Mr. +Nichols) to forward the Archbishop annually a +set of the Company's almanacks, and some also +to the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the +Rolls. Formerly the twelve judges and various +other persons received the same compliment. Alas +for the mutation of other things than almanacs, +however; for in 1850 the Company's barge, being +sold, was taken to Oxford, where it may still be +seen on the Isis, the property of one of the College +boat clubs. At the upper end of the hall is a +court cupboard or buffet for the display of the +Company's plate, and at the lower end, on either +side of the doorway, is a similar recess. The +entrance-screen of the hall, guarded by allegorical figures, +and crowned by the royal arms (with the +inescutcheon of Nassau—William III.), is richly +adorned with carvings.</p> + +<p>Stationers' Hall was in 1677 used for Divine +service by the parish of St. Martin's, Ludgate, and +towards the end of the seventeenth century an +annual musical festival was instituted on the 22nd of +November, in commemoration of Saint Cecilia, and +as an excuse for some good music. A splendid +entertainment was provided in the hall, preceded +by a grand concert of vocal and instrumental +music, which was attended by people of the first +rank. The special attraction was always an ode to +Saint Cecilia, set by Purcell, Blow, or some other +eminent composer of the day. Dryden's and +Pope's odes are almost too well known to need +mention; but Addison, Yalden, Shadwell, and even +D'Urfey, tried their hands on praises of the same +musical saint.</p> + +<p>After several odes by the mediocre satirist, +Oldham, and that poor verse-maker, Nahum Tate, +who scribbled upon King David's tomb, came +Dryden. The music to the first ode, says Scott, +was first written by Percival Clarke, who killed +himself in a fit of lovers' melancholy in 1707. It +was then reset by Draghi, the Italian composer, +and in 1711 was again set by Clayton for one of +Sir Richard Steele's public concerts. The first ode +(1687) contains those fine lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"From harmony, from heavenly harmony,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This universal frame began;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From harmony to harmony,</span><br /> +Through all the compass of the notes it ran,<br /> +The diapason closing full in man."</div> + +<p>Of the composition of this ode, for which +Dryden received £40, and which was afterwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> +eclipsed by the glories of its successor, the following +interesting anecdote is told:—</p> + +<p>"Mr. St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, +happening to pay a morning visit to Dryden, +whom he always respected, found him in an unusual +agitation of spirits, even to a trembling. On +inquiring the cause, 'I have been up all night,' +replied the old bard. 'My musical friends made +me promise to write them an ode for their feast of +St. Cecilia. I have been so struck with the subject +which occurred to me, that I could not leave it till +I had completed it. Here it is, finished at one +sitting.' And immediately he showed him the +ode."</p> + +<p>Dryden's second ode, "Alexander's Feast; or, +the Power of Music," was written for the St. +Cecilian Feast at Stationers' Hall in 1697. This +ode ends with those fine and often-quoted lines on +the fair saint:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Let old Timotheus yield the prize,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or both divide the crown;</span><br /> +He raised a mortal to the skies,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She drew an angel down."</span></div> + +<p>Handel, in 1736, set this ode, and reproduced it +at Covent Garden, with deserved success. Not +often do such a poet and such a musician meet +at the same anvil. The great German also set the +former ode, which is known as "The Ode on +St. Cecilia's Day." Dryden himself told Tonson +that he thought with the town that this ode was +the best of all his poetry; and he said to a young +flatterer at Will's, with honest pride—"You are +right, young gentleman; a nobler never was produced, +nor ever will."</p> + +<p>Many magnificent funerals have been marshalled +in the Stationers' Hall; it has also been used for +several great political banquets. In September, +1831, the Reform members of the House of +Commons gave a dinner to the Chancellor of the +Exchequer (Lord Althorp) and to Lord John +Russell—Mr. Abercromby (afterwards Speaker) +presiding. In May, 1842, the Duke of Wellington +presided over a dinner for the Infant Orphan +Asylum, and in June, 1847, a dinner for the King's +College Hospital was given under Sir Robert Peel's +presidency. In the great kitchen below the hall, +Mr. Nichols, who is an honorary member of the +Company, says there have been sometimes seen at +the same time as many as eighteen haunches of +venison, besides a dozen necks and other joints; +for these companies are as hospitable as they are +rich.</p> + +<p>The funeral feast of Thomas Sutton, of the +Charterhouse, was given May 28th, 1612, in +Stationers' Hall, the procession having started<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span> +from Doctor Law's, in Paternoster Row. For the +repast were provided "32 neats' tongues, 40 stone +of beef, 24 marrow-bones, 1 lamb, 46 capons, 32 +geese, 4 pheasants, 12 pheasants' pullets, 12 godwits, +24 rabbits, 6 hearnshaws, 43 turkey-chickens, +48 roast chickens, 18 house pigeons, 72 field +pigeons, 36 quails, 48 ducklings, 160 eggs, 3 +salmon, 4 congers, 10 turbots, 2 dories, 24 lobsters, +4 mullets, a firkin and keg of sturgeon, 3 barrels +of pickled oysters, 6 gammon of bacon, 4 Westphalia +gammons, 16 fried tongues, 16 chicken pies, +16 pasties, 16 made dishes of rice, 16 neats'-tongue +pies, 16 custards, 16 dishes of bait, 16 mince pies, +16 orange pies, 16 gooseberry tarts, 8 redcare pies, +6 dishes of whitebait, and 6 grand salads."</p> + +<p>To the west of the hall is the handsome court-room, +where the meetings of the Company are +held. The wainscoting, &c., were renewed in the +year 1757, and an octagonal card-room was added +by Mr. Mylne in 1828. On the opposite side +of the hall is the stock-room, adorned by beautiful +carvings of the school of Grinling Gibbons. Here +the commercial committees of the Company usually +meet.</p> + +<p>The nine painted storeys which stood in the +old hall, above the wainscot in the council parlour, +probably crackled to dust in the Great Fire, which +also rolled up and took away the portraits of John +Cawood, printer to Philip and Mary, and his +master, John Raynes. This same John Cawood +seems to have been specially munificent in his +donations to the Company, for he gave two new +stained-glass windows to the hall; also a hearse-cover, +of cloth and gold, powdered with blue velvet +and bordered with black velvet, embroidered and +stained with blue, yellow, red, and green, besides +considerable plate.</p> + +<p>The Company's curious collection of plate is +carefully described by Mr. Nichols. In 1581 it +seems every master on quitting the chair was +required to give a piece of plate, weighing fourteen +ounces at least; and every upper or under warden +a piece of plate of at least three ounces. In this +accumulative manner the Worshipful Company soon +became possessed of a glittering store of "salts," +gilt bowls, college pots, snuffers, cups, and flagons. +Their greatest trophy seems to have been a large +silver-gilt bowl, given in 1626 by a Mr. Hulet +(Owlett), weighing sixty ounces, and shaped like an +owl, in allusion to the donor's name. In the early +Civil War, when the Company had to pledge their +plate to meet the heavy loans exacted by Charles +the Martyr from a good many of his unfortunate +subjects, the cherished Owlett was specially excepted. +Among other memorials in the posses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span>sion +of the Company was a silver college cup +bought in memory of Mr. John Sweeting, who, dying +in 1659 (the year before the Restoration), founded +by will the pleasant annual venison dinner of the +Company in August.</p> + +<p>It is supposed that all the great cupboards of +plate were lost in the fire of 1666, for there is no +piece now existing (says Mr. Nichols) of an earlier +date than 1676. It has been the custom also +from time to time to melt down obsolete plate +into newer forms and more useful vessels. Thus +salvers and salt-cellars were in 1720-21 turned into +monteaths, or bowls, filled with water, to keep the +wine-glasses cool; and in 1844 a handsome rosewater +dish was made out of a silver bowl, and an +old tea-urn and coffee-urn. This custom is rather +too much like Saturn devouring his own children, +and has led to the destruction of many curious old +relics. The massive old plate now remaining is +chiefly of the reign of Charles II. High among +these presents tower the quaint silver candlesticks +bequeathed by Mr. Richard Royston, twice Master +of the Stationers' Company, who died in 1686, and +had been bookseller to three kings—James I., +Charles I., and Charles II. The ponderous snuffers +and snuffer-box are gone. There were also three +other pairs of candlesticks, given by Mr. Nathanael +Cole, who had been clerk of the Company, at his +death in 1760. A small two-handled cup was +bequeathed in 1771 by that worthy old printer, +William Bowyer, as a memorial of the Company's +munificence to his father after his loss by fire in +1712-13.</p> + +<p>The Stationers are very charitable. Their funds +spring chiefly from £1,150 bequeathed to them +by Mr. John Norton, the printer to the learned +Queen Elizabeth in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, +alderman of London in the reign of James I., and +thrice Master of this Company. The money laid +out by Norton's wish in the purchase of estates +in fee-simple in Wood Street has grown and grown. +One hundred and fifty pounds out of this bequest +the old printer left to the minister and churchwardens +of St. Faith, in order to have distributed +weekly to twelve poor persons—six appointed by +the parish, and six by the Stationers' Company—twopence +each and a penny loaf, the vantage loaf +(the thirteenth allowed by the baker) to be the +clerk's; ten shillings to be paid for an annual +sermon on Ash Wednesday at St. Faith's; the +residue to be laid out in cakes, wine, and ale for +the Company of Stationers, either before or after +the sermon. The liverymen still (according to Mr. +Nichols) enjoy this annual dole of well-spiced and +substantial buns. The sum of £1,000 was left for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> +the generous purpose of advancing small loans to +struggling young men in business. In 1861, however, +the Company, under the direction of the +Court of Chancery, devoted the sum to the founding +of a commercial school in Bolt Court for the +sons of liverymen and freemen of the Company, +and £8,500 were spent in purchasing Mr. Bensley's +premises and Dr. Johnson's old house. The +doctor's usual sitting-room is now occupied by the +head master. The school itself is built on the site +formerly occupied by Johnson's garden. The boys +pay a quarterage not exceeding £2. The school +has four exhibitions.</p> + +<p>The pictures at Stationers' Hall are worthy of +mention. In the stock-room are portraits, after +Kneller, of Prior and Steele, which formerly belonged +to Harley, Earl of Oxford, Swift's great +patron. The best picture in the room is a portrait +by an unknown painter of Tycho Wing, the astronomer, +holding a celestial globe. Tycho was the +son of Vincent Wing, the first author of the +almanacks still published under his name, and who +died in 1668. There are also portraits of that +worthy old printer, Samuel Richardson and his +wife; Archbishop Tillotson, by Kneller; Bishop +Hoadley, prelate of the Order of the Garter; +Robert Nelson, the author of the "Fasts and +Festivals," who died in 1714-15, by Kneller; and +one of William Bowyer, the Whitefriars printer, +with a posthumous bust beneath it of his son, the +printer of the votes of the House of Commons. +There was formerly a brass plate beneath this bust +expressing the son's gratitude to the Company for +their munificence to his father after the fire which +destroyed his printing-office.</p> + +<p>In the court-room hangs a portrait of John +Boydell, who was Lord Mayor of London in +the year 1791. This picture, by Graham, was +formerly surrounded by allegorical figures of Justice, +Prudence, Industry, and Commerce; but +they have been cut out to reduce the canvas +to Kit-cat size. There is a portrait, by Owen, +of Lord Mayor Domville, Master of the Stationers' +Company, in the actual robe he wore when he rode +before the Prince Regent and the Allies in 1814 to +the Guildhall banquet and the Peace thanksgiving. +In the card-room is an early picture, by West, of +King Alfred dividing his loaf with the pilgrim—a +representation, by the way, of a purely imaginary +occurrence—in fact, the old legend is that it +was really St. Cuthbert who executed this generous +partition. There are also portraits of the +two Strahans, Masters in 1774 and 1816; one of +Alderman Cadell, Master in 1798, by Sir William +Beechey; and one of John Nicholls, Master of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> +Company in 1804, after a portrait by Jackson. In +the hall, over the gallery, is a picture, by Graham, +of Mary Queen of Scots escaping from the Castle +of Lochleven. It was engraved by Dawe, afterwards +a Royal Academician, when he was only +fourteen years of age.</p> + +<p>The arms of the Company appear from a Herald +visitation of 1634 to have been azure on a chevron, +an eagle volant, with a diadem between two red +roses, with leaves vert, between three books clasped +gold; in chief, issuing out of a cloud, the sunbeams +gold, a holy spirit, the wings displayed silver, +with a diadem gold. In later times the books have +been blazoned as Bibles. In a "tricking" in the +volume before mentioned, in the College of Arms, +St. John the Evangelist stands behind the shield +in the attitude of benediction, and bearing in his +left hand a cross with a serpent rising from it +(much more suitable for the scriveners or law +writers, by the bye). On one side of the shield +stands the Evangelist's emblematic eagle, holding an +inkhorn in his beak. The Company never received +any grant of arms or supporters, but about +the year 1790 two angels seem to have been used +as supporters. About 1788 the motto "Verbum +Domini manet in eternum" (The word of the Lord +endureth for ever) began to be adopted, and in the +same year the crest of an eagle was used. On +the silver badge of the Company's porter the supporters +are naked winged boys, and the eagle on +the chevron is turned into a dove holding an olive-branch. +Some of the buildings of the present hall +are still let to Paternoster Row booksellers as warehouses.</p> + +<p>The list of masters of this Company includes +Sir John Key, Bart. ("Don Key"), Lord Mayor in +1831-1832. In 1712 Thomas Parkhurst, who had +been Master of the Worshipful Company in 1683, +left £37 to purchase Bibles and Psalters, to be +annually given to the poor; hence the old custom +of giving Bibles to apprentices bound at Stationers' +Hall.</p> + +<p>This is the first of the many City companies of +which we shall have by turns to make mention +in the course of this work. Though no longer +useful as a guild to protect a trade which now +needs no fostering, we have seen that it still retains +some of its mediæval virtues. It is hospitable and +charitable as ever, if not so given to grand funeral +services and ecclesiastical ceremonials. Its privileges +have grown out of date and obsolete, but +they harm no one but authors, and to the wrongs +of authors both Governments and Parliaments have +been from time immemorial systematically indifferent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="pauls" id="pauls"></a> +<img src="images/p234.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>London's chief Sanctuary of Religion—The Site of St. Paul's—The Earliest authenticated Church there—The Shrine of Erkenwald—St. Paul's +Burnt and Rebuilt—It becomes the Scene of a Strange Incident—Important Political Meeting within its Walls—The Great Charter published +there—St. Paul's and Papal Power in England—Turmoils around the Grand Cathedral—Relics and Chantry Chapels in St. Paul's—Royal +Visits to St. Paul's—Richard, Duke of York, and Henry VI.—A Fruitless Reconciliation—Jane Shore's Penance—A Tragedy of the +Lollards' Tower—A Royal Marriage—Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey at St. Paul's—"Peter of Westminster"—A Bonfire of Bibles—The +Cathedral Clergy Fined—A Miraculous Rood—St. Paul's under Edward VI. and Bishop Ridley—A Protestant Tumult at Paul's Cross—Strange +Ceremonials—Queen Elizabeth's Munificence—The Burning of the Spire—Desecration of the Nave—Elizabeth and Dean Nowell—Thanksgiving +for the Armada—The "Children of Paul's"—Government Lotteries—Executions in the Churchyard—Inigo Jones's +Restorations and the Puritan Parliament—The Great Fire of 1666—Burning of Old St. Paul's, and Destruction of its Monuments—Evelyn's +Description of the Fire—Sir Christopher Wren called in.</p></div> + + +<p>Stooping under the flat iron bar that lies like a +bone in the mouth of Ludgate Hill, we pass up +the gentle ascent between shops hung with gold +chains, brimming with wealth, or crowded with all +the luxuries that civilisation has turned into necessities; +and once past the impertinent black spire of +St. Martin's, we come full-butt upon the great grey +dome. The finest building in London, with the +worst approach; the shrine of heroes; the model +of grace; the <i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of a great genius, rises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> +before us, and between its sable Corinthian pillars +we have now to thread our way in search of the +old legends of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>The old associations rise around us as we pass +across the paved area that surrounds Queen Anne's +mean and sooty statue. From the times of the +Saxons to the present day, London's chief sanctuary +of religion has stood here above the river, a landmark +to the ships of all nations that have floated +on the welcoming waters of the Thames. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> +great dome, circled with its coronet of gold, is the +first object the pilgrim traveller sees, whether he +approach by river or by land; the sparkle of that +golden cross is seen from many a distant hill and +plain. St. Paul's is the central object—the very +palladium—of modern London.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="east" id="east"></a> +<img src="images/p235.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD ST. PAUL'S.—THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST</span> +</div> + +<p>Camden, the Elizabethan historian, revived an +old tradition that a Roman temple to Diana once +stood where St. Paul's was afterwards built; and +he asserts that in the reign of Edward III. an incredible +quantity of ox-skulls, stag-horns, and boars' +tusks, together with some sacrificial vessels, were +exhumed on this site. Selden, a better Orientalist +than Celtic scholar (Charles I.), derived the name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> +of London from two Welsh words, "Llan-den"—church +of Diana. Dugdale, to confirm these traditions, +drags a legend out of an obscure monkish +chronicle, to the effect that during the Diocletian +persecution, in which St. Alban, a centurion, was +martyred, the Romans demolished a church standing +on the site of St. Paul's, and raised a temple to +Diana on its ruins, while in Thorny Island, Westminster, +St. Peter, in the like manner, gave way +to Apollo. These myths are, however, more than +doubtful.</p> + +<p>Sir Christopher Wren's excavations for the +foundation of modern St. Paul's entirely refuted +these confused stories, to which the learned and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> +the credulous had paid too much deference. He +dug down to the river-level, and found neither ox-bone +nor stag-horn. What he did find, however, +was curious. It was this:—1. Below the mediæval +graves Saxon stone coffins and Saxon tombs, lined +with slabs of chalk. 2. Lower still, British graves, +and in the earth around the ivory and boxwood +skewers that had fastened the Saxons' woollen +shrouds. 3. At the same level with the Saxon +graves, and also deeper, Roman funeral urns. +These were discovered as deep as eighteen feet. +Roman lamps, tear vessels, and fragments of +sacrificial vessels of Samian ware were met with +chiefly towards the Cheapside corner of the churchyard.</p> + +<p>There had evidently been a Roman cemetery outside +this Prætorian camp, and beyond the ancient +walls of London, the wise nation, by the laws of the +Twelve Tables, forbidding the interment of the dead +within the walls of a city. There may have been +a British or a Saxon temple here; for the Church +tried hard to conquer and consecrate places where +idolatry had once triumphed. But the Temple of +Diana was moonshine from the beginning, and moonshine +it will ever remain. The antiquaries were, +however, angry with Wren for the logical refutation +of their belief. Dr. Woodward (the "Martinus +Scriblerus" of Pope and his set) was especially +vehement at the slaying of his hobby, and produced +a small brass votive image of Diana, that had been +found between the Deanery and Blackfriars. Wren, +who could be contemptuous, disdained a reply, and +so the matter remained till 1830, when the discovery +of a rude stone altar, with an image of Diana, +under the foundation of the new Goldsmith's Hall, +Foster Lane, Cheapside, revived the old dispute, yet +did not help a whit to prove the existence of the +supposed temple to the goddess of moonshine.</p> + +<p>The earliest authenticated church of St. Paul's +was built and endowed by Ethelbert, King of East +Kent, with the sanction of Sebert, King of the +East Angles; and the first bishop who preached +within its walls was Mellitus, the companion of +St. Augustine, the first Christian missionary who +visited the heathen Saxons. The visit of St. Paul +to England in the time of Boadicea's war, and that +of Joseph of Arimathea, are mere monkish legends. +The Londoners again became pagan, and for +thirty-eight years there was no bishop at St. +Paul's, till a brother of St. Chad of Lichfield +came and set his foot on the images of Thor and +Wodin. With the fourth successor of Mellitus, +Saint Erkenwald, wealth and splendour returned +to St. Paul's. This zealous man worked miracles +both before and after his death. He used to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span> +driven about in a cart, and one legend says that he +often preached to the woodmen in the wild forests +that lay to the north of London. On a certain day +one of the cart-wheels came off in a slough. The +worthy confessor was in a dilemma. The congregation +under the oaks might have waited for ever, +but the one wheel left was equal to the occasion, +for it suddenly grew invested with special powers of +balancing, and went on as steadily as a velocipede +with the smiling saint. This was pretty well, but +still nothing to what happened after the good man's +death.</p> + +<p>St. Erkenwald departed at last in the odour of +sanctity at his sister's convent at Barking. Eager to +get hold of so valuable a body, the Chertsey monks +instantly made a dash for it, pursued by the equally +eager clergy of St. Paul's, who were fully alive to +the value of their dead bishop, whose shrine would +become a money-box for pilgrim's offerings. The +London priests, by a forced march, got first to +Barking and bore off the body; but the monks of +Chertsey and the nuns of Barking followed, wringing +their hands and loudly protesting against the theft. +The river Lea, sympathising with their prayers, rose +in a flood. There was no boat, no bridge, and a +fight for the body seemed imminent. A pious man +present, however, exhorted the monks to peace, +and begged them to leave the matter to heavenly +decision. The clergy of St. Paul's then broke forth +into a litany. The Lea at once subsided, the +cavalcade crossed at Stratford, the sun cast down +its benediction, and the clergy passed on to St. +Paul's with their holy spoil. From that time the +shrine of Erkenwald became a source of wealth and +power to the cathedral.</p> + +<p>The Saxon kings, according to Dean Milman, +were munificent to St. Paul's. The clergy claimed +Tillingham, in Essex, as a grant from King Ethelbert, +and that place still contributes to the maintenance +of the cathedral. The charters of Athelstane +are questionable, but the places mentioned in +them certainly belonged to St. Paul's till the Ecclesiastical +Commissioners broke in upon that wealth; +and the charter of Canute, still preserved, and no +doubt authentic, ratifies the donations of his Saxon +predecessors.</p> + +<p>William the Conqueror's Norman Bishop of +London was a good, peace-loving man, who interceded +with the stern monarch, and recovered the +forfeited privileges of the refractory London citizens. +For centuries—indeed, even up to the end of +Queen Mary's reign—the mayor, aldermen, and +crafts used to make an annual procession to St. +Paul's, to visit the tomb of good Bishop William +in the nave. In 1622 the Lord Mayor, Edward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> +Barkham, caused these quaint lines to be carved +on the bishop's tomb:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Walkers, whosoe'er ye bee,<br /> +If it prove you chance to see,<br /> +Upon a solemn scarlet day,<br /> +The City senate pass this way,<br /> +Their grateful memory for to show,<br /> +Which they the reverent ashes owe<br /> +Of Bishop Norman here inhumed,<br /> +By whom this city has assumed<br /> +Large privileges; those obtained<br /> +By him when Conqueror William reigned.<br /> +This being by Barkham's thankful mind renewed,<br /> +Call it the monument of gratitude."</div> + +<p>The ruthless Conqueror granted valuable privileges +to St. Paul's. He freed the church from the +payment of Danegeld, and all services to the Crown. +His words (if they are authentic) are—"Some +lands I give to God and the church of St. Paul's, +in London, and special franchises, because I wish +that this church may be free in all things, as I wish +my soul to be on the day of judgment." In this +same reign the Primate Lanfranc held a great +council at St. Paul's—a council which Milman +calls "the first full Ecclesiastical Parliament of +England." Twelve years after (1087), the year +the Conqueror died, fire, that persistent enemy +of St. Paul's, almost entirely consumed the +cathedral.</p> + +<p>Bishop Maurice set to work to erect a more +splendid building, with a vast crypt, in which the +valuable remains of St. Erkenwald were enshrined. +William of Malmesbury ranked it among the great +buildings of his time. One of the last acts of the +Conqueror was to give the stone of a Palatine +tower (on the subsequent site of Blackfriars) for the +building. The next bishop, De Balmeis, is said +to have devoted the whole of his revenues for +twenty years to this pious work. Fierce Rufus—no +friend of monks—did little; but the milder +monarch, Henry I., granted exemption of toll to +all vessels, laden with stone for St. Paul's, that +entered the Fleet.</p> + +<p>To enlarge the area of the church, King Henry +gave part of the Palatine Tower estate, which was +turned into a churchyard and encircled with a wall, +which ran along Carter Lane to Creed Lane, and +was freed of buildings. The bishop, on his part, +contributed to the service of the altar the rents of +Paul's Wharf, and for a school gave the house of +Durandus, at the corner of Bell Court. On the +bishop's death, the Crown seized his wealth, and +the bishop's boots were carried to the Exchequer +full of gold and silver. St. Bernard, however, +praises him, and says: "It was not wonderful that +Master Gilbert should be a bishop; but that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> +Bishop of London should live like a poor man, +that was magnificent."</p> + +<p>In the reign of Stephen a dreadful fire broke out +and raged from London Bridge to St. Clement +Danes. In this fire St. Paul's was partially +destroyed. The Bishop, in his appeals for contributions +to the church, pleaded that this was the +only London church specially dedicated to St. +Paul. The citizens of London were staunch advocates +of King Stephen against the Empress Maud, +and at their folkmote, held at the Cheapside end +of St. Paul's, claimed the privilege of naming a +monarch.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Henry II. St. Paul's was the +scene of a strange incident connected with the +quarrel between the King and that ambitious +Churchman, the Primate Becket. Gilbert Foliot, +the learned and austere Bishop of London, had +sided with the King and provoked the bitter hatred +of Becket. During the celebration of mass a +daring emissary of Becket had the boldness to +thrust a roll, bearing the dreaded sentence of +excommunication against Foliot, into the hands +of the officiating priest, and at the same time to +cry aloud—"Know all men that Gilbert, Bishop +of London, is excommunicated by Thomas, Archbishop +of Canterbury!" Foliot for a time defied +the interdict, but at last bowed to his enemy's +authority, and refrained from entering the Church +of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>The reign of Richard I. was an eventful one to +St. Paul's. In 1191, when Cœur de Lion was in +Palestine, Prince John and all the bishops met in +the nave of St. Paul's to arraign William de Longchamp, +one of the King's regents, of many acts of +tyranny. In the reign of their absentee monarch +the Londoners grew mutinous, and their leader, +William Fitzosbert, or Longbeard, denounced their +oppressors from Paul's Cross. These disturbances +ended in the siege of Bow Church, where Fitzosbert +had fortified himself, and by the burning +alive of him and other ringleaders. It was at this +period that Dean Radulph de Diceto, a monkish +chronicler of learning, built the Deanery, "inhabited," +says Milman, "after him, by many men of +letters;" before the Reformation, by the admirable +Colet; after the Reformation by Alexander Nowell, +Donne, Sancroft (who rebuilt the mansion after the +Great Fire), Stillingfleet, Tillotson, W. Sherlock, +Butler, Secker, Newton, Van Mildert, Copleston, +and Milman.</p> + +<p>St. Paul's was also the scene of one of those great +meetings of prelates, abbots, deans, priors, and +barons that finally led to King John's concession +of Magna Charta. On this solemn occasion—so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> +important for the progress of England—the Primate +Langton displayed the old charter of Henry I. to +the chief barons, and made them sacredly pledge +themselves to stand up for Magna Charta and the +liberties of England.</p> + +<p>One of the first acts of King Henry III. was +to hold a council in St. Paul's, and there publish +the Great Charter. Twelve years after, when a +Papal Legate enthroned himself in St. Paul's, he +was there openly resisted by Cantelupe, Bishop of +Worcester.</p> + +<p>Papal power in this reign attained its greatest +height in England. On the death of Bishop Roger, +an opponent of these inroads, the King gave orders +that out of the episcopal revenue 1,500 poor +should be feasted on the day of the conversion of +St. Paul, and 1,500 lights offered in the church. +The country was filled with Italian prelates. An +Italian Archbishop of Canterbury, coming to St. +Paul's, with a cuirass under his robes, to demand +first-fruits from the Bishop, found the doors closed +in his face; and two canons of the Papal party, +endeavouring to install themselves at St. Paul's, +were in 1259 killed by the angry populace.</p> + +<p>In the reign of this weak king several folkmotes +of the London citizens were held at Paul's Cross, +in the churchyard. On one occasion the king +himself, and his brother, the King of Almayne, +were present. All citizens, even to the age of +twelve, were sworn to allegiance, for a great outbreak +for liberty was then imminent. The inventory +of the goods of Bishop Richard de Gravesend, +Bishop of London for twenty-five years of this +reign, is still preserved in the archives of St. +Paul's. It is a roll twenty-eight feet long. The +value of the whole property was nearly £3,000, +and this sum (says Milman) must be multiplied by +about fifteen to bring it to its present value.</p> + +<p>When the citizens of London justly ranged +themselves on the side of Simon de Montfort, who +stood up for their liberties, the great bell of St. +Paul's was the tocsin that summoned the burghers +to arms, especially on that memorable occasion +when Queen Eleanor tried to escape by water from +the Tower to Windsor, where her husband was, +and the people who detested her tried to sink her +barge as it passed London Bridge.</p> + +<p>In the equally troublous reign of Edward II. +St. Paul's was again splashed with blood. The +citizens, detesting the king's foreign favourites, rose +against the Bishop of Exeter, Edward's regent in +London. A letter from the queen, appealing to +them, was affixed to the cross in Cheapside. The +bishop demanded the City keys of the Lord +Mayor, and the people sprang to arms, with cries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span> +of "Death to the queen's enemies!" They cut +off the head of a servant of the De Spensers, burst +open the gates of the Bishop of Exeter's palace +(Essex Street, Strand), and plundered, sacked, +and destroyed everything. The bishop, at the +time riding in the Islington fields, hearing the +danger, dashed home, and made straight for +sanctuary in St. Paul's. At the north door, however, +the mob thickening, tore him from his horse, +and, hurrying him into Cheapside, proclaimed +him a traitor, and beheaded him there, with two +of his servants. They then dragged his body +back to his palace, and flung the corpse into the +river.</p> + +<p>In the inglorious close of the glorious reign of +Edward III., Courtenay, Bishop of London, an +inflexible prelate, did his best to induce some of +the London rabble to plunder the Florentines, at +that time the great bankers and money-lenders of +the metropolis, by reading at Paul's Cross the +interdict Gregory XI. had launched against them; +but on this occasion the Lord Mayor, leading the +principal Florentine merchants into the presence +of the aged king, obtained the royal protection for +them.</p> + +<p>Wycliffe and his adherents (amongst whom +figured John of Gaunt—"old John of Gaunt, +time-honoured Lancaster"—Chaucer's patron) +soon brewed more trouble in St. Paul's for the +proud bishop. The great reformer being summoned +to an ecclesiastical council at St. Paul's, +was accompanied by his friends, John of Gaunt +and the Earl Marshal, Lord Percy. When in the +lady chapel Percy demanded a soft seat for +Wycliffe. The bishop said it was law and reason +that a cited man should stand before the ordinary. +Angry words ensued, and the Duke of Lancaster +taunted Courtenay with his pride. The bishop +answered, "I trust not in man, but in God alone, +who will give me boldness to speak the truth." +A rumour was spread that John of Gaunt had +threatened to drag the bishop out of the church +by the hair, and that he had vowed to abolish +the title of Lord Mayor. A tumult began. All +through the City the billmen and bowmen gathered. +The Savoy, John of Gaunt's palace, would have +been burned but for the intercession of the bishop. +A priest mistaken for Percy was murdered. The +duke fled to Kensington, and joined the Princess +of Wales.</p> + +<p>Richard II., that dissolute, rash, and unfortunate +monarch, once only (alive) came to St. Paul's in +great pomp, his robes hung with bells, and afterwards +feasted at the house of his favourite, Sir +Nicholas Brember, who was eventually put to death.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> +The Lollards were now making way, and Archbishop +Courtenay had a great barefooted procession +to St. Paul's to hear a famous Carmelite +preacher inveigh against the Wycliffe doctrines. +A Lollard, indeed, had the courage to nail to the +doors of St. Paul's twelve articles of the new creed +denouncing the mischievous celibacy of the clergy, +transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, pilgrimages, +and other mistaken and idolatrous usages. +When Henry Bolingbroke (not yet crowned Henry +IV.) came to St. Paul's to offer prayer for the +dethronement of his ill-fated cousin, Richard, he +paused at the north side of the altar to shed tears +over the grave of his father, John of Gaunt, +interred early that very year in the Cathedral. +Not long after the shrunken body of the dead +king, on its way to the Abbey, was exposed in +St. Paul's, to prove to the populace that Richard +was not still alive. Hardynge, in his chronicles +(quoted by Milman), says that the usurping king +and his nobles spread—some seven, some nine—cloths +of gold on the bier of the murdered king.</p> + +<p>Bishop Braybroke, in the reign of Edward IV., +was strenuous in denouncing ecclesiastical abuses. +Edward III. himself had denounced the resort of +mechanics to the refectory, the personal vices of +the priests, and the pilfering of sacred vessels. He +restored the communion-table, and insisted on daily +alms-giving. But Braybroke also condemned worse +abuses. He issued a prohibition at Paul's Cross +against barbers shaving on Sundays; he forbade +the buying and selling in the Cathedral, the +flinging stones and shooting arrows at the pigeons +and jackdaws nestling in the walls of the church, +and the playing at ball, both within and without +the church, a practice which led to the breaking of +many beautiful and costly painted windows.</p> + +<p>But here we stop awhile in our history of St. +Paul's, on the eve of the sanguinary wars of +the Roses, to describe mediæval St. Paul's, its +structure, and internal government. Foremost +among the relics were two arms of St. Mellitus +(miraculously enough, of quite different sizes). +Behind the high altar—what Dean Milman justly +calls "the pride, glory, and fountain of wealth" to +St. Paul's—was the body of St. Erkenwald, covered +with a shrine which three London goldsmiths had +spent a whole year in chiselling; and this shrine was +covered with a grate of tinned iron. The very dust +of the chapel floor, mingled with water, was said to +work instantaneous cures. On the anniversary of St. +Erkenwald the whole clergy of the diocese attended +in procession in their copes. When King John +of France was made captive at Poictiers, and paid +his orisons at St. Paul's, he presented four golden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> +basins to the high altar, and twenty-two nobles +at the shrine of St. Erkenwald. Milman calculates +that in 1344 the oblation-box alone at St. Paul's +produced an annual sum to the dean and chapter +of £9,000. Among other relics that were milch +cows to the monks were a knife of our Lord, +some hair of Mary Magdalen, blood of St. Paul, +milk of the Virgin, the hand of St. John, pieces +of the mischievous skull of Thomas à Becket, +and the head and jaw of King Ethelbert. These +were all preserved in jewelled cases. One hundred +and eleven anniversary masses were celebrated. +The chantry chapels in the Cathedral +were very numerous, and they were served by an +army of idle and often dissolute mass priests. +There was one chantry in Pardon Churchyard, on +the north side of St. Paul's, east of the bishop's +chapel, where St. Thomas Becket's ancestors were +buried. The grandest was one near the nave, +built by Bishop Kemp, to pray for himself and +his royal master, Edward IV. Another was +founded by Henry IV. for the souls of his father, +John of Gaunt, and his mother, Blanche of Castile. +A third was built by Lord Mayor Pulteney, who +was buried in St. Lawrence Pulteney, so called +from him. The revenues of these chantries were +vast.</p> + +<p>But to return to our historical sequence. During +the ruthless Wars of the Roses St. Paul's became +the scene of many curious ceremonials, on which +Shakespeare himself has touched, in his early historical +plays. It was on a platform at the cathedral +door that Roger Bolingbroke, the spurious necromancer +who was supposed to have aided the ambitious +designs of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, +was exhibited. The Duchess's penance for +the same offence, according to Milman's opinion, +commenced or closed near the cathedral, in that +shameful journey when she was led through the +streets wrapped in a sheet, and carrying a lighted +taper in her hand. The duke, her husband, was +eventually buried at St. Paul's, where his tomb +became the haunt of needy men about town, +whence the well-known proverb of "dining with +Duke Humphrey."</p> + +<p>Henry VI.'s first peaceful visit to St. Paul's is +quaintly sketched by that dull old poet, Lydgate, +who describes "the bishops <i>in pontificalibus</i>, the +Dean of Paules and canons, every one who conveyed +the king"</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Up into the church, with full devout singing;<br /> +And when he had made his offering,<br /> +The mayor, the citizens, bowed and left him."</div> + +<p>While all the dark troubles still were pending, +we find the Duke of York taking a solemn oath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> +on the host of fealty to King Henry. Six years +later, after the battle of St. Albans, the Yorkists and +Lancastrians met again at the altar of St. Paul's in +feigned unity. The poor weak monarch was crowned, +and had sceptre in hand, and his proud brilliant +queen followed him in smiling converse with the +Duke of York. Again the city poet broke into +rejoicing at the final peace:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"At Paul's in London, with great renown,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On Lady Day in Lent, this peace was wrought;</span><br /> +The King, the Queen, with lords many an one,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To worship the Virgin as they ought,</span><br /> +Went in procession, and spared right nought<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In sight of all the commonalty;</span><br /> +In token this love was in heart and thought,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rejoice England in concord and unity."</span></div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="faith" id="faith"></a> +<img src="images/p240.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CHURCH OF ST. FAITH, THE CRYPT OF OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR</span> +</div> + +<p>Alas for such reconciliations! Four years later +more blood had been shed, more battle-fields +strewn with dead. The king was a captive, +had disinherited his own son, and granted the +succession to the Duke of York, whose right a +Parliament had acknowledged. His proud queen +was in the North rallying the scattered Lancastrians. +York and Warwick, Henry's deadly enemies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> +knelt before the primate, and swore allegiance to +the king; and the duke's two sons, March and +Rutland, took the same oath.</p> + +<p>Within a few months Wakefield was fought; +Richard was slain, and the duke's head, adorned +with a mocking paper crown, was sent, by the she-wolf +of a queen, to adorn the walls of York.</p> + +<p>The next year, however, fortune forsook Henry +for ever, and St. Paul's welcomed Edward IV. and +the redoubtable "king-maker," who had won the +crown for him at the battle of Mortimer's Cross; +and no Lancastrian dared show his face on that +triumphant day. Ten years later Warwick, veering +to the downfallen king, was slain at Barnet, and +the body of the old warrior, and that of his brother, +were exposed, barefaced, for three days in St. Paul's, +to the delight of all true Yorkists. Those were +terrible times, and the generosity of the old chivalry +seemed now despised and forgotten. The next month +there was even a sadder sight, for the body of King +Henry himself was displayed in the Cathedral. +Broken-hearted, said the Yorkists, but the Lancastrian +belief (favoured by Shakespeare) was that +Richard Duke of Gloucester, the wicked Crook<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span>back, stabbed him with his own hand in the Tower, +and it was said that blood poured from the body +when it lay in the Cathedral. Again St. Paul's was +profaned at the death of Edward IV., when Richard +came to pay his ostentatious orisons in the Cathedral, +while he was already planning the removal +of the princes to the Tower. Always anxious to +please the London citizens, it was to St. Paul's +Cross that Richard sent Dr. Shaw to accuse +Clarence of illegitimacy. At St. Paul's, too, according +to Shakespeare, who in his historic plays +often follows traditions now forgotten, or chronicles +that have perished, the charges against Hastings +were publicly read. Jane Shore, the mistress, and +supposed accomplice of Hastings in bewitching +Richard, did penance in St. Paul's. She was the +wife of a London goldsmith, and had been mistress +of Edward IV. Her beauty, as she walked downcast +with shame, is said to have moved every heart +to pity. On his accession, King Richard, nervously +fingering his dagger, as was his wont to do according +to the chronicles, rode to St. Paul's, and was +received by procession, amid great congratulation +and acclamation from the fickle people. Kemp, +who was the Yorkist bishop during all these +dreadful times, rebuilt St. Paul's Cross, which then +became one of the chief ornaments of London.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="fall" id="fall"></a> +<img src="images/p241.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. PAUL'S AFTER THE FALL OF THE SPIRE, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR</span> +</div> + +<p>Richard's crown was presently beaten into a +hawthorn bush on Bosworth Field, and his defaced,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span> +mangled, and ill-shaped body thrown, like carrion, +across a pack-horse and driven off to Leicester, and +Henry VII., the astute, the wily, the thrifty, reigned +in his stead. After Henry's victory over Simnel he +came two successive days to St. Paul's to offer his +thanksgiving, and Simnel (afterwards a scullion in +the royal kitchen) rode humbly at his conqueror's +side.</p> + +<p>The last ceremonial of the reign of Henry VII. +that took place at St. Paul's was the ill-fated +marriage of Prince Arthur (a mere boy, who died +six months after) with Katherine of Arragon. The +whole church was hung with tapestry, and there +was a huge scaffold, with seats round it, reaching +from the west door to the choir. On this platform +the ceremony was performed. All day, at several +places in the city, and at the west door of the +Cathedral, the conduits ran for the delighted people +with red and white wine. The wedded children +were lodged in the bishop's palace, and three days +later returned by water to Westminster. When +Henry VII. died, his body lay in state in St. Paul's, +and from thence it was taken to Windsor, to remain +there till the beautiful chapel he had endowed at +Westminster was ready for his reception. The +Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's were among the +trustees for the endowment he left, and the Cathedral +still possesses the royal testament.</p> + +<p>A Venetian ambassador who was present has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> +left a graphic description of one of the earliest +ceremonies (1514) which Henry VIII. witnessed +at St. Paul's. The Pope (Leo X.) had sent the +young and chivalrous king a sword and cap of +maintenance, as a special mark of honour. The +cap was of purple satin, covered with embroidery +and pearls, and decked with ermine. The king +rode from the bishop's palace to the cathedral +on a beautiful black palfrey, the nobility walking +before him in pairs. At the high altar the king +donned the cap, and was girt with the sword. +The procession then made the entire circuit of the +church. The king wore a gown of purple satin +and gold in chequer, and a jewelled collar; his +cap of purple velvet had two jewelled rosettes, +and his doublet was of gold brocade. The nobles +wore massive chains of gold, and their chequered +silk gowns were lined with sables, lynx-fur, and +swansdown.</p> + +<p>In the same reign Richard Fitz James, the +fanatical Bishop of London, persecuted the Lollards, +and burned two of the most obstinate at +Smithfield. It is indeed, doubtful, even now, if +Fitz James, in his hatred of the reformers, stopped +short of murder. In 1514, Richard Hunn, a citizen +who had disputed the jurisdiction of the obnoxious +Ecclesiastical Court, was thrown into the Lollard's +Tower (the bishop's prison, at the south-west corner +of the Cathedral). A Wycliffe Bible had been +found in his house; he was adjudged a heretic, +and one night this obstinate man was found hung +in his cell. The clergy called it suicide, but the +coroner brought in a verdict of wilful murder +against the Bishop's Chancellor, the sumner, and +the bell-ringer of the Cathedral. The king, however, +pardoned them all on their paying £1,500 to +Hunn's family. The bishop, still furious, burned +Hunn's body sixteen days after, as that of a +heretic, in Smithfield. This fanatical bishop was +the ceaseless persecutor of Dean Colet, that excellent +and enlightened man, who founded St. +Paul's School, and was the untiring friend of +Erasmus, whom he accompanied on his memorable +visit to Becket's shrine at Canterbury.</p> + +<p>In 1518 Wolsey, proud and portly, appears +upon the scene, coming to St. Paul's to sing mass +and celebrate eternal peace between France, England, +and Spain, and the betrothal of the beautiful +Princess Mary to the Dauphin of France. The +large chapel and the choir were hung with gold +brocade, blazoned with the king's arms. Near +the altar was the king's pew, formed of cloth of +gold, and in front of it a small altar covered with +silver-gilt images, with a gold cross in the centre. +Two low masses were said at this before the king,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span> +while high mass was being sung to the rest. On +the opposite side of the altar, on a raised and +canopied chair, sat Wolsey; further off stood the +legate Campeggio. The twelve bishops and six +abbots present all wore their jewelled mitres, while +the king himself shone out in a tunic of purple +velvet, "powdered" with pearls and rubies, sapphires +and diamonds. His collar was studded +with carbuncles as large as walnuts. A year later +Charles V. was proclaimed emperor by the heralds +at St. Paul's. Wolsey gave the benediction, no +doubt with full hope of the Pope's tiara.</p> + +<p>In 1521, but a little later, Wolsey, "Cardinal of +St. Cecilia and Archbishop of York," was welcomed +by Dean Pace to St. Paul's. He had come to +sit near Paul's Cross, to hear Fisher, Bishop of +Rochester, by the Pope's command, denounce +"Martinus Eleutherius" and his accursed works, +many of which were burned in the churchyard +during the sermon, no doubt to the infinite alarm +of all heretical booksellers in the neighbouring +street. Wolsey had always an eye to the emperor's +helping him to the papacy; and when Charles V. +came to England to visit Henry, in 1522, Wolsey +said mass, censed by more than twenty obsequious +prelates. It was Wolsey who first, as papal legate, +removed the convocation entirely from St. Paul's +to Westminster, to be near his house at Whitehall. +His ribald enemy, Skelton, then hiding from the +cardinal's wrath in the Sanctuary at Westminster, +wrote the following rough distich on the arbitrary +removal:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Gentle Paul, lay down thy sword,<br /> +For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard."</div> + +<p>On the startling news of the battle of Pavia, +when Francis I. was taken prisoner by his great +rival of Spain, a huge bonfire illumined the west front +of St. Paul's, and hogsheads of claret were broached +at the Cathedral door, to celebrate the welcome +tidings. On the Sunday after, the bluff king, the +queen, and both houses of Parliament, attended a +solemn "Te Deum" at the cathedral; while on +St. Matthew's Day there was a great procession of +all the religious orders in London, and Wolsey, +with his obsequious bishops, performed service at +the high altar. Two years later Wolsey came +again, to lament or rejoice over the sack of Rome +by the Constable Bourbon, and the captivity of +the Pope.</p> + +<p>Singularly enough, the fire lighted by Wolsey in +St. Paul's Churchyard had failed to totally burn up +Luther and all his works; and on Shrove Tuesday, +1527, Wolsey made another attempt to reduce the +new-formed Bible to ashes. In the great procession +that came on this day to St. Paul's there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> +were six Lutherans in penitential dresses, carrying +terribly symbolical fagots and huge lighted tapers. +On a platform in the nave sat the portly and proud +cardinal, supported by thirty-six zealous bishops, +abbots, and priests. At the foot of the great rood +over the northern door the heretical tracts and +Testaments were thrown into a fire. The prisoners, +on their knees, begged pardon of God and the +Catholic Church, and were then led three times +round the fire, which they fed with the fagots they +had carried.</p> + +<p>Four years later, after Wolsey's fall, the London +clergy were summoned to St. Paul's Chapter-house +(near the south side). The king, offended at the +Church having yielded to Wolsey's claims as a +papal legate, by which the penalty of præmunire +had been incurred, had demanded from it the +alarming fine of £100,000. Immediately six +hundred clergy of all ranks thronged riotously to +the chapter-house, to resist this outrageous tax. +The bishop was all for concession; their goods +and lands were forfeit, their bodies liable to imprisonment. +The humble clergy cried out, "We +have never meddled in the cardinal's business. +Let the bishops and abbots, who have offended, +pay." Blows were struck, and eventually fifteen +priests and four laymen were condemned to terms +of imprisonment in the Fleet and Tower, for their +resistance to despotic power.</p> + +<p>In 1535 nineteen German Anabaptists were +examined in St. Paul's, and fourteen of them sent +to the stake. Then came plain signs that the +Reformation had commenced. The Pope's authority +had been denied at Paul's Cross in 1534. +A miraculous rood from Kent was brought to St. +Paul's, and the machinery that moved the eyes +and lips was shown to the populace, after which +it was thrown down and broken amid contemptuous +laughter. Nor would this chapter be complete if +we did not mention a great civic procession at the +close of the reign of Henry VIII. On Whit +Sunday, 1546, the children of Paul's School, with +parsons and vicars of every London church, in +their copes, went from St. Paul's to St. Peter's, +Cornhill, Bishop Bonner bearing the sacrament +under a canopy; and at the Cross, before the +mayor, aldermen, and all the crafts, heralds proclaimed +perpetual peace between England, France, +and the Emperor. Two months after, the ex-bishop +of Rochester preached a sermon at Paul's +Cross recanting his heresy, four of his late fellow-prisoners +in Newgate having obstinately perished +at the stake.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Edward VI. St. Paul's witnessed +far different scenes. The year of the accession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span> +the child-king, funeral service was read to the +memory of Francis I., Latin dirges were chanted, +and eight mitred bishops sang a requiem to the +monarch lately deceased. At the coronation, +while the guilds were marshalled along Cheapside, +and tapestries hung from every window, an +acrobat descended by a cable from St. Paul's +steeple to the anchor of a ship near the Deanery +door. In November of the next year, at night, the +crucifixes and images in St. Paul's were pulled +down and removed, to the horror of the faithful, +and all obits and chantreys were confiscated, and +the vestments and altar cloths were sold. The +early reformers were backed by greedy partisans. +The Protector Somerset, who was desirous of +building rapidly a sumptuous palace in the Strand, +pulled down the chapel and charnel-house in the +Pardon churchyard, and carted off the stones of +St. Paul's cloister. When the good Ridley was +installed Bishop of London, he would not enter +the choir until the lights on the altar were extinguished. +Very soon a table was substituted for +the altar, and there was an attempt made to remove +the organ. The altar, and chapel, and +tombs (all but John of Gaunt's) were then ruthlessly +destroyed.</p> + +<p>During the Lady Jane Grey rebellion, Ridley +denounced Mary and Elizabeth as bastards. The +accession of gloomy Queen Mary soon turned the +tables. As the Queen passed to her coronation, a +daring Dutchman stood on the cross of St. Paul's +waving a long streamer, and shifting from foot to +foot as he shook two torches which he held over +his head.</p> + +<p>But the citizens were Protestants at heart. At the +first sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross, Dr. Bourne, +a rash Essex clergyman, prayed for the dead, praised +Bonner, and denounced Ridley. The mob, inflamed +to madness, shouted, "He preaches damnation! +Pull him down! pull him down!" A +dagger, thrown at the preacher, stuck quivering in +a side-post of the pulpit. With difficulty two good +men dragged the rash zealot safely into St. Paul's +School. For this riot several persons were sent to +the Tower, and a priest and a barber had their +ears nailed to the pillory at St. Paul's Cross. The +crosses were raised again in St. Paul's, and the old +ceremonies and superstitions revived. On St. +Katherine's Day (in honour of the queen's mother's +patron saint) there was a procession with lights, +and the image of St. Katherine, round St. Paul's +steeple, and the bells rang. Yet not long after this, +when a Dr. Pendleton preached old doctrines at +St. Paul's Cross, a gun was fired at him. When +Bonner was released from the Marshalsea and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> +restored to his see, the people shouted, "Welcome +home;" and a woman ran forward and kissed +him. We are told that he knelt in prayer on the +Cathedral steps.</p> + +<p>In 1554, at the reception in St. Paul's of Cardinal +Pole, King Philip attended with English, +Spanish, and German guards, and a great retinue +of nobles. Bishop Gardiner preached on the widening +heresy till the audience groaned and wept. Of +the cruel persecutions of the Protestants in this +reign St. Paul's was now and then a witness, and +likewise of the preparations for the execution of +Protestants, which Bonner's party called "trials." +Thus we find Master Cardmaker, vicar of St. +Bride's, and Warne, an upholsterer in Walbrook, +both arraigned at St. Paul's before the bishop for +heresy, and carried back from there to Newgate, +to be shortly after burned alive in Smithfield.</p> + +<p>In the midst of these horrors, a strange ceremony +took place at St. Paul's, more worthy, indeed, +of the supposititious temple of Diana than of +a Christian cathedral, did it not remind us that +Popery was always strangely intermingled with fragments +of old paganism. In June, 1557 (St. Paul's +Day, says Machyn, an undertaker and chronicler +of Mary's reign), a fat buck was presented to the +dean and chapter, according to an annual grant +made by Sir Walter le Baud, an Essex knight, in the +reign of Edward I. A priest from each London +parish attended in his cope, and the Bishop of +London wore his mitre, while behind the burly, +bullying, persecutor Bonner came a fat buck, his +head with his horns borne upon a pole; forty +huntsmen's horns blowing a rejoicing chorus.</p> + +<p>The last event of this blood-stained reign was +the celebration at St. Paul's of the victory over +the French at the battle of St. Quintin by Philip +and the Spaniards. A sermon was preached to +the city at Paul's Cross, bells were rung, and bonfires +blazed in every street.</p> + +<p>At Elizabeth's accession its new mistress soon +purged St. Paul's of all its images: copes and +shaven crowns disappeared. The first ceremony of +the new reign was the performance of the obsequies +of Henry II. of France. The empty hearse was +hung with cloth of gold, the choir draped in black, +the clergy appearing in plain black gowns and caps. +And now, what the Catholics called a great judgment +fell on the old Cathedral. During a great storm in +1561, St. Martin's Church, Ludgate, was struck by +lightning; immediately after, the wooden steeple of +St. Paul's started into a flame. The fire burned +downwards furiously for four hours, the bells melted, +the lead poured in torrents; the roof fell in, and +the whole Cathedral became for a time a ruin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> +Soon after, at the Cross, Dean Nowell rebuked the +Papists for crying out "a judgment." In papal +times the church had also suffered. In Richard I.'s +reign an earthquake shook down the spire, and in +Stephen's time fire had also brought destruction. +The Crown and City were roused by this misfortune. +Thrifty Elizabeth gave 1,000 marks in gold, and +1,000 marks' worth of timber; the City gave +a great benevolence, and the clergy subscribed +£1,410. In one month a false roof was erected, +and by the end of the year the aisles were leaded +in. On the 1st of November, the same year, the +mayor, aldermen, and crafts, with eighty torch-bearers, +went to attend service at St. Paul's. The +steeple, however, was never re-erected, in spite of +Queen Elizabeth's angry remonstrances.</p> + +<p>In the first year of Philip and Mary, the Common +Council of London passed an act which shows the +degradation into which St. Paul's had sunk even +before the fire. It forbade the carrying of beer-casks, +or baskets of bread, fish, flesh, or fruit, or +leading mules or horses through the Cathedral, +under pain of fines and imprisonment. Elizabeth +also issued a proclamation to a similar effect, forbidding +a fray, drawing of swords in the church, +or shooting with hand-gun or dagg within the +church or churchyard, under pain of two months' +imprisonment. Neither were agreements to be +made for the payment of money within the church. +Soon after the fire, a man that had provoked a fray +in the church was set in the pillory in the churchyard, +and had his ears nailed to a post, and then +cut off. These proclamations, however, led to no reform. +Cheats, gulls, assassins, and thieves thronged +the middle aisle of St. Paul's; advertisements of all +kinds covered the walls, the worst class of servants +came there to be hired; worthless rascals and disreputable +flaunting women met there by appointment. +Parasites, hunting for a dinner, hung about +a monument of the Beauchamps, foolishly believed +to be the tomb of the good Duke Humphrey. +Shakespeare makes Falstaff hire red-nosed Bardolph +in St. Paul's, and Ben Jonson lays the third act +of his <i>Every Man in his Humour</i> in the middle +aisle. Bishop Earle, in his "Microcosmography," +describes the noise of the crowd of idlers in Paul's +"as that of bees, a strange hum mixed of walking +tongues and feet, a kind of still roar or loud +whisper." He describes the crowd of young curates, +copper captains, thieves, and dinnerless adventurers +and gossip-mongers. Bishop Corbet, that jolly +prelate, speaks of</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 10em;">"The walk,</span><br /> +Where all our British sinners swear and talk,<br /> +Old hardy ruffians, bankrupts, soothsayers,<br /> +And youths whose cousenage is old as theirs."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span></div> + +<p>On the eve of the election of Sandys as Bishop +of London, May, 1570, all London was roused by +a papal bull against Elizabeth being found nailed +on the gates of the bishop's palace. It declared +her crown forfeited and her people absolved from +their oaths of allegiance. The fanatic maniac, +Felton, was soon discovered, and hung on a gallows +at the bishop's gates.</p> + +<p>One or two anecdotes of interest specially connect +Elizabeth with St. Paul's. On one occasion +Dean Nowell placed in the queen's closet +(pew) a splendid prayer-book, full of German +scriptural engravings, richly illuminated. The +zealous queen was furious; the book seemed to +her of Catholic tendencies.</p> + +<p>"Who placed this book on my cushion? You +know I have an aversion to idolatry. The cuts +resemble angels and saints—nay, even grosser +absurdities."</p> + +<p>The frightened dean pleaded innocence of all +evil intentions. The queen prayed God to grant +him more wisdom for the future, and asked him +where they came from. When told Germany, she +replied, "It is well it was a stranger. Had it +been one of my subjects, we should have questioned +the matter."</p> + +<p>Once again Dean Nowell vexed the queen—this +time from being too Puritan. On Ash Wednesday, +1572, the dean preaching before her, he +denounced certain popish superstitions in a book +recently dedicated to her majesty. He specially +denounced the use of the sign of the cross. Suddenly +a harsh voice was heard in the royal closet. +It was Elizabeth's. She chidingly bade Mr. Dean +return from his ungodly digression and revert to +his text. The next day the frightened dean +wrote a most abject apology to the high-spirited +queen.</p> + +<p>The victory over the Armada was, of course, +not forgotten at St. Paul's. When the thanksgiving +sermon was preached at Paul's Cross, eleven +Spanish ensigns waved over the cathedral battlements, +and one idolatrous streamer with an image +of the Virgin fluttered over the preacher. That +was in September; the Queen herself came in +November, drawn by four white horses, and with +the privy council and all the nobility. Elizabeth +heard a sermon, and dined at the bishop's palace.</p> + +<p>The "children of Paul's," whom Shakespeare, in +<i>Hamlet</i>, mentions with the jealousy of a rival +manager, were, as Dean Milman has proved, the +chorister-boys of St. Paul's. They acted, it is supposed, +in their singing-school. The play began at +four p.m., after prayers, and the price of admission +was 4d. They are known at a later period to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> +have acted some of Lily's Euphuistic plays, and +one of Middleton's.</p> + +<p>In this reign lotteries for Government purposes +were held at the west door of St. Paul's, where a +wooden shed was erected for drawing the prizes, +which were first plate and then suits of armour. +In the first lottery (1569) there were 40,000 lots +at 10s. a lot, and the profits were applied to repairing +the harbours of England.</p> + +<p>In the reign of James I. blood was again shed +before St. Paul's. Years before a bishop had been +murdered at the north door; now, before the west +entrance (in January, 1605-6), four of the desperate +Gunpowder Plot conspirators (Sir Everard +Digby, Winter, Grant, and Bates) were there hung, +drawn, and quartered. Their attempt to restore +the old religion by one blow ended in the hangman's +strangling rope and the executioner's cruel +knife. In the May following a man of less-proven +guilt (Garnet, the Jesuit) suffered the same fate in +St. Paul's Churchyard; and zealots of his faith +affirmed that on straws saved from the scaffold +miraculous portraits of their martyr were discovered.</p> + +<p>The ruinous state of the great cathedral, still +without a tower, now aroused the theological king. +He first tried to saddle the bishop and chapter, +but Lord Southampton, Shakespeare's friend, interposed +to save them. Then the matter went to +sleep for twelve years. In 1620 the king again +awoke, and came in state with all his lords on +horseback, to hear a sermon at the Cross and to +view the church. A royal commission followed, +Inigo Jones, the king's <i>protégé</i>, whom James had +brought from Denmark, being one of the commissioners. +The sum required was estimated at +£22,536. The king's zeal ended here; and his +favourite, Buckingham, borrowed the stone collected +for St. Paul's for his Strand palace, and from +parts of it was raised that fine watergate still existing +in the Thames Embankment gardens.</p> + +<p>When Charles I. made that narrow-minded +churchman, Laud, Bishop of London, one of Laud's +first endeavours was to restore St. Paul's. Charles I. +was a man of taste, and patronised painting and +architecture. Inigo Jones was already building +the Banqueting House at Whitehall. The king +was so pleased with Inigo's design for the new +portico of St. Paul's, that he proposed to pay for +that himself. Laud gave £1,200. The fines of +the obnoxious and illegal High Commission Court +were set apart for the same object. The small +sheds and houses round the west front were ruthlessly +cleared away. All shops in Cheapside and +Lombard Street, except goldsmiths, were to be +shut up, that the eastern approach to St. Paul's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> +might appear more splendid. The church of +St. Gregory, at the south-west wing of the cathedral, +was removed and rebuilt. Inigo Jones cut away +all the decayed stone and crumbling Gothic work of +the Cathedral, and on the west portico expended +all the knowledge he had acquired in his visit to +Rome. The result was a pagan composite, beautiful +but incongruous. The front, 161 feet long and +162 feet high, was supported by fourteen Corinthian +columns. On the parapet above the pillars Inigo +proposed that there should stand ten statues of +princely benefactors of St. Paul's. At each angle +of the west front there was a tower. The portico +was intended for a Paul's Walk, to drain off the +profanation from within.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="chapter" id="chapter"></a> +<img src="images/p246.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CHAPTER HOUSE OF OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR</span> +</div> + +<p>Nor were the London citizens backward. One +most large-hearted man, Sir Paul Pindar, a Turkey +merchant who had been ambassador at Constantinople, +and whose house is still to be seen in Bishopsgate +Street, contributed £10,000 towards the screen +and south transept. The statues of James and +Charles were set up over the portico, and the +steeple was begun, when the storm arose that soon +whistled off the king's unlucky head. The coming +troubles cast shadows around St. Paul's. In March,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> +1639, a paper was found in the yard of the deanery, +before Laud's house, inscribed—"Laud, look to +thyself. Be assured that thy life is sought, as thou +art the fountain of all wickedness;" and in October, +1640, the High Commission sitting at St. Paul's, +nearly 2,000 Puritans made a tumult, tore down +the benches in the consistory, and shouted, "We +will have no bishops and no High Commission."</p> + +<p>The Parliament made short work with St. Paul's, +of Laud's projects, and Inigo Jones's classicalisms. +They at once seized the £17,000 or so left of the +subscription. To Colonel Jephson's regiment, in +arrears for pay, £1,746, they gave the scaffolding +round St. Paul's tower, and in pulling it to pieces +down came part of St. Paul's south transept. The +copes in St. Paul's were burnt (to extract the gold), +and the money sent to the persecuted Protestant +poor in Ireland. The silver vessels were sold to buy +artillery for Cromwell. There was a story current +that Cromwell intended to sell St. Paul's to the Jews +for a synagogue. The east end of the church was +walled in for a Puritan lecturer; the graves were +desecrated; the choir became a cavalry barracks; +the portico was let out to sempsters and hucksters, +who lodged in rooms above; James and Charles +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span>were toppled from the portico; while the pulpit and +cross were entirely destroyed. The dragoons in +St. Paul's became so troublesome to the inhabitants +by their noisy brawling games and their rough +interruption of passengers, that in 1651 we find +them forbidden to play at ninepins from six a.m. +to nine p.m.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bourne" id="bourne"></a> +<img src="images/p247.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DR. BOURNE PREACHING AT PAUL'S CROSS</span> +</div> + +<p>When the Restoration came, sunshine again fell +upon the ruins. Wren, that great genius, was called +in. His report was not very favourable. The +pillars were giving way; the whole work had been +from the beginning ill designed and ill built; the +tower was leaning. He proposed to have a rotunda, +with cupola and lantern, to give the church light, +"and incomparable more grace" than the lean shaft +of a steeple could possibly afford. He closed his +report by a eulogy on the portico of Inigo Jones, as +"an absolute piece in itself." Some of the stone +collected for St. Paul's went, it is said, to build +Lord Clarendon's house (site of Albemarle Street). +On August 27, 1661, good Mr. Evelyn, one of +the commissioners, describes going with Wren, the +Bishop and Dean of St. Paul's, &c., and resolving +finally on a new foundation. On Sunday, September +2, the Great Fire drew a red cancelling line +over Wren's half-drawn plans. The old cathedral +passed away, like Elijah, in flames. The fire broke +out about ten o'clock on Saturday night at a bakehouse +in Pudding Lane, near East Smithfield. Sunday +afternoon Pepys found all the goods carried +that morning to Cannon Street now removing to +Lombard Street. At St. Paul's Wharf he takes +water, follows the king's party, and lands at Bankside. +"In corners and upon steeples, and between +churches and houses, as far as we could see up the +city, a most horrid, bloody, malicious flame, not +like the flame of an ordinary fire." On the 7th, +he saw St. Paul's Church with all the roof off, and +the body of the quire fallen into St. Faith's.</p> + +<p>On Monday, the 3rd, Mr. Evelyn describes the +whole north of the City on fire, the sky light for +ten miles round, and the scaffolds round St. Paul's +catching. On the 4th he saw the stones of St. +Paul's flying like grenades, the melting lead running +in streams down the streets, the very pavements +too hot for the feet, and the approaches too +blocked for any help to be applied. A Westminster +boy named Taswell (quoted by Dean Milman +from "Camden's Miscellany," vol. ii., p. 12) has also +sketched the scene. On Monday, the 3rd, from +Westminster he saw, about eight o'clock, the fire +burst forth, and before nine he could read by the +blaze a 16mo "Terence" which he had with him. +The boy at once set out for St. Paul's, resting by +the way upon Fleet Bridge, being almost faint with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span> +the intense heat of the air. The bells were melting, +and vast avalanches of stones were pouring from +the walls. Near the east end he found the body +of an old woman, who had cowered there, burned +to a coal. Taswell also relates that the ashes of +the books kept in St. Faith's were blown as far +as Eton.</p> + +<p>On the 7th (Friday) Evelyn again visited St. +Paul's. The portico he found rent in pieces, the +vast stones split asunder, and nothing remaining +entire but the inscription on the architrave, not +one letter of which was injured. Six acres of lead +on the roof were all melted. The roof of St. +Faith's had fallen in, and all the magazines and +books from Paternoster Row were consumed, +burning for a week together. Singularly enough, +the lead over the altar at the east end was +untouched, and among the monuments the body +of one bishop (Braybroke—Richard II.) remained +entire. The old tombs nearly all perished; amongst +them those of two Saxon kings, John of Gaunt, his +wife Constance of Castile, poor St. Erkenwald, and +scores of bishops, good and bad; Sir Nicholas +Bacon, Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, and father of the +great philosopher; the last of the true knights, the +gallant Sir Philip Sidney; and Walsingham, that +astute counsellor of Elizabeth. Then there was Sir +Christopher Hatton, the dancing chancellor, whose +proud monument crowded back Walsingham and +Sidney's. According to the old scoffing distich,</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Philip and Francis they have no tomb,<br /> +For great Christopher takes all the room."</div> + +<p>Men of letters in old St. Paul's (says Dean Milman) +there were few. The chief were Lily, the grammarian, +second master of St. Paul's; and Linacre, +the physician, the friend of Colet and Erasmus. +Of artists there was at least one great man—Vandyck, +who was buried near John of Gaunt. +Among citizens, the chief was Sir William Hewet, +whose daughter married Osborne, an apprentice, +who saved her from drowning, and who was the +ancestor of the Dukes of Leeds.</p> + +<p>After the fire, Bishop Sancroft preached in a +patched-up part of the west end of the ruins. All +hopes of restoration were soon abandoned, as Wren +had, with his instinctive genius, at once predicted. +Sancroft at once wrote to the great architect, +"What you last whispered in my ear is now come +to pass. A pillar has fallen, and the rest +threatens to follow." The letter concludes thus: +"You are so absolutely necessary to us, that we +can do nothing, resolve on nothing, without you." +There was plenty of zeal in London still; but, +nevertheless, after all, nothing was done to the rebuilding +till the year 1673.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Rebuilding of St. Paul's—Ill Treatment of its Architect—Cost of the Present Fabric—Royal Visitors—The First Grave in St. Paul's—Monuments +in St. Paul's—Nelson's Funeral—Military Heroes in St. Paul's—The Duke of Wellington's Funeral—Other Great Men in +St. Paul's—Proposals for the Completion and Decoration of the Building—Dimensions of St. Paul's—Plan of Construction—The Dome, +Ball, and Cross—Mr. Homer and his Observatory—Two Narrow Escapes—Sir James Thornhill—Peregrine Falcons on St. Paul's—Nooks +and Corners of the Cathedral—The Library, Model Room, and Clock—The Great Bell—A Lucky Error—Curious Story of a Monomaniac—The +Poets and the Cathedral—The Festivals of the Charity Schools and of the Sons of the Clergy.</p></div> + + +<p>Towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, +Charles II., generous as usual in promises, offered +an annual contribution of £1,000; but this, +however, never seems to have been paid. It, no +doubt, went to pay Nell Gwynne's losses at the +gambling-table, or to feed the Duchess of Portsmouth's +lap-dogs. Some £1,700 in fines, however, +were set apart for the new building. The Primate +Sheldon gave £2,000. Many of the bishops contributed +largely, and there were parochial collections +all over England. But the bulk of the money +was obtained from the City duty on coals, which (as +Dean Milman remarks) in time had their revenge +in destroying the stone-work of the Cathedral. It +was only by a fortunate accident that Wren became +the builder; for Charles II., whose tastes and vices +were all French, had in vain invited over Perrault, +the designer of one of the fronts of the Louvre.</p> + +<p>The great architect, Wren, was the son of a +Dean of Windsor, and nephew of a Bishop of +Norwich whom Cromwell had imprisoned for his +Romish tendencies. From a boy Wren had shown +a genius for scientific discovery. He distinguished +himself in almost every branch of knowledge, and +to his fruitful brain we are indebted for some fifty-two +suggestive discoveries. He now hoped to +rebuild London on a magnificent scale; but it was +not to be. Even in the plans for the new +cathedral Wren was from the beginning thwarted +and impeded. Ignorance, envy, jealousy, and +selfishness met him at every line he drew. He +made two designs—the first a Greek, the second +a Latin cross. The Greek cross the clergy considered +as unsuitable for a cathedral. The model +for it was long preserved in the Trophy Room of +St. Paul's, where, either from neglect or the zeal of +relic-hunters, the western portico was lost. It is +now at South Kensington, and is still imperfect. +The interior of the first design is by many considered +superior to the present interior. The +present recesses along the aisles of the nave, +tradition says, were insisted on by James II., who +thought they would be useful as side chapels when +masses were once more introduced.</p> + +<p>The first stone was laid by Wren on the 21st<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> +June, 1675, but there was no public ceremonial. +Soon after the great geometrician had drawn the +circle for the beautiful dome, he sent a workman +for a stone to mark the exact centre. The man returned +with a fragment of a tombstone, on which +was the one ominous word (as every one observed) +"Resurgam!" The ruins of old St. Paul's were +stubborn. In trying to blow up the tower, a +passer-by was killed, and Wren, with his usual +ingenuity, resorted successfully to the old Roman +battering-ram, which soon cleared a way. "I build +for eternity," said Wren, with the true confidence +of genius, as he searched for a firm foundation. +Below the Norman, Saxon, and Roman graves he +dug and probed till he could find the most reliable +stratum. Below the loam was sand; under the sand +a layer of fresh-water shells; under these were sand, +gravel, and London clay. At the north-east corner +of the dome Wren was vexed by coming upon a pit +dug by the Roman potters in search of clay. He, +however, began from the solid earth a strong pier +of masonry, and above turned a short arch to the +former foundation. He also slanted the new +building more to the north-east than its predecessor, +in order to widen the street south of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>Well begun is half done. The Cathedral grew +fast, and in two-and-twenty years from the laying +of the first stone the choir was opened for Divine +service. The master mason who helped to lay the +first stone assisted in fixing the last in the lantern. +A great day was chosen for the opening of St. +Paul's. December 2nd, 1697, was the thanksgiving +day for the Peace of Ryswick—the treaty which +humbled France, and seated William firmly and +permanently on the English throne. The king, +much against his will, was persuaded to stay at +home by his courtiers, who dreaded armed Jacobites +among the 300,000 people who would throng the +streets. Worthy Bishop Compton, who, dressed as +a trooper, had guarded the Princess Anne in her +flight from her father, preached that inspiring day +on the text, "I was glad when they said unto me, +Let us go into the house of the Lord." From +then till now the daily voice of prayer and praise +has never ceased in St. Paul's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span></p> + +<p>Queen Anne, during her eventful reign, went +seven times to St. Paul's in solemn procession, to +commemorate victories over France or Spain. The +first of these (1702) was a jubilee for Marlborough's +triumph in the Low Countries, and Rooke's destruction +of the Spanish fleet at Vigo. The Queen +sat on a raised and canopied throne; the Duke +of Marlborough, as Groom of the Stole, on a +stool behind her. The Lords and Commons, who +had arrived in procession, were arranged in the +choir. The brave old Whig Bishop of Exeter, Sir +Jonathan Trelawney ("and shall Trelawney die?"), +preached the sermon. Guns at the Tower, on the +river, and in St. James's Park, fired off the Te +Deum, and when the Queen started and returned. +In 1704, the victory of Blenheim was celebrated; +in 1705, the forcing of the French lines at Tirlemont; +in 1706, the battle of Ramillies and Lord +Peterborough's successes in Spain; in 1707, more +triumphs; in 1708, the battle of Oudenarde; and +last of all, in 1713, the Peace of Utrecht, when the +Queen was unable to attend. On this last day +the charity children of London (4,000 in number) +first attended outside the church.</p> + +<p>St. Paul's was already, to all intents and purposes, +completed. The dome was ringed with its +golden gallery, and crowned with its glittering cross. +In 1710, Wren's son and the body of Freemasons +had laid the highest stone of the lantern of the +cupola, and now commenced the bitterest mortifications +of Wren's life. The commissioners had +dwindled down to Dean Godolphin and six or +seven civilians from Doctors' Commons. Wren's +old friends were dead. His foes compelled him +to pile the organ on the screen, though he had intended +it to be under the north-east arch of the +choir, where it now is. Wren wished to use +mosaic for internal decoration; they pronounced +it too costly, and they took the painting of the +cupola out of Wren's hands and gave it to +Hogarth's father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill. They +complained of wilful delay in the work, and +accused Wren or his assistant of corruption; they +also withheld part of his salary till the work was +completed. Wren covered the cupola with lead, +at a cost of £2,500; the committee were for +copper, at £3,050. About the iron railing for the +churchyard there was also wrangling. Wren wished +a low fence, to leave the vestibule and the steps +free and open. The commissioners thought Wren's +design mean and weak, and chose the present heavy +and cumbrous iron-work, which breaks up the view +of the west front.</p> + +<p>The new organ, by Father Bernard Smith, which +cost £2,000, was shorn of its full size by Wren,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> +perhaps in vexation at its misplacement. The +paltry statue of Queen Anne, in the churchyard, +was by Bird, and cost £1,130, exclusive of the +marble, which the Queen provided. The carvings in +the choir, by Grinling Gibbons, cost £1,337 7s. 5d. +On some of the exterior sculpture Cibber worked.</p> + +<p>In 1718 a violent pamphlet appeared, written, +it was supposed, by one of the commissioners. It +accused Wren's head workmen of pilfering timber +and cracking the bells. Wren proved the charges +to be malicious and untrue. The commissioners +now insisted on adding a stone balustrade all +round St. Paul's, in spite of Wren's protests. He +condemned the addition as "contrary to the principles +of architecture, and as breaking into the +harmony of the whole design;" but, he said, +"ladies think nothing well without an edging."</p> + +<p>The next year, the commissioners went a step +further. Wren, then eighty-six years old, and in +the forty-ninth year of office, was dismissed without +apology from his post of Surveyor of Public +Works. The German Court, hostile to all who +had served the Stuarts, appointed in his place a +poor pretender, named Benson. This charlatan—now +only remembered by a line in the "Dunciad," +which ridicules the singular vanity of a man who +erected a monument to Milton, in Westminster +Abbey, and crowded the marble with his own titles—was +afterwards dismissed from his surveyorship +with ignominy, but had yet influence enough at +Court to escape prosecution and obtain several +valuable sinecures. Wren retired to his house at +Hampton Court, and there sought consolation in +philosophical and religious studies. Once a year, +says Horace Walpole, the good old man was +carried to St. Paul's, to contemplate the glorious +<i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of his genius. Steele, in the <i>Tatler</i>, +refers to Wren's vexations, and attributes them to +his modesty and bashfulness.</p> + +<p>The total sum expended on the building of St. +Paul's Cathedral, according to Dean Milman, was +£736,752 2s. 3¼d.; a small residue from the coal +duty was all that was left for future repairs. To +this Dean Clark added about £500, part of the +profits arising from an Essex estate (the gift of +an old Saxon king), leased from the Dean and +Chapter. The charge of the fabric was vested not +in the Dean and Chapter, but in the Archbishop of +Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Lord +Mayor for the time being. These trustees elect the +surveyor and audit the accounts.</p> + +<p>On the accession of George I. (1715), the new +king, princes, and princesses went in state to St. +Paul's. Seventy years elapsed before an English +king again entered Wren's cathedral. In April,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> +1789, George III. came to thank God for his temporary +recovery from insanity. Queen Charlotte, +the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York were +present, and both Houses of Parliament. Bishop +Porteous preached the sermon, and 6,000 charity +children joined in the service. In 1797, King +George came again to attend a thanksgiving for +Lord Duncan's and Lord Howe's naval victories; +French, Spanish, and Dutch flags waved above +the procession, and Sir Horatio Nelson was there +among other heroes.</p> + +<p>The first grave sunk in St. Paul's was fittingly +that of Wren, its builder. He lies in the place of +honour, the extreme east of the crypt. The black +marble slab is railed in, and the light from a small +window-grating falls upon the venerated name. +Sir Christopher died in 1723, aged ninety-one. +The fine inscription, "Si monumentum requiris, +circumspice," written probably by his son, or Mylne, +the builder of Blackfriars Bridge, was formerly in +front of the organ-gallery, but is now placed over +the north-western entrance.</p> + +<p>The clergy of St. Paul's were for a long time +jealous of allowing any monument in the cathedral. +Dean Newton wished for a tomb, but it was afterwards +erected in St. Mary-le-Bow. A better man +than the vain, place-hunting dean was the first +honoured. The earliest statue admitted was that of +the benevolent Howard, who had mitigated suffering +and sorrow in all the prisons of Europe; he stands +at the corner of the dome facing that half-stripped +athlete, Dr. Johnson, and the two are generally +taken by country visitors for St. Peter and St. Paul. +He who with Goldsmith had wandered through the +Abbey, wondering if one day their names might +not be recorded there, found a grave in Westminster, +and, thanks to Reynolds, the first place of +honour. Sir Joshua himself, as one of our greatest +painters, took the third place, that Hogarth should +have occupied; and the fourth was awarded to that +great Oriental scholar, Sir William Jones. The +clerical opposition was now broken through, for the +world felt that the Abbey was full enough, and that +St. Paul's required adorning.</p> + +<p>Henceforward St. Paul's was chiefly set apart for +naval and military heroes whom the city could +best appreciate, while the poets, great writers, and +statesmen were honoured in the Abbey, and laid +among the old historic dead. From the beginning +our sculptors resorted to pagan emblems and +pagan allegorical figures; the result is that St. +Paul's resembles a Pantheon of the Lower Empire, +and is a hospital of third-rate art. The first naval +conqueror so honoured was Rodney; Rossi received +£6,000 for his cold and clumsy design;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span> +Lord Howe's statue followed; and next that +of Lord Duncan, the hero of Camperdown. It is +a simple statue by Westmacott, with a seaman and +his wife and child on the pedestal. For Earl St. +Vincent, Bailey produced a colossal statue and the +usual scribbling, History and a trumpeting Victory.</p> + +<p>Then came Nelson's brothers in arms—men of +lesser mark; but the nation was grateful, and the +Government was anxious to justify its wars by its +victories. St. Paul's was growing less particular, and +now opened its arms to the best men it could get. +Many of Nelson's captains preceded him on the +red road to death—Westcott, who fell at Aboukir; +Mosse and Riou, who fell before Copenhagen (a +far from stainless victory). Riou was the brave man +whom Campbell immortalised in his fiery "Battle +of the Baltic." Riou lies</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Full many a fathom deep,<br /> +By thy wild and stormy steep,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Elsinore."</span></div> + +<p>Then at last, in 1806, came a hero worthy, indeed, +of such a cathedral—Nelson himself. At what a +moment had Nelson expired! At the close of a +victory that had annihilated the fleets of France +and Spain, and secured to Britain the empire of +the seas. The whole nation that day shed tears of +"pride and of sorrow." The Prince of Wales and +all his brothers led the procession of nearly 8,000 +soldiers, and the chief mourner was Admiral +Parker (the Mutiny of the Nore Parker). Nelson's +coffin was formed out of a mast of the <i>L'Orient</i>—a +vessel blown up at the battle of the Nile, and +presented to Nelson by his friend, the captain +of the <i>Swiftsure</i>. The sarcophagus, singularly +enough, had been designed by Michael Angelo's +contemporary, Torreguiano, for Wolsey, in the +days of his most insatiable pride, and had remained +ever since in Wolsey's chapel at Windsor; +Nelson's flag was to have been placed over the +coffin, but as it was about to be lowered, the +sailors who had borne it, as if by an irresistible +impulse, stepped forward and tore it in pieces, +for relics. Dean Milman, who, as a youth, was +present, says, "I heard, or fancied I heard, the +low wail of the sailors who encircled the remains of +their admiral." Nelson's trusty companion, Lord +Collingwood, who led the vanguard at Trafalgar, +sleeps near his old captain, and Lord Northesk, +who led the rear-guard, is buried opposite. A brass +plate on the pavement under the dome marks +the spot of Nelson's tomb. The monument to +Nelson, inconveniently placed at the opening of +the choir, is by one of our greatest sculptors—Flaxman. +It is hardly worthy of the occasion, +and the figures on the pedestal are puerile. Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> +Lyons is the last admiral whose monument has +been erected in St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>The military heroes have been contributed by +various wars, just and unjust, successful and the +reverse. There is that tough old veteran, Lord +Heathfield, who drove off two angry nations from the +scorched rock of Gibraltar; Sir Isaac Brock, who fell +near Niagara; Sir Ralph Abercromby, who perished +in Egypt; and Sir John Moore, who played so +well a losing game at Corunna. Cohorts of Wellington's +soldiers too lie in St. Paul's—brave men, who +sacrificed their lives at Talavera, Vimiera, Ciudad +Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, and Bayonne. Nor +has our proud and just nation disdained to honour +even equally gallant men who were defeated. There +are monuments in St. Paul's to the vanquished at +Bergen-op-Zoom, New Orleans, and Baltimore.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="rebuilding" id="rebuilding"></a> +<img src="images/p252.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE REBUILDING OF ST. PAUL'S. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF J.G. CRACE, ESQ.</span> +</div> + +<p>That climax of victory, Waterloo, brought Ponsonby +and Picton to St. Paul's. Picton lies in the +vestibule of the Wellington chapel. Thirty-seven +years after Waterloo, in the fulness of his years, +Wellington was deservedly honoured by a tomb in +St. Paul's. It was impossible to lay him beside +Nelson, so the eastern chapel of the crypt was +appropriated for his sarcophagus. From 12,000 to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> +15,000 persons were present. The impressive +funeral procession, with the representatives of the +various regiments, and the solemn bursts of the +"Dead March of Saul" at measured intervals, can +never be forgotten by those who were present. +The pall was borne by the general officers who had +fought by the side of Wellington, and the cathedral +was illuminated for the occasion. The service was +read by Dean Milman, who had been, as we have +before mentioned, a spectator of Nelson's funeral. +So perfectly adapted for sound is St. Paul's, that +though the walls were muffled with black cloth, the +Dean's voice could be heard distinctly, even up in +the western gallery. The sarcophagus which holds +Wellington's ashes is of massive and imperishable +Cornish porphyry, grand from its perfect simplicity, +and worthy of the man who, without gasconade or +theatrical display, trod stedfastly the path of duty.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="choir" id="choir"></a> +<img src="images/p253.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CHOIR OF ST. PAUL'S BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF THE SCREEN, <i>from an engraving published in 1754.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>After Nelson and Wellington, the lesser names +seem to dwindle down. Yet among the great, +pure, and good, we may mention, there are some +Crimean memorials. There also is the monument +of Cornwallis, that good Governor-General of India; +those of the two Napiers, the historian and the +conqueror of Scinde, true knights both; that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> +of Elphinstone, who twice refused the dignity of +Governor-General of India; and that of the saviour +of our Indian empire, Sir Henry Lawrence. Nor +should we forget the monuments of two Indian +bishops—the scholarly Middleton, and the excellent +and lovable Heber. There is an unsatisfactory +statue of Turner, by Bailey; and monuments to +Dr. Babington, a London physician, and Sir Astley +Cooper, the great surgeon. The ambitious monument +to Viscount Melbourne, the Queen's first +prime minister, by Baron Marochetti, stands in one +of the alcoves of the nave; great gates of black +marble represent the entrance to a tomb, guarded +by two angels of white marble at the portals. More +worthy than the gay Melbourne of the honour of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> +monument in such a place, is the historian Hallam, +a calm, sometimes cold, but always impartial writer.</p> + +<p>In the crypt near Wren lie many of our most +celebrated English artists. Sir Joshua Reynolds +died in 1792. His pall was borne by peers, and +upwards of a hundred carriages followed his hearse. +Near him lies his successor as president, West, the +Quaker painter; courtly Lawrence; Barry, whom +Reynolds detested; rough, clever Opie; Dance; +and eccentric Fuseli. In this goodly company, also, +sleeps a greater than all of these—Joseph Mallord +William Turner, the first landscape painter of the +world. He had requested, when dying, to be buried +as near to his old master, Reynolds, as possible. It +is said that Turner, soured with the world, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> +threatened to make his shroud out of his grand +picture of "The Building of Carthage." In this +consecrated spot also rests Robert Mylne, the +builder of Blackfriars Bridge, and Mr. Charles +Robert Cockerell, the eminent architect.</p> + +<p>Only one robbery has occurred in modern times +in St. Paul's. In December, 1810, the plate repository +of the cathedral was broken open by thieves, +with the connivance of, as is supposed, some official, +and 1,761 ounces of plate, valued at above £2,000, +were stolen. The thieves broke open nine doors +to get at the treasure, which was never afterwards +heard of. The spoil included the chased silver-gilt +covers of the large (1640) Bible, chalices, plates, +tankards, and candlesticks.</p> + +<p>The cathedral, left colourless and blank by +Wren, has never yet been finished. The Protestant +choir remains in one corner, like a dry, shrivelled +nut in a large shell. Like the proud snail in the +fable, that took possession of the lobster-shell and +starved there, we remained for more than a century +complacently content with our unfurnished house. +At length our tardy zeal awoke. In 1858 the +Bishop of London wrote to the Dean and Chapter, +urging a series of Sunday evening services, for the +benefit of the floating masses of Londoners. Dean +Milman replied, at once warming to the proposal, +and suggested the decoration and completion of +St. Paul's. The earnest appeal for "the noblest +church, in its style, of Christian Europe, the masterpiece +of Wren, the glory and pride of London," +was at once responded to. A committee of the +leading merchants and bankers was formed, including +those great authorities, Sir Charles Barry, +Mr. Cockerell, Mr. Tite, and Mr. Penrose. They +at once resolved to gladden the eye with colour, +without disturbing the solemn and harmonious +simplicity. Paintings, mosaics, marble and gilding +were requisite; the dome was to be relieved of +Thornhill's lifeless <i>grisailles</i>; and above all, stained-glass +windows were pronounced indispensable.</p> + +<p>The dome had originally been filled by Thornhill +with eight scenes from the life of St. Paul. He +received for them the not very munificent but quite +adequate sum of 40s. per square yard. They soon +began to show symptoms of decay, and Mr. Parris, +the painter, invented an apparatus by which they +could easily be repaired, but no funds could then be +found; yet when the paintings fell off in flakes, much +money and labour was expended on the restoration, +which has now proved useless. Mr. Penrose has +shown that so ignorant was Sir James of perspective, +that his painted architecture has actually +the effect of making Wren's thirty-two pilasters +seem to lean forward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span></p> + +<p>Much has already been done in St. Paul's. Two +out of the eight large spandrel pictures round the +dome are already executed. There are eventually +to be four evangelists and four major prophets. +Above the gilt rails of the whispering gallery +an inscription on a mosaic and gold ground has +been placed. A marble memorial pulpit has been +put up. The screen has been removed, and the +organ, greatly enlarged and improved, has been +divided into two parts, which have been placed on +either side of the choir, above the stalls; the dome +is lighted with gas; the golden gallery, ball, and +cross have been re-gilt. The great baldachino is still +wanting, but nine stained-glass windows have been +erected, and among the donors have been the +Drapers' and Goldsmiths' Companies; there are also +memorial windows to the late Bishop Blomfield and +W. Cotton, Esq. The Grocers', Merchant Taylors', +Goldsmiths', Mercers', and Fishmongers' Companies +have generously gilt the vaults of the choir +and the arches adjoining the dome. Some fifty +or more windows still require stained glass. The +wall panels are to be in various places adorned with +inlaid marbles. It is not intended that St. Paul's +should try to rival St. Peter's at Rome in exuberance +of ornament, but it still requires a good deal +of clothing. The great army of sable martyrs in +marble have been at last washed white, and the +fire-engines might now advantageously be used +upon the exterior.</p> + +<p>A few figures about the dimensions of St. Paul's +will not be uninteresting. The cathedral is 2,292 +feet in circumference, and the height from the nave +pavement to the top of the cross is 365 feet. The +height of St. Peter's at Rome being 432 feet, St. +Paul's could stand inside St. Peter's. The western +towers are 220 feet high. From east to west, +St. Paul's is 500 feet long, while St. Peter's is 669 +feet. The cupola is considered by many as more +graceful than that of St. Peter's, "though in its +connection with the church by an order higher +than that below it there is a violation of the laws +of the art." The external appearance of St. Paul's +rivals, if not excels, that of St. Peter's, but the +inside is much inferior. The double portico of +St. Paul's has been greatly censured. The commissioners +insisted on twelve columns, as emblematical +of the twelve apostles, and Wren could not obtain +stones of sufficient size; but (as Mr. Gwilt observes) +it would have been better to have had +joined pillars rather than a Composite heaped on a +Corinthian portico. In the tympanum is the Conversion +of St. Paul, sculptured in high relief by +Bird; on the apex is a colossal figure of St. Paul, +and on the right and left are St. Peter and St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> +James. Over the southern portico is sculptured +the Phœnix; over the north are the royal arms +and regalia, while on each side stand on guard five +statues of the apostles. The ascent to the whispering +gallery is by 260 steps, to the outer and highest +golden gallery 560 steps, and to the ball 616 steps. +The outer golden gallery is at the summit of the +dome. The inner golden gallery is at the base of +the lantern. Through this the ascent is by ladders +to the small dome, immediately below the inverted +consoles which support the ball and cross. Ascending +through the cross iron-work in the centre, you +look into the dark ball, which is said to weigh +5,600 pounds; thence to the cross, which weighs +3,360 pounds, and is 30 feet high. In 1821-2 Mr. +Cockerell removed for a time the ball and cross.</p> + +<p>From the haunches of the dome, says Mr. Gwilt, +200 feet above the pavement of the church, +another cone of brickwork commences, 85 feet +high and 94 feet diameter at the bottom. This +cone is pierced with apertures, as well for the +purpose of diminishing its weight as for distributing +the light between it and the outer dome. At the +top it is gathered into a dome in the form of a +hyperboloid, pierced near the vertex with an aperture +12 feet in diameter. The top of this cone is +285 feet from the pavement, and carries a lantern +55 feet high, terminating in a dome whereon a ball +and (Aveline) cross is raised. The last-named +cone is provided with corbels, sufficient in number +to receive the hammer-beams of the external dome, +which is of oak, and its base 220 feet from the +pavement, its summit being level with the top of +the cone. In form it is nearly hemispherical, and +generated by radii 57 feet in length, whose centres +are in a horizontal diameter passing through its +base. The cone and the interior dome are restrained +in their lateral thrust on the supports by +four tiers of strong iron chains (weighing 95 cwt. +3 qrs. 23 lbs.), placed in grooves prepared for their +reception, and run with lead. The lowest of these +is inserted in masonry round their common base, +and the other three at different heights on the +exterior of the cone. Over the intersection of the +nave and transepts for the external work, and for +a height of 25 feet above the roof of the church, +a cylindrical wall rises, whose diameter is 146 feet. +Between it and the lower conical wall is a space, +but at intervals they are connected by cross-walls. +This cylinder is quite plain, but perforated by two +courses of rectangular apertures. On it stands a +peristyle of thirty columns of the Corinthian order, +40 feet high, including bases and capitals, with a +plain entablature crowned by a balustrade. In this +peristyle every fourth intercolumniation is filled up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> +solid, with a niche, and connection is provided +between it and the wall of the lower cone. Vertically +over the base of that cone, above the peristyle, +rises another cylindrical wall, appearing above +the balustrade. It is ornamented with pilasters, +between which are two tiers of rectangular windows. +From this wall the external dome springs. The +lantern receives no support from it. It is merely +ornamental, differing entirely, in that respect, from +the dome of St. Peter's.</p> + +<p>In 1822 Mr. Horner passed the summer in the +lantern, sketching the metropolis; he afterwards +erected an observatory several feet higher than +the cross, and made sketches for a panorama on a +surface of 1,680 feet of drawing paper. From these +sheets was painted a panorama of London and +the environs, first exhibited at the Colosseum, in +Regent's Park, in 1829. The view from St. Paul's +extends for twenty miles round. On the south +the horizon is bounded by Leith Hill. In high +winds the scaffold used to creak and whistle like a +ship labouring in a storm, and once the observatory +was torn from its lashings and turned partly over on +the edge of the platform. The sight and sounds +of awaking London are said to have much impressed +the artist.</p> + +<p>On entering the cathedral, says Mr. Horner, at +three in the morning, the stillness which then prevailed +in the streets of this populous city, contrasted +with their midday bustle, was only surpassed +by the more solemn and sepulchral stillness of the +cathedral itself. But not less impressive was the +development at that early hour of the immense +scene from its lofty summit, whence was frequently +beheld "the forest of London," without any indication +of animated existence. It was interesting to +mark the gradual symptoms of returning life, until +the rising sun vivified the whole into activity, +bustle, and business. On one occasion the night +was passed in the observatory, for the purpose of +meeting the first glimpse of day; but the cold was +so intense as to preclude any wish to repeat the +experiment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Horner, in his narrative, mentions a narrow +escape of Mr. Gwyn, while engaged in measuring +the top of the dome for a sectional drawing he +was making of the cathedral. While absorbed in +his work Mr. Gwyn slipped down the globular +surface of the dome till his foot stopped on a +projecting lump of lead. In this awful situation, +like a man hanging to the moon, he remained till +one of his assistants providentially saw and rescued +him.</p> + +<p>The following was, if possible, an even narrower +escape:—When Sir James Thornhill was painting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> +the cupola of St. Paul's Cathedral, a gentleman of +his acquaintance was one day with him on the +scaffolding, which, though wide, was not railed; he +had just finished the head of one of the apostles, +and running back, as is usual with painters, to +observe the effect, had almost reached the extremity; +the gentleman, seeing his danger, and not +having time for words, snatched up a large brush +and smeared the face. Sir James ran hastily forward, +crying out, "Bless my soul, what have you +done?" "I have only saved your life!" responded +his friend.</p> + +<p>Sir James Thornhill was the son of a reduced +Dorsetshire gentleman. His uncle, the well-known +physician, Dr. Sydenham, helped to educate him. +He travelled to see the old masters, and on his +return Queen Anne appointed him to paint the +dome of St. Paul's. He was considered to have +executed the work, in the eight panels, "in a noble +manner." "He afterwards," says Pilkington, "executed +several public works—painting, at Hampton +Court, the Queen and Prince George of Denmark, +allegorically; and in the chapel of All Souls, Oxford, +the portrait of the founder, over the altar the ceiling, +and figures between the windows. His masterpiece +is the refectory and saloon at Greenwich Hospital. +He was knighted by George II. He died May 4, +1734, leaving a son, John, who became serjeant +painter to the king, and a daughter, who married +Hogarth. He was a well-made and pleasant man, +and sat in Parliament for some years."</p> + +<p>The cathedral was artificially secured from +lightning, according to the suggestion of the Royal +Society, in 1769. The seven iron scrolls supporting +the ball and cross are connected with other +rods (used merely as conductors), which unite them +with several large bars descending obliquely to the +stone-work of the lantern, and connected by an +iron ring with four other iron bars to the lead +covering of the great cupola, a distance of forty-eight +feet; thence the communication is continued +by the rain-water pipes, which pass into the earth, +thus completing the entire communication from +the cross to the ground, partly through iron and +partly through lead. On the clock-tower a bar of +iron connects the pine-apple on the top with the +iron staircase, and thence with the lead on the +roof of the church. The bell-tower is similarly +protected. By these means the metal used in the +building is made available as conductors, the metal +employed merely for that purpose being exceedingly +small in quantity.</p> + +<p>In 1841 the exterior of the dome was repaired +by workmen resting upon a shifting iron frame. +In 1848 a scaffold and observatory, as shown on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> +page 258, were raised round the cross, and in three +months some four thousand observations were made +for a new trigonometrical survey of London.</p> + +<p>Harting, in his "Birds of Middlesex," mentions +the peregrine falcons of St. Paul's. "A pair of +these birds," he says, "for many years frequented +the top of St. Paul's, where it was supposed they +had a nest; and a gentleman with whom I am +acquainted has assured me that a friend of his +once saw a peregrine strike down a pigeon in +London, his attention having been first attracted +by seeing a crowd of persons gazing upwards at +the hawk as it sailed in circles over the houses." +A pair frequenting the buildings at Westminster +is referred to in "Annals of an Eventful Life," +by G.W. Dasent, D.C.L.</p> + +<p>A few nooks and corners of the cathedral have +still escaped us. The library in the gallery over +the southern aisle was formed by Bishop Compton, +and consists of some 7,000 volumes, including +some manuscripts from old St. Paul's. The room +contains some loosely hung flowers, exquisitely +carved in wood by Grinling Gibbons, and the +floor is composed of 2,300 pieces of oak, inlaid +without nails or pegs. At the end of the gallery +is a geometrical staircase of 110 steps, which was +constructed by Wren to furnish a private access +to the library. In crossing thence to the northern +gallery, there is a fine view of the entire vista of +the cathedral. The model-room used to contain +Wren's first design, and some tattered flags once +hung beneath the dome. Wren's noble model, +we regret to learn, is "a ruin, after one hundred +and forty years of neglect," the funds being +insufficient for its repair. A staircase from the +southern gallery leads to the south-western campanile +tower, in which is the clock-room. The +clock, which cost £300, was made by Langley +Bradley in 1708. The minute-hands are 9 feet +8 inches long, and weigh 75 pounds each. The +pendulum is 16 feet long, and the bob weighs 180 +pounds, and yet is suspended by a spring no thicker +than a shilling. The clock goes eight days, and +strikes the hours on the great bell, the clapper of +which weighs 180 pounds. Below the great bell +are two smaller bells, on which the clock strikes the +quarters. In the northern tower is the bell that +tolls for prayers. Mr. E.B. Denison pronounced +the St. Paul's bell, although the smallest, as by +far the best of the four large bells of England—York, +Lincoln, and Oxford being the other three.</p> + +<p>The great bell of St. Paul's (about five tons) has +a diameter of nine feet, and weighs 11,474 pounds. +It was cast from the metal of Great Tom (Ton), +a bell that once hung in a clock tower opposite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> +Westminster Hall. It was given away in 1698 +by William III., and bought for St. Paul's for +£385 17s. 6d. It was re-cast in 1716. The keynote +(tonic) or sound of this bell is A flat—perhaps +A natural—of the old pitch. It is never tolled +but at the death or funeral of any of the Royal +Family, the Bishop of London, the Dean, or the +Lord Mayor, should he die during his mayoralty.</p> + +<p>It was not this bell, but the Westminster Great +Tom, which the sentinel on duty during the reign +of William III. declared he heard strike thirteen +instead of twelve at midnight; and the truth of +the fact was deposed to by several persons, and +the life of the poor soldier, sentenced to death for +having fallen asleep upon his post, was thus saved. +The man's name was Hatfield. He died in 1770 +in Aldersgate, aged 102 years.</p> + +<p>Before the time of the present St. Paul's, and as +long ago as the reign of Henry VII., there is on +record a well-attested story of a young girl who, +going to confess, was importuned by the monk +then on his turn there for the purpose of confession +in the building; and quickly escaping from +him up the stairs of the great clock tower, raised +the clapper or hammer of the bell of the clock, just +as it had finished striking twelve, and, by means of +the roof, eluded her assailant and got away. On +accusing him, as soon as she reached her friends +and home, she called attention to the fact of the +clock having struck thirteen that time; and on +those in the immediate neighbourhood of the +cathedral being asked if so unusual a thing had +been heard, they said it was so. This proved the +story, and the monk was degraded.</p> + +<p>And here we must insert a curious story of a +monomaniac whose madness was associated with +St. Paul's. Dr. Pritchard, in an essay on "Somnambulism +and Animal Magnetism," in the "Cyclopædia +of Medicine," gives the following remarkable +case of ecstasis:—</p> + +<p>A gentleman about thirty-five years of age, of +active habits and good constitution, living in the +neighbourhood of London, had complained for +about five weeks of a slight headache. He was +feverish, inattentive to his occupation, and negligent +of his family. He had been cupped, and +taken some purgative medicine, when he was visited +by Dr. Arnould, of Camberwell. By that gentleman's +advice, he was sent to a private asylum, where +he remained about two years. His delusions very +gradually subsided, and he was afterwards restored +to his family. The account which he gave of himself +was, almost <i>verbatim</i> as follows:—One afternoon +in the month of May, feeling himself a +little unsettled, and not inclined to business, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> +thought he would take a walk into the City to +amuse his mind; and having strolled into St. +Paul's Churchyard, he stopped at the shop-window +of Carrington and Bowles, and looked at the +pictures, among which was one of the cathedral. +He had not been long there before a short, grave-looking, +elderly gentleman, dressed in dark brown +clothes, came up and began to examine the prints, +and, occasionally casting a glance at him, very +soon entered into conversation with him; and, +praising the view of St. Paul's which was exhibited +at the window, told him many anecdotes of Sir +Christopher Wren, the architect, and asked him at +the same time if he had ever ascended to the top +of the dome. He replied in the negative. The +stranger then inquired if he had dined, and proposed +that they should go to an eating-house in +the neighbourhood, and said that after dinner he +would accompany him up St. Paul's. "It was a +glorious afternoon for a view, and he was so +familiar with the place that he could point out +every object worthy of attention." The kindness +of the old gentleman's manner induced him to +comply with the invitation, and they went to a +tavern in some dark alley, the name of which he +did not know. They dined, and very soon left the +table and ascended to the ball, just below the +cross, which they entered alone. They had not +been there many minutes when, while he was +gazing on the extensive prospect, and delighted +with the splendid scene below him, the grave +gentleman pulled out from an inside coat-pocket +something resembling a compass, having round +the edges some curious figures. Then, having +muttered some unintelligible words, he placed it +in the centre of the ball. He felt a great trembling +and a sort of horror come over him, which was +increased by his companion asking him if he +should like to see any friend at a distance, and to +know what he was at that moment doing, for if so +the latter could show him any such person. It +happened that his father had been for a long +time in bad health, and for some weeks past he +had not visited him. A sudden thought came +into his mind, so powerful that it overcame his +terror, that he should like to see his father. He +had no sooner expressed the wish than the exact +person of his father was immediately presented +to his sight in the mirror, reclining in his arm-chair +and taking his afternoon sleep. Not having +fully believed in the power of the stranger to +make good his offer, he became overwhelmed +with terror at the clearness and truth of the vision +presented to him, and he entreated his mysterious +companion that they might immediately descend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span> +as he felt very ill. The request was complied +with, and on parting under the portico of the +northern entrance the stranger said to him, "Remember, +you are the slave of the Man of the +Mirror!" He returned in the evening to his +home, he does not know exactly at what hour; +felt himself unquiet, depressed, gloomy, apprehensive, +and haunted with thoughts of the stranger. +For the last three months he has been conscious +of the power of the latter over him. Dr. Arnould +adds:—"I inquired in what way his power was +exercised. He cast on me a look of suspicion, +mingled with confidence, took my arm, and after +leading me through two or three rooms, and then +into the garden, exclaimed, 'It is of no use;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> +there is no concealment from him, for all places +are alike open to him; he sees us and he hears +us now.' I asked him where this being was who +saw and heard us. He replied, in a voice of deep +agitation, 'Have I not told you that he lives in the +ball below the cross on the top of St. Paul's, and +that he only comes down to take a walk in the +churchyard and get his dinner at the house in the +dark alley? Since that fatal interview with the +necromancer,' he continued, 'for such I believe +him to be, he is continually dragging me before +him on his mirror, and he not only sees me every +moment of the day, but he reads all my thoughts, +and I have a dreadful consciousness that no action +of my life is free from his inspection, and no place +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span>can afford me security from his power.' On my +replying that the darkness of the night would +afford him protection from these machinations, he +said, 'I know what you mean, but you are quite +mistaken. I have only told you of the mirror; +but in some part of the building which we passed +in coming away, he showed me what he called a +great bell, and I heard sounds which came from +it, and which went to it—sounds of laughter, and +of anger, and of pain. There was a dreadful confusion +of sounds, and as I listened, with wonder +and affright, he said, 'This is my organ of hearing; +this great bell is in communication with all other +bells within the circle of hieroglyphics, by which +every word spoken by those under my command is +made audible to me.' Seeing me look surprised +at him, he said, 'I have not yet told you all, for he +practises his spells by hieroglyphics on walls and +houses, and wields his power, like a detestable +tyrant, as he is, over the minds of those whom he +has enchanted, and who are the objects of his constant +spite, within the circle of the hieroglyphics.' +I asked him what these hieroglyphics were, and +how he perceived them. He replied, 'Signs and +symbols which you, in your ignorance of their true +meaning, have taken for letters and words, and +read, as you have thought, "Day and Martin's and +Warren's blacking."' 'Oh! that is all nonsense!' +'They are only the mysterious characters which he +traces to mark the boundary of his dominion, and +by which he prevents all escape from his tremendous +power. How have I toiled and laboured to get +beyond the limit of his influence! Once I walked +for three days and three nights, till I fell down +under a wall, exhausted by fatigue, and dropped +asleep; but on awakening I saw the dreadful signs +before mine eyes, and I felt myself as completely +under his infernal spells at the end as at the beginning +of my journey.'"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="scaffolding" id="scaffolding"></a> +<img src="images/p258.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE SCAFFOLDING AND OBSERVATORY ON ST. PAUL'S IN 1848<br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="saint" id="saint"></a> +<img src="images/p259.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. PAUL'S AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN 1540<br /> +<i>From a Copy, in the possession of F.G. Crace, Esq., of the earliest known view of London, taken by Van der Wyngarde for Philip II. of Spain.</i> +</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is probable that this gentleman had actually +ascended to the top of St. Paul's, and that impressions +there received, being afterwards renewed in +his mind when in a state of vivid excitement, in a +dream of ecstatic reverie, became so blended with +the creations of fancy as to form one mysterious +vision, in which the true and the imaginary were +afterwards inseparable. Such, at least, is the best +explanation of the phenomena which occurs to us.</p> + +<p>In 1855 the fees for seeing St. Paul's completely +were 4s. 4d. each person. In 1847 the mere twopences +paid to see the forty monuments produced +the four vergers the sum of £430 3s. 8d. These +exorbitant fees originated in the "stairs-foot money" +started by Jennings, the carpenter, in 1707, as a fund +for the injured during the building of the cathedral.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span></p> + +<p>The staff of the cathedral consists of the dean, +the precentor, the chancellor, the treasurer, the five +archdeacons of London, Middlesex, Essex, Colchester, +and St. Albans, thirty major canons or +prebendaries (four of whom are resident), twelve +minor canons, and six vicars-choral, besides the +choristers. One of the vicars-choral officiates as +organist, and three of the minor canons hold the +appointments of sub-dean, librarian, and succentor, +or under-precentor.</p> + +<p>Three of the most celebrated men connected +with St. Paul's in the last century have been Milman, +Sydney Smith, and Barham (the author of +"Ingoldsby Legends"). Smith and Barham both +died in 1845.</p> + +<p>Of Sydney Smith's connection with St. Paul's +we have many interesting records. One of the +first things Lord Grey said on entering Downing +Street, to a relation who was with him, was, "Now +I shall be able to do something for Sydney Smith," +and shortly after he was appointed by the Premier +to a prebendal stall at St. Paul's, in exchange for +the one he held at Bristol.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cockerell, the architect, and superintendent +of St. Paul's Cathedral, in a letter printed in Lady +Holland's "Memoir," describes the <i>gesta</i> of the +canon residentiary; how his early communications +with himself (Mr. C.) and all the officers of the +chapter were extremely unpleasant; but when the +canon had investigated the matter, and there had +been "a little collision," nothing could be more +candid and kind than his subsequent treatment. +He examined the prices of all the materials used +in the repairs of the cathedral—as Portland stone, +putty, and white lead; every item was taxed, payments +were examined, and nothing new could be +undertaken without his survey and personal superintendence. +He surveyed the pinnacles and +heights of the sacred edifice; and once, when it +was feared he might stick fast in a narrow opening +of the western towers, he declared that "if there +were six inches of space there would be room +enough for him." The insurance of the magnificent +cathedral, Mr. Cockerell tells us, engaged +his early attention; St. Paul's was speedily and +effectually insured in some of the most substantial +offices in London. Not satisfied with this security, +he advised the introduction of the mains of the +New River into the lower parts of the fabric, and +cisterns and movable engines in the roof; and +quite justifiable was his joke, that "he would reproduce +the Deluge in our cathedral."</p> + +<p>He had also the library heated by a stove, so as +to be more comfortable to the studious; and the +bindings of the books were repaired. Lastly, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> +Smith materially assisted the progress of a suit in +Chancery, by the successful result of which a considerable +addition was made to the fabric fund.</p> + +<p>It is very gratifying to read these circumstantial +records of the practical qualities of Mr. Sydney +Smith, as applied to the preservation of our magnificent +metropolitan cathedral.</p> + +<p>Before we leave Mr. Smith we may record an +odd story of Lady B. calling the vergers "virgins." +She asked Mr. Smith, one day, if it was true that he +walked down St. Paul's with three virgins holding +silver pokers before him. He shook his head and +looked very grave, and bade her come and see. +"Some enemy of the Church," he said, "some +Dissenter, had clearly been misleading her."</p> + +<p>Let us recapitulate a few of the English poets +who have made special allusions to St. Paul's in +their writings. Denham says of the restoration of +St. Paul's, began by Charles I.:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"First salutes the place,</span><br /> +Crowned with that sacred pile, so vast, so high,<br /> +That whether 'tis a part of earth or sky<br /> +Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud<br /> +Aspiring mountain or descending cloud.<br /> +Paul's, the late theme of such a muse, whose flight<br /> +Has bravely reached and soared above thy height,<br /> +Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire,<br /> +Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire;<br /> +Secure, while thee the best of poets sings,<br /> +Preserved from ruin by the best of kings."</div> + +<p>Byron, in the Tenth Canto of "Don Juan," treats +St. Paul's contemptuously—sneering, as was his +affectation, at everything, human or divine:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dirty and dusky, but as wide as eye</span><br /> +Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In sight, then lost amidst the forestry</span><br /> +Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy;</span><br /> +A huge, dim cupola, like a foolscap crown<br /> +On a fool's head—and there is London Town!"</div> + +<p>Among other English poets who have sung of +St. Paul's, we must not forget Tom Hood, with his +delightfully absurd ode, written on the cross, and +full of most wise folly:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"The man that pays his pence and goes<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Up to thy lofty cross, St. Paul's,</span><br /> +Looks over London's naked nose,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Women and men;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The world is all beneath his ken;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He sits above the ball,</span><br /> +He seems on Mount Olympus' top,<br /> +Among the gods, by Jupiter! and lets drop<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His eyes from the empyreal clouds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On mortal crowds.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Seen from these skies,<br /> +How small those emmets in our eyes!<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some carry little sticks, and one</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His eggs, to warm them in the sun;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dear, what a hustle</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And bustle!</span><br /> +And there's my aunt! I know her by her waist,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So long and thin,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And so pinch'd in,</span><br /> +Just in the pismire taste.<br /> +<br /> +"Oh, what are men! Beings so small<br /> +That, should I fall,<br /> +Upon their little heads, I must<br /> +Crush them by hundreds into dust.<br /> +<br /> +"And what is life and all its ages!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There's seven stages!</span><br /> +Turnham Green! Chelsea! Putney! Fulham!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brentford and Kew!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And Tooting, too!</span><br /> +And, oh, what very little nags to pull 'em!<br /> +Yet each would seem a horse indeed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If here at Paul's tip-top we'd got 'em!</span><br /> +Although, like Cinderella's breed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They're mice at bottom.</span><br /> +Then let me not despise a horse,<br /> +Though he looks small from Paul's high cross;<br /> +Since he would be, as near the sky,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fourteen hands high.</span><br /> +<br /> +"What is this world with London in its lap?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Mogg's map.</span><br /> +The Thames that ebbs and flows in its broad channel?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A <i>tidy</i> kennel!</span><br /> +The bridges stretching from its banks?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stone planks.</span><br /> +Oh, me! Hence could I read an admonition<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To mad Ambition!</span><br /> +But that he would not listen to my call,<br /> +Though I should stand upon the cross, and <i>ball</i>!"<br /> +</div> + +<p>We can hardly close our account of St. Paul's +without referring to that most beautiful and touching +of all London sights, the anniversary of the +charity schools on the first Thursday in June. +About 8,000 children are generally present, ranged +in a vast amphitheatre under the dome. Blake, +the true but unrecognised predecessor of Wordsworth, +has written an exquisite little poem on the +scene, and well it deserves it. Such nosegays of +little rosy faces can be seen on no other day. +Very grand and overwhelming are the beadles of St. +Mary Axe and St. Margaret Moses on this tremendous +morning, and no young ensign ever bore his +colours prouder than do these good-natured dignitaries +their maces, staves, and ponderous badges. +In endless ranks pour in the children, clothed +in all sorts of quaint dresses. Boys in the knee-breeches +of Hogarth's school-days, bearing glittering +pewter badges on their coats; girls in blue +and orange, with quaint little mob-caps white as +snow, and long white gloves covering all their little +arms. See, at a given signal of an extraordinary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span> +fugleman, how they all rise; at another signal how +they hustle down. Then at last, when the "Old +Hundredth" begins, all the little voices unite as +the blending of many waters. Such fresh, happy +voices, singing with such innocent, heedful tenderness +as would bring tears to the eyes of even stony-hearted +old Malthus, bring to the most irreligious +thoughts of Him who bade little children come to +Him, and would not have them repulsed.</p> + +<p>Blake's poem begins—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,<br /> +Came children walking two and two, in red and blue and green;<br /> +Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,<br /> +Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames' waters flow.<br /> +<br /> +"Oh, what a multitude they seemed, those flowers of London town;<br /> +Seated in companies they were, with radiance all their own;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span>The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,<br /> +Thousands of little boys and girls, raising their innocent hands.<br /> +<br /> +"Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,<br /> +Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among;<br /> +Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;<br /> +Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door."<br /> +</div> + +<p>The anniversary Festival of the Sons of the Clergy, +in the middle of May, when the choirs of Westminster +and the Chapel Royal sing selections from +Handel and other great masters, is also a day not +easily to be forgotten, for St. Paul's is excellent for +sound, and the fine music rises like incense to the +dome, and lingers there as "loth to die," arousing +thoughts that, as Wordsworth beautifully says, are in +themselves proofs of our immortality. It is on such +occasions we feel how great a genius reared St. +Paul's, and cry out with the poet—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"He thought not of a perishable home<br /> +Who thus could build."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<p class="center">ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>St. Paul's Churchyard and Literature—Queen Anne's Statue—Execution of a Jesuit in St. Paul's Churchyard—Miracle of the "Face in the +Straw"—Wilkinson's Story—Newbery the Bookseller—Paul's Chain—"Cocker"—Chapter House of St. Paul's—St. Paul's Coffee House—Child's +Coffee House and the Clergy—Garrick's Club at the "Queen's Arms," and the Company there—"Sir Benjamin" Figgins—Johnson +the Bookseller—Hunter and his Guests—Fuseli—Bonnycastle—Kinnaird—Musical Associations of the Churchyard—Jeremiah Clark and +his Works—Handel at Meares' Shop—Young the Violin Maker—The "Castle" Concerts—An Old Advertisement—Wren at the "Goose +and Gridiron"—St. Paul's School—Famous Paulines—Pepys visiting his Old School—Milton at St. Paul's.</p></div> + + +<p>The shape of St. Paul's Churchyard has been +compared to that of a bow and a string. The +south side is the bow, the north the string. The +booksellers overflowing from Fleet Street mustered +strong here, till the Fire scared them off to Little +Britain, from whence they regurgitated to the Row. +At the sign of the "White Greyhound" the first +editions of Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis" +and "The Rape of Lucrece," the first-fruits of a +great harvest, were published by John Harrison. +At the "Flower de Luce" and the "Crown" appeared +the <i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>; at the +"Green Dragon," in the same locality, the <i>Merchant +of Venice</i>; at the "Fox," <i>Richard II.</i>; at the +"Angel," <i>Richard III.</i>; at the "Gun," <i>Titus Andronicus</i>; +and at the "Red Bull," that masterpiece, +<i>King Lear</i>. So that in this area near the Row the +great poet must have paced with his first proofs in +his doublet-pocket, wondering whether he should +ever rival Spenser, or become immortal, like +Chaucer. Here he must have come smiling over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span> +Falstaff's perils, and here have walked with the +ripened certainty of greatness and of fame stirring +at his heart.</p> + +<p>The ground-plot of the Cathedral is 2 acres 16 +perches 70 feet. The western area of the churchyard +marks the site of St. Gregory's Church. On +the mean statue of Queen Anne a scurrilous epigram +was once written by some ribald Jacobite, +who spoke of the queen—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"With her face to the brandy-shop and her back to the church." +</div> + +<p>The precinct wall of St. Paul's first ran from Ave +Maria Lane eastward along Paternoster Row to +the old Exchange, Cheapside, and then southwards +to Carter Lane, at the end of which it turned to +Ludgate Archway. In the reign of Edward II. the +Dean and Chapter, finding the precinct a resort of +thieves and courtesans, rebuilt and purified it. +Within, at the north-west corner, stood the bishop's +palace, beyond which, eastward, was Pardon Churchyard +and Becket Chapel, rebuilt with a stately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span> +cloister in the reign of Henry V. On the walls of +this cloister, pulled down by the greedy Protector +Somerset (Edward VI.), was painted one of those +grim Dances of Death which Holbein at last carried +to perfection. The cloister was full of monuments, +and above was a library. In an enclosure east +of this stood the College of Minor Canons; and +at Canon Alley, east, was a burial chapel called +the Charnel, from whence Somerset sent cart-loads +of bones to Finsbury Fields. East of Canon Alley +stood Paul's Cross, where open-air sermons were +preached to the citizens, and often to the reigning +monarch. East of it rose St. Paul's School and +a belfrey tower, in which hung the famous Jesus +bells, won at dice by Sir Giles Partridge from that +Ahab of England, Henry VIII. On the south side +stood the Dean and Chapter's garden, dormitory, +refectory, kitchen, slaughterhouse, and brewery. +These eventually yielded to a cloister, near which, +abutting on the cathedral wall, stood the chapter-house +and the Church of St. Gregory. Westward +were the houses of the residentiaries; and +the deanery, according to Milman, an excellent +authority, stood on its present site. The precinct +had six gates—the first and chief in Ludgate Street; +the second in Paul's Alley, leading to Paternoster +Row; the third in Canon Alley, leading to the +north door; the fourth, a little gate leading to +Cheapside; the fifth, the Augustine gate, leading +to Watling Street; the sixth, on the south side, by +Paul's Chain. On the south tower of the west +front was the Lollard's Tower, a bishop's prison +for ecclesiastical offenders.</p> + +<p>The 2,500 railings of the churchyard and the +seven ornamental gates, weighing altogether two +hundred tons, were cast in Kent, and cost 6d. a +pound. The whole cost £11,202 0s. 6d.</p> + +<p>In 1606 St. Paul's Churchyard was the scene of +the execution of Father Garnet, one of the Gunpowder +Plot conspirators—the only execution, as +far as we know, that ever desecrated that spot. +It is very doubtful, after all, whether Garnet was +cognizant that the plot was really to be carried +out, though he may have strongly suspected some +dangerous and deadly conspiracy, and the Roman +Catholics were prepared to see miracles wrought +at his death.</p> + +<p>On the 3rd day of May, 1606 (to condense Dr. +Abbott's account), Garnet was drawn upon a +hurdle, according to the usual practice, to his +place of execution. The Recorder of London, +the Dean of St. Paul's, and the Dean of Winchester +were present, by command of the King—the +former in the King's name, and the two latter +in the name of God and Christ, to assist Garnet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> +with such advice as suited the condition of a dying +man. As soon as he had ascended the scaffold, +which was much elevated in order that the people +might behold the spectacle, Garnet saluted the +Recorder somewhat familiarly, who told him that +"it was expected from him that he should publicly +deliver his real opinion respecting the conspiracy +and treason; that it was now of no use +to dissemble, as all was clearly and manifestly +proved; but that if, in the true spirit of repentance, +he was willing to satisfy the Christian world +by declaring his hearty compunction, he might +freely state what he pleased." The deans then +told him that they were present on that occasion +by authority, in order to suggest to him such +matters as might be useful for his soul; that they +desired to do this without offence, and exhorted +him to prepare and settle himself for another +world, and to commence his reconciliation with +God by a sincere and saving repentance. To this +exhortation Garnet replied "that he had already +done so, and that he had before satisfied himself +in this respect." The clergymen then suggested +"that he would do well to declare his mind to the +people." Then Garnet said to those near him, "I +always disapproved of tumults and seditions against +the king, and if this crime of the powder treason +had been completed I should have abhorred it with +my whole soul and conscience." They then advised +him to declare as much to the people. "I am very +weak," said he, "and my voice fails me. If I +should speak to the people, I cannot make them +hear me; it is impossible that they should hear +me." Then said Mr. Recorder, "Mr. Garnet, if +you will come with me, I will take care that they +shall hear you," and, going before him, led him +to the western end of the scaffold. He still hesitated +to address the people, but the Recorder +urged him to speak his mind freely, promising to +repeat his words aloud to the multitude. Garnet +then addressed the crowd as follows:—"My good +fellow-citizens,—I am come hither, on the morrow +of the invention of the Holy Cross, to see an end +of all my pains and troubles in this world. I here +declare before you all that I consider the late +treason and conspiracy against the State to be cruel +and detestable; and, for my part, all designs and +endeavours against the king were ever misliked by +me; and if this attempt had been perfected, as it +was designed, I think it would have been altogether +damnable; and I pray for all prosperity to the +king, the queen, and the royal family." Here he +paused, and the Recorder reminded him to ask +pardon of the King for that which he had attempted. +"I do so," said Garnet, "as far as I have sinned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span> +against him—namely, in that I did not reveal that +whereof I had a general knowledge from Mr. +Catesby, but not otherwise." Then said the Dean +of Winchester, "Mr. Garnet, I pray you deal +clearly in the matter: you were certainly privy to +the whole business." "God forbid!" said Garnet; +"I never understood anything of the design of +blowing up the Parliament House." "Nay," responded +the Dean of Winchester, "it is manifest +that all the particulars were known to you, and +you have declared under your own hand that +Greenaway told you all the circumstances in Essex." +"That," said Garnet, "was in secret confession, +which I could by no means reveal." Then said +the Dean, "You have yourself, Mr. Garnet, almost +acknowledged that this was only a pretence, for +you have openly confessed that Greenaway told +you not in a confession, but by way of a confession, +and that he came of purpose to you with the +design of making a confession; but you answered +that it was not necessary you should know the +full extent of his knowledge." The dean further +reminded him that he had affirmed under his own +hand that this was not told him by way of con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span>fessing +a sin, but by way of conference and +consultation; and that Greenaway and Catesby +both came to confer with him upon that business, +and that as often as he saw Greenaway he would +ask him about that business because it troubled +him. "Most certainly," said Garnet; "I did so +in order to prevent it, for I always misliked it." +Then said the Dean, "You only withheld your +approbation until the Pope had given his opinion." +"But I was well persuaded," said Garnet, "that the +Pope would never approve the design." "Your +intention," said the Dean of Winchester, "was +clear from those two breves which you received +from Rome for the exclusion of the King." +"That," said Garnet, "was before the King came +in." "But if you knew nothing of the particulars +of the business," said the Dean, "why did you send +Baynham to inform the Pope? for this also you +have confessed in your examinations." Garnet +replied, "I have already answered to all these +matters on my trial, and I acknowledge everything +that is contained in my written confessions."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="library" id="library"></a> +<img src="images/p264.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE LIBRARY OF ST. PAUL'S</span> +</div> + +<p>Then, turning his discourse again to the people, +at the instance of the Recorder, he proceeded to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span> +the same effect as before, declaring "that he wholly +misliked that cruel and inhuman design, and that +he had never sanctioned or approved of any such +attempts against the King and State, and that this +project, if it had succeeded, would have been in his +mind most damnable."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="face" id="face"></a> +<img src="images/p265.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />"THE FACE IN THE STRAW."—FROM ABBOT'S "ANTHOLOGIA," 1613</span> +</div> + +<p>Having thus spoken, he raised his hands, and +made the sign of the cross upon his forehead and +breast, saying, "<i>In nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus +Sancti! Jesus Maria! Maria, mater gratiæ! +Mater misericordiæ! Tu me ab hoste protege, et hora +mortis suscipe!</i>" Then he said, "<i>In manus tuas, +Domine, commendo spiritum meum, quia tu redemisti +me, Domine, Deus veritatis!</i>" Then, again crossing +himself, he said, "<i>Per crucis hoc signum fugiat +procul omne malignum! Infige crucem tuam, Domine, +in corde meo;</i>" and again, "<i>Jesus Maria! Maria, +mater gratiæ!</i>" In the midst of these prayers the +ladder was drawn away, and, by the express command +of the King, he remained hanging from the +gallows until he was quite dead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span></p> + +<p>The "face in the straw" was a miracle said to +be performed at Garnet's death.</p> + +<p>The original fabricator of the miracle of the straw +was one John Wilkinson, a young Roman Catholic, +who at the time of Garnet's trial and execution +was about to pass over into France, to commence +his studies at the Jesuits' College at St. Omer's. +Some time after his arrival there, Wilkinson was +attacked by a dangerous disease, from which there +was no hope of his recovery; and while in this state +he gave utterance to the story, which Endæmon-Joannes +relates in his own words, as follows:—"The +day before Father Garnet's execution my +mind was suddenly impressed (as by some external +impulse) with a strong desire to witness his death, +and bring home with me some relic of him. I had +at that time conceived so certain a persuasion that +my design would be gratified, that I did not for a +moment doubt that I should witness some immediate +testimony from God in favour of the innocence +of his saint; though as often as the idea occurred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> +to my mind, I endeavoured to drive it away, that I +might not vainly appear to tempt Providence by +looking for a miracle where it was not necessarily +to be expected. Early the next morning I betook +myself to the place of execution, and, arriving there +before any other person, stationed myself close to +the scaffold, though I was afterwards somewhat +forced from my position as the crowd increased." +Having then described the details of the execution, +he proceeds thus:—"Garnet's limbs having been +divided into four parts, and placed, together with +the head, in a basket, in order that they might be +exhibited, according to law, in some conspicuous +place, the crowd began to disperse. I then again +approached close to the scaffold, and stood between +the cart and place of execution; and as I lingered +in that situation, still burning with the desire of bearing +away some relic, that miraculous ear of straw, +since so highly celebrated, came, I know not how, +into my hand. A considerable quantity of dry +straw had been thrown with Garnet's head and +quarters into the basket, but whether this ear came +into my hand from the scaffold or from the basket I +cannot venture to affirm; this only I can truly say, +that a straw of this kind was thrown towards me +before it had touched the ground. This straw I +afterwards delivered to Mrs. N——, a matron of +singular Catholic piety, who inclosed it in a bottle, +which being rather shorter than the straw, it +became slightly bent. A few days afterwards Mrs. +N—— showed the straw in a bottle to a certain +noble person, her intimate acquaintance, who, looking +at it attentively, at length said, 'I can see +nothing in it but a man's face.' Mrs. N—— and +myself being astonished at this unexpected +exclamation, again and again examined the ear +of the straw, and distinctly perceived in it a human +countenance, which others also, coming in as +casual spectators, or expressly called by us as witnesses, +likewise beheld at that time. This is, as +God knoweth, the true history of Father Garnet's +straw." The engraving upon the preceding page is +taken from Abbot's "Anthologia," published in 1613, +in which a full account of the "miracle" is given.</p> + +<p>At 65, St. Paul's Churchyard, north-west corner, +lived the worthy predecessor of Messrs. Grant and +Griffith, Goldsmith's friend and employer, Mr. +John Newbery, that good-natured man with the +red-pimpled face, who, as the philanthropic bookseller, +figures pleasantly in the "Vicar of Wakefield;" +always in haste to be gone, he was ever +on business of the utmost importance, and was +at that time actually compiling materials for the +history of one Thomas Trip. "The friend of +all mankind," Dr. Primrose calls him. "The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span> +honestest man in the nation," as Goldsmith said +of him in a doggerel riddle which he wrote. Newbery's +nephew printed the "Vicar of Wakefield" +for Goldsmith, and the elder Newbery published +the "Traveller," the corner-stone of Goldsmith's +fame. It was the elder Newbery who unearthed +the poet at his miserable lodgings in Green Arbour +Court, and employed him to write his "Citizens of +the World," at a guinea each, for his daily newspaper, +the <i>Public Ledger</i> (1760). The Newberys +seem to have been worthy, prudent tradesmen, +constantly vexed and irritated at Goldsmith's extravagance, +carelessness, and ceaseless cry for +money; and so it went on till the hare-brained, +delightful fellow died, when Francis Newbery wrote +a violent defence of the fever medicine, an excess +of which had killed Goldsmith.</p> + +<p>The office of the Registrar of the High Court of +Admiralty occupied the site of the old cathedral +bakehouse. Paul's Chain is so called from a chain +that used to be drawn across the carriage-way of +the churchyard, to preserve silence during divine +service. The northern barrier of St. Paul's is of +wood. Opposite the Chain, in 1660 (the Restoration), +lived that king of writing and arithmetic +masters, the man whose name has grown into a +proverb—Edward Cocker—who wrote "The Pen's +Transcendancy," an extraordinary proof of true eye +and clever hand.</p> + +<p>In the Chapter House of St. Paul's, which Mr. +Peter Cunningham not too severely calls "a +shabby, dingy-looking building," on the north side +of the churchyard, was performed the unjust ceremony +of degrading Samuel Johnson, the chaplain +to William Lord Russell, the martyr of the party +of liberty. The divines present, in compassion, +and with a prescient eye for the future, purposely +omitted to strip off his cassock, which rendered +the ceremony imperfect, and afterwards saved the +worthy man his benefice.</p> + +<p>St. Paul's Coffee House stood at the corner of +the archway of Doctors' Commons, on the site of +"Paul's Brew House" and the "Paul's Head" +tavern. Here, in 1721, the books of the great +collector, Dr. Rawlinson, were sold, "after dinner;" +and they sold well.</p> + +<p>Child's Coffee House, in St. Paul's Churchyard, +was a quiet place, much frequented by the clergy of +Queen Anne's reign, and by proctors from Doctors' +Commons. Addison used to look in there, to +smoke a pipe and listen, behind his paper, to the +conversation. In the <i>Spectator</i>, No. 609, he smiles +at a country gentleman who mistook all persons in +scarves for doctors of divinity. This was at a time +when clergymen always wore their black gowns in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span> +public. "Only a scarf of the first magnitude," he +says, "entitles one to the appellation of 'doctor' +from the landlady and the boy at 'Child's.'"</p> + +<p>"Child's" was the resort of Dr. Mead, and other +professional men of eminence. The Fellows of the +Royal Society came here. Whiston relates that +Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Halley, and he were once at +"Child's," when Dr. Halley asked him (Whiston) +why he was not a member of the Royal Society? +Whiston answered, "Because they durst not choose +a heretic." Upon which Dr. Halley said, if Sir +Hans Sloane would propose him, he (Dr. Halley) +would second it, which was done accordingly.</p> + +<p>Garrick, who kept up his interest with different +coteries, carefully cultivated the City men, by +attending a club held at the "Queen's Arms" +tavern, in St. Paul's Churchyard. Here he used +to meet Mr. Sharpe, a surgeon; Mr. Paterson, the +City Solicitor; Mr. Draper, a bookseller, and Mr. +Clutterbuck, a mercer; and these quiet cool men +were his standing council in theatrical affairs, and +his gauge of the city taste. They were none of +them drinkers, and in order to make a reckoning, +called only for French wine. Here Dr. Johnson +started a City club, and was particular the members +should not be "patriotic." Boswell, who went +with him to the "Queen's Arms" club, found the +members "very sensible, well-behaved men." Brasbridge, +the silversmith of Fleet Street, who wrote his +memoirs, has described a sixpenny card club held +here at a later date. Among the members was +that generous and hospitable man, Henry Baldwin, +who, under the auspices of Garrick, the elder +Colman, and Bonnell Thornton, started the <i>St. +James's Chronicle</i>, the most popular evening paper +of the day.</p> + +<p>"I belonged," says Brasbridge, "to a sixpenny +card club, at the 'Queen's Arms,' in St. Paul's +Churchyard; it consisted of about twenty members, +of whom I am the sole survivor. Among +them was Mr. Goodwin, of St. Paul's Churchyard, +a woollen draper, whose constant salutation, when +he first came downstairs in the morning, was to his +shop, in these words, 'Good morrow, Mr. Shop; +you'll take care of me, Mr. Shop, and I'll take care +of you.' Another was Mr. Curtis, a respectable +stationer, who from very small beginnings left +his son £90,000 in one line, besides an estate of +near £300 a year."</p> + +<p>"The 'Free and Easy under the Rose' was +another society which I frequented. It was +founded sixty years ago, at the 'Queen's Arms,' in +St. Paul's Churchyard, and was afterwards removed +to the 'Horn' tavern. It was originally kept by +Bates, who was never so happy as when standing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span> +behind a chair with a napkin under his arm; but +arriving at the dignity of alderman, tucking in his +callipash and calipee himself, instead of handing it +round to the company, soon did his business. My +excellent friend Briskett, the Marshal of the High +Court of Admiralty, was president of this society +for many years, and I was constantly in attendance +as his vice. It consisted of some thousand members, +and I never heard of any one of them that +ever incurred any serious punishment. Our great +fault was sitting too late; in this respect, according +to the principle of Franklin, that 'time is money,' +we were most unwary spendthrifts; in other instances, +our conduct was orderly and correct."</p> + +<p>One of the members in Brasbridge's time was +Mr. Hawkins, a worthy but ill-educated spatterdash +maker, of Chancery Lane, who daily murdered the +king's English. He called an invalid an "individual," +and said our troops in America had been +"<i>manured</i>" to hardship. Another oddity was a +Mr. Darwin, a Radical, who one night brought +to the club-room a caricature of the head of +George III. in a basket; and whom Brasbridge +nearly frightened out of his wits by pretending to +send one of the waiters for the City Marshal. +Darwin was the great chum of Mr. Figgins, a wax-chandler +in the Poultry; and as they always entered +the room together, Brasbridge gave them the nickname +of "Liver and Gizzard." Miss Boydell, when +her uncle was Lord Mayor, conferred sham knighthood +on Figgins, with a tap of her fan, and he was +henceforward known as "Sir Benjamin."</p> + +<p>The Churchyard publisher of Cowper's first +volume of poems, "Table Talk," and also of "The +Task," was a very worthy, liberal man—Joseph +Johnson, who also published the "Olney Hymns" +for Newton, the scientific writings of the persecuted +Priestley, and the smooth, vapid verses of +Darwin. Johnson encouraged Fuseli to paint a +Milton Gallery, for an edition of the poet to be +edited by Cowper. Johnson was imprisoned nine +months in the King's Bench, for selling the political +writings of Gilbert Wakefield. He, however, bore +the oppression of the majority philosophically, and +rented the marshal's house, where he gave dinners +to his distinguished literary friends.</p> + +<p>"Another set of my acquaintances," says Leigh +Hunt in his autobiography, "used to assemble on +Fridays at the hospitable table of Mr. Hunter, the +bookseller, in St. Paul's Churchyard. They were the +survivors of the literary party that were accustomed +to dine with his predecessor, Mr. Johnson. The +most regular were Fuseli and Bonnycastle. Now +and then Godwin was present; oftener Mr. Kinnaird, +the magistrate, a great lover of Horace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fuseli was a small man, with energetic features +and a white head of hair. Our host's daughter, +then a little girl, used to call him the white-headed +lion. He combed his hair up from the forehead, +and as his whiskers were large his face was set in +a kind of hairy frame, which, in addition to the +fierceness of his look, really gave him an aspect +of that sort. Otherwise his features were rather +sharp than round. He would have looked much +like an old military officer if his face, besides its +real energy, had not affected more. There was +the same defect in it as in his pictures. Conscious +of not having all the strength he wished, +he endeavoured to make up for it by violence and +pretension. He carried this so far as to look +fiercer than usual when he sat for his picture. His +friend and engraver, Mr. Houghton, drew an admirable +likeness of him in this state of dignified +extravagance. He is sitting back in his chair, +leaning on his hand, but looking ready to pounce +withal. His notion of repose was like that of +Pistol.</p> + +<p>"A student reading in a garden is all over intensity +of muscle, and the quiet tea-table scene in +Cowper he has turned into a preposterous conspiracy +of huge men and women, all bent on +showing their thews and postures, with dresses as +fantastic as their minds. One gentleman, of the +existence of whose trousers you are not aware till +you see the terminating line at the ankle, is +sitting and looking grim on a sofa, with his hat on +and no waistcoat.</p> + +<p>"Fuseli was lively and interesting in conversation, +but not without his usual faults of violence and +pretension. Nor was he always as decorous as an +old man ought to be, especially one whose turn +of mind is not of the lighter and more pleasurable +cast. The licences he took were coarse, and had +not sufficient regard to his company. Certainly +they went a great deal beyond his friend Armstrong, +to whose account, I believe, Fuseli's passion for +swearing was laid. The poet condescended to be +a great swearer, and Fuseli thought it energetic +to swear like him. His friendship with Bonnycastle +had something childlike and agreeable in it. +They came and went away together for years, like +a couple of old schoolboys. They also like boys +rallied one another, and sometimes made a singular +display of it—Fuseli, at least, for it was he who was +the aggressor.</p> + +<p>"Bonnycastle was a good fellow. He was a +tall, gaunt, long-headed man, with large features +and spectacles, and a deep internal voice, with a +twang of rusticity in it; and he goggled over his +plate like a horse. I often thought that a bag of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span> +corn would have hung well on him. His laugh +was equine, and showed his teeth upwards at the +sides. Wordsworth, who notices similar mysterious +manifestations on the part of donkeys, would have +thought it ominous. Bonnycastle was extremely +fond of quoting Shakespeare and telling stories, +and if the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> had just come out, +would have given us all the jokes in it. He had +once a hypochondriacal disorder of long duration, +and he told us that he should never forget +the comfortable sensation given him one night +during this disorder by his knocking a landlord +that was insolent to him down the man's staircase. +On the strength of this piece of energy (having +first ascertained that the offender was not killed) +he went to bed, and had a sleep of unusual soundness.</p> + +<p>"It was delightful one day to hear him speak with +complacency of a translation which had appeared +in Arabic, and which began by saying, on the +part of the translator, that it pleased God, for the +advancement of human knowledge, to raise us up +a Bonnycastle.</p> + +<p>"Kinnaird, the magistrate, was a sanguine man, +under the middle height, with a fine lamping black +eye, lively to the last, and a body that 'had +increased, was increasing, and ought to have been +diminished,' which is by no means what he thought +of the prerogative. Next to his bottle, he was fond +of his Horace, and, in the intervals of business at +the police office, would enjoy both in his arm-chair. +Between the vulgar calls of this kind of magistracy +and the perusal of the urbane Horace there +must have been a quota of contradiction, which +the bottle, perhaps, was required to render quite +palatable."</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles Knight's pleasant book, "Shadows +of the Old Booksellers," also reminds us of another +of the great Churchyard booksellers, John Rivington +and Sons, at the "Bible and Crown." They +published, in 1737, an early sermon of Whitefield's, +before he left the Church, and were booksellers to +the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; +and to this shop country clergymen invariably went +to buy their theology, or to publish their own +sermons.</p> + +<p>In St. Paul's Churchyard (says Sir John Hawkins, +in his "History of Music") were formerly many +shops where music and musical instruments were +sold, for which, at this time, no better reason can +be given than that the service at the Cathedral +drew together, twice a day, all the lovers of music +in London—not to mention that the choirmen were +wont to assemble there, and were met by their +friends and acquaintances.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span></p> + +<p>Jeremiah Clark, a composer of sacred music, +who shot himself in his house in St. Paul's Churchyard, +was educated in the Royal Chapel, under Dr. +Blow, who entertained so great a friendship for him +as to resign in his favour his place of Master of the +Children and Almoner of St. Paul's, Clark being +appointed his successor, in 1693, and shortly afterwards +he became organist of the cathedral. "In +July, 1700," says Sir John Hawkins, "he and his +fellow pupils were appointed Gentlemen Extraordinary +of the Royal Chapel; and in 1704 they +were jointly admitted to the place of organist thereof, +in the room of Mr. Francis Piggot. Clark had the +misfortune to entertain a hopeless passion for a +very beautiful lady, in a station of life far above +him; his despair of success threw him into a deep +melancholy; in short, he grew weary of his life, +and on the first day of December, 1707, shot himself. +He was determined upon this method of putting +an end to his life by an event which, strange +as it may seem, is attested by the late Mr. Samuel +Weeley, one of the lay-vicars of St. Paul's, who was +very intimate with him, and had heard him relate +it. Being at the house of a friend in the country, +he took an abrupt resolution to return to London; +this friend having observed in his behaviour marks +of great dejection, furnished him with a horse and +a servant. Riding along the road, a fit of melancholy +seized him, upon which he alighted, and +giving the servant his horse to hold, went into a +field, in a corner whereof was a pond, and also +trees, and began a debate with himself whether he +should then end his days by hanging or drowning. +Not being able to resolve on either, he thought +of making what he looked upon as chance the +umpire, and drew out of his pocket a piece of +money, and tossing it into the air, it came down +on its edge, and stuck in the clay. Though the +determination answered not his wish, it was far +from ambiguous, as it seemed to forbid both +methods of destruction, and would have given unspeakable +comfort to a mind less disordered than +his was. Being thus interrupted in his purpose, +he returned, and mounting his horse, rode on to +London, and in a short time after shot himself. +He dwelt in a house in St. Paul's Churchyard, +situate on the place where the Chapter-house now +stands. Old Mr. Reading was passing by at the +instant the pistol went off, and entering the house, +found his friend in the agonies of death.</p> + +<p>"The compositions of Clark are few. His +anthems are remarkably pathetic, at the same time +that they preserve the dignity and majesty of the +church style. The most celebrated of them are +'I will love thee,' printed in the second book of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span> +the 'Harmonia Sacra;' 'Bow down thine ear,' and +'Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.'</p> + +<p>"The only works of Clark published by himself +are lessons for the harpsichord and sundry songs, +which are to be found in the collections of that +day, particularly in the 'Pills to Purge Melancholy,' +but they are there printed without the basses. He +also composed for D'Urfey's comedy of 'The Fond +Husband, or the Plotting Sisters,' that sweet ballad +air, 'The bonny grey-eyed Morn,' which Mr. Gay +has introduced into 'The Beggar's Opera,' and is +sung to the words, ''Tis woman that seduces all +mankind.'"</p> + +<p>"Mattheson, of Hamburg," says Hawkins, "had +sent over to England, in order to their being published +here, two collections of lessons for the harpsichord, +and they were accordingly engraved on +copper, and printed for Richard Meares, in St. +Paul's Churchyard, and published in the year 1714. +Handel was at this time in London, and in the +afternoon was used to frequent St. Paul's Church +for the sake of hearing the service, and of playing +on the organ after it was over; from whence he +and some of the gentlemen of the choir would +frequently adjourn to the 'Queen's Arms' tavern, +in St. Paul's Churchyard, where was a harpsichord. +It happened one afternoon, when they were thus +met together, Mr. Weeley, a gentleman of the choir, +came in and informed them that Mr. Mattheson's +lessons were then to be had at Mr. Meares's shop; +upon which Mr. Handel ordered them immediately +to be sent for, and upon their being brought, played +them all over without rising from the instrument."</p> + +<p>"There dwelt," says Sir John Hawkins, "at the +west corner of London House Yard, in St. Paul's +Churchyard, at the sign of the 'Dolphin and +Crown,' one John Young, a maker of violins and +other musical instruments. This man had a son, +whose Christian name was Talbot, who had been +brought up with Greene in St. Paul's choir, and +had attained to great proficiency on the violin, as +Greene had on the harpsichord. The merits of the +two Youngs, father and son, are celebrated in the +following quibbling verses, which were set to music +in the form of a catch, printed in the pleasant +'Musical Companion,' published in 1726:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'You scrapers that want a good fiddle well strung,<br /> +You must go to the man that is old while he's young;<br /> +But if this same fiddle you fain would play bold,<br /> +You must go to his son, who'll be young when he's old.<br /> +There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown,<br /> +Old sells and young plays the best fiddle in town.<br /> +Young and old live together, and may they live long,<br /> +Young to play an old fiddle, old to sell a new song.'</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="father" id="father"></a> +<img src="images/p270.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />EXECUTION OF FATHER GARNET</span> +</div> + +<p>"This young man, Talbot Young, together with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span>Greene and several persons, had weekly meetings +at his father's house, for practice of music. The +fame of this performance spread far and wide; and +in a few winters the resort of gentlemen performers +was greater than the house would admit of; a +small subscription was set on foot, and they removed +to the 'Queen's Head' tavern, in Paternoster +Row. Here they were joined by Mr. Woolaston +and his friends, and also by a Mr. Franckville, +a fine performer on the viol de Gamba. And after +a few winters, being grown rich enough to hire +additional performers, they removed, in the year +1724, to the 'Castle,' in Paternoster Row, which +was adorned with a picture of Mr. Young, painted +by Woolaston.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="school" id="school"></a> +<img src="images/p271.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The 'Castle' concerts continuing to flourish for +many years, auditors as well as performers were +admitted subscribers, and tickets were delivered +out to the members in rotation for the admission +of ladies. Their fund enabling them, they hired +second-rate singers from the operas, and many +young persons of professions and trades that depended +upon a numerous acquaintance, were induced +by motives of interest to become members +of the 'Castle' concert.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Young continued to perform in this society +till the declining state of his health obliged him to +quit it; after which time Prospero Castrucci and +other eminent performers in succession continued +to lead the band. About the year 1744, at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> +instance of an alderman of London, now deservedly +forgotten, the subscription was raised from +two guineas to five, for the purpose of performing +oratorios. From the 'Castle' this society removed +to Haberdashers' Hall, where they continued for +fifteen or sixteen years; from thence they removed +to the' King's Arms,' in Cornhill."</p> + +<p>A curious old advertisement of 1681 relates to +St. Paul's Alley:—"Whereas the yearly meeting of +the name of Adam hath of late, through the deficiency +of the last stewards, been neglected, these +are to give notice to all gentlemen and others that +are of that name that at William Adam's, commonly +called the 'Northern Ale-house,' in St. +Paul's Alley, in St. Paul's Churchyard, there will be +a weekly meeting, every Monday night, of our namesakes, +between the hours of six and eight of the +clock in the evening, in order to choose stewards +to revive our antient and annual feast."—<i>Domestic +Intelligence</i>, 1681.</p> + +<p>During the building of St. Paul's, Wren was the +zealous Master of the St. Paul's Freemason's Lodge, +which assembled at the "Goose and Gridiron," one +of the most ancient lodges in London. He presided +regularly at its meetings for upwards of +eighteen years. He presented the lodge with three +beautifully carved mahogany candlesticks, and the +trowel and mallet which he used in laying the first +stone of the great cathedral in 1675. In 1688 +Wren was elected Grand Master of the order, and +he nominated his old fellow-workers at St. Paul's, +Cibber, the sculptor, and Strong, the master mason, +Grand Wardens. In Queen Anne's reign there +were 129 lodges—eighty-six in London, thirty-six +in provincial cities, and seven abroad. Many of +the oldest lodges in London are in the neighbourhood +of St. Paul's.</p> + +<p>"At the 'Apple Tree' Tavern," say Messrs. +Hotten and Larwood, in their history of "Inn and +Tavern Signs," "in Charles Street, Covent Garden, +in 1716, four of the leading London Freemasons' +lodges, considering themselves neglected by Sir +Christopher Wren, met and chose a Grand Master, +<i>pro tem.</i>, until they should be able to place a noble +brother at the head, which they did the year following, +electing the Duke of Montague. Sir Christopher +had been chosen in 1698. The three lodges +that joined with the 'Apple Tree' lodge used to meet +respectively at the 'Goose and Gridiron,' St. Paul's +Churchyard; the 'Crown,' Parker's Lane; and at +the 'Rummer and Grapes' Tavern, Westminster. +The 'Goose and Gridiron' occurs at Woodhall, +Lincolnshire, and in a few other localities. It is +said to owe its origin to the following circumstances—The +'Mitre' was a celebrated music-house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> +in London House Yard, at the north-west end of +St. Paul's. When it ceased to be a music-house, +the succeeding landlord, to ridicule its former +destiny, chose for his sign a goose striking the bars +of a gridiron with his foot, in ridicule of the +'Swan and Harp,' a common sign for the early +music-houses. Such an origin does the <i>Tatler</i> give; +but it may also be a vernacular reading of the coat +of arms of the Company of Musicians, suspended +probably at the door of the 'Mitre' when it was a +music-house. These arms are a swan with his +wings expanded, within a double tressure, counter, +flory, argent. This double tressure might have +suggested a gridiron to unsophisticated passers-by.</p> + +<p>"The celebrated 'Mitre,' near the west end of +St. Paul's, was the first music-house in London. +The name of the master was Robert Herbert, <i>alias</i> +Farges. Like many brother publicans, he was, +besides being a lover of music, also a collector of +natural curiosities, as appears by his 'Catalogue of +many natural rarities, collected with great industrie, +cost, and thirty years' travel into foreign countries, +collected by Robert Herbert, <i>alias</i> Farges, gent., +and sworn servant to his Majesty; to be seen at +the place called the Music-house, <i>at the Mitre</i>, +near the west end of S. Paul's Church, 1664.' +This collection, or, at least, a great part of it, +was bought by Sir Hans Sloane. It is conjectured +that the 'Mitre' was situated in London House +Yard, at the north-west end of St. Paul's, on the +spot where afterwards stood the house known by +the sign of the 'Goose and Gridiron.'"</p> + +<p>St. Paul's School, known to cathedral visitors +chiefly by that murky, barred-in, purgatorial playground +opposite the east end of Wren's great +edifice, is of considerable antiquity, for it was +founded in 1512 by that zealous patron of learning, +and friend of Erasmus, Dean Colet. This liberal-minded +man was the eldest of twenty-two children, +all of whom he survived. His father was a City +mercer, who was twice Lord Mayor of London. +Colet became Dean of St. Paul's in 1505, and soon +afterwards (as Latimer tells us) narrowly escaped +burning for his opposition to image-worship. +Having no near relatives, Colet, in 1509, began to +found St. Paul's School, adapted to receive 153 +poor boys (the number of fishes taken by Peter in +the miraculous draught). The building is said to +have cost £4,500, and was endowed with lands in +Buckinghamshire estimated by Stow, in 1598, as +of the yearly value of £120 or better, and now +worth £12,000, with a certainty of rising.</p> + +<p>No children were to be admitted into the school +but such as could say their catechism, and read +and write competently. Each child was required<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span> +to pay fourpence on his first admission to the +school, which sum was to be given to the "poor +scholar" who swept the school and kept the seats +clean. The hours of study were to be from seven +till eleven in the morning, and from one to five +in the afternoon, with prayers in the morning, at +noon, and in the evening. It was expressly stipulated +that the pupils should never use tallow candles, +but only wax, and those "at the cost of their +friends." The most remarkable statute of the +school is that by which the scholars were bound +on Christmas-day to attend at St. Paul's Church +and hear the child-bishop sermon, and after be at +the high mass, and each of them offer one penny +to the child-bishop. When Dean Colet was asked +why he had left his foundation in trust to laymen +(the Mercers' Company), as tenants of his father, +rather than to an ecclesiastical foundation, he +answered, "that there was no absolute certainty +in human affairs, but, for his part, he found less +corruption in such a body of citizens than in any +other order or degree of mankind."</p> + +<p>Erasmus, after describing the foundation and +the school, which he calls "a magnificent structure, +to which were attached two dwelling-houses for +the masters," proceeds to say, "He divided the +school into four chambers. The first—namely, the +porch and entrance—in which the chaplain teaches, +where no child is to be admitted who cannot read +and write; the second apartment is for those who +are taught by the under-master; the third is for +the boys of the upper form, taught by the high +master. These two parts of the school are divided +by a curtain, to be drawn at will. Over the headmaster's +chair is an image of the boy Jesus, a +beautiful work, in the gesture of teaching, whom +all the scholars, going and departing, salute with +a hymn. There is a representation of God the +Father, also, saying, 'Hear ye him,' which words +were written at my suggestion."</p> + +<p>"The last apartment is a little chapel for divine +service. In the whole school there are no corners +or hiding-places; neither a dining nor a sleeping +place. Each boy has his own place, one above +another. Every class or form contains sixteen +boys, and he that is at the head of a class has a +little seat, by way of pre-eminence."</p> + +<p>Erasmus, who took a great interest in St. Paul's +School, drew up a grammar, and other elementary +books of value, for his friend Colet, who had for +one of his masters William Lily, "the model of +grammarians." Colet's masters were always to be +married men.</p> + +<p>The school thus described shared in the Great +Fire of 1666, and was rebuilt by the Mercers'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span> +Company in 1670. This second structure was +superseded by the present edifice, designed and +erected by George Smith, Esq., the architect of the +Mercers' Company. It has the advantage of two +additional masters' houses, and a large cloister for +a playground underneath the school.</p> + +<p>On occasions of the sovereigns of England, or +other royal or distinguished persons, going in state +through the City, a balcony is erected in front of +this building, whence addresses from the school +are presented to the illustrious visitors by the head +boys. The origin of this right or custom of the +Paulines is not known, but it is of some antiquity. +Addresses were so presented to Charles V. and +Henry VIII., in 1522; to Queen Elizabeth, 1558; +and to Queen Victoria, when the Royal Exchange +was opened, in 1844. Her Majesty, however, preferred +to receive the address at the next levee; and +this precedent was followed when the multitudes of +London rushed to welcome the Prince of Wales +and Princess Alexandra, in 1863.</p> + +<p>The ancient school-room was on a level with +the street, the modern one is built over the cloister. +It is a finely-proportioned apartment, and has +several new class-rooms adjoining, erected upon a +plan proposed by Dr. Kynaston, the present headmaster. +At the south end of this noble room, +above the master's chair, is a bust of the founder +by Roubiliac. Over the seat is inscribed, "Intendas +animum studiis et rebus honestis," and over +the entrance to the room is the quaint and appropriate +injunction found at Winchester and other +public schools—"Doce, disce, aut discede."</p> + +<p>St. Paul's School has an excellent library immediately +adjoining the school-room, to which the +eighth class have access out of school-hours, the +six seniors occupying places in it in school-time.</p> + +<p>In 1602 the masters' stipends were enlarged, +and the surplus money set apart for college exhibitions. +The head master receives £900 a year, the +second master £400. The education is entirely +gratuitous. The presentations to the school are in +the gift of the Master of the Mercers' Company, +which company has undoubtedly much limited +Dean Colet's generous intentions. The school is +rich in prizes and exhibitions. The latest chronicler +of the Paulines says:—</p> + +<p>"Few public schools can claim to have educated +more men who figure prominently in English history +than St. Paul's School. Sir Edward North, founder +of the noble family of that name; Sir William +Paget, who from being the son of a serjeant-at-mace +became privy councillor to four successive +sovereigns, and acquired the title now held by his +descendant, the owner of Beaudesert; and John<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> +Leland, the celebrated archæologist; William +Whitaker, one of the earliest and most prominent +chaplains of the Reformation; William Camden, +antiquarian and herald; the immortal John Milton; +Samuel Pepys; Robert Nelson, author of the 'Companion +to the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of +England;' Dr. Benjamin Calamy; Sir John Trevor, +Master of the Rolls and Speaker of the House of +Commons; John, the great Duke of Marlborough; +Halley, the great astronomer; the gallant but unfortunate +Major André; Sir Philip Francis; Sir +Charles Wetherell; Sir Frederick Pollock, the late +Lord Chief Baron; Lord Chancellor Truro; and +the distinguished Greek Professor at Oxford, Benjamin +Jowett."</p> + +<p>Pepys seems to have been very fond of his old +school. In 1659, he goes on Apposition Day to +hear his brother John deliver his speech, which he +had corrected; and on another occasion, meeting +his old second master, Crumbun—a dogmatic old +pedagogue, as he calls him—at a bookseller's in +the Churchyard, he gives the school a fine copy +of Stephens' "Thesaurus." In 1661, going to the +Mercers' Hall in the Lord Admiral's coach, we find +him expressing pleasure at going in state to the +place where as a boy he had himself humbly +pleaded for an exhibition to St. Paul's School.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span></p> + +<p>According to Dugdale, an ancient cathedral +school existed at St. Paul's. Bishop Balmeis +(Henry I.) bestowed on it "the house of Durandus, +near the Bell Tower;" and no one could keep a +school in London without the licence of the master +of Paul's, except the masters of St. Mary-le-Bow +and St. Martin's-le-Grand.</p> + +<p>The old laws of Dean Colet, containing many +curious provisions and restrictions, among other +things forbad cock-fighting "and other pageantry" +in the school. It was ordered that the second +master and chaplain were to reside in Old Change. +There was a bust of good Dean Colet over the +head-master's throne. Strype, speaking of the +original dedication of the school to the child Jesus, +says, "but the saint robbed his Master of the title." +In early days there used to be great war between +the "Paul's pigeons," as they were called, and the +boys of St. Anthony's Free School, Threadneedle +Street, whom the Paulines nicknamed "Anthony's +pigs." The Anthony's boys were great carriers off +of prizes for logic and grammar.</p> + +<p>Of Milton's school-days Mr. Masson, in his +voluminous life of the poet, says, "Milton was at +St. Paul's, as far as we can calculate, from 1620, +when he passed his eleventh year, to 1624-5, when +he had passed his sixteenth."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<p class="center">PATERNOSTER ROW</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Its Successions of Traders—The House of Longman—Goldsmith at Fault—Tarleton, Actor, Host, and Wit—Ordinaries around St. Paul's: +their Rules and Customs—The "Castle"—"Dolly's"—The "Chapter" and its Frequenters—Chatterton and Goldsmith—Dr. Buchan +and his Prescriptions—Dr. Gower—Dr. Fordyce—The "Wittinagemot" at the "Chapter"—The "Printing Conger"—Mrs. Turner, the +Poisoner—The Church of St. Michael "ad Bladum"—The Boy in Panier Alley.</p></div> + + +<p>Paternoster Row, that crowded defile north of +the Cathedral, lying between the old Grey Friars and +the Blackfriars, was once entirely ecclesiastical in +its character, and, according to Stow, was so called +from the stationers and text-writers who dwelt +there and sold religious and educational books, +alphabets, paternosters, aves, creeds, and graces. +It then became famous for its spurriers, and afterwards +for eminent mercers, silkmen, and lacemen; +so that the coaches of the "quality" often blocked +up the whole street. After the fire these trades +mostly removed to Bedford Street, King Street, and +Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In 1720 (says +Strype) there were stationers and booksellers who +came here in Queen Anne's reign from Little +Britain, and a good many tire-women, who sold +commodes, top-knots, and other dressings for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span> +female head. By degrees, however, learning ousted +vanity, chattering died into studious silence, and +the despots of literature ruled supreme. Many a +groan has gone up from authors in this gloomy +thoroughfare.</p> + +<p>One only, and that the most ancient, of the +Paternoster Row book-firms, will our space permit +us to chronicle. The house of Longman is part +and parcel of the Row. The first Longman, born +in Bristol in 1699, was the son of a soap and sugar +merchant. Apprenticed in London, he purchased +(<i>circa</i> 1724) the business of Mr. Taylor, the publisher +of "Robinson Crusoe," for £2,282 9s. 6d., +and his first venture was the works of Boyle. This +patriarch died in 1755, and was succeeded by a +nephew, Thomas Longman, who ventured much +trade in America and "the plantations." He was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span> +succeeded by his son, Mr. T.L. Longman, a plain +man of the old citizen style, who took as partner +Mr. Owen Rees, a Bristol bookseller, a man of +industry and acumen.</p> + +<p>Before the close of the eighteenth century the +house of Longman and Rees had become one of +the largest in the City, both as publishers and +book-merchants. When there was talk of an +additional paper-duty, the ministers consulted, according +to West, the new firm, and on their protest +desisted; a reverse course, according to the same +authority, would have checked operations on the +part of that one firm alone of £100,000. Before +the opening of the nineteenth century they had +become possessed of some new and valuable +copyrights—notably, the "Grammar" of Lindley +Murray, of New York. This was in 1799.</p> + +<p>The "lake poets" proved a valuable acquisition. +Wordsworth came first to them, then Coleridge, +and lastly Southey. In 1802 the Longmans commenced +the issue of Rees' "Cyclopædia," reconstructed +from the old Chambers', and about the +same time the <i>Annual Review</i>, edited by Aikin, +which for the nine years of its existence Southey +and Taylor of Norwich mainly supported. The +catalogue of the firm for 1803 is divided into no +less than twenty-two classes. Among their books +we note Paley's "Natural Theology," Sharon Turner's +"Anglo-Saxon History," Adolphus's "History +of King George III.," Pinkerton's "Geography," +Fosbrooke's "British Monachism," Cowper's +"Homer," Gifford's "Juvenal," Sotheby's "Oberon," +and novels and romances not a few. At this time +Mr. Longman used to have Saturday evening receptions +in Paternoster Row.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott's "Guy Mannering," "The +Monastery," and "The Abbot," were published +by Longmans. "Lalla Rookh," by Tom Moore, +was published by them, and they gave £3,000 +for it.</p> + +<p>In 1811 Mr. Brown, who had entered the house +as an apprentice in 1792, and was the son of an +old servant, became partner. Then came in Mr. +Orme, a faithful clerk of the house—for the house +required several heads, the old book trade alone +being an important department. In 1826, when +Constable of Edinburgh came down in the commercial +crash, and brought poor Sir Walter Scott +to the ground with him, the Longman firm succeeded +to the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, which is still +their property. Mr. Green became a partner in +1824, and in 1856 Mr. Roberts was admitted. +In 1829 the firm ventured on Lardner's "Cyclopædia," +contributed to by Scott, Tom Moore, +Mackintosh, &c., and which ended in 1846 with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span> +133rd volume. In 1860 Mr. Thomas Longman +became a partner.</p> + +<p>Thomas Norton Longman, says a writer in the +<i>Critic</i>, resided for many years at Mount Grove, +Hampstead, where he entertained many wits and +scholars. He died there in 1842, leaving £200,000 +personalty. In 1839 Mr. William Longman entered +the firm as a partner. "Longman, Green, +Longman, and Roberts" became the style of +the great publishing house, the founder of which +commenced business one hundred and forty-four +years ago, at the house which became afterwards +No. 39, Paternoster Row.</p> + +<p>In 1773, a year before Goldsmith's death, Dr. +Kenrick, a vulgar satirist of the day, wrote an +anonymous letter in an evening paper called <i>The +London Packet</i>, sneering at the poet's vanity, and +calling "The Traveller" a flimsy poem, denying +the "Deserted Village" genius, fancy, or fire, and +calling "She Stoops to Conquer" the merest pantomime. +Goldsmith's Irish blood fired at an +allusion to Miss Horneck and his supposed rejection +by her. Supposing Evans, of Paternoster Row, to +be the editor of the <i>Packet</i>, Goldsmith resolved to +chastise him. Evans, a brutal fellow, who turned +his son out in the streets and separated from his +wife because she took her son's part, denied all +knowledge of the matter. As he turned his back +to look for the libel, Goldsmith struck him sharply +across the shoulders. Evans, a sturdy, hot Welshman, +returned the blow with interest, and in the +scuffle a lamp overhead was broken and covered +the combatants with fish-oil. Dr. Kenrick then +stepped from an adjoining room, interposed between +the combatants, and sent poor Goldsmith home, +bruised and disfigured, in a coach. Evans subsequently +indicted Goldsmith for the assault, but the +affair was compromised by Goldsmith paying £50 +towards a Welsh charity. The friend who accompanied +Goldsmith to this chivalrous but unsuccessful +attack is said to have been Captain Horneck, +but it seems more probable that it was Captain +Higgins, an Irish friend mentioned in "The +Haunch of Venison."</p> + +<p>Near the site of the present Dolly's Chop +House stood the "Castle," an ordinary kept by +Shakespeare's friend and fellow actor, Richard +Tarleton, the low comedian of Queen Elizabeth's +reign. It was this humorous, ugly actor who no +doubt suggested to the great manager many of +his jesters, fools, and simpletons, and we know +that the tag songs—such as that at the end of <i>All's +Well that Ends Well</i>, "When that I was a little +tiny boy"—were expressly written for Tarleton, +and were danced by that comedian to the tune<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span> +of a pipe and a tabor which he himself played. +The part which Tarleton had to play as host and +wit is well shown in his "Book of Jests:"—</p> + +<p>"Tarleton keeping an ordinary in Paternoster +Row, and sitting with gentlemen to make them +merry, would approve mustard standing before them +to have wit. 'How so?' saies one. 'It is like a +witty scold meeting another scold, knowing that +scold will scold, begins to scold first. So,' says +he, 'the mustard being lickt up, and knowing +that you will bite it, begins to bite you first.' 'I'll +try that,' saies a gull +by, and the mustard +so tickled him that his +eyes watered. 'How +now?' saies Tarleton; +'does my jest savour?' +'I,' saies the gull, 'and +bite too.' 'If you had +had better wit,' saies +Tarleton, 'you would +have bit first; so, then, +conclude with me, that +dumbe unfeeling mustard +hath more wit +than a talking, unfeeling +foole, as you are.' +Some were pleased, +and some were not; +but all Tarleton's care +was taken, for his resolution +was ever, before +he talkt any jest, to +measure his opponent."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="tarleton" id="tarleton"></a> +<img src="images/p276.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />RICHARD TARLETON, THE ACTOR (<i>copied from an old +wood engraving</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>A modern antiquary has with great care culled from the "Gull's Horn +Book" and other sources a sketch of the sort of company that might be +met with at such an ordinary. It was the custom for men of fashion in +the reign of Elizabeth and James to pace in St. Paul's till dinner-time, +and after the ordinary again till the hour when the theatres opened. The +author of "Shakespeare's England" says:—</p> + +<p>"There were ordinaries of all ranks, the <i>table-d'hôte</i> +being the almost universal mode of dining +among those who were visitors to London during +the season, or term-time, as it was then called. +There was the twelvepenny ordinary, where you +might meet justices of the peace and young knights; +and the threepenny ordinary, which was frequented +by poor lieutenants and thrifty attorneys. At the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span> +one the rules of high society were maintained, and +the large silver salt-cellar indicated the rank of the +guests. At the other the diners were silent and +unsociable, or the conversation, if any, was so +full of 'amercements and feoffments' that a mere +countryman would have thought the people were +conjuring.</p> + +<p>"If a gallant entered the ordinary at about half-past eleven, or even a +little earlier, he would find the room full of fashion-mongers, waiting +for the meat to be served. There are men of all classes: titled men, who +live cheap that they may spend more at Court; stingy men, who want to +save the charges of house-keeping; courtiers, who come there for society +and news; adventurers, who have no home; Templars, who dine there daily; +and men about town, who dine at whatever place is nearest to their +hunger. Lords, citizens, concealed Papists, spies, prodigal 'prentices, +precisians, aldermen, foreigners, officers, and country gentlemen, all +are here. Some have come on foot, some on horseback, and some in those +new caroches the poets laugh at."</p> + +<p>"The well-bred courtier, +on entering the +room, saluted those of +his acquaintances who +were in winter gathered round the fire, in summer +round the window, first throwing his cloak to his +page and hanging up his hat and sword. The +parvenu would single out a friend, and walk up and +down uneasily with the scorn and carelessness of a +gentleman usher, laughing rudely and nervously, or +obtruding himself into groups of gentlemen gathered +round a wit or poet. Quarrelsome men pace about +fretfully, fingering their sword-hilts and maintaining +as sour a face as that Puritan moping in a corner, +pent up by a group of young swaggerers, who are +disputing over a card at gleek. Vain men, not +caring whether it was Paul's, the Tennis Court, or +the playhouse, <i>published</i> their clothes, and talked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span> +as loud as they could, in order to appear at ease, +and laughed over the Water Poet's last epigram or +the last pamphlet of Marprelate. The soldiers +bragged of nothing but of their employment in +Ireland and the Low Countries—how they helped +Drake to burn St. Domingo, or grave Maurice +to hold out Breda. Tom Coryatt, or such weak-pated +travellers, would babble of the Rialto and +Prester John, and exhibit specimens of unicorns' +horns or palm-leaves from the river Nilus. The +courtier talked of the fair lady who gave him the +glove which he wore in his hat as a favour; the poet +of the last satire of Marston or Ben Jonson, or +volunteered to read a trifle thrown off of late by +'Faith, a learned gentleman, a very worthy friend,' +though if we were to enquire, this varlet poet might +turn out, after all, to be the mere decoy duck of +the hostess, paid to draw gulls and fools thither. +The mere dullard sat silent, playing with his glove +or discussing at what apothecary's the best tobacco +was to be bought.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="dollys" id="dollys"></a> +<img src="images/p277.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DOLLY'S COFFEE-HOUSE</span> +</div> + +<p>"The dishes seemed to have been served up at +these hot luncheons or early dinners in much the +same order as at the present day—meat, poultry, +game, and pastry. 'To be at your woodcocks'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span> +implied that you had nearly finished dinner. The +more unabashable, rapid adventurer, though but +a beggarly captain, would often attack the capon +while his neighbour, the knight, was still encumbered +with his stewed beef; and when the justice of +the peace opposite, who has just pledged him in +sack, is knuckle-deep in the goose, he falls stoutly +on the long-billed game; while at supper, if one +of the college of critics, our gallant praised the last +play or put his approving stamp upon the new poem.</p> + +<p>"Primero and a 'pair' of cards followed the wine. +Here the practised player learnt to lose with endurance, +and neither to tear the cards nor crush the +dice with his heel. Perhaps the jest may be true, +and that men sometimes played till they sold +even their beards to cram tennis-balls or stuff +cushions. The patron often paid for the wine or +disbursed for the whole dinner. Then the drawer +came round with his wooden knife, and scraped off +the crusts and crumbs, or cleared off the parings +of fruit and cheese into his basket. The torn +cards were thrown into the fire, the guests rose, +rapiers were re-hung, and belts buckled on. The +post news was heard, and the reckonings paid. +The French lackey and Irish footboy led out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span> +hobby horses, and some rode off to the play, others +to the river-stairs to take a pair of oars to the Surrey +side."</p> + +<p>The "Castle," where Tarleton has so often +talked of Shakespeare and his wit, perished in the +Great Fire; but was afterwards rebuilt, and here +"The Castle Society of Music" gave their performances, +no doubt aided by many of the St. +Paul's Choir. Part of the old premises were subsequently +(says Mr. Timbs) the Oxford Bible Warehouse, +destroyed by fire in 1822, and since rebuilt. +"Dolly's Tavern," which stood near the "Castle," +derived its name from Dolly, an old cook of the +establishment, whose portrait Gainsborough painted. +Bonnell Thornton mentions the beefsteaks and gill +ale at "Dolly's." The coffee-room, with its projecting +fire-places, is as old as Queen Anne. The head +of that queen is painted on a window at "Dolly's," +and the entrance in Queen's Head Passage is +christened from this painting.</p> + +<p>The old taverns of London are to be found in +the strangest nooks and corners, hiding away behind +shops, or secreting themselves up alleys. +Unlike the Paris <i>café</i>, which delights in the free +sunshine of the boulevard, and displays its harmless +revellers to the passers-by, the London tavern +aims at cosiness, quiet, and privacy. It partitions +and curtains-off its guests as if they were conspirators +and the wine they drank was forbidden by +the law. Of such taverns the "Chapter" is a good +example.</p> + +<p>The "Chapter Coffee House," at the corner of +Chapter House Court, was in the last century +famous for its punch, its pamphlets, and its newspapers. +As lawyers and authors frequented the +Fleet Street taverns, so booksellers haunted the +"Chapter." Bonnell Thornton, in the <i>Connoisseur</i>, +Jan., 1754, says:—"The conversation here naturally +turns upon the newest publications, but their +criticisms are somewhat singular. When they say +a <i>good</i> book they do not mean to praise the style +or sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of +it. That book is best which sells most."</p> + +<p>In 1770 Chatterton, in one of those apparently +hopeful letters he wrote home while in reality +his proud heart was breaking, says:—"I am quite +familiar at the 'Chapter Coffee House,' and know +all the geniuses there." He desires a friend to +send him whatever he has published, to be left at +the "Chapter." So, again, writing from the King's +Bench, he says a gentleman whom he met at the +"Chapter" had promised to introduce him as a travelling +tutor to the young Duke of Northumberland; +"but, alas! I spoke no tongue but my own."</p> + +<p>Perhaps that very day Chatterton came, half<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span> +starved, and listened with eager ears to great +authors talking. Oliver Goldsmith dined there, +with Lloyd, that reckless friend of still more reckless +Churchill, and some Grub Street cronies, and +had to pay for the lot, Lloyd having quite forgotten +the important fact that he was moneyless. +Goldsmith's favourite seat at the "Chapter" became +a seat of honour, and was pointed out to visitors. +Leather tokens of the coffee-house are still in +existence.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell has sketched the "Chapter" in +1848, with its low heavy-beamed ceilings, wainscoted +rooms, and its broad, dark, shallow staircase. +She describes it as formerly frequented by +university men, country clergymen, and country +booksellers, who, friendless in London, liked to hear +the literary chat. Few persons slept there, and +in a long, low, dingy room upstairs the periodical +meetings of the trade were held. "The high, +narrow windows looked into the gloomy Row." +Nothing of motion or of change could be seen in +the grim, dark houses opposite, so near and close, +although the whole width of the Row was between. +The mighty roar of London ran round like the +sound of an unseen ocean, yet every footfall on +the pavement below might be heard distinctly in +that unfrequented street.</p> + +<p>The frequenters of the "Chapter Coffee House" +(1797-1805) have been carefully described by +Sir Richard Phillips. Alexander Stevens, editor +of the "Annual Biography and Obituary," was +one of the choice spirits who met nightly in the +"Wittinagemot," as it was called, or the north-east +corner box in the coffee-room. The neighbours, +who dropped in directly the morning papers +arrived, and before they were dried by the waiter, +were called the Wet Paper Club, and another set +intercepted the wet evening papers. Dr. Buchan, +author of that murderous book, "Domestic Medicine," +which teaches a man how to kill himself +and family cheaply, generally acted as moderator. +He was a handsome, white-haired man, a Tory, +a good-humoured companion, and a <i>bon vivant</i>. +If any one began to complain, or appear hypochondriacal, +he used to say—</p> + +<p>"Now let me prescribe for you, without a fee. +Here, John, bring a glass of punch for Mr. ——, +unless he likes brandy and water better. Now, +take that, sir, and I'll warrant you'll soon be well. +You're a peg too low; you want stimulus; and if +one glass won't do, call for a second."</p> + +<p>Dr. Gower, the urbane and able physician of +the Middlesex Hospital, was another frequent +visitor, as also that great eater and worker, Dr. +Fordyce, whose balance no potations could disturb.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span> +Fordyce had fashionable practice, and brought +rare news and much sound information on general +subjects. He came to the "Chapter" from his +wine, stayed about an hour, and sipped a glass of +brandy and water. He then took another glass +at the "London Coffee House," and a third at the +"Oxford," then wound home to his house in Essex +Street, Strand. The three doctors seldom agreed +on medical subjects, and laughed loudly at each +other's theories. They all, however, agreed in +regarding the "Chapter" punch as an infallible +and safe remedy for all ills.</p> + +<p>The standing men in the box were Hammond +and Murray. Hammond, a Coventry manufacturer, +had scarcely missed an evening at the +"Chapter" for forty-five years. His strictures on the +events of the day were thought severe but able, +and as a friend of liberty he had argued all through +the times of Wilkes and the French and American +wars. His Socratic arguments were very amusing. +Mr. Murray, the great referee of the Wittinagemot, +was a Scotch minister, who generally sat at the +"Chapter" reading papers from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. +He was known to have read straight through every +morning and evening paper published in London +for thirty years. His memory was so good that he +was always appealed to for dates and matters of +fact, but his mind was not remarkable for general +lucidity. Other friends of Stevens's were Dr. +Birdmore, the Master of the Charterhouse, who +abounded in anecdote; Walker, the rhetorician +and dictionary-maker, a most intelligent man, +with a fine enunciation, and Dr. Towers, a political +writer, who over his half-pint of Lisbon grew +sarcastic and lively. Also a grumbling man named +Dobson, who between asthmatic paroxysms vented +his spleen on all sides. Dobson was an author +and paradox-monger, but so devoid of principle +that he was deserted by all his friends, and would +have died from want, if Dr. Garthshore had not +placed him as a patient in an empty fever hospital. +Robinson, "the king of booksellers," and his +sensible brother John were also frequenters of the +"Chapter," as well as Joseph Johnson, the friend +of Priestley, Paine, Cowper, and Fuseli, from +St. Paul's Churchyard. Phillips, the speculative +bookseller, then commencing his <i>Monthly Magazine</i>, +came to the "Chapter" to look out for recruits, and +with his pockets well lined with guineas to enlist +them. He used to describe all the odd characters +at this coffee-house, from the glutton in politics, +who waited at daylight for the morning papers, to +the moping and disconsolate bachelor, who sat +till the fire was raked out by the sleepy waiter at +half-past twelve at night. These strange figures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span> +succeeded each other regularly, like the figures in +a magic lantern.</p> + +<p>Alexander Chalmers, editor of many works, +enlivened the Wittinagemot by many sallies of +wit and humour. He took great pains not to be +mistaken for a namesake of his, who, he used to +say, carried "the leaden mace." Other <i>habitués</i> +were the two Parrys, of the <i>Courier</i> and <i>Jacobite</i> +papers, and Captain Skinner, a man of elegant +manners, who represented England in the absurd +procession of all nations, devised by that German +revolutionary fanatic, Anacharsis Clootz, in Paris +in 1793. Baker, an ex-Spitalfields manufacturer, +a great talker and eater, joined the coterie regularly, +till he shot himself at his lodgings in Kirby +Street. It was discovered that his only meal +in the day had been the nightly supper at the +"Chapter," at the fixed price of a shilling, with a +supplementary pint of porter. When the shilling +could no longer be found for the supper, he killed +himself.</p> + +<p>Among other members of these pleasant coteries +were Lowndes, the electrician; Dr. Busby, the +musician; Cooke, the well-bred writer of conversation; +and Macfarlane, the author of "The History +of George III.," who was eventually killed by a +blow from the pole of a coach during an election +procession of Sir Francis Burdett at Brentford. +Another celebrity was a young man named Wilson, +called Langton, from his stories of the <i>haut ton</i>. +He ran up a score of £40, and then disappeared, +to the vexation of Mrs. Brown, the landlady, who +would willingly have welcomed him, even though +he never paid, as a means of amusing and detaining +customers. Waithman, the Common Councilman, +was always clear-headed and agreeable. There +was also Mr. Paterson, a long-headed, speculative +North Briton, who had taught Pitt mathematics. +But such coteries are like empires; they have +their rise and their fall. Dr. Buchan died; some +pert young sparks offended the Nestor, Hammond, +who gave up the place, after forty-five years' attendance, +and before 1820 the "Chapter" grew silent +and dull.</p> + +<p>The fourth edition of Dr. ——ell's "Antient and +Modern Geography," says Nicholls, was published +by an association of respectable booksellers, who +about the year 1719 entered into an especial partnership, +for the purpose of printing some expensive +works, and styled themselves "the Printing Conger." +The term "Conger" was supposed to have been +at first applied to them invidiously, alluding to the +conger eel, which is said to swallow the smaller +fry; or it may possibly have been taken from <i>congeries</i>. +The "Conger" met at the "Chapter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span></p> + +<p>The "Chapter" closed as a coffee-house in 1854, +and was altered into a tavern.</p> + +<p>One tragic memory, and one alone, as far as we +know, attaches to Paternoster Row. It was here, +in the reign of James I., that Mrs. Anne Turner +lived, at whose house the poisoning of Sir Thomas +Overbury was planned. It was here that Viscount +Rochester met the infamous Countess of Essex; +and it was Overbury's violent opposition to this +shameful intrigue that led to his death from arsenic +and diamond-dust, administered in the Tower by +Weston, a servant of Mrs. Turner's, who received +£180 for his trouble. Rochester and the Countess +were disgraced, but their lives were spared. The +Earl of Northampton, an accomplice of the +countess, died before Overbury succumbed to his +three months of torture.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Turner," says Sir Simonds d'Ewes, had +"first brought up that vain and foolish use of +yellow starch, coming herself to her trial in a yellow +band and cuffs; and therefore, when she was afterwards +executed at Tyburn, the hangman had his +band and cuffs of the same colour, which made +many after that day, of either sex, to forbear the +use of that coloured starch, till at last it grew generally +to be detested and disused."</p> + +<p>In a curious old print of West Chepe, date 1585, +in the vestry-room of St. Vedast's, Foster Lane, we +see St. Michael's, on the north side of Paternoster +Row. It is a plain dull building, with a low +square tower and pointed-headed windows. It was +chiefly remarkable as the burial-place of that indefatigable +antiquary, John Leland. This laborious +man, educated at St. Paul's School, was one of +the earliest Greek scholars in England, and one of +the deepest students of Welsh and Saxon. Henry +VIII. made him one of his chaplains, bestowed on +him several benefices, and gave him a roving commission +to visit the ruins of England and Wales and +inspect the records of collegiate and cathedral +libraries. He spent six years in this search, and +collected a vast mass of material, then retired +to his house in the parish of St. Michael-le-Quern +to note and arrange his treasures. His mind, +however, broke down under the load: he became +insane, and died in that dreadful darkness of the +soul, 1552. His great work, "The Itinerary of +Great Britain," was not published till after his +death. His large collections relating to London +antiquities were, unfortunately for us, lost. The old +church of "St. Michael ad Bladum," says Strype, "or +'at the Corn' (corruptly called the 'Quern') was so +called because in place thereof was sometime a corn-market, +stretching up west to the shambles. It +seemeth that this church was first builded about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span> +the reign of Edward III. Thomas Newton, first +parson there, was buried in the quire, in the year +1361, which was the 35th of Edward III. At the +east end of this church stood an old cross called +the Old Cross in West-cheap, which was taken +down in the 13th Richard II.; since the which time +the said parish church was also taken down, but +new builded and enlarged in the year 1430; the +8th Henry VI., William Eastfield, mayor, and the +commonalty, granting of the common soil of the +City three foot and a half in breadth on the north +part, and four foot in breadth towards the east, for +the inlarging thereof. This church was repaired, +and with all things either for use or beauty, richly +supplied and furnished, at the sole cost and charge +of the parishioners, in 1617. This church was +burnt down in the Great Fire, and remains unbuilt, +and laid into the street, but the conduit which was +formerly at the east end of the church still remains. +The parish is united to St. Vedast, Foster Lane. +At the east end of this church, in place of the old +cross, is now a water-conduit placed. William +Eastfield, maior, the 9th Henry VI., at the request +of divers common councels, granted it so to be. +Whereupon, in the 19th of the said Henry, 1,000 +marks was granted by a common councel towards +the works of this conduit, and the reparation of +others. This is called the Little Conduit in West +Cheap, by Paul's Gate. At the west end of this +parish church is a small passage for people on foot, +thorow the same church; and west from the same +church, some distance, is another passage out of +Paternoster Row, and is called (of such a sign) +Panyer Alley, which cometh out into the north, +over against St. Martin's Lane.</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">'When you have sought the city round,<br /> +Yet still this is the highest ground.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">August 27, 1688.'</span></div> + +<p>This is writ upon a stone raised, about the middle +of this Panier Alley, having the figure of a panier, +with a boy sitting upon it, with a bunch of grapes, +as it seems to be, held between his naked foot +and hand, in token, perhaps, of plenty."</p> + +<p>At the end of a somewhat long Latin epitaph +to Marcus Erington in this church occurred the +following lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Vita bonos, sed pœna malos, æterna capessit,<br /> +Vitæ bonis, sed pœna malis, per secula crescit.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His mors, his vita, perpetuatur ita."</span><br /> +</div> +<p>John Bankes, mercer and squire, who was interred +here, had a long epitaph, adorned with the following +verses:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Imbalmed in pious arts, wrapt in a shroud<br /> +Of white, innocuous charity, who vowed,<br /> +Having enough, the world should understand<br /> +No need of money might escape his hand;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span>Bankes here is laid asleepe—this place did breed him—<br /> +A precedent to all that shall succeed him.<br /> +Note both his life and immitable end;<br /> +Not he th' unrighteous mammon made his friend;<br /> +Expressing by his talents' rich increase<br /> +Service that gain'd him praise and lasting peace.<br /> +Much was to him committed, much he gave,<br /> +Ent'ring his treasure there whence all shall have<br /> +Returne with use: what to the poore is given<br /> +Claims a just promise of reward in heaven.<br /> +Even such a banke <i>Bankes</i> left behind at last,<br /> +Riches stor'd up, which age nor time can waste."</div> + +<p>On part of the site of the church of this parish, +after the fire of London in 1666, was erected a +conduit for supplying the neighbourhood with +water; but the same being found unnecessary, it +was, with others, pulled down anno 1727.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<p class="center">BAYNARD'S CASTLE, DOCTORS' COMMONS, AND HERALDS' COLLEGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Baron Fitzwalter and King John—The Duties of the Chief Bannerer of London—An Old-fashioned Punishment for Treason—Shakespearian +Allusions to Baynard's Castle—Doctors' Commons and its Five Courts—The Court of Probate Act, 1857—The Court of Arches—The Will +Office—Business of the Court—Prerogative Court—Faculty Office—Lord Stowell, the Admiralty Judge—Stories of Him—His Marriage—Sir +Herbert Jenner Fust—The Court "Rising"—Dr. Lushington—Marriage Licences—Old Weller and the "Touters"—Doctors' Commons +at the Present Day.</p></div> + + +<p>We have already made passing mention of Baynard's +Castle, the grim fortress near Blackfriars Bridge, +immediately below St. Paul's, where for several +centuries after the Conquest, Norman barons held +their state, and behind its stone ramparts maintained +their petty sovereignty.</p> + +<p>This castle took its name from Ralph Baynard, +one of those greedy and warlike Normans who +came over with the Conqueror, who bestowed on +him many marks of favour, among others the substantial +gift of the barony of Little Dunmow, in +Essex. This chieftain built the castle, which derived +its name from him, and, dying in the reign +of Rufus, the castle descended to his grandson, +Henry Baynard, who in 1111, however, forfeited it +to the Crown for taking part with Helias, Earl of +Mayne, who endeavoured to wrest his Norman +possessions from Henry I. The angry king bestowed +the barony and castle of Baynard, with all +its honours, on Robert Fitzgerald, son of Gilbert, +Earl of Clare, his steward and cup-bearer. Robert's +son, Walter, adhered to William de Longchamp, +Bishop of Ely, against John, Earl of Moreton, +brother of Richard Cœur de Lion. He, however, +kept tight hold of the river-side castle, which duly +descended to Robert, his son, who in 1213 became +castellan and standard-bearer of the city. +On this same banneret, in the midst of his +pride and prosperity, there fell a great sorrow. +The licentious tyrant, John, who spared none who +crossed his passions, fell in love with Matilda, +Fitz-Walter's fair daughter, and finding neither +father nor daughter compliant to his will, John +accused the castellan of abetting the discontented +barons, and attempted his arrest. But the river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span>-side +fortress was convenient for escape, and Fitz-Walter +flew to France. Tradition says that in +1214 King John invaded France, but that after +a time a truce was made between the two nations +for five years. There was a river, or arm of +the sea, flowing between the French and English +tents, and across this flood an English knight, +hungry for a fight, called out to the soldiers of the +Fleur de Lis to come over and try a joust or two +with him. At once Robert Fitz-Walter, with his +visor down, ferried over alone with his barbed horse, +and mounted ready for the fray. At the first course +he struck John's knight so fiercely with his great +spear, that both man and steed came rolling in a +clashing heap to the ground. Never was spear +better broken; and when the squires had gathered +up their discomfited master, and the supposed +French knight had recrossed the ferry, King John, +who delighted in a well-ridden course, cried out, +with his usual oath, "By God's sooth, he were a +king indeed who had such a knight!" Then the +friends of the banished man seized their opportunity, +and came running to the usurper, and knelt +down and said, "O king, he is your knight; it was +Robert Fitz-Walter who ran that joust." Whereupon +John, who could be generous when he could +gain anything by it, sent the next day for the good +knight, and restored him to his favour, allowed +him to rebuild Baynard's Castle, which had been +demolished by royal order, and made him, moreover, +governor of the Castle of Hertford.</p> + +<p>But Fitz-Walter could not forget the grave of his daughter, still green +at Dunmow (for Matilda, indomitable in her chastity, had been poisoned +by a messenger of John's, who sprinkled a deadly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span> powder over a +poached egg—at least, so the legend runs), and soon placed himself +at the head of those brave barons who the next year forced the tyrant to +sign Magna Charta at Runnymede. He was afterwards chosen general of the +barons' army, to keep John to his word, and styled "Marshal of the Army +of God and of the Church." He then (not having had knocks enough in +England) joined the Crusaders, and was present at the great siege of +Damietta. In 1216 (the first year of Henry III.) Fitz-Walter again +appears to the front, watchful of English liberty, for his Castle of +Hertford having been delivered to Louis of France, the dangerous ally of +the barons, he required of the French to leave the same, "because the +keeping thereof did by ancient right and title pertain to him." On which +Louis, says Stow, prematurely showing his claws, replied scornfully +"that Englishmen were not worthy to have such holds in keeping, because +they did betray their own lord;" but Louis not long after left England +rather suddenly, accelerated no doubt by certain movements of +Fitz-Walter and his brother barons.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="figure" id="figure"></a> +<img src="images/p282.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE FIGURE IN PANIER ALLEY</span> +</div> + +<p>Fitz-Walter dying, and +being buried at Dunmow, +the scene of his joys and +sorrows, was succeeded +by his son Walter, who was summoned to Chester +in the forty-third year of Henry III., to repel +the fierce and half-savage Welsh from the English +frontier. After Walter's death the barony of Baynard +was in the wardship of Henry III. during the +minority of Robert Fitz-Walter, who in 1303 claimed +his right as castellan and banner-bearer of the City +of London before John Blandon, or Blount, Mayor +of London. The old formularies on which Fitz-Walter +founded his claims are quoted by Stow +from an old record which is singularly quaint and +picturesque. The chief clauses run thus:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"The said Robert and his heirs are and ought to be chief bannerets of +London in fee, for the chastiliary which he and his ancestors had by +Castle Baynard in the said city. In time of war the said Robert and his +heirs ought to serve the city in manner as followeth—that is, the +said Robert ought to come, he being the twentieth man of arms, on +horseback, covered with cloth or armour, unto the great west door of St. +Paul's, with his banner displayed before him, and when he is so come, +mounted and apparelled, the mayor, with his aldermen and sheriffs armed +with their arms, shall come out of the said church with a banner in his +hand, all on foot, which banner shall be gules, the image of St. Paul +gold, the face, hands, feet, and sword of silver; and as soon as the +earl seeth the mayor come on foot out of the church, bearing such a +banner, he shall alight from his horse and salute the mayor, saying unto +him, 'Sir mayor, I am come to do my service which I owe to the city.' +And the mayor and aldermen shall reply, 'We give to you as our banneret +of fee in this city the banner of this city, to bear and govern, to the +honour of this city to your power;' and the earl, taking the banner in +his hands, shall go on foot out of the gate; and the mayor and his +company following to the door, shall bring a horse to the said Robert, +value twenty pounds, which horse shall be saddled with a saddle of the +arms of the said earl, and shall be covered with sindals of the said +arms. Also, they shall present him a purse of twenty pounds, delivering +it to his chamberlain, for his charges that day."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="michael" id="michael"></a> +<img src="images/p283.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL AD BLADUM</span> +</div> + +<p>The record goes on to say that when Robert is +mounted on his £20 horse, banner in hand, he shall +require the mayor to appoint a City Marshal (we +have all seen him with his cocked hat and subdued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span> +commander-in-chief manner), "and the commons +shall then assemble under the banner of St. Paul, +Robert bearing the banner to Aldgate, and then +delivering it up to some fit person. And if the +army have to go out of the city, Robert shall +choose two sage persons out of every ward to keep +the city in the absence of the army." And these +guardians were to be chosen in the priory of the +Trinity, near Aldgate. And for every town or +castle which the Lord of London besieged, if the +siege continued a whole year, the said Robert was +to receive for every siege, of the commonalty, one +hundred shillings and no more. These were +Robert Fitz-Walter's rights in times of war; in +times of peace his rights were also clearly defined. +His soke or ward in the City began at a wall of St. +Paul's canonry, which led down by the brewhouse +of St. Paul's to the river Thames, and so to the +side of a wall, which was in the water coming +down from Fleet Bridge. The ward went on by +London Wall, behind the house of the Black +Friars, to Ludgate, and it included all the parish of +St. Andrew. Any of his sokemen indicted at the +Guildhall of any offence not touching the body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span> +of the mayor or sheriff, was to be tried in the +court of the said Robert.</p> + +<p>"If any, therefore, be taken in his sokemanry, he +must have his stocks and imprisonment in his +soken, and he shall be brought before the mayor +and judgment given him, but it must not be published +till he come into the court of the said +earl, and in his liberty; and if he have deserved +death by treason, he is to be tied to a post in the +Thames, at a good wharf, where boats are fastened, +two ebbings and two flowings of the water(!) And +if he be condemned for a common theft, he ought +to be led to the elms, and there suffer his judgment +as other thieves. And so the said earl hath +honour, that he holdeth a great franchise within the +city, that the mayor must do him right; and when he +holdeth a great council, he ought to call the said +Robert, who should be sworn thereof, against all +people, saving the king and his heirs. And when +he cometh to the hustings at Guildhall, the mayor +ought to rise against him, and sit down near him, +so long as he remaineth, all judgments being given +by his mouth, according to the records of the said +Guildhall; and the waifes that come while he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span> +stayeth, he ought to give them to the town bailiff, +or to whom he will, by the counsel of the mayor."</p> + +<p>This old record seems to us especially quaint +and picturesque. The right of banner-bearer to +the City of London was evidently a privilege not to +be despised by even the proudest Norman baron, +however numerous were his men-at-arms, however +thick the forest of lances that followed at his back. +At the gates of many a refractory Essex or Hertfordshire +castle, no doubt, the Fitz-Walters flaunted +that great banner, that was emblazoned with the +image of St. Paul, with golden face and silver feet; +and the horse valued at £20, and the pouch with +twenty golden pieces, must by no means have +lessened the zeal and pride of the City castellan as +he led on his trusty archers, or urged forward the +half-stripped, sinewy men, who toiled at the catapult, +or bent down the mighty springs of the +terrible mangonel. Many a time through Aldgate +must the castellan have passed with glittering +armour and flaunting plume, eager to earn his +hundred shillings by the siege of a rebellious town.</p> + +<p>Then Robert was knighted by Edward I., and +the family continued in high honour and reputation +through many troubles and public calamities. +In the reign of Henry VI., when the male branch +died out, Anne, the heiress, married into the Ratcliffe +family, who revived the title of Fitz-Walter.</p> + +<p>It is not known how this castle came to the +Crown, but certain it is that on its being consumed +by fire in 1428 (Henry VI.), it was rebuilt by Humphrey, +the good duke of Gloucester. On his +death it was made a royal residence by Henry +VI., and by him granted to the Duke of York, +his luckless rival, who lodged here with his +factious retainers during the lulls in the wars of +York and Lancaster. In the year 1460, the Earl +of March, lodging in Castle Baynard, was informed +that his army and the Earl of Warwick had +declared that Henry VI. was no longer worthy to +reign, and had chosen him for their king. The +earl coquetted, as usurpers often do, with these +offers of the crown, declaring his insufficiency for +so great a charge, till yielding to the exhortations +of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of +Exeter, he at last consented. On the next day he +went to St. Paul's in procession, to hear the <i>Te +Deum</i>, and was then conveyed in state to Westminster, +and there, in the Hall, invested with the +sceptre by the confessor.</p> + +<p>At Baynard's Castle, too, that cruel usurper, +Richard III., practised the same arts as his predecessor. +Shakespeare, who has darkened Richard +almost to caricature, has left him the greatest +wretch existing in fiction. At Baynard's Castle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[Pg 589]</a></span> +our great poet makes Richard receive his accomplice +Buckingham, who had come from the Guildhall +with the Lord Mayor and aldermen to press +him to accept the crown; Richard is found by the +credulous citizens with a book of prayer in his +hand, standing between two bishops. This man, +who was already planning the murder of Hastings +and the two princes in the Tower, affected religious +scruples, and with well-feigned reluctance accepted +"the golden yoke of sovereignty."</p> + +<p>Thus at Baynard's Castle begins that darker part +of the Crookback's career, which led on by crime +after crime to the desperate struggle at Bosworth, +when, after slaying his rival's standard-bearer, +Richard was beaten down by swords and axes, and +his crown struck off into a hawthorn bush. The +defaced corpse of the usurper, stripped and gory, +was, as the old chroniclers tell us, thrown over a +horse and carried by a faithful herald to be buried +at Leicester. It is in vain that modern writers try +to prove that Richard was gentle and accomplished, +that this murder attributed to him was profitless +and impossible; his name will still remain in +history blackened and accursed by charges that +the great poet has turned into truth, and which, +indeed, are difficult to refute. That Richard might +have become a great, and wise, and powerful king, +is possible; but that he hesitated to commit crimes +to clear his way to the throne, which had so long +been struggled for by the Houses of York and +Lancaster, truth forbids us for a moment to doubt. +He seems to have been one of those dark, wily +natures that do not trust even their most intimate +accomplices, and to have worked in such darkness +that only the angels know what blows he struck, or +what murders he planned. One thing is certain, +that Henry, Clarence, Hastings, and the princes +died in terribly quick succession, and at most convenient +moments.</p> + +<p>Henry VIII. expended large sums in turning +Baynard's Castle from a fortress into a palace. +He frequently lodged there in burly majesty, +and entertained there the King of Castile, who +was driven to England by a tempest. The castle +then became the property of the Pembroke family, +and here, in July, 1553, the council was held in +which it was resolved to proclaim Mary Queen of +England, which was at once done at the Cheapside +Cross by sound of trumpet.</p> + +<p>Queen Elizabeth, who delighted to honour her +special favourites, once supped at Baynard's Castle +with the earl, and afterwards went on the river to +show herself to her loyal subjects. It is particularly +mentioned that the queen returned to her +palace at ten o'clock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Earls of Shrewsbury afterwards occupied the +castle, and resided there till it was burnt in the +Great Fire. On its site stand the Carron works +and the wharf of the Castle Baynard Copper Company.</p> + +<p>Adjoining Baynard's Castle once stood a tower +built by King Edward II., and bestowed by him +on William de Ross, for a rose yearly, paid in +lieu of all other services. The tower was in later +times called "the Legates' Tower." Westward +of this stood Montfichet Castle, and eastward of +Baynard's Castle the Tower Royal and the Tower +of London, so that the Thames was well guarded +from Ludgate to the citadel. All round this +neighbourhood, in the Middle Ages, great families +clustered. There was Beaumont Inn, near Paul's +Wharf, which, on the attainder of Lord Bardolf, +Edward IV. bestowed on his favourite, Lord +Hastings, whose death Richard III. (as we have +seen) planned at his very door. It was afterwards +Huntingdon House. Near Trigg Stairs the +Abbot of Chertsey had a mansion, afterwards the +residence of Lord Sandys. West of Paul's Wharf +(Henry VI.) was Scroope's Inn, and near that a +house belonging to the Abbey of Fescamp, given +by Edward III. to Sir Thomas Burley. In Carter +Lane was the mansion of the Priors of Okeborne, +in Wiltshire, and not far from the present Puddle +Dock was the great mansion of the Lords of +Berkley, where, in the reign of Henry VI., the king-making +Earl of Warwick kept tremendous state, +with a thousand swords ready to fly out if he even +raised a finger.</p> + +<p>And now, leaving barons, usurpers, and plotters, +we come to the Dean's Court archway of Doctors' +Commons, the portal guarded by ambiguous touters +for licences, men in white aprons, who look half +like confectioners, and half like disbanded watermen. +Here is the college of Doctors of Law, +provided for the ecclesiastical lawyers in the early +part of Queen Elizabeth's reign by Master Henry +Harvey, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Prebendary +of Ely, and Dean of the Arches; according +to Sir George Howes, "a reverend, learned, +and good man." The house had been inhabited +by Lord Mountjoy, and Dr. Harvey obtained a +lease of it for one hundred years of the Dean and +Chapter of St. Paul's, for the annual rent of five +marks. Before this the civilians and canonists had +lodged in a small inconvenient house in Paternoster +Row, afterwards the "Queen's Head Tavern." +Cardinal Wolsey, always magnificent in his schemes, +had planned a "fair college of stone" for the ecclesiastical +lawyers, the plan of which Sir Robert +Cotton possessed. In this college, in 1631, says<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[Pg 591]</a></span> +Buc, the Master of the Revels, lived in commons +with the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, +being a doctor of civil law, the Dean of the +Arches, the Judges of the Court of Delegates, the +Vicar-General, and the Master or Custos of the +Prerogative Court of Canterbury.</p> + +<p>Doctors' Commons, says Strype, "consists of five +courts—three appertaining to the see of Canterbury, +one to the see of London, and one to the Lords +Commissioners of the Admiralties." The functions +of these several courts he thus defines:—</p> + +<p>"Here are the courts kept for the practice of civil +or ecclesiastical causes. Several offices are also +here kept; as the Registrary of the Archbishop +of Canterbury, and the Registrary of the Bishop +of London.</p> + +<p>"The causes whereof the civil and ecclesiastical +law take cognisance are those that follow, as they +are enumerated in the 'Present State of England:'—Blasphemy, +apostacy from Christianity, +heresy, schism, ordinations, institutions of clerks to +benefices, celebration of Divine service, matrimony, +divorces, bastardy, tythes, oblations, obventions, +mortuaries, dilapidations, reparation of churches, +probate of wills, administrations, simony, incests, +fornications, adulteries, solicitation of chastity; +pensions, procurations, commutation of penance, +right of pews, and other such like, reducible to +those matters.</p> + +<p>"The courts belonging to the civil and ecclesiastical +laws are divers.</p> + +<p>"First, the Court of <i>Arches</i>, which is the highest +court belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury. +It was a court formerly kept in Bow Church in +Cheapside; and the church and tower thereof +being arched, the court was from thence called +<i>The Arches</i>, and so still is called. Hither are all +appeals directed in ecclesiastical matters within the +province of Canterbury. To this court belongs a +judge who is called <i>The Dean of the Arches</i>, so +styled because he hath a jurisdiction over a +deanery in London, consisting of thirteen parishes +exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of +London. This court hath (besides this judge) a +registrar or examiner, an actuary, a beadle or crier, +and an apparitor; besides advocates and procurators +or proctors. These, after they be once +admitted by warrant and commission directed from +the Archbishop, and by the Dean of the Arches, +may then (and not before) exercise as advocates +and proctors there, and in any other courts.</p> + +<p>"Secondly, the Court of <i>Audience</i>. This was a +court likewise of the Archbishop's, which he used +to hold in his own house, where he received causes, +complaints, and appeals, and had learned civilians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[Pg 592]</a></span> +living with him, that were auditors of the said +causes before the Archbishop gave sentence. This +court was kept in later times in St. Paul's. The +judge belonging to this court was stiled '<i>Causarum</i>, +negotiorumque Cantuarien, auditor officialis.' It +had also other officers, as the other courts.</p> + +<p>"Thirdly, the next court for civil causes belonging +to the Archbishop is the <i>Prerogative</i> Court, wherein +wills and testaments are proved, and all administrations +taken, which belongs to the Archbishop by +his prerogative, that is, by a special pre-eminence +that this see hath in certain causes above ordinary +bishops within his province; this takes place where +the deceased hath goods to the value of £5 out of +the diocese, and being of the diocese of London, +to the value of £10. If any contention grow, +touching any such wills or administrations, the +causes are debated and decided in this court.</p> + +<p>"Fourthly, the Court of <i>Faculties and Dispensations</i>, +whereby a privilege or special power is granted +to a person by favour and indulgence to do that +which by law otherwise he could not: as, to marry, +without banns first asked in the church three +several Sundays or holy days; the son to succeed +his father in his benefice; for one to have two or +more benefices incompatible; for non-residence, +and in other such like cases.</p> + +<p>"Fifthly, the Court of <i>Admiralty</i>, which was +erected in the reign of Edward III. This court +belongs to the Lord High Admiral of England, a +high officer that hath the government of the king's +navy, and the hearing of all causes relating to +merchants and mariners. He takes cognisance +of the death or mayhem of any man committed +in the great ships riding in great rivers, beneath +the bridges of the same next the sea. Also he +hath power to arrest ships in great streams for the +use of the king, or his wars. And in these things +this court is concerned.</p> + +<p>"To these I will add the Court of <i>Delegates</i>; +to which high court appeals do lie from any of +the former courts. This is the highest court for +civil causes. It was established by an Act in the +25th Henry VIII., cap. 19, wherein it was enacted, +'That it should be lawful, for lack of justice at or +in any of the Archbishop's courts, for the parties +grieved to appeal to the King's Majesty in his +Court of Chancery; and that, upon any such +appeal, a commission under the Great Seal should +be directed to such persons as should be named by +the king's highness (like as in case of appeal from +the Admiralty Court), to determine such appeals, +and the cases concerning the same. And no further +appeals to be had or made from the said commissioners +for the same.' These commissioners are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[Pg 593]</a></span> +appointed judges only for that turn; and they are +commonly of the spiritualty, or bishops; of the +common law, as judges of Westminster Hall; as +well as those of the civil law. And these are +mixed one with another, according to the nature of +the cause.</p> + +<p>"Lastly, sometimes a Commission of <i>Review</i> is +granted by the king under the Broad Seal, to +consider and judge again what was decreed in the +Court of Delegates. But this is but seldom, and +upon great, and such as shall be judged just, +causes by the Lord Keeper or High Chancellor. +And this done purely by the king's prerogative, +since by the Act for Delegates no further appeals +were to be laid or made from those commissioners, +as was mentioned before."</p> + +<p>The Act 20 & 21 Vict., cap. 77, called "The Court +of Probate Act, 1857," received the royal assent +on the 25th of August, 1857. This is the great +act which established the Court of Probate, and +abolished the jurisdiction of the courts ecclesiastical.</p> + +<p>The following, says Mr. Forster, are some of the +benefits resulting from the reform of the Ecclesiastical +Courts:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>That reform has reduced the depositaries for wills in this +country from nearly 400 to 40.</p> + +<p>It has brought complicated testamentary proceedings into +a system governed by one vigilant court.</p> + +<p>It has relieved the public anxiety respecting "the doom +of English wills" by placing them in the custody of responsible +men.</p> + +<p>It has thrown open the courts of law to the entire legal +profession.</p> + +<p>It has given the public the right to prove wills or obtain +letters of administration without professional assistance.</p> + +<p>It has given to literary men an interesting field for research.</p> + +<p>It has provided that which ancient Rome is said to have +possessed, but which London did not possess—viz., a place of +deposit for the wills of living persons.</p> + +<p>It has extended the English favourite mode of trial—viz., +trial by jury—by admitting jurors to try the validity of wills +and questions of divorce.</p> + +<p>It has made divorce not a matter of wealth but of justice: +the wealthy and the poor alike now only require a clear case +and "no collusion."</p> + +<p>It has enabled the humblest wife to obtain a "protection +order" for her property against an unprincipled husband.</p> + +<p>It has afforded persons wanting to establish legitimacy, the +validity of marriages, and the right to be deemed natural +born subjects, the means of so doing.</p> + +<p>Amongst its minor benefits it has enabled persons needing +copies of wills which have been proved since January, 1858, +in any part of the country, to obtain them from the principal +registry of the Court of Probate in Doctors' Commons.</p></div> + +<p>Sir Cresswell Cresswell was appointed Judge of +the Probate Court at its commencement. He was +likewise the first Judge of the Divorce Court.</p> + +<p>The College property—the freehold portion, +subject to a yearly rent-charge of £105, and to an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[Pg 594]</a></span> +annual payment of 5s. 4d., both payable to the Dean +and Chapter of St. Paul's—was put up for sale by +auction, in one lot, on November 28, 1862. The +place has now been demolished, and the materials +have been sold, the site being required in forming +the new thoroughfare from Earl Street, Blackfriars, +to the Mansion House; the roadway passes directly +through the College garden.</p> + +<p>Chaucer, in his "Canterbury Tales," gives an +unfavourable picture of the old sompnour (or apparitor +to the Ecclesiastical Court):—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A sompnour was ther with us in that place,<br /> +Thad hadde a fire-red cherubimes face;<br /> +For sausefleme he was, with eyen narwe.<br /> +As hote he was, and likerous as a sparwe,<br /> +With scalled browes blake, and pilled berd;<br /> +Of his visage children were sore aferd.<br /> +Ther n'as quiksilver, litarge, ne brimston,<br /> +Boras, ceruse, ne oile of Tartre non,<br /> +Ne oinement that wolde clense or bite,<br /> +That him might helpen of his whelkes white,<br /> +Ne of the nobbes sitting on his chekes.<br /> +Wel loved he garlike, onions, and lekes,<br /> +And for to drinke strong win as rede as blood.<br /> +Than wold he speke, and crie as he were wood.<br /> +And when that he wel dronken had the win,<br /> +Than wold he speken no word but Latin.<br /> +A fewe termes coude he, two or three,<br /> +That he had lerned out of some decree;<br /> +No wonder is, he herd it all the day.<br /> +And eke ye knowen wel, how that a jay<br /> +Can clepen watte, as well as can the pope.<br /> +But who so wolde in other thing him grope,<br /> +Than hadde he spent all his philosophie,<br /> +Ay, <i>Questio quid juris</i> wold he crie."</div> + +<p>In 1585 there were but sixteen or seventeen +doctors; in 1694 that swarm had increased to forty-four. +In 1595 there were but five proctors; in 1694 +there were forty-three. Yet even in Henry VIII.'s +time the proctors were complained of, for being so +numerous and clamorous that neither judges nor +advocates could be heard. Cranmer, to remedy +this evil, attempted to gradually reduce the number +to ten, which was petitioned against as insufficient +and tending to "delays and prolix suits."</p> + +<p>"Doctors' Commons," says Defoe, "was a name +very well known in Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, +because all ships that were taken during the last +wars, belonging to those nations, on suspicion of +trading with France, were brought to trial here; +which occasioned that sarcastic saying abroad +that we have often heard in conversation, that +England was a fine country, but a man called +Doctors' Commons was a devil, for there was no +getting out of his clutches, let one's cause be +never so good, without paying a great deal of +money."</p> + +<p>A writer in Knight's "London" (1843) gives a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[Pg 595]</a></span> +pleasant sketch of the Court of Arches in that year. +The Common Hall, where the Court of Arches, +the Prerogative Court, the Consistory Court, and +the Admiralty Court all held their sittings, was a +comfortable place, with dark polished wainscoting +reaching high up the walls, while above hung the +richly emblazoned arms of learned doctors dead +and gone; the fire burned cheerily in the central +stove. The dresses of the unengaged advocates +in scarlet and ermine, and of the proctors in +ermine and black, were picturesque. The opposing +advocates sat in high galleries, and the absence of +prisoner's dock and jury-box—nay, even of a +public—impressed the stranger with a sense of +agreeable novelty.</p> + +<p>Apropos of the Court of Arches once held in Bow +Church. "The Commissary Court of Surrey," +says Mr. Jeaffreson, in his "Book about the +Clergy," "still holds sittings in the Church of +St. Saviour's, Southwark; and any of my London +readers, who are at the small pains to visit that +noble church during a sitting of the Commissary's +Court, may ascertain for himself that, notwithstanding +our reverence for consecrated places, we +can still use them as chambers of justice. The +court, of course, is a spiritual court, but the great, +perhaps the greater, part of the business transacted +at its sittings is of an essentially secular kind."</p> + +<p>The nature of the business in the Court of +Arches may be best shown by the brief summary +given in the report for three years—1827, 1828, and +1829. There were 21 matrimonial cases; 1 of +defamation; 4 of brawling; 5 church-smiting; 1 +church-rate; 1 legacy; 1 tithes; 4 correction. +Of these 17 were appeals from the courts, and 21 +original suits.</p> + +<p>The cases in the Court of Arches were often +very trivial. "There was a case," says Dr. Nicholls, +"in which the cause had originally commenced +in the Archdeacon's Court at Totnes, and thence +there had been an appeal to the Court at Exeter, +thence to the Arches, and thence to the Delegates; +after all, the issue having been simply, which of +two persons had the right of hanging his hat on a +particular peg." The other is of a sadder cast, +and calculated to arouse a just indignation. Our +authority is Mr. T.W. Sweet (Report on Eccles. +Courts), who states: "In one instance, many +years since, a suit was instituted which I thought +produced a great deal of inconvenience and distress. +It was the case of a person of the name of Russell, +whose wife was supposed to have had her character +impugned at Yarmouth by a Mr. Bentham. He +had no remedy at law for the attack upon the +lady's character, and a suit for defamation was insti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[Pg 596]</a></span>tuted +in the Commons. It was supposed the suit +would be attended with very little expense, but I +believe in the end it greatly contributed to ruin +the party who instituted it; I think he said his +proctor's bill would be £700. It went through +several courts, and ultimately, I believe (according +to the decision or agreement), each party paid his +own costs." It appears from the evidence subsequently +given by the proctor, that he very humanely +declined pressing him for payment, and never +was paid; and yet the case, through the continued +anxiety and loss of time incurred for six or seven +years (for the suit lasted that time), mainly contributed, +it appears, to the party's ruin.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="prerogative" id="prerogative"></a> +<img src="images/p288.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE PREROGATIVE OFFICE, DOCTORS' COMMONS</span> +</div> + +<p>As the law once stood, says a writer in Knight's +"London," if a person died possessed of property<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[Pg 597]</a></span> +lying entirely within the diocese where he died, +probate or proof of the will is made, or administration +taken out, before the bishop or ordinary +of that diocese; but if there were goods and +chattels only to the amount of £5 (except in the +diocese of London, where the amount is £10)—in +legal parlance, <i>bona notabilia</i>—within any other +diocese, and which is generally the case, then the +jurisdiction lies in the Prerogative Court of the +Archbishop of the province—that is, either at York +or at Doctors' Commons; the latter, we need hardly +say, being the Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. +The two Prerogative Courts therefore engross +the great proportion of the business of this kind +through the country, for although the Ecclesiastical +Courts have no power over the bequests of or suc<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[Pg 598]</a></span>cession +to unmixed real property, if such were left, +cases of that nature seldom or never occur. And, +as between the two provinces, not only is that of +Canterbury much more important and extensive, +but since the introduction of the funding system, and +the extensive diffusion of such property, nearly all +wills of importance belonging even to the Province +of York are also proved in Doctors' Commons, on +account of the rule of the Bank of England to +acknowledge no probate of wills but from thence. +To this cause, amongst others, may be attributed +the striking fact that the business of this court +between the three years ending with 1789, and the +three years ending with 1829, had been doubled. +Of the vast number of persons affected, or at +least interested in this business, we see not only +from the crowded rooms, but also from the statement +given in the report of the select committee +on the Admiralty and other Courts of Doctors' +Commons in 1833, where it appears that in one +year (1829) the number of searches amounted to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[Pg 599]</a></span> +30,000. In the same year extracts were taken +from wills in 6,414 cases.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="neighbourhood" id="neighbourhood"></a> +<img src="images/p289.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. PAUL'S AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. (<i>From Aggas' Plan, 1563.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>On the south side is the entry to the Prerogative +Court, and at No. 10 the Faculty Office. +They have no marriage licences at the Faculty +Office of an earlier date than October, 1632, and +up to 1695 they are only imperfectly preserved. +There is a MS. index to the licences prior to 1695, +for which the charge for a search is 4s. 6d. Since +1695 the licences have been regularly kept, and +the fee for searching is a shilling.</p> + +<p>The great Admiralty judge of the early part of +this century was Dr. Johnson's friend, Lord Stowell, +the brother of Lord Eldon.</p> + +<p>According to Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, Lord +Stowell's decisions during the war have since formed +a code of international law, almost universally recognised. +In one year alone (1806) he pronounced +2,206 decrees. Lord Stowell (then Dr. Scott) was +made Advocate-General in Doctors' Commons in +1788, and Vicar-General or official principal for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[Pg 600]</a></span> +Archbishop of Canterbury. Soon after he became +Master of the Faculties, and in 1798 was nominated +Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, the highest +dignity of the Doctors' Commons Courts. During +the great French war, it is said Dr. Scott sometimes +received as much as £1,000 a case for fees +and perquisites in a prize cause. He left at his +death personal property exceeding £200,000. He +used to say that he admired above all other investments +"the sweet simplicity of the Three per +Cents.," and when purchasing estate after estate, +observed "he liked plenty of elbow-room."</p> + +<p>"It was," says Warton, "by visiting Sir Robert +Chambers, when a fellow of University, that +Johnson became acquainted with Lord Stowell; +and when Chambers went to India, Lord Stowell, +as he expressed it to me, seemed to succeed to his +place in Johnson's friendship."</p> + +<p>"Sir William Scott (Lord Stowell)," says Boswell, +"told me that when he complained of a headache +in the post-chaise, as they were travelling together +to Scotland, Johnson treated him in a rough manner—'At +your age, sir, I had no headache.'</p> + +<p>"Mr. Scott's amiable manners and attachment +to our Socrates," says Boswell in Edinburgh, "at +once united me to him. He told me that before +I came in the doctor had unluckily had a bad +specimen of Scottish cleanliness. He then drank +no fermented liquor. He asked to have his +lemonade made sweeter; upon which the waiter, +with his greasy fingers, lifted a lump of sugar and +put it into it. The doctor, in indignation, threw +it out. Scott said he was afraid he would have +knocked the waiter down."</p> + +<p>Again Boswell says:—"We dined together with +Mr. Scott, now Sir William Scott, his Majesty's +Advocate-General, at his chambers in the Temple—nobody +else there. The company being so +small, Johnson was not in such high spirits as +he had been the preceding day, and for a considerable +time little was said. At last he burst +forth—'Subordination is sadly broken down in +this age. No man, now, has the same authority +which his father had—except a gaoler. No master +has it over his servants; it is diminished in our +colleges; nay, in our grammar schools.'"</p> + +<p>"Sir William Scott informs me that on the death +of the late Lord Lichfield, who was Chancellor of +the University of Oxford, he said to Johnson, 'What +a pity it is, sir, that you did not follow the profession +of the law! You might have been Lord +Chancellor of Great Britain, and attained to the +dignity of the peerage; and now that the title of +Lichfield, your native city, is extinct, you might +have had it.' Johnson upon this seemed much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[Pg 601]</a></span> +agitated, and in an angry tone exclaimed, 'Why +will you vex me by suggesting this when it is too +late?'"</p> + +<p>The strange marriage of Lord Stowell and the +Marchioness of Sligo has been excellently described +by Mr. Jeaffreson in his "Book of Lawyers."</p> + +<p>"On April 10, 1813," says our author, "the +decorous Sir William Scott, and Louisa Catherine, +widow of John, Marquis of Sligo, and daughter of +Admiral Lord Howe, were united in the bonds of +holy wedlock, to the infinite amusement of the +world of fashion, and to the speedy humiliation of +the bridegroom. So incensed was Lord Eldon at +his brother's folly that he refused to appear at the +wedding; and certainly the chancellor's displeasure +was not without reason, for the notorious absurdity +of the affair brought ridicule on the whole of the +Scott family connection. The happy couple met +for the first time in the Old Bailey, when Sir William +Scott and Lord Ellenborough presided at the trial +of the marchioness's son, the young Marquis of +Sligo, who had incurred the anger of the law by +luring into his yacht, in Mediterranean waters, two +of the king's seamen. Throughout the hearing of +that <i>cause célèbre</i>, the Marchioness sat in the fetid +court of the Old Bailey, in the hope that her +presence might rouse amongst the jury or in the +bench feelings favourable to her son. This hope +was disappointed. The verdict having been given +against the young peer, he was ordered to pay a +fine of £5,000, and undergo four months' incarceration +in Newgate, and—worse than fine and +imprisonment—was compelled to listen to a +parental address, from Sir William Scott, on the +duties and responsibilities of men of high station. +Either under the influence of sincere admiration +for the judge, or impelled by desire of vengeance +on the man who had presumed to lecture her son +in a court of justice, the marchioness wrote a few +hasty words of thanks to Sir William Scott, for his +salutary exhortation to her boy. She even went so +far as to say that she wished the erring marquis +could always have so wise a counsellor at his side. +This communication was made upon a slip of paper, +which the writer sent to the judge by an usher of +the court. Sir William read the note as he sat on +the bench, and having looked towards the fair +scribe, he received from her a glance and a smile +that were fruitful of much misery to him. Within +four months the courteous Sir William Scott was +tied fast to a beautiful, shrill, voluble termagant, who +exercised marvellous ingenuity in rendering him +wretched and contemptible. Reared in a stately +school of old-world politeness, the unhappy man +was a model of decorum and urbanity. He took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[Pg 602]</a></span> +reasonable pride in the perfection of his tone and +manner, and the marchioness—whose malice did +not lack cleverness—was never more happy than +when she was gravely expostulating with him, in +the presence of numerous auditors, on his lamentable +want of style and gentleman-like bearing. It +is said that, like Coke and Holt under similar +circumstances, Sir William preferred the quietude +of his chambers to the society of an unruly wife, +and that in the cellar of his inn he sought compensation +for the indignities and sufferings which +he endured at home."</p> + +<p>"Sir William Scott," says Mr. Surtees, then "removed +from Doctors' Commons to his wife's house +in Grafton Street, and, ever economical in his +domestic expenses, brought with him his own door-plate, +and placed it under the pre-existing plate of +Lady Sligo, instead of getting a new door-plate for +them both. Immediately after the marriage, Mr. +Jekyll, so well known in the earliest part of this +century for his puns and humour, happening to +observe the position of these plates, condoled with +Sir William on having to 'knock under.' There +was too much truth in the joke for it to be inwardly +relished, and Sir William ordered the plates to be +transposed. A few weeks later Jekyll accompanied +his friend Scott as far as the door, when the latter +observed, 'You see I don't knock under now.' +'Not now,' was the answer received by the antiquated +bridegroom; '<i>now</i> you knock up.'"</p> + +<p>There is a good story current of Lord Stowell in +Newcastle, that, when advanced in age and rank, +he visited the school of his boyhood. An old +woman, whose business was to clean out and keep +the key of the school-room, conducted him. She +knew the name and station of the personage whom +she accompanied. She naturally expected some +recompense—half-a-crown perhaps—perhaps, since +he was so great a man, five shillings. But he +lingered over the books, and asked a thousand +questions about the fate of his old school-fellows; +and as he talked her expectation rose—half-a-guinea—a +guinea—nay, possibly (since she had been so +long connected with the school in which the great +man took so deep an interest) some little annuity! +He wished her good-bye kindly, called her a good +woman, and slipped a piece of money into her +hand—it was a sixpence!</p> + +<p>"Lord Stowell," says Mr. Surtees, "was a great +eater. As Lord Eldon had for his favourite dish +liver and bacon, so his brother had a favourite +quite as homely, with which his intimate friends, +when he dined with them, would treat him. It was +a rich pie, compounded of beef steaks and layers +of oysters. Yet the feats which Lord Stowell per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[Pg 603]</a></span>formed +with the knife and fork were eclipsed by +those which he would afterwards display with the +bottle, and two bottles of port formed with him no +uncommon potation. By wine, however, he was +never, in advanced life at any rate, seen to be +affected. His mode of living suited and improved +his constitution, and his strength long increased +with his years."</p> + +<p>At the western end of Holborn there was a room +generally let for exhibitions. At the entrance Lord +Stowell presented himself, eager to see the "green +monster serpent," which had lately issued cards of +invitation to the public. As he was pulling out his +purse to pay for his admission, a sharp but honest +north-country lad, whose business it was to take the +money, recognised him as an old customer, and, +knowing his name, thus addressed him: "We can't +take your shilling, my lord; 'tis t' old serpent, +which you have seen six times before, in other +colours; but ye can go in and see her." He +entered, saved his money, and enjoyed his seventh +visit to the "real original old sea-sarpint."</p> + +<p>Of Lord Stowell it has been said by Lord +Brougham that "his vast superiority was apparent +when, as from an eminence, he was called to survey +the whole field of dispute, and to unravel the +variegated facts, disentangle the intricate mazes, +and array the conflicting reasons, which were calculated +to distract or suspend men's judgment." +And Brougham adds that "if ever the praise of +being luminous could be bestowed upon human +compositions, it was upon his."</p> + +<p>It would be impossible with the space at our +command to give anything like a tithe of the good +stories of this celebrated judge. We must pass on +to other famous men who have sat on the judicial +bench in Doctors' Commons.</p> + +<p>Of Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, one of the great +ecclesiastical judges of modern times, Mr. Jeaffreson +tells a good story:—</p> + +<p>"In old Sir Herbert's later days it was no mere +pleasantry, or bold figure of speech, to say that +the court had risen, for he used to be lifted from +his chair and carried bodily from the chamber of +justice by two brawny footmen. Of course, as +soon as the judge was about to be elevated by his +bearers, the bar rose; and, also as a matter of +course, the bar continued to stand until the strong +porters had conveyed their weighty and venerable +burden along the platform behind one of the rows +of advocates and out of sight. As the trio worked +their laborious way along the platform, there seemed +to be some danger that they might blunder and fall +through one of the windows into the space behind +the court; and at a time when Sir Herbert and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[Pg 604]</a></span> +Dr. —— were at open variance, that waspish +advocate had, on one occasion, the bad taste to +keep his seat at the rising of the court, and with +characteristic malevolence of expression say to the +footmen, 'Mind, my men, and take care of that +judge of yours; or, by Jove, you'll pitch him out +of the window.' It is needless to say that this +brutal speech did not raise the speaker in the +opinion of the hearers."</p> + +<p>Dr. Lushington, recently deceased, aged ninety-one, +is another ecclesiastical judge deserving notice. +He entered Parliament in 1807, and retired in +1841. He began his political career when the +Portland Administration (Perceval, Castlereagh, and +Canning) ruled, and was always a steadfast reformer +through good and evil report. He was one of the +counsel for Queen Caroline, and aided Brougham +and Denman in the popular triumph. He worked +hard against slavery and for Parliamentary reform, +and had not only heard many of Sir Robert Peel +and Lord John Russell's earliest speeches, but +also those of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli. +"Though it seemed," says the <i>Daily News</i>, "a little +incongruous that questions of faith and ritual in the +Church, and those of seizures or accidents at sea, +should be adjudicated on by the same person, it +was always felt that his decisions were based on +ample knowledge of the law and diligent attention +to the special circumstances of the individual case. +As Dean of Arches he was called to pronounce +judgment in some of the most exciting ecclesiastical +suits of modern times. When the first +prosecutions were directed against the Ritualistic +innovators, as they were then called, of St. Barnabas, +both sides congratulated themselves that the judgment +would be given by so venerable and experienced +a judge; and perhaps the dissatisfaction of +both sides with the judgment proved its justice. +In the prosecution of the Rev. H.B. Wilson and +Dr. Rowland Williams, Dr. Lushington again pronounced +a judgment which, contrary to popular +expectation, was reversed on appeal by the Judicial +Committee of the Privy Council."</p> + +<p>But how can we leave Doctors' Commons +without remembering—as we see the touters for +licences, who look like half pie-men, half watermen—Sam +Weller's inimitable description of the trap +into which his father fell?</p> + +<p>"Paul's Churchyard, sir," says Sam to Jingle; +"a low archway on the carriage-side; bookseller's +at one corner, hotel on the other, and two porters +in the middle as touts for licences."</p> + +<p>"Touts for licences!" said the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Touts for licences," replied Sam. "Two coves +in white aprons, touches their hats when you walk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[Pg 605]</a></span> +in—'Licence, sir, licence?' Queer sort them, and +their mas'rs, too, sir—Old Bailey proctors—and no +mistake."</p> + +<p>"What do they do?" inquired the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Do! <i>you</i>, sir! That ain't the worst on't, +neither. They puts things into old gen'lm'n's +heads as they never dreamed of. My father, sir, +was a coachman, a widower he wos, and fat enough +for anything—uncommon fat, to be sure. His +missus dies, and leaves him four hundred pound. +Down he goes to the Commons to see the lawyer, +and draw the blunt—very smart—top-boots on—nosegay +in his button-hole—broad-brimmed tile—green +shawl—quite the gen'lm'n. Goes through +the archway, thinking how he should inwest the +money; up comes the touter, touches his hat-'Licence, +sir, licence?' 'What's that?' says my +father. 'Licence, sir,' says he. 'What licence,' +says my father. 'Marriage licence,' says the +touter. 'Dash my weskit,' says my father, 'I +never thought o' that.' 'I thinks you want one, +sir,' says the touter. My father pulls up and thinks +a bit. 'No,' says he, 'damme, I'm too old, b'sides +I'm a many sizes too large,' says he. 'Not a bit +on it, sir,' says the touter. 'Think not?' says my +father. 'I'm sure not,' says he; 'we married a +gen'lm'n twice your size last Monday.' 'Did you, +though?' said my father. 'To be sure we did,' says +the touter, 'you're a babby to him—this way, sir—this +way!' And sure enough my father walks arter +him, like a tame monkey behind a horgan, into a +little back office, vere a feller sat among dirty +papers, and tin boxes, making believe he was busy. +'Pray take a seat, vile I makes out the affidavit, +sir,' says the lawyer. 'Thankee, sir,' says my +father, and down he sat, and stared with all his +eyes, and his mouth wide open, at the names on +the boxes. 'What's your name, sir?' says the +lawyer. 'Tony Weller,' says my father. 'Parish?' +says the lawyer. 'Belle Savage,' says my father; +for he stopped there when he drove up, and he +know'd nothing about parishes, <i>he</i> didn't. 'And +what's the lady's name?' says the lawyer. My +father was struck all of a heap. 'Blessed if I know,' +says he. 'Not know!' says the lawyer. 'No more +nor you do,' says my father; 'can't I put that in +arterwards?' 'Impossible!' says the lawyer. +'Wery well,' says my father, after he'd thought a +moment, 'put down Mrs. Clarke.' 'What Clarke?' +says the lawyer, dipping his pen in the ink. +'Susan Clarke, Markis o' Granby, Dorking,' says +my father; 'she'll have me if I ask, I dessay—I +never said nothing to her; but she'll have me, I +know.' The licence was made out, and she <i>did</i> +have him, and what's more she's got him now; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[Pg 606]</a></span> +<i>I</i> never had any of the four hundred pound, worse +luck. Beg your pardon, sir," said Sam, when he +had concluded, "but when I gets on this here +grievance, I runs on like a new barrow with the +wheel greased."</p> + +<p>Doctors' Commons is now a ruin. The spider +builds where the proctor once wove his sticky web. +The college, rebuilt after the Great Fire, is described +by Elmes as an old brick building in the Carolean +style, the interior consisting of two quadrangles once +occupied by the doctors, a hall for the hearing of +causes, a spacious library, a refectory, and other +useful apartments. In 1867, when Doctors' Commons +was deserted by the proctors, a clever London +essayist sketched the ruins very graphically, at the +time when the Metropolitan Fire Brigade occupied +the lawyers' deserted town:—</p> + +<p>"A deserted justice-hall, with dirty mouldering +walls, broken doors and windows, shattered floor, +and crumbling ceiling. The dust and fog of long-forgotten +causes lowering everywhere, making the +small leaden-framed panes of glass opaque, the +dark wainscot grey, coating the dark rafters with +a heavy dingy fur, and lading the atmosphere with +a close unwholesome smell. Time and neglect +have made the once-white ceiling like a huge map, +in which black and swollen rivers and tangled +mountain ranges are struggling for pre-eminence. +Melancholy, decay, and desolation are on all sides. +The holy of holies, where the profane vulgar could +not tread, but which was sacred to the venerable +gowned figures who cozily took it in turns to +dispense justice and to plead, is now open to any +passer-by. Where the public were permitted to +listen is bare and shabby as a well-plucked client. +The inner door of long-discoloured baize flaps +listlessly on its hinges, and the true law-court little +entrance-box it half shuts in is a mere nest for +spiders. A large red shaft, with the word 'broken' +rudely scrawled on it in chalk, stands where the +judgment-seat was formerly; long rows of ugly +piping, like so many shiny dirty serpents, occupy +the seats of honour round it; staring red vehicles, +with odd brass fittings: buckets, helmets, axes, and +old uniforms fill up the remainder of the space. +A very few years ago this was the snuggest little +law-nest in the world; now it is a hospital and +store-room for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. For +we are in Doctors' Commons, and lawyers themselves +will be startled to learn that the old Arches +Court, the old Admiralty Court, the old Prerogative +Court, the old Consistory Court, the old harbour +for delegates, chancellors, vicars-general, commissaries, +prothonotaries, cursitors, seal-keepers, serjeants-at-mace, +doctors, deans, apparitors, proctors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[Pg 607]</a></span> +and what not, is being applied to such useful purposes +now. Let the reader leave the bustle of +St. Paul's Churchyard, and, turning under the archway +where a noble army of white-aproned touters +formerly stood, cross Knightrider Street and enter +the Commons. The square itself is a memorial of +the mutability of human affairs. Its big sombre +houses are closed. The well-known names of the +learned doctors who formerly practised in the +adjacent courts are still on the doors, but have, in +each instance, 'All letters and parcels to be addressed' +Belgravia, or to one of the western inns +of court, as their accompaniment. The one court +in which ecclesiastical, testamentary, and maritime +law was tried alternately, and which, as we have +seen, is now ending its days shabbily, but usefully, +is through the further archway to the left. Here +the smack <i>Henry and Betsy</i> would bring its action +for salvage against the schooner <i>Mary Jane</i>; here +a favoured gentleman was occasionally 'admitted a +proctor exercent by virtue of a rescript;' here, as +we learnt with awe, proceedings for divorce were +'carried on in pœnam,' and 'the learned judge, +without entering into the facts, declared himself +quite satisfied with the evidence, and pronounced +for the separation;' and here the Dean of Peculiars +settled his differences with the eccentrics who, +I presume, were under his charge, and to whom +he owed his title."</p> + +<p>Such are the changes that take place in our +Protean city! Already we have seen a palace in +Blackfriars turn into a prison, and the old courts of +Fleet Street, once mansions of the rich and great, +now filled with struggling poor. The great synagogue +in the Old Jewry became a tavern; the +palace of the Savoy a barracks. These changes it +is our special province to record, as to trace them +is our peculiar function.</p> + +<p>The Prerogative Will Office contains many last +wills and testaments of great interest. There is +a will written in short-hand, and one on a bed-post; +but what are these to that of Shakspeare, three folio +sheets, and his signature to each sheet? Why he left +only his best bed to his wife long puzzled the antiquaries, +but has since been explained. There is +(or rather was, for it has now gone to Paris) the +will of Napoleon abusing "the oligarch" Wellington, +and leaving 10,000 francs to the French officer Cantello, +who was accused of a desire to assassinate the +"Iron Duke." There are also the wills of Vandyke +the painter, who died close by; Inigo Jones, Ben +Jonson's rival in the Court masques of James and +Charles; Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Johnson, good old +Izaak Walton, and indeed almost everybody who +had property in the south.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[Pg 608]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="heralds" id="heralds"></a> +<img src="images/p294.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />HERALDS' COLLEGE. (<i>From an old Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<p class="center">HERALDS' COLLEGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Early Homes of the Heralds—The Constitution of the Herald's College—Garter King at Arms—Clarencieux and Norroy—The Pursuivants—Duties +and Privileges of Heralds—Good, Bad, and Jovial Heralds—A Notable Norroy King at Arms—The Tragic End of Two Famous +Heralds—The College of Arms' Library.</p></div> + + +<p>Turning from the black dome of St. Paul's, and +the mean archway of Dean's Court, into a region of +gorgeous blazonments, we come to that quiet and +grave house, like an old nobleman's, that stands +aside from the new street from the Embankment, +like an aristocrat shrinking from a crowd. The +original Heralds' College, Cold Harbour House, +founded by Richard II., stood in Poultney Lane, +but the heralds were turned out by Henry VII., +who gave their mansion to Bishop Tunstal, whom +he had driven from Durham Place. The heralds +then retired to Ronceval Priory, at Charing Cross +(afterwards Northumberland Place). Queen Mary, +however, in 1555 gave Gilbert Dethick, Garter +King of Arms, and the other heralds and pursuivants, +their present college, formerly Derby<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[Pg 609]</a></span> +House, which had belonged to the first Earl of +Derby, who married Lady Margaret, Countess of +Richmond, mother to King Henry VII. The +grant specified that there the heralds might dwell +together, and "at meet times congregate, speak, +confer, and agree among themselves, for the good +government of the faculty."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="last" id="last"></a> +<img src="images/p295.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE LAST HERALDIC COURT. (<i>From an Old Picture in the Heralds' College; the Figures by Rowlandson, Architecture by Wash.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>The College of Arms, on the east side of St. +Bennet's Hill, was swept before the Great Fire of +1666; but all the records and books, except one or +two, were preserved. The estimate for the rebuilding +was only £5,000, but the City being drained of +money, it was attempted to raise the money by +subscription; only £700 was so raised, the rest +was paid from office fees, Sir William Dugdale +building the north-west corner at his own charge, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[Pg 611]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[Pg 610]</a></span>and Sir Henry St. George, Clarencieux, giving £530. +This handsome and dignified brick building, completed +in 1683, is ornamented with Ionic pilasters, +that support an angular pediment, and the "hollow +arch of the gateway" was formerly considered a +curiosity. The central wainscoted hall is where +the Courts of Sessions were at one time held; +to the left is the library and search-room, round +the top of which runs a gallery; on either side +are the apartments of the kings, heralds, and +pursuivants.</p> + +<p>"This corporation," we are told, "consists of +thirteen members—viz., three kings at arms, six +heralds at arms, and four pursuivants at arms; they +are nominated by the Earl Marshal of England, as +ministers subordinate to him in the execution of +their offices, and hold their places patent during their +good behaviour. They are thus distinguished:—</p> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="heralds"> +<tr><td align='center'><i>Kings at Arms.</i></td><td align='center'><i>Heralds.</i></td><td align='center'><i>Pursuivants.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Garter.</td><td align='left'>Somerset.</td><td align='left'>Rouge Dragon.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Clarencieux.</td><td align='left'>Richmond.</td><td align='left'>Blue Mantle.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Norroy.</td><td align='left'>Lancaster.</td><td align='left'>Portcullis.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Windsor.</td><td align='left'>Rouge Croix.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Chester.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>York.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>"However ancient the offices of heralds may be, +we have hardly any memory of their titles or names +before Edward III. In his reign military glory +and heraldry were in high esteem, and the patents +of the King of Arms at this day refer to the reign +of King Edward III. The king created the two +provincials, by the titles of Clarencieux and Norroy; +he instituted Windsor and Chester heralds, and +Blue Mantle pursuivant, beside several others by +foreign titles. From this time we find the officers +of arms employed at home and abroad, both in +military and civil affairs: military, with our kings +and generals in the army, carrying defiances and +making truces, or attending tilts, tournaments, and +duels; as civil officers, in negotiations, and attending +our ambassadors in foreign Courts; at home, +waiting upon the king at Court and Parliament, +and directing public ceremonies.</p> + +<p>"In the fifth year of King Henry V. armorial +bearings were put under regulations, and it was +declared that no persons should bear coat arms that +could not justify their right thereto by prescription +or grant; and from this time they were communicated +to persons as <i>insignia</i>, <i>gentilitia</i>, and hereditary +marks of <i>noblesse</i>. About the same time, or +soon after, this victorious prince instituted the +office of Garter King of Arms; and at a Chapter +of the Kings and Heralds, held at the siege of +Rouen in Normandy, on the 5th of January, 1420, +they formed themselves into a regular society,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[Pg 612]</a></span> +with a common seal, receiving Garter as their +chief.</p> + +<p>"The office of Garter King at Arms was instituted +for the service of the Most Noble Order +of the Garter; and, for the dignity of that order, +he was made sovereign within the office of arms, +over all the other officers, subject to the Crown of +England, by the name of Garter King at Arms of +England. By the constitution of his office he must +be a native of England, and a gentleman bearing +arms. To him belongs the correction of arms, +and all ensigns of arms, usurped or borne unjustly, +and the power of granting arms to deserving persons, +and supporters to the nobility and Knights +of the Bath. It is likewise his office to go next +before the sword in solemn processions, none interposing +except the marshal; to administer the oath +to all the officers of arms; to have a habit like +the registrar of the order, baron's service in the +Court, lodgings in Windsor Castle; to bear his +white rod, with a banner of the ensigns of the +order thereon, before the sovereign; also, when +any lord shall enter the Parliament chamber, to +assign him his place, according to his degree; to +carry the ensigns of the order to foreign princes, +and to do, or procure to be done, what the +sovereign shall enjoin relating to the order, with +other duties incident to his office of principal +King of Arms. The other two kings are called +Provincial kings, who have particular provinces +assigned them, which together comprise the whole +kingdom of England—that of Clarencieux comprehending +all from the river Trent southwards; +that of Norroy, or North Roy, all from the river +Trent northward. These Kings at Arms are distinguished +from each other by their respective +badges, which they may wear at all times, either +in a gold chain or a ribbon, Garters being blue, +and the Provincials purple.</p> + +<p>"The six heralds take place according to +seniority in office. They are created with the same +ceremonies as the kings, taking the oath of an +herald, and are invested with a tabard of the +Royal arms embroidered upon satin, not so rich +as the kings', but better than the pursuivants', +with a silver collar of SS.; they are esquires by +creation.</p> + +<p>"The four pursuivants are also created by the +Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal, when they take +their oath of a pursuivant, and are invested with a +tabard of the Royal arms upon damask. It is the +duty of the heralds and pursuivants to attend on +the public ceremonials, one of each class together +by a monthly rotation.</p> + +<p>"These heralds are the king's servants in ordi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[Pg 613]</a></span>nary, +and therefore, in the vacancy of the office of +Earl Marshal, have been sworn into their offices by +the Lord Chamberlain. Their meetings are termed +Chapters, which they hold the first Thursday in +every month, or oftener if necessary, wherein all +matters are determined by a majority of voices, +each king having two voices."</p> + +<p>One of the earliest instances of the holding an +heraldic court was that in the time of Richard II., +when the Scropes and Grosvenors had a dispute +about the right to bear certain arms. John of +Gaunt and Chaucer were witnesses on this occasion; +the latter, who had served in France during +the wars of Edward III., and had been taken +prisoner, deposing to seeing a certain cognizance +displayed during a certain period of the campaign.</p> + +<p>The system of heraldic visitations, when the +pedigrees of the local gentry were tested, and the +arms they bore approved or cancelled, originated +in the reign of Henry VIII. The monasteries, +with their tombs and tablets and brasses, and their +excellent libraries, had been the great repositories +of the provincial genealogies, more especially of the +abbeys' founders and benefactors. These records +were collected and used by the heralds, who thus +as it were preserved and carried on the monastic +genealogical traditions. These visitations were of +great use to noble families in proving their pedigrees, +and preventing disputes about property. The +visitations continued till 1686 (James II.), but a +few returns, says Mr. Noble, were made as late as +1704. Why they ceased in the reign of William +of Orange is not known; perhaps the respect for +feudal rank decreased as the new dynasty grew +more powerful. The result of the cessation of +these heraldic assizes, however, is that American +gentlemen, whose Puritan ancestors left England +during the persecutions of Charles II., are now +unable to trace their descent, and the heraldic +gap can never be filled up.</p> + +<p>Three instances only of the degradation of +knights are recorded in three centuries' records of +the Court of Honour. The first was that of Sir +Andrew Barclay, in 1322; of Sir Ralph Grey, in +1464; and of Sir Francis Michell, in 1621, the +last knight being convicted of heinous offences and +misdemeanours. On this last occasion the Knights' +Marshals' men cut off the offender's sword, took +off his spurs and flung them away, and broke his +sword over his head, at the same time proclaiming +him "an infamous arrant knave."</p> + +<p>The Earl Marshal's office—sometimes called the +Court of Honour—took cognizance of words supposed +to reflect upon the nobility. Sir Richard +Grenville was fined heavily for having said that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[Pg 614]</a></span> +the Duke of Suffolk was a base lord; and Sir +George Markham in the enormous sum of £10,000, +for saying, when he had horsewhipped the huntsman +of Lord Darcy, that he would do the same to +his master if he tried to justify his insolence. In +1622 the legality of the court was tried in the +Star Chamber by a contumacious herald, who +claimed arrears of fees, and to King James's delight +the legality of the court was fully established. +In 1646 (Charles I.) Mr. Hyde (afterwards Lord +Chancellor Clarendon) proposed doing away with +the court, vexatious causes multiplying, and very +arbitrary authority being exercised. He particularly +cited a case of great oppression, in which a +rich citizen had been ruined in his estate and imprisoned, +for merely calling an heraldic swan a +goose. After the Restoration, says Mr. Planché, +in Knight's "London," the Duke of Norfolk, +hereditary Earl Marshal, hoping to re-establish +the court, employed Dr. Plott, the learned but +credulous historian of Staffordshire, to collect the +materials for a history of the court, which, however, +was never completed. The court, which had +outlived its age, fell into desuetude, and the last +cause heard concerning the right of bearing arms +(Blount <i>versus</i> Blunt) was tried in the year 1720 +(George I.). In the old arbitrary times the Earl +Marshal's men have been known to stop the carriage +of a <i>parvenu</i>, and by force deface his illegally +assumed arms.</p> + +<p>Heralds' fees in the Middle Ages were very high. +At the coronation of Richard II. they received +£100, and 100 marks at that of the queen. On +royal birthdays and on great festivals they also +required largess. The natural result of this was +that, in the reign of Henry V., William Burgess, +Garter King of Arms, was able to entertain the +Emperor Sigismund in sumptuous state at his +house at Kentish Town.</p> + +<p>The escutcheons on the south wall of the college—one +bearing the legs of Man, and the other the +eagle's claw of the House of Stanley—are not +ancient, and were merely put up to heraldically +mark the site of old Derby House.</p> + +<p>In the Rev. Mark Noble's elaborate "History of +the College of Arms" we find some curious stories +of worthy and unworthy heralds. Among the evil +spirits was Sir William Dethick, Garter King at Arms, +who provoked Elizabeth by drawing out treasonable +emblazonments for the Duke of Norfolk, and +James I. by hinting doubts, as it is supposed, against +the right of the Stuarts to the crown. He was at +length displaced. He seems to have been an +arrogant, stormy, proud man, who used at public +ceremonials to buffet the heralds and pursuivants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[Pg 615]</a></span> +who blundered or offended him. He was buried at +St. Paul's, in 1612, near the grave of Edward III.'s +herald, Sir Pain Roet, Guienne King at Arms, +and Chaucer's father-in-law. Another black sheep +was Cook, Clarencieux King at Arms in the reign +of Queen Elizabeth, who was accused of granting +arms to any one for a large fee, and of stealing +forty or fifty heraldic books from the college library. +There was also Ralph Brooke, York Herald +in the same reign, a malicious and ignorant man, +who attempted to confute some of Camden's +genealogies in the "Britannia." He broke open +and stole some muniments from the office, and +finally, for two felonies, was burnt in the hand at +Newgate.</p> + +<p>To such rascals we must oppose men of talent +and scholarship like the great Camden. This grave +and learned antiquary was the son of a painter in +the Old Bailey, and, as second master of Westminster +School, became known to the wisest and +most learned men of London, Ben Jonson +honouring him as a father, and Burleigh, Bacon, +and Lord Broke regarding him as a friend. His +"Britannia" is invaluable, and his "Annals of +Elizabeth" are full of the heroic and soaring spirit +of that great age. Camden's house, at Chislehurst, +was that in which the Emperor Napoleon has +recently died.</p> + +<p>Sir William Le Neve (Charles I.), Clarencieux, was +another most learned herald. He is said to have +read the king's proclamation at Edgehill with great +marks of fear. His estate was sequestered by the +Parliament, and he afterwards went mad from loyal +and private grief and vexation. In Charles II.'s +reign we find the famous antiquary, Elias Ashmole, +Windsor Herald for several years. He was the +son of a Lichfield saddler, and was brought up as +a chorister-boy. That impostor, Lilly, calls him the +"greatest virtuoso and curioso" that was ever +known or read of in England; for he excelled in +music, botany, chemistry, heraldry, astrology, and +antiquities. His "History of the Order of the +Garter" formed no doubt part of his studies at the +College of Arms.</p> + +<p>In the same reign as Ashmole, that great and +laborious antiquary, Sir William Dugdale, was +Garter King of Arms. In early life he became +acquainted with Spelman, an antiquary as profound +as himself, and with the same mediæval power of +work. He fought for King Charles in the Civil +Wars. His great work was the "Monasticon Anglicanum," +three volumes folio, which disgusted the +Puritans and delighted the Catholics. His "History +of Warwickshire" was considered a model of +county histories. His "Baronage of England"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[Pg 616]</a></span> +contained many errors. In his visitations he was +very severe in defacing fictitious arms.</p> + +<p>Francis Sandford, first Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, +and then Lancaster Herald (Charles II., James II.), +published an excellent "Genealogical History of +England," and curious accounts of the funeral of +General Monk and the coronation of James II. +He was so attached to James that he resigned his +office at the Revolution, and died, true to the last, +old, poor and neglected, somewhere in Bloomsbury, +in 1693.</p> + +<p>Sir John Vanbrugh, the witty dramatist, for +building Castle Howard, was made Clarencieux +King of Arms, to the great indignation of the +heralds, whose pedantry he ridiculed. He afterwards +sold his place for £2,000, avowing ignorance +of his profession and his constant neglect +of his official duties.</p> + +<p>In the same reign, to Peter Le Neve (Norroy) +we are indebted for the careful preservation of +the invaluable "Paxton Letters," of the reigns of +Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., purchased +and afterwards published by Sir John +Fenn.</p> + +<p>Another eminent herald was John Anstis, created +Garter in 1718 (George I.), after being imprisoned +as a Jacobite. He wrote learned works on the +Orders of the Garter and the Bath, and left behind +him valuable materials—his MS. for the "History +of the College of Arms," now preserved in the +library.</p> + +<p>Francis Grose, that roundabout, jovial friend of +Burns, was Richmond Herald for many years, but +he resigned his appointment in 1763, to become +Adjutant and Paymaster of the Hampshire Militia. +Grose was the son of a Swiss jeweller, who had +settled in London. His "Views of Antiquities in +England and Wales" helped to restore a taste for +Gothic art. He died in 1791.</p> + +<p>Of Oldys, that eccentric antiquary, who was +Norroy King at Arms in the reign of George II.—the +Duke of Norfolk having appointed him from +the pleasure he felt at the perusal of his "Life of +Sir Walter Raleigh"—Grose gives an amusing +account:—</p> + +<p>"William Oldys, Norroy King at Arms," says +Grose, "author of the 'Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,' +and several others in the 'Biographia Britannica,' +was natural son of a Dr. Oldys, in the Commons, +who kept his mother very privately, and probably +very meanly, as when he dined at a tavern he +used to beg leave to send home part of the remains +of any fish or fowl for his <i>cat</i>, which cat was afterwards +found out to be Mr. Oldys' mother. His +parents dying when he was very young, he soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[Pg 617]</a></span> +squandered away his small patrimony, when he +became first an attendant in Lord Oxford's library +and afterwards librarian. He was a little mean-looking +man, of a vulgar address, and, when I knew +him, rarely sober in the afternoon, never after +supper. His favourite liquor was porter, with a +glass of gin between each pot. Dr. Ducarrel told +me he used to stint Oldys to three pots of beer +whenever he visited him. Oldys seemed to have +little classical learning, and knew nothing of the +sciences; but for index-reading, title-pages, and the +knowledge of scarce English books and editions, +he had no equal. This he had probably picked +up in Lord Oxford's service, after whose death he +was obliged to write for the booksellers for a +subsistence. Amongst many other publications, +chiefly in the biographical line, he wrote the 'Life +of Sir Walter Raleigh,' which got him much reputation. +The Duke of Norfolk, in particular, was +so pleased with it that he resolved to provide +for him, and accordingly gave him the patent of +Norroy King at Arms, then vacant. The patronage +of that duke occasioned a suspicion of his being +a Papist, though I really think without reason; +this for a while retarded his appointment. It was +underhand propagated by the heralds, who were +vexed at having a stranger put in upon them. He +was a man of great good-nature, honour, and +integrity, particularly in his character as an historian. +Nothing, I firmly believe, would ever have +biassed him to insert any fact in his writings he +did not believe, or to suppress any he did. Of +this delicacy he gave an instance at a time when +he was in great distress. After the publication of +his 'Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,' some booksellers, +thinking his name would sell a piece they were +publishing, offered him a considerable sum to +father it, which he refused with the greatest indignation. +He was much addicted to low company; +most of his evenings he spent at the 'Bell' in the +Old Bailey, a house within the liberties of the Fleet, +frequented by persons whom he jocularly called +<i>rulers</i>, from their being confined to the rules or +limits of that prison. From this house a watchman, +whom he kept regularly in pay, used to lead him +home before twelve o'clock, in order to save sixpence +paid to the porter of the Heralds' office, by all those +who came home after that time; sometimes, and +not unfrequently, two were necessary. He could not +resist the temptation of liquor, even when he was +to officiate on solemn occasions; for at the burial of +the Princess Caroline he was so intoxicated that he +could scarcely walk, but reeled about with a crown +'coronet' on a cushion, to the great scandal of his +brethren. His method of composing was somewhat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[Pg 618]</a></span> +singular. He had a number of small parchment +bags inscribed with the names of the persons +whose lives he intended to write; into these bags +he put every circumstance and anecdote he could +collect, and from thence drew up his history. By +his excesses he was kept poor, so that he was +frequently in distress; and at his death, which +happened about five on Wednesday morning, April +15th, 1761, he left little more than was sufficient +to bury him. Dr. Taylor, the oculist, son of the +famous doctor of that name and profession, claimed +administration at the Commons, on account of his +being <i>nullius filius</i>—Anglicè, a bastard. He was +buried the 19th following, in the north aisle of the +Church of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, towards the +upper end of the aisle. He was about seventy-two +years old. Amongst his works is a preface to +Izaak Walton's 'Angler.'"</p> + +<p>The following pretty anacreontic, on a fly drinking +out of his cup of ale, which is doubtless well +known, is from the pen of Oldys:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Busy, curious, thirsty fly,<br /> +Drink with me, and drink as I;<br /> +Freely welcome to my cup,<br /> +Couldst thou sip and sip it up.<br /> +Make the most of life you may;<br /> +Life is short, and wears away.<br /> +<br /> +"Both alike are mine and thine,<br /> +Hastening quick to their decline;<br /> +Thine's a summer, mine no more,<br /> +Though repeated to threescore;<br /> +Threescore summers, when they're gone,<br /> +Will appear as short as one."</div> + +<p>The Rev. Mark Noble comments upon Grose's +text by saying that this story of the crown must be +incorrect, as the coronet at the funeral of a princess +is always carried by Clarencieux, and not by Norroy.</p> + +<p>In 1794, two eminent heralds, Benjamin Pingo, +York Herald, and John Charles Brooke, Somerset +Herald, were crushed to death in a crowd at the +side door of the Haymarket Theatre. Mr. Brooke +had died standing, and was found as if asleep, and +with colour still in his cheeks.</p> + +<p>Edmund Lodge, Lancaster Herald, who died in +1839, is chiefly known for his interesting series of +"Portraits of Illustrious British Personages," accompanied +by excellent genealogical and biographical +memoirs.</p> + +<p>During the Middle Ages heralds were employed +to bear letters, defiances, and treaties to foreign +princes and persons in authority; to proclaim war, +and bear offers of marriage, &c.; and after battles +to catalogue the dead, and note their rank by the +heraldic bearings on their banners, shields, and +tabards. In later times they were allowed to correct +false crests, arms, and cognizances, and register noble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[Pg 619]</a></span> +descents in their archives. They conferred arms +on those who proved themselves able to maintain +the state of a gentleman, they marshalled great or +rich men's funerals, arranged armorial bearings +for tombs and stained-glass windows, and laid +down the laws of precedence at state ceremonials. +Arms, it appears from Mr. Planché, were sold +to the "new rich" as early as the reign of King +Henry VIII., who wished to make a new race +of gentry, in order to lessen the power of the old +nobles. The fees varied then from £6 13s. 6d. +to £5.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="sword" id="sword"></a> +<img src="images/p300.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />SWORD, DAGGER, AND RING OF KING JAMES OF SCOTLAND. (<i>Preserved in the Heralds' College.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>In the old times the heralds' messengers were +called knights caligate. After seven years they +became knight-riders (our modern Queen's messengers); +after seven years more they became pursuivants, +and then heralds. In later times, says +Mr. Planché, the herald's honourable office was +transferred to nominees of the Tory nobility, discarded +valets, butlers, or sons of upper servants. +Mr. Canning, when Premier, very properly put a +stop to this system, and appointed to this post +none but young and intelligent men of manners +and education.</p> + +<p>Among the many curious volumes of genealogy +in the library of the College of Arms—volumes +which have been the result of centuries of exploring +and patient study—the following are chiefly notice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[Pg 620]</a></span>able:—A +book of emblazonment executed for +Prince Arthur, the brother of Henry VIII., who +died young, and whose widow Henry married; the +Warwick Roll, a series of figures of all the Earls +of Warwick from the Conquest to the reign of +Richard III., executed by Rouse, a celebrated +antiquary of Warwick, at the close of the fifteenth +century; and a tournament roll of Henry VIII., in +which that stalwart monarch is depicted in regal +state, with all the "pomp, pride, and circumstance +of glorious (mimic) war." In the gallery over the +library are to be seen the sword and dagger which +belonged to the unfortunate James of Scotland, +that chivalrous king who died fighting to the last +on the hill at Flodden. The sword-hilt has been +enamelled, and still shows traces of gilding which +has once been red-wet with the Southron's blood; +and the dagger is a strong and serviceable weapon, +as no doubt many an English archer and billman +that day felt. The heralds also show the plain turquoise +ring which tradition says the French queen +sent James, begging him to ride a foray in England. +Copies of it have been made by the London +jewellers. These trophies are heirlooms of the +house of Howard, whose bend argent, to use the +words of Mr. Planché, received the honourable +augmentation of the Scottish lion, in testimony of +the prowess displayed by the gallant soldier who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[Pg 621]</a></span> +commanded the English forces on that memorable +occasion. Here is also to be seen a portrait of +Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury (the great warrior), from +his tomb in Old St. Paul's; a curious pedigree +of the Saxon kings from Adam, illustrated with +many beautiful drawings in pen and ink, about the +period of Henry VIII., representing the Creation, +Adam and Eve in Paradise, the building of Babel, +the rebuilding of the Temple, &c. &c.; MSS., consisting +chiefly of heralds' visitations, records of +grants of arms and royal licences; records of modern +pedigrees (<i>i.e.</i>, since the discontinuance of the +visitations in 1687); a most valuable collection of +official funeral certificates; a portion of the Arundel +MSS.; the Shrewsbury or Cecil papers, from which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[Pg 622]</a></span> +Lodge derived his well-known "Illustrations of +British History;" notes, &c., made by Glover, Vincent, +Philpot, and Dugdale; a volume in the handwriting +of the venerable Camden ("Clarencieux"); +the collections of Sir Edward Walker, Secretary at +War (<i>temp.</i> Charles I.).</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="linacres" id="linacres"></a> +<img src="images/p301.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LINACRE'S HOUSE. <i>From a Print in the "Gold-headed Cane".</i></span> +</div> + +<p>The Wardrobe, a house long belonging to the +Government, in the Blackfriars, was built by Sir +John Beauchamp (died 1359), whose tomb in Old +St. Paul's was usually taken for the tomb of the good +Duke Humphrey. Beauchamp's executors sold it +to Edward III., and it was subsequently converted +into the office of the Master of the Wardrobe, and +the repository for the royal clothes. When Stow +drew up his "Survey," Sir John Fortescue was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[Pg 623]</a></span> +lodged in the house as Master of the Wardrobe. +What a royal ragfair this place must have been for +rummaging antiquaries, equal to twenty Madame +Tussaud's and all the ragged regiments of Westminster +Abbey put together!</p> + +<p>"There were also kept," says Fuller, "in this +place the ancient clothes of our English kings, +which they wore on great festivals; so that this +Wardrobe was in effect a library for antiquaries, +therein to read the mode and fashion of garments +in all ages. These King James in the beginning +of his reign gave to the Earl of Dunbar, by whom +they were sold, re-sold, and re-re-re-sold at as many +hands almost as Briareus had, some gaining vast +estates thereby." (Fuller's "Worthies.")</p> + +<p>We mentioned before that Shakespeare in his +will left to his favourite daughter, Susannah, the +Warwickshire doctor's wife, a house near the Wardrobe; +but the exact words of the document may +be worth quoting:—</p> + +<p>"I gyve, will, bequeath," says the poet, "and +devise unto my daughter, Susannah Hall, all that +messuage or tenement, with the appurtenances, +wherein one John Robinson dwelleth, situat, lying, +and being in the Blackfriars in London, nere the +Wardrobe."</p> + +<p>After the Great Fire the Wardrobe was removed, +first to the Savoy, and afterwards to Buckingham +Street, in the Strand. The last master was Ralph, +Duke of Montague, on whose death, in 1709, +the office, says Cunningham, was, "I believe, +abolished."</p> + +<p>Swan Alley, near the Wardrobe, reminds us of +the Beauchamps, for the swan was the cognizance +of the Beauchamp family, long distinguished residents +in this part of London.</p> + +<p>In the Council Register of the 18th of August, +1618, there may be seen "A List of Buildings and +Foundations since 1615." It is therein said that +"Edward Alleyn, Esq., dwelling at Dulwich (the well-known +player and founder of Dulwich College), had +built six tenements of timber upon new foundations, +within two years past, in Swan Alley, near +the Wardrobe."</p> + +<p>In Great Carter Lane stood the old Bell Inn, +whence, in 1598, Richard Quyney directs a letter +"To my loving good friend and countryman, +Mr. Wm. Shackespeare, deliver thees"—the only +letter addressed to Shakespeare known to exist. +The original was in the possession of Mr. R.B. +Wheeler, of Stratford-upon-Avon.</p> + +<p>Stow mixes up the old houses near Doctors' +Commons with Rosamond's Bower at Woodstock.</p> + +<p>"Upon Paul's Wharf Hill," he says, "within a +great gate, next to the Doctors' Commons, were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[Pg 624]</a></span> +many fair tenements, which, in their leases made +from the Dean and Chapter, went by the name of +<i>Camera Dianæ</i>—<i>i.e.</i>, Diana's Chamber, so denominated +from a spacious building that in the time of +Henry II. stood where they were. In this Camera, +an arched and vaulted structure, full of intricate +ways and windings, this Henry II. (as some time +he did at Woodstock) kept, or was supposed to +have kept, that jewel of his heart, Fair <i>Rosamond</i>, +she whom there he called <i>Rosamundi</i>, and here +by the name of Diana; and from hence had this +house that title.</p> + +<p>"For a long time there remained some evident +testifications of tedious turnings and windings, as +also of a passage underground from this house to +Castle Baynard; which was, no doubt, the king's +way from thence to his Camera Dianæ, or the +chamber of his brightest Diana."</p> + +<p>St. Anne's, within the precinct of the Blackfriars, +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.</p> + +<p>The parish register records the burials of Isaac +Oliver, the miniature painter (1617), Dick Robinson, +the player (1647), Nat. Field, the poet and player +(1632-3), William Faithorn, the engraver (1691); +and there are the following interesting entries relating +to Vandyck, who lived and died in this +parish, leaving a sum of money in his will to its +poor:—</p> + +<p>"Jasper Lanfranch, a Dutchman, from Sir Anthony +Vandikes, buried 14th February, 1638."</p> + +<p>"Martin Ashent, Sir Anthony Vandike's man, +buried 12th March, 1638."</p> + +<p>"Justinia, daughter to Sir Anthony Vandyke +and his lady, baptised 9th December, 1641."</p> + +<p>The child was baptised on the very day her +illustrious father died.</p> + +<p>A portion of the old burying-ground is still to be +seen in Church-entry, Ireland Yard.</p> + +<p>"In this parish of St. Benet's, in Thames Street," +says Stow, "stood Le Neve Inn, belonging formerly +to John de Mountague, Earl of Salisbury, and after +to Sir John Beauchamp, Kt., granted to Sir Thomas +Erpingham, Kt., of Erpingham in Norfolk, and +Warden of the Cinque Ports, Knight of the Garter. +By the south end of Adle Street, almost against +Puddle Wharf, there is one antient building of +stone and timber, builded by the Lords of Berkeley, +and therefore called Berkeley's Inn. This house is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[Pg 625]</a></span> +now all in ruin, and letten out in several tenements; +yet the arms of the Lord Berkeley remain in the +stone-work of an arched gate; and is between a +chevron, crosses ten, three, three, and four."</p> + +<p>Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was +lodged in this house, then called Berkeley's Inn, +in the parish of St. Andrew, in the reign of +Henry VI.</p> + +<p>St. Andrew's Wardrobe Church is situated +upon rising ground, on the east side of Puddle-Dock +Hill, in the ward of Castle Baynard. The +advowson of this church was anciently in the noble +family of Fitzwalter, to which it probably came by +virtue of the office of Constable of the Castle of +London (that is, Baynard's Castle). That it is +not of a modern foundation is evident by its +having had Robert Marsh for its rector, before the +year 1322. This church was anciently denominated +"St. Andrew juxta Baynard's Castle," from +its vicinity to that palace.</p> + +<p>"Knightrider Street was so called," says Stow, +"(as is supposed), of knights riding from thence +through the street west to Creed Lane, and so out +at Ludgate towards Smithfield, when they were +there to tourney, joust, or otherwise to show activities +before the king and states of the realm."</p> + +<p>Linacre's house in Knightrider Street was given +by him to the College of Physicians, and used +as their place of meeting till the early part of the +seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>In his student days Linacre had been patronised +by Lorenzo de Medicis, and at Florence, under +Demetrius Chalcondylas, who had fled from Constantinople +when it was taken by the Turks, he +acquired a perfect knowledge of the Greek language. +He studied eloquence at Bologna, under Politian, +one of the most eloquent Latinists in Europe, and +while he was at Rome devoted himself to medicine +and the study of natural philosophy, under Hermolaus +Barbarus. Linacre was the first Englishman +who read Aristotle and Galen in the original +Greek. On his return to England, having taken +the degree of M.D. at Oxford, he gave lectures in +physic, and taught the Greek language in that +university. His reputation soon became so high +that King Henry VII. called him to court, and +entrusted him with the care of the health and education +of his son, Prince Arthur. To show the +extent of his acquirements, we may mention that +he instructed Princess Katharine in the Italian language, +and that he published a work on mathematics, +which he dedicated to his pupil, Prince +Arthur.</p> + +<p>His treatise on grammar was warmly praised by +Melancthon. This great doctor was successively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[Pg 626]</a></span> +physician to Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., +and the Princess Mary. He established lectures +on physic (says Dr. Macmichael, in his amusing +book, "The Gold-headed Cane"), and towards the +close of his life he founded the Royal College of +Physicians, holding the office of President for seven +years. Linacre was a friend of Lily, the grammarian, +and was consulted by Erasmus. The College of +Physicians first met in 1518 at Linacre's house (now +called the Stone House), Knightrider Street, and +which still belongs to the society. Between the two +centre windows of the first floor are the arms of the +college, granted 1546—a hand proper, vested argent, +issuing out of clouds, and feeling a pulse; in base, a +pomegranate between five demi fleurs-de-lis bordering +the edge of the escutcheon. In front of the building +was a library, and there were early donations of +books, globes, mathematical instruments, minerals, +&c. Dissections were first permitted by Queen +Elizabeth, in 1564. As soon as the first lectures +were founded, in 1583, a spacious anatomical +theatre was built adjoining Linacre's house, and +here the great Dr. Harvey gave his first course of +lectures; but about the time of the accession of +Charles I. the College removed to a house of the +Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, at the bottom +of Amen Corner, where they planted a botanical +garden and built an anatomical theatre. During +the civil wars the Parliament levied £5 a week +on the College. Eventually sold by the Puritans, +the house and gardens were purchased by Dr. +Harvey and given to the society. The great +Harvey built a museum and library at his own +expense, which were opened in 1653, and Harvey, +then nearly eighty, relinquished his office of Professor +of Anatomy and Surgery. The garden at this +time extended as far west as the Old Bailey, and +as far south as St. Martin's Church. Harvey's gift +consisted of a convocation room and a library, to +which Selden contributed some Oriental MS., Elias +Ashmole many valuable volumes, the Marquis of +Dorchester £100; and Sir Theodore Mayerne, +physician to four kings—viz., Henry IV. of France, +James I., Charles I., and Charles II.—left his +library. The old library was turned into a lecture +and reception room, for such visitors as Charles II. +who in 1665 attended here the anatomical prælections +of Dr. Ent, whom he knighted on the +occasion. This building was destroyed by the +Great Fire, from which only 112 folio books were +saved. The College never rebuilt its premises, +and on the site were erected the houses of three +residentiaries of St. Paul's. Shortly after a piece +of ground was purchased in Warwick Lane, and +the new building opened in 1674. A similar grant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[Pg 627]</a></span> +to that of Linacre's was that of Dr. Lettsom, who +in the year 1773 gave the house and library in +Bolt Court, which is at the present moment occupied +by the Medical Society of London.</p> + +<p>The view of Linacre's House, in Knightrider +Street, which we give on page 301, is taken from a +print in the "Gold-headed Cane," an amusing work +to which we have already referred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[Pg 628]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE—INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Ancient Reminiscences of Cheapside—Stormy Days therein—The Westchepe Market—Something about the Pillory—The Cheapside Conduits—The +Goldsmiths' Monopoly—Cheapside Market—Gossip anent Cheapside by Mr. Pepys—A Saxon Rienzi—Anti-Free-Trade Riots in Cheapside—Arrest +of the Rioters—A Royal Pardon—Jane Shore.</p></div> + + +<p>What a wealth and dignity there is about Cheapside; +what restless life and energy; with what +vigorous pulsation life beats to and fro in that great +commercial artery! How pleasantly on a summer +morning that last of the Mohicans, the green +plane-tree now deserted by the rooks, at the corner +of Wood Street, flutters its leaves! How fast the +crowded omnibuses dash past with their loads of +young Greshams and future rulers of Lombard +Street! How grandly Bow steeple bears itself, +rising proudly in the sunshine! How the great +webs of gold chains sparkle in the jeweller's +windows! How modern everything looks, and +yet only a short time since some workmen at a +foundation in Cheapside, twenty-five feet below +the surface, came upon traces of primeval inhabitants +in the shape of a deer's skull, with antlers, +and the skull of a wolf, struck down, perhaps, more +than a thousand years ago, by the bronze axe of +some British savage. So the world rolls on: the +times change, and we change with them.</p> + +<p>The engraving which we give on page 307 is from +one of the most ancient representations extant +of Cheapside. It shows the street decked out in +holiday attire for the procession of the wicked +old queen-mother, Marie de Medici, on her way +to visit her son-in-law, Charles I., and her wilful +daughter, Henrietta Maria.</p> + +<p>The City records, explored with such unflagging +interest by Mr. Riley in his "Memorials of London," +furnish us with some interesting gleanings +relating to Cheapside. In the old letter books in +the Guildhall—the Black Book, Red Book, and +White Book—we see it in storm and calm, observe +the vigilant and jealous honesty of the guilds, and +become witnesses again to the bloody frays, cruel +punishments, and even the petty disputes of the +middle-age craftsmen, when Cheapside was one +glittering row of goldsmiths' shops, and the very +heart of the wealth of London. The records culled +so carefully by Mr. Riley are brief but pregnant;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[Pg 629]</a></span> +they give us facts uncoloured by the historian, and +highly suggestive glimpses of strange modes of life +in wild and picturesque eras of our civilisation. +Let us take the most striking <i>seriatim</i>.</p> + +<p>In 1273 the candle-makers seem to have taken +a fancy to Cheapside, where the horrible fumes +of that necessary but most offensive trade soon +excited the ire of the rich citizens, who at last +expelled seventeen of the craft from their sheds +in Chepe. In the third year of Edward II. it was +ordered and commanded on the king's behalf, that +"no man or woman should be so bold as henceforward +to hold common market for merchandise +in Chepe, or any other highway within the City, +except Cornhill, after the hour of nones" (probably +about two p.m.); and the same year it was forbidden, +under pain of imprisonment, to scour pots +in the roadway of Chepe, to the hindrance of folks +who were passing; so that we may conclude that +in Edward II.'s London there was a good deal of +that out-door work that the traveller still sees in +the back streets of Continental towns.</p> + +<p>Holocausts of spurious goods were not uncommon +in Cheapside. In 1311 (Edward II.) we +find that at the request of the hatters and haberdashers, +search had been made for traders selling +"bad and cheating hats," that is, of false and dishonest +workmanship, made of a mixture of wool +and flocks. The result was the seizure of forty grey +and white hats, and fifteen black, which were publicly +burnt in the street of Chepe. What a burning +such a search would lead to in our less scrupulous +days! Why, the pile would reach half way up +St. Paul's. Illegal nets had been burnt opposite +Friday Street in the previous reign. After the +hats came a burning of fish panniers defective in +measure; while in the reign of Edward III. some +false chopins (wine measures) were destroyed. This +was rough justice, but still the seizures seem to +have been far fewer than they would be in our +boastful epoch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[Pg 630]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a generous lavishness about the +royalty of the Middle Ages, however great a fool +or scoundrel the monarch might be. Thus we +read that on the safe delivery of Queen Isabel +(wife of Edward II.), in 1312, of a son, afterwards +Edward III., the Conduit in Chepe, for one day, +ran with nothing but wine, for all those who chose +to drink there; and at the cross, hard by the +church of St. Michael in West Chepe, there was +a pavilion extended in the middle of the street, in +which was set a tun of wine, for all passers-by to +drink of.</p> + +<p>The mediæval guilds, useful as they were in keeping +traders honest (Heaven knows, it needs supervision +enough, now!), still gave rise to jealousies +and feuds. The sturdy craftsmen of those days, +inured to arms, flew to the sword as the quickest +arbitrator, and preferred clubs and bills to Chancery +courts and Common Pleas. The stones of Chepe +were often crimsoned with the blood of these angry +disputants. Thus, in 1327 (Edward III.), the +saddlers and the joiners and bit-makers came to +blows. In May of that year armed parties of these +rival trades fought right and left in Cheapside and +Cripplegate. The whole city ran to the windows +in alarm, and several workmen were killed and +many mortally wounded, to the great scandal of +the City, and the peril of many quiet people. +The conflict at last became so serious that the +mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs had to interpose, and +the dispute had to be finally settled at a great +discussion of the three trades at the Guildhall, with +what result the record does not state.</p> + +<p>In this same reign of Edward III. the excessive +length of the tavern signs ("ale-stakes" as they +were then called) was complained of by persons +riding in Cheapside. All the taverners of the City +were therefore summoned to the Guildhall, and +warned that no sign or bush (hence the proverb, +"Good wine needs no bush") should henceforward +extend over the king's highway beyond the length +of seven feet, under pain of a fine of forty pence +to the chamber of the Guildhall.</p> + +<p>In 1340 (Edward III.) two more guilds fell to +quarrelling. This time it was the pelterers (furriers) +and fishmongers, who seem to have tanned each +other's hides with considerable zeal. It came at +last to this, that the portly mayor and sheriffs had +to venture out among the sword-blades, cudgels, +and whistling volleys of stones, but at first with +little avail, for the combatants were too hot. They +soon arrested some scaly and fluffy misdoers, it is +true; but then came a wild rush, and the noisy misdoers +were rescued; and, most audacious of all, +one Thomas, son of John Hansard, fishmonger,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[Pg 631]</a></span> +with sword drawn (terrible to relate), seized the +mayor by his august throat, and tried to lop him +on the neck; and one brawny rascal, John le +Brewere, a porter, desperately wounded one of the +City serjeants: so that here, as the fishmongers +would have observed, "there was a pretty kettle of +fish." For striking a mayor blood for blood was +the only expiation, and Thomas and John were at +once tried at the Guildhall, found guilty on their +own confession, and beheaded in Chepe; upon +hearing which Edward III. wrote to the mayor, +and complimented him on his display of energy on +this occasion.</p> + +<p>Chaucer speaks of the restless 'prentices of +Cheap (Edward III.):—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"A prentis dwelled whilom in our citee—<br /> +At every bridale would he sing and hoppe;<br /> +He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe—<br /> +For when ther eny riding was in Chepe<br /> +Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe,<br /> +And til that he had all the sight ysein,<br /> +And danced wel, he wold not come agen."<br /> +(The Coke's Tale.)</div> + +<p>In the luxurious reign of Richard II. the guilds +were again vigilant, and set fire to a number of +caps that had been oiled with rank grease, and +that had been frilled by the feet and not by the +hand, "so being false and made to deceive the commonalty." +In this same reign (1393), when the air +was growing dark with coming mischief, an ordinance +was passed, prohibiting secret huckstering +of stolen and bad goods by night "in the common +hostels," instead of the two appointed markets held +every feast-day, by daylight only, in Westchepe +and Cornhill. The Westchepe market was held +by day between St. Lawrence Lane and a house +called "the Cage," between the first and second +bell, and special provision was made that at these +markets no crowd should obstruct the shops adjacent +to the open-air market. To close the said +markets the "bedel of the ward" was to ring a +bell (probably, says Mr. Riley, the bell on the +Tun, at Cornhill) twice—first, an hour before +sunset, and another final one half an hour later. +Another civic edict relating to markets occurs in +1379 (Richard II.), when the stands for stalls at +the High Cross of Chepe were let by the mayor +and chamberlain at 13s. 4d. each. At the same +time the stalls round the brokers' cross, at the north +door of St. Paul's (erected by the Earl of Gloucester +in Henry III.'s reign) were let at 10s. and +6s. 8d. each. The stationers, or vendors in small +wares, on the taking down of the Cross in 1390, +probably retired to Paternoster Row.</p> + +<p>The punishment of the pillory (either in Cheap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[Pg 632]</a></span>side +or Cornhill, the "Letter Book" does not say +which) was freely used in the Middle Ages for +scandal-mongers, dishonest traders, and forgers; +and very deterring the shameful exposure must +have been to even the most brazen offender. Thus, +in Richard II.'s reign, we find John le Strattone, +for obtaining thirteen marks by means of a forged +letter, was led through Chepe with trumpets and +pipes to the pillory on "Cornhalle" for one hour, +on two successive days.</p> + +<p>For the sake of classification we may here +mention a few earlier instances of the same ignominious +punishment. In 1372 (Edward III.) +Nicholas Mollere, a smith's servant, for spreading +a lying report that foreign merchants were to be +allowed the same rights as freemen of the City, was +set in the pillory for one hour, with a whetstone +hung round his neck. In the same heroic reign +Thomas Lanbye, a chapman, for selling rims of +base metal for cups, pretending them to be silver-gilt, +was put in the pillory for two hours; while in +1382 (Richard II.) we find Roger Clerk, of Wandsworth, +for pretending to cure a poor woman of +fever by a talisman wrapped in cloth of gold, was +ridden through the City to the music of trumpets +and pipes; and the same year a cook in Bread +Street, for selling stale slices of cooked conger, was +put in the pillory for an hour, and the said fish +burned under his rascally nose.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, the punishment awarded +to these civic offenders consisted in less disgraceful +penance, as, for instance, in the year 1387 +(Richard II.), a man named Highton, who had +assaulted a worshipful alderman, was sentenced to +lose his hand; but the man being a servant of +the king, was begged off by certain lords, on condition +of his walking through Chepe and Fleet +Street, carrying a lighted wax candle of three +pounds' weight to St. Dunstan's Church, where he +was to offer it on the altar.</p> + +<p>In 1591, the year Elizabeth sent her rash but +brave young favourite, Essex, with 3,500 men, to +help Henry IV. to besiege Rouen, two fanatics +named Coppinger and Ardington, the former calling +himself a prophet of mercy and the latter a prophet +of vengeance, proclaimed their mission in Cheapside, +and were at once laid by the heels. But +the old public punishment still continued, for in +1600 (the year before the execution of Essex) we +read that "Mrs. Fowler's case was decided" by +sentencing that lady to be whipped in Bridewell; +while a Captain Hermes was sent to the pillory, +his brother was fined £100 and imprisoned, and +Gascone, a soldier, was sentenced to ride to the +Cheapside pillory with his face to the horse's tail,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[Pg 633]</a></span> +to be there branded in the face, and afterwards +imprisoned for life.</p> + +<p>In 1578, when Elizabeth was coquetting with +Anjou and the French marriage, we find in one of +those careful lists of the Papists of London kept by +her subtle councillors, a Mr. Loe, vintner, of the +"Mitre," Cheapside, who married Dr. Boner's sister +(Bishop Bonner?). In 1587, the year before the +defeat of the Armada, and when Leicester's army +was still in Holland, doing little, and the very +month that Sir William Stanley and 13,000 Englishmen +surrendered Deventer to the Prince of +Parma, we find the Council writing to the Lord +Mayor about a mutiny, requiring him "to see that +the soldiers levied in the City for service in the +Low Countries, who had mutinied against Captain +Sampson, be punished with some severe and extraordinary +correction. To be tied to carts and +flogged through Cheapside to Tower Hill, then to +be set upon a pillory, and each to have one ear +cut off."</p> + +<p>In the reign of James I. the same ignominious +and severe punishment continued, for in 1611 one +Floyd (for we know not what offence) was fined +£5,000, sentenced to be whipped to the pillories +of Westminster and Cheapside, to be branded in +the face, and then imprisoned in Newgate.</p> + +<p>To return to our historical sequence. In 1388 +(Richard II.) it was ordered that every person +selling fish taken east of London Bridge should +sell the same at the Cornhill market; while all +Thames fish caught west of the bridge was to be +sold near the conduit in Chepe, and nowhere +else, under pain of forfeiture of the fish.</p> + +<p>The eleventh year of Richard II. brought a real +improvement to the growing city, for certain "substantial +men of the ward of Farringdon Within" +were then allowed to build a new water-conduit +near the church of St. Michael le Quern, in Westchepe, +to be supplied by the great pipe opposite +St. Thomas of Accon, providing the great conduit +should not be injured; and on this occasion the +Earl of Gloucester's brokers' cross at St. Paul's was +removed.</p> + +<p>Early in the reign of Henry V. complaints were +made by the poor that the brewers, who rented +the fountains and chief upper pipe of the Cheapside +conduit, also drew from the smaller pipe below, +and the brewers were warned that for every future +offence they would be fined 6s. 8d. In the fourth +year of this chivalrous monarch a "hostiller" named +Benedict Wolman, under-marshal of the Marshalsea, +was condemned to death for a conspiracy to bring +a man named Thomas Ward, <i>alias</i> Trumpington, +from Scotland, to pass him off as Richard II. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[Pg 635]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[Pg 634]</a></span>Wolman was drawn through Cornhill and Cheapside +to the gallows at Tyburn, where he was +"hanged and beheaded."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="view" id="view"></a> +<img src="images/p307.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ANCIENT VIEW OF CHEAPSIDE. +(<i>From La Serre's "Entrée de la Revne Mère de Roy" showing the Procession of Mary de Medicis.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>Lydgate, that dull Suffolk monk, who followed +Chaucer, though at a great distance, has, in his +ballad of "Lackpenny," described Chepe in the +reign of Henry VI. The hero of the poem says—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Then to the Chepe I gan me drawn,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where much people I saw for to stand;</span><br /> +One offered me velvet, silk, and lawn;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Another he taketh me by the hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Here is Paris thread, the finest in the land.'</span><br /> +I never was used to such things indeed,<br /> +And, wanting money, I might not speed."</div> + +<p>In 1622 the traders of the Goldsmiths' Company +began to complain that alien traders were creeping +into and alloying the special haunts of the trade, +Goldsmiths' Row and Lombard Street; and that +183 foreign goldsmiths were selling counterfeit +jewels, engrossing the business and impoverishing +its members.</p> + +<p>City improvements were carried with a high +hand in the reign of Charles I., who, determined to +clear Cheapside of all but goldsmiths, in order to +make the eastern approach to St. Paul's grander, +committed to the Fleet some of the alien traders +who refused to leave Cheapside. This unfortunate +monarch seems to have carried out even his smaller +measures in a despotic and unjustifiable manner, as +we see from an entry in the State Papers, October +2, 1634. It is a petition of William Bankes, a +Cheapside tavern-keeper, and deposes:—</p> + +<p>"Petition of William Bankes to the king. +Not fully twelve months since, petitioner having +obtained a license under the Great Seal to draw +wine and vent it at his house in Cheapside, and +being scarce entered into his trade, it pleased +his Majesty, taking into consideration the great +disorders that grew by the numerous taverns within +London, to stop so growing an evil by a total +suppression of victuallers in Cheapside, &c., by +which petitioner is much decayed in his fortune. +Beseeches his Majesty to grant him (he not being of +the Company of Vintners in London, but authorised +merely by his Majesty) leave to victual and retail +meat, it being a thing much desired by noblemen +and gentlemen of the best rank and others (for +the which, if they please, they may also contract +beforehand, as the custom is in other countries), +there being no other place fit for them to eat in +the City."</p> + +<p>The foolish determination to make Cheapside +more glittering and showy seems again to have +struck the weak despot, and an order of the +Council (November 16) goes forth that—"Whereas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[Pg 636]</a></span> +in Goldsmith's Row, in Cheapside and Lombard +Street, divers shops are held by persons of other +trades, whereby that uniform show which was an +ornament to those places and a lustre to the City +is now greatly diminished, all the shops in Goldsmith's +Row are to be occupied by none but +goldsmiths; and all the goldsmiths who keep shops +in other parts of the City are to resort thither, or +to Lombard Street or Cheapside."</p> + +<p>The next year we find a tradesman who had been +expelled from Goldsmiths' Row praying bitterly to +be allowed a year longer, as he cannot find a +residence, the removal of houses in Cheapside, +Lombard Street, and St. Paul's Churchyard having +rendered shops scarce.</p> + +<p>In 1637 the king returns again to the charge, +and determines to carry out his tyrannical whim +by the following order of the Council:—"The +Council threaten the Lord Mayor and aldermen +with imprisonment, if they do not forthwith enforce +the king's command that all shops should be shut +up in Cheapside and Lombard Street that were not +goldsmiths' shops." The Council "had learned +that there were still twenty-four houses and shops +that were not inhabited by goldsmiths, but in some +of them were one Grove and Widow Hill, stationers; +one Sanders, a drugster; Medcalfe, a +cook; Renatus Edwards, a girdler; John Dover, a +milliner; and Brown, a bandseller."</p> + +<p>In 1664 we discover from a letter of the Dutch +ambassador, Van Goch, to the States-General, that +a great fire in Cheapside, "the principal street of +the City," had burned six houses. In this reign +the Cheapside market seems to have given great +vexation to the Cheapside tradesmen. In 1665 +there is a State Paper to this effect:—</p> + +<p>"The inquest of Cheap, Cripplegate, Cordwainer, +Bread Street, and Farringdon Within wards, to the +Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of London. +In spite of orders to the contrary, the abuses of +Cheapside Market continue, and the streets are so +pestered and encroached on that the passages are +blocked up and trade decays. Request redress +by fining those who allow stalls before their doors +except at market times, or by appointing special +persons to see to the matter, and disfranchise +those who disobey; the offenders are 'marvellous +obstinate and refractory to all good orders,' and +not to be dealt with by common law."</p> + +<p>Pepys, in his inimitable "Diary," gives us two +interesting glimpses of Cheapside—one of the +fermenting times immediately preceding the +Restoration, the other a few years later—showing +the effervescing spirit of the London 'prentices of +Charles II.'s time:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[Pg 637]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"1659.—Coming home, heard that in Cheapside +there had been but a little before a gibbet set +up, and the picture of Huson hung upon it in the +middle of the street. (John Hewson, who had been +a shoemaker, became a colonel in the Parliament +army, and sat in judgment on the king. He escaped +hanging by flight, and died in 1662 at Amsterdam.)</p> + +<p>"1664.—So home, and in Cheapside, both +coming and going, it was full of apprentices, who +have been here all this day, and have done violence, +I think, to the master of the boys that were put +in the pillory yesterday. But Lord! to see how +the trained bands are raised upon this, the drums +beating everywhere as if an enemy were upon +them—so much is this city subject to be put into +a disarray upon very small occasions. But it was +pleasant to hear the boys, and particularly one +very little one, that I demanded the business of. +He told me that that had never been done in the +City since it was a city—two 'prentices put in the +pillory, and that it ought not to be so."</p> + +<p>Cheapside has been the scene of two great riots, +which were threatening enough to render them +historically important. The one was in the reign +of Richard I., the other in that of Henry VIII. +The first of these, a violent protest against Norman +oppression, was no doubt fomented, if not originated, +by the down-trodden Saxons. It began +thus:—On the return of Richard from his captivity +in Germany, and before his fiery retaliation on +France, a London citizen named William with the +Long Beard (<i>alias</i> Fitzosbert, a deformed man, but +of great courage and zeal for the poor), sought +the king, and appealing to his better nature, laid +before him a detail of great oppressions and outrages +wrought by the Mayor and rich aldermen +of the city, to burden the humbler citizens and +relieve themselves, especially at "the hoistings" +when any taxes or tollage were to be levied. Fitzosbert, +encouraged at gaining the king's ear, and +hoping too much from the generous but rapacious +Norman soldier, grew bolder, openly defended the +causes of oppressed men, and thus drew round him +daily great crowds of the poor.</p> + +<p>"Many gentlemen of honour," says Holinshed, +"sore hated him for his presumptious attempts to +the hindering of their purposes; but he had such +comfort of the king that he little paused for their +malice, but kept on his intent, till the king, being +advertised of the assemblies which he made, commanded +him to cease from such doings, that the +people might fall again to their sciences and occupations, +which they had for the most part left off +at the instigation of this William with the Long +Beard, which he nourished of purpose, to seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[Pg 638]</a></span> +the more grave and manlike, and also, as it were, +in despite of them which counterfeited the Normans +(that were for the most part shaven), and because +he would resemble the ancient usage of the English +nation. The king's commandment in restraint of +people's resort unto him was well kept for a time, +but it was not long before they began to follow him +again as they had done before. Then he took +upon him to make unto them certain speeches. +By these and such persuasions and means as he +used, he had gotten two and fifty thousand persons +ready to have taken his part."</p> + +<p>How far this English Rienzi intended to obtain +redress by force we cannot clearly discover; but he +does not seem to have been a man who would +have stopped at anything to obtain justice for the +oppressed—and that the Normans were oppressors, +till they became real Englishmen, there can be no +doubt. The rich citizens and the Norman nobles, +who had clamped the City fast with fortresses, soon +barred out Longbeard from the king's chamber. +The Archbishop of Canterbury especially, who ruled +the City, called together the rich citizens, excited +their fears, and with true priestly craft persuaded +them to give sure pledges that no outbreak should +take place, although he denied all belief in the +possibility of such an event. The citizens, overcome +by his oily and false words, willingly gave +their pledges, and were from that time in the archbishop's +power. The wily prelate then, finding the +great demagogue was still followed by dangerous +and threatening crowds, appointed two burgesses +and other spies to watch Fitzosbert, and, when it +was possible, to apprehend him.</p> + +<p>These men at a convenient time set upon Fitzosbert, +to bind and carry him off, but Longbeard +was a hero at heart and full of ready courage. +Snatching up an axe, he defended himself manfully, +slew one of the archbishop's emissaries, and flew +at once for sanctuary into the Church of St. Mary +Bow. Barring the doors and retreating to the +tower, he and some trusty friends turned it into +a small fortress, till at last his enemies, gathering +thicker round him and setting the steeple on fire, +forced Longbeard and a woman whom he loved, +and who had followed him there, into the open +street.</p> + +<p>As the deserted demagogue was dragged forth +through the fire and smoke, still loth to yield, a +son of the burgess whom he had stricken dead ran +forward and stabbed him in the side. The wounded +man was quickly overpowered, for the citizens, +afraid to forfeit their pledges, did not come to his +aid as he had expected, and he was hurried to the +Tower, where the expectant archbishop sat ready<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[Pg 639]</a></span> +to condemn him. We can imagine what that +drum-head trial would be like. Longbeard was at +once condemned, and with nine of his adherents, +scorched and smoking from the fire, was sentenced +to be hung on a gibbet at the Smithfield +Elms. For all this, the fermentation did not soon +subside; the people too late remembered how +Fitzosbert had pleaded for their rights, and braved +king, prelate, and baron; and they loudly exclaimed +against the archbishop for breaking sanctuary, and +putting to death a man who had only defended +himself against assassins, and was innocent of other +crimes. The love for the dead man, indeed, at +last rose to such a height that the rumour ran that +miracles were wrought by even touching the chains +by which he had been bound in the Tower. He +became for a time a saint to the poorer and more +suffering subjects of the Normans, and the place +where he was beheaded in Smithfield was visited +as a spot of special holiness.</p> + +<p>But this riot of Longbeard's was but the threatening +of a storm. A tempest longer and more terrible +broke over Cheapside on "Evil May Day," in the +reign of Henry VIII. Its origin was the jealousy +of the Lombards and other foreign money-lenders +and craftsmen entertained by the artisans and +'prentices of London. Its actual cause was the +seduction of a citizen's wife by a Lombard named +Francis de Bard, of Lombard Street. The loss of +the wife might have been borne, but the wife took +with her, at the Italian's solicitation, a box of her +husband's plate. The husband demanding first his +wife and then his plate, was flatly refused both. +The injured man tried the case at the Guildhall, +but was foiled by the intriguing foreigner, who then +had the incomparable rascality to arrest the poor +man for his wife's board.</p> + +<p>"This abuse," says Holinshed, "was much hated; +so that the same and manie other oppressions done +by the Lombards increased such a malice in the +Englishmen's hearts, that at the last it burst out. +For amongst others that sore grudged these matters +was a broker in London, called John Lincolne, +that busied himself so farre in the matter, that +about Palme Sundie, in the eighth yeare of the +King's reign, he came to one Doctor Henry +Standish with these words: 'Sir, I understand that +you shall preach at the Sanctuarie, Spittle, on +Mondaie in Easter Weeke, and so it is, that Englishmen, +both merchants and others, are undowne, +for strangers have more liberty in this land than +Englishmen, which is against all reason, and also +against the commonweal of the realm. I beseech +you, therefore, to declare this in your sermon, and +in soe doing you shall deserve great thanks of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[Pg 640]</a></span> +my Lord Maior and of all his brethren;' and herewith +he offered unto the said Doctor Standish a +bill containing this matter more at large.... Dr. +Standish refused to have anything to do with the +matter, and John Lincolne went to Dr. Bell, a +chanon of the same Spittle, that was appointed +likewise to preach upon the Tuesday in Easter +Weeke, whome he perswaded to read his said bill +in the pulpit."</p> + +<p>This bill complained vehemently of the poverty +of London artificers, who were starving, while the +foreigners swarmed everywhere; also that the English +merchants were impoverished by foreigners, +who imported all silks, cloth of gold, wine, and +iron, so that people scarcely cared even to buy of +an Englishman. Moreover, the writer declared that +foreigners had grown so numerous that, on a Sunday +in the previous Lent, he had seen 600 strangers +shooting together at the popinjay. He also insisted +on the fact of the foreigners banding in +fraternities, and clubbing together so large a fund, +that they could overpower even the City of London.</p> + +<p>Lincoln having won over Dr. Bell to read the +complaint, went round and told every one he knew +that shortly they would have news; and excited +the 'prentices and artificers to expect some speedy +rising against the foreign merchants and workmen. +In due time the sermon was preached, and Dr. Bell +drew a strong picture of the riches and indolence of +the foreigners, and the struggling and poverty of +English craftsmen.</p> + +<p>The train was ready, and on such occasions the +devil is never far away with the spark. The Sunday +after the sermon, Francis de Bard, the aforesaid +Lombard, and other foreign merchants, happened +to be in the King's Gallery at Greenwich Palace, +and were laughing and boasting over Bard's intrigue +with the citizen's wife. Sir Thomas Palmer, +to whom they spoke, said, "Sirs, you have too +much favour in England;" and one William Bolt, a +merchant, added, "Well, you Lombards, you rejoice +now; but, by the masse, we will one day have a +fling at you, come when it will." And that saying +the other merchants affirmed. This tale was reported +about London.</p> + +<p>The attack soon came. "On the 28th of April, +1513," says Holinshed, "some young citizens picked +quarrels with the strangers, insulting them in various +ways, in the streets; upon which certain of the said +citizens were sent to prison. Then suddenly rose +a secret rumour, and no one could tell how it +began, that on May-day next the City would rise +against the foreigners, and slay them; insomuch +that several of the strangers fled from the City. +This rumour reached the King's Council, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_641" id="Page_641">[Pg 641]</a></span> +Cardinal Wolsey sent for the Mayor, to ask him +what he knew of it; upon which the Mayor told +him that peace should be kept. The Cardinal +told him to take pains that it should be. The +Mayor came from the Cardinal's at four in the +afternoon of May-day eve, and in all haste sent +for his brethren to the Guildhall; yet it was almost +seven before they met. It was at last decided, +with the consent of the Cardinal, that instead of a +strong watch being set, which might irritate, all +citizens should be warned to keep their servants +within doors on the dreaded day. The Recorder +and Sir Thomas More, of the King's Privy Council, +came to the Guildhall, at a quarter to nine p.m., +and desired the aldermen to send to every ward, +forbidding citizens' servants to go out from seven +p.m. that day to nine a.m. of the next day.</p> + +<p>"After this command had been given," says the +chronicler, "in the evening, as Sir John Mundie +(an alderman) came from his ward, and found two +young men in Chepe, playing at the bucklers, and +a great many others looking on (for the command +was then scarce known), he commanded them to +leave off; and when one of them asked why, he +would have had him to the counter. Then all the +young 'prentices resisted the alderman, taking the +young fellow from him, and crying ''Prentices and +Clubs.' Then out of every door came clubs and +weapons. The alderman fled, and was in great +danger. Then more people arose out of every +quarter, and forth came serving men, watermen, +courtiers, and others; so that by eleven o'clock +there were in Chepe six or seven hundred; and +out of Paul's Churchyard came 300, which knew +not of the other. So out of all places they +gathered, and broke up the counters, and took out +the prisoners that the Mayor had committed for +hurting the strangers; and went to Newgate, and +took out Studleie and Petit, committed thither for +that cause.</p> + +<p>"The Mayor and Sheriff made proclamation, +but no heed was paid to them. Herewith being +gathered in plumps, they ran through St. Nicholas' +shambles, and at St. Martin's Gate there met +with them Sir Thomas More, and others, desiring +them to goe to their lodgings; and as they were +thus intreating, and had almost persuaded the +people to depart, they within St. Martin's threw out +stones, bats, and hot water, so that they hurt divers +honest persons that were there with Sir Thomas +More; insomuch as at length one Nicholas Downes, +a sergeant of arms, being there with the said Sir +Thomas More, and sore hurt amongst others, cried +'Down with them!' and then all the misruled +persons ran to the doors and windows of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_642" id="Page_642">[Pg 642]</a></span> +houses round Saint Martin's, and spoiled all that +they found.</p> + +<p>"After that they ran headlong into Cornhill, +and there likewise spoiled divers houses of the +French men that dwelled within the gate of Master +Newton's house, called Queene Gate. This Master +Newton was a Picard borne, and reputed to be a +great favourer of Frenchmen in their occupiengs +and trades, contrary to the laws of the Citie. If +the people had found him, they had surelie have +stricken off his head; but when they found him +not, the watermen and certain young preests that +were there, fell to rifling, and some ran to Blanch-apelton, +and broke up the strangers' houses and +spoiled them. Thus from ten or eleven of the +clock these riotous people continued their outrageous +doings, till about three of the clock, at +what time they began to withdraw, and went to +their places of resort; and by the way they were +taken by the Maior and the heads of the Citie, and +sent some of them to the Tower, some to Newgate, +some to the counters, to the number of 300.</p> + +<p>"Manie fled, and speciallie the watermen and +preests and serving men, but the 'prentices were +caught by the backs, and had to prison. In the +meantime, whilst the hottest of this ruffling lasted, +the Cardinall was advertised thereof by Sir Thomas +Parre; whereon the Cardinall strengthened his +house with men and ordnance. Sir Thomas Parre +rode in all haste to Richmond, where the King lay, +and informed him of the matter; who incontinentlie +sent forth hastilie to London, to understand +the state of the Citie, and was truely advertised how +the riot had ceased, and manie of the misdoers +apprehended. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir +Roger Cholmeleie (no great friend to the Citie), in +a frantike furie, during the time of this uprore, shot +off certaine pieces of ordinance against the Citie, +and though they did no great harm, yet he won +much evil will for his hastie doing, because men +thought he did it of malice, rather than of any +discretion.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="beginning" id="beginning"></a> +<img src="images/p312.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BEGINNING OF THE RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE</span> +</div> + +<p>"About five o'clock, the Earls of Shrewsbury +and Surrey, Thomas Dockerin, Lord of Saint John's, +George Neville, Lord of Abergavenny, came to +London with such force as they could gather in +haste, and so did the Innes of Court. Then were +the prisoners examined, and the sermon of Dr. +Bell brought to remembrance, and he sent to the +Tower. Herewith was a Commission of Oyer and +Determiner, directed to the Duke of Norfolk and +other lords, to the Lord Mayor of London, and the +aldermen, and to all the justices of England, for +punishment of this insurrection. (The Citie thought +the Duke bare them a grudge for a lewd preest of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_644" id="Page_644">[Pg 644]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_643" id="Page_643">[Pg 643]</a></span>his that the yeare before was slaine in Chepe, insomuch +that he then, in his fury, said, 'I pray God I +may once have the citizens in my power!' And +likewise the Duke thought that they bare him no +good will; wherefore he came into the Citie with +thirteen hundred men, in harnesse, to keepe the +oier and determiner.)</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cheapside" id="cheapside"></a> +<img src="images/p313.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CHEAPSIDE CROSS, AS IT APPEARED IN 1547. (<i>Showing part of the Procession of Edward VI. to his Coronation, from a Painting of the Time.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>"At the time of the examination the streets were +filled with harnessed men, who spake very opprobrious +words to the citizens, which the latter, +although two hundred to one, bore patiently. The +inquiry was held at the house of Sir John Fineux, +Lord Chief Justice of England, neare to St. Bride's, +in Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>"When the lords were met at the Guildhall, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_645" id="Page_645">[Pg 645]</a></span> +prisoners were brought through the street, tied in +ropes, some men, and some lads of thirteen years +of age. Among them were divers not of the City, +some priests, some husbandmen and labourers. The +whole number amounted unto two hundred, three +score, and eighteen persons. Eventually, thirteen +were found guilty, and adjudged to be hanged, +drawn, and quartered. Eleven pairs of gallows +were set up in various places where the offences +had been committed, as at Aldgate, Blanch-appleton, +Gratious Street, Leaden Hall, and before +every Counter. One also at Newgate, St. Martin's, +at Aldersgate, and Bishopsgate. Then were the +prisoners that were judged brought to those places +of execution, and executed in the most rigorous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_646" id="Page_646">[Pg 646]</a></span> +manner in the presence of the Lord Edward +Howard, son to the Duke of Norfolke, a knight +marshal, who showed no mercie, but extreme crueltie +to the poore yonglings in their execution; and +likewise the duke's servants spake many opprobrious +words. On Thursday, May the 7th, was +Lincolne, Shirwin, and two brethren called Bets, +and diverse other persons, adjudged to die; and +Lincolne said, 'My lords, I meant well, for if you +knew the mischiefe that is insued in this realme by +strangers, you would remedie it. And many times +I have complained, and then I was called a busie +fellow; now, our Lord have mercie on me!' +They were laid on hurdels and drawne to the +Standard in Cheape, and first was John Lincolne +executed; and as the others had the ropes about +their neckes, there came a commandment from the +king to respit the execution. Then the people +cried, 'God save the king!' and so was the oier +and terminer deferred till another daie, and the +prisoners sent againe to ward. The armed men +departed out of London, and all things set in +quiet.</p> + +<p>"On the 11th of May, the king being at Greenwich, +the Recorder of London and several aldermen +sought his presence to ask pardon for the late riot, +and to beg for mercy for the prisoners; which +petition the king sternly refused, saying that although +it might be that the substantial citizens did not +actually take part in the riot, it was evident, from +their supineness in putting it down, that they +'winked at the matter.'</p> + +<p>"On Thursday, the 22nd of May, the king, attended +by the cardinal and many great lords, sat +in person in judgment in Westminster Hall, the +mayor, aldermen, and all the chief men of the +City being present in their best livery. The +king commanded that all the prisoners should be +brought forth, so that in came the poore yonglings +and old false knaves, bound in ropes, all along +one after another in their shirts, and everie one a +halter about his necke, to the number of now foure +hundred men and eleven women; and when all +were come before the king's presence, the cardinall +sore laid to the maior and commonaltie their negligence; +and to the prisoners he declared that they +had deserved death for their offense. Then all +the prisoners together cried, 'Mercie, gratious lord, +mercie!' Herewith the lords altogither besought +his grace of mercie, at whose sute the king pardoned +them all. Then the cardinal gave unto +them a good exhortation, to the great gladnesse of +the hearers.</p> + +<p>"Now when the generall pardon was pronounced +all the prisoners shouted at once, and altogither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_647" id="Page_647">[Pg 647]</a></span> +cast up their halters into the hall roofe, so that the +king might perceive they were none of the discreetest +sort. Here is to be noticed that diverse +offendors that were not taken, hearing that the +king was inclined to mercie, came well apparelled +to Westminster, and suddenlie stripped them into +their shirts with halters, and came in among the +prisoners, willinglie to be partakers of the king's +pardon; by which dooing it was well known that +one John Gelson, yeoman of the Crowne, was the +first that began to spoile, and exhorted others to +doe the same; and because he fled and was not +taken, he came in with a rope among the other +prisoners, and so had his pardon. This companie +was after called the 'black-wagon.' Then were all +the gallows within the Citie taken downe, and +many a good prayer said for the king."</p> + +<p>Jane Shore, that beautiful but frail woman, who +married a goldsmith in Lombard Street, and was +the mistress of Edward IV., was the daughter of +a merchant in Cheapside. Drayton describes her +minutely from a picture extant in Elizabeth's time, +but now lost.</p> + +<p>"Her stature," says the poet, "was meane; her +haire of a dark yellow; her face round and full; +her eye gray, delicate harmony being between each +part's proportion and each proportion's colour; +her body fat, white, and smooth; her countenance +cheerful, and like to her condition. The picture I +have seen of her was such as she rose out of her +bed in the morning, having nothing on but a rich +mantle cast under one arme over her shoulder, and +sitting on a chair on which her naked arm did lie. +Shore, a young man of right goodly person, wealth, +and behaviour, abandoned her after the king had +made her his concubine. Richard III., causing +her to do open penance in St. Paul's Churchyard, +<i>commanded that no man should relieve her</i>, which +the tyrant did not so much for his hatred to sinne, +but that, by making his brother's life odious, he +might cover his horrible treasons the more cunningly."</p> + +<p>An old ballad quaintly describes her supposed +death, following an entirely erroneous tradition:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"My gowns, beset with pearl and gold,<br /> +Were turn'd to simple garments old;<br /> +My chains and gems, and golden rings,<br /> +To filthy rags and loathsome things.<br /> +<br /> +"Thus was I scorned of maid and wife,<br /> +For leading such a wicked life;<br /> +Both sucking babes and children small,<br /> +Did make their pastime at my fall.<br /> +<br /> +"I could not get one bit of bread,<br /> +Whereby my hunger might be fed,<br /> +Nor drink, but such as channels yield,<br /> +Or stinking ditches in the field.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_648" id="Page_648">[Pg 648]</a></span><br /> +"Thus weary of my life, at lengthe<br /> +I yielded up my vital strength,<br /> +Within a ditch of loathsome scent,<br /> +Where carrion dogs did much frequent;<br /> +<br /> +"The which now, since my dying daye,<br /> +Is Shoreditch call'd, as writers saye;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a><br /> +Which is a witness of my sinne,<br /> +For being concubine to a king."</div> + +<p>Sir Thomas More, however, distinctly mentions +Jane Shore being alive in the reign of Henry VIII., +and seems to imply that he had himself seen her. +"He (Richard III.) caused," says More, "the Bishop +of London to put her to an open penance, going +before the cross in procession upon a Sunday, with +a taper in her hand; in which she went in countenance +and face demure, so womanly, and albeit +she were out of all array save her kirtle only, yet +went she so fair and lovely, namely while the +wondering of the people cast a comely red in her +cheeks (of which she before had most miss), that +her great shame was her much praise among those +who were more amorous of her body than curious +of her soul; and many good folk, also, who hated +her living, and were glad to see sin corrected,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_649" id="Page_649">[Pg 649]</a></span> +yet pitied they more her penance than rejoiced +therein, when they considered that the Protector +procured it more of a corrupt intent than any +virtuous intention.</p> + +<p>"Proper she was, and fair; nothing in her body +that you would have changed, but if you would, +have wished her somewhat higher. Thus say they +who knew her in her youth; albeit some who now +see her (for yet she liveth) deem her never to +have been well-visaged; whose judgment seemeth +to me to be somewhat like as though men should +guess the beauty of one long departed by her scalp +taken out of the charnel-house. For now is she +old, lean, withered, and dried up—nothing left but +shrivelled skin and hard bone. And yet, being +even such, whoso well advise her visage, might +guess and devine which parts, how filled, would +make it a fair face.</p> + +<p>"Yet delighted men not so much in her beauty +as in her pleasant behaviour. For a proper wit +had she, and could both read well and write, merry +in company, ready and quick of answer, neither +mute nor full of babble, sometimes taunting without +displeasure, and not without disport."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_650" id="Page_650">[Pg 650]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> But it had this name long before, being so called from +its being a common <i>sewer</i> (vulgarly called <i>shore</i>) or drain. +(See Stow.)</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE SHOWS AND PAGEANTS</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A Tournament in Cheapside—The Queen in Danger—The Street in Holiday Attire—The Earliest Civic Show on record—The Water Processions—A +Lord Mayor's Show in Queen Elizabeth's Reign—Gossip about Lord Mayors' Shows—Splendid Pageants—Royal Visitors at Lord +Mayor's Shows—A Grand Banquet in Guildhall—George III. and the Lord Mayor's Show—The Lord Mayor's State Coach—The Men in +Armour—Sir Claudius Hunter and Elliston—Stow and the Midsummer Watch.</p></div> + + +<p>We do not hear much in the old chronicles of +tournaments and shivered spears in Cheapside, +but of gorgeous pageants much. On coronation +days, and days when our kings rode from the +Tower to Westminster, or from Castle Baynard +eastward, Cheapside blossomed at once with flags +and banners, rich tapestry hung from every window, +and the very gutters ran with wine, so loyal and +generous were the citizens of those early days. +Costume was bright and splendid in the Middle +Ages, and heraldry kept alive the habit of contrasting +and mingling colours. Citizens were +wealthy, and, moreover, lavish of their wealth.</p> + +<p>In these processions and pageants, Cheapside was +always the very centre of the show. There velvets +and silks trailed; there jewels shone; there spearheads +and axe-heads glittered; there breastplates +and steel caps gleamed; there proud horses fretted;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_651" id="Page_651">[Pg 651]</a></span> +there bells clashed; there the mob clamoured; +there proud, warlike, and beautiful faces showed, +uncapped and unveiled, to the seething, jostling +people; and there mayor and aldermen grew +hottest, bowed most, and puffed out with fullest +dignity.</p> + +<p>In order to celebrate the birth of the heir of +England (the Black Prince, 1330), a great tournament +was proclaimed in London. Philippa and all +the female nobility were invited to be present. +Thirteen knights were engaged on each side, and +the tournament was held in Cheapside, between +Wood Street and Queen Street; the highway was +covered with sand, to prevent the horses' feet from +slipping, and a grand temporary wooden tower was +erected, for the accommodation of the Queen and +her ladies. But scarcely had this fair company +entered the tower, when the scaffolding suddenly +gave way, and all present fell to the ground with +the Queen. Though no one was injured, all were +terribly frightened, and great confusion ensued.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_652" id="Page_652">[Pg 652]</a></span> +When the young king saw the peril of his wife, he +flew into a tempest of rage, and vowed that the +careless carpenters who had constructed the building +should instantly be put to death. Whether he +would thus far have stretched the prerogative of an +English sovereign can never be known (says Miss +Strickland), for his angelic partner, scarcely recovered +from the terror of her fall, threw herself +on her knees before the incensed king, and so +effectually pleaded for the pardon of the poor men, +that Edward became pacified, and forgave them.</p> + +<p>When the young princess, Anne of Bohemia, the +first wife of the royal prodigal, Richard II., entered +London, a castle with towers was erected at the +upper end of Cheapside. On the wooden battlements +stood fair maidens, who blew gold leaf +on the King, Queen, and retinue, so that the air +seemed filled with golden butterflies. This pretty +device was much admired. The maidens also +threw showers of counterfeit gold coins before the +horses' feet of the royal cavalcade, while the two +sides of the tower ran fountains of red wine.</p> + +<p>On the great occasion when this same Anne, who +had by this time supped full of troubles, and by +whose entreaties the proud, reckless young king, +who had, as it were, excommunicated the City and +now forgave it, came again into Chepe, red and +white wine poured in fountains from a tower opposite +the Great Conduit. The King and Queen were +served from golden cups, and at the same place +an angel flew down in a cloud, and presented costly +golden circlets to Richard and his young wife.</p> + +<p>Two days before the opening of Parliament, in +1423, Katherine of Valois, widow of Henry V., +entered the city in a chair of state, with her child +sitting on her knee. When they arrived at the west +door of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Duke Protector +lifted the infant king from his chair and set him +on his feet, and, with the Duke of Exeter, led him +between them up the stairs going into the choir; +then, having knelt at the altar for a time, the child +was borne into the churchyard, there set upon a +fair courser, and so conveyed through Cheapside +to his own manor of Kennington.</p> + +<p>Time went on, and the weak young king married +the fair amazon of France, the revengeful and +resolute Margaret of Anjou. At the marriage +pageant maidens acted, at the Cheapside conduit, +a play representing the five wise and five foolish +virgins. Years after, the corpse of the same king +passed along the same street; but no huzzas, no +rejoicing now. It was on the day after the restoration +of Edward IV., when people dared not speak +above a breath of what might be happening in the +Tower, that the corpse of Henry VI. was borne<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_653" id="Page_653">[Pg 653]</a></span> +through Cheapside to St. Paul's, barefaced, on a bier, +so that all might see it, though it was surrounded +by more brown bills and glaives than torches.</p> + +<p>By-and-by, after the fierce retribution of Bosworth, +came the Tudors, culminating and ending +with Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>As Elizabeth of York (Henry VII.'s consort) +went from the Tower to Westminster to be +crowned, the citizens hung velvets and cloth of +gold from the windows in Chepe, and stationed +children, dressed like angels, to sing praises to the +Queen as she passed by. When the Queen's corpse +was conveyed from the Tower, where she died, in +Cheapside were stationed thirty-seven virgins, the +number corresponding with the Queen's age, all +dressed in white, wearing chaplets of white and +green, and bearing lighted tapers.</p> + +<p>As Anne Boleyn, during her short felicity, proceeded +from the Tower to Westminster, on the eve +of her coronation, the conduit of Cheapside ran, +at one end white wine, and at the other red. At +Cheapside Cross stood all the aldermen, from +amongst whom advanced Master Walter, the City +Recorder, who presented the Queen with a purse, +containing a thousand marks of gold, which she +very thankfully accepted, with many goodly words. +At the Little Conduit of Cheapside was a rich +pageant, full of melody and song, where Pallas, +Venus, and Juno gave the Queen an apple of gold, +divided into three compartments, typifying wisdom, +riches, and felicity.</p> + +<p>When Queen Elizabeth, young, happy and regal, +proceeded through the City the day before her +coronation, as she passed through Cheapside, she +smiled; and being asked the reason, she replied, +"Because I have just heard one say in the crowd, +'I remember old King Harry the Eighth.'" When +she came to the grand allegory of Time and Truth, +at the Little Conduit, in Cheapside, she asked, +who an old man was that sat with his scythe and +hour-glass. She was told "Time." "Time?" she +repeated; "and Time has brought me here!"</p> + +<p>In this pageant she spied that Truth held a +Bible, in English, ready for presentation to her; +and she bade Sir John Perrot (the knight nearest +to her, who held up her canopy, and a kinsman, +afterwards beheaded) to step forward and receive it +for her; but she was informed such was not the +regular manner of presentation, for it was to be +let down into her chariot by a silken string. She +therefore told Sir John Perrot to stay; and at the +proper crisis, some verses being recited by Truth, +the book descended, "and the Queen received it in +both her hands, kissed it, clasped it to her bosom, +and thanked the City for this present, esteemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_654" id="Page_654">[Pg 654]</a></span> +above all others. She promised to read it diligently, +to the great comfort of the bystanders." All the +houses in Cheapside were dressed with banners +and streamers, and the richest carpets, stuffs, and +cloth of gold tapestried the streets. At the upper +end of Chepe, the Recorder presented the Queen, +from the City, with a handsome crimson satin purse, +containing a thousand marks in gold, which she +most graciously pocketed. There were trumpeters +at the Standard in Chepe, and the City waits stood +at the porch of St. Peter's, Cornhill. The City +companies stretched in rows from Fenchurch +Street to the Little Conduit in Chepe, behind rails, +which were hung with cloth.</p> + +<p>On an occasion when James I. and his wife visited +the City, at the Conduit, Cheapside, there was a +grand display of tapestry, gold cloth, and silks; and +before the structure "a handsome apprentice was +appointed, whose part it was to walk backwards +and forwards, as if outside a shop, in his flat cap +and usual dress, addressing the passengers with his +usual cry for custom of, 'What d'ye lack, gentles? +What will you buy? silks, satins, or taff—taf—fetas?' +He then broke into premeditated verse:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'But stay, bold tongue! I stand at giddy gaze!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be dim, mine eyes! What gallant train are here,</span><br /> +That strikes minds mute, puts good wits in a maze?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh! 'tis our King, royal King James, I say!</span><br /> +Pass on in peace, and happy be thy way;<br /> +Live long on earth, and England's sceptre sway,'" &c.</div> + +<p>Henrietta Maria, that pretty, wilful queen of +Charles I., accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham +and Bassompierre, the French ambassador, +went to what the latter calls <i>Shipside</i>, to view the +Lord Mayor's procession. She also came to a +masquerade at the Temple, in the costume of a City +lady. Mistress Bassett, the great lace-woman of +Cheapside, went foremost of the Court party at the +Temple carnival, and led the Queen by the hand.</p> + +<p>But what are royal processions to the Lord +Mayor's Show?</p> + +<p>The earliest civic show on record, writes Mr. +Fairholt, who made a specialty of this subject, +took place in 1236, on the passage of Henry III. +and Eleanor of Provence through the City to +Westminster. They were escorted by the mayor, +aldermen, and 360 mounted citizens, apparelled in +robes of embroidered silk, and each carrying in +their hands a cup of gold or silver, in token of the +privilege claimed by the City for the lord mayor +to officiate as chief butler at the king's coronation. +On the return of Edward I. from the Holy Land +the citizens, in the wildness of their loyalty, threw, +it is said, handfuls of gold and silver out of window +to the crowd. It was on the return of the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_655" id="Page_655">[Pg 655]</a></span> +king from his Scotch victories that the earliest +known City pageant took place. Each guild had +its show. The Fishmongers had gilt salmon and +sturgeon, drawn by eight horses, and six-and-forty +knights riding seahorses, followed by St. Magnus +(it was St. Magnus' day), with 1,000 horsemen.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fairholt proved from papers still preserved +by the Grocers' Company that water processions +took place at least nineteen years earlier than the +usual date (1453) set down for their commencement. +Sir John Norman is mentioned by the +City poet as the first Lord Mayor that rowed to +Westminster. He had silver oars, and so delighted +the London watermen that they wrote a ballad +about him, of which two lines only still exist—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Row thy boat, Norman,<br /> +Row to thy leman."</div> + +<p>In the troublous reign of Henry VI. the Goldsmiths +made a special stand for their privileges on +Lord Mayor's day. They complained loudly that +they had always ridden with the mayor to Westminster +and back, and that on their return to Chepe +they sit on horseback "above the Cross afore the +Goldsmiths' Row; but that on the morrow of the +Apostles Simon and Jude, when they came to their +stations, they found the Butchers had forestalled +them, who would not budge for all the prayers of +the wardens of the Goldsmiths, and hence had +arisen great variance and strife." The two guilds +submitted to the Lord Mayor's arbitration, whereupon +the Mayor ruled that the Goldsmiths should +retain possession of their ancient stand.</p> + +<p>The first Lord Mayor's pageant described by the +old chroniclers is that when Anne Boleyn "came +from Greenwich to Westminster on her coronation +day, and the Mayor went to serve her as chief +butler, according to ancient custom." Hall expressly +says that the water procession on that occasion resembled +that of Lord Mayor's Day. The Mayor's +barge, covered with red cloth (blue except at royal +ceremonies), was garnished with goodly banners +and streamers, and the sides hung with emblazoned +targets. In the barge were "shalms, shagbushes, +and divers other instruments, which continually +made goodly harmony." Fifty barges, filled with +the various companies, followed, marshalled and +kept in order by three light wherries with officers. +Before the Mayor's barge came another barge, +full of ordnance and containing a huge dragon +(emblematic of the Rouge Dragon in the Tudor +arms), which vomited wild fire; and round about +it stood terrible monsters and savages, also vomiting +fire, discharging squibs, and making "hideous +noises." By the side of the Mayor's barge was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_656" id="Page_656">[Pg 656]</a></span>the bachelors' barge, in which were trumpeters and +other musicians. The decks of the Mayor's barge, +and the sail-yards, and top-castles were hung with +flags and rich cloth of gold and silver. At the +head and stern were two great banners, with the +royal arms in beaten gold. The sides of the +barge were hung with flags and banners of the +Haberdashers' and Merchant Adventurers' Companies +(the Lord Mayor, Sir Stephen Peacock, +was a haberdasher). On the outside of the barge +shone three dozen illuminated royal escutcheons. +On the left hand of this barge came another boat, +in which was a pageant. A white falcon, crowned, +stood upon a mount, on a golden rock, environed +with white and red roses (Anne Boleyn's device),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_657" id="Page_657">[Pg 657]</a></span> +and about the mount sat virgins, "singing and +playing sweetly." The Mayor's company, the +Haberdashers, came first, then the Mercers, then +the Grocers, and so on, the barges being garnished +with banners and hung with arras and rich carpets. +In 1566-7 the water procession was very costly, +and seven hundred pounds of gunpowder were +burned. This is the first show of which a detailed +account exists, and it is to be found recorded in +the books of the Ironmongers' Company.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mayors" id="mayors"></a> +<img src="images/p318.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE LORD MAYOR'S PROCESSION. (From Hogarth's "Industrious Apprentice.")<br /><br /></span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="marriage" id="marriage"></a> +<img src="images/p319.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MARRIAGE PROCESSION OF ANNE BOLEYN</span> +</div> + +<p>A curious and exact description of a Lord +Mayor's procession in Elizabeth's reign, written +by William Smith, a London haberdasher in 1575, +is still extant. The day after Simon and Jude +the Mayor went by water to Westminster, attended +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_659" id="Page_659">[Pg 659]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_658" id="Page_658">[Pg 658]</a></span>by the barges of all the companies, duly marshalled +and hung with emblazoned shields. On their +return they landed at Paul's Wharf, where they +took horse, "and in great pomp passed through the +great street of the city called Cheapside." The +road was cleared by beadles and men dressed as +devils, and wild men, whose clubs discharged squibs. +First came two great standards, bearing the arms +of the City and of the Lord Mayor's company; +then two drums, a flute, and an ensign of the City, +followed by seventy or eighty poor men, two by two, +in blue gowns with red sleeves, each one bearing +a pike and a target, with the arms of the Lord +Mayor's company. These were succeeded by two +more banners, a set of hautboys playing; after +these came wyfflers, or clearers of the way, in +velvet coats and gold chains, and with white staves +in their hands. After the pageant itself paced sixteen +trumpeters, more wyfflers to clear the way, +and after them the bachelors—sixty, eighty, or one +hundred—of the Lord Mayor's company, in long +gowns, with crimson satin hoods. These bachelors +were to wait on the Mayor. Then followed twelve +more trumpeters and the drums and flutes of +the City, an ensign of the Mayor's company, the +City waits in blue gowns, red sleeves, and silver +chains; then the honourable livery, in long robes, +each with his hood, half black, half red, on his left +shoulder. After them came sheriffs' officers and +Mayor's officers, the common serjeant, and the +chamberlain. Before the Mayor went the swordbearer +in his cap of honour, the sword, in a sheath +set with pearls, in his right hand; while on his left +came the common cryer, with the great gilt club +and a mace on his shoulder. The Mayor wore +a long scarlet gown, with black velvet hood and +rich gold collar about his neck; and with him rode +that fallen dignitary, the ex-Mayor. Then followed +all the aldermen, in scarlet gowns and black velvet +tippets, those that had been mayors wearing gold +chains. The two sheriffs came last of all, in +scarlet gowns and gold chains. About one thousand +persons sat down to dinner at Guildhall—a +feast which cost the Mayor and the two sheriffs +£400, whereof the Mayor disbursed £200. Immediately +after dinner they went to evening +prayer at St. Paul's, the poor men aforementioned +carrying torches and targets. The dinner still +continues to be eaten, but the service at St. Paul's, +as interfering with digestion, was abandoned after +the Great Fire. In the evening farewell speeches +were made to the Lord Mayor by allegorical personages, +and painted posts were set up at his door.</p> + +<p>One of the most gorgeous Lord Mayor's shows +was that of 1616 (James I.) devised by Anthony<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_660" id="Page_660">[Pg 660]</a></span> +Munday, one of the great band of Shakesperean +dramatists, who wrote plays in partnership with +Drayton. The drawings for the pageant are still in +the possession of the Fishmongers' Company. The +new mayor was John Leman, a member of that +body (knighted during his mayoralty). The first +pageant represented a buss, or Dutch fishing-boat, +on wheels. The fishermen in it were busy drawing +up nets full of live fish and throwing them to the +people. On the mast and at the head of the boat +were the insignia of the company—St. Peter's keys +and two arms supporting a crown. The second +pageant was a gigantic crowned dolphin, ridden +by Arion. The third pageant was the king of the +Moors riding on a golden leopard, and scattering +gold and silver freely round him. He was attended +by six tributary kings in gilt armour on horseback, +each carrying a dart and gold and silver ingots. +This pageant was in honour of the Fishmongers' +brethren, the Goldsmiths. The fourth pageant was +the usual pictorial pun on the Lord Mayor's name +and crest. The car bore a large lemon-tree full of +golden fruit, with a pelican in her nest feeding her +young (proper). At the top of the tree sat five +children, representing the five senses. The boys +were dressed as women, each with her emblem—Seeing, +by an eagle; Hearing, by a hart; Touch, +by a spider; Tasting, by an ape; and Smelling, by +a dog. The fifth pageant was Sir William Walworth's +bower, which was hung with the shields of +all lord mayors who had been Fishmongers. Upon +a tomb within the bower was laid the effigy in +knightly armour of Sir William, the slayer of Wat +Tyler. Five mounted knights attended the car, +and a mounted man-at-arms bore Wat Tyler's +head upon a dagger. In attendance were six +trumpeters and twenty-four halberdiers, arrayed in +light blue silk, emblazoned with the Fishmongers' +arms on the breast and Walworth's on the back. +Then followed an angel with golden wings and +crown, riding on horseback, who, on the Lord +Mayor's approach, with a golden rod awoke Sir +William from his long sleep, and the two then +became speakers in the interlude.</p> + +<p>The great central pageant was a triumphal car +drawn by two mermen and two mermaids. In the +highest place sat a guardian angel defending the +crown of Richard II., who sat just below her. +Under the king sat female personifications of the +royal virtues, Truth, Virtue, Honour, Temperance, +Fortitude, Zeal, Equity, Conscience, beating down +Treason and Mutiny, the two last being enacted +"by burly men." In a seat corresponding with the +king's sat Justice, and below her Authority, Law, +Vigilance, Peace, Plenty, and Discipline.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_661" id="Page_661">[Pg 661]</a></span></p> + +<p>Shirley, the dramatist (Charles I.) has described +the Show in his "Contention for Honour and +Riches" (1633). Clod, a sturdy countryman, exclaims, +"I am plain Clod; I care not a beanstalk +for the best <i>what lack you</i> on you all. No, +not the next day after Simon and Jude, when you +go a-feasting to Westminster with your galley-foist +and your pot-guns, to the very terror of the paper +whales; when you land in shoals, and make the +understanders in Cheapside wonder to see ships +swim on men's shoulders; when the fencers +flourish and make the king's liege people fall +down and worship the devil and St. Dunstan; +when your whifflers are hanged in chains, and +Hercules Club spits fire about the pageants, though +the poor children catch cold that shone like +painted cloth, and are only kept alive with sugar-plums; +with whom, when the word is given, you +march to Guildhall, with every man his spoon in +his pocket, where you look upon the giants, and +feed like Saracens, till you have no stomach to go +to St. Paul's in the afternoon. I have seen your +processions, and heard your lions and camels make +speeches, instead of grace before and after dinner. +I have heard songs, too, or something like 'em; +but the porters have had all the burden, who were +kept sober at the City charge two days before, to +keep time and tune with their feet; for, brag +what you will of your charge, all your pomp lies +upon their back." In "Honoria and Memoria," +1652, Shirley has again repeated this humorous +and graphic description of the land and water +pageants of the good citizens of the day; he has, +however, abridged the general detail, and added +some degree of indelicacy to his satire. He alludes +to the wild men that cleared the way, and their +fireworks, in these words: "I am not afeard of +your green Robin Hoods, that fright with fiery club +your pitiful spectators, that take pains to be stifled, +and adore the wolves and camels of your company."</p> + +<p>Pepys, always curious, always chatty, has, of +course, several notices of Lord Mayors' shows; for +instance:—</p> + +<p>"Oct. 29th, 1660 (Restoration year).—I up +early, it being my Lord Mayor's day (Sir Richard +Browne), and neglecting my office, I went to the +Wardrobe, where I met my Lady Sandwich and all +the children; and after drinking of some strange +and incomparably good clarett of Mr. Remball's, +he and Mr. Townsend did take us, and set the +young lords at one Mr. Nevill's, a draper in Paul's +Churchyard; and my lady and my Lady Pickering +and I to one Mr. Isaacson's, a linendraper at the +'Key,' in Cheapside, where there was a company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_662" id="Page_662">[Pg 662]</a></span> +of fine ladies, and we were very civilly treated, and +had a very good place to see the pageants, which +were many, and I believe good for such kind of +things, but in themselves but poor and absurd. +The show being done, we got to Paul's with much +ado, and went on foot with my Lady Pickering to +her lodging, which was a poor one in Blackfryars, +where she never invited me to go in at all, which +methought was very strange. Lady Davis is now +come to our next lodgings, and she locked up the +lead's door from me, which puts me in great disquiet.</p> + +<p>"Oct. 29, 1663.—Up, it being Lord Mayor's Day +(Sir Anthony Bateman). This morning was brought +home my new velvet cloak—that is, lined with +velvet, a good cloth the outside—the first that ever +I had in my life, and I pray God it may not be too +soon that I begin to wear it. I thought it better +to go without it because of the crowde, and so I +did not wear it. At noon I went to Guildhall, +and, meeting with Mr. Proby, Sir R. Ford's son, +and Lieutenant-Colonel Baron, a City commander, +we went up and down to see the tables, where +under every salt there was a bill of fare, and at the +end of the table the persons proper for the table. +Many were the tables, but none in the hall but the +mayor's and the lords of the privy council that had +napkins or knives, which was very strange. We +went into the buttry, and there stayed and talked, +and then into the hall again, and there wine was +offered and they drunk, I only drinking some +hypocras, which do not break my vowe, it being, +to the best of my present judgment, only a mixed +compound drink, and not any wine. If I am mistaken, +God forgive me! But I do hope and think +I am not. By-and-by met with Creed, and we +with the others went within the several courts, and +there saw the tables prepared for the ladies, and +judges, and bishops—all great signs of a great +dining to come. By-and-by, about one o'clock, +before the Lord Mayor come, came into the hall, +from the room where they were first led into, the +Chancellor, Archbishopp before him, with the +Lords of the Council, and other bishopps, and +they to dinner. Anon comes the Lord Mayor, who +went up to the lords, and then to the other tables, +to bid wellcome; and so all to dinner. I sat +near Proby, Baron, and Creed, at the merchant +strangers' table, where ten good dishes to a messe, +with plenty of wine of all sorts, of which I drank +none; but it was very unpleasing that we had no +napkins nor change of trenchers, and drunk out of +earthen pitchers and wooden dishes. It happened +that after the lords had half dined, came the +French ambassador up to the lords' table, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_663" id="Page_663">[Pg 663]</a></span> +he was to have sat; he would not sit down nor +dine with the Lord Mayor, who was not yet come, +nor have a table to himself, which was offered, +but, in a discontent, went away again. After I had +dined, I and Creed rose and went up and down +the house, and up to the ladies' room, and there +stayed gazing upon them. But though there were +many and fine, both young and old, yet I could +not discern one handsome face there, which was +very strange. I expected musique, but there was +none, but only trumpets and drums, which displeased +me. The dinner, it seems, is made by +the mayor and two sheriffs for the time being, the +Lord Mayor paying one half, and they the other; +and the whole, Proby says, is reckoned to come +to about seven or eight hundred at most. Being +wearied with looking at a company of ugly women, +Creed and I went away, and took coach, and +through Cheapside, and there saw the pageants, +which were very silly. The Queene mends apace, +they say, but yet talks idle still."</p> + +<p>In 1672 "London Triumphant, or the City in +Jollity and Splendour," was the title of Jordan's +pageant for Sir Robert Hanson, of the Grocers' +Company. The Mayor, just against Bow Church, +was saluted by three pageants; on the two side +stages were placed two griffins (the supporters of +the Grocers' arms), upon which were seated two +negroes, Victory and Gladness attending; while +in the centre or principal stage behind reigned +Apollo, surrounded by Fame, Peace, Justice, +Aurora, Flora, and Ceres. The god addressed +the Mayor in a very high-flown strain of compliment, +saying—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"With Oriental eyes I come to see,<br /> +And gratulate this great solemnitie.<br /> +It hath been often said, so often done,<br /> +That all men will worship the rising sun.<br /> +(<i>He rises.</i>)<br /> +Such are the blessings of his beams. But now<br /> +The rising sun, my lord, doth worship you."<br /> +(<i>Apollo bows politely to the Lord Mayor.</i>)</div> + +<p>Next was displayed a wilderness, with moors +planting and labouring, attended by three pipers +and several kitchen musicians that played upon +tongs, gridirons, keys, "and other such like confused +musick." Above all, upon a mound, sat +America, "a proper masculine woman, with a +tawny face," who delivered a lengthy speech, which +concluded the exhibition for that day.</p> + +<p>In 1676 the pageant in Cheapside, which dignified +Sir Thomas Davies' accession as Lord Mayor, +was "a Scythian chariot of triumph," in which +sat a fierce Tamburlain, of terrible aspect and +morose disposition, who was, however, very civil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_664" id="Page_664">[Pg 664]</a></span> +and complimentary upon the present occasion. +He was attended by Discipline, bearing the king's +banner, Conduct that of the Mayor, Courage that +of the City, while Victory displayed the flag of the +Drapers' Company. The lions of the Drapers' arms +drew the car, led by "Asian captive princes, in +royal robes and crowns of gold, and ridden by two +negro princes." The third pageant was "Fortune's +Bower," in which the goddess sat with Prosperity, +Gladness, Peace, Plenty, Honour, and Riches. A +lamb stood in front, on which rode a boy, "holding +the banner of the Virgin." The fourth pageant +was a kind of "chase," full of shepherds and others +preparing cloth, dancing, tumbling, and curvetting, +being intended to represent confusion.</p> + +<p>In the show of 1672 two giants, Gogmagog and +Corineus, fifteen feet high (whose ancestors were +probably destroyed in the Great Fire), appeared in +two chariots, "merry, happy, and taking tobacco, +to the great admiration and delight of all the +spectators." Their predecessors are spoken of by +Marston, the dramatist, Stow, and Bishop Corbet. +In 1708 (says Mr. Fairholt) the present Guildhall +giants were carved by Richard Saunders. In 1837 +Alderman Lucas exhibited two wickerwork copies +of Gog and Magog, fourteen feet high, their faces +on a level with the first-floor windows of Cheapside, +and these monstrosities delighted the crowd.</p> + +<p>In 1701 (William III.) Sir William Gore, mercer, +being Lord Mayor, displayed at his pageant the +famous "maiden chariot" of the Mercers' Company. +It was drawn by nine white horses, ridden +by nine allegorical personages—four representing +the four quarters of the world, the other five the +retinue of Fame—and all sounding remorselessly +on silver trumpets. Fourteen pages, &c., attended +the horses, while twenty lictors in silver helmets and +forty attendants cleared a way for the procession. +The royal virgin in the chariot was attended by +Truth and Mercy, besides kettle-drummers and +trumpeters. The quaintest thing was that at the +Guildhall banquet the virgin, surrounded by all her +ladies and pages, dined in state at a separate table.</p> + +<p>The last Lord Mayor's pageant of the old school +was in 1702 (Queen Anne), when Sir Samuel Dashwood, +vintner, entertained her Majesty at the +Guildhall. Poor Elkanah Settle (Pope's butt) +wrote the <i>libretto</i>, in hopes to revive a festival then +"almost dropping into oblivion." On his return +from Westminster, the Mayor was met at the Blackfriars +Stairs by St. Martin, patron of the Vintners, +in rich armour and riding a white steed. The +generous saint was attended by twenty dancing +satyrs, with tambourines; ten halberdiers, with +rustic music; and ten Roman lictors. At St.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_665" id="Page_665">[Pg 665]</a></span> +Paul's Churchyard the saint made a stand, and, +drawing his sword, cut off half his crimson scarf, and +gave it to some beggars and cripples who importuned +him for charity. The pageants were fanciful +enough, and poor Settle must have cudgelled his +dull brains well for it. The first was an Indian +galleon crowded by Bacchanals wreathed with +vines. On the deck of the grape-hung vessel sat +Bacchus himself, "properly drest." The second +pageant was the chariot of Ariadne, drawn by +panthers. Then came St. Martin, as a bishop in a +temple, and next followed "the Vintage," an eight-arched +structure, with termini of satyrs and ornamented +with vines. Within was a bar, with a +beautiful person keeping it, with drawers (waiters), +and gentlemen sitting drinking round a tavern +table. On seeing the Lord Mayor, the bar-keeper +called to the drawers—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Where are your eyes and ears?</span><br /> +See there what honourable <i>gent</i> appears!<br /> +Augusta's great Prætorian lord—but hold!<br /> +Give me a goblet of true Orient mould.<br /> +And with," &c.</div> + +<p>In 1727, the first year of the reign of King +George II., the king, queen, and royal family having +received a humble invitation from the City to +dine at Guildhall, their Majesties, the Princess +Royal, and her Royal Highness the Princess +Carolina, came into Cheapside about three o'clock +in the afternoon, attended by the great officers of +the court and a numerous train of the nobility and +gentry in their coaches, the streets being lined +from Temple Bar by the militia of London, and the +balconies adorned with tapestry. Their Majesties +and the princesses saw the Lord Mayor's procession +from a balcony near Bow Church. Hogarth has +introduced a later royal visitor—Frederick, Prince +of Wales—in a Cheapside balcony, hung with +tapestry, in his "Industrious and Idle Apprentices" +(plate xii.). A train-band man in the crowd is +firing off a musket to express his delight.</p> + +<p>Sir Samuel Fludyer, Lord Mayor of London in +the year 1761, the year of the marriage of good +King George III., appears to have done things +with thoroughness. In a contemporary chronicle +we find a very sprightly narrative of Sir Samuel's +Lord Mayor's show, in which the king and queen, +with "the rest of the royal family," participated—their +Majesties, indeed, not getting home from the +Guildhall ball until two in the morning. Our +sight-seer was an early riser. He found the morning +foggy, as is common to this day in London about +the 9th of November, but soon the fog cleared +away, and the day was brilliantly fine—an exception, +he notes, to what had already, in his time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_666" id="Page_666">[Pg 666]</a></span> +become proverbial that the Lord Mayor's day is +almost invariably a bad one. He took boat on +the Thames, that he might accompany the procession +of state barges on their way to Westminster. +He reports "the silent highway" as being quite +covered with boats and gilded barges. The barge +of the Skinners' Company was distinguished by +the outlandish dresses of strange-spotted skins and +painted hides worn by the rowers. The barge +belonging to the Stationers' Company, after having +passed through one of the narrow arches of Westminster +Bridge, and tacked about to do honour +to the Lord Mayor's landing, touched at Lambeth +and took on board, from the archbishop's palace, a +hamper of claret—the annual tribute of theology +to learning. The tipple must have been good, +for our chronicler tells us that it was "constantly +reserved for the future regalement of the +master, wardens, and court of assistants, and not +suffered to be shared by the common crew of +liverymen." He did not care to witness the +familiar ceremony of swearing in the Lord Mayor +in Westminster Hall, but made the best of his way +to the Temple Stairs, where it was the custom of +the Lord Mayor to land on the conclusion of the +aquatic portion of the pageant. There he found +some of the City companies already landed, and +drawn up in order in Temple Lane, between two +rows of the train-bands, "who kept excellent discipline." +Other of the companies were wiser in +their generation; they did not land prematurely to +cool their heels in Temple Lane, while the royal +procession was passing along the Strand, but remained +on board their barges regaling themselves +comfortably. The Lord Mayor encountered good +Samaritans in the shape of the master and benchers +of the Temple, who invited him to come on shore +and lunch with them in the Temple Hall.</p> + +<p>Every house from Temple Bar to Guildhall was +crowded from top to bottom, and many had scaffoldings +besides; carpets and rich hangings were +hung out on the fronts all the way along; and our +friend notes that the citizens were not mercenary, +but "generously accommodated their friends and +customers gratis, and entertained them in the most +elegant manner, so that though their shops were +shut, they might be said to have kept open +house."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="figures" id="figures"></a> +<img src="images/p324.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />FIGURES OF GOG AND MAGOG SET UP IN GUILDHALL AFTER THE FIRE</span> +</div> + +<p>The royal procession, which set out from St. +James's Palace at noon, did not get to Cheapside +until near four, when in the short November day +it must have been getting dark. Our sight-seer, +as the royal family passed his window, counted +between twenty and thirty coaches-and-six belonging +to them and to their attendants, besides those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_667" id="Page_667">[Pg 667]</a></span> +of the foreign ambassadors, officers of state, and +the principal nobility. There preceded their +Majesties the Duke of Cumberland, Princess +Amelia, the Duke of York, in a new state coach; +the Princes William Henry and Frederic, the +Princess Dowager of Wales, and the Princesses +Augusta and Caroline in one coach, preceded by +twelve footmen with black caps, followed by guards +and a grand retinue. The king and queen were +in separate coaches, and had separate retinues. +Our friend in the window of the "Queen's Arms" +was in luck's way. From a booth at the eastern +end of the churchyard the children of Christ +Church Hospital paid their respects to their +Majesties, the senior scholar of the grammar school +reciting a lengthy and loyal address, after which +the boys chanted "God Save the King." At last +the royal family got to the house of Mr. Barclay, +the Quaker, from the balcony of which, hung with +crimson silk damask, they were to see, with what +daylight remained, the civic procession that presently +followed; but in the interval came Mr. +Pitt, in his chariot, accompanied by Earl Temple. +The great commoner was then in the zenith of his +popularity, and our sight-seer narrates how, "at +every step, the mob clung about every part of +the vehicle, hung upon the wheels, hugged his footmen, +and even kissed his horses. There was an +universal huzza, and the gentlemen at the windows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_668" id="Page_668">[Pg 668]</a></span> +and the balconies waved their hats, and the ladies +their handkerchiefs."</p> + +<p>The Lord Mayor's state coach was drawn by six +beautiful iron-grey horses, gorgeously caparisoned, +and the companies made a grand appearance. Even +a century ago, however, degeneracy had set in. +Our sight-seer complains that the Armourers' and +Braziers', the Skinners' and Fishmongers' Companies +were the only companies that had anything like +the pageantry exhibited of old on the occasion. +The Armourers sported an archer riding erect in +his car, having his bow in his left hand, and his +quiver and arrows hanging behind his left shoulder; +also a man in complete armour. The Skinners +were distinguished by seven of their company being +dressed in fur, having their skins painted in the +form of Indian princes. The pageant of the Fishmongers +consisted of a statue of St. Peter finely +gilt, a dolphin, two mermaids, and a couple of seahorses; +all which duly passed before Georgius +Rex as he leaned over the balcony with his +Charlotte by his side.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="banquet" id="banquet"></a> +<img src="images/p325.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE ROYAL BANQUET IN GUILDHALL. <i>From a Contemporary Print.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>Our chronicler understood well the strategic +movements indispensable to the zealous sight-seer. +As soon as the Lord Mayor's procession had passed +him, he "posted along the back lanes, to avoid +the crowd," and got to the Guildhall in advance +of the Lord Mayor. He had procured a ticket for +the banquet through the interest of a friend, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_670" id="Page_670">[Pg 670]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_669" id="Page_669">[Pg 669]</a></span>was one of the committee for managing the entertainment, +and also a "mazarine." It is explained +that this was a kind of nickname given +to the common councilmen, on account of their +wearing mazarine blue silk gowns. He learned +that the doors of the hall had been first opened at +nine in the morning for the admission of ladies into +the galleries, who were the friends of the committee +men, and who got the best places; and subsequently +at twelve for the general reception of all +who had a right to come in. What a terrible spell +of waiting those fortunate unfortunates comprising +the earliest batch must have had! The galleries +presented a very brilliant show, and among the +company below were all the officers of state, the +principal nobility, and the foreign ambassadors. +The Lord Mayor arrived at half-past six, and the +sheriffs went straight to Mr. Barclay's to conduct +the royal family to the hall. The passage from +the hall-gate to steps leading to the King's Bench +was lined by mazarines with candles in their hands, +by aldermen in their red gowns, and gentlemen +pensioners with their axes in their hands. At +the bottom of the steps stood the Lord Mayor +and the Lady Mayoress, with the entertainment +committee, to receive the members of the royal +family as they arrived. The princes and princesses, +as they successively came in, waited in the body +of the hall until their Majesties' entrance. On their +arrival being announced, the Lord Mayor and the +Lady Mayoress, as the chronicler puts it, advanced +to the great door of the hall; and at their Majesties' +entrance, the Lord Mayor presented the City +sword, which being returned, he carried before the +King, the Queen following, with the Lady Mayoress +behind her. "The music had struck up, but was +drowned in the acclamations of the company; +in short, all was life and joy; even the giants, +Gog and Magog, seemed to be almost animated." +The King, at all events, was more than almost +animated; he volubly praised the splendour of +the scene, and was very gracious to the Lord +Mayor on the way to the council chamber, followed +by the royal family and the reception committee. +This room reached, the Recorder delivered +the inevitable addresses, and the wives and +daughters of the aldermen were presented. These +ladies had the honour of being saluted by his +Majesty, and of kissing the Queen's hand, then +the sheriffs were knighted, as also was the brother +of the Lord Mayor.</p> + +<p>After half an hour's stay in the council chamber, +the royal party returned into the hall, and were conducted +to the upper end of it, called the hustings, +where a table was provided for them, at which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_671" id="Page_671">[Pg 671]</a></span> +they sat by themselves. There had been, it seems, +a knotty little question of etiquette. The ladies-in-waiting +on the Queen had claimed the right +of custom to dine at the same table with her +Majesty, but this was disallowed; so they dined +at the table of the Lady Mayoress in the King's +Bench. The royal table "was set off with a variety +of emblematic ornaments, beyond description +elegant," and a superb canopy was placed over +their Majesties' heads at the upper end. For the +Lord Mayor, aldermen, and their ladies, there was +a table on the lower hustings. The privy councillors, +ministers of state, and great nobles dined +at a table on the right of this; the foreign +ministers at one on the left. For the mazarines +and the general company there were eight tables +laid out in the body of the hall, while the judges, +serjeants, and other legal celebrities, dined in the +old council chamber, and the attendants of the +distinguished visitors were regaled in the Court of +Common Pleas.</p> + +<p>George and his consort must have got up a fine +appetite between noon and nine o'clock, the hour +at which the dinner was served. The aldermen on +the committee acted as waiters at the royal table. +The Lord Mayor stood behind the King, "in +quality of chief butler, while the Lady Mayoress +waited on her Majesty" in the same capacity, but +soon after seats were taken they were graciously +sent to their seats. The dinner consisted of three +courses, besides the dessert, and the purveyors +were Messrs. Horton and Birch, the same house +which in the present day supplies most of the +civic banquets. The illustration which we give +on the previous page is from an old print of the +period representing this celebrated festival, and is +interesting not merely on account of the scene +which it depicts, but also as a view of Guildhall at +that period.</p> + +<p>The bill of fare at the royal table on this occasion +is extant, and as it is worth a little study on the +part of modern epicures, we give it here at full +length for their benefit:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>FIRST SERVICE.</p> + +<p>Venison, turtle soups, fish of every sort, viz., dorys, +mullets, turbots, tench, soles, &c., nine dishes.</p> + +<p>SECOND SERVICE.</p> + +<p>A fine roast, ortolans, teals, quails, ruffs, knotts, peachicks, +snipes, partridges, pheasants, &c., nine dishes.</p> + +<p>THIRD SERVICE.</p> + +<p>Vegetables and made dishes, green peas, green morelles, +green truffles, cardoons, artichokes, ducks' tongues, fat livers, +&c., eleven dishes.</p> + +<p>FOURTH SERVICE.</p> + +<p>Curious ornaments in pastry and makes, jellies, blomonges, +in variety of shapes, figures, and colours, nine dishes.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_672" id="Page_672">[Pg 672]</a></span></p> + +<p>In all, not including the dessert, there were +placed on the tables four hundred and fourteen +dishes, hot and cold. Wine was varied and copious. +In the language of the chronicler, "champagne, +burgundy, and other valuable wines were to be had +everywhere, and nothing was so scarce as water." +When the second course was being laid on, the +toasts began. The common crier, standing before +the royal table, demanded silence, then proclaimed +aloud that their Majesties drank to the health +and prosperity of the Lord Mayor, aldermen, +and common council of the City of London. +Then the common crier, in the name of the civic +dignitaries, gave the toast of health, long life, and +prosperity to their most gracious Majesties. After +dinner there was no tarrying over the wine-cup. +The royal party retired at once to the council +chamber, "where they had their tea." What +became of the rest of the company is not mentioned, +but clearly the Guildhall could have been +no place for them. That was summarily occupied +by an army of carpenters. The tables were struck +and carried out. The hustings, where the great +folks had dined, and the floor of which had been +covered with rich carpeting, was covered afresh, +and the whole hall rapidly got ready for the ball, +with which the festivities were to conclude. On +the return of their majesties, and as soon as they +were seated under the canopy, the ball was opened +by the Duke of York and the Lady Mayoress. It +does not appear that the royal couple took the +floor, but "other minuets succeeded by the +younger branches of the royal family with ladies +of distinction."</p> + +<p>About midnight Georgius Rex, beginning probably +to get sleepy with all this derangement of +his ordinarily methodical way of living, signified +his desire to take his departure; but things are not +always possible even when kings are in question. +Such was the hurry and confusion outside—at least +that is the reason assigned by the chronicler—that +there was great delay in fetching up the royal carriages +to the Guildhall door. Our own impression +is that the coachmen were all drunk, not excepting +the state coachman himself. Their Majesties waited +half an hour before their coach could be brought +up, and perhaps, after all the interchange of +civilities, went away in a tantrum at the end. It +is clear the Princess Dowager of Wales did, for she +waited some time in the temporary passage, "nor +could she be prevailed on to retire into the hall." +There was no procession on the return from the +City. The royal people trundled home as they +best might, and according as their carriages came to +hand. But we are told that on the return journey,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_673" id="Page_673">[Pg 673]</a></span> +past midnight as it was, the crowd in some places +was quite as great as it had been in the daytime, +and that Mr. Pitt was vociferously cheered all the +way to his own door. The King and Queen did +not get home to St. James's till two o'clock in the +morning, and it is a confirmation of the suggestion +that the coachman must have been drunk, that in +turning under the gate one of the glasses of their +coach was broken by the roof of the sentry-box. +As for the festive people left behind in the Guildhall, +they kept the ball up till three o'clock, and we +are told that "the whole was concluded with the +utmost regularity and decorum." Indeed, Sir Samuel +Fludyer's Lord Mayor's day appears to have been a +triumphant success. His Majesty himself, we are +told, was pleased to declare "that to be elegantly +entertained he must come into the City." The +foreign ministers in general expressed their wonder, +and one of them politely said in French, that this +entertainment was only fit for one king to give to +another.</p> + +<p>One of the Barclays has left a pleasant account +of this visit of George III. to the City to see +the Lord Mayor's Show:—"The Queen's clothes," +says the lady, "which were as rich as gold, silver, +and silk could make them, was a suit from which +fell a train supported by a little page in scarlet +and silver. The lustre of her stomacher was inconceivable. +The King I think a very personable man. +All the princes followed the King's example in +complimenting each of us with a kiss. The Queen +was upstairs three times, and my little darling, with +Patty Barclay and Priscilla Bell, were introduced to +her. I was present, and not a little anxious, on +account of my girl, who kissed the Queen's hand +with so much grace, that I thought the Princess +Dowager would have smothered her with kisses. +Such a report of her was made to the King, that +Miss was sent for, and afforded him great amusement +by saying, 'that she loved the king, though +she must not love fine things, and her grandpapa +would not allow her to make a curtsey." Her sweet +face made such an impression on the Duke of +York, that I rejoiced she was only five instead of +fifteen. When he first met her, he tried to persuade +Miss to let him introduce her to the Queen, but +she would by no means consent, till I informed her +he was a prince, upon which her little female heart +relented, and she gave him her hand—a true copy +of the sex. The King never sat down, nor did he +taste anything during the whole time. Her Majesty +drank tea, which was brought her on a silver waiter +by brother John, who delivered it to the lady in +waiting, and she presented it kneeling. The leave +they took of us was such as we might expect from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_674" id="Page_674">[Pg 674]</a></span> +our equals—full of apologies for our trouble for +their entertainment, which they were so anxious to +have explained, that the Queen came up to us as +we stood on one side of the door, and had every +word interpreted. My brothers had the honour of +assisting the Queen into her coach. Some of us +sat up to see them return, and the King and Queen +took especial notice of us as they passed. The +King ordered twenty-four of his guard to be placed +opposite our door all night, lest any of the canopy +should be pulled down by the mob, in which" (the +canopy, it is to be presumed) "there were 100 yards +of silk damask."</p> + +<p>"From the above particulars we learn," says Dr. +Doran, "that it was customary for our sovereigns +to do honour to industry long before the period of +the Great Exhibition year, which is erroneously +supposed to be the opening of an era when a sort +of fraternisation took place between commerce and +the Crown. Under the old reign, too, the honour +took a homely, but not an undignified, and if still +a ceremonious, yet a hearty shape. It may be +questioned, if Royalty were to pay a visit to the +family of the present Mr. Barclay, whether the +monarch would celebrate the brief sojourn by +kissing all the daughters of 'Barclay and Perkins.' +He might do many things not half so pleasant."</p> + +<p>The most important feature of the modern +show, says Mr. Fairholt very truly, is the splendidly +carved and gilt coach in which the Lord +Mayor rides; and the paintings that decorate it +may be considered as the relics of the ancient +pageants that gave us the living representatives of +the virtues and attributes of the chief magistrate +here delineated. Cipriani was the artist who executed +this series of paintings, in 1757; and they +exhibit upon the panel of the right door, Fame +presenting the Mayor to the genius of the City; +on the left door, the same genius, attended by +Britannia, who points with her spear to a shield, +inscribed "Henry Fitz-Alwin, 1109." On each +side of the doors are painted Truth, with her +mirror; Temperance, holding a bridle; Justice, +and Fortitude. The front panel exhibits Faith +and Hope, pointing to St. Paul's; the back panel +Charity, two female figures, typical of Plenty and +Riches, casting money and fruits into her lap—while +a wrecked sailor and sinking ship fill up the +background. By the kind permission of the Lord +Mayor we are enabled to give a representation of +the ponderous old vehicle, which is still the centre +of attraction every 9th of November.</p> + +<p>The carved work of the coach is elaborate and +beautiful, consisting of Cupids supporting the City +arms, &c. The roof was formerly ornamented in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_675" id="Page_675">[Pg 675]</a></span> +the centre with carved work, representing four +boys supporting baskets of fruit, &c. These were +damaged by coming into collision with an archway +leading into Blackwall Hall, about fifty years ago; +some of the figures were knocked off, and the +group was entirely removed in consequence. This +splendid coach was paid for by a subscription of +£60 from each of the junior aldermen, and such +as had not passed the civic chair—its total cost +being £1,065 3s. Subsequently each alderman, +when sworn into office, contributed that sum to +keep it in repair; for which purpose, also, each +Lord Mayor gave £100, which was allowed to him +in case the cost of the repairs during his mayoralty +rendered it requisite. This arrangement was not, +however, complied with for many years; after +which the whole expense fell upon the Lord +Mayor, and in one year it exceeded £300. This +outlay being considered an unjust tax upon the +mayor for the time being, the amount over £100 +was repaid to him, and the coach became the property +of the corporation, the expenses ever since +being paid by the Committee for General Purposes. +Even so early as twenty years after its construction +it was found necessary to repair the coach at an +expense of £335; and the average expense of the +repairs during seven years of the present century +is said to have been as much as £115. Hone +justly observes, "All that remains of the Lord +Mayor's Show to remind the curiously-informed of +its ancient character, is the first part of the procession. +These are the poor men of the company +to which the Lord Mayor belongs, habited in long +gowns and close caps of the company's colour, +bearing shields on their arms, but without javelins. +So many of these lead the show as there are years +in the Lord Mayor's age."</p> + +<p>Of a later show "Aleph" gives a pleasant account. +"I was about nine years old," he says, "when from +a window on Ludgate Hill I watched the ponderous +mayor's coach, grand and wide, with six footmen +standing on the footboard, rejoicing in bouquets +as big as their heads and canes four feet high, +dragged slowly up the hill by a team of be-ribboned +horses, which, as they snorted along, seemed to be +fully conscious of the precious freight in the rear. +Cinderella's carriage never could boast so goodly +a driver; his full face, of a dusky or purple red, +swelled out on each side like the breast of a pouting +pigeon; his three-cornered hat was almost hidden +by wide gold lace; the flowers in his vest were full-blown +and jolly, like himself; his horsewhip covered +with blue ribbons, rising and falling at intervals +merely for form—such horses were not made to be +flogged. Coachee's box was rather a throne than a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_676" id="Page_676">[Pg 676]</a></span> +seat. Then a dozen gorgeous walking footmen on +either hand; grave marshalmen, treading gingerly, +as if they had corns; and City officers in scarlet, +playing at soldiers, but looking anything but +soldierly; two trumpeters before and behind, blowing +an occasional blast....</p> + +<p>"How that old coach swayed to and fro, with +its dignified elderly gentlemen and rubicund Lord +Mayor, rejoicing in countless turtle feeds—for, +reader, it was Sir William Curtis!...</p> + +<p>"As the ark of copper, plate glass, and enamel +crept slowly up the incline, a luckless sweeper-boy +(in those days such dwarfed lads were forced to +climb chimneys) sidled up to one of the fore horses, +and sought to detach a pink bow from his mane. +The creature felt his honours diminishing, and +turned to snap at the blackee. The sweep +screamed, the horse neighed, the mob shouted, +and Sir William turned on his pivot cushion to +learn what the noise meant; and thus we were +enabled to gaze on a Lord Mayor's face. In +sooth he was a goodly gentleman, burly, and +with three fingers' depth of fat on his portly person, +yet every feature evinced kindliness and benevolence +of no common order."</p> + +<p>The men in armour were from time immemorial +important features in the show, and the subjects +of many a jest. Hogarth introduces them in one +of his series, "Industry and Idleness," and <i>Punch</i> +has cast many a missile at those disconsolate +warriors, who all but perished under their weight +of armour, degenerate race that we are!</p> + +<p>The suits of burnished mail, though generally +understood to be kindly lent for the occasion by +the custodian of the Tower armoury, seem now +and then to have been borrowed from the playhouse, +possibly for the reason that the imitation +accoutrements were more showy and superb than +the real.</p> + +<p>This was at any rate the case (says Mr. Dutton +Cook) in 1812, when Sir Claudius Hunter was +Lord Mayor, and Mr. Elliston was manager of the +Surrey Theatre. A melodramatic play was in preparation, +and for this special object the manager +had provided, at some considerable outlay, two +magnificent suits of brass and steel armour of the +fourteenth century, expressly manufactured for him +by Mr. Marriott of Fleet Street. No expense had +been spared in rendering this harness as complete +and splendid as could be. Forthwith Sir Claudius +applied to Elliston for the loan of the new armour +to enhance the glories of the civic pageant. The +request was acceded to with the proviso that the +suit of steel could only be lent in the event of +the ensuing 9th of November proving free from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_677" id="Page_677">[Pg 677]</a></span> +damp and fog. No such condition, however, was +annexed to the loan of the brass armour; and it +was understood that Mr. John Kemble had kindly +undertaken to furnish the helmets of the knights +with costly plumes, and personally to superintend +the arrangement of these decorations. Altogether, +it would seem that the mayor stood much indebted +to the managers, who, willing to oblige, yet felt that +their courtesy was deserving of some sort of public +recognition. At least this was Elliston's view of +the matter, who read with chagrin sundry newspaper +paragraphs, announcing that at the approaching +inauguration of Sir Claudius some of the royal +armour from the Tower would be exhibited, but +ignoring altogether the loan of the matchless suits +of steel and brass from the Surrey Theatre. The +manager was mortified; he could be generous, but +he knew the worth of an advertisement. He expostulated +with the future mayor. Sir Claudius +replied that he did not desire to conceal the +transaction, but rather than it should go forth to the +world that so high a functionary as an alderman of +London had made a request to a theatrical manager, +he thought it advisable to inform the public that +Mr. Elliston had offered the use of his property for +the procession of the 9th. This was hardly a +fair way of stating the case, but at length the +following paragraph, drawn up by Elliston, was +agreed upon for publication in the newspapers:—"We +understand that Mr. Elliston has lent to the +Lord Mayor elect the two magnificent suits of +armour, one of steel and the other of brass, manufactured +by Marriott of Fleet Street, and which +cost not less than £600. These very curious +specimens of the revival of an art supposed to +have been lost will be displayed in the Lord +Mayor's procession, and afterwards in Guildhall, +with some of the royal armour in the Tower." It +would seem also, according to another authority, +that the wearers of the armour were members of +the Surrey company.</p> + +<p>On the 9th Elliston was absent from London, +but he received from one left in charge of his +interests a particular account of the proceedings of +the day:—</p> + +<p>"The unhandsome conduct of the Lord Mayor +has occasioned me much trouble, and will give you +equal displeasure. In the first place, your paragraph +never would have appeared at all had I not +interfered in the matter; secondly, cropped-tailed +hacks had been procured without housings, so that +I was compelled to obtain two trumpeters' horses +from the Horse Guards, long-tailed animals, and +richly caparisoned; thirdly, the helmets which had +been delivered at Mr. Kemble's house were not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_678" id="Page_678">[Pg 678]</a></span> +returned until twelve o'clock on the day of action, +with three miserable feathers in each, which appeared +to have been plucked from the draggle tail +of a hunted cock; this I also remedied by sending +off at the last moment to the first plumassier +for the hire of proper feathers, and the helmets +were ultimately decorated with fourteen superb +plumes; fourthly, the Lord Mayor's officer, who +rode in Henry V. armour, jealous of our stately +aspect, attempted to seize one of our horses, on +which your rider made as gallant a retort as ever +knight in armour could have done, and the assailer +was completely foiled."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="coach" id="coach"></a> +<img src="images/p330.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE LORD MAYOR'S COACH</span> +</div> + +<p>This was bad enough, but in addition to this +the narrator makes further revelation of the behind-the-scenes +secrets of a civic pageant sixty years +ago. On the arrival of the procession it was +found that no accommodation had been arranged +for "Mr. Elliston's men," nor were any refreshments +proffered them. "For seven hours they +were kept within Guildhall, where they seem to +have been considered as much removed from the +necessities of the flesh as Gog and Magog above +their heads." At length the compassion, or perhaps +the sense of humour, of certain of the diners was +moved by the forlorn situation of the knights in +armour, and bumpers of wine were tendered them. +The man in steel discreetly declined this hospitable +offer, alleging that after so long a fast he feared +the wine would affect him injuriously. It was +whispered that his harness imprisoned him so completely +that eating and drinking were alike im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_679" id="Page_679">[Pg 679]</a></span>practicable +to him. His comrade in brass made +light of these objections, gladly took the proffered +cup into his gauntleted hands, and "drank the +red wine through the helmet barred," as though he +had been one of the famous knights of Branksome +Tower. It was soon apparent that the man in brass +was intoxicated. He became obstreperous; he +began to reel and stumble, accoutred as he was, to +the hazard of his own bones and to the great +dismay of bystanders. It was felt that his fall +might entail disaster upon many. Attempts were +made to remove him, when he assumed a pugilistic +attitude, and resolutely declined to quit the hall. +Nor was it possible to enlist against him the services +of his brother warrior. The man in steel +sided with the man in brass, and the two heroes +thus formed a powerful coalition, which was only +overcome at last by the onset of numbers. The +scene altogether was of a most scandalous, if +comical, description. It was some time past midnight +when Mr. Marriot, the armourer, arrived at +Guildhall, and at length succeeded in releasing the +two half-dead warriors from their coats of mail.</p> + +<p>After all, these famous suits of armour never +returned to the wardrobe of the Surrey Theatre, or +gleamed upon its stage. From Guildhall they +were taken to Mr. Marriott's workshop. This, with +all its contents, was accidentally consumed by fire. +But the armourer's trade had taught him chivalry. +At his own expense, although he had lost some +three thousand pounds by the fire, he provided +Elliston with new suits of armour in lieu of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_680" id="Page_680">[Pg 680]</a></span> +that had been destroyed. To his outlay the Lord +Mayor and the City authorities contributed—nothing! +although but for the procession of the 9th +of November the armour had never been in peril.</p> + +<p>The most splendid sight that ever glorified +mediæval Cheapside was the Midsummer Marching +Watch, a grand City display, the description of +which makes even the brown pages of old Stow +glow with light and colour, seeming to rouse in the +old London chronicler recollections of his youth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="demolition" id="demolition"></a> +<img src="images/p331.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE DEMOLITION OF CHEAPSIDE CROSS. <i>From an old Print.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>"Besides the standing watches," says Stow, "all +in bright harness, in every ward and street in the +City and suburbs, there was also a Marching Watch, +that passed through the principal streets thereof; +to wit, from the Little Conduit, by Paul's Gate, +through West Cheap by the <i>Stocks</i>, through Cornhill, +by Leaden Hall, to Aldgate; then back down +Fenchurch Street, by Grasse Church, about Grasse +Church Conduit, and up Grasse Church Street into +Cornhill, and through into West Cheap again, and +so broke up. The whole way ordered for this +Marching Watch extended to 3,200 taylors' yards of +assize. For the furniture whereof, with lights, there +were appointed 700 cressets, 500 of them being +found by the Companies, the other 200 by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_681" id="Page_681">[Pg 681]</a></span> +Chamber of London. Besides the which lights, +every constable in London, in number more than +240, had his cresset; the charge of every cresset +was in light two shillings four pence; and every +cresset had two men, one to bear or hold it, another +to bear a bag with light, and to serve it; so that +the poor men pertaining to the cressets taking +wages, besides that every one had a strawen hat, +with a badge painted, and his breakfast, amounted +in number to almost 2,000. The Marching Watch +contained in number about 2,000 men, part of +them being old soldiers, of skill to be captains, +lieutenants, serjeants, corporals, &c.; whifflers, +drummers and fifes, standard and ensign bearers, +demi-launces on great horses, gunners with hand-guns, +or half hakes, archers in coats of white +fustian, signed on the breast and back with the +arms of the City, their bows bent in their hands, +with sheafs of arrows by their side; pikemen, in +bright corslets, burganets, &c.; halbards, the like; +the billmen in Almain rivets and aprons of mail +in great number.</p> + +<p>"This Midsummer Watch was thus accustomed +yearly, time out of mind, until the year 1539, the +31st of Henry VIII.; in which year, on the 8th of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_682" id="Page_682">[Pg 682]</a></span> +May, a great muster was made by the citizens at +the <i>Mile's End</i>, all in bright harness, with coats of +white silk or cloth, and chains of gold, in three +great battels, to the number of 15,000; which +passed through London to Westminster, and so +through the Sanctuary and round about the Park +of St. James, and returned home through Oldborn.</p> + +<p>"King Henry, then considering the great charges +of the citizens for the furniture of this unusual +muster, forbad the Marching Watch provided for +at midsummer for that year; which being once +laid down, was not raised again till the year +1548, the second of Edward the Sixth, Sir John +Gresham then being Maior, who caused the +Marching Watch, both on the eve of Saint John +Baptist, and of Saint Peter the Apostle, to be +revived and set forth, in as comely order as it had +been accustomed.</p> + +<p>"In the months of June and July, on the vigil +of festival days, and on the same festival days in +the evenings, after the sun-setting, there were +usually made bonefires in the streets, every man +bestowing wood or labour towards them. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_683" id="Page_683">[Pg 683]</a></span> +wealthier sort, also, before their doors, near to the +said bonefires, would set out tables on the vigils, +furnished with sweet bread and good drink; and +on the festival days, with meat and drink, plentifully; +whereunto they would invite their neighbours +and passengers also, to sit and be merry with them +in great familiarity, praising God for his benefits +bestowed on them. These were called Bonefires, +as well of good amity amongst neighbours, that +being before at controversie, were there by the +labours of others reconciled, and made of bitter +enemies loving friends; as also for the virtue that +a great fire hath to purge the infection of the air. +On the vigil of Saint John Baptist, and on Saint +Peter and Paul, the apostles, every man's door +being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. +John's wort, orpin, white lillies, and such-like, +garnished upon with beautiful flowers, had also +lamps of glass, with oyl burning in them all the +night. Some hung out branches of iron, curiously +wrought, containing hundreds of lamps, lighted at +once, which made a goodly show, namely, in New +Fish Street, Thames Street, &c."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_684" id="Page_684">[Pg 684]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE: CENTRAL</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Grim Chronicles of Cheapside—Cheapside Cross—Puritanical Intolerance—The Old London Conduits—Mediæval Water-carriers—The Church of +St. Mary-le-Bow—"Murder will out"—The "Sound of Bow Bells"—Sir Christopher Wren's Bow Church—Remains of the Old Church—The +Seldam—Interesting Houses in Cheapside and their Memories—Goldsmiths' Row—The "Nag's Head" and the Self-consecrated Bishops—Keats' +House—Saddler's Hall—A Prince Disguised—Blackmore, the Poet—Alderman Boydell, the Printseller—His Edition of Shakespeare—"Puck"—The +Lottery—Death and Burial.</p></div> + + +<p>The Cheapside Standard, opposite Honey Lane, +was also a fountain, and was rebuilt in the reign +of Henry VI. In the year 1293 (Edward I.) +three men had their right hands stricken off here +for rescuing a prisoner arrested by an officer of +the City. In Edward III.'s reign two fishmongers, +for aiding a riot, were beheaded at the Standard. +Here also, in the reign of Richard II., Wat Tyler, +that unfortunate reformer, beheaded Richard Lions, +a rich merchant. When Henry IV. usurped the +throne, very beneficially for the nation, it was at the +Standard in Chepe that he caused Richard II.'s +blank charters to be burned. In the reign of +Henry VI. Jack Cade (a man who seems to have +aimed at removing real evils) beheaded the Lord +Say, as readers of Shakespeare's historical plays +will remember; and in 1461 John Davy had his +offending hand cut off at the Standard for having +struck a man before the judges at Westminster.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_685" id="Page_685">[Pg 685]</a></span></p> + +<p>Cheapside Cross, one of the nine crosses erected +by Edward I., that soldier king, to mark the resting-places +of the body of his beloved queen, Eleanor +of Castile, on its way from Lincoln to Westminster +Abbey, stood in the middle of the road facing Wood +Street. It was built in 1290 by Master Michael, a +mason, of Canterbury. From an old painting at +Cowdray, in Sussex, representing the procession of +Edward VI. from the Tower to Westminster, an +engraving of which we have given on page 313, we +gather that the cross was both stately and graceful. +It consisted of three octangular compartments, each +supported by eight slender columns. The basement +story was probably twenty feet high; the +second, ten; the third, six. In the first niche stood +the effigy of probably a contemporaneous pope; +round the base of the second were four apostles, +each with a nimbus round his head; and above +them sat the Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_686" id="Page_686">[Pg 686]</a></span> +arms. The highest niche was occupied by four +standing figures, while crowning all rose a cross +surmounted by the emblematic dove. The whole +was rich with highly-finished ornament.</p> + +<p>Fox, the martyrologist, says the cross was erected +on what was then an open spot of Cheapside. +Some writers assert that a statue of Queen Eleanor +first stood on the spot, but this is very much +doubted. The cross was rebuilt in 1441, and combined +with a drinking-fountain. The work was a +long time about, as the full design was not carried +to completion till the first year of Henry VII. This +second erection was, in fact, a sort of a timber-shed +surrounding the old cross, and covered with gilded +lead. It was, we are told, re-gilt on the visit of +the Emperor Charles V. On the accession of +Edward VI., that child of promise, the cross was +altered and beautified.</p> + +<p>The generations came and went. The 'prentice +who had played round the cross as a newly-girdled +lad sat again on its steps as a rich citizen, in +robes and chain. The shaven priest who stopped +to mutter a prayer to the half-defaced Virgin in the +votive niche gave place to his successor in the +Geneva gown, and still the cross stood, a memory +of death, that spares neither king nor subject. +But in Elizabeth's time, in their horror of image-worship, +the Puritans, foaming at the mouth at +every outward and visible sign of the old religion, +took great exception at the idolatrous cross of +Chepe. Violent protest was soon made. In the +night of June 21st, 1581, an attack was made +on the lower tier of images—<i>i.e.</i>, the Resurrection, +Virgin, Christ, and Edward the Confessor, all +which were miserably mutilated. The Virgin was +"robbed of her son, and the arms broken by which +she stayed him on her knees, her whole body +also haled by ropes and left ready to fall." The +Queen offered a reward, but the offenders were not +discovered. In 1595 the effigy of the Virgin was +repaired, and afterwards "a newe sonne, misshapen +(as borne out of time), all naked, was laid +in her arms; the other images continuing broken +as before." Soon an attempt was made to pull +down the woodwork, and substitute a pyramid for +the crucifix; the Virgin was superseded by the goddess +Diana—"a woman (for the most part naked), +and water, conveyed from the Thames, filtering +from her naked breasts, but oftentimes dried up." +Elizabeth, always a trimmer in these matters, was +indignant at these fanatical doings; and thinking +a plain cross, a symbol of the faith of our country, +ought not to give scandal, she ordered one to be +placed on the summit, and gilt. The Virgin also +was restored; but twelve nights afterwards she was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_687" id="Page_687">[Pg 687]</a></span> +again attacked, "her crown being plucked off, and +almost her head, taking away her naked child, and +stabbing her in the breast." Thus dishonoured the +cross was left till the next year, 1600, when it was +rebuilt, and the universities were consulted as to +whether the crucifix should be restored. They +all sanctioned it, with the exception of Dr. Abbot +(afterwards archbishop), but there was to be no +dove. In a sermon of the period the following +passage occurs:—"Oh! this cross is one of the +jewels of the harlot of Rome, and is left and kept +here as a love-token, and gives them hope that +they shall enjoy it and us again." Yet the cross +remained undisturbed for several years. At this +period it was surrounded by a strong iron railing, +and decorated in the most inoffensive manner. It +consisted of only four stones. Superstitious images +were superseded by grave effigies of apostles, kings, +and prelates. The crucifix only of the original +was retained. The cross itself was in bad taste, +being half Grecian, half Gothic; the whole, architecturally, +much inferior to the former fabric.</p> + +<p>The uneasy zeal of the Puritanical sects soon +revived. On the night of January 24th, 1641, the +cross was again defaced, and a sort of literary contention +began. We have "The Resolution of those +Contemners that will no Crosses;" "Articles of +High Treason exhibited against Cheapside Cross;" +"The Chimney-sweepers' Sad Complaint, and +Humble Petition to the City of London for erecting +a Neue Cross;" "A Dialogue between the +Cross in Chepe and Charing Cross." Of these +here is a specimen—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 10em;"><i>Anabaptist.</i> O! idol now,<br /> +Down must thou!<br /> +Brother Ball,<br /> +Be sure it shall.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Brownist.</i> Helpe! Wren,<br /> +Or we are undone men.<br /> +I shall not fall,<br /> +To ruin all.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Cheap Cross.</i> I'm so crossed, I fear my utter destruction +is at hand.</p> + +<p><i>Charing Cross.</i> Sister of Cheap, crosses are incident to +us all, and our children. But what's the greatest cross that +hath befallen you?</p> + +<p><i>Cheap Cross.</i> Nay, sister; if my cross were fallen, I +should live at more heart's ease than I do.</p> + +<p><i>Charing Cross.</i> I believe it is the cross upon your head +that hath brought you into this trouble, is it not?</p></div> + +<p>These disputes were the precursors of its final +destruction. In May, 1643, the Parliament deputed +Robert Harlow to the work, who went with +a troop of horse and two companies of foot, and +executed his orders most completely. The official +account says rejoicingly:—</p> + +<p>"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_688" id="Page_688">[Pg 688]</a></span> +was pulled down. At the fall of the top cross +drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of caps +were thrown into the air, and a great shout of +people with joy. The 2nd of May, the almanack +says, was the invention of the cross, and the same +day at night were the leaden popes burnt (they +were not popes, but eminent English prelates) in +the place where it stood, with ringing of bells and +great acclamation, and no hurt at all done in these +actions."</p> + +<p>The 10th of the same month, the "Book of +Sports" (a collection of ordinances allowing games +on the Sabbath, put forth by James I.) was burnt +by the hangman, where the Cross used to stand, +and at the Exchange.</p> + +<p>"Aleph" gives us the title of a curious tract, +published the very day the Cross was destroyed:—"The +Downfall of Dagon; or, the Taking Down +of Cheapside Crosse; wherein is contained these +principles: 1. The Crosse Sicke at Heart. 2. His +Death and Funerall. 3. His Will, Legacies, Inventory, +and Epitaph. 4. Why it was removed. +5. The Money it will bring. 6. Noteworthy, that +it was cast down on that day when it was first +invented and set up."</p> + +<p>It may be worth giving an extract or two:—"I +am called the 'Citie Idoll;' the Brownists spit +at me, and throw stones at me; others hide their +eyes with their fingers; the Anabaptists wish me +knockt in pieces, as I am like to be this day; +the sisters of the fraternity will not come near me, +but go about by Watling Street, and come in again +by Soaper Lane, to buy their provisions of the +market folks.... I feele the pangs of death, +and shall never see the end of the merry month of +May; my breath stops; my life is gone; I feel +myself a-dying downwards."</p> + +<p>Here are some of the bequests:—"I give my +iron-work to those people which make good swords, +at Hounslow; for I am all Spanish iron and steele +to the back.</p> + +<p>"I give my body and stones to those masons +that cannot telle how to frame the like againe, to +keepe by them for a patterne; for in time there +will be more crosses in London than ever there +was yet.</p> + +<p>"I give my ground whereon I stood to be a free +market-place.</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"JASPER CROSSE, HIS EPITAPH.<br /> +<br /> +'I look for no praise when I am dead,<br /> +For, going the right way, I never did tread;<br /> +I was harde as an alderman's doore,<br /> +That's shut and stony-hearted to the poore.<br /> +I never gave alms, nor did anything<br /> +Was good, nor e'er said, God save the King.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_689" id="Page_689">[Pg 689]</a></span>I stood like a stock that was made of wood,<br /> +And yet the people would not say I was good;<br /> +And if I tell them plaine, they're like to mee—<br /> +Like stone to all goodnesse. But now, reader, see<br /> +Me in the dust, for crosses must not stand,<br /> +There is too much cross tricks within the land;<br /> +And, having so done never any good,<br /> +I leave my prayse for to be understood;<br /> +For many women, after this my losse,<br /> +Will remember me, and still will be crosse—<br /> +Crosse tricks, crosse ways, and crosse vanities,<br /> +Believe the Crosse speaks truth, for here he lyes.</div> + +<p>"I was built of lead, iron, and stone. Some say +that divers of the crowns and sceptres are of silver, +besides the rich gold that I was gilded with, which +might have been filed and saved, yielding a good +value. Some have offered four hundred, some +five hundred; but they that bid most offer one +thousand for it. I am to be taken down this very +Tuesday; and I pray, good reader, take notice by +the almanack, for the sign falls just at this time, +to be in the feete, to showe that the crosse must +be laide equall with the grounde, for our feete to +tread on, and what day it was demolished; that is, +on the day when crosses were first invented and +set up; and so I leave the rest to your consideration."</p> + +<p>Howell, the letter writer, lamenting the demolition +of so ancient and visible a monument, says +trumpets were blown all the while the crowbars and +pickaxes were working. Archbishop Laud in his +"Diary" notes that on May 1st the fanatical mob +broke the stained-glass windows of his Lambeth +chapel, and tore up the steps of his communion +table.</p> + +<p>"On Tuesday," this fanatic of another sort +writes, "the cross in Cheapside was taken down +to cleanse that great street of superstition." The +amiable Evelyn notes in his "Diary" that he himself +saw "the furious and zelous people demolish +that stately crosse in Cheapside." In July, 1645, +two years afterwards, and in the middle of the +Civil War, Whitelocke (afterwards Oliver Cromwell's +trimming minister) mentions a burning on the site +of the Cheapside cross of crucifixes, Popish pictures, +and books. Soon after the demolition of the cross +(says Howell) a high square stone rest was "popped +up in Cheapside, hard by the Standard," according +to the legacy of Russell, a good-hearted porter. +This "rest and be thankful" bore the following +simple distich:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"God bless thee, porter, who great pains doth take;<br /> +Rest here, and welcome, when thy back doth ache."</div> + +<p>There are four views of the old Cheapside cross +extant—one at Cowdray, one at the Pepysian library, +Cambridge. A third, engraved by Wilkinson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_690" id="Page_690">[Pg 690]</a></span> +represents the procession of Mary de Medicis, on +her way through Cheapside; and another, which +we give on page 331, shows the demolition of the +cross.</p> + +<p>The old London conduits were pleasant gathering +places for 'prentices, serving-men, and servant +girls—open-air parliaments of chatter, scandal, +love-making, and trade talk. Here all day repaired +the professional water-carriers, rough, sturdy fellows—like +Ben Jonson's Cob—who were hired to supply +the houses of the rich goldsmiths of Chepe, and +who, before Sir Hugh Middleton brought the New +River to London, were indispensable to the citizen's +very existence.</p> + +<p>The Great Conduit of Cheapside stood in the +middle of the east end of the street near its junction +with the Poultry, while the Little Conduit was at +the west end, facing Foster Lane and Old Change. +Stow, that indefatigable stitcher together of old +history, describes the larger conduit curtly as +bringing sweet water "by pipes of lead underground +from Tyburn (Paddington) for the service +of the City." It was castellated with stone and +cisterned in lead about the year 1285 (Edward I.), +and again new built and enlarged by Thomas +Ham, a sheriff in 1479 (Edward IV.). Ned Ward +(1700), in his lively ribald way describes Cheapside +conduit (he does not say which) palisaded with +chimney-sweepers' brooms and surrounded by +sweeps, probably waiting to be hired, so that "a +countryman, seeing so many black attendants +waiting at a stone hovel, took it to be one of Old +Nick's tenements."</p> + +<p>In the reign of Edward III. the supply of water +for the City seems to have been derived chiefly from +the river, the local conduits being probably insufficient. +The carters, called "water-leders" (24th +Edward III.), were ordered by the City to charge +three-halfpence for taking a cart from Dowgate or +Castle Baynard to Chepe, and five farthings if +they stopped short of Chepe, while a sand-cart from +Aldgate to Chepe Conduit was to charge threepence.</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, the sound of +whose mellow bells is supposed to be so dear to +cockney ears, is the glory and crown of modern +Cheapside. The music it casts forth into the +troubled London air has a special magic of its +own, and has a power to waken memories of +the past. This <i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of Sir Christopher +Wren, whose steeple—as graceful as it is stately—rises +like a lighthouse above the roar and jostle of +the human deluge below, stands on an ecclesiastical +site of great antiquity. The old tradition is that +here, as at St. Paul's and Westminster, was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_691" id="Page_691">[Pg 691]</a></span> +Roman temple, but of that there is no proof whatever. +The first Bow Church seems, however, to +have been one of the earliest churches built by +the conquerors of Harold; and here, no doubt, the +sullen Saxons came to sneer at the masse chanted +with a French accent. The first church was racked +by storm and fire, was for a time turned into a +fortress, was afterwards the scene of a murder, and +last of all became one of our earliest ecclesiastical +courts. Stow, usually very clear and unconfused, +rather contradicts himself for once about the +origin of the name of the church—"St. Mary de +Arcubus or Bow." In one place he says it was so +called because it was the first London church built +on arches; and elsewhere, when out of sight of this +assertion, he says that it took its name from certain +stone arches supporting a lantern on the top of the +tower. The first is more probably the true derivation, +for St. Paul's could also boast its Saxon +crypt. Bow Church is first mentioned in the reign +of William the Conqueror, and it was probably +built at that period.</p> + +<p>There seems to have been nothing to specially +disturb the fair building and its ministering priests +till 1090 (William Rufus), when, in a tremendous +storm that sent the monks to their knees, and +shook the very saints from their niches over portal +and arch, the roof of Bow Church was, by one +great wrench of the wind, lifted off, and wafted +down like a mere dead leaf into the street. It does +not say much for the state of the highway that four +of the huge rafters, twenty-six feet long, were driven +(so the chroniclers say) twenty-two feet into the +ground.</p> + +<p>In 1270 part of the steeple fell, and caused the +death of several persons; so that the work of +mediæval builders does not seem to have been +always irreproachable.</p> + +<p>It was in 1284 (Edward I.) that blood was shed, +and the right of sanctuary violated, in Bow Church. +One Duckett, a goldsmith, having in that warlike +age wounded in some fray a person named Ralph +Crepin, took refuge in this church, and slept in the +steeple. While there, certain friends of Crepin +entered during the night, and violating the sanctuary, +first slew Duckett, and then so placed the +body as to induce the belief that he had committed +suicide. A verdict to this effect was accordingly +returned at the inquisition, and the body was interred +with the customary indignities. The real circumstances, +however, being afterwards discovered, +through the evidence of a boy, who, it appears, was +with Duckett in his voluntary confinement, and had +hid himself during the struggle, the murderers, +among whom was a woman, were apprehended and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_692" id="Page_692">[Pg 692]</a></span> +executed. After this occurrence the church was +interdicted for a time, and the doors and windows +stopped with brambles.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="map" id="map"></a> +<img src="images/p336.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD MAP OF THE WARD OF CHEAP—ABOUT 1750</span> +</div> + +<p>The first we hear of the nightly ringing of Bow +bell at nine o'clock—a reminiscence, probably, of +the tyrannical Norman curfew, or signal for extinguishing +the lights at eight p.m.—is in 1315 +(Edward II.). It was the go-to-bed bell of those +early days; and two old couplets still exist, supposed +to be the complaint of the sleepy 'prentices of +Chepe and the obsequious reply of the Bow Church +clerk. In the reign of Henry VI. the steeple was +completed, and the ringing of the bell was, perhaps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_693" id="Page_693">[Pg 693]</a></span> +the revival of an old and favourite usage. The +rhymes are—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes,<br /> +For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes."</div> + +<p>To this the clerk replies—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Children of Chepe, hold you all still,<br /> +For you shall have Bow bell rung at your will."</div> + +<p>In 1315 (Edward II.) William Copeland, churchwarden +of Bow, gave a new bell to the church, or +had the old one re-cast.</p> + +<p>In 1512 (Henry VIII.) the upper part of the +steeple was repaired, and the lanthorn and the +stone arches forming the open coronet of the tower<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_694" id="Page_694">[Pg 694]</a></span> +were finished with Caen stone. It was then proposed +to glaze the five corner lanthorns and the +top lanthorn, and light them up with torches or +cressets at night, to serve as beacons for travellers +on the northern roads to London; but the idea +was never carried out.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="seal" id="seal"></a> +<img src="images/p337.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE SEAL OF BOW CHURCH</span> +</div> + +<p>By the Great Fire of 1666, the old church was destroyed; and in 1671 the +present edifice was commenced by Sir C. Wren. After it was erected the +parish was united to two others, Allhallows, Honey Lane, and St. +Pancras, Soper Lane. As the right of presentation to the latter of them +is also vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that of the former +in the Grocers' Company, the Archbishop nominates twice consecutively, +and the Grocers' Company once. We learn from the "Parentalia," that the +former church had been mean and low. On digging out the ground, a +foundation was discovered sufficiently firm for the intended fabric, +which, on further examination, the account states, appeared to be the +walls and pavement of a temple, or church, of Roman workmanship, +entirely buried under the level of the present street. In reality, +however (unless other remains were found below those since seen, which +is not probable), this was nothing more than the crypt of the ancient +Norman church, and it may still be examined in the vaults of the present +building; for, as the account informs us, upon these walls was commenced +the new church. The former building stood about forty feet backwards +from Cheapside; and in order to bring the new steeple forward to the +line of the street, the site of a house not yet rebuilt was purchased, +and on it the excavations were commenced for the foundation of the +tower. Here a Roman causeway was found, supposed to be the once northern +boundary of the colony. The church was completed (chiefly at the expense +of subscribers)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_695" id="Page_695">[Pg 695]</a></span> +in 1680. A certain Dame Dyonis Williamson, of +Hale's Hall, in the county of Norfolk, gave £2,000 towards the +rebuilding. Of the monuments in the church, that to the memory of Dr. +Newton, Bishop of Bristol, and twenty-five years rector of Bow Church, +is the most noticeable. In 1820 the spire was repaired by George Gwilt, +architect, and the upper part of it taken down and rebuilt. There used +to be a large building, called the Crown-sild, or shed, on the north +side of the old church (now the site of houses in Cheapside), which was +erected by Edward III., as a place from which the Royal Family might +view tournaments and other entertainments thereafter occurring in +Cheapside. Originally the King had nothing but a temporary wooden shed +for the purpose, but this falling down, as already described (page 316), +led to the erection of the Crown-sild.</p> + +<p>"Without the north +side of this church +of St. Mary Bow," +says Stow, "towards +West Chepe, standeth +one fair building of +stone, called in record +Seldam, a shed which +greatly darkeneth the +said church; for by +means thereof all the +windows and doors +on that side are stopped up. King Edward +caused this sild or shed to be made, and to be +strongly built of stone, for himself, the queen, and +other estates to stand in, there to behold the +joustings and other shows at their pleasure. And +this house for a long time after served for that use—viz., +in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.; +but in the year 1410 Henry IV. confirmed the said +shed or building to Stephen Spilman, William +Marchfield, and John Whateley, mercers, by the +name of one New Seldam, shed, or building, +with shops, cellars, and edifices whatsoever appertaining, +called Crownside or Tamersilde, situate in +the Mercery in West Chepe, and in the parish of +St. Mary de Arcubus, in London, &c. Notwith<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_696" id="Page_696">[Pg 696]</a></span>standing +which grant the kings of England and +other great estates, as well of foreign countries +repairing to this realm, as inhabitants of the same, +have usually repaired to this place, therein to +behold the shows of this city passing through +West Chepe—viz., the great watches accustomed +in the night, on the even of St. John the Baptist +and St. Peter at Midsummer, the example whereof +were over long to recite, wherefore let it suffice +briefly to touch one. In the year 1510, on St. +John's even at night, King Henry VIII. came to +this place, then called the King's Head in Chepe, +in the livery of a yeoman of the guard, with a +halbert on his shoulder, and there beholding the +watch, departed privily when the watch was done, +and was not known to any but whom it pleased +him; but on St. Peter's night next following he and +the queen came royally riding to the said place, +and there with their nobles beheld the watch of the +city, and returned in the morning."</p> + +<p>The <i>Builder</i>, of 1845, gives a full account of the +discovery of architectural remains beneath some +houses in Bow Churchyard:—</p> + +<p>"They are," says the <i>Builder</i>, "of a much later +date than the celebrated Norman crypt at present +existing under the church. Beneath the house +No. 5 is a square vaulted chamber, twelve feet by +seven feet three inches high, with a slightly pointed +arch of ribbed masonry, similar to some of those +of the Old London Bridge. There had been in +the centre of the floor an excavation, which might +have been formerly used as a bath, but which was +now arched over and converted into a cesspool. +Proceeding towards Cheapside, there appears to be +a continuation of the vaulting beneath the houses +Nos. 4 and 3. The arch of the vault here is plain +and more pointed. The masonry appears, from an +aperture near to the warehouse above, to be of +considerable thickness. This crypt or vault is +seven feet in height, from the floor to the crown of +the arch, and is nine feet in width, and eighteen +feet long. Beneath the house No. 4 is an outer +vault. The entrance to both these vaults is by a +depressed Tudor arch, with plain spandrils, six feet +high, the thickness of the walls about four feet. In +the thickness of the eastern wall of one of the +vaults are cut triangular-headed niches, similar to +those in which, in ancient ecclesiastical edifices, the +basins containing the holy water, and sometimes +lamps, were placed. These vaultings appear originally +to have extended to Cheapside; for beneath +a house there, in a direct line with these buildings +and close to the street, is a massive stone wall. +The arches of this crypt are of the low pointed +form, which came into use in the sixteenth century.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_697" id="Page_697">[Pg 697]</a></span> +There are no records of any monastery having +existed on this spot, and it is difficult to conjecture +what the building originally was. Mr. Chaffers +thought it might be the remains of the <i>Crown-sild</i>, +or shed, where our sovereigns resorted to view the +joustings, shows, and great marching matches on +the eves of great festivals."</p> + +<p>The ancient silver parish seal of St. Mary-le-Bow, +of which we give an engraving on page +337, representing the tower of the church as it +existed before the Great Fire of 1666, is still in +existence. It represents the old coronetted tower +with great exactitude.</p> + +<p>The first recorded rector of Bow Church was +William D. Cilecester (1287, Edward I.), and the +earliest known monument in the church was in +memory of Sir John Coventry, Lord Mayor in +1425 (Henry VI.). The advowson of St. Mary-le-Bow +belongs to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and +is the chief of his thirteen <i>peculiars</i>, or insulated, +livings.</p> + +<p>Lovers of figures may like to know that the +height of Bow steeple is 221 feet 8½ inches. The +church altogether cost £7,388 8s. 7d.</p> + +<p>It was in Bow parish, Maitland thinks, that John +Hare, the rich mercer, lived, at the sign of the +"Crown," in the reign of Henry VIII. He was a +Suffolk man, made a large fortune, and left a considerable +sum in charity—to poor prisoners, to the +hospitals, the lazar-houses, and the almsmen of +Whittington College—and thirty-five heavy gold +mourning rings to special friends.</p> + +<p>Edward IV., the same day he was proclaimed, +dined at the palace at Paul's (that is, Baynard's +Castle, near St. Paul's), in the City, and continued +there till his army was ready to march in pursuit +of King Henry; during which stay in the City he +caused Walter Walker, an eminent grocer in Cheapside, +to be apprehended and tried for a few harmless +words innocently spoken by him—viz., that he +would make his son heir to the Crown, inoffensively +meaning his own house, which had the crown for +its sign; for which imaginary crime he was beheaded +in Smithfield, on the eighth day of this +king's reign. This "Crown" was probably Hare's +house.</p> + +<p>The house No. 108, Cheapside, opposite Bow +Church, was rebuilt after the Great Fire upon the +sites of three ancient houses, called respectively +the "Black Bull," leased to Daniel Waldo; the +"Cardinalle Hat," leased to Ann Stephens; and +the "Black Boy," leased to William Carpenter, by +the Mercers' Company. In the library of the City +of London there are MSS. from the Surveys of +Wills, &c., after the Fire of London, giving a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_698" id="Page_698">[Pg 698]</a></span> +description of the property, as well as the names +of the respective owners. It was subsequently +leased to David Barclay, linendraper; and has been +visited by six reigning sovereigns, from Charles II. +to George III., on civic festivities, and for witnessing +the Lord Mayor's show. In this house +Sir Edward Waldo was knighted by Charles II., +and the Lord Mayor, in 1714, was created a baronet +by George I. When the house was taken down +in 1861, the fine old oak-panelled dining-room, +with its elaborate carvings, was purchased entire, +and removed to Wales. The purchaser has +written an interesting description (privately printed) +of the panelling, the royal visits, the Barclay +family, and other interesting matters.</p> + +<p>In 1861 there was sold, says Mr. Timbs, amongst +the old materials of No. 108, the "fine old oak-panelling +of a large dining-room, with chimney-piece +and cornice to correspond, elaborately carved +in fruit and foliage, in capital preservation, 750 +fee superficial." These panels were purchased +by Mr. Morris Charles Jones, of Gunrog, near +Welshpool, in North Wales, for £72 10s. 3d., +including commission and expenses of removal, +being about 1s. 8d. per foot superficial. It has +been conveyed from Cheapside to Gunrog. This +room was the principal apartment of the house of +Sir Edward Waldo, and stated, in a pamphlet by +Mr. Jones, "to have been visited by six reigning +sovereigns, from Charles II. to George III., on +the occasion of civic festivities and for the purpose +of witnessing the Lord Mayor's show." (See Mr. +Jones's pamphlet, privately printed, 1864.) A contemporary +(the <i>Builder</i>) doubts whether this carving +can be the work of Gibbons; "if so, it is a rare +treasure, cheaply gained. But, except in St. Paul's, +a Crown and ecclesiastical structure, be it remembered, +not a corporate one, there is not a single +example of Gibbons' art to be seen in the City of +London proper."</p> + +<p>Goldsmiths' Row, in Cheapside, between Old +Change and Bucklersbury, was originally built by +Thomas Wood, goldsmith and sheriff, in 1491 +(Henry VII.). Stow, speaking of it, says: "It is +a most beautiful frame of houses and shops, consisting +of tenne faire dwellings, uniformly builded +foure stories high, beautified towards the street with +the Goldsmiths' arms, and likeness of Woodmen, in +memorie of his name, riding on monstrous beasts, +all richly painted and gilt." Maitland assures us +"it was beautiful to behold the glorious appearance +of goldsmith's shops, in the south row of Cheapside, +which reached from the Old Change to Bucklersbury, +exclusive of four shops."</p> + +<p>The sign in stone of a nag's head upon the front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_699" id="Page_699">[Pg 699]</a></span> +of the old house, No. 39, indicates, it is supposed, +the tavern at the corner of Friday Street, where, +according to Roman Catholic scandal, the Protestant +bishops, on Elizabeth's accession, consecrated +each other in a very irregular manner.</p> + +<p>Pennant thus relates the scandalous story:—"It +was pretended by the adversaries of our religion, +that a certain number of ecclesiastics, in their hurry +to take possession of the vacant sees, assembled +here, where they were to undergo the ceremony +from Anthony Kitchen, <i>alias</i> Dunstan, Bishop of +Llandaff, a sort of occasional conformist, who had +taken the oaths of supremacy to Queen Elizabeth. +Bonner, Bishop of London, then confined in prison, +hearing of it, sent his chaplain to Kitchen, threatening +him with excommunication in case he proceeded. +The prelate, therefore, refused to perform +the ceremony; on which, say the Roman Catholics, +Parker and the other candidates, rather than defer +possession of their dioceses, determined to consecrate +one another, which, says the story, they +did without any sort of scruple, and Story began +with Parker, who instantly rose Archbishop of +Canterbury. The simple refutation of this lying +story may be read in Strype's 'Life of Archbishop +Parker.'" The "Nag's Head Tavern" is shown +in La Serre's print, "Entrée de la Reyne Mère +du Roy," 1638, of which we gave a copy on +page 307 of this work.</p> + +<p>"The confirmation," says Strype, "was performed +three days after the Queen's letters commissional +above-said; that is, on the 9th day of December, +in the Church of St. Mary de Arcubus (<i>i.e.</i> Mary-le-Bow, +in Cheapside), regularly, and according to +the usual custom; and then after this manner:—First, +John Incent, public notary, appeared personally, +and presented to the Right Reverend the +Commissaries, appointed by the Queen, her said +letters to them directed in that behalf; humbly +praying them to take upon them the execution of +the said letters, and to proceed according to the +contents thereof, in the said business of confirmation. +And the said notary public publicly read +the Queen's commissional letters. Then, out of +the reverence and honour those bishops present +(who were Barlow, Story, Coverdale, and the +suffragan of Bedford), bore to her Majesty, they +took upon them the commission, and accordingly +resolved to proceed according to the form, power, +and effect of the said letters. Next, the notary +exhibited his proxy for the Dean and Chapter of +the Metropolitan Church, and made himself a party +for them; and, in the procuratorial name of the +said Dean and Chapter, presented the venerable Mr. +Nicolas Bullingham, LL.D., and placed him before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_700" id="Page_700">[Pg 700]</a></span> +the said commissioners; who then exhibited his +proxy for the said elect of Canterbury, and made +himself a party for him. Then the said notary +exhibited the original citatory mandate, together +with the certificate on the back side, concerning +the execution of the same; and then required all +and singular persons cited, to be publicly called. +And consequently a threefold proclamation was +made, of all and singular opposers, at the door +of the parochial church aforesaid; and so as is +customary in these cases.</p> + +<p>"Then, at the desire of the said notary to go on +in this business of confirmation, they, the commissioners, +decreed so to do, as was more fully contained +in a schedule read by Bishop Barlow, with +the consent of his colleagues. It is too long to +relate distinctly every formal proceeding in this +business; only it may be necessary to add some +few of the most material passages.</p> + +<p>"Then followed the deposition of witnesses concerning +the life and actions, learning and abilities +of the said elect; his freedom, his legitimacy, his +priesthood, and such like. One of the witnesses +was John Baker, of thirty-nine years old, gent., who +is said to sojourn for the present with the venerable +Dr. Parker, and to be born in the parish of St. +Clement's, in Norwich. He, among other things, +witnessed, 'That the same reverend father was and +is a prudent man, commended for his knowledge of +sacred Scripture, and for his life and manners. +That he was a freeman, and born in lawful matrimony; +that he was in lawful age, and in priest's +orders, and a faithful subject to the Queen;' and +the said Baker, in giving the reason of his knowledge +in this behalf, said, 'That he was the natural +brother of the Lord Elect, and that they were born +<i>ex unis parentibus</i>' (or rather, surely, <i>ex una parente</i>, +<i>i.e.</i>, of one mother). William Tolwyn, M.A., aged +seventy years, and rector of St. Anthony, London, +was another witness, who had known the said +elect thirty years, and knew his mother, and that +he was still very well acquainted with him, and +of his certain knowledge could testify all above +said.</p> + +<p>"The notary exhibited the process of the election +by the Dean and Chapter; which the commissioners +did take a diligent view of, and at last, in the conclusion +of this affair, the commissioners decreed +the said most reverend lord elected and presently +confirmed, should receive his consecration; and +committed to him the care, rule, and administration, +both of the temporals and spirituals of the +said archbishopric; and decreed him to be inducted +into the real, actual, and corporal possession of the +same archbishopric.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_701" id="Page_701">[Pg 701]</a></span></p> + +<p>"After many years the old story is ventured +again into the world, in a book printed at Douay, +anno 1654, wherein they thus tell their tale. 'I +know they (<i>i.e.</i>, the Protestants) have tried many +ways, and feigned an old record (meaning the +authentic register of Archbishop Parker) to prove +their ordination from Catholic bishops. But it +was false, as I have received from two certain +witnesses. The former of them was Dr. Darbyshire, +then Dean of St. Paul's (canon there, perhaps, +but never dean), and nephew to Dr. Boner, Bishop +of London; who almost sixty years since lived at +Meux Port, then a holy, religious man (a Jesuit), +very aged, but perfect in sense and memory, who, +speaking what he knew, affirmed to myself and +another with me, <i>that like good fellows they made +themselves bishops at an inn, because they could get no +true bishops to consecrate them</i>. My other witness +was a gentleman of honour, worth, and credit, +dead not many years since, whose father, a chief +judge of this kingdom, visiting Archbishop Heath, +saw a letter, sent from Bishop Boner out of +the Marshalsea, by one of his chaplains, to the +archbishop, read, while they sat at dinner together; +wherein he merrily related the manner how these +new bishops (because he had dissuaded Ogelthorp, +Bishop of Carlisle, from doing it in his diocese) +ordained one another at an inn, where they met +together. And while others laughed at this new +manner of consecrating bishops, the archbishop +himself, gravely, and not without tears, expressed +his grief to see such a ragged company of men +come poor out of foreign parts, and appointed to +succeed the old clergy.'</p> + +<p>"Which forgery, when once invented, was so +acceptable to the Romanists, that it was most +confidently repeated again in an English book, +printed at Antwerp, 1658, <i>permissione superiorum</i>, +being a second edition, licensed by Gulielmo +Bolognimo, where the author sets down his story +in these words:—'The heretics who were named +to succeed in the other bishops' sees, could not +prevail with Llandaff (whom he calls a little before +<i>an old simple man</i>) to consecrate them at the "Nag's +Head," in Cheapside, where they appointed to +meet him. And therefore they made use of Story, +who was never ordained bishop, though he bore +the name in King Edward's reign. Kneeling +before him, he laid the Bible upon their heads or +shoulders, and bid them rise up and preach the +word of God sincerely. 'This is,' added he, 'so +evident a truth, that for the space of fifty years no +Protestant durst contradict it.'"</p> + +<p>"The form adopted at the confirmation of Archbishop +Parker," says Dr. Pusey in a letter dated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_702" id="Page_702">[Pg 702]</a></span> +1865, quoted by Mr. Timbs, "was carefully framed +on the old form used in the confirmations by +Archbishop Chichele (which was the point for +which I examined the registers in the Lambeth +library). The words used in the consecration of +the bishops confirmed by Chichele do not occur +in the registers. The words used by the consecrators +of Parker, 'Accipe Spiritum sanctum,' were +read in the later pontificals, as in that of Exeter, +Lacy's (Maskell's 'Monumenta Ritualia,' iii. 258). +Roman Catholic writers admit <i>that</i> only is essential +to consecration which the English service-book +retained—prayer during the service, which should +have reference to the office of bishop, and the +imposition of hands. And, in fact, Cardinal Pole +engaged to retain in their orders those who had +been so ordained under Edward VI., and his act +was confirmed by Paul IV." (Sanders, <i>De Schism. +Angl.</i>, l. iii. 350.)</p> + +<p>The house No. 73, Cheapside, shown in our +illustration on page 343, was erected, from the +design of Sir Christopher Wren, for Sir William +Turner, Knight, who served the office of Lord +Mayor in the year 1668-9, and here he kept his +mayoralty.</p> + +<p>At the "Queen's Arms Tavern," No. 71, Cheapside, +the poet Keats once lived. The second floor +of the house which stretches over the passage +leading to this tavern was his lodging. Here, +says Cunningham, he wrote his magnificent sonnet +on Chapman's "Homer," and all the poems in his +first little volume. Keats, the son of a livery-stable +keeper in Moorfields, was born in 1795, and +died of consumption at Rome in 1821. He published +his "Endymion" (the inspiration suggested +from Lempriere alone) in 1818. We annex the +glorious sonnet written within sound of Bow +bells:—</p> + +<p>ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S "HOMER."</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round many western islands have I been,</span><br /> +Which bards, in fealty to Apollo, hold.<br /> +Oft of one wide expanse had I been told<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet did I never breathe its pure serene</span><br /> +Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold;<br /> +Then felt I like some watcher of the skies<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When a new planet swims into his ken;</span><br /> +Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He stared at the Pacific—and all his men</span><br /> +Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Silent, upon a peak in Darien."</span></div> + + +<p>Behnes' poor bald statue of Sir Robert Peel, in +the Paternoster Row end of Cheapside, was uncovered +July 21st, 1855. The <i>Builder</i> at the time +justly lamented that so much good metal was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_703" id="Page_703">[Pg 703]</a></span> +wasted. The statue is without thought—the head +is set on the neck awkwardly, the pedestal is senseless, +and the two double lamps at the side are +mean and paltry.</p> + +<p>Saddlers' Hall is close to Foster Lane, Cheapside. +"Near unto this lane," says Strype, "but in Cheapside, +is Saddlers' Hall—a pretty good building, +seated at the upper end of a handsome alley, near +to which is Half Moon Alley, which is but small, +at the upper end of which is a tavern, which gives +a passage into Foster Lane, and another into +Gutter Lane."</p> + +<p>"This appears," says Maitland, "to be a fraternity +of great antiquity, by a convention agreed upon +between them and the Dean and Chapter of St. +Martin's-le-Grand, about the reign of Richard I., +at which time I imagine it to have been an Adulterine +Guild, seeing it was only incorporated by +letters patent of Edward I., by the appellation of +'The Wardens, or Keepers and Commonalty of +the Mystery or Art of Sadlers, London.' This +company is governed by a prime and three other +wardens, and eighteen assistants, with a livery of +seventy members, whose fine of admission is ten +pounds.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> At the entrance is an ornamental doorcase, +and an iron gate, and it is a very complete +building for the use of such a company. It is +adorned with fretwork and wainscot, and the Company's +arms are carved in stone over the gate next +the street."</p> + +<p>In 1736, Prince Frederick of Wales, that hopeless +creature, being desirous of seeing the Lord +Mayor's show privately, visited the City in disguise. +At that time it was the custom for several +of the City companies, particularly for those who +had no barges, to have stands erected in the +streets through which the Lord Mayor passed on +his return from Westminster, in which the freemen +of companies were accustomed to assemble. It +happened that his Royal Highness was discovered +by some of the Saddlers' Company, in consequence +of which he was invited to their stand, which +invitation he accepted, and the parties were so well +pleased with each other that his Royal Highness +was soon after chosen Master of the Company, a +compliment which he also accepted. The City on +that occasion formed a resolution to compliment +his Royal Highness with the freedom of London, +pursuant to which the Court of Lord Mayor and +Aldermen attended the prince, on the 17th of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_704" id="Page_704">[Pg 704]</a></span> +December, with the said freedom, of which the +following is a copy:—</p> + +<p>"The most high, most potent, and most illustrious +Prince Frederick Lewis, Prince of Great +Britain, Electoral Prince of Brunswick-Lunenburg, +Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of +Rothsay, Duke of Edinburgh, Marquis of the Isle +of Ely, Earl of Eltham, Earl of Chester, Viscount +Launceston, Baron of Renfrew, Baron of Snowdon, +Lord of the Isles, Steward of Scotland, Knight of +the most noble Order of the Garter, and one of his +Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, of his +mere grace and princely favour, did the most +august City of London the honour to accept the +freedom thereof, and was admitted of the Company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_705" id="Page_705">[Pg 705]</a></span> +of the Saddlers, in the time of the Right Honourable +Sir John Thompson, Knight, Lord Mayor, and +John Bosworth, Esq., Chamberlain of the said +City." In his "Industry and Idleness," Hogarth +shows us the prince and princess on the balcony +of Saddler's Hall.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bow" id="bow"></a> +<img src="images/p342.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BOW CHURCH, CHEAPSIDE. (<i>From a view taken about 1750.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>That dull poet, worthy Sir Richard Blackmore, +whom Locke and Addison praised and Dryden +ridiculed, lived either at Saddlers' Hall or just +opposite. It was on this weariful Tupper of his +day that Garth wrote these verses:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Unwieldy pedant, let thy awkward muse,<br /> +With censures praise, with flatteries abuse.<br /> +To lash, and not be felt, in thee's an art;<br /> +Thou ne'er mad'st any but thy schoolboys smart.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_706" id="Page_706">[Pg 706]</a></span>Then be advis'd, and scribble not agen;<br /> +Thou'rt fashioned for a flail, and not a pen.<br /> +If B——l's immortal wit thou wouldst descry,<br /> +Pretend 'tis he that writ thy poetry.<br /> +Thy feeble satire ne'er can do him wrong;<br /> +Thy poems and thy patients live not long."</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cheap" id="cheap"></a> +<img src="images/p343.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> NO. 73, CHEAPSIDE (<i>From an old View.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>And some other satirical verses on Sir Richard +began:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Twas kindly done of the good-natured cits,<br /> +To place before thy door a brace of tits."</div> + +<p>Blackmore, who had been brought up as an attorney's +clerk and schoolmaster, wrote most of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_707" id="Page_707">[Pg 707]</a></span> +verses in his carriage, as he drove to visit his +patients, a feat to which Dryden alludes when he +talks of Blackmore writing to the "rumbling of his +carriage-wheels."</p> + +<p>At No. 90, Cheapside lived Alderman Boydell, +engraver and printseller, a man who in his time +did more for English art than all the English +monarchs from the Conquest downwards. He was +apprenticed, when more than twenty years old, +to Mr. Tomson, engraver, and soon felt a desire +to popularise and extend the art. His first funds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_708" id="Page_708">[Pg 708]</a></span> +he derived from the sale of a book of 152 humble +prints, engraved by himself. With the profits he +was enabled to pay the best engravers liberally, to +make copies of the works of our best masters.</p> + +<p>"The alderman assured me," says "Rainy Day +Smith," "that when he commenced publishing, he +etched small plates of landscapes, which he produced +in plates of six, and sold for sixpence; and +that as there were very few print-shops at that +time in London, he prevailed upon the sellers of +children's toys to allow his little books to be put in +their windows. These shops he regularly visited +every Saturday, to see if any had been sold, and +to leave more. His most successful shop was the +sign of the 'Cricket Bat,' in Duke's Court, St. +Martin's Lane, where he found he had sold as +many as came to five shillings and sixpence. With +this success he was so pleased, that, wishing to +invite the shopkeeper to continue in his interest, +he laid out the money in a silver pencil-case; +which article, after he had related the above anecdote, +he took out of his pocket and assured me he +never would part with. He then favoured me with +the following history of Woollett's plate of the +'Niobe,' and, as it is interesting, I shall endeavour +to relate it in Mr. Boydell's own words:—</p> + +<p>"'When I got a little forward in the world,' +said the venerable alderman, 'I took a whole shop, +for at my commencement I kept only half a one. +In the course of one year I imported numerous +impressions of Vernet's celebrated "Storm," so +admirably engraved by Lerpinière, for which I was +obliged to pay in hard cash, as the French took +none of our prints in return. Upon Mr. Woollett's +expressing himself highly delighted with the +"Storm," I was induced, knowing his ability as an +engraver, to ask him if he thought he could produce +a print of the same size which I could send +over, so that in future I could avoid payment in +money, and prove to the French nation that an +Englishman could produce a print of equal merit; +upon which he immediately declared that he should +like much to try.</p> + +<p>"'At this time the principal conversation among +artists was upon Mr. Wilson's grand picture of +"Niobe," which had just arrived from Rome. I +therefore immediately applied to his Royal Highness +the Duke of Gloucester, its owner, and procured +permission for Woollett to engrave it. But +before he ventured upon the task, I requested to +know what idea he had as to the expense, and after +some consideration, he said he thought he could +engrave it for one hundred guineas. This sum, +small as it may now appear, was to me,' observed +the alderman, 'an unheard-of price, being con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_709" id="Page_709">[Pg 709]</a></span>siderably +more than I had given for any copper-plate. +However, serious as the sum was, I bade +him get to work, and he proceeded with all cheerfulness, +for as he went on I advanced him money; +and though he lost no time, I found that he had +received nearly the whole amount before he had +half finished his task. I frequently called upon +him, and found him struggling with serious difficulties, +with his wife and family, in an upper +lodging in Green's Court, Castle Street, Leicester +Square, for there he lived before he went into +Green Street. However, I encouraged him by +allowing him to draw on me to the extent of +twenty-five pounds more; and at length that sum +was paid, and I was unavoidably under the necessity +of saying, "Mr. Woollett, I find we have +made too close a bargain with each other. You +have exerted yourself, and I fear I have gone +beyond my strength, or, indeed, what I ought to +have risked, as we neither of us can be aware of +the success of the speculation. However, I am +determined, whatever the event may be, to enable +you to finish it to your wish—at least, to allow +you to work upon it as long as another twenty-five +pounds can extend, but there we must positively +stop." The plate was finished; and, after +taking very few proofs, I published the print at +five shillings, and it succeeded so much beyond +my expectations, that I immediately employed Mr. +Woollett upon another engraving, from another +picture by Wilson; and I am now thoroughly convinced +that had I continued publishing subjects of +this description, my fortune would have been increased +tenfold.'"</p> + +<p>"In the year 1786," says Knowles, in his "Life +of Fuseli," "Mr. Alderman Boydell, at the suggestion +of Mr. George Nicol, began to form his +splendid collection of modern historical pictures, +the subjects being from Shakespeare's plays, and +which was called 'The Shakespeare Gallery.' This +liberal and well-timed speculation gave great energy +to this branch of the art, as well as employment to +many of our best artists and engravers, and among +the former to Fuseli, who executed eight large and +one small picture for the gallery. The following +were the subjects: 'Prospero,' 'Miranda,' 'Caliban,' +and 'Ariel,' from the <i>Tempest</i>; 'Titania in raptures +with Bottom, who wears the ass's head, attendant +fairies, &c.;' 'Titania awaking, discovers Oberon +at her side, Puck is removing the ass's head from +Bottom' (<i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>); 'Henry V. +with the Conspirators' (<i>King Henry V.</i>); 'Lear +dismissing Cordelia from his Court' (<i>King Lear</i>); +'Ghost of Hamlet's Father' (<i>Hamlet</i>); 'Falstaff +and Doll' (<i>King Henry IV., Second Part</i>); 'Mac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_710" id="Page_710">[Pg 710]</a></span>beth +meeting the Witches on the Heath' (<i>Macbeth</i>); +'Robin Goodfellow' (<i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>). +This gallery gave the public an opportunity of +judging of Fuseli's versatile powers.</p> + +<p>"The stately majesty of the 'Ghost of Hamlet's +Father' contrasted with the expressive energy of +his son, and the sublimity brought about by the +light, shadow, and general tone, strike the mind +with awe. In the picture of 'Lear' is admirably +portrayed the stubborn rashness of the father, the +filial piety of the discarded daughter, and the +wicked determination of Regan and Goneril. The +fairy scenes in <i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i> amuse +the fancy, and show the vast inventive powers of +the painter; and 'Falstaff with Doll' is exquisitely +ludicrous.</p> + +<p>"The example set by Boydell was a stimulus to +other speculators of a similar nature, and within a +few years appeared the Macklin and Woodmason +galleries; and it may be said with great truth that +Fuseli's pictures were among the most striking, if +not the best, in either collection."</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1787," says Northcote, in his "Life of +Reynolds," "when Alderman Boydell projected the +scheme of his magnificent edition of the plays of +Shakespeare, accompanied with large prints from +pictures to be executed by English painters, it was +deemed to be absolutely necessary that something +of Sir Joshua's painting should be procured to grace +the collection; but, unexpectedly, Sir Joshua appeared +to be rather shy in the business, as if he +thought it degrading himself to paint for a printseller, +and he would not at first consent to be +employed in the work. George Stevens, the editor +of Shakespeare, now undertook to persuade him to +comply, and, taking a bank-bill of five hundred +pounds in his hand, he had an interview with Sir +Joshua, when, using all his eloquence in argument, +he, in the meantime, slipped the bank-bill into his +hand; he then soon found that his mode of reasoning +was not to be resisted, and a picture was promised. +Sir Joshua immediately commenced his studies, +and no less than three paintings were exhibited at +the Shakspeare Gallery, or at least taken from that +poet, the only ones, as has been very correctly said, +which Sir Joshua ever executed for his illustration, +with the exception of a head of 'King Lear' (done +indeed in 1783), and now in possession of the Marchioness +of Thomond, and a portrait of the Hon. +Mrs. Tollemache, in the character of 'Miranda,' in +<i>The Tempest</i>, in which 'Prospero' and 'Caliban' are +introduced.</p> + +<p>"One of these paintings for the Gallery was +'Puck,' or 'Robin Goodfellow,' as it has been +called, which, in point of expression and animation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_711" id="Page_711">[Pg 711]</a></span> +is unparalleled, and one of the happiest efforts of Sir +Joshua's pencil, though it has been said by some +cold critics not to be perfectly characteristic of the +merry wanderer of Shakespeare. 'Macbeth,' with +the witches and the caldron, was another, and for +this last Mr. Boydell paid him 1,000 guineas; but +who is now the possessor of it I know not.</p> + +<p>"'Puck' was painted in 1789. Walpole depreciates +it as 'an ugly little imp (but with some character) +sitting on a mushroom half as big as a milestone.' +Mr. Nicholls, of the British Institution, related to Mr. +Cotton that the alderman and his grandfather were +with Sir Joshua when painting the death of Cardinal +Beaufort. Boydell was much taken with the portrait +of a naked child, and wished it could be brought +into the Shakspeare. Sir Joshua said it was painted +from a little child he found sitting on his steps in +Leicester Square. Nicholls' grandfather then said, +'Well, Mr. Alderman, it can very easily come into +the Shakspeare if Sir Joshua will kindly place him +upon a mushroom, give him fawn's ears, and make +a Puck of him.' Sir Joshua liked the notion, and +painted the picture accordingly.</p> + +<p>"The morning of the day on which Sir Joshua's +'Puck' was to be sold, Lord Farnborough and +Davies, the painter, breakfasted with Mr. Rogers, +and went to the sale together. When the picture +was put up there was a general clapping of hands, +and yet it was knocked down to Mr. Rogers for +105 guineas. As he walked home from the sale, +a man carried 'Puck' before him, and so well was +the picture known that more than one person, +as they were going along the street, called out, +'There it is!' At Mr. Rogers' sale, in 1856, it +was purchased by Earl Fitzwilliam for 980 guineas. +The grown-up person of the sitter for 'Puck' was +in Messrs. Christie and Manson's room during +the sale, and stood next to Lord Fitzwilliam, who +is also a survivor of the sitters to Sir Joshua. +The merry boy, whom Sir Joshua found upon his +doorstep, subsequently became a porter at Elliot's +brewery, in Pimlico."</p> + +<p>In 1804, Alderman Boydell applied through his +friend, Sir John W. Anderson, to the House of +Commons, for leave to dispose of his paintings and +drawings by lottery. In his petition he described +himself, with modesty and pathos, as an old man of +eighty-five, anxious to free himself from debts which +now oppressed him, although he, with his brethren, +had expended upwards of £350,000 in promoting +the fine arts. Sixty years before he had begun to +benefit engraving by establishing a school of English +engravers. At that time the whole print commerce +of England consisted in importing a few foreign +prints (chiefly French) "to supply the cabinets of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_712" id="Page_712">[Pg 712]</a></span> +the curious." In time he effected a total change in +this branch of commerce, "very few prints being now +imported, while the foreign market is principally +supplied with prints from England." By degrees, +the large sums received from the Continent for +English plates encouraged him to attempt also an +English school of pictorial painting, the want of +such a school having been long a source of opprobrium +among foreign writers on England. The +Shakespeare Gallery was sufficient to convince the +world that English genius only needed encouragement +to obtain a facility, versatility, and independence +of thought unknown to the Italian, Flemish, or +French schools. That Gallery he had long hoped to +have left to a generous public, but the recent Vandalic +revolution in France had cut up his revenue +by the roots, Flanders, Holland, and Germany being +his chief marts. At the same time he acknowledged +he had not been provident, his natural enthusiasm +for promoting the fine arts having led him after each +success to fly at once to some new artist with the +whole gains of his former undertaking. He had too +late seen his error, having increased his stock of +copper-plates to such a heap that all the print-sellers +in Europe (especially in these unfavourable times) +could not purchase them. He therefore prayed for +permission to create a lottery, the House having +the assurance of the even tenor of a long life "that +it would be fairly and honourably conducted."</p> + +<p>The worthy man obtained leave for his lottery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_713" id="Page_713">[Pg 713]</a></span> +and died December 11, a few days after the last +tickets were sold. He was buried with civic state +in the Church of St. Olave, Jewry, the Lord Mayor, +aldermen, and several artists attending. Boydell +was very generous and charitable. He gave +pictures to adorn the City Council Chamber, the +Court Room of the Stationers' Company, and the +dining-room of the Sessions House. He was also +a generous benefactor to the Humane Society and +the Literary Fund, and was for many years the +President of both Societies. The Shakespeare +Gallery finally fell by lottery to Mr. Tassie, the +well-known medallist, who thrived to a good old +age upon the profits of poor Boydell's too generous +expenditure. This enterprising man was elected +Alderman of Cheap Ward in 1782, Sheriff in +1785, and Lord Mayor in 1790. His death was +occasioned by a cold, caught at the Old Bailey +Sessions. His nephew, Josiah Boydell, engraved +for him for forty years.</p> + +<p>It was the regular custom of Mr. Alderman +Boydell (says "Rainy Day" Smith), who was a +very early riser, to repair at five o'clock immediately +to the pump in Ironmonger Lane. There, +after placing his wig upon the ball at the top, +he used to sluice his head with its water. This +well known and highly respected character was +one of the last men who wore a three-cornered +hat, commonly called the "Egham, Staines, and +Windsor."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_714" id="Page_714">[Pg 714]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> I regret that, relying upon authorities which are not corrected up +to the present date, I was led into some errors in my account of the +Stationers' Company on pp. 229—233 of this work. The table of +planetary influences has been for several years discontinued in Moore's +Almanack; and the Company are not entitled to receive for themselves +any copies of new books.—W.T.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES—SOUTH</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The King's Exchange—Friday Street and the Poet Chaucer—The Wednesday Club in Friday Street—William Paterson, Founder of the Bank of +England—How Easy it is to Redeem the National Debt—St. Matthew's and St. Margaret Moses—Bread Street and the Bakers' Shops—St. +Austin's, Watling Street—The Fraternity of St. Austin's—St. Mildred's, Bread Street—The Mitre Tavern—A Priestly Duel—Milton's +Birthplace—The "Mermaid"—Sir Walter Raleigh and the Mermaid Club—Thomas Coryatt, the Traveller—Bow Lane—Queen Street—Soper's +Lane—A Mercer Knight—St. Bennet Sherehog—Epitaphs in the Church of St. Thomas Apostle—A Charitable Merchant.</p></div> + + +<p>Old Change was formerly the old Exchange, +so called from the King's Exchange, says Stow, +there kept, which was for the receipt of bullion to +be coined.</p> + +<p>The King's Exchange was in Old Exchange, now +Old 'Change, Cheapside. "It was here," says Tite, +"that one of those ancient officers, known as the +King's Exchanger, was placed, whose duty it was +to attend to the supply of the mints with bullion, +to distribute the new coinage, and to regulate the +exchange of foreign coin. Of these officers there +were anciently three—two in London, at the Tower +and Old Exchange, and one in the city of Canter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_715" id="Page_715">[Pg 715]</a></span>bury. +Subsequently another was appointed, with +an establishment in Lombard Street, the ancient +rendezvous of the merchants; and it appears not +improbable that Queen Elizabeth's intention was +to have removed this functionary to what was +pre-eminently designated by her 'The Royal Exchange,' +and hence the reason for the change of +the name of this edifice by Elizabeth."</p> + +<p>"In the reign of Henry VII.," says Francis, in +his "History of the Bank of England," "the Royal +prerogative forbade English coins to be exported, +and the Royal Exchange was alone entitled to give +native money for foreign coin or bullion. During<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_716" id="Page_716">[Pg 716]</a></span> +the reign of Henry VIII. the coin grew so debased +as to be difficult to exchange, and the Goldsmiths +quietly superseded the royal officer. In 1627 +Charles I., ever on the watch for power, re-established +the office, and in a pamphlet written by his +orders, asserted that 'the prerogative had always +been a flower of the Crown, and that the Goldsmiths +had left off their proper trade and turned +exchangers of plate and foreign coins for our +English coins, although they had no right.' Charles +entrusted the office of 'changer, exchanger, and +ante-changer' to Henry Rich, first Earl of Holland, +who soon deserted his cause for that of the Parliament. +The office has not since been re-established."</p> + +<p>No. 36, Old 'Change was formerly the "Three +Morrice Dancers" public-house, with the three +figures sculptured on a stone as the sign and an +ornament (<i>temp.</i> James I.). The house was taken +down about 1801. There is an etching of this very +characteristic sign on stone. (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>The celebrated poet and enthusiast, Lord Herbert +of Cherbury, lived, in the reign of James I., in +a "house among gardens, near the old Exchange." +At the beginning of the last century, the place was +chiefly inhabited by American merchants; at this +time it is principally inhabited by calico printers +and Manchester warehousemen.</p> + +<p>"Friday Street was so called," says Stow, "of +fishmongers dwelling there, and serving Friday's +Market." In the roll of the Scrope and Grosvenor +heraldic controversy (Edward III.) the poet Chaucer +is recorded as giving the following evidence connected +with this street:—</p> + +<p>"Geffray Chaucere, Esqueer, of the age of forty +years, and moreover armed twenty-seven years for +the side of Sir Richard Lescrop, sworn and examined, +being asked if the arms, azyure, a bend or, +belonged or ought to pertain to the said Sir Richard +by right and heritage, said, Yes; for he saw him so +armed in France, before the town of Petters, and +Sir Henry Lescrop armed in the same arms with a +white label and with banner; and the said Sir +Richard armed in the entire arms azyure a bend or, +and so during the whole expedition until the said +Geaffray was taken. Being asked how he knew +that the said arms belonged to the said Sir Richard, +said that he had heard old knights and esquires +say that they had had continual possession of the +said arms; and that he had seen them displayed +on banners, glass paintings, and vestments, and +commonly called the arms of Scrope. Being asked +whether he had ever heard of any interruption or +challenge made by Sir Robert Grosvernor or his +ancestors, said No; but that he was once in Friday +Street, London, and walking up the street he ob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_717" id="Page_717">[Pg 717]</a></span>served +a new sign hanging out with these arms +thereon, and enquired what inn that was that had +hung out these arms of Scrope? And one answered +him, saying, 'They are not hung out, Sir, for the +arms of Scrope, nor painted there for those arms, +but they are painted and put there by a Knight of +the county of Chester, called Sir Robert Grosvernor.' +And that was the first time he ever heard speak of +Sir Robert Grosvernor or his ancestors, or of any +one bearing the name of Grosvernor." This is +really almost the only authentic scrap we possess +of the facts of Chaucer's life.</p> + +<p>The "White Horse," a tavern in Friday Street, +makes a conspicuous figure in the "Merry Conceited +Jests of George Peele," the poet and playwriter +of Elizabeth's reign.</p> + +<p>At the Wednesday Club in Friday Street, William +Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England, and +originator of the unfortunate Darien scheme, held +his real or imaginary Wednesday club meetings, +in which were discussed proposals for the union of +England and Scotland, and the redemption of +the National Debt. This remarkable financier was +born at Lochnabar, in Dumfriesshire, in 1648, and +died in 1719. The following extracts from Paterson's +probably imaginary conversations are of +interest:—</p> + +<p>"And thus," says Paterson, "supposing the +people of Scotland to be in number one million, +and that as matters now stand their industry yields +them only about five pounds per annum per head +as reckoned one with another, or five millions yearly +in the whole, at this rate these five millions will by +the union not only be advanced to six, but put +in a way of further improvement; and allowing +£100,000 per annum were on this foot to be paid +in additional taxes, yet there would still remain a +yearly sum of about £900,000 towards subsisting +the people more comfortably, and making provision +against times of scarcity, and other accidents, +to which, I understand, that country is very much +exposed (1706)."</p> + +<p>"And I remember complaints of this kind were +very loud in the days of King Charles II.," said +Mr. Brooks, "particularly that, though in his time +the public taxes and impositions upon the people +were doubled or trebled to what they formerly were, +he nevertheless run at least a million in debt."</p> + +<p>"If men were uneasy with public taxes and debts +in the time of King Charles II.," said Mr. May, +"because then doubled or trebled to what they had +formerly been, how much more may they be so +now, when taxed at least three times more, and the +public debts increased from about one million, as +you say they then were, to fifty millions or up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_718" id="Page_718">[Pg 718]</a></span>wards?... +and yet France is in a way of being +entirely out of debt in a year or two."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="door" id="door"></a> +<img src="images/p348.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE DOOR OF SADDLER'S HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>"At this rate," said Mr. May, "Great Britain may +possibly be quite out of debt in four or five years, +or less. But though it seems we have been at least +as hasty in running into debt as those in France, +yet would I by no means advise us to run so hastily +out; slower measures will be juster, and consequently +better and surer."</p> + +<p>Mr. Pitt's celebrated measure was based upon +an opinion that money could be borrowed with +advantage to pay the national debt. Paterson proposed +to redeem it out of a surplus revenue, +administered so skilfully as to lower the interest in +the money market. The notion of <i>borrowing</i> to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_719" id="Page_719">[Pg 719]</a></span> +pay seems to have sprung up with Sir Nathaniel +Gould, in 1725, when it was opposed.</p> + +<p>St. Matthew's was situate on the west side of +Friday Street. The patronage of it was in the +Abbot and Convent of Westminster. This church, +being destroyed by the Fire of London, in 1666, +was handsomely rebuilt, and the parish of St. Peter, +Cheap, thereunto added by Act of Parliament. The +following epitaph (1583) was in this church:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Anthony Cage entombed here doth rest,<br /> +Whose wisdome still prevail'd the Commonweale;<br /> +A man with God's good gifts so greatly blest,<br /> +That few or none his doings may impale,<br /> +A man unto the widow and the poore,<br /> +A comfort, and a succour evermore.<br /> +Three wives he had of credit and of fame;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_720" id="Page_720">[Pg 720]</a></span>The first of them, Elizabeth that hight,<br /> +Who buried here, brought to this <i>Cage</i>, by name,<br /> +Seventeene young plants, to give his table light."</div> + +<p>"At St. Margaret Moyses," says Stow, "was buried +Mr. Buss (or Briss), a Skinner, one of the masters +of the hospital. There attended all the masters +of the hospital, with green staves in their hands, +and all the Company in their liveries, with twenty +clerks singing before. The sermon was preached +by Mr. Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury; and +therein he plainly affirmed there was no purgatory. +Thence the Company retired to his house to dinner. +This burial was <i>an.</i> 1559, Jan. 30.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="miltons" id="miltons"></a> +<img src="images/p349.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MILTON'S HOUSE + MILTON'S BURIAL-PLACE</span> +</div> + +<p>The following epitaph (1569) is worth preserving:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur."—Apoc. 14.<br /> +<br /> +"To William Dane, that sometime was<br /> +An ironmonger; where each degree<br /> +He worthily (with praise) did passe.<br /> +By Wisdom, Truth, and Heed, was he<br /> +Advanc'd an Alderman to be;<br /> +Then Sheriffe; that he, with justice prest,<br /> +And cost, performed with the best.<br /> +In almes frank, of conscience cleare;<br /> +In grace with prince, to people glad;<br /> +His vertuous wife, his faithful peere,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Margaret</span>, this monument hath made;<br /> +Meaning (through God) that as shee had<br /> +With him (in house) long lived well;<br /> +Even so in Tombes Blisse to dwell."</div> + +<p>"Bread Street," says Stow, "is so called of bread +there in old times then sold; for it appeareth by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[Pg 721]</a></span> +records, that in the year 1302, which was the 30th +of Edward I., the bakers of London were bound +to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the +market here; and that they should have four hall +motes in the year, at four several terms, to determine +of enormities belonging to the said company. Bread +Street is now wholly inhabited by rich merchants, +and divers fair inns be there, for good receipt +of carriers and other travellers to the City. It +appears in the will of Edward Stafford, Earl of +Wylshire, dated the 22nd of March, 1498, and +14 Henry VII., that he lived in a house in Bread +Street, in London, which belonged to the family of +Stafford, Duke of Bucks afterwards; he bequeathed +all the stuff in that house to the Lord of Buckingham, +for he died without issue."</p> + +<p>The parish church of "St. Augustine, in Watheling +Street" was destroyed by the Great Fire, but rebuilt +in 1682. Stow informs us that here was a +fraternity founded <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1387, called the <i>Fraternity +of St. Austin's</i>, in Watling Street, and other good +people dwelling in the City. "They were, on the +eve of St. Austin's, to meet at the said church, +in the morning at high mass, and every brother +to offer a penny. And after that to be ready, <i>al +mangier ou al revele; i.e., to eat or to revel</i>, according +to the ordinance of the master and wardens of +the fraternity. They set up in the honour of God +and St. Austin, one branch of six tapers in the +said church, before the image of St. Austin; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[Pg 722]</a></span> +also two torches, with the which, if any of the said +fraternity were commended to God, he might be +carried to the earth. They were to meet at the +vault at Paul's (perhaps St. Faith's), and to go +thence to the Church of St. Austin's, and the +priests and the clerks said <i>Placebo</i> and <i>Dilige</i>, and +in matins, a mass of requiem at the high altar."</p> + +<p>"There is a flat stone," says Stow, "in the south +aisle of the church. It is laid over an Armenian +merchant, of which foreign merchants there be +divers that lodge and harbour in the Old Change +in this parish."</p> + +<p>St. Mildred's, in Bread Street, was repaired in +1628. "At the upper end of the chancel," says +Strype, "is a fine window, full of cost and beauty, +which being divided into five parts, carries in the +first of them a very artful and curious representation +of the Spaniard's Great Armado, and the +battle in 1588; in the second, the monument of +Queen Elizabeth; in the third, the Gunpowder +Plot; in the fourth, the lamentable time of infection, +1625; and in the fifth and last, the view and +lively portraiture of that worthy gentleman, Captain +Nicolas Crispe, at whose sole cost (among other) +this beautiful piece of work was erected, as also the +figures of his vertuous wife and children, with the +arms belonging to them." This church, burnt down +in the Great Fire, was rebuilt again.</p> + +<p>St. Mildred was a Saxon lady, and daughter of +Merwaldus, a West-Mercian prince, and brother to +Penda, King of the Mercians, who, despising the +pomps and vanities of this world, retired to a convent +at Hale, in France, whence, returning to +England, accompanied by seventy virgins, she was +consecrated abbess of a new monastery in the Isle +of Thanet, by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, +where she died abbess, <i>anno</i> 676.</p> + +<p>On the east side of Bread Street is the church +of Allhallows. "On the south side of the chancel, +in a little part of this church, called <i>The Salter's +Chapel</i>," says Strype, "is a very fair window, +with the portraiture or figure of him that gave it, +very curiously wrought upon it. This church, +ruined in the Great Fire, is built up again without +any pillars, but very decent, and is a lightsome +church."</p> + +<p>"In the 22nd of Henry VIII., the 17th of August, +two priests of this church fell at variance, that the +one drew blood of the other, wherefore the same +church was suspended, and no service sung or +said therein for the space of one month after; the +priests were committed to prison, and the 15th of +October, being enjoined penance, they went at the +head of a general procession, barefooted and +bare-legged, before the children, with beads and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[Pg 723]</a></span> +books in their hands, from Paul's, through Cheap, +Cornhill," &c.</p> + +<p>Among the epitaphs the following, given by Stow, +is quaint:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To the sacred memory of that worthy and faithfull minister +of Christ, Master Richard Stocke; who after 32 yeeres spent +in the ministry, wherein by his learned labours, joined with +wisedome, and a most holy life, God's glory was much +advanced, his Church edified, piety increased, and the true +honour of a pastor's life maintained; deceased April 20, 1626. +Some of his loving parishioners have consecrated this monument +of their never-dying love, Jan. 28, 1628.</p> + +<p class="center"> +"Thy lifelesse Trunke<br /> +(O Reverend Stocke),<br /> +Like Aaron's rod<br /> +Sprouts out againe;<br /> +And after two<br /> +Full winters past,<br /> +Yields Blossomes<br /> +And ripe fruit amaine.<br /> +For why, this work of piety,<br /> +Performed by some of thy Flocke,<br /> +To thy dead corps and sacred urne,<br /> +Is but the fruit of this old Stocke."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The father of Milton, the poet, was a scrivener +in Bread 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 of the poet's +father. Milton was born in this street (December +9, 1608), and baptised in the adjoining church of +Allhallows, Bread Street, where the register of his +baptism is still preserved. Of the house in which +he resided in later life, and the churchyard of St. +Giles, Cripplegate, where he was buried, we give a +view on page 349. Aubrey tells us that the house +and chamber in which the poet was born were often +visited by foreigners, even in the poet's lifetime. +Their visits must have taken place before the fire, +for the house was destroyed in the Great Fire, and +"Paradise Lost" was published after it. Spread +Eagle Court is at the present time a warehouse-yard, +says Mr. David Masson. The position of +a scrivener was something between a notary and a +law stationer.</p> + +<p>There was a City prison formerly in Bread Street. +"On the west side of Bread Street," says Stow, +"amongst divers fair and large houses for merchants, +and fair inns for passengers, had they one prison-house +pertaining to the sheriffs of London, called +the Compter, in Bread Street; but in 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."</p> + +<p>The "Mermaid" Tavern, in Cheapside, about +the site of which there has been endless controversy, +stood in Bread Street, with side entrances, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[Pg 724]</a></span> +Mr. Burn has shown, with admirable clearness, in +Friday Street and Bread Street; hence the disputes +of antiquaries.</p> + +<p>Mr. Burn, in his book on "Tokens," says, "The +site of the 'Mermaid' is clearly defined, from the +circumstance of W.R., a haberdasher of small +wares, 'twixt Wood Street and Milk Street, adopting +the sign, 'Over against the Mermaid Tavern +in Cheapside.'" The tavern was destroyed in the +Great Fire.</p> + +<p>Here Sir Walter Raleigh is, by one of the traditions, +said to have instituted "The Mermaid Club." +Gifford, in his edition of "Ben Jonson," has thus +described the club:—"About this time (1603) +Jonson probably began to acquire that turn for +conviviality for which he was afterwards noted. Sir +Walter Raleigh, previously to his unfortunate +engagement with the wretched Cobham and others, +had instituted a meeting of <i>beaux esprits</i> at the +'Mermaid,' a celebrated tavern in Friday Street. +Of this club, which combined more talent and +genius than ever met together before or since, our +author was a member, and here for many years he +regularly repaired, with Shakespeare, Beaumont, +Fletcher, Selden, Cotton, Carew, Martin, Donne, +and many others, whose names, even at this distant +period, call up a mingled feeling of reverence and +respect." But this is doubted. A writer in the +<i>Athenæum</i>, Sept. 16, 1865, states:—"The origin +of the common tale of Raleigh founding the 'Mermaid +Club,' of which Shakespeare is said to have +been a member, has not been traced. Is it older +than Gifford?" Again:—"Gifford's apparent invention +of the 'Mermaid Club.' Prove to us that +Raleigh founded the 'Mermaid Club,' that the +wits attended it under his presidency, and you will +have made a real contribution to our knowledge of +Shakespeare's time, even if you fail to show that +our poet was a member of that club." The tradition, +it is thought, must be added to the long list +of Shakespearian doubts.</p> + +<p>But we nevertheless have a noble record left +of the wit combats here in the celebrated epistle +of Beaumont to Jonson:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Methinks the little wit I had is lost<br /> +Since I saw you; for wit is like a rest<br /> +Held up at tennis, which men do the best<br /> +With the best gamesters. What things have we seen<br /> +Done at the 'Mermaid?' Heard words that have been<br /> +So nimble, and so full of subtle flame,<br /> +As if that every one from whence they came<br /> +Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,<br /> +And had resolved to live a fool the rest<br /> +Of his dull life. Then, when there hath been thrown<br /> +Wit able enough to justify the town<br /> +For three days past—wit that might warrant be<br /> +For the whole city to talk foolishly<br /> +Till that were cancelled; and when that was gone,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[Pg 725]</a></span>We left an air behind us, which alone<br /> +Was able to make the two next companies<br /> +Right witty; though but downright fools, more wise."</div> + +<p>"Many," says Fuller, "were the wit combats +betwixt him (Shakespeare) and Ben Jonson, which +two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an +English man-of-war. Master Jonson (like the +former) was built far higher in learning, solid, but +slow in his performances; Shakespeare, with the +English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in +sailing, could turn with all tides, and take advantage +of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and +invention."</p> + +<p>These combats, one is willing to think, although +without any evidence at all, took place at the +"Mermaid" on such evenings as Beaumont so +glowingly describes. But all we really know is +that Beaumont and Ben Jonson met at the "Mermaid," +and Shakespeare might have been of the +company. Fuller, Mr. Charles Knight reminds us, +was only eight years old when Shakespeare died.</p> + +<p>John Rastell, the brother-in-law of Sir Thomas +More, was a printer, living at the sign of the "Mermaid," +in Cheapside. "The Pastyme of the People" +(folio, 1529) is described as "breuly copyled and +empryntyd in Chepesyde, at the sygne of the +'Mearemayd,' next to Pollys (Paul's) Gate." Stow +also mentions this tavern:—"They" (Coppinger +and Arthington, false prophets), says the historian, +"had purposed to have gone with the like cry and +proclamation, through other the chiefe parts of the +Citie; but the presse was so great, as that they +were forced to goe into a taverne in Cheape, at the +sign of the 'Mermayd,' the rather because a gentleman +of his acquaintance plucked at Coppinger, +whilst he was in the cart, and blamed him for his +demeanour and speeches."</p> + +<p>There was also a "Mermaid" in Cornhill.</p> + +<p>In Bow Lane resided Thomas Coryat, an eccentric +traveller of the reign of James I., and a +butt of Ben Jonson and his brother wits. In 1608 +Coryat took a journey on foot through France, +Italy, Germany, &c., which lasted five months, +during which he had travelled 1,975 miles, more +than half upon one pair of shoes, which were +only once mended, and on his return were hung +up in the Church of Odcombe, in Somersetshire. +He published his travels under this title, "Crudities +hastily gobbled up in Five Months' Travels in +France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, Helvetia, some parts +of High Germany, and the Netherlands, 1611," +4to; reprinted in 1776, 3 vols., 8vo. This work +was ushered into the world by an "Odcombian +banquet," consisting of near sixty copies of verses, +made by the best poets of that time, which, if +they did not make Coryat pass with the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[Pg 726]</a></span> +for a man of great parts and learning, contributed +not a little to the sale of his book. Among these +poets were Ben Jonson, Sir John Harrington, Inigo +Jones (the architect), Chapman, Donne, Drayton, +and others.</p> + +<p>Parsons, an excellent comedian, also resided in +Bow Lane.</p> + +<p>"A greater artist," says Dr. Doran, in "Her +Majesty's Servants," "than Baddeley left the stage +soon after him, in 1795, after three-and-thirty years +of service, namely, Parsons, the original 'Crabtree' +and 'Sir Fretful Plagiary,' 'Sir Christopher Curry,' +'Snarl' to Edwin's 'Sheepface,' and 'Lope Torry,' +in <i>The Mountaineers</i>.... His <i>forte</i> lay +in old men, his pictures of whom, in all their +characteristics, passions, infirmities, cunning, or +imbecility, was perfect. When 'Sir Sampson Legand' +says to 'Foresight,' 'Look up, old star-gazer! +Now is he poring on the ground for a +crooked pin, or an old horse-nail with the head +towards him!'" we are told there could not be a +finer illustration of the character which Congreve +meant to represent than Parsons showed at the time +in his face and attitude.</p> + +<p>In Queen Street, on the south side of Cheapside, +stood Ringed Hall, the house of the Earls of +Cornwall, given by them, in Edward III.'s time, to +the Abbot of Beaulieu, near Oxford. Henry VIII. +gave it to Morgan Philip, <i>alias</i> Wolfe. Near it was +"Ipres Inn," built by William of Ipres, in King +Stephen's time, which continued in the same family +in 1377.</p> + +<p>Stow says of Soper Lane, now Queen Street:—"Soper +Lane, which lane took that name, not +of soap-making, as some have supposed, but of +Alleyne le Sopar, in the ninth of Edward II."</p> + +<p>"In this Soper's Lane," Strype informs us, "the +pepperers anciently dwelt—wealthy tradesmen, who +dealt in spices and drugs. Two of this trade were +divers times mayors in the reign of Henry III., +viz., Andrew Bocherel, and John de Gisorcio or +Gisors. In the reign of King Edward II., anno +1315, they came to be governed by rules and +orders, which are extant in one of the books of the +chamber under this title, '<i>Ordinatio Piperarum +de Soper's Lane</i>.'" Sir Baptist Hicks, Viscount +Campden, of the time of James I., whose name is +preserved in Hicks's Hall, and Campden Hill, +Kensington, was a rich mercer, at the sign of the +"White Bear," at Soper Lane end, in Cheapside. +Strype says that "Sir Baptist was one of the first +citizens that, after knighthood, kept their shops, +and, being charged with it by some of the aldermen, +he gave this answer, first—'That his servants +kept the shop, though he had a regard to the special<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[Pg 727]</a></span> +credit thereof; and that he did not live altogether +upon the interest, as most of the aldermen did, +laying aside their trade after knighthood.'"</p> + +<p>The parish church of St. Syth, or Bennet Sherehog, +or Shrog, "seemeth," says Stow, "to take +that name from one Benedict Shorne, some time a +citizen, and stock-fish monger, of London, a new +builder, repairer, or benefactor thereof, in the reign +of Edward II.; so that Shorne is but corruptly +called Shrog, and more correctly Shorehog, or (as +now) Sherehog." The following curious epitaph +is preserved by Stow:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here lieth buried the body of Ann, the wife of John +Farrar, gentleman, and merchant adventurer of this city, +daughter of William Shepheard, of Great Rowlright, in the +county of Oxenford, Esqre. She departed this life the +twelfth day of July, An. Dom. 1613, being then about the +age of twenty-one yeeres.</p> + +<p class="center"> +"Here was a bud,<br /> +Beginning for her May;<br /> +Before her flower,<br /> +Death took her hence away.<br /> +But for what cause?<br /> +That friends might joy the more;<br /> +Where there hope is,<br /> +She flourisheth now before.<br /> +She is not lost,<br /> +But in those joyes remaine,<br /> +Where friends may see,<br /> +And joy in her againe."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>"In the Church of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, there +do lie the remains," says Stow, "of Robert Packinton, +merchant, slain with a gun, as he was going +to morrow mass from his house in Cheape to St. +Thomas of Acons, in the year 1536. The murderer +was never discovered, but by his own confession, +made when he came to the gallows at Banbury +to be hanged for felony."</p> + +<p>The following epitaph is also worth giving:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here lies a Mary, mirror of her sex,<br /> +For all that best their souls or bodies decks.<br /> +Faith, form, or fame, the miracle of youth;<br /> +For zeal and knowledge of the sacred truth.<br /> +For frequent reading of the Holy Writ,<br /> +For fervent prayer, and for practice fit.<br /> +For meditation full of use and art;<br /> +For humbleness in habit and in heart.<br /> +For pious, prudent, peaceful, praiseful life;<br /> +For all the duties of a Christian wife;<br /> +For patient bearing seven dead-bearing throws;<br /> +For one alive, which yet dead with her goes;<br /> +From Travers, her dear spouse, her father, Hayes,<br /> +Lord maior, more honoured in her virtuous praise."</div> + +<p>"The Church of St. Thomas Apostle stood +where now the cemetery is," says Maitland, "in +Queen Street. It was of great antiquity, as is +manifest by the state thereof in the year 1181. The +parish is united to the Church of St. Mary Aldermary. +There were five epitaphs in Greek and Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[Pg 728]</a></span> +to 'Katherine Killigrew.' The best is by Andrew +Melvin."</p> + +<p>"Of monuments of antiquity there were none left +undefaced, except some arms in the windows, which +were supposed to be the arms of John Barnes, mercer, +Maior of London in the year 1371, a great builder +thereof. A benefactor thereof was Sir William +Littlesbury, alias <i>Horn</i> (for King Edward IV. so +named him), because he was most excellent in a +horn. He was a salter and merchant of the staple, +mayor of London in 1487, and was buried in the +church, having appointed, by his testament, the +bells to be changed for four new ones of good tune +and sound; but that was not performed. He +gave five hundred marks towards repairing of highways +between London and Cambridge. His dwelling-house, +with a garden and appurtenances in the +said parish, he devised to be sold, and bestowed in +charitable actions. His house, called the 'George,' +in Bred Street, he gave to the salters; they to find +a priest in the said church, to have six pounds +thirteen and fourpence the year. To every preacher +at St. Paul's Cross, and at the Spittle, he left fourpence +for ever; to the prisoners of Newgate, Ludgate, +from rotation to King's Bench, in victuals, ten +shillings at Christmas, and ten shillings at Easter +for ever," which legacies, however, it appears, were +not performed.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[Pg 729]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Goldsmiths' Hall—Its Early Days—Tailors and Goldsmiths at Loggerheads—The Goldsmiths' Company's Charters and Records—Their Great +Annual Feast—They receive Queen Margaret of Anjou in State—A Curious Trial of Skill—Civic and State Duties—The Goldsmiths break +up the Image of their Patron Saint—The Goldsmiths' Company's Assays—The Ancient Goldsmiths' Feasts—The Goldsmiths at Work—Goldsmiths' +Hall at the Present Day—The Portraits—St. Leonard's Church—St. Vedast—Discovery of a Stone Coffin—Coachmakers' Hall.</p></div> + + +<p>In Foster Lane, the first turning out of Cheapside +northwards, our first visit must be paid to the +Hall of the Goldsmiths, one of the richest, most +ancient, and most practical of all the great City +companies.</p> + +<p>The original site of Goldsmiths' Hall belonged, +in the reign of Edward II., to Sir Nicholas de +Segrave, a Leicestershire knight, brother of Gilbert +de Segrave, Bishop of London. The date of the +Goldsmiths' first building is uncertain, but it is first +mentioned in their records in 1366 (Edward III.). +The second hall is supposed to have been built by +Sir Dru Barentyn, in 1407 (Henry IV.). The +Livery Hall had a bay window on the side next +to Huggin Lane; the roof was surmounted with +a lantern and vane; the reredos in the screen +was surmounted by a silver-gilt statue of St. +Dunstan; and the Flemish tapestry represented +the story of the patron saint of goldsmiths. Stow, +writing in 1598, expresses doubt at the story that +Bartholomew Read, goldsmith and mayor in 1502, +gave a feast there to more than 100 persons, as the +hall was too small for that purpose.</p> + +<p>From 1641 till the Restoration, Goldsmiths' Hall +served as the Exchequer of the Commonwealth. +All the money obtained from the sequestration of +Royalists' estates was here stored, and then disbursed +for State purposes. The following is a +description of the earlier hall:—</p> + +<p>"The buildings," says Herbert, "were of a fine +red brick, and surrounded a small square court,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[Pg 730]</a></span> +paved; the front being ornamented with stone +corners, wrought in rustic, and a large arched +entrance, which exhibited a high pediment, supported +on Doric columns, and open at the top, +to give room for a shield of the Company's arms. +The livery, or common hall, which was on the east +side of the court, was a spacious and lofty apartment, +paved with black and white marble, and +very elegantly fitted up. The wainscoting was +very handsome, and the ceiling and its appendages +richly stuccoed—an enormous flower adorning the +centre, and the City and Goldsmiths' arms, with +various decorations, appearing in its other compartments. +A richly-carved screen, with composite +pillars, pilasters, &c.; a balustrade, with vases, terminating +in branches for lights (between which +displayed the banners and flags used on public +occasions); and a beaufet of considerable size, +with white and gold ornaments, formed part of the +embellishments of this splendid room."</p> + +<p>"The balustrade of the staircase was elegantly +carved, and the walls exhibited numerous reliefs of +scrolls, flowers, and instruments of music. The +court-room was another richly-wainscoted apartment, +and the ceiling very grand, though, perhaps +somewhat overloaded with embellishments. The +chimney-piece was of statuary marble, and very +sumptuous."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="goldsmiths" id="goldsmiths"></a> +<img src="images/p354.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF GOLDSMITH'S HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The guild of Goldsmiths is of extreme antiquity, +having been fined in 1180 (Henry II.) as adulterine, +that is, established or carried on without the king's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[Pg 731]</a></span> +special licence; for in any matter where fines could +be extorted, the Norman kings took a paternal +interest in the doings of their patient subjects. In +1267 (Henry III.) the goldsmiths seem to have +been infected with the pugnacious spirit of the age; +for we come upon bands of goldsmiths and tailors +fighting in London streets, from some guild jealousy; +and 500 snippers of cloth meeting, by appointment, +500 hammerers of metal, and having a comfortable +and steady fight. In the latter case many +were killed on both sides, and the sheriff at last +had to interpose with the City's <i>posse comitatus</i> and +with bows, swords, and spears. The ringleaders +were finally apprehended, and thirteen of them condemned +and executed. In 1278 (Edward I.) many +spurious goldsmiths were arrested for frauds in +trade, three Englishmen were hung, and more than +a dozen unfortunate Jews.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[Pg 732]</a></span></p> + +<p>The goldsmiths were incorporated into a permanent +company in the prodigal reign of Richard II., +and they no doubt drove a good business with +that thriftless young Absalom, who, it is said +wore golden bells on his sleeves and baldric. For +ten marks—not a very tremendous consideration, +though it was, no doubt, all he could get—Richard's +grandfather, that warlike and chivalrous monarch, +Edward III., had already incorporated the Company, +and given "the Mystery" of Goldsmiths +the privilege of purchasing in mortmain an estate +of £20 per annum, for the support of old and sick +members; for these early guilds were benefit clubs +as well as social companies, and jealous privileged +monopolists; and Edward's grant gave the corporation +the right to inspect, try, and regulate all +gold and silver wares in any part of England, with +the power to punish all offenders detected in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[Pg 734]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[Pg 733]</a></span>working adulterated gold and silver. Edward, in +all, granted four charters to the Worshipful Company.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="trial" id="trial"></a> +<img src="images/p355.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />TRIAL OF THE PIX</span> +</div> + +<p>Henry IV., Henry V., and Edward IV. both +granted and confirmed the liberties of the Company. +The Goldsmiths' records commence 5th Edward +III., and furnish much curious information. In +this reign all who were of Goldsmiths' Hall were +required to have shops in Chepe, and to sell no +silver or gold vessels except in Chepe or in the +King's Exchange. The first charter complains loudly +of counterfeit metal, of false bracelets, lockets, +rings, and jewels, made and exported; and also of +vessels of tin made and subtly silvered over.</p> + +<p>The Company began humbly enough, and in +their first year of incorporation (1335) fourteen +apprentices only were bound, the fees for admission +being 2s., and the pensions given to twelve persons +come to only £1 16s. In 1343 the number +of apprentices in the year rose to seventy-four; and +in 1344 there were payments for licensing foreign +workmen and non-freemen.</p> + +<p>During the Middle Ages these City companies +were very attentive to religious observances, and the +Wardens' accounts show constant entries referring +to such ceremonies. Their great annual feast was +on St. Dunstan's Day (St. Dunstan being the patron +saint of goldsmiths), and the books of expenses +show the cost of masses sung for the Company by +the chaplain, payments for ringing the bells at St. +Paul's, for drinking obits at the Company's standard +at St. Paul's, for lights kept burning at St. +James's Hospital, and for chantries maintained at +the churches of St. John Zachary (the Goldsmiths' +parish church), St. Peter-le-Chepe, St. Matthew, +Friday Street, St. Vedast, Foster Lane, and others.</p> + +<p>About the reign of Henry VI. the records grow +more interesting, and reflect more strongly the +social life of the times they note. In 1443 we +find the Company received a special letter from +Henry VI., desiring them, as a craft which had +at all times "notably acquitted themselves," more +especially at the king's return from his coronation +in Paris, to meet his queen, Margaret of Anjou, on +her arrival, in company with the Mayor, aldermen, +and the other London crafts. On this occasion the +goldsmiths wore "bawderykes of gold, short jagged +scarlet hoods," and each past Warden or renter +had his follower clothed in white, with a black +hood and black felt hat. In this reign John Chest, +a goldsmith of Chepe, for slanderous words against +the Company, was condemned to come to Goldsmiths' +Hall, and on his knees ask all the Company +forgiveness for what he had myssayde; and was +also forbidden to wear the livery of the Company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[Pg 735]</a></span> +for a whole month. Later still, in this reign, a +goldsmith named German Lyas, for selling a tablet +of adulterated gold, was compelled to give to the +fraternity a gilt cup, weighing twenty-four ounces, +and to implore pardon on his knees. In 1458 +(Henry VI.), a goldsmith was fined for giving a +false return of broken gold to a servant of the +Earl of Wiltshire, who had brought it to be sold.</p> + +<p>In the fourth year of King Edward IV. a very +curious trial of skill between the jealous English +goldsmiths and their foreign rivals took place +at the "Pope's Head" tavern (now Pope's Head +Alley), Cornhill. The contending craftsmen had +to engrave four puncheons of steel (the breadth of +a penny sterling) with cat's heads and naked figures +in high relief and low relief; Oliver Davy, the +Englishman, won, and White Johnson, the Alicant +goldsmith, lost his wager of a crown and a dinner +to the Company. In this reign there were 137 +native goldsmiths in London, and 41 foreigners—total, +178. The foreigners lived chiefly in Westminster, +Southwark, St. Clement's Lane, Abchurch +Lane, Brick Lane, and Bearbinder Lane.</p> + +<p>In 1511 (Henry VIII.) the Company agreed to +send twelve men to attend the City Night-watch, +on the vigils of St. John Baptist, and St. Peter and +Paul. The men were to be cleanly harnessed, to +carry bows and arrows, and to be arrayed in jackets +of white, with the City arms. In 1540 the Company +sent six of their body to fetch in the new +Queen, Anne of Cleves, "the Flemish mare," as +her disappointed bridegroom called her. The six +goldsmiths must have looked very gallant in their +black velvet coats, gold chains, and velvet caps +with brooches of gold; and their servants in plain +russet coats. Sir Martin Bowes was the great +goldsmith in this reign; he is the man whom Stow +accused, when Lord Mayor, of rooting up all the +gravestones and monuments in the Grey Friars, +and selling them for £50. He left almshouses at +Woolwich, and two houses in Lombard Street, to +the Company.</p> + +<p>In 1546 (same reign) the Company sent twenty-four +men, by royal order, to the king's army. They +were to be "honest, comely, and well-harnessed persons—four +of them bowmen, and twelve billmen. +They were arrayed in blue and red (after my Lord +Norfolk's fashion), hats and hose red and blue, and +with doublets of white fustian." This same year, the +greedy despot Henry having discovered some slight +inaccuracy in the assay, contrived to extort from +the poor abject goldsmiths a mighty fine of 3,000 +marks. The year this English Ahab died, the +Goldsmiths resolved, in compliment to the Reformation, +to break up the image of their patron saint,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[Pg 736]</a></span> +and also a great standing cup with an image of the +same saint upon the top. Among the Company's +plate there still exists a goodly cup given by Sir +Martin Bowes, and which is said to be the same +from which Queen Elizabeth drank at her coronation.</p> + +<p>The government of the Company has been seen +to have been vested in an alderman in the reign +of Henry II., and in four wardens as early as +28 Edward I. The wardens were divided, at a +later period, into a prime warden (always an alderman +of London), a second warden, and two renter +wardens. The clerk, under the name of "clerk-comptroller," +is not mentioned till 1494; but a +similar officer must have been established much +earlier. Four auditors and two porters are named +in the reign of Henry VI. The assayer, or as he +is now called, assay warden (to whom were afterwards +joined two assistants), is peculiar to the +Goldsmiths.</p> + +<p>The Company's assay of the coin, or trial of the +pix, a curious proceeding of great solemnity, now +takes place every year. "It is," says Herbert, in +his "City Companies," "an investigation or inquiry +into the purity and weight of the money coined, +before the Lords of the Council, and is aided by +the professional knowledge of a jury of the Goldsmiths' +Company; and in a writ directed to the +barons for that purpose (9 and 10 Edward I.) is +spoken of as a well-known custom.</p> + +<p>"The Wardens of the Goldsmiths' Company are +summoned by precept from the Lord Chancellor to +form a jury, of which their assay master is always +one. This jury are sworn, receive a charge from +the Lord Chancellor; then retire into the Court-room +of the Duchy of Lancaster, where the pix (a +small box, from the ancient name of which this +ceremony is denominated), and which contains the +coins to be examined, is delivered to them by the +officers of the Mint. The indenture or authority +under which the Mint Master has acted being +read, the pix is opened, and the coins to be assayed +being taken out, are inclosed in paper parcels, each +under the seals of the Wardens, Master, and Comptrollers. +From every 15 lbs. of silver, which are +technically called 'journies,' two pieces at the +least are taken at hazard for this trial; and each +parcel being opened, and the contents being found +correct with the indorsement, the coins are mixed +together in wooden bowls, and afterwards weighed. +From the whole of these moneys so mingled, the +jury take a certain number of each species of coin, +to the amount of 1 lb. weight, for the assay by fire; +and the indented trial pieces of gold and silver, of +the dates specified in the indenture, being pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[Pg 737]</a></span>duced +by the proper officer, a sufficient quantity is +cut from either of them for the purpose of comparing +with it the pound weight of gold or silver +by the usual methods of assay. The perfection or +imperfection of these are certified by the jury, who +deliver their verdict in writing to the Lord Chancellor, +to be deposited amongst the papers of the +Privy Council. If found accurate, the Mint Master +receives his certificate, or, as it is called, <i>quietus</i>" +(a legal word used by Shakespeare in Hamlet's great +soliloquy). "The assaying of the precious metals, +anciently called the 'touch,' with the marking or +stamping, and the proving of the coin, at what +is called the 'trial of the pix,' were privileges +conferred on the Goldsmiths' Company by the +statute 28 Edward I. They had for the former +purpose an assay office more than 500 years ago, +which is mentioned in their books. Their still retaining +the same privilege makes the part of Goldsmiths' +Hall, where this business is carried on, a +busy scene during the hours of assaying. In the +old statute all manner of vessels of gold and silver +are expected to be of good and true alloy, namely, +'gold of a certain <i>touch</i>,' and silver of the sterling +alloy; and no vessel is to depart out of the hands +of the workman until it is assayed by the workers +of the Goldsmiths' craft.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Hall mark</i> shows where manufactured, as +the Leopard's head for London. <i>Duty mark</i> is the +head of the Sovereign, showing the duty is paid. +<i>Date mark</i> is a letter of the alphabet, which varies +every year; thus, the Goldsmiths' Company have +used, from 1716 to 1755, Roman capital letters; +1756 to 1775, small Roman letters; 1776 to 1795, +old English letters; 1796 to 1815, Roman capital +letters, from A to U, omitting J; 1816 to 1835 +small Roman letters a to u, omitting j; from 1836, +old English letters. There are two qualities of +gold and silver. The inferior is mostly in use. The +quality marks for silver are Britannia, or the head +of the reigning monarch; for gold, the lion passant, +22 or 18, which denotes that fine gold is 24-carat; +18 only 75 per cent, gold; sometimes rings are +marked 22. The <i>manufacturer's mark</i> is the initials +of the maker.</p> + +<p>"The Company are allowed 1 per cent., and the +fees for stamping are paid into the Inland Revenue +Office. At Goldsmiths' Hall, in the years 1850 to +1863 inclusive, there were assayed and marked 85 +22-carat watch-cases, 316,347 18-carat, 493 15-carat, +1550 12-carat, 448 9-carat, making a total +of 318,923 cases, weighing 467,250 ounces 6 dwts. +18 grains. The Goldsmiths' Company append +a note to this return, stating that they have no +knowledge of the value of the cases assayed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[Pg 738]</a></span> +except of the intrinsic value, as indicated by the +weight and quality of the gold given in the return. +The silver watch-cases assayed at the same establishment +in the fourteen years, 1,139,704, the total +weight being 2,302,192 ounces 19 dwts. In the +year 1857 the largest number of cases were assayed +out of the fourteen. The precise number in that +year was 106,860, this being more than 10,000 +above any year in the period named. In a subsequent +year the number was only 77,608. A similar +note with regard to value is appended to the +return of silver cases as to the gold." There has +been a complaint lately that the inferior jewellery +is often tampered with after receiving the Hall +mark.</p> + +<p>An old book, probably Elizabethan, the "Touchstone +for Goldsmith's Wares," observes, "That +goldsmiths in the City and liberties, as to their particular +trade, are under the Goldsmiths' Company's +control, whether members or not, and ought to be of +<i>their own company</i>, though, from mistake or design, +many of them are free of others. For the wardens, +being by their charters and the statutes appointed to +survey, assay, and mark the silver-work, are to be +chosen from members, such choice must sometimes +fall upon them that are either of other trades, or +not skilled in their curious art of making assays of +gold and silver, and consequently unable to make +a true report of the goodness thereof; or else +the necessary attendance thereon is too great a +burden for the wardens. Therefore they (the wardens) +have appointed an <i>assay master</i>, called by +them their deputy warden, allowing him a considerable +yearly salary, and who takes an oath for the +due performance of his office. They have large +steel puncheons and marks of different sizes, with +the leopard's-head, crowned; the <i>lion</i>, and a certain +<i>letter</i>, which letter they change alphabetically every +year, in order to know the year any particular work +was assayed or marked, as well as the markers. +These marks," he adds, "are every year new +made, for the use of fresh wardens; and although +the assaying is referred to the assay master, yet the +<i>touch-wardens</i> look to the striking of the marks." +To acquaint the public the better with this business +of the assay, the writer of the "Touchstone" has +prefixed a frontispiece to his work, intended to +represent the interior of an assay office (we should +suppose that of the old Goldsmiths' Hall), and +makes reference by numbers to the various objects +shown—as, 1. The refining furnace; 2. The test, +with silver refining in it; 3. The fining bellows; +4. The man blowing or working them; 5. The +test-mould; 6. A wind-hole to melt silver in, with +bellows; 7. A pair of organ bellows; 8. A man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[Pg 739]</a></span> +melting, or boiling, or nealing silver at them; 9. A +block, with a large anvil placed thereon; 10. Three +men forging plate; 11. The fining and other goldsmith's +tools; 12. The assay furnace; 13. The +assay master making assays; 14. This man putting +the assays into the fire; 15. The warden marking +the plate on the anvil; 16. His officer holding his +plate for the marks; and 17. Three goldsmiths' +small workers at work. In the office are stated to +be a sworn weigher to weigh and make entry of +all silver-work brought in, and who re-weighs it to +the owners when worked, reserving the ancient +allowance for so doing, which is 4 grains out of +every 1 lb. marked, for a re-assay yearly of all the +silver works they have passed the preceding year. +There are also, he says, a table, or tables, in columns, +one whereof is of hardened lead, and the other of +vellum or parchment (the lead columns having the +worker's initials struck in them, and the other the +owner's names); and the seeing that these marks are +right, and plainly impressed on the gold and silver +work, is one of the warden's peculiar duties. The +manner of marking the assay is thus:—The assay +master puts a small quantity of the silver upon +trial in the fire, and then, taking it out again, he, +with his exact scales <i>that will turn with the weight +of the hundredth</i> part of a grain, computes and reports +the goodness or badness of the gold and +silver.</p> + +<p>The allowance of four grains to the pound, +Malcolm states to have been continued till after +1725; for gold watch-cases, from one to four, one +shilling; and all above, threepence each; and in +proportion for other articles of the same metal. +"The assay office," he adds, "seems, however, +to have been a losing concern with the Company, +their receipts for six years, to 1725, being £1,615 +13s. 11½d., and the payments, £2,074 3s. 8d."</p> + +<p>The ancient goldsmiths seem to have wisely +blended pleasure with profit, and to have feasted +right royally: one of their dinner bills runs thus:—</p> + +<p class="center"> +EXPENSES OF ST. DUNSTAN'S FEAST.<br /> +1473 (12 <i>Edward IV.</i>).</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="expenses"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>£</td><td align='right'>s.</td><td align='right'>d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>To eight minstrels in manner accustomed</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='right'>13</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Ten bonnets for ditto</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>6</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Their dinner</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>3</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Two hogsheads of wine</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>One barrel of Muscadell</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>6</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Red wine, 17 qrts. and 3 galls</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>11</td><td align='right'>10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Four barrels of good ale</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>17</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Two ditto of 2dy halfpenny</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>6</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>In spice bread</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>16</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>In other bread</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='right'>10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>In comfits and spice (36 articles)</td><td align='right'>5</td><td align='right'>17</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Poultry, including 12 capons at 8d.</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='right'>16</td><td align='right'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Pigeons at 1½d., and 12 more geese, at 7d. each.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[Pg 740]</a></span></p> + +<p>With "butchery," "fishmongery," and "miscellaneous +articles," the total amount of the feast was +£26 17s. 7d.</p> + +<p>A supper bill which occurs in the 11th of +Henry VIII. only amounts to £5 18s. 6d., and it +enumerates the following among the provisions:—Bread, +two bushels of meal, a kilderkin and a firkin +of good ale, 12 capons, four dozen of chickens, +four dishes of Surrey (sotterey) butter, 11 lbs. of +suet, six marrow bones, a quarter of a sheep, 50 +eggs, six dishes of sweet butter, 60 oranges, gooseberries, +strawberries, 56 lbs. of cherries, 17 lbs. 10 oz. +of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and mace, saffron, +rice flour, "raisins, currants," dates, white salt, bay +salt, red vinegar, white vinegar, verjuice, the hire of +pewter vessels, and various other articles.</p> + +<p>In City pageants the Goldsmiths always held a +conspicuous place. The following is an account +of their pageant in jovial Lord Mayor Vyner's +time (Charles II.):—</p> + +<p>"First pageant. A large triumphal chariot of +gold, richly set with divers inestimable and various +coloured jewels, of dazzling splendour, adorned +with sundry curious figures, fictitious stories, and +delightful landscapes; one ascent of seats up to a +throne, whereon a person of majestic aspect sitteth, +the representer of Justice, hieroglyphically attired, +in a long red robe, and on it a golden mantle +fringed with silver; on her head a long dishevelled +hair of flaxen colour, curiously curled, on which is +a coronet of silver; in her left hand she advanceth +a touchstone (the tryer of <i>Truth</i> and discoverer of +<i>Falsehood</i>); in her right hand she holdeth up a +golden balance, with silver scales, equi-ponderent, +to weigh justly and impartially; her arms dependent +on the heads of two <i>leopards</i>, which emblematically +intimate <i>courage</i> and <i>constancy</i>. This chariot +is drawn by two golden unicorns, in excellent +carving work, with equal magnitude, to the left; +on whose backs are mounted two raven-black +negroes, attired according to the dress of India; +on their heads, wreaths of divers coloured feathers; +in their right hands they hold golden cups; in their +left hands, two displayed banners, the one of the +king's, the other of the Company's arms, all which +represent the crest and the supporters of the ancient, +famous, and worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.</p> + +<p>"Trade pageant. On a very large pageant is +a very rich seat of state, containing the representer +of the Patron to the Goldsmiths' Company, Saint +Dunstan, attired in a dress properly expressing his +prelatical dignity, in a robe of fine white lawn, over +which he weareth a cope or vest of costly bright +cloth of gold, down to the ground; on his reverend +grey head, a golden mitre, set with topaz, ruby, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[Pg 741]</a></span>emerald, amethyst, and sapphire. In his left hand +he holdeth a golden crozier, and in his right hand +he useth a pair of goldsmith's tongs. Beneath these +steps of ascension to his chair, in opposition to St. +Dunstan, is properly painted a goldsmith's forge +and furnace, with fire and gold in it, a workman +blowing with the bellows. On his right and left +hand, there is a large press of gold and silver plate, +representing a shop of trade; and further in front, +are several artificers at work on anvils with hammers, +beating out plate fit for the forgery and formation +of several vessels in gold and silver. There +are likewise in the shop several wedges or ingots +of gold and silver, and a step below St. Dunstan +sitteth an assay-master, with his glass frame and +balance, for trial of gold and silver, according to the +standard. In another place there is also disgrossing, +drawing, and flatting of gold and silver wire. There +are also finers melting, smelting, fining, and parting +gold and silver, both by fire and water; and in a +march before this orfery, are divers miners in canvas +breeches, red waistcoats, and red caps, bearing +spades, pickaxes, twibills, and crows, for to sink +shafts, and make adits. The Devil, also, appearing +to St. Dunstan, is catched by the nose at a +proper <i>qu</i>, which is given in his speech. When the +speech is spoken, the great anvil is set forth, with +a silversmith holding on it a plate of massive silver, +and three other workmen at work, keeping excellent +time in their orderly strokes upon the anvil."</p> + +<p>The Goldsmiths in the Middle Ages seem to +have been fond of dress. In a great procession of +the London crafts to meet Richard II.'s fair young +queen, Anne of Bohemia, all the mysteries of the +City wore red and black liveries. The Goldsmiths +had on the red of their dresses bars of silver-work +and silver trefoils, and each of the seven score +Goldsmiths, on the black part, wore fine knots of +gold and silk, and on their worshipful heads red +hats, powdered with silver trefoils. In Edward IV.'s +reign, the Company's taste changed. The Liverymen +wore violet and scarlet gowns like the Goldsmiths' +sworn friends, the Fishmongers; while, +under Henry VII., they wore violet gowns and +black hoods. In Henry VIII.'s reign the hoods +of the mutable Company went back again to violet +and scarlet.</p> + +<p>In 1456 (Henry VI.) the London citizens seem +to have been rather severe with their apprentices; +for we find William Hede, a goldsmith, +accusing his apprentice of beating his mistress. +The apprentice was brought to the kitchen of +the Goldsmith's Hall, and there stripped naked, +and beaten by his master till blood came. This +punishment was inflicted in the presence of several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[Pg 742]</a></span> +people. The apprentice then asked his master's +forgiveness on his knees.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="exterior" id="exterior"></a> +<img src="images/p360.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />EXTERIOR OF GOLDSMITHS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The Goldsmiths' searches for bad and defective +work were arbitrary enough, and made with great +formality. "The wardens," say the ordinances, +"every quarter, once, or oftener, if need be, shall +search in London, Southwark, and Westminster, that +all the goldsmiths there dwelling work true gold +and silver, according to the Act of Parliament, +and shall also make due search for their weights."</p> + +<p>The manner of making this search, as elsewhere +detailed, seems to have resembled that of our +modern inquest, or annoyance juries; the Company's +beadle, in full costume and with his insignia +of office, marching first; the wardens, in livery, +with their hoods; the Company's clerk, two renter +wardens, two brokers, porters, and other attendants,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[Pg 743]</a></span> +also dressed, following. Their mode of proceeding +is given in the following account, entitled "The +Manner and Order for Searches at Bartholomew +Fayre and Our Ladye Fayre" (Henry VIII.):—</p> + +<p>"M<sup>d</sup>. The Bedell for the time beyng shall +walke uppon Seynt Barthyllmewes Eve all alonge +Chepe, for to see what plaate ys in eu<sup>r</sup>y mannys +deske and gyrdyll. And so the sayd wardeyns for +to goo into Lumberd Streate, or into other places +there, where yt shall please theym. And also the +clerk of the Fellyshyppe shall wayt uppon the seyd +wardeyns for to wryte eu<sup>r</sup>y p<sup>r</sup>cell of sylu<sup>r</sup> stuffe +then distrayned by the sayd wardeyns.</p> + +<p>"Also the sayd wardeyns been accustomed to +goo into Barth'u Fayre, uppon the evyn or daye, +at theyr pleasure, in theyre lyuerey gownes and +hoodys, as they will appoint, and two of the livery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[Pg 744]</a></span> +ancient men, with them; the renters, the clerk, and +the bedell, in their livery, with them; and the +brokers to wait upon my masters the wardens, to +see every hardware men show, for deceitful things, +beads, gawds of beads, and other stuff; and then +they to drink when they have done, where they +please.</p> + +<p>"Also the said wardens be accustomed at our +Lady day, the Nativity, to walk and see the fair at +Southwark, in like manner with their company, as +is aforesaid, and to search there likewise."</p> + +<p>Another order enjoins +the two second wardens +"to ride into Stourbrydge +fair, with what officers they +liked, and do the same."</p> + +<p>Amongst other charges +against the trade at this +date, it is said "that dayly +divers straungers and +other gentils" complained +and found themselves +aggrieved, that they came +to the shops of goldsmiths +within the City of London, +and without the City, and +to their booths and fairs, +markets, and other places, +and there bought of them +<i>old plate</i> new refreshed in +gilding and burnishing; it +appearing to all "such +straungers and other gentils" +that such old plate, +so by them bought, was +new, sufficient, and able; +whereby all such were deceived, +to the grete "dys-slaunder +and jeopardy of +all the seyd crafte of goldsmythis."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="altar" id="altar"></a> +<img src="images/p364.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ALTAR OF DIANA</span> +</div> + +<p>In consequence of these complaints, it was +ordained (15 Henry VII.) by all the said fellowship, +that no goldsmith, within or without the City, +should thenceforth put to sale such description of +plate, in any of the places mentioned, without it +had the mark of the "Lybardishede crowned." +All plate put to sale contrary to these orders the +wardens were empowered to break. They also had +the power, at their discretion, to fine offenders for +this and any other frauds in manufacturing. If any +goldsmith attempted to prevent the wardens from +breaking bad work, they could seize such work, +and declare it forfeited, according to the Act of +Parliament, appropriating the one half (as thereby<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[Pg 745]</a></span> +directed) to the king, and the other to the wardens +breaking and making the seizure.</p> + +<p>The present Goldsmiths' Hall was the design of Philip Hardwick, R.A. +(1832-5), and boasts itself the most magnificent of the City halls. The +old hall had been taken down in 1829, and the new hall was built without +trenching on the funds set apart for charity. The style is Italian, of +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The building is 180 feet in +front and 100 feet deep. The west or chief façade has six +attached Corinthian columns, the whole height of the front supporting a +rich Corinthian entablature and bold cornice; and the other three fronts +are adorned with pilasters, which also terminate the angles. Some of the +blocks in the column shafts weigh from ten to twelve tons each. The +windows of the principal story, the echinus moulding of which is +handsome, have bold and enriched pediments, and the centre windows are +honoured by massive balustrade balconies. In the centre, above the first +floor, are the Company's arms, festal emblems, rich garlands, and +trophies. The entrance door is a rich specimen of cast work. Altogether, +though rather jammed up behind the Post-office, this building is worthy +of the powerful and wealthy company who make it their domicile.</p> + +<p>The modern Renaissance style, it must be allowed, +though less picturesque than the Gothic, is lighter, +more stately, and more adapted for certain purposes.</p> + +<p>The hall and staircase are much admired, and +are not without grandeur. They were in 1871 +entirely lined with costly marbles of different sorts +and colours, and the result is very splendid. The +staircase branches right and left, and ascends to a +domed gallery. Leaving that respectable Cerberus +dozy but watchful in his bee-hive chair in the vestibule, +we ascend the steps. On the square pedestals +which ornament the balustrade of the first flight +of stairs stand four graceful marble statuettes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[Pg 746]</a></span> +the seasons, by Nixon. Spring is looking at a +bird's-nest; Summer, wreathed with flowers, leads +a lamb; Autumn carries sheaves of corn; and +Winter presses his robe close against the wind. +Between the double scagliola columns of the gallery +are a group of statues; the bust of the sailor +king, William IV., by Chantrey, is in a niche above. +A door on the top of the staircase opens to the +Livery hall; the room for the Court of Assistants +is on the right of the northernmost corridor. +The great banqueting-hall, 80 by 40 feet, and +35 feet high, has a range of Corinthian columns on +either side. The five lofty, arched windows are +filled with the armorial bearings of eminent goldsmiths +of past times; and at the north end is a +spacious alcove for the display of plate, which is +lighted from above. On the side of the room is a +large mirror, with busts of George III. and his worthy +son, George IV. Between the columns are portraits +of Queen Adelaide, by Sir Martin Archer Shee, +and William IV. and Queen Victoria, by the Court +painter, Sir George Hayter. The court-room has an +elaborate stucco ceiling, with a glass chandelier, +which tinkles when the scarlet mail-carts rush off +one after another. In this room, beneath glass, is +preserved the interesting little altar of Diana, found +in digging the foundations of the new hall. Though +greatly corroded, it has been of fine workmanship, +and the outlines are full of grace. There are also +some pictures of great merit and interest. First +among them is Janssen's fine portrait of Sir Hugh +Myddleton. He is dressed in black, and rests his +hand upon a shell. This great benefactor of London +left a share in his water-works to the Goldsmiths' +Company, which is now worth more +than £1,000 a year. Another portrait is that of +Sir Thomas Vyner, that jovial Lord Mayor, who +dragged Charles II. back for a second bottle. A +third is a portrait (after Holbein) of Sir Martin +Bowes, Lord Mayor in 1545 (Henry VIII.); +and there is also a large picture (attributed to +Giulio Romano, the only painter Shakespeare +mentions in his plays). In the foreground is St. +Dunstan, in rich robes and crozier in hand, while +behind, the saint takes the Devil by the nose, +much to the approval of flocks of angels above. +The great white marble mantelpiece came from +Canons, the seat of the Duke of Chandos; and +the two large terminal busts are attributed to Roubiliac. +The sumptuous drawing-room, adorned with +crimson satin, white and gold, has immense mirrors, +and a stucco ceiling, wrought with fruit, flowers, +birds, and animals, with coats of arms blazoned on +the four corners. The court dining-room displays on +the marble chimney-piece two boys holding a wreath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[Pg 747]</a></span> +encircling the portrait of Richard II., by whom +the Goldsmiths were first incorporated. In the +livery tea-room is a conversation piece, by Hudson +(Reynolds' master), containing portraits of six Lord +Mayors, all Goldsmiths. The Company's plate, as +one might suppose, is very magnificent, and comprises +a chandelier of chased gold, weighing 1,000 +ounces; two superb old gold plates, having on +them the arms of France quartered with those of +England; and, last of all, there is the gold cup +(attributed to Cellini) out of which Queen Elizabeth +is said to have drank at her coronation, and +which was bequeathed to the Company by Sir +Martin Bowes. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 +this spirited Company awarded £1,000 to the best +artist in gold and silver plate, and at the same +time resolved to spend £5,000 on plate of British +manufacture.</p> + +<p>From the Report of the Charity Commissioners +it appears that the Goldsmiths' charitable funds, +exclusive of gifts by Sir Martin Bowes, amount to +£2,013 per annum.</p> + +<p>Foster Lane was in old times chiefly inhabited +by working goldsmiths.</p> + +<p>"Dark Entry, Foster Lane," says Strype, "gives +a passage into St. Martin's-le-Grand. On the north +side of this entry was seated the parish church of +St. Leonard, Foster Lane, which being consumed +in the Fire of London, is not rebuilt, but the +parish united to Christ Church; and the place +where it stood is inclosed within a wall, and +serveth as a burial-place for the inhabitants of the +parish."</p> + +<p>On the west side of Foster Lane stood the small +parish church of St. Leonard's. This church, says +Stow, was repaired and enlarged about the year +1631. A very fair window at the upper end of +the chancel (1533) cost £500.</p> + +<p>In this church were some curious monumental +inscriptions. One of them, to the memory of +Robert Trappis, goldsmith, bearing the date 1526, +contained this epitaph:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When the bels be merrily rung,<br /> +And the masse devoutly sung,<br /> +And the meate merrily eaten,<br /> +Then shall Robert Trappis, his wife and children be forgotten."</div> + +<p>On a stone, at the entering into the choir, was +inscribed in Latin, "Under this marble rests the +body of Humfred Barret, son of John Barret, +gentleman, who died <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1501." On a fair stone, +in the chancel, nameless, was written:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Live to Dye.</span><br /> +<br /> +"All flesh is grass, and needs must fade<br /> +To earth again, whereof 'twas made."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[Pg 748]</a></span></div> + +<p>St. Vedast, otherwise St. Foster, was a French +saint, Bishop of Arras and Cambray in the reign +of Clovis, who, according to the Rev. Alban +Butler, performed many miracles on the blind +and lame. Alaric had a great veneration for this +saint.</p> + +<p>In 1831, some workmen digging a drain discovered, +ten or twelve feet below the level of +Cheapside, and opposite No. 17, a curious stone +coffin, now preserved in a vault, under a small +brick grave, on the north side of St. Vedast's; +whether Roman or Anglo-Saxon, it consists of a +block of freestone, seven feet long and fifteen +inches thick, hollowed out to receive a body, with +a deeper cavity for the head and shoulders. When +found, it contained a skeleton, and was covered +with a flat stone. Several other stone coffins were +found at the same time.</p> + +<p>The interior of St. Foster is a melancholy instance +of Louis Quatorze ornamentation. The +church is divided by a range of Tuscan columns, +and the ceiling is enriched with dusty wreaths +of stucco flowers and fruit. The altar-piece consists +of four Corinthian columns, carved in oak, +and garnished with cherubim, palm-branches, &c. +In the centre, above the entablature, is a group +of well-executed winged figures, and beneath is a +sculptured pelican. In 1838 Mr. Godwin spoke +highly of the transparent blinds of this church, +painted with various Scriptural subjects, as a substitute +for stained glass.</p> + +<p>"St. Vedast Church, in Foster Lane," says Maitland, +"is on the east side, in the Ward of Farringdon +Within, dedicated to St. Vedast, Bishop of +Arras, in the province of Artois. The first time +I find it mentioned in history is, that Walter de +London was presented thereto in 1308. The +patronage of the church was anciently in the +Prior and Convent of Canterbury, till the year +1352, when, coming to the archbishop of that see, +it has been in him and his successors ever since; +and is one of the thirteen peculiars in this city +belonging to that archiepiscopal city. This church +was not entirely destroyed by the fire in 1666, but +nothing left standing but the walls; the crazy +steeple continued standing till the year 1694, when +it was taken down and beautifully rebuilt at the +charge of the united parishes. To this parish that +of St. Michael Quern is united."</p> + +<p>Among the odd monumental inscriptions in this +church are the following:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Lord, of thy infinite grace and Pittee</span><br /> +Have mercy on me Agnes, somtym the wyf<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of William Milborne, Chamberlain of this citte,</span><br /> +Which toke my passage fro this wretched lyf,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[Pg 749]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The year of gras one thousand fyf hundryd and fyf,</span><br /> +The xii. day of July; no longer was my spase,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">It plesy'd then my Lord to call me to his Grase;</span><br /> +Now ye that are living, and see this picture,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pray for me here, whyle ye have tyme and spase,</span><br /> +That God of his goodnes wold me assure,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In his everlasting mansion to have a plase.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Obiit Anno 1505."</span><br /></div> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here lyeth interred the body of Christopher Wase, late<br /> +citizen and goldsmith of London, aged 66 yeeres, and dyed<br /> +the 22nd September, 1605; who had to wife Anne, the<br /> +daughter of William Prettyman, and had by her three sons<br /> +and three daughters.<br /><br /></div> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Reader, stay, and thou shalt know<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What he is, that here doth sleepe;</span><br /> +Lodged amidst the Stones below,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stones that oft are seen to weepe.</span><br /> +Gentle was his Birth and Breed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His carriage gentle, much contenting;</span><br /> +His word accorded with his Deed,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweete his nature, soone relenting.</span><br /> +From above he seem'd protected,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Father dead before his Birth.</span><br /> +An orphane only, but neglected.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet his Branches spread on Earth,</span><br /> +Earth that must his Bones containe,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sleeping, till <i>Christ's</i> Trumpet shall wake them,</span><br /> +Joyning them to Soule againe,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And to Blisse eternal take them.</span><br /> +It is not this rude and little Heap of Stones,<br /> +Can hold the Fame, although't containes the Bones;<br /> +Light be the Earth, and hallowed for thy sake,<br /> +Resting in Peace, Peace that thou so oft didst make."</div> + +<p>Coachmakers' Hall, Noble Street, Foster Lane +originally built by the Scriveners' Company, was +afterwards sold to the Coachmakers. Here the "Protestant +Association" held its meetings, and here +originated the dreadful riots of the year 1780. The +Protestant Association was formed in February, +1778, in consequence of a bill brought into the +House of Commons to repeal certain penalties and +liabilities imposed upon Roman Catholics. When +the bill was passed, a petition was framed for its +repeal; and here, in this very hall (May 29, +1780), the following resolution was proposed and +carried:—</p> + +<p>"That the whole body of the Protestant Association +do attend in St. George's Fields, on Friday +next, at ten of the clock in the morning, to accompany +Lord George Gordon to the House of +Commons, on the delivery of the Protestant petition." +His lordship, who was present on this +occasion, remarked that "if less than 20,000 of +his fellow-citizens attended him on that day, he +would not present their petition."</p> + +<p>Upwards of 50,000 "true Protestants" promptly +answered the summons of the Association, and the +Gordon riots commenced, to the six days' terror +of the metropolis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[Pg 750]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH:—WOOD STREET</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Wood Street—Pleasant Memories—St. Peter's in Chepe—St. Michael's and St. Mary Staining—St. Alban's, Wood Street—Some Quaint Epitaphs—Wood +Street Compter and the Hapless Prisoners therein—Wood Street Painful, Wood Street Cheerful—Thomas Ripley—The Anabaptist +Rising—A Remarkable Wine Cooper—St. John Zachary and St. Anne-in-the-Willows—Haberdashers' Hall—Something about the Mercers.</p></div> + + +<p>Wood Street runs from Cheapside to London +Wall. Stow has two conjectures as to its name—first, +that it was so called because the houses in it +were built all of wood, contrary to Richard I.'s +edict that London houses should be built of stone, +to prevent fire; secondly, that it was called after +one Thomas Wood, sheriff in 1491 (Henry VII.), +who dwelt in this street, was a benefactor to St. +Peter in Chepe, and built "the beautiful row of +houses over against Wood Street end."</p> + +<p>At Cheapside Cross, which stood at the corner +of Wood Street, all royal proclamations used to be +read, even long after the cross was removed. +Thus, in 1666, we find Charles II.'s declaration of +war against Louis XIV. proclaimed by the officers +at arms, serjeants at arms, trumpeters, &c., at +Whitehall Gate, Temple Bar, the end of Chancery +Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside, and the Royal +Exchange. Huggin's Lane, in this street, derives +its name, as Stow tells us, from a London citizen +who dwelt here in the reign of Edward I., and was +called Hugan in the Lane.</p> + +<p>That pleasant tree at the left-hand corner of Wood +Street, which has cheered many a weary business +man with memories of the fresh green fields far away, +was for long the residence of rooks, who built there. +In 1845 two fresh nests were built, and one is still +visible; but the sable birds deserted their noisy +town residence several years ago. Probably, as the +north of London was more built over, and such +feeding-grounds as Belsize Park turned to brick and +mortar, the birds found the fatigue of going miles +in search of food for their young unbearable, and +so migrated. Leigh Hunt, in one of his agreeable +books, remarks that there are few districts in +London where you will not find a tree. "A +child was shown us," says Leigh Hunt, "who was +said never to have beheld a tree but one in St. +Paul's Churchyard (now gone). Whenever a tree +was mentioned, it was this one; she had no conception +of any other, not even of the remote tree +in Cheapside." This famous tree marks the site of +St. Peter in Chepe, a church destroyed by the +Great Fire. The terms of the lease of the low +houses at the west-end corner are said to forbid the +erection of another storey or the removal of the tree. +Whether this restriction arose from a love of the +tree, as we should like to think, we cannot say.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[Pg 751]</a></span></p> + +<p>St. Peter's in Chepe is a rectory (says Stow), +"the church whereof stood at the south-west corner +of Wood Street, in the ward of Farringdon Within, +but of what antiquity I know not, other than that +Thomas de Winton was rector thereof in 1324."</p> + +<p>The patronage of this church was anciently in +the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, with whom +it continued till the suppression of their monastery, +when Henry VIII., in the year 1546, granted the +same to the Earl of Southampton. It afterwards +belonged to the Duke of Montague. This church +being destroyed in the fire and not rebuilt, the +parish is united to the Church of St. Matthew, +Friday Street. "In the year 1401," says Maitland, +"licence was granted to the inhabitants of this +parish to erect a shed or shop before their church in +Cheapside. On the site of this building, anciently +called the 'Long Shop,' are now erected four +shops, with rooms over them."</p> + +<p>Wordsworth has immortalised Wood Street by +his plaintive little ballad—</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN.</span><br /></p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,<br /> +Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years;<br /> +Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard<br /> +In the silence of morning the song of the bird.<br /> +<br /> +"'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? she sees<br /> +A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;<br /> +Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,<br /> +And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.<br /> +<br /> +"Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale,<br /> +Down which she so often has tripped with her pail;<br /> +And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,<br /> +The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.<br /> +<br /> +"She looks, and her heart is in heaven; but they fade,<br /> +The mist and the river, the hill and the shade;<br /> +The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,<br /> +And the colours have all passed away from her eyes."</div> + + +<p>Perhaps some summer morning the poet, passing +down Cheapside, saw the plane-tree at the corner +wave its branches to him as a friend waves a hand, +and at that sight there passed through his mind an +imagination of some poor Cumberland servant-girl +toiling in London, and regretting her far-off home +among the pleasant hills.</p> + +<p>St. Michael's, Wood Street, is a rectory situated +on the west side of Wood Street, in the ward of +Cripplegate Within. John de Eppewell was rector<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[Pg 752]</a></span> +thereof before the year 1328. "The patronage was +anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, +in whom it continued till the suppression of their +monastery, when, coming to the Crown, it was, +with the appurtenances, in the year 1544, sold by +Henry VIII. to William Barwell, who, in the year +1588, conveyed the same to John Marsh and +others, in trust for the parish, in which it still +continues." Being destroyed in the Great Fire, it +was rebuilt, in 1675, from the designs of Sir +Christopher Wren. At the east end four Ionic +pillars support an entablature and pediment, and +the three circular-headed windows are well proportioned. +The south side faces Huggin Lane, but +the tower and spire are of no interest. The interior +of the church is a large parallelogram, with an ornamented +carved ceiling. In 1831 the church was +repaired and the tower thrown open. The altar-piece +represents Moses and Aaron. The vestry-books +date from the beginning of the sixteenth +century, and contain, among others, memoranda of +parochial rejoicings, such as—"1620. Nov. 9. Paid +for ringing and a bonfire, 4s."</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Mary Staining being destroyed +in the Great Fire, the parish was annexed to that +of St. Michael's. The following is the most curious +of the monumental inscriptions:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"John Casey, of this parish, whose dwelling was<br /> +In the north-corner house as to Lad Lane you pass;<br /> +For better knowledge, the name it hath now<br /> +Is called and known by the name of the Plow;<br /> +Out of that house yearly did geeve<br /> +Twenty shillings to the poore, their neede to releeve;<br /> +Which money the tenant must yearlie pay<br /> +To the parish and churchwardens on St. Thomas' Day.<br /> +The heire of that house, Thomas Bowrman by name,<br /> +Hath since, by his deed, confirmed the same;<br /> +Whose love to the poore doth hereby appear,<br /> +And after his death shall live many a yeare.<br /> +Therefore in your life do good while yee may,<br /> +That when meagre death shall take yee away;<br /> +You may live like form'd as Casey and Bowrman—<br /> +For he that doth well shall never be a poore man."</div> + +<p>Here was also a monument to Queen Elizabeth, +with this inscription, found in many other London +churches:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here lyes her type, who was of late<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The prop of Belgia, stay of France,</span><br /> +Spaine's foile, Faith's shield, and queen of State,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of arms, of learning, fate and chance.</span><br /> +In brief, of women ne'er was seen<br /> +So great a prince, so good a queen.<br /> +<br /> +"Sith Vertue her immortal made,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Death, envying all that cannot dye,</span><br /> +Her earthly parts did so invade<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As in it wrackt self-majesty.</span><br /> +But so her spirits inspired her parts,<br /> +That she still lives in loyal hearts."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[Pg 753]</a></span></div> + +<p>There was buried here (but without any outward +monument) the head of James, the fourth King of +Scots, slain at Flodden Field. After the battle, the +body of the said king being found, was closed in +lead, and conveyed from thence to London, and +so to the monastery of Shene, in Surrey, where it +remained for a time. "But since the dissolution of +that house," says Stow, "in the reign of Edward VI., +Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk, lodged and kept +house there. I have been shown the said body, so +lapped in lead. The head and body were thrown +into a waste room, amongst the old timber, lead, +and other rubble; since which time workmen +there, for their foolish pleasure, hewed off his head; +and Launcelot Young, master glazier to Queen +Elizabeth, feeling a sweet savour to come from +thence, and seeing the same dried from moisture, +and yet the form remaining with the hair of the +head and beard red, brought it to London, to his +house in Wood Street, where for a time he kept it +for the sweetness, but in the end caused the sexton +of that church to bury it amongst other bones taken +out of their charnel."</p> + +<p>"The parish church of St. Michael, in Wood +Street, is a proper thing," says Strype, "and lately +well repaired; John Iue, parson of this church, +John Forster, goldsmith, and Peter Fikelden, taylor, +gave two messuages and shops, in the same parish +and street, and in Ladle Lane, to the reparation of +the church, the 16th of Richard II. In the year +1627 the parishioners made a new door to this +church into Wood Street, where till then it had +only one door, standing in Huggin Lane."</p> + +<p>St. Mary Staining, in Wood Street, destroyed +by the Great Fire, stood on the north side of Oat +Lane, in the Ward of Aldersgate Within. "The +additional epithet of <i>staining</i>," says Maitland, "is +as uncertain as the time of the foundation; some +imagining it to be derived from the painters' stainers, +who probably lived near it; and others from its being +built with stone, to distinguish it from those in the +City that were built with wood. The advowson of +the rectory anciently belonged to the Prioress and +Convent of Clerkenwell, in whom it continued till +their suppression by Henry VIII., when it came to +the Crown. The parish, as previously observed, +is now united to St. Michael's, Wood Street. That +this church is not of a modern foundation, is manifest +from John de Lukenore's being rector thereof +before the year 1328."</p> + +<p>St. Alban's, Wood Street, in the time of Paul, +the fourteenth Abbot of St. Alban's, belonged to +the Verulam monastery, but in 1077 the abbot +exchanged the right of presentation to this church +for the patronage of one belonging to the Abbot of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[Pg 754]</a></span> +Westminster. Matthew Paris says that this Wood +Street Church was the chapel of King Offa, the +founder of St. Alban's Abbey, who had a palace +near it. Stow says it was of great antiquity, and +that Roman bricks were visible here and there +among the stones. Maitland thinks it probable +that it was one of the first churches built by Alfred +in London after he had driven out the Danes. +The right of presentation to the church was +originally possessed by the master, brethren, and +sisters of St. James's Leper Hospital (site of St. +James's Palace), and after the death of Henry VI. +it was vested in the Provost and Fellows of Eton +College. In the reign of Charles II. the parish +was united to that of St. Olave, Silver Street, and +the right of presentation is now exercised alternately +by Eton College and the Dean and Chapter +of St. Paul's. The style of the interior of the +church is late pointed. The windows appear +older than the rest of the building. The ceiling in +the nave exhibits bold groining, and the general +effect is not unpleasing.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="wood" id="wood"></a> +<img src="images/p366.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WOOD STREET COMPTER. <i>From a View published in 1793.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>"One note of the great antiquity of this church,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[Pg 755]</a></span> +says Seymour, "is the name, by which it was first +dedicated to St. Alban, the first martyr of England. +Another character of the antiquity of it is +to be seen in the manner of the turning of the +arches to the windows, and the heads of the pillars. +A third note appears in the Roman bricks, here +and there inlaid amongst the stones of the building. +Very probable it is that this church is, at least, of +as ancient a standing as King Adelstane, the Saxon, +who, as tradition says, had his house at the east +end of this church. This king's house, having +a door also into Adel Street, in this parish, gave +name, as 'tis thought, to the said Adel Street, +which, in all evidences, to this day is written King +Adel Street. One great square tower of this king's +house seemed, in Stow's time, to be then remaining, +and to be seen at the north corner of Love Lane, +as you come from Aldermanbury, which tower was +of the very same stone and manner of building +with St. Alban's Church."</p> + +<p>About the commencement of the seventeenth +century St. Alban's, being in a state of great +decay, was surveyed by Sir Henry Spiller and Inigo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[Pg 756]</a></span> +Jones, and in accordance with their advice, apparently, +in 1632 it was pulled down, and rebuilt +<i>anno</i> 1634; but, perishing in the flames of 1666, +it was re-erected as it now appears, and finished +in the year 1688, from Wren's design.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="tree" id="tree"></a> +<img src="images/p367.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> THE TREE AT THE CORNER OF WOOD STREET</span> +</div> + +<p>In the old church were the following epitaphs:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Of William Wilson, Joane his wife,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Alice, their daughter deare,</span><br /> +These lines were left to give report<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These three lye buried here;</span><br /> +And Alice was Henry Decon's wife,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which Henry lives on earth,</span><br /> +And is the Serjeant Plummer<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To Queen <span class="smcap">Elizabeth</span>.</span><br /> +With whom this Alice left issue here,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His virtuous daughter Joan,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[Pg 757]</a></span>To be his comfort everywhere<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now joyfull Alice is gone.</span><br /> +And for these three departed soules,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gone up to joyfull blisse,</span><br /> +Th' almighty praise be given to God,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To whom the glory is."</span></div> + +<p>Over the grave of Anne, the wife of Laurence +Gibson, gentleman, were the following verses, which +are worth mentioning here:—</p> + + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"MENTIS VIS MAGNA.<br /> +<br /> +"What! is she dead?<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doth he survive?</span><br /> +No; both are dead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And both alive.</span><br /> +She lives, hee's dead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By love, though grieving,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[Pg 758]</a></span>In him, for her,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet dead, yet living;</span><br /> +Both dead and living,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then what is gone?</span><br /> +One half of both,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not any one.</span><br /> +One mind, one faith,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One hope, one grave,</span><br /> +In life, in death,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They had and still they have."</span></div> + +<p>The pulpit (says Seymour) is finely carved with +an enrichment, in imitation of fruit and leaves; +and the sound-board is a hexagon, having round it +a fine cornice, adorned with cherubims and other +embellishments, and the inside is neatly finniered. +The altar-piece is very ornamental, consisting of +four columns, fluted with their bases, pedestals, +entablature, and open pediment of the Corinthian +order; and over each column, upon acroters, is +a lamp with a gilded taper. Between the inner +columns are the Ten Commandments, done in gold +letters upon black. Between the two, northward, +is the Lord's Prayer, and the two southward the +Creed, done in gold upon blue. Over the commandments +is a Glory between two cherubims, +and above the cornice the king's arms, with the +supporters, helmet, and crest, richly carved, under +a triangular pediment; and on the north and south +side of the above described ornaments are two +large cartouches, all of which parts are carved in +fine wainscot. The church is well paved with oak, +and here are two large brass branches and a marble +font, having enrichments of cherubims, &c.</p> + +<p>In a curious brass frame, attached to a tall +stem, opposite the pulpit is an hour-glass, by +which the preacher could measure his sermon and +test his listeners' patience. The hour-glass at St. +Dunstan's, Fleet Street, was taken down in 1723, +and two heads for the parish staves made out of +the silver.</p> + +<p>Wood Street Compter (says Cunningham) was first +established in 1555, when, on the Feast of St. +Michael the Archangel in that year, the prisoners +were removed from the Old Compter in Bread Street +to the New Compter in Wood Street, Cheapside. +This compter was burnt down in the Great Fire, +but was rebuilt in 1670. It stood on the east +side of the street, and was removed to Giltspur +Street in 1791. There were two compters in +London—the compter in Wood Street, under the +control of one of the sheriffs, and the compter in +the Poultry, under the superintendence of the +other. Under each sheriff was a secondary, a +clerk of the papers, four clerk sitters, eighteen +serjeants-at-mace (each serjeant having his yeomen), +a master keeper, and two turnkeys. The serjeants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[Pg 759]</a></span> +wore blue and coloured cloth gowns, and the words +of arrest were, "Sir, we arrest you in the King's +Majesty's name, and we charge you to obey us." +There were three sides—the master's side, the +dearest of all; the knights' ward, a little cheaper; +and the Hole, the cheapest of all. The register of +entries was called the Black Book. Garnish was +demanded at every step, and the Wood Street +Compter was hung with the story of the prodigal +son.</p> + +<p>When the Wood Street counter gate was opened, +the prisoner's name was enrolled in the black book, +and he was asked if he was for the master's side, +the Knight's ward, or the Hole. At every fresh +door a fee was demanded, the stranger's hat or cloak +being detained if he refused to pay the extortion, +which, in prison language, was called "garnish." +The first question to a new prisoner was, whether +he was in by arrest or command; and there was +generally some knavish attorney in a threadbare +black suit, who, for forty shillings, would offer to +move for a habeas corpus, and have him out +presently, much to the amusement of the villanous-looking +men who filled the room, some smoking +and some drinking. At dinner a vintner's boy, +who was in waiting, filled a bowl full of claret, +and compelled the new prisoner to drink to all +the society; and the turnkeys, who were dining +in another room, then demanded another tester +for a quart of wine to quaff to the new comer's +health.</p> + +<p>At the end of a week, when the prisoner's purse +grew thin, he was generally compelled to pass over +to the knight's side, and live in a humbler and +more restricted manner. Here a fresh garnish of +eighteen pence was demanded, and if this was +refused, he was compelled to sleep over the drain; +or, if he chose, to sit up, to drink and smoke in +the cellar with vile companions till the keepers +ordered every man to his bed.</p> + +<p>Fennor, an actor in 1617 (James I.), wrote a +curious pamphlet on the abuses of this compter. +"For what extreme extortion," says the angry writer, +"is it when a gentleman is brought in by the watch +for some misdemeanour committed, that he must +pay at least an angell before he be discharged; hee +must pay twelvepence for turning the key at the +master-side dore two shillings to the chamberleine, +twelvepence for his garnish for wine, tenpence for +his dinner, whether he stay or no, and when he +comes to be discharged at the booke, it will cost +at least three shillings and sixpence more, besides +sixpence for the booke-keeper's paines, and sixpence +for the porter.... And if a gentleman +stay there but one night, he must pay for his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[Pg 760]</a></span> +garnish sixteene pence, besides a groate for his +lodging, and so much for his sheetes ... When +a gentleman is upon his discharge, and hath given +satisfaction for his executions, they must have fees +for irons, three halfepence in the pound, besides the +other fees, so that if a man were in for a thousand +or fifteene hundred pound execution, they will if a +man is so madde have so many three halfepence.</p> + +<p>"This little Hole is as a little citty in a commonwealth, +for as in a citty there are all kinds of +officers, trades, and vocations, so there is in this +place, as we may make a pretty resemblance +between them. In steede of a Lord Maior, we +have a master steward to over-see and correct all +misdemeanours as shall arise.... And lastly, +as in a citty there is all kinds of trades, so is there +heere, for heere you shall see a cobler sitting +mending olde showes, and singing as merrily as if +hee were under a stall abroad; not farre from him +you shall see a taylor sit crosse-legged (like a witch) +on his cushion, theatning the ruine of our fellow +prisoner, the Ægyptian vermine; in another place +you may behold a saddler empannelling all his +wits together how to patch this Scotchpadde +handsomely, or mend the old gentlewoman's +crooper that was almost burst in pieces. You +may have a phisition here, that for a bottle of sack +will undertake to give you as good a medicine for +melancholly as any doctor will for five pounds. +Besides, if you desire to bee remouved before a +judge, you shall have a tinker-like attorney not farre +distant from you, that in stopping up one hole in +a broken cause, will make twenty before hee hath +made an end, and at last will leave you in prison as +bare of money as he himself is of honesty. Heere +is your cholericke cooke that will dresse our meate, +when wee can get any, as well as any greasie scullion +in Fleet Lane or Pye Corner."</p> + +<p>At 25, Silver Street, Wood Street, is the hall of +one of the smaller City companies—the Parish +Clerks of London, Westminster, Borough of Southwark, +and fifteen out parishes, with their master +wardens and fellows. This company was incorporated +as early as Henry III.(1233), by the name +of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas, an ominous name, +for "St. Nicholas's clerk" was a jocose <i>nom de guerre</i> +for highwaymen. The first hall of the fraternity stood +in Bishopsgate Street, the second in Broad Lane, in +Vintry Ward. The fraternity was re-incorporated +by James I. in 1611, and confirmed by Charles I. +in 1636. The hall contains a few portraits, and in +a painted glass window, David playing on the harp, +St. Cecilia at the organ, &c. The parish clerks +were the actors in the old miracle plays, the parish +clerks of our churches dating only from the com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[Pg 761]</a></span>mencement +of the Reformation. The "Bills of +Mortality" were commenced by the Parish Clerks' +Company in 1592, who about 1625 were licensed +by the Star Chamber to keep a printing-press in +their hall for printing the bills, valuable for their +warning of the existence or progress of the plague. +The "Weekly Bill" of the Parish Clerks has, however, +been superseded by the "Tables of Mortality in +the Metropolis," issued weekly from the Registrar-General's +Office, at Somerset House, since July +1st, 1837. The Parish Clerks' Company neither +confer the freedom of the City, nor the hereditary +freedom.</p> + +<p>There is a large gold refinery in Wood Street, +through whose doors three tons of gold a day have +been known to pass. Australian gold is here cast +into ingots, value £800 each. This gold is one carat +and three quarters above the standard, and when the +first two bars of Australian gold were sent to the +Bank of England they were sent back, as their wonderful +purity excited suspicion. For refining, the +gold is boiled fifteen minutes, poured off into +hand moulds 18 pounds troy weight, strewn with +ivory black, and then left to cool. You see here +the stalwart men wedging apart great bars of silver +for the melting pots. The silver is purified in +a blast-furnace, and mixed with nitric acid in platinum +crucibles, that cost from £700 to £1,000 +apiece. The bars of gold are stamped with a +trade-mark, and pieces are cut off each ingot to +be sent to the assayer for his report.</p> + +<p>"I read in divers records," says Stow, "of a house +in Wood Street then called 'Black Hall;' but no +man at this day can tell thereof. In the time of +King Richard II., Sir Henry Percy, the son and +heir of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had +a house in 'Wodstreate,' in London (whether +this Black Hall or no, it is hard to trace), wherein +he treated King Richard, the Duke of Lancaster, +the Duke of York, the Earl Marshal, and his father, +the Earl of Northumberland, with others, at +supper."</p> + +<p>The "Rose," in Wood Street, was a sponging-house, +well known to the rakehells and spendthrifts +of Charles II.'s time. "I have been too +lately under their (the bailiffs') clutches," says Tom +Brown, "to desire any more dealings with them, +and I cannot come within a furlong of the 'Rose' +sponging-house without five or six yellow-boys in my +pocket to cast out those devils there, who would +otherwise infallibly take possession of me."</p> + +<p>The "Mitre," an old tavern in Wood Street, was +kept in Charles II.'s time by William Proctor, who +died insolvent in 1665. "18th Sept., 1660," Pepys +says, "to the 'Miter Taverne,' in Wood Street (a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[Pg 762]</a></span> +house of the greatest note in London). Here some +of us fell to handycap, a sport that I never knew +before." And again, "31st July, 1665. Proctor, +the vintner, of the 'Miter,' in Wood Street, and +his son, are dead this morning of the plague; he +having laid out abundance of money there, and +was the greatest vintner for some time in London +for great entertainments."</p> + +<p>In early life Thomas Ripley, afterwards a celebrated +architect, kept a carpenter's shop and coffee +house in Wood Street. Marrying a servant of Sir +Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of George I., +this lucky pushing man soon +obtained work from the Crown +and a seat at the Board of +Works, and supplanted that +great genius who built St. +Paul's, to the infinite disgrace +of the age. Ripley built the +Admiralty, and Houghton +Hall, Norfolk, for his early +patron, Walpole, and died +rich in 1758.</p> + +<p>Wood Street is associated +with that last extraordinary +outburst of the Civil War +fanaticism—the Anabaptist +rising in January, 1661.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="pulpit" id="pulpit"></a> +<img src="images/p370.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PULPIT HOUR-GLASS</span> +</div> + +<p>On Sunday, January 6, +1661, we read in "Somers' +Tracts," "these monsters +assembled at their meeting-house, +in Coleman Street, +where they armed themselves, +and sallying thence, came to +St. Paul's in the dusk of +the evening, and there, after +ordering their small party, placed sentinels, one of +whom killed a person accidentally passing by, because +he said he was for God and King Charles +when challenged by him. This giving the alarm, +and some parties of trained bands charging them, +and being repulsed, they marched to Bishopsgate, +thence to Cripplegate and Aldersgate, where, going +out, in spite of the constables and watch, they declared +for King Jesus. Proceeding to Beech Lane, +they killed a headborough, who would have opposed +them. It was observed that all they shot, though +never so slightly wounded, died. Then they hasted +away to Cane Wood, where they lurked, resolved +to make another effort upon the City, but were +drove thence, and routed by a party of horse and +foot, sent for that purpose, about thirty being taken +and brought before General Monk, who committed +them to the Gate House.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[Pg 763]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, the others who had escaped out +of the wood returned to London, not doubting +of success in their enterprise; Venner, a wine-cooper +by trade, and their head, affirming, he was +assured that no weapons employed against them +would prosper, nor a hair of their head be touched; +which their coming off at first so well made them +willing to believe. These fellows had taken the +opportunity of the king's being gone to Portsmouth, +having before made a disposition for drawing +to them of other desperate rebels, by publishing a +declaration called, 'A Door of Hope Opened,' +full of abominable slanders +against the whole royal family.</p> + +<p>"On Wednesday morning, +January 9, after the watches +and guards were dismissed, +they resumed their first enterprise. +The first appearance +was in Threadneedle Street, +where they alarmed the trained +bands upon duty that day, +and drove back a party sent +after them, to their main +guard, which then marched in +a body towards them. The +Fifth Monarchists retired into +Bishopsgate Street, where some +of them took into an ale-house, +known by the sign of +'The Helmet,' where, after a +sharp dispute, two were killed, +and as many taken, the same +number of the trained bands +being killed and wounded. +The next sight of them (for +they vanished and appeared +again on a sudden), was at College Hill, which +way they went into Cheapside, and so into Wood +Street, Venner leading them, with a morrion on his +head and a halbert in his hand. Here was the +main and hottest action, for they fought stoutly +with the Trained Bands, and received a charge +from the Life Guards, whom they obliged to give +way, until, being overpowered, and Venner knocked +down and wounded and shot, Tufney and Crag, +two others of their chief teachers, being killed by +him, they began to give ground, and soon after +dispersed, flying outright and taking several ways. +The greatest part of them went down Wood Street +to Cripplegate, firing in the rear at the Yellow +Trained Bands, then in close pursuit of them. Ten +of them took into the 'Blue Anchor' ale-house, +near the postern, which house they maintained until +Lieutenant-Colonel Cox, with his company, secured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[Pg 764]</a></span> +all the avenues to it. In the meantime, some of the +aforesaid Yellow Trained Bands got upon the tiles +of the next house, which they threw off, and fired +in upon the rebels who were in the upper room, +and even then refused quarter. At the same time, +another file of musketeers got up the stairs, and +having shot down the door, entered upon them. +Six of them were killed before, another wounded, +and one, refusing quarter, was knocked down, and +afterwards shot. The others being asked why +they had not begged quarter before, answered they +durst not, for fear their own fellows should shoot +them."</p> + +<p>The upshot of this insane revolt of a handful of +men was that twenty-two king's men were killed, +and twenty-two of the fanatics, proving the fighting +to have been hard. Twenty were taken, and nine +or ten hung, drawn, and quartered. Venner, +the leader, who was wounded severely, and some +others, were drawn on sledges, their quarters were +set on the four gates, and their heads stuck on +poles on London Bridge. Two more were hung +at the west end of St. Paul's, two at the Royal +Exchange, two at the Bull and Mouth, two in +Beech Lane, one at Bishopsgate, and another, captured +later, was hung at Tyburn, and his head set +on a pole in Whitechapel.</p> + +<p>The texts these Fifth Monarchy men chiefly +relied on were these:—"He shall use his people, +in his hand as his battle-axe and weapon of war, +for the bringing in the kingdoms of this world into +subjection to Him." A few Scriptures (and but +a few) as to this, Isa. xli. 14th verse; but more +especially the 15th and 16th verses. The prophet, +speaking of Jacob, saith: "Behold, I will make +thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having +teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat +them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff; thou +shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them +away," &c.</p> + +<p>"Maiden Lane," says Stow, "formerly Engine +Lane, is a good, handsome, well-built, and inhabited +street. The east end falleth into Wood +Street. At the north-east corner, over against +Goldsmiths' Hall, stood the parish church of St. +John Zachary, which since the dreadful fire is not +rebuilt, but the parish united unto St. Ann's, Aldersgate, +the ground on which it stood, enclosed within +a wall, serving as a burial-place for the parish."</p> + +<p>The old Goldsmiths' Church of St. John Zachary, +Maiden Lane, destroyed in the Great Fire, and not +rebuilt, stood at the north-west corner of Maiden +Lane, in the Ward of Aldersgate; the parish is +annexed to that of St. Anne. Among other +epitaphs in this church, Stow gives the following:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_765" id="Page_765">[Pg 765]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here lieth the body of John Sutton, citizen, goldsmith, +and alderman of London; who died 6th July, 1450. This +brave and worthy alderman was killed in the defence of the +City, in the bloody nocturnal battle on London Bridge, +against the infamous Jack Cade, and his army of Kentish +rebels."</p> + +<p> +"Here lieth William Brekespere, of London, some time merchant,<br /> +Goldsmith and alderman, the Commonwele attendant,<br /> +With Margaryt his Dawter, late wyff of Suttoon,<br /> +And Thomas, hur Sonn, yet livyn undyr Goddy's tuitioon.<br /> +The tenth of July he made his transmigration.<br /> +She disissyd in the yer of Grase of Chryst's Incarnation,<br /> +A Thowsand Four hundryd Threescor and oon.<br /> +God assoyl their Sowls whose Bodys lye undyr this Stoon."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>This church was rated to pay a certain annual +sum to the canons of St. Paul's, about the year +1181, at which time it was denominated St. John +Baptist's, as appears from a grant thereof from the +Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's to one Zachary, +whose name it probably received to distinguish +it from one of the same name in Walbrook.</p> + +<p>St. Anne in the Willows was a church destroyed +by the Great Fire, rebuilt by Wren, and united +to the parish of St. John Zachary. "It is so +called," says Stow, "some say of willows growing +thereabouts; but now there is no such void place +for willows to grow, more than the churchyard, +wherein grow some high ash-trees."</p> + +<p>"This church, standing," says Strype, "in the +churchyard, is planted before with lime-trees that +flourish there. So that as it was formerly called +St. Anne-in-the-Willows, it may now be called St. +Anne-in-the-Limes."</p> + +<p>St. Anne can be traced back as far as 1332. +The patronage was anciently in the Dean and +Canons of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in whose gift +it continued till Henry VII. annexed that Collegiate +Church, with its appendages, to the Abbey +of Westminster. In 1553 Queen Mary gave it to +the Bishop of London and his successors. One +of the monuments here bears the following inscription:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Peter Heiwood, younger son of Peter Heiwood, one of +the counsellors of Jamaica, by Grace, daughter of Sir John +Muddeford, Kt. and Bart., great-grandson to Peter Heiwood, +of Heywood, in County Palatine of Lancaster, who +apprehended Guy Faux with his dark lanthorn, and for his +zealous prosecution of Papists, as Justice of the Peace, was +stabbed in Westminster Hall by John James, a Dominican +Friar, An. Dom. 1640. Obiit, Novr. 2, 1701.</p> + +<p> +"Reader, if not a Papist bred,<br /> +Upon such ashes gently tred."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The site of Haberdashers' Hall, in Maiden +Lane, opposite Goldsmiths' Hall, was bequeathed +to the Company by William Baker, a London +haberdasher, in 1478 (Edward IV.). In the old +hall, destroyed by the Great Fire, the Parliament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_766" id="Page_766">[Pg 766]</a></span> +Commissioners held their meetings during the +Commonwealth, and many a stern decree of confiscation +was there grimly signed. In this hall +there are some good portraits. The Haberdashers' +Company have many livings and exhibitions in +their gift; and almhouses at Hoxton, Monmouth, +Newland (Gloucestershire), and Newport (Shropshire); +schools in Bunhill Row, Monmouth, and +Newport; and they lend sums of £50 or £100 +to struggling young men of their own trade.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="michaels" id="michaels"></a> +<img src="images/p372.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S, WOOD STREET</span> +</div> + +<p>The haberdashers were originally a branch of +the mercers, dealing like them in merceries or +small wares. Lydgate, in his ballad, describes the +mercers' and haberdashers' stalls as side by side in +the mercery in Chepe. In the reign of Henry VI., +when first incorporated, they divided into two +fraternities, St. Catherine and St. Nicholas. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_767" id="Page_767">[Pg 767]</a></span> +one being hurrers, cappers, or haberdashers of hats; +the other, haberdashers of ribands, laces, and small +wares only. The latter were also called milliners, +from their selling such merchandise as brooches, +agglets, spurs, capes, glasses, and pins. "In the +early part of Elizabeth's reign," says Herbert, "upwards +of £60,000 annually was paid to foreign +merchants for pins alone, but before her death +pins were made in England, and in the reign of +James I. the pinmakers obtained a charter."</p> + +<p>In the reign of Henry VII. the two societies +united. Queen Elizabeth granted them their arms: +Barry nebule of six, argent and azure on a bend +gules, a lion passant gardant; crest or, a helmet +and torse, two arms supporting a laurel proper and +issuing out of a cloud argent. Supporters, two +Indian goats argent, attired and hoofed or; motto,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_768" id="Page_768">[Pg 768]</a></span> +"Serve and Obey." Maitland describes their +annual expenditure in charity as £3,500. The +number of the Company consists of one master, +four wardens, forty-five assistants, 360 livery, and +a large company of freemen. This Company is the +eighth in order of the chief twelve City Companies.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="haberdashers" id="haberdashers"></a> +<img src="images/p373.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF HABERDASHERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>In the reign of Edward VI. there were not more +than a dozen milliner's shops in all London, but in +1580 the dealers in foreign luxuries had so increased +as to alarm the frugal and the philosophic. These +dealers sold French and Spanish gloves, French +cloth and frieze, Flemish kersies, daggers, swords, +knives, Spanish girdles, painted cruises, dials, +tablets, cards, balls, glasses, fine earthen pots, salt-cellars, +spoons, tin dishes, puppets, pennons, ink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_769" id="Page_769">[Pg 769]</a></span>horns, toothpicks, fans, pomanders, silk, and silver +buttons.</p> + +<p>The Haberdashers were incorporated by a Charter +of Queen Elizabeth in 1578. The Court books +extend to the time of Charles I. only. Their +charters exist in good preservation. In their +chronicles we have only a few points to notice. +In 1466 they sent two of their members to attend +the coronation of Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., +and they also were represented at the coronation +of the detestable Richard III. Like the other +Companies, the Haberdashers were much oppressed +during the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth, +during which they lost nearly £50,000. +The Company's original bye-laws having been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_770" id="Page_770">[Pg 770]</a></span> +burnt in the Great Fire, a new code was drawn +up, which in 1675 was sanctioned by Lord Chancellor +Finch, Sir Matthew Hale, and Sir Francis +North.</p> + +<p>The dining-hall is a lofty and spacious room. +About ten years since it was much injured by +fire, but has been since restored and handsomely +decorated. Over the screen at the lower end is +a music gallery, and the hall is lighted from above +by six sun-burners. Among the portraits in the +edifice are whole lengths of William Adams, Esq., +founder of the grammar school and almshouses at +Newport, in Shropshire; Jerome Knapp, Esq., a +former Master of the Company; and Micajah +Perry, Esq., Lord Mayor in 1739; a half-length +of George Whitmore, Esq., Lord Mayor in 1631; +Sir Hugh Hammersley, Knight, Lord Mayor in +1627; Mr. Thomas Aldersey, merchant, of Banbury, +in Cheshire, who, in 1594, vested a considerable +estate in this Company for charitable uses; +Mr. William Jones, merchant adventurer, who bequeathed +£18,000 for benevolent purposes; and +Robert Aske, the worthy founder of the Haberdashers' +Hospital at Hoxton.</p> + +<p>Gresham Street, that intersects Wood Street, +was formerly called Lad or Ladle Lane, and +part of it Maiden Lane, from a shop sign of the +Virgin. It is written Lad Lane in a chronicle +of Edward IV.'s time, published by Sir Harris +Nicolas, page 98. The "Swan with Two Necks," +in Lad Lane, was for a century and more, till +railways ruined stage and mail coach travelling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_771" id="Page_771">[Pg 771]</a></span> +the booking office and head-quarters of coaches to +the North.</p> + +<p>Love Lane was so named from the wantons +who once infested it. The Cross Keys Inn derived +its name from the bygone Church of St. Peter +before mentioned. As there are traditions of Saxon +kings once dwelling in Foster Lane, so in Gutter +Lane we find traditions of some Danish celebrities. +"Gutter Lane," says Stow, that patriarch of London +topography, "was so called by Guthurun, some +time owner thereof." In a manuscript chronicle of +London, written in the reign of Edward IV., and +edited by Sir N.H. Nicolas, it is called "Goster +Lane."</p> + +<p>Brewers' Hall, No. 19, Addle Street, Wood Street, +Cheapside, is a modern edifice, and contains, among +other pictures, a portrait of Dame Alice Owen, +who narrowly escaped death from an archer's stray +arrow while walking in Islington fields, in gratitude +for which she founded an hospital. In the hall +window is some old painted glass. The Brewers +were incorporated in 1438. The quarterage in this +Company is paid on the quantity of malt consumed +by its members. In 1851 a handsome schoolhouse +was built for the Company, in Trinity Square, +Tower Hill.</p> + +<p>In 1422 Whittington laid an information before +his successor in the mayoralty, Robert Childe, +against the Brewers' Company, for selling <i>dear ale</i>, +when they were convicted in the penalty of £20; +and the masters were ordered to be kept in prison +in the chamberlain's custody until they paid it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_772" id="Page_772">[Pg 772]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<p class="center">CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Milk Street—Sir Thomas More—The City of London School—St. Mary Magdalen—Honey Lane—All Hallows' Church—Lawrence Lane and +St. Lawrence Church—Ironmonger Lane and Mercers' Hall—The Mercers' Company—Early Life Assurance Companies—The Mercers' +Company in Trouble—Mercers' Chapel—St. Thomas Acon—The Mercers' School—Restoration of the Carvings in Mercers' Hall—The +Glories of the Mercers' Company—Ironmonger Lane.</p></div> + + +<p>In Milk Street was the milk-market of Mediæval +London. That good and wise man, Sir Thomas +More, was born in this street. "The brightest +man," says Fuller, with his usual quaint playfulness, +"that ever shone in that <i>via lactea</i>." More, +born in 1480, was the son of a judge of the +King's Bench, and was educated at St. Anthony's +School, in Threadneedle Street. He was afterwards +placed in the family of Archbishop Morton, till he +went to Oxford. After two years he became a barrister, +at Lincoln, entered Parliament, and opposed +Henry VII. to his own danger. After serving +as law reader at New Inn, he soon became an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_773" id="Page_773">[Pg 773]</a></span> +eminent lawyer. He then wrote his "Utopia," +acquired the friendship of Erasmus, and soon after +became a favourite of Henry VIII., helping the +despot in his treatise against Luther. On Wolsey's +disgrace, More became chancellor, and one of the +wisest and most impartial England has ever known. +Determined not to sanction the king's divorce, +More resigned his chancellorship, and, refusing to +attend Anne Boleyn's coronation, he was attainted +for treason. The tyrant, now furious, soon hurried +him to the scaffold, and he was executed on Tower +Hill in 1535.</p> + +<p>This pious, wise, and consistent man is described<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_774" id="Page_774">[Pg 774]</a></span> +as having dark chestnut hair, thin beard, and grey +eyes. He walked with his right shoulder raised, +and was negligent in his dress. When in the Tower, +More is said to have foreseen the fate of Anne +Boleyn, whom his daughter Margaret had found +filling the court with dancing and sporting.</p> + +<p>"Alas, Meg," said the ex-chancellor, "it pitieth +me to remember to what misery poor soul she +will shortly come. These dances of hers will +prove such dances that she will sport our heads +off like foot-balls; but it will not be long ere her +head will dance the like dance."</p> + +<p>It is to be lamented that with all his wisdom, +More was a bigot. He burnt one Frith for denying +the corporeal presence; had James Bainton, a +gentleman of the Temple, whipped in his presence +for heretical opinons; went to the Tower to see him +on the rack, and then hurried him to Smithfield. +"Verily," said Luther, "he was a very notable +tyrant, and plagued and tormented innocent Christians +like an executioner."</p> + +<p>The City of London School, Milk Street, was +established in 1837, for the sons of respectable persons +engaged in professional, commercial, or trading +pursuits; and partly founded on an income of +£900 a year, derived from certain tenements bequeathed +by John Carpenter, town-clerk of London, +in the reign of Henry V., "for the finding and +bringing up of four poor men's children, with meat, +drink, apparel, learning at the schools, in the universities, +&c., until they be preferred, and then +others in their places for ever." This was the same +John Carpenter who "caused, with great expense, to +be curiously painted upon a board, about the north +cloister of Paul's, a monument of Death, leading +all estates, with the speeches of Death, and answers +of every state." The school year is divided into +three terms—Easter to July; August to Christmas; +January to Easter; and the charge for each pupil +is £2 5s. a term. The printed form of application +for admission may be had of the secretary, and must +be filled up by the parent or guardian, and signed +by a member of the Corporation of London. The +general course of instruction includes the English, +French, German, Latin, and Greek languages, +writing, arithmetic, mathematics, book-keeping, +geography, and history. Besides eight free +scholarships on the foundation, equivalent to +£35 per annum each, and available as exhibitions +to the Universities, there are the following +exhibitions belonging to the school:—The "Times" +Scholarship, value £30 per annum; three Beaufoy +Scholarships, the Solomons Scholarship, and the +Travers Scholarship, £50 per annum each; the +Tegg Scholarship, nearly £20 per annum; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_775" id="Page_775">[Pg 775]</a></span> +several other valuable prizes. The first stone of +the school was laid by Lord Brougham, October +21st, 1835. The architect of the building was Mr. +J.B. Bunning, of Guildford Street, Russell Square, +and the entire cost, including fittings and furniture, +as nearly £20,000. It is about 75 feet wide in +front, next Milk Street, and is about 160 feet long; +it contains eleven class-rooms of various dimensions, +a spacious theatre for lectures, &c., a library, committee-room, +with a commodious residence in the +front for the head master and his family. The +lectures, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham, on divinity, +astronomy, music, geometry, law, physics, and +rhetoric, which upon the demolition of Gresham +College had been delivered at the Royal Exchange +from the year 1773, were after the destruction of +that building by fire, in January, 1838, read in the +theatre of the City of London School until 1843; +they were delivered each day during the four Law +Terms, and the public in general were entitled +to free admission.</p> + +<p>In Milk Street stood the small parish church of +St. Mary Magdalen, destroyed in the Great Fire. +It was repaired and beautified at the charge of the +parish in 1619. All the chancel window was built +at the proper cost of Mr. Benjamin Henshaw, +Merchant Taylor, and one of the City captains.</p> + +<p>This church was burnt down in the Great Fire, +and was not rebuilt. One amusing epitaph has +been preserved:—</p> + +<p> +"<span class="smcap">Here lieth the body of Sir William Stone, Knt.</span><br /></p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"As the Earth the<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Earth doth cover,</span><br /> +So under this stone<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lyes another;</span><br /> +Sir William <i>Stone</i>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who long deceased,</span><br /> +Ere the world's love<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Him released;</span><br /> +So much it loved him,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For they say,</span><br /> +He answered Death<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before his day;</span><br /> +But, 'tis not so;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For he was sought</span><br /> +Of One that both him<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Made and bought.</span><br /> +He remain'd<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Great Lord's Treasurer,</span><br /> +Who called for him<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At his pleasure,</span><br /> +And received him.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet be it said,</span><br /> +Earth grieved that Heaven<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So soon was paid.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Here likewise lyes<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Inhumed in one bed,</span><br /> +Dear Barbara,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The well-beloved wife</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_776" id="Page_776">[Pg 776]</a></span>Of this remembered Knight;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose souls are fled</span><br /> +From this dimure vale<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To everlasting life,</span><br /> +Where no more change,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor no more separation,</span><br /> +Shall make them flye<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From their blest habitation.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grasse of levitie,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Span in brevity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flower's felicity,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fire of misery,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wind's stability,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is mortality."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Honey Lane," says good old Stow, "is so called +not of sweetness thereof, being very narrow and small +and dark, but rather of often washing and sweeping +to keep it clean." With all due respect to Stow, +we suspect that the lane did not derive its name +from any superlative cleanliness, but more probably +from honey being sold here in the times before sugar +became common and honey alone was used by +cooks for sweetening.</p> + +<p>On the site of All Hallows' Church, destroyed +in the Great Fire, a market was afterwards established.</p> + +<p>"There be no monuments," says Stow, "in this +church worth the noting; I find that John Norman, +Maior, 1453, was buried there. He gave to +the drapers his tenements on the north side of the +said church; they to allow for the beam light and +lamp 13s. 4d. yearly, from this lane to the Standard.</p> + +<p>"This church hath the misfortune to have no bequests +to church or poor, nor to any publick use.</p> + +<p>"There was a parsonage house before the Great +Fire, but now the ground on which it stood is swallowed +up by the market. The parish of St. Mary-le-Bow +(to which it is united) hath received all +the money paid for the site of the ground of the +said parsonage."</p> + +<p>All Hallows' Church was repaired and beautified +at the cost of the parishioners in 1625.</p> + +<p>Lawrence Lane derives its name from the church +of St. Lawrence, at its north end. "Antiquities," says +Stow, "in this lane I find none other than among +many fair houses. There is one large inn for receipt +of travellers, called 'Blossoms Inn,' but corruptly +'Bosoms Inn,' and hath for a sign 'St. Lawrence, +the Deacon,' in a border of blossoms or +flowers." This was one of the great City inns set +apart for Charles V.'s suite, when he came over to +visit Henry VIII. in 1522. At the sign of "St. +Lawrence Bosoms" twenty beds and stabling for +sixty horses were ordered.</p> + +<p>The curious old tract about Bankes and his +trained horse was written under the assumed names<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_777" id="Page_777">[Pg 777]</a></span> +of "John Dando, the wier-drawer of Hadley, and +Harrie Runt, head ostler of Besomes Inne," which +is probably the same place.</p> + +<p>St. Lawrence Church is situate on the north side +of Cateaton Street, "and is denominated," says +Maitland, "from its dedication to Lawrence, a +Spanish saint, born at Huesca, in the kingdom of +Arragon; who, after having undergone the most +grievous tortures, in the persecution under Valerian, +the emperor, was cruelly broiled alive upon a gridiron, +with a slow fire, till he died, for his strict adherence +to Christianity; and the additional epithet +of Jewry, from its situation among the Jews, was +conferred upon it, to distinguish it from the church +of St. Lawrence Pulteney, now demolished.</p> + +<p>"This church, which was anciently a rectory, +being given by Hugo de Wickenbroke to Baliol +College in Oxford, anno 1294, the rectory ceased; +wherefore Richard, Bishop of London, converted the +same into a vicarage; the advowson whereof still +continues in the same college. This church sharing +the common fate in 1666, it has since been beautifully +rebuilt, and the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, +Milk Street, thereunto annexed." The famous Sir +Richard Gresham lies buried here, with the following +inscription on his tomb:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here lyeth the great Sir Richard Gresham, Knight, some +time Lord Maior of London; and Audrey, his first wife, by +whom he had issue, Sir John Gresham and Sir Thomas +Gresham, Knights, William and Margaret; which Sir Richard +deceased the 20th day of February, An. Domini 1548, and +the third yeere of King Edward the Sixth his Reigne, and +Audrey deceased the 28th day of December, An. Dom. 1522."</p></div> + +<p>There is also this epitaph:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Lo here the Lady Margaret North,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In tombe and earth do lye;</span><br /> +Of husbands four the faithfull spouse,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose fame shall never dye.</span><br /> +One Andrew Franncis was the first,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The second Robert hight,</span><br /> +Surnamed Chartsey, Alderman;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sir David Brooke, a knight,</span><br /> +Was third. But he that passed all,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And was in number fourth,</span><br /> +And for his virtue made a Lord,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was called Sir Edward North.</span><br /> +These altogether do I wish<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A joyful rising day;</span><br /> +That of the Lord and of his Christ,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All honour they may say.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Obiit 2 die Junii, An. Dom. 1575."</span></div> + +<p>In Ironmonger Lane, inhabited by ironmongers +<i>temp.</i> Edward I., is Mercers' Hall, an interesting +building.</p> + +<p>The Mercers, though not formally incorporated +till the 17th of Richard II. (1393), are traced back +by Herbert as early as 1172. Soon afterwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_778" id="Page_778">[Pg 778]</a></span> +they are mentioned as patrons of one of the great +London charities. In 1214, Robert Spencer, a +mercer, was mayor. In 1296 the mercers joined +the company of merchant adventurers in establishing +in Edward I.'s reign, a woollen manufacture +in England, with a branch at Antwerp. In +Edward II.'s reign they are mentioned as "the +Fraternity of Mercers," and in 1406 (Henry IV.) they +are styled in a charter, "Brothers of St. Thomas +à Becket."</p> + +<p>Mercers were at first general dealers in all small +wares, including wigs, haberdashery, and even spices +and drugs. They attended fairs and markets, and +even sat on the ground to sell their wares—in fact, +were little more than high-class pedlers. The poet +Gower talks of "the depression of such mercerie." +In late times the silk trade formed the main feature +of their business; the greater use of silk beginning +about 1573.</p> + +<p>The mercers' first station, in Henry II.'s reign, +was in that part of Cheap on the north side where +Mercers' Hall now stands, but they removed soon +afterwards higher up on the south side. The part +of Cheapside between Bow Church and Friday +Street became known as the Mercery. Here, in +front of a large meadow called the "Crownsild," +they held their little stalls or standings from Soper's +Lane and the Standard. There were no houses +as yet in this part of Cheapside. In 1329 William +Elsing, a mercer, founded an hospital within Cripplegate, +for 100 poor blind men, and became prior +of his own institution.</p> + +<p>In 1351 (Edward III.), the Mercers grew jealous +of the Lombard merchants, and on Midsummer Day +three mercers were sent to the Tower for attacking +two Lombards in the Old Jewry. The mercers +in this reign sold woollen clothes, but not silks. +In 1371, John Barnes, mercer, mayor, gave a chest +with three locks, with 1,000 marks therein, to +be lent to younger mercers, upon sufficient pawn +and for the use thereof. The grateful recipients were +merely to say "De Profundis," a Pater Noster, and +no more. This bequest seems to have started +among the Mercers the kindly practice of assisting +the young and struggling members of this Company.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Henry VI. the mercers had +become great dealers in silks and velvets, and had +resigned to the haberdashers the sale of small articles +of dress. It is not known whether the mercers +bought their silks from the Lombards, or the London +silk-women, or whether they imported them +themselves, since many of the members of the Company +were merchants.</p> + +<p>Twenty years after the murder of Becket, the +murdered man's sister, who had married Thomas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_779" id="Page_779">[Pg 779]</a></span> +Fitz Theobald de Helles, built a chapel and hospital +of Augustine Friars close to Ironmonger Lane, +Cheapside. The hospital was built on the site of +the house where Becket was born. He was the son +of Gilbert Becket, citizen, mercer and portreeve of +London, who was said to have been a Crusader, and +to have married a fair Saracen, who had released +him from prison, and who followed him to London, +knowing only the one English word "Gilbert." The +hospital, which was called "St. Thomas of Acon," +from Becket's mother having been born at Acre, +the ancient Ptolemais, was given to the Mercers' +Fraternity by De Hilles and his wife, and Henry +III. gave the master and twelve brothers all the +land between St. Olave's and Ironmonger Lane, +which had belonged to two rich Jews, to enlarge +their ground. In Henry V.'s reign that illustrious +mercer Whittington, by his wealth and charity, reflected +great lustre on the Mercers' Company, who +at his death were left trustees of the college and +almshouses founded by the immortal Richard on +College Hill. The Company still preserve the +original ordinance of this charity with a curious +picture of Whittington's death, and of the first +three wardens, Coventry, Grove, and Carpenter.</p> + +<p>In 1414, Thomas Falconer, mercer and mayor, +lent Henry V., towards his French wars, ten marks +upon jewels.</p> + +<p>In 1513, Joan Bradbury, widow of Thomas Bradbury, +late Lord Mayor of London, left the Conduit +Mead (now New Bond Street), to the Mercers' +Company for charitable uses. In pursuance of the +King's grant on this occasion, the Bishop of Norwich +and others granted the Mercers' Company 29 acres +of land in Marylebone, 120 acres in Westminster, +and St. Giles, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, of +the annual value of £13 6s. 8d., and in part satisfaction +of the said £20 a year. The Company still +possess eight acres and a half of this old gift, +forming the north side of Long Acre and the adjacent +streets, one of which bears the name of the +Company. Mercer Street was described in a parliamentary +survey in 1650 to have long gardens +reaching down to Cock and Pye Ditch, and the +site of Seven Dials. In 1544 the three Greshams +(at the time the twelve Companies were appealed +to) lent Henry VIII. upon mortgaged lands £1,673 +6s. 8d. In 1561, the wardens of the Mercers' Company +were summoned before the Queen's Council +for selling their velvets, satins, and damasks so dear, +as English coin was no longer base, and the old +excuse for the former high charges was gone. The +Mercers prudently bowed before the storm, promised +reform, and begged her Majesty's Council to look +after the Grocers. At this time the chief vendors of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_780" id="Page_780">[Pg 780]</a></span> +Italian silks lived in Cheapside, St. Lawrence Jewry, +and Old Jewry.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="swan" id="swan"></a> +<img src="images/p378.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE "SWAN WITH TWO NECKS," LAD LANE</span> +</div> + +<p>During the civil wars both King and Parliament +bore heavily on the Mercers. In 1640 Charles I. +half forced from them a loan of £3,030, and in +1642 the Parliament borrowed £6,500, and arms +from the Company's armoury, valued at £88. They +afterwards gave further arms, valued at £71 13s. 4d., +and advanced as a second loan £3,200. The result +now became visible. In 1698, hoping to clear off +their debts, the Mercers' Company engaged in a +ruinous insurance scheme, suggested by Dr. Assheton, +a Kentish rector. It was proposed to grant +annuities of £30 per cent. to clergymen's widows +according to certain sums paid by their husbands.</p> + +<p>"Pledging the rents of their large landed estates +as security for the fulfilment of their contracts with +usurers, the Mercers entered on business as life +assurance agents. Limiting the entire amount of +subscription to £100,000, they decided that no +person over sixty years of age should become a +subscriber; that no subscriber should subscribe +less than £50—<i>i.e.</i>, should purchase a smaller contingent +annuity than one of £15; that the annuity +to every subscriber's widow, or other person for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_781" id="Page_781">[Pg 781]</a></span> +whom the insurance was effected, should be at the +rate of £30 for every £100 of subscription. It +was stipulated that subscribers must be in good +and perfect health at the time of subscription. It +was decided that all married men of the age of +thirty years or under, might subscribe any sum from +£50 to £1,000; that all married men, not exceeding +sixty years of age, might subscribe any sum not less +than £50, and not exceeding £300. The Company's +prospectus further stipulates 'that no person +that goes to sea, nor soldier that goes to the wars, +shall be admitted to subscribe to have the benefit +of this proposal, in regard of the casualties and +accidents that they are more particularly liable to.' +Moreover, it was provided that 'in case it should +happen that any man who had subscribed should +voluntarily make away with himself, or by any act +of his occasion his own death, either by duelling, +or committing any crime whereby he should be +sentenced to be put to death by justice; in any or +either of these cases his widow should receive no +annuity, but upon delivering up the Company's +bond, should have the subscription money paid +to her.'</p> + +<p>"The Mercers' operations soon gave rise to more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_782" id="Page_782">[Pg 782]</a></span> +business-like companies, specially created to secure +the public against some of the calamitous consequences +of death. In 1706, the Amicable Life +Assurance Office—usually, though, as the reader +has seen, incorrectly, termed the First Life Insurance +Office—was established in imitation of the +Mercers' Office. Two years later, the Second +Society of Assurance, for the support of widows +and orphans, was opened in Dublin, which, like the +Amicable, introduced numerous improvements upon +Dr. Assheton's scheme, and was a Joint-Stock Life +Assurance Society, identical in its principles with, +and similar in most of its details to, the modern +insurance companies, of which there were as many +as one hundred and sixty in the year 1859."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="city" id="city"></a> +<img src="images/p379.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL</span> +</div> + +<p>Large sums were subscribed, but the annuities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_783" id="Page_783">[Pg 783]</a></span> +were fixed too high, and the Company had to sink +to 18 per cent., and even this proved an insufficient +reduction. In 1745 they were compelled to stop, +and, after several ineffectual struggles, to petition +Parliament.</p> + +<p>The petition showed that the Mercers were +indebted more than £100,000. The annuities +then out amounted to £7,620 per annum, and the +subscriptions for future amounts reached £10,000 +a year; while to answer these claims their present +income only amounted to £4,100 per annum. +The Company was therefore empowered by Act of +Parliament, 4 George III., to issue new bonds and +pay them off by a lottery, drawn in their own hall. +This plan had the effect of completely retrieving +their affairs, and restoring them again to prosperity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_784" id="Page_784">[Pg 784]</a></span></p> + +<p>Strype speaks of the mercers' shops situated on +the south side of Cheapside as having been turned +from mere sheds into handsome buildings four or +five storeys high.</p> + +<p>Mercers' Hall and Chapel have a history of +their own. On the rough suppression of monastic +institutions, Henry VIII., gorged with plunder, +granted to the Mercers' Company for £969 17s. 6d. +the church of the college of St. Thomas Acon, +the parsonage of St. Mary Colechurch, and sundry +premises in the parishes of St. Paul, Old Jewry, +St. Stephen, Walbrook, St. Martin, Ironmonger +Lane, and St. Stephen, Coleman Street. Immediately +behind the great doors of the hospital and +Mercers' Hall stood the hospital church of St. +Thomas, and at the back were court-yards, cloisters, +and gardens in a great wide enclosure east and +west of Ironmonger Lane and the Old Jewry.</p> + +<p>St. Thomas's Church was a large structure, probably +rich in monuments, though many of the +illustrious mercers were buried in Bow Church, St. +Pancras, Soper Lane, St. Antholin's, Watling Street, +and St. Benet Sherehog. The church was bought +chiefly by Sir Richard Gresham's influence, and Stow +tells us "it is now called Mercers' Chappell, and +therein is kept a free grammar school as of old time +had been accustomed." The original Mercers' +Chapel was a chapel toward the street in front of +the "great old chapel of St. Thomas," and over it +was Mercers' Hall. Aggas's plan of London (circa +1560) shows it was a little above the Great Conduit +of Cheapside. The small chapel was built by Sir +John Allen, mercer and mayor (1521), and he was +buried there; but the Mercers removed this tomb +into the hospital church, and divided the chapel +into shops. Grey, the founder of the hospital, was +apprenticed to a bookseller who occupied one of +these shops, and after the Fire of London he himself +carried on the same trade in a shop which was +built on the same site. Before the suppression, +the Mercers only occupied a shop of the present +front, the modern Mercers' Chapel standing, says +Herbert, exactly on the site of part of the hospital +church.</p> + +<p>The old hospital gate, which forms the present +hospital entrance, had an image of St. Thomas à +Becket, but this was pulled down by Elizabethan +fanatics. The interior of the chapel remains unaltered. +There is a large ambulatory before it supported +by columns, and a stone staircase leads to +the hall and court-rooms. The ambulatory contains +the recumbent figure of Richard Fishborne, +Mercer, dressed in a fur gown and ruff. He was +a great benefactor to the Company, and died in +1623 (James I.).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_785" id="Page_785">[Pg 785]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many eminent citizens were buried in St. +Thomas's, though most of the monuments had +been defaced even in Stow's time. Among them +were ten Mercer mayors and sheriffs, ten grocers +(probably from Bucklersbury, their special locality), +Sir Edward Shaw, goldsmith to Richard III., +two Earls of Ormond, and Stephen Cavendish, +draper and mayor (1362), whose descendants were +ancestors of the ducal families of Cavendish and +Devonshire.</p> + +<p>William Downer, of London, gent., by his last +will, dated 26th June, 1484, gave orders for his +body to be buried within the church of St. Thomas +Acon's, of London, in these terms:—"So that every +year, yearly for evermore, in their foresaid churche, +at such time of the year as it shal happen me to +dy, observe and keep an <i>obyte</i>, or an anniversary +for my sowl, the sowles of my seyd wyfe, the sowles +of my fader and moder, and al Christian sowles, +with <i>placebo</i> and dirige on the even, and mass of +requiem on the morrow following solemnly by note +for evermore."</p> + +<p>Previous to the suppression, Henry VIII. had +permitted the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, +which wanted room, to throw a gallery across Old +Jewry into a garden which the master had purchased, +adjoining the Grocers' Hall, and in which +Sir Robert Clayton afterwards built a house, of +which we shall have to speak in its place. The +gallery was to have two windows, and in the +winter a light was ordered to be burned there for +the comfort of passers-by. In 1536, Henry VIII. +and his queen, Jane Seymour, stood in the Mercers' +Hall, then newly built, and saw the "marching +watch of the City" most bravely set out by its +founder, Sir John Allen, mercer and mayor, and +one of the Privy Council.</p> + +<p>In the reign of James I., Mercers' Chapel became +a fashionable place of resort; gallants and ladies +crowded there to hear the sermons of the learned +Italian Archbishop of Spalatro, in Dalmatia, one of +the few prize converts to Protestantism. In 1617 +we look in and find among his auditors the Archbishop +of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the +Earls of Arundel and Pembroke, and Lords Zouch +and Compton. The chapel continued for many +years to be used for Italian sermons preached to +English merchants who had resided abroad, and +who partly defrayed the expense. The Mercers' +School was first held in the hospital and then removed +to the mercery.</p> + +<p>The present chapel front in Cheapside is the +central part alone of the front built after the Great +Fire. Correspondent houses, five storeys high, +formerly gave breadth and effect to the whole mass.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_786" id="Page_786">[Pg 786]</a></span> +Old views represent shops on each side with unsashed +windows. The first floors have stone +balconies, and over the central window of each +room is the bust of a crowned virgin. It has a +large doorcase, enriched with two genii above, in +the act of mantling the Virgin's head, the Company's +cognomen displayed upon the keystone of the arch. +Above is a cornice, with brackets, sustaining a small +gallery, from which, on each side, arise Doric +pilasters, supporting an entablature of the same +order; between the intercolumns and the central +window are the figures of Faith and Hope, in +niches, between whom, in a third niche of the entablature, +is Charity, sitting with her three children. +The upper storey has circular windows and other +enrichments.</p> + +<p>The entrance most used is in Ironmonger Lane, +where is a small court, with offices, apparently the +site of the ancient cloister, and which leads to the +principal building. The hall itself is elevated as +anciently, and supported by Doric columns, the +space below being open one side and forming an +extensive piazza, at the extremity whereof is the +chapel, which is neatly planned, wainscoted, and +paved with black and white marble. A high flight +of stairs leads from the piazza to the hall, which is +a very lofty apartment, handsomely wainscoted +and ornamented with Doric pilasters, and various +carvings in compartments.</p> + +<p>In the hall, besides the transaction of the Company's +business, the Gresham committees are held, +which consist of four aldermen, including the Lord +Mayor <i>pro tempore</i>, and eight of the City corporation, +with whom are associated a select number +of the assistants of the Mercers. In this hall also +the British Fishery Society, and other corporate +bodies, were formerly accustomed to hold their +meetings.</p> + +<p>The chief portraits in the hall are those of Sir +Thomas Gresham (original), a fanciful portrait of +Sir Richard Whittington, a likeness of Count +Tekeli (the hero of the old opera), Count Panington; +Dean Colet (the illustrious friend of Erasmus, +and the founder of St. Paul's school); Thomas +Papillon, Master of the Company in 1698, who +left £1,000 to the Company, to relieve any of +his family that ever came to want; and Rowland +Wynne, Master of the Company in 1675. Wynne +gave £400 towards the repairing of the hall after +the Great Fire.</p> + +<p>In Strype's time (1720), the Mercers' Company +gave away £3,000 a year in charity. In 1745 the +Company's money legacies amounted to £21,699 +5s. 9d., out of which the Company paid annually +£573 17s. 4d. In 1832, the lapsed legacies of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_787" id="Page_787">[Pg 787]</a></span> +the Company became the subject of a Chancery +suit; the result was that money is now lent to +liverymen or freemen of the Company requiring +assistance in sums of £100, and not exceeding +£500, for a term, without interest, but only upon +approved security.</p> + +<p>The present Mercers' School, which is but lately +finished, is a very elegant stone structure, adjoining +St. Michael's Church, College Hill, on the site of +Whittington's Almshouses, which had been removed +to Highgate to make room for it.</p> + +<p>The school scholarship is in the gift of the +Mercers' Company, and it must not be forgotten +that Caxton, the first great English printer, was a +member of this livery.</p> + +<p>Subsequently to the Great Fire, says Herbert, +there was some discussion with Parliament on rebuilding +the Mercers' School on the former site of +St. Mary Colechurch. That site, however, was +ultimately rejected, and by the Rebuilding Act, 22 +Charles II. (1670), it was expressly provided that +there should be a plot of ground, on the western +side of the Old Jewry, "set apart for the Mercers' +School." Persons who remember the building, +says Herbert, describe it whilst here as an old-fashioned +house for the masters' residence, with +projecting upper storeys, a low, spacious building +by the side of it for the school-room, and an area +behind it for a playground, the whole being situate +on the west side of the Old Jewry, about forty yards +from Cheapside.</p> + +<p>The great value of ground on the above spot, and +a desire to widen, as at present, the entrance to the +Old Jewry, occasioned the temporary removal of +the Mercers' School, in 1787, to No. 13, Budge +Row, about thirty yards from Dowgate Hill (a +house of the Company's, which was afterwards +burnt down). In 1804 it was again temporarily +removed to No. 20, Red Lion Court, Watling +Street; and from thence, in 1808, to its present +situation on College Hill. The latter premises +were hired by the Company, at the rent of £120, +and the average expense of the school was +£677 1s. 1d. The salary of the master is £200, +and £50 gratuity, with a house to live in, rent and +taxes free. Writing, arithmetic, and merchant's accounts +were added to the Greek and Latin classics, +in 1804; and a writing-master was engaged, who +has a salary of £120, and a gratuity of £20, but +no house. There are two exhibitions belonging to +the school.</p> + +<p>With the Mercers' Hospital, in the Middle Ages, +many curious old City customs were connected. +The customary devotions of the new Lord Mayor, at +St. Thomas of Acon Church, in the Catholic times,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_788" id="Page_788">[Pg 788]</a></span> +identify themselves in point of locality with the +Mercers' Company, and are to be ranked amongst +that Company's observances. Strype has described +these, from an ancient MS. he met with on the +subject. The new Lord Mayor, it states, "<i>after +dinner</i>," on his inauguration day (the ceremony +would have suited much better <i>before</i> dinner in +modern days), "was wont to go from his house to +the Church of St. Thomas of Acon, those of his +livery going before him; and the aldermen in like +manner being there met together, they came to the +Church of St. Paul, whither, when they were come, +namely, in the middle place between the body of +the church, between two little doors, they were +wont to pray for the soul of the Bishop of London. +William Norman, who was a great benefactor to +the City, in obtaining the confirmation of their +liberties from William the Conqueror, a priest +saying the office <i>De Profundis</i> (called a dirge); +and from thence they passed to the churchyard, +where Thomas à Becket's parents were buried, and +there, near their tomb, they said also, for all the +faithful deceased, <i>De Profundis</i> again. The City +procession thence returned through Cheapside +Market, sometimes with wax candles burning (if it +was late), to the said Church Sanctæ Thomæ, and +there the mayor and aldermen offered single pence, +which being done, every one went to his home."</p> + +<p>On all saints' days, and various other festivals, +the mayor with his family attended at this same +Church of St. Thomas, and the aldermen also, +and those that were "of the livery of the mayor, +with the honest men of the mysteries," in their +several habits, or suits, from which they went to +St. Paul's to hear vespers. On the Feast of +Innocents they heard vespers at St. Thomas's, and +on the morrow mass and vespers.</p> + +<p>The Mercers' election cup, says Timbs, of early +sixteenth century work, was silver-gilt, decorated +with fretwork and female busts; the feet, flasks; +and on the cover is the popular legend of an +unicorn yielding its horn to a maiden. The whole +is enamelled with coats of arms, and these lines—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"To elect the Master of the Mercerie hither am I sent,<br /> +And by Sir Thomas Leigh for the same intent."</div> + +<p>The Company also possess a silver-gilt wagon +and tun, covered with arabesques and enamels, of +sixteenth century work. The hall was originally +decorated with carvings; the main stem of deal, +the fruit, flowers, &c., of lime, pear, and beech. +These becoming worm-eaten, were long since removed +from the panelling and put aside; but they +have been restored by Mr. Henry Crace, who thus +describes the process:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_789" id="Page_789">[Pg 789]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"The carving is of the same colour as when +taken down. I merely washed it, and with a +gimlet bored a number of holes in the back, and +into every projecting piece of fruit and leaves on +the face, and placing the whole in a long trough, +fifteen inches deep, I covered it with a solution +prepared in the following manner:—I took sixteen +gallons of linseed oil, with 2 lbs. of litharge, finely +ground, 1 lb. of camphor, and 2 lbs. of red lead, +which I boiled for six hours, keeping it stirred, +that every ingredient might be perfectly incorporated. +I then dissolved 6 lbs. of bees'-wax in a +gallon of spirits of turpentine, and mixed the whole, +while warm, thoroughly together.</p> + +<p>"In this solution the carving remained for twenty-four +hours. When taken out, I kept the face +downwards, that the oil might soak down to the +face of the carving; and on cutting some of the +wood nearly nine inches deep, I found it had +soaked through, for not any of the dust was blown +out, as I considered it a valuable medium to form +a substance for the future support of the wood. +This has been accomplished, and, as the dust +became saturated with the oil, it increased in bulk, +and rendered the carving perfectly solid."</p> + +<p>The Company is now governed by a master, three +wardens, and a court of thirty-one or more assistants. +The livery fine is 53s. 4d. The Mercers' +Company, though not by any means the most +ancient of the leading City companies, takes precedence +of all. Such anomalous institutions are the +City companies, that, curious to relate, the present +body hardly includes one mercer among them. In +Henry VIII.'s reign the Company (freemen, householders, +and livery) amounted to fifty-three persons; +in 1701 it had almost quadrupled. Strype (1754) +only enumerates fifty-two mayors who had been +mercers, from 1214 to 1701; this is below the +mark. Halkins over-estimates the mercer mayors +as ninety-eight up to 1708. Few monarchs have +been mercers, yet Richard II. was a free brother, +and Queen Elizabeth a free sister.</p> + +<p>Half our modern nobility have sprung from the +trades they now despise. Many of the great +mercers became the founders of noble houses; for +instance—Sir John Coventry (1425), ancestor of the +present Earl of Coventry; Sir Geoffrey Bullen, +grandfather of Queen Elizabeth; Sir William Hollis, +ancestor of the Earls of Clare. From Sir Richard +Dormer (1542) sprang the Lords Dormer; from +Sir Thomas Baldry (1523) the Lords Kensington +(Rich); from Sir Thomas Seymour (1527) the Dukes +of Somerset; from Sir Baptist Hicks, the great +mercer of James I., who built Hicks' Hall, on +Clerkenwell Green, sprang the Viscounts Camden;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_790" id="Page_790">[Pg 790]</a></span> +from Sir Rowland Hill, the Lords Hill; from James +Butler (Henry II.) the Earls of Ormond; from Sir +Geoffrey Fielding, Privy Councillor to Henry II. +and Richard I., the Earls of Denbigh.</p> + +<p>The costume of the Mercers became fixed about +the reign of Charles I. The master and wardens +led the civic processions, "faced in furs," with +the lords; the livery followed in gowns faced with +satins, the livery of all other Companies wearing +facings of fringe.</p> + +<p>"In Ironmonger Lane," says Stow, giving us a +glimpse of old London, "is the small parish church +of St. Martin, called Pomary, upon what occasion +certainly I know not; but it is supposed to be of +apples growing where now houses are lately builded, +for myself have seen the large void places there." +The church was repaired in the year 1629. Mr. +Stodder left 40s. for a sermon to be preached on +St. James's Day by an unbeneficed minister, in +commemoration of the deliverance in the year 1588 +(Armada); and 50s. more to the use of the poor of +the same parish, to be paid by the Ironmongers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_791" id="Page_791">[Pg 791]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<p class="center">GUILDHALL</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Original Guildhall—A fearful Civic Spectacle—The Value of Land increased by the Great Fire—Guildhall as it was and is—The Statues over +the South Porch—Dance's Disfigurements—The Renovation in 1864—The Crypt—Gog and Magog—Shopkeepers in Guildhall—The +Cenotaphs in Guildhall—The Court of Aldermen—The City Courts—The Chamberlain's Office—Pictures in the Guildhall—Sir Robert Porter—The +Common Council Room—Pictures and Statues—Guildhall Chapel—The New Library and Museum—Some Rare Books—Historical +Events in Guildhall—Chaucer in Trouble—Buckingham at Guildhall—Anne Askew's Trial and Death—Surrey—Throckmorton—Garnet—A +Grand Banquet.</p></div> + + +<p>The Guildhall—the mean-looking Hôtel de Ville +of London—was originally (says Stow) situated +more to the east side of Aldermanbury, to which it +gave name. Richard de Reynere, a sheriff in the +reign of Richard I. (1189), gave to the church of +St. Mary, at Osney, near Oxford, certain ground +rents in Aldermanbury, as appears by an entry +in the Register of the Court of Hustings of the +Guildhall. In Stow's time the Aldermanbury hall +had been turned into a carpenter's yard.</p> + +<p>The present Guildhall (which the meanest +Flemish city would despise) was "builded new," +whatever that might imply, according to our +venerable guide, in 1411 (12th of Henry IV.), by +Thomas Knoles, the mayor, and his brethren the +aldermen, and "from a little cottage it grew into a +great house." The expenses were defrayed by +benevolences from the City Companies, and ten +years' fees, fines, and amercements. Henry V. +granted the City free passages for four boats and +four carts, to bring lime, ragstone, and freestone +for the works. In the first year of Henry VI., +when the citizens were every day growing richer +and more powerful, the illustrious Whittington's +executors gave £35 to pave the Great Hall with +Purbeck stone. They also blazoned some of the +windows of the hall, and the Mayor's Court, with +Whittington's escutcheons.</p> + +<p>A few years afterwards one of the porches, the +Mayor's Chamber, and the Council Chamber were +built. In 1501 (Henry VII.), Sir John Shaw, mayor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_792" id="Page_792">[Pg 792]</a></span> +knighted on Bosworth Field, built the kitchens, since +which time the City feasts, before that held at Merchant +Taylors' and Grocers' Hall, were annually held +here. In 1505, Sir Nicholas Alwin, mayor in +1499, left £73 6s. 8d. to purchase tapestry for +"gaudy" days at the Guildhall. In 1614 a new +Council Chamber, with a second room over it, was +erected, at an outlay of £1,740.</p> + +<p>In the Great Fire, when all the roofs and outbuildings +were destroyed, an eye-witness describes +Guildhall itself still standing firm, probably because +it was framed with solid oak.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vincent, a minister, in his "God's Terrible +Voice in the City," printed in the year 1667, says: +"And amongst other things that night, the sight +of Guildhall was a fearful spectacle, which stood +the whole body of it together in view for several +hours together, after the fire had taken it, without +flames (I suppose because the timber was such solid +oake), like a bright shining coal, as if it had been +a palace of gold, or a great building of burnished +brass."</p> + +<p>Pepys has some curious notes about the new +Guildhall.</p> + +<p>"Sir Richard Ford," he says, "tells me, speaking of +the new street"—the present King Street—"that is +to be made from Guildhall down to Cheapside, that +the ground is already, most of it, bought; and tells +me of one particular, of a man that hath a piece of +ground lying in the very middle of the street that +must be; which, when the street is cut out of it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_793" id="Page_793">[Pg 793]</a></span> +there will remain ground enough of each side to +build a house to front the street. He demanded +seven hundred pounds for the ground, and to be +excused paying anything for the melioration of the +rest of his ground that he was to keep. The Court +consented to give him £700, only not to abate him +the consideration, which the man denied; but told +them, and so they agreed, that he would excuse the +City the £700, that he might have the benefit of +the melioration without paying anything for it. So +much some will get by having the City burned. +Ground, by this means, that was not fourpence a +foot afore, will now, when houses are built, be worth +fifteen shillings a foot."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mercers" id="mercers"></a> +<img src="images/p384.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MERCERS' CHAPEL, AS REBUILT AFTER THE FIRE. (<i>From an Old Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>In the "Calendar of State Papers" (Charles II., +February, 1667), we find notice that "the Committee +of the Common Council of London for making the +new street called King Street, between Guildhall +and Cheapside, will sit twice a week at Guildhall, +to treat with persons concerned; enquiry to be +made by jury, according to the Act for Rebuilding +the City, of the value of land of such persons as +refuse to appear."</p> + +<p>The Great Hall is 153 feet long, 50 feet broad, +and about 55 feet high. The interior sides, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_794" id="Page_794">[Pg 794]</a></span> +1829, were divided into eight portions by projecting +clusters of columns. Above the dados were two +windows of the meanest and most debased Gothic. +Several of the large windows were blocked up +with tasteless monuments. The blockings of the +friezes were sculptured; large guideron shields were +blazoned with the arms of the principal City companies. +The old mediæval open timber-work roof +had been swallowed up by the Great Fire, and in lieu +of it there was a poor attic storey, and a flat panelled +ceiling, by some attributed to Wren. At each end +of the hall was a large pointed window; the east +one blazoned with the royal arms, and the stars +and jewels of the English orders of knighthood; +the west with the City arms and supporters. At +the east end of the hall (the ancient dais) was a +raised enclosed platform, for holding the Court of +Hustings and taking the poll at elections, and other +purposes. The panelled wainscoting (in the old +churchwarden taste) was separated into compartments +by fluted Corinthian pilasters. Over these +was a range of ancient canopied niches in carved +stone, vulgarly imitated by modern work on the +west side. Our old friends Gog and Magog, before +Dance's <i>improvements</i>, stood on brackets adjoining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_795" id="Page_795">[Pg 795]</a></span> +a balcony over the entrance to the interior courts, +and were removed to brackets on each side the +great west window.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="crypt" id="crypt"></a> +<img src="images/p385.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CRYPT OF GUILDHALL</span> +</div> + +<p>Stow describes the statues over the great south +porch of King Henry VI.'s time as bearing the +following emblems: the tables of the Commandments, +a whip, a sword, and a pot. By their ancient +habits and the coronets on their heads, he presumed +them to be the statues of benefactors of London. +The statue of our Saviour had disappeared, but the +two bearded figures remaining, he conjectured, +were good Bishop William and the Conqueror himself. +Four lesser figures, two on each side the +porch, seemed to be noble and pious ladies, one +of them probably the Empress Maud, another +the good Queen Philippa, who once interceded for +the City. These figures were taken down during +Dance's injudicious alterations in 1789. They lay +neglected in a cellar until Alderman Boydell obtained +leave of the Corporation to give them to +Banks, the sculptor, who had taste enough to appreciate +the simple earnestness of the Gothic work. At +his death they were given again to the City. These +figures were removed from the old screen in 1865, +and were not replaced in the new one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_796" id="Page_796">[Pg 796]</a></span></p> + +<p>Stow, in relation to the Guildhall statues, and +to the general demolition of "images" that occurred +in his time, states, "these verses following" were +made about 1560, by William Elderton, an attorney +in the Sheriffs Court at Guildhall:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Though most the Images be pulled downe.<br /> +And none be thought remain in Towne.<br /> +I am sure there be in London yet<br /> +Seven images, such, and in such a place<br /> +As few or none I think will hit,<br /> +Yet every day they show their face;<br /> +And thousands see them every yeare,<br /> +But few, I thinke, can tell me where;<br /> +Where <i>Jesus Christ</i> aloft doth stand,<br /> +<i>Law</i> and <i>Learning</i> on either hand,<br /> +<i>Discipline</i> in the Devil's necke,<br /> +And hard by her are three direct;<br /> +There <i>Justice</i>, <i>Fortitude</i>, and <i>Temperance</i> stand;<br /> +Where find ye the like in all this Land?"</div> + +<p>The true renovation of this great City hall commenced +in the year 1864, when Mr. Horace Jones, +the architect to the City of London, was entrusted +with the erection of an open oak roof, with a +central louvre and tapering metal spire. The new +roof is as nearly as possible framed to resemble the +roof destroyed in the Great Fire. Many southern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_797" id="Page_797">[Pg 797]</a></span> +windows have been re-opened, and layer after layer +of plaster and cement scraped from the internal +architectural ornamentation. The southern windows +have been fitted with stained glass, designed +by Mr. F. Halliday, the subjects being—the +grant of the Charter, coining money, the death of +Wat Tyler, a royal tournament, &c. The new roof +is of oak, with rather a high pitch, lighted by sixteen +dormers, eight on each side. The height from the +pavement to the under-side of the ridge is 89 feet, +the total length is 152 feet; and there are eight bays +and seven principals. The roof, which does great +credit to Mr. Jones, is double-lined oak and deal, +slated. The hall is lighted by sixteen gaseliers. +A screen, with dais or hustings at the east end, is +of carved oak. There is a minstrels' gallery and +a new stone floor with coloured bands.</p> + +<p>The fine crypt under the Guildhall was, till its +restoration in the year 1851, a mere receptacle for +the planks, benches, and trestles used at the City +banquets.</p> + +<p>"This crypt is by far the finest and most extensive +undercroft remaining in London, and is a true +portion of the ancient hall (erected in 1411) which +escaped the Great Fire of 1666. It extends half +the length beneath the Guildhall, from east to +west, and is divided nearly equally by a wall, having +an ancient pointed door. The crypt is divided +into aisles by clustered columns, from which spring +the stone-ribbed groins of the vaulting, composed +partly of chalk and stone, the principal intersections +being covered with carved bosses of flowers, +heads, and shields. The north and south aisles +had formerly mullioned windows, long walled up. +At the eastern end is a fine Early English arched +entrance, in fair preservation; and in the south-eastern +angle is an octangular recess, which formerly +was ceiled by an elegantly groined roof, +height thirteen feet. The vaulting, with four centred +arches, is very striking, and is probably some of +the earliest of the sort, which seems peculiar to this +country. Though called the Tudor arch, the time +of its introduction was Lancastrian (see Weale's +'London,' p. 159). In 1851 the stone-work was +rubbed down and cleaned, and the clustered shafts +and capitals were repaired; and on the visit of +Queen Victoria to Guildhall, July 9, 1851, a banquet +was served to her Majesty and suite in this +crypt, which was characteristically decorated for +the occasion. Opposite the north entrance is a +large antique bowl of Egyptian red granite, which +was presented to the Corporation by Major Cookson, +in 1802, as a memorial of the British achievements +in Egypt." (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>"There was something very picturesque," says<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_798" id="Page_798">[Pg 798]</a></span> +Brayley, "in the old Guildhall entrance. On each +side of the flight of steps was an octangular +turreted gallery, balustraded, having an office in +each, appropriated to the hall-keeper; these galleries +assumed the appearance of arbours, from being +each surrounded by six palm-trees in iron-work, the +foliage of which gave support to a large balcony, +having in front a clock (with three dials) elaborately +ornamented, and underneath a representation +of the sun, resplendent with gilding; the +clock-frame was of oak. At the angles were the +cardinal virtues, and on the top a curious figure of +Time, with a young child in his arms. On brackets +to the right and left of the balcony were the +gigantic figures of Gog and Magog, as before-mentioned, +giving, by their vast size and singular +costume, an unique character to the whole. At +the sides of the steps, under the hall-keeper's office, +were two dark cells, or cages, in which unruly +apprentices were occasionally confined, by order of +the City Chamberlain; these were called 'Little +Ease,' from not being of sufficient height for a big +boy to stand upright in them."</p> + +<p>The Gog and Magog, those honest giants of +Guildhall who have looked down on many a good +dinner with imperturbable self-denial, have been the +unconscious occasion of much inkshed. Who did +they represent, and were they really carried about in +Lord Mayor's Shows, was discussed by many generations +of angry antiquaries. In Strype's time, +when there were pictures of Queen Anne, King +William and his consort Mary, at the east end of +the hall, the two pantomime giants of renown +stood by the steps going up to the Mayor's Court. +The one holding a poleaxe with a spiked ball, +Strype considered, represented a Briton; the other, +with a halbert, he opined to be a Saxon. Both of +them wore garlands. What was denied to great +and learned was disclosed to the poor and simple. +Hone, the bookseller, or one of his writers, came +into possession of a little guide-book sold to visitors +to the Guildhall in 1741; this set Mr. Fairholt, a +most diligent antiquary, on the right track, and he +soon settled the matter for ever. Gog and Magog +were really Corineus and Gogmagog. The former, +a companion of Brutus the Trojan, killed, as the +story goes, Gogmagog, the aboriginal giant.</p> + +<p>Our sketch of City pageants has already shown +that two hundred years ago giants named Corineus +and Gogmagog (which ought to have put +our antiquaries earlier on the right scent) formed +part of the procession. In 1672 Thomas Jordan, +the City poet, in his own account of the ceremonial, +especially mentions two giants fifteen +feet high, in two several chariots, "talking and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_799" id="Page_799">[Pg 799]</a></span> +taking tobacco as they ride along," to the great +admiration and delight of the spectators. "At the +conclusion of the show," says the writer, "they +are to be set up in Guildhall, where they may be +daily seen all the year, and, I hope, never to be +demolished by such dismal violence (the Great Fire) +as happened to their predecessors." These giants +of Jordan's, being built of wickerwork and pasteboard, +at last fell to decay. In 1706 two new and +more solid giants of wood were carved for the +City by Richard Saunders, a captain in the trained +band, and a carver, in King Street, Cheapside. In +1837, Alderman Lucas being mayor, copies of +these giants walked in the show, turning their +great painted heads and goggling eyes, to the +delight of the spectators. The Guildhall giants, +as Mr. Fairholt has shown, with his usual honest +industry, are mentioned by many of our early poets, +dramatists, and writers, as Shirley, facetious Bishop +Corbet, George Wither, and Ned Ward. In Hone's +time City children visiting Guildhall used to be +told that every day when the giants heard the clock +strike twelve they came down to dinner. Mr. +Fairholt, in his "Gog and Magog" (1859), has +shown by many examples how professional giants +(protectors or destroyers of lives) are still common +in the annual festivals of half the great towns of +Flanders and of France.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the last century, says Mr. Fairholt, +in his "Gog and Magog," the Guildhall was +occupied by shopkeepers, after the fashion of our +bazaars; and one Thomas Boreman, bookseller, +"near the Giants, in Guildhall," published, in 1741, +two very small volumes of their "gigantick history," +in which he tells us that as Corineus and Gogmagog +were two brave giants, who nicely valued their +honour, and exerted their whole strength and force +in defence of their liberty and country, so the City +of London, by placing these their representatives +in their Guildhall, emblematically declare that they +will, like mighty giants, defend the honour of their +country and liberties of this their city, which excels +all others as much as those huge giants exceed in +stature the common bulk of mankind.</p> + +<p>The author of this little volume then gives his +version of the tale of the encounter, "wherein the +giants were all destroyed, save Goemagog, the +hugest among them, who, being in height twelve +cubits, was reserved alive, that Corineus might try +his strength with him in single combat. Corineus +desired nothing more than such a match; but the +old giant, in a wrestle, caught him aloft and broke +three of his ribs. Upon this, Corineus, being desperately +enraged, collected all his strength, heaved +up Goemagog by main force, and bearing him on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_800" id="Page_800">[Pg 800]</a></span> +his shoulders to the next high rock, threw him +headlong, all shattered, into the sea, and left his +name on the cliff, which has ever since been called +Lan-Goemagog, that is to say, the Giant's Leap. +Thus perished Goemagog, commonly called Gogmagog, +the last of the giants."</p> + +<p>The early popularity of this tale is testified by +its occurrence in the curious history of the Fitz-Warines, +composed, in the thirteenth century, in +Anglo-Norman, no doubt by a writer who resided +on the Welsh border, and who, in describing a +visit paid by William the Conqueror there, speaks +of that sovereign asking the history of a burnt and +ruined town, and an old Briton thus giving it him:—"None +inhabited these parts except very foul +people, great giants, whose king was called Goemagog. +These heard of the arrival of Brutus, and +went out to encounter him, and at last all the +giants were killed except Goemagog."</p> + +<p>Dance's entrance to the courts was made exactly +opposite the grand south entrance. Four large +tasteless cenotaphs, more fit for the Pantheon of +London, St. Paul's, than for anywhere else, are +erected in Guildhall—to the north, those of Beckford, +the Earl of Clarendon, and Nelson; on the +south, that of William Pitt.</p> + +<p>The monument to Beckford, the bold opposer +of the arbitrary measures of a mistaken court and +a misguided Parliament, is by Moore, a sculptor +who lived in Berners Street. It represents the +alderman in the act of delivering the celebrated +speech which is engraved on the pedestal, and +which, as Horace Walpole (who delighted in the +mischief) says, made the king uncertain whether to +sit still and silent, or to pick up his robes and +hurry into his private room. At the angles of the +pedestal are two female figures, Liberty and Commerce, +mourning for the alderman.</p> + +<p>The monument of the Earl of Chatham, by +Bacon (executed in 1782 for 3,000 guineas), is of +a higher style than Beckford's, and, like its companion, +it is a period of political excitement turned +into stone. If it were the custom to delay the +erection of statues to eminent men twenty years +after their death, how many would ever be erected? +The usual cold allegory, in this instance, is atoned +for by some dignity of mind. The great earl (a +Roman senator, of course), his left hand on a helm, +is placing his right hand affectionately on the +plump shoulders of Commerce, who, as a blushing +young <i>débutante</i>, is being presented to him by the +City of London, who wears a mural crown, probably +because London has no walls. In the +foreground is the sculptor's everlasting Britannia, +seated on her small but serviceable steed, the lion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_801" id="Page_801">[Pg 801]</a></span> +and receiving into her capacious lap the contents +of a cornucopia of Plenty, poured into it by four +children, who represent the four quarters of the +world. The inscription was written by Burke.</p> + +<p>Nelson's fame is very imperfectly honoured by a +pile of allegory, erected in 1811 by the entirely +forgotten Mr. James Smith, for £4,442 7s. 4d. +This deplorable mass of stone consists of a huge +figure of Neptune looking at Britannia, who is +mournfully contemplating a very small profile relief +of the departed hero, on a small dusty medallion +about the size of a maid-servant's locket. To +crown all this tame stuff there are some flags and +trophies, and a pyramid, on which the City of +London (female figure) is writing the words "Nile, +Copenhagen, Trafalgar." With admirable taste the +sculptor, who knew what his female figures were, +has turned the City of London with her back to +the spectator. At the base of this absurd monument +two sailors watch over a bas-relief of the +battle of Trafalgar, which certainly no one of taste +would steal. The inscription is from the florid +pen of Sheridan.</p> + +<p>Facing his father, the gouty old Roman of the +true rock, stands William Pitt, lean, arrogant, and +with the nose "on which he dangled the Opposition" +sufficiently prominent. It was the work of +J.G. Bubb, and was erected in 1812, at a cost of +£4,078 17s. 3d.; and a pretty mixture of the Greek +Pantheon and the English House of Commons it is! +Pitt stands on a rock, dressed as Chancellor of +the Exchequer; below him are Apollo and Mercury, +to represent Eloquence and Learning; and a +woman on a dolphin, who stands for—what does +our reader think?—National Energy. In the foreground +is what guide-books call "a majestic figure" +of Britannia, calmly holding a hot thunderbolt and +a cold trident, and riding side-saddle on a sea-horse. +The inscription is by Canning. The statue of +Wellington, by Bell, cost £4,966 10s.</p> + +<p>The Court of Aldermen is a richly-gilded room +with a stucco ceiling, painted with allegorical figures +of the hereditary virtues of the City of London—Justice, +Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude—by +that over-rated painter, Hogarth's father-in-law, +Sir James Thornhill, who was presented by the +Corporation with a gold cup, value £225 7s. In +the cornices are emblazoned the arms of all the +mayors since 1780 (the year of the Gordon riots). +Each alderman's chair bears his name and arms.</p> + +<p>The apartment, says a writer in Knight's "London," +as its name tells us, is used for the sittings +of the Court of Aldermen, who, in judicial matters, +form the bench of magistrates for the City, and +in their more directly corporate capacity try the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_802" id="Page_802">[Pg 802]</a></span> +validity of ward elections, and claims to freedom; +who admit and swear brokers, superintend prisons, +order prosecutions, and perform a variety of other +analogous duties; a descent, certainly, from the high +position of the ancient "ealdormen," or superior +Saxon nobility, from whom they derive their name +and partly their functions. They were called +"barons" down to the time of Henry I., if, as is +probable, the latter term in the charter of that king +refers to the aldermen. A striking proof of the +high rank and importance of the individuals so +designated is to be found in the circumstance that +the wards of London of which they were aldermen +were, in some cases at least, their own heritable +property, and as such bought and sold and transferred +under particular circumstances. Thus, the +aldermanry of a ward was purchased, in 1279, by +William Faryngdon, who gave it his own name, and +in whose family it remained upwards of eighty +years; and in another case the Knighten Guild +having given the lands and soke of what is now +called Portsoken Ward to Trinity Priory, the prior +became, in consequence, alderman, and so the +matter remained in Stow's time, who beheld the +prior of his day riding in procession with the mayor +and aldermen, only distinguished from them by +wearing a purple instead of a scarlet gown.</p> + +<p>Each of the twenty-six wards into which the City +is divided elects one alderman, with the exception of +Cripplegate Within and Cripplegate Without, which +together send but one; add to them an alderman +for Southwark, or, as it is sometimes called, Bridge +Ward Without, and we have the entire number of +twenty-six, including the mayor. They are elected +for life at ward-motes, by such householders as +are at the same time freemen, and paying not less +than thirty shillings to the local taxes. The fine +for the rejection of the office is £500. Generally +speaking, the aldermen consist of those persons +who, as common councilmen, have won the good +opinion of their fellows, and who are presumed to +be fitted for the higher offices.</p> + +<p>Talking of the ancient aldermen, Kemble, in +his learned work, "The Saxons in England," +says:—"The new constitution introduced by +Cnut reduced the ealdorman to a subordinate +position. Over several counties was now placed +one eorl, or earl, in the northern sense a jarl, +with power analogous to that of the Frankish +dukes. The word ealdorman itself was used by +the Danes to denote a class—gentle indeed, but +very inferior to the princely officers who had +previously borne that title. It is under Cnut, and +the following Danish kings, that we gradually lose +sight of the old ealdormen. The king rules by his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_803" id="Page_803">[Pg 803]</a></span> +earls and his huscarlas, and the ealdormen vanish +from the counties. From this time the king's +writs are directed to the earl, the bishop, and the +sheriff of the county, but in no one of them does +the title of the ealdorman any longer occur; while +those sent to the towns are directed to the bishop +and the portgeréfa, or prefect of the city. Gradually +the old title ceases altogether, except in the cities, +where it denotes an inferior judicature, much as +it does among ourselves at the present day."</p> + +<p>"The courts for the City" in Stow's time were:—"1. +The Court of Common Council. 2. The Court +of the Lord Maior, and his brethren the Aldermen. +3. The Court of Hustings. 4. The Court of +Orphans. 5. The Court of the Sheriffs. 6. The +Court of the Wardmote. 7. The Court of Hallmote. +8. The Court of Requests, commonly called +the Court of Conscience. 9. The Chamberlain's +Court for Apprentices, and making them free."</p> + +<p>In the Court of Exchequer, formerly the Court of +King's Bench (where the Mayor's Court is still +held), Stow describes one of the windows put up +by Whittington's executors, as containing a blazon +of the mayor, seated, in parti-coloured habit, and +with his hood on. At the back of the judge's seat +there used to be paintings of Prudence, Justice, +Religion, and Fortitude. Here there is a large +picture, by Alaux, of Paris, presented by Louis +Philippe, representing his reception of an address +from the City, on his visit to England, in 1844. +This part of the Guildhall treasures also contains +several portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, +by Reynolds' rival, Ramsay (son of Allan +Ramsay the poet), and William III. and Queen +Mary, by Van der Vaart. There is a pair of +classical subjects—Minerva, by Westall, and Apollo +washing his locks in the Castalian Fountains, by +Gavin Hamilton.</p> + +<p>"The greater portion of the judicial business of +the Corporation is carried on here; that business, as +a whole, comprising in its civil jurisdiction, first, the +Court of Hustings, the Supreme Court of Record +in London, and which is frequently resorted to in +outlawry, and other cases where an expeditious +judgment is desired; secondly, the Lord Mayor's +Court, which has cognisance of all personal and +mixed actions at common law, which is a court of +equity, and also a criminal court in matters pertaining +to the customs of London; and, thirdly, +the Sheriffs' Court, which has a common law jurisdiction +only. We may add that the jurisdiction of +both courts is confined to the City and liberties, or, +in other words, to those portions of incorporated +London known respectively, in corporate language, +as Within the walls and Without. The criminal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_804" id="Page_804">[Pg 804]</a></span> +jurisdiction includes the London Sessions, held +generally eight times a year, with the Recorder as +the acting judge, for the trial of felonies, &c.; the +Southwark Sessions, held in Southwark four times +a year; and the eight Courts of Conservancy of the +River."</p> + +<p>Passing into the Chamberlain's Office, we find a +portrait of Mr. Thomas Tomkins, by Reynolds; +and if it be asked who is Mr. Thomas Tomkins, +we have only to say, in the words of the inscription +on another great man, "Look around!" All these +beautifully written and emblazoned duplicates of +the honorary freedoms and thanks voted by the +City, some sixty or more, we believe, in number, +are the sole production of him who, we regret to +say, is the late Mr. Thomas Tomkins. The duties +of the Chamberlain are numerous; among them +the most worthy of mention, perhaps, are the admission, +on oath, of freemen (till of late years +averaging in number one thousand a year); the +determining quarrels between masters and apprentices +(Hogarth's prints of the "Idle and Industrious +Apprentice" are the first things you see within the +door); and, lastly, the treasurership, in which department +various sums of money pass through his +hands. In 1832, the latest year for which we have +any authenticated statement, the corporate receipts, +derived chiefly from rents, dues, and market tolls, +amounted to £160,193 11s. 8d., and the expenditure +to somewhat more. Near the door numerous +written papers attract the eye—the useful daily +memoranda of the multifarious business eternally +going on, and which, in addition to the matters +already incidentally referred to, point out one of +the modes in which that business is accomplished—the +committees. We read of appointments for +the Committee of the Royal Exchange—of Sewers—of +Corn, Coal, and Finance—of Navigation—of +Police, and so on. (Knight's "London," 1843.)</p> + +<p>In other rooms of the Guildhall are the following +interesting pictures:—Opie's "Murder of +James I. of Scotland;" Reynolds' portrait of the +great Lord Camden; two studies of a "Tiger," and +a "Lioness and her Young," by Northcote; the +"Battle of Towton," by Boydell; "Conjugal Affection," +by Smirke; and portraits of Sir Robert +Clayton, Sir Matthew Hale, and Alderman Waithman. +These pictures are curious as marking various +progressive periods of English art.</p> + +<p>A large folding-screen, painted, it is said, by +Copley, represents the Lord Mayor Beckford +delivering the City sword to George III., at Temple +Bar; interesting for its portraits, and record of the +costume of the period; presented by Alderman +Salomons to the City in 1850. Here once hung a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_805" id="Page_805">[Pg 805]</a></span> +large picture of the battle of Agincourt, painted by +Sir Robert Ker Porter, when nineteen years of age, +assisted by the late Mr. Mulready, and presented +to the City in 1808.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="court" id="court"></a> +<img src="images/p390.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE COURT OF ALDERMEN, GUILDHALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The Common Council room (says Brayley) +is a compact and well-proportioned apartment, +appropriately fitted up for the assembly of the Court +of Common Council, which consists of the Lord +Mayor, twenty aldermen, and 236 deputies from +the City wards; the middle part is formed into a +square by four Tuscan arches, sustaining a cupola, +by which the light is admitted. Here is a splendid +collection of paintings, and some statuary: for the +former the City is chiefly indebted to the munificence +of the late Mr. Alderman John Boydell, who +was Lord Mayor in 1791. The principal picture,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_806" id="Page_806">[Pg 806]</a></span> +however, was executed at the expense of the Corporation, +by J.S. Copley, R.A., in honour of the +gallant defence of Gibraltar by General Elliot, +afterwards Lord Heathfield; it measures twenty-five +feet in width, and about twenty in height, and +represents the destruction of the floating batteries +before the above fortress on the 13th of September, +1782. The principal figures, which are as large as +life, are portraits of the governor and officers of +the garrison. It cost the City £1,543. Here +also are four pictures, by Paton, representing other +events in that celebrated siege; and two by Dodd, +of the engagement in the West Indies between +Admirals Rodney and De Grasse in 1782.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="front" id="front"></a> +<img src="images/p391.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD FRONT OF GUILDHALL. (<i>From Seymour's "London," 1734.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>Against the south wall are portraits of Lord +Heathfield, after Sir Joshua Reynolds; the Marquis +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_808" id="Page_808">[Pg 808]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_807" id="Page_807">[Pg 807]</a></span>Cornwallis, by Copley; Admiral Lord Viscount +Hood, by Abbott; and Mr. Alderman Boydell, by +Sir William Beechey; also, a large picture of the +"Murder of David Rizzio," by Opie. On the north +wall is "Sir William Walworth killing Wat Tyler," +by Northcote; and the following portraits: viz., +Admiral Lord Rodney, after Monnoyer; Admiral +Earl Howe, copied by G. Kirkland; Admiral +Lord Duncan, by Hoppner; Admirals the Earl +of St. Vincent and Lord Viscount Nelson, by Sir +William Beechey; and David Pinder, Esq., by +Opie. The subjects of three other pictures are +more strictly municipal—namely, the Ceremony of +Administering the Civic Oath to Mr. Alderman +Newnham as Lord Mayor, on the Hustings at +Guildhall, November 8th, 1782 (this was painted +by Miller, and includes upwards of 140 portraits +of the aldermen, &c.); the Lord Mayor's Show +on the water, November the 9th (the vessels by +Paton, the figures by Wheatley); and the Royal +Entertainment in Guildhall on the 14th of June, +1814, by William Daniell, R.A.</p> + +<p>Within an elevated niche of dark-coloured marble, +at the upper end of the room, is a fine statue, in +white marble, by Chantrey, of George III., which +was executed at the cost to the City of £3,089 +9s. 5d. He is represented in his royal robes, with +his right hand extended, as in the act of answering +an address, the scroll of which he is holding in the +left hand. At the western angles of the chamber +are busts, in white marble, of Admiral Lord Viscount +Nelson, by Mrs. Damer; and the Duke of +Wellington, by Turnerelli.</p> + +<p>The members of the Council (says Knight) are +elected by the same class as the aldermen, but in very +varying and—in comparison with the size and importance +of the wards—inconsequential numbers. +Bassishaw and Lime Street Wards have the smallest +representation—four members—and those of Farringdon +Within and Without the largest—namely, +sixteen and seventeen. The entire number of the +Council is 240. Their meetings are held under the +presidency of the Lord Mayor; and the aldermen +have also the right of being present. The other +chief officers of the municipality, as the Recorder, +Chamberlain, Judges of the Sheriffs' Courts, Common +Serjeant, the four City Pleaders, Town Clerk, +&c., also attend.</p> + +<p>The chapel at the east end of the Guildhall, +pulled down in 1822, once called London College, +and dedicated to "our Lady Mary Magdalen and All +Saints," was built, says Stow, about the year 1299. +It was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI., who allowed +the guild of St. Nicholas for two chaplains to be +kept in the said chapel. In Stow's time the chapel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_809" id="Page_809">[Pg 809]</a></span> +contained seven defaced marble tombs, and many +flat stones covering rich drapers, fishmongers, custoses +of the chapel, chaplains, and attorneys of the +Lord Mayor's Court. In Strype's time the Mayors +attended the weekly services, and services at their +elections and feasts. The chapel and lands had +been bought of Edward VI. for £456 13s. 4d. +Upon the front of the chapel were stone figures of +Edward VI., Elizabeth with a phoenix, and Charles I. +treading on a globe. On the south side of the +chapel was "a fair and large library," originally +built by the executors of Richard Whittington and +William Bury. After the Protector Somerset had +borrowed (<i>i.e.</i>, stolen) the books, the library in +Strype's time became a storehouse for cloth.</p> + +<p>The New Library and Museum (says Mr. +Overall, the librarian), which lies at the east end of +the Guildhall, occupies the site of some old and +dilapidated houses formerly fronting Basinghall +Street, and extending back to the Guildhall. The +total frontage of the new buildings to this street is +150 feet, and the depth upwards of 100 feet. The +structure consists mainly of two rooms, or halls, +placed one over the other, with reading, committee, +and muniment rooms surrounding them. Of these +two halls the museum occupies the lower site, the +floor being level with the ancient crypt of the +Guildhall, with which it will directly communicate, +and is consequently somewhat below the present +level of Basinghall Street. This room, divided into +naves and aisles, is 83 feet long and 64 feet wide, +and has a clear height of 26 feet. The large fire-proof +muniment rooms on this floor, entered from +the museum, are intended to hold the valuable +archives of the City.</p> + +<p>The library above the museum is a hall 100 feet +in length, 65 feet wide, and 50 feet in height, +divided, like the museum, into naves and aisles, +the latter being fitted up with handsome oak book-cases, +forming twelve bays, into which the furniture +can be moved when the nave is required on +state occasions as a reception-hall—one of the +principal features in the whole design of this +building being its adaptability to both the purpose +of a library and a series of reception-rooms when +required. The hall is exceedingly light, the +clerestory over the arcade of the nave, with the +large windows at the north and south ends of +the room, together with those in the aisles, transmitting +a flood of light to every corner of the +room. The oak roof—the arched ribs of which are +supported by the arms of the twelve great City Companies, +with the addition of those of the Leather-sellers +and Broderers, and also the Royal and City +arms—has its several timbers richly moulded, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_810" id="Page_810">[Pg 810]</a></span> +its spandrils filled in with tracery, and contains +three large louvres for lighting the roof, and +thoroughly ventilating the hall. The aisle roofs, +the timbers of which are also richly wrought, have +louvres over each bay, and the hall at night may be +lighted by means of sun-burners suspended from +each of these louvres, together with those in the +nave. Each of the spandrils of the arcade has, next +the nave, a sculptured head, representing History, +Poetry, Printing, Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, +Philosophy, Law, Medicine, Music, Astronomy, +Geography, Natural History, and Botany; the +several personages chosen to illustrate these subjects +being Stow and Camden, Shakespeare and +Milton, Guttenberg and Caxton, William of Wykeham +and Wren, Michael Angelo and Flaxman, +Holbein and Hogarth, Bacon and Locke, Coke +and Blackstone, Harvey and Sydenham, Purcell +and Handel, Galileo and Newton, Columbus and +Raleigh, Linnæus and Cuvier, Ray and Gerard. +There are three fire-places in this room. The one +at the north end, executed in D'Aubigny stone, is +very elaborate in detail, the frieze consisting of a +panel of painted tiles, executed by Messrs. Gibbs +and Moore, and the subject an architectonic design +of a procession of the arts and sciences, with the +City of London in the middle.</p> + +<p>Among the choicest books are the following:—"Liber +Custumarum," 1st to the 17th Henry II. +(1154-1171). Edited by Mr. Riley.—"Liber de +Antiquis Legibus," 1st Richard I., 1188. Treats of +old laws of London. Translated by Riley.—"Liber +Dunthorn," so called from the writer, who was Town-clerk +of London. Contains transcripts of Charters +from William the Conqueror to 3rd Edward IV.—"Liber +Ordinationum," 9th Edward III., 1225, to +Henry VII. Contains the early statutes of the +realm, the ancient customs and ordinances of the +City of London. At folio 154 are entered instructions +to the citizens of London as to their +conduct before the Justices Itinerant at the Tower.—"Liber +Horn" (by Andrew Horn). Contains transcripts +of charters, statutes, &c.—The celebrated +"Liber Albus."—"Liber Fleetwood." Names of +all the courts of law within the realm; the arms of +the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, &c., for 1576; the +liberties, customs, and charters of the Cinque Ports; +the Queen's Prerogative in the Salt Shores; the +liberties of St. Martin's-le-Grand.</p> + +<p>A series of letter books. These books commence +about 140 years before the "Journals of the Common +Council," and about 220 years before the "Repertories +of the Court of Aldermen;" they contain +almost the only records of those courts prior to +the commencement of such journals and repertories.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_811" id="Page_811">[Pg 811]</a></span> +"Journals of the Proceedings of the Common +Council, from 1416 to the present time."—"Repertories +containing the Proceedings of the Court of +Aldermen from 1495 to the present time."—"Remembrancia." +A collection of correspondence, +&c., between the sovereigns, various eminent statesmen, +the Lord Mayors and the Courts of Aldermen +and Common Council, on matters relating to the +government of the City and country at large." Fire +Decrees. Decrees made by virtue of an Act for +erecting a judicature for determination of differences +touching houses burnt or demolished by reason of +the late fire which happened in London."</p> + +<p>Of the many historical events that have taken +place in the Guildhall, we will now recapitulate a +few. Chaucer was connected with one of the most +tumultuous scenes in the Guildhall of Richard II.'s +time. In 1382 the City, worn out with the king's +tyranny and exactions, selected John of Northampton +mayor in place of the king's favourite, Sir Nicholas +Brember. A tumult arose when Brember endeavoured +to hinder the election, which ended with a +body of troops under Sir Robert Knolles interposing +and installing the king's nominee. John of Northampton +was at once packed off to Corfe Castle, +and Chaucer fled to the Continent. He returned +to London in 1386, and was elected member for +Kent. But the king had not forgotten his conduct +at the Guildhall, and he was at once deprived of +the Comptrollership of the Customs in the Port of +London, and sent to the Tower. Here he petitioned +the government.</p> + +<p>Having alluded to the delicious hours he was +wont to spend enjoying the blissful seasons, and +contrasted them with his penance in the dark +prison, cut off from friendship and acquaintances, +"forsaken of all that any word dare speak" for +him, he continues: "Although I had little in +respect (comparison) among others great and +worthy, yet had I a fair parcel, as methought +for the time, in furthering of my sustenance; and +had riches sufficient to waive need; and had dignity +to be reverenced in worship; power methought +that I had to keep from mine enemies; and +meseemed to shine in glory of renown. Every +one of those joys is turned into his contrary; for +riches, now have I poverty; for dignity, now am +I imprisoned; instead of power, wretchedness I +suffer; and for glory of renown, I am now despised +and fully hated." Chaucer was set free in 1389, +having, it is said, though we hope unjustly, purchased +freedom by dishonourable disclosures as to +his former associates.</p> + +<p>It was at the Guildhall, a few weeks after the +death of Edward IV., and while the princes were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_812" id="Page_812">[Pg 812]</a></span> +in the Tower, that the Duke of Buckingham, "the +deep revolving witty Buckingham," Richard's accomplice, +convened a meeting of citizens in order to +prepare the way for Richard's mounting the throne. +Shakespeare, closely following Hall and Sir Thomas +More, thus sketches the scene:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Buck.</i><br /> +Withal, I did infer your lineaments,<br /> +Being the right idea of your father,<br /> +Both in your form and nobleness of mind:<br /> +Laid open all your victories in Scotland,<br /> +Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,<br /> +Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;<br /> +Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose<br /> +Untouch'd, or slightly handled, in discourse;<br /> +And, when my oratory drew toward end,<br /> +I bade them that did love their country's good<br /> +Cry, "God save Richard, England's royal king!"<br /> +<br /> +<i>Glo.</i> And did they so?<br /> +<br /> +<i>Buck.</i> No, so God help me, they spake not a word;<br /> +But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,<br /> +Stared each on other, and look'd deadly pale.<br /> +Which when I saw I reprehended them,<br /> +And ask'd the mayor what meant this wilful silence?<br /> +His answer was, the people were not us'd<br /> +To be spoke to but by the recorder.<br /> +Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again—<br /> +"Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;"<br /> +But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.<br /> +When he had done, some followers of mine own<br /> +At lower end o' the hall, hurl'd up their caps,<br /> +And some ten voices cried, "God save King Richard!"<br /> +And thus I took the vantage of those few—<br /> +"Thanks, gentle citizens and friends," quoth I;<br /> +"This general applause and cheerful shout,<br /> +Argues your wisdom, and your love to Richard:"<br /> +And even here brake off, and came away.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Anne Askew, tried at the Guildhall in Henry +VIII.'s reign, was the daughter of Sir William +Askew, a Lincolnshire gentleman, and had been +married to a Papist, who had turned her out of +doors on her becoming a Protestant. On coming +to London to sue for a separation, this lady had +been favourably received by the queen and the +court ladies, to whom she had denounced transubstantiation, +and distributed tracts. Bishop +Bonner soon had her in his clutches, and she was +cruelly put to the rack in order to induce her to +betray the court ladies who had helped her in +prison. She pleaded that her servant had only +begged money for her from the City apprentices.</p> + +<p>"On my being brought to trial at Guildhall," she +says, in her own words, "they said to me there that +I was a heretic, and condemned by the law, if I +would stand in mine opinion. I answered, that I +was no heretic, neither yet deserved I any death +by the law of God. But as concerning the faith +which I uttered and wrote to the council, I would +not deny it, because I knew it true. Then would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_813" id="Page_813">[Pg 813]</a></span> +they needs know if I would deny the sacrament to +be Christ's body and blood. I said, 'Yea; for the +same Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary +is now glorious in heaven, and will come again +from thence at the latter day. And as for that ye +call your God, it is a piece of bread. For more +proof thereof, mark it when you list; if it lie in the +box three months it will be mouldy, and so turn +to nothing that is good. Whereupon I am persuaded +that it cannot be God.'</p> + +<p>"After that they willed me to have a priest, at +which I smiled. Then they asked me if it were +not good. I said I would confess my faults unto +God, for I was sure he would hear me with favour. +And so I was condemned. And this was the +ground of my sentence: my belief, which I wrote +to the council, that the sacramental bread was left +us to be received with thanksgiving in remembrance +of Christ's death, the only remedy of our +souls' recovery, and that thereby we also receive +the whole benefits and fruits of his most glorious +passion. Then would they know whether the bread +in the box were God or no. I said, 'God is a +Spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit and truth.' +Then they demanded, 'Will you plainly deny Christ +to be in the sacrament?' I answered, 'That +I believe faithfully the eternal Son of God not +to dwell there;' in witness whereof I recited +Daniel iii., Acts vii. and xvii., and Matthew xxiv., +concluding thus: 'I neither wish death nor yet +fear his might; God have the praise thereof, with +thanks.'"</p> + +<p>Anne Askew was burnt at Smithfield with three +other martyrs, July 16, 1546. Bonner, the Chancellor +Wriothesley, and many nobles were present +on state seats near St. Bartholomew's gate, and +their only anxiety was lest the gunpowder hung in +bags at the martyrs' necks should injure them when +it exploded. Shaxton, the ex-Bishop of Salisbury, +who had saved his life by apostacy, preached a +sermon to the martyrs before the flames were put +to the fagots.</p> + +<p>In 1546 (towards the close of the life of +Henry VIII.), the Earl of Surrey was tried for +treason at the Guildhall. He was accused of +aiming at dethroning the king, and getting the +young prince into his hands; also for adding the +arms of Edward the Confessor to his escutcheon. +The earl, persecuted by the Seymours, says Lord +Herbert, "was of a deep understanding, sharp +wit, and deep courage, defended himself many +ways—sometimes denying their accusations as +false, and together weakening the credit of his +adversaries; sometimes interpreting the words he +said in a far other sense than that in which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_814" id="Page_814">[Pg 814]</a></span> +were represented." Nevertheless, the king had +vowed the destruction of the family, and the earl, +found guilty, was beheaded on Tower Hill, January +19, 1547. He had in vain offered to fight his +accuser, Sir Richard Southwell, in his shirt. The +order for the execution of the duke, his father, +arrived at the Tower the very night King Henry +died, and so the duke escaped.</p> + +<p>Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, another Guildhall +sufferer, was the son of a Papist who had refused +to take the oath of supremacy, and had been imprisoned +in the Tower by Henry VIII. Nicholas, +his son, a Protestant, appointed sewer to the burly +tyrant, had fought by the king's side in France. +During the reign of Edward VI. Throckmorton +distinguished himself at the battle of Pinkie, and +was knighted by the young king, who made him +under-treasurer of the Mint. At Edward's death +Throckmorton sent Mary's goldsmith to inform +her of her accession. Though no doubt firmly +attached to the Princess Elizabeth, Throckmorton +took no public part in the Wyatt rebellion; yet, six +days after his friend Wyatt's execution, Throckmorton +was tried for conspiracy to kill the queen.</p> + +<p>The trial itself is so interesting as a specimen of +intellectual energy, that we subjoin a scene or +two:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Serjeant Stamford:</i> Methinks those things which others +have confessed, together with your own confession, will weigh +shrewdly. But what have you to say as to the rising in +Kent, and Wyatt's attempt against the Queen's royal person +in her palace?</p> + +<p><i>Chief Justice Bromley:</i> Why do you not read to him +Wyatt's accusation, which makes him a sharer in his treasons?</p> + +<p><i>Sir R. Southwell:</i> Wyatt has grievously accused you, and +in many things which have been confirmed by others.</p> + +<p><i>Sir N. Throckmorton:</i> Whatever Wyatt said of me, in +hopes to save his life, he unsaid it at his death; for, since I +came into the hall, I heard one say, whom I do not know, +that Wyatt on the scaffold cleared not only the Lady Elizabeth +and the Earl of Devonshire, but also all the gentlemen +in the Tower, saying none of them knew anything of his +commotion, of which number I take myself to be one.</p> + +<p><i>Sir N. Hare:</i> Nevertheless, he said that all he had written +and confessed before the Council was true.</p> + +<p><i>Sir N. Throckmorton:</i> Nay sir, by your patience, Wyatt +did not say so; that was Master Doctor's addition.</p> + +<p><i>Sir R. Southwell:</i> It seems you have good intelligence.</p> + +<p><i>Sir N. Throckmorton:</i> Almighty God provided this revelation +for me this very day, since I came hither for I have +been in close prison for eight and fifty days, where I could +hear nothing but what the birds told me who flew over my +head.</p></div> + +<p>Serjeant Stamford told him the judges did not +sit there to make disputations, but to declare +the law; and one of those judges (Hare) having +confirmed the observation, by telling Throckmorton +he had heard both the law and the reason, if he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_815" id="Page_815">[Pg 815]</a></span> +could but understand it, he cried out passionately: +"O merciful God! O eternal Father! who seest +all things, what manner of proceedings are these? +To what purpose was the Statute of Repeal made in +the last Parliament, where I heard some of you +here present, and several others of the Queen's +learned counsel, grievously inveigh against the +cruel and bloody laws of Henry VIII., and some +laws made in the late King's time? Some termed +them Draco's laws, which were written in blood; +others said they were more intolerable than any +laws made by Dionysius or any other tyrant. In +a word, as many men, so many bitter names and +terms those laws.... Let us now but look +with impartial eyes, and consider thoroughly with +ourselves, whether, as you, the judges, handle the +statute of Edward III. with your equity and constructions, +we are not now in a much worse condition +than when we were yoked with those cruel +laws. Those laws, grievous and captious as they +were, yet had the very property of laws, according +to St. Paul's description, for they admonished us, +and discovered our sins plainly to us, and when a +man is warned he is half armed; but these laws, as +they are handled, are very baits to catch us, and +only prepared for that purpose. They are no laws +at all, for at first sight they assure us that we are +delivered from our old bondage, and live in more +security; but when it pleases the higher powers +to call any man's life and sayings in question, +then there are such constructions, interpretations, +and extensions reserved to the judges and their +equity, that the party tried, as I am now, will find +himself in a much worse case than when those +cruel laws were in force. But I require you, honest +men, who are to try my life, to consider these +things. It is clear these judges are inclined rather +to the times than to the truth, for their judgments +are repugnant to the law, repugnant to their own +principles, and repugnant to the opinions of their +godly and learned predecessors."</p> + +<p>We rejoice to say that, in spite of all the efforts +of his enemies, this gentleman escaped the scaffold, +and lived to enjoy happier times.</p> + +<p>Lastly, we come to one of the Gunpowder Plot +conspirators; not one of the most guilty, yet undoubtedly +cognisant of the mischief brewing.</p> + +<p>On the 28th of March, 1606, Garnet, the +Superior of the English Jesuits (whose cruel execution +in St. Paul's Churchyard we have already described), +was tried at the Guildhall, and found +guilty of having taken part in organising the Gunpowder +Plot. He was found concealed at Hendlip, +the mansion of a Roman Catholic gentleman, near +Worcester.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_816" id="Page_816">[Pg 816]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="guildhall" id="guildhall"></a> +<img src="images/p396.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE NEW LIBRARY, GUILDHALL</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<p class="center">THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The First Mayor of London—Portrait of him—Presentation to the King—An Outspoken Mayor—Sir N. Farindon—Sir William Walworth—Origin +of the prefix "Lord"—Sir Richard Whittington and his Liberality—Institutions founded by him—Sir Simon Eyre and his Table—A +Musical Lord Mayor—Henry VIII. and Gresham—Loyalty of the Lord Mayor and Citizens to Queen Mary—Osborne's Leap into the +Thames—Sir W. Craven—Brass Crosby—His Committal to the Tower—A Victory for the Citizens.</p></div> + + +<p>The modern Lord Mayor is supposed to have +had a prototype in the Roman prefect and the +Saxon portgrave. The Lord Mayor is only "Lord" +and "Right Honourable" by courtesy, and not +from his dignity as a Privy Councillor on the +demise or abdication of a sovereign.</p> + +<p>In 1189, Richard I. elected Henry Fitz Ailwyn, +a draper of London, to be first mayor of London, +and he served twenty-four years. He is supposed +to have been a descendant of Aylwyn Child, who +founded the priory at Bermondsey in 1082. He +was buried, according to Strype, at St. Mary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_817" id="Page_817">[Pg 817]</a></span> +Bothaw, Walbrook, a church destroyed in the Great +Fire; but according to Stow, in the Holy Trinity +Priory, Aldgate. There is a doubtful half-length +oil-portrait or panel of the venerable Fitz Alwyn +over the master's chair in Drapers' Hall, but it has +no historical value. But the first formal mayor was +Richard Renger (1223), King John granting the +right of choosing a mayor to the citizens, provided +he was first presented to the king or his justice for +approval. Henry III. afterwards allowed the presentation +to take place in the king's absence before +the Barons of the Exchequer at Westminster, to +prevent expense and delay, as the citizens could +not be expected to search for the king all over +England and France.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="whittington" id="whittington"></a> +<img src="images/p397.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. (<i>From an old Portrait.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>The presentation to the king, even when he was +in England, long remained a great vexation with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_818" id="Page_818">[Pg 818]</a></span> +the London mayors. For instance, in 1240, Gerard +Bat, chosen a second time, went to Woodstock +Palace to be presented to King Henry III., who +refused to appoint him till he (the king) came to +London.</p> + +<p>Henry III., indeed, seems to have been chronically +troubled by the London mayors, for in 1264, +on the mayor and aldermen doing fealty to the +king in St. Paul's, the mayor, with blunt honesty, +dared to say to the weak monarch, "My lord, so +long as you unto us will be a good lord and king, +we will be faithful and duteous unto you."</p> + +<p>These were bold words in a reign when the heading +block was always kept ready near a throne. +In 1265, the same monarch seized and imprisoned +the mayor and chief aldermen for fortifying the +City in favour of the barons, and for four years the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_819" id="Page_819">[Pg 819]</a></span> +tyrannical king appointed custodes. The City +again recovered its liberties and retained them +till 1285 (Edward I.), when Sir Gregory Rokesley +refusing to go out of the City to appear before the +king's justices at the Tower, the mayoralty was again +suspended and custodes appointed till the year +1298, when Henry Wallein was elected mayor. +Edward II. also held a tight hand on the mayoralty +till he appointed the great goldsmith, Sir Nicholas +Farindon, mayor "as long as it pleased him." +Farindon gave the title to Farringdon Ward, which +had been in his family eighty-two years, the consideration +being twenty marks as a fine, and one +clove or a slip of gillyflower at the feast of Easter. +He was a warden of the Goldsmiths, and was +buried at St. Peter-le-Chepe, a church that before +the Great Fire stood where the plane-tree now +waves at the corner of Wood Street. He left +money for a light to burn before our Lady the +Virgin in St. Peter-le-Chepe for ever.</p> + +<p>The mayoralty of Andrew Aubrey, Grocer (1339), +was rather warlike; for the mayor and two of his +officers being assaulted in a tumult, two of the +ringleaders were beheaded at once in Chepe. In +1356, Henry Picard, mayor of London, was an +honoured man, for he had the glory of feasting +Edward III. of England, the Black Prince, John +King of Austria, the King of Cyprus, and David of +Scotland, and afterwards opened his hall to all +comers at cards and dice, his wife inviting the +court ladies.</p> + +<p>Sir William Walworth, a fishmonger, who was +mayor in 1374 (Edward III.) and 1380 (Richard +II.), was that prompt and choleric man who somewhat +basely slew the Kentish rebel, Wat Tyler, +when he was invited to a parley by the young king. +It was long supposed that the dagger in the City +arms was added in commemoration of this foul +blow, but Stow has clearly shown that it was intended +to represent the sword of St. Paul, the +patron saint of the Corporation of London. The +manor of Walworth belonged to the family of +this mayor, who was buried in the Church of St. +Michael, Crooked Lane, the parish where he had +resided. Some antiquaries, says Mr. Timbs, think +the prefix of "Lord" is traceable to 1378 (1st +Richard II.), when there was a general assessment +for a war subsidy. The question was where was +the mayor to come. "Have him among the earls," +was the suggestion; so the right worshipful had to +pay £4, about £100 of our present money.</p> + +<p>And now we come to a mayor greater even in +City story and legend than even Walworth himself, +even the renowned Richard Whittington, the hero +of our nursery days. He was the son of a Glouces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_820" id="Page_820">[Pg 820]</a></span>tershire +knight, who had fallen into poverty. The +industrious son, born in 1350 (Edward III.), on +coming to London, was apprenticed to Hugh Fitzwarren, +a mercer. Disgusted with the drudgery, he +ran away; but while resting by a stone cross at the +foot of Highgate Hill, he is said to have heard in the +sound of Bow Bells the voice of his good angel, +"Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of +London." What a charm there is still in the old +story! As for the cat that made his fortune by +catching all the mice in Barbary, we fear we must +throw him overboard, even though Stow tells a +true story of a man and a cat that greatly resembles +that told of Whittington. Whittington married his +master's daughter, and became a wealthy merchant. +He supplied the wedding trousseau of the Princess +Blanche, eldest daughter of Henry IV., when she +married the son of the King of the Romans, and +also the pearls and cloth of gold for the marriage +of the Princess Philippa. He became the court +banker, and lent large sums of money to our lavish +monarchs, especially to the chivalrous Henry V. +for carrying on the siege of Harfleur, a siege +celebrated by Shakespeare. It is said that in +his last mayoralty King Henry V. and Queen +Catherine dined with him in the City, when Whittington +caused a fire to be lighted of precious +woods, mixed with cinnamon and other spices; +and then taking all the bonds given him by the +king for money lent, amounting to no less than +£60,000, he threw them into the fire and burnt +them, thereby freeing his sovereign from his debts. +The king, astonished at such a proceeding, exclaimed, +"Surely, never had king such a subject;" +to which Whittington, with court gallantry, replied, +"Surely, sire, never had subject such a king."</p> + +<p>Whittington was really four times mayor—twice +in Richard II.'s reign, once in that of Henry IV., +and once in that of Henry V. As a mayor Whittington +was popular, and his justice and patriotism +became proverbial. He vigorously opposed the +admission of foreigners into the freedom of the +City, and he fined the Brewers' Company £20 for +selling bad ale and forestalling the market. His +generosity was like a well-spring; and being childless, +he spent his life in deeds of charity and +generosity. He erected conduits at Cripplegate +and Billingsgate; he founded a library at the Grey +Friars' Monastery in Newgate Street (now Christ's +Hospital); he procured the completion of the +"Liber Albus," a book of City customs; and he +gave largely towards the Guildhall library. He +paved the Guildhall, restored the hospital of St. +Bartholomew, and by his will left money to rebuild +Newgate, and erect almshouses on College Hill<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_821" id="Page_821">[Pg 821]</a></span> +(now removed to Highgate). He died in 1427 +(Henry VI.). Nor should we forget that Whittington +was also a great architect, and enlarged +the nave of Westminster Abbey for his knightly +master, Henry V. This large-minded and munificent +man resided in a grand mansion in Hart +Street, up a gateway a few doors from Mark Lane. +A very curious old house in Sweedon's Passage, +Grub Street, with an external winding staircase, +used to be pointed out as Whittington's; and the +splendid old mansion in Hart Street, Crutched +Friars, pulled down in 1861, and replaced by offices +and warehouses, was said to have cats'-heads for +knockers, and cats'-heads (whose eyes seemed +always turned on you) carved in the ceilings. The +doorways, and the brackets of the long lines of +projecting Tudor windows, were beautifully carved +with grotesque figures.</p> + +<p>In 1418 (Henry V.) Sir William de Sevenoke +was mayor. This rich merchant had risen to the +top of the tree by cleverness and diligence equal +to that of Whittington, but we hear less of his +charity. He was a foundling, brought up by +charitable persons, and apprenticed to a grocer. +He was knighted by Henry VI., and represented +the City in Parliament. Dying in 1432, he was +buried at St. Martin's, Ludgate.</p> + +<p>In 1426 (Henry VI.) Sir John Rainewell, mayor, +with a praiseworthy disgust at all dishonesty in +trade, detecting Lombard merchants adulterating +their wines, ordered 150 butts to be stove in and +swilled down the kennels. How he might wash +down London now with cheap sherry!</p> + +<p>In 1445 (Henry VI.), Sir Simon Eyre. This +very worthy mayor left 3,000 marks to the Company +of Drapers, for prayers to be read to the +market people by a priest in the chapel at Guildhall.</p> + +<p>It is related that when it was proposed to Eyre +at Guildhall that he should stand for sheriff, he +would fain have excused himself, as he did not +think his income was sufficient; but he was soon +silenced by one of the aldermen observing "that +no citizen could be more capable than the man +who had openly asserted that he broke his fast +every day on a table for which he would not take +a thousand pounds." This assertion excited the +curiosity of the then Lord Mayor and all present, +in consequence of which his lordship and two of the +aldermen, having invited themselves, accompanied +him home to dinner. On their arrival Mr. Eyre +desired his wife to "prepare the little table, and +set some refreshment before the guests." This +she would fain have refused, but finding he would +take no excuse, she seated herself on a low stool,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_822" id="Page_822">[Pg 822]</a></span> +and, spreading a damask napkin over her lap, with +a venison pasty thereon, Simon exclaimed to the +astonished mayor and his brethren, "Behold +the table which I would not take a thousand +pounds for!" Soon after this Sir Simon was +chosen Lord Mayor, on which occasion, remembering +his former promise "at the conduit," he, +on the following Shrove Tuesday, gave a pancake +feast to all the 'prentices in London; on which +occasion they went in procession to the Mansion +House, where they met with a cordial reception +from Sir Simon and his lady, who did the honours +of the table on this memorable day, allowing their +guests to want for neither ale nor wine.</p> + +<p>In 1453 Sir John Norman was the first mayor +who rowed to Westminster. The mayors had +hitherto generally accompanied the presentation +show on horseback. The Thames watermen, delighted +with the innovation so profitable to them, +wrote a song in praise of Norman, two lines of which +are quoted by Fabyan in his "Chronicles;" and +Dr. Rimbault, an eminent musical antiquary, thinks +he has found the original tune in John Hilton's +"Catch That, Catch Can" (1658).</p> + +<p>The deeds of Sir Stephen Forster, Fishmonger, +and mayor 1454 (Henry VI.), who by his will +left money to rebuild Newgate, we have mentioned +elsewhere (p. 224). Sir Godfrey Boleine, +Lord Mayor, 1457 (Henry VI.), was grandfather +to Thomas, Earl of Wiltshire, the grandfather of +Queen Elizabeth. He was a mercer in the Old +Jewry, and left by his will £1,000 to the poor +householders of London, and £2,000 to the poor +householders in Norfolk (his native county), besides +large legacies to the London prisons, lazar-houses, +and hospitals. Such were the citizens, +from whom half our aristocracy has sprung. Sir +Godfrey Fielding, a mercer in Milk Street, Lord +Mayor in 1452 (Henry VI.), was the ancestor of +the Earls of Denbigh, and a privy councillor of +the king.</p> + +<p>In Edward IV.'s reign, when the Lancastrians, +under the bastard Falconbridge, stormed the City +in two places, but were eventually bravely repulsed +by the citizens, Edward, in gratitude, knighted +the mayor, Sir John Stockton, and twelve of the +aldermen. In 1479 (the same reign) Bartholomew +James (Draper) had Sheriff Bayfield fined +£50 (about £1,000 of our money) for kneeling +too close to him while at prayers in St. Paul's, and +for reviling him when complained of. There was a +pestilence raging at the time, and the mayor was +afraid of contagion. The money went, we presume, +to build ten City conduits, then much wanted. The +Lord Mayor in 1462, Sir Thomas Coke (Draper),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_823" id="Page_823">[Pg 823]</a></span> +ancestor of Lord Bacon, Earl Fitzwilliam, the +Marquis of Salisbury, and Viscount Cranbourne, +being a Lancastrian, suffered much from the rapacious +tyranny of Edward IV. The very year he was +made Knight of the Bath, Coke was sent to the +Bread Street Compter, afterwards to the Bench, +and illegally fined £8,000 to the king and £800 +to the queen. Two aldermen also had their goods +seized, and were fined 4,000 marks. In 1473 this +greedy king sent to Sir William Hampton, Lord +Mayor, to extort benevolences, or subsidies. The +mayor gave £30, the aldermen twenty marks, the +poorer persons £10 each. In 1481, King Edward +sent the mayor, William Herriot (Draper), for the +good he had done to trade, two harts, six bucks, +and a tun of wine, for a banquet to the lady +mayoress and the aldermen's wives at Drapers' Hall.</p> + +<p>At Richard III.'s coronation (1483), the Lord +Mayor, Sir Edmund Shaw, attended as cup-bearer +with great pomp, and the mayor's claim to this +honour was formally allowed and put on record. +Shaw was a goldsmith, and supplied the usurper +with most of his plate. Sir William Horn, Lord +Mayor in 1487, had been knighted on Bosworth +field by Henry VII., for whom he fought against +the "ravening Richard." This mayor's real name +was Littlesbury (we are told), but Edward IV. had +nicknamed him Horn, from his peculiar skill on +that instrument. The year Henry VII. landed at +Milford Haven two London mayors died. In +1486 (Henry VII.), Sir Henry Colet, father of good +Dean Colet, who founded St. Paul's School, was +mayor.</p> + +<p>Colet chose John Percival (Merchant Taylor), his +carver, sheriff, by drinking to him in a cup of wine, +according to custom, and Perceval forthwith sat +down at the mayor's table. Percival was afterwards +mayor in 1498. Henry VII. was remorseless +in squeezing money out of the City by every +sort of expedient. He fined Alderman Capel +£2,700; he made the City buy a confirmation +of their charter for £5,000; in 1505 he threw +Thomas Knesworth, who had been mayor the +year before, and his sheriff, into the Marshalsea, +and fined them £1,400; and the year after, he +imprisoned Sir Lawrence Aylmer, mayor in the +previous year, and extorted money from him. He +again amerced Alderman Capel (ancestor of the +Earls of Essex) £2,000, and on his bold resistance, +threw him into the Tower for life. In 1490 +(Henry VII.) John Matthew earned the distinction +of being the first, but probably not the last, +bachelor Lord Mayor; and a cheerless mayoralty +it must have been. In 1502 Sir John Shaw held +the Lord Mayor's feast for the first time in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_824" id="Page_824">[Pg 824]</a></span> +Guildhall; and the same hospitable mayor built +the Guildhall kitchen at his own expense.</p> + +<p>Henry VIII.'s mayors were worshipful men, and +men of renown. To Walworth and Whittington +was now to be added the illustrious name of +Gresham. Sir Richard Gresham, who was mayor +in the year 1537, was the father of the illustrious +founder of the Royal Exchange. He was of a +Norfolk family, and with his three brothers carried +on trade as mercers. He became a Gentleman +Usher Extraordinary to Henry VIII., and at the +tearing to pieces of the monasteries by that +monarch, he obtained, by judicious courtliness, no +less than five successive grants of Church lands. +He advocated the construction of an Exchange, +encouraged freedom of trade, and is said to have +invented bills of exchange. In 1525 he was +nearly expelled the Common Council for trying, at +Wolsey's instigation, to obtain a benevolence from +the citizens. It is greatly to Gresham's credit +that he helped Wolsey after his fall, and Henry, +who with all his faults was magnanimous, liked +Gresham none the worse for that. In the interesting +"Paston Letters" (Henry VI.), there are +eleven letters of one of Gresham's Norfolk ancestors, +dated from London, and the seal a grasshopper. +Sir Richard Gresham died 1548 (Edward +VI.), at Bethnal Green, and was buried in the +church of St. Lawrence Jewry. Gresham's daughter +married an ancestor of the Marquis of Bath, and the +Duke of Buckingham and Lord Braybrooke are said +to be descendants of his brother John, so much has +good City blood enriched our proud Norman +aristocracy, and so often has the full City purse +gone to fill again the exhausted treasury of the +old knighthood. In 1545, Sir Martin Bowes (Goldsmith) +was mayor, and lent Henry VIII., whose +purse was a cullender, the sum of £300. Sir +Martin was butler at Elizabeth's coronation, and +left the Goldsmiths' Company his gold fee cup, out +of which the Queen drank. In our history of the +Goldsmiths' Company we have mentioned his +portrait in Goldsmiths' Hall. Alderman William +Fitzwilliam, in this reign, also nobly stood by his +patron, Wolsey, after his fall; for which the King, +saying he had too few such servants, knighted him +and made him a Privy Councillor. When he died, +in the year 1542, he was Knight of the Garter, +Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, and Chancellor of +the Duchy of Lancaster. He left £100 to dower +poor maidens, and his best "standing cup" to his +brethren, the Merchant Taylors. In 1536 the King +invited the Lord Mayor, Sir Raphe Warren (an +ancestor of Cromwell and Hampden, says Mr. +Orridge), the aldermen, and forty of the prin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_825" id="Page_825">[Pg 825]</a></span>cipal +citizens, to the christening of the Princess +Elizabeth, at Greenwich; and at the ceremony the +scarlet gowns and gold chains made a gallant show.</p> + +<p>In Edward VI.'s reign, the Greshams again +came to the front. In 1547, Sir John Gresham, +brother of the Sir Richard before mentioned, obtained +from Henry VIII. the hospital of St. Mary +Bethlehem as an asylum for lunatics.</p> + +<p>In this reign the City Corporation lands (as +being given by Papists for superstitious uses) were +all claimed for the King's use, to the amount of +£1,000 per annum. The London Corporation, +unable to resist this tyranny, had to retrieve them +at the rate of twenty years' purchase. Sir Andrew +Judd (Skinner), mayor in 1550, was ancestor of +Lord Teynham, Viscount Strangford, Chief Baron +Smythe, &c. Among the bequests in his will +were "the sandhills at the back side of Holborn," +then let for a few pounds a year, now worth nearly +£20,000 per annum. In 1553, Sir Thomas White +(Merchant Taylor) kept the citizens loyal to Queen +Mary during Wyatt's rebellion, the brave Queen +coming to Guildhall and personally re-assuring the +citizens. White was the son of a poor clothier; +at the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a +London tailor, who left him £100 to begin the +world with, and by thrift and industry he rose to +wealth. He was the generous founder of St. John's +College, Oxford. According to Webster, the poet, +he had been directed in a dream to found a college +upon a spot where he should find two bodies of an +elm springing from one root. Discovering no such +tree at Cambridge, he went to Oxford, and finding +a likely tree in Gloucester Hall garden, began at +once to enlarge and widen that college; but soon +after he found the real tree of his dream, outside +the north gate of Oxford, and on that spot he +founded St. John's College.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Elizabeth, many great-hearted +citizens served the office of mayor. Again we +shall see how little even the best monarchs of these +days understood the word "liberty," and how the +constant attacks upon their purses taught the +London citizens to appreciate and to defend their +rights. In 1559, Sir William Hewet (Clothworker) +was mayor, whose income is estimated at £6,000 +per annum. Hewet lived on London Bridge, and +one day a nurse playing with his little daughter +Anne, at one of the broad lattice windows overlooking +the Thames, by accident let the child fall. +A young apprentice, named Osborne seeing the +accident, leaped from a window into the fierce +current below the arches, and saved the infant. +Years after, many great courtiers, including the +Earl of Shrewsbury, came courting fair Mistress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_826" id="Page_826">[Pg 826]</a></span> +Anne, the rich citizen's heiress. Sir William, her +father, said to one and all, "No; Osborne saved +her, and Osborne shall have her." And so Osborne +did, and became a rich citizen and Lord Mayor in +1583. He is the direct ancestor of the first Duke +of Leeds. There is a portrait of the brave apprentice +at Kiveton House, in Yorkshire. He dwelt in +Philpot Lane, in his father-in-law's house, and was +buried at St. Dionis Backchurch, Fenchurch Street.</p> + +<p>In 1563 Lord Mayor Lodge got into a terrible +scrape with Queen Elizabeth, who brooked no opposition, +just or unjust. One of the Queen's insolent +purveyors, to insult the mayor, seized twelve capons +out of twenty-four destined for the mayor's table. +The indignant mayor took six of the twelve fowls, +called the purveyor a scurvy knave, and threatened +him with the biggest pair of irons in Newgate. +In spite of the intercession of Lord Robert Dudley +(Leicester) and Secretary Cecil, Lodge was fined +and compelled to resign his gown. Lodge was +the father of the poet, and engaged in the negro +trade. Lodge's successor, Sir Thomas Ramsay, +died childless, and his widow left large sums to +Christ's Hospital and other charities, and £1,200 +to each of five City Companies; also sums for the +relief of poor maimed soldiers, poor Cambridge +scholars, and for poor maids' marriages.</p> + +<p>Sir Rowland Heyward (Clothworker), mayor in +1570. He was an ancestor of the Marquis of +Bath, and the father of sixteen children, all of whom +are displayed on his monument in St. Alphege, +London Wall.</p> + +<p>Sir Wolston Dixie, 1585 (Skinner) was the +first mayor whose pageant was published. It forms +the first chapter of the many volumes relating to +pageants collected by that eminent antiquary, the +late Mr. Fairholt, and bequeathed by him to the +Society of Antiquaries. Dixie assisted in building +Peterhouse College, Cambridge. In 1594, Sir +John Spencer (Clothworker)—"rich Spencer," as he +was called—kept his mayoralty at Crosby Place, +Bishopsgate. His only daughter married Lord +Compton, who, tradition says, smuggled her away +from her father's house in a large flap-topped +baker's basket. A curious letter from this imperious +lady is extant, in which she only requests an +annuity of £2,200, a like sum for her privy purse, +£10,000 for jewels, her debts to be paid, horses, +coach, and female attendants, and closes by praying +her husband, when he becomes an earl, to allow +her £1,000 more with double attendance. These +young citizen ladies were somewhat exacting. From +this lady's husband the Marquis of Northampton is +descended. At the funeral of "rich Spencer," 1,000 +persons followed in mourning cloaks and gowns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_827" id="Page_827">[Pg 827]</a></span> +He died worth, Mr. Timbs calculates, above +£800,000 in the year of his mayoralty. There +was a famine in England in his time, and at his +persuasion the City Companies bought corn abroad, +and stored it in the Bridge House for the poor.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="almshouses" id="almshouses"></a> +<img src="images/p402.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WHITTINGTON'S ALMSHOUSES, COLLEGE HILL</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1609, Sir Thomas Campbell (Ironmonger), +mayor, the City show was revived by the king's +order. In 1611, Sir William Craven (Draper) was +mayor. As a poor Yorkshire boy from Wharfedale, +he came up to London in a carrier's cart to +seek his fortune. He was the father of that brave +soldier of Gustavus Adolphus who is supposed +to have privately married the widowed Queen of +Bohemia, James I.'s daughter. There is a tradition +that during an outbreak of the plague in London,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_828" id="Page_828">[Pg 828]</a></span> +Craven took horse and galloped westward till he +reached a lonely farmhouse on the Berkshire downs, +and there built Ashdown House. The local legend +is that four avenues led to the house from the four +points of the compass, and that in each of the four +walls there was a window, so that if the plague got +in at one side it might go out at the other. In +1612, Sir John Swinnerton (Merchant Taylor), +mayor, entertained the Count Palatine, who had +come over to marry King James's daughter. The +Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, +and many earls and barons were present. The Lord +Mayor and his brethren presented the Palsgrave +with a large basin and ewer, weighing 234 ounces, +and two great gilt loving pots. The bridegroom +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_830" id="Page_830">[Pg 830]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_829" id="Page_829">[Pg 829]</a></span>elect gained great popularity by saluting the Lady +Mayoress and her train. The pageant was written +by the poet Dekker. In this reign King James, +colonising Ulster with Protestants, granted the province +with Londonderry and Coleraine to the Corporation, +the twelve great and old Companies taking +many of the best. In 1613, Sir Thomas Middleton +(Goldsmith), Basinghall Street, brother of Sir Hugh +Middleton, went in state to see the water enter the +New River Head at Islington, to the sound of drums +and trumpets and the roar of guns. In 1618, Sir +Sebastian Harvey (Ironmonger) was mayor: during +his show Sir Walter Raleigh was executed, the time +being specially chosen to draw away the sympathisers +"from beholding," as Aubrey says, "the +tragedy of the gallantest worthy that England +ever bred."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="osbornes" id="osbornes"></a> +<img src="images/p403.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OSBORNE'S LEAP</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1641 Sir Richard Gurney (Clothworker), and a +sturdy Royalist, entertained that promise-breaking +king, Charles I., at the Guildhall. The entertainment +consisted of 500 dishes. Gurney's master, a +silk mercer in Cheapside, left him his shop and +£6,000. The Parliament ejected him from the +mayoralty and sent him to the Tower, where he +lingered for seven years till he died, rather than +pay a fine of £5,000, for refusing to publish an +Act for the abolition of royalty. He was president +of Christ's Hospital. His successor, Sir Isaac +Pennington (Fishmonger), was one of the king's +judges, who died in the Tower; Sir Thomas Atkins +(Mercer), mayor in 1645, sat on the trial of +Charles I.; Sir Thomas Adams (Draper), mayor in +1646, was also sent to the Tower for refusing to +publish the Abolition of Royalty Act. He founded +an Arabic lecture at Cambridge, and a grammar-school +at Wem, in Shropshire. Sir John Gayer +(Fishmonger), mayor in 1647, was committed to +the Tower in 1648 as a Royalist, as also was Sir +Abraham Reynardson, mayor in 1649. Sir Thomas +Foot (Grocer), mayor in 1650, was knighted by +Cromwell; two of his daughters married knights, +and two baronets. Earl Onslow is one of his +descendants. Sir Christopher Packe (Draper), +mayor in 1654, became a member of Cromwell's +House of Lords as Lord Packe, and from him +Sir Dennis Packe, the Peninsula general, was descended.</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Tichborne (Skinner), mayor in 1656, +sat on the trial of Charles I., and signed the death +warrant. Sir Richard Chiverton (Skinner), mayor in +1657, was the first Cornish mayor of London. He +was knighted both by Cromwell and by Charles II., +which says something for his political dexterity. +Sir John Ireton (Clothworker), mayor in 1658, was +brother of General Ireton, Cromwell's son-in-law.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_831" id="Page_831">[Pg 831]</a></span></p> + +<p>The period of the Commonwealth did not +furnish many mayors worth recording here. In +1644, the year of Marston Moor, the City gave a +splendid entertainment to both Houses of Parliament, +the Earls of Essex, Warwick, and Manchester, +the Scotch Commissioners, Cromwell, and +the principal officers of the army. They heard a +sermon at Christ Church, Newgate Street, and went +on foot to Guildhall. The Lord Mayor and aldermen +led the procession, and as they passed through +Cheapside, some Popish pictures, crucifixes, and +relics were burnt on a scaffold. The object of the +banquet was to prevent a letter of the king's being +read in the Common Hall. On January 7th the +Lord Mayor gave a banquet to the House of +Commons, Cromwell, and the chief officers, to +commemorate the rout of the dangerous Levellers. +In 1653, the year Cromwell was chosen Lord Protector, +he dined at the Guildhall, and knighted the +mayor, John Fowke (Haberdasher).</p> + +<p>The reign of Charles II. and the Royalist +reaction brought more tyranny and more trouble to +the City. The king tried to be as despotic as his +father, and resolved to break the Whig love of +freedom that prevailed among the citizens. Loyal +as some of the citizens seem to have been, +King Charles scarcely deserved much favour at their +hands. A more reckless tyrant to the City had +never sat on the English throne. Because they +refused a loan of £100,000 on bad security, the +king imprisoned twenty of the principal citizens, +and required the City to fit out 100 ships. For a +trifling riot in the City (a mere pretext), the mayor +and aldermen were amerced in the sum of £6,000. +For the pretended mismanagement of their Irish +estates, the City was condemned to the loss of their +Irish possessions and fined £50,000. Four aldermen +were imprisoned for not disclosing the names +of friends who refused to advance money to the +king; and, finally, to the contempt of all constitutional +law, the citizens were forbidden to petition +the king for the redress of grievances. Did +such a king deserve mercy at the hands of the +subjects he had oppressed, and time after time +spurned and deceived?</p> + +<p>In 1661, the year after the Restoration, Sir John +Frederick (Grocer), mayor, revived the old customs +of Bartholomew's Fair. The first day there was +a wrestling match in Moorfields, the mayor and +aldermen being present; the second day, archery, +after the usual proclamation and challenges through +the City; the third day, a hunt. The Fair people +considered the three days a great hindrance and +loss to them. Pepys, the delightful chronicler of +these times, went to this Lord Mayor's dinner,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_832" id="Page_832">[Pg 832]</a></span> +where he found "most excellent venison; but it +made me almost sick, not daring to drink wine."</p> + +<p>Amidst the factions and the vulgar citizens of +this reign, Sir John Lawrence (Grocer), mayor in +1664, stands out a burning and a shining light. +When the dreadful plague was mowing down the +terrified people of London in great swathes, this +brave man, instead of flying quietly, remained at +his house in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, enforcing +wise regulations for the sufferers, and, what is more, +himself seeing them executed. He supported during +this calamity 40,000 discharged servants. In 1666 +(the Great Fire) the mayor, Sir Thomas Bludworth +(Vintner), whose daughter married Judge +Jeffries, is described by Pepys as quite losing his +head during the great catastrophe, and running +about exclaiming, "Lord, what can I do?" and holding +his head in an exhausted and helpless way.</p> + +<p>In 1671 Sir George Waterman (mayor, son of a +Southwark vintner) entertained Charles II. at his +inaugural dinner. In the pageant on this occasion, +there was a forest, with animals, wood nymphs, &c., +and in front two negroes riding on panthers. Near +Milk Street end was a platform, on which Jacob +Hall, the great rope-dancer of the day, and his +company danced and tumbled. There is a mention +of Hall, perhaps on this occasion, in the "State +Poems:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When Jacob Hall on his high rope shows tricks,<br /> +The dragon flutters, the Lord Mayor's horse kicks;<br /> +The Cheapside crowds and pageants scarcely know<br /> +Which most t'admire—Hall, hobby-horse, or Bow."</div> + +<p>In 1674 Sir Robert Vyner (Goldsmith) was +mayor, and Charles II., who was frequently entertained +by the City, dined with him. "The wine +passed too freely, the guests growing noisy, and the +mayor too familiar, the king," says a correspondent +of Steele's (<i>Spectator</i>, 462), "with a hint to the +company to disregard ceremonial, stole off to his +coach, which was waiting in Guildhall Yard. But +the mayor, grown bold with wine, pursued the +'merry monarch,' and, catching him by the hand, +cried out, with a vehement oath, 'Sir, you shall +stay and take t'other bottle.' The 'merry monarch' +looked kindly at him over his shoulder, and with +a smile and graceful air (for I saw him at the +time, and do now) repeated the line of the old +song, 'He that is drunk is as great as a king,' +and immediately turned back and complied with +his host's request."</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Clayton (Draper), mayor in 1679, was +one of the most eminent citizens in Charles II.'s +reign. The friend of Algernon Sidney and Lord +William Russell, he sat in seven Parliaments as +representative of the City; was more than thirty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_833" id="Page_833">[Pg 833]</a></span> +years alderman of Cheap Ward, and ultimately +father of the City; the mover of the celebrated Exclusion +Bill (seconded by Lord William Russell); +and eminent alike as a patriot, a statesman, and +a citizen. He projected the Mathematical School +at Christ's Hospital, built additions there, helped +to rebuild the house, and left the sum of £2,300 +towards its funds. He was a director of the Bank +of England, and governor of the Irish Society. He +was mayor during the pretended Popish Plot, and +was afterwards marked out for death by King +James, but saved by the intercession (of all men +in the world!) of Jeffries. This "prince of citizens," +as Evelyn calls him, had been apprenticed to a +scrivener. He lived in great splendour in Old +Jewry, where Charles and the Duke of York supped +with him during his mayoralty. There is a portrait +of him, worthy of Kneller, in Drapers' Hall, and +another, with carved wood frame by Gibbons, in +the Guildhall Library.</p> + +<p>In 1681, when the reaction came and the Court +party triumphed, gaining a verdict of £100,000 +against Alderman Pilkington (Skinner), sheriff, for +slandering the Duke of York, Sir Patience Ward +(Merchant Taylor), mayor in 1680, was sentenced +to the ignominy of the pillory. In 1682 (Sir William +Pritchard, Merchant Taylor, mayor), Dudley North, +brother of Lord Keeper North, was one of the +sheriffs chosen by the Court party to pack juries. +He was celebrated for his splendid house in Basinghall +Street, and Macaulay tells us "that, in the days +of judicial butchery, carts loaded with the legs and +arms of quartered Whigs were, to the great discomposure +of his lady, 'driven to his door for +orders.'"</p> + +<p>In 1688 Sir John Shorter (Goldsmith), appointed +mayor by James II., met his death in a singular +manner. He was on his way to open Bartholomew +Fair, by reading the proclamation at the entrance +to Cloth Fair, Smithfield. It was the custom for +the mayors to call by the way on the Keeper of +Newgate, and there partake on horseback of a +"cool tankard" of wine, spiced with nutmeg and +sweetened with sugar. In receiving the tankard +Sir John let the lid flop down, his horse started, +he was thrown violently, and died the next day. +This custom ceased in the second mayoralty of Sir +Matthew Wood, 1817. Sir John was maternal grandfather +of Horace Walpole. Sir John Houblon +(Grocer), mayor in 1695 (William III.), is supposed +by Mr. Orridge to have been a brother of Abraham +Houblon, first Governor of the Bank of England, +and Lord of the Admiralty, and great-grandfather +of the late Viscount Palmerston. Sir Humphrey +Edwin (Skinner), mayor in 1697, enraged the Tories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_834" id="Page_834">[Pg 834]</a></span> +by omitting the show on religious grounds, and +riding to a conventicle with all the insignia of office, +an event ridiculed by Swift in his "Tale of a Tub," +and Pinkethman in his comedy of <i>Love without +Interest</i> (1699), where he talks of "my lord mayor +going to Pinmakers' Hall, to hear a snivelling and +separatist divine divide and subdivide into the two-and-thirty +points of the compass." In 1700 the +Mayor was Sir Thomas Abney (Fishmonger), one +of the first Directors of the Bank of England, best +known as a pious and consistent man, who for +thirty-six years kept Dr. Watts, as his guest and +friend, in his mansion at Stoke Newington. "No +business or festivity," remarks Mr. Timbs, "was +allowed to interrupt Sir Thomas's religious observances. +The very day he became Lord Mayor +he withdrew from the Guildhall after supper, +read prayers at home, and then returned to his +guests."</p> + +<p>In 1702, Sir Samuel Dashwood (Vintner) entertained +Queen Anne at the Guildhall, and his was +the last pageant ever publicly performed, one for +the show of 1708 being stopped by the death of +Prince George of Denmark the day before. "The +show," says Mr. J.G. Nicholls, "cost £737 2s., +poor Settle receiving £10 for his crambo verses." +A daughter of this Dashwood became the wife of +the fifth Lord Brooke, and an ancestor of the +present Earl of Warwick. Sir John Parsons, mayor +in 1704, was a remarkable person; for he gave +up his official fees towards the payment of the City +debts. It was remarked of Sir Samuel Gerrard, +mayor in 1710, that three of his name and family +were Lord Mayors in three queens' reigns—Mary, +Elizabeth, and Anne. Sir Gilbert Heathcote +(mayor in 1711), ancestor of Lord Aveland and +Viscount Donne, was the last mayor who rode +in his procession on horseback; for after this +time, the mayors, abandoning the noble career +of horsemanship, retired into their gilt gingerbread +coach.</p> + +<p>Sir William Humphreys, mayor in 1715 (George +I.), was father of the City, and alderman of Cheap +for twenty-six years. Of his Lady Mayoress an old +story is told relative to the custom of the sovereign +kissing the Lady Mayoress upon visiting Guildhall. +Queen Anne broke down this observance; but +upon the accession of George I., on his first visit to +the City, from his known character for gallantry, it +was expected that once again a Lady Mayoress +was to be kissed by the king on the steps of the +Guildhall. But he had no feeling of admiration +for English beauty. "It was only," says a writer +in the <i>Athenæum</i>, "after repeated assurance that +saluting a lady, on her appointment to a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_835" id="Page_835">[Pg 835]</a></span>fidential +post near some persons of the Royal +Family, was the sealing, as it were, of her appointment, +that he expressed his readiness to kiss Lady +Cowper on her nomination as lady of the bed-chamber +to the Princess of Wales. At his first +appearance at Guildhall, the admirer of Madame +Kielmansegge respected the new observance established +by Queen Anne; yet poor Lady Humphreys, +the mayoress, hoped, at all events, to receive the +usual tribute from royalty from the lips of the +Princess of Wales. But that strong-minded woman, +Caroline Dorothea Wilhelmina, steadily looked +away from the mayor's consort. She would not +do what Queen Anne had not thought worth the +doing; and Lady Humphreys, we are sorry to say, +stood upon her unstable rights, and displayed a +considerable amount of bad temper and worse +behaviour. She wore a train of black velvet, then +considered one of the privileges of City royalty, +and being wronged of one, she resolved to make +the best of that which she possessed—bawling, as +ladies, mayoresses, and women generally should +never do—bawling to her page to hold up her train, +and sweeping away therewith before the presence +of the amused princess herself. The incident +altogether seems to have been too much for the +good but irate lady's nerves; and unable or +unwilling, when dinner was announced, to carry +her stupendous bouquet, emblem of joy and welcome, +she flung it to a second page who attended +on her state, with a scream of 'Boy, take my +<i>bucket</i>!' In <i>her</i> view of things, the sun had set +on the glory of mayoralty for ever.</p> + +<p>"The king was as much amazed as the princess +had been amused; and a well-inspired wag of the +Court whispered an assurance which increased his +perplexity. It was to the effect that the angry +lady was only a mock Lady Mayoress, whom the +unmarried Mayor had hired for the occasion, +borrowing her for that day only. The assurance +was credited for a time, till persons more discreet +than the wag convinced the Court party that Lady +Humphreys was really no counterfeit. She was no +beauty either; and the same party, when they withdrew +from the festive scene, were all of one mind, +that she must needs be what she seemed, for if the +Lord Mayor had been under the necessity of +borrowing, he would have borrowed altogether +another sort of woman." This is one of the earliest +stories connecting the City with an idea of vulgarity +and purse pride. The stories commenced with the +Court Tories, when the City began to resist Court +oppression.</p> + +<p>A leap now takes us on in the City chronicles. +In 1727 (the year George I. died), the Royal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_836" id="Page_836">[Pg 836]</a></span> +Family, the Ministry, besides nobles and foreign +ministers, were entertained by Sir Edward Becher, +mayor (Draper). George II. ordered the sum of +£1,000 to be paid to the sheriffs for the relief of +insolvent debtors. The feast cost £4,890. In +1733 (George II.), John Barber—Swift, Pope, and +Bolingbroke's friend—the Jacobite printer who +defeated a scheme of a general excise, was mayor. +Barber erected the monument to Butler, the poet, +in Westminster Abbey, who, by the way, had +written a very sarcastic "Character of an Alderman." +Barber's epitaph on the poet's monument +is in high-flown Latin, which drew from Samuel +Wesley these lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"While Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,<br /> +No generous patron would a dinner give.<br /> +See him, when starved to death, and turned to dust,<br /> +Presented with a monumental bust.<br /> +The poet's fate is here in emblem shown—<br /> +He asked for bread, and he received a stone."</div> + +<p>In 1739 (George II.) Sir Micajah Perry (Haberdasher) +laid the first stone of the Mansion House. +Sir Samuel Pennant (mayor in 1750), kinsman of +the London historian, died of gaol fever, caught +at Newgate, and which at the same time carried off +an alderman, two judges, and some disregarded +commonalty. The great bell of St. Paul's tolled +on the death of the Lord Mayor, according to +custom. Sir Christopher Gascoigne (1753), an +ancestor of the present Viscount Cranbourne, was +the first Lord Mayor who resided at the Mansion +House.</p> + +<p>In that memorable year (1761) when Sir Samuel +Fludyer was elected, King George III. and Queen +Charlotte (the young couple newly crowned) came +to the City to see the Lord Mayor's Show from +Mr. Barclay's window, as we have already described +in our account of Cheapside; and the ancient +pageant was so far revived that the Fishmongers +ventured on a St. Peter, a dolphin, and two +mermaids, and the Skinners on Indian princes +dressed in furs. Sir Samuel Fludyer was a Cloth +Hall factor, and the City's scandalous chronicle +says that he originally came up to London attending +clothier's pack-horses, from the west country; +his second wife was granddaughter of a nobleman, +and niece of the Earl of Cardigan. His +sons married into the Montagu and Westmoreland +families, and his descendants are connected +with the Earls Onslow and Brownlow; and he +was very kind to young Romilly, his kinsman +(afterwards the excellent Sir Samuel). The "City +Biography" says Fludyer died from vexation at a +reprimand given him by the Lord Chancellor, for +having carried on a contraband trade in scarlet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_837" id="Page_837">[Pg 837]</a></span> +cloth, to the prejudice of the East India Company. +Sir Samuel was the ground landlord of +Fludyer Street, Westminster, cleared away for the +new Foreign Office.</p> + +<p>In 1762 and again in 1769 that bold citizen, +William Beckford, a friend of the great Chatham, +was Lord Mayor. He was descended from a +Maidenhead tailor, one of whose sons made a fortune +in Jamaica. At Westminster School he had +acquired the friendship of Lord Mansfield and a +rich earl. Beckford united in himself the following +apparently incongruous characters. He was +an enormously rich Jamaica planter, a merchant, a +member of Parliament, a militia officer, a provincial +magistrate, a London alderman, a man of +pleasure, a man of taste, an orator, and a country +gentleman. He opposed Government on all occasions, +especially in bringing over Hessian troops, +and in carrying on a German war. His great dictum +was that under the House of Hanover Englishmen +for the first time had been able to be free, +and for the first time had determined to be free. +He presented to the king a remonstrance against +a false return made at the Middlesex election. +The king expressed dissatisfaction at the remonstrance, +but Beckford presented another, and to +the astonishment of the Court, added the following +impromptu speech:—</p> + +<p>"Permit me, sire, to observe," are said to have +been the concluding remarks of the insolent citizen, +"that whoever has already dared, or shall hereafter +endeavour by false insinuations and suggestions to +alienate your Majesty's affections from your loyal +subjects in general, and from the City of London +in particular, and to withdraw your confidence in, +and regard for, your people, is an enemy to your +Majesty's person and family, a violator of the public +peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution as +it was established at the <i>Glorious and Necessary +Revolution</i>." At these words the king's countenance +was observed to flush with anger. He still, +however, presented a dignified silence; and accordingly +the citizens, after having been permitted to +kiss the king's hand, were forced to return dissatisfied +from the presence-chamber.</p> + +<p>This speech, which won Lord Chatham's "admiration, +thanks, and affection," and was inscribed +on the pedestal of Beckford's statue erected in +Guildhall, has been the subject of bitter disputes. +Isaac Reed boldly asserts every word was written +by Horne Tooke, and that Horne Tooke himself +said so. Gifford, with his usual headlong partisanship, +says the same; but there is every reason +to suppose that the words are those uttered by +Beckford with but one slight alteration. Beckford<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_838" id="Page_838">[Pg 838]</a></span> +died, a short time after making this speech, of a +fever, caught by riding from London to Fonthill, +his Wiltshire estate. His son, the novelist and +voluptuary, had a long minority, and succeeded +at last to a million ready money and £100,000 +a year, only to end life a solitary, despised, +exiled man. One of his daughters married the +Duke of Hamilton.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="lady" id="lady"></a> +<img src="images/p408.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> A LORD MAYOR AND HIS LADY (MIDDLE OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY). <i>From an Old Print.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>The Right Hon. Thomas Harley, Lord Mayor +in 1768, was a brother of the Earl of Oxford. He +turned wine-merchant, and married the daughter +of his father's steward, according to the scandalous +chronicles in the "City Biography." He is said, +in partnership with Mr. Drummond, to have made +£600,000 by taking a Government contract to +pay the English army in America with foreign +gold. He was for many years "the father of +the City."</p> + +<p>Harley first rendered himself famous in the City +by seizing the boot and petticoat which the mob +were burning opposite the Mansion House, in derision +of Lord Bute and the princess-dowager, at +the time the sheriffs were burning the celebrated +<i>North Briton</i>. The mob were throwing the papers +about as matter of diversion, and one of the bundles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_839" id="Page_839">[Pg 839]</a></span> +fell, unfortunately, with considerable force, against +the front glass of Mr. Sheriff Harley's chariot, which +it shattered to pieces. This gave the first alarm; +the sheriffs retired into the Mansion House, and a +man was taken up and brought there for examination, +as a person concerned in the riot. The man +appeared to be a mere idle spectator; but the Lord +Mayor informed the court that, in order to try the +temper of the mob, he had ordered one of his own +servants to be dressed in the clothes of the supposed +offender, and conveyed to the Poultry Compter, so +that if a rescue should be effected, the prisoner +would still be in custody, and the real disposition +of the people discovered. However, everything +was peaceable, and the course of justice was not +interrupted, nor did any insult accompany the commitment; +whereupon the prisoner was discharged. +What followed, in the actual burning of the seditious +paper, the Lord Mayor declared (according to the +best information), arose from circumstances equally +foreign to any illegal or violent designs. For these +reasons his lordship concluded by declaring that, +with the greatest respect for the sheriffs, and a firm +belief that they would have done their duty in +spite of any danger, he should put a negative upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_840" id="Page_840">[Pg 840]</a></span> +giving the thanks of the City upon a matter that +was not sufficiently important for a public and +solemn acknowledgment, which ought only to follow +the most eminent exertions of duty.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="wilkes" id="wilkes"></a> +<img src="images/p409.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WILKES ON HIS TRIAL. (<i>From a Contemporary Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1770 Brass Crosby (mayor) signalised himself +by a patriotic resistance to Court oppression, +and the arbitrary proceedings of the House of +Commons. He was a Sunderland solicitor, who +had married his employer's widow, and settled in +London. He married in all three wives, and is +said to have received £200,000 by the three. +Shortly after Crosby's election, the House of +Commons issued warrants against the printers of +the <i>Middlesex Journal</i> and the <i>Gazetteer</i>, for presuming +to give reports of the debates; but on +being brought before Alderman Wilkes, he discharged +them. The House then proceeded against +the printer of the <i>Evening Post</i>, but Crosby discharged +him, and committed the messenger of the +House for assault and false imprisonment. Not +long after, Crosby appeared at the bar of the +House, and defended what he had done; pleading +strongly that by an Act of William and Mary no +warrant could be executed in the City but by its +ministers. Wilkes also had received an order to +attend at the bar of the House, but refused to +comply with it, on the ground that no notice had +been taken in the order of his being a member. +The next day the Lord Mayor's clerk attended +with the Book of Recognisances, and Lord North +having carried a motion that the recognisance +be erased, the clerk was compelled to cancel it. +Most of the Opposition indignantly rose and left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_841" id="Page_841">[Pg 841]</a></span> +the House, declaring that effacing a record was +an act of the greatest despotism; and Junius, in +Letter 44, wrote: "By mere violence, and without +the shadow of right, they have expunged the +record of a judicial proceeding." Soon after this +act, on the motion of Welbore Ellis, the mayor was +committed to the Tower. The people were furious; +Lord North lost his cocked hat, and even Fox had +his clothes torn; and the mob obtaining a rope, +but for Crosby's entreaties, would have hung the +Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms. The question was simply +whether the House had the right to despotically +arrest and imprison, and to supersede trial by +jury. On the 8th of May the session terminated, +and the Lord Mayor was released. The City +was illuminated at night, and there were great +rejoicings. The victory was finally won. "The +great end of the contest," says Mr. Orridge, "was +obtained. From that day to the present the +House of Commons has never ventured to assail the +liberty of the press, or to prevent the publication +of the Parliamentary debates."</p> + +<p>At his inauguration dinner in Guildhall, there +was a superabundance of good things; notwithstanding +which, a great number of young fellows, +after the dinner was over, being heated with liquor, +got upon the hustings, and broke all the bottles and +glasses within their reach. At this time the Court +and Ministry were out of favour in the City; and +till the year 1776, when Halifax took as the legend +of his mayoralty "Justice is the ornament and protection +of liberty," no member of the Government +received an invitation to dine at Guildhall.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_842" id="Page_842">[Pg 842]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<p class="center">THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (<i>continued</i>)</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage—The <i>North Briton</i>—Duel with Martin—His Expulsion—Personal Appearance—Anecdotes of Wilkes—A +Reason for making a Speech—Wilkes and the King—The Lord Mayor at the Gordon Riots—"Soap-suds" <i>versus</i> "Bar"—Sir William +Curtis and his Kilt—A Gambling Lord Mayor—Sir William Staines, Bricklayer and Lord Mayor—"Patty-pan" Birch—Sir Matthew Wood—Waithman—Sir +Peter Laurie and the "Dregs of the People"—Recent Lord Mayors.</p></div> + + +<p>In 1774 that clever rascal, John Wilkes, ascended +the civic throne. We shall so often meet this unscrupulous +demagogue about London, that we will +not dwell upon him here at much length. Wilkes +was born in Clerkenwell, 1727. His father, Israel +Wilkes, was a rich distiller (as his father and +grandfather had been), who kept a coach and six, +and whose house was a resort of persons of rank, +merchants, and men of letters. Young Wilkes grew +up a man of pleasure, squandered his wife's fortune +in gambling and other fashionable vices, and +became a notorious member of the Hell Fire +Club at Medmenham Abbey. He now eagerly +strove for place, asking Mr. Pitt to find him a post +in the Board of Trade, or to send him as ambassador +to Constantinople. Finding his efforts useless, +he boldly avowed his intention of becoming +notorious by assailing Government. In 1763, in his +scurrilous paper, the <i>North Britain</i>, he violently +abused the Princess Dowager and her favourite Lord +Bute, who were supposed to influence the young +king, and in the celebrated No. 45 he accused the +ministers of putting a lie in the king's mouth. The +Government illegally arresting him by an arbitrary +"general warrant," he was committed to the +Tower, and at once became the martyr of the +people and the idol of the City. Released by +Chief-Justice Pratt, he was next proceeded against +for an obscene poem, the "Essay on Woman." He +fought a duel with Samuel Martin, a brother M.P., +who had insulted him, and was expelled the House +in 1764. He then went to France in the height of +his popularity, having just obtained a verdict in his +favour upon the question of the warrant. On his +return to England, he daringly stood for the representation +of London, and was elected for Middlesex. +Riots took place, a man was shot by the soldiers, +and Wilkes was committed to the King's Bench +prison. After a long contest with the Commons, +Wilkes was expelled the House, and being re-elected +for Middlesex, the election was declared void.</p> + +<p>Eventually Wilkes became Chamberlain of the +City, lectured refractory apprentices like a father, +and tamed down to an ordinary man of the world, +still shameless, ribald, irreligious, but, as Gibbon +says, "a good companion with inexhaustible spirits, +infinite wit and humour, and a great deal of knowledge." +He quietly took his seat for Middlesex in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_843" id="Page_843">[Pg 843]</a></span> +1782, and eight years afterwards the resolutions +against him were erased from the Journals of the +House. He died in 1797, at his house in Grosvenor +Square. Wilkes' sallow face, sardonic squint, +and projecting jaw, are familiar to us from Hogarth's +terrible caricature. He generally wore the dress of +a colonel of the militia—scarlet and buff, with a +cocked hat and rosette, bag wig, and military boots, +and O'Keefe describes seeing him walking in from +his house at Kensington Gore, disdaining all offers +of a coach. Dr. Franklin, when in England, describes +the mob stopping carriages, and compelling +their inmates to shout "Wilkes and liberty!" For +the first fifteen miles out of London on the Winchester +road, he says, and on nearly every door or +window-shutter, "No. 45" was chalked. By many +Tory writers Wilkes is considered latterly to have +turned his coat, but he seems to us to have been +perfectly consistent to the end. He was always +a Whig with aristocratic tastes. When oppression +ceased he ceased to protest. Most men grow more +Conservative as their minds weaken, but Wilkes +was always resolute for liberty.</p> + +<p>A few anecdotes of Wilkes are necessary for +seasoning to our chapter.</p> + +<p>Horne Tooke having challenged Wilkes, who +was then sheriff of London and Middlesex, received +the following laconic reply: "Sir, I do not think +it my business to cut the throat of every desperado +that may be tired of his life; but as I am at present +High Sheriff of the City of London, it may shortly +happen that I shall have an opportunity of attending +you in my civil capacity, in which case I will answer +for it that <i>you shall have no ground</i> to complain of +my endeavours to serve you." This is one of the +bitterest retorts ever uttered. Wilkes's notoriety +led to his head being painted as a public-house +sign, which, however, did not invariably raise the +original in estimation. An old lady, in passing a +public-house distinguished as above, her companion +called her attention to the sign. "Ah!" replied +she, "Wilkes swings everywhere but where he +ought." Wilkes's squint was proverbial; yet even +this natural obliquity he turned to humorous +account. When Wilkes challenged Lord Townshend, +he said, "Your lordship is one of the handsomest +men in the kingdom, and I am one of the +ugliest. Yet, give me but half an hour's start, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_844" id="Page_844">[Pg 844]</a></span> +will enter the lists against you with any woman you +choose to name."</p> + +<p>Once, when the house seemed resolved not to +hear him, and a friend urged him to desist—"Speak," +he said, "I must, for my speech has +been in print for the newspapers this half-hour." +Fortunately for him, he was gifted with a coolness +and effrontery which were only equalled by +his intrepidity, all three of which qualities constantly +served his turn in the hour of need. As +an instance of his audacity, it may be stated that +on one occasion he and another person put forth, +from a private room in a tavern, a proclamation commencing—"We, +the people of England," &c., and +concluding—"By order of the meeting." Another +amusing instance of his effrontery occurred on the +hustings at Brentford, when he and Colonel Luttrell +were standing there together as rival candidates +for the representation of Middlesex in Parliament. +Looking down with great apparent apathy +on the sea of human beings, consisting chiefly +of his own votaries and friends, which stretched +beneath him—"I wonder," he whispered to his +opponent, "whether among that crowd the fools or +the knaves predominate?" "I will tell them what +you say," replied the astonished Luttrell, "and thus +put an end to you." Perceiving that Wilkes treated +the threat with the most perfect indifference—"Surely," +he added, "you don't mean to say you +could stand here one hour after I did so?" "Why +not?" replied Wilkes; "it is <i>you</i> who would not +be alive one instant after." "How so?" inquired +Luttrell. "Because," said Wilkes, "I should merely +affirm that it was a fabrication, and they would destroy +you in the twinkling of an eye."</p> + +<p>During his latter days Wilkes not only became +a courtier, but was a frequent attendant at the +levees of George III. On one of these occasions +the King happened to inquire after his old friend +"Sergeant Glynn," who had been Wilkes's counsel +during his former seditious proceedings. "<i>My +friend</i>, sir!" replied Wilkes; "he is no friend of +mine; he was a Wilkite, sir, which I never was."</p> + +<p>He once dined with George IV. when Prince +of Wales, when overhearing the Prince speak in +rather disparaging language of his father, with whom +he was then notoriously on bad terms, he seized an +opportunity of proposing the health of the King. +"Why, Wilkes," said the Prince, "how long is it +since you became so loyal?" "Ever since, sir," +was the reply, "I had the honour of becoming +acquainted with your Royal Highness."</p> + +<p>Alderman Sawbridge (Framework Knitter), mayor +in 1775, on his return from a state visit to Kew +with all his retinue, was stopped and stripped by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_845" id="Page_845">[Pg 845]</a></span> +single highwayman. The swordbearer did not +even attempt to hew down the robber.</p> + +<p>In 1780, Alderman Kennet (Vintner) was mayor +during the Gordon riots. He had been a waiter +and then a wine merchant, was a coarse and +ignorant man, and displayed great incompetence +during the week the rioters literally held London. +When he was summoned to the House, to be +examined about the riots, one of the members +observed, "If you ring the bell, Kennet will come +in, of course." On being asked why he did not +at the outset send for the <i>posse comitatus</i>, he replied +he did not know where the fellow lived, or else he +would. One evening at the Alderman's Club, he +was sitting at whist, next Mr. Alderman Pugh, a +soap-boiler. "Ring the bell, Soap-suds," said +Kennet. "Ring it yourself, Bar," replied Pugh; +"you have been twice as much used to it as I +have." There is no disgrace in having been a +soap-boiler or a wine merchant; the true disgrace +is to be ashamed of having carried on an honest +business.</p> + +<p>Alderman Clarke (Joiner), mayor in 1784, succeeded +Wilkes as Chamberlain in 1798, and died +aged ninety-two, in 1831. This City patriarch was, +when a mere boy, introduced to Dr. Johnson by that +insufferable man, Sir John Hawkins. He met +Dr. Percy, Goldsmith, and Hawkesworth, with the +Polyphemus of letters, at the "Mitre." He was a +member of the Essex Head Club. "When he +was sheriff in 1777," says Mr. Timbs, "he took Dr. +Johnson to a judges' dinner at the Old Bailey, the +judges being Blackstone and Eyre." The portrait +of Chamberlain Clarke, in the Court of Common +Council in Guildhall, is by Sir Thomas Lawrence, +and cost one hundred guineas. There is also a +bust of Mr. Clarke, by Sievier, at the Guildhall, +which was paid for by a subscription of the City +officers.</p> + +<p>Alderman Boydell, mayor in 1790, we have described +fully elsewhere. He presided over Cheap +Ward for twenty-three years. Nearly opposite his +house, 90, Cheapside, is No. 73, which, before +the present Mansion House was built, was used +occasionally as the Lord Mayor's residence.</p> + +<p>Sir James Saunderson (Draper), from whose +curious book of official expenses we quote in our +chapter on the Mansion House, was mayor in +1792. It was this mayor who sent a posse of +officers to disperse a radical meeting held at that +"caldron of sedition," Founders' Hall, and among +the persons expelled was a young orator named +Waithman, afterwards himself a mayor.</p> + +<p>1795-6 was made pleasant to the Londoners +by the abounding hospitality of Sir William Curtis,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_846" id="Page_846">[Pg 846]</a></span> +a portly baronet, who, while he delighted in a +liberal feast and a cheerful glass, evidently thought +them of small value unless shared by his friends. +Many years afterwards, during the reign of George +IV., whose good graces he had secured, he went +to Scotland with the king, and made Edinburgh +merry by wearing a kilt in public. The wits +laughed at his costume, complete even to the little +dagger in the stocking, but told him he had forgotten +one important thing—the spoon.</p> + +<p>In 1797, Sir Benjamin Hamet was fined £1,000 +for refusing to serve as mayor.</p> + +<p>1799. Alderman Combe, mayor, the brewer, +whom some saucy citizens nicknamed "Mash-tub." +But he loved gay company. Among the members +at Brookes's who indulged in high play was Combe, +who is said to have made as much money in this +way as he did by brewing. One evening, whilst +he filled the office of Lord Mayor, he was busy +at a full hazard table at Brookes's, where the wit +and dice-box circulated together with great glee, +and where Beau Brummel was one of the party. +"Come, Mash-tub," said Brummel, who was the +<i>caster</i>, "what do you <i>set</i>?" "Twenty-five guineas," +answered the alderman. "Well, then," returned +the beau, "have at the mare's pony" (twenty-five +guineas). The beau continued to throw until he +drove home the brewer's twelve ponies running, and +then getting up and making him a low bow whilst +pocketing the cash, he said, "Thank you, alderman; +for the future I shall never drink any porter +but yours." "I wish, sir," replied the brewer, +"that every other blackguard in London would +tell me the same." Combe was succeeded in the +mayoralty by Sir William Staines. They were both +smokers, and were seen one night at the Mansion +House lighting their pipes at the same taper; +which reminds us of the two kings of Brentford +smelling at one nosegay. (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>1800. Sir William Staines, mayor. He began +life as a bricklayer's labourer, and by persevering +steadily in the pursuit of one object, accumulated +a large fortune, and rose to the state coach and the +Mansion House. He was Alderman of Cripplegate +Ward, where his memory is much respected. +In Jacob's Well Passage, in 1786, he built nine +houses for the reception of his aged and indigent +friends. They are erected on both sides of the +court, with nothing to distinguish them from the +other dwelling-houses, and without ostentatious +display of stone or other inscription to denote the +poverty of the inhabitants. The early tenants +were aged workmen, tradesmen, &c., several of +whom Staines had personally esteemed as his neighbours. +One, a peruke-maker, had shaved the worthy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_847" id="Page_847">[Pg 847]</a></span> +alderman during forty years. Staines also built +Barbican Chapel, and rebuilt the "Jacob's Well" +public-house, noted for dramatic representations. +The alderman was an illiterate man, and was a sort +of butt amongst his brethren. At one of the Old +Bailey dinners, after a sumptuous repast of turtle +and venison, Sir William was eating a great quantity +of butter with his cheese. "Why, brother," said +Wilkes, "you lay it on with a <i>trowel</i>!" A son +of Sir William Staines, who worked at his father's +business (a builder), fell from a lofty ladder, and +was killed; when the father, on being fetched to +the spot, broke through the crowd, exclaiming, +"See that the poor fellow's watch is safe!" His +manners may be judged from the following anecdote. +At a City feast, when sheriff, sitting by +General Tarleton, he thus addressed him, "Eat +away at the pines, General; for we must pay, eat +or not eat."</p> + +<p>In 1806, Sir James Shaw (Scrivener), afterwards +Chamberlain, was a native of Kilmarnock, where a +marble statue of him has been erected. He was of +the humblest birth, but amassed a fortune as a +merchant, and sat in three parliaments for the City. +He was extremely charitable, and was one of the +first to assist the children of Burns. At one of his +mayoralty dinners, seven sons of George III. were +guests.</p> + +<p>Sir William Domville (Stationer), mayor in 1814, +gave the great Guildhall banquet to the Prince +Regent and the Allied Sovereigns during the short +and fallacious peace before Waterloo. The dinner +was served on plate valued at £200,000, and the +entire entertainment cost nearly £25,000. The +mayor was made baronet for this.</p> + +<p>In 1815 reigned Alderman Birch, the celebrated +Cornhill confectioner. The business at No. 15, +Cornhill was established by Mr. Horton, in the +reign of George I. Samuel Birch, born in 1787, +was for many years a member of the Common +Council, a City orator, an Alderman of the Ward of +Candlewick, a poet, a dramatic writer, and Colonel +of the City Militia. His pastry was, after all, the +best thing he did, though he laid the first stone of +the London Institution, and wrote the inscription +to Chantrey's statue of George III., now in +the Council Chamber, Guildhall. "Mr. Patty-pan" +was Birch's nickname.</p> + +<p>Theodore Hook, or some clever versifier of the +day, wrote an amusing skit on the vain, fussy, good-natured +Jack-of-all-trades, beginning—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Monsieur grown tired of fricassee,<br /> +Resolved Old England now to see,<br /> +The country where their roasted beef<br /> +And puddings large pass all belief."<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_848" id="Page_848">[Pg 848]</a></span></div> + +<p>Wherever this inquisitive foreigner goes he find +Monsieur Birch—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Guildhall at length in sight appears,<br /> +An orator is hailed with cheers.<br /> +'Zat orator, vat is hees name?'<br /> +'Birch the pastrycook—the very same.'"</div> + +<p>He meets him again as militia colonel, poet, +&c. &c., till he returns to France believing Birch +Emperor of London.</p> + +<p>Birch possessed considerable literary taste, and +wrote poems and musical dramas, of which "The +Adopted Child" remained a stock piece to our own +time. The alderman used annually to send, as a +present, a Twelfth-cake to the Mansion House. +The upper portion of the house in Cornhill has +been rebuilt, but the ground-floor remains intact, +a curious specimen of the decorated shop-front of +the last century; and here are preserved two doorplates, +inscribed "Birch, successor to Mr. Horton," +which are 140 years old. Alderman Birch died in +1840, having been succeeded in the business in +Cornhill in 1836, by Ring and Brymer.</p> + +<p>In 1816-17, we come to a mayor of great +notoriety, Sir Matthew Wood, a druggist in Falcon +Square. He was a Devonshire man, who began life +as a druggist's traveller, and distinguished himself by +his exertions for poor persecuted Queen Caroline. +He served as Lord Mayor two successive years, +and represented the City in nine parliaments. His +baronetcy was the first title conferred by Queen +Victoria, in 1837, as a reward for his political +exertions. As a namesake of "Jemmy Wood," +the miser banker of Gloucester, he received a +princely legacy. The Vice-Chancellor Page Wood +(Lord Hatherley) was the mayor's second son.</p> + +<p>The following sonnet was contributed by Charles +and Mary Lamb to Thelwall's newspaper, <i>The +Champion</i>. Lamb's extreme opinions, as here +enunciated, were merely assumed to please his +friend Thelwall, but there seems a genuine tone in +his abuse of Canning. Perhaps it dated from the +time when the "player's son" had ridiculed Southey +and Coleridge:—</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnet to Matthew Wood, Esq., Alderman +and M.P.</span></p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Hold on thy course uncheck'd, heroic Wood!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Regardless what the player's son may prate,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">St. Stephen's fool, the zany of debate—</span><br /> +Who nothing generous ever understood.<br /> +London's twice prætor! scorn the fool-born jest,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The stage's scum, and refuse of the players—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stale topics against magistrates and mayors—</span><br /> +City and country both thy worth attest.<br /> +Bid him leave off his shallow Eton wit,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More fit to soothe the superficial ear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of drunken Pitt, and that pickpocket Peer,</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_849" id="Page_849">[Pg 849]</a></span>When at their sottish orgies they did sit,<br /> +Hatching mad counsels from inflated vein,<br /> +Till England and the nations reeled with pain."</div> + +<p>In 1818-19 Alderman John Atkins was host +at the Mansion House. In early life he had been +a Customs' tide-waiter, and was not remarkable for +polished manners; but he was a shrewd and worthy +man, filling the seat of justice with impartiality, +and dispensing the hospitality of the City with an +open hand.</p> + +<p>In 1821 John Thomas Thorpe (Draper), mayor, +officiated as chief butler at the coronation feast of +George IV. He and twelve assistants presented the +king wine in a golden cup, which the king returned +as the cup-bearer's fees. Being, however, a violent +partisan of Queen Caroline, he was not created a +baronet.</p> + +<p>In 1823 we come to another determined reformer, +Alderman Waithman, whom we have already +noticed in the chapter on Fleet Street. As a poor +lad, he was adopted by his uncle, a Bath linendraper. +He began to appear as a politician in 1794. When +sheriff in 1821, in quelling a tumult at Knightsbridge, +he was in danger from a Life-guardsman's +carbine, and at the funeral of Queen Caroline, a +carbine bullet passed through his carriage in Hyde +Park. Many of his resolutions in the Common +Council were, says Mr. Timbs, written by Sir +Richard Phillips, the bookseller.</p> + +<p>Alderman Garratt (Goldsmith), mayor in 1825, +laid the first stone of London Bridge, accompanied +by the Duke of York. At the banquet at the +Mansion House, 360 guests were entertained in +the Egyptian Hall, and nearly 200 of the Artillery +Company in the saloon. The Monument was +illuminated the same night.</p> + +<p>In 1830, Alderman Key, mayor, roused great +indignation in the City, by frightening William IV., +and preventing his coming to the Guildhall dinner. +The show and inauguration dinner were in consequence +omitted. In 1831 Key was again mayor, +and on the opening of London Bridge was created +a baronet.</p> + +<p>Sir Peter Laurie, in 1832-3, though certainly +possessing a decided opinion on most political +questions, which he steadily, and no doubt honestly +carried out, frequently incurred criticism on account +of his extreme views, and a passion for "putting +down" what he imagined social grievances. He +lived to a green old age. In manners open, +easy, and unassuming; in disposition, friendly +and liberal; kind as a master, and unaffectedly +hospitable as a host, he gained, as he deserved, +"troops of friends," dying lamented and honoured, +as he had lived, respected and beloved. (Aleph.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_850" id="Page_850">[Pg 850]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Sir Peter Laurie, as Lord Mayor of London, +entertained the judges and leaders of the bar, he +exclaimed to his guests, in an after-dinner oration:—</p> + +<p>"See before you the examples of myself, the +chief magistrate of this great empire, and the Chief +Justice of England sitting at my right hand; both +now in the highest offices of the state, and both +<i>sprung from the very dregs of the people</i>!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="birchs" id="birchs"></a> +<img src="images/p414.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BIRCH'S SHOP, CORNHILL</span> +</div> + +<p>Although Lord Tenterden possessed too much +natural dignity and truthfulness to blush for his +humble origin, he winced at hearing his excellent +mother and her worthy husband, the Canterbury +wig-maker, thus described as belonging to "the +very dregs of the people."</p> + +<p>1837. Alderman Kelly, Lord Mayor at the accession +of her Majesty, was born at Chevening, in +Kent, and lived, when a youth, with Alexander +Hogg, the publisher, in Paternoster Row, for £10 +a year wages. He slept under the shop-counter +for the security of the premises. He was reported +by his master to be "too slow" for the situation. +Mr. Hogg, however, thought him "a bidable boy," +and he remained. This incident shows upon what +apparently trifling circumstances sometimes a man's +future prospects depend. Mr. Kelly succeeded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_851" id="Page_851">[Pg 851]</a></span> +Mr. Hogg in the business, became Alderman of +the Ward of Farringdon Within, and served as +sheriff and mayor, the cost of which exceeded the +fees and allowances by the sum of £10,000. He +lived upon the same spot sixty years, and died in +his eighty-fourth year. He was a man of active +benevolence, and reminded one of the pious Lord +Mayor, Sir Thomas Abney. He composed some +prayers for his own use, which were subsequently +printed for private distribution. (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>Sir John Cowan (Wax Chandler), mayor in 1838, +was created a baronet after having entertained the +Queen at his mayoralty dinner.</p> + +<p>1839. Sir Chapman Marshall, mayor. He received +knighthood when sheriff, in 1831; and at +a public dinner of the friends and supporters of +the Metropolitan Charity Schools, he addressed +the company as follows:—"My Lord Mayor and +gentlemen,—I want words to express the emotions +of my heart. You see before you a humble individual +who has been educated at a parochial +school. I came to London in 1803, without a +shilling, without a friend. I have not had the +benefit of a classical education; but this I will say, +my Lord Mayor and gentlemen, that you witness +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_853" id="Page_853">[Pg 853]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_852" id="Page_852">[Pg 852]</a></span>in me what may be done by the earnest application +of honest industry; and I trust that my example +may induce others to aspire, by the same means, +to the distinguished situation which I have now +the honour to fill." Self-made men are too fond +of such glorifications, and forget how much wealth +depends on good fortune and opportunity.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="stocks" id="stocks"></a> +<img src="images/p415.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE STOCKS' MARKET, SITE OF THE MANSION HOUSE. (<i>From an Old Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>1839. Alderman Wilson, mayor, signalised his +year of office by giving, in the Egyptian Hall, a +banquet to 117 connections of the Wilson family +being above the age of nine years. At this family +festival, the usual civic state and ceremonial were +maintained, the sword and mace borne, &c.; but +after the loving cup had been passed round, the +attendants were dismissed, in order that the free +family intercourse might not be restricted during +the remainder of the evening. A large number of +the Wilson family, including the alderman himself, +have grown rich in the silk trade. (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>In 1842, Sir John Pirie, mayor, the Royal Exchange +was commenced. Baronetcy received on +the christening of the Prince of Wales. At his +inauguration dinner at Guildhall, Sir John said: +"I little thought, forty years ago, when I came to +London a poor lad from the banks of the Tweed, +that I should ever arrive at so great a distinction." +In his mayoralty show, Pirie, being a shipowner, +added to the procession a model of a large East +Indiaman, fully rigged and manned, and drawn in +a car by six horses. (Aleph.)</p> + +<p>Alderman Farncomb (Tallow-chandler), mayor +in 1849, was one of the great promoters of the +Great Exhibition of 1851, that Fair of all Nations +which was to bring about universal peace, and +wrap the globe in English cotton. He gave a +grand banquet at the Mansion House to Prince +Albert and a host of provincial mayors; and +Prince Albert explained his views about his hobby +in his usual calm and sensible way.</p> + +<p>In 1850 Sir John Musgrove (Clothworker), at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_854" id="Page_854">[Pg 854]</a></span> +the suggestion of Mr. G. Godwin, arranged a show +on more than usually æsthetic principles. There +was Peace with her olive-branch, the four quarters +of the world, with camels, deer, elephants, negroes, +beehives, a ship in full sail, an allegorical car, +drawn by six horses, with Britannia on a throne +and Happiness at her feet; and great was the +delight of the mob at the gratuitous splendour.</p> + +<p>Alderman Salomons (1855) was the first Jewish +Lord Mayor—a laudable proof of the increased +toleration of our age. This mayor proved a liberal +and active magistrate, who repressed the mischievous +and unmeaning Guy Fawkes rejoicings, +and through the exertions of the City Solicitor, +persuaded the Common Council to at last erase +the absurd inscription on the Monument, which +attributed the Fire of London to a Roman Catholic +conspiracy.</p> + +<p>Alderman Rose, mayor in 1862 (Spectacle-maker), +an active encourager of the useful and +manly volunteer movement, had the honour of +entertaining the Prince of Wales and his beautiful +Danish bride at a Guildhall banquet, soon after +their marriage. The festivities (including £10,000 +for a diamond necklace) cost the Corporation some +£60,000. The alderman was knighted in 1867. +He was (says Mr. Timbs) Alderman of Queenhithe, +living in the same row where three mayors of our +time have resided.</p> + +<p>Alderman Lawrence, mayor in 1863-4. His +father and brother were both aldermen, and all +three were in turns Sheriff of London and Middlesex. +Alderman Phillips (Spectacle-maker), mayor +in 1865, was the second Jewish Lord Mayor, and +the first Jew admitted into the municipality of +London. This gentleman, of Prussian descent, +had the honour of entertaining, at the Mansion +House, the Prince of Wales and the King and +Queen of the Belgians, and was knighted at the +close of his mayoralty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_855" id="Page_855">[Pg 855]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> + +<p class="center">THE POULTRY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Early Home of the London Poulterers—Its Mysterious Desertion—Noteworthy Sites in the Poultry—The Birthplace of Tom Hood, Senior—A +Pretty Quarrel at the Rose Tavern—A Costly Sign-board—The Three Cranes—The Home of the Dillys—Johnsoniana—St. Mildred's +Church, Poultry—Quaint Epitaphs—The Poultry Compter—Attack on Dr. Lamb, the Conjurer—Dekker, the Dramatist—Ned Ward's +Description of the Compter—Granville Sharp and the Slave Trade—Important Decision in favour of the Slave—Boyse—Dunton.</p></div> + + +<p>The busy street extending between Cheapside and +Cornhill is described by Stow (Queen Elizabeth) as +the special quarter, almost up to his time, of +the London poulterers, who sent their fowls and +feathered game to be prepared in Scalding Alley +(anciently called Scalding House, or Scalding Wike). +The pluckers and scorchers of the feathered fowl +occupied the shops between the Stocks' Market +(now the Mansion House) and the Great Conduit. +Just before Stow's time the poulterers seem to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_856" id="Page_856">[Pg 856]</a></span> +have taken wing in a unanimous covey, and settled +down, for reasons now unknown to us, and not +very material to any one, in Gracious (Gracechurch) +Street, and the end of St. Nicholas flesh shambles +(now Newgate Market). Poultry was not worth its +weight in silver then.</p> + +<p>The chief points of interest in the street (past +and present) are the Compter Prison, Grocers' +Hall, Old Jewry, and several shops with memorable +associations. Lubbock's Banking House, for instance, +is leased of the Goldsmiths' Company, +being part of Sir Martin Bowes' bequest to the +Company in Elizabeth's time. Sir Martin Bowes +we have already mentioned in our chapter on the +Goldsmiths' Company.</p> + +<p>The name of one of our greatest English wits is +indissolubly connected with the neighbourhood of +the Poultry. It falls like a cracker, with merry bang +and sparkle, among the graver histories with which +this great street is associated. Tom Hood was the +son of a Scotch bookseller in the Poultry. The +firm was "Vernor and Hood." "Mr. Hood," says +Mrs. Broderip, "was one of the 'Associated Booksellers,' +who selected valuable old books for reprinting, +with great success. Messrs. Vernor and +Hood, when they moved to 31, Poultry, took into +partnership Mr. C. Sharpe. The firm of Messrs. +Vernor and Hood published 'The Beauties of +England and Wales,' 'The Mirror,' Bloomfield's +poems, and those of Henry Kirke White." At this +house in the Poultry, as far as we can trace, in +the year 1799, was born his second son, Thomas. +After the sudden death of the father, the widow +and her children were left rather slenderly provided +for. "My father, the only remaining son, preferred +the drudgery of an engraver's desk to encroaching +upon the small family store. He was articled to +his uncle, Mr. Sands, and subsequently was transferred +to one of the Le Keux. He was a most +devoted and excellent son to his mother, and +the last days of her widowhood and decline +were soothed by his tender care and affection. +An opening that offered more congenial employment +presented itself at last, when he was about +the age of twenty-one. By the death of Mr. John +Scott, the editor of the 'London Magazine,' +who was killed in a duel, that periodical passed +into other hands, and became the property of my +father's friends, Messrs. Taylor and Hessey. The +new proprietors soon sent for him, and he became +a sort of sub-editor to the magazine." Of this +period of his life he says himself:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Time was when I sat upon a lofty stool,<br /> +At lofty desk, and with a clerkly pen,<br /> +Began each morning, at the stroke of ten,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_857" id="Page_857">[Pg 857]</a></span>To write to Bell and Co.'s commercial school,<br /> +In Warneford Court, a shady nook and cool,<br /> +The favourite retreat of merchant men.<br /> +Yet would my quill turn vagrant, even then,<br /> +And take stray dips in the Castalian pool;<br /> +Now double entry—now a flowery trope—<br /> +Mingling poetic honey with trade wax;<br /> +Blogg Brothers—Milton—Grote and Prescott—Pope,<br /> +Bristles and Hogg—Glynn, Mills, and Halifax—<br /> +Rogers and Towgood—hemp—the Bard of Hope—<br /> +Barilla—Byron—tallow—Burns and flax."</div> + +<p>The "King's Head" Tavern (No. 25) was kept +at the Restoration by William King, a staunch +cavalier. It is said that the landlord's wife happened +to be on the point of labour on the day +of the king's entry into London. She was extremely +anxious to see the returning monarch, and +the king, being told of her inclination, drew up at +the door of the tavern in his good-natured way, +and saluted her.</p> + +<p>The King's Head Tavern, which stood at the +western extremity of the Stocks' Market, was not at +first known by the sign of the "King's Head," but +the "Rose." Machin, in his diary, Jan. 5, 1560, +thus mentions it:—"A gentleman arrested for debt: +Master Cobham, with divers gentlemen and serving +men, took him from the officers, and carried him to +the Rose Tavern, where so great a fray, both the +sheriffs were fain to come, and from the Rose +Tavern took all the gentlemen and their servants, +and carried them to the Compter." The house was +distinguished by the device of a large, well-painted +rose, erected over a doorway, which was the only +indication in the street of such an establishment. +Ned Ward, that coarse observer, in the "London +Spy," 1709, describes the "Rose," anciently the +"Rose and Crown," as famous for good wine. +"There was no parting," he says, "without a glass; +so we went into the Rose Tavern in the Poultry, +where the wine, according to its merit, had justly +gained a reputation; and there, in a snug room, +warmed with brush and faggot, over a quart of +good claret, we laughed over our night's adventure. +The tavern door was flanked by two columns +twisted with vines carved in wood, which supported +a small square gallery over the portico, surrounded +by handsome iron-work. On the front of this +gallery was erected the sign. It consisted of a +central compartment containing the Rose, behind +which the artist had introduced a tall silver cup, +called "a standing bowl," with drinking glasses. +Beneath the painting was this inscription:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><p class="center">"This is<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Rose Tavern</span>,<br /> +Kept by<br /> +<span class="smcap">William King</span>,<br /> +Citizen and Vintner.<br /></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_858" id="Page_858">[Pg 858]</a></span></p> + +<div style="margin-left: 18em;">This Taverne's like its sign—a lustie Rose,<br /> +A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose;<br /> +The daintie Flow're well pictur'd here is seene,<br /> +But for its rarest sweets—come, searche within!"</div> + +<p>About the time that King altered his sign we +find the authorities of St. Peter-upon-Cornhill determining +"That the King's Arms, in painted glass, +should be refreshed, and forthwith be set up (in +one of their church windows) by the churchwarden +at the parish charges; with whatsoever he giveth +to the glazier as a gratuity."</p> + +<p>The sign appears to have been a costly work, since +there was the fragment of a leaf of an old account-book +found when the ruins of the house were +cleared after the Great Fire, on which were written +these entries:—"P<sup>d</sup>. to Hoggestreete, the Duche +paynter, for y<sup>e</sup> picture of a Rose, w<sup>th</sup> a Standing-bowle +and glasses, for a signe, xx <i>li.</i>, besides diners +and drinkings; also for a large table of walnut-tree, +for a frame, and for iron-worke and hanging the +picture, v <i>li.</i>" The artist who is referred to in this +memorandum could be no other than Samuel Van +Hoogstraten, a painter of the middle of the seventeenth +century, whose works in England are very +rare. He was one of the many excellent artists of +the period, who, as Walpole contemptuously says, +"painted still life, oranges and lemons, plate, +damask curtains, cloth of gold, and that medley +of familiar objects that strike the ignorant vulgar." +At a subsequent date the landlord wrote under +the sign—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Gallants, rejoice! This flow're is now full-blowne!<br /> +'Tis a Rose-Noble better'd by a crowne;<br /> +All you who love the emblem and the signe,<br /> +Enter, and prove our loyaltie and wine."<br /></div> + +<p>The tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and +flourished many years. It was long a depôt in the +metropolis for turtle; and in the quadrangle of the +tavern might be seen scores of turtle, large and +lively, in huge tanks of water; or laid upward on +the stone floor, ready for their destination. The +tavern was also noted for large dinners of the City +Companies and other public bodies. The house +was refitted in 1852, but has since been pulled +down. (Timbs.)</p> + +<p>Another noted Poultry Tavern was the "Three +Cranes," destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt and +noticed in 1698, in one of the many paper controversies +of that day. A fulminating pamphlet, +entitled "Ecclesia et Factio: a Dialogue between +Bow Church Steeple and the Exchange Grasshopper," +elicited "An Answer to the Dragon and +Grasshopper; in a Dialogue between an Old +Monkey and a Young Weasel, at the Three Cranes +Tavern, in the Poultry."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_859" id="Page_859">[Pg 859]</a></span></p> + +<p>No. 22 was the house of Johnson's friends, +Edward and Charles Dilly, the booksellers. Here, +in the year 1773, Boswell and Johnson dined with +the Dillys, Goldsmith, Langton, and the Rev. +Mr. Toplady. The conversation was of excellent +quality, and Boswell devotes many pages to it. +They discussed the emigration and nidification of +birds, on which subjects Goldsmith seems to have +been deeply interested; the bread-fruit of Otaheite, +which Johnson, who had never tasted it, considered +surpassed by a slice of the loaf before him; toleration, +and the early martyrs. On this last subject, +Dr. Mayo, "the literary anvil," as he was called, +because he bore Johnson's hardest blows without +flinching, held out boldly for unlimited toleration; +Johnson for Baxter's principle of only "tolerating +all things that are tolerable," which is no toleration +at all. Goldsmith, unable to get a word in, and +overpowered by the voice of the great Polyphemus, +grew at last vexed, and said petulantly to Johnson, +who he thought had interrupted poor Toplady, "Sir, +the gentleman has heard you patiently for an hour; +pray allow us now to hear him." Johnson replied, +sternly, "Sir, I was not interrupting the gentleman; +I was only giving him a signal proof of my attention. +Sir, you are impertinent."</p> + +<p>Johnson, Boswell, and Langton presently adjourned +to the club, where they found Burke, +Garrick, and Goldsmith, the latter still brooding +over his sharp reprimand at Dilly's. Johnson, +magnanimous as a lion, at once said aside to +Boswell, "I'll make Goldsmith forgive me." Then +calling to the poet, in a loud voice he said, "Dr. +Goldsmith, something passed to-day where you and +I dined; I ask your pardon."</p> + +<p>Goldsmith, touched with this, replied, "It must +be much from you, sir, that I take ill"—became +himself, "and rattled away as usual." Would +Goldy have rattled away so had he known what +Johnson, Boswell, and Langton had said about him +as they walked up Cheapside? Langton had observed +that the poet was not like Addison, who, +content with his fame as a writer, did not attempt +a share in conversation; to which Boswell added, +that Goldsmith had a great deal of gold in his +cabinet, but, not content with that, was always +pulling out his purse. "Yes, sir," struck in +Johnson, "and that is often an empty purse."</p> + +<p>In 1776 we find Boswell skilfully decoying his +great idol to dinner at the Dillys to meet the +notorious "Jack Wilkes." To Boswell's horror, +when he went to fetch Johnson, he found him +covered with dust, and buffeting some books, having +forgotten all about the dinner party. A little +coaxing, however, soon won him over; Johnson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_860" id="Page_860">[Pg 860]</a></span> +roared out, "Frank, a clean shirt!" and was soon +packed into a hackney coach. On discovering "a +certain gentleman in lace," and he Wilkes the +demagogue, Johnson was at first somewhat disconcerted, +but soon recovered himself, and behaved +like a man of the world. Wilkes quickly won the +great man.</p> + +<p>They soon set to work discussing Foote's wit, +and Johnson confessed that, though resolved not to +be pleased, he had once at a dinner-party been +obliged to lay down his knife and fork, throw +himself back in his chair, and fairly laugh it out—"The +dog was so comical, sir: he was irresistible." +Wilkes and Johnson then fell to bantering the +Scotch; Burke complimented Boswell on his successful +stroke of diplomacy in bringing Johnson +and Wilkes together.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wilkes placed himself next to Dr. Johnson, +and behaved to him with so much attention and +politeness, that he gained upon him insensibly. +No man ate more heartily than Johnson, or loved +better what was nice and delicate. Mr. Wilkes +was very assiduous in helping him to some fine +veal. "Pray give me leave, sir—it is better there—a +little of the brown—some fat, sir—a little of +the stuffing—some gravy—let me have the pleasure +of giving you some butter—allow me to recommend +a squeeze of this orange; or the lemon, perhaps, +may have more zest." "Sir—sir, I am obliged to +you, sir," cried Johnson, bowing, and turning his +head to him with a look for some time of "surly +virtue," but, in a short while, of complacency.</p> + +<p>But the most memorable evening recorded at +Dilly's was April 15, 1778, when Johnson and +Boswell dined there, and met Miss Seward, the +Lichfield poetess, and Mrs. Knowles, a clever +Quaker lady, who for once overcame the giant of +Bolt Court in argument. Before dinner Johnson +took up a book, and read it ravenously. "He +knows how to read it better," said Mrs. Knowles to +Boswell, "than any one. He gets at the substance +of a book directly. He tears out the heart of it." +At dinner Johnson told Dilly that, if he wrote a +book on cookery, it should be based on philosophical +principles. "Women," he said, contemptuously, +"can spin, but they cannot make a good +book of cookery."</p> + +<p>They then fell to talking of a ghost that had +appeared at Newcastle, and had recommended +some person to apply to an attorney. Johnson +thought the Wesleys had not taken pains enough +in collecting evidence, at which Miss Seward +smiled. This vexed the superstitious sage of Fleet +Street, and he said, with solemn vehemence, "Yes, +ma'am, this is a question which, after five thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_861" id="Page_861">[Pg 861]</a></span> +years, is yet undecided; a question, whether in +theology or philosophy, one of the most important +that can come before the human understanding."</p> + +<p>Johnson, who during the evening had been very +thunderous at intervals, breaking out against the +Americans, describing them as "rascals, robbers, +and pirates," and declaring he would destroy them +all—as Boswell says, "He roared out a tremendous +volley which one might fancy could be heard +across the Atlantic," &c.—grew very angry at Mrs. +Knowles for noticing his unkindness to Miss Jane +Barry, a recent convert to Quakerism.</p> + +<p>"We remained," says Boswell, writing with +awe, like a man who has survived an earthquake, +"together till it was very late. Notwithstanding +occasional explosions of violence, we were all +delighted upon the whole with Johnson. I compared +him at the time to a warm West Indian +climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, +luxurious foliage, luscious fruits, but where +the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightning, +and earthquakes in a terrible degree."</p> + +<p>St. Mildred's Church, Poultry, is a rectory situate +at the corner of Scalding Alley. John de Asswell +was collated thereto in the year 1325. To this +church anciently belonged the chapel of Corpus +Christi and St. Mary, at the end of Conyhoop Lane, +or Grocers' Alley, in the Poultry. The patronage +of this church was in the prior and canons of St. +Mary Overie's in Southwark till their suppression. +This church was consumed in the Great Fire, anno +1666, and then rebuilt, the parish of St. Mary Cole +being thereunto annexed. Among the monumental +inscriptions in this church, Maitland gives +the following on the well-known Thomas Tusser, +of Elizabeth's reign, who wrote a quaint poem on +a farmer's life and duties:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie,<br /> +That some time made the points of husbandrie.<br /> +By him then learne thou maist, here learne we must,<br /> +When all is done we sleep and turn to dust.<br /> +And yet through Christ to heaven we hope to goe,<br /> +Who reads his bookes shall find his faith was so.</div> + +<p>Among the curious epitaphs in St. Mildred's, +Stow mentions the following, which is worth +quoting here:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Here lies buried Thomas Yken, Skinner.</span><br /> +<br /> +"In Hodnet and London<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">God blessed my life,</span><br /> +Till forty and sixe yeeres,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With children and wife;</span><br /> +And God will raise me<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Up to life againe,</span><br /> +Therefore have I thought<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My death no paine."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_862" id="Page_862">[Pg 862]</a></span></div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="john" id="john"></a> +<img src="images/p420.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />JOHN WILKES. (<i>From an Authentic Portrait.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>A fair monument of Queen Elizabeth had on +the sides the following verses inscribed:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"If prayers or tears<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of subjects had prevailed,</span><br /> +To save a princesse<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through the world esteemed;</span><br /> +Then Atropos<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In cutting here had fail'd,</span><br /> +And had not cut her thread,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But been redeem'd;</span><br /> +But pale-faced Death;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And cruel churlish Fate,</span><br /> +To prince and people<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brings the latest date.</span><br /> +Yet spight of Death and Fate,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fame will display</span><br /> +Her gracious virtues<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through the world for aye,</span><br /> +Spain's Rod, Rome's Ruine,<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_863" id="Page_863">[Pg 863]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Netherlands' Reliefe;</span><br /> +Heaven's gem, earth's joy,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">World's wonder, Nature's chief.</span><br /> +Britaine's blessing, England's splendour,<br /> +Religion's Nurse, the Faith's Defender."</div> + +<p>The Poultry Compter, on the site of the present +Grocers' Alley, was one of the old sheriff's prisons +pulled down in 1817, replaced soon after by a +chapel. Stow mentions the prison as four houses +west from the parish of St. Mildred, and describes +it as having been "there kept and continued time +out of mind, for I have not read the original +hereof." "It was the only prison," says Mr. Peter +Cunningham, "with a ward set apart for Jews +(probably from its vicinity to Old Jewry), and it +was the only prison in London left unattacked by +Lord George Gordon's blue cockaded rioters in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_864" id="Page_864">[Pg 864]</a></span> +1780." This may have arisen from secret instructions +of Lord George, who had sympathies for the +Jews, and eventually became one himself. Middleton, +1607 (James I.), speaks ill of it in his play of +the <i>Phœnix</i>, for prisons at that time were places +of cruelty and extortion, and schools of villainy. +The great playwright makes his "first officer" say, +"We have been scholars, I can tell you—we could +not have been knaves so soon else; for as in that +notable city called London, stand two most famous +universities, Poultry and Wood St., where some are +of twenty years standing, and have took all their +degrees, from the master's side, down to the +mistress's side, so in like manner," &c.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="poultry" id="poultry"></a> +<img src="images/p421.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE POULTRY COMPTER. (<i>From an Old Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>It was at this prison, in the reign of Charles I.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_865" id="Page_865">[Pg 865]</a></span> +that Dr. Lamb, the conjurer, died, after being +nearly torn to pieces by the mob. He was a +creature of the Duke of Buckingham, and had +been accused of bewitching Lord Windsor. On +the 18th of June Lamb was insulted in the City +by a few boys, who soon after being increased +by the acceding multitude, they surrounded him +with bitter invectives, which obliged him to seek +refuge in a tavern in the Old Jewry; but the tumult +continuing to increase, the vintner, for his own +safety, judged it proper to turn him out of the +house, whereupon the mob renewed their exclamations +against him, with the appellations of "wizard," +"conjuror," and "devil." But at last, perceiving +the approach of a guard, sent by the Lord Mayor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_866" id="Page_866">[Pg 866]</a></span> +to his rescue, they fell upon and beat the doctor in +such a cruel and barbarous manner, that he was by +the said guard taken up for dead, and carried to +the Compter, where he soon after expired. "But +the author of a treatise, entitled 'The Forfeiture of +the City Charters,'" says Maitland, "gives a different +account of this affair, and, fixing the scene of this +tragedy on the 14th of July, writes, that as the +doctor passed through Cheapside, he was attacked +as above mentioned, which forced him to seek a +retreat down Wood Street, and that he was there +screened from the fury of the mob in a house, till +they had broken all the windows, and forced the +door; and then, no help coming to the relief of the +doctor, the housekeeper was obliged to deliver him +up to save the spoiling of his goods.</p> + +<p>"When the rabble had got him into their hands, +some took him by the legs, and others by the +arms, and so dragging him along the streets, cried, +'Lamb, Lamb, the conjuror, the conjuror!' every +one kicking and striking him that were nearest.</p> + +<p>"Whilst this tumult lasted, and the City was in an +uproar, the news of what had passed came to the +king's ear, who immediately ordered his guards to +make ready, and, taking some of the chief nobility, +he came in person to appease the tumult. In St. +Paul's Churchyard he met the inhuman villains +dragging the doctor along; and after the knight-marshal +had proclaimed silence, who was but ill +obeyed, the king, like a good prince, mildly +exhorted and persuaded them to keep his peace, +and deliver up the doctor to be tried according to +law; and that if his offence, which they charged +him with, should appear, he should be punished +accordingly; commanding them to disperse and +depart every man to his own home. But the +insolent varlets answered, <i>that they had judged +him already</i>; and thereupon pulled him limb from +limb; or, at least, so dislocated his joints, that +he instantly died."</p> + +<p>This took place just before the Duke of Buckingham's +assassination by Felton, in 1628. The king, +very much enraged at the treatment of Lamb, and +the non-discovery of the real offenders, extorted a +fine of £6,000 from the abashed City.</p> + +<p>Dekker, the dramatist, was thrown into this +prison. This poet of the great Elizabethan race +was one of Ben Jonson's great rivals. He thus rails +at Shakespeare's special friend, who had made "a +supplication to be a poor journeyman player, and +hadst been still so, but that thou couldst not set <i>a +good face</i> upon it. Thou hast forgot how thou +ambled'st in leather-pilch, by a play-waggon in the +highway; and took'st mad Jeronimo's part, to get +service among the mimics," <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_867" id="Page_867">[Pg 867]</a></span>&c.</p> + +<p>Dekker thus delineates Ben:—"That same +Horace has the most ungodly face, by my fan; it +looks for all the world like a rotten russet apple, +when 'tis bruised. It's better than a spoonful of +cinnamon water next my heart, for me to hear him +speak; he sounds it so i' th' nose, and talks and +rants like the poor fellows under Ludgate—to see +his face make faces, when he reads his songs and +sonnets."</p> + +<p>Again, we have Ben's face compared with that of +his favourite, Horace's—"You staring Leviathan! +Look on the sweet visage of Horace; look, parboil'd +face, look—has he not his face punchtfull +of eylet-holes, like the cover of a warming-pan?"</p> + +<p>Ben Jonson's manner in a playhouse is thus +sketched by Dekker:—"Not to hang himself, even +if he thought any man could write plays as well as +himself; not to bombast out a new play with the +old linings of jests stolen from the Temple's revels; +not to sit in a gallery where your comedies have +entered their actions, and there make vile and bad +faces at every line, to make men have an eye to +you, and to make players afraid; not to venture +on the stage when your play is ended, and exchange +courtesies and compliments with gallants, to make +all the house rise and cry—'That's Horace! That's +he that pens and purges humours!'"</p> + +<p>But, notwithstanding all his bitterness, Dekker +could speak generously of the old poet; for he +thus sums up Ben Jonson's merits in the following +lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Good Horace! No! My cheeks do blush for thine,<br /> +As often as thou speakest so; where one true<br /> +And nobly virtuous spirit for thy best part<br /> +Loves thee, I wish one, ten; even from my heart!<br /> +I make account, I put up as deep share<br /> +In any good man's love, which thy worth earns,<br /> +As thou thyself; we envy not to see<br /> +Thy friends with bays to crown thy poesy.<br /> +No, here the gall lies;—we, that know what stuff<br /> +Thy very heart is made of, know the stalk<br /> +On which thy learning grows, and can give life<br /> +To thy one dying baseness; yet must we<br /> +Dance anticks on your paper.<br /> +But were thy warp'd soul put in a new mould,<br /> +I'd wear thee as a jewel set in gold."</div> + +<p>Charles Lamb, speaking of Dekker's share in +Massinger's <i>Virgin Martyr</i>, highly eulogises the +impecunious poet. "This play," says Lamb, +"has some beauties of so very high an order, that +with all my respect for Massinger, I do not think +he had poetical enthusiasm capable of rising up to +them. His associate, Dekker, who wrote <i>Old +Fortunatus</i>, had poetry enough for anything. The +very impurities which obtrude themselves among +the sweet pictures of this play, like Satan among +the sons of Heaven, have a strength of contrast, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_868" id="Page_868">[Pg 868]</a></span> +raciness, and a glow in them, which are beyond +Massinger. They are to the religion of the rest +what Caliban is to Miranda."</p> + +<p>Ned Ward, in his coarse but clever "London +Spy," gives us a most distasteful picture of the +Compter in 1698-1700. "When we first entered," +says Ward, "this apartment, under the title of the +King's Ward, the mixture of scents that arose +from <i>mundungus</i>, tobacco, foul feet, dirty shirts, +stinking breaths, and uncleanly carcases, poisoned +our nostrils far worse than a Southwark ditch, a +tanner's yard, or a tallow-chandler's melting-room. +The ill-looking vermin, with long, rusty beards, +swaddled up in rags, and their heads—some covered +with thrum-caps, and others thrust into the tops of +old stockings. Some quitted their play they were +before engaged in, and came hovering round us, +like so many cannibals, with such devouring +countenances, as if a man had been but a morsel +with 'em, all crying out, 'Garnish, garnish,' as a +rabble in an insurrection crying, 'Liberty, liberty!' +We were forced to submit to the doctrine of non-resistance, +and comply with their demands, which +extended to the sum of two shillings each."</p> + +<p>The Poultry Compter has a special historical +interest, from the fact of its being connected with +the early struggles of our philanthropists against +the slave-trade. It was here that several of the +slaves released by Granville Sharp's noble exertions +were confined. This excellent man, and +true aggressive Christian, was grandson of an +Archbishop of York, and son of a learned Northumberland +rector. Though brought up to the +bar, he never practised, and resigned a place in +the Ordnance Office because he could not conscientiously +approve of the American War. He +lived a bachelor life in the Temple, doing good +continually. Sharp opposed the impressment of +sailors and the system of duelling; encouraged +the distribution of the Bible, and advocated parliamentary +reform. But it was as an enemy to slavery, +and the first practical opposer of its injustice and +its cruelties, that Granville Sharp earned a foremost +place in the great bede-roll of our English philanthropists. +Mr. Sharp's first interference in behalf +of persecuted slaves was in 1765.</p> + +<p>In the year 1765, says Clarkson, in his work on +slavery, a Mr. David Lisle had brought over from +Barbadoes Jonathan Strong, an African slave, as his +servant. He used the latter in a barbarous manner +at his lodgings, in Wapping, but particularly by +beating him over the head with a pistol, which +occasioned his head to swell. When the swelling +went down a disorder fell into his eyes, which +threatened the loss of them. To this a fever and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_869" id="Page_869">[Pg 869]</a></span> +ague succeeded; and he was affected with a lameness +in both his legs.</p> + +<p>Jonathan Strong having been brought into this +deplorable condition, and being therefore wholly +useless, was left by his master to go whither he +pleased. He applied, accordingly, to Mr. William +Sharp, the surgeon, for his advice, as to one who +gave up a portion of his time to the healing of the +diseases of the poor. It was here that Mr. Granville +Sharp, the brother of the former, saw him. +Suffice it to say that in process of time he was +cured. During this time Mr. Granville Sharp, +pitying his hard case, supplied him with money, +and afterwards got him a situation in the family of +Mr. Brown, an apothecary, to carry out medicines.</p> + +<p>In this new situation, when Strong had become +healthy and robust in his appearance, his master +happened to see him. The latter immediately +formed the design of possessing him again. Accordingly, +when he had found out his residence, +he procured John Ross, keeper of the Poultry +Compter, and William Miller, an officer under the +Lord Mayor, to kidnap him. This was done by +sending for him to a public-house in Fenchurch +Street, and then seizing him. By these he was +conveyed, without any warrant, to the Poultry +Compter, where he was sold by his master to John +Kerr for £30. Mr. Sharp, immediately upon this, +waited upon Sir Robert Kite, the then Lord Mayor, +and entreated him to send for Strong and to hear +his case. A day was accordingly appointed, Mr. +Sharp attended, also William M'Bean, a notary +public, and David Laird, captain of the ship +<i>Thames</i>, which was to have conveyed Strong to +Jamaica, in behalf of the purchaser, John Kerr. +A long conversation ensued, in which the opinion +of York and Talbot was quoted. Mr. Sharp made +his observations. Certain lawyers who were present +seemed to be staggered at the case, but inclined +rather to re-commit the prisoner. The Lord Mayor, +however, discharged Strong, as he had been taken +up without a warrant.</p> + +<p>As soon as this determination was made known, +the parties began to move off. Captain Laird, +however, who kept close to Strong, laid hold of him +before he had quitted the room, and said aloud, +"Then now I seize him as my slave." Upon this +Mr. Sharp put his hand upon Laird's shoulder, and +pronounced these words, "I charge you, in the +name of the king, with an assault upon the person +of Jonathan Strong, and all these are my witnesses." +Laird was greatly intimidated by this charge, made +in the presence of the Lord Mayor and others, +and fearing a prosecution, let his prisoner go, +leaving him to be conveyed away by Mr. Sharp.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_870" id="Page_870">[Pg 870]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the great turning case was that of James +Somerset, in 1772. James Somerset, an African +slave, had been brought to England by his master, +Charles Stewart, in November, 1769. Somerset, in +process of time, left him. Stewart took an opportunity +of seizing him, and had him conveyed on +board the <i>Ann and Mary</i>, Captain Knowles, to be +carried out of the kingdom and sold as a slave in +Jamaica. The question raised was, "Whether a +slave, by coming into England, became free?"</p> + +<p>In order that time might be given for ascertaining +the law fully on this head, the case was +argued at three different sittings—first, in January, +1772; secondly, in February, 1772; and thirdly, +in May, 1772. And that no decision otherwise +than what the law warranted might be given, the +opinion of the judges was taken upon the pleadings. +The great and glorious issue of the trial was, +"That as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon +English territory he became free."</p> + +<p>Thus ended the great case of Somerset, which, +having been determined after so deliberate an investigation +of the law, can never be reversed while +the British Constitution remains. The eloquence +displayed in it by those who were engaged on the +side of liberty was perhaps never exceeded on any +occasion; and the names of the counsellors, Davy, +Glynn, Hargrave, Mansfield, and Alleyne, ought +always to be remembered with gratitude by the +friends of this great cause.</p> + +<p>It was after this verdict that Cowper wrote the +following beautiful lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs<br /> +Imbibe our air, that moment they are free;<br /> +They touch our country, and their shackles fall.<br /> +That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud<br /> +And jealous of the blessing. Spread on, then,<br /> +And let it circulate through every vein<br /> +Of all your empire, that where Britain's power<br /> +Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too."</div> + +<p>It was in this Compter that Boyse, a true type of +the Grub Street poet of Dr. Johnson's time, spent +many of the latter days of his life. In the year +1740 Boyse was reduced to the lowest state of +poverty, having no clothes left in which he could +appear abroad; and what bare subsistence he +procured was by writing occasional poems for the +magazines. Of the disposition of his apparel Mr. +Nichols received from Dr. Johnson, who knew him +well, the following account. He used to pawn +what he had of this sort, and it was no sooner +redeemed by his friends, than pawned again. On +one occasion Dr. Johnson collected a sum of money<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +for this purpose, and in two days the clothes were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_871" id="Page_871">[Pg 871]</a></span> +pawned again. In this state Boyse remained in +bed with no other covering than a blanket with two +holes, through which he passed his arms when he +sat up to write. The author of his life in Cibber +adds, that when his distresses were so pressing as +to induce him to dispose of his shirt, he used to cut +some white paper in slips, which he tied round his +wrists, and in the same manner supplied his neck. +In this plight he frequently appeared abroad, while +his other apparel was scarcely sufficient for the +purposes of decency.</p> + +<p>In the month of May, 1749, Boyse died in +obscure lodgings near Shoe Lane. An old +acquaintance of his endeavoured to collect money +to defray the expenses of his funeral, so that the +scandal of being buried by the parish might be +avoided. But his endeavours were in vain, for +the persons he had selected had been so often +troubled with applications during the life of this +unhappy man, that they refused to contribute anything +towards his funeral.</p> + +<p>Of Boyse's best poems "The Deity" contains +some vigorous lines, of which the following are a +favourable specimen:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Transcendent pow'r! sole arbiter of fate!<br /> +How great thy glory! and thy bliss how great,<br /> +To view from thy exalted throne above<br /> +(Eternal source of light, and life, and love!)<br /> +Unnumbered creatures draw their smiling birth,<br /> +To bless the heav'ns or beautify the earth;<br /> +While systems roll, obedient to thy view,<br /> +And worlds rejoice—which Newton never knew! +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +Below, thro' different forms does matter range,<br /> +And life subsists from elemental change,<br /> +Liquids condensing shapes terrestrial wear,<br /> +Earth mounts in fire, and fire dissolves in air;<br /> +While we, inquiring phantoms of a day,<br /> +Inconstant as the shadows we survey!<br /> +With them along Time's rapid current pass,<br /> +And haste to mingle with the parent mass;<br /> +But thou, Eternal Lord of life divine!<br /> +In youth immortal shalt for ever shine!<br /> +No change shall darken thy exalted name,<br /> +From everlasting ages still the same!"</div> + +<p>Dunton, the eccentric bookseller of William III.'s +reign, resided in the Poultry in the year 1688. +"The humour of rambling," he says in his autobiography, +"was now pretty well off with me, and +my thoughts began to fix rather upon business. +The shop I took, with the sign of the Black Raven, +stood opposite to the Poultry Counter, where I +traded ten years, as all other men must expect, with +a variety of successes and disappointments. My +shop was opened just upon the Revolution, and, +as I remember, the same day the Prince of Orange +came to London."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_872" id="Page_872">[Pg 872]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> "The sum," said Johnson, "was collected by sixpences, +at a time when to me sixpence was a serious consideration."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> + +<p class="center">OLD JEWRY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Old Jewry—Early Settlements of Jews in London and Oxford—Bad Times for the Israelites—Jews' Alms—A King in Debt—Rachel weeping +for her Children—Jewish Converts—Wholesale Expulsion of the Chosen People from England—The Rich House of a Rich Citizen—The +London Institution, formerly in the Old Jewry—Porsoniana—Nonconformists in the Old Jewry—Samuel Chandler, Richard Price, and +James Foster—The Grocers' Company—Their Sufferings under the Commonwealth—Almost Bankrupt—Again they Flourish—The Grocers' +Hall Garden—Fairfax and the Grocers—A Rich and Generous Grocer—A Warlike Grocer—Walbrook—Bucklersbury.</p></div> + + +<p>The Old Jewry was the Ghetto of mediæval +London. The Rev. Moses Margoliouth, in his +interesting "History of the Jews in Great Britain," +has clearly shown that Jews resided in England +during the Saxon times, by an edict published by +Elgbright, Archbishop of York, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 470, forbidding +Christians to attend the Jewish feasts. It appears +the Jews sometimes left lands to the abbeys; and +in the laws of Edward the Confessor we find them +especially mentioned as under the king's guard and +protection.</p> + +<p>The Conqueror invited over many Jews from +Rouen, who settled themselves chiefly in London, +Stamford, and Oxford. In London the Jews had +two colonies—one in Old Jewry, near King Offa's +old palace; and one in the liberties of the Tower. +Rufus, in his cynical way, marked his hatred of the +monks by summoning a convocation, where English +bishops met Jewish rabbis, and held a religious controversy, +Rufus swearing by St. Luke's face that if +the rabbis had the best of it, he would turn Jew at +once. In this reign the Jews were so powerful at +Oxford that they let three halls—Lombard Hall, +Moses Hall, and Jacob Hall—to students; and +their rabbis instructed even Christian students in +their synagogue. Jews took care of vacant benefices +for the king. In the reign of Henry I. the +Jews began to make proselytes, and monks were +sent to several towns to preach against them. +Halcyon times! With the reign of Stephen, however, +began the storms, and, with the clergy, the +usurper persecuted the Jews, exacting a fine of +£2,000 from those of London alone for a pretended +manslaughter. The absurd story of the +Jews murdering young children, to anoint Israelites +or to raise devils with their blood, originated +in this reign.</p> + +<p>Henry II. was equally ruthless, though he did +grant Jews cemeteries outside the towns. Up till +this time the London Jews had only been allowed +to bury in "the Jews' garden," in the parish of +St. Giles's, Cripplegate. In spite of frequent fines +and banishments, their historian owns that altogether +they throve in this reign, and their physicians +were held in high repute. With Richard I.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_873" id="Page_873">[Pg 873]</a></span> +chivalrous to all else, began the real miseries of the +English Jews. Even on the day of his coronation +there was a massacre of the Jews, and many of +their houses were burnt. Two thousand Jews were +murdered at York, and at Lynn and Stamford they +were also plundered. On his return from Palestine +Richard established a tribunal for Jews. In the +early part of John's reign he treated the money-lenders, +whom he wanted to use, with consideration. +He granted them a charter, and allowed +them to choose their own chief rabbi. He also +allowed them to try all their own causes which +did not concern pleas of the Crown; and all this +justice only cost the English Jews 4,000 marks, +for John was poor. His greed soon broke loose. +In 1210 he levied on the Jews 66,000 marks, and +imprisoned, blinded, and tortured all who did not +readily pay. The king's last act of inhumanity +was to compel some Jews to torture and put to +death a great number of Scotch prisoners who had +assisted the barons. Can we wonder that it is still +a proverb among the English Jews, "Thank God +that there was only one King John?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="porson" id="porson"></a> +<img src="images/p426.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />RICHARD PORSON. (<i>From an Authentic Portrait.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>The regent of the early part of the reign of +Henry III. protected the Jews, and exempted them +from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, +but they were compelled to wear on their breasts +two white tablets of linen or parchment, two +inches broad and four inches long; and twenty-four +burgesses were chosen in every town where +they resided, to protect them from the insults of +pilgrims; for the clergy still treated them as excommunicated +infidels. But even this lull was +short—persecution soon again broke out. In the +14th of Henry III. the Crown seized a third part +of all their movables, and their new synagogue in +the Old Jewry was granted to the brothers of St. +Anthony of Vienna, and turned into a church. In +the 17th of Henry III. the Jews were again taxed +to the amount of 18,000 silver marks. At the +same time the king erected an institution in New +Street (Chancery Lane) for Jewish converts, as an +atonement for his father's cruelty to the persecuted +exiles. Four Jews of Norwich having been dragged +at horses' tails and hung, on a pretended charge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_874" id="Page_874">[Pg 874]</a></span> +circumcising a Christian boy, led to new persecution, +and the Jews were driven out of Newcastle +and Southampton; while to defray the expense of +entertaining the Queen's foreign uncles 20,000 +marks were exacted from the suffering race. In +the 19th year of his reign Henry, driven hard for +money, extorted from the rich Jews 10,000 more +marks, and several were burned alive for plotting +to destroy London by fire. The more absurd the +accusation the more eagerly it was believed by a +superstitious and frightened rabble. In 1244, +Matthew of Paris says, the corpse of a child was +found buried in London, on whose arms and legs +were traced Hebrew inscriptions. It was supposed +that the Jews had crucified this child, in ridicule of +the crucifixion of Christ. The converted Jews of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_875" id="Page_875">[Pg 875]</a></span> +New Street were called in to read the Hebrew +letters, and the canons of St. Paul's took the +child's body, which was supposed to have wrought +miracles, and buried it with great ceremony not +far from their great altar. In order to defray the +expenses of his brother Richard's marriage the +poor Jews of London were heavily mulcted, and +Aaron of York, a man of boundless wealth, was +forced to pay 4,000 marks of silver and 400 of +gold. Defaulters were transported to Ireland, a +punishment especially dreaded by the Jews. A +tax called Jews' alms was also sternly enforced; +and we find Lucretia, widow of David, an Oxford +Jew, actually compelled to pay £2,590 towards +the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. It was +about this time that Abraham, a Jew of Berk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_876" id="Page_876">[Pg 876]</a></span>hampstead, +strangled his wife, who had refused to +help him to defile and deface an image of the +Virgin, and was thrown into a dungeon of the +Tower; but the murderer escaped, by a present of +7,000 marks to the king. Tormented by the +king's incessant exactions, the Jews at last implored +leave to quit England before their very +skins were taken from them. The king broke into +a fit of almost ludicrous rage. He had been +tender of their welfare, he said to his brother +Richard. "Is it to be marvelled at," he cried, +"that I covet money? It is a horrible thing to +imagine the debts wherein I am held bound. By +the head of God, they amount to the sum of two +hundred thousand marks; and if I should say +three hundred thousand, I should not exceed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_877" id="Page_877">[Pg 877]</a></span> +bounds of truth. I am deceived on every hand; +I am a maimed and abridged king—yea, now only +half a king. There is a necessity for me to have +money, gotten from what place soever, and from +whomsoever."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="claytons" id="claytons"></a> +<img src="images/p427.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />SIR R. CLAYTON'S HOUSE, GARDEN FRONT. (<i>From an Old Print.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>The king, on Richard's promise to obtain him +money, sold him the right which he held over the +Jews. Soon after this, eighty-six of the richest +Jews of London were hung, on a charge of having +crucified a Christian child at Lincoln, and twenty-three +others were thrown into the Tower. Truly Old +Jewry must have often heard the voice of Rachel +weeping for her children. Their persecutors never +grew weary. In a great riot, encouraged by the +barons, the great bell of St. Paul's tolled out, 500 +Jews were killed in London, and the synagogue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_878" id="Page_878">[Pg 878]</a></span> +burnt, the leader of the mob, John Fitz-John, a +baron, running Rabbi Abraham, the richest Jew +in London, through with his sword. On the defeat +of the king's party at the battle of Lewes, the +London mob accusing the Jews of aiding the +king, plundered their houses, and all the Israelites +would have perished, had they not taken refuge in +the Tower. By royal edict the Christians were +forbidden to buy flesh of a Jew, and no Jew +was allowed to employ Christian nurses, bakers, +brewers, or cooks. Towards the close of Henry's +life the synagogue in Old Jewry was again taken +from the Jews, and given to the Friars Penitent, +whose chapel stood hard by, and who complained +of the noise of the Jewish congregation; but the +king permitted another synagogue to be built in +a more suitable place. Henry then ordered the +Jews to pay up all arrears of tallages within four +months, and half of the sum in seventeen days. +The Tower of London was naturally soon full of +grey-bearded Jewish debtors.</p> + +<p>No wonder, with all these persecutions, that the +Chancery Lane house of converts began soon to +fill. "On one of the rolls of this reign," says Mr. +Margoliouth, probably quoting Prynne's famous +diatribe against the Jews, "about 500 names of +Jewish converts are registered." From the 50th +year of Henry III. to the 2nd of Edward I., the +Crown, says Coke, extorted from the English Jews +no less than £420,000 15s. 4d.!</p> + +<p>Edward I. was more merciful. In a statute, +however, which was passed in his third year, he +forbade Jews practising usury, required them to +wear badges of yellow taffety, as a distinguishing +mark of their nationality, and demanded from each +of them threepence every Easter. Then began the +plunder. The king wanted money to build Carnarvon +and Conway castles, to be held as fortresses +against the Welsh, whom he had just recently conquered +and treated with great cruelty, and the Jews +were robbed accordingly. It was not difficult in +those days to find an excuse for extortion if the +royal exchequer was empty. In the 7th year of +Edward no less than 294 Jews were put to death +for clipping money, and all they possessed seized by +the king. In his 17th year all the Jews in England +were imprisoned in one night, as Selden proves by +an old Hebrew inscription found at Winchester, +and not released till they had paid £20,000 of +silver for a ransom. At last, in the year 1290, +came the Jews' final expulsion from England, when +15,000 or 16,000 of these tormented exiles left +our shores, not to return till Cromwell set the first +great example of toleration. Edward allowed the +Jews to take with them part of their money and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_879" id="Page_879">[Pg 879]</a></span> +movables, but seized their houses and other possessions. +All their outstanding mortgages were forfeited +to the Crown, and ships were to be provided +for their conveyance to such places within reasonable +distance as they might choose. In spite of +this, however, many, through the treachery of the +sailors, were left behind in England, and were all +put to death with great cruelty.</p> + +<p>"Whole rolls full of patents relative to Jewish +estates," says Mr. Margoliouth, "are still to be +seen at the Tower, which estates, together with +their rent in fee, permissions, and mortgages, were +all seized by the king." Old Jewry, and Jewin +Street, Aldersgate, where their burial-ground was, +still preserve a dim memory of their residence +among us. There used to be a tradition in England +that the Jews buried much of their treasure here, +in hopes of a speedy return to the land where +they had suffered so much, yet where they had +thriven. In spite of the edict of banishment a few +converted Jews continued to reside in England, +and after the Reformation some unconverted Jews +ventured to return. Rodrigo Lopez, a physician +of Queen Elizabeth's, for instance, was a Jew. He +was tortured to death for being accused of designing +to poison the Queen.</p> + +<p>No. 8, Old Jewry was the house of Sir Robert +Clayton, Lord Mayor in the time of Charles II. +It was a fine brick mansion, and one of the +grandest houses in the street. It is mentioned by +Evelyn in the following terms:—"26th September, +1672.—I carried with me to dinner my Lord H. +Howard (now to be made Earl of Norwich and +Earl Marshal of England) to Sir Robert Clayton's, +now Sheriff of London, at his own house, where we +had a great feast; it is built, indeed, for a great +magistrate, at excessive cost. The cedar dining-room +is painted with the history of the Giants' war, +incomparably done by Mr. Streeter, but the figures +are too near the eye." We give on the previous +page a view of the garden front of this house, +taken from an old print. Sir Robert built the +house to keep his shrievalty, which he did with +great magnificence. It was for some years the residence +of Mr. Samuel Sharp, an eminent surveyor.</p> + +<p>In the year 1805 was established, by a proprietary +in the City, the London Institution, "for the advancement +of literature and the diffusion of useful +knowledge." This institution was temporarily +located in Sir Robert Clayton's famous old house. +Upon the first committee of the institution were +Mr. R. Angerstein and Mr. Richard Sharp. Porson, +the famous Greek scholar and editor of Euripides, +was thought an eligible man to be its principal +librarian. He was accordingly appointed to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_880" id="Page_880">[Pg 880]</a></span> +office by a unanimous resolution of the governors; +and Mr. Sharp had the gratification of announcing +to the Professor his appointment. His friends +rejoiced. Professor Young, of Glasgow, writing +to Burney about this time, says:—"Of Devil +Dick you say nothing. I see by the newspapers +they have given him a post. A handsome salary, +I hope, a suite of chambers, coal and candle, +&c. Porter and cyder, I trust, are among the +<i>et cæteras</i>." His salary was £200 a year, with +a suite of rooms. Still, Porson was not just the +man for a librarian; for no one could use books +more roughly. He had no affectation about books, +nor, indeed, affectation of any sort. The late Mr. +William Upcott, who urged the publication of +Evelyn's diary at Wootton, was fellow-secretary +with Porson. The institution removed to King's +Arms Yard, Coleman Street, in 1812, and thence +in 1819 to the present handsome mansion, erected +from the classic design of Mr. W. Brooks, on the +north side of Moorfields, now Finsbury Circus.</p> + +<p>The library is "one of the most useful and +accessible in Great Britain;" and Mr. Watson +found in a few of the books Porson's handwriting, +consisting of critical remarks and notes. In a +copy of the Aldine "Herodotus," he has marked +the chapters in the margin in Arabic numerals +"with such nicety and regularity," says his biographer, +"that the eye of the reader, unless upon +the closest examination, takes them for print."</p> + +<p>Lord Byron remembered Porson at Cambridge; +in the hall where he himself dined, at the Vice-Chancellor's +table, and Porson at the Dean's, he +always appeared sober in his demeanour, nor was +he guilty, as far as his lordship knew, of any +excess or outrage in public; but in an evening, +with a party of undergraduates, he would, in fits of +intoxication, get into violent disputes with the +young men, and arrogantly revile them for not +knowing what he thought they might be expected +to know. He once went away in disgust, because +none of them knew the name of "the Cobbler of +Messina." In this condition Byron had seen him +at the rooms of William Bankes, the Nubian discoverer, +where he would pour forth whole pages of +various languages, and distinguish himself especially +by his copious floods of Greek.</p> + +<p>Lord Byron further tells us that he had seen +Sheridan "drunk, with all the world; his intoxication +was that of Bacchus, but Porson's that +of Silenus. Of all the disgusting brutes, sulky, +abusive, and intolerable, Porson was the most +bestial, so far as the few times that I saw him +went, which were only at William Bankes's rooms. +He was tolerated in this state among the young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_881" id="Page_881">[Pg 881]</a></span> +men for his talents, as the Turks think a madman +inspired, and bear with him. He used to write, or +rather vomit, pages of all languages, and could +hiccup Greek like a Helot; and certainly Sparta +never shocked her children with a grosser exhibition +than this man's intoxication."</p> + +<p>The library of the institution appears, however, +to have derived little advantage from Porson's +supervision of it, beyond the few criticisms which +were found in his handwriting in some of the +volumes. Owing to his very irregular habits, the +great scholar proved but an inefficient librarian; +he was irregular in attendance, and was frequently +brought home at midnight drunk. The +directors had determined to dismiss him, and said +they only knew him as their librarian from seeing +his name attached to receipts of salary. Indeed, +he was already breaking up, and his stupendous +memory had begun to fail. On the 19th of +September, 1806, he left the Old Jewry to call +on his brother-in-law, Perry, in the Strand, and at +the corner of Northumberland Street was struck +down by a fit of apoplexy. He was carried over +to the St. Martin's Lane workhouse, and there +slowly recovered consciousness. Mr. Savage, the +under-librarian, seeing an advertisement in the +<i>British Press</i>, describing a person picked up, +having Greek memoranda in his pocket, went to +the workhouse and brought Porson home in a +hackney coach; he talked about the fire which the +night before had destroyed Covent Garden Theatre, +and as they rounded St. Paul's, remarked upon the +ill treatment Wren had received. On reaching the +Old Jewry, and after he had breakfasted, Dr. Adam +Clarke called and had a conversation with Porson +about a stone with a Greek inscription, brought +from Ephesus; he also discussed a Mosaic pavement +recently found in Palestrini, and quoted two lines +from the Greek Anthologia. Dr. Adam Clarke +particularly noticed that he gave the Greek rapidly, +but the English with painful slowness, as if the +Greek came more naturally. Then, apparently +fancying himself under restraint, he walked out, +and went into the African or Cole's coffee-house +in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill; there he would +have fallen had he not caught hold of one of the +brass rods of the boxes. Some wine and some +jelly dissolved in brandy and water considerably +roused him, but he could hardly speak, and the +waiter took him back to the Institution in a coach. +He expired exactly as the clock struck twelve, on +the night of Sunday, September 25, 1808. He was +buried in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, +and eulogies of his talent, written in Greek +and Latin verse, were affixed to his pall—an old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_882" id="Page_882">[Pg 882]</a></span> +custom not discontinued till 1822. His books +fetched £2,000, and those with manuscript notes +were bought by Trinity College. It was said of +Porson that he drank everything he could lay his +hands upon, even to embrocation and spirits of +wine intended for the lamp. Rogers describes him +going back into the dining-room after the people +had gone, and drinking all that was left in the +glasses. He once undertook to learn by heart, in +a week, a copy of the <i>Morning Chronicle</i>, and he +boasted he could repeat "Roderick Random" from +beginning to end.</p> + +<p>Mr. Luard describes Porson as being, in personal +appearance, tall; his head very fine, with an +expansive forehead, over which he plastered his +brown hair; he had a long, Roman nose (it ought +to have been Greek), and his eyes were remarkably +keen and penetrating. In general he was very +careless as to his dress, especially when alone in +his chamber, or when reading hard; but "when +in his gala costume, a smart blue coat, white vest, +black satin nether garments, and silk stockings, +with a shirt ruffled at the wrists, he looked quite +the gentleman."</p> + +<p>The street where, in 1261, many Jews were +massacred, and where again, in 1264, 500 Jews +were slain, was much affected by Nonconformists. +There was a Baptist chapel here in the Puritan +times; and in Queen Anne's reign the Presbyterians +built a spacious church, in Meeting House +Court, in 1701. It is described as occupying +an area of 2,600 square feet, and being lit with +six bow windows. The society, says Mr. Pike, +had been formed forty years before, by the son +of the excellent Calamy, the persecuted vicar of +Aldermanbury, who is said to have died from grief +at the Fire of London. John Shower was one +of the most celebrated ministers of the Old Jewry +Chapel. He wrote a protest against the Occasional +Conformity Bill, to which Swift (under the name of +his friend Harley) penned a bitter reply. He died +in 1715. From 1691 to 1708 the assistant lecturer +was Timothy Rogers, son of an ejected Cumberland +minister, of whom an interesting story is told. +Sir Richard Cradock, a High Church justice, had +arrested Mr. Rogers and all his flock, and was +about to send them to prison, when the justice's +granddaughter, a wilful child of seven, pitying the +old preacher, threatened to drown herself if the +poor people were punished. The preacher blessed +her, and they parted. Years after this child, being +in London, dreamed of a certain chapel, preacher, +and text, and the next day, going to the Old +Jewry, saw Mr. Shower, and recognised him as the +preacher of her dream. The lady afterwards told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_883" id="Page_883">[Pg 883]</a></span> +this to Mr. Rogers' son, when the lad turned +Dissenter. Like many other of the early Nonconformist +preachers, Rogers seems to have been +a hypochondriac, who looked upon himself as "a +broken vessel, a dead man out of mind," and +eventually gave up his profession. Shower's successor, +Simon Browne, wrote a volume of "Hymns," +compiled a lexicon, and wrote a "Defence of the +Christian Revelation," in reply to Woolston and +other Freethinkers. Browne was also a victim to +delusions, believing that God, in his displeasure, had +withdrawn his soul from his body. This state of +mind is said by some to have arisen from a nervous +shock Browne had once received in finding a +highwayman with whom he had grappled dead in +his grasp. He believed his mind entirely gone, +and his head to resemble a parrot's. At times his +thoughts turned to self-destruction. He therefore +abandoned his pulpit, and retired to Shepton +Mallet to study. His "Defence" is dedicated to +Queen Caroline as from "a thing."</p> + +<p>Samuel Chandler, a celebrated author and divine, +and a friend of Butler and Seeker, and Bowyer the +printer, was for forty years another Old Jewry +worthy. He lectured against Popery with great +success at Salters' Hall, and held a public dispute +with a Romish priest at the "Pope's Head," Cornhill. +In a funeral sermon on George II., Chandler +drew absurd parallels between him and David, +which the Grub Street writers made the most of. +Chandler's deformed sister Mary, a milliner at +Bath, wrote verses which Pope commended.</p> + +<p>In 1744 Richard Price, afterwards chaplain at +Stoke Newington, held the lectureship at the Old +Jewry. Price's lecture on "Civil Liberty," <i>apropos</i> +of the American war, gained him Franklin's and +Priestley's friendship; as his first ethical work +had already won Hume's. Burke denounced him +as a traitor; while the Corporation of London +presented him with the freedom of the City in a +gold box, the Congress offered him posts of honour, +and the Premier of 1782 would have been glad to +have had him as a secretary. The last pastor at +the Old Jewry Chapel was Abraham Rees. This +indefatigable man enlarged Harris's "Lexicon +Technicum," improved by Ephraim Chambers, into +the "Encyclopædia" of forty-five quarto volumes, +a book now thought redundant and ill-arranged, +and the philological parts defective. In 1808 +the Old Jewry congregation removed to Jewin +Street.</p> + +<p>Dr. James Foster, a Dissenting minister eulogised +by Pope, carried on the Sunday evening +lecture in Old Jewry for more than twenty years; +it was began in 1728. The clergy, wits, and free<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_884" id="Page_884">[Pg 884]</a></span>thinkers crowded with equal anxiety to hear him of +whom Pope wrote—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel<br /> +Ten metropolitans in preaching well."</div> + +<p>And Pope's friend, Lord Bolingbroke, an avowed +Deist, commended Foster for the false aphorism—"Where +mystery begins religion ends." Dr. +Foster attended Lord Kilmarnock before his execution. +He wrote in defence of Christianity in +reply to Tindal, the Freethinker, and died in 1753. +He says in one of his works:—"I value those who +are of different professions from me, more than +those who agree with me in sentiment, if they are +more serious, sober, and charitable." This excellent +man was the son of a Northamptonshire +clergyman, who turned Dissenter and became a +fuller at Exeter.</p> + +<p>At Grocers' Hall we stop to sketch the history +of an ancient company.</p> + +<p>The Grocers of London were originally called +Pepperers, pepper being the chief staple of their +trade. The earlier Grocers were Italians, Genoese, +Florentine or Venetian merchants, then supplying +all the west of Christendom with Indian and +Arabian spices and drugs, and Italian silks, wines, +and fruits. The Pepperers are first mentioned as a +fraternity among the amerced guilds of Henry II., +but had probably clubbed together at an earlier +period. They are mentioned in a petition to Parliament +as Grocers, says Mr. Herbert, in 1361 +(Edward III.), and they themselves adopted the, +at first, opprobrious name in 1376, and some years +later were incorporated by charter. They then removed +from Soper's Lane (now Queen Street) to +Bucklersbury, and waxed rich and powerful.</p> + +<p>The Grocers met at five several places previous +to building a hall; first at the town house +of the Abbots of Bury, St. Mary Axe; in 1347 +they moved to the house of the Abbot of St. +Edmund; in 1348 to the Rynged Hall, near Garlick-hythe; +and afterwards to the hotel of the +Abbot of St. Cross. In 1383 they flitted to the +Cornet's Tower, in Bucklersbury, a place which +Edward III. had used for his money exchange. +In 1411 they purchased of Lord Fitzwalter the +chapel of the Fratres du Sac (Brothers of the +Sack) in Old Jewry, which had originally been a +Jewish synagogue; and having, some years afterwards, +purchased Lord Fitzwalter's house adjoining +the chapel, began to build a hall, which was +opened in 1428. The Friars' old chapel contained +a buttery, pantry, cellar, parlour, kitchen, +turret, clerk's house, a garden, and a set of almshouses +in the front yard was added. The word +"grocer," says Ravenhill, in his "Short Account of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_885" id="Page_885">[Pg 885]</a></span> +the Company of Grocers" (1689), was used to express +a trader <i>en gros</i> (wholesale). As early as 1373, +the first complement of twenty-one members of this +guild was raised to 124; and in 1583, sixteen grocers +were aldermen. In 1347, Nicholas Chaucer, a relation +of the poet, was admitted as a grocer; and in +1383, John Churchman (Richard II.) obtained for +the Grocers the great privilege of the custody, with +the City, of the "King's Beam," in Woolwharf, for +weighing wool in the port of London, the first step +to a London Custom House. The Beam was afterwards +removed to Bucklersbury. Henry VIII. took +away the keepership of the great Beam from the City, +but afterwards restored it. The Corporation still +have their weights at the Weigh House, Little Eastcheap, +and the porters there are the tackle porters, +so called to distinguish them from the ticket porters. +In 1450, the Grocers obtained the important right +of sharing the office of garbeller of spices with the +City. The garbeller had the right to enter any +shop or warehouse to view and search for drugs, +and to garble and cleanse them. The office gradually +fell into desuetude, and is last mentioned in +the Company's books in July, 1687, when the City +garbeller paid a fine of £50, and 20s. per annum, +for leave to hold his office for life. The Grocers +seem to have at one time dealt in whale-oil and wool.</p> + +<p>During the Civil War the Grocers suffered, like +all their brother companies. In 1645, the Parliament +exacted £50 per week from them towards +the support of troops, £6 for City defences, and +£8 for wounded soldiers. The Company had soon +to sell £1,000 worth of plate. A further demand +for arms, and a sum of £4,500 for the defence of +the City, drove them to sell all the rest of their +plate, except the value of £300. In 1645, the +watchful Committee of Safety, sitting at Haberdashers' +Hall, finding the Company indebted £500 +to one Richard Greenough, a Cavalier delinquent, +compelled them to pay that sum.</p> + +<p>No wonder, then, that the Grocers shouted at +the Restoration, spent £540 on the coronation +pageant, and provided sixty riders at Charles's +noisy entrance into London. The same year, Sir +John Frederick, being chosen Mayor, and not +being, as rule required, a member of one of the +twelve Great Companies, left the Barber Chirurgeons, +and joined the Grocers, who welcomed him +with a great pageant. In 1664, the Grocers took +a zealous part with their friends and allies, the +Druggists, against the College of Physicians, who +were trying to obtain a bill granting them power of +search, seizure, fine, and imprisonment. The Plague +year no election feast was held. The Great Fire +followed, and not only greatly damaged Grocers'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_886" id="Page_886">[Pg 886]</a></span> +Hall, but also consumed the whole of their house +property, excepting a few small tenements in Grub +Street. They found it necessary to try and raise +£20,000 to pay their debts, to sell their melted +plate, and to add ninety-four members to the livery. +Only succeeding, amid the general distress, in raising +£6,000, the Company was almost bankrupt, their +hall being seized, and attachments laid on their +rent. By a great effort, however, they wore round, +called more freemen on the livery, and added in +two months eighty-one new members to the Court +of Assistants; so that before the Revolution of +1688 they had restored their hall and mowed down +most of their rents. Indeed, one of their most +brilliant epochs was in 1689, when William III. +accepted the office of their sovereign master.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="grocers" id="grocers"></a> +<img src="images/p432.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />EXTERIOR OF GROCERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>Some writers credit the Grocers' Company with +the enrolment of five kings, several princes, eight +dukes, three earls, and twenty lords. Of these five +kings, Mr. Herbert could, however, only trace +Charles II. and William III. Their list of +honorary members is one emblazoned with many +great names, including Sir Philip Sidney (at whose +funeral they assisted), Pitt, Lord Chief Justice +Tenterden, the Marquis of Cornwallis, George<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_887" id="Page_887">[Pg 887]</a></span> +Canning, &c. Of Grocer Mayors, Strype notes +sixty-four between 1231 and 1710 alone.</p> + +<p>The garden of the Hall must have been a pleasant +place in the old times, as it is now. It is mentioned +in 1427 as having vines spreading up before the +parlour windows. It had also an arbour; and in +1433 it was generously thrown open to the citizens +generally, who had petitioned for this privilege. +It contained hedge-rows and a bowling alley, with +an ancient tower of stone or brick, called "the +Turret," at the north-west corner, which had probably +formed part of Lord Fitzwalter's mansion. +The garden remained unchanged till the new hall +was built in 1798, when it was much curtailed, and +in 1802 it was nearly cut in half by the enlargement +of Princes Street. For ground which had cost the +Grocers, in 1433, only £31 17s. 8d., they received +from the Bank of England more than £20,000.</p> + +<p>The Hall was often lent for dinners, funerals, +county feasts, and weddings; and in 1564 the gentlemen +of Gray's Inn dined there with the gentlemen +of the Middle Temple. This system breeding +abuses, was limited in 1610.</p> + +<p>In the time of the Commonwealth, Grocers' Hall +was the place of meeting for Parliamentary Com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_888" id="Page_888">[Pg 888]</a></span>mittees. +Among other subjects there discussed, +we find the selection of able ministers to regulate +Church government, and providing moneys for the +army; and in 1641 the Grand Committee of Safety +held its sittings in this Hall.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="grocershall" id="grocershall"></a> +<img src="images/p433.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF GROCERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1648 the Grocers had to petition General +Fairfax not to quarter his troops in the hall +of a charitable Company like theirs. In 1649 a +grand entertainment was given by the Grocers to +Cromwell and Fairfax. After hearing <i>two</i> sermons +at Christ's Church, preached by Mr. Goodwin and +Dr. Owen, Cromwell, his officers, the Speaker, and +the judges, dined together. "No drinking of +healths," says a Puritan paper of the time, "nor +other uncivill concomitants formerly of such great +meetings, nor any other music than the drum and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_889" id="Page_889">[Pg 889]</a></span> +trumpet—a feast, indeed, of Christians and chieftains, +whereas others were rather of Chretiens and +cormorants." The surplus food was sent to the +London prisons, and £40 distributed to the poor. +The Aldermen and Council afterwards went to +General Fairfax at his house in Queen Street, and, +in the name of the City, presented him with a large +basin and ewer of beaten gold; while to Cromwell +they sent a great present of plate, value £300, and +200 pieces of gold. They afterwards gave a still +grander feast to Cromwell in his more glorious +time, and one at the Restoration to General Monk. +On the latter feast they expended £215, and enrolled +"honest George" a brother of the Company.</p> + +<p>The Grocers' Hall might never have been rebuilt +after the Great Fire, so crippled was the Company,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_890" id="Page_890">[Pg 890]</a></span> +but for the munificence of Sir John Cutler, a rich +Grocer, whom Pope (not always regardful of truth) +has bitterly satirised.</p> + +<p>Sir John rebuilt the parlour and dining-room in +1668-9, and was rewarded by "a strong vote of +thanks," and by his statue and picture being placed +in the Hall as eternal records of the Company's +esteem and gratitude. Two years later Grocers' +Hall was granted to the parishioners of St. Mildred +as a chapel till their own church could be rebuilt. +The garden turret, used as a record office, was fitted +up for the clerk's residence, and a meeting place +for the court; and, "for better order, decorum, +and gravity," pipes and pots were forbidden in the +court-room during the meetings.</p> + +<p>At Grocers' Hall, "to my great surprise," says +vivacious Pennant, "I met again with Sir John +Cutler, Grocer, in marble and on canvas. In the +first he is represented standing, in a flowing wig, +waved rather than curled, a laced cravat, and a +furred gown, with the folds not ungraceful; in all, +except where the dress is inimical to the sculptor's +art, it may be called a good performance. By his +portrait we may learn that this worthy wore a black +wig, and was a good-looking man. He was created +a baronet, November 12th, 1660; so that he certainly +had some claim of gratitude with the restored +monarch. He died in 1693. His kinsman and +executor, Edmund Boulton, Esq., expended £7,666 +on his funeral expenses. He served as Master of +the Company in 1652 and 1653, in 1688, and again +a fourth time."</p> + +<p>In 1681 the Hall was renovated at an expense +of £500, by Sir John Moore, so as to make it fit +for the residence of the Lord Mayor. Moore kept +his mayoralty here, paying a rent of £200. It +continued to be used by the Lord Mayors till 1735, +when the Company, now grown rich, withdrew their +permission. In 1694 it was let to the Bank of +England, who held their court there till the Bank +was built in 1734. The Company's present hall +was built in 1802, and repaired in 1827, since +which the whole has been restored, the statue of Sir +John Cutler moved from its neglected post in the +garden, and the arms of the most illustrious Grocers +of antiquity set up.</p> + +<p>The Grocers' charities are numerous; they give +away annually £300 among the poor of the Company, +and they have had £4,670 left them to lend +to poor members of the community. Before 1770, +Boyle says, the Company gave away about £700 +a year.</p> + +<p>Among the bravest of the Grocers, we must +mention Sir John Philpot, Mayor, 1378, who fitted +out a fleet that captured John Mercer, a Scotch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_891" id="Page_891">[Pg 891]</a></span> +freebooter, and took fifteen Spanish ships. He +afterwards transported an English army to Brittany +in his own ships, and released more than 1,000 of +our victualling vessels. John Churchman, sheriff in +1385, was the founder of the Custom House. Sir +Thomas Knolles, mayor in 1399 and 1410, rebuilt +St. Antholin's, Watling Street. Sir Robert +Chichele (a relation of Archbishop Chichele), +mayor in 1411-12, gave the ground for rebuilding +the church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, which his descendant, +Sir Thomas (Mayor and Grocer), helped +to rebuild after the Great Fire. Sir William +Sevenoke was founder of the school and college at +Sevenoaks, Kent. Sir John Welles (mayor in 1431), +built the Standard in Chepe, helped to build the +Guildhall Chapel, built the south aisle of St. Antholin's, +and repaired the miry way leading to +Westminster (the Strand). Sir Stephen Brown, +mayor, 1438, imported cargoes of rye from Dantzic, +during a great dearth, and as Fuller quaintly says, +"first showed Londoners the way to the barn door." +Sir John Crosby (Grocer and Sheriff in 1483), lived +in great splendour at Crosby House, in Bishopsgate +Street: he gave great sums for civic purposes, +and repaired London Wall, London Bridge, and +Bishopsgate. Sir Henry Keble (mayor, 1510) was +six times Master of the Grocers' Company: he left +bequests to the Company, and gave £1,000 to +rebuild St. Antholin's, Budge Row. Lawrence +Sheriff, Warden 1561, was founder of the great +school at Rugby.</p> + +<p>"The rivulet or running water," says Maitland, +"denominated Walbrook, ran through the middle +of the city above ground, till about the middle of +the fourteenth century, when it was arched over, +since which time it has served as a common sewer, +wherein, at the depth of sixteen feet, under St. +Mildred's Church steeple, runs a great and rapid +stream. At the south-east corner of Grocers' Alley, +in the Poultry, stood a beautiful chapel, called +Corpus Christi and Sancta Maria, which was +founded in the reign of Edward III. by a pious +man, for a master and brethren, for whose support +he endowed the same with lands, to the amount of +twenty pounds per annum."</p> + +<p>"It hath been a common speech," says Stow +(Elizabeth), "that when Walbrook 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 <i>Old Barge</i>. Also, on the north +side of this street, directly over against the said +Bucklersbury, was one antient strong tower of +stone, at which tower King Edward III., in the +eighteenth of his reign, by the name of the King's +House, called <i>Cornets Tower</i>, in London, did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_892" id="Page_892">[Pg 892]</a></span> +appoint to be his exchange of money there to be +kept. In the twenty-ninth he granted it to Frydus +Guynisane and Lindus Bardoile, merchants of London +for £20 the year; and in the thirty-second of +his reign, he gave it to his college, or Free Chapel +of St. Stephen, at Westminster, by the name of +his tower, called Cornettes-Tower, at Bucklesbury, +in London. This tower of late years was taken +down by one Buckle, a grocer, meaning, in place +thereof, to have set up and builded a goodly frame +of timber; but the said Buckle greedily labouring +to pull down the old tower, a piece thereof fell +upon him, which so bruised him, that his life was +thereby shortened; and another, that married his +widow, set up the new prepared frame of timber, +and finished the work.</p> + +<p>"This whole street, called Bucklesbury, on both +sides, throughout, is possessed by grocers, and +apothecaries toward the west end thereof. On the +south side breaketh out some other short lane, +called in records <i>Peneritch Street</i>. It reacheth but +to St. Syth's Lane, and St. Syth's Church is the +farthest part thereof, for by the west end of the +said church beginneth Needlers Lane."</p> + +<p>"I have heard," says Pennant, "that Bucklersbury +was, in the reign of King William, noted for +the great resort of ladies of fashion, to purchase tea, +fans, and other Indian goods. King William, in +some of his letters, appears to be angry with his +queen for visiting these shops, which, it would +seem, by the following lines of Prior, were sometimes +perverted to places of intrigue, for, speaking +of Hans Carvel's wife, the poet says:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'The first of all the Town was told,<br /> +Where newest Indian things were sold;<br /> +So in a morning, without boddice,<br /> +Slipt sometimes out to Mrs. Thody's,<br /> +To cheapen tea, or buy a skreen;<br /> +What else could so much virtue mean?'"</div> + +<p>In the time of Queen Elizabeth this street was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_893" id="Page_893">[Pg 893]</a></span> +inhabited by chemists, druggists, and apothecaries. +Mouffet, in his treatise on foods, calls on them to +decide whether sweet smells correct pestilent air; +and adds, that Bucklersbury being replete with +physic, drugs, and spicery, and being perfumed +in the time of the plague with the pounding +of spices, melting of gum, and making perfumes, +escaped that great plague, whereof such multitudes +died, that scarce any house was left unvisited.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare mentions Bucklersbury in his <i>Merry +Wives of Windsor</i>, written at Queen Elizabeth's +request. He makes Falstaff say to Mrs. Ford—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"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 deservedst it." +(<i>Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, act iii. sc. 3.)</p></div> + +<p>The apothecaries' street is also mentioned in +<i>Westward Ho!</i> that dangerous play that brought +Ben Jonson into trouble:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Mrs. Tenterhook.</i> Go into Bucklersbury, and fetch me +two ounces of preserved melons; look there be no tobacco +taken in the shop when he weighs it."</p></div> + +<p>And Ben Johnson, in a self-asserting poem to his +bookseller, says:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Nor have my title-leaf on post or walls,<br /> +Or in cleft sticks advanced to make calls<br /> +For termers, or some clerk-like serving man,<br /> +Who scarce can spell th' hard names, whose knight less can.<br /> +If without these vile arts it will not sell,<br /> +Send it to Bucklersbury, there 'twill well."</div> + +<p>That good old Norwich physician, Sir Thomas +Browne, also alludes to the herbalists' street in his +wonderful "Religio Medico:"—"I know," says +he, "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 than Cheapside."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_894" id="Page_894">[Pg 894]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> + +<p class="center">THE MANSION HOUSE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Palace of the Lord Mayor—The old Stocks' Market—A Notable Statue of Charles II.—The Mansion House described—The Egyptian Hall—Works +of Art in the Mansion House—The Election of the Lord Mayor—Lord Mayor's Day—The Duties of a Lord Mayor—Days of the +Year on which the Lord Mayor holds High State—The Patronage of the Lord Mayor—His Powers—The Lieutenancy of the City of London—The +Conservancy of the Thames and Medway—The Lord Mayor's Advisers—The Mansion House Household and Expenditure—Theodore +Hook—Lord Mayor Scropps—The Lord Mayor's Insignia—The State Barge—The <i>Maria Wood</i>.</p></div> + + +<p>The Lord Mayors in old times often dwelt in the +neighbourhood of the Old Jewry; but in 1739 Lord +Mayor Perry laid the first stone of the present dull +and stately Mansion House, and Sir Crisp Gascoigne, +1753, was the first Lord Mayor that resided in it. +The architect, Dance, selected the Greek style for +the City palace.</p> + +<p>The present palace of the Lord Mayor stands on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_895" id="Page_895">[Pg 895]</a></span> +the site of the old Stocks' Market, built for the sale +of fish and flesh by Henry Walis, mayor in the +10th year of the reign of Edward I. Before this +time a pair of stocks had stood there, and they +gave their name to the new market house. Walis +had designed this market to help to maintain +London Bridge, and the bridge keeper had for a +long time power to grant leases for the market +shops. In 1312-13, John de Gisors, mayor, gave +a congregation of honest men of the commonalty +the power of letting the Stocks' Market shops. In +the reign of Edward II. the Stocks let for £46 +13s. 4d. a year, and was one of the five privileged +markets of London. It was rebuilt in the reign +of Henry IV., and in the year 1543 there were +here twenty-five fishmongers and eighteen butchers. +In the reign of Henry VIII. a stone conduit was +erected. The market-place was about 230 feet +long and 108 feet broad, and on the east side +were rows of trees "very pleasant to the inhabitants." +On the north side were twenty-two covered +fruit stalls, at the south-west corner butchers' stalls, +and the rest of the place was taken up by gardeners +who sold fruit, roots, herbs and flowers. It is said +that that rich scented flower, the stock, derived its +name from being sold in this market.</p> + +<p>"Up farther north," says Strype, "is the Stocks' +Market. As to the present state of which it is converted +to a quite contrary use; for instead of fish +and flesh sold there before the Fire, are now sold +fruits, roots and herbs; for which it is very considerable +and much resorted unto, being of note +for having the choicest in their kind of all sorts, +surpassing all other markets in London." "All +these things have we at London," says Shadwell, +in his "Bury Fair," 1689; "the produce of the +best corn-fields at Greenhithe; hay, straw, and +cattle at Smithfield, with horses too. Where is such +a garden in Europe as the Stocks' Market? where +such a river as the Thames? such ponds and +decoys as in Leadenhall market for your fish and +fowl?"</p> + +<p>"At the north end of the market place," says +Strype, admiringly, "by a water conduit pipe, is +erected a nobly great statue of King Charles II. on +horseback, trampling on slaves, standing on a +pedestal with dolphins cut in niches, all of freestone, +and encompassed with handsome iron grates. +This statue was made and erected at the sole +charge of Sir Robert Viner, alderman, knight and +baronet, an honourable, worthy, and generous magistrate +of this City."</p> + +<p>This statue of Charles had a droll origin. It +was originally intended for a statue of John +Sobieski, the Polish king who saved Vienna from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_896" id="Page_896">[Pg 896]</a></span> +the Turks. In the first year of the Restoration, +the enthusiastic Viner purchased the unfinished +statue abroad. Sobieski's stern head was removed +by Latham, the head of Charles substituted, and +the turbaned Turk, on whom Sobieski trampled, +became a defeated Cromwell.</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Could Robin Viner have foreseen<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The glorious triumphs of his master,</span><br /> +The Wood-Church statue gold had been,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which now is made of alabaster;</span><br /> +But wise men think, had it been wood,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twere for a bankrupt king too good.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Those that the fabric well consider,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Do of it diversely discourse;</span><br /> +Some pass their censure of the rider,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Others their judgment of the horse;</span><br /> +Most say the steed's a goodly thing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But all agree 'tis a lewd king."</span></div> + +<p>(<i>The History of Insipids; a Lampoon, 1676, by the Lord +Rochester.</i>)</p> + +<p>The statue was set up May 29, 1672, and on +that day the Stocks' Market ran with claret. The +Stocks' Market was removed in 1737 to Farringdon +Street, and was then called Fleet Market. The +Sobieski statue was taken down and presented by +the City in 1779 to Robert Viner, Esq., a descendant +of the convivial mayor who pulled Charles II. +back "to take t'other bottle."</p> + +<p>"This Mansion House," says Dodsley's "Guide +to London," "is very substantially built of Portland +stone, and has a portico of six lofty fluted columns, +of the Corinthian order, in the front; the same +order being continued in pilasters both under the +pediment, and on each side. The basement storey +is very massive and built in rustic. In the centre +of this storey is the door which leads to the kitchens, +cellars, and other offices; and on each side rises a +flight of steps of very considerable extent, leading +up to the portico, in the midst of which is the door +which leads to the apartments and offices where +business is transacted. The stone balustrade of +the stairs is continued along the front of the +portico, and the columns, which are wrought in the +proportions of Palladio, support a large angular +pediment, adorned with a very noble piece in bas-relief, +representing the dignity and opulence of the +City of London, by Mr. Taylor."</p> + +<p>The lady crowned with turrets represents London. +She is trampling on Envy, who lies struggling on +her back. London's left arm rests on a shield, +and in her right she holds a wand which mightily +resembles a yard measure. On her right side +stands a Cupid, holding the cap of Liberty over his +shoulder at the end of a staff. A little further lolls +the river Thames, who is emptying a large vase, +and near him is an anchor and cable. On London's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_897" id="Page_897">[Pg 897]</a></span> +left is Plenty, kneeling and pouring out fruit from +a cornucopia, and behind Plenty are two naked +boys with bales of goods, as emblems of Commerce. +The complaint is that the principal figures +are too large, and crowd the rest, who, compelled +to grow smaller and smaller, seem sheltering from +the rain.</p> + +<p>Beneath the portico are two series of windows, +and above these there used to be an attic storey +for the servants, generally known as "the Mayor's +Nest," with square windows, crowned with a balustrade. +It is now removed.</p> + +<p>The Mansion House is an oblong, has an area +in the middle, and at the farthest end of it is +situated the grand and lofty Egyptian Hall (so +called from some Egyptian details that have now +disappeared). This noble banquet-room was designed +by the Earl of Burlington, and was intended +to resemble an Egyptian chamber described by +Vitruvius. It has two side-screens of lofty columns +supporting a vaulted roof, and is lit by a large west +window. It can dine 400 guests. In the side +walls are the niches, filled with sculptured groups +or figures, some of the best of them by Foley. +"To make it regular in rank," says the author of +"London and its Environs" (1761), "the architect +has raised a similar building on the front, +which is the upper part of a dancing-gallery. This +rather hurts than adorns the face of the building." +Near the end, at each side, is a window of extraordinary +height, placed between complex Corinthian +pilasters, and extending to the top of the attic +storey. In former times the sides of the Mansion +House were darkened by the houses that crowded +it, and the front required an area before it. It has +been seriously proposed lately to take the Poultry +front of the Mansion House away, and place it +west, facing Queen Victoria Street. In a London +Guide of 1820 the state bed at the Mansion House, +which cost three thousand guineas, is spoken of +with awe and wonder.</p> + +<p>There are, says Timbs, other dining-rooms, as +the Venetian Parlour, Wilkes's Parlour, &c. The +drawing-room and ball-room are superbly decorated; +above the latter is the Justice-room (constructed in +1849), where the Lord Mayor sits daily. In a +contiguous apartment was the state bed. There is +a fine gallery of portraits and other pictures. The +kitchen is a large hall, provided with ranges, each +of them large enough to roast an entire ox. The +vessels for boiling vegetables are not pots, but +tanks. The stewing range is a long, broad iron +pavement laid down over a series of furnaces. The +spits are huge cages formed of iron bars, and +turned by machinery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_898" id="Page_898">[Pg 898]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the close of the Exhibition of 1851, the Corporation +of London, with a view to encourage art, +voted £10,000 to be expended in statuary for the +Egyptian Hall. Among the leading works we may +mention "Alastor" and "Hermione," by Mr. J. +Durham; "Egeria" and "The Elder Brother," +in "Comus," by Mr. J.H. Foley; Chaucer's +"Griselda," by Mr. Calder Marshall; "The +Morning Star," by Mr. G.H. Bailey; and "The +Faithful Shepherdess," by Mr. Lucas Durrant. In +the saloon is the "Caractacus" of Foley, and the +"Sardanapalus" of Mr. Weekes.</p> + +<p>The duties of a Lord Mayor have been elaborately +and carefully condensed by the late Mr. Fairholt, +who had made City ceremonies the study of half +his life.</p> + +<p>"None," says our authority, "can serve the office +of Lord Mayor unless he be an alderman of +London, who must previously have served the +office of sheriff, though it is not necessary that a +sheriff should be an alderman. The sheriffs are +elected by the livery of London, the only requisite +for the office being, that he is a freeman and liveryman +of the City, and that he possesses property +sufficient to serve the office of sheriff creditably, in +all its ancient splendour and hospitality, to do +which generally involves an expenditure of about +£3,000. There are fees averaging from £500 to +£600 belonging to the office, but these are given +to the under-sheriff by all respectable and honourable +men, as it is considered very disreputable for +the sheriff to take any of them.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor has the privilege, on any day +between the 14th of April and the 14th of June, of +nominating any one or more persons (not exceeding +nine in the whole) to be submitted to the Livery +on Midsummer Day, for them to elect the two +sheriffs for the year ensuing. This is generally +done at a public dinner, when the Lord Mayor +proposes the healths of such persons as he intends +to nominate for sheriffs. It is generally done as a +compliment, and considered as an honour; but in +those cases where the parties have an objection to +serve, it sometimes gives offence, as, upon the +Lord Mayor declaring in the Court of Aldermen the +names of those he proposes, the macebearer immediately +waits upon them, and gives them formal +notice; when, if they do not intend to serve, they +are excused, upon paying, at the next Court of +Aldermen, four hundred guineas; but if they allow +their names to remain on the list until elected by +the livery, the fine is £1,000.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mansion" id="mansion"></a> +<img src="images/p438.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MANSION HOUSE KITCHEN</span> +</div> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor is elected by the Livery of +London, in Common Hall assembled (Guildhall), on +Michaelmas Day, the 29th of September, previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_899" id="Page_899">[Pg 899]</a></span> +to which election the Lord Mayor and Corporation +attend church in state; and on their return, the +names of all the aldermen who have not served the +office of Lord Mayor are submitted in rotation by +the Recorder, and the show of hands taken upon +each; when the sheriffs declare which two names +have the largest show of hands, and these two are +returned to the Court of Aldermen, who elect one +to be the Lord Mayor for the year ensuing. (The +office is compulsory to an alderman, but he is excused +upon the payment of £1,000.) The one +selected is generally the one next in rotation, unless +he has not paid twenty shillings in the pound, or +there is any blot in his private character, for it does +not follow that an alderman having served the +office of sheriff must necessarily become Lord +Mayor; the selection rests first with the livery, +and afterwards with the Court of Aldermen; and +in case of bankruptcy, or compounding with his +creditors, an alderman is passed over, and even a +junior put in his place, until he has paid twenty +shillings in the pound to all his creditors. The +selection being made from the nominees, the Lord +Mayor and aldermen return to the livery, and the +Recorder declares upon whom the choice of the +aldermen has fallen, when he is publicly called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_900" id="Page_900">[Pg 900]</a></span> +forth, the chain put round his neck, and he returns +thanks to the livery for the honour they have conferred +upon him. He is now styled the 'Right +Honourable the Lord Mayor elect,' and takes rank +next to the Lord Mayor, who takes him home in +the state carriage to the Mansion House, to dine +with the aldermen. This being his first ride in the +state coach, a fee of a guinea is presented to the +coachman, and half-a-guinea to the postilion; the +City trumpeters who attend also receive a gratuity. +The attention of the Lord Mayor elect is now +entirely directed to the establishment of his household, +and he is beset by applications of all sorts, +and tradesmen of every grade and kind, until he +has filled up his appointments, which must be done +by the 8th of November, when he is publicly installed +in his office in the Guildhall.</p> + +<p>"The election of mayor is subject to the approbation +of the Crown, which is communicated by the +Lord Chancellor to the Lord Mayor elect, at an +audience in the presence of the Recorder, who +presents him to the Lord Chancellor for the purpose +of receiving Her Majesty's pleasure and approbation +of the man of the City's choice. This +ceremony is generally gone through on the first +day of Michaelmas term, previous to receiving the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_902" id="Page_902">[Pg 902]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_901" id="Page_901">[Pg 901]</a></span>judges. The Lord Mayor elect is attended to the +Chancellor's private residence by the aldermen, +sheriffs, under-sheriffs, the swordbearers, and all +the City officers. In the evening he gives his first +state dinner, in robes and full-dressed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mansionhouse" id="mansionhouse"></a> +<img src="images/p439.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MANSION HOUSE IN 1750. (<i>From a Print published for Stow's "Survey.</i>")</span> +</div> + +<p>"On the 8th of November the Lord Mayor elect +is sworn into office publicly in Guildhall, having +previously breakfasted with the Lord Mayor at +the Mansion House; they are attended at this +ceremony, as well as at the breakfast, by the +members and officers of the Court of the Livery +Company to which they respectively belong, in +their gowns. After the swearing in at Guildhall, +when the Mayor publicly takes the oaths, accepts +the sword, the mace, the sceptre, and the City purse, +he proceeds with the late Mayor to the Mansion +House, and they conjointly give what is called the +'farewell dinner;' the Lord Mayor elect proceeding +to his own private residence in the evening, a +few days being allowed for the removal of the late +Lord Mayor.</p> + +<p>"The next day, being what is popularly known as +'Lord Mayor's day,' and which is observed as a +close holiday in the City, the shops are closed, +as are also the streets in all the principal thoroughfares, +except for the carriages engaged in the procession. +He used formerly to go to Westminster +Hall by water, in the state barge, attended by the +state barges of the City Companies, but now by +land, and is again sworn in, in the Court of Exchequer, +to uphold and support the Crown, and make +a due return of all fines and fees passing through +his office during the year. He returns in the +same state to Guildhall about three o'clock in the +afternoon (having left the Mansion House about +twelve o'clock), where, in conjunction with the +Sheriffs, he gives a most splendid banquet to the +Royal Family, the Judges, Ministers of State, +Ambassadors, or such of them as will accept his +invitation, the Corporation, and such distinguished +foreigners as may be visiting in the country. At +this banquet the King and Queen attend the first +year after their coronation; it is given at the expense +of the City, and it generally costs from eight +to ten thousand pounds; but when the City entertained +the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., +and the allied Sovereigns in 1814, it cost twenty +thousand pounds. On all other Lord Mayor's days +the expense is borne by the Lord Mayor and the +Sheriffs, the former paying half, and the latter one-fourth +each; the Mayor's half generally averaging +from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>"The next morning the new Lord Mayor enters +upon the duties of his office. From ten to twelve +he is engaged in giving audience to various appli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_903" id="Page_903">[Pg 903]</a></span>cations; +at twelve he enters the justice-room, +where he is often detained until four in the afternoon, +and this is his daily employment. His +lordship holds his first Court of Aldermen previous +to any other court, to which he goes in full state; +the same week he holds his first Court of Common +Council, also in state. He attends the first sessions +of the Central Criminal Court at Justice Hall, in +the Old Bailey; being the Chief Commissioner, he +takes precedence of all the judges, and sits in a +chair in the centre of the Bench, the swordbearer +placing the sword of justice behind it; this +seat is never occupied in the absence of the Lord +Mayor, except by an alderman who has passed the +chair. The Court is opened at ten o'clock on Monday; +the judges come on Wednesday; the Lord +Mayor takes the chair for an hour, and then retires +till five o'clock, when he entertains the judges at +dinner in the Court-house, which is expected to be +done every day during the sitting of the Court, +which takes place every month, and lasts about +eight days; the Lord Mayor and the sheriffs +dividing the expenses of the table between them.</p> + +<p>"Plough Monday is the next grand day, when the +Lord Mayor receives the inquest of every ward in +the City, who make a presentment of the election +of all ward officers in the City, who are elected on +St. Thomas's Day, December 21st, and also of +any nuisances or grievances of which the citizens +may have to complain, which are referred to the +Court of Aldermen, who sit in judgment on these +matters on the next Court day. In former times, +on the first Sunday in Epiphany, the Lord Mayor, +Aldermen, and Corporation, went in state to the +Church of St. Lawrence, Guildhall, and there received +the sacrament, but this custom has of late +years been omitted.</p> + +<p>"If any public fast is ordered by the King, the +Lord Mayor and Corporation attend St. Paul's +Cathedral in their black robes; and if a thanksgiving, +they appear in scarlet. If an address is to +be presented to the throne, the whole Corporation +go in state, the Lord Mayor wearing his gold gown. +(Of these gowns only a certain number are allowed, +by Act of Parliament, to public officers as a costly +badge of distinction; the Lord Chancellor and the +Master of the Rolls are among the privileged persons.) +On Easter Monday and Tuesday the Lord +Mayor attends Christ Church (of which he is a +member), on which occasion the whole of the blue-coat +boys, nurses, and beadles, master, clerk, and +other officers, walk in procession. The President, +freemen, and other officers of the Royal Hospital +attend the church to hear the sermon, and a statement +of the income and expenditure of each of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_904" id="Page_904">[Pg 904]</a></span> +hospitals, over which the Mayor has jurisdiction, is +read from the pulpit. A public dinner is given at +Christ's Hospital on the Monday evening, and a +similar one at St. Bartholomew's on the Tuesday. +On the Monday evening the Lord Mayor gives the +grandest dinner of the year in the Egyptian Hall, +at the Mansion House, to 400 persons, at which +some of the Royal Family often attend, a ball taking +place in the evening. The next day, before going to +church, the Lord Mayor gives a purse of fifty +guineas, in sixpences, shillings, and half-crowns, +to the boys of Christ's Hospital, who pass before +him through the Mansion House, each receiving a +piece of silver (fresh from the Mint), two plum +buns, and a glass of wine. On the first Sunday +in term the Lord Mayor and Corporation receive +the judges at St. Paul's, and hear a sermon from +the Lord Mayor's chaplain, after which his lordship +entertains the party at dinner, either on that +day or any other, according to his own feeling of +the propriety of Sunday dinners.</p> + +<p>"In the month of May, when the festival of the +Sons of the Clergy is generally held in St. Paul's, +the Lord Mayor attends, after which the party dine +at Merchant Taylors' Hall. Some of the Royal +Family generally attend; always the archbishop +and a great body of the clergy. In the same month, +the Lord Mayor attends St. Paul's in state, to hear +a sermon preached before the Society for the Propagation +of the Gospel, at which all the bishops +and archbishops attend, with others of the clergy; +after which the Lord Mayor gives them a grand +dinner; and on another day in the same month, +the Archbishop of Canterbury gives a similar state +dinner to the Lord Mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, and +the bishops, at Lambeth Palace." In June the +Lord Mayor used to attend the anniversary of the +Charity Schools in St. Paul's in state, and in the +evening to preside at the public dinner, but this +has of late been discontinued.</p> + +<p>"On Midsummer Day, the Lord Mayor holds a +common hall for the election of sheriffs for the +ensuing year; and on the 3rd of September, the +Lord Mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs used to go in +state to proclaim Bartholomew Fair, now a thing of +the past. They called at the gaol of Newgate on +their way, and the governor brought out a cup of +wine, from which the Lord Mayor drank.</p> + +<p>"On St. Matthias' Day (21st September) the Lord +Mayor attends Christ's Hospital, to hear a sermon, +when a little Latin oration is made by the two senior +scholars, who afterwards carry round a glove, and +collect money enough to pay their first year's expenses +at college. Then the beadles of the various +hospitals of which the Lord Mayor is governor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_905" id="Page_905">[Pg 905]</a></span> +deliver up their staves of office, which are returned +if no fault is to be attributed to them; and this is +done to denote the Mayor's right to remove them +at his will, or upon just cause assigned, although +elected by their respective governors."</p> + +<p>On the 28th of September, the Lord Mayor swears +in the sheriffs at Guildhall, a public breakfast having +been first given by them at the hall of the Company +to which the senior sheriff belongs. On the 30th +of September, the Lord Mayor proceeds with the +sheriffs to Westminster, in state; and the sheriffs +are again sworn into office before the Barons of the +Exchequer. The senior alderman below the chair +(the next in rotation for Lord Mayor) cuts some +sticks, delivers six horse-shoes, and counts sixty-one +hob-nails, as suit and service for some lands held +by the City under the Crown. The Barons are then +invited to the banquet given by the sheriffs on their +return to the City, at which the Lord Mayor presides +in state.</p> + +<p>"The patronage of the Lord Mayor consists in +the appointment of a chaplain, who receives a full +set of canonicals, lives and boards in the Mansion +House, has a suite of rooms and a servant at command, +rides in the state carriage, and attends the +Lord Mayor whenever required. He is presented +to the King at the first levée, and receives a purse +of fifty guineas from the Court of Aldermen, and a +like sum from the Court of Common Council, for +the sermons he preaches before the Corporation +and the judges at St. Paul's the first Sundays in +term. The next appointment the Lord Mayor has +at his disposal is the Clerk of the Cocket Office, +whom he pays out of his own purse. If a harbour +master, of whom there are four, dies during the +year, the Lord Mayor appoints his successor. +The salary is £400 a year, and is paid by the +Chamberlain. He also appoints the water-bailiff's +assistants, if any vacancy occurs. He presents a +boy to Christ's Hospital, in addition to the one he +is entitled to present as an alderman; and he has +a presentation of an annuity of £21 10s. 5d., under +will, to thirteen pensioners, provided a vacancy +occurs during his year of office. £4 is given to a +poor soldier, and the same sum to a poor sailor.</p> + +<p>"The powers of the Lord Mayor over the City, +although abridged, like the sovereign power over +the State, are still much more extensive than is +generally supposed. The rights and privileges of +the chief magistrate of the City and its corporation +are nearly allied to those of the constitution of the +State. The Lord Mayor has the badges of royalty +attached to his office—the sceptre, the swords of +justice and mercy, and the mace. The gold chain, +one of the most ancient honorary distinctions, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_906" id="Page_906">[Pg 906]</a></span> +which may be traced from the Eastern manner of +conferring dignity, is worn by him, among other +honorary badges; and, having passed through the +office of Lord Mayor, the alderman continues to +wear it during his life. He controls the City purse, +the Chamberlain delivering it into his hands, together +with the sceptre, on the day he is sworn into +office. He has the right of precedence in the City +before all the Royal Family, which right was disputed +by the Prince of Wales, in St. Paul's Cathedral, +during the mayoralty of Sir James Shaw, but maintained +by him, and approved and confirmed by the +King (George III.). The gates of the City are in +his custody, and it is usual to close the only one +now remaining, Temple Bar, on the approach of +the sovereign when on a visit to the City, who +knocks and formally requests admission, the Mayor +attending in person to grant it, and receive the visit +of royalty; and upon proclaiming war or peace, he +also proceeds in state to Temple Bar, to admit the +heralds. Soldiers cannot march through the City, +in any large numbers, without the Mayor's permission, +first obtained by the Commander-in-chief.</p> + +<p>"The Lieutenancy of the City of London is in +commission. The Lord Mayor, being the Chief +Commissioner, issues a new commission, whenever +he pleases, by application to the Lord Chancellor, +through the Secretary of State. He names in the +commission all the aldermen and deputies of the +City of London, the directors of the Bank, the +members for the City, and such of his immediate +friends and relations as he pleases. The commission, +being under the Great Seal, gives all the parties +named therein the right to be styled esquires, and +the name once in the commission remains, unless +removed for any valid reason.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor enjoys the right of private +audience with the Crown; and when an audience +is wished for, it is usual to make the request through +the Remembrancer, but not necessary. When +Alderman Wilson was Lord Mayor, he used to +apply by letter to the Lord Chamberlain. In +attending levees or drawing-rooms, the Lord Mayor +has the privilege of the <i>entrée</i>, and, in consideration +of the important duties he has to perform in the +City, and to save his time, he is allowed to drive +direct into the Ambassadors' Court at St. James's, +without going round by Constitution Hill. He is +summoned as a Privy Councillor on the death of +the King; and the Tower pass-word is sent to him +regularly, signed by the sovereign.</p> + +<p>"He has the uncontrolled conservancy of the river +Thames and the waters of the Medway, from London +Bridge to Rochester down the river, and from +London Bridge to Oxford up the river. He holds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_907" id="Page_907">[Pg 907]</a></span> +Courts of Conservancy whenever he sees it necessary, +and summons juries in Kent, from London +and Middlesex, who are compelled to go on the +river in boats to view and make presentments. In +the mayoralty of Alderman Wilson, these courts +were held in the state barge, on the water, at the +spot with which the inquiry was connected, for the +convenience of the witnesses attending from the +villages near. It is usual for him to visit Oxford +once in fourteen, and Rochester once in seven +years.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>"Alderman Wilson, in 1839, was the last Lord +Mayor (says Fairholt, whose book was published +in 1843) who visited the western boundary; and +he, at the request of the Court of Aldermen, +made Windsor the principal seat of the festivities, +going no farther than Cliefden, and visiting Magna +Charta island on his return. Alderman Pirie was +the last who visited the eastern boundary, the +whole party staying two days at Rochester. The +Lord Mayor is privileged by the City to go these +journeys every year, should he see any necessity +for it; but the expense is so great (about £1,000) +that it is only performed at these distant periods, +although Alderman Wilson visited the western +boundary in the thirteenth, and Alderman Pirie in +the fifth year. A similar short view is taken as far +as Twickenham yearly, in the month of July, at a +cost of about £150, when the Lord Mayor is +attended by the aldermen, the sheriffs, and their +ladies, with the same show and attendance as on +the more infrequent visits. His lordship has also +a committee to assist in the duties of his office, +who have a shallop of their own, and take a view +up and down the river, as far as they like to go, +once or twice a month during summer, at an expense +of some hundreds per annum.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor may be said to have a veto +upon the proceedings of the Courts both of Aldermen +and Common Council, as well as upon the +Court of Livery in Common Hall assembled, neither +of these courts being able to meet unless convened +by him; and he can at any time dissolve the court +by removing the sword and mace from the table, +and declaring the business at an end; but this +is considered an ungracious display of power when +exercised.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor may call upon the Recorder +for his advice whenever he may stand in need of it, +as well as for that of the Common Serjeant, the four +City pleaders, and the City solicitor, from whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_908" id="Page_908">[Pg 908]</a></span> +he orders prosecutions at the City expense whenever +he thinks the public good requires it. The +salary of the Recorder is £2,500 per annum, +besides fees; the Common Serjeant £1,000, with +an income from other sources of £843 per annum. +The solicitor is supposed to make £5,000 per +annum.</p> + +<p>"The Lord Mayor resides in the Mansion +House, the first stone of which was laid the 25th of +October, 1739. This house, with the furniture, cost +£70,985 13s. 2d., the principal part of which was +paid from the fines received from persons who +wished to be excused from serving the office of +sheriff. About £9,000 was paid out of the City's +income. The plate cost £11,531 16s. 3d., which +has been very considerably added to since by the +Lord Mayors for the time being, averaging about +£500 per annum.</p> + +<p>"Attached to the household is—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>£</td><td align='right'>s.</td><td align='right'>d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The chaplain, at a salary of</td><td align='right'>97</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The swordbearer</td><td align='right'>500</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The macebearer</td><td align='right'>500</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Water-bailiff</td><td align='right'>300</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>City marshal</td><td align='right'>550</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Marshal's man</td><td align='right'>200</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Clerk of the Cocket Office</td><td align='right'>80</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Gate porter</td><td align='right'>6</td><td align='right'>6</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Seven trumpeters</td><td align='right'>29</td><td align='right'>9</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>"These sums, added to the allowance to the +Lord Mayor, and the ground-rent and taxes of the +Mansion House (amounting to about £692 12s. 6d. +per annum), and other expenses, it is expected, +cost the City about £19,038 16s. 10d. per annum. +There are also four attorneys of the Mayor's court, +who formerly boarded at the Mansion House, but +are now allowed £105 per annum in lieu of the +table. The plate-butler and the housekeeper have +each £5 5s. per annum as a compliment from the +City, and in addition to their wages, paid by the +Lord Mayor (£45 per annum to the housekeeper, +and £1 5s. per week to the plate-butler). The +marshal's clothing costs £44 16s. per annum, and +that of the marshal's man £13 9s. 6d.</p> + +<p>"There is also—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>£</td><td align='right'>s.</td><td align='right'>d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A yeoman of the chamber, at</td><td align='right'>270</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Three Serjeants of ditto,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> each</td><td align='right'>280</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Master of the ceremonies</td><td align='right'>40</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Serjeant of the channel</td><td align='right'>184</td><td align='right'>10</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Yeoman of the channel</td><td align='right'>25</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Two yeomen of the waterside, each</td><td align='right'>350</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Deputy water-bailiff</td><td align='right'>350</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Water-bailiff's first young man</td><td align='right'>300</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The common hunt's young man</td><td align='right'>350</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Water-bailiff's second young man</td><td align='right'>300</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Swordbearer's young man</td><td align='right'>350</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_909" id="Page_909">[Pg 909]</a></span></p> + +<p>"These sums and others, added to the previous +amount, make an annual amount of expense +connected with the office of Lord Mayor of +£25,034 7s. 1d.</p> + +<p>"Most of the last-named officers walk before the +Lord Mayor, dressed in black silk gowns, on all +state occasions (one acting as his lordship's train- +bearer), and dine with the household at a table +provided at about 15s. a head, exclusive of wine, +which they are allowed without restraint. In the +mayoralty of Alderman Atkins, some dispute having +arisen with some of the household respecting their +tables, the City abolished the daily table, giving +each of the officers a sum of money instead, +deducting £1,000 a year from the Lord Mayor's +allowance, and requiring him only to provide the +swordbearer's table on state days."</p> + +<p>The estimate made for the expenditure at the +Mansion House by the committee of the Corporation, +is founded upon the average of many years, +but in such mayoralties as Curtis, Pirie, and +Wilson, far more must have been spent. It is +said that only one Lord Mayor ever saved anything +out of his salary.</p> + +<p>"Sir James Saunderson, Mayor in 1792-3, left +behind him a minute account of the expenses of his +year of office, for the edification of his successors. +The document is lengthy, but we shall select a +few of the more striking items. Paid—Butcher for +twelve months, £781 10s. 10d.; one item in this +account is for meat given to the prisoners at Ludgate, +at a cost of £68 10s. 8d. The wines are, of +course, expensive. 1792—Paid, late Lord Mayor's +stock, £57 7s. 11d.; hock, 35 dozen, £82 14s. 0d.; +champagne, 40 ditto, at 43s., £85 19s. 9d.; claret, +154 ditto, at 34s. 10d. per dozen, £268 12s. 7d.; +Burgundy, 30 ditto, £76 5s. 0d.; port, 8 pipes, +400 dozen, £416 4s. 0d.; draught ditto, for Lord +Mayor's day, £49 4s. 0d.; ditto, ditto, for Easter +Monday, £28 4s. 3d.—£493 12s. 3d.; Madeira, +32 dozen, £59 16s. 4d.; sherry, 61 dozen, +£67 1s. 0d.; Lisbon, one hogshead, at 34s. per +dozen, £62 12s. 0d.; bottles to make good, broke +and stole, £97 13s. 6d.; arrack, £8 8s. 0d.; +brandy, 25 gallons, £18 11s. 0d.; rum, 6½ ditto, +£3 19s. 6d. Total, £1,309 12s. 10d."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="egyptian" id="egyptian"></a> +<img src="images/p444.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF THE EGYPTIAN HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>"These items of costume are curious:—Lady +Mayoress, November 30.—A hoop, £2 16s. 0d.; +point ruffles, £12 12s. 0d.; treble blond ditto, +£7 7s. 0d.; a fan, £3 3s. 0d.; a cap and lappets, +£7 7s. 0d.; a cloak and sundries, £26 17s. 0d.; +hair ornaments, £34 0s. 0d.; a cap, £7 18s. 0d.; +sundries, £37 9s. 1d. 1793, Jan. 26.—A silk, +for 9th Nov., 3½ guineas per yard, £41 6s. 0d.; +a petticoat (Madame Beauvais), £35 3s. 6d.; a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_910" id="Page_910">[Pg 910]</a></span> +gold chain, £57 15s. 0d.; silver silk, £13 0s. 0d.; +clouded satin, £5 10s. 0d.; a petticoat for Easter, +£29 1s. 0d.; millinery, for ditto, £27 17s. 6d.; +hair-dressing, £13 2s. 3d. July 6th.—A petticoat, +£6 16s. 8d.; millinery, £7 8s. 8d.; mantua-maker, +in full, £13 14s. 6d.; milliner, in full, +£12 6s. 6d. Total, £416 2s. 0d. The Lord +Mayor's dress:—Two wigs, £9 9s. 0d.; a velvet +suit, £54 8s. 0d.; other clothes, £117 13s. 4d.; +hats and hose, £9 6s. 6d.; a scarlet robe, +£14 8s. 6d.; a violet ditto, £12 1s. 6d.; a gold +chain, £63 0s. 0d.; steel buckles, £5 5s. 0d.; +a steel sword, £6 16s. 6d.; hair-dressing, +£16 16s. 11d.—£309 2s. 3d. On the page +opposite to that containing this record, under the +head of 'Ditto Returned,' we read 'Per Valua<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_911" id="Page_911">[Pg 911]</a></span>tion, +£0 0s. 0d.' Thus, to dress a Lord Mayor +costs £309 2s. 0d.; but her Ladyship cannot be +duly arrayed at a less cost than £416 2s. 0d. To +dress the servants cost £724 5s. 6d."</p> + +<p>Then comes a grand summing-up. "Dr. The +whole state of the account, £12,173 4s. 3d." Then +follow the receipts per contra:—" At Chamberlain's +Office, £3,572 8s. 4d.; Cocket Office, £892 5s. 11d.; +Bridge House, £60; City Gauger, £250; freedoms, +£175; fees on affidavits, £21 16s. 8d.; +seals, £67 4s. 9d.; licences, £13 15s.; sheriff's +fees, £13 6s. 8d.; corn fees, £15 13s.; venison +warrants, £14 4s.; attorneys, Mayor's Court, +£26 7s. 9d.; City Remembrancer, £12 12s.; in +lieu of baskets, £7 7s.; vote of Common Council, +£100; sale of horses and carriages, £450;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_912" id="Page_912">[Pg 912]</a></span> +wine (overplus) removed from Mansion House, +£398 18s. 7d. Total received, £6,117 9s. 8d. +Cost of mayoralty, as such, and independent of all +private expenses, £6,055 14s. 7d."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="maria" id="maria"></a> +<img src="images/p445.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE "MARIA WOOD."</span> +</div> + +<p>That clever but unscrupulous tuft-hunter and +smart parvenu, Theodore Hook, who talked of +Bloomsbury as if it was semi-barbarous, and of +citizens (whose wine he drank, and whose hospitality +he so often shared) as if they could only eat +venison and swallow turtle soup, has left a sketch +of the short-lived dignity of a mayor, which exactly +represents the absurd caricature of City life that +then pleased his West-end readers, half of whom +had derived their original wealth from the till. +Scropps, the new Lord Mayor, cannot sleep all +night for his greatness; the wind down the chimney +sounds like the shouts of the people; the cocks +crowing in the morn at the back of the house he +takes for trumpets sounding his approach; and the +ordinary incidental noises in the family he fancies +the pop-guns at Stangate announcing his disembarcation +at Westminster. Then come his droll mishaps: +when he enters the state coach, and throws +himself back upon his broad seat, with all imaginable +dignity, in the midst of all his ease and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_913" id="Page_913">[Pg 913]</a></span> +elegance, he snaps off the cut-steel hilt of his sword, +by accidentally bumping the whole weight of his +body right—or rather, wrong—directly upon the +top of it.</p> + +<p>"Through fog and glory," says Theodore Hook, +"Scropps reached Blackfriars Bridge, took water, +and in the barge tasted none of the collation, for +all he heard, saw, and swallowed was 'Lord Mayor' +and 'your lordship,' far sweeter than nectar. At +the presentation at Westminster, he saw two of the +judges, whom he remembered on the circuit, when +he trembled at the sight of them, believing them to +be some extraordinary creatures, upon whom all +the hair and fur grew naturally.</p> + +<p>"Then the Lady Mayoress. There she was—Sally +Scropps (her maiden name was Snob). 'There +was my own Sally, with a plume of feathers that +half filled the coach, and Jenny and Maria and +young Sally, all with their backs to <i>my</i> horses, +which were pawing with mud, and snorting and +smoking like steam-engines, with nostrils like safety +valves, and four of <i>my</i> footmen behind the coach, +like bees in a swarm.'"</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most effective portion of the paper +is the <i>reverse</i> of the picture. My lord and lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_914" id="Page_914">[Pg 914]</a></span> +and their family had just got settled in the Mansion +House, and enjoying their dignity, when the 9th +of November came again—the consummation of +Scropps' downfall. Again did they go in state to +Guildhall; again were they toasted and addressed; +again were they handed in and led out, flirted with +Cabinet ministers, and danced with ambassadors; +and at two o'clock in the morning drove home +from the scene of gaiety to the old residence in +Budge Row. "Never in the world did pickled +herrings or turpentine smell so powerfully as on +that night when we re-entered the house.... +The passage looked so narrow; the drawing-room +looked so small; the staircase seemed so dark; +our apartments appeared so low. In the morning +we assembled at breakfast. A note lay upon the +table, addressed 'Mrs. Scropps, Budge Row.' +The girls, one after the other, took it up, read the +superscription, and laid it down again. A visitor +was announced—a neighbour and kind friend, a +man of wealth and importance. What were his +first words? They were the first I had heard from +a stranger since my job. 'How are you, Scropps? +Done up, eh?'</p> + +<p>"Scropps! No obsequiousness, no deference, +no respect. No 'My lord, I hope your lordship +passed an agreeable night. And how is her ladyship, +and her amiable daughters?' No, not a bit +of it! 'How's Mrs. S. and the <i>gals</i>?' This was +quite natural, all as it had been. But how unlike +what it <i>was</i> only the day before! The very +servants—who, when amidst the strapping, stall-fed, +gold-laced lackeys of the Mansion House, and +transferred, with the chairs and tables, from one +Lord Mayor to another, dared not speak, nor look, +nor say their lives were their own—strutted about +the house, and banged the doors, and spoke of their +<i>missis</i> as if she had been an old apple-woman.</p> + +<p>"So much for domestic miseries. I went out. +I was shoved about in Cheapside in the most +remorseless manner. My right eye had a narrow +escape of being poked out by the tray of a brawny +butcher's boy, who, when I civilly remonstrated, +turned round and said, 'Vy, I say, who are <i>you</i>, I +wonder? Why are you so partiklar about your +<i>hysight</i>?' I felt an involuntary shudder. 'To-day,' +thought I, 'I am John Ebenezer Scropps. Two +days ago I was Lord Mayor!'"</p> + +<p>"Our Lord Mayor," says Cobbett, in his sensible +way, "and his golden coach, and his gold-covered +footmen and coachmen, and his golden chain, and +his chaplain, and his great sword of state, please +the people, and particularly the women and girls; +and when they are pleased, the men and boys are +pleased. And many a young fellow has been more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_915" id="Page_915">[Pg 915]</a></span> +industrious and attentive from his hope of one day +riding in that golden coach."</p> + +<p>"On ordinary state occasions," says "Aleph," in +the <i>City Press</i>, "the Lord Mayor wears a massive +black silk robe, richly embroidered, and his collar +and jewel; in the civic courts, a violet silk robe, +furred and bordered with black velvet. The wear +of the various robes was fixed by a regulation dated +1562. The present authority for the costumes is a +printed pamphlet (by order of the Court of Common +Council), dated 1789.</p> + +<p>"The jewelled collar (date 1534)," says Mr. +Timbs, "is of pure gold, composed of a series of +links, each formed of a letter S, a united York and +Lancaster (or Henry VII.) rose, and a massive +knot. The ends of the chain are joined by the +portcullis, from the points of which, suspended by +a ring of diamonds, hangs the jewel. The entire +collar contains twenty-eight SS, fourteen roses, +thirteen knots, and measures sixty-four inches. +The jewel contains in the centre the City arms, cut +in cameo of a delicate blue, on an olive ground. +Surrounding this is a garter of bright blue, edged +with white and gold, bearing the City motto, +'Domine, dirige nos,' in gold letters. The whole +is encircled with a costly border of gold SS, alternating +with rosettes of diamonds, set in silver. +The jewel is suspended from the collar by a +portcullis, but when worn without the collar, is +hung by a broad blue ribbon. The investiture +is by a massive gold chain, and, when the Lord +Mayor is re-elected, by two chains."</p> + +<p>Edward III., by his charter (dated 1534), grants +the mayors of the City of London "gold, or +silver, or silvered" maces, to be carried before +them. The present mace, of silver-gilt, is five feet +three inches long, and bears on the lower part +"W.R." It is surmounted with a royal crown +and the imperial arms; and the handle and staff +are richly chased.</p> + +<p>There are four swords belonging to the City +of London. The "Pearl" sword, presented by +Queen Elizabeth when she opened the first Royal +Exchange, in 1571, and so named from its being +richly set with pearls. This sword is carried +before the Lord Mayor on all occasions of rejoicing +and festivity. The "Sword of State," borne +before the Lord Mayor as an emblem of his authority. +The "Black" sword, used on fast days, in +Lent, and at the death of any of the royal family. +And the fourth is that placed before the Lord +Mayor's chair at the Central Criminal Court.</p> + +<p>The Corporate seal is circular. The second seal, +made in the mayoralty of Sir William Walworth, +1381, is much defaced.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_916" id="Page_916">[Pg 916]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The 'gondola,' known as the 'Lord Mayor's +State Barge,'" says "Aleph," "was built in 1807, at +a cost of £2,579. Built of English oak, 85 feet +long by 13 feet 8 inches broad, she was at all +times at liberty to pass through all the locks, and +even go up the Thames as far as Oxford. She +had eighteen oars and all other fittings complete, +and was profusely gilt. But when the Conservancy +Act took force, and the Corporation had no +longer need of her, she was sold at her moorings +at Messrs. Searle's, Surrey side of Westminster +Bridge, on Thursday, April 5th, 1860, by Messrs. +Pullen and Son, of Cripplegate. The first bid was +£20, and she was ultimately knocked down for +£105. Where she is or how she has fared we know +not. The other barge is that famous one known to +all City personages and all civic pleasure parties. +It was built during the mayoralty of Sir Matthew +Wood, in 1816, and received its name of <i>Maria<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_917" id="Page_917">[Pg 917]</a></span> Wood</i> from the eldest and pet daughter of that +'twice Lord Mayor.' It cost £3,300, and was +built by Messrs. Field and White, in consequence +of the old barge <i>Crosby</i> (built during the mayoralty +of Brass Crosby, 1771) being found past repairing. +<i>Maria Wood</i> measures 140 feet long by 19 feet +wide, and draws only 2 feet 6 inches of water. +The grand saloon, 56 feet long, is capable of dining +140 persons. In 1851 she cost £1,000 repairing. +Like her sister, this splendid civic barge was sold +at the Auction-mart, facing the Bank of England, +by Messrs. Pullen and Son, on Tuesday, May 31, +1859. The sale commenced at £100, next £200, +£220, and thence regular bids, till finally it got to +£400, when Mr. Alderman Humphrey bid £410, +and got the prize. Though no longer civic property, +it is yet, I believe, in the hands of those +who allow it to be made the scene of many a day +of festivity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_918" id="Page_918">[Pg 918]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> A new Act for the conservancy of the Thames came +into operation on September 30th, 1857, the result of a +compromise between the City and the Government, after a +long lawsuit between the Crown and City authorities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> These functionaries carve the barons of beef at the banquet on +Lord Mayor's Day.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> + +<p class="center">SAXON LONDON</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A Glance at Saxon London—The Three Component Parts of Saxon London—The First Saxon Bridge over the Thames—Edward the Confessor at +Westminster—City Residences of the Saxon Kings—Political Position of London in Early Times—The first recorded Great Fire of London—The +Early Commercial Dignity of London—The Kings of Norway and Denmark besiege London in vain—A Great <i>Gemot</i> held in London—Edmund +Ironside elected King by the Londoners—Canute besieges them, and is driven off—The Seamen of London—Its Citizens as +Electors of Kings.</p></div> + + +<p>Our materials for sketching Saxon London are +singularly scanty; yet some faint picture of it we +may perhaps hope to convey.</p> + +<p>Our readers must, therefore, divest their minds +entirely of all remembrance of that great ocean of +houses that has now spread like an inundation +from the banks of the winding Thames, surging +over the wooded ridges that rise northward, and +widening out from Whitechapel eastward to Kensington +westward. They must rather recall to +their minds some small German town, belted in +with a sturdy wall, raised not for ornament, but +defence, with corner turrets for archers, and +pierced with loops whence the bowmen may drive +their arrows at the straining workers of the catapult +and mangonels (those Roman war-engines we +used against the cruel Danes), and with stone-capped +places of shelter along the watchmen's +platforms, where the sentinels may shelter themselves +during the cold and storm, when tired of +peering over the battlements and looking for the +crafty enemy Essex-wards or Surrey way. No toy +battlements of modern villa or tea-garden are those +over which the rough-bearded men, in hoods and +leather coats, lean in the summer, watching the +citizens disporting themselves in the Moorfields, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_919" id="Page_919">[Pg 919]</a></span> +in winter sledging over the ice-pools of Finsbury. +Not for mere theatrical pageant do they carry +those heavy axes and tough spears. Those bossed +targets are not for festival show; those buff jackets, +covered with metal scales, have been tested before +now by Norsemen's ponderous swords and the +hatchets of the fierce Jutlanders.</p> + +<p>In such castle rooms as antiquaries now visit, +the Saxon earls and eldermen quaffed their ale, +and drank "wassail" to King Egbert or Ethelwolf. +In such dungeons as we now see with a shudder +at the Tower, Saxon traitors and Danish prisoners +once peaked and pined.</p> + +<p>We must imagine Saxon London as having three +component parts—fortresses, convents, and huts. +The girdle of wall, while it restricted space, would +give a feeling of safety and snugness which in our +great modern city—which is really a conglomeration, +a sort of pudding-stone, of many towns and +villages grown together into one shapeless mass—the +citizen can never again experience. The streets +would in some degree resemble those of Moscow, +where, behind fortress, palace, and church, you come +upon rows of mere wooden sheds, scarcely better +than the log huts of the peasants, or the sombre +felt tents of the Turcoman. There would be large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_920" id="Page_920">[Pg 920]</a></span> +vacant spaces, as in St. Petersburg; and the +suburbs would rapidly open beyond the walls +into wild woodland and pasture, fen, moor, and +common. A few dozen fishermen's boats from +Kent and Norfolk would be moored by the Tower, +if, indeed, any Saxon fort had ever replaced the +somewhat hypothetical Roman fortress of tradition; +and lower down some hundred or so cumbrous +Dutch, French, and German vessels would +represent our trade with the almost unknown continent +whence we drew wine and furs and the +few luxuries of those hardy and thrifty days.</p> + +<p>In the narrow streets, the fortress, convent, and +hut would be exactly represented by the chieftain +and his bearded retinue of spearmen, the priest +with his train of acolytes, and the herd of half-savage +churls who plodded along with rough carts +laden with timber from the Essex forests, or driving +herds of swine from the glades of Epping. The +churls we picture as grim but hearty folk, stolid, +pugnacious, yet honest and promise-keeping, over-inclined +to strong ale, and not disinclined for a +brawl; men who had fought with Danes and +wolves, and who were ready to fight them again. +The shops must have been mere stalls, and much +of the trade itinerant. There would be, no doubt, +rudimentary market-places about Cheapside (Chepe +is the Saxon word for market); and the lines of +some of our chief streets, no doubt, still follow the +curves of the original Saxon roads.</p> + +<p>The date of the first Saxon bridge over the +Thames is extremely uncertain, as our chapter on +London Bridge will show; but it is almost as certain +as history can be that, soon after the Dane Olaf's +invasion of England (994) in Ethelred's reign, with +390 piratical ships, when he plundered Staines +and Sandwich, a rough wooden bridge was built, +which crossed the Thames from St. Botolph's wharf +to the Surrey shore. We must imagine it a clumsy +rickety structure, raised on piles with rough-hewn +timber planks, and with drawbridges that lifted to +allow Saxon vessels to pass. There was certainly +a bridge as early as 1006, probably built to stop +the passage of the Danish pirate boats. Indeed, +Snorro Sturleson, the Icelandic historian, tells us +that when the Danes invaded England in 1008, +in the reign of Ethelred the Unready (ominous +name!), they entrenched themselves in Southwark, +and held the fortified bridge, which had pent-houses, +bulwarks, and shelter-turrets. Ethelred's +ally, Olaf, however, determined to drive the Danes +from the bridge, adopted a daring expedient to +accomplish this object, and, fastening his ships to +the piles of the bridge, from which the Danes +were raining down stones and beams, dragged it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_921" id="Page_921">[Pg 921]</a></span> +to pieces, upon which, on very fair provocation, +Ottar, a Norse bard, broke forth into the following +eulogy of King Olaf, the patron saint of Tooley +Street:—</p> + +<p>"And thou hast overthrown their bridge, O +thou storm of the sons of Odin, skilful and foremost +in the battle, defender of the earth, and +restorer of the exiled Ethelred! It was during the +fight which the mighty King fought with the men +of England, when King Olaf, the son of Odin, +valiantly attacked the bridge at London. Bravely +did the swords of the Volsces defend it; but +through the trench which the sea-kings guarded +thou camest, and the plain of Southwark was +crowded with thy tents."</p> + +<p>It may seem as strange to us, at this distance of +time, to find London Bridge ennobled in a Norse +epic, as to find a Sir Something de Birmingham +figuring among the bravest knights of Froissart's +record; but there the Norse song stands on record, +and therein we get a stormy picture of the Thames +in the Saxon epoch.</p> + +<p>It is supposed that the Saxon kings dwelt in a +palace on the site of the Baynard's Castle of the +Middle Ages, which stood at the river-side just west +of St. Paul's, although there is little proof of the +fact. But we get on the sure ground of truth when +we find Edward the Confessor, one of the most +powerful of the Saxon kings, dwelling in saintly +splendour at Westminster, beside the abbey dedicated +by his predecessors to St. Peter. The combination +of the palace and the monastery was suitable +to such a friend of the monks, and to one +who saw strange visions, and claimed to be the +favoured of Heaven. But beyond and on all sides +of the Saxon palace everywhere would be fields—St. +James's Park (fields), Hyde Park (fields), +Regent's Park (fields), and long woods stretching +northward from the present St. John's Wood to the +uplands of Epping.</p> + +<p>As to the City residences of the Saxon kings, +we have little on record; but there is indeed a +tradition that in Wood Street, Cheapside, King +Athelstane once resided; and that one of the +doors of his house opened into Addle Street, +Aldermanbury (<i>addle</i>, from the German word <i>edel</i>, +noble). But Stow does not mention the tradition, +which rests, we fear, on slender evidence.</p> + +<p>Whether the Bread Street, Milk Street, and +Cornhill markets date from the Saxon times is +uncertain. It is not unlikely that they do, yet the +earliest mention of them in London chronicles is +found several centuries later.</p> + +<p>We must be therefore content to search for allusions +to London's growth and wealth in Saxon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_922" id="Page_922">[Pg 922]</a></span> +history, and there the allusions are frequent, clear, +and interesting.</p> + +<p>In the earlier time London fluctuated, according +to one of the best authorities on Saxon history, +between an independent mercantile commonwealth +and a dependency of the Mercian kings. The +Norsemen occasionally plundered and held it as a +<i>point d'appui</i> for their pirate galleys. Its real epoch +of greatness, however ancient its advantage as +a port, commences with its re-conquest by Alfred +the Great in 886. Henceforward, says that most +reliable writer on this period, Mr. Freeman, we +find it one of the firmest strongholds of English +freedom, and one of the most efficient bulwarks of +the realm. There the English character developed +the highest civilisation of the country, and there the +rich and independent citizens laid the foundations +of future liberty.</p> + +<p>In 896 the Danes are said to have gone up the +Lea, and made a strong work twenty miles above +Lundenburgh. This description, says Earle, would +be particularly appropriate, if Lundenburgh occupied +the site of the Tower. Also one then sees the +reason why they should go up the Lea—viz., because +their old passage up the Thames was at that time +intercepted.</p> + +<p>"London," says Earle, in his valuable Saxon +Chronicles, "was a flourishing and opulent city, the +chief emporium of commerce in the island, and the +residence of foreign merchants. Properly it was +more an Angle city, the chief city of the Anglian +nation of Mercia; but the Danes had settled there +in great numbers, and had numerous captives that +they had taken in the late wars. Thus the Danish +population had a preponderance over the Anglian +free population, and the latter were glad to see +Alfred come and restore the balance in their favour. +It was of the greatest importance to Alfred to +secure this city, not only as the capital of Mercia +(<i>caput regni Merciorum</i>, Malmesbury), but as the +means of doing what Mercia had not done—viz., of +making it a barrier to the passage of pirate ships +inland. Accordingly, in the year 886, Alfred <i>planted</i> +the <i>garrison</i> of London (<i>i.e.</i>, not as a town is garrisoned +in our day, with men dressed in uniform and +lodged in barracks, but) with a military colony of +men to whom land was given for their maintenance, +and who would live in and about a fortified position +under a commanding officer. It appears to me not +impossible that this may have been the first military +occupation of Tower Hill, but this is a question +for the local antiquary."</p> + +<p>In 982 (Ethelred II.), London, still a mere +cluster of wooden and wattled houses, was almost +entirely destroyed by a fire. The new city was, no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_923" id="Page_923">[Pg 923]</a></span> +doubt, rebuilt in a more luxurious manner. "London +in 993," says Mr. Freeman, in a very admirable +passage, "fills much the same place in England +that Paris filled in Northern Gaul a century earlier. +The two cities, in their several lands, were the two +great fortresses, placed on the two great rivers of +the country, the special objects of attack on the +part of the invaders, and the special defence of the +country against them. Each was, as it were, marked +out by great public services to become the capital +of the whole kingdom. But Paris became a national +capital only because its local count gradually grew +into a national king. London, amidst all changes, +within and without, has always preserved more or +less of her ancient character as a free city. Paris +was merely a military bulwark, the dwelling-place +of a ducal or a royal sovereign. London, no less +important as a military post, had also a greatness +which rested on a surer foundation. London, like +a few other of our great cities, is one of the ties +which connect our Teutonic England with the Celtic +and Roman Britain of earlier times. Her British +name still remains unchanged by the Teutonic +conquerors. Before our first introduction to London +as an English city, she had cast away her +Roman and imperial title; she was no longer +Augusta; she had again assumed her ancient name, +and through all changes she had adhered to her +ancient character. The commercial fame of London +dates from the early days of Roman dominion. +The English conquest may have caused a temporary +interruption, but it was only temporary. As early +as the days of Æthelberht the commerce of London +was again renowned. Ælfred had rescued the +city from the Dane; he had built a citadel for her +defence, the germ of that Tower which was to be +first the dwelling-place of kings, and then the scene +of the martyrdom of their victims. Among the +laws of Æthelstan, none are more remarkable than +those which deal with the internal affairs of London, +and with the regulation of her earliest commercial +corporations. Her institutes speak of a commerce +spread over all the lands which bordered on the +Western Ocean. Flemings and Frenchmen, men of +Ponthieu, of Brabant, and of Lüttich, filled her +markets with their wares, and enriched the civic +coffers with their toils. Thither, too, came the men +of Rouen, whose descendants were, at no distant +day, to form a considerable element among her own +citizens; and, worthy and favoured above all, came +the seafaring men of the old Saxon brother-land, +the pioneers of the mighty Hansa of the north, +which was in days to come to knit together London +and Novgorod in one bond of commerce, and to +dictate laws and distribute crowns among the nations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_924" id="Page_924">[Pg 924]</a></span> +by whom London was now threatened. The demand +for toll and tribute fell lightly on those whom +the English legislation distinguished as the <i>men of +the Emperor</i>."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="broad" id="broad"></a> +<img src="images/p450.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BROAD STREET AND CORNHILL WARDS. (<i>From a Map of 1750.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>In 994, Olaf king of Norway, and Sweyn king of +Denmark, summoning their robber chieftains from +their fir-woods, fiords, and mountains, sailed up the +Thames in ninety-four war vessels, eager to plunder +the wealthy London of the Saxons. The brave +burghers, trained to handle spear and sword, beat +back, however, the hungry foemen from their walls—the +rampart that tough Roman hands had reared, +and the strong tower which Alfred had seen arise +on the eastern bank of the river.</p> + +<p>But it was not only to such worldly bulwarks +that the defenders of London trusted. On that +day, says the chronicler, the Mother of God, "of +her mild-heartedness," rescued the Christian city +from its foes. An assault on the wall, coupled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_925" id="Page_925">[Pg 925]</a></span> +with an attempt to burn the town, was defeated, +with great slaughter of the besiegers; and the two +kings sailed away the same day in wrath and +sorrow.</p> + +<p>During the year 998 a great "gemot" was held +at London. Whether any measures were taken to +resist the Danes does not appear; but the priests +were busy, and Wulfsige, Bishop of the Dorsætas, +took measures to substitute monks for canons in +his cathedral church at Sherborne; and the king +restored to the church of Rochester the lands of +which he had robbed it in his youth.</p> + +<p>In 1009 the Danes made several vain attempts +on London.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="water" id="water"></a> +<img src="images/p451.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LORD MAYOR'S WATER PROCESSION</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1013 Sweyn, the Dane, marched upon the +much-tormented city of ships; but the hardy +citizens were again ready with bow and spear. +Whether the bridge still existed then or not is uncertain; +as many of the Danes are said to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_927" id="Page_927">[Pg 927]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_926" id="Page_926">[Pg 926]</a></span> +perished in vainly seeking for the fords. The +assaults were as unsuccessful as those of Sweyn and +Olaf, nineteen years before, for King Ethelred's +right hand was Thorkill, a trusty Dane. "For the +fourth time in this reign," says Mr. Freeman, "the +invaders were beaten back from the great merchant +city. Years after London yielded to Sweyn; then +again, in Ethelred's last days, it resisted bravely its +enemies; till at last Ethelred, weary of Dane and +Saxon, died, and was buried in St. Paul's. The +two great factions of Danes and Saxons had now +to choose a king."</p> + +<p>Canute the Dane was chosen as king at Southampton; +but the Londoners were so rich, free, and +powerful that they held a rival <i>gemot</i>, and with +one voice elected the Saxon atheling Edmund +Ironside, who was crowned by Archbishop Lyfing +within the city, and very probably at St. Paul's. +Canute, enraged at the Londoners, at once sailed +for London with his army, and, halting at Greenwich, +planned the immediate siege of the rebellious +city. The great obstacle to his advance was the +fortified bridge that had so often hindered the +Danes. Canute, with prompt energy, instantly had +a great canal dug on the southern bank, so that +his ships might turn the flank of the bridge; and, +having overcome this great difficulty, he dug +another trench round the northern and western +sides of the city. London was now circumvallated, +and cut off from all supply of corn and +cattle; but the citizen's hearts were staunch, and, +baffling every attempt of Canute to sap or escalade, +the Dane soon raised the siege. In the meantime, +Edmund Ironside was not forgetful of the city +that had chosen him as king. After three battles, +he compelled the Danes to raise their second +siege. In a fourth battle, which took place at +Brentford, the Danes were again defeated, though +not without considerable losses on the side of +the victors, many of the Saxons being drowned +in trying to ford the river after their flying +enemies. Edmund then returned to Wessex to +gather fresh troops, and in his absence Canute for +the third time laid siege to London. Again the +city held out against every attack, and "Almighty +God," as the pious chroniclers say, "saved the +city."</p> + +<p>After the division of England between Edmund +and Canute had been accomplished, the London +citizens made peace with the Danes, and the latter +were allowed to winter as friends in the unconquered +city; but soon after the partition Edmund +Ironside died in London, and thus Canute became +the sole king of England.</p> + +<p>On the succession of Harold I. (Canute's natural<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_928" id="Page_928">[Pg 928]</a></span> +son), says Mr. Freeman, we find a new element, +the "lithsmen," the seamen of London. "The +great city still retained her voice in the election of +kings; but that voice would almost seem to have +been transferred to a new class among the population. +We hear now not of the citizens, but of +the seafaring men. Every invasion, every foreign +settlement of any kind within the kingdom too, +in every age, added a new element to the population +of London. As a Norman colony settled in +London later in the century, so a Danish colony +settled there now. Some accounts tell us, doubtless +with great exaggeration, that London had +now almost become a Danish city (William of +Malmesbury, ii. 188); but it is, at all events, +quite certain the Danish element in the city was +numerous and powerful, and that its voice strongly +helped to swell the cry which was raised in favour +of Harold."</p> + +<p>It seems doubtful how far the London citizens +in the Saxon times could claim the right to elect +kings. The latest and best historian of this period +seems to think that the Londoners had no special +privileges in the <i>gemot</i>; but, of course, when the +<i>gemot</i> was held in London, the citizens, intelligent +and united, had a powerful voice in the decision. +Hence it arose that the citizens both of London +and Winchester (which had been an old seat of +the Saxon kings) "seem," says Mr. Freeman, "to +be mentioned as electors of kings as late as the +accession of Stephen. (See William of Malmesbury, +"Hist. Nov.," i. <span class="smcap">II.</span>) Even as late as the +year 1461, Edward Earl of March was elected +king by a tumultuous assembly of the citizens of +London;" and again, at a later period, we find the +citizens foremost in the revolution which placed +Richard III. on the throne in 1483. These are +plainly vestiges of the right which the citizens had +more regularly exercised in the elections of Edmund +Ironside and of Harold the son of Cnut.</p> + +<p>The city of London, there can be no doubt, +soon emancipated itself from the jurisdiction of earls +like Leofwin, who ruled over the home counties. +It acquired, by its own secret power, an unwritten +charter of its own, its influence being always important +in the wars between kings and their rivals, +or kings and their too-powerful nobles. "The +king's writs for homage," says a great authority, +"in the Saxon times, were addressed to the bishop, +the portreeve or portreeves, to the burgh thanes, +and sometimes to the whole people."</p> + +<p>Thus it may clearly be seen, even from the +scanty materials we are able to collect, that London, +as far back as the Saxon times, was destined to +achieve greatness, political and commercial.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_929" id="Page_929">[Pg 929]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL</h2> + +<p class="center">THE BANK OF ENGLAND</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Jews and the Lombards—The Goldsmiths the first London Bankers—William Paterson, Founder of the Bank of England—Difficult Parturition +of the Bank Bill—Whig Principles of the Bank of England—The Great Company described by Addison—A Crisis at the Bank—Effects of a +Silver Re-coinage—Paterson quits the Bank of England—The Ministry resolves that it shall be enlarged—The Credit of the Bank shaken—The +Whigs to the Rescue—Effects of the Sacheverell Riots—The South Sea Company—The Cost of a New Charter—Forged Bank Notes—The +Foundation of the "Three per Cent. Consols"—Anecdotes relating to the Bank of England and Bank Notes—Description of the +Building—Statue of William III.—Bank Clearing House—Dividend Day at the Bank.</p></div> + + +<p>The English Jews, that eminently commercial race, +were, as we have shown in our chapter on Old +Jewry, our first bankers and usurers. To them, +in immediate succession, followed the enterprising +Lombards, a term including the merchants and +goldsmiths of Genoa, Florence, and Venice. +Utterly blind to all sense of true liberty and +justice, the strong-handed king seems to have +resolved to squeeze and crush them, as he had +squeezed and crushed their unfortunate predecessors. +They were rich and they were strangers—that +was enough for a king who wanted money +badly. At one fell swoop Edward seized the +Lombards' property and estates. Their debtors +naturally approved of the king's summary measure. +But the Lombards grew and flourished, like the +trampled camomile, and in the fifteenth century +advanced a loan to the state on the security of the +Customs. The Steelyard merchants also advanced +loans to our kings, and were always found to be +available for national emergencies, and so were the +Merchants of the Staple, the Mercers' Company, +the Merchant Adventurers, and the traders of +Flanders.</p> + +<p>Up to a late period in the reign of Charles I. the +London merchants seem to have deposited their +surplus cash in the Mint, the business of which was +carried on in the Tower. But when Charles I., +in an agony of impecuniosity, seized like a robber +the £200,000 there deposited, calling it a loan, +the London goldsmiths, who ever since 1386 had +been always more or less bankers, now monopolised +the whole banking business. Some merchants, +distrustful of the goldsmiths in these stormy times, +entrusted their money to their clerks and apprentices, +who too often cried, "Boot, saddle and +horse, and away!" and at once started with their +spoil to join Rupert and his pillaging Cavaliers. +About 1645 the citizens returned almost entirely to +the goldsmiths, who now gave interest for money +placed in their care, bought coins, and sold plate. +The Company was not particular. The Parliament, +out of plate and old coin, had coined gold, +and seven millions of half-crowns. The goldsmiths +culled out the heavier pieces, melted them down,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_930" id="Page_930">[Pg 930]</a></span> +and exported them. The merchants' clerks, to +whom their masters' ready cash was still sometimes +entrusted, actually had frequently the brazen impudence +to lend money to the goldsmiths, at fourpence +per cent. per diem; so that the merchants +were often actually lent their own money, and had +to pay for the use of it. The goldsmiths also +began now to receive rent and allow interest for it. +They gave receipts for the sums they received, and +these receipts were to all intents and purposes +marketable as bank-notes.</p> + +<p>Grown rich by these means, the goldsmiths were +often able to help Cromwell with money in advance +on the revenues, a patriotic act for which we may +be sure they took good care not to suffer. When +the great national disgrace occurred—the Dutch +sailed up the Medway and burned some of our +ships—there was a run upon the goldsmiths, but +they stood firm, and met all demands. The infamous +seizure by Charles II. of £1,300,000, +deposited by the London goldsmiths in the Exchequer, +all but ruined these too confiding men, +but clamour and pressure compelled the royal +embezzler to at last pay six per cent. on the +sum appropriated. In the last year of William's +reign, interest was granted on the whole sum at +three per cent., and the debt still remains undischarged. +At last a Bank of England, which had +been talked about and wished for by commercial +men ever since the year 1678, was actually started, +and came into operation.</p> + +<p>That great financial genius, William Paterson, +the founder of the Bank of England, was born in +1658, of a good family, at Lochnaber, in Dumfriesshire. +He is supposed, in early life, to have +preached among the persecuted Covenanters. He +lived a good deal in Holland, and is believed to +have been a wealthy merchant in New Providence +(the Bahamas), and seems to have shared in Sir +William Phipps' successful undertaking of raising +a Spanish galleon with £300,000 worth of sunken +treasure. It is absurdly stated that he was at one +time a buccaneer, and so gained a knowledge of +Darien and the ports of the Spanish main. That +he knew and obtained information from Captains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_931" id="Page_931">[Pg 931]</a></span> +Sharpe, Dampier, Wafer, and Sir Henry Morgan +(the taker of Panama), is probable. He worked +zealously for the Restoration of 1688, and he was +the founder of the Darien scheme. He advocated +the union of Scotland, and the establishment of a +Board of Trade.</p> + +<p>The project of a Bank of England seems to +have been often discussed during the Commonwealth, +and was seriously proposed at the meeting +of the First Council of Trade at Mercers' Hall +after the Restoration. Paterson has himself described +the first starting of the Bank, in his "Proceedings +at the Imaginary Wednesday's Club," 1717. +The first proposition of a Bank of England was +made in July, 1691, when the Government had +contracted £3,000,000 of debt in three years, and +the Ministers even stooped, hat in hand, to borrow +£100,000 or £200,000 at a time of the Common +Council of London, on the first payment of the +land-tax, and all payable with the year, the common +councillors going round and soliciting from house +to house. The first project was badly received, as +people expected an immediate peace, and disliked +a scheme which had come from Holland—"they +had too many Dutch things already." They also +doubted the stability of William's Government. The +money, at this time, was terribly debased, and the +national debt increasing yearly. The ministers +preferred ready money by annuities for ninety-nine +years, and by a lottery. At last they ventured to +try the Bank, on the express condition that if a +moiety, £1,200,000, was not collected by August, +1699, there should be no Bank, and the whole +£1,200,000 should be struck in halves for the +managers to dispose of at their pleasure. So great +was the opposition, that the very night before, some +City men wagered deeply that one-third of the +£1,200,000 would never be subscribed. Nevertheless, +the next day £346,000, with a fourth +paid in at once, was subscribed, and the remainder +in a few days after. The whole subscription was +completed in ten days, and paid into the Exchequer +in rather more than ten weeks. Paterson +expressly tells us that the Bank Act would have +been quashed in the Privy Council but for Queen +Mary, who, following the wish of her husband, +expressed firmly in a letter from Flanders, pressed +the commission forward, after a six hours' sitting.</p> + +<p>The Bank Bill, timidly brought forward, purported +only to impose a new duty on tonnage, for +the benefit of such loyal persons as should advance +money towards carrying on the war. The plan +was for the Government to borrow £1,200,000, +at the modest interest of eight per cent. To encourage +capitalists, the subscribers were to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_932" id="Page_932">[Pg 932]</a></span> +incorporated by the name of the Governor and +Company of the Bank of England. Both Tories +and Whigs broke into a fury at the scheme. The +goldsmiths and pawnbrokers, says Macaulay, set +up a howl of rage. The Tories declared that +banks were republican institutions; the Whigs predicted +ruin and despotism. The whole wealth of +the nation would be in the hands of the "Tonnage +Bank," and the Bank would be in the hands of +the Sovereign. It was worse than the Star Chamber, +worse than Oliver's 50,000 soldiers. The power +of the purse would be transferred from the House +of Commons to the Governor and Directors of the +new Company. Bending to this last objection, a +clause was inserted, inhibiting the Bank from advancing +money to the House without authority +from Parliament. Every infraction of this rule was +to be punished by a forfeiture of three times the +sum advanced, without the king having power to +remit the penalty. Charles Montague, an able +man, afterwards First Lord of the Treasury, carried +the bill through the House; and Michael Godfrey +(the brother of the celebrated Sir Edmondbury +Godfrey, supposed to have been murdered by the +Papists), an upright merchant and a zealous Whig, +propitiated the City. In the Lords (always the +more prejudiced and conservative body than the +Commons) the bill met with great opposition. +Some noblemen imagined that the Bank was intended +to exalt the moneyed interest and debase +the landed interest; and others imagined the bill +was intended to enrich usurers, who would prefer +banking their money to lending it on mortgage. +"Something was said," says Macaulay, "about the +danger of setting up a gigantic corporation, which +might soon give laws to the King and the three +estates of the realm." Eventually the Lords, afraid +to leave the King without money, passed the bill. +During several generations the Bank of England +was emphatically a Whig body. The Stuarts would +at once have repudiated the debt, and the Bank +of England, knowing that their return implied ruin, +remained loyal to William, Anne, and George. +"It is hardly too much to say," writes Macaulay, +"that during many years the weight of the Bank, +which was constantly in the scale of the Whigs, +almost counterbalanced the weight of the Church, +which was as constantly in the scale of the Tories." +"Seventeen years after the passing of the Tonnage +Bill," says the same eminent writer, to show the +reliance of the Whigs on the Bank of England, +"Addison, in one of his most ingenious and +graceful little allegories, described the situation of +the great company through which the immense +wealth of London was constantly circulating. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_933" id="Page_933">[Pg 933]</a></span> +saw Public Credit on her throne in Grocers' Hall, +the Great Charter over her head, the Act of Settlement +full in her view. Her touch turned everything +to gold. Behind her seat bags filled with +coin were piled up to the ceiling. On her right +and on her left the floor was hidden by pyramids +of guineas. On a sudden the door flies open, +the Pretender rushes in, a sponge in one hand, in +the other a sword, which he shakes at the Act +of Settlement. The beautiful Queen sinks down +fainting; the spell by which she has turned all +things around her into treasure is broken; the +money-bags shrink like pricked bladders; the piles +of gold pieces are turned into bundles of rags, or +fagots of wooden tallies."</p> + +<p>In 1696 (very soon after its birth) the Bank +experienced a crisis. There was a want of money +in England. The clipped silver had been called +in, and the new money was not ready. Even rich +people were living on credit, and issued promissory +notes. The stock of the Bank of England +had gone rapidly down from 110 to 83. The +goldsmiths, who detested the corporation that had +broken in on their system of private banking, now +tried to destroy the new company. They plotted, +and on the same day they crowded to Grocers' +Hall, where the Bank was located from 1694 to +1734, and insisted on immediate payment—one +goldsmith alone demanding £30,000. The directors +paid all their honest creditors, but refused +to cash the goldsmiths' notes, and left them their +remedy in Westminster Hall. The goldsmiths +triumphed in scurrilous pasquinades entitled, "The +Last Will and Testament," "The Epitaph," "The +Inquest on the Bank of England." The directors, +finding it impossible to procure silver enough to pay +every claim, had recourse to an expedient. They +made a call of 20 per cent. on the proprietors, and +thus raised a sum enabling them to pay every +applicant 15 per cent. in milled money on what +was due to him, and they returned him his note, +after making a minute upon it that part had been +paid. A few notes thus marked, says Macaulay, +are still preserved among the archives of the Bank, +as memorials of that terrible year. The alternations +were frightful. The discount, at one time +6 per cent., was presently 24. A £10 note, taken +for more than £9 in the morning, was before night +worth less than £8.</p> + +<p>Paterson attributes this danger of the Bank to +bad and partial payments, the giving and allowing +exorbitant interest, high premiums and discounts, +contracting dear and bad bargains; the general +debasing and corrupting of coin, and such like, by +which means things were brought to such a pass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_934" id="Page_934">[Pg 934]</a></span> +that even 8 per cent. interest on the land-tax, +although payable within the year, would not answer. +Guineas, he says, on a sudden rose to 30s. per +piece, or more; all currency of other money was +stopped, hardly any had wherewith to pay; public +securities sank to about a moiety of their original +values, and buyers were hard to be found even at +those prices. No man knew what he was worth; +the course of trade and correspondence almost universally +stopped; the poorer sort of people were +plunged into irrepressible distress, and as it were +left perishing, whilst even the richer had hardly +wherewith to go to market for obtaining the +common conveniences of life.</p> + +<p>The King, in Flanders, was in great want of +money. The Land Bank could not do much. +The Bank, at last, generously offered to advance +£200,000 in gold and silver to meet the King's +necessities. Sir Isaac Newton, the new Master of +the Mint, hastened on the re-coinage. Several of +the ministers, immediately after the Bank meeting +(over which Sir John Houblon presided), purchased +stock, as a proof of their gratitude to the body +which had rendered so great a service to the State.</p> + +<p>The diminution of the old hammered money +continued to increase, and public credit began to +be put to a stand. The opposers of Paterson +wished to alter the denomination of the money, +so that 9d. of silver should pass for 1s., but at +last agreed to let sterling silver pass at 5s. 2d. an +ounce, being the equivalent of the milled money. +The loss of the re-coinage to the nation was +about £3,000,000. Paterson, who was one of the +first Directors of the Bank of England, upon a +qualification of £2,000 stock, disagreed with his +colleagues on the question of the Bank's legitimate +operations, and sold out in 1695. In 1701, +Paterson says, after the peace of Ryswick, he had +an audience of King William, and drew his attention +to the importance of three great measures—the +union with Scotland, the seizing the principal +Spanish ports in the West Indies, and the +holding a commission of inquiry into the conduct +of those who had mismanaged the King's affairs +during his absence in Flanders. Paterson died in +1719, on the eve of the fatal South Sea Bubble.</p> + +<p>When the notes of the Bank were at 20 per +cent. discount, the Government (says Francis) empowered +the corporation to add £1,001,171 10s. to +their original stock, and public faith was restored +by four-fifths of the subscriptions being received in +tallies and orders, and one-fifth in bank-notes at +their full value, although both were at a heavy discount +in the market.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="bank" id="bank"></a> +<img src="images/p456.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE OLD BANK, LOOKING FROM THE MANSION HOUSE. (<i>From a Print of 1730.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>The past services of the Bank were not for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_935" id="Page_935">[Pg 935]</a></span>gotten. +The Ministry resolved that it should be +enlarged by new subscriptions; that provision +should be made for paying the principal of the +tallies subscribed in the Bank; that 8 per cent. +should be allowed on all such tallies, to meet +which a duty on salt was imposed; that the charter +should be prolonged to August, 1710; that before +the beginning of the new subscriptions the old +capital should be made up to each member 100 +per cent.; and what might exceed that value +should be divided among the new members; that +the Bank might circulate additional notes to the +amount subscribed, provided they were payable on +demand, and in default they were to be paid by +the Exchequer out of the first money due to the +Bank; that no other bank should be allowed by +Act of Parliament during the continuance of the +Bank of England; that it should be exempt from +all tax or imposition; and that no contract made +for any Bank stock to be bought or sold should +be valid unless registered in the Bank books, +and transferred within fourteen days. It was also +enacted that not above two-thirds of the directors +should be re-elected in the succeeding year. These +vigorous measures were thoroughly successful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_936" id="Page_936">[Pg 936]</a></span></p> + +<p>The charter was at the same time extended to +1710, and not even then to be withdrawn, unless +Government paid the full debt. Forgery of the +Company's seal, notes, or bills was made felony +without benefit of clergy. Sir Gilbert Heathcote, +one of the Bank Directors, gained £60,000 by +this scheme. The Bank is said to have offered +the King at this time the loan of a million without +interest for twenty-one years, if the Government +would extend the charter for that time. Bank +stock, given to the proprietors in exchange for +tallies at 50 per cent. discount, rose to 112. The +Bank had lowered the interest of money. As early +as 1697 it had proposed to have branch Banks in +every city and market town of England.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="patch" id="patch"></a> +<img src="images/p457.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD PATCH</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1700-1704, the conquests of Louis XIV. +alarmed England, and shook the credit of the +Bank. In the latter year the Bank Directors were +once more obliged to issue sealed bills bearing +interest for a large sum, in order to keep up their +credit. In 1707 the fears of an invasion threatened +by the Pretender brought down stocks 14 or 15 +per cent. The goldsmiths then gathered up Bank +bills, and tried to press the Directors. Hoare and +Child both joined in the attack, and the latter pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_937" id="Page_937">[Pg 937]</a></span>tended +to refuse the bills of the Bank. The loyal +Whigs, however, instead of withdrawing their deposits, +helped it with all their available cash. The +Dukes of Marlborough, Newcastle, and Somerset, +with others of the nobility, hurried to the Bank +with their coaches brimming with heavy bags of +long hoarded guineas. A private individual, who +had but £500, carried it to the Bank; and on the +story being told to the Queen, she sent him £100, +with an obligation on the Treasury to repay the +whole £500. Lord Godolphin, seeing the crisis, +astutely persuaded Queen Anne to allow the Bank +for six months an interest of 6 per cent. on their +sealed bills. This, and a call of 20 per cent. on the +proprietors, saved the credit of the Bank.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_938" id="Page_938">[Pg 938]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1708 the charter was extended to 1732. +This concession was again vehemently opposed +by the enemies of the Bank. Nathaniel Tench, +who wrote a reply for the directors, proved that +the Bank had never bought land, or monopolised +any other commodity, and had, on the contrary, +increased and encouraged trade. He asserted that +they had never influenced an elector, and had been +the chief cause of lowering the interest of money, +even in war time. The Government wishing to +circulate Exchequer bills, the Bank raised their +capital by new subscriptions to £5,000,000. The +new subscriptions were raised in a few hours, and +nearly one million more could have been obtained +on the same day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_939" id="Page_939">[Pg 939]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the absurd Tory riots of 1709 the Bank +was in considerable danger. A vain, mischievous +High Church clergyman named Sacheverell had +been foolishly prosecuted for attacking the Whig +Government, and calling the Lord Treasurer Godolphin +"Volpone" (a character in a celebrated play +written by Ben Jonson). A guard of butchers +escorted the firebrand to his trial at Westminster +Hall, at which Queen Anne was present. Riots +then broke out, and the High Church mob sacked +several Dissenting chapels, burning the pews and +pulpits in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, and elsewhere, +and even threatened to use a Dissenting +preacher as a holocaust. The rioters at last +threatened the Bank. The Queen at once sent +her guards, horse and foot, to the City, and left +herself unprotected. "Am I to preach or fight?" +was the first question of Captain Horsey, who led +the cavalry. But the question needed no answer, +for the rioters at once dispersed.</p> + +<p>In 1713 the Bank charter was renewed until +1742. The great catastrophe of the South Sea +Bubble in 1720, which we shall sketch fully in +another chapter, did not injure the Bank. The +directors generously tried to save the fallen company, +but (as might have been expected) utterly +failed. With prudence, perhaps, gained from this +national cataclysm, the Bank, in 1722, commenced +keeping a reserve—the "rest"—that rock on +which unshakable credit has ever since been +proudly built. In 1728 no notes were issued by +the Bank for less than £20, and as part of the +note only was printed the clerk's pen supplied the +remainder.</p> + +<p>In 1742, when the charter was renewed till +1762, the loan of £1,600,000, without interest, was +required by the Government for the favour. By +the act of renewal forging bank-notes, &c., was +declared punishable with death.</p> + +<p>The Bank was at this time a small and modest +building, surrounded by houses, and almost invisible +to passers by. There was a church called +Christopher le Stocks, afterwards pulled down for +fear it should ever be occupied by rioters, and +three taverns, too, on the south side, in Bartholomew +Lane, just where the chief entrance now is, +and about fifteen or twenty private buildings. A +few years later visitors used to be shown in the +bullion office the original bank chest, no larger +than a seamen's, and the original shelves and cases +for the books of business, to show the extraordinary +rapidity with which the institution had +struck root and borne fruit.</p> + +<p>In 1746, the capital on which the Bank stock +proprietors divided amounted to £10,780,000. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_940" id="Page_940">[Pg 940]</a></span> +had been more than octupled in little more than +half a century. The year 1752 is remarkable as +that in which the foundation of the present "Three +per Cent. Consols" was laid. "The stock," says +Francis, "was thus termed from the balance of +some annuities granted by George I. being consolidated +into one fund with a Three per Cent. +stock formed in 1731."</p> + +<p>In 1759 bank-notes of a smaller value than £20 +were first circulated. In 1764 the Bank charter +was renewed on a gift of £110,000, and an advance +of one million for Exchequer bills for two +years, at 3 per cent. interest. It was at the same +time made felony without benefit of clergy to forge +powers of attorney for receiving dividends, transferring +or selling stock. The Government, which +had won twelve millions before the Seven Years' +War, annihilated the navy of France, and wrested +India from the French sway, was glad to recruit its +treasury by so profitable a bargain with the Bank. +In 1773 an Act was passed making it punishable +with death to copy the water-mark of the bank-note +paper. By an Act of 1775 notes of a less +amount than twenty shillings were prohibited, and +two years afterwards the amount was limited to £5.</p> + +<p>During the formidable riots of 1780 the Bank was +in considerable danger. In one night there rose the +flames of six-and-thirty fires. The Catholic chapels +and the tallow-chandlers' shops were universally +destroyed; Newgate was sacked and burned. +The mob, half thieves, at last decided to march +upon the Bank, but precautions had been taken +there. The courts and roof of the building were +defended by armed clerks and volunteers, and +there were soldiers ready outside. The old pewter +inkstands had been melted into bullets. The +rioters made two rushes; the first was checked by +a volley from the soldiers; at the second, which +was less violent, Wilkes rushed out, and with his +own hand dragged in some of the ringleaders. +Leaving several killed and many wounded, the discomfited +mob at last retired.</p> + +<p>In 1781, the Bank charter having nearly expired, +Lord North proposed a renewal for twenty-five +years, the terms being a loan of two millions +for three years, at 3 per cent., to pay off the navy +debt. In 1783 the notes and bills of the Bank +were exempted from the operation of the Stamp +Act, on consideration of an annual payment of +£12,000. The Government allowance of £562 10s. +per million for managing the National Debt was +reduced at this time to £450. Five years later +our debt was calculated at 242 millions, which, +taken in £10 notes, would weigh, it was curiously +calculated, 47,265 lbs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_941" id="Page_941">[Pg 941]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was about 1784 that the first attempts at +forgery on a tremendous scale were discovered by +the Bank. A rogue of genius, generally known, +from his favourite disguise, as "Old Patch," by a +long series of forgeries secured a sum of more than +£200,000. He was the son of an old clothes' +man in Monmouth Street; and had been a lottery-office +keeper, stockbroker, and gambler. At one +time he was a partner with Foote, the celebrated +comedian, in a brewery. He made his own ink, +manufactured his own paper, and with a private +press worked off his own notes. His mistress +was his only confidante. His disguises were numerous +and perfect. His servants or boys, hired +from the street, always presented the forged notes. +When seized and thrown into prison, Old Patch +hung himself in his cell.</p> + +<p>During the wars with France Pitt was always +soliciting the help of the Bank. In 1796, great +alarm was felt at the diminution of gold, and Tom +Paine wrote a pamphlet to prove that the Bank +cellars could not hold more than a million of specie, +while there were sixty millions of bank-notes in +circulation. It was, however, proved that the +specie amounted to about three millions, and the +circulation to only nine or ten. Early in 1796, +when the specie sank to £1,272,000, the Bank +suspended cash payments, and notes under £5 +were issued, and dollars prepared for circulation. +The Bank Restriction Act was soon after passed, +discontinuing cash payments till the conclusion of +the war. For the renewal of the charter in 1800, +the Bank proposed to lend three millions for six +years, without interest, a right being reserved to +them of claiming repayment at any time before +the expiration of six years, if Consols should be at +or above 80 per cent. In 1802, Mr. Addington +said in the House of Commons that since 1797 the +forgeries of bank-notes had so alarmingly increased +as to require seventy additional clerks merely to +detect them, and that every year no less than thirty +or forty persons had been executed for forgery.</p> + +<p>In 1807, the celebrated chief cashier of the +Bank, Abraham Newland, the hero of Dibdin's +well-known song—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Sham Abraham you may,</span><br /> +But you mustn't sham Abraham Newland,"</div> + +<p>retired from his duties, obtained a pension, and +the same year died. His property amounted to +£200,000, besides £1,000 a year landed estate. +He had made large sums by loans during the war, +a certain amount of which were always reserved +for the cashier's office. It is supposed the faithful +old Bank servant had lent large sums to the +Goldsmiths, the great stockbrokers, the contractors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_942" id="Page_942">[Pg 942]</a></span> +for many of these loans, as he left them £500 +each to buy mourning-rings.</p> + +<p>The Bullion Committee of 1809 was moved for +by Mr. Horner to ascertain if the rise in the price +of gold did not arise from the over-issue of notes. +There was a growing feeling that bank-notes did +not represent the specified amount of gold, and the +committee recommended a speedy return to cash +payments. In Parliament Mr. Fuller, that butt +of the House, proposed if the guinea was really +worth 24s., to raise it at once to that price. +Guineas at this time were exported to France in +large numbers by smugglers in boats made especially +for the purpose. The Bank, which had +before issued dollars, now circulated silver tokens +for 5s. 6d., 3s., and 1s. 6d.</p> + +<p>Peel's currency bill of 1819 secured a gradual +return of cash payments, and the old metallic +standard was restored. It was Peel's great principle +that a national bank should always be prepared +to pay specie for its notes on demand, a principle +he afterwards worked out in the Bank Charter. +The same year a new plan was devised to prevent +bank-notes being forged. The Committee's report +says:—"A number of squares will appear in +chequer-work upon the note, filled with hair lines +in elliptic curves of various degrees of eccentricity, +the squares to be alternately of red and black +lines; the perfect mathematical coincidence of the +extremity of the lines of different colours on the +sides of the squares will be effected by machinery +of singular fidelity. But even with the use of this +machinery a person who has not the key to the +proper disposition would make millions of experiments +to no purpose. Other obstacles to imitation +will also be presented in the structure of the note; +but this is the one principally relied upon. It is +plain that any failure in the imitation will be made +manifest to the observation of the most careless, +and the most skilful merchants who have seen the +operation declare that the note cannot be imitated. +The remarkable machine works with three cylinders, +and the impression is made by small convex cylindrical +plates."</p> + +<p>In 1821 the real re-commencement of specie +payments took place. In 1822 Turner, a Bank +clerk, stole £10,000 by altering the transfer book. +The rascal, however, was too clever for the Bank, +and escaped. In 1822 Mr. Pascoe Grenfell put +the profits of the Bank at twenty-five millions, in +twenty-five years, after seven per cent. was divided.</p> + +<p>By Fauntleroy's (the banker) forgeries in 1824, +the Bank lost £360,000, and the interest alone, +which was regularly paid, had amounted to £9,000 +or £10,000 a year. Fauntleroy's bank was in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_943" id="Page_943">[Pg 943]</a></span> +Berners Street. He had forged powers of attorney +to enable him to sell out stock. An epicure and +a voluptuary, he had lived in extraordinary luxury. +In a private desk was found a list of his forgeries, +ending with these words: "The Bank first began +to refuse our acceptances, thereby destroying the +credit of our house. The Bank shall smart for it." +After Fauntleroy was hung at Newgate there were +obscure rumours in the City that he had been saved +by a silver tube being placed in his throat, and that +he had escaped to Paris.</p> + +<p>Having given a summary of the history of the +Bank of England, we now propose to select a series +of anecdotes, arranged by dates, which will convey a +fuller and more detailed notion of the romance and +the vicissitudes of banking life.</p> + +<p>The Bank was first established (says Francis) +in Mercers' Hall, and afterwards in Grocers' Hall, +since razed for the erection of a more stately structure. +Here, in one room, with almost primitive simplicity, +were gathered all who performed the duties +of the establishment. "I looked into the great +hall where the Bank is kept," says the graceful +essayist of the day, "and was not a little pleased +to see the directors, secretaries, and clerks, with +all the other members of that wealthy corporation, +ranged in their several stations according to the +parts they hold in that just and regular economy."</p> + +<p>Mr. Michael Godfrey, to whose exertions, with +those of William Paterson, may be traced the successful +establishment of the Bank, met with a +somewhat singular fate, on the 17th of July, 1695. +At that time the transmission of specie was difficult +and full of hazard, and Mr. Godfrey left his peaceful +avocations to visit Namur, then vigorously besieged +by the English monarch. The deputy-governor, +willing to flatter the King, anxious to forward his +mission, or possibly imagining the vicinity of the +Sovereign to be the safest place he could choose, +ventured into the trenches. "As you are no adventurer +in the trade of war, Mr. Godfrey," said +William, "I think you should not expose yourself +to the hazard of it." "Not being more exposed +than your Majesty," was the courtly reply, "should +I be excusable if I showed more concern?" "Yes," +returned William; "I am in my duty, and therefore +have a more reasonable claim to preservation." A +cannon-ball at this moment answered the "reasonable +claim to preservation" by killing Mr. Godfrey; +and it requires no great stretch of imagination to +fancy a saturnine smile passing over the countenance +of the monarch, as he beheld the fate of the citizen +who paid so heavy a penalty for playing the courtier +in the trenches of Namur.</p> + +<p>On the 31st of August, 1731, a scene was pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_944" id="Page_944">[Pg 944]</a></span>sented +which strongly marks the infatuation and +ignorance of lottery adventurers. The tickets for +the State lottery were delivered out to the subscribers +at the Bank of England; when the crowd +becoming so great as to obstruct the clerks, they +told them, "We deliver blanks to-day, but to-morrow +we shall deliver the prizes;" upon which +many, who were by no means for blanks, retired, +and by this bold stratagem the clerks obtained +room to proceed in their business. In this lottery, +we read, "Her Majesty presented his Royal Highness +the Duke with ten tickets."</p> + +<p>In 1738 the roads were so infested by highwaymen, +and mails were so frequently stopped by the +gentlemen in the black masks, that the post-master +made a representation to the Bank upon the subject, +and the directors in consequence advertised an issue +of bills payable at "seven days' sight," that, in case +of the mail being robbed, the proprietor of stolen +bills might have time to give notice.</p> + +<p>The effect of the arrival, in 1745, of Charles +Edward at Derby, upon the National Bank, was +alarming indeed. Its interests were involved in +those of the State, and the creditors flocked in +crowds to obtain payment for their notes. The +directors, unprepared for such a casualty, had +recourse to a justifiable stratagem; and it was only +by this that they escaped bankruptcy. Payment +was not refused, but the corporation retained its +specie, by employing agents to enter with notes, +who, to gain time, were paid in sixpences; and as +those who came first were entitled to priority of +payment, the agents went out at one door with the +specie they had received, and brought it back by +another, so that the <i>bonâ-fide</i> holders of notes could +never get near enough to present them. "By this +artifice," says our authority, somewhat quaintly, "the +Bank preserved its credit, and literally faced its +creditors."</p> + +<p>An extraordinary affair happened about the year +1740. One of the directors, a very rich man, had +occasion for £30,000, which he was to pay as the +price of an estate he had just bought. To facilitate +the matter, he carried the sum with him to +the Bank, and obtained for it a bank-note. On +his return home he was suddenly called out upon +particular business; he threw the note carelessly +on the chimney, but when he came back a few +minutes afterwards to lock it up, it was not to be +found. No one had entered the room; he could +not, therefore, suspect any person. At last, after +much ineffectual search, he was persuaded that it +had fallen from the chimney into the fire. The +director went to acquaint his colleagues with the +misfortune that had happened to him; and as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_945" id="Page_945">[Pg 945]</a></span> +was known to be a perfectly honourable man, he +was readily believed. It was only about twenty-four +hours from the time that he had deposited +the money; they thought, therefore, that it would +be hard to refuse his request for a second bill. +He received it upon giving an obligation to restore +the first bill, if it should ever be found, or to pay +the money himself, if it should be presented by +any stranger. About thirty years afterwards (the +director having been long dead, and his heirs in +possession of his fortune) an unknown person presented +the lost bill at the Bank, and demanded +payment. It was in vain that they mentioned to +this person the transaction by which that bill was +annulled; he would not listen to it. He maintained +that it came to him from abroad, and insisted upon +immediate payment. The note was payable to +bearer, and the £30,000 were paid him. The +heirs of the director would not listen to any demands +of restitution, and the Bank was obliged to +sustain the loss. It was discovered afterwards +that an architect having purchased the director's +house, and taken it down, in order to build another +upon the same spot, had found the note in a +crevice of the chimney, and made his discovery +an engine for robbing the Bank.</p> + +<p>In the early part of last century, the practice of +bankers was to deliver in exchange for money +deposited a receipt, which might be circulated like +a modern cheque. Bank-notes were then at a +discount; and the Bank of England, jealous of +Childs' reputation, secretly collected the receipts +of their rivals, determined, when they had procured +a very large number, suddenly to demand money +for them, hoping that Childs' would not be able to +meet their liabilities. Fortunately for the latter, +they got scent of this plot; and in great alarm +applied to the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough, +who gave them a single cheque of £700,000 on +their opponents. Thus armed, Childs' waited the +arrival of the enemy. It was arranged that this +business should be transacted by one of the partners, +and that a confidential clerk, on a given +signal, should proceed with all speed to the Bank +to get the cheque cashed. At last a clerk from +the Bank of England appeared, with a full bag, and +demanded money for a large number of receipts. +The partner was called, who desired him to present +them singly. The signal was given; the confidential +clerk hurried on his mission; the partner +was very deliberate in his movements, and long +before he had taken an account of all the receipts, +his emissary returned with £700,000; and the +whole amount of £500,000 or £600,000 was +paid by Childs' in Bank of England notes. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_946" id="Page_946">[Pg 946]</a></span> +addition to the triumph of this manœuvre, Childs' +must have made a large sum, from Bank paper +being at a considerable discount.</p> + +<p>The day on which a forged note was first +presented at the Bank of England forms a remarkable +era in its history; and to Richard William +Vaughan, a Stafford linendraper, belongs the +melancholy celebrity of having led the van in this +new phase of crime, in the year 1758. The records +of his life do not show want, beggary, or starvation +urging him, but a simple desire to seem greater +than he was. By one of the artists employed—and +there were several engaged on different parts of +the notes—the discovery was made. The criminal +had filled up to the number of twenty, and +deposited them in the hands of a young lady, to +whom he was attached, as a proof of his wealth. +There is no calculating how much longer Bank +notes might have been free from imitation, had +this man not shown with what ease they might be +counterfeited. (Francis.)</p> + +<p>The circulation of £1 notes led to much +forgery, and to a melancholy waste of human life. +Considering the advances made in the mechanical +arts, small notes were rough, and even rude in +their execution. Easily imitated, they were also +easily circulated, and from 1797 the executions +for forgery augmented to an extent which bore no +proportion to any other class of crime. During +six years prior to their issue there was but one +capital conviction; during the four following years +eighty-five occurred. The great increase produced +inquiry, which resulted in an Act "For the better +prevention of the forgery of the notes and bills of +exchange of persons carrying on the business of +banker."</p> + +<p>In the year 1758 a judgment was given by +the Lord Chief Justice in connection with some +notes which were stolen from one of the mails. +The robber, after stopping the coach and taking +out all the money contained in the letters, went +boldly to a Mr. Miller, at the Hatfield post-office, +who unhesitatingly exchanged one of them. Here +he ordered a post-chaise, with four horses, and +at several stages passed off the remainder. They +were, however, stopped at the Bank, and an action +was brought by the possessor to recover the money. +The question was an important one, and it was +decided by the law authorities, "that any person +paying a valuable consideration for a Bank note, +payable to bearer, in a fair course of business, has +an undoubted right to recover the money of the +Bank." The action was maintained upon the plea +that the figure 11, denoting the date, had been +converted by the robber to a 4.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_947" id="Page_947">[Pg 947]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="parlour" id="parlour"></a> +<img src="images/p462.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE BANK PARLOUR, EXTERIOR VIEW</span> +</div> + +<p>A new crime was discovered in 1767. The +notice of the clerks at the Bank had been attracted +by the habit of William Guest, a teller, of picking +new from old guineas without assigning any reason. +An indefinite suspicion—increased by the knowledge +that an ingot of gold had been seen in +Guest's possession—arose, and although he asserted +that it came from Holland, it was very unlike the +regular bars of gold, and had a large quantity of +copper at the back. Attention being thus drawn +to the behaviour of Guest, he was observed to +hand one Richard Still some guineas, which he +took from a private drawer, and placed with the +others on the table. Still was immediately +followed, and on the examination of his money +three of the guineas in his possession were deficient +in weight. An inquiry was immediately instituted. +Forty of the guineas in the charge of Guest looked +fresher than the others upon the edges, and weighed +much less than the legitimate amount. On searching +his house some gold filings were found, with +instruments calculated to produce artificial edges. +Proofs soon multiplied, and the prisoner was found +guilty. The instrument with which he had effected +his fraud, of which one of the witnesses asserted it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_948" id="Page_948">[Pg 948]</a></span> +was the greatest improvement he had ever seen, is +said to be yet in the Mint.</p> + +<p>In 1772 an action interesting to the public was +brought against the Bank. It appeared from the +evidence that some stock stood in the joint names +of a man and his wife; and by the rules of the +corporation the signatures of both were required +before it could be transferred. To this the husband +objected, and claimed the right of selling without +his wife's signature or consent. The Court of +King's Bench decided in favour of the plaintiff, +with full costs of suit, Lord Mansfield believing +that "it was highly <i>cruel and oppressive</i> to withhold +from the husband his right of transferring."</p> + +<p>On the 10th of June, 1772, Neale and Co., bankers, +in Threadneedle Street, stopped payment; +other failures resulted in consequence, and throughout +the City there was a general consternation. The +timely interposition of the Bank, and the generous +assistance of the merchants, prevented many of the +expected stoppages, and trade appeared restored +to its former security. It was, however, only an +appearance; for on Monday, the 22nd of the same +month, may be read, in a contemporary authority, +a description of the prevailing agitation, which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_950" id="Page_950">[Pg 950]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_949" id="Page_949">[Pg 949]</a></span>forcibly reminds us of a few years ago. "It is +beyond the power of words to describe the general +consternation of the metropolis at this instant. No +event for fifty years has been remembered to give +so fatal a blow to trade and public credit. A +universal bankruptcy was expected; the stoppage of +almost every banker's house in London was looked +for; the whole city was in an uproar; many of the +first families were in tears. This melancholy scene +began with a rumour that one of the greatest +bankers in London had stopped, which afterwards +proved true. A report at the same time was propagated +that an immediate stoppage of the greatest +Bank of all must take place. Happily this proved +groundless; the principal merchants assembled, +and means were concocted to revive trade and +preserve the national credit."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="dividend" id="dividend"></a> +<img src="images/p463.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DIVIDEND DAY AT THE BANK</span> +</div> + +<p>The desire of the directors to discover the makers +of forged notes produced a considerable amount of +anxiety to one whose name is indelibly associated +with British art. George Morland—a name rarely +mentioned but with feelings of pity and regret—had, +in his eagerness to avoid incarceration for +debt, retired to an obscure hiding-place in the +suburbs of London. "On one occasion," says Allan +Cunningham, "he hid himself in Hackney, where +his anxious looks and secluded manner of life induced +some of his charitable neighbours to believe +him a maker of forged notes. The directors of +the Bank dispatched two of their most dexterous +emissaries to inquire, reconnoitre, search and seize. +The men arrived, and began to draw lines of circumvallation +round the painter's retreat. He was +not, however, to be surprised: mistaking those +agents of evil mien for bailiffs, he escaped from +behind as they approached in front, fled into +Hoxton, and never halted till he had hid himself in +London. Nothing was found to justify suspicion; +and when Mrs. Morland, who was his companion +in this retreat, told them who her husband was, and +showed them some unfinished pictures, they made +such a report at the Bank, that the directors presented +him with a couple of Bank notes of £20 +each, by way of compensation for the alarm they +had given him."</p> + +<p>The proclamation of peace in 1783, says Francis, +was indirectly an expense to the Bank, although +hailed with enthusiasm by the populace. The war +with America had assumed an aspect which, with +all thinking men, crushed every hope of conquest. +It was therefore amid a general shout of joy that on +Monday, the 1st of October, 1783, the ceremonial +took place. A vast multitude attended, and the +people were delighted with the suspension of war. +The concourse was so great that Temple Bar was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_951" id="Page_951">[Pg 951]</a></span> +opened with difficulty, and the Lord Mayor's +coachman was kept one hour before he was able +to turn his vehicle. The Bank only had reason to +regret, or at least not to sympathise so freely with +the public joy. During the hurry attendant on the +proclamation at the Royal Exchange, when it may +be supposed the sound of the music and the noise +of the trumpet occupied the attention of the clerk +more than was beneficial for the interests of his +employers, fourteen notes of £50 each were presented +at the office and cash paid for them. The +next day they were found to be forged.</p> + +<p>In 1783 Mathison's celebrated forgeries were +committed. John Mathison was a man of great +mechanical capacity, who, becoming acquainted +with an engraver, unhappily acquired that art +which ultimately proved his ruin. A yet more +dangerous qualification was his of imitating signatures +with remarkable accuracy. Tempted by the +hope of sudden wealth, his first forgeries were the +notes of the Darlington Bank. This fraud was +soon discovered, and a reward being offered, with +a description of his person, he escaped to Scotland. +There, scorning to let his talents lie idle, he +counterfeited the notes of the Royal Bank of +Edinburgh, amused himself by negotiating them +during a pleasure excursion through the country, +and reached London, supported by his imitative +talent. Here a fine sphere opened for his genius, +which was so active, that in twelve days he had +bought the copper, engraved it, fabricated notes, +forged the water-mark, printed and negotiated +several. When he had a sufficient number, he +travelled from one end of the kingdom to the +other, disposing of them. Having been in the +habit of procuring notes from the Bank (the more +accurately to copy them), he chanced to be there +when a clerk from the Excise Office paid in 7,000 +guineas, one of which was scrupled. Mathison, +from a distance, said it was a good one; "then," +said the Bank clerk, on the trial, "I recollected +him." The frequent visits of Mathison, who was +very incautious, together with other circumstances, +created some suspicion that he might be connected +with those notes, which, since his first appearance, +had been presented at the Bank. On another +occasion, when Mathison was there, a forged note +of his own was presented, and the teller, half in +jest and half in earnest, charged Maxwell, the +name by which he was known, with some knowledge +of the forgeries. Further suspicion was excited, +and directions were given to detain him at +some future period. The following day the teller +was informed that "his friend Maxwell," as he +was styled ironically, was in Cornhill. The clerk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_952" id="Page_952">[Pg 952]</a></span> +instantly went, and under pretence of having paid +Mathison a guinea too much on a previous occasion, +and of losing his situation if the mistake were +not rectified in the books, induced him to return +with him to the hall; from which place he was +taken before the directors, and afterwards to Sir +John Fielding. To all the inquiries he replied, +"He had a reason for declining to answer. He +was a citizen of the world, and knew not how he +had come into it, or how he should go out of it." +Being detained during a consultation with the +Bank solicitor, he suddenly lifted up the sash and +jumped out of the window. On being taken and +asked his motive, if innocent, he said, "It was his +humour."</p> + +<p>In the progress of the inquiry, the Darlington +paper, containing his description, was read to him, +when he turned pale, burst into tears, and saying +he was a dead man, added, "Now I will confess +all." He was, indeed, found guilty only on his +own acknowledgment, which stated he could accomplish +the whole of a note in one day. It was +asserted at the time, that, had it not been for his +confession, he could not have been convicted. +He offered to explain the secret of his discovery +of the method of imitating the water-mark, on the +condition that the corporation would spare his life; +but his proposal was rejected, and he subsequently +paid the full penalty of his crime.</p> + +<p>The conviction that some check was necessary +grew more and more peremptory as the evils of +the system were exposed. In fourteen years from +the first issue of small notes, the number of convictions +had been centupled. In the first ten +years of the present century, £101,061 were refused +payment, on the plea of forgery. In the two +years preceding the appointment of the commission +directed by Government to inquire into the +facts connected with forging notes, nearly £60,000 +were presented, being an increase of 300 per cent. +In 1797, the entire cost of prosecutions for forgeries +was £1,500, and in the last three months +of 1818 it was near £20,000. Sir Samuel Romilly +said that "pardons were sometimes found necessary; +but few were granted except under circumstances +of peculiar qualification and mitigation. +He believed the sense and feeling of the people +of England were against the punishment of death +for forgery. It was clear the severity of the punishment +had not prevented the crimes."</p> + +<p>The first instance of fraud, to a great amount, +was perpetrated by one of the confidential servants +of the corporation. In the year 1803, Mr. Bish, a +member of the Stock Exchange, was applied to by +Mr. Robert Astlett, cashier of the Bank of England,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_953" id="Page_953">[Pg 953]</a></span> +to dispose of some Exchequer bills. When they +were delivered into Mr. Bish's hands, he was +greatly astonished to find not only that these bills +had been previously in his possession, but that +they had been also delivered to the Bank. Surprised +at this, he immediately opened a communication +with the directors, which led to the discovery +of the fraud and the apprehension of Robert Astlett. +By the evidence produced on the trial, it appeared +that the prisoner had been placed in charge of all +the Exchequer bills brought into the Bank, and when +a certain number were collected, it was his duty to +arrange them in bundles, and deliver them to the +directors in the parlour, where they were counted +and a receipt given to the cashier. This practice +had been strictly adhered to; but the prisoner, +from his acquaintance with business, had induced +the directors to believe that he had handed them +bills to the amount of £700,000, when they were +only in possession of £500,000. So completely +had he deceived these gentlemen, that two of the +body vouched by their signatures for the delivery +of the larger amount.</p> + +<p>He was tried for the felonious embezzlement of +three bills of exchange of £1,000 each. He +escaped hanging, but remained a miserable prisoner +in Newgate for many years.</p> + +<p>In 1808 Vincent Alessi, a native of one of the +Italian States, went to Birmingham, to choose some +manufactures likely to return a sufficient profit in +Spain. Amongst others he sought a brass-founder, +who showed him that which he required, and then +drew his attention to "another article," which he +said he could sell cheaper than any other person in +the trade. Mr. Alessi declined purchasing this, as +it appeared to be a forged bank-note; upon which +he was shown some dollars, as fitter for the Spanish +market. These also were declined, though it is +not much to the credit of the Italian that he did +not at once denounce the dishonesty of the Birmingham +brass-founder. It would seem, however, +from what followed, that Mr. Alessi was not quite +unprepared, as, in the evening, he was called on by +one John Nicholls, and after some conversation, +he agreed to take a certain quantity of notes, of +different values, which were to be paid for at the +rate of six shillings in the pound.</p> + +<p>Alessi thought this a very profitable business, +while it lasted, as he could always procure as many +as he liked, by writing for so many dozen candlesticks, +calling them Nos. 5, 2, or 1, according to +the amount of the note required. The vigilance of +the English police, however, was too much even +for the subtlety of an Italian; he was taken by +them, and allowed to turn king's evidence, it being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_954" id="Page_954">[Pg 954]</a></span> +thought very desirable to discover the manufactory +whence the notes emanated.</p> + +<p>In December John Nicholls received a letter +from Alessi, stating that he was going to America; +that he wanted to see Nicholls in London; that he +required twenty dozen candlesticks, No. 5; twenty-four +dozen, No. 1; and four dozen, No. 2. Mr. +Nicholls, unsuspicious of his correspondent's captivity, +and consequent frailty, came forthwith to +town, to fulfil so important an order. Here an +interview was planned, within hearing of the police +officers. Nicholls came with the forged notes. +Alessi counted up the whole sum he was to pay, +at six shillings in the pound, saying, "Well, Mr. +Nicholls, you will take all my money from me." +"Never mind, sir," was the reply; "it will all be +returned in the way of business." Alessi then remarked +that it was cold, and put on his hat. This +was the signal for the officers. To the dealer's +surprise and indignation, he found himself entrapped +with the counterfeit notes in his possession, +to the precise amount in number and value that +had been ordered in the letter.</p> + +<p>A curious scene took place in May, 1818, at the +Bank. On the 26th of that month, a notice had +been posted, stating that books would be opened +on the 31st of May, and two following days, for +receiving subscriptions to the amount of £7,000,000 +from persons desirous of funding Exchequer bills. +It was generally thought that the whole of the +sum would be immediately subscribed, and great +anxiety was shown to obtain an early admission +to the office of the chief cashier. Ten o'clock +is the usual time for public business; but at +two in the morning many persons were assembled +outside the building, where they remained for +several hours, their numbers gradually augmenting. +The opening of the outer door was the signal for a +general rush, and the crowd, for it now deserved +that name, next established themselves in the passage +leading to the chief cashier's office, where +they had to wait another hour or two, to cool their +collective impatience. When the time arrived, a +further contest arose, and they strove lustily for an +entrance. The struggle for preference was tremendous; +and the door separating them from the +chief cashier's room, and which is of a most substantial +size, was forced off its hinges. By far the +greater part of those who made this effort failed, +the whole £7,000,000 being subscribed by the first +ten persons who gained admission.</p> + +<p>In 1820 a very extraordinary appeal was made +to the French tribunals by a man named J. Costel, +who was a merchant of Hamburg, while the free +city was in the hands of the French. He accused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_955" id="Page_955">[Pg 955]</a></span> +the general commanding there of employing him +to get £5,000 worth of English bank-notes changed, +which proved to be forged, and he was, in consequence +of this discovery, obliged to fly from Hamburg. +He also said that Savary, Duke of Rovigo, +and Desnouettes, were the fabricators, and that +they employed persons to pass them into England, +one of whom was seized by the London police, +and hanged. Mr. Doubleday asserts that some +one had caused a large quantity of French assignats +to be forged at Birmingham, with the view of +depreciating the credit of the French Republic.</p> + +<p>Merchants and bankers now began to declare that +they would rather lose their entire fortunes than +pour forth the life which it was not theirs to give. +A general feeling pervaded the whole interest, that +it would be better to peril a great wrong than +to suffer an unavailing remorse. One petition +against the penalty of death was presented, which +bore three names only; but those were an honourable +proof of the prevalent feeling. The name of +Nathan Meyer Rothschild was the first, "through +whose hands," said Mr. Smith, on presenting the +petition, "more bills pass than through those of +any twenty firms in London." The second was +that of Overend, Gurney, and Co., through whom +thirty millions passed the preceding year; and the +third was that of Mr. Sanderson, ranking among +the first in the same profession, and a member of +the Legislature.</p> + +<p>A principal clerk of one of our bankers having +robbed his employer of Bank of England notes to +the amount of £20,000, made his escape to +Holland. Unable to present them himself, he +sold them to a Jew. The price which he received +does not appear; but there is no doubt that, under +the circumstances, a good bargain was made by +the purchaser. In the meantime every plan was +exhausted to give publicity to the loss. The +numbers of the notes were advertised in the newspapers, +with a request that they might be refused, +and for about six months no information was +received of the lost property. At the end of that +period the Jew appeared with the whole of his +spoil, and demanded payment, which was at once +refused on the plea that the bills had been stolen, +and that payment had been stopped.</p> + +<p>The owner insisted upon gold, and the Bank +persisted in refusing. But the Jew was an energetic +man, and was aware of the credit of the corporation. +He was known to be possessed of immense +wealth, and he went deliberately to the Exchange, +where, to the assembled merchants of London, in +the presence of her citizens, he related publicly +that the Bank had refused to honour their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_956" id="Page_956">[Pg 956]</a></span> +bills for £20,000; that their credit was gone, +their affairs in confusion; and that they had +stopped payment. The Exchange wore every +appearance of alarm; the Hebrew showed the notes +to corroborate his assertion. He declared that +they had been remitted to him from Holland, and +as his transactions were known to be extensive, +there appeared every reason to credit his statement. +He then avowed his intention of advertising this +refusal of the Bank, and the citizens thought there +must be some truth in his bold announcement. +Information reached the directors, who grew +anxious, and a messenger was sent to inform the +holder that he might receive cash in exchange for +his notes.</p> + +<p>In 1843 the light sovereigns were called in. +The total amount of light coin received from the +11th of June to the 28th of July was £4,285,837, +and 2¾d. was the loss on each, taking an average +of 35,000. The large sum of £1,400, in £1 +notes, was paid into the Bank this year. They +had probably been the hoard of some eccentric +person, who evinced his attachment to the obsolete +paper at the expense of his interest. A few years +afterwards a £20 note came in which had been +outstanding for about a century and a quarter, +and the loss of interest on which amounted to some +thousands.</p> + +<p>And now a few anecdotes about bank-notes. +An eccentric gentleman in Portland Street, says +Mr. Grant, in his "Great Metropolis," framed and +exhibited for five years in one of his sitting-rooms +a Bank post bill for £30,000. The fifth year he +died, and down came the picture double quick, +and was cashed by his heirs. Some years ago, at +a nobleman's house near the Park, a dispute arose +about a certain text, and a dean present denying +there was any such text at all, a Bible was called +for. A dusty old Bible was produced, which had +never been removed from its shelf since the nobleman's +mother had died some years before. When +it was opened a mark was found in it, which, +on examination, turned out to be a Bank post bill +for £40,000. It might, it strikes us, have been +placed there as a reproof to the son, who perhaps +did not consult his Bible as often as his mother +could have wished. The author of "The American +in England" describes, in 1835, one of the servants +of the Bank putting into his hand Bank post bills, +which, before being cancelled by having the signatures +torn off, had represented the sum of five +millions sterling. The whole made a parcel that +could with ease be put into the waistcoat pocket.</p> + +<p>The largest amount of a bank-note in current +circulation in 1827 was £1,000. It is said that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_957" id="Page_957">[Pg 957]</a></span> +two notes for £100,000 each, and two for £50,000, +were once engraved and issued. A butcher who +had amassed an immense fortune in the war time, +went one day with one of these £50,000 notes to +a private bank, asking the loan of £5,000, and +wishing to deposit the big note as security in the +banker's hands, saying that he had kept it for +years. The £5,000 were at once handed over, +but the banker hinted at the same time to the +butcher the folly of hoarding such a sum and losing +the interest. "Werry true, sir," replied the butcher, +"but I likes the look on't so wery well that I keeps +t'other one of the same kind at home."</p> + +<p>As the Bank of England pays an annual average +sum of £70,000 to the Stamp Office for their +notes, while other banks pay a certain sum on +every note as stamped, the Bank of England +never re-issues its notes, but destroys them on +return. A visitor to the Bank was one day +shown a heap of cinders, which was the ashes of +£40,000,000 of notes recently burned. The letters +could here and there be seen. It looked like a +piece of laminated larva, and was about three +inches long and two inches broad, weighing probably +from ten to twelve ounces.</p> + +<p>The losses of the Bank are considerable. In +1820 no fewer than 352 persons were convicted, +at a great expense, of forging small notes. In +1832 the yearly losses of the Bank from forgeries +on the public funds were upwards of £40,000.</p> + +<p>It is said that in the large room of the Bank +a quarter of a million sovereigns will sometimes +change hands in the course of the day. The +entire amount of money turned over on an average +in the day has been estimated as low as £2,000,000, +and as high as £2,500,000. At a rough guess, +the number of persons who receive dividends on +the first day of every half year exceeds 100,000, +and the sum paid away has been estimated at +£500,000.</p> + +<p>The number of clerks in the Bank of England +was computed, in 1837, at 900; the engravers and +bank-note printers at thirty-eight. The salaries +vary from £700 per annum to £75, and the +amount paid to the servants of the entire establishment, +about 1,000, upwards of £200,000. Some +years ago the proprietors met four times a year. +Three directors sat daily in the Bank parlour. On +Wednesday a Court of Directors sat to decide on +London applications for discount, and on Thursdays +the whole court met to consider all notes exceeding +£2,000. The directors, twenty-four, exclusive +of the Governor and Deputy-Governor, decide by +majority all matters of importance.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="benet" id="benet"></a> +<img src="images/p468.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CHURCH OF ST. BENET FINK</span> +</div> + +<p>The Bank of England (says Dodsley's excellent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_958" id="Page_958">[Pg 958]</a></span> +and well-written "Guide to London," 1761) is a +noble edifice situated at the east of St. Christopher's +Church, near the west end of Threadneedle +Street. The front next the street is about +80 feet in length, and is of the Ionic order, raised +on a rustic basement, and is of a good style. +Through this you pass into the courtyard, in which +is the hall. This is one of the Corinthian order, +and in the middle is a pediment. The top of the +building is adorned with a balustrade and handsome +vases, and in the face of the above pediment +is engraved in relievo the Company's seal, Britannia +sitting with her shield and spear, and at her +feet a cornucopia pouring out fruit. The hall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_959" id="Page_959">[Pg 959]</a></span> +which is in this last building, is 79 feet in length +and 40 in breadth; it is wainscoted about 8 feet +high, has a fine fretwork ceiling, and is adorned +with a statue of King William III., which stands +in a niche at the upper end, on the pedestal of +which is the following inscription in Latin—in +English, thus:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">"For restoring efficiency to the Laws,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Authority to the Courts of Justice,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Dignity to the Parliament,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To all his subjects their Religion and Liberties,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">And confirming them to Posterity,</span><br /> +By the succession of the Illustrious House of Hanover<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To the British Throne:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">To the best of Princes, William the Third.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_960" id="Page_960">[Pg 960]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 7em;">Founder of the Bank,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This Corporation, from a sense of Gratitude,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Has erected this Statue,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">And dedicated it to his memory,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In the Year of our Lord MDCCXXXIV.,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And the first year of this Building."</span></div> + +<p>Further backward is another quadrangle, with an +arcade on the east and west sides of it; and on +the north side is the accountant's office, which is +60 feet long and 28 feet broad. Over this, and the +other sides of the quadrangle, are handsome apartments, +with a fine staircase adorned with fretwork; +and under are large vaults, that have strong walls +and iron gates, for the preservation of the cash. +The back entrance from Bartholomew Lane is by +a grand gateway, which opens into a commodious +and spacious courtyard for coaches or wagons, that +frequently come loaded with gold and silver bullion; +and in the room fronting the gate the transfer-office +is kept.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="england" id="england"></a> +<img src="images/p469.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />COURT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND</span> +</div> + +<p>The entablature rests on fluted Corinthian +columns, supporting statues, which indicate the four +quarters of the globe. The intercolumniations are +ornamented by allegories representing the Thames +and the Ganges, executed by Thomas Banks, +Academician, the roses on the vaulting of the arch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_961" id="Page_961">[Pg 961]</a></span> +being copied from the Temple of Mars the Avenger, +at Rome.</p> + +<p>On the death of Sir John Soane, in 1837, Mr. +Cockerell was chosen to succeed him in his important +position. The style of this gentleman, in +the office he designed for the payment of dividend +warrants, now employed as the private drawing-office, +is very different to the erections of his predecessor. +The taste which produced the elaborate +and exquisite ornaments in this room is in +strong contrast to the severe simplicity of the works +of Sir John Soane.</p> + +<p>Stow, speaking of St. Christopher's, the old +church removed when the Bank was built, says, +"Towards the Stokes Market is the parish church +of St. Christopher, but re-edified of new; for +Richard Shore, one of the sheriffes, 1506, gave +money towards the building of the steeple."</p> + +<p>Richard at Lane was collated to this living in +the year 1368. "Having seen and observed the +said parish church of St. Christopher, with all the +gravestones and monuments therein, and finding +a faire tombe of touch, wherein lyeth the body of +Robert Thorne, Merchant Taylor and a batchelor, +buried, having given by his testament in charity +4,445 pounds to pious uses; then looking for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_962" id="Page_962">[Pg 962]</a></span> +some such memory, as might adorne and beautifie +the name of another famous batchelor, Mr. John +Kendricke; and found none, but only his hatchments +and banners." Many of the Houblons were +buried in this church.</p> + +<p>"The court-room of the Bank," says Francis, "is +a noble apartment, by Sir Robert Taylor, of the +Composite order, about 60 feet long and 31 feet +6 inches wide, with large Venetian windows on +the south, overlooking that which was formerly the +churchyard of St. Christopher. The north side is +remarkable for three exquisite chimney-pieces of +statuary marble, the centre being the most magnificent. +The east and west are distinguished by +columns detached from the walls, supporting beautiful +arches, which again support a ceiling rich with +ornament. The west leads by folding doors to +an elegant octagonal committee-room, with a fine +marble chimney-piece. The Governor's room is +square, with various paintings, one of which is a +portrait of William III. in armour, an intersected +ceiling, and semi-circular windows. This chimney-piece +is also of statuary marble; and on the wall +is a fine painting, by Marlow, of the Bank, Bank +Buildings, Cornhill, and Royal Exchange. An +ante-room contains portraits of Mr. Abraham Newland +and another of the old cashiers, taken as a +testimony of the appreciation of the directors. In +the waiting-room are two busts, by Nollekens, of +Charles James Fox and William Pitt. The original +Rotunda, by Sir Robert Taylor, was roofed in with +timber; but when a survey was made, in 1794, it +was found advisable to take it down; and in the +ensuing year the present Rotunda was built, under +the superintendence of Sir John Soane. It measures +57 feet in diameter and about the same in height +to the lower part of the lantern. It is formed of +incombustible materials, as are all the offices erected +under the care of Sir John Soane. For many +years this place was a scene of constant confusion, +caused by the presence of the stockbrokers and +jobbers. In 1838 this annoyance was abolished, +the occupants were ejected from the Rotunda, and +the space employed in cashing the dividend-warrants +of the fundholders. The offices appropriated to the +management of the various stocks are all close to +or branch out from the Rotunda. The dividends +are paid in two rooms devoted to that purpose, +and the transfers are kept separate. They are +arranged in books, under the various letters of the +alphabet, containing the names of the proprietors +and the particulars of their property. Some of +the stock-offices were originally constructed by +Sir Robert Taylor, but it has been found necessary +to make great alterations, and most of them are de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_963" id="Page_963">[Pg 963]</a></span>signed +from some classical model; thus the Three +per Cent. Consol office, which, however, was built +by Sir John Soane, is taken from the ancient +Roman baths, and is 89 feet 9 inches in length +and 50 feet in breadth. The chief cashier's office, +an elegant and spacious apartment, is built after +the style of the Temple of the Sun and Moon at +Rome, and measures 45 feet by 30.</p> + +<p>"The fine court which leads into Lothbury presents +a magnificent display of Greek and Roman +architecture. The buildings on the east and west +sides are nearly hidden by open screens of stone, +consisting of a lofty entablature, surmounted by +vases, and resting on columns of the Corinthian +order, the bases of which rest on a double flight of +steps. This part of the edifice was copied from the +beautiful temple of the Sybils, near Tivoli. A noble +arch, after the model of the triumphal arch of Constantine, +at Rome, forms the entrance into the +bullion yard."</p> + +<p>The old Clearing House of 1821 is thus described:—"In +a large room is a table, with as +numerous drawers as there are City bankers, with +the name of each banker on his drawer, having an +aperture to introduce the cheque upon him, whereof +he retains the key.</p> + +<p>"A clerk going with a charge of £99,000, perhaps, +upon all the other bankers, puts the cheques +through their respective apertures into their drawers +at three o'clock. He returns at four, unlocks his +own drawer, and finds the others have collectively +put into his drawer drafts upon him to the amount, +say, of £100,000; consequently he has £1,000, +the difference, to pay. He searches for another, +who has a larger balance to receive, and gives him +a memorandum for this £1,000; he, for another; +so that it settles with two, who frequently, with a +very few thousands in bank-notes, settle millions +bought and sold daily in London, without the immense +repetition of receipts and payments that +would otherwise ensue, or the immense increase of +circulating medium that would be otherwise necessary."</p> + +<p>The illustration on page 475 represents the appearance +of the present Clearing House. The +business done at this establishment daily is enormous, +amounting to something like £150,000,000 +each day.</p> + +<p>"All the sovereigns," says Mr. Wills, "returned +from the banking-houses are consigned to a secluded +cellar; and, when you enter it, you will possibly +fancy yourself on the premises of a clockmaker +who works by steam. Your attention is speedily +concentrated on a small brass box, not larger than +an eight-day pendule, the works of which are im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_964" id="Page_964">[Pg 964]</a></span>pelled +by steam. This is a self-acting weighing +machine, which, with unerring precision, tells which +sovereigns are of standard weight, and which are +light, and of its own accord separates the one from +the other. Imagine a long trough or spout—half +a tube that has been split into two sections—of +such a semi-circumference as holds sovereigns edgeways, +and of sufficient length to allow of two hundred +of them to rest in that position one against +another. The trough thus charged is fixed slopingly +upon the machine, over a little table, as big as the +plate of an ordinary sovereign-balance. The coin +nearest to the Lilliputian platform drops upon it, +being pushed forward by the weight of those behind. +Its own weight presses the table down; but how +far down? Upon that hangs the whole merit and +discriminating power of the machine. At the back +and on each side of this small table, two little +hammers move by steam backwards and forwards +at different elevations. If the sovereign be full +weight, down sinks the table too low for the higher +hammer to hit it, but the lower one strikes the edge, +and off the sovereign tumbles into a receiver to the +left. The table pops up again, receiving, perhaps, +a light sovereign, and the higher hammer, having +always first strike, knocks it into a receiver to the +right, time enough to escape its colleague, which, +when it comes forward, has nothing to hit, and +returns, to allow the table to be elevated again. +In this way the reputation of thirty-three sovereigns +is established or destroyed every minute. The light +weights are taken to a clipping machine, slit at the +rate of two hundred a minute, weighed in a lump, +the balance of deficiency charged to the banker +from whom they were received, and sent to the +Mint to be re-coined. Those which have passed +muster are re-issued to the public. The inventor +of this beautiful little detector was Mr. Cotton, a +former Governor. The comparatively few sovereigns +brought in by the general public are weighed +in ordinary scales by the tellers."</p> + +<p>The Bank water-mark—or, more properly, the +wire-mark—is obtained by twisting wires to the +desired form or design, and sticking them on the +face of the mould; therefore the design is above the +level face of the mould by the thickness of the wires +it is composed of. Hence the pulp, in settling down +on the mould, must of necessity be thinner on the +wire design than on the other parts of the sheet. +When the water has run off through the sieve-like +face of the mould, the new-born sheet of paper is +"couched," the mould gently but firmly pressed +upon a blanket, to which the spongy sheet clings. +Sizing is a subsequent process, and, when dry, the +water-mark is plainly discernible, being, of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_965" id="Page_965">[Pg 965]</a></span> +transparent where the substance is thinnest. The +paper is then dried, and made up into reams of +500 sheets each, ready for press. The water-mark +in the notes of the Bank of England is secured to +that establishment by virtue of a special Act of +Parliament. It is scarcely necessary to inform +the reader that imitation of anything whatever connected +with a bank-note is an extremely unsafe +experiment.</p> + +<p>This curious sort of paper is unique. There is +nothing like it in the world of sheets. Tested by +the touch, it gives out a crisp, crackling, sharp +music, which resounds from no other quires. To +the eye it shows a colour belonging neither to blue-wove, +nor yellow-wove, nor cream-laid, but a white, +like no other white, either in paper and pulp. The +three rough fringy edges are called the "deckelled" +edges, being the natural boundary of the pulp when +first moulded; the fourth is left smooth by the +knife, which eventually cuts the two notes in twain. +This paper is so thin that, when printed, there is +much difficulty in making erasures; yet it is so +strong, that "a water-leaf" (a leaf before the application +of size) will support thirty-six pounds, and, +with the addition of one grain of size, will hold +half a hundredweight, without tearing. Yet the +quantity of fibre of which it consists is no more than +eighteen grains and a half.</p> + +<p>Dividend day at the Bank has been admirably +described, in the wittiest manner, by a modern +essayist in <i>Household Words</i>:—"Another public +creditor," says the writer, "appears in the shape +of a drover, with a goad, who has run in to +present his claim during his short visit from +Essex. Near him are a lime-coloured labourer, +from some wharf at Bankside, and a painter who +has left his scaffolding in the neighbourhood during +his dinner hour. Next come several widows—some +florid, stout, and young; some lean, yellow, and +careworn, followed by a gay-looking lady, in a +showy dress, who may have obtained her share of +the national debt in another way. An old man, +attired in a stained, rusty, black suit, crawls in, +supported by a long staff, like a weary pilgrim +who has at last reached the golden Mecca. Those +who are drawing money from the accumulation of +their hard industry, or their patient self-denial, can +be distinguished at a glance from those who are +receiving the proceeds of unexpected and unearned +legacies. The first have a faded, anxious, almost +disappointed look, while the second are sprightly, +laughing, and observant of their companions.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="jonathans" id="jonathans"></a> +<img src="images/00a.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />"JONATHAN'S." <i>From an Old Sketch.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>"Towards the hour of noon, on the first day of +the quarterly payment, the crowd of national creditors +becomes more dense, and is mixed up with sub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_966" id="Page_966">[Pg 966]</a></span>stantial +capitalists in high check neckties, double-breasted +waistcoats, curly-rimmed hats, narrow +trousers, and round-toed boots. Parties of thin, +limp, damp-smelling women, come in with mouldy +umbrellas and long, chimney-cowl-shaped bonnets, +made of greasy black silk, or threadbare black +velvet—the worn-out fashions of a past generation. +Some go about their business in confidential pairs; +some in company with a trusted maid-servant as +fossilised as themselves; some under the guidance +of eager, ancient-looking girl-children; while some +stand alone in corners, suspicious of help or observation. +One national creditor is unwilling, not +only that the visitors shall know what amount her +country owes her, but also what particular funds +she holds as security. She stands carelessly in the +centre of the Warrant Office, privately scanning the +letters and figures nailed all round the walls, which +direct the applicant at what desk to apply; her +long tunnel of a bonnet, while it conceals her face, +moves with the guarded action of her head, like +the tube of a telescope when the astronomer is +searching for a lost planet. Some of these timid +female creditors, when their little claim has been +satisfied (for £1,000 in the Consols only produces +£7 10s. a quarter), retire to an archway in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_967" id="Page_967">[Pg 967]</a></span> +the Rotunda, where there are two high-backed +leathern chairs, behind the shelter of which, with +a needle and thread, they stitch the money into +some secret part of their antiquated garments. The +two private detective officers on duty generally +watch these careful proceedings with amusement +and interest, and are looked upon by the old fundholders +and annuitants as highly dangerous and +suspicious characters."</p> + +<p>Among the curiosities shown to visitors are the +Bank parlour, the counting-room, and the printing-room; +the albums containing original £1,000 +notes, signed by various illustrious persons; and +the Bank-note library, now containing ninety million +notes that have been cancelled during the last +seven years. There is one note for a million sterling, +and a note for £25 that had been out 111 +years.</p> + +<p>In the early part of the century, when "the +Green Man," "the Lady in Black," and other oddities +notorious for some peculiarity of dress, were +well known in the City, the "White Lady of +Threadneedle Street" was a daily visitor to the +Bank of England. She was, it is said, the sister +of a poor young clerk who had forged the signature +to a transfer-warrant, and who was hung in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_968" id="Page_968">[Pg 968]</a></span> +1809. She had been a needle-worker for an army +contractor, and lived with her brother and an old +aunt in Windmill Street, Finsbury. Her mind became +affected at her brother's disgraceful death, +and every day after, at noon, she used to cross the +Rotunda to the pay-counter. Her one unvarying +question was, "Is my brother, Mr. Frederick, here +to-day?" The invariable answer was, "No, miss, +not to-day." She seldom remained above five +minutes, and her last words always were, "Give +my love to him when he returns. I will call to-morrow."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_969" id="Page_969">[Pg 969]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI</h2> + +<p class="center">THE STOCK EXCHANGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Kingdom of Change Alley—A William III. Reuter—Stock Exchange Tricks—Bulls and Bears—Thomas Guy, the Hospital Founder—Sir +John Barnard, the "Great Commoner"—Sampson Gideon, the famous Jew Broker—Alexander Fordyce—A cruel Quaker Criticism—Stockbrokers +and Longevity—The Stock Exchange in 1795—The Money Articles in the London Papers—The Case of Benjamin Walsh, M.P.—The +De Berenger Conspiracy—Lord Cochrane unjustly accused—"Ticket Pocketing"—System of Business at the Stock Exchange—"Popgun +John"—Nathan Rothschild—Secrecy of his Operations—Rothschild outdone by Stratagem—Grotesque Sketch of Rothschild—Abraham +Goldsmid—Vicissitudes of the Stock Exchange—The Spanish Panic of 1835—The Railway Mania—Ricardo's Golden Rules—A +Clerical Intruder in Capel Court—Amusements of Stockbrokers—Laws of the Stock Exchange—The Pigeon Express—The "Alley Man"—Purchase +of Stock—Eminent Members of the Stock Exchange.</p></div> + + +<p>The Royal Exchange, in the reign of William III., +being found vexatiously thronged, the money-dealers, +in 1698, betook themselves to Change Alley, +then an unappropriated area. A writer of the +period says:—"The centre of jobbing is in the +kingdom of 'Change Alley. You may go over its +limits in about a minute and a half. Stepping out +of Jonathan's into the Alley, you turn your face full +south; moving on a few paces, and then turning to +the east, you advance to Garraway's; from thence, +going out at the other door, you go on, still east, +into Birchin Lane; and then, halting at the Sword-blade +Bank, you immediately face to the north, +enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces +there on your way to the west; and thus, having +boxed your compass, and sailed round the stock-jobbing +globe, you turn into Jonathan's again."</p> + +<p>Sir Henry Furnese, a Bank director, was the +Reuter of those times. He paid for constant +despatches from Holland, Flanders, France, and +Germany. His early intelligence of every battle, +and especially of the fall of Namur, swelled his +profits amazingly. King William gave him a +diamond ring as a reward for early information; +yet he condescended to fabricate news, and his +plans for influencing the funds were probably the +types of similar modern tricks. If Furnese wished +to buy, his brokers looked gloomy; and, the alarm +spread, completed their bargains. In this manner +prices were lowered four or five per cent. in a few +hours. The Jew Medina, we are assured, granted +Marlborough an annuity of £6,000 for permission +to attend his campaigns, and amply repaid himself +by the use of the early intelligence he obtained.</p> + +<p>When, in 1715, says "Aleph," the Pretender +landed in Scotland, after the dispersion of his forces, +a carriage and six was seen in the road near Perth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_970" id="Page_970">[Pg 970]</a></span> +apparently destined for London. Letters reached +the metropolis announcing the capture of the discomfited +Stuart; the funds rose, and a large profit +was realised by the trick. Stock-jobbers must have +been highly prosperous at that period, as a Quaker, +named Quare, a watchmaker of celebrity, who had +made a large fortune by money speculations, had +for his guests at his daughter's wedding-feast the +famous Duchess of Marlborough and the Princess +of Wales, who attended with 300 quality visitors.</p> + +<p>During the struggle between the old and new +East India Companies, boroughs were sold openly +in the Alley to their respective partisans; and in +1720 Parliamentary seats came to market there as +commonly as lottery tickets. Towards the close of +Anne's reign, a well-dressed horseman rode furiously +down the Queen's Road, loudly proclaiming her +Majesty's demise. The hoax answered, the funds +falling with ominous alacrity; but it was observed, +that while the Christian jobbers kept aloof, Sir +Manasseh Lopez and the Hebrew brokers bought +readily at the reduced rate.</p> + +<p>The following extracts from Cibber's play of <i>The +Refusal; or, the Ladies' Philosophy</i>, produced in +1720, show the antiquity of the terms "bull" and +"bear." This comedy abounds in allusions to the +doings in 'Change Alley, and one of the characters, +Sir Gilbert Wrangle, is a South Sea director:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Granger</i> (<i>to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain</i>): +And all this out of 'Change Alley?</p> + +<p><i>Witling:</i> Every shilling, sir; all out of stocks, puts, bulls, +shams, bears and bubbles.</p></div> + +<p>And again:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>There (in the Alley) you'll see a duke dangling after a +director; here a peer and a 'prentice haggling for an eighth; +there a Jew and a parson making up differences; there a +young woman of quality buying bears of a Quaker; and there +an old one selling refusals to a lieutenant of grenadiers.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_971" id="Page_971">[Pg 971]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="capel" id="capel"></a> +<img src="images/p474.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CAPEL COURT</span> +</div> + +<p>The following is from an old paper, dated July +15th, 1773: "Yesterday the brokers and others +at 'New Jonathan's' came to a resolution, that +instead of its being called 'New Jonathan's,' it +should be called 'The Stock Exchange,' which is +to be wrote over the door. The brokers then +collected sixpence each, and christened the House +with punch."</p> + +<p>One of the great stockbrokers of Queen Anne's +reign was Thomas Guy, the founder of one of the +noblest hospitals in the world, who died in 1724. +He was the son of a lighterman, and for many +years stood behind a counter and sold books. +Acquiring a small amount of ready cash, he was +tempted to employ it in Change Alley; it turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_972" id="Page_972">[Pg 972]</a></span> +to excellent account, and soon led him to a far +more profitable traffic in those tickets with which, +from the time of Charles II., our seamen were remunerated. +They were paid in paper, not readily +convertible, and were forced to part with their +wages at any discount which it pleased the money-lenders +to fix. Guy made large purchases in these +tickets at an immense reduction, and by such not +very creditable means, with some windfalls during +the South Sea agitation, he realised a fortune of +£500,000. Half a million was then almost a +fabulous sum, and it was constantly increasing, +owing to his penurious habits. He died at the +age of eighty-one, leaving by will £240,000 to the +hospital which bears his name. His body lay in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_973" id="Page_973">[Pg 973]</a></span> +state at Mercers' Chapel, and was interred in the +asylum he raised, where, ten years after his death, +a statue was erected to his memory.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="clearing" id="clearing"></a> +<img src="images/p475.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CLEARING HOUSE</span> +</div> + +<p>Sir John Barnard, a great opponent of stockbrokers, +proposed, in 1737, to reduce the interest +on the National Debt from four to three per cent., +the public being at liberty to receive their principal +in full if they preferred. This anticipation of a +modern financial change was not adopted. At this +period, £10,000,000 were held by foreigners in +British funds. In 1750, the reduction from four +to three per cent. interest on the funded debt was +effected, and though much clamour followed, no +reasonable ground for complaint was alleged, as +the measure was very cautiously carried out. Sir +John Barnard, the Peel of a bygone age, was com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_974" id="Page_974">[Pg 974]</a></span>monly +denominated the "great commoner." Of +the stock-jobbers he always spoke with supreme +contempt; in return, they hated him most cordially. +On the money market it was not unusual to hear +the merchants inquire, "What does Sir John say +to this? What is Sir John's opinion?" He refused +the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in +1746, and from the moment his statue was set up +in Gresham's Exchange he would never enter the +building, but carried on his monetary affairs outside. +The Barnard blood still warms the veins of +some of our wealthiest commercial magnates, since +his son married the daughter of a capitalist, known in +the City as "the great banker, Sir John Hankey."</p> + +<p>Sampson Gideon, the famous Jew broker, died +in 1762. Some of his shrewd sayings are pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_975" id="Page_975">[Pg 975]</a></span>served. +Take a specimen: "Never grant a life +annuity to an old woman; they wither, but they +never die." If the proposed annuitant coughed, +Gideon called out, "Ay, ay, you may cough, but +it shan't save you six months' purchase!" In one +of his dealings with Snow, a banker alluded to by +Dean Swift, Snow lent Gideon £20,000. The +"Forty-five" followed, and the banker forwarded +a whining epistle to him speaking of stoppage, +bankruptcy, and concluding the letter with a passionate +request for his money. Gideon procured +21,000 bank-notes, rolled them round a phial of +hartshorn, and thus mockingly repaid the loan. +Gideon's fortune was made by the advance of the +rebels towards London. Stocks fell awfully, but +hastening to "Jonathan's," he bought all in the +market, spending all his cash, and pledging his +name for more. The Pretender retreated, and the +sagacious Hebrew became a millionaire. Mr. +Gideon had a sovereign contempt for fine clothes; +an essayist of the day writes, "Neither Guy nor +Gideon ever regarded dress." He educated his +children in the Christian faith; "but," said he, +"I'm too old to change." "Gideon is dead," says +one of his biographers, "worth more than the whole +land of Canaan. He has left the reversion of all +his milk and honey—after his son and daughter, +and their children—to the Duke of Devonshire, +without insisting on his assuming his name, or being +circumcised!" His views must have been liberal, +for he left a legacy of £2,000 to the Sons of the +Clergy, and of £1,000 to the London Hospital. +He also gave £1,000 to the synagogue, on condition +of having his remains interred in the Jewish +burying-place.</p> + +<p>In 1772, the occurrence of some Scotch failures +led to a Change-Alley panic, and the downfall of +Alexander Fordyce, who, for years, had been the +most thriving jobber in London. He was a hosier +in Aberdeen, but came to London to improve +his fortunes. The money game was in his favour. +He was soon able to purchase a large estate. He +built a church at his private cost, and spent +thousands in trying to obtain a seat in Parliament. +Marrying a lady of title, on whom he made a +liberal settlement, he bought several Scotch lairdships, +endowed an hospital, and founded several +charities. But the lease of his property was short. +His speculations suddenly grew desperate; hopeless +ruin ensued; and a great number of capitalists +were involved in his fall. The consternation was +extreme, nor can we wonder, since his bills, to the +amount of £4,000,000, were in circulation. He +earnestly sought, but in vain, for pecuniary aid. +The Bank refused it, and when he applied for help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_976" id="Page_976">[Pg 976]</a></span> +to a wealthy Quaker, "Friend Fordyce," was the +answer, "I have known many men ruined by <i>two +dice</i>, but I will not be ruined by <i>Four-dice</i>."</p> + +<p>In 1785, a stockbroker, named Atkinson, probably +from the "North Countree," speculated enormously, +but skilfully, we must suppose, for he +realised a fortune of £500,000. His habits were +eccentric. At a friend's dinner party he abruptly +turned to a lady who occupied the next chair, +saying, "If you, madam, will entrust me with +£1,000 for three years, I will employ it advantageously." +The speaker was well known, and his +offer accepted; and at the end of the three years, +to the very day, Atkinson called on the lady with +£10,000, to which, by his adroit management, her +deposit had increased.</p> + +<p>In general (says "Aleph," in the <i>City Press</i>), a +stock-jobber's pursuits tend to shorten life; violent +excitement, and the constant alternation of hope +and fear, wear out the brain, and soon lead to +disease or death. Yet instances of great longevity +occur in this class: John Rive, after many active +years in the Alley, retired to the Continent, and +died at the age of 118.</p> + +<p>The author of "The Bank Mirror" (circa 1795) +gives a graphic description of the Stock Exchange +of that period. "The scene opens," he +says, "about twelve, with the call of the prices +of stock, the shouting out of names, the recital +of news, &c., much in the following manner:—'A +mail come in—What news? what news?—Steady, +steady—Consols for to-morrow—Here, +Consols!—You old Timber-toe, have you got any +scrip?—Private advices from—A wicked old peer +in disguise sold—What do you do?—Here, Consols! +Consols!—Letters from—A great house has stopt—Payment +of the Five per Cents commences—Across +the Rhine—The Austrians routed—The French +pursuing!—Four per Cents for the opening!—Four +per Cents—Sir Sydney Smith exchanged for—Short +Annuities—Shorts! Shorts! Shorts!—A messenger +extraordinary sent to—Gibraltar fortifying against—A +Spanish fleet seen in—Reduced Annuities for to-morrow—I'm +a seller of—Lame ducks waddling—Under +a cloud hanging over—The Cape of Good +Hope retaken by—Lottery tickets!—Here, tickets! +tickets! tickets!—The Archduke Charles of Austria +fled into—India Stock!—Clear the way, there, +Moses!—Reduced Annuities for money!—I'm a +buyer—Reduced! Reduced! (<i>Rattles spring.</i>) +What a d——d noise you make there with the rattles!—Five +per Cents!—I'm a seller!—Five per Cents! +Five per Cents!—The French in full march for—The +Pope on his knees—following the direction of +his native meekness into—Consols! Consols<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_977" id="Page_977">[Pg 977]</a></span>!—Smoke the old girl in silk shoes there! Madam, +do you want a broker?—Four per Cents—The Dutch +fleet skulked into—Short Annuities!—The French +army retreating!—The Austrians pursuing!—Consols! +Consols! Bravo!—Who's afraid?—Up they +go! up they go!—'De Empress de Russia dead!'—You +lie, Mordecai! I'll stuff your mouth with +pork, you dog!—Long Annuities! Long Annuities! +Knock that fellow's hat off, there!—He'll waddle, +to-morrow—Here, Long Annuities! Short Annuities—Longs +and Shorts!—The Prince of Condé +fled!—Consols!—The French bombarding Frankfort!—Reduced +Annuities—Down they go! down +they go!—You, Levi, you're a thief, and I'm a +gentleman—Step to Garraway's, and bid Isaacs +come here—Bank Stock!—Consols!—Give me thy +hand, Solomon!—Didst thou not hear the guns +fire?—Noble news! great news!—Here, Consols! +St. Lucia taken!—St. Vincent taken!—French +fleets blocked up! English fleets triumphant! +Bravo! Up we go! up, up, up!—Imperial Annuities! +Imperial! Imperial!—Get out of my +sunshine, Moses, you d—d little Israelite!—Consols! +Consols! &c.' ... The noise of +the screech-owl, the howling of the wolf, the barking +of the mastiff, the grunting of the hog, the +braying of the ass, the nocturnal wooing of the cat, +the hissing of the snake, the croaking of toads, +frogs, and grasshoppers—all these in unison could +not be more hideous than the noise which these +beings make in the Stock Exchange. And as +several of them get into the Bank, the beadles are +provided with rattles, which they occasionally spring, +to drown their noise and give the fair purchaser or +seller room and opportunity to transact their business; +for that part of the Rotunda to which the +avenue from Bartholomew Lane leads is often so +crowded with them that people cannot enter."</p> + +<p>About 1799, the shares of this old Stock Exchange +having fallen into few hands, they boldly +attempted, instead of a sixpenny diurnal admission +to every person presenting himself at the bar, to +make it a close subscription-room of ten guineas +per annum for each member, and thereby to shut +out all petty or irregular traffickers, to increase the +revenues of this their monopolised market. A +violent democracy revolted at this imposition and +invasion of the rights, privileges, and immunities of +a public market for the public stock. They proposed +to raise 263 shares of £50 each, creating a +fund of £13,150 wherewith to build a new, uninfluenced, +unaristocraticised, free, open market. +Those shares were never, as in the old conventicle, +to condense into a few hands, for fear of a dread +aristocracy returning. Mendoza's boxing-room, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_978" id="Page_978">[Pg 978]</a></span> +debating-forum up Capel Court, and buildings contiguous +with the freehold site, were purchased, and +the foundation-stone was laid for this temple, to be, +when completed, consecrated to free, open traffic.</p> + +<p>In 1805 Ambrose Charles, a Bank clerk, publicly +charged the Earl of Moira, a cabinet minister, +with using official intelligence to aid him in speculating +in the funds. The Premier was compelled +to investigate the charge, but no truthful evidence +could be adduced, and the falsehood of his allegations +was made apparent.</p> + +<p>Mark Sprat, a remarkable speculator, died in 1808. +He came to London with small means, but getting +an introduction to the Stock Exchange, was wonderfully +successful. In 1799 he contracted for the +Lottery; and in 1800 and the three following years +he was foremost among those who contracted for the +loans. During Lord Melville's trial, he was asked +whether he did not act as banker for members of +both houses. "I never do business with privileged +persons!" was his reply, which might have +referred to the following fact:—A broker came +to Sprat in great distress. He had acted largely +for a principal who, the prices going against him, +refused to make up his losses. "Who was the +scoundrel?" "A nobleman of immense property." +Sprat volunteered to go with him to his dishonest +debtor. The great man coolly answered, it was +not convenient to pay. The broker declared that +unless the account was settled by a fixed hour next +day, his lordship would be posted as a defaulter. +Long before the time appointed the matter was +arranged, and Sprat's friend rescued from ruin.</p> + +<p>The history of the money articles in the London +papers is thus given by the author of "The City." +In 1809 and 1810 (says the writer), the papers +had commenced regularly to publish the prices of +Consols and the other securities then in the market, +but the list was merely furnished by a stockbroker, +who was allowed, as a privilege for his services, to +append his name and address, thereby receiving +the advantages of an advertisement without having +to pay for it. A further improvement was effected +by inserting small paragraphs, giving an outline of +events occurring in relation to City matters, but +these occupied no acknowledged position, and +only existed as ordinary intelligence. However, +from 1810 up to 1817, considerable changes took +place in the arrangements of the several daily +journals; and a new era almost commenced in City +life with the numerous companies started on the +joint-stock principle at the more advanced period, +and then it was that this department appears to +have received serious attention from the heads of +the leading journals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_979" id="Page_979">[Pg 979]</a></span></p> + +<p>The description of matter comprised in City +articles has not been known in its present form +more than fifty years. There seems a doubt +whether they first originated with the <i>Times</i> or the +<i>Herald</i>. Opinion is by some parties given in +favour of the last-mentioned paper. Whichever +establishment may be entitled to the praise for +commencing so useful a compendium of City news, +one thing appears very certain—viz., that no sooner +was it adopted by the one paper, than the other +followed closely in the line chalked out. The +regular City article appears only to have had existence +since 1824-25, when the first effect of that +over-speculating period was felt in the insolvency +of public companies, and the breakage of banks. +Contributions of this description had been made +and published, as already noticed, in separate paragraphs +throughout the papers as early as 1811 and +1812; but these took no very prominent position +till the more important period of the close of the +war, and the declaration of peace with Europe.</p> + +<p>In 1811, the case of Benjamin Walsh, M.P., a +member of the Stock Exchange, occasioned a prodigious +sensation. Sir Thomas Plomer employed +him as his broker, and, buying an estate, found it +necessary to sell stock. Walsh advised him not to +sell directly, as the funds were rising; the deeds +were not prepared, and the advice was accepted. +Soon after, Walsh said the time to sell was come, +for the funds would quickly fall. The money +being realised, Walsh recommended the purchase +of exchequer bills as a good investment. Till the +cash was wanted, Sir Thomas gave a cheque for +£22,000 to Walsh, who undertook to lodge the +notes at Gosling's. In the evening he brought an +acknowledgment for £6,000, promising to make +up the amount next day. Sir Thomas called at his +bankers, and found that a cheque for £16,000 had +been sent, but too late for presentation, and in the +morning the cheque was refused. In fact, Walsh +had disposed of the whole; giving £1,000 to his +broker, purchasing £11,000 of American stock, and +buying £5,000 worth of Portuguese doubloons. +He was tried and declared guilty; but certain legal +difficulties were interposed; the judges gave a +favourable decision; he was released from Newgate, +and formally expelled from the House of +Commons. Such crimes seem almost incredible, +for such culprits can have no chance of escape; +as, even when the verdict of a jury is favourable, +their character and position must be absolutely and +hopelessly lost.</p> + +<p>In these comparatively steady-going times, the +funds often remain for months with little or no +variation; but during the last years of the French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_980" id="Page_980">[Pg 980]</a></span> +war, a difference of eight or even ten per cent. might +happen in an hour, and scripholders might realise +eighteen or twenty per cent. by the change in the +loans they so eagerly sought. From what a fearful +load of ever-increasing expenditure the nation was +relieved by the peace resulting from the battle of +Waterloo, may be judged from the fact that the +decrease of Government charges was at once declared +to exceed £2,000,000 per month.</p> + +<p>One of the most extraordinary Stock Exchange +conspiracies ever devised was that carried out by +De Berenger and Cochrane Johnstone in 1814. It +was a time when Bonaparte's military operations +against the allies had depressed the funds, and +great national anxiety prevailed. The conspiracy +was dramatically carried out. On the 21st of +February, 1824, about one a.m., a violent knocking +was heard at the door of the "Ship Inn," then the +principal hotel of Dover. On the door being +opened, a person in richly embroidered scarlet +uniform, wet with spray, announced himself as +Lieutenant-Colonel De Bourg, aide-de-camp of +Lord Cathcart. He had a star and silver medals +on his breast, and wore a dark fur travelling cap, +banded with gold. He said he had been brought +over by a French vessel from Calais, the master of +which, afraid of touching at Dover, had landed him +about two miles off, along the coast. He was the +bearer of important news—the allies had gained +a great victory and had entered Paris. Bonaparte +had been overtaken by a detachment of Sachen's +Cossacks, who had slain and cut him into a +thousand pieces. General Platoff had saved Paris +from being reduced to ashes. The white cockade +was worn everywhere, and an immediate peace +was now certain. He immediately ordered out a +post-chaise and four, but first wrote the news to +Admiral Foley, the port-admiral at Deal. The +letter reached the admiral about four a.m., but the +morning proving foggy, the telegraph would not +work. Off dashed De Bourg (really De Berenger, +an adventurer, afterwards a livery-stable keeper), +throwing napoleons to the post-boys every time he +changed horses. At Bexley Heath, finding the +telegraph could not have worked, he moderated +his pace and spread the news of the Cossacks +fighting for Napoleon's body. At the Marsh Gate, +Lambeth, he entered a hackney coach, telling the +post-boys to spread the news on their return. By +a little after ten, the rumours reached the Stock +Exchange, and the funds rose; but on its being +found that the Lord Mayor had had no intelligence, +they soon went down again.</p> + +<p>In the meantime other artful confederates were +at work. The same day, about an hour before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_981" id="Page_981">[Pg 981]</a></span> +daylight, two men, dressed as foreigners, landed +from a six-oar galley, and called on a gentleman of +Northfleet, and handed him a letter from an old +friend, begging him to take the bearers to London, +as they had great public news to communicate; +they were accordingly taken. About twelve or +one the same afternoon, three persons (two of +whom were dressed as French officers) drove +slowly over London Bridge in a post-chaise, the +horses of which were bedecked with laurel. The +officers scattered billets to the crowd, announcing +the death of Napoleon and the fall of Paris. +They then paraded through Cheapside and Fleet +Street, passed over Blackfriars Bridge, drove rapidly +to the Marsh Gate, Lambeth, got out, changed their +cocked hats for round ones, and disappeared as +De Bourg had done.</p> + +<p>The funds once more rose, and long bargains +were made; but still some doubt was felt by the +less sanguine, as the ministers as yet denied all +knowledge of the news. Hour after hour passed +by, and the certainty of the falsity of the news +gradually developed itself. "To these scenes of +joy," says a witness, "and of greedy expectations +of gain, succeeded, in a few hours, disappointment +and shame at having been gulled, the clenching of +fists, the grinding of teeth, the tearing of hair, all +the outward and visible signs of those inward +commotions of disappointed avarice in some, consciousness +of ruin in others, and in all boiling +revenge." A committee was appointed by the +Stock Exchange to track out the conspiracy, as +on the two days before Consols and Omnium, to +the amount of £826,000, had been purchased by +persons implicated. Because one of the gang had +for a blind called on the celebrated Lord Cochrane, +and because a relation of his engaged in the +affair had purchased Consols for him, that he might +unconsciously benefit by the fraud, the Tories, +eager to destroy a bitter political enemy, concentrated +all their rage on as high-minded, pure, +and chivalrous a man as ever trod a frigate's deck. +He was tried June 21, 1817, at the Court of +Queen's Bench, fined £1,000, and sentenced +ignominiously to stand one hour in the pillory. +This latter part of his sentence the Government +was, however, afraid to carry out, as Sir Francis +Burdett had declared that if it was done, he would +stand beside his friend on the scaffold of shame. +To crown all, Cochrane's political enemies had him +stripped of his knighthood, and the escutcheon of +his order disgracefully kicked down the steps of +the chapel in Westminster Abbey. For some +years this true successor of Nelson remained a +branded exile, devoting his courage to the cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_982" id="Page_982">[Pg 982]</a></span> +of universal liberty, lost to the country which +he loved so much. In his old age tardy justice +restored to him his unsoiled coronet, and finally +awarded him a grave among her heroes.</p> + +<p>The ticket pocketing of 1821 is thus described +by the author of "An Exposé of the Mysteries of +the Stock Exchange:"—"Of all the tricks," he +says, "practised against Goldschmidt, the ticket +pocketing scheme was, perhaps, the most iniquitous: +it was to prevent the buying in on a settling day the +balance of the account, and to defeat the consequent +rise, thereby making the real bear a fictitious bull +account. To give the reader a conception of this, +and of the practices as well as the interior of the +Stock Exchange, the following attempted delineation +is submitted:—The doors open before ten, and +at the minute of ten the spirit-stirring rattle grates +to action. Consols are, suppose, 69 to 69-1/8—that +is, buyers at the lower and sellers at the higher +price. Trifling manœuvres and puffing up till +twelve, as neither party wish the Government +broker to buy under the highest price; the sinking-fund +purchaser being the point of diurnal altitude, +as the period before a loan is the annually depressed +point of price, when the Stock Exchange +have the orbit of these revolutions under their own +control.</p> + +<p>"At twelve the broker mounts the rostrum and +opens: 'Gentlemen, I am a buyer of £60,000 +Consols for Government, at 69.' 'At 1/8th, sir,' the +jobbers resound; 'ten thousand of me—five of +me—two of me,' holding up as many fingers. +Nathan, Goldschmidt's agent, says, 'You may +have them all of me at your own bidding, 69.' +In ten minutes this commission is earned from the +public, and this state sinking-fund joint stock +jobbed. Nathan is hustled, his hat and wig thrown +upon the commissioner's sounding-board, and he +must stand bareheaded until the porter can bring +a ladder to get it down. Out squalls a ticket-carrier, +'Done at 7/8;' again, 'At 3/4, all a-going;' +and the contractors must go, too; they have served +the commissioners at 69, when the market was full +one-eighth. All must come to market before next +omnium payment; they cannot keep it up (yet this +operation might have suited the positions of the +market). Nathan cries out, 'Where done at 3/4ths?' +'Here—there, there, there!' Mr. Doubleface, +going out at the door, meets Mr. Ambush, a +brother bear, with a wink, 'Sir, they are 3/4ths, I +believe, sellers; you may have £2,000 thereat, and +£10,000 at 5/8ths.' This is called fiddling: it is +allowable to jobbers thus to bring the turn to 1/16th, +or a 32nd, but not to brokers, as thereby the public +would not be fleeced 1/8th, to the house benefit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_983" id="Page_983">[Pg 983]</a></span> +'Sir, I would not take them at 1/4th,' replies Mr. +Ambush. 'Offered at 3/4ths and 5/8ths,' bawls out an +urchin scout, holding up his face to the ceiling, +that by the re-echo his spot may not be discovered."</p> + +<p>The system of business at the Stock Exchange +is thus described by an accomplished writer on the +subject: "Bargains are made in the presence of a +third person. The terms are simply entered in a +pocket-book, but are checked the next day; and +the jobber's clerk (also a member of the house) +pays or receives the money, and sees that the +securities are correct. There are but three or four +dealers in Exchequer bills. Most members of the +Stock Exchange keep their money in convertible +securities, so that it can be changed from hand to +hand almost at a moment's notice. The brokers +execute the orders of bankers, merchants, and +private individuals; and the jobbers are the persons +with whom they deal. When the broker +appears in the market, he is at once surrounded +by eager jobbers. One of the cries of the Stock +Exchange is, 'Borrow money? borrow money?'—a +singular cry to general apprehension, but it of +course implies that the credit of the borrower +must be first-rate, or his security of the most +satisfactory nature, and that it is not the principal +who goes into the market, but only the principal's +broker. 'Have you money to lend to-day?' is a +startling question often asked with perfect <i>nonchalance</i> +in the Stock Exchange. If the answer +is 'Yes,' the borrower says, 'I want £10,000 +or £20,000.'—'At what security?' is the vital +question that soon follows.</p> + +<p>"Another mode of doing business is to conceal +the object of the borrower or lender, who asks, +'What are Exchequer?' The answer may be, +'Forty and forty-two.' That is, the party addressed +will buy £1,000 at 40 shillings, and sell £1,000 +at 42 shillings. The jobbers cluster round the +broker, who perhaps says, 'I must have a price +in £5,000.' If it suits them, they will say, 'Five +with me,' 'Five with me,' 'Five with me,' making +fifteen; or they will say, 'Ten with me;' and +it is the broker's business to get these parties +pledged to buy of him at 40, or to sell to him at +42, they not knowing whether he is a buyer or +a seller. The broker then declares his purpose, +saying, for example, 'Gentlemen, I sell to you +£20,000 at 40;' and the sum is then apportioned +among them. If the money were wanted +only for a month, and the Exchequer market +remained the same during the time, the buyer +would have to give 42 in the market for what +he sold at 40, being the difference between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_984" id="Page_984">[Pg 984]</a></span> +buying and the selling price, besides which he +would have to pay the broker 1s. per cent. commission +on the sale, and 1s. per cent. on the purchase, +again on the bills, which would make +altogether 4s. per cent. If the object of the broker +be to buy Consols, the jobber offers to buy his +£10,000 at 96, or to sell him that amount at +96-1/8, without being at all aware which he is +engaging himself to do. The same person may +not know on any particular day whether he will +be a borrower or a lender. If he has sold stock, +and has not re-purchased about one or two o'clock +in the day, he would be a lender of money; but if +he has bought stock, and not sold, he would be a +borrower. Immense sums are lent on condition +of being recalled on the short notice of a few +hours."</p> + +<p>The uninitiated wonder that any man should +borrow £10,000 or £20,000 for a day, or at most +a fortnight, when it is liable to be called for at +the shortest notice. The directors of a railway +company, instead of locking up their money, send +the £12,000 or £14,000 a week to a broker, to +be lent on proper securities. Persons who pay +large duties to Government at fixed periods, lend +the sums for a week or two. A person intending +to lay out his capital in mortgage or real property, +lends out the sum till he meets with a suitable +offer. The great bankers lend their surplus cash +on the Stock Exchange. A jobber, at the close of +the day, will lend his money at 1 per cent., rather +than not employ it at all. The extraordinary +fluctuations in the rate of interest even in a single +day are a great temptation to the money-lender +to resort to the Stock Exchange. "Instances +have occurred," says our authority, "when in the +morning everybody has been anxious to lend +money at 4 per cent., when about two o'clock +money has become so scarce that it could with +difficulty be borrowed at 10 per cent. If the +price of Consols be low, persons who are desirous +of raising money will give a high rate of interest +rather than sell stock."</p> + +<p>The famous Pop-gun Plot was generally supposed +to have been a Stock Exchange trick. A writer +on stockbroking says: "The Pop-gun Plot, in +Palace Yard, on a memorable occasion of the +King going to the Parliament House, was never +understood or traced home. It is said to have +originated in a Stock Exchange hoax. 'Popgun +John' was at the time a low republican in the +Stock Exchange, and had a house in or near +Palace Yard, from which a missile had been projected. +He subsequently grew rich."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="present" id="present"></a> +<img src="images/p481.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE PRESENT STOCK EXCHANGE</span> +</div> + +<p>The journals of that day described the hot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_985" id="Page_985">[Pg 985]</a></span> +pursuit by the myrmidons being cooled by a well-got-up +story that the fugitive suspected had been +unfortunately drowned; and in proof, a hat picked +up by a waterman at the Nore was brought wet to +the police office, and proved to have belonged to +the person pursued. The plotter disappeared after +this "drowning" for some months, while the hush-money +and sinister manœuvres were baffling the +pursuers. Afterwards, the affair dying away, he +reappeared, resuscitated, in the Stock Exchange, +making very little secret of this extraordinary affair, +and would relate it in ordinary conversation on the +Stock Exchange benches, as a philosophical experiment, +not intended to endanger the king's life, +but certainly planned to frighten the public, so +as to effect a fall, and realise a profitable bear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_986" id="Page_986">[Pg 986]</a></span> +account; if sufficient to trip up the contractors, +the better.</p> + +<p>While the dupes of the Cato Street conspiracy +were dangling before the "debtor's door," the surviving +adept of the former plot, from his villa not +ten miles from London, was mounting his carriage +to drive to the Stock Exchange, to operate upon +the effect this example might produce in the public +mind, and, consequently, realising his now large +portion of funded property.</p> + +<p>"If there are any members now of that standing +in the Stock Exchange, they must remember how +artlessly the tale of this philosophical experiment +used to be told by the contriver of it in a year or +two afterwards, in reliance upon Stock Exchange +men's honour and confidence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_987" id="Page_987">[Pg 987]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the year 1798, Nathan, the third son of Meyer +Anselm Rothschild, of Frankfort, intimated to his +father that he would go to England, and there commence +business. The father knew the intrepidity +of Nathan, and had great confidence in his financial +skill: he interposed, therefore, no difficulties. The +plan was proposed on Tuesday, and on Thursday +it was put into execution.</p> + +<p>Nathan was entrusted with £20,000, and though +perfectly ignorant of the English language, he commenced +a most gigantic career, so that in a brief +period the above sum increased to the amount of +£60,000. Manchester was his starting-point. He +took a comprehensive survey of its products, and +observed that by proper management a treble +harvest might be reaped from them. He secured +the three profitable trades in his grasp—viz., the +raw material, the dyeing, and the manufacturing—and +was consequently able to sell goods cheaper +than any one else. His profits were immense, and +Manchester soon became too little for his speculative +mind. Nevertheless, he would not have left +it were it not a private pique against one of his +co-religionists, which originated by the dishonouring +of a bill which was made payable to him, disgusted +him with the Manchester community. In +1800, therefore, he quitted Manchester for the +metropolis. With giant strides he progressed in +his prosperity. The confused and insecure state +of the Continent added to his fortune, and contributed +to his fame.</p> + +<p>The Prince of Hesse Cassel, in flying from the +approach of the republican armies, desired, as he +passed through Frankfort, to store a vast amount +of wealth, in such a manner as might leave him a +chance of recovery after the storm had passed by. +He sought out Meyer Anselm Rothschild, and confided +all his worldly possessions to the keeping of +the Hebrew banker. Meyer Anselm, either from +fear of loss or hope of gain, sent the money to +his son Nathan, settled in London, and the latter +thus alluded to this circumstance: "The Prince of +Hesse Cassel gave my father his money; there +was no time to be lost; he sent it to me. I had +£600,000 arrive by post unexpectedly; and I +put it to so good use, that the prince made me a +present of all his wine and linen."</p> + +<p>"When the late Mr. Rothschild was alive, if +business," says the author of "The City," "ever +became flat and unprofitable in the Stock Exchange, +the brokers and jobbers generally complained, and +threw the blame upon this leviathan of the money +market. Whatever was wrong, was always alleged +to be the effects of Mr. Rothschild's operations, +and, according to the views of these parties, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_988" id="Page_988">[Pg 988]</a></span> +was either bolstering up, or unnecessarily depressing +prices for his own object. An anecdote is +related of this great speculator, that hearing on one +occasion that a broker had given very strong expression +to his feelings in the open market on this +subject, dealing out the most deadly anathemas +against the Jews, and consigning them to the most +horrible torments, he sent the broker, through the +medium of another party, an order to sell £600,000 +Consols, saying, 'As he always so abuses me, they +will never suspect he is <i>bearing</i> the market on +my account.' Mr. Rothschild employed several +brokers to do his business, and hence there was no +ascertaining what in reality was the tendency of +his operations. While perchance one broker was +buying a certain quantity of stock on the order of +his principal in the market, another at the same +moment would be instructed to sell; so that it was +only in the breast of the principal to know the +probable result. It is said that Mrs. Rothschild +tried her hand in speculating, and endeavoured by +all her influence to get at the secret of her +husband's dealings. She, however, failed, and +was therefore not very successful in her ventures. +Long before Mr. Rothschild's death, it was prophesied +by many of the brokers that, when the +event occurred, the public would be less alarmed +at the influence of the firm, and come forward +more boldly to engage in stock business. They +have, notwithstanding, been very much mistaken."</p> + +<p>The chronicler of the "Stock Exchange" says: +"One cause of Rothschild's success, was the secrecy +with which he shrouded all his transactions, and +the tortuous policy with which he misled those the +most who watched him the keenest. If he possessed +news calculated to make the funds rise, he +would commission the broker who acted on his +behalf to sell half a million. The shoal of men +who usually follow the movements of others, sold +with him. The news soon passed through Capel +Court that Rothschild was bearing the market, +and the funds fell. Men looked doubtingly at +one another; a general panic spread; bad news +was looked for; and these united agencies sunk +the price two or three per cent. This was the +result expected; other brokers, not usually employed +by him, bought all they could at the +reduced rate. By the time this was accomplished +the good news had arrived; the pressure ceased, +the funds arose instantly, and Mr. Rothschild +reaped his reward."</p> + +<p>It sometimes happened that notwithstanding +Rothschild's profound secrecy, he was overcome +by stratagem. The following circumstance, which +was related to Mr. Margoliouth by a person who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_989" id="Page_989">[Pg 989]</a></span> +knew Rothschild well, will illustrate the above +statement. When the Hebrew financier lived at +Stamford Hill, there resided opposite to him another +very wealthy dealer in the Stock Exchange, Lucas +by name. The latter returning home one night +at a late hour from a convivial party, observed a +carriage and four standing before Rothschild's gate, +upon which he ordered his own carriage out of +the way, and commanded his coachman to await +in readiness his return. Lucas went stealthily and +watched, unobserved, the movements at Rothschild's +gate. He did not lie long in ambush before he +heard some one leaving the Hebrew millionaire's +mansion, and going towards the carriage. He saw +Rothschild, accompanied by two muffled figures, +step into the carriage, and heard the word of command, +"To the City." He followed Rothschild's +carriage very closely, but when he reached the top +of the street in which Rothschild's office was +situated, Lucas ordered his carriage to stop, from +which he stepped out, and proceeded, reeling to +and fro through the street, feigning to be mortally +drunk. He made his way in the same mood as +far as Rothschild's office, and <i>sans ceremonie</i> opened +the door, to the great consternation and terror of +the housekeeper, uttering sundry ejaculations in +the broken accents of Bacchus' votaries. Heedless +of the affrighted housekeeper's remonstrances, +he opened Rothschild's private office, in the same +staggering attitude, and fell down flat on the floor.</p> + +<p>Rothschild and his friends became very much +alarmed. Efforts were made to restore and remove +the would-be drunkard, but Lucas was too good an +actor, and was therefore in such a fit as to be unable +to be moved hither or thither. "Should a physician +be sent for?" asked Rothschild. But the housekeeper +threw some cold water into Lucas's face, +and the patient began to breathe a little more naturally, +and fell into a sound snoring sleep. He was +covered over, and Rothschild and the strangers proceeded +unsuspectingly to business. The strangers +brought the good intelligence that the affairs in +Spain were all right, respecting which the members +of the Exchange were, for a few days previous, very +apprehensive, and the funds were therefore in a +rapidly sinking condition. The good news could +not, however, in the common course of despatch, +be publicly known for another day. Rothschild +therefore planned to order his brokers to buy up, +cautiously, all the stock that should be in the +market by twelve o'clock the following day. He +sent for his principal broker thus early, in order to +entrust him with the important instruction.</p> + +<p>The broker was rather tardier than Rothschild's +patience could brook; he therefore determined to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_990" id="Page_990">[Pg 990]</a></span> +go himself. As soon as Rothschild was gone, +Lucas began to recover, and by degrees was able +to get up, though distracted, as he said, "with a +violent headache," and insisted, in spite of the +housekeeper's expostulations, upon going home. +But Lucas went to his broker, and instructed him +to buy up all the stock he could get by ten o'clock +the following morning. About eleven o'clock Lucas +met Rothschild, and inquired satirically how he, +Rothschild, was off for stock. Lucas won the day, +and Rothschild is said never to have forgiven "the +base, dishonest, and nefarious stratagem."</p> + +<p>Yet, with all his hoardings, says Mr. Margoliouth, +Rothschild was by no means a happy man. Dangers +and assassinations seemed to haunt his imagination +by day and by night, and not without +grounds. Many a time, as he himself said, just +before he sat down to dinner, a note would be put +into his hand, running thus:—"If you do not send +me immediately the sum of five hundred pounds, I +will blow your brains out." He affected to despise +such threats; they, nevertheless, exercised a direful +effect upon the millionaire. He loaded his pistols +every night before he went to bed, and put them +beside him. He did not think himself more secure +in his country house than he did in his bed. One +day, while busily engaged in his golden occupation, +two foreign gentlemen were announced as desirous +to see Baron Rothschild <i>in propriâ personâ</i>. The +strangers had not the foresight to have the letters +of introduction in readiness. They stood, therefore, +before the Baron in the ludicrous attitude of having +their eyes fixed upon the Hebrew Crœsus, and with +their hands rummaging in large European coat-pockets. +The fervid and excited imagination of +the Baron conjured up a multitudinous array of +conspiracies. Fancy eclipsed his reason, and, in a +fit of excitement, he seized a huge ledger, which he +aimed and hurled at the mustachioed strangers, +calling out, at the same time, for additional physical +force. The astonished Italians, however, were not +long, after that, in finding the important documents +they looked for, which explained all. The Baron +begged the strangers' pardon for the unintentional +insult, and was heard to articulate to himself, "Poor +unhappy me! a victim to nervousness and fancy's +terrors! and all because of my money!"</p> + +<p>Rothschild's mode of doing business when engaging +in large transactions (says Mr. Grant) was +this. Supposing he possessed exclusively, which +he often did, a day or two before it could be generally +known, intelligence of some event, which had +occurred in any part of the Continent, sufficiently +important to cause a rise in the French funds, and +through them on the English funds, he would em<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_991" id="Page_991">[Pg 991]</a></span>power +the brokers he usually employed to sell out +stock, say to the amount of £500,000. The news +spread in a moment that Rothschild was selling +out, and a general alarm followed. Every one +apprehended that he had received intelligence from +some foreign part of some important event which +would produce a fall in prices. As might, under +such circumstances, be expected, all became sellers +at once. This, of necessity, caused the funds, to +use Stock Exchange phraseology, "to tumble down +at a fearful rate." Next day, when they had fallen, +perhaps, one or two per cent., he would make +purchases, say to the amount of £1,500,000, taking +care, however, to employ a number of brokers +whom he was not in the habit of employing, and +commissioning each to purchase to a certain extent, +and giving all of them strict orders to preserve +secrecy in the matter. Each of the persons so +employed was, by this means, ignorant of the commission +given to the others. Had it been known +the purchases were made by him, there would have +been as great and sudden a rise in the prices as +there had been in the fall, so that he could not +purchase to the intended extent on such advantageous +terms. On the third day, perhaps, the +intelligence which had been expected by the jobbers +to be unfavourable arrived, and, instead of being so, +turned out to be highly favourable. Prices instantaneously +rise again, and possibly they may get +one and a-half or even two per cent. higher than +they were when he sold out his £500,000. He +now sells out, at the advanced price, the entire +£1,500,000 he had purchased at the reduced prices. +The gains by such extensive transactions, when so +skilfully managed, will be at once seen to be +enormous. By the supposed transaction, assuming +the rise to be two per cent., the gain would be +£35,000. But this is not the greatest gain which +the late leviathian of modern capitalists made by +such transactions. He, on more than one occasion, +made upwards of £100,000 on one account.</p> + +<p>But though no person during the last twelve or +fifteen years of Rothschild's life (says Grant) was +ever able, for any length of time, to compete with +him in the money market, he on several occasions +was, in single transactions, outwitted by the superior +tactics of others. The gentleman to whom I allude +was then and is now the head of one of the largest +private banking establishments in town. Abraham +Montefiore, Rothschild's brother-in-law, was the +principal broker to the great capitalist, and in that +capacity was commissioned by the latter to negotiate +with Mr. —— a loan of £1,500,000. The +security offered by Rothschild was a proportionate +amount of stock in Consols, which were at that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_992" id="Page_992">[Pg 992]</a></span> +time 84. This stock was, of course, to be transferred +to the name of the party advancing the +money, Rothschild's object being to raise the price +of Consols by carrying so large a quantity out of the +market. The money was lent, and the conditions +of the loan were these—that the interest on the +sum advanced should be at the rate of 4½ per +cent., and that if the price of Consols should chance +to go down to 74, Mr. —— should have the right +of claiming the stock at 70. The Jew, no doubt, +laughed at what he conceived his own commercial +dexterity in the transaction; but, ere long, he had +abundant reason to laugh on the wrong side of his +mouth; for, no sooner was the stock poured into the +hand of the banker, than the latter sold it, along +with an immensely large sum which had been previously +standing in his name, amounting altogether +to little short of £3,000,000. But even this was +not all. Mr. —— also held powers of attorney +from several of the leading Scotch and English +banks, as well as from various private individuals, +who had large property in the funds, to sell stock +on their account. On these powers of attorney he +acted, and at the same time advised his friends to +follow his example. They at once did so, and the +consequence was that the aggregate amount of +stock sold by himself and his friends conjointly +exceeded £10,000,000. So unusual an extent of +sales, all effected in the shortest possible time, +necessarily drove down the prices. In an incredibly +short time they fell to 74; immediately on +which, Mr. —— claimed of Rothschild his stock +at 70. The Jew could not refuse: it was in the +bond. This climax being reached, the banker +bought in again all the stock he had previously +sold out, and advised his friends to re-purchase +also. They did so; and the result was, that in a +few weeks Consols reached 84 again, their original +price, and from that to 86. Rothschild's losses +were very great by this transaction; but they were +by no means equal to the banker's gains, which +could not have been less than £300,000 or +£400,000.</p> + +<p>The following grotesque sketch of the great +Rothschild is from the pen of a clever anonymous +writer:—"The thing before you," says the author +quoted, "stands cold, motionless, and apparently +speculationless, as the pillar of salt into which +the avaricious spouse of the patriarch was turned; +and while you start with wonder at what it can +be or mean, you pursue the association, and think +upon the fire and brimstone that were rained +down. It is a human being of no very Apollo-like +form or face: short, squat, with its shoulders +drawn up to its ears, and its hands delved into its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_993" id="Page_993">[Pg 993]</a></span> +breeches'-pockets. The hue of its face is a mixture +of brick-dust and saffron; and the texture seems +that of the skin of a dead frog. There is a rigidity +and tension in the features, too, which would make +you fancy, if you did not see that that were not +the fact, that some one from behind was pinching +it with a pair of hot tongs, and that it were either +afraid or ashamed to tell. Eyes are usually denominated +the windows of the soul; but here you +would conclude that the windows are false ones, or +that there is no soul to look out at them. There +comes not one pencil of light from the interior, +neither is there one scintillation of that which +comes from without reflected in any direction. +The whole puts you in mind of 'a skin to let;' +and you wonder why it stands upright without at +least something within. By-and-by another figure +comes up to it. It then steps two paces aside, and +the most inquisitive glance that ever you saw, and +a glance more inquisitive than you would ever have +thought of, is drawn out of the erewhile fixed and +leaden eye, as if one were drawing a sword from +a scabbard. The visiting figure, which has the +appearance of coming by accident, and not by +design, stops but a second or two, in the course +of which looks are exchanged which, though you +cannot translate, you feel must be of most important +meaning. After these, the eyes are sheathed +up again, and the figure resumes its stony posture. +During the morning numbers of visitors come, all +of whom meet with a similar reception, and vanish +in a similar manner; and last of all the figure +itself vanishes, leaving you utterly at a loss as to +what can be its nature and functions."</p> + +<p>Abraham Goldsmid, a liberal and honourable +man, who almost rivalled Rothschild as a speculator, +was ruined at last by a conspiracy. Goldsmid, +in conjunction with a banking establishment, had +taken a large Government loan. The leaguers +contrived to produce from the collectors and +receivers of the revenue so large an amount of +floating securities—Exchequer Bills and India +Bonds—that the omnium fell to 18 discount. +The result was Goldsmid's failure, and eventually +his suicide. The conspirators purchased omnium +when at its greatest discount, and on the following +day it went up to 3 premium, being then a profit +of about £2,000,000.</p> + +<p>Goldsmid seems to have been a kind-hearted +man, not so wholly absorbed in speculation and +self as some of the more greedy and vulgar +members of the Stock Exchange. One day Mr. +Goldsmid observed his favourite waiter at the City +of London Tavern very melancholy and abstracted. +On being pressed, John confessed that he had just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_994" id="Page_994">[Pg 994]</a></span> +been arrested for a debt of £55, and that he was +thinking over the misery of his wife and five +children. Goldsmid instantly drew out his chequebook, +and wrote a cheque for £100, the sight of +which gladdened poor John's heart and brought +tears into his eyes. On one occasion, after a +carriage accident in Somersetshire, Goldsmid was +carried to the house of a poor curate, and there +attended for a fortnight with unremitting kindness. +Six weeks after the millionaire's departure a letter +came from Goldsmid to the curate, saying that, +having contracted for a large Government loan, he +(the writer) had put down the curate's name for +£20,000 omnium. The poor curate, supposing +some great outlay was expected from him for this +share in the loan, wrote back to say that he had +not £20,000, or even £20, in the world. By the +next post came a letter enclosing the curate £1,500, +the profit on selling out the £20,000 omnium, the +premium having risen since the curate's name had +been put down.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes of the Stock Exchange are like +those of the gambling-table. A story is related +specially illustrative of the rapid fortunes made in +the old war-time, when the funds ran up and down +every time Napoleon mounted his horse. Mr. F., +afterwards proprietor of one of the largest estates +in the county of Middlesex, had lost a fortune on +the Stock Exchange, and had, in due course, been +ruthlessly gibbeted on the cruel black board. In a +frenzy, as he passed London Bridge, contemplating +suicide, F. threw the last shilling he had in the +world over the parapet into the water. Just at +that moment some one seized him by the hand. +It was a French ensign. He was full of a great +battle that had been fought (Waterloo), which had +just annihilated Bonaparte, and would restore the +Bourbons. The French ambassador had told him +only an hour before. A gleam of hope, turning the +black board white, arose before the miserable man. +He hurried off to a firm on the Stock Exchange, +and offered most important news on condition that +he should receive half of whatever profits they +might realise by the operation. He told them of +Waterloo. They rushed into the market, and +purchased Consols to a large amount. In the +meantime F., sharpened by misfortune, instantly +proceeded to another firm, and made a second +offer, which was also accepted. There were two +partners, and the keenest of them whispered the +other not to let F. out of his sight, while he sent +brokers to purchase Consols. He might tell some +one else. Lunch was then brought in, and the key +turned on them. Presently the partner returned, +red and seething, from the Stock Exchange. Most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_995" id="Page_995">[Pg 995]</a></span> +unaccountably Consols had gone up 3 per cent., +and he was afraid to purchase. But F. urged the +importance of the victory, and declared the funds +would soon rise 10 or 12 per cent. The partners, +persuaded, made immense purchases. The day +the news of Waterloo arrived the funds rose 15 +per cent., the greatest rise they were ever known +to experience; and F.'s share of the profits from +the two houses in one day exceeded £100,000. +He returned next day to the Stock Exchange, and +soon, amassed a large fortune; he then wisely purchased +an estate, and left the funds alone for ever.</p> + +<p>Some terrible failures occurred in the Stock Exchange +during the Spanish panic of 1835. A few +facts connected with this disastrous time will serve +excellently to illustrate the effects of such reactions +among the speculators in stocks. A decline of 20 +or 30 per cent. in the Peninsular securities within a +week or ten days ruined many of the members. +They, like card houses in a puff of wind, brought +down others; so that in one short month the greater +part of the Stock Exchange had fallen into difficulties. +The failure of principals out of doors, who +had large differences to pay, caused much of this +trouble to the brokers. Men with limited means +had plunged into what they considered a certain +speculation, and when pay-day arrived and the +account was against them, they were obliged to +confess their inability to scrape together the required +funds. For instance, at the time Zumalacarregui +was expected to die, a principal, a person who +could not command more than £1,000, "stood," +as the Stock Exchange phrase runs, to make a "pot +of money" by the event. He speculated heavily, +and had the Spanish partisan general good-naturedly +died during the account, the commercial gambler +would have certainly netted nearly £40,000. The +general, however, obstinately delayed his death till +the next week, and by that time the speculator was +ruined, and all he had sold. Many of the dishonest +speculators whose names figured on the black board +in 1835 had been "bulls" of Spanish stock. When +the market gave way and prices fell, the principals +attempted to put off the evil day, says a writer of +the period, by "carrying over instead of closing +their accounts." The weather, however, grew only +the more stormy, and at last, when payment could +no longer be evaded, they coolly turned round, and +with brazen faces refused, although some of them +were able to adjust the balances which their luckless +brokers exhibited against them. Now a broker is +obliged either to make good his principal's losses +from his own pocket, or be declared a defaulter +and expelled the Stock Exchange. This rule often +presses heavily, says an authority on the subject, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_996" id="Page_996">[Pg 996]</a></span> +honest but not over-opulent brokers, who transact +business for other persons, and become liable if +they turn out either insolvent or rogues. Brokers +are in most cases careful in the choice of principals +if they speculate largely, and often adopt the prudent +and very justifiable plan of having a certain +amount of stock deposited in their "strong box" +as security before any important business is undertaken. +Every principal who dabbles in rickety +stock without a certain reserve as a security is set +down by most men as little better than a swindler.</p> + +<p>During the rumours of war which prevailed in +October, 1840, shortly before the fall of the Thiers +administration in France, the fluctuations in Consols +were as much as 4 per cent. The result was great +ruin to speculators. The speculators for the rise—the +"bulls," in fact—of £400,000 Consols sustained +a loss of from £10,000 to £15,000, for which +more than one broker found it necessary, for sustaining +his credit, to pay.</p> + +<p>The railway mania produced many changes in +the Stock Exchange. The share market, which +previously had been occupied by only four or five +brokers and a number of small jobbers, now became +a focus of vast business. Certain brokers, it is said, +made £3,000 or £4,000 a day by their business. +One fortunate man outside the house, who held +largely of Churnett Valley scrip before the sanction +of the Board of Trade was procured, sold at the +best price directly the announcement was made, and +netted by that <i>coup</i> £27,000. The "Alley men" +wrote letters for shares, and when the allotments +were obtained made some 10s. on each share. +Some of these "dabblers" are known to have made +only fifty farthings of fifty shares of a railway now +the first in the kingdom. The sellers of letters +used to meet in the Royal Exchange before business +hours, till the beadle had at last to drive them away +to make room for the merchants. There is a story +told of an "Alley man" during the mania contriving +to sell some rotten shares by bowing to Sir +Isaac Goldsmid in the presence of his victim. Sir +Isaac returned the bow, and the victim at once +believed in the respectability of the gay deceiver.</p> + +<p>With the single exception of Mr. David Ricardo, +the celebrated political economist, says Mr. Grant, +there are few names of any literary distinction +connected with the Stock Exchange. Mr. Ricardo +is said to have amassed his immense fortune by a +scrupulous attention to his own golden rules:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +"Never refuse an option when you can get it;<br /> +Cut short your losses;<br /> +Let your profits run on." +</div> + +<p>By the second rule, which, like the rest, is strictly +technical, Mr. Ricardo meant that purchasers of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_998" id="Page_998">[Pg 998]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_997" id="Page_997">[Pg 997]</a></span>stock ought to re-sell immediately prices fell. By +the third he meant that when a person held stock +and prices were rising, he ought not to sell until +prices had reached their highest, and were beginning +to fall.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="change" id="change"></a> +<img src="images/p487.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ON CHANGE. (<i>From an Old Print, about 1800. The Figures by Rowlandson; Architecture by Nash.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>Gentlemen of the Stock Exchange are rough +with intruders. A few years since, says a writer +in the <i>City Press</i>, an excellent clergyman of my +acquaintance, who had not quite mastered the +Christian philosophy of turning the right cheek to +those who smote the left, had business in the City, +and being anxious to see his broker, strayed into +the Stock Exchange, in utter ignorance of the great +liberty he was committing. Instantly known as +an interloper, he was surrounded and hustled by +some dozen of the members. "What did he +want?" "How dared he to intrude there?"</p> + +<p>"I wish to speak with a member, Mr. A——, +and was not aware it was against the rules to enter +the building."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll make you aware for the future," +said a coarse but iron-fisted jobber, prepared to +suit the action to the word.</p> + +<p>My friend disengaged himself as far as possible, +and speaking in a calm but authoritative tone, +said, "Sirs, I am quite sure you do not mean +to insult, in my person, a minister of the Church +of England; but take notice, the first man who +dares to molest me shall feel the weight of my +fist, which is not a light one. Stand by, and let +me leave this inhospitable place." They did stand +by, and he rushed into the street without sustaining +any actual violence.</p> + +<p>Practical joking, says an <i>habitué</i>, relieves the excitement +of this feverish gambling. The stockbrokers +indulge in practical jokes which would be +hardly excusable in a schoolboy. No member can +wear a new hat in the arena of bulls and bears +without being tormented, and his chapeau irrecoverably +spoiled. A new coat cannot be worn +without peril; it is almost certain to be ticketed +"Moses and Son—dear at 18s. 6d." The pounce-box +is a formidable missile, and frequently nearly +blinds the unwary. As P. passes K.'s desk, the latter +slily extends his foot in order to trip him up; and +when K. rises from his stool, he finds his coat-tail +pinned to the cushion, and is likely to lose a +portion of it before he is extricated. Yet these +men are capable of extreme liberality. Some +years ago knocking off hats and chalking one +another's backs was a favourite amusement on the +Stock Exchange, as a vent for surplus excitement, +and on the 5th of November a cart-load of crackers +was let off during the day, to the destruction of +coats. The cry when a stranger is detected is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_999" id="Page_999">[Pg 999]</a></span> +"Fourteen hundred," and the usual test question +is, "Will you purchase any new Navy Five per +Cents., sir?" The moment after a rough hand +drives the novice's hat over his nose, and he is +spun from one to another; his coat-tails are often +torn off, and he is then jostled into the street. +There have been cases, however, where the jobbers +have caught a Tartar, who, after half-strangling one +and knocking down two or three more, has fairly +fought his way out, pretty well unscathed, all but +his hat.</p> + +<p>The amount of business done at the Stock +Exchange in a day is enormous. In a few hours +property, including time bargains, to the amount +of £10,000,000, has changed hands. Rothschild +is known in one day to have made purchases to +the extent of £4,000,000. This great speculator +never appeared on the Stock Exchange himself, and +on special occasions he always employed a new +set of brokers to buy or sell. The boldest attempt +ever made to overthrow the power of Rothschild +in the money market was that made by a Mr. H. +He was the son of a wealthy country banker, with +money-stock in his own name, though it was really +his father's, to the extent of £50,000. He began +by buying, as openly as possible, and selling out +again to a very large amount in a very short period +of time. About this time Consols were as high as +96 or 97, and there were signs of a coming panic. +Mr. H. determined to depress the market, and +carry on war against Rothschild, the leader of +the "bulls." He now struck out a bold game. +He bought £200,000 in Consols at 96, and at +once offered any part of £100,000 at 94, and at +once found purchasers. He then offered more at +93, 92, and eventually as low as 90. The next +day he brought them down to 74; a run on the +Bank of England began, which almost exhausted it +of its specie. He then purchased to a large extent, +so that when the reaction took place, the daring +adventurer found his gains had exceeded £100,000. +Two years after he had another "operation," but +Rothschild, guessing his plan, laid a trap, into +which he fell, and the day after his name was up +on the black board. It was then discovered that +the original £50,000 money-stock had been in +reality his father's. A deputation from the committee +waited upon Mr. H. immediately after his +failure, and quietly suggested to him an immediate +sale of his furniture and the mortgage of an annuity +settled on his wife. He, furious at this, rang the +bell for his footman, and ordered him to show the +deputation down stairs. He swore at the treatment +that he had received, and said, "As for +you, you vagabond, 'My son Jack' (the nickname<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1000" id="Page_1000">[Pg 1000]</a></span> +of the spokesman), who has had the audacity to +make me such a proposal, if you don't hurry down +stairs I'll pitch you out of window."</p> + +<p>Nicknames are of frequent occurrence on the +Stock Exchange. "My son Jack" we have just +mentioned. Another was known as "The Lady's +Broker," in consequence of being employed in an +unfortunate speculation by a lady who had ventured +without the knowledge of her husband. +The husband refused to pay a farthing, and the +broker, to save himself from the black board, +divulged the name of the lady who was unable +to meet her obligations.</p> + +<p>It is a fact not generally known, says a writer on +the subject, that by one of the regulations of the +Stock Exchange, any person purchasing stock in +the funds, or any of the public companies, has a +right to demand of the seller as many transfers as +there are even thousand pounds in the amount +bought. Suppose, for instance, that any person +were to purchase £10,000 stock, then, instead of +having the whole made over to him by one ticket +of transfer, he has a right to demand, if he so +pleases, ten separate transfers from the party or +parties of whom he purchased.</p> + +<p>The descriptions of English stock which are +least generally understood are scrip and omnium. +Scrip means the receipt for any instalment or instalments +which may have been paid on any given +amount which has been purchased on any Government +loan. This receipt, or scrip, is marketable, +the party purchasing it, either at a premium or +discount, as the case chances to be, becoming of +course bound to pay up the remainder of the +instalments, on pain of forfeiting the money he has +given for it. Omnium means the various kinds +of stock in which a loan is absorbed, or, to make +the thing still more intelligible, a person purchasing +a certain quantity of omnium, purchases given +proportions of the various descriptions of Government +securities.</p> + +<p>Bargains made one day are always checked +the following day, by the parties themselves or +their clerks. This is done by calling over their +respective books one against another. In most +transactions what is called an option is given, by +mutual consent, to each party. This is often of +great importance to the speculator. It is said that +the business at the Stock Exchange is illegal, since +an unrepealed Act of Parliament exists which +directs all buying and selling of Bank securities +shall take place in the Rotunda of the Bank.</p> + +<p>There are about 1,700 members of the Stock +Exchange, who pay twelve guineas a year each. +The election of members is always by ballot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1001" id="Page_1001">[Pg 1001]</a></span> +and every applicant must be recommended by +three persons, who have been members of the +house for at least two years. Each recommender +must engage to pay the sum of £500 to the +candidate's creditors in case any such candidate +should become a defaulter, either in the Stock +Exchange or the Foreign Stock market, within two +years from the date of his admission. A foreigner +must have been resident in the United Kingdom +for five years previous, unless he is recommended +by five members of the Stock Exchange, each of +whom becomes security for £300. The candidate +must not enter into partnership with any of his +recommenders for two years after his admission, +unless additional security be provided, and one +partner cannot recommend another. Bill and discount +brokers are excluded from the Stock Exchange, +says the same writer, and no applicant's +wife can be engaged in any sort of business. No +applicant who has been a bankrupt is eligible until +two years after he has obtained his certificate, or +fulfilled the conditions of his deed of composition, +or unless he has paid 6s. 8d. in the pound. No +one who has been twice bankrupt is eligible unless +on the same very improbable condition.</p> + +<p>If a member makes any bargains before or +after the regular business hours—ten to four—the +bargain is not recognised by the committee. No +bonds can be returned as imperfect after three days' +detention. If a member comes to private terms +with his creditors, he is put upon the black board +of the Exchange as a defaulter, and expelled. A +further failure can be condoned for, after six +months' exile, provided the member pays at least +one-third of any loss that may have occurred on +his speculations. For dishonourable conduct the +committee can also chalk up a member's name.</p> + +<p>It is said that a member of the Stock Exchange +who fails and gives up his last farthing to his +creditors is never thought as well of as the man +who takes care to keep a reserve, in order to step +back again into business. For instance, a stockbroker +once lost on one account £10,000, and paid +the whole without a murmur. Being, however, +what is called on the Stock Exchange "a little +man," he never again recovered his credit, it being +suspected that his back was irretrievably broken.</p> + +<p>But a still more striking and very interesting +illustration of the estimation in which sterling integrity +is held among a large proportion of the members +was afforded (says Mr. Grant) in the case of +the late Mr. L.A. de la Chaumette, a gentleman +of foreign extraction. He had previously been in +the Manchester trade, but had been unfortunate. +Being a man much respected, and extensively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1002" id="Page_1002">[Pg 1002]</a></span> +known, his friends advised him to go on the +Stock Exchange. He adopted their advice, and +became a member. He at once established an +excellent business as a broker. Not only did he +make large sums, in the shape of commissions on +the transactions in which he was employed by +others, but one of the largest mercantile houses in +London, having the highest possible opinion of his +judgment and integrity, entrusted him with the sole +disposal of an immense sum of money belonging +to the French refugees, which was in their hands +at the time. He contrived to employ this money +so advantageously, both to his constituents and +himself, that he acquired a handsome fortune. +Before he had been a member three years, he invited +his creditors to dine with him on a particular +day at the London Tavern, but concealed from +them the particular object he had in view in so +doing. On entering the room, they severally found +their own names on the different plates, which were +reversed, and on turning them up, each found a +cheque for the amount due to him, with interest. +The entire sum which Mr. L.A. de la Chaumette +paid away on this occasion, and in this manner, +was upwards of £30,000. Next day, he went into +the house as usual, and such was the feeling entertained +of his conduct, that many members refused +to do a bargain with him to the extent of a single +thousand. They looked on his payment of the +claims of his former creditors as a foolish affair, +and fancied that he might have exhausted his +resources, never dreaming that, even if he had, a +man of such honourable feeling and upright principle +was worthy of credit to any amount. He +eventually died worth upwards of £500,000.</p> + +<p>The locality of the Stock Exchange (says the +author of "The Great Babylon," probably the Rev. +Dr. Croly) is well chosen, being at a point where +intelligence from the Bank of England, the Royal +Exchange, and the different coffee-houses where +private letters from abroad are received, may be +obtained in a few minutes, and thus "news from +all nations" may be very speedily manufactured +with an air of authenticity. One wide portal gapes +toward the Bank, in Bartholomew Lane; and there +is a sally-port into Threadneedle Street, for those +who do not wish to be seen entering or emerging +the other way. From the dull and dingy aspect +of these approaches, which, it seems, cannot be +whitened, one could form no guess at the mighty +deeds of the place; and when the hourly quotations +of the price of stocks are the same, the place is +silent, and only a few individuals, with faces which +grin but cannot smile, are seen crawling in and out, +or standing yawning in the court, with their hands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1003" id="Page_1003">[Pg 1003]</a></span> +in their breeches' pockets. If, however, the quotations +fluctuate, and the Royal Exchange, where +most of the leading men of the money market +lounge, be full of bustling and rumours, and especially +if characters, with eyes like basilisks, and +faces lined and surfaced like an asparagus bed ere +the plants come up, be ever and anon darting in at +the north door of the Royal Exchange, bounding +toward the chief priests of Mammon, like pith balls +to the conductor of an electric machine, and, when +they have "got their charge," bounding away again, +then you may be sure that the Stock Exchange is +worth seeing, if it could be seen with comfort, or +even with safety. At those times, however, a +stranger might as well jump into a den of lions, or +throw himself into the midst of a herd of famishing +wolves.</p> + +<p>Among the various plans adopted for securing +early intelligence for Stock Exchange purposes +before the invention of the telegraph, none proved +more successful than that of "pigeon expresses." +Till about the beginning of the century the ordinary +courier brought the news from the Continent; and it +was only the Rothschilds, and one or two other important +firms, that "ran" intelligence, in anticipation +of the regular French mail. However, many years +ago, the project was conceived of establishing a communication +between London and Paris by means of +pigeons, and in the course of two years it was in +complete operation. The training of the birds took +considerable time before they could be relied on; +and the relays and organisation required to perfect +the scheme not only involved a vast expenditure of +time, but also of money. In the first place, to +make the communication of use on both sides of +the Channel, it was necessary to get two distinct +establishments for the flight of the pigeons—one in +England and another in France. It was then necessary +that persons in whom reliance could be placed +should be stationed in the two capitals, to be in +readiness to receive or dispatch the birds that +might bring or carry the intelligence, and make it +available for the parties interested. Hence it +became almost evident that one speculator, without +he was a very wealthy man, could not hope to support +a pigeon "express." The consequence was, +that, the project being mooted, two or three of the +speculators, including brokers of the house, themselves +joined, and worked it for their own benefit. +Through this medium several of the dealers rapidly +made large sums of money; but the trade became +less profitable, because the success of the +first operators induced others to follow the example +of establishing this species of communication. +The cost of keeping a "pigeon express" has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1004" id="Page_1004">[Pg 1004]</a></span> +been estimated at £600 or £700 a year; but +whether this amount was magnified, with the view of +deterring others from venturing into the speculation, +is a question which never seems to have been properly +explained. It is stated that the daily papers +availed themselves of the news brought by these +"expresses;" but, in consideration of allowing the +speculators to read the despatches first, the proprietors, +it is said, bore but a minimum proportion +of the expense. The birds generally used were +of the Antwerp breed, strong in the wing, and fully +feathered. The months in which they were chiefly +worked were the latter end of May, June, July, +August, and the beginning of September; and, +though the news might not be always of importance, +a communication was generally kept up daily between +London and Paris in this manner.</p> + +<p>In 1837-38-39, and 1840, a great deal of money +was made by the "pigeon men," as the speculators +supposed to have possession of such intelligence +were familiarly termed; and their appearance in the +market was always indicative of a rise or fall, +according to the tendency of their operations. +Having the first chance of buying or selling, they, +of course, had the market for a while in their own +hands; but as time progressed, and it was found +that the papers, by their "second editions," would +communicate the news, the general brokers refused +to do business till the papers reached the City. +The pigeons bringing the news occasionally got shot +on their passage; but, as a flock of some eight or a +dozen were usually started at a time, miscarriage +was not of frequent occurrence. At the time of the +death of Mr. Rothschild, one was caught at Brighton, +having been disabled by a gun-shot wound, and +beneath the shoulder-feathers of the left wing was +discovered a small note, with the words "Il est +mort," followed by a number of hieroglyphics. +Each pigeon had a method of communication entirely +their own; and the conductors, if they fancied +the key to it was in another person's power, immediately +varied it. A case of this description occurred +worth noting. The parties interested in the scheme +fancied that, however soon they received intelligence, +there were others in the market who were +quite equal with them. In order to arrive at the +real state of affairs, the chief proprietor consented, +at the advice of a friend, to pay £10 for the early +perusal of a supposed rival's "pigeon express." +The "express" came to hand, he read it, and was +not a little surprised to find that he was in reality +paying for the perusal of his own news! The truth +soon came out. Somebody had bribed the keepers +of his pigeons, who were thus not only making a +profit by the sale of his intelligence, but also on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1005" id="Page_1005">[Pg 1005]</a></span> +speculations they in consequence conducted. The +defect was soon remedied by changing the style of +characters employed, and all went right as before.</p> + +<p>When a defalcation takes place in the Stock +Exchange (says a City writer of 1845), the course +pursued is as follows:—At the commencement of +the "settling day," should a broker or jobber—the +one through the default of his principals, and +the other in consequence of unsuccessful speculations—find +a heavy balance on the wrong side of +his accounts, which he is unfortunately unable to +settle, and should an attempt to get the assistance +from friends prove unavailing, he must fail. Excluded +from the house, the scene of his past labours +and speculations, he dispatches a short but unimportant +communication to the committee of the +Stock Exchange. The other members of the +institution being all assembled in the market, +busied in arranging and settling their accounts, +some of them, interested parties, become nervous +and fidgety at the non-appearance of Mr. —— (the +defaulter in question). The doubt is soon +explained, for the porter stationed at the door +suddenly gives three loud and distinctly repeated +knocks with a mallet, and announces that Mr. —— presents +his respects to the house, and regrets to +state that he is unable to comply with his "bargains"—<i>Anglicè</i>, +to fulfil his engagements.</p> + +<p>Visit Bartholomew Lane at any time of the year, +says a City writer, and you will be sure to find +several people of shabby exterior holding converse +at the entrance of Capel Court, or on the steps of +the auction mart. These are the "Alley men." You +will see one, perhaps, take from his pocket a good-sized +parcel of dirty-backed letters, all arranged, and +tied round with string or red tape, which he sorts +with as much care and attention as if they were +bank-notes. That parcel is his stock-in-trade. Perhaps +those letters may contain the allotment of +shares in various companies, to an amount, if the +capital subscribed was paid, of many hundreds of +thousands of pounds.</p> + +<p>To describe fairly the "Alley man," we must +take him from the first of his career. He is +generally some broken-down clerk or tradesman, +who, having lost every prospect of life, chooses +this description of business as a <i>dernier ressort</i>. +First started in his calling, he associates with the +loiterers at the Stock Exchange, where, by mixing +with them, and perhaps making the acquaintance +through the introduction of Sir John Barleycorn, +at the tap of a tavern, he is initiated by degrees +into the secrets of the business, and, perhaps, +before long, becomes as great an adept in the +sale or purchase of letters as the oldest man on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1006" id="Page_1006">[Pg 1006]</a></span> +the walk. When he has acquired the necessary +information respecting dealing, he can commence +letter-writing for shares. This is effected at the expense +of a penny only for postage, pen and ink +being always attainable, either in the tavern-parlour +or coffee-house he frequents. When a new company +comes out, and is advertised, he immediately calls +for a form of application, fills it up, and dispatches +it, with the moderate request to be allotted one +hundred or two hundred shares, the amount of call +or share being quite immaterial to him, as he never +intends to pay upon or keep them, his only aim +being to increase his available stock of letters, so +that he can make a "deal," and pocket the profit, +should they have a price among the fraternity.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="inner1" id="inner1"></a> +<img src="images/p492.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INNER COURT OF THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE</span> +</div> + +<p>The purchase of stock is thus described by an +<i>habitué</i>. "Suppose I went," he says, "to buy £100 +stock in the Four per Cents. I soon know whether +the funds are better, or worse, or steady; for this +is the language of the place. If they are <i>better</i>, +they are on the rise from the preceding day; if +<i>worse</i>, they are lower than on that day; if <i>steady</i>, +they have not fluctuated at all, or very little. To +render the matter as intelligible as possible, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1007" id="Page_1007">[Pg 1007]</a></span> +will suppose the price to be 80-1/8, that is, £80 2s. 6d. +sterling for £100 stock. Upon my asking the +price of the Four per Cents., the answer probably +is, "Buyers at an eighth, and sellers at a quarter;" +that is, the jobbers who either buy or sell will +have the <i>turn</i>, or 1/8. Now if I leave the purchase +to a broker, he probably gives, without the least +hesitation, 80-3/8, because he may have a friendly +turn to make to his brother broker, for a similar +act of kindness the preceding day. Well, but I do +<i>not</i> leave the purchase to a broker; I manage it +myself. I direct my broker to buy me £100 +stock at 80¼. He takes my name, profession, +and place of residence; he then makes a purchase, +and the seller of the stock transfers it to me, my +heirs, assigns, &c., and makes his signature. On +the same leaf of the same book in which the +<i>transfer</i> is made to me, there is a form of acceptance +of the stock transferred to me, and to which +I also put my signature; the clerk then witnesses +the receipt, and the whole business is done. The +seller of the stock gives me the receipt, with his +signature to it, which I may keep till I receive a +dividend, when it is no longer any use. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1008" id="Page_1008">[Pg 1008]</a></span> +payment of the dividend is an acknowledgment of +my right to the stock; and therefore the receipt +then becomes useless."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="thomas" id="thomas"></a> +<img src="images/p493.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />SIR THOMAS GRESHAM</span> +</div> + +<p>The usual commission charged by a broker is +one-eighth (2s. 6d.) per cent. upon the stock sold or +purchased; although of late years the charge has +often been reduced fifty per cent., especially in +speculators' charges, a reduction ascribed to the +influx into the market of a body of brokers who +will "do business" almost for nothing, provided +they can procure customers. The broker deals with +the "jobbers," a class of members, or "middle-men," +who remain stationary in the stock market, ready +to act upon the orders received from brokers.</p> + +<p>There is, moreover, a fund subscribed by the +members for their decayed associates, the invested +capital of which, exclusive of annual contributions, +amounts to upwards of £30,000.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1009" id="Page_1009">[Pg 1009]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Stock Exchange has numbered amongst its +subscribers some valuable members of society, +including David Ricardo and several of his descendants, +Francis Baily the astronomer, and many +others, down to Charles Stokes, F.R.S., not long +ago deceased. Horace Smith and the author of the +"Last of the Plantagenets"—himself in his prosperity +a munificent patron of literature—also for a +long time enlivened its precincts. The writer of +the successful play of "The Templar," and other +elegant productions, was one of the body.</p> + +<p>The managers, in 1854, expended about £6,000 +in securing additional space for the Stock Exchange +prior to the commencement of the works, and the +contract was taken at £10,400, some subsequent +alterations respecting ventilation having caused the +amount to be already exceeded.</p> + +<p>The fabric belongs to a private company, con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1010" id="Page_1010">[Pg 1010]</a></span>sisting +of 400 shareholders, and the shares were +originally of £50 each, but are now of uncertain +amount, the last addition being a call of £25 per +share, made for the construction of the new edifice. +The affairs of this company are conducted under +a cumbersome and restrictive deed of settlement, +by nine "managers," elected for life by the shareholders, +no election taking place till there are four +vacancies. The members or subscribers, however, +entirely conduct their own affairs by a committee +of thirty of their own body. Neither members +nor committee are elected for more than one +year.</p> + +<p>The number of members at present exceeds 1,700. +The subscription is paid to the "managers," who +liquidate all expenses, and adopt alterations in +the building, upon the representations of the committee +of the members, or even on the application<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1011" id="Page_1011">[Pg 1011]</a></span> +of the subscribers. Of the 400 shares mentioned +above, the whole, with scarcely an exception, are +held by the members themselves. No one person +is allowed to hold, directly or indirectly, more than +four.</p> + +<p>The present building stands in the centre of the +block of buildings fronting Bartholomew Lane, +Threadneedle Street, Old Broad Street, and Throgmorton +Street. The principal entrance is from Bartholomew +Lane through Capel Court. There are +also three entrances from Throgmorton Street, and +one from Threadneedle Street. The area of the +new house is about 75 square yards, and it would +contain 1,100 or 1,200 members. There are, however, +seldom more than half that number present. +The site is very irregular, and has enforced some +peculiar construction in covering it, into which +iron enters largely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1012" id="Page_1012">[Pg 1012]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII</h2> + +<p class="center">THE ROYAL EXCHANGE</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Greshams—Important Negotiations—Building of the Old Exchange—Queen Elizabeth visits it—Its Milliners' Shops—A Resort for Idlers—Access +of Nuisances—The various Walks in the Exchange—Shakespeare's Visits to it—Precautions against Fire—Lady Gresham and the +Council—The "Eye of London"—Contemporary Allusions—The Royal Exchange during the Plague and the Great Fire—Wren's Design +for a New Royal Exchange—The Plan which was ultimately accepted—Addison and Steele upon the Exchange—The Shops of the Second +Exchange.</p></div> + + +<p>In the year 1563 Sir Thomas Gresham, a munificent +merchant of Lombard Street, who traded +largely with Antwerp, carrying out a scheme of his +father, offered the City to erect a Bourse at his +own expense, if they would provide a suitable +plot of ground; the great merchant's local pride +having been hurt at seeing Antwerp provided with +a stately Exchange, and London without one.</p> + +<p>A short sketch of the Gresham family is here +necessary, to enable us to understand the antecedents +of this great benefactor of London. The +family derived its name from Gresham, a little +village in Norfolk; and one of the early Greshams +appears to have been clerk to Sir William Paston, +a judge. The family afterwards removed to Holt, +near the sea. John Gresham married an heiress, +by whom he had four sons, William, Thomas, +Richard, and John. Thomas became Chancellor of +Lichfield, the other three brothers turned merchants, +and two of them were knighted by Henry VIII. +Sir Richard, the father of Sir Thomas Gresham, +was an eminent London merchant, elected Lord +Mayor in 1537. Being a trusty foreign agent of +Henry VII., and a friend of Cromwell and +Wolsey, he received from the king five several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1013" id="Page_1013">[Pg 1013]</a></span> +gifts of church lands. Sir Richard died at Bethnal +Green, 1548-9. He was buried in the church of +St. Lawrence Jewry. Thomas Gresham was sent +to Gonville College, Cambridge, and apprenticed +probably before that to his uncle Sir John, a Levant +merchant, for eight years. In 1543 we find the +young merchant applying to Margaret, Regent of +the Low Countries, for leave to export gunpowder +to England for King Henry, who was then preparing +for his attack on France, and the siege of +Boulogne. In 1554 Gresham married the daughter +of a Suffolk gentleman, and the widow of a London +mercer. By her he had several children, none of +whom, however, reached maturity.</p> + +<p>It was in 1551 or 1552 that Gresham's real +fortune commenced, by his appointment as king's +merchant factor, or agent, at Antwerp, to raise +private loans from German and Low Country merchants +to meet the royal necessities, and to keep +the privy council informed in the local news. The +wise factor borrowed in his own name, and soon +raised the exchange from 16s. Flemish for the pound +sterling to 22s., at which rate he discharged all the +king's debts, and made money plentiful. He says, +in a letter to the Duke of Northumberland, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1014" id="Page_1014">[Pg 1014]</a></span> +he hoped in one year to save England £20,000. +It being forbidden to export further from Antwerp, +Gresham had to resort to various stratagems, and +in 1553 (Queen Mary) we find him writing to the +Privy Council, proposing to send £200 (in heavy +Spanish rials), in bags of pepper, four at a time, +and the English ambassador at Brussels was to +bring over with him £20,000 or £30,000, but he +afterwards changed his mind, and sent the money +packed up in bales with suits of armour and £3,000 +in each, rewarding the searcher at Gravelines with +new year presents of black velvet and black cloth. +About the time of the Queen's marriage to Philip +Gresham went to Spain, to start from Puerto Real +fifty cases, each containing 22,000 Spanish ducats. +All the time Gresham resided at Antwerp, carrying +out these sagacious and important negociations, he +was rewarded with the paltry remuneration of £1 +a day, of which we often find him seriously complaining. +It was in Antwerp, that vast centre of +commerce, that Gresham must have gained that +great knowledge of business by which he afterwards +enriched himself. Antwerp exported to +England at this time, says Mr. Burgon, in his excellent +life of Gresham, almost every article of +luxury required by English people.</p> + +<p>Later in Queen Mary's reign Gresham was frequently +displaced by rivals. He made trips to England, +sharing largely in the dealings of the Mercers' +Company, of which he was a member, and shipping +vast quantities of cloth to sell to the Italian merchants +at Antwerp, in exchange for silks. A few +years later the Mercers are described as sending +forth, twice a year, a fleet of 50 or 60 ships, laden +with cloth, for the Low Countries. Gresham is +mentioned, in 1555, as presenting Queen Mary, as +a new year's gift, with "a bolt of fine Holland," +receiving in return a gilt jug, weighing 16½ ounces. +That the Queen considered Gresham a faithful and +useful servant there can be no doubt, for she gave +him, at different times, a priory, a rectory, and +several manors and advowsons.</p> + +<p>Gresham, like a prudent courtier, seems to have +been one of the first persons of celebrity who +visited Queen Elizabeth on her accession. She +gave the wise merchant her hand to kiss, and told +him that she would always keep one ear ready to +hear him; "which," says Gresham, "made me a +young man again, and caused me to enter on my +present charge with heart and courage."</p> + +<p>The young Queen also promised him on her +faith that if he served her as well as he had done +her brother Edward, and Queen Mary, her sister, +she would give him as much land as ever they +both had. This gracious promise Gresham re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1015" id="Page_1015">[Pg 1015]</a></span>minded +the Queen of years after, when he had to +complain to his friend Cecil that the Marquis of +Winchester had tried to injure him with the Queen.</p> + +<p>Gresham soon resumed his visits to Flanders, to +procure money, and send over powder, armour, +and weapons. He was present at the funeral of +Charles V., seems to have foreseen the coming +troubles in the Low Countries, and commented on +the rash courage of Count Egmont.</p> + +<p>The death of Gresham's only son Richard, in +the year 1564, was the cause, Mr. Burgon thinks, of +Gresham's determining to devote his money to the +benefit of his fellow-citizens. Lombard Street had +long become too small for the business of London. +Men of business were exposed there to all weathers, +and had to crowd into small shops, or jostle under +the pent-houses. As early as 1534 or 1535 the +citizens had deliberated in common council on the +necessity of a new place of resort, and Leadenhall +Street had been proposed. In the year 1565 certain +houses in Cornhill, in the ward of Broad Street, +and three alleys—Swan Alley, Cornhill; New Alley, +Cornhill, near St. Bartholomew's Lane; and St. +Christopher's Alley, comprising in all fourscore +householders—were purchased for £3,737 6s. 6d., +and the materials sold for £478. The amount +was subscribed for in small sums by about 750 +citizens, the Ironmongers' Company giving £75. +The first brick was laid by Sir Thomas, June 7, +1566. A Flemish architect superintended the +sawing of the timber, at Gresham's estate at Ringshall, +near Ipswich, and on Battisford Tye (common) +traces of the old sawpits can still be seen. The +slates were bought at Dort, the wainscoting and +glass at Amsterdam, and other materials in Flanders. +The building, pushed on too fast for final solidity, +was slated in by November, 1567, and shortly after +finished. The Bourse, when erected, was thought +to resemble that of Antwerp, but there is also +reason to believe that Gresham's architect closely +followed the Bourse of Venice.</p> + +<p>The new Bourse, Flemish in character, was a +long four-storeyed building, with a high double +balcony. A bell-tower, crowned by a huge grasshopper, +stood on one side of the chief entrance. +The bell in this tower summoned merchants to the +spot at twelve o'clock at noon and six o'clock in +the evening. A lofty Corinthian column, crested +with a grasshopper, apparently stood outside the +north entrance, overlooking the quadrangle. The +brick building was afterwards stuccoed over, to +imitate stone. Each corner of the building, and +the peak of every dormer window, was crowned by +a grasshopper. Within Gresham's Bourse were +piazzas for wet weather, and the covered walks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1016" id="Page_1016">[Pg 1016]</a></span> +were adorned with statues of English kings. A +statue of Gresham stood near the north end of the +western piazza. At the Great Fire of 1666 this +statue alone remained there uninjured, as Pepys +and Evelyn particularly record. The piazzas were +supported by marble pillars, and above were 100 +small shops. The vaults dug below, for merchandise, +proved dark and damp, and were comparatively +valueless. Hentzner, a German traveller +who visited England in the year 1598, particularly +mentions the stateliness of the building, the assemblage +of different nations, and the quantities of +merchandise.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="wrens" id="wrens"></a> +<img src="images/00b.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />WREN'S PLAN FOR REBUILDING LONDON</span> +</div> + +<p>Many of the shops in the Bourse remained unlet +till Queen Elizabeth's visit, in 1570, which gave +them a lustre that tended to make the new building +fashionable. Gresham, anxious to have the Bourse +worthy of such a visitor, went round twice in one +day to all the shopkeepers in "the upper pawn," +and offered them all the shops they would furnish +and light up with wax rent free for a whole year. +The result of this liberality was that in two years +Gresham was able to raise the rent from 40s. a +year to four marks, and a short time after to +£4 10s. The milliners' shops at the Bourse, in +Gresham's time, sold mousetraps, birdcages, shoeing-horns, +lanthorns, and Jews' trumps. There +were also sellers of armour, apothecaries, booksellers, +goldsmiths, and glass-sellers; but the shops +soon grew richer and more fashionable, so that in +1631 the editor of Stow says, "Unto which place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1017" id="Page_1017">[Pg 1017]</a></span> +on January 23, 1570, Queen Elizabeth came from +Somerset House through Fleet Street past the north +side of the Bourse to Sir Thomas Gresham's house +in Bishopsgate Street, and there dined. After the +banquet she entered the Bourse on the south side, +viewed every part; especially she caused the building, +by herald's trumpet, to be proclaimed 'the +Royal Exchange,' so to be called from henceforth, +and not otherwise."</p> + +<p>Such was the vulgar opinion of Gresham's wealth, +that Thomas Heywood, in his old play, <i>If You +know not Me, You know Nobody</i>, makes Gresham +crush an invaluable pearl into the wine-cup in +which he drinks his queen's health—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here fifteen hundred pounds at one clap goes.<br /> +Instead of sugar, Gresham drinks the pearl<br /> +Unto his queen and mistress. Pledge it, lords!"</div> + +<p>The new Exchange, like the nave of St. Paul's, +soon became a resort for idlers. In the Inquest +Book of Cornhill Ward, 1574 (says Mr. Burgon), +there is a presentment against the Exchange, because +on Sundays and holidays great numbers of boys, +children, and "young rogues," meet there, and shout +and holloa, so that honest citizens cannot quietly +walk there for their recreation, and the parishioners +of St. Bartholomew could not hear the sermon. In +1590 we find certain women prosecuted for selling +apples and oranges at the Exchange gate in Cornhill, +and "amusing themselves in cursing and swearing, +to the great annoyance and grief of the inhabitants +and passers-by." In 1592 a tavern-keeper,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1018" id="Page_1018">[Pg 1018]</a></span> +who had vaults under the Exchange, was fined for +allowing tippling, and for broiling herrings, sprats, +and bacon, to the vexation of worshipful merchants +resorting to the Exchange. In 1602 we find that +oranges and lemons were allowed to be sold at the +gates and passages of the Exchange. In 1622 +complaint was made of the rat-catchers, and sellers +of dogs, birds, plants, &c., who hung about the +south gate of the Bourse, especially at exchange +time. It was also seriously complained of that +the bear-wards, Shakespeare's noisy neighbours in +Southwark, before special bull or bear baitings, +used to parade before the Exchange, generally in +business hours, and there make proclamation of +their entertainments, which caused tumult, and +drew together mobs. It was usual on these occasions +to have a monkey riding on the bear's back, +and several discordant minstrels fiddling, to give +additional publicity to the coming festival.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="theexchange" id="theexchange"></a> +<img src="images/p497.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />PLAN OF THE EXCHANGE IN 1837</span> +</div> + +<p>No person frequenting the Bourse was allowed +to wear any weapon, and in 1579 it was ordered +that no one should walk in the Exchange after ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1019" id="Page_1019">[Pg 1019]</a></span> +p.m. in summer, and nine p.m. in winter. Bishop +Hall, in his Satires (1598), sketching the idlers of +his day, describes "Tattelius, the new-come traveller, +with his disguised coat and new-ringed ear +[Shakespeare wore earrings], tramping the Bourse's +marble twice a day."</p> + +<p>And Hayman, in his "Quodlibet" (1628), has the +following epigram on a "loafer" of the day, whom +he dubs "Sir Pierce Penniless," from Naish's clever +pamphlet, and ranks with the moneyless loungers +of St. Paul's:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +"Though little coin thy purseless pockets line,<br /> +Yet with great company thou'rt taken up;<br /> +For often with Duke Humfray thou dost dine,<br /> +And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup."<br /> +</div> + +<p>Here, too, above all, the monarch of English +poetry must have often paced, watching the Antonios +and Shylocks of his day, the anxious wistful +faces of the debtors or the embarrassed, and the +greedy anger of the creditors. In the Bourse he +may first have thought over to himself the beautiful +lines in the "Merchant of Venice" (act i.), where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1020" id="Page_1020">[Pg 1020]</a></span> +he so wonderfully epitomises the vicissitudes of a +merchant's life:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"My wind, cooling my broth,</span><br /> +Would blow me to an ague, when I thought<br /> +What harm a wind too great might do at sea.<br /> +I should not see the sandy hour-glass run,<br /> +But I should think of shallows and of flats,<br /> +And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,<br /> +Vailing her high top lower than her ribs,<br /> +To kiss her burial. Should I go to church,<br /> +And see the holy edifice of stone,<br /> +And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks?<br /> +Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,<br /> +Would scatter all her spices on the stream;<br /> +Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks;<br /> +And, in a word, but even now worth this,<br /> +And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought<br /> +To think on this; and shall I lack the thought,<br /> +That such a thing, bechanced, would make me sad?"<br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="first" id="first"></a> +<img src="images/p498.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE</span> +</div> + +<p>Gresham seems to have died before the Exchange +was thoroughly furnished, for in 1610 (James I.) +Mr. Nicholas Leete, Ironmonger, preferred a petition +to the Court of Aldermen, lugubriously setting forth +that thirty pictures of English kings and queens +had been intended to have been placed in the +Exchange rooms, and praying that a fine, in future, +should be put on every citizen, when elected an +alderman, to furnish a portrait of some king or +queen at an expense of not exceeding one hundred +nobles. The pictures were "to be graven on wood, +covered with lead, and then gilded and paynted in +oil cullors."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1021" id="Page_1021">[Pg 1021]</a></span></p> + +<p>In Gresham's Exchange great precautions were +taken against fire. Feather-makers and others were +forbidden to keep pans of fire in their shops. Some +care was also taken to maintain honesty among the +shopkeepers, for they were forbidden to use blinds +to their windows, which might obscure the shops, +or throw false lights on the articles vended.</p> + +<p>On the sudden death of Sir Thomas Gresham, +in 1579, it was found that he had left, in accordance +with his promise, the Royal Exchange jointly +to the City of London and the Mercers' Company +after the decease of his wife. Lady Gresham +appears not to have been as generous, single-minded, and +large-hearted as her husband. She +contested the will, and was always repining at the +thought of the property passing away from her at +death. She received £751 7s. per annum from +the rent of the Exchange, but tried hard to be +allowed to grant leases for twenty-one years, or +three lives, keeping the fines to herself; and this +was pronounced by the Council as utterly against +both her husband's will and the 23rd Elizabeth, +to which she had been privy. She complained +querulously that the City did not act well. The +City then began to complain with more justice +of Lady Gresham's parsimony. The Bourse, badly +and hastily built, began to fall out of repair, +gratings by the south door gave way in 1582, and +the clock was always out of order. Considering +Lady Gresham had been left £2,388 a year, these +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1023" id="Page_1023">[Pg 1023]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1022" id="Page_1022">[Pg 1022]</a></span>neglects were unworthy of her, but they nevertheless +continued till her death, in 1596. As the +same lady contributed £100 in 1588 for the +defence of the country against the Armada, let us +hope that she was influenced not so much by her +own love of money as the importunities of some +relatives of her first husband's family.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="second" id="second"></a> +<img src="images/p499.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE, CORNHILL</span> +</div> + +<p>"The Eye of London," as Stow affectionately +calls the first Royal Exchange, rapidly became a +vast bazaar, where fashionable ladies went to shop, +and sometimes to meet their lovers.</p> + +<p>Contemporary allusions to Gresham's Exchange +are innumerable in old writers. Donald Lupton, +in a little work called "London and the Country +Carbonadoed and Quartered into Severall Characters," +published in 1632, says of the Exchange:—"Here +are usually more coaches attendant than +at church doors. The merchants should keep their +wives from visiting the upper rooms too often, lest +they tire their purses by attiring themselves.... +There's many gentlewomen come hither that, to +help their faces and complexion, break their husbands' +backs; who play foul in the country with +their land, to be fair and play false in the city."</p> + +<p>"I do not look upon the structure of this Exchange +to be comparable to that of Sir Thomas +Gresham in our City of London," says Evelyn, +writing from Amsterdam in 1641; "yet in one +respect it exceeds—that ships of considerable +burthen ride at the very key contiguous to it." He +writes from Paris in the same strain: "I went to +the Exchange; the late addition to the buildings is +very noble; but the gallerys, where they sell their +pretty merchandize, are nothing so stately as ours in +London, no more than the place is where they walk +below, being only a low vault." Even the associations +which the Rialto must have awakened +failed to seduce him from his allegiance to the +City of London. He writes from Venice, in June, +1645: "I went to their Exchange—a place like +ours, frequented by merchants, but nothing so magnificent."</p> + +<p>During the Civil War the Exchange statue of +Charles I. was thrown down, on the 30th of May, +1648, and the premature inscription, "Exit tyrannorum +ultimus," put up in its place, which of course +was removed immediately after the Restoration, +when a new statue was ordered. The Acts for +converting the Monarchy into a Commonwealth +were burnt at the Royal Exchange, May 28, 1661, +by the hands of the common hangman.</p> + +<p>Samuel Rolle, a clergyman who wrote on the +Great Fire, has left the following account of this +edifice as it appeared in his day:—"How full of +riches," he exclaims, "was that Royal Exchange!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1024" id="Page_1024">[Pg 1024]</a></span> +Rich men in the midst of it, rich goods both above +and beneath! There men walked upon the top of +a wealthy mine, considering what Eastern treasures, +costly spices, and such-like things were laid up in +the bowels (I mean the cellars) of that place. As +for the upper part of it, was it not the great storehouse +whence the nobility and gentry of England +were furnished with most of those costly things +wherewith they did adorn either their closets or +themselves? Here, if anywhere, might a man have +seen the glory of the world in a moment. What +artificial thing could entertain the senses, the +fantasies of men, that was not there to be had? +Such was the delight that many gallants took in +that magazine of all curious varieties, that they +could almost have dwelt there (going from shop to +shop like bee from flower to flower), if they had +but had a fountain of money that could not have +been drawn dry. I doubt not but a Mohamedan +(who never expects other than sensual delights) +would gladly have availed himself of that place, +and the treasures of it, for his heaven, and have +thought there was none like it."</p> + +<p>In 1665, during the Plague, great fires were made +at the north and south entrances of the Exchange, +to purify the air. The stoppage of public business +was so complete that grass grew within the area of +the Royal Exchange. The strange desertion thus +indicated is mentioned in Pepys' "Notes." Having +visited the Exchange, where he had not been for a +good while, the writer exclaims: "How sad a sight +it is to see the streets empty of people, and very +few upon the 'Change, jealous of every door that +one sees shut up, lest it should be the Plague, and +about us two shops in three, if not more, generally +shut up."</p> + +<p>At the Great Fire the King and the Duke of +York, afterwards James II., attended to give +directions for arresting the calamity. They could +think of nothing calculated to be so effectual as +blowing up or pulling down houses that stood in +its expected way. Such precautions were used in +Cornhill; but in the confusion that prevailed, the +timbers which they had contained were not removed, +and when the flames reached them, "they," says +Vincent, who wrote a sermon on the Fire, "quickly +cross the way, and so they lick the whole street up +as they go; they mount up to the top of the +highest houses; they descend down to the bottom +of the lowest vaults and cellars, and march along +on both sides of the way with such a roaring noise +as never was heard in the City of London: no +stately building so great as to resist their fury; +the Royal Exchange itself, the glory of the merchants, +is now invaded with much violence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1025" id="Page_1025">[Pg 1025]</a></span> +When the fire was entered, how quickly did it run +around the galleries, filling them with flames; then +descending the stairs, compasseth the walks, giving +forth flaming vollies, and filling the court with +sheets of fire. By and by the kings fell all down +upon their faces, and the greater part of the stone +building after them (the founder's statue alone +remaining), with such a noise as was dreadful and +astonishing."</p> + +<p>In Wren's great scheme for rebuilding London, +he proposed to make the Royal Exchange the +centre nave of London, from whence the great +sixty-feet wide streets should radiate like spokes in +a huge wheel. The Exchange was to stand free, +in the middle of a great piazza, and was to have +double porticoes, as the Forum at Rome had. +Evelyn wished the new building to be at Queenhithe, +to be nearer the waterside, but eventually +both his and Wren's plan fell through, and Mr. +Jerman, one of the City surveyors, undertook the +design for the new Bourse.</p> + +<p>For the east end of the new building the City required +to purchase 700 or 800 fresh superficial feet +of ground from a Mr. Sweeting, and 1,400 more for +a passage. It was afterwards found that the City +only required 627 feet, and the improvement of +the property would benefit Mr. Sweeting, who, +however, resolutely demanded £1,000. The refractory, +greedy Sweeting declared that his tenants +paid him £246 a year, and in fines £620; and +that if the new street cut near St. Benet Fink +Church, another £1,000 would not satisfy him for +his damage. It is supposed that he eventually +took £700 for the 783 feet 4 inches of ground, +and for an area 25 feet long by 12 wide.</p> + +<p>Jerman's design for the new building being completed, +and the royal approbation of it obtained, +together with permission to extend the south-west +angle of the new Exchange into the street, the +building (of which the need was severely felt) was +immediately proceeded with; and the foundation +was laid on the 6th of May, 1667. On the 23rd of +October, Charles II. laid the base of the column +on the west side of the north entrance; after which +he was plentifully regaled "with a chine of beef, +grand dish of fowle, gammons of bacon, dried +tongues, anchovies, caviare, &c., and plenty of +several sorts of wine. He gave twenty pounds in +gold to the workmen. The entertainment was in +a shed, built and adorned on purpose, upon the +Scotch Walk." Pepys has given some account of +this interesting ceremony in his Diary, where we +read, "Sir W. Pen and I back to London, and +there saw the King with his kettle-drums and +trumpets, going to the Exchange, which, the gates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1026" id="Page_1026">[Pg 1026]</a></span> +being shut, I could not get in to see. So, with +Sir W. Pen to Captain Cockes, and thence again +towards Westminster; but, in my way, stopped at +the Exchange, and got in, the King being nearly +gone, and there find the bottom of the first pillar +laid. And here was a shed set up, and hung with +tapestry, and a canopy of state, and some good +victuals, and wine for the King, who, it seems, +did it."</p> + +<p>James II., then Duke of York, laid the first +stone of the eastern column on the 31st of October. +He was regaled in the same manner as the King +had been; and on the 18th of November following, +Prince Rupert laid the first stone of the east side +of the south entrance, and was entertained by the +City and company in the same place. (<i>Vide</i> +"Journals of the House of Commons.")</p> + +<p>The ground-plan of Jerman's Exchange, we read +in Britton and Pugin's "Public Buildings," presented +nearly a regular quadrangle, including a +spacious open court with porticoes round it, and +also on the north and south sides of the building. +The front towards Cornhill was 210 feet in extent. +The central part was composed of a lofty archway, +opening from the middle intercolumniation of four +Corinthian three-quarter columns, supporting a +bold entablature, over the centre of which were +the royal arms, and on the east side a balustrade, +&c., surmounted by statues emblematical of the +four quarters of the globe. Within the lateral +intercolumniations, over the lesser entrance to the +arcade, were niches, containing the statues of +Charles I. and II., in Roman habits, by Bushnell. +The tower, which rose from the centre of the +portico, consisted of three storeys. In front of the +lower storey was a niche, containing a statue of Sir +Thomas Gresham; and over the cornice, facing +each of the cardinal points, a bust of Queen +Elizabeth; at the angles were colossal griffins, +bearing shields of the City arms. Within the +second storey, which was of an octagonal form with +trusses at the angles, was an excellent clock with +four dials; there were also four wind-dials. The +upper storey (which contained the bell) was circular, +with eight Corinthian columns supporting an entablature, +surmounted by a dome, on which was a +lofty vane of gilt brass, shaped like a grasshopper, +the crest of the Gresham family. The attic over +the columns, in a line with the basement of the +tower, was sculptured with two alto-relievos, in +panels, one representing Queen Elizabeth, with +attendant figures and heralds, proclaiming the +original building, and the other Britannia, seated +amidst the emblems of commerce, accompanied +by the polite arts, manufactures, and agriculture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1027" id="Page_1027">[Pg 1027]</a></span> +The height from the basement line to the top of +the dome was 128 feet 6 inches.</p> + +<p>Within the quadrangle there was a spacious +area, measuring 144 feet by 117 feet, surrounded +by a wide arcade, which, as well as the area itself, +was, for the general accommodation, arranged into +several distinct parts, called "walks," where foreign +and domestic merchants, and other persons engaged +in commercial pursuits, daily met. The +area was paved with real Turkey stones, of a small +size, the gift, as tradition reports, of a merchant +who traded to that country.</p> + +<p>In the centre, on a pedestal, surrounded by an +iron railing, was a statue of Charles II., in a +Roman habit, by Spiller. At the intersections of +the groining was a large ornamented shield, displaying +either the City arms, the arms of the +Mercers' Company, viz., a maiden's head, crowned, +with dishevelled hair; or those of Gresham, viz., +a chevron, ermine, between three mullets.</p> + +<p>On the centre of each cross-rib, also in alternate +succession, was a maiden's head, a grasshopper, +and a dragon. The piazza was formed by a series +of semi-circular arches, springing from columns. +In the spandrils were tablets surrounded by +festoons, scrolls, and other enrichments. In the +wall of the back of the arcade were twenty-eight +niches, only two of which were occupied by +statues, viz., that toward the north-west, in which +was Sir Thomas Gresham, by Cibber; and that +toward the south-west, in which was Sir John +Barnard, whose figure was placed here, whilst he +was yet living, at the expense of his fellow-citizens, +"in testimony of his merits as a merchant, a +magistrate, and a faithful representative of the City +in Parliament."</p> + +<p>Over the arches of the portico of the piazza were +twenty-five large niches with enrichments, in which +were the statues of our sovereigns. Many of these +statues were formerly gilt, but the whole were +latterly of a plain stone colour. Walpole says that +the major part were sculptured by Cibber.</p> + +<p>We append a few allusions to the second 'Change +in Addison's works, and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>In 1683, the following idle verses appeared, +forming part of Robin Conscience's "Progress +through Court, City, and Country:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Now I being thus abused below,<br /> +Did walk upstairs, where on a row,<br /> +Brave shops of ware did make a shew<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Most sumptious.</span><br /> +<br /> +"The gallant girls that there sold knacks,<br /> +Which ladies and brave women lacks,<br /> +When they did see me, they did wax<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">In choler.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1028" id="Page_1028">[Pg 1028]</a></span><br /> +"Quoth they, We ne'er knew Conscience yet,<br /> +And, if he comes our gains to get,<br /> +We'll banish him; he'll here not get<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">One scholar."</span></div> + +<p>"There is no place in the town," says that +rambling philosopher, Addison, "which I so much +love to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives +me a secret satisfaction, and in some measure +gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to see +so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners +consulting together upon the private business of +mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of +emporium for the whole earth. I must confess I +look upon High 'Change to be a great council in +which all considerable nations have their representatives. +Factors in the trading world are what +ambassadors are in the politic world; they negociate +affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good +correspondence between those wealthy societies of +men that are divided from one another by seas and +oceans, or live on the different extremities of a +continent. I have often been pleased to hear disputes +adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and +an alderman of London; or to see a subject of the +great Mogul entering into a league with one of the +Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in +mixing with these several ministers of commerce, as +they are distinguished by their different walks and +different languages. Sometimes I am jostled +among a body of Armenians; sometimes I am +lost in a crowd of Jews; and sometimes make one +in a group of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or +Frenchman at different times; or rather, fancy +myself like the old philosopher, who, upon being +asked what countryman he was, replied that he +was a citizen of the world."</p> + +<p>"When I have been upon the 'Change" (such +are the concluding words of the paper), "I have +often fancied one of our old kings standing in person +where he is represented in effigy, and looking down +upon the wealthy concourse of people with which +that place is every day filled. In this case, how +would he be surprised to hear all the languages of +Europe spoken in this little spot of his former +dominions, and to see so many private men, who +in his time would have been the vassals of some +powerful baron, negotiating, like princes, for greater +sums of money than were formerly to be met with +in the royal treasury! Trade, without enlarging +the British territories, has given us a kind of additional +empire. It has multiplied the number of +the rich, made our landed estates infinitely more +valuable than they were formerly, and added to +them an accession of other estates as valuable as +the land themselves." (<i>Spectator</i>, No. 69.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1029" id="Page_1029">[Pg 1029]</a></span></p> + +<p>It appears, from one of Steele's contributions to +the <i>Spectator</i>, that so late as the year 1712 the +shops continued to present undiminished attraction. +They were then 160 in number, and, letting at £20 +or £30 each, formed, in all, a yearly rent of +£4,000: so, at least, it is stated on a print +published in 1712, of which a copy may be seen in +Mr. Crowle's "Pennant." Steele, in describing the +adventures of a day, relates that, in the course of +his rambles, he went to divert himself on 'Change. +"It was not the least of my satisfaction in my +survey," says he, "to go upstairs and pass the +shops of agreeable females; to observe so many +pretty hands busy in the folding of ribbons, and +the utmost eagerness of agreeable faces in the sale +of patches, pins, and wires, on each side of the +counters, was an amusement in which I could +longer have indulged myself, had not the dear +creatures called to me, to ask what I wanted."</p> + +<p>"On evening 'Change," says Steele, "the mumpers, +the halt, the blind, and the lame; your vendors of +trash, apples, plums; your ragamuffins, rake-shames, +and wenches—have jostled the greater number of +honourable merchants, substantial tradesmen, and +knowing masters of ships, out of that place. So +that, what with the din of squallings, oaths, and +cries of beggars, men of the greatest consequence +in our City absent themselves from the Royal +Exchange."</p> + +<p>The cost of the second Exchange to the City +and Mercers' Company is estimated by Strype at +£80,000, but Mr. Burgon calculates it at only +£69,979 11s. The shops in the Exchange, leading +to a loss, were forsaken about 1739, and eventually +done away with some time after by the unwise Act +of 1768, which enabled the City authorities to pull +down Gresham College. From time to time frequent +repairs were made in Jerman's building. +Those effected between the years 1819 and 1824 +cost £34,390. This sum included the cost of a +handsome gate tower and cupola, erected in 1821,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1030" id="Page_1030">[Pg 1030]</a></span> +from the design of George Smith, Esq., surveyor +to the Mercers' Company, in lieu of Jerman's +dilapidated wooden tower.</p> + +<p>The clock of the second Exchange, set up by +Edward Stanton, under the direction of Dr. Hooke, +had chimes with four bells, playing six, and latterly +seven tunes. The sound and tunable bells were +bought for £6 5s. per cwt. The balconies from +the inner pawn into the quadrangle cost about +£300. The signs over the shops were not hung, +but were over the doors.</p> + +<p>Caius Gabriel Cibber, the celebrated Danish +sculptor, was appointed carver of the royal statues +of the piazza, but Gibbons executed the statue of +Charles II. for the quadrangle. Bushnell, the mad +sculptor of the fantastic statues on Temple Bar, +carved statues for the Cornhill front, as we have +before mentioned. The statue of Gresham in the +arcade was by Cibber; George III., in the piazza, +was sculptured by Wilton; George I. and II. were +by Rysbrach.</p> + +<p>The old clock had four dials, and chimed four +times daily. The chimes played at three, six, +nine, and twelve o'clock—on Sunday, "The 104th +Psalm;" Monday, "God save the King;" Tuesday, +"The Waterloo March;" Wednesday, "There's +nae Luck aboot the Hoose;" Thursday, "See the +Conquering Hero comes;" Friday, "Life let us +cherish;" Saturday, "Foot Guards' March."</p> + +<p>The outside shops of the second Exchange were +lottery offices, newspaper offices, watchmakers, +notaries, stockbrokers, &c. The shops in the +galleries were superseded by the Royal Exchange +Assurance Offices, Lloyd's Coffee-house, the Merchant +Seamen's Offices, the Gresham Lecture +Room, and the Lord Mayor's Court Office. "The +latter," says Timbs, "was a row of offices, divided +by glazed partitions, the name of each attorney +being inscribed in large capitals upon a projecting +board. The vaults were let to bankers, and to the +East India Company for the stowage of pepper."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1031" id="Page_1031">[Pg 1031]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Second Exchange on Fire—Chimes Extraordinary—Incidents of the Fire—Sale of Salvage—Designs for the New Building—Details of the +Present Exchange—The Ambulatory, or Merchants' Walk—Royal Exchange Assurance Company—"Lloyd's"—Origin of "Lloyd's"—Marine +Assurance—Benevolent Contributions of "Lloyd's"—A "Good" and "Bad" Book.</p></div> + + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="the" id="the"></a> +<img src="images/p504.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE PRESENT ROYAL EXCHANGE</span> +</div> + +<p>The second Exchange was destroyed by fire on the +10th of January, 1838. The flames, which broke +out probably from an over-heated stove in Lloyd's +Coffee-house, were first seen by two of the Bank +watchmen about half-past ten. The gates had to +be forced before entrance could be effected, and +then the hose of the fire-engine was found to be +frozen and unworkable. About one o'clock the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1032" id="Page_1032">[Pg 1032]</a></span> +fire reached the new tower. The bells chimed +"Life let us cherish," "God save the Queen," and +one of the last tunes heard, appropriately enough, +was "There's nae Luck aboot the Hoose." The +eight bells finally fell, crushing in the roof of the +entrance arch. The east side of Sweeting's Alley +was destroyed, and all the royal statues but that +of Charles II. perished. One of Lloyd's safes, +containing bank-notes for £2,500, was discovered +after the fire, with the notes reduced to a cinder, +but the numbers still traceable. A bag of twenty +sovereigns, thrown from a window, burst, and +some of the mob benefited by the gold. The statue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1033" id="Page_1033">[Pg 1033]</a></span> +of Gresham was entirely destroyed. In the ruins +of the Lord Mayor's Court Office the great City +Seal, and two bags, each containing £200 in gold, +were found uninjured. The flames were clearly +seen at Windsor (twenty-four miles from London), +and at Roydon Mount, near Epping (eighteen +miles). Troops from the Tower kept Cornhill +clear, and assisted the sufferers to remove their +property. If the wind had been from the south, +the Bank and St. Bartholomew's Church would also +have perished.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="blackwell" id="blackwell"></a> +<img src="images/p505.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />BLACKWELL HALL IN 1812</span> +</div> + +<p>An Act of Parliament was passed in 1838, giving +power to purchase and remove all the buildings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1034" id="Page_1034">[Pg 1034]</a></span> +(called Bank Buildings) west of the Exchange, and +also the old buildings to the eastward, nearly as +far as Finch Lane. The Treasury at first claimed +the direction of the whole building, but eventually +gave way, retaining only a veto on the design. The +cost of the building was, from the first, limited to +£150,000, to be raised on the credit of the London +Bridge Fund. Thirty designs were sent in by the +rival architects, and exhibited in Mercers' Hall, +but none could be decided upon; and so the judges +themselves had to compete. Eventually the competition +lay between Mr. Tite and Mr. Cockerell, +and the former was appointed by the Committee. +Mr. Tite was a classical man, and the result was a +<i>quasi</i>-Greek, Roman, and Composite building. Mr. +Tite at once resolved to design the new building +with simple and unbroken lines, like the Paris +Bourse, and, as much as possible, to take the Pantheon +at Rome as his guide. The portico was to +be at the west end, the tower at the east. The +first Exchange had been built on piles; the foundations +of the third cost £8,124. In excavating for +it, the workmen came on what had evidently been +the very centre of Roman London. In a gravel-pit, +which afterwards seemed to have been a pond<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1035" id="Page_1035">[Pg 1035]</a></span> +(perhaps the fountain of a grand Roman courtyard), +were found heaps of rubbish, coins of copper, yellow +brass, silver, and silver-plated brass, of Augustus, +Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, &c., +Henry IV. of England, Elizabeth, &c., and stores +of Flemish, German, Prussian, Danish, and Dutch +money. They also discovered fragments of Roman +stucco, painted shards of delicate Samian ware, an +amphora and terra-cotta lamps (seventeen feet +below the surface), glass, bricks and tiles, jars, urns, +vases, and potters' stamps. In the Corporation +Museum at the Guildhall, where Mr. Tite deposited +these interesting relics, are also fine wood tablets, +and styles (for writing on wax) of iron, brass, bone, +and wood. There are also in the same collection, +from the same source, artificers' tools and leather-work, +soldiers' sandals and shoes, and a series of +horns, shells, bones, and vegetable remains. Tesselated +pavements have been found in Threadneedle +Street, and other spots near the Exchange.</p> + +<p>The cost of enlarging the site of the Exchange, +including improvements, and the widening of Cornhill, +Freeman's Court, and Broad Street, the removal +of the French Protestant Church, and demolition +of St. Benet Fink, Bank Buildings, and Sweeting's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1036" id="Page_1036">[Pg 1036]</a></span> +Alley, was, according to the City Chamberlain's +return of 1851, £223,578 1s. 10d. The cost of +the building was £150,000.</p> + +<p>The portico, one of the finest of its kind, is ninety-six +feet wide, and seventy-four feet high. That of +St. Martin's Church is only sixty-four wide, and the +Post Office seventy-six. The whole building was +rapidly completed. The foundation-stone was laid +by Prince Albert, January 17th, 1842, John Pirie, +Esq., being Lord Mayor. A huge red-striped +pavilion had been raised for the ceremonial, and the +Duke of Wellington and all the members of the +Peel Cabinet were present. A bottle full of gold, +silver, and copper coins was placed in a hollow +of the huge stone, and the following inscription +(in Latin), written by the Bishop of London, and +engraved on a zinc plate:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Sir Thomas Gresham</span>, Knight,<br /> +Erected at his own charge<br /> +A Building and Colonnade<br /> +For the convenience of those Persons<br /> +Who, in this renowned Mart,<br /> +Might carry on the Commerce of the World;<br /> +Adding thereto, for the relief of Indigence,<br /> +And for the advancement of Literature and Science,<br /> +An Almshouse and a College of Lecturers;<br /> +The City of London aiding him;<br /> +Queen Elizabeth favouring the design,<br /> +And, when the work was complete,<br /> +Opening it in person, with a solemn Procession.<br /> +Having been reduced to ashes,<br /> +Together with almost the entire City,<br /> +By a calamitous and widely-spreading Conflagration,<br /> +They were Rebuilt in a more splendid form<br /> +By the City of London<br /> +And the ancient Company of Mercers,<br /> +King Charles the Second commencing the building<br /> +On the 23rd October, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1667;<br /> +And when they had been again destroyed by Fire,<br /> +On the 10th January, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1838,<br /> +The same Bodies, undertaking the work,<br /> +Determined to restore them, at their own cost,<br /> +On an enlarged and more ornamental Plan,<br /> +The munificence of Parliament providing the means<br /> +Of extending the Site,<br /> +And of widening the Approaches and Crooked Streets<br /> +In every direction,<br /> +In order that there might at length arise,<br /> +Under the auspices of Queen Victoria,<br /> +Built a third time from the ground,<br /> +An Exchange<br /> +Worthy of this great Nation and City,<br /> +And suited to the vastness of a Commerce<br /> +Extended to the circumference<br /> +Of the habitable Globe.<br /> +His Royal Highness<br /> +Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,<br /> +Consort of Her Sacred Majesty,<br /> +Laid the First Stone<br /> +On the 17th January, 1842,<br /> +In the Mayoralty of the Right Hon. John Pirie.<br /> +Architect, William Tite, F.R.S.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1037" id="Page_1037">[Pg 1037]</a></span>May God our Preserver<br /> +Ward off destruction<br /> +From this Building,<br /> +And from the whole City.</div> + +<p>At the sale of the salvage, the porter's large +hand-bell, rung daily before closing the 'Change +(with the handle burnt), fetched £3 3s.; City +griffins, £30 and £35 the pair; busts of Queen +Elizabeth, £10 15s. and £18 the pair; figures of +Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, £110; the +statue of Anne, £10 5s.; George II., £9 5s.; +George III. and Elizabeth, £11 15s. each; +Charles II., £9; and the sixteen other royal +statues similar sums. The copper-gilt grasshopper +vane was reserved.</p> + +<p>The present Royal Exchange was opened by +Queen Victoria on October 28, 1844. The procession +walked round the ambulatory, the Queen +especially admiring Lang's (of Munich) encaustic +paintings, and proceeded to Lloyd's Reading-room, +which was fitted up as a throne-room. Prince +Albert, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, +Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Sale, and other celebrities, +were present. There the City address was +read. After a sumptuous <i>déjeuner</i> in the Underwriters' +room, the Queen went to the quadrangle, +and there repeated the formula, "It is my royal will +and pleasure that this building be hereafter called +'The Royal Exchange.'" The mayor, the Right +Hon. William Magnay, was afterwards made a +baronet, in commemoration of the day.</p> + +<p>A curious fact connected with the second +Exchange should not be omitted. On the 16th +of September, 1787, a deserted child was found +on the stone steps of the Royal Exchange that led +from Cornhill to Lloyd's Coffee-house. The then +churchwarden, Mr. Samuel Birch, the well-known +confectioner, had the child taken care of and +respectably brought up. He was named Gresham, +and christened Michael, after the patron saint of +the parish in which he was found. The lad grew +up shrewd and industrious, eventually became rich, +and established the celebrated Gresham Hotel in +Sackville Street, Dublin. About 1836 he sold the +hotel for £30,000, and retired to his estate, Raheny +Park, near Dublin. He was a most liberal and +benevolent man, and took an especial interest in +the Irish orphan societies.</p> + +<p>The tower at the east end of the Exchange is +177 feet to the top of the vane. The inner area +of the building is 170 feet by 112, of which 111 +feet by 53 are open to the sky.</p> + +<p>The south front is one unbroken line of pilasters, +with rusticated arches on the ground floor for shops +and entrances, the three middle spaces being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1038" id="Page_1038">[Pg 1038]</a></span> +simple recesses. Over these are richly-decorated +windows, and above the cornice there are a balustrade +and attic. On the north side the centre +projects, and the pilasters are fewer. The arches +on the ground floor are rusticated, and there are +two niches. In one of them stands a statue of +Sir Hugh Myddelton, who brought the New River +to London in 1614; and another of Sir Richard +Whittington, by Carew. Whittington was, it must +be remembered, a Mercer, and the Exchange is +specially connected with the Mercers' Company.</p> + +<p>On the east front of the tower is a niche where +a statue of Gresham, by Behnes, keeps watch and +ward. The vane is Gresham's former grasshopper, +saved from the fire. It is eleven feet long. The +various parts of the Exchange are divided by party +walls and brick arches of such great strength as to +be almost fire-proof—a compartment system which +confines any fire that should break out into a small +and restricted area.</p> + +<p>West of the Exchange stands Chantrey's bronze +equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. It +was Chantrey's last work; and he died before it +was completed. The sculptor received £9,000 +for this figure; and the French cannon from which +it was cast, and valued at £1,500, were given by +Government for the purpose. The inauguration +took place on the anniversary of the battle of +Waterloo, 1844, the King of Saxony being present.</p> + +<p>On the frieze of the portico is inscribed, <span class="smcap">"Anno +XIII. Elizabethæ R. Conditvm; Anno VIII. +Victoria R. Restavratvm."</span> Over the central +doorway are the royal arms, by Carew. The keystone +has the merchant's mark of Gresham, and +the keystones of the side arches the arms of the +merchant adventurers of his day, and the staple of +Calais. North and south of the portico, and in +the attic, are the City sword and mace, with the +date of Queen Elizabeth's reign and 1844, and in +the lower panels mantles bearing the initials of +Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria respectively. +The imperial crown is twelve inches in relief, and +seven feet high. The tympanum of the pediment +of the portico is filled with sculpture, by Richard +Westmacott, R.A., consisting of seventeen figures +carved in limestone, nearly all entire and detached. +The centre figure, ten feet high, is Commerce, +with her mural crown, upon two dolphins and a +shell. She holds the charter of the Exchange. On +her right is a group of three British merchants—as +Lord Mayor, Alderman, and Common Councilman—a +Hindoo, a Mohammedan, a Greek bearing +a jar, and a Turkish merchant. On the left are +two British merchants and a Persian, a Chinese, a +Levant sailor, a negro, a British sailor, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1039" id="Page_1039">[Pg 1039]</a></span> +supercargo. The opposite angles are filled with +anchors, jars, packages, &c. Upon the pedestal +of Commerce is this inscription, selected by Prince +Albert: <span class="smcap">"The Earth is the Lord's, and the +fulness thereof."</span>—Psalm xxiv. I. The ascent +to the portico is by thirteen granite steps. It +was discussed at the time whether a figure of +Gresham himself should not have been substituted +for that of Commerce; but perhaps the abstract +figure is more suitable for a composition which is, +after all, essentially allegorical.</p> + +<p>The clock, constructed by Dent, with the +assistance of the Astronomer Royal, is true to a +second of time, and has a compensation pendulum. +The chimes consist of a set of fifteen bells, by +Mears, and cost £500, the largest being also the +hour-bell of the clock. In the chime-work, by +Dent, there are two hammers to several of the +bells, so as to play rapid passages; and three and +five hammers strike different bells simultaneously. +All irregularity of force is avoided by driving the +chime-barrel through wheels and pinions. There +are no wheels between the weight that pulls +and the hammer to be raised. The lifts on the +chime-barrel are all epicycloidal curves; and there +are 6,000 holes pierced upon the barrel for the +lifts, so as to allow the tunes to be varied. The +present airs are "God save the Queen," "The +Roast Beef of Old England," "Rule Britannia," +and the 104th Psalm. The bells, in substance, +form, dimensions, &c., are from the Bow bells' +patterns; still, they are thought to be too large +for the tower. The chime-work is stated to be the +first instance in England of producing harmony in +bells.</p> + +<p>The interior of the Exchange is an open courtyard, +resembling the <i>cortile</i> of Italian palaces. It +was almost unanimously decided by the London +merchants (in spite of the caprices of our charming +climate) to have no covering overhead, a decision +probably long ago regretted. The ground floor +consists of Doric columns and rusticated arches. +Above these runs a series of Ionic columns, with +arches and windows surmounted by a highly-ornamented +pierced parapet. The keystones of the +arches of the upper storey are decorated with the +arms of all the principal nations of the world, in +the order determined by the Congress of Vienna. +In the centre of the eastern side are the arms of +England.</p> + +<p>The ambulatory, or Merchants' Walk, is spacious +and well sheltered. The arching is divided by +beams and panelling, highly painted and decorated +in encaustic. In the centre of each panel, on the +four sides, the arms of the nations are repeated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1040" id="Page_1040">[Pg 1040]</a></span> +emblazoned in their proper colours; and in the +four angles are the arms of Edward the Confessor, +who granted the first and most important charter +to the City, Edward III., in whose reign London +first grew powerful and wealthy, Queen Elizabeth, +who opened the first Exchange, and Charles II., +in whose reign the second was built. In the +south-east angle is a statue of Queen Elizabeth, +by Watson, and in the south-west a marble statue +of Charles II., which formerly stood in the centre +of the second Exchange, and which escaped the +last fire unscathed.</p> + +<p>In eight small circular panels of the ambulatory +are emblazoned the arms of the three mayors +(Pirie, Humphrey, and Magnay), and of the three +masters of the Mercers' Company in whose years +of office the Exchange was erected. The arms +of the chairman of the Gresham Committee, Mr. +R.L. Jones, and of the architect, Mr. Tite, +complete the heraldic illustrations. The Yorkshire +pavement of the ambulatory is panelled and +bordered with black stone, and squares of red +granite at the intersections. The open area is +paved with the traditional "Turkey stones," from +the old Exchange, which are arranged in Roman +patterns, with squares of red Aberdeen granite at +the intersections.</p> + +<p>On the side-wall panels are the names of the +walks, inscribed upon chocolate tablets. In each +of the larger compartments are the arms of the +"walk," corresponding with the merchants'. As +you enter the colonnade by the west are the arms +of the British Empire, with those of Austria on +the right, and Bavaria on the reverse side; then, +in rotation, are the arms of Belgium, France, +Hanover, Holland, Prussia, Sardinia, the Two +Sicilies, Sweden and Norway, the United States +of America, the initials of the Sultan of Turkey, +Spain, Saxony, Russia, Portugal, Hanseatic Towns, +Greece, and Denmark. On a marble panel in the +Merchants' Area are inscribed the dates of the +building and opening of the three Exchanges.</p> + +<p>"Here are the same old-favoured spots, changed +though they be in appearance," says the author +of the "City" (1845); "and notwithstanding we +have lost the great Rothschild, Jeremiah Harman, +Daniel Hardcastle, the younger Rothschilds occupy +a pillar on the south side of the Exchange, much +in the same place as their father; and the Barings, +the Bateses, the Salomons, the Doxats, the Durrants, +the Crawshays, the Curries, and the Wilsons, and +other influential merchants, still come and go as in +olden days. Many sea-captains and brokers still +go on 'Change; but the 'walks' are disregarded. +The hour at High 'Change is from 3.30 to 4.30<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1041" id="Page_1041">[Pg 1041]</a></span> +p.m., the two great days being Tuesday and +Friday for foreign exchanges."</p> + +<p>A City writer of 1842 has sketched the chief +celebrities of the Exchange of an earlier date. +Mr. Salomon, with his old clothes-man attire, his +close-cut grey beard, and his crutch-stick, toddling +towards his offices in Shooter's Court, Throgmorton +Street; Jemmy Wilkinson, with his old-fashioned +manner, and his long-tailed blue coat with gilt +buttons.</p> + +<p>On the south and east sides of the Exchange are +the arms of Gresham, the City, and the Mercers' +Company, for heraldry has not even yet died out. +Over the three centre arches of the north front +are the three following mottoes:—Gresham's (in +old French), "Fortun—à my;" the City, "Domine +dirige nos;" the Mercers', "Honor Deo."</p> + +<p>Surely old heraldry was more religious than +modern trade, for the shoddy maker, or the owner +of overladen vessels, could hardly inscribe their +vessels or their wares with the motto "Honor +Deo;" nor could the director of a bubble company +with strict propriety head the columns of +his ledger with the solemn words, "Domine dirige +nos." But these are cynical thoughts, for no doubt +trade ranks as many generous, honourable, and +pious people among its followers as any other +profession; and we have surely every reason to +hope that the moral standard is still rising, and +that "the honour of an Englishman" will for ever +remain a proverb in the East.</p> + +<p>The whole of the west end of the Exchange is +taken up by the offices and board-rooms of the +Royal Exchange Assurance Company, first organised +in 1717, at meetings in Mercers' Hall. It +was an amalgamation of two separate plans. The +petition for the royal sanction made, it seems, but +slow way through the Council and the Attorney-General's +department, for the South Sea Bubble +mania was raging, and many of the Ministers, +including the Attorney-General himself (and who +was indeed afterwards prosecuted), had shares in +the great bubble scheme, and wished as far as +possible to secure for it the exclusive attention of +the company. The petitioners, therefore (under +high legal authority), at once commenced business +under the temporary title of the Mining, Royal +Mineral, and Batteries Works, and in three-quarters +of a year insured property to the amount of nearly +two millions sterling. After the lapse of two +years, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, eager for +the money to be paid for the charter, and a select +committee having made a rigid inquiry into the +project, and the cash lodged at the Bank to meet +losses, recommended the grant to the House of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1042" id="Page_1042">[Pg 1042]</a></span> +Commons. The Act of the 6th George I., cap. 18, +authorised the king to grant a charter, which was +accordingly done, June 22nd, 1720. The "London +Assurance," which is also lodged in the Exchange, +obtained its charter at the same time. Each of +these companies paid £300,000 to the Exchequer. +They were both allowed to assure on ships at sea, +and going to sea, and to lend money on bottomry; +and each was to have "perpetual succession" and a +common seal. To prevent a monopoly, however, +no person holding stock in either of the companies +was allowed to purchase stock in the other. In +1721, the "Royal Exchange Assurance" obtained +another charter for assurances on lives, and also of +houses and goods from fire. In consequence of +the depression of the times, the company was +released from the payment of £150,000 of the +£300,000 originally demanded by Government.</p> + +<p>At the close of the last, and commencement of +the present century, the monopolies of the two companies +in marine assurance were sharply assailed. +Their enemies at last, however, agreed to an armistice, +on their surrendering their special privileges, +which (in spite of Earl Grey's exertions) were at +last annulled, and any joint-stock company can +now effect marine assurances. The loss of the +monopoly did not, however, injure either excellent +body of underwriters.</p> + +<p>"Lloyd's," at the east end of the north side of +the Royal Exchange, contains some magnificent +apartments, and the steps of the staircase leading +to them are of Craigleath stone, fourteen feet wide. +The subscribers' room (for underwriting) is 100 +feet long, by 48 feet wide, and runs from north +to south, on the east side of the Merchants' Quadrangle. +This noble chamber has a library attached +to it, with a gallery round for maps and charts, +which many a shipowner, sick at heart, with fears +for his rich argosy, has conned and traced. The +captains' room, the board-room, and the clerks' +offices, occupy the eastern end; and along the +north front is the great commercial room, 80 feet +long, a sort of club-room for strangers and foreign +merchants visiting London. The rooms are lit +from the ceilings, and also from windows opening +into the quadrangle. They are all highly decorated, +well warmed and ventilated, and worthy, as Mr. +Effingham Wilson, in his book on the Exchange, +justly observes, of a great commercial city like +London.</p> + +<p>The system of marine assurance seems to have +been of great antiquity, and probably began with +the Italian merchants in Lombard Street. The +first mention of marine insurance in England, says +an excellent author, Mr. Burgon, in his "Life of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1043" id="Page_1043">[Pg 1043]</a></span> +Gresham," is in a letter from the Protector Somerset +to the Lord Admiral, in 1548 (Edward VI.), still +preserved. Gresham, writing from Antwerp to Sir +Thomas Parry, in May, 1560 (Elizabeth), speaks +of armour, ordered by Queen Elizabeth, bought +by him at Antwerp, and sent by him to Hamburg +for shipment (though only about twelve ships a +year came from thence to London). He had also +adventured at his own risk, one thousand pounds' +worth in a ship which, as he says, "I have caused +to be assured upon the Burse at Antwerp."</p> + +<p>The following preamble to the Statute, 43rd +Elizabeth, proves that marine assurance was even +then an old institution in England:—</p> + +<p>"Whereas it has been, time out of mind, an +usage among merchants, both of this realm and of +foreign nations, when they make any great adventures +(specially to remote parts), to give some +considerable money to other persons (which commonly +are no small number) to have from them +assurance made of their goods, merchandize, ships, +and things adventured, or some part thereof, at +such rates, and in such sorts as the parties assurers +and the parties assured can agree, which course of +dealing is commonly termed a policy of assurance, +by means of which it cometh to pass upon the +loss or perishing of any ship, there followeth not +the undoing of any man, but the loss lighteth +rather easily upon many, than heavy upon few; +and rather upon them that adventure not, than +upon them that adventure; whereby all merchants, +specially the younger sort, are allowed to venture +more willingly and more freely."</p> + +<p>In 1622, Malynes, in his "Lex Mercatoria," says +that all policies of insurance at Antwerp, and other +places in the Low Countries, then and formerly +always made, mention that it should be in all things +concerning the said assurances, as it was accustomed +to be done in Lombard Street, London.</p> + +<p>In 1627 (Charles I.), the marine assurers had +rooms in the Royal Exchange, as appears by a law +passed in that year, "for the sole making and +registering of all manners of assurances, intimations, +and renunciations made upon any ship or +ships, goods or merchandise in the Royal Exchange, +or any other place within the City of +London;" and the Rev. Samuel Rolle, in his +"CX. Discourses on the Fire of London," mentions +an assurance office in the Royal Exchange, "which +undertook for those ships and goods that were +hazarded at sea, either by boistrous winds, or +dangerous enemies, yet could not secure itself, +when sin, like Samson, took hold of the pillars of +it, and went about to pull it down."</p> + +<p>After the Fire of London the underwriters met<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1044" id="Page_1044">[Pg 1044]</a></span> +in a room near Cornhill; and from thence they +removed to a coffee-house in Lombard Street, kept +by a person named Lloyd, where intelligence of +vessels was collected and made public. In a +copy of <i>Lloyd's List</i>, No. 996, still extant, dated +Friday, June 7th, 1745, and quoted by Mr. Effingham +Wilson, it is stated: "This List, which was +formerly published once a week, will now continue +to be published every Tuesday and Friday, with +the addition of the Stocks, course of Exchange, &c. +Subscriptions are taken in at three shillings per +quarter, at the bar of Lloyd's coffee-house in Lombard +Street." <i>Lloyd's List</i> must therefore have +begun about 1726.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="lloyds" id="lloyds"></a> +<img src="images/p510.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF LLOYD'S</span> +</div> + +<p>In the <i>Tatler</i> of December 26th, 1710, is the +following:—"This coffee-house being provided with +a pulpit, for the benefit of such auctions that are +frequently made in this place, it is our custom, +upon the first coming in of the news, to order a +youth, who officiates as the Kidney of the coffee-house, +to get into the pulpit, and read every paper, +with a loud and distinct voice, while the whole +audience are sipping their respective liquors."</p> + +<p>The following note is curious:—"11th March,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1045" id="Page_1045">[Pg 1045]</a></span> +1740.—Mr. Baker, master of Lloyd's Coffee-house, +in Lombard Street, waited on Sir Robert Walpole +with the news of Admiral Vernon's taking Portobello. +This was the first account received thereof, +and, proving true, Sir Robert was pleased to order +him a handsome present." (<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, +March, 1740.)</p> + +<p>The author of "The City" (1845) says: "The +affairs of Lloyd's are now managed by a committee +of underwriters, who have a secretary and five or +six clerks, besides a number of writers to attend +upon the rooms. The rooms, three in number, are +called respectively the Subscribers' Room, the Merchants' +Room, and the Captains' Room, each of +which is frequented by various classes of persons +connected with shipping and mercantile life. Since +the opening of the Merchants' Room, which event +took place when business was re-commenced at the +Royal Exchange, at the beginning of this year, an +increase has occurred in the number of visitors, and +in which numbers the subscribers to Lloyd's are +estimated at 1,600 individuals.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="subscription" id="subscription"></a> +<img src="images/p511.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE SUBSCRIPTION-ROOM AT "LLOYD'S." <i>From an Old Print.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>"Taking the three rooms in the order they stand, +under the rules and regulations of the establishment, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1047" id="Page_1047">[Pg 1047]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1046" id="Page_1046">[Pg 1046]</a></span>we shall first describe the business and appearance +of the Subscribers' Room. Members to the Subscribers' +Room, if they follow the business of underwriter +or insurance broker, pay an entrance fee of +twenty-five guineas, and an annual subscription of +four guineas. If a person is a subscriber only, +without practising the craft of underwriting, the +payment is limited to the annual subscription fee +of four guineas. The Subscribers' Room numbers +about 1,000 or 1,100 members, the great majority +of whom follow the business of underwriters and +insurance brokers. The most scrupulous attention +is paid to the admission of members, and the ballot +is put into requisition to determine all matters +brought before the committee, or the meeting of the +house.</p> + +<p>"The Underwriters' Room, as at present existing, +is a fine spacious room, having seats to accommodate +the subscribers and their friends, with drawers +and boxes for their books, and an abundant supply +of blotting and plain paper, and pens and ink. +The underwriters usually fix their seats in one +place, and, like the brokers on the Stock Exchange, +have their particular as well as casual customers.</p> + +<p>"'Lloyd's Books,'" which are two enormous +ledger-looking volumes, elevated on desks at the +right and left of the entrance to the room, give the +principal arrivals, extracted from the lists so received +at the chief outposts, English and foreign, and of +all losses by wreck or fire, or other accidents at sea, +written in a fine Roman hand, sufficiently legible +that 'he who runs may read.' Losses or accidents, +which, in the technicality of the room, are denominated +'double lines,' are almost the first read by +the subscribers, who get to the books as fast as +possible, immediately the doors are opened for +business.</p> + +<p>"All these rooms are thrown open to the public +as the 'Change clock strikes ten, when there is an +immediate rush to all parts of the establishment, +the object of many of the subscribers being to seize +their favourite newspaper, and of others to ascertain +the fate of their speculation, as revealed in the +double lines before mentioned."</p> + +<p>Not only has Lloyd's—a mere body of +merchants—without Government interference or +patronage, done much to give stability to our commerce, +but it has distinguished itself at critical +times by the most princely generosity and benevolence. +In the great French war, when we were +pushed so hard by the genius of Napoleon, which +we had unwisely provoked, Lloyd's opened a subscription +for the relief of soldiers' widows and +orphans, and commenced an appeal to the general +public by the gift of £20,000 Three per Cent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1048" id="Page_1048">[Pg 1048]</a></span> +Consols. In three months only the sum subscribed +at Lloyd's amounted to more than £70,000. In +1809 they gave £5,000 more, and in 1813 +£10,000. This was the commencement of the +Patriotic Fund, placed under three trustees, Sir +Francis Baring, Bart., John Julius Angerstein, Esq., +and Thomson Bonar, Esq., and the subscriptions +soon amounted to more than £700,000. In other +charities Lloyd's were equally munificent. They +gave £5,000 to the London Hospital, for the +admission of London merchant-seamen; £1,000 +for suffering inhabitants of Russia, in 1813; £1,000 +for the relief of the North American Militia (1813); +£10,000 to the Waterloo subscription of 1815; +£2,000 for the establishment of lifeboats on the +English coast. They also instituted rewards for +those brave men who save, or attempt to save, life +from shipwreck, and to those who do not require +money a medal is given. This medal was executed +by W. Wyon, Esq., R.A. The subject of the +obverse is the sea-nymph Leucothea appearing to +Ulysses on the raft; the moment of the subject +chosen is found in the following lines:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"This heavenly scarf beneath thy bosom bind,<br /> +And live; give all thy terrors to the wind."</div> + +<p>The reverse is from a medal of the time of +Augustus—a crown of fretted oak-leaves, the +reward given by the Romans to him who saved the +life of a citizen; and the motto, "Ob cives servatos." +By the system upon which business is conducted +in Lloyd's, information is given to the insurers and +the insured; there are registers of almost every +ship which floats upon the ocean, the places where +they were built, the materials and description of +timber used in their construction, their age, state +of repair, and general character. An index is kept, +showing the voyages in which they have been and +are engaged, so that merchants may know the +vessel in which they entrust their property, and +assurers may ascertain the nature and value of the +risk they undertake. Agents are appointed for +Lloyd's in almost every seaport in the globe, who +send information of arrivals, casualties, and other +matters interesting to merchants, shipowners, and +underwriters, which information is published daily +in <i>Lloyd's List</i>, and transmitted to all parts of the +world. The collection of charts and maps is one of +the most correct and comprehensive in the world. +The Lords of the Admiralty presented Lloyd's with +copies of all the charts made from actual surveys, +and the East India Company was equally generous. +The King of Prussia presented Lloyd's with copies +of the charts of the Baltic, all made from surveys, +and printed by the Prussian Government. Masters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1049" id="Page_1049">[Pg 1049]</a></span> +of all ships, and of whatever nation, frequenting the +port of London, have access to this collection.</p> + +<p>Before the last fire at the Exchange there was, +on the stairs leading to Lloyd's, a monument to +Captain Lydekker, the great benefactor to the +London Seamen's Hospital. This worthy man +was a shipowner engaged in the South Sea trade, +and some of his sick sailors having been kindly +treated in the "Dreadnought" hospital ship, in +1830, he gave a donation of £100 to the Society. +On his death, in 1833, he left four ships and their +stores, and the residue of his estate, after the payment +of certain legacies. The legacy amounted +to £48,434 16s. 11d. in the Three per Cents., and +£10,295 11s. 4d. in cash was eventually received. +The monument being destroyed by the fire in +1838, a new monument, by Mr. Sanders, sculptor, +was executed for the entrance to Lloyd's rooms.</p> + +<p>The remark of "a good book" or "a bad book" +among the subscribers to Lloyd's is a sure index to +the prospects of the day, the one being indicative +of premium to be received, the other of losses to +be paid. The life of the underwriter, like the +stock speculator, is one of great anxiety, the events +of the day often raising his expectations to the +highest, or depressing them to the lowest pitch;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1050" id="Page_1050">[Pg 1050]</a></span> +and years are often spent in the hope for acquisition +of that which he never obtains. Among the +old stagers of the room there is often strong +antipathy expressed against the insurance of certain +ships, but we never recollect its being carried out +to such an extent as in the case of one vessel. +She was a steady trader, named after one of the +most venerable members of the room, and it was +a most curious coincidence that he invariably +refused to "write her" for "a single line." Often +he was joked upon the subject, and pressed "to +do a little" for his namesake, but he as frequently +denied, shaking his head in a doubtful manner. +One morning the subscribers were reading the +"double lines," or the losses, and among them +was the total wreck of this identical ship.</p> + +<p>There seems to have been a regret on the first +opening of the Exchange for the coziness and quiet +comfort of the old building. Old frequenters +missed the firm oak benches in the old ambulatoria, +the walls covered with placards of ships about to +sail, the amusing advertisements and lists of the +sworn brokers of London, and could not acquire a +rapid friendship for the encaustic flowers and gay +colours of the new design. They missed the old +sonorous bell, and the names of the old walks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1051" id="Page_1051">[Pg 1051]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV</h2> + +<p class="center">NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BANK:—LOTHBURY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Lothbury—Its Former Inhabitants—St. Margaret's Church—Tokenhouse Yard—Origin of the Name—Farthings and Tokens—Silver Halfpence +and Pennies—Queen Anne's Farthings—Sir William Petty—Defoe's Account of the Plague in Tokenhouse Yard.</p></div> + + +<p>Of Lothbury, a street on the north side of the +Bank of England, Stow says: "The Street of Lothberie, +Lathberie, or Loadberie (for by all those +names have I read it), took the name as it seemeth +of <i>berie</i>, or <i>court</i>, of old time there kept, but by +whom is grown out of memory. This street is +possessed for the most part by founders that cast +candlesticks, chafing dishes, spice mortars, and +such-like copper or laton works, and do afterwards +turn them with the foot and not with the wheel, to +make them smooth and bright with turning and +scratching (as some do term it), making a loathsome +noise to the by-passers that have not been +used to the like, and therefore by them disdainfully +called Lothberie."</p> + +<p>"Lothbury," says Hutton (Queen Anne), "was +in Stow's time much inhabited by founders, but +now by merchants and warehouse-keepers, though +it is not without such-like trades as he mentions."</p> + +<p>Ben Jonson brings in an allusion to once noisy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1052" id="Page_1052">[Pg 1052]</a></span> +Lothbury in the "Alchemist." In this play Sir +Epicure Mammon says:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 8em;">This night I'll change</span><br /> +All that is metal in my house to gold;<br /> +And early in the morning will I send<br /> +To all the plumbers and the pewterers,<br /> +And buy their tin and lead up; and to Lothbury<br /> +For all the copper.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Surly.</i> What, and turn that too?<br /> +<br /> +<i>Mammon.</i> Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Cornwall,<br /> +And make them perfect Indies.</div> + +<p>And again in his mask of "The Gipsies Metamorphosed"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">Bless the sovereign and his seeing. +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">* * * + * *</span> +<br /> +From a fiddle out of tune,<br /> +As the cuckoo is in June,<br /> +From the candlesticks of Lothbury<br /> +And the loud pure wives of Banbury.</div> + +<p>Stow says of St. Margaret's, Lothbury: "I find +it called the Chappel of St. Margaret's de Lothberie, +in the reign of Edward II., when in the 15th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1053" id="Page_1053">[Pg 1053]</a></span> +of that king's reign, license was granted to found +a chauntry there. There be monuments in this +church of Reginald Coleman, son to Robert Coleman, +buried there 1383. This said Robert Coleman +may be supposed the first builder or owner of +Coleman Street; and that St. Stephen's Church, +there builded in Coleman Street, was but a chappel +belonging to the parish church of St. Olave, in the +Jewry." In niches on either side of the altar-piece +are two flat figures, cut out of wood, and painted +to represent Moses and Aaron. These were originally +in the Church of St. Christopher le Stocks, +but when that church was pulled down to make +way for the west end of the Bank of England, and +the parish was united by Act of Parliament to that +of St. Margaret, Lothbury (in 1781), they were removed +to the place they now occupy. At the west +end of the church is a metal bust inscribed to +Petrus le Maire, 1631; this originally stood in St. +Christopher's, and was brought here after the fire.</p> + +<p>This church, which is a rectory, seated over +the ancient course of Walbrook, on the north side +of Lothbury, in the Ward of Coleman Street (says +Maitland), owes its name to its being dedicated +to St. Margaret, a virgin saint of Antioch, who +suffered in the reign of Decius.</p> + +<p>Maitland also gives the following epitaph on Sir +John Leigh, 1564:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"No wealth, no praise, no bright renowne, no skill,<br /> +No force, no fame, no prince's love, no toyle,<br /> +Though forraine lands by travel search you will,<br /> +No faithful service of thy country soile,<br /> +Can life prolong one minute of an houre;<br /> +But Death at length will execute his power.<br /> +For Sir John Leigh, to sundry countries knowne,<br /> +A worthy knight, well of his prince esteemed,<br /> +By seeing much to great experience growne,<br /> +Though safe on seas, though sure on land he seemed,<br /> +Yet here he lyes, too soone by Death opprest;<br /> +His fame yet lives, his soule in Heaven hath rest."</div> + +<p>The bowl of the font (attributed to Grinling +Gibbons) is sculptured with representations of Adam +and Eve in Paradise, the return of the dove to the +ark, Christ baptised by St. John, and Philip baptising +the eunuch.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Henry VIII. a conduit (of which +no trace now exists) was erected in Lothbury. It +was supplied with water from the spring of Dame +Anne's, the "Clear," mentioned by Ben Jonson in +his "Bartholomew Fair."</p> + +<p>Tokenhouse Yard, leading out of Lothbury, +derived its name from an old house which was +once the office for the delivery of farthing pocket-pieces, +or tokens, issued for several centuries by +many London tradesmen. Copper coinage, with +very few exceptions, was unauthorised in England<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1054" id="Page_1054">[Pg 1054]</a></span> +till 1672. Edward VI. coined silver farthings, +but Queen Elizabeth conceived a great prejudice +to copper coins, from the spurious "black money," +or copper coins washed with silver, which had got +into circulation. The silver halfpenny, though +inconveniently small, continued down to the time +of the Commonwealth. In the time of Elizabeth, +besides the Nuremberg tokens which are often +found in Elizabethan ruins, many provincial cities +issued tokens for provincial circulation, which were +ultimately called in. In London no less than +3,000 persons, tradesmen and others, issued tokens, +for which the issuer and his friends gave current +coin on delivery. In 1594 the Government struck +a small copper coin, "the pledge of a halfpenny," +about the size of a silver twopence, but Queen +Elizabeth could never be prevailed upon to sanction +the issue. Sir Robert Cotton, writing in 1607 +(James I.), on how the kings of England have supported +and repaired their estates, says there were +then 3,000 London tradesmen who cast annually +each about £5 worth of lead tokens, their store +amounting to some £15,000. London having then +about 800,000 inhabitants, this amounted to about +2d. a person; and he urged the King to restrain +tradesmen from issuing these tokens. In consequence +of this representation, James, in 1613, +issued royal farthing tokens (two sceptres in saltier +and a crown on one side, and a harp on the other), +so that if the English took a dislike to them they +might be ordered to pass in Ireland. They were +not made a legal tender, and had but a narrow +circulation. In 1635 Charles I. struck more of +these, and in 1636 granted a patent for the coinage +of farthings to Henry Lord Maltravers and Sir +Francis Crane. During the Civil War tradesmen +again issued heaps of tokens, the want of copper +money being greatly felt. Charles II. had halfpence +and farthings struck at the Tower in 1670, +and two years afterwards they were made a legal +tender, by proclamation; they were of pure Swedish +copper. In 1685 there was a coinage of tin farthings, +with a copper centre, and the inscription, +"<i>Nummorum famulus.</i>" The following year halfpence +of the same description were issued, and the +use of copper was not resumed till 1693, when all +the tin money was called in. Speaking of the +supposed mythical Queen Anne's farthing, Mr. +Pinkerton says:—"All the farthings of the following +reign of Anne are trial pieces, since that of +1712, her last year. They are of most exquisite +workmanship, exceeding most copper coins of +ancient or modern times, and will do honour to +the engraver, Mr. Croker, to the end of time. The +one whose reverse is Peace in a car, <i>Fax missa per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1055" id="Page_1055">[Pg 1055]</a></span> orbem</i>, is the most esteemed; and next to it the +Britannia under a portal; the other farthings are +not so valuable." We possess a complete series +of silver pennies, from the reign of Egbert to the +present day (with the exception of the reigns of +Richard and John, the former coining in France, +the latter in Ireland).</p> + +<p>Tokenhouse Yard was built in the reign of +Charles I., on the site of a house and garden of +the Earl of Arundel (removed to the Strand), by +Sir William Petty, an early writer on political +economy, and a lineal ancestor of the present +Marquis of Lansdowne. This extraordinary genius, +the son of a Hampshire clothier, was one of the +earliest members of the Royal Society. He studied +anatomy with Hobbes in Paris, wrote numerous +philosophical works, suggested improvements for +the navy, and, in fact, explored almost every path +of science. Aubrey says that, being challenged +by Sir Hierom Sankey, one of Cromwell's knights, +Petty being short-sighted, chose for place a dark +cellar, and for weapons a big carpenter's axe. +Petty's house was destroyed in the Fire of London. +John Grant, says Peter Cunningham, also had property +in Tokenhouse Yard. It was for Grant that +Petty is said to have compiled the bills of mortality +which bear his name.</p> + +<p>Defoe, who, however, was only three years old +when the Plague broke out, has laid one of the +most terrible scenes in his "History of the Plague" +in Tokenhouse Yard. "In my walks," he says, "I +had many dismal scenes before my eyes, as particularly +of persons falling dead in the streets, terrible +shrieks and screeching of women, who in their +agonies would throw open their chamber windows,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1056" id="Page_1056">[Pg 1056]</a></span> +and cry out in a dismal surprising manner. Passing +through Tokenhouse Yard, in Lothbury, of a sudden +a casement violently opened just over my head, +and a woman gave three frightful screeches, and +then cried, 'Oh! death, death, death!' in a most +inimitable tone, which struck me with horror, and +a chilliness in my very blood. There was nobody +to be seen in the whole street, neither did any other +window open, for people had no curiosity now in +any case, nor could anybody help one another. +Just in Bell Alley, on the right hand of the passage, +there was a more terrible cry than that, though it +was not so directed out at the window; but the +whole family was in a terrible fright, and I could +hear women and children run screaming about the +rooms like distracted; when a garret window opened, +and somebody from a window on the other side the +alley called and asked, 'What is the matter?' +upon which, from the first window it was answered, +'Ay, ay, quite dead and cold!' This person was +a merchant, and a deputy-alderman, and very rich. +But this is but one. It is scarce credible what +dreadful cases happened in particular families every +day. People in the rage of the distemper, or in +the torment of their swellings, which was, indeed, +intolerable, running out of their own government, +raving and distracted, oftentimes laid violent hands +upon themselves, throwing themselves out at their +windows, shooting themselves, &c.; mothers murdering +their own children in their lunacy; some +dying of mere grief, as a passion; some of mere +fright and surprise, without any infection at all; +others frighted into idiotism and foolish distractions, +some into despair and lunacy, others into melancholy +madness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1057" id="Page_1057">[Pg 1057]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV</h2> + +<p class="center">THROGMORTON STREET.—THE DRAPERS' COMPANY</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Halls of the Drapers' Company—Throgmorton Street and its many Fair Houses—Drapers and Wool Merchants—The Drapers in Olden Times—Milborne's +Charity—Dress and Livery—Election Dinner of the Drapers' Company—A Draper's Funeral—Ordinances and Pensions—Fifty-three +Draper Mayors—Pageants and Processions of the Drapers—Charters—Details of the present Drapers' Hall—Arms of the Drapers' +Company.</p></div> + + +<p>Throgmorton Street is at the north-east corner +of the Bank of England, and was so called after +Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, who is said to have +been poisoned by Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Queen +Elizabeth's favourite. There is a monument to his +memory in the Church of St. Catherine Cree.</p> + +<p>The Drapers' first Hall, according to Herbert, +was in Cornhill; the second was in Throgmorton +Street, to which they came in 1541 (Henry VIII.), +on the beheading of Cromwell, Earl of Essex, its +previous owner; and the present structure was re-erected +on its site, after the Great Fire of London.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="drapers" id="drapers"></a> +<img src="images/p516.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF DRAPERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>Stow, describing the Augustine Friars' Church, +says there have been built at its west end "many +feyre houses, namely, in Throgmorton Streete;" +and among the rest, "one very large and spacious,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1058" id="Page_1058">[Pg 1058]</a></span> +builded, he says, "in place of olde and small tenements, +by Thomas Cromwell, minister of the King's +jewell-house, after that Maister of the Rolls, then +Lord Cromwell, Knight, Lord Privie Seale, Vicker-Generall, +Earle of Essex, High Chamberlain of +England, &c.;" and he then tells the following +story respecting it:—</p> + +<p>"This house being finished, and having some +reasonable plot of ground left for a garden, hee +caused the pales of the gardens adjoining to the +north parte thereof, on a sodaine, to bee taken +down, twenty-two foote to be measured forth right +into the north of every man's ground, a line there +to be drawne, a trench to be cast, a foundation +laid, and a high bricke wall to be builded. My +father had a garden there, and an house standing +close to his south pale; this house they loosed +from the ground, and bore upon rollers into my +father's garden, twenty-two foot, ere my father +heard thereof. No warning was given him, nor +other answere, when hee spoke to the surveyors of +that worke, but that their mayster, Sir Thomas, +commanded them so to doe; no man durst go +to argue the matter, but each man lost his land, +and my father payde his whole rent, whiche was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1059" id="Page_1059">[Pg 1059]</a></span> +vj<sup>s</sup>. viij<sup>d</sup>. the yeare, for that halfe which was left. +Thus much of mine owne knowledge have I +thought goode to note, that the sodaine rising of +some men causeth them to forget themselves." +("Survaie of London," 1598.)</p> + +<p>The Company was incorporated in 1439 (Henry +VI.), but it also possesses a charter granted them +by Edward III., that they might regulate the sale +of cloths according to the statute. Drapers were +originally makers, not merely, as now, dealers in +cloth. (Herbert.) The country drapers were called +clothiers; the wool-merchants, staplers. The Britons +and Saxons were both, according to the best +authorities, familiar with the art of cloth-making; +but the greater part of English wool, from the +earliest times, seems to have been sent to the +Netherlands, and from thence returned in the shape +of fine cloth, since we find King Ethelred, as early +as 967, exacting from the Easterling merchants of +the Steel Yard, in Thames Street, tolls of cloth, +which were paid at Billingsgate.</p> + +<p>The width of woollen cloth is prescribed in +Magna Charta. There was a weavers' guild in the +reign of Henry I., and the drapers are mentioned +soon after as flourishing in all the large provincial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1060" id="Page_1060">[Pg 1060]</a></span> +cities. It is supposed that the cloths sold by such +drapers were red, green, and scarlet cloths, made +in Flanders. In the next reign English cloths, +made of Spanish wool, are spoken of. Drapers +are recorded in the reign of Henry II. as paying +fines to the king for permission to sell dyed +cloths. In the same reign, English cloths made +of Spanish wool are mentioned. In the reign +of Edward I., the cloth of Candlewick Street +(Cannon Street) was famous. The guild paid the +king two marks of gold every year at the feast of +Michaelmas.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="garden" id="garden"></a> +<img src="images/p517.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />DRAPERS' HALL GARDEN</span> +</div> + +<p>But Edward III., jealous of the Netherlands, +set to work to establish the English cloth manufacture. +He forbade the exportation of English wool, +and invited over seventy Walloon weaver families, +who settled in Cannon Street. The Flemings had +their meeting-place in St. Lawrence Poultney churchyard, +and the Brabanters in the churchyard of St. +Mary Somerset. In 1361 the king removed the +wool staple from Calais to Westminster and nine +English towns. In 1378 Richard II. again changed +the wool staple from Westminster to Staples' Inn, +Holborn; and in 1397 a weekly cloth-market was +established at Blackwell Hall, Basinghall Street;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1061" id="Page_1061">[Pg 1061]</a></span> +the London drapers at first opposing the right of +the country clothiers to sell in gross.</p> + +<p>The drapers for a long time lingered about +Cornhill, where they had first settled, living in +Birchin Lane, and spreading as far as the Stocks' +Market; but in the reign of Henry VI. the +drapers had all removed to Cannon Street, where +we find them tempting Lydgate's "London Lickpenny" +with their wares. In this reign arms were +granted to the Company, and the grant is still +preserved in the British Museum.</p> + +<p>The books of the Company commence in the +reign of Edward IV., and are full of curious details +relating to dress, observances, government, and +trade. Edward IV., it must be remembered, in +1479, when he had invited the mayor and aldermen +to a great hunt at Waltham Forest, not to +forget the City ladies, sent them two harts, six +bucks, and a tun of wine, with which noble present +the lady mayoress (wife of Sir Bartholomew +James, Draper) entertained the aldermen's wives at +Drapers' Hall, St. Swithin's Lane, Cannon Street. +The chief extracts from the Drapers' records made +by Herbert are the following:—</p> + +<p>In 1476 forty of the Company rode to meet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1062" id="Page_1062">[Pg 1062]</a></span> +Edward IV. on his return from France, at a cost of +£20. In 1483 they sent six persons to welcome +the unhappy Edward V., whom the Dukes of +Gloucester and Buckingham, preparatory to his +murder, had brought to London; and in the +following November, the Company dispatched +twenty-two of the livery, in many-coloured coats, +to attend the coronation procession of Edward's +wicked hunchback uncle, Richard III. Presently +they mustered 200 men, on the rising of the +Kentish rebels; and again, in Finsbury Fields, at +"the coming of the Northern men." They paid +9s. for boat hire to Westminster, to attend the +funeral of Queen Anne (Richard's queen).</p> + +<p>In Henry VII.'s reign, we find the Drapers +again boating to Westminster, to present their bill +for the reformation of cloth-making. The barge +seems to have been well supplied with ribs of +beef, wine, and pippins. We find the ubiquitous +Company at many other ceremonies of this reign, +such as the coronation of the queen, &c.</p> + +<p>In 1491 the Merchant Taylors came to a conference +at Drapers' Hall, about some disputes in the +cloth trade, and were hospitably entertained with +bread and wine. In the great riots at the Steel +Yard, when the London 'prentices tried to sack the +Flemish warehouses, the Drapers helped to guard +the depôt, with weapons, cressets, and banners. +They probably also mustered for the king at +Blackheath against the Cornish insurgents. We +meet them again at the procession that welcomed +Princess Katherine of Spain, who married Prince +Arthur; then, in the Lady Chapel at St. Paul's, +listening to Prince Arthur's requiem; and, again, +bearing twelve enormous torches of wax at the +burial of Henry VII., the prince's father.</p> + +<p>In 1514 (Henry VIII.) Sir William Capell left +the Drapers' Company houses in various parts of +London, on condition of certain prayers being +read for his soul, and certain doles being given. +In 1521 the Company, sorely against its will, was +compelled by the arbitrary king to help fit out five +ships of discovery for Sebastian Cabot, whose +father had discovered Newfoundland. They called +it "a sore adventure to jeopard ships with men +and goods unto the said island, upon the singular +trust of one man, called, as they understood, +Sebastian." But Wolsey and the King would have +no nay, and the Company had to comply. The +same year, Sir John Brugge, Mayor and Draper, +being invited to the Serjeants' Feast at Ely House, +Holborn, the masters of the Drapers and seven +other crafts attended in their best livery gowns and +hoods; the Mayor presiding at the high board, the +Master of the Rolls at the second, the Master of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1063" id="Page_1063">[Pg 1063]</a></span> +the Drapers at the third. Another entry in the +same year records a sum of £22 15s. spent on +thirty-two yards of crimson satin, given as a +present to win the good graces of "my Lord +Cardinal," the proud Wolsey, and also twenty +marks given him, "as a pleasure," to obtain for +the Company more power in the management of +the Blackwell Hall trade.</p> + +<p>In 1527 great disputes arose between the Drapers +and the Crutched Friars. Sir John Milborne, who +was several times master of the Company, and +mayor in 1521, had built thirteen almshouses, +near the friars' church, for thirteen old men, who +were daily at his tomb to say prayers for his soul. +There was also to be an anniversary obit. The +Drapers' complaint was that the religious services +were neglected, and that the friars had encroached +on the ground of Milborne's charity. Henry VIII. +afterwards gave Crutched Friars to Sir Thomas +Wyat, the poetical friend of the Earl of Surrey, +who built a mansion there, which was afterwards +Lumley House. At the dissolution of monasteries, +the Company paid £1,402 6s. for their chantries +and obits.</p> + +<p>The dress or livery of the Company seems to +have varied more than that of any other—from +violet, crimson, murrey, blue, blue and crimson, to +brown, puce. In the reign of James I. a uniform +garb was finally adopted. The observances of the +Company at elections, funerals, obits, and pageants +were quaint, friendly, and clubable enough. Every +year, at Lady Day, the whole body of the fellowship +in new livery went to Bow Church (afterwards +to St. Michael's, Cornhill), there heard the Lady +Mass, and offered each a silver penny on the +altar. At evensong they again attended, and heard +dirges chanted for deceased members. On the +following day they came and heard the Mass of +Requiem, and offered another silver penny. On +the day of the feast they walked two and two +in livery to the dining-place, each member paying +three shillings the year that no clothes were +supplied, and two shillings only when they were. +The year's quarterage was sevenpence. In 1522 +the election dinner consisted of fowls, swans, +geese, pike, half a buck, pasties, conies, pigeons, +tarts, pears, and filberts. The guests all washed +after dinner, standing. At the side-tables ale and +claret were served in wooden cups; but at the +high table they gave pots and wooden cups for ale +and wine, but for red wine and hippocras gilt cups. +After being served with wafers and spiced wine, +the masters went among the guests and gathered +the quarterage. The old master then rose and +went into the parlour, with a garland on his head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1064" id="Page_1064">[Pg 1064]</a></span> +and his cup-bearer before him, and, going straight to +the upper end of the high board, without minstrels, +chose the new master, and then sat down. Then +the masters went into the parlour, and took their +garlands and four cupbearers, and crossed the great +parlour till they came to the upper end of the +high board; and there the chief warden delivered +his garland to the warden he chose, and the three +other wardens did likewise, proffering the garlands +to divers persons, and at last delivering them +to the real persons selected. After this all the +company rose and greeted the new master and +wardens, and the dessert began. At some of these +great feasts some 230 people sat down. The +lady members and guests sometimes dined with +the brothers, and sometimes in separate rooms. +At the Midsummer dinner, or dinners, of 1515, +six bucks seem to have been eaten, besides three +boars, a barrelled sturgeon, twenty-four dozen +quails; three hogsheads of wine, twenty-one gallons +of muscadel, and thirteen and a half barrels +of ale. It was usual at these generous banquets +to have players and minstrels.</p> + +<p>The funerals of the Company generally ended +with a dinner, at which the chaplains and a chosen +few of the Company feasted. The Company's pall +was always used; and on one occasion, in 1518, we +find a silver spoon given to each of the six bearers. +Spiced bread, bread and cheese, fruit, and ale were +also partaken of at these obits, sometimes at the +church, sometimes at a neighbouring tavern. At +the funeral of Sir Roger Achilley, Lord Mayor in +1513, there seem to have been twenty-four torch-bearers. +The pews were apparently hung with +black, and children holding torches stood by the +hearse. The Company maintained two priests at +St. Michael's, Cornhill. The funeral of Sir William +Roche, Mayor in 1523, was singularly splendid. +First came two branches of white wax, borne +before the priests and clerks, who paced in +surplices, singing as they paced. Then followed a +standard, blazoned with the dead man's crest—a +red deer's head, with gilt horns, and gold and +green wings. Next followed mourners, and after +them the herald, with the dead man's coat armour, +checkered silver and azure. Then followed the +corpse, attended by clerks and the livery. After +the corpse came the son, the chief mourner, and +two other couples of mourners. The swordbearer +and Lord Mayor, in state, walked next; then +the aldermen, sheriffs, and the Drapery livery, +followed by all the ladies, gentlewomen, and +aldermen's wives. After the dirge, they all went +to the dead man's house, and partook of spiced +bread and comfits, with ale and beer. The next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1065" id="Page_1065">[Pg 1065]</a></span> +day the mourners had a collection at the church. +Then the chief mourners presented the target, +sword, helmet, and banners to the priests, and a +collection was made for the poor. Directly after +the sacrament, the mourners went to Mrs. Roche's +house, and dined, the livery dining at the Drapers' +Hall, the deceased having left £6 15s. 4d. for that +purpose. The record concludes thus: "And my +Lady Roche, of her gentylness, sent them moreover +four gallons of French wine, and also a box of +wafers, and a pottell of ipocras. For whose soul +let us pray, and all Christian souls. Amen." The +Company maintained priests, altars, and lights at +St. Mary Woolnoth's, St. Michael's, Cornhill, St. +Thomas of Acon, Austin Friars, and the Priory +of St. Bartholomew.</p> + +<p>The Drapers' ordinances are of great interest. +Every apprentice, on being enrolled, paid fees, +which went to a fund called "spoon silver." The +mode of correcting these wayward lads was sometimes +singular. Thus we find one Needswell in +the parlour, on court day, flogged by two tall +men, disguised in canvas frocks, hoods, and +vizors, twopennyworth of birchen rods being expended +on his moral improvement. The Drapers +had a special ordinance, in the reign of Henry IV., +to visit the fairs of Westminster, St. Bartholomew, +Spitalfields, and Southwark, to make a trade search, +and to measure doubtful goods by the "Drapers' +ell," a standard said to have been granted them +by King Edward III. Bread, wine, and pears +seem to have been the frugal entertainment of the +searchers.</p> + +<p>Decayed brothers were always pensioned; thus +we find, in 1526, Sir Laurence Aylmer, who had +actually been mayor in 1507, applying for alms, and +relieved, we regret to state, somewhat grudgingly. +In 1834 Mr. Lawford, clerk of the Company, stated +to the Commissioners of Municipal Inquiry that +there were then sixty poor freemen on the charity +roll, who received £10 a year each. The master +and wardens also gave from the Company's bounty +quarterly sums of money to about fifty or sixty +other poor persons. In cases where members of +the court fell into decay, they received pensions +during the court's pleasure. One person of high +repute, then recently deceased, had received the +sum of £200 per annum, and on this occasion +the City had given him back his sheriff's fine. +The attendance fee given to members of the court +was two guineas.</p> + +<p>From 1531 to 1714, Strype reckons fifty-three +Draper mayors. Eight of these were the heads of +noble families, forty-three were knights or baronets, +fifteen represented the City in Parliament, seven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1066" id="Page_1066">[Pg 1066]</a></span> +were founders of churches and public institutions. +The Earls of Bath and Essex, the Barons +Wotton, and the Dukes of Chandos are among the +noble families which derive their descent from +members of this illustrious Company. That great +citizen, Henry Fitz-Alwin, the son of Leofstan, +Goldsmith, and provost of London, was a Draper, +and held the office of mayor for twenty-four +successive years.</p> + +<p>In the Drapers' Lord Mayors' shows the barges +seem to have been covered with blue or red cloth. +The trumpeters wore crimson hats; and the +banners, pennons, and streamers were fringed +with silk, and "beaten with gold." The favourite +pageants were those of the Assumption and St. +Ursula. The Drapers' procession on the mayoralty +of one of their members, Sir Robert Clayton, is +thus described by Jordan in his "London Industre:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>"In proper habits, orderly arrayed,</i><br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>The movements of the morning are displayed.</i><br /></span> +Selected citizens i' th' morning all,<br /> +At seven a clock, do meet at <i>Drapers' Hall</i>.<br /> +The master, wardens, and assistants joyn<br /> +For the first rank, in their gowns fac'd with Foyn.<br /> +The second order do, in merry moods,<br /> +March in gowns fac'd with Budge and livery hoods.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In gowns and scarlet hoods thirdly appears</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A youthful number of Foyn's Batchellors;</span><br /> +Forty Budge Batchellors the triumph crowns,<br /> +Gravely attir'd in scarlet hoods and gowns.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gentlemen Ushers which white staves do hold</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sixty, in velvet coats and chains of gold.</span><br /> +Next, thirty more in plush and buff there are,<br /> +That several colours wear, and banners bear.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Serjeant Trumpet thirty-six more brings</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(Twenty the Duke of York's, sixteen the King's).</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Serjeant wears two scarfs, whose colours be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">One the Lord Mayor's, t'other's the Company.</span><br /> +The King's Drum Major, follow'd by four more<br /> +Of the King's drums and fifes, make <i>London roar</i>."</div> + +<p>"What gives the festivities of this Company an +unique zest," says Herbert, "however, is the visitors +at them, and which included a now extinct race. +We here suddenly find ourselves in company with +abbots, priors, and other heads of monastic establishments, +and become so familiarised with the +abbot of Tower Hill, the prior of St. Mary Ovary, +Christ Church, St. Bartholomew's, the provincial +and the prior of 'Freres Austyn's,' the master of +St. Thomas Acon's and St. Laurence Pulteney, and +others of the metropolitan conventual clergy, most +of whom we find amongst their constant yearly +visitors, that we almost fancy ourselves living in +their times, and of their acquaintance."</p> + +<p>The last public procession of the Drapers' Company +was in 1761, when the master wardens and +court of assistants walked in rank to hear a sermon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1067" id="Page_1067">[Pg 1067]</a></span> +at St. Peter's, Cornhill; a number of them each +carried a pair of shoes, stockings, and a suit of +clothes, the annual legacy to the poor of this +Company.</p> + +<p>The Drapers possess seven original charters, all +of them with the Great Seal attached, finely written, +and in excellent preservation. These charters comprise +those of Edward I., Henry VI., Edward IV., +Philip and Mary, Elizabeth, and two of James I. +The latter is the acting charter of the company. +In 4 James I., the company is entitled "The +Master and Wardens and Brothers and Sisters of +the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, +of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London." +In Maitland's time (1756), the Company devoted +£4,000 a year to charitable uses.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cromwells" id="cromwells"></a> +<img src="images/p520.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CROMWELL'S HOUSE, FROM AGGAS'S MAP. (<i>Taken from Herbert's "City Companies."</i>)</span> +</div> + + +<p>Aggas's drawing represents Cromwell House +almost windowless, on the street side, and with +three small embattled turrets; and there was a +footway through the garden of Winchester House, +which forms the present passage (says Herbert) +from the east end of Throgmorton Street, through +Austin Friars to Great Winchester Street. The +Great Fire stopped northwards at Drapers' Hall. +The renter warden lost £446 of the Company's +money, but the Company's plate was buried safely +in a sewer in the garden. Till the hall could +be rebuilt, Sir Robert Clayton lent the Drapers a +large room in Austin Friars. The hall was rebuilt +by Jarman, who built the second Exchange and +Fishmongers' Hall. The hall had a very narrow +escape (says Herbert) in 1774 from a fire, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1068" id="Page_1068">[Pg 1068]</a></span> +broke out in the vaults beneath the hall (let out as +a store-cellar), and destroyed a considerable part +of the building, together with a number of houses +on the west side of Austin Friars.</p> + +<p>The present Drapers' Hall is Mr. Jarman's +structure, but altered, and partly rebuilt after the +fire in 1774, and partly rebuilt again in 1870. It +principally consists of a spacious quadrangle, surrounded +by a fine piazza or ambulatory of arches, +supported by columns. The quiet old garden +greatly improves the hall, which, from this appendage, +and its own elegance, might be readily +supposed the mansion of a person of high rank.</p> + +<p>The present Throgmorton Street front of the +building is of stone and marble, and was built +by Mr. Herbert Williams, who also erected the +splendid new hall, removing the old gallery, adding +a marble staircase fit for an emperor's palace, and +new facing the court-room, the ceiling of which +was at the same time raised. Marble pillars, +stained glass windows, carved marble mantelpieces, +gilt panelled ceilings—everything that is +rich and tasteful—the architect has used with +lavish profusion.</p> + +<p>The buildings of the former interior were of fine +red brick, but the front and entrance, in Throgmorton +Street, was of a yellow brick; both interior +and exterior were highly enriched with stone ornaments. +Over the gateway was a large sculpture of +the Drapers' arms, a cornice and frieze, the latter +displaying lions' heads, rams' heads, &c., in small +circles, and various other architectural decorations.</p> + +<p>The old hall, properly so called, occupied the +eastern side of the quadrangle, the ascent to it +being by a noble stone staircase, covered, and +highly embellished by stucco-work, gilding, &c. +The stately screen of this magnificent apartment +was curiously decorated with carved pillars, pilasters, +arches, &c. The ceiling was divided into +numerous compartments, chiefly circular, displaying, +in the centre, Phaeton in his car, and round +him the signs of the zodiac, and various other +enrichments. In the wainscoting was a neat recess, +with shelves, whereon the Company's plate, which, +both for quality and workmanship, is of great value, +was displayed at their feasts. Above the screen, at +the end opposite the master's chair, hung a portrait +of Lord Nelson, by Sir William Beechey, for which +the Company paid four hundred guineas, together +with the portrait of Fitz-Alwin, the great Draper, +already mentioned. "In denominating this portrait +<i>curious</i>," says Herbert, "we give as high praise as +can be afforded it. Oil-painting was totally unknown +to England in Fitz-Alwin's time; the style of dress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1069" id="Page_1069">[Pg 1069]</a></span> +and its execution as a work of art, are also too +modern."</p> + +<p>In the gallery, between the old hall and the +livery-room, were full-length portraits of the English +sovereigns, from William III. to George III., +together with a full-length portrait of George IV., +by Lawrence, and the celebrated picture of Mary +Queen of Scots, and her son, James I., by Zucchero. +The portrait of the latter king is a fine specimen of +the master, and is said to have cost the Company +between £600 and £700. "It has a fault, however," +says Herbert, "observable in other portraits +of this monarch, that of the likeness being flattered. +If it was not uncourteous so to say, we should call +it George IV. with the face of the Prince of Wales. +Respecting the portrait of Mary and her son, there +has been much discussion. Its genuineness has +been doubted, from the circumstance of James +having been only a twelvemonth old when this +picture is thought to have been painted, and his +being here represented of the age of four or five; +but the anachronism might have arisen from the +whole being a composition of the artist, executed, +not from the life, but from other authorities furnished +to him." It was cleaned and copied by +Spiridione Roma, for Boydell's print, who took +off a mask of dirt from it, and is certainly a very +interesting picture. There is another tradition of +this picture: that Sir Anthony Babington, confidential +secretary to Queen Mary, had her portrait, +which he deposited, for safety, either at Merchant +Taylors' Hall or Drapers' Hall, and that it had +never come back to Sir Anthony or his family. It +has been insinuated that Sir William Boreman, +clerk to the Board of Green Cloth in the reign of +Charles II., purloined this picture from one of the +royal palaces. Some absurdly suggest that it is the +portrait of Lady Dulcibella Boreman, the wife of +Sir William. There is a tradition that this valuable +picture was thrown over the wall into Drapers' +Garden during the Great Fire, and never reclaimed.</p> + +<p>The old court-room adjoined the hall, and formed +the north side of the quadrangle. It was wainscoted, +and elegantly fitted up, like the last. The +fire-place was very handsome, and had over the +centre a small oblong compartment in white marble, +with a representation of the Company receiving +their charter. The ceiling was stuccoed, somewhat +similarly to the hall, with various subjects allusive +to the Drapers' trade and to the heraldic bearings +of the Company. Both the (dining) hall and this +apartment were rebuilt after the fire in 1774.</p> + +<p>The old gallery led to the ladies' chamber and +livery-room. In the former, balls, &c., were occasionally +held. This was also a very elegant room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1070" id="Page_1070">[Pg 1070]</a></span> +The livery-room was a fine lofty apartment, and next +in size to the hall. Here were portraits of Sir Joseph +Sheldon, Lord Mayor, 1677, by Gerard Soest, and +a three-quarter length of Sir Robert Clayton, by +Kneller, 1680, seated in a chair—a great benefactor +to Christ's Hospital, and to that of St. Thomas, in +Southwark; and two benefactors—Sir William Boreman, +an officer of the Board of Green Cloth in the +reigns of Charles I. and Charles II., who endowed +a free school at Greenwich; and Henry Dixon, of +Enfield, who left land in that parish for apprenticing +boys of the same parish, and giving a sum to such +as were bound to freemen of London at the end of +their apprenticeship. Here was also a fine portrait +of Mr. Smith, late clerk of the Company (three-quarters); +a smaller portrait of Thomas Bagshaw, +who died in 1794, having been beadle to the Company +forty years, and who for his long and faithful +services has been thus honoured. The windows +of the livery-room overlook the private garden, +in the midst of which is a small basin of water, +with a fountain and statue. The large garden, +which adjoins this, is constantly open to the +public, from morning till night, excepting Saturdays, +Sundays, and the Company's festival days. This +is a pleasant and extensive plot of ground, neatly +laid out with gravelled walks, a grass-plot, flowering +shrubs, lime-trees, pavilions, &c. Beneath what +was formerly the ladies' chamber is the record-room,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1071" id="Page_1071">[Pg 1071]</a></span> +which is constructed of stone and iron, and made +fire-proof, for the more effectually securing of the +Company's archives, books, plate, and other valuable +and important documents.</p> + +<p>Howell, in his "Letters," has the following +anecdote about Drapers' Hall. "When I went," +he says, "to bind my brother Ned apprentice, in +Drapers' Hall, casting my eyes upon the chimney-piece +of the great room, I spyed a picture of +an ancient gentleman, and underneath, 'Thomas +Howell;' I asked the clerk about him, and he +told me that he had been a Spanish merchant in +Henry VIII.'s time, and coming home rich, and +dying a bachelor, he gave that hall to the Company +of Drapers, with other things, so that he is accounted +one of the chiefest benefactors. I told +the clerk that one of the sons of Thomas Howell +came now thither to be bound; he answered that, +if he be a right Howell, he may have, when he is +free, three hundred pounds to help to set him up, +and pay no interest for five years. It may be, +hereafter, we will make use of this."</p> + +<p>The Drapers' list of livery states their modern +arms to be thus emblazoned, viz.—Azure, three +clouds radiated <i>proper</i>, each adorned with a triple +crown <i>or</i>. Supporters—two lions <i>or</i>, pelletted. +Crest—on a wreath, a ram couchant <i>or</i>, armed +<i>sables</i>, on a mount <i>vert</i>. Motto—"Unto God only +be honour and glory."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1072" id="Page_1072">[Pg 1072]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI</h2> + +<p class="center">BARTHOLOMEW LANE AND LOMBARD STREET</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>George Robins—His Sale of the Lease of the Olympic—St. Bartholomew's Church—The Lombards and Lombard Street—William de la Pole—Gresham—The +Post Office, Lombard Street—Alexander Pope's Father in Plough Court—Lombard Street Tributaries—St. Mary Woolnoth—St. +Clement's—Dr. Benjamin Stone—Discovery of Roman Remains—St. Mary Abchurch.</p></div> + + +<p>Bartholomew Lane is associated with the memory +of Mr. George Robins, one of the most eloquent +auctioneers who ever wielded an ivory hammer. +The Auction Mart stood opposite the Rotunda of +the Bank. It is said that Robins was once offered +£2,000 and all his expenses to go and dispose +of a valuable property in New York. His annual +income was guessed at £12,000. It is said that +half the landed property in England had passed +under his hammer. Robins, with incomparable +powers of blarney and soft sawder, wrote poetical +and alluring advertisements (attributed by some +to eminent literary men), which were irresistibly +attractive. His notice of the sale of the twenty-seven +years' lease of the Olympic, at the death of +Mr. Scott, in 1840, was a marvel of adroitness:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1073" id="Page_1073">[Pg 1073]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Mr. George Robins is desired to announce<br /> +To the Public, and more especially to the<br /> +Theatrical World, that he is authorised to sell<br /> +By Public Auction, at the Mart,<br /> +On Thursday next, the twentieth of June, at twelve,<br /> +The Olympic Theatre, which for so many years<br /> +Possessed a kindly feeling with the Public,<br /> +And has, for many seasons past, assumed<br /> +An unparalleled altitude in theatricals, since<br /> +It was fortunately demised to Madame Vestris;<br /> +Who, albeit, not content to move at the slow rate<br /> +Of bygone time, gave to it a spirit and a<br /> +Consequence, that the march of improvement<br /> +And her own consummate taste and judgment<br /> +Had conceived. To crown her laudable efforts<br /> +With unquestionable success, she has caused<br /> +To be completed (with the exception of St. James's)<br /> +<span class="smcap">The most splendid little Theatre in Europe;</span><br /> +Has given to the entertainments a new life;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1074" id="Page_1074">[Pg 1074]</a></span>Has infused so much of her own special tact,<br /> +That it now claims to be one of the most<br /> +<span class="smcap">Famed of the Metropolitan Theatres</span>. Indeed,<br /> +It is a fact that will always remain on record,<br /> +That amid the vicissitudes of all other theatrical<br /> +Establishments, with Madame at its head, success has<br /> +Never been equivocal for a moment, and the<br /> +Receipts have for years past averaged nearly<br /> +As much as the patent theatres. The boxes are<br /> +In such high repute, that double the present low<br /> +Rental is available by this means alone. Madame<br /> +Vestris has a lease for three more seasons at only one<br /> +Thousand pounds a year," &c.<br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="popes" id="popes"></a> +<img src="images/p523.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />POPE'S HOUSE, PLOUGH COURT, LOMBARD STREET</span> +</div> + +<p>The sale itself is thus described by Mr. Grant, +who writes as if he had been present:—"Mr. +Robins," says Grant, "had exhausted the English +language in commendation of that theatre; he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1075" id="Page_1075">[Pg 1075]</a></span> +made it as clear as any proposition in Euclid that +Madame Vestris could not possibly succeed in +Covent Garden; that, in fact, she could succeed +in no other house than the Olympic; and that consequently +the purchaser was quite sure of her as a +tenant as long as he chose to let the theatre to her. +He proved to demonstration that the theatre would +always fill, no matter who should be the lessee; +and that consequently it would prove a perfect +mine of wealth to the lucky gentleman who was +sufficiently alive to his own interests to become +the purchaser. By means of such representations, +made in a way and with an ingenuity peculiar to +himself, Mr. Robins had got the biddings up from +the starting sum, which was £3,000, to £3,400.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1076" id="Page_1076">[Pg 1076]</a></span> +There, however, the aspirants to the property came +to what Mr. Robins called a dead stop. For at +least three or four minutes he put his ingenuity to +the rack in lavishing encomiums on the property, +without his zeal and eloquence being rewarded by +a single new bidding. It was at this extremity—and +he never resorts to the expedient until the +bidders have reached what they themselves at the +time conceive to be the highest point—it was at +this crisis of the Olympic, Mr. Robins, causing the +hammer to descend in the manner I have described, +and accompanying the slow and solemn +movement with a 'Going—going—go——,' that the +then highest bidder exclaimed, 'The theatre is +mine!' and at which Mr. Robins, apostrophising +him in his own bland and fascinating manner, remarked, +'I don't wonder, my friend, that your +anxiety to possess the property at such a price +should anticipate my decision; but,' looking round +the audience and smiling, as if he congratulated +them on the circumstance, 'it is still in the market, +gentlemen: you have still an opportunity of making +your fortunes without risk or trouble.' The bidding +that instant re-commenced, and proceeded more +briskly than ever. It eventually reached £5,850, +at which sum the theatre was 'knocked down.'"</p> + +<p>St. Bartholomew's behind the Exchange was +built in 1438. Stow gives the following strange +epitaph, date 1615:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">Here lyes a Margarite that most excell'd<br /> +(Her father Wyts, her mother Lichterveld,<br /> +Rematcht with Metkerke) of remarke for birth,<br /> +But much more gentle for her genuine worth;<br /> +Wyts (rarest) Jewell (so her name bespeakes)<br /> +In pious, prudent, peaceful, praise-full life,<br /> +Fitting a Sara and a Sacred's wife,<br /> +Such as Saravia and (her second) Hill,<br /> +Whose joy of life, Death in her death did kill.<br /> +<br /> +Quam pie obiit, Puerpera, Die 29, Junii,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anno Salutis 1615. Ætatis 39.</span><br /> +<br /> +From my sad cradle to my sable chest,<br /> +Poore Pilgrim, I did find few months of rest.<br /> +In Flanders, Holland, Zeland, England, all,<br /> +To Parents, troubles, and to me did fall.<br /> +These made me pious, patient, modest, wise;<br /> +And, though well borne, to shun the gallants' guise;<br /> +But now I rest my soule, where rest is found,<br /> +My body here, in a small piece of ground,<br /> +And from my Hill, that hill I have ascended,<br /> +From whence (for me) my Saviour once descended.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Margarita, a Jewell.</span><br /> +I, like a Jewell, tost by sea to land,<br /> +Am bought by him, who weares me on his hand.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Margarita, Margareta.</span><br /> +One night, two dreames<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Made two propheticals,</span><br /> +Thine of thy coffin,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mine of thy funerals.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1077" id="Page_1077">[Pg 1077]</a></span>If women all were like to thee,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We men for wives should happy be.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>The first stone of the Gresham Club House, +No. 1, King William Street, corner of St. Swithin's +Lane, was laid in 1844, the event being celebrated +by a dinner at the Albion Tavern, Aldersgate +Street, the Lord Mayor, Sir William Magnay, in +the chair. The club was at first under the presidency +of John Abel Smith, Esq., M.P. The +building was erected from the design of Mr. +Henry Flower, architect.</p> + +<p>After the expulsion of the Jews, the Lombards +(or merchants of Genoa, Lucca, Florence, and +Venice) succeeded them as the money-lenders and +bankers of England. About the middle of the +thirteenth century these Italians established themselves +in Lombard Street, remitting money to Italy +by bills of exchange, and transmitting to the Pope +and Italian prelates their fees, and the incomes of +their English benefices. Mr. Burgon has shown +that to these industrious strangers we owe many +of our commercial terms, such, for instance, as +<i>debtor</i>, <i>creditor</i>, <i>cash</i>, <i>usance</i>, <i>bank</i>, <i>bankrupt</i>, +<i>journal</i>, <i>diary</i>, <i>ditto</i>, and even our £ <i>s. d.</i>, which +originally stood for <i>libri</i>, <i>soldi</i>, and <i>denari</i>. In the +early part of the fifteenth century we find these +swarthy merchants advancing loans to the State, +and having the customs mortgaged to them by way +of security. Pardons and holy wafers were also +sold in this street before the Reformation.</p> + +<p>One of the celebrated dwellers in mediæval +Lombard Street was William de la Pole, father of +Michael, Earl of Suffolk. He was king's merchant +or factor to Edward III., and in 1338, at Antwerp, +lent that warlike and extravagant monarch a sum +equivalent to £400,000 of our current money. +He received several munificent grants of Crown +land, and was created chief baron of the exchequer +and a knight banneret. He is always +styled in public instruments "dilectus mercator +et valectus noster." His son Michael, who died +at the siege of Harfleur in 1415, succeeded to his +father's public duties and his house in Lombard +Street, near Birchin Lane. Michael's son fell at +Agincourt. The last De la Pole was beheaded +during the wars of the Roses.</p> + +<p>About the date 1559, when Gresham was +honoured by being sent as English ambassador +to the court of the Duchess of Parma, he resided +in Lombard Street. His shop (about the present +No. 18) was distinguished by his father's crest—viz., +a grasshopper. The original sign was seen +by Pennant; and Mr. Burgon assures us that it +continued in existence as late as 1795, being removed +or stolen on the erection of the present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1078" id="Page_1078">[Pg 1078]</a></span> +building. Gresham was not only a mercer and +merchant adventurer, but a banker—a term which +in those days of 10 or 12 per cent. interest meant +also, "a usurer, a pawnbroker, a money scrivener, +a goldsmith, and a dealer in bullion" (Burgon). +After his knighthood, Gresham seems to have +thought it undignified to reside at his shop, so left +it to his apprentice, and removed to Bishopsgate, +where he built Gresham House. It was a vulgar +tradition of Elizabeth's time, according to Lodge, +that Gresham was a foundling, and that an old +woman who found him was attracted to the spot +by the increased chirping of the grasshoppers. +This story was invented, no doubt, to account for +his crest.</p> + +<p>During the first two years of Gresham's acting +as the king's factor, he posted from Antwerp no +fewer than forty times. Between the 1st of March, +1552, and the 27th of July his payments amounted +to £106,301 4s. 4d.; his travelling expenses for +riding in and out eight times, £102 10s., including +a supper and a banquet to the Schetz and the +Fuggers, the great banks with whom he had to +transact business, £26 being equal, Mr. Burgon +calculates, to £250 of the present value of money. +The last-named feast must have been one of great +magnificence, as the guests appear to have been +not more than twenty. On such occasions Gresham +deemed it policy to "make as good chere as he +could."</p> + +<p>He was living in Lombard Street, no doubt, at +that eventful day when, being at the house of Mr. +John Byvers, alderman, he promised that "within +one month after the founding of the Burse he +would make over the whole of the profits, in equal +moities, to the City and the Mercers' Company, in +case he should die childless;" and "for the sewer +performance of the premysses, the said Sir Thomas, +in the presens of the persons afore named, did give +his house to Sir William Garrard, and drank a +carouse to Thomas Rowe." This mirthful affair +was considered of so much importance as to be +entered on the books of the Corporation, solemnly +commencing with the words, "Be it remembered, +that the ixth day of February, in Anno Domini +1565," &c.</p> + +<p>Gresham's wealth was made chiefly by trade +with Antwerp. "The exports from Antwerp," says +Burgon, "at that time consisted of jewels and +precious stones, bullion, quicksilver, wrought silks, +cloth of gold and silver, gold and silver thread, +camblets, grograms, spices, drugs, sugar, cotton, +cummin, galls, linen, serges, tapestry, madder, +hops in great quantities, glass, salt-fish, small wares +(or, as they were then called, merceries), made of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1079" id="Page_1079">[Pg 1079]</a></span> +metal and other materials, to a considerable +amount; arms, ammunition, and household furniture. +From England Antwerp imported immense +quantities of fine and coarse woollen goods, as +canvas, frieze, &c., the finest wool, excellent saffron +in small quantities, a great quantity of lead and +tin, sheep and rabbit-skins, together with other +kinds of peltry and leather; beer, cheese, and +other provisions in great quantities, also Malmsey +wines, which the English at that time obtained +from Candia. Cloth was, however, by far the +most important article of traffic between the two +countries. The annual importation into Antwerp +about the year 1568, including every description of +cloth, was estimated at more than 200,000 pieces, +amounting in value to upwards of 4,000,000 escus +d'or, or about £1,200,000 sterling."</p> + +<p>In the reign of Charles II. we find the "Grasshopper" +in Lombard Street the sign of another +wealthy goldsmith, Sir Charles Duncombe, the +founder of the Feversham family, and the purchaser +of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, the princely +seat of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham:</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight,<br /> +Yields to a scrivener and a City knight."</div> + +<p>Here also resided Sir Robert Viner, the Lord +Mayor of London in 1675, and apparently an +especial favourite with Charles II.</p> + +<p>The Post Office, Lombard Street, formerly the +General Post Office, was originally built by "the +great banquer," Sir Robert Viner, on the site of a +noted tavern destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. +Here Sir Robert kept his mayoralty in 1675. +Strype describes it as a very large and curious +dwelling, with a handsome paved court, and +behind it "a yard for stabling and coaches." The +St. Martin's-le-Grand General Post Office was not +opened till 1829.</p> + +<p>"I have," says "Aleph," in the <i>City Press</i>, "a +vivid recollection of Lombard Street in 1805. +More than half a century has rolled away since +then, yet there, sharply and clearly defined, before +the eye of memory, stand the phantom shadows of +the past. I walked through the street a few weeks +ago. It is changed in many particulars; yet +enough remains to identify it with the tortuous, +dark vista of lofty houses which I remember so +well. Then there were no pretentious, stucco-faced +banks or offices; the whole wall-surface was of +smoke-blacked brick; its colour seemed to imitate +the mud in the road, and as coach, or wagon, or +mail-cart toiled or rattled along, the basement +storeys were bespattered freely from the gutters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1080" id="Page_1080">[Pg 1080]</a></span> +The glories of gas were yet to be. After three +o'clock p.m. miserable oil lamps tried to enliven +the foggy street with their 'ineffectual light,' +while through dingy, greenish squares of glass you +might observe tall tallow candles dimly disclosing +the mysteries of bank or counting-house. Passengers +needed to walk with extreme caution; if you +lingered on the pavement, woe to your corns; if +you sought to cross the road, you had to beware of +the flying postmen or the letter-bag express. As +six o'clock drew near, every court, alley, and blind +thoroughfare in the neighbourhood echoed to the +incessant din of letter-bells. Men, women, and +children were hurrying to the chief office, while +the fiery-red battalion of postmen, as they neared +the same point, were apparently well pleased to +balk the diligence of the public, anxious to spare +their coppers. The mother post-office for the +United Kingdom and the Colonies was then in +Lombard Street, and folks thought it was a model +establishment. Such armies of clerks, such sacks +of letters, and countless consignments of newspapers! +How could those hard-worked officials +ever get through their work? The entrance, +barring paint and stucco, remains exactly as it was +fifty years ago. What crowds used to besiege it! +What a strange confusion of news-boys! The +struggling public, with late letters; the bustling redcoats, +with their leather bags, a scene of anxious +life and interest seldom exceeded. And now +the letter-boxes are all closed; you weary your +knuckles in vain against the sliding door in the +wall. No response. Every hand within is fully +occupied in letter-sorting for the mails; they must +be freighted in less than half an hour. Yet, on +payment of a shilling for each, letters were received +till ten minutes to eight, and not unfrequently a +post-chaise, with the horses in a positive lather, +tore into the street, just in time to forward some +important despatch. Hark! The horn! the horn! +The mail-guards are the soloists, and very pleasant +music they discourse; not a few of them are first-rate +performers. A long train of gaily got-up +coaches, remarkable for their light weight, horsed +by splendid-looking animals, impatient at the curb, +and eager to commence their journey of ten miles +(at least) an hour; stout 'gents,' in heavy coats, +buttoned to the throat, esconce themselves in 'reserved +seats.' Commercial men contest the right +of a seat with the guard or coachman; some careful +mother helps her pale, timid daughter up the steps; +while a fat old lady already occupies two-thirds of +the seat—what will be done? Bags of epistles +innumerable stuff the boots; formidable bales of +the daily journals are trampled small by the guard's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1081" id="Page_1081">[Pg 1081]</a></span> +heels. The clock will strike in less than five +minutes; the clamour deepens, the hubbub seems +increasing; but ere the last sixty seconds expire, a +sharp winding of warning bugles begins. Coachee +flourishes his whip, greys and chestnuts prepare for +a run, the reins move, but very gently, there is a +parting crack from the whipcord, and the brilliant +cavalcade is gone—<i>exeunt omnes!</i> Lombard Street +is a different place now, far more imposing, though +still narrow and dark; the clean-swept roadway is +paved with wood, cabs pass noiselessly—a capital +thing, only take care you are not run over. Most +of the banks and assurance offices have been converted +into stone."</p> + +<p>In Plough Court (No. 1), Lombard Street, Pope's +father carried on the business of a linen merchant. +"He was an honest merchant, and dealt in +Hollands wholesale," as his widow informed Mr. +Spence. His son claimed for him the honour +of being sprung from gentle blood. When that +gallant baron, Lord Hervey, vice-chamberlain in +the court of George II., and his ally, Lady Mary +Wortley Montague, disgraced themselves by inditing +the verses containing this couplet—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Whilst none thy crabbed numbers can endure,<br /> +Hard as thy heart, <i>and as thy birth obscure</i>;"</div> + +<p>Pope indignantly repelled the accusation as to his +descent.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry (he said) to be obliged to such +a presumption as to name my family in the same +leaf with your lordship's; but my father had the +honour in one instance to resemble you, for he +was a younger brother. He did not indeed think +it a happiness to bury his elder brother, though +he had one, who wanted some of those good +qualities which yours possessed. How sincerely +glad should I be to pay to that young nobleman's +memory the debt I owed to his friendship, whose +early death deprived your family of as much wit +and honour as he left behind him in any branch +of it. But as to my father, I could assure you, +my lord, that he was no mechanic (neither a hatter, +nor, which might please your lordship yet better, +a cobbler), but, in truth, of a very tolerable family, +and my mother of an ancient one, as well born and +educated as that lady whom your lordship made +use of to educate your own children, whose merit, +beauty, and vivacity (if transmitted to your posterity) +will be a better present than even the noble +blood they derive from you. A mother, on whom +I was never obliged so far to reflect as to say, she +spoiled me; and a father, who never found himself +obliged to say of me, that he disapproved my +conduct. In a word, my lord, I think it enough,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1082" id="Page_1082">[Pg 1082]</a></span> +that my parents, such as they were, never cost me +a blush; and that their son, such as he is, never +cost them a tear."</p> + +<p>The house of Pope's father was afterwards +occupied by the well-known chemists, Allen, Hanbury, +and Barry, a descendant of which firm still +occupies it. Mr. William Allen was the son of +a Quaker silk manufacturer in Spitalfields. He +became chemical lecturer at Guy's Hospital, and an +eminent experimentalist—discovering, among other +things, the proportion of carbon in carbonic acid, +and proving that the diamond was pure carbon. +He was mainly instrumental in founding the Pharmaceutical +Society, and distinguished himself by +his zeal against slavery, and his interest in all +benevolent objects. He died in 1843, at Lindfield, +in Sussex, where he had founded agricultural +schools of a thoroughly practical kind.</p> + +<p>The church of St. Edmund King and Martyr +(and St. Nicholas Acons), on the north side of +Lombard Street, stands on the site of the old +Grass Market. The only remarkable monument is +that of Dr. Jeremiah Mills, who died in 1784, and +had been President of the Society of Antiquaries +many years. The local authorities have, with great +good sense, written the duplex name of this church +in clear letters over the chief entrance.</p> + +<p>The date of the first building of St. Mary Woolnoth +of the Nativity, in Lombard Street, seems to +be very doubtful; nor does Stow help us to the +origin of the name. By some antiquaries it has +been suggested that the church was so called from +being beneath or nigh to the wool staple. Mr. +Gwilt suggests that it may have been called +"Wool-nough," in order to distinguish it from the +other church of St. Mary, where the wool-beam +actually stood.</p> + +<p>The first rector mentioned by Newcourt was +John de Norton, presented previous to 1368. Sir +Martin Bowes had the presentation of this church +given him by Henry V., it having anciently belonged +to the convent of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. +From the Bowes's the presentation passed to the +Goldsmiths' Company. Sir Martin Bowes was +buried here, and so were many of the Houblons, +a great mercantile family, on one of whom Pepys +wrote an epitaph. Munday particularly mentions +that the wills of several benefactors of St. Mary's +were carefully preserved and exhibited in the +church. Strype also mentions a monument to +Sir William Phipps, that lucky speculator who, in +1687, extracted £300,000 from the wreck of a +Spanish plate-vessel off the Bahama bank. Simon +Eyre, the old founder of Leadenhall Market, was +buried in this church in 1549.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1083" id="Page_1083">[Pg 1083]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sir Hugh Brice, goldsmith and mayor, governor +of the Mint in the reign of Henry VII., built or +rebuilt part of the church, and raised a steeple. +The church was almost totally destroyed in the +Great Fire, and repaired by Wren. Sir Robert +Viner, the famous goldsmith, contributed largely +towards the rebuilding, "a memorial whereof," says +Strype, "are the vines that adorn and spread about +that part of the church that fronts his house and +the street; insomuch, that the church was used +to be called Sir Robert Viner's church." Wren's +repairs having proved ineffectual, the church was +rebuilt in 1727. The workmen, twenty feet under +the ruins of the steeple, discovered bones, tusks, +Roman coins, and a vast number of broken Roman +pottery. It is generally thought by antiquaries that +a temple dedicated to Concord once stood here. +Hawksmoor, the architect of St. Mary Woolnoth, +was born the year of the Great Fire, and died +in 1736. He acted as Wren's deputy during the +erection of the Hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich, +and also in the building of most of the +City churches. The principal works of his own +design are Christ Church, Spitalfields, St. Anne's, +Limehouse, and St. George's, Bloomsbury. Mr. +J. Godwin, an excellent authority, calls St. Mary +Woolnoth "one of the most striking and original, +although not the most beautiful, churches in the +metropolis."</p> + +<p>On the north side of the communion-table is +a plain tablet in memory of that excellent man, +the Rev. John Newton, who was curate of Olney, +Bucks, for sixteen years, and rector of the united +parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch +twenty-eight years. He died on the 21st +of December, 1807, aged eighty-two years, and was +buried in a vault in this church.</p> + +<p>On the stone is the following inscription, full +of Christian humility:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a +servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our +Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, +and appointed to preach the faith he had long +laboured to destroy."</p></div> + +<p>Newton's father was master of a merchant-ship, +and Newton's youth was spent in prosecuting the +African slave-trade, a career of which he afterwards +bitterly repented. He is best known as the writer +(in conjunction with the poet Cowper) of the +"Olney Hymns."</p> + +<p>The exterior of this church is praised by competent +authorities for its boldness and originality, +though some critic says that the details are ponderous +enough for a fortress or a prison. The +elongated tower, from the arrangement of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1084" id="Page_1084">[Pg 1084]</a></span> +small chimney-like turrets at the top, has the appearance +of being two towers united. Dallaway +calls it an imitation of St. Sulpice, at Paris; but +unfortunately Servandoni built St. Sulpice some +time after St. Mary Woolnoth was completed. Mr. +Godwin seems to think Hawksmoor followed Vanbrugh's +manner in the heaviness of his design.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="mary" id="mary"></a> +<img src="images/p528.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. MARY WOOLNOTH</span> +</div> + +<p>St. Clement's Church, Clement's Lane, Lombard +Street, sometimes called St. Clement's, Eastcheap, +is noted by Newcourt as existing as early as 1309. +The rectory belonged to Westminster Abbey, but +was given by Queen Mary to the Bishop of London +and his successors for ever. After the Great Fire, +when the church was destroyed, the parish of St. +Martin Orgar was united to that of St. Clement's.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1085" id="Page_1085">[Pg 1085]</a></span> +The parish seem to have been pleased with Wren's +exertions in rebuilding, for in their register books +for 1685 there is the following item:—"To one-third +of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher +Wren, £4 2s."</p> + +<p>One of the rectors of St. Clement's, Dr. Benjamin +Stone, who had been presented to the living +by Bishop Juxon, being deemed too Popish by +Cromwell, was imprisoned for some time at Crosby +Hall. From thence he was sent to Plymouth, +where, after paying a fine of £60, he obtained his +liberty. On the restoration of Charles II., Stone +recovered his benefice, but died five years after. +In this church Bishop Pearson, then rector, delivered +his celebrated sermons on the Creed, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1086" id="Page_1086">[Pg 1086]</a></span> +he afterwards turned into his excellent Exposition, +a text-book of English divinity, which he dedicated +"to the right worshipful and well-beloved, the +parishioners of St. Clement's, Eastcheap."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="merchant" id="merchant"></a> +<img src="images/p529.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />INTERIOR OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The interior is a parallelogram, with the addition +of a south aisle, introduced in order to disguise the +intrusion of the tower, which stands at the south-west +angle of the building. The ceiling is divided +into panels, the centre one being a large oval band +of fruit and flowers.</p> + +<p>The pulpit and desk, as well as the large +sounding-board above them, are very elaborately +carved; and a marble font standing in the south +aisle has an oak cover of curious design. Among +many mural tablets are three which have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1087" id="Page_1087">[Pg 1087]</a></span> +erected at the cost of the parishioners, commemorative +of the Rev. Thomas Green, curate twenty-seven +years, who died in 1734; the Rev. John +Farrer, rector (1820); and the Rev. W. Valentine +Ireson, who was lecturer of the united parishes +thirty years, and died in 1822.</p> + +<p>In digging a new sewer in Lombard Street a +few years ago (says Pennant, writing in 1790), +the remains of a Roman road were discovered, +with numbers of coins, and several antique curiosities, +some of great elegance. The beds through +which the workmen sunk were four. The first consisted +of factitious earth, about thirteen feet six +inches thick, all accumulated since the desertion of +the ancient street; the second of brick, two feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1088" id="Page_1088">[Pg 1088]</a></span> +thick, the ruins of the buildings; the third of ashes, +only three inches; the fourth of Roman pavement, +both common and tessellated, over which the coins +and other antiquities were discovered. Beneath +that was the original soil. The predominant +articles were earthenware, and several were ornamented +in the most elegant manner. A vase of +red earth had on its surface a representation of a +fight of men, some on horseback, others on foot; +or perhaps a show of gladiators, as they all fought +in pairs, and many of them naked. The combatants +were armed with falchions and small round shields, +in the manner of the Thracians, the most esteemed +of the gladiators. Some had spears, and others a +kind of mace. A beautiful running foliage encompassed +the bottom of this vessel. On the fragment +of another were several figures. Among them +appears Pan with his <i>pedum</i>, or crook; and near +to him one of the <i>lascivi Satyri</i>, both in beautiful +skipping attitudes. On the same piece are two +tripods; round each is a serpent regularly twisted, +and bringing its head over a bowl which fills the +top. These seem (by the serpent) to have been +dedicated to Apollo, who, as well as his son Æsculapius, +presided over medicine. On the top of one +of the tripods stands a man in full armour. Might +not this vessel have been votive, made by order of +a soldier restored to health by favour of the god, +and to his active powers and enjoyment of rural +pleasures, typified under the form of Pan and his +nimble attendants? A plant extends along part +of another compartment, possibly allusive to their +medical virtues; and, to show that Bacchus was +not forgotten, beneath lies a <i>thyrsus</i> with a double +head.</p> + +<p>On another bowl was a free pattern of foliage. +On others, or fragments, were objects of the chase, +such as hares, part of a deer, and a boar, with +human figures, dogs, and horses; all these pieces +prettily ornamented. There were, besides, some +beads, made of earthenware, of the same form as +those called the <i>ovum anguinum</i>, and, by the Welsh, +<i>glain naidr</i>; and numbers of coins in gold, silver, +and brass, of Claudius, Nero, Galba, and other +emperors down to Constantine.</p> + +<p>St. Mary Abchurch was destroyed by the Great +Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1686. Maitland +says, "And as to this additional appellation of <i>Ab</i>, +or <i>Up-church</i>, I am at as great a loss in respect to +its meaning, as I am to the time when the church +was at first founded; but, as it appears to have +anciently stood on an eminence, probably that +epithet was conferred upon it in regard to the +church of St. Lawrence Pulteney, situate below."</p> + +<p>Stow gives one record of St. Mary Abchurch,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1089" id="Page_1089">[Pg 1089]</a></span> +which we feel a pleasure in chronicling:—"This +dame Helen Branch, buried here, widow of Sir +John Branch, Knt., Lord Mayor of London, an. +1580, gave £50 to be lent to young men of the +Company of Drapers, from four years to four years, +for ever, £50. Which lady gave also to poor +maids' marriages, £10. To the poor of Abchurch, +£10. To the poor prisoners in and about London, +£20. Besides, for twenty-six gowns to poor +men and women, £26. And many other worthy +legacies to the Universities."</p> + +<p>The pulpit and sounding-board are of oak, and +the font has a cover of the same material, presenting +carved figures of the four Evangelists within niches. +On the south side of the church is an elaborate +monument of marble, part of which is gilt, consisting +of twisted columns supporting a circular +pediment, drapery, cherubim, &c., to Mr. Edward +Sherwood, who died January 5th, 1690; and near +it is a second, in memory of Sir Patience Ward, +Knt., Alderman, and Lord Mayor of London in +1681. He died on the 10th of July, 1696. The +east end of the church is in Abchurch Lane, and +the south side faces an open paved space, divided +from the lane by posts. This was formerly enclosed +as a burial-ground, but was thrown open +for the convenience of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The present church was completed from the +designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1686. In the +interior it is nearly square, being about sixty-five +feet long, and sixty feet wide. The walls are plain, +having windows in the south side and at the east +end to light the church. The area of the church is +covered by a large and handsome cupola, supported +on a modillion cornice, and adorned with paintings +which were executed by Sir James Thornhill; and +in the lower part of this also are introduced other +lights. "The altar-piece," says Mr. G. Godwin, +"presents four Corinthian columns, with entablature +and pediment, grained to imitate oak, and has +a carved figure of a pelican over the centre compartment. +It is further adorned by a number of +carved festoons of fruit and flowers, which are so +exquisitely executed, that if they were a hundred +miles distant, we will venture to say they would +have many admiring visitants from London. These +carvings, by Grinling Gibbons, were originally +painted after nature by Sir James. They were +afterwards covered with white paint, and at this +time they are, in common with the rest of the +screen, of the colour of oak. Fortunately, however, +these proceedings, which must have tended to fill +up the more delicately carved parts, and to destroy +the original sharpness of the lines, have not materially +injured their general effect."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1090" id="Page_1090">[Pg 1090]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII</h2> + +<p class="center">THREADNEEDLE STREET</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Centre of Roman London—St. Benet Fink—The Monks of St. Anthony—The Merchant Taylors—Stow, Antiquary and Tailor—A Magnificent +Roll—The Good Deeds of the Merchant Taylors—The Old and the Modern Merchant Taylors' Hall—"Concordia parvæ res +crescunt"—Henry VII. enrolled as a Member of the Taylors' Company—A Cavalcade of Archers—The Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle +Street—A Painful Reminiscence—The Baltic Coffee-house—St. Anthony's School—The North and South American Coffee-house—The South +Sea House—History of the South Sea Bubble—Bubble Companies of the Period—Singular Infatuation of the Public—Bursting of the +Bubble—Parliamentary Inquiry into the Company's Affairs—Punishment of the Chief Delinquents—Restoration of Public Credit—The +Poets during the Excitement—Charles Lamb's Reverie.</p></div> + + +<p>In Threadneedle Street we stand in the centre of +Roman London. In 1805 a tesselated pavement, +now in the British Museum, was found at Lothbury. +The Exchange stands, as we have already mentioned, +on a mine of Roman remains. In 1840-41 +tesselated pavements were found, about twelve or +fourteen feet deep, beneath the old French Protestant +Church, with coins of Agrippa, Claudius, +Domitian, Marcus Aurelius, and the Constantines, +together with fragments of frescoes, and much charcoal +and charred barley. These pavements are +also preserved in the British Museum. In 1854, +in excavating the site of the church of St. Benet +Fink, there was found a large deposit of Roman +<i>débris</i>, consisting of Roman tiles, glass, and fragments +of black, pale, and red Samian pottery.</p> + +<p>The church of St. Benet Fink, of which a representation +is given at page 468, was so called from +one Robert Finck, or Finch, who built a previous +church on the same site (destroyed by the Fire of +1666). It was completed by Sir Christopher Wren, +in 1673, at the expense of £4,130, but was taken +down in 1844. The tower was square, surmounted +by a cupola of four sides, with a small turret on the +top. There was a large recessed doorway on the +north side, of very good design.</p> + +<p>The arrangement of the body of the church was +very peculiar, we may say unique; and although +far from beautiful, afforded a striking instance of +Wren's wonderful skill. The plan of the church +was a decagon, within which six composite columns +in the centre supported six semi-circular vaults. +Wren's power of arranging a plan to suit the site +was shown in numerous buildings, but in none +more forcibly than in this small church.</p> + +<p>"St. Benedict's," says Maitland, "is vulgarly +Bennet Fink. Though this church is at present a +donative, it was anciently a rectory, in the gift of +the noble family of Nevil, who probably conferred +the name upon the neighbouring hospital of St. +Anthony."</p> + +<p>Newcourt, who lived near St. Benet Fink, says +the monks of the Order of St. Anthony hard by +were so importunate in their requests for alms that +they would threaten those who refused them with +"St. Anthony's fire;" and that timid people were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1091" id="Page_1091">[Pg 1091]</a></span> +in the habit of presenting them with fat pigs, in +order to retain their goodwill. Their pigs thus +became numerous, and, as they were allowed to +roam about for food, led to the proverb, "He will +follow you like a St. Anthony's pig." Stow accounts +for the number of these pigs in another way, by +saying that when pigs were seized in the markets +by the City officers, as ill-fed or unwholesome, the +monks took possession of them, and tying a bell +about their neck, allowed them to stroll about on +the dunghills, until they became fit for food, when +they were claimed for the convent.</p> + +<p>The Merchant Taylors, whose hall is very appropriately +situated in Threadneedle Street, had their +first licence as "Linen Armourers" granted by +Edward I. Their first master, Henry de Ryall, was +called their "pilgrim," as one that travelled for the +whole company, and their wardens "purveyors of +dress." Their first charter is dated 1 Edward III. +Richard II. confirmed his grandfather's grants. +From Henry IV. they obtained a confirmatory +charter by the name of the "Master and Wardens +of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist of +London." Henry VI. gave them the right of +search and correction of abuses. The society +was incorporated in the reign of Edward IV., +who gave them arms; and Henry VII., being a +member of the Company, for their greater honour +transformed them from Tailors and Linen Armourers +to Merchant Taylors, giving them their +present acting charter, which afterwards received +the confirmation and <i>inspeximus</i> of five sovereigns—Henry +VIII., Edward VI., Philip and Mary, +Elizabeth, and James I.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt (says Herbert) that Merchant +Taylors were originally <i>bonâ fide</i> cutters-out and +makers-up of clothes, or dealers in and importers +of cloth, having tenter-grounds in Moorfields. +The ancient London tailors made both men's and +women's apparel, also soldiers' quilted surcoats, the +padded lining of armour, and probably the trappings +of war-horses. In the 27th year of Edward III. +the Taylors contributed £20 towards the French +wars, and in 1377 they sent six members to +the Common Council, a number equalling (says +Herbert) the largest guilds, and they were reckoned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1092" id="Page_1092">[Pg 1092]</a></span> +the seventh company in precedence. In 1483 we +find the Merchant Taylors and Skinners disputing +for precedence. The Lord Mayor decided they +should take precedence alternately; and, further, +most wisely and worshipfully decreed that each +Company should dine in the other's hall twice a +year, on the vigil of Corpus Christi and the feast of +St. John Baptist—a laudable custom, which soon +restored concord. In 1571 there is a precept from +the Mayor ordering that ten men of this Company +and ten men of the Vintners' should ward each of +the City gates every tenth day. In 1579 the Company +was required to provide and train 200 men +for arms. In 1586 the master and wardens are +threatened by the Mayor for not making the provision +of gunpowder required of all the London +companies. In 1588 the Company had to furnish +thirty-five armed men, as its quota for the Queen's +service against the dreaded Spanish Armada.</p> + +<p>In 1592 an interesting entry records Stow (a +tailor and member of the Company) presenting +his famous "Annals" to the house, and receiving +in consequence an annuity of £4 per annum, +eventually raised to £10. The Company afterwards +restored John Stow's monument in the +Church of St. Andrew Undershaft. Speed, also a +tailor and member of the Company, on the same +principle, seems to have presented the society with +valuable maps, for which, in 1600, curtains were +provided. In 1594 the Company subscribed £50 +towards a pest-house, the plague then raging in the +City, and the same year contributed £296 10s. +towards six ships and a pinnace fitted out for her +Majesty's service.</p> + +<p>In 1603 the Company contributed £234 towards +the £2,500 required from the London companies +to welcome James I. and his Danish queen to +England. Six triumphal arches were erected +between Fenchurch Street and Temple Bar, that +in Fleet Street being ninety feet high and fifty +broad. Decker and Ben Jonson furnished the +speeches and songs for this pageant. June 7, +1607, was one of the grandest days the Company +has ever known; for James I. and his son, Prince +Henry, dined with the Merchant Taylors. It had +been at first proposed to train some boys of Merchant +Taylors' School to welcome the king, but Ben +Jonson was finally invited to write an entertainment. +The king and prince dined separately. The +master presented the king with a purse of £100. +"Richard Langley shewed him a role, wherein was +registered the names of seaven kinges, one queene, +seventeene princes and dukes, two dutchesses, one +archbishoppe, one and thirtie earles, five countesses, +one viscount, fourteene byshoppes, sixtie and sixe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1093" id="Page_1093">[Pg 1093]</a></span> +barons, two ladies, seaven abbots, seaven priors, +and one sub-prior, omitting a great number of +knights, esquires, &c., who had been free of that +companie." The prince was then made a freeman, +and put on the garland. There were twelve +lutes (six in one window and six in another).</p> + +<p>"In the ayr betweene them" (or swung up +above their heads) "was a gallant shippe triumphant, +wherein was three menne like saylers, being +eminent for voyce and skill, who in their severall +songes were assisted and seconded by the cunning +lutanists. There was also in the hall the musique +of the cittie, and in the upper chamber the children +of His Majestie's Chappell sang grace at the King's +table; and also whilst the King sate at dinner +John Bull, Doctor of Musique, one of the organists +of His Majestie's Chapell Royall, being in a +cittizen's cap and gowne, cappe and hood (<i>i.e.</i>, +as a liveryman), played most excellent melodie +uppon a small payre of organes, placed there for +that purpose onely."</p> + +<p>The king seems at this time to have scarcely +recovered the alarm of the Gunpowder Plot; for +the entries in the Company's books show that +there was great searching of rooms and inspection +of walls, "to prevent villanie and danger to His +Majestie." The cost of this feast was more than +£1,000. The king's chamber was made by +cutting a hole in the wall of the hall, and building +a small room behind it.</p> + +<p>In 1607 (James I.), before a Company's dinner, +the names of the livery were called, and notice +taken of the absent. Then prayer was said, every +one kneeling, after which the names of benefactors +and their "charitable and godly devices" were +read, also the ordinances, and the orders for the +grammar-school in St. Laurence Pountney. Then +followed the dinner, to which were invited the +assistants and the ladies, and old masters' wives +and wardens' wives, the preacher, the schoolmaster, +the wardens' substitutes, and the humble almsmen +of the livery. Sometimes, as in 1645, the whole +livery was invited.</p> + +<p>The kindness and charity of the Company are +strongly shown in an entry of May 23, 1610, when +John Churchman, a past master, received a pension +of £20 per annum. With true consideration, they +allowed him to wear his bedesman's gown without +a badge, and did not require him to appear in the +hall with the other pensioners. All that was required +was that he should attend Divine service +and pray for the prosperity of the Company, and +share his house with Roger Silverwood, clerk of +the Bachellors' Company. Gifts to the Company +seem to have been numerous. Thus we have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1094" id="Page_1094">[Pg 1094]</a></span> +(1604) Richard Dove's gift of twenty gilt spoons, +marked with a dove; (1605) a basin and ewer, +value £59 12s., gift of Thomas Medlicott; (1614) +a standing cup, value 100 marks, from Murphy +Corbett; same year, seven pictures for the parlour, +from Mr. John Vernon.</p> + +<p>In 1640 the Civil War was brewing, and the +Mayor ordered the Company to provide (in their +garden) forty barrels of powder and 300 hundredweight +of metal and bullets. They had at this +time in their armoury forty muskets and rests, forty +muskets and headpieces, twelve round muskets, +forty corselets with headpieces, seventy pikes, 123 +swords, and twenty-three halberts. The same year +they lent £5,000 towards the maintenance of the +king's northern army. In the procession on the +return of Charles I. from Scotland, the Merchant +Taylors seem to have taken a very conspicuous +part. Thirty-four of the gravest, tallest, and most +comely of the Company, apparelled in velvet plush +or satin, with chains of gold, each with a footman +with two staff-torches, met the Lord Mayor and +aldermen outside the City wall, near Moorfields, +and accompanied them to Guildhall, and afterwards +escorted the king from Guildhall to his palace. +The footmen wore ribands of the colour of the +Company, and pendants with the Company's coat-of-arms. +The Company's standing extended 252 +feet. There stood the livery in their best gowns +and hoods, with their banners and streamers. +"Eight handsome, tall, and able men" attended +the king at dinner. This was the last honour +shown the faithless king by the citizens of +London.</p> + +<p>The next entries are about arms, powder, and +fire-engines, the defacing superstitious pictures, and +the setting up the arms of the Commonwealth. +In 1654 the Company was so impoverished by the +frequent forced loans, that they had been obliged +to sell part of their rental (£180 per annum); yet +at the same date the generous Company seem to +have given the poet Ogilvy £13 6s. 8d., he having +presented them with bound copies of his translations +of Virgil and Æsop into English metre. In +1664 the boys of Merchant Taylors' School acted +in the Company's hall Beaumont and Fletcher's +comedy of <i>Love's Pilgrimage</i>.</p> + +<p>In 1679 the Duke of York, as Captain-general +of the Artillery, was entertained by the artillerymen +at Merchant Taylors' Hall. It was supposed that +the banquet was given to test the duke's popularity +and to discomfit the Protestants and exclusionists. +After a sermon at Bow Church, the artillerymen +(128) mustered at dinner. Many zealous Protestants, +rather than dine with a Popish duke, tore<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1095" id="Page_1095">[Pg 1095]</a></span> +up their tickets or gave them to porters and +mechanics; and as the duke returned along Cheapside, +the people shouted, "No Pope, no Pope! +No Papist, no Papist!"</p> + +<p>In 1696 the Company ordered a portrait of Mr. +Vernon, one of their benefactors, to be hung up +in St. Michael's Church, Cornhill. In 1702 they +let their hall and rooms to the East India Company +for a meeting; and in 1721 they let a room +to the South Sea Company for the same purpose. +In 1768, when the Lord Mayor visited the King +of Denmark, the Company's committee decided, +"there should be no breakfast at the hall, <i>nor pipes +nor tobacco in the barge</i> as usual, on Lord Mayor's +Day." Mr. Herbert thinks that this is the last +instance of a Lord Mayor sending a precept to a +City company, though this is by no means certain. +In 1778, Mr. Clarkson, an assistant, for having +given the Company the picture, still extant, of +Henry VII. delivering his charter to the Merchant +Taylors, was presented with a silver waiter, value +£25.</p> + +<p>For the searching and measuring cloth, the +Company kept a "silver yard," that weighed thirty-six +ounces, and was graven with the Company's +arms. With this measure they attended Bartholomew +Fair yearly, and an annual dinner took place +on the occasion. The livery hoods seem finally, in +1568, to have settled down to scarlet and puce, the +gowns to blue. The Merchant Taylors' Company, +though not the first in City precedence, ranks more +royal and noble personages amongst its members +than any other company. At King James's visit, +before mentioned, no fewer than twenty-two earls +and lords, besides knights, esquires, and foreign ambassadors, +were enrolled. Before 1708, the Company +had granted the freedom to ten kings, three +princes, twenty-seven bishops, twenty-six dukes, +forty-seven earls, and sixteen lord mayors. The +Company is specially proud of three illustrious +members—Sir John Hawkwood, a great leader of +Italian Condottieri, who fought for the Dukes of +Milan, and was buried with honour in the Duomo +at Florence; Sir Ralph Blackwell, the supposed +founder of Blackwell Hall, and one of Hawkwood's +companions at arms; and Sir William Fitzwilliam, +Lord High Admiral to Henry VIII., and +Earl of Southampton. He left to the Merchant +Taylors his best standing cup, "in friendly remembrance +of him for ever." They also boast of +Sir William Craven, ancestor of the Earls of +Craven, who came up to London a poor Yorkshire +lad, and was bound apprentice to a draper. +His eldest son fought for Gustavus Adolphus, and +is supposed to have secretly married the unfortu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1096" id="Page_1096">[Pg 1096]</a></span>nate +Queen of Bohemia, whom he had so faithfully +served.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="ground" id="ground"></a> +<img src="images/p534.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />GROUND PLAN OF THE MODERN CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN OUTWICH. + (<i>From a measured Drawing by Mr. W.G. Smith, 1873.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"> +A. Monument: Edward Edwards, 1810.<br /> +B. Ancient Canopied Monument: "Pemberton," no date.<br /> +C. Monument: Cruickshank, 1826.<br /> +D. Monuments: Simpson, 1849; Ellis, 1838.<br /> +E. Monument: Ellis, 1855.<br /> +F. Monument: Simpson, 1837.<br /> +G. Monument: Rose, 1821.<br /> +H. Monuments: Atkinson, 1847; Ellis, 1838.<br /> +J. Monument: Richard Stapler.<br /> +K. Monument: Teesdale, 1804.<br /> +L, L. Stairs to Gallery above.<br /> +M. Very Ancient Effigy of Founder, St. Martin de Oteswich.<br /> +N. Reading Desk.<br /> +O. Pulpit.<br /> +P. Altar.<br /> +Q. Font.<br /> +R. Vestry.<br /></div> + +<p>The hall in Threadneedle Street originally belonged +to a worshipful gentleman named Edmund +Crepin. The Company moved there in 1331 +(Edward III.) from the old hall, which was behind +the "Red Lion," in Basing Lane, Cheapside, an +executor of the Outwich family leaving them the +advowson of St. Martin Outwich, and seventeen +shops. The Company built seven almshouses near +the hall in the reign of Henry IV. The original +mansion of Crepin probably at this time gave way +to a new hall, and to which now, for the first time, +were attached the almshouses mentioned. Both +these piles of building are shown in the ancient +plan of St. Martin Outwich, preserved in the +church vestry, and which was taken by William +Goodman in 1599. The hall, as there drawn, is +a high building, consisting of a ground floor and +three upper storeys. It has a central pointed-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1097" id="Page_1097">[Pg 1097]</a></span>arched gate of entrance, and is lighted in front +by nine large windows, exclusive of three smaller +attic windows, and at the east end by seven. The +roof is lofty and pointed, and is surmounted by a +louvre or lantern, with a vane. The almshouses +form a small range of cottage-like buildings, and are +situate between the hall and a second large building, +which adjoins the church, and bears some resemblance +to an additional hall or chapel. It appears +to rise alternately from one to two storeys high.</p> + +<p>In 1620 the hall was wainscoted instead of +whitewashed; and in 1646 it was paved with red +tile, rushes or earthen floors having "been found +inconvenient, and oftentimes noisome." At the +Great Fire the Company's plate was melted into +a lump of two hundred pounds' weight.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Edward VI., when there was an +inquiry into property devoted to superstitious uses, +the Company had been maintaining twenty-three +chantry priests.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1098" id="Page_1098">[Pg 1098]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="march" id="march"></a> +<img src="images/p535.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MARCH OF THE ARCHERS</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1099" id="Page_1099">[Pg 1099]</a></span></p> + +<p>The modern Merchant Taylors' Hall (says Herbert) +is a spacious but irregular edifice of brick. +The front exhibits an arched portal, consisting of +an arched pediment, supported on columns of the +Composite order, with an ornamental niche above; +in the pediment are the Company's arms. The hall +itself is a spacious and handsome apartment, having +at the lower end a stately screen of the Corinthian +order, and in the upper part a very large mahogany +table thirty feet long. The sides of the hall have +numerous emblazoned shields of masters' arms, and +behind the master's seat are inscribed in golden +letters the names of the different sovereigns, dukes, +earls, lords spiritual and temporal, &c., who have +been free of this community. In the drawing-room +are full-length portraits of King William and Queen +Mary, and other sovereigns; and in the court and +other rooms are half-lengths of Henry VIII. and +Charles II., of tolerable execution, besides various +other portraits, amongst which are those of Sir +Thomas White, Lord Mayor in 1553, the estimable +founder of St. John's College, Cambridge, +and Sir Thomas Rowe, Lord Mayor in 1568, +and Mr. Clarkson's picture of Henry VII. presenting +the Company with their incorporation +charter. In this painting the king is represented +seated on his throne, and delivering the charter +to the Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants +of the Company. His attendants are Archbishop +Warham, the Chancellor, and Fox, Bishop of Winchester, +Lord Privy Seal, on his right hand; and +on his left, Robert Willoughby, Lord Broke, then +Lord Steward of the Household. In niches are +shown the statues of Edward III. and John of +Gaunt, the king's ancestors. In the foreground +the clerk of the Company is exhibiting the roll +with the names of the kings, &c., who were free of +this Company. In the background are represented +the banners of the Company and of the City of +London. The Yeomen of the Guard, at the entrance +of the palace, close the view. On the staircase +are likewise pictures of the following Lord +Mayors, Merchant Taylors:—Sir William Turner, +1669; Sir P. Ward, 1681; Sir William Pritchard, +1683; and Sir John Salter, 1741.</p> + +<p>The interior of the "New Hall, or Taylors' Inne," +was adorned with costly tapestry, or arras, representing +the history of St. John the Baptist. It had +a screen, supporting a silver image of that saint in +a tabernacle, or, according to an entry of 1512, +"an ymage of St. John gilt, in a tabernacle gilt." +The hall windows were painted with armorial bearings; +the floor was regularly strewed with clean +rushes; from the ceiling hung silk flags and +streamers; and the hall itself was furnished, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1100" id="Page_1100">[Pg 1100]</a></span> +needful, with tables on tressels, covered on feast +days with splendid table linen, and glittering with +plate.</p> + +<p>The Merchant Taylors have for their armorial +ensigns—Argent, a tent royal between two parliament +robes; gules, lined ermine, on a chief +azure, a lion of England. Crest—a Holy Lamb, in +glory proper. Supporters—two camels, or. Motto—"Concordia +parvæ res crescunt."</p> + +<p>The stained glass windows of the old St. Martin +Outwich, as engraven in Wilkinson's history of that +church, contain a representation of the original +arms, granted by Clarencieux in 1480. They differ +from the present (granted in 1586), the latter having +a lion instead of the Holy Lamb (which is in the +body of the first arms), and which latter is now +their crest.</p> + +<p>One of the most splendid sights at this hall in +the earlier times would have been (says Herbert), +of course, when the Company received the high +honour of enrolling King Henry VII. amongst +their members; and subsequently to which, "he +sat openly among them in a gown of crimson +velvet on his shoulders," says Strype, "<i>à la mode +de Londres</i>, upon their solemn feast day, in the +hall of the said Company."</p> + +<p>From Merchant Taylors' Hall began the famous +cavalcade of the archers, under their leader, as +Duke of Shoreditch, in 1530, consisting of 3,000 +archers, sumptuously apparelled, 942 whereof wore +chains of gold about their necks. This splendid +company was guarded by whifflers and billmen, to +the number of 4,000, besides pages and footmen, +who marched through Broad Street (the residence +of the duke their captain). They continued their +march through Moorfields, by Finsbury, to Smithfield, +where, after having performed their several +evolutions, they shot at the target for glory.</p> + +<p>The Hall of Commerce, existing some years ago +in Threadneedle Street, was begun in 1830 by Mr. +Edward Moxhay, a speculative biscuit-baker, on the +site of the old French church. Mr. Moxhay had +been a shoemaker, but he suddenly started as a +rival to the celebrated Leman, in Gracechurch +Street. He was an amateur architect of talent, and +it was said at the time, probably unjustly, that the +building originated in Moxhay's vexation at the +Gresham committee rejecting his design for a new +Royal Exchange. He opened his great commercial +news-room two years before the Exchange +was finished, and while merchants were fretting at +the delay, intending to make the hall a mercantile +centre, to the annihilation of Lloyd's, the Baltic, +Garraway's, the Jerusalem, and the North and South +American Coffee-houses. £70,000 were laid out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1101" id="Page_1101">[Pg 1101]</a></span> +There was a grand bas-relief on the front by Mr. +Watson, a young sculptor of promise, and there +was an inaugurating banquet. The annual subscription +of £5 5s. soon dwindled to £1 10s. 6d. +There was a reading-room, and a room where +commission agents could exhibit their samples. +Wool sales were held there, and there was an +auction for railway shares. There were also rooms +for meetings of creditors and private arbitrations, +and rooms for the deposit of deeds.</p> + +<p>A describer of Threadneedle Street in 1845 +particularly mentions amongst the few beggars the +Creole flower-girls, the decayed ticket-porters, and +cripples on go-carts who haunted the neighbourhood, +a poor, shrivelled old woman, who sold fruit +on a stall at a corner of one of the courts. She +was the wife of Daniel Good, the murderer.</p> + +<p>The Baltic Coffee House, in Threadneedle Street, +used to be the rendezvous of tallow, oil, hemp, +and seed merchants; indeed, of all merchants and +brokers connected with the Russian trade. There +was a time when there was as much gambling in +tallow as in Consols, but the breaking down of +the Russian monopoly by the increased introduction +of South American and Australian tallow has +done away with this. Mr. Richard Thornton and +Mr. Jeremiah Harman were the two monarchs of +the Russian trade forty years ago. The public sale-room +was in the upper part of the house. The +Baltic was superintended by a committee of +management.</p> + +<p>That famous free school of the City, St. Anthony's, +stood in Threadneedle Street, where the +French church afterwards stood, and where the +Bank of London now stands. It was originally +a Jewish synagogue, granted by Henry V. to the +brotherhood of St. Anthony of Vienna. A hospital +was afterwards built there for a master, two +priests, a schoolmaster, and twelve poor men. The +Free School seems to have been built in the reign +of Henry VI., who gave five presentations to Eton +and five Oxford scholarships, at the rate of ten +francs a week each, to the institution. Henry VIII., +that arch spoliator, annexed the school to the +collegiate church of St. George's, Windsor. The +proctors of St. Anthony's used to wander about +London collecting "the benevolence of charitable +persons towards the building." The school had +great credit in Elizabeth's reign, and was a rival of +St. Paul's. That inimitable coxcomb, Laneham, +in his description of the great visit of Queen Elizabeth +to the Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle, +1575, a book which Sir Walter Scott has largely +availed himself of, says—"Yee mervail perchance," +saith he, "to see me so bookish. Let me tel you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1102" id="Page_1102">[Pg 1102]</a></span> +in few words. I went to school, forsooth, both at +Polle's and also at St. Antonie's; (was) in the fifth +forme, past Esop's Fables, readd Terence, <i>Vos isthæc +intro auferte</i>; and began with my Virgil, <i>Tityre tu +patulæ</i>. I could say my rules, could construe and +pars with the best of them," &c.</p> + +<p>In Elizabeth's reign "the Anthony's pigs," as +the "Paul's pigeons" used to call the Threadneedle +boys, used to have an annual breaking-up day procession, +with streamers, flags, and beating drums, +from Mile End to Austin Friars. The French or +Walloon church established here by Edward VI. +seems, in 1652, to have been the scene of constant +wrangling among the pastors, as to whether their +disputes about celebrating holidays should be settled +by "colloquies" of the foreign churches in London, +or the French churches of all England. At this +school were educated the great Sir Thomas More, +and that excellent Archbishop of Canterbury, the +zealous Whitgift (the friend of Beza, the Reformer), +whose only fault seems to have been his persecutions +of the Genevese clergy whom Elizabeth +disliked.</p> + +<p>Next in importance to Lloyd's for the general +information afforded to the public, was certainly the +North and South American Coffee House (formerly +situated in Threadneedle Street), fronting the +thoroughfare leading to the entrance of the Royal +Exchange. This establishment was the complete +centre for American intelligence. There was in +this, as in the whole of the leading City coffee-houses, +a subscription room devoted to the use of +merchants and others frequenting the house, who, +by paying an annual sum, had the right of attendance +to read the general news of the day, and +make reference to the several files of papers, which +were from every quarter of the globe. It was here +also that first information could be obtained of the +arrival and departure of the fleet of steamers, +packets, and masters engaged in the commerce of +America, whether in relation to the minor ports of +Montreal and Quebec, or the larger ones of Boston, +Halifax, and New York. The room the subscribers +occupied had a separate entrance to that which +was common to the frequenters of the eating and +drinking part of the house, and was most comfortably +and neatly kept, being well, and in some degree +elegantly furnished. The heads of the chief +American and Continental firms were on the subscription +list; and the representatives of Baring's, +Rothschild's, and the other large establishments +celebrated for their wealth and extensive mercantile +operations, attended the rooms as regularly as +'Change, to see and hear what was going on, and +gossip over points of business.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1103" id="Page_1103">[Pg 1103]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the north-east extremity of Threadneedle +Street is the once famous South Sea House. The +back, formerly the Excise Office, afterwards the +South Sea Company's office, thence called the Old +South Sea House, was consumed by fire in 1826. The +building in Threadneedle Street, in which the Company's +affairs were formerly transacted, is a magnificent +structure of brick and stone, about a quadrangle, +supported by stone pillars of the Tuscan order, +which form a fine piazza. The front looks into +Threadneedle Street, the walls being well built and +of great thickness. The several offices were admirably +disposed; the great hall for sales, the +dining-room, galleries, and chambers were equally +beautiful and convenient. Under these were capacious +arched vaults, to guard what was valuable +from the chances of fire.</p> + +<p>The South Sea Company was originated by +Swift's friend, Harley, Earl of Oxford, in the year +1711. The new Tory Government was less popular +than the Whig one it had displaced, and public +credit had fallen. Harley wishing to provide for +the discharge of ten millions of the floating debt, +guaranteed six per cent. to a company who agreed +to take it on themselves. The £600,000 due for +the annual interest was raised by duties on wines, +silks, tobacco, &c.; and the monopoly of the trade +to the South Seas granted to the ambitious new +Company, which was incorporated by Act of +Parliament.</p> + +<p>To the enthusiastic Company the gold of Mexico +and the silver of Peru seemed now obtainable by +the ship-load. It was reported that Spain was +willing to open four ports in Chili and Peru. The +negotiations, however, with Philip V. of Spain led +to little. The Company obtained only the privilege +of supplying the Spanish colonies with negro slaves +for thirty years, and sending an annual vessel to +trade; but even of this vessel the Spanish king +was to have one-fourth of the profits, and a tax of +five per cent. on the residue. The first vessel did +not sail till 1717, and the year after a rupture with +Spain closed the trade.</p> + +<p>In 1717, the King alluding to his wish to reduce +the National Debt, the South Sea Company at once +petitioned Parliament (in rivalry with the Bank) +that their capital stock might be increased from ten +millions to twelve, and offered to accept five, instead +of six per cent. upon the whole amount. Their +proposals were accepted.</p> + +<p>The success of Law's Mississippi scheme, in +1720, roused the South Sea directory to emulation. +They proposed to liquidate the public debt by +reducing the various funds into one. January 22, +1720, a committee met on the subject. The South<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1104" id="Page_1104">[Pg 1104]</a></span> +Sea Company offered to melt every kind of stock +into a single security. The debt amounted to +£30,981,712 at five per cent. for seven years, and +afterwards at four per cent, for which they would +Pay £3,500,000. The Government approved of +the scheme, but the Bank of England opposed +it, and offered £5,000,000 for the privilege. The +South Sea shareholders were not to be outdone, +and ultimately increased their terms to £7,500,000. +In the end they remained the sole bidders; +though some idea prevailed of sharing the advantage +between the two companies, till Sir John Blunt +exclaimed, "No, sirs, we'll never divide the child!" +The preference thus given excited a positive frenzy +in town and country. On the 2nd of June their +stock rose to 890; it quickly reached 1,000, and +several of the principal managers were dubbed +baronets for their "great services." Mysterious +rumours of vast treasures to be acquired in the +South Seas got abroad, and 50 per cent. was +boldly promised.</p> + +<p>"The scheme," says Smollett, "was first projected +by Sir John Blount, who had been bred a scrivener, +and was possessed of all the cunning, plausibility, +and boldness requisite for such an undertaking. +He communicated his plan to Mr. Aislabie, the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a Secretary of +State. He answered every objection, and the +project was adopted."</p> + +<p>Sir Robert Walpole alone opposed the bill in the +House, and with clear-sighted sense (though the +stock had risen from 130 to 300 in one day) denounced +"the dangerous practice of stock-jobbing, +and the general infatuation, which must," he said, +"end in general ruin." Rumours of free trade +with Spain pushed the shares up to 400, and the +bill passed the Commons by a majority of 172 +against 55. In the other House, 17 peers were +against it, and 83 for it. Then the madness fairly +began. Stars and garters mingled with squabbling +Jews, and great ladies pawned their jewels in order +to gamble in the Alley. The shares sinking a little, +they were revived by lying rumours that Gibraltar +and Port Mahon were going to be exchanged for +Peruvian sea-ports, so that the Company would be +allowed to send out whole fleets of ships.</p> + +<p>Government, at last alarmed, began too late to +act. On July 18 the King published a proclamation +denouncing eighteen petitions for letters patent +and eighty-six bubble companies, of which the following +are samples:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">For sinking pits and smelting lead ore in Derbyshire.<br /> +For making glass bottles and other glass.<br /> +For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital £1,000,000.<br /> +For improving of gardens.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1105" id="Page_1105">[Pg 1105]</a></span>For insuring and increasing children's fortunes.<br /> +For entering and loading goods at the Custom House; and for negotiating business for merchants.<br /> +For carrying on a woollen manufacture in the North of England.<br /> +For importing walnut-trees from Virginia. Capital £2,000,000.<br /> +For making Manchester stuffs of thread and cotton.<br /> +For making Joppa and Castile soap.<br /> +For improving the wrought iron and steel manufactures of this kingdom. Capital £4,000,000.<br /> +For dealing in lace, Hollands, cambrics, lawns, &c. Capital £2,000,000.<br /> +For trading in and improving certain commodities of the produce of this kingdom, &c. Capital £3,000,000.<br /> +For supplying the London markets with cattle.<br /> +For making looking-glasses, coach-glasses, &c. Capital £2,000,000.<br /> +For taking up ballast.<br /> +For buying and fitting out ships to suppress pirates.<br /> +For the importation of timber from Wales. Capital £2,000,000.<br /> +For rock-salt.<br /> +For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable, fine metal.</div> + +<p>One of the most famous bubbles was "Puckle's +Machine Company," for discharging round and +square cannon-balls and bullets, and making a +total revolution in the art of war. "But the +most absurd and preposterous of all," says Charles +Mackay, in his "History of the Delusion," "and +which showed more completely than any other the +utter madness of the people, was one started by +an unknown adventurer, entitled, <i>'A Company for +carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but +nobody to know what it is</i>.' Were not the fact +stated by scores of credible witnesses, it would be +impossible to believe that any person could have +been duped by such a project. The man of genius +who essayed this bold and successful inroad upon +public credulity merely stated in his prospectus +that the required capital was £500,000, in 5,000 +shares of £100 each, deposit £2 per share. Each +subscriber paying his deposit would be entitled to +£100 per annum per share. How this immense +profit was to be obtained he did not condescend to +inform them at the time, but promised that in a +month full particulars should be duly announced, +and a call made for the remaining £98 of the +subscription. Next morning, at nine o'clock, this +great man opened an office in Cornhill. Crowds +of people beset his door; and when he shut up at +three o'clock he found that no less than 1,000 shares +had been subscribed for, and the deposits paid. +He was thus in five hours the winner of £2,000. +He was philosopher enough to be contented with +his venture, and set off the same evening for the +Continent. He was never heard of again."</p> + +<p>Another fraud that was very successful was that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1106" id="Page_1106">[Pg 1106]</a></span> +of the "Globe Permits," as they were called. They +were nothing more than square pieces of playing +cards, on which was the impression of a seal, in +wax, bearing the sign of the "Globe Tavern," in +the neighbourhood of Exchange Alley, with the +inscription of "Sail-cloth Permits." The possessors +enjoyed no other advantage from them than permission +to subscribe at some future time to a new +sail-cloth manufactory, projected by one who was +then known to be a man of fortune, but who was +afterwards involved in the peculation and punishment +of the South Sea directors. These permits +sold for as much as sixty guineas in the Alley.</p> + +<p>During the infatuation (says Smollett), luxury, +vice, and profligacy increased to a shocking degree; +the adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary +wealth, pampered themselves with the rarest dainties +and the most costly wines. They purchased the +most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel, +though with no taste or discernment. Their +criminal passions were indulged to a scandalous +excess, and their discourse evinced the most disgusting +pride, insolence, and ostentation. They +affected to scoff at religion and morality, and even +to set Heaven at defiance.</p> + +<p>A journalist of the time writes: "Our South +Sea equipages increase daily; the City ladies buy +South Sea jewels, hire South Sea maids, take new +country South Sea houses; the gentlemen set up +South Sea coaches, and buy South Sea estates. +They neither examine the situation, the nature or +quality of the soil, or price of the purchase, only the +annual rent and title; for the rest, they take all by +the lump, and pay forty or fifty years' purchase!"</p> + +<p>By the end of May, the whole stock had risen +to 550. It then, in four days, made a tremendous +leap, and rose to 890. It was now thought impossible +that it could rise higher, and many prudent +persons sold out to make sure of their spoil. +Many of these were noblemen about to accompany +the king to Hanover. The buyers were so few on +June 3rd, that stock fell at once, like a plummet, +from 890 to 640. The directors ordering their +agents to still buy, confidence was restored, and +the stock rose to 750. By August, the stock culminated +at 1,000 per cent., or, as Dr. Mackay +observes, "the bubble was then full blown."</p> + +<p>The reaction soon commenced. Many government +annuitants complained of the directors' partiality +in making out the subscription lists. It was +soon reported that Sir John Blunt, the chairman, +and several directors had sold out. The stock fell +all through August, and on September 2nd was +quoted at 700 only. Things grew alarming. The +directors, to restore confidence, summoned a meet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1107" id="Page_1107">[Pg 1107]</a></span>ing +of the corporation at Merchant Taylors' Hall. +Cheapside was blocked by the crowd. Mr. Secretary +Craggs urged the necessity of union; and Mr. +Hungerford said the Company had done more +for the nation than Crown, pulpit, and bench. +It had enriched the whole nation. The Duke +of Portland gravely expressed his wonder that any +one could be dissatisfied. But the public were not +to be gulled; that same evening the stock fell to +640, and the next day to 540. It soon got so +low as 400. The ebb tide was running fast. +"Thousands of families," wrote Mr. Broderick to +Lord Chancellor Middleton, "will be reduced to +beggary. The consternation is inexpressible, the +rage beyond description." The Bank was pressed +to circulate the South Sea bonds, but as the panic +increased they fought off. Several goldsmiths and +bankers fled. The Sword Blade Company, the +chief cashiers of the South Sea Company, stopped +payment. King George returned in haste from +Hanover, and Parliament was summoned to meet +in December.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="south" id="south"></a> +<img src="images/p540.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE OLD SOUTH SEA HOUSE. <i>From a Print of the Period.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>In the first debate the enemies of the South Sea +Company were most violent. Lord Molesworth +said he should be satisfied to see the contrivers of +the scheme tied in sacks and thrown into the +Thames. Honest Shippen, whom even Walpole +could not bribe, looking fiercely in Mr. Secretary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1108" id="Page_1108">[Pg 1108]</a></span> +Craggs' face, said "there were other men in high +station who were no less guilty than the directors." +Mr. Craggs, rising in wrath, declared he was ready +to give satisfaction to any one in the House, or +out of it, and this unparliamentary language he +had afterwards to explain away. Ultimately a +second committee was appointed, with power to +send for persons, papers, and records. The directors +were ordered to lay before the house a full +account of all their proceedings, and were forbidden +to leave the kingdom for a twelvemonth.</p> + +<p>Mr. Walpole laid before a committee of the +whole house his scheme for the restoration of +public credit, which was, in substance, to ingraft +nine millions of South Sea stock into the Bank of +England, and the same sum into the East India +Company, upon certain conditions. The plan was +favourably received by the House. After some few +objections it was ordered that proposals should be +received from the two great corporations. They +were both unwilling to lend their aid, and the +plan met with a warm but fruitless opposition at +the general courts summoned for the purpose of +deliberating upon it. They, however, ultimately +agreed upon the terms on which they would consent +to circulate the South Sea bonds; and their report +being presented to the committee, a bill was then +brought in, under the superintendence of Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1109" id="Page_1109">[Pg 1109]</a></span> +Walpole, and safely carried through both Houses +of Parliament.</p> + +<p>In the House of Lords, Lord Stanhope said that +every farthing possessed by the criminals, whether +directors or not, ought to be confiscated, to make +good the public losses.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="stone" id="stone"></a> +<img src="images/p541.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />LONDON STONE</span> +</div> + +<p>The wrath of the House of Commons soon fell +quick and terrible as lightning on two members of +the Ministry, Craggs, and Mr. Aislabie, Chancellor +of the Exchequer. It was ordered, on the 21st of +January, that all South Sea brokers should lay +before the House a full account of all stock bought +or sold by them to any officers of the Treasury or +Exchequer since Michaelmas, 1719. Aislabie instantly +resigned his office, and absented himself +from Parliament, and five of the South Sea directors +(including Mr. Gibbon, the grandfather of the +historian) were ordered into the custody of the +Black Rod.</p> + +<p>The next excitement was the flight of Knight, +the treasurer of the Company, with all his books +and implicating documents, and a reward of £2,000 +was offered for his apprehension. The same night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1110" id="Page_1110">[Pg 1110]</a></span> +the Commons ordered the doors of the House to +be locked, and the keys laid on the table.</p> + +<p>General Ross, one of the members of the Select +Committee, then informed the House that there +had been already discovered a plot of the deepest +villany and fraud that Hell had ever contrived +to ruin a nation. Four directors, members of the +House—<i>i.e.</i>, Sir Robert Chaplin, Sir Theodore +Janssen, Mr. Sawbridge, and Mr. F. Eyles—were +expelled the House, and taken into the custody of +the Serjeant-at-Arms. Sir John Blunt, another +director, was also taken into custody. This man, +mentioned by Pope in his "Epistle to Lord +Bathurst," had been a scrivener, famed for his +religious observances and his horror of avarice. +He was examined at the bar of the House of Lords, +but refused to criminate himself. The Duke of +Wharton, vexed at this prudent silence of the +criminal, accused Earl Stanhope of encouraging this +taciturnity of the witness. The Earl became so +excited in his return speech, that it brought on an +apoplectic fit, of which he died the next day, to +the great grief of his royal master, George I. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1111" id="Page_1111">[Pg 1111]</a></span> +Committee of Secrecy stated that in some of the +books produced before them, false and fictitious +entries had been made; in others there were +entries of money, with blanks for the names of the +stockholders. There were frequent erasures and +alterations, and in some of the books leaves had +been torn out. They also found that some books +of great importance had been destroyed altogether, +and that some had been taken away or secreted. +They discovered, moreover, that before the South +Sea Act was passed there was an entry in the +Company's books of the sum of £1,259,325 upon +account of stock stated to have been sold to the +amount of £574,500. This stock was all fictitious, +and had been disposed of with a view to promote +the passing of the bill. It was noted as sold on +various days, and at various prices, from 150 to +325 per cent.</p> + +<p>Being surprised to see so large an amount +disposed of, at a time when the Company were +not empowered to increase their capital, the committee +determined to investigate most carefully +the whole transaction. The governor, sub-governor, +and several directors were brought before them and +examined rigidly. They found that at the time +these entries were made the Company were not in +possession of such a quantity of stock, having in +their own right only a small quantity, not exceeding +£30,000 at the utmost. They further discovered +that this amount of stock was to be esteemed as +taken or holden by the Company for the benefit +of the pretended purchasers, although no mutual +agreement was made for its delivery or acceptance +at any certain time. No money was paid down, +nor any deposit or security whatever given to the +Company by the supposed purchasers; so that if +the stock had fallen, as might have been expected +had the act not passed, they would have sustained +no loss. If, on the contrary, the price of stock +advanced (as it actually did by the success of the +scheme), the difference by the advanced price was +to be made good by them. Accordingly, after the +passing of the act, the account of stock was made +up and adjusted with Mr. Knight, and the pretended +purchasers were paid the difference out of +the Company's cash. This fictitious stock, which +had chiefly been at the disposal of Sir John Blunt, +Mr. Gibbon, and Mr. Knight, was distributed +among several members of the Government and +their connections, by way of bribe, to facilitate the +passing of the bill. To the Earl of Sunderland was +assigned £50,000 of this stock; to the Duchess +of Kendal, £10,000; to the Countess of Platen, +£10,000; to her two nieces, £10,000; to Mr. +Secretary Craggs, £30,000; to Mr. Charles Stan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1112" id="Page_1112">[Pg 1112]</a></span>hope +(one of the Secretaries of the Treasury), +£10,000; to the Sword Blade Company, £50,000. +It also appeared that Mr. Stanhope had received +the enormous sum of £250,000, as the difference +in the price of some stock, through the hands of +Turner, Caswall, and Co., but that his name had +been partly erased from their books, and altered to +Stangape.</p> + +<p>The punishment fell heavy on the chief offenders, +who, after all, had only shared in the general lust +for gold. Mr. Charles Stanhope, a great gainer, +managed to escape by the influence of the Chesterfield +family, and the mob threatened vengeance. +Aislabie, who had made some £800,000, was expelled +the House, sent to the Tower, and compelled +to devote his estate to the relief of the sufferers. +Sir George Caswall was expelled the House, and +ordered to refund £250,000. The day he went to +the Tower, the mob lit bonfires and danced round +them for joy. When by a general whip of the Whigs +the Earl of Sunderland was acquitted, the mob +grew menacing again. That same day the elder +Craggs died of apoplexy. The report was that he +had poisoned himself, but excitement and the death +of a son, one of the secretaries of the Treasury, were +the real causes. His enormous fortune of a million +and a half was scattered among the sufferers. +Eventually the directors were fined £2,014,000, +each man being allowed a small modicum of his +fortune. Sir John Blunt was only allowed £5,000 +out of his fortune of £183,000; Sir John Fellows +was allowed £10,000 out of £243,000; Sir Theodore +Janssen, £50,000 out of £243,000; Sir John +Lambert, £5,000 out of £72,000. One director, +named Gregsley, was treated with especial severity, +because he was reported to have once declared he +would feed his carriage-horses off gold; another, +because years before he had been mixed up with +some harmless but unsuccessful speculation. According +to Gibbon the historian, it was the Tory +directors who were stripped the most unmercifully.</p> + +<p>"The next consideration of the Legislature," says +Charles Mackay, "after the punishment of the +directors, was to restore public credit. The scheme +of Walpole had been found insufficient, and had +fallen into disrepute. A computation was made of +the whole capital stock of the South Sea Company +at the end of the year 1720. It was found to +amount to £37,800,000, of which the stock allotted +to all the proprietors only reached £24,500,000. +The remainder of £13,300,000 belonged to the +Company in their corporate capacity, and was the +profit they had made by the national delusion. +Upwards of £8,000,000 of this was taken from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1113" id="Page_1113">[Pg 1113]</a></span> +the Company, and divided among the proprietors +and subscribers generally, making a dividend of +about £33 6s. 8d. per cent. This was a great +relief. It was further ordered that such persons as +had borrowed money from the South Sea Company +upon stock actually transferred and pledged, at the +time of borrowing, to or for the use of the Company, +should be free from all demands upon payment +of ten per cent. of the sums so borrowed. +They had lent about £11,000,000 in this manner, +at a time when prices were unnaturally raised; and +they now received back £1,100,000, when prices +had sunk to their ordinary level."</p> + +<p>A volume (says another writer) might be collected +of anecdotes connected with this fatal speculation. +A tradesman at Bath, who had invested his only +remaining fortune in this stock, finding it had +fallen from 1,000 to 900, left Bath with an intention +to sell out; on his arrival in London it had +fallen to 250. He thought the price too low, +sanguinely hoped that it would re-ascend, still deferred +his purpose, and lost his all.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Chandos had embarked £300,000 +in this project; the Duke of Newcastle strongly +advised his selling the whole, or at least a part, +with as little delay as possible; but this salutary +advice he delayed to take, confidently anticipating +the gain of at least half a million, and through rejecting +his friend's counsel, he lost the whole. Some +were, however, more fortunate. The guardians of +Sir Gregory Page Turner, then a minor, had purchased +stock for him very low, and sold it out +when it had reached its maximum, to the amount +of £200,000. With this large sum Sir Gregory +built a fine mansion at Blackheath, and purchased +300 acres of land for a park. Two maiden +sisters, whose stock had accumulated to £90,000, +sold out when the South Sea stock was at 790. +The broker whom they employed advised them +to re-invest in navy bills, which were at the time at +a discount of twenty-five per cent.; they took his +advice, and two years afterwards received their +money at par.</p> + +<p>Even the poets did not escape. Gay (says Dr. +Johnson, in his "Lives of the Poets") had a +present from young Craggs of some South Sea +stock, and once supposed himself to be the master +of £20,000. His friends, especially Arbuthnot, +persuaded him to sell his share, but he dreamed of +dignity and splendour, and could not bear to obstruct +his own fortune. He was then importuned +to sell as much as would purchase a hundred a +year for life, "which," said Fenton, "will make +you sure of a clean shirt and a shoulder of mutton +every day." This counsel was rejected; the profit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1114" id="Page_1114">[Pg 1114]</a></span> +and principal were both lost, and Gay sunk so low +under the calamity that his life for a time became +in danger.</p> + +<p>Pope, always eager for money, was also dabbling +in the scheme, but it is uncertain whether he made +money or lost by it. Lady Mary Wortley Montague +was a loser. When Sir Isaac Newton was asked +when the bubble would break, he said, with all his +calculations he had never learned to calculate the +madness of the people.</p> + +<p>Prior declared, "I am lost in the South Sea. +The roaring of the waves and the madness of the +people are justly put together. It is all wilder +than St. Anthony's dream, and the bagatelle is +more solid than anything that has been endeavoured +here this year."</p> + +<p>In the full heat of it, the Duchess of Ormond +wrote to Swift: "The king adopts the South Sea, +and calls it his beloved child; though perhaps, +you may say, if he loves it no better than his son, +it may not be saying much; but he loves it as +much as he loves the Duchess of Kendal, and +that is saying a good deal. I wish it may thrive, +for some of my friends are deep in it. I wish +you were too."</p> + +<p>Swift, cold and stern, escaped the madness, and +even denounced in the following verses the insanity +that had seized the times:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"There is a gulf where thousands fell,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here all the bold adventurers came;</span><br /> +A narrow sound, though deep as hell—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Change Alley is the dreadful name.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Subscribers here by thousands float,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And jostle one another down;</span><br /> +Each paddling in his leaky boat,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And here they fish for gold and drown.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Now buried in the depths below,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now mounted up to heaven again,</span><br /> +They reel and stagger to and fro,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">At their wit's end, like drunken men."</span></div> + +<p>Budgell, Pope's barking enemy, destroyed himself +after his losses in this South Sea scheme, and a +well-known man of the day called "Tom of Ten +Thousand" lost his reason.</p> + +<p>Charles Lamb, in his "Elia," has described the +South Sea House in his own delightful way. +"Reader," says the poet clerk, "in thy passage +from the Bank—where thou hast been receiving +thy half-yearly dividends (supposing thou art a +lean annuitant like myself)—to the 'Flower Pot,' +to secure a place for Dalston, or Shacklewell, or +some other shy suburban retreat northerly—didst +thou never observe a melancholy-looking, handsome +brick and stone edifice, to the left, where +Threadneedle Street abuts upon Bishopsgate? I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1115" id="Page_1115">[Pg 1115]</a></span> +dare say thou hast often admired its magnificent +portals, ever gaping wide, and disclosing to view +a grave court, with cloisters and pillars, with few +or no traces of goers-in or comers-out—a desolation +something like Balclutha's.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> This was once a +house of trade—a centre of busy interests. The +throng of merchants was here—the quick pulse of +gain—and here some forms of business are still +kept up, though the soul has long since fled. Here +are still to be seen stately porticoes; imposing staircases; +offices roomy as the state apartments in +palaces—deserted, or thinly peopled with a few +straggling clerks; the still more sacred interiors of +court and committee rooms, with venerable faces +of beadles, door-keepers; directors seated in form +on solemn days (to proclaim a dead dividend), at +long worm-eaten tables, that have been mahogany, +with tarnished gilt-leather coverings, supporting +massy silver inkstands, long since dry; the oaken +wainscots hung with pictures of deceased governors +and sub-governors, of Queen Anne, and the two first +monarchs of the Brunswick dynasty; huge charts, +which subsequent discoveries have antiquated; +dusty maps of Mexico, dim as dreams; and soundings +of the Bay of Panama! The long passages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1116" id="Page_1116">[Pg 1116]</a></span> +hung with buckets, appended, in idle row to walls, +whose substance might defy any, short of the last +conflagration; with vast ranges of cellarage under +all, where dollars and pieces-of-eight once lay, 'an +unsunned heap,' for Mammon to have solaced his +solitary heart withal—long since dissipated, or +scattered into air at the blast of the breaking of +that famous Bubble.</p> + +<p>"Peace to the manes of the Bubble! Silence +and destitution are upon thy walls, proud house, +for a memorial! Situated as thou art in the very +heart of stirring and living commerce, amid the +fret and fever of speculation—with the Bank, and +the 'Change, and the India House about thee, in +the hey-day of present prosperity, with their important +faces, as it were, insulting thee, their <i>poor +neighbour out of business</i>—to the idle and merely +contemplative—to such as me, Old House! there is +a charm in thy quiet, a cessation, a coolness from +business, an indolence almost cloistral, which is +delightful! With what reverence have I paced thy +great bare rooms and courts at eventide! They +spake of the past; the shade of some dead accountant, +with visionary pen in ear, would flit by +me, stiff as in life."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1117" id="Page_1117">[Pg 1117]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "I passed by the walls of Balclutha, and they were +desolate." (Ossian.)</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII</h2> + +<p class="center">CANNON STREET</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>London Stone and Jack Cade—Southwark Bridge—Old City Churches—The Salters' Company's Hall, and the Salters' Company's History—Oxford +House—Salters' Banquets—Salters' Hall Chapel—A Mysterious Murder in Cannon Street—St. Martin Orgar—King William's +Statue—Cannon Street Station.</p></div> + + +<p>Cannon Street was originally called Candlewick +Street, from the candle-makers who lived there. +It afterwards became a resort of drapers.</p> + +<p>London Stone, the old Roman <i>milliarium</i>, or +milestone, is now a mere rounded boulder, set in +a stone case built into the outer southern wall of +the church of St. Swithin, Cannon Street. Camden, +in his "Britannia," says—"The stone called London +Stone, from its situation in the centre of the +longest diameter of the City, I take to have been +a miliary, like that in the Forum at Rome, from +whence all the distances were measured."</p> + +<p>Camden's opinion, that from this stone the +Roman roads radiated, and that by it the distances +were reckoned, seems now generally received. +Stow, who thinks that there was some legend of +the early Christians connected with it, says:—"On +the south side of this high street (Candlewick or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1118" id="Page_1118">[Pg 1118]</a></span> +Cannon Street), near unto the channel, is pitched +upright a great stone, called London Stone, fixed +in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron, +and otherwise so strongly set, that if carts do run +against it through negligence, the wheels be broken +and the stone itself unshaken. The cause why this +stone was set there, the time when, or other memory +is none."</p> + +<p>Strype describes it in his day as already set in its +case. "This stone, before the Fire of London, was +much worn away, and, as it were, but a stump +remaining. But it is now, for the preservation of +it, cased over with a new stone, handsomely wrought, +cut hollow underneath, so as the old stone may be +seen, the new one being over it, to shelter and +defend the old venerable one."</p> + +<p>It stood formerly on the south side of Cannon +Street, but was removed to the north, December +13th, 1742. In 1798 it was again removed, as an obstruction, +and, but for the praiseworthy interposition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1119" id="Page_1119">[Pg 1119]</a></span> +of a local antiquary, Mr. Thomas Malden, a printer +in Sherborne Lane, it would have been destroyed.</p> + +<p>This most interesting relic of Roman London is +that very stone which the arch-rebel Jack Cade +struck with his bloody sword when he had stormed +London Bridge, and "Now is Mortimer lord of this +city" were the words he uttered too confidently as +he gave the blow. Shakespeare, who perhaps wrote +from tradition, makes him strike London Stone +with his staff:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Cade.</i> Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, +sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that the +conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. +And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls +me Lord Mortimer."—<i>Shakespeare, Second Part of Henry VI.</i>, +act iv., sc. 6.</p></div> + +<p>Dryden, too, mentions this stone in a very fine +passage of his Fable of the "Cock and the Fox:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span style="margin-left: 11em;">"The bees in arms</span><br /> +Drive headlong from the waxen cells in swarms.<br /> +Jack Straw at London Stone, with all his rout,<br /> +Struck not the city with so loud a shout."</div> + +<p>Of the old denizens of this neighbourhood in +Henry VIII.'s days, Stow gives a very picturesque +sketch in the following passage, where he says:—"The +late Earl of Oxford, father to him that now +liveth, hath been noted within these forty years to +have ridden into this city, and so to his house by +London Stone, with eighty gentlemen in a livery of +Reading tawny, and chains of gold about their +necks, before him, and one hundred tall yeomen in +the like livery to follow him, without chains, but all +having his cognizance of the blue boar embroidered +on their left shoulder."</p> + +<p>A turning from Cannon Street leads us to +Southwark Bridge. The cost of this bridge was +computed at £300,000, and the annual revenue +was estimated at £90,000. Blackfriars Bridge tolls +amounted to a large annual sum; and it was +supposed Southwark might fairly claim about a +third of it. Great stress also was laid on the +improvements that would ensue in the miserable +streets about Bankside and along the road to the +King's Bench. We need scarcely remind our +readers that the bridge never answered, and was +almost disused till the tolls were removed and it +was thrown open to general traffic.</p> + +<p>"Southwark Bridge," says Mr. Timbs, "designed +by John Rennie, F.R.S., was built by a public +company, and cost about £800,000. It consists of +three cast-iron arches; the centre 240 feet span, +and the two side arches 210 feet each, about forty-two +feet above the highest spring-tides; the ribs +forming, as it were, a series of hollow masses, or +voussoirs, similar to those of stone, a principle new +in the construction of cast-iron bridges, and very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1120" id="Page_1120">[Pg 1120]</a></span> +successful. The whole of the segmental pieces and +the braces are kept in their places by dovetailed +sockets and long cast-iron wedges, so that bolts are +unnecessary, although they were used during the +construction of the bridge to keep the pieces in +their places until the wedges had been driven. The +spandrels are similarly connected, and upon them +rests the roadway, of solid plates of cast-iron, joined +by iron cement. The piers and abutments are of +stone, founded upon timber platforms resting upon +piles driven below the bed of the river. The +masonry is tied throughout by vertical and horizontal +bond-stones, so that the whole rests as one +mass in the best position to resist the horizontal +thrust. The first stone was laid by Admiral Lord +Keith, May 23rd, 1815, the bill for erecting the +bridge having been passed May 16th, 1811. The +iron-work (weight 5,700 tons) had been so well put +together by the Walkers of Rotherham, the founders, +and the masonry by the contractors, Jolliffe and +Banks, that, when the work was finished, scarcely +any sinking was discernible in the arches. From +experiments made to ascertain the expansion and +contraction between the extreme range of winter +and summer temperature, it was found that the arch +rose in the summer about one inch to one and a +half inch. The works were commenced in 1813, +and the bridge was opened by lamp-light, March +24th, 1819, as the clock of St. Paul's Cathedral +tolled midnight. Towards the middle of the western +side of the bridge used to be a descent from the +pavement to a steam-boat pier."</p> + +<p>Mr. Charles Dickens, in one of the chapters of +his "Uncommercial Traveller," has sketched, in +his most exquisite manner, just such old City +churches as we have in Cannon Street and its +turnings. The dusty oblivion into which they +are sinking, their past glory, their mouldy old +tombs—everything he paints with the correctness +of Teniers and the finish of Gerard Dow.</p> + +<p>"There is," he says, "a pale heap of books in +the corner of my pew, and while the organ, which +is hoarse and sleepy, plays in such fashion that I +can hear more of the rusty working of the stops +than of any music, I look at the books, which are +mostly bound in faded baize and stuff. They +belonged, in 1754, to the Dowgate family. And +who were they? Jane Comfort must have married +young Dowgate, and come into the family that way. +Young Dowgate was courting Jane Comfort when +he gave her her prayer-book, and recorded the presentation +in the fly-leaf. If Jane were fond of +young Dowgate, why did she die and leave the +book here? Perhaps at the rickety altar, and +before the damp Commandments, she, Comfort,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1121" id="Page_1121">[Pg 1121]</a></span> +had taken him, Dowgate, in a flush of youthful +hope and joy; and perhaps it had not turned out +in the long run as great a success as was expected.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="fourth" id="fourth"></a> +<img src="images/p546.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE FOURTH SALTERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>"The opening of the service recalls my wandering +thoughts. I then find to my astonishment +that I have been, and still am, taking a strong kind +of invisible snuff up my nose, into my eyes, and +down my throat. I wink, sneeze, and cough. +The clerk sneezes: the clergyman winks; the +unseen organist sneezes and coughs (and probably +winks); all our little party wink, sneeze, and cough. +The snuff seems to be made of the decay of matting, +wood, cloth, stone, iron, earth, and something +else. Is the something else the decay of dead +citizens in the vaults below? As sure as death it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1122" id="Page_1122">[Pg 1122]</a></span> +is! Not only in the cold, damp February day, do +we cough and sneeze dead citizens, all through the +service, but dead citizens have got into the very +bellows of the organ, and half-choked the same. +We stamp our feet to warm them, and dead citizens +arise in heavy clouds. Dead citizens stick upon +the walls, and lie pulverised on the sounding-board +over the clergyman's head, and when a gust of air +comes, tumble down upon him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"In the churches about Mark Lane there was +a dry whiff of wheat; and I accidentally struck +an airy sample of barley out of an aged hassock +in one of them. From Rood Lane to Tower +Street, and thereabouts, there was sometimes a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1123" id="Page_1123">[Pg 1123]</a></span> +subtle flavour of wine; sometimes of tea. One +church, near Mincing Lane, smelt like a druggist's +drawer. Behind the Monument, the service had a +flavour of damaged oranges, which, a little further +down the river, tempered into herrings, and gradually +toned into a cosmopolitan blast of fish. In one +church, the exact counterpart of the church in +the 'Rake's Progress,' where the hero is being +married to the horrible old lady, there was no +speciality of atmosphere, until the organ shook a +perfume of hides all over us from some adjacent +warehouse.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="cordwainers" id="cordwainers"></a> +<img src="images/p547.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />CORDWAINERS' HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>"The dark vestries and registries into which I +have peeped, and the little hemmed-in churchyards +that have echoed to my feet, have left impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1124" id="Page_1124">[Pg 1124]</a></span> +on my memory as distinct and quaint as any it has +that way received. In all those dusty registers +that the worms are eating, there is not a line but +made some hearts leap, or some tears flow, in their +day. Still and dry now, still and dry! And the +old tree at the window, with no room for its +branches, has seen them all out. So with the +tomb of the old master of the old company, on +which it drips. His son restored it and died, his +daughter restored it and died, and then he had +been remembered long enough, and the tree took +possession of him, and his name cracked out."</p> + +<p>The Salters, who have anchored in Cannon +Street, have had at least four halls before the +present one. The first was in Bread Street, to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1125" id="Page_1125">[Pg 1125]</a></span> +near their kinsmen, the Fishmongers, in the old +fish market of London, Knightrider Street. It is +noticed, apparently, as a new building, in the will +of Thomas Beamond, Salter, 1451, who devised to +"Henry Bell and Robert Bassett, wardens of the +fraternity and gild of the Salters, of the body and +blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church of +All Saints, of Bread Street, London, and to the +brothers and sisters of the same fraternity and gild, +and their successors for ever, the land and ground +where there was then lately erected a hall called +Salters' Hall, and six mansions by him then newly +erected upon the same ground, in Bread Street, in +the parish of All Saints." The last named were +the Company's almshouses.</p> + +<p>This hall was destroyed by fire in 1533. The +second hall, in Bread Street, had an almshouse +adjoining, as Stow tells us, "for poore decayed +brethren." It was destroyed by fire in 1598. This +hall was afterwards used by Parliamentary committees. +There the means of raising new regiments +was discussed, and there, in 1654, the judges for +a time sat. The third hall (and these records +furnish interesting facts to the London topographer) +was a mansion of the prior of Tortington (Sussex), +near the east end of St. Swithin's Church, London +Stone. The Salters purchased it, in 1641, of +Captain George Smith, and it was then called +Oxford House, or Oxford Place. It had been the +residence of Maister Stapylton, a wealthy alderman. +The house is a marked one in history, as at the +back of it, according to Stow, resided those bad +guiding ministers of the miser king Henry VII., +Empson and Dudley, who, having cut a door into +Oxford House garden, used to meet there, like the +two usurers in Quintin Matsys' picture, and suggest +war taxes to each other under the leafy limes of the +old garden. Sir Ambrose Nicholas and Sir John +Hart, both Salters, kept their mayoralties here.</p> + +<p>The fourth hall, built after the Great Fire had +made clear work of Oxford House, was a small +brick building, the entrance opening within an +arcade of three arches springing from square +fluted pillars. A large garden adjoined it, and +next that was the Salters' Hall Meeting House. +The parlour was handsome, and there were a few +original portraits. This hall, the clerk's house, with +another at the gate of St. Swithin's Lane, were pulled +down and sold in 1821. The present hall was designed +by Mr. Henry Carr, and completed in 1827.</p> + +<p>As a chartered company there is no record of +the Salters before the 37th year of Edward III., +when liberties were granted them. In the 50th of +Edward III. they sent members to the common +council. Richard II. granted them a livery, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1126" id="Page_1126">[Pg 1126]</a></span> +they were first incorporated in 1558 by Elizabeth. +Henry VIII. had granted them arms, and Elizabeth +a crest and supporters. The arms are:—Chevron +azure and gules, three covered salts, or, +springing salt proper. On a helmet and torse, +issuing out of a cloud argent, a sinister arm proper, +holding a salt as the former. Supporters, two +otters argent plattée, gorged with ducal coronets, +thereto a chain affixed and reflected, or; motto, +"Sal sapit Omnia." "A Short Account of the +Salters' Company," printed for private distribution, +rejects the otters as supporters, in favour of ounces +or small leopards, which latter, it states, have been +adopted by the assistants, in the arms put up in +their new hall; and it gives the following, "furnished +by a London antiquary," as the Salters' real +supporters:—Two ounces sable besante, gorged +with crowns and chased gold. The Salters claim +to have received eight charters.</p> + +<p>The Romans worked salt-pits in England, and +salt-works are frequently mentioned in Domesday +Book. Rock or fossil salt, says Herbert, was +never worked in England till 1670, when it was +discovered in Cheshire. The enormous use of salt +fish in the Catholic households of the Middle Ages +brought wealth to the Salters.</p> + +<p>In a pageant of 1591, written by the poet Peele, +one clad like a sea-nymph presented the Salter +mayor (Webb) with a rigged and manned pinnace, +as he took barge to go to Westminster.</p> + +<p>In the Drapers' pageant of 1684, when each of +the twelve companies were represented by allegorical +figures, the Salters were figured by Salina in +a sky-coloured robe and coronation mantle, and +crowned with white and yellow roses. Among the +citizens nominated by the common council to +attend the mayor as chief butler, at the coronation +of Richard III., occurs the name of a Salter.</p> + +<p>The following bill of fare for fifty people of the +Company of Salters, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1506, is still preserved:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>s.</td><td align='right'>d.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>36 chickens</td><td align='right'>4</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1 swan and 4 geese</td><td align='right'>7</td><td align='right'>0</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>9 rabbits</td><td align='right'>1</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2 rumps of beef tails</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>6 quails</td><td align='right'>1</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2 ounces of pepper</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2 ounces of cloves and mace</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1½ ounces of saffron</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3 lb. sugar</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2 lb. raisins</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1 lb. dates</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1½ lb. comfits</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Half hundred eggs</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2½</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4 gallons of curds</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1 ditto gooseberries</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2 dishes of butter</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4 breasts of veal</td><td align='right'>1</td><td align='right'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Bacon</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Quarter of a load of coals</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Faggots</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3½ gallons of Gascoyne wine</td><td align='right'>2</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1 bottle muscadina</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cherries and tarts</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Salt</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Verjuice and vinegar</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Paid the cook</td><td align='right'>3</td><td align='right'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Perfume</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1½ bushels of meal</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Water</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Garnishing the vessels</td><td align='right'>0</td><td align='right'>3</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1127" id="Page_1127">[Pg 1127]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Company's books (says Herbert) is a +receipt "For to make a moost choyce Paaste of +Gamys to be eten at y<sup>e</sup> Feste of Chrystemasse" +(17th Richard II., <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1394). A pie so made +by the Company's cook in 1836 was found excellent. +It consisted of a pheasant, hare, and +capon; two partridges, two pigeons, and two +rabbits; all boned and put into paste in the shape +of a bird, with the livers and hearts, two mutton +kidneys, forced meats, and egg balls, seasoning, +spice, catsup, and pickled mushrooms, filled up +with gravy made from the various bones.</p> + +<p>The original congregation of Salters' Hall Chapel +assembled at Buckingham House, College Hill. +The first minister was Richard Mayo, who died in +1695. He was so eloquent, that it is said even +the windows were crowded when he preached. +He was one of the seceders of 1662. Nathaniel +Taylor, who died in 1702, was latterly so infirm +that he used to crawl into the pulpit upon his +knees. "He was a man," says Matthew Henry, +"of great wit, worth, and courage;" and Doddridge +compared his writings to those of South for +wit and strength. Tong succeeded Taylor at +Salters' Hall in 1702. He wrote the notes on the +Hebrews and Revelations for Matthew Henry's +"Commentary," and left memoirs of Henry, and +of Shower, of the Old Jewry. The writer of his +funeral sermon called him "the prince of preachers." +In 1719 Arianism began to prevail at Salters' +Hall, where a synod on the subject was at last +held. The meetings ended by the non-subscribers +calling out, "You that are against persecution +come up stairs:" and Thomas Bradbury, of New +Court, the leader of the orthodox, replying, "You +that are for declaring your faith in the doctrine +of the Trinity stay below." The subscribers +proved to be fifty-three; the "scandalous majority," +fifty-seven. During this controversy Arianism +became the subject of coffee-house talk. John +Newman, who died in 1741, was buried at Bunhill +Fields, Dr. Doddridge delivering a funeral oration +over his grave. Francis Spillsbury, another Salters' +Hall minister, worked there for twenty years with +John Barker, who resigned in 1762. Hugh Farmer, +another of this brotherhood, was Doddridge's first +pupil at the Northampton College. He wrote an +exposition on demonology and miracles, which +aroused controversy. His manuscripts were destroyed +at his death, according to the strict directions +of his will.</p> + +<p>When the Presbyterians forsook Salters' Hall, +some people came there who called the hall "the +Areopagus," and themselves the Christian Evidence +Society. After their bankruptcy in 1827, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1128" id="Page_1128">[Pg 1128]</a></span> +Baptists re-opened the hall. The congregation has +now removed to a northern suburb, and their +chapel bears the old name, "so closely linked with +our old City history, and its Nonconformist associations."</p> + +<p>In April, 1866, a mysterious murder took place +in Cannon Street. The victim, a widow, named +Sarah Millson, was housekeeper on the premises +of Messrs. Bevington, leather-sellers. About nine +o'clock in the evening, when sitting by the fire +in company with another servant, the street bell +was heard to ring, on which Millson went down +to the door, remarking to her neighbour that she +knew who it was. She did not return, although +for an hour this did not excite any suspicion, as +she was in the habit of holding conversations at +the street door. A little after ten o'clock, the +other woman—Elizabeth Lowes—went down, and +found Millson dead at the bottom of the stairs, +the blood still flowing profusely from a number +of deep wounds in the head. Her shoes had been +taken off and were lying on a table in the hall, and +as there was no blood on them it was presumed +this was done before the murder. The housekeeper's +keys were also found on the stairs. +Opening the door to procure assistance, Lowes +observed a woman on the doorstep, screening herself +apparently from the rain, which was falling +heavily at the time. She moved off as soon as the +door was opened, saying, in answer to the request +for assistance, "Oh! dear, no; I can't come in!" +The gas over the door had been lighted as usual +at eight o'clock, but was now out, although not +turned off at the meter. The evidence taken by +the coroner showed that the instrument of murder +had probably been a small crowbar used to wrench +open packing-cases; one was found near the body, +unstained with blood, and another was missing +from the premises. The murderer has never been +discovered.</p> + +<p>St. Martin Orgar, a church near Cannon Street, +was destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. +It had been used, says Strype, by the French Protestants, +who had a French minister, episcopally +ordained. There was a monument here to Sir +Allen Cotton, Knight, and Alderman of London, +some time Lord Mayor, with this epitaph—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"When he left Earth rich bounty dy'd,<br /> +Mild courtesie gave place to pride;<br /> +Soft Mercie to bright Justice said,<br /> +O sister, we are both betray'd.<br /> +White Innocence lay on the ground,<br /> +By Truth, and wept at either's wound.<br /> +<br /> +"Those sons of Levi did lament,<br /> +Their lamps went out, their oyl was spent.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1129" id="Page_1129">[Pg 1129]</a></span>Heaven hath his soul, and only we<br /> +Spin out our lives in misery.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So Death thou missest of thy ends,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And kil'st not him, but kil'st his friends."</span></div> + +<p>A Bill in Parliament being engrossed for the +erection of a church for the French Protestants in +the churchyard of this parish, after the Great Fire, +the parishioners offered reasons to the Parliament +against it; declaring that they were not against +erecting a church, but only against erecting it in the +place mentioned in the Bill; since by the Act for +rebuilding the city, the site and churchyard of St. +Martin Orgar was directed to be enclosed with a +wall, and laid open for a burying-place for the +parish.</p> + +<p>The tame statue of that honest but commonplace +monarch, William IV., at the end of King William +Street, is of granite, and the work of a Mr. Nixon. +It cost upwards of £2,000, of which £1,600 was +voted by the Common Council of London. It is +fifteen feet three inches in height, weighs twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1130" id="Page_1130">[Pg 1130]</a></span> +tons, and is chiefly memorable as marking the site +of the famous "Boar's Head" tavern.</p> + +<p>The opening of the Cannon Street Extension Railway, +September, 1866, provided a communication +with Charing Cross and London Bridge, and through +it with the whole of the South-Eastern system. The +bridge across the Thames approaching the station +has five lines of rails; the curves branching east +and west to Charing Cross and London Bridge +have three lines, and in the station there are nine +lines of rails and five spacious platforms, one of +them having a double carriage road for exit and +entrance. The signal-box at the entrance to the +Cannon Street station extends from one side of +the bridge to the other, and has a range of over +eighty levers, coloured red for danger-signals, and +green for safety and going out. The hotel at +Cannon Street Station, a handsome building, is +after the design by Mr. Barry. Arrangements +were made for the reception of about 20,000,000 +passengers yearly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1131" id="Page_1131">[Pg 1131]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIX" id="CHAPTER_XLIX"></a>CHAPTER XLIX</h2> + +<p class="center">CANNON STREET TRIBUTARIES AND EASTCHEAP</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Budge Row—Cordwainers' Hall—St. Swithin's Church—Founders' Hall—The Oldest Street in London—Tower Royal and the Wat Tyler Mob—The +Queen's Wardrobe—St. Antholin's Church—"St. Antlin's Bell"—The London Fire Brigade—Captain Shaw's Statistics—St. Mary +Aldermary—A Quaint Epitaph—Crooked Lane—An Early "Gun Accident"—St. Michael's and Sir William Walworth's Epitaph—Gerard's +Hall and its History—The Early Closing Movement—St. Mary Woolchurch—Roman Remains in Nicholas Lane—St. Stephen's, Walbrook—Eastcheap +and the Cooks' Shops—The "Boar's Head"—Prince Hal and his Companions—A Giant Plum-pudding—Goldsmith at the +"Boar's Head"—The Weigh-house Chapel and its Famous Preachers—Reynolds, Clayton, Binney.</p></div> + + +<p>Budge Row derived its name from the sellers of +budge (lamb-skin) fur that dwelt there. The word +is used by Milton in his "Lycidas," where he +sneers at the "budge-skin" doctors.</p> + +<p>Cordwainers' Hall, No. 7, Cannon Street, is the +third of the same Company's halls on this site, +and was built in 1788 by Sylvanus Hall. The +stone front, by Adam, has a sculptured medallion +of a country girl spinning with a distaff, emblematic +of the name of the lane, and of the thread +used by cordwainers or shoemakers. In the pediment +are their arms. In the hall are portraits of +King William and Queen Mary; and here is a +sepulchral urn and tablet, by Nollekens, to John +Came, a munificent benefactor to the Company.</p> + +<p>The Cordwainers were originally incorporated by +Henry IV., in 1410, as the "Cordwainers and +Cobblers," the latter term signifying dealers in +shoes and shoemakers. In the reign of Richard II., +"every cordwainer that shod any man or woman +on Sunday was to pay thirty shillings." Among the +Company's plate is a piece for which Camden, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1132" id="Page_1132">[Pg 1132]</a></span> +antiquary, left £16. Their charities include Came's +bequest for blind, deaf, and dumb persons, and +clergymen's widows, £1,000 yearly; and in 1662 +the "Bell Inn," at Edmonton, was bequeathed for +poor freemen of the Company.</p> + +<p>The church in Cannon Street dedicated to St. +Swithin, and in which London Stone is now encased, +is of a very early date, as the name of the +rector in 1331 is still recorded. Sir John Hind, +Lord Mayor in 1391 and 1404, rebuilt both church +and steeple. After the Fire of London, the parish +of St. Mary Bothaw was united to that of St. +Swithin. St. Swithin's was rebuilt by Wren after +the Great Fire. The Salters' Company formerly +had the right of presentation to this church, but +sold it. The form of the interior is irregular and +awkward, in consequence of the tower intruding on +the north-west corner. The ceiling, an octagonal +cupola, is decorated with wreaths and ribbons. In +1839 Mr. Godwin describes an immense sounding-board +over the pulpit, and an altar-piece of carved +oak, guarded by two wooden figures of Moses and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1133" id="Page_1133">[Pg 1133]</a></span> +Aaron. There is a slab to Mr. Stephen Winmill, +twenty-four years parish clerk; and a tablet commemorative +of Mr. Francis Kemble and his two +wives, with the following distich:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Life makes the soul dependent on the dust;<br /> +Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres."</div> + +<p>The angles at the top of the mean square tower +are bevelled off to allow of a short octagonal spire +and an octagonal balustrade.</p> + +<p>The following epitaphs are quoted by Strype:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">John Rogers, died 1576.</span><br /> +<br /> +"Like thee I was sometime,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But now am turned to dust;</span><br /> +As thou at length, O earth and slime,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Returne to ashes must.</span><br /> +Of the Company of Clothworkers<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A brother I became;</span><br /> +A long time in the Livery<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I lived of the same.</span><br /> +Then Death that deadly stroke did give,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which now my joys doth frame.</span><br /> +In Christ I dyed, by Christ to live;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">John Rogers was my name.</span><br /> +My loving wife and children two<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My place behind supply;</span><br /> +God grant them living so to doe,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That they in him may dye."</span></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Bolles, Lord Mayor of London, died 1632.</span></p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"He possessed Earth as he might Heaven possesse;<br /> +Wise to doe right, but never to oppresse.<br /> +His charity was better felt than knowne,<br /> +For when he gave there was no trumpet blowne.<br /> +What more can be comprized in one man's fame,<br /> +To crown a soule, and leave a living name?"</div> + +<p>Founders' Hall, now in St. Swithin's Lane, was +formerly at Founders' Court, Lothbury. The +Founders' Company, incorporated in 1614, had +the power of testing all brass weights and brass +and copper wares within the City and three miles +round. The old Founders' Hall was noted for +its political meetings, and was in 1792 nicknamed +"The Cauldron of Sedition." Here Waithman +made his first political speech, and, with his fellow-orators, +was put to flight by constables, sent by the +Lord Mayor, Sir James Sanderson, to disperse the +meeting.</p> + +<p>Watling Street, now laid open by the new street +leading to the Mansion House, is probably the +oldest street in London. It is part of the old +Roman military road that, following an old British +forest-track, led from London to Dover, and from +Dover to South Wales. The name, according to +Leland, is from the Saxon <i>atheling</i>—a noble street. +At the north-west end of it is the church of St. +Augustine, anciently styled <i>Ecclesia Sancti Augustini +ad Portam</i>, from its vicinity to the south-east<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1134" id="Page_1134">[Pg 1134]</a></span> +gate of St. Paul's Cathedral. This church was +described on page 349.</p> + +<p>Tower Royal, Watling Street, preserves the +memory of one of those strange old palatial forts +that were not unfrequent in mediæval London—half +fortresses, half dwelling-houses; half courting, +half distrusting the City. "It was of old time the +king's house," says Stow, solemnly, "but was afterwards +called the Queen's Wardrobe. By whom +the same was first built, or of what antiquity continued, +I have not read, more than that in the +reign of Edward I. it was the tenement of Simon +Beaumes." In the reign of Edward III. it was +called "the Royal, in the parish of St. Michael +Paternoster;" and in the 43rd year of his reign he +gave the inn, in value £20 a year, to the college +of St. Stephen, at Westminster.</p> + +<p>In the Wat Tyler rebellion, Richard II.'s mother +and her ladies took refuge there, when the rebels +had broken into the Tower and terrified the royal +lady by piercing her bed with their swords.</p> + +<p>"King Richard," says Stow, "having in Smithfield +overcome and dispersed the rebels, he, his +lords, and all his company entered the City of +London with great joy, and went to the lady +princess his mother, who was then lodged in the +Tower Royal, called the Queen's Wardrobe, where +she had remained three days and two nights, right +sore abashed. But when she saw the king her son +she was greatly rejoiced, and said, 'Ah! son, what +great sorrow have I suffered for you this day!' +The king answered and said, 'Certainly, madam, I +know it well; but now rejoyce, and thank God, +for I have this day recovered mine heritage, and +the realm of England, which I had near-hand +lost.'"</p> + +<p>Richard II. was lodging at the Tower Royal at +a later date, when the "King of Armony," as Stow +quaintly calls the King of Armenia, had been +driven out of his dominions by the "Tartarians;" +and the lavish young king bestowed on him £1,000 +a year, in pity for a banished monarch, little thinking +how soon he, discrowned and dethroned, would +be vainly looking round the prison walls for one +look of sympathy.</p> + +<p>This "great house," belonging anciently to the +kings of England, was afterwards inhabited by the +first Duke of Norfolk, to whom it had been granted +by Richard III., the master he served at Bosworth. +Strype finds an entry of the gift in an old +ledger-book of King Richard's, wherein the Tower +Royal is described as "Le Tower," in the parish +of St. Thomas Apostle, not of St. Michael, as Stow +has it. The house afterwards sank into poverty, +became a stable for "all the king's horses," and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1135" id="Page_1135">[Pg 1135]</a></span> +Stow's time was divided into poor tenements. <i>Sic +transit gloria mundi.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="antholins" id="antholins"></a> +<img src="images/p552.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />ST. ANTHOLIN'S CHURCH, WATLING STREET</span> +</div> + +<p>The church of St. Antholin, in Watling Street, +is the only old church in London dedicated to that +monkish saint. The date of its foundation is unknown, +but it must be of great antiquity, as it is +mentioned by Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St. Paul's +at the end of the twelfth century. The church +was rebuilt, about the year 1399, by Sir Thomas +Knowles, Mayor of London, who was buried here, +and whose odd epitaph Stow notes down:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here lyeth graven under this stone<br /> +Thomas Knowles, both flesh and bone,<br /> +Grocer and alderman, years forty,<br /> +Sheriff and twice maior, truly;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1136" id="Page_1136">[Pg 1136]</a></span>And for he should not lye alone,<br /> +Here lyeth with him his good wife Joan.<br /> +They were together sixty year,<br /> +And nineteen children they had in feere," &c.</div> + +<p>The epitaph of Simon Street, grocer, is also +badly written enough to be amusing:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Such as I am, such shall you be;<br /> +Grocer of London, sometime was I,<br /> +The king's weigher, more than years twenty<br /> +Simon Street called, in my place,<br /> +And good fellowship fain would trace;<br /> +Therefore in heaven everlasting life,<br /> +Jesu send me, and Agnes my wife," &c.</div> + +<p>St. Antholin's perished in the Great Fire, and the +present church was completed by Wren, in the +year 1682, at the expense of about £5,700. After<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1137" id="Page_1137">[Pg 1137]</a></span> +the fire the parish of St. John Baptist, Watling +Street, was annexed to that of St. Antholin, the +latter paying five-eighths towards the repairs of +the church, the former the remaining three-eighths. +The interior of the church is peculiar, being covered +with an oval-shaped dome, which is supported on +eight columns, which stand on high plinths. The +carpentry of the roof, says Mr. Godwin, displays +constructive knowledge. The exterior of the +building, says the same authority, is of pleasing +proportions, and shows great powers of invention. +As an apology for adding a Gothic spire to a quasi-Grecian +church, Wren has, oddly enough, crowned +the spire with a small Composite capital, which +looks like the top of a pencil-case. Above this +is the vane. The steeple rises to the height of +154 feet.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="gerards" id="gerards"></a> +<img src="images/p553.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE CRYPT OF GERARD'S HALL</span> +</div> + +<p>The church was rebuilt by John Tate, a mercer, +in 1513; and Strype mentions the erection in +1623 of a rich and beautiful gallery with fifty-two +compartments, filled with the coats-of-arms of +kings and nobles, ending with the blazon of the +Elector Palatine. A new morning prayer and +lecture was established here by clergymen inclined +to Puritanical principles in 1599. The bells began +to ring at five in the morning, and were considered +Pharisaical and intolerable by all High Churchmen +in the neighbourhood. The extreme Geneva party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1138" id="Page_1138">[Pg 1138]</a></span> +made a point of attending these early prayers. +Lilly, the astrologer, went to these lectures when +a young man; and Scott makes Mike Lambourne, +in "Kenilworth," refer to them. Nor have they +been overlooked by our early dramatists. Randolph, +Davenant, and others make frequent allusions +in their plays to the Puritanical fervour of +this parish. The tongue of Middleton's "roaring +girl" was "heard further in a still morning than +St. Antlin's bell."</p> + +<p>In the heart of the City, and not far from +London Stone, was a house which used to be inhabited +by the Lord Mayor or one of the sheriffs, +situated so near to the Church of St. Antholin +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 here in +1640. At St. Antholin's 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."</p> + +<p>Dugdale also mentions the church. "Now for +an essay," he says, "of those whom, under colour +of preaching the Gospel, in sundry parts of the +realm, they set up a morning lecture at St. Antho<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1139" id="Page_1139">[Pg 1139]</a></span>line'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."</p> + +<p>In Watling Street is the chief station of the +London Fire Brigade. The Metropolitan Board +of Works has consolidated and reorganised, under +Captain Shaw, the whole system of the Fire Brigade +into one homogeneous municipal institution. The +insurance companies contribute about £10,000 +per annum towards its maintenance, the Treasury +£10,000, and a Metropolitan rate of one halfpenny +in the pound raises an additional sum of £30,000, +making about £50,000 in all. Under the old +system there were seventeen fire-stations, guarding +an area of about ten square miles, out of 110 +which comprise the Metropolitan district. At the +commencement of 1868 there were forty-three +stations in an area of about 110 square miles. +From Captain Shaw's report, presented January 1, +1873, it appears that during the year 1872 there +had been three deaths in the brigade, 236 cases +of ordinary illness, and 100 injuries, making a total +of 336 cases. The strength of the brigade was +as follows:—50 fire-engine stations, 106 fire-escape +stations, 4 floating stations, 52 telegraph lines, +84 miles of telegraph lines, 3 floating steam fire-engines, +8 large land steam fire-engines, 17 small +ditto, 72 other fire-engines, 125 fire-escapes, 396 +firemen. The number of watches kept up throughout +the metropolis is 98 by day, and 175 by +night, making a total of 273 in every twenty-four +hours. The remaining men, except those sick, +injured, or on leave, are available for general work +at fires.</p> + +<p>If Stow is correct, St. Mary's Aldermary, Watling +Street, was originally called Aldermary because it +was older than St. Mary's Bow, and, indeed, any +other church in London dedicated to the Virgin; +but this is improbable. The first known rector of +Aldermary was presented before the year 1288. In +1703 two of the turrets were blown down. In 1855 +a building, supposed to be the crypt of the old +church, fifty feet long and ten feet wide, and with +five arches, was discovered under some houses in +Watling Street. In the chancel is a beautifully +sculptured tablet by Bacon, with this peculiarity, +that it bears no inscription. Surely the celebrated +"Miserrimus" itself could hardly speak so strongly +of humility or despair. Or can it have been, says +a cynic, a monument ordered by a widow, who +married again before she had time to write the +epitaph to the "dear departed?" On one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1140" id="Page_1140">[Pg 1140]</a></span> +walls is a tablet to the memory of that celebrated +surgeon of St. Bartholomew's for forty-two years, +Percival Pott, Esq., F.R.S., who died in 1788. +Pott, according to a memoir written by Sir James +Cask, succeeded to a good deal of the business +of Sir Cæsar Hawkins. Pott seems to have entertained +a righteous horror of amputations.</p> + +<p>The following curious epitaph is worth preserving:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Heere is fixt the epitaph of Sir Henry Kebyll, Knight,<br /> +Who was sometime of London Maior, a famous worthy wight,<br /> +Which did this Aldermarie Church erect and set upright.<br /> +<br /> +Thogh death preuaile with mortal wights, and hasten every day,<br /> +Yet vertue ouerlies the grave, her fame doth not decay;<br /> +As memories doe shew reuiu'd of one that was aliue,<br /> +Who, being dead, of vertuous fame none should seek to depriue;<br /> +Which so in liue deseru'd renowne, for facts of his to see,<br /> +That may encourage other now of like good minde to be.<br /> +Sir Henry Keeble, Knight, Lord Maior of London, here he sate,<br /> +Of Grocers' worthy Companie the chiefest in his state,<br /> +Which in this city grew to wealth, and unto worship came,<br /> +When Henry raign'd who was the seventh of that redoubted name.<br /> +But he to honor did atchieu the second golden yeere<br /> +Of Henry's raigne, so called the 8, and made his fact appeere<br /> +When he this Aldermary Church gan build with great expence,<br /> +Twice 30 yeeres agon no doubt, counting the time from hence.<br /> +Which work begun the yere of Christ, well known of Christian men,<br /> +One thousand and fiue hundred, just, if you will add but ten.<br /> +But, lo! when man purposeth most, God doth dispose the best;<br /> +And so, before this work was done, God cald this knight to rest.<br /> +This church, then, not yet fully built, he died about the yeere,<br /> +When Ill May day first took his name, which is down fixed here,<br /> +Whose works became a sepulchre to shroud him in that case,<br /> +God took his soule, but corps of his was laid about this place;<br /> +Who, when he dyed, of this his work so mindful still he was,<br /> +That he bequeath'd one thousand pounds to haue it brought to passe,<br /> +The execution of whose gift, or where the fault should be,<br /> +The work, as yet unfinished, shall shew you all for me;<br /> +Which church stands there, if any please to finish up the same,<br /> +As he hath well begun, no doubt, and to his endless fame,<br /> +They shall not onley well bestow their talent in this life,<br /> +But after death, when bones be rot, their fame shall be most rife,<br /> +With thankful praise and good report of our parochians here,<br /> +Which have of right Sir Henries fame afresh renewed this yeere.<br /> +God move the minds of wealthy men their works so to bestow<br /> +As he hath done, that, though they dye, their vertuous fame may flow."<br /> +</div> + +<p>This quaint appeal seems to have had its effect, +for in 1626 a Mr. William Rodoway left £200 for +the rebuilding the steeple; and the same year Mr. +Richard Pierson bequeathed 200 marks on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1141" id="Page_1141">[Pg 1141]</a></span> +express condition that the new spire should resemble +the old one of Keeble's. The old benefactor +of St. Mary's was not very well treated, for no +monument was erected to him till 1534, when his +son-in-law, William Blount, Lord Mountjoy, laid a +stone reverently over him. But in the troubles +following the Reformation the monument was cast +down, and Sir William Laxton (Lord Mayor in +1534) buried in place of Keeble. The church was +destroyed in the Great Fire, but soon rebuilt by +Henry Rogers, Esq., who gave £5,000 for the purpose. +An able paper in the records of the London +and Middlesex Archæological Society states that +"the tower is evidently of the date of Kebyll's work, +as shown by the old four-centre-headed door leading +from the tower into the staircase turret, and also +by the Caen stone of which this part of the turret +is built, which has indications of fire upon its surface. +The upper portion of the tower was rebuilt +in 1711; the intermediate portion is, I think, the +work of 1632; and if that is admitted, it is curious +as an example of construction at that period in an +older style than that prevalent and in fashion at +the time. The semi-Elizabethan character of the +detail of the strings and ornamentation seems to +confirm this conclusion, as they are just such as +might be looked for in a Gothic work in the time +of Charles I. In dealing with the restoration of +the church, Wren must have not only followed the +style of the burned edifice, but in part employed +the old material. The church is of ample dimensions, +being a hundred feet long and sixty-three feet +broad, and consists of a nave and side aisles. The +ceiling is very singular, being an imitation of fan +tracery executed in plaster. The detail of this is +most elaborate, but the design is odd, and, being +an imitation of stone construction, the effect is very +unsatisfactory. It is probable that the old roof +was of wood, and entirely destroyed in the Fire; +consequently no record of it remained as a guide in +the rebuilding, as was the case with the clustered +pillars, which are good and correct in form, and +only mongrel in their details. In some of the furniture +of the church, such as the pulpit and the +carving of the pews, the Gothic style is not followed; +and in these, as in the other parts where the great +master's genius is left unshackled, we perceive the +exquisite taste that guided him, even to the minutest +details, in his own peculiar style. The sword-holder +in this church is a favourable example of the careful +thought which he bestowed upon his decoration.... +The sword-holder is almost universally found +in the City churches.... Amongst the gifts to +this church is one by Richard Chawcer (supposed by +Stowe to be father of the great Geoffrey), who gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1142" id="Page_1142">[Pg 1142]</a></span> +his tenement and tavern in the highway, at the +corner of Keirion Lane. Richard Chawcer was +buried here in 1348. After the Fire, the parishes +of St. Mary Aldermary and St. Thomas the Apostle +were united; and as the advowson of the latter +belonged to the cathedral church of St. Paul's, the +presentation is now made alternately by the Archbishop +of Canterbury and by the Dean and Chapter +of St. Paul's."</p> + +<p>"Crooked Lane," says Cunningham, "was so +called of the crooked windings thereof." Part of +the lane was taken down to make the approach to +new London Bridge. It was long famous for its +birdcages and fishing-tackle shops. We find in an +old Elizabethan letter—</p> + +<p>"At my last attendance on your lordship at +Hansworth, I was so bold to promise your lordship +to send you a much more convenient house for +your lordship's fine bird to live in than that she was +in when I was there, which by this bearer I trust I +have performed. It is of the best sort of building +in Crooked Lane, strong and well-proportioned, +wholesomely provided for her seat and diet, and +with good provision, by the wires below, to keep +her feet cleanly." (Thomas Markham to Thomas, +Earl of Shrewsbury, Feb. 17th, 1589.)</p> + +<p>"The most ancient house in this lane," says Stow, +"is called the Leaden Porch, and belonged some +time to Sir John Merston, Knight, the 1st Edward +IV. It is now called the Swan in Crooked Lane, +possessed of strangers, and selling of Rhenish wine."</p> + +<p>"In the year 1560, July 5th," says Stow, "there +came certain men into Crooked Lane to buy a gun +or two, and shooting off a piece it burst in pieces, +went through the house, and spoiled about five +houses more; and of that goodly church adjoining, +it threw down a great part on one side, and left +never a glass window whole. And by it eight men +and one maid were slain, and divers hurt."</p> + +<p>In St. Michael's Church, Crooked Lane, now +pulled down, Sir William Walworth was buried. In +the year in which he killed Wat Tyler (says Stow), +"the said Sir William Walworth founded in the said +parish church of St. Michael, a college, for a master +and nine priests or chaplains, and deceasing 1385, +was there buried in the north chapel, by the quire; +but this monument being amongst others (by bad +people) defaced in the reign of Edward VI., was +again since renewed by the Fishmongers. This +second monument, after the profane demolishing +of the first, was set up in June, 1562, with his +effigies in alabaster, in armour richly gilt, by the +Fishmongers, at the cost of William Parvis, fishmonger, +who dwelt at the 'Castle,' in New Fish +Street." The epitaph ran thus:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1143" id="Page_1143">[Pg 1143]</a></span>—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here under lyth a man of fame,<br /> +William Walworth callyd by name.<br /> +Fishmonger he was in lyfftime here,<br /> +And twise Lord Maior, as in bookes appere;<br /> +Who with courage stout and manly myght<br /> +Slew Jack Straw in King Richard's syght.<br /> +For which act done and trew content,<br /> +The kyng made hym knight incontinent.<br /> +And gave hym armes, as here you see,<br /> +To declare his fact and chivalrie.<br /> +He left this lyff the yere of our God,<br /> +Thirteen hondred fourscore and three odd."</div> + +<p>Gerard's Hall, Basing Lane, Bread Street (removed +for improvements in 1852), and latterly an +hotel, was rebuilt, after the Great Fire, on the +site of the house of Sir John Gisors (Pepperer), +Mayor in 1245 (Henry III.). The son of the +Mayor was Mayor and Constable of the Tower in +1311 (Edward II.). This second Gisors seems to +have got into trouble from boldly and honestly +standing up for the liberties of the citizens, and his +troubles began after this manner.</p> + +<p>In the troublesome reign of Edward II. it was +ordained by Parliament that every city and town +in England, according to its ability, should raise +and maintain a certain number of soldiers against +the Scots, who at that time, by their great depredations, +had laid waste all the north of England +as far as York and Lancaster. The quota of +London to that expedition being 200 men, it was +five times the number that was sent by any other +city or town in the kingdom. To meet this +requisition the Mayor in council levied a rate +on the city, the raising of which was the occasion +of continual broils between the magistrates and +freemen, which ended in the Jury of Aldermanbury +making a presentation before the Justices Itinerant +and the Lord Treasurer sitting in the Tower of +London, to this effect:—"That the commonalty +of London is, and ought to be, common, and that +the citizens are not bound to be taxed without the +special command of the king, or without their +common consent; that the Mayor of the City, and +the custodes in their time, after the common +redemption made and paid for the City of London, +have come, and by their own authority, without +the King's command and Commons' consent, did +tax the said City according to their own wills, once +and more, and distrained for those taxes, sparing +the rich, and oppressing the poor middle sort; +not permitting that the arrearages due from the +rich be levied, to the disinheriting of the King +and the destruction of the City, nor can the Commons +know what becomes of the monies levied +of such taxes."</p> + +<p>They also complained that the said Mayor and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1144" id="Page_1144">[Pg 1144]</a></span> +aldermen had taken upon them to turn out of +the Common Council men at their pleasure; and +that the Mayor and superiors of the City had +deposed Walter Henry from acting in the Common +Council, because he would not permit the rich to +levy tollages upon the poor, till they themselves +had paid their arrears of former tollages; upon +which Sir John Gisors, some time Lord Mayor, and +divers of the principal citizens, were summoned to +attend the said justices, and personally to answer +to the accusations laid against them; but, being +conscious of guilt, they fled from justice, screening +themselves under the difficulty of the time.</p> + +<p>How long Sir John Gisors remained absent from +London does not appear; but probably on the +dethronement of Edward II. and accession of +Edward III., he might join the prevailing party +and return to his mansion, without any dread of +molestation from the power of ministers and +favourites of the late reign, who were at this period +held in universal detestation. Sir John Gisors +died, and was buried in Our Lady's Chapel, Christ +Church, Faringdon Within (Christ's Hospital).</p> + +<p>Later in that century the house became the residence +of Sir Henry Picard, Vintner and Lord +Mayor, who entertained here, with great splendour, +no less distinguished personages than his sovereign, +Edward III., John King of France, the King of +Cyprus, David King of Scotland, Edward the Black +Prince, and a large assemblage of the nobility. +"And after," says Stow, "the said Henry Picard +kept his hall against all comers whosoever that were +willing to play at dice and hazard. In like manner, +the Lady Margaret his wife did also keep her +chamber to the same effect." We are told that on +this occasion "the King of Cyprus, playing with +Sir Henry Picard in his hall, did win of him fifty +marks; but Picard, being very skilled in that art, +altering his hand, did after win of the same king +the same fifty marks, and fifty marks more; which +when the same king began to take in ill part, +although he dissembled the same, Sir Henry said +unto him, 'My lord and king, be not aggrieved; +I court not your gold, but your play; for I have +not bid you hither that you might grieve;' and +giving him his money again, plentifully bestowed of +his own amongst the retinue. Besides, he gave +many rich gifts to the king, and other nobles and +knights which dined with him, to the great glory of +the citizens of London in those days."</p> + +<p>Gerard Hall contained one of the finest Norman +crypts to be found in all London. It was not an +ecclesiastical crypt, but the great vaulted warehouse +of a Norman merchant's house, and it is especially +mentioned by Stow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1145" id="Page_1145">[Pg 1145]</a></span></p> + +<p>"On the south side of Basing Lane," says Stow, +"is one great house of old time, built upon arched +vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought +from Caen, in Normandy. The same is now a +common hostrey for receipt of travellers, commonly +and corruptly called Gerrarde's Hall, of a giant +said to have dwelt there. In the high-roofed hall of +this house some time stood a large fir-pole, which +reached to the roof thereof, and was said to be one +of the staves that Gerrarde the giant used in the +wars to run withal. There stood also a ladder of +the same length, which (as they say) served to +ascend to the top of the staff. Of later years this +hall is altered in building, and divers rooms are +made in it; notwithstanding the pole is removed +to one corner of the room, and the ladder hangs +broken upon a wall in the yard. The hostelar of +that house said to me, 'the pole lacketh half a +foot of forty in length.' I measured the compass +thereof, and found it fifteen inches. Reasons of the +pole could the master of the hostrey give none; +but bade me read the great chronicles, for there +he had heard of it. I will now note what myself +hath observed concerning that house. I read that +John Gisors, Mayor of London in 1245, was owner +thereof, and that Sir John Gisors, Constable of the +Tower 1311, and divers others of that name and +family, since that time owned it. So it appeareth +that this Gisors Hall of late time, by corruption, +hath been called Gerrarde's Hall for Gisors' Hall. +The pole in the hall might be used of old times (as +then the custom was in every parish) to be set up +in the summer as a maypole. The ladder served +for the decking of the maypole and roof of the +hall." The works of Wilkinson and J.T. Smith +contain a careful view of the interior of this crypt. +There used to be outside the hotel a quaint gigantic +figure of seventeenth century workmanship.</p> + +<p>In 1844 Mr. James Smith, the originator of +early closing (then living at W.Y. Ball and Co.'s, +Wood Street), learning that the warehouses in +Manchester were closed at one p.m. on Saturday, +determined to ascertain if a similar system could +not be introduced into the metropolis. He invited +a few friends to meet him at the Gerard's Hall. +Mr. F. Bennock, of Wood Street, was appointed +chairman, and a canvass was commenced, but it was +feared that, as certain steam-packets left London +on Saturday afternoon, the proposed arrangement +might prevent the proper dispatch of merchandise, +so it was suggested that the warehouses should +be closed "all the year round" eight months at +six o'clock, and four months at eight o'clock. This +arrangement was acceded to.</p> + +<p>St. Mary Woolchurch was an old parish church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1146" id="Page_1146">[Pg 1146]</a></span> +in Walbrook Ward, destroyed in the Great Fire, +and not rebuilt. It occupied part of the site +of the Mansion House, and derived its name +from a beam for weighing wool that was kept there +till the reign of Richard II., when customs began +to be taken at the Wool Key, in Lower Thames +Street. Some of the bequests to this church, as +mentioned by Stow, are very characteristic. Elyu +Fuller: "Farthermore, I will that myn executor +shal kepe yerely, during the said yeres, about the +tyme of my departure, an <i>Obit</i>—that is to say, +<i>Dirige</i> over even, and masse on the morrow, for +my sowl, Mr. Kneysworth's sowl, my lady sowl, +and al Christen sowls." One George Wyngar, by +his will, dated September 13, 1521, ordered to +be buried in the church of Woolchurch, "besyde +the Stocks, in London, under a stone lying at my +Lady Wyngar's pew dore, at the steppe comyng up +to the chappel. <i>Item.</i> I bequeath to pore maids' +mariages £13 6s. 8d; to every pore householder +of this my parish, 4d. a pece to the sum of 40s. +<i>Item.</i> I bequeath to the high altar of S. Nicolas +Chapel £10 for an altar-cloth of velvet, with my +name brotheryd thereupon, with a Wyng, and G +and A and R closyd in a knot. Also, I wold +that a subdeacon of whyte damask be made to the +hyghe altar, with my name brotheryd, to syng in, +on our Lady daies, in the honour of God and our +Lady, to the value of seven marks." The following +epitaph is also worth preserving:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"In Sevenoke, into the world my mother brought me;<br /> +Hawlden House, in Kent, with armes ever honour'd me;<br /> +Westminster Hall (thirty-six yeeres after) knew me.<br /> +Then seeking Heaven, Heaven from the world tooke me;<br /> +Whilome alive, Thomas Scot men called me;<br /> +Now laid in grave oblivion covereth me."</div> + +<p>In 1850, among the ruins of a Roman edifice, at +eleven feet depth, was found in Nicholas Lane, +near Cannon Street, a large slab, inscribed "<span class="smcap">Num. +Cæs. Prov. Brita.</span>" (<i>Numini Cæsaris Provincia +Britannia</i>). In 1852 tesselated pavement, Samian +ware, earthen urns and lamp, and other Roman +vessels were found from twelve to twenty feet deep +near Basing Lane, New Cannon Street.</p> + +<p>According to Dugdale, Eudo, Steward of the +Household to King Henry I. (1100-1135), gave +the Church of St. Stephen, which stood on the +west side of Walbrook, to the Monastery of St. +John at Colchester. In the reign of Henry VI. +Robert Chicheley, Mayor of London, gave a piece +of ground on the east side of Walbrook, for a new +church, 125 feet long and 67 feet broad. It was +in this church, in Queen Mary's time, that Dr. +Feckenham, her confessor and the fanatical Dean +of St. Paul's, used to preach the doctrines of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1147" id="Page_1147">[Pg 1147]</a></span> +old faith. The church was destroyed in the Great +Fire, and rebuilt by Wren in 1672-9. The following +is one of the old epitaphs here:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"This life hath on earth no certain while,<br /> +Example by John, Mary, and Oliver Stile,<br /> +Who under this stone lye buried in the dust,<br /> +And putteth you in memory that dye all must."</div> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="sign" id="sign"></a> +<img src="images/p558.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />OLD SIGN OF THE "BOAR'S HEAD"</span> +</div> + +<p>The parish of St. Stephen is now united to that +of St. Bennet Sherehog (Pancras Lane), the church +of which was destroyed in the Fire. The cupola +of St. Stephen's is supposed by some writers to have +been a rehearsal for the dome of St. Paul's. "The +interior," says Mr. Godwin, "is certainly more +worthy of admiration in respect of its general +arrangement, which displays great skill, than of +the details, which are in many respects faulty. +The body of the church, which is nearly a parallelogram, +is divided into five unequal aisles (the +centre being the largest) by four rows of Corinthian +columns, within one intercolumniation from +the east end. Two columns from each of the two +centre rows are omitted, and the area thus formed +is covered by an enriched cupola, supported on +light arches, which rise from the entablature of the +columns. By the distribution of the columns and +their entablature, an elegant cruciform arrangement +is given to this part of the church. But this is +marred in some degree," says the writer, "by the +want of connection which exists between the square<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1148" id="Page_1148">[Pg 1148]</a></span> +area formed by the columns and their entablature +and the cupola which covers it. The columns are +raised on plinths. The spandrels of the arches +bearing the cupola present panels containing shields +and foliage of unmeaning form. The pilasters at +the chancel end and the brackets on the side wall +are also condemned. The windows in the clerestory +are mean; the enrichments of the meagre entablature +clumsy. The fine cupola is divided into panels +ornamented with palm-branches and roses, and is +terminated at the apex by a circular lantern-light. +The walls of the church are plain, and disfigured," +says Mr. Godwin, "by the introduction of those +disagreeable oval openings for light so often used +by Wren."</p> + +<p>The picture, by West, of the death of St. Stephen +is considered by some persons a work of high +character, though to us West seems always the +tamest and most insipid of painters. The exterior +of the building is dowdily plain, except the upper +part of the steeple, which slightly, says Mr. Godwin, +"resembles that of St. James's, Garlick Hythe. +The approach to the body of the church is by a +flight of sixteen steps, in an enclosed porch in +Walbrook quite distinct from the tower and main +building." Mr. Gwilt seems to have considered +this church a <i>chef-d'œuvre</i> of Wren's, and says: +"Had its materials and volume been as durable +and extensive as those of St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1150" id="Page_1150">[Pg 1150]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1149" id="Page_1149">[Pg 1149]</a></span>Christopher Wren had consummated a much more +efficient monument to his well-earned fame than +that fabric affords." Compared with any other +church of nearly the same magnitude, Italy cannot +exhibit its equal; elsewhere its rival is not to be +found. Of those worthy of notice, the Zitelle, at +Venice (by Palladio), is the nearest approximation +in regard to size; but it ranks far below our church +in point of composition, and still lower in point of +effect.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="stephens" id="stephens"></a> +<img src="images/p559.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />EXTERIOR OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK, IN 1700</span> +</div> + +<p>"The interior of St. Stephen's," says Mr. Timbs, +"is one of Wren's finest works, with its exquisitely +proportioned Corinthian columns, and great central +dome of timber and lead, resting upon a circle of +light arches springing from column to column. +Its enriched Composite cornice, the shields of the +spandrels, and the palm-branches and rosettes of +the dome-coffers are very beautiful; and as you +enter from the dark vestibule, a halo of dazzling +light flashes upon the eye through the central +aperture of the cupola. The elliptical openings +for light in the side walls are, however, very objectionable. +The fittings are of oak; and the altar-screen, +organ-case, and gallery have some good +carvings, among which are prominent the arms of +the Grocers' Company, the patrons of the living, +and who gave the handsome wainscoting. The +enriched pulpit, its festoons of fruit and flowers, +and canopied sounding-board, with angels bearing +wreaths, are much admired. The church was +cleaned and repaired in 1850, when West's splendid +painting of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, presented +in 1779 by the then rector, Dr. Wilson, was +removed from over the altar and placed on the +north wall of the church; and the window which +the picture had blocked up was then re-opened." +The oldest monument in the church is that of John +Lilburne (died 1678). Sir John Vanbrugh, the +wit and architect, is buried here in the family vault. +During the repairs, in 1850, it is stated that 4,000 +coffins were found beneath the church, and were +covered with brickwork and concrete to prevent +the escape of noxious effluvia. The exterior of +the church is plain; the tower and spire, 128 feet +high, is at the termination of Charlotte Row. Dr. +Croly, the poet, was for many years rector of St. +Stephen's.</p> + +<p>Eastcheap is mentioned as a street of cooks' +shops by Lydgate, a monk, who flourished in the +reigns of Henry V. and VI., in his "London +Lackpenny:"—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Then I hyed me into Estchepe,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye;</span><br /> +Pewter pots they clattered on a heape,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There was harpe, pype, and mynstrelsye."</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1151" id="Page_1151">[Pg 1151]</a></span></div> + +<p>Stow especially says that in Henry IV.'s time +there were no taverns in Eastcheap. He tells the +following story of how Prince Hal's two roystering +brothers were here beaten by the watch. This +slight hint perhaps led Shakespeare to select this +street for the scene of the prince's revels.</p> + +<p>"This Eastcheap," says Stow, "is now a flesh-market +of butchers, there dwelling on both sides of +the street; it had some time also cooks mixed +among the butchers, and such other as sold victuals +ready dressed of all sorts. For of old time, such +as were disposed to be merry, met not to dine +and sup in taverns (for they dressed not meats to +be sold), but to the cooks, where they called for +meat what them liked.</p> + +<p>"In the year 1410, the 11th of Henry IV., +upon the even of St. John Baptist, the king's +sons, Thomas and John, being in Eastcheap at +supper (or rather at breakfast, for it was after the +watch was broken up, betwixt two and three of the +clock after midnight), a great debate happened +between their men and other of the court, which +lasted one hour, even till the maior and sheriffs, +with other citizens, appeased the same; for the which +afterwards the said maior, aldermen, and sheriffs +were sent for to answer before the king, his sons and +divers lords being highly moved against the City. +At which time William Gascoigne, chief justice, +required the maior and aldermen, for the citizens, +to put them in the king's grace. Whereunto they +answered they had not offended, but (according to +the law) had done their best in stinting debate and +maintaining of the peace; upon which answer the +king remitted all his ire and dismissed them."</p> + +<p>The "Boar's Head," Eastcheap, stood on the +north side of Eastcheap, between Small Alley and +St. Michael's Lane, the back windows looking out +on the churchyard of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, +which was removed with the inn, rebuilt after the +Great Fire, in 1831, for the improvement of new +London Bridge.</p> + +<p>In the reign of Richard II. William Warder +gave the tenement called the "Boar's Head," in +Eastcheap, to a college of priests, founded by Sir +William Walworth, for the adjoining church of +St. Michael, Crooked Lane. In Maitland's time +the inn was labelled, "This is the chief tavern in +London."</p> + +<p>Upon a house (says Mr. Godwin) on the south +side of Eastcheap, previous to recent alterations, +there was a representation of a boar's head, to +indicate the site of the tavern; but there is reason +to believe that this was incorrectly placed, insomuch +as by the books of St. Clement's parish it +appears to have been situated on the north side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1152" id="Page_1152">[Pg 1152]</a></span> +It seems by a deed of trust which still remains, +that the tavern belonged to this parish, and in the +books about the year 1710 appears this entry: +"Ordered that the churchwardens doe pay to the +Rev. Mr. Pulleyn £20 for four years, due to him +at Lady Day next, for one moyetee of the ground-rent +of a house formerly called the 'Boar's Head,' +Eastcheap, near the 'George' ale-house." Again, +too, we find: "August 13, 1714. An agreement was +entered into with William Usborne, to grant him a +lease for forty-six years, from the expiration of the +then lease, of a brick messuage or tenement on the +north side of Great Eastcheap, commonly known by +the name of 'the Lamb and Perriwig,' in the occupation +of Joseph Lock, barber, and which was +formerly known as the sign of the 'Boar's Head.'"</p> + +<p>On the removal of a mound of rubbish at +Whitechapel, brought there after a great fire, a +carved boxwood bas-relief boar's head was found, +set in a circular frame formed by two boars' tusks, +mounted and united with silver. An inscription to +the following effect was pricked at the back:— +"William Brooke, Landlord of the Bore's Hedde, +Estchepe, 1566." This object, formerly in the +possession of Mr. Stamford, the celebrated publisher, +was sold at Christie and Manson's, on +January 27, 1855, and was bought by Mr. Halliwell. +The ancient sign, carved in stone, with the +initials I.T., and the date 1668, is now preserved +in the City of London Library, Guildhall.</p> + +<p>In 1834 Mr. Kempe exhibited to the Society of +Antiquaries a carved oak figure of Sir John Falstaff, +in the costume of the sixteenth century. This +figure had supported an ornamental bracket over +one side of the door of the last "Boar's Head," a +figure of Prince Henry sustaining the other. This +figure of Falstaff was the property of a brazer +whose ancestors had lived in the same shop in +Great Eastcheap ever since the Fire. He remembered +the last great Shakesperian dinner at the +"Boar's Head," about 1784, when Wilberforce and +Pitt were both present; and though there were +many wits at table, Pitt, he said, was pronounced +the most pleasant and amusing of the guests. +There is another "Boar's Head" in Southwark, and +one in Old Fish Street.</p> + +<p>"In the month of May, 1718," says Mr. Hotten, +in his "History of Sign-boards," "one James +Austin, 'inventor of the Persian ink-powder,' desiring +to give his customers a substantial proof of +his gratitude, invited them to the 'Boar's Head' +to partake of an immense plum pudding—this +pudding weighed 1,000 pounds—a baked pudding +of one foot square, and the best piece of an ox +roasted. The principal dish was put in the copper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1153" id="Page_1153">[Pg 1153]</a></span> +on Monday, May 12, at the 'Red Lion Inn,' by +the Mint, in Southwark, and had to boil fourteen +days. From there it was to be brought to the +'Swan Tavern,' in Fish Street Hill, accompanied +by a band of music, playing 'What lumps +of pudding my mother gave me!' One of the +instruments was a drum in proportion to the +pudding, being 18 feet 2 inches in length, and 4 +feet in diameter, which was drawn by 'a device +fixed on six asses.' Finally, the monstrous pudding +was to be divided in St. George's Fields; but +apparently its smell was too much for the gluttony +of the Londoners. The escort was routed, the +pudding taken and devoured, and the whole ceremony +brought to an end before Mr. Austin had a +chance to regale his customers." Puddings seem +to have been the <i>forte</i> of this Austin. Twelve or +thirteen years before this last pudding he had baked +one, for a wager, ten feet deep in the Thames, near +Rotherhithe, by enclosing it in a great tin pan, +and that in a sack of lime. It was taken up after +about two hours and a half, and eaten with great +relish, its only fault being that it was somewhat +overdone. The bet was for more than £100.</p> + +<p>In the burial-ground of St. Michael's Church, +hard by, rested all that was mortal of one of the +waiters of this tavern. His tomb, in Purbeck +stone, had the following epitaph:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Here lieth the bodye of Robert Preston, late drawer at the +'Boar's Head Tavern,' Great Eastcheap, who departed this +life March 16, Anno Domini 1730, aged twenty-seven years.</p> + +<p> +"Bacchus, to give the toping world surprise,<br /> +Produc'd one sober son, and here he lies.<br /> +Tho' nurs'd among full hogsheads, he defy'd<br /> +The charm of wine, and every vice beside.<br /> +O reader, if to justice thou'rt inclined,<br /> +Keep honest Preston daily in thy mind.<br /> +He drew good wine, took care to fill his pots,<br /> +Had sundry virtues that outweighed his fauts (<i>sic</i>).<br /> +You that on Bacchus have the like dependence,<br /> +Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Goldsmith visited the "Boar's Head," and has +left a delightful essay upon his day-dreams there, +totally forgetting that the original inn had perished +in the Great Fire. "The character of Falstaff," +says the poet, "even with all his faults, gives me +more consolation than the most studied efforts of +wisdom. I here behold an agreeable old fellow +forgetting age, and showing me the way to be young +at sixty-five. Surely I am well able to be as merry, +though not so comical as he. Is it not in my power +to have, though not so much wit, at least as much +vivacity? Age, care, wisdom, reflection, be gone! +I give you to the winds. Let's have t'other bottle. +Here's to the memory of Shakespeare, Falstaff, and +all the merry men of Eastcheap!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1154" id="Page_1154">[Pg 1154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Such were the reflections which naturally arose +while I sat at the 'Boar's Head Tavern,' still kept +at Eastcheap. Here, by a pleasant fire, in the +very room where old Sir John Falstaff cracked +his jokes, in the very chair which was sometimes +honoured by Prince Henry, and sometimes polluted +by his immortal merry companions, I sat and +ruminated on the follies of youth, wished to be +young again, but was resolved to make the best of +life whilst it lasted, and now and then compared +past and present times together. I considered +myself as the only living representative of the old +knight, and transported my imagination back to the +times when the Prince and he gave life to the revel. +The room also conspired to throw my reflections +back into antiquity. The oak floor, the Gothic +windows, and the ponderous chimney-piece had +long withstood the tooth of time. The watchman +had gone twelve. My companions had all stolen +off, and none now remained with me but the landlord. +From him I could have wished to know the +history of a tavern that had such a long succession +of customers. I could not help thinking that an +account of this kind would be a pleasing contrast +of the manners of different ages. But my landlord +could give me no information. He continued to +doze and sot, and tell a tedious story, as most other +landlords usually do, and, though he said nothing, +yet was never silent. One good joke followed +another good joke; and the best joke of all was +generally begun towards the end of a bottle. I +found at last, however, his wine and his conversation +operate by degrees. He insensibly began to +alter his appearance. His cravat seemed quilted +into a ruff, and his breeches swelled out into a +farthingale. I now fancied him changing sexes; +and as my eyes began to close in slumber, I +imagined my fat landlord actually converted into +as fat a landlady. However, sleep made but few +changes in my situation. The tavern, the apartment, +and the table continued as before. Nothing +suffered mutation but my host, who was fairly +altered into a gentlewoman, whom I knew to be +Dame Quickly, mistress of this tavern in the days +of Sir John; and the liquor we were drinking +seemed converted into sack and sugar.</p> + +<p>"'My dear Mrs. Quickly,' cried I (for I knew +her perfectly well at first sight), 'I am heartily +glad to see you. How have you left Falstaff, +Pistol, and the rest of our friends below stairs?—brave +and hearty, I hope?'"</p> + +<p>Years after that amiable American writer, Washington +Irving, followed in Goldsmith's steps, and +came to Eastcheap, in 1818, to search for Falstaff +relics; and at the "Masons' Arms," 12, Miles Lane,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1155" id="Page_1155">[Pg 1155]</a></span> +he was shown a tobacco-box and a sacramental +cup from St. Michael's Church, which the poetical +enthusiast mistook for a tavern goblet.</p> + +<p>"I was presented," he says, "with a japanned +iron tobacco-box, of gigantic size, out of which, I +was told, the vestry smoked at their stated meetings +from time immemorial, and which was never suffered +to be profaned by vulgar hands, or used on common +occasions. I received it with becoming reverence; +but what was my delight on beholding on its cover +the identical painting of which I was in quest! +There was displayed the outside of the 'Boar's +Head Tavern;' and before the door was to be +seen the whole convivial group at table, in full +revel, pictured with that wonderful fidelity and +force with which the portraits of renowned generals +and commodores are illustrated on tobacco-boxes, +for the benefit of posterity. Lest, however, there +should be any mistake, the cunning limner had +warily inscribed the names of Prince Hal and +Falstaff on the bottom of their chairs.</p> + +<p>"On the inside of the cover was an inscription, +nearly obliterated, recording that the box was the +gift of Sir Richard Gore, for the use of the vestry +meetings at the Boar's Head Tavern, and that it +was 'repaired and beautified by his successor, Mr. +John Packard, 1767.' Such is a faithful description +of this august and venerable relic; and I question +whether the learned Scriblerius contemplated his +Roman shield, or the Knights of the Round Table +the long-sought Saint-greal, with more exultation.</p> + +<p>"The great importance attached to this memento +of ancient revelry (the cup) by modern churchwardens +at first puzzled me; but there is nothing +sharpens the apprehension so much as antiquarian +research; for I immediately perceived that this +could be no other than the identical 'parcel-gilt +goblet' on which Falstaff made his loving but faithless +vow to Dame Quickly; and which would, of +course, be treasured up with care among the regalia +of her domains, as a testimony of that solemn +contract.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting +in my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal +fire, on Wednesday in Whitsun-week, when the prince broke +thy head for likening his father to a singing-man of Windsor; +thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, +to marry me, and make me my lady, thy wife. Canst thou +deny it?' (<i>Henry IV.</i>, part ii.)</p></div> + +<p>" ... For my part, I love to give myself up +to the illusions of poetry. A hero of fiction, that +never existed, is just as valuable to me as a hero of +history that existed a thousand years since; and, if +I may be excused such an insensibility to the common +ties of human nature, I would not give up fat +Jack for half the great men of ancient chronicles.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1156" id="Page_1156">[Pg 1156]</a></span> +What have the heroes of yore done for me or men +like me? They have conquered countries of which +I do not enjoy an acre; or they have gained laurels +of which I do not inherit a leaf; or they have furnished +examples of hare-brained prowess, which I +have neither the opportunity nor the inclination to +follow. But old Jack Falstaff!—kind Jack Falstaff!—sweet +Jack Falstaff!—has enlarged the +boundaries of human enjoyment; he has added +vast regions of wit and good humour, in which +the poorest man may revel; and has bequeathed +a never-failing inheritance of jolly laughter, to +make mankind merrier and better to the latest +posterity."</p> + +<p>The very name of the "Boar's Head," Eastcheap, +recalls a thousand Shakespearian recollections; for +here Falstaff came panting from Gadshill; here he +snored behind the arras while Prince Harry laughed +over his unconscionable tavern bill; and here, too, +took place that wonderful scene where Falstaff and +the prince alternately passed judgment on each +other's follies, Falstaff acting the prince's father, +and Prince Henry retorts by taking up the same +part. As this is one of the finest efforts of Shakespeare's +comic genius, a short quotation from it, on +the spot where the same was supposed to take +place, will not be out of place.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Fal.</i> Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest +thy time, but also how thou art accompanied; for though the +camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet +youth, the more it is wasted the more it wears. That thou +art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own +opinion; but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye, and a +foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. If +then thou be son to me, here lies the point;—why, being son +to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of +heaven prove a micher, and eat blackberries? a question +not to be asked. Shall a son of England prove a thief, and +take purses? a question to be asked. There is a thing, +Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to +many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch, as +ancient writers do report, doth defile: so doth the company +thou keepest; for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in +drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in +words only, but in woes also;—and yet there is a virtuous +man, whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know +not his name.</p> + +<p>"<i>P. Hen.</i> What manner of man, an it like your Majesty?</p> + +<p>"<i>Fal.</i> A good portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a +cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; +and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by 'r Lady, inclining +to three score. And, now I remember me, his name is +Falstaff. If that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth +me; for, Henry, I see virtue in his looks. If, then, the tree +may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then, +peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff. Him +keep with; the rest banish.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 16em;">* * * + * *</span></p> + +<p>"<i>P. Hen.</i> Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Henceforth +ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1157" id="Page_1157">[Pg 1157]</a></span>grace. There is a devil haunts thee, in the likeness of a fat +old man; a tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou +converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting hutch of +beastliness, that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard +of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree +ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that +grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein +is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein neat +and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? Wherein +cunning, but in his craft? Wherein crafty, but in villany? +Wherein villanous, but in all things? Wherein worthy, but +in nothing?</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 16em;">* * * + * *</span></p> + +<p>"<i>Fal.</i> But to say I know more harm in him than in myself +were to say more than I know. That he is old (the more the +pity!), his white hairs do witness it; but that he is (saving +your reverence) a whore-master, that I utterly deny. If sack +and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and +merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. +If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be +loved. No, my good lord! Banish Peto, banish Bardolph, +banish Poins; but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, +true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more +valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff—banish not him +thy Harry's company; banish not him thy Harry's company! +Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world!"</p></div> + +<p>"In Love Lane," says worthy Strype, "on +the north-west corner, entering into Little Eastcheap, +is the Weigh-house, built on the ground +where the church of St. Andrew Hubbard stood +before the fire of 1666. Which said Weigh-house +was before in Cornhill. In this house are weighed +merchandizes brought from beyond seas to the +king's beam, to which doth belong a master, and +under him four master porters, with labouring +porters under them. They have carts and horses +to fetch the goods from the merchants' warehouses +to the beam, and to carry them back. The house +belongeth to the Company of Grocers, in whose +gift the several porters', &c., places are. But of +late years little is done in this office, as wanting a +compulsive power to constrain the merchants to +have their goods weighed, they alleging it to be an +unnecessary trouble and charge."</p> + +<p>In former times it was the usual practice for +merchandise brought to London by foreign merchants +to be weighed at the king's beam in the +presence of sworn officials. The fees varied from +2d. to 3s. a draught; while for a bag of hops the +uniform charge was 6d.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="weigh" id="weigh"></a> +<img src="images/p564.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE WEIGH-HOUSE CHAPEL</span> +</div> + +<p>The Presbyterian Chapel in the Weigh-house +was founded by Samuel Slater and Thomas Kentish, +two divines driven by the Act of Uniformity from +St. Katherine's in the Tower. The first-named +minister, Slater, has distinguished himself by his +devotion during the dreadful plague which visited +London in 1625 (Charles I.). Kentish, of whom +Calamy entertained a high opinion, had been persecuted +by the Government. Knowle, another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1158" id="Page_1158">[Pg 1158]</a></span> +minister of this chapel, had fled to New England +to escape Laud's cat-like gripe. In Cromwell's +time he had been lecturer at Bristol Cathedral, +and had there greatly exasperated the Quakers. +Knowles and Kentish are said to have been so +zealous as sometimes to preach till they fainted. +In Thomas Reynolds's time a new chapel was built +at the King's Weigh-house. Reynolds, a friend of +the celebrated Howe, had studied at Geneva and +at Utrecht. He died in 1727, declaring that, +though he had hitherto dreaded death, he was +rising to heaven on a bed of roses. After the celebrated +quarrel between the subscribers and non-subscribers, +a controversy took place about psalmody, +which the Weigh-house ministers stoutly defended. +Samuel Wilton, another minister of Weigh-house +Chapel, was a pupil of Dr. Kippis, and an apologist +for the War of Independence. John Clayton, +chosen for this chapel in 1779, was the son of a +Lancashire cotton-bleacher, and was converted by +Romaine, and patronised by the excellent Countess +of Huntingdon; he used to relate how he had +been pelted with rotten eggs when preaching in the +open air near Christchurch. While itinerating for +Lady Huntingdon, Clayton became acquainted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1159" id="Page_1159">[Pg 1159]</a></span> +with Sir H. Trelawney, a young Cornish baronet, +who became a Dissenting minister, and eventually +joined the "Rational party." An interesting anecdote +is told of Trelawney's marriage in 1778. For +his bride he took a beautiful girl, who, apparently +without her lover's knowledge, annulled a prior +engagement, in order to please her parents by +securing for herself a more splendid station. The +spectacle was a gay one when, after their honeymoon, +Sir Harry and his wife returned to his seat +at Looe, to be welcomed home by his friend Clayton +and the servants of the establishment. The young +baronet proceeded to open a number of letters, and +during the perusal of one in particular his countenance +changed, betokening some shock sustained +by his nervous system. Evening wore into night, +but he would neither eat nor converse. At length +he confessed to Clayton that he had received an +affecting expostulation from his wife's former lover, +who had written, while ignorant of the marriage, +calling on Trelawney as a gentleman to withdraw +his claims on the lady's affections. This affair is +supposed to have influenced Sir Harry more or less +till the end of his days, although his married life +continued to flow on happily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1160" id="Page_1160">[Pg 1160]</a></span></p> + +<p>Clayton was ordained at the Weigh House +Chapel in 1778; the church, with one exception, +unanimously voted for him—the one exception, a +lady, afterwards became the new minister's wife. +Of Clayton Robert Hall said, "He was the most +favoured man I ever saw or ever heard of." He +died in 1843. Clayton's successor, the eloquent +Thomas Binney, was pastor of Weigh House Chapel +for more than forty years. So ends the chronicle of +the Weigh House worthies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1161" id="Page_1161">[Pg 1161]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="miles" id="miles"></a> +<img src="images/p565.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />MILES COVERDALE</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_L" id="CHAPTER_L"></a>CHAPTER L</h2> + +<p class="center">THE MONUMENT AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Monument—How shall it be fashioned?—Commemorative Inscriptions—The Monument's Place in History—Suicides and the Monument—The +Great Fire of London—On the Top of the Monument by Night—The Source of the Fire—A Terrible Description—Miles Coverdale—St. +Magnus, London Bridge.</p></div> + + +<p>The Monument, a fluted Doric column, raised to +commemorate the Great Fire of London, was designed +by Wren, who, as usual, was thwarted in +his original intentions. It stands 202 feet from +the site of the baker's house in Pudding Lane +where the fire first broke out. Wren's son, in his +"Parentalia," thus describes the difficulties which +his father met with in carrying out his design. Says +Wren, Junior: "In the place of the brass urn on the +top (which is not artfully performed, and was set +up contrary to his opinion) was originally intended +a colossal statue in brass gilt of King Charles II., +as founder of the new City, in the manner of the +Roman pillars, which terminated with the statues +of their Cæsars; or else a figure erect of a woman +crown'd with turrets, holding a sword and cap of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1162" id="Page_1162">[Pg 1162]</a></span> +maintenance, with other ensigns of the City's +grandeur and re-erection. The altitude from the +pavement is 202 feet; the diameter of the shaft (or +body) of the column is 15 feet; the ground bounded +by the plinth or lowest part of the pedestal is 28 +feet square, and the pedestal in height is 40 feet. +Within is a large staircase of black marble, containing +345 steps 10½ inches broad and 6 inches +risers. Over the capital is an iron balcony encompassing +a cippus, or meta, 32 feet high, supporting +a blazing urn of brass gilt. Prior to this the surveyor +(as it appears by an original drawing) had +made a design of a pillar of somewhat less proportion—viz., +14 feet in diameter, and after a +peculiar device; for as the Romans expressed by +<i>relievo</i> on the pedestals and round the shafts of +their columns the history of such actions and incidents +as were intended to be thereby commemorated, +so this monument of the conflagration and +resurrection of the City of London was represented +by a pillar in flames. The flames, blazing from the +loopholes of the shaft (which were to give light to +the stairs within), were figured in brass-work gilt; +and on the top was a phœnix rising from her ashes, +of brass gilt likewise."</p> + +<p>The following are, or rather were, the inscriptions +on the four sides of the Monument:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">SOUTH SIDE.</p> + +<p>"Charles the Second, son of Charles the Martyr, King +of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the +Faith, a most generous prince, commiserating the deplorable +state of things, whilst the ruins were yet smoking, provided +for the comfort of his citizens and the ornament of his city, +remitted their taxes, and referred the petitions of the magistrates +and inhabitants to the Parliament, who immediately +passed an Act that public works should be restored to greater +beauty with public money, to be raised by an imposition on +coals; that churches, and the Cathedral of Saint Paul, should +be rebuilt from their foundations, with all magnificence; that +bridges, gates, and prisons should be new made, the sewers +cleansed, the streets made straight and regular, such as were +steep levelled, and those too narrow made wider; markets +and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted +that every house should be built with party-walls, and all in +front raised of equal height, and those walls all of square +stone or brick, and that no man should delay building beyond +the space of seven years. Moreover, care was taken by law +to prevent all suits about their bounds. Also anniversary +prayers were enjoined; and to perpetuate the memory hereof +to posterity, they caused this column to be erected. The +work was carried on with diligence, and London is restored, +but whether with greater speed or beauty may be made a +question. At three years' time the world saw that finished +which was supposed to be the business of an age."</p></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">NORTH SIDE.</p> + +<p>"In the year of Christ 1666, the second day of September, +eastward from hence, at the distance of two hundred and two +feet (the height of this column), about midnight, a most terrible +fire broke out, which, driven on by a high wind, not +only wasted the adjacent parts, but also places very remote, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1163" id="Page_1163">[Pg 1163]</a></span>with incredible noise and fury. It consumed eighty-nine +churches, the City gates, Guildhall, many public structures, +hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of stately edifices, +thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling-houses, four hundred +streets. Of the six-and-twenty wards it utterly destroyed +fifteen, and left eight others shattered and half burnt. The +ruins of the City were four hundred and thirty-six acres, from +the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple Church, and +from the north-east along the City wall to Holborn Bridge. +To the estates and fortunes of the citizens it was merciless, +but to their lives very favourable, that it might in all things +resemble the last conflagration of the world. The destruction +was sudden, for in a small space of time the City was +seen most flourishing, and reduced to nothing. Three days +after, when this fatal fire had baffled all human counsels and +endeavours in the opinion of all, it stopped as it were by a +command from Heaven, and was on every side extinguished."</p></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">EAST SIDE.</p> + +<p class="center"> +"This pillar was begun,<br /> +Sir Richard Ford, Knight, being Lord Mayor of London,<br /> +In the year 1671,<br /> +Carried on<br /> +In the Mayoralties of<br /></p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir George Waterman, Kt.</td><td align='left' rowspan="5"><span class="bracket3">}</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Robert Hanson, Kt.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir William Hooker, Kt.</td><td align='left'>Lord Mayors,</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Robert Viner, Kt.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir Joseph Sheldon, Kt.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 16em;">And finished,<br /></span></p> +<p class="center">Sir Thomas Davies being Lord Mayor, in the year 1677."<br /></p></div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">WEST SIDE.</p> + +<p>"This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of the +most dreadful burning of this Protestant city, begun and +carried on by the treachery and malice of the Popish faction, +in the beginning of September, in the year of our Lord +MDCLXVI., in order to the effecting their horrid plot for +the extirpating the Protestant religion and English liberties, +and to introduce Popery and slavery."</p></div> + +<p>"The basis of the monument," says Strype, "on +that side toward the street, hath a representation of +the destruction of the City by the Fire, and the +restitution of it, by several curiously engraven figures +in full proportion. First is the figure of a woman +representing London, sitting on ruins, in a most +disconsolate posture, her head hanging down, and +her hair all loose about her; the sword lying by +her, and her left hand carefully laid upon it. A +second figure is Time, with his wings and bald +head, coming behind her and gently lifting her up. +Another female figure on the side of her, laying her +hand upon her, and with a sceptre winged in her +other hand, directing her to look upwards, for it +points up to two beautiful goddesses sitting in the +clouds, one leaning upon a cornucopia, denoting +Plenty, the other having a palm-branch in her +left hand, signifying Victory, or Triumph. Underneath +this figure of London in the midst of the +ruins is a dragon with his paw upon the shield of +a red cross, London's arms. Over her head is the +description of houses burning, and flames breaking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1164" id="Page_1164">[Pg 1164]</a></span> +out through the windows. Behind her are citizens +looking on, and some lifting up their hands.</p> + +<p>"Opposite against these figures is a pavement +of stone raised, with three or four steps, on which +appears King Charles II., in Roman habit, with a +truncheon in his right hand and a laurel about his +head, coming towards the woman in the foresaid +despairing posture, and giving orders to three +others to descend the steps towards her. The +first hath wings on her head, and in her hand something +resembling a harp. Then another figure of +one going down the steps following her, resembling +Architecture, showing a scheme or model for building +of the City, held in the right hand, and the +left holding a square and compasses. Behind these +two stands another figure, more obscure, holding up +an hat, denoting Liberty. Next behind the king +is the Duke of York, holding a garland, ready to +crown the rising City, and a sword lifted up in the +other hand to defend her. Behind this a third +figure, with an earl's coronet on his head. A fourth +figure behind all, holding a lion with a bridle in his +mouth. Over these figures is represented an house +in building, and a labourer going up a ladder with +an hodd upon his back. Lastly, underneath the +stone pavement whereon the king stands is a good +figure of Envy peeping forth, gnawing a heart."</p> + +<p>The bas-relief on the pediment of the Monument +was carved by a Danish sculptor, Caius Gabriel +Cibber, the father of the celebrated comedian and +comedy writer Colley Cibber; the four dragons +at the four angles are by Edward Pierce. The +Latin inscriptions were written by Dr. Gale, Dean +of York, and the whole structure was erected in six +years, for the sum of £13,700. The paragraphs +denouncing Popish incendiaries were not written +by Gale, but were added in 1681, during the madness +of the Popish plot. They were obliterated by +James II., but cut again deeper than before in the +reign of William III., and finally erased in 1831, +to the great credit of the Common Council.</p> + +<p>Wren at first intended to have had flames of +gilt brass coming out of every loophole of the +Monument, and on the top a phœnix rising from +the flames, also in brass gilt. He eventually +abandoned this idea, partly on account of the expense, +and also because the spread wings of the +phœnix would present too much resistance to the +wind. Moreover, the fabulous bird at that height +would not have been understood. Charles II. +preferred a gilt ball, and the present vase of flames +was then decided on. Defoe compares the Monument +to a lighted candle.</p> + +<p>The Monument is loftier than the pillars of +Trajan and Antoninus, at Rome, or that of Theo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1165" id="Page_1165">[Pg 1165]</a></span>dosius +at Constantinople; and it is not only the +loftiest, but also the finest isolated column in the +world.</p> + +<p>It was at first used by the members of the Royal +Society for astronomical purposes, but was abandoned +on account of its vibration being too great +for the nicety required in their observations. Hence +the report that the Monument is unsafe, which has +been revived in our time; "but," says Elwes, "its +scientific construction may bid defiance to the +attacks of all but earthquakes for centuries to +come."</p> + +<p>A large print of the Monument represents the +statue of Charles placed, for comparative effect, +beside a sectional view of the apex, as constructed. +Wren's autograph report on the designs for the +summit were added to the MSS. in the British +Museum in 1852. A model, scale one-eighth of an +inch to the foot, of the scaffolding used in building +the Monument is preserved. It formerly belonged +to Sir William Chambers, and was presented by +Heathcote Russell, C.E., to the late Sir Isambard +Brunel, who left it to his son, Mr. I.K. Brunel. +The ladders were of the rude construction of +Wren's time—two uprights, with treads or rounds +nailed on the face.</p> + +<p>On June 15, 1825, the Monument was illuminated +with portable gas, in commemoration of +laying the first stone of New London Bridge. A +lamp was placed at each of the loopholes of +the column, to give the idea of its being wreathed +with flame; whilst two other series were placed on +the edges of the gallery, to which the public were +admitted during the evening.</p> + +<p>Certain spots in London have become popular +with suicides, yet apparently without any special +reason, except that even suicides are vain and like +to die with <i>éclat</i>. Waterloo Bridge is chosen for +its privacy; the Monument used to be chosen, +we presume, for its height and quietude. Five +persons have destroyed themselves by leaps from +the Monument. The first of these unhappy creatures +was William Green, a weaver, in 1750. On +June 25 this man, wearing a green apron, the sign +of his craft, came to the Monument door, and left +his watch with the doorkeeper. A few minutes +after he was heard to fall. Eighteen guineas were +found in his pocket. The next man who fell from +the Monument was Thomas Craddock, a baker. +He was not a suicide; but, in reaching over to see +an eagle which was hung in a cage from the bars, +he overbalanced himself, and was killed. The next +victim was Lyon Levi, a Jew diamond merchant in +embarrassed circumstances, who destroyed himself +on the 18th of January, 1810. The third suicide<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1166" id="Page_1166">[Pg 1166]</a></span> +(September 11, 1839) was a young woman named +Margaret Meyer. This poor girl was the daughter +of a baker in Hemming's Row, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. +Her mother was dead, her father +bed-ridden, and there being a large family, it had +become necessary for her to go out to service, +which preyed upon her mind. The October following, +a boy named Hawes, who had been that +morning discharged by his master, a surgeon, +threw himself from the same place. He was of +unsound mind, and his father had killed himself. +The last suicide was in August, 1842, when a +servant-girl from Hoxton, named Jane Cooper, +while the watchman had his head turned, nimbly +climbed over the iron railing, tucked her clothes +tight between her knees, and dived head-fore-most +downwards. In her fall she struck the +griffin on the right side of the base of the Monument, +and, rebounding into the road, cleared a +cart in the fall. The cause of this act was not +discovered. Suicides being now fashionable here, +the City of London (not a moment too soon) +caged in the top of the Monument in the present +ugly way.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Samuel Rolle, writing of the Great Fire +in 1667, says—"If London its self be not the doleful +monument of its own destruction, by always lying +in ashes (which God forbid it should), it is provided +for by Act of Parliament, that after its restauration, +a pillar, either of brass or stone, should be erected, +in perpetual memory of its late most dismall conflagration."</p> + +<p>"Where the fire began, there, or as near as may +be to that place, must the pillar be erected (if ever +there be any such). If we commemorate the places +where our miseries began, surely the causes whence +they sprang (the meritorious causes, or sins, are +those I now intend) should be thought of much +more. If such a Lane burnt London, sin first burnt +that Lane; <i>causa, causa est causa causatio; affliction +springs not out of the dust</i>; not but that it may +spring thence immediately (as if the dust of the +earth should be turned into lice), but primarily and +originally it springs up elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"As for the inscription that ought to be upon +that pillar (whether of brass or stone), I must leave +it to their piety and prudence, to whom the wisdom +of the Parliament hath left it; only three things I +both wish and hope concerning it. The first is, +that it may be very humble, giving God the glory +of his righteous judgments, and taking to ourselves +the shame of our great demerits. Secondly, that +the confession which shall be there engraven may +be as impartial as the judgement itself was; not +charging the guilt for which that fire came upon a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1167" id="Page_1167">[Pg 1167]</a></span> +few only, but acknowledging that all have sinned, +as all have been punished. Far be it from any man +to say that his sins did not help to burn London, +that cannot say also (and who that is I know not) +that neither he nor any of his either is, or are ever +like to be, anything the worse for that dreadful fire. +Lastly, whereas some of the same religion with +those that did hatch the Powder-Plot are, and have +been, vehemently suspected to have been the incendiaries, +by whose means London was burned, I +earnestly desire that if time and further discovery +be able to acquit them from any such guilt, that +pillar may record their innocency, and may make +themselves as <i>an iron pillar or brazen wall</i> (as I +may allude to Jer. i. 18) against all the accusations +of those that suspect them; but if, in deed and in +truth, that fire either came or was carried on and +continued by their treachery, that the inscription of +the pillar may consigne over their names to perpetual +hatred and infamy."</p> + +<p>"Then was God to his people as a shadow from +the heat of the rage of their enemies, as a wall of +fire for their protection; but this pillar calls that +time to remembrance, in which God covered himself, +as with a cloud, that the prayers of Londoners +should not passe unto him, and came forth, not as +a conserving, but as a consuming fire, not for, but +against, poor London."</p> + +<p>Roger North, in his Life of Sir Dudley, mentions +the Monument when still in its first bloom. +"He (Sir Dudley North)," he says, "took pleasure +in surveying the Monument, and comparing it with +mosque-towers, and what of that kind he had seen +abroad. We mounted up to the top, and one after +another crept up the hollow iron frame that carries +the copper head and flames above. We went out +at a rising plate of iron that hinged, and there +found convenient irons to hold by. We made use +of them, and raised our bodies entirely above the +flames, having only our legs to the knees within; +and there we stood till we were satisfied with the +prospect from thence. I cannot describe how hard +it was to persuade ourselves we stood safe, so likely +did our weight seem to throw down the whole +fabric."</p> + +<p>Addison takes care to show his Tory fox-hunter +the famed Monument. "We repaired," +says the amiable essayist, "to the Monument, +where my fellow-traveller (the Tory fox-hunter), +being a well-breathed man, mounted the ascent +with much speed and activity. I was forced to +halt so often in this particular march, that, upon +my joining him on the top of the pillar, I found +he had counted all the steeples and towers which +were discernible from this advantageous situation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1168" id="Page_1168">[Pg 1168]</a></span> +and was endeavouring to compute the number of +acres they stood on. We were both of us very +well pleased with this part of the prospect; but I +found he cast an evil eye upon several warehouses +and other buildings, which looked like barns, and +seemed capable of receiving great multitudes of +people. His heart misgave him that these were so +many meeting-houses; but, upon communicating +his suspicions to me, I soon made him easy in that +particular. We then turned our eyes upon the +river, which gave me an occasion to inspire him +with some favourable thoughts of trade and merchandise, +that had filled the Thames with such +crowds of ships, and covered the shore with such +swarms of people. We descended very leisurely, +my friend being careful to count the steps, which +he registered in a blank leaf of his new almanack. +Upon our coming to the bottom, observing an +English inscription upon the basis, he read it over +several times, and told me he could scarce believe +his own eyes, for he had often heard from an old +attorney who lived near him in the country that it +was the Presbyterians who burnt down the City, +'whereas,' says he, 'the pillar positively affirms, +in so many words, that the burning of this antient +city was begun and carried on by the treachery +and malice of the Popish faction, in order to the +carrying on their horrid plot for extirpating the +Protestant religion and old English liberty, and +introducing Popery and slavery.' This account, +which he looked upon to be more authentic than +if it had been in print, I found, made a very great +impression upon him."</p> + +<p>Ned Ward is very severe on the Monument. +"As you say, this edifice," he says, "as well as +some others, was projected as a memorandum of +the Fire, or an ornament to the City, but gave +those corrupted magistrates that had the power +in their hands the opportunity of putting two thousand +pounds into their own pockets, whilst they paid +one towards the building. I must confess, all I think +can be spoke in praise of it is, <i>'tis a monument to +the City's shame, the orphan's grief, the Protestant's +pride, and the Papist's scandal; and only serves as +a high-crowned hat, to cover the head of the old +fellow that shows it</i>."</p> + +<p>Pope, as a Catholic, looked with horror on the +Monument, and wrote bitterly of it—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"Where London's Column, pointing at the skies,<br /> +Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies,<br /> +There dwelt a citizen of sober fame,<br /> +A plain good man, and Balaam was his name."</div> + +<p>"At the end of Littleton's Dictionary," says +Southey, "is an inscription for the Monument, +wherein this very learned scholar proposes a name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1169" id="Page_1169">[Pg 1169]</a></span> +for it worthy, for its length, of a Sanscrit legend. +It is a word which extends through seven degrees +of longitude, being designed to commemorate the +names of the seven Lord Mayors of London under +whose respective mayoralties the Monument was +begun, continued, and completed:—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Quam non una aliqua ac simplici voce, uti istam quondam Duilianam;<br /> +Sed, ut vero eam nomine indigites, vocabulo constructiliter Heptastico,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Fordo—Watermanno—Hansono—Hookero—Vinero—Sheldono—Davisianam</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Appellare opportebit.'</span></div> + +<p>"Well might Adam Littleton call this an <i>heptastic +vocable</i>, rather than a word." (Southey, +"Omniana.")</p> + +<p>Mr. John Hollingshead, an admirable modern +essayist, in a chapter in "Under Bow Bells," entitled +"A Night on the Monument," has given a +most powerful sketch of night, moonlight, and daybreak +from the top of the Monument. "The +puppet men," he says, "now hurry to and fro, +lighting up the puppet shops, which cast a warm, +rich glow upon the pavement. A cross of dotted +lamps springs into light, the four arms of which +are the four great thoroughfares from the City. +Red lines of fire come out behind black, solid, +sullen masses of building; and spires of churches +stand out in strong, dark relief at the side of busy +streets. Up in the housetops, under green-shaded +lamps, you may see the puppet clerks turning +quickly over the clean, white, fluttering pages of +puppet day-books and ledgers; and from east to +west you see the long, silent river, glistening here +and there with patches of reddish light, even +through the looped steeple of the Church of St. +Magnus the Martyr. Then, in a white circle of +light round the City, dart out little nebulous +clusters of houses, some of them high up in the +air, mingling, in appearance, with the stars of +heaven; some with one lamp, some with two or +more; some yellow, and some red; and some +looking like bunches of fiery grapes in the congress +of twinkling suburbs. Then the bridges +throw up their arched lines of lamps, like the +illuminated garden-walks at Cremorne....</p> + +<p>"The moon has now increased in power, and, +acting on the mist, brings out the surrounding +churches one by one. There they stand in the +soft light, a noble army of temples thickly sprinkled +amongst the money-changers. Any taste may +be suited in structural design. There are high +churches, low churches; flat churches; broad +churches, narrow churches; square, round, and +pointed churches; churches with towers like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1170" id="Page_1170">[Pg 1170]</a></span> +cubical slabs sunk deeply in between the roofs of +houses; towers like toothpicks, like three-pronged +forks, like pepper-casters, like factory chimneys, +like limekilns, like a sailor's trousers hung up to +dry, like bottles of fish-sauce, and like St. Paul's—a +balloon turned topsy-turvy. There they stand, +like giant spectral watchmen guarding the silent +city, whose beating heart still murmurs in its sleep. +At the hour of midnight they proclaim, with iron +tongue, the advent of a New Year, mingling a song +of joy with a wail for the departed....</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="original" id="original"></a> +<img src="images/p570.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br /> WREN'S ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR THE SUMMIT OF THE MONUMENT</span> +</div> + +<p>"The dark grey churches and houses spring +into existence one by one. The streets come up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1171" id="Page_1171">[Pg 1171]</a></span> +out of the land, and the bridges come up out of +the water. The bustle of commerce, and the roar +of the great human ocean—which has never been +altogether silent—revive. The distant turrets of +the Tower, and the long line of shipping on the +river, become visible. Clear smoke still flows over +the housetops, softening their outlines, and turning +them into a forest of frosted trees.</p> + +<p>"Above all this is a long black mountain-ridge +of cloud, tipped with glittering gold; beyond float +deep orange and light yellow ridges, bathed in a +faint purple sea. Through the black ridge struggles +a full, rich, purple sun, the lower half of his disc +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1173" id="Page_1173">[Pg 1173]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1172" id="Page_1172">[Pg 1172]</a></span>tinted with grey. Gradually, like blood-red wine +running into a round bottle, the purple overcomes +the grey; and at the same time the black cloud +divides the face of the sun into two sections, like +the visor of a harlequin."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><a name="monument" id="monument"></a> +<img src="images/p571.jpg" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption"><br />THE MONUMENT AND THE CHURCH OF ST. MAGNUS, ABOUT 1800. (<i>From an Old View.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>In 1732 a sailor is recorded to have slid down a +rope from the gallery to the "Three Tuns" tavern, +Gracechurch Street; as did also, next day, a waterman's +boy. In the <i>Times</i> newspaper of August 22, +1827, there appeared the following hoaxing advertisement: +"Incredible as it may appear, a person +will attend at the Monument, and will, for the sum +of £2,500, undertake to jump clear off the said +Monument; and in coming down will drink some +beer and eat a cake, act some trades, shorten and +make sail, and bring ship safe to anchor. As soon +as the sum stated is collected, the performance will +take place; and if not performed, the money subscribed +to be returned to the subscribers."</p> + +<p>The Great Fire of 1666 broke out at the shop +of one Farryner, the king's baker, 25, Pudding +Lane. The following inscription was placed by +some zealous Protestants over the house, when +rebuilt:—"Here, by the permission of Heaven, +Hell broke loose upon this Protestant city, from +the malicious hearts of barbarous priests, by the +hand of their agent, Hubert, who confessed and +on the ruins of this place declared the fact for +which he was hanged—viz., that here begun that +dreadful fire which is described on and perpetuated +by the neighbouring pillar, erected anno 1681, in +the mayoralty of Sir Patience Ward, Kt."</p> + +<p>This celebrated inscription (says Cunningham), +set up pursuant to an order of the Court of Common +Council, June 17th, 1681, was removed in +the reign of James II., replaced in the reign of +William III., and finally taken down, "on account +of the stoppage of passengers to read it." Entick, +who made additions to Maitland in 1756, speaks +of it as "lately taken away."</p> + +<p>The Fire was for a long time attributed to +Hubert, a crazed French Papist of five or six and +twenty years of age, the son of a watchmaker at +Rouen, in Normandy. He was seized in Essex, +confessed he had begun the fire, and persisting in +his confession to his death, was hanged, upon no +other evidence than that of his own confession. +He stated in his examination that he had been +"suborned at Paris to this action," and that there +were three more combined to do the same thing. +They asked him if he knew the place where he +had first put fire. He answered that he "knew +it very well, and would show it to anybody." He +was then ordered to be blindfolded and carried to +several places of the City, that he might point<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1174" id="Page_1174">[Pg 1174]</a></span> +out the house. They first led him to a place at +some distance from it, opened his eyes, and asked +him if that was it, to which he answered, "No, it +was lower, nearer to the Thames." "The house +and all which were near it," says Clarendon, "were +so covered and buried in ruins, that the owners +themselves, without some infallible mark, could +very hardly have said where their own houses had +stood; but this man led them directly to the place, +described how it stood, the shape of the little yard, +the fashion of the doors and windows, and where +he first put the fire, and all this with such exactness, +that they who had dwelt long near it could +not so perfectly have described all particulars." +Tillotson told Burnet that Howell, the then recorder +of London, accompanied Hubert on this +occasion, "was with him, and had much discourse +with him; and that he concluded it was impossible +it could be a melancholy dream." This, however, +was not the opinion of the judges who tried him. +"Neither the judges," says Clarendon, "nor any +present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that +he was a poor distracted wretch, weary of his life, +and chose to part with it this way."</p> + +<p>A few notes about the Great Fire will here be +interesting. Pepys gives a graphic account of its +horrors. In one place he writes—"Everybody +endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging +into the river, or bringing them into lighters that +lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long +as till the very fire touched them, and then running +into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs +by the waterside to another. And, among other +things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to +leave their houses, but hovered about the windows +and balconys till they burned their wings and fell +down. Having staid, and in an hour's time seen +the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, +endeavouring to quench it, but to remove their +goods and leave all to the fire."</p> + +<p>But by far the most vivid conception of the Fire +is to be found in a religious book written by the +Rev. Samuel Vincent, who expresses the feelings of +the moment with a singular force. Says the writer: +"It was the 2nd of September, 1666, that the +anger of the Lord was kindled against London, +and the fire began. It began in a baker's house +in Pudding Lane, by Fish Street Hill; and now +the Lord is making London like a fiery oven in the +time of his anger (Psalm xxi. 9), and in his wrath +doth devour and swallow up our habitations. It +was in the depth and dead of the night, when +most doors and senses were lockt up in the City, +that the fire doth break forth and appear abroad, +and like a mighty giant refresht with wine doth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1175" id="Page_1175">[Pg 1175]</a></span> +awake and arm itself, quickly gathers strength, +when it had made havoc of some houses, rusheth +down the hill towards the bridge, crosseth Thames +Street, invadeth Magnus Church at the bridge foot, +and, though that church were so great, yet it was +not a sufficient barricade against this conqueror; +but having scaled and taken this fort, it shooteth +flames with so much the greater advantage into all +places round about, and a great building of houses +upon the bridge is quickly thrown to the ground. +Then the conqueror, being stayed in his course at +the bridge, marcheth back towards the City again, +and runs along with great noise and violence +through Thames Street westward, where, having +such combustible matter in its teeth, and such a +fierce wind upon its back, it prevails with little resistance, +unto the astonishment of the beholders.</p> + +<p>"My business is not to speak of the hand of +man, which was made use of in the beginning and +carrying on of this fire. The beginning of the +fire at such a time, when there had been so much +hot weather, which had dried the houses and made +them more fit for fuel; the beginning of it in such +a place, where there were so many timber houses, +and the shops filled with so much combustible +matter; and the beginning of it just when the wind +did blow so fiercely upon that corner towards the +rest of the City, which then was like tinder to the +spark; this doth smell of a Popish design, hatcht +in the same place where the Gunpowder Plot was +contrived, only that this was more successful.</p> + +<p>"Then, then the City did shake indeed, and the +inhabitants flew away in great amazement from their +houses, lest the flame should devour them. Rattle, +rattle, rattle, was the noise which the fire struck +upon the ear round about, as if there had been a +thousand iron chariots beating upon the stones; +and if you opened your eye to the opening of the +streets where the fire was come, you might see in +some places whole streets at once in flames, that +issued forth as if they had been so many great +forges from the opposite windows, which, folding +together, were united into one great flame throughout +the whole street; and then you might see the +houses tumble, tumble, tumble, from one end of +the street to the other, with a great crash, leaving +the foundations open to the view of the heavens."</p> + +<p>The original Church of St. Magnus, London +Bridge, was of great antiquity; for we learn that +in 1302 Hugh Pourt, sheriff of London, and his +wife Margaret, founded a charity here; and the +first rector mentioned by Newcourt is Robert de +St. Albano, who resigned his living in 1323. It +stood almost at the foot of Old London Bridge; +and the incumbent of the chapel on the bridge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1176" id="Page_1176">[Pg 1176]</a></span> +paid an annual sum to the rector of St. Magnus +for the diminution of the fees which the chapel +might draw away. Three Lord Mayors are known +to have been buried in St. Magnus'; and here, in +the chapel of St. Mary, was interred Henry Yevele, +a freemason to Edward III., Richard II., and +Henry IV. This Yevele had assisted to erect +the bust of Richard II. at Westminster Abbey +between the years 1395-97, and also assisted +in restoring Westminster Hall. He founded a +charity in this church, and died in 1401. In old +times the patronage of St. Magnus' was exercised +alternately by the Abbots of Westminster and Bermondsey; +but after the dissolution it fell to the +Crown, and Queen Mary, in 1553, bestowed it on +the Bishop of London. In Arnold's "Chronicles" +(end of the fifteenth century) the church is noted +as much neglected, and the services insufficiently +performed. The ordinary remarks that divers of +the priests and clerks spent the time of Divine +service in taverns and ale-houses, and in fishing +and "other trifles."</p> + +<p>The church was destroyed at an early period of +the Great Fire. It was rebuilt by Wren in 1676. +The parish was then united with that of St. Margaret, +New Fish Street Hill; and at a later period +St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, has also been annexed. +On the top of the square tower, which +is terminated with an open parapet, Wren has +introduced an octagon lantern of very simple and +pleasing design, crowned by a cupola and short +spire. We must here, once for all, remark on the +fertility of invention displayed by Wren in varying +constantly the form of his steeples.</p> + +<p>The interior of the church is divided into a nave +and side aisles by Doric columns, that support an +entablature from which rises the camerated ceiling. +"The general proportions of the church," says +Mr. Godwin, "are pleasing; but the columns are +too slight, the space between them too wide, and +the result is a disagreeable feeling of insecurity." +The altar-piece, adorned with the figure of a pelican +feeding her young, is richly carved and gilded. +The large organ, built by Jordan in 1712, was presented +by Sir Charles Duncomb, who gave the clock +in remembrance of having himself, when a boy, +been detained on this spot, ignorant of the time.</p> + +<p>Stow gives a curious account of a religious +service attached to this church. The following +deed is still extant:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That Rauf Capelyn du Bailiff, Will. Double, fishmonger, +Roger Lowher, chancellor, Henry Boseworth, +vintner, Steven Lucas, stock fishmonger, and other of the +better of the parish of St. Magnus', near the Bridge of +London, of their great devotion, and to the honour of God +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1177" id="Page_1177">[Pg 1177]</a></span>and the glorious Mother our Lady Mary the Virgin, began +and caused to be made a chauntry, to sing an anthem of our +Lady, called <i>Salve Regina</i>, every evening; and thereupon +ordained five burning wax lights at the time of the said +anthem, in the honour and reverence of the five principal +joys of our Lady aforesaid, and for exciting the people to +devotion at such an hour, the more to merit to their souls. +And thereupon many other good people of the same parish, +seeing the great honesty of the said service and devotion, +proffered to be aiders and partners to support the said lights +and the said anthem to be continually sung, paying to every +person every week an halfpenny; and so that hereafter, with +the gift that the people shall give to the sustentation of the +said light and anthem, there shall be to find a chaplain +singing in the said church for all the benefactors of the said +light and anthem."</p></div> + +<p>Miles Coverdale, the great reformer, was a +rector of St. Magnus'. Coverdale was in early +life an Augustinian monk, but being converted +to Protestantism, he exerted his best faculties and +influence in defending the cause. In August, 1551, +he was advanced to the see of Exeter, and availed +himself of that station to preach frequently in +the cathedral and in other churches of Exeter. +Thomas Lord Cromwell patronised him; and +Queen Catherine Parr appointed him her almoner. +At the funeral of that ill-fated lady he preached a +sermon at Sudeley Castle. When Mary came to +the throne, she soon exerted her authority in tyrannically +ejecting and persecuting this amiable and +learned prelate. By an Act of Council (1554-55) +he was allowed to "passe towards Denmarche +with two servants, his bagges and baggage," where +he remained till the death of the queen. On +returning home, he declined to be reinstated in +his see, but repeatedly preached at Paul's Cross, +and, from conscientious scruples, continued to live +in obscurity and indigence till 1563, when he was +presented to the rectory of St. Magnus', London +Bridge, which he resigned in two years. Dying +in the year 1568, at the age of eighty-one, he was +interred in this church.</p> + +<p>Coverdale's labours in Bible translation are +worth notice. In 1532 Coverdale appears to have +been abroad assisting Tyndale in his translation of +the Bible; and in 1535 his own folio translation of +the Bible (printed, it is supposed, at Zurich), with +a dedication to Henry VIII., was published. This +was the first English Bible allowed by royal +authority, and the first translation of the whole +Bible printed in our language. The Psalms in it +are those we now use in the Book of Common +Prayer. About 1538 Coverdale went to Paris to +superintend a new edition of the Bible printing in +Paris by permission of Francis I. The Inquisition, +however, seized nearly all the 2,500 copies (only a +few books escaping), and committed them to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1178" id="Page_1178">[Pg 1178]</a></span> +flames. The rescued copies enabled Grafton and +Whitchurch, in 1539, to print what is called +Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, which Coverdale +collated with the Hebrew. This great Bible +scholar was thrown into prison by Queen Mary, +and on his release went to Geneva, where he +assisted in producing the Geneva translation of +the Bible, which was completed in 1560. Coverdale, +like Wickliffe, was a Yorkshireman.</p> + +<p>Against the east wall, on the south side of the +communion-table, is a handsome Gothic panel of +statuary marble, on a black slab, with a representation +of an open Bible above it, and thus +inscribed:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To the memory of Miles Coverdale, who, convinced +that the pure Word of God ought to be the sole rule of our +faith and guide of our practice, laboured earnestly for its +diffusion; and with the view of affording the means of +reading and hearing in their own tongue the wonderful +works of God not only to his own country, but to the +nations that sit in darkness, and to every creature wheresoever +the English language might be spoken, he spent +many years of his life in preparing a translation of the +Scriptures. On the 4th of October, 1535, the first complete +printed English version of <i>The Bible</i> was published under +his direction. The parishioners of St. Magnus the Martyr, +desirous of acknowledging the mercy of God, and calling to +mind that Miles Coverdale was once rector of their parish, +erected this monument to his memory, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1837.</p> + +<p>"'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the +gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.'—Isaiah +lii. 7."</p></div> + +<p>In the vestry-room, which is now at the south-west +corner of the church, there is a curious +drawing of the interior of Old Fishmongers' Hall +on the occasion of the presentation of a pair of +colours to the Military Association of Bridge +Ward by Mrs. Hibbert. Many of the figures are +portraits. There is also a painting of Old London +Bridge, and a clever portrait of the late Mr. R. +Hazard, who was attached to the church as sexton, +clerk, and ward beadle for nearly fifty years.</p> + +<p>The church was much injured in 1760 by a fire +which broke out in an adjoining oil-shop. The +roof was destroyed, and the vestry-room entirely +consumed. The repairs cost £1,200. The vestry-room +was scarcely completed before it had to be +taken down, with part of the church, in order to +make a passage-way under the steeple to the old +bridge, the road having been found dangerously +narrow. It was proposed to cut an archway out of +the two side walls of the tower to form a thoroughfare; +and when the buildings were removed, it was +discovered that Wren, foreseeing the probability +of such a want arising, had arranged everything +to their hands, and that the alteration was effected +with the utmost ease.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1179" id="Page_1179">[Pg 1179]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_LI" id="CHAPTER_LI"></a>CHAPTER LI</h2> + +<p class="center">CHAUCER'S LONDON</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>London Denizens in the Reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.—The Knight—The Young Bachelor—The Yeoman—The Prioress—The Monk +who goes a Hunting—The Merchant—The Poor Clerk—The Franklin—The Shipman—The Poor Parson.</p></div> + + +<p>The London of Chaucer's time (the reigns of +Edward III. and Richard II.) was a scattered +town, spotted as thick with gardens as a common +meadow is with daisies. Hovels stood cheek by +jowl with stately monasteries, and the fortified +mansions in the narrow City lanes were surrounded +by citizens' stalls and shops. Westminster Palace, +out in the suburbs among fields and marshes, was +joined to the City walls by that long straggling +street of bishops' and nobles' palaces, called the +Strand. The Tower and the Savoy were still royal +residences. In all the West-end beyond Charing +Cross, and in all the north of London beyond +Clerkenwell and Holborn, cows and horses grazed, +milkmaids sang, and ploughmen whistled. There +was danger in St. John's Wood and Tyburn Fields, +and robbers on Hampstead Heath. The heron +could be found in Marylebone pastures, and moor-hens +in the brooks round Paddington. Priestly +processions were to be seen in Cheapside, where +the great cumbrous signs, blazoned with all known +and many unknown animals, hung above the open +stalls, where the staid merchants and saucy 'prentices +shouted the praises of their goods. The +countless church-bells rang ceaselessly, to summon +the pious to prayers. Among the street crowds +the monks and men-at-arms were numerous, and +were conspicuous by their robes and by their +armour.</p> + +<p>With the manners and customs of those simple +times our readers will now be pretty well familiar, +for we have already written of the knights and +priests of that age, and have described their good +and evil doings. We have set down their epitaphs, +detailed the history of their City companies, their +mayors, aldermen, and turbulent citizens. We have +shown their buildings, and spoken of their revolts +against injustice. Yet, after all, Time has destroyed +many pieces of that old puzzle, and who can dive +into oblivion and recover them? The long rows of +gable ends, the abbey archways, the old guild rooms, +the knightly chambers, no magic can restore to us +in perfect combination. While certain spots can +be etched with exactitude by the pen, on vast +tracts no image rises. A dimmed and imperfect +picture it remains, we must confess, even to the +most vivid imagination. How the small details of +City life worked in those days we shall never know. +We may reproduce Edward III.'s London on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1180" id="Page_1180">[Pg 1180]</a></span> +stage, or in poems; but, after all, and at the best, it +will be conjecture.</p> + +<p>But of many of those people who paced in +Watling Street, or who rode up Cornhill, we have +imperishable pictures, true to the life, and rich-coloured +as Titian's, by Chaucer, in those "Canterbury +Tales" he is supposed to have written +about 1385 (Richard II.), in advanced life, and in +his peaceful retirement at Woodstock. The pilgrims +he paints in his immortal bundle of tales are +no ideal creatures, but such real flesh and blood as +Shakespeare drew and Hogarth engraved. He +drew the people of his age as genius most delights +to do; and the fame he gained arose chiefly from +the fidelity of the figures with which he filled, his +wonderful portrait-gallery.</p> + +<p>We, therefore, in Chaucer's knight, are introduced +to just such old warriors as might any day, +in the reign of Edward III., be met in Bow Lane +or Friday Street, riding to pay his devoirs to some +noble of Thames Street, to solicit a regiment, or +to claim redress for a wrong by force of arms. The +great bell of Bow may have struck the hour of noon +as the man who rode into Pagan Alexandria, under +the banner of the Christian King of Cyprus, and +who had broken a spear against the Moors at the +siege of Granada, rides by on his strong but not +showy charger. He wears, you see, a fustian gipon, +which is stained with the rust of his armour. There +is no plume in his helmet, no gold upon his belt, +for he is just come from Anatolia, where he has +smitten off many a turbaned head, and to-morrow +will start to thank God for his safe return at the +shrine of St. Thomas in Kent. In sooth it needs +only a glance at him to see that he is "a very +perfect gentle knight," meek as a maid, and trusty +as his own sword.</p> + +<p>That trusty young bachelor who rides so gaily +by the old knight's side, and who regards him with +love and reverence, is his son, a brave young knight +of twenty years of age, as we guess. He has borne +him well in Flanders, Artois, and Picardy, and has +watered many a French vineyard with French +blood. See how smart he is in his short gown and +long wide sleeves. He can joust, and dance, and +sing, and write love verses, with any one between +here and Paris. The citizens' daughters devour +him with their eyes as he rides under their casements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1181" id="Page_1181">[Pg 1181]</a></span>.</p> + +<p>There rides behind this worthy pair a stout +yeoman, such as you can see a dozen of every +morning, in this reign, in ten minutes' walk down +Cheapside, for the nobles' houses in the City swarm +with such retainers—sturdy, brown-faced country +fellows, quick of quarrel, and not disposed to bear +gibes. He wears a coat and hood of Lincoln +green, and has a sword, dagger, horn, and buckler +by his side. The sheaf of arrows at his girdle have +peacock-feathers. Ten to one but that fellow let +fly many a shaft at Cressy and Poictiers, for he is +fond of saying, over his ale-bowl, that he carries +"ten Frenchmen's lives under his belt."</p> + +<p>The prioress Chaucer sketches so daintily might +have been seen any day ambling through Bishopsgate +from her country nunnery, on her way to shrine +or altar, or on a visit to some noble patroness to +whom she is akin. "By St. Eloy!" she cries to +her mule, "if thou stumble again I will chide +thee!" and she says it in the French of Stratford +at Bow. Her wimple is trimly plaited, and how +fashionable is her cloak! She wears twisted round +her arm a pair of coral beads, and from them hangs +a gold ornament with the unecclesiastical motto of +"Amor vincit omnia." Behind her rides a nun and +three priests, and by the side of her mule run the +little greyhounds whom she feeds, and on whom +she doats.</p> + +<p>The rich monk that loved hunting was a character +that any monastery of Chaucer's London +could furnish. Go early in the morning to Aldersgate +or Cripplegate, and you will be sure to find +such a one riding out with his greyhounds and +falcon. His dress is rich, for he does not sneer +at worldly pleasures. His sleeves are trimmed +with fur, and the pin that fastens his hood is a +gold love-knot. His brown palfrey is fat, like its +master, who does not despise a roast Thames +swan for dinner, and whose face shines with good +humour and good living. It is such men as these +that Wycliffe's followers deride, and point the +finger at; but they forget that the Church uses +strong arguments with perverse adversaries.</p> + +<p>To find Chaucer's merchant you need not go +further than a few yards from Milk Street. There +you will see him at any stall, grave, and with +forked beard; on his head a Flemish beaver hat, +and his boots "full fetishly" clasped. He talks +much of profits and exchanges, and the necessity +of guarding the sea from the French between +Middleburgh and the Essex ports.</p> + +<p>Chaucer's poor lean Oxford clerk you will find +in Paul's, peering about the tombs, as if looking +for a benefice. All his riches, worthy man! are +some twenty books at his bed's head, and he is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1182" id="Page_1182">[Pg 1182]</a></span> +talking philosophy to a fellow-student lean and +thin as himself, to the profound contempt of that +stiff serjeant-at-law who is waiting for clients near +the font, on which his fees are paid.</p> + +<p>Any procession day in the age of Edward you +can meet, in Westminster Abbey, near the royal +shrines and tombs, Chaucer's franklin, or country +gentleman, with his red face and white beard. His +dagger hangs by his silk purse, and his girdle is +as white as milk, for our friend has been a sheriff +and knight of the shire, and is known all Buckinghamshire +over for his open house and well-covered +board. Aye, and many a fat partridge he has in +his pen, and many a fat pike in his fish-pond.</p> + +<p>Chaucer's shipman we shall be certain to discover +near Billingsgate. He is from Dartmouth, and +wears a short coat, and a knife hanging from his +neck. A hardy good fellow he is, and shrewd, and +his beard has shaken in many a tempest. Bless +you! the captain of the <i>Magdalen</i> knows all the +havens from Gothland to Cape Finisterre, aye, and +every creek in Brittany and Spain; and many a +draught of Bordeaux wine he has tapped at night +from his cargo.</p> + +<p>Nor must we forget that favourite pilgrim of +Chaucer—the poor parson of a town, who is also +a learned clerk, and who is by many supposed to +strongly resemble Wycliffe himself, whom Chaucer's +patron, John of Gaunt, protects at the hazard of +his life. He is no proud Pharisee, like the fat +abbot who has just gone past the church door; +but benign and wondrous diligent, and in adversity +full patient. Rather than be cursed for the tithe +he takes, he gives to the poor of his very subsistence. +Come rain, come thunder, staff in hand, +he visits the farthest end of his parish; he has no +spiced conscience—</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 2em;">"For Christe's love, and his apostles twelve,<br /> +He taught, <i>but first he followed it himselve</i>."</div> + +<p>You will find him, be sure, on his knees on the cold +floor, before some humble City altar, heedless of +all but prayer, or at the lazar-house on his knees, +beside some poor leper, and pointing through the +shadow of death to the shining gables of the New +Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Such were the tenants of Chaucer's London. +On these types at least we may dwell with certainty. +As for the proud nobles and the tough-skulled +knights, we must look for them in the pages +of Froissart. Of the age of Edward III. at least +our patriarchal poet has shown us some vivid +glimpses, and imagination finds pleasure in tracing +home his pilgrims to their houses in St. Bartholomew's +and Budge Row, the Blackfriars monastery, +and the palace on the Thames shore.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Old and New London, by Walter Thornbury + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD AND NEW LONDON *** + +***** This file should be named 31412-h.htm or 31412-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/4/1/31412/ + +Produced by Eric Hutton, Jane Hyland and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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