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diff --git a/31412.txt b/31412.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e96c83b --- /dev/null +++ b/31412.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39973 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Old and New London, by Walter Thornbury + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + +OLD AND NEW LONDON. + + + + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON, PLATE 10. + +THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON, PLATE 9. + +THE ROYAL EXCHANGE & BANK OF ENGLAND.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 8. + +ALDERMAN BOYDELL. From the Portrait in the Guildhall Collection.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON PLATE 7. + +THE MIDLAND RAILWAY STATION,--ST. PANCRAS.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 6. + +Maclure & Macdonald del et lith. + +A CITY APPRENTICE,--16TH CENTURY.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 5. + +A BANQUET AT THE GUILDHALL.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 4. + +THE HOLBORN VIADUCT.] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 3. + +LONDON WATCHMAN (CHARLIE) 18TH CENTURY] + +[Illustration: CASSELL'S OLD & NEW LONDON. PLATE 2. + +ST. PAUL'S FROM LUDGATE CIRCUS.] + +[Illustration: A WATERMAN IN DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE.] + + + + +OLD AND NEW + +LONDON. + +_A NARRATIVE OF_ + +ITS HISTORY, ITS PEOPLE, AND ITS PLACES. + +Illustrated with Numerous Engravings + +FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES. + + +VOL. I. + +CASSELL, PETTER & GALPIN: + +_LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK._ + + +[Transcriber's Note: Although the Table of Contents is correct, the chapter +heading for Chapter XLIII is used twice and Chapter XLVII missing with +chapter headings offset by one in between. These have been corrected in +this text document.] + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + +INTRODUCTION 1 + +CHAPTER I. + +ROMAN LONDON. + +Buried London--Our Early Relations--The Founder of London--A +Distinguished Visitor at Romney Marsh--Caesar re-visits the "Town on the +Lake"--The Borders of Old London--Caesar fails to make much out of the +Britons--King _Brown_--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 16 + +CHAPTER II. + +TEMPLE BAR. + +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 22 + +CHAPTER III. + +FLEET STREET:--GENERAL INTRODUCTION. + +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 32 + +CHAPTER IV. + +FLEET STREET (_continued_). + +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 _Albion_--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" 35 + +CHAPTER V. + +FLEET STREET (_continued_). + +The "Green Dragon"--Tompion and Pinchbeck--The _Record_--St. Bride's and +its Memories--_Punch_ and his Contributors--The _Dispatch_--The _Daily +Telegraph_--The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith--The _Morning +Advertiser_--The _Standard_--The _London Magazine_--A Strange +Story--Alderman Waithman--Brutus Billy--Hardham and his "37" 53 + +CHAPTER VI. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--SHIRE LANE AND BELL YARD). + +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 70 + +CHAPTER VII. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--CHANCERY LANE). + +The Asylum for Jewish Converts--The Rolls Chapel--Ancient Monuments--A +Speaker Expelled for Bribery--"Remember Caesar"--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 76 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--_continued_). + +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 92 + +CHAPTER IX. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--CRANE COURT, JOHNSON'S COURT, BOLT COURT. + +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 _John Bull_--Hook and Terry--Prosecutions for +Libel--Hook's Impudence 104 + +CHAPTER X. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES. + +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" 112 + +CHAPTER XI. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--SHOE LANE. + +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 123 + +CHAPTER XII. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--SOUTH. + +Worthy Mr. Fisher--Lamb's Wednesday Evenings--Persons one would wish to +have seen--Ram Alley--Serjeants' Inn--The _Daily News_--"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 135 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE TEMPLE.--GENERAL INTRODUCTION. + +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 147 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND PRECINCT. + +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 149 + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE TEMPLE (_continued_). + +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--_The Deserted Village_--_She +Stoops to Conquer_--Goldsmith's Death and Burial 158 + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE TEMPLE (_continued_). + +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 171 + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WHITEFRIARS. + +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 _Squire of Alsatia_--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 182 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BLACKFRIARS. + +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 +_Times_ and its History--Walter's Enterprise--War with the +_Dispatch_--The gigantic Swindling Scheme exposed by the +_Times_--Apothecaries' Hall--Quarrel with the College of Physicians 200 + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LUDGATE HILL. + +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 220 + +CHAPTER XX. + +ST. PAUL'S. + +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 234 + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ST. PAUL'S (_continued_). + +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 249 + +CHAPTER XXII. + +ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. + +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 262 + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +PATERNOSTER ROW. + +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 274 + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +BAYNARD'S CASTLE AND DOCTORS' COMMONS. + +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 281 + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HERALDS' COLLEGE. + +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 294 + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +CHEAPSIDE--INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. + +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 304 + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +CHEAPSIDE SHOWS AND PAGEANTS. + +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 315 + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +CHEAPSIDE--CENTRAL. + +Grim Chronicles of Cheapside--Cheapside Cross--Puritanical +Intolerance--The Old London Conduits--Mediaeval 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 332 + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES--SOUTH. + +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 346 + +CHAPTER XXX. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES--NORTH. + +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 353 + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH:--WOOD STREET. + +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 364 + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH (_continued_). + +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 374 + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +GUILDHALL. + +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 383 + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON. + +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 396 + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (_continued_). + +John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage--The _North Briton_--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" _versus_ "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 410 + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE POULTRY. + +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 416 + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +OLD JEWRY. + +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 425 + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE MANSION HOUSE. + +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 435 + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +SAXON LONDON. + +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 _Gemot_ 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 447 + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE BANK OF ENGLAND. + +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 453 + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE STOCK EXCHANGE. + +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 473 + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. + +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 494 + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +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 503 + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BANK:--LOTHBURY. + +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 513 + +CHAPTER XLV. + +THROGMORTON STREET.--THE DRAPERS' COMPANY. + +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 515 + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +BARTHOLOMEW LANE AND LOMBARD STREET. + +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 522 + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +THREADNEEDLE STREET. + +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 parvae 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 + 531 +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +CANNON STREET. + +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 544 + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +CANNON STREET TRIBUTARIES AND EASTCHEAP. + +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 550 + +CHAPTER L. + +THE MONUMENT AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. + +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 565 + +CHAPTER LI. + +CHAUCER'S LONDON. + +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 575 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + + PAGE + Introduction of Randolph to Ben Jonson (Frontispiece) 40 + + The Old Wooden Temple Bar 6 + + Burning the Pope in Effigy at Temple Bar 7 + + Bridewell in 1666 12 + + Part of Modern London, showing the Ancient Wall 13 + + Plan of Roman London 15 + + Ancient Roman Pavement 18 + + Part of Old London Wall, near Falcon Square 19 + + Proclamation of Charles II. at Temple Bar 24 + + Penance of the Duchess of Gloucester 25 + + The Room over Temple Bar 30 + + Titus Oates in the Pillory 31 + + Dr. Titus Oates 36 + + Temple Bar and the "Devil Tavern" 37 + + Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson's Time 42 + + Mull Sack and Lady Fairfax 43 + + Mrs. Salmon's Waxwork, Fleet Street 48 + + St. Dunstan's Clock 49 + + An Evening with Dr. Johnson at the "Mitre" 54 + + Old Houses (still standing) in Fleet Street 55 + + St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, after the Fire, 1824 60 + + Waithman's Shop 61 + + Alderman Waithman, from an Authentic Portrait 66 + + Group at Hardham's Tobacco Shop 67 + + Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Kit-Kats 72 + + Bishop Butler 73 + + Wolsey in Chancery Lane 78 + + Izaak Walton's House 79 + + Old Serjeants' Inn 84 + + Hazlitt 85 + + Clifford's Inn 90 + + Execution of Tomkins and Challoner 91 + + Roasting the Rumps in Fleet Street (from an old Print) 96 + + Interior of the Moravian Chapel in Fetter Lane 97 + + House said to have been occupied by Dryden in Fetter Lane 102 + + A Meeting of the Royal Society in Crane Court 103 + + The Royal Society's House in Crane Court 108 + + Theodore E. Hook 109 + + Dr. Johnson's House in Bolt Court 114 + + A Tea Party at Dr. Johnson's 115 + + Gough Square 120 + + Wine Office Court and the "Cheshire Cheese" 121 + + Cogers' Hall 126 + + Lovelace in Prison 127 + + Bangor House, 1818 132 + + Old St. Dunstan's Church 133 + + The Dorset Gardens Theatre, Whitefriars 138 + + Attack on a Whig Mug-house 139 + + Fleet Street, the Temple, &c., 1563 144 + + Fleet Street, the Temple, &c., 1720 145 + + A Knight Templar 150 + + Interior of the Temple Church 151 + + Tombs of Knights Templars 156 + + The Temple in 1671 157 + + The Old Hall of the Inner Temple 162 + + Antiquities of the Temple 163 + + Oliver Goldsmith 168 + + Goldsmith's Tomb in 1860 169 + + The Temple Fountain, from an Old Print 174 + + A Scuffle between Templars and Alsatians 175 + + Sun-dial in the Temple 180 + + The Temple Stairs 181 + + The Murder of Turner 186 + + Bridewell, as Rebuilt after the Fire, from an Old Print 187 + + Beating Hemp in Bridewell, after Hogarth 192 + + Interior of the Duke's Theatre 193 + + Baynard's Castle, from a View published in 1790 198 + + Falling-in of the Chapel at Blackfriars 199 + + Richard Burbage, from an Original Portrait 204 + + Laying the Foundation-stone of Blackfriars Bridge 205 + + Printing House Square and the "Times" Office 210 + + Blackfriars Old Bridge during its Construction, 1775 211 + + The College of Physicians, Warwick Lane 216 + + Outer Court of La Belle Sauvage in 1828 217 + + The Inner Court of the Belle Sauvage 222 + + The Mutilated Statues from Lud Gate, 1798 223 + + Old Lud Gate, from a Print published about 1750 226 + + Ruins of the Barbican on Ludgate Hill 228 + + Interior of Stationers' Hall 229 + + Old St. Paul's, from a View by Hollar 234 + + Old St. Paul's--the Interior, looking East 235 + + The Church of St. Faith, the Crypt of Old St. Paul's 240 + + St. Paul's after the Fall of the Spire 241 + + The Chapter House of Old St. Paul's 246 + + Dr. Bourne preaching at Paul's Cross 247 + + The Rebuilding of St. Paul's 252 + + The Choir of St. Paul's 253 + + The Scaffolding and Observatory on St. Paul's in 1848 258 + + St. Paul's and the Neighbourhood in 1540 259 + + The Library of St. Paul's 264 + + The "Face in the Straw," 1613 265 + + Execution of Father Garnet 270 + + Old St. Paul's School 271 + + Richard Tarleton, the Actor 276 + + Dolly's Coffee House 277 + + The Figure in Panier Alley 282 + + The Church of St. Michael ad Bladum 283 + + The Prerogative Office, Doctors' Commons 288 + + St. Paul's and Neighbourhood, from Aggas' Plan, 1563 289 + + Heralds' College (from an Old Print) 294 + + The Last Heraldic Court (from an Old Picture) 295 + + Sword, Dagger, and Ring of King James of Scotland 300 + + Linacre's House 301 + + Ancient View of Cheapside 307 + + Beginning of the Riot in Cheapside 312 + + Cheapside Cross, as it appeared in 1547 313 + + The Lord Mayor's Procession, from Hogarth 318 + + The Marriage Procession of Anne Boleyn 319 + + Figures of Gog and Magog set up in Guildhall 324 + + The Royal Banquet in Guildhall in 1761 325 + + The Lord Mayor's Coach 330 + + The Demolition of Cheapside Cross 331 + + Old Map of the Ward of Cheap--about 1750 336 + + The Seal of Bow Church 337 + + Bow Church, Cheapside, from a View taken about 1750 342 + + No. 73, Cheapside, from an Old View 343 + + The Door of Saddlers' Hall 348 + + Milton's House and Milton's Burial-place 349 + + Interior of Goldsmiths' Hall 354 + + Trial of the Pix 355 + + Exterior of Goldsmiths' Hall 360 + + Altar of Diana 361 + + Wood Street Compter, from a View published in 1793 366 + + The Tree at the Corner of Wood Street 367 + + Pulpit Hour-glass 370 + + Interior of St. Michael's, Wood Street 372 + + Interior of Haberdashers' Hall 373 + + The "Swan with Two Necks," Lad Lane 378 + + City of London School 379 + + Mercers' Chapel, as Rebuilt after the Fire 384 + + The Crypt of Guildhall 385 + + The Court of Aldermen, Guildhall 390 + + Old Front of Guildhall 391 + + The New Library, Guildhall 396 + + Sir Richard Whittington 397 + + Whittington's Almshouses, College Hill 402 + + Osborne's Leap 403 + + A Lord Mayor and his Lady 408 + + Wilkes on his Trial 409 + + Birch's Shop, Cornhill 414 + + The Stocks' Market, Site of the Mansion House 415 + + John Wilkes 420 + + The Poultry Compter 421 + + Richard Porson 426 + + Sir R. Clayton's House, Garden Front 427 + + Exterior of Grocers' Hall 432 + + Interior of Grocers' Hall 433 + + The Mansion House Kitchen 438 + + The Mansion House in 1750 439 + + Interior of the Egyptian Hall 444 + + The "Maria Wood" 445 + + Broad Street and Cornhill Wards 450 + + Lord Mayor's Water Procession 451 + + The Old Bank, looking from the Mansion House 456 + + Old Patch 457 + + The Bank Parlour, Exterior View 462 + + Dividend Day at the Bank 463 + + The Church of St. Benet Fink 468 + + Court of the Bank of England 469 + + "Jonathan's," from an Old Sketch 472 + + Capel Court 474 + + The Clearing House 475 + + The Present Stock Exchange 481 + + On Change (from an Old Print, about 1800) 487 + + Inner Court of the First Royal Exchange 492 + + Sir Thomas Gresham 493 + + Wren's Plan for Rebuilding London 496 + + Plan of the Exchange in 1837 497 + + The First Royal Exchange 498 + + The Second Royal Exchange, Cornhill 499 + + The Present Royal Exchange 504 + + Blackwell Hall in 1812 505 + + Interior of Lloyd's 510 + + The Subscription Room at "Lloyd's" 511 + + Interior of Drapers' Hall 516 + + Drapers' Hall Garden 517 + + Cromwell's House, from Aggas's Map 520 + + Pope's House, Plough Court, Lombard Street 523 + + St. Mary Woolnoth 528 + + Interior of Merchant Taylors' Hall 529 + + Ground Plan of the Church of St. Martin Outwich 534 + + March of the Archers 535 + + The Old South Sea House 540 + + London Stone 541 + + The Fourth Salters' Hall 546 + + Cordwainers' Hall 547 + + St. Antholin's Church, Watling Street 552 + + The Crypt of Gerard's Hall 553 + + Old Sign of the "Boar's Head" 558 + + Exterior of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1700 559 + + The Weigh-house Chapel 564 + + Miles Coverdale 565 + + Wren's Original Design for the Summit of the Monument 570 + + The Monument and the Church of St. Magnus, 1800 571 + + + + +[Illustration] + +LONDON AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS. + + +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. + +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 +_Spectator_ 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? + +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. + +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 old central milestone of +London, grave Romans will meet us and talk of Caesar 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 +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. + +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 +_v._ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 of King James's son-in-law, the Prince +Palatine. Its roystering bullies and shifty money-lenders are admirably +sketched by Shadwell in his _Squire of Alsatia_, 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. + +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 L165 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 escapes of several persons on the +"Fatal Vespers," as they were afterwards called. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 L200 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. + +[Illustration: THE OLD WOODEN TEMPLE BAR (_see page 2_).] + +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, +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 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 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 L60,000 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. + +[Illustration: BURNING THE POPE IN EFFIGY AT TEMPLE BAR (_see page 2_).] + +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. + +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! + +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:-- + + "Fordo-Watermanno-Harrisono-Hookero-Vinero-Sheldono-Davisonam." + +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. + +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 a 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 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:-- + + "What Cato did and Addison approved of cannot be wrong." + +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 Harmer, to build his house, Ingress Abbey, near +Greenhithe. + +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. + +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 Caesar 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 _Te Deum_ 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. + +[Illustration: BRIDEWELL IN 1666 (_see page 4_).] + +The parks now draw us westward, and we wander 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. + +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 + + "Seems from afar a moving tulip bed, + Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, + And chintz, the rival of the showery bow." + +There is Newton's house at South Kensington to visit, and Wilkie's and +Mrs. Inchbald's; and, 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. + +[Illustration: PART OF MODERN LONDON, SHOWING THE ANCIENT WALL (_see +page 20_).] + +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 fiddle. Saltero was a +barber, who drew teeth, drew customers, wrote verses, and collected +curiosities. + + "Some relics of the Sheban queen + And fragments of the famed Bob Crusoe." + +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. + +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 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 L20,000, 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. + +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 Pope +ridiculed. Nor are the lesser squares by any means devoid of interest. + +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 Koeningsmark. 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. + +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 L13,000. 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, + + "Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away") + +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. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF ROMAN LONDON (_see page 20_).] + +The eastern squares, in Bloomsbury and St. Pancras, are regions not by +any means to be lightly 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. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, +Sir Joseph Banks, and Burnet, the historian, were all inhabitants of +this locality. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ROMAN LONDON. + + Buried London--Our Early Relations--The Founder of London--A + distinguished Visitor at Romney Marsh--Caesar re-visits the "Town on the + Lake"--The Borders of Old London--Caesar fails to make much out of the + Britons--King _Brown_--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. + + +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. + +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 AEneas 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 +Phoenicians or Gauls for amber or iron no Druid has recorded. How he +slew the foraging Belgae, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +A learned modern antiquary, Thomas Lewin, Esq., has proved, as nearly as +such things can be proved, that Julius Caesar 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 Caesar'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 depot as London, with its great and always +navigable river, could not have been long overlooked. + +[Illustration: ANCIENT ROMAN PAVEMENT FOUND IN THREADNEEDLE STREET, 1841 +(_see page 21_).] + +In Caesar's second and longer invasion in the next year (54 B.C.), 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, Caesar 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 arrow +was Caesar'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 Caesar against their +oppressor Cassivellaunus. Moreover, Caesar'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, +Caesar, marching from Staines to London, encamped on the site of Old St. +Pancras Church, round which edifice Stukeley found evident traces of a +great Praetorian camp. However, whether Cassivellaunus, the King of +Middlesex and Hertfordshire, had his capital at London or St. Alban's, +this much at 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, Caesar 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 Caesar 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 Caesar had won from the people of Kent and Hertfordshire had +been blows and buffets, for there were _men_ in Britain even then. The +prowess of the British charioteers became a standing joke in Rome +against the soldiers of Caesar. Horace and Tibullus both speak of the +Briton as unconquered. The steel bow the strong Roman hand had for a +moment bent, quickly relapsed to its old shape the moment Caesar, +mounting his tall galley, turned his eyes towards Gaul. + +[Illustration: PART OF OLD LONDON WALL, NEAR FALCON SQUARE (_see page +21_).] + +The Mandubert who sought Caesar's help is by some thought to be the son +of the semi-fabulous King Lud (King _Brown_), 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. + +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 +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 depot +and meeting-place for the tribes of Kent and Middlesex. + +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 (A.D. 62, more than a century after the +landing of Caesar), in that style of his so full of vigour and so sharp +in outline, 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 _debris_ 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. + +London probably soon sprang, phoenix-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 Phoenician works descriptive of +Britain, written before even the invasion of Caesar. 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 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. + +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 _piece de resistance_. 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +grace. In 1842 a _chef d'oeuvre_ 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TEMPLE BAR. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 a Beckett, laughing +at this tradition, once said in _Punch_: "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." + +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. + +The Bar is of Portland stone, which London smoke alternately blackens +and calcines; and each facade 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 baton, 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?" + +The slab over the eastern side of the arch bears the following +inscription, now all but smoothed down by time:-- + + "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." + +All these persons were friends of Pepys. + +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 facade +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 L50, 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. + +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. + +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.) + +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.e._, 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES II. AT TEMPLE BAR (_see page +26_).] + +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--_Ita +vita_. 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 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. + +[Illustration: PENANCE OF THE DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER (_see page 32_).] + +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. + +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 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!" + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +On the 9th November, 1837, the accession of 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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." + +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.[1] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Tatlers_, and was praised by Dr. Johnson for +his learning. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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:-- + + "Observe the banner which would all enslave, + Which misled traytors did so proudly wave: + The devil seems the project to surprise; + A fiend confused from off the trophy flies. + + While trembling rebels at the fabric gaze, + And dread their fate with horror and amaze, + Let Britain's sons the emblematic view, + And plainly see what is rebellion's due." + +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. + +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." + +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,-- + + "Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis."--OVID. + +When we got to Temple Bar he stopped me, and pointing to the heads upon +it, slily whispered,-- + + "Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur _istis_." + +This anecdote, so full of clever, arch wit, is sufficient to endear the +old gateway to all lovers of Johnson and of Goldsmith. + +According to Mr. Timbs, in his "London and Westminster," Mrs. Black, the +wife of the editor of the _Morning Chronicle_, when asked if she +remembered any heads on Temple Bar, used to reply, in her brusque, +hearty way, "_Boys, I recollect the scene well!_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +A writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, in 1813 chronicling the +clearance away of some hovels encroaching upon the building, says: "It +will not 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. + +[Illustration: THE ROOM OVER TEMPLE BAR (_see page 37_).] + +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 L1,397 10s.; Bushnell, the sculptor, receiving out of +this sum L480 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. + +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! + +[Illustration: TITUS OATES IN THE PILLORY (_see page 33_).] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FLEET STREET--GENERAL INTRODUCTION. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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 +15s. for these forges, which same rent was given for more than a century +after their destruction. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + +"Ben Jonson," says our trusty authority, "in _Every Man in his Humour_, +speaks of 'a new motion of the city of Nineveh, with Jonas and the +whale, at Fleet Bridge.' In 1611 'the Fleet Street 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 _Tatler_; 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.' + +"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! + +"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, 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 L200 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _en route_ 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 which Mr. +Boehm hastened to the Court, and arrived just in time with the important +document. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FLEET STREET (_continued_). + + 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 + _Albion_--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." + + +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 _Universal Visitor_, 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 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. + +[Illustration: DR. TITUS OATES.] + +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 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 L50 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 L50, 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 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 L50 a year. + +[Illustration: TEMPLE BAR AND THE "DEVIL TAVERN" (_see page 38_).] + +When Prince Rupert died at his house in the Barbican, the valuable +jewels of the old cavalry soldier, valued at L20,000, 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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +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 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 L1,400 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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +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. + +The noisy "Devil Tavern" (No. 2, Fleet Street) had stood next the quiet +goldsmith's shop ever 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,-- + + "Welcome all who lead or follow + To the oracle of Apollo," &c. + +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,-- + + "O, rare Ben Jonson." + +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:-- + + "Let none but guests or clubbers hither come; + Let dunces, fools, and sordid men keep home; + Let learned, civil, merry men b' invited, + And modest, too; nor be choice liquor slighted. + Let nothing in the treat offend the guest: + More for delight than cost prepare the feast." + +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, _nolens volens_, 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." + +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 _Every Man in his Humour_ +had been a great success; Shakespeare had helped him forward, and been +his bosom friend. Parts of his _Sejanus_, such as the speech of Envy, +beginning,-- + + "Light, I salute thee, but with wounded nerves, + Wishing thy golden splendour pitchy darkness," + +are as sublime as his songs, such as + + "Drink to me only with thine eyes," + +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. + +A few glimpses of the meetings we have, and but a few. One night at the +"Devil" a country 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. + +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:-- + + "I, John Bo-peep, and you four sheep, + With each one his good fleece; + If that you are willing to give me your shilling, + 'Tis fifteen pence apiece." + +"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. + +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:-- + + "From the heaven + Of my delight, where the boon Delphic god + Drinks sack and keep his bacchanalia, + And has his incense and his altars smoking, + And speaks in sparkling prophecies; thence I come, + My brains perfumed with the rich Indian vapour, + And heightened with conceits.... + And from a mighty continent of pleasure + Sails thy brave Careless." + +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. + +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. + +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 L1,500. 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 +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." + +[Illustration: INTRODUCTION OF RANDOLPH TO BEN JONSON AT THE "DEVIL" +TAVERN (_see page 40_).] + +The portrait of Mull Sack has the following verses beneath:-- + + "I walk the Strand and Westminster, and scorn + To march i' the City, though I bear the horn. + My feather and my yellow band accord, + To prove me courtier; my boot, spur, and sword, + My smoking-pipe, scarf, garter, rose on shoe, + Show my brave mind t' affect what gallants do. + I sing, dance, drink, and merrily pass the day, + And, like a chimney, sweep all care away." + +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:-- + + "Back to the 'Devil' the loud echoes roll, + And 'Coll' each butcher roars in Hockly Hole." + +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:-- + + "When laureates make odes, do you ask of what sort? + Do you ask if they're good or are evil? + You may judge: from the 'Devil' they come to the Court, + And go from the Court to the 'Devil.'" + +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 _London +Review_, and when he assailed Johnson's "Shakespeare," Johnson +laughingly replied, "That he was not going to be bound by Kenrick's +rules." + +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. + +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 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 opposite +side of Fleet Street, still preserves the memory of the great club-room +at the "Devil." + +[Illustration: TEMPLE BAR IN DR. JOHNSON'S TIME (_see page 29_).] + +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 rival "Devil Tavern" near St. Dunstan's; but +these competitors made no mark. + +[Illustration: MULL SACK AND LADY FAIRFAX (_see page 40_).] + +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 + + "The violet of a legend blow + Among the chops and steaks" + +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. + +"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. 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. + +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." + +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,-- + + "And now, alas! the drink has credit got, + And he's no gentleman that drinks it not." + +About 1780, according to Mr. Timbs, the "Rainbow" was kept by Alexander +Moncrieff, grandfather of the dramatist who wrote _Tom and Jerry_. + +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, +naively. 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 +L5,320 by his "Homer." Dr. Young, the poet, once unfortunately sent to +Lintot a letter meant 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 L200. + +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 _Albion_ newspaper. Charles Lamb was turned over to this +journal from the _Morning Post_. 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," +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 _thing_ directly--that +the keen eye of an Attorney-General was insufficient to detect the +lurking snake among them. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 L500, 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. + +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:-- + + "With leering looks, bull-faced, and speckled fair, + With two left legs and Judas-coloured hair, + And frowzy pores that taint the ambient air." + +The poet promised a fuller portrait if the "dog" tormented him further. + +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. + +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 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 L646 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. + +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 L400, 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 _Athenaeum_ 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 +_Quarterly Review_; and, in 1811, Byron's "Childe Harold." + +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-trained bird can reach a certain spot (a +flight, of course, previously known to the bird), generally in Belgium. + +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 L35 and the old +clock. Lord Hertford purchased them, in 1830, for L210, 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:-- + + "When labour and when dulness, club in hand, + Like the two figures at St. Dunstan stand, + Beating alternately, in measured time, + The clock-work tintinnabulum of rhyme." + +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 L16 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 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." + +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:-- + + "HOBSON JUDKINS, ESQ., 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." + +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 +L1,000 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. + +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 +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. + +[Illustration: MRS. SALMON'S WAXWORK, FLEET STREET--"PALACE OF HENRY +VIII. AND CARDINAL WOLSEY" (_see page 45_).] + +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 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." + +[Illustration: ST. DUNSTAN'S CLOCK (_see page 47_).] + +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 Churchyard, who, in +the year 1565, issued, without the authors' consent, _Gorboduc_, 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 the three timid publishers who ventured on a certain poem, +called "The Paradise Lost," giving John Milton, the blind poet, the +enormous sum of L5 down, L5 on the sale of 1,300 copies of the first, +second, and third impressions, in all the munificent recompense of L20; +the agreement was given to the British Museum in 1852, by Samuel Rogers, +the banker poet. + +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 +"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 +L49. 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." + +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. + +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 chiefly because it was a +favourite resort of Pepys, who frequently mentions it in his quaint and +graphic way. + +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, L27 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 L100 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 L10 each. What a state of commercial wealth, to be shaken by the +sudden demand of a mere L100! + +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. +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 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." + +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. + +Mr. Cyrus Jay, a shrewd observer, was present at Hone's trial, and has +described it with vividness:-- + +"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 _request_ 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 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.... + +"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.'" + +That sturdy political writer, William Cobbett, lived at No. 183 (north), +and there published his _Political Register_. 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 _Register_ 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. + +"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, 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." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FLEET STREET (_continued_). + + The "Green Dragon"--Tompion and Pinchbeck--The _Record_--St. Bride's + and its Memories--_Punch_ and his Contributors--The _Dispatch_--The + _Daily Telegraph_--The "Globe Tavern" and Goldsmith--The _Morning + Advertiser_--The _Standard_--The _London Magazine_--A Strange + Story--Alderman Waithman--Brutus Billy--Hardham and his "37." + + +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. + +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. + +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 +L500, for Louis XIV., and a fine organ for the Great Mogul, valued at +L300. 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. + +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. + +"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." + +[Illustration: AN EVENING WITH DR. JOHNSON AT THE "MITRE" (_see page +51_).] + +[Illustration: OLD HOUSES (STILL STANDING) IN FLEET STREET, NEAR ST. +DUNSTAN'S CHURCH (_see page 52_).] + +The _Record_ (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 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 _Record_ 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 _Record_ +began to appear three times a week, and became celebrated for its +uncompromising religious tone and, as Mr. James Grant truly says, for +the earliness and accuracy of its politico-ecclesiastical information. + +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 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 L11,430 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 L1,200 within two years, by quarterly +payments and L400 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 +L2,700. 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 L18,374; in 1868 the rental was L205,407 gross, or L168,996 +rateable. + +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, 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. + +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! + +The present approach to St. Bride's, designed by J.P. Papworth, in 1824, +cost L10,000, 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. + +The office of _Punch_ (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 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 +_Punch_ is to be found in the following communication to _Notes and +Queries_, September 30, 1870. Mr. W.H. Wills, who was one of the +earliest contributors to _Punch_, says:-- + +"The idea of converting _Punch_ from a strolling to a literary laughing +philosopher belongs to Mr. Henry Mayhew, former editor (with his +schoolfellow Mr. Gilbert a Beckett) of _Figaro in London_. 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 a +Beckett's first contribution to _Punch_, '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 _Punch's_ 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 _Punch's_ 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 _Punch_ a wholesome influence in politics. Mr. Albert Smith +made his _debut_ in this wise:--At the birth of _Punch_ had just died a +periodical called (I think) the _Cosmorama_. 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 _Punch_. 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 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 +_Punch's_ 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 _Punch_ +exceeded all expectation, the first volume ended in difficulties. From +these storm-tossed seas _Punch_ 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 _Punch's_ success. The second volume started +merrily. Mr. John Oxenford contributed his first _jeu d'esprit_ in its +final number on 'Herr Doebler 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 addressees au Grand Concours aux Eleves d'Anglais +du College St. Badaud, dans le Departement 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 _Mr. Punch_ in +vigorous and jovial vitality, joined his establishment after some of the +birth-mates had been drafted off to graver literary and other tasks." + +Mr. Mark Lemon remained editor of _Punch_ from 1841 till 1870, when he +died. Mr. Gilbert a 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 _Times_ leader +to a _Punch_ epigram. + +A pamphlet attributed to Mr. Blanchard conveys, after all, the most +minute account of the origin of _Punch_. A favourite story of the +literary gossipers who have made _Mr. Punch_ 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:-- + +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 _Punch_ 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 _Illustrated +London News_, 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. + +The circumstance which led to _Punch's_ 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. + +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 _Punch_. + +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 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 _Punch_." It was then +remembered that, years before, Douglas Jerrold had edited a _Penny +Punch_ 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 L600, 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. + +Mr. Hine, the artist, remained with _Punch_ 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." _Punch's Almanac_ 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 _Pall Mall Gazette_. The earliest hits of _Punch_ +were Douglas Jerrold's articles signed "J." and Gilbert a Beckett's +"Adventures of Mr. Briefless." In October, 1841, Mr. W.H. Wills, +afterwards working editor of _Household Words_ and _All the Year Round_, +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 a Beckett began his "Heathen Mythology," and created the character +of "Jenkins," the supposed fashionable correspondent of the _Morning +Post_. _Punch_ had begun his career by ridiculing Lord Melbourne; he now +attacked Brougham, for his temporary subservience to Wellington; and +Sir James Graham came also in for a share of the rod; and the _Morning +Herald_ and _Standard_ were christened "Mrs. Gamp" and "Mrs. Harris," as +old-fogyish opponents of Peel and the Free-Traders. A 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 _Punch_, a reply to Lord Lytton (then Mr. +Bulwer), who had coarsely attacked him in his "New Timon," where he had +spoken flippantly of + + "A quaint farrago of absurd conceits, + Out-babying Wordsworth and out-glittering Keats." + +The epigram ended with these bitter and contemptuous lines,-- + + "A Timon you? Nay, nay, for shame! + It looks too arrogant a jest-- + That fierce old man--to take his name, + You bandbox! Off, and let him rest." + +Albert Smith left _Punch_ 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 a 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 _chef-d'oeuvre_. Coventry Patmore contributed once +to _Punch_; 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 _Punch_ much +increase. The present cover of _Punch_ is by Doyle, who, being a zealous +Roman Catholic, eventually left _Punch_ when it began to ridicule the +Pope and condemn Papal aggression. _Punch_ 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 _Punch_ +in the _Man in the Moon_, 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 _Punch_" 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 _Punch_." In 1857 he died. Among the later additions to the staff +were Mr. Tom Taylor and Mr. Shirley Brooks. + +The _Dispatch_ (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 _Dispatches_ 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 +_Dispatch_ about 1829; and boxing, from the _Dispatch_ point of view, +was henceforward treated as a degrading and brutal amusement, unworthy +of our civilisation. + +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 +_Dispatch_ as a property was inferior only to the _Times_. 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 _Dispatch_ 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 _Dispatch_ had a +hard-fought duel with the _Times_. "Publicola" wrote a series of +letters, which had the effect of preventing the election of Mr. Walter +for Southwark. The _Times_ retaliated when the time came for Alderman +Harmer to succeed to the lord mayoralty. Day after day the _Times_ +returned to the attack, denouncing the _Dispatch_ as an infidel paper; +and Alderman Harmer, rejected by the City, resigned in consequence his +aldermanic gown. In 1857 the _Dispatch_ 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. + +[Illustration: ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, AFTER THE FIRE, 1824 +(_see page 56_).] + +The _Daily Telegraph_ office is No. 136 (north). Mr. Ingram, of the +_Illustrated London News_, originated a paper called the _Telegraph_, +which lasted only seven or eight weeks. The present _Daily Telegraph_ +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 _Standard_--as a double sheet the size of the _Times_, +published at fourpence, for a penny, it created quite a sensation. Here +was a penny paper, containing 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 _Times_ itself. This was indeed a new era in the +morning journalism of the metropolis." When Mr. Levy bought the +_Telegraph_, 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 L500. Mr. Grant says that the remission of the tax on +paper brought L12,000 a year extra to the _Telegraph_. Ten pages for a +penny is no uncommon thing with the _Telegraph_ during the Parliamentary +session. The returns of sales given by the _Telegraph_ 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 _Telegraph_ throws off upwards of 200 copies per +minute, or 12,000 an hour. + +[Illustration: WAITHMAN'S SHOP (_see page 66_).] + +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 L75, ten gallons of Canary sack, and L400 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, 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 _The Good-natured Man_, 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 _protege_ of Goldsmith's, +dropped down dead in Smithfield. Goldsmith wrote his epitaph as he came +from his chambers in the Temple to the "Globe." The lines are:-- + + "Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, + Who long was a booksellers' hack; + He led such a miserable life in this world, + I don't think he'll wish to come back." + +Goldsmith sat next Glover that night at the club, and Glover heard the +poet repeat, _sotto voce_, with a mournful intonation, the words,-- + + "I don't think he'll wish to come back." + +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." + +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." + +The _Standard_ (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 _St. James's Chronicle_, and begged him to start an +anti-Catholic evening paper, but Mr. Baldwin refused unless a +preliminary sum of L15,000 was lodged at the banker's. A year later this +sum was deposited, and in 1827 the _Evening Standard_, edited by Dr. +Giffard, ex-editor of the _St. James's Chronicle_, appeared. Mr. Alaric +Watts, the poet, was succeeded as sub-editor of the _Standard_ 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 L7,000 to +L8,000 a year. On the bankruptcy of Mr. Charles Baldwin, Mr. James +Johnson bought the _Morning Herald_ and _Standard_, plant and all, for +L16,500. The proprietor reduced the _Standard_ 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 _Standard_ 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 +L1,200 for a violent article against Roman Catholic claims, has been +denied by Dr. Giffard's son in the _Times_. The Duke of Wellington once +wrote to Dr. Giffard to dictate the line the _Standard_ and _Morning +Herald_ 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 _Standard_. 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. + +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 "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,-- + + "The boar's head in hand bring I, + With garlands gay and rosemary." + +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. + +The "Castle Tavern," mentioned as early as 1432, stood at the south-west +corner of Shoe Lane. Here the Clockmakers' Company held their 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. + +The _Morning Advertiser_ (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 _Daily Advertiser_, and was the suggestion of Mr. Grant, a +master printer, was an immediate success. Down to 1850 the _Morning +Advertiser_ 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 _Times_, 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 +_Advertiser_; and the letters signed "An Englishman" excited much +interest. This paper has always been Liberal. Mr. Grant remained the +editor for twenty years. + +No. 91 (south side) was till lately the office of that old-established +paper, _Bell's Weekly Messenger_. Mr. Bell, the spirited publisher who +founded this paper, is delightfully sketched by Leigh Hunt in his +autobiography. + +"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 _Weekly Messenger_. 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 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."[2] + +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 _London Magazine_ 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. + +Mr. John Scott, a man of great promise, the editor of the _London_ 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 _London_ and the clever but bitter and +unscrupulous writers in _Blackwood_, 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 _London_. +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 _Blackwood_. 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 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. + +For the five years it lasted, perhaps no magazine--not even the mighty +_Maga_ 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 _London_, 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 _Paul Pry_ 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 _London_ his first poems of any ambition or length--"Lycus 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 _Retrospective +Review_, 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. + +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 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 _ci-devant_ 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 L100 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 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, L5 on their joint note. + +[Illustration: ALDERMAN WAITHMAN, FROM AN AUTHENTIC PORTRAIT (_see page +68_).] + +Nos. 103 (now the _Sunday Times_ 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 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 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. + +[Illustration: GROUP AT HARDHAM'S TOBACCO SHOP (_see page 69_).] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +We subjoin the remarks made on his death by the editor of the _Times_ +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." + +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 L1,000 (L100?). 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 L7,000. + +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 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 _Tom and Jerry_, +who is so indignant at the beggars' supper on seeing "a turkey without +sassenges." + +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 _coup d'oeil_ 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 L22,289 to Chichester, 10 guineas to +Garrick, and merely setting apart L10 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. + +"It has long been a source of inquiry," says a writer in the _City +Press_, "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 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."[3] + +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. + +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 L1,000. 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] 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] + +[3] The real fact is, the famous snuff was merely called from the number +of the drawer that held it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--SHOE LANE AND BELL YARD). + + 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. + + +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 _Tatler_, 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 +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." + +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 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":-- + + "All nature's charms in Sunderland appear, + Bright as her eyes and as her reason clear; + Yet still their force, to man not safely known, + Seems undiscovered to herself alone." + +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." + +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 _Spectator_ and the _Tatler_. 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. + +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." + +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 +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:-- + + "Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits, + All faults he pardons, though he none commits." + +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." + +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 + + "To sleep away the days and drink away the nights." + +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 _esprit de corps_ then, +and the Whig wits and poets were a power, and were backed by rank and +wealth. + +[Illustration: LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU AND THE KIT-KATS (_see page +71_).] + +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 _Tatler_ +papers. It was there, in October, 1709, that he received his deputation +of Staffordshire county 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. + +[Illustration: BISHOP BUTLER (_see page 77_).] + +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 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 describes with such kindly humour; and the London of his +days must have been full of such quiet, homely haunts. + +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. + +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. + +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 the +professional mendicants, were found there by the police. + +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. + +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. + +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 L12,000, due +to the Crown for defalcations during his careless consulship at the +Mauritius. He was editor of _John Bull_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +Another illustrious tenant of Shire Lane was James Perry, the proprietor +of the _Morning Chronicle_, who died, as it was reported, worth +L130,000. 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 _Gazeteer_, but being +dismissed by a Tory proprietor, and on the _Morning Chronicle_ being +abandoned by Woodfall, some friends of Perry's bought the derelict for +L210, 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. + +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,-- + + "Bare the mean heart that lurks behind a star." + +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 _versus_ 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 _letters_ 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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--CHANCERY LANE). + + The Asylum for Jewish Converts--The Rolls Chapel--Ancient + Monuments--A Speaker Expelled for Bribery--"Remember + Caesar"--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. + + +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. + +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 Coelicolae 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. + +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. + +The Rolls Chapel was built, says Pennant, by Inigo Jones, in 1617, at a +cost of L2,000. 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, brother-in law of Sir William Cordall, a +former Master of the Rolls, who died in 1561. Clad in armour, Sir +Richard kneels,-- + + "As for past sins he would atone, + By saying endless prayers in stone." + +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,-- + + "Here lies an honest lawyer--that is _Strange_!" + +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:-- + +"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." + +The arms of Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Harbottle Grimstone gleam in the +chapel windows. Swift's detestation, Bishop Burnet, the historian and +friend 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. + +[Illustration: WOLSEY IN CHANCERY LANE (_see page 81_).] + +A few anecdotes about past dignitaries at the Rolls. Of Sir Julius +Caesar, 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 +Caesar. 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 L6,000 down. The vexation of old +Sir Julius at this arbitrary step so moved his friends, that King +Charles was induced to promise Robert Caesar 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 Caesar!" 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 Caesar. 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 Caesar!" and on the sight +of this the arrogant yet timid courtier was utterly confounded. Turning +pale, he sent 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 Caesar'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 Caesar, 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. + +[Illustration: IZAAK WALTON'S HOUSE (_see page 82_).] + +In 1614, L6 12s. 6d. was claimed by Sir Julius Caesar for paving the +part of Chancery Lane over against the Rolls Gate. + +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. + +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 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!"" + +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." + +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-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." + +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." + +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 L400 granted her. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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, _not having +recollected in time_ this circumstance. + +"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." + +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 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." + +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. + +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 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.'" + +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,-- + + "Come live with me and be my love, + And we will all the pleasures prove + That valleys, groves, or hills, or field, + Or woods, or steepy mountain, yield." + +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. + +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 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. + +Besides the Caesars, 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 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." + +No. 45 (east side) is the "Hole in the Wall" Tavern, kept early in the +century by Jack Randal, _alias_ "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. + +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. + +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." + +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 Guildford (1684). The +inn was rebuilt, all but the old dining-hall, by Sir Robert Smirke, in +the years 1837-38. + +[Illustration: OLD SERJEANTS' INN (_see page 83_).] + +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. + +"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 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 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 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 +discussion. Kirkpatrick's vanity, however, one night led him into a +terrible pitfall. He recklessly ventured money on the fact that _The +Mourning Bride_ 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. + +[Illustration: HAZLITT (_see page 87_).] + +"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 _Courier_, a fat, pert, dull man, who had left the _Morning +Chronicle_ in 1814, just as Hazlitt joined it, and was renowned for +having written a reply to 'Coelebs.' 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 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. + +"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 +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. + +"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 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." + +"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. + +"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 _Edinburgh Review_, the _New Monthly_, and the London +_Magazine_, 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.' + +"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 _Morning Chronicle_ 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 _Champion_, and in 1818 wrote for the _Yellow Dwarf_. +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 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.'" + +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:-- + +"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 _petit +souvenir_ 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 _Rambler_ 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 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 _delicious_. 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." + +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 L12,000, 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." + +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, 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. + +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. + +Mr. Disraeli, in "Henrietta Temple," an early novel written in the +Theodore Hook manner, has sketched Sloman's with a remarkable _verve_ +and intimate knowledge of the place:-- + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 _nobs_ and _snobs_. 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 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 _nob_, and the poor tradesman a _snob_. + +"'I am hungry,' said Ferdinand. 'Can I get anything to eat at this +place?' + +"'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?' + +"'I have not breakfasted yet; bring me some breakfast.' + +"'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?' + +"'Anything--everything; only be quick.' + +"'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.' + +"'Thank you, I will not trouble you,' said Ferdinand. 'Get me that note +changed.' + +"'Yes, sir,' replied the little waiter, bowing very low, as he +disappeared. + +"'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!'" + +[Illustration: CLIFFORD'S INN (_see page 92_).] + +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 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 for +visitors, and a dark-eyed maid in curling-papers brings in the tea." + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF TOMKINS AND CHALLONER (_see page 95_).] + +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 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. + +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 (_alias_ 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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FLEET STREET (NORTHERN TRIBUTARIES--_continued_). + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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."" + +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. + +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 eventually +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _added_ 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' +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, _ejusdem generis_, +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 +Fouque might effect something; but I should fear that neither he nor any +other German could entirely understand what may be called the '_desert +island_' feeling. I would try the marvellous line of 'Peter Wilkins,' if +I attempted it, rather than the _real_ fiction of 'Robinson Crusoe.'" + +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.e._, 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. + +Inns of Chancery, like Clifford's Inn, were originally law schools, to +prepare students for the larger Inns of Court. + +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 (_quantum +mutatus!_) 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 poets +and philosophers condescended to live in it, and persons of considerable +consequence rustled their silks and trailed their velvet along its +narrow roadway. + +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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 L10,000, 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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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 amongst a hundred persons, on Sunday, the 19th of December +last, 1641." + +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. + +[Illustration: ROASTING THE RUMPS IN FLEET STREET (FROM AN OLD PRINT) +(_see page 95_).] + +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 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, and even _Cato_ 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." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MORAVIAN CHAPEL IN FETTER LANE (_see page +100_).] + +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. + +That clever but mischievous advocate of divine right and absolute power, +Hobbes of Malmesbury, 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 _glorious_ 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 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,-- + + "I do not like thee, Dr. Fell; + The reason why I cannot tell; + But this I know, and know full well, + I do not like thee, Dr. Fell," + +who rudely called Hobbes "_irritabile illud et vanissimum Malmsburiense +animal_." 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 +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." + +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. + +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. + +It was in a house on the east side of this lane, looking into +Fleur-de-Lys Court, that (in 1767) 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 _talked_ 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,-- + + "For this act + Did Brownrigge swing. Harsh laws! But time shall come + When France shall reign, and laws be all repealed." + +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 Whitehead. This poor satirist and worthless man became a Jacobite +barrister and protege 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,-- + + "May I--can worse disgrace on manhood fall?-- + Be born a Whitehead and baptised a Paul." + +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. + +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,-- + + "Like a dog with a bottle tied close to his tail, + Like a Tory in a bog, or a thief in a jail," + +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,-- + + "Not that slow drudge, in swift Pindaric strains, + Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains, + And drives a jaded Muse, whipt with loose reins." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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 ("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. + +"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." + +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 1732, and the pastor is the Rev. John Spurgeon, the +father of the eloquent Baptist preacher, the Rev. C.H. Spurgeon. + +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 "_hundreds of millions_." 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 +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. + +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. 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. + +[Illustration: HOUSE SAID TO HAVE BEEN OCCUPIED BY DRYDEN IN FETTER LANE +(_see page 102_).] + +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 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,-- + + "Here lives Dryden, a poet and a wit." + +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 + + "Here lives Dryden, _a poet and a wit_," + +he added,-- + + "This was written by Otway, _opposite_." + +When Otway arrived he saw that his line was linked with a rhyme, and +being a man of rather 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." + +[Illustration: A MEETING OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY IN CRANE COURT (_see p. +106_).] + +A curious old book, a _vade mecum_ for malt worms _temp._ George I., +thus immortalises the patriotism of a tavern-keeper in Fetter Lane:-- + + "Though there are some who, with invidious look, + Have styl'd this bird more like a Russian duck + Than what he stands depicted for on sign, + He proves he well has croaked for prey within, + From massy tankards, formed of silver plate, + That walk throughout this noted house in state, + Ever since _Englesfield_, in _Anna's_ reign, + To compliment each fortunate campaign, + Made one be hammered out for ev'ry town was ta'en." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FLEET STREET (TRIBUTARIES--CRANE COURT, JOHNSON'S COURT, BOLT COURT). + + 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 _John Bull_--Hook + and Terry--Prosecutions for Libel--Hook's Impudence. + + +In the old times, when newspapers could not legally be published without +a stamp, "various ingenious devices," says a writer in the _Bookseller_ +(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." + +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--incorporated 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 L1,450. 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 Phoenix 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; ventilation, _apropos_ 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 _Racehorse_ 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." + +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:-- + +"The quills of a porcupine, which on certain occasions the creature can +shoot at the pursuing enemy and erect at pleasure. + +"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. + +"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. + +"Tortoises, when turned on their backs, will sometimes fetch deep sighs +and shed abundance of tears. + +"A humming-bird and nest, said to weigh but twelve grains; his feathers +are set in gold, and sell at a great rate. + +"A bone, said to be taken out of a mermaid's head. + +"The largest whale--liker an island than an animal. + +"The white shark, which sometimes swallows men whole. + +"A siphalter, said with its sucker to fasten on a ship and stop it under +sail. + +"A stag-beetle, whose horns, worn in a ring, are good against the cramp. + +"A mountain cabbage--one reported 300 feet high." + +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. + +In 1726-27 Swift, too, had his bitter jeer at the society. In Laputa, he +thus describes the experimental philosophers:-- + +"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. + +"There was a most ingenious architect, who had contrived a new method of +building houses, by beginning at the roof and working downward to 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." + +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. + +"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, 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 _ex-officio_ 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. + +"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, Linne, Voltaire, &c.; together with those, in simple +alphabetical order, of the Dukes of Braganza, &c., and the chief +Ministers of many European sovereigns." + +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:-- + + "While you, great George, for knowledge hunt, + And sharp conductors change for blunt, + The nation's out of joint; + Franklin a wiser course pursues, + And all your thunder useless views, + By keeping to the point." + +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." + +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. + +"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 L116 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. + +"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 L1 +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 L2,200 a year, chiefly in L10 pensions to old people; +and the princely bequest of L76,495 by Mr. W. Kinloch, who had realised +a fortune in India, allows of L1,800 being given in pensions of L4 to +disabled soldiers and sailors. + +"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 L1,200 to the +hospital fund." + +Appended to the account of the society already quoted we find the +following remarkable "note by an Englishman":-- + +"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 L30 16s. 6d. was +spent in passages from London to Leith; and there is actually a +corresponding society in Edinburgh to receive the _revenants_ and pass +them on to their respective districts." + +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 _North Briton_, 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 L4,000, and Leach L300, 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 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. + +[Illustration: THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S HOUSE IN CRANE COURT (_see page +104_).] + +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, 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 _Gentleman's +Magazine_ (started in 1731) was partly printed from 1779 to 1781, and +entirely printed from 1792 to 1820. + +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. + +[Illustration: Theodore E. Hook (_See page 110_).] + +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 +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 L300 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. + +"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." + +"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 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:-- + + 'That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, + As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away; + While self-dependent power can time defy, + As rocks resist the billows and the sky.' + +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." + +"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.'" + +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. + +That clever, but most shameless and scurrilous, paper, _John Bull_, was +started in Johnson's Court, 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 +L15,000--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 _Blackwood_, +but the final decision was for a weekly newspaper, to be called _John +Bull_, 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. + +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 "_Terry_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 _Bull_. Mr. Haynes Bayley +contributed some of his graceful verses, and Ingoldsby (Barham) some of +his rather ribald fun. The anonymous editor of _John Bull_ 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. + +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. + +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 L500 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:-- + +"MR. THEODORE HOOK. + +"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 _such a person_ as Mr. Hook should think himself +disgraced by a connection with _John Bull_." + +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:-- + +"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." + +The ruse answered for awhile, and the paper went on with unabated +audacity. + +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 L4,000 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. + +"Latterly Hook's desultory nature made him wander from the _Bull_, +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." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES. + + 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." + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Johnson was at Bolt Court when the Gordon Riots broke out, and he +describes them to Mrs. Thrale. 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 _Beggars' Opera_,-- + + "But two at a time there's no mortal can bear," + +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. + +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. + +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,-- + + "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; + Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; + Raze out the written troubles of the brain; + And with some sweet oblivious antidote + Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff + Which weighs upon the heart?" + +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 benediction upon the daughter +of a friend who came to ask his blessing. + +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 _debutants'_ 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. + +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." + +[Illustration: DR. JOHNSON'S HOUSE IN BOLT COURT (_see page 112_).] + +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--_sicitur ad +astra_. 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. + +[Illustration: A TEA PARTY AT DR. JOHNSON'S (_see page 113_).] + +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 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:-- + + Ward Constables 400 + Fellowship, Ticket, and Tackle Porters 250 + Firemen 150 + Corn Porters 100 + Extra men hired 130 + City Police or own men 54 + Tradesmen with emblems in the procession 300 + Some gentlemen called the Lumber Troopers 150 + The Artillery Company 150 + The East India Volunteers 600 + + Total of all comers 2,284 + +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." + +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 +(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. + +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 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. + +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 _Political Register_, 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." + +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 +L150 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 _Weekly Register_, +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)--Cobbett +grew Radical and progressive, and in 1809 was fined L500 for libels on +the Irish Government. In 1817 he was fined L1,000 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 _Register_ by his _Twopenny Trash_, 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. + +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. + +Mr. Grant, in his pleasant book, "Random Recollections of the House of +Commons," written _circa_ 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. + +We next penetrate into Gough Square, in search of the great +lexicographer. + +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 _Rambler_ and the _Idler_, 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. + +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 +_Irene_. In 1750, he commenced the _Rambler_. 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 L5 18_s._, from which Richardson the +worthy relieved him. In 1758, when he began the _Idler_, Johnson is +described as "being in as easy and pleasant a state of existence as +constitutional unhappiness ever permitted him to enjoy." + +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 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." + +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." + +"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 _Merchant of +Venice_ 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.'" + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +"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 L60. 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.'" + +[Illustration: GOUGH SQUARE (_see page 118_).] + +The arrest is plainly connected with Newbery's reluctance to make +further advances, and of all 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 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 +L60. "And, sir," he said afterwards, "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." + +[Illustration: WINE OFFICE COURT AND THE "CHESHIRE CHEESE" (_see page +122_).] + +On the poem, meanwhile, the elder Newbery _had_ 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 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 _Critical Review_, which was to appear +simultaneously with the poem, and, as the day of publication drew near, +bade Goldsmith be of good heart. + +Oliver Goldsmith came first to London in 1756, 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 _Monthly Review_, 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 _British Magazine_. + +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." + +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":-- + +"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. 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. + +"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 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.'" + +Mr. William Sawyer has also written a very admirable sketch of the +"Cheese" and its old-fashioned, conservative ways, which we cannot +resist quoting:-- + +"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. 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." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES--SHOE LANE. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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 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, JOHN FLORIO." + +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 +_Cymbeline_, _Romeo and Juliet_, _Othello_, or _The Two Gentlemen of +Verona_, and had his attention turned by the old scholar to fresh +chapters of Italian story? + +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 _cogite_, 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. + +"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 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. + +"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, 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 _northern_ 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 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.'" + +[Illustration: COGERS' HALL (_see page 124_).] + +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 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 Sacheverell, on leaving her for the French camp, are worthy of +Montrose himself. The last two lines-- + + "I could not love thee, dear, so much, + Lov'd I not honour more"-- + +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,-- + + "Stone walls do not a prison make, + Nor iron bars a cage; + Minds innocent and quiet take + That for a hermitage. + If I have freedom in my love, + And in my soul am free, + Angels alone, that soar above, + Enjoy such liberty"? + +[Illustration: LOVELACE IN PRISON (_see page 128_).] + +Whenever we read the verse that begins,-- + + "When love, with unconfined wings, + Hovers within my gates, + And my divine Althea brings, + To whisper at my grates," + +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,"-- + + "When, linnet-like, confined, I + With shriller note shall sing + The mercy, sweetness, majesty, + And glories of my king; + When I shall voice aloud how good + He is, how great should be, + Th' enlarged winds that curl the flood + Know no such liberty." + +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 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 _protege_ of an angel called Salmonaeus, 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. + +Lilly himself, in his amusing, half-knavish autobiography, has described +his first introduction to the Welsh astrologer of Gunpowder Alley:-- + +"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 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." + +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. + +"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,[4] 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,[5] 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 afterwards 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. + +"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." + +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 _modern masters_ may be fairly examined +into, it has been thought proper to place some admired works of the most +eminent _old masters_ 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, _alias_ Somebody,' a +character. (The figure of an officer, all head, arms, legs, and thighs. +This piece has a very odd effect, being so drolly executed that you do +not miss the body.) 'Somebody, _alias_ 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 _down_ to the common style and manner of +sign-painting.) + +"At the entrance to the _grand room_:--'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 _us_, 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 out at each other; and over +their heads ran a wooden label, inscribed, 'The present state of +Europe.' + +"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.'" + +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,-- + + "Says the lady, says she, 'I've changed my state.' + 'Why, you don't mean,' says Jack, 'that you've got a mate? + You know you promised me.' Says she, 'I couldn't wait, + For no tidings could I gain of you, Jack Robinson. + And somebody one day came to me and said + That somebody else had somewhere read, + In some newspaper, that you was somewhere dead.'-- + 'I've not been dead at all,' says Jack Robinson." + +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 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,-- + + "When the mad fit comes on, I seize the pen, + Rough as they run, the rapid thoughts set down; + Rough as they run, discharge them on the town. + Hence rude, unfinished brats, before their time, + Are born into this idle world of rhyme; + And the poor slattern muse is brought to bed, + With all her imperfections on her head." + +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:-- + + "And when we got to town, quite tired, + The bells all rung, the guns they fired, + The people looking all bemired, + In one conglomeration. + Soldiers red, policemen blue, + Horse-guards, foot-guards, and blackguards too, + Beef-eaters, dukes, and Lord knows who, + To see the coronation. + + While Dolly bridled up, so proud, + At us the people laughed aloud; + Dobbin stood in thickest crowd, + Wi' quiet resignation. + To move again he warn't inclined; + 'Here's a chap!' says one behind, + 'He's brought an old horse, lame and blind, + To see the coronation.' + + Dolly cried, 'Oh! dear, oh! dear, + I wish I never had come here, + To suffer every jibe and jeer, + In such a situation.' + While so busy, she and I + To get a little ease did try, + By goles! the king and queen went by, + And all the coronation. + + I struggled hard, and Dolly cried; + And tho' to help myself I tried, + We both were carried with the tide, + Against our inclination. + 'The reign's begun!' folks cried; ''tis true;' + 'Sure,' said Dolly, 'I think so too; + The rain's begun, for I'm wet thro', + All through the coronation.' + + We bade good-bye to Lunnun town; + The king and queen they gain'd a crown; + Dolly spoilt her bran-new gown, + To her mortification. + I'll drink our king and queen wi' glee, + In home-brewed ale, and so will she; + But Doll and I ne'er want to see + Another coronation." + +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 terrae, +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 in them. The +house was entirely pulled down in the autumn of 1828. + +[Illustration: BANGOR HOUSE, 1818 (_see page 131_).] + +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:-- + +"_Cleaves Police Gazette_," 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 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 +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 _Gazettes_. 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 _Cleave's Police Gazettes_, 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 readiness to +render a similar service to Mr. Cleave and the cause of red +Republicanism when the next _Gazette_ appeared." + +[Illustration: OLD ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH (_see page 135_).] + +"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 complete collapse took place in Mr. +Cleave's business, so far as his _Police Gazette_ 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." + +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 _Kolokol_, to Russia, soldered up in sardine-boxes. No +Government, in fact, can ever baffle determined and ingenious smugglers. + +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:-- + +"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 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.... + +"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.).... + +"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. + +"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.'" + +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 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. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] "This Scott lived in Pudding Lane, and had some time been a page (or +such-like) to the Lord Norris." + +[5] "Davy Ramsay brought a half-quartern sack to put the treasure in." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FLEET STREET TRIBUTARIES SOUTH. + + Worthy Mr. Fisher--Lamb's Wednesday Evenings--Persons one would wish + to have seen--Ram Alley--Serjeants' Inn--The _Daily News_--"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. + + +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. + +Charles Lamb came to 16, Mitre Court Buildings in 1800, after leaving +Southampton Buildings, and remained in that quiet harbour out of Fleet +Street till 1809, when he removed to Inner Temple Lane. + +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 _The Road to Ruin_, 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 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." + +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:-- + +"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 _bodily_ 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 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.... + +"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.... + +"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. + +"'I should like,' said Mr. Reynolds, 'to have seen Pope talking with +Patty Blount, and I _have_ seen Goldsmith.' Everyone turned round to +look at Mr. Reynolds, as if by so doing they too could get a sight of +Goldsmith.... + +"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.' + +"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.' + +"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.'.... + +"Of all persons near our own time, Garrick's name was received with the +greatest enthusiasm. He presently superseded both Hogarth and 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.... + +"Lamb inquired if there was any one that was hanged that I would choose +to mention, and I answered, 'Eugene Aram.'" + +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 +_Parson's Wedding_. Barry, an Irishman, of whom nothing much is known, +makes one of his roystering characters say,-- + + "And rough Ram Alley stinks with cooks' shops vile; + Yet, stay, there's many a worthy lawyer's chamber + 'Buts upon Ram Alley." + +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. + +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 privileges 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. + +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. + +Half way down Bouverie Street, in the centre of old Whitefriars, is the +office of the _Daily News_. 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 +_Examiner_. "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 _Times_. + +"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 +L2,000 a year." + +[Illustration: THE DORSET GARDENS THEATRE, WHITEFRIARS (_see page +140_).] + +The early numbers of the paper contained 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 _Weekly Newspaper_. 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 _Athenaeum_, who excited some +curiosity by extensively advertising these words: "See the _Daily News_ +of June 1st." The _Daily News_ of June 1, 1846 (which began No. 1 +again), was a paper of four pages, issued at 2-1/2_d._, which, deducting +the stamp, at that time affixed to every copy of every newspaper, 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 _Daily News_ 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 _London Gazette_. +The journal came down to a penny in June, 1868. + +[Illustration: ATTACK ON A WHIG MUG HOUSE (_see page 142_)] + +The _Daily News_, at the beginning, inspired the _Times_ 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. + +There is no doubt that, over sanguine of success, the _Daily News_ +proprietors began by sinking too much money in the foundations. In 1846, +the _Times'_ reporters received on an average only five guineas a week, +while the _Daily News_ gave seven; but the pay was soon of necessity +reduced. Mr. Grant computes the losses of the _Daily News_ for the first +ten years at not much less than L200,000. 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 _Daily News_ now stands pre-eminent. + +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. + +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 L20,000, 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 L500 to a clergyman; +another leaving the bulk to the clergyman, and L500 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. + +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 +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! + +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 _Daily Post_, an organ which +gradually grew into the _Public Advertiser_, 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, +Barre, 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 +_Morning Chronicle_, 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 _Sun_) 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 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 _Gentleman's Magazine_ 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 _Sun_, +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 +_Hamlet_,--'thoughts black, hands apt.'" + +Finding himself hampered on the _Morning Chronicle_, Woodfall started a +new daily paper, with the title of the _Diary_, 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 _Chronicle_), 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,-- + + "A lion preys not upon carcases." + +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. + +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 _Morning Chronicle_. 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 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. + +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." + +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. + +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,-- + + "With heart and hand + By George we'll stand," + +and did their best on royal birthdays and other thanksgivings, by +illuminations and blazing bonfires 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. + +Mackey, a traveller, who wrote "A Journey through England" about this +time, describes the mug-houses very lucidly:-- + +"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." + +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 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. + +The _Weekly Journal_ (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 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. + +"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." + +"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 +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." + +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. + +In the _Flying Post_ 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:-- + + "Since the Tories could not fight, + And their master took his flight, + They labour to keep up their faction; + With a bough and a stick, + And a stone and a brick, + They equip their roaring crew for action. + + "Thus in battle array + At the close of the day, + After wisely debating their deep plot, + Upon windows and stall, + They courageously fall, + And boast a great victory they have got. + + "But, alas! silly boys, + For all the mighty noise, + Of their 'High Church and Ormond for ever,' + A brave Whig with one hand, + At George's command, + Can make their mightiest hero to quiver." + +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. + +[Illustration: FLEET STREET, THE TEMPLE, ETC., FROM A PLAN PUBLISHED BY +RALPH AGGAS, 1563.] + +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 +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 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." + +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 +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. + +[Illustration: FLEET STREET, THE TEMPLE, ETC., FROM A MAP OF LONDON, +PUBLISHED 1720.] + +On one occasion at least Hogarth and Johnson met at Richardson's house. + +"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 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 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." + +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." + +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." + +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 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. + +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 L25,000. +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:-- + +"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." + +And here is a fine sentiment, worthy of Dr. Dodd himself:-- + +"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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE TEMPLE.--GENERAL INTRODUCTION. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 Coeur 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. + +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. + +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 Coeur 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. + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND PRECINCT. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 _sacrarium_ 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 +ornaments, 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 _classic style_, 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. + +[Illustration: A KNIGHT TEMPLAR.] + +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. + +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 wainscoting 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. + +When the genuine restoration was commenced in 1845, the removal of the +_beautifications and adornments_ 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH (_see page 150_).] + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Among the many interesting objects," says Mr. Addison, "to be seen in +the ancient church of the Knights Templars is a _penitential cell_, 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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 Coeur 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. + +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. + +Near the western doorway reclines the mailed effigy of Gilbert Marshall, +Earl of Pembroke, third 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. + +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 +L800 by Richard Coeur 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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, _vox humana_, _cremona_, 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." + +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 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 "_elatus et superbus_;" +and he got nothing, after all, but hard words, for his petition. + +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." + +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,-- + + "At the Temple one day, Sherlock taking a boat, + The waterman asked him, 'Which way will you float?' + 'Which way?' says the Doctor; 'why, fool, with the stream!' + To St. Paul's or to Lambeth was all one to him." + +The tide in favour of Sherlock was running to St. Paul's. He was made +Bishop of London. + +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. + +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:-- + + "Retain all sorts of witnesses + That ply i' the Temple, under trees, + Or walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts, + About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts; + Or wait for customers between + The pillar rows in Lincoln's Inn." + +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. + +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. + +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 L25 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 a 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 L73 +6s. 11d., equal to about L1,000 of our present money. In 1340, in +consideration of L100 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. + +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." + + "A gentil manciple was there of the Temple + Of whom achatours mighten take ensample, + For to ben wise in bying of vitaille; + For, whether that he paid or toke by taille, + Algate he waited so in his achate + That he was aye before in good estate. + Now is not that of God a full fayre grace + That swiche a lewed mannes wit shall face + The wisdom of an hepe of lerned men? + + "Of maisters had he more than thries ten, + _That were of law expert and curious_; + Of which there was a dosein in that hous + Worthy to ben stewardes of rent and land + Of any lord that is in Engleland: + To maken him live by his propre good, + In honour detteles; but if he were wood, + Or live as scarsly as him list desire, + And able for to helpen all a shire, + In any cos that mighte fallen or happe: + And yet this manciple sett 'hir aller cappe.'" + +In the Middle Temple Chaucer is supposed to have formed the +acquaintanceship of his graver contemporary, "the moral Gower." + +[Illustration: TOMBS OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS (_see page 152_).] + +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-at-law exactly resembles that once used +for receiving Fratres Servientes into the fraternity of the Temple. + +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." + +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 +L28--("L450 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 +(_temp._ 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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: THE TEMPLE IN 1671. (FROM AN OLD BIRD'S-EYE VIEW IN THE +INNER TEMPLE.)] + +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 _King Henry VI._--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:-- + + "_Suffolk._ Within the Temple Hall we were too loud; + The garden here is more convenient. + + * * * * * + + "_Plantagenet._ Let him that is a true-born gentleman, + And stands upon the honour of his birth, + If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, + From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. + + "_Somerset._ Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, + But dare maintain the party of the truth, + Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. + + * * * * * + + "_Plantagenet._ Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset? + + "_Somerset._ Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? + + * * * * * + + "_Warwick._ This brawl to-day, + Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, + Shall send, between the red rose and the white, + A thousand souls to death and deadly night." + + _King Henry VI._, Part I., Act ii., sc. 4. + +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). + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE TEMPLE (_continued_). + + 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--_The Deserted + Village_--_She Stoops to Conquer_--Goldsmith's Death and Burial. + + +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," 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 _Twelfth Night_ was acted. + +"Feb. 2, 1601 (2).--At our feast," says Manningham, "we had a play +called _Twelve Night, or What you Will_, much like the _Comedy of +Errors_ or _Menechmi in Plautus_, but most like and neere to that in +Italian called _Inganni_. 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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +He then descended, called together his mock court, by such fantastic +names as-- + + Sir Francis Flatterer, of Fowlershurst, in the county + of Buckingham; + + Sir Randal Rakabite, of Rascal Hall, in the county + of Rakebell; + + Sir Morgan Mumchance, of Much Monkery, in the + county of Mad Mopery; + +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. + +"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 _commons_ 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." + +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,-- + + "Those bricky towers, + The which on Thames' broad, aged back doe ride, + Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, + There whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide, + Till they decayed through pride." + +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, _The Poetaster_. 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, +BEN JONSON." + +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 L10 annually to the king for the +Inner Temple, and L10 for the Middle. In gratitude for this concession, +the two loyal societies presented his majesty with a stately gold cup, +weighing 200-1/2 ounces, which James "most graciously" accepted. On one +side was engraved a temple, on the other a flaming altar, with the words +_nil nisi vobis_; 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." + +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. + +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 L300. 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 L30 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. + +One of the grandest masques ever given by the Templars was one which +cost L21,000, and was presented, in 1633, to Charles I. and his French +queen. Bulstrode Whitelocke, then in his youth, gives a vivid 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 +L10,000. 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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +[Illustration: THE OLD HALL OF THE INNER TEMPLE (_see page 164_).] + +"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 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 account of.' And thereupon the cloisters, by the +order and disposition of Sir Christopher Wren, were built as they now +stand." + +[Illustration: Door from the Middle Temple. + +Wig-Shop in the Middle Temple. + +Door from the Inner Temple. + +Fireplace in the Inner Temple. + +Screen of the Middle Temple Hall. + +Buttery of the Inner Temple.] + +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 _Love for Love_ and the farce of _The Devil +to Pay_ 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 _ancient song_, 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 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. + +Mr. Peter Cunningham, _apropos_ 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 _Plain Dealer_ +(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." + +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. + +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. + +Let us cull a few Temple anecdotes from various ages:-- + +In November, 1819, Erskine, in the House of Lords, speaking upon Lord +Lansdowne's motion for 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." + +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 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." + +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. + +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 L10 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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:"-- + + "Lulled by the lapse of gliding floods, + Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods, + How blest my days, my thoughts how free, + In sweet society with thee! + Then all was joyous, all was young, + And years unheeded roll'd along; + But now the pleasing dream is o'er-- + These scenes must charm me now no more. + Lost to the field, and torn from you, + Farewell!--a long, a last adieu! + + * * * * * + + Then welcome business, welcome strife, + Welcome the cares, the thorns of life, + The visage wan, the purblind sight, + The toil by day, the lamp by night, + The tedious forms, the solemn prate, + The pert dispute, the dull debate, + The drowsy bench, the babbling hall,-- + For thee, fair Justice, welcome all!" + +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. + +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. + +"A wit," says Archdeacon Nares, in his pleasant book, "Heraldic +Anomalies," "once chalked the following lines on the Temple gate:"-- + + "As by the Templars' hold you go, + The horse and lamb display'd + In emblematic figures show + The merits of their trade. + + "The clients may infer from thence + How just is their profession; + The lamb sets forth their innocence, + The horse their expedition. + + "Oh, happy Britons! happy isle! + Let foreign nations say, + Where you get justice without guile + And law without delay." + +A rival wag replied to these lively lines by the following severer +ones:-- + + "Deluded men, these holds forego, + Nor trust such cunning elves; + These artful emblems tend to show + Their _clients_--not _themselves_. + + "'Tis all a trick; these are all shams + By which they mean to cheat you: + But have a care--for _you're_ the _lambs_, + And they the _wolves_ that eat you. + + "Nor let the thought of 'no delay' + To these their courts misguide you; + 'Tis you're the showy _horse_, and _they_ + The _jockeys_ that will ride you." + +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:"-- + + "And dare the college insolently aim, + To equal our fraternity in fame? + Then let crabs' eyes with pearl for virtue try, + Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie; + So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams, + And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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 L300 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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +[Illustration: OLIVER GOLDSMITH (_see page 167_).] + +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 L30 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 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 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. + +[Illustration: GOLDSMITH'S TOMB IN 1860 (_see page 171_).] + +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--_nil te +quaesiveris extra_.'" He soon hurried off to the quiet of Islington, as +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 _Good-Natured +Man_, 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 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." + +On the partial success of _The Good-Natured Man_ (January, 1768), +Goldsmith, having cleared L500, broke out like a successful gambler. He +purchased a set of chambers (No. 2, up two pairs of stairs, in Brick +Court) for L400, squandered the remaining L100, 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 L8 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.'" + +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 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 L500 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 _She Stoops to Conquer_ 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. + +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 L2,000. "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 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:-- + +"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 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. + +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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE TEMPLE (_continued_). + + 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. + + +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 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. + +"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 reticule of hers (with all the keys in it) to attract his +wondering observation. + +"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.... + +"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. + +"Oh, foolish, panting, timid little heart! why did she feign to be +unconscious of his coming?... + +"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." + +"L.E.L." (Miss Landon) has left a graceful poem on this much-petted +fountain, which begins,-- + + "The fountain's low singing is heard on the wind, + Like a melody, bringing sweet fancies to mind-- + Some to grieve, some to gladden; around them they cast + The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past. + Away in the distance is heard the vast sound + From the streets of the city that compass it round, + Like the echo of fountains or ocean's deep call; + Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all." + +Fig-tree Court derived its name from obvious 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. + +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 L13,000. The north window is thought to too much resemble the +great window at Westminster. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 +L250, 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:-- + +"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. + +"The third effort was more likely to succeed. 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 away with him; and thus ended all my +connection with the Parliament office." + +[Illustration: THE TEMPLE FOUNTAIN, FROM AN OLD PRINT (_see page 171_).] + +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 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 L5. 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 L8 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. + +[Illustration: A SCUFFLE BETWEEN TEMPLARS AND ALSATIANS (_see page +179_).] + +Not many recorded crimes have taken place in 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. + +In 1685 John Ayloff, a barrister of the Inner Temple, was hung for high +treason opposite the Temple Gate. + +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. + +The celebrated Earl of Mansfield, when Mr. Murray, had chambers at No. +5, King's Bench Walk, _apropos_ of which Pope wrote-- + + "To Number Five direct your doves, + There spread round Murray all your blooming loves." + + (Pope "to Venus," from "Horace.") + +A second compliment by Pope to this great man occasioned a famous +parody:-- + + "Graced as thou art by all the power of words, + So known, so honoured at the House of Lords" + + (Pope, of Lord Mansfield); + +which was thus cleverly parodied by Colley Cibber: + + "Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, + And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks." + +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 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." + +"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; _but she +swore so dreadfully that I am sure she must be a lady of quality_.'" + +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, 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 L30,000 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. + +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 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 + + 'Of buildings strong, albeit of paper hight,' + +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 Naiades! 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...." + +"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!" + +Charles Lamb, in his "Essay" on the old benchers, speaks of many changes +he had witnessed in the Temple--_i.e._, 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 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. + +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. + +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 L50 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 _bad_ copies of _good_ books than any +private gentleman in England. + +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 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." + +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 _Middle_ 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. + +The _Middle Temple_ includes the universities of Durham and London. At +the _Inner Temple_ 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 _Inner Temple_, an +attorney must have ceased to be on the rolls, and an articled clerk to +be in articles for _three years_, before he can be called to the bar. + +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 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. + +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 L32,866 which they have returned as the annual rental +of their estates. + +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. + +As the Middle Temple has grown gradually poorer and more neglected, many +curious customs 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 _recherche_ French dishes, and is curious in _entremets_; 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 _Blackwood_, 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. + +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 _sip_; 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, a +gold cup of sack is handed to each member, who drinks to the happy +restoration of Charles II. + +[Illustration: SUN-DIAL IN THE TEMPLE (_see page 177_).] + +The writer in _Blackwood_ 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. + +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 mootings or discussions on points of law. The mere +student sat farthest from the bar. + +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. + +In the _Middle Temple_ 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 member +before being called. The members of the several universities, &c., may, +however, be called after three years' standing. + +[Illustration: THE TEMPLE STAIRS.] + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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 _coup d'oeil_. + +The revenue of the Middle Temple alone is said to be L13,000 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WHITEFRIARS. + + 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 _Squire of Alsatia_--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. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE MURDER OF TURNER (_see page 184_).] + +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 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 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. + +[Illustration: BRIDEWELL, AS REBUILT AFTER THE FIRE, FROM AN OLD PRINT +(_see page 191_).] + +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, +_The Squire of Alsatia_. 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 _Adelphi_ 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-- + + "With what prodigious scarcity of wit + Did the new authors starve the hungry pit! + Infected by the French, you must have rhyme, + Which long to please the ladies' ears did chime. + Soon after this came ranting fustian in, + And none but plays upon the fret were seen, + Such daring bombast stuff which fops would praise, + Tore our best actors' lungs, cut short their days. + Some in small time did this distemper kill; + And had the savage authors gone on still, + Fustian had been a new disease i' the bill." + +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 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 _dramatis personae_, 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. + +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 _melee_. 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." + +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, 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?" + +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. + +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:-- + +"_Item._ Theise gates shalbe orderly shutt and opened at convenient +times, and porters appointed for the same. Also, a scavenger to keep the +precincte clean. + +"_Item._ Tipling houses shalbe bound for good order. + +"_Item._ Searches to be made by the constables, with the assistance of +the inhabitants, at the commandmente of the justices. + +"_Item._ Rogues and vagabondes and other disturbers of the public peace +shall be corrected and punished by the authoretie of the justices. + +"_Item._ A bailife to be appointed for leavienge of such duties and +profittes which apperteine unto her Matie; as also for returne of proces +for execution of justice. + +"_Item._ Incontinent persons to be presented unto the Ordenary, to be +tried, and punished. + +"_Item._ The poore within the precincte shalbe provyded for by the +inhabitantes of the same. + +"_Item._ In tyme of plague, good order shalbe taken for the restrainte +of the same. + +"_Item._ Lanterne and light to be mainteined duringe winter time." + +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. + +And now we come to Bridewell, first a palace, then 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 (_circa_ 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 L21,924 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 L100,000, the +contumacious Cistercians alone yielding up L33,000. + +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 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _protege_, 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. + +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 _knock_ 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 +procuress of King Charles II.'s reign, died a prisoner in Bridewell. She +desired by _will_ to have a sermon preached at her funeral, for which +the preacher was to have L10, 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 _well_ of her. All that I shall say of her, therefore, is +this: She was born _well_, she lived _well_, and she died _well_; for +she was born with the name of Cres_well_, she lived in Clerken_well_, +and she died in Bride_well_." (Cunningham.) + +[Illustration: BEATING HEMP IN BRIDEWELL, AFTER HOGARTH.] + +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 of L10 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." + +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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE DUKE'S THEATRE, FROM SETTLE'S "EMPRESS OF +MOROCCO" (_see page 195_).] + +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 L20, 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. + +In 1790, Pennant describes Bridewell as still having arches and +octagonal towers of the old 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. + +"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 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 _Spinhaus_, 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." + +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. + +"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 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.'" + +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 (L12,000) +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. + +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 L15 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. + +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 the venerable +Chamberlain Clarke, who died in his ninety-third year. + +The Bridewell prison (whose inmates were sent to Holloway) was pulled +down (except the hall, treasurer's house, and offices) in 1863. + +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.) + +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. + +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 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 L950 down, Dorset House being afterwards sold for L4,000. The +theatre was destroyed by the Puritan soldiers in 1649, and not rebuilt +till the Restoration. + +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 _Sir Martin Marall_, 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 a +dismal front to the bright and pleasant Embankment. + +Pepys, the indefatigable, was a frequent visitor to the Whitefriars +Theatre. A few of his quaint remarks will not be uninteresting:-- + +"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 _The Changeling_, 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. + +"1661.--To White-fryars, and saw _The Bondman_ acted; an excellent play, +and well done; but above all that I ever saw, Betterton do the Bondman +the best. + +"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, _The Queen's Maske_, 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. + +"Creed and I to Salisbury Court, and there saw _Love's Quarrell_ 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." + +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 _The Tempest, or the +Enchanted Island_, 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. +_Psyche_, another opera by Shadwell, perhaps adapted from Moliere's +Court spectacle, had succeeded the _Tempest_. St. Andre 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:-- + + "You who each day can theatres behold, + Like Nero's palace, shining all in gold, + Our mean, ungilded stage will scorn, we fear, + And for the homely room disdain the cheer." + +Then he brings in the dictum of the king:-- + + "Yet if some pride with want may be allowed, + We in our plainness may be justly proud: + Our royal master willed it should be so; + Whate'er he's pleased to own can need no show. + That sacred name gives ornament and grace, + And, like his stamp, makes basest metal pass. + 'Twere folly now a stately pile to raise, + To build a playhouse, while you throw down plays. + While scenes, machines, and empty operas reign, + And for the pencil you the pen disdain: + While troops of famished Frenchmen hither drive, + And laugh at those upon whose alms they live, + Old English authors vanish, and give place + To these new conquerors of the Norman race." + +And when, in 1671, the burnt-out Drury Lane company had removed to the +Portugal Street Theatre, Dryden had said, in the same strain,-- + + "So we expect the lovers, braves, and wits; + The gaudy house with scenes will serve for cits." + +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 +_Macbeth_. + +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 "_bon_" 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-- + + "With a shog casts all the hair before, + Till he, with full decorum, brings it back, + And rises with a water-spaniel's shake." + +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 the +heavy gilded coach, lighted by flambeaux, are waiting for the noisy +gallant, and will take back only his corpse. + +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 _Limberham_, _OEdipus_, _Troilus and Cressida_, and +_The Spanish Friar_. _Limberham_ 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 _Marriage a la Mode_. +Ravenscroft, also, in his epilogue to the play of _Citizen Turned +Gentleman_, 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. + +In the _Postman_, 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 L100 reward, if he can perform the +said matters of strength as they do, provided the pretender will forfeit +L20 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." + +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 the Duchess, in Shirley's _Cardinal_. 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 AEsopus and +Roscius of their time. As Amintor and Melanthus, in _The Maid's +Tragedy_, they were incomparable. Pepys is loud too in his praises of +Hart. His salary, was, however, at the most, L3 a week, though he +realised L1,000 yearly after he became a shareholder of the theatre. +Hart died in 1683, within a year of his being bought off. + +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." + +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. + +[Illustration: BAYNARD'S CASTLE, FROM A VIEW PUBLISHED IN 1790 (_see +page 200_).] + +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 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:-- + + "And next in order sad, Old Age we found; + His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind; + With drooping cheer still poring on the ground, + As on the place where Nature him assigned + To rest, when that the sisters had untwined + His vital thread, and ended with their knife + The fleeting course of fast declining life. + Crooked-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed, + Went on three feet, and sometimes crept on four, + With old lame bones, that rattled by his side; + His scalp all pil'd, and he with eld forelore, + His wither'd fist still knocking at death's door; + Fumbling and drivelling, as he draws his breath; + For brief, the shape and messenger of death." + +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.)." + +[Illustration: FALLING IN OF THE CHAPEL AT BLACKFRIARS (_see page +202_).] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +BLACKFRIARS. + + 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 _Times_ and its + History--Walter's Enterprise--War with the _Dispatch_--- The + gigantic Swindling Scheme exposed by the _Times_--Apothecaries' + Hall--Quarrel with the College of Physicians. + + +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 +_Notes and Queries_ points out a piece of mediaeval walling and the +fragment of a buttress, still standing, at the foot of the _Times_ +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _The Comedy of Errors_, _Love's Labour's +Lost_, or _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_. 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. + +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 _King Richard II._ and _King Richard III._, 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 L60 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 L162 5s. + +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 L7,000, Shakespeare's four shares being valued at L1,433 6s. 8d., +including the wardrobe and properties, estimated at L500. The poet's +income at this time Mr. Collier estimates at L400 a year. The +Blackfriars Theatre was pulled down in Cromwell's time (1655), and +houses built in its room. + +Randolph, the dramatist, a pupil of Ben Jonson's, ridicules, in _The +Muses' Looking-Glass_, 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:-- + + "Indeed, it sometimes pricks my conscience, + I come to sell 'em pins and looking-glasses." + +To which her friend, Mr. Bird, replies, with the sly sanctity of +Tartuffe:-- + + "I have this custom, too, for my feathers; + 'Tis fit that we, which are sincere professors, + Should gain by infidels." + +Ben Jonson, that smiter of all such hypocrites, wrote _Volpone_ at his +house in Blackfriars, where he laid the scene of _The Alchymist_. 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. + +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, 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. + +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." + +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 _debris_ and rescue the sufferers who were still alive. +The pamphleteer, 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. + +Many of those who were saved died in a few hours after their +extrication. The bodies of Lady 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. + +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, _stilo antiquo_, and the 5th November, +_stilo novo_, or _Romano_" 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. + +"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 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." + +[Illustration: RICHARD BURBAGE, FROM THE ORIGINAL PORTRAIT IN DULWICH +COLLEGE (_see page 201_).] + +"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." + +In earlier days Blackfriars had been a locality much inhabited by +fashionable people, especially about the time of Queen Elizabeth. +Pennant quotes from the _Sydney Papers_ a curious account 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. + +"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 _lectica_ 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 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? "_Affection_," she +said. "_Affection!_" said the queen; "_affection_ 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." + +[Illustration: LAYING THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE, 1760, +FROM A CONTEMPORARY PRINT (_see page 206_).] + +Old Blackfriars Bridge, pulled down a few years since, was begun in +1760, and first opened on 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 +_protege_ of Lord Bute's), and Dr. Johnson's friend, Gwynn, well known +for his admirable work on London improvements. 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 _Gazetteer_, 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 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." + +In the face of this noisy newspaper thunder, Mylne went on, and produced +one of the most beautiful bridges in England for L152,640 3s. 10d., +actually L163 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 L500 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. + +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:-- + + On the last day of October, in the year 1760, + And in the beginning of the most auspicious reign of + GEORGE the Third, + Sir THOMAS CHITTY, Knight, Lord Mayor, + laid the first stone of this Bridge, + undertaken by the Common Council of London + (amidst the rage of an extensive war) + for the public accommodation + and ornament of the City; + ROBERT MYLNE being the architect. + And that there might remain to posterity + a monument of this city's affection to the man + who, by the strength of his genius, + the steadiness of his mind, + and a certain kind of happy contagion of his + Probity and Spirit + (under the Divine favour + and fortunate auspices of GEORGE the Second) + recovered, augmented, and secured + the British Empire + in Asia, Africa, and America, + and restored the ancient reputation + and influence of his country + amongst the nations of Europe; + the citizens of London have unanimously voted this + Bridge to be inscribed with the name of + WILLIAM PITT. + +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 Fossae." Lastly, he proposed, for a more +curt and suitable inscription, the simple words-- + + "GUIL. FOSSAE, + Patri Patriae D.D.D. (_i.e._, Datur, Dicatur, Dedicatur)." + +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:-- + + "What of that bridge which, void of sense, + But well supplied with impudence, + Englishmen, knowing not the Guild, + Thought they might have the claim to build; + Till Paterson, as white as milk, + As smooth as oil, as soft as silk, + In solemn manner had decreed + That, on the other side the Tweed, + Art, born and bred and fully grown, + Was with one Mylne, a man unknown? + But grace, preferment, and renown + Deserving, just arrived in town; + One Mylne, an artist, perfect quite, + Both in his own and country's right, + As fit to make a bridge as he, + With glorious Patavinity, + To build inscriptions, worthy found + To lie for ever underground." + +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. + +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. + +The L152,640 that the bridge cost does not include the L5,830 spent in +altering and filling up the Fleet Ditch, or the L2,167 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. + +The Bridge repairs (between 1833 and 1840), by Walker and Burgess, +engineers, at an expense of L74,000, 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 L100,960 had been already +expended in repairing Mylne's faulty work, besides the L800 spent in +procuring a local Act (4 William IV.). According to a subsequent report, +L10,200 had been spent in six years in repairing one arch alone. From +1851 to 1859 the expenditure had been at the rate of L600 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. + +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. + +According to a report printed in the _Times_, 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. + +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 handsomest 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, L265,000. +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. + +The _Quarterly Review_, 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, _apropos_ of +nothing, a well-known evidence of desperate imbecility." + +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 _Monthly Review_ (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 _Leicester Herald_), 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 _Messenger_. In 1795 +this restless and energetic man commenced the _Monthly Magazine_. Before +this he had already been a hosier, a tutor, and a speculator in canals. +The politico-literary magazine 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 _Athenaeum_. The +_Gentleman's Magazine_ 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. + +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 L2,000. 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 _Times_ +printing-office now stands, to diffuse its ceaseless floods of +knowledge, to spread its resistless aegis 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. + +[Illustration: PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE AND THE "TIMES" OFFICE (_see page +209_).] + +This great paper was started in the year 1785, by Mr. John Walter, under +the name of the _Daily Universal Register_. It was first called the +_Times_, January 1, 1788, when the following prospectus appeared:-- + +"The _Universal Register_ 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 _Universal Register_, from the day of its first +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 _Register_.' 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 _Register_, upon which the +waiter tells him he cannot have it, as he is not a subscriber, or +presents him with the _Court and City Register_, the _Old Annual +Register_, or the _New Annual Register_, or, if the house be within the +purlieus of Covent Garden or the hundreds of Drury, slips into the +politician's hand _Harris's Register of Ladies_. + +"For these and other reasons the printer of the _Universal Register_ has +added to its original name that of the _Times_, which, being a +monosyllable, bids defiance to the corruptions and mutilations of the +language. + +[Illustration: BLACKFRIARS OLD BRIDGE DURING ITS CONSTRUCTION, SHOWING +THE TEMPORARY FOOT BRIDGE, FROM A PRINT OF 1775 (_see page 207_).] + +"The _Times!_ 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 transitions in life, +assumes innumerable shapes and humours. + +"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. + +"The _Times_, 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 _literati_. + +"The heads of the _Times_, 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. + +"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. + +"The political head of the _Times_--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. + +"The alteration we have made in our paper is not without precedents. The +_World_ has parted with half its _caput mortuum_ and a moiety of its +brains; the _Herald_ has cutoff one half of its head and has lost its +original humour; the _Post_, 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. + +"On the Parliamentary head, every communication that ability and +industry can produce may be expected. To this great national object the +_Times_ will be most sedulously attentive, most accurately correct, and +strictly impartial in its reports." + +Both the _Times_ 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 hundredweight, in separate +pounds, of _heat_, _cold_, _wet_, _dry_, _murder_, _fire_, _dreadful +robbery_, _atrocious outrage_, _fearful calamity_, and _alarming +explosion_." But nothing could daunt or stop Walter. One eccentricity of +the _Daily Register_ 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-- + + "Princess of Brunswick born. + Holiday at the Bank, Excise offices, and the Exchequer." + +The first number of the _Times_ is not so large as the _Morning Herald_ +or _Morning Chronicle_ of the same date, but larger than the _London +Chronicle_, and of the same size as the _Public Advertiser_. (Knight +Hunt.) + +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 _Times_; 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 _Times_. 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. + +There were no reviews of books in the _Times_ 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 _Times_ 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 _Times_ 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 _Times_. The +pressmen threatened destruction to the new machine, and it 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. Koenig and Barnes put their machinery +in premises adjoining the _Times_ 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 _Times_ 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 Koenig'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 _Times_, +according to general report, not less than L80,000. + +About 1813 Dr. Stoddart, the brother-in-law of Hazlitt (afterwards Sir +John Stoddart, a judge in Malta), edited the _Times_ 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 _Times_ 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 _Times_ about 1815, and, it is said, eventually received L2,000 +a year as a writer of dashing and effective leaders. Lord Brougham +also, it is said, wrote occasional articles. Tom Moore was even offered +L100 a month if he would contribute, and Southey declined an offer of +L2,000 a year for editing the _Times_. Macaulay in his day wrote many +brilliant squibs in the _Times_; amongst them one containing the line: + + "Ye diners out, from whom we guard our spoons," + +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 _Times_ forward by his admirable +Parliamentary summaries, the first the _Times_ 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. + +One of the longest wars the _Times_ 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 _Weekly Dispatch_, 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 _Times_ upon this wrote twelve powerful leaders against Harmer, +which at once decided the question. This was a great assertion of power, +and raised the _Times_ in the estimation of all England. For these +twelve articles, originally intended for letters, the writer (says Mr. +Grant) received L200. 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 L10,700 of the million for which they had planned. At the risk of +assassination, O'Reilly exposed the scheme in the _Times_, dating the +_expose_ Brussels, in order to throw the swindlers on the wrong scent. + +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 _Times_ 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 _Times_ on the commercial world. + +The proprietors of the _Times_ declining to receive the L2,625 +subscribed by the London merchants 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 _Times_ printing-office. + +At various periods the _Times_ 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 _Times_, 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 +_Times_. In 1831 Sir R.H. Inglis complained that the _Times_ 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 _Times_, was examined +and worried by the House; and Lord Wynford moved that Mr. Lawson, as +printer of a scandalous libel, should be fined L100, 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. + +In 1833 O'Connell attributed dishonest motives to the London reporter +who had suppressed his speeches, and the reporters in the _Times_ +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 +_Times_ be summoned to the bar for printing their resolution, but his +motion was rejected. In 1838 Mr. Lawson was fined L200 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 _Times_, and advised every one who was attacked in that +paper to horsewhip the editor. + +In January, 1829, the _Times_ came out with a double sheet, consisting +of eight pages, or forty-eight columns. In 1830 it paid L70,000 +advertisement duty. In 1800 its sale had been below that of the _Morning +Chronicle_, _Post_, _Herald_, and _Advertiser_. + +The _Times_, according to Mr. Grant, in one day of 1870, received no +less than L1,500 for advertisements. On June 22, 1862, it produced a +paper containing no less than twenty-four pages, or 144 columns. In 1854 +the _Times_ 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 _Times_ from advertisements alone has been calculated +at L260,000. A writer in a Philadelphia paper of 1867 estimates the +paper consumed weekly by the _Times_ 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 _Times_ 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. + +The number of persons engaged in daily working for the _Times_ is put at +nearly 350. + +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 L200 +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 L3,000 a week for railway +advertisements, they warned the country unceasingly of the misery and +ruin that must inevitably follow. The _Times_ proprietors are known to +pay the highest sums for articles, and to be uniformly generous in +pensioning men who have spent their lives in its service. + +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 _Times'_ 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 _Morning Herald_ was at first forty-eight hours before the _Times_, +but after that the _Times_ got a fortnight ahead; and although the +Trieste route was abandoned, the _Times_, eventually, was left alone as +a troublesome and invincible adversary. + +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. + +Garth, in his "Dispensary," describes, in the Hogarthian manner, the +topographical position of Apothecaries' Hall:-- + + "Nigh where Fleet Ditch descends in sable streams, + To wash the sooty Naiads in the Thames, + There stands a structure on a rising hill, + Where tyros take their freedom out to kill." + +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 +mechanics and empirics. Dryden first let fly his mighty shaft:-- + + "The apothecary tribe is wholly blind; + From files a random recipe they take, + And many deaths from one prescription make. + Garth, generous as his muse, prescribes and gives; + The shopman sells, and by destruction lives." + +Pope followed with a smaller but keener arrow:-- + + "So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art + By doctors' bills to play the doctor's part, + Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, + Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools." + +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 +at such rates as the committee of physicians should think reasonable." + +[Illustration: THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, WARWICK LANE (_see page +216_).] + +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 preparing and delivering medicines at their +intrinsic value." + +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 +_dealers_, could have realised 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. + +[Illustration: OUTER COURT OF LA BELLE SAUVAGE IN 1828, FROM AN ORIGINAL +DRAWING IN MR. GARDNER'S COLLECTION (_see page 221_).] + +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 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 ridicule. 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. + +In his elaborate poem Garth cruelly caricatures the apothecaries of his +day:-- + + "Long has he been of that amphibious fry, + Bold to prescribe, and busy to apply; + His shop the gazing vulgar's eyes employs, + With foreign trinkets and domestic toys. + Here mummies lay, most reverently stale, + And there the tortoise hung her coat of mail; + Not far from some huge shark's devouring head + The flying-fish their finny pinions spread. + Aloft in rows large poppy-heads were strung, + And near, a scaly alligator hung. + In this place drugs in musty heaps decay'd, + In that dried bladders and false teeth were laid. + + "An inner room receives the num'rous shoals + Of such as pay to be reputed fools; + Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie, + And planetary schemes amuse the eye. + The sage in velvet chair here lolls at ease, + To promise future health for present fees; + Then, as from tripod, solemn shams reveals, + And what the stars know nothing of foretells. + Our manufactures now they merely sell, + And their true value treacherously tell; + Nay, they discover, too, their spite is such, + That health, than crowns more valued, cost not much; + Whilst we must steer our conduct by these rules, + To cheat as tradesmen, or to starve as fools." + +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. + +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. + +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. 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 L1,000 to the Stationers' +Company, which his son Andrew augmented with L2,000 more. This son died +in 1831, aged eighty-three. + +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 _circa_ 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 L490, of which Gibbon +received L326 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. + +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 L100, 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. + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +LUDGATE HILL. + + 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. + + +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 _Times_ printing office--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. + +The enormous sum of upwards of L10,000 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. + +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 landlady, or the sign of the bell +and savage; or whether it was, as the _Spectator_ 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. + +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 _chef d'oeuvre_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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? + +[Illustration: THE INNER COURT OF THE BELLE SAUVAGE. FROM AN ORIGINAL +DRAWING IN MR. CRACE'S COLLECTION.] + +[Illustration: THE MUTILATED STATUES FROM LUD GATE, 1798 (_see page +226_).] + +At No. 7, opposite Hone's, "The Percy Anecdotes," that well-chosen and +fortunate selection of every sort of story, were first published. + +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 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. + +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, permitting 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." + +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." + +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. + +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 L1,500. + +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 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:-- + + "Devout souls that pass this way, + For Stephen Forster, late Lord Mayor, heartily pray, + And Dame Agnes, his spouse, to God consecrate, + That of pity this house made for Londoners in Lud Gate; + So that for lodging and water prisoners here nought pay, + As their keepers shall all answer at dreadful doomsday." + +This legend of Lud Gate is also the foundation of Rowley's comedy of _A +Woman Never Vext; or, The Widow of Cornhill_, which has in our times +been revived, with alterations, by Mr. Planche. In the first scene of +the fifth act occurs the following passage:-- + + "_Mrs. S. Forster._ But why remove the prisoners from Ludgate? + + "_Stephen Forster._ To take the prison down and build it new, + With leads to walk on, chambers large and fair; + For when myself lay there the noxious air + Choked up my spirits. None but captives, wife, + Can know what captives feel." + +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. + +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 L10,000, compounded for at +L2,000, 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 _sceleratorum carcer, sed miserorum custodia_ (not a +dungeon for the wicked, but a place of detention for the wretched). + +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 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. + +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." + +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:-- + + "ON PATIENCE. + + "Patience is the poor man's walk, + Patience is the dumb man's talk, + Patience is the lame man's thighs, + Patience is the blind man's eyes, + Patience is the poor man's ditty, + Patience is the exil'd man's city, + Patience is the sick man's bed of down, + Patience is the wise man's crown, + Patience is the live man's story, + Patience is the dead man's glory. + + "When your troubles do controul, + In Patience then possess your soul." + +In the _Spectator_ (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." + +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 L148. 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. + +[Illustration: OLD LUD GATE, FROM A PRINT PUBLISHED ABOUT 1750. (_see +page 223_).] + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +St. Martin's, Ludgate, though one of Wren's 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:-- + + "A chirch of Sent Martyn livying he let rere, + In whyche yet man should Goddy's seruys do, + And singe for his soule, and al Christine also." + +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:-- + + Earth goes to } { As mold to mold, + Earth treads on } Earth, { Glittering in gold, + Earth as to } { Return nere should, + Earth shall to } { Goe ere he would. + + Earth upon } { Consider may, + Earth goes to } Earth, { Naked away, + Earth though on } { Be stout and gay, + Earth shall from } { Passe poore away. + +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 L5,378 18s. 8d. + +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-- + + "Tripson anomeema me monan opsin." + (Cleanse thy sins, not merely thy outward self.) + +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 seat (date 1690) and several +chests, covered with curious indented ornaments. + +On this church, and other satellites of St. Paul's, a poet has written-- + + "So, like a bishop upon dainties fed, + St. Paul's lifts up his sacerdotal head; + While his lean curates, slim and lank to view, + Around him point their steeples to the blue." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF THE BARBICAN ON LUDGATE HILL (_see page 226_).] + +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 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 L38,000. 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 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. + +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 _chef d'oeuvre_, 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 L7,000 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 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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF STATIONERS' HALL (_see page 230_).] + +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 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 L200,000. + +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. + +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. + +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 L40,000, divided into shares, varying in value +from L40 to L400 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. + +The celebrated Bible of the year 1632, with the important word "not" +omitted in the seventh commandment--"Thou shalt _not_ 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 +L3,000. Several other errors have occurred, but the wonder is that they +have not been more frequent. + +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 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 L40,000, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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:-- + + "From harmony, from heavenly harmony, + This universal frame began; + From harmony to harmony, + Through all the compass of the notes it ran, + The diapason closing full in man." + +Of the composition of this ode, for which Dryden received L40, and which +was afterwards eclipsed by the glories of its successor, the following +interesting anecdote is told:-- + +"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." + +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:-- + + "Let old Timotheus yield the prize, + Or both divide the crown; + He raised a mortal to the skies, + She drew an angel down." + +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." + +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. + +The funeral feast of Thomas Sutton, of the Charterhouse, was given May +28th, 1612, in Stationers' Hall, the procession having started 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 possession 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. + +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. + +The Stationers are very charitable. Their funds spring chiefly from +L1,150 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 L1,000 was left for 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 L8,500 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 +L2. The school has four exhibitions. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 L37 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. + +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 mediaeval 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. + +[Illustration: OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +ST. PAUL'S. + + 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. + + +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 _chef-d'oeuvre_ of a great genius, +rises 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: OLD ST. PAUL'S.--THE INTERIOR, LOOKING EAST.] + +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 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. + +Sir Christopher Wren's excavations for the foundation of modern St. +Paul's entirely refuted these confused stories, to which the learned +and 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 mediaeval 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. + +There had evidently been a Roman cemetery outside this Praetorian 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +Barkham, caused these quaint lines to be carved on the bishop's tomb:-- + + "Walkers, whosoe'er ye bee, + If it prove you chance to see, + Upon a solemn scarlet day, + The City senate pass this way, + Their grateful memory for to show, + Which they the reverent ashes owe + Of Bishop Norman here inhumed, + By whom this city has assumed + Large privileges; those obtained + By him when Conqueror William reigned. + This being by Barkham's thankful mind renewed, + Call it the monument of gratitude." + +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. + +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. + +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 Bishop of London should live like a poor man, that was +magnificent." + +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. + +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. + +The reign of Richard I. was an eventful one to St. Paul's. In 1191, when +Coeur 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +L3,000, and this sum (says Milman) must be multiplied by about fifteen +to bring it to its present value. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +But here we stop awhile in our history of St. Paul's, on the eve of the +sanguinary wars of the Roses, to describe mediaeval 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 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 L9,000. 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 a 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. + +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." + +Henry VI.'s first peaceful visit to St. Paul's is quaintly sketched by +that dull old poet, Lydgate, who describes "the bishops _in +pontificalibus_, the Dean of Paules and canons, every one who conveyed +the king" + + "Up into the church, with full devout singing; + And when he had made his offering, + The mayor, the citizens, bowed and left him." + +While all the dark troubles still were pending, we find the Duke of York +taking a solemn oath 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:-- + + "At Paul's in London, with great renown, + On Lady Day in Lent, this peace was wrought; + The King, the Queen, with lords many an one, + To worship the Virgin as they ought, + Went in procession, and spared right nought + In sight of all the commonalty; + In token this love was in heart and thought, + Rejoice England in concord and unity." + +[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. FAITH, THE CRYPT OF OLD ST. PAUL'S, +FROM A VIEW BY HOLLAR.] + +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, knelt before the primate, and swore allegiance to the +king; and the duke's two sons, March and Rutland, took the same oath. + +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. + +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 +Crookback, 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. + +[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S AFTER THE FALL OF THE SPIRE, FROM A VIEW BY +HOLLAR (_see page 244_).] + +Richard's crown was presently beaten into a hawthorn bush on Bosworth +Field, and his defaced, 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. + +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. + +A Venetian ambassador who was present has 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. + +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 L1,500 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. + +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, 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. + +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:-- + + "Gentle Paul, lay down thy sword, + For Peter of Westminster hath shaven thy beard." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 praemunire had been incurred, had demanded from it the +alarming fine of L100,000. 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. + +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. + +In the reign of Edward VI. St. Paul's witnessed far different scenes. +The year of the accession of 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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 +L1,410. 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. + +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 _Every Man in his Humour_ 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 + + "The walk, + Where all our British sinners swear and talk, + Old hardy ruffians, bankrupts, soothsayers, + And youths whose cousenage is old as theirs." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +The "children of Paul's," whom Shakespeare, in _Hamlet_, 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 have +acted some of Lily's Euphuistic plays, and one of Middleton's. + +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. + +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. + +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 _protege_, whom James had brought from +Denmark, being one of the commissioners. The sum required was estimated +at L22,536. 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. + +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 L1,200. 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 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. + +[Illustration: THE CHAPTER HOUSE OF OLD ST. PAUL'S, FROM A VIEW BY +HOLLAR (_see page 243_).] + +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 L10,000 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, 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." + +The Parliament made short work with St. Paul's, of Laud's projects, and +Inigo Jones's classicalisms. They at once seized the L17,000 or so left +of the subscription. To Colonel Jephson's regiment, in arrears for pay, +L1,746, 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 +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. + +[Illustration: DR. BOURNE PREACHING AT PAUL'S CROSS (_see page 243_).] + +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. + +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 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. + +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, + + "Philip and Francis they have no tomb, + For great Christopher takes all the room." + +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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ST. PAUL'S (_continued_). + + 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. + + +Towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, Charles II., generous as +usual in promises, offered an annual contribution of L1,000; 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 L1,700 in fines, however, were set apart for +the new building. The Primate Sheldon gave L2,000. 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. + +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. + +The first stone was laid by Wren on the 21st 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L2,500; the committee were for copper, at L3,050. +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. + +The new organ, by Father Bernard Smith, which cost L2,000, was shorn of +its full size by Wren, perhaps in vexation at its misplacement. The +paltry statue of Queen Anne, in the churchyard, was by Bird, and cost +L1,130, exclusive of the marble, which the Queen provided. The carvings +in the choir, by Grinling Gibbons, cost L1,337 7s. 5d. On some of the +exterior sculpture Cibber worked. + +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." + +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 +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of his genius. Steele, in the _Tatler_, refers to Wren's +vexations, and attributes them to his modesty and bashfulness. + +The total sum expended on the building of St. Paul's Cathedral, +according to Dean Milman, was L736,752 2s. 3-1/4d.; a small residue from +the coal duty was all that was left for future repairs. To this Dean +Clark added about L500, 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L6,000 for his cold and clumsy design; 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. + +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 + + "Full many a fathom deep, + By thy wild and stormy steep, + Elsinore." + +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 _L'Orient_--a vessel blown up at +the battle of the Nile, and presented to Nelson by his friend, the +captain of the _Swiftsure_. 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 Lyons is +the last admiral whose monument has been erected in St. Paul's. + +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. + +[Illustration: THE REBUILDING OF ST. PAUL'S. FROM AN ORIGINAL DRAWING IN +THE POSSESSION OF J.G. CRACE, ESQ.] + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE CHOIR OF ST. PAUL'S BEFORE THE REMOVAL OF THE SCREEN, +_from an engraving published in 1754_.] + +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 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 monument in such a place, is the historian Hallam, a calm, +sometimes cold, but always impartial writer. + +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 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. + +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 L2,000, 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. + +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 +_grisailles_; and above all, stained-glass windows were pronounced +indispensable. + +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. + +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. + +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. James. Over +the southern portico is sculptured the Phoenix; 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The following was, if possible, an even narrower escape:--When Sir James +Thornhill was painting 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 +page 258, were raised round the cross, and in three months some four +thousand observations were made for a new trigonometrical survey of +London. + +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. + +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 L300, 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. + +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 Westminster +Hall. It was given away in 1698 by William III., and bought for St. +Paul's for L385 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 "Cyclopaedia of Medicine," +gives the following remarkable case of ecstasis:-- + +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 _verbatim_ as follows:--One +afternoon in the month of May, feeling himself a little unsettled, and +not inclined to business, he 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, 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; 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 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.'" + +[Illustration: THE SCAFFOLDING AND OBSERVATORY ON ST. PAUL'S IN 1848 +(_see page 256_).] + +[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN 1540. + +_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._] + +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. + +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 L430 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Mr. Cockerell, the architect, and superintendent of St. Paul's +Cathedral, in a letter printed in Lady Holland's "Memoir," describes the +_gesta_ 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." + +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. 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. + +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. + +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." + +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.:-- + + "First salutes the place, + Crowned with that sacred pile, so vast, so high, + That whether 'tis a part of earth or sky + Uncertain seems, and may be thought a proud + Aspiring mountain or descending cloud. + Paul's, the late theme of such a muse, whose flight + Has bravely reached and soared above thy height, + Now shalt thou stand, though sword, or time, or fire, + Or zeal more fierce than they, thy fall conspire; + Secure, while thee the best of poets sings, + Preserved from ruin by the best of kings." + +Byron, in the Tenth Canto of "Don Juan," treats St. Paul's +contemptuously--sneering, as was his affectation, at everything, human +or divine:-- + + "A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping, + Dirty and dusky, but as wide as eye + Could reach, with here and there a sail just skipping + In sight, then lost amidst the forestry + Of masts; a wilderness of steeples peeping + On tiptoe through their sea-coal canopy; + A huge, dim cupola, like a foolscap crown + On a fool's head--and there is London Town!" + +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:-- + + "The man that pays his pence and goes + Up to thy lofty cross, St. Paul's, + Looks over London's naked nose, + Women and men; + The world is all beneath his ken; + He sits above the ball, + He seems on Mount Olympus' top, + Among the gods, by Jupiter! and lets drop + His eyes from the empyreal clouds + On mortal crowds. + + "Seen from these skies, + How small those emmets in our eyes! + Some carry little sticks, and one + His eggs, to warm them in the sun; + Dear, what a hustle + And bustle! + And there's my aunt! I know her by her waist, + So long and thin, + And so pinch'd in, + Just in the pismire taste. + + "Oh, what are men! Beings so small + That, should I fall, + Upon their little heads, I must + Crush them by hundreds into dust. + + "And what is life and all its ages! + There's seven stages! + Turnham Green! Chelsea! Putney! Fulham! + Brentford and Kew! + And Tooting, too! + And, oh, what very little nags to pull 'em! + Yet each would seem a horse indeed, + If here at Paul's tip-top we'd got 'em! + Although, like Cinderella's breed, + They're mice at bottom. + Then let me not despise a horse, + Though he looks small from Paul's high cross; + Since he would be, as near the sky, + Fourteen hands high. + + "What is this world with London in its lap? + Mogg's map. + The Thames that ebbs and flows in its broad channel? + A _tidy_ kennel! + The bridges stretching from its banks? + Stone planks. + Oh, me! Hence could I read an admonition + To mad Ambition! + But that he would not listen to my call, + Though I should stand upon the cross, and _ball_!" + +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 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. + +Blake's poem begins-- + + "'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean, + Came children walking two and two, in red and blue and green; + Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow, + Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames' waters flow. + + "Oh, what a multitude they seemed, those flowers of London town; + Seated in companies they were, with radiance all their own; + The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs, + Thousands of little boys and girls, raising their innocent hands. + + "Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song, + Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among; + Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor; + Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door." + +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-- + + "He thought not of a perishable home + Who thus could build." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. + + 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. + + +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 _Merry Wives of Windsor_; +at the "Green Dragon," in the same locality, the _Merchant of Venice_; +at the "Fox," _Richard II._; at the "Angel," _Richard III._; at the +"Gun," _Titus Andronicus_; and at the "Red Bull," that masterpiece, +_King Lear_. 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 Falstaff's perils, and here have walked +with the ripened certainty of greatness and of fame stirring at his +heart. + +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-- + + "With her face to the brandy-shop and her back to the church." + +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 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. + +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 L11,202 0s. 6d. + +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. + +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 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 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 confessing 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." + +[Illustration: THE LIBRARY OF ST. PAUL'S (_see page 256_).] + +Then, turning his discourse again to the people, at the instance of the +Recorder, he proceeded to 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." + +[Illustration: "THE FACE IN THE STRAW."--FROM ABBOT'S "ANTHOLOGIA," +1613 (_see page 266_).] + +Having thus spoken, he raised his hands, and made the sign of the cross +upon his forehead and breast, saying, "_In nomine Patris, Filii, et +Spiritus Sancti! Jesus Maria! Maria, mater gratiae! Mater misericordiae! +Tu me ab hoste protege, et hora mortis suscipe!_" Then he said, "_In +manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum, quia tu redemisti me, +Domine, Deus veritatis!_" Then, again crossing himself, he said, "_Per +crucis hoc signum fugiat procul omne malignum! Infige crucem tuam, +Domine, in corde meo;_" and again, "_Jesus Maria! Maria, mater gratiae!_" +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. + +The "face in the straw" was a miracle said to be performed at Garnet's +death. + +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 Endaemon-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 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. + +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 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 _Public +Ledger_ (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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Spectator_, 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 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.'" + +"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. + +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 _St. James's Chronicle_, the most popular +evening paper of the day. + +"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 L90,000 in one line, besides an +estate of near L300 a year." + +"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 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." + +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 "_manured_" 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." + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 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 _Edinburgh Review_ 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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 the 'Harmonia Sacra;' 'Bow down thine +ear,' and 'Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.' + +"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.'" + +"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." + +"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:-- + + "'You scrapers that want a good fiddle well strung, + You must go to the man that is old while he's young; + But if this same fiddle you fain would play bold, + You must go to his son, who'll be young when he's old. + There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown, + Old sells and young plays the best fiddle in town. + Young and old live together, and may they live long, + Young to play an old fiddle, old to sell a new song.' + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF FATHER GARNET (_see page 265_.]) + +"This young man, Talbot Young, together with 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. + +[Illustration: OLD ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL (_see page 272_).] + +"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. + +"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 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." + +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."--_Domestic Intelligence_, 1681. + +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. + +"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, _pro tem._, 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 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 _Tatler_ 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. + +"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, +_alias_ 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, _alias_ Farges, gent., and sworn servant to his Majesty; +to be seen at the place called the Music-house, _at the Mitre_, 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.'" + +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 L4,500, and was endowed with lands in Buckinghamshire +estimated by Stow, in 1598, as of the yearly value of L120 or better, +and now worth L12,000, with a certainty of rising. + +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 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." + +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." + +"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." + +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. + +The school thus described shared in the Great Fire of 1666, and was +rebuilt by the Mercers' 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +In 1602 the masters' stipends were enlarged, and the surplus money set +apart for college exhibitions. The head master receives L900 a year, the +second master L400. 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:-- + +"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 Leland, the celebrated +archaeologist; 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 Andre; 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +PATERNOSTER ROW. + + 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. + + +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 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. + +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 +(_circa_ 1724) the business of Mr. Taylor, the publisher of "Robinson +Crusoe," for L2,282 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 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. + +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 +L100,000. 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. + +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' "Cyclopaedia," reconstructed from the old Chambers', +and about the same time the _Annual Review_, 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. + +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 L3,000 for it. + +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 _Edinburgh Review_, 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 "Cyclopaedia," contributed to by +Scott, Tom Moore, Mackintosh, &c, and which ended in 1846 with the +133rd volume. In 1860 Mr. Thomas Longman became a partner. + +Thomas Norton Longman, says a writer in the _Critic_, resided for many +years at Mount Grove, Hampstead, where he entertained many wits and +scholars. He died there in 1842, leaving L200,000 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. + +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 _The +London Packet_, 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 _Packet_, 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 L50 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." + +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 _All's Well that Ends Well_, "When that I was a +little tiny boy"--were expressly written for Tarleton, and were danced +by that comedian to the tune 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:"-- + +"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." + +[Illustration: RICHARD TARLETON, THE ACTOR (_copied from an old wood +engraving_) [_see page 275_].] + +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:-- + +"There were ordinaries of all ranks, the _table-d'hote_ 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 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. + +"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." + +"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, _published_ their +clothes, and talked 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. + +[Illustration: DOLLY'S COFFEE-HOUSE (_see page 278_).] + +"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' 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. + +"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 hobby horses, and some rode off to the play, others +to the river-stairs to take a pair of oars to the Surrey side." + +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. + +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 _cafe_, 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. + +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 +_Connoisseur_, Jan., 1754, says:--"The conversation here naturally turns +upon the newest publications, but their criticisms are somewhat +singular. When they say a _good_ 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." + +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." + +Perhaps that very day Chatterton came, half 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. + +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. + +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 _bon vivant_. If any one began to +complain, or appear hypochondriacal, he used to say-- + +"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." + +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. 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. + +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 _Monthly +Magazine_, 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 succeeded +each other regularly, like the figures in a magic lantern. + +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 _habitues_ were the two Parrys, of the _Courier_ and _Jacobite_ +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. + +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 _haut ton_. He ran up a score of L40, 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. + +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 +_congeries_. The "Conger" met at the "Chapter." + +The "Chapter" closed as a coffee-house in 1854, and was altered into a +tavern. + +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 L180 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. + +"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." + +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 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. + + 'When you have sought the city round, + Yet still this is the highest ground. + August 27, 1688.' + +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." + +At the end of a somewhat long Latin epitaph to Marcus Erington in this +church occurred the following lines:-- + + "Vita bonos, sed poena malos, aeterna capessit, + Vitae bonis, sed poena malis, per secula crescit. + His mors, his vita, perpetuatur ita." + +John Bankes, mercer and squire, who was interred here, had a long +epitaph, adorned with the following verses:-- + + "Imbalmed in pious arts, wrapt in a shroud + Of white, innocuous charity, who vowed, + Having enough, the world should understand + No need of money might escape his hand; + Bankes here is laid asleepe--this place did breed him-- + A precedent to all that shall succeed him. + Note both his life and immitable end; + Not he th' unrighteous mammon made his friend; + Expressing by his talents' rich increase + Service that gain'd him praise and lasting peace. + Much was to him committed, much he gave, + Ent'ring his treasure there whence all shall have + Returne with use: what to the poore is given + Claims a just promise of reward in heaven. + Even such a banke _Bankes_ left behind at last, + Riches stor'd up, which age nor time can waste." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +BAYNARD'S CASTLE, DOCTORS' COMMONS, AND HERALDS' COLLEGE. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 Coeur +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-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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE FIGURE IN PANIER ALLEY (_see page 280_).] + +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:-- + +"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." + +[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL AD BLADUM (_see page 280_).] + +The record goes on to say that when Robert is mounted on his L20 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 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 of the mayor or sheriff, was to be tried in the court of the said +Robert. + +"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 stayeth, he ought to give them to the town bailiff, +or to whom he will, by the counsel of the mayor." + +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 L20, 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. + +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. + +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 _Te Deum_, and was then conveyed in state to Westminster, and there, +in the Hall, invested with the sceptre by the confessor. + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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:-- + +"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. + +"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. + +"The courts belonging to the civil and ecclesiastical laws are divers. + +"First, the Court of _Arches_, 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 _The Arches_, 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 _The Dean of the +Arches_, 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. + +"Secondly, the Court of _Audience_. 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 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 '_Causarum_, negotiorumque +Cantuarien, auditor officialis.' It had also other officers, as the +other courts. + +"Thirdly, the next court for civil causes belonging to the Archbishop is +the _Prerogative_ 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 L5 out of the +diocese, and being of the diocese of London, to the value of L10. If any +contention grow, touching any such wills or administrations, the causes +are debated and decided in this court. + +"Fourthly, the Court of _Faculties and Dispensations_, 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. + +"Fifthly, the Court of _Admiralty_, 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. + +"To these I will add the Court of _Delegates_; 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 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. + +"Lastly, sometimes a Commission of _Review_ 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." + +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. + +The following, says Mr. Forster, are some of the benefits resulting from +the reform of the Ecclesiastical Courts:-- + + That reform has reduced the depositaries for wills in this country + from nearly 400 to 40. + + It has brought complicated testamentary proceedings into a system + governed by one vigilant court. + + It has relieved the public anxiety respecting "the doom of English + wills" by placing them in the custody of responsible men. + + It has thrown open the courts of law to the entire legal profession. + + It has given the public the right to prove wills or obtain letters + of administration without professional assistance. + + It has given to literary men an interesting field for research. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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." + + It has enabled the humblest wife to obtain a "protection order" for + her property against an unprincipled husband. + + 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. + + 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. + +Sir Cresswell Cresswell was appointed Judge of the Probate Court at its +commencement. He was likewise the first Judge of the Divorce Court. + +The College property--the freehold portion, subject to a yearly +rent-charge of L105, and to an 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. + +Chaucer, in his "Canterbury Tales," gives an unfavourable picture of the +old sompnour (or apparitor to the Ecclesiastical Court):-- + + "A sompnour was ther with us in that place, + Thad hadde a fire-red cherubimes face; + For sausefleme he was, with eyen narwe. + As hote he was, and likerous as a sparwe, + With scalled browes blake, and pilled berd; + Of his visage children were sore aferd. + Ther n'as quiksilver, litarge, ne brimston, + Boras, ceruse, ne oile of Tartre non, + Ne oinement that wolde clense or bite, + That him might helpen of his whelkes white, + Ne of the nobbes sitting on his chekes. + Wel loved he garlike, onions, and lekes, + And for to drinke strong win as rede as blood. + Than wold he speke, and crie as he were wood. + And when that he wel dronken had the win, + Than wold he speken no word but Latin. + A fewe termes coude he, two or three, + That he had lerned out of some decree; + No wonder is, he herd it all the day. + And eke ye knowen wel, how that a jay + Can clepen watte, as well as can the pope. + But who so wolde in other thing him grope, + Than hadde he spent all his philosophie, + Ay, _Questio quid juris_ wold he crie." + +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." + +"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." + +A writer in Knight's "London" (1843) gives a 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 +instituted 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 L700. 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. + +[Illustration: THE PREROGATIVE OFFICE, DOCTORS' COMMONS.] + +As the law once stood, says a writer in Knight's "London," if a person +died possessed of property 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 L5 (except in the diocese of London, +where the amount is L10)--in legal parlance, _bona notabilia_--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 succession +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 30,000. In the same year extracts were +taken from wills in 6,414 cases. + +[Illustration: ST. PAUL'S AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. (_From Aggas' Plan, +1563._)] + +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. + +The great Admiralty judge of the early part of this century was Dr. +Johnson's friend, Lord Stowell, the brother of Lord Eldon. + +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 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 +L1,000 a case for fees and perquisites in a prize cause. He left at his +death personal property exceeding L200,000. 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." + +"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." + +"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.' + +"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." + +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.'" + +"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 agitated, and in an angry tone exclaimed, 'Why +will you vex me by suggesting this when it is too late?'" + +The strange marriage of Lord Stowell and the Marchioness of Sligo has +been excellently described by Mr. Jeaffreson in his "Book of Lawyers." + +"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 _cause +celebre_, 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 L5,000, 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 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." + +"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; +'_now_ you knock up.'" + +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! + +"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 performed 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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +Of Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, one of the great ecclesiastical judges of +modern times, Mr. Jeaffreson tells a good story:-- + +"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 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." + +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 _Daily News_, "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." + +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? + +"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." + +"Touts for licences!" said the gentleman. + +"Touts for licences," replied Sam. "Two coves in white aprons, touches +their hats when you walk in--'Licence, sir, licence?' Queer sort them, +and their mas'rs, too, sir--Old Bailey proctors--and no mistake." + +"What do they do?" inquired the gentleman. + +"Do! _you_, 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, +_he_ 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 _did_ have him, and what's more she's got him now; and _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." + +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:-- + +"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, 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 _Henry and Betsy_ would bring its action for salvage against +the schooner _Mary Jane_; 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 poenam,' +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." + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: HERALDS' COLLEGE. (_From an old Print._)] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HERALDS' COLLEGE. + + 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. + + +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 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." + +[Illustration: THE LAST HERALDIC COURT. (_From an Old Picture in the +Heralds' College; the Figures by Rowlandson, Architecture by Wash._)] + +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 L5,000, +but the City being drained of money, it was attempted to raise the money +by subscription; only L700 was so raised, the rest was paid from office +fees, Sir William Dugdale building the north-west corner at his own +charge, and Sir Henry St. George, Clarencieux, giving L530. 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. + +"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:-- + + _Kings at Arms._ + Garter. + Clarencieux. + Norroy. + + _Heralds._ + Somerset. + Richmond. + Lancaster. + Windsor. + Chester. + York. + + _Pursuivants._ + Rouge Dragon. + Blue Mantle. + Portcullis. + Rouge Croix. + +"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. + +"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 _insignia_, +_gentilitia_, and hereditary marks of _noblesse_. 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, with a common seal, receiving Garter +as their chief. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"These heralds are the king's servants in ordinary, 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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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 the Duke of Suffolk +was a base lord; and Sir George Markham in the enormous sum of L10,000, +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. Planche, 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 _versus_ 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 _parvenu_, and by force deface his +illegally assumed arms. + +Heralds' fees in the Middle Ages were very high. At the coronation of +Richard II. they received L100, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 mediaeval 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" contained many errors. In his visitations he +was very severe in defacing fictitious arms. + +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. + +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 L2,000, +avowing ignorance of his profession and his constant neglect of his +official duties. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + +"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 _cat_, which cat was afterwards found out to be Mr. +Oldys' mother. His parents dying when he was very young, he soon +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 _rulers_, 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 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 _nullius filius_--Anglice, 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.'" + +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:-- + + "Busy, curious, thirsty fly, + Drink with me, and drink as I; + Freely welcome to my cup, + Couldst thou sip and sip it up. + Make the most of life you may; + Life is short, and wears away. + + "Both alike are mine and thine, + Hastening quick to their decline; + Thine's a summer, mine no more, + Though repeated to threescore; + Threescore summers, when they're gone, + Will appear as short as one." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. Planche, 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 L6 13s. 6d. to L5. + +[Illustration: SWORD, DAGGER, AND RING OF KING JAMES OF SCOTLAND. +(_Preserved in the Heralds' College._)] + +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. Planche, 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. + +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 noticeable:--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. Planche, received the honourable augmentation of the +Scottish lion, in testimony of the prowess displayed by the gallant +soldier who 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.e._, 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 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 (_temp._ Charles I.). + +[Illustration: LINACRE'S HOUSE. _From a Print in the "Gold-headed Cane"_ +(_see page 303_).] + +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 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! + +"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.") + +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:-- + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +Stow mixes up the old houses near Doctors' Commons with Rosamond's Bower +at Woodstock. + +"Upon Paul's Wharf Hill," he says, "within a great gate, next to the +Doctors' Commons, were many fair tenements, which, in their leases made +from the Dean and Chapter, went by the name of _Camera Dianae_--_i.e._, +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 _Rosamond_, she whom there he called +_Rosamundi_, and here by the name of Diana; and from hence had this +house that title. + +"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 Dianae, or the chamber of his brightest Diana." + +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. + +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:-- + +"Jasper Lanfranch, a Dutchman, from Sir Anthony Vandikes, buried 14th +February, 1638." + +"Martin Ashent, Sir Anthony Vandike's man, buried 12th March, 1638." + +"Justinia, daughter to Sir Anthony Vandyke and his lady, baptised 9th +December, 1641." + +The child was baptised on the very day her illustrious father died. + +A portion of the old burying-ground is still to be seen in Church-entry, +Ireland Yard. + +"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 +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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +His treatise on grammar was warmly praised by Melancthon. This great +doctor was successively 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 L5 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 L100; 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 praelections 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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +CHEAPSIDE--INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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; 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 _seriatim_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The mediaeval 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +Chaucer speaks of the restless 'prentices of Cheap (Edward III.):-- + + "A prentis dwelled whilom in our citee-- + At every bridale would he sing and hoppe; + He loved bet the taverne than the shoppe-- + For when ther eny riding was in Chepe + Out of the shoppe thider wold he lepe, + And til that he had all the sight ysein, + And danced wel, he wold not come agen." + (The Coke's Tale.) + +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. + +The punishment of the pillory (either in Cheapside 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L100 and imprisoned, and Gascone, a +soldier, was sentenced to ride to the Cheapside pillory with his face to +the horse's tail, to be there branded in the face, and afterwards +imprisoned for life. + +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." + +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 L5,000, sentenced to be whipped to the pillories of Westminster +and Cheapside, to be branded in the face, and then imprisoned in +Newgate. + +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. + +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. + +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, _alias_ Trumpington, from +Scotland, to pass him off as Richard II. Wolman was drawn through +Cornhill and Cheapside to the gallows at Tyburn, where he was "hanged +and beheaded." + +[Illustration: ANCIENT VIEW OF CHEAPSIDE. (_From La Serre's "Entree de +la Revne Mere de Roy." showing the Procession of Mary de Medicis._)] + +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-- + + "Then to the Chepe I gan me drawn, + Where much people I saw for to stand; + One offered me velvet, silk, and lawn; + Another he taketh me by the hand, + 'Here is Paris thread, the finest in the land.' + I never was used to such things indeed, + And, wanting money, I might not speed." + +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. + +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:-- + +"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." + +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 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." + +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. + +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." + +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:-- + +"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." + +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:-- + +"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.) + +"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." + +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 (_alias_ +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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 houses round Saint Martin's, and spoiled all that they +found. + +"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. + +"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. + +[Illustration: BEGINNING OF THE RIOT IN CHEAPSIDE (_see page 311_).] + +"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 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.) + +[Illustration: CHEAPSIDE CROSS, AS IT APPEARED IN 1547. + +(_Showing part of the Procession of Edward VI. to his Coronation, from a +Painting of the Time._)] + +"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. + +"When the lords were met at the Guildhall, the 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 +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. + +"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.' + +"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. + +"Now when the generall pardon was pronounced all the prisoners shouted +at once, and altogither 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." + +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. + +"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, _commanded that +no man should relieve her_, 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." + +An old ballad quaintly describes her supposed death, following an +entirely erroneous tradition:-- + + "My gowns, beset with pearl and gold, + Were turn'd to simple garments old; + My chains and gems, and golden rings, + To filthy rags and loathsome things. + + "Thus was I scorned of maid and wife, + For leading such a wicked life; + Both sucking babes and children small, + Did make their pastime at my fall. + + "I could not get one bit of bread, + Whereby my hunger might be fed, + Nor drink, but such as channels yield, + Or stinking ditches in the field. + + "Thus weary of my life, at lengthe + I yielded up my vital strength, + Within a ditch of loathsome scent, + Where carrion dogs did much frequent; + + "The which now, since my dying daye, + Is Shoreditch call'd, as writers saye;[6] + Which is a witness of my sinne, + For being concubine to a king." + +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, +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] But it had this name long before, being so called from its being a +common _sewer_ (vulgarly called _shore_) or drain. (See Stow.) + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +CHEAPSIDE SHOWS AND PAGEANTS. + + 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. + + +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. + +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; 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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +By-and-by, after the fierce retribution of Bosworth, came the Tudors, +culminating and ending with Elizabeth. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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 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. + +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:-- + + "'But stay, bold tongue! I stand at giddy gaze! + Be dim, mine eyes! What gallant train are here, + That strikes minds mute, puts good wits in a maze? + Oh! 'tis our King, royal King James, I say! + Pass on in peace, and happy be thy way; + Live long on earth, and England's sceptre sway,'" &c. + +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 _Shipside_, 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. + +But what are royal processions to the Lord Mayor's Show? + +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 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. + +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-- + + "Row thy boat, Norman, + Row to thy leman." + +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. + +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 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), 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. + +[Illustration: THE LORD MAYOR'S PROCESSION. (From Hogarth's "Industrious +Apprentice.") (_See page 323._)] + +[Illustration: THE MARRIAGE PROCESSION OF ANNE BOLEYN (_see page 316_).] + +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 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 L400, whereof the Mayor disbursed L200. 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. + +One of the most gorgeous Lord Mayor's shows was that of 1616 (James I.) +devised by Anthony 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. + +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. + +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 _what +lack you_ 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." + +Pepys, always curious, always chatty, has, of course, several notices of +Lord Mayors' shows; for instance:-- + +"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 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. + +"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 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." + +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-- + + "With Oriental eyes I come to see, + And gratulate this great solemnitie. + It hath been often said, so often done, + That all men will worship the rising sun. + (_He rises._) + Such are the blessings of his beams. But now + The rising sun, my lord, doth worship you." + (_Apollo bows politely to the Lord Mayor._) + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _libretto_, 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. 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-- + + "Where are your eyes and ears? + See there what honourable _gent_ appears! + Augusta's great Praetorian lord--but hold! + Give me a goblet of true Orient mould. + And with," &c. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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." + +[Illustration: FIGURES OF GOG AND MAGOG SET UP IN GUILDHALL AFTER THE +FIRE.] + +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 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 and the balconies +waved their hats, and the ladies their handkerchiefs." + +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. + +[Illustration: THE ROYAL BANQUET IN GUILDHALL. _From a Contemporary +Print._ (_See page 326._)] + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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:-- + + FIRST SERVICE. + + Venison, turtle soups, fish of every sort, viz., dorys, mullets, + turbots, tench, soles, &c., nine dishes. + + SECOND SERVICE. + + A fine roast, ortolans, teals, quails, ruffs, knotts, peachicks, + snipes, partridges, pheasants, &c., nine dishes. + + THIRD SERVICE. + + Vegetables and made dishes, green peas, green morelles, green + truffles, cardoons, artichokes, ducks' tongues, fat livers, &c., + eleven dishes. + + FOURTH SERVICE. + + Curious ornaments in pastry and makes, jellies, blomonges, in + variety of shapes, figures, and colours, nine dishes. + +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." + +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, +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. + +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 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." + +"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." + +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. + +The carved work of the coach is elaborate and beautiful, consisting of +Cupids supporting the City arms, &c. The roof was formerly ornamented +in 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 L60 +from each of the junior aldermen, and such as had not passed the civic +chair--its total cost being L1,065 3s. Subsequently each alderman, when +sworn into office, contributed that sum to keep it in repair; for which +purpose, also, each Lord Mayor gave L100, 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 L300. This outlay being considered an unjust tax upon the mayor +for the time being, the amount over L100 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 L335; and the average expense of the repairs +during seven years of the present century is said to have been as much +as L115. 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." + +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 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.... + +"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!... + +"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." + +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 _Punch_ has cast many a missile +at those disconsolate warriors, who all but perished under their weight +of armour, degenerate race that we are! + +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. + +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 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 L600. 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. + +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:-- + +"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 +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." + +[Illustration: THE LORD MAYOR'S COACH.] + +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 +impracticable 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. + +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 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. + +The most splendid sight that ever glorified mediaeval 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. + +[Illustration: THE DEMOLITION OF CHEAPSIDE CROSS. _From an old Print._ +(_See page 334._)] + +"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 _Stocks_, +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 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. + +"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 May, a great muster was made by the citizens at the _Mile's End_, +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. + +"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. + +"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 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." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +CHEAPSIDE: CENTRAL. + + Grim Chronicles of Cheapside--Cheapside Cross--Puritanical + Intolerance--The Old London Conduits--Mediaeval 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. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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.e._, 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 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. + +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-- + + _Anabaptist._ O! idol now, + Down must thou! + Brother Ball, + Be sure it shall. + + _Brownist._ Helpe! Wren, + Or we are undone men. + I shall not fall, + To ruin all. + + _Cheap Cross._ I'm so crossed, I fear my utter destruction is at + hand. + + _Charing Cross._ Sister of Cheap, crosses are incident to us all, + and our children. But what's the greatest cross that hath befallen + you? + + _Cheap Cross._ Nay, sister; if my cross were fallen, I should live + at more heart's ease than I do. + + _Charing Cross._ I believe it is the cross upon your head that hath + brought you into this trouble, is it not? + +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:-- + +"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside 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." + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +"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. + +"I give my ground whereon I stood to be a free market-place. + + "JASPER CROSSE, HIS EPITAPH. + + 'I look for no praise when I am dead, + For, going the right way, I never did tread; + I was harde as an alderman's doore, + That's shut and stony-hearted to the poore. + I never gave alms, nor did anything + Was good, nor e'er said, God save the King. + I stood like a stock that was made of wood, + And yet the people would not say I was good; + And if I tell them plaine, they're like to mee-- + Like stone to all goodnesse. But now, reader, see + Me in the dust, for crosses must not stand, + There is too much cross tricks within the land; + And, having so done never any good, + I leave my prayse for to be understood; + For many women, after this my losse, + Will remember me, and still will be crosse-- + Crosse tricks, crosse ways, and crosse vanities, + Believe the Crosse speaks truth, for here he lyes. + +"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." + +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. + +"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:-- + + "God bless thee, porter, who great pains doth take; + Rest here, and welcome, when thy back doth ache." + +There are four views of the old Cheapside cross extant--one at Cowdray, +one at the Pepysian library, Cambridge. A third, engraved by Wilkinson, +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 _chef-d'oeuvre_ 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 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. + +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. + +In 1270 part of the steeple fell, and caused the death of several +persons; so that the work of mediaeval builders does not seem to have +been always irreproachable. + +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 +executed. After this occurrence the church was interdicted for a time, +and the doors and windows stopped with brambles. + +[Illustration: OLD MAP OF THE WARD OF CHEAP--ABOUT 1750.] + +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, the revival of an old and favourite usage. The rhymes are-- + + "Clarke of the Bow bell, with the yellow lockes, + For thy late ringing, thy head shall have knockes." + +To this the clerk replies-- + + "Children of Chepe, hold you all still, + For you shall have Bow bell rung at your will." + +In 1315 (Edward II.) William Copeland, churchwarden of Bow, gave a new +bell to the church, or had the old one re-cast. + +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 +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. + +[Illustration: THE SEAL OF BOW CHURCH. + +(_See page 338._)] + +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) in 1680. A certain Dame Dyonis Williamson, of Hale's +Hall, in the county of Norfolk, gave L2,000 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. + +"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. +Notwithstanding 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." + +The _Builder_, of 1845, gives a full account of the discovery of +architectural remains beneath some houses in Bow Churchyard:-- + +"They are," says the _Builder_, "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. 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 _Crown-sild_, or shed, where our sovereigns resorted to +view the joustings, shows, and great marching matches on the eves of +great festivals." + +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. + +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 _peculiars_, or insulated, livings. + +Lovers of figures may like to know that the height of Bow steeple is 221 +feet 8-1/2 inches. The church altogether cost L7,388 8s. 7d. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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 L72 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 _Builder_) 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." + +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." + +The sign in stone of a nag's head upon the front 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. + +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, _alias_ 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, "Entree de la Reyne Mere du Roy," 1638, of which we gave a copy +on page 307 of this work. + +"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.e._ 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 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. + +"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. + +"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 +_ex unis parentibus_' (or rather, surely, _ex una parente_, _i.e._, 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. + +"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. + +"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.e._, 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, _that like good fellows they +made themselves bishops at an inn, because they could get no true +bishops to consecrate them_. 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.' + +"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, _permissione superiorum_, 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 _an old simple man_) 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.'" + +"The form adopted at the confirmation of Archbishop Parker," says Dr. +Pusey in a letter dated 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 _that_ 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, _De +Schism. Angl._, l. iii. 350.) + +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. + +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:-- + +ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S "HOMER." + + "Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, + And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; + Round many western islands have I been, + Which bards, in fealty to Apollo, hold. + Oft of one wide expanse had I been told + That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; + Yet did I never breathe its pure serene + Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold; + Then felt I like some watcher of the skies + When a new planet swims into his ken; + Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes + He stared at the Pacific--and all his men + Look'd at each other with a wild surmise-- + Silent, upon a peak in Darien." + +Behnes' poor bald statue of Sir Robert Peel, in the Paternoster Row end +of Cheapside, was uncovered July 21st, 1855. The _Builder_ at the time +justly lamented that so much good metal was 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. + +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." + +"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.[7] 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." + +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 December, with the said +freedom, of which the following is a copy:-- + +"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 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. + +[Illustration: BOW CHURCH, CHEAPSIDE. (_From a view taken about 1750._)] + +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:-- + + "Unwieldy pedant, let thy awkward muse, + With censures praise, with flatteries abuse. + To lash, and not be felt, in thee's an art; + Thou ne'er mad'st any but thy schoolboys smart. + Then be advis'd, and scribble not agen; + Thou'rt fashioned for a flail, and not a pen. + If B----l's immortal wit thou wouldst descry, + Pretend 'tis he that writ thy poetry. + Thy feeble satire ne'er can do him wrong; + Thy poems and thy patients live not long." + +[Illustration: NO. 73, CHEAPSIDE (_see page 341_). (_From an old +View._)] + +And some other satirical verses on Sir Richard began:-- + + "'Twas kindly done of the good-natured cits, + To place before thy door a brace of tits." + +Blackmore, who had been brought up as an attorney's clerk and +schoolmaster, wrote most of his 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." + +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 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. + +"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:-- + +"'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 Lerpiniere, 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. + +"'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 considerably 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.'" + +"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 +_Tempest_; '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' (_Midsummer Night's +Dream_); 'Henry V. with the Conspirators' (_King Henry V._); 'Lear +dismissing Cordelia from his Court' (_King Lear_); 'Ghost of Hamlet's +Father' (_Hamlet_); 'Falstaff and Doll' (_King Henry IV., Second Part_); +'Macbeth meeting the Witches on the Heath' (_Macbeth_); 'Robin +Goodfellow' (_Midsummer Night's Dream_). This gallery gave the public an +opportunity of judging of Fuseli's versatile powers. + +"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 _Midsummer +Night's Dream_ amuse the fancy, and show the vast inventive powers of +the painter; and 'Falstaff with Doll' is exquisitely ludicrous. + +"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." + +"A.D. 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 +_The Tempest_, in which 'Prospero' and 'Caliban' are introduced. + +"One of these paintings for the Gallery was 'Puck,' or 'Robin +Goodfellow,' as it has been called, which, in point of expression and +animation, 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. + +"'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. + +"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." + +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 L350,000 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 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." + +The worthy man obtained leave for his lottery, 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. + +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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES--SOUTH. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 Canterbury. 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." + +"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 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." + +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 (_temp._ James I.). The house was taken down about 1801. +There is an etching of this very characteristic sign on stone. (Timbs.) + +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. + +"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:-- + +"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 observed 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. + +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. + +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:-- + +"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 L100,000 per annum were on this +foot to be paid in additional taxes, yet there would still remain a +yearly sum of about L900,000 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)." + +"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." + +"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 upwards?... +and yet France is in a way of being entirely out of debt in a year or +two." + +[Illustration: THE DOOR OF SADDLER'S HALL (_see page 341_).] + +"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." + +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 _borrowing_ to +pay seems to have sprung up with Sir Nathaniel Gould, in 1725, when it +was opposed. + +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:-- + + "Anthony Cage entombed here doth rest, + Whose wisdome still prevail'd the Commonweale; + A man with God's good gifts so greatly blest, + That few or none his doings may impale, + A man unto the widow and the poore, + A comfort, and a succour evermore. + Three wives he had of credit and of fame; + The first of them, Elizabeth that hight, + Who buried here, brought to this _Cage_, by name, + Seventeene young plants, to give his table light." + +"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 _an._ 1559, Jan. 30. + +[Illustration: MILTON'S HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: MILTON'S BURIAL-PLACE.] + +The following epitaph (1569) is worth preserving:-- + + "Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur."--Apoc. 14. + + "To William Dane, that sometime was + An ironmonger; where each degree + He worthily (with praise) did passe. + By Wisdom, Truth, and Heed, was he + Advanc'd an Alderman to be; + Then Sheriffe; that he, with justice prest, + And cost, performed with the best. + In almes frank, of conscience cleare; + In grace with prince, to people glad; + His vertuous wife, his faithful peere, + MARGARET, this monument hath made; + Meaning (through God) that as shee had + With him (in house) long lived well; + Even so in Tombes Blisse to dwell." + +"Bread Street," says Stow, "is so called of bread there in old times +then sold; for it appeareth by 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." + +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 A.D. 1387, called the _Fraternity of St. Austin's_, +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, _al mangier ou al revele; i.e., to eat or to revel_, +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 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 _Placebo_ and _Dilige_, +and in matins, a mass of requiem at the high altar." + +"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." + +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. + +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, _anno_ 676. + +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 _The +Salter's Chapel_," 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." + +"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 books in their hands, from Paul's, through Cheap, +Cornhill," &c. + +Among the epitaphs the following, given by Stow, is quaint:-- + + "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. + + "Thy lifelesse Trunke + (O Reverend Stocke), + Like Aaron's rod + Sprouts out againe; + And after two + Full winters past, + Yields Blossomes + And ripe fruit amaine. + For why, this work of piety, + Performed by some of thy Flocke, + To thy dead corps and sacred urne, + Is but the fruit of this old Stocke." + +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. + +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." + +The "Mermaid" Tavern, in Cheapside, about the site of which there has +been endless controversy, stood in Bread Street, with side entrances, +as Mr. Burn has shown, with admirable clearness, in Friday Street and +Bread Street; hence the disputes of antiquaries. + +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. + +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 _beaux +esprits_ 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 _Athenaeum_, 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. + +But we nevertheless have a noble record left of the wit combats here in +the celebrated epistle of Beaumont to Jonson:-- + + "Methinks the little wit I had is lost + Since I saw you; for wit is like a rest + Held up at tennis, which men do the best + With the best gamesters. What things have we seen + Done at the 'Mermaid?' Heard words that have been + So nimble, and so full of subtle flame, + As if that every one from whence they came + Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, + And had resolved to live a fool the rest + Of his dull life. Then, when there hath been thrown + Wit able enough to justify the town + For three days past--wit that might warrant be + For the whole city to talk foolishly + Till that were cancelled; and when that was gone, + We left an air behind us, which alone + Was able to make the two next companies + Right witty; though but downright fools, more wise." + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +There was also a "Mermaid" in Cornhill. + +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 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. + +Parsons, an excellent comedian, also resided in Bow Lane. + +"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 _The Mountaineers_.... His _forte_ 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. + +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, _alias_ Wolfe. Near it was "Ipres Inn," built by William of +Ipres, in King Stephen's time, which continued in the same family in +1377. + +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." + +"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, '_Ordinatio +Piperarum de Soper's Lane_.'" 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 credit thereof; and that he did not live altogether upon the +interest, as most of the aldermen did, laying aside their trade after +knighthood.'" + +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:-- + + "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. + + "Here was a bud, + Beginning for her May; + Before her flower, + Death took her hence away. + But for what cause? + That friends might joy the more; + Where there hope is, + She flourisheth now before. + She is not lost, + But in those joyes remaine, + Where friends may see, + And joy in her againe." + +"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." + +The following epitaph is also worth giving:-- + + "Here lies a Mary, mirror of her sex, + For all that best their souls or bodies decks. + Faith, form, or fame, the miracle of youth; + For zeal and knowledge of the sacred truth. + For frequent reading of the Holy Writ, + For fervent prayer, and for practice fit. + For meditation full of use and art; + For humbleness in habit and in heart. + For pious, prudent, peaceful, praiseful life; + For all the duties of a Christian wife; + For patient bearing seven dead-bearing throws; + For one alive, which yet dead with her goes; + From Travers, her dear spouse, her father, Hayes, + Lord maior, more honoured in her virtuous praise." + +"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 to +'Katherine Killigrew.' The best is by Andrew Melvin." + +"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 _Horn_ (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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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:-- + +"The buildings," says Herbert, "were of a fine red brick, and surrounded +a small square court, 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." + +"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." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF GOLDSMITH'S HALL.] + +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 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 _posse comitatus_ 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. + +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 L20 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 working adulterated gold and +silver. Edward, in all, granted four charters to the Worshipful Company. + +[Illustration: TRIAL OF THE PIX. (_See page 357._)] + +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. + +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 L1 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 L50. He left almshouses at Woolwich, and +two houses in Lombard Street, to the Company. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 produced 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, _quietus_" (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 _touch_,' 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. + +"The _Hall mark_ shows where manufactured, as the Leopard's head for +London. _Duty mark_ is the head of the Sovereign, showing the duty is +paid. _Date mark_ 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 _manufacturer's mark_ +is the initials of the maker. + +"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, 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. + +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 _their own company_, 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 _assay master_, +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 _lion_, and a certain _letter_, 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 +_touch-wardens_ 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 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 _that will turn +with the weight of the hundredth_ part of a grain, computes and reports +the goodness or badness of the gold and silver. + +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 L1,615 13s. 11-1/2d., and the payments, +L2,074 3s. 8d." + +The ancient goldsmiths seem to have wisely blended pleasure with profit, +and to have feasted right royally: one of their dinner bills runs +thus:-- + + EXPENSES OF ST. DUNSTAN'S FEAST. + 1473 (12 _Edward IV._). + L s. d. + + To eight minstrels in manner accustomed 2 13 8 + Ten bonnets for ditto 0 6 8 + Their dinner 0 3 4 + Two hogsheads of wine 2 10 0 + One barrel of Muscadell 0 6 6 + Red wine, 17 qrts. and 3 galls 0 11 10 + Four barrels of good ale 0 17 4 + Two ditto of 2dy halfpenny 0 6 0 + In spice bread 0 16 8 + In other bread 0 10 10 + In comfits and spice (36 articles) 5 17 6 + Poultry, including 12 capons at 8d. 2 16 11 + Pigeons at 1-1/2d., and 12 more geese, at 7d. each. + +With "butchery," "fishmongery," and "miscellaneous articles," the total +amount of the feast was L26 17s. 7d. + +A supper bill which occurs in the 11th of Henry VIII. only amounts to L5 +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. + +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.):-- + +"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 _Truth_ and discoverer of _Falsehood_); 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 _leopards_, which emblematically intimate _courage_ and +_constancy_. 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. + +"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, 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 _qu_, 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." + +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. + +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 people. The apprentice then asked his master's +forgiveness on his knees. + +[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF GOLDSMITHS' HALL.] + +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." + +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, 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.):-- + +"Md. The Bedell for the time beyng shall walke uppon Seynt Barthyllmewes +Eve all alonge Chepe, for to see what plaate ys in eury 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 eury +prcell of sylur stuffe then distrayned by the sayd wardeyns. + +"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, 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. + +"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." + +Another order enjoins the two second wardens "to ride into Stourbrydge +fair, with what officers they liked, and do the same." + +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 _old plate_ 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." + +[Illustration: ALTAR OF DIANA (_see page 362_).] + +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 directed) to the +king, and the other to the wardens breaking and making the seizure. + +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 facade 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. + +The modern Renaissance style, it must be allowed, though less +picturesque than the Gothic, is lighter, more stately, and more adapted +for certain purposes. + +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 +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 L1,000 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 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 L1,000 to the best artist in gold and silver plate, and at the +same time resolved to spend L5,000 on plate of British manufacture. + +From the Report of the Charity Commissioners it appears that the +Goldsmiths' charitable funds, exclusive of gifts by Sir Martin Bowes, +amount to L2,013 per annum. + +Foster Lane was in old times chiefly inhabited by working goldsmiths. + +"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." + +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 L500. + +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:-- + + "When the bels be merrily rung, + And the masse devoutly sung, + And the meate merrily eaten, + Then shall Robert Trappis, his wife and children be forgotten." + +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 A.D. 1501." On a fair stone, in the chancel, +nameless, was written:-- + + "LIVE TO DYE. + + "All flesh is grass, and needs must fade + To earth again, whereof 'twas made." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +Among the odd monumental inscriptions in this church are the +following:-- + + "Lord, of thy infinite grace and Pittee + Have mercy on me Agnes, somtym the wyf + Of William Milborne, Chamberlain of this citte, + Which toke my passage fro this wretched lyf, + The year of gras one thousand fyf hundryd and fyf, + The xii. day of July; no longer was my spase, + It plesy'd then my Lord to call me to his Grase; + Now ye that are living, and see this picture, + Pray for me here, whyle ye have tyme and spase, + That God of his goodnes wold me assure, + In his everlasting mansion to have a plase. + Obiit Anno 1505." + + "Here lyeth interred the body of Christopher Wase, late + citizen and goldsmith of London, aged 66 yeeres, and dyed + the 22nd September, 1605; who had to wife Anne, the + daughter of William Prettyman, and had by her three sons + and three daughters. + + "Reader, stay, and thou shalt know + What he is, that here doth sleepe; + Lodged amidst the Stones below, + Stones that oft are seen to weepe. + Gentle was his Birth and Breed, + His carriage gentle, much contenting; + His word accorded with his Deed, + Sweete his nature, soone relenting. + From above he seem'd protected, + Father dead before his Birth. + An orphane only, but neglected. + Yet his Branches spread on Earth, + Earth that must his Bones containe, + Sleeping, till _Christ's_ Trumpet shall wake them, + Joyning them to Soule againe, + And to Blisse eternal take them. + It is not this rude and little Heap of Stones, + Can hold the Fame, although't containes the Bones; + Light be the Earth, and hallowed for thy sake, + Resting in Peace, Peace that thou so oft didst make." + +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:-- + +"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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH:--WOOD STREET. + + 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. + + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +Wordsworth has immortalised Wood Street by his plaintive little ballad-- + +THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN. + + "At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears, + Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years; + Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard + In the silence of morning the song of the bird. + + "'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? she sees + A mountain ascending, a vision of trees; + Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, + And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside. + + "Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale, + Down which she so often has tripped with her pail; + And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's, + The one only dwelling on earth that she loves. + + "She looks, and her heart is in heaven; but they fade, + The mist and the river, the hill and the shade; + The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise, + And the colours have all passed away from her eyes." + +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. + +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 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." + +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:-- + + "John Casey, of this parish, whose dwelling was + In the north-corner house as to Lad Lane you pass; + For better knowledge, the name it hath now + Is called and known by the name of the Plow; + Out of that house yearly did geeve + Twenty shillings to the poore, their neede to releeve; + Which money the tenant must yearlie pay + To the parish and churchwardens on St. Thomas' Day. + The heire of that house, Thomas Bowrman by name, + Hath since, by his deed, confirmed the same; + Whose love to the poore doth hereby appear, + And after his death shall live many a yeare. + Therefore in your life do good while yee may, + That when meagre death shall take yee away; + You may live like form'd as Casey and Bowrman-- + For he that doth well shall never be a poore man." + +Here was also a monument to Queen Elizabeth, with this inscription, +found in many other London churches:-- + + "Here lyes her type, who was of late + The prop of Belgia, stay of France, + Spaine's foile, Faith's shield, and queen of State, + Of arms, of learning, fate and chance. + In brief, of women ne'er was seen + So great a prince, so good a queen. + + "Sith Vertue her immortal made, + Death, envying all that cannot dye, + Her earthly parts did so invade + As in it wrackt self-majesty. + But so her spirits inspired her parts, + That she still lives in loyal hearts." + +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." + +"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." + +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 _staining_," 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." + +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 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. + +[Illustration: WOOD STREET COMPTER. _From a View published in 1793._ +(_See page 368._)] + +"One note of the great antiquity of this church," 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." + +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 +Jones, and in accordance with their advice, apparently, in 1632 it was +pulled down, and rebuilt _anno_ 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. + +[Illustration: THE TREE AT THE CORNER OF WOOD STREET.] + +In the old church were the following epitaphs:-- + + "Of William Wilson, Joane his wife, + And Alice, their daughter deare, + These lines were left to give report + These three lye buried here; + And Alice was Henry Decon's wife, + Which Henry lives on earth, + And is the Serjeant Plummer + To Queen ELIZABETH. + With whom this Alice left issue here, + His virtuous daughter Joan, + To be his comfort everywhere + Now joyfull Alice is gone. + And for these three departed soules, + Gone up to joyfull blisse, + Th' almighty praise be given to God, + To whom the glory is." + +Over the grave of Anne, the wife of Laurence Gibson, gentleman, were the +following verses, which are worth mentioning here:-- + + "MENTIS VIS MAGNA. + + "What! is she dead? + Doth he survive? + No; both are dead, + And both alive. + She lives, hee's dead, + By love, though grieving, + In him, for her, + Yet dead, yet living; + Both dead and living, + Then what is gone? + One half of both, + Not any one. + One mind, one faith, + One hope, one grave, + In life, in death, + They had and still they have." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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 AEgyptian 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." + +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 _nom de guerre_ 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 +commencement 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. + +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 L800 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 L700 to L1,000 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. + +"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." + +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." + +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 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." + +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. + +Wood Street is associated with that last extraordinary outburst of the +Civil War fanaticism--the Anabaptist rising in January, 1661. + +[Illustration: PULPIT HOUR-GLASS (_see page 368_).] + +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. + +"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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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:-- + + "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." + + "Here lieth William Brekespere, of London, some time merchant, + Goldsmith and alderman, the Commonwele attendant, + With Margaryt his Dawter, late wyff of Suttoon, + And Thomas, hur Sonn, yet livyn undyr Goddy's tuitioon. + The tenth of July he made his transmigration. + She disissyd in the yer of Grase of Chryst's Incarnation, + A Thowsand Four hundryd Threescor and oon. + God assoyl their Sowls whose Bodys lye undyr this Stoon." + +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. + +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." + +"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." + +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:-- + + "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. + + "Reader, if not a Papist bred, + Upon such ashes gently tred." + +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 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 L50 or L100 to struggling young men of their own trade. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S, WOOD STREET (_see page 365_).] + +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 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 L60,000 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." + +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, +"Serve and Obey." Maitland describes their annual expenditure in charity +as L3,500. 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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF HABERDASHERS' HALL.] + +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, inkhorns, toothpicks, fans, pomanders, +silk, and silver buttons. + +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 L50,000. +The Company's original bye-laws having been 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. + +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 L18,000 for benevolent +purposes; and Robert Aske, the worthy founder of the Haberdashers' +Hospital at Hoxton. + +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, the booking office and head-quarters of coaches to the +North. + +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." + +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. + +In 1422 Whittington laid an information before his successor in the +mayoralty, Robert Childe, against the Brewers' Company, for selling +_dear ale_, when they were convicted in the penalty of L20; and the +masters were ordered to be kept in prison in the chamberlain's custody +until they paid it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +CHEAPSIDE TRIBUTARIES, NORTH (_continued_). + + 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. + + +In Milk Street was the milk-market of Mediaeval 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 +_via lactea_." 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 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. + +This pious, wise, and consistent man is described 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. + +"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." + +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." + +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 L900 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 L2 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 L35 per annum +each, and available as exhibitions to the Universities, there are the +following exhibitions belonging to the school:--The "Times" Scholarship, +value L30 per annum; three Beaufoy Scholarships, the Solomons +Scholarship, and the Travers Scholarship, L50 per annum each; the Tegg +Scholarship, nearly L20 per annum; and 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 L20,000. 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. + +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. + +This church was burnt down in the Great Fire, and was not rebuilt. One +amusing epitaph has been preserved:-- + + "HERE LIETH THE BODY OF SIR WILLIAM STONE, KNT. + + "As the Earth the + Earth doth cover, + So under this stone + Lyes another; + Sir William _Stone_, + Who long deceased, + Ere the world's love + Him released; + So much it loved him, + For they say, + He answered Death + Before his day; + But, 'tis not so; + For he was sought + Of One that both him + Made and bought. + He remain'd + The Great Lord's Treasurer, + Who called for him + At his pleasure, + And received him. + Yet be it said, + Earth grieved that Heaven + So soon was paid. + + "Here likewise lyes + Inhumed in one bed, + Dear Barbara, + The well-beloved wife + Of this remembered Knight; + Whose souls are fled + From this dimure vale + To everlasting life, + Where no more change, + Nor no more separation, + Shall make them flye + From their blest habitation. + Grasse of levitie, + Span in brevity, + Flower's felicity, + Fire of misery, + Wind's stability, + Is mortality." + +"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. + +On the site of All Hallows' Church, destroyed in the Great Fire, a +market was afterwards established. + +"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. + +"This church hath the misfortune to have no bequests to church or poor, +nor to any publick use. + +"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." + +All Hallows' Church was repaired and beautified at the cost of the +parishioners in 1625. + +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. + +The curious old tract about Bankes and his trained horse was written +under the assumed names of "John Dando, the wier-drawer of Hadley, and +Harrie Runt, head ostler of Besomes Inne," which is probably the same +place. + +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. + +"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:-- + + "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." + +There is also this epitaph:-- + + "Lo here the Lady Margaret North, + In tombe and earth do lye; + Of husbands four the faithfull spouse, + Whose fame shall never dye. + One Andrew Franncis was the first, + The second Robert hight, + Surnamed Chartsey, Alderman; + Sir David Brooke, a knight, + Was third. But he that passed all, + And was in number fourth, + And for his virtue made a Lord, + Was called Sir Edward North. + These altogether do I wish + A joyful rising day; + That of the Lord and of his Christ, + All honour they may say. + Obiit 2 die Junii, An. Dom. 1575." + +In Ironmonger Lane, inhabited by ironmongers _temp._ Edward I., is +Mercers' Hall, an interesting building. + +The Mercers, though not formally incorporated till the 17th of Richard +II. (1393), are traced back by Herbert as early as 1172. Soon +afterwards 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 a Becket." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Twenty years after the murder of Becket, the murdered man's sister, who +had married Thomas 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. + +In 1414, Thomas Falconer, mercer and mayor, lent Henry V., towards his +French wars, ten marks upon jewels. + +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 L13 6s. 8d., and +in part satisfaction of the said L20 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 L1,673 +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 Italian silks +lived in Cheapside, St. Lawrence Jewry, and Old Jewry. + +[Illustration: THE "SWAN WITH TWO NECKS," LAD LANE (_see page 374_).] + +During the civil wars both King and Parliament bore heavily on the +Mercers. In 1640 Charles I. half forced from them a loan of L3,030, and +in 1642 the Parliament borrowed L6,500, and arms from the Company's +armoury, valued at L88. They afterwards gave further arms, valued at L71 +13s. 4d., and advanced as a second loan L3,200. 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 L30 per cent. to +clergymen's widows according to certain sums paid by their husbands. + +"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 L100,000, they decided that no person over sixty years +of age should become a subscriber; that no subscriber should subscribe +less than L50--_i.e._, should purchase a smaller contingent annuity than +one of L15; that the annuity to every subscriber's widow, or other +person for whom the insurance was effected, should be at the rate of +L30 for every L100 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 L50 to L1,000; that all married men, not +exceeding sixty years of age, might subscribe any sum not less than L50, +and not exceeding L300. 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.' + +"The Mercers' operations soon gave rise to more 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." + +[Illustration: CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL.] + +Large sums were subscribed, but the annuities 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. + +The petition showed that the Mercers were indebted more than L100,000. +The annuities then out amounted to L7,620 per annum, and the +subscriptions for future amounts reached L10,000 a year; while to answer +these claims their present income only amounted to L4,100 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. + +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. + +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 L969 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. + +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. + +The old hospital gate, which forms the present hospital entrance, had an +image of St. Thomas a 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.). + +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. + +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 _obyte_, or an anniversary for +my sowl, the sowles of my seyd wyfe, the sowles of my fader and moder, +and al Christian sowles, with _placebo_ and dirige on the even, and mass +of requiem on the morrow following solemnly by note for evermore." + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 _pro tempore_, 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. + +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 L1,000 +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 L400 towards +the repairing of the hall after the Great Fire. + +In Strype's time (1720), the Mercers' Company gave away L3,000 a year in +charity. In 1745 the Company's money legacies amounted to L21,699 5s. +9d., out of which the Company paid annually L573 17s. 4d. In 1832, the +lapsed legacies of 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 L100, and not exceeding L500, +for a term, without interest, but only upon approved security. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L120, and the average expense of the school was +L677 1s. 1d. The salary of the master is L200, and L50 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 L120, and a +gratuity of L20, but no house. There are two exhibitions belonging to +the school. + +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, 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, "_after dinner_," on his inauguration day (the ceremony would +have suited much better _before_ 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 _De Profundis_ (called a dirge); +and from thence they passed to the churchyard, where Thomas a Becket's +parents were buried, and there, near their tomb, they said also, for all +the faithful deceased, _De Profundis_ again. The City procession thence +returned through Cheapside Market, sometimes with wax candles burning +(if it was late), to the said Church Sanctae Thomae, and there the mayor +and aldermen offered single pence, which being done, every one went to +his home." + +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. + +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-- + + "To elect the Master of the Mercerie hither am I sent, + And by Sir Thomas Leigh for the same intent." + +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:-- + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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; 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. + +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. + +"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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +GUILDHALL. + + 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. + + +The Guildhall--the mean-looking Hotel 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. + +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 L35 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. + +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, +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 L73 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 L1,740. + +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. + +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." + +Pepys has some curious notes about the new Guildhall. + +"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, 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 +L700, 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 L700, +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." + +[Illustration: MERCERS' CHAPEL, AS REBUILT AFTER THE FIRE. (_From an Old +Print._) (_See page 381._)] + +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." + +The Great Hall is 153 feet long, 50 feet broad, and about 55 feet high. +The interior sides, in 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 mediaeval 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 _improvements_, stood on brackets adjoining a balcony +over the entrance to the interior courts, and were removed to brackets +on each side the great west window. + +[Illustration: THE CRYPT OF GUILDHALL (_see page 386_).] + +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. + +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:-- + + "Though most the Images be pulled downe. + And none be thought remain in Towne. + I am sure there be in London yet + Seven images, such, and in such a place + As few or none I think will hit, + Yet every day they show their face; + And thousands see them every yeare, + But few, I thinke, can tell me where; + Where _Jesus Christ_ aloft doth stand, + _Law_ and _Learning_ on either hand, + _Discipline_ in the Devil's necke, + And hard by her are three direct; + There _Justice_, _Fortitude_, and _Temperance_ stand; + Where find ye the like in all this Land?" + +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 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. + +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. + +"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.) + +"There was something very picturesque," says 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _debutante_, 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, 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. + +Nelson's fame is very imperfectly honoured by a pile of allegory, +erected in 1811 by the entirely forgotten Mr. James Smith, for L4,442 +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. + +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 L4,078 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 L4,966 10s. + +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 L225 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. + +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 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. + +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 L500. 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. + +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 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 portgerefa, 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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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 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." + +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 L160,193 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.) + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE COURT OF ALDERMEN, GUILDHALL. (_See page 388._)] + +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, 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 L1,543. 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. + +[Illustration: OLD FRONT OF GUILDHALL. (_From Seymour's "London," +1734._)] + +Against the south wall are portraits of Lord Heathfield, after Sir +Joshua Reynolds; the Marquis 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. + +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 L3,089 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. + +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. + +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 +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 L456 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.e._, stolen) the books, the library in Strype's time +became a storehouse for cloth. + +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. + +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 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, Linnaeus 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. + +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. + +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. "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." + +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. + +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. + +It was at the Guildhall, a few weeks after the death of Edward IV., and +while the princes were 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:-- + + _Buck._ + Withal, I did infer your lineaments, + Being the right idea of your father, + Both in your form and nobleness of mind: + Laid open all your victories in Scotland, + Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace, + Your bounty, virtue, fair humility; + Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose + Untouch'd, or slightly handled, in discourse; + And, when my oratory drew toward end, + I bade them that did love their country's good + Cry, "God save Richard, England's royal king!" + + _Glo._ And did they so? + + _Buck._ No, so God help me, they spake not a word; + But, like dumb statues or breathing stones, + Stared each on other, and look'd deadly pale. + Which when I saw I reprehended them, + And ask'd the mayor what meant this wilful silence? + His answer was, the people were not us'd + To be spoke to but by the recorder. + Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again-- + "Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;" + But nothing spoke in warrant from himself. + When he had done, some followers of mine own + At lower end o' the hall, hurl'd up their caps, + And some ten voices cried, "God save King Richard!" + And thus I took the vantage of those few-- + "Thanks, gentle citizens and friends," quoth I; + "This general applause and cheerful shout, + Argues your wisdom, and your love to Richard:" + And even here brake off, and came away. + +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. + +"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 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.' + +"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.'" + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +The trial itself is so interesting as a specimen of intellectual energy, +that we subjoin a scene or two:-- + + _Serjeant Stamford:_ 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? + + _Chief Justice Bromley:_ Why do you not read to him Wyatt's + accusation, which makes him a sharer in his treasons? + + _Sir R. Southwell:_ Wyatt has grievously accused you, and in many + things which have been confirmed by others. + + _Sir N. Throckmorton:_ 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. + + _Sir N. Hare:_ Nevertheless, he said that all he had written and + confessed before the Council was true. + + _Sir N. Throckmorton:_ Nay sir, by your patience, Wyatt did not say + so; that was Master Doctor's addition. + + _Sir R. Southwell:_ It seems you have good intelligence. + + _Sir N. Throckmorton:_ 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. + +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 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." + +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. + +Lastly, we come to one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators; not one of +the most guilty, yet undoubtedly cognisant of the mischief brewing. + +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. + +[Illustration: THE NEW LIBRARY, GUILDHALL (_see page 392_).] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 +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. + +[Illustration: SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. (_From an old Portrait._)] + +The presentation to the king, even when he was in England, long remained +a great vexation with 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 L4, +about L100 of our present money. + +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 Gloucestershire 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 L60,000, 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." + +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 L20 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 (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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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, 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. + +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). + +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 L1,000 +to the poor householders of London, and L2,000 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. + +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 L50 (about +L1,000 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), 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 L8,000 to the king and L800 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 L30, the aldermen twenty +marks, the poorer persons L10 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. + +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. + +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 L2,700; he made the +City buy a confirmation of their charter for L5,000; in 1505 he threw +Thomas Knesworth, who had been mayor the year before, and his sheriff, +into the Marshalsea, and fined them L1,400; 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) L2,000, 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 Guildhall; and the same +hospitable mayor built the Guildhall kitchen at his own expense. + +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 +L300. 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 L100 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 principal citizens, to the +christening of the Princess Elizabeth, at Greenwich; and at the ceremony +the scarlet gowns and gold chains made a gallant show. + +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. + +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 L1,000 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 L20,000 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 L100 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. + +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 L6,000 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 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. + +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 L1,200 to each of five City Companies; +also sums for the relief of poor maimed soldiers, poor Cambridge +scholars, and for poor maids' marriages. + +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. + +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 L2,200, a like sum for +her privy purse, L10,000 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 L1,000 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. He died +worth, Mr. Timbs calculates, above L800,000 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. + +[Illustration: WHITTINGTON'S ALMSHOUSES, COLLEGE HILL (_see page 398_).] + +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, 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 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." + +[Illustration: OSBORNE'S LEAP (_see page 401_).] + +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 L6,000. 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 L5,000, +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. + +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. + +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). + +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 L100,000 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 L6,000. For the pretended +mismanagement of their Irish estates, the City was condemned to the loss +of their Irish possessions and fined L50,000. 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? + +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, +where he found "most excellent venison; but it made me almost sick, not +daring to drink wine." + +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. + +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:"-- + + "When Jacob Hall on his high rope shows tricks, + The dragon flutters, the Lord Mayor's horse kicks; + The Cheapside crowds and pageants scarcely know + Which most t'admire--Hall, hobby-horse, or Bow." + +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 (_Spectator_, 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." + +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 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 L2,300 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. + +In 1681, when the reaction came and the Court party triumphed, gaining a +verdict of L100,000 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.'" + +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 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 _Love without Interest_ (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." + +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 L737 2s., poor +Settle receiving L10 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. + +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 _Athenaeum_, "after repeated +assurance that saluting a lady, on her appointment to a confidential +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 _bucket_!' In +_her_ view of things, the sun had set on the glory of mayoralty for +ever. + +"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. + +A leap now takes us on in the City chronicles. In 1727 (the year George +I. died), the Royal Family, the Ministry, besides nobles and foreign +ministers, were entertained by Sir Edward Becher, mayor (Draper). George +II. ordered the sum of L1,000 to be paid to the sheriffs for the relief +of insolvent debtors. The feast cost L4,890. 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:-- + + "While Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive, + No generous patron would a dinner give. + See him, when starved to death, and turned to dust, + Presented with a monumental bust. + The poet's fate is here in emblem shown-- + He asked for bread, and he received a stone." + +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. + +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 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. + +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:-- + +"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 +_Glorious and Necessary Revolution_." 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. + +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 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 L100,000 a year, only to end life a +solitary, despised, exiled man. One of his daughters married the Duke of +Hamilton. + +[Illustration: A LORD MAYOR AND HIS LADY (MIDDLE OF SEVENTEENTH +CENTURY). _From an Old Print._] + +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 +L600,000 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." + +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 _North Briton_. The mob were throwing the +papers about as matter of diversion, and one of the bundles 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 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. + +[Illustration: WILKES ON HIS TRIAL. (_From a Contemporary Print._)] + +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 L200,000 by the three. Shortly after +Crosby's election, the House of Commons issued warrants against the +printers of the _Middlesex Journal_ and the _Gazetteer_, 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 _Evening Post_, 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 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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (_continued_). + + John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage--The _North Briton_--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" _versus_ "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. + + +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 _North +Britain_, 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. + +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 +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. + +A few anecdotes of Wilkes are necessary for seasoning to our chapter. + +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 _you shall +have no ground_ 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 +will enter the lists against you with any woman you choose to name." + +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 _you_ 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." + +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. "_My friend_, sir!" replied Wilkes; "he is no friend of +mine; he was a Wilkite, sir, which I never was." + +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." + +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 single highwayman. The swordbearer did not even attempt to hew +down the robber. + +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 _posse comitatus_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +1795-6 was made pleasant to the Londoners by the abounding hospitality +of Sir William Curtis, 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. + +In 1797, Sir Benjamin Hamet was fined L1,000 for refusing to serve as +mayor. + +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 _caster_, "what do you _set_?" "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.) + +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 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 _trowel_!" 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." + +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. + +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 L200,000, and the entire entertainment cost nearly +L25,000. The mayor was made baronet for this. + +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. + +Theodore Hook, or some clever versifier of the day, wrote an amusing +skit on the vain, fussy, good-natured Jack-of-all-trades, beginning-- + + "Monsieur grown tired of fricassee, + Resolved Old England now to see, + The country where their roasted beef + And puddings large pass all belief." + +Wherever this inquisitive foreigner goes he find Monsieur Birch-- + + "Guildhall at length in sight appears, + An orator is hailed with cheers. + 'Zat orator, vat is hees name?' + 'Birch the pastrycook--the very same.'" + +He meets him again as militia colonel, poet, &c. &c., till he returns to +France believing Birch Emperor of London. + +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. + +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. + +The following sonnet was contributed by Charles and Mary Lamb to +Thelwall's newspaper, _The Champion_. 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:-- + +SONNET TO MATTHEW WOOD, ESQ., ALDERMAN AND M.P. + + "Hold on thy course uncheck'd, heroic Wood! + Regardless what the player's son may prate, + St. Stephen's fool, the zany of debate-- + Who nothing generous ever understood. + London's twice praetor! scorn the fool-born jest, + The stage's scum, and refuse of the players-- + Stale topics against magistrates and mayors-- + City and country both thy worth attest. + Bid him leave off his shallow Eton wit, + More fit to soothe the superficial ear + Of drunken Pitt, and that pickpocket Peer, + When at their sottish orgies they did sit, + Hatching mad counsels from inflated vein, + Till England and the nations reeled with pain." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.) + +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:-- + +"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 _sprung from the +very dregs of the people_!" + +[Illustration: BIRCH'S SHOP, CORNHILL (_see page 412_).] + +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." + +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 L10 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 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 +L10,000. 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.) + +Sir John Cowan (Wax Chandler), mayor in 1838, was created a baronet +after having entertained the Queen at his mayoralty dinner. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE STOCKS' MARKET, SITE OF THE MANSION HOUSE. (_From an +Old Print._) (_See page 416._)] + +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.) + +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.) + +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. + +In 1850 Sir John Musgrove (Clothworker), at the suggestion of Mr. G. +Godwin, arranged a show on more than usually aesthetic 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. + +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. + +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 L10,000 +for a diamond necklace) cost the Corporation some L60,000. 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +THE POULTRY. + + 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. + + +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 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. + +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. + +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:-- + + "Time was when I sat upon a lofty stool, + At lofty desk, and with a clerkly pen, + Began each morning, at the stroke of ten, + To write to Bell and Co.'s commercial school, + In Warneford Court, a shady nook and cool, + The favourite retreat of merchant men. + Yet would my quill turn vagrant, even then, + And take stray dips in the Castalian pool; + Now double entry--now a flowery trope-- + Mingling poetic honey with trade wax; + Blogg Brothers--Milton--Grote and Prescott--Pope, + Bristles and Hogg--Glynn, Mills, and Halifax-- + Rogers and Towgood--hemp--the Bard of Hope-- + Barilla--Byron--tallow--Burns and flax." + +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. + +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:-- + + "This is + THE ROSE TAVERN, + Kept by + WILLIAM KING, + Citizen and Vintner. + + This Taverne's like its sign--a lustie Rose, + A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose; + The daintie Flow're well pictur'd here is seene, + But for its rarest sweets--come, searche within!" + +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." + +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:--"Pd. to Hoggestreete, the Duche paynter, for ye picture of a +Rose, wth a Standing-bowle and glasses, for a signe, xx _li._, besides +diners and drinkings; also for a large table of walnut-tree, for a +frame, and for iron-worke and hanging the picture, v _li._" 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-- + + "Gallants, rejoice! This flow're is now full-blowne! + 'Tis a Rose-Noble better'd by a crowne; + All you who love the emblem and the signe, + Enter, and prove our loyaltie and wine." + +The tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and flourished many years. +It was long a depot 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.) + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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 years, is yet undecided; a question, whether in +theology or philosophy, one of the most important that can come before +the human understanding." + +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. + +"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." + +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:-- + + "Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, + That some time made the points of husbandrie. + By him then learne thou maist, here learne we must, + When all is done we sleep and turn to dust. + And yet through Christ to heaven we hope to goe, + Who reads his bookes shall find his faith was so. + +Among the curious epitaphs in St. Mildred's, Stow mentions the +following, which is worth quoting here:-- + + "HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS YKEN, SKINNER. + + "In Hodnet and London + God blessed my life, + Till forty and sixe yeeres, + With children and wife; + And God will raise me + Up to life againe, + Therefore have I thought + My death no paine." + +[Illustration: JOHN WILKES. (_From an Authentic Portrait._)] + +A fair monument of Queen Elizabeth had on the sides the following verses +inscribed:-- + + "If prayers or tears + Of subjects had prevailed, + To save a princesse + Through the world esteemed; + Then Atropos + In cutting here had fail'd, + And had not cut her thread, + But been redeem'd; + But pale-faced Death; + And cruel churlish Fate, + To prince and people + Brings the latest date. + Yet spight of Death and Fate, + Fame will display + Her gracious virtues + Through the world for aye, + Spain's Rod, Rome's Ruine, + Netherlands' Reliefe; + Heaven's gem, earth's joy, + World's wonder, Nature's chief. + Britaine's blessing, England's splendour, + Religion's Nurse, the Faith's Defender." + +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 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 _Phoenix_, 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. + +[Illustration: THE POULTRY COMPTER. (_From an Old Print._)] + +It was at this prison, in the reign of Charles I., 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 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. + +"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. + +"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, _that they had +judged him already_; and thereupon pulled him limb from limb; or, at +least, so dislocated his joints, that he instantly died." + +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 L6,000 +from the abashed City. + +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 _a good face_ 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," &c. + +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." + +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?" + +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!'" + +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:-- + + "Good Horace! No! My cheeks do blush for thine, + As often as thou speakest so; where one true + And nobly virtuous spirit for thy best part + Loves thee, I wish one, ten; even from my heart! + I make account, I put up as deep share + In any good man's love, which thy worth earns, + As thou thyself; we envy not to see + Thy friends with bays to crown thy poesy. + No, here the gall lies;--we, that know what stuff + Thy very heart is made of, know the stalk + On which thy learning grows, and can give life + To thy one dying baseness; yet must we + Dance anticks on your paper. + But were thy warp'd soul put in a new mould, + I'd wear thee as a jewel set in gold." + +Charles Lamb, speaking of Dekker's share in Massinger's _Virgin Martyr_, +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 _Old Fortunatus_, 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 raciness, and a glow in them, +which are beyond Massinger. They are to the religion of the rest what +Caliban is to Miranda." + +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 _mundungus_, 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." + +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. + +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 ague succeeded; and he was affected with a lameness +in both his legs. + +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. + +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 L30. 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 +_Thames_, 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. + +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. + +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 _Ann and Mary_, 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?" + +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." + +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. + +It was after this verdict that Cowper wrote the following beautiful +lines:-- + + "Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs + Imbibe our air, that moment they are free; + They touch our country, and their shackles fall. + That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud + And jealous of the blessing. Spread on, then, + And let it circulate through every vein + Of all your empire, that where Britain's power + Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too." + +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[8] for this +purpose, and in two days the clothes were 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. + +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. + +Of Boyse's best poems "The Deity" contains some vigorous lines, of which +the following are a favourable specimen:-- + + "Transcendent pow'r! sole arbiter of fate! + How great thy glory! and thy bliss how great, + To view from thy exalted throne above + (Eternal source of light, and life, and love!) + Unnumbered creatures draw their smiling birth, + To bless the heav'ns or beautify the earth; + While systems roll, obedient to thy view, + And worlds rejoice--which Newton never knew! + + * * * * * + + Below, thro' different forms does matter range, + And life subsists from elemental change, + Liquids condensing shapes terrestrial wear, + Earth mounts in fire, and fire dissolves in air; + While we, inquiring phantoms of a day, + Inconstant as the shadows we survey! + With them along Time's rapid current pass, + And haste to mingle with the parent mass; + But thou, Eternal Lord of life divine! + In youth immortal shalt for ever shine! + No change shall darken thy exalted name, + From everlasting ages still the same!" + +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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] "The sum," said Johnson, "was collected by sixpences, at a time when +to me sixpence was a serious consideration." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +OLD JEWRY. + + 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. + + +The Old Jewry was the Ghetto of mediaeval 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, A.D. 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. + +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 L2,000 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. + +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., 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?" + +[Illustration: RICHARD PORSON. (_From an Authentic Portrait._)] + +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 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 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 L2,590 towards the rebuilding of +Westminster Abbey. It was about this time that Abraham, a Jew of +Berkhampstead, 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 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." + +[Illustration: SIR R. CLAYTON'S HOUSE, GARDEN FRONT. (_From an Old +Print._)] + +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 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. + +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 L420,000 15s. 4d.! + +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 +L20,000 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 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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 +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 _et caeteras_." His salary was L200 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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." + +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 _British Press_, 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 custom not discontinued +till 1822. His books fetched L2,000, 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 _Morning Chronicle_, and he boasted he could repeat "Roderick +Random" from beginning to end. + +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." + +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 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." + +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. + +In 1744 Richard Price, afterwards chaplain at Stoke Newington, held the +lectureship at the Old Jewry. Price's lecture on "Civil Liberty," +_apropos_ 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 "Encyclopaedia" 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. + +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 freethinkers crowded with +equal anxiety to hear him of whom Pope wrote-- + + "Let modest Foster, if he will, excel + Ten metropolitans in preaching well." + +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. + +At Grocers' Hall we stop to sketch the history of an ancient company. + +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. + +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 the Company of Grocers" (1689), was +used to express a trader _en gros_ (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 L50, 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. + +During the Civil War the Grocers suffered, like all their brother +companies. In 1645, the Parliament exacted L50 per week from them +towards the support of troops, L6 for City defences, and L8 for wounded +soldiers. The Company had soon to sell L1,000 worth of plate. A further +demand for arms, and a sum of L4,500 for the defence of the City, drove +them to sell all the rest of their plate, except the value of L300. In +1645, the watchful Committee of Safety, sitting at Haberdashers' Hall, +finding the Company indebted L500 to one Richard Greenough, a Cavalier +delinquent, compelled them to pay that sum. + +No wonder, then, that the Grocers shouted at the Restoration, spent L540 +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' 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 L20,000 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 L6,000, 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. + +[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF GROCERS' HALL.] + +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 Canning, &c. Of Grocer Mayors, Strype notes +sixty-four between 1231 and 1710 alone. + +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 L31 17s. 8d., they received from the Bank of England more +than L20,000. + +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. + +In the time of the Commonwealth, Grocers' Hall was the place of meeting +for Parliamentary Committees. 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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF GROCERS' HALL.] + +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 _two_ 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 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 L40 +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 L300, 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 L215, and enrolled "honest George" a brother +of the Company. + +The Grocers' Hall might never have been rebuilt after the Great Fire, so +crippled was the Company, but for the munificence of Sir John Cutler, a +rich Grocer, whom Pope (not always regardful of truth) has bitterly +satirised. + +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. + +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 L7,666 on his +funeral expenses. He served as Master of the Company in 1652 and 1653, +in 1688, and again a fourth time." + +In 1681 the Hall was renovated at an expense of L500, 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 L200. 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. + +The Grocers' charities are numerous; they give away annually L300 among +the poor of the Company, and they have had L4,670 left them to lend to +poor members of the community. Before 1770, Boyle says, the Company gave +away about L700 a year. + +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 +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 L1,000 to rebuild St. Antholin's, Budge Row. +Lawrence Sheriff, Warden 1561, was founder of the great school at Rugby. + +"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." + +"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 _Old +Barge_. 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 _Cornets Tower_, in London, did 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 L20 +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. + +"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 +_Peneritch Street_. 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." + +"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:-- + + "'The first of all the Town was told, + Where newest Indian things were sold; + So in a morning, without boddice, + Slipt sometimes out to Mrs. Thody's, + To cheapen tea, or buy a skreen; + What else could so much virtue mean?'" + +In the time of Queen Elizabeth this street was 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. + +Shakespeare mentions Bucklersbury in his _Merry Wives of Windsor_, +written at Queen Elizabeth's request. He makes Falstaff say to Mrs. +Ford-- + + "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." + (_Merry Wives of Windsor_, act iii. sc. 3.) + +The apothecaries' street is also mentioned in _Westward Ho!_ that +dangerous play that brought Ben Jonson into trouble:-- + + "_Mrs. Tenterhook._ Go into Bucklersbury, and fetch me two ounces of + preserved melons; look there be no tobacco taken in the shop when he + weighs it." + +And Ben Johnson, in a self-asserting poem to his bookseller, says:-- + + "Nor have my title-leaf on post or walls, + Or in cleft sticks advanced to make calls + For termers, or some clerk-like serving man, + Who scarce can spell th' hard names, whose knight less can. + If without these vile arts it will not sell, + Send it to Bucklersbury, there 'twill well." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +THE MANSION HOUSE. + + 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_. + + +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. + +The present palace of the Lord Mayor stands on 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 L46 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. + +"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?" + +"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." + +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 +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. + + "Could Robin Viner have foreseen + The glorious triumphs of his master, + The Wood-Church statue gold had been, + Which now is made of alabaster; + But wise men think, had it been wood, + 'Twere for a bankrupt king too good. + + "Those that the fabric well consider, + Do of it diversely discourse; + Some pass their censure of the rider, + Others their judgment of the horse; + Most say the steed's a goodly thing, + But all agree 'tis a lewd king." + +(_The History of Insipids; a Lampoon, 1676, by the Lord Rochester._) + +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." + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +At the close of the Exhibition of 1851, the Corporation of London, with +a view to encourage art, voted L10,000 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. + +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. + +"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 L3,000. There are +fees averaging from L500 to L600 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. + +"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 L1,000. + +[Illustration: THE MANSION HOUSE KITCHEN.] + +"The Lord Mayor is elected by the Livery of London, in Common Hall +assembled (Guildhall), on Michaelmas Day, the 29th of September, +previous 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 L1,000.) 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 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. + +"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 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. + +[Illustration: THE MANSION HOUSE IN 1750. (_From a Print published for +Stow's "Survey._")] + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 +applications; 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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 +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." + +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. + +"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 levee, 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 L400 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 L21 10s. 5d., under will, to thirteen pensioners, provided a +vacancy occurs during his year of office. L4 is given to a poor soldier, +and the same sum to a poor sailor. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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 +_entree_, 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. + +"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 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.[9] + +"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 +L1,000) 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 L150, +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. + +"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. + +"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 he orders +prosecutions at the City expense whenever he thinks the public good +requires it. The salary of the Recorder is L2,500 per annum, besides +fees; the Common Serjeant L1,000, with an income from other sources of +L843 per annum. The solicitor is supposed to make L5,000 per annum. + +"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 +L70,985 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 L9,000 was paid out of the City's income. The plate +cost L11,531 16s. 3d., which has been very considerably added to since +by the Lord Mayors for the time being, averaging about L500 per annum. + +"Attached to the household is-- + + _L s. d._ + + The chaplain, at a salary of 97 10 0 + The swordbearer 500 0 0 + The macebearer 500 0 0 + Water-bailiff 300 0 0 + City marshal 550 0 0 + Marshal's man 200 0 0 + Clerk of the Cocket Office 80 0 0 + Gate porter 6 6 0 + Seven trumpeters 29 9 0 + +"These sums, added to the allowance to the Lord Mayor, and the +ground-rent and taxes of the Mansion House (amounting to about L692 12s. +6d. per annum), and other expenses, it is expected, cost the City about +L19,038 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 L105 per annum in lieu of the table. The plate-butler and the +housekeeper have each L5 5s. per annum as a compliment from the City, +and in addition to their wages, paid by the Lord Mayor (L45 per annum to +the housekeeper, and L1 5s. per week to the plate-butler). The marshal's +clothing costs L44 16s. per annum, and that of the marshal's man L13 9s. +6d. + +"There is also-- + + _L s. d._ + + A yeoman of the chamber, at 270 0 0 + Three Serjeants of ditto,[10] each 280 0 0 + Master of the ceremonies 40 0 0 + Serjeant of the channel 184 10 0 + Yeoman of the channel 25 0 0 + Two yeomen of the waterside, each 350 0 0 + Deputy water-bailiff 350 0 0 + Water-bailiff's first young man 300 0 0 + The common hunt's young man 350 0 0 + Water-bailiff's second young man 300 0 0 + Swordbearer's young man 350 0 0 + +"These sums and others, added to the previous amount, make an annual +amount of expense connected with the office of Lord Mayor of L25,034 7s. +1d. + +"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 L1,000 a year from the Lord Mayor's allowance, and +requiring him only to provide the swordbearer's table on state days." + +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. + +"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, L781 10s. 10d.; +one item in this account is for meat given to the prisoners at Ludgate, +at a cost of L68 10s. 8d. The wines are, of course, expensive. +1792--Paid, late Lord Mayor's stock, L57 7s. 11d.; hock, 35 dozen, L82 +14s. 0d.; champagne, 40 ditto, at 43s., L85 19s. 9d.; claret, 154 ditto, +at 34s. 10d. per dozen, L268 12s. 7d.; Burgundy, 30 ditto, L76 5s. 0d.; +port, 8 pipes, 400 dozen, L416 4s. 0d.; draught ditto, for Lord Mayor's +day, L49 4s. 0d.; ditto, ditto, for Easter Monday, L28 4s. 3d.--L493 +12s. 3d.; Madeira, 32 dozen, L59 16s. 4d.; sherry, 61 dozen, L67 1s. +0d.; Lisbon, one hogshead, at 34s. per dozen, L62 12s. 0d.; bottles to +make good, broke and stole, L97 13s. 6d.; arrack, L8 8s. 0d.; brandy, 25 +gallons, L18 11s. 0d.; rum, 6-1/2 ditto, L3 19s. 6d. Total, L1,309 12s. +10d." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE EGYPTIAN HALL.] + +"These items of costume are curious:--Lady Mayoress, November 30.--A +hoop, L2 16s. 0d.; point ruffles, L12 12s. 0d.; treble blond ditto, L7 +7s. 0d.; a fan, L3 3s. 0d.; a cap and lappets, L7 7s. 0d.; a cloak and +sundries, L26 17s. 0d.; hair ornaments, L34 0s. 0d.; a cap, L7 18s. 0d.; +sundries, L37 9s. 1d. 1793, Jan. 26.--A silk, for 9th Nov., 3-1/2 +guineas per yard, L41 6s. 0d.; a petticoat (Madame Beauvais), L35 3s. +6d.; a gold chain, L57 15s. 0d.; silver silk, L13 0s. 0d.; clouded +satin, L5 10s. 0d.; a petticoat for Easter, L29 1s. 0d.; millinery, for +ditto, L27 17s. 6d.; hair-dressing, L13 2s. 3d. July 6th.--A petticoat, +L6 16s. 8d.; millinery, L7 8s. 8d.; mantua-maker, in full, L13 14s. 6d.; +milliner, in full, L12 6s. 6d. Total, L416 2s. 0d. The Lord Mayor's +dress:--Two wigs, L9 9s. 0d.; a velvet suit, L54 8s. 0d.; other clothes, +L117 13s. 4d.; hats and hose, L9 6s. 6d.; a scarlet robe, L14 8s. 6d.; a +violet ditto, L12 1s. 6d.; a gold chain, L63 0s. 0d.; steel buckles, L5 +5s. 0d.; a steel sword, L6 16s. 6d.; hair-dressing, L16 16s. 11d.--L309 +2s. 3d. On the page opposite to that containing this record, under the +head of 'Ditto Returned,' we read 'Per Valuation, L0 0s. 0d.' Thus, to +dress a Lord Mayor costs L309 2s. 0d.; but her Ladyship cannot be duly +arrayed at a less cost than L416 2s. 0d. To dress the servants cost L724 +5s. 6d." + +Then comes a grand summing-up. "Dr. The whole state of the account, +L12,173 4s. 3d." Then follow the receipts per contra:--" At +Chamberlain's Office, L3,572 8s. 4d.; Cocket Office, L892 5s. 11d.; +Bridge House, L60; City Gauger, L250; freedoms, L175; fees on +affidavits, L21 16s. 8d.; seals, L67 4s. 9d.; licences, L13 15s.; +sheriff's fees, L13 6s. 8d.; corn fees, L15 13s.; venison warrants, L14 +4s.; attorneys, Mayor's Court, L26 7s. 9d.; City Remembrancer, L12 12s.; +in lieu of baskets, L7 7s.; vote of Common Council, L100; sale of horses +and carriages, L450; wine (overplus) removed from Mansion House, L398 +18s. 7d. Total received, L6,117 9s. 8d. Cost of mayoralty, as such, and +independent of all private expenses, L6,055 14s. 7d." + +[Illustration: THE "MARIA WOOD." (_See page 447._)] + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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 _my_ horses, which were pawing with mud, and snorting and +smoking like steam-engines, with nostrils like safety valves, and four +of _my_ footmen behind the coach, like bees in a swarm.'" + +Perhaps the most effective portion of the paper is the _reverse_ of the +picture. My lord and lady 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?' + +"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 +_gals_?' This was quite natural, all as it had been. But how unlike what +it _was_ 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 _missis_ as if +she had been an old apple-woman. + +"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 +_you_, I wonder? Why are you so partiklar about your _hysight_?' I felt +an involuntary shudder. 'To-day,' thought I, 'I am John Ebenezer +Scropps. Two days ago I was Lord Mayor!'" + +"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 industrious and +attentive from his hope of one day riding in that golden coach." + +"On ordinary state occasions," says "Aleph," in the _City Press_, "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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +The Corporate seal is circular. The second seal, made in the mayoralty +of Sir William Walworth, 1381, is much defaced. + +"The 'gondola,' known as the 'Lord Mayor's State Barge,'" says "Aleph," +"was built in 1807, at a cost of L2,579. 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 L20, and she +was ultimately knocked down for L105. 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 _Maria +Wood_ from the eldest and pet daughter of that 'twice Lord Mayor.' It +cost L3,300, and was built by Messrs. Field and White, in consequence of +the old barge _Crosby_ (built during the mayoralty of Brass Crosby, +1771) being found past repairing. _Maria Wood_ 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 L1,000 +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 L100, next L200, L220, and +thence regular bids, till finally it got to L400, when Mr. Alderman +Humphrey bid L410, 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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] 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. + +[10] These functionaries carve the barons of beef at the banquet on Lord +Mayor's Day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +SAXON LONDON. + + 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 _Gemot_ 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. + + +Our materials for sketching Saxon London are singularly scanty; yet some +faint picture of it we may perhaps hope to convey. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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:-- + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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 (_addle_, from the German word _edel_, +noble). But Stow does not mention the tradition, which rests, we fear, +on slender evidence. + +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. + +We must be therefore content to search for allusions to London's growth +and wealth in Saxon history, and there the allusions are frequent, +clear, and interesting. + +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 _point d'appui_ 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. + +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. + +"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 (_caput regni Merciorum_, 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 +_planted_ the _garrison_ of London (_i.e._, 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." + +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 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 +AEthelberht the commerce of London was again renowned. AElfred 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 +AEthelstan, 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 Luettich, 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 +by whom London was now threatened. The demand for toll and tribute fell +lightly on those whom the English legislation distinguished as the _men +of the Emperor_." + +[Illustration: BROAD STREET AND CORNHILL WARDS. (_From a Map of 1750._)] + +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. + +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 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. + +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 Dorsaetas, 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. + +In 1009 the Danes made several vain attempts on London. + +[Illustration: LORD MAYOR'S WATER PROCESSION.] + +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 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." + +Canute the Dane was chosen as king at Southampton; but the Londoners +were so rich, free, and powerful that they held a rival _gemot_, 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." + +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. + +On the succession of Harold I. (Canute's natural 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." + +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 _gemot_; but, of course, when the _gemot_ 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. II.) 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. + +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." + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE BANK OF ENGLAND. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 L200,000 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, 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. + +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 +L1,300,000, 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. + +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 L300,000 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 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. + +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 L3,000,000 of debt in three years, and the +Ministers even stooped, hat in hand, to borrow L100,000 or L200,000 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, L1,200,000, was not collected by +August, 1699, there should be no Bank, and the whole L1,200,000 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 L1,200,000 would never be +subscribed. Nevertheless, the next day L346,000, 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. + +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 L1,200,000, at the modest interest of eight per cent. To +encourage capitalists, the subscribers were to be 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 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." + +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 +L30,000. 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 L10 note, taken for more than L9 in the morning, was +before night worth less than L8. + +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 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. + +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 L200,000 +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. + +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 L3,000,000. Paterson, who was one +of the first Directors of the Bank of England, upon a qualification of +L2,000 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. + +When the notes of the Bank were at 20 per cent. discount, the Government +(says Francis) empowered the corporation to add L1,001,171 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. + +[Illustration: THE OLD BANK, LOOKING FROM THE MANSION HOUSE. (_From a +Print of 1730._)] + +The past services of the Bank were not forgotten. 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. + +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 L60,000 +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. + +[Illustration: OLD PATCH. (_See page 459._)] + +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 pretended 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 L500, carried it to +the Bank; and on the story being told to the Queen, she sent him L100, +with an obligation on the Treasury to repay the whole L500. 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. + +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 +L5,000,000. The new subscriptions were raised in a few hours, and nearly +one million more could have been obtained on the same day. + +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. + +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 L20, and as part of the note only +was printed the clerk's pen supplied the remainder. + +In 1742, when the charter was renewed till 1762, the loan of L1,600,000, +without interest, was required by the Government for the favour. By the +act of renewal forging bank-notes, &c., was declared punishable with +death. + +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. + +In 1746, the capital on which the Bank stock proprietors divided +amounted to L10,780,000. It 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." + +In 1759 bank-notes of a smaller value than L20 were first circulated. In +1764 the Bank charter was renewed on a gift of L110,000, 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 L5. + +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. + +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 L12,000. The +Government allowance of L562 10s. per million for managing the National +Debt was reduced at this time to L450. Five years later our debt was +calculated at 242 millions, which, taken in L10 notes, would weigh, it +was curiously calculated, 47,265 lbs. + +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 L200,000. 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. + +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 L1,272,000, the Bank +suspended cash payments, and notes under L5 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. + +In 1807, the celebrated chief cashier of the Bank, Abraham Newland, the +hero of Dibdin's well-known song-- + + "Sham Abraham you may, + But you mustn't sham Abraham Newland," + +retired from his duties, obtained a pension, and the same year died. His +property amounted to L200,000, besides L1,000 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 for many of these loans, as he left +them L500 each to buy mourning-rings. + +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. + +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." + +In 1821 the real re-commencement of specie payments took place. In 1822 +Turner, a Bank clerk, stole L10,000 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. + +By Fauntleroy's (the banker) forgeries in 1824, the Bank lost L360,000, +and the interest alone, which was regularly paid, had amounted to L9,000 +or L10,000 a year. Fauntleroy's bank was in 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +On the 31st of August, 1731, a scene was presented 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." + +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. + +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 _bona-fide_ +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." + +An extraordinary affair happened about the year 1740. One of the +directors, a very rich man, had occasion for L30,000, 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 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 +L30,000 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. + +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 +L700,000 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 L700,000; and the whole +amount of L500,000 or L600,000 was paid by Childs' in Bank of England +notes. In addition to the triumph of this manoeuvre, Childs' must have +made a large sum, from Bank paper being at a considerable discount. + +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.) + +The circulation of L1 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." + +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. + +[Illustration: THE BANK PARLOUR, EXTERIOR VIEW.] + +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 was the greatest improvement he had +ever seen, is said to be yet in the Mint. + +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 _cruel and oppressive_ to withhold from the husband his +right of transferring." + +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 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." + +[Illustration: DIVIDEND DAY AT THE BANK.] + +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 +L20 each, by way of compensation for the alarm they had given him." + +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 +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 L50 each were +presented at the office and cash paid for them. The next day they were +found to be forged. + +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 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." + +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. + +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, L101,061 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 L60,000 were presented, being +an increase of 300 per cent. In 1797, the entire cost of prosecutions +for forgeries was L1,500, and in the last three months of 1818 it was +near L20,000. 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." + +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, 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 L700,000, when they were only in +possession of L500,000. So completely had he deceived these gentlemen, +that two of the body vouched by their signatures for the delivery of the +larger amount. + +He was tried for the felonious embezzlement of three bills of exchange +of L1,000 each. He escaped hanging, but remained a miserable prisoner in +Newgate for many years. + +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. + +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 thought very desirable to +discover the manufactory whence the notes emanated. + +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. + +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 L7,000,000 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 L7,000,000 being subscribed by the first ten persons +who gained admission. + +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 the general commanding +there of employing him to get L5,000 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. + +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. + +A principal clerk of one of our bankers having robbed his employer of +Bank of England notes to the amount of L20,000, 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. + +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 bills for L20,000; 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. + +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 L4,285,837, +and 2-3/4d. was the loss on each, taking an average of 35,000. The large +sum of L1,400, in L1 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 L20 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. + +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 L30,000. 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 L40,000. 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. + +The largest amount of a bank-note in current circulation in 1827 was +L1,000. It is said that two notes for L100,000 each, and two for +L50,000, were once engraved and issued. A butcher who had amassed an +immense fortune in the war time, went one day with one of these L50,000 +notes to a private bank, asking the loan of L5,000, and wishing to +deposit the big note as security in the banker's hands, saying that he +had kept it for years. The L5,000 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." + +As the Bank of England pays an annual average sum of L70,000 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 L40,000,000 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. + +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 L40,000. + +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 L2,000,000, and as high as L2,500,000. 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 L500,000. + +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 L700 per annum to L75, and the amount paid to the servants of +the entire establishment, about 1,000, upwards of L200,000. 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 L2,000. The directors, twenty-four, +exclusive of the Governor and Deputy-Governor, decide by majority all +matters of importance. + +[Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. BENET FINK.] + +The Bank of England (says Dodsley's excellent 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, 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:-- + + "For restoring efficiency to the Laws, + Authority to the Courts of Justice, + Dignity to the Parliament, + To all his subjects their Religion and Liberties, + And confirming them to Posterity, + By the succession of the Illustrious House of Hanover + To the British Throne: + To the best of Princes, William the Third. + Founder of the Bank, + This Corporation, from a sense of Gratitude, + Has erected this Statue, + And dedicated it to his memory, + In the Year of our Lord MDCCXXXIV., + And the first year of this Building." + +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. + +[Illustration: COURT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND (_see page 470_).] + +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 being copied from the Temple of Mars the Avenger, at Rome. + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +"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 +designed 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. + +"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." + +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. + +"A clerk going with a charge of L99,000, 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 L100,000; consequently he has L1,000, the +difference, to pay. He searches for another, who has a larger balance to +receive, and gives him a memorandum for this L1,000; 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." + +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 L150,000,000 each day. + +"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 impelled 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." + +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, 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. + +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. + +Dividend day at the Bank has been admirably described, in the wittiest +manner, by a modern essayist in _Household Words_:--"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. + +[Illustration: "JONATHAN'S." _From an Old Sketch._] + +"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 +substantial 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 L1,000 in the Consols only produces L7 +10s. a quarter), retire to an archway in 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." + +Among the curiosities shown to visitors are the Bank parlour, the +counting-room, and the printing-room; the albums containing original +L1,000 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 L25 that had been out 111 years. + +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 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." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +THE STOCK EXCHANGE. + + 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. + + +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." + +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 +L6,000 for permission to attend his campaigns, and amply repaid himself +by the use of the early intelligence he obtained. + +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, 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. + +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. + +The following extracts from Cibber's play of _The Refusal; or, the +Ladies' Philosophy_, 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:-- + + _Granger_ (_to Witling, who has been boasting of his gain_): And all + this out of 'Change Alley? + + _Witling:_ Every shilling, sir; all out of stocks, puts, bulls, + shams, bears and bubbles. + +And again:-- + + 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. + +[Illustration: CAPEL COURT.] + +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." + +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 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 L500,000. 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 L240,000 to the hospital which bears his name. His body lay in +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. + +[Illustration: THE CLEARING HOUSE.] + +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, L10,000,000 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 +commonly 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." + +Sampson Gideon, the famous Jew broker, died in 1762. Some of his shrewd +sayings are preserved. 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 L20,000. 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 L2,000 to the Sons of the Clergy, and of L1,000 to +the London Hospital. He also gave L1,000 to the synagogue, on condition +of having his remains interred in the Jewish burying-place. + +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 +L4,000,000, were in circulation. He earnestly sought, but in vain, for +pecuniary aid. The Bank refused it, and when he applied for help to a +wealthy Quaker, "Friend Fordyce," was the answer, "I have known many men +ruined by _two dice_, but I will not be ruined by _Four-dice_." + +In 1785, a stockbroker, named Atkinson, probably from the "North +Countree," speculated enormously, but skilfully, we must suppose, for he +realised a fortune of L500,000. 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 L1,000 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 L10,000, to which, by his adroit +management, her deposit had increased. + +In general (says "Aleph," in the _City Press_), 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. + +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! (_Rattles spring._) 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!--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 Conde 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." + +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 +L50 each, creating a fund of L13,150 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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Times_ or the _Herald_. 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. + +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 L22,000 to Walsh, who undertook to lodge the notes at +Gosling's. In the evening he brought an acknowledgment for L6,000, +promising to make up the amount next day. Sir Thomas called at his +bankers, and found that a cheque for L16,000 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 L1,000 to his broker, purchasing +L11,000 of American stock, and buying L5,000 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. + +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 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 +L2,000,000 per month. + +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. + +In the meantime other artful confederates were at work. The same day, +about an hour before 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. + +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 L826,000, 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 L1,000, 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 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. + +The ticket pocketing of 1821 is thus described by the author of "An +Expose 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 manoeuvres 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. + +"At twelve the broker mounts the rostrum and opens: 'Gentlemen, I am a +buyer of L60,000 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 L2,000 thereat, and L10,000 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. '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." + +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 _nonchalance_ in the Stock Exchange. If the answer is +'Yes,' the borrower says, 'I want L10,000 or L20,000.'--'At what +security?' is the vital question that soon follows. + +"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 L1,000 at 40 +shillings, and sell L1,000 at 42 shillings. The jobbers cluster round +the broker, who perhaps says, 'I must have a price in L5,000.' 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 L20,000 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 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 L10,000 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." + +The uninitiated wonder that any man should borrow L10,000 or L20,000 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 L12,000 or L14,000 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." + +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." + +[Illustration: THE PRESENT STOCK EXCHANGE.] + +The journals of that day described the hot 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 manoeuvres +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 account; if sufficient to trip up the contractors, the +better. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +Nathan was entrusted with L20,000, 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 L60,000. +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. + +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 L600,000 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." + +"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 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 L600,000 +Consols, saying, 'As he always so abuses me, they will never suspect he +is _bearing_ 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." + +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." + +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 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 _sans ceremonie_ 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. + +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. + +The broker was rather tardier than Rothschild's patience could brook; he +therefore determined to 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." + +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 _in propria persona_. 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 Croesus, 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!" + +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 empower the brokers he usually +employed to sell out stock, say to the amount of L500,000. 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 L1,500,000, 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 L500,000. +He now sells out, at the advanced price, the entire L1,500,000 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 L35,000. 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 L100,000 on +one account. + +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 L1,500,000. The security offered by +Rothschild was a proportionate amount of stock in Consols, which were at +that 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 4-1/2 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 L3,000,000. 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 L10,000,000. 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 L300,000 or L400,000. + +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 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." + +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 +L2,000,000. + +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 been arrested for a debt of +L55, 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 L100, 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 L20,000 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 L20,000, or even L20, in +the world. By the next post came a letter enclosing the curate L1,500, +the profit on selling out the L20,000 omnium, the premium having risen +since the curate's name had been put down. + +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 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 L100,000. 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. + +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 L1,000, +"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 L40,000. 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 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. + +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 +L400,000 Consols sustained a loss of from L10,000 to L15,000, for which +more than one broker found it necessary, for sustaining his credit, to +pay. + +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 L3,000 or L4,000 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 _coup_ L27,000. 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. + +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:-- + + "Never refuse an option when you can get it; + Cut short your losses; + Let your profits run on." + +By the second rule, which, like the rest, is strictly technical, Mr. +Ricardo meant that purchasers of 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. + +[Illustration: ON CHANGE. (_From an Old Print, about 1800. The Figures +by Rowlandson; Architecture by Nash._)] + +Gentlemen of the Stock Exchange are rough with intruders. A few years +since, says a writer in the _City Press_, 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?" + +"I wish to speak with a member, Mr. A----, and was not aware it was +against the rules to enter the building." + +"Then we'll make you aware for the future," said a coarse but +iron-fisted jobber, prepared to suit the action to the word. + +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. + +Practical joking, says an _habitue_, 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 "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. + +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 +L10,000,000, has changed hands. Rothschild is known in one day to have +made purchases to the extent of L4,000,000. 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 L50,000. 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 L200,000 in Consols at 96, and at once offered any +part of L100,000 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 L100,000. 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 L50,000 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 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." + +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. + +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 L10,000 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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 L500 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 L300. 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. + +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. + +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 L10,000, +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. + +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 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 L30,000. +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 +L500,000. + +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 +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. + +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 +been estimated at L600 or L700 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. + +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 L10 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 +speculations they in consequence conducted. The defect was soon remedied +by changing the style of characters employed, and all went right as +before. + +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"--_Anglice_, to fulfil +his engagements. + +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. + +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 _dernier ressort_. 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 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. + +[Illustration: INNER COURT OF THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE (_See page +495_).] + +The purchase of stock is thus described by an _habitue_. "Suppose I +went," he says, "to buy L100 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 _better_, they are on the rise from +the preceding day; if _worse_, they are lower than on that day; if +_steady_, they have not fluctuated at all, or very little. To render the +matter as intelligible as possible, we will suppose the price to be +80-1/8, that is, L80 2s. 6d. sterling for L100 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 _turn_, 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 _not_ leave the +purchase to a broker; I manage it myself. I direct my broker to buy me +L100 stock at 80-1/4. 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 _transfer_ 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 payment of the dividend is +an acknowledgment of my right to the stock; and therefore the receipt +then becomes useless." + +[Illustration: SIR THOMAS GRESHAM.] + +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. + +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 L30,000. + +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. + +The managers, in 1854, expended about L6,000 in securing additional +space for the Stock Exchange prior to the commencement of the works, and +the contract was taken at L10,400, some subsequent alterations +respecting ventilation having caused the amount to be already exceeded. + +The fabric belongs to a private company, consisting of 400 +shareholders, and the shares were originally of L50 each, but are now of +uncertain amount, the last addition being a call of L25 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 he hoped in one year to save +England L20,000. 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 L200 (in heavy +Spanish rials), in bags of pepper, four at a time, and the English +ambassador at Brussels was to bring over with him L20,000 or L30,000, +but he afterwards changed his mind, and sent the money packed up in +bales with suits of armour and L3,000 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 L1 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. + +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 16-1/2 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. + +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." + +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 reminded 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. + +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. + +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 +L3,737 6s. 6d., and the materials sold for L478. The amount was +subscribed for in small sums by about 750 citizens, the Ironmongers' +Company giving L75. 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: WREN'S PLAN FOR REBUILDING LONDON. (_See page 501._)] + +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 L4 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, 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." + +Such was the vulgar opinion of Gresham's wealth, that Thomas Heywood, in +his old play, _If You know not Me, You know Nobody_, makes Gresham crush +an invaluable pearl into the wine-cup in which he drinks his queen's +health-- + + "Here fifteen hundred pounds at one clap goes. + Instead of sugar, Gresham drinks the pearl + Unto his queen and mistress. Pledge it, lords!" + +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, 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. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF THE EXCHANGE IN 1837.] + +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 +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." + +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:-- + + "Though little coin thy purseless pockets line, + Yet with great company thou'rt taken up; + For often with Duke Humfray thou dost dine, + And often with Sir Thomas Gresham sup." + +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 he so +wonderfully epitomises the vicissitudes of a merchant's life:-- + + "My wind, cooling my broth, + Would blow me to an ague, when I thought + What harm a wind too great might do at sea. + I should not see the sandy hour-glass run, + But I should think of shallows and of flats, + And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand, + Vailing her high top lower than her ribs, + To kiss her burial. Should I go to church, + And see the holy edifice of stone, + And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks? + Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side, + Would scatter all her spices on the stream; + Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks; + And, in a word, but even now worth this, + And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought + To think on this; and shall I lack the thought, + That such a thing, bechanced, would make me sad?" + +[Illustration: THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE.] + +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." + +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. + +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 L751 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 +L2,388 a year, these neglects were unworthy of her, but they +nevertheless continued till her death, in 1596. As the same lady +contributed L100 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. + +[Illustration: THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE, CORNHILL.] + +"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. + +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." + +"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." + +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. + +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! 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." + +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." + +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. +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." + +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. + +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 L1,000. The refractory, +greedy Sweeting declared that his tenants paid him L246 a year, and in +fines L620; and that if the new street cut near St. Benet Fink Church, +another L1,000 would not satisfy him for his damage. It is supposed that +he eventually took L700 for the 783 feet 4 inches of ground, and for an +area 25 feet long by 12 wide. + +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 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." + +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. (_Vide_ "Journals of the +House of Commons.") + +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. The height from the +basement line to the top of the dome was 128 feet 6 inches. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +We append a few allusions to the second 'Change in Addison's works, and +elsewhere. + +In 1683, the following idle verses appeared, forming part of Robin +Conscience's "Progress through Court, City, and Country:"-- + + "Now I being thus abused below, + Did walk upstairs, where on a row, + Brave shops of ware did make a shew + Most sumptious. + + "The gallant girls that there sold knacks, + Which ladies and brave women lacks, + When they did see me, they did wax + In choler. + + "Quoth they, We ne'er knew Conscience yet, + And, if he comes our gains to get, + We'll banish him; he'll here not get + One scholar." + +"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." + +"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." +(_Spectator_, No. 69.) + +It appears, from one of Steele's contributions to the _Spectator_, that +so late as the year 1712 the shops continued to present undiminished +attraction. They were then 160 in number, and, letting at L20 or L30 +each, formed, in all, a yearly rent of L4,000: 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." + +"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." + +The cost of the second Exchange to the City and Mercers' Company is +estimated by Strype at L80,000, but Mr. Burgon calculates it at only +L69,979 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 L34,390. +This sum included the cost of a handsome gate tower and cupola, erected +in 1821, from the design of George Smith, Esq., surveyor to the +Mercers' Company, in lieu of Jerman's dilapidated wooden tower. + +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 L6 5s. +per cwt. The balconies from the inner pawn into the quadrangle cost +about L300. The signs over the shops were not hung, but were over the +doors. + +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. + +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." + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + 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. + + +[Illustration: THE PRESENT ROYAL EXCHANGE.] + +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 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 L2,500, 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 of Gresham was entirely +destroyed. In the ruins of the Lord Mayor's Court Office the great City +Seal, and two bags, each containing L200 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. + +[Illustration: BLACKWELL HALL IN 1812.] + +An Act of Parliament was passed in 1838, giving power to purchase and +remove all the buildings (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 L150,000, 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 _quasi_-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 L8,124. 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 (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. + +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 Alley, was, according to the City +Chamberlain's return of 1851, L223,578 1s. 10d. The cost of the building +was L150,000. + +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:-- + + SIR THOMAS GRESHAM, Knight, + Erected at his own charge + A Building and Colonnade + For the convenience of those Persons + Who, in this renowned Mart, + Might carry on the Commerce of the World; + Adding thereto, for the relief of Indigence, + And for the advancement of Literature and Science, + An Almshouse and a College of Lecturers; + The City of London aiding him; + Queen Elizabeth favouring the design, + And, when the work was complete, + Opening it in person, with a solemn Procession. + Having been reduced to ashes, + Together with almost the entire City, + By a calamitous and widely-spreading Conflagration, + They were Rebuilt in a more splendid form + By the City of London + And the ancient Company of Mercers, + King Charles the Second commencing the building + On the 23rd October, A.D. 1667; + And when they had been again destroyed by Fire, + On the 10th January, A.D. 1838, + The same Bodies, undertaking the work, + Determined to restore them, at their own cost, + On an enlarged and more ornamental Plan, + The munificence of Parliament providing the means + Of extending the Site, + And of widening the Approaches and Crooked Streets + In every direction, + In order that there might at length arise, + Under the auspices of Queen Victoria, + Built a third time from the ground, + An Exchange + Worthy of this great Nation and City, + And suited to the vastness of a Commerce + Extended to the circumference + Of the habitable Globe. + His Royal Highness + Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, + Consort of Her Sacred Majesty, + Laid the First Stone + On the 17th January, 1842, + In the Mayoralty of the Right Hon. John Pirie. + Architect, William Tite, F.R.S. + May God our Preserver + Ward off destruction + From this Building, + And from the whole City. + +At the sale of the salvage, the porter's large hand-bell, rung daily +before closing the 'Change (with the handle burnt), fetched L3 3s.; City +griffins, L30 and L35 the pair; busts of Queen Elizabeth, L10 15s. and +L18 the pair; figures of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, L110; the +statue of Anne, L10 5s.; George II., L9 5s.; George III. and Elizabeth, +L11 15s. each; Charles II., L9; and the sixteen other royal statues +similar sums. The copper-gilt grasshopper vane was reserved. + +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 _dejeuner_ 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. + +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 L30,000, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 L9,000 for this figure; and the +French cannon from which it was cast, and valued at L1,500, 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. + +On the frieze of the portico is inscribed, "ANNO XIII. ELIZABETHAE R. +CONDITVM; ANNO VIII. VICTORIA R. RESTAVRATVM." 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 supercargo. The opposite +angles are filled with anchors, jars, packages, &c. Upon the pedestal of +Commerce is this inscription, selected by Prince Albert: "THE EARTH IS +THE LORD'S, AND THE FULNESS THEREOF."--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. + +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 L500, 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. + +The interior of the Exchange is an open courtyard, resembling the +_cortile_ 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 p.m., the two great days being Tuesday and Friday for +foreign exchanges." + +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. + +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--a my;" the City, "Domine +dirige nos;" the Mercers', "Honor Deo." + +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. + +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 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 L300,000 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 L150,000 of the +L300,000 originally demanded by Government. + +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. + +"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. + +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 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." + +The following preamble to the Statute, 43rd Elizabeth, proves that +marine assurance was even then an old institution in England:-- + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +After the Fire of London the underwriters met 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 _Lloyd's List_, 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." _Lloyd's List_ must therefore have begun about 1726. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF LLOYD'S.] + +In the _Tatler_ 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." + +The following note is curious:--"11th March, 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." (_Gentleman's Magazine_, March, 1740.) + +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. + +[Illustration: THE SUBSCRIPTION-ROOM AT "LLOYD'S." _From an Old Print._] + +"Taking the three rooms in the order they stand, under the rules and +regulations of the establishment, 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. + +"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. + +"'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. + +"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." + +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 +L20,000 Three per Cent. Consols. In three months only the sum +subscribed at Lloyd's amounted to more than L70,000. In 1809 they gave +L5,000 more, and in 1813 L10,000. 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 L700,000. In other charities +Lloyd's were equally munificent. They gave L5,000 to the London +Hospital, for the admission of London merchant-seamen; L1,000 for +suffering inhabitants of Russia, in 1813; L1,000 for the relief of the +North American Militia (1813); L10,000 to the Waterloo subscription of +1815; L2,000 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:-- + + "This heavenly scarf beneath thy bosom bind, + And live; give all thy terrors to the wind." + +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 +_Lloyd's List_, 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 of all ships, and of +whatever nation, frequenting the port of London, have access to this +collection. + +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 L100 +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 L48,434 16s. 11d. in the Three per +Cents., and L10,295 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. + +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; 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THE BANK:--LOTHBURY. + + 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. + + +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 _berie_, or +_court_, 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." + +"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." + +Ben Jonson brings in an allusion to once noisy Lothbury in the +"Alchemist." In this play Sir Epicure Mammon says:-- + + This night I'll change + All that is metal in my house to gold; + And early in the morning will I send + To all the plumbers and the pewterers, + And buy their tin and lead up; and to Lothbury + For all the copper. + + _Surly._ What, and turn that too? + + _Mammon._ Yes, and I'll purchase Devonshire and Cornwall, + And make them perfect Indies. + +And again in his mask of "The Gipsies Metamorphosed"-- + + Bless the sovereign and his seeing. + + * * * * * + + From a fiddle out of tune, + As the cuckoo is in June, + From the candlesticks of Lothbury + And the loud pure wives of Banbury. + +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 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. + +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. + +Maitland also gives the following epitaph on Sir John Leigh, 1564:-- + + "No wealth, no praise, no bright renowne, no skill, + No force, no fame, no prince's love, no toyle, + Though forraine lands by travel search you will, + No faithful service of thy country soile, + Can life prolong one minute of an houre; + But Death at length will execute his power. + For Sir John Leigh, to sundry countries knowne, + A worthy knight, well of his prince esteemed, + By seeing much to great experience growne, + Though safe on seas, though sure on land he seemed, + Yet here he lyes, too soone by Death opprest; + His fame yet lives, his soule in Heaven hath rest." + +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. + +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." + +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 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 L5 +worth of lead tokens, their store amounting to some L15,000. 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, +"_Nummorum famulus._" 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, +_Fax missa per orbem_, 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). + +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. + +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, 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." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +THROGMORTON STREET.--THE DRAPERS' COMPANY. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF DRAPERS' HALL.] + +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," 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:-- + +"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 vjs. viijd. 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.) + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: DRAPERS' HALL GARDEN.] + +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; the London drapers at first opposing the right of the country +clothiers to sell in gross. + +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. + +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:-- + +In 1476 forty of the Company rode to meet Edward IV. on his return from +France, at a cost of L20. 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). + +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. + +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 depot, 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. + +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 +the Drapers at the third. Another entry in the same year records a sum +of L22 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. + +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 L1,402 +6s. for their chantries and obits. + +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 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. + +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 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 L6 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. + +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. + +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 L10 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 L200 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. + +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 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. + +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:"-- + + _"In proper habits, orderly arrayed, + The movements of the morning are displayed._ + Selected citizens i' th' morning all, + At seven a clock, do meet at _Drapers' Hall_. + The master, wardens, and assistants joyn + For the first rank, in their gowns fac'd with Foyn. + The second order do, in merry moods, + March in gowns fac'd with Budge and livery hoods. + In gowns and scarlet hoods thirdly appears + A youthful number of Foyn's Batchellors; + Forty Budge Batchellors the triumph crowns, + Gravely attir'd in scarlet hoods and gowns. + Gentlemen Ushers which white staves do hold + Sixty, in velvet coats and chains of gold. + Next, thirty more in plush and buff there are, + That several colours wear, and banners bear. + The Serjeant Trumpet thirty-six more brings + (Twenty the Duke of York's, sixteen the King's). + The Serjeant wears two scarfs, whose colours be + One the Lord Mayor's, t'other's the Company. + The King's Drum Major, follow'd by four more + Of the King's drums and fifes, make _London roar_." + +"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." + +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 +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. + +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 L4,000 a year to +charitable uses. + +[Illustration: CROMWELL'S HOUSE, FROM AGGAS'S MAP. + +(_Taken from Herbert's "City Companies."_)] + +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 L446 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _curious_," 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, and its +execution as a work of art, are also too modern." + +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 +L600 and L700. "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. + +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. + +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. 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, +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. + +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." + +The Drapers' list of livery states their modern arms to be thus +emblazoned, viz.--Azure, three clouds radiated _proper_, each adorned +with a triple crown _or_. Supporters--two lions _or_, pelletted. +Crest--on a wreath, a ram couchant _or_, armed _sables_, on a mount +_vert_. Motto--"Unto God only be honour and glory." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +BARTHOLOMEW LANE AND LOMBARD STREET. + + 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. + + +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 L2,000 and all his expenses to go and dispose of +a valuable property in New York. His annual income was guessed at +L12,000. 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:-- + + "Mr. George Robins is desired to announce + To the Public, and more especially to the + Theatrical World, that he is authorised to sell + By Public Auction, at the Mart, + On Thursday next, the twentieth of June, at twelve, + The Olympic Theatre, which for so many years + Possessed a kindly feeling with the Public, + And has, for many seasons past, assumed + An unparalleled altitude in theatricals, since + It was fortunately demised to Madame Vestris; + Who, albeit, not content to move at the slow rate + Of bygone time, gave to it a spirit and a + Consequence, that the march of improvement + And her own consummate taste and judgment + Had conceived. To crown her laudable efforts + With unquestionable success, she has caused + To be completed (with the exception of St. James's) + THE MOST SPLENDID LITTLE THEATRE IN EUROPE; + Has given to the entertainments a new life; + Has infused so much of her own special tact, + That it now claims to be one of the most + FAMED OF THE METROPOLITAN THEATRES. Indeed, + It is a fact that will always remain on record, + That amid the vicissitudes of all other theatrical + Establishments, with Madame at its head, success has + Never been equivocal for a moment, and the + Receipts have for years past averaged nearly + As much as the patent theatres. The boxes are + In such high repute, that double the present low + Rental is available by this means alone. Madame + Vestris has a lease for three more seasons at only one + Thousand pounds a year," &c. + +[Illustration: POPE'S HOUSE, PLOUGH COURT, LOMBARD STREET.] + +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 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 L3,000, to L3,400. +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 L5,850, at which sum the theatre was 'knocked +down.'" + +St. Bartholomew's behind the Exchange was built in 1438. Stow gives the +following strange epitaph, date 1615:-- + + Here lyes a Margarite that most excell'd + (Her father Wyts, her mother Lichterveld, + Rematcht with Metkerke) of remarke for birth, + But much more gentle for her genuine worth; + Wyts (rarest) Jewell (so her name bespeakes) + In pious, prudent, peaceful, praise-full life, + Fitting a Sara and a Sacred's wife, + Such as Saravia and (her second) Hill, + Whose joy of life, Death in her death did kill. + + Quam pie obiit, Puerpera, Die 29, Junii, + Anno Salutis 1615. AEtatis 39. + + From my sad cradle to my sable chest, + Poore Pilgrim, I did find few months of rest. + In Flanders, Holland, Zeland, England, all, + To Parents, troubles, and to me did fall. + These made me pious, patient, modest, wise; + And, though well borne, to shun the gallants' guise; + But now I rest my soule, where rest is found, + My body here, in a small piece of ground, + And from my Hill, that hill I have ascended, + From whence (for me) my Saviour once descended. + + Margarita, a Jewell. + I, like a Jewell, tost by sea to land, + Am bought by him, who weares me on his hand. + + Margarita, Margareta. + One night, two dreames + Made two propheticals, + Thine of thy coffin, + Mine of thy funerals. + If women all were like to thee, + We men for wives should happy be. + +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. + +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 _debtor_, _creditor_, _cash_, +_usance_, _bank_, _bankrupt_, _journal_, _diary_, _ditto_, and even our +L _s. d._, which originally stood for _libri_, _soldi_, and _denari_. 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. + +One of the celebrated dwellers in mediaeval 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 L400,000 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. + +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 +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. + +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 L106,301 4s. 4d.; +his travelling expenses for riding in and out eight times, L102 10s., +including a supper and a banquet to the Schetz and the Fuggers, the +great banks with whom he had to transact business, L26 being equal, Mr. +Burgon calculates, to L250 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." + +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. + +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 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 +L1,200,000 sterling." + +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: + + "Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, + Yields to a scrivener and a City knight." + +Here also resided Sir Robert Viner, the Lord Mayor of London in 1675, +and apparently an especial favourite with Charles II. + +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. + +"I have," says "Aleph," in the _City Press_, "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. 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 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--_exeunt +omnes!_ 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." + +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-- + + "Whilst none thy crabbed numbers can endure, + Hard as thy heart, _and as thy birth obscure_;" + +Pope indignantly repelled the accusation as to his descent. + +"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, 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L300,000 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. + +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." + +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. + +On the stone is the following inscription, full of Christian humility:-- + + "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." + +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." + +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 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. + +[Illustration: ST. MARY WOOLNOTH.] + +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. 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, L4 2s." + +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 L60, 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 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." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' HALL.] + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _pedum_, or crook; and near to him one +of the _lascivi Satyri_, 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 +AEsculapius, 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 _thyrsus_ with a +double head. + +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 _ovum anguinum_, and, by the Welsh, _glain +naidr_; and numbers of coins in gold, silver, and brass, of Claudius, +Nero, Galba, and other emperors down to Constantine. + +St. Mary Abchurch was destroyed by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren +in 1686. Maitland says, "And as to this additional appellation of _Ab_, +or _Up-church_, 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." + +Stow gives one record of St. Mary Abchurch, 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 L50 to be lent to +young men of the Company of Drapers, from four years to four years, for +ever, L50. Which lady gave also to poor maids' marriages, L10. To the +poor of Abchurch, L10. To the poor prisoners in and about London, L20. +Besides, for twenty-six gowns to poor men and women, L26. And many other +worthy legacies to the Universities." + +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. + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +THREADNEEDLE STREET. + + 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 parvae 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. + + +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 _debris_, consisting of Roman tiles, +glass, and fragments of black, pale, and red Samian pottery. + +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 L4,130, +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +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 _inspeximus_ of five sovereigns--Henry VIII., Edward +VI., Philip and Mary, Elizabeth, and James I. + +There is no doubt (says Herbert) that Merchant Taylors were originally +_bona fide_ 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 L20 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 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. + +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 L4 per annum, eventually raised to L10. 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 L50 towards a pest-house, the plague then raging in the City, +and the same year contributed L296 10s. towards six ships and a pinnace +fitted out for her Majesty's service. + +In 1603 the Company contributed L234 towards the L2,500 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 L100. "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 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). + +"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.e._, as a liveryman), played most excellent melodie +uppon a small payre of organes, placed there for that purpose onely." + +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 L1,000. The king's chamber was made by cutting a hole in the wall +of the hall, and building a small room behind it. + +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. + +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 L20 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 +(1604) Richard Dove's gift of twenty gilt spoons, marked with a dove; +(1605) a basin and ewer, value L59 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. + +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 L5,000 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. + +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 (L180 per +annum); yet at the same date the generous Company seem to have given the +poet Ogilvy L13 6s. 8d., he having presented them with bound copies of +his translations of Virgil and AEsop into English metre. In 1664 the boys +of Merchant Taylors' School acted in the Company's hall Beaumont and +Fletcher's comedy of _Love's Pilgrimage_. + +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 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!" + +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, +_nor pipes nor tobacco in the barge_ 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 L25. + +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 unfortunate Queen of Bohemia, whom he had so +faithfully served. + +[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF THE MODERN CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN OUTWICH. + +(_From a measured Drawing by Mr. W.G. Smith, 1873._) + + A. Monument: Edward Edwards, 1810. + B. Ancient Canopied Monument: "Pemberton," no date. + C. Monument: Cruickshank, 1826. + D. Monuments: Simpson, 1849; Ellis, 1838. + E. Monument: Ellis, 1855. + F. Monument: Simpson, 1837. + G. Monument: Rose, 1821. + H. Monuments: Atkinson, 1847; Ellis, 1838. + J. Monument: Richard Stapler. + K. Monument: Teesdale, 1804. + L, L. Stairs to Gallery above. + M. Very Ancient Effigy of Founder, St. Martin de Oteswich. + N. Reading Desk. + O. Pulpit. + P. Altar. + Q. Font. + R. Vestry. +] + +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-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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: MARCH OF THE ARCHERS (_see page 536_).] + +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. + +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 needful, with tables on tressels, covered on feast days +with splendid table linen, and glittering with plate. + +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 parvae res crescunt." + +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. + +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, "_a la mode de Londres_, upon +their solemn feast day, in the hall of the said Company." + +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. + +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. L70,000 were laid out. 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 L5 5s. +soon dwindled to L1 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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, +_Vos isthaec intro auferte_; and began with my Virgil, _Tityre tu +patulae_. I could say my rules, could construe and pars with the best of +them," &c. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 L600,000 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Sea Company offered to melt every kind of +stock into a single security. The debt amounted to L30,981,712 at five +per cent. for seven years, and afterwards at four per cent, for which +they would Pay L3,500,000. The Government approved of the scheme, but +the Bank of England opposed it, and offered L5,000,000 for the +privilege. The South Sea shareholders were not to be outdone, and +ultimately increased their terms to L7,500,000. 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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:-- + + For sinking pits and smelting lead ore in Derbyshire. + For making glass bottles and other glass. + For a wheel for perpetual motion. Capital L1,000,000. + For improving of gardens. + For insuring and increasing children's fortunes. + For entering and loading goods at the Custom House; and for + negotiating business for merchants. + For carrying on a woollen manufacture in the North of England. + For importing walnut-trees from Virginia. Capital L2,000,000. + For making Manchester stuffs of thread and cotton. + For making Joppa and Castile soap. + For improving the wrought iron and steel manufactures of this kingdom. + Capital L4,000,000. + For dealing in lace, Hollands, cambrics, lawns, &c. Capital L2,000,000. + For trading in and improving certain commodities of the produce of this + kingdom, &c. Capital L3,000,000. + For supplying the London markets with cattle. + For making looking-glasses, coach-glasses, &c. Capital L2,000,000. + For taking up ballast. + For buying and fitting out ships to suppress pirates. + For the importation of timber from Wales. Capital L2,000,000. + For rock-salt. + For the transmutation of quicksilver into a malleable, fine metal. + +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, _'A Company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, +but nobody to know what it is_.' 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 L500,000, in 5,000 shares +of L100 each, deposit L2 per share. Each subscriber paying his deposit +would be entitled to L100 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 L98 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 L2,000. 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." + +Another fraud that was very successful was that 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. + +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. + +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!" + +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." + +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 meeting 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. + +[Illustration: THE OLD SOUTH SEA HOUSE (_see page 538_). _From a Print +of the Period._] + +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 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. + +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. Walpole, and safely +carried through both Houses of Parliament. + +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. + +[Illustration: LONDON STONE. (_See page 544._)] + +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. + +The next excitement was the flight of Knight, the treasurer of the +Company, with all his books and implicating documents, and a reward of +L2,000 was offered for his apprehension. The same night the Commons +ordered the doors of the House to be locked, and the keys laid on the +table. + +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.e._, 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 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 L1,259,325 upon +account of stock stated to have been sold to the amount of L574,500. +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. + +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 L30,000 +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 L50,000 of +this stock; to the Duchess of Kendal, L10,000; to the Countess of +Platen, L10,000; to her two nieces, L10,000; to Mr. Secretary Craggs, +L30,000; to Mr. Charles Stanhope (one of the Secretaries of the +Treasury), L10,000; to the Sword Blade Company, L50,000. It also +appeared that Mr. Stanhope had received the enormous sum of L250,000, 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. + +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 L800,000, +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 L250,000. 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 L2,014,000, each man +being allowed a small modicum of his fortune. Sir John Blunt was only +allowed L5,000 out of his fortune of L183,000; Sir John Fellows was +allowed L10,000 out of L243,000; Sir Theodore Janssen, L50,000 out of +L243,000; Sir John Lambert, L5,000 out of L72,000. 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. + +"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 +L37,800,000, of which the stock allotted to all the proprietors only +reached L24,500,000. The remainder of L13,300,000 belonged to the +Company in their corporate capacity, and was the profit they had made by +the national delusion. Upwards of L8,000,000 of this was taken from the +Company, and divided among the proprietors and subscribers generally, +making a dividend of about L33 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 L11,000,000 in this manner, at a time when +prices were unnaturally raised; and they now received back L1,100,000, +when prices had sunk to their ordinary level." + +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. + +The Duke of Chandos had embarked L300,000 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 L200,000. 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 +L90,000, 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. + +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 L20,000. 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 and principal were both lost, and Gay sunk so low under the +calamity that his life for a time became in danger. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +Swift, cold and stern, escaped the madness, and even denounced in the +following verses the insanity that had seized the times:-- + + "There is a gulf where thousands fell, + Here all the bold adventurers came; + A narrow sound, though deep as hell-- + Change Alley is the dreadful name. + + "Subscribers here by thousands float, + And jostle one another down; + Each paddling in his leaky boat, + And here they fish for gold and drown. + + "Now buried in the depths below, + Now mounted up to heaven again, + They reel and stagger to and fro, + At their wit's end, like drunken men." + +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. + +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 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.[11] 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 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. + +"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 _poor neighbour out of business_--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." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] "I passed by the walls of Balclutha, and they were desolate." +(Ossian.) + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +CANNON STREET. + + 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. + + +Cannon Street was originally called Candlewick Street, from the +candle-makers who lived there. It afterwards became a resort of drapers. + +London Stone, the old Roman _milliarium_, 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." + +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 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." + +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." + +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 of a local +antiquary, Mr. Thomas Malden, a printer in Sherborne Lane, it would have +been destroyed. + +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:-- + + "_Cade._ 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."--_Shakespeare, Second Part of Henry VI._, act iv., sc. 6. + +Dryden, too, mentions this stone in a very fine passage of his Fable of +the "Cock and the Fox:"-- + + "The bees in arms + Drive headlong from the waxen cells in swarms. + Jack Straw at London Stone, with all his rout, + Struck not the city with so loud a shout." + +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." + +A turning from Cannon Street leads us to Southwark Bridge. The cost of +this bridge was computed at L300,000, and the annual revenue was +estimated at L90,000. 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. + +"Southwark Bridge," says Mr. Timbs, "designed by John Rennie, F.R.S., +was built by a public company, and cost about L800,000. 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 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." + +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. + +"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, +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. + +[Illustration: THE FOURTH SALTERS' HALL. (_See page 548._)] + +"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 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. + + * * * * * + +"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 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. + +[Illustration: CORDWAINERS' HALL. (_See page 550._)] + +"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 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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 plattee, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The following bill of fare for fifty people of the Company of Salters, +A.D. 1506, is still preserved:-- + + s. d. + 36 chickens 4 6 + 1 swan and 4 geese 7 0 + 9 rabbits 1 4 + 2 rumps of beef tails 0 2 + 6 quails 1 6 + 2 ounces of pepper 0 2 + 2 ounces of cloves and mace 0 4 + 1-1/2 ounces of saffron 0 6 + 3 lb. sugar 0 8 + 2 lb. raisins 0 4 + 1 lb. dates 0 4 + 1-1/2 lb. comfits 0 2 + Half hundred eggs 0 2-1/2 + 4 gallons of curds 0 4 + 1 ditto gooseberries 0 2 + 2 dishes of butter 0 4 + 4 breasts of veal 1 5 + Bacon 0 6 + Quarter of a load of coals 0 4 + Faggots 0 2 + 3-1/2 gallons of Gascoyne wine 2 4 + 1 bottle muscadina 0 8 + Cherries and tarts 0 8 + Salt 0 1 + Verjuice and vinegar 0 8 + Paid the cook 3 4 + Perfume 0 2 + 1-1/2 bushels of meal 0 8 + Water 0 3 + Garnishing the vessels 0 3 + +In the Company's books (says Herbert) is a receipt "For to make a moost +choyce Paaste of Gamys to be eten at ye Feste of Chrystemasse" (17th +Richard II., A.D. 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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-- + + "When he left Earth rich bounty dy'd, + Mild courtesie gave place to pride; + Soft Mercie to bright Justice said, + O sister, we are both betray'd. + White Innocence lay on the ground, + By Truth, and wept at either's wound. + + "Those sons of Levi did lament, + Their lamps went out, their oyl was spent. + Heaven hath his soul, and only we + Spin out our lives in misery. + So Death thou missest of thy ends, + And kil'st not him, but kil'st his friends." + +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. + +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 L2,000, of which L1,600 was voted by the +Common Council of London. It is fifteen feet three inches in height, +weighs twenty tons, and is chiefly memorable as marking the site of the +famous "Boar's Head" tavern. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +CANNON STREET TRIBUTARIES AND EASTCHEAP. + + 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. + + +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. + +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. + +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 antiquary, left +L16. Their charities include Came's bequest for blind, deaf, and dumb +persons, and clergymen's widows, L1,000 yearly; and in 1662 the "Bell +Inn," at Edmonton, was bequeathed for poor freemen of the Company. + +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 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:-- + + "Life makes the soul dependent on the dust; + Death gives her wings to mount above the spheres." + +The angles at the top of the mean square tower are bevelled off to allow +of a short octagonal spire and an octagonal balustrade. + +The following epitaphs are quoted by Strype:-- + + JOHN ROGERS, DIED 1576. + + "Like thee I was sometime, + But now am turned to dust; + As thou at length, O earth and slime, + Returne to ashes must. + Of the Company of Clothworkers + A brother I became; + A long time in the Livery + I lived of the same. + Then Death that deadly stroke did give, + Which now my joys doth frame. + In Christ I dyed, by Christ to live; + John Rogers was my name. + My loving wife and children two + My place behind supply; + God grant them living so to doe, + That they in him may dye." + +GEORGE BOLLES, LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, DIED 1632. + + "He possessed Earth as he might Heaven possesse; + Wise to doe right, but never to oppresse. + His charity was better felt than knowne, + For when he gave there was no trumpet blowne. + What more can be comprized in one man's fame, + To crown a soule, and leave a living name?" + +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. + +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 _atheling_--a noble street. At the +north-west end of it is the church of St. Augustine, anciently styled +_Ecclesia Sancti Augustini ad Portam_, from its vicinity to the +south-east gate of St. Paul's Cathedral. This church was described on +page 349. + +Tower Royal, Watling Street, preserves the memory of one of those +strange old palatial forts that were not unfrequent in mediaeval +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 L20 a year, to the college of St. Stephen, at +Westminster. + +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. + +"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.'" + +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 L1,000 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. + +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 +Stow's time was divided into poor tenements. _Sic transit gloria mundi._ + +[Illustration: ST. ANTHOLIN'S CHURCH, WATLING STREET.] + +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:-- + + "Here lyeth graven under this stone + Thomas Knowles, both flesh and bone, + Grocer and alderman, years forty, + Sheriff and twice maior, truly; + And for he should not lye alone, + Here lyeth with him his good wife Joan. + They were together sixty year, + And nineteen children they had in feere," &c. + +The epitaph of Simon Street, grocer, is also badly written enough to be +amusing:-- + + "Such as I am, such shall you be; + Grocer of London, sometime was I, + The king's weigher, more than years twenty + Simon Street called, in my place, + And good fellowship fain would trace; + Therefore in heaven everlasting life, + Jesu send me, and Agnes my wife," &c. + +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 L5,700. +After 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. + +[Illustration: THE CRYPT OF GERARD'S HALL (_see page 556_).] + +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 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." + +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." + +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. Antholine's Church in +London; where (as probationers for that purpose) they first made tryal +of their abilities, which place was the grand nursery whence most of the +seditious preachers were after sent abroad throughout all England to +poyson the people with their anti-monarchical principles." + +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 L10,000 +per annum towards its maintenance, the Treasury L10,000, and a +Metropolitan rate of one halfpenny in the pound raises an additional sum +of L30,000, making about L50,000 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. + +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 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 Caesar Hawkins. Pott seems to have entertained a +righteous horror of amputations. + +The following curious epitaph is worth preserving:-- + + "Heere is fixt the epitaph of Sir Henry Kebyll, Knight, + Who was sometime of London Maior, a famous worthy wight, + Which did this Aldermarie Church erect and set upright. + + Thogh death preuaile with mortal wights, and hasten every day, + Yet vertue ouerlies the grave, her fame doth not decay; + As memories doe shew reuiu'd of one that was aliue, + Who, being dead, of vertuous fame none should seek to depriue; + Which so in liue deseru'd renowne, for facts of his to see, + That may encourage other now of like good minde to be. + Sir Henry Keeble, Knight, Lord Maior of London, here he sate, + Of Grocers' worthy Companie the chiefest in his state, + Which in this city grew to wealth, and unto worship came, + When Henry raign'd who was the seventh of that redoubted name. + But he to honor did atchieu the second golden yeere + Of Henry's raigne, so called the 8, and made his fact appeere + When he this Aldermary Church gan build with great expence, + Twice 30 yeeres agon no doubt, counting the time from hence. + Which work begun the yere of Christ, well known of Christian men, + One thousand and fiue hundred, just, if you will add but ten. + But, lo! when man purposeth most, God doth dispose the best; + And so, before this work was done, God cald this knight to rest. + This church, then, not yet fully built, he died about the yeere, + When Ill May day first took his name, which is down fixed here, + Whose works became a sepulchre to shroud him in that case, + God took his soule, but corps of his was laid about this place; + Who, when he dyed, of this his work so mindful still he was, + That he bequeath'd one thousand pounds to haue it brought to passe, + The execution of whose gift, or where the fault should be, + The work, as yet unfinished, shall shew you all for me; + Which church stands there, if any please to finish up the same, + As he hath well begun, no doubt, and to his endless fame, + They shall not onley well bestow their talent in this life, + But after death, when bones be rot, their fame shall be most rife, + With thankful praise and good report of our parochians here, + Which have of right Sir Henries fame afresh renewed this yeere. + God move the minds of wealthy men their works so to bestow + As he hath done, that, though they dye, their vertuous fame may flow." + +This quaint appeal seems to have had its effect, for in 1626 a Mr. +William Rodoway left L200 for the rebuilding the steeple; and the same +year Mr. Richard Pierson bequeathed 200 marks on the 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 L5,000 for the purpose. An able paper in the records of the London +and Middlesex Archaeological 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 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." + +"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-- + +"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.) + +"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." + +"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." + +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:-- + + "Here under lyth a man of fame, + William Walworth callyd by name. + Fishmonger he was in lyfftime here, + And twise Lord Maior, as in bookes appere; + Who with courage stout and manly myght + Slew Jack Straw in King Richard's syght. + For which act done and trew content, + The kyng made hym knight incontinent. + And gave hym armes, as here you see, + To declare his fact and chivalrie. + He left this lyff the yere of our God, + Thirteen hondred fourscore and three odd." + +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. + +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." + +They also complained that the said Mayor and 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. + +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). + +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." + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +St. Mary Woolchurch was an old parish church 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 _Obit_--that +is to say, _Dirige_ 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. _Item._ I bequeath to pore maids' mariages L13 6s. 8d; to every +pore householder of this my parish, 4d. a pece to the sum of 40s. +_Item._ I bequeath to the high altar of S. Nicolas Chapel L10 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:-- + + "In Sevenoke, into the world my mother brought me; + Hawlden House, in Kent, with armes ever honour'd me; + Westminster Hall (thirty-six yeeres after) knew me. + Then seeking Heaven, Heaven from the world tooke me; + Whilome alive, Thomas Scot men called me; + Now laid in grave oblivion covereth me." + +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 +"NUM. CAES. PROV. BRITA." (_Numini Caesaris Provincia Britannia_). 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. + +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 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:-- + + "This life hath on earth no certain while, + Example by John, Mary, and Oliver Stile, + Who under this stone lye buried in the dust, + And putteth you in memory that dye all must." + +[Illustration: OLD SIGN OF THE "BOAR'S HEAD" (_see page 561_).] + +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 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." + +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 +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Wren's, and says: "Had its materials and volume been +as durable and extensive as those of St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir +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. + +[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK, IN 1700.] + +"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. + +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:"-- + + "Then I hyed me into Estchepe, + One cryes rybbs of befe, and many a pye; + Pewter pots they clattered on a heape, + There was harpe, pype, and mynstrelsye." + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +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. 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 L20 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.'" + +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. + +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. + +"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 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 +_forte_ 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 L100. + +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:-- + + "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. + + "Bacchus, to give the toping world surprise, + Produc'd one sober son, and here he lies. + Tho' nurs'd among full hogsheads, he defy'd + The charm of wine, and every vice beside. + O reader, if to justice thou'rt inclined, + Keep honest Preston daily in thy mind. + He drew good wine, took care to fill his pots, + Had sundry virtues that outweighed his fauts (_sic_). + You that on Bacchus have the like dependence, + Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance." + +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! + +"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. + +"'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?'" + +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, he was +shown a tobacco-box and a sacramental cup from St. Michael's Church, +which the poetical enthusiast mistook for a tavern goblet. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + + "'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?' (_Henry IV._, part ii.) + +" ... 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. 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." + +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. + + "_Fal._ 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. Hen._ What manner of man, an it like your Majesty? + + "_Fal._ 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. Hen._ Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Henceforth ne'er look on + me. Thou art violently carried away from 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? + + * * * * * + + "_Fal._ 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!" + +"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." + +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. + +[Illustration: THE WEIGH-HOUSE CHAPEL (_see page 563_).] + +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 +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 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: MILES COVERDALE (_see page 574_).] + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +THE MONUMENT AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. + + 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. + + +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 +Caesars; or else a figure erect of a woman crown'd with turrets, holding +a sword and cap of 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 10-1/2 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 +_relievo_ 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 +phoenix rising from her ashes, of brass gilt likewise." + +The following are, or rather were, the inscriptions on the four sides of +the Monument:-- + + SOUTH SIDE. + + "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." + + + NORTH SIDE. + + "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, 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." + + + EAST SIDE. + + "This pillar was begun, + Sir Richard Ford, Knight, being Lord Mayor of London, + In the year 1671, + Carried on + In the Mayoralties of + Sir George Waterman, Kt. } + Sir Robert Hanson, Kt. } + Sir William Hooker, Kt. } Lord Mayors, + Sir Robert Viner, Kt. } + Sir Joseph Sheldon, Kt. } + And finished, + Sir Thomas Davies being Lord Mayor, in the year 1677." + + + WEST SIDE. + + "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." + +"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 out through the windows. Behind her are +citizens looking on, and some lifting up their hands. + +"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." + +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 L13,700. 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. + +Wren at first intended to have had flames of gilt brass coming out of +every loophole of the Monument, and on the top a phoenix 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 phoenix +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. + +The Monument is loftier than the pillars of Trajan and Antoninus, at +Rome, or that of Theodosius at Constantinople; and it is not only the +loftiest, but also the finest isolated column in the world. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _eclat_. 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 (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. + +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." + +"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; _causa, causa est causa causatio; affliction springs not out of +the dust_; 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. + +"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 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 _an iron pillar or brazen wall_ (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." + +"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." + +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." + +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, 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." + +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, +_'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_." + +Pope, as a Catholic, looked with horror on the Monument, and wrote +bitterly of it-- + + "Where London's Column, pointing at the skies, + Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies, + There dwelt a citizen of sober fame, + A plain good man, and Balaam was his name." + +"At the end of Littleton's Dictionary," says Southey, "is an inscription +for the Monument, wherein this very learned scholar proposes a name 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:-- + + "'Quam non una aliqua ac simplici voce, uti istam quondam Duilianam; + Sed, ut vero eam nomine indigites, vocabulo constructiliter Heptastico, + FORDO--WATERMANNO--HANSONO--HOOKERO--VINERO--SHELDONO--DAVISIANAM + Appellare opportebit.' + +"Well might Adam Littleton call this an _heptastic vocable_, rather than +a word." (Southey, "Omniana.") + +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.... + +"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 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.... + +[Illustration: WREN'S ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR THE SUMMIT OF THE MONUMENT +(_see page 565_).] + +"The dark grey churches and houses spring into existence one by one. The +streets come up 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. + +"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 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." + +[Illustration: THE MONUMENT AND THE CHURCH OF ST. MAGNUS, ABOUT 1800. +(_From an Old View._)] + +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 _Times_ 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 +L2,500, 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." + +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." + +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." + +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 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." + +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." + +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 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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +Stow gives a curious account of a religious service attached to this +church. The following deed is still extant:-- + + "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 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 _Salve Regina_, 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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:-- + + "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 _The Bible_ 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, A.D. 1837. + + "'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of + peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.'--Isaiah lii. 7." + +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. + +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 L1,200. 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. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +CHAUCER'S LONDON. + + 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. + + +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. + +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 stage, or in poems; but, after all, and at the best, it will be +conjecture. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Magdalen_ 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. + +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-- + + "For Christe's love, and his apostles twelve, + He taught, _but first he followed it himselve_." + +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. + +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. + + + + + + +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.txt or 31412.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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